#but vote first so my opinion doesn't affect yours

[aquamarineglow]

It's a miracle that I've had this blog nearly ten years, and never ran out of Rook and Bishop content to make. Amazing.

Hypothetically of course. We know their fights are exclusively verbal.

[vanteguccir]

Hey guys! I actually spent long minutes staring at these reblogs and debating whether it was worth responding and talking about or not. But as I'm not the type to take hate and keep quiet, I decided to talk about it.

First of all, Reia, you really seem like a person who doesn't read many fanfics for the way you put it in your text, so I'll explain the meaning of the word. Fanfic, short for "fan fiction", is a story written by a fan based on characters, universes, or real people (like the triplets). Fans create their own narratives, expanding or reimagining everything, creating their own version, which in real life does not exist OR, as writers, we often draw inspiration from real-life events too.

And yes, you and Evangeline are trying to be "fanfic police" and even "sturniolo police", if you scroll through the thousands of Sturniolo Triplets fanfics, you will come across A LOT where Matt, Nick or Chris go through situations of anxiety attack, panic attack, OR where the "reader" herself goes through this, sometimes even involving situations way worse than that. Furthermore, there's thousands of fanfics describing explicit sex scenes with them, the famous smuts, does that bother you too? Because in the world of someone who writes a FANFIC in here, it doesn't.

And yes, I was indeed writing about the meet and greet situation, and this was nothing new to ANYONE in the fandom WHO READS THE FANFICS HERE. I even made a post the day before ASKING who would like to read the idea, and you want to know the news? All 200 people who voted wanted it.

I understand that you feel this story is disrespectful FOR YOU, especially because it touches on a real-life situation that may be sensitive or painful for some people. I want to assure you that it was never my intention to cause harm or disrespect anyone involved in that situation.

I myself am diagnosed with chronic anxiety, and even so, I didn't feel affected by the way I wrote. In fact, I described how I feel during MY anxiety attacks.

In no way did I make fun of the situation Matt went through, in fact, my intention in writing this story was to explore Matt's complexity and show how he deals with real problems, such as anxiety. It was a way to give more depth to his situation during the tour and highlight the importance of the emotional support he receives from "Y/N". It was not my intention to mock him, but rather to explore his humanity and the challenges he faced, and I know with all the certainty in the world that I did not mock him, much less affect the people who read the story.

Please, I ask you to reevaluate the need to throw hate at a person who has nothing to do with your outside the box opinions of what WRITERS ON THE STURNIOLO'S TUMBLR should or shouldn't write about.

There are thousands of posts on Instagram and TikTok from "fans" really mocking Matt and throwing hate at him about "their bad experiences" during one of the shows, these are the people you should be giving a piece of your mind to, not me. 🩷

[transgenderpolls]

Submission Guidelines/Disclaimers

First, things to keep in mind when you submit:

there is a limit of 12 answers for polls, and on this blog one of those answers will always be 'show results,' to allow for people that the poll doesn't apply to to see without skewing data. so in reality you have a maximum of 11.

there's also an 80-character limit on the options

SO, if you go over those limits, know that I will take it into my own hands to decide which answers to omit and/or how to re-word it to fit the limit.

even otherwise, expect that the wording of your submission may be slightly altered in order to be more inclusive (when it doesn't affect the data), or because i think you missed an option that you probably meant to include, or just to make it sound less clunky. if you have an issue with any changes upon posting, i'm happy to hear you out.

tbh i may also alter it heavily if i cannot imagine for the life of me why your poll is worded/split up the way it is. like, sorry, i truly do not think that whether someone is transmasc or transneutral would affect their ability to take off a binder without taking off their shirt. if i can instantly think of a smarter way to split it up and collect more thorough data i'll do it.

depending on how many submissions i have it could be anywhere from a day to a week before you see it posted.

if your poll is addressing a very small group, don't be surprised or angry when the 'see results' poll is the biggest. that needs to be there to keep data from being skewed by anyone's curiosity.

Base Guidelines For Submitting:

poll must be related to being trans. it doesn't have to be exclusively directed at trans people, but if you want cis people to be allowed to answer, please make that clear in your submission. otherwise i'll default to it being a trans-only poll.

it CAN be directed at a specific type of trans person, such as trans men/women, non-binary people, trans lesbians, trans moc, etc - literally you can address any specific trans group you want, just make sure to say so.

it CAN relate to sex, just try to be tasteful about it.

What would make me NOT post a submission:

if it's an opinion poll about the validity of any particular type of trans person. "validity" is a moot topic and i'm not going to encourage it, and in any case i'd like the focus of this blog to be about recording experiences (real, undeniable, forever in stone) rather than opinions (always changing, meaningless)

if it's too niche and/or would just make a pointless poll. like, you guys, phalloplasty is expensive as fuck. if you wanna know info about it you're better off just finding someone who's had it and talking to them.

if it's something like "trans people: do you like pineapple on pizza?" or some other question that doesn't actually have anything to do with being trans. if you wanna send something like this, make your case for why it's relevant that the poll is directed at trans people.

if it's some other obviously offensive shit, obviously. no racism or whatnot here.

FAQ:

Who counts as trans?/Can I vote on a poll for trans people if I'm nonbinary?

We self-define here, so if you consider yourself trans, you're trans. Non-binary is definitionally under the trans umbrella - though you're not obligated to consider yourself trans if you don't relate to a trans experience.

Why isn't there an option for X?/You missed an option.

Sometimes I may genuinely miss an option, but 9 times out of 10 the lack of the option is either due to the poll limits on tumblr, or because it goes against the point of the poll. For example, if the question begins with "If you're on HRT," then "i'm not on HRT" isn't going to be an option. If the prerequisite of the poll doesn't apply to you, then what you click is "see results." If it's something a little less concrete, polls will always include some kind of "other" option anyway.

Can you make more polls for X type of trans person?

*I* make polls based off what I'm personally curious about. If you're curious about something, submit it!

Can you get rid of the 'see results' button? Or can you not include it on this particular poll? I only want X people to respond. This poll is ONLY for X people.

If a poll is on this blog, it's for everyone, questioning and simply curious people included. It's also not going to stop curious people from clicking if there's no 'see results' button. It ensures that the data doesn't get skewed, and gathering data is what polls are for. It doesn't hurt you to see a big see results bar. The data is still there. If the bar does wind up obscuring more significant data, that means the poll was addressing too small of a group to begin with. And that's NOT the end of the world. This blog is far from the only place where you can get information about other trans people's experiences.

[ach-sss-no]

First (you are here) | Next

First (you are here) | Next

Story idea that has been rattling around my brain and will not leave, but I don't want to devote the amount of time to make it a 'serious' project; I have decided to compromise with myself and make a sloppy comic that updates whenever I feel like it, will be abandoned if it stops being fun, and has badly drawn horses and will inevitably get the lore wrong (out of the bounds of what's intentionally changed for the AU, I mean).

Takes place in the same universe as a fic I wrote but you don't need to read that to understand the comic!

Pippin's letter may be difficult to read and is partially covered, so here is a text version:

Hello, dear Boromir! :) I'm so terribly pleased to hear you're finally coming to visit, I was beginning to worry you never would, and there's so much I would like you to see. I can hardly pick up my home with all of my sisters and bring it to Minas Tirith, however much I may like to! :) Please do let us know as soon as you come in. I should be delighted to act as your honor guard. I've still got the armor. ;) Your dear friend, Pippin Took <3

Fun fact: I referenced Victorian-era letters for the general vibe of how he'd communicate (it's not much different from how he'd talk in the end- other eras of letter-writing had much stricter and odder formats which you may see later); anyway, the example letters were unexpectedly vicious and I want to share them with you. Includes the line "I have a right to demand your grounds for asserting that I am an arrant flirt, a hypocrite, and concerned in more than one dishonorable transaction," and the reply "If you consider your course of conduct in deceiving your uncle, endeavoring to ruin your young cousin Charles, and attempting to elope with an heiress of fifteen, honorable, I can only say that I differ in opinion."

Oh I'm also including votes on the plot of the comic because I think it's fun. Pick Boromir's reply!

[nerves-nebula]

this is something ive always been kind of curious about but a recent irl discussion has brought it up again.

if u wanna know my personal opinions/the conversation that reminded me of this, you can see them under the cut lol

so like. I was talking about the weird racism stuff with splinter (him being japanese and a rat and the whole history of that stuff) and i said that i personally thought it was less racist for him to have been a japanese guy who got turned into a rat because at least then he has like, a legitimate reason for the accent and the ties to the culture. If he's just a guys pet rat, that kind of makes sense- but also it's always felt to me like that was equating the animal with some innate racial characteristics. idk im not a race scholar...

i'm also not japanese, but I know that if there was a culturally black mutant monkey character, I would prefer for that monkey to have previously been a human. Because otherwise it feels, to me at least, like equating that animal to that ethnicity or culture inherently, since they were never really related to that culture and at most were exposed to it in ways they couldn't understand as an animal. which feels demeaning imo.

the white ppl i was talking to this about came around to my point of view, but they originally expressed the thought that it would be less racist to just have an actual rat mutate and just be a japanese rat, accent and all.

I've seen japanese and other asian tmnt fans express the idea that they feel like the human or the rat origin is less offensive, or that they feel one is more or less racist, so I'm not gonna say i think one is definitively more racist cuz to be honest they're both pretty bad and I've seen compelling arguments for both of them being the worse option.

and how asian people experience and think about the racism that affects them is way more important than how i think about it lol.

BUT! I am interested in what you guys think and I'm especially interested in if it breaks down differently between white and nonwhite people. I was considering splitting the vote even more and giving asian people their own options too but seeing as this was inspired by a discussion between a black person and two white people i feel like the point is more to see if this is a poc/white person split first and if so then maybe I'll put out another poll. if not and that was just a coincidence i'll prolly just leave it as it is.

side note: I will say that I think the way mutant mayhem did it where he was just a sewer rat, not even a pet who was raised by a japanese guy ?? and he learned ninja stuff from VHS's??? That one is probably my least favorite. love that movie but i HATED that.

[sillyzombiedelusion]

To start with, Theon is a bad guy, but more importantly, a boring character. I actually stopped reading the books because of him (because the books were suddenly like, "here's what Theon's doing", and I was like, "the fuck? Who is that? I never heard that name before in my life. I better watch the TV show so I have faces to help me remember").

This doesn't make him a bad character, this means you personally weren't interested in him, which isn't a universal constant you can claim 💀

You could certainly do something with his split loyalties and bad decisions, but the TV show never made me interested. His choices never felt driven by his inner conflict, just by him being stupid and greedy.

So you didn't examine his character's nuance? Or the fact that someone being "stupid and greedy" doesn't make them uninteresting??

But then, and this is crucial, he has the worst redemption arc possible. First of all he kills two kids. We later learn that these kids were not actually the main characters we thought they were and the show treats it as if that made it okay, but no, it doesn't. And then he gets captured and horrifically tortured and mutilated and eventually gets released. Throughout this he barely makes any decision, nor does he ever give the impression that he might reconsider his actions. The show treats it as redemption, but he doesn't seem to have learned anything other than "Boltons are bad". The way he interacts with Sansa's storyline, portrayed as the hero even though he does almost nothing to actually help her, is particularly egregious.

I mean if you actually read the book you would have a better understanding of theon's character arc, but apparently you decided he was too boring 💀

I don't personally love theon's development throughout the show, but claiming that theon didn't show any remorse for his actions or help sansa is an unusual reach. He doesn't "make any decisions" except for, you know, killing miranda and deciding to help sansa escape winterfell. He's also... been tortured to the point that his mental state has almost completely detiorated.

(Not that Sansa's storyline was all that great to begin with, it took way too long for her to become a politician who proudly has her enemies murdered. That should have happened at least a year or two earlier.)

Not even gonna analyze this, this is just wrong.

Now you might say, isn't that literally the same exact redemption arc as Jaime, who is a great character who everybody loves? Yes, that is true, with one key difference: Jaime has charisma and charm, and he seems actually affected by what's happening to him. Not just in an "ouch ouwie ouch" way, but it genuinely makes him think and reconsider, and his relationship with Brienne is genuinely fun and interesting in a way that the few moments Sansa and Theon share absolutely aren't.

Once again this is your personal opinion and not a universal constant. Also you just admitted the thing huh 💀 "a redemption arc isn't valid unless I personally find the character charming" is really your whole argument here. Also, it's insane to me how you appear to be going almost completely off of show canon, but somehow insist that jaime is better than theon because he "actually changes".

Theon sucks. Theon deserved worse than what happened to him. Theon is boring, his redemption is completely unearned and also boring, and the pains and tribulations on his way to his redemption are also boring and annoying. I watched all of the last season and I still think Theon is my least favourite part of the show (mostly because there's no way to pretend that his story wasn't canon and doesn't count). Fuck Theon. Vote Zuko!

"I find this character boring so he is actually a horrible person and horribly written, and this cannot possibly just be my own personal opinion".

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What if Both/Neither wins?

A: It will most of the time. But Both/Neither votes don't affect the actual results. So the blorbo with more votes out of the two wins.

Q: Then why even have the option if it doesn't do anything?

A: People NEED an option to vote for. Both because they are curious to the results and like voting in polls. If it wasn't there people would just vote for whoever looks cooler.

Q: You should make the Both/Neither options seperate.

A: No. The goal of this bracket is that the more obscure blorbo wins. For this purpose know both blorbos and knowing neither effect the results in the same way. The reason I am so against having them be separate is that a) it's slightly more work per poll, which ads up and b) I think it looks nicer this way. I know some of you are curious about the data of how much of it is both, but I don't care. (You can even estimate it based on the other two options.) TLDR: Do not make this suggestion

Q: If I know neither character but know the source for one, do I vote against the one I know the source of?

A: No. You are voting on if you know the characters, not the source. If you voting for knowing the source then less known characters from well known sources (i.e. Star Wars, Dr Who) would lose unjustly.

Q: Did you know you can put "<" in front of an option to make it not affect the results? You should do that for the Both/Neither option.

That was a bug and has been patched.

Q: What do the colors on the spreadsheet mean?

A: There's a key in cell 1b

Q: For the characters in red on the spreadsheet, what made them get disqualified?

A: They were either a real person, or a duplicate left by me by mistake.

Q: I noticed you eliminated [character] for being a real person, but they are actually a fictional character different from the person who plays them

A: This has happened a few times (mostly with MCYT) and if I think there could be significant confusion between the character and the real person playing them (usually involving them having the same name) they will be eliminated. This is done case by case, so please do not ask hypotheticals of if X character would be disqualified. If they are disqualified they are disqualified. It's as simple as that.

Q: By round 2 won't we know all the characters because we've seen them in this poll?

A: I have purposefully not defined "knowing a character" because it's can mean lots of different things, but knowing a character from this definitely isn't knowing enough about a character to say you "know them". If you search and learn more about a character between rounds tho then you can vote against them.

Q: Not a question, but you made a mistake

A: Sorry. That's going to happen. Please try to let me know if you spot any mistakes so I can fix them.

Q: This was the first post where I new both!

A: Very cool. I'm happy for you. But why did you send this to my ask box? You can just put it under the relevant poll.

Q: I wish I had known about this blog sooner. I would have submitted ____

A: Very unfortunate. I'm sad for you. But why did you send this to my asks box? What am I supposed to do with this? Also no, there will not be another submission window, at least not for a very long time AFTER this current bracket is finished.

Q: Why is X character in here? They aren't obscure.

A: Firstly, your media experience isn't universal. But also I didn't filter submissions by if they were actually obscure since that would just be my opinion.

Q: Why is X character on your banner?

A: My banner has the characters that lost the hardest, aka the least obscure in the whole tournament. If you wanna know why they're here in the first place, read above question.

Will update this if I'm asked the same question a bunch.

[dustrose]

In Regards to the Final Bracket

Hey, all.

I'm what many would describe as a "lurker." I'm quite shy when it comes to things like this, that is, posting my opinion on the internet. It's not something I ever planned to do, nor something I'm confident in, but it is something I've been meaning to do for a few days now.

So why am I writing this? It's simple, really, I voted for SuleMio in the poll.

First of all, I want to get some disclaimers and the like out of the way, along with a TL:DR.

Destiel is absolutely sacred history, and it always will be. I do not mean to downplay its significance. It is important to not only lgbtq+ but also fandoms as a whole. Without Destiel, I doubt the internet would have developed in the same way, for better or worse. (I mean, we wouldn't have Tumblr, would we?)

With that being said, it is also important to mention that Destiel isn't the only history. History is ever-changing, there's always more being added, and in this case, that is SuleMio. While Destiel changed the course of the internet when it was popular, SuleMio is changing it now.

Okay, now for a quick TL:DR

Destiel is important for history, but SuleMio is important for the future. Neither is better than the other; they're amazing in their own ways. We really shouldn't be fighting over something we can easily agree on. They are both ships that revolutionized in their times, and they are both ships that deserve to be respected, as do the people supporting them.

-----

Now to start the rambling!

So, I created a Tumblr to vote in this bracket. When I first stumbled upon it and voted, I actually had no idea what Destiel was (later looked it up, and I've seen Supernatural, so y'know, "oh, neat.") More than that, I was only introduced to Gundam as a franchise in late March, being through a friend who recommended G_Witch to me (which I am ever-grateful for).

In a way, I'm absolutely an outsider. I haven't been with either ship for very long and haven't experienced the same things others have experienced. I haven't even finished Supernatural, nor was I there when Bandai said SuleMio was "up for interpretation."

And yet, I'm here, putting my thoughts on paper because I think this is important.

That is, respecting what came before and respecting what will come after.

Destiel and SuleMio are two sides of the same coin. We can sit here and whine about the little things...

But Destiel isn't canon!

But Sulemio didn't kiss!

Don't care, that's not the point here. The point is that both of these ships, these relationships, have affected many communities and have touched many hearts. There's no right or wrong, no "mine's better" or "yours is stupid," they're just ships, but more than that, they are history.

Let's start with one of the biggest things. Destiel is Tumblr, isn't it? I was too young when all of that happened to be on Tumblr, so frankly, I didn't know until recently that it was history, but even so, I can appreciate it. I never went on Tumblr, but I did like a lot of stuff on it (you guys are really funny.) What I mean is, I have no history with Tumblr, yet I can still appreciate what has happened.

Not to say that you have to, of course. I get being tired of Destiel, feeling like its beating a dead horse. But let's stop and imagine for a moment, heck, maybe even two moments, that in twenty years when SuleMio is old news, and there's a new, big queer ship on the table, there will be some people clinging onto what came before. In this case, I'm certain I'll still have a soft spot for SuleMio; I'll probably hang onto it until I die (24 fanfictions on AO3 doesn't go away that easily, y'know), but I'm also certain that the new ship would probably win.

It's as I mentioned earlier. History is ever-changing, ever being built upon. There's always something new, something someone begins with, and there's also something old and something someone has always been with, if that makes any sense?

Destiel is that something old; it's what came before, but just because it's not the present anymore doesn't mean its accomplishments should be overlooked. Furthermore, SuleMio isn't even a year old yet. It's fresh off the press, fresh in our minds, and it's definitely one of the most important pieces of media to be released in the 2020s. It's new, but like Destiel, its accomplishments shouldn't be overlooked because of how old it is.

In the end, this poll was just something silly to get our little gremlin minds going. I mean, we all knew it would end like this, didn't we? In discourse--when it comes to ships, it's always discourse.

Y'know, I was there for bmblb vs blacksun, and yikes.

Anyway, as I was saying, this isn't something we should be fighting about. Especially not calling people names, as I've seen a few people do. No matter what the case, insulting others for disagreeing with you will never do anything but make you look immature.

Ah, side tangent, my bad.

This is getting long, oopsies, but I thought it was important to get some of this on paper... er, computer? Because I hate to see a community in disarray when we should be celebrating both of these ships for what they've done and what they could do.

I think that's everything, yeah. Stay safe, drink water, consume lots of queer media, and have some fun. :3

-Rose

[goldenhickeysandramen]

We exists in grey or multicolour ;)

I agree with @humanuser0613 and @parkparkjeon on their general message they convey on their recent posts below (and i borrowed even one of their sentence for the title, ups ;))

The way jikookers behave as if there is only one school of thought...😞

I'm sorry, but that's not the case.

The messages I got on twitter two days ago were 🤬 and I just said I wasn't going to go in and debunk anything because I wasn't sure about the vid (honestly so many things matches up for me).

But it doesn't really matter… because I never said Jikook wasn't real or that the girl on the vid was JK's girlfriend. I just said that no matter what happens I just cared that they were safe and happy. They were gonna have my full support no matter what!

And yet, many jikookers sent me pictures, diagrams, warned me that they blocked me… as if I was an infected in the community that needed to be formatted

No one should dictate the line of thinking.

I believe that jikook love each other and has been inseparable for many years. I believe that truly their connection, their bond is one in a million. Friends, siblings, lovers, partners… I think they have been through all these states and their chemistry, understanding and affection are unquestionable.

But I don't know what the state of their relationship is this year cause it's been about 10 months since I've seen them live for more than a few seconds and I don't have any information about their dynamic, beyond the fact that JK missed Jimin in the first quarter of the year, and now he's totally focused on his music career and shares part of his time with us.

I do not feel able to define or explain in detail how their relationship is or works this year. And I adapt to what I see at any given moment. People change. It's no longer valid to say "jikook glued" because in 2019 they were stuck together, when clearly they are not in 2023.

So, let everyone say what they want about them. No need to lecture or threaten in posts.

My love and support for them does not change. I have spent quite a lot of money on their albums and works, and I have devoted part of my time this year to vote, report many accounts and make long threads about how beautiful their relationship was.

Nobody should come to me with the fake Jikooker thing, when many of them were tired of criticising JK when he released Seven, or calling him a puppet of the company. These same people are now celebrating the fact that he is so bold and independent today to put those fans who criticise him in their place.

Support is shown day by day with actions, and not with screaming on twitter and trying to evangelize the community.

Borahae to all 💜

[mugiwara-lucy]

Listen, it’s not about letting Trump win, it’s about letting the Democratic Party know that they still have to earn your vote in order to affect their policy and their current stance on Palestine. Once they’re elected you can’t make them earn your vote anymore, so it’s important to hold that over their head before the elections.

Also, Kamala Harris is NOT “pro-Palestine” as long as she keeps repeating the “Israel has a right to defend itself” truism, and as along as she continues to talk of a ceasefire without doing anything to enforce it. This is not simply a matter of opinion or stance in the matter, the current United States government is a perpetrator of the violence and they need to be addressed as such.

Part of the reason why drawing a line on the sand with this issue is so important is that American liberalism has a history of elevating their own rights as worthy of pursuit while disregarding the way they themselves are complicit in the erosion of those said rights abroad. Leaders of the Civil Rights movement and the Black Panthers back in the sixties and seventies understood, for example, openly challenged and fought the Democrat Vietnam policy because they understood the hypocrisy of letting their rights come at the expense of people dying elsewhere.

“Vote blue no matter who” mentality creates complacency in officials seeking to be elected, it tells them they do not have to earn your vote. Living in a democracy is about making your voice heard and organizing accordingly, so please stop disparaging any efforts made to effectively challenge current policy and use that democratic power for an actual change.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you for being more respectful to me that some of these other Anons.

I will admit I lost my patience on them but when you've been getting harassed for months, it gets to you.

Now look, if we lived in a parallel universe where Project 2025 wasn't a thing and the person running against Kamala was an idiot like RFK Jr who doesn't seem to want to be a dictator, I'd probably agree more with the Non-Voting stance you all want to take although I'd never do it since I want to exercise my right to vote whenever I can but the reality is we don't. We have an unapologetic, lying, hateful evil RAPIST running for president. And I'm not sure if you're American or not but there's some people who downplay just how HORRIFIC his term was and the lasting ramifications of it. Here's the main consequences of him being in office:

Roe v Wade, Affirmative Action and the Chevron was overturned (stuff which was 50 years old that got lost after EIGHT YEARS).

I'm sorry but i am NOT INTERESTED in seeing what's next to go because of a Supreme Court Justice that he appointed. Especially since there'll be vacancies in the next couple of years and if he appoints MORE YOUNGER MAGA TYPE justices, the Supreme Court will be locked hard right for AT LEAST THIRTY YEARS.

Do you KNOW what will happen to this country at that point??

Now Trump has said when he gets back into office he wants to "restrict" the First Amendment:

And one of his Supreme Court dickriders Clarence Thomas was talking about getting rid of Loving V Virginia (the law that made Interracial dating LEGAL):

So that's why I'm putting as MUCH of my effort into making sure Trump does NOT get back into office as much as I can. It's not that I don't care about Palestine (quite the contrary actually) but if we DON'T HAVE OUR RIGHTS HOW CAN WE HELP ANYONE ELSE?? I ask this and get crickets in response.

And Kamala IS Pro-Palestine. Don't forget this:

And having her in office is WAY BETTER for Palestine that this clown that NOT ONLY SAID THIS:

And LITERALLY TRIED to SABOTAGE Kamala's chances at winning the election by conspiring with Natanyahu to HAVE NO ceasefires made:

Which I'd like to point out is in violation of the LOGAN ACT since normal people can NOT interfere in domestic affairs in other countries.

To say they're the similar is uninformed ignorance at best or just willful lying at worse.

They're NOWHERE in the SAME BALLPARK.

It's not disparaging your efforts as it is just saying if we don't get Kamala, we get the rapist back in office who has talked NUMEROUS TIMES about a third term so I wouldn't be surprised if the ONLY way he leaves is in a bodybag.

(ASSUMING THE MILITARY STEPS IN AND DEALS WITH THEM AS THEY HAVE A MANDATE).

[mahou-furbies]

That's it for the favourite Precure poll! Thanks to everyone who voted. It was 141 votes total, of which one vote was removed because it had the same character more than once (which, if kept in, would have affected the middle of the following top 20 list but not the top 5).

So La Mer got both the most votes and most points, while Milky got the most first place votes. Also even with so many contestants, almost every Cure got at least one point, which is nice. And it shows that while some of them clearly got more votes than others, there's still plenty of variance of opinions in the fandom (which is also nice).

Overall I think this was a fun poll and having it be about the top 5 made it more interesting than expecting everyone to pick just one favourite. Originally it even had a top 10, but I ended up cutting it because I worried that google forms is such a cumbersome platform for a poll like this that people might ragequit halfway through.

Finally sorry about the Parfait situation again, if I ever have the same poll in a few years I'll be sure to remember to include her. She did get some write-in votes but I wonder if she got more if voting for her didn't require extra hassle.

(And even more finally, under cut are the comments)

Great poll ^^

Cure Rosetta is SO underrated

Yeah needless to say I currently have Only Got Into It Recently bias, but: Nodoka, my chronically ill girl <3Sorry Parfait & Waffle

Melody + Rhythm are a pair DO NOT separate them please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i still love the star twink team a ton, but i needed to give some votes to the new 'abnormal' cures. (Butterfly and Wing being different ages ranges and genders from the normal cures, I mean.)

Even though he is not my favorite, it brought me great joy that you included Cure Waffle. He really should've been a TRUE Pretty Cure!

I believe you forgot Parfait. Hey, no judgement from me there’s a whole lot of them.

Thank you for including my boy Cure Waffle 🙏🙏🙏 The guy ever

I love you Cure Muse, even if you'll never be as popular as you deserve

I didn't mention any of the GoPri Cures but I love Flora, Mermaid and Twinkle a lot too!! And Cure Mofurun!!

Oh my god this was still so hard.

I know Cure Miracle doesn't have a chance of winning but by God will I vote for her

I wish I could vote yum yum more then once 😭😖what about cure kururun

My first choice is Parfait. Not Lumiere (I just put her because Parfait is not here XD)

Dark cure dream is great too

Please have a nice day :)

Bless your heart for including Cure Infini.

flamingosweep probably won't happen but i cheer fo her regardless

Cure Parfait for 1st favorite :D

I could give points to Takumi (Black Pepper) and Rio/Pikario ("Cure Waffles") ?

vote for 2nd is cure parfait pls

it's awsome to have another precure poll. one day though michiru and kaoru will be recognized as cures T^T [note: they will be included in future polls!]

I've only seen tropre and hirogaru so i know I'm heavily biased

[gaypolls]

Submission Guidelines/Disclaimers

First, things to keep in mind when you submit:

there is a limit of 12 answers for polls, and on this blog one of those answers will always be 'show results,' to allow for people that the poll doesn't apply to to see without skewing data. so in reality you have a maximum of 11.

there's also an 80-character limit on the options

SO, if you go over those limits, know that I will take it into my own hands to decide which answers to omit and/or how to re-word it to fit the limit.

even otherwise, expect that the wording of your submission may be slightly altered in order to be more inclusive (when it doesn't affect the data), or because i think you missed an option that you probably meant to include, or just to make it sound less clunky. if you have an issue with any changes upon posting, i'm happy to hear you out.

currently there is no wait time, but if things go as expected, soon enough it'll likely be about a 4-5 day wait between the time you submit and the time it gets posted

if your poll is addressing a very small group, don't be surprised or angry when the 'see results' poll is the biggest. that needs to be there to keep data from being skewed by anyone's curiosity.

Base Guidelines For Submitting:

poll must be related to gayness in some way. it doesn't have to be directed exclusively at gay people, but it should center same-gender attraction. if you have a poll in mind to direct specifically at bisexuals, there's @mspecpolls

it CAN be a general LGBT poll, but if it's specific to something that has nothing to do with gay attraction, you're better off submitting to another blog. there's @transgenderpolls for trans stuff and @aspecpolls for ace/aro stuff.

it CAN be directed at a specific type of gay person, such as gay men, lesbians, specifically trans lesbians, nonbinary mlm, gay poc, disabled wlw, etc - literally you can address any specific gay group you want, just make sure to say so.

...this DOES include 'cis gay men/women/people' but tbqh you're gonna have to provide a good reason to be excluding trans people from the poll

in general if you want to explicitly exclude people who have a nonconforming relationship with gender, you better explicitly say so AND have a good reason. otherwise it'll be assumed that all sorts are included and if your options don't reflect that, i will change them or reject the poll.

it CAN relate to sex (i expect many polls here will be), just try to be tasteful about it. like, as long as it sounds like you're trying to collect data rather than arouse people lol

What would make me NOT post a submission:

as mentioned previously, if it's excluding subgroups without a good reason

if it's an opinion poll about the validity of any particular type of gay person. "validity" is a moot topic and i'm not going to encourage it, and in any case i'd like the focus of this blog to be about recording experiences (real, undeniable, forever in stone) rather than opinions (always changing, meaningless)

pride discourse polls, lol

anything that tries to pit issues against each other. no "which intercommunity issue is more important to you? ableism? racism?" like cmon

if it's just way too niche and would make a pointless poll. if a poll is "who's your favorite lgbt character" and then you've got 11 options from different TV shows, you gotta know that most of the ppl who see that poll will NOT have seen ALL those shows, so they'll really just be voting for the show that they know. it's just dumb.

if it's something like "gay people: do you like pineapple on pizza?" or some other question that doesn't actually have anything to do with being gay. if you wanna send something like this, make your case for why it's relevant that the poll is directed at gay people.

if it's some other obviously offensive shit, obviously. no racism or whatnot here.

FAQ:

Who counts as gay?

Like most of these guidelines I'll continue the same sentiment from the trans polls blog: We self-define here. But I will stress answering in good faith and understanding what any given poll is asking and what definitions they're using. If you're, say, nonbinary and bisexual in a way that makes all your attraction gay, or you're gay in a very specific way (like nb4nb), or you call yourself gay bc you're mostly gay but you're technically bisexual, or you're definitely homosexual but don't actually like to call yourself gay, etc, it'll likely just depend on the poll. It's totally up to you to decide if it includes you or not, or you can always ask if you want to be sure.

Though if it's not explicitly stated that the poll excludes transmasc lesbians or transfem gays, or other trans/nonbinary gay people, you should still for sure assume it includes you.

Why isn't there an option for X?/You missed an option.

Sometimes I may genuinely miss an option, but 9 times out of 10 the lack of the option is either due to the poll limits on tumblr, or because it goes against the point of the poll. For example, if the question begins with "If you're in a relationship," then "i'm not in a relationship" isn't going to be an option. If the prerequisite of the poll doesn't apply to you, then what you click is "see results." If it's something a little less concrete, polls will usually include some kind of "other" option anyway.

Can you make more polls for X type of gay person?

*I* make polls based off what I'm personally curious about. If you're curious about something, submit it!

Do you know that some people are gay in very unconventional ways that your polls aren't accounting for?

Yes, I know. When there's room on the poll, I try to be inclusive, but often there's not, and that's really the main thing there. However, I will admit that a secondary reason is that when a poll is addressing exclusively gay people, the fact that they're only attracted to one gender is relevant, regardless of whether or not it would still be gay of them to be attracted to more.

Can you get rid of the 'see results' button? Or can you not include it on this particular poll? I only want X people to respond. This poll is ONLY for X people.

If a poll is on this blog, it's for everyone, questioning and simply curious people included. It's also not going to stop curious people from clicking if there's no 'see results' button. It ensures that the data doesn't get skewed, and gathering data is what polls are for. It doesn't hurt you to see a big see results bar. The data is still there. If the bar does wind up obscuring more significant data, that means the poll was addressing too small of a group to begin with. And that's NOT the end of the world. This blog is far from the only place where you can get information about other gay people's experiences.

[trelinha9]

I have the slight and terrible feeling that I'm going to really regret writing this. But I can't focus on the things I need to do, so here we go

Browsing the Amethio tag, I discovered that someone took the link to my poll about Friede x Amethio and sent an ask to an account saying "this fandon has shit taste". This is because 65.8% of the votes (111 votes, just for the record, which shouldn't be, like, even 1% of the Horizontes fandon) had marked the option "Wtf that shit's illegal"

I don't want to talk about this ship anymore, but there are people out there who ship it, so, HERE WE GO I GUESS

(Warning: Some really angry text is below the line)

For me, and this is my opinion, the discussion of why Friede x Amethio is a horrible ship and deserves its own little corner of hell is no longer about age. It doesn't matter if Amethio is of age and legally an adult or not. This doesn't change the following facts that every episode Ametio has appeared in so far keeps throwing in our faces:

1- Amethio is, EMOTIONALLY, much more immature than Friede. Friede provokes Amethio, and he falls. When Amethio tried to instigate Friede in episode 25, Friede literally responded "I'm not a kid anymore to fall for that kind of provocation". This is the script throwing in your face how far from emotional maturity the two are

2 - Friede doesn't treat Amethio with respect. He continues making fun of him, annoying him and irritating him. Whether it's on purpose or not is beside the point: if it is, it's because Friede is really an asshole, and if it's not, it's because Friede can't realize that his actions are affecting someone else in an extremely negative way (which also It's a horrible option!!!)

I wanted to be calmer in my first post on the subject, but I'm stressed today and I don't need someone calling the fandon "dummies" because they don't agree with the crap ship you like. People have tastes. People have their own ideas. People have their own interpretations of media. There are people who see the things I just mentioned and see "enemies to lovers", when it is an extremely toxic and unbalanced relationship. EVEN IF BOTH OF THEM WERE ADULTS IT WOULD STILL BE TOXIC AND UNBALANCED. I want Amethio to become an RVT, but first Friede will have to work hard to redeem himself for all the stress he put Amethio through and the way he treated him.

And as for Amethio x Liko, I prefer to think of them as friends/sibling. The two are very similar, and with each passing day a new parallel between them appears. They're basically a walking "two sides of the same coin", and I really want to see how their dynamic continues (especially after ep 46)

Then that's it. I hate Friede x Amethio. I don't care about Liko x Amethio. I don't care if you think Amethio is of age, if he's 30 years old or if he's someone's reincarnation. His relationship with Friede is toxic, unbalanced, and Amethio needs distance from that idiot with aviator glasses, not a romantic relationship with him.

Now I'm going to do my homework

And please, don't reblog this post or comment on this post to say that I'm wrong and that Friede x Amethio is good. I am a 16 year old girl. If someone treated me the way Friede treats Amethio, I would react the same way he did. Maybe a little worse. And I definitely wouldn't want people shipping me with that person.

I hope this is the last post I make on this subject. From now on, let's talk about how the sky is blue or how sperm whales are not whales but dolphins

[wasted-women]

Interesting you talk about the two ways that one can fridge a character, I personally don't always mind the first one, because female characters also have characters they care about die in their backstory for their character development, or male characters can die for other male characters, I think it's only a problem if the work has a pattern of only having female background characters be the ones who die for male ones' motivations, especially if there aren't many female characters in active roles of importance in the story to balance it out. And also how it can become a cliched motivation that is sometimes used in cliched ways in general (like parents dying is overused, whether it's a mother or father and whether the character affected by it is male or female), or a spouse dies and instead of really exploring the complexities of grief and how it affects the character it just becomes one-dimensional brooding or desire for vengeance. So it's overused and in certain works it's a way that female characters in particular are objectified and targeted but it's not inherently bad.

But killing a female character who was important and did have her own story, or at least was being set up to be/had the potential to be that way, in a way that clearly shows they don't care about her potential as a character and only care about the male characters' arcs (and often not even anything interesting in the male character's arcs, just a cheap flash of angst to show how in pain they are and the world revolves around them), that is always bad and never fails to bother me. I hate when the author shows such little care for the story of a genuinely interesting character except as instrumental, and I will definitely be voting for characters like that preferentially.

Hi! Thanks for sharing your thought process. You reference the two ways that a woman can be fridged that I mentioned in my original post (shown below for anyone reading this that doesn't remember)

While I do agree that the second one is worse, I still think the first way is really bad. I mean, the character death that coined the term "women in refrigerators" falls more in the first category than the second. You say you don't think it's a problem unless it becomes a pattern or there aren't enough living female characters to balance, but like... that's sort of the point. There are A LOT of pieces of media where THERE IS a pattern and THERE AREN'T a lot of female characters.

Also in my opinion, it happening in the first place is enough to make my eyes roll. When I reading or watch a piece of media made by a man, or, am going through a medium that already has a lot of misogyny issues (such as comic books), even if it happens once it's enough. Because whether someone does it to one female character or twenty in a story, it is still a show that they treat their female characters are inherently more disposable than their male characters. Even in pieces of media that kill off multiple characters of different genders, the death of male characters are given more narrative weight. (Ex. Think of Batman. Both of his parents die but a vast majority of works that display him grieving his parents either show him grieving them both as a unit, or they specifically talk much more about his father Thomas Wayne. They will give Thomas Wayne a whole relationship with his son, a whole career and personality, and Martha Wayne will... kind of be there. Not in all Batman media, but in most)

I'm sure there are examples of things that count as fridged that aren't as bad as others, but the fact that it's happening in the first place sort of continues this idea of female characters being disposable. "What will motivate the hero? Give him a dead mother/girlfriend/sister/whatever! Who cares that we create women just to hurt or kill them!!!!"

Not to mention, in my opinion, killing characters to motivate other characters/make them sad, no matter the gender, is just lazy writing.

Of course, when voting starts, you are free to vote for whichever fridged women that you think were wronged by the narrative. That's the point of a poll tournament!

[justanothersimsblog]

For Ibis:

Character Development Questions #6

How does your character handle finances? Are they a big spender or a careful saver?

He doesn't. For better or worst he never had to worry about money and still doesn't. He doesn't always live large and buy fancy, but doesn't use restrain either. He does save, or rather he made sure to put aside money for his daughter as soon as he found out about her.

Has your character ever gotten in trouble with the law? If so, what for? Does this ever come back to affect them?

Besides being caught for breaking curfew or not being at school? Not actually.

Is your character particularly interested in a certain historical period? If so, what about it appeals to them?

Not particularly. At most medieval times because of how often its featured in fantasy media which he enjoys.

What are your character’s political beliefs? If your character is from a fictional world, are there political parties or groups that share these beliefs?

He believes in voting for his uncle. And that he's a great king.

If your character is from a world where magic is real/common, what would they do if they suddenly ended up in a non-magical world? Or if they just lost their powers?

If he didn't have powers he'd try to get them back. If he concluded that wouldn't be possible he'd just go through the regular grief 5 stages. He'd spend extra time in depression stage, and drinking and using substances, especially if he's also not a vampire.

How many past sexual partners has your character had, if any? How do they feel about one night stands/hookups/other “promiscuous” sex? Is that something they ever have/would engage in?

Oh my, you want the actual number? Hold on while I count.. Honestly I don't know, any number I say I'd be making up because I haven't really been keeping close track. It's double digits but low.

As for question number two, that's basically ALL he does so yeah, he looks at it very favorably.

How “self-aware” is your character within the story (i.e. a fantasy story where they find out they’re the chosen one and call it cliche, or a sci-fi story where they compare their life to Star Wars)?

He's entirely aware that he's the heir and immortal until a new heir comes.

If your character is the narrator of the story, are they a reliable narrator? Or do they often omit/embellish things to swing the reader’s opinion a certain way?

He isn't but he definitely would embellish.

Has your character ever traveled outside the country if their birth? If so, what for? And if not, do they ever want to?

He has and LOVES it. He's always traveled for pleasure, either family vacation or just because.

Would your character ever put themselves in danger to help a complete stranger? If so, how bad would a situation have to be for your character not to help someone?

He would especially because he thinks that while he might be in danger, it'll likely won't be mortal.

Just for Fun: Your character hits the jackpot lottery and is suddenly a millionaire. What’s their first purchase?

Who says he already isn't? However he'd buy something big and shiny like a car or a plane.

[pretensesoup]

Queer books, day 31/30

Turns out I like writing about books in this format, but I read a lot more slowly than I write.

I asked on Mastodon for everyone's favorite romance novels with an NB character in them. Partly because I'm in the process of writing my own NB character and I wanted to see how other people had dealt with sex scenes (in the anatomic sense). Partly because I just wanted to see how anyone else conceptualized nonbinaryness*. That request led me to Sword Dance by AJ Demas. It only sort of answers my questions, but that's okay because it's amazing.

In an alternative version of the Mediterranean, Damiskos is an ex-soldier (now disabled) and current quartermaster who has been sent to visit an old friend (Nione) to secure a contract for fish sauce. At her house, he meets: a bunch of tedious philosophers led by Eurydemos (who seems to preach a very anti-alien, anti-LGBTQ agenda, and yet is writing poems for...), Varazda (a sword dancer and eunuch from Zash, another country in which Damiskos was once stationed and for which he harbors a deep affection), Varazda's "owner" Aristokles, and a few others. Quickly, Damiskos surmises that all is not as it seems--first, he foils an attempt on Varazda's life, and it becomes apparent that the relationship between Varazda and Aristokles may be a lie--in fact, they are conspiring to hide something far greater than the fact that Varazda is not actually a slave. Soon, Damiskos is teaming up with Varazda to solve a murder, then to avert a war and recapture Nione's villa from the philosophers. Oh, and falling in love.

Varazda is an interesting character. He (Damiskos's POV is the only one we get, and he uses male pronouns for him, although he says he thinks of himself as both male and female) was made a eunuch after his father lost a military engagement of some kind. He was then enslaved for a while, until he was sent to the Zashian embassy in Boukos, and then he was freed. This is obviously a major source of trauma, and Damiskos is in a unique place to appreciate that because of his time in Zash. As a result, Damiskos is extremely careful in their nascent relationship to let Varazda lead. Their relationship is very sweet in part because of this deference, and they deal with consent very well.

Key quote: (Varazda has been discussing how he doesn't always achieve an erection because of being a eunuch.)

Rather boldly, Damiskos said, "Want to see if we can make it happen again?" Varazda looked up in surprise. "What--right now?" "Yes, of course right now! Immortal gods. We're sitting on your bed, talking about how beautiful you are and whether or not you like sex--it's surprising I even need to say anything." "I am literally a eunuch, First Spear." After that they were both laughing...

As you might have guessed from the summary above, this is a world in which there is violence, homophobia/transphobia, and slavery, including sexual slavery. Women have some rights to own property, but they aren't voting citizens. The implication, reading between the lines, is that in the world generally, same-sex couples aren't too uncommon, and it's just Eurydemos's students who have a problem with them. (Eurydemos and his students reminded me a bit of Socrates and Plato, but of course Plato doesn't care that much about same-sex relationships, c.f. that one story from Symposium that got turned into a song from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But I've been privileged to hear some angry Jesse rants about Plato since doing the podcast, and it reminded me of that. Anyway, as Plato says a lot, philosophers with bad opinions were a dime a dozen back in Athens, so.) Also, warning for explicit on-page sex.

*: Is Varazda nonbinary or is he gender fluid? I don't know. At one point, he says, "I never really think of myself as a man, but most of the time I'm quite happy for other people to think of me that way." Elsewhere, he implies that he doesn't want to be neither male or female, so he tries to be both. Maybe genderfluid is a better word for him. Maybe he can't articulate exactly how he feels, because he's not speaking to Damiskos in his first language, or because there isn't a word for how he feels. Either way, I enjoyed the way the character was portrayed.

That's it. Lots of action/plot, a good amount of romance, very engaging, love the setting. 10/10, go read it.