explaintome

[explaintome]

Dear "but it's just a character" people, explain to me where you think stories and inspirations for characters come from? Genuine question because I am getting angry every time a part of fandom starts to be atrocious towards a character, despite their backstory and explicit things that are said.

Since I will use him as an example:

SPOILERS FOR ASTARION'S (BACK)STORY IN BALDUR'S GATE 3

One of my old English teachers always said something that confused me a lot. "There are only around 10 unique stories in the world."

Hyperbole of course, but there is some truth in it. If you look across different cultures, with their folklore and stories, gods and traditions, you will find a lot of overlap. The reason is that we as humans go through a lot of the same struggles, joys and overall experiences.

What does this have to do with my initial point? Yeah, I am getting to that.

The to date first art we have found are cave paintings from 45,500 years, where this person painted a pig. Why a pig? Because this animal probably lived in this area and was a good inspiration.

Why is that relevant? Because I think humanity in its core still does exactly this. We take what we see and experience, or people close to us do, and work through it through art.

So, back to my question from the beginning. When you see a character, do some inappropriate art (that does not mean NSFW in general) in any way about it, and excuse it with "it is just a character!". You know that someone wrote this character right? Someone took real experiences and put them into the story. Ideas aren't born out of thin hair. And yes, I know I cannot keep you from doing it but maybe have you think about it?

Art imitates Life.

Life imitates Art.

So...for my example.

Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 is an absolute fan favorite, of course he is, and a lot of that comes from his looks and charm. I also romanced him in my first run, and I don't regret it.

But there is an important part, that I feel numerous people still ignore. Cazador, the vampire lord who turned and enslaved him, made Astarion use his beauty to lure innocents back to his master as food, condoning them to their death. In one cutscene you can get in act 2 he opens up more about this topic after you clearly state that he has self autonomy, which is a foreign concept to him by now. He says, "I don't want anyone to think of me in terms of sex." Yeah surprise, the trauma did damage to him.

And I AM NOT condemning putting him in any sexual settings, that is bullshit and would be so disrespectful towards SA victims and how they cope because plenty of ways are valid. But many things I saw early one were some not thought through shit, and critique was answered with "but he is fictional". I can't even tell if it is ignorance or malicious intent, but that doesn't invalidate my argument.

Yes, he is. But people, who went through traumatic experiences with sexual abuse, being objectified, etc. are real. And they might see your work, and feel unsafe about how their experiences are seen or if they would be taken seriously.

Stories are not pulled out of thin air, there are people for whom those stories are their reality, so please take criticism and think about the things you publish a moment before you click on post.

[explaintome]

[explaintome]

always everyone else’s fault

[explaintome]

Dear Mouthwashing fandom, explain to me, why next to the incredible fan art, I find a fuck ton of shipping content, especially between characters where this is highly problematic? SPOILERS FOR MOUTHWASHING AHEAD CN for talk about sexual abuse, death, suicide & violence

DISCLAIMER: I do not shame the general practice of shipping at all. I am a shipper myself and I think it makes up for a lot of interesting dynamics and narratives outside the canon. Shipping is an important pillar of fandom communities and I am unable to forbid you to do it. HOWEVER, in the case of Mouthwashing I want to talk about what, in my opinion, feels tone-deaf to the themes and the canon of the game. But let me start with a short summary of the game before I get into it.

Mouthwashing is basically a visual novel that takes place on the Tulpar, the last manned cargo ship of the company Pony Express. The crew, consisting of Caption Curly, Co-Captain Jimmy, Nurse Anya, Mechanic Swansea and his intern Daisuke, is confronted with a crash against an asteroid and the consequences following it. The story is told out of order to reveal the truth bit by bit. What caused the crash, what happened and how the crew deals with the time afterward being stuck on the ship. Revealing sexual abuse, tragic backstories, the horrible side effects of late state capitalism and the neglect of people in command towards the people they are responsible for.

To boil it down we have two men who, out of societal misogyny, hurt the only woman on their crew by assaulting her or not acting as they should have in their position of responsibility. All of this would not have happened if Jimmy didn't rape Anya and impregnate her, and if Curly had disciplined Jimmy in a capacity possible on the ship and in Jimmy's position as co-pilot. To be honest, with the amount of automatization the ship has, I don't think they need Jimmy if it is not a case of emergency, but I digress. Jimmy is the perpetrator of the story, but Curly is an accomplice in putting his aim of finding a solution and compromise over punishing his subordinate as he should have.

And now to my actual point: I am a big fan of the game, the narration style and the utter tragedy of 5 people losing their lives in the isolation of space, with their company not giving a shit about them. Otherwise, they might have been rescued much earlier or at all. Or had enough cryo pots in the first place. Or a nurse with experience. Or any amount of better equipment and not the most cheap shit that somehow made it through a resemblance of regulations. There are probably no regulations.

Being a fan I, of course, looked into the hashtags on several social media sites, and between the incredible art and analysis of the game, I quickly found shipping content, and I have no idea why. I have literally no idea how that narrative speaks to you in a way of shipping characters romantically/sexually. Especially three shippings really rub me the wrong way.

ANYA/JIMMY

Are you fucking kidding me? Literally, what is wrong with you shipping a victim with their abuser? There was not one interaction between them, that suggest that there was consent or affection, that Jimmy has any sympathy for Anya. He knows what is going on, he knows that Anya is pregnant and takes no responsibility. Even worse, his idea of FIXING this was to kill everyone, at least himself, to avoid responsibility! Same goes for AUs where she kept the baby and is somehow okay and happy? I get the urge to fix it, but that is not a good fix. There is no good fix if you are pregnant due to rape.

ANYA/CURLY

A lot of argument I hear for that is that "at least Curly is her friend and was nice to her" and if that is your whole foundation of argument, I want to ask what your standards for a relationship are. Please know that you deserve more than the bare minimum. Another question in that context: Is Curly really Anya's friend? His friend was abused and instead of protecting her, he tried to reason and help her abuser! That is not the behavior of a friend! There is no "but Jimmy is his friend too!". If your friend is an abuser and that does not make you stop being their friend....why?

JIMMY/CURLY

It feels like it is a law on the internet, that two men who look at least averagely handsome will be shipped, especially if they have the tiniest of connection to each other. I am not even sure if I would call them friends in the first place. It appears that Jimmy, whatever his bad life before that job was (thanks to the developers for not giving us a backstory), he is still absolutely unsatisfied with that he has. He is jealous of Curly and his position, seeing how quickly he takes on the Captain title after the crash and only realizes far too late how hard the position actually is. Curly on the other hand feels a bit like a people pleaser to me. He probably had pity for Jimmy, took him under his wing to help him? Fix him? Whatever it is, it made him ignore Jimmy's bad side to a fatal degree. I respect the toxic yaoi but are you sure?

TLDR; I am worried about how the practice of shipping developed, from a way to extend the canon, explore queerness in cis/straight dominated media, into a compulsion of where some people can't look at any form of media or constellation of characters without immediately smashing them together like dolls. If you do this, maybe step back for a minute and ask yourself if it is appropriate. On that note, same goes in case you defend Jimmy. Why?