#okay major rant in the tags so ignore me lol

[quillsink]

i have…friends….people who…care about me….what is this sorcery.

[erizee]

💢💎💕 ask game??

oooh nice! ill mostly answer these for saw i think

sorry it took me so long to answer :/

💢: sth u dont like about ur hyperfixation

the way that most people, including several of the writers apparently, seem to think john is some kind of godly supergenius tbh. sure hes good at mechanics AND predicting people and he sure had a lot of plans and manipulated people a lot! im not saying hes not smart, im just annoyed at this idea that every single thing that happened after saw 3/4 was somehow planned by him. JILL made the decision to kill hoffman, john didnt know about amanda's blackmail, and he died super disappointed in her. and also, which is related to this, it also makes people complain about things that make perfect sense when you remember that a) john is human, and b) that the majority of the traps we see in the movies werent made by him/were set in motion by his apprentices. one of my favourite things about saw is how human everything is, even if its batshit insane most of the time. john a hypocrite and his reasons for testing people dont line up or dont always make sense, but that man is literally just an old man dying from a brain tumor, i think it makes perfect sense that he thinks anyone who isnt as sick as him but unhappy is wasting their life or that he sometimes gets really into justice but gets it really wrong! not to mention that a good portion of non-main test subjects couldnt have even been planned by him. john sometimes punishes bad people but hes NOT a morally good person or even an antihero and when people assume that they get frustrated with things that arent even an issue. theyre all fucked up people but i really enjoy how human they feel despite everything, and that includes john

this is more about the way people treat saw than the actual movies but especially jigsaw & spiral both tend to play up john like some kind of immortal supergenius that planned everything ahead. the same kind of goes for especially iv and vi. i like john a lot but hes just Some Old Guy lol, hes smart but hes also hypocritical and self-righteous and way too sure of himself. and THATS the thing i like about him (and the majority of other saw characters tbh)!! its just annoying when that exact thing you like keeps getting ignored by both fans and writers

wow that turned into a rant lol

💎: fun facts/trivia

its rly hard to come up with something that i havent seen on here before But there is one thing!: all the traps were built to Actually work and even though obviously there were always actor-safety things happening thats so cool to me

the guy that played timothy young (twisty bones trap saw 3) apparently panicked when they first started the trap because it ACTUALLY STARTED MOVING AND TWISTING HIS ARMS!! obviously not far enough to actually hurt but its soo fascinating to me. (he was also okay later)

the glass shards in the glass coffin were made of rubber but apparently, costas mandylor slash hoffman wanted them to be real glass which i find highly interesting lmao. sometimes, behind the scenes things can tell you a lot about a person :)

And lastly there is also that one video of the water cube, where they almost Actually drowned the guy that played strahm. these movies arent exactly great about actor safety gkdkgk but theyre amazing and these things are super fascinating to me

free extra fun fact: this is the question that i took the longest to answer lol

💕: one of ur favourite characters & y u like them

so my absolute favourite saw characters are hoffman, rigg and amanda, but ive already ranted about rigg many times and amanda makes me sad so ill make this a hoffman rant lol

i really like how on paper, he seems like a typical slasher villain but then hes pretty much the opposite. ive gone through his tag and found slasher memes that included him before and theyre so funny to me because thats not Who He Is. sure, hes evil horror man who kills people and i agree that hes hot lmao, and i Love that hes those things, but hes also such a fucking loser fjdjfj. he didnt even want to join jigsaw in the first place but then got jealous amanda was the new bestest apprentice in town. he looks like he could throw me over his shoulder without even blinking but then loses every single fight he doesnt have help or tricks in or even plans to lose them. he get soo sure of himself and hes so smug about it and then slowly panics for an entire movie. hes very smart and almost gets away with everything TWICE but he also makes stupid mistakes. hes a slut (affectionate) but also no one wants him. he has three homoerotic friendships and/or rivalries in the 5 movies hes in and yet no one cares. hes full of contradictions and he girlbosses too close to the sun and i love him for that

also, this is basically the same thing as with john, but i looove how human he is. if you just read a very general list about his story and characteristics ("dead sister, alcoholic, cop, serial killer, etc") none of that is special! but the way that hes written? acted? wishful-thinked-by-me (lol)? idk one or more of those just add so much. he gets overwhelmed and he panics and he cries catching his first victim and its SO funny but at the same time it makes me like him soo much. he SHOULD be a pretty generic villain character but he isnt *to me*. im definitely reading too much into everything lmao but idk hes. just very fun to watch and think about :)

Thanks for asking!!

[legacysam]

"#*erases a rant about fandom cas characterization bc god who has the energy*" me. i have the energy. give me the rant.

*cracks knuckles* okay let’s see if any of these particular intellectual muscles still work.

I am always pro-cas-being-canonically-dickish posts (even if they are misleading one way or another, more on that later) because dear GOD this fandom loves to infantalize the man. He’s a “baby in a trenchcoat.” He’s dumb about pop culture and clueless about human things isn’t it adorable? SHUT UP!!!! And pls especially shut up if you’re using his ignorance as a way of making another character look cool or smart by comparison. “it’s a shortened version of my name” was 100% Cas fucking with Dean because he is a dick sometimes! and it’s great! Also: Cas’s indifference to pop culture isn’t a weakness just because pop culture knowledge is a major currency on tumblr!!! It’s indicative of the fact that he’s got much bigger and more important things on his mind. (Also. listen. This trait was canonically erased by Metatron and it was literally the only good thing that fucking character ever did so can we please as a fandom just acknowledge that little slice of canon? pls?)

(Can I also just say.....fish out of water stories are only good when they are on the side of the fish and not just using the fish to make jokes. Just. as a note on the trope in general but specifically re: every time this shows up in fanfic with Cas or any other similar character. Thor comes to mind.)

Anyway Cas isn’t a child, he’s ANCIENT and TIRED and CONFLICTED about major moral issues, which is FASCINATING for an angel character and forces us as an audience to consider more deeply the actual differences between heaven and hell, good and evil, destiny and free will. Is this how we expect an angel to behave? What does this tell us about Heaven? If Cas is an aberration, what does that tell us about Heaven and goodness and God? So his expressions of anger and frustration and his impatience with or indifference to human courtesies are a really great part of his character and people should appreciate them more (and not just when it’s funny!)

(Sidenote bc I always think about this when I think about fandom and Cas, the reductive fandom approach to “””crazy!cas””” (what a fun way of saying “deeply affected by horrible trauma and guilt and trying to repress it so he can function.” thanks for that fandom) as comic relief or a woobified victim is. hm. bad. That’s all I’ll say about that one.)

{ANOTHER sidenote, this one for fan artists in particular but fan writers definitely aren’t free from sin: Cas isn’t pale or short and he isn’t a fuckin twink pls stop projecting weird m/f stereotypes onto your queer ships pls and thank}

ANYWAY about these screenshots specifically: Listen I love this post but the context of these scenes is SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING than Cas being a dick to Sam. They aren’t really about Sam at all, actually. “Don’t ask stupid questions” is such a painful fucking response to Sam asking if he’s okay, because he’s clearly not okay--he’s still struggling with the knowledge that God has given up and abandoned them--but he can’t be vulnerable about it. So he redirects to ask what Sam needs from him because that’s what he does, it’s what he is, he’s a tool. He’s a solution to problems (except his own). And his unwillingness to confront his pain (while also not being able to hide it) isn’t really about his relationship with Sam, it’s about his relationship with God and with himself and his own failures. The visibility of that struggle while he continues to try to help in this episode is just really fucking moving, okay?

Also there’s absolutely nothing hostile about “Sam, of course, is an abomination” in context. Like. Not a damn thing. There’s a task that needs to be performed by a “servant of heaven,” and Cas is explaining why none of the three of them qualify, and we know he feels shame about the fact that HE doesn’t qualify by how he reacts later, calling himself a poor example of an angel. He’s as much an abomination as Sam is in this moment.

Actually you know what? Literally everything in these screenshots that gets interpreted as “Cas hates Sam” is 100% actually Cas hating himself. He hates Sam’s voice while he’s stuck using a human voice himself to communicate, through technology he’s hostile to because it’s limiting compared to angelic communication. He rejects Sam’s compassion because he doesn’t want to talk about his own weakness. He calls Sam an abomination in the same breath that he acknowledges that he isn’t a servant of heaven anymore, and with much less anger than when he later calls himself a poor example of an angel. He sees himself in Sam but he hates himself too much to use that as a point of connection and pushes away from it instead. (I’m not going to go on a shipper detour here but sastiel shippers....you know)

So Cas is angry and complicated and self-hating and yeah, it’s funny, but if you don’t respect those feelings and their complexity, maybe don’t try to write Cas or write about him. Maybe if you only like Cas when he’s making you laugh you don’t actually like Cas.

And this isn’t to be like...”writing fluffy shippy fic with Cas being sweet is bad” or whatever. That fills a need for some people, I get it. I’ve written fic where he’s sweet! There’s a difference between someone lovingly wrapping a character in a blanket and going “nice things will happen for you now” versus using that character for a reductive joke.

There’s also a difference between people who are actually carefully writing fic and people who are, yknow, tagging posts or circulating meme-like gifsets with this kind of commentary. Which, bc I don’t read fic as often anymore, tends to be the most common way anything like analysis of Cas reaches me. I do NOT recommend this method of engaging with fandom because it’s really the worst, unfunniest, most simplistic takes that get repeated over and over again (I would pay money to never see anyone call Sam “moose” or “sammy” again dear lord), and it obscures the actually really good work some folks are doing when they write these characters.

tl;dr 1. Cas is not a child and he is not stupid. 2. Cas doesn’t hate Sam but he DOES project onto him and it’s fascinating. 3. fandom wants to be transformative but bc of meme culture and the way tumblr works it can be painfully reductive and it’s exhausting

ps nb I haven’t watched a single episode since they killed Charlie off and I don’t know much about what happened after that lol. so don’t come at me “well actuallying” bc honestly I don’t care and bc canon has been a dumpster fire for years and all extended analysis of it including my own is really nonsense just by virtue of the source material being nonsense.

pps the showrunners are ABSOLUTELY complicit in this but I can’t. I just cannot get into that. I am too tired.

[moonlight-at-dawn]

I actually enjoy critiquing the things i like, but many fandoms have asked me to leave or acted like that's a bad thing to do. I don't like the do-it-to-be-included culture that includes like, lapis lazuli is too neon blue in this episode, so steven universe is a problematic show. It's fun for me to figure out how a show could be better, but not fun to see people jump on silly unhelpful bandwagons. If you don't critique the thing you like at ALL, though, I don't like you. Everything personal.

This is clearly in response to that post I made in a fit of annoyance one night 3 years ago and left completely untagged, never expecting it to go viral. I can’t tell if your last two words “Everything personal” is meant to be “Everything is subjective to the person” or “All offense meant” lmao, I understand you were likely fighting against character limit, but with it follow “[...]I don’t like you” it gives it heavy implications of the latter.

So anyway, yeah, I’m slightly poking fun at the fact that you brought up that you love to “critique” but then you can��t even understand how, again, a single statement clearly composed in a fit of pique, is HARDLY indicative of my full views.

Of COURSE things should be viewed critically and critiqued, but common sense and common decency also come into play here. Common sense in that,

-nothing will be without faults because everything is created by individuals with their own biases and flaws, -so it’s important to always look at what was meant by the thing, whether or not it’s obviously a plot point or if it’s the author’s ignorance (seriously, when people are like “This character is MEAN and they make CONFLICT” ...YES! Do you not remember that CONFLICT is a key part of literature, this is 7th grade English in America, c’MON!), -and to then decide what is and isn’t a breaking point for YOU the INDIVIDUAL, and to respect other people’s choices! (No, I’m not saying respect people that, say, outwardly and loudly think L*lita is actually romantic, but you definitely should respect people who just like it, because you never know their story, and you aren’t entitled to it, but they may like it as a way of working through their trauma, or just as a way of investigating the human psyche, idk, I should’ve picked an example I’ve actually read)

And common DECENCY, in that, know when it’s time to say your critique. You’re welcome to them! But, let’s say I wanted to talk about the scene in Full Metal Panic, where Sousuke gives Kaname his lapis lazuli, and I talk about how meaningful it is, and how cute and sweet, and then you pop on and say “I thought it looked to bright :/” I’m gonna be annoyed! Because this isn’t the time or place! Make your own damn post! I’m specifically talking about something that brought me JOY, and now you’re coming in here and “well, actually”ing me, and it’s about something that ultimately doesn’t even matter! So what if it’s too bright!? I can understand being annoyed by it, hell, I might even actually agree with you, but it’s NOT the time or place!

So anyways, yeah, I never said “All critique is bad!” and neither do the vast majority of the people commenting on that post of mine. We’re just saying “Don’t come up with lies about morality just because you didn’t like this plot point,” “There’s no reason to ruin your enjoyment of something by nitpicking just because the internet told you so,” and other such related stuff.

The idea that everything needs to be dissected before you’re morally allowed to enjoy it is just absurd puritanical BS, and THAT’S the REAL “unhelpful bandwagon” around here.

EDITED TO ADD:

I ended up ranting and forgot to fully address, as there was one more thing I wanted to bring up. And that is:

ALL THIS SAID... You DON’T deserve to be bullied and pushed out of fandoms. There ARE going to be people will enjoy critiquing with you.

Since this is the internet and everything is pushed out into the ether, free of body language, facial expression, vocal intonation, and individual context, it may be important to just give a little more information as you go into your posts, and then you may find more like-minded people! Make your own posts, or comment on other people who are also already critiquing, and maybe just make it obvious that you enjoy the thing but you might’ve liked it better if...! Or, another good method, is to make sure you ALSO talk about the things you LIKED, the things that went WELL. This is critical to true critique, and can go a long way towards making it more immediately obvious in the ether of text, that you DO enjoy the thing and you want to talk about it, you just like to talk in this WAY! And that’s okay! That’s a great way to engage with media and there’s nothing wrong with it on its own merits!

But, just, really, do NOT ever critique on a fandom post that’s gushing over something, it’s incredibly rude because of the way these things are structured, it’s like sitting at a lunch table and interrupting a conversation to talk about how everyone’s favorite band they’re about to see in concert had a really disappointing last album. You might think you’re connecting, but you’re actually just a bummer. I don’t know if this is something you’ve done, but it’s certainly something I’ve seen happen, and just, yeah, don’t, lol

ETA 2: So I don’t leave this all in tags... I’m the idiot lmao, I think I completely missed two entire lines of text when I read and started answering and hooboy they were important. I’m incredibly sorry for my misunderstanding evident largely in the original text of my response!

[thatyanderecritic]

been reading a lot of yandere stuff and it feels like the targets of the yanderes' love are not allowed to feel anything besides fear or all-purpose kindness (or arousal in the dubcon/noncon works). ex: they can't feel frustrated enough at their situation to vent (without the yandere/world deciding to "punish" them violently for it). its pretty frustrating... yeah twisted love is cool, but why does it seem like a lot of yandere works lack the romance and are just rape/torture porn fantasies?

And I OOP.... You just spilled all the tea on this message box anon. 

Anyways, Kai here to answer to the call of rants! Cause this pathetic sack of flesh (That’s me, Kai!) just loves to bitch and moan about yandere stories :) So let’s ponder why this is the case...

All the blame falls onto the author. I mean, they’re the only person who’s writing these stories after all. It’s not like these characters are real, ya know? But why is it that authors just like to copy one another? Well, I have a bunch of theories but none of them particularly nice. But they’re the hard truths.

1. Authors who write yandere stories are simply unimaginative and they just copy their predecessors.

While writing is a passion, I know there’s a grind in wanting views and increasing in popularity. I can’t tell you the type of schemes Julie and I came up with to make this blog more popular on tumblr since the demographics here seem to want the yandere aesthetics or the dramatics. Sometimes, authors just like to chase those clicks and views. So the appeal to the majority and what is a safe to write is normally the go to. Since they see that other people who write ‘X’ about yanderes get to cum money, they don’t really have the incentive to think outside the box or explore an avenue they were interested in because other people might not want to explore that avenue with them.

Or they aren’t schemers (like Julie and I lol) and are simply that unimaginative. They see something they’re predecessors wrote and go, “I like that” then just copy it thinking they’re doing something original simply because they’re the one writing it now. Let me say this now before anyone mistaken me: there’s nothing wrong in writing an overdone trope or following a path of your favorite author/story. Tropes are fun and if you like a certain thing, that’s cool. There’s a reason why the liberal arts study previous works compared to, say... the sciences. You wouldn’t study a medieval medicine practice since it’s outdated. But you would study the Scarlet Letter to widen your horizon and develop your craft. And that’s the important key: “wide your horizon and develop your craft”. The problem with most writers is that they see a book and consider it the word of god. It is terrifying when I hear people say something like “I’m trying to copy Stephan King’s writing style”. Fucking yikes my dude! Besides the fact that Stephan King is generally a bad writer, you shouldn’t mimic a teacher but become your own person. Take a technique or two you like and blend it to your style. Don’t become a chameleon (unless you are going to parody/satire said author). If you’re going to do a trope, I say consider two things: 1) Are you planning to do anything with the trope? Are you going to push it forward or explore a facet that you don’t think others explored? and 2) If you don’t plan to push it forward and just do a gratuities writing of the trope, are you willing to accept that fact? Are you going to accept it and not cover your ass when someone comes around to point out  that it’s a copycat of another story (Ex. The Hunger Games Series and the Divergent Series)? Are you willing to stand up and say “Fuck yeah I was inspired by them and made my own version because I love the trope.” If you’re will to answer these two points confidently, then go for it. Cause the worst thing you can do with a trope is A) Not do anything with it and B) Lie to yourself that you’re doing something new.

This suddenly reminded me when I saw one of these writing blogs complaining about getting copy and paste writing requests. They were complaining about wanting to be original and not wanting to be a commodity. Well... first of all, if they don’t want to be a commodity then stop writing people’s requests, the fuck lol. Next it’s laughable that they think their original. Let’s ignore the fact of the complete irony that they think they’re writing something original when what they’re writing is a plot given to them by a stranger and also that they’re a fandom writer (oops, spilled the tea again). There’s really nothing “original” anymore since we can point out a specific trope and trace it back to an ancient text that done the exact same thing. What is “original” is the blending of tropes, the reactions of tropes, and the element that authors put in their writing to give it life. Cause at the end of the day, if you entertained an audience, then you won.   

2. Authors who write yandere stories secretly hate yanderes.

Okay, so this is a theory that Julie came up with and I probably won’t have a lot to write on it compared to the first point. Anyways, the theory is that some of these authors who write yandere stories just hate yanderes. I mean, look at half the shit that are yandere stories. Straight up torture, clickbait yanderes, and scumbags. This is what people imagined a yandere would be. You can at least tell the difference between someone who liked yanderes or hate them. For example, when yandere’s has a “gentle moment”. If it’s genuinely sweet and soft, then that person probably likes yanderes. If not, then that person probably doesn’t and can’t get their head out of “I hate yanderes” mode. We can also look to the first point about scheming and getting them views for tossing in a yandere. Just like the otome game community, even if the product is shit, we’ll still eat it up because it’s a product for a community that doesn’t get a lot of products of their bias. 

3. Authors who write yandere stories are simply bad at writing romance.

Again, probably not a lot to write on this point since I spent it all on the first point. Anyways, as this point state, sometimes authors are simply bad at writing romance or not interested in romance. It just happens, you know? An author will bite off more than they can chew and end up making a mediocre story. And that, combined with point one and maybe point two, then of course no one can make an actually good yandere romance story since they can’t get out of their head of “Romancing a scumbag”. Also, sometimes people read a story thinking it’s a romance story when really, it isn’t. It happens and we can’t fault the author too much since they either need more practice or it’s our fault for assuming it’s a romance to begin with. Also, can I complain about all these people who tag some stories as a romance when it’s clearly not? Now they’re the real villains here. 

4. Specific authors who write yandere stories have a fetish for rape/torture porn.

Okay okay. I get it, some people got their fetishes and coping mechanisms. Put down your pitch forks. What I’m annoyed about are people who don’t acknowledge their fetish or at least state it at the beginning of their stories. Come on, don’t be those tagging jackasses who incorrectly tag their shit. Not everyone likes your fetish. You stay in your clearly defined lane and I stay in my clearly defined lane. Cool? Cool. Well, on this website. People are pretty good at their tagging and warnings. The problem are the jackasses outside of this hell site. If tumblr is hell, the rest of the internet is the void.

Well, tbh, this point isn’t too bad. People do what people do and I can’t complain too much. And hey! I would rather read these rape/torture porn stories versus the copy cat stories. At least we get porn and the possible reward of being able to jack off to it. It’s just that nine times out of ten, the “yandere” isn’t a yandere. What a surprise. 

Anyways, I hope writing this post help vent out your frustrations anon. 

Julie: Just edited Kai’s rant here. She’s really spilling all the tea 🍵.

[serenagaywaterford]

It’s fucking crazy how in a show meant to wake the general populace up, people really do seem to hate majority of the female characters. Note it’s only the complex ones, because god forbid Margret Atwood wrote them as shades of grey and not as definitively “evil” or “good”.

I’ve been in quite a few shitty fandoms in my day but I’m not certain I’ve been in one quite as overwhelmingly tone deaf as The Handmaid’s Tale fandom. I have never seen so much hypocrisy and virtue signalling and fake wokeness in a singular fandom with source material (in terms of the original novel and S1/2 at least) that directly opposes those things. Like I was in GoT fandom for a while and holy shit the misogyny there. So, I know what it looks like. But the thing about that hellplace was that there was still a fairly recognisable and approachable faction that loudly and actively spoke out about the sheer number of issues with GoT (racism, misogyny, etc.) I feel like those people gave up on the show about mid-run, and GoT was left with a bunch of idiots and “libfems” by the end.

The thing about THT is that it appears to be 95% idiots and fake-woke “feminists” I put it in quotes cos they are NOT feminists. They just like to identify as that cos it’s trendy. They have no idea what feminism is if they centre Nick in the THT narrative, or refuse to engage with any female character other than June or Emily in any rational way and instead wish rape, violence, torture, death, and/or intense suffering on any female character (or apparently actor who plays said character!) they personally dislike because they don’t have the braincells to understand what Atwood specifically was trying to do.)

When THT becomes all about a MALE and his precious fweelings, and his uwu luv stowwy wiv Jwune and all they focus on is how “cool” June is for bullying other Handmaids into suicide, and how “awesome” she is for being 1000% selfish and self-absorbed and not caring at all about all the other women (esp. poor women of colour) she tramples on to get what she wants, that is NOT GOOD. This is a character who purposely and actively manipulated a domestic abuse victim to go back to her abusive, violent, cheater, rapist husband for June’s own ends. (And surprise, surprise that blew up in her face and people really take June’s side 100% on that cos “Serena deserves Fred” aka “Serena deserves to be beaten, raped, and abused by her husband because she’s a bad woman who has done bad things herself”. When you are saying a woman, no matter who they are, deserves to be beaten and raped and imprisoned in that situation, you are not a feminist because that isn’t justice for Serena’s crimes. That is torture.) Nothing June did in S3 was heroic. She is almost no better than the woman she hates at this point. I see very little difference between June and Serena anymore, and yet… YET fans think the sun shines out of June’s ass and Serena should be raped to death (aka “Wouldn’t it be soooo cool if Serena became a Handmaid?! Omg so cool! She deserves it! Hurr durr I am FEMINIST!!!!”).

O.o

There is zero nuance in THT fandom. It’s fine to dislike female characters. It’s fine to be critical of them. It’s fine to like male characters (I guess…). But centring men in a woman’s story and then parroting Gilead’s ideals unironically while calling yourself woke? It’s terrifying. 

June is so gross in S3, and when she isn’t being awful, she’s written as some child-crazed, hysterical woman. The writers’ full sexism and internalized (or externalized lol) misogyny on clear display. And the fans just LAP IT UP with no critical thought. No complaint. Like, “Yes, this is what a woman should be!” nevermind the entire purpose of the commentary in the novel (and S1) was that women are MORE than just hysterical, overly emotional baby-machines or housekeepers. Women are not mere resources to be harvested like cattle. Women have more personality than just “ME WANT BABBY!!!” Women are resourceful and complex and not all good, not all bad. Women are conflicted and conflicting. Meanwhile, now the show presents women almost identically to how Serena Joy wrote about them, and how Gilead has identified them, and the fans are like “Yeah! This is fine! I don’t see any problems with this at all!”

And if you dare say, “Um, guys, that’s a pretty bad take. Do you understand what you’re actually saying?” you get called a “rape apologist!!! HURRRR!!!! WHAT ABUT 2x10!!!!!” And it literally doesn’t matter what you challenge these fans about, whether it’s Nick, the themes of THT, Serena, June, etc. They see you are a fan of Serena and suddenly the discourse deteriorates completely to “Nazi!!!! you’re a rapist nazi sympathizer!!!!!!!!!” 

So, there’s no point in talking to any of them. Yeah, cos I’m the one saying women I don’t like deserve to be raped and beaten until they die as slaves in an oppressive fascist regime. (That’s actually you guys, jsyk.) My favourite was being compared to an MRA. Like, do you people even read what you write? 

I’m not the one talking non-stop about how great Mr. Soggy Pancake Man is and how we must protect this precious bean in a story about massive female oppression uwu. “BUT WHAT ABOUT NICK?!?! MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTER!!!” I hate men, lol. I can’t count the number of times I’ve literally said, “I don’t give a shit about ANY of the men in THT. I only care about women and you people are misogynistic pigs for the way you talk about women.” yet I’m a Men’s Rights Activist?

What I hear when I go into the tags: 

“All women are awful harpies and stupid or boring except this specific one cos we want her to bone the Cute Boy we’re obsessed with and she’s just basically a self-insert for our own lonely fantasies and we need to only hear about the Cute Boy, not these annoying women. If a woman character interferes or challenges my heterosexual fantasy OTP in any way, that woman must suffer and die, and I’ll laugh and cheer as that happens, especially if she’s beaten by her husband or loses her mind/commits suicide! They deserve it! Also, who really cares about all those other women’s stories elsewhere in the world. BORING! My white saviour self-insert main female character can do no wrong because I am perfect! I’ll even go out of my way and actively search out people who aren’t doing anything to me, aren’t talking to me at all and just keeping to themselves, and send online threats, hate, and insults to anybody who doesn’t agree with me about how great Mr. Stale Bread is and they’re Nazis for not agreeing with me.” 

And I’M the MRA? I’m the crazy one?

No self-awareness at all. No nuance. No critical thinking skills. And a HELL of a lot of projection that they don’t even seem to know they’re making. There are grown ass women (like 40 YEAR OLDS!) who worship Nick Bland’s ugly dick, online bullying literal minors who don’t subscribe to the Serena-Hate groupthink. It’s a cesspool. THT fandom fucking SUCKS. I’m gonna guess it’s these same morons who wished that Yvonne would lose her baby cos you hate SERENA. Like, if you don’t think this is disgusting, I don’t know how else to get it through to you that something is VERY WRONG with the vast majority of online THT fandom.

99% of this fandom doesn’t seem to give a fuck what Atwood was trying to say in her novel, or what the show intentionally set out to do challenge and prove. Anyway, anon. I feel ya. I hate this fandom which is why I never check the tags anymore, never go on Twitter, unfollowed the Insta, don’t go on FB, and stick with my very wonderful small group of non-crazies who also appreciate the complex, difficult character of Serena here – and block everyone else I can because I just don’t have time for that kind of constant drama and aggravation from ignorant people.

Wow. Okay. Sorry. Rant over.

[xaeydnquartz]

Transparency Time

Okay, if you've been in this Luther tag long enough I'm sure you've seen a lot of posts from me recently. Some with very passionate debating.

I just felt the need to explain why I'm so passionate about the debated topics. If you dont care then by all means ignore me xD

Anyways, the reason I've been ranting about the Luther hate so heavily as of late is because like many I'm drawn to characters that I can relate to in some way. I know, I know, I am not the character, the character is not me. I shouldn't let it affect me, but when I see a character I like and feel a kin to getting bashed I cant just let that shit fly, ya know?

In this regard, the aspect of Luther that sacrificed parts of his life growing up is what I'm talking about. The part that had him following all rules, being that "good soldier" as it were, all the trust he gave his father, all in a warped effort to seek approval from someone who probably didnt deserve said effort (combine that with a bit of resentment he probably felt towards his siblings for leaving to do their own things while he stayed behind). Only to have all that good will he gave rewarded with shit. Shit that left him with thoughts like "I missed out on everything!" And wondering "what else is there for me to do now?". That sort of shit fucks you up like crazy. Trust issues up the ass, second guessing every major decision you make (not to mention indulging in the "Ima look out for #1 only" mentality)

So with all that being said, when these posts pop up criticizing Luther's poorly made decisions without any consideration of just a small aspect of his trauma. It drives me up the wall.

Now, I'm not saying you cant dislike his decision making or not to call him out on his bad decisions (by all means do, I mean I've done so while watching the ending half of the season) but to throw all the hate and blame his way as well as lump him in with Reginald and Jenkins is so ridiculous.

There's some clarity and transparency. For anyone who made it this far, if you're concerned after reading this "essay" dont worry I'm in a better place than I was when I was in Luther's gigantic shoes, lol...Also dear lord you made it this far? What's wrong with you!?

Hahaha, jkjk

But ya cut Luther some slack, like the others hes working through stuff, that's all I'm saying

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk , lol

[yukipri]

I never experienced art theft until one of my works became unexpectedly popular- since then, I've found my work reposted, redrawn, and used as reference for cosplays. It's been exhausting, both seeing it, and not knowing WHERE I should stand on the issue. I've let redraws slide (with credit), but I plan on not allowing future ones from occurring. How do you deal with art theft? How do you continue drawing without thinking about the disrespect thrown at you during bad/failed confrontations?

I am so, so incredibly sorry this happened to you, and empathize very strongly with you. Art theft SUCKS, few things can be quite as demotivating as a creator than having something you’ve worked your ass off on swiped by someone else. And unfortunately, given the current internet culture, if you continue as an online artist it’s inevitable that it’ll happen at one point or another.

Because sure, of course part of the reason why we create is because we want to, but a large part of the motivation for sharing it is to hopefully get some response that people like it, whether it be in the form of likes, reblogs, comments, asks, tags, or anything else. That is the tangible PROOF that our work touched someone, and for someone who put in zero effort and has no idea how we felt while creating to receive all of that instead of us…sucks.

I think where you stand on the issue is up to you, and it’s okay for it to change. YOU always have the right to decide how you’re comfortable with people sharing your art, and your feelings are valid regardless of how they change.

Ironically enough, I just had another art theft on Instagram (my Anniversary post) super recently, so I was like HAH when I got this orz

This rant got a bit long, so the rest beneath cut but here’s a rundown about how my feelings towards art theft have evolved over the years.

For example, over the years I’ve gotten much, MUCH stricter. My earliest online art, I just put it up, no url, oftentimes no signature, no warnings in the comments or my blog bio. Admittedly I was starting out and didn’t have much viewers anyway, but the point was I still had Trust at the time.

Then the art thefts began. I started adding my url to all my illustrations, even if it was just small in the corner, as this’d let people at least find my website. Most people are too lazy to type out a url though, and I’ve seen people asking “Who drew this??” on art theft comments EVEN WHEN THE URL IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE…

And then people started cropping my watermarks. I made my url bigger, and started adding an additional “DO NOT REPOST” to the image itself. I used to allow reposts with credits on platforms I’m not on, like fb, until I realized that people were then reposting from THOSE communities without credit and putting them into their videos and fics and I just…decided it wasn’t worth it.

I switched to no reposts PERIOD. I have lengthy disclaimers on all of my art that leads to an even lengthier FAQ post that, should people wish to look, leads to even an even more detailed post about WHY art theft sucks, as I’m explaining now.

(EDIT: ALSO, reduce the quality of the images you upload, and NEVER upload the full resolution, and try to keep you unmerged original files. This is for several reasons: no matter how much an art thief reposts your work, they’ll never have access to the higher resolution, and if they ever decide to try to print to sell for profit it’ll be shitty quality compared to anything you make with the original. ALSO, you having the maximum resolution with no watermarking with additional unmerged psd files will be proof that you are the true creator should you need to prove it, which I’ve heard is sometimes necessary to show when your art is stolen at say, an artist alley)

I also used to bother trying to talk to art reposters. I’d comment on the post, try to send messages, etc. It’s fucking exhausting, and while there are some exceptions, the VAST majority of art thiefs will feel attacked and immediately get rude and defensive. (the failed confrontations and disrespect you mentioned orz) If it’s a large community, they may even try to gang up on you. I’ve unfortunately experienced this most frequently in communities centered around other languages (mainly Spanish) because of different mainstream attitudes towards art reposting etiquette combined with a language barrier.

You will, and no doubt already have, encountered people who will argue with you, like the people I describe above. “You should be grateful for the bigger audience!” “We just want to appreciate your art, how can you be so horrible?” “We’re all fans together!” “This is fanart and doesn’t belong to you anyway!” Etc. etc. etc. It’s exhausting, it’s repetitive, it’s neverending, and you already felt awful before it even began and the stress just continues to build.

So I personally have just begun reporting people, if the service allows it. Use DMCA takedown request forms (and YES, even if it’s fanart it’s still yours if you drew it). This is stressful too because it sends your real name + info to the reposter (and wow I clearly can’t trust these people to begin with, why would I want them to have that???) but most sites (facebook, instagram, certainly tumblr, twitter) are very efficient and responsive, and in the end the relief of receiving that email that the art has been taken down is worth it. Especially with facebook, they also send a scary official warning email to the reposters which I sincerely hope will help educate them and discourage future art thefts.

I try to avoid posting public urls because yes I’m aware how mob mentality Tumblr can get, but sometimes it’s just too much. There’s no convenient form of getting my content removed (perhaps bc it’s in a compilation with a ton of other content), or for some reason my attempts to communicate have failed. In those times I have occasionally asked my followers to help, with a reminder to PLEASE always be polite and respectful, regardless of the offense. Y’all have been amazing, and this has saved me many nights of crying in the past.

I will sometimes also write lengthy posts (like this one!) to help educate. Because I do feel that art theft will continue so long as people don’t understand what it does to artists, and it’s up to the community as a whole to make that change, which also depends heavily on the consumers not just creators. A lot of art theft really isn’t intentionally meant to harm, but IS super ignorant.

But in the end, all I’ve ranted about so far is how I’ve dealt with actually removing/dealing with the shit. But the emotional pain, it builds. Sometimes, when it’s too frequent and the stolen art gets way more attention than my original that I worked my ass off on that basically flunked on my own platforms, I feel a bit of me break.

And in the end, it’s up to you what that threshold is, where posting art and feeling good about it is overwhelmed by the pain, fear, and anxiety of art theft. I’ve crossed my own threshold too many times, and once had to take an art hiatus because of it (fandom was BH6). This lead to a break in my productivity and motivation and my eventual complete departure form the fandom. I’ve seen many other artists just stop posting art entirely or moving everything to private. It’s terrible, but my feelings are with these artists, and I feel so, so sorry that they were hurt so much to the extent they had to do this.

With my current fandom and followers, I feel that regardless of how niche an audience my content tends to be geared for, I have a community that is really satisfying for me to create for, one that is responsive to me and gives me tons of feedback. This is the number one reason why i continue to feel motivated to post a ton of online content despite the risks.

The takeaway form this long meandering post: Posting online is a hobby, it’s for fun, and I don’t make any money off my public audience (unless they come to Patreon! LOL!), so I’m a firm believer that once the anxiety + misery starts outweighing anything positive you personally may get from sharing online, which for me heavily depends on my audience and their responsiveness, there’s no reason to subject yourself to that anymore and you are in no way obligated to stay. There are various methods to more efficiently get rid of art thefts without dealing with them in person which is stressful AF, and also ways of marking up your content in ways that may look less aesthetically pleasing, but will hopefully discourage art thefts, and at the very least give them very little leg to stand on should they do it anyway. How forgiving you are in art thefts also depends on you, but the more forgiving you are, the more it can get away from you. And in the end, YOU as a human are more important than any complaints about art looking less pleasing or the feelings of art thefts who don’t get to do what they want with YOUR hard work.

Sorry this was so disjointed and literally just me spewing at you, but I hope some of it was helpful ^ ^; Please let me know if I can give you any other advice, and I’m sorry again that you have to deal with this ;_;

(and to respond to your second ask, I do try to respond to most of my asks, but sometimes it takes a while (sometimes even months orz), especially if it’s one that requires a lengthy detailed answer like this one ^ ^; thank you for your patience!)

[striptaese]

10 questions tag

I still have a pile of tag stuff I haven’t got to, so let me get started.

Thanks Kit @jjongeyed​ for tagging me to answer 10 questions, and then making 10 more for those I tag~

1. What does your “self-care” usually look like?  Or rather, what do you do to unwind when you’re overwhelmed?

I’m someone who depends on sleep a little too much for it to be healthy. Sick? Sleep will cure it. Migraine? Sleep will cure it. Sad? Sleep will solve it. Angry? Go to sleep and forget about it. So usually my first option would be sleep, but otherwise, I either like to listen to certain music depending on my mood (some days I use my special shinee playlist made just for anxious days, some days I feel like going instrumental, and just recently I found myself listening to nature sounds like rain or ocean waves, etc.), or I tend to watch animation movies . More often than not, those animation movies would be Disney because I’m a sap that cries at each and every one of them, and also because I like that they aren’t too long (>2 hours). Lately I have run out of Disney movies to watch, so I’ve been turning to chick flicks

2. How do you feel about tattoos?  Would you ever get one, and if so, what of?

I love listening to stories about why people get their tattoos, so generally when people get a tattoo, I tend like it more if there is a special story behind it (like I remember one girl I met was talking about how her tattoo was something that connected her to her grandmother spiritually and that just made me aww). I personally don’t like full sleeves or just too much tatts in general, but you know, not my business what people wants to get on their body. I did consider getting one of a sleeping cat that maybe sits on my hip somewhere, because I have a really lazy cat that basically sleeps all day so... that’d be her. But I’m indecisive and I can’t even bear to peel stickers and paste them anywhere, much less get a tattoo so I doubt it’ll ever happen. 

3. What is one photo/video/audio/screencap that you feel is a the most accurate and quintessential representation of your bias?

I refuse to pick one, it’s a representative of all 5 members

4. Could you please share a story of how you met one of the dearest people in your life?

Okay so my pretzel Jo whom we can never remember how long we’ve actually known each other for... We... weren’t that close initially. I think I initially got to know of her when I was 13? or 14? through an online game. We had a mutual friend whom we were close to and we talked here and there but were never really super close. Well in this game our characters could get ‘married’ and one day she was looking for a ‘bride’ and because she knew my character was single, she pop the question (I was forever alone even in the game, don’t laugh). Since she was someone I actually knew (I just didn’t like that everyone was getting ‘married’ to people they don’t even know, I take my games way too seriously, I know LOL), I agreed. But even when our characters were ‘married’ we were still individually closer to our mutual friend than to each other. Unfortunately... things got a little sour along the way. Long story short, that mutual friend of ours expected us to always be there for her, but would throw us to the side in a heartbeat when her other friends came around. By then I already knew this mutual friend for like 4 years? And I regarded her as one of my bestfriends, and just it really hurt me when it just seemed like I wasn’t important to her anymore, while she turned around and blamed me for ‘changing’ because I refused to be her puppet that would give in all the time. Jo was basically going through the same thing I was with this mutual friend and we kinda connected while ranting and venting. We’ve been close since then. She’s in a music major that I know nuts about, and I graduated with a Business major that she knows nuts about, but somehow it just works out because our personalities kinda match I guess, and she joined the shawol party just last year so now we just spazz about shinee together. She’s coming to HK con with me!

5. Does your heart race easily?  Or do you make other hearts race more easily? 

I’m not too sure to be honest. I think it would be easy to make my heart race because I’m inexperienced in every field of relationship (friendships included) so really little things can make my heart race, but it hasn’t happened very often so...

6. What was the last thing that made you laugh?  Describe or share it!

This is gonna get the p*** blogs to start following me... but I laughed so hard I had to watch it again. (before you ask how I got on that side of youtube... it was because I was watching buzzfeed videos about the clear jeans and I got linked to her channel)

7. What do you look for in a friend?

Ease of communication? There’s just some people you click with, and I need that connection to be comfortable enough to speak to them. I feel like I have become very guarded towards making friends. Just like Jinki who says all his friends are from his school period, that’s literally it for me too. The few deep friends I have made, were all people I’ve met before I was 15. 

8. OH OH OH!!!!  Last meal on earth–it can be anything–what do you eat?  I’m talking main dish, desserts, sides, drink, etc!!!!!

Hmm... I think it’d either be steak, or pizza... but if geography isn’t a restriction I REALLY WANT A STACK SHACK ONE MORE TIME

9. You win a lifetime achievement award (for whatever reason) and you could have anyone as your plus-one, who do you take?

I’ll probably get one of my parents, I guess; they’d deserve to go the most of all

10. They make a movie about your life: what genre is it?  for the aesthetic people, describe how it’d look?  auditory people, what five songs would be on the soundtrack? (feel free to answer both!)

I think it will be a dreamy kinda movie... like soft faded colors, and just a feeling of a dream because that’s how my life feels like to be honest. Everything just feels dream like to me (not differentiating between good or bad dreams). The movie would be one that puts some people to sleep because of the tone and a plot that seems to be going no where. Since I’m listening to Lullaby right now, it has that feel. Like soft, flow-y, dreamy tone.

Here are my questions:

1. Are you someone who cries easily while watching shows or reading books/fanfics? Are you (also) someone who cries easily in general?

2. If you could have a superpower, what would you want your superpower to be? How would you use this power?

3. Describe your wardrobe - are you a colorful wardrobe person, or an all black/white wardrobe person? Accessories and caps, or no?

4. Why do you love SHINee? (yes, I’m giving you an opportunity for an essay)

5. If you had a chance to hand gifts to the members personally, what would you give them? If they are letters, what would they say?

6. Tell me about a fandom crush/squish/someone you admire?

7. Which fictional character (from a movie/show/book) do you aspire to be like and why?

8. What is your method of outlet for your emotions? (stress, restlessness, thoughts, etc.)

9. What are your reactions to bugs - scream and panic and run, scream and panic and attack, capture and release, capture and kill, ignore... others?

10. What is a memorable memory you can think of right now?

Tagging: @jjongspink @jinkirella @eyes0ny0u @onthighsbelongtotaemin @taeontae @hellotweetygirl

[aberratedaberration]

Not exactly sure why I thought about this, but it’s on my mind so inc little rant/rambling, which means it’s a fucking wall of text~

Actually, probably just because I wanted an excuse to listen to old Nightwish albums that doesn’t involve logging into Bns at the moment because I am too tired for that shit

Last altercation I had with someone, and again no idea why this particular part popped into my head, after shit talking the fuck out of me on tumblr and tagging my personal blog in it, thought it was absolutely hilarious that Ben went and commented about it, reblogging the post and writing how juvenile and childish it was to write a shit post (and then claim to be anti-bullying). She stated that it was (paraphrased) hilarious that I had to get my boyfriend to fight my battles for me. Even though I had already acknowledged the post myself, reblogging with a thoughtful Lol, and that was my peace with it. I had already exchanged a final message previously with this person countering all of their arguments, and told them the simplest solution would have been to just flat out come up and tell me “Hey Chloe you’re treating me like a piece of shit and I think that’s fucked up.” Especially if they’re my friends, I am 100% not above apologising for treating someone like shit. Sometimes I don’t even realize it, and at that point I need people to confront me to tell me I’m being a piece of shit. Anyways, I digress.

The reason I bring it up is because of the fact that someone found it that funny to try and belittle me for “having my boyfriend fight my battles for me.” Then I also found it amusing she insulted him by staying that I shit talked him. As if I hadn’t told him already all the things I said. He knows I think he’s a sack of shit (but I still love him) so that’s completely beside the point. What I don’t understand is why it’s supposed to be insulting to have someone who obviously cares a lot about me stick up for me. Isn’t that what people are supposed to do? 

I have stuck up for so many people. Some of them are perfectly capable of defending themselves, others aren’t. I have stood up for myself and have had others stand up for me as well. Why, then, is it such a fucking insult to tell others, “Lmao you have to have someone else stand up for you”? Really fucking why is that an insult? The only way I can think of is because it’s insinuating that someone isn’t strong. Then the question becomes why the fuck is it so important to always be so strong?

I had a friend who endured tons of emotional abuse from a girl who claimed she loved him. He can be a strong individual, but certain things, certain instances, certain people, certain times in his life he isn’t as strong. At that point, he was so vulnerable and so desperate to not be lonely and to feel loved that, despite how much I told him I loved him and valued him and would always be there for him, he allowed this girl to take advantage of him and use him, then tear him down in the worst way possible. This guy could not have defended himself from her. WHY, then, is he somehow less of a person because I stood up for him, because I told that girl she could fuck herself and she’s a horrible fucking human being for tearing someone’s trust like she did, and then blame everything on him...Anything he said to her, she’d always have a shitty comeback with how everything was his fault and he was the one making her feel bad. (Well, he was making her feel bad because he was trying to discuss their problems in a healthy way, but she didn’t want to deal with it and instead emotionally abused him.) 

I had a person with a deep...well I’m not sure he had an infatuation with me, because it’s not as obsessive as infatuation sounds, but he had a huge crush on me. I told him I respected and admired him as a friend but that’s all I wanted us to be; I didn’t feel it was necessary to tell him I was still picking up pieces of a broken heart and couldn’t lend it to anyone romantically at the moment. While I completely understand rejection sucks, I was willing to do whatever he wanted in order to get over me as quickly as possible. He, in turn, started giving me daily updates on how hard his life was because I had rejected him, which stressed me the fuck out, and no matter how much I tried to be polite but tell him he needed to get over me, he still didn’t understand. See, that point I was perfectly capable of standing up for myself. And guess what, it had no fucking affect on said person. The only time it seemed to sink in was when another friend, after so many rant sessions, went and told him, as gently as I did, that maybe he needed to lay off because he was stressing me out. 

Another time, a person I have had a ridiculous time dealing with, going back and forth (like, dislike, like, dislike) between being okay and absolutely despising, after our first major set of altercations, Ben actually went, without my knowledge, and defended me in front of this person. I had no idea until a month after the fact when he said he and this person were no longer friends. Then, after I had had enough of the passive shit talking (from both our ends, I know), I personally confronted this person myself and we actually patched things up for a time. Then by the second time our relationship blew up, no one involved had any interest in actually talking to me about the issue; it was only assumed I was doing hurtful things to a mutual party because I was perceived in the past to be a psycho nutjob (even though I and several other neutral friends have told me I handled it better than most). I couldn’t have defended myself at that point. I had already been written off, and several other people were swayed without even bothering to know my side of the story (even though they were friends with me as well). At that point, I actually had to beg some of my friends to stand up for me. I felt betrayed and disappointed in people that I, while not close, considered friends. The few mutuals we had, who were nice enough to listen to me and tried to help me calm down, I acknowledge that in one sense they did help me, but in terms of confronting the other person, there was nothing in the world I could do or say to make her realise her small generalizations about my whole character were completely wrong and she screwed me over because of a ton of assumptions...I couldn’t do it. I had to beg a couple of them to stand up for me. Even if I had the mental capacity to stand up for myself, this is a situation where no matter what I said, it wouldn’t have any effect on the whole situation; all my words would have either been twisted or fallen on deaf ears. 

All of this is to give examples of different experiences I’ve had where both I and others have experienced others standing up for us. And all of this has taught me it’s fucking okay to have someone stand up for you, it’s not a fucking insult.

I am a fierce protector, especially of people I consider friends or family; this is one way I show people I love and care about them. It is in my nature to immediately want to stand up for other people; hell I even give people shit for yelling at pugs in dungeon runs when they don’t deserve it. I know exactly how it feels to feel like no one cares about you, enough to tell others to fuck off, and I’ve seen how other people feel when no one defends them. It’s heart breaking. Yes, Ben has gotten on my case before when I jump down someone’s throat for being a stupid cunt, and I agree sometimes there is a time and place for it, but at the same time I don’t believe it should ever be considered negative. The fact that I did yell at this guy for shit talking my friend, even in something as trivial as a pug yelling in dungeon run in Bns. Maybe I shouldn’t have jumped down the guy’s throat, maybe my friend is perfectly capable of defending themselves, but in no way should the act of wanting to defend be considered negative. What I need to learn then is discretion. If my friends don’t want me doing it, they are more than welcome to tell me thanks for defending me but fuck off and just ignore them next time. That’s perfectly fine to say. But at the end of the day, being ready and prepared to defend a friend isn’t a bad thing and it’s certainly not something that should be considered insulting.

If you’ve read this far, congrats you’re at the end.

[courtanie]

What do you think about consensual Kyman? It feels a little weird to me bcuz Cartman is an jerk to Kyle, but the last few eps got me thinking. Can you explain why this is a good/bad idea? I need to know I'm not the only one who thinks this is weird.

I have answered this multiple times in the past, so I’m just gonna copy and paste one of my other answers because I don’t have the energy for another full-fledged rant pfff. Question isn’t exactly the same but it hits the same points I would hit here. And yes this puts me in the tag and makes me into an ~anti~ but whatever this perpetuates a REAL LIFE problem where casual racism is a-okay. Please keep in mind I do not go after people who ship this, and I do not flood their tag with this kind of thing unless I am specifically asked to do so. Last time I posted this that seemed to be a consensus even tho no one could point out where I did such a thing sooooooo there ya go. Anyway.

Anonymous asked: Why are you okay with writing nonconsensual scenes and horrible violence but you're so against consensual kyman? Mind you I'm asking as a huge fan of both works and that cheesy crap between them. This isn't an insult to you it's just a legitimate question.

Because I don’t perpetuate the idea that the situations that take place in my fics are okay. When I write my violent stuff, it’s portrayed as traumatic and something that needs recovery, no matter how small.

Kyman fans, however, completely ignore the ramifications of what the two of them being together would be. It’s abuse, pure and simple. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I hit the ground dead: Trapping a Jew with a Nazi is not quirky.

And that’s exactly what Kyle would be in that situation, he would be trapped. But no no, I’m told, “it’s okay Cartman considers him his Jew but still makes racist remarks because well gotta keep it in-character”. That is a disgusting mindset.

People who write this do not understand Kyle’s character at all. I was beaten down in my earlier days because I made their friendship too ooc with Cartman occasionally lending a hand to help him. So, their canon selves aren’t cool but completely destroying Kyle’s proud character and making Cartman a ‘doting cuddly and ‘only casually racist’’ boyfriend is a-okay so long as there’s some smut, right?

Listen, their relationship is nothing but a power struggle. They are frienemies for a reason, they are not meant to get along on any level outside of using one another to gain the upper hand in a situation. They’ll constantly beat each other down and then drag them back up when they realize they can use the other to their advantage. And that is called abuse. Both of them are guilty of this. “But I made them go through inner turmoil and wonder how they could love someone so mean to them!!!” And there it is. Kyman fans know how detrimental their relationship is. They constantly address it. But yet that all goes away because boners. The consequences are never discussed, the inevitable misery is never addressed. The realism is stripped away from the damning effects of such a relationship taking place.

Honestly I think your question is one of my biggest problem with Kyman fans (not you in particular, babe, I mean the general consensus I’ve found). Do I write graphic, awful things? Yes. Yes I do. And they are portrayed as graphic, awful things. I emphasize, especially nowadays, the recovery. I take it apart from all angles to reinforce ‘THIS WAS A BAD THING THAT HAPPENED’. But the guaranteed mental/emotional abuse from Kyman is just… glossed over. They put a pretty bow on it and call Cartman’s antisemetic ways ‘cute’ and claim Kyle would ‘have a fondness for it’.

Also, lol. Let’s talk about the fucking fat-shaming hypocrisy for just a moment because it’s one of my biggest grievances. Most consensual kyman fics, and yes, I have read many because I have a lot of readers who suggest shit to me insisting the fic they found makes it work and I’m a naturally curious person, have a scene where Cartman is calling himself disgusting because of his weight and being teased about it for so long. Okay you know what, I can get behind that idea. That is an absolute possibility it’d grind against him for years and lead to some inner issues. And Kyle comes over and comforts him and reassures him he still finds him attractive or some other shit. Okay. Fine. Not my thing but whatever. But then they will turn around and it’s RIGHT BACK TO THE CASUAL RACISM. And Kyle will just laugh it off because “well, at least Cartman felt like himself again”. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

The fact that people are more concerned about Cartman’s appearance being put into question than Kyle’s identity is fucking repulsive. It’s bad to call him fat but insulting Kyle’s religion is a-okay? And then you have the “well Kyle still calls him Fatass but it’s an endearing term”. Holy fucking shit no???? That makes it so much worse??? I mean, to take a scene specifically for Cartman to say “I have a serious problem with my weight being what defines me” but continuing to use it and he’s totes chill with Kyle reminding him of what made him so upset in the first place? Do kyman writers not understand how being insulted works?

There’s a difference between let’s say Ken and Ky together calling each other assholes and Cartman and Ky just tearing each other down in every way possible but finding it ‘loving’. That’s not how it works. But it’s completely ignored, once again, because boners. It skeeves me out. I feel really awkward writing a scene with the two of them interacting and having Cartman shovel out very in-character insults. And you’re supposed to feel bad over it because they are awful things to say. But no. No kyman writers are totally cool with doing so and ‘putting a spin on it’ to make it what they consider a ‘healthy’ relationship.

So yeah, I have a serious problem that I can understand horrible consequences of people’s actions and address them thusly, but I’m called a fucking disgusting monster for it. Meanwhile these people are treating Nazi like it’s as casual of a bad personality trait as like, a Dudebro. You know what a realistic ‘romantic relationship’ is between them? Dubious on every level. Kyle deep in the midst of a depression, desperate for some sort of human contact, and Cartman completely takes advantage of it and Kyle is fucking trapped because that’s how abusive relationships goddamn work.

That’s their dynamic. It has ALWAYS been their dynamic. They are terrible people to one another, even my goddamn major bias towards Kyle isn’t going to make me say he’s a decent person to Cartman because he’s not. And treating their relationship as though it could be nothing but flowers and butterfly kisses and casual racism is insulting to both the characters and to anyone who’s ever dealt with mental and emotional abuse. Like what you like, whatever I’m not your brain I can’t tell you how to feel, but people need to understand just what it is they’re perpetuating.

Adding to this for your question in particular:

Last season showed us that Cartman is still Cartman. He is still manipulative, he is still working to cover up lies of his, and we all saw that regret and anger and disgust on his face towards Heidi in the finale.

There’s a post going around that equates his personality change in seasons 19 & 20 to ‘Casa Bonita’, where he goes to Kyle’s house in a sweater thinking it’ll win Kyle over for his ‘change’. And Kyle tells him ‘That’s not being nice, it’s just putting on a nice sweater’. And OP of this post I’m referring to was correct, last season was just Cartman putting on a nice sweater. He’ll go back to his awful ways and all the points that I made here will still be firmly in place, I guarantee it.