#also not that i think anyone is doing this maliciously disclaimer

[pluraldeepdive]

Let's Fact Check: Was MPD renamed to DID for Harmful Reasons?

(Disclaimer: This post contains descriptions of ableism and disbelief in plurality. I do not condone any hatred towards any person mentioned on this post. If you see anyone attacking them, please report them for harassment! This post was made to spread awareness, not negativity.)

In this post, we will be investigating the claim that multiple personality disorder (MPD) was renamed to dissociative identity disorder (DID) for harmful reasons.

Origins of the claim

This claim most likely originated from a (now privatized) wordpress blog post made in 2019.

Click here for an archive of the blog post.

In this post, the author is discussing a blog post they found that's written by Allen J. Frances, the chairman of an outdated edition of the DSM. After reading his blog post, they came to the conclusion that Frances renamed MPD to DID out of malicious intent towards people with MPD because his blog post states that he does not believe in MPD.

This wordpress post was later linked on Twitter, where many users began repeating the claim. As it spread across Twitter and other social media platforms, the claim has adopted several variations. Some people claim that Frances attempted to get rid of MPD entirely, some claim that he renamed it as a scheme to erase all plurality, and some claim that “DID” is an ableist or offensive diagnosis because of all of this. It seems like most of the people spreading these claims do not have DID themselves, however.

Click here for a link to an imgur folder showing examples of this claim in online plural spaces.

The post by Frances

Now, let's look at the blog post that was cited as proof that MPD was renamed to DID for harmful reasons.

Click here to read his post (TW for fakeclaiming and ableism).

This post was written in 2014. In it, Frances is expressing how he doesn’t believe in what he calls MPD. He personally adheres to the debunked skeptical models which suggest DID is created through therapeutic suggestion or is a “fad”. He talks about how he wished he could remove MPD from the DSM-IV, but couldn’t do so. The next best thing, to him, was to allow controversial statements to be injected into the manual. These statements were removed in the current edition of the DSM.

Frances does not mention anything about the diagnosis's name change.

Addressing bias & concerning behavior

First of all, it’s important to look into the author of the wordpress blog to understand how reliable their word is. The author is a median system who I found out, from the blog, is @/multi_sapphire on Twitter. She also runs the blog @/acting-nt on Tumblr, which is a fact known by many in the online community.

At the time of making her blog post, she did not identify as having DID. She is openly anti-psychiatry, as well. While I don't want to make this a big focus, this system also has a history in the plural community of being very hateful towards the DID label. I have had to make a PSA about them before for posting hatred in the DID tags (source). They are the coiner of the term "traumascum" among other things (source). Many, many PSAs have been made about her by other systems about various concerning behavior (source).

Frances’ post can be easily triggering to anyone with DID, OSDD, or plurality. It’s understandable how a system, who was already unfavorable towards psychiatry, came to think that all of the changes made to DID in the DSM-IV were done out of malicious intent. Let's investigate that next.

Addressing how the DSM is made & who coins names

For anyone who doesn't know, "DSM" stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is a handbook used by clinicians to diagnose mental disorders.

The DSM-IV is an outdated edition that is no longer in use. It was published in 1994 and was replaced by the DSM-5 in 2013. While Frances was the chairman of the DSM-IV, he was kicked off the taskforce and has nothing to do with the current DSM. Most of the changes he made were completely reversed in the current manual.

The DSM taskforce is run by many people. Diagnoses are divided across different work groups who receive input and data from researchers that specifically research and work with people with those disorders. Suggestions are proposed from the researchers to the work groups, who then analyze this, conduct field trials, and propose changes that should be made to the DSM (source).

While Frances oversaw the taskforce, he is not listed as a member of any work group or researcher in the DSM-IV. This means he did not come up with any of the proposed changes to the DSM-IV.

Why MPD was renamed to DID

All of the dissociative disorders were renamed at the same time! All of them, except for DPDR, were changed to have the word “dissociation” in them. Researchers explain that they proposed this change in order to make the dissociative nature of these disorders more understandable.

Psychogenic amnesia was renamed to dissociative amnesia.

Psychogenic fugue was renamed to dissociative fugue.

Multiple personality disorder was renamed to dissociative identity disorder.

Atypical dissociative disorder was renamed to dissociative disorder not otherwise specified.

When it comes to DID in particular, there are two main reasons for the shift from multiple personalities to dissociative identities. Hersen et al. states the one of these reasons is that the term 'personality' defines "the characteristic pattern of thoughts, feelings, moods, and behaviors" of the whole brain (source). This is what makes alters identities rather than personalities. According to this definition of personality, having multiple personalities would mean having multiple brains! The second reason is that the older term emphasized the alters over the dissociation (same source).

In my opinion, refocusing on the dissociation rather than the alters allows people with DID to have the full spectrum of their symptoms recognized, and helps distance plurality from disorders. Many plural systems don't view their systems as the problem. Many systems don't have DID, either. The shift in this diagnostic language has made it much easier for that distinction to be made! It's very unfortunate that false claims have been made about this, casting more stigma onto both DID and non-DID systems.

Summary

To summarize everything:

The claim that MPD was renamed to DID for harmful reasons most likely originated from a 2019 blog post.

The author of the blog post was reasonably concerned about a figure of authority being ableist. However, their own biases against the DID label likely influenced their claim that the DID label was created by said figure of authority.

In actuality, that guy did not come up with the name "DID." Researchers are the ones who did.

MPD was renamed to DID in order to make it more understandable and put an emphasis on dissociation.

All dissociative disorders were renamed along with DID to include the word "dissociation" in them.

[rainbowsky]

Hi RBS

Why gg is related to little prince in that little prince and rose story??

Hi Anon,

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry is a classic, exceptionally popular, beautifully told and illustrated story. Those who haven't read it can find it here.

Standard disclaimer: This is my own personal opinion based on my own interpretation of tidbits I've learned over the years. Everyone is free to come up with their own.

If you ask a solo they'll give you a completely different story than a turtle would about how The Little Prince is connected to GG, but I think GG's (and DD's) connection to that story runs far deeper than anything any fan - solo or turtle - can claim.

The Solo Interpretation

The solo interpretation revolves around the prince's red cape and the many references to the red cape that GG has made in his art and on social media over the years, which many believe were in response to fan activity.

The first reference came during a live broadcast of XFIRE, where GG created a pencil drawing of a boy wearing a cape and holding a ball. Later he posted a colored version of the image on his social media, where it was revealed that the boy was wearing a red cape and holding a glowing moon.

His fans named themselves Xiao Fei Xia (Chinese for 'Peter Pan') after seeing the image. The name sounds like Chinese for 'small fat shrimp', which is why XFX are often called shrimps (or tempuras, in malicious references).

When his fans won him a solo song, he posted a photo of a boy wearing a crown and a red cape. He later changed his Weibo badge to The Little Prince in a red cape. In Nov 2019 he posted an image of himself on Oasis with a red cape and crown drawn on.

"But why do they think The Little Prince is about them, when they call themselves Peter Pans?" you might ask.

That is a somewhat ambiguous connection, but as far as I can tell it's because of the idea that he's their Little Prince and they are his Peter Pans. The song Satisfaction - which was meaningful to GG and his fans - was connected to the image he shared of the boy wearing the cape and crown. There is also the red cape connection. They wear a red cape, and 'their Little Prince' wears one too. Red is GG's color, and the color XFX identify their fandom with.

A Deeper Connection

In any case, like I said - I think GG's connection to the Little Prince goes deeper than fandom, and the simplest answer to why it has become so connected with him is that he loves the story. It means a lot to him, and on some level he really identifies with the character.

And it's not difficult to see why both GG and DD identify with this story. I actually wrote a whole thing about that a while ago on my blog but of course, I can't find it now. So frustrating.

The Little Prince presents a lot of themes about personal development, love, acceptance, self-acceptance, friendship and found family that resonate with queer readers, with artistic/creative people, and with anyone who has had to live with loneliness or isolation (such as incredibly famous people who are forced to live somewhat separate from the rest of the world). There are themes about grief and loss, and about different points of view.

To me, the story is about how wisdom comes through wonder. More than anything, The Little Prince is about maintaining one's sense of childlike wonder and sensitivity in the face of all the pains and trials of life, and in spite of all attempts to kill our spirit. No matter what we have lost and long for, we can find beauty in the love we have and the connections we make.

It is that spirit of wonder that makes everything special, and makes us special too. It's what makes us able to look beneath the surface and see what's really important.

This is something GG quite obviously values very deeply. He has referred to DD as a sweet, pure-hearted boy in the past, and has spoken appreciatively about the fact that DD has managed to keep a sense of childishness and guilelessness despite being in this industry for so long, and from such an early age.

And GG himself displays those qualities in abundance. He has a very light-hearted, sweet, wonderstruck, sensitive, curious, cute side that is a huge part of the magnetism of his personality. We see this come out a lot in his downtime, such as when he was at Universal Studios, or when he was wandering the streets of Europe. One of the things that is most compelling about him is his willingness to show that side of himself, even as a grown man.

This is - as I've said many times - part of GG and DD's incredible chemistry and compatibility. They share their own little world, and this world of fun, laughter, sweetness, mischievousness and curiosity - the spirit of learning, exploring and cackling together like gremlins - this is all very much aligned with the themes of The Little Prince.

Even the moments of loneliness and separation and coming back together again, the stars in the sky and the ringing of bells - all of this is connected to the story of The Little Prince.

And if you believe the CPN about GG's birthday letter to DD (which I definitely do), this is a message GG gives DD: grow up slowly. That idea has appeared in fake rumors and other references in the fandom. And it's very aligned with the themes of The Little Prince.

From the book: (mild spoilers for those who haven't read it). Slightly abridged.

...he looked at me steadily, and replied to my thought:

“I am thirsty, too. Let us look for a well...”

I made a gesture of weariness. It is absurd to look for a well, at random, in the immensity of the desert. But nevertheless we started walking.

“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well...”

I was astonished by a sudden understanding of that mysterious radiation of the sands. When I was a little boy I lived in an old house, and legend told us that a treasure was buried there. To be sure, no one had ever known how to find it; perhaps no one had ever even looked for it. But it cast an enchantment over that house. My home was hiding a secret in the depths of its heart...

“Yes,” I said to the little prince. “The house, the stars, the desert—what gives them their beauty is something that is invisible!”

As the little prince dropped off to sleep, I took him in my arms and set out walking once more. I felt deeply moved, and stirred. It seemed to me that I was carrying a very fragile treasure. It seemed to me, even, that there was nothing more fragile on all Earth. In the moonlight I looked at his pale forehead, his closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the wind, and I said to myself:

“What I see here is nothing but a shell. What is most important is invisible...”

As his lips opened slightly with the suspicion of a half-smile, I said to myself, again: “What moves me so deeply, about this little prince who is sleeping here, is his loyalty to a flower—the image of a rose that shines through his whole being like the flame of a lamp, even when he is asleep...” And I felt him to be more fragile still. I felt the need of protecting him, as if he himself were a flame that might be extinguished by a little puff of wind...

And, as I walked on so, I found the well, at daybreak.

Bottom line: Be who you are, stay true to yourself, don't let the world destroy all the soft, sweet, fun, creative, childlike, insightful, open-hearted parts of you.

You are special because of what you love.

GGDD and The Little Prince

Both GG and DD have been repeatedly associated with The Little Prince, and both have been referred to as "little prince" by fans. The Little Prince and his rose have been beloved by turtles as a frequently occurring candy/CPN in the fandom for years.

This started for DD back in his Uniq days. There's an example of this in an early Uniq interview. At the start each group member is being introduced, and their group role is listed onscreen along with the names fans use to refer to them, DD's nicknames are listed as "White Peony, Little Prince." (They're all such babies here!! 🥺)

And he really is a Little Prince, both in terms of his youthful, pure-hearted wonder and in terms of his appearance. There are countless examples of Prince Bobo.

Both GG and DD have been associated directly with the story of The Little Prince, in that both have performed readings of the story - GG in 2018, DD in 2018 and 2019.

(Sorry, no Eng subs for that last one).

The brand Roseonly created many Little Prince themed items back when GG was endorsing them.

The recent photoshoot DD did for T Magazine was themed around The Little Prince, and people saw similar references in the photoshoot GG did for Marie Claire.

The Little Prince - CPN

There are too many CPN references to The Little Prince - or to elements from the story - to list them all here, but here are a few:

The Name

One of the things BXG get excited about is that in Chinese, The Little Prince is actually called 小王子 (Xiao Wang Zi - literally 'little king child'). While the character 小 (Xiao, meaning 'little') isn't the same as the Xiao character used in GG's name (his name uses 肖, which is a Chinese surname), they are pronounced the same*.

*Incidentally, 小 is the same character that connects XFX to the Peter Pan name, '小飞侠' or 'Xiao Fei Xia'.

I think it's also likely that it's a big part of why GG and DD feel a connection to The Little Prince - because in Chinese, it references/connects their names.

They both love word play and have connected their names in the past - in the BTS when they were filming the library scene and GG wrote WangXiao with the calligraphy brush, on DDU when they were asked to come up with a team name and DD suggested BJYX and GG suggested Yizhan instead. It's very much in keeping with their personalities to enjoy that connection.

The Huang Ziteng post

Back in 2020 Huang Ziteng made a social media post that referenced The Little Prince. It consisted of a photo of a Little Prince figurine and thank you card with a rose pin. The text of the post read, "The child told me he received a gift, so happy. "The most important things cannot be seen, but must be felt with the heart." It was posted on September 13 at 18:23 (Yizhan - Yibo Loves Zhan).

The Birthday Cake

When DD rode his motorcycle out to spend GG's birthday together back in 2018, the birthday cake was Little Prince themed.

There was also a restaurant scene from Gank Your Heart where a Little Prince cake topper randomly appeared on the table. Does anyone else remember that? I can't find the actual scene, but it was very 👀.

EDIT: here it is!

On the plate in the foreground.

A Dream Like A Dream

When A Dream Like A Dream premiered in Wuhan, the theatre plaza was overrun with flowers for GG, and he had to make a statement asking fans not to bring flowers. Fans got together and gave flowers away all over the city. GG posted a photo of a single rose, which turtles believed was sent to him by DD.

The caption: "With love, the sun warms the spring." The kadian "Love Zhan, My Bo."

Day Day Up

DDU was a source for a few Little Prince-related CPN. There was a Little Prince figurine on the DDU set, next to a skateboard,

and of course everything surrounding The Brightest Star in the Sky.

DD has frequently been referred to as the 'lonely star', and there is a great deal of CPN about GGDD and stars.

There's also a fake rumor that after DD's motorcycle accident back in 2020, GG was overheard recording a voice message for DD and saying, "you always shine brightly."

There are too many star references to mention. Also too many moon references to mention. There is a LOT of CPN that connects to The Little Prince. It comes up quite often in the fandom. I'm not going to try to gather them all here. Suffice it to say that it's very well solidified as something turtles feel a deep connection with.

Either/or is such a bitch

One of the things I find really frustrating about fan culture is that it is so warlike. Never is this more apparent than when talking about things like this. Solos believe The Little Prince references are for them. Turtles believe GG and DD are referencing each other.

Just a reminder to everyone - it's quite possible for BOTH to be true.

It's quite possible for GG and DD to find all of these things significant at the same time. It's quite possible for us to allow all those significances to coexist without making them into a battle.

More than anything, the references are for and about GG and DD. We can share our excitement for them because we're all their fans. We all love them. It doesn't have to be a fight.

[rhiaarrow]

Hello, hello! The Ghostie with the penchant for long rambling walls of text here to give her unwarranted two cents on the current disagreement between the Tubblings and the Crows!

I'm offering my take as a purely unbiased outsider

(Yes, us Ghosties may be married to the Tubblings but when I first joined the Qsmp Fandom I was a Crow and a Crow only, before I died and became a Ghostie. Thus, while I like both qTubbo and qPhil I don't watch either of them often, ergo unbiased :D )

who has no real reason to attempt to villainise or place either character on a pedestal because to put it bluntly, they are not my cubito.

Without further ado I will begin my ramble.

Today's ramble of course comes with the disclaimer that with me not being a qTubbo or qPhil main there may be areas of their character that I'm not aware of since I don't watch every single one of their streams! Feel free to correct me on literally anything you think I've mischaracterized about your main just please be understanding that nothing is done with malicious intent! :)

I'm not attempting to paint either character as a villain in this ramble, I'm just publishing this in hopes to allow each community to understand that neither cubito is perfect and that's okay!

Okay! For anyone missing context; the current disagreement began when Tubblings expressed feeling happy that Chay was able to be a kid around qTubbo as opposed to being serious with qPhil then the Crows reminded the Tubblings that qTubbo is also attributing to Chay's hero complex through him acting as Chay's egg and asking Chay to protect him. Which has caused both sides to instinctively protect their cubito and is causing arguments within their communities.

As a Ghostie who is more than willing to write 1000 words to raise awareness, and is frankly sick of infighting within the QSMP fandom (it's why I left twitter, please don't bring it here 🫠) I figured I'd try to help 'squash the beef' if you will.

Polite discussions about cubito conflict is fine, going for each other's throats over character takes...yeah let's not do that! :D

Firstly, everyone has to recognize that Chayanne has an almost toxic hero complex. He's had it since the beginning of the server and while neither qPhil or qTubbo is doing it on purpose they are BOTH feeding into it!

He has an overwhelming urge to protect others with no regard for his own safety or wellbeing at times. In the beginning it only extended to eggs. As the older sibling he had a sense of responsibility over them, which was cute! But now it's borderline toxic although it's become so normalized as such a core part of Chayanne's character that no one recognizes it's no longer a healthy mindset.

Now Tubblings can make the defense that qTubbo isn't being entirely serious or that he doesn't truly expect Chay to put his life on the line for him but I watched him look Chayanne in the eyes and BLAME HIM FOR NOT PROTECTING 'HIS EGG'.

Even if that was immediately reincarnated qTubbo who was a little fucked up in the head, even if he no longer fully blames him, even if qTubbo was joking at the time, he looked that kid dead in the eyes and told him it was his fault. Tell me again how qTubbo isn't unintentionally feeding his complex?

Yes qTubbo allows Chay a more carefree space away from his overwhelming need to protect his younger sister and a space to be more relaxed.

Yes qTubbo is joking about a lot of things and a lot of the out of pocket shit he says isn't intended to be taken completely seriously.

BUT you cannot fully disagree with the Crows when they say that qTubbo feeds the complex too. BECAUSE HE DOES, JUST NOT ON PURPOSE THE SAME AS qPHIL!

qPhil is so used to his son being the strong warrior that he doesn't realize that that character trait is actively damaging his son's mental state. His attention is divided between Chay and Tallulah and since Tallulah is more open to talking about her issues he often isn't as attentive to Chay.

Is that a bad thing? Yes!

Is it intentional on qPhil's part? No!

Is it something the Crows need to recognize that qPhil does which unintentionally allows his son to continue to struggle with his hero complex? Yes!

qPhil loves his son unconditionally AND qPhil feeds Chayanne's hero complex are two statements that can and do coexist

qTubbo let's Chay be more of a child AND qTubbo feeds Chayanne's hero complex are two statements that can and do coexist

And as long as both the Crows and Tubblings are willing to understand that neither cubito is perfect and THERE'S NO USE FIGHTING OVER PIXELS then we're good!

- Sincerely a Ghostie who just wants to try to bring understanding between the two fandoms by utilizing her rambling skills!

AGAIN, any severe mischaracterization you feel I may have included is unintentional and feel free to correct anything you feel like I'm misconstruing, they're not my main cubitos so there may be somethings that qTubbo or qPhil mains find to be untrue to the source

HOWEVER if you're gonna call me out for mischaracterizing a character simply because I'm bringing up their flaws and you can't accept a character has flaws, kindly fuck right off :D

[feverdreamsandlucidnightmares]

I was going to say this in response to the tags someone left on one of these posts (1, 2), but it honestly works better as a standalone post, because as usual it’s gotten away from me a bit and is quite long:

(Disclaimer that, as usual, I’m talking about the animes not the manga due to my own familiarity with the content and that this is kind of a blurry combo of lore from Tristamp and Tri98)

Vash wants to be a shield. Knives, without fail, makes him a bomb instead.

So much of Trigun is about struggling with personal and physical autonomy. About people being put in hard situations and doing bad things to get through them. And they do actually bad things, like hurting and killing innocent people. Not just things that are mostly socially bad. Characters like Wolfwood are explicitly shown to have been trafficked by a cult and then brutally experimented on and then sent out to kill any opposition to the aforementioned cult.

Neither the narrative nor the characters themselves shy away from the fact that these characters have hurt people. Doesn’t hide the fact that people are rarely actually, completely innocent, that the greater good is often a myth perpetuated by greedy people in power. That it’s used to guilt or pressure people into compliance. That you can be good and kind and generous, while also being selfish and hurt and scared. That sometimes those more frowned upon qualities are going to be the ones to shine through, but it doesn’t make you innately bad. That you still deserve a second chance.

Because at the end of the day, in desperate situations where your primary goal is survival? Morals are a privilege. You have to be able to afford them. And almost everyone on No Man’s Land is desperate. Especially outside of the major cities. Everyone is one bad day, one disaster away from losing everything. If a Plant “malfunctions” or a sandstorm destroys everything? There’s no real infrastructure in place to protect them outside of whatever community they’ve managed to build for themselves and the resources they’ve squirreled away. It’s often just enough, no excess. So. Would you risk that for a stranger? Would you die for a stranger? Or would you kill a stranger for your survival? Your family’s? Maybe. Probably. Desperate people do desperate things.

Vash might be the only person alive who could kill Knives. Some people might even think it’s his job, his duty, to prevent all the harm that Knives doles out. That it’s Vash’s fault, that he’s culpable for all the deadly, terrible things Knives has done and that have been done in his name. Killing Knives is for the greater good. But he’s still Vash’s brother. You’re still asking him to kill his brother. And maybe Vash is scared of him. Maybe, on some level, he even hates him. But even while Knives is killing himself in an attempt to destroy everyone and everything else Vash cares about, Vash is still worried about him. He still doesn’t want him dead.

And Knives always makes Vash responsible. The Big Fall, the Fifth Moon Incident, Jeneora Rock, Lost JuLai/July. None of these things would have happened if Knives hadn’t made them. Vash was never going to put anyone in harms way like that of his own volition. But neither of the twins wants to be alone. Not really. Vash waited for him for an entire year when he went to get the guns.

But is that really love? Obsession maybe, for Knives. And desperation for Vash. Mutually assured destruction. Does Knives love anyone? He’s in a very unique position where he gets to define the greater good at everyone else’s expense. The other Plants, who didn’t get a say in his master plan. Vash, whose autonomy he completely overrules over and over in actively harmful and willfully malicious, cold, and calculated ways. Kids like Wolfwood and Rollo and an uncounted, but horrifying number of others in bad, desperate situations who were “blessed” enough to be taken apart under a misappropriated approximation of divine right. Not to mention the entire planet of humans he wants gone.

Knives is a weapon. He owns it, he names himself for it. And he makes other people weapons, too. Maybe it’s recompense for what has been done to him and his family. He doesn’t really protect anyone, but he’s a firm believer in revenge. And he’s privileged enough to call it justice.

And Rem told Vash to take care of Knives. Her last words. What could Vash be besides his brother’s keeper? So all of the shame and pain and sadness and guilt and damage Knives causes or could feel? It all falls on Vash.

[tetrakys]

Very old tea - Beemoov's writers

Every day I wake up and find new drama in the fandom. I have to admit it is entertaining but fake news and misinformation really annoy me so here we go. What's the new tea? It's actually very old tea, but it needs to be put into context.

A few hours ago, someone rummaging through the New Gen website, ended up on the credit page, where they found this

This page isn't reachable from the website, there are no links, you need to type the full url to get there because it's only a placeholder. You can clearly see that those are Eldarya TO credits, and an old Priya illustration is used as background. Literally yesterday Chino mentioned in her Instagram stories that there are lots of placeholders on the website.

Despite this, news is now circulating that the same team that worked on Eldarya is now working on New Gen. I don't think people have been saying this maliciously, it's possible that they got confused with the placeholder, which didn't have the big red disclaimer I added in the screenshot above. However now they are freaking out for no reason and bringing back so much old drama, which is also partially wrong. So here I am trying to clarify, hoping that people will see this (but alas, tumblr isn't as popular as facebook and twitter so maybe I'm just shouting into the wind).

MCL and Eldarya writing team

Part 1. High School Life and the Sally Anne drama

Firstly, at the very very beginning of MCL, Chino was on her own, she was working on both the art and the writing. However, soon later the company looked for a writer, Chino pushed for her friend Sally Anne to be hired even if she had no prior professional experience, and the company agreed. Eventually they also became roommates and even closer friends.

Now, the people who have been around for ages like me know that there was huge drama at some point. Sally Anne had some health issues and pretty much disappeared for months in the middle of Nath's arc. Lots of things were said at the time, some true some very untrue. Sally Anne made a facebook post mentioning how Chino and the company were bullying her. One of the accusations that people like to bring back all the time is that the character of Aleja, who was based on Sally Anne, was used to bully her because she was written as a bit silly. Maybe people forget that all Eldarya self-inserts are very flawed. Jamon can barely use grammar when he speaks, Kero is a coward, Ykhar an anxious nervous train wreak. I don't see anyone say that Chinomiko bullied herself by making Miiko such a raging bitch.

Anyway I believe that Sally Anne herself realised that this and other bullying accusations were unfair since she later retracted it. Some people say that she was forced by Beemoov to do so (I don't know where they would get this information, it's a pretty strong accusation). Others say that all this is common behaviour for people who suffer from addiction. I'm just going to add some additional context that most people may not be aware of since I hardly see it mentioned.

When Sally Anne left the company she started her own personal project with some friends. They put together a kickstarted campaign for a BL game and earned around 58,000€. After that however, the project never came to light because of, again, Sally Anne's personal issues. Here you can see a post from the team describing the situation, which is proof that her health condition was not connected to Beemoov work environment at all, since the same thing happened again while working on her own personal project with other friends of hers. Additionally here is the final post written soon afterward, where the team explained that they would not be able to make the game. They also said that they had used up most of the kickstarter money already even though the game had not been produced. They gave people only one month to claim their kickstarter pledge back. Considering to this day there's still people who wonder what happened to their Eldarya account, I strongly believe not many people managed to see that post and claim their money with only a one month timeframe.

Anyway, this serves as a context to show that in a very small company, when the writer disappears for whatever reason, either the project is cancelled or they have to hire someone else. Lots of people believe that Beemoov is a huge company when it's not. At the time of these events there were around 50 employees, and those people had to earn a living. Sally Anne was the only writer, this whole situation led to MCL not being released for at least half a year, which compromised everyone's salaries. Players were complaining like crazy but, despite hearing only one side of the story, they were very happy to jump on the "Sally Anne was being bullied" train once new writers were hired and they could play the game again.

So, let's talk about the "new" writers.

Part 2. Second half of High School Life and Eldarya TO

Once it was clear that Sally Anne would not be able to come back to work, Beemoov hired two new writers. Hikaru who would end up being Eldarya TO's writer, and Cassandre who took over MCL and finished High School season. (These info you can find in the games credits).

Hikaru was the CM at the time, because the company was looking for a writer for this new game Eldarya they gave her a chance. Chino and Hikaru got along well and I think it's visible in TO's writing. Remember Chino is the creator, she decides the story and the events, the writer writes them, and Chino reads and corrects the script. I think it's clear from TO's writing that they had a good synergy. Hikaru left around the end of TO for personal reasons, she moved to another city and changed career, it was her choice to kill off her self-insert (Ykhar) before leaving, so no there was no big conspiracy around the self-inserts. To this day she and Chino are still friends. But no, she's not coming back to write New Gen as people who saw the placeholder seem to believe.

Cassandre, as I said, took over MCL HSL in the middle of Nath's arc. I think it's visible that the season feels a bit different with a different writer, but I still like it, I think she did a good job as a writer. However, once high school was over, in a move that I will never understand, Beemoov's management decided to assign Eldarya to her, not as a writer but as a project manager, effectively taking over Chino's role. So Chino had to leave from around episodes 20-22 and never went back. She only provided the main storyline of the worlds merging, but at some point she resumed working on the events only.

So from around episode 20-22 to episode 29 Hikaru and Cassandre worked together, with Hikaru as the writer and Cassandre as the one deciding the plot/scenes and supervising the writing.

Part 3. Eldarya ANE + MCL University, Love and Alternate Life

Once Hikaru left, Alexis took over. So from episode 30 of TO and throughout ANE he and Cassandre have worked on Eldarya alone. This is the dream team we owe the state of Eldarya to. None of them knew the first 22 episodes of the games in depth and hence why we have all the plot holes and different characters' personalities. Additionally, at that point Cassandre started working on Uncoven so it is my personal opinion that Alexis was mostly on his own during ANE because clearly you can see that the person who wrote that had no idea what Eldarya was really about.

What happened in MCL at the same time? Once Cassandre moved to Eldarya, Beemoov found another writer for MCL, Cara, who wrote University Life. My personal opinion is that she was a good writer, I like University Life, but there's very little romance. Less than HSL for sure. But there are many funny scenes and a young adults feel that I really liked. She and Chino worked on UL together as writer/creator and it's still one of my favourite seasons, however the lack of flirting scenes is visible.

Then, when Love Life started, another writer joined the team, Antoine, Chino was still the creator and Cara remained as proofreader and also worked on Uncoven with Cassandre. My personal opinion is that there are lots of issues in Love Life because of how some themes of feminism, sexual harassment etc. are treated. Additionally the romance was even less than in UL, and some characters' personalities took a slightly strange turn. However I did like the main storyline and the ending that went full circle.

By the time Alternate Life started, both Cassandre and Cara had left the company, Antoine was still around to write additional LL episodes such as wedding and honeymoon, and the events. Eldarya's writing was over and so Alternate's writing has been the product of Alexis and Chino alone.

Part 4. What about today? MCL New Gen

New Gen is being written by Alexis and Chino, same team and dynamic as Alternate, the two of them alone. So if you see people around saying that Hikaru is back or whatever else, it's not true.

You may not like Alexis' writing after what was done to Eldarya, which I totally understand. If I hadn't played all Alternate Life I would feel the same and think that the guy isn't able to think deeper than a teaspoon. But luckily I really like what he and Chino can do together so I have a good feeling for New Gen.

[potatogirlll]

so, jojos and autism

Since it's 7 am and i have nothing else to do, I've decided to compile a list of Jojo characters that i think may be autistic. Because there are. A LOT.

Part 3

Jotaro: dude. He is literally THE most autistic anime character I've ever seen in my entire life. How he gets upset over stupid shit but remains calm during actually distressful situations. How he's mostly quiet and his expression is always the same. HOW HE THINKS EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS WHAT HE IS THINKING. and also that one clip with koichi where he is UNABLE to make small talk. Yeah

kakyoin: Self isolated masking child prodigy that memorizes random trivia he finds and uses it as a conversation starter. Literally feels like he is alone in the world and no one can understand him because no one tries and no one can, he also has an extremely internalized displeasure and apathy towards the world... This is mostly subtext but if you pay attention its there, i love my boy

Part 4

Kira: extreme anxiety over his nails, masks all the time, kind of infodumps, lack of empathy, obsession with his routines, etc. This one i am not so sure about, as he definetely has antisocial personality disorder and his obsessions with his routine and his nails could be interpreted as OCD. just some thoughts

rohan: OK HEAR ME OUT. No social awareness, has a very specific way of writing his manga, DOESNT CARE WHEN HIS HOUSE IS BURNING DOWN AND WANTS TO KNOW HOW JOSUKE CHEATED. Licks a fucking spider and doesnt see the problem!!!!!!! ik yall hate him (affectionately????) but i just had to say this.

Part 5

Giorno: usually monotonous voice, thinks outside of the box, always the same expression, socially distant. This one is mostly a gut feeling, but it could also be interpreted as him being a very traumatized kid.

Part 6

Weather Report: RAPTOR HANDS? ONLY WHISPERING TO PEOPLE HE TRUSTS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE HE DOESNT KNOW? TIPTOEING??? yeah

Anasui: (disclaimer: i hate jolysui i hate him as a person i hate how the manga did him i hope he just stays in his little queerplatonic relationship with weather while taking care (very horribly might i add) of emporio and never is exposed to the outside world. i love him. ughhhhh) lack of social cues, especially with jolyne, obsession with dismembering things, extreme emotional outbursts,,, the signs are there, but it could also be interpreted as ocd, ocpd and intermittent explosive personality disorder, respectly. whatever.

Pucci: uses prime numbers as stimming mechanism, kind of sees social interactions unconventionally, lack of empathy (but not as much as kira, also no clear malicious intent, so i dont think hes coded as a psychopath?). Again, could be interpreted as OCD.

not gonna add foo fighters because theyre literally plankton but they do have autistic traits

i havent finished part 7 and havent started part 8. as of writing this, part 9 currently just released its first chapter, and i dont see any autistic traits in any of the characters rn. might edit this in the future and add anyone that i might have missed or just discovered through reading the later parts. Thats all i wanted to say, thanks 4 reading

[autistic-evil-xisuma]

this is mostly rephrased from stuff I've already said on discord, but I thought it was worth saying here too. And disclaimer that I am USAmerican and not Indigenous to here. That said.

Not hating on Grian, I don't think it was necessarily his fault that he didn't know the history of manifest destiny, and it's actually a breath of fresh air that he apologized for his mistake and fixed it (instead of doubling down, like. Certain other hermits have in the past).

However I do think it's a bit of an... oddball statement, for a White British person, to say that he just didn't know the context behind it because he isn't American. When. Quite famously, American colonialism IS British history. It's likely something he wasn't taught much about in school, which isn't on him. But I think it's also an individual's responsibility to make an effort to learn about the historical and/or ongoing colonial violence that their own country has inflicted on the rest of the world, and the continuous impact it's had. For British people, that includes the colonization of USAmerica and genocide of Indigenous Americans. "Manifest Destiny" was coined after USAmerica was independent from Britain, but it still represents the exact same principles which British colonizers used to justify their violence against the land and Indigenous people living there. Using that phrase doesn't just invoke a brutal history from some other country that Grian doesn't belong to, it invokes the belief in White supremacy and entitlement held by his own country.

Also... at this point there's a bit of a track record of hermits unintentionally doing/saying things that are insensitive to Indigenous Americans. So I wish we saw them being more intentional about educating themselves to prevent it from continuing to happen.

Again, not an attack on Grian. I don't think anyone should be attacked for non-malicious ignorance, mistakes are how we learn stuff and all that. But I wish he'd admitted straight up that he made a mistake out of ignorance, instead of excusing it by suggesting it isn't history he should know. It looks like he's actually deleted the comment apologizing on his video, which could be for any number of reasons, maybe because he realized it was an incomplete apology. Who knows.

[boopiddyboop]

Jung Wooyoung Natal Chart

Finally back from Korea. I went, I saw, I bought skincare.

Unfortunately, this is the last of the Ateez series until we get Jongho’s birth time (I’m begging- please do a birthday live and drop a time, sweet injured gummy bear. I wish to learn your secrets). I hope everyone enjoys this, and sorry for taking forever to get this out.

Full Disclaimer: Most of my knowledge is by traditional astrology, which involves but is not limited to: using whole signs, excluding Uranus-Pluto for natal charts, different sign rulers, and different planetary interpretations.  Astrology is subjective by nature; I do not think my way is best, simply that this is the version of interpretation that makes the most sense to me. This is not a professional service, simply a hobby meant for entertainment purposes only.  Feel free to disagree with or question my conclusions.

Placements:

Sun: Sagittarius - 3rd house

Moon: Cancer - 10th house

Mercury: Scorpio - 2nd house

Venus: Libra - 1st house

Mars: Capricorn - 4th house

Jupiter: Aries - 7th house

Saturn: Taurus - 8th house

Ascendant: Libra

Midheaven: Cancer - 10th house

North Node: Leo - 11th house

Well, we’ve got an easy starting point with Wooyoung- he’s a Libra Rising being ruled by a Venus in Libra. Libra is one of what I consider the top 4 “artsy” placements, the other 3 being Pisces, Leo, and Cancer. Having a chart ruler and rising here definitely makes him a natural performer. Libra is also a very fair sign; while Wooyoung has a reputation for being Ateez’s problem child, he balances this with being rather stern on proper respect (more on that later), helped by that Libra placement. This may also make him bad with time management, however, as I’ve found Libra Risings to have difficulties with being chronically late (unless they have heavy Saturn balancing that out). Also with this placement comes a desire to be surrounded by people. Feeling lonely is very hard for someone with his placements (and I, like many, refuse to think that Wooyoung is an introvert), and I think, somewhat negatively, he thrives off of external validation. 

(it also makes him quite attractive, but we been knew that)

The wild child-ness, however, is definitely spawned largely by his Sagittarius Sun / Mercury Scorpio combo. Interesting, Sagittarius is his only mutable sign in his natal chart, but seeing as it’s a fire sign, it’s still ~doing the most~. Now, personal bias on this one, but I love a fire element in the 3rd house- it makes its natives quite quick mentally. Paired with his Mercury in Scorpio, Wooyoung is both sharp and sharp-tongued. Not mean necessarily, because that Sun in the third does make him quite social (a nice combo with the Libra rising), so it helps curb the Mercury from being too malicious. Also, his Mercury is trining his Moon in Cancer, which helps him to understand people well. So as long as he thinks you’re not being malicious, he’ll probably respect that energy….However, between the scales of Libra and Scorpio, he’s definitely got his own sense of justice going, and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s been known to call people out. 

Speaking of his Moon in Cancer, it’s sitting in the 10th house (like San!) conjunct his midheaven (also like San), which is a good placement for parents (anyone else thinking of San?). I will not get over how cute they were on Return of Superman, okay? And while we’re on the topic of parentage, Wooyoung’s got a rather unpleasant Mars in Capricorn in his 4th house. The problem isn’t the Mars itself, as it’s actually an exalted placement. But Mars in the 4th house can go a few ways- strife at home, conservative values, possessiveness of family/family life…

An aside: I’ve tried to avoid using the word “possessive” when doing these write ups (which is hard with SO MUCH SCORPIO), as I think the word gets a bit romanticized especially when it comes to relationships, so please note that I mean it in a negative connotation here.

I think at a minimum, Wooyoung’s mentality towards family dynamics can be quite traditional because of this placement, especially when you factor in his Saturn in Taurus. With it sitting opposite his Mercury, it can cause him to be quite conservative in his thinking. But lest ye be afraid of him being too judgmental, I think these are self limitations rather than wholly worldview beliefs. His Jupiter in Aries in the 7th house once again brings good spirit and great luck to his interpersonal relationships, which I don’t think would be the case if he were as rigid with others as he is with himself.

Final thoughts: I think Wooyoung appears at first to be impulsive and brash, but I think there’s quite a bit of discipline and good will in his chart. The dynamics of his chart aren’t as strongly opposed as I think they could be, but he’s definitely got some extremes in him. When he’s hard, he’s inflexible, but when he’s soft, he’s super squishy. 

Smooches for the road

[helluvashitposter]

This is the first time I'm gonna get in on reviewing the new Helluva boss episode because this was the one I was most excited for! But before I do that, I'm saying it now:

I saw a lot of negative reviews were focused around the Ozzie texts between Stolas and Blitzo and well...I'm sorry guys but my main focus is on THIS MAN RIGHT HERE

So without further a dooooooooo...

I honestly enjoyed Striker in this episode! I love seeing a wackier side of him and not just edgy edge lord, low voice, "I'm gonna eat your kids" through the whole episode. I understand why some people were super disappointed in him not being as threatening as he was in the first episode, but hey. This is a cartoon about dumb demons and sex, I try not to take it too seriously already! (⁠๑⁠•⁠﹏⁠•⁠)

(I also wanna say this now, I was also one of the people taken back by the change in voice actors, but I ain't even gonna let that bother me too much: I know folks like Norman are gonna be mighty expensive or too busy to keep around. As sad as it is, if I can get used to Stolas new voice, I can do the same for this one as long as it means more Strike!)

Speaking of Striker, the main criticism I keep seeing is that he was too egotistical, and because of that statue everyone is just saying he was another Chaz. But I honestly don't get this one?

Striker was ALWAYS just as entitled and self centered in the first episode: Did we forget this man literally made a song all about how awesome he is (That didn't even rhyme) And his speech to Blitz where he talked about how he was above the imps? The statue seems pretty in character for him! Striker has always sucked his own dick, maybe it was a little overzealous but definitely not enough for me to say he was just a full blown Chaz!

Plus, that man still took his job pretty damn serious! Never once was Striker incompetent or a dumbass in this episode. He knew his mission and he was damn malicious about, I mean if you gonna try to tell me this man wasn't just as bloodthirsty as he was last time-

This man has never once hesitated to hurt anyone who gets in his way or just for the fun of it and I think it still shows greatly here!

All and all, I have to disagree with everyone saying his character was "ruined" or "too Chaz like" Striker definitely did not spend the episode going on and on about how his dick is the biggest or how everyone wants to fuck him like Chaz would. (R.i.p Chaz, I love you sweetie!) As left field as the statue was, it definitely didn't steal from the fact that this man was once again determined to finish his job. Which got taken away from him by Stella at the last minute, which he was super bummed about, but he does get paid extra soooo! 🎉🎉🎉

(Full disclaimer: I didn't really care for the Stella part of the episode, I do like the voice actor for snowy owl though. But overall they really were just there...it's really hard to say anything about it other than the fact that she didn't want Stolas killed sooooo (⁠＠⁠_⁠＠⁠;⁠))

Now for the big stuff: The pacing.

I have to say...I do have to agree with everyone when they say the pacing was all over the place. I have to admit: With all the trailers that we were getting, I was expecting this bad boy to be long as hell! At least a good 25 to 30 minutes because we were getting all kinds of things! But man...

Even though the little vet visit was funny, and I am a huge fan of that cute lil goat doctor, it did take away from the actual tension. I came here for badass Striker! And not to mention M&M barely got time to shine as well! The pacing really was just:

BOOM! STRIKER KIDNAPPED STOLAS--

Loona scared of vet 🥺

BAM! MOXXIE AND MILLIE ARE GONNA TAKE ON STRIKER BY THEMSELVES, OOOOOO POWER COUPLE--

Blitz and Karen yell at each other 🤬

RAAAAAH, STRIKER STABBY STOLAS, MILLIE AND MOXXIE CRASH THROUGH ROOF THOUGH, IT'S TIME FOR THE MOST EPIC FIGHT--

Loona got her shot 😊

I feel like we totally got robbed on a much more epic fight and some shades thrown from M&M and Striker, especially when it was a highlight of the trailer! These two being able to properly settle a score with Striker would have really made for such an amazing tension scene since they were the main ones who were affected by him in the first episode. LIKE GUYS, LET MOX AND MILL SHINE WHEN BLITZO ISN'T AROUND, I BEG YOU! THEY'RE AMAZING TOO!! 😭

I will stand by everyone when they say: WE NEED MORE MILLIE DAMNIT!

The ending with Stolas definitely tugged at my heart strings, I won't lie! But again, I'm not here for the Stolitz angst, I was just here to see Strikey boy. WHO DIDN'T DIE, SO YES! TAKE THAT TWITTER!!! MY BOY GETS TO HUNT ANOTHER DAY, AND NOT ONCE DID HE GET HIT BY A TRAIN, IN FACT HE APPARENTLY LOVES THEM SO HA!!

All and all, I will say Harvest moon was peek Striker. It's gonna be hard to ever top that, Norman Striker will forever be missed! But at the end of the day, I did enjoy seeing my favorite cowboy again, and there's apparently some more lore behind him as well that we'll hopefully get to see in the later seasons. I'm just glad I can easily sleep tonight knowing that he wasn't just killed off in the second episode we get him in! 🙏

So it was a good time all around! Especially watching it with my favorite person 💕

[crossguild]

quick disclaimer: ppl are welcome to headcanon eiffel however they want regardless of the weird racial baggage in treating race or skin color like a palette-swap that has no bearing on anyone's life, i'm no one's parent. i do immediately, internally, mark down white ppl who are weirdly insistent on that headcanon as a Woke Liberal Racist tho

but personally, i'm fully incapable of seeing eiffel as anything other than the Whitest Guy You Know, and it's partly because he was written specifically for zach valenti to act, but also because he's not ever really malicious. the vast majority of the time, he's just a well-meaning but ignorant asshole. men of color who make fun of others' accents and names absolutely know that it's a hurtful thing to do; they'd have experienced it directed at themselves or loved ones constantly. it would never take a moc by surprise that mocking someone's name or accent is truly hurtful.

and dudes like doug "weaponized incompetence" eiffel are a dime a dozen. man who gets away with doing less than the bare minimum at work so that everyone else (mostly women and immigrants!) have to pick up his slack? dude who needs to be handheld through the most basic 'microaggressing people = bad' conversation? dude who immediately defends himself with the assertion that he's 'not a bad guy' and 'it was just a joke' instead of trying to deflect with 'well i experience it too and it doesn't bother me'? guy who repeatedly drops the ball and gets opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to redeem himself??? he's a fun character because he eventually gets there but hoo boy

like his basic personality, that of a funny slacker dude who exploits women and anyone more marginalized than him, happens everywhere. that's not an exclusively white guy thing. what codes him as white is how other people treat him, including like. the police who arrested him without incident after he disabled at least two children in a DUI. the court that gave him a reasonable sentence for the crime he actually committed.

there's plenty of poc and even some white people who hc him as a moc who aren't doing it because they think it makes them look more progressive, and i'm not talking about u guys. like i don't get it but do you. even they are like 'no yeah, it would make perfect sense for eiffel to be white, i just have a different image of him in my head'

idk why some of yall are so insistent that the absentee father who is a felon and struggling with addiction cannot be white tho. or even asian? i've never seen an asian eiffel hc? like tell me what u really think of black n latino men 🙃

[just-another-turkey]

Ao3 DDoS attack- an explanation

For anyone missing their fanfics (like me), this article gives an general outline what going's on with Ao3.

For anyone hoping that they might be able to get to their fanfics soon, I suggest not getting your hopes up. Ao3 may be up in a couple hours (hopefully) , but there's a possibility that could last for several days depending on how how severe the attack is and how many resources the attackers have, Ao3 is handling this attack, and what response plans they have in place.

Some things to know if you're not familiar with DDoS attacks... it's time to use my education.

Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Ao3 other than being a user. I don't know what security measures they have in place, or what their security is. This is my personal- though knowledgeable- thoughts what may be going on behind the scenes.

Also, if the idea of the DDoS attack is scaring you in anyway- take a deep breath. It's going to be OK, even if my post may come across as dark (if so, I am sorry about that). It only meant to inform and educate Tumblr users on what is going on, and what might Ao3 may be doing. Do not panic just because of this post.

So, let's get started.

a. DDoS stands for distributed Denial of Services attacks. So that means the attackers is using multiple third party devices (such as other servers, botnets*) to make so many requests (think millions per minute) to the Ao3 servers that the servers use up all their resources, preventing us legitimate users from using them.

b. A slight side note- I've heard some people say that it's because of one person that Ao3 is down. It may just be one person, but setting up a DDoS attack is easier with a team. It is likely it is a group of attackers behind this- most attacks have multiple people involved in one form or another. This isn't the most relevant point I have, but just something people should know- there may be more than one attack.

c. To stop this attack, Ao3 is going to have to block all malicious traffic from reaching the servers. However, since this is a distributed attack, they are going to have to block multiple IP addresses. This is going to take some time.

d. We also have to consider if Ao3 has a response plan in place. Response plans are, as the name suggests, what the organization does in the case of an event. For ao3, that means who are they going to contact to fix this issue. But if there isn't a response plan in place already, it going to take longer for them to stop the attack because they're fixing this on the go- a difficult thing to do.

e. Once the attack has been stopped, it won't be over for Ao3, there are two more things they need to do- complete forensics to determine any possible damage to their servers and complete an After Action Review.

e1. While it is most likely that everything will be back to normal system wise after the attack has stopped, Ao3 would be smart to conduct forensics on their system to see if there are any anomalies (malware or indications of a breach). Attackers sometimes use DDoS attacks to cover their tracks when they hack into a system. Not likely here, considering the target won't have super sensitive information that an attacker wouldn't bother with trying to get. But the possibility is always there- however small.

e2. if they want to mitigate the risk of such attacks happening again- they need to complete After Action review (AAR). In AAR, Ao3 is going to have to look at what happened, and determine what they can do to ensure this doesn't happen so easily again. Hopefully, this means writing up or editing and improving their response plan, improving their security measures, etc.

f. Most importantly, your information is unlikely to be compromised. The most damage you will receive is not being able to access Ao3's servers. Ao3 has said that you don't need to change your passwords if you have an account. That being said, if you have a weak password, definitely change it anyway. (like I'm talking is you're using weak passwords. See the following link for what weak and strong passwords are: https://security.harvard.edu/use-strong-passwords )

That's what I have to say for now. Again, this post is not associated with the team at Ao3, I am independent and have no insider knowledge, just knowledge from being a security student. Ao3 will likely say more in the future, so keep an eye for it, and hopefully we'll be able to back to our fics.

If you have any questions about this attack or general cybersecurity, my asks are open, there are comments, and I will respond to them as quickly as I can. If you are in security, and I got something here, please tell me because I do not want to spread misinformation or cause panic.

Heard from your mother (she don't recognize you), I'll be waiting for you.

*compromised computers or other devices with internet connection with malware

[kevin--of-desert-bluffs]

Cecil Palmer has ADHD (like, maybe)?

In reference to this;

How can I say no to our local barista district? Disclaimer: The things I know about ADHD are based purely on internet research and therefore I may bring up some stereotypes or incorrect assumptions for which I apologise. Also although I'm using canon examples, I'm not saying this is intentional the way Carlos being autistic clearly is (unless it turns out to be, then ha! I knew it!).

So, does Cecil meet the criteria? Does he Cecil...

Make small mistakes like forgetting dates, misreading instructions, forgetting instructions, mislaying things etc. Yeah, all of the time. Now we can blame the dates thing in NV weirdness, sure, but when time becomes a bit more right post-Huntocarr this isn't something Cecil improves in. He also sometimes reads out the wrong thing and has to correct himself (in particularly, horrorscopes) or reads out things he was specifically told not to read out (most things about Dark Owl Records tbh). Always with an apologise or a 'oh no oops' though so it's not a malicious choice to say it wrong.

Poor organisational skills/inability to prioritise/finding it hard to do certain things (even if he wants to) through seeming lack of motivation? Now you look at this man and tell me his desk isn't a mess. But seriously, he breaks off to gossip during his show seemingly at random and I think it's just down to him being unable to tell (until too late) that such information doesn't need to be said right now on his news show. This has gotten him into trouble with Station Management multiple times. He also seems to use the interns to organise things around the station for him possibly because he has trouble with it himself (RIP the one intern who organised themselves into alphabetical order by organ when doing other stuff) and even has the interns proofread his Jaws slash fic which is uhhh...not their job Cecil they are here to learn about radio and help you with your job lol priorities please. Not to mention he says he loves journalism where he can go out himself but sees to send his interns a lot. This could be for many reasons but could just be that he Just Can't because of a lack of motivation/energy/ability thing.

Forgetfulness - Trauma? Lyme Disease induced fog? ADHD? Who knows.

Difficulty keeping quiet, and speaking out of turn - Cecil canonically had to take lessons in order to learn how to have a proper conversation with people because he had a hard time letting others talk and listening to/remembering what they've said.

Cecil's moods tend to ebb and flow rather suddenly, going from calm to screaming, from terrified to calm, from calm to squealing with happiness and showing a little hyperactivity in his sudden gushing and aahing at something he finds cute. He could just be like that but you could interpret it a 'sudden mood swings' sometimes seen in ADHD.

Cecil isn't extremely risky, but he does tend to deal with his stress via drinking and just not taking care of himself very well which could count as risk taking behaviour or an inability to deal with stress? He does get flustered and worked up very easily which could be him genuinely having trouble regulating stress and other such extreme emotions.

That's all I've personally got but if anyone (especially those who know more about ADHD/ADD than myself) wants to add things on I'd be so happy~!

[scarletspider-lily]

Rules and about me

This blog is meant for anyone to stumble upon, but I still hold firm to my beliefs and won’t censor myself for people. If you take issue with my tone or posts at any time, block me ! ALSO: i queue all my posts so me posting does not mean im online- most of the time i'm not.

I cater to exvangelicals (people who have left evangelical Christianity) first and foremost. I try to open up the convo to other religions, but my personal experiences make me talk about Christianity more.

I do not respect TERFS and radfems, please do not interact :)

This blog is strongly anti censorship and anti purity culture. I don’t get into ship discourse but if you know what I mean and have a problem with this, simply block or DNI

religious people are free to interact with my blog, as I think they can learn about atheist and ex religion viewpoints, but any proselytizing and preaching in the comments will result in a swift block!

atheists who hate religion are valid, but I do not support or encourage anti theist fascism :)

i don’t support islamaphobia, antisemitism, or racism (there is a difference between criticizing religions and partaking in that bigotry)

don’t police my tone, I will criticize and generalize not just christians but other religions frequently here! I’m aware religious people are not a monolith but I would like to avoid having a disclaimer on everything in this blog, when i already clarify and censor myself irl every second of the day.

I talk about other topics here and shout-out queer media and other media often.

if I make a mistake please call me out respectfully. i understand im capable of actually being disrespectful or saying something bigoted.

I dislike the term “culturally Christian” because of how it is used here, and other reasons. If you call me that I’ll still engage with you but don’t expect me to keel to that term politely lmao. Also specify how I am “culturally christian” if you insist on calling me that

VERY IMPORTANT: I reblog posts from random people sometimes as well as people who are controversial on this site for a number of reasons, or are just very well known. I do not agree with everything someone does if I reblog from them. My policy usually is that if I like a post and want it on my blog I’ll reblog.

about me:

I’m a queer Asian American woman in a not so great evangelical household. I'm an atheist who is sort of spiritual (when it comes to nature). This blog exists to call out Christo-fascism/Christian nationalism plaguing America, support atheists and people who left their religions, and for me to be authentic and honest away from prying eyes of people who may know me. I accept asks and confessions, as long as they are not malicious. Currently, I really welcome tips for those in toxic Christian households.

[gremlin-pattie]

this isn’t necessarily good or bad, just something i’m noticed and want to reflect on— queer people living in (relatively) accepting communities put a lot more emphasis on pronouns than queer people living in less accepting communities.

for example, I live in the deep south (southern United States, very conservative), and a lot of my friends and I have pronouns that we use around other queer people we are close with, but when we are with our families and in public we will accept whatever people assume we use based on our appearances. I think of it as my “public pronouns” vs my “preferred pronouns.” we do this because it could cause unnecessary conflict or even become dangerous to try to correct people for not using the pronouns we would prefer, and we’re unlikely to convince them of our viewpoint anyway, so it’s just not worth the energy.

we also use the pronouns associated with our agabs for each other when we are in front of people we don’t know are safe. so for example, if I am hanging out with some queer friends and they want to refer to me but we are out in public, they’ll use she/her pronouns to refer to me (I’m afab and have not done any physical transitioning). I guess you could call this misgendering, but I don’t think it’s the same because it’s not malicious. this is a mutually agreed upon thing that we (queer people where I live) do to protect each other, unless you know someone openly uses certain pronouns.

with this being my experience, it was surprising to me when I started getting into trans spaces on the internet and saw how adamant a lot of people are about strangers using their pronouns right, and how upset people get when they don’t. I think that getting upset is justified, because dysphoria can be a bitch, but I’ve never been in a position where correcting people feels like an option. I’m happy if they assume I’m cis and I’m able to blend in, because it means I’m safe, so I can tolerate whatever they want to call me.

I would guess this difference in treatment of pronouns is because when you’re not worrying about basic stuff like “will people bully me or possibly hurt me if they find out I’m queer?” you have more room to care about smaller details. think about it kind of like the hierarchy of needs.

I think it’s amazing that there are places where people are able to ask strangers to use the pronouns they want without worrying about being ostracized, and I hope it’s like there everywhere one day. I just want other queers to understand that not all of us able to do that, and instances of “misgendering” are not always that simple. sometimes we’ve gotta help each other stay hidden to stay safe.

obligatory disclaimer that this is based on comparing my lived experience to the experiences of queer people living in more progressive communities that I see online. please feel free to share your experience and whether or not it aligns with my observations. you do not have to identify as trans to share, this applies to anyone who uses pronouns other than the ones assigned to you based on your agab.

[vaulttecexec]

the barb side continuation to this theory and how it changes the relationship dynamic for the howard family:

disclaimer: these are all thoughts i've been thinking and in no way have any truth other than me thinking it is. under a cut, again, because while this is an addition to the main theory, i'm still long winded and do not want to clog your dash with my peabrain think train.

I ENCOURAGE READING THE OTHER PART OF THIS FIRST FOR ANY OF THIS TO MAKE SENSE.

so, now that i've dragged you all down my rabbit hole, we have to discuss how much barb potentially did or didn't know, and how all of this ties into the theory of him looking for her too.

this is not going to be an argument of if they truly divorced or not. that isn't the point.

personally, i don't think barb knew any more than the next guy until it was too late to do anything about it, like it was hinted at between moldaver and the pip boy scene. there is very little that came down to her idea, and she seems to be appeasing the suits more than anything. that doesn't mean she didn't know something was fundamentally wrong with what they were doing. it's quite likely that when she found out, there was very little she could do about it or was faced with a bigger issue at hand that needed dealing with. nothing about her character says she would have struggled with indecision. she simply made the choices that were best for their family when they came up.

could bakersfield, vault 12, and the necropolis be why she didn't think bakersfield was a good idea? sure. this one is one of the very few times barb played the villain. she knew something bad was going to happen there, because she knew there were good vaults and bad ones, but the extent of her knowledge still isn't common knowledge. she also broke it to cooper in a way that cooper could digest and would keep him from being angry at anyone but her. that shows her self inflicted guilt, too. she wants him to be mad at her. how she said it says she wants someone to react to what she's saying and ask questions and help her sort it out and potentially get out. it just didn't happen like that.

she never seems to make any important business decision or show any other outward sign of guilt and blame drawing in the show until she says the line (and that shouldn't even count, because she's looking to someone else for approval when she says it). This story isn't told from Barb's point of view, it's told from Cooper's so the skew would come from him seeing her differently. When they argued, you can clearly see he still has this belief she's a good person and would remain so to him.

I don't think knowing made her a bad person or a bad wife or mother. I think we can't keep group dumping that logic of vault tec bad so everyone else involved is too. there were some genuine good people, who thought they were doing the right thing, and they got caught up with the wrong company.

how did it affect the howard's?

first it's shown in her inability to touch him or allow him to touch her in the way she did at the start of the show. by the end of it, she seems almost hesitant to let him even hug her. and she is definitely in another place mentally through it. that is the first indication that she isn't cold and malicious. she's genuinely struggling with what's going on here.

it's also shown in how she immediately sets her shoulders like she's going to war with cooper. you can see her physically prepare before she speaks to him from the hottub scene on. it was subtle, but it was there.

so, if cooper was an experiment, what does that have to do with barb?

VAULT TEC HAS DEFINITELY DONE SOMETHING FOR HIM TO SEPARATE WHAT HE THINKS OF THE COMPANY AND WHAT HE THINKS OF HER.

first of all, if she knew about bakersfield, she was definitely trying to keep them from becoming ghouls. she'd have to know that was a potential for any of them. but, it would have been more than that.

cooper, at some point, would have had to come to terms with the fact that she was still making a good decision by not wanting that fate for them. he also would've had to reconcile his feelings with what she'd said and what he knew of her and about her to get to the point of considering her his family WITH janey.

he would've been receiving first hand exposure to exactly what she was trying to keep them from, and that likely had something to do with the reconciliation he'd done in regards to her. he's also spent a lot of years wandering the wasteland, so if his plan was to just die in the drop, he'd know that was NOT guaranteed either. he'd know that while a little twisted, she really was making the best choice for her moral code in that moment. he'd see people ghoulify naturally. he'd probably find out about cryopreservation and the amount of people saved from it. he'd learn everything they never talked about in all that time.

AND CONSIDER, all that time he spent with his memories if he was a science project.

i think his development to include barb in his hunt was one that was probably harder for him to deal with than the knowledge at least his daughter was safe.

again, this is not a review of their relationship. what that looks like seems way messier than how he got to the point to look for his family and not just his daughter post experimentation.

plus, we do get an idea of how long he'd been topside. it wasn't mentioned that cooper worked with that man's grandfather, he worked with his dad. that was said for a reason. it changes the topside timeline, but it would fit into the grand picture of cooper not being naturally occurring.

also, his clothing hasn't fully disintegrated from exposure? that means something, too.

i got sidetracked, but these are all things that affect the howards and how they came to the point they were by the end of the season

GDI ROCKI, TL;DR. PLEASE:

If Barb knew about good and bad vaults, she likely had an idea of what was going to happen in Bakersfield. I don't think she had the clearance to stop anything, but she could navigate a better future for them by keeping her head down. This would have to all be things Cooper learned after the fact, which likely helped him reconcile some with her. He'd done so enough to consider not just Janey his family, but her as well by the end of it. We also get the idea that he hasn't been gunslinging as far back as the drop happened based on easily overlooked dialogue. There's clues he wasn't.

[strooples]

Some thought dumps on recent STL chapters

Heads up before I ramble off on some of my thoughts!! I didn’t manage to catch the new girl’s name so I’ll consistently refer to her as “New Girl” ahah.

So I thought of something interesting the other day after the new chapter released where **SPOILERS** Mitsumi decided to call it quits — as both her & Shima weren’t feeling into it with their current life circumstances, personal feelings, and the timing. 2 chapters ago, we were introduced to the New Girl when Mitsuma and Shima have a major falling out. And she proves herself not malicious (she isn’t there to cause trouble for our main characters or anyone else) but very perceptive at understanding other people, their backgrounds, and a peak into their psyche. Note this line below, as I find it particularly interesting:

Chapter 44

She mentions the good fortune and privilege of Mitsumi’s background — one where she’s had a supportive family, childhood friend, and hometown community her entire life. And although we can sense her words have a tinge of spite within them, we also know they aren’t directed towards being harmful. She notes her observations of both Shima and Mitsumi, things that are a deciding favor in how they behave in a social environment. And although I don’t necessarily agree with her logic, nor do I agree at all with Shima not standing up for Mitsumi when the other girls were clearly teasing her, I find her perspective very nuanced and interesting.

She’s the quicker character to catch on to something many others don’t. Namely, how Shima avoids conflict because he’s always been conditioned to do so for other people’s desires — to the point where we see his mom has previously taken advantage of him (forcing him to act for her happiness, as an example) and where he pushes himself along to other’s whims against his own wants (with Ririka, the girl he previously agreed to date, other classmates etc.).

DISCLAIMER: That being said, I don’t necessarily think Mitsumi’s case (being more outspoken and moral-compass driven when it comes to seeing wrongdoings in a social setting) are the traits of only those who had a plentiful upbringing. However, I see the direction the story leads us, and how Mitsumi’s upbringing contributes to her lack of fear or lack of seeking validation within group settings, as she was always given plenty of love, encouragement, and support to be herself — which would honestly boost anyone’s confidence.

Now, that leaves us to wonder how she came to the conclusion that Shima’a homelife was lacking the love and care which Misumi’s have, and the beginning of the chapter clues us in.

Hints of depression:

We can basically assume, without that many details, that her parents or family are likely neglectful. Purposefully? I am not quite sure — she could’ve grown up as another kid in Japan to working parents that rarely come home and have to make ends meet. Either white collar workers who often give up all their free time to the office or minimum wage ones who have to make ends meet. We’re not sure, and the author doesn’t make it matter. What matters is the effect: That they aren’t present in her life. At all.

So, she seeks the validation out at school a different way. Essentially charming over less-perceptive guys for temporary attention. As she seeks validation, molds somewhat of an image towards that goal (kind of like Mika Egashira does), for the purpose of the attention she’s always desired but never had. If her parents aren’t there, at least the over-excited gushing of some guys can sort of satiate any depression.

Not all of the means are likable — the way we might’ve felt when Mika’s methods were introduced. But we aren’t supposed to hate her. Rather, we’re made to feel very sorry for her, empathetic, and have a nuanced view of her motives. “We’re probably the same,” New Girl thinks to herself when observing Shima. And although Shima isn’t validation-oriented as Mika or New Girl is (he’s conflict-avoidant and passive, per say), he’s that way for the same reason: A neglectful parent, who made him feel unloved.

I find that she’s interesting however, in the ways she was written to either foil or emphasize a lot of the main casts’ tendencies:

Shima: Explained above.

Mitsumi: Obviously by degree of support in upbringing.

But a thought I’ve been having is how she would compare to the nuances in Mika’s and Yuzuki’s lives too:

Mika Egashira: She has a sort of Machiavellian approach in social situations (“the ends justifies the means if it adds to my goal” type of thing). However, Mika’s social chameleon abilities and focus on image stem from her insecurities and lack of confidence, even if it manifests in seeking attention. Although that’s part of it, it isn’t the main goal. Whereas, New Girl is more perceptive, seeming more confident in her words and judgement. She can also blend in quickly to an appearance in interactions. But she isn’t solely validation-driven when it comes to seeking other’s attention; it’s more like attention for the sake of attention itself she likely desires from her family situation and neglect deep down. Mika’s problem is more self-directed and internal, while New Girl’s is more external (family situation, upbringing) and has less to do with self-loathing.

Yuzuki Murashige: As almost a shadow to New Girl. Yuzuki was born into an almost-perfect situation, one many people would envy. With a close-knit loving family, affluence, beauty that naturally brings attention. But because of that, most people fail to empathize with any hurt or lonely feelings she may have. And the attention almost crushes her under it — the type both Mika and New Girl seems to desire from their classmates. Although we don’t know New Girl’s family’s economical situation, we know they aren’t close-knit in any form. What has always suffocated Yuzuki has always been a desire, a compensation, for New Girl.

I think these sort of comparisons are why I like the story so far. The nuance in understanding human behavior and bringing so many characters with different mindsets and problems, and with so much care taken, contribute to my desire to see some form of mutual understanding or resolve.