#idk! folks can have their own opinions on it but for me personally i love that they didnt go with whats imo kind of. the obvious plot choic

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Oh I think I saw the post u meam and (u can delete/ignore this is its too far from the point and shit) the "The only yusei I like is a depressed one" is so. Idk? Harsh? Hes allowed to ve happy and still be written well, he doesnt need to be shoved onto other peoples sins when the series already has him doing that. He can have an implied decently peaceful life until death. Sometimes! You do so much and oull so much weight that you become something intangible and divine to someone whos never met but still thinks of u! And sometimes its one guy and sometimes its them and the last remnants of the human race out of a desperate love for both!

Idk, just let yusei be like, not suffering 24/7, they forbid him from even entering the WGRP for fun bc ig thats bad to so many characters, let him have a scrap

YEAH. YEAH. god ive been thinkin about this all day, this is so good anon you get it you're Logged In you see the Intent of it all...

again like. if the 'z-one isnt yusei' thing isnt someone's favorite narrative choice, whatever, thats your journey, but every time i see this "well he was ACTUALLY supposed to be yusei from the future for real!!!!" rumormongering i want to groan into my hands, it just feels like this desperate grasping at straws because they really wanted Sick and Twisted Evil Yusei Real and then when that didn't happen they had to make up some grand production conspiracy instead of just taking the "welp, cant win 'em all" with this one and acknowledging that's just not the story the 5D's writers wanted to tell.

i LIKE a good protagonist corruption/evil!protag AU, they're really fun, but you're so right, this sort of Insistence I see when people are like "no, it was GOING to be true, z-one WAS dark and depressed and hopeless future yusei," i just cant wrap my head around it. there's just this sort of miserable harshness to it that i'm not personally very into. (in general i cant really vibe with this idea of "i need my favorite character to constantly be suffering." just really not my thing, ESPECIALLY WITH YUGIOH CHARACTERS??) (also. like. we already did have that. with jaden. and honestly yuma also is fucking Suffering too. it's cool seeing a different spin on things. idfk!!)

i just want to like. grab people really gungho about this thing by the shoulders and ask "why do you want a Yusei who willfully betrays and gets his friends killed SO BADLY? why do you want to see a Yusei who hurts people THIS much?" I feel like it would have just been so jarring and unearned. it doesn't feel like Yusei even in his darkest hours (which imo is part of why Z-one is such an interesting character to me--the concept of someone who thinks if they can wear a fabled hero like a pelt, if he can Become them, then that will fix everything, then They can fix everything. that's so fascinating and fucked up to me!!!! i love thinking about it!!!)

this idea that in the far future Yusei's become this sort of folk hero, this "something intangible and divine" like you said, just from saving the world and doing good and helping people, that's just SO neat and has so much merit and is worth discussing!! and it's unfortunate that you have a Not Insignificant amount of people who just wont even consider the potential narrative weight in it, who are so sore Their Trope of Choice wasn't canon theyre out here weaving madeup production stories to back up their personal disappointment. just. idk. you can give the 5D's writers a lot of rightful flak for stuff in s2, but i do very much think there was great intent from the beginning to have z-one be Just Some Guy who's rotting in a body that isnt his own, and to have him reflect yusei in ways without Actually Just Being Him.

[conkers-thecosy]

Hullo to my fellow fandom creators.

How you guys doing? Good? Good.

I just wanted to drop you a little note to say I hope you’re all having fun out here. Because fun is what it’s all about, right? Fun and excitement and hobbies and interests and all that good stuff!

While I’ve been wandering about in my little corner here at tumblr dot com, I gotta tell you, it can be so easy to get discouraged sometimes. Like SO easy. And I dunno folks, I guess I just wanted to remind you (and me!) that when we create stuff for our fandoms, it’s for fun! Because we love it! Because we love making it! We love sharing it! We love the source material and the characters and the world-building and all that other neat stuff!

Sometimes we all need a little reminder, I find. Because sometimes people don’t like what we’re making. Sometimes they’ll be rude or complain and make demands about how fandom "cOnTeNt” (yuck) should be made (double yuck) and act kind of entitled about it. And idk, that gets kind of disheartening. Especially when you’re pouring all your heart and soul into what you’re making, simply for the love of it.

So! Yeah I just wanted to check in with you folks because I’m seeing a lot of that weird entitlement in various fandoms lately, and from one creator to another, I wanted to just say -if I may wax poetic for a moment here- nuts to those people. Nuts to ‘em. NUTS, I TELL YOU.

Not everyone is going to like the stuff you make, and that's okay. The important thing is to remember that their opinions have nothing to do with you or me or anyone else making art or fics or edits or whatever our little hearts desire. Just because what you're making doesn't tick someone else's personal boxes doesn't mean that what you're making is wrong or bad!

If people want specific stuff in fandom, they can make it. If they don’t like what we’re making, they can move on - that's fine. If they want to publicly whine about it and try to make it everyone else's problem, that's their baggage and we don't have to take any of that on board. It’s no reflection on you if someone wants to demand that their own specific tastes be met, rather than actually taking part in the community in a positive way. Because we’re here for fun, aren’t we.

Are you having fun? Good. That’s all that matters.

Go make something cool and fun, and have a great day!

Love you!

[chernabogs]

i really like the concept of the draconias being cursed with their love, although love is a curse and heart is a heavy burden in itself,,, it's still a fun subject to talk about. your fic in maleficia pov is such an eye opener for this 🥺 id love to see more of your insights w that trope lol

Ouagh idk if you're aiming to let me just yap away about this, but that's precisely what I'm going to do because the prospect of bloodline curses/hereditary curses is one of my FAV things in folklore. This isn't a theory as much as it is me talking about just some things I've noticed and how I interpret it

To preface this, this has absolutely no hold in canon LMAO. This is just what I've noted when taking a step back and looking at the Draconia family—which is that they have a shitty track history with things happening to them. As a secondary point, I have no idea what Yana is pulling from for her background of fae information. Myths of fae come from all over the world; you got them in Europe, in Scandinavian countries, Oceania, Africa, etc (like really, they're all over). I do know her bits and bops about Malleus loving ice cream/dairy items falls more in line with European interpretations, so I'm rolling that she's drawing somewhat from that.

Which kind of leads me to noting the poor luck the Draconia's seem to have. In a lot of European folklore, fae love to curse (most often piseóg)—be it humans, dwarves, elves, or even their own kind (this really fantastic thesis digs right into that concept via an analysis of european folk stories). One story I like a lot is The Two Sisters and The Curse, a lovely tale of pride and fae. One sister brags that her sister has a fae lover, failing to follow the stipulation that she's never to tell anyone about that fae lover. The result is tragic, as expected, but the line 'If a fay-being has power, revenge will be taken though it may be on your descendants.' really sticks out in this.

Hereditary curses are curses passed through a bloodline that, understandably, can only be broken when certain stipulations are met; the ancient Greeks especially loved them. Some might think them as geas (a curse/gift, which is kind of what Meleanor put on Malleus before he was hatched; humans would fear him, fae would adore him, etc.). A lot of piseóg in European folklore are hereditary curses intent on really fucking with a family.

In my opinion, it kind of feels like the Draconia's either have the worst luck streak on record with how many things happen to them, or they have a curse. We don't know what happened to Maleficia's husband, but the assumption is that he's probably dead. Meleanor's husband went MIA in the middle of a war that her family and her people were also dragged into. Then, Meleanor died, robbing Maleficia of her only daughter. Upon her death, Maleficia was unsuccessful at hatching Malleus' egg because he began to reject her magic; if Lilia hadn't existed or had declined to help, Malleus would have died too, leaving Maleficia.

In addition, Malleus (due to his nature as sole heir and only family) was raised in an incredibly contained environment his entire life. Hell, he was chronically alone since he was in an egg. Even now he still holds this belief in his mind that he has no one except for the same 4 people he's known his entire life, and even then, one of them (Lilia) who he cares for a lot is also about to die. Silver will die before him. Sebek will die before him. His grandmother will die before him.

Really, it looks bad when you step back. This is kind of why I focused the Maleficia fic on the concept of a curse. I wrote it like she had an inkling someone in her family line had crossed the wrong person and it resulted in a piseóg, and she just doesn't know how to break or stop it.

Frankly, I love the trope to bits. I love the tragedy, I love the many ways it can happen (pissing off fae, pissing off a tenant, evicting a fairy king from your farm because you're just tryna do your harvest, etc.), and I love when one person finally manages to figure out the niche needed to break the curse. I imagine the relief of freedom from generations of tragedy is immense.

I kind of hope that happens with the Draconia's, or at least their luck turns around with Malleus. I feel like the whole family has been dragged through the mud enough LMAO.

[zmediaoutlet]

What's your opinion on the fandom rhetoric about how Sam lacks bodily autonomy but Dean has it? I personally think it's weird that it's such a widespread idea when it's just blatantly untrue. A big theme for Dean's character is that his body is seen as a weapon or tool for others to use, so it's strange that people claim that he has full bodily autonomy.

(...okay, that the gif is by 'unfuckablebogtroll' is somehow very fitting.)

I think my main opinion of the fandom rhetoric is that there are a lot of batshit bitter sam girls who screech that dean is a meanie meanerton who doesn't respect sammy's presh 'tonomy and there are a lot of batshit extreme dean girls who wail about how sam is a meanie meanerton who, idk, waterboards dean in his spare time or whatever they're complaining about this week (I've unfollowed as many as I can of both camps), so for the most part both groups can be completely flushed down into the sewers of 'jesus christ, do you guys ever actually watch the show rather than circlejerk the same four arguments about it? ...no? oh. well, at least you're honest.'

So, with that said.

Yeah, obviously Dean lacks autonomy. But there's a difference between autonomy and agency, and I'm not going to pretend to have a super solid grasp on either (since a lot of philosophical debate [especially by fangirls] makes me want to jump into the aforementioned sewer just not to hear it anymore), but I can at least kind of make a stab, since you asked.

At least in the way I understand it (do you see all the caveats), bodily autonomy is literally getting to decide what happens to your body, including where it goes and who's inside it and what's done with it, and agency is general decision-making of like the brain sort -- what decisions will I make, who will I be, and so on. Both Sam and Dean are assailed on both fronts alllllll the time. Fandom folks tend to exaggerate those assaults on their preferred brother (because, for some reason, egregious victimhood is the only way you get to be a cool character?? what is that about.), but as with a lot of things in CW's Supernatural, the actual facts are a lot more balanced than fandom weirdos will admit.

Sure, Sam's got a bunch of autonomy assaults. Torture, possession, etc. Most of the time, though, I see his agency as pretty intact. He may not necessarily want to do some of the things he does (childhood hunting comes in here), but he chooses to do them. Is he manipulated sometimes? Sure. Lied to? Obv. But there's an essential steel pillar at the center of Sam and whether they're good choices or whether they're bad choices, he is the one who makes them, and he lives with those consequences. This is part of why the s9 thing with Gadreel is troubling: yeah, it's about bodily autonomy on one (more boring) level, but the much bigger problem is that Dean overrode his agency -- part of why I tend to believe that Sam's biggest objection is that Dean lied and then couldn't apologize for it, when Sam's agency is the most precious thing he owns. Now, he's a smart guy, and there are times his agency does take a blow because of some canon circumstance -- he doesn't want to do X but the world will end if Y, so X it is -- but for the most part Sam's solid and he can live with what he has to do. Though he won't pointlessly die of blue balls about it. What a silly stand on agency that would be.

Dean, meanwhile, doesn't actually have his bodily autonomy violated too much. By which I mean: of course, Dean-as-object is one of my favorite tags, of COURSE he's used as a meatsack and a weapon and a fuckdoll and all those lovely things. But he's very rarely literally possessed; he's holding the blade or the gun or what-have-you. That said, his agency is in the fuckin' gutter, haha, and that's more often what I mean by Dean-as-object. From childhood he's fully expecting to be told what to do, to be used as a pawn, to be used in other ways, to take on someone else's responsibility and make it his own and subsume his actual desires and wants for the good of... whoever. Usually John, but not always. This is something Sam doesn't really... do, that often. Sam might hate that he's making a choice but he does seem to understand that he is the one making it, whereas on Dean's part it so often feels like the choice is automatic -- of course he'll do what John says, of course he'll sell his soul, of course he'll... kiss some lady so the Qareen chases him instead. Now, are all those things tied to autonomy, too? Of course. But with Dean I feel like it's a bigger issue that his agency has been taken out at the knees ever since he was ~5 years old -- the autonomy problem is very much secondary.

Agency and autonomy are tied together and assaults on both happen relatively equally to both characters. What matters more is their attitudes about it, and their natures (whether they're essential or if they've been nurtured into acting a particular way). And, of course, there are different times in canon where these tendencies shift or even flip, e.g. in late s8 where Sam's certainty wobbles, or in s10 where Dean's autonomy w/r/t the Mark of Cain is really dicey.

Violated vs violable, victimized vs victim. A ton of it is in the eye of the beholder and OBVIOUSLY fandom will just sail off in its own directions any ol' way, depending on what shipping mood someone is in, how much projection is going on, what the phase of the moon is, etc. But generally speaking I find that Sam has a lot of agency in his life but often his autonomy is imperilled; Dean has a lot of autonomy but his agency is practically nil. At least for a while. What's nice is that Sam does have agency and he uses that agency to choose his own path in life, decide what he wants, and what he wants is -- a life with Dean. Dean maybe never really had a choice in the matter, but so what? He can stay in his bunker, and fight the monsters he needs to fight, and -- lucky for him, there's a strong hand covering his left side. What more could a cat ask for.

[aroapl]

hello! first off, this ask is not at all meant to be antagonistic and i am genuinely coming from a place of wanting to understand. i've always been extremely for "people can be and identify as whatever they want, so long as they're not hurting anyone". what i'm struggling with is that last bit and the way that i am seeing some people using the aplatonic or loveless labels.

i am both aro- and ace spec myself, so i definitely understand not having emotions or attraction in the way that a lot of people feel that you should. and while i am pretty high empathy myself, i'm also friends with people who have low or no empathy and have no trouble understanding that that's just another way of existing and doesn't mean that you can't have compassion for people or treat people decently. my best friend has no empathy and is incredibly supportive and caring.

i also totally get when i see people iding as loveless because the way that our society (especially western society) uses the word "love" is so weird and definitely not universally relatable. completely understandable.

i've seen many people identify being aplatonic as meaning "idk i just don't really Connect with people in the way that i see most people talk about, if my friends all moved away, i wouldn't really be bothered" okay, cool. i don't Get it, but just seems to be a different experience.

where i'm really struggling is not to condemn or get angry at people who i straight up see saying "i'm loveless meaning i don't care about other human beings and if any number of people just died right in front of me i wouldn't care. if i saw someone in trouble needing my help i'd walk right past them. i hate humans". i haven't seen a TON of people express this, but i've seen enough to where i feel like they can't all be trolls, and i'm not sure how to respond.

i've also seen a lot, like definitely the vast majority of people i see pop up on my dash who id themselves as aplatonic, say that they feel horribly lonely and disconnected and just Can't make friends...therefore they must be aplatonic, and they should stop trying and be "naturally" isolated. a lot of these people also mention having past trauma, and a lot of them seem to be young teenagers.

now. i am of the opinion that identifying yourself "incorrectly"--eg, a young trans woman identifying as ace before she figures out she's trans because she has no interest in sex as someone who's seen as a man--isn't ever really harmful. not having sex with anyone isn't going to hurt you. briefly deciding you're a lesbian isn't going to hurt you if you're actually a trans man.

but these teenagers i see iding as aplatonic because they're unable to make connections with people but want to really worries me. if you don't have any close friends or even casual friends and are totally happy with that and id as aplatonic, that makes sense and seems perfectly fine to me. but i just can't make "i id this way because i'm miserable" mesh with my worldview, nor can i make "i id this way because i hate everyone" mesh either.

in the past when i've brought this up to people with the loveless able specifically, it's incited threats of violence, doxxing, and a lot of ableism, which tbh did the opposite of convincing me it was a harmless label.

do you have any thoughts on this?

(Little preface to say I consulted a server with a lot of apls and loveless folks in it to get a second opinion on how to respond to this. So, some of this is entirely my own thoughts and some is paraphrased from another loveless apl. This person did not want to be credited/named.)

I’m gonna start with my main thought on all these points, which is this: there are always going to be some people that identify with a label for the “wrong” reasons, and there are always going to be some assholes and some people you fundamentally don’t agree with in every label/community. None of these things ever make it okay to try and get rid of or police a label, to take it away from the people that genuinely find community, joy, and self acceptance in it.

A lot of what you’re saying here is quite frankly just classic aphobia, the same stuff a lot of people say/think about aros and aces just directed at apls and loveless people. There are plenty of aros that desperately wish they could like romance and have romantic relationships, and there are aphobes that think these aros are just mentally ill and that the aro label should be done away with to “save” them. There are some violently sex negative aces out there, and there are aphobes who think they speak for the whole community and that the ace label should be done away with because of it. There are people that mistakenly identify as ace and/or aro because they’re struggling with other things, and some of them isolate themselves because of it in ways that genuinely do harm them, and there are people that think ace and aro are inherently harmful labels because of this. 

Whether they truly are aplatonic or just falling back on the aplatonic label because of other struggles, some aplatonic people genuinely wishing they could make/keep friends and feeling lonely doesn’t mean that the aplatonic label as a whole is a problem. Like I said, people misidentifying in ways that do actually harm them in some way is something that can happen with any label. Also, trying to make someone drop a label that doesn’t actually fit them and force them to face the problem that led them to it before they’re ready to is rarely helpful. A lot of people in this situation would at best feel disrespected and upset, and at worst double down on their misidentification or have a serious mental health spiral over being made to face a problem they aren't ready to face. People wrongly IDing as aplatonic might find understanding and resources in our community that help them heal, they might be miserable the whole time they ID as apl and eventually move on and get help afterward, or they might learn and heal in other ways or go on to struggle for a very long time. Either way, it’s not the job of outsiders to decide someone is identifying with a label for the wrong reasons and make them let it go. 

(Also, a side note on this point. While aplatonic is currently primarily defined and used similarly to other aspec labels, there have been several other definitions that differ quite a lot. One of these definitions defines it as struggling to make or maintain friendships due to neurodivergence, or just generally struggling with friendship. Some people do still use this definition. Some of these people you’re talking about may be using this definition.)

Now on to lovelessness. Some of what you’re saying here gets into ableism, particularly towards people with personality disorders. Some people with personality disorders genuinely just aren’t capable of caring about strangers like that, or people in general. Some often aren’t capable of going out of their way to help people, or struggle a lot with it. That doesn’t make them bad. People can’t control how they feel. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone, people can feel or think whatever they want. Thought crime isn’t real.

Now, if someone is actually hurting people and using the loveless label as an excuse, that’s obviously not okay. The thing about that though is that taking the loveless label away from them won’t make them stop hurting people. They will just find another excuse, or stop bothering with having an excuse. An asshole is still going to be an asshole no matter what label or excuse they attach to it. On top of that, some people within an identity/community being bad people doesn't make it okay to vilify everyone that shares that label or get rid of that label/community. 

I’m genuinely very sorry some people have been ableist and violent towards you, that is never okay. I do need you to know though that despite what may have been good intentions, this does come off as aplphobic, loveless antagonistic, and a bit ableist. That can rightfully inspire anger and defensiveness in people with these identities, especially since many of us are already used to having our identities antagonized, disrespected, and demonized. Since you’re aroace-spec, imagine how you would feel if someone came to you and expressed these exact same sentiments, but towards ace and aro identities instead. Imagine how you’d feel if some came to you doubting that ace and aro identities should be allowed to exist because they’d encountered some aces and aros that were mean or unhappy in their identify.

At the end of the day, not everyone is going to share your worldview, and that’s fine. You don’t have to understand them or like them, or even get along with them, but they have a right to exist as they are even if you don’t agree with them or like it. If they aren’t hurting you, simply move on and focus your time and energy on the people and communities you do like and understand.

[dr-tonytonychopper]

BATFAMILY AS FOLKLORE SONGS

i’m honestly shocked i’ve haven’t done this one. this one is a little different tbh, usually i just do characters and maybe lyrics but this time i did actually did explanations and i was watching the long pond sessions so i could get accurate notes on each song. DISCLAIMER there’s a lot of run on sentences and i hope it all makes sense, peace and love-ssb✌️🫶

the 1: steph and tim, i see this as being from both of their povs. i think a relationship between them wouldn’t work long term it would’ve been fun if you would’ve been the one

cardigan: dick/babs, i know that all writers have their own opinions on who is the “other woman” but timeline wise it’s kori so i see this as being from babs pov bc she goes back to him no matter what

the last great american dynasty: The Wayne’s, i feel that after Bruce adopts his kids and starts collecting others he starts kinda shifting what the wayne’s are where as when he grew up it was about image, poise and galas he starts to change and all he cares abt is if his kids are comfortable i had a marvelous time ruining everything

exile: jason and bruce, even though this song is like two lovers fighting i think it can be interpreted as jason being upset after tim becomes robin and it took you five whole minutes to pack us up and leave me with it and i can see bruce’s pov of being fed up with giving jason the chance to do the right thing but him not doing it like you’d get your knuckles bloody for me second, third and hundredth chances balancing on breaking bridges, i couldn’t turn things around you never turned things around

my tears ricochet: damian and talia, “it’s a song about greed. it’s a song about how somebody could be your best friend and your companion and your most trusted person in your life and then they could go and become your worst enemy who knows how to hurt you because they were once your most trusted person.” Taylor Swift long pond sessions you had to kill me but it killed you just the same this whole song and specifically this part and the quote reminds me of when talia made and had a clone of damian kill him i didn’t have it in me to go with grace and you’re the hero flying around saving face you hear my stolen lullabies

mirrorball: Stephanie, i’ve never been a natural all i do is try i know everyone is like this is dicks songs it’s not he’s the natural however i feel stephanie is put on this pedestal for being independent but she’s not and i feel like she morphs herself into a different version of herself depending on who she’s with “we have mirror balls in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light they are broken a million times and that’s what makes them so shiny. we have people like that in society. they hang there and everytime they break it entertains us” Taylor Swift long pond sessions

seven: damian and jon, it’s a song abt besties idk 🤷🏻‍♀️ past down like folk songs the love lasts so long

august: kori/dick, IM SORRY DICKORI/ KORI STANS! to me when writers write this love triangle they write babs as the one, she’s smart and sensible and someone to settle down with while kori is written as a fling and something that is just someone who’s there in the moment and that’s what august is about it’s about this girl who was seen by this guy as a fling while she is truly falling for him and from everybody’s pov she’s this bad girl and temptress while all she wants is to love and to be loved

this is me trying: tim, they told me all my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential, tim is often now written as this happy go lucky character and i think that in red robin he’s fighting some real demons but in the newer runs he’s fighting to make it through the day or insecurities about his position in the family or as a superhero or even as bernard’s boyfriend and i feel like it’s just so real like no other character is going to compare to me when it comes to that and when it comes to his position in everyday life he is the definition as wasted potential he is crazy smart and charismatic but he just hates school and hates studying i was so ahead the curve that the curve became a sphere

illicit affairs: bruce/ talia, bruce and talias relationship is not healthy but i do believe that they both or at least bruce loved the other person and i feel like it shouldn’t even be described as an relationship because it seems like a means to an end

invisible string: the entire batfamily, definition of right place at the right time

mad woman: cass, in the comics and fics cass is often written to be a crazy, feral woman and i think that it’s a narrative constantly written about women and i feel like men are written as traumatized while women are not written or perceived with that tone they are written as vindictive or crazy

epiphany: babs and jim gordon, epiphany is written paralleling WWII to the pandemic and i think the perfect parallel in comic book history is babs and commissioner gordon fighting the same fight but taking different paths or routes and aaron dessner describes the song as comparing taylor’s family history and hero’s of today and i feel like that’s the perfect way to describe it

betty: babs/dick/kori, i already described my thoughts twice but i feel like dick would maybe take more accountability

peace: bruce/selina, imma be honest i don’t know if it’s canon that bruce doesn’t do relationships bc of batman but it’s fitting and i feel like it’s probably that even in relationships with other heroes is a conversation to be had bruce truly can’t give selina peace, he cannot promise stability or a promise of staying alive or not being over tabloids as he’s the richest man alive all these people think loves for show but i would die for you in secret

hoax: duke, duke is the one character that i can’t really get a read on but as the newest member of the batfamily i feel like there’s still this feeling in him that’s like i have this new family and i love them but at the end of the day i want my parents my parents that raised me at the end of the day he’s a boy who wants his parents. i also feel like he’s still trusting of people and he reaps what he sowed everytime

the lakes: tim/bernard: tim always has an exit plan and it’s always escaping by himself to be by himself and i feel like it’s the same no matter who he’s with but when he met and started dating bernard he finally found someone to escape with and exit the hero world for im setting off, but not without my muse

batfam (taylor’s version) is coming so lmk what albums you guys want next🤭🤭

[kohanasami]

idk where the idea comes from that alex is neglected by the fandom or his feelings aren't given importance (saw it going around on twitter), when most of the fics (especially the popular ones) are all about alex's hurt and alex's bravey and his feelings, even when it's henry pov. henry is just completely changed into some 1800s housewife that has to give up everything and change everything about himself to prove he's worthy of alex's love (and he still is always unsure). it's entertaining fanfic, but makes me think about the way fandoms operate and tend flip the narrative from canon to fanfic/fanon. what are we trying to compensate for? henry's whiteness? him being a royal? him being british? being taller? what is it? why is it that everything needs to equalized? when it is unequal and can remain that way? also the brown people mythologizing by very obviously non-brown writers. like stop infantilizing us brown folk? it's something i have observed in other fandoms too, but idk it's like worse here because this fandom is older on average?

this ties in to dismissal of mental health struggles, yes but also negating the impact of the environment you live in. it implies a person is just what they are on their own and not a creation of collaboration. it also simply means a fundamental misunderstanding of characters yes, but also life in general because what are our opinions based on if not our opinion on other things? and no this is not a comment on likes/dislikes. one can still choose to love what they love. but that the reasoning needs to be bent so much for it to be loved is definitely a choice.

[an-au-blog]

The college au is so full of angst I’m trying o come up with fluff set after a possible „talking it out“ scenario and just love the idea of Buggy at a party with a bunch of folks he doesn’t know feeling out of his area. He’s not technically a shy guy, he’s pretty outgoing if anything actually, that’s how he met Alvida and Mohji and „Mr. Three“ Galdino and so on and so forth, but Shanks is truly just the life of the party, Shanks talks to everyone and makes them feel welcome and everyone seems to absolutely love Shanks, as opposed to Buggy, who’s keenly aware his abrasive personality scares people off unless they are forced to spend more time with him (Or if they are like Alvida and can just dish out as much as he can)

So he nurses a little solo cup on his own and stews in his misery until Shanks suddenly drops next to him onto the couch and snuggles up to him all happy and affectionate. They banter a little until someone comes in to ask Shanks if he wants to come out and play Mario Party with everyone, before glancing at Buggy and inviting him along mostly to be polite, but Shanks is just in pure affection mode all „I’ll join you guys later. Have you met my boyfriend? This is Buggy, I told you about him.“ „Yeah you mentioned you have-„ „Buggy I just got done talking to uhhh-*snap snap* Pardon me I forgot your name- but she was telling me about that makeup channel she has and I told her „My boyfriend does absolutely AMAZING special effects makeup.“ and showed her the stuff you did for my Halloween costume and she asked me where I got the coat from and I just went „Get this, he also does sewing in his spare time and-„ Just completely in worshipping boyfriend mode until the other party , obviously not interested in listening to this, excuses herself.

By the end of the night Shanks is just resting his head in Buggys lap , clearly content with himself and his place in the world while Buggy is still processing that his boyfriend loves him so much he will just introduce Buggy as his boyfriend without a second thought, something he always doubted would happen, because … he’s Buggy and who wouldn’t at least slightly cringe at introducing him because… he’s Buggy. And also that Shanks thinks so much of him he is will absolutely talk peoples ears off when he gets the chance.

Idk what kind of psychic reading shit you're doing but it's working because I'm so serious when I tell you I'm in the middle of writing chapter 7 and (spoiler alert ig) there's gonna be a party in it ahaha

But don't worry, there's no actual angst yet, the real angst lays ahead, but don't worry, I always sprinkle fluff for balance.

Also I have plans for Alvida, but I will steal the idea of him meeting Mohji and Galdino through a party lol ':)

But ohhh goodness this is the cutest thing ever! I adore self-conscious Buggy and clingy Shanks :''D

Anyway have a little party-goer addition to this:

Buggy went to the party only because Shanks did. In fact it wasn't just because of him, he made sure at least Alvida came as well but she canceled last minute. So now the only person he knew was his social-butterfly boyfriend.

Something odd kept on happening though. People kept on recognizing him. The first time it happened Buggy thought they would giggle behind his back or insult him, but they recognized him as "Shanks's boyfriend" and started talking about how he'd talk about him all the time.

Buggy then thought that they were saying that out of politeness, but they kept bringing up things Shanks had said and the way it sounded was almost as if Shanks was praising him. No... showing off maybe? Which was confusing for him because what was there to be proud of anyway?? Regardless, anyone who recognized him from Shanks's stories or because of how much he mentioned him, seemed to have a good opinion of Buggy. Which was enough for now.

At some point Buggy has had enough being around people and decides he needs a break. Preferably a snack break. He found the way to the kitchen and rummaging through it he finds a half eaten box of ice cream. Only problem is he needs to sneak out back to eat it or else someone might want some and he can't be giving ot charity! That's the ice cream he rightfully stole, bo one could take it from him!

So he sneaks out and Shanks somehow finds him. Shanks is a bit worried Buggy isn't having fun but Buggy is worried Shanks will eat his dessert.

They sit next to each other, staring at the moon with half a box of ice cream. After two spoons of silence Buggy finally gives in.

Buggy: fiiiiiine, I give up

Shanks, panicking that something happened and he missed it and he's too tipsy to be adequate: wh- huh?

Buggy tilting the box to his boyfriend: You can have some. You were looking for a good time to ask right?

Shanks: Well no... *takes it anyway*

Shanks: I thought you were running away to be honest... hiding...

Buggy: Running - no. Hiding - yes, this ice cream is way too good to be shared. I'm taking an ice cream break, like a snack break but better because I found this treasure *gestures to the box as if he's in a commercial*

Shanks giggles a bit. He can see the moon's radiance off his boyfriend and he feels so lucky at that moment.

Shanks: You're sharing it with me though

Buggy: You don't count, at this point you're like an extension of my own body. You're inevitable... I bet that makes you happy, huh

Shanks absolutely smittened taking about spoon: Yeah, it does.

Shanks, jokingly: I hope you never get rid of me

Buggy: Well now you sound like a curse- hey, hey, hey, stop eating my ice cream

They finish the ice cream and dump it in a random garbage can hoping no one saw them. They also google it finding it was extremely expensive and pray to whoever's listening no one noticed them sneaking out and back in with a spoon gull of evidence.

this makes me wonder if i should leave a couple of chapters as epilogue just for fluff... I'll think about it...

[cats-mayhem]

Ein MyStreet isn't a compelling villain to me.

Please note how I said ME in the title. This is just how I feel. You're entitled to your own opinions. Also this isn't the most professional analysis, I am just saying what's on my mind in the moment. Anyway, let's get into it.

OK so basically: Ein had a lot of potential. In the first half of season 1 he was a cute "bad" boy who just wanted to not be the Omega of the school whilst also having a crush on Aphmau. Then Aphmau made him Alpha Male and then he stopped being a character.

It's framed that everything he did with Aphmau was just a ploy to get the position of Alpha but like... He was so genuine so many times? He was blushing and all, he helped her out with the hair dye. He was a good boy who actually had a thing for Aph.

But ok, let's just ignore his characterization up until the twist because ooohhh he's actually really mean and manipulative. Maybe it's because of the power he now has after being bullied for so long but it's SUCH a jarring shift in character for him.

I guess Jessica wanted to make an actual Villain character since Gene and Balto weren't the most threatening and evil but like... They're in high school? They're not gonna be evil masterminds like what she was trying to do with Ein.

Gene and Balto were just bullies and that fit for PDH S1. Ein being evil is to shut down any romantic progression he would have with Aphmau since Kai got character assassinated and was a dick to her on a date (+ Ein's meddling)

All so that Aaron can come "save the day" and beat up Ein and save Aphmau from an evil man that she never figured out was evil. The most Evil things Ein did was pick an Omega without Aph and also ruin her date.

Ein didn't want to be the omega anymore since he was sick of being seen as weak and being bullied and ignored, and the teacher WANTED him to take that title willingly, even after everything he's gone through with it. And he KNOWS that Aph would try and convince him To take it on as well, so that's why he picked one by himself. And the date thing... Yeah idk why he did that maybe he was just jealous idk i forgor.

OH YEAH and he beat the shit out of Kasey so that Katelyn can have a reason to be racist towards werewolves when the Ultima Reveal. Completely forgot about that.

I honestly think PDH S2 had an interesting set up with the love triangle. Kai has Aaron's personality whilst Ein has Aaron's attitude. (Aph & Aaron's romance is awful but i'm just pointing out symbolism).

Ein was also racist towards Humans since he is a werewolf supremacist and he wanted to make Aphmau a werewolf so that she'd be perfect. Also werewolves are a minority that's discriminated against so this character trait is a bit uh... Yikes!

Also I just remembered this but Ein was working with Gene to get close to Aphmau and Gene wanted pictures of Aphmau for some fucking reason?? What was that about. We get no context on this other than 1 scene btw.

So the next time we see Ein is in Emerald Secret! Oh boy, I got some words.

So about 15 years pass since PDH S2 and everyone is an adult in their late 20s. What has Ein been doing in all that time? Obsessing over a girl he met in high school, researching heavily into a folk lore in order to turn her into a werewolf. Also he's been doing illegal potion making and used one of those potions to turn an actual wolf, human, so that he can be the alpha of her wolf pack.

Also he's working with the biggest bad of them all, Micheal! But we don't meet him until Season 6 or something. He also may or may not be mind controlling Ein during Emerald Secret we don't know.

So what else does Ein do this season now that he's the big bad again? Other than the wolf thing, he also brainwashes Aphmau's friends into thinking he's their brother, makes Aphmau obey his every word and love him whilst also despising Aaron.

And makes her attempt to kill Aaron. Despite the fact that he needs Aaron to turn her into a werewolf first, after he denies when he's asked, Ein was like "Ok well. Aph kill him lmao."

He also "dies" in the end by getting mauled by the pack of wolves he made himself Alpha of.

I don't think it takes that much brainpower to see why this is an awful twist (he was also a twist villain btw we didn't know it was him until midway). His motivation is stupid, why are you still obsessed with some girl from high school, you're 28.

Why does he even still have those pictures of her in high school? Like if you're gonna be obsessed with her, at least stalk her so you can get the modern update???

Also, his werewolf supremacy is played up big time here to the point it makes you question why he wasn't obsessing over Aaron like Xavier was. Maybe Jessica didn't wanna repeat motivation? But Ein & Xavier are very different characters, you could make it work.

He was just a mess of a villain once you think about his motivation for 2 seconds. And then he shows up in When Angels Fall!! This one is shorter I promise.

So in WAF Ein uses another illegal potion to make werewolves (who were in hiding since the Government is taking every single one of them and interrogating them because they might be some ancient folklore beast). And makes them all obey his every word and call him Alpha.

It's confirmed that after High School, werewolf packs and Alphas don't matter in the real world so it's weird that he was obsessed with it in Emerald Secret.

Anyway after that, he kidnaps Aphmau to hold Aaron ransom and when he gets his werewolf ears back (Aaron took them away in ES) he kills Aphmau because he was being mind controlled by Micheal.

And then Aaron and Ein fight on a bridge, Aaron kills his mind controlled friends, and then kills Ein. So let's talk about it.

the thing with this is that... It just shows that Ein COULD'VE been written well if he was mind controlled by Micheal with the illegal potions. Since Micheal had 100% access to Ein at any time and Ein played a major role in Micheal's plan to trauma trigger Aaron.

And honestly it would've made Ein a much more compelling character if he just... Didn't have control over his actions. One theme with the main group is that they decide what to do with their lives and how to move forward.

But that wouldn't apply to someone who was controlled, now, would it? And since we know that the person under the effects of a forever potion still have a conscious, and can see all the acts that they don't have control over, it would've made Ein a tragic villain.

And if he was mind controlled by Micheal during Emerald Secret it would explain why Ein was obessed with Aphmau despite it being so weird. Because guess what, Ein & Aphmau are half siblings! So that re-contextualizes every interaction they ever had.

I think that Ein should've had an actual character instead of being a cartoon villain like Micheal was. Ein is the only character to have so much DIRECT action towards the main cast. Why would you make him so messy and one dimensional?

And the whole Mind Control thing is something that can be easily done. Ein uses forever potions to make people Obey Him, and since Micheal doesn't have enough power to mind control Ein 24/7, him using a potion like that on Ein would make so much sense.

Since Ein is shown to be decent at potion making and magic by the time we meet him. Micheal is the only one who could've taught him all of that. And the thing is: IT'S CANNON ONLY IN WAH. They met before ES but it's left so vague on what their relationship was that you could say Ein did everything in Emerald Secret by his own volition and you'd be right since nothing is confirmed.

If Jessica wanted to make this a serious story, WHY WOULD YOU STOP AT THE MOST RELEVANT VILLAIN??? He's literally related to Aphmau and was apart of the experimentation in some way but we don't know because he's not a character enough for him to be lore relevant other than him being a plot device. I'm so upset on the way Jessica wrote him since he could've been so much more than he actually was.

I wanna add something: The mind controlled by Micheal thing is only one possibility with his character. You can do a whole lot of other things. The reason why I focused on the mind-control thing is that it's an easy cop-out Jessica could do in order to make Ein an actual character.

Jessica isn't the best writer and loves tropes & cop-outs so it very well could've been done in story. But instead she let Ein be vague as hell and also tying him so closely into the lore.

I just want Ein to be a coherent character with understandable motivations behind his actions. There is no excuse for him to be this important and yet so messily written.

And now he's dead. RIP Ein MyStreet. You could've been one of the greatest.

[natasha-in-space]

'Why do you love rika. I love rika myself as well. Tbh for me its like, the more I stay in mysme fandom the more my love and appreciation for rika grows. It initially started as me being angry at the double standards of the most asian media fandoms in general cuz i realised that rika would have been more well loved if she was a man, people would use the male!rika's trauma to justify his actions and this thought has made me angry and made me "appreciate" rika out of spite. But it eventually has grown into a genuine appreciation for her. Idk how to explain but something inside me makes me want to protect her and save her from everything happened to her leading upto the current situation. And more hate she gets more i feel the desire to defend her.

Actually my no 1 is another character and he has a place of his own which no one could take (its yoosung btw) but rika...i think she might be a close second fave i guess - anon'

I accidentally messed up your ask, so I'll be replying in this way instead!

Thank you for the question, dear anon! I'm always giddy to chitchat about these things. I do want to prelude this by saying that this is not really a proper analysis, but more of me just writing out my personal feelings. I might try my hand at actual analysis one day, but, for now, I'm just sharing my own interpretations!

Mystic Messenger is probably the only fandom I have been in since... well, since it has formed, basically. It's wild to think about sometimes. Things are very different in our little space now, compared to how it was before. Public perception of Rika is one of those things. I can totally resonate with your frustrations on that front, unfortunately. I know many folks miss the time when the fandom was bigger, but... personally, I don't. Especially as a Rika fan. It was borderline exhausting trying to curate your fandom space as a Rika fan at the time. Hell, we had full blogs dedicated to solely hating on her, a fictional character, and people who expressed their love for her. And that's just here on Tumblr. People used to full on write hate comments under every single seasonal CG with Rika in it. It was terrible, and very, very disheartening to see. Especially since most Rika fans I've met over the years are the sweetest people. Granted, there is a case to be made for practically every mm character, and how the fandom may have misinterpreted them in one way or another, so it's not just a Rika problem. Just that she was majorly disliked.

If anything, I'm very happy Cheritz still continued to include Rika in the seasonal events despite it all. Props to them on that front.

Right now, thankfully, things are much more peaceful and respectful. Rika is definitely not the more popular character, but now you can openly express your love for her in the fandom space, without fear of being harassed. I'd say that's a great win for us!

That being said, as to why I love Rika... Hm, it's interesting to put it into words. I didn't have a strong opinion on her until V's route came out. I never really shared the collective hatred of her, but I didn't love her either, you know? V's route came out during a pretty rough patch in my life, and I think that helped me get personally invested in what it had to tell. Rika actually feels like a fleshed out character with many nuances, and that instantly made me interested in paying close attention to what they wanted to do with her.

Rika is complicated, to say the least. She always was, but, with all the added content to her story that Cheritz have put out over the years, her complexity only evolved further. I love that about her. I love morally dubious characters who's mind you have to carefully study and pick apart piece by piece in order to understand them. I love how she is not really a villain in a traditional sense. She is not actively pursuing harm on anybody, not in her eyes. It is fascinating to me how different her view point is, compared to those around her. How skewed her perception of the world around her grows over the years. It's both scary and captivating.

So, it started with fascination. Appreciation for her character and a desire to delve deeper into what makes her who she is today. I think... my appreciation has grown into love when her Behind Story came out. I know many folks have very complicated feelings towards it, especially since it came out alongside V's After End and its unfortunate push for forgiveness, but I never really viewed Cheritz establishing Rika's past as an attempt to wash her of her sins. It just came out at a very bad timing is all. If her Behind Story came out a bit later, I think public opinion of it would have been different. It's a shame that their huge mess up with the message in V's After Ending sabotaged it like that.

Thing is, Rika wouldn't be as compelling and interesting as she is, if she was truly innocent. That being said, I... relate to her struggles on a deeply personal level. Not as deeply as I do with Saeran, but her story and her struggles do make me choke up to this day. Because, in a way, I see my past self in her. Being able to read through her story, her thoughts, and her feelings have really made me form a genuine fondness to her. Her religious trauma, her painful path of learning to survive in an environment that actively tries to harm you at every possibility, her fears of being the devil everyone says she is, her inability to accept and love herself, because all she has ever known is pain, danger and hatred... It hurts. I think, everyone has that little voice inside their head. Telling them that they are bad and undeserving of the love people close to them are expressing. That everyone actually hates them. That there is something inherently wrong with them. It's heartbreaking that, in Rika's case, this voice has eventually consumed her to the point of no return.

When you are an abused child, who knows nothing but the hostile world they have at home, it will follow you into every crook and cranny of your life. Even when you're not home, even when you're 'safe', your mind and body will still be on high alert, as it's natural to try and keep yourself safe from harm. Rika's fear of the world around her, her deep inner self-hatred is something I have experienced as an abused child/young teen. It's debilitating, and it's heartwrenching to think that so many people have to suffer like this.

I think the beauty of her story to me is the sheer tragedy of it. It's a tough pill to swallow, but people are not born evil. She has done horrible, immoral and unforgivable things, and yet, in some twisted sense, her heart was not filled with malice as she did so. She believed she was saving Saeran, she believed she was providing her believers the safety and love they couldn't get elsewhere, she believed she was trying to show her old friends the truth by taking them to her side. Of course, none of those things are actually true. Her real intentions were selfish, albeit not evil. A desperation to be loved and not abandoned. That dichotomy is both beautiful and tragic to me. (Some of these are very bad quality bc I can't screenshot stuff right now)

Of course, there's also the whole V/Rika debacle. Personally, I never put all of the responsibility onto either one of them. That takes away the beautiful tragedy of their shared bond. V - or, Jihyun - genuinely cares deeply for her. He is heartbroken at all the suffering he sees her go through during his route. Of course, it's not just his care for Rika at play, but we're not talking about him right now. While, for Rika, he was her only anchor, her light, the one person who saw the real her and accepted her instead of forsaking her. At least that's what she thought. Rika and V are two very hurt and troubled individuals who have met each other at the worst possible time. And that makes it so sad to me. Neither him nor Rika truly wanted to harm one another. Whether there was any romantic love between them or not, they did care for one another deeply. Too deeply, even. Clinging to one another in order to satiate the emptiness they had inside, each in their own toxic way. It was not healthy. But it was genuine.

And I love tragic bonds, be it romantic or not. There is something compelling about two people who do want the best for one another just causing more harm than good. It's also painfully truthful. Not to such an extreme, but the struggle of doing what's best with no direction is one many can relate to.

I guess, to conclude this all, I'd say I love Rika for her complexity most of all. There are so many layers to her, and her story is truly a heartbreaking one to behold. But, God, is it beautiful, too.

Also, may I just add, her voice actress is absolutely amazing? She puts her all into playing Rika, and her story wouldn't be as moving if it wasn't for her breathtaking work. Her voice acting made me cry a whole lot of times.

[duck-in-a-thrift-store]

Getting on my soapbox for a moment, topic being, uhhhh... religious influence on education and bodily autonomy? Smthn like that idk

(This ended up being really long, so, more below the cut)

My parents put my little sister in homeschool as soon as I graduated, which like, i WoNdEr WhY (it's me hi I'm the problem it's me)

And the program/co-op thing she's involved in is christian-based bc my folks are unfortunately conservative christians who think it's a good idea to bias their child's entire understanding of the world through their religious beliefs

So my sis was telling me about her health textbook the other day, and how it was kinda weird? Like, they have a unit on I guess dating and sex type stuff, but this textbook has some interesting opinions

Such as, suggesting kids (not like little kids we're talking about high schoolers here) avoid hugging their partner because it supposedly might turn them on??

And, ok, to be honest I have absolutely no idea how realistic that is, it sounds pretty silly to me, but like even if that totally is a thing that happens to people... who cares, right?

But no, obviously that would be just disastrous because we can't have anyone tempted to do something totally crazy like having sex before marriage, god forbid

And there's just that sort of "no touching" purity culture bullshit and it really pisses me off, especially as someone who was also raised in that mentality, and I was just lowkey flabbergasted by the ridiculousness and audacity of a health textbook to tell kids not to hug someone they're dating bc it might lead to premarital sex, and I basically said as much, smthn along the lines of "imagine sexualizing hugs" to my dad, trying to get him on my side I guess, but that isn't how it went

Let me preface this with: I love my dad. I do. And he has really been making progress in terms of letting me be me and still supporting me even though our views don't always align. But my dad can also be petty, and he's a very touchy-feely person and I'm very much not, at least with most people including him. We have a little bit of history of him trying to hug me, me rejecting it, and him getting butt-hurt over it. So there's your rant-relevant context I guess

So when I half-jokingly say "imagine sexualizing hugs," he shoots back with "imagine being uncomfortable with hugs" in like, a targeted mocking way, like that in any way makes sense to use as an insult toward your own child or anyone for that matter

I didn't have the presence of mind or energy to really unpack that in the moment so I kinda just went "bruh did you really just-" made some joke like "well gee sorry for being autistic" (which yeah that's part of it too) and dropped the conversation

But like.... does he really not see the irony?

One of the major reasons I'm not comfortable with hugs and touch in general is literally BECAUSE of how it's been sexualized, like, that's kinda the whole point?

Of course I'm not going to want to hug you, my father, when there are voices in my upbringing suggesting that touching people is sexual, duh

Like it's literally so obvious to me how the two lines of thought are inextricably linked and how this sort of ideology can fuck someone up because, hello, living proof right here dude, so let's maybe NOT teach the same shit to your younger child?

Yeah you're right I'm not comfortable with hugs and that's kinda sad but I'm trying to get you to see that part of why that is is because of the same idiocy you're letting someone preach to your daughter, so if you don't want us both to be like me,,, maybe don't do that

To the kids and anyone else who needs to hear it, when how and why you touch another person should be up to you and that person and no one else. If you want to hug someone and they vibe with that then hug them, please don't let some bible-thumping freaks tell you it's a slippery slope to sin or whatever. Your body is your own and you make the decisions about what to do with it. That is one of your most basic, most fundamental, most bar-on-the-floor rights as a human being. Anyone who tries to guilt you about something like this is trying to control you and you should be wary of them

Me personally, I just find it interesting how society is so set on calling drag queens and queer people groomers when there are literally religious teachers out here manipulating children into not having bodily autonomy

What's up with that?

[foundmeagainbitch]

So the fandom is finally catching on to my-mt-heart. Good.

Whenever effusive praise is being lavished on someone, their word is taken as gospel, and disagreement isn’t tolerated and/or met with hostility by those doing the praising, it’s almost always a manipulator working out personal issues. Mt heart has her own little personality cult going.

It’s been proven she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She was once told “idk where you get your information, but this is not how it works” by someone whose family member works in the industry. The Daryl spin-off wouldn’t happen, Tales of TWD would be the most successful spin-off, and then no more than 6 episodes of Daryl would be made. Remember the claim about Carol’s voice being AI? And so on.

She and her collective wanted to “rebrand” the Caryl fandom into something that suited them—gatekeeping with a big dose of narcissism. Mt claimed she wanted all Carylers to have a voice, but she, and they, shut down dissent by turning off and deleting replies, allowing only a select few to speak. And there were more overt efforts, like basically telling those who criticized Norman to stfu, their opinions didn’t fit with the new fandom as they wanted it to be. “Tell your therapist and be the change you want to see.” 😭

All I can guess is that Carylers felt desperate after the spin-off was canceled, and were willing to look to anyone who said I can fix this. But that’s the person you always need to watch with a skeptical eye. This fandom is unusually susceptible to people who adopt strong personalities.

Mt heart’s obsession with protecting Melissa from her own career, as if she’s some kind of addled, naive, trembling dove doesn’t come from a healthy place. Of course sexism and misogyny are real, but the theme runs so heavily and constantly throughout mt’s posts that you have to wonder if it’s something personal being projected onto Melissa.

Now, on the basis of an unsubstantiated rumor, she’s whipping up Carylers to go fight another imaginary battle on Twitter. She rarely joins in with her own voice. Ever notice that? She wants others to do it. And as usual, she’s vague about how she knows anything.

Her tale now involves not one, but TWO Caryler showrunners. Does that seem like a bit of a stretch?

Here’s something I know to be factually, absolutely true—mt heart’s “sources” are random people on Twitter. She jumps into DMs pleading for information, asking if they know anything. She begged one of the worst Carol haters to tell what she knew, and had it thrown in her face.

She’s not being honest. She’s using Carylers.

Her ride-or-dies will fill her inbox with declarations of love for her selfless devotion to the fandom, but people are waking up and asking questions now.

Also, it shouldn’t be forgotten that mt heart defended a racist article on Twitter as “100% valid” because the writer was a woman, and when Black people objected, she sneered “unfollow me.” Very poor behavior by any measure.

Good on the folks starting to see through her. 🤝

[unboundpower]

🚩 for whatever is grinding thine gears most at this moment.

Unpopular opinions & hot takes. // accepting.

Too many users on this site are too goddamn sensitive. Yeah, I said it.

I know I personally say a lot of..."rocking the boat" kind of things. I know I can and do come off as a certain way. I know how I talk and the opinions I've shared have made people dislike me. I know there are people active in this RPC right now who dislike me. But none of that will ever stop me from speaking my mind.

What gets me is when people share their basic fandom takes (especially ones that THEY KNOW aren't a part of the majority's), but then....they act like they're? A victim, for lack of a better label?? They make vent posts to complain when people don't agree with them, want to debate them (as they tend to say: "attack" them) for the sake of knowledge-seeking, or are bothered enough to unfollow them.

WORSE - Some people will take someone else's muse being combative with their own IC-ly as a personal attack. If your muse criticizes theirs or meets them head on in whatever conflict occurring in the interaction / thread, they'll think you're trying to start beef with them OOC. Like????? What happened to "mun does not equal muse" ??????????

That still gets repeated to this day no matter the fandom, but it's like the community overall doesn't or can't understand what that actually means (including the grown ass adults in it) anymore. I've witnessed 5+ instances? Idk if it's actually that many but it's been a lot?? of this these past two months alone.

Like I know some people really really love their muses and view them as extensions of their person because of the time & effort put into them, but COME ON. So many folks need to keep it a buck with themselves.

[ceasarslegion]

So FNV is my fav right not a hot take but I am curious about your takes on the other games? Personally I don’t think the Bethesda games deserve as much hate as they get, like Fo76 is fun for the gameplay and the way they designed the environment and 4 is like a fun camp action movie to me in a way I can’t explain. And admittedly haven’t given 3 a full college try, it feels too restrictive in its narrative for me to enjoy even though 4 is similar in its approach, maybe it’s the extra faction options in 4? Idk

The bethesda games dont deserve the hate they get at all, ive noticed that this trend is completely self-serving and often done by people who haven't even played them all the way through.

Fallout 3 was my first fallout game, and it's my favourite fallout game. Saying that is often enough to have at least 3 people jump down my throat about how shitty they think it is both story-wise and mechanically, often while forgetting that fo3 was the first 3D fallout game and was bound to have some amount of the frontrunner curse: it was the one they made all the mistakes on. This doesn't make it a bad game, it makes it the first one. And in my opinion, I love the story of it. I feel that every single fallout game gets compared to FNV retroactively and then folks don't even give any others a try.

Another thing I've noticed is that the fallout fandom tends to be plagued with the fallout equivalent of genwunners, except that the same criticisms they tear down every bethesda game for are even more prevalent in the interplay games. Not "enough" endings, mechanical issues, etc.

And my take that people really didnt and continue to not like me for regarding besthesda is that bethesda has owned fallout for much much longer than anybody else has at this point. They've made the most installments, contributed all of the lore after the base was established in the 90s, and are the reason the franchise still even exists. Bethesda does not "misunderstand" fallout because you cant misunderstand your own book that you're writing yourself. It's their thing at this point whether the fandom likes it or not. FNV was a spinoff, and obsidian were really not these darling saviors to the lore that theyre presented to be, theyre just any other game studio that made a publishing deal with a different one. And the just... CONSTANT barrage of hate and vitriol towards bethesda feels so unnecessary and self-serving at this point. There's no diversity of opinion in the wider fandom because if you do like the bethesda properties you're treated like some intellectual traitor, which is a red flag to me.

In my opinion, the fallout "fandom" on tumblr doesnt even like fallout. Anything that's not FNV gets crickets of engagement and if its bethesda then its treated like some cardinal sin to have anything positive to say about it without a bunch of caveats attached about how bad it is. And don't even get me started on the utter meltdown there was about one frame of the fallout show because they didn't like what ending bethesda just teased FNV to have had. Any other game fandom would be overjoyed at having a professionally produced show at all, but from the moment it was announced to the moment it finally aired it was NOTHING but criticism and negativity, even before it aired. It's no wonder that bethesda doesn't consider this "fandom" worth listening to when they decide in advance that nothing they make will ever be good enough.

Sorry... this turned into a bit of a bitter rant about the reasons why i left the fallout fandom entirely. I grew up on fo3 and i loved fo4 just as much as any other fallout game, and im loving the show so far (im on episode 5). I love the franchise as a whole, which makes it very hard to engage in anything the fandom does anymore. I like FNV just as much, but i find it hard to engage in anymore because of the constant attitude i got from its fans about the ones i like, especially fo3. Which i know is unfair to it, but i just can not mentally decouple it from that vitriol very well anymore, which is a shame.

And i just... i dont want to hear how much everybody hates the things i love in the same place that claims to be superfans of the franchise in the first place.

Again, sorry. This wasn't your question, and I dont mean to sound like im yelling at you specifically, im really not. I think ive just been a little too consistently hurt by the attitude in the fallout "fandom" to be able to talk about it without bringing it up anymore. I legitimately had some of the most negative and toxic fandom experiences of my life in that community, all because my favourite fallout game wasnt the only one deemed acceptable.

[not-poignant]

I’ve been having conversations with an acquaintance of mine who’s very against taboo content. So like, I managed to swing her around to dead dove stuff in fic since fanfic doesn’t effect real life and those fics are always tagged. But she isn’t swayed on dark content in mainstream films and media. She talked to me about the Netflix movie 365 Days which had a lot of women’s groups protesting against it. It’s pretty misogynistic and glorifies sexual assault so I can see why it would be concerning that it’s one of the top streamed things on Netflix. And the show 13 reasons why was apparently linked to an increase in suicides among teens (can’t find any ironclad research for this but it did promote suicide-for-revenge-and-lulz). Basically, I’ve been an anti-censorship person for fanfic forever but idk how to feel about censoring stuff like 365 days and 13rw. The groups that would like these shows to be censored do have a point...? I’m pretty young and I never took media literacy stuff so I feel like there’s a correct opinion here I’m not able to arrive at. Could you help me out?

Okay yes, let's talk about this! (A heads up to everyone that this post will obviously include discussions about suicide, along with murder and rape). (Also fanfic does affect real life, it's just not a 1:1 'this thing caused that crime' affect).

Firstly, I want to talk about a phenomenon called suicide contagion. We've known about suicide contagion for a long time, due to a novel published in 1774 published by Goethe, called The Sorrows of Young Werther. Werther, in the book, commits suicide in a particular way, and there was a spate of suicides of a similar nature among young men when the book was released. Suicide contagion for this reason is also known as 'the Werther Effect.'

This is still very debated in academia, but one strong conclusion that academia is generally showing about suicide contagion is that it does not affect anyone who wasn't likely to commit or attempt suicide anyway, what it does is influence is the manner in which the act occurs. Sadly, hundreds of people die by suicide every day, but most of the time we're not paying attention to those people, and if all of the folks influenced by Werther had killed themselves in more 'regular' ways no one would have found that act notable beyond their loved ones.

Suicide contagion research has been around for hundreds of years in both psychology and media studies (and also all the other ologies that hang around mass media). The general consensus is that works that feature suicide or even glorify suicide should not be banned outright, but that the content should be appropriately censored (i.e. not made available to babies and children etc.) and warned for with content warnings.

Now let's get to the bulk of my actual post, which talks about this from a broader perspective.

Generally speaking, there is no single 'correct' way of looking at things, except that it's usually safe to say that the two extremes of thought around banning media content are non-nuanced and the closest to being incorrect and uneducated. The first extreme is 'no one should be allowed to make or watch this (dark) content.' There's like a billion books, articles and more on why extreme censorship/banning is bad on every level for society (especially oppressed minorities), and a simple search on 'why is banning books etc. bad' will enlighten you.

The other extreme is 'everyone all the time should be allowed to see and access all (dark) content (even toddlers and children).' Clearly this isn't a solution either, because different types of media are more safely accessed by certain demographics who are (presumably) more educated and capable of handling what they're seeing.

The second thing to address is the fact that a single media property cannot remove someone's agency over their own actions. Multiple serial killers said they were inspired by TV's Dexter series, but they're still responsible for themselves and their agency. The show didn't hypnotise them. Those killers went to jail, the TV show creators didn't, that's an appropriate and correct allocation of responsibility, especially when you factor in all of Dexter's content warnings and its rating.

The same can be said for any show provided the content is appropriately warned for. This includes documentaries about sexual assault including helpline numbers at the beginning/end of their show. It means Law & Order placing 'disturbing themes' in their content warnings. It basically gives people a chance to have informed consent before watching a show (as does reading show summaries on Wikipedia, talking to friends to vet a show before watching it, or looking at one of the countless comprehensive warning/tag sites before engaging in a show.)

No show has the power to make a mentally well person kill themselves, or rape someone, or kill someone. You need to have significant things going on in your mind and environment already for those things to even be realistically considered or triggered. If we banned shows based on the rates they may have catalysed suicide, the news would have been banned a long time ago.

Don't get me wrong, 13 Reasons Why (esp first season) was highly problematic in part because it didn't give viewers a proper and rounded chance to have an informed take on what was happening. Education, imho, is the problem more than the content itself. If you let a viewer know there's content that can trigger someone, or isn't recommended for those struggling with depression (see my next paragraph though), then they can make an informed choice, similar to epilepsy warnings at the beginnings of video games. This is similar to how old Looney Toons videos now have very clear warnings about their old racist content. Rather than erase the past, they provide context and highlight how problematic and destructive it was, but they do that through education, not banning.

We know through multiple academic studies that 13RW contributed not only to an appearance of suicide contagion, but also created less severe symptoms of depression in those who watched, fewer incidences of suicidal ideation in many people (and self-harm), a decrease in social stigma due to raising awareness among teens about the kinds of things people can experience and the mental side effects, and a better awareness of suicide risk factors (See: One Less Reason Why: Viewing of Suicide-Themed Fictional Media is Associated with Lower Depressive Symptoms in Youth by Christopher J Ferguson - I'm not linking, I'm too tired). A study that surveyed 5,400 young adults and parents found that the majority of teens found the show beneficial to watch, and that many teens reported increased positive conversations with their parents and peers because of the show. Around 63-79% actually agreed that the depiction of the suicide scene was necessary. (See, among other things, 13 Reasons Why, Perceived Norms and Reports of Mental Health-Related Behaviour Change among Adolescent and Young Adult Viewers in Four Global Regions by Michael Carter, Drew Cingel, Alexis Lauricella and Ellen Wartella - there are more studies, I'm not linking them, I'm very tired lol. But the studies exist).

Like, generally speaking, we do censor already. 13RW isn't rated as an infant friendly show. It's not screened with kid's cartoons. It's already gone through a censorship board (folks need to learn the difference between censorship and banning). What your friend is talking about is banning content outright, which I don't agree with at all. And frankly you're not going to find many people with a media studies degree who generally agrees with banning outright (they're like the anti-vaxxers of media studies, lol, because it goes against the literal science that says clearly over and over again that we choose how we negotiate our relationship to the media. Yes, there are influences, but the media is not able to put a gun in someone's hand, or give someone the motivation of becoming a literal serial killer, or make a perfectly healthy person abruptly commit suicide. Asshole dudes have tried to use 'but TV / movies / this talkshow host made me do it' when it comes to rape. They go to jail. Our agency is everything.

No one's denying that media can't be problematic (every media piece is, including the ones without perceived 'dark content'), or that it doesn't influence us (it clearly does). But banning a single show, or someone's concept of 'dark themes' they personally don't like, when others are perfectly mature enough to handle them healthily, is not a useful way to approach questionable, difficult, challenging or controversial media, or media in plain bad taste. It's also incredibly condescending to the people who can interact with it healthily, and it removes support to those who are potentially helped by that piece of media existing.

Suicide contagion is a horrible phenomenon, but all signs point to the theory that these people could be catalysed by nearly anything, and that this isn't a strong enough to reason to ban a single show, especially in light of its actual overwhelming positive effects on the majority of viewers, and the useful worldwide discussions that happened around youth suicide and mental illnesses that happened as a result.

If we were all so truly weak to media with dark themes, we'd all be rapists, killers, or would have died by now. We also would have bought every product ever advertised to us.

(I didn't even get to 365 Days but *waves vaguely* I have to go have a heart scan now and I don't have time to keep writing an essay because I can clearly talk about this forever)

[transboysokka]

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

please and thank you 💗🤍

Fun!!

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

Oh woW actually I have to think about this... I started out as like a real serious RPer like 15 years ago lol, first on Twitter and then on Tumblr. Like I was pretty much writing dozens of fanfics a week lol. I realized I couldn't devote so much of my life anymore to RPing like I used to but still wanted to be able to contribute like my own stories and takes to fandoms? So just naturally fell into writing fanfic instead.

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

i guess Just Do It. I wrote 100k words last August without breaking a sweat because I'd just sit down and write everything in my head all stream of conscious style and go back and fix it later, but guess what, a lot of it was good from the getgo. Just trust yourself and also who cares if what you write is good or not, like I'm doing this mostly for myself idk about y'all.

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

Actually the one I'm working on for the Zukka big bang comes pretty close! It's the most ambitious outline I've ever made and I've been sitting on the idea close to half a year. It's unlike anything I've ever done but it's like a love letter to adult zukka, taiwanese culture, and plot-driving local religion/superstitions. I'm soooo stoked for you guys to see this when I can share it in August. Who'd write it best?? Only me, folks lmao *fingerguns*

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

OOOOOOOO im the PICKIEST bitch about what i read, here's a short selection of what i WONT do lmaooo

soulmate au/coffeeshop au/high school au/college au/any modern au that feels way random or out of character or boring sorry

first person perspective

x reader shit

omegaverse

mpreg

if im reading the first couple paragraphs and im like HE WOULD NOT FUCKING SAY THAT then im sorry we're done

also im not a huge grammar snob but if it's so bad that it distracts me from the plot, im outta there

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

I don't think this is SO unpopular, bless, but I cant get behind Zuko Is A Twink And Sokka Is A Big Masc Muscle Guy Who Can Carry Him In One Arm dynamics for soooooo many reasons..... like first there can be a lot of racism in there but also... are you seriously mischaracterizing and disrespecting Belt Matches His Bag guy THAT much???