#but i can promise you that fan community exists and has discourse the likes of which you have never seen

[irregularbillcipher]

i think it's really funny when people are like "i can't take this show seriously i think it's so funny that this show has a fandom. it's like if people started shipping simpsons characters or wrote video essays about bart" or otherwise use the simpsons as an example of a show that Obviously People Don't Take Seriously. like what are you talking about. go on nohomers for three seconds to realize how insane people are about the simpsons

[remix-of-your-guts]

i'm gonna be completely honest with yall the ls dunes discourse is so fucking stupid. it's really obvious you are all like sixteen (which i am literally sixteen too so. not inherently a bad thing. but still.) i've waited until shits's died down a little to post this cuz ik ill get hate but i gotta get it off my chest.

i am BEGGING you all to go to a modern art museum or go research performance art pieces or just fucking google fountain by dechamp and PLEASE stop acting like "art" consists entirely of anime-style fanart you see on tiktok. yes this is about the fact that the entire comment section of the posts about the old wounds music video is teenage my chem fans going "ai art isn't real art!!!!! you hate artists!!!!!!!!"

you can not meaningfully define art. art is art if someone says it is. yes that includes ai art you literally sound like the tradwives who whine on twitter about modern/abstract art not being real art. there is no definition of art you can make that excludes AI generated content and includes pieces of undeniable modern art.

now i AGREE that there are some ethical issues with ai art. mainly that the content gathering methods for most generators are iffy. HOWEVER this relies on the assumption that intellectual property is a thing that exists and is important to protect. in an ideal world it shouldn't exist and copyright laws will almost always do more harm than good. however under capitalism there is unfortunately some practical value in protecting the rights to artists' works.

"but xander it's stealing jobs from real artists!!!!!!"

okay. here's the thing. it is true that ai has the potential to reduce the ability of artists to make a living off their art. just like photography took jobs from painters and automation took jobs from factory workers and tractors took jobs from farmers. the issue there is capitalism, NOT individual people not wanting to buy commissions from you.

⚠️side tangent warning⚠️

there's this hugely widespread attitude in young visual artist communities on the internet that you're entitled to attention and commissions and i'm sorry to be mean but you're just. not. i'm sorry but you literally are not that's not how the world works. you ARE allowed to be frustrated that your art doesn't get attention or that no one buys commissions from you. that is a totally valid feeling that i get as well!!!!! i know deeply the pain of posting a piece you're super proud of and spent hours and hours on and getting like three notes! that's a completely valid frustration! but truthfully you do not have the right to guilt trip people for not wanting to reblog your art for whatever reason.

"but how can they expect me to keep making content for free for them if they don't reblog it??!!" then stop making content for them. if they didn't reblog your art then i'm sorry to be mean but they probably will not be bothered if they don't see any art from you again. if people see art that they want on their blog or they think is worth sharing for whatever reason, they will reblog it. there will always be hundred of creators getting loads of praise for there art who will keep making it. and if they scroll past it then it just didn't speak to them like that. begging and pleading and guilt-tripping people to give you attention will not change that. and there will always be many more artists who do not find success on the internet, for whatever reason. it doesn't mean your art is bad though!! art should have intrinsic value to you and if it doesn't then maybe it's not the path for you. if you don't have the internal motivation to keep making art without the attention you're not getting, then stop spending so much time making art. i went through it, i get it. i know the frustration of not feeling appreciated. you know what i did? i stopped posting most of my art. and i stopped caring about notes when i did. i make art because i love it and i can be proud of my art without external validation.

and i promise you that every artist in history knows the pain of not being able to make money off your work. unfortunately under capitalism that's just how art is. it is usually not profitable. the reason you're not getting commissions isn't because the world is full of lazy entitled people who hate artists and would rather use ai than support you, it's because commissions are not something it is reasonable to expect to make much money off of. i hate to speak in capitalist terms but it's not a desired product. most people don't walk around having images in their brain that they want to exist that theyre can't make themself that they're willing to pay people fifty bucks to draw. most people are happy imagining their ocs in their mind or using pictures for their profile pictures.

and most adult, professional, non-terminally-online artists will tell you that unfortunately art has never been profitable for the majority of people. that they don't have much of a problem with AI because they either don't make money off their art already or know that people will keep wanting to buy their paintings or whatever if they want to buy their paintings. that humans will always appreciate human-made art and ai is more of a novelty than something that's going to ruin the lives of all artists and take away opportunities that they never really had. that the ai-animated shows netflix is experimenting with are simply shows that wouldn't exist if netflix didn't have a cheap way to make them, not lost potential jobs for "real artists."

and i do think there's a genuine issue with the way you guys are guilt-tripping every person who scrolls past your art that's going to seriously fuck up anyone with ocd who maybe just doesn't like your art very much!!!!!!! and i think there's something gross about the way you guys are talking about artists as if we're some oppressed minority that's under a wave of hatred and bigoted attacks. as if every single human being isn't an artist in some way. as if there's some targeted hate campaign directed at the tiktok cartoonists who are the only people you think of when you hear the word "artist." and don't get me wrong i think art is more important than anything. i think it's what makes us human. it's everything to me it's my entire life. but i also think you guys have developed a really juvenile attitude about it.

⚠️end of side tangent⚠️

do i think it would have been better if dunes paid a traditional animator to make the old wounds music video? yeah of course. and their bullshit justification about art being meant to make people mad so they're doing something right or whatever is fucking stupid and makes me cringe. but i don't think they've committed the grave unforgivable sin you guys are acting like it is.

[mikewheeler]

First of all I want to say that its not really my place to discuss an issue like this because it’s partially something I’m not a part of, BUT: we need to establish and clarify as people that WOMEN struggles (anyone who identifies as a women) are much greater than homosexual white men struggles. Gay men have struggled and continue to struggle every day, I’m not denying that. However, we need to (as people who respect both gay men and women) recognize that gay white men are still white men. I am so sick and tired of seeing women in this show fight for their lives to be recognized just for yet another white man (regardless of orientation) to come and suck all the viewers’ sympathy. And YES I am speaking about el and will. I love will dearly he’s one of my favorites (and bylers will never ruin him for me) but to say that his struggles “as a closeted teenager in the 80s” are more real than “a disabled abused girl” who’s been experiencing misogyny pretty much since the day she was born is fucking insane. I’m sorry that will is struggling but he’s gonna be fine, I promise you that he will be fine, it’s still sad but he’s fineeee. Yes el is privileged in the sense that she can express her feelings towards the person she loves freely but please tell me how that makes her life so much easier than will when she’s a fucking women in the 80s that should be enough, but even then that’s not even why she’s had it worse and you know it. Give me a fucking break. Will (one of the most well written characters in the show) continues to be the most selfless person on this show and his fans somehow make up for that by making every fucking thing about him. Ask any gay person in the 80s about wills story arc and I promise you they will relate. And I’m saying all of this because once season 5 comes out and El gets her happy ending with mike you best believe that will fans are going to invalidate her happy ending for will not getting his. I know they will give him his happy ending, but if they don’t for some reason I want everyone separate their own frustrations with their blatant misogyny. Please stop being misogynistic towards El, please.

OK, I think this ask deals with 2 completely separate issues and it is important to clarify the separation.

It is not my belief that LGBT people don't experience oppression nor is it my belief that gay men do not have a history of oppression. To say "Will is going to be fineee" is understating not only the character's experience, but the experiences of all those who lived in this time period. The AIDS crisis happened in the 80s; a lethal disease came out of nowhere and wiped out entire communities of LGBT folks, majorly gay men, while the government watched and did nothing. To have LGBT rep in a show about the 80s is actually super important considering the historical context, and it is actually why I understand the Duffers' decision to hold off on official coming out moments for Robin and, especially, Will. It is an authentic representation of the time period, and it honors the struggle of self-acceptance that was most likely a lot more difficult 40 years ago. In my personal opinion, it would be insulting to the experience of those people who identified LGBT in the 80s (some who married and lived lives in heterosexual relationships in order to protect themselves) to have romantic relationships come easily to Will and Robin or to have them not experience fear or shame. Only by authentically representing something can we shine light on the truth and learn from it.

It is also not my belief that we should be in some weird oppression war of who has got it worse. And I certainly hope that my blog does not come across in this way. Gay men and non-LGBT women both face different hardships in modern society, as they did in the 80s, and I don't think it's necessary to compare the two. Both can, and do, exist simultaneously, and we should be supporting one another.

All of this is separate from fandom discourse regarding El, Will, and B*ler.

It is my belief that El is perceived by many members of this fandom from a (majorly internalized) misogynistic lens. And, it's been my personal experience, that the members of the fandom who discuss el in this way tend to also strong supporters of b*ler. However, there are many important things to remember. First, being a b*ler shipper and identifying as LGBT do not go hand in hand. Second, that b*ler does not serve as the only LGBT representation on Stranger Things. And lastly, the oppressive experiences of being LGBT are not erased by having bad takes on El.

The only point I have ever tried to make is not that Will's story is less important than El's, nor that being a woman is harder than being gay (I wouldn't even know how to quantify those experiences into a value that is measurable for comparison), but that El's story is important, as is the storyline of her relationship with Mike. No more or less, it just is. And to erase that story that has been fleshed out over the course of four seasons to make room for a story that was never planned (Mike & Will), just to service fans, would be a misogynistic act, yes. As you say, it takes the light off of the main female character and shines it on two white boys. But, also, to do this (go Mike & Will in the final season) would also invalidate the experiences of those of any gender or sexual orientation who have been watching and see themselves represented in El, those who have been affected by abuse and trauma (especially women), and deserve to to see her find happiness and healthy love.

Those who identify with Will or Robin also deserve that representation, and it is also important. However, b*ler is not the only path to representation, and to actually go that route in canon would be disrespectful to the story that has already been written and to those who see themselves in El. It is absolutely possible to honor the experiences of Will and Robin and those who identify as LGBT by writing good story and character arcs for those characters and have them end the show in happy and fulfilling relationships, without making b*ler canon.

So, this is my long-winded way of saying it is unwise of any member of this fandom to mistake our personal feelings and opinions of a show with real life experiences. In order to honestly evaluate if something in this fandom or this show is problematic, I feel like we have to remain as objective as possible. I know firsthand the difficulty of that; I am not perfect and I am not shaming anyone for holding this show and certain storylines/characters close. I certainly do. But I don't think we should be dismissing real life oppressions and hardships, and history, so freely in the name of supporting a fictional character and/or relationship.

PS: why do I have these super long asks in my ask box about how this fandom disrespects women and gay people but never once has anyone brought up the blatantly fucked up way this show and fandom handles the representation of Black people and POC on the show? Just a thought.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 304: The Council of OFA

Previously on BnHA: Hawks and Best Jeanist were all, “what up Todofam, we are here to apply for the positions of ‘son #4’ and ‘weird uncle’, respectively,” and then proceeded to insert themselves into the family drama without waiting for an answer. Hawks briefed Endeavor on the nation’s current status of “totally fucked”, promised to help him sort that out, and then asked him about OFA. Endeavor was all, “oh do you mean One For All, the mysterious thing that my intern Deku was apparently being targeted for?” and then we cut away, presumably before Endeavor could clarify that it never occurred to him to follow up on that, and Hawks was all “no of course not, why would it occur to anyone other than me to follow up on any of this super weird and ominously important shit.” Anyway so meanwhile Bakugou was all “LET ME SCREAM AT DEKU UNTIL HE WAKES UP” and the other kids were all “NO”, and then the chapter ended with All Might being all “I wonder what the vestige!me is currently chatting with Deku about.”

Today on BnHA: Deku drops in on the Vestiges, who are all “sup Deku, how do you like our fancy chairs.” OFA II and III are all “if you need us we’ll just be standing here silently in the corner pretending to be invisible and sparking endless discourse with our mere existence.” OFA IV is all “and now I will explain to you in a very convoluted way that you being quirkless was actually a good thing, since it means that you are probably not going to suddenly drop dead at the age of twenty. But also you’re probably going to be the last user of OFA for that very same reason.” Deku is all “that is wild. I’m just gonna stand here and stare at my hand.” Nana is all “so now that that’s settled could you please do me a small favor and kill my grandson for me”, because having just one topic to discourse about this week WASN’T ENOUGH, apparently. Thanks so much Horikoshi.

(ETA: okay so just a note before I start, this week’s RHA translation was a huge mess, so I followed up this chapter by reading a couple of other translations. the main one I’m using for reference is the one by @hanashimas​, whose weekly posts I highly recommend. anyway so you’ll see a couple of ETAs in this post in places where the initial translation was off.)

how many layers of bandages did they wrap this poor kid’s fucking hand in omg

jesus Deku. are you holding onto a bouquet of flowers under that thing?? or a tennis racket??

omg yes, finally

is he reading these names off a teleprompter lol. and if so, what has Jeanist ever done to slight you, Deku? “god bless Kacchan and Aizawa-sensei and Todoroki-kun and everyone else in the whole wide world... except for Best Jeanist. fuck that guy.” actually this joke would be funnier if half of tumblr didn’t legit feel that way lol but anyway

OH MY GOD

I NEED TO HAVE A TALK TOO. ABOUT, OH, EVERYTHING

I got immediate KHR vibes from ALL OF THIS. this is seriously such a Vongola aesthetic. “let’s use the luxuriously cushioned chairs with the seat backs that are ten feet high, and arrange all of the handsome ghost people in a big circle” like come on

that said there are also some slight LoTR vibes as well. “bring forth the ring, Deku”

I like how Six is sitting there with his feet drawn up all casual, but with his arms inexplicably sticking STRAIGHT OUT IN FRONT OF HIM and dangling over his knees like he’s doing some sort of zombie walk

apparently the Fourth wasn’t a big fan of shoes huh

interesting that All Might is the only one who’s still faint/indistinct, and and that Two and Three are fully visible

(ETA: the rest of my speculation about Two and Three has been moved into a separate post, the better to focus on the shit that’s actually happening in this chapter lol.)

and lastly, interesting that all of them are talking now, except for All Might (and I guess the Second and Third as well). to the best of my knowledge Deku hasn’t unlocked the Sixth’s quirk yet, so I guess the quirks don’t really have anything to do with it

oh and it looks like Deku’s mouth is still covered. I guess that’s convenient for the vestiges since we all know it’s hard to stop Deku once he gets going. but on the other hand it’s very inconvenient for people like me who wanted to see some interaction. alas

so First says that OFA’s power has grown a lot in the last four months (i.e. since Deku unlocked Blackwhip), and now the vestiges can communicate with each other as well as Deku

so even when Deku’s not around they can all just chill with each other. this is such a weird thing to me lol. like it’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also strange as hell to know that you’ve got eight other people hanging out in your head spying on everything you do and having conversations with each other about it. it would be like if Dark Shadow had someone to hang out with other than Tokoyami. good thing you weren’t triplets, Tokoyami

First says that it’s become easier for the vestiges to interact with Deku ever since TomurAFO barged into the OFA Domain back at Jakku. huh

(ETA: apparently this is because AFO forcibly pulled out OFA’s power when he was trying to steal the quirk, so I guess that makes sense.)

okay thank you Banjou for addressing this concern which I initially brought up as a joke, but which was apparently real enough for you to reassure Deku about

“don’t worry, even though we’re awake and hanging out inside of you at all times, we’re definitely not secretly watching and making fun of every single thing you do” hmmmmm

(ETA: “not that you could do anything about it even if we were, since you’re probably going to be the last OFA holder ever!” I don’t trust anything this asshole says lmao.)

OH SHIT??

YESSS DEKU now you can hold them accountable for all of their bullshit! because I do not doubt that there will be bullshit lol but let’s see how that goes

oh damn

well okay then. you didn’t have to stand up and walk over to him and loom all threateningly like that but okay sir

this guy has kind of a Kimimaro vibe to him. remember? that bone-growing guy from Naruto? except I’m pretty sure he had eyebrows. and wasn’t twenty feet tall. speaking of which, that explains the chairs

why are you wearing only 3/5ths of a shirt

lol what

someone’s gonna have to explain this to me. is he just redundant or something lol, or is he strangely poetical or what

(ETA: apparently HE’S MAKING A PUN omg. I immediately gained +10 love for him lol. also it flows a lot better in Japanese. this is one of the things Caleb is usually good at, so we’ll see what he does with the wordplay.)

omg the hermit theory is true!!

“I’M NOT WEIRD, IT’S SOCIETY WHICH IS WEIRD.” lol whatever you say buddy. also love how Banjou tried to give him a big hearty slap on the back but Hermit Boy was not having it lmao

IS HE TRYING TO CAPTURE HIM WITH BLACKWHIP

AND ACTUALLY, NO, SIR, AS A MATTER OF FACT, WE ARE NOT AWARE. SO SPILL!!

?!!?

okay my first response was LOL ARE YOU SERIOUS, THAT’S THE BIG SECRET!? -- and then it hit me what the significance of “died from old age... AT AGE FORTY” meant. at which point it was like “!!!!!” and then “OH, SHIT”

(ETA: there’s also an Iida joke here somewhere but I’m just too tired to make it.)

oh my god oh my god

did he somehow get a copy of the coroner’s report or something? like how does he even know that he died from “old age” as opposed to any number of other natural causes? ??

but anyway. so this is the quirk singularity coming into play then I guess. but then how come All Might is still alive and ticking?

(ETA: so this is one example of where this week’s translation is a mess lol. apparently the Fourth explains here that he didn’t know what the fuck he died from until All Might researched it. and it turns out there actually was an autopsy lol so there you go.)

so Fourth says he held OFA for eighteen years, and since he knew he would never be strong enough to defeat AFO on his own he basically just spent all his time punching rocks in the woods and training to power the quirk up

oh shit

is he implying that his body literally fell apart?? like that’s how he got the scars on his face? -- IS THAT WHAT KEEPS HAPPENING TO TOMURA, THEN. oh shit

DUDE

so you’re telling me that this quirk actively shortens the lifespan of anyone who uses it?? and my little boy here has had it now for a year already?? fuck me, I have immediately have a TON of thoughts about all this but let me save it until he’s done with his explanation

THANK YOU, DEKU

right?? how come All Might didn’t die then. even after he got injured. please don’t tell me he actually is dying still and is just being slow about it because I SWEAR TO GOD

what does this mean??

so what you’re trying to say is you all have NO FUCKING IDEA how long Deku’s gonna be able to hold this quirk before he SUDDENLY DROPS DEAD?! five generations ago this dude was able to hold it for eighteen years, and then four generations later All Might was able to hold it for thirty-odd years or so, and now Deku has it and you all have no clue which way it’s gonna go? actually this makes it sound like it really wasn’t OFA that killed the Fourth at all and you guys are just really bad at forming hypotheses. but since you’re making a big plot point out of it I guess it must be true

and don’t think I didn’t notice the part where you said you didn’t have OFA very long and then “died while fighting”, Firsto. I want to hear more about that. specifically who you passed the quirk onto before your death

and yes, if we are agreeing that OFA was the cause of the Fourth’s death, then the conclusion on this next page is the natural one to draw

so that’s a bit of a relief then, because Deku is quirkless too. so it means he won’t be able to hold OFA forever (and will probably have to find another quirkless person to pass it on to), but at least he won’t be randomly dying out of the blue next Tuesday or something

oh my god now he’s talking about OFA and AFO and user consciousnesses and all sorts of good theory stuff but it’s so much exposition. you’re really gonna make me read all this lol

wait what. why would All Might being quirkless have anything to do with the presence of his vestige in OFA Outer Space Party Land

but Deku is also quirkless and he’s clearly visible and chatting with you guys. so what gives. like how much of this is verified fact and how much of it is you guys just shrugging and making stuff up lol

SERIOUSLY, GUYS

BUT DEKU IS ALSO -- you know what, never mind sob. none of this shit makes any sense but whatever

(ETA: seriously, this all seems like an awful lot of speculation on their part. for Deku’s sake I sure hope they’re right.)

FSSKDJFLSKLKJLKJL ALL MIGHT IS FIFTY-FIVE?!

lol that’s a full ten years past my closest estimate, wow. but this pretty much confirms his age now at last! or at least confirms it within a couple of years, because we know All Might and Nana met when he was in middle school, and he presumably had the quirk by the time he took the U.A. entrance exam. so yeah. gonna go with fifty-five

so they think that because All Might was quirkless, OFA was better able to adapt to his body and became his true quirk, as opposed to being an extra quirk that stacked on top of the one he already had and overwhelmed him. ties in back to the whole “AFO used to bend people to his will by forcing quirks on them” thing, as well as the “Noumus are all mindless because of the strain of having multiple quirks”

Two and Three are really ruining the serious vibe of this scene here lol

they look like they’re doing the counting for hide and seek

and is this Deku talking now? I was about to get mad at First for implying that quirkless people are somehow freaks, as opposed to “normal” people jdslk

so in other words, don’t go giving it to your best friend all casually for shits and giggles, Deku. even if it would make a really cool climax for a movie. well shit. maybe that’s why they were so quick to nope back into Deku’s body afterward

so First says that because quirkless people are becoming rarer and rarer, the fact that All Might just happened to stumble upon Deku is “nothing short of a miracle.” which, yeah, that was definitely a stroke of luck there. being quirkless saved his life. but being quirkless is also part of why he was chosen in the first place, and we’ve always known that much

“in other words, kiddo...”

looks like there was some hurried clone stamp usage going on here lol. but props to RHA as always for putting this scan out so fast, especially given how exposition-heavy this week’s chapter has been

“anyways, that was the main topic” ARE YOU SERIOUS. there are like ten other topics imma need you all to get to here, people

(ETA: seems like this is a mistranslation; the line should actually read something more along the lines of “and now for the main topic.”)

FFFFFFFFF

“ENJOY YOUR CLIFFHANGER THIS WEEK.” dskfalkjlkjwlgkjl you really went and dumped this discourse on us yet again. fucking...

(ETA: forgot to mention, but as several people mentioned, this seems to be another mistranslation -- rather than asking Deku to kill Tomura as though it’s doing her a personal favor, Nana is asking “will you be able to do it.” in other words more of an “are you capable of doing it” type of thing. which is a very reasonable question to ask given that Deku is, well, Deku.)

anyways, and the answer is obviously going to be “no” of course. this isn’t going to end any differently than when the previous Avatars all told Aang to kill Ozai. but I guess it means we’re in for a fun conversation next week

so Nana looks pretty grim here though (nothing at all like the person who once taught All Might the importance of saving people with a smile), and I’m wondering if this means she believes that her grandson is already beyond saving. as in killing him would be a mercy, as opposed to him continuing to live with AFO bending his mind and body to his will. except if that is the case, I think she’s underestimating Tomura’s own will. and definitely underestimating Deku’s will to save

and also, just... I’m so fucking sick of AFO screwing the Shimura family over, honestly. this is exactly what he wanted. well fuck you, guy. you don’t get to have what you want. go out there and save Tomura, Deku. for his sake and for Nana’s. give them some hope. do your thing, boy. can’t wait for your big speech all about it next chapter lol

[winepresswrath]

A lot of the time I just try to pretend Discourse doesn't exist because there's no need to raise my blood pressure over bad opinions about fictional war criminals, but some of it is VERY funny. Like what I just saw about even the CQL staff knew that JC is an irredeemable asshole and always hated and resented his brother based on WZC's performance, as if the man was not out here spending half his screentime on the brink of tears, trying to full body meld in hugs, and blowing kisses to bunnies

I’m going to be honest and say I fundamentally do not understand why the people who seem most invested in appeals to authority based on authorial intent also seem to be persistently wrong about what the various creators have to say about the characters, which is, courtesy of some very generous fan translators, easily accessible information. I personally do not care very much about authorial intent; I think it can be useful and interesting context for a given work but ultimately come down pretty hard on team art is inherently subjective and sometimes artists don’t actually pull off conveying their intended meaning. I am fairly confident that Ian Fleming and I disagree very strongly on the character of Pussy Galore and her relationship with James Bond, and also that my opinion is better than his. In terms of MDZS, MXTX says "Jiang Cheng is deeply and seriously flawed but not an evil person" and I nod along, thinking that is a thing she conveyed pretty successfully to me, but you’re never going to catch me arguing that that means no one is allowed to say he’s evil on the internet because fundamentally I don’t think that’s a useful or interesting way to approach either art or fandom.

But with CQL specifically, you have the bunny kisses and the octopus hug and Yanli pausing the momentum of the third episode to explain to the audience that Jiang Cheng has difficulty expressing concern and care directly and the moment where he looks directly into the camera while promising that he will never let another disaster befall his recently massacred people and the sad little smile when he insists to Jin Guangshan that it’s just Wei Wuxian’s character to be unrestrained and free rather than deliberate disrespect and just. I really do not feel like they were making an attempt at subtlety, but even if they were there are like a million interviews featuring Wang Zhuocheng’s opinions on the character.

What does Wang Zhuocheng think of Yunmeng Bros? I wonder! If only someone had asked him what he would like to say to Wei Wuxian oh wait-

What does he think about how Jiang Cheng communicates?

You don’t have to care about any of this but it’s so easy to look it up if it’s an aspect of the creative process you find interesting or important to your understanding of the characters!

[kelatonin]

let’s talk about something.

Hey all, so if you haven’t heard (or have been taking a break from the news for mental health’s sake, which is understandable these days), there was a shooting in Atlanta on Tuesday, 3/16/21, that resulted in the deaths of 8 people at two different massage parlors. (News articles here, here, and here). Six of the victims were women of Asian descent. The murderer claims that the shooting was not racially motivated, but was a result of him trying to “eliminate temptation,” as he has a “sex addiction.” There is a connection here, though, and it’s not hard to imagine that there was a racial component to all of this--at the bare minimum, it sounds like fetishization of Asian folks or stigmatization could very well have played a part. The goal of the murders doesn’t specifically have to have been “because they were Asian” to be racially motivated. With that said, I want to address something that’s been bothering me on this site.

I haven’t seen a ton of posts or discourse about this shooting since it happened earlier this week. That bothers me, and not just for advocacy reasons.  The amount of people on here who appreciate, consume, idealize, and even fetishize Asian culture and media without posting about anti-racism towards Asians makes me so upset. You can do better on your consumption-to-support ratio, I promise. It’s not that hard to advocate, or to share a few posts. I want to encourage all you anime, video game, kpop and jpop fans to give back even a fraction of what you take. Don’t get me wrong--media exists to entertain and to be consumed! Heck, I know I consume Asian media! But if we consume without supporting the folks who create the media we love so much, ESPECIALLY when they are hurting and experiencing hate crimes, then we, too, are effectively complicit in their oppression. (I want to make a note that, while this all is in a way similar to the exploitation and theft of Black music, aesthetics, speech, style, etc. by non-Black folks, the histories behind the oppression and colonization of the two cultures and all of their subcultures are very different, and I am in no way trying to compare them). If you’d like to share some resources, here is a list of some that I’ve compiled: Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta :  A nonprofit legal advocacy group protecting the rights of Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Georgia and the Southeast. Stop AAPI Hate : Reporting of hate crimes and resources for education Red Canary Song : Labor organization and anti-trafficking for Asian and migrant sex workers. Sakhi for South Asian Women : Support for South Asian survivors of domestic abuse and gender-based violence. Jahajee Sisters: An organization led by Indo-Caribbean women focused on supporting women and girls. APIENC : An organization supporting the AAPI queer and trans community in the SF Bay Area. SWAN Vancouver: Supports immigrant and migrant women engaged in indoor sex work by providing support services and systemic advocacy. CAAAV: A pan-Asian community-run organization supporting low-income Asian folks in NYC. Hate Is A Virus: A movement to combat racism and xenophobia fueled by COVID-19. Chinatown Community for Equitable Development: A community-based org in Chinatown of Los Angeles dedicated to organizing, educating, and mutual aid. This great article by Harper’s Bazaar includes many of these organizations, but also a few others I haven’t listed here.

Please, folks. Support the Asian community as much as you consume their media.

[angeloncewas]

This just confirmed an idea i already had which i guess it solidifies it but anyways

So like during the lore drought in Summer I got into Hermitcraft bc why not and I was back into my MC interest, seemed fun and i was promised no lore to the extents of the DSMP (which side point, very funny Season 8, the season many of us got into it is the season of the whole everything going down. So that was a lie/lh)

But before that, we all know the Build Mart discourse and the tension around it. So before I was into the series, that whole shyebang got a little iffy with some SBI blogs and Trafficblr blogs, who at that time were mainlt SBI blogs and slowly mainning Trafficblr, but most ppl who are fans of dream in Tumblr can agree that those blogs are mostly neg about him, so much that I, anon-Dream (not saying which person but they he's from the Feral Boys)main could see as clear as water.

But okay, sure I got into that section bc of Last Life and slowly switched to Hermitcraft and followed some Trafficblr blogs and hey, they dont seem so bad, maybe I was wrong..

NOPE! Past existences that happened while I was/am in there like the Dream and George neg for the Minecraft mob vote as if other mcyters haven't done that, more Build Mart shit bc ugggghhhh. why does Dream hate it so much he obviously hates Grian 🙄 Noooo Grian doesn't like Parkour Warrior and Battle Box! Those games must be eliminated! Screw Dream even if he isn't the only player cracked at those games! Screw the DTEAM even if more players are good at Battle Box 😱 IGNORE HOW WE COMPLAIN ABOUT DTEAM FANS COMPLAINING ABOUT IT EVEN IF WE ARE DOING THE SAME AND ARE HYPOCYTAL AND WE DONT LIKE TO ADMIT IT/ WE SAY ITS ONLY SEXY WHEN WE DO IT AND ARE A BIG PART OF THE TOXICITY OF MCYTBLR 🤣, when other teams in mcc trash talk Dream in mcc they are cool but when Dream does it he is toxic, he needs to lose more often so my faves can win even if he were to do that we would complain how he lost on purpose as if our cc's cant win legit, Dream is a toxic player even if with new members in his team he coaches them kindly only getting toxic with his friends of literal years, almost decade, Dream is too cracked at mcc he needs to be more nerfed even if he worked for years for those abilities and can't be good at every MC skill like building just like your ccs can't be good at every skill they do like maybe pvp or speedrunning techniches-

All of that and tonight's instance just solidify my opinion that Hermit and honestly most of Trafficblr are the dttwt users of Tumblr, the awful ones. Like they said the 2019 Grian fans were like the current dsmp fans who are really toxic but that their community has gotten better over the years. Yeah that progress was undone bc they are acting just like 2019 toxic Grian fans.

Current Trafficblr 🤝 Beeduo/Dteam twitter mains

Acting like 2019 Toxic Grians fans

They are the thing they hate the most aka dream stans lmao

THE BIG PARAGRAPH IN THE MIDDLE WITH THE EMOJIS SENT ME FOR SOME REASON 😭 I get what you're saying though fr.

I think one of the quickest things to breed toxicity is a sense of superiority. When you feel like you have the high ground, it's easier to look down upon others and harder to look within yourself. We saw it with general mcytblr during the escapee era; everyone constantly was on about mcytblr's supremacy over mcyttwt and completely failed to recognize and come to terms with flaws in their own behavior. I think that's some of the problem with trafficblr/hcblr - because the dteam side of the mcyt fandom is such a hot mess (and I as a Dream-main will readily admit that) they believe they're above it. Hell, I did too! I lowkey idolized (very lowkey, but still) the hc blogs for their chillness. But that's not how this is. We're all just people in fandoms and as such we're very much alike in a lot of ways. Their ccs rage and trash talk and falter and so on and so on just like the ones I enjoy do, but because they have that false-bottom pedestal they rag on "our side" for it and don't care to consider theoretical hypocrisy.

This isn't every hc fan/trafficblr member - my dash is HIGHLY hc focused nowadays bc in the midst of the lull a lot of people I follow switched over - but I think it's worth considering. I am always ready to talk about the problems with the parts of the fandom I'm in, even when I myself don't agree with the criticisms, but I just don't see that energy shared and swapped among them in general. I don't know if I'd call them "awful" like you because my experience with them as a whole has been incredibly limited (and usually incredibly negative because those are the ones who tend to cross over) but I'm very sorry that's been your experience.

[jjuuppiter]

Hi. Sorry if I’m speaking out of turn but I saw your post and elitism reblog and thought I’d chime in, as a former member of the fandom who has been lurking around recently. Disclaimer I don’t speak for OP but it seems like OP might have been from the first few years of the fandom’s existence based on what they said in the post so I’d like to offer some context that could have led to OP’s “bad” take.

There was a lot of crap going on behind the scenes or on social media with Astruc and Zag that led to folks disliking both the show for its narrative choices and the creator/staff (around S1-S2, years 2016-2018). No details to share, just know many were often at odds with Astruc and/or Zag as early as 2016 (ML premiered late 2015).

So it’s difficult to blame them for being bitter or hyperbolic because at the time, we were given this idea it would be a great story based on its premise. then S2 rolled in and we were often disappointed by story decisions or what appeared to be regressions of character development. In other words, promises not delivered, expectations not met, money over quality. It got to a point some of us were able to point out which episodes were done by the cheaper studio and which were by SAMG cuz the cheaper one often had inferior animation.

There was also a ton of fandom discourse regarding the sexualization of the characters, with many people on both sides of the issue. Some of the most popular fics *at the time* were rated M or E (like that one BDSM aged-up fic or the one where teenage Adrien had no idea what a woman’s period was and part of the fic was just them getting into very sexualized situations). Heck, there was so much discourse on Gabrienette (yes Gabrienette). Idk how things are now wrt fanfiction or the state of the fandom but that was what it was like when I was around. I suspect that’s why some people have since stereotyped the ML fandom as people who like sexualizing teenagers in fic. Cuz the fics (and art) at the time often did it, esp prior to the Tumblr Purge of 2017. The word “p*dophilia* got thrown around a lot too.

Now that the fandom is so big though, it’s hard to generalize the whole community or even to take issue with elitism 😅 (elitism was also something talked about during my time...it was no use). Now some folks who may be coming back probably do prefer just the fan art and AUs. But that’s them.

Again, I’m sorry if I’ve spoken out of turn. You may ignore this ask if you’d like and esp if you already knew everything I talked about 😅

hey thank you anon for telling me the early years of the fandom! i only casually watched the show for s1-s3 so i didnt know what was happening in the fandom before and i dont follow any of the creators of the show since i dont want my feeling fot the show to be influencd by them.

about fanfictions... im not gonna say much... but every fandom has their fair share of questionable fanfics and i think it's not something we can control anymore... people will write what they wanna write

and yep the person maybe doesnt have any ill intention when posting it but i still feel it's not right for them to generalize (and kinda mock) the whole ml fanfictions community even if they are a veteran... because tbh i found a lot of good fanfics from 2016 that i think are wholesome and arent sexualized at all... so i believe even in the early year of the fandom there were a lot of good contents too ^^

sorry if i said something wrong! this is just my opinion as one of the rookie mlb fans ^^

[queerhannibal]

One of the fans who found the 'art' disgusting posts Hugh Dancy's paparazzi photo and crops his bottom and comments 'that ass' .. I am ..

Yeah I’ve been trying not to get into this bc I’m v tired of discourse but for the record I love Camille and I miss her presence on this website a lot, and while the subject matter of some of her art isn’t stuff that I prefer, it is not bad of her to have created it, and I am very pleased with Bryan coming out so vocally in support of her and other artists. I value this fandom for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that it has been a welcoming community full of people who support their fellow fans even when those fans have different tastes and are not creating “”morally pure”” content

We love a v fucked up show, and it’s very existence is proof that art can be good and have value even if it’s content is morally deplorable?? It’s wild to me that anyone with that kind of “you can’t be interested in things that are fucked up” attitude could possibly like Hannibal?????

But anyway yeah the stance that it’s bad and wrong of them all to “fetishize” the actors by liking nsfw art of them is wild in the first place and to then go and crop out Hugh’s ass from a paparazzi photo… like man you know who’s really hurting actors and making it hard for them to not live objectified lives? Paparazzi. Get mad at them for stalking Hugh and his wife if you want to get pissed at someone lol I promise that has a much larger impact on their lives than their friend liking a drawing of their dick

[veridium]

fuck it, queer meta.

About a year ago I wrote one of my first and largest meta posts about why I consider Cassandra a prime example of queerbaiting despite her being a character who explicitly says she is heterosexual. This lead to quite the day of inbox hate mail from people throughout the fandom. Most were upset I used the “q slur” and left it untagged as such in the big DA meta tags. I can imagine for those folks, the substance of what I had to say mattered little as a result. 

I deleted most of those messages and my responses soon afterward. They upset me greatly even as I took it all in stride. However, given that it’s been about 365 days since that fiasco, and some interesting events have happened with regards to current and former DA writers, I thought it would be “fun” to write a recap and reflection on why, generally, I still feel the way I did when I wrote that post. With some changes and growth, of course. 

The gist of it is, as we have come to learn in past, recent, and ongoing discourses in fandom, that much to the chagrin of a lot of folks in this fandom: BioWare, and in this instance DA writers, are not your SJW Icons. Furthermore, they never should have been, or should be, considered as such. 

The gist (part two) for me, is: for as much as diverse characters, worlds, and societies are being uplifted by Games these days, the counterbalance of bullshit is still there. And I think it survives most sturdily in the kind of logic the BioWare writing culture throughout the years. This sense of egalitarian, “of course” logic, that appears to make socially deviant identities normalized but really just falsely positions those identities as meant to be in lock-step with the norm. Representation to gaming, and most of media writ large, all-too-easily falls into the trap of “we want what the privileged have,” which it to say, we want our existence to be a no-brainer, even if it means we lost the essence of why our stories are so profound, important, and necessary to do justice. 

I really can’t imagine accepting the way characters like Cassandra were written because I don’t accept the writer(s) who wrote her. Why?

Come with me, and we’ll be, in a world, of pure fuckery...but with citations...because I’m an Academic and that’s my roll.*

*Please see tags for pertinent content warnings before clicking.**

**if you reblog and tag this shit with “q slur,” I will take all the reserves of understanding I have as a DA fic writer for all of the enraged womxn in the series and express it accordingly. And, as a femslash-oriented author, I can promise you: that expression will be consumptive. 

Hm, I wonder, what with the predominant writer for her character inquires on Twitter for “lesbian fanfic porn” recommendations for writing “research,” but seems to be unable to hire appropriate creatives to write, consult, etc. for the project. 

Or that the writers room made, and continues to make, space for a writer who continually does Black and queer characters dirty with his mediocre-at-best work, in both game and novel form (because, plot twist, he’s a shit writer) (1) (2) (3). 

Or that the writer’s room, and specifically Ga*der, attesting that the development of the Qunari was based on Arab cultures around the time of “Medieval Europe,” which is somehow his way of getting out of the thematic botching of the Qunari language, social structure, etc. from Islamic tradition. 

Or, the writers who intentionally shaped the story so that Vivienne, one of the limited number of Black women characters in the entire series to have a role as an ally, to be a red herring of an distrustful and conceited antagonist, to the point where her treatment by fandom has been incredibly racist, heinous, and lazy for years.

These are a few of MANY reasons, with thorough exposition, why the veneer of “progressive inclusion” studios like BioWare claim to be authentic. Having “diverse” writers in the room -- and I’m using that word incredibly tenuously here -- didn’t change the result of any of these harmful scenarios. In fact, it created them. This, combined with the tale as old as time: toxic fandom culture with white, anglo-centric, cisheterosexual masculinist ideals at the fore, have gotten us here. 

So, do I hold all of the reasons why I am angry about Cassandra’s character writing the same way now, as I did then? No. Certainly not. In fact, there are parts where I would correct myself. On the other hand, the thesis for me remains largely preserved: I revile G*ider, I revile that he gets the accolades he does by fandom for his “diversity” of characters when he exploits, erases, and uses slippery morality to get out of admitting he has shortcomings in his work. I hate that the exaltation for representation still funnels itself onto the heads of white writers and predominantly white-staffed studios. 

And, underneath it all, I am mad that some of ya’ll see no problem with that. Because what does it matter, if you do not come from communities, cultures, and coalitions that get the brunt of this misrepresentation? What does it matter if it angers a lesbian fan that the writers who have a long history of misusing and conveniently copping themselves out when they write women and queer characters, seem to use that “expertise” as permission to do what they are supposedly combating?

G*ider, the hero himself, is on written record saying that it should not be second guessed as to why Cassandra is straight, just as he thinks it should not be second guessed that Dorian is gay. Yet, when he asked on Twitter if there was some moral significance to people modding character’s sexuality (in this specific instance, Dorian, actually), G*ider said that in the end, people’s mods “do not change” what he wrote, and that unless they claim their changes “supercede” canon, there’s no harm done. 

So, really, I’m just over here like -- is this ya’lls hero?

Why in the fuck would someone be modding a gay character to be bisexual or heterosexual, if they didn’t somehow believe that version “supercedes” the canon rendition? Secondly, where is the attention to the fact that, in an ensemble of multiple romanceable characters, Dorian has to be the one that has to be sexually and romantically accessible to those outside of his canonical realm of attraction?

I mean, for fuck’s sake, it’s the whole virtue grounding his companion side quest, the fact that he is estranged from his Father who tried to magically change his orientation! This is a crucial part of Dorian’s entire journey to serving the Inquisition, and serving Tevinter as a dissident.

But, you know, it doesn’t change what G*ider wrote. And he’s correct, it doesn’t change what he wrote, which he got credit, money, and esteem for. It doesn’t change that if you load up the base game, Dorian’s gay. In G*ider’s head, that is the protective force: the parts where he has ties, and not the culture of the fandom, the culture the fans who helped fill his pockets from that game have to dwell within. This isn’t revolutionary, this isn’t good-faith representation. This is getting a piece of the rotten-sweet pie and saying “let bygones be bygones, you toxic, funky heteronormative assholes!”

But, where are my manners. I’m getting heated, aren’t I?

Basically, if you condemn queer fans for calling out queer bating -- or any marginalized fan for throwing up the alarm for bullshit -- and your first reaction is to side with folks like G*ider who got theirs and said screw everything else, fuck off. Literally, fuck off. I call Cassandra’s circumstance queerbaiting because she’s one example of writers getting their cake and eating it, too. If they are so aware of just how much of their fanbase is marginalized folks, they don’t get to say they don’t have fingerprints on things like queerbaiting. You don’t get to be acclaimed and excused for the shit you say you are combating, which is the source of that acclaim. And if your claim is happy ignorance, then you definitely don’t get to blithely equivocate when fans do ask you why the story happened the way it did. 

I also just want to keep in mind here that there’s a deductive conclusion to be had about this, given how La*idlaw explicitly stated they endeavored to make Cassandra extremely hot, “really enticing.” That conclusion is: 

(1) Either they aren’t/weren’t nearly as attuned to their queer audiences as they generally claim to be, or 

(2) They were, and had no intention of developing compassion or empathy passed G*ider talking out of his ass about why Cassandra was developed as straight. Which, ultimately, does coincide with conclusion (1) more than not. 

No matter what, the contour to the conclusion is: wow, a taste of nauseating objectification, in the BioWare writer’s room. Who knew!

It’s no wild accusation to make to a writer like him and his colleagues, that they don’t know how to handle sapphic, wlw, and/or queer-related storylines, especially with women. Especially when the answer seems to be, “well, it was decided before I took the lead, and in any case, why question it! You wouldn’t question a gay character’s orientation!”

But that’s just it, you complete and utter turnip. People did question Dorian’s sexuality. People do question Dorian’s sexuality. That fantasy world of equal bearings is as insincere as it is out-of-touch. And why not, when, as you said, 

it doesn’t change what you got paid for.

The ethos seems to be crudely reflexive: people’s phobic interpretations and alterations of the canon do not matter, but then again, why would you even question why a character is straight? Why would you question my narrative vision, in all of its beautiful shittery?

It’s all a game of dodge, ya’ll. Dodge, dodge, dodge. With a strong and acidic dose of vanity. 

So. In summation, folks: I could care less for your false equivalences. I could care less about my contribution of queer content fucking up your good time in the meta tags. Obviously you aren’t there to actually engage in creative, exploratory thought, so why bother reasoning. There is more to the possibilities of queerbaiting than stringing along a could-be, would-be, should-be queer storyline directly. There’s knowing your audience enough to exploit your good graces with them. There’s benefitting from a charade of liberal progressive clout. There’s the ability to foresee that queer people will cathect to a given character, and not only denying an experience they could have, but denying it so harshly that the character says they can’t love yours because you’re female. 

And I am so, so, so sick of these people continually enriching themselves off of the “nobody’s perfect” grace. To me, that grace is the promise of good faith, and the intention to do right by people. When that isn’t there, the grace isn’t going somewhere where it’ll be appreciated, that it will be nourished by. I mean, fucking hell, people, this is rainbow capitalism: don’t you taste it?

That’s that, then. “Cassandra and Queerbaiting Rant,” one year on. An extra dose of salt, just for the haters. 

[lewlthea]

The Actual Thing Going On With Edelgard Von Hresvelg.

 Spoilers: It’s not fascism, nor racism (at least not in the way people think). Also, actual spoilers for the game.

If there has been a controversial character in Fire Emblem Three Houses, it’s Edelgard Von Hresvelg, one of the game’s main three lords, the house leader of the Black Eagles, the princess and sole heir of the Adrestian Empire, and an antagonist in every single route but hers. She has been a polarizing figure within the community: Some people think she’s an irredeemable monster, others think she’s a misunderstood leader. When it comes to Edelgard, theres hardly a grey opinion towards her; She’s either black or white. Today, I wanna talk about Edelgard’s actions towards the 4 routes, what they actually portray, and how and why the entire discourse towards her was caused deliberately by Intelligent System’s incredible mishandling and mistreatment of the character.

I remember Nintendo’s 2018 E3 conference quite well. I was at with a group of friends, watching at one of them’s house because he had a bigger TV. I remember making jokes about how “there was going to be a new Fire Emblem” because loving Fire Emblem when Intelligent Systems is Like That is a living nightmare.

And then this happens.

Words could not express the joy I felt when the trailer was over. It wasn’t just a new Fire Emblem game: We were going to have another lady lord, and an axe-wielding one at that - something the fanbase had been desperately craving since the recent surge in Hector’s popularity - and for once, it was like when I first found out that there would be a new female character in Shadows Of Valentia with Faye, and it was the tipping point for me to finally buy a Nintendo Switch.

Of course, just like Faye, things weren’t that simple.

Because some months before E3 2019, which promised to reveal more info on Fire Emblem 3 Houses, Reddit exploded. All because of someone who goes by the username Thanibomb, who claimed to have leaked info on the game, saying a lot of information about all the characters, some of them very questionable (With things such as Lysithea would die due to her crest complications, and it would cause the major 5-year war, and other things like Claude being the one who shot Dimitri’s eye off), while other info being oddly specific. A part of it that made me particularly chuckle was when such user said that Dimitri would have lost an eye, and would cover it with an eyepatch. I found it so silly and, along with some friends, claimed it to be fake and carried on.

And then E3 2019 happened.

And Dimitri had an eyepatch. 

And still, even after Thanibomb, things remained optimistic. All lords looked nice, they seemed to have their own ideals, their own paths, and no fights were breaking out within the fanbase yet. But then early copies were sent to reviewers. And then 4chan got a hold of one of those. And then the main leaks started. And by the time the game got released, it was too late. The amount of hate comments towards the character was so overwhelming; some calling Edelgard a fascist, others claiming that she was racist, others even saying that she gives racist remarks towards Claude ingame (a blatant lie). A personal favorite comment of mine was how Hubert and Edelgard looked like the perfect alt-right couple. 

(Should I remark that these kinds of comments stopped as soon as they found out that Hubert could A-support Ferdinand, and most of them moved on to fetishize the relationship between the two of them instead. Ironically, before that happened people despised Hubert in general solely because of his unusual appearance and shady behavior, but that was soon seen as ‘nuanced’ the moment he could be paired off with another man.)

And so, a fight between the fanbase begun: (Mostly) Blue Lion fans bashing Edelgard’s character, Black Eagle fans defending her vehemently, and Golden Deer fans between either on any of those sides or just making memes for Joe Zieja’s rally campaign for the GD. Mostly the latter. But that’s beside the point.

A (Kinda) Brief Summary of Edelgard’s Presence In Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, And Silver Snow.

Throughout the game’s second part, unless you’re playing the Crimson Flower Route, Edelgard will always be an antagonist who cannot be spared, and she cannot survive unless it’s in her own route. However, the way she is percieved changes depending on each route you are making, with each route leaving small fragments depicting Edelgard’s past and shaping her character in full scale. 

In Verdant Wind/Silver Snow, Edelgard isn’t the final boss. She is one of the bosses before the big fight. (Nemesis in Claude’s case, Rhea in Seteth’s). She’s one of the obstacles, but not the main one, therefore there is not much insight on her character; However, there is still one element present in those routes that is curiously omitted from Azure Moon that is the reason why she doesn’t really have too much focus, that being Hubert’s final letter.

In both routes, Hubert seems to highly respect Seteth/Claude’s prowess in the war and their cunning mind. (Especially Claude; Throughout both Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower, he commends Claude’s tactics and strategies multiple times). In the letter, he gives the location of where Rhea is confined and asks them to eliminate Those Who Slither in the Dark, the game’s true villains and the ones behind most, if not all the game’s tragic events. Even more curiously, though, is the fact that the letter does exist on the Crimson Flower route, and can be seen briefly on Hubert’s B support with Ferdinand, being the reason of their argument throughout the conversation. Not a single mention of the letter exists in the Azure Moon Route. (Of course it would not make sense for it to exist gameplay-wise due to the player having already murdered Arundel/Thales earlier in the game but. It’s still something to be accounted for).

Speaking of Azure Moon, this is a much more trickier route to talk about. Not only due to the fact that Edelgard is this route’s final boss, but also because all of the things we discover about Edelgard within it are never mentioned in any other route, only brief mentions about the time she spent in the Kingdom; nothing more. 

In here, her time spent on the Kingdom is expanded: Both Edelgard, her mom Patricia and Arundel were sent off to Faerghus due to exile, with Patricia being set off to marry King Lambert. There, she meets Dimitri, and they both become fast friends. By the time she has to leave, Dimitri gifts her with a dagger (Which, in Faeghus, are important gifts that mean ‘to cut a path towards a better future’), and she returns to Adrestia. Some time after she leaves the Tragedy of Duscurr happens, caused by Those Who Slither in the Dark. However, due to a misunderstanding caused by eavesdropping on a conversation between Thales and the Flame Emperor, Dimitri mistakenly believes that the Flame Emperor was behind it all, and once the Flame Emperor’s identity is finally revealed to be Edelgard, she is instantly demonized and called a ‘witch’, even though she openly declares how she had nothing to do with it. This goes on until Rodrigue’s death and Cornelia’s reveal that Patricia was the one behind the Duscurr Tragedy so she could return to the Empire and “reunite with her daughter”. (We never find out about what happened to her and she is not mentioned during the Crimson Flower). Dimitri tries to talk Edelgard off their final confrontation, but Edelgard insists that it is far too late for her to back down for their ideals are far too different, and she refuses to live in a world where the Church of Seiros exists. Dimitri then hands back her dagger (Which she accidentally dropped before the timeskip), and they both retreat to prepare for the final battle.

This route’s final boss is an Edelgard who was absorbed direct power from Those Who Slither in the Dark, and adquires a grotesque, corrupted form. No other character in the canon possess such a thing, and only Edelgard can assume such form. Once she is defeated, Dimitri tries once again to spare her, only for Edelgard to stab him with the dagger, making Dimitri realize that she would never give up on her dream, and finally kills her.

An Even More Brief Explanation of What Does All of This Means.

Okay, all of that info was nice, fun, good, yadda yadda. What does this mean and why was it needed.

Well, for starters, let’s ask ourselves a question: After reading the summary, can you say that you know what drives her to seek out the destruction of the church?

What is her reasoning behind the unification of Fodlan?

Do we get anything out of her other than “Scary dictator” or “An obstacle that had to be sadly removed” or “Under better circumstances... We could’ve been Allies (tm)”?

We don’t. Because Intelligent Systems did not bother to show Edelgard’s motivations, despite her being the villain in almost all the routes.

During Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, Edelgard herself does not matter: she’s solely important because she is threatening the church, she is your scary big bad dictator that you have to beat in order to rescue Rhea, only to find out that in reality she was just a stepping stone to the real villains, Those Who Slither in the Dark. (In game it is said that Hubert came up with this name. In my humble opinion Hubert can go fuck himself because this is the shittiest name I have ever seen and I am tired of having to type this five word long thing every paragraph or so). As soon as you read the letter, suddenly Edelgard, the Empire, and all the questions you had as to why she Did It dissappear because now you have another objective, another goal. 

This is even more offensive during Azure Moon because she is the focus, the final boss, but it doesn’t matter why she did all of this nor what her ideals actually are despite them being the reason why she cannot be spared. The game would rather focus on getting reactions out of the player when the intimidating big meanie does something that makes Dimitri go angry than actually focusing on the clashing of Dimitri and Edelgard’s ideals, why they cannot go back to what it once was, what happened to her to change this way, why did ‘El’ actually die. All you have is a dictator in red which does things for no reason other than “I will destroy the Church and unify Fodlan so I can govern over all of it”. Nothing more, nothing less.

....Of course, you do realize that I have avoided to talk about a certain thing.

So, About That Crimson Flower Route...

If there is a way to truly understand a villain, one must walk on such person’s footsteps. Most people criticizing Edelgard were the ones who hadn’t played her route yet, or had only played Azure Moon and was led to believe that all of Edelgard’s actions are unwarranted or pure nonsense. 

There is a reason why people sing their tune differently as soon as they experience the Crimson Flower.

For starters, to be able to fight for Edelgard, you have to first have her support up to C+, go with her to Enbarr once she asks of you, and then defend her from Rhea at the Holy Tomb. The reasoning behind that is so that you fully understand what Edelgard has gone through and the reason why she cannot agree with the existence of the Church.

The Azure Moon route tells you of Edelgard before she returned to the Empire.

It never tells you what caused her to change after she went back.

Edelgard was part of the crest experimentations caused by Those Who Slither in the Dark, alongside all her siblings. Her father, the emperor, was unable to do anything about it, as the real people in control of the Empire were Arundel/Thales and Duke Aegir. Being the sole survivor of such things to return to society and see how everything is defined by whether you have a crest or not and finding out that the Church, who instead of breaking down such system to favor equality would rather turn the creatures who run it into figures to be worshipped is. Something.

There’s another reason for Edelgard’s sudden betrayal, a more sinister one, and why she feels like everything needs to be done in a quick pace. In her C+ you find out she has a second crest, The Crest of Flames, just like the player. People who bear two crests have a shortened lifespam, however.

When Edelgard declares war against the Church, and to unite Fódlan, it’s not solely because ‘Church bad’: She declares war against the unfair crest system, against the hypocrisy of Rhea’s dragon entourage, and of course, to destroy Those Who Slither in the Dark later on the road.

  However.

Just because Edelgard’s behavior is justified, does not mean she is 100% in the right. She herself admits that the path she follows is one drenched in blood. But there are several times in the game that makes you stop and think for a second that she can still make bad decisions, and that sometimes her decisions might have horrible consequences. One of them is for example to never take away Brigid’s status as a vassal to the Empire and return it back to it’s former glory as an actual country, which shows how the entire Brigid kerfuffle is something akin to colonization. We should also point out that when she unifies Fodlan, in some endings she remains the Emperor, completely missing the point of what she fought for.

Another case that shows one of Edelgard’s biggest flaws is with the Silver Maiden incident.

Edelgard had just conquered Arianrhod, the Silver Maiden, and due to murdering Cornelia, enrages Ariandel/Thales, whom causes the situation above out of a show of power. She knows it was Those Who Slither in the Dark, but she needs to give explanations fast and she can’t reveal their identity or else they would slip away and it would be impossible to locate them and destroy them. So what does she do?

She says it was Rhea who did it, actively lying to her closest allies, one of them being the Prime Minister of the Empire.

For Edelgard, the ends justifies the means, and as long as she gets the results she wants, she will do what it takes. Even by alienation. And that’s a dangerous way to go on.

...So, where do I want to go from here? Who is to blame for the hatefest Edelgard is receiving?

Intelligent Systems Kind of Didn’t Know What To Do With Edelgard.

Now hold on. That sounds a bit too harsh, don’t you think? She was the first lord shown in the E3 2018 trailer, they have placed a very big emphasis on Edelgard everywhere hell the game’s main theme is about her, why would you claim that??

Well, first and foremost, I should start by saying that Crimson Flower is the game’s shortest route, with the total of 18 chapters. From those 18 chapters, there is only one cutscene, with most of the route’s major events being shown with either the game’s basic models or still images.

For comparison, Verdant Wind has the total of 8 cutscenes, counting the final one before the timeskip, with 3 of them being unique to its route.

Azure Moon has the total of 5 cutscenes, 3 of them being unique to its route. 

Silver Snow has 4 cutscenes, having 2 unique ones to its route.

The other two main lords have several support options with people outside of their respective houses; Edelgard only has one.

Remember when I said that one of Edelgard’s main enemies are Those Who Slither in the Dark? The game never lets her deal with them personally. You never truly fight them during Crimson Flower.

In a way, the game feels as if while Edelgard is the focus, you shouldn’t side with her. It really makes it feel as if someone at Intelligent Systems just snickered and said ‘Hey wouldn’t it be cool if we could let our players side with/date our villain?’ without even considering or respecting such villain’s motivations, her ideals, and what truly makes a character unique.

In the end, all they truly cared for was if Edelgard was romanceable enough for the player, not if she made sense or was appealing as a character, whether as a villain or a savior.

And considering how the fanbase is behaving towards Edelgard, they succeeded. 

[olderthannetfic]

Let’s take a break from specific fandoms to talk about:

Platform Wars

In 2020, we’re all asking what’s next after Tumblr. This is nothing new. “Is thing X killing thing Y?” is a question fandom has been asking since long before Escapade. But these panels offer comfort and insight into our current fear of change.

They’re also fucking hilarious.

So, without further ado, here are some past Escapade panels on the subject of Change Is Scary:

1997 - Effects of the Internet on Fandom & Slash (On the upside: more fans, more conventions, more excitement and a 24-hour party. On the downside: are the connections more shallow? Are the changes made to "fandom as we knew it" change what we enjoy? Do print fans have something to fear? Or is this simple another wave?)

2000 - Less is More: Gluttony & the Decline of Quality in Fanfic

2004 - Amusing Ourselves to Death (Fannish Discourse in the the Age of the Internet By sheer quantity, has the quality of our conversation declined to predominantly static?)

2004 - LiveJournal, Boon or Bane? (Has the advent of LiveJournal brought about the demise of mailing lists? Has it splintered the venue for discussion to the point where it's impossible to have meaningful conversation? Is the LJ phenomenon just one big egotrip? Come join us to discuss these and other questions.)

2007 - Is F’locked the New Black (Is the flocked post the future of fan communication? Are we returning to the dark ages of closed lists, zines under the table, and "have to know someone"? More and more LJ posts are locked, communities are closed, and groups are invitation only. Is there a way to protect our RL selves (and our fannish selves), yet share our fannish commentary and fic? How does this all look to a newbie? Where is our new comfort zone? And how do we keep track of all of this?)

2008 - The Organization for Transformative Works (The Best Thing Since Ever, or the End Of Days? The OTW is an incorporated nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans in multiple ways, including by providing open-source archive software (and an archive), legal assistance, and various efforts to preserve the history of fanworks and fan culture.)

2011 - Delicious - Rumors of Death Greatly Exaggerated? (Delicious, fandom's favorite bookmarking site may be getting shut down (or at least sold out) by The Man. What to do?)

2016 - Fandom Is Fic: from BNF to TL;DR. (From paper through Usenet to Livejournal, text was king. On Tumblr, long text is an imposition—isn’t it? Has fic been dethroned from its place at the top of the heap and fic-writing BNFs along with it? Discuss the dirty little social dynamics of the shifting patterns of fannish value and how we define 'fandom' itself. And what of zines and zine eds?)

2017 - The Kids Are Not the Problem (In recent years, media fandom has grown enormously. It has also scattered, spreading out to new platforms and meeting spaces. You often hear talk about "the kids" vs. "the olds," Tumblr vs. LiveJournal, or the problem of recruiting and retaining new fans. In this panel, let’s try flipping that script. If kids are not the problem, how can we change and grow? What awesome things are other fans doing/trying that people at Escapade should know about? Most importantly, what strategies can we use to leave our fannish bubbles and more fully experience fandom in 2017?)

2019 - The fall of tumblr (Fans have always looked for a good place to build communities on line. Recent events with Tumblr and other platforms like Facebook are restricting our gathering places and even blocking and purging our self-made content. How are people dealing with this? Fandom will survive, but where? Come discuss the problems and options out there.)

And below the cut, a whole bunch more panels on platforms and change:

1991 - Quality Control in Zine Publication/Economics of Fandom (Who is making money in fandom? Should they be? How accountable are fans? Editors? Artists? Have you ever written an LOC?)

1993 -  Supply and Demand in Fandom (Can we have too much of a good thing? How many cons or zine is too many? Are we glutting the market?)

1994 - Changing Nature of Fannish Communication (E-mail, and virtual zines, computer video editing and morphing -- all the new toys at our disposal...)

1996 - Internet—Will it eat your brain? Or take you to the poorhouse? (Nearly everyone has or can get access to a computer and thereby the Internet and the World Wide Web. What's out there for fans? What should you look for? What might you want to watch out for? How can you protect your pocketbook at the same time?)

1997 - Net Fiction & Print Fiction (Is the very existence of net fic changing the characteristics or reducing the quantity of print fic? Are there really stylistic and/or content differences? What makes some shows predominantly produce netfic, while others happily generate both? How do the barriers of access to each affect the fan community?)

1997 - History of Fan Socialization (Was fandom really different in the "old days"? Was there a feeling of community that we're missing now? Or is that just nostalgia clouding our memories? In today's net-connected fandom, what is (or should be) different? And what elements of the past should we try and retain?)

1998 - Professionals: Is the Circuit Dead? (Or has it just moved on-line? Is Pros fandom split on the subject of the internet? Many old circuit writers don't want anything to do with the new on-line library. They have objected to having their stories retyped an sent out, even on private e-mail. Has the paper circuit given way to the on-line library?)

1998 - Netfic Formatting A: How to Print It Prettily (An instructional panel, covering the basics of formatting, macros, and other time-saving tips to get the results you want.)

1998 - Privacy and Community: Pseudonyms, Screen Names and Face-to-Face Meetings (As more and more fandom is found online, how are we adapting to the anonymity that comes with it?)

1998  - Netfic Formatting B: From Word to Web, Making Shapely Net Slash (This panel is for everyone who wants to venture into the world of online slash, but gets nervous when faced with the myriad technical difficulties. Relax, it's easier than you think. We look at stylistic conventions, how to make your work newsgroup and e-mail friendly, and the dreaded subject header alphabet soup. We'll also cover some basic info on how to make a www archive site user friendly.)

1998 - Crossing the Line (An instructional panel on how to get what you want (more stories) in a world that may be unfamiliar to you (the web for print fans, and the insular world of zines for net fans).)

1999 - Does Print Fandom Have a Future? (In the age of instant, free net fic, is print fandom a dinosaur on its way to extinction, or a promise of reasonable quality in a sea of mediocrity? What are the key differences between zines and netfic, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Can the two coexist happily? )

2000 - Promoting Critique on Mailing Lists (How to promote critical discussion and attention to the mechanics of writing on email lists?)

2000 - Changing Power Dynamics in Fandom (With the decline of zine editors and growth of the Net, what's changed, and how does it affect us and our fanfic?)

2001 - Website Workshop 2 by the lady of shalott (Setting up and maintaining a fanfic archive, and in particular how to set up the Automated Archive software used by 852 Prospect and the Due South archives.) [NB: Yes, she went through a bunch of name versions before ‘astolat’.]

2002 - How to run a Fiction Archive (and Maintain Your Sanity)

2002 - Nobody Here But Us Sockpuppets (How multiple personality disorder takes on a whole new meaning in the world of mailing lists.)

2003 - Getting slash onto your PalmPilot for computer free reading

2003 - Recs Databases! Creation and Commiseration (Do you run a recs database and want to commiserate? Do you currently have a recs page and want to become database-driven? Want to talk about the relative merits of using PHP, MySQL, or Access to organize smut?)

2003 - How to Set Up and Maintain Fanfiction Archives (If you're thinking of running an archive, or already do and need some help, this is the panel for you. We'll cover everything from choosing a method of archiving, handling fandom growth, dealing with troublemakers, and just how much time, webspace and money are we talking, anyway? Come pick the archivists' brains.)

2003 - Has Escapade Run Its Course (Scuttlebut says: It's not like it used to be. My old friends don't come any more. My new friends can't get in. It's too big. It's too small. Oxnard, for god's sake? I'm getting sick and tired of the same shit year after year. Is Escapade old and tired? Does it need to be retired?)

2004 - HTML and Website Introduction (if you don't have a website and want to create one. where doyoustart'This will cover creating basic HTML pages and common webhosting options, as well as things to think about as you set iin vour first website.)

2005 - Where Have All The Good Conversations Gone? Rise & Fall of the Escapade Panel (Are people still interested in talking about the characters, plots, and themes of their shows? Has in-depth analysis of our fandoms been abandoned in favor of meta and fannish introspection? The forums for analytical discussion are disappearing as self-censorship and over-moderation increase. Can we change this? Do we want to?)

2005 - The Fannish Wiki (So we have the directorium, the directory of All Things Fannish. We visit it and it's just so cool, and we look for our fandom to see what it says... and it's not there! How to add it? What sort of info belongs there? How does a wiki work?)

2005 - I Was So Much Older Then, I'm Younger Than That Now (We've all heard about or lived through the tumultuous era when fandom moved online. But how has slash fandom, particularly slash fandom, changed since then? Are the changes the result of online fandom, or simply of a change in culture?)

2005 - Fanfic Archives (Setting up and administering fanfic archives: concepts, considerations, techniques.)

2006 - Putting your fic on the web (Basic skills for putting your fic on the web, including building your own very basic website, using LJ as a fic-site building tool, various options for labeling adult content, and using the standard upload interfaces for popular self-submit story archive software.)

2006 - Nifty Technology and the Future of Fandom (Fandom is quick to adapt to change and continues to bring fen together and to create fannish product. Fans have thrived regardless of how they communicate; via the post office, mailing lists, message boards, and Livejournal; they've pushed the frontiers of video and audio technology; and have managed to survive changes in copyright, pornography, and other laws. What are the upcoming trends and shiny new technologies on the horizon and how will fen use them to enhance fandom?)

2006 - Intermediate Webmastering (Designing your website for usability, options for restricting access to your website, making your stories easily accessed by mobile devices, and things to consider so fans can easily locale your site.)

2007 - Free Webtools and How to Take Fandom Advantage (Lots of free tools are available on the web to help the needy fan! Tools to edit pictures, make icons, write stories, share recommendations, share stories, and be fannish are becoming more available and more user friendly. Come chat about tools like del.icio.us, google docs, pxn8 audacity, itunes, the gimp, bittorrent, imeem, youtube and lll other things that you come and tell us about!)

2008 - E-book Readers (Sony PRS-505 or Amazon Kindle what's all the fuss about? Introduction to E-Ink and other mobile devices. What are the pros and cons of various devices? Where do you find e- books and fan fiction, and most importantly how do you get fan fiction formatted so you can read it on your ebook reader?)

2008 - If You Build It, Will They Come? (Roundtable on meta fannish infrastructure building strategies. bethbethbeth can talk about some of the specific challenges OTW is facing in its brave new fan territory, while oulangi can talk about why metafandom has flourished while very similar projects have failed, while we'll both discuss some of the challenges of the established meta/fannish structure of new communities, new fans, new technologies—and most of all, how do you keep the meta-fan conversation moving forward?)

2008 - Livejournal: Should Fans Take Their Business Elsewhere? (A discussion of the pros and cons of fannish communication on the various blogging entities.)

2008 - How to Find and Use Free Stuff on the Web (All kinds of free webapps are available for fic, art, icons, communication, and all sort of other fannish stuff. Come share favorite sites—we can bookmark everything we talk about on del.icio.us in real time!)

2009 - The Organization for Transformative Works (Off the ground and starting to soar! Come here about the latest developments in the OTW's projects and discuss where you'd like to see it go next.)

2010 - Is Somebody Taking Notes On This?: A Discussion of the Role of Fannish History (In honor of Escapade's 20th anniversary, let's talk about recording fannish history. What are the challenges? Is it worth doing? Can it be done in a fair way? What are we afraid of happening if we try? Is Fanlore the right vehicle for the project?)

2010 - The OTW in Its Third Year led by Elke Tanzer and Shoshanna (Okay, sure, the Organization for Transformative Works bought its own goddamn servers and hosted an archive (that hosted Yuletide) and published a journal (with a special issue on Supernatural) and saved a bunch of Geocities sites and testified at the DMCA hearings (supporting the FFF's proposed exemptions for vidders and other remix artists) and made a bunch of lolcats—but what have they done for us lately? [5] What do you want them to do?)

2010 - We Are All Naked (On The Internet Now) led by treewishes (Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter are conspiring with Google and your ISP to out your slash pseudonym to your RL friends, and to tell all your slash buddies your real name. Is there any way to stop the wave of facial recognition software or your oh-so-helpful friends who type your birthday into the cloud? Or is all this an inevitable consequence of evolving technology? Come on in and let's talk conspiracy theories!)

2011 - Fanlore: Are BNFs Writing Our History?, led by Sandy H (Fanlore has an official policy of 'plural points of view', but is that really happening? Have you ever looked up a kerfluffle you were involved in, and seen how your side of the battle was portrayed.' And on the other side, are we afraid of conflict, to the point that Fanlore is bland and safe?)

2011 - OTW/AO3 Wish List Conversation, led by Sandy H (Do you feel like you don't know how to get your A03 or OTW wishlist through the bureaucracy? A03 is getting better all the time, but there's a ways to go. Let's brainstorm and turn a list over at the end of the panel.)

2011 - The Reccing Crew (Recommending a fanwork is deeply woven into our culture. Are there new social mores at work when we make public recs? How has the move from letters to mailing lists to Livejournal and Delicious affected reccing? Delicious was conceived as a bookmarking site, but often operates as a recs and comments site. If it goes away, what would replace it?)

2012 - Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinboard, Oh My (and GetGlue, too!) (In the past year, the ongoing fannish diaspora has picked up speed, as more fannish activity has moved away from LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, and onto sites like Tumblr and Twitter. And then there was the Delicious implosion. Now there's GetGlue, a social network specifically for entertainment. Let's talk about navigating these sites—their strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them.)

2012 - The Kids These Days (Ever wanted to tell someone to get offa your lawn? Strangle the next person who said that? Revive a dead fandom? Joined a fandom you were 20 years "too old" (or young!) for? Did you go from Usenet to mailing lists? From zines to livejournal? Are you eyeing Tumblr and Twitter with alarm? Let's talk about weathering changes in fandom with grace—or at least a little humor.)

2013 - Privacy, Secrecy, and the Fourth Wall (The fourth wall between fans and The Powers That Be is shrinking day by day. Are the technologies we're using changing fannish etiquette {from invite-only mailing lists, to friends-locked journals, to all public all the time tumblr)? Should we run for the hills or embrace the change? Discuss!)

2013 - The What With the Where Now?! (Every time you turn around fandom is playing on a new site that has new functionality, new ways of interacting and new lingo. Join us in surveying places like tumblr, twitter and getglue.)

2014 - Tumblr: Missing Missing E (So you've just gotten the hang of Livejournal when all of a sudden fandom has jumped shipped to this new "microblogging" platform called Tumblr. What is "microblogging" anyway, and where do you even start? Join us in this tutorial/discussion on creating an account, deciphering the culture, finding fandom, and making Tumblr work for you.)

2014 - Out Of Step With the World (You have no current fandom. You can't even get Tumblr to load. What do you do when you're feeling disconnected and alienated, but you don't want to leave fandom for good? If this sounds like you, come join us to figure out some strategies for rekindling the love, making new friends, and finding your place.)

2014 - Real Fannish Community (Has AO3 ended the era of real fannish community or has it ushered in a new era of increased connectedness? Is Tumblr better or worse than the old days (and were the old days livejournal? yahoo groups? APA snail mail zine groups?)? I'm hoping for equal parts 'get off my lawn' and 'the future's so bright I gotta wear shades' debate here.)

2015 - Tumblr 102: Into Darkness. You’re here, now what? Here we talk about etiquette and xkit and making the most of your fannish tumblr experience.

2017 - Home on the Web (LJ's Russian overlords have removed HTTPS support and are moving the server activity to Russia; some say a shutdown of US services is on the horizon. Yahoo fails to make money with Tumblr. Dreamwidth is slow, and doesn't have media hosting. Email lists are a hassle. Imzy, a startup, places branding aesthetics over design usability. Where's the next place for fandom, or should we reclaim one or more of the platforms from the past?)

2018 - How to Tumblr (Like it or not (often, mostly not), tumblr is where fandom is most active right now. How do you find anything? How do you have conversations? How do you archive the bits you like best? The good news: the answers are not, "you don't; you don't; you don't." Bad news: Those aren't actually good questions for being fannish on tumblr.)

2019 - Social Network of Our Own (SNO3?) (Between FOSTA/SESTA, Article 13, Facebook's new "don't mention that sex exists" policy, and the Tumblrpocalypse, is it time for our own fannish social site? Or are Dreamwidth and Pillowfort enough?)

[hapalopus]

I'm sorry if this is sudden but are you an anti anti?

Kiinda sorta not really. I really don’t like either term/community. Both the anti and anti-anti communities suck and the label doesn’t tell you anything about the person’s views. Like, an anti who’s just against loli is a lot different from an anti who’s against two adults with an age-gap.

My stances are basically:

All writing should come with the relevant warnings so it’s easy to avoid

NSFW stuff should be impossible for minors to stumble upon on accident

The government should never be allowed to censor any kind of art or writing. Too much potential for political censorship. If you give the government a finger, they’ll take the arm. Art has to stay safe from the government for our own safety’s sake.

A private website can, however, put up whatever rules it wants regarding porn

Hurting characters in fiction is not suddenly worse because they’re being hurt in the context of sex. Abuse, rape, gore, murder, torture, etc. is all the same to me in fiction and art. Thinking something like this is inherently more immoral because sex is involved is… a very Conservative, Christian, and specifically American way of thinking. Darkfic has a right to exist. Guro has a right to exist. Porn has a right to exist.

Children are not more likely to be groomed with fanfiction or fan art than with any other thing relevant to their interests. I was groomed with virtual pets. The fact that something has the potential to cause harm is no reason to ban it. We don’t ban public pools because a kid could drown or a creepy guy could ogle kids at them. We take measures to prevent drowning and creepy guys.

You cannot base your moral stances on what disgusts you. It’s your responsibility as a member of society to analyze issues from an ethical stand-point instead of just deciding it’s bad because of moral disgust (also fun fact, high levels of sensitivity to disgust goes hand in hand with conservative values)

It’s not the responsibility of the creator of the work to teach what is an isn’t ethical. Most people wouldn’t think murder is right just because Assassin’s Creed rewards them for it or that a heist would be a good idea just ‘cause they saw it in Ocean’s 11. Same goes for writing. I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones, but I didn’t suddenly start supporting incest because of it.

Referring to any drawings or writing as CP or ‘pedophilia’ is actively harming the hunt for actual predators. This isn’t really my stance as much as that of the organizations working to end child abuse and trafficking. Conflating a drawing with actual CSEM (they’ve stopped using the term CP because the definition is too broad and doesn’t necessarily include actual children) is making it harder for organizations like the NCMEC to save children.

Tag! your! porn! Always tag your potentially triggering and upsetting stuff! Tag your scat! Tag your gore! Tag your abuse! Tag your animal death! All of it!

You have all the right in the world to hate and be disgusted by whatever writings you want, and you have all the right to complain about said thing too.That does not, however, give you the right to harass or suicide-bait whoever created it. If you believe they’ve done something wrong, report them to the website or the police or whoever is relevant. Harassing them doesn’t help. If you wouldn’t report them to the relevant authorities, they probably haven’t done anything seriously wrong.

I really like Gaiman’s essay “Why Defend Freedom of Icky Speech” if you want some more reading. Comes with non-graphic descriptions of rape, child abuse, and sex among teens.

I do also have this tag, but I can’t promise I agree 100% with every post. I’ll need to go through it some day, as some of the posts are a bit old. Take anything older than 6 months with a grain of salt https://hostilepopcorn.tumblr.com/tagged/shipping+discourse/

[aion-rsa]

Wave of Sexual Misconduct Accusations Rock Comics Industry

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

CW: Sexual harassment, grooming

This week saw a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against men of varying positions in the comic book industry. The first came from artist Aviva Artzy, followed up by artist and writer Kate Leth, with support from the wife of the late Darwyn Cooke, Marsha Cooke, and convention organizer Andrea Demonakos, accusing Cameron Stewart of grooming underage girls. Grooming is when an older person establishes a relationship with a usually underage one, with the intention of developing a sexual relationship in the future. As a result of this, Stewart, the one time Batgirl co-writer and Seaguy artist, was let go from a previously unannounced DC project and had a variant cover for Image’s Ice Cream Man canceled. 

Later, former Dark Horse editor Brendan Wright was accused by former colleague Bekah Caden of an extended campaign of sexual harassment and stalking. Wright left Dark Horse in 2015, and has been dropped by Starburns Industries Press, as well as an anthology benefit comic for gun violence survivors, and multiple other small press books. 

And finally, Warren Ellis was accused by writer/editor Katie West of using his power and influence to emotionally manipulate women into often sexual relationships, emotionally abusing them, and abandoning them. West was joined by musician Meredith Yayanos, and photographer Jhayne Holmes, who later started cataloguing and providing support to other victims of Ellis. At last count, that group is over 60. Ellis has since been dropped from the Dark Nights: Death Metal anthology he was scheduled to take part in.

Ellis’ response, posted on Twitter and emailed to his newsletter list, is embarrassing in its totality. The idea that the showrunner of Netflix’s Castlevania, a man who has had multiple comics adapted into movies grossing hundreds of millions of dollars, the man whose millennial web forum launched the careers of half of comics, didn’t realize he was famous enough to abuse a power imbalance is insulting to the intelligence he used to demand of his audience. 

What these three separate instances of abuse represent are yet another example of a pattern of toxicity at the intersection of multiple forces at work in comics as a whole: a toxic undercurrent that exists inherent to fandom and the complicity it encourages, and an industry full of informal work arrangements that encourages the rapid downward distribution of exploitation. And with comics at an inflection point, caused by the massive jolt to all the systems of the world by this pandemic summer, it’s worth examining the systemic flaws that enable rampant sexual misconduct to exist as open secrets, unaddressed, for decades, and think about systemic solutions.

Just about everyone who loves comics wants to make them. This isn’t universal; there are some people who enjoy simply spectating in the medium, but if you talk to 100 comics fans, I promise 98 of them are sitting on a pitch for something. Comic conventions are packed with people looking for portfolio reviews; the internet, jammed with people trying to get their scripts looked at. 

While it was in existence, the Warren Ellis Forum was one of the most reliable pipelines for new comics talent. There are good rundowns of the contributions of the WEF to current comics culture from both pre- and post-toppling of this idol, but what neither mentions is that this was an accepted way to break into the business for a brief comics era – not only through the WEF, but through the Bendis boards, and through Mark Millar’s faint echo of the WEF, Millarworld. The internet dramatically expanded the potential audience for comics, and made it easier than ever to put out your own work, but it also combined with the superhero industry’s tendency towards bombastic personalities to channel talent development through a series of larger than life internet personas and the cyber networking events that sprang up around them. These, as is the convention social scene, are full of potential abuse.

One commonality to all of these cases (and not just these cases, but also with Brian Wood and Scott Lobdell and many others) was the access to the industry they dangled to entice women into relationships. That power imbalance is creepy and bordering on toxic from the start, even if there are anecdotes of it working out. There are different ways to solve this problem – using agents to mediate the relationship between publisher and creator, as Kelly Sue DeConnick suggests, would help, though it wouldn’t be a panacea. As would comic companies regularizing the talent scouting and development process. Greater systemic access for new creators closes off one channel that these predators hunt through. If it’s easier to get your break on superhero books through a new talent training school than it is to know somebody who knows somebody, then those intermediate somebodies lose access to impressionable, exploitable fans. 

It’s also time for comics to reexamine the freelance system. The comics industry has a long history of exploiting its workers powered by the freelance system, and an under examined side effect of freelancing is that it absolves companies of responsibility for the actions of what should be their employees. Freelancers occupy a murky area in employment law, particularly when it comes to harassment laws. Some places, like New York City, explicitly cover freelancers under sexual harassment laws. But New York is the exception to the rule. Most freelancers in any industry have no legal protection against the sexual harassment or discrimination that we seem to hear about every other month. It’s long past time for comic publishers to adopt policies to mitigate these problems. 

Finally, a portion of the responsibility for this abuse falls on all of us, the comics community. Time and time again, when one of these harassers is outed, they’re followed by stories about extensive whisper networks warning of the harasser’s behavior, or of victims being ignored, or harassment being downplayed by people in positions of authority. Every time one of these harassers is outed, the accusation is followed by a flood of additional abuse pointed at the victim. And without fail, this additional abuse falls into one of three categories: 

“[barely intelligible bigoted shrieking]”

“I like the opportunity the abuser afforded me in the industry.”

“I like the comics the abuser made.”

The first is a problem with broader civil society and won’t be eliminated until we can collectively toss hatred from acceptable public discourse, and is too big a problem to break down today. The second is a condemnation of the work arrangements common to comics and can be mitigated by the industry offering more opportunities than the abusers. The final one is a problem we should all be working to solve. 

When victims don’t feel safe standing up for themselves through official channels, it’s not just the official channels that have failed those victims. Every member of the community at large has failed those victims, by failing to demand greater accountability of the ones setting and mediating the rules of the community, failing to demand more protection on behalf of their fellow fans and friends and present and future creators. Whisper networks exist because victims aren’t heard and believed. And they perpetuate the problem – you can’t be a part of a whisper network if you’re not connected to the network. They exclude large portions of fans, who eventually may find themselves targeted by these predators. 

This is not on the whisper networks to fix, and none of this should be read as casting a drop of blame on the people working to protect whoever they can in the comics community. Nor should any blame be hung on the victims themselves – “We all should have seen the signs” is a cop out that ignores the complexity of abuse patterns and how abusers manipulate the rules to get away with their abuse. This is on the companies to fix, by ending their support and protection for known abusers. This is on the comics media, to stop promoting and protecting known abusers. This is on cons, to stop platforming abusers and to do what they can to control the social scene that springs up around them. And this is on all of us as fans, to stop putting these people on pedestals. Sometimes a monument needs to be torn down.

The post Wave of Sexual Misconduct Accusations Rock Comics Industry appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Comics – Den of Geek https://ift.tt/31b9y2C

[scrapsofsky]

I have once more (and a very long time ago) been challenged by Ian Sales to join him in our un-named war to come up with the best arbitrary list of films within an equally arbitrarily selected category. You can find previous iterations of this absurdity here, here, here, here, and here. We have, alas, not done this in a long while, which we can both blame on being busy with many other things.

But in the interest of rekindling silliness, I have been loosely challenged by Ian to come up with a list of 10 underrated SF/F films from the last 20 years, which is a direct response to this ScreenRant list. Since this list is in response to a link with a remarkably open prompt, I’ve opted to stick to the 10 item list format. Future challenges will go back to our favorite number:  5.

Ian, of course, has already dropped his list. Go check it out!

With that in mind, the following list of 10 films represent my attempt to put together films that I consider to be overrated. My criteria is fairly simple:

It must be a SF/F film released since 1999.

It must be underrated in the sense that it is underappreciated by the SF/F community or has largely been forgotten. Box office numbers may be part of the equation, but mostly I will go on my own interactions with the SF/F community and sadly arbitrary interpretations of what has been “lost” to everyday discourse.

I literally don’t care if the movies I pick are considered “good” by other people, and so I’ve picked films that I think are interesting for some reason or another. This inevitably means that you will hate my list and wish me to fall into a pit of endless fire.

So, without further adieu, here’s my list:

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)(dir. Makoto Shinkai)

One of my first academic essay publications focused on this film, which should tell you how much I enjoy it. Kumo no Mukō, Yakusoku no Basho is, in my opinion, Makoto Shinkai’s magnum opus. A story of friendship, betrayal, and love. A story of the Cold War, imperial control, and out of control technology. Shinkai’s method of storytelling is remarkable:  low key and vibrant, emotionally tense and freeing. In a world where Hayao Miyazaki is considered the King of Japanese Animation, Shinkai’s work has sadly not received the appreciation it deserves — Kumo no Mukō, Yakusoku no Basho especially.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)(dir. David Twohy)

I strongly considered putting 2000’s Pitch Black here instead, but I think that film, while perhaps a bit underrated today, has received considerable praise. Its sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick, however, has often been derided for one reason or another. Unfairly, in my opinion. From its Gothic (with a side of emo) aesthetic to its expansion of the Riddick universe into a sprawling space opera to its total commitment to the gritty, morally ambiguous treasure trove of dirty, grungy themes, places, and characters, The Chronicles of Riddick is easily one of my favorite science fiction films of the last 20-ish years. Plus, the cast is fantastic. This is a hill I’m willing to die on. (Also:  I look forward to checking out Furya and Merc City in the near future!)

Night Watch and Day Watch (2004 and 2006)(dir. Timur Bekmambetov)

I’m counting these as one because it’s my list and I can do what I want. This Russian duology is based on Sergey Lukyanenko urban fantasy novels about the conflict between two supernatural factions who monitor the actions of one another as part of an uneasy truce. Part detective thriller and part dark fantasy, the films pack quite a punch. However, outside of the circuit of foreign film lovers within SF/F, they’ve largely flown under the radar, this despite starring well known Russian actor Konstantin Khabensky. If you’ve never seen these films, you owe it to yourself to watch them, even if for no other reason than to watch someone drive a sports car across the face of an apartment complex!

Sunshine (2007)(dir. Danny Boyle)

I considered putting Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later here instead, but I don’t think that film is actually all that underrated even if it doesn’t get as much play today as it did a decade ago. Sunshine, however, has spent most of its existence floating between general praise for its visuals and premise and general dislike for its second act. And, yes, it is a spectacularly gorgeous film, but that second act is, in my opinion, far more interesting than most people are willing to admit. Turning a space thriller into a horror film as a commentary on the paradoxical frailty and strength of the human spirit is, in my opinion, a gutsy move. For me, that move pays off, and it’s one of the reasons I think this film has remained underrated. It doesn’t follow the pattern these stories usually follow. It’s basically Armageddon if that film took itself seriously and Rockhound actually went insane. And that makes it an infinitely more interesting film.

Upgrade (2018)(dir. Leigh Whannell)

If you didn’t get a chance to see Upgrade, you’re missing out. This sleeper scifi action thriller had some of the most compelling fight choreography and shot compositions of 2018, and yet it flew under the radar. I had the good fortune to see the film in theaters; the experience did not disappoint. Much of the fight choreography relied on some impressive camera trickery to follow the lead actor’s movements, giving the entire film a robotic and wonky feel. It’s truly exciting to watch, and I wish more people had had the opportunity to do so in an actual theater. Because it’s gorgeous on the big screen!

Push (2009)(dir. Paul McGuigan)

I will watch almost anything with Djimon Hounsou in it. Push is one of those forgotten little films that takes a less in-your-face approach to the whole super powers concept. In this world, people with powers are test subjects or hidden in plain sight, monitored by a nefarious organization with equally nefarious intents. By comparison to the typical superhero film we have today, Push is quite restrained, relishing in the quirks and trickery of its list of powers and giving actors like Dakota Fanning the space to place (watching her drunkenly stumble around is kinda fun). It’s an imperfect film to be sure, but one that I still love.

Hulk (2003)(dir. Ang Lee)

I’m going to catch hell for this, but Ang Lee’s Hulk is one of my favorite superhero movies to date. I even prefer it to that other Hulk film by a long mile. Lee does give us some of the stuff you expect from a superhero film (big fight scenes and visual spectacle), but I particularly love the softer focus on Banner and his mental state. It feels more like a film that is trying to say something about human nature than a film stuck in an endless action sequence or caught up in villainy for the sake of villainy. For me, that means the film takes more chances with its performance and themes. And I’m always more compelled by the film that tries to do something interesting and failed than I am by the alternative.

Another Earth (2011)(dir. Mike Cahill)

Independent cinema has a tendency to produce some truly introspective and powerful films. Another Earth is no exception. A film about loss, guilty, love, and second chances, Another Earth‘s science fiction premise (a mirror Earth) is really just background, offering an opportunity in the conclusion and lending weight to the central thematic of loss and guilt as the romance between the protagonists comes head-to-head with a secret that threatens to tear them apart. The narrative is at times quite haunting, but it also commands us to think more deeply about what it means to seek forgiveness, to seek second chances, to live with loss, and so on. And if you like this one, Sound of My Voice (2011) is a far creepier film about cults that also stars Brit Marling!

Dredd (2012)(dir. Pete Travis)

We will never get an adaptation of Judge Dredd that is as good as 2012’s Dredd. A vicious, unrelenting and dark film, Dredd is one of those films that desperately deserves more credit than it has thus far received. Karl Urban’s performance is textbook perfection, and Travis’ direction gives this a brutally honest tone. And unlike its predecessor adaptation, Dredd isn’t endlessly mockable; instead, it is a visually arresting satire that makes most action thrillers look tame. There are few films on this list that I would say are perfect. Dredd is one of them.

The Cat Returns (2002)(dir. Hiroyuki Morita)

Studio Ghibli gets a lot of well-deserved love for its many Hayao Miyazaki films (my favorite Miyazaki is actually Mononoke Hime / Princess Mononoke). But one film the studio doesn’t get enough credit for is the utterly delightful Neko no Ongaeshi / The Cat Returns (or The Cat’s Repayment). It’s an Alice in Wonderland type tale (or tail, heh) about a young girl who gets sucked into the secret world of cats. Calling this film delightful is an understatement. It is downright adorable, and it has been sadly overshadowed by Ghibli’s many other exceptional productions. But if you’re looking for a cute (and sometimes hilarious) fantasy adventure involving talking cats, The Cat Returns is the film for you.

And that’s it. That’s my list. I could add many other films here, but I’ve limited myself to ten.

Now for a challenge to Ian and anyone else who wants to take it:  pick your five favorite films featuring talking animals! Go!

It's time for another #FilmChallenge. @ian_sales challenged me to come up with 10 underrated SF/F films released between 1999 and 2019. So here's my list! :D I have once more (and a very long time ago) been challenged by Ian Sales to join him in our un-named war to come up with the best arbitrary list of films within an equally arbitrarily selected category.

[likefolksongs]

okay. but. the thing is, i guarantee if this were any artist besides taylor swift, we would not have to deal with discourse about how the reprise in her new single (”i promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me”) means she’s abusive or an abuse apologist, means she’s condoning abuse or at the very least normalizing it. if this were a song released by lady gaga or katy perry or ariana grande, that just wouldn’t even come up.

and this strain of discourse is extremely harmful for a lot of reasons, the first (and most important) one being that taylor is literally an abuse survivor herself. unintentionally or not, using this kind of language to discuss me! a) delegitimizes and diminishes taylor’s experiences with abuse and b) feeds into the incredibly toxic narrative that says all victims of abuse are destined to become abusers. with a few notable exceptions (ie, harry potter), that’s the only narrative that abuse survivors like myself can see ourselves in. especially with the way the media was completely mute when this came to light and the way online communities continue to ignore taylor’s experiences as an abuse survivor, this kind of rhetoric is incredibly hard for me to swallow.

as an abuse survivor who found solace in taylor’s music, seeing these terms thrown around as buzzwords in the current crusade against her literally makes me sick.¹ every time i’ve said so, i’ve either been harassed, talked down to, or flat out ignored. people don’t like when abuse survivors speak up unless it fits their agenda, and because taylor was so instrumental in helping me remove myself from my relationship with my abuser, because i see that trauma reflected in so many songs she writes, because i refuse to say that she’s somehow normalizing abuse by writing about her experiences, people don’t care what i have to say.

where are the think pieces discussing the effect of a woman who’s experienced abuse subverting the language of abusers so that it fits her own agenda and agency, so that it becomes an anthem of celebration? why aren’t there articles that look at what actual abuse survivors who are fans of hers think, instead of just the opinions of random people on the internet who have probably never experienced abuse as a reality, who only see abuse as just a sharp and edgy word to villainize someone they don’t like based on a single fucking lyric in the song?

i’ll tell you why: because for there to be articles about any of that, the general public would have to admit that taylor has been an actual victim and hasn’t just been “playing” at it this entire time. they’d have to admit they were wrong, and it would expose the lengths they went to in order to try and silence her. these articles don’t exist because people are unwilling to admit their own hypocrisy, and are unwilling to see taylor as a person and not just a media caricature. these articles don’t exist because the people who are saying this would know they were wrong if they listened to, oh, i don’t know, LITERALLY ANY OTHER SONG OF HERS.

you don’t have to love taylor swift like i do. hell, you don’t even have to like her. but at the very least you should respect her experiences – and the experiences of people like myself who found comfort in taylor’s music when we couldn’t find it anywhere else – and stop throwing around this awful rhetoric for shits and giggles. it does much more harm than good, and reeks of performative activism.

oh, and here’s a thought: maybe if people didn’t try so hard to silence abuse survivors, we wouldn’t have to be so loud and angry for you to finally listen.

¹(i am far from alone in this. taylor says in this interview that she thinks “[Dear John] really hit home with a lot of girls who had been through toxic relationships and had found their way to the other side of it. I’ve never looked out while singing a song during a concert to see so many girls crying.”)