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jk-scrolling · 1 year

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JK Rowling's New Friends viewer transcript

Again, feel free to fix any mistakes I made or repost this wherever you like. This is from last year, but I think it's still valuable for anyone who's still in doubt that JK Rowling's deeply anti-trans (not merely pro-woman, as she's portrayed herself.) Original video by Shaun here: https://youtu.be/Ou_xvXJJk7k

Hello, everyone. Today I'd like to talk about something that's been bothering me for a while. It's a particular contradiction - one that comes up over and over whenever trans people or trans issues are mentioned either online or in the press by people who self-describe as gender critical, and I think I should start today by showing you an example of that contradiction. "

So in June of 2020, author JK Rowling published a statement on her website titled “J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues” and in that statement, Rowling explains why she decided to throw her weight behind the gender critical crowd. There's been a lot written and spoken about this statement, but I want to focus on one particular part of it right now and that is JK Rowling's description of Magdalen Berns. Magdalen Berns was a British YouTuber who Rowling describes as “an immensely brave young feminist” who was “a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn't believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises.” And because of this, she says, when Rowling followed Berns on Twitter, she was subjected to abuse from trans activists.

Rowling also talked several times about her concerns in her piece. She doesn't want to be quote “slurred as a bigot” for “having concerns about single sex spaces,” for instance, and she ends her piece with a request for empathy for the women whose quote “sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.”

So this is the framing: Magdalen Berns and women like her simply believe in the importance of biological sex. They just want their concerns to be heard, and they don't want to be called bigots because of that. And just because of those things, they and their supporters are bombarded with unwarranted social media abuse.

Now, even if we're trying to be as fair and objective as we can be here, it has to be said that this framing looks rather one-sided, right? All the aggression and abuse is coming from just the one side, in Rowling's view: “We are all meek angels with just a few concerns, but we're getting shouted down by completely unreasonable social media abusers, you know." So let's examine this framing: Is how JK Rowling described Magdalen Berns accurate? What was she actually like?

Well, I imagine many of you will be familiar with her now-infamous blackface tweet where she calls trans women quotes “blackface actors who are motivated by sick sexual perversions.” You see, Magdalen Berns was not passively voicing concerns. She wasn't simply stating her opinion that biological sex is important. She spent her time attacking transgender identities, which she repeatedly declared were invalid in her YouTube videos. She consistently made a point of misgendering any trans person she mentioned, and she was also more than willing to attempt to ally herself and her cause with figures on the far right. She could be seen on Twitter sharing Breitbart News stories about their neo-Nazi poster boy, Milo Yiannopoulos, praising him and asking for him to share her YouTube videos. She even defended Yiannopoulos after he was widely criticized as a result of condoning - in a podcast - child molestation.

As a side note here, Berns has also called what she considers trans activism to be a quote “child safety issue,” which is utterly ludicrous when considered in contrast to her defense of a white nationalist who said child sexual abuse could be a quote “hugely positive experience.” That is what he said.

Berns could also be seen giving a platform to the controversial figure Posie Parker, who we'll talk more about in a moment. She also had a habit of focusing on George Soros as the person who she claimed was funding the EU transgender lobby, which is a little suspect - especially considered in light of her willingness to pal around with racists. (Note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros_conspiracy_theories)

So what's my point here? Well, there's a huge contradiction between the Magdalen Berns described by JK Rowling and the Magdalen Berns who actually existed. I myself interacted with Magdalen several times on Twitter, and this is just my subjective view but she was consistently aggressive and unreasonable, and someone who I thought was motivated not by some concern she had about single sex spaces, or a desire to protect her rights, but by her hatred and disgust of trans people. You can't call people pathetic sick fuck pervert blackface actors, and then say “oh sorry, I just believe in the importance of biological sex. I just have a few concerns.”

So where does this leave us with regards to JK Rowling and how she chose to portray Berns? Well, it would be premature to come to any conclusions right now. I think, after all, Magdalen Berns is only one person. So if we want to build a proper argument here, we need some more evidence, I think.

So let's pick back up with Posie Parker. So Parker, also known as Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, is someone who thinks that quote “women who call themselves men should be sterilized.” So that's the sort of person she is. Parker is a controversial figure, even within the gender critical movement, and something that happened very recently serves as a good example of why that is. On Sunday, September 18th of this year, (note: 2022) Parker organized an event called Let Women Speak, which took place in Brighton. It featured gender critical speakers talking about what they see as the dangers of what they call “trans ideology,” and it also attracted a crowd of counter-protesters who turned up to protest the event.

But the event also attracted some other people, and these were far-right nationalists such as the Tommy Robinson linked Hearts of Oak group, who streamed the event live on the internet. Posie Parker has defended including these groups as part of her events. She sees the issue of stopping so-called trans ideology as so important that she's willing to welcome in anyone who agrees with her on that particular issue, even if they also happen to be racist, homophobic, misogynist, or outright fascist.

Parker is friendly with white supremacist YouTubers. She has appeared on Tucker Carlson, and she herself has a history of making racist statements - that again, is controversial even within the gender critical movement. Some gender critical people refuse to associate with her, and the group Women's Place UK put out a statement explaining why they were cutting all links with Parker, saying quote “women's liberation cannot be won by aligning with reactionary or oppressive groups or individuals who would deny women our rights and increase division and injustice.”

Another person upset about the far-right infiltration of the gender critical movement is Angela Wild, a member of the group Get the L Out, who viewers of my other videos will definitely remember. This is her alongside Rowling at a much-publicized lunch, in a photograph featuring many of the other prominent figures of the UK's anti-trans movement. Wild recently stated on Twitter: “I’m horrified. we seem to have handed over our movement to people who go around preaching racists(sic) and misogynistic hatred. There was a time it was shameful to be a racist. Nowadays we can't even name racism anymore, letalone denounce racist infiltration. It's one thing about being called far-right by the TRAs” - that's what she calls trans rights activists - “& laugh it off BC frankly, I’d rather cut both my legs" - off, I guess? - "than to accept Heritage Foundation money, an alliance with Matt Walsh, or proclaim proudly that 'on the issues, Trump is my man.' But when the far right speaks at GC events unchallenged, we have no leg to stand on to tell them 'that's not true' Because hey, it IS true. Well, #notinmyname.”

On the other hand, there are many prominent people within the anti-trans movement who were supporting Parker even despite her history of racism and her openness to working with the far right. Returning to this image, we can see both Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce standing on either side of Rowling, there. They both attended Posie Parker's event. This is them traveling to the event. This is Helen Joyce at the event holding a cut-up Pride flag - she's not gay herself, by the way - and this is both Helen and Maya speaking at the event in clips uploaded by Hearts os Oak to their Twitter account HeartsofOakUK.

So this event exposed something of a schism in the anti-trans movement. Some of them are happy to work with people like Posie Parker and the far-right groups that she welcomes to her events, and some of them are not, and there was much discussion on the issue in the wake of this event. JK Rowling chose to weigh in by using her platform to condemn the protesters at the event - not the far-right presence inside the event, but the people who were there to protest the event. Rowling's language is also offensive and absurd and incorrect: The protesters were “howling at lesbians for not doing dick,” apparently. She also explains in the replies to her tweet that quote “woman(sic) unafraid and unashamed of saying that they love only women are the greatest affront to patriarchy. “

But JK Rowling seems to be a bit confused here, to be charitable. This was not a lesbian event. The organizer, Posie Parker, is married to a man. Speaker Maya Forstater is married to a man. Speaker Helen Joyce is married to a man. By their own definition of lesbian, they are certainly not lesbians, and I doubt the men from the far right groups present at the events identify as lesbians, to make a minor assumption, there.

There were some lesbians at the event, I’m sure, but there were also a bunch of straight conservative homophobes. Posie Parker herself has argued that the quote “LGBTQ community is attempting to indoctrinate and groom children" in a video titled “Thank you Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

Something else that needs to be mentioned here is Parker's association with an American group called Hands Across the Aisle, an organization that claims to want to unite radical feminists with conservative Christians in order to oppose what they call “gender identity ideology.” Hands Across the Aisle was founded by Kaeley Triller and Emily Zinos, both of whom oppose gay rights and campaigned to outlaw abortion. Zinos attends anti-abortion rallies, as seen here, and Triller writes anti-abortion articles like this one titled “Women Won't Be Liberated Until We're Free From Abortion” posted on the website The Federalist. (Note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Federalist_(website))

Hands Across the Aisle claims Posie Parker as a member. Here she is meeting founder Emily Zinos, and the group of posted fundraising campaigns in support of Parker on both their Facebook page and their website. So Parker is associated with and has taken money from conservative anti-abortion campaigners in the US, and this is something I want to highlight in particular here, because of course, the argument that the anti-trans crowd always uses to defend their position is that they're acting in defense of women's rights: They aren't attacking trans people, they're simply defending the rights that feminism has won for women, they say. But what does it mean for that claim when the person making it is working with and is funded by conservative anti-abortion groups?

On a similar note, one of the speakers at the event I showed there was Maya Forstater. Here's another picture of her getting all chummy with Rowling, there. And she says “JK Rowling has been such a source of strength to me and to so many women standing up for women's rights.“ So that's what Forstater is doing in her own words; standing up for women's rights. I mentioned this because Forstater is due to speak at another event very soon, that being “Lawfare: the use and abuse of law to fight for freedom.” That's an event being put on as part of the Battle of Ideas Festival by the group ADF UK.

So who are ADF UK? Well, they're the UK branch of the US-based Alliance Defending Freedom and, to quote the Southern Poverty Law Center: “Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a "homosexual agenda" will destroy Christianity and society.”

The ADF also campaigns to outlaw abortion: Their website proclaims the overturning of Roe versus Wade as a victory, and is generally just covered in anti-abortion rubbish. The first president of the ADF was a man called Alan Sears who wrote a book called "The Homosexual Agenda: The Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today." The second President of the ADF was attorney and Baptist Minister Michael Farris, who in 2003 wrote a legal brief arguing against the Supreme Court overturning sodomy laws in the Lawrence v. Texas decision. So what is Maya Forstater doing speaking at an ADF event? She claims to be standing up for women's rights but she's working with people who campaign to take those rights away. They want to take away a woman's right to have an abortion, f she's a lesbian they want to take away her right to get married to anyone except a man, and if she had sex with another woman, they want to send her to prison.

Anyway, what about the other speaker at Posie Parker's event, Helen Joyce? Is she merely standing up for women's rights? Well, another person at the event was another Helen - Helen Staniland. Now Staniland hosts an online show called Wine with Women - that's "Wine" spelled without an H, there - and a few months ago, she had Helen Joyce on as a guest. Now this interview caused quite a bit of alarm, and rightly so. In it, Joyce openly talks about wanting to reduce the number of trans people: All trans people, even if they are happily transitioned, she says, are a problem for the world because they need what she calls "special accommodations. Every trans person is a difficulty, she says. I watched this whole interview and it was utterly horrible and very revealing. The clarification that she wants to reduce the number of people who transition even if they are happily transitioned is especially awful, and the talk about trans people being quote "difficulties who are problems for the world because they need special accommodations" just sounds like fascist eugenics rhetoric.

The first thing that came to mind for me listening to this interview were those Nazi party propaganda films about disabled people that I watched as part of making my video on The Bell Curve: They too talked about groups of people as costly problems burdening the rest of society. This interview again put lie to the claim that Joyce and her allies just have some concerns or just want to protect women's rights. This is her on the offensive talking about keeping down the number of trans people like there's some invasive pest or something.

Moving on, let's talk about Allison Bailey, who's standing between Joyce and Forstater in the picture there. Bailey is someone who has also defended joining forces with bigots, and I quote "to be clear: every woman & girl must know that their sex-based rights will disappear if they do not pay attention & join this struggle. This is so regardless of their skin color, age, economic status, politics, education etc. Whether they are non-racist, racist, homosexual, or homophobic." "This is a danger & a struggle the likes of which none of us has ever known. Adhering to any given political or philosophical belief system is not the immediate priority. If I am being attacked & someone is willing to come to my rescue, I'm not going to ask about their politics before welcoming their help." Don't worry, though. She doesn't personally condone bigotry, as she actually abhors it, she says, but just not enough to not welcome the help of racists and homophobes in her movement.

Allison Bailey is one of the founders of the anti-trans group LGB Alliance. Now another founder of LGB Alliance is Bev Jackson who has defended working with the US-based right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation. I've mentioned the Heritage Foundation before in another video of mine, because they were anti-sex education. The Heritage Foundation are the worst; they're climate change deniers, they oppose gay marriage, they work to scale back voting rights, they campaigned to overturn Roe versus Wade. But Bev Jackson is open to working with them.

And speaking of the Heritage Foundation, let's give a mention to Julie Bindel, the person on the lower right of the picture, there. Julie Bindel is a journalist who frequently works with Heritage Foundation speaker Jennifer Lahl. There's Lahl talking on a Heritage Foundation panel, there. Here she is on another panel. Here she is doing a talk with Julie Bindel. Another talk with Julie Bindel. Here's a picture of them just hanging out. So it's safe to say that Julie Bindel is pretty obviously open to working with Heritage Foundation speakers, so that's a plus one to open to working with anti-abortion groups, there.

And before we move on, I should point out one of Jennifer Lahl's fellow Heritage Foundation speakers, Gary Powell, seated next to her there. And just to bring things full circle here, Gary Powell used to work with the LGB Alliance. He was on their online comms team and responsible for updating their social media feeds.

All this makes me wonder about the people who earnestly believe in the LGB Alliance - you know, the people who who take it at face value and trust that it's an organization that exists to defend gay rights. Did they ever think for an organization that exists to support gay rights, the LGB Alliance sure seems friendly with people who work with the Heritage Foundation, an organization that opposes gay rights? That's strange, isn't it? It's a little suspect, there. Not really what you'd expect.

Anyway, next up let's talk about Caroline Farrow. Now Farrow is someone who earlier this year tweeted out how she was feeling emotional because her life is being quote "invaded by insane trans rights activists." Then she'd say she saw JK Rowling "coming out fighting & she lost it" to which Rowling replied "big love to you xxx." What a lovely moment, there. So who is Caroline Farrow, the person to whom Rowling is sending love and kisses? Well Caroline Farrow is the director of the UK branch of the organization CitizenGO. So who are CitizenGO? Now if you've been paying attention to the rest of the video today, I doubt this revelation will be all that shocking to you, but CitizenGO are a far right anti-abortion anti-gay rights organization. This one originated in Spain and not the US, though, so that's a novelty at least. CitizenGO defended Russia's laws pertaining to so-called "gay propaganda." They've campaigned against abortion in Kenya, where they astroturfed the debates online. They paid Kenyan people to tweet health disinformation and anti-abortion arguments.

Farrow herself has written anti-abortion articles. She's tweeted that homosexual acts are sinful. Here she is campaigning against a Pride parade. You get the picture. Farrow is also notorious in Ireland for downplaying the Catholic Church's infant mass graves scandal. And as a side note here, Farrow is currently running a crowdfunder for her own legal fees through the CitizenGO site. There are people who call themselves feminists donating money to this organization.

So I want to talk about something in particular in relation to Farrow, and that is platform responsibility. Let's imagine a possibility: Maybe JK Rowling didn't know who Caroline Farrow was - she just saw someone praising her on Twitter and responded in kind, inadvertently supporting an anti-abortion homophobe in front of her millions of followers. Now that is lazy and irresponsible, but possible. Maybe. But here's the thing; following her tweet, hundreds of people immediately pointed out to Rowling who Farrow is, providing every sort of evidence you can ask for. It made the news, this tweet. Forbes talked about this tweet. So she knows now, doesn't she? But this tweet is still up. Rowling didn't delete this even after being told who Farrow was, and the sorts of things that CitizenGO are up to.

Now unfortunately, this is a pattern. As another example, Rowling has praised the anti-trans work of self-described "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh, a man who is currently in hot water after an audio recording surfaced of him seeming totally cool with adult men impregnating minors, so long as they also get married to them. Matt Walsh has also spoken in favor of arranged marriages. But even after a flood of complaints about her praise for a creepy fascist, JK Rowling's tweet in support of his work remains online. Just a couple more examples, Rowling sent a nice reply to the account literarygoon - someone who had previously threatened to set those who believe in gender ideology on fire, urinate on them, kill them, and bury them in the desert. Lots of people informed Rowling about that, but her reply to him remains. Dennis Kavanagh, writing on the account jebedoo2, was suspended from Twitter for saying that he preferred AIDS to the work of charities like Stonewall and Mermaids. When he returned to Twitter, JK Rowling was there to welcome him back, even though she was told why he was suspended, and he himself claimed to quote "stand by every word." In her Twitter replies, he was later suspended again for threatening those charities and their friends, saying he would quote "fucking nail you to a wall." Rowling was also told about this, of course, but again ignored it. And we can't say that she doesn't see these replies because when people point these things out to her, she blocks them. She blocked me for criticizing her in her Twitter replies, so she is aware of all this, but ignores it because she has to.

She wants to pretend that all social media abuse - all the death threats, all the violent fantasies about setting people on fire and cutting them up and nailing them to things - she wants to pretend that all that is solely originating from people critical of her and her allies, and in order to preserve that fantasy she must deliberately overlook the abuse originating from inside her own camp. She just quietly pretends not to notice it and blocks anyone who points it out to her.

The last person I want to talk about today day is not one of JK Rowling's new friends, but one of her old friends; Baroness Emma Nicholson. Rowling co-founded the Children's High Level Group charity (note: now known as Lumos) with Nicholson way back in 2005, but still jokes around with her, making fun of trans people on Twitter. Emma Nicholson is a homophobic conservative politician who opposed same-sex marriage, opposed lesbians being parents, supported Section 28 (note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28), and she's proposed legislation to limit access to abortion. As recently as two years ago, Nicholson could be seen arguing against same-sex marriage, which saw her receiving much criticism as well as being removed from her position with the Booker Prize Foundation. Nicholson has also in the past had her house protested by a lesbian activist group.

Nicholson has also attended and given speeches at Posie Parker's events. At one of which, at least, she stated her intention to get Posie Parker into Parliament. Emma Nicholson is a typical example of a bigot who's found that homophobia simply doesn't have the same level of open institutional support that it once had, and so now uses transphobia as a way to advance her bigotry. And I want to make something very clear here; Emma Nicholson is a politician voting on and proposing actual laws. She isn't "yer Nan" who just doesn't know all the PC words, or whatever - she has actual power that she has wielded to attempt to stop same-sex marriage and roll back abortion rights, and she's been welcomed into the gender critical so-called "feminist" movement just because she's willing to be transphobic.

With this in mind, I want to think about JK Rowling's claim that she supports abortion and gay marriage. Twitter user Katy Montgomerie prompted Rowling earlier this year to say that she has always supported abortion and gay marriage, but I wonder what that means in light of everything that we've talked about today. What does it mean to support abortion rights and gay marriage if you also support people who are working to outlaw those things? If you're friends with politicians who introduce anti-abortion bills? Several groups we've talked about today actively campaigned to take away abortion rights and gay marriage rights, and many people that JK Rowling support either work for those groups directly or are open to working with them as part of an anti-trans movement. The transphobes are so desperate for allies in their crusade against trans people that some of them are willing to join up with groups who, if they got their way, would force all women back into the kitchen and all gay women back into a closet in that kitchen. The anti-trans movement claim to only be protecting their rights but these are the very same rights that they're willing to risk by allying themselves with far-right reactionary movements that seek to take those rights away.

This alliance threatens women's rights far more than anything trans people are accused of doing, and it seems obvious to say this, but it reveals that this movement is not really about protecting women's rights, but can only be about attacking trans rights. Unfortunately, the divide in the anti-trans movement between those open to working with conservatives and the far right and those who are not is being won by the people who are willing to do so. The people not willing to align themselves with racists, homophobes, and misogynists are being sidelined, and the ones who are are being left to run the ship. And this is who JK Rowling surrounds herself with - literally surrounds herself with.

Rowling herself has very recently shown where she stands on the issue: She posted a picture of herself in a shirt criticizing Nicola Sturgeon for being a quote "destroyer of women's rights." Now this shirt is a design from Posie Parker's online store, which can be seen advertising the shirts under Rowling's tweet. Posie Parker, remember, throws rallies that fascist groups are openly welcome to attend. She works with and is funded by an anti-abortion organization. She thinks quote "women who call themselves men should be sterilized." And JK Rowling is helping to advertise her t-shirts.

So what's my point today? Is it that JK Rowling is a bad person? Well, not really, although she is. My point today was to show the worrying links between the UK's anti-trans movement and far-right groups. JK Rowling just happens to be right in the middle of all this. If I had to make a concluding point about Rowling it would be that she knows what she's doing. I think we've seen enough evidence today to fairly make that judgment. When she shows kindness towards ultra-conservative bigots, she knows exactly what she's doing. When she attacks and mischaracterizes the people who protest those ultra-conservative bigots, she knows exactly what she's doing. She is a long time friend of ultra-conservative bigots, after all: That's just who she is, and everything she says about respecting trans people and marching with them if they were discriminated against or whatever else - it's just a lie. She's just a liar. The contradiction I mentioned at the start of the video isn't really a contradiction at all: It's just a conscious misrepresentation of the anti-trans movement.

And I'd like to end today by thinking again about Angela Wild, the person who said she was horrified about the gender critical movement being handed over to the far right. And I'd like to have a brief word with anyone who has thus far supported the anti-trans movement but now, like Angela, has some concerns about all the racists and homophobes turning up. So hello! Whatever you think trans people are up to, it has to be said that objectively it is some small beans compared to the outlawing of abortion and the re-criminalization of gay sex. Now I'm not speaking for anyone but myself here, but trans people are not your enemies, trust me, but the Heritage Foundation, CitizenGO, the ADF, Hands Across the Aisle, and groups like them, they are actually coming for your rights. They have people working around the clock trying to undo the last century of feminism. Are you content to be used by them? Especially if you're not straight yourself. You're going to be relegated to being the gay camouflage for a bunch of straight conservative homophobes who work with the US religious right. Do you really think that they'd stop after pushing just trans people back in the closet? Of course they wouldn't. The moment you're done helping them push trans people in, you'll feel the hands on your back, believe me. So, you know, get out now. That's my advice.

Anyway thanks a lot for watching, everyone, and thank you especially to all my supporters over on patreon, some of whom are scrolling by right now. Patreon backers get early access to all my videos, so if that's something you feel like checking out, I'll leave the link below in the video description. You can also follow me on Twitter and twitch, if you like. I will leave those links below as well. So thanks a lot for watching today, folks. I'll see you next time.

#jk rowling #shaun #transphobia #abortion rights #heritage foundation #transcript #alliance defending freedom #gender critical #LGB Alliance

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sixstepsaway · 2 years

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So this tweet popped up on my Twitter yesterday and I just...want to talk about it more than my quote tweets had space for.

Firstly, the replies to this tweet seem to list every relationship on TV ever, which cements in my mind that "abusive TV relationships" truly and utterly depend on the viewer, rather than the actual TV relationship.

Secondly, some people are listing things like Hannibal and Will, and if you think that's an 'idolized relationship', idk what to tell you. Others are listing the Doctor and Rose, the Doctor and Clara, the Doctor and Martha, which... I can't say those relationships are perfectly healthy, but abusive? Come on.

Most of the couples listed in the reply to this tweet are couples that are interesting. They're dramatic and have unrealistic highs and lows. That's the appeal of them. People have listed Chuck and Blair, which I do not think the majority of people who enjoy that relationship want to emulate. Maybe someone wants "someone who loves me as much as Chuck loves Blair" but that's a long way from idolizing the entire relationship.

Besides, this doesn't even dip into the crux of what I want to say here, and that is that all of this is fiction.

First and foremost you have the fact that unless your Main Plot is something entirely removed from the relationship, most TV (or book, or movie, or whatever else) relationships will involve drama, and most drama requires elements that people will dub abusive.

Obivously there's a difference between "A raped B and then they got married later on 😍" (one of the examples in the replies, in fact; General Hospital?) and "C and D had a big fight but got over it later", but narratives are driven by conflict and drama.

On top of that, most people write fanfiction in their mind whether they realize it or not. If you say to someone, "Hey, what do you think X would do if someone hurt Y?" and they shrug and reply, "Probably go ape and kill everyone to save her?" they've just written fanfic. So have you. Most people have a preconceived notion of how characters would be in certain situations, of how they would treat other characters or, in the case of self-shippers and similar, themselves.

I think this is where a lot of the confusion lies, really. Let's use Dany and Drogo as an example.

People in the replies take issue to people 'idolizing' their relationship (which seems to mean: dressing up as them for Halloween or writing 100k of fanfiction about them, not anything deeper than that), but we didn't see a lot of their relationship on screen. What we saw was Drogo raping Dany (something that didn't quite happen that way in the book), and then Dany taking control of the situation, and then an episode or two later Dany seemed to be in love with him (I do not like how they changed their relationship for the show but kept her ending up in love with him, to be clear) and he seemed very adoring and proud of her, especially in the heart-eating scene.

When her brother threatened her and their child, he killed him to protect her. He put her first, turned her into a Khaleesi, gave her strength and freedom. These were all things we saw on screen.

However, the human mind does not like blank spaces, we automatically fill in the gaps. Most people's idea of Dany and Drogo's relationship probably involves a subconscious image of him curled around her with his hand on her baby bump, of him supporting her on the nights she missed her brother, of him learning to show kindness and love towards her and so on.

This leads to people who didn't like the relationship they got on screen, who filled in the blanks with something bad and toxic, to believe these people are 'idolizing abusive relationships'.

On top of that, for a lot of people (women and queer people especially) these relationships are a power fantasy.

They don't want someone like Drogo (and, sometimes, they imagine themselves as Drogo, protecting their Dany from her brother, being a protective warrior type etc), but that doesn't mean it isn't a power fantasy.

When men watch John Wick or Breaking Bad, people do not rush to condemn them for clearly wanting to go on murder sprees and cook meth. We all know that it's a power fantasy, that it's just something that exists inside of their minds to enjoy, much like every work of fiction.

As soon as women and/or queer people have their own power fantasies, fantasies of big strong scary guys who attack and kill and hurt everyone around them but never lay a hand on them, it's always essay material. It's always time to talk about how stupid they are,

On top of that, there's this thing that writers - almost always the male ones - do, where they make a male character that women and/or queer people latch onto and see as excellent and boyfriend material and a romantic power fantasy, and then when they have that male character turn on the woman in his life and hurt her they turn around and go, "haha stupid women! Don't you know that men who hurt people will ultimately hurt you as well? Gotcha! lol you're so dumb!" as though they are not the ones who wrote the character as doing that. Yes, we know that violent men ultimately turn on the people closest to them, we are not stupid. That's the point of a power fantasy - a world where you have power and that does not happen.

It's just really weird to me how things like this get turned into A Thing, where clearly someone is doing something wrong and romanticizing something bad.

I suppose it comes back around once more to the tale as old as time: Women* shouldn't read books, they're too stupid to differentiate between fiction and reality and can't be trusted with their own hysterical minds.

It's pathetic and it's frustrating and if I didn't see so damn much of this absolute bullshit of this idea that people who enjoy fiction - especially those of us who enjoy it so much it engulfs our lives to some degree - must be less trustworthy when it comes to knowing fiction isn't reality than those Morally Pure Souls who enjoy it less and Aren't Freaks About It, and so clearly know the difference.

Let people enjoy their power fantasies in peace, without turning it into essays on how bad it is to idolize a relationship between a woman with three dragon children and the leader of a wandering desert tribe in a fantasy land that doesn't exist.

#fiction #tv #fandom discourse #purity culture

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mishasminions · 4 years

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The Last Time I’ll Write a Long Post About Supernatural (15x18-15x20)

15 YEARS OF WATCHING THIS SHOW. 11 YEARS OF RUNNING A BLOG ABOUT IT. IT’S BEEN QUITE A RIDE.

[15x20 Speculation + evidence at the bottom]

First off, I just wanna come clean and say, after all these years, I still think they should’ve ended at Season 5.

If you’re going to come at me with “Then why’d you stick around to watch it if you didn’t like it?”, your question is immature, and the answer is simple: I just want to know what happens next (I also love the main characters and their actors too). You can watch a show and still think it’s shit.

Call me a clown, but despite all the disappointment and trust issues that this show has given me, I would still look forward to the day where it might just turn itself around and bring back the quality it once had, or realize the potential of each story it was trying to tell, or at the very least, do justice by my favorite ship.

Never happened.

They’ve had a few good episodes here and there. I can’t imagine the SPN Universe without The Man Who Would Be King, The French Mistake, and Scoobynatural. Seasons 6-10 were enjoyable at times. I blocked out most of 7 & 11-15.

If you’ve been following this blog since its heydays in 2010-2014, you’d know I’d try my best to defend Destiel and this show’s decisions regarding it no matter what.

Because you know what, as a CONCEPT, this show is good. If you take a look at all the worlds its storylines have birthed in fanfiction/fanworks, you’d see how much Supernatural has wasted its own story arcs. The writing got shittier as each season progressed, and they’ve obviously given up in production as well because the quality in the execution has noticeably gone down too, but if you take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this show still tries to make sense of itself.

[If you’re still following this post, please bear with me, I know this is long, but I just want you to understand how jaded and pessimistic I am with regards to this show, so maybe you can buy into whatever hopeful thing I’m about to say later on.]

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT DESTIEL

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would give us Castiel’s “I love you” speech. To the point where, if I weren’t so desperate for it, I would argue that it was completely out of character for him to word vomit the way he did (but I’m not gonna diss on that right now because I’ll take what I can get).

I’ve valued every meaningful and obscure exchange that Dean and Cas have had in the earlier seasons, and I was willing to accept their relationship as just that--undefined, without any clear boundaries as to what they really are. And I think that was beautiful on its own.

But now, they’ve chosen to define it.

After they’ve driven every possible wedge between Dean and Castiel in seasons 11-15, to try to explain away their feelings as something they offer to a collective.

Dean can’t mourn and pray for JUST Cas, he has to mourn and pray for EVERYBODY--even Crowley, even some chick he just met, because god forbid he cries about just the guy who has given up everything for him--that would be “too homo”.

They’ve even set Cas on a path to abrupt fatherhood just so he can care about something other than Dean. Make it seem as if Dean wasn’t his purpose through and through.

And after all these years of this stupid show trying to deny it, they choose to acknowledge it at the worst possible circumstance, at a time where they’ve been so far apart, that it seems so foreign for them to suddenly come together.

But here we are. And they’ve chosen to tell us.

Chosen to tell us that everything that Castiel has done leading up to his death, he has done it because he was IN LOVE WITH DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that the ONE THING THAT WOULD MAKE CAS HAPPY IS DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that BEING WITH DEAN WINCHESTER is something that CAS WANTS BUT KNOWS HE CAN’T HAVE.

And they’ve also chosen to tell us nothing about how Dean feels.

Sure, finding out your angel made a deal, the stipulations of said deal, his newfound happiness philosophy, his long-winded monologue of why he loves you and why you’re worthy of his love, and to top it all off he tells you that being in love with you is enough to make him happy while he subtly hints that he’s always wanted to be WITH you romantically, was a lot to process in the 5 minutes after you’ve just had an existential crisis.

It’s whatever, right? Let’s culminate 11 years worth of tension and feelings in 5 minutes. Let’s waste the entire episode with cringey expository dialogue, and irrelevant sequences. The whole season was a waste anyway.

You know what Supernatural? FUCK YOU FOR THAT. They deserved better. WE deserve better.

And I would love nothing more than to hurl every possible insult your way,

But for the last time, I’m going to HOPE that you’re finally going to try to make it better for the fans that stuck by you all these years.

No more baiting new viewers, no more placating casual viewers, no more excuses. 15 years. Bring it home for the people who have actually been around.

SO HERE’S HOW I THINK 15x20 IS GONNA GO

There’s two ways this series is gonna end. Horribly or Spectacularly.

First let’s all take into consideration what Andrew Dabb says about it:

So, let’s start with

ENDING HORRIBLY

In this scenario, Misha is telling the truth about his last day of filming being 15x18. His “camping trip” during the last few days of filming 15x20, was actually a camping trip. He doesn’t go to Vancouver to shoot.

Jensen wasn’t “being careful” during the zoom interviews that it was just him and Jared quarantining for the shoot, it really was just him and Jared (althought most of these were done pre 15x19) Supernatural isn’t smart enough to do misleading PR, and they’re once again oblivious to the potential of their own story.

Misha hasn’t posted a “Goodbye Castiel” tweet because he’s probably saving it for last episode or he forgot because it was overshadowed by the Destiel trend that night.

So what we get is:

Sam and Dean are on the road again, up against the monster of the week. Only their world no longer has actual Supernatural beings anymore, so the monsters they’re fighting are humans.

Humans end up killing the Winchesters (despite having gone up against literally every powerful being imaginable INCLUDING God himself). Dean and Sam end up in heaven and relive their greatest hits.

Meanwhile, Castiel rots in The Empty because he died after realizing that he was happy and gay. Jack doesn’t bother rescuing him—his surrogate dad, the guy who made this specific deal to spare him—even though it was so easy for him get Cas in and out of The Empty when he had a fraction of the power that he has now.

Dean never speaks of Castiel’s confession because despite all the hints of a profound bond in the earlier seasons, and the fact that Dean has never cared for anyone (who isn’t his actual brother) as immensely as he does Cas, Supernatural just can’t have its main macho character be “suddenly bisexual” because that would hurt the male ego or some shit.

His heaven would probably be living happily ever after with his family. “Family” meaning Mary and John Winchester--two of the shittiest parents ever (but they’re not going to include them in this episode like they were supposed to because of Covid) and Sam.

Sam also gets a dog. As usual.

I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to do this. After everything they’ve pulled, this would be right up their alley. I actually expect this ending.

Anyway, onto the next possible ending

ENDING SPECTACULARLY

In this scenario, Supernatural tries to stick the landing, and Jensen’s whole “It didn’t sit well with me at first, but then I took a step back after talking to Kripke, and realized that I had to view it from an audience perspective, I am now really excited about it” (DC Con 2019) anecdote about his thoughts on the final episodes, were actually about Dean potentially ending up with Cas. (Which would totally make sense because Jensen at first didn’t see Dean as anything but hetero, but as of late, he has been throwing in Destiel jokes of his own, so he seems to have warmed up to the idea)

Backed with Misha’s tidbit (DLConline 2020) that he and Jensen had conversations about Destiel, and that they wouldn’t have gone through with it if Jensen wasn’t onboard with it, but Jensen didn’t push back at all. (Why would they need to check with Jensen if it was just Cas going all in?)

Robert Berens (writer of 15x18) also wrote the script at the beginning of Season 15, but made Misha privy to the concept a year prior (Season 14), so they went into this season knowing about Destiel going canon.

This one’s a reach, but this scenario also supposes that Misha was lying about his whereabouts during the filming of the final episode, and him saying that 15x18 was his last episode is part of the diversion to avoid taking away from the weight of Castiel’s death.

And that Supernatural is actually self-aware of its own material (similar to how they have wrapped things up in the past—lots of expository dialogue, poor execution, but fulfills the story arc)

Since Season 15 is basically a Meta Season (Chuck/God as a writer, pretentiously calling out how he created the worlds, its characters, and basically invalidating the past 14 seasons), and 15x19 is supposedly the finale for Season 15, written by two of the worst Supernatural writers, Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming (Bob Singer’s wife), then we can assume that 15x19 is where the shitty writers kill themselves--as Chuck, of course.

So we get a badly written episode that produces a bad ending, or as Becky put it, “All action, and no Cas”

So we get the bad writers season ending at 15x19.

And 15x20 is where Sam and Dean write their own stories, and where the cast had a hand in pitching ideas for it.

Dabb has mentioned that 15x20 (Act Two) is a SERIES finale, where they try to resolve the characters’ journeys.

Because as everyone has acknowledged, Supernatural isn’t about the story, it’s about the characters.

So here’s what we can get out of it:

With no more Supernatural beings left to fight, Sam and Dean are in a stalemate. They’ve resigned themselves to fighting to the bitter end, but the “end” has passed, and they’re still standing.

So they try to figure out who they are now, and what they want out of the life they still have.

Sam still wants a normal apple pie life. Before Dean dragged him out of college to go hunting with him, he had a whole life planned out for him. Become a lawyer, settle down with a nice girl, and get a dog. He gave all that up because they had work to do, but now the work is finished, he can finally go back to wanting that for himself again.

Dean finally realizes his self-worth after Cas saves him again. His prayer to Cas in purgatory may have helped him come to terms with his anger, but the whole “you’ve done everything you did for love” speech finally put him in his place, and he learns not to hate himself anymore.

But of course, he cannot fully reconcile with himself if he doesn’t get Cas back, and tell him how he feels.

Because Dean actually wants something for himself this time. Something he knows he can finally have if he can just salvage it.

So maybe this time around, with the help of Jack (off-screen), Dean saves Cas. Grips him tight and raises him from perdition.

They bypass The Empty deal by turning Cas human, and he lives the rest of his days with Dean.

Dean and Cas know they deserve to be saved, and they know that they deserve to be happy.

(Wishful thinking, maybe they kiss a little)

Anyway...

I’m just saying, there’s NO WAY that they’d have Cas go through that whole rushed speech, if they weren’t going to do anything about it later on.

But again, after 10 years of disappointment, I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to pat themselves on the back and say, “Okay, we sort of gave them what they wanted. We’re good now”

If that’s the case, Supernatural, I’m sorry I wasted my time on you.

Here’s to hoping 🤡

#THE LAST TIME I'LL CLOWN FOR THIS SHOW #SUPERNATURAL #DESTIEL #15x20 #15x19 #15x18 #UNTAGGED #INSIGHTFUL INSIGHTS

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tarosin · 3 years

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the great adventures of y/n and ranboo

this is an extra part to the great adventures series

summary: part two to the angst imagine (the not so great adventures of y/n tommy tubbo jack and ranboo) it’s a happier ‘ending’ please read what is written in bold

this is an “alternative ending” around 15 years into the future this doesn’t mean this is actually how the series is going to end im writing it now and including it as part of series as their friendship is already established i can confirm y/n and the group are going to have a happy ending when the series eventually comes to an end this also does not mean the series is anywhere near the end i plan on continuing the series as vlogs come out, i feel the need to confirm this now love between y/n and ranboo in this imagine is completely platonic

it had been about a month since you last streamed whereas ranboo continued to stream a few days after the fallout as he wanted to make sure you were going to be okay. even though ranboo knew this huge fallout would eventually happen, it still hurt him, especially since he knew there was no way to prevent it, the four of you in the same house mixed with the stress of being some of the most-watched content creators made living rather difficult. it was like walking on eggshells as you didn’t want to interrupt someone's stream, then there was the additional stress of obsessive fans finding out where the four of you lived, you still remember that day very vividly. you were sat in between tubbo and ranboo watching the office whilst Tommy was in an interview when you received a message from your mod.

Chris: hey y/n I received this message earlier I don’t want to scare you, but maybe get the locks changed. someone sent a message claiming this is your address *image of message from ‘fan’*

it didn’t take long for tubbo and ranboo to receive a message from their mods saying the same thing

“holy shit...”

“chances are Tommy has the message too. we shall go check around the house when Tommy is done with the interview.”

luckily no one ever showed up to the house, but the fact some people were so obsessed to the point they found your address was enough to put everyone in the house on edge. and now it was just you and ranboo in the house. you didn’t feel safe as even though ranboo promised to not let anything happen, you didn’t wanna risk it.

“we should move. there’s no point in having such a big house for two people, what are we going to use the extra space for heh? hide and seek with people who have our address. no thank you. I say we move leave this mess behind and start completely over, hell I’d feel safer in the us and that’s saying something”

ranboo agreed the house didn’t have the happiest memories attached to it anymore, it hurt walking past the hallway as it would bring back the memory of him crying into the crook of y/ns neck whilst tubbo left the house.

“let’s do it, I’ll do an early stream then we can look for houses. go take a shower. I’ll stay close to the door so you’re safe, then you can stay in my room whilst I stream, you can join me if you would like.”

“you’re being very protective all of a sudden...let me guess you got the message from our mods announcing the obsessive fans are at it again?”

“go take a shower.”

“no.”

ranboo ended up picking you up, carried you to the bathroom and turned the shower on before putting you on your feet.

“quick shower I’ll see you later.”

and with that he left the room shutting the door behind him, 30 minutes later you got changed and followed ranboo to his room ready to join him whilst he streams

“hey boo, can I join you? I kinda wanna get into streaming again.”

“I'm so glad you asked, I was going to do a face cam stream, if that’s okay?”

“of course.”

you grabbed his mask and glasses whilst he locked the door so you were both safe. “here you go.”

“thank you.”

the pair of you started the stream and it was honestly going well, you were having so much fun you forgot about all the negative things currently going on, you began to understand why ranboo continued streaming as for those 2-4 hours of streaming it felt as though everything was back to normal. 3 hours later the two of you ended stream and Twitter went crazy. tweets ranged from fans talking about how ranboo was streaming with you, how Tommy was in chat, and how tubbo was modding as people who mentioned anything about their address being leaked were banned by tubbo. the one thing that caught ranboos eye was fan art and a picture of you both from the stream captioned ‘they’re platonic soulmates your honour’ ranboo went as far to like, retweet and comment on it.

ranaltboo: glad you liked the stream it was great having y/n back, think I might make them play tattletail next stream

definitelynoty/n: isn’t that the Furby game that terrified you in 2021? bring it on boo!

Twitter went crazy over this interaction, you had finally come back to social media after months of being inactive, and it looked like you were here to stay. a month later you and ranboo moved out of the house and sold it to your aunt and her wife and their three adopted children, you explained the situation and even changed the locks for them all before they moved in.

“Please do tell us if anyone shows up who shouldn’t be. we changed the locks as you were aware- oh hello little one.”

you noticed one of their children decided to cling onto your leg

“I like your hair it’s colourful!”

“Indeed it is.”

“WOAH A GIANT!”

the little girl let go of your leg and ran to ranboo asking to be picked up, unsure of what to do he looked towards you. however, you were too busy laughing about the fact he was compared to a giant.

“I'm so sorry uh if you want to pick her up you can, you don’t have to.”

“pick me up, tall man... I want to be taller!”

ranboo ended up standing next to you with an arm around your waist whilst the child sat on his shoulders happily playing with his hair.

“ranboo do not drop that child.”

“I didn't- I didn't plan on it y/n.”

eventually, it was time to leave and the child reluctantly let go of ranboo.

“bye-bye!! hope to see you soon!”

soon enough you were at a smaller house, far away from the old house, leaving behind the negative feelings. it could only get better, a week later the pair of you had settled into the new house, it finally felt like home. you and ranboo were now streaming full time again, safe to say the two of you were thriving and closer than ever.

“so I’m thinking if I hit the sub-goal today I’ll let chat pick what colour I dye my hair.”

“make it higher, and I’ll let you cut my hair.”

“Are you being serious? oh my god!”

a few minutes later you took to Twitter to announce you were going live.

y/n: kidnapping children in the sims with ranboo psst check the subgoal.

within 20 minutes you had hit the sub-goal, chat ended up picking another random neon colour for your hair.

“right hair dye and the cutting stream will be this weekend, now let’s go back to kidnapping.”

tubbo, tommy, and jack felt awful for what happened and went back to the house where you used to live, hoping to see you there so they could apologise, tubbo knocked on the door only to be met by a young child.

“my sister watches you on twitch!”

“oh that’s lovely.. are y/n and ranboo here?”

an older woman came to the door.

“oh no, I’m sorry dear they both moved out, but they left this box and said to give it to you if you returned.”

“do you know where they moved to?”

“I'm sorry dear, I'm not allowed to tell you that information for safety reasons.”

“I understand, thanks anyway.”

they ended up going back to jacks where the three of them had been staying.

“We should open the box.”

tubbo opened the box and emptied the items onto the floor, inside was the rocks y/n handed tubbo from every trip, photos of the group, a necklace y/n had gifted to Tommy a day before the argument, and a hat y/n had taken from jack during a trip to a zoo.

“what the fuck!”

“holy shit!”

“they really kept all these in hopes we would come back?”

“and now we’re too late.”

it was now the weekend you and ranboo were ready to stream, you stood leaning on ranboo who was significantly smaller than you as you lowered the chair he sat on.

“starting stream...now.”

after the starting soon intro played, you explained what was happening to any new viewers or people who didn’t watch the stream.

“so I’m about to become Edward Scissorhands...I love that film can we watch it later?”

“yeah mhm sure!”

you didn’t know this but your ex best friends were watching and ever so often would show up in the chat.

“so boo, what are we doing with your hair today?”

“just a trim please darling?”

“This is y/ns hairdressers you get what I’m capable of!”

you ended up doing a pretty good job of cutting ranboos hair, even he was impressed.

“I didn’t doubt you for a minute!”

“mhm sure thing please don’t mess up my hair tall one!”

soon enough you had the dye on. 45 minutes later you left to wash it off, leaving ranboo to entertain stream,

“chat I think I missed some of their hair it’s okay, I own scissors, I’ll just cut it.. speaking of they did a great job, didn't they? I honestly expected them to mess up.”

a few minutes later you joined ranboo again and spent the next few hours talking with chat. tubbo, tommy, and jack stayed the entire time. they loved the fact you and ranboo were able to stay close after what happened, Tommy noticed you were still wearing the necklace he got you many years ago and spammed them chat with him tubbo and jack

Tommy: THEYRE WEARING THE NECKLACE!!

jack: so what? they clearly don’t wanna talk to us.

tubbo: shut up listen to them.

“chat why are we spamming platonic soulmates?”

“they’ve been saying it all over Twitter, look on trending y/n.”

you started to blush slightly at all the amazing artwork soon enough the stream came to an end, after saying goodbye the pair of you sat together going through fan art. unfortunately the one that caught your eye was this one twitter post where the artist had created a drawing of a piece of paper with you, ranboo, tommy, tubbo, and jack, however the paper was ripped separating you and ranboo from the others, captioned ‘it was never meant to be’ this clearly upset ranboo as he took off his mask and glasses placing them on the desk before going straight to his bed.

“boo…are you okay?”

“Are you tired of me? are you going to leave next?”

“what? no of course not! I could never get tired of you, why do you ask?”

“everyone else has left..i thought they cared about us, i knew it would happen eventually and i couldn’t stop it, i’m sorry, y/n, please don’t hate me.”

you sat on the edge of the bed looking down at the floor,

“come here.”

you watched him roll over to face you.

“you know there’s no one else who I'd rather spend the rest of my life with, right…if i hated you i wouldn’t have moved house with you. it’s not your job to fix everything and make everything better, you’re a streamer for christ sake not a therapist.”

“i guess so.. can we watch that thing you were on about for ages.”

“edward scissorhands? “

“mhm!”

you could tell he wanted to be distracted, so you agreed and put the film on, towards the end you began to get upset due to how overwhelming everything was.

“Why are you crying?”

“poor Edward.”

“come here.”

ranboo pulled you into a hug you laid there crying into his chest, he knew that wasn’t the reason you were crying, but he wasn’t about to make you tell him, luckily it didn’t take long for you to stop crying as ranboo quickly distracted you.

“ranboo..”

“yeah y/n?”

“I feel bad i didnt realise how much pressure was on you whilst everyone was arguing.”

“Hey, it’s okay, is that what’s upsetting you?”

“mhm.”

“don’t blame yourself, i’d do it all over again to keep you safe and happy..then again i didn’t do a good job on keeping you happy.”

“you did..you were always there for me even when i gave up on social media, you shared your room with me after i started receiving creepy messages from that obsessed fan, hell you even went on adventures with me even though it was clear you hadn’t been sleeping, just so we could spend time together and forget about what was happening. you mean a lot to me boo.”

“i love you.”

“i love you too bud, I’m tired.”

“go to sleep, it’s been a long day.”

“okay.”

“you just staying there?”

“yes.”

“oh, oh okay, goodnight.”

about a year later the two of you were still thriving, ranboo got you a promise ring a few months earlier.

“heh what’s this for?”

“as your best friend i promise to stay by your side and keep you safe and make sure that you’re happy, in other words you're stuck with me till the end of time.”

“boo…i really don’t know what to say.. thank you so much!”

“you don’t have to say anything!”

you ended up going out to buy him a promise ring when he started the stream and decided to take your cousins with you now that they were a little older. ranboo was doing a facecam stream when the door slammed open revealing you covering your three younger cousins ranboo not realising you were hiding them from the camera, instinctively stood up covering the camera

“ranboooooo!”

“yes you three and y/n ,what do you need?”

“we would like to watch a film!”

“Okay, i’ll go put one on, y/n will you entertain chat?”

“sure thing boo boy!”

once they left you sat fixing your hair forgetting you were wearing the ring chat noticed this and went crazy, so did Tommys group with tubbo and jack.

tubbo: that’s a ring, right??

jack: yeah looks like it.

Tommy: holy shit I always thought if anyone was gonna get married it would be tubbo and y/n, they were inseparable.

tubbo: hilarious.

jack: it could just be a ring, no one mentioned marriage tommy!

Tommy: we should congratulate them.

jack: at least let them explain fucking hell.

soon enough ranboo came back into the room,

“sorry one of them found it hilarious to steal my glasses...”

“they’re little shits i swear to god but i love them.”

you both noticed chat going crazy and both looked at each other before laughing.

“i'm sorry, i can’t take you serious in the mask and glasses!”

“i can’t take you serious with neon hair, but here we are!”

“rude!”

you and ranboo quickly put an end to the rumours,

“no we’re not engaged or married, it is a promise ring. no they’re not our children, they’re y/ns cousins they just spend a lot of time here..chat stop calling me and y/n parents and comparing us to phil that’s not..that’s not how it works okay!”

“parent arc!”

“y/n, don’t encourage them!”

“it’s a little bit funny!”

soon enough the bit came to an end and eventually ranboo ended the stream.

“hey boo look what i got you”

you handed him a little black box, inside was a ring similar to yours

“i promise to always stick around and be here for you”

“oh my god”

ranboo tackled you into a hug thanking you several times for his rings. you and ranboo were living your best life meanwhile jack, tommy, and tubbo were stuck dealing with the guilt of what happened, but they’re weren’t giving up that easy. they wanted you both back, that’s when you received a notification, tommyinnit has sent you a message request: hey y/n can we talk..please?

taglist

@dumb-chaotic-bi-energy @uselesssapphickitten @l0ver0fj0y @etheriaaly @xx-smiley-xx @hawarun @kylobensgirl @cawcaw-pretty-thing @reverse-iak @renleicrashed @augustine-is-joy @c1loudee

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seita · 4 years

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— the lottery: redlove | eijirou kirishima (m.)

pairing: kirishima/reader

genre: fluff, smut, angst if u squint

wordcount: 𝟹,𝟶𝟺𝟸

cw: cam couple!au, pro hero!bakugou

tags: soft forehead kisses, lonely!bakugou, protective kiri, dom/sub dynamics, male masturbation, hair pulling, dirty talk, praise kink, pet names, cunnilingus, pain kink, light degradation/name calling, creampie, cum eating, soft aftercare kisses & praise

note: part 2 to the loved redlove fic. i really hope u guys enjoy this!

— redlove, bakugou's favorite camcouple, hold a lottery to decide who gets a private show with them.

blog navigation.

⇦ prev. live now: redlove

Bakugou was obsessed; something he found shameful. Here he was, one of the top heroes in Japan — the Ground Zero, infatuated with a couple he only knows because he jerks off to them every night.

He couldn’t imagine what people would think of him if they found out that he spent his nights with his first around his hard cock, imagining himself fucking the pretty cam couple.

But when he got a notification one afternoon, his phone buzzing obnoxiously on the wood of his desk, he knew he was fucked.

He had been lucky enough to discover the couple had a Twitter account and promptly followed from his private, personal account. Looking back, he was glad he had enough common sense to make sure he didn’t follow from his professional, hero account.

That would have been hard to explain to the media.

He unlocked his phone and opened the tweet, biting his lip as he pressed the like button.

“We are excited to announce that we’ll be holding a special lottery on our next stream. The winner gets a private show! Details will be explained.

— redlove <3.”

He was about to go see what they were talking about when there was a knock at the door. Bakugou jumped and locked his phone, slipping it into his pocket as he gruffly called for the person to enter.

He talked to his sidekick as if he wasn’t half hard in his hero costume the entire time.

The second he was back in his home, sitting comfortable in a soft t-shirt and some sweatpants, he took his phone out and finally took a look at who had been on his mind all day; the redlove lottery.

He checked the time, seeing he still had a few hours to go before you would start your stream. So to kill time, he made himself dinner and decided to watch TV.

Thankfully, it worked and before long he lost track of time. The only thing that reminded him was his phone buzzing.

He yawned, picking it up only to choke when he saw “redlove is now live!” plastered across the banner.

He fumbled with the device, not giving a shit about how desperate he was — it wasn’t like anyone was there to judge him. He unlocked it and clicked the notification, waiting with bated breath as the app opened.

The screen was black for a moment, the spinning circle in the middle showing that it was buffering. But after a minute, the screen was finally filled with your pretty face.

You were perched at the edge of the bed, wearing an oversized t-shirt that slipped off of your shoulder with some faded writing he couldn’t quite make out. He couldn’t see any bra strap so he could assume your breasts were bare beneath. You were sitting on your knees, making it hard for him to figure out if you wore short, panties, or nothing. He hoped it was the latter.

“Where’s Ei?” you asked, reading the comments.

“He’s grabbing some things from the living room I think,” you shrug with a smile, “We’ll talk to you guys about the lottery before we get started though, don’t worry!”

“Ah did you start?” Eijirou’s voice was a bit muffled due to his distance from the microphone.

You looked offscreen and smiled, “Yeah, didn’t wanna start too late. I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

Your boyfriend hummed and climbed onto the bed, pressing a kiss against your temple, making you beam. Bakugou’s heart ached at the sight — it was almost sickening how cute and in love the two of you obviously were. The domesticity between the two of you was heart wrenching.

“So about the lottery!” you clapped your hands together and shifted to the side so Eijirou was on the screen fully.

Bakugou’s mouth went dry at the sight. The redhead wasn’t wearing his usual spiked up hair, instead it was down, hanging in his eyes. He wore a pair of sweatpants and he was shirtless, as usual. The hero wondered if it was common for him to be shirtless even when you weren’t streaming. The redhead sat back on his palms legs crossed on the bed as he eyed the screen, reading comments as you spoke.

“So, as you may know the website recently implemented a private show function,” you explained, clearing your throat before continuing, “So Ei and I talked about it and came up with the idea to hold a lottery for it! Basically,” you paused to giggle, squirming in your seat. Bakugou smiled along with you, the sound of your laugh contagious as he watched the way Eijirou’s hand was obviously up the back of your shirt.

“Go on then,” your boyfriend teased, lips quirked up ever so slightly.

You rolled your eyes and elbowed him, still smiling, “Anyway, we’re doing it on a donation basis. The more you donate, the higher chance you’ll get at being chosen!”

The playful look on your boyfriend's face vanished immediately. He leaned forward, closer to the screen, shaking his head. Bakugou’s eyes drifted to the comments on the stream to see a bunch of complaints; saying that wasn’t fair, how you were just using the viewers for money, even a handful of name calling.

“Hey,” Eijirou barked, brows furrowed. The sight made Bakugou shiver and a quick glance at you, watching the way you thickly swallowed, watching your boyfriend, he could tell you had a similar reaction, “Don’t forget this is our job. Of course we’re going to do the most we can to make money.”

Bakugou watched as the redhead began to click around on the computer. Glancing down at the comment section, he saw that a few accounts were now banned “account name has been banned” placed where their comments once stood.

“Don’t insult _____,” Eijirou grumbled, sitting back in his seat, “Remember, getting to see her pretty little body is a privilege that can be revoked at any time. I’m the only one who can call her names,” his voice lost a bit of its seriousness at that last statement, giving way to his usual playfulness. But Bakugou could tell he was still a bit ticked, his body was tense. The blonde let out a soft, almost dreamy sigh; Eijirou was a man in protection mode.

You chuckled, nudging your boyfriend before turning your smile back to the camera, “As I was saying...it doesn’t mean if you have to donate 100,000 to get a chance. You never know how your luck may play out! Either way, we look forward to this. We’ll be taking donations for this stream as your lottery entry!”

Bakugou’s heart leapt out in his chest. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d donated to the two of you. He could still remember the first time he’d heard you say his name. He’d made a donation at the start of the stream and you’d beamed, muttering out a cute “thank you, katsuki!”

The way he felt himself swoon was almost embarrassing. No, it was embarrassing.

How was he whipped over a girl he’d only ever watched fuck her boyfriend through a screen?

He sighed, pressing the donate button, going through the automatic payment process with a few clicks on the screen to verify his identity.

In the background, he could see the two of you have met in a deep kiss. His hand cradling the back of your head, slowly fisting your hair until he wrenches your head back to begin mouthing at your throat.

The whimper you release encourages Bakugou to speed up before closing the window, his donation of $120 successful.

He relaxes back against the couch, pushing his hand up his shirt to thumb his nipples. He could feel his cock beginning to grow hard in his sweats, making him grind mindlessly in his seat against nothing.

You were on your back, shirt pushed up over your breasts as your boyfriend cupped your breasts. Bakugou sighed at the sight of your pretty tits, taking note of the cute, white panties you wore that were adorned with cute pink strawberries. The material was a bit sheer from what he could see from how wet you were getting. The mixture of the lewdness of your pussy no doubt clenching and dripping against the fabric that oozed innocence and softness made his cock throb.

Fuck, you were so sweet and cute.

For a long moment, Bakugou felt envy burning in his veins as he watched your boyfriend worship your body. He tongue your nipples, sucking until they popped out of his mouth before descending down your body, leaving kisses along your ribs, stomach and hip bones. He finally settled on his stomach between your thighs, running his fingers along your folds through the thin material.

“Aw, you’re this wet from some kissing?” Eijirou teases, leaning down to kiss your clothed pussy, “You’re my sweet little girl, aren’t you?”

“Ei…” you whispered, shifting beneath him in anticipation, biting your lip as you reached down to thread your fingers through his hair, “Love you…”

The redhead grinned, kissing your inner thigh so softly it made Bakugou’s heart flutter before whispering, “I know you do, pretty girl.”

He slipped your panties to the side, moaning at the sight of your flushed, wet cunt. Pushing your thighs apart, he used his thumbs to spread you open.

Bakugou slipped his hand beneath the band of his sweats, palming his bare cock that was throbbing under his own touch. He watched intently, not even blinking as he watched the way your boyfriend ate your cunt like he was his last meal.

He worshiped you, kissing your folds, tonguing your clenching hole, before wrapping his lips around your hard clit. Your thighs trembled and jumped, threatening to close as your boyfriend pulled back the hood of your clit, exposing the extra sensitive nerves to his tongue’s abuse. You squirmed, yanking at his hair, wanting to simultaneously push him away and pull him closer.

He made the decision for you by pulling away. Your hand lost its grip on his hair and flopped back down to the bed. His touch wasn’t gone for long before he was pulling your panties down your legs.

“Shit,” Bakugou whimpered as he caught sight of the strings of your slick clinging to your panties before sticking to your thighs.

Your boyfriend seemed to have noticed the same thing, running his fingers along your soaked cunt, gathering your juices on his fingers before showing the camera, pulling his fingers apart to show the audience how wet you were.

Bakugou gripped the base of his cock, feeling hot and almost painful in his hand.

“Gotta fill that little pussy, princess,” Eijirou breathed, finally stripping himself of his sweatpants.

The Pro-Hero squeezed his cock at the sight. You were a lucky girl that he was damn sure of.

Ei’s cock was as long as it was thick, veins running along the shaft with a pretty, pink tip that always seemed to be drooling precum. The sight of his hand wrapped around his own length made Bakugou lick his lips — long, lithe fingers with veins running on the tops of his hands before reappearing over his forearms.

There was no doubt in the blonde’s mind that the two of you were a beautiful, perfect couple.

You were so pretty with a brilliant smile and contagious laugh. But when you had your legs spread for your boyfriend, you were a cute, submissive little kitten who was never too proud to beg for praise.

Eijirou was a pillar, strong-willed and protective — really, a perfect Dom. The second he had you on your back, however, he turned almost mean. He took advantage of your submissiveness to use you like a cocksleeve, praising you for being a good girl while telling you it was pathetic how easily you came just from putting his cock inside you.

But afterwards, he would let you cling to him, press kisses to your lips and temple and caress your skin until the screen went black and Bakugou was reminded that he was alone. While the two of you were no doubt thriving in each other's embrace.

It was those moments that reminded the hero how alone he was.

He was ripped from his thoughts when you let out a squeal of pleasure. Focusing his gaze back on his phone screen properly once more, he gave his cock a few strokes to the sight.

You were laid on your side, one leg lifted and pinned towards your chest while you clung to a nearby pillow as your boyfriends fat cock stretched you open.

“A-Ah!” you cried, biting on the pillow.

Eijirou soothed his hand along the thigh he was holding, pressing a kiss to your knee, “Does it hurt, sweetheart?”

“Mhm…” you whined, making Bakugou realize you hadn’t been stretched before taking his length.

“Ah but…” the redhead grunted, sinking more of his cock into your dripping cunt, “You like it when it hurts, isn’t that right?”

“Yes!” you immediately gasped, eyes fluttering closed as he finally bottomed out.

“I know you do, my pretty pain slut,” Ei whispered, pulling out before quickly sinking back inside of you with an swift roll of his hips.

How easily he set a rhythm reminded Bakugou how much he knew your body. He got to fuck you on and off camera. Envy reared its ugly head once more, burning hot in his veins as he slowly stroked his cock to the sight of you getting stuffed full by your perfect boyfriend’s cock.

He felt pathetic. He felt envious. He felt...lonely.

His heart began to feel heavy but his cock remained hot and throbbing in his fist. Mindlessly, he surged his hips forward to fuck into his own fist, as if he wasn’t giving himself enough pleasure. His other hand dipped beneath the band of his sweats to cup his heavy balls.

On the screen, you were rolled back over, your knees locked around his hips as he fucked you. He panted, leaning down to press a kiss to your forehead, meeting your gaze with a serene smile.

The sight was so soft, so sweet. You leaned up and pressed your lips against his, nipping at his lip before pulling away to moan as he hit your g-spot.

“Atta girl,” Ei whispered, letting you angle your hips up so he would continue to hit it, “Such a good girl, make me hit that spot. You wanna cum? Want me to make you cum?”

You nodded, mouth agape as you whined, “Yes, please!”

“So polite,” Ei grinned, but made no move to help you get off, “Tell me why you deserve to cum.”

“Ei…” you sob, clearly not pleased with his teasing.

“C’mon,” your boyfriend taunted, “I won’t know why I should let you cum unless you tell me. You know I’ll leave you high and fuckin’ dry, don’t test me, babygirl.”

At the sound of his once soft, sweet voice turning dark and demanding, you whimpered and began to babble out anything that came to mind, “I-I’ve been good! ‘M your good girl, Ei. Please, I’ll do anything...please let me cum. Make me cum, only you can make me cum good!”

“Such pretty words…” Ei groaned, licking the pad of his thumb before quickly pressing it against your clit. You keen immediately, the arch of your back pushing your breasts out provocatively as you clung to the pillow beneath your head, “Go ahead. You wanted to cum so fuckin’ bad. Cum on my cock, make a mess for me. Wanna see you cream on my cock like the good girl you are.”

His filthy words sent you over the edge and you came with a cry. Through your high, you babbled praises to your boyfriend; ‘you feel so good’, ‘you make me cum so hard’, ‘please don’t stop’, ‘please cum inside’.

Your boyfriend fell victim to your pleas, giving a few more valiant thrusts into your cunt, forcing you to ride it out completely as he poured his hot cum inside.

Bakugou’s eyes rolled back, he quickly pulled his cock out of his sweats. He cupped his balls, rolling and squeezing them as he felt the tighten up with his impending orgasm. His cock throbbed violently, spitting cum across his chest, landing up to his cheeks. He opened his mouth without a second thought, making sure to stick his tongue out, only catching two jets of his cum on his tongue before it tapers off, drooling pathetically down his length.he swallowed the salty taste of his own load down with a whimper before slowing the strokes on his cock as he softened.

On screen, Ei slowed down, avoiding overstimulating the both of you before he fell over top of you with his hands on both sides of your head. He leaned down, meeting your lips in a happy kiss mixed with smiles.

“Did so good for me, pretty girl,” he whispered, pecking your nose before kissing your forehead, “Love you so much, you know that?”

You nodded, wrapping your arms around his shoulders. He sat up, his arm around your waist as he shifted to look back at the camera. He cradled you in his lap, cupping the back of your head as he pressed a kiss to your temple.

“We’ll be doing the drawing for the lottery next week when all the donations you made will officially have gone through,” Ei explained, smiling as you buried your face in his neck, still floating through the pleasurable headspace, “Thanks for watching everyone!”

He leaned forward, jostling you slightly, making you whine. The last thing Bakugou heard was a soft, “sorry, babygirl” before the camera turned off and the stream ended.

The hero sat by himself, hand covered in drying cum that was on his stomach and shirt as well. As usually, the impending loneliness he felt compounded with the shame of having cum so hard from watching redlove made his heart ache.

Swallowing thickly, a thought occurred to him.

He had no idea how he would survive if he won that lottery.

Oh well, the odds of that happening were low.

Right?

#bnha x reader #mha x reader #kirishima x reader #bakugou x reader #kirishima smut #bakugou smut #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #eijirou kirishima x reader #kirishima eijirou x reader #afton.writes

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mewberii · 3 years

Text

Streamer!Scaramouche AU

i feel like he’d be one of the biggest streamers on his platform- probably one of those that everyone has heard of even if they’re not into watching livestreams and all

but between those who do know who he is, they either love him or hate him. no in-between

it’s kind of understandable because his attitude is not suited/can be handled by anyone

he’s brutally honest even when his opinion may be seen as rude (to him he’s just saying the truth so he doesn’t mind if people get offended)

of course he doesn’t try to be rude on purpose but i mean it as in he’ll say what he thinks

imagine he’s playing a game and he doesn’t like a certain mechanic, or he isn’t enjoying the story;

he won’t say the game is bad but he’ll openly say he doesn’t like it/it’s not for him. it makes him seem strict but tbh he’s not that hard to please and even when he complains about one or two things he still enjoys the game

he usually gives every game a chance even when from what he’s seen it doesn’t sound like a game he’ll like. if he turns out to be right he just won’t play it again and if he’s wrong he’s a little too prideful to admit he spoke a little too fast but in the end he will admit the game is good or he’s having fun

probably the kind that just knows so much about all games and all the creators and all the game-making engines and is up to date with every single news of everything video-game + streaming-related,,, how does he do it, i don’t know,,,,

and also since he’s so popular he probably gets packages from game developers with limited edition stuff or merch from different games soooo often

and he placed the ones from his favorite games in his setup room and it looks INCREDIBLE he has so much stuff

he did a room tour stream once talking about all he has, where he got everything, from his monitor to every complement of his computer and like,,,,, the cost of his setup,,,,,,, some people already know they’ll never be able to afford that in their entire life

and he already had a great setup before he even became big as a streamer so people can already guess he’s fairly rich

also i feel like he would have started his career as a streamer without using a facecam and even like that, he already managed to get very popular because of his professional commentary of game dynamics/playability + you can tell that he’s passionate about this and also he’s very funny without even trying??

he says some stuff so casually that he doesn’t realise how funny it is

probs showed his face after he hit a very important milestone

he never considered showing his face that important but he understood why people would want to see his reactions when playing games (even tho he warned them he’s not the most expressive/dramatique person in the world and they know by now) and would want to put a face to the person who entertains them so much with his streams

and when he does show his face people go absolutely cRAZY BECAUSE he is crazy good looking (if you don’t think he’s good looking i’m sorry for your eyesight. jk i’m sorry in general i just really love him)

some people who didn’t watch his streams will even check them out because of that but literally if you come for the visuals only you won’t stay for long because as i said not anyone can handle his personality

if he sees people being superficial about him too much instead of paying attention to what’s happening in the stream, he will immediately turn the subs mode on in the chat (if he didn’t have it on already)

being rude, being disrespectful/saying discriminating stuff or anything of that sort won’t be tolerated and anyone who does it will be banned instantly

without even interrupting what he was saying before he saw the comment, he’ll just type the ban to whoever said that and go on

and his mods do the exact same. they are just as strict as him

if it ever got too much of course he wouldn’t be afraid to speak up about it and tell his chat to stop that behaviour or else, as they should already know, he won’t be afraid of banning them even if they’ve been subscribed for months or years

ANYWAYS

why do i feel like he has a super organised chat— as in instead of spamming 5 emotes per comment they all send just one and it looks so tidy and perfect

literally other streamers would be jealous of how not-messy his chat is even when he has thousands and thousands and thousands of viewers all the time

also i have this idea that maybe any of his fans would have designed him as a genshin character (which would be the design of the scaramouche we know (?))

and the little pop-ups (i don’t know the name in english rIP) thingies that show up to notify when someone subscribed or donated would be lil chibi art of that design

it’d be really cool

and since i also doodled what a stream of his could look like (i’ll show it in the future when i’m done!!) i thought that way it’d be more recognisable that the streamer is scaramouche

99% of the people who have seen him irl found him too intimidating to go ask him for a picture or tell him anything

he’s not a huge fan of taking pictures anyway + is more on the introverted/reserved side but he wouldn’t mind if someone went up to him (if he’s not busy with something) to tell him something or say they enjoy his streams

i feel like in a couple occasions he would have played a game with some subscribers and he’d like to tease them speaking with his usual tone and face (in case they’re watching the stream as they talk) so they think he’s serious

“did you watch my 12 hour stream the other day?” -scaramouche

“ah,,,, i-” -the sub

“think well of what you’re going to answer.” -scaramouche

“i-i couldn’t watch the whole thing,,,” -the sub

“ah, is that so…?” -scaramouche

he’ll pretend to sound disappointed but at one point he just can’t help but smirk and hold in a chuckle before telling them he’s not serious

(he literally doesn’t know how the hell he survived that stream himself because he isn’t one to stream for that long)

i feel like deep inside people who know him would know he wouldn’t say such things seriously/wouldn’t be disappointed in anyone for not watching every single minute of his streams or not even all his streams

but he says all that so seriously that it’s,,, intimidating and they’re lowkey like “god but what if he’s not joking-”

he’d play games with the other streamers sometimes but i feel like most of the type he’d play more single-player games

it’d be so funny if he plays among us with others and for example one of those others it’s childe

both of them would always be suspecting of the other first/bickering, especially scaramouche

and if one game turns out they’re both the impostors… people would know right away

like, if any of them tried to defend the other, everyone else would be like “!?! what is this? scaramouche and childe defending each other? scary”

they’d vote one of them (maybe scaramouche) out because they started guessing + saying proof of how both of them could be the impostors (but the biggest proof is them not coming for each other’s throats sNKJFNGKJS)

scaramouche would have to resist the urge to S C R E A M

needless to say he doesn’t like when he has to be impostor with childe

and unfortunately for him, fate makes it happen considerably often

i feel like at least one time scaramouche would kill next to childe and then report it and literally blame childe

and childe would be like ?!?!?!?!?? WHAT- NO- (struggles bc his brain instinct is to say ‘it was you!’ but they’re both the impostors??? how-)

and then they’d eject childe,,, and then people wouldn’t suspect of scaramouche for most of the game because ? why would he- blame his partner---

well he did it with no regrets and at the end when they all found out they found it very funny (except for childe, but even he ended up laughing in the end because what a mean strategy sjkfhdsgkj)

i have this feeling that even though they bicker so much and for any strangers it’d seem like they hate each other, when scaramouche does play online games, many times it’d be with childe?

ik they aren’t supposed to get along but for the sake of it being a modern au i don’t want bad vibes between any of the characters pls-

and everyone enjoys their dynamic and those streams always get a ton of viewers sjfhdsgkj and i’m sure both their chats would be good friends (most likely one’s fans would also be a fan of the other too)

very very very rarely (because he prefers just playing and talking while playing) he’d do streams where he doesn’t play anything but just talks with the chat, watches videos that they send him, looks at the fanart they make, just talks about games,,,,

it’d be super chill and the perfect streams for people to be doing homework/work/play games/draw or do basically anything while they listen to his stream in the background

he’d also be answering some of people’s questions about him or about his favorite games, or if he’s playing this new game that came out earlier this week,,,

“will you play ‘it takes two’ with childe?” -someone in the chat

“absolutely not. i won’t play a co-op game with him”

not even 5 days later, tweet from childe saying “streaming in 30 minutes! Scaramouche and I will be playing It Takes Two on my ch---”

anyways this will be all!! (for now?) i obviously knew genshin before this but, yesterday i could finally start playing it myself! so i feel like if not now, soon i will also write headcanons of him playing genshin! i don’t take requests but if you guys have any ideas or anything you want to say about this AU, send me an ask!! i’d love to talk about this and about genshin in general!

also, i was very inspired to write this by @baeshijima ! so thank you very much to her for her wonderful streamer AUs and if anyone reading this hasn’t read hers already, go check them out!! they’re amazing!!

#genshin impact #genshin impact scenarios #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact scaramouche #genshin impact x reader #scaramouche headcanons #scaramouche scenarios

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isaacthedruid · 3 years

Text

Please allow me to tell you about one of my favourite cartoons through this informal essay I did for school a couple of months back.

Gravity Falls and How it Did The Unimaginable

**SPOILERS... KINDA**

The 2010s saw the creation of some of the most iconic animated tv shows ever made, the likes of Adventure Time (2010), Steven Universe (2013), Over the Garden Wall (2014) and The Legend of Korra (2012). To explain why this era’s shows are so admirable is honestly rather difficult. Yet, there are many factors that can be taken into consideration when looking for an answer.

The past decade was very successful in perfecting their craft and utilizing the animated format to their favour, creating some of the wackiest and fascinating cartoons ever made. With the advancements made in both 2D and 3D animation for film, this bled into the world of TV as well.

To mention that 2010s cartoons have stunning visuals would be an understatement. Everything about the animation was beautiful; the strong colour palettes, the clean and imaginative character designs, the colourful and immersive backgrounds and especially the mesmerizing worlds that can be found within episodes that are half an hour.

This era’s cartoons also led to a massive shift in storytelling, writing longer-running stories that spread out across seasons while also swapping out episodic adventures for serialization. This heavily aided in the popularization of these shows, due to the rise of internet fandoms and dropping the taboo that cartoons were only for kids. Many shows acknowledged their older viewers by leaving clues and even puzzles to be solved by the theorists who have a large appearance on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter and Tumblr. As the shows progressed, their fandoms created many theories for what they believed might happen within their favourite series. The top three shows from this era all utilized these changes, being at the forefront of the shift and helping guide the creative vision of 2010s cartoons.

Often regarded as many people’s favourite cartoon, Gravity Falls presented one of the best mysteries of the decade with two seasons and only 40 episodes. Inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, it’s considered as the kids’ version of these two iconic shows as this cartoon acts as many people’s first introduction to horror through bright colours and fun characters.

This series follows the adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines, twins, who are sent to spend their summer with their great-uncle or Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This town is full of oddities like supernatural creatures, insane and eccentric inhabitants, and many puzzles. The Pines twins must adjust to the weirdness while uncovering the mysteries and protecting their new town.

While living in Gravity Falls, the twins are forced to work in the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap created by their Grunkle Stan that overcharges unlucky tourists, teaching about fake monsters despite there being real creatures all over town. On his first day in Oregon, Dipper accidentally came across a mysterious journal written by an unknown author that explains all the oddities to be found in this strange town. This book acts like an encyclopedic of the Weird for Dipper, an inquisitive 12-year-old kid who seeks answers.

Dipper is an extremely intelligent kid, his brain being far more developed than his body. He’s rather awkward and self-conscious as he often stumbles over his words or gets embarrassed trying to talk to girls. Despite this, the boy is an adventurer at heart who just wants to grow up and skip his upcoming teenage years.

While Mabel is quite the opposite in many ways, she is loud and has an in-your-face personality. Mabel is bouncy and fun, she is so excited to start high school. She is easily excitable and for the larger part of the series, she is in her boy-crazy phase. Mabel is a girly-girl as she likes all things; glitter, unicorns, rainbows, partying and crafting. Yet, she doesn’t often compare well with many of the other girls in town, they see her as weird and “too much”.

(In all fairness through, it is not too kind to either of the characters as their personalities are more complex than just awkward nerd and artsy girl-girly.)

Dipper and Mabel’s personalities are very different but somehow, they—along with their Gravity Falls family—manage to solve mysteries and save the town, multiple times.

Gravity Falls is an honestly genius series that completely changed the way cartoons were made. Originally when writing a series, you’d create a base of your story; characters, the universe and a basic plot. Yet, when creator, Alex Hirsch (who was in his early/mid-20)s and his small team first began constructing their show, they planned out everything they could possibly think of for the first season. Additionally, outlining some answers for their biggest mysteries that would be answered at the end of the series.

Despite being rated TV-Y7, this series really pushed the boundaries of kids’ television. From the teeth being ripped out of a deer’s mouth by a demon, rearranging the functions of every hole on a man’s face to an aggressive pop-rock sock puppet show that ended in a dramatic slow-motion scene of the puppets burning. Gravity Falls wasn’t afraid to get a little weird or creepy. Or create some genuine nightmare fuel.

From the beginning, Gravity Falls had built a mystery into its series, hiding secrets and clues all throughout the show. Most notably were the backwards-recorded message and cryptograms, using roughly nine different kinds, even creating two of their own.

The inclusion of cyphers and mysteries for fans to solve is possibly the reason why this series was so successful. As one of the first shows to do something like this, Gravity Falls used social media and internet fandoms to its advantage.

As mentioned earlier, cartoon fans have quite a presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. They create theories and share fun ideas about their favourite shows. Viewers of Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe were all included in their share of theory fun.

Sometimes, fan theories end up being correct but when you’re Gravity Falls creator, Alex Hirsch, you don’t just watch from the sidelines as your viewers figure out the biggest mystery of your show. No, you create a hoax to get your viewers off your trail and that is what he did. Around 2013, only halfway through the first season of the show, viewers had started to follow the clues, theorizing who was the author is Dipper’s mysterious journal.

Unfortunately for the Gravity Falls production crew, the viewers were right— for the sake of readers who have never seen the show, I will not mention who the author was as it would be the biggest spoiler.

In 2013, a supposed leaked image of a tv showing a younger version of the show’s crazy old man character, Old Man McGucket, writing in the infamous journal was uploaded anonymously (by Alex Hirsch) to 4Chan.

Despite the image only being on up for a few hours, it spread like wildfire. Much to the team’s success, theorists stopped searching for the answer to “who is the author” and just accepted the image of McGucket as the truth.

To further push the fake-out, three words were posted to Alex’s Twitter, “fuming right now.”

The tweet was deleted a few minutes later and fans genuinely believed that someone from the Gravity Falls team had leaked the most important part of the story.

While doing research, I came across a Reddit post from April 10th, 2013, the day after ‘leak,’ Alex’s tweet was uploaded. In this post, user, TheoDW uploaded an image of Alex’s tweet with the caption, “It seems that Hirsch got mad at last night’s leak. He already deleted this tweet.”

Seeing the reactions of these Redditors in 2013 is kind of weird and crazy to look at. “He has every right to be upset. Someone internally released a plot revealing screen shot of series breaking spoiler information,” a deleted Reddit account commented.

“This is Alex Hirsch’s biggest success by far, he spent a huge amount of time carefully planning out the series, and then in a moment someone releases a major spoiler. It would make anyone upset,” the user, Time_Loop commented.

“Seriously, this is a nightmare for a storyteller, and shows a breach of trust. I feel so bad for him–honestly, I hope whoever did the leak gets caught and appropriate action is taken. You don’t f–k with someone’s story like this. It’s unprofessional.” the user, lonelybeloved angrily commented.

In 2014, this ‘leak’ was finally disproven when viewers were given an episode on McGucket’s backstory and an amazing tweet from Alex Hirsch.

Alex had post an image of himself playfully pointing at a monitor with the supposed leaked picture with the caption, “1) Make hoax 2) Upload to 4Chan 3) Post angry tweet about "leak" 4) Delete tweet 5) Let internet do rest”

It is so interesting to look at these comments know that all of this was orchestrated by Alex.

I wish I had been old enough at the time to follow theories and fandom stuff like I do now with current cartoons but really looking at this from an outside perspective, this was insane!

The real author wasn’t revealed until 2015 and when viewers first got the answer to this biggest show on their screens, they must have freaked out!

Following the finale in 2016, a single frame of a stone version of Bill Cipher, the show’s villain, flashed in after the credits had finished.

Alex Hirsch and his team actually created a real-life statue of their villain for their viewers to find and on July 20th, 2016, the Cipher Hunt began.

By following clues, the Hunters found themselves all over the world; Russia, Japan and then travelling throughout the United States for the final 12 clues. When the hunt took them to Los Angeles, actor, Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper Pines, also a massive fan of the series) and Alex Hirsch’s twin sister, Ariel Hirsch (the inspiration for Mabel) joined in the fun helping the search.

Finally, the hunt ended on August 2nd when someone tweeted out an image of the found statue in Oregon, the same state in which the fictional town of Gravity Falls exists. The Cipher Hunt had ended but finding the statue wasn’t Alex’s goal for the scavenger hunt, it was about the journey and bringing together the viewers, more than having them actually find the statue.

Creating its own hoax, an international scavenger hunt and quite a bit of nightmare fuel, Gravity Falls was a show truly unlike any other.

The 2010s saw some of the strongest cartoons ever made, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe acting as the leaders for multiple different changes in the medium; storytelling, worldbuilding, interaction with viewers, utilizing social media, representation and further pushing music into the cartoon world. From what was created this past decade and what has already been released in 2020, I’m so excited to see what comes next.

I have another one of these which is on Steven Universe’s representation and music if you would like to see that too!!

#isaac rambles #long post #gravity falls #cartoons #cartoon review #dipper pines #alex hirsch #OH MY GOD I LOVE ALEX HIRSCH'S BRAIN!!!#disney #disney channel #disney cartoons

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glassbxttless · 4 years

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What are your headcanons for Camgirl!Reader with each of the boys ( including the "neglected" ones)? Do they participate with you or just watch you work from afar?

oh have I been waiting for this one 😬 I’ve been reading hella cam!girl reader shit recently and I’m EXCITED.

Buckle in tho, there’s a LOT OF BOYS HERE. I really want to delve in and write a cam!girl fic eventually so here’s my headcanons 🤍

my popular boys,

Clyde: Clyde’s a bit shy and not much of a participant. But he’s always one to give you little quips for your show. Maybe he helps pick out which lingerie set you wear or which toy you’ll use. And you always let him sit in behind the camera, if he’s quiet.

Sackler: He definitely wants to participate. He wants you to use him as one of your props. He’d definitely enjoy it if you used his cock instead of those pretty toys you’re always fucking yourself with.

Phillip: A ready and able participant. Will let you whip him and tie him up and peg him for your audience. Also just loves the attention he gets from your viewers.

Ben: Ben has had enough fucking bullshit to deal with. He’s tired. He doesn’t need a bunch of strangers watching him fuck you. He just wants to sleep™️. But he does always wish you luck on your sessions, gives you a deep kiss, and then a pat on the butt, before you disappear into your shared bedroom.

Ronnie: Literally a sweetheart. The blushiest of boys. Asks if you can use that clit sucking vibe for the one (many) sessions he pays for. Offers his flower boxes as a pretty background option for you.

Daniel: Wants you to boss him around on one of your sessions but doesn’t want to ask, so he sits and watches you use all those different vibes and then he really wants you to use them on him.

Charlie: He literally starts camming with you. That’s the tweet. (He’s pretty popular too)

Flip: Participates off camera, as long as you look him in the eye and call him daddy. Those other folks paying for your time would learn their places, know that your daddy takes the best care of you. And maybe you get a few complaints about eye contact, but you make up for it when daddy tumbles from your lips as you shake in pleasure.

Rick: TAKES YOUR ADVERTISING PHOTOS. He’s happy to do it too! He helps you choose the best colors for your skin, sets the backgrounds, lets you pose how you want, and he always tells you to open those legs a bit further. But that’s as far as his participation goes.

Matt: Doesn’t want to pay for what he can have for free. He also watches you whilst he’s at work, listening with his headphones in and he’s half tempted to show any of the starkiller technicians that walk by. Loses his mind when you introduce yourself as Sunny one day when he’s at home and literally overtakes your session to fuck that out of you because he’s the only one that calls you that. Randy saw you over his shoulder once.

Jude: Steals away moments from Dominik to sit in his room and watch you quietly. And he’s already vowed to pay for every single piece of content you have out there, even if it’s coming straight back to the household. And maybe he’d never tell you he watches your shows and that he uses a fake screen name to do so. He knew you cammed and maybe he saw your phone opened up onto the site once and he’s never looked back on supporting you.

Paterson: He sits patiently in the living room in his underwear, shooing Blue away from him while he pulls his laptop onto his lap. You always wear your wedding ring, even if it sort of pulls from the illusion. He pays for your content and leaves polite little messages in your chat to amp you up. And then fucks you deep after your session.

Paul: Pays for your video content, asks for your photo content as an anniversary gift. Also makes sure to scout your chat for any rude asses and boot them out as quickly as they joined. Is literally your savior from things getting too out of hand, chat wise.

and the “neglected” boys,

Jason: do you even know him? Your whole day to day life is basically a cam session for him. When you change, lounge, and even take a shower. He doesn’t participate in any of the fun, but he did create your setup for you.

Adam: Doesn’t understand why you would want to cam, he’s always taken care of things for the two of you. But thinks it’s really hot when you take your time setting up, meticulously picking out your outfit and the toys you’ll use, and when you ask him for opinions on anything beforehand.

Randy: Sees Matt’s girlfriend camming when he sat next to Matt in the lunch room once. He suggested it to you and offers to buy you a new laptop and camera to do it.

Al: He gets really shy when you talk about it with him. He’s always been more traditional, of sorts. But he really enjoys getting to watch you, more than he wants to participate. Sex to him is personal and he doesn’t want to share the intimacy between you two.

Zachary: Does not know what camming is at first. Once you explain, he gives you a long nod, and asks what he can do to help. And you start integrating him in in little bites. Hands touching you, fucking you over the side of your bed, careful to leave his face out. It’d always elicit a crowd of viewers appreciating that they could put themselves there and imagine more with the way he was fucking you.

Allan: do I even have to tell you that boy wants you to dominate him in every single one of your sessions? It always picks up your views when you have an audience wanting to be in his shoes. If you’re gonna call him your little whore, you might as well be paid well for it.

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yukinojou · 3 years

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I already squeed quite a bit on Twitter, but turns out my Shadow and Bone thoughts demand longform. So that was a 40+ tweet thread or using my Tumblr for an original post for once.

I was wary about the Shadow and Bone adaptation the way I'm usually wary about good books being adapted onscreen. It was amplified because my actual favourites are the Six of Crows books, and because the American-based movie complex has a bad track record of doing anything based on Eastern Europe. 8 episodes in 3 days should tell you how much I loved it - the moment I finished, I wanted more.

First, the technical praise:

Damn but the plotting is tight. It took me a while to realised it's based on heist movie bones, where every little thing (The Freaking Bullet!) is important. The story fulfills its promises and manages not to bore at the same time - it delights by the way they're fulfilled. I called out a few plot developments moments before they happened, and I was happy about it. Such a joy after so many series where "not doing what viewers expect" led to plot holes and lack of sense. It might be an upside to the streaming model after all.

From a dramatic point of view I can tell all the reasons for all the changes, especially providing additional outsider points of view on Ravka (Crows) and letting viewers see Mal for themselves the way he only comes across in later books.

Speaking of which, this is a masterclass in rewriting a story draft. SaB was Bardugo's first, and having read later books you can really see where she didn't quite dare to break the YA rules yet, especially Single POV that necessitated a tight focus on Alina's often negative feelings rather than the big picture and a triangle that felt a bit forced. The world in the series is so much bigger, the way Bardugo could finally paint it when SaB success gave her more creative freedom, and some structural choices feel familiar too. It's a combination of various choices by crew and cast, but the end result meshes together so tightly and naturally.

Visuals! Especially the war parts because Every Soviet Movie Ever, but also the clothes (I would kill for Nina's blouse in the bar), the jewelry, the interiors. The stag was so very beautiful. And a deep commitment to a coherent aesthetic for each character and setting.

Look, you can do a serious fantasy series with colours! Both skin colours and bright sets and clothing! And all scenes were well lit enough to know what's going on, even in the Fold!

Representation (aka I Am Emotion)

To start with: I was born behind the Iron Curtain, in the last years of the Cold War. The Curtain was always permeable to some extent, and we have always been aware that while we have talented artists of our own, we never had the budgets and polish of the Anglosphere Entertainment Machine. So we watched a hell of a lot of American visual storytelling especially because yeah, you can tell we don't have the budgets. 90s and 2000s especially, it's getting better now.

In American stories, the BEST case scenario for Eastern European representation is the Big Dumb Pole, the ethnic stereotype Americans don't even notice they use, where the punchline is that his English is bad or that he grew up outside Anglo culture. Other than that, it's criminals, beggars, sex trafficking victims, refugees. Sure, we may look similar (except we really really don't, not if you're raised here and see the distinct lack of all those long-jawed Anglo faces), but we are not and have never been the West, never mind America. It's probably better for younger people now, but I was raised under rationing and passport bans. Star Trek and Beverly Hills 90210 were exactly as foreign to me.

The first ever character I really identified with was Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5 (written by J. Michael Straczynski, yay behind-camera representation). This was a Russian Jewish woman very much in charge, in the way of strong women I know so well, not taking any bullshit, not repressing her feminity. I recognised her bones, she could be my cousin. The sheer relief of it. There have been few such occasions since.

The reason I picked up Shadow and Bone in the first place was recommendations from other Polish people. I've had no problems finding representation in Eastern European books because wow our scene is strong in SFF especially, but it's always a treat to find a book in English that gets it. And Leigh gets it, the bones of our culture, and I could even look past the grammar issue (dear gods and Americans, Starkova for a woman, Morozov for a guy) that really irked me because of the love for the setting and the characters, the weaving in of religion/mysticism (we never laicisized the same way as the West, natch), the understanding of how deep are the scars left in a nation at war for centuries. The books are precious to me, they and Arden's Winternight and Novik's Spinning Silver.

To sum up: Shadow and Bone the Netflix series gets it. You can tell just how much they've immersed themselves in Eastern European culture and media, it comes across so well in visuals and writing and characters. Not just the obvious bits (though the WWII propaganda posters gave me a giggle), but the palaces, the additional plotlines and characters, the costumes, the attitudes. About the only thing missing in the soldier scenes was someone singing and/or quoting poetry.

I will blame the Apparat's lack of beard on filming in a non-Orthodox country. Poland's Catholic too, but I very much imagined him as an Orthodox patriarch, possibly because I read the books shortly after a visit to Pecherska Lavra in Kiev and the labyrinthine holy catacombs there. Small quibble, not my religion, not my place to speak.

(I've seen discussion on the issues with biracial representation in the show, which is visceral and apparently based on bad experiences of one of the show writers in a way that's caused pain to other Asian and biracial people. I'm not qualified to speak on those parts, other that Eastern Europe is... yeah. Racist in subtly different ways. If anything, the treatment of the Suli as explained in Six of Crows always read so very true of the way Roma are treated, and even sanitised.)

And now for the spoiler-filled bits:

Kaz and Inej. I mean... just THEM. So many props to the actors, the writers, the bloody goat.

I adore the fact the only people who get to have sex in the show are Jesper and a very lucky stablehand.

Ben Barnes needs either an award or a kick. The man's acting choices and puppy eyes are as epic as his hair.

So Much Love for Alina initiating the kiss. Her book characterisation makes sense, she's so trapped in her own head because she has no time to process everything that's happening, but grabbing life by the lapels is a much more active choice. Still not making the relationship equal, but closer to it.

Speaking of, Kaz's constant awareness of how unequal his relationship with Inej is, and attempts to give her agency. I'm really curious how his touch issues come across to someone who doesn't know the backstory there.

Feodor and his actor. He looks exactly like the pre-war heartthrob Adolf Dymsza, a specific upper-class Polish ethnic type that's much rarer now that, well, Nazis killed millions of Polish intellectuals in their attempt to reduce us to unskilled labour only. The faces he makes are the Best.

Nina!! Nina is perfect, those cheekbones, that cheek, I was giggling myself silly half the time. I cannot wait to see Danielle Galligan take on the challenge of Nina's plotline in Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, she'll kill us dead.

I already mentioned that the writers fixed Mal's absence from the first book, but Mal in general! The haircut gives him a kind of rugby charm, and Archie Renaux is outstanding at emoting without talking. Honestly, all the casting in this series is inspired, but him in particular.

Extra bonus: Howard Charles and Luke Pasqualino playing so very much against the type of the swaggering Musketeers I saw them play last. Arken dropping the mask at the end... Howard Charles is love.

I can't believe not only was Milo's bullet a plot point, but the fact Alina was wearing a particularly sparkly hair ornament in a long series of beautiful hair ornaments was a plot point.

In conclusion: so much love, and next three season NOW please. Okay, give me a week to reread the books, and an extra day because new Murderbot drops tomorrow...

#shadow and bone #six of crows #shadow and bone meta

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apparentlynotreallyfinnish · 4 years

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Cam Boy Rhett

Since the US is celebrating Thanksgiving today I decided to surprise y’all with a tiny little snippet from the life of a college-aged cam boy Rhett. Enjoy!

Rhett changed the movement of his hand to a theatrically slow pump as the cum dripped down his shaft and over his strained knuckles.

The chat went quiet for a beat. A common occurrence after he blew his load and something that still made his head spin a bit--imagining all those people behind the screen coming because of him. The fairly easy money was definitely the reason Rhett had started his little side business, but when he’d finally gotten a day job and camming was no longer a must, he’d continued doing it, realizing he enjoyed the idea of making strangers come. Secretly, he also enjoyed the anonymous eyes on him. It made him feel tingly and hot and powerful in a way no woman he’d hooked up with had ever been able to.

“Fuck,” Rhett groaned out huskily, giving himself one last stroke that sent visible shivers running through his body. “Was that as good for you as it was for me?” He looked right into the lens and winked, his mouth hanging slightly open, his tongue wetting his bottom lip as he evened out his breathing. With a satisfied sigh, he let go of himself, his limp dick settling against his bare stomach.

The chat sprung to life and a couple of regulars sang their usual praises. Rhett watched the tips pinging in. It was a decent haul tonight, but nothing to write home about. Not that he ever would. He shuddered at the idea of his family finding out what he did to earn extra cash. His father would probably skin him alive. His poor mother… Rhett mentally shook his head. There was no reason to imagine it. They would never find out.

He turned his focus back on the chat and replied to some comments. Interacting with regulars and new-comers alike was important and kept them coming back for more--and what was more important, tipping more.

Someone tipped twenty bucks for Rhett to lick his hand clean. He put on a show, of course, moaning a bit for an effect as he sucked a couple of his fingers deep into his mouth, twirling his tongue around them. The taste was mild and didn’t bother him. The first time he’d done it at the insistence of certain vocal viewers had made him internally squirm but nowadays it was just part of the gig. And he always got a couple of extra tips if someone paid for that particular deed from his list of paid prompts. Who wouldn’t eat a bit of cum for what ended up being 35 bucks?

Finally, the chat slowed down enough that Rhett could say goodbye and end the stream. He cleaned his spit-slick hand with a wet wipe and logged onto the account of his cam nick, BallXXXPlayer, on Twitter and sent out a thank-you tweet for a fun stream, promising another one soon.

Another successful night made him smile and hum quietly as he put away his gear and grabbed his towel.

His housemate and best friend was sitting on the couch in the shared living room, his brand-new noise-canceling headphones on his head, clicking furiously on the PS4 controller. Rhett had bought the headphones for Link after he kept moaning about the… well, about the moaning coming from Rhett’s room when he was streaming.

“Hey,” Rhett said, amused by the crease between Link’s eyebrows. He is kinda adorable when he concentrates like that. Rhett chased away the strange thought and stopped next to the couch. Link didn’t react.

“Hey!” Rhett repeated, louder, tapping on his shoulder. Link’s gaze jumped to him and he jerked in surprise, flinging the controller on the floor. Rhett suppressed a laugh and watched his friend fumble to reach it while his game avatar got gruesomely murdered. As Link scrambled up with it, he ripped off his headphones and glared at Rhett.

“Don’t do that! Scared the bejeesus outta me!”

“I said hey,” Rhett said in his defense before adding. “At least now we know the new headphones work!”

Link mumbled something under his breath. It almost sounded like not well enough.

“What?” Rhett asked, trying to read Link’s expression. He knew Link was not a fan of his side business and more than once they’d ended up changing increasingly frustrated words about it.

“Nothing, are you... done?” Link asked, waving towards Rhett’s bedroom. He avoided Rhett’s gaze, concentrating on the television screen instead, even though the game was now paused.

“Yeah. I’m just gonna hop into the shower. Wanna play together after that?”

Link froze for a second and it almost looked like his gaze unfocused, but in a flash, he was back to normal and threw Rhett a smile that looked suspiciously fake.

“Sure. Hurry up so I can whoop your ass with my new moves.”

“Ha! Dream on. It’s your ass that’s gonna get the whooping, dude!” Rhett called out over his shoulder before the bathroom door closed between them, cutting the awkward mood with a soft thud.

All that talk about ass whooping helped Rhett convince himself that it was totally normal that while he soaped himself up, his mind kept drifting back to Link’s ass.

#Appa writes fic #(it's been so long tumblr has forgotten that tag)#rhink #rhink fic #cam boy Rhett #college rhink #mildly smutty #happy thanksgiving folks

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richincolor · 3 years

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SomeThoughts about Netflix's Shadow & Bone

This past Friday, the highly anticipated Shadow and Bone series premiered on Netflix and fans of the Grishaverse all over the world logged in to watch their favs come to life. There was much discussion of the inclusion of numerous characters from throughout the Grishaverse and that diversity was a focus in the casting of the show, especially Jessie Mei Li who is biracial, therefore changing the main character’s ethnicity to biracial Shu Han. Unfortunately, that decision didn’t pay off to well due to the showrunner’s handling of Alina’s ethnicity. Twitter blew up as people shared their hurt and warned others about what to expect.

I had planned to watch the show and happened to see one such warning before I watched the series so I was prepared. I watched a couple of episodes, then called it a night. The next morning I was unsettled and reached out to my fellow contributors here on Rich in Color. No one had seen it yet, but Jessica said she was planning to as well. As we chatted, I felt that our conversation should be shared with our readers, so Jessica and I decided to write our thoughts down and have a conversation after she watched a few episodes herself.

Oh, and spoilers abound!

First off, before we dive into this conversation: Have you read the Grishaverse series? How much did you know about the story going in?

K. Imani: As everyone knows I love fantasy so I’m open to reading all sorts of fantasy books. I read the Shadow & Bone series a few years ago and enjoyed it. When the Six of Crows duology came out I read those too and actually enjoyed those better than the original series. Why - more diversity? It also expanded the world and the different perspectives of “Grisha” like folk from other cultures. It was very clear from the writing that Bardugo realized her first series was very lacking in diversity and worked hard to change it. I actually re-read both series during quarantine, so I had a fair idea of what the Netflix series would be about.

Jessica: I’ve actually never read a single Grishaverse book! I know, shocking. I only knew two things about the series going into the show: 1) Six of Crows is a heist book? 2) Ben Barnes is a person who exists.

The cast announcement for any show is always so exciting, and Shadow and Bone was no different. How did you feel about the casting -- before and after you watched the show? What did you think was done well, and what did you think could be improved?

K. Imani: Before watching the show I was actually a bit confused about some of the casting choices. I didn’t understand why 3 of the main Six of Crows characters were in the show and I honestly did not make the connection to Alina and Mal being biracial. Knowing that the Grishaverse is “Russian-based” and knowing that some ethnic Mongolians are considered Russian I just found it cool that the show cast a person who didn’t fit a Russian stereotype. Oh boy was I way off! Overall I was pleased with the casting and think all the actors did a great job. I liked the few changes they did make with casting actors of colors for other roles to round out the diversity of the world.

Bringing it back to Mal, I was confused as to if he was supposed to be coded as biracial. I missed the reference in the show, but I did read somewhere that he was supposed to be as well and that is what bonded him to Alina. If that’s the case, then how come Alina was the only person to experience racism? That thought continues to sit on my heart because it shows that the writers did not really think through how they wanted to express racism and included it for the wrong reasons.

Jessica: My reaction was basically, “I’m happy that other people seem happy!” since again, I had no context for the show. Casting on Netflix shows often seems to be a case of “cool, this is some exciting casting… but definitely could be better and even more intentional.”

K. Imani: “More intentional” That is the word right there! Making a story more diverse is wonderful and fully reflects the world we live in, however if you just randomly do it without thinking it through it comes off as insensitive. I know Leigh Bardugo used this show as an opportunity to make her story better (and I do not begrudge her of that fact) but when one doesn’t think it through, the criticism that is being expressed is a direct result.

Jessica: Sidenote -- I ended up watching a booktube video titled “Darker Jesper, Fat Nina, Shadow and Bone Casting Thoughts” on booktube channel Chronicles of Noria about the casting. Highly recommend checking it out. I also recommend this profile on Jessie Mei Li, who talks about being gender nonconforming.

Did any changes in the Netflix adaptation stick out to you? Were there changes you liked or disliked?

K. Imani: My favorite part of the adaptation is how well the show runners included the Six of Crows characters into the narrative. The storyline completely worked for me and connected the two stories together. I really enjoyed the Arken storyline (and the character tbh) as it was used to flesh out the world of the Grishaverse, which made the series much more interesting. I also liked the change of making Ivan and Fedyor a couple instead of just Darkling’s henchmen as it humanized them and actually made me like Ivan because they were so cute together. Though how that will come into play after the events of Episode 8 will be interesting. I’m a sucker for the Enemies to Lover trope so I loved that Nina’s & Matthia’s story of how they came together was included here. In either Six of Crows or Crooked Kingdom (I don’t remember), it was told as a flashback, but I loved that it was moved here as their “origin story”, so to speak, and how it connects to the events of the Alina timeline.

What I didn’t like...the casual racism. It really bothered me and left me sad the next morning. For example, a certain poster shown in the first episode had me physically cringe and I was upset that 1) the production designers even created it and 2) no one, at no point, said that was a bad idea? Come on! It was horrible to see and I can imagine the hurt an AAPI would experience seeing that. And then, it got worse. Racial slurs thrown around a couple of times in the first couple of episodes to show that Alina is an outsider. They were jarring and took me out of the narrative. Having read the books I knew there was tension between the Ravkans and Shu Han, so I could understand what the show runners were trying to do, but it was actually never explained in show, hence making the racism feel random and just there for shock value.

Jessica: I saw tweets going around alluding to the racism Alina (and other characters to a less frequent extent) faced, so I braced myself for it. I’m only a few episodes in, and the instances so far were brief… but it just didn’t feel right. The foundation for this portrayal of racism wasn’t laid properly. And if the work of laying the foundation and really digging into what it means for the overall worldbuilding doesn’t happen… then why include it at all? Especially if it might be painful for certain viewers? I’m sure harm wasn’t the intent, but that’s the impact. Why not leave it out and let the show be escapism?

K. Imani: Jessica, the eyes comment took me out, not gonna lie. I audibly screamed. Anyone who has experienced a racist comment based on their looks felt that in their gut which is horrible when watching a show for escapism.

Jessica: Yeah, the eyes and rice-eater comments were especially frustrating. On top of it being a reminder of the racism Asians experience daily… it doesn’t make much sense. Like, canonically, do people in Ravka not eat rice? An American’s conception of racism isn’t necessarily going to make sense in a (Imperial Russia-inspired) fantasy world. But maybe I’m missing something since I didn’t read the original books.

And the eyes comment… whoof. When I was a kid, other kids would make fun of my eyes and ask me to, like, count seagulls because surely, I couldn’t see out of my eyes… And the other kids were also Asian! Internalized racism is so real. It’s disappointing that Shadow and Bone would include this experience as, I don’t know, discrimination flavor text. Surely there were better ways to portray discrimination that made sense within the Grishaverse…

Ellen Oh really said it so well: “If a writer is going to show racism against Asians, it's important to balance it with the beauty of all that makes us Asian also.” Where is the balance? Where is the nuance? Even if Alina’s Shu Han mother isn’t alive, couldn’t Alina have had a treasured Shu Han pendant? Just spitballing here. There were so many possibilities.

K. Imani: Exactly. I agree with Ellen and unfortunately there is no balance. That’s what makes it so hurtful. The focus is on how bad it is that she’s biracial and how bad the Shu Hans are for no specific reason. Because Alina is an orphan and grew up in Ravka, she unfortunately has no connection to Shu Han culture (or at least what is shown on screen) so all that she identifies as is Ravkan who just happens to look like a Shu Han person, but she doesn’t exhibit any pride in being Shu Han. Her ethnicity is just another obstacle to overcome which is all the more cringeworthy and why having Alina be biracial just to be biracial without thinking it through ended up being so problematic. Having her be biracial and using casual racism as an “obstacle” that she has to overcome is such a shallow interpretation of racism and shows the writers didn’t do the work to really think about the why the racism exists.

In addition to talking about what was done well and what went wrong or felt off about certain representation, it’s important to look at the “how.” How did this happen?

Jessica: I read on Twitter that one of the show writers is Korean and biracial -- which is awesome! I was really heartened to hear that. But at the same time, this highlights how important it is to have multiple marginalized voices in the room who can speak with some level of expertise. I don’t know the decision-making process that went into including this sort of surface-level, simplistic version of real world racism, but I wonder if anyone, at any point, said “is there a more nuanced and original way to portray this?” or “how will this affect Asian viewers?” Did someone bring it up, and they were overruled? What happened?

This absolutely isn’t a judgment on the Asian writers or staff on the show. When I’ve done collaborative writing, there were times I caught an issue and said “we need to be more sensitive about this” -- and there were other times when my teammates pointed out something I didn’t notice. It happens! That’s why it’s so important to have multiple marginalized perspectives when creating something -- especially when it’s a work as impactful and far-reaching as a Netflix show. Placing the burden of complex, nuanced representation on one, or a scant handful, of marginalized creators is just not going to work… and it’s not fair to the creators, either.

Frankly, this is a problem in so many industries -- film, publishing, games... there are so many “diverse” shows, games, etc with all-white or majority white teams. Good, nuanced representation can only happen when BIPOC / marginalized creators are the majority and have power behind-the-scenes. (This is why I’m really excited to watch the show Rutherford Falls -- half the writers room are Indigenous writers, as is the co-creator!)

K. Imani: Exactly! It’s great that one of the writers is biracial and Korean, but if she’s the only one how much input did she really have? I’m by no means knocking her experience but, say for example, that particular poster in the first episode. No one else behind the scenes found it problematic? There are many steps to a production process and that poster, if there had been more diverse voices present on the production staff instead of just 1 writer, would have been flagged as a huge problem and redone. The poster was supposed to be a “short cut” to show Ravkan/Shu Han tension but instead it came off as so profoundly racist and unnecessary. There are many other non-racist ways to explore the tensions between the two countries that could have been explored instead of just jumping to racism. And...as someone on Twitter pointed out, we never see the tension between the Ravkans and the Shu Han, but we openly see fighting between the Ravkans and the Fjierdans, so why were they not vilified to the same extent?

Jessica: Right. I’m definitely not saying racism can’t be portrayed in fantasy ever. But if you’re going to do it, make it make sense within the world. Don’t just use it as shorthand for “this character is Other.” I mean, experiencing racism isn’t what makes me Asian…

K. Imani: Boom! I’m going to repeat that for the people in the back...experiencing racism is not what makes a person Asian or Black, and if you are going to have racism in a work of art, be sure to provide balance to show all the other aspects of a person of color’s life.

Since we’re talking creators behind-the-scenes… which YA fantasy books by Asian authors do you think would make great Netflix shows or movies?

Jessica: I’ve got a list about a mile long, but I’ve cut it down to my top four:

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

You’re welcome, Netflix execs who are totally reading this blog. Hop to it!

K. Imani: I second the Tiger at Midnight series! I loved the first two books and can’t wait for the conclusion in June. While not YA, the City of Brass series would make an excellent Netflix series. Anything Maurene Goo writes would be fun rom-coms (because we need those too!).

Jessica: I mean, with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before complete… Netflix clearly needs to start adapting Maurene Goo’s books.

K. Imani: Yes, the people demand it! I don’t care which book, just grab one of them and get the production started.

On a final note, I do want to say that despite the criticism the show rightly deserves, there was much about the show that was enjoyable. The storytelling was strong and moved at a good pace, the costuming was on point, special effects worked seamlessly into the narrative, and even small touches such as how the Grishas used their small science was visually interesting. Book adaptations are always hard to pull off well and the Shadow and Bone production team did a good job overall. Their intention towards adding more diversity is a step in the right direction, but just didn’t do enough. Let’s hope they learn from their mistakes and improve for season 2.

#shadow and bone

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beastars-takes · 4 years

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Zootopia Takes: Darker’s Not Better

The Shock Collar Draft

So, it sounds like people are largely positive on me doing some Zootopia posts on this blog, and I wanted to talk about this tweet I saw the other day:

I’ll punt on explaining why Beastars isn’t “Dark Zootopia”--that’s a great topic for another post. But I would like to talk about why this popular yet stridently uninformed tweet is so, so wrong. Why the shock collar draft was not better, actually.

And obviously, I’m not writing several pages in reply to a single tweet--this is a take that’s been around since the movie came out, that the “original version was better.” It’s been wrong the whole time.

Let’s talk about why!

Part 1: “Because Disney”

Let’s start with this--the assumption that the film’s creators wanted to make this shock collar story and “Disney” told them to change it.

That’s not how it works.

I try to keep stuff about me out of these posts as much as possible, but just for a bit of background, I’ve worked in the animation industry for about half a decade. I know people at Disney. I have a reasonable idea of how things are there.

There is this misconception about creative industries that they’re constantly this pitched battle of wills between creative auteurs trying to make incredible art and ignorant corporate suits trying to repress them.

That can happen, especially in dysfunctional studios (and boy could I tell some stories) but Walt Disney Animation Studios is not dysfunctional. It’s one of the most autonomous and well-treated parts of the Disney Company.

The director of Zootopia, Byron Howard, isn’t an edgelord. He made Bolt and Tangled. He knows what his audience is, and he’s responsible enough not to spend a year (and millions of dollars in budget) developing a grimdark Don Bluth story that leadership would never approve. It wouldn’t just be a waste of time--he would be endangering the livelihoods of the hundreds of people working under him. Meanwhile, Disney Animation’s corporate leadership trusts their talent. They don’t generally interfere with story development because they don’t need to. Because they employ people like Byron Howard.

Howard and the other creative leads of Zootopia have said a dozen times, in interviews and documentaries, that they gave up on the shock collar idea because it wasn’t working. They’ve explained their reasoning in detail. Maybe they’re leaving out some of the story, but in general? I believe them.

But Beastars Takes, you say, maybe even if Disney didn’t force them to back away from this darker version, it still would have been better?

Part 2: Why Shock Collars Seem Good

I will say this--I completely sympathize with people who see these storyboards and scenes from earlier versions of the movie and think “this seems amazing.” It does! A lot of these drawings and shots are heartbreakingly good, in isolation.

I love these boards. They make me want to cry. I literally have this drawing framed on my wall. Believe me, I get it.

But the only reason we care this much about this alternative draft of Zootopia is that the Zootopia we got made us love this world and these characters. You know what actually made me cry?

Oh, yeah.

So let’s set aside the astonishing hubris of insisting Zootopia’s story team abandoned the “good” version of the story, when the “bad version” is the most critically-acclaimed Disney animated feature in the past SIXTY YEARS.

“But Beastars Takes!” I hear you say. “Critics are idiots and just because something’s popular doesn’t make it good!”

Fair enough. Let’s talk about why the real movie is better.

Part 3: The Message (it is, in fact, like a jungle sometimes)

This type of thing is always hard to discuss, in the main--a lot of people don’t want to feel criticized or “called out” by the entertainment they consume, and they don’t want to be asked to think about their moral responsibilities. But it’s hard to deny that Zootopia is a movie with a strong point of view. Everything else--the characters, the worldbuilding, the plot, grows out from the movie’s central statement about bias.

And the movie we got, with no shock collars, makes that statement far more effectively.

To dive into the full scope of Zootopia’s worldview and politics (warts and all) would be a whole post on its own, so I’ll just summarize the key point of relevance here:

Zootopia's moral message is that you, the viewer, need to confront your own biases. Not yell at someone else. No matter how much of a good or progressive person you consider yourself to be--if you want to stand against prejudice you have to start with yourself.

That’s a tough sell! For that message to land, we need to see ourselves in the protagonist.

Judy’s a good person! She argues with her dad about foxes. She knows predators aren’t all dangerous. She’s not speciesist. Right?

Ah fuck.

Let’s fast-forward to the pivotal scene of this movie. In an unfortunate but inevitable confluence of circumstances, Judy’s own biases and prejudiced assumptions come out, and she shits the bad.

Nick, who’s already bared his soul to her (against his better instincts), is heartbroken. But not as heartbroken as he is a minute later when he tries to confront her about what she’s said, and she makes this face:

Whaaaat? Come on, Nick. I’m a good person. Why are you giving me a hard time?

People like to complain about this scene. That it’s a hackneyed “misunderstanding” trope that could be easily resolved with a discussion. They’re wrong. Nick tries to have a discussion. She blows him off.

This isn’t Judy acting out of character, this is her character. Someone who identifies as Not A Racist, and hasn’t given the issue any more thought. This is not only completely believable characterization (who hasn’t seen someone react this way when you told them they hurt you?) it’s the film’s central thesis!

Yes, Nick somewhat provokes her into reaching for her “fox spray,” and her own trauma factors in there, but she’s already made her fatal mistake before that happens.

(As an aside, people also make the criticism that the movie unrealistically deflects responsibility for racism onto Bellwether and her plot. It doesn’t. All the key expressions of prejudice in the film--Judy’s encounter with Gideon, her parents’ warnings, the elephant in the ice cream shop, Judy’s early encounters with Bogo, Judy's views on race science--exist largely outside of Bellwether’s influence. She is a demagogue who inflames existing tensions, she didn’t invent them. Bogo literally says “the world has always been broken.”)

So, anyway. But we love Judy. She’s an angel. She also kinda sucks! She’s proudly unprejudiced, and when her own prejudice is pointed out to her she argues and doesn’t take it seriously. This is bad, but it’s also a very human reaction. It’s one most of us have probably been guilty of at one point or another.

Look at Zootopia’s society, too--it’s shiny and cosmopolitan, seemingly idyllic. Anyone can be anything, on paper. But scratch too deep beneath the surface and there’s a lot of pain and resentment here, things nobody respectable would say in public but come out behind closed doors, or among family, when nobody’s watching. It’s entirely recognizable--at least to me, someone who lives in a large liberal city in the United States. Like Byron Howard.

Wow, this place is a paradise!

Wait, what’s a “NIMBY”?

Part 4: Why Shock Collars Are Bad

So, with the film’s conceit established, let’s circle back to the shock collar idea. Like I said, it’s heartbreaking. It’s dramatic. It’s affective.

It also teaches us nothing.

If I see a movie where predator animals are subjected to 24/7 electroshock therapy, I don’t think “wow, this makes me want to think about how I could do better by the people around me.” I think “damn that shit’s crazy lmao. that’d be fucked up if that happened.” At a stretch, it reminds me of something like the Jim Crow era, or the Shoah. You know, stuff in the Past. Stuff we’ve all decided couldn’t ever happen again, so why worry about it?

The directors have said this exact thing, just politely. “It didn’t feel contemporary,” they say in pressers. That’s what it means.

If anything, the shock collar draft reifies the mindset that Zootopia is trying to reject--it shows us that discrimination is blatant, and dramatic, and flagrantly cruel, and impossible to miss.

And...that’s not true. If you only look for bias at its most malicious and evil, you’re going to miss the other 95 percent.

The messaging of this “darker version” is--ironically--less mature, less insightful, less intelligent. Less useful. Darker’s not better.

Part 5: Why Shock Collars Are Still Bad

So what if you don’t care about the message? What if you have no interest in self-reflection, or critical analysis (why are you reading this blog then lmao)? What if you just really want to hear a fun story about talking animals?

Well, this is trickier, because the remaining reasons are pretty subjective and emotional.

The creators have said that the shock collar version didn’t work because the viewers hated the cruel world they’d created. They agreed with Nick--the city was beyond saving. They didn’t want to save it.

The creators have said that Judy was hard to sympathize with, not being able to recognize the shock collars for the obvious cruelty they were.

Fuck you, Judy!

But we haven’t seen the draft copies. We haven’t watched the animatics. We have to take their word for it. Anyone who’s sufficiently invested in this story is going to say “well, I disagree with them.” It doesn’t matter to them that they haven’t seen the draft and the filmmakers have. The movie they’ve imagined is great and nobody is going to convince them otherwise.

But the fact remains that the shock collar movie, as written, did not work. And, if behind the scenes material is to be believed, it continued to not work after months and months of story doctoring.

There’s even been a webcomic made out of the dystopian version of Zootopia. It’s clever and creative and well-written and entertaining and...it kind of falls apart. The creator, after more than a little shit-talk directed at Disney, abandoned the story before reaching the conclusion, but even before then the seams were beginning to show. How do you take a society that’s okay with electrocuting cute animals and bring it to a point of cathartic redemption? You can’t, really. The story doesn’t work.

Does that mean people shouldn’t make fanworks out of the cut material? That they shouldn’t be inspired and excited by it? Hell no. This drawing is cute as hell. The ideas are compelling.

But I suppose what I’d ask of you all is--if you’re weighing the hot takes of art students on Twitter against the explanations of veteran filmmakers, consider that the latter group might actually know what they’re talking about.

See you next time!

#zootopia #zootropolis #zoomania #zootopia takes #judy hopps #nick wilde #disney #chief bogo #byron howard

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