#but i hate that it apparently created this culture of like. oh talking in the tags about your blorbos is bad now

[chesthighwater]

resisting the urge to reblog a post with blorbotags. holding myself back. Stoically

[morganbritton132]

based on one of your latest tiktok saga posts:

I'm convinced that when people heard billy hargrove apparently had a crush on steve, a small but dedicated portion of eddie's followers started jokingly stanning billy. the cross section of conspiracy theorists / shitposters absolutely clowns all over eddie's comments with shit like "simping for the man who hit you with his car is king behaviour" and "wow, steve literally ran this guy over and he really just said thank you m'am. pathetic. I'm kissing him on the mouth btw."

I also like to imagine eddie would absolutely loathe this development

Oh my god, this is hilarious and very, very apt for internet culture. People were jokingly stanning Billy and then someone with an old Hawkins High yearbook posts a picture of him, and people realized he was hot then, game over. It’s the worst week of Eddie’s life and he once was on the run for murder, fought an interdimensional slime monster with daddy issues, and died in the same week.

I think Eddie absolutely adores fan art. His studio is lined with art that people have given him and that he’s bought from fans. He was even more over the moon when people started drawing art of him and Steve, but then. Then, these very talented jokesters in his comments are posting fan art of Steve with Billy.

Just imagine the amount of discourse Billy would create on the internet. It’d be worse than the discourse in the ST fandom, because Eddie has never had an opinion that he hasn’t shared. He’d let people know that he hates this. Billy was a bully who harassed him and his friends and liked shitty music.

This would egg people on more, I think, because that’s how the internet works. But Dustin, as president of the Steve Harrington fan club, would not let that slide. He posts a Tiktok like, “Uh, guys. You’re very talent artists and all, but uh. Billy Hargrove tried to kill Steve. He *picture of Steve after Hopper took him to the hospital* beat Steve up really bad and he wouldn’t have stopped if Max didn’t drug him. He ran me and my friends off the road once. And he was racist. He tried to fight Lucas.”

Max also posts. She talks about how hard it was after Billy died and how it nearly killed her, but she also talks about how he wasn’t a good brother, how afraid she was of him, and how he attacked Lucas and attacked Steve for sticking up for them. She doesn’t really want to see him on her FYP.

This leads to so much fighting between people who view Billy as their new white boy of the month and people who are like, why are you retraumatizing that girl in a wheelchair (I imagine post-season 4 Max does have mobility of her legs and walks with a limp or a cane, but sometimes still has to use a wheelchair). It’s just very annoying until the next big scandal happens and people stop talking about it.

[oh-shtars]

Hello Flicker, I hope life is treating you well. So a few questions, so let's go.

What was Asha like while she was still working at the palace? Her relationship with her mother, grandfather and royal couple? Did she feel relatively happy? Why was she taken there? Does she have opinions on this? What was her and her father's relationship with the stars like and how did it change after his death? Does Asha have any perspective for her own future, something she sees herself doing? Would she die for someone or would she think about self-preservation because her dying would mean causing her mother and grandfather another loss and pain? Would she die for Sueño even though she knew it would devastate him and cause her family pain if it was for the greater good? How does she handle arguments? Does she like to wear her hair down on any occasion? Sometimes she, just like her instinct, craves violence before repressing it? What makes you happy? Does she have any favorite sweets? Does she have nightmares about the past? Does Mag use this against her at some point (please say yes!) Do she and Dahlia still have any contact? How do her cultural roots manifest in her everyday life? Does she have a favorite memory with her dad?

What was Sueño's life like at Astral Real? Did he have any "legal guardian" responsible for him, due to being the equivalent of a child? What was the act of love that created it? Do stars themselves feel romantic feelings or something similar? Is stars falling in love with humans something relatively common or has it at least happened before? Now remembering Au de Any, how do stars die and does this influence its culture? Has Sueño ever been afraid of dying at Mag's hands? How is the magic taken from him? It hurts? Was his room really that small for him to have claustrophobia or was it just in comparison to the general sky and hence the panic? Was he a naughty child? Did he have friends there? Has he ever tried to escape before it inevitably goes wrong? Does he have a favorite universe? Has Amaya ever visited it alone to study it like the nerd she is? And if so did he feel even more trapped as an object of study? Does he think being locked up is humiliating? How does not being able to communicate affect him since he was apparently quite talkative, does he feel frustrated at not being able to communicate? Did Mag and Amaya ever make fun of him for this? Does Sueño hate them? If so, does he hate them equally or Mag more? What is his true form? Did he come to have general resentment towards humanity at some point? Does he know anything about Mag's past? Why does he feel guilty?

...annnd that's it. for now;-) (a big hug!!)

RFTS!AU AskBox #1

OH FLIP-

Lmaooo THANKS so much for the paragraph of questions! Didn’t realise how much you really want to know for this AU. I’m touched. 🥹💖✨

I might not be able to answer all of them at the moment because ~SPOILERS~ so sorry about that.

ASHA:

1. What was Asha like while she was working at the palace?

As a little girl growing up there, she mostly stayed in the castle guest room she and her mother were given and draw or read the hours away. Poor child was not as talkative and lively ever since her dream of becoming just like her father someday beside him was crushed. As she got older, Asha started offering help to Sakina and other workers in the castle, still keeping to herself.

If she has something in her mind, Asha is most likely to keep it to herself out of fear of being shut down.

She’s a girl who aspires to be more but is scared to get her hopes up in case they get crushed again. She’s really going to learn that it’s okay to “Reach for the Stars” and have hope. Even if it’s scary.

……….

2. Why was she taken there and what are her opinions on it? Was she happy there?

Asha and Sakina were taken to the castle as a humble offer from the royals after their home was destroyed in a fire, along with her father’s life in it.

I mostly took inspiration of this idea from the line “If your home were to crumble….I’d let you live here for free.”

Magnifico explained it that since Tomás was his dear apprentice assistant for some time, it’s only right to look after his family after all he has done for him. Asha and her mom won’t have to worry about a thing and all they have to do is repay their kindness by offering their service in the castle. (I hear people who work in the castle have a higher chance of getting their wishes granted too :)

Asha’s opinion on the situation? She’s not sure about it. She’s grateful for the royals’ generosity and she finds it fair enough that they help at the castle. Buuuuut, there’s something so restricting about it that she can’t make sense. Their schedule has limited breaks and Asha could almost barely find the time and energy to draw or do whatever she likes. Neither does her mom.

(Also, her boss just stinks- But you didn’t hear that from me 🤫)

Plus, she strangely feels like someone is always watching her back or something…

……..

3. Asha’s relationship with Sakina, Sabino and the Royal Couple.

Asha loves her mother and appreciates her effort, but she’s concerned of the fact that Sakina is no longer able to pursue her passion in being a seamstress. Meanwhile, Sakina is saddened that the spark in her daughter’s eyes has faded. She’s the one who tries to convince Asha to reconnect with her friends whom she drifted apart with. (Something that Asha procrastinates with too)

Fun fact! Sabino is not Asha’s paternal grandfather in this AU. He’s the kingdom’s retired royal advisor who’s friends with Tomás and has sort of watched Magnus grow up over the years until he inherited the throne. Because of Sabino’s relationship with her father, Asha visits him at least once a week and they treat each other like family.

(She has called him ‘Saba’ at one point and she wanted to just die right then and there. Lol. He didn’t mind.)

Asha views Amaya sort of like another mother figure who’s there to comfort her if she messes up. Amaya has actually persuaded her husband to take Asha as his assistant, claiming that the position would help her gain confidence and allow Asha to participate in helping Rosas just like she wanted. It’s not like she had other reasons for that. Nooooooooo……

Asha’s opinion on Magnifico isn’t….pretty. Mag puts his best face when they’re in public but ever since Asha became his assistant, Asha can already tell how irritated he is at her presence. He thinks she’s too intuitive like her dad. The poor girl feels like she’s walking on eggshells around this man.

………

3. What was her and her father’s relationship like with the stars and how did it change after his death?

As I said before, Tomás was the previous king’s apprentice and then Magnifico’s assistant for a few years. He would come back home a bit late in the night and shower his family with all the love like he hasn’t seen them in days. He’s a fun and chill guy whose high ambitions balances out Sakina’s more realistic view on life.

Tomás would tell Asha her favorite stories before she goes to bed and encourage her to create drawings and gifts and initiate with her 7 bestest friends. Other than working at the castle, Tomás is an astrologer and philosopher at heart with beliefs in Wishing Stars, and Asha dreams to grow up to be like him. Back then when she wasn’t afraid to dream big and hope for the best.

That was before tragedy struck of course…

……

4. Does Asha have something she sees herself doing? Anything for the future?

If she does, Asha doesn’t let herself hold onto it too much since the possibility of it is slim. At least that’s what she thinks. Boy, if only she knew my plot outline for her….

…….

5. Would she die for someone or hesitate? Would she die for Sueño?

I meaaaaaan, I’d say that her being a loving person is both her strength and weakness.

………

6. How does Asha handle arguments?

She’s not one to start arguments sooo she bites her tongue from snapping anything back.

……….

7. Does she like to wear her hair down on any occasion?

Yeah sometimes, when she’s outside and the wind just blows on her hair. But most often, she braids it up so it won’t get into her face when working.

…….

8. Does Asha ever crave violence?

Nooooo. That’s Valentino’s thing.

………

9. Does she have any favorite sweets?

She used to like the cookies she’d bake together with Dahlia and her other friends. Hehe, good times~

………

10. Does she have any nightmares about the past and does Magnifico uses this against her at some point?

Hmmmm, idk. Hopefully nothing too terrible that will come to bite her in the arse sometime in the future. Hopefully not a wish that Mag could easily take to his own advantage….

Am I that mean? (Yes, yes I am.)

……..

11. Does she and Dahlia still have any contact?

Asha finds Dahlia in the royal kitchen at times since the girl’s parents are the royal cooks. She mostly bakes though. But they haven’t had a proper conversation for years after Asha had grown distant and closed in after her father’s death. Now, it’s just awkward small-talk, not like before when they were the bestest friends.

Besides, Asha struggles to socialise with her old friends again due to that gap of unfamiliarity that time had made and she feels like she’s intruding into their lives anyway.

……..

12. How do her cultural roots manifest in her everyday life?

Her old home has a European exterior and North African interior as it was said in the Wish art book. She’s also one to value hard-work, which is why the easy talents gifted by the king to his citizens give her some weird vibes. She’s also unnerved by how Rosas’ citizens are SO obsessed with the idea of having a wish granted one day.

Plus, Asha almost never goes out without at least some of her jewellery and her doodles in her sketchbook, I like to imagine, could be some references to the cool patterns and designs shown in the Wish Artbook.

……

13. Does Asha have a favourite memory with her dad?

Before the night skies strangely became too cloudy, Asha and Tomás would sit outside their house and stargaze, where he would tell her plenty of mythical stories about the magical beings that watch over them from above.

……….

14. What makes her happy?

Whenever she gets to create and just be able to forget her worries even just for a little bit by sketching. Or just playing around with Valentino. Just doing anything just to see someone happy makes her feel all warm inside. Asha is very empathetic and wants others to not feel the same crushing loss she had. She’ll listen as much as they need to, even if the same treatment isn’t done to her.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Star/Sueño:

1. What was Sueño’s life like in the Astral Realm?

As free as a baby deer in the forest and as ‘Hakuna Matata’ as life there could be. He was happy to be there, don’t get me wrong. There’s limited worries and fun with being a young starling just listening to the Wish flowers’ melody of “I Want” songs and looking into the sparkling rivers to human-watch in his universe.

But most often though, he daydreams on what it must feel like to go down there just like the other older and mature Wishing Stars.

………….

2. Did he have a “legal guardian” responsible for him in childhood?

A star with lots of experience and has helped grant a very difficult but very special wish from the deepest heart is usually granted to become an “Alpha Star.” There are multiple from each universe and because of their experience, they usually look after and guide younger starlings.

They are also very special because they’re the only ones that can permanently grant a wish. “Non-Alpha Stars” can’t. Sueño had his universe’s “Alpha Stars” who helped guide him how wishes and his magic works.

…………

3. What was the “Act of Love” that created him?

Yes, stars gain consciousness or are ‘born’ when a mutual and first Act of True Love between two mortals shoot up to the sky and magically brings a ball of burning gas to life. Platonic, familial, or romantic doesn’t really matter. From the time they are born, stars are familiar with the development or falls of that relationship that gave them life until the end.

Idk what to call those pair of two people yet without sounding weird. I don’t want to call them a star’s parents since there’s such thing as platonic love giving life to them. Aaaand that might be a bit awkward? (If y’all have an idea on what, I’d appreciate the help 😅)

Anyways, I’d like you to know that there would be a point that stars will eventually live out their ‘creators’ since they have a far longer lifespan. Unfortunately for some of them, very young stars, even those that were just born, could already have their ‘creators’ pass away. So they’re ‘orphaned’ in a way.

I may or may not be saying that Sueño is a star that gets uncomfortable with mentioning the idea about his pair of ‘creators.’

……….

4. Do stars themselves feel romantic feelings and is it a common experience to feel with humans before?

Friendships with their wish-maker is common. Even when their job is done and they have to return, that doesn’t stop them from watching over their friend in the sky though. But romantically??

It’s not impossible and it’s not a crime to develop romantic feelings since one can’t help it. But it’s also highly NOT recommended to pursue a romance with a human as it would only further cloud their judgment, leading to biased choices that could cause severe consequences.

………..

5. How do stars die and how does it affect them?

They can die, sure, but not in a very long while because of their lifespan of over a million years. I imagine they just die once their core gets weaker and weaker until it no longer has enough magic to hold their stardust together and their light just gets dimmer until they disintegrate.

The core of a Wishing Star is the most vital part of themselves and is the source of their Wish and Stellar Magic. If anything happens to it, it significantly causes negative effects to the star. Let’s just hope nothing bad happens to Sueño’s, am I right?

………..

6. Has Sueño ever been afraid of dying in Mag’s hands?

Everyday.

……….

7. How is his magic taken from him and does it hurt?

Believe me when I say what Mag did on him was far worse than what you probably think.

………..

8. Was his room really that small for him to have claustrophobia, or was it just in comparison to the general sky and hence the panic?

I’m not sure his prison can really be called a ‘room.’ But it’s enough to definitely trigger his claustrophobia. Actually, anything that makes him feel like he can’t move or feel imprisoned again makes him feel completely itchy and uncomfortable. In severe cases, it causes a panic attack.

……….

9. Was he a naughty child?

You have no idea.

………

10. Did Sueño have any friends in the Astral Realm?

Plenty actually. :D

He’s actually considered a bit of an oddball because he just has this unique fascination with humans and the wonder of visiting their realm at a very early age. The other stars usually are in no rush to become official wishing stars. They become one once they’ve answered “one important and special question” and had completed their own quest down in the Human Realm.

………

11. Has Sueño ever tried an escape attempt?

Yep, multiple times in his first few years of captivity. But at some point, you just have to accept that escape is futile in this scenario.

…….

12. Does Sueño have a favourite universe?

Sueño loves his home universe a lot actually. (Who knows if he still feels the same way….)

But if he were to choose his second favourite, it’s probably that one where this one young boy goes on an adventure on a flying ship in space to find a planet filled with treasure.

……….

13. Has Amaya ever visited him alone to study him like the nerd she is? If so, what’s Sueño’s opinion on being an object of study?

It’s kind of hard to do that when your subject is kept imprisoned in a dark-magic enchanted star-shaped tablet and is unwilling to cooperate.

………..

14. Does he ever think being locked up is humiliating?

Humiliating is the last word he’d describe his predicament when he’s literally fearing for the worst everyday.

…………

15. Does Sueño ever feel frustrated at not being able to communicate since he can be quite talkative? Has the Royal Couple ever made fun of him for this?

Yep, definitely. Imagine not being able to be heard when you want to say something. That doesn’t happen in the Astral Realm, but why here? I guess one of the things Sueño really wants is to be understood and listened to.

The Royal Couple? Well obviously, what do you think? It makes their plan easier if their prisoner can’t communicate the typical way.

……..

16. Does Sueño hate the Royal Couple? Does he hate them equally or does he hate Magnifico more?

He has complex feelings about them. That’s for sure.

……….

17. What is his true form?

Sueño doesn’t have one. He can shift in to whatever he wants but none of them is his default form. :)

……….

18. Did he come to have a general resentment towards humans at some point?

I wouldn’t say resentment but just a general distrust. It’s not Sueño’s character to wish great harm towards anyone at all. But when push comes to shove, could you honestly blame him? (Yes, I am referring to the ‘you-know-what’ moment)

……….

19. Does he know anything about Mag’s past?

Way more than he lets on…..

………..

20. Why does he feel guilty?

That’s for me to know and for you to find out :33

……….

Let me know what you think about these @ficsinhistory. I apologise in advance if the answers were a bit vague or repetitive. 😅

Btw, I always love reading your enthusiastic and supportive feedbacks for the RFTS!story! 💖✨💖

[some-pers0n]

You do realize Ao3 is inherently a proship space, right? Like one of the people who created it was an incest shipper. I'm not even saying you HAVE to like all content that's on ao3, but getting upset when people on ao3 related forums are talking about the things that ao3 was built for and refuses to censor is nonsensical

Okey now on my PC so I can actually respond to this in a coherent manner. General TW here for talking about pornography relating to minors and sexual topics.

I've seen this argument countless of times from pro-shippers. I do understand it. I know about the history of Ao3. It's mostly a space used because of areas like FanFiction.Net censoring 18+ works and generally leaving way for sexuality of any kind being censored for being deemed too mature, including same-sex couples at some point.

I am not anti-censorship. Not in the slightest. I think there should be sites like Ao3, where people are allowed to post whatever the hell they want. It's the site full of Freaks and Weirdos. It's the place where Freaks and Weirdos made to host their own freaky and weird content because everywhere else was censoring the word "dick". Censorship is a slippery slope and I think it's bad to simply say: "We should ban this" since it leads way to loopholes that our oppressors would want to exploit.

That being said: it's still disgusting to see people making and posting writing of IRL children who had been forced into the limelight have porn made of them. "Oh it's the internet of course it's going to be there" IT'S STILL FUCKED UP THAT IT'S THERE TO BEGIN WITH AND SHOULDN'T BE ENCOURAGED OR CONGRATULATED. It's like seeing somebody make deep-fake porn out of a picture of a child and being like: "Well I mean it's not really being done to an actual child, only a picture of it, and besides it's the internet what can you do :P" THAT IS CHILD PORN.

I'm not sorry for thinking it's hysterical and absolutely pathetic to come whining to a bunch of people that your fic where you wrote a child being raped and turned into a sex toy for a 50 year old man is getting "mean ol' antis" telling them that it's disturbing and gross. Holy shit please find a better way to cope with your trauma than to make writing that is designed to titillate and arouse people with this stuff happening to teenagers.

Not to also mention that Ao3 itself can censor stuff too! Recently that one volunteer got kicked off because they had "from the river to the sea" in their bio because it ""promoted violence"". So it's perfectly okay to have people post about nazis and racist pedophilic shit on there, but to have somebody have a message in their bio??? Shut it down folks.

I respect Ao3 on some level for its insitance on censorship (most times)(unless you support Palestine and don't want an entire culture wiped out then apparently that's bad), but I still find it disturbing and incredibly disgusting how its normalized and how these people have a victim complex. I've seen how they act whenever they're called out for writing gross stuff.

Self-proclaimed proshippers will make antis out like they're moronic teenagers who send death threats to people over writing enemies-to-lovers. Obviously, no, you shouldn't harass people over fictional ships. You shouldn't harass people in general. Harassment over something as simple as a person making a kinky smutty oneshot is dumb. Sending death threats is worse.

It's a mentality that antis are just hysterical and can't think for themselves, brainwashed by sex-negativity and can't just let people be people. Yeah, obviously that's bad. Anybody who sends hate, death threats, and harassment to a person who's just writing normal smut with nothing really bad about it (ie, no children, no incest, nadda nothing), is just stupid. It's ESPECIALLY moronic when it's a ship that is only a smidge problematic. That's stupid.

What isn't stupid is being upset over extremely taboo content being hosted on the site and people just being like: "Well you're just a snowflake anti for saying the author is weird for liking this". I don't think you should deliberately seek content like this out just to hate (again, harassment dumb), but it's so disgusting to act like it's completely fine and dandy for smut of real children to be hosted there and just be like: "Eh, what happens happens".

I'm here on those subreddits just to talk about fanfic and tropes. I like being silly and doing the funny little stuff. What exhausts me more than anything is when people will come whining about getting a hate comment when, surprise surprise, their fic that is mostly children being raped is being hated on for being a fic about children being raped for the sake of sexual pleasure.

Write as much as it as you want, just don't act all surprised and like you're the victim here when people think you're vile.

[roboromantic]

Episode 18

I’ve always thought it’s neat how Twitch just kinda hovers around all the time in bot mode – we don’t really ever see that in other shows, at least not that I can remember. I wonder if Nightshade’ll do that too or if it’s just to keep her in frame when she’s with taller bots lmao. anyway flying sibling bonding time When

OH GEEZ YEAH THEY REALLY ARE GOING THERE. DAMN. that does answer my question of who Bee was fighting last episode tho

oh so he’s probably only mostly dead. got it. Still though, that imagery was straight out of a horror movie

oof. yikes

between the arms, near (?) death, and this coughing he’s getting very Grievous-esque

lmao yeah, if only

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH this is Good Shit but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OUGH I was just thinking earlier today abt there being an ep where their bond is gone for whatever reason and them having to deal with that, especially since the Terrans have never not had it                  that’s probably not really what they’re gonna get into here but it’s still neat to see it to some degree

Dot is gonna be Pissed.

I kinda hope this is gonna end up like Rescue Bots where the kids are free to interact with the residents of Witwicky, at least. imagine………….slice of life school episodes……………..learning more about their family cultures……………….literally anything except these poor kids being traumatized every other episode 😞

Good to know they live in a dystopia where your car apparently requires wi-fi to run and can be driven remotely by people hacking into it 😬

NOOOOOOOOOOO 😭😭😭 baby

OUFGH THE POWER OF FAMILYU…………………………

They’re uh. They’re not creating an army of siblings, are they.

A HEEM HEEM……………WHIMPER…………………..

man I gotta say I do really hate how energon’s become like their Only food source. Like whatever happened to drinking oil. or gas. Beryllium baloney. hell, why don’t they ever explore the idea of finding/making a New kind of food – like how is ANYONE even getting energon on Earth anyway??? Is it growing here thanks to the Emberstone??? Being made from other energy sources like the G1 cartoon??? (Where Autobots didn’t even use energon at first, they got their energy from recharging chambers) Can it be grown like sugar crystals or something and harvested like in TFA??? Anyway some variety Please im Begging you. Isn’t it enough for energon to be a super powerful energy source. Back to the making new food thing I know they’ve done synth-en a couple times but that en still refers to energon so. Now researching the Terrans water stuff and seeing if they can figure out how to make something from THAT would be great.       ..................something something Twitch gamer girl bathwater. is that anything

Only vaguely related but I don’t think they’ve ever addressed the issue of how exactly they all got to Earth anyway. Prime’s talked to Teletraan 1 so presumably the Ark exists somewhere? maybe being repaired somewhere away from GHOST? but atm I think all we know is what Alex said about them arriving via an apparently pre-made space bridge(??????), and iirc in Alex’s story they all just kinda. Walked through it. Meaning no one got here via spaceship. Which makes me wonder if maybe the Ark is something that’s in the process of being created so someone can go check if Cybertron still exists and if so what the state of affairs is there.              

Actually it’d be a neat touch if the factions did arrive on their respective ships, but both were heavily damaged, and it’s only by working together (and maybe incorporating some Earth technology?) that they can use parts of both the Ark and the Nemesis to create a new ship for everyone (who wants to) to go home in.       going back to the “please let the kids chill” episode ideas like it’d be neat to see them all visit Cybertron and learn about Cybertronian culture(s. please more than one im Begging. Different Cybertronian languages. Religions. FOODS. Etc.)

A lot of this is just going off of what Alex said way back in what, episode 1? 2? And we’ve seen stuff in flashbacks that contradict his story, so it’s clearly not the most reliable source of info – but it’s pretty much all we’ve got.

sdfdkjghfsdjklfh like they aren’t gonna be all over the morning news

yeah I was gonna say, he’s doing pretty well for having like. All his energon drained.

Btw I think Cybertronian languages really oughta have different words for like. energon (crystal/mineral), energon (beverage), and energon (blood).  And maybe resolve the blue/pink thing by going with blue crystals (I feel like we’ve seen them more than pink ones?), pink blood (aka it’s definitely recognizable as a blood stand-in but is Legally not blood. just like Star Trek), and maybe bring back the rainbow for the beverage. You could definitely argue that beverage and blood could use the same word, but I feel like there should at LEAST be different words for different states of matter.   

Speaking of, I don’t think we’ve seen much in the way of energon as a gas except BotBots (where it’s also plasma (?) since it’s shown as lightning that hits the mall, which is then filled w/energon gas. Also bring back BotBots Please. or make them part of Earthspark as a new kind of Terran :ssbenis:) and I think that one episode of TFA where Optimus uses Swindles boobs to teleport. Or maybe that was another space substance, I don’t remember.

Hm that’s a lot of Not Much to do with the actual episode and a Lot of me just coming up with my own ideas for worldbuilding sdkf;jhsdkjf. sorry.

I noticed it before but I gotta say I love the bit of graffiti that just says “queso”

ooh interesting. Something something the Terrans are the natural result of Cybertron and Earth interacting and they need a similar naturally combined source of energy to survive, while Mandroid is now a forced, artificial combination of Cybertron and Earth stuff that needs artificial energon patches to survive.

Side note but were energon patches a thing before Rescue Bots? I don’t think they were. If that’s true then it’s neat to see Rescue Bots original stuff becoming part of the larger TF mythos :D Makes sense given that Nicole Dubuc and others worked on both shows

side side note but how exactly did humans end up with control of the energon supply anyway. did they ever mention something abt agreeing to that in return for a planet to live on or something and I just forgor?

I kinda wish they’d built up the return of Mandroid and his collaboration with what’s-her-face a bit more, but I guess this in-and-of-itself is setup for season 2.

Yeah WHO coulda seen THAT coming 😬😬😬

Btw did we uh. Ever see the aftermath of Hashtag & co.’s prison break? We saw Skullcruncher getting dragged back inside so I think we’re supposed to assume everyone got recaptured, but given there’ve been hints at Soundwave and Starscream being up to no good, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out they got away.

Especially since she’s like “they’re all disposable” and there’s this dramatic reveal of Hardtop, Skullcruncher I think, and …………………a bunch of empty cells. lmao

I thought Jawbreaker was gonna get his altmode this season bc I definitely saw a leak of I think a rough animatic that showed what it was, but I guess that won’t be ‘til next season. When is that btw bc I Need it.

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this yet but I Love the facial animations in the show, they’re really really good.

[aroace-cat-lady]

oh my god- rant incoming

so, I don't even have tiktok- I heard this from twitter

but apparently the 'swifties' on there are making fun of people who want to wear costumes??

like wtfff

they're actually SO SO annoying

I've been yelled at for advising people not to camp (numbered seats are a miracle actually) or throw things on stage (it scares Taylor and can be a potential hazard for her dancers)

and mind you, I have never been to a concert, I only know from doing my research and watching ever single clip over the years??

But I know that it's a tradition to costume up, but I get literally bullied for suggesting the idea to them likeeee

iewgx,jdf ugh they're just sooo sooo stupid

and like swiftie traditions are so cool- they make her concerts unique, and these people just get sooo pissed at us and fire back with the exact same insults- 'gatekeepers' 'old and boring'

and ughhhhh I do slightly sound like a gatekeeper now, but can I just exile every single one of those 'Swifties' from her concerts- like they get soooo annoyed at us over mere suggestions and us talking about what usually happens at her concerts?!?!

anyway summary: I hate tiktok swifties and I don't think they qualify as swifties at all because the only album they even know is folklore and they're just so damn stupid and irritating and rude and yeah

uesklfdnj you can ignore this btw

Okay hear me on this: tiktok ppl are the worst kind of human beings. They say shit to get followers, think their opinion is the only valid one, and would shame and throw shit to anyone who disagree with them. And like im not even sure what the fuck they did for ppl blame them for zlibrary getting closed down. Tiktok created a zero empaty culture, and cringe culture is part of it.

Taylor LOVES us dressing up. She loves our costumes and seeing us creating new stuffs inspired by her music.

I absolutely hate "swifties" trying to shame others for having fun with this. Tay concerts are amazing cuz thousands of ppl with the same passion gather to celebrate smth we all love. As our wise woman once said, the worst kind of ppl are those who try to make others feel stupid or embarassed for doing something they are passionate about.

I really really hate tiktok culture. Its just so normative and anything weird or unaestheric gets bullied. Twitter at least creates discussion. Tiktok only shames and hate.

Anyways, I WAS GOING TO REPLY SOONER BUT IM WITH MY FAMILY AND MY DAD TOOK MY PHONE AWAY CUZ "youre with your family, you should try to converse with us" AND AÑDNAÑSLQÑLALAL not a big fan of adult talk.

[fogerist]

Tag 10 people you want to get to know better or just participate haha. I was tagged by the talented and wonderful @blarrghe which y’all should def check out all the amazing art/writing they create!

Relationship Status: Been with my bf for more than 2 years now!

Favorite Color: Red. Always been the color I’ve always chosen/gravitated towards haha.

Favorite Food: Oof, this be a hard one since I love all food but I always find myself craving pizza, so I’m gonna say that lol.

Song Stuck in Your Head Right Now: I have two right now! American Teenager by Ethel Cain and I Can’t Drive by Crawlers

Last Thing You Googled: Oh no lol. “Holy Wars band” I was listening to their album they released this year, today for the first time and it’s really fucking good, definitely suggest listening to it!

Dream Trip: Would love to go to Mexico or Ireland just trying new foods where ever I go, although I’d probably never do this cause I have way too much social anxiety and broke af lol

Time: 3:59 PM

Last Book You Read: Cloaked in Shadow by Ben Alderson. I never finished the book cause I got bored after the first five chapters 😅. I don’t really read books anymore (was forced too much as a child to read for grades that now when I force myself to read a book, I feel like it’s homework lol) but I’ve been reading a lot of Dragon Age/Mass Effect fanfiction so that counts lol.

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City by Matthew C. Gutmann. Back in college, I was taking some medical anthropology classes for my minor and really enjoyed the books I read there. One of my professors actually gifted me that book when I talked to her about potentially switching my major from biochemistry to medical anthropology (which I never did because I ended up falling in love with plants, switching over to botany, and then dropping out of college cause of health problems, finances, and current state of the world but that’s a story for another time 😉) and really enjoyed its analysis of cultural expectations within Mexico and the intersectionality of gender.

Last Book You Hated Reading: So off the top of my head, I don’t remember the title and I really don’t want to look it up, there was this book that one of my friends was forced to read for their Cultural Psychology class that the professor wrote and it was racist, transphobic, homophobic, and ableist af. I read it cause I wanted to see how bad it was, and it was baddddd. Apparently, after that there was a whole investigation about it, the professor was fired for like year but then the university kinda went back on their word and rehired the professor. So yeah, hate that book!

Bonus:

Favorite Thing to Cook/Bake: Oooohh this is hard, cause I love to cook. It’s one of my destressors lol. I always love to make pizza haha but I’ve recently been learning how to cook naan and just trying to perfect the recipe so it continues to be consistent when I make them.

Favorite Craft to do in Your Spare Time: Ooooh this is where I kinda suck at things haha. Worldbuilding??? I play DND and have kinda become the DM for most of the campaigns I play with my friends, so I do worldbuild a lot and it’s fun! Also, teaching myself how to draw cause like I wanna draw my OCs too lol.

Most Niche Dislike: I hate to put foods in bowls when they’re not a bowl food. No, I will not explain further lmao.

Opinion on Circus(es) Now and in History: Uhhhhh, I don’t really know much about circuses and have never really been to one... but have heard terrible things about them!

Do You Have a Sense of Direction and If Not What is the Worst Way You Ever Got Lost: I feel like I do but no one ever believes me lol. Although, I’ve only every gotten lost if a map/GPS I’m using is not good, but aside from that I’ve always found my way to places.

Anyone who sees this, def join in. Don’t really have anyone to tag since I recently rejoined Tumblr since high school lol

[levitatingbiscuits]

Seeing Din be like 'oh unlike Jedi we Mandalorians value attachments and solidarity'? That shit was funny because attachments are NOT the same as healthy relationships and trying to position Mandalorians' understanding of relationships and families as somehow superior to the Jedi community's is weird. At some point he needs to learn more beyond what limited info his covert and the Armorer feed him. I don't really have faith in Favroni since they don't seem to get what Jedi beliefs are either.

it's super obnoxious, especially since the mandalorians were literally created to be boba fett's backstory and then he got completely overlooked IN HIS OWN SHOW so favroni's OC could get yet more attention. boba has GOOD REASON to conflict with the jedi in general and luke in particular, if you want to mine that for drama. din has no history with them and doesn't know shit about them so i really don't give a fuck what he thinks about their way of life. and the fucking HYPOCRISY when he's literally in a violence-worshipping cult that serves whichever morally bankrupt organization has enough money or beskar to hire them to do their dirty work (even CHILD TRAFFICKING, don't think i forgot about that, DIN) and doesn't even let its members show their faces. you wanna talk about fucked up ways to live, maybe start there. (and if his covert is an offshoot of death watch, as is heavily implied, he's even more in the wrong considering how they kidnapped and brainwashed kids to use as child soldiers.)

i'm still so fucking mad about how we were robbed. we could've had SO MUCH JUICY SHIT about how boba wrestles with his identity as a clone, his own hatred of the jedi for killing jango, how the legacy of his father and his brothers has permanently altered the galaxy for the worse, how he worked for the empire, how luke feels about all that, how GROGU feels about a man with the face of the killers of his entire culture, and so much more. i would've LOVED to see luke and boba talk about vader. did we really need DIN to steal the spotlight from one of the COOLEST AND MOST BELOVED STAR WARS CHARACTERS who is FAR MORE RELEVANT TO THIS CONFLICT???

and furthermore, why would you even write for star wars if you hate the jedi and think they suck? the jedi are the heroes. the entire story literally revolves around them and was created for them. they've already all DIED, okay, what is the point of continuing to shit on them in favor of the hyperviolent guys who worship war and whose societies keep collapsing because they keep starting wars with everyone, including themselves?? they're really saying THEIR way of life is objectively better than the dudes who went around defending innocents and mediating conflicts with their zen philosophy and cool laser swords??

and i don't mean to hate on the mandalorians. they're super cool and fun to watch! but holy shit, their way of life is not aspirational. but i'm not surprised that the ones saying that are two middle aged american white men, one of whom wears a cowboy hat everywhere and the other of whom directed iron man.

one of the reasons i'm so fond of george lucas, despite his many weaknesses as a creator, is that he was all about compassion and forgiveness and selflessness when he created the jedi and luke, which his fanboys all missed bc they instead wanted to be like han solo BEFORE he became the character he was at the end of rotj -- loving, supportive, loyal, reliable, and willing to let leia go if that would make her happy. anakin could never. i THOUGHT din could when he let grogu go at the end of s2, but apparently fucking not.

[phoenixyfriend]

Jangobi 5 for the soulmate thing? Because that would make the fight on kamino just *chef's kiss*

soulmate au prompts

5. the one where you don’t know your soulmate until you touch them.

Apparently there’s never any skin to skin contact in the movie? Because armor? So......... we’re gonna just. Quick little thing.

Also I’ve been doing a lot of “marginally less shitty” Jango, but this is just-as-shitty-as-canon Jango. It’s, uh, not much of a romance, because Kamino. Actually it’s mostly just a lot of angry yelling about human rights violations.

...I’m sure they’ll get together eventually. It’s just, you know... it’s going to take a while.

------

Jango’s heard about this Jedi.

The man isn’t famous, or particularly acclaimed. It’s just that Mandalorians gossip, and Death Watch isn’t exempt, and Dred Priest still has friends in the terrorist group. So do a few others.

(Jango sometimes wonders if he’d have invited Priest, had he knows the monster was only a step away from being Death Watch himself.)

(Probably not.)

(He’d at least have been able to see the battle circles coming.)

Death Watch hates one specific Jedi above all others: Obi-Wan Kenobi.

It’s almost enough to make a man like the pretty bastard, except the reason Death Watch hates this specific Jedi is because he kept Duchess Kryze alive, and Jango isn’t much of a fan of hers, either.

In the moment, though, the main thing this all means is that Obi-Wan Kenobi knows Mandalorian customs.

First meetings, out of armor, mean ensuring the arm clasp has skin contact.

His eyes flick down to where Jango is reflexively pulling up his sleeves, and the man just... does the same, sodden as the beige-on-brown-on-dark-brown robes are.

Jango can’t just play it off. He has to, ugh, arm clasp with a Jedi.

Kenobi probably guesses how unpleasant this is for him, going by the grim little smile that he wears, the one Taun We can’t read and Jango can, but they touch forearms and le--

They do not let go.

“Oh kriff,” Kenobi swears, and then it’s just... it’s too late. It’s too late to stop anything.

“Jetii,” Jango spits as if it’s a swear.

He doesn’t want to be soulmates with a Jedi. No sane person ever wants to be soulmates with a Jedi, but as a Mandalorian, and as specifically Jango Fett, who signed onto this project for revenge against Jedi, the idea is just... excruciating.

“For revenge? Not entirely unexpected, but I’m still somehow disappointed.”

“Stay out of my head.”

Kenobi smiles at him, completely devoid of anything but the blackest of humor. “Are you staying out of mine?”

And, well, no. They’re soulmates. Kenobi has more of an idea on how to control how far his mind wanders into Jango’s, but in this moment, just seconds after being bound together by the universe... Jango’s slamming into Kenobi’s shields with an embarrassing lack of control.

“Is something the matter?” Taun We asks.

“I do believe we need to speak alone,” Kenobi says. “Unfortunate timing, but this is our first meeting, and it appears we are soulmates.”

“Ah. We were informed of the human tendency towards such.” She blinks, too large eyes impossible to read for Kenobi, but entirely readable for Jango after all these years. She’s irritated. “I apologize, but it appears we were unable to remove such unpredictability from the product.”

A wave of revulsion leaks out of Kenobi’s mind and into Jango’s. The man just nods. “I understand. As it is, I imagine that the near instantaneous communication on the battlefield will be a boon, if any are bonded to each other or to active soldiers.”

“I defer to your judgement as client, Master Kenobi,” Taun We hums, still irritable. It’s less visible in her face, but... Kenobi can feel it. “I shall leave you to get... acquainted.”

Aaaaaaaand she’s expecting them to sleep together the second she turns her back. The disgust she feels at the thought of such carnal activities is thirdhand to Jango, but he can still feel it, because Kenobi can feel it, because they’re soulmates.

“Oh, do tell me how you really feel,” Kenobi mutters, sweeping past him into the apartment.

Jango wishes he could slam the door as he storms after the Jedi.

“Listen here--”

“Absolutely not,” Kenobi says, with the kind of bland, impersonal smile that Jango’s heard Dred Priest bitch about at least a dozen times. “I need you to answer me this: why are you selling your children into what is clearly slavery?”

“They’re not my children.”

“You choose to be dar’buir, then?” Kenobi clucks a tongue, acting like he can’t even feel Jango’s waves of hate that are just growing by the second. “Shame on you, Mand’alor.”

“I am not the Mand’alor.”

“No. You are demagolka,” Kenobi says, the sweet words of Jango’s first language falling from his lips like poisoned honey. “They are your children, Fett. Your clones, just as human as you.”

“They are little more than droids, Jedi. The Kaminoans--”

Kenobi laughs, sharp and bitter, and it’s enough of a surprise that Jango stops talking. The Jedi strides closer, and it takes everything in him to not step back at what little emotion the Jedi allows through.

“Let me show you,” Kenobi hisses, putting a hand on either side of Jango’s head and it’s too much this is not a sense he is meant to have.

Kenobi cannot lie to Jango, not in this mental space. Not in this existence. He can cherry-pick what he shows, he can exaggerate, he can hide, but he cannot present a falsehood.

What Kenobi shows him, as he pulls Jango into his mind and drowns him in the sensation of the Force, is how each and every clone shines, bright and unique and so very human, so very sentient, so very alive.

These are your children, Kenobi says, directly into his mind and with no room to pull away. If they choose to disown you for your crimes against them, then that is their right, but until they do, they are your responsibility. You’re playing in denial and cognitive dissonance, soulmate mine. If I have to drag you into caring for your children the way any Mandalorian would, then so be it.

“Kriff off,” Jango manages to grit out in the real world. Kenobi looks unimpressed, when he lets go. The sensations in Jango’s mind, the jangled distaste and horror and anger, those are worse.

“Are you going to be dar’manda?” Kenobi demands. “You, who were once king of your people, have you really sunk so low to be the worst of your kind? To be so horrible that even Kyr’tsad would be shamed? Or worse, approve?”

“You have no place--”

“You are violating one of the core tenets of your culture!” Kenobi shouts. “You are being the worst of what you could be, Jango Fett! The most important, the absolute most important element of your culture, the care and nurture of children, and look at what you’ve done--”

“The clones--”

“Your sons!” Kenobi growls at him. “Your children, Fett. I’ve a student that is, by every Mandalorian standard, my son. I know what it is to take in a child that is not yours by blood, to raise a foundling, and you are cutting off millions that are your blood. You aren’t turning away an orphan to another family because you cannot care for them as they deserve, you are breeding your children for war like bantha to slaughter.”

Jango throws the first punch.

Kenobi throws the second.

By the time the fight ends, the room is in ruins, for all that they do not draw blasters or sabers. Kenobi has Jango on his back, straddling his chest with knees on his wrists, a vibroblade to his neck. Kenobi’s lip is bleeding, and Jango thinks he might have caused a hairline fracture in the cheekbone. Both of them have at least one broken rib, and Jango’s currently blind in one eye from the blood pouring out of a cut on his forehead.

Kenobi’s a good fighter. If it weren’t for everything else, Jango might have even been able to appreciate that.

“You,” Kenobi growls, fisting one hand into Jango’s curls and yanking for emphasis, earning himself a snarl in return. “Are going to fix this mess you’ve helped create. If I have to drag the entire Jedi council, the entire senate, if I have to drag in all of Mandalore to make you fix this, I will.”

There’s determination in those words, angry and a little spiteful, but mostly just... disappointed.

“Of course I’m disappointed,” Kenobi spits out, like the words are hot coals. He’s expressive. Jango wants to like it, but mostly he just resents the trait. “I hoped to never find a soulmate; it just complicates things. Opsec becomes a nightmare and holding to the code is difficult. And now I have a soulmate, and he’s an absolute monster that views his own children as little more than droids.”

“War is going to come for them no matter what,” Jango manages to say, and Kenobi’s look is back to unimpressed. “Don’t pretend you haven’t heard of the separatists. There’s an army of actual droids, metal and code, just waiting for the right moment to pick a fight. It’s too late to stop it.”

“...you’re not only raising an army of your own children, but engineering the war that’s going to kill them?” Kenobi almost screeches, and the wave of nauseous loathing that slams into Jango is almost enough to make him actually vomit. Kenobi didn’t pull punches, not in the actual fight and not in whatever mental battle they’re apparently having via emotions and words.

“I’m not engineering it,” Jango says. “I’m just one part in a bigger machine. I got my payment. The rest is on Tyranus.”

He doesn’t even stop the images from flickering through his mind, throwing the man who hired him under the speeder.

“Master Dooku?” Kenobi whispers, horror growing. “No, no, I killed the--the Sith can’t--I killed the one on Naboo, and the Council mentioned the Rule of Two, but... oh hells.”

“You know him?” Jango taunts.

“He’s my grandmaster,” Kenobi says, and Jango can’t imagine the rest is meant to reach him, but the undercurrent is there.

Count Dooku is, by Mandalorian law, Kenobi’s grandfather.

Jango... suddenly feels a little regret about the taunting.

“I’d rather you feel regret about your children,” Kenobi snaps at him. “Every single one of them is a person, one that you chose to bring into this world, and they are your children.”

The argument is going in circles, but there are still places to take this.

“Your army is all adults, Kenobi,” Jango decides.

“They are ten years old,” Kenobi retorts. “Accelerated aging, sure, but they are children.”

“They’re soldiers.”

Disgust again, the same thing Kenobi has felt every time Jango has reasserted the purpose these children were born to, the same thing Jango has told his son, his sergeants, himself, for over a decade.

“A son?” Kenobi whispers. “Is your denial that strong, Fett? That you would claim one and not the rest?”

“Payment,” Jango says, and lets Kenobi feel the rest, since he seems so karking keen on it.

“Keeping one child in exchange for letting yourself be the creator of a slave army,” Kenobi says, and he doesn’t seem impressed. “Weren’t you a slave? Two years on a spice ship, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t you dare--”

“And you would put your sons in chains,” Kenobi hisses, hands going for Jango’s head again. It’s a sense memory, this time, of dark tunnels and exploding collars and a dar’jetii that... was his older brother. According to the Jedi way of thinking.

It’s a twisting fear and pain and I will die so that others may live while looking at an older man, a Master, who can maybe save the other slaves at the expense of one too-angry Initiate’s li--

“Get out of my head!” Jango roars, and he still can’t move his arms, and his legs are held down by the Force, but he twists his head to bite and Kenobi snatches his hands away.

Kenobi glares down at him, almost sneering with the amount of disdain he has for Jango’s general existence. “I’m your soulmate, and had we met fifteen years ago, I might have even thought that an alright thing... but whatever you are now isn’t something I can abide by. You won’t listen to morality, so let me say this instead: a Jedi does not kill an unarmed opponent, but I have full authority to arrest you, even here. I will take you back to the Republic, to be tried for your collusion with a Sith, and you will go to prison. You can try to run, but I am in your head, and you’re in mine. Once you’re in prison, what happens to your son?”

The implication is there, but even if it wasn’t, Jango hears the thought:

They’re soulmates. The Republic would place Boba with Kenobi.

He refuses to have his child raised by a holier-than-thou Jedi.

“Holiness doesn’t have any meaning in Jedi philosophy,” Kenobi says, relaxing just the slightest bit. “Other religions, yes, but no place in ours.”

“You’re a self-righteous bastard,” Jango says flatly. “Despite threatening a child.”

“You mean threatening to take custody of a child being raised in an unhealthy environment, one where he’s being taught to devalue his brothers, engendering a mental dissonance where he has to convince himself he’s special for a reason and that you won’t just drop him if he fails to be perfect?” Kenobi asks. “I prefer to keep children with guardians who love them, but the argument that he’s better off away from you isn’t a difficult one.”

“Oh, like a child-stealer--”

“My mother tried to drown me when I was a toddler,” Kenobi says, even flatter than Jango had been a minute earlier. “Because I was Force-Sensitive, and it was considered curse on my home planet. A Jedi saved me. Tell me that was a kidnapping and not being saved.”

Jango grinds his teeth. “You’re damned smug whenever you have some sob story that outranks mine.”

“This isn’t about who has the bigger sob story,” Kenobi says, and Jango can feel how he’s just as ready to start clenching his jaw to deal with Jango’s bullshit. “It’s about you doing your damned job as a Mandalorian and a father, and taking responsibility for your children. All three million of them.”

It really, really is a pity they didn’t meet before Jango took this job. They could have been great together.

As it is, Jango goes for the groin shot the second Kenobi lets him back on his feet.

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

[halfusek]

So now people are attacking TheMeatly for finding similarities between BATIM and a new Fortnite update? That post shows a character turning into a vintage cartoon character, dripping with ink. That concept, those two things together, are DEFINITELY associated with BATIM.When I first saw the image I legit thought it was a BATIM crossover too. Jesus, I hate this fandom

oh god i cant escape this discourse can i girl help-

fortnite stinks, i dont mind ragging on its devs because they did awful crunches, but i am not entirely sure meatly is in the right but i also dont think he should be getting these kind of outraged responses like on god 

i know meatly made like two tweets about this and honestly? i didnt read them as him being pissed about it or passive aggressive, i thought he was joking fdnjkfdkfd but maybe im not good at reading tone idk

but there was a screenshot of the bundle with the design called “the ink demon” and apparently there is something referenced to “not all dreams come true” so also like...... while concept of ink monsters and soul stuff is not really something meatly can claim as his (because there’s games like epic mikey, and others), “the ink demon” and that phrase are something hitting very close to being heavy inspiration

but but im also not 100% sure about these things because i’ve heard/seen them second hand, i dont play fortnite and i wouldnt even know where to look for it after launching the game fhfdfdghkjf if anyone can confirm/deconfirm that id be grateful

and this situation resurfaced a lot of anger from the community towards the bendy devs for things that happened and for lack of batdr teasers

as for the past controversy... well people can choose to forgive things like that or not, being critical is good, being toxic is not and a lot of people justify being toxic by being critical; even though i really despise, especially mike, for some of the things he did/said, ive stopped jumping on the critical bendy bandwagons because ive realised it stopped being healthy a while ago

as for the lack of batdr teasers and how people complain about them i had some thoughts im just gonna copy from twitter:

Let's set aside the fact that we are talking about the Bendy devs that indeed did some shitty things in the past. This behavior (being entitled to teasers/release dates) is common toxicity in gaming communities and I wish more people realized that. 

At the end of the day they are creating content you await and it is your choice to wait for it or not. But you do not have a say in how they are going to tease things. Especially that they stated before they don't wanna tease things until they feel like they're ready. 

Pushing content creators (of games, shows, comics, you name it) to give you content and teasers is a part of why crunch culture is a thing (which is hella bad). But it's a pretty normalized behavior between gamers.

I'll admit I myself have been complaining about lack of BATDR teasers even a month ago but I've given it some thinking, been looking up stuff about crunch culture and I've figured that was pretty dang cringe of me.

[soranis-sunshadow]

Hordak can’t catch a break even on his birthday...

Oh fandom, you really like this sort of drama don’t you? 

A few days ago, on Hordak’s birthday, there was this ‘interesting’ post in the tag – since, apparently it’s impossible to get any peace even on that day.

I was  too tired to answer it at the time after being on call the day before so, here’s my delayed answer to all of that:

First off: this post has this bit in it when asked what that person dislikes about SPOP.

 He doesn’t need to get a redemption and he doesn’t get one in the show. 

None of his actions constitute a redemption arc. The man merely acknowledged his personhood and freed himself from his master and God. That’s what his arc was about: the right to have a personal identity. 

He gave himself a name and wanted to be his own person. That’s it. That’s all he wanted.

The man was merely freed from Prime’s influence- an influence he was born into since he’s been specifically manufactured to serve as a disposable mass produced soldier and worshipper of Prime.

 If the argument that Catra was “forced” to commit crimes and thus she is not completely guilty of them since she was under duress – then the argument doubly holds for a person who has been directly programmed and conditioned to do so under the threat of death or mental rape (purification).\

Even while away from Prime, he was still conditioned to obey and brainwashed by Prime’s cult. He literally knew nothing else – he was not meant to. It’s how indoctrination works.  

Prime’s clones aren’t people to Prime, they are tools. Those clones, while cut off from Prime still want to serve and please him: That’s what Wrong Hordak’s purpose in the show is- to show us just that.

Hordak is not considered “OK”  because Entrapta likes him. Hordak is merely shown – by Entrapta that he could live apart from his cult and have worth outside what Prime tells him he has. 

Just like real life cult victims, he needs an outsider to help him see a way out of the cult. The nature of indoctrination and brainwashing makes it impossible for the brainwashed person to know they are brainwashed unless someone points it out.

Now for my favorite thing:

and

oh and

Oh boy… this makes me just so damn uncomfortable.

To offer a bit of context as to why. I have never been on social media before SPOP or in any fandom and as such, I have never encountered the ‘all men are evil’ discourse that seems to infest these places. It’s been quite a bit of culture shock for me. 

What is it that makes anyone think it is ok to judge a person because of an accident of birth? (being born male)

Why does hate for 50% of the human population get such a free pass on these platforms? Misandry is just as terrible as misogyny. You are being biased against another human because of their gender. I don’t care that males are perceived as ‘privileged’ – that doesn’t make it ok to be terrible to them unprovoked. 

How does hating all men help achieve equity?

Do you realize that this sort of discourse is exactly how you radicalize people against the very cause you are championing? You breed hate and adversity for the rest of us who actually want to to have a discussion on the topic. 

I’m a feminist myself (in a country where feminism is hard-work) and let me tell you, making all men hate us does nothing but push away potential allies and make it a lot harder for our voices to be heard.

Feminism is about equality, not women dominating.

Now onto the second post: the one comparing Catra and Hordak with the question of which of them is a better person. 

This whole war orphans that were personally abducted and tortured into serving the horde HC that some ppl have is really starting to get boorish. This has been going on for more than 6 months. 

I have no idea why everyone thinks he went down chimneys and stealing babies left and right while cackling villainously. The man had a busy schedule of brooding in his lab, wallowing at his inability to use insulated cables and having his device blowing up in his face with the occasional Skype call to Shadow Weaver to see what the Horde is doing. 

And yet, to a part of the fandom, this is what he looked like:

( @bat-burrito​ made this one and it’s glorious) 

And if you don’t believe me about the lab recluse thing, you don’t have to, the show pretty much states it for me. 

and 

+

Hordak is a recluse that stayed in his lab and let the running of the Horde and most operations to Shadow Weaver and later Catra. He did not personally abuse anyone and he is not the origin of the cycle of abuse.

Shadow Weaver was a child grooming manipulative woman before she even joined the Horde – she did this to Micah while she was not “evil” or presumably abused by Hordak.

Even if you want to HC that Hordak abused her somehow, he is still not the one who started the cycle: Horde Prime is. 

The whole fandom seems to forget about the eldritch monstrosity that created a whole army of brainwashed slaves to worship and die for him. Prime is the one that sent Hordak to die and gave him the motivation to try to prove himself worthy of life and love. If you want to point fingers, point them at the origin of all of this. This fandom has a strange Prime blindness. He is never talked about when it comes to being the start of all of this.

If Prime didn’t exist, Hordak wouldn’t exist. If Prime hadn’t sent Hordak off to die, then his clone wouldn’t have accidentally ended up on Etheria. None of the things in the show would have happened.

Adora would have died of exposure in a field, the monarchies on Etheria would have continued as they are and the planet would have continued to exist in despondos. 

He is a dictator, yes. So are the princesses. Monarchies are dictatorships where the ruler is born into power. Hordak gained his through military might while Glimmer was born with hers and enforced it with tradition. I don’t really care to play “who’s the better dictator”. The princesses have their power because of the runestones- magical rocks put there by the First Ones to channel the planet’s magic and use it as a weapon. How come no one talks about that?

Do you think a king/queen keeps their crown without effort or subjugation of their subjects? 

Also, Hordak had never interacted with Catra before SW dragged her before him to be judged. He was indifferent to etherians in general and didn’t seem to care which of them were his underlings so long as the operations were running smoothly. He was more focused on his portal and returning home than on anything else. He did not set out to “ruin lives” or quest for power. What he wanted was to return to his deity and become a mindless part of the whole again – that is as opposite to power hungry as you can get.

Catra was directly abused by Shadow Weaver throughout her childhood. That makes Shadow weaver responsible for 100% of that abuse.

Catra was found in a box by Adora and adopted by Shadow Weaver. Hordak didn’t know or care that she existed.

He is responsible for the war, he is responsible for the war casualties and the property damage. He is not responsible for Shadow Weaver being a terrible person and mother figure.

Again with the orphan thing. We have 5 cadets in the show. 

Adora was found in a field. 

Catra was found in a box. Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio are unexplained. The only lizard ppl we see in the show are in the Horde or the Crimson Wastes. The other two could just as well be the children of some of the soldiers. 

I may harp on about what a bitch Shadow Weaver is – the reason I do so is because she is legitimately terrible to the two girls in her care.

I was the unfavorite growing up, I WAS the Catra in my family who could do no right while my sibling was the golden child. I don’t however hate Shadow Weaver. She is a cartoon character in a show and she does the things she was written to do. Hell, she is a very compelling and believable villain. Her motivations are clear and she is consistent. Her voice actress portrayed her splendidly and her character design is superb. I like her but that doesn’t mean that I don’t acknowledge her role in the story. I don’t however make up parts of the story to make her more evil than she was or treat my headcanons about her as absolute fact. 

Again, sigh: Prime is the worst villain in the show. He is quite literally Nyarlathotep and does this to planets: 

 This to people: 

and this to the people he created to serve, worship and love him: 

How is that not worse?

I love Catra and it genuinely annoys me when people erase her agency or try to paint her as one-dimensional victim. Catra was an antagonist for most of the show and she rocked it! She was 400% more efficient at it than cloneboy. Give the queen some damn respect and recognition! Catra had a lot of agency and her actions moved the plot of the show more than those of the protagonists. (they were mostly reactive).

Catra pulled the lever of the portal in a moment of distress after a breakdown, a Shadow-Weaver related breakdown because that’s how trauma works.

Hordak didn’t make her do it, he didn’t send Catra after Adora either. These were Catra’s choices. They came from a place of hurt but they were her choices still.

The portal was a means of transportation, not a weapon. Building it was not Catra’s mission, it was Hordak’s. He built it so he could contact Prime and either summon him here or go home –whichever course of action Prime wanted. Again, Hordak wanted to go back to this:

...

The only person who knew the device was dangerous was Entrapta and she tried to warn Hordak about it. Catra was the one who stopped her, violently so, then sent her to die on Beast Island- the fate Entrapta saved her from a season ago. Catra then tried to have Hordak open the portal before it was ready.

When he wouldn’t – she pulled the lever herself because that is how desperate she had gotten at that point, to show Shadow Weaver how wrong she was. That is how hurt Catra was by her mother figure’s betrayal and abuse.

Don’t take that away from her. Don’t call it curiosity or naivete or whatever. She knew the portal was dangerous but she wanted to prove Shadow Weaver wrong so badly that she didn’t care at that point. She had been pushed that far. 

Catra’s actions led to Angella’s death but she was not directly responsible for it. She didn’t activate the device to kill Angella, it merely happened accidentally. Catra was however glad it happened and wanted to profit from the aftermath of her death.  

Hordak didn’t care or plan to kill Angella personally. There is no in-show moment where any of that is portrayed. Since he doesn’t care about the specifics of running the horde seem to know what they are conquering at the moment, it seems that that was usually a task reserved for his second in command. 

^ - troop movement ordered by Catra

Hordak doesn’t even know what his own army is doing.

Again with the Hordak “drilling into orphan’s minds”… I seriously doubt that any of them had ever seen him out of his lab or that he came up with the propaganda himself.

Manipulation is more Shadow Weaver’s game not his. For all of Hordak’s faults, he is not deceptive or manipulative. If anything, he is woefully incapable of spotting lies. (it might have something to do with him being born in a society where lies were almost impossible because of the hive mind and Prime being able to browse his thoughts at a whim- as such, it wouldn’t be a skill he would have been able to develop).

Hordak canonically despises deception and lies.  I really don’t understand where this image of a manipulative and cunning Hordak comes from. He wouldn’t be able to plot himself out of a paper bag if his life depended on it.

First off.. S4 Catra was his equal, not his subordinate. Don’t take that away from her. She earned it.

He doesn’t look that threatening here... 

And again:  Prime created the system. He made clone slaves and programmed them to serve. His clones have hardware installed for the express reason to facilitate his control over them. He has a religion in place to make sure their thoughts do not stray from his purpose. I am legitimately boggled by this fandom’s tendency to completely forget about his existence.Does anyone really think that these people that are born “prechipped” and programmed to know nothing but Prime’s Light are really knowledgeable about human morality?

That they would know that conquest is bad when that is the express reason for their creation? 

If I were born in that situation, I’m not sure I would have known any better. Hell, if any of the clones even try to disobey Prime, they would get either mindraped (erased) or killed for the effort. They really have no choice, even if they knew that killing in Prime’s name is wrong (they don’t) they really can’t do anything about it. They have no choice but to be what they were made to be. I find it personally abhorrent when these designer slaves are held accountable for what Prime has made them do.

And to the people that say Hordak was free of Horde Prime once he was stranded on Etheria.. That is not how indoctrination works. The fact that I can’t go to church this Sunday because I’m locked in the house and can’t find the keys doesn’t make me an atheist.

Hordak was serving Prime even on Etheria. He keeps mentioning it to both Entrapta and Catra. He started the war because that’s what he thought Prime wanted of him and that’s what he’s been programmed to do. Personal and informed choice really doesn’t factor into his decision at all.

He is not sympathetic because Entrapta likes him. Notice how I haven’t brought up his relationship with her up to this point?

He is sympathetic because he literally had no choice but to do the things he was indoctrinated into doing. He was build and programmed for it, just like all the other clones. They are not able to deviate from that because of the way Prime functions and rules over them.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests.

There is no point in the show where Hordak relishes over his status as a ruler or the “luxury” it affords him. He does not engage in the same behaviors his progenitor manifests. He attempts to emulate Prime in order to project authority in the only way he knows how but since those are some really big shoes to fill, he is woefully inadequate. 

If Hordak had been power hungry, he would have stayed in despondos and ruled his own faction. Being away from Prime is the most powerful and autonomous he’s ever been and yet, he wants to throw all of that away in order to be a powerless, nameless part of the whole. What Hordak wanted was to be enslaved by Prime because that’s what he had been created for.

“vengeful” – and how did Hordak manifest this vengefulness? Who did he take revenge on in the series?  

“apologize” – when and where in his 3 minutes of screentime would he remember everything after 2 mindwipes, realize that the whole worldview he had since inception is wrong, realize that he had been mistaken into doing the horrible things he did and then go to all of the characters and apologize for it?

Would anyone be convinced of that had it happened in 3 minutes? I’d rather they don’t redeem him than do a shit job at it.

Very true. He’s not a better person. He’s just a person in an impossible situation. Both Hordak and Catra were handed a raw deal, I don’t understand why everyone insists on pitting them against one another. They both did bad things and they were both in horrible situations. The specifics don’t really matter since neither of them would have done the things they did had they been more fortunate.

This is the exact reason for which I don’t hold Cara’s actions against her. Catra’s only model of success was Shadow Weaver. She emulated her abusive mother figure because she had no other example and because she wanted to please that woman. It does not excuse the way Catra acted but it explains it.

I really don’t understand why some people want Catra punished. I’d rather she get love and help. That is what she needs. In time, she will want to do better and be better by herself. She doesn’t need to be forced, heavens know, she’s been forced enough as it is.

They are really different. Catra got an abusive, shitty and violent childhood. Hordak got this:

He was literally robbed of a childhood. 

She was taught by Shadow Weaver that weakness gets you killed. Hordak was not allowed to have emotions to begin with, or thoughts of his own, or a name...

Comparing to victims of abuse to see which one of them is more likable is such a strange concept to me.

Catra was robbed in s5 too. I don’t hold that against her. I  blame it on the writers. S5 could have been a lot better. 

[fratboykate]

From what I heard from the few industry peeps, that comment could be about like 4 different actors from a bunch of both m/m and f/f super popular ships. There are a ton of people in the business who just can't stand each other, but are total pros so their rabid stans have NO IDEA! And it always made me chuckle. Like maybe some of your followers CO are talking the Flopdred as rule but it's an exception. All the tea was great and we had fun with it but it was also super unprofessional and a rarity. Usually peeps keep that shit under wraps.

One of two things is going to happen when you stick people who tend to have healthy egos (you usually have to in order to be a performer) together for 14-16 hours a day, 6 months out of the year, in usually pretty grueling conditions: they're either going to love each other or eventually start to hate each other. It's inevitable.

You know most of the Queer Eye guys hate each other, right? That is a very not-so-secret public secret like Ellen being a monster used to be. There's a couple that are actual friends in real life (I know Tan and Antoni are) but that entire production is A MESS because they all want to be the center of attention and have real life fights about who has the most social media followers. There was a time that the moment that the cameras cut, Karamo and Antoni had to go to different rooms because they couldn't even look at each other. I heard that has gotten better and they can now at least be adults about it. They do at least come together to do one thing, they're all HORRIBLE to Bobby lol. Apparently he gets so disrespected on that show by the other four that it's actually sad. But like...THAT is how big of a spectacle some of these things can be where even something as seemingly wholesome as Queer Eye can be a toxic disaster behind the scenes.

Stop going by appearances and by what celebs show you on interviews and social media for five minutes. Y'all have no fucking clue what is actually going on and who they really are. TRUST ME. It's why celebrity worship and stan culture has to go. You don't fucking know these people. You never will. You know the persona they put on for you, you know the character they create for the public but you don't know THEM. Being a celebrity is one big performance. It's why you need to stop shipping people because "Oh my good look at them. LOOK AT HOW THEY TREAT EACH OTHER." It's called being an actor, Rebecca. They get paid to do this every day. They know how to be professional around their castmembers. They know how to turn it on for the cameras. They know how to be charming lol.

It goes beyond actors tho. I'm friends with someone who dated one of the biggest musicians on the planet for a long time some years ago. People sing big hits they wrote about my friend. The way that musician is a COMPLETELY different human than the carefully fabricated persona their team have created for them is almost laughable. But their stans eat it up because they just don't know better. I'm not saying they're a bad person. They're lovely and funny and dope, they're just not at all the same person as the front facing character they sell to the world. That's what being a celebrity is. It's just another big act. They've been dating someone else for a while now and there's this almost fairtytale love story built around them with a backstory that literally doesn't make sense in terms of timeline and a ton of other small stuff to anyone who actually knows them. Those of us who are looking from the outside are constantly like "Uh wtf is this??? Lol" but again...stans eat that shit up. So their personality is half an act and half of the facts of their relationship are fudged to the point of almost not being true. For the record, I'm not saying the relationship is fake. They ARE together. They're just rewriting how they got together to make it sound more romantic cuz that's the shit that sounds good in interviews and sells love songs. Basically you know nothing about these people and you think you do.

Stop. Treating. Celebrities. Like. Friends.

I fuck around here a lot but at the end of the day I'm quite fucking aware that unless I have direct and reliable information otherwise, anyone and everyone I reblog on here is as much of a stranger to me as the person I saw on the street a month ago. I don't know them. At all. I know the script they've sold me, but I don't know THEM. You don't either. Doesn't matter how open they seem. Never forget that.

[lesbianchemicalplant]

Text of tweet thread by Anthony DellaRosa @ifeelthewind, Jan 4th 2020 [cw: Contrapoints, transphobia, biphobia, doxxing, abuse, harassment, K*w*f*rms, etc. etc. etc. etc.]

Well, it's been a solid two days of waking fucking nightmares, and also the regular kind.

So, let's talk about it. Contra's got me actively fearing for myself, and also for my family (and here's how). Alternate title:

Contra told a *million* people that I "might be" a Nazi who's "just pretending to be trans."

Now, keep in mind, Contra's a relatively wealthy woman with just over 800,000 YouTube subscribers and almost 11,000 paying patrons. Meanwhile, I have 662 Twitter followers and holes in my mouth where teeth used to be.

Anyway, in her video, at 33:35, she quotes a series of three consecutive tweets of mine, starting here.

So, um, I've actually had her blocked for a long, long time. Definitely at least a year. Maybe two.

So, the fact that she was able to see these tweets at all, to begin with, means that she was namesearching *around* my block, specifically trawling for content. Which is a hell of a thing.

Like, I blocked her because over the course of a couple years, her work became just incredibly fucking triggering for me. But she's so fucking omnipresent in pretty much *every* online trans space, it's basically impossible to fully escape her stuff. So, the block was there to give me at least *some* protection against being blindsided? For a while, I also actually muted her name.

But here we are.

Also, I feel like, after a certain point, she must have been watching *me*, very specifically, because, later in the video, she also quotes *this* tweet, which got literally *five* fucking retweets in its *entire* fucking lifetime, and also contains no big, hot, easily searchable keywords. 

I mean, unless she was fucking sitting here, combing through literally *every single fucking mention* of "Olly" or "Philosophytube" or "trans people." Put a pin in that. Anyway, Contra reads my tweets about Buck Angel's famously petty, spiteful act of transphobic violence against Lana Wachowski, which, yes, could have *easily* gotten her killed, and argues that we shouldn't care. In fact, not only should we not care -- we shouldn't even check to see if it's true.

Because that "reminds" her of what "creepy stalkers who hate trans people do." You know, digging through the archives, looking for dirt. But let me remind you, Buck's comments exist in the media because he *sold them to the media*. He deliberately went on a fucking tear through the entire fucking tabloid circuit, eventually reaching as high as Rolling fucking Stone. He "exposed" Lana, very, very publicly, specifically to punish her. *Doing* that is apparently fine, whatever. Be a guest on my fucking YouTube show. Let me gush and gush and *gush* about your fucking "decades" of "good trans activism" (with absolutely no specifics). But *talking* about the actual, historical fact that he *did* do that, a simple acknowledgement of the fucking harm, is abusive and stalker-ish? I'm sorry, *how* did you get to my tweets again? So, immediately after featuring and responding to three of my tweets, she asks the audience,

"How can you tell the difference between a trans anarcho socialist with an anime avatar, and a Nazi *pretending* to be a trans anarcho socialist with an anime avatar?" "Well," she says, "you can't. Anonymous is anonymous is anonymous, whether it's on 4chan or Twitter."

And I'm honestly not sure she's still talking about me at this point? Because literally none of those things apply to me?

1) I don't specifically identify as an anarcho socialist. I don't specifically identify as *any* particular political micro label. I just don't really find it useful.

2) This account has *never* been anonymous. It has *always* had my name on it.

3) This is not an anime avatar. This is something I drew in, like, 2015, when I was playing around with a bunch of different brushes in FireAlpaca.

4) Although I don't use them as my avatar, I *have* posted selfies here.

5) If I *did* use them as my avatar, well, you didn't fucking censor anyone's avatars in this video. Not even the ones that actually *are* real people's actual photos. So, if my face *was* my avatar, you would have just shown my face to a *million* people and counting, *immediately* before saying I might be a Nazi *and* a fake trans person.

You want to talk about abusive, TERF-y tactics? How about that?

How about stalking the tweets of an autistic trans person with 600 followers, screencapping them out of context, broadcasting them to a literal fucking *million* a *million* of your own fucking fans, and telling them all that the autistic trans person is the "real" Nazi and also maybe not even really trans? How about fucking that? Like, I'm not sure if you *are* talking about me, because, factually, all of this is fucking bullshit. But it certainly *sounds* like you're talking about me.

'Cause you haven't changed gears at all. I'm still the last person you quoted, you're still in the same "bit," and you're still responding to the thing I brought up. Like, really, this has two potential outcomes.

a) People take what you're saying at absolute face value and cheer you on as you take down the faceless fake trans person you've turned me into, or

b) They Google the tweets you so, *so* helpfully provided the *full* fucking text for, find my actual Twitter page, and then, whoops, all of a sudden, I have Contra stans on my Twitter page.

Like, let me lay this out. Those tweets in the video have all been up for two months already. They've been up. They've been out there. They've been seen. They're old news, more or less. And, yes, when they were new, I got hate. Yes, I got abuse. Yes, I even got other big YouTubers, reactionary dipshits like Peter Coffin and shoe0nhead, "liking" posts that talked shit about me. (That's why I went ahead and blocked as many of Peter's followers as it would let me).

But nothing like this.

I've been in protected mode for two days straight.

Nothing's ever done that before.

Nothing's ever been that bad.

Not till this.

Not till you.

Did being featured in Contra's video result in a noticeable uptick in abuse and harassment directed my way?

Unmistakably, yes.

And I was soon as I went protected on Twitter, it started flowing over into my Tumblr. And that put me in the position of wondering where it was going to stop. Were they going to get my phone number? My address? My work?

Fun thoughts.

Fun, fun things I have to live with now. She closes out this segment by telling me, or this hypothetical thing she's created adjacent to me,

"Shut up and go back to K*w*f*rms, where you belong."

So.

Let me tell you.

I've never checked, because I know I wouldn't be able to handle if it I did, but I wouldn't be surprised if K*w*f*rms actually *had* a page about me.

I don't *know*. I don't *want* to know. But I wouldn't be super fucking surprised. [cw: suicide]

I'm autistic. I'm trans. I've always been *very* online, growing up, and for pretty much my entire fucking life (at least for the chunk of it that I can actually remember), I've had groups of people trying to goad me into suicide. I've seen whole fucking group chats where they fucking plan it.

So, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised. If I didn't have one before, I probably fucking do now. Oh, and then she notes,

"I'm saying this in the c*ntiest way. And they deserve it! They deserve the c*ntiness!" Gosh, I wonder why my DMs across two sites are full of abuse right now. Anyway, I can feel myself fading fast.

I might come back and talk about that Olly thing we put a pin in later.

Or I might just go on protected again.

We'll see how this shakes out. 

The fucking disgusting hypocrisy of Natalie Wynn of all people saying “Shut up and go back to K*w*f*rms, where you belong” when she by her own admission was raised on 4chan’s /lgbt/

As the linked facebook post summarizes:

“You want to talk about cancel culture and online mobs and disposability?Then let's talk about how ContraPoints just sicced days of harassment and stalking on a low profile trans person with no power, no money, no fame, and said something that will only certainly result in them getting a dedicated KiwiF page. She's going to get someone fucking killed (if she hasn't already)”

[go-ldy]

Riverdale 5x01

Hello from Canada where Riverdale comes to me a day later. Here are my belated thoughts on the premiere!

The episode was enjoyable  but also weirdly anti-climatic? I think it’s because we have spent about 10 months speculating on the emotional fallout from 4x17 and the ramifications seemed so huge and massive and then onscreen, it was kind of like.... oh. But also of course it was. Riverdale has never been a show about huge emotional ramifications (aside from a few exceptions).

Varchie got much of the heavy emotional lifting and Cami was heartbreaking. And also completely gorgeous? Each scene she was in this episode was a look. Her singing Carry the Torch was painful but I am obsessed with the dress she was wearing, what a babe.

Veronica’s dedication to Archie and continuing to be Riverdale’s Best Girlfriend was just :(((((((( baby, come into my arms :((((((((

I still dunno if I really understand where Archie’s head is at re: Betty. It felt true to character that he would want to come to clean to Veronica about what happened. But is he feeling guilty because he loves Veronica and regretting what happened with Betty? Is he still feeling torn or confused about his feelings? Did he use Betty as a crutch or an excuse to keep from, in his mind, holding Veronica back? All three?

Betty’s look in Archie’s direction during Carry the Torch was so funny/awk, it was the look of someone who was like: “YOU JUST LEFT THIS LYING AROUND YOU FOOL.” the whole situation is awful but also, nobody throws a dirty look like B. Cooper.

Veronica was way more mature and understanding in the circumstances than I would be, and while it tracks, I also would not mind seeing her get mad? Girl, you can be mad about this.

I know that Hiram is overplayed, but  Mark Consuelos is such a delight. He just KNOWS what show he is on, you know? Him asking Archie to be deputy mayor (LMAOOOOOOOO WHAT) followed up by him lurking in shadows at the end and plotting Archie’s demise was incredible, A+ acting. 

lmao @ the Navy having one spot left and deciding the only way to determine who gets it is a boxing match between two teenagers. That’s how that works!!

Archie and that KO guy from Katy Keene having a sleepover and talking about their “girls” while Archie stared guiltily into space was so fucking funny. Normal teenage boy stuff, Riverdale nails it again.

To the surprise of nobody, Toni’s much promised “backstory” was very much “oh okay.” This Nana we have literally never met before or knew Toni had any connection with suddenly has the power to break up Choni because she hates Blossoms? Fine.

Bughead were such a delight in this episode!  Choni and Varchie are having these big emotional scenes and Bughead were delighting in making a snuff film lmao. Which got them NOTHING in the end! But boy did they have fun doing it, these absolute insufferable weirdos.

I loved that Betty had her father’s serial killer conditioning video in her back pocket in case the snuff film was revealed as a fake. Ruthless Betty Cooper is one of my favourites. Please come again any time, my love and light of my life.

The return of Jughead punching people because Betty. :))))))))))) A delight!!

Betty’s prom dress was indecent. I loved it.

I wanted more Betty and Jughead slow dancing and nuzzling each other at prom, how very dare the auteur take this from me, rude.

It did make me laugh that despite all the “adult” chaperones at prom, Betty and Jughead were the only ones who thought to take steps to stop the auteur’s snuff prom video. Typical adults of Riverdale stuff I guess.

I love that Riverdale, a town of a population of what? 15,000? 20,000?? is apparently big enough to have this entire underground rave/snuff film culture. Okay! Cool!! 

Are we buying JB’s excuse that she just happened to get invited to a snuff film rave or.....? 

Whoever re-created the Mr. Honey murder needed to have access to Jughead’s Killing Mr. Honey story which is... a small handful of people. And the auteur is probably not Alice.

[schleierkauz]

Q&A Highlights

Ok so bad news first: My questions were ignored. Cornelia did not clarify any of our death-related theories. Maybe next time.

There was A Lot of other stuff, though so... Enjoy!

- The stream starts with everyone wishing us a happy women’s day! Usually women in Erfurt (where the bookstore people are) get flowers but not today because... you know. Cornelia says America is starting to go back to normal, meanwhile Germany... :| Anyway. Don’t look over here.

- Cornelia says she probably won’t get the vaccine anytime soon because she’s just chilling on her farm anyway and people who have to be out in public/are vulnerable should get it first

- Question: When will Cornelia visit Germany again? In response to this, she gives us some exclusive news, not official yet, heard it here first: She’s gonna move to Italy! Apparently she bought an olive farm there which is cheaper, better for the environment (her current farm will be sold to some people who want to turn it into an organic farm) and obviously closer to Germany so she’ll be here more often. :)

- The 4th Reckless book will be released in English at some point this autumn

- There’s no definite release date for TCoR because she’s busy with Dragonrider but she hopes she’ll have finished writing it by the end of this year

- If she’s still alive after all that to work on Reckless 5, it’ll be the last book of the series... probably. She’s also working on a bunch of smaller projects with her artists in residence

- Question: What are Cornelia’s favorite stories by Jane Austen, the Brontë sister and Shakespeare? She’s not a huge fan of Austen or Brontë because she finds all those repressed emotions too exhausting to read about. With Shakespeare on the other hand she struggles to name a favorite because there’s so much greatness to choose from (she does name MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet though)

- The Black Prince’s legacy in the Reckless timeline may play a role in the next Reckless book or it might evolve into a whole other story. Either way, she’s thinking about it  👀

- Someone asks about Reckless characters and Cornelia says that Kami’en and the Dark Fairy felt very familiar to her from the start in that she always knew who they were as people. She’s not sure why that is. She thinks the Dark Fairy represents many aspects of womanhood, like the ancient forgotten Goddess. Same with Fox, who embodies different sides of that.

- If Cornelia had to date a man from the Mirrorworld, Kami’en would interest her

- Rainer Strecker randomly joins the chat to say hi and everyone is delighted

- Cornelia’s favorite book series is still Lord of the Rings

- Question: Why has the Black Prince never found his true love? Cornelia says she’s not sure that’s true - maybe he did found true love at some point and then lost it again? ‘...and they lived happily ever after’ isn’t a guaranteed outcome after all. Since he’s such a passionate man, she’s pretty sure he’s had at least one big lovestory at this point. She hasn’t asked him about that yet but hopes she’ll find out when she continues writing his story.

- Jumping off that question, Cornelia says she respects her characters’ privacy and lets them keep their secrets until the time comes to ask about them, just as she would with real people.

- Someone asks if Cornelia has ever written herself into a story and she says a part of her is in all her characters. Except the villains because she hates them. She feels closest to Fox because she also always wished she could shapeshift

- The bookstore lady jumps in and asks about Meggie, is she similar to how Cornelia was as a child? Cornelia says yes, especially because she also had a very close relationship with her father and they would bond over books. However, she always envisioned Meggie with dark hair and as a different kind of girl than she was. (Ok sidenote from me on that, I wonder what she means by ‘dark hair’? Because Meggie is explicitly blond, so like... dark blond? Or did we just unlock brunette Meggie in 2021? Cornelia-)

- Continuing the conversation, Cornelia says she doesn’t consider herself the creator of any of the characters in her stories, she feels like she met them and wrote about him but she would never say something like ‘I invented Dustfinger’ because that’s absurd. How would that even work. That’s disrespectful. No.

- Some characters pretty much demand to be written about and are very impatient (like Jacob), others are more shy and elusive and take effort to understand (like Will or Dustfinger)

- There probably won’t be another book like The Labyrinth of the Faun because it was created under such unbelievable circumstances. Cornelia does enjoy writing film scripts, though, like she did for the Wild Chicks recently

- Question: How does Cornelia come up with character names? She has a bunch of encyclopedias and when she knows where a story takes place she checks if there are any artists from there whose names she can steal. She always wants names to have meaning and to paint a picture of whatever character it belongs to. However, she says that sometimes the vibe of a name is a tricky thing: When she wrote The Thief Lord (which takes place in Italy), she thought ‘Mosca’ was the perfect name for a big strong boy. However when the time came to translate the story into Italian, the Italians told her that ‘Mosca’ sounds like the name of a tiny little fly. Oh well.

- Cornelia says a lot of readers have written to her about The Thief Lord because at one point Victor (the detective) calls Mosca (who is black) a “Mohrenkopf”. Context: ‘Mohrenkopf’ is a German slur towards black people and also an outdated name for this goddamn marshmallow cookie:

Fuck this cookie.

- Cornelia says yeah, Victor is being racist in that moment but that doesn’t mean that she, the author, is racist. Similarly, she used the term ‘Indians’ in Reckless and a lot of readers were upset which she did not anticipate. To her it’s a positive word since she admires ‘Indians’ so deeply and finds terms like ‘Native/Indigenous Americans’ very complicated. She wonders how much longer she’ll be allowed to say ‘Black Prince’

- She thinks it’s right to be vigilant about bigotry but simply searching for problematic words is dangerous because context matters

- Bookstore lady brings up Pippi Longstocking and how the N-word has been removed from modern copies (think Pippi’s father). She think’s it’s wrong because the original text is part of the cultural heritage and shouldn’t be hidden from children but instead explained. 

- Cornelia says that in America she sees the hurt that’s connected to that word but she doesn’t think it’s right to simply remove the slur and expect everything to be fine. After all, the text in which it was used is still the same so any harmful ideas would still be in there and that needs to be discussed. Simply whitewashing things doesn’t make them any less racist.

- Cornelia brings up a visual example: The Asterix comics. She always liked them but the fact that the only black character is drawn as a racist caricature is harmful and wrong. It’s time to listen when black people express how hurtful depictions like that can be. Many white people never noticed racism growing up because it never affected them and that’s why it’s important to learn

- The ‘from rags to riches’ American dream was usually reserved for white people and Cornelia thinks a lot of (white) people are waking up to that fact. The way black people are still being criminalized and the way prisons use inmates for cheap labor is horrible and like a modern kind of slavery

- The bookstore people try to say something but Cornelia is not done: We Europeans are not off the hook either because the sins and wounds of colonialism are still felt around the world, not to mention the way other countries are still exploited today. Our wealth rests on the shoulders of poorer nations. Many doors are opening and it’s difficult to step through but we have to do it and admit to the things we may have been blind to due to privilege.

- The three of them agree on that and go back to reading questions

- Question: What are Cornelia’s tips for young authors? She advises to never start writing a story on a computer, always get a notebook and collect ideas & pictures for your story. Don’t rush things. If you have more than one story, give each story its own book and feed whichever one is hungry. It’s important to follow the idea where it leads, if you use cliches your readers will recognize them. And then it just takes time and passion. And trust in your own unique voice. She paraphrases a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson who once said no one cares about stories or characters or whatever, people read books to see the world through the goggles the author puts on them. I’m sure he said it prettier, I’m paraphrasing the paraphrase.

- That said, Cornelia thinks authors who say things like “I’m writing to express my innermost turbulences” are kinda dumb. She thinks it’s important to write about the things that happen everywhere else and around yourself and to try to find voices for others, not just yourself. Just like how carpenters build furniture for everyone else, a writer should use words to build things for others, whether it’s a window or door or a hiding place.

- Speaking of notebooks, as most of us probably know Cornelia has a lot of those and occasionally publishes them on her website. She says she’d love to let people look through them in person, maybe at the new farm in Germany (Cornelia sure does love farms)

- Speaking of writing things on paper, all three of them stress that everyone should write more letters because one day they’ll be old letters and curious people will want to read them, just as we like to read old documents now.

- Last question: How come both the Inkworld and the Mirrorworld feature a character called Bastard? Cornelia thinks that’s a good question and she should probably think about that. (Am I stupid? Are they talking about Basta? I’m confused)

...And with that, the livestream ends. They’ll get back together to do this again two months from now, until then: I’m going tf to sleep