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Maybe I should join Hannibal fandom.
Sep. 6th, 2013 07:33 pmI was cruising past some Homestuck blogs on Tumblr, and apparently there's a meme (or maybe it was just an ask; I don't do Tumblr) about "common Homestuck headcanons you don't subscribe to" and the person discussed 'grubloaf/grubsauce is made from troll grubs' fanon. According to her, it felt too anvilicious; like being beaten over the head with how troll culture is WRONG and HORRIBLE, and also as though someone's trying too hard to gross people out.
This made me double-take and then giggle because it's a fanon I've encountered a lot and, while it's not my personal headcanon either, it never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a squick attempt or a commentary on troll culture! It's always weird to re-remember that my reactions to cannibalism aren't the norm.
Maybe it's my biology geek showing through (plenty of species eat their offspring/siblings!) or maybe it's just my pragmatic attitude to food (if it's tasty, eat it), but when I encounter the troll-grubs-as-food fanon I just sort of... accept it? It's not horrific to me, so it never felt like "let me show you how BAD trolls are!"; likewise, it's not gross to me, so it never struck me as "are you making gagging noises yet?" either. More or less I treat it the same as any other popular bit of fanon I don't personally subscribe to, e.g. neck gills on seadwellers. If asked, I'll explain why it's not my headcanon, but otherwise? So long as the author isn't egregiously fail!splaining it in-story and forcing me to remember why I don't believe it, I can fit it into my mental framework for the duration of the fic and not think about it.
In sum: "Grubloaf is made from grubs!" doesn't ping me in any moral spectrum or in my gastroesophageal reflexes, and sometimes I get reminded how weird that makes me. :D
(For non-Homestuck people: trolls are an alien species that hatch out as insect-like grubs, which later pupate into more humanoid shape to continue development. They seem to be a r-strategist species, at least insofar as requiring little parental care and reproducing - one infers - in large numbers, many of which never make it to their first pupation.)
This made me double-take and then giggle because it's a fanon I've encountered a lot and, while it's not my personal headcanon either, it never gave me the feeling that it was supposed to be a squick attempt or a commentary on troll culture! It's always weird to re-remember that my reactions to cannibalism aren't the norm.
Maybe it's my biology geek showing through (plenty of species eat their offspring/siblings!) or maybe it's just my pragmatic attitude to food (if it's tasty, eat it), but when I encounter the troll-grubs-as-food fanon I just sort of... accept it? It's not horrific to me, so it never felt like "let me show you how BAD trolls are!"; likewise, it's not gross to me, so it never struck me as "are you making gagging noises yet?" either. More or less I treat it the same as any other popular bit of fanon I don't personally subscribe to, e.g. neck gills on seadwellers. If asked, I'll explain why it's not my headcanon, but otherwise? So long as the author isn't egregiously fail!splaining it in-story and forcing me to remember why I don't believe it, I can fit it into my mental framework for the duration of the fic and not think about it.
In sum: "Grubloaf is made from grubs!" doesn't ping me in any moral spectrum or in my gastroesophageal reflexes, and sometimes I get reminded how weird that makes me. :D
(For non-Homestuck people: trolls are an alien species that hatch out as insect-like grubs, which later pupate into more humanoid shape to continue development. They seem to be a r-strategist species, at least insofar as requiring little parental care and reproducing - one infers - in large numbers, many of which never make it to their first pupation.)