#<- serious talk and discourse

[bisapnap]

bun bisapnap now twice as obnoxious , semi-ia

bun / cujo • he • bi black trans guy • 24

previously @transnapsap

sapolo because the other two are hellbent on getting me to drive off a bridge <3 (/j)

twt

@sapnapgosolo for major discourse

[devotion-disorder]

Am I the only one who only thinks of the Scooby Doo collar when looking at Asa's? Once I saw it I couldn't think of it any differently and now everyone shall suffer.

(PS, I accidentally failed in a conversation with someone and brought up Vaginal Yeast Anon)

💀💀💀💀💀💀bro

but you have a point...have we ever seen Asa and Scooby-doo in the same room together at the same time? much to think about...

[revvethasmythh]

You know, I think there's something so, so insidious to the idea that Orym's perspective of the Vanguard is "flawed/human" or that him repeatedly reminding his friends what the Vanguard does (kill innocents to achieve their means) "blocks nuance" in the conversation, etc, because it implies that, in this mythical "objective" perspective that apparently exists, the Vanguard aren't so bad. If only Orym could put aside his petty grievances, such as the murder of his father and husband, and let people be nuanced about this situation, he'd see there's two sides to this story. And why discount the Vanguard's perspective just because *checks notes* they're a massive, manipulative cult that preys on vulnerable people to join their ranks and turns them to violence, or that they work with a centuries-old fascist eugenicist literally mind-controlling psychic government with the goal of freeing a creature that could very well destroy the world as we know it and even if it doesn't, will leave an enormous power vacuum for that fascist government to potentially occupy when they invade Exandria?

I think there's some misconception people have that they think war shouldn't ever be personal and if it does become personal for someone then their logic is too clouded by their feelings to see the situation clearly, just automatically. And perhaps sometimes, in some contexts, this can be true! But not here. It's actually quite cut and dried that Orym's "flawed, human" perspective is the one reminding everyone of the human cost to Ludinus' grand plans, all in the name of so called "progress"

[tiercelgreen]

'Common' Theriotypes. Why They Exist and What The Cause Might Be.

Aka. Uh oh guys, Tiercel’s been thinking a little too much about nonhumanity.

If you've been active in the therian community for any amount of time, you may have noticed the prevalence of a few animals absolutely dominating discussion boards, video posts, and therian-centric sites. I am, of course, referencing the high number of wolves, domestic or large cats, and foxes. You may have also noticed that folks in (or outside) of the therian and broader alterhuman community claiming that a majority of people with these theriotypes 'must be faking' due to their (apparent) majority. I won't deny that certain theriotypes seem more 'popular' than others, but I don't personally believe that their prevalence actually has anything to do with 'faking therianthropy'. I'll be breaking down why this might be into multiple sections to better organize my thoughts on the subject matter. Easy Visibility When a therian first awakens, discovers what the therian community is, or begins to question their therianthropy, they often reach out for help or search for resources to assist them in figuring out what their theriotype may be. Frequently they're told by other therians or the sites they look to to research animals that align with their instincts, shifts (if they experience them), and the environments they remember (if they believe the origin of their therianthropy to be a past life) and/or feel most comfortable in.

The primary issue with this advice is that animal behavior, while specific to each animal, can be generalized across clades and even across unrelated species. If the questioning therian searches for their theriotype based on their food-guarding tendencies, growling, and love of cold climates, they're equally likely to be a wolf, a marten, a wolverine, a fox, a bear, a lynx, or any other predatory cold-biome mammal. Which one of these animals do you think is going to pop up first when they're researching cold-climate predators that match their specifications.

A Wolf. And because questioning therians are not frequently encouraged to search further than the first result, or are not sure how to fully determine if the animal is their theriotype, or is just one they feel a strong connection to, they go with the first animal that popped up. This is the primary reason why 'popular' theriotypes happen. They're the first animal(s) in the search bar when questioning therians go looking, and they're often not informed enough about the process of discovering one's theriotype to look for other options. They may also feel pressured to have figured out their theriotype already, given that every other therian around them already seems to know. Solving this issue is as simple as encouraging further search and not jumping headfirst into declaring an animal your theriotype. Reassure questioning therians that it's OK to not know their theriotype immediately, and it's OK to keep looking. It's also OK to find out you were wrong later on and 'change' (not actually change, but rather adjust the label of) your theriotype to your more accurate one.

Not A Theriotype Perhaps controversially, the 'popular' theriotypes may not be theriotypes at all. When questioning therians are introduced to the community they're often unfamiliar with terms such as otherhearted, otherlink, copinglink, or archetrope. Because they're unfamiliar with these other words and definitions, they assume any sort of connection with an animal (extant, extinct, or mythical) is therianthropy. The reason that 'popular theriotypes. may show up more often as hearttypes, links, or tropes (though this one is fairly nebulous) is because they're often easier on a fundamental level to relate to or project feeling, emotion, or connection onto. They're easier to identify with from a human perspective due to the human nature of anthropomorphizing nonhuman animals and due to humanity's familiarity and fondness towards them, and so they appear more often as hearttypes/links. In the case of links especially, because it is a voluntary identity, more 'popular' animals are chosen specifically because there is an aspect of choice involved. 'Popular' animals do have a 'cool factor' to them that makes them more beloved by linkers and more likely to become links. And this isn't a bad thing in the slightest! This particular issue can simply be resolved by further educating the alterhuman community on the terms used within it. I personally recommend the Alterhuman Dictionary as it has easy to understand and up-to-date definitions. Not A Therian We must be able to calmly confront the fact that, at the end of the day, some of these therians with popular theriotypes may not be therians, otherhearted, otherlinkers, or copinglinkers at all. However, that does not mean that they are faking, and it's harmful to assume so or claim that someone is. Firstly, many of the therians with 'popular theriotypes' that other therians complain about are very young. 12-16 most of the time. Secondly, this age is when a lot of things about one's personal identity are in flux, and it's prime time to begin discovering who you are. Exploring one's identity is fundamentally nonharmful, and this can mean testing out labels and identifying as something you may turn out to not be at all. There's no shame in this. I myself thought I was some form of canine for many years before realizing that my ‘canine’ behaviors were not canine at all, they were draconic. And ultimately, age does not factor into this as much as you’d think it does. Yes young therians are likely to be a little more tactless than adult therians on the internet, and are more prone to bullying, but anyone of any age is capable of exploring their identity and getting it wrong the first few (or few-hundred) times.

Therians in New Spaces The real catalyst for the vast majority of this [extremely pointless] discourse is the fact that therians are in the public eye now more than ever. Videos of therians go viral on TikTok, the news (inaccurately and harmfully) reports on us occasionally, and bigots who scream about ‘identity politics’ and ‘blue hair and pronouns’ have latched onto us as a new target to bully and harass. This is nothing new, the community has weathered harassment before, but the widespread nature of it is what’s inflaming this discourse. People make fun of ‘popular’ theriotypes because they want to distance themselves from ‘cringe therians’ (usually just vocal and proud younger therians), they want to avoid the bullying that easily targeted therians are facing so they join in, or because they feel like gatekeeping the community from supposed ‘fake’ therians is the only way to keep ‘true’ therians safe. The best way to mitigate this is to correct misinformation, educate, and if worse comes to worse, block. The block button is your best friend on the internet (where most of this discourse and bullying occurs), if someone is harassing you and won’t let up, or even if they just severely irritate you, blocking them does no harm and is ultimately better for your mental health and (sometimes) safety. Conclusion While perhaps more scrambled, I hope this essay has helped you understand the inane discourse around ‘popular’ theriotypes and what to do about it (if anything). I’ll leave you on the reminder that you’re under zero obligation to educate those who won’t listen, your experience with alterhumanity is going to be different from everyone else’s even if there are similarities, and you do not have the knowledge or right to tell anyone you do or do not know that they’re faking an aspect of their identity. Leave people with ‘popular’ theriotypes alone. And by the fucking gods, please stop arguing about it. It does not matter.

[roobylavender]

[microwave noises]

[riacte]

in case people didn’t see it: false replied to gem with a millennial gif under scar’s now deleted tweet about the movie poster

https://x.com/falsesymmetry/status/1885309359153905880

[rutadales]

have to say very funny to me that shipping c!dream with the torture allower 9000 is a less controversial ship than. The guy who rescued him from the torture. that's so fucking funny I love fandom

[tigerbears]

Hay Suselle fans.

Awhile ago I was delusional enough to write a 51 page, 12K word manuscript defending Suselle, as a rebuttle to someone's 48 Page document claiming Suselle won't happen/isn't healthy, because they said the most convincing counter arguments will get a free commission.

(Context below read more line. All the links besides my rebutttle contain severe Suselle and Noelle slander. Read/watch at your own risk.)

(Also plz don't send hate/do harassment even if I fundamentally disagree with almost every single argument they sent. Just because they are (factually) wrong doesn't mean you can do (morally) wrong things to them (like harassment.)

Let me restate that. Please do not bother these people with hate. I do not want shipping wars or drama with these people.

The Anti-Suselle video.

The Anti-Suselle document.

My Pro-Suselle rebuttable document

[miicycle]

What upsets me the most about the whole James Somerton scandal, of course aside from the actually terrible shit he did and what that lead to, is that people are calling others "idiots" for being "fooled".

I'm sorry to say, but the human mind can be fooled, no matter how hard you train it. Maybe not by James ofc, but anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can be fooled into believing ANYTHING when talked to by someone who seems legit. Especially since James stole from other actually good creators and writers, hid credits around, lied, showed SOME credit at times but sometimes not, his words seemed genuinely legit.

What sucks too is that this also belittles those who may be disabled. As someone who has severe ADHD and autism, it fucking sucks to hear "you shouldve been able to tell" or "how did you fall for it, his videos are garbage".

I never went on witchhunts, I didn't even know he got accused of stealing until a friend told me to watch the hbomber video (which I'm slowly working through).

I, a queer person, watched the videos on queer issues to learn more, the easy way (I have a hard time just reading things and like having the background noise of someone telling about incidents and events). It's a fucking accessibility thing for me. So God forbid I watched some of his videos and thought he was legit.

Insulting anyone isn't going to get you anywhere. Especially those that just watched his videos and didn't attack people. I hate that I easily fell for the ruse, I don't need people calling me stupid on top of it. I shouldn't feel ashamed for watching some godamned videos.

[falmerbrook]

Thinking about that post from a few days ago about being too nervous to post fandom analysis type stuff out of fear of looking stupid... I think it's doubly so for old fandoms/media. Like, I got into elder scrolls (like, really got into it, not just running around in Skyrim every few months) about 3-ish years ago now. It's a 30 year old franchise. It says something about the series that we can still have interesting discussion and theory-crafting about it still, but that's 27 years prior to me of random lore tidbits being doled out in forums that don't exist anymore and fans theorizing about things that I wasn't around for. It can be quite a bit intimidating potentially interacting with other fans who have been here way, way longer than I have (hell, a rare few longer than I've been alive). Like, are there any original thoughts to be had at this point? Probably. But the question is how many of them am I experiencing.

[fox-guardian]

what is your opinion on people censoring jimmy’s name? i don’t like it personally because it erases blame. in real life the main goal is for people to know the names of r@pists so they can be aware and the victims always want people to know who hurt them so someone can take the blame for actions. i feel that when people censor jimmy’s name, it erases any blame for his actions. “i hate japist so much for what he did to anya!” okay but what’s his name? who hurt anya? who is to blame for his actions? by censoring his name, it takes the blame off of jimmy.

I get that perspective, but idk if it erases blame in this context? We all know who it's supposed to refer to (especially since all the nicknames start with j, so you can't confuse it with another character). It hits different for a Character in a Story like this vs an actual person who Could do harm to real people. I think that's a fair enough take to have tho, I can see why that'd bother you.

Regardless, that's not to say I don't Also find it a little annoying for my own reasons. Especially when people do it in serious conversations or pick especially tasteless names to call him. Like using a play on actual predators names. Who Have hurt real people. Like it's such a funny joke.

My biggest beef with it is that it often feels. Performative? I guess? Like "HEY LOOK HOW MUCH I HATE JIMMY I won't even say his NAME" yknow? It Feels sometimes like some (not all) people who do this don't want to engage with him as a character, which is not good because we Should be engaging with him. Talking about him and what he did, how it's not dissimilar to things in real life. The greatest horror of mouthwashing is that Jimmys do exist and if we refuse to look at even a fictional version of that type of guy, it'll be easier to miss it when people like him do harm irl.

Again, I don't think everyone who does the nicknames/censoring thing are like this or whatever, but sometimes it does just. Rub me the wrong way. Gets old.

[butchifiedcatfish]

Guys!!!! Tommy is CLEARLY in the wrong for being mean to our dreamy weamy!!! Clearly there was no abuse of power at the time and Tommy is just a bad person!!!! Dream can do no wrong hes a perfect little angel 🥺🥺🥺🥺

[fruitydiaz]

i think pointing fingers and separating fandoms into “sides” is the least effective way to combat bigotry or abuse within fandom. seeing people send death threats to anybody whether it be cast, crew, journalists, or other fans and just othering yourself from them and saying “of course it’s this group it would never be my group” is! ineffective! because it very likely will be “your group” next because racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism will never be exclusive to any one side of a fandom. it’s a fandom wide issue.

[atopvisenyashill]

Bro the ppl you stan are so at odds with the other, your level of starkcels are always alicent-sansa stans, which is a shame bc if they open their eyes they'll see the sansa-rhaenyra-catelyn parallels 😔🥀

Messing with my stats fr 😒 (no hate btw, I'm also a sansa-rhaenyra stan)

it GENUINELY causes me pain, and like i get it, the fandom beefs go crazyyyy and i blame both d&d and the shitty way we teach literature analysis in high school for it getting as bad as it has. one of my xwitter moots got into asoiaf thru hotd bc she saw “lesbian undertones & dragons” and got curious & she said the other day never has she been in a fandom as genuinely evil, she was NOT prepared & i would say that’s just xwitter but we’ve ALL seen crazy behavior on every platform & also i can fully acknowledge that i, like many others, have gotten pettier & more quickly annoyed over the years ajsjdj. but my GOD i really do choose the toughest battles for no goddamn reason 😭🤧.

it’s pretty much like a two way split in fandom the way i see it, and i’m speaking in just the most broad, wankified strokes imaginable but -

targnation aka tb/dany(/arya) people who will genuinely honest to god argue that nettles is valyrian & daemon’s daughter bc only valyrians can ride dragons & really disingenuously misunderstand every point you make about how few good options a lot of the people on tg had.

the starkcels, infamous for being staunch jonsa shippers and/or sansa qitn truthers/stans, & they are all hardcore tg-but-usually-specifically-alicent stans. these people never stop BITCHING and NITPICKING, with the worst of it very much directed at being disingenuous about rhaenyra & baela’s motivations, in a very *dakota johnson voice* ellen you know that’s not true, sort of way.

(there’s other radioactive flavors, we don’t need to get into the aegon ii/king jon-or-stannis types on reddit, for instance).

and the problem here is that i call that second group my home bc it is a break off from the Main Branch which is very hostile to jonsa & associated theories, and therefore a lot of the most intensely starkcel people (such as me 😁) congregate there

(which, bizarrely to me, the Main Branch consists of largely tg/dany stans IF they watch the show seriously, if they don’t watch the show well that’s just main branch & it takes a second longer rant to explain that one but all of these groups are very hostile to starkcels & tbf starkcels are incredibly hostile to them aksjd). i Do believe i get the worst of both worlds as i try to exist in multiple subfandoms, altho i’m sure people at other intersections in fandom will disagree (they’re wrong i have it worse).

and this is a fandom just WILDLY HOSTILE to comparisons. u even think the words “sansa & ned are a little similar” and u get tomatoes thrown at you and that’s just her FATHER. i saw a minor meltdown on two different websites bc someone called margaery “the little queen” when “well that’s DAENAERA’S TITLE” brother no character owns a phrase or archetypes, and george’s style is basically just writing the same 12 archetypes that he really enjoys and doing them slightly to the left each time and as someone who loves doing that (there’s so many things to say!!! so many ways it can go if you just tweak one thing!!!!!) this series is crack to me, but if u dare compare two characters that have a different group of stans, even if those characters dead ass have the exact same life on paper, they try to execute you in the town square. so we just ignore the sansa-rhaenyra and rhaenyra-catelyn parallelism even tho it’s very obvious to me, bc it is apparently an insult to george himself to compare two characters he wrote 🤧

anyways sansa-rhaenyra stans of the world unite, there are dozens of us. dozens i tell you!!!!

[sweetberrie-hetalia]

Fleeting Thought: I’m not really fond of the idea of Statetalia, but I find it interesting how it exposes a lot of people’s unconscious bias.

[lovebuddietothecore]

honestly just gonna start blocking anyone who goes into the #buddie tag with some high & mighty post about ship discourse. you really think a rant is gonna convert people to your mindset as all it does is come off as condescending & patronizing, when there's also already dozens of identical posts just like it?