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bogkeep · 1 month

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Would you recommend the SSSS comic? I know little of it beside the very beautiful artstyle and premise

to answer the question of if i would recommend SSSS as a comic: yes, yes i would.

a description for those who don't know: Stand Still Stay Silent is a post-apocalyptic horror + adventure webcomic set in the nordics (norway, sweden, denmark, finland, iceland) that have been isolated from the rest of the world and gone back to their old gods. the the world outside of safe zones is full of trolls and beasts - humans and mammals that got infected by a horrible virus and turned into monsters. the story follows a ragtag crew that ventures into the old world (derelict denmark) on an expedition to collect books.

the comic updated every workday until it concluded in 2022, and consists of two Adventures. the creator had plans for many adventures with these characters in this world, but ended it after two when she wanted to take a new direction with her life.

what i love about it:

- the art is GORGEOUS. it's been a huge source of inspiration for me. open any page and it's a masterpiece, and you will ask yourself "how the FUCK did she update this FIVE DAYS A WEEK"

- the characters are wonderful and endearing. i just, i love them so much. i am so thankful lalli hotakainen exists he is one of my #1 blorbos forever

- the world is so cool. the blend of chunky sci-fi and norse mythology fantasy magic slaps. it goes so hard. i fell so hard for this comic when i got to the big ferry ship with a viking style dragon head prow added to it. it's everything

- it really really gets nordic cultures. it's difficult to explain all the dynamics and nuances but it just gets it. it brings me as a scandinavian a lot of joy to read a story that speaks to my heart this way. the attitudes, the language barriers, the cultural differences... it was so refreshing to me in a media landscape dominated by american stories. when the pandemic hit, i decided to reread the comic because i found such an odd comfort in seeing how it depicted the scandinavian countries reacting to, well, a pandemic.

- there's kittycats

what i don't like about it:

- the most glaring and obvious flaw is that everyone in the comic is white. there's not a single character of color anywhere, not even i background shots or the prologue. there's no mention of the saami people (the indigenous people of northern europe), either. i believe this was done in ignorance more than malicious intent, but the implications are Extremely Bad and it's been bothering me (AND MANY OTHERS) since day 1. that is the number one caveat i will give to anyone wanting to check this comic out. i've been in the discourse trenches and i am not going to excuse this. it's just bad!

- you can tell in the middle of adventure 2 that the creator has kind of lost interest in the work, around the time when she found jesus i guess. like, very few people can keep up work on the same creative project for years and years and years and i think it's fine that she wanted to drop it, but it's a bit sad to see the comic dragged to its end like a limp corpse, and feeling like the creator no longer really cares about the characters.

- minna sundberg has said and done some questionable things, presumably gotten somewhat radicalised over time, and has also converted to hardcore christianity which is what her new works are about. there's nothing about this in SSSS - there is a moment of christianity represented in the story in a sort of mythological sense, just like the other religions, but this was written before minna's conversion. her new works... are a Choice. i have much to say about them, and i have, and im not gonna rehash it now.

SO YEAH hopefully this will help you take an Informed Choice! i got into this comic in 2015 and was deep in the fandom and it's for better or for worse part of my soul foundation now.

i also recommend A Redtail's Dream, minna's "practice comic" before SSSS, based on finnish mythology and the kalevala.

#stand still stay silent #might as well tag this if i wanna dig it up later

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nyandaah · 23 days

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I don't know how to articulate my thoughts on it consicely (as usual, hence why I rarely ever write posts here anymore), but ever since this week's dunmesh ep I can't stop thinking about That scene between toshiro and laios and how it's been talked about as a piece of representation of the neurodivergent struggle.

I've seen those panels countless times before the anime got to it, and I can't understate how Real of a thing it is that we're seeing through laios- that pain and frustration that comes from having the rug pulled under you in being told that been getting it Wrong the whole time and nobody's bothered to point out the donkey tail pinned on your ass.

but I think that's only the first half of the statement, and the way people talk (and don't talk) about toshiro does the moment a disservice.

seeing how people talk about it before getting to the scene itself, it ended up catching me off-guard how much of a Person toshiro is. he's always talked about as the strawman or the figure representing neurotypical society- the one that others us.

I see where it's all coming from, he's not a likeable character to most of the fandom for reasons I won't hold anyone against, but again- he's an important part of the picture that dunmesh paints of the nd struggle.

I find it absurd to portray toshiro as a representation of the 'average'. being both of royalty and of a culture that has instilled upon him his own values and expectations when it comes to socialization. it's why the inclusion of his retainers (especially maizuru) was a brilliant story decision; alongside laios', we get to see HIS social ineptitudes and how central they are to HIS character.

like. a major point of grievance many of the audience has with toshiro is his rose-tinted 'romance' with obviously-uninterested falin. I get it, especially if you've experienced that type of engagement with an unwanted pursuer. but dear lord if that doesn't perfectly parallel him with laios as a fellow Socially Inept Man.

it hit me as much as laios hit me when he said he envied our boy's sincerity. because that's a true and often less talked about part of the neurodivergent struggle(tm)- the difficulty to express your feelings. just like the other end of the spectrum, it hurts yourself as much as it hurts others.

as someone whose brain problems often manifest as social anxiety and feeling like i'm either unable to or unworthy of expressing how I feel, I envy laios too.

tl;dr- there are two characters present in that scene in episode 17.

#dungeon meshi #laios touden #toshiro nakamoto

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accio-victuuri · 6 months

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11/19/23 updates cpn 🎂🍦🍪

for some reason, today, both of them decided to share on their social media. for wyb, it’s his douyin. for gg it’s weibo + douyin. xzs also posted on their weibo. they didn’t even bother splitting it up like one will post in the morning and the other afternoon/evening. nope. it’s all in the same afternoon.

we were hoping for some 24 hr relay, but these gremlins are like nope. we will just post very closely to each other. for wyb it’s definitely a part of his homework completion. lol. and the fact that he is wearing something evisu related again. how many things did he do during this shoot? 😂 as for ZZ, it seems like he is trying to catch up too? ( douyin stuff are from yuguyao promotion ) nonetheless, we are happy to get stock content.

doing this made them both go on HS. i love seeing their names on HS for stuff like this. (?FYI for wyb it’s more of the “cross dressing” meaning switching clothes.)

now let’s see what else is there….

1. The same use of emojis as captions on there douyin posts as if they really have no time to think of even a word or line to use. lol. tho this kind of caption is not exclusive to them, it’s just nice to see them matching like this on the same day.

2. There are a couple of guesses on what they are “celebrating” today ; what could possibly be the reason for doing this specifically on the 19th.

(p1) it’s wyb’s 105th post on douyin. 10.5 which represents zz’s birthday, so it’s special. that’s why they both posted today. (p2) the day zz shared his japan trip. i think this doesn’t need any more explanation, japan trip cpn is notorious on this fandom. (

(p3 and p4) this one is kind of reaching but it’s one of those 2020 candies that i love and it happened around this time too. 11/18 - 11/19 it was speculated that they spent time together. for those who were here during that time, WYB shared a video (11/20) of him skating and his caption was like i wish i could go skating everyday and then the three dots. WYB loves skateboarding and i don’t doubt that he wishes he can play everyday, but the cpn-colored glasses is wondering if what he is really talking about is skateboarding. or maybe, maybe he was wishing he could spend time with GG everyday or more often. and the three dots, which in turtledom means i miss you just adds fuel to this CPN. The penguin photo was shared by XZ on 11/18 and it’s a piece that people are adding, it is making the heart gesture and could be because XZ is happy to be with WYB.

There is a CPN timeline from that period in 2020 so lemme just refresh people’s memories even if it’s totally irrelevant ( probably ) to this post. I love myself some cpn archaeology. 🔍

11/17 was luoyang opening ceremony so he was kinda busy here but they still got to spend time together. In hindsight, this is very telling, cause there was some heavy speculation that GG was present during Luoyang presscon. If he was there during the opening ceremony for the filming, he might have been introduced to select cast and crew. So it was easier for him to tag along for the press con before the official release cause he knows the people. 11/19 was the release of the wolf and WYB attended the chanel x vogue event. 11/22 GG released a douyin video and we CPN about the curtains and how it’s similar to one of Bobo’s. Again, hotel curtains are not the most reliable measure, i know, but that’s how CPNs work.

11/25, YBO posted alluding to the douban issue of downvoting works. basically manipulating data — look at YBO calling out this practice years before, they know how unreliable DB is. everyone knows. the point is, around this time, The Wolf was getting downvoted by antis.

11/29, an episode of TTXS was aired where WYB said “i can’t give up what i like”. A sentiment that is true in everything he does, from dancing to his other hobbies. No matter how hard it is and even if it seems like everything is against him, he will not give up. The same is true (probably ) with his relationships. 🤍 this episode was filmed 11/22 which was very close to when they allegedly spent time together so the feeling is there ( and there is a whole different cpn for that day too lol ).

In 2019, GG’s Bazaar promo was release where he said that he saw his love in a dream ( i don’t think this needs any explanation ) and 2021 they also posted around the same time and both are transitions.

This is all guess work, they could be posting for the simple reason of KPI or their studios scrambling to get their bosses to be visible online 😂😂😂 BUT THE POINT IS, there seems to be significant things happening during this time and always including 11/19 between them. ✨ It fits the pattern we have been seeing for years.

3. WYB’s 105th post on Douyin and GG’s 1050 post on Weibo. 🤡🤡🤡

4. The use of a light in their hands as an element to their post. For WYB it’s a transition to change clothes and for GGs it’s more of a sunshine/light.

They share the same brain cell. Lol. and BXGs are so good cause there is already an art for it.

5. I love how XZ was like i don’t wanna be doing this while filming the Douyin. goes to show what happens behind the scenes and how similar he & WYB are. in the video, XZ was asking his staff “is this viral?” and they respond with “really viral” and he proceeds to make faces like he can’t believe 🤣🤣🤣 If he only knew, the most random things go viral. and he probably didn’t want to do it cause it had the cute vibe to it.

Similar to WYB, he prefers the cool transitions and he is someone who will not be willing to do a douyin trend. Both of them would rather share things they love like photos of places or their hobbies.

The lyrics for GG’s video is:

oh no oh no i haven’t talked to my baobei

baobei, what are you doing?

muah are you there? are you asleep?

baobei, what are you doing?

why aren’t you replying?”

Going by the theme of the song, missing someone, his baobei who is not replying lol is this a shout out to WYB? 😅

Anyway, it’s being linked to WYB’s post. The whole transition with the phone light he is doing was said to be popular in 2021. There is a couple version, which means two people are doing it and the BGM used is a song i will still miss you.

youtube

Looking at the lyrics, I understand why he didn’t use it and went with the cool tune instead. It’s a bittersweet song and about missing because the couple grew apart. WYB still wants to match the missing theme but probably scrapped it cause GG’s is more on the cute type of missing someone. 🙃

6. Going back to the Japan Trip, their posts seem to echo that time. 11/19/2018.

From WYB’s use of his phone and the shot. To XZ’s most obvious posting on the same day and SAME TIME 🤯🤯🤯

THIS IS WHY JAPAN CPN WILL FOREVER BE RELEVANT!!!!!! Happy 5th anniversary i guess! 💟 Dude I can’t fuckin believe Xiao Zhan did this the fuck he is insane for this.

7. In usual turtle clowning fashion, some of em commented xz or wyb’s photo on their douyin. These might be buried now cause solos are doing the most to make sure the top posts are theirs.

-END.

Disclaimer: this is all CPN. meaning, it is interpretation/speculation from a cpf’s perspective and uses lots of symbolism and past events that are known and understood by cpn-inclined turtles. this is not the place to wash things cause again, it’s all cpn anyway. I don’t make these posts to be picked apart, it is for fun and to enjoy. Okay? Okay. If you wanna complain, do it on your own blog.

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here i’m just clowning like i always do #feels so good to go back to fandom #i have been so busy the past days and tired lol #THIS BECAME LONGER THAN EXPECTED CAUSE I CANT KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT LOL #Youtube

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osakanone · 5 days

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UPDATE: The Destiel/Supernats aren't taking this well -- explaining my reasoning for the history I gave, and why Destiel is not the big bitch of shipping that it thinks it is

An update to THIS:

"This is just a marketing thing, Gundam is a giant robot show, only men watch it!"

Gundam's fandom is silent majoratively feminine:

"But its not gay, its about giant robots!"

Gundam is very gay. The entire climax of the first story is a riff of Yukio Mishima lmao

The climax of the Amuro/Char arc of Universal Century Gundam (expounding from first Gundam circa 1979), Char's Counterattack is somewhat on the history of Japanese disillusion with liberalism which notably climaxed with the life and history of Yukio Mishima.

You know. THAT Yukio Mishima.

The one who wrote FORBIDDEN COLOURS.

It was so gay that the fanfiction inspired by it became its own damn anime:

And that's just Charmuro, let alone Charma or a billion other ships just in OG Gundam alone.

We've got This is before we get to Guin Sard Lineford and Yamagi Glimerton (both verrrrry gay), Tieria Erde (a genderqueer trans-coded character who transcends gender entirely in their arc) and a bunch of others.

Gundam was always gay.

"I don't see the numbers"

"That doesn't seem like much, Supernat is at least 2x this"

Sooooo the amount of content you do see isn't representative of how much even got written, given FFN had a huge content purge.

First, let's start with the relative proportion of users: If we're analysing the concept of fandom, we first have to look at who had access to the internet in the first place to publish works.

Yeah that's a pretty sizable difference.

Wing's fandom actually exploded in 2000, but got capped VERY early, distributing itself to fansites when FFN fragmented and collapsed.

Why?

Content purges!

"Isn't there some sort of online archive of this stuff?"

Sure, if you wanna dig through tons and tons of Angelfire and Geocities pages which have mostly disappeared. Otherwise, no! There is no archive of this stuff?

"Why?"

They've since rolled back on this but it means there's a massive amount of lost media out there, including the discussions on it and thus there's an entire history you didn't get to experience.

Its actually very difficult to reach people who've been involved, since it was so long ago that very few people remember, and a sizable proportion of that population have actually died.

"But what about SF fandoms? We have ancient records of stuff like Spirk!"

See unlike physical media like zines, when a server goes offline or there's a data-loss, or something like that there is no surviving copy of the thing in question.

The net result is we have this weird hole where content just vanished, and its now considered lost media. The work of many artists, designers, writers, even videos of events are just lost media because we didn't have the archival mentality adults develop.

You're not gonna hear about all the X-Files stuff or Frasier fanfictions or GW stuff because of these purges and the lack of physical media. FFN users were teens, not adults with resources like US/EU/JP SF fans, who had archival tendencies due to their long history.

So there is this supermassive black-hole in the history of fanfiction running between 1998, and 2008 and some of the only evidence of it are worksafe works and fansites which the owners have long since forgotten about because folks moved on. Moving on is a normal part of fandom.

So to those of you just saying "supernatural is losing to a pair of dumb anime girls" or "urgh this is just a trend tumblr will get over it and go back to supernatural"...

Uhhhhh no they won't, actually?

Supernat's fans mostly seem to be waspy Americans. Gundam is kind of a global phenomenon, one which has traditionally had a silent majority female audience, a vocal minority male audience -- and every time that majority has spoken up, its coincided with a content purge, or a TOS change that mysteriously biases American derived fiction over Japanese derived fiction.

Funny that.

tl;dr:

NATURE IS HEALING

#witch from mercury #supernatural #destiel #g witch

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comicalfont · 3 months

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Undertale is for Everyone

Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday marked five years since the day I first started playing Undertale. It's led me to dwell on what exactly I would say the game has meant to me, with how loaded a question that is. There's so much I owe to Undertale, and the joy it's brought me is something everyone is as deserving to be a part of. Despite some recent fandom events, all members of the fandom need to know that the game celebrates and welcomes them with open arms, which I'll get to more in a bit.

I first played Undertale at a period in my life with a lot of unanswered questions, both for present me and future me. I'd managed to not give it a try in the first few years it was around, but after running into enough Deltarune fan content in the wild when it came out, I played Chapter 1 and loved every bit of the atmosphere and characters, and I wanted to play Undertale right after. After accidentally killing Toriel and starting over, I was immediately drawn into the story it told and the friendships I was making. My appreciation of Sans was there from the start, and here I am, many reader fics with him later, and the rest of the main gang felt like buds I'd been hoping to meet some day. Even the minor characters meant so much to the journey, and by the time it was done and I'd seen what Frisk/the player's kindness and want for peace can do, I was completely hooked and the game rented a free condo in my brain.

What I wasn't expecting was the other ways Undertale's touched my life. I'm trans, and before I'd played, it had only really been associated with discomfort and a wish for things to be better, without much of a light at the end of the tunnel to look at. Undertale's queer-friendly themes and the characters' insistence on being themselves opened me up to thinking about a future where my own kindness and, well, determination can lead me to being the true me. While my trans story was far from done, it helped me see the future as something I can smile about, rather than needing to be afraid. The fics that I've written about Undertale, and especially the bone-friend, since I played have also led me to meet the people I consider my closest friends, as well as being a gateway to other fandoms that have captured my interest. These connections I've made through the game are ones I'll carry with me for the rest of my life.

So, where am I going with all this? Undertale has invited me into a better path than the one I'd been taking, and that's an opportunity I'll forever be grateful for. Unfortunately, there are some in the fandom space who have shared hateful views about people simply for who they are, and everyone should know how far those views are from the truth. Undertale is a game about love and growth, and it is the responsibility of those who participate in its community to follow its footsteps and celebrate everyone for their traits; not just tolerate, but celebrate. For fellow trans people in particular, I've been thinking about this the most; you are real men, real women, and real non-binary identities, and all of those things are represented in Undertale itself. Celebrating trans lives isn't just the right thing to do, it's a part of this wonderful game we're all enjoying together.

Maybe this reaches just two people, or twenty, or more if I'm lucky, but whoever does read this far, thank you for taking the time to see how much Undertale has meant to me over these five years, and I hope you know how much you mean to the community. We're all making it a better place by being ourselves, and I hope the game keeps lifting people up for many years to come. Now, go read that new volume of the Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter!

#undertale #deltarune #undertale fandom #sans #ao3 #sans x reader #trans positivity #trans rights #trans pride #ut characters are canon trans supporters #calcium cat #calcium-cat #iykyk

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lunarsights · 4 months

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𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢'𝐬 𝐊𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐚: 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞

since this entire "situation" has occurred i've been curious about nicki's chart and made some observations about pluto aquarius and all the karma she's been building up will be affecting her career and legacy in the long run. i got tired of just having the ideas in my head, so i thought why not make a post?

i could also do a reading on this if people want, but i didn't do one just because the astrological part of this will already be so long. i examine a few planets and objects in nicki's chart and in four people who she has "beef" with, and my observations are as follows...

𝐀𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆

being an aquarius rising means nicki is seen as very innovative and original. i wouldn’t be surprised if people from her childhood said things like, “it was always expected she would be famous for something. she always stood out”. she might have even been a trendsetter in the areas she frequented, and that idea of being someone who brings something new to certain areas can also be seen in her career. her ascendant is at a taurus degree, so she could also be seen as someone who has money and material things that no one else can get their hands on. her rising is making positive aspects to her sun and fortuna, so this amplifies her uniqueness in her overall personality and also explains her virality when it comes to her fame.

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𝟏𝟎𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐎

nicki has her saturn, asteroid fan, medium coeli (MC), and jupiter in scorpio in her tenth house. she has other planets and asteroids too, but they aren’t important for what i’m looking at. her saturn is at 0° which means it is the pure embodiment and energy of the sign it is in. saturn is the most important planet in this astrological interpretation because it deals with responsibility, structure, and karma. with that, scorpio saturn is actually a very powerful, intense placement. it gives the energy of forcing its natives to deal with their responsibilities head on or else they can expect extreme, emotionally painful transformations and repercussions. as for karma, it ensures those who cross them can expect swift and mysterious consequences that have long lasting impact, but these types of consequences can also turn around on the native if they don’t learn from their mistakes or do wrong to others. with her saturn in the tenth house, when nicki does wrong to others it directly impacts her public reputation and career.

her asteroid fan is at 19° which is a libra degree. this explains the obsessiveness of her fan base because of the scorpio elements. barbz are overly protective of her and could feel an unexplainable connection to her and her achievements. in a sense, they could see what she succeeds in doing as representative of them; they could have thoughts like “those are our accomplishments too; we helped her get those”. these ideas are not in a “she owes us” way though; barbz could see themselves as extensions of nicki in a way. this asteroid is conjunct nicki’s MC, so it also explains why a large part of her image and public perception is tied to her fandom.

nicki’s MC is at 22° which is the “kill or be killed” degree which is associated with capricorn. i always talk about how this degree can entail great success and attention for someone, but it can also be their greatest downfall if they aren’t careful. i always think of this degree indicating a possible fall from grace which seems to be the energy nicki is in right now. the 22° will always bring about destruction in some way. when nicki was first starting out her reputation involved destroying the older state of the female rap game and creating something new that was more popularized with the general public; now, her reputation is being destroyed because of the reckless ways in which she’s been acting. with her MC conjunct fan, her own fans can also bring about her destruction because of their feverishness.

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𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒

nicki’s uranus is in her eleventh house in sagittarius at 5°. i found this interesting because 5° is usually considered to be a short-term fame indicator in comparison to other leo degrees like the 17° or the 29°. nicki’s career has existed for ten long years - especially when taking into account how fast paced the music industry is alone (let alone if you’re a woman in the industry). her time of fame seems to go against this idea of short term fame, but i’d argue it indicates her legacy not being long term which i feel we can already kind of see. nicki was a majorly respected figure for a very long time before the prospect of a viable new female rapper came into play via cardi b. when that happened, the switch from people being fans of nicki to fans of cardi or even haters of nicki became very clear. not only is there a generation of people who do not know the strength of nicki at the highest point of her career, but she is creating a divisive public image which puts her legacy at stake with even those that grew up with her. overall, i feel this makes her public reach in the long run volatile and unsustainable.

nicki also has asteroid icarus in this house and sign at 11°. asteroid icarus is another indicator of where someone can cause their own downfall if they aren’t careful. with this, nicki could cause her own future to crumble because of the eleventh house influence. she could lose influence over a generation of people and/or over her own friend and work group. the eleventh degree is directly connected to massive wealth, so that could be an indicator her downfall could come with a lot of financial restraint; going from having tons of money to struggling to maintain a lifestyle one has gotten used to.

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𝟐𝟖° 𝟏𝟐𝐇 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒

i originally wasn’t going to talk about this placement because i didn’t think it was all that important to what i was going to look at, but by the end you’ll be able to see how it is. mars represents one’s drive, desire, and strength. with a capricorn mars, nicki is very headstrong and structured in her drive and strength. she could be the type of person to plan her actions and goals. she could be very hardworking and undeterred by outside noise. she could be driven by the idea of tradition and her work ethic could be heavily reliant on her emotions and her emotional state - this is even more so true with this placement being the twelfth house.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐒

𝑳𝒊𝒍 𝑲𝒊𝒎

𝟗° 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

lil’ kim’s birth time is unconfirmed, but according to astrotheme, her saturn is at 9° in cancer. this means kim’s cancer works undercover and makes not only kim but also those who cross her end up doing some introspection on themselves and makes them reconcile with how they see themselves as a person. those who cross kim could also end up having a fragile emotional state, and their home life could be tumultuous afterwards. additionally, this saturn can be deceiving; one could think they’ve gotten over the worst of their karma, but saturn will come back and be like “actually, i was just planning more on the down low. I decide when i’m done”.

lil’ kim’s saturn is in nicki’s sixth house, so it would directly impact her work habits, health, and ideas of self-improvement. so, nicki crossing kim could result in nicki eventually thinking long and hard about who she is as a person and what she’s done to people as her life has gone on. i would even venture to say at its worst it could present nicki with inexplicable health issues that take a while to discover. this placement could also result in nicki having unstable emotional health and regulation; it could also indicate making nicki’s home life tumultuous enough that it becomes incompatible with her work habits.

𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒚 𝑴𝒂

𝟐𝟎° 𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

remy ma’s birth time is also unconfirmed, but astrotheme says she has a 20° virgo saturn. virgo saturn could impact one’s habits, the way they spend and get money, and the help they receive. so, if saturn were to teach remy ma lessons when she needs them, she could want to be more controlling over her work and life situation than she would otherwise usually be. she could end up working or spending too much, and could find that she’s burned a lot of bridges which makes it harder for her to rely on others for necessary help. the 20° also indicates jealousy, so those who are jealous of her could get the upper hand if karma was to come her way.

remy ma’s saturn is in nicki’s eighth house and conjuncts her vertex, so all the karma that a virgo saturn carries could be enacted onto nicki because of her beef with remy ma. the eighth house deals with finances, and merging assets (so like what one could receive as an inheritance or what one could gain from their spouse). this makes me think the karma nicki receives from remy ma’s saturn could be directly tied to her financial status. she could find herself jealous of others’ resources; she might even be spending beyond her means. she could be working very hard for very little return. additionally, this karma would impact how much help nicki gets from other people in the industry. by now, it’s very obvious she does not seem to have the hold on people she used to have, so we can see these consequences manifesting very easily now, but the eighth house does move sneakily, so this could’ve been a long time coming and more could be uncovered on her financial state and on how many bridges exactly she’s burned and how.

𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊 𝑩

𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝟏𝟏° 𝐀𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

cardi b appears to have an aquarius saturn at 11° in the eleventh degree. if cardi were to cross someone, she could struggle with her community and those around her. she could lose her status in her friend group, and with the 11° she could lose money as a result of her friend group.

this placement is in nicki’s first house which started my initial observation when i looked into this situation. cardi b is the only person from the four people i’ve chosen to look at whose saturn is in one of nicki’s public houses which explains why nicki’s public image was most affected when she disrespected cardi. nicki did in fact struggle with the community at large when she crossed cardi; the public perception of her faltered, and people felt she was not friendly with new women artists because she was scared they would overtake her unique lane in the industry. i wouldn't be surprised if nicki lost out on a lot of money as a result of the whole fiasco with cardi.

𝑴𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏

𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝟏𝟐° 𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

megan thee stallion has her pisces saturn at 12° in her eleventh house. megan’s karma could have long-lasting effects on her - in general and spiritually. she could feel disconnected from her friend group and focus more on introspection and her own spirituality. her saturn could lead her to be more daydreamy and ignore certain warning signs about others that she might’ve otherwise paid attention to. the karma she encounters could lead to some kind of spiritual rebirth or insight once she’s learned her lessons.

this placement is in nicki’s second house which means with nicki crossing megan, her money will be directly affected. i feel this is another indicator of nicki having money problems as a result of all the people she’s crossed and been disrespectful to. megan’s saturn has double piscean energy because of the degree it’s at - this magnifies the intensity of the karma nicki will receive. like i said earlier, three out of four people’s charts i looked at indicated their saturn working undercover, but i would say megan’s saturn will be most impactful because of the sign and degree. it will also cause a lot of people on the outside to be confused about why all the karma is coming so suddenly and why it sticks as opposed to the way other people’s saturn does. megan’s saturn will be most personally destructive to nicki out of the people i’ve looked at in my opinion.

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𝟏𝟐° 𝟖𝐇 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑

megan’s sagittarius jupiter is in her eighth house at 12°. megan could be someone who is very open when it comes to understanding and bonding with other people. this could also entail her luck being out of this world and working in mysterious ways or as a result of having some sort of strong spiritual team behind her. she could have luck when it comes to whom she marries and decides to merge finances with if she decides to do that. it could also entail her being very lucky spiritually.

this placement is in nicki’s eleventh house, and it conjuncts her icarus and sun. with this conjunction, nicki’s downfall (that’s caused by herself) could benefit megan a lot. this gives, the “bitch, i still win” energy megan talks about a lot. it could also reflect back on nicki in that any time megan is gaining a ton, people’s attention to nicki could fade. this loss of attention and resources/luck could cause nicki to get frustrated since the light of her sun is being overtaken by the expansiveness of megan’s jupiter.

⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡

𝟐𝟗° 𝟗𝐇 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐂

megan’s capricorn MC is in her ninth house at 29°. capricorn MC at a fame degree makes me think fame was always in the cards for megan. the 29° is also a long-term fame degree in comparison to the 5° nicki has with her uranus. The 29° also indicates clairvoyance which makes sense when looking at megan’s come up. if i remember correctly, megan really spoke her fame into existence and other people could tell she was going to blow up when she was in high school. this could also be an indicator megan always knows where she’ll be going in her career; she’ll always have a plan of success or a way to be sure she’s set for the rest of her life.

this placement is conjunct nicki’s mars in her twelfth house, so megan’s fame and public reputation could impact nicki’s drive and ambition. when both megan and nicki are focused on their craft, they gain success, but nicki seeing megan gain so much success over her could impact her work habits and routine (along with all the karma she’s building up from others over the years). this could create a situation like megan says where “every time i get mentioned, one of y’all bitch-ass niggas get twenty-four hours of attention”; nicki could get so caught up in seeing megan rise that her work falls to the wayside in terms of its structure which can be seen as she’s been yappin’ for like three days now just to release a “response diss” that isn’t very good.

𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

in short, nicki has built up a lot of karma over the years, and the reason why it's worse is because most of the karma built up is hidden or works behind the scenes until it decides it wants to go public. even then, a lot of the saturn energy is powerful and intense which will cause her to go through many transformations.

the karma she's been building up has been and will continue to affect her public image, but it especially affects her finances in ways that won't be understood by the public until late.

if you needed a reminder that what's done to you will always come back to haunt to you can look to nicki's rise and fall to serve as a warning.

#astroblr #celebrity astrology #nicki minaj #nicki minaj astrology #megan thee stallion #megan thee stallion astrology #remy ma #remy ma astrology #cardi b #cardi b astrology #lil kim #lil kim astrology #astrology #lunarsights #SoundCloud #Spotify

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shadyvoxtruth · 5 months

Text

How ShadyVox Threatened Myself & Others For Years

My name is Martin Billany but I am also known as LittleKuriboh in the YouTube sphere/Yu-Gi-Oh fandom.

I am posting this here for posterity in case all of my other posts elsewhere about it are removed. Also because there has never been a single unified place to find all of this information presented in sequence.

Patrick, also known by his pseudonyms of ShadyVox or Scratch21's Matt Robinson or Blake Swift, spent the better part of 2019-2023 both threatening me and manipulating a group of real victims.

A brief history - for those who don't know, Patrick/ShadyVox and myself were heavily involved in the "abridged series" world in the late 2000s/mid 2010s. I myself started the whole abridged parody nonsense with Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged, and Patrick would follow suit by doing a Yu-Gi-Oh GX Abridged. We met through content creation and formed a friendship through it. Not best friends or anything, but friendly enough.

Patrick would later leave the abridged series stuff behind and start over making music, working in original animation for popular internet channels, etc. Stuff he was genuinely very good at. It was a strong choice to move away from parody content, as it likely would have held him back at some point.

At a certain point in 2018, I received a communication from him that requested I remove certain YouTube comments on my videos that featured him. These comments were demanding to know why Patrick was following various right wing channels and were calling him alt-right, etc.

I agreed to remove the comments because I considered him a friend and automatically assumed there was some big misunderstanding. As it turned out, he was subscribed to a few channels that caused me to confront him.

I was emotional and upset, admittedly. Things politically were at a fever pitch and I had been swept up by it. I have included screencaps of our conversation.

Later I would apologize to him for my outburst and try to make amends. You're probably wondering why I would include this since it doesn't seem to involve Patrick threatening me, and it seems if anything to suggest I got upset at him.

That is because I truly believe this is the moment Patrick decided he was going to find some way to come after me. I believe that Patrick had spent a lot of time creating a mask for himself, and had worn it very well, and the moment someone saw through it for even a moment he decided I had to be dealt with somehow.

At this point - mid 2018 - Patrick and I were not close. We hadn't worked on anything together in half a decade. We really only kept in touch in a cursory fashion. So I imagine this interaction stuck in Patrick's craw something awful.

I was, however, closer with the person Patrick had worked in conjunction with on his abridged series, X. These days X is my best friend. Back then, I don't know how close we were. But definitely closer than either of us were with Patrick.

One day in 2019, entirely out of the blue, Patrick messages me privately to inform me that X once slept with a girl who was 17 when he was in his early 20s.

My own spouse was sexually assaulted before I met them, and as a result I have a no tolerance policy on anything that even could resemble assault. So I immediately ended my friendship with X.

And as I was doing so, Patrick told me repeatedly that I was overreacting.

As you can see, by Patrick/Shady's own words, this was a long time ago. Just under a decade or so, by my count.

And most importantly, Patrick had been aware of this for the whole decade or so and chose this very moment to tell me that this happened.

I want you to keep that in mind, especially the fact that when I said I was ending my friendship with X, Patrick's actual response was "it was a long time ago, he's gotten better."

It was painful to end my friendship with X, but I did. I told him that if he could provide satisfactory proof that what Patrick had said didn't represent the facts of the situation, I could be his friend again. Until then, I cut off all communication from X.

A week or so later I received specific evidence that pointed to a situation wherein Patrick was intentionally misrepresenting what happened, or the alleged victim's story. The alleged victim VERY specifically disagreed with Patrick.

You'll note that I'm not including screen caps of these conversations - that is because the alleged victim, and other involved parties, DO NOT WANT to be part of any of this and have needed actual therapy because of Patrick's behavior in the past. Not just here.

Anyway.

I returned to Patrick/Shady and told him there had been a misunderstanding. I wanted to clear the air and give him a chance to say something along the lines of "oh okay, obviously I had my facts wrong." I mean, as you yourself have just read - he said himself that this was a long time ago. Maybe he got some wires crossed.

This is how Patrick actually responded:

The screenshots were taken on different dates, hence why his twitter icon looks different suddenly.

But yes. His response to me explaining that the alleged victim disagreed with his stance, was to insist that the alleged victim must be lying and that I should be absolutely infuriated.

After he'd tried to tell me that there was no point in being upset about this information that he had sat on for the better part of a decade.

Patrick continued to scream at me via dm, repeatedly requesting that I give him my phone number so we could talk about this. I assume this is because he didn't want any kind of text evidence of what he was going to say to me, or what he was doing.

He would later, mid-conversation, tell me that he was deleting all of his dms to me. Not sure why. It doesn't remove them from my side of the conversation, so I still have access to all of them. I have not shared the entire private message thread yet, because it's sensitive and involves people beyond just myself. But if the dms ever do need to be made public entirely, I have them.

I ended up blocking Patrick during this very conversation because he had begun screaming at me, behaving extremely unhinged and in a frightening manner. I honestly think he had hoped that I would initially try to defend my friend from his accusation, in which case he was going to fly off the handle then. But because I had genuinely believed him and removed my friend from my life, only to then learn Patrick's story didn't hold water, he had no choice but to lash out now. When it didn't make any sense to suddenly be irate about a thing he had told me about, and had literally just said "it was a long time ago."

Within 24 hours, Patrick had sent me a threatening email saying he was going to expose me for everything I was doing. I have attached the highlights of the email, parts that don't involve other people's names.

Some of the references in this email - specifically about how I've associated with others and ignored people calling me out for it - are related to a podcast I was on, alongside Patrick. Until recently I had indeed tried to move on with my life after a number of the people involved had revealed themselves to be toxic. I had made efforts to separate myself from those people. It had been years since I'd really had any direct connection to any of them.

I do indeed regret not speaking out about it sooner.

Having said this, Patrick himself was equally as guilty for not speaking out - and had in fact spent a significantly larger amount of time talking to/working with the people in question.

As such, I believe a lot of this is some form of bizarre projection on his part.

I ignored the email because I was a) worried that he had suddenly snapped, and b) I didn't think any of the content warranted a response.

A day later, I received this email from Patrick where his tone has changed entirely:

As you can see, this is more in line with the reality of the situation. He is apologizing profusely and insisting I didn't actually do anything wrong, and that he was the one in the wrong.

You'll also note that he signs this particular email "Patrick." That is because it is his real name, and I believe he was possibly appealing to my humanity and the part of me that might still have seen a friendship worth salvaging. Otherwise I could not tell you why he signed his real name - he typically hates using it.

I still did not reply because at this point I was confused and scared and wanted him to leave me alone. And to that point, he had specifically stated at the end of his email that he was the problem and he would not "involve himself in my life any longer."

The police were contacted and they told him to stop. I had hoped that my part in all of this was over.

Later that very month, Patrick announced on his ShadyVox twitter account that a new GX Abridged was coming out for April Fools.

When it is posted on April 1st - less than a month after he had sent his email saying he would remove himself from my life, and not long after the police have visited him - the video contains many references to our conversations, and specifically the fact that the police got involved.

Yes, after being told by the police to stop - and after writing an email that insisted he knew he was the real problem and would be getting help - he decides to make a mockery of the situation publicly, in a manner that nobody else will understand. Except the people it is targeting.

The tweets about this video are the only thing remaining on Patrick's twitter account, as he had purged it some time ago.

(An aside - I do recall someone attempting to call Patrick out for being toxic previously on twitter, and his response was to spam them with the words "PROVE IT. PROVE IT. PROVE IT." until they gave up. I would include screenshots of this, but like I said - he purged his entire twitter except for this specific GX Abridged video he'd thrown together in a week to respond to the fact that the authorities had intervened to get him to stop)

One other important element of this video - which is where, I believe, this whole thing veers into genuinely disturbing territory - is that it is interspersed with garbled footage intended to look like some sort of creepypasta/vhs effect. At the end of the GX Abridged video, it is clear that Patrick is using this video to allude to some upcoming song tracks he is producing.

Songs that are tailored to threaten me in cryptic, indirect ways that very few people pick up on.

But I'll get to those later.

During 2019, Patrick reaches out to actual victims of the toxic individuals from the podcast I used to be on more than half a decade before any of the stuff chronologized in this post. He tells them lies, and demonizes me to the point that it convinces them that I am still both defending/supporting the toxic individuals, and actively mocking their victims in private.

I am aware of this because Patrick tweets about it - before deleting the tweets entirely. He even attempts to throw popular abridging group TeamFourStar under the bus, which I assume was merely out of spite because they had absolutely nothing to do with any of this.

I wish I had screengrabbed the tweets when they were still up, but there is still remaining evidence that they did exist.

Here is someone posting on Reddit about it - he only references one tweet, but this was around the time Patrick was posting and then immediately deleting what he'd said. I honestly can only assume - but I think he was fishing for people to latch on to what he was saying and contact him privately.

Not to mention the fact that the police had specifically told him to stop, so that was likely in the back of his mind also.

Here is someone replying to a since suspended twitter account that was discussing what Patrick was saying about TeamFourStar. Obviously I have no clear way to prove it, but please know that I have no reason to make that much up and point to a random ass tweet.

I imagine Patrick (not the suspended person in the above screencap) realized the best way to not seem directly to blame or involved at all was to remove any and all posts he'd made. Admittedly it would have worked if I didn't have the dms and these emails.

Speaking of emails, I received a third one in late 2019 - as you can see, Patrick's promise of leaving me alone forever didn't even last a year.

You'll note that he's speaking as though the second email never even happened. He's also just plain lying through his teeth for a significant part of it, but I think it's most important to note that this email requires you to assume the second email never got written.

He has gone from pages and pages of "of course it wasn't your fault, I'm the problem, you're good, I'm bad" to "I told you..."

Also, I think the words "You tried to damage me" should be highlighted here as it reinforces my theory that all of this was about me insulting him for all the right wing channels he'd subscribed to. Which, to me, was barely even a thought in my mind at this point.

So I choose to ignore this email also. Because y'know, why would I even humor responding to the guy at this point? I decide that I will only speak on any of this if it becomes public conversation. Until then, anything that happens would be because of Patrick's actions.

I do let my friends know about all of this - including TeamFourStar, who through this entire thing have been blameless and didn't even do anything to Patrick to begin with. And every time Patrick does something, I make sure people in my circle are aware and to be cautious.

Meanwhile Patrick alludes to all of this indirectly in the songs he posts to his YouTube channel. Yes, a situation that involves actual victims and one alleged victim that Patrick hadn't spoken to in years. He chose to make reference to all of this in videos where he raps, amongst other things.

There are a number of songs that feature references to this, it's mainly these two that I want to focus on

Birdy Boy is a song that is explicitly referencing Patrick's issues with me, without actually going into any details about what the issue is.

It is so clearly about me that people pick up on it - and rather than confront the issue or have a dialogue, Patrick decides to pin the comment about it to the top of the comments page.

Of course, if Patrick made any attempt to directly describe the issue or explain himself, it would likely result in the police becoming involved once again.

So he sticks to singing about the whole thing.

This next song is the most upsetting one.

Patrick/Shady writes a song called "Joker" about a psychotic individual murdering someone who "used to be funny." This is, specifically, the song that he teases at the end of the GX Abridged Episode 21 video he posted earlier in 2019 for april fools.

He has teased it multiple times on his twitter, and elsewhere, with the words "Coming Soon." The very same words he used to title his third threatening email.

Here is the email, placed next to some lyrics from the song Joker.

He is seemingly very specifically trying to threaten me without anyone noticing, in plain sight. I was unable to watch the video in full until after all of this stuff came out into the public. It was only through reading people's responses and the lyrics that I realized what he was doing.

Again, at this point I am doing and saying nothing publicly. Just watching this behavior and waiting.

Meanwhile in 2021, a videogame based on the web series TOME gets fully funded and Christopher Niosi - the creator of TOME - reaches out to the voice cast to see if they'll return. I myself was the voice of Nylocke, one of the main characters, and Patrick was the voice of THE main character.

As such, I told Christopher no and explained my reasons.

And here is Christopher's response.

Please pay careful attention to the fact that Christopher Niosi flat out says he already knew Patrick was doing this stuff - it isn't just me imagining it.

As a result of this interaction, I do not reprise my role as Nylocke and Christopher Niosi chooses to just recast every single character. Please note that he could have just recast Patrick, but did not. As a result, I feel responsible for all of the original cast losing out on work. It hurts to think about. But at least I feel like I did the right thing.

One member of the TOME production staff takes it upon themselves to reach out to Patrick personally. They discover that he is planning to write more songs/raps that target me. They ask him nicely to stop. He insists that he has to do this. Y'know, make vague allusions to extremely sensitive topics that he lied about in the form of song. Has to do it.

The member of production staff tells Patrick he should seek professional help.

Patrick ignores them.

Patrick continues to engage in behavior that, while not openly hostile or even specifically targeting anyone, is very clearly intended as mockery at best and a threat at worst until 2023 when all of this comes to a head.

In August of 2023, the real victims that Patrick has manipulated make a callout post aimed at myself and TeamFourStar. It specifically cites Patrick's testimony and the songs he has posted. They have been misled, but their anger is understandable.

Within a week, it becomes apparent to all sides that this is Patrick's fault. The person who posted the callout takes it down and apologizes to everyone. Not just me. They apologize to TeamFourStar, and to X.

And only then do I speak publicly about what Patrick has been doing.

I share all of the screencaps I've posted here, and give context. It's all a little muddled as at the time, my cat was dying of terminal cancer and so all of my posts are somewhat scatterbrained and aren't in chronological order. But it's still remarkably clear to everyone that Patrick has manipulated this whole thing, starting in 2019.

And that's only the stuff I feel comfortable sharing.

Since the callout post first dropped in 2023 and I began pointing people's attention toward Patrick, Patrick himself has been entirely silent. He has dropped off the internet with nary a word in defense. Not a single person directly associated with what happened has attempted to dispute my description of events.

This isn't my word versus his. It is my word versus silence.

I have it on good authority that Patrick is alive and well. I am grateful for that much. My attempts have not been to hurt him, but to defend myself. My efforts have not been to hunt him down and crucify him, but to make people aware of what transpired - and what could have easily been undone by Patrick/Shady just choosing to stop.

Instead a number of victims, and people who never did a thing, experienced a considerable amount of trauma as a result of his thoughtless and spiteful actions.

Patrick is a remarkably talented individual, and it makes me sad I have to be the one to show people who he is. I genuinely think all of this could have been avoided. It's so meaningless. It's just pain on top of pain.

And Patrick stood in the center of it all, not just pulling people's strings but practically uprooting them and then acting like he didn't do a thing.

I'm not expecting an apology, and I'm not asking for his cancelation, whatever shape that would take. But I do think it's important that people know this happened, that he chose this.

He did this for almost no reason to a person he considered a friend, who worked on videos with him.

It just seems like the responsible thing, to make sure people are somewhat aware that he could do this to them if they aren't cautious and careful and super aware.

I'm sorry to anyone disappointed and hurt by all of this information.

Believe me, I understand.

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olderthannetfic · 4 months

Note

I know about the origins of the Bechdel Test, but I do think it's inaccurate to say it's not meant as a criticism of movies that don't do that. I think that when people stop thinking in binary terms of "is this feminist?" or "is this anti-feminist?" and instead look at things more holistically, that you can recognize both that a character like Mako Mori is great, a step in the right direction for female characters in action movies and especially WOC, go forth and stan her and write all the fanfic you want.... but yeah, it is also a valid criticism of the movie (and many others like it) that she doesn't talk to or have relationships with any other woman in the film.

I think one thing to help people realize just HOW much of women's lives are being left out of media representation when we never talk to other named women about something other than a man in movies, is to just think about your own life. I talk to my mom every day, and if we are not talking about my stepdad or my brother-in-law (and I don't think we've ever had a conversation that wasn't at least IN PART not about them or another man), then it passes the test. I'm a professor and when I talk to a female student about her homework or project (which is, again, something that happens pretty much every day I teach), that's passing the test. If I order food from a female cashier and she has a name tag, that's passing the Bechdel Test! It's literally just constant for the vast majority of women on the planet, and that's what's being left out of our stories.

Like, I like the takes I've seen about how part of the joke in Dykes to Watch Out For is that this is *particularly* alienating to lesbians - as a lesbian myself I agree - but I also think it should be frustrating to straight and bi and ace women as well, because like unless you are like exclusively interacting with your husband or male relatives every single day + you work in a workplace where you are literally the only woman, you are almost certainly passing the test constantly. That's a pretty big part of women's lives that Hollywood is leaving out!

But I think it's important to view it as just one piece of the discussion about feminism and women's representation in film, not the final judge on if a film is feminist or not. Which it wasn't intended to be - as you said, it was mostly a joke on the extreme maleness of 80s action movies. Honestly, I do not miss those days on Tumblr where people were obsessed with declaring certain movies/TV shows/other fandoms they liked as "feminist" or "anti-feminist" and the really bizarre granular discussions people would have between two works that BOTH had a long way to go in terms of representing women. I remember people in the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom would use this to argue about if the original anime or Brotherhood/the manga was better - when both have some fantastic female supporting characters, but are ultimately male-centered stories where even a lot of those women's lives and stories are centered around their male love interests and family members. It's better than a lot of shounen, but if that's your bar for feminism - either version - you have a long way to go (and need to watch WAY more anime because there's sooooo much of it that is female-centric). I also remember people coming up with other tests that were blatantly silly: like I thought the Mako Mori test about "if a woman has a motivation/story that isn't centered on a man" was fair because it did point out a legitimate criticism, but there was that ridiculous "Tauriel Test" where it was "a woman who is good at her job." And it was entirely about someone just disliking that movie critics and feminist commentators alike were down on the Hobbit movie trilogy, which a) were bad movies, sorry you have bad taste, b) are absolutely not where you should focus your attention if you're so concerned about women's representation in film, Tolkein has always been a sausage fest! And her big thing was being mad that people thought Judi Dench's M in Skyfall was a better female character, and so she arbitrarily decided she was "bad at her job" and Tauriel was "good at her job" even though that's completely subjective and can be challenged in both cases.... but also, once again, why are you looking to the fucking JAMES BOND franchise for movie feminism! There's nothing like comparing the relative "feminism levels" of JAMES BOND and LOTR to make it obvious that this is 100% about validating your subjective taste preferences by giving it a "progressive" excuse, not actually about feminism and not actually caring about women's representation beyond how it makes you look good. And yet SO many people took that transparently stupid post seriously. I'd see professional articles mention the Tauriel Test as "one of the new tests" like there was anything serious about it.

And then on the flip side, over-reliance on the Bechdel Test alone led to some clueless conclusions especially in anime fandom, given that anime has an abundance of shows that exclusively feature female characters in school clubs being cute, where those characters are nonetheless two-dimensional archetypes designed for the male gaze. Someone like fandomsandfeminism did a presentation at an anime con that called one of those types of shows "feminist" and some Japanese user eviscerated it, but that just led to the equally shallow fandom analysis of "everything a Japanese person says about anime is automatically more valid" and "any Westerner who wants to criticize anime on feminist/progressive grounds is culturally appropriating and ultimately coming from a place of ignorance, even if they literally have a degree in Asian studies."

Wow, this turned into a rant about the history of bad "feminist media criticism" on this website. Sorry about that, I think I had a point in here somewhere. I guess that the Bechdel Test is indeed a joke and those origins should be understood, but also, I don't think it's wrong to say that it identifies a real problem and one that people could probably take MORE seriously than they do - but as just one part of the conversation, not the Feminism Litmus Test, and certainly not as a dick-measuring contest about whose fandom gets them more progressive brownie points.

I think as long as we grasp that the joke is "The bar is so far under the ground that we might as well go home and eat popcorn there", it's fine.

The real issue with the test is that people started thinking a pass was meaningful.

If you say something like "X% of 2020s movies can't even manage this weaksauce level of women existing", that's a meaningful statistic. Even if you got a couple of data points wrong, you're not factually wrong enough for it to matter because X is going to be some massive, massive percentage, and the overall trend is so clear.

But a pass is nothing to celebrate, and that's where we went wrong.

Like you say, litigating which of two big franchises that barely do anything with women wins on tumblr points is idiocy.

I think people are so unaware of what media that genuinely centers women even looks like that it's hard for them to even begin having a discussion.

I personally have been a massive fujoshi type from adolescence, and media that centers female characters isn't actually what I typically want. (Though media that is by and for women and that doesn't give a fuck what men think of this is.) I am also not much of a fan of slice of life in general...

But when I was coming out and figuring my shit out, being able to go buy collections of Dykes to Watch Out For was incredibly valuable to me.

Ditto the other lesbian comic books that were just sitting there in the bookstore. I'm sure if I went back and reread them all now, I could find things to nitpick or ways they were more for lesbians and less for me as a bi girl, but the really distinctive thing they did was let me exist in a world where media isn't all 80s sausagefest action movies where women are not people.

In fact, they were a world where men don't matter terribly much—not because they're dramatically rejecting men in some facile and reactionary way but because... who cares? They just had other priorities... and this was normal.

It feels like people who've never taken a vacation from really mainstream media just have no concept of what it would feel like to exist in some other space.

And I think that's a pity even if, like me, they later choose to go read mostly BL later instead of focusing on female characters or they genuinely love trash 80s action movies despite everything wrong with them. It's not just sexist media that's the issue: it's that feeling like the fish can't see the water it's swimming in.

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blog-of-hubris · 8 months

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Jujutsu Kaisen 236: Heading South

This is probably the craziest chapter for the JJK community (rightfully so), and I have been on the fence about writing this up. It won't be super long, I hope… but there are a few things from the chapter I want to highlight.

So once you get past this cut, be prepared to see me bare all in my emotions and analysis for this amazing chapter Gege has given us!

P.S FORGIVE ME IF THIS META SUCKS! I AM OUT OF PRACTICE!!

The Afterlife

None of the jujutsu kaisen fandom is new to death. It is quite the opposite, actually. Characters that the fans love are put in life or death scenarios with no guarantee of them getting out. Even simple side characters that fans enjoy are subject to death, so pandering has never been Gege's thing. For me, the death of Gojo is emotionally hard because I love him, but his death isn't what moved me in this chapter… it was his experience in the afterlife.

The beginning of the chapter is us seeing Geto walking up to Gojo and Gojo reacting sourly. Of course this is him realizing he lost, but before I get into the words shared, I want to focus on the environment Gege gave us. We don't see adult Geto and Gojo, but the hidden inventory or teenage versions of them. I think everyone knows the reasoning behind this is because this is Gojo's “ideal time” of his life. His time as an adolescent with Geto by his side was when he was the happiest.

The fact Gojo form reverts to those days is so sad. To me, it reflects that Gojo never left the past. Everyone he encounters is from his time as a teenager, even showing us Ririka, her maid and even TOJI. (Toji appearing there was a fucking SHOCK to me… that's something else entirely to unpack for another time.) It is very sad seeing Gojo admit in many ways that he didn't feel truly happy after Geto's death. He became the strongest, and that even separated him from Geto, the person who would have given him satisfaction as a living being, not a jujutsu sorcerer. No matter how much he loved everyone, he knew that people could never understand him. But he felt that he could pour that feeling into Sukuna, since he is the only other being to be separated by others in that way.

On top of that, the dead group seem to be in an airport, symbolizing death and taking flight to a new land. This all makes sense when you think about the context of the chapter discussing heading north or south. The airport represents the flight into the next part of the soul's existence. I don't have too much to add on that specific theme, but I implore you to look up the symbolism for yourself.

A Curse Can Save People...

Is anyone else geeking with excitement over the fact that this chapter confirms the connection the living world has with the dead? Gojo literally asks Nanami how was his death, and we get Haibara explaining how he jumped in. This was the confirmation that what Gojo was seeing couldn't be a dream because how could he imagine receiving information that no one except Nanami would know.

This means a lot to me, because it deepens the level of meaning behind Nanami's death. In the moments of his death, he knew he was cursing Yuji, but that curse was exactly what Yuji needed to understand the gravity of his new life and choices he made. Specifically for Nanami, this was his final turning point. He chose to bet on the future instead of believing in the usual way of doing things. Haibara jumping in, was him reaching over from the other side, which implies (at least to me) that your loved ones are always watching even in death. I believe that is the “curse” that stays on jujutsu sorcerers, but also can be their saving grace in their last moments.

At the end of the day, the living cannot understand the dead, hence why Yaga said that all sorcerers die with regrets, but the truth is in those final moments only the dead can understand the curse placed upon them. It is the hindsight that creates an atmosphere of understanding, and only then will a person know if the choices they made truly made them happy. Even for Yaga specifically, him cursing Gakuganji was him reliving himself of burden and regret. “My Curse unto you” is literally a curse that saved Gakuganji from being a puppet of the higher ups. I love how Gege is perfectly tieing all the knots together!

Gojo was cursed by love (geto), and felt he was separated by everyone until his final moments, but those who knew him when he wasn't “the strongest” are those that are there to comfort him as he heads south. I love that Gojo was able to get this final moment with those that he loves, and I hope that this is where they are all experiencing their time. It makes me wonder if THIS is the place Kenjakub discussed (in between dreams and reality).

I will never forget you for as long as I live…

I won't explain the 4 dimensional slash that Sukuna used in this post, but if you would like me to do a more detailed explanation, just let me know in the comments!

What I want to talk about is Sukuna and how this fight impacted him. I think Gojo was wrong when he said his feelings didn't reach Sukuna. In fact, Sukuna saying he will never forget Gojo is him acknowledging that Gojo's feelings did reach him. The King of Curses has not acknowledged a single character in the way he acknowledged Gojo. Even with Jogo, he called him strong but the words “I will never forget you…” + a genuine smile is so powerful that it gave me chills. (Not to mention he is doing this in Megumi's body… it hurts me.)

I am proud of Gojo because he fought his hardest and got the acknowledgement he wanted, but I think this conclusion shows that Gojo was never as selfish as Sukuna. He was never as alone as Sukuna is, even with Uraume by his side, Sukuna still exuded a sense of loneliness that caused Yozoru to chase after him. Gojo still believes in the next generation, but he still represents the old generation. I personally don't think his death is necessary to symbolize the next generation stepping up, but when you think about it, many of the adult sorcerers we are introduced to (with relevance) have been killed off. This topic can divulge into what Gege is trying to do with progression of the Jujutsu world (giving gakuganji a change of heart and establishing him as a leader for the next generation, for example). I can see how Gojo's death is the literal nail in the coffin, ending the influence of the old generation… Leaving Shoko and Gakuganji to be there as support for the future.

I digress, the point I want to make here is that Gojo did the best he could do to show Sukuna "love" and I wonder what else Gege is going to do to continue that plot point. I also need to see how Megumi will tie into this, because I know his soul is going to play an important role in all of this, I just cannot pinpoint how exactly.

In Conclusion

I will most likely be doing a write-up for every chapter from here on out because I know this situation is going to get deeper. I will be watching Gege's movements closely and can't wait to see how it is all put together!!!

Will Megumi wake up? What is Kashimo's technique gonna be? How will Sukuna counter it? Will Yuta and Maki jump in? WILL MEGUMI WAKE UP??!?!?!?!

#jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen #manga #dh🍵#jjk #Chapter 236 #jjk chapter 236 #gojo death #cursed energy

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itsclydebitches · 2 months

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IT'S BEEN A DOOZY OF A DAY, FOLKS

Yeah I've got a couple asks about it lol. (Always a terrifying experience when you log onto tumblr and immediately wonder why your inbox blew up...)

Man, I don't even know how I'm feeling right now. We've spent so many months working on the semi-confident assumption that RWBY would be cancelled that on the one hand I can't feel very shocked about this. On the other hand there's definitely a wide-eyed part of my brain going, "Holy shit the 'RT is failing' theories finally came true O_O" I'm kinda devastated that a company that's been a part of my life for almost a decade (and for other fans far longer) is just up and gone, but simultaneously I don't care because what I loved about RT hasn't existed for some time now. We've already been dealing with that nostlgia for years, we just got a hell of a concentrated dose of it today. There's admittedly some level of vindication regarding those who've been pulling shit in the company for so long and empathy for those who were just getting by and are now suddenly out of a job. There's regret that (despite my tendency to fall VERY behind on projects. RIP I owe everyone in this fandom a massive apology) I'll probably never have an official end to my RWBY Recaps. And there's worry about how this will impact the fandom...

Yeah, not to jump on the pessimism train, but I feel like this is going to catapult some fans' misreadings into new territory. RWBY is now forever the show that was canonically unfinished and thus its perfection is assured. Think there are major issues in Volume 9 and earlier? Nah, that's setup for Volumes we just never got. Catch a contradition or other mistake? They would have explained that if they could. Any possible issues with the show if it gets picked up by someone else? Well, of course there are issues, RT isn't writing it! This was already a fandom where having accurate, nuanced discussions about the text was hard as hell... but it just got so much worse.

Honestly, I say let it go. If they're going to do anything I'd prefer a complete reboot/reworking so that this story might stand a chance. Airing new RWBY Volumes was already beating a dead horse. Resurrecting the horse to start beating it anew just feels ridiculous. Yes, I'm sad for those fans who wanted an official ending, but we've spent so much time waiting on RWBY, being worried about RWBY's future, and I personally have encounted so many shows lately whose finales soured my enjoyment that there's something reassuring in the combination of definitive ambuguity here: you know you're not getting an ending by RT, so just have fun imagining your own.

Overall, I feel like I've got to sit with this for a while, you know? I totally get why so many fans (partiuclarly RWDE fans) are celebrating and/or releasing a sigh of relief right now. I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen any crabs yet lol. But maybe it's just because I'm "old" my tumblr's standards, but there's something undeniably sad about losing that part of your fandom life. Or at least, losing what led to/represents that life. Getting introduced to RWBY by a friend, binging it for the first time, pulling new people in, finding like-minded friends here on tumblr, analyzing it for thousands of words, tracing its history and watching how radically it has changed... that's gone now. Not actually because RWBY still exists, as do my friends, and there's nothing stopping me from writing as much fic/meta as I want, but it still feels like someone closed a door on that part of my life. That's not wholly a bad thing given what RT has been lately, but I do think it'll take more than one post for me to unpack it all.

#RWDE #RWBY #mymetas

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thedrarrylibrarian · 5 months

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I cannot tell you how excited I've been to have this lovely writer on to rec - I fell in love with the fic she recced and I think it's a great pick for the holiday season. If you haven't read it before, I think it'll be the perfect read to get you into the Christmas spirit. Without further ado, here's the lovely @skeptiquewrites!

I was delighted to be asked to write a Happy Hour for December by the Drarry Librarian. I still consider myself more of a reader than anything.

This time of year represents a lot of contradictions for me: the joyfulness of gathering with my loved ones, the loneliness that springs up as I revisit old places and things. I love all the lights and candles, and bundling up against the cold. I can’t stand the disappearing sun, and the long hours of darkness in my part of the hemisphere. It’s sweet, but sorrowful too.

So back in July, I knew I had to pick @sweet-s0rr0w’s Waking Up Slow with all of @ihopeyoubothstaysafefromharm’s beautiful illustrations. Wireless has always been one of my favourite fests in current fandom, and 2023 was no exception.

Waking Up Slow by @sweet-s0rr0w (24,941 words, rated E)

'Twas the night before Christmas, although it’s July Draco’s a shopkeeper, no-one knows why There’s hiking and witch caves, freak snowfalls and more Bad Christmas jumpers, nosy neighbours galore Narcissa’s here too, but… something’s amiss And what’s in those chocolates that’s making them kiss?

From the first paragraph, I was in love with Pickerings Christmas Shop and Cheddar, Somerset. It came to life with careful, beautiful writing of Harry’s curiosity and Draco’s initial sharpness, and Joy’s saturated, poignant use of colour.

Besides the writing, I love how many direct references to other fanfics that Sweet has with the footnotes. It always reminds me how key intertextuality is to fandom. We’re all in conversation and all participating in a gift exchange of sorts.

Waking Up Slow is just as wonderful in December for a read (or re-read in my case) as it was in July. Scorching, weighty, interesting, and I can recommend it for a slow morning, lazy afternoon or under the covers late night fic reading.

After all, ‘tis the season.

Thank you so much, @skeptiquewrites for joining me for Happy Hour with Friends of the Library! And seriously, check this fic out!

#skeptiquewrites #friends of the library #happy hour #the drarry library happy hour #Friday happy hour #harry x draco #harry potter #draco malfoy #drarry #the drarry librarian #thedrarrylibrarian

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blindmagdalena · 7 months

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What do you think Homelander’s attraction to Becca was? It’s not like at the Christmas party she was the only woman there, and by that point he had no idea who Butcher was. The actress that plays her is attractive, but the later scenes (season two and even just their initial introduction) between them suggest there’s something more to his attraction.

It’s obvious in the season two scenes that Homelander and Becca have, he has some lingering attraction. I think that’s primarily led by the fact that they have a son together and Homelander desperately wants a family, and also that Homelander is looking for a new woman to attach himself onto since Madelyn died. Perhaps he just wants what he can’t have especially knowing that she’s still in love with Butcher and he wants someone to love him that unconditionally. The main reason I thought of this is because in my opinion, Homelander isn’t the type of character to do something without a reason. Usually he has one even if it’s not a good reason.

ah yes, potentially one of the most contentious/controversial plot points in the fandom. canon gives us VERY little to go on here, so excuse me while I just ramble my take on the whole situation. i extrapolate a good amount. everyone you ask is going to have a different answer, and each one is as valid as any other. this is simply mine!

Homelander's greatest sin isn't wrath or pride. It's envy. He is a bottomless well of yearning for what he doesn't have, and he is viciously covetous. We see this play out most plainly in his one sided beef with a literal baby.

When he meets Becca, she's beautiful, quick witted, strong willed and independent. A career woman. Not only that, she's helping manage his career by handing his social media, which is part of his public perception. Very important to him! He already has a ton of wires crossed when it comes to the women in his life acting as both coworkers/Vought employees and emotional surrogates, i.e. Maeve, Madelyn and Vogelbaum. Plus who knows how many nanny mommies.

At this point, we don't know how long he's been with Maeve, but we have at least another 6 years before the pair breaks up. He's enjoying Maeve, but he wants more. He always wants more. Maybe he wants a wife, and she's refusing him that.

But Becca is a wife. He sees that ring on her finger and it boils his blood that he doesn't have that classic, romantic symbol of commitment. Of love. Worse yet when he meets her husband! The figurative boogeyman. The baby stealing his mommy and her milk. We're not there in the story yet, but we do see a trend here. It likely didn't start here: imagine what it was like for him to find out Vogelbaum had kids. Kids he loved. I bet that gutted Homelander. It should have been him.

Homelander, in his mind, can never win. Can never have enough. Anyone else having means they are directly taking away what should be his. It could be that it was never really about Becca specifically so much as the archetype she represented.

That carries us into season 2 where Becca takes on an additional archetype that Homelander is now lacking: mother. I think you're right on the money that a good amount of his attraction comes from the fact she's the mother of his son.

He falls pretty deep down the fantasy family rabbit hole with Becca, though. He not only inserts himself into their lives and routine, he takes a renewed interest in Becca. He snoops through her things, smells her clothes, and engages with her well beyond just interacting with Ryan. Then comes the scene where he finds her hidden stash of Billy merch, and the fantasy is shattered. She's still in love with another man. She's a wife, but she's not his wife. She's the mother to his son, but she's not someone who will fulfill those emotional needs for him. I've made this comparison before, but it's very reminiscent to the breakdown he has when he sees his baby blanket in his fake childhood home. He moves on VERY easily to Stormfront when she not only presents herself as a mother to her own child, but a potential mother for his child.

I'm backtracking a little here, but when Maeve called Homelander over from Billy and Becca at the party, I always got the vibe she was doing so quite purposefully. I wonder how much of their early relationship was Maeve feeling like she was performing damage control. Managing him, curbing his destructive behaviors. Did she see that covetous edge in his eye when he would look at Becca, at her ring? Did she try to tell him to leave her alone, play it like a joke?

We have the deleted scene where Maeve says the reason they broke up was because he couldn't keep it in his tights, but we don't really have any other explicit instances or even mentions of Homelander liberally sleeping around. Did she know about Becca, or at the very least did she make an educated guess when the woman disappeared? Maybe she felt like he did it to spite her. Did she know about Madelyn?

Ultimately we know Maeve becomes complicit in his crimes. She feels her hands are dirty with the same blood. She becomes jaded, she's no longer the hero. She's just an accessory. I definitely don't think it started that way, though.

anyways, I hope this somewhat answered your question! I have a tendency to jump around a lot and word vomit, but this generally covers my take on why that all went down the way it did.

Honestly, I would love to write a fic someday that digs more into my thoughts here. Becca deserves so much more than what she got from the narrative.

#the boys meta #homelander meta #becca butcher #homelander #queen maeve #darling anon #ask and you shall receive #god i rambled sooo much here i'm sorry lol

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accio-victuuri · 7 months

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“big name bxg c-fans earn a lot because cpf give their money to them instead of xz and wyb.” 💀

I wanted to address this comment i saw yesterday but I had to organize my thoughts first as best as i could. I also knew GRA events are gonna take up a lot of my time so i had push it back. However, i want to post about it here even if the topic associated to this didn’t blow up that much (thankfully) cause it irritated me. I’m very used to certain fans having a skewed view of bxgs. I understand that no matter what we say, the prejudice is too heavy to even see reason.

So this is more of to explain to bxgs how this statement is completely wrong and why it shouldn’t even be said in the first place.

Let’s start with the context.

On 11/2, when there was supposed to be an entertainment ban, a few hot search tags popped up. The boys’ name or even BXG was not on it but it sort of involved the fandom. The gist is this person is a former big name BXG account back in 2019 who is now a yxh. They earned a lot from that work and was able to buy “ 8 houses”. That was actually what got on HS, the idea that someone who is working as a yxh can be that rich.

I guess people missed the fact that this person earned the money from yxh “work” and not being a BXG account. Some just saw “bxg” so they made a connection and so the comment i posted above was a common statement. The fact that XZ and WYB are top stars too added to the conversation.

First of all, being a big name account that posts about XZ and WYB back in 2019 isn’t that hard. Untamed was at it’s peak that time and so were the active fans. The drama was airing. They had appearances and were practically everywhere. It would not take that much to get the likes, follows and engagement for 2 people that had a lot of content going on. After that, when 2020 rolled in, I understand how some people on the c-side of things will fall off. They probably had new interests and I think the same goes for that account. They were there at the height of it and learned how being a profitable blog works. So I wanna say that this fan was seasonal. To say that they “represent” all big name bxg blogs is totally unfair.

Next i wanna address the concept of profit and “cpfs giving money to big name accounts”.

The easiest way is engagement to a blogger’s post. It may not be me giving the money in my pocket to them literally but they get earnings from engagement & through ads/ affiliate links. This concept is not new to BXGs. It’s the same as any other influencers out there. So the accusation of spending money to big name accounts instead of supporting the boys — in this case is misleading.

You can argue that a regular person, even so/os fall in this trap when they engage with blatant anti accounts. When they comment and share those posts, they give them the engagement.

Now there are two other ways that bxgs give their actual money to these big name accounts.

1. Fansites. Those that share HQ photos and videos of them during events. How they make money aside from engagement is selling photo-books. What’s important to remember tho is there is an unspoken rule among these sites ( not just bxg ones ) that a huge part of the earnings will be spent on charity and buying endorsements by the boys. they post receipts. Not everyone of them is perfect and some have their own issues and closed down but that’s just how it goes.

2. Fan artists. The concept of fan art & merch have long been alive and is honestly one of the best things about fandom. It gives a chance to artists to make something and earn from it. I have to say that this is the more lucrative one cause the really popular ones have their products ( usually the dolls ) sell out so fast and have months of waiting list. The same fan sites, there is a rule for them to use the money for charity.

Here is a post I made before about some of those charities but that’s a very small list compared to the actual initiatives that were done for years.

As for supporting the boys, these accounts buy endorsements, magazines of them in the cover ( in bulk ), organize LED ads for their birthdays or fandom anniversaries, sponsor peripherals for bxg gatherings, host block screenings for movies etc.

Lastly, however someone spends the money they earned is none of anyone’s business. These people on the internet thinking it’s okay to gloat about how they are the “best fan” out there because of how much they spend on a celebrity is so crass. It’s like giving Yibo a gift and leaving all the tags on cause you want him to know exactly how much you spent on him.

I appreciate fans that do spend. I really do. It helps alot with their brand value and career. I personally buy merch and watch content on paid platforms. However it should not be a way to measure someone’s worth as a fan. There is no need to shame people who want to spend their money elsewhere and not XZ or WYB. This kind of toxic mindset is largely prevalent in c-ent fandoms that some international fans are adapting. If there is something that the CCP and I agree on, it’s that this practice shouldn’t be demanded of fans. The idea of “how dare you spend on something you like” ( whether it’s a product from a big name fan or whatever ) exposes whoever is saying it as that kind of brainwashed fan.

So anyway, participate in the fandom in a way that you are comfortable with. We all have different approaches on how we take part in it and there is really no need to keep receipts. ✌🏼

#personal #fandom #bxgs #bxg #yizhan #bjyx

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hopeyarts · 2 months

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—WISHING STARS & FAIRY GODMOTHERS—

I’m going off from what I learned and was given about how wishing stars and fairy godmothers work in this whole Disney thing. I’m not that experienced with the older movies nor have I really been in the Disney fandom until after Wish (unfortunately), so if there is anything I missed let me know. I’m not going to repeat it this entire post that this is what *I* learned from Disney creators on these two things, because that’d just be repetitive. I’m being as literate and accurate as I can with what they gave. This post is not out of opinion; it is based on factual information from the Disney media and I’m only doing this to clarify that.

————————————————————————

• What is a wishing star? 🌟

A wishing star is that one big bright star in the night sky. Usually it is looked upon by people for hope, inspiration, and wishing (ex: Geppetto), or for guided journeys (ex: Moana). There are other things that may represent this type of star such as the lanterns in Rapunzel that give her the same inspiration she is looking for in hopes of seeing them out there in the real world. Or there is the wishing well in Snow White where she wishes to meet her prince.

• What can a wishing star do? 💫

A wishing star can instill hope and inspiration into your heart. It is what many characters in Disney look up to in times of failure or loss. Do you need someone/something to hear your dreams any time of the night? Look up to the brightest star in the sky. It can give you the courage and determination to feel that you can achieve your dreams, but it won’t simply give or grant it to you.

• What is a fairy godmother? 🧚

A fairy godmother is a woman who acts as the guardian and mentor of someone else. They can also be a protector! Just to prove this point, the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather act as Aurora’s guardians. They are the people who guide you towards your dreams and goals so long as you have goodwill, kindness, and unselfish motives in your heart. They typically help mostly the unfortunate (ex: Cinderella) but only if you are fair. And if you don’t have true kindness in your heart (ex: Pinnochio) then you are taught a valuable lesson of learning to be kind during your journey to achieve your dream. Additionally in the Pinnochio video below (keep scrolling), the Blue Fairy says this about Geppetto: “Good Geppetto, you have given so much happiness to others. You deserve to have your wish come true.” This proves my point on fairy godmothers only helping out those in need but those who are also good. I like how the title of fairy godmother has the word “fair” in it. Coincidence? Maybe, I don’t know.

• What can a fairy godmother do? 🪄

A fairy godmother provides you the tools to make your dreams come true. An example would be that Cinderella’s wish was to attend the ball… so her fairy godmother gave her a new dress, slippers, and even a carriage. A second example are the three good fairies from Sleeping Beauty where they each give Aurora blessings. A third example is the Blue Fairy helping Geppetto and Pinnochio, but that will be for the next point below.

• Can a wishing star or fairy godmother grant wishes? 🌌

No, they cannot. Granting wishes is a genie’s job! In many of Disney’s movies, we have not seen a single wishing star grant someone’s wish. Instead, a person looks up to said wishing star and gathers hope and inspiration to pursue that wish. In Wish, Star is a (if not THE) wishing star. This is proven in this Wish scene here where that is clarified about it ‘granting wishes’.

More proof and implications that a wishing star cannot grant wishes is a scene in Princess and the Frog where young Tiana talks to her parents about the star. Her father tells her that yes, she can wish and dream as much as she wants to that star, but it can only take you a part of the way there.

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As for a fairy godmother, they cannot grant wishes either. The Blue Fairy never granted Geppetto’s wish- she only helped him achieve it. Now this one will be a little tricky, but hear me out. Geppetto wanted his son to be a real boy, not just alive in his puppet form but a REAL boy. Pinnochio could never be a real boy if he wasn’t animated and alive, so the Blue Fairy simply tapped the puppet on the head with her wand and said “wake”, gifting him life. Pinnochio asks the Blue Fairy “Am I a real boy?” where she responds with “No, Pinnochio. To make Geppetto’s wish come true, will be entirely up to you.” It could be speculated that the Blue Fairy is a/the main wishing star because of how she descended from the sky but that would additionally prove my point that wishing stars cannot grant wishes, haha.

https://youtu.be/kH2YYBtKw_4?si=ykPVhYwBAsr5zPM

(WHERE IS THAT THUMBNAIL 😭)

The same thing goes for the fairy godmother in Cinderella. She provided Cinderella with everything required in order to attend the ball AND it came with a catch. At midnight, everything the fairy godmother gave her would turn back to its original form (aside from her glass slippers because she made them out of pure magic). On Disney’s official website, there is a description for Cinderella that mentions the fairy godmother with the keyword “help”. This also proves that fairy godmothers only help those who are kind and good in heart.

All in all, no. Wishing stars and fairy godmothers cannot grant wishes. They can inspire you (wishing stars) or help you out (fairy godmothers). They simply use their magic or words to guide good-hearted people to achieve their dreams.

Also, a small slightly unrelated note here that I’ve been seeing other people comment on… With Asha being a fairy godmother, she cannot grant wishes- she can only help people pursue their dreams. So no, she is not like King Magnifico in terms of magic. Deadass we know he’d win in a battle of magic if he weren’t influenced by the forbidden book of evil spells.

• So how do Disney characters make their wishes come true? ✨

Well, there are many factors that are required in order to make your wish come true according to Disney media. No- I won’t be entirely following the ‘wish equation’ that the Wish producers gave us. I see what they mean, but I feel like they didn’t explain it well enough. A wish, according to Disney, can be achieved through support, faith, effort, selflessness, and love.

I will start with support, as in of course the fairy godmothers, stars, or family/friends. Without support, we are sure to have trouble achieving these dreams like with the Disney characters. This can be said in real life that I don’t really need to explain because we all know how that is. Support from people who willingly provide help when we need it most is what I mean so that we can feel heard. We can rely on them when we are at our lowest or our motivation had plummeted to the ground. They’re almost like a kick-start in our journeys to achieve our dreams, and the shoulder we can cry on.

(Wished to attend the ball. Cinderella received support due to her kindness)

Faith would be to look up someone/something for a chance to be heard and understood. An example is the wishing star, because many of these characters look up to it. It could be in prayer, like how Geppetto did or it could simply be looking longingly up at it from where you stand below. It is the fact that the dreams and goals of these characters are out of their reach and out of their power, so they search for someone/something higher in the chance that they’ll be heard. Yes, this part was inspired by @/artist-issues (I don’t know if this person wants to be notified-mentioned so I put a slash there. Apologies if I got your post wrong, this is just what I got. ❤️ /gen).

(Wished for a real boy. Geppetto prayed to a higher power)

Effort is a major key factor because without it then why do we have that wanting to achieve our dreams? It takes hard-work and dedication to actually make your own wish come true. But even with all the hard-work you put in, you won’t get everything you want. That’s why I think that this is not the MAIN element to granting your own wish. Yes, it can get you a long way- but it won’t get you all the way there. I suppose that can be proven by the Princess and the Frog movie alone.

(Wished for her own restaurant. Tiana worked her whole life to achieve success)

Selflessness may be questionable to some, but it is required nonetheless. It can be both an acknowledgment to the needs of others as well as the willingness to sacrifice something of our own for a noble good. It is a generosity that is so rare in the real world, which is why it makes it so valuable and a key to both dreams and committing to good.

(Wished for adventure. Belle sacrificed her freedom for her father’s place)

The final element in order to make your wish come true is love. This is the factor that connects every other element. It manifests our support system that inspires others to help you out, it gives us the heart to look up to a higher power through faith, additionally making us willingly admit that we are human and have limited power in what we can do even with all the effort we put in, and with love we find empathy to willingly sacrifice something of ourselves in an act of selflessness. This doesn’t mean that you have to love everyone and everything- it means that you must appreciate the values and variables you are given and to never lose sight of personal ties, your truth, and most importantly your empathy. If you have love, your heart will find what it is looking for.

(Sorry I just love Princess and the Frog)

• Can you really achieve your dreams through this? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Ah, well I did say in the previous point that it is “Disney characters” but sure, it may work. Don’t let me tell you what can and can’t make your own dreams come true, but you can definitely apply these points to Disney. I believe it could, but it is not as simple as I put it out to be. I do think it does take goodwill and everything to make your dreams come true though it is not always a guarantee. Sometimes your wish may not be achieved in the way you were planning, or your wish may not ever be achieved. But if you look back on what you’ve succeeded in, accept your heart, and appreciate the people who support you then you will feel accomplished and satisfied in ways you never expected- even without that wish fulfilled.

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Thank you for reading this far! I love writing out my thoughts and opinions, so this was fun. Again this is only my interpretation from what I was given by Disney. I just gathered information from their movies and explained some things for them. Any thoughts or opinions, whether you agree or disagree (respectfully), are welcome! Or if you have anything additional to add into the mix, I’d love to read it. ❤️

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