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shorthaltsjester · 6 months ago

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endlessly thinking thoughts about cr characters, morality, and selfishness (likely place for me to be, given that my day job includes endlessly researching ethics and meaning of life) but in light of bell’s hells most recent illustration of their insularity and individualism, I’ve been really like. Trying to unpack why I find it particularly egregious in this party when obviously mighty nein were notoriously self-interested, especially at the beginning, and when vox machina had quite a few moments where their horses were far higher than they had any reason to be. And again, I really want to make it clear her that I don’t hold self-interest or selfishness to be some abhorrent and unforgivable thing, in fact I think its incredibly normal especially given the context of main characters in a story told through game mechanics that flourish on the interest of the individuals making the choices. I’ve written before about how one of the throughlines that I’ve seen in laura’s pcs (since I’m someone who particularly enjoys looking at the moral outlooks characters develop) is a common thread of morality that’s highly dependent on their own interests. And like, this is a positive throughline to me! Without getting into my own views on morality, it is particularly compelling to me for characters with isolated upbringing (which applies to vex, jester, and imogen, each in different ways) to develop a moral code informed by that isolation, and in vex we see her moral code is ‘anything goes if it protects those I hold dear’, in jester we see a moral code that doesn’t care about morality as much as it cares about the chance to care and be cared for, and in imogen we see a moral code developed in response to her very unique experience of hearing the darkest parts of people and judging them on those (which to be clear, i am not judging her for that fact, I think it makes extreme sense for someone who hears the thoughts the people have to be horrified by those things, but it does mean her moral system is almost completely backwards, where intention holds more weight than action, which perhaps makes sense of the popularity of defending all of her ideas and choices and the Right Ones by certain parts of the fandom that insist leftism is hidden in the dnd real play). And that’s all to say that, out of the cr parties we’ve seen, I don’t think any single member of bell’s hells is uniquely more or less selfish or more or less of an asshole than previous characters. And in fact, I tend to be quite fond of selfish characters, I have a well documented history of cherishing them well beyond the cr fandom. But the point is that my calling something or someone self-interested is not a value judgement in this context, it's a descriptive claim about the traits a character exhibited.

Imogen, who has insisted time and time again re: the values of the accord that she would not be swayed by the temptation of predathos because she recognizes the importance of this fight, only to turn around and pretty immediately open herself up to predathos to fulfil the most threatening part of ludinus’ plan is self-interested. I cannot conceive of any other way to describe her choices. And her being self-interested doesn’t mean she can’t also be altruistic at times, but I will be clear that I don’t think her risking killing herself as she attempts to bring down the god-eater that she released is particularly selfless. In my best faith interpretation I’d say she’s pretty middle of the road in that choice. But I bring all this up because a comparison I’ve been seeing is that bell’s hells aren’t as mean as the mighty nein or even vox machina in certain moments and that it doesn’t make sense for the fandom to view bell’s hells as likely to be villains when the same wasn’t true of the previous two campaigns, and I think I have to pretty emphatically disagree, and not because I don’t think there aren’t moments in both campaigns that feature extremely high levels of assholery and villainry from pcs – I mean, some of my favourite cr characters are percy and jester, both of whom i’d say are ‘good guys’ due to the pure luck of the found familys they fell in with and both of whom often suggested plans that were. Not okay. To say the least. But ignoring the difference between suggesting fucked up plans and walking your god-eater infused bestie back towards the troops sent to support you in keeping that entity contained, the other big difference I’ve noticed in my own introspection on how I react to bh vs mn and vm, as well as which things i cherish about previous campaigns that were really missing from c3 to what I think is the story and the character’s detriment (staying away from the shape of the narrative, just because others have made posts that put words together better about that than I can) is that while members of vm and mn remained self-interest to the end of their campaigns and have reasserted those habits in appearances since, the parties as entities working in exandria had both, to echo ashton’s apt suggestion to ludinus, grown up.

Like one moment I think of is beau and fjord’s convo in the nein hells episode, because beau is being her asshole self and fjord is being his ‘I care about My People and I’ll think about the rest later’ self (i say affectionately but certain parts of the fandom I recognize would view derogatorily) – clearly they’re not the kindest people as they discuss bell’s hells, but two notable things are (a) they still treat the hells with the respect and use their means to help them prepare for the battle coming, even when they hear the horrifying thought that the hells aren’t certain they’ll choose to save the gods, all the nein request is that they choose the kind option (b) they say none of their doubts to the hells themselves – likely because they have the empathy to realizes that its a high stress situation that won’t be made better by a reminding the hells how small and likely ineffectual in the universe they are – and their comments about cannon fodder are ones made in jest to each other. Even taking that in the worst faith interpretation, the jokes that beau and fjord make in a private conversation has absolutely zero influence on bh. This is quite different than bells hells, after like. as clearly betraying the accord they promised to assist (even if their intentions are ‘good’) as is possible, belittling the religious armies sent to support their endeavor to keep predathos sealed as they all feel the weight of an irrevocable change occurring in exandria, one bells hells has first account knowledge now that it IS incredibly willing to eat mortals, and laudna and ashton, the members of bells hells most often cited by certain fandom spaces as characters who have gone through so much and it only made them kind and strong, look into the faces of people facing literally existential threat and laugh and mock them. That is, mighty nein as individuals is comprised of some of the, perhaps, most asshole pcs, but The Mighty Nein as a party is committed to treating others the best they can, to leaving things better than they found them (a quote that I think is particularly exemplary of the dynamics of self-interest at play in the mighty nein, since it originated as a blatant illustration of molly’s notion of self-importance but developed to become a kind of commandment that the nein became committed to fulfilling). The opposite is true of bell’s hells, where orym and dorian at least both seem to have motivation beyond themselves, imogen’s changes but has shown she is capable of letting go of her ‘intention reigns’ requisitely individualistic perspective, and chetney plays up his selfishness but has shown himself to care quite a bit for people beyond their party but bell’s hells as an entity is uh, pretty self-interested.

To clarify some of my thoughts here in the spirit of the wicked renaissance happening rn, I’ve always felt that for good was an incredibly apt song for the mighty nein, because it really nails that feeling that perhaps they didn’t change each other as individuals to become better people on the grand scale, maybe they’ve just changed each other permanently, but they (and I would agree with this) view each other as having changed each other for the better (e.g., I don’t know if I could say whether jester is a morally better Individual at the end of the campaign, but I can say with certainty that she fulfils and makes moral choices in her work as a member of the mighty nein). And I don’t know if this can be said about bell’s hells – I think they have certainly influenced each other and changed how alone many of those characters felt, and that is not a slight on the story, it can be a great centre for a story to focus on how a relinquishment of the feeling that one is alone in the world can change them. But for the most part, that hasn’t been bh’s story, their story instead has been about validating their refusal to become anything beyond what they insist was out of their control. And not to get to annoying philosophy student about it but bell’s hells are maybe some of the most explicit examples of sartrian bad faith I’ve seen in fiction in a hot minute, because their insistence that they treat their wounds as incurable and entirely out of their hands has led to them limiting their own potential because many of them ignore their responsibility as people to make choices in their own lives. In contrast, at the end of the campaign, mighty nein are still assholes as we all like to refer to them as, but in the context of an apocalypse, I think I’d prefer the assholes like fjord – who is certainly being truthful when he says he doesn’t care about what harm comes to 200 people when jester is at risk but who also, as they traverse into aeor, is insistent that their group won’t be running away from whatever apocalyptic threat awaits them, even if that means dying in the fight – than I would an asshole like ashton – who promises to fight for the little guys but who then turns around and acts upon a philosophy that says the strongest will survive. When you look at the mighty nein, it is incredibly easy to see the fingerprints of change they’ve left upon one another, and even to see the boundaries they place on one another’s asocial behaviours through their presence in one another’s lives (more recently the group chastising jester’s fond words about ludinus is a good example, but others are yasha’s pressuring caleb and essek to move on from their wizard talks as they collect paper in aeor instead of venturing further toward the battle they have to fight, or fjord and jester’s frustrated conversation in the ukotoa reunion about how fjord made a stupid decision and he doesn’t regret but he feels dejected and jester checking him on the fact that they still need to figure out a solution). It takes some extrapolation to see how bells hells have changed each other in more than aesthetic ways, if they have at all. Because the catalyst for change is pressure to do so, and aside from moments where it was truly change or be left behind, bh doesn’t challenge each other unless forced to by morri’s trials or delilah’s interruption and on the very odd occasion an interesting game of rollies-spin-the-bottle.

And it’s interesting because the asshole behaviour of the mighty nein, like bell’s hells, stems from being left on the outskirts of society and the mistreatment that comes with that, so seemingly the change from being alone to being with others is one that actually insists upon being challenged to grow and change. I mean, just looking at the starting points of the characters, there’s an intriguing amount of stark similarities between their pasts; jester and fearne were both people loved dearly by the family they grew up with but who were loved within the confines of a gilded cage, ashton and beau both have an glaring self awareness that their anger at the world has a very particular source (their parents) but use that as justification rather than a means of self reflection, yasha and orym are trying to navigate a world in the wake of an incomprehensible loss and a sense of duty, fjord and imogen are both seeking out knowledge of their own powers and unknowingly retreading the paths of their missing and presumed dead parental figures. The idea that bell’s hells are uniquely mistreated by society in the history of cr player characters is, politely, laughable. Absolutely they’re mistreated, and I think it could be fair to say these characters are more defined by their isolation than others but I think that has more to do with the lack of downtime rp than it has to do with the context of their suffering.

What I have loved about the mighty nein is that in their realization that the bonds they forge with each other are undermining the truths most of them had taken to be true – that they were alone and without a place in the world – they are also forced to realize that no longer being alone and isolated comes with the weight of social responsibility. And this was born out of a willingness the mighty nein had to call each other out and that the players had to allow their characters to be wrong and get called on it. Because that’s the friction of living with other people on the small party scale and the large world scale – in the mighty nein’s ability to survive as a people who cared for each other even when they didn’t agree or when they made decisions that they couldn’t understand, they were constantly developing their ability to care for the very same world that left them alone. Because in campaign two, the world as a whole had the role that the gods have in campaign 3 – why should a party of nobodies, treated like shit by the world and the people in it go through the effort of saving it?

And the mighty nein answered, in their own imperfection and assholery, that nothing is ever just one thing – one of the things I cherish most about campaign 2 is its commitment to ambiguity, allowing the complexity of the world to go unsolved because there is no solution to the fact that life is immense and sometimes incoherent. I don’t think its a coincidence that I’ve seen some of the people lamenting the idiocy of fandom members like me who think that it actually isnt a leftist win to destroy the world in the hopes of spontaneous justice arising in c3 are the same people who criticised c2’s conclusion with the cerberus assembly for not being leftist (a word which for them means . the aesthetic image of a rebellion sparked and not the unending commitment to doing what you practically can to make life more just for those around you – whether they’re particularly kind to you or not) enough. The conclusion of c2 emphasizes that the choice to make the world a better place isn’t something that can be achieved in one single sweeping action that will wipe the boards clean – there is no murder of all the members of the cerberus assembly that would’ve solved the problems that caused the assembly’s power. There is no forcing of the god’s out of exandria that will deal with the actual issue undergirding both bh and their blorbo-moralized fans' criticism of the gods, which is that mortals are cursed with the burden of free will, and being mistreated by other mortals means constantly having to try and make sense of the fact that someone chose to do something cruel to you (and, sometimes, that you made a choice that allowed that cruelty to occur) – a burden made much heavier when the person who hurt you is your cult-indoctrinated mother, or your cult leader father, or the person in the mirror. The mighty nein take up this fight, and the complexities of their individual identities begin to heal in the light of a commitment in their relationship as friends and as a team to improve the world, even on the small scale. Bell’s hells remain gridlocked and stagnant and unwilling to change in an unspoken turf war of self-interest because they’ve insisted (influenced in part by the context of the campaign 3 narrative but, as others have aptly pointed out, that narrative was much more influenced by bh’s lack of curiosity regarding anything except their own minds) upon finding a solution to a problem they’ve decided is earth-shatteringly (quite literally, to the people of ruidus) unjust based on, aside from encounters where fellow mortals were the primary oppressors, their own testimony of the god’s not listening to them and the obvious villain’s parallel testimony. Something I’ve really been chewing on lately is caduceus words to fjord about his role as a paladin of the wildmother – that maybe it just means that someday, someone will pray for a miracle, and there fjord’ll be and the weight that has given that fjord’s bond to ukotoa came from his desperation not to die and his willingness to accept whatever help would be offered, that fjord could now be the person that reaches out to someone in need, and that the hand he offers won’t come with a curse. And I think that’s really the poignant difference between bh and mn for me, that for bh, their experiences of injustice, though did make them personally bitter, did not make them morally misanthropic.

Comparatively, Bell’s Hells chose to ensure that, because the gods never answered their prayers, they shouldn’t be permitted to answer anyone else’s. Is this an understandable position? Sure, for the walls of a preschool, not really for a group of characters that I will ever be in any way inclined to view as something close to heroes. While it’s true that there are parts of life that are beyond our control – somethings happen to us that we have no say in, and they cause injuries both physical and mental that we are left to heal without any rhyme or reason, it is still our responsibility to heal them. And if you choose not to, well, then you’ve chosen not to, and are responsible for the consequences and judgements that choice might amount to.

Anyway, sorry this is all over the place but TLDR: calling bell’s hells as a party self-interested is actually just descriptively correct – they can save members of the party made up of their close friends and still be self-interested – and while the individual members of bell’s hells actually aren’t all that uniquely self-interested in the history of cr pcs, the party is uniquely self-interested in how they’ve chosen to navigate the world an their responsibility to the people in it.

#cr spoilers #cr meta #this is some very bad writing on my part but this is like draft 10 of compiling my thoughts on this particular comparison #and i need to save my editing brain for thesis editing so. embracing the 'make bad art' but. write bad essays. this isn't an essay #its projectile word vomit but alas #critical role #critical role spoilers #bell's hells #the mighty nein #mighty nein #cr2 #cr3 #my post #long post #(truly i'm sorry for the length i have overwrite disease)

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hyunjining · 4 months ago

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(so sorry if any of this comes out as sarcastic/mean its not)

So like I've never been into kpop or celebrity stuff or anything (aka my blorbos are only fictional characters) but youve shown up on my dash a couple times recently and you seem like a chill person to ask so like- What's the like *vibe* with fandoms like these? Like whats the interesting part about these people to u thats enough to make a whole blog about them? Ive heard about people shipping them like theyre characters so it is that?? Is it the people themselves? Is it just the pretty factor? I'm assuming its not just the songs cuz ive seen a lot of fanfics n fandom stuff that are about the *people* instead n its made me really curious cuz i dont think I get it?

well, as someone who’s been in fandoms for real people for like 15 years at this point, i feel pretty qualified to answer this lol. the music is of course a big factor, at least for me. i wouldn’t closely follow anyone if i didn’t love their art. but i do love them as people too.

in the case of kpop, the industry puts a big emphasis on fan interaction and fanservice, and as a result there’s a lot of content that revolves solely around getting to know the idols (variety shows, vlogs) and forming a parasocial bond with them (fancalls, direct messaging, public forums that idols can comment on). which of course can be a bad thing, and kpop fans can get uniquely extreme about it, but my personal philosophy is always to treat artists as human beings and not assume that i know everything, because i obviously don’t.

anyway, with stray kids specifically, i really admire that they’re one of the few self-produced kpop groups and they all seem to have a genuine passion for making music and performing. they have a strong familial bond; they’re all very unique, strong personalities, and yet they come together so beautifully to pursue a common goal. the common goal being making really fucking good music that spans multiple genres.

they’re extremely funny and it’s a riot watching them bounce off each other. they’re literally all weird and insane in the best ways possible. they’re not perfect, they’ve messed up, but i think they’ve demonstrated that they have good hearts and they genuinely care about others. they try their best to make everyone feel welcome in their space, and they have a deep love and appreciation for their fans. and yes, they are outstandingly beautiful and just looking at them is gratifying in and of itself lmao.

in terms of shipping and fanfics, well. stray kids is a goldmine. lots of constant homoerotic tension between various pairings, which of course they play up in a fanservice way, but underlying all the messing around are very real bonds of love. and that’s all in addition to some very intentional and repeated queer-flagging from some members. but like generally they just love each other so much and it’s so palpable in everything they do that it’s just fun to explore the possibilities i guess. i can’t really speak for other idol groups, but that’s the deal with skz.

ultimately, i guess i would say the vibe of stanning idols is just… gushing over vlogs and ig posts and photoshoots and messages and getting really hyped about new music. but also worrying that they’ll fuck up because they’re human. and worrying about their wellbeing because the idol industry and fandoms can be absolutely brutal. and seeing a million fanwars a week about which group charts the best and sells out the most stadiums, but also about even stupider, more inconsequential things. but overall, if you curate your experience, it can be a lot of fun. i hope that answers your questions even a little bit lol, that kind of became me just raving about stray kids.

#ask

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avalineryu · 1 month ago

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Ironlily Interview

@ironlily-art can be found on Facebook and Twitter currently.

What inspired you to get into depicting action women / historical waifu?

Honestly, it's simply because I love them. I love European history, I love anime-style girls, and I love strong female characters. But it’s hard to find existing genres that combine all of these, especially where they’re the main theme rather than just backgrounds. So I just wanted to be greedy and merge everything I love into one, to explore the possibilities.

Do you think you're attracted to the women in your own work?

To be honest, the girls I draw are often inspired by ideals I hold dear, or by a certain kind of person I deeply want to portray. If my characters were real, I’m sure I’d fall in love with them. In that sense, yes—part of what drives me to draw comes from affection or desire. I believe creating something requires some level of passion, even romantic or sexual feelings.

But once these characters are created, I see them as independent individuals living in their own world. I don’t project excessive desire onto them after. Maybe that’s why some fans feel my characters seem real—because I don’t depict them as having any motive through the fourth wall toward the audiences on the other side of the screen.

Are the women in your works inspired by anyone you know personally? Optionally: Gender, including trans status if applicable or already out, and sexual orientation.

My characters are shaped by many life experiences and by what I observe around me—blended with imagination. Sometimes, I wish the world could be more beautiful and fun, where girls aren’t bound by societal expectations and can joke about their bodies as freely as men do, without facing judgment. That’s how characters like Ebenholz and the Hoplitissa came to be.

As for my gender identity, I don’t have anything particularly unique to say—I’m just a regular heterosexual person. In my country, topics like gender identity aren’t very prominent, but we respect cultures where diverse identities are more celebrated. Likewise, I hope people can also respect those with traditional values. I’m grateful that I have a kind and respectful community.

Has the animation/comics/game fandom particularly influenced your artistic decisions?

If you try searching for Takami Akai, and Seiji Kamiya of Vanillaware, I think you’ll quickly find the answer. (laughs)

Are you familiar with the Weibermacht genre? If not, why?

I wasn't aware of it before, but after looking up the term, I realized I’ve seen some renaissance artworks that fall under this category. However, I don’t have much to say.

What are your thoughts on polite society's imposed gender roles? (Polite society: Whatever the social norms are where you live)

Speaking strictly about such societies, I believe they have always served as a necessary structure for society value. However, as time changes, they need to evolve, adapt, and be reinterpreted. Setting aside any malicious human intent related to gender oppression, every culture and era has required a set of norms to maintain social unity and divide responsibilities among genders. This ensures both societal stability and the continuity of the human population.

That said, society also needs spaces for those who do not fit into mainstream roles to find refuge. Monasteries, for example, historically served such a purpose—providing an alternative social structure. Both Ordo Mediare and Hoplitissa are fictional worlds I created with this kind of concept.

What is your cultural background? Do you think it has an impact on your artistic depictions?

I come from a non-European region, also one without a deeply rooted historical tradition of its own. We've been heavily influenced by Japanese anime, and that influence has certainly shaped my artistic preferences.

Do you think your works will inspire change in society?

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that my work can change society—nor do I necessarily believe that society must be changed. Rather than calling it 'change,' I prefer to see it as ‘creating a space’ gathering and inspiring people, and moving forward together. In doing so, I hope my ideas gain more recognition and appreciation."

Do you have an interest in history as a whole? What are your other hobbies beside artwork?

My interest in history is actually quite narrow—I’m really only passionate about the Western European cold weapon era. But I think that's more than enough to keep an amateur like me busy for a whole life. Of course, I don’t reject other cultures; it’s just harder for me to actively dive into them.

As for other hobbies, definitely gaming. Also food, drinks, and cute things. I have a lot of interests, but each one is pretty specific—I only like certain games, certain types of food, certain kinds of alcohol. I like to call it… loyalty!

What do you predict in the future of the New Weibermacht genre?

I’m not sure where this term originally came from or whether it represents an established aesthetic trend. But what I can say is this: if it’s framed as a strong ideological stance that tries to change, replace or correct existing artistic directions, then it will inevitably face criticism and backlash. Like many ‘new’ ideologies today, it could spark quarrels over positions among communities, and in the end, creators might get lost in these ideological battles.

Personally, I’m better at looking to the past than predicting the future. I believe creators should focus on what they love. It doesn’t need to become a slogan. If there’s going to be a slogan or aesthetic philosophy, let the thinkers and theorists take care of that.

Return to New Weibermacht Masterpost.

#article #art history #weibermacht #new weibermacht #military moe #historical fiction #historical waifu #meta

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thebroccolination · 3 months ago

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WHY ARE KRISTSINGTO A BIG DEAL?

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TikTok | YouTube

KristSingto are widely respected in the Thai BL industry for their contribution to its historic rise in popularity, but largely because of the language barrier, interfans generally know much less about them. Luckily, @ysphcpb has been kind enough to translate their lesser-known content on her blog, and recently posted some of KristSingto's earlier interview moments as gifs here.

Essentially, once their work on "SOTUS" was complete, Krist and Singto were set loose into the world without any protection or guidance from GMMTV. Just twenty and twenty-one years old when "SOTUS" had its blessing ceremony of January 2016, Krist and Singto went on to experience relentless homophobia from the press and public, constant belittling of their acting abilities as "just BL actors," invasive personal questions from reporters and fans alike, and much more that we'll never know. At very young ages.

In 2022, I made a Twitter thread to dismantle the pervasive rumor of Krist's """homophobia""" with what little I could gather that had been translated into English. I did it mainly because in 2021, I'd seen interfans post photos of Krist's car upside down on the road joyfully hoping he was dead.

Hundreds upon hundreds spat virulent hatred at him without researching any of the claims made against him, and very few have since admitted they were wrong. Some try to claim that "he was homophobic," but I'm fascinated by how they arrived at that conclusion given that Krist asked his parents for their blessing to audition for a queer role in an indie series when he was an unknown university student.

Krist was defending the queer community along with Singto from their very first interviews as a twenty-year-old with zero media training.

I can only say so much about this, and truly, my opinion doesn't matter. So I decided to compile and stitch the videos together and actually show people a tiny portion of what they both went through. We'll never know it all, but please consider that what you see these hosts say is what they were comfortable saying to Krist and Singto on television.

So imagine what it was like behind the scenes.

Kit has said more than once that the one thing he can't stand is when he's misunderstood. And given that he had a long, long history of being discriminated against himself while standing up for the queer community and defending his pride in being a BL actor, it must have been surreal for him to have a wave of international fans appear in droves in 2020 screaming "homophobe" at him in languages he doesn't even speak.

The same guy who attended the farewell party for the gay magazine "Attitude" after featuring on the cover with Singto twice in very risque poses, and told a story about his queer friend whose parents couldn't accept his sexuality:

Even when GMMTV put him on the path of het series, Kit never stopped talking about his pride in Thai BL.

He's not, and he never was, the end. \o/

Meanwhile, Singto has always been adamant that BL shouldn't be considered unique from other stories.

For nine years, he's been saying the same thing! He's not tired of it yet, either! He'll keep saying it.

There's one interview with Singto in particular I think every Thai BL fan should watch because he's incredibly eloquent and it's fully subbed!

I know newer fans are less likely to throw rocks at Kit than fans I joined fandom with back in 2020, so forgive me for the hints of frustration. It's been a long five years of people making assumptions about him when he has done quite literally nothing to deserve the rampant verbal abuse he's gotten from interfans.

I hope that by making this video as a resource, people will see what Krist and Singto both went through.

To appreciate that they got through it with as much grace as they did.

So they could become the experienced, kindhearted seniors they are now, who protect their juniors of all genders from the nightmares they had to go through.

#krist perawat #singto prachaya #kristsingto #thai bl #gmmtv #thai ql #Youtube

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yooboobies · 8 months ago

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Lately I’ve been seeing creators being sad and feeling unmotivated and overall just feeling like there’s no reason to create. And I wanted to make this tiny post (as part of today’s feel good #221).

I want every single one of you, who constantly day by day create something, let that be gifsets, fanarts, fanfictions, countdown posts etc. - you are so so important. You are what makes being in the fandom fun, enjoyable and meaningful. You give meaning to everything. Believe me. And I wanna thank you all for tirelessly working and putting out content every day or whenever you can.

As we approach the end of the year I wanna thank you all for being so amazing. Every single one of you is so creative and amazing and all of your uniqueness is beautiful. Thank you for making every day a little better with your creations. It’s very easy to feel like nothing you do is good enough or feel like you don’t matter when the interaction is so low (and believe I am speaking from experience) but believe me your worth cannot be measured by numbers. Your worth lies in what that one person who had and extremely bad day feels when they see a gifset/fanart/gfx of a moment that is very dear to them posted by you and they smile and even if for a second but forget about what made them sad.

It’s okay to feel sad, it’s okay to yearn for an audience and it’s just so normal to yearn to be appreciated cause in the end you still put those hours into your own creations.

And I hope that even if at the moment you want to take a step back, want to take a break to try and find that lost motivation - never ever stop being the creative and beautiful people that you are💜 And I hope the spark one way or another but will find its way back to you💜

Thank your making MY and others day BETTER by being the amazing creators that you are💜

#réka talks #feelgoodpost #little year end appreciation for you all💜#content creator

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prettyboysdontlookatexplosions · 2 months ago

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ok this does seem like a good opportunity to share a hot take i have which is that if you want to like conceptualize fanfiction semi-seriously as a form you have to acknowledge the fact that while yes most of us who dabble in fandom have at one point had a life-changingly powerful experience with a fic whose source material we had no familiarity with because it was just that good and we can all list off a bunch of ao3 faves easily more skilled than most of the dreck that makes it to the world of published fiction, ultimately the core idea of fanfiction at its heart is and remains fans of a thing writing for an audience of other fans of that thing, which is often a fundamentally different kind of reading from, well, most other kinds. to the extent that this gets acknowledged at all it usually tends to be in the idea that fanfiction doesn't "have to" be as good as original fiction, but i would sincerely argue we can take this a step further to say that there are things that wouldn't work in original fiction that can work in fanfiction not (just) because standards are lower but because a slightly but fundamentally different process is going on. like, i mean: on some level when i am reading fanfiction i am playing dolls in my head in a way that i am not ever with original fiction. like, part of what i want from fanfiction is in fact a series of new and fun situations to put my imaginary toys in. and of course ideally one wants this to be done with style and panache but it can be true that many governing norms of writing still hold and also that when i read a magicians fanfiction and it says "quentin frowned" that phrase is actually doing something that "sally frowned" in some original story is not doing (which is not to say that poor sally litfic should never be permitted to frown, moderation in all things including restrictions). in the context of a magicians fic, quentin's frown signifies, automatically, to anybody who has seen the show and become weird enough about it to read fic, and i genuinely think it's like... incomplete to theorize the question of how fanfiction operates without taking this into account. someone writing magicians fanfiction can write that quentin frowned and feel sure that something very specific is being communicated to probably every person who winds up reading the phrase, in a way that, again, isn't true for original works, and i feel like it's just silly not to acknowledge that and not to accept that we can at least sometimes embrace the evocation of something familiar for the audience of people clicking on the I Want Something To Remind Me About My Dolls website as like... maybe not a strength of fanfiction per se but a legitimate and unique tool of the form available as one of the pleasures of playing in a predetermined sandbox. and i am saying this all as someone who ummmmm i think could not be reasonably accused of shying away from interiority in fanfiction lmao.

#it's kind of like how if you're writing smut for a really specific kink #such that your audience is People Who Want To Jerk Off To Pee Stuff or what have you #there are all kinds of things that might not be considered good writing in other contexts #that would nonetheless (i assume) make it better writing if your goal is Giving The Pee People Something To Jerk Off To #writing tag #kinda. lmao.

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thewardenisonthecase · 5 months ago

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its almost 5am and I really should go to sleep but I do actually like what hardening does for Alistair's character and how that affects his actions during the Landsmeet.

Like, for most of the game, Alistair is more than happy to let the Warden take the lead, even though they're a recruit and he's a junior member of the other. Even Morrigan points this out. And at certain points, especially during how you resolve the Isolde/Connor issue, it causes clashing - Alistair openly criticizes the warden for the decisions they're taking and yet, he doesnt want to take responsability himself. And like, yes, all companions will openly criticize the warden over decisions they disagree with, but Alistair sits in a unique position where, by all means, he should be the one taking charge of this gig, as the person who's been a grey warden for longer. (and like i understand why he does it but its still like c'mon man-)

And the other thing with Alistair is that he's an idealist in a very brutal world. And I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing, because to me, a lot of Alistair's idealism comes from a place of 'I've endured a lot of harshness and this is how I cope with that'. But the problem is that Thedas is not a world that is kind, and while commendable, Alistair's idealism does hurt him - take Goldanna's scene as an example of that. Any other person would probably tell that yeah, maybe not the best idea to bother someone you've never even met, but Alistair is so desperate about this idea of having this sister and a family that he doesn't see how poorly it can go and it gets himself hurt in the end. Like, the wardens are known and lowkey famous for conscripting literally anyone who can fight into their order - including criminals, and yet, Alistair is lowkey bombastic side-eyeing Daveth because he was a criminal. Like you see what I mean?

And anyways, while I do think that like, the hardening scene could be handled better in how it is presented, I like what it means for Alistair. Hardening is a good word for this, I think and its something my therapist has talked to me about in therapy. Life is harsh, and you do need to like, protect yourself over some things or else shit will be harder. The best analogy I can give is, to play the guitar, you need to use your fingers, and eventually, you'll get callus on your hands, because that's your skin literally hardening so you won't get hurt too often. It allows you to keep playing, and I think that's how I view hardening for Alistair - he's still the same man, however, he might not get as easily hurt now.

It's also about maturity. I love Alistair, and while I do think fandom infantilizes him A LOT, he still sometimes come off as a tad immature, and hardening does make it feel like he "grew up" in a way and that to me is very clear when it comes to the Landsmeet, (especially if you allow Alistair to fight Loghain (but that's a post of its own).

So, during the Landsmeet, after Loghain is killed (yes that is the perspective I'm going with bc I always kill Loghain ok so idk how it plays out if he lives), the Warden has to decide who will lead Ferelden and you're allowed a moment to speak with both Alistair and Anora. If you talk to Alistair and he is hardened, Alistair will straight up tell you to make him king when asked "what do you think i should do?"

and like here's the thing. I think even hardened, Alistair still doesn't want to be king. But being an adult and taking responsability is not about doing things you want - its about doing things you *don't* want to do but that you must do anyways. And, to me, this is one of my favorite Alistair moments because its kinda like full circle and it mirrors the warden's own experience. The Warden, in most cases, didn't want to become a grey warden but they were forced into that position and then they HAD TO take responsability and save Ferelden, and now, Alistair being put in a position where he has to do the same, and he has finally come to terms with. And after the Landsmeet, he even says that and adds that 'there's some good even I can do' which I think its like, a stark contrast to Alistair 'i wish i had died instead of Duncan'.

Also side note, I think its interesting that, while he does say 'give the crown to anora it looks better on her anyways' and is vocally against being made king, there's a moment where, to me, its basically alistair, on a subconscious level, coming to terms that he might have to become king and that's when you talk to him after talking to Anora and he does speak of her qualities as queen, but also mentions how he's suspicious of stuff because at the end of the day, she's still Loghain's daughter and he even says:

anyways, i can hear birds singing outside but just as a warning or whatever. This is not a "hardened alistair is better" or "king alistair is better", this is me saying why I particularly like this version of this character, but at the end of the day, make the choices you want to make bc thats what really matters - its an RPG, there's not real "better/best" option. the Best option is always the one that makes you the happier/more satisfied.

#alistair theirin #meta #i guess #i dont liek calling it meta but it is what it is

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absolutebl · 4 months ago

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hello! i recently attended a panel on live action BL, and they recommended your blog for all things BL. i'd love to get into more queer shows to watch. this is oddly specific, but do you have any shows with a strong plot where one or more of the love interests is famous? anything else goes. (bonus points if they knew each other before they/either of them became famous, it's a favorite trope). thank you, and have a good day!!!

Top 10 Celebrity BLs!

I love oddly specific questions. I'm the human BL recommendation algo, and I'm ready! Although like most algos I sometimes get it way wrong. I will do my bestest.

Hello, WELCOME!

BLs with a strong plot where one of the love interests is famous, bonus for the "known since childhood" trope

I fixed your request, since in BL we just can't expect strong plot and "strong" plot is super objective anyway. I put these in order of my personal preference and noted if it breaks your criteria.

Ready? Here we go!

To My Star

(Korea 2021 Viki)

Hwang Da Seul directing this show about a neurotic actor (actual puppy) who takes refuge with a grumpy chef resulting in sparks, cooking lessons, and LOVE! It’s is a touch quirky to get into, but utterly charming once it hits its stride. This is the ultimate grumpy/sunshine pairing plus the most appealing light-filled kitchen of our dreams. I adore this show so much. Limited use of BL tropes makes this feel more of a sweet contemporary gay romance between an actor plagued by scandal and the chef who accidentally adopts him, but the gentleness will appeal to fans of the BL genre.

Doesn't have much plot and they did not know each other before, but my only 10/10 on this list.

Cosmetic Playlover

(Japan 2024 Gaga)

It's a classic office BL about the older workaholic who loves his job and the younger upstart who unexpectedly loves his boss. It’s a hyung romance where everybody is extremely earnest and sweet and pretty about everything. Except our seme, who is slightly unhinged and a little obsessed in all the ways one likes best from Japan. Utterly charming unexpected gem of a show. What fun!

The seme was once a famous model but left the business for harassment reasons. Again, light on plot and they didn't know each other before.

Lovely Writer

(Thai 2021 YouTube)

Thailand criticizes itself and the BL industry while simultaneously giving us classic seme/uke with great chemistry in a one-two punch of “we love it, but are we supposed to? and must we think this hard, yet enjoy it SO MUCH?” This show won’t appeal or make sense to those who don’t already have at least some Thai BL watching experience.

What Lovely Writer does, at heart, is re-exame what Thai BL has done to queerness, but in a very gentle way that has more to do with Thai BL growing up than any actual queer authenticity. It’s not parody or pastiche, but it is self reflective and trying to correct for some chronic mistakes. Whether it is ultimately successful in this matter is going to depend on the watcher’s relationship to BL and queer identity. But that’s what makes this show beautiful, interesting, and thought provoking. And I, for one, applaud the effort even if I didn’t personally connect to the characters.

This one satisfies all your criteria, but if you are new to Thai BL you should watch others first.

My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare

(Japan 2021 Gaga)

One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000′s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising. I lost my mind over the ending.

For actual celebrity status you will need to watch all 3 installments (this is the first season). But it has the tone I think you're after. They kind of are kids when the story starts so this is following them pre-fame into adulthood.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

(Japan 2023 Gaga)

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but are so repressed they don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that aspect is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking.

It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan. That said it's also bruisingly romantic. Emphasis on bruise.

This one where they have known each other since college, and the plot is... odd and maybe absent, ya know, Japanese BL.

* ThamePo

(Thai 2025 YouTube) Watch this first! Also if no longer on YT check Viki, iQIYI, or Gaga

The boyband idol romance I've been waiting for from Korea, only Thailand did it instead. Quintessentially Thai and very GMMTV with good production values, great chemistry, and a solid support cast. It also was a hung romance mostly driven by external conflict and a found family reunion trope so I didn’t mind (too much) when that romance thread felt secondary. I loved it (except, of course, the singing).

This is it. This is the one you're probably looking for. They didn't know each other before, tho.

Unintentional Love Story

(Korea 2023 iQIYI)

OMG the plot! Uke forced into a totally understandable betrayal, falling in love despite himself, put into a corner he can't get out of, the AGONY, the PAIN in those gorgeous eyes. Gah. Okay, so: A boy loses his job due to trumped-up corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back, if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love.

I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya).

Everything but the childhood. The best plot on this list, but the celebrity recluse bit might not be the kind of fame you want. Still... I loved it.

Wish You: Your Melody in My Heart

(Korea 2020 Viki)

Set in the music industry featuring a talented singer and the pianist who falls in love with him (and his music), subtle and achingly adorable. High production, low heat, short run, very tame, and Korea, so all the pretty. Slow burn and lots of pining.

He isn't quite a celebrity... yet. And they didn't know each other before.

* Love Stage!!

(Thai adaptation of Japanese original 2022 YouTube?)

This BL surprised me with its charm. The acting was good, the leads were appealing, support cast on point, and the production values high. It followed the original manga story arc relatively closely: boy (now famous actor) falls in love with girl as a child, grows up to discover girl is actually a very pretty boy. Although there are some quintessentially Thai changes that mellowed, softened, and extended the romance arc.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this story is that the climax is about coming out as a celebrity couple as well as gay. I like the examination of the nature of celebrity versus privacy, and the contrasting kinds of closets.

And I love that they depicted two couples with two different versions of this choice. A solid and enjoyable show.

Winner winner chicken dinner. This one satisfies ALL your criteria.

Also, if you like it there is a Japanese version, an anime, and the original yaoi.

My Stand-In

(Thai 2024 iQIYI)

Stuntman Joe dies on the job and wakes up in the body of another Joe with an entirely different life. But Joe just starts repeating the mistakes of his previous self - love, work, play. Including falling back in love with rich kid (now famous) actor Ming who used and abused him as nothing more than a toy bf in the past.

I enjoyed the experience of watching this show, I looked forward to it every week. I thought everybody did a great job with it and in it, and I liked that is was something substantially different for Thai BL. But it was divisive and left me feeling more sanguine than happy. It's not really a revenge narrative (what I wanted) nor was it a romance (what BLandia expected). I spent most of this show just very very sorry for poor Joe. But if you like your celebrity gays messy, it doens't get much messier than this.

The plot is... different, and they knew each other before just not in childhood.

BONUS

Deep Night

(Thai 2024 iQiyi)

It's about a host club and all the gay boys in it and some stuff that's not important because… PEOPLE OF EARTH WE HAVE A HONEST REP OF POLY IN A BL. Stand up and raise your hands in prayer to the Thai BL gods because sure as shit no one else was ever going to give this to us. For that alone this show gets 8/10 from me. Bonus Lesbian moms and great kisses.

Okay so the celebrities are the top performers at the club and there is no plot, but I have decided it ranks, so there.

Sirs Not Appearing In the Top 10

FC Soldout - almost made it, washed up actor + up-and-coming football player

First Note Of Love - washed up musician and talented young composer

Happy Ending Romance - it's just, not really a BL, celebrity author and betrayal!

Happy Merry Ending - dito

Love is Better the Second Time Around AKA Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto - the famous person is a professor/author, reunion romance that is about lost childhood love

Behind Cut

Ocean Likes Me

Vice Versa - in one reality one of them is a famous actor but that's not the point

At 25:00, in Alaska AKA 25 Ji, Akasaka de - you might like this one

City of Stars - this might be a good one for you if you're willing to try a Thai pulp, satisfies most of your criteria

First Love Again - he's a famous novelist but that's not really relevant

I Became the Main Role of a BL AKA BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank In Hen - it's in the title

Kabe Koji AKA Kabesaa Doujin Sakka no Neko Yashiki-kun wa Shounin Yokkyuu wo Kojirasete iru - this is an idol romance, but also no real kisses

My Esports Genius Brother - very very odd, no plot, and it's China censored so... oddly I have a soft spot for it anyway

Oh My Assistant - famous writer again

Pit Babe - famous sports star and a wild plot

You Are Ma Boy, EM LÀ CHÀNG TRAI CỦA ANH - idol romance with a cafe boy, it's adorable but very Vietnamese poor quality, stil an old favorite of mine

Kiss X Kiss X Kiss - the "idol series," these are shorts from Japan, 3 of them feature idols in a band together having a secret affaire

Codicils

Shows that feature a celebrity but I rated 6/10 or lower are not on this list. But add more in comments if you like.

I left celebrity chefs off this list, because I think that's not quite what you are looking for.

This is up to date so far as I and my spreadsheet of doom can determine as of March 2025. Only included completed BLs as of that month.

(source)

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wisteria-lodge · 5 months ago

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hi, i just wanted to drop in and ask if you know of any other blogs that post hp meta/discussion that are also very jkr critical? i love everything you write, but many of the other blogs i find when perusing tags are... questionable. its kind of a requirement for me to know that the people posting hp on my timeline don't hate trans people so if you know of anyone else who meets that criteria, i'd love to be linked!

Okay. Now the last thing I want to do is write a callout post (or the opposite of a callout post? A call-in post?) BUT. I do also know that this site can be hard and frustrating to use before you've built up a good follower list for yourself. I know it was definitely rough for me there at the beginning, when I first exploring HP tumblr.

So, this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, this is me going through my recent reblogs and DMs, and if anyone feels they should be on the list (or wants to be taken off the list - people use their fandoms to have a good fun chill time, and I respect that. Having a good fun chill place to exist is unbelievably important.)

But I would say these are are blogs who regularly write meta about Harry Potter that is primarily rooted in the books, while remaining critical of the books in way that I enjoy, and are some combination of funny, earnest, and academic (and drama-free, that's a big one.) I haven't gone and background checked them all or anything, but these are people who I've either had good, meaty conversations with in the DMs, have publicly posted about disagreeing with JKR and her political views, or that I've just followed for a while without any problems. Or some combo of the above.

As I'm sure some of the people on this list will tell you, we *definitely* interpret the books differently and have different headcanons, but their style of interpretation is one that fits with the kind of experience I want to have.

***

@saintsenara - a new follow, but I'm in the process of reblogging their back catalog, and they've definitely written about how to be a HP fan in post JKR-swan-dive-off-the-deep-end world, in the context of their absolutely hysterical crack ship series.

@thistlecatfics - bio says "fuck jkr in a canon compliant way" which I rather like. Their last post was a link to their new Sirius/Fanon Sirius one-shot - which was so sweet, clever, and well-written. Which I think is very much their vibe. I massively enjoy their "Harry Potter Characters in Therapy" series.

@pangaeaseas - a really fun follow. They post a lot, they're funny and their ideas are unique, original, and sometimes totally off the wall. It's like they keep throwing out fun little bookclub prompts/discussion starters, and then we all have a really nice time.

@its-the-allure - lovely, and my intro into some really fun, chill fandom communities. @etl-echo-audiobooks is fantastic, they do live readings of fic of their discord and then turn them into audio books. Did one of my metas once! Also they're currently running a Drarry fest, I snagged a prompt but there are plenty left.

@the-phoenix-heart - has been a mutual for a while. Their original stuff is mostly art, when it comes to text-based stuff they're more of a commenter and reblogger. But they're a GREAT commenter and reblogger. They know their stuff, and I would feel weird leaving them off the list.

@blorger - always has an interesting take, especially when it comes to worldbuilding, and they always do their research and cite their sources. Their last post was all about debunking the popular fanon that the non-Snape teachers are really prejudiced against Slytherin as a whole. Also, great fic reccomender.

@360degreesasthecrowflies - probably the most political blog on this list, which they would definitely agree with. What I really love about them is the way they're willing to go into historian mode, and find and repost some really excellent HP Meta originally written for Livejournal. I was never on Livejounal, so all this stuff is new to me, and I feel like it also provides a really good perspective on fandom history.

@arkadijxpancakes - really well-written, well-thought out, well-supported meta. Great thoughts on worldbuilding. One of the only blogs I've found that really digs into the Weasleys, but they have great takes on everything. Has a very reasonable, focused, lets-get-to-the-heart-of-the-issue vibe that I really appreciate.

@riddlesmoon - followed me recently, and I know you don't post as much original content as you'd like, but I think your comments are hilarious and very insightful, and you *should* write more meta.

@hollowed-theory-hall - another person who can cite their sources really impressively. Tends to do very comprehensive deep dives into worldbuilding out things like the magic system and in-universe politics, or doing very in-depth text-based character analysis. I also love it when they post designs and art, because they went in a very different direction than the films did, but it still totally works.

@trothplighted - I know them from their main blog, which is about literature in general and not HP, but this post got them to resurrect their HP meta blog! I've had fun discussions with them, and they have good takes on other literature, so lets see how this goes :D

@regheart - A good, mellow follow (but with absolutely zero tolerance for JKR and her antics.) A good blend of art, fic recs, and fun good takes. Just read a post of their reccing fics that are pro-Jilly, but still willing to dig into their potential issues as a couple. Which I think is pretty representative.

I 100% expect to add to this list as I think of/find more people, but that should be enough to get you started.

#hp #I want to give some shout-out to my fellow meta writers #I think youre brilliant #I love you stuff #I love our conversations

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cy-cyborg · 2 years ago

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It will never not be frustrating to me that amputees appear in fiction ALL. THE. TIME. and yet they're almost never acknowledged as such. The Cyberpunk genre is especially guilty of this: amputees and prosthetics becoming a normalised part of life are a defining part of the genre/aesthetic and yet no one even consults with any amputees about how we get represented there. Most writers in those genres don't even consider that giving your characters cybernetic arms and legs means they're an amputee.

CW: Ableism, dehumanisation

This makes it REALLY uncomfortable to engage with stories in the genre because another common aspect of cyberpunk is the idea of losing yourself and becoming something distinctly not-human anymore because you have too many cybernetic augmentations/implants. Shadowrun even has mechanics for this, which state if you get too many prosthetics, which is what cybernetics are 9 times out of 10, your character becomes a monster. These mechanics and discussions surrounding "how many robot bits make you not human anymore" are really, really uncomfortable when you remember this isn't something that's unique to a far-off future setting. Those people you're discussing the humanity of already exist. They're called amputees. If you reframe the question as "how many amputations can you have before you stop being a person" I hope you can see why an amputee like myself is not going to feel safe around you or in your fandoms.

And it's a shame, because I REALLY want to like Cyberpunk. I really, honestly do. I love the aesthetics, I love the idea of big corporations being the villains and the anti-capitalism at the heart of the genre, and I love the idea of prosthetics being not only destigmatised, but desirable. When written from a disability-inclusive lense, it honestly has the potential to be an incredibly uplifting and empowering genre. but as the genre stands right now, it's actively hostile to the very folks who are usually the stars of its stories: amputees, all because people just refuse to acknowledge us.

Cyberpunk isn't the only genre guilty of this, it's common all throughout sci-fi as a whole, but Cyberpunk is the only one where it starts becoming a serious issue due to its rampant dehumanisation of a real group of people. In other sci-fi settings, it's just kind of annoying and while it can be a form of erasure, it's not usually harmful, just...frustrating. Fantasy does it on occasion too, think pirates with a hook and a peg leg, but nowhere near as much.

If you, as an author or creator, use any of these words to describe a character or their tech in a sci-fi setting:

cybernetics/cybernetic enhancements

bionics

robot limbs

cyborgs

augmentations

You are probably writing an amputee. Please, at the very least, acknowledge it, and be mindful that those are real people who actually exist, not just a fantasy group you can speculate about.

edit:

I originally posted this article on my old Tumblr account and lot of people commented/reblogged to tell me that originally in cyberpunk, the "less human the more robot bits you have" only applied to people who opted for their limbs to be replaced by cybernetics, because it was seen as "renting out your body to corporations for money" but people who had to get cybernetics out of necessity weren't impacted. The thing is though, I really don't think that makes it better, for a few reasons. For one, where do you draw the line at "opting" to get a cybernetic prosthetic? This isn't a black and white thing, even in real life. Most amputations are done out of necessity, but there are situations where it's not the only option, just the best one. Talking from personal experience, I lost both my legs below the knee as a baby, that was a pretty clear cut case, I had a blood infection and gangrene and they had to act fast. But the infection caused lasting side effects and impacted my physical body's development and growth. By the time I got to my early 20's it was causing a lot of pain in my right leg, in my knee specifically, and when I got a bone infection in the end of that stump, I chose to have the whole thing amputated up to the knee. They only needed to take a few inches off the end of my stump, but I asked them to go higher, because of the ongoing issues in that knee, issues that would have been made worse by the shortening of the leg. I choose to remove the whole thing, knowing the joint was degrading and I probably would have lost it later in life anyway. Even if it was salvageable, it would mean much more surgery, and I've had enough of those. A boy I played wheelchair basketball with was born with a partially formed leg, it was half the size of his other leg and he wasn't able to use it al all, it was just dead weight, so he opted to get it amputated too for convenience and so he could use a prosthetic on that side. I worked with a girl who's hand didn't form properly in the womb, resulting in a normal palm, but tiny "finger nubs" (her words) with no bones inside. They weren't actively harming her usually, but she opted to get them and the top of her palm amputated after an incident at work where we were tying balloons and one of her nubs got stuck in the knot. She decided to get them amputated because it meant accidents like that would be less likely, and she could use a prosthetic more comfortably. All 3 of these are considered "optional" amputations, so would people like us be penalised in your setting? does it make sense that the technology in your setting can tell the difference, or that corporations would care about the how and why? Even stepping away from medical grey areas, if your character opts for a cybernetic arm because the corporations will financially reward her, and she's struggling to put food on the table without that help, is that really optional?

Don't get me wrong, I do think that idea could work but it would take a lot of work to do well, and most works I've seen don't do the work. Even if they did though, it doesn't change the fact that most modern uses of this trope don't mention that bit or actively ignore it. It doesn't matter in most cyberpunk works I've seen if the amputation was optional or out of necessity, they still are more prone to being seen as "less human" and in most of the sci-fi writing communities I've been part of, the authors are genuinely shocked when I ask them to remember "people with cybernetics are real people already, they're not some far-off-distant future fantasy group, they're just called amputees". Like it didn't even cross their minds. These are the people creating the works in this genre. Even if it wasn't the original intention of the genre, it's still an issue in the modern version of it. Edit 2: Elaborated a little more on why I don't think the "only people who choose it" argument works in the edit. Also, please stop telling me that old cyberpunk doesn't have this issue, I literally address that in the post lol.

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crepey-pastries · 5 days ago

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Tell me if this sounds familiar:

"The Creepypasta Fandom is built by writers and artists!"

"The Creepypasta Fandom emphasizes writing and stories!"

"The Creepypasta Fandom values unique ideas and characters!"

"The Creepypasta Fandom needs to change!"

Did that last one hit you? Because if so, then Welcome to the Creepypasta Fandom! We've been saying that since 2015.

Click if Bored

The Creepypasta Fandom has been around since the 2010s. Back in the day, it was the epitome of fear and scary stories, it paved the way to horror for many fans alike, and it was a place different from other fandoms.

How so? Because it was governed by the Fans.

Something I think people tend to ignore or forget about the Creepypasta Fandom is that it was built BY the fans and writers. Video Game and Book Fandoms were spawned from someone else's creation, while Creepypasta Fandom was built on everyone's creation. The more you added to this fandom, the more content that was given, and yet somewhere along the line, people forgot about that tidbit.

The fandom went through a phase of overcorrection and a phase of trying to emulate these other fandoms when that wasn't the case. It was a unique space where it fell to the fans to create and grow it.

But what happens when a Fandom that NEEDS uniqueness to grow gets complacent? We get stagnation.

A problem this Fandom has that many are content to acknowledge but do nothing about is over the years in its formative time, the Fandom had gotten complacent prematurely and now is a nest for nostalgia but a drought for creativity.

Every year passes we should have a new crop of creators adding to the table and introducing characters and concepts yet for some reason our need for nostalgia has made us ignore these creators or brush past them because they didn't formulate our childhood. For some reason, we cling to familiarity while ignoring that new experiences bring growth and something else to the table.

Which it doesn't just go to in general, it goes to writing and drawing.

Writing in the Creepypasta Fandom.

If you're a writer in this fandom, you're going to notice two big things: 1. Nobody cares about your character and stories, and if they did, you really had to drag their heels into it. And 2. Writing about established characters gets you somewhere.

Writers in the Creepypasta Fandom often have to juggle between being noticed to begin with, and one of the codes they use to crack that is writing about the established characters; Headcanons, xReaders, Thirsts. It seems as though in this fandom, you have to bait readers with some stuff to then slowly coax them into reading your original content, and that's how you get them. Which on one hand is a method that's well and good and works but what this subconsciously tells writers is "I don't care what you have to offer originally, give me what I already know". Nostalgia is the currency as well, and how well people can write for nostalgic characters seems to matter a lot more than their own characters and stories, and this was what was perpetuated in this fandom.

People tend to forget the Creepypasta Fandom isn't one where a company is doing the heavy work for them to advertise and introduce new characters, concepts, or stories, WE have to do that. The fans are what pumps life INTO Creepypasta. But if you keep giving them stale blood or the same old, same old, it's not going to grow or flourish.

But it just doesn't go there; Ironically for a fandom that emphasizes a bunch of outcast characters, it has a very clique-y outlook on them. A very juvenile "You can't sit with us" outlook that is emphasized even more with the Canon vs. Non Canon arguments that infest this community like fleas on a rat. We as a community don't stand together. To this day, we are still arguing these same arguments, and THAT is why people see this Fandom as a joke. Because we're constantly contradicting ourselves and have this clique mindset that needs to die.

You should be able to write your characters, OCs, with 'established' characters, especially since the Creepypasta Fandom is much more loose and free than a typical fandom would be.

Which brings us to another point-

Drawing and Art in the Creepypasta Fandom.

There was a confession that mentioned this and one I feel is quite true but this Fandom, as much as it likes to spout that it's all about creativity, is not quite as receptive to artists as it pretends to be and that's because, like so many other fandoms, art doesn't matter unless it looks good or it's drawing what the main public wants. You can claim ANYTHING is canon here as long as you can draw good, and that's a very notable thing. Propping people on a pedestal or only listening to people with better art isn't a right thing, but it was something common in this fandom and something we need to check. Just because someone has talent doesn't mean they're someone you should be prone to everything for or listen to. Especially since most of these CrP Creators of Old were artists, and we've seen how many turned out to be freaks. We need to be careful.

But something else I noticed and I think we should consider is that fanart seems to get you farther but especially well drawn fanart. Much like writing the 'Nostalgic Characters' gets you more attention, drawing them gets attention and I think we should point out the fact that you also have to coax people into liking your content through drawing nostalgic characters which shouldn't be something we have to do. People are too attached to nostalgia and familiarity here. They are prone to ignore new characters if the art isn't perfect or the art isn't familiar and as such artists also have to struggle because even if they offer something new to the community they're still prone to being ignored for it.

And it's this stuff that actually helped answer the question: Is Creepypasta about Writing?

Which in my opinion, it is not. Creepypasta has reached a point where it's no longer about writing or introducing new characters and would rather perpetuate the "Status Quo is God" mentality that avoids change than dive into the unpredictability of new characters.

People like nostalgia. And nostalgia is a comfort, it's good. But too much of it, and you get complacent. And THAT is where Creepypasta Fandom is right now. It's TOO safe, it's TOO stagnant creatively. It doesn't want to color outside the lines, and that's literally what makes it a hollowed place. Or empty in a way. Even with the people here, we're all lost in a forest calling out to each from afar because our flashlights don't reach far enough to find each other. It's all complacent.

But Can the Fandom Grow From This is the Question?

And to that, I say; Maybe. Nostalgia is a golden teat everyone is STILL suckling on even now. We all like to gripe and complain, but putting into practice, into our actions is the hard part since sitting on the sidelines is easier.

What we should be doing is:

Looking for more horror stories and information on obscure characters.. Even if the title doesn't grip you immediately, give the horror stories a chance. Read them, see if they can change your mind. Reading is a wonderful thing, but reading with the purpose of finding better stories is better. Read more horror stories, learn about characters. This fandom was built on OCs, open your mind to them.

Draw more OCs and uplift each other's characters. Stop seeing them as competition. We all draw and write OCs, and we should be open and respectful of them. We should be building each other up instead of digging into what's familiar.

And lastly, STOP clinging to nostalgia under the "If it's not broke" motif. That's an excuse to not put effort to get creative in writing and drawing, and it needs to stop. "If it's not broke, don't fix it," doesn't apply creatively. Writing and Drawing are ALL ABOUT expansion and exploring corners. Stop waiting for someone to write your canon. Do it yourself and and don't be afraid to color outside the lines.

I think if we did this a little more, people wouldn't be prone to flit in and out of here as much as they do.

#creepypasta #crp #creepypasta fandom #crp fandom #Crepey-Discusses

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