#it's still misogynistic to say that a woman looks ugly to you *even if* she's wearing makeup

[uncanny-tranny]

I swear the day I go without seeing shit like "oh, she looks so beautiful without makeup" or "she looks so good when she doesn't dress alternative" or whatever else will be the day I fucking celebrate.

How come misogyny is acceptable to some of y'all when the people you're being misogynistic toward are people you don't think serve you well enough?

[0w0tsuki]

I think it's important to note Death of the Author and Authorial Intent when discussing the transness of Chihiro from daganronpa. I've talked about it in reblogs but I wanted my own post. A lot of people confuse the two and in the case of old school Chihiro transmisoginists purposely create a new definition.

People seem to be under the impression that death of the impression a lot of the time that Death of The Author means "If I don't like what the author has to say I can just ignore it and say it didn't happen or Miku wrote it or something" which is a true statement but it's not the definition. And people who still comment "him*" on any fan post that uses she/her for Chihiro in 2024 define Authorial Intent as "The creator of every work writes with a specific intent and if you disagree with anything the author says you are WRONG and NOT a TRUE fan!" which not only isn't true but doesn't account for if the author's vision is even worth defending.

This is why there was such a nuclear meltdown over Bridget's trans confirmation and why it took them so long to get out of the translation conspiracy retcon bad ending phase before they moved on to trying to co-opt leftist language to make it about "femboy representation". Because it was the first time the author of one of their darling femboys didn't agree with them and they couldn't use "facts don't care about your feelings" to harass trans positive people.

But actually Authorial Intent is just a term to refer to "what did the author mean when they wrote this?" and is actually a part of Death of the Author which means "No matter what the Author says they approach every work with their own biases and that affects the work. So in order to understand the work you must understand the author so you can understand how their worldview bleeds into the work."

When people talk about Death of the Author in reference to H.P. Lovecrafts racism they don't mean "Well HP was a racist so you can just ignore him and write Cuthulu however you want." they mean "HP's racism is very prevalent in his works and viewing how he describes the monsters in his world gives insight to the times prejudices.". HP's works are actually a very effective tool in learning how bigotry affects horror.

Now to see where I'm going here is that Kodaka is a massive transmisogynist. Not only is there everything that is going on in DR1 chapter 2, but there's also his newest work which depicts a male character who dresses up as a girl for the explicit purpose of tricking girls to and sexually take advantage of them, there's Sakura who's in the same game as Chihiro whose character design the Spikechunsoft team initially didn't approve of but Kodaka got through under the guise of "body positivity" only to turn around and make her the butt of "woman who is ugly because she looks like a man" jokes for the entirety of her screentime, hell the only character who ever displays any positivity for trans women (which is transmed at best) is Tenko Cabashira who herself is a standin for Kodaka's misogynistic/lesbiphobic idea of "Man Hating feminazi Dyke".

Chihiro is a trans woman not because the work literally says she is which is what the criteria is for transmisogynists. She's a trans woman because she represents what trans women are to Kodaka. To Kodaka they are at best confused boys who just don't know that they are "allowed to be feminine", at neutral they are good jokes to get a quick laugh, at worst they are predators who prey on young girls, and anyone who supports them is a raging feminazi who probably grew up in a cave.

It's why after we had the incredible uncomfortable corpse investigation every student automatically switched to he/him without so much as a discussion to how Chihiro would want to be referred is because to the author there is no discussion. To the author your genitals are your gender (See also the "transmed at best" Tenko final FTE where will be cool with Suichi as long as he becomes a girl which of course involves getting The Surgery™) and Chihiro's genital reveal is instead this harsh truth of reality that the characters are supposed to feel exposed and lied to about, even the character who is the target of Kodaka's transmisogynistic humor.

This is why it requires a real stretch of the imagination to pull Transmasc Chihiro out of this story because Chihiro is not barred from masculinity in any way, shape, or form. Masculinity is actually expected of her and she is punished with bullying for not performing it. Chihiro does not feel pressure to present feminine, Chihiro is pressured to perform masculinity and her feminine presentation is written as an easy escape from that expectation. Because to Kodaka, Chihiro represents the trans women he views as failed men whose motivation for transitioning is a convenient escape from having to meet the rigorous standards of toxic masculinity. When the secrets are threatened to be revealed, Chihiro does not pursue masculine presentation out of some desire to finally be seen as a man, but out of desperation to not be seen as weak and exploitable when her secret is exposed.

I don't know how to segway from that into this so I'm just going to say. The next time some femboy fascist tries to butt their heads in to "Um Akctually" about a trans woman's existence do not attempt to argue "well actually she IS a trans woman in canon" because unless the character in question is specifically Bridget Guilty Gear, chances are the author is going to be on their side. And even in the case of Bridget, the ones that are still arguing for "canon femboy" Bridget are the ones who never moved on from the mistranslation conspiracy stage of denialism. No amount of pointed official interviews, dialogue, or official wikis is going to convince them because in their mind Daiuske is a turbocuck who is either capitulating or has been brainwashed by the woke West and has forcefully taken the reins to retcon the true author's authentic vision.

If you're going to engage with them which by the way I don't recommend you doing. But let's just pretend you have to. Let's just pretend you're a popular YouTuber which never presented that you have progressive views who unknowingly drew in these people into your fanbase who had a very vocal transmisogynistic reaction to a transfem headcannon. So in this completely imaginary scenario you need to challenge them on their transmisogyny. Ask them why the "correct" interpretation of the work is worth defending and harassing people over.

As the Bridget denialism has shown, these people are VERY dependent on the work agreeing with them because it allows for them to argue correctness without having to deal with such silly little complications as "morals" or "values". They are completely unequipped to defend their transmisogyny because they are so used to using their idea of "Authorial Intent" as a rhetorical crutch and most of the time DO NOT WANT their transmisogyny to be called out as such. It's why when left with no convincing way to deny Bridget's trams existence the ones that DID pivot decided to pivot to taking leftist arguments and swapping some of the words out to make their arguments SOUND progressive. Because they felt that if they couched themselves in leftist sounding language then that would be enough to convince people that they weren't violent reactionaries but were instead GNC men who were expressing loss over valuable representation. Which is just bullshit considering it's just the transfem version of "we're losing our tomboys!" transphobic arguments that people are pretty quick to pick up on but since targets of these arguments were trans women we had genuine queers who were sympathizers and parroting talking points of "While you can't be mad over new Transfem representation you can't fault them for expressing sadness over losing a positive role model for GNC cis men"

Just don't play the "well actually" game with fascists if you can avoid it

[mahoutoons]

no, the sailor moon 90s anime is not more feminst than the manga

i've seen people herald the 90s anime as this beacon of feminism just because it focuses on the relationship between the inner senshi instead of usagi and mamoru's relationship. there's this idea that the manga being more about romance makes it inherently less feminist than the anime. but i want to shut that idea down.

people keep circulating these three screenshots to prove the 90s anime is this feminist masterpiece

but just a scene prior in the SAME EPISODE, rei calls usagi ugly COMPLETELY UNPROVOKED

yes there's teasing between friends but come on. usagi didn't even do anything to warrant being compared to a monkey.

and speaking of rei... she's so heavily lesbian coded in the manga. literally her nightmare in the dream arc is getting married and settling down in the trad family sense. which she destroys with her akuryo taisan like the lesbian queen she is. also her distrust of men is a big part of her character in every adaptation... except the 90s anime which made her boy crazy and have that plotline where she gets with mamoru for a while for the sake of a rivalry with usagi!

there's the whole jealousy thing with chibiusa which is honestly weird no matter the adaptation and idk why ANYONE thought that was a good idea. but its somehow WORSE in the 90s anime. at least, at the very LEAST in the manga she actually communicates with mamoru about her insecurities and the whole jealousy thing only lasts in the black moon arc (which continues staying the worst arc regardless of the adaptation). in the anime... it lasts well into the end of supers... TWO SEASONS after usagi found out chibiusa was her and mamoru's daughter!

and lets talk about how they made usagi jealous over small things in supers! look i get it, she's a teenage girl and she gets jealous easily. but when you get jealous of a child who is also your future daughter and an old woman your boyfriend tried to help, that's when you have issues. there's an entire fucking episode where she stalks rei just because mamoru is staying at her house for a day!

and the most egregious thing which makes me laugh at any claim of the 90s anime being much more feminist than the manga.. is how they handled prince demande. you know, the guy who kidnapped and sexually assaulted usagi? in the manga and crystal, he's killed off unceremoniously.

but guess what ikuhara, the feminist king who knows to write SO MUCH BETTER than naoko, did. he tried to make demande sympathetic. he made usagi sympathise with him.

yasssss ikuhara you go make the pedophile sexual assaulter sympathetic, you feminist king! you definitely know SO MUCH BETTER than naoko!

and people thought crystal was antifeminist? get outta my face with that at least crystal didn't try to make the fucking borderline rapist sympathetic, he disintegrated in a pile of dust like he deserves.

you might be thinking "get outta here no one says the 90s anime is more feminist than the manga". well yes people do. you'd be surprised. i went to an old anime confession blog and found these posts back when crystal was still new and still had a MASSIVE hatedom

and these are just some of the posts. there's so much more. people who dared to enjoy crystal were called misogynistic for... liking a show. even today i see people bash naoko for the smallest things while praising ikuhara as a feminist king and lgbt ally who did more for the community than naoko (which is funny because the 90s anime has an episode where makoto has a crush on haruka and the girls are like "nuuuuuu mako you can't date haruka you're a girl" which wasn't in the manga). when he wouldn't even have been able to make the anime without naoko's manga.

there's an interview with naoko takeuchi where she says that the difference between the manga and 90s anime was that the 90s anime had a male perspective as it was directed by men while the manga mostly had a female perspective as it was written by a woman.

and it honestly really shows when you watch the anime again.

was the 90s anime progressive for its time? yes. is the manga peak feminist literature? no. you can prefer the 90s anime over the manga but don't go acting like its inherently more feminist than the manga just because it doesn't focus as much on the romance aspect. the manga focusing more on usagi and mamoru's romance doesn't make it inherently less feminist.

[coal15]

My opinions on the whole multi-shipping Buddie and Tevan situation. But first, [steps up on soapbox and yells into bullhorn] HAVE NO BEEF WITH ANYONE WHO FEELS DIFFERENTLY THAN ME SO I'D REALLY APPRECIATE NOT GETTING ANY "YOUR OPINIONS ARE STUPID AND PROBABLY SO ARE YOU" COMMENTS IN MY REPLIES. **If any such comments do appear in my replies I would ask the rest of you to please simply ignore them. You won't change their minds so confrontation will do nothing but further poison the waters.

Ahem. Carrying on. Warning, this post is LONG. Like, practically a novella.

I'm still a multi-shipper at heart in the sense that I will always love my memories in the Buddie fandom and how vocally we showed our support over the last six years--yes there was a SUPER PROMINENT contingent among us who directly engaged with and verbally disemboweled every actress who played a li on a regular basis, (and who harassed Oliver to the point of him quitting twitter) but most of us had the sense to direct our ranting at the fictional character or writers/showrunner/network with varying degrees of anger or indignation. Now speaking just for myself, in my time as a Buddie fan I never commented on the physical appearance of any li, so seeing a lot of buddie-or-bust folks now referring to Lou as "ugly" "rectangle-faced" "gross looking," etc has been disappointing. I hope they represent the minority. So far it looks like they do.

On to my reasons for and/or role in shutting down non-Buddie romances: While I never took to engaging her personally, I voiced harsh criticism of GW over her "honorary latina" comment, likewise EG for her transphobia and non-apology apology ("I'm sorry if you felt offended). And while I wish bucktaylor had stayed besties (preferably bi besties since there was no reason Buck couldn't have his bi awakening with a woman), my issue with them dating was at first just a lack of romantic chemistry and the fact that Taylor never apologized for what she did to Bobby or even admitted it was wrong. But as the relationship dragged on I watched the life drain out of Buck. They were stagnant as a couple and the look on Buck's face when he said ily back to her was . . . laughably unromantic. The only growth his character got from that relationship was him being the one to end it. As for eddieana, on top of lacking chemistry they were just plain dull. The end.

Moving on to Buck's kiss w/Lucy: I actually like AK and was excited to hear about her coming to 9-1-1. She was fun af as Lexi on VD so I was looking forward to seeing her play a different character. Aaaaannnnnnd then KR immediately ruined her by making it abundantly clear that she was created for one sole purpose: to complicate a man's storyline and spark off a love triangle--and she did so in the most offensive way possible. It was appalling, negatively affected Buck's character, and thankfully KR's response to the intense backlash was to pivot so the love triangle never manifested. But the damage was already done. No one had any interest in watching them poke/flirt for the rest of the season. I was deeply offended by such a misogynistic use of a female character and it still boggles my mind that a woman created her.

Anyhow, all this was a long winded way of saying that my reasons for wanting those li gone went well beyond my investment in Buddie. Though I did strongly believe no romantic narrative for either of them could ever compete w/the Buckley-Diaz Family, at the end of the day those romantic arcs were ruined for me by writing mistakes, problematic actresses, and lack of chemistry (which is admittedly subjective and something we all approach with shipper goggles to some degree--if you think you 100% absolutely don't you're lying to yourself). I stand by a lot of the reasons Buddies were so opposed to those li being endgame. Yes, plenty of us took things waaaaaaay over the line re: direct personal attacks against actresses and/or non-buddie fans, but I think far more of us than not did argue in good faith and toward the right people. We just didn't stand out as much or get as much engagement because . . . well, toxic behavior is rewarded on sm with more clicks, shares, likes, quotes, etc. Attention seekers gonna seek.

As for why it's so hard to ship happily on sm: in my experience a handful of problematic or outright unhinged fans (on both sides) will go around stirring shit, provoking arguments, and soon the dog pile effect kicks in because everyone wants to defend their tribe. Arguments go in circles, spin off, get more and more petty, until most of "us" end up discussing amongst ourselves about how "they" are a bunch of [insert string of negative attributes here], which then in itself provokes a reaction from "them." Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually way too many of "us" are hissing and snarling at "them" more often than theorizing about or celebrating our ship . . . the thing we enjoy . . . and it's really hard to detach from that cycle, especially when things get personal. I recommend total non-acknowledgement, but even I struggle to hold that line when I read something I think is terrible. I'm making an effort these days to just keep scrolling thru my feed until I hit something happy, and if there's a negative comment somewhere in the thread to give it ZERO engagement of any kind. Not. Easy.

Which brings me to where I am today. During my time in the Buddie fandom I assumed that for most of us the actual queer rep mattered more than any one ship. Hell, if Taylor had been the one to wake Buck up to his bisexuality--and admitted what she did to Bobby was wrong--they might have grown on me as an endgame couple. I've accepted "meh" endgame couples before as long as everything else on a show stayed solid. I also thought that Buck could never, ever look at anyone with bigger hearteyes than the way he looked at Eddie, but . . .

. . . Enter Tommy. As soon as they kissed, and in their albeit limited screentime afterward (thanks a lot shortened season!) I learned a lesson: there are different kinds of hearteyes. In my opinion Buck looks at Eddie with complete adoration and love, yes. Total hearteyes. But the way he looks at Tommy is . . . "Oh, that's what Buck looks like when he's absolutely smitten, that's how he acts, that's what a romantic crush looks like on Buck. Wow." It wasn't better or worse than his hearteyes or vibe with Eddie, just conspicuously different. It re-framed the way I see the Buckley-Diaz Family as well, and the way I read their chemistry. As I mentioned earlier chemistry is subjective, and once I actually had something queer to compare with Buddie's chemistry, I stopped rooting for romantic Buddie. I wouldn't exactly be furious if they went canon since I did spend all those years rooting for them and it would still be a high profile queer storyline, but I would rather see the Buckley-Diaz Family and Tevan coexist. I think they can, and I think it would be beautiful.

So here's where I stand with my preference and opinions today:

Falling in love doesn't mean everyone else in your life gets demoted. Feelings aren't like pie. Maddie doesn't love Buck any less since she fell in love with Chimney. Athena didn't love her daughter any less when her son came along. There's not a finite amount of love and you're serving out pieces of it. You can love more than one person with all your heart. And that's how I feel about Buck and the Buckley-Diaz Family. He and Eddie are more than friends, different than brothers, they just . . . have their own dynamic. It's unique, special, and vital to both of their identities. And those facts will not be altered by either of them falling in love w/another person. If anything, the Buckley-Diaz Fam has become more special to me since I started rooting for a Tevan endgame.

Queer rep matters more to me than Buddie. Buck coming out as bi wasn't and shouldn't be seen as a step on the road to "winning" the ship I wanted for years. It is completely awesome progress for us whether they're endgame or not. Ditto for Tevan. Also, at the end of the day I ship Buck+Happiness and Eddie+Happiness, and right now Buck seems to be falling for Tommy. What happens with Eddie remains to be seen.

Looking at the whole picture, I will always love Buddie and kinda wish they'd gone canon in s4 or 5, but I think that moment has passed and I'm not mad or bitter about it. I adore the Buckley-Diaz Family, I adore Tevan, and I want to see them both thrive in s8. Now if you'll excuse me, my fingers have begun to bleed from all this typing.

[longing-for-rain]

How do you think Zutara's dynamic would change if both Zuko and Katara were female, what about if their genders were reversed? (M katara, F zuko?)

Oh this is interesting, I think their characters would both be very different and therefore their dynamic would too. Especially Katara.

The thing about canon Katara is that being female and therefore subject to misogyny was a huge impact on the character she became. In her very introduction, she’s irritated at Sokka for being misogynistic to her (with implications that this is a pattern) and we see multiple instances of her being overlooked or outright discriminated against for being female. It feeds into her drive to prove herself, to be a great waterbender, and contributes to her feeling an obligation to look after those around her at the expense of her own feelings.

Male!Katara would share some issues but not all. He would suffer the pressure of being the last southern waterbender, and having to hide that ability. He’d probably have somewhat of a paternal role at a young age, but not to the extent of his female counterpart. I also think it’s likely he would know hand-to-hand combat as well since he’d likely hunt but not be allowed to openly waterbend. He’d also still carry the burden of grief over his mother.

As for female!Zuko, I think she would suffer an added layer of misogyny on top of her abuse. There is no precedent for a female Fire Lord, so as a firstborn daughter, she might have been intended for political marriage for a young age. Her attempts to surpass Azula at firebending would have been deemed all the more pathetic by Ozai—proof to him that she’s only good for marriage and not leadership. This would have an impact on her and give her a strong drive to prove herself. I also think appearance would be a much bigger factor. There are only implications that canon Zuko feels insecure over his face, but female!Zuko would probably be even more impacted due to the pressure on women to be physically attractive (especially if she was a princess intended to be a bride). I think she’d probably be a bit butch and embrace her warrior side, deeming herself ugly (this would be interesting to work through). She fights with swords still and relentlessly pushes herself to excel at any skill she can.

How would these characters work together?

I actually really like femslash Zutara. Picture this—female!Zuko, told she’s weak and ugly and good for nothing but political marriage, encountering a powerful female waterbender. At first they fight, but over time gain an appreciation for each other. Eventually, female!Zuko finds a partner in Katara who admires her for her abilities as a warrior and a firebender, and on top of that, thinks she’s beautiful as she is. Her rough edges, her tough demeanor, everything she was told made her a failed woman, are all beautiful to Katara. Not to mention how she’d have an intimate ability to understand Katara’s own experiences of misogyny and its impact on her. They would have a truly beautiful connection.

Now male!Katara and female!Zuko… hard to say. To be completely honest I don’t seeing it having the same depth as canon or femslash Zutara, mainly because taking away femaleness from Katara’s character takes away a lot of the complexity (at least in my opinion). I think there would still be some “you’re beautiful as you are” and bonding over mom trauma but other than that I’m not sure.

[miraclesabound]

When It All Goes to Hell

Summary: Shoresy manages to really fuck things up between himself and Reader, and while Laura is willing to help patch things up, things get ugly first. Sequel to "That Hits The Spot".

Pairing(s): Shoresy/Laura Mohr, one-sided (?) Shoresy/F!Plus Size Reader, eventual Laura/Shoresy/F!Plus Size Reader, background Sanguinet/Mercedes

Notes: I know this makes her a little more like an OC, but I'm now expressly writing Reader as a plus size woman, and Shoresy has given her a nickname related to her job as a publicist for the Bulldogs. She can still be read as any race. Set after Season 1. Any italicized dialogue is meant to be in French. Also on AO3.

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol and drunkenness, romantic frustration, canon-typical language, past fat-phobia on Shoresy's part, Reader using Shoresy's first name, misogynistic and fatphobic language, sexual harassment, aggravated assault, mention of police, description of injuries, hopeful ending (Friends to Enemies to Possible Lovers)

Tags: @pettyprocrastination, @captainsbestgal, @magpie-to-the-morning, @deadbranch, @brewed-pangolin, @ironmandeficiency

When Shoresy calls you over to play foosball with him and Sanguinet and Mercedes, you figure it’ll be guys vs. gals like it’s been most of the evening at the lanes.  Generally, it’s been you, Nat, the twins and Mercedes on one side, and Shoresy, Sanger, Hitch, Dolo and Goody on the other.  However, he surprises you by nodding to his side of the table. When you ask, he says, “Trust me, Pubsy, small game like this – makin’ Sanger play against his sweetie would just be mean.”

Honestly, you don’t mind the nickname. You like your job as a publicist for the Bulldogs, and at least he didn’t choose Pubby. That sounds too much like “Tubby”, and you hope that your weight isn’t the only thing Shoresy sees about you. In the last few weeks since he helped fix up your back, you’ve found yourself getting more and more sweet on him.

You join Shoresy on the red team, while Sanger and Mercedes take blue. “Rules are simple,” Shoresy says. “Gals on goals, guys in the middle, reset the ball if no one can reach it, we’ll play best two of three, losers buy the next drinks.”

You’re decent at bowling and billiards, but it turns out that foosball is much more your speed. With your goaltending and Shoresy on the attack, you absolutely annihilate the other couple. A third game isn’t needed, and you even join Shoresy in a bit of trash talk before Sanger goes to get your victory shots.

You and Shoresy stay a team for the rest of the night, and his arm keeps ending up around your shoulders. The others aren’t blind to the two of you getting cozy. Hitch and Dolo make particular note of it, and their conversation makes Nat’s ears tingle, even over the noise of the bowling lanes.

“You think he’s wheeling the publicist?” Dolo asks.

“Dunno, me son,” Hitch responds. “But ‘s true that where she’s to, that’s where ‘e’s at.” He smiles. “They do make a right pretty pair – would knit a fine coupla’ little ones.”

Nat’s managerial instincts are screaming at her. When no one’s looking, she pulls out her phone and sets herself a reminder – she needs to talk to you within the week about this Shoresy situation.

--

“Am I in trouble?” you ask. Coming into Nat’s office during the day is rare – she usually leaves you to your own devices in your room down the hall.

“Not at all,” Nat promises. “But I need you to be straight with me about something – are you and Shoresy a thing?”

“Um…” you shrug. “We’re not officially giving it the old college try, but we’re not not a thing…I think?” You wish you could give a clearer assessment. You and Shoresy have spent time together every day this week, and he’s been physically affectionate, but he hasn’t tried to kiss you either.

“Fuck…” Nat mutters. You look at her funny, and she speaks more clearly. “Listen, you’re a grown woman, I can’t tell you who to spend time with, but there’s some shit I think you need to see.” She pulls out her laptop and opens it to a video link. “Did you watch the National Seniors Championship back in ’19?”

“Didn’t get the chance.” You come around to her side of the desk and crouch to see the video. You squint when she hits play – “Is that Shoresy and JJ?”

“Yup – and it wasn’t pretty how they met.”

Your eyes grow wider and wider as the video goes on. It’s not just Shoresy hitting JJ’s leg that gets to you, though that’s one of the uglier hits you’ve ever seen. What’s viscerally upsetting is what Shoresy is saying to JJ through the whole thing. You’ve heard some vicious anti-fat talk in your time, both directed at you and in general. However, the pure vitriol coming out of Shoresy’s mouth is enough to make you nauseous.

The video finishes, and Nat turns to you. “You see why I’m worried?” she asks. You nod your understanding. “Plus, he’s getting Laura Mohr to warm up to him. He’s cleaned up his act, but he’s still a loudmouth, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“No, no, I get it,” you say. “I appreciate the lookout.” You really do, even if you feel your heart deflating.

--

Nat’s words echo in your head for the next few weeks, especially after Laura finally accepts Shoresy’s request for a date. You hold out hope that it’ll just be a one-off, but when she starts attending practices and coming along to group outings, you know she’s Shoresy’s sweetie for real.

You don’t hate her – far from it. In fact, as she integrates into the group, you understand why Shoresy is into her. She’s more his type, especially with the age gap, and she’s just good fun to be around. This woman knows every joke you can think of and then some, she’s got good taste in movies, and when you see her around her kid, you recognize that she’s a wonderful mother. You’re even comfortable with her calling you P in front of the gang.

No, it’s not Laura who ruins things between you and Shoresy – it’s Shoresy himself. You understand him pulling away from time together; you’d be doing the same thing if you’d met someone. That part makes perfect sense, even if it stings. That said, when you see him, he’s still kind to you – or so you think.

However, one evening changes all that. You’re finishing up paperwork in your office, and you hear the guys on the team chatting down the hallway. You’re not above gossip, so you put your work down, trying to focus on what they’re saying.

“Think we’ll ever ask JJ back?” you hear Hitch ask. “The man could do his work, b’ys.” You’ve been wondering the same thing yourself – you know he ran back to Quebec after some woman trouble, but you never knew the particulars.

You hear Shoresy’s voice chirp back, “Not if I can fuckin’ help it – Frankie’s a fuckin’ coward who doesn’t know how to treat women. Fuckin’ walrus pulled Laurence LeBouef and didn’t worship at her fuckin’ feet? Fuckin’ fat loser…”

You tiptoe to the office door, close it as quietly as possible – and then go back to your desk and sob. Nat comes by to check on you about ten minutes later, and you tell her everything.

--

You’re not going to have Shoresy booted from the team; you’re not that vindictive - but you do cool considerably around him. You’re still cordial to the others and to Laura, but to him? You are winter incarnate. One time, he tries to tease you about something innocuous, and your response shocks him.

“Knock it off, Fenton, you’re too old for this.” NO-ONE, not even his dad, uses his first name. He doesn’t know how he stepped in it, but he has to make it up to you.

It’s Laura who texts you some time later, asking if the three of you can meet up at Doghouse. You haven’t been answering Shoresy’s texts or calls, and you know that he’s using Laura as a workaround, but if she’s going to be there with him, maybe this won’t be so bad.

On the night in question, you get there early, and you find a seat at the bar. You’re looking at your phone when someone taps your shoulder.

“Hey, is this stool taken?” The voice belongs to a decently attractive man with dark well-groomed facial hair and a stylish haircut.

“All yours – my friends’ll use these other ones when they get here.”

You think that’s the end of it, but instead of taking the stool elsewhere like you expect, the man sits down next to you. “Buy you a drink while you wait? I’m Rolland, but everyone calls me RJ.” You can’t remember the last time a guy took the initiative so quickly to chat with you. You ask for a whiskey and Coke, and RJ gets a tall pint of some beer you don’t know the name of.

The conversation flows easily at first – but then you find yourself ill at ease. You don’t know if it’s RJ’s mannerisms, or if he’s looking too intensely at you – but something here isn’t right. It doesn’t help that he finishes his pint rapidly and is already on a refill while you’re only halfway through your cocktail. When he asks if you want to leave with him after only about fifteen minutes of chatting, you’re only too happy to tell him no.

“Told you, I’m meeting my friends.” Your phone buzzes, and you see a message from Laura. “In fact, they’re parking now.”

RJ has been smiling, but now that smile turns into a snarl. “You got some fuckin’ nerve leading me on, you fat bitch!” Before you can chew him out, something crashes into your face and shatters against it. You lose your balance and hit the floor hard.

As you try to sit up, RJ is staring down at you with a twisted grin. “Not so high and mighty now, are ya?” He reaches out like he’s going to grab your hair, but in a blur, he’s shoved back against the bar, and Shoresy is there, his eyes burning like the wrath of God.

You’re so disoriented by the last twenty seconds that you think you must be seeing things – when did he get here? That said, Shoresy’s voice is unmistakable. “YOU DON’T HIT WOMEN, YOU FUCKIN’ ANIMAL!” He bellows, and he lands at least two punches on RJ, both to the face.

Someone touches your arm and you nearly jump out of your skin. “Hey, P, hun, it’s just me…” You turn, and Laura’s right next to you. “Can you stand?”

You nod, and she helps you up. Two bouncers are pulling Shoresy off RJ, and when you hear a siren, you realize someone must have already called paramedics, cops, or both.

--

The paramedics confirm that you avoided a concussion, but RJ isn’t so lucky. The small cuts on your face are also nothing compared to his black eye and broken nose. The cops even try to hold Shoresy briefly for assault. They don’t let him go until they get the video from the manager showing what happened. By the time it’s all figured, it’s past midnight, and you just want to go home. Laura’s been helping you stay calm, but when Shoresy finally comes over to check on you, you lose your shit.

“Fuck you, Shoresy!”

“Fer what?!”

“Fer bein’ a fuckin’ hypocrite!” you tell him. “I know how you feel about fat people; I heard you shit-talking JJ when he’s not even here to defend himself – and then you go and nearly goddamn kill someone because I’m insulted??”

“But Pubsy, it was more than –”

“I’m not fuckin’ finished! You do this in front of your sweetie too? Like I’m…fuckin’…like I’m yours to save? And now I’m gonna hafta explain this whole goddamn thing to Nat and try to keep it out of the news and….and…oh fuck me…”

You can feel tears stinging the edges of your eyes as the last of the adrenaline leaves your system. Laura lets you lean on her, and she tells Shoresy, “Babe, I think it’s gotta be just us girls for a minute – see you tomorrow?” Shoresy pouts, but he accepts a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye and he scoots out.

You and Laura sit down on a nearby bench, and she pulls a tissue out of her coat for you. While you dab your eyes, she says, “I’m not gonna tell you not to be mad at Shoresy, but did you actually see what it was that RJ hit you with?”

You shake your head. “Nope – just that it crashed on my face and I hit the deck.”

“It was his pint glass – and I saw that one of the shattered pieces looked like a dagger. I don’t read minds, but I know I feared the worst – and I bet Shoresy did too.”

A cold feeling runs down your spine as you remember the violent glint in RJ’s eyes. “You…you think he might have…?” You make the throat-cutting gesture.

“I dunno,” Laura admits. “But I know Shoresy doesn’t want to take any chances when it comes to you – he likes you a lot.”

You want to be happy about that comment, but everything just feels like shit right now. “I’m sorry,” you groan. “I swear I haven’t been trying to steal him – fuck’s sake, I’ve been actively pushing him away!”

“I know,” Laura says. “But…if he were to get himself figured out, would you … be willing to share?”

Your mental gears grind to a halt so fast that you’re surprised steam hasn’t come out of your ears. “….WHAT.”

“That’s what we wanted to talk about with you tonight before everything went pear-shaped.”

The idea Laura’s presenting is something you just cannot process right now. Your confusion must read on your face, because she offers you a hand to stand up and says, “Let me get you home so you can sleep – we’ll catch back up on this in the morning.”

[chaifootsteps]

y'know, im usually against using screenshot of people doing bad stuff in the past to "prove" that they are bad people nowdays; for example, when they try to get some youtuber cancelled because he said a slur 6 years ago or something.

Because that just negates the fact that us humans commit a lot mistakes, sometimes we do mean stuff, but that doesnt make us terrible humans that are incapable of redeming themseves, most of us grow out of those ugly behaviours, and learn to be decent human beings.

However, with miss Vivziepop its a different story, i like the fact that that we are still finding screenshot of her doing heinous things in the past, for 3 important reasons:

First, The things she did are like, actually really bad.

Its not like most cases where its like "omg this dud said the n-word when he was 12 and didnt know what a slur was! We must cancell him!1!", no, the things Vivziepop did are always when she was a grown ass woman that know what she was doing, she was just being evil.

And then you have her fans insisting those arent "that bad", thats its "a nothing burger", etc. And like, yeah, they ARE bad, those things are really mean and people arent evil for pinting it out.

It is important for growing up to reconise that our past behaviours were not good, thats how we learn better.

Defending a stranger on the internet will just lead you to repeat those behaviours of your idol because you conviced yourself those arent "that bad", until you do them and then you get hit with reality because, thanks to those behaviours, people dont like you anymore and see you as a rude toxic person.

Second, she proved many times she NEVER changed.

She still shows those gross behaviours, unlike most people she never learned to be a better person.

For example: that catcalling comic was made years ago, so, i guess it doesnt represent her views anymore, right? She is no longer misogynist, right?

Well, the way she treats her female characters, plus how she gets mad at people pointing out how badly written they are, proves she never stoped having those mean ideas about women.

Or how about those aboit how she was shaming a fan for not paying her what she wanted and making them feel bad for it? Obviously she grew up and never did something so mean like that again...

Oh wait! No she didnt, every once in a while we see her throwing a fissy fit about people criticising her work and liking tweets of her fans saying people are EVIL for not loving her and giving her all the support in the world.

And about those abuse allegations... wait, those are not even old, most of them are from less than a year ago. You cant even "those were years ago" out of this one.

So fuck the "those were long time ago, she changed!", thats total bs.

And finally, every time she responded or "apologised" for these acusations, she keep proving that she didnt belive she did anything wrong and its just "the haters" being mean.

Anybody remember when she made a weird ass apology that started with "i would apologise for existing, but i know people would get mad at me still"? Her responses are always full of "actually, YOU are the mean one for calling me out, look how bad i feel? Dont you feel any shame?".

One day she will def make a shitty youtube apology video where she admits everything but with the classic "i was in a bad place", "i didnt know what i was doing", basically painting everything as "just a mistake" and not her being an evil asshole. Then half of the video will be her ranting about how this whole situation that SHE created is making HER sad, she will probably said something like "i just wanted to make cartoons and people are being mean :(((" to victimise herself.

Mark my words, we will have a Vivziepop ukelele apology in any day of 2024, im really sure.

All I can say is that after everything she's put people through, she'd better have a damn ukulele.

[garyfischy]

Oyasumi Punpun: a Rant

Oyasumi Punpun is like the Elliot Rodger manifesto for weeaboos. Boy that thinks he's the only person that's had anything bad happen to him gets raped and beaten, goes around raping and beating and murdering women. And it's all justified because of the horrible life he led. If you read any of Inio Asano's other mangas you can tell this is not a flaw or an oversight in Punpun's writing- Asano is a bitter misogynist and it shows in everything he writes. Bullies, abusive mothers, are all bitchy, unlovable hags. The only good women in the world of his manga are underage prepubescent girls.

Throughout Downfall, Goodnight Punpun, Dead Dead Demon's DEDEDEDEstruction (yes i read all of those. i wanted to give him a chance so bad.) women are always positioned as mindless foils to the protagonist. women that crave sex are disgusting whores. prostitutes are ugly, but the protagonist still sleeps with them. Fat women are disgusting. Mean women are ugly caricatured beasts, and kind women are perfectly molded, underage girls. Characters that proudly self-identify as pedophiles (Punpun's uncle, the otaku in DEDEDEDEstruction) are positioned as the rationalists, the Reddit Atheists, the ones too smart for the idiocy of the normies. The breath of "reason" in an insane world. The most obvious example of this isn't even in Oyasumi Punpun with the pedo uncle;

it's in DOWNFALL, which is about an 'intellectual' manga artist that hates the braindead 'normies' that like his manga. he only makes it for bottom feeders like them. he's above those human scum. The self insert protagonist rapes a woman too because she pissed him off. That's life! C'est la Vie! Men just do that kind of thing sometimes!

I am fucking sick of indie scenes treating punpun like the most deep, meaningful manga ever and jacking off about how smart they are for "understanding" it. what is there to understand? asano themself said punpun isn't supposed to have a coherent plot or meaning, that it's just supposed to be nonsense because real life murders are nonsense. it's just an excuse to write a sloppy, disheveled story, with little care put into the world that the protagonist inhabits.

this isnt very organized. im just full of hate for inio asano, and i cannot believe this bilge is touted as some of the most 'intellectual' manga of our time.

here's some quotes from an interview about punpun

and here's an incident where a teenager killed a young girl and wrote punpun quotes all over the wall at the site. **AT NO POINT AM I IMPLYING DIRECT CORRELATION OF A HORRIFIC CRIME AND A FICTIONAL COMIC. You've seen that kind of thinking with, say, the boy that killed himself after playing Doki Doki Literature club- it's more likely someone willing to do that was drawn to media that discussed those themes rather than yknow, being directly inspired

..However, it is still interesting to note similarities in ideology/motive. In the same way the religious beliefs of killers often come into discussion (ie the Dena Schlosser murders- how did the ideology/community she was surrounded by influence her already declining mental state? Noone would argue christianity itself caused the murders.) , I think it's interesting to note Punpun's influence on the killer. ***I AM NOT SAYING PUNPUN WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MURDER. the person involved in the killing was already suicidal and mentally ill, thus they probably gravitated towards manga with those themes.

but if the manga influenced his actions that much, I think it's interesting to look into the ideology of the manga itself and what ideals it promotes. ***I AM NOT FUCKING SAYING PUNPUN CAUSED THE MURDER BEFORE I GET ANY COMMENTS ALONG THOSE LINES

note to self if i clean this up; make it more structured with my gripes about his manga; ie separate sections for misogynistic depictions of women, why i dont think the nihilism works, and bad writing with clear favoritism for certain characters and author self inserts (Platinum End also does this!)

[possessionisamyth]

Is it me or do some fans scapegoat Ada for Capcom not doing anything else with the RE female characters? Even though Ada isn't even allowed to appear in media without Leon (and even then, she doesn't always appear with him).

I wouldn't say it's just you, but I would say the latest Resident Evil content this year is stirring a pot much faster than when RE7 dropped when it comes to how they handle these characters and the franchise as a whole. They want to make everything more serious. They want to pander to certain groups of fans when it comes to character direction. They're trying to bring back the horror without understanding the spikes of comedy and cheesiness whether or not they were accidental is what makes the series so iconic, but that's a slightly different conversation. So, let's focus on Ada.

Listen. Ada has always been a character in a precarious situation when it comes to fandom. There's a lot of "interesting" qwhite people who love Leon so much they see her as a personal threat with their misogyny. She's a visible woman of color, which gets her hit with the racism. She's allegedly Chinese, as she could also be Taiwanese or Cantonese, or a different ethnicity since we don't even know her real name, so she gets hit with xenophobia overseas. She's also not a "nice" person who babies Leon, so she gets hit with the double misogyny from those same "interesting" qwhite people who never draw Leon with brown hair even though that's his canonical hair color. She's a woman so showing her as capable without the sexiness slapped onto her makes her "ugly" and makes the 3% of fans who yell about it the loudest cry and scream so much that Capcom will rope it back into her character however they can.

Then we have current fandom itself, and how it's changed, and how it's not changed at all. I saw a post I can't find at the moment stating the current waves of fandom have this new pattern with people who don't want to seem like they're misogynist or sexist, so they'll say the women characters are great and then do nothing for them. No rambling about them. Barely any fanart. Very little headcanons. The tiniest amount of fanfic, and if they get any of these things there has to be a male character the artist clearly favorites in the spotlight of the piece. The pieces of art that are women focused get half as much attention as the male focused pieces. Those same fandom pieces get 1/4 of that attention when the characters are visible women of color not at their sexiest, cutest, or palest form. The original poster I spoke of was obviously right. If you don't believe me, look at how many notes any "good" Leon post gets compared to the other women, and you'll start to see a pattern very quickly.

Ada is the easiest to vilify because fandom always hates "mean" women, women of color, and women point blank. Hell, the racist's vitriol was so bad they removed Sheva from various editions of the game cover of RE5 and left it as Chris or put Jill there when you can only play with her in the DLC. It doesn't help with how Ada's writing is handled over the years, that fandom loves to put her on a proverbial stake saying she took attention or a possible role from Claire, or Jill, or even Rebecca now that she's getting more attention. But they'll more loudly say how Ada is taking attention from Piers, or Luis, or even fucking Birkin. It's not entirely about how they diss and scapegoat Ada, it's the bullshit all around the diss they're making. It's about who they would personally slot in to replace her or any woman character, and why they would do that which speaks the loudest to me. If you pay attention, you'll see what wavelength their brains are running on when they drop that nonsense.

Now hear me out. I came into Resident Evil after watching all of Lupin III. Quick summary, it's an old manga that got an anime in the early 70s, and is still getting remade today about a group of thieves who steal expensive shit.

There's only 1 woman in the main recurring cast, Fujiko Mine, and since everyone has a gimmick, her's is sex appeal and that there's a 50/50 chance she'll steal the treasure from the group of men for herself at the end. No matter how many times she does this, Lupin III as a character loves her regardless. He knows that changing her means he'd have to change himself, neither of which would be a good thing, because change doesn't always mean improvement. She has been handled by so many men and a few women writers for the last 50 years I've seen all the possible ways a femme fatale can be written super well and super poorly. And even though she does all of the exact same shit as Lupin does, fans(new fans especially) will still call her a bitch. And I've had to call people out a million times with 1:1 canon comparisons to make them see it's the misogyny glasses they're looking through when they make this judgement about her.

This also means I came in looking at the Leon and Ada relationship from a completely different angle than probably 99% of the active members of the RE fandom on this site. I can see where she's written improperly for the chances she does get to appear, but I can see the potential in it, and I can see and understand how their relationship is structured the way it is. I do believe that Ada having time to herself without Leon in the game or Leon even being a priority is desperately needed for her character. I also think this narrative decision will scapegoat her further because fandom will say that attention should've gone to [Insert Male Character Here] that is an old character brought back or a completely new white guy in his 30s on the side of good who talks to another main dude for about 2 times if that much.

However, if anyone who read this far would like to see who's actually taking all the attention in an RE movie or RE game, feel free to do a tally for how many times each character gets to speak and compare the final numbers when you're done. For the games, repeated lines do not count to make it a little easier.

[aqueeracademic]

morse being queer (and other commentary) pt 7:

season 2, episode 3, “Sway”:

- i know that morse is looking up to examine the cork board but i’m like 98% sure he’s looking up to examine jakes

- omg this episode is so fruity!

- i actually have no idea i’m just manifesting it

- you ever see a man in a tv show and immediately know he’s a douche even tho nothing has happened yet? that just happened!

- “housewife willingly opened door to killer!” how about you rephrase that so it doesn’t seem like it’s her fault?

- i already don’t think sex is real, so when people fuck in cars i am EXTRA skeptical

- needing a cigarette after seeing smth upsetting is relatable

- i do feel as though jakes always believes morse immediately, he just asks questions to make it make sense to himself

- like he doesn’t fully understand it but he would never say morse is wrong

- because he’s in love.

- i’m pretty sure the professor is a homosexual and that’s why he and his wife live apart and why he admits he doesn’t understand women BUT i also think almost every fictional character to ever exist is gay so whatever

- when men refer to women as “birds” i want to die

- how people with disabilities are treated in this show makes me violent to be QUITE frank

- morse immediately locking in on the case when he’s asked about being in a relationship is so real

- the question i must ask you is this (listen very carefully):

- IS morse watching the COUPLE or is he watching the MAN?

- ^this isn’t delusional because NOW LISTEN

- when the gay employee walks past and the other guys follow and say that homophobic shit

- morse reacts ALMOST like they’re talking to him

- he turns around immediately, IMMEDIATELY stops looking at the man he was looking at (who, after sitting down with his girl, is the only person in view, insinuating that morse was indeed only looking at the man), and looks offended as if they had spoken to him

- which, of course, they haven’t

- and if morse automatically assumes that they were talking to him, does that suggest that people have assumed he was queer in the past and bullied him for it?

- i just want to know why shaun evans chose to have morse react that way

- have i mentioned i’m obsessed with monica? because i’m obsessed

- i would also faint if i saw thursday irl tbh she’s not dramatic at all

- morse is down BAD for the owner of burridge’s and i cannot blame him

- jakes is SO FINE 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

- “who knows with women haters?”

- thursday is a feminist and an ally!

- italian woman + gay man = perfect pairing is all i’m learning this episode

- casual ableism is SO UGLY

- “you shouldn’t tease people” “you’re one to talk” NEWS FLASH BUCKO ur a fucking misogynist

- just because a woman is attractive does NOT mean she’s asking you to sleep with her ‼️‼️‼️

- morse going on a heterosexual date and then glaring at heterosexuals the whole time is killing me

- “should be strangled at birth” sir how r u still alive

- why on earth did thursday ring the bell and then walk that far away

- morse has UNLIMITED rizz

- it being revealed that this italian lady is not the italian lady thursday was in love w is the best plot twist of the century methinks

- it’s not even really a plot twist

- it’s just a relief to know he’s not gonna cheat on his wife rn

- it’s just this:

- LISTEN TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!

- it’s the way that bright asks thursday how people can value passion over someone who is consistent and dependable and then thursday having to face that difference through the whole episode

- he had passion with the italian woman and is trying to find it again with miss armstrong

- but it doesn’t work because he has his wife

- and she’s DEPENDABLE

- and it’s shown when she gives him his sandwiches and tells him to come home safe and it’s IMPORTANT for him to have someone who is so consistent

- the gay man at burridges is my favorite character in the entire 9 seasons of this show and it’s not even close

- the way morse rolls his eyes when jakes says panty hose are more popular

- “as if you’d know” 🙄🙄🙄

- this episode actually makes the culprit as obvious as humanely possible at the 45:15 mark and it’s the only episode in the whole show where i knew who it was the entire time

- i’m fairly convinced that jakes being rude to morse is just him trying to make jokes and being bad at it

- “who are you going to believe?” and the answer being the super gay 12 year old detective is so real of the burridge’s owner tbh

- i’m lowkey confused because ms. armstrong told thursday “i’m not her” and “she died” but then in their next scene together they act like they WERE in a relationship so maybe i lack media literacy but idk wtf is going awn

- this gay man’s fashion taste is fucking elite

- the all teal look?????? the matching goddam eyeshadow???????

- werk.

- “proper pals we was. but i got careless. lost him somewhere. you’re young. you think love’s like buses. there will be another one along in a minute. that was ‘48… it’s funny. it’s never the one you never met, it’s the one you can’t forget.”

- i’ll vomit.

- IM SO CONFUSED ABOUT THURSDAYS RELATIONSHIP WITH MS ARMSTRONG BC SHES TALKING LIKE THEY WERE AN ITEM EVEN THO SHE SAID THE WOMEN HE WAS W IS DEAD ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

- norman did NOT deserve that shit i’m devastated

- why don’t people ever just listen to morse the first time around

- as if he has ever been wrong 🙄 (he is wrong almost every single time he speaks)

- so this girl insinuated that Blenheim Veil is for people “who aren’t quite right” so i’m rly confused as to why jakes would be out there

- the burridge’s owner is so obviously flirting with morse and morse is not reacting at all i hate him

- morse absolutely devouring everything that man had to say about being a pilot

- morse loves PEOPLE he just hates individuals and he’s right

- JAKES UNDERCOVER WIG IS SENDING ME TO THE MOON PLEASEEEEEE

- jakes staring morse down when he’s telling thursday what Pugh said is so legitimate

- “didnt you go to sunday school?” “you don’t want to know where i went.” AND WHEN I LOSE MY MIND? AND WHEN THAT IS MY FINAL STRAW??? WHAT THEN?

- like i fucking said before:

- morse interprets jakes’ jokes as jakes being rude and interprets jakes’ defensiveness as a joke and that is why they don’t understand each other and that is why they love each other and don’t know how to show it. in this essay i will-

- morse’s rizz is so crazy 😧

- ^ i would like to apologize for using the word rizz unironically but it’s 3am

- one more time for the people in the back: i do not understand thursday’s relationship with the italian women and i don’t think i ever will

- “i’m the law and you’re nicked!” strange, i will marry you

- morse all sleepy and bundled up?? i’ll scream

- jakes’ goddam cheekbones are something i’ll never recover from

- morse being happy for and proud of strange for being successful is so silly and adorable

- morse clearly also doesn’t understand what thursdays relationship with ms. armstrong is and i can respect that

- what kind of money do the thursdays have where they can rent this venue for this celebration

- also stfu fred and winnie are my parents

- i’ve seen this episode 2 or 3 times now and i only just now realized why the chalk was important

- like they explain it but my brain is so small idk how i couldn’t comprehend it at first

- but also my brain is huge because i knew from the 45 minute mark who the killer was so everyone stfu

- thursday and morse both holding the exact same disgusted expression while the guy confesses is why i love them

- the ending of this episode is so crazy to me

- and sort of feels unnecessary????

- maybe that’s just me

- like he’s celebrating his anniversary and clearly happy and content and i don’t feel like she needed to die to solidify that

- it just opens the wound back up for him tbh

- doesn’t feel fair

- gonna lose my mind over how beautiful oxford is

- morse burning the letter so no one will ever know except for him and thursday is-

- 8/10 slightly more gay this time and it had my fav character

[magnuficentwo]

1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12 for Borderlands

[From this !] Thank u for the ask now I get to practice my VIOLENCE

1- The character everyone gets wrong

Hate hate hate hate hate how so many people write Rhys. Rhys is a character who's whole appeal {personally} is that he is very much Just Some Fucking Guy. Before the stories of Tales happened, Rhys was just some random dude who wanted to make it big, and afterwards, when he gets the opportunity to, he's still Majorly not his own person. He's influenced by the player in a meta sense, but also by Ugly John. This guy's identity is based off what the situation demands and what other people expect of him, and yet no one ever seems to acknowledge it, favoring instead his fucked up relationship with H.J as the sole atribute of his character [and this WILL pop up later trust me].

The guy has potential and the game acknowledges it (by the games own words, he rebuilt Atlas, became the CEO and even invented some cool new tech along the way), but he is NOT ALL THAT and I'm TIRED of people acting like there is that much substance to him. Just say you want the white men to kiss, stop putting on different hats on this guy and acting like hes all that

4- What was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

Moxxi slander. I swear, anyone who says Mad Moxxi is "annoying" or "a bitch" is 20% of the time a misogynist and 80% of the time a Handsome Jack sympathizer who thinks that she should've had some pity on The Active Space War Criminal. And this person did exactly that so yk how it is

6- Which ship fans are most annoying ?

Rhack shippers. No doubt. Partly because of my own personal gripes with how this dude is characterized {see: number 1}, but also because it's genuinely just so boring 😭 you can write this ship a thousand different ways but ultimately it boils down to "We need these white men to kiss" and nothing else. Also the whole "this guy manipulated this other guy for the entire time they interacted and then tried to kill him" thing.

8- Common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about.

There's nobody who is good in this game I'm sorry to all apologists out there but all these guys suck ass. This isn't a competition about who's most morally correct it's about who your favorite criminal is ok

9- Worst part of canon.

The way they don't expand on lore, not even a little 😔 Please just tell me how ancient eridian people got their hands on an Atlas gun all of a sudden. Or at least tell me something about Sirens. How does the magic in this universe even happen. For the love of God HOW did Pandora GET LIKE THAT how is anyone there LIVING. PLEASE just CRUMBS OF INFORMATION you can't have me guessing everything you're presenting !!

+ How they don't expand on characters. Like come on let me hang out with these guys they're so cool :(

12- The Unpopular character you actually like and why more people should like them.

Tannis Tannis Tannis I love you cringe fail autistic woman. I don't see nearly enough appreciation for her. Matter of fact, I see a lot of people hating on my girl like :[ Leave her alone. Here's my comprehensive list of reasons why you should actually like Patricia Tannis.

1- So smart. She seems to be one of the only 5 people who know anything about the setting and who actively tell you about related history. She's one of the only sources of knowledge on Eridian culture we have in-game, which means this also extends over to Sirens, magic and the vaults. Relevant stuff yk !!! /// 2- She's COOL LOOKING okay. Her design is more down to earth and restrained compared to other characters, and it makes her stick out a little more imo. It's also just wonderfully practical which fits for her being a researcher and scientist. /// 2.5- Girl... pretty... /// 3- This woman is so autistic have I mentioned that yet. Because she is. She unfortunately does fall in some pitfalls in terms of stereotypes {I.E: nerdy personality with tendencies to be rude to people, the whole facts and logic thing, etc} but also damn she is so relatable. I too feel nauseous at the thought of a social interaction but still actively crave to have conversations with other people. I also struggle coming up with words at the time of most need. I too have like 3 people who actively take me places and make me feel comfortable (SEE: Roland, Lilith, the VH in some cases). I too humanize objects and talk to them because of loneliness. That's so true. She's so real for that.

[opinated-user]

it just occured to me that i never fully explained how deeply wrong this ask (https://lily-orchard.tumblr.com/post/692207852489703424/as-a-trans-man-i-really-dont-like-that-you-paint) actually is.

As a trans man, I really don't like that you paint hair cutting as something that's just a bad trope. I and a couple of my trans/nonbinary friends cut our hair during our gender exploration. I can't speak for them, obviously, but it was a huge moment of euphoria for me. Obviously there are bad reasons for a character to cut their hair, but cutting it for gender exploration makes sense.

LO answered: I get that, but the trope is so ubiquitous and so many characters start with unique and interesting designs only to be given the same two or three haircuts that it bothers me on a fundamental level.

It’s not that it’s a bad trope, it’s that so many people’s idea of character development starts and ends at “Okay but like… what if they buzzed their head?”

what LO actually did here was to tell a trans man that cutting hair ruins an interesting design for a female character. this is annoying already because, as we know, the only change rey's LO has in comparison with the original is that now she uses her hair loose but otherwise there's no actual design at all. all the credit still goes for whoever was in charge of the costumes in the movie. LO's lying on that front. but then she doesn't realize or cares to think about the implications of telling any of this to a trans man who was already uncomfortable with her handling the issue. i can't speak for that anon, but if trans women are punished by society for trying to approach feminity (like by negating them having long hair, like LO claims is her case) then trans men are punished for rejecting feminity (refusing to have long hair). of course that every trans man has their own style and long or short hair is not the end all when it comes to gender or presentation, but a common experience for that demographic is to be told things like "you were prettier when you were a girl" by people who refuse to accept their identity. transphobic groups and people might even go so far as to lament how trans men/non binary afab people have "ruined" their bodies by transitioning or how they must have "internalized misogyny" to do something like that. this is a different kind of transphobia that trans women are usually exposed to but it's very insidious and normalized. when LO says that a gender non conforming masculine rey (non binary or trans man) will never have short hair because that's misogynistic and it would be inherently worse for her looks, she's invoking the same rethoric and narrative from those groups. again, can't speak for that anon, but if any trans person felt uncomfortable with how LO goes about this issue this is the reason why. she's not just reaching for anything to try to make her point more valid, she's actively participating on a form of transphobic microagression the more she tries to justify her preferences. once again, just for clarity's sake: none of this would matter if LO just said it's her preference or that she's uncomfortable writing about cutting hair because of her own experience. nobody would judge her for that. but when she uses that specific kind of argument, that female characters should embrace longer hair or else their interesting designs are "ruined", all i hear are the kind of women who post on social media about how Elliot Page now is ugly, looks unhealthy and was a lot more attractive as a woman. the fact that she said that to a trans man speaks volumes of the kind of ignorance that LO carries with her about anyone that isn't what immediately concerns to herself.

[a-froger-epic]

I really like Debbie and the way she and Rog "lovestruck" with each other. Some people still think she is a home-wrecker but there is nothing to prove it. And the jealousy towards her was ridiculous. They even say she's ugly? I mean DUH she's a model!

Someone once pointed out that in pictures of Rog interacting with fans she often looks very scared, which clearly shows that many fans are not being nice to her.

Sometimes people are really crazy you know…

Oh yes, it's that typical misogynistic thing of "married man has affair with single woman - SHE'S the home wrecker!!" 🙄 Anyway, like you say, that wasn't necessarily the case here even. And I am sure Debbie got a fair bit of backlash that she did not deserve. They did make a very beautiful couple!

[kassandras-one-braincell]

Don't know why I needed other ppl doing this to finally send you this appreciative ask, but I thought you wouldn't want to interact with anyone cuz you mentioned going through a slump. So i held in all the shit I wanted to say about your beautiful art (not visual arts) which is your writing.

Honestly, I joke yo write like you one day. Or at least as good as you. The way you describe shit is so... tidhsgfegsv idek fuck.

I've just been spending months reading all your works dude, you are BANGING in that area (your writing). I just- I just- maybe it's cuz it's been long since I wanted to say this so Idek the words to write, but I just love you and your work (sorry if saying ily makes you uncomfortable 🙏🏾).

Anyway, your writing is really beautiful, it's engaging, it makes me wanna give you my last penny if you publish a book and ask for more. Idk if that's... idk in..sen..sitive...? but idk you're really great is my point.

I think my first fice of yours was a sevika fic (like fine wine) but I didn't even know your blog cuz I didn't look at the name 💀. But I noticed your style of writing when I came to your blog and read your Kassandra fics.

See, for THOSE ones ???? I am forever grateful, cuz you made me live that woman more. And despite her not fully having a solid personality (yk the fact rhat we can choose what she says and all that), you captured her perfectly. I think my favourite fic is the one where reader moves into a new place and meets Kassy and her beautiful bird uhhh... Ikaros! Or maybe it's that friends with benefits one that I would love to read more of (I was sad when I saw it was supposed to be a full length fic, but it became headcannon 😪 it's still good though dw😭).

I'm typing too much now, but your fics made a um, safe (?) space for me in my head to properly daydream (this is probably bad but wtv 👀), and I think that's great.

Uhhhh, gb

Hope nothing I've said is offensive anywhere or in anyway. I hope you get through your stressful uni life successfully. I feel you on that. Uni is fucking stressful, especially with the misogynistic assholes you mentioned.

I didn't expect to full on ugly-cry today. But this is one of the kindest things anyone has ever said to me. This genuinely means the world to me and I'm sad there aren't enough words to encapsulate the emotions I'm feeling right now 😭

Thank you for everything - your time reading my fics, your kindness, sharing your appreciation for the characters, and your consideration for my mental health. I will never close my inbox even if my brain is in the shitter, because interacting with the wonderful people who read my stuff is one of the few sources of real happiness in my life.

Daydreaming is a beautiful thing! And the reason I write is to help facilitate that, so I am very touched 😊

Rest assured, you have been nothing but sweet and considerate. Thank you so, so much for taking time to type this. I can't emphasise how much of a healing experience it was reading it. Have a lovely day my dear ❤️

[vtori73]

God Ch33rs is one hell of a HORRIBLE show, like sure it is funny I can acknowledge that but also sooooo horribly misogynistic, it's the worst which makes sense considering the time but still it's jarring at times. Before watching it my mom was talking about it being reminded of it by seeing it on Pluto app and how ANNOYING the main woman character/love interest was and how I would find her annoying and honestly... sure maybe a little bit but what I noticed MOST was just how much misogyny is behind the writing of her and the whole show and why she ends up coming off as an "annoying" character. Honestly, none of the women characters are written well, C@rla is just the stereotypical "not like other women," internalized misogynist archetype. Li1ith as well, but while I personally really like her character she is still poorly written and falls into many stereotypical traits that cisheterosociety loves to harp on and assign to any woman who try to be outside of ehat society expects of them and is often the butt of jokes often for petty reasons such as being "boring," "monotone," & "plain" even though she never actually looks bad (not that she ever would considering she is a love interest to one the main men in the serious and homely/ugly woman cant be depicted as serious love interests within TV).

I don't even think the time period it came out really excuses it much tbh because The Twi1ight Z0ne is even older and wasn't this bad, sure maybe at first but R0d himself acknowledged criticism he got about it and hired a woman writer and honestly I would say it helped a lot and seemed to work because the woman characters seemed to change and be more dimensional and realistic and while not perfect because it still was the 60s so woman being in the story was usually very secondary or even less than that and very rarely out of all the episodes of the series main characters but at least came off as people, just everyday people.

Moving back to Ch33rs, I also very much HATE Fr@isers character and don't understand how he got a spin off show there is nothing appealing about him and yet people liked him, he's like Di@ne only with additional negative qualities that are not things you can just overlook. Also my mom had talked about how negatively people reacted to the main actress leaving, talking about her negatively personally for it and just in general of her person and then seeing how the show disparged her character afterwards made me question exactly what happened and what people were saying and supposedly the main reason for leaving was for her kids, she wanted to spend more time with her and also just got tired of being on a sitcom which I think is fair honestly don't really care if you feel otherwise you don't get to dictated a persons personal choices ESPECIALLY if it's over a fucking job. However, I was told that she was some Diva full of herself who wanted to become a big movie star so yeah...

Misogyny man, it's one hell of a drug!

[unhingedhearties]

Christmas Is A Time To Spread Love & Joy While Spending Time With Your Families

¡Feliz Navidad! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and had fun with your family and friends. Hey, I wonder how the most unhinged When Calls The Heart fans spent their Christmas?

You can't tell because it's a still image, but Erin Krakow's post is a video of her doing a silly dance because her character is wearing pants for the first time. And God forbid a woman do anything. foxyinspiration, the person who habitually refers to Erin as a "female producer" instead of just a producer when leaving degrading comments, spent their Christmas Eve not surrounded by loved ones, but leaving comments on the Instagram of a woman they've never met before belittling the fun she was having. To no one's surprise, the account is set to private. janiceperry976 says even the children act better than this (this being a silly dance). I'm assuming they mean the child actors on the show who's social media is most likely controlled by their parents so they're not just posting anything. I guess janiceperry976 is saying that they closely watch the social media pages of several young children. jennifermay63, not one to let a major family focused holiday prevent her from posting one of her regular bitter and angry posts, lets Erin know that her silly pants dance is more proof that she had a hand in "ruining" the show. Imagine your family has gathered together for dinner on Christmas Eve. The tree is lit, children are playing, the adults are laughing and catching up. The food is ready and pulled from the oven and on to the table. Everyone sits down and joins hands before saying grace. But wait, Grandma isn't there! Where could she be? The grandchildren tried to talk to her, but she told them to leave her alone because she was busy. She's ignored the entire family all day, but still she should be there for dinner. You get up to look and find her sitting on the couch. A scowl etched permanently onto her decrepit face. Her half rotted skin stuck to the cushion, yearning for the grave she probably should have been placed in a few years earlier if not for the spite that keeps her alive. Her ghoulish hands furiously typing on her phone. You ask her to join the rest of the family for Christmas dinner but she yells at you to wait until she's done. She's busy telling a woman she's never met that she's revolting. This woman that grandma is hurling insults at is on her phone screen doing a silly dance to music. Nah, I'm just kidding, jennifermay63's family probably went No Contact years ago. I wonder how Robert John Bar- I mean TeamE83Liz spent Christmas.

...well, that's an unsettling message. But what could she mean by "Don't do anything stupid & that you'll regret!"?

"I'm worried she'll do something that ruins MY life. Me. The main character (oh yeah, and her life to)." In case you can't decipher lunatic speak, I believe she means she's worried that Erin will keep having SEX with her boyfriend and possibly marry or have a child with him, probably not in that order. And some how this will ruin the middle-aged TeamE83Liz's life. It's made her so miserable that apparently her family has commented on it. I wish TeamE83Liz would be brave and tells us what word she means when she says "blank". I know it's some misogynistic word like slut or whore, but I'm curious which one she means. "Life sucks. I hate him. Merry Christmas."

Her life was ruined because she learned that actors are not the imaginary characters they play on TV and actually have their own lives and relationships. How does this 40 year-old (I'm going to guess that 83 in her name is her birth year) woman handle actors who aren't type cast and plays characters that are vastly different from each other?

"that ugly thing". You know, dehumanizing language is the first step before convincing yourself that it's okay to cause harm to someone. Just sayin'. Merry Christmas. Get some mental help.