#is a reinforcement of the 'creators are not my friends' thing

[falconwhitaker]

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[violet-snail-sfw]

The first time I saw a trans woman was in porn. I was pretty young then, in early middle school I think. My first thoughts about trans women only existed in a sexual context, since that was the only place I saw us mentioned

The next time I saw trans people mentioned was a TV show presumably about trans people and transitioning. I didn't watch it, only saw the description because even as a kid I had already internalized the idea that it was taboo and I would get in trouble if my parents walked in and I was watching it

Eventually I saw enough TV and cop shows to see an episode with the dead trans hooker trope. It further reinforced the building idea that trans women were something else, separate from "normal" people and always on the outskirts of society

And then Caitlyn Jenner came out. At my Catholic middle school there were few kind things said about her and plenty of nasty comments, but this was the first time I saw trans people being publicly talked about

In high school my views on trans people started to fracture. On one hand, I was being pushed the idea that gender was about what's in your pants, that if you've got a dick your a man and there's nothing that can be done about it. On the other hand, early high school me had stumbled across some gender change erotica and quickly became obsessed with it. While it wasn't great representation, it was still pretty positive about transitioning. The people in those stories were always happier afterwards

I struggled to reconcile what parts of society were saying about trans people with my daydreaming about what I'd do if I woke up the next morning as a girl. Eventually I decided that it was just a fetish. I just thought it was hot, there was no way I could be trans because I was just a normal person. I wasn't weird or a spectacle for others to gawk at, I was just a person

Around that time I also met a trans person in passing for the first time. One of the trans guys at my high school was in one of the musicals that I went to because some of my friends were also in them. When I was talking to my friends about it after someone mentioned the trans guy and that he was trans. I wasn't really sure what to think so I kinda just didn't think about it. Thinking back, there were a few trans guys at my high school but I don't think there was a single out trans woman

Eventually in college I actually met some trans and nonbinary people. In some classes we introduced ourselves on the first day with names and pronouns which was my first exposure to people using pronouns other than just he/him and she/her. I had a few classes with trans and nonbinary people, including a survey of transgender studies class I took in my last semester. I had plenty of excuses for why I was taking it (I needed a few more credits to graduate. It still had room open. It fit with my other classes. It seemed interesting. I'm trying to be a good ally.)

Around this time as well I found some trans creators online like ContraPoints and Philosophy Tube (whom I had watched before she came out as trans). I was weirdly excited and interested when Odyssey Eurobeat came out as trans and I went to go listen to some of her music right after I heard. I was starting to have examples of trans people just being people. Not just porn stars or public spectacles, but people

Later I met and befriended a few trans women, one of whom was extremely open about her transness and happened to share a video which started the initial steps of my egg cracking and figuring out who I am now

If I had actually known any trans women, if the world had been kinder to trans people, if representation of trans women as people existed and was well known, I might have been able to realize who I was sooner. I would have been able to exist as myself for more than a tiny fragment of my life so far

Representation matters, both in media and in daily life. Trans people being out and open about who they are made it possible for me to realize that about myself. Please never stop being who you are

[skyepixels]

Respect PartyCoffin's Wishes and Privacy!!!!

If you have seen @partycoffin's latest post, then....right now, I really feel for them. I just saw their post now.

There's so much I want to say, but I feel that even words of positive reinforcement aren't going to help them through this.

But I can say something to the people, the fandom, who are part of this, who have helped make Welcome Home what it is now.

Please respect their boundaries and their rules of engagement with Welcome Home. Period. To go even further:

If you see a fake social media account posing as them, report it on the website you found it.

If you see someone selling merchandise, report their account too. No matter how much you want their merchandise, it doesn't help @partycoffin or the fandom to do this.

Give them the time and respect they deserve. They are a person; they have their own boundaries, and if you have any ounce of care in you, you should respect their wishes.

Even if it means that they have to take Welcome Home off the Internet entirely and let this rising fanbase die, then that is what I will respect because I do not want them getting hurt in the process.

Tiktok, I feel, is the worst factor in all this, not because of the people creating beautiful or meme-like work but because of how the platform's algorithm works in sharing content that you've viewed, connecting it to what your friends viewed, and I've also noticed A03 being a terrible influence on NSFW content too, and it honestly breaks my heart to see it.

Yes, this is the internet, the wild west of memes, rule 34, and an incredible lack of privacy. You can inevitably expose yourself to many dangers and unwanted attention by sharing something you love with the world. They cannot control everything they see, but you can control what you see and change things!

Most importantly, we participate in a parasocial relationship when interacting with @partycoffin, meaning that no matter how much we love and care about them, we will never honestly know what they're dealing with daily or who they are as a person! Parasocial relationships have boundaries, and that means giving them the space to recoup, be offline, and not interact with their communities.

Welcome Home has given me joy and love for many personal reasons, even though I don't know the characters yet! But if it dies due to a lack of boundaries and respect for its creator, then so be it. I will treasure my time with their story as it sits and, like time itself, move forward, remembering this story as a beautiful possibility of hope and love rather than one of hate.

[bewareofchris]

I've been on the writer's tag again.

Listen guys.

Nobody owes your fanfic anything. I know that you want validation and adoration and those are both completely normal things to want. But this obsessive demand for comments over kudos and reblogs over likes is A Problem.

I won't bore you with tales of yore where we literally punted our fiction into the world with no idea of how it was being perceived by others because the only way to know if anyone even glanced at it was by the incredibly inaccurate page counter on our shitty geocities page.

(But that was a thing and it's semi-relevant to my point.)

A lot of you are growing up in a era of social media and viral marketing. You are babies of the influencer age, raised on the myth that if you can just get enough attention you'll get famous for something. I don't mean 10 million followers on insta famous but famous in your specific sphere.

That will not happen for you.

Not because people aren't reblogging your shit or writing out loving comments but because it's a myth. The idea that if you shame, beg and cajole enough people into interacting with your creation you'll access some serotonin high and ascend to a greater state of being is also a myth.

Here's the truth:

Most writers do not know how the majority of their audience feels about their fics. Those very few novels that you see on booktok, X (former twitter) or wherever else you get your writing news represent an infinitesimal portion of stories written and books published.

Most writers do have writing buddies or trusted members of an inner circle that they share their writing with.

For most fandoms, fanfics are so plentiful it's like going into a mall sized grocery store that sells only apples and then demanding the customer review every apple they touch.

For those few fanfics that you see that have an outrageous number of comments there are three possible explanations: 1. that person is what we used to call a "Big Name Ficcer" and they have amassed a following through consistent production of whatever that fandom is into, 2. that is a fic so long you have to sign a waiver to start reading it and despite the fact it was started seven years ago its still getting updated, or 3. that person is writing a viral fic in a fandom that is presently on fire.

Your self worth and self esteem cannot be tied to writing and posting fanfiction. It might be a fun outlet or you might be looking for your viral moment, but either way the moment you start weighing your worth as an author or creator based on what a bunch of strangers on the internet think of you is the moment you give up on yourself.

Social media has brainwashed you into thinking that you must be recognized and rewarded for the things that you put onto the internet. Or maybe it hasn't brainwashed you, maybe you just want to get a comment because you worked super hard on something and you feel like if you can't even get one decent response then its all been wasted. (I.e. you've been brainwashed into the feeling that you need the validation of strangers for happiness purposes.)

So what are you going to do about this?

Get off the internet. I don't mean permanently. I don't even mean literally. I mean take yourself out of the spaces that reinforce the idea that you need validation from strangers to be happy. Stop going on the social media sites for a few days (or a few weeks). If you've got a friend in fandom that you share fics, headcanons, ideas or anything with start chatting with them about something you want to write. Invest in them, in what they're doing and their opinions and how they react to your creations.

Put your shit on the internet like you literally don't give a fuck about anyone's opinion. Explain nothing about your writing choices. Put warnings, no more than 5 tags and drop that shit into the world like a newborn giraffe. Then ignore it.

Teach yourself to seek validation from your accomplishments: write a slightly longer fic, write a fic in a different genre, write a fic in a different rating, write a fic in a different fandom.

Find an actual friend that you actually interact with whose opinion you know matters because you agree on the important stuff.

Stop begging strangers for compliments like a cartoon hobo shaking a cup for coins. You're better than that.

[faggy--butch]

"I'll also say that this is sometimes supported by the trans man creators, like Jammidoger. It's not just the trans women, it's not just the essayists […]" & "you should feel gender affirmed from the violence done to you because that's just how men are actually".

Thing is, until I found trans men/masc people talking about transmisandry/transandrophobia online, every time I tried interacting with my local trans community, especially with other trans men/masc people, has included them all parroting or agreeing with the above sentiments, and it's why I stopped going to my local support group or interacting with them at all. Hearing those things from some well-known and respected trans women and men in our local community and getting pushback when I wanted to talk about trans masc issues, was just so disappointing.

Which is why I'm happy Jessie made that video and came to the conclusion she did. I left a comment just about my opinion on the matter, that while yes I've felt left out on her videos and wish she included our perspective more often, I also remind myself that she and her co-writer are both trans femme. So I don't take it as intentionally or even unintentionally leaving us out, it's a side effect of people writing what they know, however, that's exactly why I watch her, to get a better perspective for myself of trans women/femme issues.

But there were also lots of trans men and masc people in the comments who said a lot more about what our issues are and the harm it does to exclude us, how we do face similar or even the same kind of violence for the same reasons as trans women and femme people, and that often, her exclusion of us in her videos (especially the Barbie one) is adding onto the already exhaustive history of transandrophobia from within the trans community. While I've not changed or added to my comment, in the face of those others, it felt lacking, but I'm also really kinda exhausted at this point, since I've been fighting against biphobia from both cishet and other queer people most of my life now, so in the face of transandrophobia, I just have no more fight in me and have resorted to elevating the voices of others who do.

Sorry for the rant, you don't have to respond, I guess I just wanted to say thank you for getting a ball rolling and here's hoping it goes farther than other attempts before this.

Hey! I think I actually saw your comment, I thought about it a lot too which is is cool that it's bringing me full circle here but I do also agree in part that because they are trans femmes their thoughts and opinions are bound to be almost exclusively from their perspective. I do also watch for that perspective in part as well, but I feel that bigger trans creators who talk about trans topics, need to remember that there isn't just that one kind.

They have the opportunity to make a difference, to give others a voice, a voice which severely lacking in these spaces. I'm not going to wholesale blame them for perpetuating transandrophobia or anything, but if you're making a video on trans experiences and then leave out a crucial part of that experience, or at worse, uncritically repeat those same ideas as a bigger creator with lots of followers, it can have a serious negative impact on members of that groups and reinforces it, transandrophobia. This reminds me of the video that Abigail Thorne did called Beauty, Food, Mind. A lot of that video is her talking about how fatphobia affects HER, a thin beautiful actress, and doesn't really even mention much of fat struggles, or get fat perspectives, and she gained a lot of criticism within the fat youtube community for it because she had an opportunity and the didn't take it, making fatphobia only about thin people instead. I will be honest, I haven't had much of an irl queer community, I have my friends and I have gone out and interacted, but I'm disabled, and poor. I don't have the chance to go to any sort of community events or anything other than maybe a drag show every now and again especially here were I live now, I moved and am back in my home state, so it does make me nervous to even seek out and find a local community. online it's easier to brush off that kind of thing, not being considered or being talked down to or ignored, and tbh gaslit, but in real life? In my own home area, in my real domain?

I'm not sure I'd know how to cope with that rn, especially because I too have had some, let's just say not great experiences with in few irl trans people semi community type groups.

Lots of people are hurting and they take it out on each other, so I feel like I have to put on a persona, or be more femme to even be taken seriously and that sucks. So yeah, it's a breath of fresh air to be able to talk about transandrophobia online with other men and I'm happy happy happy we have this, but It is disappointing and I think it shows historically why trans men have tended to keep to ourselves.

[kidsinsaturn]

OMG HIII! I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU HAVEN'T ABANDONED THIS BLOG. YOU'RE LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CREATORS HERE.

I hope that your life has been well so far and sorry for my little outburst of joy.

I'm really looking forward to your new posts but please don't stress yourself about it.

Have a lovely day

boyfriend obito headcanons

[🗼] just because I've been feeling a bit silly about this little guy, and I know I already have hcs of him but,,, it's not enough

and YESS I may have been off for a year but i'll always have that annual Naruto brainrot that lasts like six months lool but thank you lots anon love yaaa

character: obito uchiha

genre: sfw; fluff; nsfw

warnings: gn!reader; established relationship; silly obito; everyone happy au bc uwu; mention of insecurities; slight size kink

..

..

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-god, obito has been in my mind lately, and how could he not? he is sooo boyfriend material, he created the basic rules for a relationship to work, he is basically the creator of love

-he is just so silly at the beginning of your relationship!! like!! as if kakashi wasn't the reason you two got together because obito couldn't just go and confess to you!! are you nuts?? he'd lose it

-speaking of which, his confession was probably so messed up, but!! he didn't want to, wouldn't allow you to confess because he has that idea that it should be him who brings the relationship to a start

-"may I have the honor of being your boyfriend?" type of guy

-he literally asks everyone for advice and that's probably how you ended up knowing his feelings. obito told everyone and his friends just passed the word until it landed on you

-regardless of that messy start--obito will remember it and feel bad about it until the day he dies--, obito is a great boyfriend, like I said, he is a bit silly and the thing is, he may have idealized relationships too much

-obito may have watched all those stupid cliche movies in secret and thought that's how relationships are supposed to work!!

-would get into a fight for you, write you love letters, plan a secret date. any situation that appears on the kissing booth movies he is so willing to recreate them lol

-obito believes there is no such thing as the "3-month honeymoon phase" LIKE all the time, all the months, all the SECONDS he is with you should be honeymoon phase. only to be reinforced once you two get married

-of course it is beautiful and everything he does makes your stomach flutter with joy-- he is a gentleman ALWAYS, he holds the door for you, steps in first if it's a new place, and goes behind you everywhere

-and ok this is a bit angsty im sorry but this silly dude right here is very insecure okay:( I gotta be real here

-he didn't have a lot of recognition when he was a little boy and that may have messed him up a little. he will always feel like he is not enough for you, and that may cause some arguments sometimes

-he just says that you are too much for him and that he doesn't provide you that much and you're just like obito please go to sleep it's 4am

-and that's the tiring part probably: that he has these random bursts of self-consciousness at the most random times. you two are just eating and talking about some things your friends did, and oh obito just got this tight tug at his chest the second he thinks too much about your or his male friends. or even if he just saved you in a mission or whatever and it takes him like three business days to realize that he could have done a better job at rescuing you

-just be thoughtful with him ok because he seems the kind of guy that goes to sleep thinking about everything you said, nice or rude. overthinking king

-aside from his little insecurities heheh obito is giving you princess treatment like always and duhh if he doesn't do it, he beats himself up. obito has some "traditional ideas" about boyfriend and girlfriend, such as the woman should always receive flowers, never go alone in the street, and always have something of him with her (like a picture hahah silly boy)

-if you're into something like a sport or ballet or just something that's similar to a performance, he will be there at EVERY show or game, he will not miss any of them, and the day he is not there, that's probably because he is dead

-he is there holding the largest and most obvious poster with your face on the middle and the most Tumblr phrase he could think of. he blocks the view from the people in the back but he does NOT care

-if you are into something more private, obito will always be so happy providing your with materials and just his sweet time watching you as the most marvelous creature the gods ever created

-he always has the best intentions for everything. if something goes the wrong way, he is so devastated. say that you have too much work/paperwork/homework lately and he just wants to relieve some stress off your shoulders!! poor baby just made things worse: everything is on the wrong place and just his help wasn't helpful. obito feels stupid and dumb. he ends up cooking you something

-obito has all the love language because mmm his partner should feel loved in all the possible ways. just give him quality time and that's enough for him

-but overall, great boyfriend, he is your number one fan, admires absolutely everything you do and when you're not looking, little hearts form in his eyes when he looks at you, he is just so smitten he might as well just ask you to marry him after three weeks of dating

nsfw ->

-man gets hard just by hugging you

-please do not make fun of his condition okay:( he was just sexually restrained as a teen, and just overall shy about anything that had to do with sexy times

-my own hot take but obito probably stayed virgin by choice. like he was desperately waiting for the one to lose his v-card with because otherwise he feels like he is betraying his true love

-and ohhhh obito has NO idea of the beautiful, marvelous, oozing body he possesses. he is big, strong, tall, thick, and just mmmmm

-the first time you mention somehitng about his physique, he gets all flustered!! if you were in the middle of the act, he would need two minutes to calm down or he will cum by just hearing sweet words

-beautiful dick OBVS, he doesn't know how to use it, lets be reals. if you are his first time, he is so messy. his movements are so asymmetrical and have zero rhythm. after a few times, he learns

-I can only dream about obito's cock PLEASE. large, thick, curved just the right way to make you squirm. just BIG. his dick just springs up every time he takes his pants off and it hits his abdomen in the most sensual way posible. cock possible as large as your head whaaat

-his pre-cum is so bitter!! the first time you tasted it, you made a face. his cum is even sourer. obito feels a bit bad but he understands and doesn't say anything

-you are literally what matters during those sexy moments. he does not allow himself to feel any pleasure before you. it takes you a lot (just kneeling) to give him a head

-please all your sounds should be moans, or whimpers, or small screams of satisfaction, because if he SEES, or hears, or just senses that he may have hurt you, he stops completely and doesn't touch you until you convince him you are fine

-king of aftercare

[phatcatphergus]

genuine question: when tubbo is building a town based on a joke about homophobia that SURGED from the fact that he was upset about fit and pac being together.... why does tubbo get to be upset when people call him homophobic?

like. legitimately HE hurt his relationship with fit and pac. HE hurt sunny's relationship with ramón. HE put a low price to his friendship and didnt trust his friends when they tried to reassure him or reach out to him before the date.

he keeps causing his own downfall -and is unknowingly causing his daughter's- and meanwhile, tubblings are villanizing literally everyone else while saying he has done nothing to deserve the treatment???

Okay well I think that this goes back to my post about misunderstanding how people understand their characters based on who they watch.

I think the main misunderstanding comes from the fact that he isn’t upset about being called homophobic. It’s the teasing and not picking up on his actual insecurities.  Ill use the joke yesterday as an example, he wasn’t upset that fit called him homophobic, he was upset that fit asked if foolish actually wanted to make a town with him. The homophobia joke went right over his head, because all he heard was fit, asking foolish why he would want to be friends with him.

Also, a lot of the damage between his relationship with fit and pac, and Sunny’s relationship with them comes from the fact that there’s a miscommunication on both sides. Sunny and Tubbo both feel like they aren’t part of the family and things that fit and pac say reinforce this narrative for them. Tubbo lashes out out of deep seeded fear and anxiety but no one sees past the “homophobic” jokey bit because he’s afraid of what people will say if he lets them see the real reason he’s upset. In turn, fit and pac treat him with surface level concern and unintentionally push him further away. Trying to set him up with Fred to cure his “loneliness” just made him think they wanted to pass him along to whoever would take him. They wanted him off their hands.

Also, it really shows that you’ve never been in a friend group or two people start dating because it does come off very differently afterwards.  things that you used to joke about you can’t joke about anymore and it is very two against one feeling even if it’s not intended to be that way. The main reason Tubbo was against fit and pac was because he’s afraid of them leaving him behind and not needing him anymore. I have a lot of posts on this so I’m not going to reiterate what has been said 1 million times, but qtubbos problem has never been people saying he’s homophobic. It’s always been his own insecurities and fears. 

The whole thing with Ramon being upset at Sunny and Tubbo was because it was a very surface level understanding of Tubbo wanting to disrupt the date. I’m not saying that Tubbo should have disrupted the date, but they were definitely much deeper feelings behind it that nobody addressed or understood.  sunny repeatedly talks about how she doesn’t feel like fit and pac don’t see them as part of the family from her own experiences. That’s not to say, Tubbo doesn’t have some influence, but overall it’s her own feelings and experiences that cause her to be uncomfortable with fit and pacs relationship.

Also, tubblings are just like any other fan base in the way that we will defend our creator above anyone else. I’m sure you do the same for yours (or you wouldn’t be in my ask box lmaoooo) and no one really takes time to understand the other side or leave people to make angst on their own. Tw whole thing really boils down to fandoms seeing everything through the eyes of their character. You’re going to see Tubbo being upset at homophobic jokes and causing problems because that’s how fit sees it, we will see Tubbo taking offense to the jokes and jabs because that’s how he sees it.

[marithlizard]

Having gotten the "wow this episode was 500% more lighthearted than I expected" thoughts out of the way, there's still a LOT to unpack. 1. First off, who lied to Blitzo and Fizz to keep them apart? They obviously realized who and felt no need to say it aloud. I can only think of two possiblities so far: Cash, lashing out at his son, and Mammon, seeing a vulnerable talent to exploit. Both of them would want to keep Fizz isolated and dependent. (Did Barbie also get lied to? Is there more behind her anger at him? I hope so, it'd be more dramatically satisfying.)

2. I'm really impressed by how hard the creators tried to get the portrayal of Fizz's disability right. Very matter of fact, no lingering on painful details or inspirational bravery etc. Fizz has frankly awesome prosthetics and uses them with ease. He doesn't want his horns to be seen, even when he first wakes up and no one else is around, and that means the audience doesn't get to see them either except briefly during a flashback. Blitzo isn't the pitying type in any case but Fizz makes it clear to him that he's okay with himself as he is and happy with his life.

I can't say if the writers got it right, that's not my call to make, but it's obvious that they tried.

(Also the chihuahua on wheels is so cute as a low-key detail)\

3. Blitzo is more open and honest with Fizz than we've seen him with anyone else except Barbie. Even before they start to reconcile, he's only at a mild level of defensive hostility compared to how he was with Verosika, and once they're in the cage together it's obvious he still thinks of Fizz as his best friend at a gut level.

Thanks to that, we finally get to hear what his problem is with Stolas. He's interpreting every expression of care and interest as fake and trying to stay hostile and aloof to protect his heart, but he can't even keep his angry face on while he's ranting about how noble demons don't care about us plebes. He so obviously wants the affection to be real. But I still think he's going to take the crystal gift in the worst possible way.

4. Striker's "Why is it always a sex thing with you people?!" attitude amuses the heck out of me. I have to sympathize with him there. (Also loved Blitzo's "oh great, the supremacist is praising me" line, reinforcing that he knows everything he just said was him being in denial.) I'm getting the sense that we will find out why Striker hates royals so much at some point.

[wrecklwj]

once again i am feeling some way about sensitivity reading & answering DMs on cultural questions in fandom in general.

far too many people have this idea that “it’s just a couple of straightforward questions about terms of address or names or things in that time period; it shouldn’t take long”. yeah it doesn’t work quite like that. first of all, the questions are never as straightforward or as simple as people think. there’s often a lot of context behind them — not just the answers but the questions themselves. (i’m not going to go into the need for research here — whenever people ask me questions like these i usually give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ve already tried doing their own research and come up with nothing — but it doesn’t negate the fact that i would need to do an additional round of research to make sure i answer the question correctly and not have any mistakes i make taken as gospel by others).

all of this Takes Time. time which people don’t realize. and there’s the emotional aspect of it too, particularly if the person asking is a complete stranger who has never bothered to get to know me or establish common ground first. the cost to me is high — i’m giving up my time and energy to someone i barely know, and therefore barely trust. having a complete stranger approach me just reinforces the idea that my only worth to fandom is not as a friend or creator or even a human being, but as a cultural help machine: something that automatically generates academic answers when people type questions into it. and then there’s the issue with turning people down — some of them really can’t take no for an answer, like “cmon it’s just a couple of small things, you could just do it”. and all of a sudden i’m seen as selfish, standoffish etc. if i refuse.

say that i decide to help and answer correctly. what then, would the same person approach me again and again for help in the future? there’s a high chance that they would. “oh jing was so helpful last time so let me ask them again.” and now this person permanently sees me as a dictionary or a resource.

(to be clear, i don’t feel this way when friends or mutuals DM to ask for help, because we usually already appreciate other things about each other and have other things to talk about besides cultural questions.)

and don’t get me started on what i could possibly help with! i often get tagged to do sensitivity reading for modern fics. but so many of them are set in the US like 😐 even if i had the time or was taking sensitivity reading commissions, i’m not based in the US, and i don’t know anything about being chinese diaspora there. i wouldn’t presume or be able to speak over people who are!

anyway this is all just to say, please make sure you know someone decently well, especially about what they can and are willing to help with, before asking them cultural help questions. and please appreciate that a lot of time usually goes into giving answers (and packaging them for clarity), and the complexity is best determined by the answerer, not the asker. and if you don’t have a single person to ask, consider throwing your question to the void in a cultural help channel in a discord server where people can take their time to choose whether to respond or not, instead of pinging or DMing strangers. i promise you, it’ll go a very long way.

[waddles-ex-machina]

hi please bear with me while i go insane about the colours in Hilda (aka I'm looking at the trio's season 3 designs and losing my mind)

SO in most visual media, quite a bit of thought goes into the colours they use and how those colours interact with one another - not in a "the curtains are blue bc [character] is sad" kind of way but in terms of which colours stand out and which are harmonious, and even if the viewer doesn't know any colour theory (like me, lol) and isn't paying attention to it, I think it still helps reinforce what we know about the characters, and influence what we take away from the show. visual design is a language and colour is one of the key aspects of it and if you want to hear about how Hilda uses colour in so many clever ways, to guide the viewer's eye or distinguish important characters, there's a really excellent video on that made by someone who actually does know what they're talking about, but one thing I wanna talk about based on my own limited knowledge is how it tells us about the characters -

FOR EXAMPLE Johanna - so you have Hilda, who is dressed in bright primary colours, especially her signature blue hair which makes her stand out as different even more - and then there's her mother, who has, by contrast, a much more toned down colour palette. she broadly shares the colour red with her daughter, but a less-saturated shade and her standard outfit consists of that, brown trousers and sometimes her yellow coat. Hilda's signature blue is completely absent from her design (and even if the creators didn't want to give Johanna the same hair colour as her daughter, they could have added some small blue accent of clothing if they'd wanted to, but chose not to), leaving her with purely warm, harmonious colours. she has an almost completely different palette to her daughter, but still just enough similarity (particularly with her yellow coat) to reinforce that the two are related in some way. (I'm not saying that Hilda is related to everyone who wears yellow in the show, just that the fact they share a colour helps tie them together on screen)

(yep, this is the screencap i'm choosing to illustrate this point it's fantastic)

most importantly (to me, anyway), Johanna's colours are warm. they're safe. to me, the dominance of warm colours and absence of Hilda's blue signify that Johanna is a safe person to Hilda, someone who is supposed to be a respite from her adventures rather than someone who dives into them with her (which, y'know, ties in quite nicely to Hilda's line in Stone Forest about preferring to adventure on her own and then come home to her mum, and how in the show she generally likes to keep her adventures and home life separate... (I could probably write an essay on how Hilda and Johanna's issues in season 2 were kind of a commentary on how Johanna has been coded as the safe stable bg character and how she is actively trying to go beyond that role but I shouldn't tbh)). the point is, they are connected, but Johanna doesn't have the same adventurous streak that Hilda does, so they have some of their warmer colours in common, but not Hilda's unusual, stand-out blue.

(I could also talk about Kaisa here and her copyright claim on the colour purple, but truthfully all I would be doing is paraphrasing the excellent video I linked earlier, so I won't. however I do think its fun to compare her to Johanna, in the sense that here are two adults who Hilda often comes to for guidance, and one is all warm gentle colours that match the home decor and the other all monochrome with two little hints of a colour we rarely see elsewhere in the show, suggesting that this is a character of particular interest.. it kind of hammers in how one is meant to embody the safety and comfort of Hilda's home life and the other is literally there to point hilda at things that might kill her lmao)

that was supposed to be a quick example and it got away from me so uh ANYWAY what I'm getting at here is that in Hilda's friend group, I believe their colour palettes were constructed in a similar way - they work together to tell you about the group

I feel like Hilda as a show is known for making excellent use of a limited colour palette - a lot of the characters have at least one black or brown item of clothing and just one or two stand-out colours, particularly the main trio. you can easily look at Hilda, David and Frida come away with one particular colour associated with them - blue or red for Hilda, orange for David, and...blue again for Frida, which doesn't sound great on paper but works well in the show because Hilda's palette also has a lot of red, so when the two characters are put together it doesn't seem like blue is dominating the colours. I also find Frida's colour palette (basically just her hoodie, lol) super interesting because it used to be different.

now, I haven't spoken to anyone who worked on the show about this, this is purely conjecture, but if you've ever googled the characters you've probably seen an official-looking turnaround page of Frida in a purple hoodie.

this is real pre-prod show art, and considering the purple hoodie made it all the way through the design pipeline to be included in the turnaround (generally the last stage of character design, as this is what would be given to the riggers to make the character rig)....and was even posted on twitter months before the show aired -

then I think it's safe to say that her hoodie was changed after the fact (2 or 3 episodes into production, by my vague guess looking at the date of this tweet) - not too hard to do, if your show is 2D rig animation, luckily - but if you're me and like reading into things way too hard, this begs the question of why. having purple as Frida's signature colour is perfectly serviceable and sets her apart from Hilda and David nicely. but what her new hoodie colour does is the opposite - it ties them all together

(the other possible explanation is that maybe Kaisa's design was finalised later in production than this turnaround was made (speaking purely from my own experience, secondary characters who appear in later episodes are often finalised later than the main characters, just ahead of the episode they're needed for, and Kaisa wasn't needed until halfway through the first season) and someone noticed that her and Frida sharing the colour purple made them look a little too similar...(I'm sure ppl who like the idea of Frida and Kaisa being witch sisters are yelling through the screen rn that this would've been a good thing and maybe lightly foreshadowed Frida becoming a witch, like Kaisa, but this was all set at the start of season 1, probably a bit too early to start hinting at the witch stuff :') we will come back to this tho)

anyway I love the trio's designs bc if you put Hilda and David next to eachother, they don't visually have much in common, but if you put Frida there then suddenly they're a unit. they got rid of her signature colour and gave her her friends' ones. she quite literally ties the group together so that they look cohesive as a whole

and this is absolutely me digging too deep in things here but her being the one to bring the group's colour palette together also lends itself thematically to their falling out at the end of season 1, and how Frida leaving also caused Hilda and David's friendship to struggle. they are a set and it doesn't work the same if they're not all there. Frida sharing Hilda's signature blue could also lend itself to the idea that Frida shares her love of adventures to a greater extent than David does (though maybe that's closer to 'blue curtains' territory tbh). anyway I love the design of this show so much

SO (if you actually made it this far down I'm so impressed) the thing that sparked all of this was...if this is what the trio's designs are doing in seasons 1-2.....what are the season 3 designs doing

no but this is super interesting to me, Hilda essentially just traded her skirt for leggings and left her colour palette intact, but David and Frida changed theirs entirely and I'm fascinated. both their signature colours are GONE. is it to imply that they've grown and changed in the duration of the time skip? is it David's turn on the 'having a colour in common with Hilda'?? but particularly I want to draw attention to Frida bc now that her hoodie is gone her original purple is BACK and (if there is any weight to my theory that she was changed bc she looked too similar to Kaisa) what's even more interesting is that they doubled down on the witch vibes. she literally has Kaisa's exact colour palette minus the dark purple cape lining. Kaisa's design reflected her personality as this unknowable person with a hint of mystery to her - all monochrome with that pop of an unusual colour - are we to expect the same of Frida? is this a sign that she's leaning further into witchcraft than before? does her contrast to Hilda and David signify that she's come more into her own and has a stronger sense of her own identity (something something closure for her issues in season 1)? or do we take things way too literally and assume that season 3 has her breaking off on her own from the group? or maybe it means absolutely nothing and someone on the design team just thought grey/purple was a neat combo. I know I've talked in this post as if I know things but here I truly don't and I'm obsessed w the possibilities. what does it mean what does it all mean

anyway that's all for this delusional fever dream post, hope you enjoyed and if you made it this far down you deserve some kind of prize

[hanasnx]

some updates while i’m here. i miss you! whether you’re a casual enjoyer of my blog & i see you in my notes, or my mutuals, or my followers, i’ve been thinking of you :) rare vulnerable moment i do cherish this blog and all your well wishes. thank you very much. i was right, typing is a huge strain and taking a break has been very good for my hands, so i’m going to keep at it.

some things:

don’t be afraid to keep sending me asks! they’re a great joy to me, i love seeing a notif in the inbox. i’ve gotten a fair few already that i’m excited to respond to when i can come back.

i did post a fred weasley drabble and not that i have to explain myself but i wanted to say i’ve been watching the harry potter movies. i’ve never seen them in their entirety, and the earlier ones have always been christmas movies in my house so to speak so i figured id give them a fair shot. i did read the books, and i’ve seen bits and pieces of the movies (hence my interest in fred weasley when i was a tween, but seeing him again made me wanna write for him for the first time in years)

also! a very kind anon told me earlier that my response to someone wrongfully making an ai chat bot of my content was an overreaction. it was “not that deep,” i believe was the colloquial term used. so the inherent content theft of ai invading free creative spaces is solved everyone! well done! very special thanks to the anon that let me know i was overreacting towards something i am passionate about and had a strong feeling towards! wow :) i never would’ve seen it like that. genuinely i am sorry anon that you’re ugly irl and your mommy doesn’t love you, which is why you feel like you can’t have a backbone over certain things. maybe you should stop consuming the free content creators provide on tumblr because you feel so secure in criticizing the selfless service <3 it’s giving: “im an old bigot that thinks ppl must be talentless and stupid when they work at mcdonald’s, but i’m still going to eat the food from there.” you’ve been blocked btw so you’re not offended by my use of free will when making free content on the internet for your grubby little hands to get a hold of and your smooth brain to criticize my right to share my personal opinions.

because the internet is the way it is, getting “hate” online has never really bothered me since i’ve always been a person with a large enough platform for years. it’s very easy for me to ignore and block and never answer whoever has decided to send some worthless hate message. which is probably why i almost never get hate anymore but it does happen occasionally. this was different since it wasn’t an attack on me per se, more so someone trying to admonish me for having a fair reaction towards something offensive. so i’m here to tell you it’s alright to treat strangers on the internet as strangers. you’re allowed to reinforce boundaries. you’re allowed to tell people you do not appreciate their actions towards you, and don’t leave room for argument. i am a very direct person, which means i told that person firmly that they needed to delete that ai chat bot they made of my au without my consent. and i did it without remorse. and i was told “it wasn’t that deep.” well it was. and it is. it is that deep because it’s deep to me, and i know it’s something that happens to others and it is that deep to them too. so what’s the problem in it being that deep? there is none :) let things be deep. be sincere. it is very important.

also if you make ai chat bots without creator’s consent when using their content you’re a piece of shit and doing a disservice to the very person you’re trying to exalt. take a step back and reevaluate how ai harms your interests rather than progresses them as well as the creators you claim your respect and cherish. you’re a victim of propaganda, my friend! and i prolly wouldn’t have made this post if anon hadn’t said anything. so maybe they should’ve kept their mouth shut since they didn’t wanna see shit like this so bad lmfao

now that that’s out of the way, i am sending wet fat sloppy kisses to everyone’s lips tell me when you receive them

[lily-orchard]

I was recently introduced to you after watching the Sarah Z video on bad media criticism which is a surprise since folks I talked to expected a different direction. I'm not sure how to explain it since I rarely watch YouTube essayists or take their word as gospel. This applies to hbomberguy and Lindsey Ellis. Ellis in particular has made some videos *cough* Jack the Ripper *cough* which doesn't deeply engage in the real-life event and the very problematic ways these adaptions retell the story that reveal a much darker truth. It supports an industry where Jack the Ripper stands triumphant over the corpses of women and gives him a medal for misogyny while the victims are silenced. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold is a book I highly recommend but it wasn't published until 2 years ago so I can let certain videos slide but not Ellis. Instead, I get a summary of multiple movies and a few sentences on how they engage in conspiracy theories. With a joke gag at the end. *sigh* What makes it worse is that most of them don't really publish any sort of bibliography or citations. How do I know the information you give me is reliable? Is it fact? An opinion? Or interpretation. Yet friends of mine, take whatever they say as truth and well-researched opinions. Aside from forming parasocial relationships, they act like videos that popular YouTubers publish are new and revolutionary. When hbomberguys video dropped people acted like this was going to change the YouTube platform but the reality is, this was something people on Youtube have talked about for years but because they don't have as big of a channel or their professionalization is super niche nobody is aware this was a frequent issue unless you were in those type of communities. The Youtuber Veritas et Caritas does a good breakdown of how this is a particular problem in HistoryTube and how the platform including the audience create these bad habits.

After I watched her video I went to see how her analysis stood up with the content she referenced and after watching hours of content and constructing a timeline, I saw she made several mistakes regarding her examples which is how I ended up watching your content. I have problems with the way she described good-faith criticism because it can be easily weaponized to discredit someone without engaging with the argument or understanding why a channel is designed that way to ride off trends or reinforced by the platform so they end up missing a large chunk of their problem. Her analysis on Hollywood is not great, despite how people laud it as a liberal place of diversity and progress. In reality, they are closely tied to the military "Salute those female patriots Ms. Marvel!" and love their copaganda, reinforce the status quo, and are run by some very conservative individuals behind the scenes. Remember Greenbook? As bad as people criticize your content and interpretation compared to similar videos by other content creators, your stuff is far better than most. Someone tried to make me watch all 5 hours of The Admiral's Analysis and that is one of the worst things I've seen. It's soo easy to debunk I could pull a Youtube video from several professional creators like writers or filmmakers discussing media. The whole animation is not for kids crowd is a legitimate problem that Alan Moore, yes that Alan Moore discussed how juvenile and childish it is. I turned to my friend and said, "Wow this was 1 hour of my time wasted! Out of all the things to die for, why this show when there are more pending things outside?" Overall, you are doing great.

Thanks

[foggyparadisecandy]

On Words of Affirmation (and positive self-talk)

I'm going to come straight out and say it: I'm not a fan of affirmations and I want to explain why ... and provide a way to approach them so that they *can* be benefiical, if you are like me.

What are Affirmations?

They can be done different ways but the simplest way to explain them is that they are words you tell yourself to help manifest the you that you want to be.

Things like "I'm successful." "I'm hard-working." "People like me." "I am a good person."

Depending on which "guru" you are following, the idea is you repeat these things to yourself, possibly even looking in the mirror, out loud, in your head, for many many minutes, possibly multiple times per day.

The belief is that by doing this, you will change the course of your life and actually become this person you are telling yourself you are. How lovely, right?

My Issues with Affirmations

The problem is ... for people who struggle with self-esteem, these words are not only useless, I believe they are harmful.

"Sure, Foggy, *words* are harmful. Ok buddy.", you may be scoffing at me.

Well, my friend, if you have followed my blog for any amount of time, you know that I believe, and know for a fact, that words have power.

And the entire idea of Affirmations is that words have power, right? The point is that they have POSITIVE power if you just say the right words and repeat them the right way and do it enough times. That's when the magic will happen.

If we believe that words of affirmation have power, then it's a simple matter to understand that power has no inherent good or bad behind it. It's all in how it's used and the effect it has on the recipient.

So How do Affirmations Hurt People?

If your self-esteem is low - and many people struggle with this, the words of affirmation will be caught by your inner critic that will say "that's not true", "that's not true", "that's not true", and it will reinforce your negative views as you actively reject the very words of praise that you are sending your own way.

Then, the subconscious says "this stuff is supposed to work but it doesn't work on me. I'm a complete loser. Nothing works for me. I'm forever miserable and I suck."

I feel for you if this is you. <3

In essence, for people struggling with self-esteem, words of praise and affirmation make you feel like shit.

That's Depressing. Is There Any Hope?

If you are nodding your head and feeling what I've been saying so far, there is hope for you and, with a small adjustment, you can make affirmations work for you.

The key is two-fold:

1 - Start with known, positive truths about yourself. Depending on where your head is, these might be super tiny little things but find something and start there.

"I have made it to this point in life. I have survived a horrible childhood."

"I love listening to music."

"I love watching <insert favorite tv show or youtube creator or whatever>."

You know you. Figure out those small, TRUE, positive-minded facts about yourself. Repeat them as often as you want.

Definitely think of THEM next time your mind starts berating yourself. And bonus points if you go and do something you like instead of letting your mind beat you up when it goes to that dark place.

2 - Sprinkle in thoughts about ACTIONS you are taking. Focus on the effort, not the destination.

Instead of "I'm successful" -> "I am doing my best and working hard to improve."

"I'm smart" -> "I am working at learning new things and I'm open to new ideas."

"People love me" -> "I treat people with kindness and respect."

Again ... you know you. Figure out TRUE actions you are willing to take to improve yourself.

Don't stress the end goal. Focus on the fact that, hey, you are working it! Good on you!

FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH OF LIFE

And you know what is a fundamental truth?

The journey is the point in life, not the destination. There are a lot of super-unhappy people who have reached their goals because their goals are destinations.

If you cultivate an honest attitude of "I work at things and I am doing my best" and lean into that when your mind wants to beat you up? Well, my friend, you are on your way.

Make sure to take stock every once in awhile and APPRECIATE that you are, in fact, living that life of "doing my best." And over time, that appreciation plus that motivation will lead to some good vibes about yourself.

I hope this helps some folks out there who, like me, find Affirmations, as they are commonly described, to be hokey as hell and counter-productive.

[phantom-of-the-ruckus]

Wait....what if they're actually a cult of puppets.... (TW: for mentions of cults and spoilers)

I found this thread on Twitter and Andrew Allen (one of the writers of the game) said the following

I'm starting to think the whole "Family thing" may not be like "Oh they're an actual family" but rather a "What if this is a plot line is a more obscure reference to actual cults, and a some sort of tw: for serial life killers"///The Charles Manson cult. Who also referred to each other as family"//

I want to add things that reinforced this point or something that might be related to that theory.

The fact that Mortimer (as far as in the gameplay) is the only true voice and it's always right about stuff. What I mean with this is that I was wondering why the characters never hated Mortimer even tho he pretty much verbally and physically abuse them. Even at the last tape of their storyline (minor spoilers) Riley never said Mortimer was a bad leader but just said that he was becoming unsteady.

Mortimer's changing behavior towards the tapes. I won't give spoilers since I don't want to spoil stuff for everyone. I just realized that Mortimer does kinda have that slow descent into madness and paranoia that cult leaders tend to have as their rule start to become more unsteady and abusive.

This particular chorus + one of Mortimer's sentences in show everyone.

(old pic that I shared)

"Show everyone" is the official collaboration within the creators of Hello Puppets and Kyle Allen, which also worked like an announcement for the midnight show. I'm starting to wonder if this song was the first clue to the lore.

I also always wondered why they changed the chorus in the last verse after Mortimer sang his verses.

It kinda sounds pretty cult-y to me

Also regarding the whole they're related drama. I personally believed Owen was just setting the dynamic due to using the word "like" which in most connotations is used to referred similarities and is used in similes

Ex: He was as red as a red like/ She was crying like a baby.

Then he uses "Whose/who's" which in writing context and in connotation is establishing a character to be something.

Owen also went to say Daisy was like a mom figure, so that kinda reinforces the idea. So it's something like Daisy is a mom friend, Nick and Riley are rivals who have some sort of sibling dynamic

I am still not going to do any cannon x cannon as nothing as there is still uncertainty with this whole situation. Don't try to twist my words, as I'm just explaining my perspective and I do intend on just keep my focus away from the whole drama and do only Cannon x OC.

Feel free to add things up if you like, and please be respectful

Link to the twitter (is on word)

[cloudmancy]

I’ve honestly been thinking about how to reconcile actually seeing problems with CR content policy and all that stuff with those people being close friends and collaborators with people from D20.

( Especially that I do consider myself the CR fan, I like watch the streams which feels a bit hypocrytical but I giess I could have worse hyperfixations lol; to clarify I am also a D20 fan and been before even I have started watching CR)

Obviously I am of the opinion that glamourizing and putting creators and artists of any content we like is dangerous (and seeing them as our allies or friends in some capacity) - and we as fans don’t really know those people and shouldn’t base our moral judgement as ours.

But like I still wonder, how do people like Brennan think of CR and their policy, especially considering Brennan frequently praised Matt not just as a creator but as a person

I am curious on your thoughts, not trying to start any discourse here, just thinking

great questions! I want to start off by saying that I really don't care to speculate what brennan's opinion on the policies are: firstly because I don't parasocialize people like that, and secondly because he would not be in charge of any content policies for dimension 20 even if he felt some sort of way about it. I think if you want to reconcile liking CR while having issues its content policy, we need to look at what the issues are first.

as much as I've dunked on CR's content policy, it is nothing unusual for shows to want to protect their own IP. the terms of copyright in there are pretty standard for any form of media (even if I think it's pretty ironic that critical role is itself derivative of another franchise). the only reason dimension 20 doesn't have anything similar is because they're not at the point where it's profitable for people to sell knockoff merch or make knockoff mobile games using their characters yet. I think you need to prepare yourself for dimension 20 eventually reaching that level of success too.

dimension 20 from the start has and always WILL market itself much more as a product than critical role. it explicitly is one of the few things that kept dropout going through the bankruptcy of collegehumor as a parent company, it treats its audience like paying customers and respects audience feedback accordingly, and that's fine! I like that about it! it means that we get sensitivity consultants and production value, because we are customers paying for a product and there are now standards on how that product is delivered.

so yes, I do think dimension 20 will, at some point, implement their own content policy. they already have copyright over their works and properties, even if it's not stated anywhere on site. I have asked about the validity of fanworks before, and gotten this as a response:

For copyright protection reasons we are obligated to protect our IP in instances where we see it being monetized / exploited (the legal meaning) by non-official sources, and sanctioning monetized fanworks in an official sense could create a situation where our copyright becomes compromised on a legal level (without that sanctioning being a long legalese-ful document filled with caveats).

so we're at the same place that critical role fans were five years ago - it's not technically sanctioned, but dimension 20 has been turning a blind eye and even supporting some of the charity endeavours that involve the use of their IP. what remains to be seen is what happens when D20 eventually does put a content policy of their own in place, and which types of fan content will be restricted.

my issue with critical role's content policy is and always will be how they choose to reinforce it, and the way CR itself still markets itself as a small game between friends and refuses to acknowledge how corporate it has become. they may not be explicitly allowed in their policy, but imo they should only come into play when there's actual scammers using copyrighted logos or copyrighted images to sell products.

a content policy for CR was inevitable. there will be one in the future for dimension 20 too. but there is no reason that CR should have been striking down charity projects and fanzine productions, from members of their own community and official artists no less. I can only hope dimension 20 will not go down the same route in the future.

[stickyglitterwombat]

Warrior Nun Ableism

I’ve just watched season 1 of Warrior Nuns and I’m torn.

Because on one hand, as a bisexual woman and POC, I appreciate the great representation on the show. I love that the main character is openly bisexual and has two love interests who are male and female. I love that we have a lesbian nun. I love even more that the relationship between Ava and Beatrice is not rushed, but instead well developed giving the characters depth and time to get to know each other. I love that the women on this show are each given their own storyline, are allowed to be complex and flawed while having strong bonds between them. I also love that their fighting outfits are not sexualizing them. 

On the other hand, I was deeply bothered by the ableism. To give you some context, I grew up with a disabled father. Like Ava, he was quadriplegic. Unlike her, he was disabled from the moment he was born. My father was born in 1948, at a time when there was even less disability awareness than now and fewer (if any) institutions where a disabled child could study, let alone receive the medical care they needed. Like Ava, he was raised in an institution run by nuns. This particular establishment housed kids recovering from tuberculosis and other disabled children. I will say in my grandparents’ defense that they did not abandon him. They visited him regularly and it was simply the best solution they could find at the time for their son to receive an education while receiving medical assistance.

My father grew up to be an activist for disabled people rights and I grew up surrounded by disabled people. We have had many discussions over the years about the representation of disabled people in the media.

I still remember being in drama school when I was 20, about 15 years ago now, and explaining to one of my teachers, who thought that Avatar was the best thing since Star Wars, why I had hated the movie. We were in the common room, all of us were eating lunch, and it suddenly got very quiet as I gave a very passionate speech about ableism (and that’s without mentioning the white savior complex, but that’s another topic). What was my normal, something that to me was obvious, glaring, and evident and rage inducing was so foreign to them. Everyone looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. This was when I first realized how uninformed the vast majority of people are about ableism. I should perhaps add at this point that I grew up in France, in what is (in large part thanks to my father’s efforts) one the most accessible cities in Europe. Even if they were not in my father’s circle of friends, it was a very common thing to see disabled people in the streets or in public transport, or pretty much anywhere else in the city.

I find the language used in Warrior Nun extremely alarming. It shows a devastating lack of awareness about the underlying ideas it conveys and the damaging stereotypes it perpetuates. “She was already in hell”, or “She was already broken”. It reinforces the idea that disabled people are not whole, that being disabled will never let them live a happy fulfilling life. Yes, it comes from a character who is clearly ableist herself. But it’s chilling that the first line of the show is Ava talking about how her whole life she’s fantasized about dying. Major red flags.

Again, it is true that disabled people can struggle with mental health, and that they can have suicidal thoughts in direct relation to their disability. If I want to be generous (but I honestly don’t think that the creators of the show put that much thought into it), I could even say that it would make sense for Ava to have these thoughts when she was raised by abusive ableist people who probably told her every day of her life that she was broken and that she would have been better off if she’d died with her mum. The show had an opportunity to explore the theme of abuse of disabled people by the people who are supposed to care for them, unfortunately, like most things that have to do with Ava’s disability, it never went anywhere. And there’s a reason for that. If you ask me, the show’s creators never really had any intention of giving Ava’s disability much spotlight. Or of creating a disabled character at all. Her disability was merely a plot device for them.

Which leads me to the big, the bad and ugly, the “magical healing”.

Rosie Knight on Nerdist said it better than I could.

“Stories shape the world around us and Warrior Nun, Batgirl, Venom, and The Witcher (which features a magical disability cure which also makes a lady sexy, as if disabled people aren’t and don’t have fulfilling sex lives) play into harmful narratives. All of these tales enforce dangerous tropes: that disabled people don’t have any quality of life, that we don’t have sex, that all we want is to become able-bodied, and, most horrifyingly of all, that we’d rather be dead than to live as our authentic disabled selves.”

Here is the link if you want to read the full article (which I encourage you to do). 

https://nerdist.com/article/warrior-nun-magical-disability-cure/

Dear content creators, please don’t make a character disabled just to give them something to “overcome” and then have it play next to no part in their story as soon as they are “magically healed”. That’s not good representation. That’s poor storytelling. That’s exploitative, gratuitous, and contributes to perpetuate harmful stereotypes about minorities.

Please, do better.

EDIT: I am still figuring out how tumblr works and can’t manage to reply to the comments in the comment section. This is a reply to Sorrynotsorrow.

Inviting people to think a bit more deeply about the reasons why the shows they watch and enjoy might be problematic is precisely the point of this type of post. They discuss the ways minorities are represented in shows and aim to raise awareness about how the ways said minorities are represented in the media are harmful when that is the case.

I am aware that some of the people reading this may never have talked to a disabled person about what their reality is like, may never even have met one. This post is asking you to do something that might not be comfortable. It’s asking you to take a minute to think about something you may never have spent much time pondering in your life, to look beyond the enjoyability factor of a show, beyond the thematics, to challenge your views and educate yourself about realities that are different from yours. It’s asking you to be aware.

Any show, even a show that has strong supernatural elements like this one, is a reflection of their creator’s views of the world, influenced by their beliefs, cultural and socio-economic background, including their blind spots and prejudices.

A story is never just a story.

There is a difference between the thematic arcs of a show and representation. These are two different topics. You are quite right in saying that loneliness and a lack of freedom are some of the big themes that are explored in Ava’s story. In terms of characterization, the way they have linked it to her disability, death and rebirth makes sense, yes.

But that doesn’t mean that the way they wrote about her disability was great representation (for all the reasons that I’ve explained).

From what I have read though, they have received a lot of messages about this topic and have expressed a desire to do better in season 2. EDIT 2: LOL, Their idea of better representation is to completely erase the fact that Ava was once disabled.