#this wasn't supposed to be a discourse blog

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

I think people watch those things as punishment because they don't have the means, time, extra money, etc, to do anything meaningful to help. So at least they can acknowledge and bear witness to the horror, even if they're not able to actually help.

right but like. "at least they can do this" makes it sound like doing that is actually materially useful, and i'm not convinced it is. i think in many cases it is only increasing the number of people suffering in the world. i agree that people are doing it because they feel powerless in other regards but in the majority of cases i think it's harming more than helping

[doberbutts]

hello! I'm the one that sent you that ask a week or so ago. Sorry I didn't check to see if you'd answered for a while because I was just so upset and had to take a second. I will say I scrolled through a bunch of helpful posts you reblogged before I even found the ask again that helped a LOT.

Two things I thought you might want to know is that it wasn't speculation that you'd blocked the weirdo blog that sent me your way: they literally have "proudly blocked by doberbutts" in their bio which was why i felt safe coming to you lmao. Second is I guess my struggle with this issue was an overall struggle with how bad wider misogyny has gotten in general and how muddied it's gotten with the "male loneliness crisis" and like, centering men's issues under patriarchy and just how insanely upset it's been making me. Seeing cis MRAs identify with trans men freaked me out because like, yeah it's important to talk about how (cis) men suffer under patriarchy but it's just so rare for me to find men do that without devolving into misogyny, and I start to feel so helpless because I know validating these issues matter but women are being literally dehumanized openly. I do play oppression olympics with this specific issue and just of COURSE women suffer more under patriarchy, but the same men who demand space to air how they suffer won't acknowledge that truth. (sorry for soapboxing; some of them do! It's just...things are so bad for women rn lol it's really hard to have compassion when it feels like none is being given to me).

So the more I see this issue the more I think people are being affected by larger misogyny like I am, but are doing the typical thing that happens where you lash out at a group you can "reach." Policing and harassing trans men's behaviours is way easier than cis men. I've also been seeing some parallels between this discourse and the "gay men vs lesbian women" discourse. It's not really a one-to-one but the discussion of the role of misogyny re homophobia towards gay men who still have male privilege but, come on, if they have feminine affectation it's Different and the back and forth that used to happen when gay men and lesbian women did oppression olympics, it just feels similar.

idk as i type this I hope I don't come across disingenuous or like, my Too Casual Overly Respectful tone is trying to subtly incept you. I worry my vibes are too "women first" but I just can't help it misogyny really is ruining my life 😭. Anyways I'm very grateful for your perspective and your blog. I feel more settled and equipped to push back against anti transmasculine behaviour with rhetoric that can actually challenge people

To respond to each point in turn:

1: Again I still don't really know who that is, though I am somewhat bemused by the idea that someone I clearly don't really remember is still so obsessed with me that they're proud I've blocked them. For the record, my block list is as follows: people who send anonymous hate, people who continue to harass me after I've told them to stop, people I catch with posts containing inexcusable bigotry, obvious trolls, self-identified zoophiles and MAPs, and people who repeatedly send me fundraisers after I have already said I only share fundraisers from people I know and trust. Being on my block list is, um, not really good company, so it's kind of funny to me that someone is proud to be there. Yeah I'm sure they'll fit right in with the neo-nazis and dogfuckers and cyber bullies. Oh and I guess my ex but I only blocked them after they started harassing me about our failed relationship years later. Enjoy block hell I suppose.

2: I'm not really here to play who has it worse, not because I don't recognize the wider understanding of privilege vs oppression but because I think it is a self-defeating thread of thought because you will always find a "more oppressed" example, and I think that people should be allowed to talk about their hurts regardless of their status of "more oppressed" vs "less oppressed". Talking about the ways society has hurt them is not what makes MRAs dangerous. What makes them dangerous is who they blame, how they go about fixing their problem, and the solutions to their problems they come up with.

To be quite frank, the majority of MRAs are men who have experienced some form of social rejection or isolation. Most have been sold some patriarchal lie about how by being men they inherently deserve good sex with hot women on demand, a wife at home to keep barefoot and pregnant, a high paying job where they are respected and valued regardless of the effort they themselves put into it, and all the luxuries that lifestyle can afford. This is a fantasy, you and I both know it. And when these men realize the hard reality that we live in an age of extreme social isolation, that in order to have a partner you need to actually have more personality than a used dishrag and with only half the mess at max, that good sex is about give and take and not just yourself, that these high paying jobs are few and far between with most takers being born into some level of wealth rather than any merit they themselves have earned... they lash out.

It does not at all help things to understand that many of these MRAs are themselves marginalized in some way, but their framework not only doesn't let them see it but also advocates a harsh rejection of anyone who is self-aware enough to realize it. A lot of these guys are undiagnosed, have trauma, and are just as affected by the systems of racism, classism, homo- and trans-phobia, xenophobia, sexism, and ableism as the rest of us.

Quite frankly, I'd rather these dudes see a group of (trans) men fighting for our place in society by joining hands with other activists with more feminist, black-friendly, disabled-friendly, gay- and trans-friendly in an attempt to lift everyone out of the pit rather than continuing to fight over scraps... than to see them continue to blame women and Jews and then go shoot up a school or a mall about it. One of these helps. The other just kills people and excuses rape. There's a lot of value in deradicalizing people by offering them a path to resolving their pain that is perhaps less destructive and more constructive.

This is also why the constant comparison to MRAs annoys me. MRAs kill people in senseless acts of terror and despair because they're upset that they're not having the sex fantasy the patriarchy sold them. Trans men talking about our oppression- regardless of the word we use to express it- are mostly talking amongst ourselves about suicide and rape statistics and sharing ways to get hormones and surgery despite unwilling doctors and insurance companies. We're talking about how our social groups rejected us the moment we came out, or how people use us being men against us in ways that was not happening before we came out or passed. These are not at all equivalent conversations.

3: Again I ask you- I see people using both cis and trans feminist frameworks to hurt other people. Where is your concern for that? I am equally concerned about TERFs as I am about MRAs, as they have driven multiple transgender people and our allies to suicide and even have committed acts of violence against people irl as a result of their ideology. Most TERFs will also be the first ones to tell you that they have been hurt, deeply, by men and that they also are frequently undiagnosed or untreated, traumatized, and affected by the same systems of oppression. Does their existence and their determination to latch onto every feminist conversation including those of people who are staunchly against them then poison all feminism to you? If not, then why make that distinction for trans men and MRAs?

I am black. I am Indigenous. I am transgender. I am gay. I am disabled. I am poor. I suffer. People hurt me. I see every day how bad things are. Do you think I cannot see it, or that my ignorance is the reason for my request for compassion? Perhaps consider that it is rather my knowledge and my lived experience that fuel my call for compassion, instead. I never said it would be easy. But I do think it would make a better world.

4: I do actually agree that it is very similar to the gay man vs lesbian conversation and have said for a while that it's the same queer infighting discussion we've already hashed out for the last 50 or so years, but the target groups just swapped out. It's just butchphobia, it's just biphobia, it's just aphobia, it's just panphobia, it's just nbphobia- it's the same fucking shit over and over and over again. It was shit infighting before and it's shit infighting now. Privilege is a conversation that depends so heavily on context, and the way it has been bastardized by the internet's poor understanding of political frameworks developed by women of color and their allies into cute soundbites and phrases rather than a deep, nuanced knowledge will never fail to annoy me.

Do gay men have privilege over lesbians? As a class, sure, they would have male privilege. But what do we mean by male privilege? The privilege to not worry about being assaulted on the street? To walk home late at night unbothered? To marry who they want, to have the romantic partner they desire, to feel safe within a domestic partnership? You and I both know that doesn't quite match up to the lived experience of gay men worldwide or even here in the "gay paradise" US. How does this interact with other marginalizations? Does a black gay man have privilege over a white lesbian? What happens if he's a drag queen dressed up for an event and she's a butch that passes for cis male? Does that change retroactively if this "gay man" figures out she's actually a transbian 5 years later, and the lesbian is a TERF? I'm not saying this breaks the framework of male privilege- I am saying that sometimes the theory doesn't match the reality, and a nuanced and intersectional understanding is required when talking on an individual scope rather than class politics.

Additionally- as a side note- it is also incredibly annoying to watch people act like privilege = oppressor = dangerous, and oppressed = victim = safe. Privilege, and whether or not you have any, is not a moral indicator nor is it an indicator of the safety of the person you're interacting with. I have privilege over people who cannot walk, because I can. I am not objectively or systemically oppressing people who cannot walk by the use of my legs in my day-to-day life. Oppression is action- if I vote for policies and politicians that removes ramps and safety regulations and provisions to assist wheelchair users? Now I am oppressing people who cannot walk. If I block or move or interfere with the disability aids, if I mock people or assault or harm them, if I dump them out of their mobility aids or break them, that is oppression. The act of climbing the 3 stairs on my front porch to get into my house is a privilege, but the oppression stems from the people who built my house to even have stairs on both exits.

5: lastly to end a very long post, I don't actually think there's any harm in centering yourself when discussing things that objectively affect you, as long as you remember to include others who are affected and let them have their floor to also center themselves when they need to speak up. I am a black trans man. My politics are pretty centered on black feminism. I don't think that is objectively a bad thing. I prefer to let the demographics with similar problems speak for themselves- I would rather my trans fem friends get the mic when they open their mouths, my lesbian friends, my Jewish friends, my latino and asian and arab friends. I don't think there's anything wrong with them centering their own problems and outlooks, as long as they recognize that there's shared space to be had with others who feel similar hurts. I think it's pretty normal to center yourself. I think the difficult thing is knowing when to relinquish the megaphone to someone who's been dying to use it, while you yourself still have so much to say.

[velvetvexations]

Saw your tags on that binder post and I thought I’d share that my first introduction to chest binding was actually through the lolita community! A lot of big name japanese brands are not exactly size inclusive and did NOT cater to anyone with more than an A cup, so I did see quite a lot of safe binding advice and methods on blogs and forums back in the day before more inclusive brands became available, ranging from sports bra to actual proper binders. I’m probably not the only example of the “binding to fit into an angelic pretty dress” to “binding to fit into an angelic pretty dress and gender reasons)” pipeline, but plenty of other lolitas I know are still cis women who just do it on occasion or for specific pieces that aren’t very forgiving on the tits! I doubt that a single niche fashion subculture is the reason for those binders being marketed towards cis women so heavily, but I thought this was a funny anecdote :)

Fascinating!

patricia taxxon shit really fucking hurts. i dont want to be effected by a random internet microcelebrity not liking transdudes, that happens often enough. but god her music and essays got me through really rough shit and it really hurts to see someone i looked up to for well written essays and work fall back on the bullshit arguments used to deny my lived experiences. it really really fucking hurts, especially with how it feels barely anyone will talk about or call it out. i thought trfs were something id have to look hard for, and seeing their rhetoric creep into the fucking music i listen to and tumblrs i follow really truly scares me

I'm sorry, anon. I love you a lot. <3

“You shouldn’t break up the trans community into groups!” The TRFs literally came up with a way to break up the community via TMA/TME. They are actively distancing themselves from the community by baking fearmongering into their ideology. God forbid we create a term about sticking together against a group within the community that’s inherently dividing?

lmao literally

Just had my first time getting sexually harassed by a woman as a percieved cis man and commiserating afterwards with a cis man about how we're all just supposed to be cool with being treated like that. It's a weird experience and somehow going through the same things mostly from women as a girl then nonbinary then a trans guy it feels the same but the flavors change. I know the discourse is literally nothing but it makes me feel like my feelings shouldn't matter because of the male privilege. And I even did my civic duty and took the brunt of it away from the other trans man who was getting it worse because of his percieved feminine traits which people also like to pretend doesn't happen. All of it is just stupid.

It's fine, she was a woman and you're a man so that was praxis sexual harassment.

honestly i think a better predictor of how much autonomy a child is able to have over their presentation is probably whether the child is disabled moreso than agab, like i not only wasn't allowed to have my hair too short, i also wasn't allowed to have it too long for a chunk of my childhood because it took me awhile to understand how to brush my hair (because i was afraid to because i am hypersensitive to touch and my mother would always brush my hair in a way that hurt so much i would cry), and my mother would bitch and moan about how difficult i was about it (because she was hurting me and did not listen when i told her this) and so i wasn't allowed to have longer hair until i could brush it myself. ultimately the biggest factor is always the attitude of the parents though

God, so much of my shit with my mother was over my hair, it still really gets to me.

TRF is like the whole voting for face eating panthers. But it’s like TERFs are the panthers and TRFs are a cheetah, like “I’m a kind of cat too so they won’t eat my face as long as I eat faces too right?” WRONG they see you as prey, they won’t spare you because they see a fellow cat, they’ll eat your face cuz you’re not a panther!

cis women will like me if I explain to them how I'm -taxonomically- a woman

it’s insane to me that ‘it’s bad to hate someone for an uncontrollable part of their identity no matter who they are’ is a controversial take now

we've regressed

when people say ‘um ackshually i can say i want all men to die and if you tell me “men see these things and go far right because they think it’s true” then you are blaming women for men’s bad behaviour’ i just immediately assume that this person is stupid as fuck like. if a teenage boy goes online to see what feminism is about and is bombarded with ‘kill all men’ ‘all men are rapists’ etc then OBVIOUSLY he’s not gonna want to be feminist. it is really not that fucking hard to understand. people don’t wanna be in spaces that are cruel to them for an aspect of their identity that they cannot control it’s not ‘blaming women for misogynistic men’ to say that. it’s just fucking true. people are so stupid it actually pains me

unfortunately radfem juice is addictive

[xo2dee]

🗨️ 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐄 if you're under eighteen. I write for adults and want only adults to read what I write as well. I get it, I used to read things I wasn't supposed to online at that age too, but if you're going to do it, please don't interact with me at all. I will block you on sight.

🗨️ 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓 if you fit the basic DNI criteria, are a Zionist, and if you ship incest or any illegal age gaps of any kind. You know what ships I'm talking about.

🗨️ 𝐃𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓 plagiarize or steal any of my work. AND DO NOT FEED MY WORK INTO ANY AI, WHICH MEANS C.AI OR CHATGPT. I'm not above deleting everything from here and AO3 and never letting any of my fics see the light of day again.

🗨️ 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 if you're here to bash me or harass me. This is a safe space I've made for my followers, so if you send me anon hate or anything I more than likely will screenshot it to giggle, answer it and probably laugh at you there too. I don't really care for your opinions if they're ass anyways.

🗨️ 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 it's mainly Devil May Cry and Love and Deepspace for now, and you may see some of my other interests slip in as well. Jujutsu Kaisen at times too whenever I update my fics, but I have my own issues with that fandom. ALSO, I self-ship myself with characters here, mainly Vergil, so if you have an issue with that it's best if you block me.

🗨️ 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐄 most of my work is self-indulgent, meaning I mainly write for myself. Most of the MC's (I refuse to call them Y/Ns) in my fics do have a semblance of a personality and a vague backstory. It's not fun to me to write just a blank slate. And this also means I write female centered characters mostly, especially during smut, but gender neutral is also something I will write too.

🗨️ 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐒𝐊𝐒 you guys are free to send your unhinged thirst if you want; send your nasty thoughts because chances are I've had the same thoughts and/or have probably written it. Send your random questions about anything, ask about my fics if you want, ask about me, ask for any writing advice you need, etc., but please do not randomly trauma dump in my asks. You are free to DM if you would like as well, just as long you don't overstep my boundaries.

🗨️ 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐒 please refer to the Request Rules post, and I will usually keep the status of requests on it, and in the description of my blog as well.

🗨️ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐌𝐄 you can just call me Nee, but you're allowed to call me nicknames if you want as well. I'm twenty-seven, I use she/her pronouns, I'm a Virgo (VIRGO WOMEN UP!), and my MBTI is INTP. I like to yap and rant about random things, and sometimes I may hate on men, but know it's more than likely the men that have done me wrong, or it's men actively ruining the country I live in. This is a writing blog now, but you may see me just talking about other things too and I try to stay far from discourse as a whole.

🗨️ 𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒? Shoot me an ask or DM, and I can answer, and we can go from there. ♡

[traumaandkink]

its actually really cool seeing this blog existing, as a follower on your other blogs for quite a while (and even a regular in your asks lmao) and also a traumatized person into kink

i do have a question - do you have any advice on setting up a 24/7 dynamic with a partner, or even anything you wish you'd known ahead of time? my partner and i are in the talking-about-it stage of that, and i'm on the lookout for really any info that might be useful

-zero (carrying on my tradition of signing off my asks, i suppose)

We started small. With little rules here and there. Like that I had to message him when I woke up with a 'Good morning, Sir' (we live together now but I still do this when he's at work.). I was in University then so I actually had rules about not skipping class, and doing my homework, etc.

We also found as we added more stuff, it got overwhelming for him to keep track of where I strayed from routine and stuff, so we actually used a chores app to keep track of stuff and realizing there's nothing wrong with using stuff like that was so freeing. I know some people print sheets and stuff! We actually use an app that is specifically for BDSM, but in order to get use out of it, we use the paid version because the tasks are limited on the free, but for anyone that doesn't have many tasks or is willing to pay for an app, it's called 'Obedience' and I think there are settings to make it look discreet and whatnot. Not sure if that's a paid or free feature though.

My Dom has ADHD and it was messing me up when he kept missing stuff. And while it was valid to try, I had a hard time pointing out to him stuff I messed up. We adapted, and now all he has to do is check the app and it tells him how many beatings/punishments I owe and what for. It also has a points option which we use and I 'buy' rewards. For more minor mistakes, the app subtracts points rather than adding to my punishment count. (A lot of free chore apps have a points option too! Which is super nice for people that need positive reinforcement only.)

There wasn't a lot that I felt I wish I knew beforehand. I wish I'd known differently about kink in general. Like being safe. (I posted a few posts about in response to an ask about unsafe breath play.)

I will also say it took me a little while to learn that it was okay to safeword outside of the bedroom. In a 24/7 dynamic, things can get intense for me (I'm autistic and experience sensory overload and all that stuff) and I have to safeword sometimes. Sometimes he's pushing me to do something (like a task or something) that normally he could push me to do, even a bit aggressively but sometimes I need to safeword because I'm overwhelmed and I just can't. But it felt like it was only for bedroom scenes, or physical pain so it took us awhile to get there. (He was never opposed to it, we just never discussed it and I thought it was 'wrong' because I hadn't seen it discussed.)

Sometimes I'll be disrespectful and snap at him, and that's an instant punishment, but sometimes I am overstimulated and I need to safeword and he calms me and helps me, and then we deal with the snapping later.

I will also say just because you see punishment in a lot of dynamics doesn't mean it's necessary. I realize that might seem obvious but I talk about it so much and I just wanted to clarify that I think dynamics are valid without punishment too. For some people, they need positive reinforcement only and that's super valid!

I am incapable of not rambling. I am so sorry to anyone that asks me anything.

Thanks for the ask though, and it's such a relief to hear that people that have followed my other blog for aren't just immediately done with me. It's been so much support and validation honestly, and not nearly as much discourse as I thought.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi! Love your blog!

We know that made Lestat's abuse of Louis way more prominent in show (decision I still don't agree with but that's not the matter) and we have Jacob saying that s2 is way darker than book. People speculate that it's because they'll include FrankenClaudia who technically wasn't in this particular book but do you think they'll make Loumands relationship more toxic too like they did with Loustat? (I know they added romance to loustat but they also added beating scene that was on way way more smaller scale in book). Do you think they'll add more gaslighting? Emphasize on Armand making Louis turn Madeleine against his will?

Thank you for answering!

Hey nonny!

So glad you like!

I do think that they will heavily lean into that, yes. (And this "interview" is already held with the content of several books, so imho it doesn't really matter where the content comes from... Rolin held 6? or 7 books up to the camera^^). This will be a bit longer^^:

As all things are said to be revisited we will see how s1 will hold up, but of course it will stay correct that they emphasized the abuse vector. And that is a very valid thing for the Vampire Chronicles! There is a LOT in there, especially abuse, but also like... everything else, too. (As the Twitter discourse currently on Marius also... shows.)

So to get back to your actual question: yes I do think they will emphasize this part (though if they add more? We will see.), I think they have already hinted at that in season 1, but the book canon and their chosen promotional posters give us a very poignant hint here as well.

If we look at the "elevator posters" for example, we have Lestat, Louis and Claudia looking sideways at the observer*, in various state of emotions: fear, anger, and aware consternation (maybe), respectively.

And then we have Armand, *the observer, who looks down the length of his nose at them, with an air of superiority and a hint of a smile, clearly the one in charge:

It is also important to note that he is half in shadow but from the front here, not sideways as the others. The other three are almost completely "in the light", visible as it were. Armand... is not.

Now, if you remember the poster of season 1, then this is a direct echo of it, as well as a development from it:

Lestat was only half visible, behind Louis, since we only heard of him through Louis. Now he is in the same "position" as Louis and Claudia, almost fully revealed.

It is interesting that those elevator pictures keep Claudia in this position here, too, but it makes sense when one knows what will revealed only in later books about her and her play (I have talked about the twist from Merrick).

Now the posters sold at SDCC are equally interesting, because they speak their own language:

First off, we have Louis, holding the mask of Lestat in his hand, a mask taken off, and the mask echoes Lestat's "death face". He is looking into space, beyond it, and he seems to be seated in the back of a stage (given that we have a scene photo with Lestat seated on stage that carries ... repercussions^^).

"La mémoire est un monstre". The second half of IWTV is (among other things of course) Louis yearning for Lestat and learning a few... uncomfortable truths. Masks are taken off, and the revelations will be bloody. Louis will be condemned to be a spectator for some of them, and in the book it culminates in a very poignant speech about passivity.

And then there's Claudia. "La famille est un monstre." Dancing as Carmen, the red flamenco dress making her seem older than she is (supposed to be). The dress emulates flames, the audience is dead. She is almost smirking at the beholder, definitely proud of who she is, and her feet are naked.

"Carmen, a searing depiction of a woman who craves love, but creates obsession and jealousy, is one of the most popular operas ever written." (x)

The Carmen reference feels perfect for me, it will be very interesting to see which aspects they take up for the show, who Madeleine will be, given the World War 2 context, and the jealousy of the soldier in the original opera.

Then there is "L'amour est un monstre". Love is a monster. Love is the monster. The lover is the monster. For these vampires all these variations fit, and I do not just mean Loumand here, but generally.

Armand seems to say something to Louis, who is looking into space, with a slight frown.

The movie poster from "Gaslight", a movie about a whirlwind romance and the new husband isolating the wife from the world and "gaslighting" her to make her appear mad and doubt her own sanity to get at what she possesses... now the IWTV people know what they're doing *laughs*

Anyone who has read IWTV and TVA knows that Armand spell-binds Louis on several occasions, and influences him to do things, for example turning Madeleine, as you mentioned.

Interestingly enough there is also a man with a face half in light, half in shadows here - and that is echoed on Louis in the poster, one half is painted red - indicating he doubles with the police officer of the movie, discovering the things that are supposed to be hidden from him.

And, last but definitely not least, the general poster, without caption:

Lestat is "almost" revealed, our "view" of him still restricted somewhat by Louis and Claudia, as well from the theater curtain.

Claudia is engaged with whatever is happening beyond our view, Louis... is not. He is restraining himself, hands in pockets, mouth set and his gaze is dark, somewhere between accusation and anger. Lestat's gaze is open here, carrying a vague challenge, an expectation.

If we take the elevator pictures back into account one could argue they are looking at Armand here - and that would fit with the story:

Lestat will come to Armand hoping for something, expecting something. Louis will come to some very uncomfortable realizations, and events that will make him beyond angry. Claudia will try to move on, leave Armand behind. And even Louis, arguably.

So to wrap this up: I'm not sure they will add more gaslighting. More toxicity.

Because I don't think they actually need to! There is plenty there already. They will however build on what's there, and it has been more than hinted at imho. (Arguably that happened in season 1 as well, as a lot of that ep 5 scene echoes something in later books, and we will know only after season 2 how it will click into place.)

Armand uses his spell-gift on Louis even after promising not to do it (in the book, I talked about it here), and given how this show drags things into the light they will definitely hook into this. I think both definitions of "gaslighting" will apply - given the structure of the show they might make Armand the "villain" (that he was in the first books) this time round, though of course this word doesn't quite fit for these vampires.

Armand is the one who tortures Nicki and chops off his hands. We are getting flashbacks to that time, and we know that we will get to see Lestat and Nicki in that time. I would bet money on it that they will explore that part of their history.

Armand is the one who tortures Lestat, and uses him to pull the mock trial off.

Armand is the one who throws Lestat off a tower, challenging him to love him... a scene many book readers expect to at the very least echo, if not replace the ep5 scene, depending on how they spin it.

Armand is the one who influences Louis to do things, and who lies to both Louis and Lestat about the other.

Armand is the one who has Claudia (and Madeleine) killed, because she was in the way.

I know show only viewers see Lestat as the epitome of toxicity right now, but... he's actually not. Jacob put it well in that interview that Louis is "angry at him and presents him as a monster".

The show made choices, and given that it's Lestat (who is just the tiniest bit important for the following seasons/books after all)... this requires other choices to be made.

And going by the posters they have given us - they do.

[joons]

This may be a prickly subject, and I'm sorry if so. But I'm trying to learn more about Elvis, and every time I bring him up to people I know, they try to tell me he was this terrible person, and point me toward Priscilla's book, the movie made on it, and the discourse. Idk if you've talked about it on here (I tried searching your blog but couldn't find anything on it). If you're willing, I'd love to hear your take on it so I can see a more nuanced view.

The film Priscilla was greenlit roughly a month after Priscilla herself was informed that she was close to becoming financially insolvent in 2022. With a business partner, Brigitte Kruse, who allegedly helped broker the film deal, she established a limited liability company called Priscilla Presley Partners that was supposed to use her image and likeness to create several lines of merchandise to coincide with the film's release. That business partner is now suing Priscilla because she did not have the rights to her image or likeness, or any ability to use the Presley name, because she had already sold all of those rights and was no longer considered in good standing with Graceland or Elvis Presley Enterprises. The entire business deal, then, according to the lawsuit, was built on her misrepresentation of how much her image was worth.

The deal between the two of them fell apart after Riley Keough, Lisa Marie's daughter and Priscilla's granddaughter, settled with Priscilla to give her a lump sum of $1 million from Lisa Marie's estate and yearly amounts of $100,000. Priscilla sued very shortly after Lisa Marie's death because she thought Lisa Marie's signature on a will had been forged because Priscilla was not included in it. All of the assets were supposed to go directly to Lisa Marie's son, Benjamin Keough, who died in 2020, and her three daughters, two of whom are still teenagers. Now, part of those assets have been claimed by Priscilla and her other son, Navarone, who has no connection to the Presley family and has stated he is glad Lisa died.

Four months before Lisa's death, Lisa wrote to Sofia Coppola and made it clear she had strong concerns about the Priscilla film and was suspicious of the intentions behind it:

"As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father. ... I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly."

Lisa was enormously grateful for efforts put into 2022's Elvis to find her father's soul and to restore his dignity in a world that often turns him and his family into a joke:

"You can feel and witness Baz’s pure love, care, and respect for my father throughout this beautiful film, and it is finally something that myself and my children and their children can be proud of forever."

It is such a strong and powerful statement, to see how much Lisa valued family, not just her father but her own children and their legacy, and how willing she was to speak up no matter what was going on in her personal life to say what was right. On this and many other things, Lisa and Priscilla's values have rarely been in alignment. A friend and EPE business associate, Joel Weinshanker, said of her, "Lisa couldn't be bought, she couldn't be pushed. If she felt that something wasn't in Elvis' best interest, it was never about money. And she really is the only Presley that you could say that about."

Priscilla, though, has adjusted her stories about her time with Elvis almost every time she discusses it. For a quick example, she said in her book, which was released in 1985, that Elvis insisted she do her hair and makeup a certain way, that he had control over her look and would get upset if she didn't dress how he wanted. But in an interview with Ladies' Home Journal in 1973, she said that she made a deliberate choice to attend makeup school so that she could learn how to style herself, and that it was her idea to wear big, black hair and big, black eyeliner. She said she was embarrassed for going overboard. She said, "I wish that Elvis had said something, but he must have liked it because he never commented." This lines up with recollections from Patti Parry, a platonic friend of Elvis' and a hairstylist, who said Priscilla always wanted Patti to do her hair in a "big boombah," but that Priscilla would then get upset when Elvis didn't notice or didn't like it.

These changes are impossible not to notice if you follow her for any length of time. At the film premiere, she said it felt just like watching her life and said she was consulted on everything, since she was an executive producer. After the film came out, she said she couldn't understand why Coppola had changed so much about the story and misrepresented events. In the '70s, she said she and Elvis lived almost totally separate lives, that she came and went as she pleased, and that she loved this freedom. Later, she said she felt completely stifled and trapped and never left the house, even though she had friends she went out with all the time. In 2019, she tweeted a forceful denial about a National Enquirer story: "This is the Enquirer folks... please don't believe everything you read. ... Never planned on being buried next to Elvis. What will they come up with next?" But part of her settlement demands in her lawsuit against Riley in 2023 asked "to be buried next to Elvis." This year, she said in two separate interviews that Lisa was with her when Elvis died and that Priscilla had to break the news to her, despite the fact that Lisa was at Graceland when it happened. She has said she gave Elvis the idea to wear belts on his jumpsuits, to have a lightning bolt as his logo, to sing "An American Trilogy," though none of that is true. She retells the story about forcing Elvis to burn all of his spiritual books to prove he loved her as an almost funny anecdote about debrainwashing him, while Elvis later said it was the worst thing he ever agreed to, a desperate attempt to make her happy by giving up the things he valued the most. (For the record, this is my opinion about their relationship on both sides: thinking they could change themselves and each other to make it work. It never did.)

Every secondhand Elvis account has to be treated lightly and only valued for its consistency with known facts and other witnesses. I try to give enormous benefit of the doubt to anyone in the Elvis world because they often only have partial knowledge of what Elvis may have been thinking at any given time, and there are numerous examples of people who were taken advantage of by unscrupulous journalists who changed the story they wanted to tell. But Priscilla's stories sometimes are not even consistent with her own statements, which makes them very poor options indeed to base anything on. However careful we are about noting potential biases and inaccuracies in other memoirs, we have to be triply, quadruply careful with anything in which Priscilla involves herself because she has a vested interest in generating discourse today in order to make money. Unfortunately, Priscilla has a habit of stifling other accounts or making sensationalized statements each time there is a possibility that she will lose some of the cachet that comes with being an Elvis Source—after Elvis' death, when she believed she was going to inherit his airplane and disinvited everyone that Vernon said could fly in it to his funeral; when she sued the parents of one of Elvis' ex-girlfriends after he died because he had allowed them to live rent-free in a house he bought for them; when she claimed that Elvis wanted to reunite with her before his death, despite the fact that he was engaged to someone else and told many people he couldn't see a reunion ever happening with her; before Vernon's death, when she convinced him to make her an executor of the Presley estate until Lisa came of age; after Lisa came of age, when she convinced Lisa to let her stay on as partner; when Lisa accused Priscilla of misspending Lisa's money, during which time anonymous sources cropped up to say Lisa was in debt and drug-addled; when Priscilla was removed from her position as an EPE spokesperson but kept collecting $900,000 a year from the company; when Lisa died, and Priscilla sued once she learned she wasn't in the will; when Priscilla was no longer associated with EPE and decided to do another adaptation of a book that she has since recanted parts of and has contradicted before and after its release.

When Priscilla thinks there is a threat to her image and position, she does new interviews and projects to muddy the waters and stir public interest, whether it is true or false, positive or negative, laudatory or defamatory. She gets corrected by Elvis' surviving family members, girlfriends, friends, and fans, but these stories do not get the same reach no matter how much they are backed by contemporaneous documents and witnesses, or how many resources there are to educate the public on how Elvis' and Priscilla's attitudes about marriage and relationships changed—along with the rest of society—between 1960 and 1970.

I think almost any single-source project is not going to advance our understanding of Elvis in any way because no one individual can speak for him, and we are kind of obligated to include all the context we can in order to appreciate his character, his successes and failures, flaws and virtues—and to treat both himself and those around him as fully three-dimensional people who have their own blind spots. Priscilla is far too aware of her own image, and far too willing to change it to suit the audience, to be particularly valuable here.

She is next scheduled to appear at the Lexington (Kentucky) Comic & Toy Con.

[riacte]

Future ideas for Bogwaters

(Not promises, just things I think are fun. Making the short demo with 5 NPCs was demanding and I'm already proud of the demo even if the journey ends there. Then again, it'll probably get easier now I've figured out the system...?)

Spoilers for the demo

"Full" game will be inviting 20ish people over 30 days (whole of June). You'll get 10 days of leeway which might seem a little too much, but NPCs will probably scale in difficulty with longer research/bait periods later. There will be more than 20 invitable, non-hostile NPCs so you can pick and choose and won't immediately lose if you get blocked by anyone (which is what happens in the demo).

There'll be probably at least one snitch character— they won't join your server but will claim you're a freak or something. However you won't be cancelled if you meet certain conditions— keeping in with the spirit of the game (rewards kindness and curating your own experience), you can probably be saved if you do nice things and have good enough friendship with people.

Fun fact: I try to make the invitable NPCs have usernames that start with different letters of the alphabet. This makes searching for variables easier. For example, I can search "frd_b" and it'll automatically show "frd_benbiggitybong". This is why the 9 goes in front of blue-blobfish to avoid clashing with benbiggitybong. This is slightly annoying when it comes to naming because I can't make endless bogwarts urls (or ones that start with p and s, which I run into surprisingly often).

WEEK 1 (June 1 to 7)

Tutorial + set up week

Main recruitment method: scrolling PC's own dash and finding blogs from own dash and notifs

Two freebie invitable NPCs from Day 1

Unlocks three NPCs from three "factions" (Bogwarts, Shower Husbands, Dessert Duo)

Potential expansion: exploring into artists like carbonara-art and end-of-endings

Set up for NPCs: Mars' official artist dogwooddraws is teased here. (It wasn't supposed to be a Cherri reference because Martyn did have someone else drawing for him in his Third Life finale, but it's funny all the same). As is the mysterious clipper rubywinterrrises. You'll notice I ran out of ideas and went back to Treebark naming conventions.

Set up for events: classic Shower Husbands discourse, Stitties, mention of Twitter, MGC

WEEK 2 (June 8 to 14)

New recruitment method: MGC teams release and PC having exhausted their dash unlocks scrolling through fandom tags, so PC can find new people to follow and recruit. (A new page for me to update daily 😭 although at times I can just say "nothing new shows up in the tags")

New recruitment method: following the unlocking of Ao3 in Week 1 (starfish-wizard's route), you'll probably unlock more functions and can maybe even publish your own fic. The way it works is that you need to spend days writing your fic so it's not an immediate payoff. An interesting idea to look into is to sacrifice your daily post quota for fic writing time.

You'll be able to stalk people in the kudos section. I imagine this can be a lucrative setup because I can code it so you get notifs when someone kudoses, so the earlier you post it, the more value you'll get out of it. (Idk if I can randomise when people leave kudos)

This week kicks off with the exciting MGC team release of Ben Mars River and H20Bomb. You will have the opportunity to spread propaganda to the Rivergirls. This kicks off the Ben-Mars-River trio thing

dogwooddraws descends on Tumblr and people get skittish

WEEK 3 (June 15 to 21)

Middle of month so we kick off with some good old fashioned Twitter discourse. BNF Brian/Mumble shipper gets cancelled on Twitter and you have to save them because this incident adds to your daily fandom enjoyment decrease amount. So it's a perma debuff if you don't solve it soon.

New recruitment method: Twitter! Twitter will truly raise your chances of cancellation, however it also provides you with a wealth of shippers scared to death that will give you massive rewards (fandom enjoyment) in return

More of the Twitter fishies will be minors so be nice

MGC week! MGC week! MGC takes place on Saturday the 19th, mid to late week. This will be combined with the real life Hermit Rivals which had some gayass quotes. You should have finished exploring your Week 1 dash and will need to dig into fandom tags for new invitable NPCs, and MGC provides the perfect opportunity for people to talk

Mysterious clipper is still mysterious, but the research effort for them begins after you + server discover they clipped every good moment in MGC and start going "we love this mysterious person, please come here". I imagine this is a lengthy, multimedia process spanning days. This probably needs a member count unlock condition because Friendship Is Cyberstalking— I mean Power.

"dogwooddraws is a secret shipper" truthing begins when a new account pops up after the gayass MGC with a suspiciously familiar drawing style

WEEK 4 (June 22 to 30)

rubywinterrises and dogwooddraws storylines should conclude here if you meet the conditions, with Ruby in early-mid week and Dogwood in mid week.

Being nice to Ruby will give you more propaganda power (since they're the clipper) which helps you to sneak in the last few NPCs

There will be some climatic, mandatory "discourse" moment which pushes you to your limit (and reveals whatever backstory PC has), but if you reach a member count (which should be fairly obtainable if you're looking to win), your friends will defend you because Friendship Is Power

There should be more shippy writers in Ao3 that you can stalk, including one anon that you try to suss out their real identity (their real identity will be a mutual from Week 1 dash who was seemingly uninvitable)

For the final week, "last resort options" for the NPCs introduced in earlier weeks should pop up. Eg. you can choose to make an oddly specific post that guarantees a follow back and friendship but it won't raise friendship with other NPCs. (Eg. If you make general "I like Shower Husbands" posts, you'll raise friendship with all the SH people)

(In the demo, this is why the post option for the SH discourse day is either a follow back or a block from the SH guy. The SH guy has the lowest requirement (excluding the freebie NPC) and I don't want the "easy one" to be locked out because you have to save later days for the harder NPCs)

If you bogpost enough in all the weeks combined (ie. planning in advance), "random" previous uninvitable NPCs from earlier weeks will come into your askbox going "you've converted me into a shipper help" and you can be like "Quit your job. Join my shipping server".

MISC

Emergency "get out of jail free" card that temporarily boosts your fandom enjoyment back up. This means you can get to zero once, then that's it. That card is people posting 2019 SHIPlakebog lmao

Semi-famous Permitcraft fanfic writer who joins your server with a different pseud and only you know their real identity. You can be a dick and expose them, but of course there will be consequences.

Your Twitter exploration can be aided if you befriend Tumblrinas who have Twitter experience (since you don't have it and your bestie Waves is already cancelled lmao). A Twitter literacy meter could be funny

Special member count unlockable events like making a meme or AU with the server that goes on Tumblr that unlocks more people

I don't really want to include member + member conflict within the server even though it's realistic because it'll be a pain to code. Would be fun if you could only invite out of two people because they hate each other. (Has no bearing on endgame because that'll make one choice better than the other and I don't want that) 2019 veteran Waves will warn you so you won't invite both and lose

Friendship chains in which inviting someone also increases friendship with their friends. You can't see this in the demo since the main three are all from different friend groups, but I imagine this can start snowballing later.

[theultimateshadow]

Well. I wasn't expecting this to be a regular thing for me now but here we are, I suppose. Hello, my name is Shadow the Hedgehog, also known as The Ultimate Life Form, member of Team Dark and known to be the coolest. Rouge and Omega ended up convincing me to make this... Ask blog or whatever it is so people could... Get to know me better? I didn't really see a problem with it so I've decided to give it a shot. As long as the faker doesn't figure out I'm doing this... If he does he isn't going to let me live it down. And if he spreads it around I'm kicking him into the ground and blocking him on everything. Oh and some random human is helping me operate this whole thing because I didn't trust Rouge with my device. So we'll see how that goes... I think they want to add a few notes now so I'll leave it to them.

((MULTISHIP FRIENDLY, WILL SHIP SHADOW WITH ANYONE IF IM COMFORTABLE WITH IT, NEVER STICKING WITH JUST ONE SHIP))

Tags (New so be patient as I get used to them):

This is who I am - Asks answered

Stop losing focus! - RP reblogs

What do you want from me? - IC posts

I've got no time for games - Ask games

Bow your heads low - Open RP starters

What am I? - Angst RP tag

I take orders from no one - OOC

~●~●~●~●~●~

ALL OTHER ACCOUNTS

SONIC THEMED

18+ ACC: @shadow-sinning

Lancelot RP ACC: @ultimateknightlance

Movie Shadow blog: @space-shadow

Forgotten Shadow AU: @voided-darkness

Manic RP ACC: @manicdrummer

Nine RP ACC: @ninetailedinventor

Charmy RP ACC: @busybee-detective

NON SONIC THEMED

Ruby Rose RP ACC: @silver-eyed-rose

Razzle&Dazzle RP ACC: @dramaticmaskedduo

Susie RP ACC: @rudebuster-battleaxe

((MORE INFORMATION UNDER THE CUT))

Admin here hi hello, this is a RP/Ask blog area I have made for one Shadow The Hedgehog. Mainly game focused with a bit of Sonic X S3 lore involved so there WILL be spoilers involved, and a few personal headcanons that I have made up for him. Don't like? Don't interact. Simple. Independently run by me, any other Sonic RP/Ask blogs are free to interact and make groups, as well as generally anyone. Don't worry if I don't get back straight away, be patient and I'll get to ya! ((GMT timezone, 20+ age range))

Now a few rules so this goes smoothly!

- 16+ only, sorry to all the under 16's out there I just don't feel comfortable with that considering my own age range...

- SLIGHT NSFW topics are allowed as long as they're very VERY minuscule topics. I'm not going to go into detail about any weird shit thanks.

- Shipping/romance topics are allowed, but NO DISCOURSE! I don't want to be judged or see others being judged for their personal preferences and choices.

- None of this is meant to be taken seriously so have fun with it!

[huanzhuyulu]

I wonder why Ruyi is now called as Daru (大如) in China?

Sigh. (This is not directed towards you the asker but just...this "discourse" in general.)

(And I guess this is not really relevant to this blog but since you asked...)

I don't want to know the answer to this, but my social media feeds keep pushing this at me so unfortunately I do kind of know the answer to this. In the last couple? (few? what is time?) years, there has been a wave of backlash on Chinese social media against Legend of Ruyi the drama. Some say, it began as a calculated smear campaign against Zhou Xun because she was being nominated for a bunch of awards for her 2023 drama Imperfect Victim.

But for whatever reason, there was a wave of criticism against Legend of Ruyi the drama, focused mostly on how the character of Ruyi is portrayed and how Zhou Xun supposedly influenced that. Apparently Zhou Xun abused her position as the lead actress to change the entire ending of the drama so that instead of being a badass girlboss on a vengeance spree as FL in harem dramas are supposed to be, she acts the way she acts in the drama which isn't badass enough for certain people and that's bad because it's Zhou Xun wanting to play a saintly Mary Sue. And Zhou Xun also ruined Wallace Huo's career. Or something. I don't even know.

(There's also accusation of characters in Ruyi having unreasonable plot armour (either Rong Pei or Yanwan), sometimes hilariously coming from people who prop up Yanxi Palace to drag down Ruyi with absolutely no awareness/acknowledgement that Wei Yingluo is the queen of plot armours.)

The people who buy in to this "discourse" begin calling the drama and Ruyi "Daru" to mock the drama and its fan as thinking really big of themselves and as a way to signal that this is the direction that their post is going to go. (I think? I mean, this is what I gleaned from having these posts shoved into my feed, it's not like I go and look for them.)

Anyway, the discourse/cricitism is exhausting, mostly because it's made in bad faith and paints Zhou Xun as some sort of supervillian who single-handedly ruined the drama. Because there's no writer/director/producer whose job is the steer the direction of the drama with enough balls to stand up to her or whatever.

Sometimes people think a drama is bad because it doesn't turn out the way they expected it. Sometimes people can't deal with the fact that a drama subverts tropes and expectations and it told the story it wanted to tell, but it wasn't the story they wanted to hear so they throw a hissy fit over it.

[teaonastro]

Can you please speak up for @ghoulmore-girl she's a creator on her and someone has been cyberbullying her accusing her of using ai. I think this is going to set a dangerous presedent on the spritual community if we allow these people to false accuse people of using AI.

This creator @fuckaicontent is just using the cause to bully people because @ghoulmore-girl is innocent.

Creators shouldn't need to prove that they don't use AI.

First of all, let us say that we do NOT condone the way @fuckaicontent is doing this. We do not condone bullying in ANY form. We used ChatGpt for this blog for a while (and we openly told you so), in our opinion her posts sound a lot like they were written by ChatGpt. And we find it interesting how she also blocked us although we never interacted directly or indirectly. I suppose she's feeling guilty? Obviously, no hate to ghoulmore-girl at all, but we don't see how this concerns us or that this is something that we need to defend since we can see why people are upset with her. They are upset because someone they trusted wasn't writing their own informative content. We see their point because why would you be using AI to write astrology or tarot content? We believe that the knowledge has to come directly from the source when it comes to spreading actual informative knowledge regarding spiritual practices. Pretending to have a writing style or eloquence you clearly don't have is weird, and we aren't going to defend people who could be potentially lying about their knowledge or misconstructing their writing skills and processes. This is all alleged of course! But as we mentioned, we can recognize ChatGpt's doing since we used to be big fans during our Whistledown era (RIP). We are NOT going to fault people for calling out the obvious! We do think they could have been nicer, maybe more respectful but we also believe that ghoulmoregirl herself wasn't respectful in the first place, for using AI and then proceeding to lie about it. It's deceptive and offensive to actual non AI creators.

We believe in free choice and open discourse, so if you want to disagree with us feel free to do so!

-Neptune

[spieluhrzeit]

just so you know: i am aware of all the shit going on with till atm. very aware. and i just wanna say one thing: i don't condone it. even if it was supposed to be to shit on the orange manchild. [i refuse to say his name]

money was still paid to be admitted in and my canadian/american friends have every right to be angry. honestly i kinda am too.

but it's been hard for me. literally sobbing and crying a thousand tears as if he died or something. i haven't coped with it well (especially as people are now announcing that they're 'done' with him, which is valid, but still kinda hard to take 😭) and since last night have been a mix of anxious, numb, depressed and distraught.

it's to the point where someone reached out to me to offer restrictions on the discourse chats in our server. (thank you btw, i've been trying to regulate myself but as you can see it's not working)

so, if i look or sound oblivious, or if i'm reblogging on here as if nothing happened, just know that i do know what happened and it's affected me greatly because i wasn't sure if the fandom was gonna collapse or not. so i need a break from it all. what looks like another piece of controversy to you (and a simple decision), is my entire world crumbling. i'm not even joking.

rammstein has been interlaced with my soul. all 6 of them, including till reside in my heart and make up a good chunk of my creative life. so to feel like i can't share anything with people who don't like him (a me vs myself ordeal) is very overwhelming for me. i'm considering making him sleep on the proverbial couch of my mind for a while.

also if you couldn't tell i wasn't around for the allegations. kinda wish i was because then i would've been a bit more jaded.

so yeah. that's my statement on this whole thing. meine welt comes out today, i might skip it for the moment. if things are too bad, i'll take a hiatus from rammposting and flood this blog with something else. but i'll never leave.

i would like to put them on my island in tomodachi life: living the dream coming in 2026?! yeah?! that's happening?! i was so excited, yesterday was truly a rollercoaster of emotions

[justjasper]

Creation of the Pan Flag

Copied (with grammar/spelling mistakes) from my twitter thread about it for posterity.

I was going to do this for Pride weekend but you know, life, so: I wanted to talk about a thing. I created the #pansexual flag, a thread.

Back in 2010, I was 20 and tumblr was my main social playground. I was active in various spheres, and I was learning.

I'd been IDing as bi since I was 13, but moved away from bi as an identifier and took up pansexual soon after discovering the term, bc I felt it fit better.

This is mainly bc the simplicity of pan being defined as attraction to any/all genders was extremely appealing to someone really coming into this new way of expressing their orientation like tumblr allowed. It felt right for how I wanted to relate to and express my orientation.

The bi communities I had access too often saw heavy discussion related to attraction parametres of "bi" - convos at the time I didn't really recognise for what they were: bi people working hard to define bisexuality on their terms, tackling intra-community transphobia, (cont)

(cont) and developing within a social space where more expansive gender experiences and identities were becomes more well known and understood.

My switch of labels was about finding something that felt truly right for me, but it would be dishonest to pretend the decision wasn't impacted by the politics and "discourse" I was involved in at the time.

There was no popular pan flag, and the offerings were frankly... ugly. To me. Various shades of purple, P letters, P symbols incorporating gender symbols, infinity symbols. They didn't feel consistent with the other pride flags.

So on a whim, I decided to design one. I designed it to be pretty, honestly. That was a primary function of it, to have s/t I liked to represent my identity. No point pretending I was trying to be super innovative and deep: I wanted something pretty to plaster on my blog.

Pink, yellow, blue. A strong magenta, a strong gold yellow, and a light cerulean. The pink not too purple, the yellow not too bright, the blue not too cyan. Hex FF1B8D, FFD900, 1BB2FF.

Pink and blue, because of their gendered traditions, and yellow, a generally non-gendered colour, to represent nonbinary folks etc.

I created it anonymously, on a side blog away from my main handle. I was already running LGBTLaughs which was proving very popular in tumblr and didn't want to monopolise queer blog space, I suppose.

I didn't expect it to take off. It proved popular on tumblr, and for a few years the flag kept getting added to the Wikipedia 'pansexual' page and then removed. Eventually it snowballed and ended up in use well beyond tumblr.

As I've got older I've realised a lot of people would be interested in knowing this part of modern queer history, and more about modern flag creation in general, and that it's worth documenting. Not for credit so much as for posterity.

So, that's that. The first time I saw a pansexual flag in real life at my city's Pride parade I may have had a little cry.

Twitter Drama

Best viewed on the original twitter thread, for the full documentation (I may update this with fuller documentation down the line) but here's a rundown of drama surrounding the flag.

First, to set the stage:

posted about designing the pan flag

said i was cool with bi/pan lesbians

said i was cool with kink at pride

Thus followed, in varying intensity 2020-2022:

misgendering

suicide bait

general harassment/pile-on

"called out" on r/pansexuals

blasted on sapphics for satan (fb)

now sworn enemy of of lesbian kpop avi twitter

claims the original pan flag was transphobic in meaning

multiple "new" pan flags designed to displace the one i designed

claims i stole the flag from a medieval indian kingdom, and subsequent vandalisation of wikipedia for the actual state of kerala

vandalisation of the wiki page for the pan flag, resulting in it having to be locked

[damnfandomproblems]

I wanna ask the mods something, cuz I'm seeing certain type fandom problems getting shot down or belittled rather often, such as fanfiction problems getting labelled as "pet peeves".

Don't get me wrong, everyone has their opinion, that's not the issues.

What I want to know is what kind of problems are deemed "worth" being posted there?

I see a lot, like, A LOT of problems regarding pro/anti, problematic topics, celebrity allegations, etc, etc, that seems to raise quite the debate everytime.

But when it comes to stuff like fanfictions, like typos, formating, bland characters, "Mary Sue-ing", etc, I personally find quite interesting actually,

The only response they get is just to get over it, OP being nitpicky, pet peeves posting, etc

I know you mods are supposed to be objective and you come with all the submissions coming in your box,

But, idk,

I find more interesting to see and study more "intellectual" problems or even little "pet peeves" once in a while than seeing the same pro/anti issues being repeatedly posted all over again... It's getting old...

(I know it's a "vent" blog, thus I'm venting too. It just feels like we can't vent about anything and everything here...)

This blog is meant for all fandom problems big or small. Despite how some commenters may react, it's absolutely welcome to pet-peeves and "this sounds like a you problem OP" problems.

I think something of a shift occurred a few years back, because there used to be a character limit for sending asks, so most of the submissions to this blog were only a sentence or two. Once the character limit was lifted, submissions started getting longer and eventually evolved into the essay-type submissions we see quite often now.

I think there's also the fact that people are often made to feel obligated to "over-explain" themselves to pre-empt being misinterpreted or taken in bad faith.

I've seen us labelled as a discourse blog and I'm not quite sure how to feel about that since its original intention was more of a vent blog open to all different perspectives. I supposed that maybe once reply-chains became a common staple here it has more of a case for being called a discourse blog (and also circles back around to the fact that average submission length increasing due to people feeling the need to over-explain to get ahead of criticism.)

Personally the range of problems from big to small, from one-sentence blurbs to elaborate essays is one of the things I enjoy about the blog, so I'm sometimes disappointed when someone is told their small problem wasn't worth posting here.

[catras-breakup-song]

Hi.

I won't reply to you anonymously because I'm not scared/ashamed to debate openly, but first I wanted to ask: What do you mean Shadow Weaver would be raised by "mom" and Adora would be raised by "dad?" Hordak and SW literally had no romantic feelings for each other, they never dated, they were never married/divorced.

Adora and Catra would both have been raised by a single mother/father and them being childhood friends would have made sense since they wouldn't share an adoptive parent like they do in canon.

And even if the sources I mentioned about C//A being sisters aren't canon or what the show was going for, they kinda uh... Still put that dynamic IN the show? And since it's there, it's not illogical that some people are turned off by the ship. This person explained it perfectly: https://www.tumblr.com/anti-catradora-receipts/631728237468401664/the-fact-that-apparently-these-2-started-out-as?source=share

Not to mention that it basically resembles ANOTHER sibling relationship in fiction, which the same person talked about: https://www.tumblr.com/anti-catradora-receipts/637045171905789952/i-have-only-seen-clips-of-the-show-on-youtube-and?source=share

If C//A brings you happiness though, continue enjoying the ship and don't mind me. Also, if you wanna publish my reply to the public, go on.

with respect (which i genuinely appreciate you giving first), i think you may be confused, because i wasn't actually proposing a romantic dynamic between hordak and shadow weaver or them working together as parents; the context was that the person i was reblogging from had seen someone make a claim that what should have happened in canon was catra & adora were raised separately, and i challenged that logic, hence why i put those phrases in quotes when i compared it to a hypothetical realistic situation.

as far as the rest of your message goes, i think we just see shadow weaver differently and to me that's okay. i read through the first* post you linked (embedding it to make it more conveniently accessible), and i can see where they're coming from about her gestures towards the girls being maternal in an objective sense, but personally as i stated in one of my original post's points (which you may want to read through again if you haven't already), i think they both end up rejecting her as having ever truly been a mother as opposed to an assigned guardian. what i mean by this is, i suppose, how people say the title of mother should be earned, or else they may just be called an "egg donor" since that relationship was disowned by the child but doesn't take away from the fact that they gave birth (and a similar equivalent along those lines for adoptive ones, like SW).

*i briefly glanced through the other one, but i'm not sure i would understand since i've never known of that media.

considering everything she did was so manipulative, including body language, i just have a hard time accepting that her intentions were ever motherly (whether her actions actually were or not are up for debate & interpretation, in my opinion). the girls obviously wouldn't have understood this while they were kids, but once they grow older and the events of the story kick off, it seems to me like they deny having a mother in the past at all as they start learning to heal, because ideally having been orphans would be a less disturbing implication to them than what they got to experience instead.

that being said, i can't ignore the very last part of that receipt blog's post of the confession about the little girl. however, i think it goes far beyond just the discourse about them being sisters or lovers, considering some of the show's greater themes revolve around mature topics such as war & abuse. the writers have to be very careful about all the messages they're sending to a Y7-rated audience, such as "how far can someone go before crossing the line?" and "can certain people even be redeemed?" and "does not being a perfect victim by perpetuating the cycle of abuse mean you don't deserve to heal and be loved?" ─ i think these two analysis videos by "the sin squad" on youtube, that came out both before and after season five released respectively, cover this very valid concern pretty well, and they're worth a watch if you're still interested!

i hope this makes sense and what i'm trying to convey here comes across as i want it to. if not though, you're free to ask more questions and i'll do my best to communicate! i'd be happy to talk more since you're coming to me in good faith and don't shut out what i have to say. have a nice timezone, wherever you are! 𖹭

by the way, these banners are not here for you specifically, i just don't want nasty antis to come in and start arguing with me where they weren't invited, since they take a lot of mental effort to deal with. you are not one of them, in case that's not obvious! and thank you for clarifying that i can post this publicly or else i wouldn't be sure.

[ingravinoveritas]

Just popping by to say how much I appreciate you. Thank you for always keeping a level head. Even when you're disagreeing or calling out bullshit, you still manage to stay diplomatic and respectful. And of course, you always focus on the important things, the main one being that Michael is David's #1 fan (and vice versa)

Aw, thank you so much for this! I can't tell you how nice it was to get this message in my inbox (and apologies for not replying sooner, as I've been entirely swamped and am now trying to catch up on my Asks).

Given that this was from two weeks ago, I'm going to guess that this is mainly in response to the whole situation with David's BAFTA nom and some of the reactions that have occurred as a result. I think a lot of people have said a lot of clumsy things (looking at you, Neil) and while some may not have meant to take away from David's big moment, that still seems to be what's happened. I absolutely believe David is more than deserving of the nomination and it is long overdue at this point. He should've been nominated for Des, or even before that, his role as Alec Hardy in Broadchurch, but I am so glad he's finally gotten a nomination now.

I think the reaction a lot of people had was borne out of how tied together David and Michael's performances are as Aziraphale and Crowley, and the thought that if David were to be nominated for that specific role, then one hopes that Michael will also be nominated for his role as Aziraphale at some other point in the future.

But to your comment about my keeping a level head, I find it interesting that, in the midst of all the theories flying around about why Michael wasn't nominated and questions I got to that effect, this post showed up in the tags the same day you sent me this Ask (blog name is cropped out):

This was very obviously in reference to this Ask that I received and had answered just prior to then. This person didn't even have the nerve to mention my blog by name, but had no problem calling me an "rpf fucker" (really nice...). The question pertained to whether Michael's lack of a BAFTA nom could have been because of Anna's off-putting social media posts prior to the announcement, and I indicated in my response that I did not believe this was the case. I am not about to place blame on Anna for something that she had no part of--which I suppose this person was hoping I would do, to give credence to their ludicrous claims of sexism--and I made my position on the matter clear.

So to your comment about me disagreeing, this was exactly what happened...and yet this person had to twist what I wrote so far around (to the point of lying by omission) just to make their point. And yes, I took that Ask seriously, as I take every Ask/Anon that I get seriously, even the ones that attack me (which is also why it takes me for-freaking-ever to answer the questions in my inbox). According to the above blogger, however, instead I should've responded to the person who sent the Ask by mocking them and telling them how ridiculous and stupid they are. Because just politely disagreeing while still allowing someone the space to share their thoughts is so horrible, but telling someone to fuck off is apparently the height of discourse. Ugh.

In any case, I am very much grateful for this message, and for you and everyone else who follows my blog and has been so lovely. It's your encouragement and kindness that gives me the drive to keep posting, so thank you! ❤️❤️