#bc i know them mostly (entirely) from fandom

[mamawasatesttube]

just thinking out loud here but i feel like a lot of popular perception of kon esp in online fandom spaces is colored by his joie de vivre and all the times he's silly and goofy. which i do of course adore!! i love when he's silly and goofy. but comparing that perception to, that of like, clark or kara, i feel like kon gets shunted into the box of "dumb comic relief character" a lot more easily. lots of factors probably contribute to that (sb94 having a bad rep, while no other kon comic really goes into a lot of his tragedy; conflation with the side of the fandom that doesn't read comics; the fact that comparatively postcrisis kara doesn't have a team the way kon has yj and clark is seen as a more capable adult, so other characters in the jl get the "dumb comic relief" short end of the stick more often; etc) ...

... but what really gets me about him is that he does embody a lot of the same traits as the rest of the kryptonian superfam. he's so extremely kind. he's got that same noble heart as the rest of them; he cares about everyone and he wants to protect everyone. and he's so, so lonely. he struggles between cultures and worlds where he feels like he doesn't belong to either. he is so strong and capable and holds so much power that it scares him.

cradles him gently in my hands. he contains multitudes... come closer don't you want to love him 🥺

[carp-esh-ove-lem]

wish i could figure out the right friends to talk to about the mental illness is getting bad again

[nickythehickey]

*emcee voice* hello sfth fandom, by the request of myself and literally four people (hi @not-an-idiot @very-confused-alpaca @chaostributary97 @bbatcat), i give you

my best attempt at a list of disability representation in the sfthverse

*for the purposes of the list, "disability" includes physical/mental/developmental disabilities, neurodivergence, chronic illnesses, and mental health conditions

*i went through and added as many as i could think of but easily could've missed some. also i can't get the patreon rn so there's no patreon exclusive characters, sorry. if you know of some more feel free to reply/reblog and i'll add them!

canon (either explicit or heavily implied)

bubba (inside the mysterious cube) is stated to be an amputee with prosthetic legs

peter steven (the milkman) is stated to have adhd; granted its a throwaway line but i think it's true. since adhd has a large genetic component, that implies that either janet or david or both likely also has it- my money's on david since peter seems to mostly take after him

post mortem, L (the creak in the attic) is mute and uses mime/sign language and possession as forms of aac

donnie (the detective vs. the christmas tree bandits), my personal blorbo, is explicitly stated to have adhd and a seizure disorder- likely photosensitive epilepsy based on the mentions of the lights in the strip club. "i was never good with numbers" could be interpreted as dyscalculia as well. frankie may also have adhd bc again genetics, but if he does he can mask like a motherfucker

chip (the cardboard stegosaurus) has an unspecified seizure disorder (although i can't find one that turns you french), and while she isn't present, we learn that his mother marie-claire was suicidal

queen of representation that she is, amanda (clarissa's diy wedding) is all but confirmed to have prosopagnosia, or face blindness

according to divorces and teddy bears, the entire north pole elf population has adhd. congrats on the diagnosis luke i mean snowball

"that one gas station man" as @doodle-ratz called him (the pilot's final flight) is blind

mrs jeffery (the milkman) was blind at the beginning of the scene, they ended up not going with that but she probably does still have poor vision

the bartender (the hare who wore a sweater) slut dropped so hard his knees exploded, and that's now a sentence i've said on the internet. im.... not sure what to count this as tbh, but as a person with vague undiagnosed joint fuckery myself, he makes the list regardless

they don't like... SAY IT say it, but john hobson (the creak in the attic) with the whole "thunderstorm killed my parents" thing probably has ptsd. like yall see it too right

based on body language, granddad (wine under the bridge) appears to use a walker, suggesting mobility issues

headcanons (still implied like at least a little bit but mostly up to interpretation, this is mine)

*(this one's messy, its more me sensing vibes than anything else, there's almost definitely some projection in there, honestly you can disregard it if you want. spoilers its mostly autism bc that's me)

frankie (the bard with a scar) says that he can't run fast, maybe implying mobility issues? i like to think so

i don't think their ages are ever established so i may be completely off base and they're just meant to be children, but jimmy (toby's secret pocket) and jeffery (party quirks) are both autistic teenagers/young adults to me. jeffrey specifically bc he reminds me immensely of how i acted the first and only time i threw a party

i get... a vibe. from titch (the unrelenting aubergine). im not sure what it is, but its there

fellow autistic people yk how there's this weird kinda split that happens where when you're a kid people think you're mature for your age but then once you're older people think you're immature? yeah johnny and janae (the neighbor's under the bed) are the extreme incarnation of that dichotomy

someone in the comments of ballet on the battlefield pointed out alexa stimming after she befriends janusz and i love that so im saying she's some flavor of neurodivergent

troll-son (wine under the bridge) probably has some kinda allegory for something idk

because of the way i visualize character designs for sfth, pretty much any character luke played while wearing glasses (like andrew (all eyes on nigel) or fullset o'hands) also wears glasses. im not gonna list them all just know they're included

i've been working on this list for seven hours. i feel like sysiphus (thats a very smart reference). im going to bed

EDIT: if you're seeing this now there's an update in the reblogs!

[animentality]

I know x reader fans have always existed, and I don't generally mind them.

however I feel like the way they've overtaken fandom analysis/ shipping culture is an indication of the general decline of fandom communities.

they are normies, guys. I'm sorry.

it's not a slur, it's just a fact.

normies infiltrated fandom spaces because of covid.

they come in and just want to thirst after a particular character... and that's like. fine. of course it's fine it's always happened.

but they don't seem to actually care about the character being in character. nor does it really require any analysis of that character's motivations or story, or their relationship with others.

I know not everything HAS to relate to canon. like duh, we are here to make our own canon.

but come the fuck on. I go into a tag and it has a character tagged being some dommy daddy when that character is nothing like that in canon... and there's this line between making a character act a certain way bc that's your fetish, and completely ignoring who that character is entirely to the point where you could just replace their name with anyone else in any other show, and it wouldn't make a difference?

like that's... normie shit. it's people who do not think deeply or passionately about that media, it's just them having this surface level grasp of the physical attractiveness of the character.

and again. I'm not saying these people are stupid or whatever, just that the overabundance of this watered down ass content is an indicator of how much fandom has changed.

fans are not the socially awkward introverted queer voyeurs anymore, who enjoy fantasies and daydreaming about being someone else because of this disconnect with the self, or this fear of others that leads you to seek human connection in fiction.

they're the people who do just fine with other people ... and I'm not gatekeeping fandom from people who aren't socially awkward or anything.

but they come here, and they do shit like say you can't like this ship bc it's morally wrong .. you're not allowed to thirst after an 18 year old that makes you a pedophile... I'm 15 and I'm allowed to lust for Gojo but you a 25 year old woman, aren't allowed to write itafushi fanfiction.

go back to taxes and your job!!!

like that drives me fucking insane. these people want to insist they're not normies but they then go around insisting that being over 20 means you need to Work and Be a Normal Adult... bitch.

adults make fandoms. not you fucking children. you don't know how to build communities, you barely know how to make friends.

attacking people who like the same thing you do? is that what you think community building is?

oh this poor generation. anyway.

they come here and are disgusted by weird fetishes and obsessions. and by people sharing sexual headcanons or ideas about sexuality that make them uncomfortable because they've never ever been counter culture, they've never felt the need to go against the status quo.

they're cis straight girls/women mostly, whose mothers basically fuel the ya spicy romance booktok industry.

they're just younger and think it's trendier to be "in a fandom" than a fucking book club.

they're modern day bodice ripper fans... which again

would be so fucking fine, if they weren't doing the youth version of karening the fuck out.

and flooding the fandom with both hyper criticism of how you conduct your business AND an aggressive market for just imagining yourself with a character.

like fandom was originally just hyper passionate freaks.

they discussed movies and TV shows like life and death. they were fucking nuts but in the way where they needed to seek one another out, to share in this joyous sensation of being a freak obsessed with something beyond the point of reason.

now?

now it's like ... oh.

Sally from Bio thinks your love of Gaara is super creepy when you're 19. like what, are you a pedophile? why are you imagining him getting married to Naruto? are you a fucking pedophile who gets off to teens making out? they need to check your hard drive!!

like ok Sally.

ok.

I just think x reader is such a strong indicator of what kind of fan you are.

and if a fandom is mostly x reader... then it can't be that popular. it can't be a proper community.

how can it be?

it's as watered down and generic and bland as a marvel movie. it's stripped down of anything unique. it is pruned of controversy and humanity.

you are literally stripping yourself down into a non character.

you're not truly projecting yourself into a character, because the you that you read about is nothing. a placeholder. you are a passive observing robot who exists only in the form of a faceless and personality less entity.

and I don't get it.

what's the point then?

isn't fiction about realizing something about yourself or others

if your only manner of engaging is stripping yourself of personality... is it engagement at all?

or is it just more mindless consumption?

just watch law and order, man.

watch the good doctor or some shit on lifetime.

there's shows with passionate fanbases who theory craft and endlessly obsess with relationships and world building, and then there's shows with x reader only content and you know exactly why now.

[worldheadcanons]

☆ stalkertalia: there’s more!

requested by anon! gender neutral reader. starring . . . italy, china, prussia & germany. warning for stalking behaviors & nsfw (masurbation) hinted in china’s and discussed in germany’s parts. fandom masterlist found here. 📌 . . . author notes: this was fun to write! excited for the german brothers ^_^. i felt so mischievous while writing bc i hinted at quite a bit of things throughout these hcs (mostly just character relations but i’m ngl my personal hcs deff made their way in here). try to figure them all out if you dare!

feliciano vargas!

— feliciano calls and texts you regularly. his calls are usually just check-ins, making sure you’re doing well emotionally and physically. they’re typically short as well. his texts, however, are casual and flirtatious, as if you’re already well acquainted. not only that, but he texts you on and off for hours at a time. vargas doesn’t find it odd at all for him to text you in the afternoon and pick up your conversation from the morning as if no time passed. he fully expects you to go along with it, too.

— he’s vaguely sugar daddy-ish, also. he often buys you gifts so that you keep him unblocked. a new laptop? sure. brand new outfits from luxury brands? they’re delivered and left on your porch the very next day. anything and everything is on the table, it seems, which really makes you wonder why someone with so much money to waste has decided to bother little ol’ you. he’s not trying to buy your love, though, promise. feliciano just knows that the money and gifts help soften you up to him. you’re always more open to him after receiving a present or two.

— he knows an odd amount about your job and work schedule, as if he’s watched you at work. come to think of it, he probably has. he probably still does. vargas seems to know when you clock in, what you do for work, when you clock out, and even when you happen to go shopping for ingredients using your bosses’ card. how exactly he found out that you worked as a personal chef, you weren’t entirely sure.

— sometimes (really, a lot of the time) feliciano likes to play cute. maybe a better word would be coy, actually. he likes to pretend he’s not doing anything wrong, and even has the gall to text you every now and then something along the lines of ‘i don’t get why you’re so cold with me :(‘. he knows why you’re being so distant, of course. it’s no secret that his ways of contacting you are.. orthodox. but he also knows you’ll warm up to him soon enough. you’re soulmates. you will warm up to him.

— generally, he likes to use a fair amount of emoticons and emojis throughout his texts. not in a grandma way, but he’ll end his messages with red hearts or smiley faces, or even send a cute japanese emoticon your way. you asked him once how he knew about the emoticons japanese keyboard. his answer? he found it out from a friend, and though it was cute. he’s an… interesting.. guy. a guy who sends threats about the men you talk to in one text and cutesy emoticons in another.

— every now and then you play along with him, and in these moments, he feels himself falling more in love with you. you hold normal conversation, casual to the point of it being intimate (at least, in his mind it is). vargas views these rare events as you being your honest self. surely, your true self wants him just as much as he wanted you; you’re only hiding yourself because you’re scared of the intensity of your love. he’s deluding himself to a degree, but who doesn’t nowadays? he gets upset when you burst his bubble, anyhow.

yao wang!

— he doesn’t text and rarely calls. he usually writes letters; untraceable ones, of course, without a return address. he mails them himself, usually, though sometimes he has his employees deliver them. he’s old fashioned, what can he say. wang often writes about his love for you, how tempting you are.. never have you ever read such.. descriptive pieces of writing… it’s a little uncomfortable reading his more lustful letters. you try to ignore the stains at the edges of them…

— he likes sending you clothes to wear. sometimes yao sends designer brands, but mostly he sends everyday where. he tries not to send separate pieces, preferring to deliver whole outfits to your house (unlike his letters, the outfits are sent through standard delivery). what can he say? he loves seeing you in clothing he picked out. it’s a little bit about control, sure, matching you to his own artistic vision. but it’s also about providing for you. if you’d just let him into your heart, well, you’d never have to lift a finger again.

— god, you’re far too young for him. you’re closer to his son in age, really. sometimes he wishes that you’d marry his son, if only to ensure that you stay in his life. he’d see you during every family reunion and then some, as he would pop in every other day just to see you. wang might even move in with his son, claiming to need care, just to see your face. but even then, it’s not enough for you to be in his life. no, you should be his. maybe it was problematic, the age gap between you two. but you only live once, and his life is already partially gone!

— one day, three autumns. the chinese idiom rings true whenever you’re not around; one day without you feels like three full autumns. he often ends up asking around to see where you are. his questions are posed cleverly, disguised as common concern. yao’s no fool. he won’t let the world know of his affections towards you. not yet.

— outside of stalking, he tries his damnedest to get you to come work for his company. it would be much easier to keep tabs on you if you were one of his worker bees. wang’s even sweetened the deal a couple times, promising a high position right off the gate. unfortunately for him, you seem content working your current job. he’d buy the company you work under off your ceo but that seems a bit too obvious.

— has he been in your house? not without an invitation. he’s not a creep, after all. what he will do is send paid recon troopers to your property to record you in your private moments. they’re ordered not to view the footage. they’re to send all videos and photos directly to him and then delete them once they’ve been received. if you ever feel a pair of eyes watching you before bed, good news! it’s not yao — just the surveillance trooper that’s sending footage back to him.

gilbert beilschmidt!

— gilbert’s only ever into two types of people: anyone who can pull off the whole “sweaty warrior with muscles glistening in the sun” look and proper people that he can tease and fluster. his ex was the latter, but you.. you’re definitely the former. a welcome change of pace for him since his last break up was really messy.

— he met you at the gym. he was doing cardio on the treadmill while you were working arms nearby, your headphones neatly on your head. you weren’t dressed up much, just a baggy t-shirt and some gym pants, but god, your arms.. it was like seeing a walking greek sculpture. a dedication to the beauty of the human form.. something like that, bielschmidt figured. he’s not known for deep thoughts but you drag it out of him.

— when he met his cardio goal he turned off the treadmill, slinking off and making his way to you. he complimented your form, smiling, before asking you about your routine. the two of you hit it off and from there became gym buddies — on gilbert’s end, you were a bit more than that. he’d decided that you would be more than a simple rebound. he was determined to have you as his next partner.

— in his mind, you’re heaven sent after his bitch of an ex. that guy was the worst. okay, maybe he’s bitter about the whole break up, but that doesn’t really matter now that he has you! you, who he works out with thrice a week. you, whose home he found online two days after initial contact (it started as a search for your instagram and ended up with him finding your home and your mom’s facebook). you, who could definitely beat his ass… which makes him that much more attracted to you.

— beilschmidt knows that resorting to stalking is pathetic. but, hear him out: it’s only temporary. he’s doing his best to make moves on you in the gym but you don’t seem to pick up on them. he’s starting to wonder if you’re like his brother, someone who just doesn’t get social cues, or if you’re just trying to kindly reject him.. gilbert figures he won’t know until he tries some more. watching you from outside your windows is not a permanent gig. it’s just until he can get you to go out with him. that’s what he says to rationalize it, anyways.

— he’s a nail biter, and you best believe he was biting his nails down the first time he sees you outside of your gym rat clothes. from the window, he watches, entranced. lounge wear. you’re sitting on your coach in all your glory, watching some show in the cutest lounge wear he’s ever laid eyes on. god, the things you do to him. you oblivious god, you.

ludwig beilschmidt

— ludwig fell for you all too quickly. you were friends before, having gone to college together. now, you work in the same office. love strikes on a random wednsday during a casual lunch with coworkers. you laughed a little loud and half elbowed him in the process (you tend to hit when you laugh, he’s noticed) (he’s not not fond of the trait, though). it was then that he realized how warm you make him feel. you’re like a light, brightening the room even when you’re quiet. your mere presence is enough. wow. how amazing are you?

— i want to bathe in that light. it dawns on him that he wants to be with you, as more than friends. it’s not too hard to be close to you already; you seem to naturally gravitate towards sitting with him during casual work events and friendly hang outs. plus, the two of you already carpool together (it’s economical, is all). still, selfishly, he wants more. beilschmidt wants to date you.

— the german does try to be smooth as your anonymous stalker, often sending you packages full of things he thinks you’ll like. he’s indecisive, however, when it comes to you. is it wrong to want a great gift for a great person? the result of his indecision is him mailing you several versions of the same item with slight differences. accompanying these boxes on your porch is a stiff text to your phone that says ‘keep what you want, leibling, i just wanted to make sure i got it right. please leave feedback’.

— he sometimes wishes he had the confidence to confess to you in person. he’s worried about throwing away your friendship, though. strong friendships like the one you have are hard to make. they take years of effort and to toss it all away over a crush is… ridiculous, in ludwig’s eyes. no, he’s best handling things this way. even though he yearns to show his face and do more for you, he can’t. not yet. oh, how he dreams of fixing your squeaky door hinges and checking your engine. he’d clean your house for you, cook for you… what? it’s romantic to him, at least.

— he often takes your words literally. when you text beilschmidt any sort of feedback, he internalizes it. fortunately for him, you’re quite kind. you’ve yet to tell him to leave you alone or anything of that sort. it only furthers his love for you, the patience that you’re showing. he knows he’s not the most smooth (god knows — his brother won’t let him hear the end of it!) but he’s trying his best, promise.

— unbeknownst to you, he’s very… active. sexually. he hides it from you as much as he can; he isn’t like alfred, someone who’s shameless and will jerk off in your bushes. no, he’s much more reserved, jerking off with a stolen shirt of yours (he couldn’t push himself to steal panties after you invited him in as a friend). he does it in the corner of his room with the door locked, almost defensively. he feels lots of guilt when it comes to sex and sexual desire, which is partly why he’s still a virgin. after masturbating, he usually sits in silence for a couple minutes thinking over his life. this brief reflection doesn’t stop him from repeating the cycle later, though.

[scoobydoodean]

Hello<3

I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how fandom misconstrues Dean's relationship with alcohol?

There is so much emphasis on making him out to be a violent mean drunk, but I mostly remember that he drinks and like passes out when he's grieving or stressed (iirc) (s6 PTSD, Soulless sam, when Cas dies, etc.)? It's weird to me because Dean isn't the only character to go through this. Bobby relies on drinking too. He's exactly as gruff as Dean can be. He also had an abusive father. Yet I don't usually see people judging Bobby for that (if they exist, I haven't seen them at least thank God).

I get frustrated when people say things like the MoC was a direct metaphor for alcoholism just because it made Dean sooo violent and angry, etc. And, it's like an unrealistic understanding of alcoholism irl and also of Dean himself and his actual actions and context. I just get weirdly defensive of him over it lol.

If you've already hashed this out I'm sry! At the end of the day, it's all just interpretation ig, but I wanted to know your take on it cause ik you'd look at dean with a good faith lens.

<3

One could say I have had thoughts on how fandom misconstrues Dean's relationship with alcohol. One could even say I have spawned extremely funny multi-day fandom-wide disk horses on this subject simply by giving my opinion on my own blog when an anon asked me to.

I'm tracking Dean's relationship with alcohol (and other substances bc I was too lazy to make two separate tags) through #dean and drugs during my rewatch if you care to peruse, but I think you and I are of a similar mind on this.

Prior to season 4, Dean has a very average relationship with alcohol. In season 4, Dean starts using alcohol as a coping tool to help him fall asleep because he's having nightmares about hell. By season 6, alcohol is also a coping tool for depression and stress. He drinks to deal with nightmares, he drinks to cope with hell trauma, he drinks after soulless Sam watches his sexual assault with a smile, he drinks after Cas swallows all the souls and Death blames Dean for everything, he drinks throughout season 7 to cope with Cas's death and Bobby's death. I'm up to 8.01 and have yet to see a single occasion where Dean drinking and Dean being violent co-occurred. What I do see is Dean drinking when he is sad, alone, or scared.

I'll continue tracking—I'll eventually get back into the MoC arc where Dean is drinking heavily again, and obviously Dean + drinking + anger + violence are all going to happen at the same time in MoC seasons. However, correlation does not equal causation, and while someone can choose to believe that Dean's drinking causes him to be angry, I think the literal answer in season 9/10 is that Dean's been cursed by the father of murder, and on a more metaphorical level, the Mark of Cain quite overtly represents Dean's resentment toward Sam which Carver spends his entire run laying out in great detail. This is why the whole Carver run culminates in Amara (a Dean parallel) being unleashed to take revenge on her brother, and why the MoC is a brother murderer curse to begin with. Alcohol is set dressing. It shows us—just as it did in the past—that Dean feels sad, alone, and scared (in this case, of what the MoC could lead him to do—which also isn't dissimilar from the original reason Dean started drinking—after hell to cope with the trauma of not just being tortured but torturing others—the fear that he'd been made into a monster).

Looking at the matter holistically, I don't personally see Dean as an angry drunk. I see him as a sad drunk. If anything, I think he hopes that alcohol will drown his anger and violent urges in the MoC arc, or at least slow him down, while also being the traditional tool he uses during boughts of depression (which he is very much experiencing during the MoC arc to the point of suicide). I also think outside the outlier of season 9/10, the narrative supports sad drunk Dean far better than angry drunk Dean.

[thatdeadaquarius]

Ok but polygot reader who's like a pro singer who sings im all the languages they know all across teyvat cuz y not <3

Having a duet with yunjin and xinyan

Harmonising with barbara

Singing for nilou's dance

I WANNA SING LULLABIES TO MY CHILDREN SO BADLYYYYYYYY

Orah my beloved genius you <333

LMAO SORRY I JUST HAD TO USE THIS GIF

Orbit: Short Headcanons-ish

Stars: mostly Mond/Liyue characters, mentions of other singers/musicians

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: none known. & Trigger Warnings: none known.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

☆

U get to sing a solo with Barbara yes!!

but u know whats more important? whos more hype abt ur songs/diff languages???

Venti.

Venti is.

Venti is vibrating with barely contained manic energy

poor guy is sick of always being familiar with songs, nothing is "new" to him, but ur songs?? they're from a different world, and he can't know any of them!!!

Venti's has a surprising amount of strength in those noodle arms bc ur suffocating in his hug rn-

He is constantly begging asking you to sing for him, sing in public, he'll put you on the Barbatos statue hands just so everyone can hear you,

constantly pleading politely requesting if he can lay in your lap under the Windrise tree while you sing slow songs

Hogs you from Barbara, Klee, and anyone else in Mondstadt who would want to personally hear ur singing/duet with you lmao

u had to bring in the cavalry (Rex Lapis/Zhongli) to get a week away from him lol

luckily the retired god was more than motivated to bring u to Liyue, after all he spends a fair amount of his time listening to operas/music

DUETS DUETS DUETS!!

Yunjin blew ur eardrums out of excitement the first time u copied her singing perfectly, kidnapped u for an entire week of festivities where u were the special singer guest <33

Xinyan looked at you like u hung the stars in the sky for both playing a little guitar/singing to her rock music (as she's used to instrumental rock so far bc its been just her)

Qiqi, Klee, Yao yao, Diona all ask (in their own ways lol) for lullabies,

they each wanted you to sing to them every night but it wasn't possible... so u got cloud retainer to invent a machine to record some lullabies you've sung in each of their countries languages so they can sleep 🥺<333

and the dancers.

you cannot escape the dancers.

Nilou, yunjin, eula, gaming, ayaka, doesn't matter, u cannot have peace.

u will sing for them all at some point, u will have repeated performances, u will attract crowds, u will be going on a world tour

(Lyney has also kidnapped u for his magic shows to show off ur singing in French)

☆

finally scheduled a post and am able to rlly get at my asks more frequently now thank goodness

im so ready to open ask box again 😭😭

hope u guys have a fun Tuesday!! :)

Safe Travels 0rah,

💀♒

If you wanna join a taglist, DM me what for! "Pspspsss, please tag me for [All SAGAU posts, Only SAGAU Language AUs, diff fandom, etc.]!"

(If you ever wanna drop, just DM me! "No more taglists/[specifically this AU/fandom] please!")

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr / @areaderofbooks / @devilangel657 / @esthelily / @justinsomniachild / @nanithefuck / @questionotmystopit / @chinuneko

@kiyomi-uchiha777

[mattelektraz]

I'm feeling really bittersweet with the fandom (and Suzanne herself) establishing Everlark as a "more lucky" version of Haymitch. Because at the same time that I understand and love, I also think that it takes away from Kat and P the merit they had in their own story.

I truly know that for the story to work they needed a bit of lucky, but let's be honest they didn't have many of it. The only BIG LUCKY moment Everlark had was in the 74th HG bc Seneca was scared of them (K & P) killing each other and ending the game with no victors, so they both got to live. That was their lucky imo. BUUUUT this lucky moment didn't came out of nowhere, it was mostly strategized by Peeta.

Peeta was the one who set up an entire scenario with his interviews and actions in the arena ("she came here with me"; alliance with Cato) that ""manipulated"" the audience and Seneca to the point of him and Katniss winning the games together. Of course that Kat also had her part, she kept Peeta alive in the end of their first game, the nightlock was her idea, she chose to join his act of D12 unfortunate lovers, but that would've never convinced anyone if it wasn't for Peeta previous work. It took BOTH OF THEM!!!

So as much as I'm loving sotr, I'm struggling with the idea of Everlark being lucky. I mean I had to watch and read Everlark being everything but lucky for an entire decade and now they're lucky and their "lucky" is basically Peeta's mind strategizing (mostly alone and by himself) to get Katniss out of the arena?! At least give my boy some credit 😭😭😭😭

[thehollowwriter]

Another of my moots mentioned fans seeing a gender neutral mc as a girl, and now I'm thinking about it.

This sort of thing is especially common in twst, and while yes, you're free to interpret the mc however you want, it's really frustrating to see "aw look what they're saying to mc, they're obvious flirting with her!" and usually the entire reason people think certain lines as flirty or romantic at all is because they view mc as a girl.

And also, sometines mc is viewed as a girl bc "why else would the boys have all these flirty lines for her?" And then I die a little. But it's not just that, it's also that mc is viewed like a protagonist of those bad romance novels, so a thin, white, cishet girl.

Newer fans wouldn't really know, but a few years ago racism and other forms of bigotry was a huge problem in the fandom since people (mostly cishet girl twst fans) would attack other fans with black yuus or ocs, and harass male yuu blogs and call them "misogynistic" and "gross" and accuse them of "stealing" the boys from them.

Idk I just think it's not good to assume every mc of games like these is a girl.

[loveleffie]

I might rant abt this at length later but for a long time I wondered why the JJK design team gave Geto and Nanami similar colors (gold-ish & ochre).

Now I think it's kinda neat bc, at least in my head, it means these 2 characters are more similar than one might think at a glance.

We obvs know more abt Geto thru HI/PD. We know how hard the SPV mission hit him on top of his CT being so horrendous & then he felt the distance between him & Gojo increasing to a point where there was no breaching it (at least in his head).

So sure, he had a lot on his plate already when Haibara dies, which is the first major hit we actually see Nanami take. There's not a lot of official details but I think the fandom mostly agrees that Nanami had to drag Haibara's body away from the veil after seeing him die in front of him.

This doesn't mean this is the actual first time Nanami experiences a heavy blow as a sorcerer, tho. The very nature of the profession would suggest otherwise (and we know from Megumi's official profile that he's seen colleagues die before even officially enrolling). Even if it /was/ tho it certainly was traumatic enough to bring Nanami to a breaking point, too.

His question of "why don't we let Gojo take care of everything himself?" sort of echoes something I think Geto had been mulling over, too, only from a different perspective.

While Geto's actual final tipping point was the mission at the village w/the twins, I think Haibara's death was the event that shattered them both.

So to circle back to the beginning of this rant - I don't think Geto & Nanami are foils to each other but they definitely highlight 2 distinct paths, 2 different ways to react to the powerlessness they both felt. One decided to try to build a different world, one quit & tried to forget. Neither of them was able to break free from jujutsu tho & ended up dying for it, anyway - following very different paths even though they wanted the same in the end: to avoid as much death and suffering as possible by harnessing the abilities they were born with.

Gojo fits into this, too, as the /third/ path that only he could follow: stay within Jujutsu, change the system. He technically could've walked away, too, but I think there's a really heavy internal burden to Gojo that warrants an entirely different analysis.

The point is, these three characters paint an interesting contrast to each other beyond shipping discourse & I feel like the merchandise colors reflect that nicely.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi Ice! This one is maybe a little on the outskirts of 'creating Black characters', but it is related to the introspective questions you posted a little while back, so I thought I'd ask for your opinion. I'm sure this isn't an one-easy-answer thing, so I'd love to hear from any other Black people reading this as well!

I'll try to keep it short.

I'm seven years and 300k+ words deep in a fanfiction about anthropomorphic animal characters, and your introspective questions made me face the fact that I've been the ignorant fandom racist. I wrote my main character as white. Now, 7 years later, I stumble over a post pointing out ... those are locs

I don't know if the authors intended for this character to be Black (nonblack voice actors, supplementary material also clearly doesn't draw him this way, though that stuff was all over the place re: consistency) and I frankly also am not sure if they Should have, given his role in the narrative, but a) that's not really up to me to speak on and b) he's got locs and mostly black fur and was inspired by Anubis. I've been whitewashing, there's no way around it.

I briefly considered going back and just straight up changing the story to make him Black, but I quickly realized that I have been writing him from a white-centered narrative and just slotting a Black character into that would arguably be Worse. Or at least racist in a brand new way. I can change how he takes care of his hair, but not the themes on which the entire narrative is built upon. I've been writing about a white man and I can't just pretend I haven't.

So my question to you is ... what now? How do I best acknowledge this? Do I just quietly come to terms with the fact that this story is racist and do better next time? I would like to acknowledge it in some way, I have a small but loyal audience and if I could use that platform to start a conversation (or just put out a 'hey, don't be like me') that would ... maybe at least be better than nothing? Possibly?

I know there's not a simple solution here that will Fix It, but I thought I'd ask an actual Black person who's open to educating what might be a good next move. Maybe avoid making another, new White Person Blunder. Here's to hoping.

I really appreciate all you do, your blog rocks and so do you.

Is that Shadow?

Okay, so I had to have a conversation with Hot Chocolate on this one because this one's a doozy! I appreciate that you're willing to stop and reflect though. Most people wouldn't be willing to do so this far in!

Admittedly, the fact that you're seven years into this means this will require a lot of effort. And, tbh, I might be confused bc I cannot tell what that character is 😅 So! After some thought, here's what we came up with:

Take a hiatus. Point blank period. Take a BREAK, do not pass go, do not collect $200! Idk what lore you've written, but you've written a lot of it. Take as long as you need to reread your works, and see if at any point you ever made it clear that this was a white person, or anything other than the Black character you now think they should be. If it feels undefined, where you can turn "hair" into "locs" or add in small details, then that could be your smooth way out. It doesn't have to be massive changes, but it could help. It'll take you time, for sure! But you dug seven years in, it's gone take you time to dig out. Maybe if you skim 15k words a week (or ctrl-F it for hair, for examples), that's... 20 weeks? Go at your own pace, faster or slower.

Unfortunately this happens a lot, where influences for characters will be taken from cultures of colors and improperly represented (the "African" god from Genshin). That's just a fact. So I don't necessarily blame you for the confusion, but... Now you know.

If possible, get a sensitivity reader! Preferably a Black one. Ngl, given the massive amount of work, you're likely going to have to pay them. Maybe give them half and you take half. Idk, but let another pair of eyes look at your work. Or maybe there's a Black reader that you could speak to and see how they feel about the potential change.

Should you choose to keep going, just try to be more purposeful and intentional about that character's Blackness. Definitely tell your readers what you figured out, why it's important to you, and then move forward from there.

Now, RECOGNIZE that many of them will NOT be pleased! That's kind of the thing about opening your eyes when it comes to racism in media! A lot of people will NOT be happy that you decided to be more intentional, especially if they've been imagining their favorite white guy for seven years. You're going to have to weigh your integrity and your will to create against that. People might leave, people that you thought were cool AF until it was time to show true colors. Be ready for that.

But that's just what I would do 🤷🏾‍♀️

[getvalentined]

FOR THE ASK GAME! i know you've posted a ton of amazing analysis, but i would love more of your vincent thoughts. If you're tired of writing about him right now, i'd also like to hear your thoughts about Glenn, who i don't know if i've heard you talk about a lot. 🖤

💭 How I feel about this character

I will never get tired of talking about Vincent Valentine. He is my favorite character in the whole of fiction, my blorbo of blorbos, and I consider him the single most personally compelling character ever created. I'm not sure I can quantify how much I love this character.

One issue I do run into with regard to how much I adore the guy is assertions and assumptions that it's because he's hot so I wanna fuck him, which is 1000% not the case. I do appreciate his looks—his Rebirth design in particular makes me slightly feral—but it's not from a place of attraction, per se. I personally have no interest in boning Vincent Valentine! I do think he deserves to do some boning, though.

💞 All the people I ship romantically with this character

I ship Vincent with Veld, Cloud, and Genesis, and often Cloud and Genesis at the same time. Also Reeve. Sometimes Tseng, but that's complicated.

I was the first person on the English-speaking side of fandom to draw VinVeld fanart, way back when Before Crisis was still fairly new, and I have RP'd VinVeld with multiple partners since about 2009. Chapter 19 of BC happened, I got fed a loose translation on LiveJournal, and my brain chemistry was changed—another Turk, still alive, who knew Vincent? And they don't refer to each other with any honorifics at all? And he recognized Vincent immediately when even Lucrecia didn't? Those two were basically married, I'm sure of it.

That said, I actually shipped Strifentine before I shipped VinVeld, and I still ship it really hard. My current slice-of-life slow-burn WIP fic is Strifentine, and in Ye Olde Fandom Dayes it was intended to be a core component of my massive Sefikura Bodysharing AU that temporarily broke FFN's review system, although I never got that far.

I've shipped Vinesis since Crisis Core, because Vincent and Genesis are kindred spirits in a way that is similar to Vincent and Cloud while also being completely different, and I love that for them. Two men-turned-monsters-turned-Weapons, doomed to walk the planet until its death, paying for crimes that were never their fault in the first place. Lovely.

While I've never personally posted much if anything related to Valenstrifesodos, I think the dynamic between the three of them would be amazing. Also, as I described to a friend literally yesterday, it's like this: Genesis is Sephiroth's soulmate by fate, Cloud is his soulmate by force, and Vincent is Sephiroth's only living relative so he inherited both of them when the guy died.

Reeve and Tseng are much less commonly shipped with Vincent for me, mostly because I ship them with each other as endgame 100% of the time. In my head, Vincent was kinda with Reeve for a bit postcanon but it just didn't work, and he's honestly pretty attracted to Tseng but doesn't ever pursue it because Tseng kinda hates him. (Tseng does not hate him, it's complicated and entirely Veld's fault, if Tseng ever gets over it they'd have a really fun dynamic.) Sometimes—assuming he doesn't get back with Veld or enter into a relationship Cloud and/or Genesis—I feel like Vincent would occasionally be a third while Reeve and Tseng are together, but it'd be very rare.

🤝 My non-romantic OTP for this character

Also Genesis (in universes where Valenstrifesodos doesn't happen they're generally platonic for a very long time before anything happens between them), as well as Barret and Reeve, but I think my favorite option here is Shera.

They don't really have any canon interactions to speak of, but I spend a lot of time thinking about Cid talking to Vincent in Dirge, telling him that Shera is worried about him and will want to know if he's been eating enough—so they've had interactions, offscreen, between the OG and Dirge. Enough that Shera fusses over him and worries about his diet and sends messages along with Cid to make sure Vincent is doing all right. That's adorable. That's so sweet. I love that for both of them.

🚫 My unpopular opinion about this character

I feel like I have a lot of these, but it really depends on what one considers "unpopular." I guess the biggest is that he isn't in love with Lucrecia anymore? Even though that's...canon. Like that's canon. That is something explored in Dirge, the conclusion of their shared storyline is that Vincent was never actually in love with Lucrecia at all, because he never really knew her, and now that he does he actually appreciates her more, but is able to move forward and leave her behind. (Which is literally what she wants for him! She wants him to be happy without her! This was her goal and she succeeded! But god forbid women do anything!)

The next one is that he would not enter into a relationship with Cid because even if Cid is his type (which he is!) he's in a dedicated relationship with someone else, and Vincent has already done the song and dance of "fool around with a scientist under Shinra's banner* who has a highly intelligent scientist partner who isn't afraid to go to extremes for their work.**" It has nothing to do with interest or a lack of interest, it's because Vincent literally, canonically got killed and turned into a monster for poaching*** and he's never going to even entertain the idea of that ever again.

* Cid is an engineer in Shinra's Department of Space & Aeronautics

** Shera is also an engineer in the same department and was literally cool getting burned alive if it meant the Shinra No. 5 launch would go off safely

*** Lucrecia and Hojo were canonically married and were already in a relationship at the time that Vincent showed up in Nibelheim

The rest include such hot takes as Chaos' consciousness being gone at the end of Dirge (which is also canon), Vincent being Sephiroth's biological father (which is not canon but fuckit), and him being unabashedly pansexual (any character that expresses romantic or sexual interest at any time in any media is bi or pan until proven otherwise) but not having relationships with cis women or anyone who could ever theoretically conceive—he interacted with Nero, immediately knew what happened there, and is not so irresponsible as to risk making any more monster babies capable of flattening the planet when they have a tantrum. (This is actually super rough for him because it's a big part of his sexuality that he just has to cut off forever out of safety concerns and that's pretty fucked up but there's nothing he can do about it.)

🌟 One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

It's funny, because prior to Rebirth's release I said the one thing that would make up for Vincent not being playable would be if he turned into something and attacked the party, but obviously the devs wouldn't do that with a character everyone is supposed to trust—and then they did! I wanted to see them do something with the asymmetry established in Dirge, maybe give him a wonky eye or something like I draw him a lot of the time, but the devs would never do something like that—and then they did! I wanted him to be more fleshed out, like it would be nice to know if he ever had hobbies, but the devs would never waste time on that—and then they did! Rebirth Vincent was made especially for me.

All I really want now are more interactions between him and Cloud moving forward into FF7Re3, and I have a decent amount of faith that it'll happen.

[ for the character breakdown ask game ]

[fuzzyfoe]

on your sideblog you sometimes reblog stuff about the harms of the purity culture in fandoms, how shame/punishment is ineffective, sometimes things are uncomfortable and thats fine, etc. stuff like that and it helps me alot because i get paranoid about expressing myself online bc people can be so hostile

Not gonna lie, reading the first half of this ask put me on edge a bit because I know how people are lol.

I'm glad I was somehow able to help someone feel a little more at ease online! I feel like Tumblr has been starting to get a lot better of an attitude about this than it used to have years ago due to the userbase having matured, but it could just seem like that due to me having moved accounts and re-following only the people who were more normal about this sort of thing though.

When I was diagnosed with OCD as a child I mostly had the more stereotypical kinds of symptoms relating to symmetry and cleanliness back then, but as I grew older and overcame those kinds of symptoms through meds and therapy it began to manifest more in the form of how other people see me online and whether I'm secretly a pedophile or some shit instead. This caused me to parrot some pro-censorship shit I saw online as a teenager out of fear of seeming "suspicious" to the artists I had a parasocial relationship with at the time, and to the people I talked to online who were queer and neurodivergent in the ways that I was that nobody who I knew at school was.

Believe it or not it was actually my parents who helped me get out of this mindset. I think my brother was showing my dad some meme, I chimed in about how I heard some person who was involved in the meme drew nsfw art of a fictional character who was a minor, and my dad responded with something along the lines of "how does that matter? the child is only fictional" and I was basically taken aback by how my own father had basically just defended loli. In response I told him every argument I had heard from "antis" online about lolisho and he explained to me why each one of them was bullshit one by one.

For the longest time after I was still afraid to speak my mind on anything because I felt like I had basically built my entire social circle around these types of people. A lot of things I was interested in at the time had fandoms that were full of people who would loudly complain about how horrible proshippers were. What if I lost all my friends? What if it became impossible to make any new friends due to everyone blocking me? What if it became impossible to see any of the kind of art and fandom stuff I liked anymore due to everyone blocking me? What if nobody would interact with or care about any of the art I posted anymore? What if I had no other way to fulfill my social needs anymore? I even became afraid of the friends I actually knew irl, because we were still all in the same online circles and they would've been exposed to the same rhetoric as I was.

As you can see now I have gotten better from this to the point where I now openly reblog posts relating to this sort of thing on my sideblog which can be accessed from my pinned post on this blog. The funny thing is, nobody seems to actually read pinned posts or do any background checks to the extent I was always paranoid that people did on here, because I keep getting an influx of new followers with people who have "proship dni" in their bio lmao. I guess publishing this ask will be rent-lowering gunshots.

[fluffyenergee]

Do you have headcanons for ler sniper??? I like to imagine him as a silly ler bc the comunity always potraits him as a serious, silent and grumpy old man but...hey, we have A LOT of voicelines of him being literally a golden retriever (even in the comics he's super sweet) >w<)/

Sorry i just love to speak about mundy...

Anyways, i remember a voiceline of Sniper dancing conga, saying smthing like "happy feet, happy feet!"...And—,, omg im so lee for that one😭...i feel like he would babytalk the whole time, or at least make silly voices, and for raspberries...dont let me start w them, bc he's a professional when it comes to raspberrying a tummy🙏🙏🙏(canon im valve),, i mean, look at his stubble, and he plays the sax...so, idk, it's obvious for me how good this man is!! He loves to make his lee's blushed and flustered (romantic or not)

Anyways, sorry if this is a bunch of nonsense, feel free to ignore, i would like to have headcanons for the silly bushman ;3 specially if involves tummy tickles bc they are my way to cope teheheh ÚuÙ

Ily stay safe and virtual hugs!!

YES! Yes, listen, yes, I think fandom sees him being a bit more serious than he actually is. He is damn playful when he wants to be, I especially see it as someone who more bases anything on the game than anything else tf2. The best example is exactly that "happy feet, happy feet" you said (btw, he says it while square dance taunting, not congaing, I had to correct it but don't worry about it ;3). Honestly, the same applies to Spy if you ask me, but let's focus on Snipurr because yes, he's a damn playful ler, let me tell ya:

"Professionals have standards" huh? He sure does, and tickling is no different. He has standards, damn it. He especially uses this line for blowing raspberries, but it works for tickling in general

all of the mercs who have stubble use it for tickling and Sniper's no different, yep, mostly for tickling a sensitive tummy. It also works for giving tickly kisses because then he has two things to tickle with - his lips and his stubble *V*

ok, so, yeah, I'm never getting that "happy feet, happy feet" out of my mind because omg. He very much says that while tickling his lee's feet, and the lee dies, especially Scout. His feet are deathly ticklish and combined with this kind of teasing? Yep, he's a goner. Like sir, Sniper, sir, that's illegal

one of his favourites way to tickle is to use his lips to tickle a neck or nuzzle it while holding his lee's arms, pinning them down. From his experience it's very very flustering to his lee. Another way is sitting down, his lee between his legs with their back facing him, Sniper's hands tickling their torso, mostly their tummy. He simply prefers when his lee doesn't really have space to escape

he's taller than most of the mercenaries and the bastard takes advantage of it. He will hold something of another person's above their head, then when they're trying to get it and reaching for it with their hands he will catch their wrists with one hand, use the other to tickle the tummy and, of course, tickle their neck with his lips at the same time. He tickles a lot from behind

while he does prefer for the tickling to happen in more private spaces like his campervan or his room (does he even have a room or is he in his campervan entire time? Eh) that doesn't mean he definitely won't tickle with others around. He's all for the lee being embarassed by being tickled in front of others, he just prefers to have peace and be sure no one and nothing will interrupt

yes, he does love making his lee blushy and flustered, can't tell me otherwise, mostly by commenting on the spots like "Those are some unusually ticklish feet, mate" or "your stomach is moving a lot while tickled, I think it means it likes it".

Those aren't headcanons btw, this is all canon cause I'm Valve itself too, trust.

Nah, don't apologize for anything, do you know how happy I got when at 5 am I saw not only a new ask in my inbox but also one that's so long? Like, not just an ask but also something for me to read? Stay safe and I return your virtual hugs :D.

*whispers* Send more. If you want. You don't have to. But aaaagh!

[koiifiishy]

back with more eris doodlings :-) ! and more under the cut

i've decided that if he had a title like the named npcs, he'd be Eris The Defiant. also decided that if he were a npc LI with a toggable gender changer, he'd look pretty much the same as a girl just with a few cups up in the chest dept. lol - he's also still be trans, so you either get transmasc or transfemme eris, there is no cis option.

going off of this post for heights! (too lazy to draw an entirely new img - just scribbled over the height comparison models -w-) a full line up + eris amongst the taller LI's (...of whom he's already met / has interacted with in game thus far!). he's just one inch smaller than kylar haha, which im sure kylar would love. avery with eris though is LOL (stares at the other three on that height list......... that height diff... hes getting FOLDED. . .)

this chart is very messy so bear with me & the yellow i used is hard to read so ill type it out too!

Robin

mutual besties. they're basically brothers! except that robin left his confession note for eris and eris is uh.. willfully ignoring it,,, sorry robin he's not gonna take you up on that (yet lol)

img text: "if anything happens to robin (again) i'll kill everyone in this town and then myself"

Sydney

what is it about this unassuming churchboy that calls to eris... he doesnt know,, but sydney makes him happy 🥺!!

unintentionally uuuh reduing sydney's purity by being horny at him. theyre promised ok?! its fine right?!? especially bc of the fucking SLOW BURN they went through omg...

img text: "he makes this shit town bearable. BF" sydnet img text: "really adores and admires him. BF"

Kylar

um. well. your honor, he's just misunderstood..! eris kinda feeds into kylar's IssuesTM by not dissuading him. he just feels kinda sorry for him,,! this opinion Will change if/when kylar finally gets his greasy little paws on eris

he 100% realizes kylar is unhinged and the plushie gift was probs bugged somehow. still accepted it but like... he's hardly home anyway so w/e. still holds onto hope kylar can change(???)

img text: "haha. i'm in danger :^)" kylar's img text: "HAVE MY FUCKING BABIES" lol

Whitney

literally beat the shit out of each other every time they were in close proximity for like a month, until whitney's dominance meter dropped a lot. he confuses eris... does he like. have a crush and is acting like an elementary kid about it??? use your words damnit!

despite it all... doesnt hate him. eris feels like theyre probably a lot more similar than whitney's letting him (or anyone) see. sydney's mention of whitney having things going on to make him act like a little shit stuck with eris. . .

img text: "stop giving mixed messages whitney!"

Avery

the most cut and dry of them: it's just a transactional sugar relationship. except the part about the elk/fox bullshit? hello?? mr avery??? WHAT WAS THAT AVERY--?????

eris really doesnt trust avery,,, but he pays him a LOT & eris has two whole debts to pay off;; avery is only allowed to hit it from the back. . . (thanks temple for not counting that as sex ig lol!)

im iffy on the designs ive drawn for them too, i mostly have been going off of what i see the general fandom draws! theres a lot of really nice designs :> im being mindful not to fully copy anyone tho.

i also went insane and made eris a playlist - it has a lot of metal/loud songs jsyk! remains of us was specifically put on the playlist for sydney 🥹 just recently had my first run in with the ivory wraith too =D AH. TRAUMAS OBTAINED!!! very much eris' top trauma event so far!! he's resilient... so he's on the road to recovery but boy was that RUFF. robin and sydney came in super clutch with comforting him tho :")

one last thing for you all:

eris core lol

[atopvisenyashill]

Not to act like a child snitching to a parent, but I just saw the take 'People throw the word coloniser when it comes to the Targaryens but the Starks are right there, Martin is clearly playing with the themes of European colonialism and supremacy way more with them and their relationship with the Wildlings.' in the year of our lord 2025, and like, man... idk. No one in this fandom has a grasp on anything anymore, and I'm kinda starting to doubt that we ever did.

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't be so pressed about this because I think I might have seen this same person say that it's racist to depict the Starks as non-white, because 'Northerners are described, on text, as savages that look ugly and unruly' before and I just fundementally disagree with them on a lot of levels

Yeah okay, the thing about the "starks are european colonizers of the cotf" stuff is that

this is part of the ongoing trend with Those Types who will completely deny the actual canon people of color that exist as being people of color, like in dorne and essos, while insisting that the little green people are the only "true" indigenous or "of color" representation in the series

will completely ignore the very real way dany is stomping her way through essos on a rationalization that is very similar to a lot of the rationalizations people have used when it comes to colonization and imperialism like ~saving the savages from themselves~ and dany's very unkind and superior feelings about the cultures she is ruling over goes hand in hand with that

i cannot stress this enough but the us government, the canadian government, the spanish, the british, the french, and every single other group you can name that came to the americas did not honor their treaties with the natives. even in places like greenland, where genocide became not possible simply bc of how hard it is to live in greenland so it is the only nation in the americas that has a majority indigenous population, treaties were broken as inuit language, culture, and history was suppressed by Denmark. Do you know what the first men did? they honored their treaties. they stopped cutting down weirwoods and they stopped warring with the cotf, and (as far as we know - i am not opposed to bran finding out more context here that makes the first men look bad tbc!) kept those promises until the andals showed up and chased the first men north. with the information we have about the cotf and the first men - even if you include the idea that the cotf invented the others as a way to stop the fighting with the first men and force a pact - i think it is ludicrous and also, insulting to me as an Indigenous person, to say that these things are similar when the entire reason I live in Chicago and not on Menominee land is because the us government broke every treaty they made with us!

i think it's so funny that in their quest to scream at everyone who reads the First Men as some sort of Indigenous group they wind up regurgitating the exact sort of anti-Northern fantasy racism that Northerners experience in the books. Truly, truly, life imitates art.

Obviously I think everyone throws colonizer and imperialist around way too much which is why I've mostly stopped doing it. But I think something everyone really forgets when getting defensive about the valyrian and targaryen critiques is that like. it's about the extractive relationship between the valyrians/targaryens and the people they conquer, the imbalance of technology which allows for further destruction, the superiority complex (and westerosi people aren't above this, i mean when you look at how absolutely superior they act compared to the essosi, there's a pretty clear western view being explored and critiqued through all of them, not just the targaryens and valyria) and expansionist behavior, and the diffusion of ideological, religious, and political beliefs. like, it's the dragons. it's the incest. and especially imo people will talk about the roman inspiration for valyria and then conveniently ignore that one of the first genocides ever committed was by rome against carthage - and another important note here (to me) is that carthage existed in what is now modern day tunisia, which is part of north africa aka one of regions that dorne is inspired by. there's a reason dorne is is so nervous about the dragons during the conquests and when you look at the carnage of the dragon's wroth and daeron's war and doran's comment that dornish population never recovered from that, i do in fact think we are meant to draw some parallels between the way rome conquered and destroyed their enemies and the way dorne is treated by both the targaryens and the rest of Westeros.

But again, I've pulled back on that a lot, I think this topic is very complex and I also think the one-to-one parallels can be confusing. I think you can, for example, compare a lot of Scottish Independence stuff with Northern Independence, and just like in the real world, that is a fraught and complex topic. There's, firstly, a real gap when it comes to the treatment of lowland Scots and highland Scots, not to mention the far ranging issues when it comes to the assimilation of upper class Scottish peoples into British society at the expense of highlanders, the religious wars that exist all over that area, the fact that Scottish people experienced both a repression of their culture at home but also perpetuated the repression of Indigenous cultures in the Americas and were in fact intimately involved as some of the first settler-colonists in what is now known as North America. I think this tracks really well with the Starks and the Northerners in general, as both perpetrators of politically motivated violence towards the wildlings and victims of it from their southern neighbors, and in fact I would argue this happens frequently throughout history, that A People will act as both perpetrator and victim, because no people are a monolith. But like, trying to get this across when a) i feel like i'm just stupid and too goofy and b) there's clearly people who don't want to listen they just want to say "WELL ACTUALLY YOUR FAVORITE HOUSE IS A COLONIZER HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT" as if this is a stan war and not me trying to have an actual in depth conversation about the way the various cultures in this series interact with each other.

And finally - I have in fact seen people get Real Weird about the wildlings (similar to point 4, people will be like "these are a savage people" just kind of uncritically regurgitating the shit bowen marsh is saying about the wildlings despite the fact that we get an entire book where jon is learning that no, actually, these aren't just mindless savages but a society with its own rules, its own culture, that is very similar to his own and just happened to be very unlucky in where they were born) but like, the northerners being weird and fantasy racist (ethnist? can it be called xenophobia in this case, initially i felt that was imprecise but i think maybe that's the correct word here) towards the wildlings does not negate the fact that valyria colonized like 80% of the known world, that the targaryens are weird and fantasy racist towards dorne, and that dany herself is deeply weird and racist towards the dothraki, lhazareen, and ghiscari. two things can be true at once!