#fictional drawings vs real human person and all that

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #21

Ghost / Batgirl #1-4 Words: Mike Kennedy Pictures: Ryan Benjamin Additional Work: Randy Emberlin, Howard Shun

One impression I used to have that going back to look at ~all~ of Cass's early appearances has forced me to reconsider is the idea that she didn't appear outside of her own books very much. While later on that is more the case, early on she does have a fair few guest appearances and cross overs, including in this bit of non-canon dual publisher cross promotion with Elisa Cameron, aka Ghost, a Dark Horse character with a solo that had been running since 1995.

The miniseries pits long time Batman villain Harvey Dent against brand new Ghost antagonist Malcolm Greymater - a (fictional) confederate general turned zombie libertarian corpse reanimator - in a conflict over Greymater poaching some of Dent's employees (ie reanimating goons that Dent killed). Babs, Cass, and Elisa get caught in the middle and are forced to work together after following separate threads of a bombing by Two Face and bodies stolen by Greymater only to be sold off into unsavory employment after failed reanimation experiments.

I don't want to go through the whole thing with a plot summary - it's four issues of non-canon stuff after all. But as a stand alone story it works fairly well, worth a read if you're a fan of early Cass. In particular there's solid characterization of Harvey Dent and what it's like to work for him - pretty bad actually. You can see why he'd get upset at someone trying to poach his guys, working conditions for goons in Gotham are terrible, if word got around of better conditions in Arcadia (Ghost's hometown) or wherever else then Batman's villains could easily find themselves suffering a labor shortage. The mere idea of that is funny enough to me that I can't help but like this little mini series, and it's an idea I'd love to see brought back. Goons On Strike - now there's a solid idea for an ongoing Gotham event crossover.

Anyway, Ghost/Batgirl is definitely a higher fantasy story than we usually see from Cass, at least back in the early days, but there's a focus on the individual lives and humanity of the underlings working for the villains that's very grounded and down to earth. That fits in really well next to the "street level" focus of Cass's early solo title. As for the book's cross-promotional function, it does make me curious about Ghost, though probably not enough so to go back and look at her solo title. I like her villain here, but Malcolm Greymater and his crew seem to be more or less exclusive to this crossover? Comicvine is telling me he maybe appears in a single issue outside of this, so that's kind of disappointing.

So setting aside the story, how's our girl in this? Well, first of all, she's being drawn by new hands. In costume she's mostly fine.

Sleek and spooky, glossy black. The details of her form are sometimes lost in the darkness, which loses some specificity in the action panels, but in a way that mostly works aesthetically. My only real complaint here is that her facial expression doesn't really show through the mask. You don't get a sense of what she's thinking or feeling in costume, she's just this dark angry spooky form, not so much a person or a character. As I've said in the past, though, that's as much or more a criticism of her costume design as it is of how any particular artist draws her in it.

It's also worth noting that, as with Cass's early pairing with Azrael, her costume contrasts very nicely with Ghost's. White with round hood and billowing cape vs. Cass all black and pointy. Aesthetically it's a great fit.

Out of costume, though...

I don't know. Just doesn't quite look like Cass to me? I know, I know, comic character facial features don't have the same specific canon as their costumes do, different artists have different styles so characters will look different, and there's definitely a stylistic element here that isn't gelling with me. The overall shape of the head is too thin, maybe, making her look a bit older than she should, where I'm used to Scott's more rounded face, stronger jaw, bushier eyebrows, shorter, poofier hair.

Scott's style, at least at the time, also just packs in more emotional expression, which is absolutely critical for a silent protagonist.

By contrast Benjamin's Cass, when she's not in costume, is often just standing a bit behind Babs with a sort of blank, neutral expression while Babs interacts with other characters or the audience for her.

...

Which also kind of brings us to the writing for Cass here. Ghost / Batgirl is probably the best example yet that silent Cass was a mistake, because yeah, the creators of this book just do not know how to convey her character to the reader without words. The first image starts with Cass looking out over the wreckage of a bombing, and of course there's pseudo noir internal monologue all over it, because how else do you start a bat-book, only Cass can't narrate so Babs provides the narration even though she isn't even in that scene.

Babs goes along on the adventure mostly so the writers have someone who can talk for Cass, or even in some panels quite literally talk over Cass.

Cass is an intimidating physical presence in costume, but in this book she functions more as an extension of Babs than as a person in her own right.

...

It's not all bad, though. In particular there's this one bit introducing an additional ability for Cass that makes perfect sense with her backstory and yet sadly I don't think is ever mentioned again in a canon Batgirl story:

Cass gets poisoned, but she survives, and recovers remarkably quickly, because she has a natural resistance to many poisons and venoms built up from repeat exposure to tiny amounts when she was a child, because of course that's something David would do. You could just imagine little Cass and David having drinking contests to see who could take the most poison before passing out, or even sneakily poisoning each other as a little game of escalating pranks.

...

So yeah, overall a nice little stand alone series with maybe not the best depiction of Cass, but one that is illustrative of why the major change to have her start speaking, while I still don't like how it was done, was probably for the best.

[nozunhinged]

Noz vs. reality vs. fiction

As I have experienced my very first unhinged, real person character crush in the form of Boeing aka Mond Tanutchai, I would like to digress into the topic of fiction vs. reality (mainly for myself 🤓).

The carnal desire Boeing awakened in me was absolutely UNMATCHED, nothing I've ever experienced before. I mean, look at him????

I have been an unhinged simp for 2D characters since my teenage years and all my fantasies also lived in this world. It was a separation easy to make and I have to admit I never really knew how to be a fan of irl people, be it actors, singers or whatever their profession.

And then Boeing happened. This man took my moral compass and smashed it until I felt like nothing was left of it. The unhinged in my blog name finally reached its final form. It was a trip.

For the first time I found myself reading all the information about the actor the internet has to offer.

But as it turns out, Mond Tanutchai as a person, as the actor he's existing in this world — does nothing for me. That 1. shows how good he is at his profession and 2. that my carnal desire exists for Boeing and Boeing only.

And this is where it gets interesting.

Where do I choose to draw the line between fiction and reality in the future? Am I now fan of Mond because he plays Boeing so well or am I a fan of Mond because he's playing Boeing in general? Will both options blur the line between the two and and make me want to start to look for traits of Boeing in Mond? Am I even able to separate both of them completely?

This is so extremely interesting to go through right now, because I feel that is the core of the whole reality vs fiction discussion.

Even if I might be able to separate the two — it's so easy to cross that line. To dehumanize this very human being and make them what I want them to be. Fanservice is the perfect example for that and I'm happy in doesn't exist for Only Friends.

It's also kind of scary and I don't know how to move further yet.

And just to be clear: this isn't meant to criticize any form of fandom experience.

I just really like taking a step back to look at how my fairly new fandom life is playing out :)

[fainthedcherry]

2024 Human Art VS 2019 Human Art !!!!!

AS PROMISED, HERE'S A POST WITH SOME NEW ART!!!

And also an art comparison, just to see, how much I improved in drawing the 2 bois <3

I'm MEGA tired despite having slept after work, but I WON'T let that deter me from writing a description!! YAPNADO AHEAD;

FINN AND MARCOOO. FINNANMARCO. BEEN A WHILE SINCE I'VE ACOUSTICALLY AND FERALLY YELLED ABOUT MY 2 FICTIONAL MEN WHOM ARE CLOSE TO MY HEART.

I'm SO glad, that in the new drawing, Marco finally looks like the twink he always was, but still enough meat on the bones to look NORMAL lmao, can't say that about the 4 other sketches of me trying to redraw this ref for years. xD (why yes, his wings took forever, why do you ask? /lh)

I'M MEGA SUPER DUPER GLAD, that Finn FINALLY looks like a chubby, wild bastard TOO, OH TOOTHPASTE MAN, HOW MANY HEARTACHES YOU GAVE ME OVER STRUGGLING TO DRAW AN ENDOMORPHIC BODY TYPE. BUT I CAN NOWWWWWWWwwww!!!!!

God this habit of loudly reading out my posts as I type them made me realise what a bad Schwarzenegger impression I do on accident bc I'm overly excited to post something after a month of silence SDKFSKLDG

ONE THING I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO. IS PUT EVERY DETAIL I NEEDED ON A BIG REF. SO I DID! I've drawn closeups of the boys's eyes, I've drawn Finn's tongue so that I don't need to constantly remind myself what his blush and flesh colours were sdfkldsgkl, I FINALLY denoted their heights, so people know that they're tall TALL dudes (and that Finn obviously will struggle w/ his lanky mfing legs, we LOVE giving a middle-aged man heart attacks once he reaches his 40's!!!)

ANNDDD ALSO SOME SIDE VIEWS OF THEM. The last side-view I had of F & M, looked REAL bad. Like, Marco's face looked WAY too stereotypically European (to my fault bc surprise surprise not many African people live in Europe so I had poor frame of reference but I've been fixing it via looking up images online instead, at least it helps but yeah, I have a hard time so far unfortunately💀), Finn's was just... B u c k e t. NOT LIKE HANDSOME BUCKET. BUT JUST BUCKET. IT NEEDED FIXING (fun fact I accidentally made Finn have the most attractive jaw shape for men according to beauty standards and I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I JUST WANTED THIS MAN TO LOOK S Q U A R E AND THAT'S IT, MINECRAFT STEVE HAS MORE RIZZ THAN MOST MEN OFFICIALLY).

OH YEAH ALSO A CLAW REF AGAIN FOR FINN!!! His old ref looks too cool for me to give up on it tbh even as dated as it is sfjklsdglk, BUT I felt like I needed to redraw them properly.

FUNNILY ENOUGH A PERSON I COMMISSIONED SAID I HAVE SOME REALLY CLEAN AND NICE LINEART. I wish I heard that 5 years ago when I was really insecure about my bad lineart skills xD, I don't use lineart anymore nowadays outside of reference-drawings like these I don't plan to redraw in the next years unless necessary soooo yeah! They're gonna appear much rarer unless I go off and about making more ref sheets of all of my Sonc OC's sfklsdgsdfksdg

This drawing took 5 days to make btw. Not the hours spent on this LOL. 5 days of my life I'll never get back tho bc I care too much about my babies and I feel they deserve proper refs sdfklsdglk

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I MENTION.....HOPEFULLY I PLAN TO DRAW MORE HUMAN REFS IN THE FUTURE INSTEAD OF STAY IN MY COMFORT ZONE OF SONIC OCS ONLY. I for years wasn't confident in my ability to draw humans, but I can do so NOW at least!!!!!!!!!! Even if I'm like...3 years too late to how I wish my art looked back then already dsklfdsg, I have some high standards I need to continue to knock down as my 2024 resolution sdfklsdg

^IT'S BEEN WORKING THOUGH AS YOU CAN TELL BC I'VE BEEN UPLOADING SOME BAD DOODLES AND SKETCHES, BEEN DRAWING MORE GARBAGE AND BECAME MORE INVOLVED IN MY BELOVED FANDOMS. I wanna continue doing so! It was the most fun I've had with art ever. I hope to properly meet more fandoms I left in the past bc I thought it'd be embarrassing to share my passion for a franchise back then. I EMBRACE THE CRINGE NOW AS AN ADULT AT LEAST EVEN IF 7 YEARS TOO LATE ON THAT FRONT TOO. We all age and mature ig but I just become more silly year by year,,, c:

Oh yeah if you also see this btw lemme know, whether the new watermark tiles are subtle enough to not be noticed!!!! I know, watermarks are annoying and nobody likes them, but ever since AI invasions, I REFUSE to put my work online without ANY form of proof that somebody took it from my page. I just want people to stop lying on the internet for cloud and pick up a pencil. It's not that hard smfh. The only time I could excuse AI art is w/ amputees man. That's the only time I could empathise with someone, who wants to be an artist but LITERALLY can't bc they got dealt a bad hand in life. I digress my AI hate can be rambled about some other day, I know I love yapping and writing essays about THAT topic for sure sfklsdklg

I chose to post this ref to my Tumblr first tho, bc I still wanna work on my drawing of Abbacchio,,,, he is quite dear to me and I'd love to put effort into a doodle of him that won't take too long. Like 4 hours or 5 hours tops. I still have yet to figure out, if his cute star shape on his head is a hat or part of his hair. Bc I CAN'T TELL TBH AND I'VE BEEN DRAWING IT AS PART OF HIS HAIR PATTERN BUT I THINK IT'S A HAT NOW EVER SINCE I LOOKED AT MORE ASBR CAPS OF HIM I TOOK FOR REFERENCES. xD

Also another side-note, but I've ofc reduced down the lankiness of the dudes I draw™, but I in result wanted to sliiightly make larger feet/hands bc my Sonic phase will continue to possess me 'til the end of time /hj, if you also wanna lemme know what you think on that, bls do! I am messing about with stylization still. I am finding my footing with stylizing humans sOOO yeah!!!! I hope to some day be satisfied with my artstyle change of '24! So far it's been really rewarding and eye-opening to me and my journey as an artist for my 7 years of existing on the 'net w/ my silly goobers I like to scream about to in the void <3

Once again, tagnado also incoming below bc I dunno how to properly tag my art so lemme throw in things I THINK are relevant to this post sdkldsgkl

See you hopefully tomorrow w/ a lil doodle dump if I get around to it!!!! : D

[2n2n]

Riffing off of my last post... I want to think about something! Or, introduce a thought....

first off, a magical spell to ward off evil. In your mind spins the image of the Yugi twins kissing peacefully, happy in their futon together... ahhhh! Okay... we resume now.

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but it might not be to others, so why not voice it.

I think valuing the gender of characters is your preference individually, there are preferences I have, too! Tastes, aesthetically, and such. But, to some extent, I think being rigorous and strict about avoiding say, 'male/female' relationships, or hating 'male characters', in the pursuit of loving queerness & loving women for example, can go a little overboard... ooonly in that, narratives are not always representing only what they appear as, and you can't be so sure what other people are representing in abstractions. This post is only for people who might feel sensitive about those abstractions-- if you don't have a care in the world, don't bother reading on...!

Here is an example, from a popular series many love. The Moomin novels are precious to me, I love the expressions of the author, Tove's, relationships and human experiences. Tove largely expresses herself through Moomin, a boy. She expresses her relationships with women AND men through that conduit. Ironically, the relationship between Moomin and Snufkin-- beloved by many!-- represents a 10-year love affair with a man in her life, Atos. While the story of Moomin and Too-ticky, is a representation of her relationship to her later long-term female partner, Tuulikki. I don't see fandom much explore or care about Moomin/Too-ticky, probably because it is M/F. I think that's kind of funny? I'm not here to make a judgement-- I write Snufkin/Moomin-- but, when I think about what people value in Tove VS what narrative they like in fiction, it's interesting that the real-life experiences influencing that fiction doesn't matter.

Meanwhile, a lot of female mangaka represent their traits through male characters. Arakawa connects to Edward Elric, and Yana Toboso projects a lot of herself into Ciel Phantomhive. While it's not stated as outright as all the other examples, I do believe Iro-sensei projects a lot of their personality into Hanako, and Aida-sensei seems to playfully draw Iro-sensei as Hanako, or embellish him with Iro-sensei's IRL habits.

We can look at a story like JSHK, and we can look at it literally as a story about ghosts and humans and such. Or, we can look at it thematically, and see a story about many, many more things we might relate to. Broad concepts of eschewing society's morals, strictures, or values (suchas Tsukasa), or following them to the point of pain (suchas Teru), who gets punished or forgotten and why, how to be happy in a world that doesn't care if you are happy (Hakubo, Sumire).... etc...

Hanako's struggle with Nene-chan, is that he cannot marry her, he cannot grow up with her, and 'has no future' with her. I would describe Hanako as chronically unable to conceptualize commitment for himself. At the start of the manga, this makes him a kind of playboy to Nene-chan-- flirtatious, harassing, but also closed-off. He sees his dynamic with Nene-chan as a temporary, short-term thing... a year of frivolity with a girl, something that can't 'go anywhere'. He can be capricious, but only because of a sense of hopelessness. This relationship cannot "go anywhere".

Much to be said about queer relationships being seen as 'a phase' in many cultures... something you do when young, but grow out of, moving into normative adulthood. I'm not saying that's the INTENTION-- but that you could happily choose to read it however you want, connect to it however you want.

I mean... gay marriage is not sanctioned across Japan... this concept of "a person you can play with a little when you're young, but never truly commit to" is a cultural concept there. It's interesting that when Nene-chan dreams, "I want to get married some day in the real world!", Hanako receives it as a rejection, and no longer plans to attempt to entrap her through bizarre, indirect circumstances.

Hanako can use strange, convoluted systems like making Nene-chan his kannagi, or binding her to him with the mermaid scale, to ensnare them together .... as much as you could uh, start a business with your lover, but perhaps not legally marry them. It's an interesting compromise, or as he says in Picture Perfect, 'I'm only using what I can'.

Picture Perfect is also about creating a fake fantasy world which fictionalizes everything into a saccharine and acceptable, normative fantasy one wherein Hanako is no longer a Mononoke, but the human, Amane. As Mitsuba says, "in this world, she can even marry No. 7!". What does it mean for Nene-chan to reject this sanitized, acceptable rewritten version of their love, & desire the haunting ghost, even with all of the foibles of that? She doesn't claim to hate the fiction, but it isn't the love she remembers.

The concept that kaii simply 'cannot access' certain aspects of society is interesting. This concept that humans engaging with kaii sincerely, are naive, short-sighted, and incapable of thinking of the 'big picture' is, too. It's childish of Nene-chan to chase Hanako, and others who 'know better' or think more 'realistically' chide or laugh at her for it (Akane, Teru, Mitsuba....). Mitsuba finds it funny that Nene-chan is so smitten with a lover she can't have for life. Mitsuba longs to be 'normal'. Hanako wants a 'normal' life for Nene-chan.

Just as well, however Amane or Tsukasa may have felt about each other, they were brothers. There is a limit to the level of closeness they can have. To put it bluntly, they can't get married, either, lol.

Amane/Hanako the entity may not 'have a future' with anyone he loves, as he may not ever have a proper, societally-acceptable love, with anyone. His love might always be something impossible to achieve-- the moon, out of his reach. That's an interesting trait for a main character.

I think it shouldn't be shameful or stupid or reductive to connect to Hanako/Nene, or Akane/Aoi (lifelong 'best friends'), or Sumire/Hakubo (who were hardly seen as people by anyone, their relationship's value anywhere from invisible to repugnant) .... we literally do not know Aida or Iro's relationships, experiences, we don't even know their own identities or personal lives all that deeply....! We don't know where they are writing or drawing from. But in that way, I think it would be doing a disservice to what you can connect to in a narrative, to presume it's only ever what it looks like on the surface.

For a great many authors & artists, we didn't get to know the greater narrative of their life until long after they died, and could reread their works with new context. I don't think people need to die for you to do that, though. If you notice a consistent theme, it might be intentional... or it might not be! You should have fun. You shouldn't worry too much about it IN-TEXT being wlw or mlm lol.... that's, just not how a lot of people choose to write their stories, even if their lived reality is exactly one thing. Even if there's not a deep reason, maybe it feels more fun or more playful to imagine oneself, a lesbian, as a nasty teenage straight boy. Maybe it even feels more 'real' but in a 'lol... tfw' way. Do you feel me on that??? Sometimes... I think things get a little too literal around the web lately in media analysis!!!!! I would love to encourage anyone who needs permission, to get a little less literal. I don't think you need to, imagine Hanako as a woman to make HanaNene appropriately lesbo vibes, or to justify yourself, a lesbo, liking it. You could be a lesbo and Hanako could represent the type of girl you are exactly. There are girls like that. I mean. Tsukasa represents the type of girl I am.... *paws out*

and aouhhhrho aoaaoouou disclaimer anyone can enjoy whatever they like etc etc have fun etc, live your life etc not saying everyone who likes XYZ is insecure or XYZ or should just blah blah or it's wrong to do blah blah write blah, this all isn't relevant to you whatsoever if you're happy and confident in what you like, proud to like it or whatever, this post is only!!!! relevant if you feel ashamed, embarrassed, silly, or dumb for 'seeing something' or relating to something 'not for you' or 'not there'!!! You don't know that it isn't there! You don't have to choose from .... the few same-gender options actually in-text. Or contort the canon around. You can see your own relationships in anything. Because people write their own relationships in a thousand ways.

My husband and I can write ourselves as two girls. As two girls and a boy. As two boys. As a boy and a girl. As two boys and a girl. As a boy and a nongendered thing. We do this obsessively. I wouldn't say any of these narratives are more or less accurate or true to our lives depending upon the genders aligning with our real life human bodies. We can be a thousand things, and we're still 'us'. We recognize 'us' in that which resonates.

[tommyssupercoolblog]

IM SORRY THIS ISNT MEANT TO BE AGGRESSIVE i have not been on this part of the internet in a long time so things might have changed but.... last i heard the proship label encompassed things (in fiction) like inc/st, abusive relationships, p/do shit, etc... is that still correct? idk if thats what you were talking about in your tags because i do not know Anything about minecraft youtubers but usually when people put proship in their dni theyre denouncing that stuff. just wanted to clarify im understanding your complaints, no harm intended!

No problem!! it can be confusing lol, nothing wrong with being unsure. All-in-all, you're kinda close with that idea, but still not on target. explanations of proship vs anti, the d/mp fandom's take on it, and my thoughts on it all under the cut:

So proship as a philosophy is about wether or not things like that (in fiction) translate to real life, which is why it's connected to censorship like i mentioned in the post- if you believe that watching or reading something problematic will make more problematic things happen, that someone reading a book with a child/adult relationship makes them more likely to (or is on it's own already the same as) a person pursuing that in real life, that makes you an anti; and it also gives you a big reason to push for works like that being taken down or removed, and for people who make or read that stuff to be put in real prisons or face other real life consequences for fictional acts- because the idea is that, to an anti, these things bleed into each other.

being proship isn't equivalent to enjoying dark fiction like that, but it IS equivalent to believing that, similar to fictional violence, fictional crimes or acts of any kind can be created and consumed by artists and audiences without people actually condoning it IRL. a proshipper would say that if someone plays a video game where they murder someone, and then does it IRL, thats on the PERSON, not the media- and they hold the same position for fictional portrayals of incest, abusive relationships, and pedophilic relationships. the name comes from being pro- as in for- ships, and other content, as a whole; without it having to meet IRL moral criteria.

dark fiction freaks me out personally; the biggest ick (and actually a trigger for me) being incest; It bothers me and i stay away from it. but I don't think that people who read or make it are going to condone it IRL directly because of that media, and I believe that if they WERE to do something bad like abusing someone, it'd be an unrelated/seperate issue: an independent choice that only they are responsible for, not anything they made or watched or read.

That makes me fall under proship, even though I don't like any problematic (as in incest, abuse, adult/minor) ships. Personally, I literally follow people who like things that bother me in that way: i just block the tags so when they post something i really don't wanna see, tumblr tells me, hey, this post has this thing in it so we've spoilered it. If someone likes shipping their silly little blorbos and those silly little blorbos are kinda fucked up in a way that makes their brain go brrr, that's totally chill with me as long as they aren't hurting anyone- which, because i don't think fiction equates to reality, I believe they aren't when they're playing with their blorbos. (and since i'm pro-rpf, it's worth mentioning i feel the same about that. rpf is still FICTION, at the end of the day. you don't actually expect those people to do the things you write or draw. it's still removed from reality. that's personal preference though, many proshippers would disagree.)

So basically proship or Anti is a label that represents your philosophy on how human thoughts and behavior link to fiction. anti means you believe that consuming something fictional is equivalent to doing it in real life, or at least will make you do it IRL later, while proship means you believe that consuming something fictional is unrelated to doing it IRL, and you can enjoy something fictionally without actually enjoying it or condoning it when it's real people.

you will, of course, see more people who enjoy dark fiction under proship, and that's because they themselves consume it- so of course they're going to say it's not the same as doing it IRL. You will also, of course, see more people who don't like dark fiction at all under anti, because when you're disgusted by something like that then that reaction can be taken as "evidence" that it's morally bad. (personally, disgust-based morality doesn't hold up as a concept for me- it's a big reason why bigots believe the things they do, so using the same logic path makes me uncomfortable, but it is still common for people to use it as a way to measure wether something is okay or not.)

so, the part about silly block game.

there's lots of censoring in this part to avoid harassment, so bear with me.

In the early days of the d/mp, people decided that creating romantic content around the b-nchtr-o (Tmmy, tvbb0, and rnb00, who were all around 16 at the time) was inherently problematic. I'm not sure why, exactly, but the idea became that a fan crushing on one of them (at the exact same age!!!) or shipping them with each other, even as characters, was equivalent to being a real life child predator. again, even if the person doing it was ALSO a minor.

because it was seen as inherently problematic, behaviors like those were lumped in with other things problematic- shipping characters on the smp who had fought or killed each other, shipping characters who were related or were minor/adult, etc. there was no distinction; i was there!! it was all problematic, and all of it was seen as evidence that you were a real life predator of some kind regardless of age or disclaimers put under your content.

the label that developed for this group of "problematic content" enjoyers within the fandom became "poppytwt" or "ppytwt". (twt being there because it was mainly localized around twitter). as i explained above, because it could be because of dark fiction OR be//htr/o content, poppytwt content and ships doesn't even require it being dark fiction necessarily, nor does it require it being b//chtr/o; just one or the other, although usually the assumption is that it's both, since that combines the two reasons for being under that label. some people also call any proshippers in the fandom poppy even if they don't engage in anything problematic in-fandom, but that's generally the antis and not people themselves. if someone self describes as poppy, it's for the two main reasons above.

Additionally, the d/mp fandom has this concept of "maintagging". what this means is that if you make problematic content, you are NOT ALLOWED to tag it under the fandoms or characters it's about, because people don't want to see it in their results. ao3 has a tag filtering feature for this exact purpose, but people generally disregaurd that; you're still not supposed to tag it on the "main" tags, and doing so is seen almost like "asking for" harassment, like how some people talk about wearing crop tops alone at night.

Tntd/o managed to cross over, actually, from poppy to main/normalized in the fandom as the creators leaned into it with their characters. but for awhile even that was considered poppy.

different members of ppytwt have different opinions on RPF, but RPF was also considered poppy on it's own sometimes depending on who you were talking to and how militant they were on what got a pass and what didn't.

as be/chtr/o aged....it didn't stop?? all of them hit 18, but still, to this day, you can be cancelled for shipping them with each other or ANYONE else. it's why i'm so damn scared of the d/mp fandom, if i tagged a fic about my source with his character tag, with ANYTHING other than platonic relationships for him/me, I run the risk of being sent threats or doxxed- don't get me wrong, many antis keep to themselves, but there are also those who try to play vigilante- remember, if something fictional is equivalent to IRL, then attacking someone for enjoying a "bad" fictional thing becomes a charitable, heroic act; so sometimes antis might pursue proshippers with the goal of keeping people "safe". Many people in related fandoms or under the same creators also adopted the same ideals handed down from the d/mp fandom, so i'm wary of people who just watch my source too, or of people who like the q/mp.

people joke about the old fandom going crazy if they say tvbb0 and tmmy today, and that's because they would. they'd be furious at tmmy for doing this bit and putting himself in danger, they'd be cancelling anyone who ran with the bit in chat or had a photo of them hugging or kissing like in the music video as a profile picture, it'd be a whole mess. even today though it's still...scary.

((paused there to take a strawberry milk break, im back now))

the somewhat exception to this rule is Rnb00- people literally thirst for them and make nsfw comments openly, so while im not sure about the shipping aspect, i do know simping is widely okay- you couldn't even say you wanted to kiss them before, but now people are saying wayyy more than that...

inversely, i feel like my source has it the worst, because people won't even talk about him- or anything related to him- as an adult. it's always child this and child that, "who let him drink" and "get the alcohol away from the baby!", and of couse "don't ship him or his character with anyone that makes you a pedophile!!!" while the grown ass man they're talking about outright says he's alright with sfw fanfiction in a video where he reacts to someone's x-reader and then makes flirty nsfw jokes with every other adult man in the vicinity. every fanfic is platonic and almost all of them both irl and in game write him as sixteen. they take place in the past or, more commonly, they just straight up age him down. hell, sometimes they even age him down to like eight. even in fics where he IS an adult, he gets called a child or a teenager but never an adult.

poppytwt, like the stigma against writing for the creators or their characters, lives on. and even outside of benchtrio, again, ships between other characters that are problematic are poppytwt, so that also is still clinging on for dear life in some corners of the web. most poppytwt posts that are tagged as such usually include b//chtr/o, but not all of them; and it's worth noting many creators avoid tagging at all even if it's just the poppytwt tag, because they don't want to get swarmed.

because I ship myself with my husband of course, and also make fictional content with our sources as an extension of that (think dungeons and dragons but the character is just you...or, actually, SMPs are a great example of this since the appearance/name is generally the same, so think like an SMP!!!!!) I am poppytwt. I will always be poppytwt to most people who don't like poppytwt. and I have friends who are poppytwt and I like art made by people under poppytwt. I don't need to ship incest to be a part of that, i just need to not think the people who do aren't doing anything harmful when they ship that, and to write/draw....well, anything about septicinnit, which i do all the time.

if someone has poppytwt dni in their bio, i can't interact. if someone has proship dni in their bio, i can't interact. it doesn't matter if what they really mean is "people who like abusive ships because that triggers me", I still can't interact.

Because i think we SHOULD be tagging our content exactly so that we can filter it and find what we personally enjoy (and avoid what we dont), the concept of a DNI is technically something i'm kinda for- it is a way of monitoring and controlling your experience- but it also can be used as an excuse to harass people who forgot to read it, and i have no way of knowing if that's the case in advance.

ADITTIONALLY, because I know and care about people who consume dark fiction, I also don't want to be around people who think that makes them a bad person, regaurdless of wether or not they think i can stay. and "proship dni" is about proship, that fiction isn't reality philosophy- they are saying right out of the gate that they think it DOES make them a bad person. and I don't agree with that. it frustrates me and it makes me upset. those DNIs are based in a place of disgust and hatred for the people I care about, because of content that isn't real, and i'm never going to feel super okay with that...

there's people who don't understand what it means and use it anyway when it's really just about the content; but again, how am i supposed to know which is which?? ESPECIALLY on twitter, the anti philosophy is extremely popular and relevant and yes, trendy. people believe it, HARD, and so i can't assume they don't when they say they do. I've met real flesh and blood people in person who think that way, so if you are using these words, i'm assuming you know what they mean- that way I don't run the risk of making an actual anti upset and violating their boundaries.

you don't have to agree with me on this- if you're anti, then that's your worldview and i'm not going to change that. but that's what those words mean, the history of the block game side of things, and how they're correlated to censorship.

To Summarize:

Anti : Fiction Equals Reality so Fictional Crimes are Real Crimes (ergo we should censor them to stop the crimes)

Proship: Fiction does NOT Equal Reality so Fictional Crimes are Harmless (on their own)

Anti-Anti: Not sure if Fictional Crimes are Harmless, but Don't Like that Antis think Proshippers are The Exact Same Level as IRL Criminals

Poppytwt/ppytwt: Problematic silly block game stuff, OR things that have to do with these three specific block people being hot/dating someone. Sometimes both.

[dateamonster]

what’s your opinion on monstrous transformations (both fast and slow), and also more controversially what do you think about having monsters/nonhuman characters serve as minority allegory (as opposed to society’s hate for them being being an allegory)

ohhh hold on this is a rly good question i think abt a Lot actually.

ok getting the first bit out of the way, love a good monstrous transformation. fast, slow, its all good. i personally like gradual slow shifts the most but its a situational thing. transformation is one of those things that like just always has to be symbolic. even more than the degree to which Everything is symbolic ya know. so like context rly matters when it comes to how to invoke it most effectively.

MOVING ON

i think from the phrasing of the ask ur looking for something more along the lines of like. for example shapeshifters as representation of nonbinary people or aliens as representation of different cultures rather than like monsters vs humans as allegory for racism. but im also not sure you can meaningfully separate the two! the latter i think is more overused so it like registers more as an immediate red flag, but its like. if the aliens from avatar werent being violently invaded by humans it wouldnt make like their reskinned stereotypical indigeneity anymore tolerable i dont think.

which isnt to say i think every story that draws connections between fantastical fictional species and real world people are inherently bad. i dont really think theres any trope that i believe cant be handled well by anyone under any circumstance. the super easy fix to bad rep via monster or fantasy creature characters is basically just have actual humans who also represent those same identities and communities and experiences so that the audience isnt drawn to connect the traits of any one group with your fictional species.

the harder fix is to like seriously analyze why you want this character to be a monster and what that says about them and what that says about you and your own experiences and biases and what you actually want to communicate with the inclusion of this character. and when applicable hire a sensitivity reader. its kinda crazy how many pieces of media seem to prefer half-assing the hard way over just doing the easy thing and not assigning the status of token minority to a literal monster.

of course once again all of this is ya know circumstantial. im speaking to like my own experiences and the things ive observed. and its weird too! bc im also speaking as someone who like is trans and nonbinary and thinks of myself and my gender expression as inherently intertwined with monstrosity. and as someone who is autistic and thinks of myself as a changeling. and as someone who is a fat person who represents themself with a pig themed sona. if i talk abt cringeass hollywood blockbusters engaging in High Fantasy Racism i feel like to be fair i kinda have to talk about independent own-voices creators who write stories and make art about their own identities in the lovely language of monstrosity. theres not rly a way to draw a hard line around the former without the risk of catching some of the latter.

so umm as usual i dont rly have a snappy all encompassing answer for how i feel abt this kind of characterization. im simply too much of a Nuance Enjoyer. i do i guess think this is something that generally turns out better when it is someone making art about their own experiences, but also unless i believe minority artists are a monolith, which i dont, i need to accept that artists will inevitably make stuff that is beautiful and resonant to some people and totally repugnant and offensive to others, and that both of those responses can be like totally justified and correct. thats art babey!

anyway slight digression but i think any case where a character feels more like an allegory than a fully fleshed u know Character is gonna flop for me no matter how relatable it is. tbqh, id rather more ppl try and fail to make beautiful grotesque frightening sensually moving monsters out of their lived experiences and their empathetic connections with others than succeed at creating bland toothless universally approachable Good Rep tm. if u know u know. if u feel me u feel me. that is all.

[fare-thee-well]

Some people will say that they are above the pro vs anti debate and think it's all incredibly stupid and insignificant, which I would agree to partly, if this anti vs pro debate hasn't led to minority groups (in this case a trans asian person getting the cops called on them because of someone who was absolutely obsessed with driving them into a corner for drawing fictional characters experiencing gore and other nonconsensual situations) getting in danger, getting doxxed, having to live in fear because another person thinks that it is a normal and good thing to get someone whose opinions they disagree with killed.

Usually those who say they aren't involved will jump in on the first occasion they get to join team Death Threats Are Good To Eradicate Freaks. A post where I said both sides have merit is still going around, I don't really think that is right anymore. The take that fiction and dark or difficult themes in them should be taken with nuance and that harassment or book banning is NEVER the answer still stands. What I would like to add to that now is that even if you yourself don't harass anyone but don't mind sharing around posts in which darkfic creators are consistently made out to be freaks, not normal, morally corrupt is adding fuel to the issue as well. You're allowing harassment. You're placing these creators somewhere in the social hierarchy that is below others, and thus not deserving of respect.

The same goes for sharing blacklists around of 'problematic' people (who once in a post joking with their mutuals used an out of context screenshot of a hentai or ecchi manga in which characters were apparently teens, thus underage; some may know who I'm talking about), so that their friend group may hopefully cut them off, take their support away, make sure everyone leaves them so that they can no longer depend on anyone, isolate themselves, and like a true anti often wishes for them, that they'll end their life. Sure is an odd coincidence that the people they can hurt the most with it is trans folks who often have to make do with smaller personal circles and online communities, huh. You may not be aware as an uninvolved person that it is the end goal, but you're helping them work toward it.

The suffering of a fictional character will NEVER be more important to prevent than a real human being. The lack of empathy in anti circles is honestly terrifying. They use the exact same talking points far-right politicians do when talking about immigrants. As an academic who has done research both on nationalism in European countries and antifandom in the West, I can say as much with confidence. Define the 'other' as below yourself and problematic to society so that others may eventually only see them as trash as well, then easily normalize treating them as such.

[eyeciclez]

Does fiction affect reality? And if so, how?

Oh yeah, for sure. I'm not an expert or anything, but I think it would be extremely silly to claim with a straight face that fiction doesn't affect reality at all.

If it wouldn't, no one would bother with it. It obviously influences you emotionally, makes you think, or inspires you, etc. It's also created by humans for humans. An exchange between real people - how could that not have an effect on reality?

But looking at how fiction impacts the individual person vs how it shapes the culture or Zeitgeist on a large scale are two different questions. And I would avoid projecting your own experiences onto others, or making black-and-white statements about cultural impacts.

Like, I've seen articles about how Jaws apparently ultimately led to more sharks being killed, or how Psycho made showering alone a more common fear. Or to name positive examples: that reading fairytales to young children can improve their social and emotional skills, or that seeing yourself represented as a marginalised person at a young age is good for your self-esteem.

But a lot of people read stuff like this superficially, without fully understanding the psychology behind it, and draw their own conclusions. Not just about the fictional works in question, but about others that doesn't have that clear data, as well. Like, stuff like this is so often used to create moral panics and to fight little culture wars, that I tend to be wary of people or constantly use pieces of fiction to make a political point.

So yeah, I'm 100% convince that fiction does affect reality. But I'm sure it's more complex than most people realise.

[gromellette]

what's your thought crime Opinions

how nice of you to ask!

as a disclaimer, this is less about the commonly discussed concepts of mental illness & harmless sexual/romantic fantasies seen under the original post and more about the less than normal kinds of thoughts that can be harder to talk about in a neutral way for a lot of people. proceed with caution, i suppose.

i don't have anything to say about thought crime that hasn't already been said, i think. but i do hold, from my experience, controversial & unpopular opinions surrounding thoughts, desires, attractions, urges, and feelings vs. actions where it relates to violence and sexuality.

i don't immediately reign judgement on people who experience some or all of the above surrounding the likes of incest, pedophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, non/dubious consent/rape, mutilation/murder, etc. these things would be undoubtedly unethical and, to most, detestable to act on, but simply experiencing those feelings & thinking those thoughts & having those urges or desires is not something i'm interested in demonizing someone for. human beings are incapable of controlling their thoughts/feelings/attractions. if we weren't, we would never feel anxiety or grief or anger, people with OCD & intrusive thoughts would eliminate them before they appeared, queer people in conservative spaces and/or grappling with internalized homophobia would simply choose to not be queer. we know this isn't how it works, so why would it be any different for the unsavory ones, the socially unacceptable?

this isn't to say it's just chill that some people sit around having fantasies about certain things; i do think destigmatizing needs to also come with unpacking and rehabilitation where appropriate and measures to prevent violent acts, but the cultural obsession with morality is probably my biggest gripe with the conversation surrounding violent thoughts and violence in general; how morality is the highest priority, the means by which we must categorize the world in terms of "good" people and "bad" people, the end all be all to understanding and solving the issue of violence and, therefore, the only thing that really matters when observing these categorically "bad" people². all this, despite the fact that morality is entirely subjective and does nothing to actually prevent or treat violence because one's perception of right and wrong varies widely from person to person depending on endless variables. contrary to popular belief, the world cannot be broken down into such simple parts; good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust. the world is nuanced, gray, and not altogether easy to understand.

i'm as passionate as i am about this (and about protecting freedom of speech and expression in fictional media where this topic is concerned too, another conversation altogether) because the shame and dehumanizing that happens in response to someone expressing violent thoughts or compulsions is what ultimately leads to real life harm¹. i believe it's important to foster an environment where people can feel comfortable talking about these things because with that comes feeling comfortable asking for help and preventing violence from the start, which is ultimately what we want, right? to listen to, show compassion for, and aid people with "immoral" thoughts (and predators, while we're at it) is to participate in creating a safe community for everyone³.

punishment begets more violence, not less, and it's troubling how popular the opposite sentiment seems to be. i'm frankly tired of seeing people make black and white moral judgements that are not at all black and white (i.e. thinking about something one has never acted on). it's okay to feel a way about things but, as far as i'm concerned, a person's actions are far more important than what goes on inside their head, or what they choose to write, draw, read, or watch for that matter (unless it's legitimate pornography involving real life parties right like obviously that is very bad because it results in and perpetuates real life harm, lets be reasonable here BUT even in these cases, the answer is not to demonize. there could be cases in which a person might very well be incapable of change or remorse (debatable) and in those cases, sure, but i believe the majority of the time such violence can be not only treated, but prevented by recognizing their humanity and doing what we can to foster it. the ultimate goal being, of course, to prevent violence. but i digress, that is another conversation also lol)

¹ James Gilligan has talked extensively on this topic, the correlation between shame & violence, and how treatable and preventable it really is if we could dispel the notion that predators are inhuman, some sort of separate evil species incapable of treatment and understanding and "deserving" of punishment. His book, Preventing Violence, is a great place to start, or this interview if you can't access it (highly recommend, it is a fascinating read). ² See also James Gilligan. Morality is the Problem, where he talks about morality as a means to justify violence on both sides of the coin.

³ i also feel it necessary to make clear that it's not anyone's, and particularly any victim's, responsibility to bear the burden of showing compassion to or otherwise protecting someone who has harmed or wanted to harm others. i just hope to highlight the importance of recognizing and considering the humanity in those individuals because the most effective way of changing someone for the better is allowing them the space to do so, should they be receptive to it. because monsters don't exist, human beings who do unforgivable things do. and, yes, even those human beings need compassion from others.

[4denthusiast]

There's a popular post complaining about the repeated unexamined use of some tropes in a certain sort of fantasy story (they turned reblogs off and I'm not quite sure what the etiquette on responding to such a post is, but I figure if I'm not specifically drawing their attention it's probably fine?), and gives "what if races were real" and "what if the divine right of kings was real" as examples. I get the point they're making, but I think both of those, if well thought through, could actually be interesting premises for a fantasy story.

In real life, psychological differences between different human ethnicities (not counting cultural stuff), if they exist at all, are pretty negligible, which makes racial tolerance and stuff mostly a pretty simple position. If everyone is basically the same in the ways that matter, everyone deserving equal treatment follows pretty directly. In a fictional world where there actually are clear differences, how to deal with it becomes a more interesting question. If a species existed that were half way, or 1/4 of the way, or whatever else, between humans and chimps, where do they end up in the range of the rights humans have vs. the rights chimps have? When animals murder each other we may be a bit sad if we happen to see it, but practically nobody considers that an actual issue like such an extremely high murder rate in a group of people would be. Again, where do you draw the line? If angels are known to be morally incorruptible and are willing to run for office, do you still allow humans to take positions of power? Do you want a world where you can trust that everyone running it will never lie or try to cheat you, if that means they're all also something terribly different from you? If satyrs chafe under the restrictions of civilization, what sort of legal framework could be used to let them live the life they want while also making sure other species can rest safe knowing satyrs aren't going to just get away with killing them or stealing from them? Does this involve physically separate regions for them to live? Is it fair to refuse to employ a fairy (they're known to be mischevious and deceptive), if you know all the other employers are doing the same thing? What level of irreconcilable violent tendencies does it take before genocide becomes the least bad option, like we do with insect pests? Or do you keep those you can alive as prisoners of war, and if so, what then? Just keep the population going forever like animals in a zoo? How many futile attempts at integrating orcs into human society does it take before you give up? Or what if it very rarely does work, but in the vast majority of cases where it doesn't, they do a huge amount of harm in the process? How much anti-racism can you get anyway in a fictional world where one of the most important arguments against racial discrimination just clearly isn't true?

(I would like to emphasise, to try to avoid misunderstandings, that I'm not trying to say any of this is true in real life, where racial differences tend to be limited to stuff like lactose intolerance and what hairstyles you can do. It's about the hypothetical. If significant racial differences where real, what then?)

I have less ideas for divine right of kings. If the heavens say this person would be a great ruler, how much do you trust the heavens (both to know what they're talking about and to be aligned with your values)? How much of the problems dictatorship causes are due to the fact that the people most likely to become dictators are bad people, and how much is just an inherent effect of the system, that even the best ruler couldn't avoid? I still feel like there are opportunities to take this in interesting directions.

[magentaink18]

Hank Schrader VS Walter White

Walter E Kurtz ? Nah I’m talkin about Walter H White.

Fr though, I haven’t watched this analysis video so I don’t know what it details. But the parallels are there. I am drawing parallels from this. And I can elaborate but not right now because I can’t be bothered.

Edit: there’s a possibility that this dynamic/ antithesis in morality was what inspired the writing of the Breaking Bad characters. Because:

Hank is a cop with the DEA but is initially introduced as a horrible person - he’s not overly malicious or anything - he’s just obnoxious, cocky, and abuses his position of power to disrespect those smaller than him with no repercussions. And is just plain shitty to those he isn’t friends with oftentimes. However, he’s always referred to as a “good guy” fighting “bad guys”.

This very much reflects Colonel Kilgore’s position - he’s considered great because of his status but as an individual, is a real asshole. Both Hank’s and Bill’s (that’s the bastard’s name) inflated confidence roots from the belief that they’re invincible despite their dangerous occupation so they’ve forgotten their own mortality due to being privileged and powerful.

Since Breaking Bad is a series and Apocalypse Now is a movie, there’s more room for character development for Hank in which he has some humbling downfalls and comes out the other end significantly less shitty upon being reminded of his humanity.

Okay now on to my slightly weaker comparison: the two bald Walters who have a wife and a son who they want to make happy but just end up fucking up kinda sorta in different ways. By law/ legislation both our Walters are bad. They used to have squeaky clean records but now they have broken bad. (I suppose Kurtz doesn’t fully align with the phrase through since there are strong moral values behind all of his actions but still, he did start killing people on a whim so he did eventually (eyebrow wiggle) BREAK BAD. Also …. Both Walters have fatal illnesses neither of which end up being the death of them (Water Weight with cancer and Water Curbs with implied Malaria).

Okay on to their moral facets that make them the opposite to Hank and Bill: they’re perceived by law and societally as bad but as individuals initially, they are good people and hold values and beliefs for the greater good. Although they do have a descent into not doing much good, they initially set out to do good and still hold on to beliefs that revolve around the greater good.

I still haven’t watched the video but my guess is that they’re gonna do the whole status of good, actually shitty: status of bad, actually good thing. And use the whole “if that’s how Kilgore fought the war then I wondered what problem they had with Kurtz” line or however it goes. But hey I might be wrong - I’m sleep deprived and dehydrated and this essay was driven by nothing other than avid hyperfixtations on both pieces of media and way too many items of confectionery I acquired for Christmas being my only sustenance so uh

And of course, nobody is inherently good/bad - people are much more multifaceted than that. However, in works of fiction, characters need to have clearer defined behaviours and beliefs for the sake of the plot and entertainment.

[unohanadaydreams]

Don’t ask me why I made this, just know that I’m right and this is not just a Headcanon post but real. It’s not me having brain worms haha that would be insane. Honestly I just started thinking about how the hell arc introducing Seireitei approved social media would be such a mistake but god would it be fun to watch.

The Current Captains On Social Media

Shunsui Kyoraku - Failed erotic novel author turned romance/erotic novel reviewer. The fan base for his work is very small compared to his actual following. There is some divide in his followers—those who follow for his life updates and those who want to hear him talk at length about his latest read. Funnily enough, his quick, messy posts usually paired with scenery or a selfie are his most popular writing, often hailed as snippets of his poetic soul. Lots of people want to give him a hug.

Soi Fon - Adamant privacy and safety poster. Took to code and anti-virus technology well, much to Mayuri’s annoyance. Posts tips and tricks that read more like demands. Is known for her bitchy responses when followers @ her with their progress that are eaten up gratefully. Her advice is punctuated by posts admiring athletic women and these women make up the bulk of who she follows. She seems to admire runners and lifters the most. Her threatening posts when people hit on her too hard/with too many notes to back them up are turned into copypastas.

Rose Otoribashi - Has one of the larger followings thanks to his nostalgic visuals as well as his dedication to frequently posting new music. He has a personality that’s easily digestible when viewed through snippets. The fact that his passion is music and his job is news/editing also do him a lot of favors. He loves doing live streams and encourages his followers to perform for & with him.

Isane Kotetsu - Her growth being captured on social media not just as a captain but as a person has given her a fan base that feels extremely protective of her. She’s less known for what content she brings and more for her personality. Any creative content she posts is likely to start trending. Especially her ‘peaceful morning’ videos and reflective writing. She’s one of the more interactive posters, beloved for her encouraging responses.

Shinji Hirako - As a more private person, he doesn’t have much of a following and his most popular posts are candid moments posted by others. Lisa is a large reason people consider him endearing in anyway. Definitely the kind of person who is either considered cringe or cool with little in between. The kind of guy who asks what he should do with his hair and then goes with an option that wasn’t listed.

Byakuya Kuchiki - Has an extremely scheduled and curated presence on any site he’s on, but is nonetheless adored. He used to ask Renji and Akon for advice on how to handle some of the more online behavior (like being @ed by women who photoshop them as their date to events or being asked how many notes a date would cost) but stopped quickly. Turns out saying something is flattering leads to more of that behavior. Any selfie he posts is edited and reposted into oblivion until it’s thousands of people’s pfp.

Tetsuzaemon Iba - Despite him being one of the most well rounded captains personality wise, he gets put onto block lists the most for his dedication to concepts of manliness, which are easy concepts to feed to the social media outrage machine. Women’s Association vs Men’s Association is a popular meme where the former is something sensible and the latter is something ineffective/archaic. That being said, he’s also known as a ‘problematic fav’ and people will often post memes about abandoning their feminism for a few minutes to like his selfies and training videos.

Lisa Yadomaru - Another captain with a large love and hate following. Often picked apart for interacting with porn/hentai accounts, thirsting after women openly, and posting pictures alluding to her sexual escapades. Despite her account being regular food for the outrage machine, she doesn’t seem to care or pay attention to it and is forever horny on Main. She posts a lot of candid photos/videos of her friends. Recommends the best fucked up fiction.

Kensei Muguruma - Of course he does cooking videos, but what really does well are his cooking challenges. He forces his lieutenant, friends, and colleagues to compete with him on making a better dish on a time limit and often with other handicaps. Usually wins. His bloopers get a ton of mileage when he posts them. His merch is constantly sold out. People often dress up as him for Halloween/conventions, usually with foam or blow up arms/abs.

Toshiro Hitsugaya - Another captain with a huge following due to him approaching social media with his tireless work ethic. His ice sculptures are very popular and his pop-up galleries sell out in hours. Is actually a huge fan of ‘cozy’ games and is known for having beautiful towns/farms/ect that showcase his attention to detail. He does events in Minecraft sometimes, where he guides people through building large scale projects (and also feels like he’s making friends but that’s left entirely unsaid). A bit harsh, but beloved.

Kenpachi Zaraki - People question if it’s really his account because it’s so random at times, but he posts videos of him mowing down his subordinates during training so it has to be. The odd content includes engaging with easy recipes & activities for toddlers and increasingly complicated punk hairstyles that he really does try out. He also posts weekly, asking for people to volunteer and fight him. The human world especially loves this and he gets a lot of responses. He tries to set up times to fight them but Nanao threatens to delete his accounts and put him on suspension if he attempts to follow through. He posts a lot of post-battle pictures and humans gobble it up. “Just fought *insert ridiculous thing here*” is a huge meme.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi - He is constantly making new accounts and circumventing bans for posting links to his old lab work, that often involves heinous amounts of gore. Actually does have a following, often from those within his own division, those hoping to be in his division, or humans who see him as edgy and a little bit off his rocker, which they think is cool. He posts pictures of himself whenever he switches up his look. And posts Nemuri a lot with unhinged captains about how she’s going to outpace even the head captain and no one could make someone as special & smart as her. Just comes off as a really passionate dad. Plenty of people are convinced he’s a creepy pasta project ran by a dude with a daughter.

Rukia Kuchiki - Like Isane, she’s really loved for who she is rather than creative content. Even her attempts at being stern and ‘captain-like’ are fawned over. She has a line of children’s books, stickers, and notebooks with her cute drawings. Her most popular set was when her daughter contributed. The human world is convinced Renji is her house husband and her life is generally seen as all around ‘goals’. Her posts are riddled with mistakes and very sporadic; she’s posted accidental live streams while she did paperwork and they went viral. She posts tons of candids of her subordinates and family but they are usually blurry or actually videos.

[samsonet3]

Krakoa is eugenicist but not in the way you think

Marvel doesn’t understand Moira but I do. I’m here to tell you why Moira would help establish Krakoa if her goal from the beginning was to cure mutants.

Content note: this post discusses eugenics, genocide, reproductive issues, racism, ableism.

To begin, I want to draw your attention to a bit of specific terminology in the Marvel Universe: “mutant” vs “mutate.” While in our world a “mutant” is any individual with any kind of mutation, in the 616 a mutant is only a person whose mutation is caused by an x-gene. When people talk about “curing mutants,” they’re specifically talking about getting rid of individuals with that specific gene.

People have invented these kind of “cures” before. They focus on the individual: removing one person’s x-gene, or repressing it, or covering it. This is violence. The X-Men fight against this... or at least they did, before Krakoa.

But these aren’t the kind of cures Moira seems to have been thinking of. As we see in Inferno (2021) 4:

How is this cure meant to work? I’ve seen speculation that the Krakoan medicines were tampered with. This is possible, but I don’t think it’s what Moira is referring to here. Let me explain.

Moira’s cure is not meant for individual mutants. Moira’s cure is for the human race as a whole.

From House of X 2:

To Moira, the x-gene is not a simple variation in the human population. It is something “other,” something to be removed. 

From the narrator of that issue: "When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands either adaptation or dominance."

To which I would ask her: are mutants another species?

From an evolutionary standpoint, mutants and humans are one species.

This is an area where the mutant metaphor cannot be applied to any real-world marginalized identity. I’m a person of color. I have a chronic illness. I am obviously not a different species.

So I’m putting the metaphor aside for now, and focusing on the origin of species in the Marvel Universe.  Of course, Marvel evolution is science fiction; it’s not going to match exactly with the real world. However, Marvel evolution is inspired by real-world evolution. Moira is also noted as a geneticist, so I feel like it’s reasonable to assume she is familiar with evolutionary theory. I’m going to be quoting and linking to places because I’m not going too deeply into science in this post.

First: speciation. Nature.com: “new species form when individuals from diverging populations no longer recognize one another as potential mates, or opportunities for mating become limited by differences in habitat use or reproductive schedules.“

Second: gene frequency. Wikipedia defines it as “the relative frequency of an allele (variant of a gene) at a particular locus in a population, expressed as a fraction or percentage.”

Third: gene fixation and gene loss. Wikipedia again: fixation is the state of a gene being present in 100% of a population; loss is when it is present in 0% of the population.

In Moira’s Krakoa -- at the beginning of the Dawn of X, when entry was at its strictest -- only allowing mutants on the island meant that the x-gene was fixed in the Krakoan population.

Note that this doesn’t automatically mean that the x-gene is lost in the population of the rest of the world. Here’s one more term to explain why:

Fourth: the Hardy–Weinberg principle. Here’s the Wikipedia page. Basically: the frequency of a gene in a given population will remain constant unless something influences the population. Some of those influences: selective breeding; migration; mutation.

Remember how I showed you earlier that Moira thought of mutation as a cancer? Here’s what’s so difficult about treating cancer: it metastasizes. That is, it reappears in other parts of the body, sometimes without warning.

People have tried to depower mutants individually. They’ve tried to kill all the mutants -- they’re still trying to kill all the mutants. But even if all the known mutants in the Marvel Universe disappeared, there would still be mutants born the next day.

Non-mutant humans can still give birth to mutant children. 

From Inferno 4:

"Us” is not Moira and Destiny. It’s not even mutants as a whole. It’s the human population that the mutants were once a part of.

That is who she is attempting to cure: not the currently existing mutants, nor any mutant children they could potentially have. She is curing the human population of Earth by removing the x-gene. She is preventing their children from being born with an x-gene.

Alright, I promised you that I’d explain how Krakoa would further this goal. I’ve seen speculation that it’s meant to be a trap for mutants. I agree. A place where mutants -- especially those with visible mutations -- can live in safety? A place where their needs are provided for? Nobody can be blamed for wanting to live there permanently.

It seems most Krakoans are living there permanently. Note how big of a deal it was that Cyclops took the X-Men back to New York, for example. Or for a less positive light, look at Firestar. She is one of the few mutants who does not live on the island and says why: she wants to stay close to her human father. She’s treated as suspicious by mutants on Krakoa. While many mutants were formerly close to their human friends and family, such relationships are now scorned by Krakoans.

(I also want to note that some of the other mutants who were living off-island -- Beak and Angel -- were also staying with human parents. Said parents were then killed by other humans, allowing the mutants to move to Krakoa with no problems. I don’t blame Moira for that, of course. I just think it was an interesting choice from the writers.)

So: removing a population from a larger population. Encouraging the separation of those with an x-gene away from those without.

From Way of X 3:

Then there’s the focus on “making more mutants.” Moira didn’t have anything to do with that law (...that we know of). Kurt himself makes it clear that compulsory reproduction is not what the law should mean. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject, but because this post is already getting long, let’s just assume that everyone on Krakoa who gets pregnant wants to be pregnant and wants a baby.

Krakoan society looks down on humans. Human partners need permission to be on the island -- in fact, the only human partner we’ve seen in the Krakoan era is Northstar’s husband Kyle. Krakoa encourages sexual relationships on the island.

The result: babies with an x-gene being born to parents with x-genes. Parents who might have had children with non-x-gene humans instead having children with other mutants.

And in a few generations of mutants immigrating to Krakoa and staying there?

Nobody in the outside human population has an x-gene, nor is anyone a carrier of it. The gene is lost. Humanity is cured.

It’s genocide. It’s violence. It’s an evil that is difficult to illustrate, much less fight, and one even those who know about Moira don’t seem to be aware of.

Now.

How does this fit in with her post-X Deaths of Wolverine arc?

I don’t have a good answer for that. I’m just gonna blame that on Hickman’s departure and avoid thinking about this new Moira as much as possible. Thank you for reading through this!

[drazavonia]

Beyond the Memory

Nobodies, Replicas, Toys and Fictional Characters 

A Nobody is all that's leftover after the person's heart is consumed by it's darkness and transformed into a Heartless. 

A vessel filled with memories. 

Memories & A Mind of Their Own

Memories are the entirety of a person's character. Memories are the concepts of someone's life. You can't touch or necessarily manifest memories without a conduit such as writing, drawing, talking and action. 

However, in certain realms that allow the conceptual to become real, memories only need the vessel as the conduit to be actualized. 

In other words, Nobodies and Replicas who are just vessels with memories that shouldn't exist but somehow do outside the natural harmony of the realm of light are no different than humans except they can actualize their memories into powers and abilities.  

Dreams take form in Sleeping Worlds

Nonexistence takes form in between that which governs the worlds, Light and Darkness. 

Data takes form in the Datascape.

Memories encapsulate all of the above. So the concepts of memories are given form from all over, with the appropriate conduit.

Seeing is Believing

Memories and experiences, or just living ignites the birth or rebirth of hearts in Nobodies. 

In the case of toys, replicas and figments within the dream, acknowledging their existence, grants them existence. The toys move on their own thanks to Andy's imagination, Xion gains a face and heart thanks to Roxas and Axel, as well as the TWEWY characters being made whole by Joshua, Sora and Riku. 

Re:Birth of Another 

Xemnas & Org XIII

Using Kingdom Hearts made of the hearts of those fallen to darkness, to replace the regrown hearts of the Organization members. (Replace them with a piece of Xehanort/Ansem's heart)

M.O.M & The Light of the Past 

While Time-Traveling, the Master traversed to the Final World to find the hearts of those still holding on (Ephemer and Brain) and rebirth them through the Fictional characters inhabiting Quadratum (Yozora and Magia). 

(Ephemer and Brain might have been the first two of the Seven Crowns?)

The Foretellers, Strelitzia and Ventus were supposed to be a part of those reborn through Fictional characters, but I believe Luxu and Sora intercepted their future rebirth. I think the True Dandelion was Strelitzia's heart Luxu retrieved from the Final World combined with her data from Daybreak Town, sent to the future to take Ava's place in case she actually died unlike the other Foretellers. Luxu most likely did the same thing with the Foretellers (in the final secret report, Luxu states the Lost Masters will awaken).

Sora vs Yozora

The True King/Savior 

The Master wants to save everyone within the Realm of Light and the sacrifices/those lost to the darkness.

Yozora was told to save Sora.

Sora saved the Realm of Light three times and saved all of the guardians of light.

Through his Gazing Eye, the Master saw Sora was going to disappear and possibly end up in Unreality.

The Master had Yozora go to save Sora.

Because of how Yozora "saves" people, this would wind up in a battle between Sora and Yozora. 

The Master of Masters orchestrated the meeting between Sora and Yozora to decide who was going to be his Savior or the VERUM REX (True King).

By that proxy, this leads me to believe the ending where Sora is victorious is the true ending. Sora will be the Savior who helps the Master save all of those lost to darkness. I think this is backed up in the KH3 opening.

If the KH3 opening is anything to go off, Sora is somehow going to summon Kingdom Hearts (he did inherit the X-blade). However, he opens it in the Final World. The color is also the same as that of Xemnas' artificial Kingdom Hearts. I think the Master is going to somehow work with Sora to construct an artificial Kingdom Hearts using the hearts of those in the Final World. This is why the Master makes a Kingdom Hearts shape within the moon and also why Sora is shown summoning Kingdom Hearts in the Final World. It will act as both an aggregate for hearts and a gateway for Sora, his friends and The Master to traverse between the two sides of Reality.

[the-nysh]

Which female characters in one punch man are your favorite and why?

The selection is limited, but I've definitely noticed & appreciated the extra effort ONE's put into writing his female characters lately - both in adding more variety with his newer designs (including the wc) and working on fleshing out + humanizing the established ones he already has. All of that is a great plus. (Cause too often in fiction, female chars generally tend to fall flat when they're portrayed as distant or cookie-cutter 'idealized images' of what the -often male- writers perceive them to be, rather than allowing them to actually be relatable flawed people who have the same organic range of aspirations, interpersonal problems, and emotional depth as the males.) Ahem, so I'll admit that early on, none of opm's few women (when we literally only had 2) struck my fancy on what I find appealing/relatable in a character. But that has been steadily changing as ONE's acknowledged where he felt his writing's been lacking and has deliberately chosen to put more work & observation into developing them (ie ever since challenging himself to write Tome as the pov char in REIGEN, I've seen much stronger results even in opm), which I'm very grateful for!

So I'd say the one who's benefited the most from ONE's extra attention so far has been manga Tatsumaki. Whom I can like so much more now compared to her (cold, distant, antagonistic) wc counterpart. Mainly because we've been able to see the full context behind her motivations and what personally drives her feelings, allowing us to sympathize with her dilemma from her perspective. (My favorite panel sequence of injured Tatsu walking away from Fubuki is deliciously bittersweet capturing that sense of familial fondness and sad resignation. Much pain, much angst.) We can feel the extent of how much she takes upon herself (and know why she does so) as both a hero & sister to fiercely protect with a type of love & duty that is both simultaneously noble yet also harmful to herself & others. Like a double-edged sword. Oh how fascinatingly (and tragically) lovely. :') She also gains the Garou parallels in spades (for more flavor) and has been carrying the current arc hard with her specialized abilities. Demonstrating precisely why she's the awesome, active pinnacle of S Class without Blast. Very impressive. Her gremlin form is that extra entertaining cherry on top too. Overall, when it comes to one of opm’s most well-rounded, fully-realized female characters, who’s only gained more enjoyment & appreciation from me over time, I think manga Tatsumaki currently wins this.

...But this could still change! Because I’ve been very proud of wc Fubuki‘s growth already, that I’m still eagerly waiting to witness manga Fubuki gain her equivalent screentime to shine just like Tatsumaki has. (She’s getting very close now, perhaps once she confronts Psykos again.) So at the moment, I still prefer wc Fubuki a little more over her manga counterpart (also the way Murata draws/portrays her as his idealized woman often doesn’t speak/appeal to me when it borders on the unreal. Early Fubuki I also found unrelatable...and fyi even my mother disapproved of her early mindset too.) But it’s in the moments where Fubuki asserts herself vs her sister to grow into a stronger person/hero is what I'm most looking forward to see. Cause we’ve already begun to see shades of that as she improves & steps into her role as a caring -not domineering, and worthy, supportive leader:

That’a girl! :’) But speaking of more good girls, I very much like what we’ve seen from wc Suiko. Who, as one of ONE’s newest creations, probably feels the most ‘real’ to me as a female character in a naturally relatable way. Very good! I enjoy how she’s allowed to be ambitious, disciplined in her craft, prideful & spunky in attitude, yet also feels indignant when others don’t take her worth -compared to her brother- seriously (whoaa how many girls can relate to that), as she introduces a new type of martial arts we hadn’t seen before (drunken fist technique, so she has the potential to claim her fighting niche), and still understandably cries in frustration when she gets in over her head. :’) That, plus the way she still cares for her brother Suiryu, yet challenges & teases him with classic sibling banter is a delight. All this makes for a very refreshing package of a character already, which I can’t wait to see more of (heck, even Murata’s manga couldn’t wait to squeeze in an early cameo of her!)

Runner ups would probably be wc Webigaza and manga Mizuki, who again are great for bringing the extra variety to opm's heroine roster, but I'd love to see more content from them as well. (Which I'm guessing will be more imminent with Webigaza given her relevance tied to the cyborg plot.) Because the more ONE writes them (and of his female chars in general), the better they’ll get~

[rays-animorphs]

Book 10 afterthoughts

(More spoilers than usual.)

Dunno why I keep thinking I'll have something I want to say after I finish reading the book. Generally more thoughts come within an hour or so of finishing, or I'm just on to the next thing.

I've watched the Matrix movies recently, so I'm going to talk about that. Neo gets to the point where he can do anything. He can fly like Superman. He can stop bullets in mid-air. Most of the story is still taken up with fighting. Because that's the point, it's a story about cool fighting. I get that. It's fine. People like what they like. I'm about to play a game about a pandemics while we're in the middle of one, doesn't mean I want anyone I know (or anyone at all, for that matter) actually getting sick. People can like stories about fighting without it meaning anything in particular about their attitudes towards violence, their personal capacity for violence, or their political position on the hawk/dove spectrum. I personally tend to like action scenes less than most, and am more wholesale opposed to violence than most, but as far as I can tell that's just coincidence.

Anyways, if I had Neo-like superpowers, I wouldn't be using them to do gravity-defying kung fu.

I do think I would honestly prefer the morality of warfare to not come into my ridiculous goofy kids' alien invasion story. I mean, I like "is war a bad idea?" in general, and I think it works in Star Trek TOS when it comes up, because even though Starfleet is a military organization, they're not actually engaged in war for most of the series. (The original series, on TV. I realize Star Trek as a whole keeps going back to conventional good guys vs bad guys war stories.) Their mission is exploration, not fighting, so anti-war messages work. They're not being constantly contradicted by the text. But, "this is a story about fighting, because fighting is fun to read about"...that doesn't necessarily go well with discussions of the ethics of fighting. It would be like if a James Bond movie had a dialogue between Bond and whatever woman he's trying to seduce this time about internet privacy. It's messing with different levels of engaging with the topic, swirling them together. In a way that leave both levels -- the fun escapism level and the serious ideas level -- worse for the blending.

It's kind of like how Kushiel's Dart gives the protagonist an in-universe safeword, but then she keeps refraining from using it as a point of pride, like...ok, 5 points for introducing the concept, -10 points for the "real subs/masochists/whatever don't use safewords" BS. If you're going to write a non-con fantasy, you can just write the fantasy, sometimes nods to reality make it worse. I keep going back to this because I still haven't figured out what exactly my issue is, how best to phrase/understand it, and my brain is set up in a way such that it doesn't want to let go until I understand it. I do not like that the story is set up so that the Chee are basically written out of the story once Erek decides he's unwilling to kill. I do not like that the non-human Controllers are treated like faceless mooks whose deaths are categorically different from human deaths, and that this largely goes unchallenged. I don't like the overall message of "war is terrible and requires incredible sacrifice and is also good and necessary" -- I'm not thrilled with war stories in general, but I'm really not thrilled with "yes, war is horrible, and this fictional war is going to have horrors and PTSD just like real life war, and it is still necessary." In stories that straight-up glorify war, like the Narnia Chronicles and Lord of the Rings, it's fairytale-like, I can suspend disbelief and go "this is fiction, people get that fiction isn't reality", but going closer to reality (while still writing the war as absolutely necessary) draws it into this uncanny valley that is a lot more unpleasant for me that a more, you know, Redwall-like or Three Musketeers-like story would be. And I can't let go that this is a book set in America published by an American author not long before the Iraq War and using the exact same rhetoric about fighting the Yeerks that Bush used to justify the Iraq war. It's about freedom, the enemy hates our freedom, they can't be reasoned with they just hate us, they have powerful weapons, they want to destroy who we are. We're fighting for our freedom, for their freedom, for our survival. Anyways: book 10 was one of the more serious/dark ones, it was great for showing Marco's thing where this stuff really genuinely terrifies him but he does it anyways, the android thing was cool, we got alien trees which was amazing, we got a sense that the Animorphs universe is truly vast. Plus, bats. So, good story, again, me going off about the pacifism stuff doesn't mean I didn't like it, it just means I have opinions. Also, the thing where Erek is never going to forget is genuinely horrifying.