#like idk. maybe I’d start freaking out and mistreating people around me if I was constantly on edge also

[mangora]

Some people say that they don’t like certain TD characters because they were being mean in episode abc or are a bad friend to xyz and like, yeah, okay that’s not good morally, and while I personally love immoral characters I can understand why they come across as fully unlikable to some people. But also, I think it makes sense that they’re mean. If a grown man made me sleep in a cabin with no AC in the dead of summer surrounded by bugs (or monsters) for several months, and only let me eat dirt and mashed potatoes, and had me do life-threatening stunts every few days, and let my peers humiliate me on international TV or humiliated me himself, and I was surrounded by people I either clash with or would inevitably be separated from if I befriended them, and I couldn’t participate in any of my hobbies during this time or leave this shitty camp, and I was contractually obligated not to leave and even come back several times if requested, and I didn’t even get out of school for this, and I almost died several times, and my home life and mental health probably sucked even before this, and all my relationship/friendship issues were immortalized on network television forever, and I likely didn’t even win the show, and I didn’t get paid for this otherwise, and I was also 16 during all of this…then yeah, I’d probably get pretty mean too.

[koalas-koalas-everywhere]

Regarding Vulcans and autism

Since why the hell not make it a series with recognizable titles that will make it easy to look up and create links for if I ever make enough of them for it to be worth it. Disclaimer: it might be hard to understand what I’m getting at without reading the other posts since this isn’t supposed to be, like, a comprehensive analysis on how one is like the other.

Thing is, as an Aspie woman, I can see perfectly well how Vulcans expressing nothing but neutrality gets twisted in reception and interpreted as smugness/disdain, and autism (or at least Asperger’s, I am sorta more knowledgeable about one than the other) does tend to include self-awareness issues that leads to feelings of superiority and/or inferiority, and with the most recognizably “autistic” (either explicitly or through coding) being the Sheldon Coopers and the BBC Sherlock types, the assumption that anyone like them in some ways will follow in others (heck, might be why pop culture has accepted Holmes as an asshole at all, since he wasn’t that bad in the stories but he WAS smart and eccentric and every once in a while disdaindful of the people whose jobs he did better than them) is not unexpected.

The problem’s not really there because I actually have faith that we could have talked about it and raised awareness of not only this case, but also made people question why seeing a smart(er), seemingly cold but all-around just neutral characters or races made everyone raise their hackles to such a degree, assume that they’re actually mostaken about their skills (literally have seen people go “but what if Vulcans only think they’re some of the best scientists around bc they’re supercilious assholes and it’s just not true”)and wrong about life in general. Don’t get me wrong, I do get the impulse ever since Star Trek (2009), but, well, that’s just the thing, that’s where the problem is. Because we could have talked about it in fandom and be friends about it, but now there are TWO official canon sources that depict the Vulcans as intolerant, xenophobic, racist, ableist hypocrites, and not only is it harder to argue with actual canon telling you that you were right about your worst assumptions, but now you’ve seen them be actually WORSE than you first thougt, and to your faves, and in such a way that none of their positive/redeeming qualities (say, being all of that stuff sorta kinda messes up the whole IDIC thing, but it wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t doing it out out of malice, but out of ignorance and genuine misunderstanding, and if the only members who were shown to be sorta kinda decent weren’t at least partly from a different species (u.s., uh, I mean, us) and/or implied to have been influenced by a different culture) were shown. In fact, those good qualities, such as their pacifism, reverence for life, belief and respect for diversity, their curiosity and constant push for knowledge that probably wouldn’t let them just let a kid fall by the wayside becuase he was dyslexic (“there is no other wisdom, and no hope for us, but that we grow wise”), their deep attachment to their morality that’s even more important to them than to be liked by the other members of the Federation COUGH COUGH AUTISM MUCH COUGH COUGH were the first to be dropped in favour of what’s anathema to all of this, the last one in particular was turned on its head so it wasn’t that they used their logic to arrive to the most compassionate and fair choice, and it had to be logic since emotion would resist a sacrifice in a way logic won’t, making logic the compassionate choice (as they saw it, I don’t think it’s universally true, but also not universaly false), but that they were mich more willing to let people suffer and to look the other way and not be affected at all because, I don’t know, they mistook logic, which is a tool, with efficiency, which is a goal, I’d guess.

They lost the best things about them because freaking J J Abrams decided to make movies about a franchise he didn’t even like and then, even though all of it could have stayed in a parallel universe were, as many have proposed, Vulcans were worse because the Kelvin accident led people to know what Romulans looked like earlier so THEY were worse and everyone was just an asshole to each other, but then Discovery took a leaf out of his book and used his version of Vulcans and even changed old characters to fit this new version better (Sarek doesn’t disagree with Starfleet because of its bellicosity [you can’t even argue that he still disaproves of violence because he spent the worst part of the war following General Cornwell around and idk commiting mind crimes] or because he sees it as a rejection from Spock [since he says he’ll keep his distance because it’s what Spock would want and what the fuck even was that?] and he’s a cold bastard who’d take a child to a completely different culture than the one she’s used to purely for superficial beliefs and even then he’ll still prioritize his more Vulcan son, Amanda doesn’t think Vulcan’s is a hard but better way [and honestly she wouldn’t be justified to] so since she can’t be staying because of her children since they’re being mistreated, she must be doing it because of Sarek which is just so feminist, you guys, and ok, I better change topics before this becomes an “everything that’s wrong about Disco with a sidenote of everything that’s not objectively wrong but I still didn’t like”, but also, Vulcan brains can literally lobotomize themselves while dealing with trauma, don’t you think they’d take mental health seriously?) so now it’s canon in the original universe, too. Even with Enterprise (which, to be honest, I haven’t watched, I’ve only learned what was going on with Vulcans from Memory Alpha and the recounting might hace left events and/or the essence and implications of the plotline out), the tomfoolery was supposed to be Romulans infiltrating the government and twisting Surak’s teachings, all of this is supposed to be how things vecame after they got his katra back and went through the Reform.

And this got long, but the thing is: it’s not just about the Vulcans. It’s about the fact that some of the worst assumptions made about them were recognizable at least by this one Aspie as, among other things, a neurotypical’s response to an autistic trait and a long history of negative autistic coding, and now they’ve been confirmed by canon, so instead of having a nice discussion and maybe a bit of disk horse about this, we’ve gotta deal with the fact that now some people feel legitimally repelled by and resentful of Vulcans (insofar as any emotion applies to fiction) because they are now the bigots and oppressors - now it’s not a one episode race of black&white and white&black people ridiculously pointing at the obvious differences between each other, but Vulcans who have said and done bigoted things many people have been exposed to during their lives, and if they were ever willing to give them, and by extension us, a chance, now it’s ruined. I am not, of course, saying that if you hate Vulcans, especially now, you’re ableist, or that making them the Asshole^tm will turn people ableist. Just that it would have been nice to see people like me who didn’t end up justifiably despised.*

*Especially through character assassination, couldn’t you have at least made them unlikeable from the start?

[cynder-wolfy]

here’s me making a really long post rambling abt dragons from a game i play

just to clarify, 0 of these dragons are mine, they all come from an online game called dragon cave. i added links to their wiki page so people can see what they look like (&i can use this as a short cut) and all of their sprite artists are credited there. usually the sprite artists come up with their dragon's description as well

starting off with the list of pygmies or smaller dragons

kyanite pygmy - i really love these lil guys, they're playful & feisty and i could see them being really friendly but kind of fickle wild dragons, like they'll play with kids in the woods but parents try not to let them

mimic pygmy - i LOVE these pygmies, they're friendly during the day but at night they're >:-). i can see them being a dragon people regularly try to kill, cause i dont think they're above killing any humans in the woods at night

mint dragon - there isn't much to this dragon, they're just small & flightless and i can see people using them for weed control in their gardens cause they're herbivores

pipio pygmy - i LOVE these guys!! they're kinda birdlike and probably the 'perfect' pet dragon, but cause of their popularity i can see them being treated like shit a lot by breeders

common pygmy - could definitely be a pet dragon, but i think they'll just be a friendly wild dragons, & if you give them some honey they'll love you for like, a day lmao

red-tailed wyrm pygmy - just a good all round Boy, a wingless worm dragon that can still fly is pretty cool. i can see them as a pet dragon but they wander off a lot so most people don't bother. they're more of a 'around town' dragon than a dedicated pet

and now the normal/ bigger dragons :D

almerald dragon - they're very pretty and weird!! they're basically a mood dragon fdhfdj i like the colour change thing & that they're just kind of lazy, so i wanna add them in as a casual wild dragon that's just kind of indifferent to humans

anagallis dragon - oh i love these ones!! they're friendly and like sun bathing & defening smaller dragons, so i figure they're pretty good friends w humans too

azure glacewing dragons - big boys !!! too big to be concerned about humans but i love them !! i don't think i can find a place to add them but they could be used to background lore purposes

ash dragons - these ones are so cool, they big & have a scary face but they're gentle giants. smaller dragons go to them for protection. i really wanna add one in at some point, maybe towards the start of the story

black dragons - they were an original species on DC so their description is kind of flat, but they're pretty badass, i can see them being dangerous dragons at night

balloon dragons - i have no idea how i'll fit them in but god i love them, just a species full of lads

black truffle dragons- oh god i love these poor dragons, they canonically get exploited by humans so i can see people like. kidnapping them from the wild & locking them up. i think i wanna add them in later at some point, but they're good for lore purposes

dark green dragons - v good 'evil' dragon, i think i'll definitely be using them near the start or when things kick off

day glory drakes - !!!!!! i love this species !!! they're definitely the most popular dragon to own, cause they're about the size of a cat (:D!!!!) and they're so pretty, there's also night glory drakes but they arent as common as pets  

daydream dragons - i never read their desc up until now and oh god i love them. they literally just spend their lives zoning out. mood. i think it wld be cute if humans hung out near them when they wanted to sleep well or just have a good think 

duotone dragon - two-headed boy! love that! they’ll probably be in the story solely for that reason 

floret wyvern - god i love these ones!! they’re so pretty and nice sounding & i wanna be it’s friend. i think the calming aura is really cool & they could be an awesome recurring dragon or even a straight up main character at some point

honey drake - small good boy!! likes honey!! is basically a bee dragon!! i can see them being pets as well or just rlly friendly wild dragons, if you give them some honey 

kingcrowne dragon - hhh!! they’re so pretty and v good for more dragon/human history and lore

magi dragons - kinda neat & i can see them being feared by humans cause of how they use magic mostly. i think i’ll include their transport bsa in the story 

ochredrake - one of the only few bigger dragons to be considered pets, cause it specifically mentions that they tame easily & also i said so. pretty tight drake 

pink dragon - i can see these dudes being luxury pets or a status symbol just cause they’re pink i guess 

sapphire dragons - good for lore!! they’re very pretty and i definitely want them in the story at some point 

striped river dragons - love!! just some water loving boys. feel like adding them as casual wild dragon, not adding anything to plot just kinda bein there 

tatterdrake - just some vicious fun loving boys!! a good ‘evil’ wild dragon, idk if i’ll add them but i think they’re pretty cool 

whiptail dragons - love them!! small fast & cool. will proabbly be a wild dragon 

gold dragons - god these dragons are perfect for lore. the most hunted/sought after dragons to exist & they are Not Happy about it lol. 

neglected dragons - i’m not sure how i’m gonna logic these into the story, but i want to add them for lore & also just to show cruel humans are becoming toward dragons. owners will purposefully mistreat eggs so that the dragon inside is forced to become a neglected dragon, and they loath their owner for doing it but they’re too physically weak and dependant on that owner to be able to leave. it’s considered a huge status symbol to own/create a neglected dragon 

uhhh and that’s all the species i’ve looked at so far!! this is definitely Not all of the species on DC but i want to start out the story in a forest, so i only looked at forest dragons for convenience. maybe if i end up writing the story i’ll expand the list as roman goes to the different “zones” in the world 

oh and the plot i guess: the main character will probably be a late teen/early adult roman, living in town somewhere on the edge of the forest. he’s grown up in a time where there was mostly peace between humans and dragons but dozens of incidents start happening and the people of the town are slowly turning against dragons. he’s always felt kind of connected to them but was unsure why.

uhhh something Happens at some point & suddenly he can fuckin. Hear dragons talking. and it freaks him the fuck out. he tries to hide it but his mother notices and reveals that she found him as a baby in weird circumstances and had a hunch something like this was going to happen. so roman gets insanely curious about dragons once he can hear them, but he’s afraid to speak to them. only problem is the town is now against dragons and any more interest in them would only bring suspicion onto him.

so he just fuckin. goes out into the woods. and tries to learn by watching them. it obviously doesn’t go so well the first few times but he starts off with smaller dragons like pyymies and just tries to interact with them. 

i’m not sure if i’ll keep the story being him just going around & interacting with dragons. i could make it ambreigns like way later in the story once he starts travelling, and i think the first Big plot point would be him trying to convince the town the dragons are ok.

as for the dragons, there’s like a Big Evil dragon queen that has some kind of mana that’s never been seen before, so she’s slowly trying to infect the different dragons species with it to kill the humans who have been killing them. 

idk. its messy man!! its messy. but i like talking about it so i am. even if i dont write it its still a good story to play out in my head. i’m not good with fantasy stories so i’d probably screw it up lol 

if you’ve read this far I’m Sorry