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captainclickycat · 2 months

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So while we're on the subject, here are some other thoughts.

I found Neil Gaiman's online presence - and the more overzealous members of his fanbase - annoying. And please stay with me here, I promise this isn't me trying to be smug or claim I "knew all along" or anything. There's a huge gulf between finding someone a bit annoying and thinking that their behaviour online is less than stellar occasionally and suspecting them of being a sexual predator. I don't think there could have been any way of me "knowing all along" without reading everything in the worst possible faith, which I'm not willing to do and which I maintain is not a good or helpful approach in general. And to people who genuinely looked up to him and felt completely blindsided by the news, I'm really sorry. It wasn't your fault and I hope you can do something kind for yourself today.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I didn't like the way he handled criticism of his work, a lot of the time. I don't think creators are obligated to personally listen to and address every negative opinion of their work, or explain every individual aspect of it that someone disliked. But I felt like a lot of his responses to feedback tended to lean into and encourage praise, while being a little disingenuous and sometimes belittling towards criticism. (And really, why feel the need to respond to everything when you could just ignore it?)

I didn't like the way he always felt the need to weigh in on fandom debates or throw out "word of god" explanations for this or that thing, including when nobody even asked. (Want to know who inspired the "I don't care what the author said" comment in my bio? Take a guess.) Especially when some of them felt engineered to paint him and his work in the best possible light.

Again, I'm not drawing attention to all this in an attempt to claim any one thing was a blatant red flag or must have been down to some sinister motivation. That's not the point I'm trying to make.

But it is one of the reasons that I was always deeply uncomfortable by the culture of hero-worship and "touch not god's anointed" that always seemed to exist around him. Like regardless of whether or not you thought this or that criticism against him was warranted, the way people would treat him like some kind of messiah who deserved nothing but praise and lose their absolute shit whenever anyone said anything remotely negative about him was absurd. Nobody deserves that, regardless of what they've done.

But at the same time... you know, I liked his work. Not just "I liked the stuff he co-wrote with someone else" or "I liked the films and TV shows he worked on with a whole bunch of other people." I liked the books he wrote by himself. They had some parts worth criticising, sure, what doesn't. But overall I thought they were well-written and funny and thought-provoking and I enjoyed myself when I was reading them. Neverwhere is the first book I had a crack at re-reading in a different language, which should tell you how much I liked it. And I didn't even dislike everything he posted on the internet. I thought some comments were pretty funny and/or insightful. I even reblogged the odd post.

And I wasn't all that vocal about any negative feelings I had towards him, because... well, frankly because a lot of the negative feelings I'd seen expressed by other people about him tended to look like "he's the devil incarnate, his work sucks, he's the worst person alive and he secretly hates every marginalised group and people should feel ashamed for sincerely liking his stuff."

And I didn't agree with that either! I didn't want to be roped in with those people. I didn't feel comfortable around them, any more than I felt comfortable around the Neil Gaiman Defense Squad, Working Tirelessly Day And Night To Aggressively Stamp Out Any Criticism Of Our Lord And Saviour.

And honestly I'm not entirely sure what kind of broader point I'm trying to articulate here, or whether I'm just working through stuff in my head. But I will say that this kind of polarising, zero-sum-game approach to criticism is... bad. It's just bad. It makes it so people are reluctant to put forward any kind of nuanced stance, for fear that they'll end up getting pigeonholed into one oversimplified category or another, or it ends up pushing people towards one extreme stance or another out of sheer frustration or contrariness. And it makes it incredibly difficult to have any kind of actually productive debate when it comes to criticising media, or criticising creators. Inevitably people's hackles are going to be up whichever side they lean towards more, and a lot of people with valuable input will inevitably end up going "yeah, I can see how that's a good point, but also the last person who brought this topic up with me deemed it appropriate to send me a barrage of messages telling me to kill myself about it, so forgive me if I'm not interested in engaging any further."

Obviously a culture of hero worship inevitably makes it a lot easier for predators to operate, and I have no doubt that being inundated with messages about how wonderful you are and how everyone who's criticising you is in the wrong must make it a lot easier to rationalise your actions. But I feel like this tendency to paint everything in terms of "are they a pure uwu blameless smol bean angel OR the devil incarnate" is incredibly unhelpful regardless of what side you come down on. The "devil incarnate" crowd can be part of the problem too.

#neil gaiman

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utilitycaster · 7 months

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The thing I've realized, in the broader Actual Play space, is that a lot of creators are trying to turn Actual Play shows into TV shows.

You mentioned Kollok in your tags, and the creator of that has mentioned creating Kollok in a way to try to appeal to the Netflix audience.

And I'm all for experimentation, but tbh if I wanted to watch a TV show, I would go watch a TV show. That's not what I'm looking for in an Actual Play and over editing and gimmicks actively turn me off from it.

Folks creating Actual Play seem to put a lot of weight on it, but I don't know if it's that important from an audience perspective.

Hey anon,

Huge same - I've been thinking about this for a while, especially in regards to choices I didn't like (notably on D20, though the Candela split screen in chapter 3, while relatively minor, felt like part of the same trend and I'm really interested in seeing whether they keep it). I actually did mean to write more about this not in the tags of a reblog, so thanks for this ask because it gives me that motivation to do it!

Earlier this year I was at an event and someone who to be totally honest I found kind of annoying was talking about Dimension 20, and I decided to keep quiet and listen to what other people had to say, and another person (whom I respect and specifically know to be like, left-leaning and inclusive and not gatekeeper dudebro type, which is relevant to the next statement) who is solidly in Gen X and has been playing D&D since at least 2e mentioned that he doesn't like Actual Play at all because he is from the era where D&D was frequently played in third person and is somewhat of a purist in that sense. Ie, this guy would say "Gawain pulls out his sword and smites the dragon, with a 24 to hit", rather than "I'm going to pull out my sword and smite the dragon." He described his idea of D&D as being very much collaborative storytelling in the sense of a bunch of third person narrators who happen to be the storytellers for one specific character, not a first-person acted scene.

I happen to like both forms of narration and am not a purist either way, and indeed use both third person and first person myself as a player (as do many actual players; you see this on CR and D20 all the time). But I think this does show just how broad this spectrum is. You have people all the way on the "I am narrating an improvised story, I am the storyteller puppeting my character and I am not trying to be immersed" side and then you have shows that are trying to push this into full immersion...but so long as you have dice rolls, you'll never achieve it.

I prefer something in between: I do love watching people act, but I really like the gears and wires! I love mechanics! I think people who say "I love actual play D&D but I don't really care for combat, only RP" don't actually like actual play D&D! This is a specific format and I do not want people to hide the fact that they are using the rules of a game and are at a table, because they are and we know it.

This came up when I and others talked about the Legend of Vox Machina adaptation: they're probably going to have to find a way to convey the same tragedy and gravity of Scanlan's ninth level counterspell that doesn't require viewers to know the mechanics, because if you watch that scene as actual play the meaning of Sam saying "Nine" is immediately apparent. It hits hard with that one single word, but that won't be the case in an animated adaptation where no one is rolling a D20. Mechanics are in intrinsic part of actual play. You can enjoy actual play without that knowledge, but a solid grounding in those mechanics will only enhance that enjoyment (well, unless you're one of those rules-lawyery weirdos who gets bitter about any GM rule of cool/homebrew that they couldn't predict from the rulebooks but those people will never be happy).

The more general context of "being in a game", not just mechanics, is also in my opinion valuable. Brennan, on a Worlds Beyond Number fireside chat, referred to certain NPCs like Caramelinda as "furious that they are in a D&D game" and it's a funny and true statement. I feel like trying to push actual play into the realm of scripted shows is that: it feels like you're trying to hide the origins, and I think the quality of the show will ultimately suffer when you do that. It feels almost ashamed of what it is, and I don't think you can make something that transforms a medium/genre/thing in between the two without having a profound love and respect for the original, even if you also find it flawed. (This is also, tbh, how I feel about a lot of attempts to divorce D&D from the fact that it is ultimately a game influenced heavily by sword-and-sorcery fantasy, or about attempts to turn high or heroic fantasy into something that neatly affirms all of one's 2024 real world political beliefs, but that's another post).

I also think that the out-of-character element of actual play is a big draw. I have been open about having complicated feelings about the parasocial and projection aspects; but those feelings are "hey, this is still a show that is a source of livelihood, you are not hanging out in someone's living room and getting weird about the fact that the CR cast no longer responds to every tweet is dumb" and "you have not been betrayed by the creators because you didn't get the plot you wanted," and "the fact that two actors sit next to each other is not, in fact, a solid basis for shipping." I am equally opposed to the idea of "the actors do not exist, only the characters do," put forward in that attempt to make actual play Netflix-ready. It's fun to watch the CR cast rib Travis for turning bright red for, as people said, pretend kissing his real wife. It's fun to watch the Intrepid Heroes heckle Brennan when he plays a villain. It's fun to hear Aabria and Erika scream at WBN plot developments and for the McElroys or the NADDPod crew to wheeze with laughter and all of these shows but CR are to a degree edited, and all leave that element in, which I think says something really important about what actual play is understood to be!

It does not escape me that the seasons/shows using heavier camera edits have often, in my opinion, sacrificed story quality for a visual style I don't even care for. I do watch prestige television, and one of the more striking cinematographic choices I've seen lately are the extremely long single take shots used on both Succession's final season (Connor's Wedding, 4x03) and The Bear's first season (Review, 1x07). Prestige TV is not doing the glitchy Neverafter stuff. Hell, I liked Sagas of Sundry: Dread and never finished Madness before it went offline and haven't made an effort to seek it out specifically because the black box theater feel of Dread felt fun and new but not too removed from actual play vibes, whereas the higher production values of Madness, ironically, made it feel too artificial and stilted to keep my interest.

Actual play is its own beast, and in trying to appeal to a new audience you're probably going to lose a lot of the one you have. A big part of why I haven't been motivated to check out Kollok is that everything I hear about it, even positive reviews, makes it sound like it's missing the things I like from actual play and doesn't achieve the level of scripted shows. Honestly I think the REAL answer here is that if you want to find a space between a Netflix drama and an Actual Play show, ditch the rules and make stuff like Midst, which is as discussed inspired by ttrpg/actual play spaces, but is broadly plotted out in advance. I think that approach can combine the best of both worlds, whereas I feel as though attempting to be a Netflix show will usually spend so much time trying to hide the fact that there's a table there that it will detract from the actual story.

#answered #Anonymous #i should probably watch an ep of kollok before passing full judgment #but like...god. everything i hear about it makes me go oh god they massacred my boy #long post #on actual play

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onesidedradiostatic · 6 months

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Intro Post + FAQ!?!?!?

STRIPES TRUTHERS DNI!!!!!!!! (this is a joke)

I'm not replacing my pinned post because I like my pinned post. it's special to me. it describes my blog in a single gif. but I'll link this in my bio.

hi! I think this was long overdue. first of all, introduction!

I'm pink! she/her, 19, filipino-chinese, 🇸🇬

I am an asexual sapphic on the aro spectrum! I'm not repulsed in either department though, I consider myself mostly sex-neutral and romance... idk, ambivalent irl, favourable in fiction.

keep in mind that hazbin hotel itself has a lot of explicit humour, so canon-typical level of that kind of humour should be expected here. however, outside of text-only nsfw jokes, I typically don't post or reblog nsfw art (and IF I did, I would use community labels/appropriate tags). I may also tag certain text-only nsfw joke posts as #suggestive, just as a precaution.

and now the FAQ...

FAQ

Other than one-sided RadioStatic, what do you ship?

I've actually done this before, but decided I'd update it a bit.

cherrivel is only there because of the need for velvette to have someone at the hotel to be obsessed with, refer to this post. it is currently unserious and could easily never come up in my posts I just thought to include it because of that one time I brought it up. other crackships may come up if I find it funny (ie adam x mammon).

this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, I do not like any reciprocated romantic alastor ships, I'm not here to police anyone for what they do in fanon, but all I ask is no one send me anything of the sort. I interpret alastor as a repulsed aroace, and the dialogue in which his asexuality is implied in canon implies to me he would never pursue dating (rosie knows alastor wouldn't be dating charlie because he is aroace, which implies she knows he is an aroace that doesn't date**). so that is how I choose to portray alastor in my posts.

**TO BE CLEAR, there IS nuance to this. because action =/= attraction. funny situations such as a fake date with vox as a distraction that he doesn't like at ALL entertain me. but I do not believe he is the type to pursue it under normal circumstances.

regarding qprs... well, as you can see, I really only care for qpr radiorose, but this is the part where it comes down to personal preference. qpr radiostatic largely depends for me, maybe if it's like an au where they never had a falling out or something but otherwise, I don't personally really see it, but that isn't to judge anyone who does. HOWEVER, I do like thinking about their past friendship, here's a post I made before regarding alastor's side on it.

Who's your favourite character?

unfortunately, it is the stupid tv man in my pfp. alastor is my second favourite though if that's not immediately obvious (wow tumblr user @onesidedradiostatic's faves are vox and alastor who could've guessed?)

Do you know [insert pre-series information here]?

I need to clarify, I am NOT a pre-series hazbin fan. I only got into hazbin properly at episode 5-6's release, prior to that I had only watched episode 4 out of curiosity due to twitter discourse. any information I have regarding pre-series stuff comes from the wiki, tumblr posts or anons who have informed me of stuff. my main source of information is the main series, that is how I first consumed hazbin after all.

What the fuck is the "Lucifer's Commissions Saga"?

it all started with an anon talking about the most unrealistic thing about vox owning an alastor body pillow being that alastor was able to be printed on it without glitches. I then dropped a stupid idea I had in my head for a bit about lucifer being offered 50k to make a sexy alastor painting for vox. one reblog later. well. it turned into vox commissioning lucifer for the body pillow. and then a bunch of asks came in related to it and it turned into a saga which is now my legacy. feel free to scroll through this entire thing. also a fanfic of it by ChaoticAce2005 now exists. go check it out. AN ANIMATIC BASED ON ONE OF THE POSTS BY NATAKARANIA ALSO NOW EXISTS. CHECK THAT OUT TOO.

The original post mentions Val commissioning Lucifer for the art for Vox, Val is canonically a talented artist, why would he do that?

in my defence, I kinda forgot about that when I posted the original joke. later asks, I've mended that val HAS drawn for vox before but vox nitpicked too much and val's not always willing to do a fully rendered sexy alastor... so vox has to outsource. and he just happens to do so to the king of hell.

Hey, hey, listen! What if Vox doesn't have a crush on Alastor but wants XXX instead!?

hey, I respect you! I respect your opinion and hc. but this blog is built around that concept specifically, I like vox wanting something he can never have, wanting romance from a guy who literally cannot feel the same way about him. so I'm probably not gonna be as passionate about other takes. but your opinion is valid! I'm just not really sure what you want me to say other than respectfully disagreeing.

Why don't you use RadioSilence for one-sided RadioStatic?

radio silence is the name of another book made by the author of heartstopper, alice oseman (which I heard also has a canon aspec character!). even though it is already a used tag for this ship, I refuse to contribute to flooding the book tag with hazbin hotel. it's already an issue I see even when searching #radio silence with the space, I think those in that fandom should be allowed to search for content without being flooded by content from another fandom. please understand.

I instead use #onewaybroadcast in accordance with this poll. I still use the regular #radiostatic and #staticradio tags in addition to it for more reach and because vox's side still technically counts under it, if anyone doesn't like specifically one-sided radiostatic for whatever reason, they may filter out the specific tag or block me.

Tags

#osrs.txt - all text posts, including asks #osrs.art - self-explanatory, art done by me #osrs.mp4 - videos which can range from compilations, shitpost edits to high effort edits #osrs.helluva - my helluva boss reactions/liveblogging and related stuff

#radiostatic parent trap subplot - the short series of asks joking about the torn picture vox has reminding them of the parent trap, turning into a crack subplot #projecting irl experiences onto radiostatic squad - where a bunch of anons came together to recount irl experiences with incels and say "yeah this is vox" #the ays - angel dust realising he and alastor are the reason for the vees' focus on the hotel and decides to brand both of them as the ays #lucifer's commissions saga - everyone's favourite as explained above, and also the biggest arc on this blog (my legacy) #alastor's modern sexuality label crisis - started with alastor misinterpreting "asexual" as asexual reproduction, continued on to him misinterpreting more modern sexuality labels #vox's stupid fucking turtleneck - it started with me trying to start up a debate on the colour of vox's turtleneck in the vox and val photo and escalated into people in my notes and askbox trying to gaslight me into thinking the turtleneck has stripes instead of it being a KNITTING PATTERN. this is what the STRIPES TRUTHERS DNI is referring to btw #cursed yellow val - tag name taken from andy-solo1, started as a response to the turtleneck discourse, I believe the turtleneck is a similar colour to val's wings therefore yellow turtleneck truthers are implying val's wings are also yellow #respectless anons - started with an anon trying to correct colour names and saying "not to be velvette..." and ended up with other anons being kin assigned characters #all the fucking parodies - there's been 2 parodies for you didn't know and 2 for respectless by others based on shit from this blog now, this tag is needed #the fanon val killjoy beef - tag made for the made up concept of valentino and katie killjoy beefing, started from this post

#osrs.intro

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olderthannetfic · 9 months

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I wish I could post my fanfic but knowing how antisemitism disguised as "oh I love Palestine, that's why I'm reblogging disinformation, lies, antisemitic dogwhistles, and pro-Hamas posts about how murdering Jewish people is good!" is rampant in my fandom, I can't. My Jewish OC would just get me into hot water. I don't want to deal with the death threats and screaming madness that ensues when someone commits the crime of writing while Jewish, nevermind writing while Jewish and writing someone Jewish. I guess I could just not allow comments, but that really rips out the joy of getting to discuss things with readers, hear them say what they liked, hear their thoughts, etc. (To the person who's already typing a reply about how you don't need to see reader feedback and you would never be so stupid as to care about kudos or comments or hits: you're very special, love you big bunches.) It's kind of depressing that I can't just write and post something like other people. I just want to be able to do what other people can without getting a higher level of vitriol.

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funishment-time · 2 months

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Kokichi/ general with

87 75. 73 25 and 22?

ooh, kokichi-centric! i assume this is for this ask game since it's the only one i've reblogged that goes so High!

87.)Headcanon on Pregame V3 Characters?

i have lots, but generally, my Main Headcanon with all V3 characters is that part of Tsumugi's "fictional" story is right: there is an Ultimate Hunt going on. their pregame selves are actually a memory-wiped disguise, not their true selves. the Monokubs really did give them back their talents and base memories, just also threw a bunch of fake ones in there too. and there is indeed a reality show going on but...well, i won't get into it here. long story short V3 is a reversal of Danganronpa 1 in many ways.

it's basically just what a lot of people headcanon already but in reverse. i think there's a lot to play with there psychologically still.

for Kokichi specifically, i imagine he was a timid weeb guy who really wanted to be an edgelord so bad but just didn't have the Audacity. i'm reminded a little of Charlie MoistCritikal's story about how in college he wore a CD around his neck and acted like a douche to pretend to be a Mysterious Anime Character. like that. that's what pregame!Kokichi wanted to be.

75.) Unpopular Headcanon?

general: that a lot of relationships in the main timeline wouldn't happen if they weren't backed against a wall, esp with the protagonists. i don't think Kyoko would care much for Makoto in a Normie World, but i don't think she'd care much for most folks. i don't think Kaede would be any closer to Shuichi than her other classmates either (and i'm someone who's gung-ho for a platonic soulmates thing with them). which is fine really! lots of interpretations and timelines to explore

for Keech: that Kokichi is 99% gay but would have a crush on a rare girl, like Kaede

73.) Popular Headcanon?

general: a lot of characters are actually plus-sized.

for Keech: that Kokichi is 99% gay. i guess technically he'd be bi or pan in my mind (see above) but i don't personally view him as one that cares for labels, and it's mostly guys he likes to play with

25.) Favorite Anthology Chapter?

i haven't read all the Translated/Fanslated anthologies, only the DR1 ones. (i'm not sure where to find the others. if anyone could link them to me, let me know.) but i loved the comics about Junko and Mukuro before Muki really had a defined personality of her own, and she was kind of just the annoyed older sister being dragged along on her crazy younger sister's stupid schemes. i'm reminded of the one where they temporarily adopt Mondo because he can't get a girl and become the Despair Triplets. crack central.

i also like the one where a blank-faced Kyoko just hides in things like a cat to find out where people might hide a body. and the one where she throws a horseshoe crab into a pot of stew everyone's making. they are genuinely close to how i imagine Kyoko really is on a personal level: just kind of a Beautiful Freak who doesn't interact with reality very much

22.) Favorite Random/Unnecessary Moment?

Hiro's dumb fucking stories about his life. the UFO burger abduction and the 100% unnecessary aside about how his dad burned down their house because he was smoking in bed (i assume that's why Mrs. Hagakure mentions she's divorced in UDG) and even Makoto's like ???? god bless Yasuhiro

#danganronpa #kokichi ouma #yasuhiro hagakure #kyoko kirigiri #junko enoshima #mondo owada #mukuro ikusaba

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corvuscorona · 8 months

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"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

#stranger of paradise #that's it that's the only tag. there's enough words under that readmore for anyone&everyone. happy weekend!!!

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astrofiree · 24 days

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Somethings Need to Change

I wasn't going to get my hands involved in this. I initially skilled through harkre's post yesterday and thought nothing of it. Until someone brought it to my attention because there was fighting in the comments. Now while I would like to slug it out in the replies. However...that gets messy. So instead I'm going to put everyone's replies into a reblog and credit them. Cause that's what you're supposed to do when there's drama on tumblr. Make it easier on people to read and know what the fuck is going on. Which will be below the cut.

@dutifullylamps: Summary: A bunch of things that hurt my feelings and I didn’t like so now I’m trying to cause other people to not like this person because I still have a middle school mentality and I’m bitter.

So for those who aren't aware, Harkre's whole post was about how he was signaled out and believed to be a godmodder. I've gone through similar things myself all because for whatever stupid reason people do not know how to communicate on WoW when it comes to rp. Despite it being a major unspoken rule in roleplay in general. Something that's followed on forums, on tumblr, and other mediums. Why it's not enforced on WoW is stupid.

Now when you bring it up, you're treated like shit who have never gotten out of that Mean Girl high school mentality like dutifullylamps has demonstrated. So here let me be helpful and show at least some guides to roleplay since the community seems to neglect that part. These will emphasize on communication.

I would like to point out that ironically one of the ways we learn how to communicate effectively is by pretending we're doing a role and we can talk out what we're going to do, which is different from rp. So why rpers can't communicate is kind of ironic when you think about it in adult type scenarios. Something I was skimming over trying to find the sites above.

Except people will try to say "but it ruins the story. It makes it seem too ooc." My brother in christ you do not work for Blizzard. Who the fuck cares? I don't want you to hit my character without my permission. Though to argue I feel bad for Harkre cause Residiuum events are always clusterfucks. I try not to get involved because they are. Usually someone pre-determines what my character is doing. Sometimes people whisper me what I want to do when I'm the middle of writing my response.

Another thing I don't get with Moon Guard is the need for someone coming forward with clear issues with someone else. The communication line has been dropped or there is none because again...for whatever fucking reason, people on Moon Guard or well....WoW in general never learned how to properly communicate or even roleplay. Which is honestly mind boggling to me as someone who has rped on forums, and tumblr for many many years. I learned how to roleplay. I learned how to communicate. I come to Moon Guard and what I knew about rp was eviscerated. But anyway the thing that ultimately annoys me aside from the lack of proper communication is that people will attack the clear victim, gang up on them, and then support the abuser. And it's always the enablers of narcissists. Why is that?

Then again I that's also a tumblr issue as well. It's happened in other fandoms on tumblr so I shouldn't be surprised. Our reaction shouldn't be "oh I'm sorry that happened." We should be angrier about it and demand more action. We are all in a community and it's up to us to make this community better. One where victims are properly heard and the narcissists gets kicked out and running for the hills and not the other way around.

@onetimeblog: Instead of sending every single residuum member screenshots and claiming how I "stole" your idea for a minecraft server (really?) and thrashing and kicking and just making yourself look even worse?

And now for the moment we've been waiting for. I'm going to break this section by section because oddly, Niklos decided to put this in the replies one at a time and not a reblog. But even then I'd still break it down.

Anyway, the thing is Harkre probably couldn't hold it in any longer because he kept seeing you get away with shit constantly. Usually what happens when you're abused by a narcissist so long. You hold it in, think you're the problem. You try to do things one way, which is the right way. However, that doesn't work. And trying to ignore the problem doesn't work.

You constantly see your abuser handling things normally. While you have to duck out of places because they somehow manipulated everyone around you to make it seem like you're the problem. I wonder if this sounds familiar Niklos cause it's something that you have been doing for years. There's evidence of it. You can only sweet talk your way out of a paper bag for so long. And DARVO only goes for so long. After awhile you finally have the courage to speak up about it.

Problem is you got caught again. Though this time you don't get to talk your way out of it.

When you know damn well Agonyn doesn't listen to anyone. He kicks who he pleases and nobody can say persuade him to, or not to, otherwise. You were kicked out of Midnight Repose because according to THEM, you ran into their voice chat and started yelling loudly and when told to stop, you didn't. I know now, the one that I thought was your friend, was actually you on a second account. And I also know that you have been the one -

I'm going to point out I don't know what point leads to where since reading through the replies is a pain in the ass. So forgive me if this looks wonky.

I honestly doubt that. I seem to remember Brady saying that he was blacklisted from every other guild because of your shit. Honestly another deflection. "Oh they can do what they want." That and the "you have no friends, it's just on another account." Is some serious bullshit. You don't know anything. You're just trying to make someone be your scapegoat.

Find some new material. You suck at this.

when I was AFKing in the cemetery and I got your PM bomb and a link out of nowhere about Tyragonfal and I had to pan my camera around to see Tyragonfal walk by, so far away I couldn't even cast on her. WTF? And now I know - you were stealthing after her, on your lv20 trial, while on your paid account you were PMing everyone she walked by as far as your camera can see, in the same way you did to me for weeks. To a point where you pissed enough randoms off you got -

Tyragonfal doesn't have many people who like her. For all you know it could have been some random that has the same information.

This information that your buddy is a notorious sex pest. Yeah. I too have the dark knowledge of knowing that and I received it from someone else. I can't remember who linked me it. I know for a fact it wasn't Harkre. But Tyragonfal has other people that don't like her and would try to track her down and do the one thing most trials do in Stormwind...and no it's not look for erp.

Inform the public that there is a piece of crap in our midst and maybe they will stop playing the game. But sure let's turn Harkre into the scapegoat cause he's the ONLY person outside of Brady to actually say something against you.

So like… don't blame me. Nobody pushed you out, you pushed yourself out. The people reporting to Agonyn? Not me - it's all the people that fought your toon while your wore the Residuum tag only to see you log out after hours of emote combat - of which I wasn't even involved in. I just was told. And when a player told you that they don't want to RP with you anymore? You told him "You are involved whether you like it or not." And now you are hyper fixating on me.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. You're one of the principal people organizing the Residuum events and you're always the stare of every single show. There is NEVER a Residuum event where you're not there. Either as the main star or the supporting actor. Never the extra.

Residuum has to do things exactly as you planned it. For example after the week long attack you had Residuum people at the funeral vigil thing as candles. I thought it was weird when a guildie at the time had to take part in it. Even weirder that they were there again as floating candles. I thought nothing of it.

But it's plainly obvious that you control everything. Much like how you control the Cathedral. Ever thought it's odd on how there's no one else that does their own thing in the Cathedral. Everyone has to tow your line. Gee....I wonder why that is? Maybe because you're a control freak.

I wouldn't put it past you to whisper to Agonyn and tell him to kick Harkre or even complain. You did it with Brady. You did it with the Divine Inquisition. That's your thing and even Irwin said it best. You act as thought the Cathedral is yours. Except it's not yours. It never was.

reported and suspended. So like.. harkre? Find a better hobby at this point. Everything you claim, I have receipts on. And now you just openly outed yourself as the level 1 troll that's been harassing me on two accounts - and I know you have a third account you are happily RPing on as well. Because you just don't hide yourself that well. Why don't you focus on that third, unblemished, untouched character and just enjoy RP -

Oh, bullshit. You have jackshit. You have ZERO receipts. If you did you would have posted them already. That's the thing with narcissists like yourself, Niklos, you talk a lot of hot fucking air. A lot. You bullshit more than a politician. But when it comes down to it, you won't produce shit.

And the best part of it is....there's evidence of you constantly bullshitting.

Even your so called post about Brady's accusations, you came up with no screenshots. No fucking evidence. Give it up, Niklos. You should be the one who should play a different game. You should be the one making a new unblemished character. Maybe start anew on Wyrmrest. You'd be great at it. Best part about it is...

There's no one there that you can abuse. Hell you can move your whole guild there.

Let This Be a Message To ALL Community Leaders:

Your role in a community is to not treat everyone like they're your Barbie.

Your role is to facilitate roleplay in a concise manner that makes it fun for everyone. It is not meant for narcissists.

If you cannot fulfill this role, then maybe it's High fucking time for you to step the fuck down.

I'm sick and fucking tired of narcissists getting away with shit. Getting away with treating people like shit for simply saying no. For standing up for themselves after being doormats.

Moon Guard needs to fucking change and for the better.

Edit: Thanks to @certifiedooc for pulling up the related posts. I added it for clarity.

#moonguard #moon guard #niklos adamantt #remnant of lordaeron #world of warcraft #wow #getting tired of this bullshit #tired of the narcissists and their enablers and people just being like “oh im sorry for you.”#“sorry that happened”#“You're so valid and...” hows about do something.#please for fucks sake. What's it going to take? Someone to unalive themselves? Is that when Moon Guard wakes the fuck up.

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vieramars · 2 months

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Bc the post I just reblogged gave me ideas here's a bunch of silly tmagp headcanons about what kind of pet owners they'd be

Sam - he's allergic to cats, and he used to be terrified of dogs. When he dated Alice she had a dog, and he pretended to be comfortable around the dog until it became genuine. He's still uncomfortable around most dogs but if he gets to know them he really likes them. I don't think he'd own a dog though. I think if anything he'd have a bird (maybe a canary hehe). He got the bird before he was really ready or understood its needs but then dove headfirst into research and now he knows enough about owning birds to teach a class. Also he got really into birdwatching and bird ID as a side effect.

Alice - she's a cats and dogs person, can't have one without the other. And she's actually responsible about it and socializes her pets together well. I think she'd also really like bug pets like tarantulas and mantises. She's a bit of an amateur bug keeper but she's doing her best. She did once accidentally have a mantis last eggs and then her entire apartment became the Mantis Domain for a few weeks.

Gwen - probably wasn't allowed to have pets as a kid and internalized that way too hard. She thinks having an animal in your house is "dirty." She is definitely befriending the stray cats around the area of the OIAR (she will deny these accusations to the grave). She doesn't try to, but they keep coming up to her so how can she refuse to give them scritches? I also think she's incurably scared of dogs. And she's absolutely a horse girl deep down. And, tragically, I'll hc that she really wanted a pet fox when she was a kid (until, you know...)

Colin - as we know, he's the world's best fish dad. I think it's fish and only fish for him, though maybe some other aquatic creatures. I feel like he thinks he's too much of a mess to have a pet that requires space. His fish were a therapy recommendation that he got really invested in and, like Sam, he did tons of research to figure out which fish were right for him and how to take care of them. If he wasn't busy fighting for his fucking life he'd probably have multiple fishtanks so he could keep different kinds of fish that don't mix so well.

Lena - I feel like she does not vibe with traditional pets at all but she really vibes with fish and reptiles. She doesn't want pets that require an emotional connection. She read that one post about how reptiles may not feel love in the way human society values but they can have a bond of trust and she felt personally called out. I'm torn on whether she actually owns any pets; I feel like she's both too busy and too afraid of failure to actually take the life of any animal into her own hands. She's been "waiting until she has the time" since she was 20. She knows or knew people with reptiles and would go over to their places just to chill with the creatures. Somewhere on her computer are a bunch of old pictures of her holding various snakes and lizards and they're the few pictures where she's smiling. If she survives the series relatively unscathed (by which I mean alive to a certain extent and able to carry on) someone please get her a snake.

Teddy - seems like a dog person. Probably has a very chill old dog who's well taken care of. The kind of dog everyone loves when they visit cause he just walks up to you, plomps down, and waits patiently for pets. Teddy's worried about being able to take care of him if he can't find a job soon.

Celia - I don't think she'd have a pet, since she seems to not want to form too many attachments to this world. With how much stress the dilemma of Jack is for her, a pet would just complicate things further. If she were able to though, I think she'd be a cat person. Also I love cat person + bird person dynamics so it feels fitting.

Bonus headcanon Klaus was one of Lena's reptile owning friends who owned an iguana. He took the iguana with him in the friendship divorce.

#tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp headcanons #samama khalid #alice dyer #gwen bouchard #colin becher #lena kelley #teddy vaughn #celia ripley #klaus tmagp

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starlight-n-shit · 8 months

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Welcome to my blog you lovely loser

My name is Ash

I'm nonbinary and use they/them and ze/zem pronouns (please use both sets of pronouns to refer to me, not just one)

HYPERFIXATING ON METAL FAMILY SO HARD. MY GOD. THAT RUSSIAN SHIT JUST DOES IT FOR ME.

Well fucking well i don't know anything about my sexuality apperently but i currently identify as fictosexaul which is. exactly what it sounds like. fictonal person kisser. mwah mwah. yeah anyways please don't be mean to me about it i'm really scared people are going to to do that.

I'm very meh on the Rings of Power but you can like it. or not. i don't care. I reblog rings of power posts occasionally

Be quiet maedhros can do no wrong. thank you.

I have a whump blog over at @ash-whumps

Cringe culture is fucking dead

Thranduil my absolute beloved

My main fandoms right now are lotr/the hobbit, hazbin hotel, helluva boss, and good omens.

I also like jurassic park, bojack horseman, tadc, and a bunch of other suff i just can't think of right now sorry

Dni if you support Israel, are racist, homophobic, a TERF, or any other kind of asshole because I literally can't list all the types of horrible people that are lurking

Please just be a nice person.

If you wanna be mutuals just ask I was following everybody who followed but then I ended up following a lot of blogs that I didn't even know existed.

No throwing hands about any vivsiepop controversies. I don't agree that she's the worst person in the world, but I don't worship her either. I haven't bought merch and I pirated hazbin, so go bother someone else please

#pinned post #ash's fucking shitposts

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getvalentined · 2 months

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Hey, so, I'm gonna be public and overt about this for the first time because apparently there is some bullshit going on related back to this, and I'm tired of walking on eggshells.

First: whoever the fuck is throwing anon hate at BBSC/birdblacksocialclub's friendgroup, STOP IT.

You are impacting my friends and my emotional wellbeing by stirring up shit that you don't know in full. If you genuinely care about any of the people involved here more than you care about getting a chance to bite back, you will not do this again. Period. Full fucking stop.

Now, to break down the situation. There is years-old beef between BBSC and I as a result of a friend of mine reporting her to the FF Charity Auction event over on Twitter for tracing way back in 2022. The organizers of the event apparently spoke to her, she promised not to trace for the event, and they opted not to do anything about it. This was within their right, as the organizers of the event, but I was quite sad about it over on my own account because it was part of a greater trend within fandom spaces of excusing popular creators for bad behavior, no matter how much of a pattern that behavior formed.

A different friend of mine commented on BBSC's listing on the event's Twitter saying, as far as I remember, "lol I'm not paying $$$ for traced art," which led to a huge blowup. To my understanding, BBSC stepped away from the event of her own free will, the organizers made a statement, and that was the end of it on that avenue.

One of BBSC's friends came into my thread lamenting this greater issue (it was not only about BBSC! I mentioned things in that thread that she had never done! It wasn't about her, it was about the trend!) to leave a bunch of vitriol, said he was being intentionally cruel, kind of implied that he hoped I would kill myself, and then ended his tirade with "you are loved" as if that would make up for the rest of it. He then blocked me so I couldn't actually see this response, which was a strange choice. I only found out about it because one of my best friends saw it and asked if I was going to respond.

I did not engage directly at any point.

When I went public a couple months later with my partner having abused me for the prior year, another of BBSC's friends commented on a reblog-with-commentary of my thread asserting that I had abused "her friend" by lying to get her kicked off of zines.

Fact check:

I did not report BBSC. I will admit that I'm the one who caught her tracing and thus had the evidence and talking points that I passed along to said friend, who used a throwaway to report it. We went back and forth on what they should say to the event organizers, I got screenshots of the responses, but it wasn't me delivering any of it.

Even if it had been me, the tracing that was reported was not a lie, and there are overlays under the cut to prove it. Reporting someone for unethical behavior in an art space when they are being put up on a pedestal within said art space is not abuse.

The project was not a zine, it was a charity art auction.

As far as I'm aware, she was not kicked off the project, she stepped down of her own accord. I believe this was stated by the event organizers—if they did remove her for tracing after all and then lied about it to save face, that's super fucked up and I'm sorry that happened.

I'm not giving the name of this person because she wasn't directly involved in anything, and didn't know the full story. Nobody really does, so it's not her fault that she believed her friend.

I genuinely, sincerely hope that BBSC is having a great time with her friends. I hope that she has stopped tracing. I hope her fandom experience is the best it can possibly be. I wish that she would talk to me so we could reach some kind of conclusion on this whole thing, but she doesn't have to and it's not like I'm going to block-evade to see what's going on with her. I see her drift across my dash sometimes, because tumblr's block function is garbage, but I've done my best to keep her name off my fandom experience.

I'd like to keep it that way, but I won't have other people getting wrapped up in this when nobody knows the extent of what happened.

I am turning off notifications on this post and will not be replying to anyone in any capacity related to this. BBSC and I have each other mutually blocked, and that should have been enough. It wasn't.

Overlays and screenshots under the cut, because the entire issue here is that I apparently lied about BBSC tracing, and that's why she hates me, but I didn't lie and she did trace, so this is fucking ridiculous.

I want to reiterate that this was two and a half fucking years ago. January 2022. I literally would not care if it didn't keep getting dredged up and fucking things up for people I care about. I'm tired of being called an abusive liar, and I will not abide by people who don't know what happened getting treated like shit because they had the AUDACITY to TRUST THEIR GODDAMN FRIEND.

Now everyone knows what happened. I don't care if this doesn't hit any goalposts for you, I don't care if you love your friend enough that this doesn't matter. I am glad that BBSC has people that are ride or die for her, she seems like she can be a really good friend. She's very creative. Her work is not bad, even when she's not tracing.

But now everyone, finally, is fully informed, so we're done. This is over. The end. Leave everyone the fuck alone.

Tracing:

My sad thread and MG Glass' response:

That one comment calling me abusive:

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etherealspacejelly · 2 months

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hi!! you seem like a very chill and kind person so I thought I'd ask you. I'm fairly new to this website and I don't know how to make friends on here or how to engage and chat with people? if that makes sense. (I'm also autistic so maybe I just have a hard time picking up on The Rules if there are any). I was wondering if you could maybe perhaps give me some tips? tysm in advance! (also: hope you're having a nice timezone :) )

absolutely i can give you some tips!!!

the first thing you want to do is make sure you're posting things. no one will want to follow you if theres nothing on your blog! make original posts about your thoughts on things you care about (and make sure to tag them appropriately!), and reblog things you like, and likeminded people might give you a follow!

follow some accounts that follow you, especially if they have shared interests. making mutuals is the best way to make friends. write friendly/funny responses to things in the tags of their posts, send them asks to get to know them, and tag them in things you think they'll like

i would advise sending asks first before any direct messages, as this is a more public and informal space so it makes people more at ease with interacting with you. if you dont know what to ask, find some of those ask games that people are always reblogging and take one of those questions (thats what i do!)

if you want to direct message someone and start an actual conversation, this is usually pretty universally welcomed if you are already mutuals with the person and have been exchanging asks and comments in tags for a while. if you are Not mutuals with the person in question, make sure to introduce yourself and state your intentions Straight Away. dont just start messaging them as if you're already friends. if you arent mutuals, its pretty likely they have no clue who you are, but they might still be interested in being friends if you tell them thats what you're after!

my last piece of advice is, dont jump into a conversation with nothing to talk about. if you are initiating the conversation, it is on You to bring something to the table to start things going. otherwise you're putting a lot of pressure on the other person to make the conversation engaging, when they didnt even choose to start the conversation in the first place! think of it like you're auditioning to be this persons friend, you want to make a good impression!

go to their blog first and look at what they post about. have they reblogged a bunch of gifsets from a show you dont watch? ask about the show! whats the plot about, who is their favourite character, what do they like about it, etc.

thats pretty much it! this is the way i have made most of my friends on here. i hope that helps. good luck!

#inbox #ask #inbox open #advice #tumblr culture

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scamwatchseal · 2 months

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🕊️🍉Watching Out for Scams and Helpful Ways to Help Palestinians in Need🍉🕊️

With the humanitarian crises across the globe, there are (very unfortunately) absolutely vile people who want to take advantage of these horrific circumstances to make a quick chunk of change.

This is very bad since often legitimately new users of Palestinians in need seeking assistance from tumblr who just don’t know the culture here (IE: don’t really get that it’s considered rude, bot-like behavior to send asks about donations) are lumped in with these scammers and get banned, treated like spam, etc.

I hope this post can help people here discern if this is going to a real person in need or just a slimy scammer.

Things to look out for

Very guilt tripping language. Typically things like in very big red letters saying to please don’t scroll past at the most tame to actively berating users or the person the ask was sent like having very graphic descriptions of violence and saying “you wouldn’t want that to happen to you, would it?” at worst. The use of guilt tripping language is very intentional to convey urgency to anyone who may scroll past it, and make them feel awful if they don't do something right this second.

Check the age of the blog. I’m one to talk with having just made this sideblog, but it’s common for scam blogs to reblog a bunch of random posts to appear legitimate and their only original post is the one calling for donations.

Check to see if the Go Fund Me has been vetted by blogs known to vet and verify the legitimacy of Go Fund Me campaigns on tumblr. There are a few users who are known to verify the legitimacy of campaigns of those in need through a pinned post. Make sure you use the exact spelling as often scammers will see the name of a legit campaign, but end up switching a letter, spelling differently, etc. to appear all the more "legitimate". These users are @/el-shab-hussein , @/nabulsi, @/ibtisams, @/palipunk. Some have stopped vetting for fundraisers, but it's always good to check through their lists.

If the Go Fund Me link redirects you to a PayPal, it's very likely a scam. PayPal offers it's services to a lot of countries, however, it does not offer it's services to those in Palestine, unfortunately, so if someone is using PayPal I would consider it a major red flag.

If Venmo or Cash App are mentioned as a way to donate or any Go Fund Me Links redirect to there, it is absolutely a scam. Those apps only work to users in the US (and in the UK for Cash App).

Of course I'm aware that there are sometimes legitimate campaigns that may be organized by a relative or a friend living elsewhere and take donations through some of these means. However, it can also be something very easy to lie about. With the sense of urgency a lot of these posts present, it can be difficult to deduce if someone is really in need or if it's a scammer. You are not a horrible person for being informed about a lot of scam tactics and scrolling past.

Just remember a very important rule of thumb when coming across posts or asks:

Since yes, people do in fact lie, take advantage of the suffering of others and the kindness of those who want to help to make a quick buck. It's truly vile behavior and I hope this post can make users more informed about having a sharp eye when it comes to keeping an eye for scams, so that more people can be helped.

If you want to continue helping those in need but don't want to make sure every ask you get or post you see is verified, there are plenty of legitimate ways to help those in need, such as:

Doing your free clicks on Arab.org (it's free and something you can do daily. If you haven't done it today, consider this your reminder)

Donate Esims

Donate to organizations and relief efforts such as PCRF, Watermelon Relief, and Operation Olive Branch.

If you have Twitter, watching and engaging with Care for Gaza's tweets and videos helps as they are monetized for engagement.

#I'll update this post as time goes on IE: if there's more vetted charities I can help link to and the like #from river to sea palestine will be free

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jimberlyjones · 8 months

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i was sharing my voice in combatting antisemitism and then the racist antisemite called ME antisemitic? dude you're the one being a bigot here. not me. i'm am so shocked at this bigoted and racist response from avi / spacelazarwolf.

he wrongly said (AMONG A BUNCH OF UNOBJECTIONABLE STUFF I ALSO REMEMBER!) :

photo ID: screenshot displaying crop of a text post saying: 2023-2024 - current war end ID

then he also said:

photo ID: if you made it to the bottom of this list and actually read everything, reblog with the tag "heard." that's really it. i just want to know that people hear us begging for people to speak up. end ID

so i said:

photo ID: screenshot saying: heard. but also question! why did you use the term "current war"? everything else is all really accurately horrific (sadly) but that term is also very uh. inacurrate to the palestinian experience. the current push of israeli militant expansionism isn't simply a war, and you know this! i'm afraid you'll likely get more pushback from people for phrasing it like that.

also another antisemitic attack in our lifetimes: since 1993 to today the number one antisemitic attack has been the genocide committed by israel's illegal occupation of palestine and israel's unconscionable appropriation and desecration of judaism end ID

AND OUT OF NO WHERE HE SAID??? :

photo ID: screenshot saying: you are a horrible person. delete your blog. end ID

. . .

which somehow turned into this:

photo ID: screenshot displaying crop of ending conversation saying:

consider helping by shutting the fuck up and actually listening to jews. //seriously WHY did you call the genocide a war??? <- answer that first. //AND israel's genocidal appropriation of judaism IS an antisemitic attack on all jews???? literally like messianic judaism what is not clicking!!!! //SHUT. THE FUCK. UP. YOU ANTISEMITIC PIECE OF SHIT. THANKS. //you're the one being antisemitic here bub. i'm jewish too but thanks for the kind reception. wth is up with you dude you got nerves of like. what's the opposite of steel. like what did i do that hurt you so bad i was trying to help and add my 2 cents? i'm on the same side as you!!!! //lmfao you are most definitely not jewish. fuck off my post and go troll somewhere else. //not only are you being so fucking antisemitic to me but you're acting even worse with how racist you've behaved towards palestinians by naming the asymmetrical genocide a "current war". seriously i can't even engage with you in good faith because of this idek wtf this even was dude. your frickn conniption! take a breather and maybe you will be able to like think with your brain dude. like fuck what the fuck was this end ID

to my fellow antizionists jewish and gentile PLEASE be careful who you engage with. i apparently made a mistake here engaging in good faith with someone prejudiced from the start.

#spacelazarwolf

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trappedinthewalls · 5 months

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So yesterday that Annie person from the P&Z circle @pleasetiemyshoelaces talked about a couple of times decided to have an absolute conniption over a post I made x number of months ago speculating over Poppy's behavior. She reblogged every reblog acting like they were made at different times, like this was an ongoing thing I'd been talking about repeatedly, and not that I'd reblogged it all in one day cause I was too lazy to edit the first post.

She called me a men's rights activist and had a "history of r#pe apologia" because I posted about this exactly once, because I believe @noehflake , and because I called Poppy a bitch. Mhmm yeah. Okay. Totally not coping over the fact that she's too much of a coward to actually confront any of the people who actually talk about this stuff on a regular basis. Annie, sweetie, this is a vent blog. This is not a critical blog. I don't have any kind of platform. There is no mission here. I'm not trying to take anyone down or harass anyone. This is where I occasionally come to complain. That's it.

For the people in the back. Noehflake is not a r#pist. Here's what happened according to the (actual) evidence (read the Poppyamory documents and the Luxander video on it for the receipts and watch the Victor Burns interview for Noeh's side of it. We already know Poppy's side cause she hasn't shut up about it): Noehflake broke up with Poppy for being a terrible partner. Poppy harassed her and badgered her and complained on Twitter about it. Zena gaslit and badgered and manipulated Noehflake into letting the trip they'd been planning on happen anyway and Poppy asked Noehflake to pretend like they weren't broken up. They met at the hotel and had sex because Poppy wanted to and Noehflake wanted to make her happy (that's a thing that ace people do, believe it or not). Then the next morning Noehflake decided she still didn't want to continue the relationship, in no small part because Poppy and Zena were screaming at each other, so she wanted to leave. Poppy tried to physically prevent her from leaving (which is a crime, by the way) and asked if Noehflake had just had sex with her to "test to see if she loved her" (which is absolutely nuts to think). Noehflake was tired of this bullshit and said yes just to get Poppy to get the hell out of the way, and Poppy was shocked enough to let her go (seriously, if someone were barring you from leaving, wouldn't you say anything to get them to let you go?). Then when Poppy kept badgering Noehflake to get back together, Noehflake admitted to lying about using the sex as a test and in truth had agreed to the sex because of feeling conflicted and wanting to make Poppy happy. Poppy took the single part of the lie and ran with it, deciding to paint Noehflake as a r#pist because she just couldn't let it go that she got dumped.

She also kept messaging Noehflake after this, and tried to friend her on Facebook.

Having sex with your ex to make them happy and then deciding not to continue the relationship is not r#pe. If anything, it's a pity fuck. And Poppy is too much of an egomaniac to accept the fact she was given a pity fuck and then re-dumped. That's what the evidence says.

I believe Noehflake's story because it has stayed consistent this entire time. Poppy's story has changed several times rapidly. And we have receipts.

I complain because this is all a bunch of soap opera bullshit and I wouldn't care if it wasn't being perpetuated people with a platform and influence over vulnerable people. If this were being done by a politician or non-internet celebrity I'm pretty sure people would be just as interested at seeing it put to an end. I'm certainly not going to do it. Other people have decided to do that. But I will complain about it. I'm allowed to. But only sometimes.

So go whine about it to someone who actually matters in this fight. You won't get anywhere whining about me, cause I don't matter. I'm a little nobody. And that's how I like it.

#poppy diabolique #poppy & zena #zena and poppy #zenaandpoppyonyoutube #poppy #toxic people #toxic behavior #venting

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dballzposting · 7 months

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i feel inclined to add on to that ask abt movies (cuz i love watching movies).

Trunks to me speaks to me as a person who at one point expected the stuff he watches to change him a little. To help him think in a different perspective and challenge his preconceptions or. SOMETHING. hes the kind of guy to try to watch movies like 2001 space odyssey but by the end of it, just looks up the ending explained. he has to try to get anything out of it. I don't think he liked trainspotting. I don't think he knew what to make of The Shining. Trunks would almost certainly try to not get bored at the beginning of Pulp Fiction (the bulk of that movie is talking). But he'll still go see movies in theaters or watch whatever he's got laying around in the house though.

He thinks he's watching movies to gain something but tbh ? Trunks has been watching movies all his life, and it might just feel rly weird to suddenly. not to. If that makes grammatical sense. I think it just gets too quiet in his house. His mom's always working on something in her lab, vegeta's always in his training room, etc etc. so he puts em on to chill. Even if he doesn't really get them sometimes. Bulma seems like the type to do the same thing while she works, maybe he gets it from her.

That's probably why watching movies with goten is so interesting though. He can really get to the core of what it's trying to say, engage with the story and themes on a meaningful level and come up with his OWN well constructed analysis with an infectious enthusiasm reminiscent of the way Gohan talks about entomology.

And Goten, country bumpkin that he is, probably hasn't even seen more than MAX 30 movies in his life (ever) besides whatever soaps his mom leaves on. he's glad trunks invites him over to watch this stuff. At the end of analyzing whatever film they saw I think he'd be like Waow. That was so cool Trunks thank you for showing me this :-) can I borrow this dvd and never give it back and Trunks will be like yeah man thats cool I'm glad you liked it so much. I have a bunch more laying around it's whatever. (He found a lot of these movies in this "guest" room he's never really been inside of. It still has a lot of stuff from before he was born.)

I think that's so interesting.. that Trunks is familiar with the elements present in film but because it's familiar, it's harder to parse how or why these elements are meshed together to make the whole. he's just "watching" them without really thinking about anything and as such, doesn't gain anything.

But because Goten isn't accustomed to watching movies all the time, he can look with unclouded eyes. Not just watching, but observing and taking all of it in.

Its the difference between hearing and listening if that makes sense.

(One last tidbit which isn't super important. I mentioned earlier a guest room. It was yamcha's. When he moved out, he didn't really take a lot of things with him, choosing to leave some of his clothes and most of his movies behind. Bulma probably told him that he could just leave his stuff there in case he ever wanted to visit. The only movie he bothered to take with him was Caddyshack. For some reason. Why)

peace 🌷

I mean this as a kindly reminder and I'm saying this to everyone: you can always make your own post / reblog the post in question in order to add on to it. You can get your name out there. Look alive... It's showtime. I mean I will always faithfully post asks (I cannot guarantee in a timely manner) but never forget your options there.

(For instance perhaps posting your own words on your own post stands to grant them more respect, rather than forcing them through the filter of somebody else's input in order to be posted - as is the reality of sending asks. I can tell when someone really cares, and I appreciate that, and I try to be faithful to that, but I also like to babble. Maybe some posts ought to be stand-alone?)

(Gotta raise my glass to this though becasue i found out today [I would have found out a week ago if I had bothered to check my email] that I may or may not be helping my school start a film club so TBH i gotta appreciate this ..... and I gotta respect the grinde.... It's funny thouhg because you know I actually hate watching movies. When the time comes I ought to come back to you and the other user for recommendations. Well anyway back to the ask)

OK Well this is some real shit you just said. I fully agree. It coheres with what was already said although with some extra sensitivity ...

Reposting this segment for a TL;DR becasue I thought it was an elegant conclusion:

Trunks is familiar with the elements present in film but because it's familiar, it's harder to parse how or why these elements are meshed together to make the whole. he's just "watching" them without really thinking about anything and as such, doesn't gain anything. But because Goten isn't accustomed to watching movies all the time, he can look with unclouded eyes.

I mean really it all comes down to Trunks being a Modern CityBoy; he's used to background noise, he's used to mindless entertainment. Goten doesn't have things in his life that are meant to be taken for granted, though, so that just makes him overall more attentive and appreciative.

That's the greater discussion here ... A veiled call for action for us all to try to look with fresh eyes upon our own lives ....

Really, If Trunks isn't taking to the creative storytelling aspect of it, he should at least take a shining to the technological artistry. Maybe he doesn't care why or when, but he does know HOW they do what they do. That'd be swagg. But then he'd have to do research on something that isn't Minecraft related. Sighhhh

BTW Thanjk you for addsing that Caddyshack bit in there for me. Mondo appreciated <3

#dballz posting #dballz asks

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