I Love This Post. Its So Important.

I love this post. It’s so important.

It is not constructive criticism to complain that an author isn’t catering to your personal preferences. There are plenty of people who might not want to have children and want to see their beliefs / practices better represented in the media they do have control over: their fanfiction. Isn’t it enough that compulsory heteronormativity and the misguided belief that children are the end-goal or pinnacle of romantic relationships are just about everywhere in mainstream media? Maybe someone different from you wants to feel seen and heard for once.

Let people have control over their own creative expression. How would you feel if someone who is child-free comments on a fic of yours saying they wished SessKag didn’t have children? Keep that to yourself. There might also be plenty of reasons why people don’t want to write smut. Sometimes that reason might even  be: I just didn’t feel like it. And you have to accept that it’s valid too.

I think readers forget sometimes that while they are certainly allowed to have their opinions on a fic, they don’t have to express that to the author. If you don’t like how a fic ended or if you wished you could’ve seen your very personal tastes catered to, by all means write your own fic. We all write for personal fulfilment—your favourite authors included. I guarantee you will be similarly frustrated when people come to your works whinging about these little details that THEY want, but you don’t want. I wish people would be more mindful of the kinds of comments they leave. 

One thing I haven't seen Inuyasha fanfic authors talk about (probably because they don't want to seem ungrateful for comments) is the very weird amount of comments from readers wanting the ship you just wrote about, be it in a oneshot or completed chapter story - to get married and have babies.

I get wanting your ship to be together, forever, but I have to wonder why there's this demand. Not every fanfiction should end the same way, and Babies Ever After might not fit with the natural stopping point the story has reached. Its pretty darn disheartening to finish writing a fic only to get a comment wanting the same tired thing of you to 'write more' not because of any loose plot threads, but because they want to see your ship have kids.

Again, I'm not ungrateful for the comments received, I'm just putting it out there that if you are a reader, to maybe focus on what you enjoyed in the existing story you just read - not suggesting to the author what you personally wanted to see happen.

2021 Election Benefit Gacha Cards // 3rd Place in the Captivating Category (Leonardo)

“I’m unusually tipsy today, huh… I want to dote on you more than usual. So, make a mess out of me.”

“No matter how much time passes, I just can’t keep my eyes off you; You’re a woman that never ever fails to captivate me, you know.”

“You really are the tenacious, preserving type… Today, I’ll listen to all of your selfish (thoughts) and demands, and spoil you. Now come on— Sit on my lap.”

⋆ “Captivating” is a simple way to put it; it’s to describe someone who is very good at attracting people (+ since they’re hosts, specifically women); Magnetic, kinda. Also, in the last line, the term he uses is more like someone who stands strong when the going gets tough. 

The count and leonardo’s power and willingness to show the tiddie is truly… inspirational

anyway um ikevam, can u pls do an in-universe scenario event this yr. preferably within next month. u have only released AUs this yr. i do not like reading intimate and/or romantic scenes where the Count is referred to as the Count and the AU acts like he has no name

Bah, I think others further up in the thread have already made great points about the SessKag pairing and its fans, but I will never not be frustrated with people who think some of us ship SessKag only because we didn’t like Inuyasha, as if Sesshōmaru is some second fiddle, second-rate fallback partner for Kagome. I think that’s a massive disservice to the character. Ignoring his visual design, I think he’s interesting enough on his own and experiences a compelling character arc through the original series that makes people experiment with the idea that he might be a good match for Kagome. 

I also have to hard disagree with people who assume that all/most SessKag shippers self-insert into Kagome. Do some people do it? Sure, and there’s nothing wrong with self-inserting. But I daresay the best SessKag stories make Kagome a distinctive individual, something which she most definitely struggled with in canon what with the endless, pointless comparisons to Kikyo. Chalking all of that down to self-insertion is (in my opinion) a dismissal of the talent and hard work from skillful writers that work to make sure that Kagome is a fully-fleshed out character who retains her core personality in canon.

Here’s the thing: maybe some of us just didn’t see Inuyasha as an ideal partner for Kagome. Maybe some of us just prefer ship dynamics like opposites attract, where Kagome is very passionate and hot-tempered, while Sesshōmaru is cool (sometimes to the point of cold), and they have to find a way to meet in the middle. Maybe we like enemies to lovers but with different personalities. Maybe we like the way Sesshōmaru seems to respect Kagome for her strength and power, even if he doesn’t care for humans (at first). We’re not all shipping SessKag because we’re disappointed InuKag shippers. We’re not here, consuming and creating SessKag content, because we didn’t get what we wanted from InuKag. Some of us, by our own choice, are here because we took a close look at the characters and decided we felt that Sesshōmaru and Kagome would share a greater affinity.

Personally, I just don’t like Inuyasha’s immaturity. I don’t like the personality clashes with Kagome, full stop. I don’t enjoy constant bickering, a refusal/inability to talk about feelings, and double doses of hot-headedness. He is just not a flavour of tsundere I enjoy. And like someone above mentioned, two teenagers met when they were 15, experienced a lot of trauma together in circumstances where they cannot seek professional help/support from others beyond their tiny social circle, and only knew each other for a year? Seems marginally better than Romeo and Juliet to me but whatever.

However, I want to reiterate that InuKag was never my OTP. That’s just not the case. I simply never had good feelings about them in the first place. People who think I’m participating in the SessKag community because of disappointment with InuKag are prioritising InuKag even in a conversation about SessKag and I’m not down with that.

But I’m not here to bash people for shipping InuKag. I’m just here to say I know what I prefer and know what I’m doing when I ship SessKag, and whatever ship you’re a fan of, I think you’re the same.

My headcanon is that as InuKag spend more time together without the glue of endless chaos and strife and life-threatening situations, they’ll grow apart. Now Kagome is stuck in the Feudal Era, parts ways amicably with Inuyasha, and has to figure out what to do with herself in a time far away from home.

I also cannot stand it when some people criticise SessKag writers for making Sesshōmaru a bit softer/kinder/whatever while not acknowledging the fact that they do the same with Sesshōmaru in whatever ship they prefer, or that they have to do the same with Inuyasha to make him a more acceptable/healthy partner for Kagome. It’s called development. You’ve got ten fingers so point some of those at yourself maybe?

More power to you if you enjoy InuKag. There are some wonderful fans and creators in that community who’ve done great things with the characters.

I just wish people would stop making inaccurate assumptions about SessKag shippers in general or dismiss us as disappointed/wishful self-inserters.

Honestly, Inuyasha and Kagome could’ve really been something if the show hadn’t dragged on for so long.

All anyone remembers about it anymore is the “INUYASHA! KAGOME! INUYASHA! KAGOME!” meme. They remember them as Ranma and Akane 2.0; obviously in love but refusing to admit it and never getting together. Him always putting his foot in his mouth and getting the smackdown for it, but then both of them getting jealous whenever someone else hits on them and protective and worried whenever the other is in danger.

No one remembers how it started. With Inuyasha straight up trying to kill Kagome, claiming to hate all humanity after the perceived betrayal by Kikyo. With that comic relief “sit boy” necklace originally being a failsafe to protect Kagome from him. With his ultimate goal being to use the shikon jewel to become a full demon and rid himself of his puny human half. With him claiming he only cared about Kagome because of her ability to sense the jewel shards.

They started out as enemies. This was an enemies to lovers romance. Kagome was afraid of him and Inuyasha despised her. Then, circumstances forced them to work together. Kagome got to know and understand what happened to him to make him such an asshole, and he warmed up to her and transformed from a selfish bloodthirsty monster into a noble hero. But that all happened within the first season. Afterward the characters and their relationship stagnated until people got completely fed up with the two of them refusing to grow the fuck up and be real with each other about their feelings.

I never got shipping Kagome with Sesshoumaru before. I don’t recall them interacting much in the series, I don’t know if they ever spent more time together after the point where I stopped watching. But if I had to guess why it ended up so popular, (aside from fangirls liking Sessoumaru and projecting themselves onto Kagome) it’s probably because Inuyasha’s immaturity, the refusal to let him grow and complete his character arc and become the romantic partner he was meant to be, caused people to lose faith in the relationship. I think people latched on to Sesshoumaru as someone who could’ve finished what Inuyasha started. Especially since he more or less did with Rin. He started out as a villain who despised humans and lamented having a sword that heals instead of kills. Until one day, he decided to save a small human child and become an adoptive father to her. But he managed to do it without endless years of obnoxious withholding of affection or making excuses to try and pretend like she didn’t matter to him as much as she does.

I don’t know if Kagome is the sort of girl Sesshoumaru would ever fall for, but if he did, he wouldn’t have bullshitted her about it like his brother.

At this point, I only trust Sesshoumaru fans who understand and can acknowledge that early Sess was a friggin terrible person and a stones throw away from being an all out villain. Dude would have killed Kagome if she weren't holding Tetsusaiga. People who act like Sesshoumaru did nothing wrong are instantly sus, sorry

Did you know you can like a character without having to justify or excuse their behaviour? Wowie.

'No but he only killed those humans because he wanted a boat'

Did you forget the part where he can fly?

No context, just posting this high-quality low-effort meme made by my friend @mythicamagic​

Yo! You’ve just touched on something that I’ve been stewing over for a long time so I’m sorry for the mini rant. About your weird feeling around the demand for fic babies: being in fandom for so long I find that this is a weird pattern in hetero fics, and as someone that is way more into found family type situations, I’ve had to stop reading so many fics when they’ve kinda lost the original plot and just started having kids. Not to single out heteroromantic fics but like. Smells a bit fishy imo

Yep its defo more of a thing in hetero fics, and since Inuyasha is a het heavy fandom, I suppose it makes sense. I dunno, I'm not into having kids but I know even my fic writer friends who have kids and are married are also bothered by the reader's demand for a nuclear family. You get these kinds of comments even after, for instance, Sesshoumaru and Kagome adopted Shippo and Rin together. In some people's eyes, that adoption wasn't enough. The ship had to have 'real' organic grown kids baha

Ah...the implications are depressing.