#Like boil it down and it's still the same core concept

[amtrak12]

Niles 'conditioned to believe his pleasure ranks last if at all' vs Daphne 'loves touching and being an active participant and seeing her partner enjoying themselves' -- Fight.

[myfandomrealitea]

okay, so- this is coming from someone who really hasn't engaged in fandom discourse, especially regarding shipping and such. I dearly hope this doesn't come across as bait or troll, I'm genuinely curious and want to learn. apologies for the possibly-dumb question, but I really just need to ask-

what is proshipping? and what are 'antis'?

you know how it is, when you ask around you always get a biased answer one way or another. "proshippers are pedos" "proshippers all condone incest" "proship Bad and if you interact You Are Bad" (i think these are 'anti' points of view? am i using that term right? that's the rhetoric ive mainly heard). but despite all of that, i don't know if ive ever actually gotten a straight answer as to just.. what it factually is. because it doesn't feel like the sort of thing that you can boil down to insults or accusations or whatnot. it's all just very confusing to me, especially because i come from a place that essentially just told me to avoid like the plague and never look back. sorry, this became a bit of a ramble, lol. thank you so much in advance, i hope i'm not being a bother or insulting with this ^^;

The modern term; 'proship' (s.a; 'proshipping' and 'profiction') is an evolution of an earlier fandom acronym known as: 'SALS.'

Ship And Let Ship

SALS was one of the earliest fandom adoptions and interpretations of the concept of not bullying others for what they shipped or their fandom interests, and not trying to control or dictate what was "allowed" to be shipped or enjoyed. The most notable origin of SALS was during the early years of accessible fandom via Star Trek, and the present homophobia and misogyny in a largely male-dominated community.

As woman became more involved in fandom spaces, the presence of 'other' ships and pairings began to increase. M/M, F/F that wasn't purely for sexual gratification, and M/O and F/O (where 'O' is Other) pairings were popular amongst women, much as they still are today.

Not only did the presence of women in a "male space" receive a not insignificantly negative reaction, so too did them filling the fandom space with their shipping content. Now; sexism and misogyny and homophobia were not entirely to blame. Again as is still very much present today, people simply Did Not Like Certain Ships or Characters. And as they still do today, they'd spread hate about them and to the people who did enjoy them.

Thus: the birth of SALS.

(In other words: I like what I like and it has fuck all to do with you. Shut up and move on.)

Back then, SALS was mostly contained to just that. Ships and characters. Since back in that era 'taboo topics' and 'sexual content' were still pretty covert, people weren't exactly arguing the merits of incest in public forums and at conventions.

However, as all things do, the internet evolved. Society evolved. Media evolved. And so too did 'SALS' evolve in keeping with the new culture and subjects present in fandom spaces.

Suddenly it wasn't just ships and characters to be advocated for. It was themes. Subjects. Kinks. Plots. The more things people found to enjoy, so too did the more things people found to hate.

'Proship' is actually grammatically pro-ship. As in; in support of shipping. This is why I always state that the modern conceptions of proshipping would more accurately be coined profiction. It is no longer just about ships, but fiction as a whole.

However; the core value and sole inherent point of being proship, SALS, profiction and so forth remains exactly the same:

[I/We] believe you have no right to harm others over the [ship/content] they create or consume and [I/we] do not have the right to dictate what is or is not allowed in fandom spaces.

That's it. Don't harass people for what they enjoy fictionally. Don't try to force them into not enjoying or being able to enjoy it.

Of course, the modern adaption varies wildly in terms of 'additional values' thanks to the evolution of the term and what it can encompass. However, there is certainly no obligation to:

Create or consume content you are uncomfortable with.

Create or consume content regarded as 'taboo' or 'triggering.' Such as incest.

Be involved with any aforementioned content beyond turning a blind eye if its not your thing.

Inherently, anyone who says they're 'neutral' on the matter but firmly believes in minding their own business is just a proshipper refusing to use the label if you're taking the term solely at its core value.

In terms of 'antis' they're just the antithesis of the above. Antis are people who generally believe that fiction is irrevocably tied in with who you are, what you believe/condone, and that real-life limitations and values should also apply to fiction.

Although, its is heavy debated and it wildly varies per individual to the degree this is taken.

(E.g: some 'antis' believe you should only write rape fic if you are a victim using it as catharsis or education. Other 'antis' believe there's absolutely no excuse or reason to write rape fic at all.)

Antis typically believe that enjoyment or being invested in content which is regarded as harmful or illegal in real life is morally unsound and reflects that you're a bad or morally unsound person.

Although I disagree, I can honestly say in some aspects I do understand this reasoning. I don't agree, but I do understand why people may come to that conclusion.

As with proshippers, antis vary from people who simply ignore and block content they don't agree with to radicals.

'Anti' is again a prefix. Although modern adoption of the term uses it as a singular signifier, it would grammatically be anti-[fandom], anti-[character], ect. As was commonly used in the past.

The rhetoric that all proshippers are pedophiles or support incest is common-spread and effective 'anti' propaganda. Similar to how so many people believe 'proship' inherently signifies that you must create and/or consume taboo or darker content.

It doesn't.

¹ Proship may also be accurately termed as simply: 'anti-harassment.' ² Its important to note the 'definition' of these terms may vary wildly depending on the individual. However, detailed above is the most historical use and evolution of the terms and their definitions.

[ninadove]

As a (very niche portion of the) fandom, our collective attention has been captured by how much Felix adores Kagami — which is true and good and beautiful and magical. But we’ve been sleeping on how much she loves him, and today, I want to shine a spotlight on her side of the most beautiful love story ever written.

Before we begin, let me get the obvious out of the way: yes, she did try to crush his skull with a chair in Pretension, and she was iconic for that. HOWEVER. This is how their relationship started: what truly matters is how the story unfolds afterwards.

And boy does it unfold fast. By the end of the episode, Felix has shaken Kagami’s worldview so much that she:

Stands up to her own friends and fellow heroes in an effort to not only protect him, but also ensure that he can keep the Peacock Miraculous;

Actively challenges her mother��s teaching that emotions (in this context, romantic love) are a weakness that should be eradicated from the face of the Earth;

Is planning secret dates with Felix, even though as far as she knows, Tomoe still has her amok (you can’t tell me this little genius didn’t figure out the entire Sentilore in the sewers);

Trusts Felix with said amok despite his extensive criminal record, as illustrated by how quickly and firmly she takes his hand — with a little sigh if happiness, might I add. This is especially significant compared to previous instances of hand holding between the two, when he had to make all the effort while she remained completely limp.

And then Representation rolls around. And oh, boy.

Kagami instantly calms down from her TV-induced rage upon seeing her boyfriend on her balcony — a major improvement when you consider how big of a role anger and frustration play in her akumatisations.

Tangent 1:

Something similar happened in Ikari Gozen, when Mari protected Kagami from her mother, causing her to narrowly escape Hawkmoth’s influence. More on the Marigami-to-Feligami pipeline in another post.

Not only does Kagami instantly relax in Felix’s presence, but she laughs — something that previously only happened in the context of Adrigaminette, and we all know how that ended. Felix is the one to mend her heart and make her laugh again, for the second time since the dance.

Our two lovebirds proceed to straight up RUN AWAY INTO THE SUNSET. Kagami presumably spent the following 350 km (300 miles) cuddled up in Argos’ arms, admiring how handsome he looks in his glittery cosmic suit which we don’t get to see because budget.

Later on, they casually discuss Ladybug’s identity, while fireworks go off in the background. Let me rephrase this: Kagami trusted the person who stole the Miraculous with her best friend’s most burning secret, not because she wants to defeat Hawkmoth per say, but because Gabriel has been getting in the way of their make-out sessions and she can’t have that.

Tangent 2:

Also coming to your dash in the not-so-distant future: an analysis of Kagami’s relationship to the concepts of truth and lies, and how dependent it is on what serves her and her loved ones in the moment.

Then, of course, the core of the episode: Kagami actively participates in the play, helping Felix tell his story in a way he feels comfortable with.

Tangent 3 (lots of ‘em today):

This part is extremely important to me, because I’ve seen So. Many. People. complain that the play could have been boiled down to two lines of conversation.

And like.

No???

Firstly, this is a show, not real life: we as an audience needed the Sentilore confirmation to be as climactic as possible. If it hadn’t been, I can guarantee the exact same salters would be crying about the story’s “WaStEd PoTeNtIaL”.

But let’s delve into the real life implications of the Sentilore for a second.

Abuse survivors do not owe you a brief, comfortable explanation of what they went through, neatly wrapped up with a pretty little bow.

The play is a beautiful illustration of how art can be cathartic and therapeutic, and I need you guys to understand that this sequence means something to many, many viewers — many of them children in similarly terrible situations. You can pry these scenes from my cold, dead hands.

The kisses… All of them… During the firework show. As the sun rises to signify a new beginning. Disguised as Adrien’s parents. For context, this is the same girl who previously found a hand kiss to be too much for her broken heart to bear.

And of course, there’s the way she looks at him like he is her entire world, like she cannot understand how anyone could ever call him monstrous. Because Felix doesn’t get the monopoly of heart eyes.

Finally, in Recreation:

THE LIES CALLBACK. THE MIRACULOUS TEAM TOOK THE TIME AND MADE THE EFFORT TO PUT A LIES CALLBACK IN THE FREAKING FINALE. You guys know I’m insane about this scene already.

So what’s my point. Because yes, I do have a point, apart from “KSSGDJDKSS Feligami SGDHDKLS 🥰🥰🥰🥰”.

While we sometimes joke that Kagami is out of Felix’s league in every aspect — she doesn’t perceive him that way in the slightest. As far as she’s concerned, she has achieved every fourteen year old’s dream: dating the perfect combination of a cursed prince, a tortured artist, and an evil genius on a redemption-arc. She is just as enamoured with him as he is with her, and I think it’s beautiful. 🦚🐉

[elmoshipsbyler]

i think i have a higher tolerance for “OOC characterizations” because i have a different concept of something being OOC

like, for me, my idea of “in character” is not “character A was placed, as is, whole and intact, into this new fic scenario”. but instead, “if the core essence of this character were raised in this environment, how would that core essence manifest itself”

it’s not about Mike Wheeler and Will Byers, hit-pause-on-the-TV-show, being removed from the van scene and transported into this new scenario, hit-play. but rather, if they had been in this environment from the beginning, how would they have adapted to those circumstances—to me it’s not like “mike would never be XYZ-thing”, it’s “if mike WAS xyz, or DID do abc, how would that look? how would that present itself? how would that have evolved itself?”

i have a lot of personality traits that “show up” in my life in specific ways, that are key defining feature of what makes me who i am. that are features that people look at, and say “i can’t imagine how you could’ve turned out any differently than this”. but i’m still the product of my environment. and if i was raised differently, my core traits were nurtured differently, i was pushed in different directions, i had different friends, etc. —i would be completely unrecognizable. yet at my core id still be ME. i wouldn’t be out of character, id still be me, just, a Me from an alternate universe

when you’re able to pick someone apart and imagine how they would’ve turned out if things had been different, you can better see them as a rounded character. and ultimately that’s why i love AU character studies. please show me what happens if you boil a character down to their very core, throw them in the washer and dryer, send them to the other end of the planet, and let their life unfold again. what would they end up becoming, what would stay the same, what would be different. it’s not about the “they wouldn’t do XYZ”, it’s about the “but what if they did?”

** and this is not me saying there’s anything wrong with people who don’t see it like that, you’re allowed to enjoy characters as-is like in the show, this is more a side thought prompted by something my friend said earlier

[merlyn-bane]

One-Two-Three-Four-Five Tag Game

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words (feel free to interpret however you would like; if not on AO3, can be on Tumblr or FFNET!).

I was tagged for this by @goddammitjim,,,,a while ago 😅 whoops lol. @loverboy-havocboy also tagged me earlier today which reminded me, so thank you both <3

First-Most Hits:

What could it possibly be but my magnum opus, lightning-in-a-bottle Foelu? 35,530 hits though??? Holy fuck guys 😳😳😳

Foelu [fo.e.lu] v. Dai Bendu 1. To change. As the only one of his kind in the Order and perhaps only the third in its history, almost all of what they know about Obi-Wan's people is limited what they've been able to observe as he's grown up. When his implant expires and wartime shortages make it impossible to get their hands on a replacement, Obi-Wan learns about something else his body can do--for better or worse.

Second-Most Kudos:

Coming in in the number-two spot for kudos is apparently Electricity Blew with 992, otherwise known as my gangbang fix-it! I am very proud of this one, I think the concept was really fun, so I'm glad y'all liked it too!

“Gonna make you feel so good,” Cody murmurs, pressing a kiss under his ear and drawing another moan from Obi-Wan’s throat for Waxer to swallow down. Obi-Wan pulls back from Waxer’s mouth just long enough to drag in a series of heaving breaths, panting into the space between them. “I think you’re all still overdressed,” he manages, to a round of low chuckles. “You know what, Sir, I think you’re right,” smirks Boil, and Obi-Wan is helpless to do anything but watch as he’s suddenly surrounded by very attractive men eagerly undressing for him. Force. Perhaps he spoke too soon about making it off of this planet alive; the three of them might actually kill him. Well. There are certainly worse ways to go. Or Obi-Wan sighs. “It is possible that I was engaging in extracurricular activities in my downtime and may have underestimated the prowess of certain unnamed parties in failing to account for the unshielded environment we were in at the time.” Or The core of the 212th's officership falls into bed with their Jedi general, and learn some very interesting things about Force users in the process.

Third-Most Comments:

Is apparently Electricity Blew again 😂😂

Fourth-Most Bookmarks:

SubObi Week Day One, my first-ever foray into writing omegaverse and one of the first star wars fics I ever posted if I recall correctly. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the only time I've ever written JangObi (though the rest of the same series is, funny enough, Codywan). The main thing I remember about this fic was that it started the trend of god trying to nerf me whenever I write omegaverse (missionaries at my door, almost getting run off the road by a church van, etc). This one has 131 bookmarks.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's suppressants fail for the first time in his life as he's en-route to Kamino to investigate the attempt on Senator Amidala's life. Fortunately for him, there happens to be an Alpha available in the facility. Unfortunately for him, that Alpha is Jango Fett. Fic does contain heat sex, but Obi-Wan makes the decision while still of sound mind so it is fully consensual. Jango could just stand to be a bit less smug about it.

Fifth-Most Words:

Traveling Song, although to be honest I'm not sure how much it really counts. I kind of just...stopped posting/writing this one because it wasn't being read. I got up to posting 12,256 words of it on ao3.

Least Words:

Not Now (But Maybe Soon) is a bittersweet little Codywan First Kiss Bingo fill, sitting at 736 words. I like to think I packed a whole lot of emotion into those words though :)

In the aftermath of a confession Cody made under the influence of a head injury, there is an important conversation that he and his general need to have before moving forward.

I'm kind of really surprised that home (is where you build it) didn't end up on this list, but it's also really funny because it kind of just missed it by virtue of having a higher comment to hits and kudos ratio I think. Interesting how it all turns out!

I'm going to go with open tags, to be honest, because I have no idea who has and hasn't already been tagged. Feel free to tag me if you decide to play!

[lauri-rosehearts]

Its taken me way too long to get to this but months ago when I asked for questions and post promps about EAH, one of the things I was asked about were my thoughts on Crystal Winter (shout out to @birdbombs714 for giving me an excuse to rant about this). I had to organize my thoughts but its taken me long enough so here it is.

Honestly, my thoughts on her as a character are far from unpopular. I wouldn’t say I HATE her but I definitely don’t care about her. Before I get into that, I’ll put in a positive note and say I do love her design. Granted, I still don’t understand how she’s literally grayish lavender when her parents have regular human skin tones…maybe its a recessive gene but I digress.

That being said, I think she’s very poorly written and it frustrates me because even though she has the protagonistic role in Epic Winter, she’s literally surrounded by characters with infinitely more depth and character growth than her. Even with characters like Rosabella, whose character doesn’t really quite go anywhere aside from aiding Daring in his own arc, I still genuinely like her because there’s alot of things they could’ve done with her without having to rewrite the entire base of her character (as in, had the series continued). But since Crystal is introduced in this movie without any previous establishment, you practically have to rewrite her character to make it interesting.

I think in concept, the whole “sheltered princess who learns to be self-reliant” thing is a solid enough idea for a character arc… and then it felt like they had no idea where to take the execution. Listen, I know this has been memed to death, but it really is true that them deciding to make her learning how to tie her shoes the central symbolism for her “growth” was laughably ridiculous. The writers seem to cherry pick when they want her to be smart. Like in the movie, when the team comes across a bump in the road, Crystal always manages to solve the problem with the first solution she can think of (lowkey sacrificing the other characters’ previously established intelligence in the process, since for most of the movie, they rely on her for answers ), but it takes her nearly an hour into the movie to figure out that the rose of winter is the same rose she was given at the beginning of the movie. I already ranted about that in a very recent post but it lacks all common sense given what we learn about the roses of the seasons.

Another thing about her is the fact that she doesn’t seem to have any major flaws aside from being too carefree and childish. I swear Jackie complains about the royal family like their tyrants who impose high taxes on the peasants. But thats clearly not the case cause everyone else loves them and Crystal genuinely seems enthusiastic to be queen for all the right reasons. Yeah she likes to have fun and too much of that could lead to a lack of responsibility for others, but with her compassion, I genuinely have a hard time thinking she would rule a kingdom failing to think about others. If they made Crystal more actively selfish and flawed, then I think Jackie’s motivation would make a lot more sense. And selfishness is a core theme of a lot of the characters in ever after high so it’s not like this would be totally off-base.

Given the fact that she has such laughably minor flaws, along with the fact that she ends up effortlessly solving half of the problems in the movie despite the narrative trying to feed you the idea that she needs to go through a character arc, it’s no wonder so many people feel like she’s a Mary Sue. Her character is the farthest thing from compelling, especially when you take into account that her best friends are Ashlyn and Briar, who, in my opinion have some of the most compelling character arcs in the show. But in this movie, they get lowkey sidelined for their childhood friend who’s character arc boils down to “I learned how to tie my shoes”. I don’t think epic winter is as bad as a movie as some people think, but I admittedly mainly come back to it for every other character aside from Crystal.

It’s very clear Crystal’s character could benefit from a rewrite, but even I’m not sure how I would rewrite her. I personally wouldn’t make her downright villainous the way some people have, mainly cause in the original fairytale, the Snow Queen while antagonistic is a neutral force if anything. She’s not as villainous as some people claim she is in my opinion. The only true genuine, pure evil in this story is the devil responsible for making the cursed mirror at the beginning. He’s the one who kickstarts the main conflict. The snow queen is more just an embodiment of the harshness of winter, rather than a pure force of evil like the Evil Queen or the Dark Fairy. Yeah, the Snow queen kidnaps and nearly freezes Kay, but that’s more of a symbolic representation of how deadly winter can be sometimes. Its in her nature. Especially given when Kay and Gerda manage to escape, she doesn’t even show up to try to stop them. So I think if we were to go the fairytale accurate route for Crystal, making her morally ambiguous/gray would help. Not exactly sure where we would take it from there, but it would make it more interesting at least.

I apologize is this went kinda off the rails but I realized even after months my thoughts aren’t as organized as I thought. 😭

[flamedraco]

Day 2 of Making a Minecraft Diaries AU

So I don't have a day 1 post because I just came up with this concept on my second day of working on a Diaries AU. The fact I'm even going to make this AU in the first place is probably a testament to how old I am since Diaries is a nine year old series at this point, but if you haven't watched Minecraft Diaries you should. It's by Aphmau, there's a playlist on YouTube for seasons 1-3. Go watch it. I'm serious. Go watch it.

Anyways: Day 1 I decided to make a Diaries AU because I got to talking about the series to Em and got struck with inspiration to make a Diaries AU with DSMP characters. Namely with Wilbur as the protagonist with other members of the DSMP ensemble and a couple of OCs as the cast. Because look. Diaries has 200+ episodes and a lot more characters than you think. DSMP does not have enough characters for the amount of people in Diaries. There are like 40 characters on the DSMP. Just one look on the Diaries character Wiki will make you realize the kind of situation I'm in. Just in the Season 1 character list for Phoenix Drop ALONE there are 26 characters. And not everyone that was whitelisted on the DSMP is a viable character I can use for the story! So I opened a doc and got the series open on my phone and I started the process of rewatching and outlining a few chapters. I got four chapters outlined yesterday before realizing shit. I need to figure out how tf the rest of the story is going to change and what I need to cut because I am NOT writing a 100 chapters worth of fic. So I started the process of cutting out things I didn't like or felt were overall unimportant plot beats before I went to bed.

Today: I'm continuing the process of trying to summarize the story and boil down Diaries to its most core elements while still outlining chapters, cutting out a lot of the extra fluff to leave myself room to build my own story because obviously if I'm making an AU I don't want everything to be one to one. Also Wilbur isn't Aphmau and thus will behave differently as a protagonist. Same with a lot of the other characters. I'm not going to leave any major or minor character in Diaries untouched because this is an AU, not a crossover. If the character was named and important? I'm changing them. If you see a name you don't recognize, probably an OC or some character you forgot was part of the lore that I was able to sneak in.

Right now I'm trying to make a simplified plot overview of Season 1. Season 1 is already giving me a headache. Do you know how many kids these people have? How many random characters we see once or twice being actively important to the plot SOMEHOW!?

I'm still doing it because I think a Diaries AU would be fun and any of my readers who read it and don't know shit about Diaries are going to be so surprised by some of the things that happen. Diaries may be an old series but damn was it emotional and compelling.

Anyways obviously some character relationships are going to have to be changed and not everything in this AU and the OG Diaries is going to be the same. For anyone who's curious I'm already cutting out most if not all of the werewolf shit.

Wish me luck, I'm currently working on the outline for chapter 6 before jumping back to sorting out more of the timeline. I've got my phone propped up against my notebook and my computer in my lap :D

[cosmicseapop]

Aqw’s Structure of Existence Theory Pt2

Upper Planes dont have a better name

Funny enough this is the more simpler one to explain, despite having only a bit of info on them. 

True gods that are also considered alien to Lore if Fimbul calling the Hero an interloper holds any weight. They can influence existence as a whole through their domains depending on what it is, either through their power alone or through their followers (ie Infamy and doom spirits). Their realms on different planes of existence and can’t easily be accessed unless a god is the one opening the way, but another god could block access (Malgor keeping the Hero out of the Timestream for a bit). 

With the exception of EDoT and Adimonde, all of the gods are considered dead and mostly forgotten. EDoT for obvious reasons and Adimonde for some other reason that hasn’t been shown yet (probably from just chilling in his realm or a special Fiend Shard). Adimonde could also be dead since we’ve been shown them as a floating mask, and they just manage to escape being tripped in the Mana Core. The OWO isn’t completely forgotten since the Mysterious Stranger still remembers Infamy (if they’re the god of Doom, but thats all but confirmed at this point) and their goal, so there’s probably others factions that would remember the other gods either on Lore or in space.

There had to be some sort of council or a criteria to determine who to ascend to godhood pre Reset. Also there’s issue of how the power is distributed, like is it taken from the original god, is it formed from the newly made concept and needs to grow in strength, or is it from worship of followers. Kathool did seem to get a boost in power from their ascension but the Hero didn’t seem to be affected (tho thats probably because they had so much power to begin with, it was more like a drop in the bucket), and quickly gained followers that could increase their range of influence. The fallout of that will definitely come last after things with OWO is settled, when everyone isn’t threatened with getting snapped for existing without OWO’s approval.

Infamy and Adimonde most likely weren’t ascended by another gods, so there has to be a way for them to ascend by themselves if they didn’t just show up out of nowhere in the beginning of everything — probably by killing and taking the godhood from a god since their goals boils down to conquest. Law and Tranquil are more difficult to determine how they got their godhood, but Law feels like they had it from the beginning and Tranquil would have gotten theirs through diplomatic means or worship. EDoT most like was born with their pre Reset power since time one of the more fundamental concept for the universe. 

Kathool would be a minor god of sorts, if only because of the Hero tying them to their existence. They were ascended the same way that OWO would ascend other gods, but with the small changing of wording got placed under the Hero’s control by tying them to their existence. There’s probably going to be a way around or getting out of being tied to the Hero’s existence to be a proper god, but probably a problem for another story arc.

Malgor and the other Speakers would also be demigods of sorts, not ascended to godhood but being born with divinity that allowed them access to the Timestream and the ability to control it. 

Theres possible identities for 2/3 gods we do talk to in OWO. Infamy is all but confirmed in game to be the God of Doom — them taking such offense to Gravelyn and Sepulchure ruling the Shadowscythe Empire, stating the shadows came from their throat (weird way of saying creating them), and Gravelyn’s wound being confirmed to be Doom. Law is probably the God of the Creatioux Dragons (maybe the Decadere Dragons too since they’re part of the same species of Void Dragons) — mostly because dragon face mask shape but also since their views regarding Chaos aligns with what the Creatioux’s view is on the Decadere’s use of Entropy from DF. Tranquil is a bit hard to figure out, mostly due to that it was stated in the merge quest for the Mana Core that they were part of a pair with someone else (neither Law or Infamy tho, probably another god that didn’t get the position of being the mouth piece of OWO). It also worth pointing out that these three feel like the representation of the other main games’ timelines that were merged into Aqw’s, and their identities are probably tied to things that hold importance to the stories — Infamy for Mechquest, Law for Dragonfable, and Tranquil for Adventure Quest.

It's also worth pointing out that once someone becomes a god, that position cant be taken away, and the only way to remove them is through killing them — ie Nulgath wanting to usurp Adimonde as Fiend God. Silencing is more a less permanent solution (and a whole other theory post) that still keeps the god alive enough so that they’re not a problem anymore but don’t get rid of their domain or disrupt their influence on the universe. This probably why OWO hasn’t straight up killed Einsolf since there power would mostly go to one person rather than spitting it up between all the dead gods, then that god would be put to sleep/killed and that devolves into a cycle of infighting until there’s not enough gods left to keep that one down and they all get killed.

Another speculation, but gods don’t seem to be by the powers of other gods, or at least not like how it affects mortals. The OWO are aware of the EDoT’s death and the Reset that came of it and seem to be aware of the cycles Malgor went through and the outcomes of it (probably how they know about the 3 threats but not knowing who they are if they aren’t lying about that). Which is good thing since the Hero can become the Champion of Doom, something thats toootally going to work out well and couldn’t go wrong at all what so ever /s. 

Space as an element 

This is on here solely for the fact that the dragon egg in the Mirror Realm hasn’t been mention in years and thats thing is technically the counterpart to one of the most powerful being in the universe. And with space being set as the counterpart to time in the game, Space Dragon God. 

A fun headcanon I have is they play a similar role to the EDoT and the Reset and created the Mirror Realm indirectly — either by just existing or dying in the past. 

Mana Core

Just as confusing as the Elemental Planes 

A realm that was created from the Reset and condensation of timelines and universes, and an 'Avatar’ that was immediately put in baby jail for just existing. 

Contrary to the Elemental Avatars probably just being Champions that raised to the position, Einsof sees more like the personification of the Mana Core. Calling him an Avatar is probably easier to explain or its current way of trying to make sense of him (since the creation of the Elemental Avatars hasn’t been explained yet). It's literally taking all of OWO to keep him asleep and will start waking up if any three of them lose focus, while they were ably to Silence Neso with ease — seems a bit of an understatement and insult to compare him to the regular Avatars. 

It feels like Einsof is more the god of all creation than Mana with how powerful he should be (being the personification of mana in a universe that thrives because of mana would do that) and would be above the Hero in terms of power, even with all the stolen power and authority from OWO. There’s also a good chance that actually kill him would also lead to all of existence ending if someone doesn’t take that mantle, probably similar to the Mana Affliction but on a wider and more devastating scale. That’s probably what happened in the Ultra!Malgor timeline, with the Hero taking Einsof’s authority over Mana after killing him.

A fun headcanon of mine is the reason Einsof is basically a child in terms of god years is the fact that he’s technically the embodiment of how old the timeline is, since Aqw’s is technically fairly new.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I've been thinking about The Zone of Interest and how its formalist approach is used to to add another layer of meaning to the story or it might actually be the only way through which the story could be understood.

It boils down to stylistic elements like sound editing, shot composion and editing. Perhaps it's easier to understand if I talk about it in opposition to Old Hollywood techniques, but it's more or less the same for current mainstream Hollywood anyway. There's that thing of ''invisible editing'' or more exactly continuity editing. It's made in such a way that the viewer forgets there's cuts in the scene they're watching, creating this illusion of realism in a way. As an audience, we get immersed into the story, without consciously noticing how it's made. Formalist theory in cinema comes in opposition to that, particularly in the second half of the 20th century (French New Wave is a perfect example of playing and changing all the rules).

But coming back to The Zone of Interest, frame composition and editing are done in a way that become not only visible if we pay attention, but they represent the core of it. Almost the entire film is made of full and wide shots, the close-ups are quite rare and the camera is fixed. Apart from one scene in which the camera is following a character in a tracking shot, it's almost always still and from a multitude of angles. It is most visible in the house in which the characters live, with cameras in various places of each room (I think Glazer actually said they added cameras all over the place without any crews around so they captured everything the actors were doing in those spaces, without knowing how they were shot. The had hundreds of hours of footage for editing). This, paired with multiple cuts, shows a deliberate distancing from the characters. It not only brings forth the technicality of the medium, but through that, it reveals the artificiality of the life that is being built there. In a way, we're refused the oportunity to immerse ourselves in something that is actually grotesque and very far from a somewhat idylic or banal life.

Arendt's banality of evil concept has been used for film interpretation many times and has been brought to attention again with The Zone of Interest, but I think it's been misused. There's never the illusion that as evil as it is, those characters are leading a banal life. They are aware that they are trying to build what they consider extraordinary, a new world, one which is adjacent to the horrors that are happening behind the wall that separates them. A wall that that even with the flowers next to it, cannot in any way ''help'' in creating that mundane life because the separation is impossible and the characters are aware of it. It's done very well through sound mixing because its purpose is to reveal the violence auditory. It's constant, day and night, seemingly not affecting those behind the wall, except it does through the constant revving of a motorcycle engine meant to muffle the screaming. There's intent on part of the characters to hide what has it deemed as having no place in their life in that little courtyard with a pool, while through camera angles and sound we're made aware of what is peaking from above or what can be heard constantly. The characters might try to compartmentalize and choose when to engage, but as an audience, we are not in that position.

[cleromancy]

hi! I was scrolling down your DC tag and found this post (www(.)tumblr(.)com/cleromancy/735420182202368001/fucking-no?source=share) -I hope the link doesn't vanish but just in case it's one where you talk about approaches to writing DC and you cite waid, grayson and morrison. I know a bit more about morrison's, but (if you don't mind), would you care to elaborate on each style?

speaking very very broadly here, and therefore making generalizations that won't apply to every single thing each writer has ever written, but rather their general reputation or what i personally have found reading their work

waid is famously well-read and generally tries to reconcile as much canon as he can while still 1) telling the story he wants to tell and 2) fitting with modern style/genre/etc conventions. if he does make a departure you generally assume he knew he was doing it and did it on purpose while still mostly adhering to that former goal. im thinking of the donna/garth situationship in worlds finest teen titans here, which to me read like he was like "wait, why *wouldnt* they have ever had a thing, they have so much in common" and an exploration of that, and it does actually mesh with stuff that came before imo. but i picked waid as an example of someone who is extremely well read and puts a lot of effort into yes and-ing what came before. but at the same time he Builds a lot off of it, he's not just parroting.

devins approach to my reading is more like... she's character driven in a way where like. 1) she probably has a solid understanding of the history of her mains and has probably read at least the recent stuff but definitely hasnt sat down and read their Whole History, and 2) if her character concept differs from what came before she's comfortable stepping away from it. so by contrast to waid as an example, you generally won't see her playing with minor elements from teen titans 1966 or new teen titans, or if you do it's a surprise and she might have just taken a concept and turned it on its head, if that makes sense. shes more likely to bring in her own stuff. but at the same time you usually don't expect anything of hers to be a sharp departure from anything recent or any of her contemporaries. devin is someone who can read catwoman comics and then be like "i actually think catwoman should be more like xyz, because when i boil her down to what i see as her essential/core elements, this is what feels honest and compelling to me," and then that's how she'll write her.

morrison is pretty infamous for their "everything is canon" approach by which i mean. they may not have read anything recent scrimblo scringus was in, but they *did* read the elseworlds comic from 1989 where they originated that bears little to no resemblance to their current iteration, and they think it would be fun to randomly bring in some shit from that story into scrimblo's mainline continuity. so you get things like new earth jason being a redhead but also entirely unlike either pre-crisis jason or post-crisis jason in any discernable way, or they'll import batcow from tiny titans to the main continuity. because actually why Shouldn't we have batcow too. so morrisons something of a wildcard in terms of both what they might have read and in what they'll use and what they'll ignore, its a total free for all. every comic ever written is their playground, pretty much.

hopefully that makes sense lol. and i am oversimplifying a lot but that was my logic in name-dropping those three

[drew-mga2022mi6021]

Conceptualisation | Solarpunk II

Thus, the insinuated foreshadowing from the first Solarpunk post comes to fruition. Whilst thinking of how to evolve the story that I wanted to tell, who my audience is and how I can better utilise the world, I came upon this.

That is what I would like to say, but truly, we begin with a song.

After my first class for the year, I was exploring ideas on the ground floor with my partner and a few friends. I tend to enjoy brainstorming while listening to music, so I was doing that whilst watching other student films from CalArts and GOBELINS to see if I could glean some inspiration from any of it. Last Summer, in particular, was a point of realisation for me as it conveyed essentially the same message that I was trying to tell with my initial film. My partner and I joked that instead of a film about people leaving, I could make one about people reuniting. As I was thinking, the next song on my playlist started; Optical Illusion by The Soul Sri Lanka. It was interesting, because while I resonated with the lyrics, I felt powerful emotions through the chords and instrumentation as well, that seemed to tell a different story. (Worry not, this is still an explanation of the mind map above)

Acrylic Painting of a Sunrise - Jed Dorsy

We live in a world where people are hyper focused on school, university, work, all for what? We work so that we don't have to work after a certain point. We, as Sri Lankans and even as people, get so caught up in our responsibilities that we end up existing to work. We forget to live. When was the last time that we stopped to look at the little things? To "Catch the Sunrise" so to speak?

And so this is a long winded segue into what I truly want to say with my student film. This boils down to two things. I came upon this phrase as randomly as I wrote it down on my mindmap, it simply spilled out of my mouth; "Catch the Sunrise." What does that really mean? Upon my own analysis, to catch the sunrise is to seize the day; carpe diem. I believe that is to take control of ones life into their own hands. To catch the sunrise is simply to do something just because you can, because you want to, to feel alive. To see something beautiful and clear your mind. In today's society, are we too busy to catch the sunrise?

Maybe to catch the sunrise is to notice the small things about other people, how do we live? How do they live? These are some of the thoughts I explored through this phrase, which ultimately circled back to society being too fixated on a given thing, that they miss the chance to see something as simple as the sunrise. To see other people's lives. The world, very simply, does not revolve around one person.

This returns to the ideas of simply doing something just because and taking control of one's own life, and it begs the question; what does it take to embrace life and inspire that change in us. I believe that it is art and love; friendships, relationships and family. On the topic of the latter, what is family if not a community? The idea of the Found Family trope that garnered much success in the realm of fanfiction is finding a community that accepts you; a found family.

Community inspires art, one cannot make art alone with no inspirations, and so we look to the former of the two things I believe it takes to change one's life. Art does not have to be visual, it could be audio as well. This is not a foreign concept, however a more overlooked idea is that art can be tactile as well. Art could be hands on and interactive. It could be gustatory as well, a smell that takes us back to our childhood. The common thread between all art is that it takes two hands to clap; the artist and the audience. The art is nothing without the audience and vice versa, in order for art to succeed, one needs community. Additionally, observant readers will recall that community is one of the two core principles of Solarpunk that I extracted in the first post on this topic.

Why Solarpunk, then? Does this story absolutely need to be told in a Solarpunk setting? No. However, a story like this is best told through the lens of a Solarpunk world. Why? I have discussed what I think makes up the core of Solarpunk when stripped down to its bare essentials, so now the matter becomes a question of what Solarpunk represents. At its core, this idea is a utopian future, one where the horrors of global warming are not a concern, because humans have taken to using clean energy and living simple lives in harmony with nature. The name Solarpunk itself comes from the idea of solar power as a renewable energy source.

Dear Alice - The LINE Animation

There are a few other words that I wrote down in the heat of my brain storm, attempting to look at what Solarpunk means for Sri Lanka (bottom middle of mind map). These are simply rough thoughts, but I think they are worth mentioning here in case I develop on them in the future. The two easiest to decipher are Solarpunk being representations of hope and community. The last two came to me quite literally in a vision; Solarpunk is local and Solarpunk is personal. What do these mean? The former falls more in line with the interpretation of the world I want to create for this story, fusing local culture, arts and ideas with this notion of a clean society. The latter, I believe, aligns with the core goals of this movement mentioned throughout this post and the first one I made on this topic. I plan on conducting further research into this as time goes on for my dissertation.

This ideal world that has slowed down and enjoys life despite work may sound familiar; it is the same message that I want to impress upon audiences through my film. This is where I came up with the story. I found it fitting that the story should come from a random phrase that I wrote down in a mind map. This idea proposes a film about someone racing to see the sunrise. On their journey, they would race through the city on their bike (or futuristic solar powered tuk-tuk) and see the city for what it is, from how the rich live, to how the poor live up until they finally reach the sunrise. As I have said in other posts, ultimately I want to create a story that leaves viewers feeling at ease, warmed and hopeful for the future, and I believe that this is the message that the world needs.

The length of this project concerns me. If the story is to focus on the journey to see the sunrise, can I really depict all the facets of this concept that I want to with all the respect that they are due? To do this, another mind map will be necessary. That's right, you thought this was the end of it? Not by a long shot. The plan going forward is to hone in on any of these 5 concepts, start exploring, block out a story, start refining that story, create a script, thumbnails, a storyboard and animatic. This of course is not mentioning all of the development work for the style, world and characters themselves that need to be done!

[thefaultinoursprinkles]

I just don’t think a lot of you on here have enough of a theoretical foundation to be discussing oppression in the way that you do. like in an academic setting, words like “oppression” and “intersectionality” and “equity” have specific meanings that aren’t necessarily accessible to laypeople.

that’s not to say that I think you need to have an accredited degree to discuss your personal experience; in fact, I’m a huge proponent of making information accessible to all but realistically we cannot have a meaningful discussion about oppression if your understanding of oppression as a concept is based on personal/anecdotal experiences rather than proven theory. like even if the resources are available you still have to read and understand them to have an in depth discussion and personal experience will never be a substitute for a true analytical framework.

it’s the same reactionary impulse that the “anti-sjws” had to learning about the academic concept of “privilege”. if you understand “privilege” only to be “an advantage over another” you get bogged down in discussion of personal experiences; I.e., “well I worked hard”, “I was poor growing up”, “I’m gay I can’t be racist”, etc. attempting to explain/excuse their “advantages over others” with their personal hardships.

and that fine or whatever but it’s not useful when talking about trends or relationships on a societal level. in that context, “privilege” specifically refers to “identity based oppression one is not subjected to” but if you don’t understand the underlying concepts about the types of oppression, how oppression manifests, how it is enforced, why it is enforced, or under what conditions one may or may not be subjected to that oppression, you can’t meaningfully analyze the situation in that way.

and again in casual discussions, that isn’t an issue. people can express what they experience in any way they choose and it’s better to elevate those voices than it is to silence them in favor of “civilized” writing/discussion from the “academic elite” who likely have the theoretical understanding but often don’t experience the impacts of this oppression first hand. also why we need to continue investing in education for historically marginalized folks but that’s another post.

I keep seeing a lot of similar arguments being brought up in this “transandrophobia”/trans MRA discourse as there were in the “asexual” discourse and the “can gay people be racist” discourse. it all boils down to the same thing: the feeling of oppression (e.g., ‘people are mean to me interpersonally’, ‘society at large doesn’t cater to my personal values’, etc) taking precedence over any real analysis.

that’s why we see people saying things like “if asexuals aren’t oppressed, why did my aunt ask me if I had a boyfriend at thanksgiving even after telling her I was asexual?” and “if trans men aren’t oppressed then why do transphobes call us confused girls?” I don’t deny that those things are uncomfortable and marginalizing, but at the core it’s not about your lack of desire for sex as an asexual or your masculine identity being questioned as a trans person, it’s a result of the broader power structures in society and the way those structures shape our experiences.

so then, we see this pattern of opinions and analyses that amount to “anything that makes me feel bad is identity based oppression”, which is, of course, not true. if you follow this line of thought to its logical conclusion, it results in a belief that “anything that makes me feel bad is identity based oppression, therefore anyone making me feel bad is oppressing me for my identity”.

if one’s underlying assumption is “anything that makes me feel bad is intentional oppression based on my identity”, when presented with a post that makes the individual “feel bad” it is retroactively contextualized to fit the narrative of identity based oppression, inherently assigning a “victim” and an “aggressor” to the interaction.

once someone has been assigned this role, it serves to retroactively justify any action taken against them as the “perpetrator” of the oppression in question.

then we get takes like ‘taking about sex online oppresses asexual people’ because the person making the post

1. Saw a post about sex

2. The post made them Feel Bad

3. Due to their marginalized identity, they concluded that the post that made them feel bad was made intentionally to make them feel bad (“oppress” them)

4. Thus, the post was specifically crafted to make them feel bad about their identity, and as the perpetrator of that oppression, any action against them is justified/righteous.

you can follow the same pattern of thought for other hot takes like “using she/her pronouns in my presence is oppressing me” and “telling me I’m racist is literally homophobic” and “when trans women talk about transmisogyny it is oppressing me”.

anyways all of this is to vague post about something I saw and say:

asexuals are not the most oppressed members of the lgbtq+ community because your aunt keeps asking you if you have a boyfriend at thanksgiving. that’s the result of societal misogyny and not your asexual identity. exemplified by the many people who aren’t asexual (women, lesbians, NB, people, etc) who get asked the same questions because it is all related to the core issue of misogyny and the grotesque veneration of the nuclear family.

[billconrad]

Emotional Editing

    I noticed a recurring pattern while editing my books and articles. It is far easier to edit logical, factual, or funny sentences. They blast through grammar checks and rarely require changes. Why? These basic concepts do not require lofty explanations. X leads to Y, which causes Z. Simple, straightforward, basic, and easy to explain.

    The pattern I noticed is that a sentence with passion, sadness, anger, or joy complicates everything. X happened, and Bob feels… Gahh. What does Bob feel? Bob is upset. No, let’s make him angry. Is “upset” different from “angry?” Well, sort of. X happened, and Bob felt angry. Wow, that reads awful. Bob cannot suddenly feel angry. Something must have set him off. We cannot randomly inject a basic feeling because readers require depth.

    “Bob was so angry that his blood boiled.” Much better. Now, Bob requires a complete backstory with supporting dialog to reveal how his anger affects others. “Sally, I feel terrible. X makes my heart ache like a thousand needles are crushing it.” That is powerful but incomplete.

    Does a human heart feel pain like being crushed by a thousand needles? The pain is not supposed to be sharp; it is supposed to be powerful. Wow, this basic emotional description became complex.

    Last night, I edited two paragraphs for style and flow about the main character giving his horse to a low-income family. Functionally, it was fine, and on the surface, I addressed how the main character felt about the gift and how the family reacted. Nothing special was going on. I spent twenty minutes re-tweaking those paragraphs and was still not satisfied. So, I marked the font in red to remind me that this section needed work and moved on to the next paragraph.

    What was the big issue? I spent the prior five pages building the bond between the horse and the main character. How can I compress that departure into two paragraphs? Yet, when I tried adding a third, it was blubbery nonsense. At the same time, I needed to make sure I used sound logic, grammar, and flow. Finding that balance between emotional content and good sentence structure always fights me to the death. To further complicate matters, every sentence had a mouthful of “I,” “feel,” “he/she,” and “me.” The result reads like a stuttering child who discovered a thesaurus. Those two paragraphs drove me bonkers.  

    On the other side of the coin, there must be distance, reflection, and regret. How did the main character feel three paragraphs later? Well, why not skip that emotional junk? That’s easy. Readers hate dispassionate stories.

    The core of every good story rests on an emotional foundation. It is crucial to build the bridge into a reader’s mind. I enjoy writing about emotions because digging deep into a character’s mind is fun to pull out their most sacred thoughts.

    What can I do? I have discovered a fantastic book called “The Emotion Thesaurus” by Angela Ackerman.

    It is a fantastic resource to help authors show emotions, and I have gained a new understanding during the writing process. Yet… Even that fantastic book does not help much during the editing process. The only way to get better is to spend hours and hope some of it sinks in. Bummer.

    In reading other works, I see that I am not alone. Many books overcompensate or miss the mark. Regular characters are emotional messes, and horrific characters are confusingly nice. I did not appreciate an excellent emotional scene until I sat down and edited/re-edited a few thousand paragraphs. Yes, I had to go over them more than once.

    Fortunately, I see this area as something that I can improve upon. This struggle makes my heartache like a…

    You’re the best -Bill

    September 22, 2024

    Hey book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

    Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

[mariposakitten]

So a few questions for @sweetlavenderdarling and others who think like this:

Who, precisely, do you think gets to decide whether someone else is thinking the correct thoughts about dark content, or whether they're "romanticizing" it? You? The person who wrote that tweet? The teenagers who harass people because they think height gaps are pedophilia? What exactly gives any of these people the ability or the right to determine whether a total stranger is having Good or Bad thoughts?

"So long as they only do it behind closed doors and it doesn't affect me, I don't see the problem." Why, exactly, is this supposed to be a "chilling" concept?? If it's not harming anyone, why on earth WOULD it be a problem? It doesn't affect you. It doesn't affect anyone, except possibly the person themself, so why is it anyone else's business?

"Authors DO need to be watched and criticized when needed." I'm gonna need you to define terms here. What exactly does this look like to you? Watch how? Criticize how? Are you talking about dissing them in your private book club? Writing a bad review on your own blog? Telling them to their face how much you hate what they write? Getting all your friends to do the same? Getting them banned? Getting them fired from their real-life jobs? Sending them hate mail, doxxing them, harassing them? Harassing the people who support them? Spreading rumors that they're a real-life predator based on what they write? None of these, by the way, are exaggerations; people do them. And they justify it the same way you're doing here.

(I'm not even going to touch on your choice to use "CP" to refer to a fictional story, except to say that as a fellow English teacher, you should be embarrassed.)

You're making a couple different arguments here. The most reasonable one, the one easiest to defend, is that you simply want people to be more critical of what they read, to make sure it's not affecting them negatively. Which... okay? Cool? I and everyone I know already does that, but thanks for the reminder, I guess.

Except here's the thing: that's NOT what antis want. Because if you tell them you ARE doing that, if you say - for example - "Yes, I know this story I'm reading presents incest in a romantic and sexy way, I have thought about it and examined my own thoughts and despite knowing incest is wrong and bad in real life, I am still capable of reading this story and enjoying it in the spirit in which it was written, because I'm an adult and I can separate fictional fantasies from reality," the responses you will get, like clockwork, fall into one of the following categories:

"You're lying! You only like reading it because you actually want to fuck your real-life brother!" (a thing I actually got told simply for defending OTHER people's right to read whatever they want.)

"Oh you poor deluded thing, you don't even realize that you're hurting yourself. I, a stranger, clearly understand your mind better than you do, so you should listen to me instead of trusting yourself or your therapist."

"Ewwwwwww, it doesn't MATTER if you think it's wrong in real life, reading it at all for any reason is GROSS so you're a bad person!"

"Maybe YOU can separate it from reality, but that doesn’t mean everyone can! This could affect someone else!" (This is called "moving the goalpost" - notice how it's no longer about you, the reader, thinking critically about what you consume?)

(I left out the really oddball ones, like "these fictional characters didn't consent to be portrayed like this!" They're definitely out there, but the ones above are the most depressingly common responses.)

Most of those responses boil down to the other, less defensible point your response kept dancing around, to wit: thinking certain thoughts (and sharing those thoughts with others) is intrinsically immoral, regardless of your actions.

Because that really is at the core of it, isn't it. Even if you've never touched or been inappropriate to a real-life child in your life, if you read Lolita and thought it was sexy, you haven't just demonstrated terrible reading comprehension, you have actually done something immoral. You have done wrong by thinking those thoughts. It doesn't matter if in real life you are a gentle soul who wouldn't harm a fly, as well as a careful lover who makes sure to both get and give enthusiastic consent every time; if you write an erotic violent rape fic, you are as morally culpable as if you'd actually raped someone.

And if you really, truly believe that, I can't STOP you from believing it, but I will never ever agree with you. You will not ever get me to agree that thoughtcrime is real. I will even go so far as to say that trying to control what other people are allowed to think and feel, no matter how noble your intentions, is intrinsically evil.

You end by accusing us of not using critical thinking and simply calling someone an anti without ever asking why. That's fairly presumptuous of you. Let me present an alternative way of looking at it: we have thought critically about it. We have thought about why antis act the way they do and why they believe what they believe. (Indeed, we could hardly avoid doing so if we wanted to, as antis seem hellbent on explaining it to us again and again and againandagainandagain...) We have, in fact, thought about your stance deeply and thoroughly.

And we absolutely reject it, and deem it morally bankrupt.

Do not let the antishippers find the Got or House of the Dragon fandom cause they'll cry

Or Labyrinth, or Flowers in the Attic, or any one of Stephen King’s books. It’s almost as if the wider public understands that fiction can be both fucked up and entertaining without the need for a moral lesson following after, or that it’s an indictment that you’re going to partake in the things you read about.

Antis are so far removed from reality, and they have to remain that way in order to not have their beliefs constantly challenged and torn apart.

[char-lotteral]

Trouvaille

It's two days late but what else is new <33 Happy NHmonth everywan!!

"In this age, in this time, and even in the afterlife, will my soul continue to seek for yours."

She was a common servant. He was a regal prince. He wants her. She yearns for him. But fate had other plans for them

Chapter 1: Kindled Spirits

Hinata never believed in miracles.

The concept in itself was ridiculous to bear.

But the moment their eyes clashed with one another, she saw the ineffable stream of the universe, ebbing and flowing in his cerulean.

He smiled. Her heart stopped.

She’s noticed his silhouette lingering in the palace, his aura too bright to ignore. That sunlit smile, those golden streaks of hair, his sapphire eyes.

His eyes.

The same set of eyes that had once stared longingly at her, the same shade of blue that snuck secretive glances her way.

Her, a mere servant. And him, a grand prince.

She grew up in the palace, raised and taken care of. The handmaidens had brought her in when she was left at the palace doorstep in the night chambers.

Her hands calloused, her clothes wrinkled and not a day went by when she hadn’t had a single misplaced midnight tendril hanging in front of her face.

She had been scrubbing the halls in front of the library when fate happened.

When he happened.

“Crap! I-I’m sorry. I didn’t see you or the bucket, I deeply apologize--”

He bent down, their fingers touched, her world spiraled.

The slightest skinship sent tingles through her veins, a sizzling sensation boiled inside her core, inside her soul, an intangible, heady feeling that made her heart pace, her cheeks flush and their eyes gravitate.

Curiosity.

Intrigue.

Magnetic.

His eyes were blue, so, so blue. His hair a field of marigolds, she wondered internally if they were as soft as they looked.

And there seemed to be the same wonderment in his eyes as well.

Time and time again, they bumped into each other at the randomest places in the palace.

At the library when she would be dusting off the bookshelves, in the garden where she attended to the carnations, at the maid’s quarters where he was prohibited to enter.

They hid behind shy giggles and small talk, shielding themselves from the cruel slap of reality.

“Your eyes.” He had said to her once. “They shine like moonglade.”

Hinata never understood his fascination with her eyes. Neither did she know about her own origin. All she was aware of was that she had no place in his arms nor was she ever allowed in them.

One time, he had been too preoccupied with his books while she had been clearing out the library, Hinata’s curiosity soon took over as she chanced a glance at what he was reading, though sadly enough, she hadn’t understood a single word of it.

Servants like her were never given the privilege to learn how to read or write. They were illiterate, condemned to sweep, clean, mop and cook. A slave to the royal family.

The prince saw this, concern glazed his eyes. “You know… I can teach you how to read, if that is what you wish.”

Her eyes twinkled like constellations. “R-Really?”

“Of course! I believe I still have some free time. Do you… maybe want to start now?”

She couldn’t have been happier.

As he had promised, they studied during his free time. They read folktales together, wrote a few poems here and there, he had even narrated to her the tale of an old classic; Romeo and Juliet.

“It’s a rather silly tale.” Naruto told her. “They both die in the end, nothing much to it really. Poets say this story was highly acclaimed but I could never understand the substance behind it.”

Hinata disagreed. “I think Shakespeare was trying to highlight the naivety of the youth, how love can sometimes bring out the fools in us.”

“Well, if you were to put it that way, I hope I never experience love. I’m already a fool as it is. ”

She chuckled. “Love is dangerous. So, I see what you mean. But sometimes, it can be a remedy for the frail. ”

“Remedy? How so?”

“Take for example…” She sought out an explanation but the minute his eyes bore deeply into hers, she blushed warmly. “Take for example, when you are feeling blue, the mere presence of your loved one can wash  away that sadness. They’re like riptides but for your soul”

“Riptides for your soul…” He repeated curiously. “So like when I’m having a really bad day because of all the workload as a prince, but when I see you, I feel rejuvenated all of a sudden. Is that what love is like?”

She could feel her heart pounding.

“Y-Yes, but I believe… Love is whatever you make it out to be, like the love of your mother and father, the love for your kingdom, or-–”

“Or like the love I have for you?”

Her breath hitched. The pacing in her heart grew rapid by the minute. The blush on her cheeks stained red like berries and she could no longer think of anything coherent.

But all hectic thoughts were thrown at the window when he had merely laughed her off.

“I’m joking. I’m too young to know about love anyway. I’m only 19.”

She laughed with him, somewhat disappointed at his joke.

“But… When I turn 20, I hope to know the complexities of it all. Love, I mean.”

He turned to her so swiftly, eyes lighting up like starlight and she could feel her face flush red again. “Come with me to my ball? I know you’d love it there!”

She shook her head. “A servant like me does not have a place in the upper palace. Surely there are other girls who might cater to your interests.”

“Other girls are boring. They’re all jewelries and frilly dresses and questions on when I become king. They have no interest in me.”

Her hand found purchase on his cheek, thumb caressing the whiskered birthmarks in soothing strokes and he leaned into it, relishing her touch.

“You’ll be amazing.”

***

The day of his 20th birthday had arrived and she didn’t feel particularly festive.

Per usual, the servants dusted and cooked, cleaned and scrubbed, preparing every corner with decorations and flashes of color.

The ballroom was coated in exquisite gold, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling like fireflies.

Every princes and princesses arrived at the foot of the entrance inside grand carriages, dressed in the most lavishing gowns and suits.

While everyone had been merrily singing and dancing to the songs, the servants underground continued to sweep away.

“Hyuga girl! You’ve been summoned!”

Hinata jumped in horror. Surely, she had done all of her duties, right? Not a single spot on the floor was amiss.

She rushed to the exit of the quarters and was immediately greeted with a very elated prince.

“Hinata! Come with me, I have something to show you!”

“Y-Your highness, what’re you doing here! You must be upstairs attending your party, what if -–”

“It’ll only take a minute, we’ll be quick.”

Grabbing her hand, they snuck through the hallways, footsteps gliding on the marble floor, hearts racing, eyes twinkling and their spirits singing a ballad of songs and cheers.

He brought her to the gardens where there laid a fountain flourishing with bountiful water. She sat on its marble stones, head tilting in curiosity.

“Why are we here?”

“You’ll see.”

“With all due respect, your majesty but you need to go back.”

He’d been too busy with the bushes, he wasn’t even listening.

“Your majesty.” She repeated. “Your majesty.”

“Here it is!”

There at his corner stood a lily, purest of white, shining under the moonlit night. It sparkled akin to the diamonds in the inky heavens, glistening in magical ways she’s never seen before.

Hinata was awe-struck. “How did you… How did you find this?”

He shrugged. “I was walking out here one night and then I saw this. It reminded me of you, so I hid it because I really wanted you to see it. Don’t tell the gardeners though, I think they’ve been saving this up for a centerpiece in my mother’s room.”

Her chest was overflowing. He had snuck out of his party, ran all the way from the ballroom to this garden, possibly gotten himself into trouble for stealing a flower just for her.

Wh y ? Why did he do this?

She was nothing but cinder and rubble.

While he was bathed in all the world’s luxury.

A common servant and a regal prince.

It was treason.

It was torment.

It was wrong.

So why was he here, cupping her face with his gentlest touch as they were shrouded inside the walls of the garden labyrinth, nothing but the moon to pay witness to their illicit affair.

“Hinata… I believe you know why I brought you here.”

She did, but she refused to believe that all of this was actually happening.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” He whispered painfully. “It’s like you’ve poisoned me with thoughts of you.”

“You mustn't,” She answered. “W-What will your family think if they saw you settling for dirt like me? These calloused hands were not meant to touch you, these chapped lips were not destined to kiss you, nor is this common servant fated to be with someone as magnificent as you.”

His golden brows creased, eyes stricken with hurt.

Underneath the night shine, he looked ethereal, a celestial being.

He shushed her with his lips.

For a moment, for just a moment, she believed in possibilities. She believed in fate, in magic, in forever.

Lips simply do not touch as softly as theirs does, hands do not move as lovingly as his, kisses do not feel as intimate as this was, nor should souls connect as innately as theirs did.

He paused, gasping for air. “I burn for you.” His eyes drift to her kissed-swollen lips, his thumb rubbing aimless circles on its pliant curves. “I burn for these lips, night and day, dawn and twilight. I fear I’ve quickly become obsessed with them.” He plants a chaste kiss, smiling. “...And oh, how sweet they are, so much sweeter than any honeydew.”

Her cheeks flushed red.

“And these hands…” He reached for them, caressing the insides of her palm, drawing lazy patterns in its wake. “I seek refuge in these hands. Even with the mere contact of them, I am at ease.” Her skin tingles beneath his touch. He kisses each knuckle, wrapping her tiny fingers in his much bigger ones. “Lest not your scars belittle you, Hinata, rather let them be a reminder that you are a strong person.”

Their eyes clashed. Her moonstones colliding with his sky gaze

“These hands have done so much good for me and my family, and I will always love you for that.”

Her heart quickened. “Say that again… please.”

“I love you.”

“O-Once more?”

“I love you. I love you, Hinata Hyuga. I love you and will continue to love you until the sun and moon can endure.”

It was nights with him when her soul felt lighter, freer.

She was floating, soaring , her wings drawing her higher and higher into the heavens, bright and effervescent, her soul was kindling.

He made her soul kindle.

And so she kissed him back, longingly, ardently.

Within the shadows, their love blossomed in the dark, only glowing more and more each day that went by.

In the dark, his kisses blazed brighter, their souls rectifying into one, immaculate divinity.

In their world, there were no boundaries, no societal status, no expectations weighing them down.

There was only them.

[wolf-queer-discourse]

Adventures in Aphobia #1

So I was scrolling through Tumblr the other day (a regrettable mistake as always), and I had the great pleasure of seeing this joyous post.

*deep breath*

Not gonna lie, posts like this make me real pissed. Pissed because the person who posted this exists in a space where they feel comfortable enough to post this online. Pissed because these posts are so common and often face little backlash. And pissed because there’s nothing better than allosexuals condescendingly explaining to asexual people why they’re dirty attention whores who invent their own oppression. Ace people deserve to be defended against this horseshit. Young people see these posts, and it’s extremely damaging to have your identity be nothing more than fuel for people in discourse to mock you and demand you bled in order for them to notice your pain.

Anger aside, many people do not see why this post is wrong, so why is it? Let’s unpack this clusterfuck of bigotry:

“would love to see substantive evidence of systematic “aphobia” that isn’t actually just misogyny, toxic masculinity, or rpe culture.”

God damn, we are not mincing our words here XD. A few things: systematic in bold, which tells you if you do not make a blood sacrifice on the altar of queer pain you will not be taken seriously. Potential nitpick, but systemic and systematic are not the same thing. I believe systemic is the word they’re looking for. Systematic implies a lot more intentionality that can be hard to prove. Systemic merely means that systems, in their current state, do aphobic things, which they absolutely do.

“Aphobia” in quotes is absolutely rich. Not only will this person refuse to acknowledge systemic aphobia, which is only one type, but this poster casts clear doubt upon the mere concept of aphobia in and of itself. We love to see it.

There’s a lot to unpack here. The statement, as clearly condescending as intended, is sort of correct, though it doesn’t mean a whole lot. Systemic oppression is about the systems in a society (government, healthcare, etc) discriminating against people. Systemic oppression is not bigotry faced on a person-to-person level. In short, systematic oppression is something a person experiences in their overall life, while personal discrimination is experienced on a personal level by people who are not singularly in control of the systems. This post boils down the negative comments ace people face into being called “weird”, which is an understatement for sure, but calling a gay person weird isn’t systemic oppression either.

It’s still bad and discriminatory.

This is such a snotty way to dismiss aphobia as some mere, insignificant comment with no meaning as if it doesn’t reinforce society’s painful aphobic views in the same way casual homophobic comments reinforce heteronormativity and society’s hostility toward gay people.

Ace people face discrimination in healthcare, most notably, which is systemic discrimination, but the systemic discrimination of asexuals really ought to be its own post if I’m to nosedive into it. Even if ace people faced no systemic discrimination, it wouldn’t make this point anymore correct. Discrimination is a perfectly valid reason to feel disregarded by society, and often only ace people are denied the right to feel this way and are instead gaslit into admitting what they face is no big deal and they’re just making it up for attention.

The experience of being pressured to have sex when you’re allo vs ace is very different. The vast majority of allo people do not plan to be celibate their whole lives. Many ace people do not want to have sex, ever. “Waiting for sex” in much of western society and in Christianity is seen as pure and honorable. Yet being asexual and never wanting sex is seen as a deviant disorder and people are accused of robbing their partner of sex forever.

There’s really a specific flavor of sexual pressure that is unique to ace people. Sex being to “fix” someone or because they “just need to try it”.

In this respect, aphobic sexual pressure is better compared to that faced by gay people and lesbians. Lesbians especially often can face this same struggle, men pressuring them to have sex because they think lesbians just need to “try it” or to “fix them”. I can imagine this poster would have no issue acknowledging lesbophobia being the root of lesbians coerced into sex with men, yet she does not give ace people the same.

Imagine if someone said (and knowing our fucked world, someone probably has): “Lesbophobia doesn’t exist. It’s just misogyny. Straight women are coerced into sex too!”

It’d be pathetic bullshit. Toxic masculinity, misogyny and many other issues can all tangle into combined messes with other forms of bigotry. Lesbophobia is an experience that deserves to be recognized apart from misogyny, even if the two are linked. Please stop erasing ace people’s experiences with this when it’s not the same thing.

Honestly, though, this post, as trashy as it is, if anything, is perhaps, really asking: Is there any type of aphobic experience that’s inherently exclusive to ace people?

I still wager to go say, yes, yes there is, but I must make an important point first:

Most experiences of queer discrimination are not limited to queer people.

Homophobia and transphobia are both experienced by cishets in certain instances. Feminine straight men can be victims of homophobic harassment. This does not disprove the fact that it’s homophobia just because a straight man is the victim of it. A tall cis woman with broad shoulders and a lower voice may be the victim of transphobic remarks or comments. The basis of these comments is rooted in transphobia, however, so the fact that the victim is cis does not erase the transphobia.

People who argue that experiences ace people complain about can be experienced by allosexuals are not poking a legitimate hole in doing this. Certain experiences related to aphobia can and are experienced by allosexuals. If you do not acknowledge this, then homophobia and transphobia aren’t real because cishet people have sometimes experienced them.

Despite cishets sometimes experiencing queerphobia, most of us acknowledge that their experience of that bigotry, however unfortunate, is not the same as that experienced by actual queer people. It’d be quite homophobic for a feminine straight man to claim he knew just as much about the gay experience as an actual gay man. Similarly, when allosexual people relate experiences that were rooted in aphobia, it’s overstepping a line when they claim asexual discrimination isn’t real because they experienced elements of it too.

Cishet (cishet including allosexuals) people do not experience their doctors telling them their sexuality might be a disorder or caused by trauma. Allo queer people can experience this with their sexualities too.

“using sex appeal to sell products is misogyny, it is not engineered to gross sex-repulsed people, it is meant to objectify women.”

This is a strawman thinner than my last nerve. Uh, what? What ace people are you seeing that literally think sex appeal was engineered to gross-out sex-repulsed people?? I don’t think this is a core argument??

Yes, sex-repulsed ace people sometimes complain about sex appeal in media being uncomfortable. But that’s it. Every time an ace person shares a discomfort of theirs doesn’t mean it’s the entire basis of their oppression. For the love of God, let ace people discuss their experiences without being blow-torched over not being oppressed enough with an individual discomfort. 

BONUS ROUND

(This was in the tags)

“Completely vilifies celibate individuals” 

...no…? What…? Huh…? 

The most charitable interpretation of this vague accusation is that the poster means celibate people face aphobia as well, due to not wanting to have sex. I have no idea how this “vilifies” anyone, but that aside, as said before: people who are not queer can face aphobia. Also worth noting that society treats celibate people way better than ace people, which is really another example of aphobia. Celibate people can be told they’re missing out (which could be at very least related to aphobic ideals), but they’re rarely called broken. Celibacy is seen more as a respected, controlled ideal in allo people, but when ace people want to do it, they’re just mentally ill.

Anyway, the post was aphobic trash, and it needs to be debunked more often. Mocking ace people online is not a good look anymore, guys. Don't be ugly.