fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3778 ]

[ SECRET POST #3778 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3778 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #541.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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03. http://i.imgur.com/GsbFFo6.png

I don't really have ships in Overwatch, but god do I know how you feel OP. Being into a pairing that has a decent fanbase, only to have the character you're interested usually be nothing more than a shallow love interest, a prop, etc. has been one of the worst things in fandom IME.

Basically, shipping A/B and every fic just being about A is disappointing as fuck.

Btw, do you have any Zen recs?

YES thank youuuuu.

It's gotten to the point where I kind of resent fandom's interpretation of Genji a lot of the time. Same with people who use Zenyatta like a foil for Genji's feelings and nothing more, molding him into somebody completely un-Zenyatta-like so he fits their kinks or whatever too. (If you couldn't tell I'm not a fan at all of the trend of making Zenyatta this super dominating person in the bedroom, mainly because it's utterly transparent that these people writing it don't really think he'd be like that (which I could respect at least, even if I also respectfully disagree), they just want a dominant for Genji so they make him a shallow, OOC fan-character with Zenyatta's name slapped on to do it.) Like I get that everybody is super into playing with nice-ass-emo-cyborg guy, I get it, he was practically custom-made to be a fandom favourite. (I knew immediately, even before I knew anything about Overwatch, that he was going to be the fandom bicycle the moment I saw him too, which is something I'm personally not into.)

But Zenyatta's backstory and his inner feelings are so much more interesting to me right now. I feel like there's only so many times I can read about Genji flailing about due to his crush on Zenyatta. I'll still gladly read it if there's a new, interesting interpretation on it or something particularly well-written, but it all feels very same-y to me right now. Everything from the plot, to the pacing down to the sex scenes in these fics tend to be so predictable and one-note that I can guess from the beginning exactly how it will go.

I want to read more about Zenyatta. Just, everything about him in general, but also how he falls in love with Genji. Just as much as Genji would probably be working through a ton of feelings about Zenyatta--falling in love with an Omnic, falling in love with his own master, falling in love with/desiring a male-identified individual (depending on how you view his playboy past, I've seen bisexual!Genji and Genji who was just into the ladies in his early days)--I feel like Zenyatta would have a ton of things going on with him too. He's taken on the role of Genji's master from a spiritual standpoint, but he's also very young compared to Genji and I believe life experience counts a whole lot here too. How does he feel about falling in love with a human? Do Omnics have a concept of beauty? How do humans fit into that ideal? We've seen other Omnic/human couples shown in the Overwatch universe so obviously that's a thing. How does Zenyatta feel about it? When does Zenyatta realize the depth of emotion he feels for Genji is love in the romantic sense? Is the concept of physical desire new for Zenyatta? Does falling in love with Genji disturb his otherwise peaceful spiritual routine, does it tip him off-balance and force him to examine the breadth of these new feelings? So on and so forth...

Blah. I hate how little other fans seem to care about Zenyatta as a character because that's basically my number one thing I want to read about right now with regards to Genyatta. I feel like a very small part of the issue might be people afraid to write a fully non-human character, but most of it has to do with Genji being fandom's favourite plaything.

As for recs, unfortunately I'd have to go through the fics I've saved to find the ones I feel do Zenyatta justice, however the one that comes to mind IMMEDIATELY is:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/592528

"the curving path" is two fics set in the same universe and the writing regarding what Zenyatta thinks and feels is just incredible. If this author were available for commissions I'd pay her to write all the Genyatta because holy shit it's amazing. ~~The sex is really fucking hot too if you're into cyborgs and robots getting it on so...~~

chuchisushi is just an awesome writer period. Even if somebody reading this isn't super into Overwatch or ships or whatever, give her writing a try for the gorgeous prose. :)

Wow thanks for the thoughtful reply! The way you described about how so many fics feel same-y to you in regards to Genyatta now really resonates with me concerning other stuff I shipped.

(i have difficulty seeing Zenyatta be super dominating too...lol)

God one thing I really hope Overwatch does is take a closer look into how Zen's life was pre-Genji meetup. Or how he dealt with the death of Mondatta beyond a couple of one-liners. And a bunch of the other stuff you mentioned, particularly in regards to human/Omnic relations.

I feel you on Genji being fandom's favorite plaything. It doesn't even end at fandom lmao.

I'll definitely check our "the curving path." I'm not really into Genyatta myself, but Zen is up there with one of my favorite characters (both in character and in playstyle) so something that does him justice is great!)

PS: It always confuses me when some fans forget how young Zen is in comparison. I wish that was more recognized. I'd like fics about him experiencing the world beyond Nepal and stuff.

Well you're quite welcome! I'm sorry for rambling on! I obviously have some pent up feelings about this, hence the secret.

I've definitely run into the "same-y" feeling regarding fics for other ships too, but for some reason it's particularly egregious in Genyatta fics. Perhaps it's because it's so one-sided? Like at least on the art side of things I know a couple artists who it's pretty obvious they've got a major fan-boner for Zenyatta, they concentrate on drawing him a lot and they draw the typical sort of fan stuff that one draws when they're enamoured with a character (there's a really cute Genyatta comic with Zenyatta in a sweater that fairly screams that the artist thinks Zenyatta is adorable lol), but for some reason on the fic side it's just GENJIGENJIGENJI and Zenyatta is a huge afterthought.

Personally I'd really like to hear more about Zenyatta and Genji's relationship haha. Right now it's kind of this vaguely blank slate, like we know Genji and Zenyatta spend a lot of time together (to the point that Genji feels like Nepal is his home now) and we know in the vaguest sense that Zenyatta is Genji's teacher regarding the way of the Iris, but like...how did they meet?! What was it like? How did Genji go from being super angry and pent up to allowing Zenyatta to teach him?

And yes, I want to know more about Zenyatta. How did the Shambali form. What was Zenyatta's life like?

"I feel you on Genji being fandom's favorite plaything. It doesn't even end at fandom lmao." <- True true. :/ Obviously this is me being hugely biased, but even if I didn't ship Genyatta, I'm not really digging the Gency hints being thrown into the story. I feel like Genji is becoming a really stereotypical character in a lot of ways and I hope that kind of stops. I liked Genji at first because his backstory was interesting and it avoided a lot of the usual tropes that are unfortunately raising their heads with regards to the Gency ship and some of his revealed Blackwatch backstory.

I'm not sure how much you'll like "the curving path" if you really don't like Genyatta because it is very much a study of the push and pull between the two characters, but if it's more just a "I don't really ship stuff in Overwatch" deal then you may end up loving the story anyway! I just can't really get a bead on whether or not you mean you dislike Genyatta and prefer to ship something else, or if you're just not into Overwatch ships so it's a bit of a blank slate here. :) If it's the latter, the fic is absolutely worth reading. The prose is breathtaking at times in my opinion. I'm very big on gorgeously descriptive writing, and so some pieces of writing stand out to me mostly for that as opposed to "I ship it and this competently-written fic ships it" type recommendations, and "the curving path" is absolutely a fic that stands apart from the pack to me because of the incredible wordplay.

P.S. I have no clue why so many people DO that, but I agree! He's 20! That is so much to explore there, especially if you consider that Zenyatta may have not even been really in control of his own destiny for part of his early life because of the Omnium/Omnic war stuff.

Oh I don't dislike Genyatta, sorry if I confused you! It really is more of an "I don't have any strong feelings for or against Overwatch ships." Tends to happen to me regarding canons that have a huge cast of characters.

I think I'll enjoy the fic. The interactions between Zen and Genji are nice enough that I like their screen time together.

Again, thanks for the rec. <3 Nice to have something to read for bedtime.

Ohhh I gotcha now! Okay, yeah then I definitely recommend reading both fics. The first one goes more into Zenyatta's mental thought processes and the second fic has possibly the best description of what human-esque sex would be like for a robot in basically any fic I have ever read in the entirety of all of my robot pairings (of which there are not an insignificant amount).

I hope you enjoy reading anon! <3

DA

I feel like we're never going to get any information on how Genji and Zenyatta met because Chu seems to be more intent on shoving Genji/Mercy down everyone's throats. That Christmas comic could've had a cute teacher/student moment, but no, gotta put in hints to Gency and leave Zenyatta doing nothing in the background. And when Chu's not doing that, they make Genji revolve eternally around Hanzo. Like he doesn't exist as his own character, but more of a prop for Hanzo and vice versa. They need to let those two break away from each other, the brother feels have been beaten into the ground at this point.

NAYRT

While I'm not into Overwatch myself, I found your impassioned secret interesting, and so was reading the thread.

Your description of chuchisushi made me go look them up, and lo and behold, they have not one but SEVEN Baze&Chirrut stories that look wonderful. (I love those two, but haven't wanted to wade through tons of crap to find something worth reading.)

Oh wow I'm glad that chuchisushi has some fics that interest you anon! I'll be reading through the rest of her stuff just because I love how she writes that much, so I'll be checking out her Bazel and Chirrut stories too. :D

I'm also glad you got something out of reading the thread! I'm a little too invested in this right now mainly because it's been a sort of simmering irritation that has grown the longer I've been in the fandom so when I finally got the idea to make a secret about it to vent my feelings they kind of all came pouring out. Whoops!

No need to apologize! I'm making my exit from the fandom of one of the other Blizzard IPs, and I know ALL about simmering irritation :p.

Really random, as I don't know a singles thing about this fandom, but is there any chance Zenyatta is named after Zenyatta Mondatta? Because that seems weirdly specific to me.

Lol, he had a brother named Mondatta in canon if that gives you any idea. :)

ayrt

Ha. Wow. That's definitely not a coincidence, then!

thanks :)

for the unaware: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenyatta_Mondatta

also ayrt

is this canon something that makes a lot of music references like that?
what's is it and what's it about?

Overwatch likes to make a lot of references to EVERYTHING, from Bastion being an expy of The Iron Giant to Reaper having the quote "It's in the refrigerator" (a sports reference).

There are a couple of other music references, but I think the majority are from other games or movies.

I'd suggest browsing one of the Overwatch wikias or finding Overwatch's short films on YouTube to get a feel of what the canon is like.

I'll do that, thanks :)

As far as I know there isn't a bunch of music references in Overwatch, no. It just seems to be a nod specifically to The Police, possibly because the names are such good vaguely ethnic sounding names and they fit well for non-human characters. The only reason I knew they were named after that is because I'm a huge The Police fan!

If you're looking for a canon that makes music references a huge part of it's canon, check out the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series. I haven't checked it out myself but I know for a fact that basically every single character is named after like 70's/80's music. The only reason I know that is because a friend of mine knows I'm a huge Phil Collins fan as well too and she told me there's a character named "Face Value"! :P

Here's an article: http://altairandvega.net/2012/12/01/classic-rock-overdrive-your-dads-music-in-jojos-bizarre-adventure/

Oh wow. Thanks for all this. As you probably guessed from my initial question, I'm also a *massive* Police fan! Hi! lol.

And lol at Face Value. I love it. Thanks for the article :)

*Waves* Hello! Would you happen to be the secret maker who mentioned the "Wrapped Around My Finger" music video a little while back? I commented on that secret because I was SO happy to see another Police fan! :P I remember mentioning something like how I wished that "King of Pain" had a music video that more closely tracked to the lyrics because the lyrics are so poetic and bring forth such strong imagery that it would make an incredible music video with the right art direction.

You're very welcome for the article! I've had a bit of fun just poking around the Jojo wiki to see all the 70's/80's references. It's a bit before my time but I grew up listening to this music because of my family so it all feels very familiar to me. :)

Re: OP

(Anonymous) - 2017-05-09 02:31 (UTC) - Expand

OP

(Anonymous) - 2017-05-09 02:51 (UTC) - Expand

Yeah, I really wanted to like Genyatta but couldn't get into it, and this might be why. I like Zenyatta a lot but Genji (and Hanzo) aren't very interesting to me... =/

If you're interested, check out the rec I gave to the person above you who asked for some. There's not a ton of fics that do Zenyatta justice but I feel like "the curving path" series is currently the definitive "how to write Zenyatta good and do him justice as a character" fic out there right now.

I like Genji too, but I'm...not fond of fanon!Genji very much at times. I feel like canon!Genji is a lot more serious and measured a lot of the time than fanon!Genji tends to be. I could believe he gets a bit more playful at times as he heals and regains a bit of his youthful personality, but he's also now a 35 year old man, he's not the young guy who romanced the local women and spent his time rebelling against his family anymore, and I feel like that's kind of the whole point of him! He has themes of betrayal, loss, and growing up emotionally in his canon. Zenyatta helping him heal emotionally seems like it's also supposed to represent him growing beyond the angry person it sounds like he was after he was saved and cyberized by Overwatch.

Reading fic where Genji acts like a particularly mischievous 19/20 year old grates on me because it's such a common portrayal of him. I believe canon!Genji is more thoughtful and contemplative than that.

I love the placement of secrets 2 and 3.

Man, all I want is an animated short or comic that focuses on Zenyatta. It drives me nuts that Blizzard keeps giving that shit to new characters or characters that already have tons of side material. Like, hello, you already have other pre-existing characters that desperately need attention, guys, stop neglecting them.

I'll join you in the corner waiting for an animated short focusing on Zenyatta. I agree completely. It chafes my butt that Bastion got an animated short and yet Zenyatta didn't! It's fine that Bastion got a short but like...come on, Zenyatta and the Omnic stuff in general is a HUGE part of the storyline Blizzard! What are you smoking!?

It frustrates me so badly because I want so badly to learn more about Omnics in general but especially Zenyatta's backstory. ~~And maybe more of the whole Genji and Zenyatta meeting and journey preeeettty please?~~

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[ SECRET POST #3778 ]

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Thank you, OP, for recommending chichisushi!

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