Valechan
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Valechan |
| Alias(es): | 91valechan, Iwaizumi Hajime (discord) |
| Type: | writer, blogger, commenter |
| Fandoms: | Haikyuu!!, Katekyo Hitman Reborn |
| Communities: | various Haikyuu!! Discord servers |
| Other: | |
| URL: | https://91valechan.tumblr.com/ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Valechan is a Haikyuu fan known for bullying and harassing fans who ship Oikawa Tooru with any character other than Iwaizumi Hajime, but especially Ushioi, to the point of being banned from AO3. She has since remade her account, but is more focused on Katekyo Hitman Reborn than Haikyuu today.
Background
Much of valechan's activities are not publicly documented as a lot of her harrassment took place in private Discord servers, anonymous comments, and direct messages. However, the extent of her harrassment campaigns led to multiple fans making posts warning new Haikyuu fans about associating with her.[1] She aggressively seeks out new Haikyuu Discord servers to join, though is swiftly banned once she makes her hatred of Ushijima and Shiratorizawa known. Haikyuu fans sometimes refer to certain ships as "canon" because the characters canonically have a very close bond. However, most fans are aware that despite this designation, these characters are not canonically in a romantic relationship. Valechan seems to lack this awareness. To Valechan, Iwaoi is the only true ship in Haikyuu, and nothing else matters. Anyone who ships anything that goes against this "sacred bond" is abusing the characters in question and must be punished.
she hates UshiOi and all who ship them. And not only that, she also harasses them, day and night. She spends all of her time scrolling through the UshiOi tag on Twitter, tumblr, efp (an italian fanfiction website) and AO3 to insult and harass Ushioi shippers, writers and fanartists, calling them “sluts”, “whores”, “rapists” and other slurs. She’s also known to be a misogynist and an homophobe, just so you know, she calls Ushijima a “weak woman” to insult him.
Valechan is based in Italy. She has also been banned from the Italian fanfiction site EFP and Twitter for continuous harrassment.[1]
Haikyuu Big Bang 2018
Fans in Haikyuu fandom run an annual Big Bang event. For the 2018 iteration, the moderation team was completely replaced, and many fans were surprised and unhappy to see Valechan as one of the moderators of the event.[2]
cool so valechan aka the ultimate haikyuu anti is modding hqbb so...don't join THAT event this year
Valechan's tumblr bio at the time said "fuck and death to Ushioi," so fans were concerned about getting hate for their ships if they participated in the event. The rest of the moderation team assured them this would not be a concern.[3] After a storm of asks and direct messages to the Haikyuu Big Bang's social media accounts, they released a statement on their Tumblr.
Last year mods weren’t looking for new people to take over this event. And so, we didn’t apply, more like we volunteered. And even then, the mod who spoke to us wanted 5 people but seems like only the 4 of us showed up.We can’t say we don’t understand why. We came here knowing that this is not going to be the best year for the HQBB because of what happened last year. We know that people are still hurting about it, that some people may drop if they don’t like other people who apply and we accept, or people who won’t even apply because they are still healing. But some people also need to go on and confront this to make new memories and erase that feeling.
And so, not many people would like to mod when the probabilities or bad things happening are so big. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen but people will come here this year with their defenses up. And it’s also sad to think that many of you don’t see this like something you look forward to.
Still, here we are.
We have no intention to deny what happened, nor make it look like this is a New Page And It Has Nothing To Do With Us. We don’t intend to forget or ask you to forget. Just to learn from it and move forward.
Valechan was removed as a moderator, but many refused to participate in the Big Bang at all.
Impact
Valechan's volatile hatred for Ushioi inspired many fans to start shipping it and creating content for the ship to spite her. The HQ!! Writers Discord Server organized Ushioi Month in 2019[4], a full month of prompts as opposed to a more typical fanweek event for this reason. She has been banned from multiple Haikyuu Discord servers for being needlessly aggressive and hostile.[5] The Haikyuu Discord Server Masterlist floating around social media shrank as people began locking down their servers to avoid potential harrassment from people like Valechan.
References
- ^ a b To Every Ushioi Shipper, callout post.
- ^ Jess on Twitter, Tweet
- ^ haikyuu big bang tumblr ask, Tumblr
- ^ Ushioi Month, blog for the event
- ^ Reblog of koohog's post, Tumblr