#gatekeeping it for now /lh

[triona-tribblescore]

I wonder what song he's gonna sing~

[nygleskas]

missed jermstone 2nd year anniversary (twas feb 21st) this is so so sad ....sorrey gideon i luv youuuuuu 💗💗💗💗 everyones obligated to look at him

[scarletwix]

DO IT AND YOU'RE COOL DO IT AND YOU'RE COOL DO IT AND YOU'RE COOL this has been your local chaos entity providing terrible peer pressure

... sigh

[allmightyscroll-swag]

When you're being mean to me this is who you're being mean to

urm actually 🤓☝️ you must be imagining things I do not have the capacity to me mean

Look at my face that is not the face of a person capable of being mean

I am literally the size of an average plant pot I do not have enough room in my body for meanness 😔

[idolpaff]

Following back everyone who’s followed me since like 2018, I’m sorry I’ve left y’all hanging I just forgor 💀

[sirwow]

hey guys i think we over staffed this shift ANYWAYS i wanted to draw alot of interns so heres alot of interns. In order left to right; Wally (me!!), Mochii (@mochiiniko), Jay (@herosplatling-replica), River (@emo-hermit), Desert (@fufupng), Babs Possession (@possessable), Victor (@emphasis-on-the-oopsie), Mish (@m3llowm1sh), Jeff (Fiascone on discord), Sof (@granat-sof), Ami (@i-want-to-do-things), Mal (@pokeblog123), Marie (@lolatulips), and Handtern (@nightmun) ohmygod that took too long to tag AGH. anyways! i have thoughts on each and they'll be under the cut if youd like to read

Wally - i mean its me, no comment here other then fix your posture man Mochii - The hair is surprisingly fun to draw! She's probably about to deck Wally again tho. Jay - Wings my beloved, I saw you drawing her mostly with her wings now so i wanted to fit that. River - you already know hermit. BITES Y Desert - Her hair makes me angry in both pixel art and normal art. i mean its really pretty but dies BP - thank you for being simple <3 also i looove to draw the hair its so fun Vic - Shiftay boe.. thinking about Wally-Vic dynamic forever even if they would only actually talk once. Mish - i took your nose privileges BITCH /lh Jeff - Jay wont see this but they're /gen so silly, would get electrocuted with again. Sof - The only thing in that brain is minerscales /pos, Also fun belt to draw Ami - Imagine your doctor coughing into their scarf and you getting electrocuted from it. just a funny thought lol Mal - Basically PJ's and a coat gang, thought it be fun to turn the lose hairs to look like those old tv connectors to reference the robot connection Marie - Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss; girlie looks like shes going to a gala but its actually just underpaid intern work Handtern - Alright ill be honest this is my personal favorite, i adore handtern and i really need to draw them more!!

[cinnamon-phrog]

Intro + selfship list + tags !!!

Hello!!! My name is Lexie/Phrog!!

I'm pansexual and genderqueer, my pronouns are she/her but I'm okay with masculine/neutral terms.

I'm very anxious with talking to the selfship community and interacting more but I'd like people to know me better!!! I just take a while to warm up to people, the kind that needs a little bit of extra time to be more sure of herself. Also I was cursed with bad internet connection which doesn't help dfgfdsdfghgfd if you have ever met me and I haven't spoken to you in a while I am SO sorry and it's nothing personal I just have problems keeping track of moots and get nervous to talk to new people.

All my f/o's are romantic and I'm okay with sharing them [but it's okay if you're not, I don't take this personally since your comfort is your comfort, it is more than okay to not want to share for whatever reason, if I disrupt your comfort then block me and I hope you know your f/o's adore you. I mean that genuinely.

All-Time mains:

Red Guy 👄🍝 [Don't Hug me I'm Scared]

Yellow Guy 🎨🌻[Don't Hug me I'm Scared] [*spongebob under icecream truck image.* I see him as an adult personally!! See him how you wish but I like him this way. He's also my first official f/o before I realised I could also have the other two <33]

Duck 🦆📋 [Don't Hug me I'm Scared]

Poly tag for me n the trio since I see them as polyam: 🚦🏠

Mains atm:

Gangle 🎭🎀 [The Amazing Digital Circus] [I have only had her since yesterday but if anything happens to her I will kill everyone in this room and then myself /ref /j]

Zooble 🦩🎪[The Amazing Digital Circus] [I don't know if I still like the tag I made for them- I chose a flamingo because their pink wing looks like a flamingos' and a circus tent because. Obvious reasons. And I've had him longer than Gangle, I've Zooble since the release of tadc's first episode.]

Secondary:

Sally Starlet 🌞💫[Welcome Home]

Kryten 2x4b 523b 🤖🌠 [Red Dwarf]

Pim Pimling 💗😀 [Smiling Friends] [The heart emoji I use looks pink on my side but I realise it looks like a heart attack to people who don't have a windows' device but it's meant to be pink to match him sdfghfdsfgg]

Charlie Dompler 💛🧢 [Smiling Friends]

Don't talk about much out of shame:

Squidward Tentacles 🎼🐙[Don't think I need to explain where he's from scvbndfg]

Sandy Cheeks 🧪🌸[Again I. Don't need to explain.]

Howdy Pillar 🐛🍎[Welcome Home]

Mr. Voice/Morgo 🎈🦌 [Little Misfortune]

Sally Finklestein🧵🍂 [The Nightmare Before Christmas]

Woody Pride 🐍👢 [Toy Story] [I hated him as a child but now I realise I was just jealous of Bo and all the fans who had a crush on him that I saw in ts's very small fandom szdfgdsadfgfds]

Rex 🦖🎮 [Toy Story] [HE'S CUTE OK. Sometimes you pick the f/o and sometimes the f/o comes to you with little sad eyes asking if you wanna play viddy geams.]

DNI criteria:

Please don't interact if you are pr*ship, c*mship, 'anti anti' or neutral. I know some of you like to interact regardless but you'll just get blocked anyway.

And please don't interact if you like to gatekeep DHMIS characters in terms of shipping and Yellows' stupid age discourse [he's whatever you perceive him to be so long as you're not pushy or be gross abt it or until the creators say otherwise!!!! Basic respect and manners weren't taught to you it seems!!!! Everytime someone argues Yellows' age I add another kissie to his lips btw. If you even care. /lh]

And um. F/luffybird is a weird subject for me since all toxic fans I've met that have been weird about my selfship have been diehards for it. Despite me shipping it myself I'd much rather there be 4 of us than 2. It's not so much of a triggership than a bunch of bad memories that come from people I have sadly known in the past to do with the ship. Everytime I get a 'only they should be together they are superior they do not and cannot like anyone else' I add another kissie to the both of them and then we all kiss each other and Yellow. If you care. /lh ship if you want just tag it so it goes through my filter 👍

Froggie dividers from this post here!!! <33

[one0p1nk]

Describe your friends in one sentence!

Note// Long as heck post ig. Phrases or quotes in a nutshell count as sentence right/lh

Yami// "Sobs,,, PINS, HELP???"

Beth// "Ah, baked goods aight."🌸

Klai// "Mhueheheheheheh" >;3😇

Joe// "EHHFBDBDBHDBDBDHDBDBDBBDB, MY BBGs omg;;;" 😭🥺 *proceeds to doom yaoi them*

Tae// "I fight with my demons all day and all night guys. Yippeee!!"🫶✨️

Sam// "Wh- why do I have a "yapper of the year" reward???"/ih

Sleepy// "I have eepy disease." ☺️☕️

Four// "take a break."🔫💥💥💥🥰

Skye// "I'm not o'glorious." *proceeds to girlboss gatekeep anyway*/pos/lh

Fifi// "Imma adopt you." (Fifi Plz no-)

Orange// "Hello." *does the sailor moon pose*lh

Anwyll// "omg pretty boys... now kiss-"🥰 (🫶🤝)

Mandi// "Hee hee hoo hoo, omg a spider- help." *gets helped to kill it*/ih

Kory// "I miss my wife guys,,, sobs,,, I'll come back soon---" *leaves in ant runaway*/ih

Lupi// "I'm not going to comedy jail again!!! You won't catch me!!!"

Emma// "Spill the tea, I'm listening babygurl."✨️💅

Al// "giggles giggles,,, brainrots everywhere and anywhere hee hee".

Clown// "I love my wifes and hubbys ill protect them with my life." 🐺🤡/ih

Boris// "I love old men. And old men kissing."/hj

Nakki// "Crazy? I was crazy once."/ref

Meito// "I have the urge to eat Isabela cake I'm sorry." (Literally edit a drawing of her getting bitten JDBDBFBFBF;;; just you wait I'll draw Lolo like a pirulín or something/lh)

[i-cant-sing]

ok I saw the post with someone asking you to chose between the zenin and todoroki and I'm just like... are we talking about the same zenin clan?? like the absurdly sexist misogynistic zenin clan????/lh

I meant between YANDERE Todoroki Clan Vs YANDERE Zenin clan, I'd chose YANDERE Zenin clan because if u read my works, you'd see baby Fushiguro "ending" misogyny with simple questions like "Why do the women eat in the separate room, but I (a girl) with you?" And she thought it was because the men were gatekeeping the fun the women were having so she left to join them. Soon, they all joined you in the females dining room because all the men terribly missed u. As you grew up, the men started treating their women better because then you'd start asking questions and ask why they're discriminating them, and they really didn't have a good answer that wouldn't make you hate them.

So for you, they ended misogyny. Even Naoya, although he still calls you his "poverty stricken, poorer than a church mouse child."

Now Todoroki clan might not be misogynistic, but they sure are turning a blind eye when Rei abuses/kills u. So... yeah.

[painfulgoodbye]

Dream is so cruel /lh because he showed us his pretty face, we got obsessed because he is so pretty and now he disappeared again 😭

Please pretty boy show us your pretty face again :(

he really is gatekeeping his face from us again :(( snapchat era was so good to us

BUT maybe we will see his face in the tech video he is planning to upload before the minecraft videos start coming out, surely he has to actually show himself using it 😭🙏🏻

[goodnews-diary]

Things I'm just now finding out about my system:

Our innerworld has literal layers

There's an elevator in the "backyard" that takes you down to a liminal space where the hermit subsystem lives

There are six ENTIRE, FULLY FORMED ALTERS that I haven't even SEEN yet

Grian didn't want to tell me because he thought I wasn't ready to handle this news

Grian is also a shit gatekeeper /lh

[systemtermz]

actually one weird name that i’m hung up on right now is our highest level (known) gatekeeper named cosmosis? we have a lot of weird names but that one is like.. what does that mean /lh

The physical (not spiritual) ‘reuniting’ with the cosmos (after death). That’s an… astrology related belief? I think?

-Sire

[sl-vega]

busts down the door and storms into your inbox after seeing that post: VEE BESTIE YOU ARE JUST AS AMAZING, PERFECT, TALENTED, ALL OF THE ABOVE ISTG IF YOU DONT START APPRECIATING YOURSELF-

no but in all seriousness LMAO i swear there are still times now where i doubt my writing, theme making skills or dont think im as qualified to give people advice on writing or stuff but then!! we have amazing kind hearted people like vee who will come in and make all that doubt disappear with her constant and never ending love & support 🥰

VEE IM NOT KIDDING WHEN I SAY YOURE A HUGE SUPPORT AND INSPIRATION FOR ME TO KEEP GOING WITH WRITING🫶as one of my first moots and the one to show immense support for stealing the spotlight ( my first ever smau ) i am forever indebted to you and happy we’re mooties <33

me being too good for this world?? girl, you are too good for the whole universe 😔 AND TOO COOL FOR YOU? GASP NO NEVER! the day i become too cool and the day we both become too cool together 😎HELP-

but anyways, that’s enough of my sappy rambling! your smau’s and writing are incredible vee you’ve got every right to call yourself a cool writer ( i will do as many shameless plug in’s as i have to, to prove it. that’s a threat /lh ) I LOVE YOU SM /P 🤍

AWW MAE- (girl I TEARED UP when I read this)

I'm so happy to know that my little comments and random asks i send you make you feel that happy, and I'm so glad that my support means something to you! <3 <3

AND TY MAE THAT MEANS SM THAT I'M AN INSPIRATION TO YOU- You inspire me a lot too, and your support also means the world to me ❤ (SOBBING RN GIRLIE YOU ARE TOO SWEET-🥺😭)

THE COMPLIMENT OVERLOAD, MA'AM YOU DON'T NEED TO- I am so lucky to have such wonderful mooties such as yourself mae <3

TY AGAIN FOR THE KIND WORDS (and the shameless plug offers, i shall gladly take you up on that) AND ILYSMT MAE!

(now don't mind me re-reading this ask for the hundredth time, i gotta gatekeep these nice words a little longer)

[loveoaths]

prefacing this question with /gen i’m not trying to start anything i’m just a bit flubbered with some of the new discussion around din and the children of the watch and i trust your interest and analysis on the subject

are the children of the watch not a cult? ignoring bo-katan’s history and hypocrisy and general “bo-katan-ness,” the children of the watch do seem like a cult.

now, i don’t have a positive relationship with the religion i was raised in so i’m a bit biased toward the narrative of din no necessarily adapting bo-katan’s version of being mandalorian, and i think din will have to choose between a bunch of mando’s saying “my way is best” before going “fuck it im making my own Way”

looking at fandom, there’s a lot of (justified) anger toward how mandalorian culture (particularly in comparison to the jedi) is celebrated, and for some reason this sentiment isn’t carried over to the Children of the Watch

again, all /gen and /lh i’m not trying to start anything

great question! well, technically, there are a couple of questions in your ask, but let's start with the main one:     

are the children of the watch not a cult? ignoring bo-katan’s history and hypocrisy and general “bo-katan-ness,” the children of the watch do seem like a cult. 

short answer: no, they are not.

long answer: the children of the watch are not a cult, because they do not meet the requirements of a cult. the children of the watch are more akin to a fringe religious group or sect.

but lio, what is the difference between a religious group and a cult?

i’m glad you asked! for simplicity’s sake, this section borrows heavily from this dictionary site.

a common definition of religion is “a set of beliefs about God or the supernatural.”

general characteristics of religions include:

the group worships a higher source of power rather than a single person;

there is a shared, sincere belief system;

the main belief or beliefs are consistent with basic mainstream standards for human dignity;

appropriate forms of conduct between people are defined;

an understanding of evil is established, especially how it impacts humans;

there are sacred ritual acts.

meanwhile, a cult is “a group of people with extreme dedication to a certain leader or set of beliefs that are often viewed as odd by others.”

general characteristics of cults include:

followers encouraged or forced to worship a specific group leader who gatekeeps or solicits knowledge to maintain social and emotional control over the congregration;

potential members are hounded into joining and rushed through the process while they are distracted from red flags and concerns by a barrage of community love-bombing, outreach, and promises of support;

questioning beliefs, recruitment tactics, or anything else are discouraged or are met with punishment, social ostracization, or other negative responses;

a belief system stolen from pre-existing religions and social movements and cobbled together to suit the leader’s personal narrative;

can be religious, but are not inherently; cults can also be secular social movements, like the nexium cult

followers’ daily lives are dictated and controlled by the decree of the leader, including, in some cases, mandating when cult members can use the restroom, when they can have sex and with who, which body parts they’re allowed to keep, whether or not they’re allowed to raise their own children, where their money and assets go, what words they may use, and other things that should be decided by human sovereignty and independent choice rather than an external force;

followers are personally monitored to ensure they’re adhering to cult guidelines, and spied upon so the cult leader can collect blackmail material, sensitive personal information, fears and desires, and more to manipulate and control them if they try to leave, start questioning the leader, or display too much independence;

the cult deploys methods of control (financial leans, debt, forced isolation, threat of punishment, kidnapping, corporal/emotional/physical/sexual violence, coercion, etcertera) to keep members close by and obedient. 

pretty nasty stuff, right? right.

but lioooooo, that wasn’t the question! is the children of the watch a cult or not?!

patience, padawan! the rest is below the cut!

cults function by relying on several key tenets, such as: preying on the vulnerable; isolating members from society through financial/philosophical/religious teachings and physical removal; re-ordering members' worldviews to centralize the cult; and worshipping or venerating a single individual or duo.

let’s look at a breakdown central cult tenets, then see whether or not the children of the watch displays these tenets in the mandalorian:

1. total authoritarian control-- cults, like any abusive toxic relationship, fundamentally rely on a membership base that is, at its core, utterly dependent on the cult. the membership must believe like they are incapable of living a distinct life outside of the cult, they must believe that it is the cult that gives them meaning and not the other way around, that the cult is beginning and the end of their selfhood. this control is often achieved by deliberately breaking down the memberships' psyches, physical punishment and harm, slowly pushing their boundaries to accept worse and worse behavior, guilting them into giving up all financial assets "for the good of the cult," and worse, all at the behest of their leader. the control must be so complete that the members begin policing themselves not just to keep themselves out of trouble, but because they truly believe this is how the world should work. authoritarian control is achieved by breaking down the individual and rebuilding them with flaws in the foundation, so they are destined to fail, and fail, and fail, so they will crawl back to the cult each time. this is because cults rely on extreme dependency to work, which is why cults are famous for preying on the sick, the elderly, the weak, the grieving, and the socially vulnerable.

verdict:  the children of the watch do not canonically exhibit signs of total authoritarian control, at least not in the mandalorian. 

for one, there are multiple coverts spread across the galaxy, presumably with multiple armorers guiding said coverts' members. real cults rarely break up the leadership like that; there can only be one godhead at any given time. the armorer never mentions running those coverts. there is a canonical line about "other coverts hearing din was in need" on navarro and coming to save him in season one, but with no implication that the armorer ordered them to respond, or was even in close communication with them.

beyond that, the armorer is designated the covert’s spiritual leader who holds the knowledge of mandalore and the way, but she does not control the movements of covert members. in fact, the visuals of the covert imply that it isn’t, exactly, a home for the children of the watch, but a hub; somewhere members return to after completing missions they choose, for the reasons they choose, and a place to return beskar to its rightful owners. 

we know that din believes in returning beskar to the covert, but since the armorer never orders him to go find more, and since we never see or hear other COTW discussing it, we cannot assume that they are mandated to search out beskar by the armorer. this freedom of movement, sans restraint or mission, and conspicuously absent of din seeking the armorer’s permission to leave, would be very uncommon among most established cults, because most cults only thrive when its members are highly segregated from the rest of society and congregated in a joint environment where cult beliefs can be vigorously reinforced until members forget the outside world is any different.

2.   worship or veneration of a single individual – cults have a godhead, a solitary figure through whom the divine knowledge/prophecy/religious beliefs/bullshit is channelled through, who all cult members must admire, obey, and serve without question or face punishment. this person is sometimes drinking their own flavor-aid and believes they really are a prophet or whatever, but more often than not they are charlatans who knowingly prey on the vulnerable for personal gain: sex, power, money, cheap thrills, fame, and so on.

verdict: din’s covert is not a cult, because its spiritual leader, the armorer, is not worshiped. she is a spiritual leader, and admired, but that is as far as her authority goes. she interprets the text of the creed, but she does not gatekeep it; all the covert members have knowledge of mandalore, and seem free to access however much of it as they want to, because all of them have access to the outside world. her status is more like that of a spiritual guide or teacher: she can tell people when they’ve strayed from the path of the creed and declare whether or not they are considered a mandalorian, but she cannot compel them to obey her. this is crucial, especially in the context of season two, where she reneges din’s mandalorian status. she tells him that according to the creed they both ascribe to, he is no longer a mandalorian; the only way to become a mandalorian again would be by bathing in the living waters beneath the mines of mandalore. she does not command him to do this, or shame him, or berate him, or excommunicate him; he is not bodily thrown out of the covert and commanded to get his shiny ass to mandalore on pain of death. he is simply told of his new status, and told what to do if he wants to fix it, but that’s it. this is precisely the role of a spiritual leader: to guide their congregation back to the path of the faithful when they stumble.

3.  social isolation – when new members join, cults go out of their way to deliberately isolate new folks from friends, family, and society as a whole. cults will assign duties and activities to keep new members busy and under the cult’s thumb, will tell them that their friends and family “just won’t understand”, will encourage them to sell their homes and move into a cult building or into neighborhoods filled with other members, convince them to quit their jobs and work in cult admin or otherwise devote every waking moment to the cult, and remind them again and again how only people within the cult will ever understand and support them, unlike their ignorant friends and family. cults actively discourage deep fraternization with outsiders.

verdict: din’s covert is not a cult, the children of the watch do not police who members talk to.  we know this because din has friends, specifically cara dune. their dialogue implies that they’ve known each other for more than just a few months, presumably much longer, because they know pieces of each other’s histories, are close enough to scuffle for shits and giggles, and have a report together. If COTW were a cult, din and cara would have none of this. and, more notably, when din brings cara, greef, the child, and IT into the covert in season two? that would have been a big no-no if this was a cult.

4.  extremist beliefs – cults are usually guided by extremist beliefs, which (in the most boiled down terms possible) are essentially beliefs that render the believer to reject and become intolerant to alternative beliefs, oftentimes to violent ends. this is another controlling tactic used to isolate members, and teach members to obey without question. think of, like… an intense conspiracy theorist. the intensity and wildness of those theories often push your “average” person away from them, causing these people to dig down even deeper in what they believe out of anger and loss, and then turning to one another and creating an echo chamber to reinforce their choice to believe these things. think about how once someone buys into one wild conspiracy theory, they’re often more likely to by into even wilder ones, until they’re suddenly screaming that the universe is actually a space worm’s dream hallucination and to prove it they’re going to blow something up. it often works like that. (however, this is not uncommon, because most people congregate around others who share their beliefs, outlooks on life, morals, values, and so on. It’s why religious communities form. it’s the human desire for interconnection and a shared knowledge base.) again, this is the most crude bare-bones description i can manage with a migraine, so i’m aware i’m missing a lot, here.

verdict:  din’s covert is not a cult, because its members do not adhere to or exhibit extremist beliefs. they don’t seem to be building toward anything, and they aren’t intolerant of all or even most belief systems outside of theirs. they are not concerned with changing the ways of other mandalorians, even if they disagree with them. their belief in the creed does not translate into violence against other mandalorians who are “being mandalorian wrong.” 

if anything, i’d hazard that the children of the watch are more like… mandalorian fundamentalists, i guess? (but even that doesn’t totally fit imo). 

we don’t know how the armorer and other covert members feel about other mandalorians removing their helmets, but we do know how din feels – in season two, he believes that all mandalorians who remove their helmets “are not real mandalorians.” 

din believes there is a right and a wrong way to be a mandalorian, however the fact that he did not know there were mandalorians who removed their helmets at all implies that he straight up was not taught about other traditions. he was only taught the creed, so it’s straight up possible that he came to that conclusion all on his own, because every mandalorian he’s ever met has been in the convert and they’ve never removed their helmets in front of him. 

but even if the armorer had explicitly told him this was the only way to be a mandalorian, it would not qualify as an extremist belief for the reasons above. this is a theosophical and cultural difference between two mandalorian sects, just as there is a long history of disagreements and arguments within real-world religious groups. 

final verdict:   the children of the watch, and din’s covert, are not cults, because they do not meet the cult criteria. rather, they are more akin to fundamentalist-lite religious group. 

now, i don’t have a positive relationship with the religion i was raised in so i’m a bit biased toward the narrative of din no necessarily adapting bo-katan’s version of being mandalorian, and i think din will have to choose between a bunch of mando’s saying “my way is best” before going “fuck it im making my own Way” 

knowing your own bias is important, as is being respectfully open to other peoples’ viewpoints, so know that your internal reflection is seen and appreciated.

as for din’s spiritual journey, i am 95% sure that is exactly what will happen. he will see the damage in-fighting has done to the mandalorians, and decide that neither of these ways works for him, because he is a new kind of mandalorian in a new era; he, and his people, need a new way of relating to one another and the GFFA in the wake of the empire’s destruction. he will find a third path to follow and invite others to join him, with a new idea of what it means to be a mandalorian carrying him to the end of his character journey. 

which is, like… definitely a character journey, i guess; just not an interesting one or one that i care for. it’s a very third-act feeling, same-y “twist”, which is about all i expect. if this doesn't happen i’ll either be happily surprised or consumed by irritation. we’ll see. 

looking at fandom, there’s a lot of (justified) anger toward how mandalorian culture (particularly in comparison to the jedi) is celebrated, and for some reason this sentiment isn’t carried over to the Children of the Watch 

now, i have a question for you (the asker, and other people who are in the same boat vis a vis frustration over fandom views on mandalorians versus jedi) – personally, i’m not sure how, or why, the jedi factor into this, or why anyone cares about the two groups getting erroneously pitted against each other at all?

the jedi are regularly vilified by numbskulls who haven’t rewatched the OT or the PT since they were like, nine, and have less collective critical analysis skills than i have in my left nut, so i don’t really give a shit what those people have to say, and i encourage you and everyone else who is bothered by them to take the same stance. It’s like arguing about the ethics of war with an uncritical call of duty lover: they are not here to engage with themes, they’re here to watch big things go boom boom. it’s a losing battle and all the casualties are on your side.

other people i see falling on the “jedi critical” side of things tend to be newer, younger fans who also are not keen on analysis, or are fans who saw the mandalorian first and are now working backwards into star wars without watching the movies. they are going to have an understandably uncharitable view of the jedi versus the mandalorians because of that framing: they are introduced to din djarin as a hero with a (gray) code of ethics, who has all the benefits of sound design and lighting and plot-armor to come across as the good guy. he is depicted as a “traditional mandalorian”, what this new audience will read as a true mandalorian, whereas the likes of bo katan and the viszlas and boba fett (if you want to go there) will always be read by them as outliers/bad mandalorians because they met din first.

pre-existing fans had the opposite framing experience: you met a bunch of gun-toting HOO-RAH assholes who were talented at two things: killing jedi, and killing each other. naturally, you’re going to be less charitable to mandalorians and whatever hype they get than the aforementioned fans. 

so, imo, the new mandalorian fans are shown a noble culture of ass-kicking space knights in a space-knight militia who rescue kids and beat the shit out of bad guys.* they hear that mandalorians don’t like jedi/annoying youtube fanboy critiques of the jedi as “being as rotten as the republic” and they side with them and talk shit about jedi. the irony is that “a noble culture of ass-kicking space knights in a space-knight militia who rescue kids and beat the shit out of bad guys” IS THE JEDI, but because of how they were introduced to it, and potentially because of some of the salt getting sprinkled around by both sides, totally miss that they can love the jedi and the mandalorians for different reasons. 

also, let’s be real: western propaganda is a bitch. a lot of media conditions people to believe that the gun toting violent man who shows up and shoots evil guys is the true hero of the people, and that anything to do with politics, religion, mediating violence, and advocating for peace is not just useless and a waste of time, but somehow, bizarrely, both elitist and the source of the world’s problems in the first place. 

the people who bought into that are the same ones who think the mandalorians are right and the jedi are wrong, and it’s largely in part because the mandalorians shoot people in the face to solve their problems and people wildly mistake that for a perverted kind of direct action, whereas the jedi are cool space monks who get unwillingly drafted into a war who are trying to straight up stop the war from happening, while not knowing that the war, their involvement, their troops, their government, and everything else was literally created to work against them and rope them in so tightly they couldn’t see it was a trap until the noose was around their neck and their legs were kicked out from under them.

that’s not a slight against the jedi; it’s fucking tragic, and is meant to convey that they were always going to lose but that still fighting to save the people they could was the right thing to do, even if it meant they had to go down swinging. 

unfortunately, once again, using anakin as the pov characters for the only movies about that era was a mistake, because people walked away believing that he’s faultless and the jedi are dumb for not seeing a political trap forty plus years in the making that was created specifically with them in mind, while these same people can’t even see that copaganda is real and shitty and insidious. but i won’t get into that because it makes me crazy.

i’m saying all this to say, you aren’t going to win with these people, because they are ideologically invested in wrongness and the “might makes right” mindset because they either think it’s cool, or it makes them feel safe, or some other reason i can no longer be bothered to guess at. 

it sucks that you and parts of the fandom feel like it is unfair that mandalorians are celebrated for the same actions that jedi are vilified for, because that is unfair, but i do not think the answer to that is to… hate the children of the watch or say the covert is a cult (i am actually not sure what the connection between this part of your ask is compared to the top, so i’m just guessing here) solely based on fanon interpretation, fandom anti-religious sentiment and bias, and two lines from bo katan kryze, of all characters, lol. doing that seems like the exact thing you are frustrated with other fandom people about: hating characters you love and want to defend based solely on how they feel and how they want to cherry-pick and twist canon to suit an anti-jedi narrative.

especially when the children of the watch actually seem quite removed from the mandalorians fandom upholds/is angry about: the children of the watch hold no ill-will toward the jedi, they are not concerning themselves with bo katan’s goal of reclaiming mandalore, they are not looking for revenge, they are not engaging in any of the behaviors and schemes that the main mandalorians are. the children of the watch are focused on survival, and following the way, and reclaiming the beskar they view as their birthright. they have the energy of a cluster of doomsday preppers who learned to prepare for the worst and keep their head down to avoid getting slaughtered again. they do not seem, narratively speaking, like the mandalorians to get angry at, because they are fundamentally disengaged from those people.

it seems to me that the only way to contend with this is to block idiots quickly and without mercy, ignore people who are just flat out wrong, and know that you don’t have to pit two bad bitches against each other to prove a point, or drag one girlie through the mud to make the other one shine. 

again, all /gen and /lh i’m not trying to start anything

no worries. i enjoyed the question! thanks for sending it my way.

and, for the record: i’m a pro-jedi, 100% jedi-lover, and i am a fan of the children of the watch. (in general, my interest in mandalorian history – aside from my fascination with mandalorian jedi – bounces between “oooh shiny” and “whatever this is dumb and you’re all losers” so i don’t really talk about them.)  we exist! happily! join us!

*this is an oversimplification for comparative purposes. randoms reading this, do not come for me in my fucking inbox with some “well actually” shit or i will stomp your crotch to dick-dust.

[ilyuu]

i will be gatekeeping that ask. thank you. its mine now

BUT BESTIE ITS A PROCLAMATION OF MY LOVE FOR YOU LET THE WORLD KNOW :(( /lh

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

people say all of the susie/mage sisters ships are Kinda the same, which is a valid take to have, but i don't really think theres enough shippers/content of any of them to make that conclusion.

real quick analysis of all three first impressions (for fun):

flamsoos: my favorite of the three for a while. no clue why its the scarcest out of all them i don't think i've ever seen any ship content for them. a pyromaniac and mad scientist blow up machines and everything around them together. flamberges firery personality and zeal for life is contagious and makes susie appreciate the little things around her, and flam loves showing it to her and seeing how susies eyes shine the more she understands. flamberge teaches her how to let loose and have fun in a way she's never experienced before from her stale and sanitized life at hwc, which leads to susie having a seemingly 1-sided crush on an oblivious flamberge. insert love like you song from su that's them

fransoos: quickly rising up the brainrot charts for me. keep your friends close and enemies closer situation. rivals to lovers where both of them are too stuck up to realize they're much more similar than they think. francisca thinks susie is arrogant and full of herself and susie thinks the same of francisca, though they have a mutual respect for each others skill in their respective areas of expertise. despite this, they both try showing off and one-upping each other at every possible opportunity. both grow close as realize this lashing out is in some ways from how they've been hurt by the restrictive systems they used to live under, and how they're both struggling to adjust now that their previous lives have been upturned. in many ways both of them needed this rivalry. there's silent understanding and solace in each other's mere existence

zansoos: the most like a traditional relationship, is how i see it. not personally my thing but it is cute. zan and susie are wary of each other the first time they meet, and are curious about the expertise and lives of the other. then quickly come to the conclusion that the other is the more insane one, both in personality and lifestyle. they think this even as they get to become better friends. at first they pat themselves on the back for holding themselves back and being too polite to air that out, but those feelings later change to guilt. it comes as a relief when both of them admit they thought the other was nuts and they aren't being a bad friend for thinking that 1-way of the other. without the blockade of feeling like that have to hide their true feelings from the other, even in general after this, they're able to pursue a relationship built on trust. they're both a little messed up in different ways and that's okay, they love each other regardless. they're mildly toxic to strangers around them and support and enable each other doing that, like bullying children. the gaslight gatekeep girlboss ship

and just for fun, because i have polls now and we all know everyone with polls has to make at least one poll announcing it to everyone/lh, regardless of anything i've said above what's peoples favorite soos/tms ship. it's for science