#and preachy

[critter-wizard]

Trans Visibility

[murmurlilies]

amidst the flood of excited screaming over the sudden tonal shift in episode 11 of Dungeon Meshi, I have seen a few anime-only viewers who are a bit... put off by it?? some feeling that they were lied to, or accusing the story of abandoning its premise and feel-good vibes.

all I can say to those people without spoiling things is this: TRUST THE PROCESS. this tonal shift didn't come out of nowhere, and it wasn't put in merely for shock value. Dungeon Meshi is a carefully crafted work with themes that carry from its opening moments all the way through to its conclusion. as the story unfolds, those themes are expanded upon and explored in truly remarkable and unexpected ways. it is, when viewed in its entirety, one of the most cohesive and beautifully told narratives in the anime/manga space.

as for those feel-good vibes?? they never truly leave, in fact imho they only grow stronger as the story progresses in spite of its increasingly dark moments. and there WILL be dark moments. man oh man, y'all have seen NOTHING yet. but again: TRUST THE PROCESS. believe in these characters, in their tenacity, in their love for each other. no matter how dire things get, believe that there will always be a warm campfire and a delicious meal waiting for them at the end.

[xvxblahhhxvx]

Is it just me, but I feel like the fandom sort of romanticizes Dazai and Oda's relationship.

And I don't mean make it appear romantic, I mean that, while I absolutely adore their relationship as well, it often feels like they turn it into something it's not, where Oda is sorta just the dead friend, and Dazai's always trying to do good "for Odasaku," and that Odasaku would tell Dazai off for being mean, for not doing a good job, and even that he would mildly judge Dazai for certain things, like his treatment of Akutagawa, and ask for him to be better.

But it's just...not?

Like, Odasaku is probably the least judgemental person on this planet, he thinks Dazai's knows what he's doing, as stated in that conversation they had about Akutagawa, and he wouldn't judge him or tell him he's doing a bad job. He would just do it differently himself. Dazai didn't join the good side "for" Odasaku, one of the biggest misconceptions in the fandom. He left the Mafia for himself, taking the advice that Oda gave him, so that he could lesson his suffering just a little, and live just a little more beautifully. It's stated that this is selfish with Odasaku's last words "man lives to save himself." Dazai wants a better life for himself, and obviously he's grateful to Odasaku for that and cherishes him and misses him and all that stuff, but he isn't doing it for him, he's doing it because of him.

tl;dr: Odasaku wouldn't judge Dazai for anything, he doesn't want him to be a good person for morality's sake, but for his own sake, and Dazai left the mafia for that purpose as well. It was selfish. And that's ok.

[character-kai]

Idk man, I kinda feel like the whole assassination thing is gonna be a lot more pivotal than we think. The way people are responding to it is already a lot more positive then similar things in the recent past. People are angry, angry to the point that shits starting to happen again. I want everyone to stay angry. This is not lip service, I genuinely believe that to an extent violence is the only way to get results. The oppressor isn’t going to hand over their power, you have to pry it from their cold dead hands. You have to steal it back.

[pseudophan]

i know this is tumblr and all and liam payne might not have been The Best Person but do you think maybe this isn't the best occasion for the fuckass destiel meme? you know damn well this is gonna hurt for a lot of one direction fans regardless of their opinion on him as a person, like this is nowhere near the same as an old evil politician dying. come on

[potatoes-tomatoes]

I’ve had this exchange in my head far longer than I’d like to admit

[joeover]

I hate when people portray the reddie dynamic as if Eddie just hates everything that makes Richie Richie. He rolls his eyes at Richie’s jokes, is grossed out by Richie, and is generally unimpressed by him.

Like no, Eddie adores Richie. Sure they love a good heated back and forth, and Eddie will call Richie out when it’s deserved, but fundamentally Eddie is deeply endeared to Richie’s humor, quirks, and eccentricities. My favorite portrayal of reddie is when they respect each other, bc they have such a deep understanding of who the other is to their core.

Eddie and Richie make for such an interesting pairing bc they truly are so different, polar opposite in many ways. But while their differences are fun to explore, I feel that what truly makes them them is what they have in common too.

[wickjump]

i hope everyone who preaches about how the only way to enjoy fandom spaces (especially in this fandom) is by strictly abiding by canon interpretations and thinks everyone else is ruining fandom spaces remembers that uwu baby cutesy dream is not in fact fanon but very much so how dream is canonically portrayed so if you want to stick strictly to canon and villainize fanon you’re gonna have to make that guy fucking insufferable and infantilized to hell and back sorry. it’s canon and if you do anything else you don’t actually deserve to be in the fandom that’s just how it works i guess

[idolomantises]

when developing Lili's job as a sex worker, I had a comic planned where Sera and Lili do talk about her job and Sera offers to "save" Lili, but Lili tells her she doesn't want to be saved and doesn't want her job to be viewed as this burden that ruined her life. She likes it, and thats all there is to it.

But, as someone who is not a sex worker himself (despite doing some research and even asking sex workers for feedback), I felt like it came off too preachy and soapbox-y. I also notice that whenever the topic of sex work gets mentioned in my work, a lot people get really upset at the topic. I'll never forget being told that Sera and Lili's relationship was "less wholesome" after finding out that Lili is a sex worker. And the last thing I want is for my reply section to turn into a warzone.

At the same time, I still want to represent sex work as a normal thing. Not just for hell denizens but in general. The fact that sex work is still a poorly represented profession in media, and that I have people assume Lili was "forced" to do her job because that's just assumed at this point is disappointing. I hope the dialogue can make it clear that its normal, and its fine. And please stop saying "poor Sera" she literally summoned Lili, she knows what she got into.

[foldingfittedsheets]

Vegan leather is a plague.

[patheticpomegranite]

not gonna lie and this might sound conspiratorial but i think the tsa has perpetuated the process of normalizing surveillance.

i feel like i see people joke frequently about bringing weird (not dangerous) things through tsa in my personal life quite a bit and i can't help but think that before 9/11 we didn't really have this as a normal part of our culture. as far as i know, when we're talking about acts of terror, they have mostly been stopped by other organizations in government. most people who fly are civilians. why the fuck do they need to know how much gesso i am carrying.

the tsa frequently picks on people of color and especially muslims for their "random inspections" and choose women to pat down. they have these two "services" that they provide that partially exist to perpetuate the bias of the workers.

every airport has different rules for shoes and tech and jackets and every person at that airport has different beliefs.

in my experience as an immigrant, the tsa, the officers at the border, the people at the national embassies, all work to insinuate fear and shame simply for not being american. we're conditioned to ignore our worries and keep the line moving.

women and trans people and people of color being pat down for longer is normal. people's bags being randomly opened, every nook and cranny looked into by a person who seems to hold contempt for the owner of the bag is normal. your personal items being taken by the tsa staff (and then posting it on their fucking social media) is normal. being subject to random rules that change day to day, person to person, airport to airport is normal. being pulled aside and put into an investigation room and kept there for as long as they want without any reason is normal.

i'm from russia, i am well aware of how the state takes away your freedoms, they don't even need an excuse. they used to (they still do) steal people. but i wanted to point out how america does this too, people go missing at the airport, people are forced to stay or forced to leave at the airport, your personal privacy is invaded, in a country where supposedly personal freedoms are prioritized.

[yb-cringe]

i think whats always made me the most emotional about qsmp characters and players alike leaving is that it feels so much more. personal. a bit more gutting when it comes to the way qsmp functions.

the reason this server was made in the first place was to make connections between players that CANT happen anywhere else. or rather, are very difficult to maintain.

it's hard to consistently stay in contact with people who don't speak the same language as you. qsmp made a point to force those people to interact and everything else was just.. trying to soften the harder edges of communicating that don't happen elsewhere.

and its simultaneously beautiful and horribly horribly painful. because the world outside of qsmp isn't very accommodating. and often, as these are content creators with Lives, they don't have time to really maintain every friendship they ever make.

It's why maxo and jaiden and richas and pomme and dapper etc-- its why every death or absence from the server is so gutting. because you know when they leave, that this just /cant/ happen again.

i'm not saying this to be. doomposty. i know that's kinda what it sounds like. i think pepito said it great already; that new memories can be made and we can love the old ones.

i think what im getting at is that clawing back to a time that's passed won't make us happy, it won't take us back there. you gotta just keep moving forward. qsmp is changing a lot. it wont ever be like it was last year. that doesn't mean it can't be good later.

we're going to lose creators and characters and things that remind us VERY heavily of the times where we had friends that we drifted from or lost because of one thing or another.

but you gotta remember there will be more people who you will love too. new people, who won't fill that space but occupy something new because fun fact you don't ever run out of space for that sort of thing.

be sad theyre gone be happy they're doing well remember the memories fondly but keep moving. unfortunately a lot of qsmp has ended up being about letting things go.

its like the. 'its going to be okay. but its going to be different.' and. skdfjds idk i hope thats a hopeful enough note to make things better.

[evilwizard]

I do want to say, my views on AI “art” have changed somewhat. It was wrong of me to claim that it’s not wrong to use it in shitposts… there definitely is some degree of something problematic there.

Personally I feel like it’s one of those problems that’s best solved via lawmaking—specifically, AI generations shouldn’t be copywrite-able, and AI companies should be fined for art theft and “plagiarism”… even though it’s not directly plagiarism in the current legal sense. We definitely need ethical philosophers and lawmakers to spend some time defining exactly what is going on here.

But for civilians, using AI art is bad in the same nebulous sense that buying clothes from H&M or ordering stuff on Amazon is bad… it’s a very spread out, far away kind of badness, which makes it hard to quantify. And there’s no denying that in certain contexts, when applied in certain ways (with actual editing and artistic skill), AI can be a really interesting tool for artists and writers. Which again runs into the copywrite-ability thing. How much distance must be placed between the artist and the AI-generated inspiration in order to allow the artist to say “this work is fully mine?”

I can’t claim to know the answers to these issues. But I will say two things:

Ignoring AI shit isn’t going to make it go away. Our tumblr philosophy is wildly unpopular in the real world and most other places on the internet, and those who do start using AI are unfortunately gonna have a big leg up on those who don’t, especially as it gets better and better at avoiding human detection.

Treating AI as a fundamental, ontological evil is going to prevent us from having these deep conversations which are necessary for us—as a part of society—to figure out the ways to censure AI that are actually helpful to artists. We need strong unions making permanent deals now, we need laws in place that regulate AI use and the replacement of humans, and we need to get this technology out of the hands of huge megacorporations who want nothing more than to profit off our suffering.

I’ve seen the research. I knew AI was going to big years ago, and right now I know that it’s just going to get bigger. Nearly every job is in danger. We need to interact with this issue—sooner rather than later—or we risk losing all of our futures. And unfortunately, just as with many other things under capitalism, for the time being I think we have to allow some concessions. The issue is not 100% black or white. Certainly a dark, stormy grey of some sort.

But please don’t attack middle-aged cat-owners playing around with AI filters. Start a dialogue about the spectrum of morality present in every use of AI—from the good (recognizing cancer cells years in advance, finding awesome new metamaterials) to the bad (megacorporations replacing workers and stealing from artists) to the kinda ambiguous (shitposts, app filter that makes your dog look like a 16th century British royal for some reason).

And if you disagree with me, please don’t be hateful about it. I fully recognize that my current views might be wrong. I’m not a paragon of moral philosophy or anything. I’m just doing my best to live my life in a way that improves the world instead of detracting from it. That’s all any of us can do, in my opinion.

[saltywatercrocodile]

Quick (Informal) PSA For Therian Minors

I see a lot of minors in the community who seem very...comfortable, I guess, with sharing personal information and photos on here and other sites, and I just wanted to speak my piece about it.

Something I remembered from another post that I wanna steal because I love the wording: before you share something on the internet, think what could someone who wanted to hurt me do with this information? Not trying to be condescending, I'm an adult and I think that exact sentence in my head before I post/comment/DM anything related to myself.

Just saw a post where a well-meaning therian minor linked their Youtube channel, which has videos of them irl (wearing a mask, but still) doing quads outside and at an indoor non-chain business with the name/logo of the building clearly visible.

I cannot emphasize how much I was taught to be extremely careful about posting any irl images as a kid/teen, as people can infer your location from very minor details, MUCH LESS VIDEOS OF MY WHOLE BODY IN AN EASILY GOOGLE-ABLE LOCATION. What happens if someone with malicious intent sees that video, which is public on youtube? What will you do when someone attempts to blackmail or doxx you? Not only would this would-be criminal know where you are, they can also see how old you are and exactly what you look like. Terrifying.

(I understand we're in a culture of many people posting videos of themselves online, but (in my opinion) it's just not safe to be uploading public content that's advertising "Hi I'm bodily a child/teenager and this is what I look like and this is close to where I live and I'm also a therian who's probably hiding this account from my parents")

This individual is essentially just trusting that no one on the entirety of Youtube will just google the name of the indoor facility (along with any other location-identifying posts they may make) and either threaten them via doxxing or just straight up threaten their life/safety.

I knew someone in school who got too comfortable in an in-game chat, and was lulled into a false friendship and tricked into mentioning his address. Then he was threatened and told to send them money or they would physically find him. Thankfully he felt safe enough to tell his parents, who knew how to stop the situation. I know a lot of us aren't out to our family, and I dread to think what would have happened if the boy I knew hadn't felt safe enough to explain the situation to his parents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TLDR; before you post personal info/photos, think of the absolute worst evil that someone could do to you with that information. I know it's a bummer, but doxxing/blackmail happens more than you think, and even if your posts only seem to get low notes/likes/whatever, they can theoretically be seen by ANYONE, including people who want to hurt you.

(also I don't mean to call out or harass anyone, I'm not trying to be mean, I just wanted to use an example bc it's what inspired me to make this post and also I wanted to outline why real behaviours I'm seeing can be dangerous, rather than just making up hypotheticals)

[fluo-skeletons]

it's been 9 years i think we can all collectively agree now that Flowey has never been a master of psychological manipulation.

No shame to him, he's a kid who's been recently awakened from death and probably became very socially detached thanks to the nature of resets,

but you can't tell me that Papyrus didn't/wouldn't have caught on if he had been planning to take the souls at the end of true pacifist. Flowey is not a good liar. In any case, this does lead to monsters being freed, so was Papyrus really wrong to play along?

And who's to say this all wasn't Papyrus simply playing into whatever would set Flowey on the path he takes in true pacifist, trusting that the human and him would work it out? Flowey can have his power display and then realise what really matters. sometimes you gotta work through your problems the hard way

local kid with zero issues of abandonment/isolation whatsoever

[the-wandering-wayseeker]

I don't and never will mind posts that criticize the Jedi, their beliefs, etc etc. I myself have pointed out the fact that many other people in the Pro Jedi community do not acknowledge or "allow" others to point out that, yes, the Jedi did have flaws as an organization, and they definitely had some very flawed members. What I do mind is when those posts (and their points) are made with a complete lack of understanding of the material being talked about. You are not building a good argument on the Jedi being wrong about attachments if you do not understand that attachment and love are not the same thing. You can be attached/develop attachment to something you fucking hate. Even then, attachment in the Star Wars universe, as in Buddhism, is defined by feelings of clinging or an inability to let things go/allow change.

You are not building a good argument on the Jedi having a slave army if you are not willing to bring up how they were put into that position, how they themselves dealt with that situation, and make an argument for what they could have done differently that takes the complexities of the entire situation into account. You are not making a good argument about the Jedi being wrong to hold Anakin's fear against him if you cannot and/or will not acknowledge that Star Wars' entire power/magic system is based upon negative emotions and our reactions to them. I could go on and on and on, but I would be beating a dead tauntaun at that point. My point is, approach the media and your arguments in good faith, with clear knowledge on what it is you are talking about, and you'll find people more receptive to hearing you out. That goes for both "sides." Just be good to each other, always.