#and i talked about my interest in curation and mentioned some of my curation experience

[tothechaos]

i get to go to my first conference in october OwO its for museums and museum studies! ill be making a poster and (potentially? hopefully!) giving a presentation!!

[bonefall]

Hey Bones! Sorry if this is a bit random to ask you, but-

Is it ok if you elaborate and/or explain how Millie is ableist towards Briarlight please?

I haven’t really heard much people within the fandom talk about Millie’s treatment of Briarlight and her disability as negative and/or bad compared to Millie not really paying attention to Blossomfall within the books.

So I’m interested what you know and/or have to say about it.

OH boy, I feel like this one is REALLY easy to see if you just pop the book open. It will make your skin crawl once you see these quotes. Millie is an AWFUL mother and SHOCKING in how nasty she is to her disabled child.

I run in some pretty good circles and curate my Tumblr experience well, so I see plenty of people just mentioning it as a fucked up thing the series did casually, but I'll make a compilation of the worst of it.

(CW for some serious ableism, Millie is terrible.)

She's injured in Chapter 11 of OotS Book 2: Fading Echoes, and Millie is obsessive over her until Chapter 9 of OotS Book 3: Night Whispers. She's interfering with Jayfeather's treatments, constantly in the den, shouting at him when he tries to be honest about Briarlight's condition.

But that would be understandable. She's concerned and the prognosis isn't great. Her very young, athletic daughter (basically 17-ish) has suddenly received a life-altering injury that will drastically affect her life. Until Night Whispers Chapter 9, she's just worrying about her daughter.

And then we get this.

(Please note this is happening in front of the entire Clan. The entire social group is watching this.)

Though Briarlight expressed frustration with her exercises and how painful and difficult recovery was in Fading Echoes, that is not the case in Night Whispers. At this point, it's difficult but Briarlight is recovering well. MILLIE decides that her daughter being alive with a disability is suffering.

Note how in this exchange, Jayfeather is being forced to comfort Briarlight's MOTHER. Not BRIARLIGHT herself, the one with the injury who is looking at a massive upheaval to her life. Though superficially it seems like this is coming from a place of love, Millie is making Briarlight's recovery about herself by doing this, and this exchange is ableist.

Millie: "I want her to do all of these able-bodied things."

Jay: "That will not happen, but life has inherent value."

Millie: "No it doesn't, if you cannot do those able-bodied things, you are suffering."

But it gets worse because it's not even that she's only expressing this in private. Her daughter is within earshot. The newly disabled person is listening to their own fucking mother call her medical treatment "dragging out her suffering."

BURN this passage into your mind. Having heard her OWN FUCKING MOTHER cry to a crowd of cats that maybe it would be better if she was DEAD, watching several cats drop everything to comfort HER for having a disabled daughter, Briarlight has to drag herself out and act like a cute baby to get her to stop making a public spectacle.

It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't been in the situation before, but if your parent is making a scene like that, it'll end up falling onto you to "appeal" to their sense of... parental valor, is the best way I can put it. "See? Aren't I getting better? I promise I'll work hard. I'm not hurt it's okay! Everything is fine!" You give them a chance to affirm how good of a parent they are, for helping you, or 'putting up' with you. You have to assure them that your existence isn't so bad.

In essence, it falls onto the child to comfort their parent.

This is specifically a form of a toxic family dynamic called emotional parentification, on top of it being obviously ableist. She is being shoved into a position where she needs to sacrifice her OWN need for support and comfort to coddle her parent, to STOP her from making a scene, while that parent screams that her disabled life is worth less than her siblings' abled ones to a crowd of cats.

Naturally, this affects Briarlight's sense of self-worth. She stops eating.

Thankfully, Jayfeather is here to have an exchange about how her life has value. For all my issues with Jayf in later arcs, he has some of his best moments here in OotS.

In later books, Briarlight's struggles with self-worth continue. It's all shit that Millie implied about her being less useful because she is unable to do what her siblings can.

It's every other cat who has to come in and assure Briarlight that she isn't worthless. Not Millie. Millie comes on screen and she's either making Briarlight feel like garbage or barking at Jayfeather for not doctoring hard enough.

She desperately craves independence. This above scene is happening because she wanted to come out into the woods for the first time in forever, and she's being suffocated and bossed around in the camp constantly. It was up to her brother, Bumblestripe, to do anything to help her.

Not her dad. Not her mom. Bumblestripe. (Rare Bumblestripe W)

I also want to take a brief moment to point out a detail that the fandom often forgets, about Blossomfall. She actually knows full well that her feelings are unreasonable here, and she believes that the fact she isn't feeling "what she is supposed to" is proof that she is a bad person who deserves hell.

Millie's actions are crushing ALL of her children under its weight. Briarlight is obviously getting the worst of it, but these are YOUNG adults, just out of apprenticeship, and Blossomfall is being told that her sister is in a constant state of "suffering." This means she's not allowed to be frustrated about how Millie is behaving, because hating THAT means you hate your sister, and that makes her an awful person.

What Blossomfall is describing here is the feelings associated with being a glass child.

But no it's not JUST that she's being neglectful to Blossomfall, who yes, is a young adult and can take responsibility for her own actions. Millie is being nasty to Bloss too, directly comparing her to Briarlight and unironically doing the "You should be GRATEFUL you can walk when BRIARLIGHT WOULD DO ANYTHING TO LEGS AROUND."

Again. I'll state the very obvious from the passage.

"Hey Millie, your other daughter looks kinda upset right now!" = "PERFECT TIME TO SNAP AT HER"

Blossomfall = Wasted her morning when she should be Useful

Useful = Can hunt

"YOUR SISTER wouldn't act like this"

Proper warrior = spends every waking minute in service of the clan

Once again, Millie does this in public, with several people watching her rip into her child. She even gets ANGRY at Brackenfur gently trying to soften the blow. It's freakjob shit to hear, "h-hey, at least they're safe!" and SNARL back "IS IT?"

Millie continues to hover over Briarlight well into Bramblestar's Storm. The closure for these intense, insulting comments, public embarrassments, snapping at and neglecting one child while telling the other one that her life was "suffering" because she can't walk is.....

millie watches her do some pull-ups and is so impressed by them she isn't bigoted anymore :o)

"my daughter's membership at British Planet Fitness paid off. Look at how big her biceps are now. I guess I was wrong to tell her that her life is inherently suffering because she can't hunt, just look at her gooooo"

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So, basically, Millie's a terrible parent. She never gets properly called out for this manipulative, toxic behavior. She says that her own daughter might have been better off dead in public. She makes Briarlight feel like half of a cat because she can't do all the things her siblings do, while her siblings are told that they should be grateful they're not disabled like Briarlight.

And just to end off, because it's relevant, the BRAND NEW writing team then killed off Briarlight in an incredibly stupid, insulting way. She catches fucking Greencough in AVoS so that they can have a very sad funeral for a couple of chapters, before moving on to Jayfeather being a shithead to Alderheart for being friends with Velvet.

Then they wrote a line in Squirrelflight's Hope where Squilf's mother begs her to stay dead in heaven, because if she goes back to life, she might be disabled like Briarlight and her mate Bramblestar won't want her anymore. The line was so bad the authors promised that it wouldn't be there in reprints; the reprint still has not come.

normal series.

[bookshelfdreams]

Hey I like a lot of the takes you have regarding the pirate show so I wanted to ask for your opinion on smth that's been bothering me for a while:

I have a deep seated dislike for Hamilton. Twinkifying the fucking founding fathers, romanticizing slave abusers and overall villainizing the wrong people while others (Hamilton at the front naturally) gets sung at. Speaking of singing - I really hate it. Shipping (i want to repeat) the founding fathers, the blatant white washing bla bla bla. Anyway those are all known problems and better people have said it smarter before and that isn't really my point

It's the fact that a friend of mine recently brought up that Ofmd pretty much is the same and I shouldn't scream so loud in my glass house. Inaccurate historically speaking, the blatant ignoring of the slave owning that the real Stede and Edward did and so on and so forth. Minus the singing perhaps if we ignore Frenchies and Izzys

So. Does it make me a hypocrite to like ofmd so much but despise the mere mention of Hamilton? It's a thing I'm really stressed about lately and that kind of ruined my joy about finally getting season 2. I would love to hear your opinion. or that of your followers for that matter.

Thank you 😊

oh thank YOU because I do feel that this is an interesting thing to examine and we do not talk about it enough.

I have never seen Hamilton, or listened to the songs (except some snippets). I have never been involved in the fandom. I really, really can't speak to what the musical itself did wrong and right. But I will say this: There was a reason it got as popular and received the critical acclaim that it did. I can't speak to how it addresses the systemic injustice baked into the USA from the very beginning, and I do have a suspicion that it glosses over a lot of uncomfortable truths. But I also feel it is important that we divorce the source material from the fandom it spawns because ultimately, Miranda isn't responsible for Hatsune Miku Binder Jefferson, or the whole hivliving debacle.

Just as David Jenkins isn't responsible for the handwaving of slavery in fanworks, or the great Izzy Hands Debate, or whitewashing in fanart, or shitty, racist headcanons of the characters of colour, or whatever deranged scandal is yet to come to light. This is true for all fandoms; criticizing fandom dynamics is a very different conversation from criticizing the canon.

Let's focus on the canon here, though, because defending the fandom is pointless, and not something I want to do. Curate your experience.

The first thing to say is: If you like ofmd but don't like Hamilton, that's not hypocritical at all, that's first and foremost a matter of taste. Things are good when we like them and bad when we don't. We don't have to find objective reasons for it.

If the fact that the historical Stede Bonnet was a slaveowner, and the historical Blackbeard also participated in the slave trade, are dealbreakers for someone, that's valid. People have every right to be uncomfortable with that. The conversation could end at this point, if we want it to (I don't because I love to hear myself talk).

If we look at the historical figures a little closer the first stark difference is the cultural context in which they exist. The founding fathers seem to be extremely mythologized in the american consciousness but also, are understood to be real historical people. The founding myth is fundamental to the way in which the USA perceives itself (that is, as a beacon of freedom and democracy), and it's pretty hard to reconcile that with the bloodshed and human misery it was founded on. It's uncomfortable; and it's not just an American problem. Every western nation/former colonial power has quite literal corpses in their closets they'd rather not talk about (just so you don't think I'm getting on a high horse about the famed Erinnerungskultur here; go ask a german person about Lothar von Trotha and what he did to the Nama and Herero to receive a blank stare). The difference is, that the founding fathers are too prominent and too important to just not talk about, so instead, they are sanitized to a degree that can be straight up historical revisionism.

That's not Miranda's fault. Nor is it the fault of any one particular piece of historical fiction, biography, documentary, or what have you. But it is the context in which Hamilton exists and, from what I understand, a culture to which it contributes. Especially since it's based on a biography of the real Alexander Hamilton, and (again, to my understanding) claims to tell a more or less accurate story.

Pirates, on the other hand, are perceived completely differently. They are mythologized, but not for ideological reasons, not as state-building propaganda. Pirates are more like folk heroes; cultural icons (near) completely divorced from whatever historical figure once lived. They are "real" in the sense that they are based on real people, but engaging with them, from the start, has a layer of removal from reality that engaging with figures like the founding fathers hasn't. Blackbeard is from a saga. George Washington is from history.

ofmd, specifically, makes clear at every turn that what we are told is a fictional story that has very little to do with any real events. It's openly anachronistic, it has absurd internal logic. Life-threatening injuries are walked off. There's actual magic. Dinghies are treated like spawn points in a video game. Everything, from the costumes to the vernacular to the story beats, tells the audience that none of this is real.

You wouldn't accuse, idk, A Knight's Tale, or Mel Brooks's Men In Tights of whitewashing history. I feel like ofmd plays in a similar league; it's a comedy very vaguely based on history, and it makes sure the audience knows we are not about to be told anything true. If you watch ofmd, you know this isn't about the real, historical Stede Bonnet or Edward Teach.

So. Let's examine the actual story, yes? The story that is told here is anticolonialist, antiracist, and challenges oppressive power structures as much as is possible for a production like this. It addresses these things and condemns them, both explicitly and in its underlying message. (I'm not gonna explain all of this, enough ink has been spilled about it by people smarter than me)

I do not know what Hamilton is about at its core. I know Our Flag Means Death is about authenticity in the face of the whole world telling you there's something wrong with you. It's about resisting dehumanization and reclaiming your personhood. It's about love, in a radical, system-destroying way, about breaking the cycle of abuse, about healing, and finding joy.

Yes, the real historical figures it's based on were all horrible people. Again, if that's a dealbreaker, that's fine. I'm not trying to convince anyone who is deeply uncomfortable with that fact; it's perfectly understandable.

However, for me, personally, the story as a whole is so far removed from reality, and so firm in its message, that I feel this is forgivable.

(Oh, and a lat aside, I also feel like likening ofmd to Hamilton seldom seems to come from a place of genuine criticism. Often it seems to be more along the lines of "Hamilton is cringe, and if I say ofmd=Hamilton ppl will be too embarrassed to defend it" which yk. feels kinda disingenuous to me.)

[theresattrpgforthat]

I saw in the tags of a recent post you mentioned wanting to talk about safety tools—would love to hear your thoughts, especially re: learning and teaching them!

Hello friend!

Oh my gosh, where to start. I love safety tools and I think they can really enhance the game experience, especially when you are trying out tabletop games with a group of people you don't know very well. While it's great if you have a solid group of friends that are all interested in playing games together, a lot of tabletop gamers have to find a group first, and then make new friends along the way.

Entering a new environment is already scary, and entering an environment where you are expected to pretend to be somebody else is even scarier. You're showing a group of strangers a little bit of who you are - and they're doing the same thing. Not only that, improvising a narrative as you go has the potential to visit a wide range of topics - many of which might accidentally trigger a traumatic memory or an innate fear. (I might be preaching to the choir, but best to lay some ground work.)

So, safety tools. I usually layer a number of them into my games, because each tool serves a different use. I usually begin a new game or Session 0 with a quick review of each safety tool, including the X-Card by John Stavropoulos, Lines and Veils by Ron Edwards, The Open Door Policy as introduced by The Gauntlet, and something we call Check-Ins, which are a combination of tools found in Thirsty Sword Lesbians, as well as the Script Change safety tool by Beau Jágr Sheldon. Check-Ins work as follows: if a player is unsure about whether or not the thing they want to try is ok with the group, they can check in. The group then has a chance to rewind, alter play, or give the player a go-ahead. In return for checking in, the player who asked the group is rewarded with a point of XP. For our group, we have decided to edit the Lines and Veils to include Lures as well, Lures being elements that the players are excited to see in the game.

If the group is a group that has played with me before, or if we are playing multiple sessions in a campaign, I'll ask the members of the group to tell us about a safety tool that we use. Sometimes players will even bring forward a safety tool that we haven't used before! Each player who can tell us something about the safety tools we use at the table is rewarded with a point of XP, or something else useful to use in play. We also try to provide examples of what using a safety tool might look like for folks who aren't familiar with the concept.

Not every safety tool works with every group. I would love to use the Support Flower, for example, but I mostly run games online, and haven't found a good way to implement it. But there's many more options than just the ones I provided! If you would like to see a comprehensive list of possible safety tools, I recommend the curated list as provided by TheGiftofGabes on Itch.io.

[max1461]

Everything that brings me any amount of joy that I mention on here ends up becoming a topic of debate.

I cultivated a debate-y circle not by accident; I engaged in lots of political discourse and so on, especially in the early days of this blog, because I actually like debate. I've said it many times before. I find it interesting and intellectually productive to argue about politics and philosophy specifically. The problem is that I didn't really realize that the debate would not stay restricted to these topics on which I had invited it. I was unwittingly cultivating a space in which I couldn't talk about any part of my life, any hobby, any opinion, etc., without people feeling implicitly invited to comment negatively on it, to critique it, to take as open for argumentation.

I am not really interested in arguing with strangers on the internet about these things. I respect people who want to do that, and want to be in a community where those are the norms, but I do not like it. It actually makes me feel really bad.

I've been spending a lot less time on here recently, and I'll probably keep doing that. But I do want to keep engaging with this place. I'm just not really sure how in light of these norms. It's quite unpleasant to me!

I am happy to defend the ideas I put out there as such. The writing that I produce, the #society longposts. But I don't like constantly being asked, basically, to defend everything else about myself on here. It sucks.

Some people seem to have effectively avoided it. "Curate your experience" they often say. But if I did that to the extent they advocate, it would probably just end up curating away the things I even come to this place for!

Maybe not, idk.

Well anyway.

[the---hermit]

Odyssey by Homer

I have studied the Odyssey many times in school and university but this was my first time reading it back to back. A while back I got this amazing prose edition that felt much more approachable, and that was very well curated with illustrations, notes and additional texts including Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad, and some poems and song lyrics regarding Odysseus story. I very much enjoyed my time with this book, and I am very happy with this edition (in fact I am planning on getting the Iliad in the same format). I don't think there's a need to talk about the plot, but we follow Odysseus' complicated journey travelling back home after the end of the Trojan war. As he gets closer to home we learn his previous adventures and we see him defeating the suitors that have been trying to take is place in Ithaca. As I mentioned this version I read is in prose, and it made the story much more approachable and an easy read (mine is a translation of the Samuel Butler version if you are interested in it, I definitely recommend it). I personally loved the illustrations that decorate the pages with scenes of what you are reading. The addition at the end of other texts dealing with the same story was also a great touch that surely added to the reading experience. I am very happy I finally sat down and read this classic back to back, and now I cannot wait to also get the Iliad and read it cover to cover.

[felassan]

Some snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age II some months ago -

Chat asked "Are you devs (former devs as well) hyped and excited about entire lore and world of DA like we are?''. Mark replied that the devs do get into the lore but that they actually often lean into the community to make sure that they aren't violating their own lore (because there's so much of it). "You guys have done a much better job of curating it than we have to be honest".

A comment in chat said "I think it's important to know that as DA4 ramps up, the fandom is going to change". Mark replied "for sure, definitely, as the marketing picks up for a game you draw in more people. Also, BioWare is carrying some Anthem people that picked up that never left, that have definitely changed the tenor of the fandom to some degree".

For dialogue, the reason why the paraphrase is different to what Hawke actually says is that they found in ME1 that if they just made them the same, it felt like everything you as the PC said was being repeated because you had already read it in your head and then it got said out loud. This does sometimes lead to disconnect as sometimes what Hawke ends up saying isn't really what was implied by the paraphase. Mark said "that's why we've been experimenting with different tonal stuff in different games, to give you hints as to more clarity as to what will actually be said".

Chat asked ''what is you opinion on the rewrite/corrections of a lot of the lore from DA2 in subsequent media?'. Mark replied "My opinion is that you should try to be respectful of everything that came before as much as possible. I don't like that some of the comics and things have enforced sort've standard canon so strongly. I recognize that, especially coming out of DA:O, there's not much choice, but I feel like we could have done a bit of a better job there".

[source]

He also talked more generally about DAII and the previous games in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length:

The messages that appear at the bottom of the DAII start screen must be hard-coded as opposed to live updates received from online, as some of them still refer to long-past things

On Varric's embellished prologue scene, where Bethany's chest size is exaggerated, he mentioned that Varric was more of a pig in DAII than he is in DA:I. "Men writing men writing women"

First impressions have an impact on players' opinions of the companions. Mark mentioned that he thinks that might be one of the reasons why players tend to stick with the first 3 companions that they get in the game, because those are the ones they're used to and are forced to get a bit more context on because they're there with you for the duration of the prologue/introduction

One of the problems with DAII is that because the followers are so locked down in terms of their abilities, gameplay and roleplay are in conflict more than they are in DA:O and DA:I

Combat in DAII is essentially the combat of DA:O (the same systems underneath) if someone took the 'knobs' and cranked them in the opposite direction really far. So the same systems underneath, but just with very different numbers in them

In DA:I, lighting (what time of day it is) was created such that the best looking lighting/time of day for each area was chosen

In DAII Kirkwall, because it was essentially such a central character in the game, actually got a lot more attention than cities usually do in DA games

The design of Kirkwall's city map actually kind of discourages you from going out into the wilderness, which Mark doesn't think was the intention

He mentioned that accents are tricky and that you want replicable accents. This was a problem Mass Effect had, e.g. with Tali. Tali's accent was one her VA could do, but no-one else could do it, so they ended up with an un-replicable accent for this character

"I forgot how many redheads there are in DAII"

Adding in some of the 'this is physically impossible irl' moves and skills to warriors and rogues in DAII helped to better balance those classes with mages, which were sort've overpowered relatively speaking in DA:O

DAII tried really hard to establish an art direction. So for example, there was a strong effort to make elves not look like 'humans with pointy ears', hence they're very angular. They then backed away from this a bit in DA:I

Chat asked ''Do you guys prefer the strongest loot to be crafted or found?'". Mark replied that crafting is a dangerous thing because some players don't engage in it, so if you require crafting for the best loot you run into the problem of players who don't engage in crafting not being able to play the game. Usually the best loot is crafted, but you need to be able to play the game without using it

In DAII they were trying to control the game economy a bit better than it was done in DA:O, as especially in the first act you're supposed to be someone who has just fled the Blight, so it wouldn't make sense to have a sack of money

On the repeating cave environment in DAII, it was a very specific hole in the cave ceiling with a shaft of sunlight hitting the ground that was so identifiable/distinctive that was what showed that the cave was being reused. "That specific spot is the main reason there was backlash about and people noticing the reused cave". Chat asked whether Mark thought that a simple texture swap-out would have helped mitigate the repeating dungeons complaint and he replied that some texture swaps could have helped, but the reason why they didn't do more clever tricks to conceal it was lack of time

Another major thing that caused the noticeable repeating environments problem is that they had the same area map, as they didn't have the ability in the engine to have specialized area maps, "so what happens is you actually get lots of times where parts of the level look accessible when in fact it isn't" (blocked off doors and not making it look like that on the minimap), and that just draws even further attention to how repetitive it is. DA:O comparatively did better at disguising or effectively reusing content

Also, chat asked ''Development wise, was crunch much worse for DA: Exodus versus DA:O or DA:I since it had a year or two development period??'". Mark replied that "Crunch-wise, yeah, DAII was arguably the worst but because the game was short in terms of dev time it was less total time I guess. But it was kind've for the entire development process so that was not great. We decided to do it in December in 2009 and shipped in March of 2011, so total time from the day we decided to do it until the day it was on shelves was about 15 months." This is why the game relies so much on the followers, because they are faster to write, usually require less revisions and you can go with the first drafts a little bit more. "If Jason Schreier says it was 2 years dev time for DAII in his book Blood, Sweat and Pixels, he's incorrect". More development time for DAII would have helped but it would have needed to have been added to the timeline in just the right way. If it had been added at the end and the release date had shifted really late in development, that would have been the biggest way to help, "because you could take the game as it was and patched over the biggest shaky bits". If it had just started with a 2 year dev cycle "I think you would have ended up with weaknesses because you would have just filled up the bucket with more content and I think the solution would've been to not do that, to keep it super tight, keep the focus on the characters and then patch over the worse of the glaring things". Also, "I have slept under my desk, yes".

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context. and also that this vid is from 11 months ago)

[source]

[sailorstarr-chan4]

Okay, y'all. Let's talk about shipping, and I'll even expose myself, fuck it, let's go:

I don't ship or like Reylo or Dramione, and yet I am a slut for Anidala and Buffy/Angel, who are easily just as Problematique when you unpack all of canon

I don't ship or like SessRin, and yet one of my favorite "love stories" of all time is low-key the most Grooming one of all: The Phantom of the Opera

I don't ship or like InuCest, Kaname/Yuki, Elsanna, let alone incest pairings as a whole, and yet one of my favorite manga of all time is Angel Sanctuary. AND I also ship Cesare/Lucrezia!! (both in the TV show The Borgias, and the manga, Cantarella)

I generally don't do cross-species/monsterfucking ships, and yet. Ancient Magus Bride exists. Beauty and the Beast exists. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I generally dislike Adult x Minor pairings, and yet CLAMP's Chobits has one of the cutest side pairings that is incredibly fucked up in the real-world setting (Ueda x Yumi; ikyk). But then again, CLAMP created another Large-Age-Gap pairing in Cardcaptor Sakura that I absolutely DESPISE (Rika x Terada ugh), and yet, in the SAME SERIES ALSO wrote one of the most Wholesome Ships Imaginable (Sakura x Syaoran) AND one of the earliest examples of an Iconic Gay Pairing (Touya x Yukito)

Hell, despite my issues with Large-Age-Gaps, I have a soft spot for Amu/Ikuto from Shugo Chara!, and Nephrite/Naru from Sailor Moon. And yet, I'm squicked the FUCK out of Snape/Harry, Snape/Hermione, etc. Nope. Not my thing

I'm also generally not a fan of the "Male Love Interest consciously/openly threatening to harm/kidnap/assault Female MC" trope and yet!! My biggest guilty pleasure is Alice in the Country of Hearts!! Not to mention several other manga/anime titles I could name!! It's a common trope that I like in some stories, and hate in others!!!!!! Shocking!!!

My point is, you can dislike certain "problematic" ships/media all you like, but don't cast stones in glass houses. We all have our Problematic Faves, peeps, whether you want to admit it or not. Just because You Like It doesn't make it morally exempt from the ones You Don't Like. Ship and let ship, don't like don't read, learn to curate your fandom experience.

And honestly? As a former Puritanical Anti, embracing my trash without needing to justify it (however tame it is by comparison to some, or weird it is to others) has been the most liberating thing in my fandom experience. Give it a try; I highly recommend.

[tigerlyla-of-metinna]

It was always only Cirvran, Cyrus, Iornon, someone else… And I made my pictures, and waited and waited for some good people to notice vernilla…but people came only to laugh and insult. They gave me false hope instead of real interest or help with the ship. Nobody is interested in writing about VC. Nobody is interested in drawing VC. No one is interested in praising VC and reblogs. You too.

When a new drawing with a cirvran or ceris appears, it’s boom. When a new drawing from the CC appears, no one except the haters on reddit cares…

No one cares how much time and effort I spent on a screenshot or how much money on an unfortunate commission (which I often struggle with finances)…. It’s not a popular ship, which means it’s not worth your attention.

When a new drawing with the VC appeared, I wanted to rejoice with you and others in my joy. You didn't appreciate it. Instead, you supported a fanfic about the murder of the VC, making me understand where the place for this ship is.

Before I answer this essay. I'll answer the 2nd shorter message you sent me.:

First, talk to a therapist/counselor. Or a friend (Sol isn't a friend, have you seen what that person wrote behind your back?) that you've not pissed off with your years worth of harassing spams. This, is also spam: just worded differently but still the same. This is the reason why you are infamous: the anon spam, the force-feeding of your RocheCiri ship to not only those who pair Ciri or Roche with anyone else, but monkey-branching the ship to unrelated fandoms.

"Nobody is interested in drawing VC. No one is interested in praising VC and reblogs. You too."

Excuse me? Nobody? There are fanarts posted on your IG, and here on tumblr about VC, others who made screenshots of VC, an ai of Vernilla, and even mentioned you as inspiration. People here even reblogged your screenshots, including me! stories have been written when you requested from the right people. It's not hard to look. You had notes that exceeded twenty!

But you did not appreciate these fine folks who did this for you. You choose to ignore the support. It's always Freaky Friday with you: You lavish attention to the dislikes and neglected your supporters. All you notice are those who don't like the rareship. All you talk/air about are those who hate RocheCiri, envy at other pairings. As for those who did show support, you attacked them for having and liking other ships, deface their art, and harrassed them -and their followers- with spam!

Change your focus! Look at the supporters, if there is still some left after how you've been treating and ignoring them lately. Go back to your old posts and see the notes and reblogs! Learn to show appreciation!

When a new drawing from the CC appears, no one except the haters on reddit cares…

....Big mistake: reddit is nuclear toxic than this hellsite. You had a bad, nay, terrible experience on reddit and decided to drag even your supporters along with them. I do not post my Cirivran shots because I know I will get roasted. I posted my fanart of Cirivran and it got a good roasting. Also, responding to hate with aggression, especially on reddit, will bite you in the ass.

here are the curated response I got when posting my Heirs of Nilfgaard:

Cirivran or Ciri x Morvran isn't for everyone, just as Roche x Ciri isn't for everyone. But that is ok. You can't force those who don't like it to like it. I cannot force Roche x Ves, Roche x Iorveth, Ciri x Cerys to accept my ship. Respect differences of opinions and you will get along with the multishippers and your little rarepair will sail smoothly with others.

Do you see me rant and rave about how there are those who hate this ship? I focus on the support, not the hate.

Shipping isn't a pageantry or a popularity contest. I do not ship Cirivran to be popular. I help Cirivran EXIST by making art, editing shots, writing snippets and supporting those who write them.

Same with an even rarepair CirixRegis or Ciregis. I contribute to it's existence (not popularity), by sharing pics. Another rarepair that has not left the shores yet is Ceskel (CerysxEskel), and one of this days, I will put this into the fandom seas!

I did my part with Roche Ciri by sharing it on IG, linking your tumblr accounts and reblogging. I would've made a Roche fanart (I had Roche wearing Nilf colors based on your shots in the works for 2023). I would even do it for free! But what do I get for my support? SPAM HATE for MY SHIP and personal insults!

I do not reward nasty behavior!

"No one cares. No one appreciates. No one is interested."

These are all over every spam you sent. The antagonizing. The gaslighting. You need help. Professional help. Get off the fandom, off social media, off the world wide web. Go take a vacation, see some sights, explore other mediums.

TLDR:

Stop the spam. Notice AND appreciate your supporters instead. Take a break. And get off Reddit! STOP. THE. SPAM.

Until you get yourself sorted out, I will no longer respond to anything you send, and dump them straight to the bin.

[multi-level-shipper]

so as I stated before, I'm re-reading Joey's gay memoir. and here's the thing.

Joey talks about how he LOVED Coney Island as a kid, and he seems to hold it to a slightly higher degree of reverence than the theater. Probably a few reasons for this- it was his vacation as a poor kid, it was time spent with his family, and he also draws some very strong connections about the heart and the soul to his experience being there.

"We arrived at the gates of Luna Park on Coney Island just when they opened."

"The gates were tall towers, with a huge arch entrance beneath. Above, between the towers, was a giant heart, bright red, freshly painted, with the words The Heart of Coney Island written on it. I think about those words sometimes, even these days as I trudge through the mud in the Meadowlands. I think about what it means. The heart. The soul of a place. The beating core."

"I have been searching for the soul for so long myself. That one illusive piece to my puzzle. Art imitates life, that was the solution. But how to live within an imitation? How to step into the cell of a cartoon? How to break the fourth wall? With a hammer? An axe?

Or a whole world." (Pg 200)

There are a few things I want to say about this.

As if we needed any more proof, this is a really long way of getting the point across that Joey craves living in a fantastical world. He needs this sense of creative wonder to feel fulfilled. Directly on the next page he goes on to say that the train ride home sucked balls, and he only felt as if the corners of each of his five senses were fully reached while having this experience at Coney Island.

So, firstly, he mentioned that he was "searching for the soul" for so long. But what in the fresh hell does that mean? Well, either Joey doesn't know how to define the parameters of what a human soul even is (which is a fair and complex question to be asking,) or he's been searching for his soul. Or rather, his purpose in life. While he has the studio and Sexy Lawrence at this point, he might be doing a bit of serious introspection here- which, let's be real, Joey never does this unless he's scared of something to do with his own well-being.

I don't have too much to say about the "heart" side of things. Although, this seriousness about the amusement park could explain why Joey was so ungodly finnicky with the Bendyland edits he kept sending back to Bertrum. He had to make things just right within one of the studio's most important features, or he might actually explode.

The SOUL, however, where do I even start. Firstly there's a direct parallel here we can add to the conspiracy board- the Ink Demon has no soul, and here in IOL Joey is trying to find his own. Another thing to note is how he personifies Coney Island, a non-breathing and non-living place, giving it a heart and a soul. It would be safe to assume that, seeing as Joey Drew Studios is his own form of safe haven, that he would ALSO personify the studio in a similar way. Also willing to wager that he saw Joey Drew Studios as a perfectly curated fantastical world to surround himself with- which is why he would simply not allow anyone to say anything otherwise. He had to keep up this illusion, or the safe haven would fall apart.

Joey giving places a soul also has interesting implications when considering Bendy and the Dark Revival.

We technically don't get an actual ink copy of Joey, we get a "memory" of Joey, as he puts it. However, we don't really see other spirits in BATIM or BATDR that aren't tied to a body. Ghosts are strangely never really explained, with a few exceptions like the ghost train in BATDR. I think this is an interesting distinction to make, because this could imply that Joey's soul is tied to the studio directly. Everything in the BATIM world was created by Joey- our Henry, Alice, Boris, everyone. The BATDR world was created by Wilson, so any existing creatures there are either by his hands, or have been directly taken from the BATIM loop and brought there. It was the assumption that Memory Joey came from Wilson's timeline, but we actually have no idea where he came from specifically, as he quite literally shows up and then vanishes in our first encounter with him.

[stormblessed95]

Has your interest in BTS / jikook / Jimin / Jungkook declined since solo era has started? Have you noticed any trend like that in the fandom?

My tl gets unusually quiet nowadays which makes me wonder if everyone's kind of ia nowadays, or if twitter is just bugging out, or if it just means it's time to find new accounts to follow.

For me overall, I feel like the number of casual BTS fans has greatly increased and is still doing so despite their hiatus because of their solo works but I do feel like the core fandom that used to be so involved in organised fan events, voting, edits etc has actually shrunk recently. I'm also unsure if people are just on a temporary hiatus themselves as they're more invested in group activities only or if they've permanently left. People leaving is normal of course, but when the number who leave >> new people who join, that's a sign of the fandom weakening.

For me personally, I've just got a lot going on, so I'm not participating vocally in fandom spaces as much as I used to. I have a bookstagram account on insta that had quite a bit of a following that I haven't posted on in MONTHS. I just haven't had the time! Lol so it's not just tumblr/bts/jikook. I promise. I talked about what I've got going on briefly here:

So as for fandom trends in chapter 2, I haven't been keeping up with it unfortunately, so im probably not the best person to ask. I HAVE been keeping up with BTS, their debuts, their solos, their interviews, voting, etc. Just not so much with ARMY/what ARMY has been thinking outside my very carefully curated feed as much as I used to right now.

So has my interest in BTS/jikook faded? Not at all. Has my interest in WRITING about it on here faded? A bit. I had some not so great experiences on here this year that soured my joy of this hobby just a bit. As well as just how incredibly busy and exhausting my life is right now, its just not a priority for me and I'm leaning more into my fantasy escapism of books and fanfic more than I am writing in general and writing here about jikook at the moment. But I like to think that once my life chills out a bit more again, I will find more joy in this space again. And my interest hasn't gone away either, I still like being here and engaging with yall when I have the time and energy to do so!

I do think chapter 2 is bringing forth a fandom explosion in the way of solos and BTS doing more to insist on breaking the bubbles fans like to seem to put them in, but otherwise, idk what else to say. I don't think the fandom is weakening either. Jikook both just hit number 1 on billboard recently and all of BTS have been breaking records left snd right with their solo work! That's impressive stuff as always and the sign of a still very active and involved fanbase

[karenandhenwillson]

The actual call out part of this whole thing

As said in the first post, I'm not naming names. I did tag two people in a post when I first involved myself in this situation. That was because I for one wanted them to see my response but I didn't want to reblog several other posts with the same post of myself, but I also talked about something one of them had said and mentioned a private conversation that at that point I could only assume had taken place with the second person and I didn't want to talk about them without them knowing. 

(Again, the rest is under the break. I've clearly had to many thoughts to share.)

I'm not in the habit of talking about people behind their back in public posts. So I tagged them with the thought that it would give them a chance to react for themselves either by commenting on the post, reposting themselves or reaching out to me in DMs. Instead the first person blocked me sight unseen and the second never talked to me at all and consequently blocked me sometime late on Tuesday judging by when I could still access their blog and when I couldn't anymore.

In reaction to being blocked by the first person, I included this in my next post:

Interestingly enough, the first person responded with this:

No idea where I called them childish, but whatever. It's honestly par for the course of them and their friends to put words in other people’s mouths, mostly with the goal to make them look bad. I'll discuss another instance in the post about communication, too.

Despite them blocking me, they clearly still got screenshots or maybe have a second account to watch the situation. (And yes, as I have screenshots, I've obviously also friends providing me with those.) Which is a ridiculous thing, honestly. Of course everyone has the right to curate their own online experience. But if you decide to block people in a debate, step out of the debate because you are actively making it impossible to communicate with you while still vague or not so vague posting about the situation on your own blog and actively trying to pull others into the debate to lead your attacks in your stead.

This person clearly made assumptions about what I meant with my comment about blocking conversations while complaining that the other side wasn't interested in those. And I don't know, but I felt it important from the very first moment to point out this wrong assumption. I didn't talk about them blocking the artist, I talked about them blocking me for nothing else but the audacity to back up the artist instead of bowing down to their opinion. (Also, reading what I wrote again, I also wonder how the confusion could have been created at all. I clearly said I couldn't reblog some posts because I was blocked by the person who creaed the blog. How do you go from there to me talking about the artist?)

Edit: It was just pointed out to me that the artist called this person childish in the tags of their re-post of the original art that they made after the call out pots went online. I had not fully read them or at least didn't remember! But alas, another point for how convoluted the vague-posting after blocking someone is, and how much it muddles up the communication!

But that happens when you don't talk with people but just about people, isn't it? You'll make wild and wrong assumption and won't even notice it.

Also, you asked this:

My paragraphs above are the answer to it. You clearly don't want to have a conversation at all, so no one is taking you seriously enough to talk to you off anon. And you've also proven two years ago you'll put anyone on a list for just leaving kudos on the wrong fic or a like the wrong art, let alone arguing with you.

Some readers might wonder why I bring up the situation of two years ago at all. For one, of course, because one of the people I'm talking about already brought it up (and—oh how surprisingly—twisting up and outright lying about what happened). But also because there is a pattern here.

Because the root of the situation two years ago is the same group of people who started it this time as well. It is actually the exact same person who first wrote the artist and then turned unkind as soon as the artist asked for clarification, posting several times on her blog to tell people not to support the artist, all the while also complaining when that didn't work. A little over two years ago, the very first list of "undesirables" that later led to the whole explosion in fandom, came from this person.

(And I feel I need to point out, there were POC authors on this list from the very first iteration on. But of course, the list was created to make fandom safer for POC fans, even though the first iteration of the list before it got expanded wasn't even about Chimney or racism at all despite other claims by the person who brought it up in the last couple of days. It all started with some fics about Maddie that they didn't like, and denying that is so hilarious when their very first fic in response to it still holds the same passive-aggressive tag about "a response to that other awful fic". Yes, I did just go and check if you had changed your tags in the meantime.)

What I have seen from their posts, they don't care that they might have driven away a POC artist from this fandom permanently, again. While others who posted call out posts on Monday have apologized (though, in some cases not very honestly), this group has either not said anything about it or are now complaining about being the original victims (… I don’t even have words without getting really rude!) Or they claim they can harass someone publicly, but apologizing only works in private:

Do you really think the artist should be comfortable with having a private conversation with you after you already twisted and widely shared other private conversations they had with your friends? And do you really think attacking someone openly doesn't also deserve an open apology? What's a private apology worth if the person you hurt had to endure all that hurt openly but now isn't allowed to hear the apology just as openly?

There have been several claims that the conversation was always civil and there was no one asking for anyone to bully the artist:

(free sprace to show a new screenshot beginning)

Snapping at the artist in response to them asking for clarification isn't being polite. Sitting on your end of a private conversation and sharing this conversation around widely—I'm even assuming openly with everyone in your Discord and also probably looking for the worst meaning in every single word because I'm sure you had already made up your mind the artist had to be a spoiled white girl—is not being polite. I mean, part of this conversation was later—in this case I have to say thankfully because it cleared up one of the misinformation spread—even posted by someone who said to have not been involved until she wanted to boost your call out post. Claiming the attention their art gets is inflating their ego is not civil.

Creating a call out post at all, and then doubling down not once but twice (just counting the reposts, not the other posts about the topic being posted that same day), is so far away from being polite. Honestly, how can anyone think this is polite:

(free sprace to show a new screenshot beginning)

(free sprace to show a new screenshot beginning)

The last thing said by one of these people, I want to address this:

The way this situation went, every artist coming into this fandom in the future will very carefully think about even trying to create art about Jee-Yun. Those who already created art of Jee might decide to delete it at least from their own accounts out of fear to be hit next.

That's what your call out posts led to. And what they would have led to even if you hadn't met resistance. Wide resistance, even from people who in the past supported you. And who this time first didn't join in your call outs and later even openly spoke up against it. I truly hope those same people will step up in the future to support your victims instead of just condemning you after the damage has already been done.

I'm convinced they'll do it again, sometime in the future they'll find another victim and they'll also find once more people who'll agree with them without checking or by letting themselves be lured in by their twisted tale of it. Even now in their non-apologies (that's not including everyone who apologized, but some of them) they twist around what happened, claiming to be misunderstood or to be the victim. So they, again, clearly didn't learn anything.

I hope other parts of this fandom will have learned then to step up and support the victim even if that's sometimes a difficult step to take because it will make them a target, too, or make the situation at first worse for the victim. (I felt that way on Monday. That me getting involved would lead to the situation exploding like it did two years ago. I'm doubting this post a little because of the fear of that very thing happening, though I still feel it important to put these thoughts out there. I'm also feeling encouraged by some of the pseudo-apologies to make sure that this situation will not be forgotten. And at this point I hope if it does explode, I'll be the main target of that and not the artist.)

Why am I sure they'll find new victims in the future?

Because this is not the first time they again attacked someone over the past two years. They have targeted their old victims several times, have targeted new people, too. Both on their blogs very openly but also in their victims' comments sometimes anonymously, sometimes not. This is just the first time they found any kind of traction again. I assume because they found a victim completely new to fandom who had at the beginning no backup at all, no fandom friends to turn to for support. I do wonder now if they have found other people like this even before the events of two years ago and successfully driven them away from fandom, celebrating it in their discord server as a victory. Sadly, this also isn't the first group in fandom as a whole to behave like this. There are so many examples practically in every fandom you look at. So even if this particular group by some miracle stops being bullies, others will step into their place. So everyone else of us in fandom needs to be careful and considerate and be ready to take the risk of stepping up.

[kenobster]

The more pressure there is on creators to tag/warn (aka rhetoric like "its okay if ppl write [blank] as long as its tagged" rhetoric... discord servers that have heavy CW rules... comments/asks requesting certain topics to be tagged...), the less interest I have in actually tagging anything whatsoever.

Movies are a different beast perhaps, but, as an avid reader, I've never stumbled across anything unexpectedly dark or triggering in a book or a fic. The author's opening passages or chapters have always prepared me for the eventual nature of their story. The style, the tone, the synopsis, the foreshadowing — they have never failed to indicate an oncoming scene descriptive or explicit of something dark or uncomfortable. When I stumble across those preparative breadcrumbs the author has left me, it's true that I sometimes feel temporary discomfort... but I'll hit the back button or close the book or exit the app, and that extremely mild unease is soon forgotten. (If it is not forgotten, then I am grateful for the reminder to schedule my therapy appointment or spend time with a friend or find some other kind of tactic to address such unhealthy rumination. And even if I cannot address it, I'm aware that any attempt to avoid it will only worsen my tolerance for uncomfortable encounters in the long term.)

I can sort of understand the pressure in some scenarios. Perhaps a discord server would like to be inclusive of minors without legal repercussions. Perhaps a user is constantly filling a popular tag with triggering material without any warnings or tags. However, there are times when it makes less sense. A discord server dedicated exclusively to darker themes (especially with a small userbase) needn't mandate the use of trigger warnings. A tumblr user needn't tag every mention of "blood" or "vomitting" just to satisfy the possibility of one or two uncomfortable followers.

I support tags. I support warnings. I support information.

As long as it's voluntary.

The use of warnings and categories and tags and 18+ pages is the solution to any need for censorship. However, when such things become an expectation, rather than a choice, this wonderful solution so easily veers straight back to the slippery slope of censorship. "Fic authors should tag for noncon" so easily becomes "authors who don't tag for noncon aren't allowed to write noncon at all," which so easily becomes "authors who don't tag for noncon are abusers themselves." And throughout the process, the definition of what constitutes "noncon" will expand and expand and expand. In this way, the impetus is shifted right back from the reader (who can curate their fandom experience) to the author (who becomes responsible for reader discomfort). I am hardly the first to talk about this, nor is this the best way I've seen it described — but it is a problem that concerns me deeply.

In our interpersonal relationships, I think most of us do understand the difference and agree on the issue. For example, I am triggered by animal death or harm. If I see too much related to the subject, I will be caught in a depressive episode that can last hours or days or weeks. I avoid movies that involve animals, and I religiously check relevant questions on doesthedogdie.com. However, if my friend comes to me for comfort because her pet cat is dying, I do not shriek at her for not considering my trigger or warning me first. Hell, I don't even ask her to stop. I sit there, and I listen, and I support her, because even though it's a trigger for me, I realize that sometimes in life we can't choose the subjects we encounter. We curate our experiences the times in which we can to make room for the times in which we can't.

AO3's option for "creator chooses not to archive warnings" is not a mistake; it's a feature. And as a creator existing in the current state of fandom, I consider using it more and more every day. Your discomfort with my writing's existence is not my problem, and my writing warns for itself.

[sciderman]

Hi! It seems my anon ask got lost over the months so I'm asking this again. How do you feel about minors following your ask-spiderpool blog (and/or main)?

i – well, i don't know – really my target demographic always has been and always will be myself, and people like me - so where it used to be 17 year olds (i started when i was 17) now, it's more suited for 20-somethings, because that's what i am... i'll always be writing about what i find interesting - i don't feel like i owe it to anyone to compromise on that. i think i'd prefer to know kids weren't interacting with my content, but i don't think there's any way for me to police it, really. not to mention there are some awesome kids out there who've found empowerment through these stupid comics, and that is Such a heartwarming thing, methinks! i wouldn't want to rob anyone of anything that brings them courage and empowerment - or even - just, happiness.

i don't think there's any benefit to putting a blindfold on people - that only really makes people scared about things that, naturally, they should be curious about and interested in asking questions about, y'know? i think ask-spiderpool could be a place where they can engage with those topics from a safe distance, maybe.

i know i make a lot of racy jokes and post a nsfw fic here-or-there but i generally put the due warnings and i kind of trust the audience to curate their own browsing experience and interact with content they decide they're comfortable to interact with - though i would want minors to know that this blog and @ask-spiderpool will discuss mature topics, and it might be uncomfortable or it might be alienating - and if that's something they don't want to see, then it's better for them to be elsewhere. watch some unboxing videos, y'know.

i think when i was a kid i might've benefitted from seeing content that talks about gender and sex in a way that's playful and honest, and breaks down stereotypes - i had such a warped view of sex based on the content i saw on the internet as a kid - so i kind of think, teens are going to interact with that content regardless - it's a time for exploration, so if they are going to be interacting with racy content, god i hope it's better stuff than what i saw.

where i draw the line is interaction - i think passive consumption of something is manageable, and a kid can step away if it's too much - but the relationships and interactions a kid has can be dangerous. please be careful on the internet, kids! do not talk to that cool adult on the internet. adults are never cool on the internet.

[elhoimleafar]

DREAM WITCHERY. Have a Month Out this Week!

Let me tell you a couple interesting facts about that.

A month ago, my latest book, Dream Witchery, was released by Llewellyn Worldwide and hit the shelves everywhere. I AM delighted with the amazingly positive response everywhere, from a total Sold-out in several US stores to an immediatly Out-of-Stock in Amazon UK.

Also, during the edition process, the book was adapted into a 12-hour audiobook, narrated by Gary Tiedemann and distributed by our absolute favorite: Tantor Audio

Also, the rights have been acquired to later translate and adapt the book into Portuguese... Published at any moment in the next few years.

Because it is a 400-page book, some stores still do not have it, which is easy to understand; even if they need it, this book takes up two or even three books in a shelter. We are talking about 400 pages of pure magic and South American folklore curated (as it should be) by someone from South America.

Dream Witchery began as a small collection of notes on dream magic from various journals I brought from Venezuela & Brazil, translating these and constantly comparing notes while curating each line as much as possible.

All of these notes had something in common with the manuscript. They came from different tribes, cultures, and parts of South America. I group these notes by country and later by tribe of origin. I was making it a tribal-dreams-magic grimoire.

From the Caribs and Yanomami to multiple other families/tribes that inhabit the central and northern region of the Amazon, especially those near our most significant rivers, learning sorcery, hunting, and medicine is just a part of Dream Witchery.

This manuscript had about 65k words written at the time of its presentation to the publishing houses, this was before including all the collaborators and guests from different regions and cultures who agreed to be part of this work.

This book had 65k words at the time of its presentation to the publishing houses before including all the guests from different regions and cultures who agreed to be part of this work. They gave the book a diverse, beautiful flavor and a - yet necessary - contrast.

Dream Witchery was rejected and questioned by multiple editors and publishers for (as they mentioned) "not being commercial enough" or "too black." They would prefer (as always) a book written by a British woman or a white American man about OUR culture. Or a simple other Spellbook.

One of the most important contributions in this book was having the help and support of my partner, David Dagnino who, in addition to being an Engineer who graduated with honors, is a dedicated freelance illustrator and has carried out multiple projects in the past, not only for me.

I needed more than an illustrator, someone from my country and land who knew my culture and who could represent it in detail, from the old skin-changer man with his cigar and horns from Nueva Esparta to the devilish tree of Trinidad and the masks of the dancing devils of Yare.

Working on each illustration separately one by one and constantly modifying them under the editor's notes to improve their quality took hours and hours of work every day, and the result was worth every second.

Because bringing positive and quality representation was always the goal.

The editor's notes made by Heather Greene during the editing process were our daily homework; she perfectly knew how to wisely press the points necessary to maintain the work, which was pure and balanced for readers.

She knew how to balance a 400-page book; she guided each step of the process gently but with due and notable experience. Dream Witchery passing through her hands was a compilation of journal-like notes that became a beautiful, orderly manuscript for Llewellyn Worldwide

The enormous team behind Llewellyn understood that Dream Witchery was not another book on dream magic but a magical compilation of tribal stories, initiatory rites, formulas, and Amazon folklore with dozens of necessary footnotes to shape the book's spirit.

Writing formulas and rituals that you have witnessed many times but have never read in another book was difficult. This required acting like a storyteller, telling the reader every detail of what you experienced and saw from your eyes and helping the reader to understand the world from your vision, from what you lived, over and over again.

Imagine being present during a 12-hour ritual with at least a hundred people in the mountains, comparing your notes with others, and trying to detail the essential points so the reader can glimpse what you experienced at a concise age.

To close the final process, the collaborators and endorsements came, and each of them was chosen from a long list of possibilities to offer a picturesque and colorful contrast, to offer and celebrate our magical diversity.

Most of the books of Witchcraft having contributors limit themselves to inviting just invite the AMZN-best-selling American authors of the moment (not very diverse). This community includes celebrated authors, yes, but also bloggers, event organizers, store owners, jewelers, and artists who use their platform to elevate others. And I want it to celebrate them too.

For this reason, those invited to collaborate on Dream Witchery were so diverse, and each one had something completely different to offer, from recipes from my mother and grandmother to recipes from authors and bloggers from Latin America and other parts of the world.

Featuring among many others contributors in Dream Witchery:

Ariana Carrasca - Oncle Ben - Maria Elena U. - Miss Aida - J. Allen Cross - Lorraine Monteagut - Hector Salva - Laura González - Phoenix Coffin Williams - Jennifer Sacasa-Wright - Dawn Aurora Hunt - Alysha Kravetz - Mira A. Gade - Laura Davila - Emma Kathryn - Temperance Alden - Mawiyah Kai EL-Jamah Bomani - Ella Harrison.

They bring (literally each one of them) something unique, magical, beautiful, and authentic to this book.

The last months before publishing a book are full of nerves, constant anxiety attacks, at least in my case, and few breaks. But having the blurbs of other authors who read the book was the most positive support it could require, and that came from those who read and endorsed it.

#dreamwitchery was beautifully gifted with magical words by the people I most respect in this community. Including Vincent HigginbothamJake Richards - AuthorJudy Ann NockClaudiney Prieto Rebecca Beyer. And Annwyn Avalon they give it like a powerful blessing.

And now that eight years of work (the same time I have been living in the USA) are available in your local bookstores and virtually everywhere, it is an ancestral celebration of life, the words of the ancestors of my land, and the ancestors of many others, healing the world, one reader at a time... I Am just Happy and really Grateful.

PS: For those who don't have it yet, Dream WItchery is available in your favorite local bookstores. Barnes & Noble and Amazon Kindle

And available here below too:

[elvenbeard]

I read your post about headcanons about Kerry's sexuality, and I totally agree with what you said about headcanons not taking away from representation, but I'm curious what your view are on mods that change a character's sexuality so anyone can romance them? I know there is, or at least used to be, quite a bit of debate around that. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I'd hate to start any discourse drama on your blog. I'm just curious because I'm not even sure where I stand on the matter, and have been back and forth on it for a long time.

It's all good nonny! I have been asking myself that lately tbh, and I know I've been back and forth on it myself, too.

In this moment in time, I am completely indifferent on the existence of mods that do stuff like that. I don't condone or like them, but I'm not gonna do anything about them either. I know years ago in the Dragon Age fandom there was huge discourse and drama around a mod that made Dorian (canonically gay, his whole character arc revolves around that fact, just in case you're not into that series) available to be romanced by a female Inquisitor. And back then I was absolutely livid. Dorian was (and still is) one of my fave characters in the DA universe. And honestly, I couldn't even tell you now if anything ever came off of that whole drama (but I doubt it, cause it rarely does) - that's how pointless Internet drama really is. In the worst case, the person who made that mod got driven out of fandom entirely and now has negative associations with the queer community as a whole.

Do I think that mods that change a queer character's canon orientation are amazing? No, not really, and most of the time, especially in Dorian's case, they make no sense at all for the characters' arcs. I personally would never wanna play them and I'd also rather not know why some people make them.

(I'm completely biased here btw, because I do not feel as negatively about mods that change a canonically straight character's orientation to something queer. Simply because I'm queer and greedy for more representation, because there cannot be enough XD Does that make me a hypocrite to some people? Maybe, but honestly, I don't really care. And as I said in my post, and as you mentioned, even the "straight mods" do not take away from any queer representation that canonically exists.)

The thing is, me and others screaming and yelling about "straight mods" (or "bi mods" for characters that are explicitly gay/lesbian) is not gonna change a thing, mods like that are always gonna exist. Content I don't agree with is always something I can come across at random, and I keep finding new things that make me go "nope!" regularly. And even if I'm not screaming and yelling, and instead try to be reasonable, talk objectively with the mod makers as for xyz reasons their mod is not good in my eyes... I'm too old for that shit XD I'd rather use my energy and limited time to make a lot of gay stuff featuring my favourite queer blorbos instead of arguing with strangers why a straight!Dorian or bi!Judy or straight/bi!whoever mod is bad. Fandom should be a hobby, not activism, and you can go about fighting homophobia in a lot better ways than arguing about who certain pixel people would like to bone or not.

I wish there were - or maybe there are and I haven't figured it out yet - ways to filter stuff I don't wanna see on Nexus for example like there are on tumblr, ao3, any other social media site with a good tagging system and means to block tags or phrases or users. Curating your own experience and finding people who share your interests is so important and has really improved my time in fandom a lot over the last years. And it's good to have friends you can rant to about stupid things that upset you in private, definitely XD

So, on that note, ship whoever you wanna ship in this context, but tag it so that people who don't wanna see it can avoid it and don't get mad. Also sorry this got long and slightly off topic, I'm a chronic rambler.

(also, if anything's unclear, feel free to reach out again! sometimes I don't express myself as well as I think I do XD)