#and that that makes them arbiter of what's good for you lmao

[stuckinapril]

I’m soooo sick of people making Palestine about themselves! Seeing so many sentences with “I” in it. Nobody cares what you can’t do, don’t say anything bc the post isn’t about you. Boycott from this day to that, “I can’t I need groceries” okay shut up and buy your groceries just don’t buy something you don’t need. No one cares to hear about your struggles while talking about a genocide. It’s. Not. About. You. Fuckkkk I’m sorry if this comes across as unkind to people but I am so sick of it. It’s like people want sympathy and reassurance that they aren’t a bad person or something.

no you have a point! i'm especially unsympathetic to this because i've seen people literally say this to palestinians, and it's so bizarre bc like... what do you want them to say. do you want the person who just lost a dad or mom or sibling to go "you're still a good person!!" "don't worry i don't blame you!!!!!" like that's such a fucked up thing to expect of someone who's grieving as their people are genocided.

incidentally i've also seen a subsect of people who will go into a palestinian's inbox to get validation for things they did do to spread awareness, and that's yet another thing i find strange bc these palestinians are not here to validate you or be the arbiters of whether you're doing enough. people really do make this about themselves and it shows, even if they're doing it subconsciously.

obviously i'd never be like "well fuck you for being poor lmao" (i usually ignore these asks bc just the act of responding to them is distasteful to me), but i do wish people used more finesse w this stuff. just wish they were compassionate enough to recognize that saying something like that is insensitive. idk but you do make a really good point--i think at the end of the day they feel guilty and are just trying to find conduits for it.

[juney-blues]

ever since i made THIS POST a lot of people have been asking for a tutorial, even though in pretty much all of the screenshots i included the specific part of inspect element showing exactly what i edited.

so buckle the fuck up I guess because the tumblr userbase want to find out how to make html pages unusable and who am I to deny you.

get ready for Baby's First HTML and CSS tutorial lmao

ok so first things first we need to go over BASIC HTML

html is made up of these things called "tags" which specify certain parts of the web page, such as

HEADERS (<h1> through <h6> in terms of importance)

PARAGRAPHS (<p>paragraph here</p>)

LINKS (<a href="linkhere"></a>)

BOLDED SECTIONS OF TEXT(<b>bold here</b>)

and a bunch of other stuff,

by default however, specifying all of this just gives us a plain white page with plain black text of varying sizes

that's of course, no fucking good, and sucks shit, so the arbiters of html decided to let us STYLE certain elements, by adding a STYLE parameter to the tag

this can change any number of elements about how things are formatted.

text colour, page colour, font, size, spacing between elements, text alignment, you name it? you can change it!

you might've noticed that, certain elements are nested in other elements

and that any changes that apply to one element, apply to everything included under that element!

how convenient!

anyway this method of styling things by adding a style=" " to their tags is called "in-line style"

i think because the "style" goes "in" the "line"

it's generally ALSO a pain in the ass to style an entire website like this and should be exclusively reserved for small changes that you only want to apply to specific parts of the page.

for any real change in style you want to create a <style> section in your page's header!

this can be used to make changes to how all elements of a type in your page are displayed

or even add new elements with whatever wacky styling you want that can be used with the <div> tag!

wow! isn't css just dandy!

and hell you can even use External CSS™ if you're making multiple pages and want them all to have a consistent theme, by pointing to a .CSS file (which is basically just a <style> header without the <style> tags lmao

ok this is all well and good and very interesting if, say, you're making your own website

*cough*neocities*cough*itsreallycoolandfree*cough*

but you came here because you want to FUCK UP A WEBSITE and make it look STUPID!!

so this is where the transform css property comes in~

you can read up on it HERE if you want the details but basically it allows you to apply mathematical transformations to any html element you want,

all of these fun bastards,

they can be really useful if you're doing some complicated stupid bullshit like me

OR for having fun >:)

if you'll remember, earlier i said that css properties apply to literally everything nested in an element,

and you MIGHT notice, that literally everything in pretty much all html files, is nested in an <html> tag

you can use style=" " or regular css on pretty much ANY html tag,

INCLUDING HTML!

ok ok that was a lot of buildup for something that i could've explained in one or two lines, but i gave you all this fundamental knowledge for a reason,

well, two reasons, go make a neocities

CHAPTER 2: THIS POST HAS CHAPTERS NOW

CSS KEY FRAMES BABYYYY

THESE FUCKERS DON'T WORK AS INLINE STYLING

I HAD TO TEACH YOU HOW CSS WORKED, TO GIVE YOU THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED, TO ANIMATE PAGES. TO MAKE THE FUCKERY COMPLETE!!!!

OKAY SO AGAIN READ UP ON THIS IF YOU WANT THE FULLEST POSSIBLE UNDERSTANDING

BUT WHAT KEYFRAMES ALLOW YOU TO DO, IS ANIMATE CSS PROPERTIES

and then make a class, which calls that animation...

and then assign that class. to your html tag.

and then vomit forever

we can do it in 3d too,

the only limit is your imagination... (and how many parameters you want to look up on w3schools and mozilla mdn web docs)

CHAPTER 3: APPLYING IN PRACTICE

ok now the fun thing about all of this, is you can apply it to your blog theme, literally right now

like literally RIGHT now

like step one, make sure you have a custom blog theme enabled in your settings, because that's turned off by default for some reason

step 2: edit theme

step 3: edit html:

step 4: apply knowledge in practice >:)

[firecrackerhh]

If you’re too much of a bitch to just call Vaggie by her fucking name I don’t think you should speak on her character in any way whatsoever.

“Ugh but her name is a lesbophobic joke!!!” It’s not that deep bro, it’s an inappropriate joke sure, but…what show are you watching again!?!

Also Adam being a major douche bag dudebro is just…his character? Why tf do you motherfuckers have to assume that Viv acts like that irl? Are you a fucking retard? Do you think Viv is projecting herself onto every fucking character?

“Adam is a misogynist douchebag so that must mean Viv is!” You know the point of a writer is writing different points of fucking view right? Just cuz she writes a character like that doesn’t mean she is like Adam in any way whatsoever.

Like I’m sorry this is just straight up retard shit, do you not know how to write anything that isn’t in your point of view? God you anti types are shitty writers then Lmao.

Let’s say she has. So what? Does every single LGBTQA+ character in a show so obviously gay that a homophobe probably dies every time someone talks about it positively online have to have every fucking character exclaim to the world “I’m this sexuality?” Why can’t these characters just exist as is? Why do you need it to be focused on so fucking heavily? Isn’t the point of representation like this in media is so eventually it becomes so normalized it just becomes not a big deal and thus it just becomes a simple fact of life?

Why do you need these characters to be so blatant about their sexuality, why can’t we just let them be?

Maybe your real problem is that whatever characters you’re pissy about don’t resonate with you, and that’s fine, but shitting on any kind of rep because it isn’t “good enough” doesn’t exactly make you look like much of a supporter of gay rights of any kind.

And honestly, who cares if Viv wrote this or that characters sexuality as “brownie points?” Would you prefer every character in hell be straight? No? Then shut the fuck up, you get what you fucking get.

“She isn’t actually representing her community” I’m sorry, are you the fucking arbiter of what counts as good rep? Who the fuck are you to fucking claim that? Fuck off.

You sound like the kind of person who got pissy at that one actor in Heartstopper because he didn’t disclose his fucking sexual preferences while playing a gay character, you can go fuck yourself. Who the fuck died and made you the gay monarch?

Christ, I’m sorry that Hazbin doesn’t go into detail over every characters sexual preferences, but I don’t think it matters to the extent you think it does. This isn’t a fucking childrens show where everything has to be explained to you in detail, frankly you have to be retarded if you want that.

I think LGBTQ+ people should be able to exist in media without making it a fucking big deal in the show itself.

Fucking clown shit.

🧨🔥~Firecracker out~🧨🔥

[oceancamp]

🌌, 🤍, 🖥️, 🍺, 🥊, 🎉 and 🎧 for the halo ask game :D

thank you so much for the ask!!

🌌 - what made you interested in halo?

So because of Wolf 359 I became obsessed with the character dynamic where there's a person and their AI bestie and from what i could gather from gifsets with Chief and Cortana I thought they'll likely fuck me up as much as Eiffel and Hera in Wolf 359. AND THEN THEY DID. 10000000/10

🤍 - favourite halo character?

Hell there's so many of them but to name a few in no particular order:

Arbiter cause it still fucks me up how great his story is + when i first played Halo 2 i was sort of freshly ex catholic and well. And I love to see his dedication to making things better and the way he approaches that.

Kurt cause *gesturing to all of Ghosts of Onyx* yeah. I can't think about it too much without crying

Rtas Vadum (here's my recommendation for Shadow of Intent)

Chief cause *gesturing to all of Halo* but what really cemented it was Fall of Reach showing how much he blamed himself for stuff outside of his control like the fucking augmentation deaths and how reading his convo with Mendez about that made me wanna tear my hair out. Like holy fuck what was done to him was so fucked up and he doesn't even realize the full extent of itttt.

Cortana - beside her realtionship to Chief I loved seeing her work on all those ships in First Strike including the whole capture of the flagship and then all that stuff with the slipspace crystal

Six - there's the tragedy of them signing up to get revenge against the covenant and then being used by ONI against other humans that makes them live rent free in my head, plus there's so much unexplored by canon potential - the Assembly datapads, their interactions with Kat as another Beta company Spartan, what would their thoughts on Spartans and ONI be given what he was used for compared to what he wanted? Also I wished he had a chance to talk to Cortana too, it would maybe make him happy to hear about her hacking Ackerson's bank account, even if for obvious reasons he wouldn't be able to talk about their previous work freely and Cortana wouldn't probably be able to share that freely too.

Jacob Keyes - I'm really fond of all his stunts with ships plus the terminal about him trying to resist the flood fucks me up.

🖥️ - favourite AI?

Beside Cortana for reasons mentioned above, I love Mac from Contact Harvest a lot (idk if you've read the book yet so I'm not gonna spoil much, just that he starts off as kinda endearing and then stuff gets revealed that makes him fascinating and then finally the epilogue makes me cry). I also think that the more ONI-affiliated AIs are interesting too, like Black Box or even Araqiel cause of how they rationalize their participation in all the fucked up shit compared to, for example, Deep Winter trying to prevent the gammas from getting augmented the way they were. Plus even here it's interesting to look at how they interacted with or saw others like BB joking with Osman in Rossbach's World or Araqiel calling Ackerson good/honorable in First Strike (can't remember the precise word used but still it's so funny like bro you probably killed people together).

🍺 - who would you have a drink with?

Hmm maybe the Grey Team? Like even with my decent alcohol tolerance I probably wouldn't keep up with Spartans for long but still. A small price to pay for hanging out with Adriana.

🥊 - who are you beating the shit out of?

I know Ackerson did get wrecked by those brutes but it wasn't enough for me and every time I remember that the whole thing got framed as heroic I feel like adding on another hit. I'd say I hope every single S III + Kurt lined up to punch him in the afterlife but really it would be cruel to force them to have to put up with him in any way again lmao.

(And while we're here I'll respond to your answer to my ask and say I feel similar to you about Jun lmao. Like Jun bro why are you helping make the torture labirynth of Spartan projects even worse.)

🎉 - share your favourite character headcanon

I think the headcannon that Six loves flying is kinda popular from what I saw in some fics (which makes me damn happy) and my own take on that is that it started from a suggestion from Kurt, like a nudge for Six to get some advanced pilot training, after he noticed that Six didn't really like being compared with Chief by ONI people who were hyped to create another hyper-lethal vector. I like to imagine Kurt saying something like "You know, John always hated flying" and maybe the interest was there before but now it really kicked off cause they got encouraged to pursue something that they as a person Liked and something that set them apart yknow?

(btw i got so many Six headcannons, here i went with probably the least sad one jhgfdjhg)

🎧 - song you associate a halo character with

Foreign Skies by The Dreadnoughts is such a Noble Six song to me, fits both the theme of the tragedy of Reach and of the happiness of being with the team even for that short time.

thanks again for the ask, and for your reply to mine, I especially like your thoughts about Dot, gonna listen to those firefight voicelines later, and I absolutely agree on Six being a cat person

[judasisgayriot]

aw, you missed me :) that’s good to hear, i was worried you almost thought of me as a ‘tumblr writing assignment’. anyways, for the next rant, i’ll give you some creativity. i wanna hear your top three (or less, or more) MESSIEST heroes moments. don’t be shy in the hatred/confusion, give me a full on dissection of the best of tim kringe.

Hi!! You know I love a rant lol, thanks 😂 and best of Tim Kringe? ohhh my god. WELL. Trying to not just say ‘all of season 3’, lol, but season 3 is a MESS and hard to watch. S2 gets a lot of flak but it’s mainly just fucking boring (the feudal Japan stuff is interminable) and I’ll give it some leeway bc writers strike etc. and it has goooood Nathan angst so yay. Season 3 is just fucking Wasted Potential City tho. Like they keep kind of bringing up the kernels of ideas that COULD be interesting but then just dropping the fucking ball or never doing anything good with them or leaving stuff unresolved for no reason or just veering wildly off the road and it’s just ????

Not to turn this into a Sylar rant again lol but this is the point when all of the stuff surrounding him just gets truly stupid. They invent a new retcon backstory for him to try and make you feel sympathetic (infamous ‘my dad sold me to one direction and The Chain by Fleetwood Mac is my trigger’ lol), they flipflop around on him like hell, the Sylar is secretly a Petrelli wait no he isn’t stuff is at least kind of fun in an ‘Angela causing drama and problems on purpose for no real reason’ way lmao but it does lead to him killing Elle when she was in no way involved in any of that and I love her so I’ll never forgive him sry ANYWAY… (he already forgave her for her actual actions of helping the company push him into becoming a killer but then he kills her over something that’s nothing to do with her?? Make it make sense!)

they have the stupid bad future plotline which goes nowhere, is never explained or resolved and is just baffling, plus the return of Gruff Badass Future Peter, my fucking BELOATHED (I’m that rarest of things a five years gone hater tho, lmao), sylar is nice?? In the future bc he has a kid and he can control The Hunger, but Peter like, catches The Hunger from him and now he’s A SCARY KILLER AHH (for all of 2 minutes before they just like, drop that completely and then never mention it again. Much like the rest of the clusterfuck that is s3.)

Okay so all of that mess but actually The Hunger top one Tim Kringe moment, it just truly makes no fucking sense as a way to try and explain why it’s actually not poor Sylar’s fault he’s a serial killer lmao. It’s truly just nonsense pulled directly out of their asses with no relation to what came before it. He already has a motive, I understand why he does what he does just fine! He’s fine as a villain just stop this!! Stop. This isn’t healthy. Lmao

Anyway. Next up how Nathan’s villain arc makes no sense. I’ve said this before but I can absolutely see villain!nathan working as a concept and I would have enjoyed it, he does already have that deep self-loathing of his own powers and just does not really understand what the ‘right thing to do’ is, understanding morality on an innate level is a real struggle for him and I actually love the scene where he asks Peter, he of fierce moral convictions and Nathan’s only real arbiter of morality, what he should do. He’s so sincere in that but future!peter just says ‘do the right thing’ which is no help at all lol, anyway so having him get to the place of helping to oppress people with powers would not be a stretch!

But they do this bizarro world version of it where Nathan buys into his dad’s plan (I get it, Nathan has always been subdued/controlled by his father and the ‘I made you’ scene makes me shiver too. He’s truly just a tool to Arthur.) but then. Then peter scuppers that plan (which is to CREATE MORE powered people with the serum or whatever), Nathan is so angry that Peter knocked over his Vats Of Stuff that he commits some very (IMO) OOC violence on him with a pipe, then turns around and does a complete 180 and now instead of saving the world by making more people with powers because he believes that’s the only way to stop bad things happening - I believe that he’s made himself believe that - he now suddenly wants to lock up all the people with powers instead. Again, I understand how he could get to that point theoretically, but it’s like they did a mad libs telephone version of that plot arc! It’s like the season is missing a bunch of scenes that make those actions make any sense!!

Also don’t get me started on his death, like I enjoy s4 for all the angst it provides that hinges on this, but they do the truly stupidest thing possibly imaginable… they have established Claire’s blood can bring people back to life already, she’s IN THE BUILDING and they still try and?? Get Matt to try and put Nathan’s thoughts into Sylar’s body instead?? I understand Angela might be momentarily crazy with grief but Noah is complicit, should have some common sense and ALSO WAS LITERALLY BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE WITH CLAIRE’S BLOOD. It makes you want to shake everyone involved by the shoulders lmao

Listen I do actually love this show and even s3 has some great stuff to chew on (flashbacks to Petrelli family/Arthur backstory drama, Company founders flashbacks and lore, delirious religious mania Nathan who’s having mental breakdowns live on television and hallucinating) and like I said, a lot of stuff that COULD have been great, so that’s why all this mess annoys me so much lol.

Also for a sin that DOES belong to s2, both Niki’s but ESPECIALLY DL’s deaths are absolute bullshit, and DL deserved so much better Jesus Christ

In conclusion,

[angelsnuffbox]

Hello dear!

For the ask game:

An Inducement to Marry.

1-15? If you don't mind?

And if you see this then I want you to know that I love every single one of your fics! ❤

Ask me about any of my fics x

Omg thank you so much! It boggles my mind to think that you actually read all of them goshhh all my good words as well as my weird ones. Seriously thank you for putting up with them.

An Inducement to Marry isn't a fic that I usually get asked about, but I remember I had a blast writing it! I'm flattered you'd bring it up <3 It's been a while though, so forgive me if my memory lapses a little on this.

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Iirc this was my second Regency AU so at the time I was just getting into writing regencyAU fics for Good Omens and it was pandemic lockdowns and I was at the height of my Jane Austen obsession. I was reading so many books on Regency era customs and culture and I wanted to read regency AUs of A/C so badly but there weren't any of them at the time, so I wrote my own.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I write all the scenes in all my fics in the same order they occur in the story! (With the exception of Strictly Business, which I have had to wrestle with for a bit for various reasons).

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I remember really liking all the parts where I went into great detail about how attractive Aziraphale was lmao here's one of them in the opening scene:

Mr Fell was also a right stunner, with eyes bright as Tadfield's perfect summer skies and hair soft as its perfect winter's snow. His countenance was strong. He had a stable, stocky build blanketed by the comfortable, if a bit old-fashioned, textiles of his clothing... A perfectly pleasing man, he was, though one who lived only with his mind in his books even when his hands were completely devoid of them.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

From Chapter 9 there's a part where Aziraphale gives Crowley a kiss on the cheek for good luck in his gambling which he says was "In the spirit of keeping you within marriageable conditions" idk why but I thought it's such a funny thing for him to say at the time. Just the most Aziraphale excuse to kiss Crowley ever.

5: What part was hardest to write?

The confession scene with the illumination! It was so emotionally charged and one of the few scenes that made me actually cry as I wrote them.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

I think it's the most Georgette Heyer-ish thing I ever wrote. The plot is a bit more complex than my usual no frills fluff (romance, comedy, banter, adventure). If I ever fulfil my (totally unrealistic) dream of being a published historical romance fiction writer one day I imagine the story would have these exact vibes.

7: Where did the title come from?

It was remixed from a line that Emma Woodhouse says in the beginning part of Jane Austen's 'Emma'. In the novel she says something like "My being charming is not quite enough to induce me to marry". In the 2020 film the line goes "I have none of the usual inducements to marry. Fortune I do not want. Consequence I do not want."

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

The part where Aziraphale talks about a romance book he likes with the line that goes something like 'For the heart has always bested the mind in performance', I made up the novel title and quotations myself but the themes were based off of Jane Austen's 'Persuasion'. I also mentioned "The Beau" in one part I think, which refers to Beau Brummell, a major arbiter of English mens fashion around the 1810s.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

None! I plotted it out on a discord chat from start to finish one lazy afternoon and it behaved exactly like I plotted, thankfully.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Do I even write about any other pairings lmao

11: What do you like best about this fic?

See answer for no. 6!

12: What do you like least about this fic?

The opening scene is pretty hefty, and some comments did mention that they had a hard time getting past it. I was new to Regency style writing at the time and got too enthusiastic with trying it out. If I were to write that fic now I probably would be more concise about it. Also would try to make it funnier.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I wrote almost all my Regency AUs while listening to the Pride & Prejudice 2005 and the Emma 2020 OSTs to get me in the old timey mood.

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

Cheese ice cream is valid and it's hella fuckin delicious and also coming from an Asian perspective, it's far far from being the weirdest ice cream flavour out there.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

That gambling culture in the Regency era was wild

[eisthenameofme]

This blog is full of hatred. This blog can fit so much fucking hatred in it.

[pumpkinpaix]

this is gonna sound so harsh but im legit tired of chinese diaspora people who think that bc they are of chinese descent and they have pleco they can act like voices of authority in the fandom. if modao is the 1st chinese book you have read pieces of with a dictionary, if you have never interacted with the actual chinese fandom, you are not part of the intended audience and your biased opinion is not the One And Only Valid Truth 🍵

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree | this is really hard for me to express in terms of an agree/disagree axis lol

genuinely cannot tell if you’re trying to shade me here anon lmao 😂

this got long and rambly (of course) asldkjfslj. i would love to make the excuse that it’s bc i’ve got a migraine and had No Sleep but. let’s be real i’m always like this.

ok i’ll start with where i agree: i don’t think anyone has the right to act like an ultimate voice of authority in fandom. i think different people with different backgrounds have varying realms of expertise and they should be respected when they share that knowledge, but that the instant someone starts to use that kind of power as a weapon against people they personally don’t like, i think they forfeit that privilege. no one has the one and only valid truth about a piece of media because that’s fundamentally impossible. i have definitely interacted with diaspo who behave like their heritage gives them some kind of incontrovertible authority over everyone else, and they’re fucking insufferable and often rather cruel, even/especially towards other diaspo. meet me in the denny’s parking lot and fight me for real. i’ll kick ur ass. >:c

however, I also think it’s true that there’s a lot of dismissal of heritage fans in this fandom, if that makes sense, from both sides of the equation: non-Chinese fans ignore our cultural hangups because they’re inconvenient, and non-diaspora disdain us for being not Chinese enough. that puts a lot of us in a position of feeling disrespected just for being who we are, or having our very real knowledge and unique experience as individuals devalued because of it.

regardless of my identity, I have formally studied a lot of things: literary translation, media analysis, the politics of oppression, film critique, religious studies, philosophy, four foreign languages etc. and that is all knowledge that I had to work for, and work hard for. I do have a certain measure of authority on all of these subjects over a layperson (to varying degrees), and there are going to be times when i will be more correct than someone who disagrees with me -- but I’ve also absolutely experienced people talking over that specialized knowledge because of who I am, which is, to be clear. extremely infuriating and hurtful. like, i have cried so much about it in the last 18 months. people see my racial and cultural identity before they see anything else, which is understandable to a degree, but upsetting when it becomes the basis for how my work is judged, whether positive or negative. i don’t want you to trust me blindly because i’m abc. I want to you to trust me because you have examined my work critically and judged it to be trustworthy!

so i guess this is getting into the strongly disagree part of the answer: i’ve been speaking a lot with other diaspora fans lately, and it’s been simultaneously hugely relieving and also really saddening. relieving because oh thank god someone else Gets It, and saddening because pretty much all of us, no matter what kind of diaspo we are (north american, european, SEA, taiwanese etc), we’ve all experienced a lot of pressure in this fandom, from non-Chinese, Chinese, and other diaspora fans alike. we’re all acutely aware that we are not modao’s intended audience because being diaspora vs being “from the mainland” or whatever, are actually quite different things, but modao still feels close to home. even if it was not written FOR us it is still familiar to us.

and, because so many of us are multilingual and multicultural, we end up being the bridge between the “actual” chinese fandom and the english-speaking fandom, which is largely made up of non-chinese. (sidenote: I hate it when people say things about being “actually” any identity because it’s almost always for the exact reason you brought up: to use heritage as street cred. it’s like damn, being “actually” chinese doesn’t make ur opinions any less rank. sure you might be “actually” chinese, but do you have basic reading comprehension and literary criticism skills? no? ok then sit your ass back down) many of us are most comfortable in english! so we produce our content in english! but we also DO often have a somewhat privileged access to the culture that underlies mdzs and can explain it in a language that other non-Chinese fans can understand. so it’s not surprising that people flock to us for answers to their cultural questions. and like. if we think we know the answer, it’s natural for us to try and help. this is fandom! we’re here to have fun and find community! and it is definitely a little bit nice to have my culture treated as something desirable for once instead of just like. a weird exotic curiosity that no one really cares too deeply about. and, since a lot of us are able to do things that non-Chinese fans can’t (research in chinese, for example. ask family members for help and more information etc.) we end up just having more information to share.

I think this sometimes results in a tendency for fandom at large to put heritage/diaspo fans on pedestals and tout them as authorities (or use our conflicting viewpoints as ammunition in fandom drama) when the diaspo in question have repeatedly stated that they should not be taken as authorities on something -- and then, once you reach critical mass, your reputation starts to precede you, and I think there’s a lot of misconceptions of how a lot of diaspo act in this fandom simply because of that phenomenon. most of us know that we’re not ultimate arbiters of some kind of cultural gateway, and it can be very tiring both to be treated as such when we insist we are not, and then punished by other people who assume that we acted like we were.

i don’t think there’s a benefit in trying to keep en fandom and cn fandom totally separate, and I also think it’s unfair to consider the cn fandom the “real” fandom. i think that way lies deeper misunderstandings, gatekeeping, etc. i think we can definitely acknowledge the differences between them, but i think trying to make meaningful connections between fandom circles is really valuable! i don’t think i’ve ever made it a secret that modao is my first cmedia fandom? so it’s also the first time i’ve had reason to interact with chinese fandom, which has been super enlightening and interesting! i’ve made some super cool friends and learned a lot about how fandom works in china, how it’s similar and how it differs from the fandom i’m familiar with.

and then, kind of circling back around, there’s also a bit of a sense like, okay, so if diaspo don’t belong in the CN fandom, but we can’t talk about our own culture with some degree of confidence in EN fandom, then like..... where do we go...? if we see EN fandom doing something that contradicts our cultural knowledge, do we just. not say anything? do we not count unless we’ve already ingratiated ourselves to CN fandom? that’s probably where the core of my strong disagreement comes from, because criticism of diaspora fans as like, acting above their station so to speak, feels just like a tired continuation of the same shit we’ve had to deal with for our whole lives, being told we’re not good enough for anywhere and that we should just be quiet and keep our heads down and get over it. that our opinions, despite coming from a unique perspective with a unique relationship to the subject in question, are less valid or real than “actual” chinese people, you know? and sometimes i see that and im like lmfao just sneer at me for being jook-sing and leave then if you’re so eager to think of me as lesser.

so yeah, basically im of a few minds: true! diaspora fans don’t get to throw their weight around just because they’re diaspo. they don’t get carte blanche to act like bullies or try to shape the fandom to their own personal liking and crusade against people who disagree with them. they don’t get to pretend their heritage makes them superior to everyone else, and i think western diaspora especially need to be careful when asserting any kind of moral lens over the text to acknowledge that we have our own biases to interrogate. i am not immune.meme etc. on the other hand, this vein of criticism tends to put all diaspo in a bit of a double-bind, and also, however unintentionally, plays into the general, continuous trend of dismissing diaspora for being diaspora, and i’m really not about that. i don’t think that’s the motivation behind opinions like this, but i do think that when the basis for the argument hinges on the idea that diaspora are not “real” chinese, no matter how much I too have beef with certain diaspora fans, the argument needs to be revisited. 

(ko-fi)

🍵 ((un)popular) opinions meme

[ghirahimbo]

Fanfic Review

tagged by @petite-neko

How many works do you have on ao3? 17

What’s your total ao3 word count? 283,239

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Three on ao3 (Legend of Zelda, Danny Phantom, and Welcome to Night Vale), though I think my ff.net account might have some old Yu-Gi-Oh stuff.

Are there any new fandoms you want to write for? I could imagine writing for the Wheel of Time show, maybe, and I had a thought for a Good Omens oneshot once, but really I'm happy where I am :)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Pinesong Blind, But Now Offers Made in Moonlight All That Bleeds The Importance of Being Link

Which of your fics do you want more attention for? Ohhh Crystalline probably. I'm in this weird space of liking that one while at the same time feeling kinda insecure about it ^^;;

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I do eventually! :D I got really behind on it during quarantine when Pinesong kind of exploded, but I'm pretty much caught up now. It's a fun way to make connections with readers :)

What sorts of things do you normally write? Slow burn? Humor? Angst with a happy ending? Some adventure? Emotionally loaded conversations? XD Not really sure what genre I fall into, actually.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Uhhh it's gotta be Echo & Narcissus, I think. WTNV Strex Corp bad ending oneshot ;-;

What’s a fic that pushed you out of your comfort zone? Probably Blind, But Now, because I did a lot of research about writing for a blind protagonist, and it's probably the closest I've come to writing longfic.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Not usually. I'll read them sometimes, but prefer to write characters in their own worlds.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Somebody's translating Pinesong into Chinese right now, actually! I could probably find the link if anyone's interested :)

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Ha ha, started to once with a Yu-Gi-Oh fic, but we only got about six chapters in before my partner drifted away from the fandom.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? lol I don't like saying that I'll never finish a wip because I tend to pick them up again after a couple years away XD That being said, I doubt I'll ever get The Importance of Being Link all the way through the Ganon fight, but I never really expected to, either.

What are you currently working on? Blind, But Now's last chapter and a revalink secret santa oneshot :) After that it's back to Arbiter and Better, and after that I have a longfic idea I really want to do... plus some random oneshots and maybe TIoBL thrown in there, I'm sure.

What are your writing strengths? lmao you tell me XD I guess I've heard it's characterization.

What are your writing weaknesses? Consistency.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Most recent? The first I published for was Danny Phantom, and most recent is Legend of Zelda.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Depends on my mood. I guess I usually enjoy rereading The Importance of Being Link because I never really tried to be serious with it, so I felt less pressure for it to be "good"

What fic are you most proud of? Blind, But Now, mostly because I'm proud of myself for not giving up on it XD

Tagging: @coconi, @tirsynni, @heleentje (if you want! no pressure!)

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Unfinished Meta #2

WWX is established in the text as observant, making it incongruous that he’d also somehow be at the same time ‘oblivious’

We all know that WWX is a genius and a prodigy, which is not that interesting (how many characters are geniuses and prodigies?). But WWX is not only smart--he’s very observant, which is already more interesting. It is not clear, to me, whether these observation skills come from WWX’s innate abilities, the way his parents brought him up in his early years, the challenges of surviving in the streets, or the result of having to negotiate the pitfall and tensions as a permanent guest of the Jiang household--or even a combination of all these. Whatever the source or reason, WWX’s quick wit and deductive skills is perhaps his most established character trait we get in our first introduction to the character. While the Mo Mansion arc is dense with characterisation (WWX kicking the door with his foot and then throwing the bowl to the side! WWX calling LSZ ‘xiao mianzi’ in his internal monologue 😭), there is a clear bias towards establishing very early this part of his character.

(here I wrote “add quotes” but you can just refer to the meta I actually wrote about the Mo Mansion arc lmao)

WWX is good at reading people, understands how to goad them into reactions or how to diffuse tensions (although is not a master manipulator like JGY or NHS, nor as good of a arbiter as JYL or LSZ). This is made clear even in the earliest memories we see of him, when he angers LQR into throwing him out of class, or angers LWJ into destroying the evidence of the spring book he brought into the Library. We see it in his treatment of other characters; for example, he realizes early on that Jin Zixun is a prideful prat who needs recognition, so WWX purposely pretends to forget his name to antagonise him.

But more often, especially as an adult, his ability to read others and guess their reactions is used to scrutinize them or assess a situation, to make people confess or say something they hadn’t meant to divulge. During Guanyin Temple, until the moment JGY brings up LWJ’s feelings, WWX is very clearly trying to make JGY reveal more about his plan and his past deeds, or trying to find ways to distract him and his goons. Likewise, he sees through JGY’s attempt to do the same (up until the moment he brings up LWJ, at which point WWX is too heartsick and heartbroken not to pursue that line of enquiry, even while knowing it is part of a ruse, of a means to best him), warning LXC against falling for his tricks, and having to witness JC falling hook, line and sinker later on when JGY goads him.

At times, he’ll play-act a character to achieve this goal, as we see in the Mo Mansion arc when he puts on the persona of a lunatic in front of the Lan Juniors so that they will not suspect him of being a skilled cultivator while he assess the situation and finds how to protect them from the unknown enemy. (here it said add more examples of play-acting lmao)

On top of it all, WWX is also established to be well-learned and knowledgeable about the cultivation world and politics throughout the novel, as well as being creative and inventive, coming up with a new branch of cultivation and many devices to help his endeavors, like the zhaoyin flags or the empathy technique.

Being observant and having good deductive skills should not mean however that the character cannot ever be wrong or misled in their observations and conclusions; in fact, most pieces of fiction including such a character will often use the character’s personal or internalized biases and prejudices to make them grow or to shape some parts of the plot; Sherlock Holmes was bested by Irene Adler because of his prejudices against the ‘fairer sex’; Lizzie Bennet, who prided herself on her abilities to read people, was fooled by Wickham both because she mistook his genteel manners for good nature and because she held prejudices against Mr Darcy and was already willing to believe him to be a villain. What is important in these examples is that there is always something that explains, something that contextualises why the observant character came to the wrong conclusion (and how they finally understood their mistakes).

The novel often puts WWX in a situation where he doubts his observation/thinking, and has to face conflicting or contradicting information in order to decide whether or not he’s sticking with his initial assessment or not. For instance, in Chapter 10, he starts questioning whether or not LWJ really is unaware of his true identity after surprising him in the Cold Springs, even he remains uncertain until LWJ tells him so (and then, it takes him a while to figure out how LWJ did realise his identity, but WWX does ultimately figure it out on his own).

He did doubt that Lan Wangji might have guessed who he was. However, the doubt was lacking in both sense and reason. As sacrificing one’s body was a prohibited practice, there were probably not a lot of people who knew about it. The scrolls passed down the generations were most likely partial pieces of the entire work, unable to reach their full potential. Things continued like this, and so there were less and less people who believed in it. Mo Xuanyu only summoned Wei Wuxian by looking at a secret scroll, wherever he found it in the first place. Anyhow, Lan Wangji couldn’t have recognized him just from the awful flute melodies that he played.

He asked himself whether or not he had a heartfelt relationship with Lan Wangji in his past life. Although they had studied with each other, went on adventures, and fought together, all of these experiences were like falling petals and flowing water—coming and going. Lan Wangji was a disciple of the GusuLan Sect, which meant that he had to be “righteous,” quite incompatible with Wei Wuxian’s personality. Wei Wuxian thought that their relationship wasn’t exactly bad, but it wasn’t that good either. The chances were that Lan Wangji’s opinion of him was the same as everyone else’s—being overly wanton and not virtuous enough, it would have been only a matter of time before he caused a disaster. After Wei Wuxian betrayed the YunmengJiang Sect and became the Yiling Laozu, he had a few significant disputes with the Lan Sect, especially during the few months before his death. If Lan Wangji was sure that he was Wei Wuxian, they should have already been engaged in a large-scale fight.

Yet, he wasn’t sure what to make of the current situation—in the past, no matter what he did, Lan Wangji didn’t tolerate anything, but now, even though he used whatever methods he had up his sleeve, Lan Wangji could still tolerate him. Should he be congratulated because of his progress?! [Chapter 10]

[makanidotdot]

Weird question that's sort of related to my previous question: Do you think Nathanos is going to be a sort of narrative sacrificial lamb to appease those who want to see Sylvanas take a substantial loss without perma-killing her? In the sense that they perma-kill off Nathanos as a way to "punish" Sylvanas without having to kill her off. Also again in relation to my previous question, how would You want them to go about doing that sort of thing (Ion faced Genie and all).

Yeah I would put the chances of that being a way to punish Sylvanas at a very high likelyhood, yes.  Though I don’t think that the only event that would fit that description is Nathanos being obliterated per se, though it is an option... he could also just be idk turned into some other kind of imperfect spirit or be somewhere she can’t access often or easily.  

But yeah, certainly the odds of something very bad happening to Nathanos in shadowlands is pretty freaking high, and it being a type of punishment for Sylvanas is the GOOD option... the other option is it’s only a final punishment for Nathanos because Sylvanas is ultra evil and doesn’t care about him.  But I would actually be pretty surprised if they were just gonna salt the earth of her character that hard.  There’s def some salt on this earth but idk I would be surprised if they just 100%’d it.

And to finish up the Sylvanas half of this post: 

I want a bit of a limbo ending for her?  I dont’ think she should be allowed to achieve eternal rest or whatever it is she wants (destroy the cosmos maybe? whcih ugh makes me want to eternal rest knowwhati’msayin), but she definitely shouldn’t just be defeated and die.  I also think it’d be really terrible if she was left powerless or something so yeah like none of the total defeat thing.  

So I’ve always wanted to see her become some sort of god of death, in a way?  And I feel like the way you do it is some process of her trying to steal the Jailor’s power for herself bit gets disrupted in a key way, and she doesn’t achieve what she wants, but also is sort of unkillable?  Or maybe it’s an accident and she sort of just becomes the Jailor because it was an unknown side effect of kiling the Jailor?  And then it’s like hey it’s this or oblivion or super hell, and she’s like.. UGHH fine.  Basically just echoing her becoming the leader of the Forsaken.

I think she works best as a character who is always thrust into power outside of their own volition, but who always undeniably does a pretty solid job once they’re there- in that they are a natural leader and commander, someone who, if they have a true mission, they are compelled to achieve it and people who are compelled to follow.  So like.. what if she ended up with a ton of power but compelled to do some duty to the shadowlands or to azeroth.  She is the new Jailor or a new kind of Arbiter or idk.  I really wanted her to become some god of the undead in a way- not an eternal punishment or gift, just an eternal duty, where she has free will and power but also neutral obligation that does actually do a kind of good for the universe?    

The universe of WoW def suffers if you totally eliminate Sylvanas from the picture, I think she has to stay in there and just not be allowed to mess with people for a time.  Take her out of the picture for a time but let her have the potential for a little place in the story somewhere later.  Optimally I would like it if she did still have some type of contact with her sisters and Nathanos, AND I would like it if she used her new powers in some way that was good for Forsaken.  Like a little perk like you stop rotting or you can lift bro or whatever idk.  

SO idk I’ve had more specific ideas formulated in the past but rn this is all I can solidify atm and not gonna be surprised if all this looks really fucking dumb in a couple weeks lmao

[aces-to-apples]

Your Reputation Precedes You

A response to “On Fandom Racism (and That Conlang People Are Talking About)” because lmao that cowardly bitch just hates getting feedback from people that she can’t then harass into oblivion

i.e. God I Wish I Could Use The Tag Fandom Wank Without The Titty Police Nerfing My Post

-

To be frank, I'm not here because I think you or any of your little cronies are going to change your minds. If the 'name' wasn't a giveaway, your group of ~likeminded individuals~ have quite the reputation for espousing ableist, antisemitic, and, yes, racist views under wafer-thin the veneer of "calling out racism." I think we both know that what you're actually doing is using the relative anonymity of the internet and progressive language to abuse, harass, and bully fans that you personally disagree with. You and your group are toxic, hateful, and utterly pathetic, using many peoples' genuine desire to avoid accidentally causing harm and twisting it into this horrid parade of submissiveness to You, The One And Only Arbiter Of Truth And Justice In Fandom. Never mind that you have derided autistic people as lacking compassion and empathy, that you've used racist colonizer dogwhistles to describe a fictional culture based heavily on real live Maori culture, that you've mocked the idea of characters having PTSD, or that vital mental health services are anything more than "talking about your feelings with friends uwu." Let's just ignore that you have ridiculed the idea of adults in positions of power exerting that power over children in harmful and abusive ways, that creating transformative fan-content that doesn't adhere to the spirit of canon or wishes of the original author garners derision and hatefulness from you, and that you've used classic abuser tactics in order to gaslight people in your orbit into behaving more submissively towards you in order to avoid more verbal abuse.

Let's toss all of that crucial context aside in favor of only what you've written here.

What you've written here is nearly 3,000 entire words based on, at best—though, admittedly, based on your previous behavior, I am actually not willing to extend to you an iota of good faith—fallacious reasoning. You posit that a constructed language, to be used by a fictional religious group located in an entirely different galaxy than our own, is othering, racist in general, and anti-Asian specifically. This appears based in several suppositions, the first being that a language unknown by the reader will, by nature, cause the reader to feel alienated from the characters and therefore less sympathetic, empathetic, and caring towards the characters. That idea is patently ridiculous and, I believe, says far more about your ability to connect to a character speaking an unfamiliar language than any kind of overarching truth about media and the human condition. New things are interesting; new things are fun; the human brain is wired from birth to be fascinated with new things, to want to take them apart, find out how they work, and enjoy both the process and the results.

The second supposition this fallacy is based upon appears to be that to move away from the blatant Orientalism of Star Wars is inherently anti-Asian. While I find it... frankly, a little bit sad that you cling so viciously to the Orientalist, appropriative roots of Star Wars as some form of genuine representation, that's really none of my business. If you feel that a Muslim-coded character bombing a temple and becoming a terrorist and a Sith, a white woman wearing Mongolian wedding garb, a species of decadent slug-like gangsters smoking out of hookahs and keeping attractive young women chained at their feet (as it were), a species of greedy money-grubbers with exaggerated features and offensively stereotypical "Asian" accents, and an indigenous people wearing modesty garb based on the Bedu people and treated by most characters as well as the narrative as mindless animals deserving of murder and genocide are appropriate representation of the many, varied, and beautiful cultures around the world upon which they were "based," then that is very much your business. Until you pull shit like this. Until you accuse other fans, who wish to move away from such offensive coding and stereotypes, of erasing Asian culture from Star Wars. Then it becomes everyone's business, especially when you are targeting a loving and enthusiastic group of fans who are pouring their hearts and souls into creating an inventive and non-appropriative alternative to canon.

Which leads into the third supposition, that a patently racist, misogynistic white man in the 1970s, and then again in the 1990s, intended his universe to be an accurate and respectful portrayal of the various cultures he stole from. I understand that for your group of toxic bullies, the term "Death of the Author" holds no real meaning, but the simple fact of the matter is that George Lucas based his white-centered space adventure on Samurai movies while removing the cultural context that gave them any meaning, because he liked the idea of swords and noble warriors in space. He based the Force and the Jedi Order on belief systems such as Taoism and Buddhism, but only on the surface, without putting any real effort into into portraying them earnestly or accurately. He consistently disrespected both characters of color and characters coded to be a certain race, ethnicity, culture, or religion, and likewise disrespected and stole from the cultures upon which he based them. He was, and continues to be, a racist white man who wrote a racist story. His universe has Orientalism baked into its every facet, and the idea that fans who wish to move away from this and interrogate and transform the text into something better than what it is are racist is not only laughable, but incredibly disingenuous and insidious.

As I said, I am not writing this to change your mind, because I truly believe that you already know that "cOnLaNgS aRe RaCiSt" is a ridiculous statement. The way you've comported yourself in fandom spaces thus far has shown to me that you are nothing more than a bully who knows that the anti-racist movement in fandom can be co-opted for your benefit. If you tout your Asian heritage and use the right language, make the "right" accusations and take advantage of white guilt and white ignorance, you can have dozens of people falling at your feet, begging for forgiveness, for absolution. And I think that gives you a thrill. So, no, none of this will change your mind because none of this is genuinely about racism—it's about power, it's about control, it's about fandom being the only space where you have some.

So I'm writing this for the creators of this wonderful conlang, which has been crafted by multiple people including people of color, who don't deserve this nonsensical vitriol, and for the fans reading this manipulative hate-fest, wondering if they really are Evil Racists because they don't participate in fandom the way you think they should.

Here it is: fandom has a lot of racism, antisemitism, misogyny, queerphobia, ableism, etc. baked into it. Unfortunately, such is the nature of living and growing up in societies and cultures that have the same. The important thing is to independently educate yourself on those issues and think critically about them—not "think critically" as in "to criticize" them, but to analyze, evaluate, pick apart, examine, and reconstruct them again in order to come to a well thought-out conclusion. Read this well-articulated attack on a group of fans who have always welcomed feedback and participation, are open about their backgrounds, their strengths and weaknesses, and wonder who is actually being genuine.

Is it the open and enthusiastic group who ask for the participation of others in this labor of love? Or is it the ringleader of a group of well-known bullies who have manipulated, gaslit, and then subsequently love-bomb people who did not simply roll over at the slightest hint of dominance? The ones who spent hours upon hours tearing apart, mocking, deriding, and falsely accusing authors of fanworks and metatextual works of various bigotries and -isms, knowing that those evaluations were spurious and meant only to cause harm, not genuine examinations of the works themselves or even presumed authorial intent. The ones who made their own, quote-unquote, community so negative and toxic that even after the departure of a large portion of them, including this author in particular, that community still has a reputation for being hateful, toxic, and full of mean-spirited harassers who will never look critically about their own behavior but only ever point fingers at others. The ones who are so very determined to cause misery wherever they go that as soon as their usual victims are no longer immediately available, they will turn on each other at the slightest hint of weakness.

This entire piece of (fan)work is misinformed at the most generous, disingenuous at the most objective, and downright spiteful when we get right into it. The creators of Dai Bendu, along with various other works, series, and fan events that these people personally dislike, have been targeted because it is so much easier to harass, bully, and use progressive language as a weapon against them, than it is to put any effort into making fandom spaces more informed, more positive, more respectful.

As someone rather eloquently put it, community is not a fucking spectator sport. You want a better community, you gotta work at it. And conversely, what you put into your community is what you'll get out of it. This author and their friends have put a lot of hate into their communities, and now they're toxic cesspools that people stay well away from, for fear of contracting some terrible form of harassment poisoning.

Congrats, Ri, you've gotten just what you wanted: adoring crowds listening to you spout your absolutely heinous personal views purely to live out some kind of power fantasy, and the rest of us staying well away, because fuck knows nothing kind, helpful, or in good faith has ever come from Virdant or her echo-chamber of petty, spiteful assholes.

No love, bad night.

P.S. Everyone actually in the Dai Bendu server knows your ass got kicked because you didn’t say shit for a full thirty days and ignored the announcement that inactive members would be culled. You ain’t cute pretending like it’s because you were ~*~Silenced~*~ after ~*~Valiantly~*~ attempting to call out racism. We see you.

[fluorescentbrains]

I'm just gonna say, I would love to hear your uncharitable essik meta theories (though I'm not at all involved in cr, I just like hearing your thoughts on it and am curious about this, so like definitely feel free to ignore)

ok so with the caveat that i'm really just spitballing here:

ever since i watched ep 97 i just kept getting the vibe that essek suffered from a similar syndrome as jon magnusarchives, in that the creators seemed to feel beholden to constantly remind the audience of his various character flaws and misdeeds and "punish" him appropriately, in a way that comes off (to me anyways) as performative and very No Fun Allowed? all the joking references to "haha, poor war criminal" started to wear on me real quick, because it felt like the cast was just saying shit to remind everyone they hadn't forgotten essek did a crime. i know at least in fandom people have compared essek to kylo ren, which is an ABSOLUTELY bonkers interpretation utterly divorced from the text of both star wars and cr, but the cultural backlash against kylo ren has apparently rotted everybody's brains and now we can't have any fun with sad boys who commit a bit of light treason because it's ~condoning villainy~ or whatever.

obviously what essek did was worse than anything jon did, but i think there are similarities, especially when it comes to other protagonists who are not exactly paragons of virtue themselves judging him very harshly. the m9 are truly self-centered murder-happy assholes for much of the first 50 episodes or so (that whole mess in nicodranas???), and i thought that was part of their appeal, but when they discover essek's crime they immediately adopt a position of ethical superiority over him and appoint themselves as arbiters of his progress towards becoming a better man, which essek accepts as his due (shades of castiel lmfao). he spends the rest of the campaign working to regain their approval with mixed results, which i personally found quite difficult to watch.

the cast has also constructed this post hoc narrative after episode 97 that by confronting essek about his treason and "keeping him calm" they saved the peace talks--they just assume he was about to ruin everything without their intervention, even though it was very much in his own best interest NOT to disrupt the talks! and the more i think about it the more grossed out i get by it, because before the finale i at least had hope that this was something they would all grow out of, but instead they just. were completely validated every step of the way lmao.

one of the other things that i find hard to swallow about essek's arc is the way the m9 were apparently fine with him being a shady ass FBI-type guy who had probably tortured POWs, including veth's own husband, until they found out he's actually a traitor to his country, at which point they started acting like he personally poisoned all their grandmas? like yall KNEW he was involved in shady shit but you're mad now because, what, he was able to fool you about some other shady shit? meanwhile, the m9's own impact on the war i.e. running off with the beacon and revealing empire troop movements to the bright queen--canonically resulting in many empire casualties--is never confronted in any way.

anyways i'm not trying to say essek's actions were like... "good" or even "fine" but this pervasive view that his treason was a uniquely horrendous act relative to the protagonists rests very much on the assumption that the dynasty is more righteous than the empire, in spite of all indications that the dynasty itself is very corrupt and that essek was RIGHT to have doubts about their monopoly over the beacons and consecution. "essek is literally responsible for thousands of deaths and should live the rest of his life in self-abnegation to atone for his sin" is the accepted post hoc interpretation of events, but it also lets king dwendal and the bright queen off the hook for their own bullshit. essek didn't make them do all that. and in fact, things were stable for a couple of years until the beacon vanished courtesy of the m9 themselves! so! i think what essek did was negligent and self-interested, but the relative Badness of it has been magnified through the lens of the generally pro-dynasty narrative that the show and fandom ended up running with.

jesus that got really long lol tl;dr i feel like the cast learned that essek was lowkey a sexy villain and proceeded to trip all over themselves trying not to look like they condone sexy villainy.

[artixartix]

hi yes greetings 👁👁

i see you're accepting requests so uh

opinions on sigret?

personally, she's my favorite morally conflicted homunculus but don't let that influence your response

or do

i can't control your actions

that is all lmao

Where do I start.

Hmm.

I know.

- GLASSES

- My respect for Sigret solely because of her glasses is huge. She’s so calm and collected with them.

- First of all ms. sigret here FIGHTS with those glasses on. As someone who wears glasses constantly I am beyond impressed.

- Like if I get a bit too sweaty those things start slipping off. Also depending on the condition or weather my glasses can fog up.

- Sigret fights with those glasses, like HELLO?!? She’s making big epic moves all while having those glasses stay where they are.

Now that is impressive.

LOOK AT THAT

She’s just chilling with those glasses on. She’s fighting then causally goes “hmm I think I need to push my glasses up a bit.” That is impressive. Like how do they not break during that process?!? Also the scene of her pushing up the glasses is just so 😍.

Now we can talk about her in game performance.

In game , you cannot hate this lady. Like if you do… go seek some help ❤️

- Wyvern.

Do I even need to say more?!!??!!?!! I don’t have her but lady is bomb in wyvern. All those wyvern one shots and all that, is her doing. She low key carries in wyvern. I don’t know anyone else that can do that.

Her scythe just claps those wyverns. They just disappear. Every time the wyvern sees her coming they cower in fear. They can simply await their brutal fates.

Just slay those wyverns and get the good gear 😍

- Arby (Arbiter Vildred)

The big boy. The one everyone wants. Who possibly hates him? You can’t find faults in him right?

Have no fear for sigret is here. You already know what I’m about to say, she is an arby counter. Just smack that extinction and arby ain’t coming back.

No more descending blades, or approaching ruins. All you have is a no longer existent Arby.

Her character design is pretty decent. Like look at her.

Smilegate actually decided to not giver her body overly exaggerated details.

Like her bobos aren’t overly huge. *Ahem* Senya *AHEM*.

She’s just holding up those glasses so calm and collected I have a feeling she radiates a powerful and confident aura.

One last thing about her character design.

Scythe.

SCYTHE.

Ahem just me but characters with scythe’s are cooooool.

Like they all have that certain aura and personality I feel like.

Ahem but story wise Sigret is the bad guy here. She is Ras’s enemy so that’s a down side, she’s also very mean to Mercedes but I could care less, lol.

Over all I have huge respect for Sigret. I’m impressed at her bailies and she does really well in wyvern and against Arby. I’m still on Ras’s side though. :(

I think Sigret’s design and abilities and GLASSES are amazing.

[pocket-void]

Care to tell us what's swimming around with the Suits AU, like what are the powers that are unique to each suit? Queens vs Kings?

Boy oh boy, I sure would! O///o Any AU I make will always be on an infinite “ask and you shall receive” basis lmao- >///< (Except Church Stop, which I plan on continuing when things settle down) You sent this ask at like a wild time but I finally wrote some stuff for ya so I hope it makes sense. o///o The Sleight of Hand AU is really heavy on worldbuilding so it may take some extra work.

So, here’s vaguely how the suit courts are organized and what each rank kind of entails (I say vaguely, but you know it’s going to be wildly long):

Diamonds - The Regal Suit

The Diamond court is known, or would like to be known, throughout the land as true royalty. They are opulent, noble, and unbelievably full of themselves. Their powers stem from their manipulation of worldly elements, able to craft their own visions of beauty into their surroundings. However they are also skilled in cunning and slightly underhanded methods to get their way. They are determined and headstrong folk who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, which may explain why they are in fact the origin of curses in this universe. They are crafty and have keen eyes that are able to very efficiently determine things about someone’s character, and make excellent negotiators.

The common folk of Diamonds are a lot less uppity and posh, but they do have a semi-upper class feel to them. Not because they’re all well off or anything, the land they reside in is just very rich in resources and well maintained in appearance, and it’s within their culture to be on the more refined side of things. They’re skilled in crafting and producing various luxuries, with tailoring being a rather appreciated activity. Art is a huge part of their society, whether it be painting, sculpting, music, even things like landscaping and interior design, etc.

Spades - The Intellect Suit

The Spade court is full of the world’s greatest mages and scholars. They’re always on the search for higher power, and are deathly efficient at their jobs. It is a solid meritocracy in the Spades court, but it is also brutally unforgiving. Spades are proud folk, not of their status, but of their abilities. The work one must go through to reach the top is almost unimaginable by others, and so it has slowly grown corrupt by those unwilling to relinquish their position and admit they’ve been outdone. The Spade court is a terrifying force to be reckoned with, as they wield the most destructive types of magics connected to the forces of nature. They are rather intimating diplomats that take things very seriously.

Spades tend to be natural quick learners, and they adapt to changes in their environment rather easily. Though the enclosed space that is the higher courts have impeded this ability in some. The common folk of Spades are actually very open minded, although unfortunately are also heavily influenced by the court. Many take interest in sciences, research, invention, various types of craftsmanship, innovation, and more. They are knowledge loving and respectable people who seek to learn new things when they can. People good at multitasking or jack of all trades types tend to be Spades.

Hearts - The Angel Suit

The Heart court is full of healers and judges. They are considered the arbiters of justice and peace. Over the years however they have grown perhaps overly defensive, and the armor once used to protect themselves have now grown thorns to harm others. People of the Heart court have witnessed brutality and war, and their reactions have turned away from peace and instead towards shutting others out of their territory to protect only themselves. Harboring another suit is considered a high crime, and you will most likely be jailed and questioned for it if caught. Interlopers deemed spies likely face execution, but that is standard in most courts nowadays...

The people of Hearts are kind and genuine. They hold much empathy in their cores, and most citizens are somewhat attuned to the emotions of others. The idea of “soul mates” originated and was popularized by Hearts! Citizens here are down to earth and know the value of a hard day’s work. They respect labor and jobs that benefit the community, and as such farmers, medical workers, local guardsmen, and various others are very well liked. “Soul Smithing” is actually something invented by the people of Hearts; an amazing technique that has found a way to heal broken cores. Not everyone can perform it, but the people who can are basically invaluable.

Clovers - The Warrior Suit

The Clover court is full of people will strong wills and even stronger resolves. They will do the things they set their minds to, and their beliefs only compliment their strength. They are determined, persistent, and relentless in their quests to do what they think is the right thing. Unfortunately that belief has now been directed towards war efforts, and they’re stubbornness has done little but blind them to the suffering of common folk for the sake of the “greater good”. Perhaps they have become misguided, and they’re confidence prevents them from admitting they are wrong.

The citizens of Clover are free spirited and independent. They’re hard working and very self reliant, living mostly solitary but rather impressive lives. Clovers are natural warriors at heart, willing to fight for the things they believe in and the people they care about. The people here hold magic that serve to empower themselves, and it’s said that their cores glow the brightest in times of peril. There is a myth about the “Four Leaf Clover”, which is a story about a legendary hero who possessed strength beyond strength. Half of the legend has been forcefully erased by the court, but its original ending claims that the four leaves were not symbolic of the Clover’s lone strength at all, but rather how powerful the hero felt they came together with their companions to triumph over all.

*Quick note! The generalizations of the citizens of each court are of course very generalized and does not perfectly apply to every citizen. ^///^

Now on to Ranks! This is already kind of long so I’ll simplify a bit for this section. >///<

Every citizen is born with two things at birth: A core and a rank. Cores, which determines your suit, are determined by your parents and general ancestry. It is very rare for couples of different suits to be together, especially in the current times with tensions so high. Instead of hearts, the people of this world just have cores in their chests. They do a few things under select circumstances but I’m not going into that right now snsjbksjf, for all intents and purposes they are basically “souls”. How one determines rank is decided at around age 5-7, because it’s a more innate sense. You yourself will know what rank you are, 

JOKER - Highest possible rank. A myth amongst the populace, since nobody’s actually heard of anyone with this rank. It’s said that JOKERs possess qualities and abilities of all suits. It is currently used as a symbol of revolution in the hopes of reuniting all the suits by an organization of the same name. All members identify as JOKER in solidarity to set aside their differences for the common good.

King - Highest rank in society. Kings are one’s with immense power and magic, said to be able to manipulate reality itself. They are incredibly rare, but those with this rank are seen as natural leaders, and will surely accomplish unthinkable things.

Queen - Queens are a diverse group of powerful mages, and are basically the ceiling for power level for each suit specific magic type. They have a very impressive and respectable amount of power, and tend to highly specialize in one to three skills/magics. 

Jack - Typically high ranking generals or soldiers. Jacks are hardy and very durable, with cores as strong as their wills. They tend to be more physically impressive rather than magic oriented, but it’s not uncommon for Jacks to wield magic alongside their weapons.

10-2 - Are considered “citizens”. It doesn’t mean they’re just completely powerless, and yes the numbers do kind of dictate specific things you may be more attuned to, but in general these are the people who populate the land the most. The higher the number, the more likely you are to be naturally gifted in some way at some kind of specific thing, but that doesn’t mean lower numbers can’t be better than you at something. There are special meanings attached to some numbers, like how 7s are lucky or how 4s tend to be more grounded, but these are kind of more like your zodiac than anything.

Ace - The trick up one’s sleeve. Aces have long been the wildcard of society. They usually end up being really good at one thing, but in a way that nobody else had thought of. They tend to be much more closely related to the magic of their own suit, while also having some sort of spin to their magic. It’s a little difficult to describe exactly, but Aces are comparable to “geniuses” who are incredible in one aspect, but lacking in what many people consider more “common”.

I suppose that’s all I’ve got for now. o///o

[atissi]

What advice would you give someone who wants to play Pathologic but is also terrified of screwing up really badly because I've played just enough of it to feel like there's no way I can succeed without looking stuff up but I don't want to do that! Just basic tips and/or reassurances if you have any?

Updated: Feb. 27 2021 (since I've finished and am replaying P2)

See, the thing about Pathologic is that it’s not possible to “succeed” like you do in other video games. There’s no happy ending for everyone. In the same sense, you can’t really fail. The game accommodates a wide variety of deaths and mistakes—even in Pathologic Classic HD, you can get a character's ending if you hoard enough medicine by the end of the 12 days, no matter how many people get sick or die. In Pathologic 2, everyone can die, but you’ll still be able to get an ending. Even some of the "bad" endings are fun in their own right. Sometimes, the game will reward you with more content because you failed in the first place.

All that being said, I totally relate to your fears. I’ll start by talking about Pathologic 2 first, since I’m more familiar with it. Then there will be some tips on playing Pathologic Classic HD.

Pathologic 2 is incredibly punishing, both emotionally and mechanically. I’ve seen people adapt to this through 3 different playstyles. I’ll rank them in terms of “least close to the intended gaming experience” to “most close”.

1. Just cheat.

“wrt cheating, as a notorious cheater, id recommend trying to do the game as legitimately as possible regardless! if there are some aspects that you absolutely do not vibe with, even with reduced difficulty (for me that's hunger mechanics), i would say that you can load in items to mitigate this aspect. and, tying in with the second point, if you complete a run this way you can always go back and try it legitimately since you've (sort of) gotten an understanding of the mechanic.” - Onion

If you have really bad anxiety, or just dont have the time available to do the other playstyles, cheating is a way to engage with Pathologic 2′s excellent story. Fiddling with the difficulty controls is allowed. Spawning in endless food for yourself is possible. I can even get you in touch with someone who uses cheat codes in the game regularly to get game assets. If changing the game is what it takes for you to get through it, I think it’s better than nothing. But I’d personally at least encourage you to try an Imago playthrough first. Decide if it’s too difficult for you after that. And again: Pathologic 2 is constantly trying to trip you up. It’s meant to be difficult. Sometimes you’ll fail and the game won’t tell you if you could have prevented it. Just keep going. But like Onion said, cheating works as a supplement.

2. Replay, replay, and replay, until you get it right.

“You can always replay. You have more time than they do. Also save states are your friend.” - Alex

“reload as much as possible, do NOT look things up. your first playthru WILL be bad, and thats good!!! experience it fully yourself first. [and] “reload as much as possible” meaning like: [it] isnt a crime, you can do it as many times as possible. but dont get stressed about doing everything perfectly. its an experience!!!” - Zee

There’s no penalty for using your save states. If you get stuck in a death loop, go back as far as you need to in order to get things right. Hopefully this means starting a day over and using your time more effectively. Personally, I got to Day 7 before realizing I had to restart from Day 1, because I was doing that badly. Trust me, if you’ve gotten one miracle cure and 10 bottles of water by then, you’ll be doing better than I was. My friend Bee had trouble too, and took 92 hours to finish their first playthrough. A replay playstyle takes a LOT of time. But Pathologic 2 is so rich in content that replaying isn’t even as annoying as it could be. And this is also the best way to complete as many quests and save as many people as you want. Whenever you’re scared, just remember: you can always go back on your choices! (Other than the theatre’s death penalties. But nothing can help you with those.)

3. Just go through it.

Again. You’re not supposed to succeed in Pathologic. In the words of the lead translator Kevin Snow, “…I know [Pathologic 2’s] script and this is different from other games: there’s so much story locked behind failure and death. You’ll die, and you can’t save everyone. That doesn’t gate you from story; it gives you more. Resist, survive, but continue.” It’s only when you’re suffering that you experience the story so viscerally. That’s when the choices mean something. Sacrificing your own health or the health of others–saving tinctures for yourself, breaking into houses, killing people, choosing not to help people because you just don’t have time–these are impactful because you’re experiencing the mechanical repercussions of your actions. You are not a removed arbiter of the Town’s suffering. Everyone in Pathologic is having the worst 12 days of their life, and you’re dying right alongside them. Spoilers for Day 4, but I don’t think visiting the Rod and seeing the Tragedians would have affected me so deeply if I wasn’t actively starving for the entire sequence. It served as a reminder that I wasn’t the only one in pain; it was heart-breaking and heart-warming. Which I think is Pathologic at its core.

Try to see your failures in the game as another form of success. You’re experiencing the game as it’s meant to be played. And when you feel bad about all the people you’ve failed, remember that this is all a play. The game knows it’s artificial. You can replay the game after you finish–and feel free to use cheats or lowered difficulties on a replay–in order to get everything right. Your mistakes aren’t permanent! But on a first playthrough, try to tough through the hardships. You’ll have a more fulfilling time.

Other tips

You can use these 3 playstyles in combination if you need to. I let myself die when I feel like I deserved the punishment, or reload when I feel like I don’t. Bee managed to finish Day 11 by lowering the game difficulty in the final stretch. Just approximate the intended gaming experience as much as you can.

As for gameplay guides, I don’t think anyone I’ve met recommends it (at least for Pathologic 2). The game does interesting things with when and where it reveals information to you, often in ways that are deliberately inconveniencing. You want to experience that on your own. I also think Pathologic 2 is relatively good at telegraphing mechanics or quests. compared to Patho Classic. That said, I do have tips that I wish I knew before playing:

Sprint everywhere. I know the town is beautiful. But you’re on a hell of a time crunch. If you finish your quests early you can forage or trade for more resources, or just bottom out your exhaustion bar. Sprinting does not make your exhaustion go up faster, and water is plentiful in the first few days. Just do it! Save your own time!

Save a lot. Even if you’re not gonna die on your way in and out of the Broken Heart, this game is chock-full of choices, down to the resource management. If you waste a swig of twyrine, you’ll want a good save point to reload at. You can load any save point in your timeline, so save as often as you want. Keep track of where clocks are on the map--the game tags these in the building descriptions. (For that matter, keep track of where beds are. I didn’t realize I could sleep at Vlad Sr.’s place, which made me waste SO much time travelling between the Shelter and the Lair.)

Learn the trading economy. Everyone holds items at different values. Even the kids value certain nuts over others. There are also some interesting conversion rates between items, like peanuts to soap to pemmican. Make the most of the items you’re bartering. And for that matter, try to build up a cache of items valuable to little girls, in case you find one with a schmowder. The kid’s caches are valuable for trading too: twyrine can show you the locations.

This is also a good spoiler-free guide to Pathologic 2′s mechanics.

For Pathologic Classic HD, I haven’t personally played it, but I’m under the impression that it’s easier than Pathologic 2 because there are less character perma-deaths and no death penalties. The advice about reloading still applies. Here’s what Ally says:

“id recommend using a spoiler free guide (Bachelor, Haruspex, and Changeling guides) but other than that read the diary and letters carefully and try to keep track of npcs that could be affiliated with quests. also! some quests have different options for endings so there could be multiple ways to complete them. stock up on food on the earlier days, and after the inquisitor arrives because the prices drop. try to stealth kill with melee weapons when you can, and also reserve your bullets. …also make sure to trade with the children a lot! hold onto objects like the hooks and flowers [to get schmowders. Like I said before, to win the game you only need enough cures to heal the Bound.] …another tip is to keep a pen and paper around to take notes. like when i got the tincture recipes instead of keeping them in my inventory i just wrote them down.”

And that’s it! If you need specific advice or clarification, feel free to DM me! I love talking about this game. I can also get you in touch with anyone mentioned in this post (except Kevin Snow LMAO). Pathologic has an amazing story and I want everyone to experience it!!!