#Vic Mignogna discourse

[nyx-bait]

Just like casually mentioning, the only streamers I follow right now are Charlie Slimecicle, Ranboo, and Aimsey. I'm also interested in some of their projects, like Generation Loss and Just Roll With It, but that's as far as I go.

I've dumped people for heinous shit before. A good decade ago, i was warned about Vic Mignogna by those in the industry, and despite being a big fan, i understood they knew better. I was a big fan of Cryaotic. I also enjoyed Gus Johnson and Kurtis Conner before their respective controversies. I have experience cutting off my interest in bad people when it becomes clear they've done something awful.

I also have A LOT of experience with fans repeating the most misogynistic, racist, or victim blamey talking points to defend these people.

All that to say, I think for my own health, I'm keeping all streamer discourse at arms length because I can't afford to ruin my mental health trying to get people to understand for the dozenth time in four years why dream and his entourage are freaks. But if anything comes out about someone I'm interested in, I will drop them immediately and you can call me out if I don't right away.

Content creators are not idols and should not be your standard for humanity. You're allowed to enjoy their work, but remember we can never know what's going on behind the scenes and we don't really have any right to. These people can be vastly different from the persona they display online, so if those who know them better make it clear they're dangerous, distance yourself immediately and don't feed into their excuses.

Support victims.

[fma-facts]

Hello everyone, I’m sure many of you have already heard the news, but Funimation officially announced today via Twitter that they are cutting ties with Vic Mignogna, English voice of Edward Elric. 

While this doesn’t have much of an effect on FMA, given that there’s no new FMA media to be dubbed at the moment, I thought the fandom might want to know. Presumably, in the event that any hypothetical new FMA content is ever dubbed by Funimation in the future, Ed will be recast.

[dragynkeep]

Hey question do you think Vic Mignogna is guilty? I’ve been following the situation for a while now and I’m wondering if it was ever proven that he was a creep? I know that the main 2 accusers suffered a lot of backlash along with some others (which I feel bad for them I hate how they were turned against tbh) but I just wanted to make sure?

I remember at first, I thought he was innocent and that the girls were lying because of the group I was in and my mindset at the time.

But now? I absolutely believe that at least something happened. Even if, hypothetically, one girl lied, there have been far too many coming out against him for it all to be false.

[arundolyn]

someones acting like a clown in my server and im just. looks at them

[matt0044]

That's really part of the localization discourse these days. Before, it still a mess but at least was concerned around whether an English Dub embelished something for the original or not and if the embleshment was warrant.

As The Cartoon Cipher memed, some may say it's a bad change, others may say its a good change.

Nowadays? The Anti-Woke crowd of Status Quo Warriors saw it ripe for the infecting the second that an Ecchi Anime comedy about three guys in an all girls school referenced Gamergate in its dub with all the derision it deserves.

Now what was nerdy nonsense over personal preferences being mistaken for "objectivity" has been assimilated into the Culture War(TM). Gone are the days of acknowledging that translations engaged in Queer Erasure due to either ignorant of Japan's own language of queerness or due to producer's fearing their bottom dollar.

And it's "Westerners" making it woke because this crowd paints Anime as this "apolitical paradise" because of the overload of shlocky Ecchi and Isekai that's more self-indulgent that concerned with any potential story it could tell.

Through these titles, they envision Japan as this place where Feminism, Diversity and anything "threatening" the white male's place in society are quashed.

All the while, they ignore how Japan has always had queer works in Animation, Manga and literature. It's faced similar push-and-pull fights for artistic freedom not unlike America and beyond but it's one unique unto itself.

Shit, I remember when Anime had a reputation for having a lot of nerdy girls who either were into the cute guys or related to the female led protagonists in ways they couldn't with stories in their own country. I remember how there were queer folks finding Anime as a sort of refuge too.

It's hardly a thing of the past. Many YouTubers discussing Anime, some on lengthy hiatus or done, have been openly queer in their presentation as well as text readings like DigiBro/Ygg Studio, The Pendantic Romantic and Zeria. Plenty of beyond video essayists have blogs discussion feminism in Anime and... pitfalls related to that matter.

Zeria here discusses the Alt-Right co-opting Anime and the Left's comeplacency in it all.

Sarah Moon dissects the backlash behind Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid's dub and its actual motives.

MarzGurl breaks down the Vic Mignogna situation in a well-deserved harsh voice.

Don't let Anime become synonymous with "White Guy Sh*t" when it deserves better.

it’s always priceless when homophobic weebs insist with complete confidence that anything queer is just a “mistranslation” or “westerners forcing wokeness into the story” and then the original line is something like “she is a girl who likes girls” or “i am neither male or female”

[takashi0]

Protip:

If someone’s being investigated for sexual assault and you’re talking to people who are skeptical of the claims, if you openly wish for them to be sexually assaulted so they can “understand how it feels” you’re a horrible person.

And if you brush it off with a “you mad lol” response after a lazy attempt at backpedaling instead of just admitting you said something awful, you’re an even worse person.

[aqours-remade]

“If he was guilty, why did Rooster Teeth risk their reputations by hiring him?”

because they’re a greedy corporation who wanted the money coming in from a bigname voice actor that’s literally all there is to it

back then a LOT of people were unhappy with Vic being hired to voice Qrow. they were vocal about “hey isn’t this guy kind of a creep” and were basically scared into shutting up by his fanbase, like people are right now.

people knew he was an asshole back then, and were vocal about it, and there is no way RT did not know that and basically just plugged their ears and pretend they didn’t hear that

they took the gamble because no matter how much you love their shows RT is a company that only cars about making money and they saw this opportunity to make a lot of money with this big-name VA and didn’t care about the consequences in return for the fame it’d bring

Funimation is the same. they knew about this for years and also wanted to ignore it until it became too much to ignore.

let us make no mistake: Funimation and Rooster Teeth are not good corporations wanting to do the right thing by firing Vic. they really are not. they would very happily keep making money off him despite having known about this for many years and hiring him knowing that and are only doing it because now they’ll lose more money keeping him on-board than its worth to keep him around in controversy.

its just corporate greed and the almighty dollar, that’s literally all it is to it. RT risked a lot by hiring him knowing it and now they’re paying the price for it. that’s all there is to it

[noonewouldlisten25]

My Opinion On This Mess;

All we have is he said-she said at this point on BOTH ends with gaps missing in the stories. 

I will not stand with Jessie. I will not stand with Todd. I will not stand with Vic.

I will sit and watch until more facts come out. I will not damn or defend anyone in this mess.

[shadowsnowdapple]

I reblogged like 2 jokes and the evidence but I’ve known about the gross stuff about Vic for a while and I’m blocking his name now cause seeing people defend him is quite anxiety-inducing to me. But if you wanna know what I’m thinking on this topic:

In the court that is public opinion, I will always trust victims first unless given a reasonable reason why I shouldn’t. It’s the court of public opinion, not the law.

[matt0044]

Japan is not your Apolitical paradise. Not with Anime. Not with Manga. Not even with Light Novels.

This was inspired by Marzgurl’s “Anime Fans Missing the Point Due to Hate” video and Zeria’s “Anime Is (And Should Be) Political” video. I might not be as scathing as them but I hope to contribute to this awareness.

If there’s one aspect to discourse over the Anime Industry, Translation and Distribution, it would be this fetishization of Japan as a country.

That might sound like a bold statement with quite the loaded term but… it’s excruciatingly hard to think of anything else to describe it as. Especially on YouTube.

You get painful Clickbait that’s made even worse by claiming that “Japan” is trying to cut out the “middleman distribution companies in America.”

That “Japan” hates “Western PC Culture” because the head writer of Digimon Tamers made the cast do an embarrassing reading of what was obstensively his right-winged blog posts in a screenplay.

That “Japan” is mad at FUNimation or anybody who dared to press charges against Vic Mignogna, somebody who had been banned from cons since the late 90s. You know, for his behavior that‘s never been news and only got support thanks to the #MeToo movement.

That “Japan” hates dubs that don’t adhere to the original like with a term associated with Social Justice or Social Media in general. As if many of these productions don’t have the studio’s approval more often than not. As if dubs for Kaguya-Sama haven’t gotten positive buzz because they were anything but 100% faithful.

Or did you decide that you lied about liking Ghost Stories?

Japan isn’t apolitical. Anime isn’t apolitical. The only ones injecting politics into Anime are the Anime (or Manga in the case of adaptations) themselves from the ground up. Not some comedy’s dub that referred Reddit or the patriarchy in a fairly poor joke.

[screaming-pee]

Hey uhhh I don't usually like getting involved in controversies, but Vic Mignogna is a cool dude and if you don't like him, you can unfollow me. I've met the man on multiple occasions and he's been nothing but sweet and caring to me and my friends who've met with him. I've never felt uncomfortable around him and he always seemed good about reading the situation. Go ahead and block me for whatever reason, but there are real evils out there, and it just doesn't look like Vic is one of them.

Edit: Just thought of something else I should add. I am afab and gay. I introduced a girlfriend of mine to him at one point and he didn't treat us any differently than he did before he knew we were dating. He was sweet, gave us hugs after asking if it was okay, and we continued to talk for a bit until it was someone else's turn.

[marine-c-jones]

I gotta say things about the whole Vic Mignogna thing. I looked into this and gathered what I could. This is what I found and my opinions.

First of all, this was not just fans accusing him. Here is VA Monica Rial coming out and saying she was a victim.

There is a huge different between what fans who knew him for a few minutes and what someone who worked with him for years. No offense, but her words seem more reliable then the random fans.

Funimation apparently did an investigation on their own, which is what led to him being fired.

A company is aloud to fire someone for any reason, wether you like it or not. That can also be said with Roosterteeth firing him.

Finally, fans keep shouting “where’s the proof!”

I can speak from experience that in situations like this, lawyers often tell everyone to stay silent until everything’s been delt with. For now, everyone’s taking the advice of their lawyers and staying silent.

Also, THEY DON’T OWE US AN EXPLANATION! It’s their personal lives. Monica’s story is her privacy, she doesn’t need to tell us it.

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

Apparently there's been some big snafus going on about Vic Mignogna and IDK what to believe... did you hear about it? :o

What did he do this time?

[fma-facts]

Not sure if you are aware of this or not, but after reading your post regarding the Vic controversy I want to say that most of the allegations against him had been found to be false, some even outright faked, and there are numerous evidence of that too. I don't want to sound condescending toward you, I just want to let you know that Vic isn't this evil person people make him out to be.

Are you, uh, sure you read and fully understood the post? I don’t want to be condescending either, because I’m sure you mean well and I do take things like this seriously, but I said very clearly that I don’t doubt that there are at least some false allegations. And I also said that I’ve been hearing about this stuff (along with basically everyone else who’s interested in anime dubs or frequents anime conventions) for a long, long time.

It doesn’t matter if there are ten, twenty, even a thousand false allegations against him. If any of them are true, then maybe he’s not quite “evil���, no, but he sure as hell is a creepy bastard and I for one am glad to see him gone. Interacting inappropriately with young fans is never ok, and as a rather young woman who grew up with anime myself, I trust the words and feelings of frightened girls far more than I do of a 50-year-old man who doesn’t like gay people.

[bubblesthewaterbender]

Its so weird to know about accusations before they go viral

I'm not American or from any area where large conventions are (like the ones with voice actors and stuff), so I never actually went to them, but I really wished I could when I was 14-16, so I watched a lot of footage from cons and panels where voice actors told stories and answered questions. I had favourites, I was a big fan of Ouran High School Host Club (still am) and Fullmetal Alchemist (the dub cast overlapped a lot), so it was a lot of J. Michael Tatum, Travis Willingham, Todd Haberkorn, and a few from Vic, usually with other people like Caitlin Glass.

Of course I heard the stuff that people were saying about Vic. I remember the homophobia one clear as day! Same reason as in the reports. Someone wrote a defensive post somewhere about how it would make people uncomfortable to sign art of their characters in ships like that (not a good excuse, I realize now), I saw a video of him yelling at a group of homophobic protesters (maybe WBC? Idk) and all was right in my world again. I forgot all about that until I read the report like 15 minutes ago and it's only now that I realize that that wasn't a good thing to do.

I also specifically remember seeing pictures of him with fans. I'd check if it was the same ones, but the first one I saw made me cringe like no tomorrow due to the obvious abuse of power and I'd rather not subject myself to any more of them. And they looked normal to me, at least as far as I remember. Even when he kissed girls on the cheek, I thought that this was,,, normal. I think I may have written it off because of the character he plays in Ouran, but that's not fair and also Tamaki wouldn't do that.

My best legit guess as to why he thinks that's acceptable is that he's kind of dub fandom's old man. Like, comparatively speaking, he's older (which can be a larger point of contention considering what he's accused of) (he's 56, btw, easily the oldest VA I know of that doesn't play strictly old characters) and can end up being stuck in his ways. Ofc I'm not saying that this should be an excuse and everything is fine because he's just stuck in his own beliefs, but more that this is kind of my theory.

I'm writing this out for a few reasons.

1) fandom is a hell of a drug, and, when you're a kid who isn't taught what should and should not be acceptable, you accept everything. Especially when that everything is done by a higher power, or someone of authority/someone you look up to, in a fandom context. To the other 15 year olds that defended him at the time, he wasn't just a random voice actor who happened to be a Funi staple. He was Edward Elric. He was Tamaki Suoh. That's why this string of defense may happen. Its why it happened with me.

2) just to give context to the articles that are saying this has existed since 2010. I wasn't around that long for this, but I was hearing about it years ago.

3) so I can explore my thoughts on this clearly without them being bogged down by my thoughts when I was younger and defended him. It was only while writing this out that I was able to realize how poor of an excuse that comment about being uncomfortable with certain ships is. In some of the articles about this, it's being said that he went on the discord group for the Risembool Rangers (his fan club since like,, '08) and told them to defend him. And they are, because they are most likely the age I was when I was accepting everything because I was a fan of someone's stuff.

I don't really know how to end this, but I really do hope that people start teaching kids what they should and should not consider acceptable from people they are a fan of.

[takashi0]

masterrainbowcat replied to your post “I dunno if you've heard about the whole Vic Mignogna stuff going down...”

@takashi0 In regards to the asker’s annoyance to other VAs tossing Vic under the bus, if these allegations has been a “well-known secret” for over 10 years, as people are claiming, wouldn’t that mean a lot of VAs were complicit in his behavior? I mean, it’s not even like their jobs would’ve been at risk for speaking out before now, like with some of the #metoo stuff. VAs gotta throw Vic under the bus to save face, or risk the internet mob turning around and demanding blood for their inaction.

And if Vic’s innocent then surely some people have to realize if he’s proven innocent that means he can sue them for defamation and have entitlement to legally kick their asses. 

If the Social Media mob doesn’t turn on them because “Why the fuck didn’t you say anything sooner if this has been going on for a decade?”