#stop blaming fandom creators for your morality problems

[brightlotusmoon]

[brightlotusmoon]

I don't understand the concept of pro shippers and antis. Like I have some ships that are really problematic and some that aren't. Like I get people hating certain things like, I have certain things that I don't like. Am I weird though? For it? Cause I have some weird ships. Age gap doesn't really bother me. Especially if they fictional. Or like cartoon characters. In live action things I get if if the characters were actually kid actors. That I get. But most of the time I'm just shipping the adult actors with who their characters are playing am I making sense? Most of the time for cartoons and shows they usually have adults playing the characters. So why is it a big deal to write smut or other stuff? I don't know. Am I making sense or is their something wrong with me? Just all this pro and anti stuff just makes me paranoid and my ocd bad. Like am I bad? I don't see myself as either cause I feel lik it's broad a term.

I'm with you. These concepts didn't exist when I entered fandom. I'm still trying to figure things out.

All I know is that the phrase "these turtles are underage and brothers" is something I never expected to see with my own eyes from when the antishippers infested the Ninja Turtles fandom. I got accused of being complicit in pedophilia and threatened with a purging or whatever they thought would scare me. This is a fandom based on a parody, with animal humanoids that barely have human type biologies, let alone ones that can be compared to humans. Do you understand how ridiculous this sounds? I just typed it and I'm completely baffled.

From what I gather, the anti side is desperate for control over something, anything, and flailing for the flimsiest straws they can grasp. The pro side appears to be chilling, playing with fictional representations of the human (ish) condition, occasionally declaring little wars over which ship is better. Really fun analytical threads. Sometimes I feel squicked by a ship or a theme, so I stop reading.

And the neutrals - I guess that's me - are standing off to the side passing around popcorn.

*hands you popcorn*

In conclusion, I have no goddamn clue, but I'm here for the ride.

(But I will say this: I will write that poly smut fic one day and damned if a whiny threat from a miserable teenager halfway across the country will give me pause.)

[mdhwrites]

Why I Think The Owl House Got Shortened

I have three theories and literally none of them of them have jack shit to do with the representation. I think people who think The Owl House got cancelled for that haven’t been paying attention to Disney at all, want a reason to hate a corporation that hates them (because this is by no means calling Disney an ally. They’re evil) and ignores that Disney has been using representation as a marketing and distraction tool for YEARS now. Besides, Disney has to approve everything TOH does and they still let the Lumity kiss happen. They still allowed Luz to do her bi presentation at the start of season three. Moscha is blatantly non-binary. These are all good things and all things Disney let through. If Disney hated the show as much as people claim, at least for the representation, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED. Moving on. These will be in order of what I think is most plausible btw and these are all just theories. Theory 1: Dana pisses some people off with her treatment of S1. The fandom knew REALLY early on that Dana didn’t like the first of Season 1 and that she blamed changes enforced by Disney for it. Mind you, I joined the fandom when S1 was ALL WE HAD. As far as a content creator’s job to promote that which they make, let alone the DIRECTOR of the show, saying “Hey, half of what is out, the first half, is not great,” is kind of a dick move to your own creation. Say that once there’s five seasons, a dedicated fandom, etc. like that? Go right the the fuck ahead. That’s not going to stop most people who are watching the show and half a season in return for nine times that amount in good content is a trade some will make. I would not be surprised if this ended up really annoying some of the people at Disney and eroded trust they had in Dana. That would have made the budget cuts made during Covid easier to choose because you have a show where the creator itself is causing problems in its numbers. Theory 2: Disney decided they’d been lied to and that the show wasn’t what it was pitched as and they didn’t want the new version. So if we go off of the pilot, and the unreleased pilot for that matter, what would be a good description of the thesis of the show? What is the elevator pitch that gets a network to start producing it? For TOH it’s actually pretty simple and you can see why current Disney wanted it. “We want to do a fantasy comedy show where a young girl goes to another world where she learns life lessons and magic. The comedy is predicated mostly on subversion of fantasy tropes.” As Disney has been loving itself some subversion of its own tropes, that’s pretty appealing since it also works well as a kid’s show and Amphibia was also approved. But... How true is that of TOH? Season 1 at least tries to do lessons about morality but more often than not, Luz learns nothing. Or the lessons get muddled because Eda is a terrible person in S1. The comedy also isn’t clever in any way with its subversions and there’s also plenty of fantasy in TOH that is reliant on the excuses and the like of fantasy. It’s really nothing special in that regard even while it mocks fantasy. But the worst part is the magic for Luz. The Intruder and Adventure in the Elements aren’t bad but one DOESN’T have a lesson for Luz and if it does, the other uses similar mistakes she made in The Intruder to cause the problems that happen. Also nothing really comes of “There’s magic everywhere” in that episode so there are two glyphs that don’t really have any meaning behind them. But then it doubles down in Grom where Luz just gets the plant glyph at the beginning because *shrug* and then Winging it Like Witches gives her the fire glyph. You CAN make a case that this gives her an arsenal so she can do more with the adventure aspect (I would argue this is not a good thing because it means she needs to be less clever with her magic, which happens in the season finale and opener for S2) so they can brush that off. Maybe. But then Escaping Expulsion happens. Not only is it exceptionally anti-parents for Amity without proper build up or the like ON DISNEY but it nukes Luz’s arc with magic without Luz even interacting properly with the B plot of the episode. She is not involved in the ending of her own journey in becoming a witch. And for anyone who wants to say “The glyph combos could that...” Dana would have had to show that the script and boards for the very next episode included “Here is barely an explanation for how I now have INVISIBILITY. The bigger explanation is ‘It’s magic, I don’t have to explain it’“ Which is usually the number 1 complaint about fantasy writing. And your subversive comedy just used it over and over again for the main character’s arc with magic, especially for why it’s as strong as it is. At that point, you ask for a meeting to discuss just what you’re actually getting as a company and how much more of it you want. Theory 3: TOH is expensive to make, even for an animated cartoon, and Covid hit so it was decided to be made shorter for long term budget cuts, especially since S2 looked even more expensive. So... This has a lot to just do with the fact that TOH’s magic especially is very budget unfriendly. Gus, Willow and Amity all practice forms of magic that cause secondary entities to appear with them and can continue to move after the initial cast. So now you have a far more complex scene because you need to track Gus’ illusions, Amity’s abominations, Willow’s plants and those are just those three covens. Pretty much all of the coven magics have this issue. The only ones that kind of avoid this are potions and power glyphs. Also, quick side note: Power GLYPHS. Not going into it here but there’s a reminder that TOH’s magic sucks and does not feel planned out. Speaking of glyphs: Those don’t really help. Yes, those are at least static but Luz also demonstrates that they allow for quick casting so that’s a lot of new elements and half of her glyphs still leave behind debris that the animator and artists have to keep in mind as the fight goes on. This is why a lot of times, even in a show with a lot of magic, you might have the dude who specializes in artifacts or weaponry or goes into a special mode where he just glows a bit and gets buff. All of that is WAY simpler than literally anytime the witches in TOH cast magic, let alone for the big set pieces TOH likes to do. Dana’s penchant for outfit swaps doesn’t help either. After all, you work with a TEAM of animators. You have to make the notes for them of how the new outfit works on the character. Works in specific lighting. What if it gets wet? Etc. like that. That stuff takes time and money to hammer out but if you don’t do it then the character looks off model and shifts more between artists because there’s unifying document. HOW MANY OUTFIT SWAPS ARE IN SEASON 2? And how many of them are permanent, or at least for a good number of episodes, so this work is more required than a one off outfit? In general, there’s a lot about TOH honestly, from how populated it is, how it handles magic, how it handles outfits, etc. like that makes it feel honestly expensive. It’s a GOOD looking show after all but that effort, and especially those high quality set pieces that are obviously made with a high frame rate essentially (drawn on 2s or 1s instead of 3s I think is what one would say? I’m not an animator)? It could just be that it stressed its budget, Disney looked at that, looked at Covid and decided that in the long term, they didn’t want to keep spending this type of money on this show so they shortened because they had a contract with Dana that demanded 3 seasons and the specials were the closest way to ending that contract early. Those are my thoughts. My theories with what little business knowledge I have and putting myself in Disney’s shoes. One thing you might notice is that I didn’t do a quality call on it because quality very rarely matters to corporations. What matters is views, costs and profit. If quality mattered, Teen Titans Go would be dead because it is THE WORST. Like it literally teaches bad morals which is about as bad as a kid’s show can get. So why would it matter for TOH?

[intrulogical]

tbh kind of a harsh one about the fandom (and maybe should not even get published) but i feel like all the content creators that were worthwhile ended up leaving. i kinda feel like youre one of the remnants of the fans that had real serious and interesting discussions to have about the show and thats why i love your blog so much. and no offense to everyone else still in the fandom, they make what they enjoy, but it all feels like fun unrelated aus, or borderline-oc out of character art or fics, and absolutely no thoughts on the real characters or show anymore. which is fair enough since. yknow there hasnt BEEN anything new to talk about. but i LOVE what the fandom used to be with people like rondoel and thoriffix and angel-archivist and erstwhilesky. but idk. maybe i just grew out of it. but i wanted to hear your thoughts on this since u encapsulate what i really wanted this fandom to be, and if u feel the same way at all. also idk if this ask got off track sorry </3

awh my dude :(((

its okay, dont be sorry!! i really feel the struggle you feel </33 but i'm glad i got to offer stuff you enjoy, because honestly, i miss these sides of the sanders sides fandom too :((

i don't think you're being harsh about your general assumptions on the fandom. to me, i think the fandom has always had fans who make more ooc, au-related content, but we always had that lucky few who really analyze and the dissect the series for what it is. and now, well, i feel like it's much rarer to find.

don't get me wrong, the fandom's lovely, but i think we accidentally became too obsessed with the idea that we were the first "perfect" fandom that we normalized toxic black and white thought processes, which made a lot of us just. not consume sanders sides for what it's worth.

the interpretations of sanders sides has honestly gotten so shallow for what it is. sanders sides discusses mental health, philosophy, psychology, moral dilemmas, and just. a lot of stuff that people go through that they didn't realize was a problem with a viable solution. it's funny to think that sanders sides discusses black and white thinking but its fandom is JUST like it. the fandom infantalizes the characters when virgil has spoken out about it. we've attributed these characters to such batshit unrealistic unsympathetic headcanons which warp our view on them.

and i don't know. it's kind of disheartening, sometimes, because we're given such an amazing and well-crafted series and all fans do is woobify or villainize the characters. we don't see the established depth that's already there.

i can't blame past content creators for leaving, but for those who stayed, i really hope that you really embrace the series for what it's worth. i don't mean digging deep and analyzing characters for every breath they take, but just. understanding what thomas informs us of. internalizing the lessons the characters present to us. it just feels like a waste, if we see these characters as nothing but ragdolls for us to throw around.

of course, i don't mean we should stop making au's and personal headcanons, but i just mean like. appreciate sanders sides for what it is first before you do.

[westiefromtheeast]

I stayed up way too late reading most of the discourse over Wiggle and Gramble’s relationship in the game...

...but now it’s next afternoon, so if you’ll please allow it, here is my opinion on this whole thing after witnessing both sides’ arguments:

-Wiggle is NOT a predator/abusive/toxic.

-Gramble is a young adult who is fully capable of standing up for himself.

-There is not enough proof that the ages in the Reddit AMA were a typo.

-On a *personal* level, the supposed age gap between the two (while not predatory) is uncomfortable. THAT is why it bothers me, NOT the fact that Wiggle is black-coded or has a black VA.

-Wiggle is well-aware of her dynamic over Gramble and while not abusive, tests that relationship by trying to steal Bugsnax. If she had been successful and had passed the blame onto the others who had also stolen from Gramble, it means Wiggle knows how harmful the repercussions of this act are for him, no matter who is guilty/perceived guilty.

-People on either side of this argument have blown it way out of proportion and it sucks to see. Being brand-new to the fandom and having it already be soured is not a fun ride.

And the wildest part of this? My first impression of Wiggle was extremely positive! She’s sweet, funny, and a fantastic singer. Even when I found the AMA, my post talking about it didn’t even focus on Wiggle and Gramble! Shortly after though, certain takes started to seep into my mind and once again, just like Hazbin Hotel before it, people got so loud about it that I wasn’t sure what to think anymore.

But that’s the problem. People should be able to come to their own conclusions about the media they consume. The stress that comes from the fear that “Am I on the wrong side? Am I missing something that others have noticed? Am I naïve? Stupid?” is too much to bear on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

If you are at an age where you have experienced enough to develop your own moral code or beliefs, don’t let others shake them up too easily. The best method is always calm, civil discussion. No harassment, no bashing, no vitriol. Speaking as a 31-year old, I still very obviously struggle with forming wishy-washy opinions based on what other fans are saying about the media/creator in question.

This is the first fandom issue where I stopped and fully researched it before making *this* post. That being said, I will admit to posting hasty (not rude) comments on YT that have since been deleted, solely so that I could step back and take in everything to ultimately make an INFORMED final opinion.

If you support the ship and make content for it, that’s fine. If you are uncomfortable with the supposed age gap and have Wiggle and Gramble become eventual friends, that’s fine too. People are gonna holler about it either way. What matters is that you stick to what you believe and as long as you’re properly informed by your own research, not what others are spouting.

[brightlotusmoon]

2024: it's amazing we have to explain these things.

A couple of people have asked me the same question here: if I have friends that found out about my niche fandom preferences and they hate those things, would I be upset if they broke off our friendship?

And... I want to say I would feel upset. But I'd mainly be very very confused, exasperated, and... kind of half full of spite? Because if you decide to damage your friendship over that sort of thing, especially when you know that the person, let's call them the shipper, has always been a good moral person and knows the damn difference between fiction and real life, what was your friendship really based on?

Okay, example: I made friends with a few folks on Facebook based solely on mutual love of a TV show. A year or so later I started talking about a popular headcanon close to my heart that apparently one person took deep offense to, and she started sending me ugly messages about my enjoyment, telling me I was a terrible person, and pretty much harassed me into blocking her, because she didn't want to block me because "it would be too easy of a victory" - and I had no clue she had that mindset. It wasn't so much upsetting or sad as it was startling.

It's essentially about emotional regulation and maturity: can we conduct ourselves in a civil manner rather than turn into petty children on playground squabbling over personal preferences that have no real consequence beyond what we make.

If someone stops being friendly to me because I read fanfiction themes they don't like, that's literally their own problem to work through. Especially because I don't discuss what I like to read with people who don't want to talk about it. I'd really prefer to have small social circles for different "likes" rather than people I would just tell about everything in my life. And I think a lot of younger people in fandom need to keep that in mind. Not all your friends need to be in on all your tastes.

Which is especially a good reminder for my autistic and ADHD brain, since special interests and hyperfixations can easily take over.

[brightlotusmoon]

"So, my philosophy at this point is to make myself happy. I just want to make music that makes me feel good, and if you don't like it, I didn't make it for you. If you do like it, welcome to the club." - Singer T-Pain, via This Is Pop, Ep2 Auto-Tune

[thattimdrakeguy]

I couldn’t finish Batman and Robin 2009. It was just... mentally exhausting and I stopped shortly after Bat Dick put fake Bruce in the Lazarus pit. Based on his appearances in Teen Titans, Bruce Wayne: Road Home, as well as his big fan base, I assumed Damian’s character development was executed nicely in his own series. But then again in Gates of Gotham (literally read it just for Cass) he’s impulsive, arrogant and rude to Cass both to her face and behind her back-even after she saved his life 1

Don’t get me started on the sexist things he’s said to Steph. I want to like Damian, but writers don’t make it easy. I got into comics because of batfam fanfics and he was a fave of mine. Dude was extra violent and displayed borderline sociopathic tendencies in his first appearances, cool beans. There’s a lot they can do with a character like that. I just felt like his bad behaviour was never properly dealt with before B&R, and I couldn’t muster the energy to see him through his own series. 2/2

IMO, Damian felt like a Gary Stu at times.

I don’t know if that last one was from the same person or not, but I just got the feeling it is, and if it’s not, then well it blends well enough and don’t feel the need to answer it separately.

Like all I can really say is that I don’t really like Damian. A lot of people confuse that for me thinking he’s an evil monster. I imagine cause I have a Tim icon and other Tims do rage on about that every now and again. As well as just plain taking things I say the wrong way (though I have probably said things in the moment I imagine). But I just plain don’t really like his writing, and if I can’t really read a comic he’s in that I actually like. Idk, I just find it weird to say I like him, when all I really like is what he could be. I don’t feel like that really equals me liking him, cause when I think about it, I kinda realized that meant the opposite, and didn’t wanna project the wrong idea.

But I wanna say this about Damian. He is insanely inconsistent as a personality and character. To this very day. So, as I do with every character, I start from the beginning, figure out what was meant to be by the writers that helped develop them, and figure out what’s in-character and out of character from there. I just feel like it’s the most objective way I can look at anything if I want to review things with standards that are more than just “I like this” or “I don’t like that”.

And in the case of Damian he’s never not been inconsistent. Like one of the main reasons I reread Batman and Robin (or at least Morrison’s run) was for plans of a post about flanderization in the Bat-Family, cause it was pretty rampant in the 00s and still continues often to this very day, and I think is the cause of a lot of lost sales and unhappiness and overall fandom diminishment.

However also to say it, I liked to see a lot of what Damian could be within B&R 09.

But anyways, basically just because I can’t really do a part of the post on Damian without trying to figure out what he was like to begin with, and what he was supposed to be per his creator.

Cause you can’t really tell in fandom. Cause his most popular comics are from stuff that isn’t in the main universe and was purposely a lot lighter, or in the main universe from writers that really surprisingly didn’t get the character despite the popularity--which continues my thinking on it was less about the quality of the writing and more about the lazy fan service. They honestly really flanderized him in a similar yet opposite way then what they did with Tim in the 00s.

And while I can’t act like the sexism and homophobia wasn’t an actual part of the character of Damian at the time--he shows both of those traits in the series (at least the homophobia, cause I’m now realizing that I might be thinking of another series for the sexism). He was flanderized even then by other writers from the different series.

Like how he’s written in Red Robin, is not freaking Damian. It’s not Damian to me. I don’t accept it as Damian. Even a lot of the content of him in Batgirl I even less feel like is Damian--besides unfortunately some of the sexist comments, but they never really proper developed him on that as far as like--actively showing that, at least that I can recall. So all I can really say is it’s uncomfortable, and how they don’t delve into it is the only real reason I say “That actually sadly does fit in with him”. But it’s not like it doesn’t make sense, he was raised to fight, not to handle emotions or feelings, he probably would do and say really creepy things when he has a crush--I just wish they’d actually acknowledge that what was going on rather than sacrificing a good story for more fan service.

The other writers make him too much of a bratty, snotty, kid. And I found that, that is an absolutely terrible interpretation of Damian, because beyond his origin, he isn’t a typical brat, and he doesn’t really act like a kid (in some ways yes, but general mannerisms and personality no). And even then he was a different kind of brat. He was entitled and bitchy in his origin, not immature (at least in the same way) and snotty. They have him act more like some spoiled brat from next door rather than a kid that was abused into being obedient to be what his abusive mother wanted (Talia shouldn’t be abusive, but like I said before, I think the series sucked overall for reasons like that and more).

(I also find that stupid line cutting scene in RR where I presume he was trying to kill Tim to be even stupider, cause Damian wouldn’t freaking do that at that point. They make Damian come off as so stupid in that issue, I hate it. Cause it was all just a cheap way to force sympathy for him, but it doesn’t even make sense when you think about it and is a huge stretch.)

Damian doesn’t make jokes when he’s written better--it’s like his thing. He’s got quite the temper, and understandably why of course. He’s violent with criminals, but he’s also mostly just stoic as his base state when not in a stressed situation, and even shows remorse (which is a big stretch from his origin, but I blame that on the writing which could be very rushed and lazy). He was treated like just another adult for the most part, and it had a weirdly endearing quality despite the maturity of it, and general edge of the series. It was Damian’s place and it worked really well. It just felt right for their dynamics. Damian’s a unique kid, and they respected him for who he was. He just needed help on his morals and stability.

But other series didn’t really get that. He would still be really rude like his origin, and not really the same tone of rudeness (I’m not sure if I can really explain what I mean by that), he’s aggressive, but putting him in Teen Titans never made sense to me, because I don’t see Dick doing that. Dick had a lot more respect than to force Damian to do something like that. Dick was more patient, and while he did lightly smack (not any kind to hurt him any. literally to demonstrate without pain. more taps really) him to teach him a point about aesthetical weaknesses in his costume like the hood, it was mostly done out of finding a way to teach him that would speak to him. So just forcing him to do something he didn’t want to do--which would clearly not work on him--was just contrived and plain bad writing wise. Something they did more as a stunt so they can say “TITANS NOW HAS THE SON OF BATMAN” than to use him well or continue his story in a natural way.

With Cass I can’t say anything, because that’s like the one time he talks to her, and that basically shows their dynamic. So that’s just them, I can’t really say anything on it. If he felt challenged by her I could see him being a total jerk. It really depends on the scenes themselves. I never read the series myself cause I genuinely really don’t like that Batman Reborn era of Bat-Family. Too much of it was just done for publicity and random changes, and for the most part didn’t work much to me.

But overall, at the same time, despite me singing the praises of what Damian could be, and was for a little while. The overall writing for the character arc was super lazy. Stuff just kind of happens, and way too quick to fit in with what they introduced. He just kind of goes “this is right, now”, which makes his whole brainwashing thing feel a bit--useless, and makes how he went from chopping heads off to that in very little time sort of cuts out depth that could’ve really made the series more rereadable. Damian actually comes off surprisingly as a very flat character for stretches of time in the issues because his character arc is never focused on as much as you’d think until they need to be like “Oh yeah...uh, here’s an emotional moment”. Which just felt really cheap to me.

So the series to me isn’t worth it if you want a good story. None of the stories were good to me, I think I was questioning each one cause it was either schlocky, out of character, or both. I know people like Grant Morrison, but they aren’t for me, I’m not a fan of their writing. Damian was a Gary Stu a lot, which they try to explain with the League thing--but having the League give him experimental surgery so he could walk the same day (or next) after being legitimately paralyzed was just way too freaking much to me. But he does make mistakes, so he’s not at base a Gary Stu really--the writing just really stunk badly sometimes.

This isn’t me putting in a bid to say “OH YOU JUST NEED TO READ THIS, AND YOU’LL FREAKING LOVE HIM”, because to be freaking honest, when you already have a bad taste in your mouth, it’s best to just wait a bit till trying again. I read the fandom recommended comics and felt there was so many problems that I couldn’t read Damian for literal months. And he still has a lot of the problems you said. I’m just saying Damian is surprisingly different when written by his creator than others, cause honestly nearly every single other writer for him has gotten him wrong. Like mind-blowingly wrong. He does not feel like the same character anywhere else. It’s nuts.

To put it another way, it’s a generally speaking bad series, but if you want to see what Damian was meant to be like before they kept regressing him, and diminishing him, and turning him into more a joke, and see what his dynamic with Dick and Alfred was meant to be like, it’s a brilliant and perfect series to read it for.

It’s better for learning about them--then it actually is to enjoy it. Because it’s most likely not a series I’m going to be returning too often unless to research something again.

[glorioustidalwavedefendor]

The Loki fandom literally sees the Loki who died at the hands of his abuser as a fucking lost cause, as too traumatized to live because he never found his was…as weak.

I feel like this is a big part of it

Peolpe don't like trauma survivors, because it reminds them that it can happen to them

-> that's why they are always looking to blame the victim, because that means they can be in controll, they can make sure they will never be abused because they don't deserve it ...

The trick, though, is that every (victim) stops being “good” once they decide to resist abuse, and so no victim could ever be good enough to avoid scrutiny.

That's also why they want trauma suvivors to be gratefull that they got traumatized

-> made them stronger ...

Because like that there is a point to it all and it isn't just random shit that happens randomly and is out of your controll

Also, removing the victim from an abusive situation and locking them up is easier then resolving it

Because obviuosly the victim is the problem

-> they are the once to speak up after all, if they had stayed quiet all would have been fine

so hiding the evidence (victim) solves the problem

And finally

Loki had to be gone beyond redemption, because if not ... if he wasn't 200% undiluted evil/to damaged to safe

Then the way he was treated was wrong and cruel and the fact that no one tried to help him is unforgivable

So just killing him off ties a nice ribbon around this wreck and they can stop bothering and start over

or as @everything-you-feel-is-real put it:

When you take that mentality and then try to introduce the concept of a redemption arc, very often the redemption will come in various sublimated forms of the same beating we cheered for when Bad Guy made us scared and needed to be stopped. Redemption comes in the form of suffering and being painted as bad and scary way beyond what's morally or logically defensible. Because that's the need the creators keep defaulting to even when the narrative has moved way past it. Because this character is Wrong Kid and Wrong Kid's role in society is to be scary and hated and get beat up. The perspective never shifts to his own.

Is it me or do people in this fandom sound…relieved that the “better, nicer, and more healed” Loki replaced the one we originally followed, especially post finale. When this fandom remembers that series!Loki is a variant- they talk about OG Loki like he was a “lost cause” or that he’d “never be actualized and healed like Loki post finale”, this fandom is so, so, soooo happy and relieved to get rid of OG Loki to replace him with their “good boy”…..and it depresses me.

The Loki fandom literally sees the Loki who died at the hands of his abuser as a fucking lost cause, as too traumatized to live because he never found his was…as weak. And it really makes me remember why I always avoid it.

Istg, It’s lonely preferring OG Loki over the “self actualized Loki who finally found his place in the world and became the biggest hero ever!” Loki…

Loki was always nice, he was at the very least always polite. Remember how he talked to the people under the mindstone control? He talk to them in a calm, pretty much friendly manner.

Yeah, Loki was confrontational to Thor, his brothers, the person he was in direct conflict with. People need to understand Loki was never mean or a jerk like that. He was mad at his family because their lies and hypocrisy and refusal to listen to him. But Loki has never been mean to just the regular people around him.

Thor 2011 showed how much Loki was protecting the W4 throughout the battle and they don't even like. Even in the series when their on the planet Loki instinctively shielding Sylvie from harm, because that just who he is.

I have no idea where this "healed" thing comes from. Loki has no chance to heal, or even get confront everything he truly lost. That's all been shoved aside for Sylvie and loom bull****.

I'm sure someone just said "healed" in an interview so now fans repeat in ad nauseam

[floralkittygambler]

Reposting for reasons

Response to Honest’s post here: Doing this to spread this awareness more as I know theres a bit of a rift in the critical community - plus I really fucking go on. Im PISSED and I do apologise however it NEEDS urgent addressing. I know people will hate me for it but Im used to hate and honestly? Hating rather than helping to solve the issue only furthers my fucking point here. So yeah this is so more people are aware (no offense to any of those involved in said rift either, but this is an important message. Thank you for understanding and if I can do anything to make all sides comfortable, then please message me and I’ll do my upmost.) “ More awareness of this is needed. Even if it’s your favourite, you can’t justify their shit but rally against another’s shit. Have people tell you you’re experiences arent real or invalid because, like Husk, people have - in real life - shipped you with someone you are far from comfortable with but you still treat them like a person. Because you have basic respect. And people force you to accept harassment, touching, stalking, advances for THEIR satisfaction. People use you for their fantasies. But you’re just a ‘tsundere’ for it. Or you have addiction issues but people think being with another addict will ‘save’ you because you’re apparently too incompetent to save yourself. Love isnt some magic fuckin cure so stop romanticising it as a fuckin saviour. It’s gross and fuckin creepy. Get stalked and have someone NEVER accept your no just because you show youre still decent enough to not treat them shitty or any different from anyone else. Try having someone way older or way younger (both in morally fucked up ways) advance on you and people encourage that. People you’re supposed to feel safe around.

People touch you when you pull away or show discomfort. Follow you home. Have pictures of you and wont accept you dont like them like that and it’s not ‘playing hard to get’ or ‘the thrill of the chase’. Fuck. OFF. In fact, Im not only disappointed in the fandom. Im disappointed in the entire team who some should know better from their OWN personal experiences - or at least the bare minimal of being a fucking adult. Im disappointed in especially females (sorry idk whether girl or woman is more appropriate here-) who statistically are more likely to have experienced something similar at some point in their lives think this is a cute gay moment. No. Angel is made out as a fucking predator - Im not saying he is, Im saying that his persistence is very fucking unwelcome like one. People like Husk dont need that fucking invasiveness. They/We need patience and someone on our level. Angel’s I know are the fuckin polar opposite - and some of them I know are very sexually harassing, including unwanted touching. It’s a shitty way to present gay people. Gays are fuckin people. Some are cunts and some arent. It’s a HUMAN thing. But considering the shit theyve been subjected to, presenting a gay as a victim only to also show them as a perpetrator is insulting! And for those Ive seen argue this about how people like AD wouldnt know how to express their love normally and whatnot? His pig. His best friend. He’s in his fucking 30s. There are literal real life criminals who get molested as kids and then go on to molest kids. Not all who grow up like that turn into nonces. Stop just fucking STOP justifying and romanticising this bullshit! I used to see the good in AD but now he makes me fucking sick. Especially with my verrrrrry fucking real traumas and connections. But fuck me, eh? Because this fictional guy matters so much more. Fuck real victims. And whilst we’re at it, fuck AD too when it suits your fetishes! Sarcasm aside, the fans and the team need to straighten up their abhorrent behaviour. Stolas. Fucking clearly having an affair, knowingly fucking up his daughter’s mental health and bribing a guy into sex who only wants the book and nothing more. He even has a fucking warning button over Stolas- Guys, how do you think any of this is cute? Even the team gross me out- I genuinely see potential and talent and it’s all gone to shit to satisfy horny teens, horny adults, and literally everyone who doesnt for the life of them understand being an adult is more than sex, drugs, violence and swears! I REALLY want to keep enjoying HB/HH but it’s getting harder and harder with such ignorant and bordering lazy creators (note: lazy as in wont do the fucking research or actually listen to real criticism and victims), such despicable fans (yeah, some HDers fuckin mocked that they triggered my ED, yet they had the fucking NERVE to support Angel’s potential ED AND laugh and blame me for me getting treated so badly for actually having the balls to call Angel and the teams hypocrisy. I got told to kill myself, that my problems arent real - oh but Angels apparently is! Which... They *are* but AD isnt real so technically only onlookers will suffer and not a drawing  - and they just excused their toxic behaviours. These people are like “aww poor angie babey!” yet fuckin INSULT sex workers. All this red in Hazbin yet it feels everyone and they mama colour blind. The issues are getting worse and fans are outright becoming EVIL, VILE, Vindictive little bullies - from kids to adults. You SHOULD be ashamed of yourself if you conduct yourself in such a manner. And you need to readjust your attitudes and behaviours because the only fuckers getting hurt are actual fucking victims. Ever been violated and been gaslit so much you STILL fucking question it’s reality? So you drown that shit out yet somehow it’s effects still hit you? Fetishise it. Make it your uwu gae couple goals, you’re no better than people believing Harley and the Joker werent toxic af. If this shit happened to you, most of you would actually SEE where we’re all coming from. Also, stop making gay a fetish - you’re like those creepy old men in the alley heckling lesbians to make out so they can wank off. Gays, no ALL the LGBT+ are fucking people too. So dont give me that bullshit then start turning everything just gay or just straight to mentally wank off to. It’s degrading and dehumanising. And yes, fiction does effect reality. You crush on a fictional character? Mourn one? Support one? Hell, fuckin jerk off to one - that’s affecting reality. Remember how in fiction all blacks were treated as villians? Look how theyre treated IRL. JAWS, great classic unfortunately their was a spike in shark killings over a fucking movie - the shark in the movie wasnt even real for the most part because they dont behave like that! (Also the animatronic was so shit they genuinely had so many issues - I think they even took to naming each one! Some fun trivia there!). Tiger sharks are more nasty than great whites as tiger sharks will hunt and eat a human. Great whites prefer seals and dislike human flesh, they just mistake us for seals. Hell, theres the toothless basking shark - theyre often SWAM WITH by divers for being so friendly. Yet Jaws made people think all sharks are bloodlusting over humans. Slenderman was created for a fucking contest and that influenced a stabbing (NOT Victor’s fault). Watch a horror movie that isnt based on a real life event and tell me that at least ONE has left you peaking over your shoulder. Stella may be a bitch - we dont know for certain - but try getting cheated on. Y’know what? Try growing up in such a broken home like Octavia. Yeah reaaaaaal fucking cute now, huh? Funny how as well y’all petition for male victims to be taken seriously then laugh when fictional males experience this abuse, further adding to stigma. You can be hit on by the hottest mf on the planet but if you arent interested, that should be respected! Also we’ve all been inspired by at least one fictional character so yeah. Yknow, since I was little Ive been fighting for sex worker and homeless rights. But HH/HB treatment of both leave a bitter taste in my mouth. I’ll still fully support sex workers and the homeless, but that’s the fucking effect this show is having. Bearing in mind I wont ever share everything Ive been through - and I shouldnt fucking have to in order to be believed and validated (obvs proof is required in a legal case but that’s a whole other topic). Why should I share MY fucking pain especially when you fuckers have belittled and triggered it more so? We have our rights to our secrets but fuck ME you lot NEED to start acting appropriately and like decent fucking humans. ‘iTs HeLl’ yeah and welcome to Earth- the team and yourselves live HERE. You obide by THESE rules. And as someone with beliefs (and a LOT of ancient fucking texts and studies on this shit) their Hell isnt even a proper Hell! It’s closer to purgatory and even then it’s not. Regardless, it’s a poorly built world with the lore consistently changing per episode and tweet, with many plot holes, and is apparently easy to get into - even via accidentally watching porn according to a stream. If youre gonna parade youre a fucking expert and research into demonology and use real believed figures, at least get THAT right. In fact, Lucifer and Lilith (and Stolas tbf) are ESPECIALLY risky as theyre a lot more complex than most easy access texts will tell you. Likewise, Stolas’s first introduction and main focus is sex. He’s one of the FEW Goetia demons that dont have some involvement in relationship issues at ALL. He’s known for astrology, crystals and herbs but hes also known to aid MONEY troubles (it’s lesser known but it’s true! HB Stolas is an insult to the Prince). Turning Vodou into something evil is vile considering it’s powerful and liberated slaves. Pentagrams are nothing to do with Satan, they’re magic based sigils. Upside down cross is the symbol of a SAINT. It’s just some edgy attempt to trick people into believing they know more than they do. Also you should NEVER dabble and doodle sigils without knowing the meanings or respecting what they behold. Vox and Val, real fuckin cute way to make them look like a stupid fucking highschool drama instead of a fucking SEX TRAFFICKER (note: real pimps often target YOUNG folks too - aka minors - and groom them into sex work. Theres different types of pimp. Viv has shown barely any understanding of ‘the game’ and its a fucking insult to injury. Yes we KNOW what a fucking pimp and prozzie are! We dont need to see it. We need REAL AWARENESS.) and a fucking scheming bastard of a CEO salesman botman. And yet even THEN lets go a step further and make some yandere wuv on boyfweind aboose! Fuck off- Now I love a good anime but these tropes are getting fucking dangerous now. And unrealistic to real love and relationships. Kids nowadays know fuck all on a healthy relationship (neither did the fuckin 50s tbf) and Im seeing more romaticism and glorifying abusive situations. Like the show ‘You’. Ok, there’s a fuckin bloke online who slaughtered innocents and kidnapped yet people commented how cute he is on his IG and that they want to be kidnapped or killed by him next. Dont believe me? Look up Peter Manfredonia Connecticut and the comments people left him and then tell me why shit like whats being presented in HH/HB ISNT fucking concerning - because it is. For a series about redemption, it’s brilliant at the opposite (Quote from the creator herself, Viv has posted that it’s influencing her bad choices. Even as a joke, proof’s in the pudding). And the overall focus on sex in the way Viv does is so immature and really creepy, and this is from an ADULTS perspective. From one adult to another, Im concerned as to why any of them think this is a normal fixation. Then again they’ve hired quite a large amount of dodgy folks and even a child. Most of this shit gets avoided with a basic background check like most companies run. I DO like Hazbin. Or the premise. I love some of the cast and spite the others. In Helluva, I just like a tiny portion of the cast. And I critique it so harshly because Viv DOES need a wakeup slap, grounding to reality, people who arent going to big her up or kiss her arse for once and shape her up to be the best she can be. The actually reach and even surpass her potential. And to reach where you need to be, there’s a lot of harsh lessons youll face. That’s life. Shes chosen one of the most HEARTLESS industries and if she blocks out critique as ‘hate’ then she’s not strong enough and wont last. It’s just another unprepped YanDev again (except I dont believe Viv to be a nonce. Even with her dodgy past and dodgy present, I think her perspective on sex and relationship with sexuality is FAR from healthy BUT I dont believe she’s a pedophile. Ive bled my fair share and so far, I just think her sex perspective isnt healthy or mature for her age. But there’s little to nothing to suggest actual noncery - dont worry about accusations there. But YanDev is totally a dirty predator. Just clearing that up). Viv NEEDS some harshness and stability if she wants to do things right. And it’ll make her fucking cry but if she loves these projects as much as she claims to, then you’ll sacrifice blood, sweat and tears for that shit. Even the strongest points are mediocre at best when properly observed. She CAN do more, but she’ll have to face the harsh music. Viv wont see this, but if she does, I dont care if it upsets her. Why? Because this is that much of an issue - something she’s cultivated - that she needs to take action and not ignore it or be secretive about it. She needs to grow up and get tougher skin. Im not saying this to cause her pain. In fact, I wouldnt waste my fucking limited time if I DIDNT care. Trust me, I have duties to be met at a certain quota every single day. I say this shit only because I give a shit and care. If we met, she’d fucking hate me. But people like me are good for shaping people up to their potential. And we arent always this ‘tough love’ either. But when someone needs that level of harshness to help themselves, we’re not afraid to lose people or cause upset if the results end up being the best for them. If she ever saw this, she needs to re fucking evaluate her message, her story, and those she’s choosing to welcome into her circle. And all Im seeing is one rookie mistake after the other. Her paid patreon discord. Just like the messages Honest has posted on her side of being harassed (not in Vivs fyi), Ive experienced shit and bullying and even stay silent on their for being attacked for a group I fuckin paid to be in and yet I feel isolated. It’s all arsekissing and ‘thank you viv’ (thats an actual channel-) and it feels like a place of borderline worship and people trying to appease her 24/7 whilst kicking others with different opinions down. There’s so many I love but I aint kissin yer fuckin arse. Ask the closest friend I have - we’re fucking raw and wont just side with each other just because. We’ll call each other out if we think they’ve fucked up and then help each other build themselves up better. Because real fuckin people who actually care wont just want to be adored by you. They’ll care enough to point out your bullshit and help you, even if they upset you at the time. They’re real and upfront with you. People like us arent always the easiest to be close to either because we arent afraid of upsetting someone if it’s in their best interest and to help them. Likewise, we dont go out looking for fights either. Most times, we’re fuckin soft bastards- All this shit listed is the fuckin surface level of the real life hell of this fandom. And unsurprisingly, those who experience little to no toxicity have always been higher on that popularity ‘food chain’ - enough admirers and shared opinions that people wanna arse kiss regardless of their OWN feelings as well as neutral perspectives. I’d say you’re the lucky fans, but you’re not. You’re sheltered, and that isnt always the best way to be sadly. As for the fans. If Ive upset you. Well... I dont care. Because many of you have actively sought me out and weaponised my traumas against me. You never cared about my feelings then. Why should I care about yours? Im not doing this out of malice. Im fed up of humans behaving so pathetically yet claiming to be high and mighty. Most of you have been arseholes to those in and out of the community. The victims and non-victims alike. Hardly any of you considered once my real suffering. You put a drawing over a life. Many lives. You had the audacity to tell me Im full of shit. Some even using my real traumas to make a mockery of me and those Im around with a very similar history. Some with traumatic histories that differ from my own. You hardly ever considered the real lives of those effected. So no, Im not sorry for having the fucking balls to this day to still stand up for our rights and give us a voice that’s long been stolen. Im not sorry for being a fucking victim. Im not sorry for saying what desperately NEEDS voicing. And Im not sorry for not conforming to you or any fandom just to belong. We deserve better than to constantly be your fuckin arse monkeys (well... the trope is butt monkey but yknow-) and to be mistreated, misrepresented and harmed by you. You’re no different to the school bullies who give speeches on anti-bullying day. And I hope every single one of you starts looking into yourselves and improving. PS: Depending on the texts you read, Lucifer is said to have been redeemed or to be redeemed. Fun fact to haunt yalls with~ “

[ayusaurus]

I’ve been seeing this topic come up way too often on Twitter recently and I just need to vent, but: Can we please stop equating fiction with real life. And I mean that in the sense that fiction, while incorporating elements of reality, does not represent reality as a whole.

I say this because a voice actors recently got harassing and dangerously threatening messages for the work she did on TLOU2.

Like regardless of what your feelings are of the game, she is a paid actress voicing a character. She is NOT the character herself.

I know that fiction can be harmful, I know that it can be used to create things we are uncomfortable or triggered by. But we need to be able to discern reality from fiction because this moral policing and “wokeness” that was pushed by purists within fandoms, winds up hurting actual people. It’s a way to shush people from being able to use fiction as a catharsis when there is no availability of therapy. You threaten to disallow spaces for people to interact with ideas that would be wrong, unsafe, or illegal, in a place where you can do so safely with consent.

There is a reason people tag things. There is a reason blacklists exist. Creators are not responsible for your mental wellbeing outside of tagging things so you can make the personal decision of wanting to consume that product. By putting all blame on creators and media, without having the nuance of rational and critical thinking, you are forcibly removing responsibility from yourself.

I say this because when Columbine happened back in the 00’s (I believe,) people were so quick to point fingers and say video games are to blame because the shooter played video games. But while it MAY have been a cause, what went overlooked was the fact that this kid had things emotionally/mentally that went unaddressed to where he wound up committing a mass shooting. There’s only so far that the excuse of what he consumed can be traveled before the root cause need to be examined.

Like, I myself have played shooter games, and never once have I thought, “lemme go grab a gun and shoot someone.” Never once have I consumed sexual media that was outside of the vanilla realm and thought “man I’d love to do some of this stuff without consent.” I’ve never once saw Spider-Man and thought” I should really break into a train station so I can get bit by a spider and gain its super powers.”

If we keep pointing fingers at the media, compared to addressing the underlying cause of our discomfort, we will never actually make the changes needed to progress forward. We will continue to dumb ourselves down in society because it’s far easier to blame the fictional worlds, universes, alternate realities, than it is to do the hard work of making changes. And if you say we should ban ALL problematic fiction, then you’re setting up a framework which threatens the whole realm of fiction. Because certain topics may be banned today, but eventually down the line, there isn’t any room to wiggle and you find everything is gone. The room to be allowed a voice no longer exists.

Fiction can be a positive place. We all use it to escape reality. We use it to explore things we’ve never had and have wanted, like love, family, friends, wealth, healthy sexual encounters, and all of that is valid. But many people want to use fiction to give their trauma and pain a voice that they maybe never had the strength to voice in their own lives. Some people may want to explore dark themes because understanding why things happen and what causes it leads to a growth in perhaps better attacking real life themes. Some people just want to use fiction just to blow off steam and do things they know is illegal irl and would never do to hurt someone irl.

And yes, there are people who will use fiction to manipulate people, but we need to stop viewing the tool of media as being just as bad and worth locking away as the individual using manipulative tactics in conjunction with media. Because the fictional media is not the problem, the individual who is using that media maliciously to hurt others is.

We also need to do a better job, or I should say parents and teachers need to do a better job in helping kids and students understand where fiction ends. We need to teach kids how to better interact with problematic themes and how to step away from things or blacklist things that make them uncomfortable. Just like if you don’t like the color blue in your own clothes, you don’t buy it, then if you don’t like themes of domestic violence, you don’t consume it.

However I will also add, there is a place for consuming problematic media for the sole purpose of understanding why it’s bad and dissecting the themes which make it bad so we can be better equipped to handle such topics. We have to also understand why it’s so problematic under an educated situation or else we will keep having these back and forth, black and white, no room for debate charged talks of why problematic content shouldn’t be allowed. Additionally, the less we allow problematic content, the more people will be drawn to it, the more people won’t have a safe area to explore those topics, the more likely they will be to hurt others. Like IRL, teen pregnancy was pretty high when I was in HS and that was becaus instead of talking about pregnancy, sex, contraception, etc, ppl acted like abstinence was the only way. They neglected to understand that teens do have sex drives, they want to understand them better, and without more open education, they then turn to fiction to understand it. Which is dangerous. Instead of doing the work of addressing topics irl, it gave more voice and responsibilities to creators who may have been using fiction as a therapeutic tool when they may not have had access to traditional therapy.

Like I get it, I really do. I have my own history of trauma, but I’m not about to demand fiction to stop existing - because when it’s all said and done, erasing fiction does not erase the hurt or real life consequences I have to live with. It does not do any good to dismantle a space for people to have room to explore topics in fiction. It does not do any good to try and ban things in hopes that it will stop. Because let me assure you, even if fictional media gets banned, other tools can and will be used by shitty people who intend to harm. And we need to be willing to acknowledge and accept that, because bullying and harassing people over fictional media is disgusting, and puts them on a similar level as the problematic media they are trying to fight against, except they are the ones causing actual harm. If you can’t see that, then that’s part of the problem and you’ve been, frankly, brainwashed to believe that as long as the problematic media goes away, any means to get there is justified. That is not, and should never be okay, and we need to do better in understanding that it’s a tool used by manipulators who want to do harm under a pretense of “the moral good” and/or “think of the children,” when they themselves don’t do anything to ensure real life children are staying safe and being protected in their communities. You can’t moral police if you aren’t willing to stand up for actual children, or victims of any kind, if you think fictional realities have more weight than real life.

Because it doesn’t.

Overall, we really, really, need to do better in understanding and combatting that, otherwise we are no better than bystanders who look at things going on IRL and letting them happen. We need to not equate what someone likes in fiction being a tell for who they are individually. We need to do better in educating ppl how to interact with content they do not like. We also need to do better in pushing for better mental healthcare and making it more affordable. We need to do a lot, but we need to stop pointing the finger at fictional media and actually combat the root issues.

[racefortheironthrone]

Thoughts on House of X #4

Over the halfway mark!

Look At What They’ve Done Infographic:

Suprisingly for an issue that, in retrospect is the climax of the standard superheroics part of House of X, this issue starts with an infographic, which turns out to be one of the more controversial in HoX/PoX.

Foreshadowing what’s going to come at the end of the issue, the tone is already different from the pseudo-academic objectivity of earlier infographics, although the term “mutant erasure” evokes the activist-inspired, post-cultural turn work of critical race/gender/sexuality studies, which is something of a stepping-stone. 

By contrast, describing Wanda Maximoff as both “the pretender” (does this mean “not-really-a-mutant” or “not-really-Magneto’s-daughter” or both?) and as associated with the Avengers is incredibly politically pointed, which speak to a particular kind of mutant nationalist identity that bears a good deal of grievance towards even benevolent human institutions.

Similarly, the term “human-on-mutant violence” is way too evocative of real world debates over racism and police violence to be accidental on the author’s point. It’s a depressing thought, but the 616 probably sees a lot of “what about mutant-on-mutant violence?” derailings, maybe as many as creep up in threads about HoX/Pox here...

So let’s get at the controversy: can Bolivar Trask be blamed for the Genoshan genocide? Contrary to a few voices in the fandom, I would argue strongly for the affirmative. As we see from his initial appearance, Trask created the Sentinels entirely out of racial paranoia/hatred; moreover, Sentinels have no purpose other than A. destroying all mutants and B. subjugating the human race along the way. Cassandra Nova’s actions on Genosha absolutely followed the Trask playbook of both father and son, and indeed relied on Larry Trask’s assistance to carry it out, making it a Trask affair from beginning to end. 

On a final meta note, this infographic really speaks to the outsized impact that Morrison’s New X-Men and Bendis’ House of M had on the X-line for the last 15-20 years. 

Observation-Analysis-Invocation-Connection:

But before we get to the punching, we get one burst of Hickman’s fascination with singularities and transhumanism, where for the first time we really get an example of how the Krakoan biological approach is going to work, showing us a surprisingly complicated biomachine:

Trinity (who runs the Secondary/External Systems part of Krakoa) uses her technopathy to gather intelligence from human mechanical systems: the Aracibo Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, “re-tasked SETI radio telescopes," both of which are real things, and the “Dyson solar observatory,” which isn’t. 

Beast (who runs the Overwatch/Data Analysis part of Krakoa) uses Krakoan biocomputers and his own scientific genius to “extrapolate that data into an actionable forecast,” to deal with the delay caused by the immense distances between Krakoa and Sol’s Forge.

Professor X and Cerebro handle the direct Connection between Krakoa and the away team, while the Cuckoos link Trinity, Beast, Storm into a psychic link with Xavier, which means all of the parts of the system work seamlessly even as Storm handles the Invocation of visually representing Jean Grey’s thoughts.

If you step back and think about it, this is an astonishing technological feat: with minimal reliance on machine technology, Krakoa has established a NASA “KASA Mission Control” that can send data across half a solar system almost(?) instantly. 

That’s before we even get to the whole secondary purpose of the system, which is to allow Professor X and the Five to resurrect an up-to-date version of anyone who dies on the mission, which is one hell of a life-rope. 

Thematically, we see a really sharp distinction between biological and mechanical transhumanism/singularity: “KASA Mission Control” is described in biological terms, “function[ing] as a singular organism,” and also in religious terms, with “eight of us acting as one” explicitly labelled as “Communion.” And yet...the eight people involved retain their separate personalities and identities and no separate, artificial intelligence is created. 

Should We Fear the Worst?

 And across five hundred million miles, all Krakoa gets is bad news. Archangel and Husk, the redshirt’s redshirts on this mission, are dead before they do anything; Nightcrawler has some level of “internal injury,” and Wolverine almost had his arm blown off.

Incidentally, page 7 is where something of a problem crops up with Jean Grey’s characterization. As people have noted, Jean Grey starts off in the passive communications role (indeed, she’s even reliant on Monet to do that job) and doesn’t really improve from there. With the added context of her wearing her Silver Age miniskirt costume, it’s all a bit sus, especially if you’ve been reading a much more self-possessed, confident, and all-around more powerful version of Jean Grey in X-Men: Red. For a while, many of us were thinking that Jean is a younger backup, but that seems to have been Jossed by the resurrection ceremony in House of X #5. 

Better characterization abounds for the men: following their conversation from the previous issue, Cyclops and Wolverine have different perspectives about the question of whether to continue on with the mission (another key element of the special ops/espionage thriller genre). Cyclops emphasizes pushing on to make Warren and Paige’s sacrifice meaningful, Logan agrees but rather because of the existential stakes of the mission. There’s an interesting parallel there between Xavier and Magneto and means vs. ends. 

Following the catastrophe, Nightcrawler successfully inserts the struje team, while “Jean and Monet will stay to maintain our connection with Krakoa;”we know know that part was crucial in more than one way, but it is a continuation of some troubling gender dynamics.

Meanwhile, despite being “technically...just an observer” (and doesn’t that ring of all kinds of Cold War proxy wars), Omega Sentinel takes action to prompt Dr. Gregor into retaliation, similarly playing to the nationalistic theme of “if you don’t, he will have died for nothing.” 

Orchis’ retaliation doesn’t go so well, as we see Wolverine carving his way through an AIM securtiy team and Nightcrawler bloodlessly tying up two scientists (note the further emphasis on differing personalities and values; whoever these X-Men might be, they’re not mindless followers) towards popping two of the four constraint collars.

Unfortunately, this is followed up by a couple pages of more Jean Grey being awfully Damselly: yes, she’s holding open the connection, but she’s coded as way more helpless and indecisive than Monet (who gets to go out like a badass defending the shuttle), and the line “I dunno what to say, Marvel Girl. Try harder” really sums it all up. So far, this is reading a lot more like Stan Lee’s Jean Grey (but not Jack Kirby’s) than Chris Claremont’s. 

With the tension ratcheting ever-higher, we see Cyclops succeeding at his mission, while Mystique...doesn’t and then gets promptly blown out an airlock. The “habitat” connection and the odd business with her getting “turned around” despite having the plans for the base in her head like everyone else is highly suspicious (it might suggest the use of a Krakoa flower, but no one’s ever suggested what her motivation would be for doing so), but it’ll have to go on the list of plot threads that weren’t resolved in House of X.

In a development that really ought to be troubling to more people, Dr. Gregor throws away whatever moral compunctions she has about waking up a potentially violently insane A.I because “I don’t let them stop us. No matter what,” a potentially existential downside to Omega’s strategy. 

Do Whatever It Takes:

Having reached the “darkest moment” in the story diagram, Professor X orders his students to “do whatever it takes” to prevent Mother Mold from coming on line. This prompts Cyclops to give the order to Nightcrawler and Wolverine to jump out into unprotected space to sever the last constraint collar. All in all, we’re following the traditional beats of the special ops/espionage genre pretty closely, down to the team leader’s moral anguish moment.

Appropriately, we then get a quiet moment where Kurt and Logan contemplate whether or what will be “waiting for us on the other side.” Even knowing what we know now about the resurrection system, there’s still a good deal of weight to this moment, because in a way this Kurt and this Logan are going to die and whether they’re the same Kurt and Logan who will be reborn is a matter I’ll take up in Powers of X #5 along with the difficult topic of the philosophy of identity. (I’m going to leave aside the question of them having gone to literal Heaven and Hell in the past, because my Doylist position is that those story threads were probably a bad idea and my Watsonian No Prize is that you can’t remember the afterlife once returned to earth.)

Surprisingly, things get only more metaphysically weird when the two teleport outside and Wolverine starts chopping his way through the last arm. Mother Mold wakes up and immdiately starts talking about Greek mythology. Mother Mold’s interpretation of the Titanomachy is a little choppy (as we might expect from an insane A.I): on the one hand, if humanity are the Olympian gods as the creator of the Sentinels and the mutants are the Titans because of “their spoiled lineage” (this doesn’t quite work, because the Titans preceded the Olympians), then the Sentinels being “Man” makes sense. And as someone who’s written his share of college papers about omniscience/predestination/free will in Greek myth and drama, there’s a plausible anti-theist position whereby human beings might “judge and find you both wanting.” (Although that language is too Book of Daniel for the Greeks.) On the other hand, if the Sentinels are man, them having “stolen your fire” doesn’t work either - humanity was given fire by the Titan Prometheus - unless the argument is that Wolverine is Prometheus because he yeets Mother Mold into the sun?

Regardless, it’s a very ominous note for Mother Mold to go out on, because the consistent anti-human/Olympian tone suggests this insane A.I might hate humans way more than it hates mutants. 

With the day seemingly saved, we transition into the Rogue One scenario where Cyclops is murdered by a vengeful Dr. Gregor and Jean is torn apart by Sentinel drones. 

As gruesome as all of this is, I think it does play a very important role in explaining a good deal of Charles Xavier’s change of mind with regard to human-mutant harmony and assimilation. While this incident didn’t prompt any of the decisions that he’s made along the way - this mission is happening post-Xavier’s announcement and a day before the U.N vote, making it quite late in the X^1 timeline - I think it does a good job of showing us the kind of thought patterns that have led Xavier to this conclusion. In addition to everything he’s seen from Moira’s past nine lives, which only lend a greater sense of urgency and the fear of inevitability, Xavier himself has experienced the deaths of “our children” over and over again as the founder of the X-Men, and clearly both the direct trauma (keep in mind, he’s hooked into the minds of all of his X-Men as they die) and the pain he feels at humanity’s apathy/atrocity fatigue, goes a long way to explaining why he’ll make the decision that integration and assimilation are no longer viable options.

For all the crap that people sometime sling at Hickman over his use of charts, I will say that the way that “NO MORE” weaponizes them by extra-textually demonstrating the breakdown of the facade of calm objectivity is incredibly effective.

[brightlotusmoon]

In the Twilight Zone.

media doesnt exist to teach you moral lessons it exists so you can learn about a fucked up guy in a fucked up situation and go "woah thats so fucked up"

[thedogsled]

So you’re staying on tumblr?

Many of your friends have been flagged as NSFW, which will mean that they are having all of their content up until this point turned private. They can stay, but they have to post content that Tumblr deems acceptable.

Some people have already been deleted, and had the requests for reinstatement denied. They can’t stay.

Some people post NSFW content, and won’t be able to post or repost their content here. They can stay only if they stop posting NSFW content and post content that Tumblr deems acceptable.

Some people are seeing what this is doing to their community and their friends and moving in solidarity with them, or because they can no longer access the community and support structures they relied on.

Like it or not, your communities are falling apart. They aren’t falling apart cause some members of them can’t read, or because they’re being paranoid or whatever. People aren’t just leaving because porn is banned, it’s bigger than that now.

Tumblr has made it clear that the communities here are all a commodity to them they intend to squeeze every last possible buck out of. You make them content for free, what do you get? Searchability? Functionality? To live in freedom from being recced nazi blogs?

External links still don’t work, and still aren’t searchable, curtailing many people’s incomes and simple functionality of the site, as well as making archives pointless.

Arbitrary terms have been made completely unsearchable.

The removal of the restricted content banner was made because tumblr didn’t have the manpower to deal with all the flagging requests. It’s engineering staff is falling apart, there’s nobody to fix the things you have problems with.

They LIED to us. They said they wouldn’t do this. They’ve been planning it for months. They’re still pretending this is just about child porn. It isn’t.

And in the meantime, tumblr will now be dictating what the difference between illustrations and classical art is. It will sit in judgement of the gender of a nipple, sexualizing one and handwaving the other, and generally fucking over everything else in between. 

Tumblr will not delete your blog and make the choice for you. Its userbase numbers, real or not, are a commodity to them. Personally, I upload content based on my FAITH that the site I’m uploading it to won’t self destruct or decide to ban all that content. I don’t have that faith in tumblr any more. (not that I ever did, I came here from Dreamwidth VERY reluctantly.) I also don’t trust the company from a moral point of view. It’s shown its true colors, which means that I cannot stay and continue making content - and therefore money - for it. 

A petition might make you feel good (and I don’t blame anyone for trying) but please just for a moment imagine the CEO coming back and saying “gee guys, you’re right! I see now that porn is totally healthy, and that your communities can’t get on without it. I was wrong to banhammer all your friends and implement a bot who can’t tell the nipples for the trees. I’ve decided I don’t want to make any money from this sinkhole of a site anyway, and we definitely don’t need to be on the Apple store cause fuck those guys amirite?” It isn’t gonna happen.

Will I delete? Ethically I should, but it won’t be on December 17th, because I want to be able to guide my community to the places I’ve gone to. I will be gone in spirit, however. But trust me, as soon as fandom is settled in elsewhere this blog will be gone too, because I cannot just sit here and accept what this company thinks of us, what it’s done to us, nor magically believe that they’ll see the error of their ways and undo it. The harm is done. (P.S. my sideblog is already deleted)

And while I speak from my corner of fandom, I want to be clear: this isn’t even really about fandom. Fandom is a sideline of the big issue happening here. My outrage extends far far beyond it. I’m not just pissed off because this decision from tumblr is destroying hundreds of thousands of hours of effort put in by fandom creators, or hundreds of thousands of hours put in by creators and curators on the big blogs that give us gifs and art and searchable (except not recently) content. The damage to us is small fry to the damage it’s done to communities, the fact that livelihoods are being destroyed, and that people may end up made homeless or even dead as a result of this purge and the deconstruction of support systems that have held people up for years and let our communities support the people inside them. 

When I talk about deleting my blog and leaving, it’s in solidarity with those people too, and the understanding that while this has shit on us, it has shit on other people a whole lot harder, and I can’t sit here and go “well, I wasn’t marked NSFW and shit on and destroyed so I don’t need to change my patterns.” I can’t. Even if not a spec of shit has flown in my general direction, could I keep mum and stay quiet and let everyone else take the fall in this crapshoot because I can go back to my fandom activities, I’m not a pervert, so it’s fine. This is no longer even about if you used NSFW content or not. It just isn’t.

This site talks a lot about activism and morality, doing good things, being better people, solidarity with communities who have been shamed and shaded and pushed into obscurity, speaking out about LGBT+ content being associated with porn and female created fandom content being swept away as nothing of value. When it comes down to it, this is your moment to make a decision on whether those things were just all hot air, or if you mean to do something about it. Will you sit in your comfort and say “well it’s just hurting other people it has nothing to do with me” or will you say “this is immoral” and do something, even if it’s hard, even if it makes you uncomfortable, or it means you have to learn a new website to do it. Is that really the hill you want to die on? “I can’t be bothered to learn how to use Website X and that’s how I justify staying”? That’s not good enough for me. I know my history, and while nobody is taking people out and shooting them in the street this time, I still won’t be on the side that closes my eyes and lets this kind of purge happen.

And don’t you even dare come at me like “if this is the cost of getting child porn off this site then so be it”. Because that excuse is bullshit. This isn’t going to stop child porn, and it probably isn’t even going to stop it on this site. It’s just going to make the perpetrators cleverer with how they get around the rules. Stopping child porn is how you stop child porn, not setting fire to everything else.

I will be going. I will eventually be deleting. These are not empty words. Maybe that makes me a killjoy, but I really don’t care. 

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: Weirdness_Unlimited

Creator name (AO3): Weirdness_Unlimited

Creator name (Tumblr): Burn-your-face-upon-the-chrome

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weirdness_Unlimited/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: In the Mad Max universe, anything that is completely absurd and outrageous is represented as the norm. Leather fetish gear? Oh, that's just the security guard uniform at Bartertown. Those guys over there are wearing black and white face paint? No, you're not at an ICP concert, those are War Boys, also run. Whoa, there are acrobats being flung through the air on poles attached to moving vehicles! No worries, that's just any Tuesday in Gas Town. I love this fandom because pretty much any nonsense my skull meat can come up with, as long as the mechanics of it work, I can throw it into my fics and not a single person will bat an eye. As a matter of fact, the weirder, the better. 

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Life is gross, humans do gross things, and the environment around you could not care less about any of your moral dilemmas. I suppose you can say my style is a lack of it. I like things straight forward and I know this characteristic often weakens any aesthetic appeal to my writing. “To Love Reptiles” reads from Slit's perspective the same way a radio manual does but with a lot more cursing. I try not to make it too complicated to digest. I'd like for people to be able to fill in any blanks with their own interpretation of the situation and then move on to the next. 

Themes though, I go heavy on themes. The main theme is interpersonal relationships, coping with failure within them, and personal growth. Other themes include coping with mental illness, codependency, hunger, greed, warfare, trauma, etc.  

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: The most fun work of my own, by far, has been “To Love Reptiles.” It has also been the most popular, most successful, and my most favourite. The most difficult has been an original work with no working title. I can't give away much about this original piece but it has to do with local myths and survival in the wilderness. I quit working on the rough manuscript when my grandmother passed away several years ago. I'll be picking it up again soon. It may turn up on AO3 in the next three or four years.

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?/

A: Gritty but hopeful, I think. The wasteland is nasty but humans need hope, right?

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: Alright, so that's an interesting question with a pretty messy answer but I'll try to make it brisk.   Step 1: I start with a summary of the story as a whole with a point A (the beginning) and a point B (the end). Step 2: I break that summary down and and fill it out with events that can ferry the characters from the start of the story to the finish on a drawn timeline to keep things in chronological order. I also have note cards. I break this down further into named chapters. This can take a while. Step 3: I summarize each of those chapters to figure out if this story needs more than one installment. It depends out how the series of events land and how many minor arcs are included with the main arc/objective. Sprinkle some drama in there, scrap some unnecessary things, narrow an installment down to thirty (30) chapters at maximum. Step 4: I summarize individual scenes within the chapters and hack out important dialog. This takes weeks. There's typically between four and ten scenes per chapter. Also more note cards. Step 5: I try to flesh out one scene per day. (key word: Try) 

 I get the most writing done in the morning over coffee and before work. I usually sit at the breakfast table with my phone and spit out about 500-ish words before my husband wakes up. I'll write intermittently throughout the day. Lately I haven't been writing much because of holiday junk and winter being kind of a bummer. 

 If I'm in a rough patch, I can break though it by sitting in a room with no internet access and forcing myself to scratch out a scene or two in a notepad. Usually these notepad scribbles are so awful that they get torn out and chucked in the waste bin but the next day I'm keen to do the job right. 

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: Ambient sound, white noise, or nothing. I do listen to music and there's a lot of songs I associate with stories, fics, characters. Tove Lo is a big one for Dune. Most of the time I find that music with lyrics or a high tempo is distracting if I'm in the act of writing something but it can be a source of inspiration separately. 

Q: How do you keep track of all the details as you're writing? How do you keep details consistent in your works? How do you fact-check your writing?

A: I have a little memo pad with numbered facts that do not change at any point through the story. These are kinda the cardinal rules. I can't tell you the rules because they contain spoilers. After the “RULES” there are miscellaneous details that I'd like to remember in case they come up later. Things like birthmarks, scar placement, mannerisms, things I've hinted at without exposition that will need to be revealed later.

I fact check by googling stuff and falling down research holes for several hours until I forget what I was doing. EVENTUALLY I'll come back to writing and realize that's why there are things in my search history that probably have me on some kind of government watch list.

Q: What motivates your writing?

A: My motivation. Real talk? For AAL it's to get to a particular scene in the planned third installment. Scene thirteen in chapter seven. I know that answers exactly nothing and is weirdly specific but... yes. Other works of mine, I'm motivated by the idea that some of my ideas might entertain someone out there, even if it's just one someone then I've succeeded.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: Time management. I have a lot of hobbies and finding time for individual projects is... Hard. I made a boredom jar that lets me pick an unfinished task/project/piece at random to do whenever I'm bored so that I can stop myself from starting anything new when my apartment is already full of unfinished junk.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: Yes. My organizational skills have improved by miles and my attention span is better focused. Grammatically my work has undergone general improvement.  

Learned anything about myself? Hmm, I learned that my opinion of what is canon and what makes good fan fiction are two completely different things. If you ask me anything specific about the Mad Max franchise you will probably get both opinions. As an example: Does Maxosa make for good fan fiction? Heck Yeah! Will canon Max Rockatansky or Furiosa ever be mentally and emotionally healed enough to actually be in a relationship? Probably not and that's okay. I can happily read Max and Furi getting cuddly and domestic and enjoy the heck out of another writer's interpretation of these two overcoming the hurdles of their respective traumas. I can do this knowing full well that Max and Furiosa probably never canonically saw each other again after the closing scene of Fury Road. I'm okay with this because that's the magic of fandom and why I love it.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I relate to Max the most, and I think the reason I haven't yet published anything written from his perspective is because he'd be the most difficult to write without touching on my own fears and inadequacies too much. Max is not interested in being involved with the dramas of anyone else's life. He's already seen too much turmoil and had a hand in it too many times to actively seek people and their inherent problems, however, when presented with zero alternative he'll do what needs to be done and suffer though forming new attachments to very mortal people who may drop dead at any minute. He isn't comfortable with the process of forming attachments and he'd rather avoid it. He doesn't want another ghost. At least that's my interpretation of him. 

 Slit, remarkably, is my favorite to write for in spite of the fact that I don't relate to him in any way and my interpretation of his portrayal in the film is, simply put, a blunt edged euphemism for abusive relationships. He's just... a guilty pleasure to examine and write. I blame my fondness on the stunning character design and Josh Helman's energy on screen. The character says and does ridiculous things and it's just hilarious to watch Slit dig his own grave and humiliate himself. Case and point: I've got his boot! My understanding of Slit has grown through writing about him. He's probably (canonically) deeply insecure and his way of thinking very toxic and self focused. There's gotta be trauma there (I took massive creative license in that area) and a whole host of personal issues that explain his behavior, but will never excuse it. Does that make good fan fiction??? Parts of it do, the rest has to be that very human ability to grow and improve, although I don't think he'd have that opportunity in canon or accept any form of assistance... If he'd lived. 

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: I think you kind of have to self-insert to a point. Writing tends to involve exaggerating your own experiences and the imagined interactions in your own head in order to make the experiences of the characters relatable. I'd rather not examine every individual facet of the issue but yes, I think Dune is an unintentional self-insert to cope with health problems before I was consciously aware of what I was coping with and since that realization, lately, she's a lot harder to write. 

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?Honestly? Close platonic friendship. Emotional intimacy is interesting. I draw a lot of inspiration for friendship in fiction from Mulder and Scully in early seasons of The X-files.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: I see more minor details and the context of silent interactions. Some of these details are unsettling, some of them are so subtle and subliminal that they're easily missed when you watch the films, especially Fury Road. Oddly enough, I'm a lot more- Ah whats the word? Not quite critical of but unnerved by my own observations of Capable's relationship with Nux. I'm not sure why. It could be that I'm misinterpreting the actress's tone or George Miller vision/direction, but I watch the movie now and find that the way Capable looks at and talks about Nux so intensely makes me uneasy. The previous is just an example among many that I've spat out so far, it's not important.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: Everything I write within the Mad Max fandom with the exception of collaborative works will probably be linked together and consistent with one another because that means less to remember and fewer mix-ups.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: If you have to, break it. I'll read it. I like my fandom unlimited, baby. In my own works I try to keep with canon somewhat but I resurrect a lot of characters who almost certainly died because if I didn't, it would really only leave seven (I think) named characters with dialog who did not die in Fury Road. (The surviving women of the Many Mothers weren't named.)

Q: Share some headcanons:

A: 1) Max has intestinal parasites. He ate a live (two headed) lizard in the first thirty seconds of Fury Road. You really really really should not do that. 

 2) Furiosa didn't want to kill Ace. She could have just blown his head off instead of punching him in the face with a pistol. She didn't shoot him. 

 3) Ace did not go under the wheels. Foxy Grandpa lives. 

 4) Miss Giddy is also alive somewhere 

 5) Actually, most people in the wasteland probably have intestinal parasites. 

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: My original characters tend to create themselves. I don't know how they do it, they kinda just decide for themselves for better or worse what they'll look like and how they'll behave. Dune was an accident and the “About a Lizard” series wasn't supposed to happen at all. It was supposed to be a one-shot word dump of what Slit's final moments might have looked like. Slit was supposed to die in a fleeting but intense two seconds of delusions about Valkyries and Valhalla... And then be eaten by a scavenger cannibal. The whole thing kind of just happened on the fly. Ardith, Phil/Crank, Featherknife, Bones, and the kids were also accidental. I had no idea where I was going with the encounter with Crow Fishermen. They just popped into existence of their own will and the rest is history. The only original characters that have been planned and designed well beforehand have been villains. This probably says something about me as a writer though I'm not sure what. 

Q: When creating a new character for the AAL series, how do you approach their first interactions with your main characters?

A: The first thing I ask is “What does this scene need” and sometimes it needs a new character for villainy or friendly acquaintance reasons or for a skill-set the main characters do not posses. New characters have a habit of changing a chapter or making it much longer than intended. First interactions with Slit probably won't surprise anyone. He phases through distrust to dislike to begrudged cooperation and from there he's either on his way back to dislike or entering the tolerance phase. Beyond the tolerance phase is... The Complicated Zone. The Complicated Zone is where Nux and Dune are situated. Dune has two basic instincts with people: Should I shoot you? Or should I befriend you? Bizarrely, being friendly is the weirder option in the wastes. Shooting is almost always a consideration if she's taken by surprise.

Q: If you create original works, how do those compare to your fan works?

A: My original works are probably darker and deal more with modern problems. I turn to fan fiction for fun and to indirectly work through things.

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: A lot of the fandom, too many names to name but one stands out and I can't remember their name or the title of their work. It was about Ace growing up and there was a dingo and a young Miss Giddy. If anyone knows what I'm talking about, please help. I've been looking for this fic for ages.

Q: Is there a specific author(s) that inspired your work when you began writing TLR?

A: I don't think any specific author inspired me while I began TLR but The Dark Half by Stephen King is one of my favorites and I recall re-reading it shortly before getting deep into fan writing. I may even have unconsciously plagiarized a few lines off that book. In my latest attempt to re-read that novel I'm feeling like there's a lot of Thad Beaumont in my portrayal of Slit.

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 

A: Don't be afraid to write things that are too soft or too dark or too this or too that. Sometimes readers crave that stuff that makes us feel warm and safe and sometimes we're also here for things that make us wonder how the @!#$% the characters will ever recover or IF they will ever recover. The real world is full of all sorts of feelings, situations, serendipitous coincidences. Take us down whatever funky road you got! You're the driver, you decide. Your fic is your world. Write WILD things sometimes because it's fun. 

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: I would love to take a trip to Australia one day to paint scenery in oils but that predates my time in MM fandom. I really want to go to Wasteland Weekend in the next two years but finances, necessities, costumes, etc need to be sorted out first.

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: Well, I'm buying up model car kits to make little Mad Max cars for nerd purposes.

Thank you @burn-your-face-upon-the-chrome

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Tumblr toxic purity culture and in-group out-group faux-wokeness need to stop. The targeting of popular queer creators needs to stop. The spurious callout posts needs to stop. The assignation of ignorant blame and demonization needs to stop. CANCELLED. This childishness ruins and ends lives. This culture thrives off of a fear of exclusion or of being the next target so lets fight back by cutting the folks who pull this shit out. Your righteous moral crusade lacks an understanding of the world and the real systems that cause harm. You cannot change the world by driving a creator to suicidal ideation because they drew a pairing you don’t like and you and your friends have telephone-gamed that shit into them being an abuser. These are REAL PEOPLE and you are doing IMMEASURABLY more harm in your community than they ever were by drawing some fucking art. Take a step back and pull your head out of the toxic cloud that covers huge parts of fandoms these days. You are not “pure”, you are the damn problem.

And if anyone reblogs this with an “ummm actually if a person ships something that supports [buzzword that they are diluting today]” then I will again invite them to take a damn step back and grow up already. If you are old enough to be causing these kinds of problems then you should be old enough to see sense and take responsibility.