#for myself or other parts that might not understand / remember the context

[system-of-a-feather]

Today I was invited to the table of the game of life. Everyone here is playing their cards, some are playing Magic, others Pokemon, some Yugioh, some playing cards, and even one guy over there has been playing Baseball cards I think, but as absurd as this game looks, they all appear to be building to a greater image.

The call me to the table to add to the game.

I walk up and pull out my deck of one, singular Skip Uno card. I sit down and shout Uno and play my Skip Uno card. I have won.

The table looks at me - paused in bafflement; a silent stare of bewilderment

They tell me that is not how this game of life works. We each create combos, chains, strategies and skills and build this massive play to form a much greater game.

They tell me that there isn't any winning in this game of life; they tell me that I need to bring more cards to the table, draw some more and join in on creating chained webs and supportive suggestions.

I tell them this is all that I have, there is nothing more to how my plays work other than this singular Skip Uno Card. I play Uno, the only function of Uno is to remove your cards. There is a limited amount of chain and skillful strategy that can be played in the traditional game of Uno; even less when your entire deck is empty and all you have is a singular card.

We have an issue. My game doesn't work at this table. We are incompatible, my deck simply doesn't work with the nature of this collaborative game.

I turn to the ref, solutions my good man. I can't fix my deck, I can't generate new cards. I can't make a play other than Skip Uno, what can anyone ask of me.

The ref checks the book, he checks the rules; he looks up and with a quizzical suggestion, asks if I could ask for someone else's cards

I say no, I don't have a card for that, all I have is a single Skip Uno Card. I do not have a Draw 4 or Draw 2. I only have Skip Uno.

He looks at me. He turns to the other players. He whispers in their ears as they chatter among one another. They each pull from their decks, donating one card each and collecting them into a stack.

They hand me the deck. In it, a Preordain, a holographic Charizard, a single piece of Exodia, a four of spades, and Babe Ruth. These cards now sit around my single Skip Uno card.

I turn to the ref, raising an eyebrow at this strange deck built before me; uncertain if this solution would work, if these cards could even possibly be played at this table.

Even so, new options have been placed in my hand. The bizarre game resumes. I play the four of spades.

The turn roles by.

[mr-ribbit]

gonna rant again bc im seeing a lot of trans women on my dash having to carry the heavy lifting to argue for their basic respect and a lot of other queer people who want to ??? get mad about that apparently. for the record as usual: im tme, im not speaking for anyone besides myself and my perspectives, but I am trying to reach out to fellow tme people to level with y'all from inside the house.

i thought we all got past the 'calling people gendered terms when theyve asked you to stop' thing in like. 2012. i swear we were allllll on board with not calling women dude anymore, nerfing sir and ma'am, neutralizing collective terms for groups, and all of that was like, during the onceler era. that's how we got off-putting shit like folx into the mix - remember???? why are we here again.

to those who I've seen claiming that they REALLY genuinely don't want to offend anyone, and that theyre trying to understand the dude thing, and they don't want to be seen as transmisogynistic when they aren't: ok. let's talk about it. step one, stop sending that really loaded anon to a trans woman you don't know, and close that in-group hatepost with 100 replies from people name-dropping trans bloggers they don't like. try to open your mind and assume for the duration of this post that I am not cynically trying manipulate thousands of tumblr users into making Bro the next big swear word, but a fellow queer human being who thinks you're all being pretty intentionally obtuse about an upsetting trend in our community

to be clear: this post is about the issue of trans women being called bro, dude, man, etc., particularly in recent tumblr discourse about transmisogyny, and the backlash they face if they get upset about it. this is also maybe moreso about the shitty ass excuses I see tme people make for why they supposedly can't stop doing this.

so let's go through some of the things I've been seeing people say they don't understand, supposedly in earnest, about this issue

"I DIDNT USE DUDE AS A MASCULINE TERM. I CALL EVERYONE BRO. MAN IS A GENDER NEUTRAL TERM"

I'm not actually going to exhaust my list of reasons why dude/bro/man are not strictly neutral, but you should be pretty aware that all words have context. Dude might be seen as neutral in many contexts, sure, but 'woman who is frequently called a man by others' is a situation where the context adds extra meaning to your words, just like calling someone "sweetie" might be neutral in some cases, but if you've got the context of knowing that's your coworker who's half your age, it's a bit less neutral. If you're not capable of reading that context and being tasteful about when you say dude, then you need to at least be ready to respond gracefully when someone asks you to stop. This is the part I'd rather focus on.

"BUT I DIDNT MEAN IT THAT WAY. IM NOT TRANSPHOBIC"

I think you should consider broadening your perspective *beyond* your intention behind the word. people may already understand that you meant the word neutrally and therefore didn't have transmisogynistic intent, but that's not really the entire scope of what people are saying. if that's your only concern, you're just trying to clear your record, not actually listen to what they're saying.

there are lots of words people don't enjoy being called, and in most cases, when they say 'pls don't call me that', people respect that and move on. even if the word isn't a slur, if it hurts someone's feelings, we all as a society have agreed that it's pretty shitty to keep calling them that. if your friend asked you not to call them 'buddy' anymore because their dead grandparent called them that, or something equivalently personal, you'd probably respect that instead of telling them 'but I call everyone buddy!!' right? even if you didn't really understand why it bothered them so much?

there is a prominent tendency for trans women to be denied this privilege, and when they ask not to be called dude or bro, people don't seem to respect this request as much as they would in other situations. when I accidentally use a gendered word and someone tells me they don't like it, I try to respond with something like "my bad, I didn't mean it as misgendering but I can see you were still bothered by it, so I'll try not to keep saying it. sorry!" and most people are willing to accept that. when trans women ask people this favor, a lot of people get VERY defensive, and treat the request as inane or unfair, instead of just apologizing and moving on. this is why people are upset when this happens, and it's why people are calling your actions transmisogynistic

also like you might not be doing this, but a lot of people DO use dude and bro in an intentionally gendered way to make trans women uncomfortable. it's a power play bigots use to talk down to them or otherwise maliciously harass them. do you know what arguments they use to defend that behavior when called out on it? 'oh I call everyone that' 'dude is gender neutral calm down' 'dont overreact its just a word'. by acting like this, youre all just giving credence to those same arguments.

"WELL THEY SHOULDNT GET SO MAD AT ME WHEN I DIDNT MEAN ANY HARM"

they can get as mad as they want!! also, are you sure they're 'mad'? or are they just expressing their feelings about a negative topic to you, and it makes you feel bad, so you have to make them out to be unreasonably emotional? how do you think they should have phrased 'dont call me that' to better spare *your* feelings?

also like, in most cases, these women do not knowww you. if your main response to someone saying you disrespected them is to say "I didnt mean it that way, I meant it in a friendly neutral way", well that's NOT YOUR FRIEND! she has no idea what your opinions are or what you think of her!!! she has no reason to assume you only upset her in a friendly way and not a bad unfriendly way! but she did get upset, and she did the one thing she can do which is *tell you what upset her* and your response is to say "well actually you shouldn't be upset at all"??????

and another thing:

it's not just the issue of using the word 'dude', it's because you're coming off extremely dismissive of women who have asked you to stop doing something that harms them, and because your argument is basically that they just shouldn't be so bothered by it. or that they're stupid, irrational, or otherwise crazy for telling you that it bothered them at all, just because you Technically used a gender neutral word according to Your Rules. be honest, does that seem fair? If people were calling you something that bothered you enough to ask them to stop, and they responded like this, how would it make you feel?

focusing solely on your intent and what the words mean when you use them is the same thing as saying "just get over it". no woman should need to Prove to you that 'dude' is gendered for you to care about what she's saying. the fact that you're asking people to do that sucks and makes you look bad, which is why people are arguing with you and calling you a misogynist.

especially those of you who are only doing this with trans women who are actively arguing with. you're wielding misgendering as a cudgel and we can all see it, grow up please.

[dunmeshistash]

G'day, I hope you are doing well.

Ever since I finished the story of Dungeon Meshi (all supplementary material included) I've been writing down bullet points on characters in addition to in-depth synopses as a way to tidy up my rather busy mind. To this end I've also greatly enjoyed reading other folks' interpretations of particular characters, as it gives me further insight into aspects of that character I may have glossed over.

However, there's one character I'm struggling to write a cohesive synopsis about, that being none other than 'miss enigma' herself, Falin Touden. I get that her whole shtick is that she's kind of a mystery, but I find myself drawing a lot of blanks when it comes to her as a character, and while I have nailed down some important bullet points, there are a lot of different interpretations on her, all of which starkly contrast one another. Though perhaps it's just the wording. Hard to say.

It could very well be that I'm being too dense i.e. perceiving "Falin is willing to risk killing others to save her friends." and "Falin, in the heat of the moment, when faced with certain death, was willing to face the prospect of harming potential passersby in a final Hail Mary to get her friends to safety." as entirely different observations. I have a hard time with those kinds of things.

With this being a hub for all sorts of observations, interpretations and cool trivia, I was wondering if you'd perhaps be willing to share how you yourself perceive Falin as a character, so I can compare notes and perhaps gain a more proper understanding of her as a character as a result. I know this question is very broad and kind of vague, but if you could spare the time I'd be most grateful.

Other than that, I wish you an excellent day.

Hello!!! I love Falin!!!!!

She *is* a mystery, we mostly know Falin through the perception other characters have of her instead of a direct deep look onto who she is, which I find very interesting. I think the best post I've seen about her (which as usual I can't remember where edit: someone linked it thank uu) I think called her perceived altruism/love "selfish" and I've been thinking about that ever since.

In that sense the way she cares so much about the comfort of people around her might be a way to keep *her own* comfort because she doesn't want to see other people suffer.

This girly died and came back to life from bones and the first thoughts she has is that she caused trouble for her loved ones

She probably has felt this way since she was a child, "because of her" that her family was torn apart "because of her" that Laios left, her mom was sick, her father had to send her away. (wasn't actually her fault but she might think it is)

I imagine ever since then Falin has done her best to not cause trouble and to make the people she loves happy, everything we know about her and the things she was doing was always for the people she loved, that's why I enjoy the post canon comic where Toshiro asks her hand in marriage again so much. The first time she considers accepting just because "might as well" while for the second time she finally wants to live for herself.

I think Falin herself has lost who she "really is" by trying to accommodate everyone around her and that's probably part of why we ourselves don't really know her, so much so that the most cynical character is uncomfortable around her (probably cause he notices Falin is "hiding" something)

I think Falin is quite the melancholic character to be honest, someone who has lost herself in self sacrifice and who is only now learning how to live for herself doing what she wants.

Both the teleportation scene and the bit about healing show "cracks" in the selfless front she puts out tbh. By context I don't think what she did was only due to "desperation of the moment" she says out loud "Even if I end up hurting others I want you and my brother to live on". She weighted out how much suffering she might cause and decided she wanted to save them anyway, and I'm sure in that calculation she knew that they would suffer because of her sacrifice too.

Falin is saving them for herself, I'm not great with words so this is all over the place and maybe sounds a little negative about Falin but the thing is, you cannot live your life for other people, you can't sacrifice yourself for other people's happiness, you shouldn't erase your own presence so others are happier and I think Falin is starting to learn that by the end.

I'd probably keep rambling without getting anywhere and missing a lot of more meaningful moments but I'll stop here, if anyone has recs for Falin analysis please share!

[ninyard]

please can you explain what kevins part of the deal wth andrew is because ive never really understood it and i feel like you probably get it

Okay. So. (tw; brief sh/suicide mention)

My understanding of Kevin and Andrew’s deal in the best way i can possibly explain it and HOPEFULLY i saw what i mean and it makes sense:

TLDR: Kevin promised to give him purpose, and Andrew’s waiting to see if that’s even possible.

There’s this part in TRK where Kevin tells Neil about their deal -

I’ve seen a few posts about Andrew’s mental health recently - about how Andrew wanted to recover, how he wanted to survive.

I think it’s hard to imagine Kevin and Andrew’s relationship sometimes because we see so little of it aside from Kevin keeping his pills, but there’s this;

I think it was Andrew who told him this. Andrew told Kevin that without his drugs he was destructive and joyless, in whatever context it was mentioned in. He told Kevin he had no ambition for life. (or because Neil says he tried to “remember her exact words” he talked to her? Read the files? But what are the chances of that?) I like to think that early on before they’d made their deal, Kevin asked him about his meds and Andrew told him. I think he’s quoting Andrew, who quoted his counsellor.

We know Andrew was struggling with self-harm. I know when Neil described Andrew’s scars as “up and down” his arm, it most likely means in a literal sense - from the top to the bottom of his forearm, but coupled with this;

I wonder if Andrew’s depression led him to have a closer relationship with suicide than we think. He had 12 psychiatrists before Bee. What are the chances that all of them are from after Cass? (ie Andrew’s mental health journey started before her)

STICK WITH ME HERE.

Regardless of who told him what, I think a part of Kevin saw that Andrew having no purpose was dangerous. I think Andrew himself worried that without his meds he’d fall back into this rabbit hole of having nothing to live for, having no purpose, having no point to continue living. And Andrew wanted to survive. Any excuse to live was worth it. Even if he didn’t believe in it himself, even if he saw it was pointless - leaving us with:

Going back to that first quote “he’s waiting to see if I can keep it.” If it’s even possible. It’s like finding tiny reasons to stay alive when you’re suicidal - I can’t kill myself because my favourite band might release new music. I can’t kill myself because my favourite tv show was cancelled, but there’s a chance it might come back. I’ll never hear my favourite person laugh again, I’ll never see the sunset again, there a chance that I’ll miss being an uncle, or I might miss my brothers wedding, or I might miss the invention of something life changing. My favourite band that broke up might get back together again - it’s unlikely, but I have to stay alive just in case.

Exy might be my purpose, and even if I don’t believe it, I still need something to live for.

So Kevin gave him something to live for. He believes in him.

Kevin was the first person to see any worth in Andrew - maybe since Cass, maybe ever - and Andrew knew that.

So Andrew gave Kevin his game; even if he won’t play with Kevin because he thinks it’s funny or whatever.

When Kevin came to PSU, he needed a reason to stay, something that would make transferring to the team worth it. And he knew Andrew was worth it. He knew how Andrew could play, how he should be court. Sure, David was there, but Kevin stayed because of Andrew. Andrew offered him protection, and then gave Kevin a reason to believe in the foxes. Every other player might’ve been dog shit and not worth a second of Kevin’s time, not worth his talent, not worth investing in.

But Andrew was.

Andrew could be court.

If Andrew promised Kevin he would allow him to give him purpose in Exy, then that gave Kevin reason to stay. Does that make sense? Kevin wouldn’t have stayed infthe Foxes were actually the worst team in the league. But with Andrew there, they weren’t, and that was reason enough to stay.

Kevin sees Andrew’s worth - he sees what he can do to keep Andrew going, so when Kevin says “he’s waiting to see if I can keep it,” I think it’s Andrew waiting to see if he’s right. Can he actually give me a career out of this? A life out of this? Maybe it’s a lack of self worth on Andrew’s part. He clearly doesn’t care about how good he is. But does he know? Does he even believe it?

So he’s waiting for Kevin to keep his promise. To prove that he’s good enough. To prove that Exy can realistically actually be his purpose.

But Andrew both believes and doesn’t believe that that’ll ever happen. He’s a walking contradiction. On the one hand he says out loud, “im waiting for Kevin to give up,” but I don’t think he means: im fucking with him and don’t believe him. I think he means: im waiting for him to finally see in me what I see in me, which is somebody who isn’t worth it. It comes from a place of self doubt/lack of self worth. It comes from a place of not believing he actually has anything to live for. It comes from that self destructive instinct that he has.

Andrew wants to survive, but he doesn’t believe that he can.

Andrew’s deal with Kevin: I’ll keep you safe and give you a reason to stay*

Kevin’s deal with Andrew: I’ll give you purpose and something to live for*

*but neither of these things can exist without the other. Kevin won’t stay if Andrew doesn’t see that he’s good enough for Exy to be his purpose, if he doesn’t let Kevin prove he was right by believing in him. If he doesn’t, then Kevin can’t give him something to live for.

Kevin promised to give him purpose, and Andrew’s waiting to see if that’s even possible.

Does uh. That make sense?

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

10 Jikook Fanfictions Part 1

I said I'd make a list before the end of the year and I kept my promise. Now, it's difficult to choose, especially when I have more than 300 bookmarks and unfortunately I also started doing that some year and a half ago. Safe to say, there's probably plenty of good fics I read that are now lost. Anyway, enough with the boring chit chat, here's 10 random jikook fics in no particular order and most likely, several other parts will follow, probably next year 😉

1. Dead in the Water

It's been a couple of years since I read this and honestly, I barely remember much, but what I do know it's that it had an impact on me. Usually fics that have death as a central theme end up resonating with me, but perhaps it's because I've always been attracted to more darker fiction. This one is gritty and there's a lot of pain and I must have cried a lot (those tend to stick in my head)

2. we're holding hands beneath the silver screen

I think this story is taking place in the 90s (you'll see that a lot of the fics I recommend are taking place in the past). I think I ended up reading everything ChimneyCricket wrote, but this one remained a favorite. Coming of age during a summer in Jeju in the 90s. Apart from the theme, it's the writing that made me stick with it.

I'm not the biggest fan of young adult stories. Or better yet, it's not something that I'd go to as a preference. When I do, it's more of an indulgence and thankfully, I found some writers (like this one) who can do a really good job with the genre.

3. Stockwell

Another writer that I've become a big fan of after reading one fic of theirs. And I think it might have been Stockwell that did it for me. I like that it's fanfiction with adult themes for an adult audience. And I also resonate with a lot of the cultural references and themes. I will also admit that this fic leaning into the enemies to lovers trope was a selling point because I'm a sucker for it. I can't help myself.

4. Burn for You

This is a complete self indulgence for me and I embrace it. Just like watching Bridgerton is a guilty pleasure for which I don't actually feel guilty (and the inspo for this fic). This story has everything and I must say the combination of lust, fear of revealing feelings, rumors, proper behavior and hidden romance is a lethal combination!

5. Light of a century

I might have recommended this story before, but it being inspired by Up on Poppy Hill is not just due to the plot, but the writing is able to evoke that studio Ghibli mood. This fic is to be read on a hot weekend afternoon.

6. Map of the Soul

This might be one of the most complex fanfictions I read due to the amount of research needed, but also in the depiction of political contexts and identity politics. Most of all, I like it because as much as relationships are a vital part of the story, there is an entire world surrounding the main characters. Events and other people that have also room to develop and not just remain props that advance the story.

7. Proceed with Caution

I don't know what snatchim did with this fic, but it's the only one I ever reread multiple times and I'll probably do it again in the future. I don't even reread books from my library, let alone fanfics. But Proceed with Caution did it for me. Perhaps it's because of the process of Jungkook inevitably falling for Jimin and even though it's a bad thing considering the context, it's so good. Maybe it's the image of Jimin with a bellybutton ring or maybe because the picture of hot Californian days in the 70s is so vivid, it feels like a nostalgic Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

8. Dishwater World They Said Was Lemonade

The description does not do this story justice because it's so much more than that. It's a canon compliant thriller with really complicated and complex characters and once again, a story meant for adults who understand that it's fiction. Unfortunately, judging by the comment section, a lot of people cannot distinguish betweem real people and characters. For those of you who might be fans of Korean thrillers, this story might be the one for you. It's also one of my favorite jikook fics as well.

9. souvlaki

Need I say more, considering the description? This is a self indulgence as well, but of a different kind. If I happily read tropey fics, I also like the ones that can sound like a uni course. Set during the 1997 FMI crisis in SK, any reader will get familiar with a socioeconomic and political perspective of that time through the eyes of the main characters. If you're only looking for romance, this one is not for you.

10. you wouldn't remember

I think littleflumes might be currently my favorite writer of canon compliant jikook. I think the author really captured their dynamic in its essence and the room left for fiction perfectly fills in the holes left in the last 2 years and up until the present. But what did it for me, not only with this story, but the others in the series as well, is that it's concentrated almost entirely on the two main characters, almost living in a bubble of their own in which their relationship can be explored.

[olderthannetfic]

I hate to revive DNI discourse when it just ended on this blog but I often don’t think it’s as deep as people make it out to be and there’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, ~valid~ reasons someone may have a DNI. Like there’s absolutely contexts of “Kink Blogs DNI” disclaimers having an anti, swerf, etc undertone but sometimes I get it — for example I follow a couple of disability activists who post A LOT about incontinence, needing a caregiver, ETC who have stuff like “ABDL/DDLG/Devotee Blogs DNI.” Oftentimes that is not an indicator on their moral stance of those kinks, but rather them just being like “hey this is an activism-based journal where I post about incredibly personal things in regards to my own life, and while anyone has the right to read or reblog from me, if you’re clearly getting off to my medical needs or even if I get the vague impression you are, you WILL be blocked.”

Obviously that is an incredibly extreme and personal example, but I don’t think having a DNI boundary in your bio is ALWAYS a morality/discourse stance. On a much lighter note, I’m pretty active on Kpop Twitter, and there’s a lot of “RPF DNI” accounts there, and I think that’s more of a “I just want to post about my favorite band without shippers quote retweeting/replying to make it about their ship, and if you do so, I’ll block you. They’ve made public statements against these ships or about their real relationships and I am uncomfortable with people trying to dispute that.”

Oh yes there’s absolutely antis who hate RPF communities and all they stand for. But there’s also people who just straight up don’t want that on their account.

And like. As someone casually involved with RPF (i gossip about potential relationships with close friends and will reblog joke posts about it and will read it, but I’m not a writer for it and I’m definitely not someone who actually tries to speculate just how heavy the “fiction” part of an RPF ship might be), whether or not I choose to follow a person with such DNI depends on context. I keep my RPF ships/opinions off my main account, and even if I DO see a post that I would otherwise interpret as possibly shippy, I just won’t bring it up on said person’s posts, you know?

Damn this made me remember I have a DNI myself on one my accounts, 🤣 I have a minors DNI on one of my sideblogs. But I know I can’t prevent minors from seeing my posts or lying about their age or reblogging to a private sideblog or doing anything else that would go unnoticed. But once I do notice you interacting, if you’re clearly underage I’ll block you, just cuz I don’t feel comfortable with minors following my smutty fanart account even if I know minors look at smutty fanart, as someone who did look at smutty fanart as a minor. . .🎶Maybe I’m the problem it’s me. 🎶

--

No.

It's a stupid phrasing and no amount of validity in the criteria will make it less stupid.

No one here thinks they're always deep and meaningful. What we all say every time this comes up is that it's bad to conflate "I will block you if..." and "It is your job to research my boundaries ahead of time".

I'm not interested in people crying about how they like using an inaccurate term and everyone is supposed to understand what they mean. In practice, many people do mean that it's other people's job to enforce their boundaries for them. Validating this garbage terminology just encourages them.

It's a stupid, shitty term and we should move away from it.

[shinowadh]

Welcome once again star sailors,..............

First of all, with immense regret I apologise for not delving further into the following panels. This was going to be perhaps the most important post of the entire series (up till the end of Giyuu Gaiden). Sorry for the inconvenience, as I know myself the pain of not reading analysis series in order.

Now not leaving the task on to-do, let's move on, shall we?

I once again ask you to look at this panel:

(If you have not read the prequel part of this series, I strongly suggest doing that. Context will be needed in order to understand the further clues.)

As you remember, in the last episode of this series, I discussed Shinobu's intent with her quote on the top of the page. We discussed the sarcasm and the meaning behind it.

But now we are focusing on Giyuu. First of all, I would like to make the following statements.

This novella is set after the kamado massacre.

Giyuu is feeling guilt about letting Nezuko live (for reference, check the the second part of the Giyuu Gaiden novel)

Giyuu downplays himself, considering himself to be lower than anyone else.

Shinobu directly just made statement to her judgement on demons

Now.......I wonder how this all adds up.

Giyuu is feeling guilt for what he did. Or I would much rather say, what he chose to do. He most likely feels that another hashira would have made a better decision.

And now Shinobu directly states her reaction. This isn't a simple coincidence. The author is deliberately trying to show us that Giyuu's decision was something that Shinobu- and maybe any other hashira- would not have chosen.

Giyuu's reaction tells us about how he feels this guilt. When he realises what Shinobu would have done if she was in his place, he immediately starts thinking about his decsion.

It shows the most important part of the manga: What sets Giyuu apart from the other Hashiras. While I admit I analyse this as the 'Giyuu and Shinobu analysis series', this is the Giyuu Gaiden. This about Giyuu.

But this single page tells us more about Shinobu's reason to be here. Why wasn't someone like Sanemi placed in here? Yes, I know I am elaborating a single page, but the treasure it holds is far too vast to even be covered in this post.

So if you are a keen Shinobu fan like me, you might want to read my next blog post (yet too be released).

And so, this was it ladies and gentlemen and any other readers. I hope to venture deeper into Shinobu's position in this manga in the next post with you in the next post. Till then, don't forget to give up. Stay strong. We don't fight demons, but let's still commit to our responsibilities.

Let's make their sacrifices worth.

Yours Truly,

Shinowadh

[fleet-of-fiction]

My Truth

Allow me to introduce myself. Hi...

My name is Lucie. You might remember me from my old blog, lightmylove-gvf. It started out as a really fun, wholesome space. Full of love and laughter. I shared pictures and gif sets and works of fiction. Made so many wonderful connections with many different people. It really was a wonderful place to be. Until it wasn't. And although I've tried my best to step away from certain controversies, it seems that people still have an issue with me and still have my name in their mouth. So I'd like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. Maybe move past some untruths and you can all make informed decisions on whether you'd like to continue following me here on my current blog. Which is also a place of peace and love, I might add. And always has been.

Anyway, read on if you'd like. And if not, that's ok too.

I think it's fair to say that I've always been one of the more "controversial" writers around here. I have never shied away from difficult storytelling, and I never will. But what started out as a completely separate issue quickly snowballed into what could only be described as a personal vendetta.

I'm happy to discuss anything within my writing that might be of issue to a reader. A particular blog took offence to a scene I had written in a chapter of my fic, Backstage. I happened to disagree with this blog, and I tried my best to let them know whilst I understood their stance I did not agree with their point of view. I took this opinion to a discord server I was part of along with several other blogs here to see if they could shed more light on the issue.

The scene in question involved a fictionalised version of Josh and the reader in bed. They had gone to bed together with the full narrative of the reader known. How she was in love with him and wanted nothing more than to make love with him. They had been growing close. And Josh began to touch reader as they slept side by side. We get an insight into the readers thoughts during this moment, and they are very much with consent and enjoying the experience. It's meant to be a nod to what is to come. That their bodies are in tune with each other, even if their words are yet to speak of it. I think a lot of experiences in life play out like that. Where we don't always know what to say, but find ourselves in situations where our bodies can do the talking. Anyway, I digress...

There was a lot of opinions flying around in the server. Some were in favour of my opinion, others opposed it and were in favour of the anon who had sent me alot of hateful messages regarding their view that this scene was nothing more than sexual harassment. I explained in the server that I myself had been the victim of sexual assault/harassment. That I knew what it felt like to get into bed with someone I thought that I could trust only to have them break that trust in the most heinous way. I tried to explain that I didn't think this particular scene was that.

One sentence that I said was screenshotted and shared around with absolutely zero context to it and nothing of the rest of the conversation added to the screenshot. Just one sentence that I'd said which pertained to saying that I agreed that people should be able to get in bed with others and have full rights to their own bodies. I was AGREEING with that. It's there in black and white. But the narrative was skewed by people who didn't want to understand me. I tried to explain about how my personal experiences often lied within power imbalances when it came to things like S/H. But in the end, they gave me no chance to explain myself properly. They didn't want to. They'd seen and heard enough and made up their mind.

But it didn't stop there. People who I thought were my friends blocked me. Told me I was disgusting. Told me I was playing the victim. Because I didn't issue a grovelling apology. But how could I? I wasn't sorry. I hadn't done anything wrong. I'd poured my heart out to them about my trauma and abuse and how in my own experience I didn't view it as the same as what I'd written. I'd put trigger warnings. I'd made sure people had the right to information before proceeding!

I had blogs who had never interacted with me block me. Call me disgusting. Tell me fuck myself. I had anons telling me to kill myself. Anons telling me that I was a rapist and...for some reason...a peadophile sympathiser? I didn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that. I literally wrote two consenting adults touching each other in a bed they'd both gotten into...consentingly.... with very obvious (although unspoken at that point) feelings for each other. But now, that wasn't the issue. The issue was my own personal feelings on sexual harassment.

I'm the first to admit that I am perhaps not an easily digestable person to some. But I know that I am kind. I know that I have spent hours proof reading and editing fics for other writers on here because they asked for my help. I've supported people though personal issues, and I've championed the work of other writers because I truly believed that this space was a wonderful space for creativity. I still do, to some degree. I am not perfect, and I know that sometimes I can be a little head strong when it comes to protecting people's rights to free speech. I understand that I'm not palatable as a person to people who don't agree that the freedom to write should come with the freedom to write anything.

To those of you who never ever spoke to me and are still sharing things about me with the hash tag #fuck you lucie.... to you I say why have you jumped on that bandwagon? You do not know me. You know only what you've heard from people who were intent on pushing a narrative that was their own. Not mine. You don't know that these people were once my friends. And they shared my work and enjoyed it as I enjoyed theirs. They told me things about themselves and I was happy to know them. These people who then decided I was a terrible human being. Based on one thing I said that was taken completely out of context. It's almost as if they have shared it so many times now with their own backstory that it's a canon truth. I'm the worst human to ever walk the earth. Forget about all the good things I did for you. I'm scum.

If you're still reading this, you're probably thinking boo hoo what a victim complex. Maybe you're right. Maybe I do have a victim complex. Like everyone else here I have mental health problems and I'm on the spectrum. I have trauma. As part of my adhd I have rejection sensitivity which means when I'm cornered I tend to fight back with justifications as to why I behaved the way I did. I guess that's what I'm doing now. Trying to explain myself. Again. Although what good it'll do, I dont know. And I think right now, it no longer matters.

And yet I still see that I'm being talked about. I'm still getting accused of sending anons to other blogs when I was literally just existing here in my peaceful little corner, everyone who had ever taken issue with me blocked or unfollowed. I didn't know what was going on over there, I was trying to just enjoy reading and writing. My anxiety could never cope with sending a hateful anon, I know there's ways of finding out where they come from and revealing the blogs who send them and it's like that story we're all told about peeing in the pool and turning the water a different colour. I don't fuck with that shit.

If, for any particular reason, I've ever hurt anyone here to them I do issue a heartfelt apology because it has never been and never will be my intention. I said some awful things in the heat of the moment when I was receiving alot of hate and death threats regarding the AI edit a friend of mine made with audio from one of my fics. I was under so much pressure. I wanted it all to just stop. I just wanted everyone to be able to enjoy whatever made them happy. I am sorry for the things I said during that time. Im a human being. I am flawed. However..

I do not believe that people lose their rights to their body the minute they climb into bed with someone. And that's precisely what I say in the infamous screenshot. I just hope for anyone who has seen it that they now understand that it was said with love and understanding and support. I would never disregard anyones trauma or triggers. Never. And that is why I believe in giving people all the information they require before consuming media and art.

With all this said, I sincerely hope that it's clear that all I want to do is write. It's all ive ever done and all I will ever really be any good at doing. I'm proud of the fics I've put out here on my old blog and this one too. I don't care about how many notes they get, just that one or two people read it and enjoy it. And I hope you all know that I'm a nice person, too. So are a lot of blogs who have been villainised recently. This witch hunt has got to stop. We have got to start listening to each other with peace and understanding and not jump to conclusions. Not make people out to be something they simply aren't.

I want to curate a loving space here. A safe and nurturing space for anyone to feel free within. I want people to know they can jump in my asks and know that I will love them. I want everyone, of every race and every gender and ever creed of this world to know they are welcome and accepted here. Like a wise man that we all know and love once said. I'm not the person they say I am. I never was. And I think some of them know that. It is my greatest hope that any of you who wish to stick around get to know me for yourselves.

It is my greatest wish that those blogs who are still spouting hate about me really grow and heal. Or even better, pop on over and get to know me? I think it's important to understand why you might hate someone and not just from unreliable sources. If you think that I am some sort of s/a supporter who revels in writing that sort of thing then I'd be glad to dispel that myth.

I'm not going to speak on this again because I feel that I've moved on. This blog is my creative outlet and always will be. And as I've stated above its a safe and loving space for all. I'm reclaiming the fun. And hopefully some of you will stick around for it. And if not, I bid you a farewell. With nothing but love in my heart.

[blackberrysummerblog]

Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate! After a rotten Friday at the animal shelter where I work, I got a very pleasant surprise yesterday when a pregnant stray who came in gave birth to five live and healthy kittens! I might share some pics later on :) In the meantime, thank you @forabeatofadrum and @you-remind-me-of-the-babe for the tags this morning, as well as everyone else who’s continued to tag me on other days. I’ve been pretty slow writing lately, but I do have some shares this week!

First, a bit of kid!Baz POV from my COBB:

In the afternoons, I do my homework as soon as we get home and sometimes call my father. He never has much to say. I’ll offer to help Dev with his work and then water the herbs in the conservatory, reminding myself of the names and uses of each one. Dogtooth violet to stop gossip, bay leaves for wish making and prophetic dreams. Tarragon for confidence, St. John’s Wort to stave off colds and fevers. Basil can drive off dark spirits. I rub the leaves between my fingers, remembering Ebb’s lessons as the fresh summer scent breaks across my skin. “Basil can dispel confusion, boys. It turns back fear and weakness, and is used in exorcisms. Carry it with you to protect yourselves from danger, or spread it on the ground to keep away evil. It’s also sometimes used to bring lovers together.” Dev had elbowed me and sniggered, because of course we both associate the herb with my name. I don’t see how any of it relates to me, but it doesn’t really matter. It’s just what I’m called.

And the next is from a sequel I suddenly started writing to Field Trip of Dreams (god I still hate that that’s the title I gave it). I wouldn’t say it’s necessary to read the first fic, although it gives context for the fact that Baz and Simon are dating in eighth year, and everyone but the Mage knows it. It’s a longish share, but I’m enjoying writing so have it:

“Isolation Cabin?” Basilton is repeating in disbelief. His eyes narrow. “But Sir, whatever will we do if we get to talking and discover we were separated at birth?”

Simon understandably pales, but Davy merely snorts and waves a dismissive hand. “Unlikely, Mr. Pitch. Now, both of you grab your rucksacks while I conjure a bird to lead you to the cabin. It’s…out of the way.”

The rest of the students are in fits, but of course Davy doesn’t notice. He pays attention to nothing and nobody when he thinks he’s in the right. Simon has shouldered his own pack and is staring into the middle distance, refusing to look at anyone. Of course, Natasha Pitch’s son has to get in one last dig: “What’s next, a get-along shirt?”

Basilton’s unimpressed expression is fooling no one—I know blessed well that he’d only love that. “Davy,” I try one last time. “This weekend is supposed to be providing these students with a chance to learn how to get along as a community of mages. Splitting two of them off will deprive them of the chance—”

“Miss Possibelf.” I suppose it’s amusing that after all these years Davy doesn’t dare use my first name. “I know what I’m doing. Boys this age need a firm hand—” How does he not hear the sniggering going on behind him? “—and I’ve had just about enough.” After seven years. Seven years, and he’s had enough? Davy finally acknowledges me enough to turn and lower his voice. “Quite frankly, one of them has nothing to learn about survival, while the other doesn’t need to.” This last part is said in a hushed whisper, even though from the way Basilton’s eyebrow lifts, I’m certain he heard it.

I share his disdain for the sentiment, however, I’m not particularly concerned about his chances—here, or anywhere else. “Fine,” I snap, throwing my hands up. It’s not as though this trip isn’t always an annual excuse for all kinds of unsanctioned…exploration. Simon and Basilton aren’t likely to get up to anything they haven’t already, and I have bigger fish to fry given the amount of alcohol students traditionally smuggle on this fool’s exercise. David Cadwallader can be as blind as he likes, but some of us are left nursing the hangovers.

No pressure holiday tags: @rimeswithpurple, @artsyunderstudy, @cutestkilla, @c0nsumemy5oul, @tender-ministrations, @nausikaaa, @thewholelemon, @orange-peony, @youarenevertooold, @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @letraspal, @bookish-bogwitch, @nightimedreamersghost, @aristocratic-otter, @brilla-brilla-estrellita, @hushed-chorus, @prettygoododds, @supercutedinosaurs, @shutup-andletme-go, @aceumbrellaheroes, @asocialpessimist, @wellbelesbian, @ic3-que3n, @raenestee , @larkral, @facewithoutheart, @papierhaikuphoto, @cows4247, @stitchy-queerista, @carry-on-big-bang, @imagineacoolusername, @ileadacharmedlife, @confused-bi-queer, @j-nipper-95, @jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists, @iamamythologicalcreature, @bazzybelle, @valeffelees

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Non BL Fan watches Only Friends

Hey. Yeah so I'm still on this. So when Only Friends ended, it left kinda of a bitter taste in my mouth. I liked a lot of things about it but by the end it really didn’t leave a good impression. There’s been a lot written about it, about expectations, and branded pairs, and how fandom may have played a role in this, and how the writing maybe because of that kinda took a turn midway through the show. And it kept bugging me that these opinions were also rooted in our understanding of this type of media, and everything that comes with it. Be it branded pairs, all the bls that came before or the industry as a whole. But I couldn't really have any perspective because I'm part of the problem. I'm too close. So, the only way for me to kinda get over this was to get someone far removed from this to watch it. And here is where my friend Neely comes in. They're not a bl watcher. The only bl they ever watched was Choco Milk Shake which I think we can all agree would not influence their viewing of Only Friends. They are however the only person who I talk to about bl, or the only person who has the patience to listen to me, whenever I’m feeling particularly annoyed about something or just wanna share a good moment. I immediately sent them the olive oil scene (with only a tiny bit of context) because it was so beautiful that I needed to scream with someone about it. So anyway, I asked them to watch the show. They knew a couple of things about it, because I complained to them about it at the time, but they has no reference for it so, I don’t think that I influenced the viewing that much. Also they're pretty unbiased about everything.

So last night they watched the first 4 episodes and I’d like to share their thoughts with everyone who like me might be curious. Because they're the best person ever, he wrote a whole text about it so I could share. Also we're almost at the end of the year and this might be the thing that finally closes this chapter for me. This is what they had to say after watching the first 4 episodes.

(I'll be adding my own thoughts in purple)

After 4 episodes, mostly I think it's really predictable plot wise for anyone who's watched a general TV western series, like a Netflix production, which I was maybe surprised. The ways to cause drama and plot advancement are very similar. Of cpurse this is me saying this based on the other BL I watched (Choco Milk Shake) which felt much more out of the expected canon.

Just to get this out of the way: they're all toxic and terrible people, to the extent I find it very hard to connect to any of them. Just in the exposure parts of ep1 there's all of them being horrible to Ray for being drunk – even though they also are? - and to top it up later on they're all drunk, and the woman (sorry I should know her name but it's not like they're giving her any storyline or screen time (aside from, I almost forgot, randomly spraining her ankle 😂) for me to remember) I thought that the fact that this was obvious to them from the beginning was very interesting because I maybe gave them more rope in the beginning to expand on her because I thought she was gonna get more later. she's even drunker it seems but they all fall on Ray only; they literally complain he wants another drink and judgementally go "ewww more drinks don't you think it's enough" and dig into his drinking, he leaves, and then they continue drinking? This got even darker to me when the suicide attempt is revealed, and from then it became really hard to consider them friends? Maybe Mew and Ray but the dynamics of that are anyway weird. This is something I myself struggled with all through the show, like how are these people even friends? and I understand the point illustrated by @bengiyo in this post but I still couldn’t get over that. And maybe that’s just the way I see friendships that these people looked even worse in my eyes. Like I cannot compute them treating Ray like that, even if they're done of his drinking, when they know where he's at emotionally. It also doesn't feel they ever tried to help him so I don't think they have the right to be done, just feels like they don't care.

Top, toxic from day one with this challenge attitude towards fucking the virgin; and the gross way he speaks about it with Boston. It's a big no from me to both of them. It's not even them hooking up for me, Top is just kinda sleazy, manipulative, hyper entitled, I do not take anything he says as truth because he just feels so double faced to me. Even just these episodes he's already shown so many cracks: hiding the hook up with Boston (which I'm beginning to feel was more than a hook up?), the whole random drug dealing thing, how he objectifies Mew like a virgin-trophy when talking to Boston, how he manipulates him and also his weird jealousy and control. Ok, this is where I admit I was completely wrong. I thought that way of seeing Top was very influenced by the promotional material and the way the crew and actors talked about the character. And yet, without any prior knowledge he immediately disliked him. I was not expecting that to be honest. And in this case maybe I just wanted the character to go in a different direction so I kept not seeing the pretty obvious red flags. I mean I saw them but tried really hard to look behind them. My bad. Although we could both agree that he’s gorgeous.

I don't like Mew, but I don't think it's the characters fault or how it's written. It's just the troupe of character writing, especially in gay shows, that I can't stand. It's kinda cancer vibes (astrology lol). A bit not necessarily overt but a general sense of holier than thou cause he's a virgin and "has standards". I don't think he's leading Ray on, I think he actually kinda communicates well he just wants friendship. He could be clearer but also this is TV, so we need slight unclearness for drama purposes lol, but I'm not mad about that. Miss communication is the bane of my existence but it apparently makes for compelling television. Or not.

But generally this hot fuck everyone guy falling for the kinda dorky virgin is so dull to me, this virgin is always this weird insert of purity, more often than not an insert where the writer in one way or another projects himself into, to be able to judge the rest of the community, the moral compass (read: normative in terms of society expectations, also kinda mildly Christian coded, like girl next door in the village), and I do always find it a bit queerphobic. I'm not saying there aren't queers like that and that they shouldn't be represented, but the very intense and obvious writing decisions to position him as this moral center (also visually he's always wearing whites and pastels? Virgin mew, Virgin Mary! Lol) that makes all the other characters, often queer, seem kinda dirty and mean and unprincipled. I have nothing to add here because I agree with them on most of this, and I also think that it was never a coincidence to have a virgin in the middle of this group, to serve as the barometer of right and wrong. Cause he's the pure one so he must know what's right. I disliked mew almost instantly when the show started, because I always thought he was just a terrible friend and that’s the greatest sin of all. A small note that I think it's hilariously dumb that he's been protecting his Virginity for all this time and so like "omg it's hard for me, omg I go slow, omg I have a check list" and then it's like "you drop coke I drop pants", virginity done lol. This was just funny and accurate.

I am not talking about Boston right now cause I hate him. And I also hate that they wrote the slut in such a cliche but I do think they did. I remember you saying something people attacking him too much and him being slut-shamed, but he's written as villain quite clearly. Lol I think he's leading mobile phone shop guy on, it's very player manipulation vibe to be always giving him just a bit more to keep him going and the promise of something more open, when we know he just wants to fuck, and especially fuck when he's butt hurt about Top and Mew. And the way he's treating Mew, terrible friend; and also the advances on Top are far from boundary and consent-based lol. But also Top doesn't feel very interested in getting out, he just weirdly stands there silent being licked in the neck, so I blame both on that whole thing. I have to say that I never really read the shower scene like others might have, like obviously Boston was being terrible to Mew in that moment and not respecting Top's boundaries, but I also didn't see Top as helpless in this moment.

I think the only pair that gets away with actually being cute and not toxic and manipulative is Sand and Ray, they're my faves. Yey!! I find them very endearing and with so much chemistry. They're the only characters who honestly genuinely said sorry to each other and had some accountability when they fucked up with each other.

Even tho I'd like a bit more from Sand about the whole "burden to society" comments at the start - they annoyed me so much. The others it's manipulation after manipulation for me, and it doesn't allow me to get into them so it feels like deep lack of chemistry. Top and Mew's relationship feels really really really meh to me. And I don't know why they're friends, also cause very little of them as friends gets shown after ep1. Well they have the school project that keeps them together but other than that really, why? As I explained above I really struggled with the friendship aspect of all this.

But generally, I feel like the editing and writing are very like Mew is amazing and the others are horrible, and we do just get scenes of everyone being shit and Mew not being great but being naive and cutesy with a hint of superiority. Also you're a virgin your not a thumb stone, give your boyfriend a kiss sometimes. I thought this comment was hilarious but also obviously from a non bl watcher because that didn’t register to me, because I’m so used to boyfriends being so shy around kissing in bl that it didn't even cross my mind.

I think I'm slightly meh by all of them but partly is maybe my expectations too - I knew this one specifically was a bit westernized, but I was nurturing this little idea that it would feel a bit different, that some of the ways things were explored would feel different because of the cultural differences, but I do think you could sub all of the actors for white us-americans and the script would fly, you could probably even set it in a progressive state in the us and wouldn't have to re-write much.

So, I might totally be talking out of my ass, but what I'm left thinking is: is there really no culturally specificity to queer community there? is really all queerness and promiscuity in Thailand this performance of the west? Maybe it is, because of different social rules and expectations and freedoms, I really am not knowledgeable enough, but I'm just wondering if it's that or if it's just being made to be more palatable to me. And I think that's fine as a choice for them to know target audience, but I'm left wondering how the actual scene is in Thailand, what the social pressures are there and how they navigate them, specifically at this nexus of queerness and promiscuity. I also don’t know enough about the culture in Thailand to speak about it but I do agree with the point that this show could be made in us tv and they really wouldn’t need to change much. Without knowing anything about the creators of ofts, aside from the fact that they’re queer, they said later that they would compare it to something that Ryan Murphy could produce.

_

After I read this I had a chance to video chat with them briefly , and there were a couple more things that came up that I thought were really interesting. they were asking me about the actors and how well known they were, etc. Because they thought that the characters were purposefully being shown as really flat, and just bad with no redeemable characteristics and that maybe because the fandom already knew them and already liked them, they could do that without needing to waste time making us care for them, by giving us their good sides. Which I never really considered, but as with most things, our prior knowledge might play a part in this too. I know at least for me, I'm not gonna lie, the fact that I like Khaotung definitely made me care for Ray from the start in a way that maybe I wouldn't normally have.

Anyway, they'll continue to watch it and I'll probably post more of thoughts in the future. I also started to rewatch it slowly so I'll definitely keep thinking about this. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. 💜

[avoidantrecovery]

two things (notes to myself):

your fears only are based on what you have experienced, not on the potential good that is possibly waiting out there for you. your fears face the past, but they cannot inform you on the good you have yet to experience in thr future. your fears do not know your future, and it is because of that, that you have to go forth and do new things that your fear doesn't know yet, to give it new data about (hopefully positive) things it doesn't know yet. this will help recalibrate it (hopefully!) and lessen it.

if you suffer from something like invisible audience, gaze perception or a harsh inner critic, keep in mind that those are your thoughts (and subsequent emotions), not actual people out there (or in there). they are internalized and personified fears and anxieties that you built up due to legitimate horrible experiences. sometimes it feels like you might know or be able to deduce what other peolple might think about you or how they perceive you, even if they are not in the room. but until they actually express that to you, it's all in your head (magical thinking). the thoughts you hold begin and end in your brain, they do not exist outside of your head. and you have control over your thoughts and you are allowed to disregard them if you think (and know) they are false. and i understand wanting to stay safe and all that, but if we're not careful, they (inner critic based on people you might know like parents, bullies, etc...) can begin to loom larger than they are, all in the name of safety, and influence you beyond the context you knew them in. it's bad enough you had to interact with them, but there is no reason to do their work for them by internalizing. it's just thoughts, you are allowed to disregard them, esp. when they are completely unreasonable. and if you have nothing to do with them today, why even consider their opinions to begin with, true or false? surely it doesn't matter! i caught myself not being able to take up certain chances, because in the back of my mind i kept thinking, what if ... sees me doing xyz, when ... doesn't even remember me or my name. i guess it's part of my freeze response, which i've been battling with. my internalization ensures that they continue to live on in my mind and continue to torture me from there. and that part, i have control over. i can silence this facsimile i made of them.

[yukidragon]

For those of you in the Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack fandom who are concerned by the recent rumblings going on, I gently request that you try to remain calm and not jump to conclusions.

This is a situation that is unpleasant and has multiple sides to it, but we do not need to go up in arms. We're an overall kind and compassionate community. I know that it's natural to want to defend someone who is having a hard time, but there is no enemy here to fight. No one wants a war in this fandom or for anyone to be attacked.

Please remember that, at the end of the day, there are real people on the other side of the screen, with feelings that can be hurt and boundaries that can be crossed. Let's do our best to be kind and respectful.

I'll try to summarize what I know of the situation to the best of my ability. Please forgive the gaps, as there are a number of things that I still don't know about. This will be placed behind the cut, as the topics of non-consent in fiction and personal boundaries will be discussed.

Also, I must emphasize to those unaware - I am not officially affiliated with SnaccPop Studios. I am just a big supporter of their work and acquainted with many people involved with the team and the community. Do not take my words as an official statement from anyone on the development team. I am just a fan hoping to clear up the confusion that has made many in the fandom express concern about this incident.

An artist in the Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack fandom has recently shut down their tumblr page and deleted their twitter presence. Before they left, they sent heartfelt private messages to members of the fandom as an unspoken sort of farewell. This, understandably, has disheartened a number of people to see this artist go, myself included.

The artist in question had stated in the past that they were harassed for the content that they created. Their art often involved darker themes, particularly non-consent.

This fact, coupled with their abrupt departure, has led many to the impression that this artist received further harassment to the point that they decided to close down their social medias and leave the fandom entirely.

This possibility in turn led to concern and upset, which were expressed in some posts on twitter. Without full context or information, these posts in turn have apparently led others in the fandom to feel alarmed that something bad was actively happening to members of the community.

I do not know the reason why this artist left so abruptly. They did not give a reason publicly. We do not know if harassment was the cause or some other reason entirely. Their parting messages were ones of kindness and gratitude to individuals in the fandom. I have interacted with this artist in the past, and they showed themselves to be a very friendly and kind individual in all of our interactions.

I do not know the details about the harassment that the artist faced. I have not seen instances of it for myself. That isn't to say that it didn't exist. Accusations like this should not be taken lightly, and the situation must be treated with care to avoid victim blaming. It is vital to have all the facts before coming to any conclusions.

I do know that the artist was criticized for not properly tagging content warnings on their artwork at times. This was something they strived to correct when it was pointed out to them.

Content warnings are not something to take lightly. They are a vital tool to help people to make an informed choice about the content they could potentially access, so that they might avoid subject matter that they find distasteful or distressing.

When tags are absent or are misused, it is important to point this out to the poster in a calm and respectful manner. It's then important for the poster to be gracious and edit their post to add the proper warnings and safeguards so that people can make an informed decision about whether or not they wish to engage with that sort of content.

Asking something be tagged properly and put behind some sort of warning isn't a form of criticism or harassment. This is a matter of informed consent, which is vital, especially in NSFW spaces. This is a matter of respect and kindness.

We do not know if this is the harassment that the artist said they were experiencing. Let's be kind and not make assumptions that this criticism and the harassment are one and the same. Until the artist makes a statement on the subject for themselves, or screenshots surface on the subject, we simply don't know what they had to deal with. It is also not our place to pry if the artist does not wish to go into detail about it.

Aside from the content warning issue is the subject matter itself. There were many in the fandom made uncomfortable seeing the character of Sunny Day Jack in particular depicted as someone who violates consent.

Consent is a big part of the game. The original creator of Something's Wrong with Sunny Day Jack has repeatedly gone out of their way to state that non-consent is not intended to be part of this game's story. This is stated plainly in the official content warnings for the game as well.

Jack was designed to be incapable of doing anything to the player without their consent. As stated on the official tumblr, Jack will never hurt the player, and he genuinely cares about the player.

The game's script is being modified to make this point clearer, as one route in the demo led to many misinterpreting that the main character wasn't consenting to have sex with Jack. There is even going to be a softcore mode and other accessibility features for the comfort of the players. SnaccPop Studios has also hired sensitivity consultants to try and avoid any misunderstandings in the future.

There are many of us in the fandom who are not comfortable with non-consent, myself included. There are also those who are comfortable with it depicted in fiction who are not comfortable with Sunny Day Jack specifically being involved with non-consenting sexual content. Then there are those who don't mind or even enjoy non-consent in fiction in general.

These are all valid feelings. No one is wrong for the way they feel on the topic. We're all adults in this community, capable of choosing to consent to engage in whatever topic that we enjoy. Consensual non-consent, including in the form of art and literature, is like any other kink, even it isn't for everyone.

We should be allowed to opt out of experiences we don't wish to engage with. This is why giving warnings is so important, so we can decide as an individual if we are comfortable engaging in this form of consensual non-consent.

There is no official statement from SnaccPop Studios about the creation of fan work that depicts darker subject matter than what is contained in the game. I'm unaware of any statement that requests fans not create anything involving non-consent in their fan works. As such, I strongly urge people in the fandom not to jump to any assumptions on that topic. Let's let the team speak for themselves on how they feel about fans creating this sort of content.

We don't have a statement from the artist why they chose to deactivate their social media pages and remove their content. We should not make assumptions on the cause or go on the offense against a potential threat that might not even exist. If the artist wants to make their reasons publicly known, I'm sure they will say so if and when they choose to do so. Until then, we should respect their privacy and simply wish them well.

As for the harassment the artist faced before this, we should avoid making assumptions there as well. Without knowing the extent of it or who was involved, it's not something we should be meddling with. Doing so might cause more unintentional harm than good.

To summarize:

It is important to tag your art/writing/etc. appropriately when there is content that might be cause the viewer distress.

It is important to not make assumptions about someone's motivations or opinions on a topic.

It's important not to harass real people over fictional characters.

A person's boundaries and consent are important and should be respected.

We need to try to remain calm when we see something alarming pop up on our feeds and not rush to immediate emotional reactions.

It's important to take the time to get the facts and properly digest them before coming to your own conclusions about what to do with that information.

I hope this post helps clears up some of the confusion floating around. I'm sorry that I'm unable to give the full story of what is going on, but, ultimately, it is not my story to tell. I can only tell you what I have observed and request that we all try to treat each other with kindness and respect.

Thank you for listening to me ramble. Be good to each other and take care of yourselves. Your feelings matter.

[alpaca-clouds]

Do Adults Remember Being Kids? Or: Adults that do not understand kids make bad kids media

A few days ago I had a discussion with one of those male crybabies in their 40s, who are very butt-hurt about media not always being made for them. But that discussion kinda got out of hand, with more and more people chiming in. And this got me to wonder: "Uhm, do people not remember being kids?"

For context. Someone posted the scene from Thor: Love and Thunder, in which Thor shares his power with the Asgardian kids. The person posted that was like: "Can we all agree that this was the worst scene in the MCU?" And one of my moots quote-tweeted this with: "Yeah, how dares the movie made for children include a power fantasy for children?" At which quite a few nerds got angry with them for daring to suggest that those movies, they love-hate so much, are for kids.

And they went like: "So you are saying that Winter Soldier is for kids?" Which I personally found hilarious. While normally I watch most movies in the evening, for time reasons back in the day I watched Winter Soldier in the afternoon in a full cinema one day after release. And my then roommate and I were the oldest people in the cinema who were not parents that afternoon.

Because yes. There is a reason why Disney makes a point of making all the movies (other than Deadpool & Wolverine) PG13 rated. Which means that 13yos can watch the movie alone, and kids younger than 13 can watch it together with their kids. There is a reason why there are a lot of kids toys for those movies. Because it is for kids.

Now, to be fair, I argued all those things, and one of these professional crybabies ended up agreeing with me after a while. So, I guess that could have gone worse.

However, I also tweeted about it myself and one of my followers also noted another topic where this shows: Folks claiming that Shonen anime are like totally for adults, while... you know... while the official core demographic is "boys between 8 and 14 years".

That is a lot of preemble, I know. But... Uhm, yeah, I don't know how to say this:

Children are absolutely able to deal with dark themes!

They love them in fact. Because they are kids, and they like cool stuff.

Will they get everything about those things? Nope. But is it for them and will they love it? Yeah.

I mean, I remember a lot of those shows I loved as a kid. The reason Digimon Tamers was my favorite Digimon season from the moment it came out, was that it was the first season that took me as a kid serious. It is still a kids show, but it allowed for themes like death and depression. It allowed also for adult characters to exist and to be important in the show, which gave it a more realistic vibe, wihtout ever destroying the power fantasy for kids.

Or another show that was fairly popular back then in Japan: Ojamajo Doremi. A show with a core demographic of girls between 4 and 12 years of age. And this show deals with death, suicidal thoughts, bullying, sickness, children dying of sickness, war and so many other shows. But... You know, look at this show and try and tell me it is not for kids:

I am sorry folks, but kids can deal with those topics, as long as it is not too graphic and are explained properly within the show.

And to get back to the MCU movies: I am sorry, none of them is actually all that adult. It being a thriller does not make it "adult". I mean, fuck, the MCU does for the most part not deal with death as a topic. Because nobody bloody dies and stays dead. Those movies are very, very kid-friendly. It is the equivalent of taking action figures and smashing them together.

Sure, in some of the movies there are topics that kids might not inherently grasp (like the parenting themes in the Guardians movies and the historical context for Black Panther). But those are in only a few movies - and you can still explain them to the kids!

[aspd-culture]

@brandon666

First off, you have some *really* inaccurate ideas of what ASPD is. Do you think we can survive in the world acting like you expect me to act? Far more often, pwASPD appear detached and callous rather than actively hostile the way you're saying. We aren't 12 year old kids on Xbox Live voice chat, * s p o o k y voice* we are all around you. You wouldn't be able to pick most of us out of a crowd, even if you had direct interaction with us. In fact, a running joke here and in my real life is that people often tell pwASPD "don't worry, I can sniff out a s*ciop*th a mile away" or similar not realizing they're talking shit about us to our face.

There *are* pwASPD who are still entirely valid who act the way you're saying - and also plenty of prosocials who behave like that too. But it isn't all of us, all the time. Most of us are capable of and maybe even prefer to be cool, calm, and calculated about how we speak and act because of the trauma we have.

Unlike people on TV like Dr. House, there are real life consequences to the behavior you describe, and many of us strive not to be happy, but for life to be as convenient as possible. Kinda hard to get convenience while you're pissing everyone off. Ever heard the part of ASPD where they mention we are manipulative and charismatic? Yeah that isn't exactly compatible with being crass, careless, pranking, or offensive. Careless actually specifically bothers me because we are often said to "play a social chess game" with people we talk to. Many of us are extremely calculating and overly cautious. And many of us aren't, but it certainly isn't like you're saying all the time. Even pwASPD who *do* act like that usually are calm and "respectful" sometimes.

Also, I never claimed to be unmasked on this blog. Most of the time, I am absolutely masking to some degree - although much less than IRL. You can actually see that in the tags, I use "a rare unmasked aspd-culture" as a joke about this fact. Whilst this is a safe place for other pwASPD to unmask if they'd like, my posts on this blog are different. My side of this is helping educate people - prosocial, antisocial, whoever - if/when they have questions for me about ASPD which is fairly frequent. This isn't to say I am not ok with unmasking here, like I said it's happened before, but consider the context of what's happening.

I'm often asked genuine questions about ASPD, some of which are ableist (almost always on accident!) and many of which are based on extremely common misconceptions. If I were to unmask while answering those, I would end up being really shitty to people who are trying to learn - often people who want to do better for the pwASPD in their life, or for themselves. We talk about coping mechanisms and the development of ASPD a lot here; with those topics there is little room for my unmasked behavior *and* education. If I were to unmask while answering, no one would be getting anything out of asking those questions even if I was providing info because it's hard to take in new information from someone when they're being defensive or hostile.

I don't want to be hostile towards them, I want to help because if ASPD is ever going to be destigmatized, someone has got to answer their questions and help show them what it is and what it isn't! We can't expect prosocials to fend for themselves in the cesspool of stigma that the typical google results on ASPD show - someone has to help them. And since one of my special interests (something autistic ppl like myself have and love to infodump about) is mental health, especially my own disorders, I am happy to be one of the people they can ask these sometimes tough questions to.

I am also helping pwASPD! Many questions I get are people trying to understand their own disorder or the disorder they think they might have. It sucked for me, learning this all on my own (and I'm still learning too), so I can use the cognitive empathy I've taught myself over the years and remember the feelings I went through when I was trying to find unbiased info.

There's a transaction here - a major part of ASPD if you didn't know - I calmly and respectfully answer people's questions, and the world becomes slightly less ignorant and we get a slight amount of progress on destigmatizing this disorder. That makes my life easier too. In the process, I see many culture asks that remind me I'm not alone in this. Often, posting those gives me some catharsis, and you will sometimes see me going off in the tags about what I've dealt with. But for the most part, I'm giving other pwASPD an open space to unmask as well as to ask questions to someone who will, 95% of the time, give a masked and respectful answer. Friendly is a stretch tho lol unless you missed the original post about the syscourse that you commented this on.

So yeah, long and short, you're definitely missing something here and that's ok. Just learn and do better. I know you might see that as another thing that is flying in the face of ASPD or whatever, but it's no skin off my back if you think I have ASPD or not, and anyway I'd rather you just learn and maybe next time someone says something like that to/around you about ASPD, you'll have the knowledge to correct it. Spreading info is an exponential situation - once I tell you guys things, some of you will inevitably tell someone else that, and so on and so forth until a good handful of people now know things about ASPD they didn't before. If not, oh well. I got to infodump and see relatable posts that made me feel seen.

Either way, it's been, and hopefully will continue to be, a net positive. You are absolutely welcome to keep this dialogue going if you have questions, want clarification, are enraged that I gave you a calm response, whichever. Even if you don't get anything out of this, someone else seeing it might.

I'll really fuck with you now - I genuinely hope you have a good day.

[arkus-rhapsode]

So... What is a Cartoon Network Show? (A Discussion)

Hey everyone, Arkus back again and I'm doing something that I alluded to a while ago, but I was working on a project involving Cartoon Network. Now for those unaware, I don't consider myself to be a part of the larger animation community like say a Cartoonshi or an Alpha Jay Show. I approach this topic as simply someone who grew up on Cartoon Network and has always had a level of reverence for the channel and undoubtedly had an impact on my formative opinions on the value of animation that I still have to this day.

So when I heard the announcement for Jellystone's Crisis on Infinite Mirths special it got me wondering-wait what is a Cartoon Network show? Now that might seem like an easy answer: "Its a show that was on Cartoon Network," but as I delved deeper into the question there appeared a great amount of context that seemed to go all over the map. I'm sure that there are people more versed in the content that may see this as common sense knowledge. So this is post for people like me-the average enjoyers of animation who want to understand more and have greater context about a channel they may have a soft spot for and want to be better informed when the question is asked, "what is a Cartoon Network show?"

(Yes I did make a spreadsheet on this one. This wasn't a task I took lightly)

So before we really get into the weeds of everything, I do want to make sure we're all on the same page: Cartoon Network is a television channel which is aired in multiple countries around the world which is overseen by the parent company of The Cartoon Network Inc. Which itself is owned by the mega conglomerate that is Warner Bros Discovery. The Cartoon Network Inc. Owns various production companies to make original content the primary ones being Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera Europe, and Williams Street. The network itself is broken up into several blocks such as Cartoonito (An early morning block aimed at pre school children) and Adult Swim (An evening block aimed at 18+ individuals). With (At the time I am writing this) the 6 AM to 5PM being aimed at kids 6-12 years old and being considered "Cartoon Network" hours.

So with all the terminology out of the way, lets address the obvious answer of "a Cartoon Network show is a show that aired on Cartoon Network" I would say that interpretation is a bit reductive. Sorta like calling every game that's been on a Nintendo console a "Nintendo game." While not necessarily wrong, it does conflate the idea that the third party games are the same as the first party ones, which also makes a lot of misinformation very possible. Cartoon Network like Nickelodeon, Disney and many other channels can have original programming and acquired programming. Original programming being shows made for and existing solely on this network while acquired programming may be shows or movies that a company is pay broadcasting rights for. You see this a lot in foreign programming. Obviously the various anime that air on Toonami are not creations for Cartoon Network nor produced by them.

However, I think there is some interesting things that would be considered acquired programming on Cartoon Network. Because now we have to talk about why Cartoon Network exists in the first place and that's Hanna-Barbera.

Without Hanna-Barbera there would be no Cartoon Network. Plain and simple. The channel was founded with the intent of housing the animated library of Hanna-Barbera (Along with classic Luney Toons shorts from the 40s) when Ted Turner successfully acquired the studio. Now the thing to remember is Cartoon Network was made in the early 90s, while Hanna-Barbera shorts had existed since the 50s in various forms of syndication. Usually on ABC.

As such these shows like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry etc. Wouldn't be considered original programming for the network. But it would be a division of Hanna-Barbera that would become what we know today as Cartoon Network Studios, which would begin creating shorts for "What a Cartoon!" Which would in turn become the seeds for Cartoon Network's first original programming.

Speaking of acquired programming, I'm sure if you're of a certain age group you probably remember Warner Bros other network that contained original animation-The WB. And probably more famous its animation block, Kids WB.

Now the reason for the creation of The WB is itself a massive business interests and experiments in network television and policies of the Federal Communications Commission, so I simply want to get into its well known kids programming block, Kids WB that actually served as an outlet for shows created by Warner Bros Animation. Such as

Animaniacs

Pinky and the Brain

Freakazoid!

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries

Superman: The Animated Series

Road Rovers

Waynehead

The New Batman Adventures

Histeria

Batman Beyond

Detention

¡Mucha Lucha!

What's New, Scooby-Doo?

Ozzy & Drix

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island

Loonatics Unleashed

Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!

Now, you may be seeing some of those names and wondering, "Wait wasn't that on Cartoon Network though?" Which yes, many of these shows would come to Cartoon Network especially in the wake of the WB's own tumultuous history that would eventually see it become one half of what we know todays as The CW. However, many of these shows weren't made to be aired on Cartoon Network, but rather to air on the The WB, which while both were owned by the greater Warner Media parent company, these were acquired programming. I can personally attest to reruns on the Cartoon Network being my exposure to shows like Freakazoid and Superman the animated series and The WB in turn actually had aired some programming from Cartoon Network such as Samurai Jack and Powerpuff Girls. And because these properties are all owned by the same parent company it actually makes the water more muddy on what is "Cartoon Network show." Made even more complicated by the fact that Hanna-Barbera the production company as we know it would be absorbed into Warner Bros Animation in 2001.

We are not talking simply about getting Pokemon because some broadcasting money was exchanged to air in America, we're actually talking about programming that the channel itself was founded on rerunning and playing reruns made by a sister network in the bigger Warner Television umbrella.

As such, while I don't think the "If it aired on Cartoon Network, its a cartoon Network show" is an interpretation I agree with, I can see where there's a shared level of DNA in some of the programs that makes it harder to separate the two.

This actually leads us to another potential answer for what is a Cartoon Network show, "Its a show made by Cartoon Network Studios."

Now as previously mentioned, Turner would acquire Hanna-Barbera and at the time Hanna-Barbera was still making new shows by the time Cartoon Network was started. Such as The New Adventures of Captain Planet, 2 Stupid Dogs, and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. But these shows would actually end up debuting and airing on TBS, another Turner/Warner Television Arm. But now we return to that newly formed division in Hanna-Barbera studios known as Cartoon Network Studios. This studio was primarily made for making original programing for What a Cartoon! which would lead to the creation of some of the earliest Cartoon Cartoons.

Johnny Bravo

Cow and Chicken

I Am Weasel

Power Puff Girls

And of course the big one, Dexter's Laboratory.

In fact, when you look back on it, Dexter's Lab is structured similarly to an old school Hanna-Barbera show. Where you'd have say the Huckleberry Hound Show, but you'd have various segments one being the Huckleberry Hound segment, but then having a segment focusing on Hockey Wolf, and a segment with Pixie, Dixie and Mr Jinks. In the case of Dexter's Lab, an episode could contain a Dexter segment then go into Dial M for Monkey or The Justice Friends.

However, these weren't really considered "Cartoon Network Studios" as we in the early 2000s probably remember it. As these productions were still made by Hanna-Barbera for the first few seasons with Cartoon Network Studios being a studio in name only at the time. Probably why you may remember older Dexter episodes ending with the Hanna-Barbera logo then followed up by the Cartoon Network Studios logo in later seasons.

Now if we went strictly by Cartoon Network Studios being what makes a Cartoon Network show (Including the previous five shows mentioned) and originally aired on Cartoon Network then that leaves us with:

Now some eagle eyed viewers may have noticed that this list has some noticeable absences. Such as Courage the Cowardly Dog, Codename Kids Next Door, The Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans, and one of my favorite Cartoons of all time, Ed Edd n Eddy. And well the simple answer is that they weren't made by Cartoon Network Studios. Ed Edd n Eddy was made by a.k.a Cartoon and Funbag Animation Studios. Kids Next Door like Sheep in the Big City was made by Curious Pictures. And Courage the Cowardly Dog was made by Stretch Films (Though both Courage and Kids Next Door would have their pilots developed in Hanna-Barbera).

Gumball was made by Hanna-Barbera Europe which is a production company under the Cartoon Network Inc parent, but is again technically not made by CN Studios. Teen Titans is another product of Warner Bros Animation same with Teen Titans Go. Kinda funny that a show that for a time basically controlled the channel wasn't even made by CN Studios. Even the first ever original exclusive show made for the Cartoon Network, The Moxy Show, wouldn't count under this definition as it was made by Colossal Pictures.

There's also the fact that some shows made by Cartoon Network Studios are exclusive to Adult Swim such as Primal and some to the pre-school block of Cartoonito. Now these may actually be more rare than you would first think as really only Jessica's Big Little World was made by CN Studios for Cartoonito, while Adult swim actually has its own interesting background.

You see, Cartoon Network's earliest adult animation was the animated parody talk show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Which utilized the classic Hanna-Barbera character as a surrealist spoof of late night talk shows. These would be produced not under the banner of Hanna-Barbera or Cartoon Network Studios, but actually under the name Ghost Planet Industries. This production arm would eventually become The Cartoon Network Inc in house production company for adult animation known as Williams Street. So most shows you might watch on Adult Swim these days are by Williams Street. However, with the fifth season of Samurai Jack, you being to notice that Cartoon Network Studios became more comfortable producing shows that would air in the evening time slot of Adult Swim.

(Also this is a complete side tangent, I didn't want to include failed pilots within this list as it would feel like unnecessary bloat, but I wanted to highlight Korgoth of Barbaria made by Aaron Springer with animation made by Genndy Tartakovsky, which was sadly never picked due to the production cost, would be repackaged as a special on Adult Swim. And this was a co production with Cartoon Network. Like wow. Like wow! I know we have Primal on the list, but its kinda just a bit of trivia I like)

So while they're made by CN Studios, they were not shows accessible to CN's usual demographic time slot.

And that's not even beginning to scratch co-productions Cartoon Network Studios has been involved with over the years. Such as the Star Wars Clone Wars series made by Genndy Tartakovsky or transformers Animated which obviously the Star Wars and Transformers IP isn't owned by Warner Bros. Same with Mixels. But then there's shows such as Villainous and Jorel's Brothers which are actually originally properties made with the Latin American Branches of Cartoon Network. Villainous itself relishes in so many Cartoon Network cameos.

And then there's the CN Real shows which... Yeah I think its not Gatekeeping of me to say they don't count.

And of course there are shows that while made by Cartoon Network Studios would actually end up either being web exclusive or go straight to HBO Max like Get' Em Tommy, Tig n' Seek, and The Fungies! There's also the many, many shorts, pilots, and pilot movies produced by Cartoon Network Studios like Welcome to My Life, Party Wagon, and Fire Breather.

It's a lot. And I get why some people really want to simply it. But it's also why I think simply saying a "Cartoon Network show is a show made by the Studio" you're leaving out several shows, some of which icons of the network. And some CN Studios shows just never had a chance to be part of the Network in the same way. This isn't a question that can be easily simplified like that.

So maybe the answer is "A Cartoon Network shows is a Cartoon Cartoon?" Yeah, afterall Ed, Edd n Eddy are considered Cartoon Cartoons even if they weren't made by CN Studios. Heck, look at competitor Nickelodeon who dubs all their various animated works produced "Nicktoons." Surely, Cartoon Network can do the same, right? Well you see, unlike Nicktoons which became an overall term for all their original programming (and honestly much easier to do research on), Cartoon Cartoons specifically referred to a programming block which then became the collective brand name of the shows that aired between 1996-2009 (Ending with Ed Edd n Eddy). But even then some CN Originals made during that time weren't recognized as Cartoon Cartoons like Samurai Jack. Nor were shows like The Moxy Show recognized retroactively.

The Cartoon Cartoons were:

Dexter's Laboratory

Johnny Bravo

Cow and Chicken

I Am Weasel

The Powerpuff Girls

Ed, Edd n Eddy

Mike, Lu & Og

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Sheep in the Big City

Time Squad

Grim & Evil (Eventually Split into The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne)

Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?

Codename: Kids Next Door

So really the term Cartoon Cartoons is honestly an exclusive club for a specific set of shows on a specific programming block. That even itself doesn't cover every Cartoon Network show even for a specific era as there are absences from even that. So while Cartoon Cartoons are Cartoon Network shows, not every Cartoon Network Show is a Cartoon Cartoon.

Well then maybe a Cartoon Network show is a show that had to originally aired on Cartoon Network and was exclusive to only it?

With this definition we're abled to include many of the CN Studios shows everyone is popularly aware of while being able to include shows made outside of CN Studios like various Cartoon Cartoons, Warner Bros Animation shows and Hanna-Barbera Europe.

That said, this would exclude things like the shows from The WB and Hanna-Barbera back catalogue, and the Looney Tunes shorts. While Boomerang has become the home for all the classic Hanna-Barbera programing, you can still see the reverence that CN has for its roots from cameos in CN Originals and CN City to new iterations of these shows airing on Cartoon Network like the Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, The Looney Tunes Show, and Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated.

Speaking of Boomerang, while also another channel owned by WBD Television, many of the Cartoon Network shows have migrated over to. Thus not really making them all that exclusive anymore As well, this definition would also include CN Real programs which... yeah umm not sure about that. No matter what Cartoon Network is for Cartoons.

So even this isn't quite a perfect definition. Neither would be using the HBO Max section labeled Cartoon Network because its obviously and incomplete record that has erased so many shows from its catalogue.

So if all these don't work, then what does? What is a Cartoon Network show? Well... Maybe it's not something that fits in with an objective empirical definition. It may sound corny, but Cartoon Network shows always felt like a family to me. In a way that made this sort of recognizable brand between many of its shows even if all of them were very different in their themes, styles, and humor. I think that's why CN City is so in the minds of people, because you took all these varying characters and made a world where none feel out of place. And it wasn't just Cartoon Network characters, you had the classic Looney Tunes and even goddamn Captain Planet roaming around with all these younger shows.

There's even been recent efforts to enforce this cohesion. As the CMYK/Redraw Your World era. Mixing together this color coding with all these various characters and designs to make them all "fit" together so to speak.

Obviously, Im being a bit flowery here. Im sure Cartoon Network and Warner Bros legal team could probably give you an extensive copyright list which they hold and what can be used, but I still think there is value in this being an answer that you can come up with yourself.

And to me, Cartoon Network represents one of the most important channels in animated television. At its highest and even at its lowest. Cartoon Network was the place of creating cartoons, a place where in the short existence of creator driven network television animation, so many legends were born. This was a channel that really brought out so much creativity from talented people that were inspired by the classic animated shows of the golden age who are inspiring new creators even to this day. That shouldn't be forgotten. That shouldn't be erased. Whether unfitted or seasonal rot, this family of cartoons deserves to be remembered.

This is just me, but this is what I would consider Cartoon Network shows. Shows that were made for CN regardless of being CN Studios, Hanna-Barbera Europe, or Warner Bros Animation. The WB, TBS, Adult Swim stuff? That's more off in its own little corner. Cousins of CN almost.

And I guess I turn the question to you, So... What is A Cartoon Network show?

Well that got a bit heavier at the end. But I hope you enjoyed this. I didn't want it to be a big think piece like some of my more recent discussion post. And I didn't just want it to be me making a list without some thoughtful context. If you enjoyed this please give a like or a reblog, I've been trying to do more fun projects on Tumblr recently that go out of my usual postings.

[spanishskulduggery]

Can you clarify/explain reflexive verbs vs base forms? Ex: yo duermo vs me duermo. I think it's basically I sleep vs I go to sleep, maybe? But for other reflexive verbs especially I don't understand the difference

It's a little difficult because dormirse is one of the weird reflexives

In general, the reflexive ending -se to an infinitive just means that the action can be done to oneself; the subject and object are the same

As an example: lavar "to wash" can be done with laundry, the floor, pets, children... etc. but then you have lavarse which is "to wash oneself", as in lavarse las manos "to wash one's own hands"

[lit. "I wash myself the hands"; body parts rarely have possessive adjectives like "my" if it's obvious whose body parts they are, similar to me duele la garganta "my throat hurts" or literally "the throat hurts me"]

Many verbs can be reflexive this way, like hablarse "to talk to oneself"... or they can be reciprocal which just means that two or more subjects do something to one another like conocerse "to meet one another" or "to get to know one another"

Sometimes verbs can be either plain reflexive or reciprocal depending on context; casarse can be "to get married" as in one person, or casarse as "for two people to get married to each other"

With other reflexives you sometimes stumble across weird ones. You can usually tell something is up when it doesn't make sense in the traditional reflexive sense - where "oneself" doesn't make sense

In your case, dormir is "to sleep" and dormirse is "to fall asleep" or "to go to sleep"

It gets a little more confusing than this with reflexives. I'll try to be comprehensive and clear, but just know that reflexives opens up to a whole lot of grammatical concepts that are weird and confusing and VERY advanced - I'm talking advanced in a way that native speakers don't often know how to explain, it's just the way things are and what sounds right

-

The reflexive here is a special kind of reflexive where it adds a little something to it; sometimes the difference seems minimal to non-native speakers [like comerse with food is MUCH more common than regular comer; like me como la pizza is "I eat the pizza" and is much more common]

Other times you get an entirely new expression... like acordar is "to come to an agreement" while acordarse is "to remember"

And sometimes the difference is very subtle but significant like dormirse, or something like olvidarse "to forget" being a little more common than regular olvidar

The exact reasoning depends on the actual verb, sometimes it's a more passive expression (like romperse is "to break down" where it's implied "on one's own" rather than actually breaking something which feels purposeful)

And other times it's like dormirse where the meaning seems to be subtly different. When I explain it to people I try to tell them to think of verbs that change meaning depending on prepositions or additional words... like caer is "to fall", but caerse can either be "to fall down" or it can be "to fall out" as in teeth or hair etc.

A few common ones to keep in mind:

ir = to go irse = to go away

dormir = to sleep dormirse = to fall asleep, to go to sleep [can also be "to go numb" the same way you might say "my leg fell asleep"]

morir = to die morirse = to pass away (suddenly or it impacts you emotionally)

acabar = to finish acabarse = to run out, to be depleted

romper = to break [active] romperse = to break [passive], to break down, to break on its own

encontrar = to find encontrarse = to feel [like ¿te encuentras bien? is "are you (feeling) okay?"]

creer = to believe creerse = to believe (usually without evidence)

parecer = to seem parecerse (a) = to look like, to resemble

acordar = to come to an agreement acordarse (de) = to remember

fijar = to affix, to put in place fijarse = to stare at, to look at

imaginar = to imagine (as in to use one's imagination or to think) imaginarse = to imagine, to put oneself in a situation

preguntar = to ask preguntarse = to wonder, to consider, to contemplate

olvidar = to forget [feels active] olivdarse (de) = to forget, to slip one's mind [feels passive]

pasar = to pass / to spend pasarse = to overindulge / to be out of line / to exceed, to outdo

caer = to fall caerse = to fall down, to fall out

concentrar = to gather / to pool, to pool together, to accumulate concentrarse = to concentrate, to focus, to pay attention

dar = to give darse cuenta = to realize, to come to an understanding

quedar = to remain, to be left quedarse = to stay behind [as in quedarse en casa "to stay home"]

hundir = to drive into, to plunge, to sink hundirse = to sink down, to sink (boats)

ahogar = to smother / to stifle / to overwhelm ahogarse = to drown, to suffocate

despedir = to expel, to emit / to get rid of / to fire someone despedirse (de alguien) = to say goodbye, to say one's goodbyes

You are also going to want to be aware what's called los verbos de cambio or "verbs of change". These are verbs that mean "to become", and they're reflexive and used in different situations:

convertirse en = to become, to be converted to

transformarse en = to transform into

ponerse = to become (emotions) [as in ponerse triste "to get sad", ponerse enojado/a "to get angry", there's ponerse rojo/a which could be "to blush" or "to get red"... these are understood as very temporary and usually emotions]

volverse = to become, to turn (drastic) [most common is volverse loco/a "to go crazy" or "to go mad"; if volverse is being used as "to become" it's usually very drastic and unexpected]

quedarse = to become, to be struck + physical condition [as in quedarse de piedra "to be stunned" which is literally "turned to stone", or quedarse mudo/a "to be struck silent/dumb/mute", or quedarse ciego/a "to be blinded", quedarse sordo/a "to be struck deaf", or quedarse paralizado/a "to be paralyzed"... also used as quedarse embarazada sometimes as "to get knocked up" or "to become pregnant", and there's an expression quedarse de brazos cruzados which is understood as "to stand around doing nothing" but literally "to stay behind/be left with arms crossed"]

hacerse = to become (with effort) [most understood as "to make oneself" - this is used for something you achieve with personal effort often times; hacerse rico/a "to get rich", hacerse famoso/a "to become famous"... it's also often used for dietary restrictions or religious conversions; hacerse vegetariano/a "to become a vegetarian" or hacerse budista "to become Buddhist" as an example; it's also sometimes used for vocations or something you study and work at for a long time or with a vow like hacerse monja "to become a nun"... while not 100% the most common expression it expresses a devotion and work ethic rather than just expressions that use ser as "to be/become" with professions]

Be especially wary of ponerse because it honestly has so many additional meanings: ponerse la ropa is "to put on clothes", ponerse el sol is "for the sun to set", ponerse could be "to become", or an expression like ponerse las pilas is "to get your act together" or "to get yourself in gear" but literally it's "to put one's batteries in"

There are also some verbs that are just more commonly reflexive for your purposes... like concentrarse, or a verb like graduarse "to graduate" where simple graduar is "to calibrate", a couple others are jubilarse "to retire" or something like desahogarse which is "to vent" [lit. "to un-drown oneself"; in the sense of "get off one's chest" to make them feel better]

-

Addendum: I do have to mention that reflexive endings get used for many things so it is sometimes weirder and more complicated and no one explains why; the umbrella term is "pronomial" which includes the reflexives, but it just means any time you see a reflexive ending but it might not fit the typical "to onself" definition

And, the weirdest one of all is se which you might think is reflexive but it also might not be

There are going to be times you see a se that isn't reflexive; sometimes it's passive, sometimes it's impersonal, sometimes it's taking the place of le or les in a sentence with indirect and direct objects

Really, se is the weirdest one and I only mention it because you're going to be confused by se many times; it's just versatile

In general, a se refers to a 3rd person something and it gets used in descriptions of 3rd person unspecified, or to mean "itself" or "oneself" in some cases. There's almost always a 3rd person-ness to se where something is happening but it might not be a "thing" so much as it happening "on its own", if that makes sense

I know, it's weird, I'm sorry