#disclaimer i am white

[lanaevyssmoved]

That is a good point, never thought of that before. Wyll is one of my favs and its true, a lot of the content with him is of him and another character, mostly Astarion.

there is nothing inherently wrong with the ship, but it is an issue when people only ever talk about wyll in context of him being shipped with astarion. and not just astarion, but astarion is the only character i really see him shipped with on the regular and in this way - i know of quite a few wyll x gale enjoyers but those people also appreciate wyll on his own from what i've seen (and obviously i haven't seen everything). but there seems to be an issue where people who dedicate so much of their time on here to astarion never seem to care about the characters they ship him with, only how astarion functions in the ship (usually reduced to Hot Vampire tropes and sex). while i don't care if people do this (i might not like it but i can simply remove it from my dashboard with filters), the issue comes into play with wyll.

wyll is the only black main character, has several hours less of content than the others, less romance content than the others, and his quest is also notoriously lacking and buggy. he deserves people to give him the love and attention larian clearly didn't, and i don't care for bootlickers so no one say shit defending larian please or i'll block you, and that certainly doesn't come in the form of pairing him with astarion just so he can be an attractive prop for astarion to suck the neck of without any, or very little, care to his own character and complexities. wyll deserves to be more than just the prince charming that saves/fixes astarion. he deserves way more than that. and theo deserves way more than his character being reduced to that.

[aiteanngaelach]

Its so so frustrating when white Irish leftists think LGBT rights are the be all and end all of everything. like why do I see people all the time responding to fascists and white supremacist 'irish first' racists with pride flags like ye are not the target here cop on! presumably these fascists and white supremacist are homophobic and transphobic but in all fairness like ye must realise ye would be a hundred time safer in a crowd of these white supremacists as a white Irish person regardless of your sexuality than any non white irish person or immigrant would be. Put more energy into protecting the non white non Irish people in your communities that are being targeted by these white supremacists than you do into making everything about yourself

[sananaryon]

Rewatched Smartypants and my real question is

Is Donald Duck invited to the cookout?

[the-party-city]

HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH :3

this is literally so late i apologize ive been in a major art block moment!! this is one of my new ocs shes so cute and pretty and i love her, her name is jovi :3 i hope to start drawing her more

[powersandplanetaries]

I know that news stories about Indigenous people leading ecological stewardship movements are very charismatic and heartwarming, and if your heritage or culture inspires you to work towards better care for the environment that is incredible and extremely admirable, but we're clear on the fact that Indigenous rights and Land Back movements shouldn't depend on First Nations people being mystical Noble Savage, Closer To Nature poster children, yes?

Indigenous self-determination applies to the person who becomes a teacher because she wants to help fill a need in underserved northern reservations. It applies to the person who studies engineering because the job market is good and he likes cool cars. It applies to the woman who works a government job because it's a stable job with a decent salary on which to raise her kids, and the woman who works a government job because she wants to represent and be a voice for her people. It applies to the person who is a lawyer trying to correct the over-incarceration of First Nations people, and her son who wants to be a professional baseball player because he loves sports. It applies to the grad student who wants to bring traditional knowledge into field work, and the goth hairdresser who spends every weekend going to punk shows and anime conventions in the city. It applies to the person who considers themself Two Spirit, and the person who uses non-binary instead because they dont feel that umbrella term fits them. None of these examples are hypotheticals- these are all people I personally know, either friends or family friends or even members of my family. All of these people are equally Indigenous, whether or not they fit your image of what a marginalized people's priorities "should" be. They are not gone, and they are not "stuck in the past". Happy National Indigenous People Day. Do better.

[palossssssand]

A long time coming, but here’s a set of revamped designs for a pokemon black gijinka team! Old designs under the readmore.

Character list: Jonathan (reuniclus), Eziekel (houndoom), Normal (omastar), Aaron (smeargle), Jasmine (dustox), and Cooper (mow rotom)

[meraki-yao]

This is something I thought of suddenly: So when the Actors-on-Actors roster came out, I didn’t have that much of a problem with Taylor being paired up with Joey King. It was kinda odd to have two close friends who are now doing very different projects put together, but they were happy and watching Joey King fangirl over RWRB was fun.

But now that I think of it, it was such a missed opportunity not to put Taylor with Jonathan Bailey. 

(Gonna preface this by saying I know far less about Mr Bailey than Tay, I skimmed through Fellow Travelers, Bridgerton S2 is on my to-watch list, and as a fan of Wicked the Musical I have complicated feelings about the movie adaptation)

The thing that is so often brought up with RWRB is that it’s a queer rom-com, it’s a queer love story with a happy ending. The relationship itself does not need to be sacrificed. In fact the whole Kensington confrontation is proving exactly that: they are in a position and point in time where they don’t have to give up on their love and relationship for the sake of other aspects of their lives, they can “find a way to love each other on our own terms, no one else’s”. Many people, including the core four of the movie (Matthew, Casey, Taylor, Nick) have said that this is something that made this movie stand out from other queer productions, something that the world needs. 

Fellow Travellers is almost the exact opposite: it is exactly about the periodic queer struggles. It is about the lavender scare when any queer members of the US government were deemed national security risks, and were subsequently dismissed from their stations. It is about the AIDS epidemic that led to the devastation and discrimination of queer communities. It is about a closeted man who chooses to submit himself to a lavender marriage, but who also can’t let go of his one true love. If RWRB is the idealistic future that we’re trying to build, then fellow travellers depict the dirty, gritting, tragic reality of the past. 

And here’s the thing, as Matthew said, both types of queer stories are important, both kinds of queer stories need to be told. We need to acknowledge the bad parts of the past, as a reflection of society, as a reminder of history and the progress made, but we also need to imagine the wonders of a better future, as a target for society, as a vision for the progress to make. 

And it would have been so interesting to hear the conversation on this contrast between the main leads of two very different queer projects. 

Additionally, another thing they can compare is queer intimacy on screen, because again, the intimacy of the two projects are vastly different: RWRB made a deliberate point in creating a more gentle, vulnerable, and quiet intimacy in the Paris scene, with the focus being on the characters’ face; Fellow Travellers’ intimacy is far more explicit and wild, much sexier if you will. Again, both have their place in media and the queer community: sex can be wild and fun, but sex can also be sacred and soft. It would be really interesting to hear the similarities and differences between the two experiences, especially since Taylor has done more explicit stuff in Minx (in a heterosexual on-screen couple) and Jonathan has done more vulnerable intimacy in Bridgerton (also in a heterosexual on-screen couple)

There are just so many parallels and points that the two could have talked about! So although I’m still fairly okay satisfied with the Taylor Actors on Actors we got, this is such a missed opportunity to talk about the importance of different types of stories in the queer community.

[crabussy]

HI. here's a guide to the kiwi accent in the hopes that it will help people know the difference between us and australians!!!! after finding out that multiple people in my life thought I was australian for YEARS I figured I might as well make something like this

'e' becomes 'i' (pet -> pit)

'i' becomes 'u' (the classic: fish n chips -> fush n chups)

'o' becomes 'ou' (bro -> brou)

'a' often becomes 'oa' (no way -> nou woay)

't' often becomes a rolled 'd' (water -> woaddir/woaddah)

a lot of our sentences tend to have a flat tone but go up at the end like a question! in contrast, aussies tend to pronounce a lot of vowels with an 'ee' sound and their sentences often have a lot of tone variation!

[officialspec]

im gonna need the millennials on here to stop romanticising vine in their criticisms of tiktok i cannot take yall seriously. i know all anyone remembers is Fre Shava Cado but in its heyday vine was one of the worst perpetrators of casual racism in recent history and it rly infuriates me when ppl compare the two as if vine never had any negative impact on the dominant culture. please get better arguments im tired

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

attempted earth c multilungal meeting

JOHN: okay, everybody. our first meeting has officially started! 

JOHN: i know english, spanish, french, german, some latin, and have a 3 year streak on duolingo! jake, what languages do you know? 

JAKE: Christian latin, modern latin, ancient latin, ancient greek, most european runes, a decent amount of southern american tribal languages…

JOHN: okay, uh. any languages that are alive?

JAKE: Oh yes and the romance languages! How could i forget? 

JOHN: awesome, so two of us know spanish! dave, ¿también hablas español?

DAVE: uh 

DAVE: no sabo 

JOHN: pfft, okay then. davepeta, do you know any languages that aren’t a part of your prototyping?

DAVEPETA: B33 < well yeah

DAVEPETA: B33 < kinda rude to suggest otherwise

JOHN: my bad, my bad. what languages do you know? 

DAVEPETA: B33 < i taught myself dog to impress jade 

JOHN: …uh huh.

DIRK: Can I introduce myself?

JOHN: you taught yourself to watch anime without the subtitles.

DIRK: And?

[bacchuschucklefuck]

Can you expand on what you mean by Baron being "too cool" to really fit a horror monster? It's a very interesting concept and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is it that they're too active/involved/tangible and it detracts from their scariness?

I feel like I should preface this with a wall of disclaimers lmao 1/I am a hardcore, down-to-the-marrow, avid, deeply sincere horror enthusiast, esp. horror creatures. this usually means my mileage is vastly different from the average populace's, and my scaredy bone has been disintegrated by longterm exposure. most things in a piece of horror media won't scare me! so I practically never use that on its own as the scale to talk abt horror experiences, but when something does scare me it's always a special occasion to be treasured. 2/canon d20 is never really meant to be horror horror, and for good reasons: it doesn't fit the company's output, it takes a kind of carelessness in production estimation that is always a huge risk, it's often vulnerable in a way that kinda goes against how TTRPGs usually facilitates vulnerability, and for most people it's just! stressful! d20, even with the "horror-themed" seasons, generally just plays with horror tropes and stays focused in its goal of being a comedy improv tabletop theater show. 3/fantasy high's chosen system is DnD, which as I've mentioned before is before all a combat-based game system, which means the magic circle of play is drawn based on stats that facilitate and prioritize combat. want or not this affects every interaction you have in the game, and given fantasy high's concept from the ground up (everyone's going to school of DnD stuff to get better at DnD) it's doubly relevant. 4/This Is Fine I have no quarrel with this. my meters are internal, I do not ask this show to be anything it doesn't advertise itself to be, and what it is is fucking great! I like it! when I expand on this ask's question it will be like a physicist going insane in a lab. that's the mindset we're going in with.

disclaimers done. my stance on horror as a genre is that it's a utility genre rather than a content genre or a demographic genre; it is the discard of narratives. it's the trash pile. horror, above being scary, is about being ugly and messy, it's the cracks on the ground any story inevitably steps over to stay a genre that isn't horror. the genre's been around long enough to develop a codex and a general language that medias and makers and enthusiasts of the genre can use to talk about and build onto, but if you go into individual pieces there's really no unifying Horror Story. one person's beautiful life can be another's horror story, it's just how it is.

this makes The Monster a deeply intriguing piece of the genre. thing is a monster is in a decent percentage of any story - it's just when the antagonist force steps into something past a certain line traced out in the story's world. monstrousness is in pretty much every western fantasy story, it's in any story with a hero and something to vanquish or win; more than anything it's a proxy of that thing up there. the line in a narrative's world. the monster is the guard of the unknown lands, where heroic, civilized people don't tread.

what does this mean in the context of horror? the genre is about that perceived lawlessness, that "unknown land" so to say. we're in the monster's home. that's the literary context that we often walk into a horror piece with; the monster knows more than you about where you are. it may not understand you, but it holds more information than you, and with that it moves swifter than you, has more covered than you, and is more assured in its existence in this context than you. it's a struggle to catch up to it, it's nigh impossible to get one over it, and you're never sure it'll 100% work, because you just don't have the information necessary to.

with that framing you can kinda see where I'm coming from here: horror's often about the breaking of rules. I always think a monster's most effective when it breaks well-established rules of both existence and visual storytelling. think Possum (2018) or Undertale's Omega Flowey or the Xenomorph Queen - unique change in medium, unique change in graphic, unique change in design language, etc. in that sense I actually really like how canon baron plays out: they don't really function like anything else in the fantasy high universe, the bad kids have not managed to kill them when they've felled literal gods, their domain in fhjy literally introduces new mechanics to encompass their existence! from an experience design standpoint they slap mad shit. BUT! I can't help finding their character, like as a character riz (and the other bad kids, eventually) interact with, to be very... coherent? in design. this is kinda hard for me to articulate in words, it's more often a sense you get once you've looked at enough of these scrumptious fuckers, their general design and the way they show up is just kinda too clean, so to say. always kinda newly made? fresh unboxed. it, once again, makes sense for their lore - they are looking for more about themself from riz - and their function - they're an antagonist in a game experience, they're meant to be interacted with in a way that produces results and meshes with the existing magic circle - but that shininess takes away from the implied history they should have dominion over and the person they're haunting doesn't.

from another angle there is kinda something there about how put-together canon baron is as a concept; the domain they call home is riz's deep-seeded fears, extremely vulnerable things he's drawn borders around to quarantine and refused to walk into. things that from his perspective would irreversibly shatter certain pleasant fictions his world is built on top of. canon baron, While Extremely Cool, I feel is kinda too neat to connect with and signify the apocalyticized mess that'd result from this paradigm shift. the part where they're in riz's briefcase and looking through every mirror is Very Cool And Fucked Up! but ultimately the show draws a line around them as well, by making game-physical, tangible spaces they're in (the mirrors and the haunted mordred manor) and put riz and the bad kids there only when they need to confront stuff. riz is meaningfully narratively away from baron's unknown land for most of fantasy high.

with that and all of my disclaimers in mind my conclusion here is if canon baron wants to be a Horror Monster they'd have to cross way more lines. be a Lot more invasive. hence (holds up my class swap baron like a long cat)

[worflesbian]

right okay i dont know exactly how persistent an issue this is bc i almost never go into the tags on this website, but even ive noticed this happening so i feel like that’s justification to make a post about it. the whitewashing of julian bashir as an established Thing not just in the fandom but in official merch has been discussed before, but recently i’ve noticed the inverse happening with martok and b’elanna, a white character and a lighter latina character who people seem to often draw darker than they are in canon. and there’s like. a Lot going on there to unpack.

so this video goes into some detail about the racism baked into the origins and design of the klingons in tos, it’s very informative about the anti-asian stereotypes especially in a 60s context but i feel like it doesnt really cover the way that antiblackness becomes a more significant factor in the next gen era so like. if you didn’t know, the majority of the klingon characters in the next gen-ds9-voyager era are either played by actors with dark skin or Very frequently by white actors in heavy dark makeup. if you look up the actors of grilka, alexander, kehleyr, and sirella for example you’ll see what im talking about like the difference is Stark and these are some of the main recurring klingons across both shows. hopefully i do not need to explain why packing white actors in brown makeup to play members of a species characterised as violent, warlike and animalistic is racist. i say hopefully bc who knows with this website. anyway i’d recommend this video for a wider context on the legacy of blackface in tv!

martok is a rare example of a klingon played by a white actor who, as far as i can tell, does not have his skin significantly darkened. so to see him frequently being drawn with darker skin is uh Slightly Concerning given everything in the previous paragraph! ive even seen art where he’s drawn darker than julian in the same post which... anyway im not trying to blanket condemn reinterpreting the design of alien characters in fanart, but i am asking white fans like myself in particular to think critically as to why, out of all the white characters and aliens on ds9, martok is the one you want to do that with.

because b’elanna is not a white character i think its a slightly different situation, but at the same time she does have lighter skin and i have seen fanart of her drawn much much darker and once again, im not condeming it especially in works ive seen which explore the relationship bewteen her latina and klingon identities, but its something white fans need to handle carefully. in the voyager episode Faces where she gets split into a human and klingon version of her (dont have time to unpack all that) you can see the difference in undertones between human b’elanna and klingon b’elanna (also included a pic of regular b’elanna for reference). the brown makeup is obvious here too and if you can see why it might be racist to attribute a person’s rage and violent impulses to a part of themself that is then personified as darker skinned/more brown, then you might also see some of the wider problems going on here and can understand that this is something that demands a lot of thought and consideration.

i’d like to reiterate that this is a very complex and nuanced issue, especially considering the intersection of fictional race within the setting and the racial biases operating behind the scenes/metatextually, and i’d love to discuss it more (and to cite better sources than youtube videos when i have the time). but for now i’d just like to say yeah just ask yourself what the implications might be to drawing these characters in particular darker than they are in canon, especially if theyre the only characters you do that for, or you’re intentionally contrasting them with other characters (e.g. b/7 fanart) or yk. drawing a white character darker than a character of colour like ive seen people do with julian and martok.

[storkmuffin]

For @vyrd

The things about James Flint/ McGraw (Black Sails) that read as 'my kind' of autistic to me, which matches up with books written about my kind of autism by autism experts, which made me fully identify with that character:

Fundamental social disconnect from other people leading to not pursuing having a family or having hobbies and believes himself to be incapable of being really loved

Is good at work though and intellect earns a lot of praise so focuses on those strengths

Solitude has become imprisoning but is too lacking in social skills or emotional self awareness to get out of it

Live by a very narrow set of rules, remaining independent and invulnerable is very important

When stressed out or becomes overwhelmed with sadness, finds it hard to speak

Entire life has been shaped by mistrust in himself and fear of his own desires

Social isolation as a way of rejecting other people before they can reject him.

Workaholism and devotion to a cause being a sign of autistic hyperfixation

Trouble reading social cues and hesitating initiating contact with other people unless it's a negative situation he can 'fix' and then he's all about that

Deeply and deliberatively analytical

Tends not to get habituated to familiar situations as readily as other people, so often thinks through a repeated situation as if it is completely new, even if it isn't

Repetitiveness is a really key feature of autistic behavior

Withdraws from other people, and there's a feedback look of social disempowerment and shame.

Rigid thinking and extends that rigidity to other people and then can't understand at all when they don't share that rigidity

A lot of Flint's most 'outrageous' behaviors looked like meltdown to me - crying, self harm, outward aggression.

Highly self educated, self starter, but is roundly rejected and disliked by peers. And of course everyone lives in a specific racial, sexual, and class context, so it's hard to tell if his social disconnect from his peers is actually neurodivergent rejection but it looks like class rejection. It could of course be both.

Hyperverbal autistics can have intense and bright personalities but can also seem icy and withdrawn depending on the situation.

Thinks constantly about how he's being perceived and rarely feels at home in any community.

Can think up and 'enact' a very enticing persona, that's immaculate in style, in an effort to have their personhood recognized but then is always misunderstood, and every day is a fight to communicate their real self

He seems to me my type of sensory seeker autistic - crave activity, motion, bright colors, thrills of roller coasters, the clear rules of order on any boat, clear rules of (violent) engagement among pirates and with the actual navies.

Can excel at mentally demanding jobs (like piracy, captaining a ship, maintaining a naval career) but makes diastrous social decisions.

can get so attached to seeing self as brilliant that leads to neglect of physical health in pursuit of goal.

constantly baffled when attempts at communicating clearly are seen as rude or hurtful.

despite being personally powerful, can engage in very fawning behavior - the more invested he is in an emotional connection, the less likely he is to criticize that person or vocalize when his boundaries are crossed, or express unhappiness with that behavior (basically all the shit that goes down with John Silver)

Really fantastic at anticipating what happens next because he spends tons of energy trying to script out what will be said and what he should do next.

When they act as behave naturally (such as in moments of great stress) come off as too much or a cold blooded creep

tendency to object personification - his relationship with his boats - autistics identify with items we love and feel a degree of empathy as if they are alive

when swept up in a special interest, feel extremely alive. work life balance and burnout don't happen to autistics in the way it does for neurotypicals. autistic people get exhausted from socializing a lot instead of woring a lot.

neurotypical people quickly and subconsciously identify peope as autistic and then immediately dislike them. autistics are slightly off - unnatural looking smile, not knowing how to end a conversation - and these behaviors can be seen as scary or unsettling.

tendency to speak in a tone that sounds dry or sarcastic women are often seen as cold or bitchy and men as condescending mansplainers

 tend to get into patterns of intense emotional dependency, combined with insecurity

 yearn to be accepted yet doubt they can be

when people try to connect with autistics, we sometimes rebuff them without realizing it

[90shorrors]

finally finished my savanaclaw redesign lineup! jesus christ this took a lot longer than expected

[mycannibalromance]

i'm going to bed now but i do want to come back to this. if you're just now confronting the prevalence fandom racism wrt my chemical romance and the complete dismissal of ray toro, if you're realising, 'hey, shit, when i was 13 i was absolutely complicit in this whether i meant to be or not', you really have to think through what allowed you to dismiss him in the first place, because that is inextricably tied to your privilege as a white fan. the answer isn't really just to reblog other people's posts praising his talent or lusting after him - that's fine! god knows it's warranted! but doing that w/o actually confronting the casual racism that pervades alt communities is meaningless.