#Not everything is about shipping discourse and people harassing you for liking a villain character

[polyamoryprincess]

I was gonna write a big ol rant but basically I’m tired of seeing discussions about the concerning decline in media literacy and reading comprehension being reduced to conversations about shipping and morality discourse, that is literally the smallest fraction of this problem

[runby2]

I WANTED TO MAKE A CLEAR POST ABOUT MY STANCES on the BUGSNAX ISSUES. Because I was just informed people took things wildly incorrectly, and now people won’t stop arguing about them! People are stressed while some folks wanted to make my opinion law, which ISN’T what I want. This post will be Bugsnax Related,

If you don’t know about Bugsnax or could care less about the drama, scroll past this post because none of this matters or will matter to you. And dear god you are so valid.  

- I don’t mind if you want to pair Wiggle and Gramble together. No one should mind. Please draw what you want. They’re both consenting adults. My opinion literally doesn’t matter! Do what makes you happy. Don’t attack people for shipping Gramble and Wiggle, don’t attack people for not shipping Gramble and Wiggle!!!! Think about this! Don’t even leave a passive aggressive comment or reblog it with judging tags. Leave folks alone. Block the pairing tag if you need to. No ones in the wrong here unless they started targeted harassment for really petty reasons!

- Floofty is, in canon, trans (non-binary) and deserves to be called by their proper pronouns. I’ve never made a post about Floofty with the intent of making fun of their pronouns. I am trans and non-binary leaning, and I made a lot of the goof posts on Floofty because we all like to get frustrated towards gender critical people. That’s where these comic ideas originated from, those are their intent. I will never draw Floofty experiencing actual transphobia because none of the muppet characters on that island are transphobic in canon. Floofty just uses they/them because it’s an actual pronoun and it’s normal.

- Wiggle’s character having a black voice actor does not make the fictional character Wiggle Wigglebottom immune to criticism for her actions that aren’t even SLIGHTLY race related. Because the actual grumpus characters are not racially charged. We can’t get into racism discourse about a game without racially charged characters that aren’t even human. Wiggles actions being based on a “drug addiction metaphor” doesn’t make them immune to criticism either! People are allowed to say: hey that was shitty of wiggle to do.

That’s not “demonizing wiggle” or “making wiggle out to be a villain” that’s just saying what happened in the game. It’s just the facts.

- Country accents are not AAVE. I would never make fun of AAVE, even in a shitpost comic. Gramble is just REALLY really southern in the game.

- Gramble being written as having trauma related episodes is not “babyfying” him. People being concerned about an age gap dynamic Gramble is in, due to their own trauma, is not infantilizing. If you draw Gramble acting only innocent and in a clear childlike way, that’s when infantilizing becomes a thing. That’s when the label fits. That’s when things get weird. People being concerned when I was in an age gap issue in real life was not them belittling me. It was just them being concerned. A lot of my comics are based on actual experiences I’ve gone through, and I see it all in Gramble. But that’s my take and it in no way has to effect yours. Don’t let it effect yours.

- THAT BEING SAID people who don’t want to see Gramble as being in a scary situation, for any reason, are completely fine too. They’re allowed to draw art where everything is okay in that relationship. If you try to make my opinion law I’ll find you and get you. Especially if you’ve been harassing people.

[noassallclass]

I haven’t watched cr since the bj drop because it left a bad taste in my mouth. And felt isolated from the fandom because of the straight up villainizing of bj shippers for being upset at how it was handled. Seeing everything happening now isn’t surprising tbh like they straight up retconned pre hiatus cr’s interpersonal relationships so ofc the stories they’re telling now feel really inorganic. It’s upsetting when there’s actual valid criticism being labeled as toxic because “it’s not that deep” or “it’s improv”. Like dude you’re selling a product now you can’t turn around to the people who are unhappy with the product and call them toxic. I’m trying to be open because I know this is their game and things aren’t necessary planned but jeez I wish everyone wasn’t so quick to vilify people with criticism.

I might be a minority in this but a really think the Critical Role Cast should be less involved in the fandom and it’s moments like these that kind of highlight that for me.

I found Matt’s thread at the very least unprofessional and should not have been posted without at least some re-edits from their sensitivity consultants? blaming shipping discourse for toxicity , defending their against criticisms with “it’s improv”, and threatening to leave twitter all together is not a good look when tackling criticism that is less important to address then the white washing and skinny-ifying of their characters in their official art?

Not only that, but no matter where i looked I could not find any actual harassment against anyone who was involved of making those decisions in show. Just people being annoyed and criticizing the show with hyperbole in their own space. And reacting that way just sends the message that there is no space for people to safely criticize a show and is encouraging people to shut anyone down that disagrees with canon relationships/choices etc. 

like criticism whether over exaggerated or eloquent is not automatically toxic? if people are being directly harassed about it that’s when it is a problem. having “bad” or “misunderstood” takes is not what’s “ruining this fandom”.

I’m fine with Matt clarifying exactly what happened but the accusatory nature and blaming shipping on all of it is bad, because above the shipping there were things people were uncomfortable with with the set of events that transpired.

I sometimes think that a lot of the toxicity of fandom coming in this day and age is because of how involved creators are with their fandom and maybe it would be good for them to step back from it more so. Like people will weaponize the words of a creators words on social media against other people in the fandom or against the creator themself.

like I said before Matt pointing the blame on shippers on something that is not necessarily wholly a shipping complaint but also being vague enough about it gives the fandom free range to attack anyone with criticisms because it hurt Matt’s feelings and the ones most targeted with harrassment are going to be the MLM and WLW shipping communities.

I mean I also think that there shouldn’t be talks machina and also that none of the cast should be involved in the art reel because: 1) The parasocial relationship is getting out of hand 2) They are extremely biased and too close to their own project to look at it more objectively *cough* Liam’s widojest bias *cough* and 3) their word of god statements are just fuel to the toxic fandom in fighting.

But honestly what the CR cast chooses to address and what they ignore is very telling of what their stances actually are. They’d much rather shut down some shippers than address that their official artist is whitewashing characters with Critical Role’s approval which is egregious

[thehollowprince]

1.Hey just want to let you know that I am the first anon who asked about Jensen Ackles and Tyler Posey - I don't know which teen wolf anon you assumed I was, but that was the first time I send you an ask. I am a TP fan and check your blog for TP stuff and was surprised to see you reblogging jokes about Ackles being homophobic - since I see him facing the same issues that Posey did - a toxic fandom that bullies actors just because they don't subscribe to wanting two hot white men to get together.

2. Same anon. I don't think we should be throwing around words like homophobia lightly or based on rumors about how Ackles made a showrunner change the character based on his preferences etc. Ackles maybe homophobic - we don't know for sure. All I know is that from my experience, the Destiel fandom is as toxic as the Sterek fandom. Sure, Ackles shares part of the blame as he makes hundreds of thousands of dollars off these fans at the various cons - ( contd. in part 3)

3. But that does not mean that actors or their family should be subject to cyber bullying and online hate or that the showrunners should pander to this toxic fanbase. Scott would have been and was sidelined to pander to and queerbait Sterek fans and he was called homophobic when he pointed out how nonsensical the ship was. Destiel is the same and I don't mind Ackles not giving two shits about acting out a badly written scene pushed in to appease a toxic fanbase. Just my two cents.

Okay, first off, I want to say the only anon I've ever gotten that used Tyler Posey and "double-standards" in the same sentence has been the Asshole Anon I tagged. And given the fact that this anon was in my inbox within an hour of posting that ask, it stands to reason that my paranoia is well founded. This would not be the first time they've tried to trick anyone into a "Gotcha!" moment, and I was the next on the rotation of people they harass.

That being said and out of the way, let's get into this.

Starting off, you're right. Claims of homophobia shouldn't be a joke. Homophobia is a very real thing that affects many people around the world. And given the shipping fandoms that habe arisen in the past decade, along with thr use of social media by celebrities, it allows these fans to harass and belittle them from the comfort of their homes, no matter where said celebrity is. I would never make jokes regarding how fans treat the loved ones of their favorite celebrities, because I find it abhorrent. We saw something similar to his happen with the Star Wars fandom, particularly the R*ylos, when they doxxed and harassed Adam Driver's wife in the hopes that he and Daisy Ridley would get together, thus fulfilling the fantasy they have about their ship.

I don't keep up with the actors of Supernatural because I don't watch it anymore, but I imagine that's the case with Jensen's wife. Fans harassing her because she married him and they've based their entire personality and fandom experience around a ship between two fictional characters and the actor's personal life interferes with that fantasy. The fans that are harassing Jensen and his family aren't doing it out of any sense of morality in their efforts to fight homophobia, but because they want to see Dean and Cas together, and can't (or won't) accept that they're fictional characters played by two actors that have their own private lives.

Something similar happened with the Sherlock fandom, when they decided to cancel Martin Freeman and his wife because they asked fans to stop sending them NSFW fanart or J*hnl*ck, especially when they were with their children. I'll admit I'm a little fuzzy on that one, because I've never watched BBC Sherlock, but I did follow a few blogs that did so I remember the discourse. This all just feeds into the idea that shipping fandoms "own" the actors that play their favorite characters and has made for quite a toxic environment on most social media.

If the D*stiel fandom is anything like the St*r*k fandom or the J*hnl*ck fandom , than I applaud Jensen for standing his ground in the face of what I'm sure is countless inappropriate fics and art that are constantly thrown at him.

Now, there are a few differences between how Jensen is being accused of being homophobic and how Tyler was accused of being homophobic. The first major difference is something you said in this ask. They're jokes. Keeping in mind that, yes, I did say we shouldn't joke about homophobia, all the "discourse" around D*stiel has been jokes due to a variety of reasons. From how uncomfortable Jensen looked in that scene (leading some to think they were filmed separately and not told how the other was reacting) to the fact that it was happening during election week before the election was called. The fact that the rumors that Putin was stepping down came out at the same time and the whole situation took on this hysterical, otherworldly quality, like this was a collective fever dream we couldn't wake up from. The jokes came about, breaking the tension that had consumed Tumblr and uniting a large number of people in the absurdity of everything.

There's also the fact that the jokes about Jensen being homophobic were just that - jokes! I'll admit that I haven't gone looking, but I haven't seen anyone calling for Jensen to be cancelled or for his career to be derailed or his life to be ruined because of that scene. No, I've seen countless jokes about how Dean looked constipated or memes of random images found on people's phones used to "recreate" that scene. The fact that Jensen apparently wrote into his contract that his character in The Boys wasn't to have a gay sex scene just added to the satirical nature of everything.

Now let's compare that to Tyler Posey. When asked about a crack ship (that had nothing to do with his character) for the umpteenth time, he said that, if that's what fans were watching for, they're probably watching for the wrong reasons. It never condemned the ship or mocked its fans, he simply said that they were watching for the wrong reasons. And given how this interview took place after filming was done for that season, that could be interpreted as him saving people from wasting their time on something that wasn't going to happen. Personally, I just think he was fed up and frustrated about being asked about a crack ship that had nothing to do with him.

And for that one simple sentence, he was (and still is) deluged with hate. He received death threats and threats against his mother while she was battling cancer, all because he said something that wasn't a glowing appraisal of a ship that the fandom made up. To this day, there are people hell bent on proving how Scott was the true villain of the Teen Wolf series, and how Tyler Posey is just an awful human being.

Did any of those things happen to Jensen? No.

Would those things have probably happened to Jared if he'd said something negative about D*stiel? Probably.

Would the Teen Wolf fandom have acted the way it did if it had been Hoechlin or O'Brien who shot down St*r*k? Definitely not. We know that because they both did say something against St*r*k and the fandom at large likes to pretend that it never happened.

So, as we can see, there is a very clear difference between how Jensen was treated and how Tyler was treated. Could racism play a part in that treatment? Most likely, though, many would never admit to that. But, at the end of the day, its important to look at the differences between these two actors and how they were treated by their respective fandoms for what they said in regards to ships that fans have based their entire fandom experience around.

[kendrixtermina]

So, the SheRa Finale

So turns out Netossa was secretly the coolest character all along. 

I’m not the sort of person to complain about romantic subplots but if you’re gonna do it don’t bring it in in the last 3 episodes of a four season show - though I guess it’s something the fandom wanted and that’s lacking in the world, so, shrugs. I just always pegged them as sisters because they were y’know, raised together, but I suppose that’s just my misunderstanding. 

It’s not necessarily a good romance arc by default just bc lesbians. Diversity points do not replace good writing, you need both. Guess this is also why Star Trek Discovery or DW season 11 was such a disapointment. It used to be that only the bold people did minority characters who by their boldness were mostly good writers but now it’s fashionable everyone does it regardless of writing skill. Which I suppose is a good thing, why should you need to do everything perfect to have lesbians? 

 Though really pairing up Glimmer and Bow came likewise outta nowhere and had all the same flaws. 

Still it’s bizarre to see this praised by the same people who cry foul on any villain/hero ship if one of the people is a man like, “oooh Reylo is the devil” and harassing ppl over it. (Note: I’m not even IN that fandom and the purity culture in the discourse annoys me)

I guess my expectations for this show plummeted when it kept trying to sell Entrapta as a “relatable quirky geek character” when the scope and implications of her actions basically made her a pink sparkly Wernher von Braun. That could be a good character to do if the show had the self awareness to do it. They tried to give her a soul and relatable moments but in the end she was just a caricature that basically needed to be herded like a wild animal. I keep having to tell myself not to take it personally - that it’s just this 1D character and not a statement about people with geeky interests or not so great social skills in general. She’s the character I thought I would love but ended up hating. 

It’s just the cartoon logic - none but the main characters actually exists, the scale of “a whole planet” isn’t present, but that kinda killed immersion for me. 

I’m glad Hordak survived tho. 

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[scummy-writes]

EDIT: This post is from 2018. Please check when posts like this were made before reblogging them.

If you're part of the mysme fandom going to Otakon con, especially for seeing the Cheritz Team and the VA's, I want to extend a plea for everyone to please be respectful! It’s been pointed out that this is the first time the team is coming to the States for a con, so we want to all give them a great impression so they can be encouraged to possibly come to more cons in the future!

- Remember that the voice actors are Not their characters. If the character they portray isn't your favorite, please please still treat them with respect regardless. They're human beings just like you and me, and I know for certain that none of you would want to be talked down to publicly, so please try to be respectful!

- Along with that, please don't breach into inappropriate territory. Whatever they have planned, you still need to treat them with the utmost respect. Not only is there a high chance of young ones being around, but no one wants to hear a fan drop innuendos about what they would do to so and so's character, or witness a fan try to touch anyone inappropriately. 

- Please don't actively try to start a live-action ‘discourse’ session. We all know there's some characters the majority of the fandom dislikes, that there's disagreements on some endings and if so and so ship is canon or not- Look. They don't know everything that goes on in the fandom, and you don't want to ruin a whole event because a crowd of fans have gotten into an uproar over discourse. If you don't like the arguments online, try to steer away from it IRL.

- There's a chance they might run out of the merch they bring, do not yell/cry/fuss at them for it. More than likely, they’re going to bring as much as they can, but there is a limit to this, unfortunately. I know it might be heartbreaking to not be able to get the merch you want, but that doesn’t give you a free pass to guilt or berate the team. They’ve mentioned they’re going to open online sales as well, so if all else fails, you can try ordering on the site as well as an alternative!

- I know some plot elements aren't amazing, but don't try to publicly berate them. I know the game isn’t perfect, I know there are some themes people are upset about, but you don’t need to slam in with rudeness and try to fuss at them publicly. If the subjects are brought up, try your best to stay civil and calm. Arguing or yelling won’t get you anywhere, and it might end up making the event awkward and strained, or even make them feel unwelcomed if people are downright fussing at them rudely.

- Please don't slam them with DJHIG/other memes like it. I know, sounds like a huge buzzkill, but would you want to travel to a country you haven’t visited before to excitedly talk about the game you created/helped bring to life, only to be constantly ‘memed’ on and everyone ignore the actual story you spent so long trying to make? Let's make the most of whatever event they have planned, and try to talk to them about the game itself rather than the jokes it produced, if the opportunity arises!

- Treat!!! Other!!! Fans!!! With!!! Respect!!! This is a given, but I don't care who has who as their fave, or if they're cosplaying a character you don't like- Treat others just as you would want to be treated!!! Do not harass anyone over a video game!!! You wouldn’t want to cosplay your favorite just to be yelled at by someone who hates the character you’re dressed as! I don’t care if it’s a villain or side character- Be kind to others!!!!!!!!

- There is indeed rumors of a rally going around outside of the con. It's going to be near the white house, if they do decide to do it, which will be a mile away from the con. This rally has been dangerous in the past, so please stay away from it whenever possible. That’s it. Just stay away from it, please. 

More information on it Here  

Otherwise! Please just try to prep yourself for a con! Remember to stay hydrated, pack well, and not get overheated! This con is going to be during some hot weather, so be careful with your outfits/costumes and make sure they're not gonna burn you up! Take care of yourselves!!

[battlestar-royco]

Ive seen how certain str8 YT dude authors R better at writing diversity&Representation than str8 YT women. I think it's cuz there's nothing giving them a shield. When str8 yt dudes listen & understand their privilege & r willing 2 write & do better they actually (try) 2 do better. But str8 yt women. They can hide behind misogony & keep writing their bland str8 YT girl doing bland str8 yt girl shit & pass it off as EMPOWERMENT.

I think about this all the time, holy crap. While I hesitate to say straight white guys are better at writing diversity than straight white women, I DO think both S/W men and women fall into habits that are differently bad. Men tend to tokenize and sexualize the shit out of women and do the “strong female character” thing (AKA one (1) conventionally attractive white girl in an all-men cast who wears tight clothes while stabbing people and giving off a sassy line every now and then; may have been abused by a father/brother/boyfriend in the past; may be secretly yearning to have a child; may get chained up by the villain and then saved by the leading man). Meanwhile, women will write other S/W women and men just fine and then tokenize and abuse the shit out of everyone else. They also might fall into tropes of internalized misogyny while men will fall into tropes of internalized toxic masculinity. All that said, I do think S/W women are generally held up to a far higher standard for diversity than S/W men are for a lot of reasons, some of which being that a lot of times authors write for gendered audiences or their content is marketed in a gendered way. Thus, S/W men writers end up targeting S/W men while S/W women writers target S/W women. Generally, the audience members that are more invested in diversity are women, so audiences of S/W women end up critiquing the creator more than S/W men do. Also, S/W men often view all material through a very privileged lens (due to hetero goggles, male gaze, white/POC empathy gap, etc) that does not pick up on problematic things. I feel like in men-dominated fandom, calling out problematic things is a much less welcome tendency and will get you harassed and discredited far easier whereas women-dominated fandom seems more accepting of discourse.

To speak to your point, I think S/W women get a pass for so much oppressive stuff they do just based on the fact that they’re women, especially from S/W women stans. Also, their stuff is more likely to be marketed as “SUPER FEMINIST SO EMPOWERING” when really it’s the SAME EXACT SHIT WE’VE BEEN SEEING SINCE 1980. For decades, S/W women have been the lead in high concept rom coms, the most desirable love interests, superheroes, overthrowing the government, the Final Girl in almost every ensemble horror movie, etc. Meanwhile the MCU’s first film to feature a lead WOC in her natural skin color came out LAST YEAR (I believe, with Zendaya), after ten years of the MCU. Star Wars still has never featured a lead WOC and has killed off the vast majority of their lead POC despite having 5 white women leads. All the Barbie movies are literally everything wrong with white feminism, creating extremely gendered notions about society, and promoting conventionally attractive white women’s issues over everyone else’s in the name of empowerment. Similarly, there are only four Disney animated princesses of color and they all have the same body type and gender/sexuality. LGBTQ+ people, especially those of color, are nearly invisible in all media. Disability is barely addressed or extremely vilified in these blockbuster genres/franchises. Marginalized people are all just waiting for these same “feminist” S/W women to acknowledge how much longer non-cishet/white people have to wait to see themselves represented like that and how many of us continually get mentally scarred well into adulthood from severe lack of representation like

Furthermore, it is definitely, DEFINITELY true that a lot of privileged women and their stans use gender as a way to excuse their problematic asses and to act like the victim when someone calls them out. I’m not joking, I’ve seen straight white women write elaborate paragraphs, like ten pages’ worth in one post/article, explaining why people calling them/their faves racist, abusive, or homophobic is actually misogynistic instead of trying to sit back and learn COUNTLESS TIMES in COUNTLESS FANDOMS. For example, every time a white woman justifies whitewashing a character of color in favor of a white woman, or every time a new blond/brunette woman is inserted into a huge blockbuster franchise with fifteen other women who look just like her because “we’re all underrepresented” or “the POC talent wasn’t good enough.”

If I took a shot for every time a white woman said to me “you can’t judge x for its time” to excuse lack of diversity in a movie/show/book (AND OFTENTIMES IN THINGS THAT CAME OUT LITERALLY 5-15 YEARS AGO, LIKE THE MCU MOVIES, DISNEY MOVIES, SEX AND THE CITY, LEGALLY BLONDE, OR HBO GIRLS????), I would be dead. I’ve also seen them excuse fetishization of mlm/MOC (and often vilification for MOC) by saying that it’s women “expressing their sexuality” and “supporting rep.” This comes from the same women who wouldn’t touch LGBTQ+/MOC rep with a barge pole if it wasn’t hypersexualized, stereotypical, and/or cis/white. S/W women writers/fans have a huge problem with brutalizing POC and characterizing them overall as violent or abrasive, and giving  Z E R O  F U C K S  about characters who are WOC unless they’re conventionally attractive/light-skinned (and even then it’s very dubious). Time and again they’ll refuse to feel any compassion for POC, write any positive meta on them, give them any benefit of the doubt, draw them in fanart, or ship them with other characters (especially with white characters). Some other age-old excuses are “we’re not ready for [x representation] in a mainstream movie,” word for word “I’m not racist but I just don’t ship it :/” when talking about an interracial ship (especially if one of the characters, usually the man in a m/w ship, is white), “I don’t want to read about gay people/poc lol,” and “race/sexuality shouldn’t matter.”

TL;DR many S/W women have a lot of shit to sort out amongst themselves and it’s really disingenuous of them to act like they’re empowered and they’re fighting the good fight for all women. Their representation isn’t perfect and they do deserve great rep, but so does everyone else, especially because when it comes to diversity white women always come first.

[belzinone]

Hello RPC! ♡

I redirect my peripheral blogs to these rules because I consider Bel my primary muse. If you came here from Eren, my sapphic multimuse hub, or Angel, thanks for taking the time to go through all my stuff. It means a lot to me ~ ♡

      ♡ Things you should know before becoming mutuals ♡

My name is Sal (they/them/theirs; 25+) & I write an OC blog because although I love SnK, I’m an original content creator at heart & blending my own ideas into an existing universe is a happy medium for me. I’m also a queer studies scholar, future paramedic, & C-PTSD / domestic violence survivor, so support, community, & freedom of expression is very important to me.

As a mod, I’ll do my best to encourage your creativity as well as be a supportive friend/writing partner on & off the dash. That being said, here’s a bit on how I like to roll. These guidelines are not only meant to steer my interactions, but also contain resources to potentially help you as well.

First off, here are my hard No’s: I don't tolerate severe ooc ignorance or bigotry. Minor offenses & honest mistakes I understand since we’re always learning, but severe & repeated instances warrant an unfollow &/or block from me. I don't have the energy to entertain these situations nor is it my sole responsibility to make every act of ignorance I come across a teaching moment. I strive to maintain an enriching environment here for myself & others in my orbit. It is also my right to do so as it is yours.

༺ I’m particularly intolerant of offenses towards my identities. These are sensitive issues I don’t appreciate taking lightly unless I’m comfortable with you enough as a person to know where your real sentiments lie. Furthermore, intersectionality’s a real important concept. If your instinct is to downplay the severity of these issues, take the time to learn about them instead of harassing people for the ways they respond to their abuse. It’s tiring & I don’t fuck with it. Neither should you.

༺ That being said, I understand  mun ≠ muse & author ≠ narrative. With sensitivity, communication, content warnings, & consent, these things can certainly coexist. I roleplay for community, enjoyment, & healing while also understanding that everyone processes things differently & silence is damaging.

༺ I ask that if you encounter content not to your taste, please don’t police the internet & instead respectfully ask op to tag, blacklist, block, or unfollow. I’ll extend this respect to you so we can all navigate the rpc safely, as uninformed content policing has serious legal consequences as well as interferes with real justice. 

Now that my hard No’s are out of the way, I’m very eager to fulfill wishlists. Please send as many inboxes, write as many starters, & start as many threads as you like. There’s no pressure to keep all the threads we start, so please feel free to follow your inspirational whims. I’m happy to follow them too if I can.

༺ I love interactions of all kinds & write threads of all lengths, but I enjoy writing multi-para/novella threads most & shippy/angsty/sapphic interactions are my favorite. Though Bel is on the asexual/aromantic spectrum (& is a dysphoric nonbinary woman) she is nonetheless eligible for shipping & sexual encounters with all genders under the right circumstances. However, I prefer our muses to be close in age & would rather not write heavy power dynamics without equally heavy plotting. A quick info post is here. 

༺ I enjoy & thrive on ooc communication. This doesn’t mean we have to be in contact all the time, but I do love getting to know you & your muse(s) because it makes interactions all the more personal and fulfilling. You can also check the status of our thread(s) whenever you like here, as my activity can be a bit capricious.

༺ Please cut your replies & include active responses in your writing. I will have trouble writing off of neutral &/or vague replies. I’d much rather we drop threads & start something new rather than continue writing one that no longer sparks joy.

༺ Please don’t godmod or excessively use me as a meme/musing source. This includes long / unplotted timeskips & practicing karma if we don’t have much development. If your muse is relating to our posts a lot, we should be able to make something out of it.

༺ Severe mischaracterization of my muse is a huge turnoff. Please don’t make assumptions. Please don’t fetishize her. Please don’t mistake her fanon for a hospital nurse. She’s a soldier. Please do gloss over her info (everything under central navigation) & ask me questions if you need to. I understand she’s an intensely developed character, but understanding the unique portrayal of your muse is important to me so please extend the same courtesy. I’m happy to learn as well as explain.

This is an explicit blog & triggers will be present (as well as tagged by request). Please don’t interact if you’re a minor & please ask for consent before writing sexually explicit content with me. More often than not it’ll be an enthusiastic YES, but please give me the heads up as well as your preferences so we can do the dirty in a way that’s fun for both of us. ♡

As a result of the 2018 purge, i’ll be circumventing this god awful policy using the following tags:

current nsfw tag: #FREE THE FEMALE PRESENTING NIPPLE . nsfvv

old nsfw tag: #FREE THE FPN . sfw // only it’s not

Unfortunately, what I cannot tag are spoilers, as many are key aspects of Bel’s character & plot devices in threads. If you’re an anime only fan of SnK, aren’t caught up with the manga, &/or aren’t familiar with other parts of the series (such as acwnr & smartpass releases), I’m sorry I won’t be able to keep spoilers out of Bel’s pages &/or off the dash.

The SnK universe is a playground & this is my sandbox. I’m not interested in seeing or engaging with any discourse or villainization of its existence & am simply here for my personal enjoyment of the series (as well as yours if you’d like to join me. ♡ )

Thanks for going through this! Please feel free to let me know if there’s any way I can help make roleplaying a better/easier experience for you, let it be accessibility &/or communication issues. I experience some forms of dyslexia & understand the struggle very much. I also apologize ahead of time for any misspellings or strange word replacements in my replies. I do my best to proofread, but things fall through the cracks sometimes. Finally, you can find a quick and easy guide to starting an interaction with us here. If you’d like to add me on discord, mine’s sal#2446. Please send yours so I can associate your blog/muse(s) with your name.

Thanks again, & I look forward to getting to know you & your muse(s)!

Love, Sal (they/them/theirs) ♡

community credits

dash icon art by laffi

rp icon frame by shane

dash icon frame by carti

ooc jensen gif icons by magenta

theme by evie

༺ theme background & makeover by sage

༺ theme header graphic by vee

༺ music player by glen

༺ about muse page by rowan

༺ ༺ cinemagraphs by daria

༺ ༺ moodboard by shuuhuu

༺ verse page by raven

༺ community relationships page by index47

༺ npc relationships page by julia

༺ rules page by rowan

other original artwork & edits by yours truly

- - - - - anything unlisted, please ask ♡

- - - - - - - - - - you can find other resources i love on @bzresources 

[bluebellss1]

I’ve always found it hilarious how dark, edgy, scary things have pretty chill and accepting fandoms, while fluffy things about friendship, love and diversity attract the worst people on this site. Fandoms for scary things are just like “oh here, take a seat, chill. Enjoy yourself, we’re all weird here.” Meanwhile the ‘good’ stuff often attracts people that are desperate to bitch about everything and police others. It’s like toxic people are drawn to fluffy, sweet media like a flame, so they can latch onto and mask their shitty behaviour with it. Call your harassment activism, wrap your toxic bullshit up in pretty pastels, and remember to point the finger at everyone else except yourself, tumblr 101 lol

Hell, I’ve seen people shamelessly lusting after Jason from Friday the 13th and other villains like that and I was just like “you do you sis.” Like there wasn’t really any drama or anything, and there were no endless loops of discourse because these people had...maturity. Maturity? On tumblr? My god. These people know it’s 100% fantasy and they just let each other enjoy it because they’re able to understand the distinction between fiction and reality.

You compare that to the fandoms like s/teven uni/verse and und/ertale (both source materials that I actually like, ironically), where it’s constant infighting, people getting offended when someone doesn’t portray a character in a way that aligns perfectly with their interpretation of said character, etc. People take it as a personal offence when someone makes content they deem problematic, harassing people over ships, and saying fiction IS reality. The truth is these characters are not people, merely abstract concepts—and if someone wants to write a dark fic about them, they have every right to. People on this website over-identify with these characters as a coping mechanism, which really feeds into the toxic witch-hunting culture that’s prevalent on this website over bullshit like fictional ships.

[annabcth]

tbh your blog sums up everything that is wrong in the sw fandom. if you didn't like tlj and if you don't get ben solo's character, just shut tf up.

If Rey had been a Skywalker or a Solo and either Luke’s daughter or Han and Leia’s daughter, that would’ve ruined these characters. Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, then again, is a Skywalker, not Poe or Finn. And btw Solo is a good movie, not the best one but good. It’d be amazing if people like you would just delete their blogs bc you make the Star Wars fandom toxic and not fun to be part of.

Kylo has been emotionally and physically abused for his whole life and you’re telling us he’s evil and the bad guy and abuses rey and doesn’t deserve a thing and doesn’t deserve to be in a poster that portrays the skywalkers? Lol your precious Luke Skywalker wouldn’t approve.

i’m replying to those messages for two main reasons. one, i’ve been getting hate about my stance on tlj/rey*o since december, both in my askbox and under my edits, and while i don’t really care about it, i’m torn about not publishing those messages/replies/tags because the rey*o fandom is a riot and i feel guilty about deleting evidence of their harassment. two, this new discourse is actually extremely relevant, so here we are.

since you’re writing this on anon, i assume you know i’m not the problem here, you are. i keep my opinions to my blog, i don’t look for a fight, i always tag properly. i’m not even an active anti. tlj really hurt my star wars obsession, and i needed to vent for a while, which i did, but then i moved on, and my blog is discourse-free once again. i’m assuming those messages were prompted by my tags under a post criticizing the comic-con poster fiasco.

we obviously have different interpretations of tlj, and you’re bothered by mine. i find it very reasonable though, given that ky*o did recreate anakin’s decision from rotj, and then proceeded to almost destroy everything his grandpa’s great redemption accomplished (saving luke and the rebellion). thankfully, he didn’t succeed (yes, luke died, but it was framed as a defeat for ky*o), and the legacy lives on. through whom? well, luke tells us: “the rebellion is reborn today, the war is just beginning, and i will not be the last jedi”. the editing shows us who will carry out this fight for the light side. the movie ends ky*o’s arc with his promise to destroy the new heroes. so yeah, for that reason i think finn and poe belong in that poster right next to rey, since all three were branded as the new rightful heirs. i get that you’re reading the film differently, probably hoping for ky*o’s eventual redemption and a happily ever after with rey, and honestly, there is nothing i can do about your opinion, so i’m not gonna try to. neither of us decides which interpretation is canonically correct. in the end, it’s jj’s choice, which was probably made back when he was creating those characters.

taking all of this into account, i’m hoping you could suppot two men of color who are an important part of the sequel trilogy’s narrative, whether you agree with my opinions about tlj or not. they were given their own storylines and character development, and they’re tied to the main conflict as leaders of the anti-facist movement. they deserve to be recognized as crucial to this story, and they deserve a spot in the comic-con poster.

my ramblings in the tags mean nothing. you sending anon hate means nothing. neither of those things matters in shaping the narrative for episode ix. quarrels over a ship becoming canon don’t influence the final outcome of this trilogy. however, people defending and supporting two characters of color in a predominantly white franchise means a lot, and can change a lot, at least in the long run.

we have our own opinions, and that’s alright. i voiced mine on my blog, in the tags of a random post. you were lurking on my blog, and sent me hate. i’m not the one who’s toxic here. we’re in the same boat, really- you will absolutely hate it if ky*o dies/doesn’t get redeemed, i will hate it if your ship becomes canon. the answer to that anxiety you’re feeling is to find a different thing to fixate on, and let go for the time being. or just keep your opinions to your blog, and don’t harass people by telling them to delete their tumblrs.

to address other things you mentioned in your messages (they’re standard rey*o talking points, so it should be quick):-  there is no canonical proof that ky*o has been abused his whole life. a dark presence watching him as a fetus/baby doesn’t equal grooming or emotional/physical abuse. it’s defenitely what his relationship with snoke is when we meet up with them in tlj, but we have no idea how and when this partnership was formed. that being said, i admit it’s possible that some additional information about kylo’s fall will be revealed, and it could change my opinion about this character. however…- even if kylo was abused, it wouldn’t justify his actions. he kills his alleged abuser in tlj, and continues to be a major ass, so yeah, he’s the bad guy. (to be revealed) cool motive, still murder*. - yes, kylo’s relationship with rey is abusive, both physically (throwing her into a tree, restraining her) and emotionally (invading her mind, telling her she’s nothing, lying to and gaslighting her). they’ve known each other for a couple of days, had five/six conversations in total, and the amount of time she didn’t want him dead could be counted in hours, i think. she asked him to stop killing her friends, he refused. conceptually it’s such an awful groundwork for romance it’s almost funny. she literally closed the door on him, flying away with his mother on his father’s ship, gripping his uncle’s and grandpa’s lightsaber, the literally destroyed heirloom of the skywalker family. leia said to her “we have everything we need”, completing rey’s tlj!arc of realizing that she’s destined to become the new legend despite her humble beginnings, disillusionment, self-doubt and abandonment issues. this is probably the point where you jump in to say the symbolism of the final scene between leia and rey foreshadows rey mending the lightsaber/redeeming ky*o, but i have three problems with that. one, rey already tried that, it didn’t end well. two, i don’t think jj gives two shits about vague symbolism of tlj, given that rian didn’t bother to uphold basic continuity between his movie and tfa. three, it would be incredibly sexist if rey, instead of being the true heir to the chosen one legacy, was used as a tool for redemption of the failed heir that almost destroyed it. this legacy, along with the one of leadership and rebellion, no longer belong to the skywalkers**. luke’s aforementioned quote makes this clear.- i never said kylo doesn’t belong in the comic-con poster. i only said finn and poe should be there as well. if you feel like their presence in the story threatens your predictions for kylo’s arc, then maybe those hopes you have are not well-founded in canon and you need to distort it in order to make your ship seem more plausible. just maybe. also, luke wouldn’t be able to approve or disapprove this opinion of mine that i never had.

and you’re right, luke skywalker is very precious to me.

* there is a great post going around arguing that ky*o’s apparent lack of relateable reasons for turning to the dark side is a great metaphor for neo-facism and current alt-right movements, and it makes him an excellent and very relevant villain. i agree.

** of course, this plotpoint would change if rey/finn turned out to be a solo/skywalker. i have complicated feelings about this concept, and voicing them would make this already long reply even longer, so i’m not gonna do that.