#no actually whitewashing them as a mistake

[jewishcissiekj]

saw a drawing on twitter thought it was Peeta Mellark or another random blonde NO IT'S TECH BADBATCH

[starwikia]

so like are we done with the idea that james is a victim of the internet harassment mob or whatever you guys like to call it when in reality no one like forced him to be part of the public eye again. he had multiple times to disengage but he threw himself head first into the spotlight with some half assed apology where he used his dead mom, illiterate dad, and like 293 mental illnesses that he was in the right to do a widdle plagiarism but it’s not his fault! it’s everyone else’s fault for not being nice to him about it!!! how dare these people bring these issues to the public not thinking how james would feel about it! like ppl are forgetting there was notable period of time james went off air entirely. and every time he’s jumped back it’s always attempts to paint himself as the victim.

like be real for a second if anyone was weaponizing the internet harassment machine it was james somerton. he knew what he was doing when he posted that note. he knew the shit his victims would get for having the crime of (checks notes) voicing out their issues with him. he knew there’s people out there who are foaming at their mouths to use anything they can get their hands on as a “gotcha!” at hbomberguy (right wing people yes, but don’t act like it’s just them i’ve seen plenty of lefties trying to prove they’re superior to harry). they don’t give a shit about james, not really. he’s the dude who hbomb did a “hit piece” (yes that’s a term i’ve seen people use) and that’s what matters.

not to mention the writing that’s also very clearly targeting nick who’s basically cut ties with him at this point. james pushed all the burden on nick by saying it’s their fault, actually. he’s one of the co-writers and everything going to shit was nick’s fault when they had the audacity to move. james is faultless! with james still trying to monetize stolen content on the blatant lie that he’s doing this for nick’s sake as a portfolio. acting as if nick isn’t an sentient human being who could upload their own content, as if nick would even want to be associated with james at this point. this isn’t a teenager being harassed for an honest mistake, this is a 35-year old con artist who’s stolen hundreds of thousands and peddled the most vile shit as actual history but realized he was in deep shit and weaponizes very serious mental health issues as a “i’m just a poor little gay baby!! my alter ego did it!!!”

for the record if you’re among the people who tried to wash down james’ crimes as “he just did plagiarism!! it wasn’t that bad of a crime!” fuck you, man. i’m not kidding.

the fact i’ve witnessed people whitewash his acts of racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism and misogyny (in fact i’m probably still missing a few things here), and say he’s being harassed by the internet just because he stole articles makes it so clear they have no fucking idea what they’re talking about. his shit isn’t fucking erased just bc he realized that he has to handle the consequences. he’s grasping at anything he can at this point to make sure that even if he’s not coming back, he’s sure as hell trying to take anyone he fucking can down with him.

he doesn’t get a second chance to be a content creator at this point. he doesn’t get to show himself to do better. he needs to fucking leave. and if he tries to publicly make himself the victim then he better know that he’s going to get public backlash.

if anything situation proves to me that he can never be trusted with a public platform ever again because he will immediately guilt people into feeling sorry for him.

[hamliet]

Do you have any thoughts on how RWBY handled the white fang storyline?

Unpopular opinion: it's decent?

Now, now, before people come at me with pitchforks: yes, it's overly simplified. The entire story is a fairy tale, though, so that's not out of place. It also complements the rest of the story thematically, and manages to incorporate nuance and complexity in despite the simplification of issues.

I think it's a mistake to look at the White Fang as a 1=1 of the real life struggles of marginalized groups. That said, there obviously are parallels, and so people aren't mistaken to note those. I just think it's not meant to be an instructional manual and shouldn't necessarily be viewed as one, but rather a conversation starter in some ways. And yes, those conversations can and should include critiques.

So I'll go over the points that I think it did well and how those ties into real life, but also specifically how they work for RWBY's overall story. This does not negate criticisms, especially those by marginalized groups.

In contrast to some other fictional depictions, RWBY actually is better as well because it avoids the number one pitfall of such issues: the X-Men fallacy. I've talked about this in terms of Attack on Titan before, but essentially it's the idea that the problem with depicting discrimination against superpowered people is that, well, there is a logical reason for people to be concerned about superpowers; hence, it almost justifies that very discrimination it seeks to condemn. This isn't present in the faunus/human divide. They are both capable of superpowers.

It also doesn't fall into another common pitfall: the idea that people have to be perfect to be victims of discrimination. The White Fang... has senselessly and cruelly murdered people; doesn't mean faunus discrimination isn't also cruel and senseless and doesn't justify it. And this is something that we do see in real life too--people trying to either completely whitewash the actions of radical anti-oppression movements, which can do awful things, or trying to use these awful things as evidence that these people deserve discrimination when really it's a result of rage and desperation at a society that refuses to give them anything. That doesn't justify the pain of the victims of the awful things (see, Weiss) but nor does it negate the righteousness of that anger.

It does portray the faunus as a fairly diverse group too, when fiction often portrays marginalized groups as a monolith. That's not true. People from one group have very different ideas about what liberation looks like, and what they want to achieve. People in marginalized groups are people, and they can be motivated by a variety of selfless principles and egotistical validation, and neither negate the other. See, Sienna vs. Ghira vs. Adam.

Now, of course within RWBY Ghira's more nonviolent principles more or less win out. That's because RWBY is again a fairy tale where you have to fight to live, but that also doesn't endorse violence. If you expected otherwise, wrong genre. Of course the real world is far more complex, but it's not as if there is no real world basis for this either. Peacemakers exist, and nonviolence has accomplished a lot before. Whether or not that's the be-all-end-all of the faunus struggle in RWBY isn't even clear, so I don't think it's intended to be the be-all-end-all preached moral as it applies to the real world either.

Story-wise, the White Fang functions as a Jungian shadow of society. If you do not take charge of your own life, you are letting others decide for you. The faunus who disagree with the White Fang take it back, because they have to acknowledge it to move forward in society. They have to integrate with it, and accept their own humanity: capable of good and what they might rather deny.

This faction--the faunus who don't like the White Fang--are represented in Ghira, who becomes passive and steps back from aspects of the movement. However, when Blake arrives in Menagerie, this changes, because Blake's entire arc is about integration. Ghira then becomes active, working for the rights of the faunus and for the White Fang to be better rather than simply disavowing the White Fang in an attempt to be a good person, because doing nothing isn't exactly good.

On a more character level, the White Fang exists for Blake's arc. Her Jungian archetype is the Shadow. Like, it's literally her semblance's name. Hence, the idea of the shadow is gonna be important. If you want more on this, @aspoonofsugar has written a meta on it here and another here.

So, for Blake, on a personal level the White Fang (especially under Adam) represents the parts of herself she doesn't like. The part that ran from her family. The part that is violent. And yet, she cannot abandon it or simply disavow it. No, the answer is instead:

We’re not going to destroy the White Fang. We’re going to take it back.

She has to integrate with it, take the good--the righteous anger, the focus on justice and equality.

The White Fang also comments on the microcosm/macrocosm of alchemy.

For the unaware, RWBY is an alchemical story, and the principles of alchemy are represented in the symbol for the philosopher's stone, as seen above. Microcosm: the smaller circle enclosing two people in the center who come together (hence chemical weddings). The square is the four elements: water, earth, fire, air. The triangle is body, heart, and mind. The larger circle is the macrocosm.

The Shadows for Blake on a personal level--microcosm--is Adam. The Shadow on a worldwide, big picture scale--the macrocosm--is the White Fang. Integrating with the shadow isn't only an individualistic endeavor, but also one that benefits society as a whole and brings life to the entire world. The main point of alchemy's philosopher's stone, which Blake, along with the rest of RWBY, are symbolically being transformed into.

I think the main issue with the White Fang, by the way, is its handling of Adam. Typically you don't kill the shadow, though I do think Blake kinda had no choice. Still, I don't think the show fully explored him.

Yet what does work with what we have is that Yang has to face Adam, Blake's shadow, to be with Blake. Yang losing her arm to Adam parallels her being upset about losing Blake to fear, because symbolically Blake can hurt her deeply in the way only a lover can. Blake has to stop running from her shadow and allow herself ot be known and seen by Yang to be with her.

[gojuo]

As a mom i find it revolting that condam and hess made helaena say « i shouln’t feel sad cuz babies die all the time » wtf it’s not about babes ditng it’s about HER babe diying so if it was a childless person sying that ok but not from a mother who just lost her babe and they are making aegon the bad guy for wanting revange 👌👌👌 chef kiss just chef kiss 🙄 i am thinking that that phrase was just written so they can brush aside the kids deaths so they can justify women againts war narrative but i stil’ jave hope in humanity and that people will see what they are doing and stop sying it’s a good show like bitch if it was my daugther that was killed and i had a dragon i would burn and kill everyone just so they pay. Helaena dosn’t even look depressed like in the books so what will the excuse be that she dosn’t go burn dragonstone on dreamfyre???

That scene really rubbed me the wrong way but I haven't quite been able to put to words exactly why and how .... But @zumurruds explained it quite well here:

I've already said something on the narrative weight of B&C, and it's quite evident to me that the writers have been trying very hard in undervalueing its importance because of what zumurruds said above. If Helaena herself gets over Jaehaerys' death in the span of one day, if Aegon does, if Aemond's reckless actions that led to the assassination are never reckoned with by any character, if all that Alicent says about him is "The child's pain is ended" (to service the writers' attempt at dehumanizing Jaehaerys to make the viewer not care about him), if Otto's PR move is framed as something nefarious instead of the typical funeral procession of a member of the royal family, if we don't even see Jaehaerys' funeral like we did Luke's, then how can the viewer be anything but desensitized to Blood and Cheese? How can the viewer do anything but exonerate Daemon and Rhaenyra of this act? Rhaenyra in the episode literally said, "I would never harm innocents like Helaena!" As if this line isn't a blatant attempt at manipulating the viewer to feel a certain way about Rhaenyra's involvement in B&C by the writers, egregiously using her as a mouthpiece to absolve her of any evil she causes and has caused. Clearly whitewashing her of this act. Daemon too, because "It was a mistake! I only named Aemond!" and then having him have hallucinations in Harrenhal of Jaehaerys. We've actually seen Rhaenyra with Jaehaerys more times than we've seen Helaena with him. Like let that sink in.... And what we get from all this is that Helaena forgives Alicent? ... So basically the narrative is implicating Alicent and Criston in Jaehaerys' murder (already did tbf when the writers changed her being in the room to her not being there), but it washes Daemon and Rhaenyra's hands completely clean.

I know there are people who are trying to rationalize that scene as Helaena dissociating in order to cope with the trauma, but when you factor in Condal openly saying that he views Blood and Cheese as it was written in F&B as propaganda uttered by Alicent, and then him removing her from the event to go have sex with Cole with that being the reason there are no guards protecting Helaena's chambers so as to implicate them both in the murder .... Is that really what we can assume Condal wanted to do with Helaena in this episode?

I hate that scene. I really fucking hate that ep.3 scene.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

It's More Than Just A Mistake, Charlie

This comment just rubs me so much the wrong way because they are not here just for making mistakes but for as Adam and Lute showed continually making evil decisions through life and having no remorse for it. And again we see a lot of examples of it not just being mistakes but also horrible actions that wound them in hell. Seriously, look at the things the sinner do and don't downplay it as mistakes.

Seriously, these images above would disprove that made a few mistakes bs. They are horrible people who are willing to be evil pos and get away with it. And again Valentino is the prime example and after being licked by him you would think she would reevaluate why Adam and Lute aren't keen on redeeming sinners, because they do shit like this. Seriously, there is a whole cannibal town that glorifies eating people. And again that party scene with Sir Pentious where it's supposed to be a test to show Angel could get into heaven, but ignores the fact that everyone allowed Pentious to be sexually assaulted which again shows how skewed the show's priorities are.

It makes the narrative over at the episode of "Cherub" even more skewed because the idea was the Cherubs were obviously opportunists just trying to make Lipton turn over a new leaf, while it's obvious he was a pos man who should just die. However, Hazbin Hotel expects us to just see him as a man who made mistakes alongside his equally evil partner. It's again an example of confused morals because it seems like it just wants us to side with whatever protagonist is there and they have the narrative's favor despite the other side having a point.

Also from Hazbin itself I think a big example of the just made a few mistakes is Angel Dust. The current series emphasizes his promiscuity and drug use and treats it as if that was all he did in life and weren't really that bad (which I would disagree). However, I do think this is a result of whitewashing what has been previously known about Angel Dust is that he had mafia ties and that means he wasn't just making minor mistakes but full blown into crime and do some evil shit. And we are supposed to be siding with Emily why he's not in heaven, when he just recently was still being someone who reveled in being a sinner. It's a reason why the rehabilitation theme doesn't work because it doesn't treat the issues the characters have as severe as it is. They treat them as if they are just pissing on the floor and not the fact some of these guys like Angel Dust have blood on their hands. It's almost like due to her biases Charlie has a rose tinted view of things that contradicts what awful people they were and continued to be in life.

And let's talk about Adam, this guy is just an example to try to downplay how sinners made those mistakes by portraying him as a one dimensional immature sadist in other to make it seem barbaric. However, it still doesn't erase that monsters still end up down there despite the bs ass pull that the angels themselves don't know how to get into heaven. Let's be honest from what we have seen from the sinners they are in hell for a reason and there is no attempts to think why they should be given a second chance after showing what pos they are still. And again the show doesn't want to admit that these sinners aren't that way because of never being given a chance they probably had chances and squashed them. But again Charlie has to be right and never challenged so she can't think about how her stance can be shaky.

I do think the dimissmal of just mistakes they made actually goes against the spirit of redeeming them because it doesn't really understand the gravity of what these sinners did. It's because according to the narrative (and Charlie) these are just souls that didn't have direction and need another chance. Sorry, but they did have direction in life and they have at one point stop being given chances. And again the series doesn't offer one example of a true sinner who didn't deserve to be down there since Vaggie herself was retconned to be an angel. The series really does wonders to shoot itself in the foot due to not understanding and tackling what redemption takes. And one thing it needs to be said that people have to admit they aren't always the victims and sometimes are the victimizers who have not only hurt themselves and others in their pursuit of sin.

[theendofviolet]

“ashiya douman is evil for the sake of being evil”

yes! but also.....very much no.

(heian-kyo and very mild out of context paper moon spoilers abound below)

i think what i find sometimes among fate/go players is treating ashiya douman As It Says On The Tin; they’re a nuisance, a monstrous soul, a giddy evil jester happy to spread their malice to cause harm to human beings. and yes, as it stands, that’s exactly their role. even nasu states in an interview that douman was created to be a negative force to push the lostbelt kings a little to serve the plans of the foreign god as her Apostle. the man was told “be amusingly evil” and boy, did they live up to the task!

but to stop at just the interpretation of “oh, guy is EVIL that’s all, time to wrap it up and go home boys” completely misses the true complexity lying behind the surface, and whitewashes a key point repeated time and time again in heian-kyo.

douman....or rather, limbo (and the distinction is important!) is an alter ego. limbo is a shadow. limbo is a part of the whole. limbo is an aspect, a silhouette of humanity, a piece, a caricature. xu fu even goes into detail of the nature of alter egos here:

limbo is an alter ego, which means if you take the whole of ashiya douman and write them off as “evil for the sake of doing evil”, you are more than happy to stare at the shadow at the back of the cave without wanting to turn around. heian-kyo is more than unsubtle about this point. for where, does it ask, that resentment come from? where does that malice originate? when guda and the others meet the living douman (even if it is limbo, hiding in plain sight), the man they meet is not a overly hammy evil clown but a mild-mannered, sincerely humble monk. and it is seimei....yes, that seimei, the great nemesis, the one limbo spits at and hates with every fiber of their being, who makes the distinction over and over again that limbo and ashiya douman are distinct.

“but living douman also wanted to do evil for the sake of evil!” are you sure? this is a man who we see in a brief moment want to end his own life with no real hesitation because he was deeply appalled by the nature of his own evil in the form of limbo.

and then, if we really want to go down to brass tacks, even if we make a distinction between limbo and douman, with writing off limbo as the monstrous form of a human’s resentment and evil, is LIMBO really evil for the sake of evil? time and time again, we see limbo do things that seem so contrary as to be suspect. douman finds and fixes danzou up, claiming that they are doing so as to make her suffer more by giving her memories of her son, but without limbo, danzou would’ve continued to be a cold unfeeling broken machine with no recollection of what mattered to her most. in nagiko’s interlude, guda even calls limbo out for acting as a nuisance to actually help her and raikou resolve their differences. is that “evil for the sake of being evil”?

this isn’t to say that limbo isn’t evil at all. this isn’t even to say douman, as tragic as they are, isn’t evil in his own way, either. but the truth is more complicated. in the end, limbo and douman are just....human. flawed and horribly human, even if one is an aspect of a person. to write them off as some grand evil with nothing more to it is to make the same mistake that history did. douman was the nemesis of seimei, so he had to be evil. of course he’s evil. there’s nothing more. ignore the man crying at the edge of a cliff for all his sins and vices and flaws, hm? there’s nothing more. there’s nothing more. there’s nothing more-

Fufu. Even if I am in the guise of a Heroic Spirit, I am still the shadow monk of humanity. But I suppose that's no different than what it means to be human.

[yenleak]

My controversial opinions about Zutara fandom as a part of it:

1. This community should admit its mistakes as well as point out inadequate individuals here.

Fans who spread sexist and violent ideas on ship to please their delusions are not good fans and should not represent us. We are very supportive of each other in this fandom, but if a person is talking outright shit, then it's better for us to point something out. Let's normalize being critical in your own community.

2. Criticizing the characters is good. Expressing an opinion about their actions is just as good. Calling characters slurs and spreading hatred against them? People became too comfortable with it.

Aang and Mai are exactly the same imperfect characters as the rest. Mai is a victim of Bryke's writing as much as Katara. But if they wronged Katara in terms of her role as a character, Mai was not given this role at all. They didn't even plan to give her any development. She is not a piece of shit for being flat, and I actually love how some fics reveal her character from a new angle. Her demonization by people is caused only by the desire to make Katara look like the better partner for Zuko (southern lights is a good example). Which is kinda mysoginistic. Mai might not be great, but she's never been bad.

The same can be said about Aang. I love him as a separate character, but not as a partner for Katara, and I can think of at least seven reasons why, but calling him a nasty harasser is kinda too much. This is also Bryke's fault and how abruptly they decided to show us that Kataang is the final couple. They hurried and made something weird and messy out of their love line. I know that this is a popular topic in our fandom and, again, I love reading character analyses and anti kataang metas. I 100% admit that he made Katara feel uncomfortable throughout the third season. It's just that this constant villanization of him, the main character, sometimes looks forced.

3. Katara would never give up her body and freedom against her own will. Arranged marriage fics do not convey her character in any way!

This is my personal opinion, which you may disagree with, but these fanfictions are such bullshit. If the whole ship is about how they understand each other, how ! choose! to be with each other, then why making them fall in love in such conditions? We are the ones talking about how Zutara is definitely not colonized x colonizer ship, but these fics put them in such position. The only trope associated with arranged marriage that I like is when 1) Katara marries Zuko in her late 20s and after the war and both of them are friends at the beginning; 2) when it is agreed for the benefit of both sides

4. STOP WHITEWASHING THEM PLEASE!

5. Zuko and Katara will never be parallel to Dramione and other similar ships.

After all, if Dramione is all about from enemies to lovers, then Zutara is from enemies to friends to lovers which makes a huge difference.

6. Katara is not a sub...

7. There's nothing wrong with stating that Zutara is for the girls.

I've seen a lot of people shitting on this opinion, but the only male openly shipping them is Dante Basco. We often point out how Zutara is made through female gaze, so what is wrong about this statement?

((anyways. I love our community so so so much! You all are wonderful, from meta makers to writers and artists. Never listen to antis and never let them make you feel bad about your choices. After all it is their choice to spread negativity which immediately questions their mindset. ))

[switch]

I'm going to be very controversial for some but I was ready to talk racism since blond, white, green eye FGO Quetzalcoatl.

Lostbelt 7 was way worse, yes but they showed no respect since the beginning.

Yes, a lot of Mexican and Latino players will say they still like Quetz, but that doesn't erase the fact they whitewashed a mesomerican deity.

And the alien factor? Waaaaaay worse. Just stop TypeMoon, don't do it.

And I do like Camazotz design but he is the only monstrous/aggressive one, coincidentally the only brown one lol.

Just don't whitewash all of them???

yeah honestly quetz being allowed to slide as much as she did back when she was the only major one with this problem was evidently a huge mistake considering what we fucking got with lostbelt 7. i suppose it's one thing if you make an exception for one of them because you're taking what you can get or hope they do better later, but when we then get fucking 4/5 whitewashed designs and the 5th one having his own issues (and actually i guess a 6th one depending on if or not you count lawnchair bdsm xochitónal kingprotea), on top of the thematic issues with several of the writing choices of the actual story, and they just keep fucking getting praised for it, it starts to get a bit maddening. especially on top of how egregiously demeaning the australian aboriginal-themed summer event was just after that. people treat fgo with kiddy gloves for the same shit that the same people will mock genshin for. what are we communicating to type moon and each other at this point besides "making it a habit to repeatedly whitewash your characters is okay and i will implicitly or directly support it as long as you're a series i already like and you sell me any excuse at all."

[chaifootsteps]

honestly I think it's 50:50 odds at this point for the script to have Stolas say something like 'but I asked you if you were OK with the deal!' just to try and retroactively make him look better by retconning it in that he checked in with Blitzo about it (offscreen, where anything considerate he does always happens)

like on one hand it'd be better for the writers to clearly recognize a deal like the one Stolas proposed, in the circumstances he proposed it, is wrong (goodness knows some parts of the fandom need the reminder)

on the other hand I think it'd be frustrating for them to whitewash all of Stolas' mistakes by saying he totally was better offscreen, then get annoyed with the fanbase when they judge him more for how he behaves onscreen

Wouldn't put it past these people. There's no reasonable, non-insane way to excuse Stolas's extremely calculated and predatory actions in Murder Family because he was literally being written as a calculating, predatory character at the time, and there about a dozen ways Viv could have handled that if she decided last second that she wanted this character to be softer, but she's done approximately none of them.

It's like shitting on your neighbor's front porch, getting caught, and instead of cleaning it, trying to insist it's actually a rare endangered bird. Also, that everyone who says it's a shit log is seeing things and probably homophobic.

[nrilliree]

https://www.tumblr.com/marysblo0d/748216742840532992/fun-fact-you-can-like-both-alicent-and-rhaenyra?source=share

Yes, because being against men in HOTD is the voice to follow. They are responsible for everything! Frankly, this kind of thinking is just as stupid as being neutral or believing that the Greens are right. I remind you that in the book, Alicent is not influenced by Otto in what she does, and Daemon immediately wanting to respond to the declaration of war by force using the dragons in HOTD, well in Fire and Blood it was actually Rhaneys doing this while Daemon completely agreed with Rhaenyra to fight the war with words first. So the madness of everything is the fault of men, how does it work in the original material? Even in the series, despite all the efforts made by the writers, it doesn't work. Simply because the history of dance has never been bad men are responsible for everything! Poor female victims! So even if they try to turn the original story of the dance into something this stupid, it doesn't work. Simply because we feel that the essence of the story is not that at all. This kind of anti-man thinking tires me...

I disagree with the author of the post - @marysblo0d

Even in the series, Alicent makes her own decisions, which cannot be blamed on Otto, because… he was away from KL for ten years. In my opinion, taking away women's voice by taking away their autonomy in making decisions is wrong. Even if these decisions are wrong, even if they are stupid, even if it makes them look like villains - so be it!

Alicent herself decided to declare war against Rhaenyra and kept this decision throughout Otto's 10 years of absence. The argument "because Otto!" too often it is used to whitewash Alicent's own decisions with it. It was Otto who sent Alicent to Viserys' chambers, but what happened next were her decisions. It was Rhaenyra who put "wanted" stickers on the heads of Aegon and his children, which resulted in Maelor's death. It was Rhaenyra who wanted Nettles' head. Many of her mistakes depended on listening to Daemon and Corlys, but many were her own.

These were their decisions. They were not passive puppets in the hands of evil men.

[lemonhemlock]

on the bones of my previous reblog i would like to also add. there's this weird thing happening when it comes to rhaenyra's hotd characterization. the writers did everything in their power to sanitize her and make her as palatable as possible to the audience (and sell her as a feminist stand-in), but the problem is.

rhaenyra is none of those things. and not acknowledging her faults comes at the expense of her character. the writers can exonerate her for vaemond's death, pretend that the silent five do not exist and let laenor live to paint her as an lgbtq+ ally (dear god), but they cannot whitewash everything, since rhaenyra's mistakes are instrinsic to the plot.

so we're left with this situation in which they try their best to paint rhaenyra as this calm, measured, collected, responsible person in the second half of the season, even going so far as sacrificing other characters' development to prop her up (rhaenys & her granddaughters come to mind).

but. a person who has all of those qualities would never have committed the transgressions rhaenyra is guilty of in the first place. a responsible person, preoccupied by the "good of the realm" would never have run away to dragonstone, abandoning her small council seat. she would never have married daemon at all. a measured person would never have decided on such an extreme course of action, like banishing her own husband, father figure to her children, and then pretended she killed him for clout. a person who has such a hold on her passions (like adult!rhaenyra is portrayed on screen!) never would have had bastards, let alone such obvious bastards. a person who is so much more "suited to the role", a potential "fine queen" would not be such a poor political actor in that she'd become oblivious to how deranged her PR image is. her grand master plan to fix a delicate potential crisis wouldn't be to run crying to her dying father.

there is this disconnect between how the show is trying to sell rhaenyra to us and what she actually does. it feels very disingenuous and undeserved. if rhaenyra were allowed to inhabit her own flaws, fully own them - we'd be having a different conversation. or, she could have been portrayed as oblivious, but the show's framing could have sanctioned that, instead of tacitly approving and depicting her as the wronged party: actually allow her obliviousness and entitlement to be illustrated as character failings.

but, of course, then rhaenyra would not have ended up so popular with the general public. so we end up with disney princess rhaenyra instead, patron of women's rights and an ally to the gay community.

[aleksanderscult]

My unpopular opinion about the grishaverse… Nikolai is actually a dlck. And not in like a mean aggressive way but just in an obnoxious way. Like, he has so much potential but he just wastes it all and… I don’t know if he knows he’s doing it or not but it annoys me greatly.

Nikolai in the trilogy and Nikolai in the duology are two different characters.

If you mean the duology!Nikolai then YES. AGREED.

He doesn't remind me his previous self at all. The way Bardugo has whitewashed him too is spectacular. The moment she decides to incorporate a character into the Good Team gang it's over for that bitch. He/she will be painted a holy white color, cry for his/her mistakes, cry for the killings he/she must do and have no actual character development. And that's why most people are so pissed off with that duology.

Because you don't like the heroes in it. You despise them.

If you mean his trilogy counterpart then I disagree. I love TGT!Nikolai because he seemed a gray character but the narrative didn't allow him to act or stay that way (now that pissed me). He wanted to usurp a throne that isn't rightfully his, he kissed a girl without consent and is very cunning and cruel if you provoke him. Now, if the narrative admitted that he was truly like that, then okay. He also had experience and GOALS on top of that. But to be stripped of all these characteristics and become a simple simp for Zoya??

What is this??

Send me your unpopular opinion

[mamushroomoracorn]

Why AI "Artwork" won't last in the long run and Why companies are probing themselves in the ass.

As someone who is a perusing artist and learning coder.

I will tell you why this will be like NFTs 2.0

Basically cool idea but piss poor results.

On why This will be a short term "purge"

☆彡彡 whys? ミミ☆

What to worry about ★ AI artwork is just a over glorified filter and gacha app.

Resources and how the AI process this information

Overflooding of the market /poor planning/Trends 1.0

Legal uncertainty/destroyed future relationships

Trends 2.0 and how it will dull out with from the AI process|| Then how it will go down most likely then how to protect yourself now

▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░What is a AI░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂

What's a AI? it is artificial intelligence that collects data/information.

Although it can "function" like any code it is not only relay on a "language" it also relays on its resources, user/code and sometimes equipment.

Otherwise the AI will not intend or reach a "limit" to what it can do.

─────────ೋღ 🍄 ღೋ─────────

Context𖠄

A lot of people know about the situation with AI but for people who don't know.

There have been multiple AI that could replicate the imagery of art—although it is debated on if it is art, I will not dive deep into it only be focusing on the AI functions.

It is in hot water for “developing” a “style” with

oversears(Non-American/US artist) art, 

dead people art, 

people who did not consent for their art to be used in this manner.

All I know it does have a “art style” due to how it works, and companies who made this is claiming profit.

What to worry about is mostly concept artists will be replaced by AI major wise in companies that require character design. 

Some jobs will not return in those areas 

In indie development or in comics not made by companies there's a huge possibly it will stay.

But basically they will be hit the hardest in payment and employment by the looks of it.

Then for commission based artists it will be temporary pain

As for the rest I am unsure but looking at the AI, it works just like a filter but the results are more randomized.

Now analyzing the “art” I notice it mess up hands and also it depends on the style it is taking from.

Realistic art doesn’t actually do people well in fact they mix a bunch of races if you taking a photo of yourself.

I learned that because my mother tried it unknowing the negatives of AI “art” and won’t be posting hers results

Even “real” ones.

“Real” ones will mix up two people into different objects, expressly if there’s two races. Which gives me the ick but not surprised on what happens.                      It will change the darker out of the 2+ into monkeys/apes.

Further explained in 2 on why this happen

 I explained in the beginning AI Needs Resources ‘ and what they are feeding on.

The AI feeds on online posted art from any country server. 

Now we identify that Online posted art is the resource. How it uses it? Takes it, Then meshes the images together to create a new one.

It will also add on to a image with the source. That’s why people can have selfies then use this like a filter.

As you know many cultures have different cultures which involves art because it relates to identity. Which often is the people and objects around you. 

People can take inspiration

AI CANNOT DO THAT, it can’t separate that idea fully because on how it works.

Programs can input/process so many colors, values and hues know where to put them. Can only process so much shapes.

They can only add or break out never truly delete + that's why there's residue on devices even after you delete.

Because that’s why they “understand” but never could be creative with concept.

That's why also the colors look so dull in certain AI, whitewashing, or the same portions  (Anime)

That it only look like a mixture of race or even mistaking color people for animals(Realist ones)

Or the fantasy is just only Eurocentric(Fantasy)

Making it stuck on the same “art style”, per AI version. Which will not be a issue for a small amount of production like commission artists but for mass production it is a different tale

The Overflooding of the market will de-value AI “art” or (filters is what they are).

⎝⎝𝕀𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕪?⎠⎠

Okay so lets start with cash value and trends because it is really important for products to thrive. 

For different things it will always depend on the market supply and demand. That’s why it is easier for things like (annoyingly) Food, Clothes, Water and Housing to be always on the market.’

All or Majority of products have laws on it to keep the finances state of the country stable and citizens.

Entertainment is really hard because you will have to rely on culture or adaption to change for trends.

Things like NSFW, Holidays and Country will mostly be permit Trends

Memes, Anime/Shows, and Movies will fall under fast Trends.

Also it is important to take notice their peers in a market

There’s Rivals, Providers Consumers and Platforms.

Platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and YouTube needs to have a friendly family bases with their ad providers. While also needs respecting CC laws.

Trends will have a play: With Consumers you want a stable fanbase and a concentrated amount of new consumers on your product. 

But with art it is important to have a royal fanbase, expressly for companies like Adobe who is relent to keep users on.

Best way is to invested in education

Then also add variety to your products but it is hard with AI.

contracts protect both sides and written consent is given.

So AI artwork will have to most likely to look for artists/providers who is willing to provide their artwork but it is going to be harder now due to poor decisions of taking art without permission. (expanded on 4)

Which Majority of theses AI corps don’t have anything to really say their property against trademark brands like Disney. 

If in the future will likely sue to get rid of competition. 

Even if things does ran like adobe they could face lawsuits due to violating potential CC laws. Since some of the AI have Official artwork from other companies, trademarked properties.

(wink wink)

If Disney does go into AI you will most likely see mass suing of rivals to force their property to only be used by them for AI purposes.

Best way to evade this is to have those contracts and boundaries in user use in the first place on which AI corps lacked.

Legal issues will arise with competition in the future because not only many artists will be less incline now further to make a contract. Due to the approached theses companies made.

Then of course already lawsuits that took place for the fight on what is fair 

Example:

https://www.wired.com/2011/01/hope-image-flap/

The image print of Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster where a lawsuit took place due to a artist taking a image a photographer made then recoloring it.

The Artist loss due to how it violates the photographer rights to a extent.

But the settlement in that both parties will profit from the image.

Now this can be easily applied to AI “art”, because the issue is how the “artist” took a resource without paying or consenting to the original party holder.

Now also looking at this in whole, there's international problems because AI corps took internationally too with their sources. Which can be more lawsuits on the way or even banning from certain areas.

Also the families of dead artists might also take legal action.

Protecting your art starts with a statement. Even if it might be “useless” it is better to have evidence they violated your clear boundaries. Do something like this of course do research.

“if you repurpose my art or redistribute it outside of my written consent under a contract. I have permission to sue you for (insert what you are own in percentages) amount of commerce. You are agreeing when you take my artwork you are violating my rights and property same if you are using AI version containing my art” Or something similar. As for the future, I feel like this will be a short trend that literally just a filter. NFTs did the exact same thing and look at them now in the dumpster.

This trend is the same as the NFTs, had the same problems It will be alright, people would still want original art work being made, expressly since the program cost money, just a filter and not for long term use in the long run.

- <3

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

lmao she ate you up

Again Stolas is an insult to real abuse victims. The show tries to make Stella into this evil harpy while excusing people who have done abuse like Loona because she gets the trauma excuse. Heck, Stolas for all claims of being a victim is actually more of a victimizer than a victim because of how he used his power to trap a guy into a coercive deal to keep his book. People say Blitzo started it when reality he was going to have him in his room and expected him to ravage him even though this was the first time they met in years. The guy has been predatory from the start and I don't care what excuses to try to make him fake sympathetic. Coercing someone into sex for a long time is not a simple mistake it's a crime but since it's hell it wouldn't be punished. Also stfu about him giving his daughter love he will regularly choose Blitzo over his daughter while having the nerve to claim he still loves her.

People claim he wants to give her a normal life while not having two minds of cheating on her mother and obnoxiously still carrying on an affair that broke the family. That is the embodiment of not caring about your daughter. Also coming out of the closet shouldn't be an excuse to hurt people. Again everyone says he's improving but those so-called improvements is still coercing people into a relationship and whining when they rebuff his advances because in the past they treated them like shit and still denies they look do on them. This is the same twit who had the nerve to say Blitzo and Striker sound the same when they told him off for being a privileged asshole he really isn't learning.

There is a difference between being a normal,flawed dad and being a neglectful, selfish asshole who puts his wants before his child. And let me tell you a child shouldn't be forced to sacrifice their stability to make their manchild of a father happy. And even worse he's doing this for a guy he forced into his fantasy and treated like trash. His so-called abuse by Stella is forced and fake. He says he did it to give her a normal life but in reality he just ended up potentially putting her in danger of a unstable mother. Also it's less of an attempt to show males can be abused but the fact that it's a way to make Stolas look artificially better so his abuses on Blitzo are excused. Also Stolas has more power over Stella than he does over him. One thing abusers tend to do is trap their victims. And let's face the fact there is nothing Stella could do to trap him. Stolas was the one who could do that to her with his privilege but he doesn't exercise it because the narrative needs to make him look like a saint compared to her for putting up with everything.

Also not being able to read the room and his microaggressions have been detrimental because it feeds into his flaws and even worse his lack of accountability for his actions. He freaking put a cigarette out on Blitzo and we just expect him to see him as not looking down on him. And again this is the guy who used his own butler as a squeeze toy and Blitzo rightfully points out how he treats his own servants. The way he treats other imps have influenced why Blitzo callled bs because his microagressions aren't actually micro when he has acted like a typical royal who has abused the lower class. And again his obliviousness to read the room has hurt his relationships because people are telling him straight to his face but he ignores them because he'd rather live in his own world where he does nothing wrong. In summary, he's a selfish asshole people are babying and pretending that he's just a traumatized, flawed man when in reality he's worse than that and acting he ain't is just whitewashing.

Also stfu about saying we hate it for no reason. We hate it because it left the og premise for a shitty love drama with an insufferable creator's pet who ends up taking away anything interesting plot and refuses to own up to his mistakes. He always is a hindrance on the story and resent him for it.

[damnfandomproblems]

I agree with 4119 for the most part

But the thing with race is that it is almost always done with the intent of erasure or "fixing"

It's never "I wanted to explore this character as if they had a different ethnic background in this setting"

It's always "this character would look BETTER with this specific skin color and that's all I'll add to them and ignore all other culture aspects I could give the character relating to their skintone because I actually don't care about representing different people. I just want to be viewed as inclusive and unproblematic by my peers and I do that by changing the characters skin and nothing else because all I care about it what skin color people have. Also I attack others for calling me out on this by telling them all they care about is the characters skin and asking why they care so much that I made the character with *x* skintone. Ect. Ect. Ect."

Listen we wouldn't have so much problem with this if people were actually creative about it.

There's nothing and I mean NOTHING wrong with wanting to explore a character with a different skin tone or culture or whatever.

It's when people have this attitude about it like the character is somehow better in someway for having an either lighter or darker skin tone. And yes I'm talking about both. Because both whitewashers and blackwashers do the exact same thing and have the exact same arguments as to why they think it's acceptable to racewash when they are both wrong.

It's supposed to be like race bending. It's supposed to be a fun way to explore a character in different ways.

It is NOT meant to be a way to "one up" the "Whites/Blacks" OR to belittle the original design. Not even "edits" are good because there's actually zero thought or research going into them. I've seen a significant amount of edits for middle eastern characters who are paler or tanned being made to look extremely dark even though alot of middle eastern countries and ethnicities are pale or lighter in color making the characters original design accurate actually.

People get so mad at characters like that because of their moms basement preception of reality that they don't even know what people from other countries even look like.

Never have I seen an actually well thought out redesign of a character where they actually explore said character with a different ethnicity and culture. It's always "wow *x* looks a million times better now and is so accurate to real life"

And hell this 8snt even touching upon the fact that some people mistake tan characters from somewhere like Europe or America or east and south(south east?) Asia as black. Not even Indian or Spanish or even Mexican. Not even native American or anything else. Just black. And if that's not telling how horrible people who blackwash are. Literally no better than white washers.

Or the fact that so many people assume Asian characters are automatically white because they don't have "Asian eyes" or yellow toned skin. (or the fact that alot of people will redesign pale Asian anime characters with yellow skin and slanted eyes to make it more "realistic" which as an Asian myself I consider that to be damned fucking racist)

There are ways to explore race in characters. There are ways to do so respectfully and without belittling the original ethnicity of the character. But that's not what people do. People just want to express their internal racism and prejudice and narrow and ignorant views on the world and it's people without being criticized by their peers.

Trust me I would not mind if someone took a character and decided to explore how their life would unfold and how characters might treat them (depending on how the world and it's people view such ethnicities) under a different ethnicity or culture. I would not mind if someone just wanted to see how they could design a character and their meanings but using a different culture. (like how two different flowers could have the same meaning. Or how different colors have different meanings. A character with the colors meaning passion might be designed with a different color of the same or similar meaning in a different culture), or how a character might choose a different path in life due to their culture or how they chose the same path despite their culture. there is just so much you can do but all people care about is the fucking skin and "how much better the character is now" with a different skin.

I hope that makes sense.

Posting since this is a reply to a previous problem.

[the-survivalist-chronicles]

Some cut pages from this comic. Though the basic idea is still the same and some of the dialogue remains, I am redoing these due to small edits and a different artistic approach.

The cover MAY actually be kept, as I’m rather proud of it, but it’s more likely that I’ll remake it.

In this draft of the story, Steve’s dim-wittedness was due to him being a little too cocky, whereas in the current version it’s much more due to his naivety. Steve and Creepy were also originally thieves, and had been for 90% of this story’s development, but with a heavy heart I had to change it to fit the story I wanted to tell. It was mostly a bummer because I liked the conversation between Steve and Creepy at the beginning, already establishing that Creepy is careful and likes to play the long game whereas Steve rushes into things a little too quickly, but I think the change will have been worth it.

I’m not sure how people will feel about my Creeper designs? I think overall Creepers and Endermen have changed the most, but Creepers still win that comparison by a long shot. I tried to make them more lizardlike, and gave them a tail to kind of compliment that (and because I think they’d need it for balance).

Even OLDER versions under the cut!

I do actually like the above version of the prologue (you can read the official one here!) but it was too much of an info dump. Most of the lore has stayed the same, though, and I do actually like the black/white parallel shots, it just didn’t make the cut, especially after I ditched the vaguely-realistic approach. It also talked a lot about random worldbuilding tangents (like illagers and such) that weren’t important for the story while not at all detailing the brothers’ story.

Last but not least we have this monstrosity! I hated (and still hate) drawing backgrounds, so I wanted to build the settings in Minecraft and use them as the backdrops, but I didn’t like the result….and look at this art! It’s not the worst, but the shading is terrible….and the creeper design just wasn’t super appealing to me. I feel like the current design is a little better at being likable to the reader but off-putting to the in-universe characters. Also I totally whitewashed Steve. My biggest mistake here was the shading, although I hadn’t quite mastered lineless art either.

It’s far from the worst art I have of them (again, I’ve had these characters since before fourth grade) but definitel6 not something I’m proud of.