#not here for morality discourse or anything lmao

[izzystizzys]

not to be a party pooper on the usual crack programming of this blog, but one thing i’ve noticed really turns me off in fic is the tendency to really go in on senator orn free taa’s size in some corners of fandom

and i don’t mean this as an accusation, more as like from the perspective of someon who’s maybe uncommonly sensitive on topics like that due to extensive experience with EDs across the board, i can’t help but notice how pervasive the conflation of morality and body is in our society. and this doesn’t mean everyone does it, obviously, or that people do it maliciously or even consciously, it’s just something i noticed about this character in particular

anyways just food for thought

[familyabolisher]

hi if u don’t mind me asking, could u please elaborate on your thoughts on the critique of contemporary anti-intellectualism (specifically on social media)? i’m legitimately curious and enjoy a lot of ur analysis and commentary i mean this in good faith :)

Broadly speaking, the philosophical concept of anti-intellectualism tends to critically describe the ideological + rhetorical relegation of intellectual production to an elitist practice fundamentally at odds with the interests of the layman; and, crucially, the treatment of these categories as fixities. I disagree with the propositions of that philosophical discourse as well, but that’s not always the form that the discourse takes on this website. On here, ‘anti-intellectualism’ is more of a vague catch-all used to describe anything from people who express frustration with the literary canon & mainstream schooling in ways that don’t coddle the sensibilities of people with literature degrees to people who come out with outright fascistic views on provocative art; it attempts to corral what are in fact very disparate positions and perspectives under the umbrella of insufficient ‘intellect,’ often shorthanded to ‘reading comprehension’ or ‘media literacy’ (or ‘[in]curiosity,’ a new favourite) without any materialist investigation into what we mean when we talk about intellect and literacy and a lack thereof or whether this is a politically expedient description of the dynamic[s] in question.

When I say materialism, I mean it in the Marxist sense, ie. as a counter to idealism—because what’s being described here is a fundamentally idealist (and therefore useless) position. The discourse of anti-intellectualism as it exists on this website relies on idealist propositions—people lack curiosity, they lack interest, they are ‘lazy,’ they are ‘illiterate’ where ‘illiterate’ is not a value-neutral statement about one’s relationship to a socially constituted ‘literacy’ but communicating a moral indictment, at its worst they are ‘stupid,’ ‘idiots’—these descriptors rely on an assumption of immutable internal properties rather than providing a materialist description for why things are the way that they are. These aren’t actionable descriptors; at best they’re evasive because they circumvent serious interrogation of the conditions they’re describing, at worst they’re harbingers of an inclination towards eugenicist rhetoric. The discourse casts those who are ‘illiterate’—which in this capacity means those who fail to perform conventional literacy, who lack a traditional education, who don’t demonstrate sufficient interest in classic literature—or the more unkind ‘stupid’ (which, frankly, is what people want to say when they say ‘illiterate’ or ‘incurious’ anyway, lmao) as socially disposable and places the onus of changing one’s behaviour (so as to not be cast as illiterate/incurious/stupid) on them rather than asking what conditions have produced XYZ discourse of social disposability and responding with compassion and ethical diligence; I hope I don’t have to explain why this is eugenicist.

The discourse also lacks an ability to coherently describe what is meant by the ‘intellectualism’ in question—after all, merely appealing to ‘intellectualism’ is a similarly idealist rhetorical move if you don’t have the material grounding to back it up—and indeed tends to dismiss legitimate critiques of intellectual + cultural production as ‘anti-intellectual.’ People love to talk about ‘literacy,’ but don’t like expounding on what they’re actually describing when they do so—the selection of traits and actions that come together to constitute a correct demonstration of ‘literacy’ are built on the bedrock of eg. an ability to thrive within the school system (a mechanism of social control and stratification), fluently speak the dominant language by which this ‘literacy’ is being assessed (in online spaces like Tumblr this is usually English), and engage with the ‘right’ texts in the ‘right’ ways where ‘right’ means ‘invested with legitimacy and authority by the governing body of the academy.’ Literacy is used as a metric of assimilation into hegemonic society by which immigrant and working-class children are made rhetorically disposable unless they demonstrate their ability to integrate into the hegemonic culture (linked post talks about immigrant families being rendered ‘illiterate’ as a tactic of racism in France, but the same applies to the US, UK, etc); similarly, disabled people who for whatever reason will never achieve the level of ‘literacy’ required to not have Tumblr users doing vagueposts about how you deserve a eugenicist death for watching a kids’ show are by this discourse rendered socially disposable, affirming the paradigms which already make up their experience under a social system which reifies ableism in order to sustain itself. (This includes, by the way, the genre of posts making fun of the idea that someone with ADHD could ever struggle with reading theory.) ‘Literacy’ as the ability to understand and respond to a text is difficult and dispersed according to disparate levels of social access, and a lack of what we call literacy is incredibly shameful; any movement towards liberation (and specifically liberatory pedagogy) worth its salt needs to challenge the stigma against illiteracy, but this website’s iteration of ‘anti-intellectualism’ discourse seems to only want to reaffirm it.

Similarly, the discourse dismisses out of hand efforts to give a materialist critique of the academy and the body of texts that make up the ‘canon’—I’m thinking of a post I saw literally this morning positing a hypothetical individual’s disinterest in reading canonical (“classic”) literature as an “anti-intellectual” practice which marked them as an “idiot.” (Obviously, cf. above comments re. ‘stupidity,’ ‘idiocy’ as eugenicist constructions.) People who will outright call themselves Marxists seem to get incredibly uncomfortable at the suggestion that there are individuals for whom the literary canon is not even slightly interesting and who will never in their lives engage with it or desire to engage with it, and this fact does not delegitimise their place in revolutionary thinking and organising (frankly, in many areas, it strengthens it); they seem determined to continue to defer to the canon as a signifier of authority and therefore value, rather than acknowledging its role as a marker of class and classed affects and a rubric by which civility (cf. linked post above) could be enforced. (I believe the introduction to Chris Baldick’s The Social Mission of English Criticism touches on this dimension of literary studies as a civilising mission of sorts, as well as expounding on the ways in which ‘literary studies’ as we presently understand it is a nineteenth-century phenomenon responding to the predictable nineteenth-century crises and contradictions.) People will defer to, for example, Dumas, Baldwin, Morrison, to contravene the idea that the literary canon is made up of ‘straight white men,’ without appreciating that this is a hugely condescending way to talk about their work, that this collapses three very different writers into the singular category of ‘Black canonical writer’ and thus stymies engagement with their work at any level other than that of 'Black canonical literature' (why else put Dumas and Morrison in the same sentence, unless as a cheap rhetorical ‘gotcha’? I like both but they’re completely different writers lmfao), and that this excises from the sphere of legitimacy those Black writers who don’t make it into the authorising space of the canon; and, of course, reaffirms the canon’s authenticity and dismisses out of hand the critique of loyalty to hegemony that the ‘straight white men’ aphorism rightly imposes.

The discourse operates on a unilateral scale by which the more ‘literacy’ (ie. ability to speak the language of the literati) one has, the greater their moral worth, and a lack of said ‘literacy’ indicates the inverse. This overlooks the ways in which the practice of literary criticism wholly in line with what these people would call ‘intellectualism’ has historically been wielded as a tactic of reactionary conservatism; one only has to look at the academic output of Harold Bloom for examples of this. People will often pay lipservice to the hegemony of the academy and the practices by which only certain individuals are allowed access to intellectual production (stratified along classed + racialised lines, of course), but fail to really internalise this idea in understanding that the critical practices they afford a significant degree of legitimacy are inextricable from the academy from which they emerged, and that we can and should be imagining alternative forms of pedagogy and criticism taking place away from sites which restrict access based on allegiance to capital. Part of my communism means believing in the abolition of the university; this is not an ‘anti-intellectual’ position but a straightforwardly materialist one.

A final core problem with the 'anti-intellectualism' discourse is that it's obscurantist. As I explained above, it posits the problem with eg. poor engagement with theoretical concepts, challenging art, etc., to be one of 'intellect' and 'curiosity,' idealist rather than materialist states. In practice, the reasons behind what gets cast as 'anti-intellectualism' are very disparate. Sometimes, we're talking about a situation wherein (as I explained above) someone lacks 'literacy'; sometimes we're talking about the reason for someone's refusal to engage with and interpret art with care and deference being one of bigotry (eg. racist dismissals of non-white artists' work, misogynistic devaluing of women's work, etc.); sometimes we're talking about a reactive discomfort with marginalised people communicating difficult concepts online as a 'know-your-place' response (eg. backlash against 'jargon' on here is almost always attacking posts from/about marginalised people talking about their oppression, with the attacks coming from people who have failed to properly understand that oppression; I've been called a jargonistic elitist for talking about antisemitism, I've seen similar things happen to mutuals who talk about racism and transmisogyny). All of these are incredibly different situations that require incredibly different responses; the person who doesn't care to engage with a text in a way that an English undergrad might because doing so doesn't interest them or they lack the requisite skill level is not comparable to the person who doesn't care to engage with a text because they don't respect the work of a person of colour enough to do so. Collapsing these things under the aegis of 'anti-intellectualism' lacks explanatory power and fails to provide a sufficient actionable response.

Ultimately, the discourse is made up of a lot of people who are very high on their own capabilities when it comes to literary analysis (which, as others have pointed out, seems to be the only arena where all this ever takes place, despite the conventional understanding of ‘media literacy’ referring as much to a discerning eye for propaganda and misinformation as an ability to churn out a cute little essay on Don Quixote) and have managed to find an acceptable outlet for their dislike of anyone who lacks the same, and have provided retroactive justification in the form of the claim that not only is [a specific form of] literary analysis [legible through deference to the authority of the literary canon & the scholarship of the nineteenth century and onward surrounding it] possible for everyone, it is in fact necessary in order to access the full breadth of one’s humanity such that an absence thereof reveals an individual as subhuman and thus socially disposable. A failure to be sufficiently literate is only ever a choice and a personal failing, which is how this discourse escapes accountability for the obviously bigoted presumptions upon which it rests. In this, all materialism is done away with; compassion is done away with, as it becomes possible to describe the multiplicity of reasons why someone cannot or does not demonstrate ‘literacy’ in X, Y or Z ways in the sum total of a couple of adjectives; nothing productive comes of this discourse but a reassertion of the conditions of hegemony in intellectual practice and the bolstering of the smugness of a few people at the expense of alienating everyone else.

As I’ve said countless times before, the way to counteract what we might perceive as ‘incuriosity’ or disinterest in challenging texts is to talk about these challenging texts and our approaches to them as often as we can, to make the pedagogical practices that are usually kept behind the walls of the academy as widely accessible as possible (and to adjust our pedagogy beyond the confines of ideological hegemony that the academy imposes), and to encourage a culture by which people feel empowered to share their thoughts, discuss, ask questions, and explore without being made to feel ashamed for not understanding something. The people who cry ‘anti-intellectualism’ because they saw someone on Tiktok express a disinterest in reading Jane Eyre are accomplishing none of this.

[bananasfosterparent]

I'm gonna be real, I'm very worried that Larian is going to try & make AA even more overtly the "bad choice" in their next patch (they promised some epilogue animations). I just really don't understand why the antis have to be so obnoxiously loud telling a company to change THEIR game because of a way they choose to interpret something. Isn't the whole point of an RPG that you're allowed to craft a narrative around the narrative-- but to pressure the writers into editing their hard work because they "don't like it" is just so,,,,..ugh

I just wish people would stop infantilizing the crap out of Astarion as a character. They give him all these sweet HC when half of them are just Wyll.. Like the "I can fix him" complex has rotted our society

Honestly? I'm not worried about it at all.

Mostly because I don't think Larian cares lmao At least, not in that way.

Get ready, it's 1am, I had my meds, and had some caffeine, so here comes ramble :D

They want to please their fans, and while spawn fans make up a majority of the Astarion side of the fandom, and there may be (speculated) peices in place to make AA seem worse in-game with these updates....I honestly don't think Larian as a whole cares enough to join in on the one-sided righteousness battle.

They made this game for the purpose that most AA fans (at least, ones I know) use it for: roleplaying, as you pointed out. And I'm very sure they aren't blind to just how one-sided the discourse is.

For example, on the official Larian Discord server, AA fans voiced their opinion on the Tav/Durge expressions in the new AA kisses. And from what I saw, the opinions were presently respectfully and with the roleplay experience in mind. How the expressions aren't ideal for evil roleplay. But after that, the same suggestions thread got clogged with anti-AA players begging Larain to "not destroy the narrative" they've apparently been telling and to not listen to us "delulu" AA fans. And the threads were locked by a mod and cleaned up, to "prevent bullying". I think Larian sees clearly who is focused on quality of roleplay and who is focused on arbitrary arguments.

Because the evil endings aren't supposed to be satisfying to those who don't play them. They aren't supposed to be a moral lesson to the player. It's not that meta (no matter how some people want it to be). It's not that type of game. The evil endings are supposed to be satisfying for those who enjoy playing those endings.

It's supposed to be a different experience. Empty and lonely, sure! But it's still meant to be rewarding for the player. Otherwise, it would be pointless to offer as a roleplay style.

I don't think Larian anticipated so many of us would prefer playing evil like this. I think the idea was for it to be a thing you do after you get bored of playing a few good solo runs. It also doesn't make any sense to spend time and money on an ending, just to slap the player on the wrist for choosing it. They see from the stats how often people make certain choices. People play evil in this game for a lot of reasons, but one big one is because it's just good, devious fun! And without any actual, real world consequences. And I think they see that more than anything. I assume you're also talking about the new evil ending updates?

This phrasing from the first article I saw about it is promising to me that these updates will be satisfying for those who actually enjoy playing/romancing evil--as a positive dark romance and not as some abusive romantic tragedy.

I hope "satisfying narrative conclusions" means that the player can enjoy it for their roleplay. And doesn't just mean the endings are rounded out, but the player gets "punished" in the end. I mean, what are you being punished for exactly? Having fun? SERIOUSLY. Any anti-AA fans lurking the tag care to explain exactly WHY you want people to be punished for playing evil in a video game? I really don't get that. And I don't think Larian cares to do that to their consumers.

Truthfully... I'm hoping the new evil ending fixes will fix Minthara's bugs for one thing. But I also am hoping that it will give us some good AA content. I don't even want to speculate... I'm just gonna wait and see!

AND YES. The infantilization of Astarion and the whole concept of "oh what a cute helpless silly lil bby gorl who needs saving from himself, must be protected and shown who he should be because my Tav/Durge knows best for someone they barely know who's a different creature from them entirely" is...just...

They want a mix of Wyll and Gale but with Astarion's face, voice, and body.

[jyndor]

Hi, saw your post on liberation movements and the ideology behind them - especially Palestine.

As a Ukrainian, you’ve had one of the most rational posts I’ve seen. It’s very disheartening to see the very same people and countries who rightfully call out Israel as a colonialist state which needs to be condemned simultaneously justify or overlook what Russia does to us, and has been for hundreds of years.

All liberation movements should be supported, and it should be of consistent standards. South Africa as you said, should bring Israel to justice, but it’s immoral for them to simultaneously engage in exercises and trade with Russia the same year Russia blockaded and starved Mariupol and raped and tortured women and children in Bucha.

Freedom to all people, from West Papua, to Myanmar to Palestine and Ukraine

Thank you, and I am sorry for what you are going through at the hands of Russia - anyone who denies Russian imperialism is wildly off base.

I've talked about the reasons why I think people who otherwise care about liberation in general are not as supportive of Ukraine as imo we all should be, and I think there's reason for the west to reflect on why it "cares" about Ukraine (the west does not really care about Ukrainians though ofc smdh) and not Palestine or Sudan or Congo or Armenia or West Papua etc etc etc, and it is obviously racism. but that does not mean Ukrainians are not fighting an imperialist aggressor. It is morally just for all to fight their occupiers and colonizers period.

now when it comes to less powerful/global south states aligning with Russia, Iran and/or China... this is where I'm going to kindly push back a tiny bit, or at least maybe give some perspective on this support even though I don't feel good about it and I don't like it lol.

A lot of these countries are getting aid and investment from Russia and China. It's neo-colonialism imo and no one has ever been able to convince me otherwise; sorry weirdos Russia and China (and to a lesser extent Iran) are not supporting these global south countries because they believe in anti-imperialism and resistance (lmao) but because they want to shore up support against the west amongst nations that have been oppressed and brutalized by the west. I'm not going to condemn them for accepting money and not wanting to sour relations with them.

I mean we could say the same about Ukraine accepting aid from the US and other European nations (all of which have that power and aid to give because of stolen wealth through colonialism, slavery and imperialism - and have had the most negative impact on the world). That CLEARLY has informed the government of Ukraine's support of Israel in the past few years, even with the caveats that I am aware that Ukraine's large Jewish population does tend to support zionism and Israel, and that of course there is a large Ukrainian population in Israel, as well as Zelenskyy personally supporting Israel. But in general that doesn't explain why Ukrainians support Israel at least according to the polling I've seen.

This Kyiv-based KIIS poll of just over 1000 Ukrainians from December is stark - 66% of ukrainians support Israel, 1% support Palestinians, 18% support both sides equally and 12% weren't sure. Now this poll or organization is clearly biased in favor of Israel, from this... interesting (lol) takeaway:

I mean obviously one poll is not really indicative of anything, but I'm not terribly surprised. This is why I stress the importance of liberatory politics, because anyone with eyes can see that Israel is the aggressor here, same as Russia in Ukraine. But I'm also gonna give some grace to people currently fighting off an aggressor of their own. Doesn't excuse it, I wish world leaders would be more consistent, but it is what it is.

I see more support from Palestinians to Ukrainians than vice versa, and of course there are Ukrainian Palestinians and Palestinian Ukrainians, and idk how they feel about the idiots discoursing on tumblr dot com but hopefully they don't bother with it lol. You all - Ukrainians, Palestinians - have way more important things to deal with and don't need us internet weirdos getting on you all about this shit.

The rest of us? We can and should reflect on why we support various liberation movements and not others. Everyone should be free - I don't care if Ukraine gets funding from a totally cancelable #problematic shithole country like the United States of Hell, I'm happy we are on the right side of this... and I'm furious that politicians here are trying to tie Ukraine aid to fucking Israel genocide money and so-called border security funding (although my understanding is that got dropped thanks to Republicans being unhinged lol thank god). I am not going to blame Ukrainians for being mad about the holdup here, but also... idk man it's a good thing Israel didn't get more aid, and it's very good that our stupid border hawks didn't get their way either. I think it would be horrible if Ukrainian liberation had the cost of aiding a genocide. And I hate that preventing more genocide aid to Israel in this case meant preventing Ukraine from getting aid.

Unfortunately geopolitics are very, very messy and every country that isn't a global power depends on powerful countries for something. It's not about morality. Which is why states suck and should be abolished lol but that's another topic for another day.

Thank you for sharing anon, sorry for being wordy. I would love to hear what you think about any of this or of course anything.

[4th-make-quail]

wrt the proship/antiship discourse you have posted a little about im such a believer in bringing back “your kink/ship is not my kink/ship, and thats okay” because i hate the pro/anti labels because they don’t mean anything to me. ive been told im more proship but i dont really consider myself pro anything but minding your own business. fiction does not affect me, nor does ‘problematic’ content. everyone loved GOT and that was incestuous but when someone ships something incestuous everyone is up in arms and i don’t like that double standard.

anyway, all that to say more people need to remember that people will like things that they don’t like, and thats okay! that’s your own space to curate! in the context of tvc that you mentioned, i don’t like marius for example, but it doesn’t stop me from following people who do because i like their blogs and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, they’re having fun and i just won’t engage. no one needs to be harassed over fiction, make your own spaces and block liberally, and if people are getting really upset over these made up concepts of pro and anti then maybe they should go outside and talk to people (pro/anti discourse always just makes me think of that “online people: discourse, people irl: hey man how’s it going” tweet lmao.)

(sorry for invading your inbox a little about this but thats my two cents on things i guess.)

lmaoo you're so fucking right about the GoT comparison!! everyone i knew in my office at an old job was constantly talking about GoT and not one of them were fandom people!! also like, the sheer amount of incest-adjacent literal pornography is huge! it's a thing people enjoy to explore!! it means literally nothing about their morals lol

also re: curation, tumblr has a very robust muting system, so it's actually incredibly easy to just not see shit you dislike on here! just put that word in the muted tags/words and boom, sorted (this is what i do with ffxiv tbh cos you couldn't pay me to engage that fandom without my frankly ginormous twitter blocklist XD)

no need to be sorry either, i appreciate you! 💚💚

[sapphire-weapon]

I think the fact that so many people want to label Leon/Ashley as canonically "sibling- coded" is because they feel threatened in the way they view other of Leon's relationships, they can tell Leon and Ashley have chemistry and they try to convince themselves that they have a familial bond going on (like Ellie/Joel) so that they can justify not shipping them and making people who ship it feel bad/weird.

Because nowadays so many people can't just dislike something, they have to make up a reason why it's morally wrong and unacceptable so that way they can bully people that think differently and feel like their own personal opinions are objective and right while everyone else is wrong smh. This is mostly the case with younger fans (tho a lot of people older than me does this too lmao) so that's why I don't really find it frustrating bc it's most likely they have limited real life experience. Plus they might not be that good at interpreting canon from contextual clues yet.

In my case though I think a lot of these people are actually doing the opposite tbh because to me it just shows that they recognize that Ashley's relationship with Leon is real and they can't even concede that they're friends in the canon because they know it could lead to something else if followed through in the story, they admit there's potential there subconsciously with how hard they try to make it seem otherwise with nonsense claims. It's like when insecure guys feel uncomfortable but try to seem tough by buying big trucks and having guns on them all the time lmao.

So, I've talked about this before -- about how the "sibling coded" or "problematic age gap" discourse is just modern-day fandom's way of slutshaming and engaging in casual misogyny in a societally acceptable way.

I'm pretty confident in saying that anyone in my generation who slaps "siblings" on Leon and Ashley are probably people who have another ship and have had it for a while and don't want Ashley getting in the way of it, tbh LMAO

Like.... my generation has co-opted the current generation's vernacular, but make no mistake about the kind of bitches we are. We're ship war bitches. That's all we've ever been AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE OUR WAYS NOW fjdskfh

But if we're talking about the current generation...

Media illiteracy is a big factor in this. It's no secret to anyone that the US education system took a massive shit starting in the late aughts/early 2010s, and things like critical reading skills aren't being taught in schools anymore.

I graduated high school in 2007. Two years later, I went back to visit an old English teacher to get a letter of recommendation, and he was lamenting to me that he'd just given up. It wasn't worth trying to explain the deeper themes of Beowulf to kids who didn't care, because the only thing that mattered was getting them to pass standardized tests.

So, now, without an overt, explicit declaration of love or something visually concrete like a kiss, kids literally do not have the skills to parse through a text and pick out themes and tropes and use of symbolism and imagery. They were never taught how to do it.

But there's a more culture-based thing happening here, I think. It's this fucking mess of a cocktail of internalized misogyny paired with learned helplessness, social anxiety, intense sheltering possibly exacerbated by the pandemic shutdowns, peer pressure, and internet purity culture.

I think it's pretty safe to say that fandom is predominantly made up of women and teenage girls. That was true in the 60s in Star Trek fandom, it was true in my generation, and it's still true today. And what I've seen happening today is that young women are absolutely terrified of their own sexual agency -- because the internet keeps telling them that, if you're under 18, it is wrong and bad and unacceptable for you to engage with anything even remotely sexual and how dare you express your sexuality -- and you'd better not do it not just because it's wrong and bad, but also because you are GUARANTEED TO BE PREYED UPON IF YOU DO. SEX IS DANGEROUS ALL OF THE TIME AND YOU'RE LITERALLY TOO YOUNG AND TOO STUPID TO UNDERSTAND ANYTHING SO DON'T TRY TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Because if you're 17 and he's 18, he's a pedophile!!!!!!!!

I just.

So, we've now basically turned an entire generation of young women into the same type of young women who created the BL genre in Japan. These are women who were too afraid to explore their sexuality on their own, and it felt safer to do it with two male characters, because it was always more "okay" for men to be sexual. This is happening here in the West, now.

Slash ships have always been a thing in the West, but not to the degree that they are today. In today's fandom, if you have an M/F ship at all, you are outnumbered by at least 3:1 -- because M/M just "feels" safer for a lot of the current generation.

So, I think young women look at the Remake portrayal of Ashley Graham, and they identify with her. A lot. They're probably around her age, and her personality is very relatable to the kind of girls who play video games. Ashley's clearly introverted, but she's a fast learner who just wants to help, and she's got a good heart and a weird, kind of awkward sense of humor.

And, not only do these girls identify with Ashley, they're probably thirsty as fuck for Leon.

But that's terrifying to them.

Because they have been taught to fear their own sexual agency. The idea that an attractive, traditionally masculine, older man would be romantically or sexually interested in them is immediately categorized in their brains as wrong and bad -- and they don't want to think of Leon in that way.

So... for them, it can't be romantic. It can't be sexual. But there's clearly something there, but Leon would never abuse or prey on anyone so... that bond must be a perfectly innocent familial affection. That's what it is. That's what it has to be, because anything else forces them to face the uncomfortable reality even young women like them go on dates and have sex -- and sometimes, it's with men like Leon.

So, they thirst over Leon at a safe distance through Luis, primarily. Or they self-indulge on reader fic, because that's so much easier to write off as "just a fantasy" and not a statement on who Leon actually is as a character.

And it's just kind of sad, man. It sucks to see this happen to an entire generation of young women.

That's why I don't really get mad when I see the "siblings" shit out in the wild. I just feel sad for those people -- because they can't just say "I don't like the ship." They're so insecure and neurotic that they have to think of a reason why the ship is literally impossible to ever happen so that they don't have to be worried about it.

One day, they'll finally suck a dick for themselves and learn that it's not that serious. It's really fuckin not. Dicks are stupid, and the boys that are attached to them are even dumber.

[icarianarts]

More about me under the cut! ;P

Icarian • he/they/she (no preference) • transsexual • 21 y/o

I'm a Graphic Design Major ^_^

A running joke about me is a lot of my points of interest reflect that of a cishet boy but I promise I am normal about everything I get into. I may talk about some things more than others because I get embarrassed with what I like easily, but here's a general list!

General Movies + TV Shows

• Seinfeld

• The Birdcage

• The Yellow Submarine

• The Muppets

• The Shrek series (Unironically, whenever I talk about Shrek it is never for the meme, but for my love of the movies and characters.)

Various Adam Sandler movies + things that are so bad they're good, if that makes any sense. I love regularly watching tacky things that were poorly produced and/or written. Pretty much anything I can commentate on easily with my friends and complain about lightly LOL

Anime + Manga

• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Parts 1 + 3 + 6 are usually my areas of focus, but I have read all of it up to 9, which I've yet to really dive into.)

• Dragon Ball (Childhood interest of mine, I haven't watched the series regularly or have drawn fanart regularly since I was 14 or so. Hilariously, I still find myself to this day getting into conversations surrounding it so I might as well include it!)

• Berserk (I LOVE PUCK ^_^)

• Devilman (Obligatory post-Berserk catch up read so I could see the elements Miura was inspired by.)

Video Games

• Pretty much most Nintendo games, I have a baseline knowledge of everything under that company's label. (Focus on Pokémon + Mario + Kid Icarus + etc. it'll be glaringly obvious what my favorites are just by checking my old smash bros ultimate tags...)

• Mega Man Classic

• Second Life + VR Chat (If you ever consider wanting to play any of these games, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM if you'd like an insider's explanation on what the scene is like on them! I can go into great detail the amount of stories I have accumulated from my excursions, all the good and the bad LMAO)

• Genshin Impact (I do not engage with the fanbase, and find a lot of the fans genuinely exhausting to be around. While it is no worse than The Legend of Zelda with its issues, the fans remarkably make it so much more agonizing to talk about.)

• Ball Gay 3

Miscellaneous

• I love the Abrahamic Faiths and sometimes post about my experiences struggling in queer spaces predominantly ran by culturally christian white atheists who choose to say all organized faith is inherently bad and perpetuate the "queer vs. religion" issue.

• I went to a Japanese immersion school from the ages 5 through 11 and have been casually keeping up with the language since!

• I love classic country and folk rock. When I say I like country, I specifically mean the genre and general scene behind country that predates the 9/11 shift in music. I also (embarrassingly) know a shit ton of Beatles trivia. John Denver is my favorite music artist.

...and much more I am probably forgetting to list out! I am critical of all my interests, so please do not be presumptuous. Ultimately, I consider a lot of "Fandom DNI" things to be hypocritical and performative in the sense that it eliminates any nuance.

Simply put, I will just block you if you are someone who refuses to have any critical thinking skills...that being said, given how tumblrinas seem to be incapable of figuring out what that means, here is a brief rundown of what I that tends to encapsulate. LMAOOOOOO

No stupid discourse No creeps No "it's just fictional!" No whatever I deem to be genuinely sickening I know "DNI" pages are performative and areas for people to flaunt their basic morality but lately I have had to block so many people I feel as though I need to put a typical warning up so. You Know. Gestures Vaguely. For Genshin Fans specifically coming to my blog know I do not put up with any ship remotely creepy. I see a good portion of the "short" character model characters as children, and genuinely cannot "unsee" it. This is not something to argue in my asks about. Just leave me alone, I do not participate in the fandom for a reason.

[bluemoon160]

【IᑎTᖇOᗪᑌᑕTIOᑎ】 💙🌌

Hey everyone! My name is Rosalind but I also go by Ross or Ros. OR you could call me by my internet names Blue or Bluemoon if you’d like! (It’s a lot of names I know lol sorry. Just pick whatever).

I’m a 20yo artist, writer, and editor who will be mostly focusing on fanart, self ship, furry content, and maybe some cosplay on this blog. I do have a business focused on my published books, OCs, and editing services which you can find here if you’re interested. I’m more active over on those accounts since I work on that stuff almost full time now but I try and post fan/personal content when I can. This blog specifically will be a place for all my self indulgent interests. I may not be super active here but will try to anyway :)

【ᗪIᔕᑕᒪᗩIᗰEᖇ】

Skip ahead to read more about me, my, interests, and who I ship with, etc. But in the meantime, I need to get this out of the way and say that I really wanna make new friends here but I’m also hesitant to rejoin any sort of self ship and/or fan communities because of how many horrible experiences I’ve had with them before. Perhaps Tumblr is different but I wanted to put this out here for my own peace of mind lol. So please be patient with me. I grew up in fandom and self ship spaces that had constant arguments about literally everything. I didn’t even know what half of these discourses were even about and everything I’ve learned has been against my will. So no, this is not me “taking a side”, I just don’t want to be apart of drama anymore. My morals are this: live and let live unless you’re supporting/romanticizing anything immoral. If you have genuine critiques about how I portray certain things then definitely let me know since I’m always concerned about how I represent stuff, but aside from that, this is just a blog to talk about stuff I like so let’s keep it chill please. 🧍‍♂️

【ᗩᗷOᑌT ᗰE】

⭐My full name Rosalind B. Sterling (or you can call me by the other names listed above)

⭐I’m 20 (covered that lol)

⭐I’m bi and aroace (I also sometimes use the term procul but I don’t identify with it as a sexuality. Just an add on term for my asexuality to explain how my sexual attraction fades away once my relationship with someone becomes real).

⭐I’m genderfluid and my pronouns are she/he/they

⭐I’m mixed race/Puerto Rican

⭐I’m neurodivergent (OCD, MaDD, and a few other things) so tone tags would be great to use around me but they’re not required

⭐I currently live Ohio (yes I’ve heard all the jokes and they’re honestly pretty accurate lmao)

⭐My favorite colors are aqua, bright purple, hot pink, and neon green

【ᖴ/O's】

Note: some of these characters might come from controversial media. I just like them for personal/creative/self indulgent reasons so don’t interact if these make you uncomfortable.

“Main” f/o’s

(Putting this in quotes since I hardly ever talk about these characters nowadays. They’ve just been my main for a while and I feel too attached to take them off the list)

⭐Dan {Dan Vs.} (Started shipping 7 years ago)

⭐Gary {Final Space} (Starting shipping 6 years ago).

Current main:

⭐ Alastor {Hazbin Hotel} (Started shipping 4 years ago) And before anyone comes after me with the “but he’s aroace!” comments, I know that and I don’t erase it. I’m aroace too and kind of imagine him and my S/I being in a possible QPR type thing. I still have developing to do. I just like the thought of two aroaces hitting it off and bonding closely. I take a lot of comfort in him as a fellow aroace so leave me be please 😭

⭐The Narrator and Stanley {The Stanley Parable} (This one’s a polyship and is pretty recent. Been shipping for about 7 months now)

Other f/o’s:

⭐Pinkie pie {MLP}

⭐Reagan {Inside job}

⭐Jinx {Arcane}

Other characters I like but don't consider f/o’s:

⭐Connor {Detroit Become Human}

⭐The Warden {Superjail}

⭐Andre {Inside Job}

⭐Ken {Barbie Movie}

⭐Mike {fnaf movie}

⭐️Rarity {MLP}

⭐Reigen {Mob Psycho 100}

⭐Archer {Archer} (It's always the walking red flags that get me 😔)

Familial/platonic f/o’s:

The only ones I can think of rn is Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel. I kinda see them all like family tbh but specifically Angel Dust. Also maybe Kirk from Star Trek. Like we’d definitely be besties I’m so fr.

There’s probably more but I’d have to think about it.

【KIᑎs】

⭐Reagan {Inside job}

⭐Brett {Inside job}

⭐Moxxie {Helluvaboss}

⭐️ Millie {Helluvaboss}

⭐Tina {Bob’s burgers} (This one’s so funny to me but it’s so true. She’s literally me in every way possible😭)

Am I comfy sharing any of my f/os and kins?

Yes! I’m fine having doubles. I used to hate it a few years back but now that my mental health is a little more in check and I don’t have to rely on self shipping for major comfort like I used to, I no longer feel bothered by that. It was unhealthy anyway. Not to judge anyone who hates having doubles. I understand folks have pretty valid reasons for it. I just realized the attachment I had to these characters was turning into an unhealthy kind of obsession and was hurting me more than helping. I’m out of that place now luckily. I still self ship for comfort reasons but it’s not as in ease as it was before and mostly just for funsies now. If you're comfy sharing and we have doubles, totally message me so we can gush and ramble together! I love doing that 🫶💖

【ᗰY ᖴᑌᖇᔕOᑎᗩ】

Putting this here too since I'll probbaly be sharing furry stuff whenever I get the chance. So here is my eyesore of a fursona which is a wolf/fox/bat hybrid with a scene kid aesthetic who looks like every middle school edgelord oc deisgn vomited into one character. But idc honestly. I’m not doing anything serious with her and am just having fun. I also might use her for self shipping if I end up F/Oing any anthro characters but idk.

Art credit goes to coral-kun

【IᑎTEᖇEᔕTᔕ】

⭐Anything sci fi, crime, or comedy

⭐Any time era from before the 2010s. Though I specifically love the 20s-50s, and 80s-2000s the best :)

⭐Cartoons. Specifically for adults. Adult swim is literally my go to channel lol

⭐Reading, writing, art, crafting, etc

⭐Space, science, dinosaurs/paleontology and history

⭐Animals and zoos

⭐Conspiracy theories and mysteries

⭐Anything horror, paranormal, or creepy pasta

【ᑕᒪOᔕIᑎG】

And that's it! I hope I can meet some new friends and stuff but also predict that my reach won't be all that huge since I've never had massive luck with algorithms. Especially as of late. But if you're seeing this, don't be afraid to message me or interact! I love meeting new folks :3

[fearsomeandwretched]

The way literal cyber bullies on here wanna claim the moral high ground in petty discourse LMAO. Like I could give two shits what you think of me or anything I say you're literally a vile person

[danthropologie]

I watched the podcast and daniel def tries to deflect from those questions and is (imo) very uncomfortable and laughing in awkwardness - def not excusing it tho!

immediately putting it under a cut so people that don't want the discourse can ignore 😭

a couple things i want to say before i say anything else:

these are just my opinions about it. i don't expect anyone else to agree with me, and honestly, i would encourage other people to form their own thoughts and opinions, cause everyone is going to respond differently.

i'm just gonna say it once for the record and then i'm moving on. we're not dwelling on it, i'm not open to further discourse about it, please don't send me anything else about the situation or about anything i've said here because i will be ignoring and deleting it.

now on to the asks themselves:

ok so here's the thing: yes he did deflect to a certain extent, but to me it read more like someone that's been pr trained out the ass and knew that certain jokes or topics were toeing a line they shouldn't touch than actual genuine discomfort, especially as the podcast went on and the jokes kept being circled back to. there were multiple instances where, in the midst of these long misogynist bits from the hosts, he'd sit back and joke about how he's getting a free comedy show. there was the way that after they'd finally moved on from that first, long ass bit and started asking him genuine questions, before answering, he brought it back up to jokingly ask if they're done with that topic now, which of course brought on another round of the joke. and then add to that the comments about bringing them out to a race and wanting to hire them as his personal shit talkers on the grid and things like that...it just felt like there was a constant stream of, like, endorsement of what was happening from him (which of course there was cause he's literally the one that chose to go on there in the first place!!)

i do still like him, but it's also a lot more complicated for me than it was before. like on one hand, it’s been acknowledged over and over that this sport is literally garbage from top to bottom, these men are not the place to look for moral guidance, etc., and so i’m not necessarily surprised by any means when something like this happens, especially considering the fact that this is not the first time he’s said or done something stupid and it probably won’t be the last either. but on the other hand, when it comes to this situation specifically, for me there’s just something so visceral about watching a man in his position—someone with a largely female fanbase that he’s actively and directly profiting off of through his merch—finding that sort of shit funny. it’s gross, it’s shitty, it doesn’t feel good to me, and it’s one of those things where if i knew someone personally that had done the exact same thing, i’d be reevaluating where i stand with them yk? so right now, i’m kind of at the point where i’m still working through those feelings and trying to figure out if this whole situation is something i can personally move past. but either way, i think i’m definitely gonna start thinking twice before giving him quite so much of my money 🤷‍♀️

nothing to add! the whole thing is genuinely just so stupid to me on every level and i can’t imagine what he or anyone on his team was thinking booking it. like you said, even if they agree with it or find it funny or whatever the fuck, you’d think there’d be at least one person with enough of a brain cell to say ‘hey maybe it’s actually NOT a good idea to endorse this publicly.’ but as i said in that post, not surprising that this happened (and that it’s not the first time he’s been on a questionable podcast in the first place) when he’s surrounded by such a homogenous group of yes men 24/7 lmao

i’m saying this with all the love in the world: i really REALLY think that’s a decision you need to be able to make for yourself, rather than be told by someone else. everyone’s going to have their own perspective and their own feelings about it—some people are going to say he deserves to be cancelled, some are going to find ways to excuse it or justify it or explain it away, and others will fall somewhere in between—so the most important thing is figuring out what you feel based on your perspective, rather than just following some herd opinion about who qualifies as a Good Person on tumblr dot edu yk?

[this-is-your-heichou-speaking]

tysm for speaking up heichou! I was so tired of Tumblr turning into this negative space due to these hypocritical flock of sheep ascribing morals to characters like wtf. Don't we all ship problematic couples which includes so many problematic tropes? Don't we all speak about how people should enjoy what they like, and how fictional stories aren't endorsing anything irl?

But nooo they turn into f*cking hypocrites, acting just like antis do, and trying to virtue signal "sexual position morality" like wtf. I HATE Tumblr now due to this group of idiots. They work like a cult following that one damned attention seeking writer. Gatekeeping and trying to teach others what to like and what not to like.

They just don't want to tag their stuff as "bottom xxx" because they know they don't want to loose their views lmao.

It's a shame harrymort has come to this. I love y'all easterns man, so level headed and organised in what you like. Imagine wishing someone's d*ath for liking some preferences. Anti behaviour fr. I wish they just stopped writing. I, for one, honestly don't want any content from anyone who keeps shoving "how grateful I am to have them" right in my face every goddamn second.

Harrymort is better off without fandom discourse.

Also, heichou, love your fics! Much love to you ❤️

Tbh I haven't been on tumblr a lot since the whole p*rn ban thing, I'm only moving back onto it rlly slowly. But yh it's actually horrible here lol everyone's constantly just trying to be holier-than-thou as if this is like a 'godly ship' or smth?? The bible doesn't like you shipping tomarry babe if that's what you want maybe log off.

It's ridiculous to me that tagging is such a problem now, like it's basic consideration. And wouldn't you rather people who were reading your works were people who'd actually enjoy it? Why are you trying to force it on someone lol like it's not fucking Shakespeare or smth chill.

Also ngl I'm from the UK...

Anyway thanks a lot! I'm glad you like my fics 😊 and imma keep writing (and tagging) bottom Harry lol

[rigginsstreet]

I'm not going to be teying defend Jason here. Some of his actions were terrible. The fact he felt the need to go all vigilante and round the town in like that was insane (like fucking Gaston over here) and that scene where he's intimidating Nancy is pretty godamn sketch. His friend threatens to break Erica's arms and that was really fucked (I did find an old ask of yours where an anon said that Jason said he though Lucas "was one of the good ones" but I can't find that anywhere, but obviously pulling a gun on him in the first place was very bad)

That said, as someone with a lot of religious trauma, I really understand his fear regarding the situation. Like... he saw that shit happen with Patric and with what he believes about the world, of course he would think it's some kind of demon shit. Honestly, if I was even just , like, medium religious and I saw that shit, I would probably become a bit of a nut too.

Now I didn't get a lot of talk about dnd but I did get a lot of fear mongering about ouija boards. I just thought that... idk, I'd bring it up. I see a lot of people talking about how people are shitting on Billy without addressing his abuse, but then those same people never talk about how Jason is clearly in so much emotional distress which is propagated by a system that people unfortunately just fall into. He's harming other people, yes, but it's clear he's terrified of just everything constantly, because the kind of religious circle he was probably indoctrinated into really drill that into you and then he's experiencing these gruesome murders. Who wouldn't become hysterical?

I try to be understanding of Billy even when it's hard to watch him get violent like that, but I see little grace for Jason who I relate to to an extent (as someone who was raised in a cult, funnily enough), and then the people who wholeheartedly support and defend Billy will act like Jason didn't have any understandable motivations. They'll literally make fun of people for even bringing up that his girlfriend died so it makes sense he'd be emotional.

I'm sure you'll try to dunk on me about this too, but I think that both Jason and Billy or morally gray and are both products of their environments and they're both sad. So... do you have any thoughts on that?

I mean I haven’t watched season 4 so any thoughts I have on Jason come from what I’ve seen others say, so truthfully I cannot give a firm opinion on him because I just don’t have the full context.

But I also have an interest in religious cults…(watch a lot of documentaries and YouTube video essays lmao) so I do often think about those aspects coming into play with Jason and the brainwashing that goes on. I get mad at a lot of religious discourse in tumblr for these same reasons cuz I don’t think people ever consider that these people actually believe what they’re doing is for the greater good/trying to help people get into heaven etc etc but that’s a whole other topic we don’t need to get into right now

So I can totally understand how in Jason’s mind he thinks he’s being a hero (which most good villain ideologies operate this way tbh. Or at least should). Like I don’t hate Jason. I’ve come around to him to the point where I joke about shipping him and billy. I’ll include him in things from time to time, granted not in the best light but if i straight up hate a character I simply do not include them at all

I think the difference between Jason and billy is that we SEE where billys trauma comes from. We have visual canon proof of it. So it’s a lot easier to look at that and go “ok now everything’s making sense”. With Jason, it’s not canon he was indoctrinated into anything (unless it is. Again, didn’t watch season 4). For all we know he could just live like that. Yes it can be easily assumed since he is still a teenager it is most likely his parents are also cuckoo and passed their ideologies down to him, but again, without any real confirmation, it remains a guessing game.

I also think with billy it’s like, he went after the people he went after for good reason (to him). Max gets his ire because they’re pitted against each other by neil, he goes after Lucas because he’s directly tied to max and everything that gets billy in trouble, he goes after steve for lying to him and being a creepy weirdo with his underage sister

As far as my knowledge of the Jason situation goes…there was no reason to go crazy on Lucas and Erica? Like yes they know Eddie and I guess it was about Jason thinking they were hiding him or something? But it’s like why do they need to be physically attacked (or threatened) so aggressively for it? The two situations in my mind are not the same. And maybe it’s because I’m a billy apologist. I’ll own that. But it comes down to billys safety specifically was in jeopardy the entire time, which led him to act out vs Jason just going on a vigilante crusade that ultimately had nothing to do with him

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

The anti voting thing on the internet is just so weird tbh. "Everyone running for the president is evil we should abolish the system" like okay ??? where do we go from here like either start the revolution you are constantly tweeting or posting on Tumblr/tiktok about or come back into the real world. Like every post about not voting either comes from a place of not knowing anything about how the government works or from a delusional apparent moral high ground.

Complaining about voting in a democracy is simply not serious behavior and it doesn’t deserve a platform. What I’ve learned from (too) many years on the fringe internet space that is tumblr dot com is that political discourse on here and twitter is almost exclusively driven by people who are dedicated to not understanding how the government actually works for the sake of perpetuating their unrealistic ideology and demands, and who are very committed to presenting their refusal to do anything meaningful in the real world as a moral act. All of these posts are nonsense if you’re informed in any way, but they make a lot more sense when you realize these bloggers’ end goal is nothing more than sitting online and looking Cool and edgy to equally terminally online internet friends. Nothing will get you more likes than apathy dressed up in radical rhetoric, so civic engagement is seen as cringey. Meanwhile, Republicans vote in every election because they’re serious about gaining power.

Anyway, not only do I reiterate that I’ll block any anti-voting nonsense, but the civic engagement team at the non-profit I work at is at the polls for every election, including primaries, so I don’t want anyone to present the false dichotomy of voting or mutual aid, either.

Happy 4th of July lmao, and to my British followers: good luck in your elections today!

[valsedelesruines]

A large part of my frustration lately is that I suppose for the first time in a long time (ever?) I really am not enjoying the educational setting. Which I know has little to do with my own preference for learning, but more to do with the style that higher education seems to take in this country (or at least in my region/discipline). I don't share the majority social views, and there is no space or opportunity to effectively challenge them. There is little reward to critical thought and plenty of praise to far left ideologies. Personal beliefs aside, I just don't find it interesting or relevant to include ideas about the state, anarchism, marxism, etc. into my research. I am becoming disinterested in theoretical courses here because they are less prone to open discussion and tend to be dogmatic drills, where a certain morality can't be challenged or you fail the course. Essentially, they've made these interesting subjective discussions into boring objectives of what is "good" and what is "bad". How boring. If I wanted to just regurgitate information from a text without learning why these concepts exist I would go back to high school. But this is the higher educational system: students take gen Ed courses to support departments grad programs, these students mostly don't care, not caring means you the professors don't need to care to dive deeper into the discipline's theoretical nuances and research, not diving into this means lazy coursework for profs and students, lazy coursework means making it easy through simple and straightforward assignments and censoring anything out that might promote discourse. They need the students' money and the students need a minimum of a C grade in the course. Oh, and do they pay attention to the actual useful skills for an individual to enter the commercial workforce which is desperate to have skilled indiciduals and pay them a boatload? No lmao, those clowns. Literally prioritizing "theory" over professional skills, and they wonder why arch departments are the first to get shut down. What a waste of everyone's time. Also, what a way to sneak in a nuanced discussion into a right or wrong multiple choice question. What a way to continue to generate individuals who uphold a polarized view of the world and don't have the skills to use their degree. And for what? No wonder everyone is so tired all of the time. So much time memorising nonsense instead of choosing your own path of education based on your own interests.

Ah well. I'm not going to change it lol. I'm gonna grab the degree and dip hehehehe 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

[somelazyassartist]

Wait there are people unironically attracted to Kurt from Spree. Are you telling me there are also people unironically attracted to Patrick Bateman too

[sewerpigeonart]

i know a lot of u guys are upset and that's valid but i want u to know i will always try to make this blog a safe place, both for my own sake and that of anyone who pops by here, follower or not

if u wanna hmu to distract urselves i'm happy to indulge