#i'm not sure if tumblr will like this post or not

[dkettchen]

I do enjoy dressing her entirely in canon outfits/cuts and the occasional top she's borrowed from nami and being like ye canon!sanji sure does own a pair of 3/4 pants with ballerina loafers he sure did wear that before with his whole cishet man ass and we didn't bat a single eye at it

[elsa-fogen]

What if Rosie actually has Alastor's official social media handles on every platform because she's not about to let the Vees get a chance to pretend to be him online and trash his reputation. Alastor agreed to it because he doesn't care about social media and if it makes her happy AND spites the Vees, then she can do whatever.

Then Alastor disappears. Rosie misses him. She's also a bit pissed that he just left without a word. One night, scrolling through some app, she sees someone praising Vox's genius entrepreneurship (like Elon Musk level fanboy) and she can practically hear Alastor's response to THAT... So she opens up Alastor's handle and lets loose, pretending to be Alastor. It's kinda like having him back with her in spirit.

Whenever she needs to tell someone off anonymously she just lets "Alastor" do it -- she gets completely into character and makes sure it "sounds" like him and would be something he'd say something about. No one but the other Overlords knows that it isn't really Alastor.

Alastor : *just returned from 7-year "sabbatical"* Rosie, dearest... What is Sinstagram and why do all these nobodies think that they have "a beef" with me on it?

Rosie: ...Well, while you were gone *insert total BS story about how she needed to post to keep his accounts active*

Alastor: ... nevermind, just tell me who *we're* fighting.

i can't belive i have ask that is kinda little bit fitting for the current situation i got into ahahah (internet fight)

i JUST LOVE IT BTW

It also reminded me, i have seen fake tumblr dash posts like what if hazbin characters had tumblr and there was alastor account and nobody knows who runs it, but it creepily in-character sometimes to the point where it says same things that real Alastor said, and no one can suspend it, even Vox who owns the site

i wish i saved it somewhere, it was so funny 😭😭

if anyone have seen it or knows the authour please let me know

but basically i now imagine thet Rosie would do that FLDKJHGFDJJG, she knows Alastor enough to "be" him in the internet

btw if you interested in my current situation: few years ago one dude asked me to make him admin in the group i'm running, i said no and now he's pissy, that's the tea. have i told yall that i'm actually Alastor hazbin hotel?

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for knowingly having a sex repulsed person view very graphic pornography?

This one might be uncomfortable to read so CW for mentions of adult content and stalking, omitting graphic details where I can. I (24m) am currently being stalked by someone (22x) I had a falling out with about a year ago. I'd rather not go into the details here, but part of the stalking includes that I've gotten a heads up that they have recently uncovered and have been routinely checking on one of my social media accounts (not tumblr) against my permission and wishes. This account is an 18+ account, and without getting too graphic I do post lewd content on it. I only have a small number of followers (20-something) who are almost all mutuals. Due to the enshittification of the platform, remaking my account or rebranding my account is risky, and I'm not able to private it the way I currently use it.

Most of the people in my circle on this platform post incredibly graphic irl kink content, usually involving very niche/unsanitary/seemingly-dangerous/or physically intense scenes. I really haven't, keeping most of my posts to just text or artwork, just because I prefer keeping my account low key, but it really wouldn't be out of place for me to share this kind of more graphic irl content and it wouldn't impact my actual followers if I did. I know my stalker is extremely sex repulsed, but clearly they have been powering through with the stuff I have been posting. I'm pretty sure if I started posting more graphic shit though, it would be like giving toxic sour candy to a medieval peasant. I'm sure if I did, they would leave that account the fuck alone, or at the very least it would be extremely painful for them to keep tabs on it. It's giving me a bit of a moral dilemma though. I'm not opposed to posting more graphic content, but in this case I would really only be doing it to "get back" at my stalker... And knowing that doing this could send them into a really bad panic attack or mental breakdown has be hesitant if it would make me the asshole.

[deluweil]

Oh God yes, I am so for Tommy being gone just to have people stop being stupid about Eddie. Which is a pitty because at first I was intrigued by Tommy. Now i just want it to end.

And lol at your tags. I have blocked so many people lately, too. Not even stupid takes during TK era made me block so much. Some of them really take the cake now. All this hate towards Eddie is staggering. And to have the audacity to call eddieblr toxic (and yes, I have seen that and not only buddies are being called toxic these days).

HI there,

I have to say that I was intrigued and even excited for Tommy at first too, but there were a lot of things that just ruined it along the way, amongst them the last minute joiners and Eddie haters fans who just set out to make this place unbearable.

I wouldn't have minded Tommy so much if not for all the toxicity that brought with it and the poor writing and the money for specs from Lou.

Like wth dude, didn't anyone teach you to be correct, you can't justify Tommy's behavior in S2 and pass it as teasing. It's like punching someone in the face in rage or nearly break someone's ankle for attention and call it roughhousing. (not joking, I literally had an ask with someone justifying the white man railroading the POC for attention as roughhousing. - When Buck himself said he wasn't sure it wasn't done on purpose. like wtf?)

lol I live for those tags, everyone say their real thoughts and be funny in tags, it's so much fun.

I literally bonded with that block button, I haven't blocked so many ppl since early S4 and the porn bots attack lol

Ppl need to chill, everyone is entitled to their opinions but are not entitled to force it upon others.

Ship who you want but tag properly and don't be toxic about.

A lot of ppl read X's posts and come to rant about it here, Tumblr is not X, most of the ppl here are ppl who hate X's toxicity. I have deleted my account so many years ago.

We are here to have fun, so I say ship who you want, TAG PROPERLY, and leave us the hell alone.

Eddie/Ryan haters are all blocked so thankfully I don't see those, but if after everything they still hate on Eddie for something Ryan apologized several times for, learned from it and has bettered himself to the point that Aisha posted a thankful for Ryan story once and they have so many pictures together where she hugs him like he's one of the most precious ppl to ever live, than I have to call pure racism.

And that would explain the sudden admiration to the new white man on screen to be paired with the other white man who is by chance also the fan favorite.

Don't get it twisted, I love Oliver and Oliver loves Ryan and Eddie, but one has to wonder about the audience's choice of favorite even as they call against racism and for equality and with the same breath hate on a regular poc character.

I'm hoping this bizarre season ends on a good note, because otherwise S8 may be the last season.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

[sugakookie78]

Instagram Posts (Instagram AU)

Posts that either you or the driver posts about your relationship.

Pairing: Group 3:

Post 1: Mick Schumacher x Reader

Post 2: Sebastian Vettel x Reader

Post 3: Nico Hulkenberg x Reader

Post 4: Frederik Vesti x Reader

Pictures are from Instagram, Tumblr, or Pinterest

@/Y/N.Y/L End of off-season vacation

Tagged @/mickschumacher

Liked by @/mickschumacher, @/gina_schumacher, and 21,572 others

mickschumacher <3

gina_schumacher @/mickschumacher You'll have to bring her to meet us

mickschumacher @/Y/N.Y/L Summer break?

Y/N.Y/L Sure, if you want

user1 I want what they have

user2 Agreed

@/Y/N.Vettel Picnic and cozy night in <3

Tagged @/sebastianvettel

Liked by @/sebastianvettel, @/yourbestfriend, and 31,956 others

sebastianvettel I love you, darling

Y/N.Vettel I love you too

user1 That is so cute

yourbestfriend That skirt is so cute! Where did you get it?

Y/N.Vettel I don't remember, but I'll try and find it for you

user2 If he wanted to, he would

@/Y/N.Hulkenberg He's everything and I'm just Ken

Tagged @/hulkhulkenberg

Liked by @/hulkhulkenberg, @/kevinmagnussen, and 37,916 others

hulkhulkenberg You're everything to me <3

Y/N.Hulkenberg Aww, I'm blushing <3

user1 This is true love

kevinmagnussen Does that mean Hulk is Barbie?

Y/N.Hulkenberg ...I mean... technically

hulkhulkenberg Please don't start calling me Barbie

@/frederikvestiofficial London Time

Tagged @/Y/N.Y/L

Liked by @/Y/N.Y/L, @/olliebearman, and 29,846 others

Y/N.Y/L The London Clock!

olliebearman ...You know if has a name, right?

Y/N.Y/L Yeah, Ollie, I just forgot in the moment

user1 Adorable

Y/N.Y/L Love you, Freddie <3

frederikvestiofficial Love you too <3

[historicity-was-already-taken]

State of the Blog Address; originally posted 5/25/24

Back when I started this blog 2011, I had one goal: make a space for myself where I can babble about history in an accessible manner, help the public access history in new ways; and like, maybe one day use it to help myself transition into a professional writing career.

It was all longform posts and independent, specifically researched pieces for this blog, and I loved it. I blew off graduate course work to write material for this blog. It helped me to become the writer and public historian that I am today; you all helped me become the writer and public historian that I am today.

The flip side of this is, that as my career as a Public Historian takes off in a very real way [screaming], the time and attention I used to put into my longform posts is now directed towards endeavors that I get paid for. Namely, my freelance researcher position for Bailey Sarian's Dark History podcast/youtube series, and my writing career; my agent and I are talking about second, third projects (I'm still broke lmao but I'm getting to a place where actual Real Money is lurking in the near future).

I have no plans to abandon this blog. I grew up here (speaking in a nonliteral, emotional/intellectual/schmoopy sense), but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to revert to my tightly researched, longform pieces created specifically for this blog.

You will still see: medium/long form historically backed posts, usually related to issues of memory construction, or other points of historiography; quotes I find meaningful; short posts about something I'm learning about; shitposting; and stuff about writing and tradpub for interested parties.

That's what I am. Here's what I'm not:

I'm not turning into an I/P Discourse blog; there are posts here about that issue because the discourse has turned anti-Semitic in a. historically recognizable ways, which, b. people on tumblr have decided to pollute my space with.

I'm also not the supreme arbiter of what is and is not genocide, and I never will be. I am a Holocaust historian. I know how to identify the signs indicating that a state might shortly turn genocidal, and how to use my skillset as a historian to analyze past events and make an informed opinion as to whether or not those constituted genocide. But I am not an international human rights attorney, I am not a war correspondent, and my status as a Holocaust historian does not qualify me to act as one. Since October 7, I have made plenty of posts here for people looking for those resources, you can find them very easily if you can spare literally ten minutes to browse my archive.

I would rather have people here accuse me of being a brainwashed Zionist apartheid international banker Jew who humps the Israeli flag daily basis than make a call I'm not qualified to make, on a situation I have (very intentionally) not been following closely. Because said situation is PROFOUNDLY DISTRESSING and I have a low bandwidth for intellectual engagement with contemporary human suffering rn. If you don't like that, you're free to send me money so I can afford to see a therapist for the secondary-trauma I have developed as a result of my work; secondary trauma is EXTREMELY common among military historians, genocide historians/scholars, and historians who focus on other forms of violence and MANY of us actively choose not to engage with the 24/7 news cycle as a direct result.

Finally, I am not an expert on Modern Middle Eastern history. I have friends who are, and I've read enough and learned enough from them (and some of you!) to be able to understand exactly how little I know. If you ask for my takes, they will always be grounded (historiographically) in the field of Modern Jewish History. Because that is my field. I have some titles in the (ten year-old wtf) I/P reading list, but that is it.

[merlot-and-chardonnay]

HotD Take: the Targ Men and the Women who try to control them in this Society

Seeing all the promos and the trailers for HotD season 2, I have this prediction that the Targaryen men this season are going to be increasingly difficult to control, especially when the women try and keep them in line.

Now there are a lot of factors that would go into that mentality in this world so strap in and hear me out.

Also spoilers from the Fire and Blood novel.

So, as I've pointed out repeatedly in my other takes, the World of Ice and Fire- or Westeros anyway- is a patriarchal society. So the sexist idea that men are naturally superior to women is ingrained in our characters in some form or fashion.

And the Targ men- be they Team Black or Team Green- are no exception to this societal influence.

Daemon for example, while the guy has a tendency to eschew Westerosi values in favor of his ancestral Valyrian traditions- something that definitely borders along the lines of Targaryen Exceptionalism- he was likely still influenced by Westerosi society on some level. When his brother Viserys ascended the Iron Throne, and having no male heirs, Daemon was seen as Heir Apparent, and there was this expectation Daemon would sit the throne next if Viserys failed to produce any sons....

That's why OTTO of all people- in the book anyway- suggested Viserys name Rhaenyra heir after the death of Queen Aemma (temporarily anyway with the expectation that Viserys would remarry and work on producing sons) because he was scared of the possibility of Daemon being king and becoming a second Maegor the Cruel.

So when Daemon was officially disinherited the guy didn't exactly take it well. Whatever his feelings are for his niece, I have to imagine the idea that he was replaced by a young girl probably felt emasculating.

Speaking of Daemon feeling emasculated in this society, I would recommend reading this post on tumblr who goes more into detail in how this heavily influenced his attitude and contempt for his first wife Rhea Royce (basically it discusses how Daemon was in the prime of his life in this point in time and he was basically married off to the Lady of Runestone in a similar way a highborn lady would be sent off to marry some Lord in a distant land like a broodmare).

Taking what we do know of Westerosi patriarchal values, I have this feeling that even though he married Rhaenyra and loves her with all his heart, I think the idea of having to bend the knee to her- the idea that she will outrank him as Queen of the Iron Throne and him her consort- doesn't sit well with him on a subconscious level.

The fact in Episode 10, when Daemon was ordering people out and about to prepare for war with the Greens, only for those orders to be overridden by Rhaenyra THE Queen, I'm pretty sure he felt that to be emasculating. (I'm actually wondering if actor Matt Smith is channeling some of his Prince Phillip persona from The Crown into Daemon in this regard).

I also do want to point out that Daemon sees much of his brother in Rhaenyra at that moment- he sees Viserys' weakness and passivity- when she refuses to take the initiative and put the Greens in their place before the conflict escalates any further. This, along with the fact that he realized that Viserys never saw Daemon as a true heir, factors into the way he lashed out and choked Rhaenyra.

(There are people in this fandom that have headcannoned that this isn't the first time Daemon has displayed this type of violent behavior towards Rhaenyra...given the age gap as well as the uncle/niece relationship and those inherit power dynamics AND Daemon's volatile unpredictability I wouldn't exactly be surprised if that was the case).

I predict as the Dance of Dragons begins Daemon is going to be more and more difficult to keep in line, especially by Rhaenyra (actually I feel this will be especially the case leading up to Blood and Cheese). Rhaenyra may be queen, but Daemon will make it known to their supporters that HE is the king.

Meanwhile on the Team Green side, the Hightowers, as I've mentioned in an earlier post- being the lords of Oldtown, the seat of the Faith of the Seven- they're the most heavily invested in Westeros' patriarchal values. Not just the men, but the women as well.

As much as I have sympathy for Alicent, the way she's been victimized by this society, the way she was married off to the king at a young age (without getting so much as a say-so), having to perform her wifely duties and produce children at a young age too, she has also perpetuated many of those patriarchal values.

NUANCE. IS. A. THING. TWO things can be RIGHT at THE SAME TIME!!

When her father was sent away, Alicent took it upon herself to instill in her oldest son Aegon that he will be king after his father since that is what the people will expect. Aegon will be king because he is a man and male heirs will always supersede any women claimants.

She instilled this into Aegon as well as her golden child Aemond (I don't exactly know how much of this she would have instilled into Helaena but since Alicent had her married off to Aegon I think there is a possibility she's made allusions to Helaena that her brother husband will be king and their children will be next in line for the throne).

Alicent also goes out of her way to cover up for Aegon when he does uh...certain things that would definitely look bad if brought to the light. That incident with Dyana ring a bell to anyone?

To Alicent's credit she does assure the poor girl that she believes her story and gave her the means to escape her abuser and also giving her the Westeros version of Plan B to prevent any unwanted pregnancies, but at the same time Alicent basically made it known to Dyana that no one else would believe her if she told, that she would be branded a slut who intentionally tried to seduce Aegon since they were alone and that she is trying to destroy his reputation.

This doesn't change the fact that Alicent IS COVERING UP AND ENABLING HER SON because a man's reputation is more important than the person he caused harm to...but I digress.

Alicent certainly has a complicated relationship with Aegon, but she seems pretty close with Aemond. Along with her, Otto, and Criston, Aemond's father figure, the way these three have embraced many of the chauvinistic attitudes pervasive in Westeros (Criston may be a disgraced knight who broke his oath but he still takes the other parts of his oath and his knight training seriously which includes protecting women and children), I'm fairly certain Aemond has absorbed many of those ideas as well.

With Aemond actually, when he was sent to go find Aegon, Aemond made an allusion to Criston that he is next in line as a second son and if Aegon wasn't found in time, then Aemond would be waiting to take the mantle as king (and yes, I'm aware that Aegon has sons of his own, and I did write a post discussing that, link is HERE if you want to read that).

I also bring this up in part to bits of the last HotD season 2 trailer where we see Alicent try to reason with her sons, especially Aemond, but it doesn't look like she's getting to him:

Aemond: Would you not have us prevail? Alicent: NOT like this!!

This tumblr post actually points out that when Aemond feels his mother has become TOO emotional to make any decisions on her own because she has become 'blinded' by her love for Rhaenyra (Alicent is definitely NOT a repressed lesbian...not AT ALL...she said sarcastically), which makes her a fool; therefore, he needs to take charge.

Alicent reinforces the patriarchal values to her sons- which I predict will yield some unintended consequences on her part- yet at the same time she tries to do what she can to keep them in line, even more so in Episode 9 when she was insistent that Aegon spare his sister and reject his grandfathers counsel to do otherwise.

Alicent, honey....you just gave your son the crown, the throne, and the absolute power that comes with it...what makes you think he's going to listen to you after that?

As the much beloved GoT fan favorite Tyrion Lannister said to his sweet sister Cersei when she came to realize she couldn't control her king son despite being Queen Regent:

"It's hard to put a leash on a dog once you've put a crown on its head." -Tyrion Lannister

I get the impression that will be a similar case with Aegon once he gets more and more used to his power as king.

I predict he'll begin to ignore his mother in favor of doing what he wants (I'm also predicting that when Aegon had his grandfather dismissed as Hand of the King, Alicent will probably urge to reconsider this decision, but he'll just laugh and say no).

One thing that resonates with me from all this was what Rhaenys said to Alicent in Episode 9 when Alicent tried to persuade Rhaenys to renounce the Velaryon's support of Rhaenyra in favor of Aegon. Alicent brings up that women don't rule the realm but they can do their best to guide the men who, gently away from acts of violence. Rhaenys had this to say in response:

"...yet you toil in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?" -Rhaenys Targaryen

This is actually a pretty powerful quote, in my opinion, because I feel it basically sums up Alicent's life up until now. She was a young girl who has only done all that was expected of her. She married the king, had his children, raised those same children, all in the name of a higher purpose, and all at her father's behest.

Yet it never did once occur to Alicent the possibility that she could've sat the Throne. (now thinking back to Episode 8, it was Otto who sat the throne for the Driftmark petition...Alicent NEVER took that opportunity not even once).

It never occurred to Alicent that a woman could have power, despite being a woman herself.

And here she is trying to guide the men in her life, the same men who were either influenced by Westeros' societal values, and she herself had reinforced those same values, and she is reaping the consequences from all that, and will probably continue to reap them in the next season.

And I think on some level Alicent understands this, that is how her life ended up because all she ever did was do as she was told, at least that seems to be the case when she confronted her father in Episode 9 prior to Aegon's coronation:

But I think at this point, Alicent feels that it's too late to change anything, this is the way things are, and she needs to keep reinforcing it (it is kinda difficult to change course on your beliefs even after having the epiphany she had, old habits die hard after all).

I bring all this up to showcase how this society influences our characters, it influences how they were raised especially in the confines of Westeros' upper class gender roles and it will influence how our beloved Targ men will end up doing as they will and no one will be there to control them and put them in their place, especially if it's the women around them who try to keep them in line.

I'm fairly certain this will go along the ways of how we see Blood and Cheese play out as well as the Dance of Dragons.

So I've said what I wanted to say, and hopefully this will be the last I talk things HotD related before the season premier (Not including my HotD/Witcher crossover updates of course).

So we're good? Good!

TO WAR THEN!

[muff1nqwq]

Dude that one post rlly helped me. It just reached 800 notes and I'm already doing better. Haven't touched my bl4de in a week and I've been doing much more quads, cosplay, I've been going outside more, animated a bit, and I played roblox w/ a friend today.

Like if u haven't tried posting one of those I highly recommend u to. Ik at first it's like "nooo I don't wanna go outside I wanna cvt and be depressed and angsyyy" but then u start actually trying to recover ( sure tumblr users r making u do it but STILL ) and it's rlly cool. I still have an urge to cvt, but like there's a school dance next week and I don't want any of my body parts to gush out blood during it X3

Anyway what I'm tryna say is thank you. Thanks for helping me get a bit better. <3 I hope ur all gonna get better soon, too.

ily all sm ^^

have a great day slash night!!

[mystycalypso]

God I kinda feel bad for tinybuild

Don't get me wrong, I'm as hyped and ready for season 2 to drop as everyone else, but the spam of comments they get on every video and post asking- no, demanding a release date and just being rude about is so uncool. To the point where the other half of the comments are people complaining about the former.

Tinybuild is a publisher, they gather multiple development teams together, giving them budgets to fund new projects and things like that. To pretend Welcome to Ravenbrooks or Hello Neighbor as a whole is the only important project they have is so mean not only to them as a publisher but to the dev teams under their umbrella.

Their other games are so fun and wonderful and seeing new projects from them is so nice, heck my dad has Playstation premium and one of the free monthly games is Totally Reliable Delivery Service, and god is it just so fun. Me and him spent several hours just fucking around and trying to deliver a fish to a ferris wheel simply because it made us laugh.

Do I believe the problem people are here on Tumblr? Not really, no, like I've kinda said before, the youtube side of the fandom just seems to be- problem children (I could say that about a lot of fandoms ngl-) but, idk, I know there's not much that can be done about it, but it just sort of frustrates me.

And in the kindest way, I'd just like to remind everyone to be patient and kind while waiting for season 2. I know the initial goal was early 2024 but animation is hard, and given that if TinyBuild had gone bankrupt we wouldn't have gotten any season 2 at all, I'm willing to wait as long as it'll take. Just from the teasers and clips we've seen I know it'll be great.

It's kinda like the Spiderverse franchise, sure at the time was I hyped for a summer 2024 release? Yeah, but I will happily wait for something they think is their best product.

[tadpolejourney]

Apparently this post needs a title: Gale is not canonically autistic, nor was he canonically groomed - An evidently hot take on tumblr (this is an edit)

Really bugs me how so many people on tumblr diagnose Gale with autism (spoiler: they're not doctors because doctors have ethics).

EDIT: This whole next part is a SEPARATE thought that has nothing to do with autism. I think autistic people are great and I'm definitely not trying to spread ableism in tags... or anywhere else for that matter. I suppose I should also say that my opinion is not wild or out of left field outside of tumblr. I know Forgotten Realms lore and D&D very well, which seems rather atypical for tumblr. Also I'm being candid about my edits because I want it be clear what I am trying to say vs what words people are putting into my mouth just because they are being reactionary. I was trying to vent and have interaction about my thoughts without writing a whole essay explaining my every thought in detail. People were so reactionary that I have now had to fully explain all aspects of this post... I hope you will at least read through all my replies before insulting me.

What bugs me the most is when people talk about Mystra grooming him. If you think it happened when he was a child, that simply was not possible as Mystra was dead. If you think it happened to him as an adult, that's absurd. (Edit: This is absurd because of Gale's circumstances and the fact that it's never explicitly part of his story/dialogue, not because being groomed as an adult is an absurd idea.)

Gale is very smart and knowledgeable about Mystra, her ways, and the Weave (edited to have more positive and clear language so people will stop screaming at me in tags - also does not imply people who are groomed can't be very smart). Gale is a confident man of sound mind (edit: this is not to imply that everyone who is groomed is not of sound mind) with hubris galore. If you think he was groomed, you completely misunderstand his character arc (snarky edit: again I say, hubris). You take away all of his power, intelligence, and agency as an adult (Edit: intelligence was not a good thing for me to lump in here without fully articulating this thought. It's there only as a means to strengthen the argument. It's his power and agency combined that would prevent him from being groomed by her.) You're trying to make him seem more innocent than he is. When he meets Mystra he's an adult with a job, sexual experience, has been in relationships, etc. About as far from an innocent child as you can get. He knows who Mystra is, what she is capable of, and what she offers him as a chosen/lover.

He walks into their relationship willingly, and makes no indication whatsoever that he was harassed, manipulated, or coerced into his relationship with her. People honestly can't fathom Gale (or any adult attracted to women) wanting to have sex with a goddess? Hah. (Edit: NONE OF THIS IMPLIES HE WAS NOT ABUSED LATER ON OR THAT HE WANTED TO BE ABUSED BY HER AFTER THEIR RELATIONSHIP STARTED.)

I think it's a weird jealousy thing. A weird victimization thing. A weird demonize Mystra thing.

HC all you want, but don't put that shit out there like it's actual canon. If you think I'm wrong, please bring me proof in the form of game dialogue. I don't think I'm wrong, though. I've got more than 900 hours of play time and have romanced him several times. Pretty sure I haven't missed anything...

[regulatedstrawberry]

Send in your questions!

Hi all! I'm Strawberry, author of Sonic fic Reaching New Heights: A Tails Adventure. I'm collaborating with my good friend Bee ( @beeextraordinary123 ), best known for her fic What Was Stolen, on an upcoming project, and we need your help!

We'd love to field any questions you may have - these questions can be about our fics, the writing process, general Sonic-related questions, or anything else that you'd like to ask! They can be directed individually, or for the two of us together.

Feel free to send your questions via the comments of this post, in reblogs, or if you prefer, through my ask box (be sure to indicate that it's for the project!)

Stay tuned for more information! Consider following us here on Tumblr, or on our Twitter accounts [Strawberry] [Bee] to stay up to date on the project. We look forward to receiving your questions!

[calamitys-child]

ok i have to know the story

IMMEDIATELY you and several others 😅 okay this was a little while ago but to the best of my recollection it went something like this

Tumblr had very recently introduced the little follow button beside everyone's username in reblog chains. As I'm sure we all remember, this resulted in a lot of folk accidentally following and unfollowing people until we got used to it

I get a message from an account I do not recognise saying "hey why the FUCK do you follow me"

I take a quick skim of their blog; it's mostly anime I've never heard of and cutesy pink aesthetic posts, nothing that I'd typically follow someone for

A few posts down I see something I'd reblogged a longer version of from someone else and recognise the comment they'd left on it

I'm like "whoops, weird new follow button, I'll just leave"

The next day I am tagged in a post

"PLEASE BE AWARE OF THESE DISGUSTING PREDATORS"

?????????????

Click on post

Apparently, somewhere in their EXTENSIVE DNI readmore drop down, they had said "IM 18 AND IF YOURE OVER 21 ITS STATUTORY ABUSE TO INTERACT WITH ME"

??????????????????????

They'd posted screenshots of my blog and a couple others, saying we were pedophiles with a blatant disregard for boundaries

1. I am not

2. I had already unfollowed them upon realising I wasn't interested in their posts

3. THEY STARTED THE INTERACTION WITH ME. BOTH TIMES.

Anyway I just blocked them and went about my life as normal but I hope wherever they are they've grown some common sense and aren't reporting every, like, shop assistant or bus driver that ever says hello back to them as a sexual offender

It's not the only time I've had someone with like. "Men/over 20s/some other category I fit in DNI" start a conversation with me then get furious when I respond, bc apparently it's on me to vet them via 3 different carrd links before replying and not on them to check the "he/him guy age 24" in my bio before they start the interaction, but it is the wildest

[koeal]

I accidentally deleted an ask where someone asked for some art tips (whoever you were anon, I'm so sorry)

But I made this post still

All I ever posted here was fanart, so I will mostly focus on characters

1. Work on anatomy!

And from experience I know how hard it is to actually find out how to learn it, so here is little example

While knowing these few fun facts, you can experiment a lot!

For example, while people's eyes grow untill early 20's (around 8 milimeters since they are born), noses and ears never really stop growing. So while drawing babies - you can draw their eyes bigger; and while drawing elders - the bigger would be their ears and noses

1.2. Look for shapes!

Another example, because I don't know how to explain it

If it looks hard to you, don't worry, there are many tutorials online that will guide you!

2. Always have a reference!

And if you can't find a good one, I recommend taking picture of yourself! No one is going to see it besides you, right?

I also recommend tracing the reference first in shapes, boxes, as a stick man or whatever you prefer and then trying to recreate that sketch on a clear canvas

3. Follow many artists!

Just visit their page every so often, what is it that caught your attention? The way they color, the way they render? Maybe amazing backgrounds, awesome perspective? Some little details they put on every piece of art they make?

Maybe try using few of these on your art as well!

Also, it's pretty convenient in other ways as well - on platforms like Tumblr they can reblog art they like, and it's more likely for you to see more artstyles and techniques; on places like YouTube they often post speedpaints and tutorials you can take a look at!

Well, these are the main ones, but I will write some other things I can think of:

↳ While rendering, lower opacity of your brush

↳ Sometimes you can try to challenge yourself to use 1. As many brushes as you can or 2. As little brushes as you can (If you are new to art, it can help you find your favorites!:D)

↳ It's good to study a bit of everything - hands, neck, shoulders, back, feet, arms.. You get what I mean!

But it's nice to work on some other things from time to time as well! Try drawing a strawberry, a bunny, some flowers!

↳ If you can't understand how something works, try looking at human skeleton and muscles!

↳ While shading, color of your shadow will be on the opposite side of color wheel from the light (that means if your light is yellow, your shadow will be purple)

↳ Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone! Try new things, experiment!

I wasn't sure what type of tips you were asking for but I hope I helped at least a little<33

[tyrantisterror]

Who are your top ten favorite sympathetic villains in fiction?

See, that's the kind of question you just can't answer on this site in normal conditions. This is tumblr, the place where if you think a villain from any media that people have heard of is sympathetic, there will be an incredibly vocal contingent of moral puritans who will flock to your proverbial door to scream at you for being a fascist and threaten you with torches, pitchfork, and a good ol' stake to burn you on. Doesn't matter what media the villain is from or how fantastical or mundane their crimes are - if you try to argue someone deemed bad by the mob is actually morally complex, they will force you to walk the scaffold of the gallows so they can plunder your real estate when you're buried in the unmarked grave reserved for heathens and heretics.

Hell, it's not just strangers on here you have to worry about this with, either. When I first read this question a few characters who affected me deeply came to mind immediately, and for each one I could pinpoint at least one person who follows my blog that would not hesitate for a moment to post a several paragraph screed in a reblog of this ask telling me why that character is actually Objectively Worse Than Hitler, and that I'm a fascist if I continue to like them. This is not a safe space to sympathize with villains. Lust after them, sure, but not to sympathize with them.

But! I have thought of a work around. Obviously, any media with a fandom isn't safe - unless that media is so obscure, so barely known, that its fandom can probably be counted on two hands. Something where the fan count can't reach above the double digits, and in all likelyhood is less than fifty at the most generous estimation. And it just so happens I can think of AT LEAST ten sympathetic villains from works of media I dearly, genuinely love - love them so much it's as if they were my own children, even - that are at this level of obscurity, and likely to remain so for as long as I live. So here are my

TEN FAVORITE SYMPATHETIC VILLAINS FROM WORKS OF MEDIA SO OBSCURE THAT I CAN GUARANTEE NOBODY ON EARTH WILL EVER SEARCH FOR THEM ON TUMBLR AND PROCEED TO SCREAM AT ME FOR LIKING THEM!

10. MechaTyrantis from The Atomic Time of Monsters by William Cope

Appearing in William Cope's stunning kaiju period piece novel series The Atomic Time of Monsters, MechaTyrantis takes the genre trope of a mechanical doppelganger kaiju and gives it a few new twists. We actually meet MechaTyrantis as a purely flesh and blood creature first, where he is presented as a natural rival for the main kaiju character, Tyrantis, because they are both males of the same species vying for the attention of the sole female of their kind that they've found. MT loses the courtship fight to Tyrantis, and nurses a grudge about it, eventually luring Tyrantis into a trap to try and kill him. In the grand tradition of villains, his evil plot backfires and hurts him more than his intended victim, leaving him crippled and comatose in a rock slide.

This is where the pathos comes in, for as nasty as MT is, the human villains who excavate his unconscious form from the rocks are a lot worse, harvesting him for parts to make a cyborg war machine. Intended to be nothing more than a wetware PC, MechaTyrantis's animal brain lies dormant for much of the time he's being piloted, but sporadically awakens when given proper stimuli - at which point we get treated to the horror of what was done to him, and how his animal mind struggles to understand the surge of inputs from both his machine body parts and the human trying to pilot them. His existence is, bluntly, a nightmare, and one that makes MechaTyrantis continue to lash out at the world with horrifying results.

Yet as nasty as he was before and after his alteration, it's clear he doesn't deserve a fate this wretched, and author William Cope obviously agrees with me, as MechaTyrantis does stumble his way into a redemption of sorts, albeit by suffering a great deal of pain and humiliation before he can reach the epiphany he needs.

9. Promythigor from The Atomic Time of Monsters by William Cope

One of the last villains introduced in The Atomic Time of Monsters Series (at least so far - while there are only two volumes at the time of this writing, esteemed author William Cope has noted several times on social media that he intends to write more someday down the line), Promythigor has less screentime than most of his fellow bad guys, but he makes it count. Essentially King Kong if he both had firebending powers and a dangerous case of pyromania, Promythigor isn't outright malicious so much as lethally foolhardy and careless with his fire powers, which brings him into conflict with pretty much ever living being he encounters.

Yet, like MechaTyrantis, there's pathos to him, as he too is a horrible science experiment created by humans who neither thought of nor cared about the psychological state of the supernatural animals they were exploiting. There's almost an innocence to Promythigor as he lashes out, and for all the trouble he causes with his mischief it's clear he doesn't really understand how much harm he's doing. One thinks he could sort himself out if given a few good influences and a lot of firm boundaries, which volume two seems to set him up for. At the very least, he got one of the best action scenes in the books.

8. Ahuul from The Atomic Time of Monsters by William Cope

Ok, last kaiju on this list, I promise! Or at least the last one from ATOM. Ahuul is the first villainous kaiju we meet in William Cope's groundbreaking series, and he does a good job of setting up the stakes - before we properly meet him, the story is relatively light-hearted, especially with the big, lovable friendly kaiju Tyrantis forming an unlikely friendship with human paleontologist Dr. Lerna. But then Ahuul flies out and begins eating people to reminds us that these monsters can be quite deadly indeed. Things get particularly dire when he leaves the countryside and lands in the nearby town, at which point we see how helpless the local law enforcement of this rural community are in the face of a kaiju threat - and that makes it all the more cathartic a release when Tyrantis arrives to kick his ass.

Ahuul doesn't have a redemption arc so much as what tumblr has called a "Vegeta arc" - which is to say, he never really stops being a nasty, vicious bastard, he just ends up surrounded by enough morally inclined badasses that he stops being able to get away with doing much evil anymore. By the end of volume one, he becomes something of a joke, easily trounced by all the other monsters around him, as by that point the world of ATOM has expanded enough to show that a monster as deadly to humans as Ahuul is still ultimately kind of a small fish in a big pond.

Which does lead to some character development, in a roundabout way. Ahuul may be awful, but he doesn't like to be beaten up all the time, and so he starts making efforts to tone down his worse impulses and gain the tolerance of his neighbors. Seeking redemption out of pragmatism instead of remorse may not be super moral, but it does shed an interesting light on the nasty bastard, and allows us to enjoy him as a character without worrying that his comedically awful personality will cause real problems.

7. The Jester's Jape from No Small Feat and Wake of the Red Death, a pair of Fabula Ultima TTRPG Liveplay Shows GM'ed by William Cope

(inking for these sprites done by the illustrious @dragonzzilla)

I suppose I'm cheating by putting four characters in one spot, but you kind of have to take these ladies together. A quartet of goofy villainous henchmen in the vein of the Turks from Final Fantasy 7 and Ozzy, Flea, and Slash from Chrono Trigger, the Jester's Jape are a quartet of trouble-makers who routinely find themselves working for arch-villains and megalomaniacs because hey, it pays the bills. Though the bosses they work for tend to be bastards (or at least majorly conceited), they themselves are firmly in the "punch clock villain" mold, only doing what they need to to get paid, and more than happy to betray the evil bastards they were working for if things go South. I also like the fact that they establish clowns are explicitly a variety of half-demon in the setting of these stories, because it's fun to think of clowns as a variety of monster rather than just an occupation.

6. The Ravening Beast from No Small Feat, a Fabula Ultima TTRPG Liveplay GM'ed by William Cope

(Inking for these pieces done by the magnanimous @scatha5 and the splendiferous @dinosaurana, respectively)

Ok one more kaiju I suppose, technically, if we really stretch the definition of the word a bit. In a campaign full of fairy tale pastiches, The Ravening Beast fulfills the archetype of The Big Predator That Wants to Eat You - not just your Big Bad Wolves, but your bridge trolls, your manticores, and all other large hairy things dwelling in wild places and waiting for innocent passersby to cobble up. And for most of the campaign that seems to be all there is to the monster - just a big, nasty, hungry thing that wants to eat and eat and eat, a primal fear that torments the player characters at every turn.

Until, of course, the heroes track it to its den, and we discover the Beast's history - how its father particularly aimed to sire a monster, creating a creatures whose hormones were so imbalanced that it had to eat its siblings at birth just to quell the churning emptiness in its guts. How it was specifically groomed to be a maneater, and how it was fed a corpse with one of the magic jewels that serve as the campaign's primary mcguffins, which turned it into an even worse monster.

At the end of the story, the Ravening Beast wasn't a figure to be afraid of, but one to be pitied - a poor, mistreated creature who was never given a chance to be happy, and like the real life man-eaters that inspired it, sadly had to be put down for its own sake.

5. Prince Lucifer of Cocytus from No Sympathies by William Cope

Yep, that's right, it's the goddamn devil. William Cope's magnificent first novel, No Sympathies, gives us a taste of its take on Lucifer at the start by showing us his rousing speech during the War in Heaven before The Fall, but after that it waits a long time to show us the demon of demons when he's fully crowned in his sinful glory as Hell's prince of princes, content to build his reputation in whispers before we see him in action. Once Lucifer is fully unveiled, though, he is every bit the cunning and cruel bastard you'd expect, castrating his daughter's would-be suitor and generally coming off as in control of every situation we see him in.

At least, until the halfway point of the book, where shit truly hits the fan and Lucifer's dominion of Hell is threatened in way he's never had to face before. Lucifer, the ultimate bad boy, is forced into having to fight to save his people, and as expected, he's pretty fucking bad at it because, well, he's a self-centered douche - but one with enough charm and enough love in his heart to still be likable, making us root for him to get his shit together despite it all and finally be the hero he's always claimed to be.

4. Prince Beelzebub of Scathatch from No Sympathies by William Cope

While Lucifer is arguably more important to the plot of No Sympathies, I think anyone who's read William Cope's brilliant debut effort would agree that Beelzebub is his favorite of the princes. Hell, the lord of flies even gets to do the novel's title drop as part of his starring role in the chapter that really underlies the book's major point - namely, how can we judge the damned so harshly when we too are capable of sin, and isn't viewing some as sinners and some as saved a sin of hubris in itself?

Beelzebub gets some slick one-liners and produces one of the most horrifying images in the book, but more than that, he shows the pathos inherent to being a devil, as he's smart enough to realize that landing himself in Hell was a dumb move that's only brought him misery, but is too proud to fully accept his culpability in it, which makes his struggle to rationalize why he's suffering so much kind of tragic. Like Lucifer, you find yourself rooting for him to get his shit together despite his MANY rough edges, especially when the plot hits its big turn and he's forced into an unlikely hero role.

3. Marquise Alichino from No Sympathies by William Cope

It's a novel entirely focused on demons that almost no one's read, of course I'm going to mine it for characters! Alichino is, on the surface, a simpler villain than Lucifer or Beelzebub, in that her flaws are exaggerated to comedic extremes and mostly played for laughs. Hell, she's literally a demonic harlequin, isn't that appropriate? But her silliness contributes to her sympathetic nature, as you quickly get the sense that Alichino isn't fully aware of how nasty she's being, in part because the nature of Hell has divorced her from understanding the scope of suffering her actions inflict on those she's sent to punish. Alichino is further softened by the affection and loyalty she shows for those she's deemed worthy of her protection, proving to be a reliable ally despite her violent nature.

2. Matilda from No Sympathies by William Cope

This is the last No Sympathies character, I promise - and yes, that means I won't be including the book's protagonist, Pug, since you can't really argue he's a villain. He's a henchmen at best. Matilda, though, was a full on temptress in her heyday, in that it was literally her job to tempt people to sin. We even get to see her on the job, where she acts with all the sleaze of a used car salesmen while trying to convince a mortal man to sin. Of course, it backfires on her when she proves to have too big of a heart to stick to landing, and ends up demoted to a lowly position in Hell for it. The Matilda we first meet in the novel is broken by that experience, and much of the book is built on her discovering and embracing the goodness within herself despite the misery it brought her in the past - while Pug may be the main character of No Sympathies, Matilda is arguably the novel's heart.

1. Lord Dhenregirr from the Wizard School Mysteries series by William Cope

We're ending with a character from William Cope's exceptional and utterly unique novel series that is certainly not similar to any popular fantasy fiction franchise that was published within the last three decades, Wizard School Mysteries. While only two of the promised eight novels in the series have been published so far, I think it's safe to say that Lord Dhenregirr is a scene-stealing standout among the supporting cast. In the first book, The Meddlesome Youths, he plays a primarily comedic role, a bumbling minor villain with delusions of competence and a tendency to make grandiose speeches about his wicked plans that are undercut by how quickly he's defeated, like an even more pathetic one-man version of Team Rocket.

However, in the second book, Tournament of Death, we get to see more dimensions of him, ad this is where Lord Dhenregirr shows signs of being more than just a gag character. Facing the protagonist of the series, James Chaucer, in a one-on-one battle in the titular tournament, Dhenregirr proves to be a far more competent fighter than previously shown, as for once he's neither outnumbered nor caught by surprise. No-selling most of James's spells and summoning a legion of skeleton soldiers to fight alongside himself, the goofy ineffectual villain ends up becoming a serious threat.

That is, until James threatens those skeleton minions with harm, which is when Dhenregirr exposes a truly sympathetic side of himself, as it turns out he's the rare villain who actually cares about the well-being of his cronies. Add to this the fact that some of his dialogue in the fight seems more like that of a mentor than an adversary to James, and you start to see how there could be more to Dhenregirr's motives than the simple cartoon villainy they first appeared to be. With six books left in the series, there's plenty of room for Dhenregirr to grow into a truly complex characters, and I for one cannot wait to see what William Cope does with him.

[sekritjay]

Bit of buzz from the Warhammer corner of the internet. I'm not a fan myself - in fact I find the whole fandom's lunatic brigade exceptionally repellent and their abject refusal to accept critique both internal and external makes even being on the periphery a chore

However everytime I hear the Warhammer fandom get excited about something I immediately think of that Raycevick video entitled "I'm Jealous of Warhammer", particularly the part in the beginning where he immediately admits that it's actually a Mass Effect video

Long story short he's envious of Warhammer's constant churning out of canon media, and the degree to which the Warhammer fandom has access to any and all manner of things they might come to enjoy in different genres and perspectives, from studios who benefit from generous licensing and a permissive IP owner

In the meantime, like the rest of the Mass Effect fandom, he's starved for any kind of content for a world he is enamoured with from a company whose sole strategy is an all-or-nothing, once in a generation, multimliion dollar crapshoot one bad day away from completely killing its creators and indeed almost did. And we're essentially dreading that the next will be that killing blow

Sure Warhammer has the advantage of being Warhammer with its four decade long business model making the IP a low risk option of video game developers but otherwise I agree that it pains me to be gasping for content. It's why I'm in the fandom in the first place, hell it's why I'm on tumblr. I wouldn't come on tumblr just for the asylum vibes* alone

I was nostalgia-tripping on one of my people's most famous gaming exports, the Wipeout series of anti-gravity racing. Yeah, I thought, that would be so cool to transplant a similar concept into the Mass Effect universe. It'd be easy to justify in lore - aristocratic scions, playboy dilletantes and nouveau-riche magnates compete in eezo-powered, gravity-defying, piloting on vertigo-inducing racetracks of staggering size and cost, with all the egotism and risk-taking that that implies. How cool would having a racing game set in the Mass Effect universe with that universe's world-building

Indeed we could even have one that would appeal to their investors. How about Mass Effect: Battlefield? Applying the lessons learnt from ME3MP and put them in a mainline Battlefield game with the scale and spectacle. Imagine this - the post-war galaxy gives rise to mercenaries and adventurers, tyrants and freedom fighters, battling to hoard power for themselves, or profit off the chaos to line their own pockets

And those are just high-level concepts. The Mass Effect series was deliberately designed to be a world, not just a video game, and it was always the intention to tell numerous stories within it. It's a testament to its worldbuilding that fanfiction writers of all shapes and sizes still continue to write in that universe despite how long it's been since our last outing there

Yet here we are. Still starved for more official media. Because the Powers That Be want a gigahit, when it was never intended to be all or nothing. Meanwhile the Inquisitor Cryptofash'es of the Warhammer fandom can freely gorge themselves on the thing they love. Makes my blood boil

*No, I STAY here for that

[night-wyld-system]

Kiera Abused Me

So some of you may know another person who's a part of everything my friends have been going through. Kiera. She started being a bit creepy to some of my friends and I called out her pretending she wasn't. When I found out she had been making contact with my friends abusers since January but didn't fuck off and stop manipulating my friends into thinking she cared about them until March. From what people had said about her the way she acts now is completely out of character she did 180. So going into our conversations I had thought Kiera was a victim of Milena's manipulation. I was wrong and I'm sorry for not speaking up sooner. I'm sorry to myself for not stopping trying to see what kind of person she was sooner. Every time she messaged me I would feel physically ill. But this was a form of self harm I indulged in. Going to someone I knew was abusing me in some dumb hope I'd fix them and lessen the harassment my friends went through. I was a fool.

More info in my screenshots of my Twitter (sorry no alt text for now will fix soon)

Stuff I still need to add to my public thread on Twitter

This link leads to the logs of every conversation I had with her minus the commission stuff on my main discord I forgot to add.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1f9ERa3me_VNEwRBE7VEWGsZA8WlNRLgQ

I got myself stuck in a cycle of abuse hoping something would change that Kiera would turn out to be a good person and I could help people that I cared about by getting rid of a massive thorn in their side. But no. I was stupid. I'm not easy to manipulate in the sense of changing everything I hold dear. I'm easy to be abused though because I will put up with things I shouldn't. Even though I knew it was hurting me and I chose to stay I didn't deserve the amount of verbal and emotional abuse as well as gaslighting that she did to me.

These are the people harassing my friend. If this is what was done to me when I was willing to push back and not lose my morality- what do you think happened to the people who broke under Kiera or Milena or Noeh's weight? What about the people who broke under GayFesh's? What about the people who broke under a variety of others?

I am terrified for the people they are abusing currently. I went into this thinking Kiera would be able to change and was a victim. I left with horrific amounts of distress, letting myself be abused again, and a fear of opening up my Tumblr messages. I had to walk on eggshells around her to make sure she wouldn't fly into a rage and verbally abuse me. I had to pretend I liked her and be docile (what she wanted I never fully became docile) or she would lose her shit but the whole time she got to repost things bullying and harassing me, talk shit about me publicly, and like posts mocking me, my trauma, and my race.

I'm tired of this. These people aren't leftists they're liberal at best.