#but also this is so weird to me because i'm from a largely homophobic country.

[el-the-cell]

saw a terf on the tube. she had a "girl dick is not real" pin

what a sad world to live in

without girl dick :(

[burr-ell]

Part of me thinks 3H would've been a lot better if it engaged with Edel's actions, both her war and during her Flame Emperor guise during WC. But considering the game for the most part doesn't, it's not surprising that there's so much fandom wank surrounding her and why people try to write off the developer's opinions when the interview came out and they confirm that she's the villain, cause if the game isn't going to fully engage with her actions why should they. Don't get me wrong, I still love the game but it's such a bummer.

Oh I think the game would be 1000x better if it engaged with Edelgard's actions, but even if it had, you'd still get people insisting that she did nothing wrong and anyway Rhea's homophobic because the cathedral looks Catholic and besides, sometimes invading other countries is for their own good—wish fulfillment is a hell of a drug. I'm with you, I love the game, but the misogyny in Edelgard's writing is a glaring flaw that absolutely has to be addressed. (If I'm being honest, my assessment of any given character will tend to ignore Crimson Flower largely because I don't think you can talk about that route honestly without acknowledging that it exists, first and foremost, so that you can side with Edelgard and oh look how cute she is and how she can change for you, and the other characters are just warped and stretched so they can get sucked into this narrative black hole. I don't give dog turds any more attention than is required to step over them.*)

I'm sure I've said this before, but I would be much more interested in a story that actually engages with Edelgard's childishness and entitlement and how frankly weird and off-putting her obsession with Byleth actually is. It's still frustrating that the first time the Red Emperor is a woman is also the first time the Red Emperor is depicted in this way, but you can still work with it and have some genuinely interesting social commentary on the side. She is, at the end of the day, a wealthy and powerful skinny white woman who thinks her trauma gives her the right to make decisions for everybody else, and she projects inequalities and abuses of power onto the rest of the world when the call is coming from inside the huge fuckoff gold palace. I mean, the critiques of western imperialism and white feminism just write themselves!

*This does not, however, apply to things like Leonie and Byleth's B-support. It screwed over the fandom perception of Leonie, but you can work with it in-story if you're not a coward.

[chair-potatoe]

rant on religion and western culture incoming

I was just complaining to a ralative about how in Germany some student housing is owned by the catholic church and they have the audacity to demand that students who come live in them must be baptized (you don't even have to be catholic or even a practising cristian, just technically baptised). Now, while Germany is not known for being particularly religious country (in comparison with the US, I mean), a majority of non-religous Germans are still technically baptized (at least where I grew up), either catholic or protestant. Which means, you guessed it, this policy excludes mostly Muslims.

So, I was complaining to a relative about it, and, I honestly don't know what I was expecting, but they said something along the lines of "Yeah, Catholics are weird that way... You know, at least you can be sure that Christians have values", which honestly left me speechless. Because, you know, it implies so so much absurdly shitty underlying views. I could have thrown "white supremacy" at their head, which I didn't, I threw "Catholic priests and child molestation", because they were more likely to understand that.

And one could argue "This isn't about white supremacy, not all Christians are white!!!" It is though. It is about western culture.

There are no good or bad cultures. Most cultures have toxic elements, and western culture has quite a lot of them. The same goes for the religions attached to the cultures. It is always what people make of it. Being Christian doesn't automatically make you a good person. Not being Christian doesn't make you any less of a good person.

Example from my personal experience: None of my Muslim friends are homophobic, while quite a large part of my Christian friends turned out to be, in fact, homophobic (well, mostly ex-friends, now). And as far as I know, the basis in scripture is fairly similar.

Honestly I'm probably preaching to the choir here (this is tumblr and not a family dinner) but I had to get it off my chest.

Also, if you see this and have thoughts on it, I'd love to hear them.