#people don’t care about facts though; they care about rhetoric. about the narrative in their heads

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

I'm the weirdo who has always been into either f/f or m/f, in fact since I have memory, for me to enjoy any media was to hyper fixate into any girl character, didn't matter if it was well written, a main character or just a side character, I always did that, and when I started getting into online fandoms (I'm oooold xD) I was both surprised and sad that apparently no one paid attention to them and in the old days, some people were just brutal when talking about any fictional girlie, and here I am watching the new gen spitting the same rhetoric (that female characters can't be interesting) just with a different flavor and wrapping :/

Yeah people are so quick to demonize or sideline female characters! And of course it isn’t just fandom at all; I’m thinking of the broader reactions to Skylar White in Breaking Bad, and rn Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon. You’ll have these sensitively portrayed, complex and tragic women and all people can say is that they’re annoying bitches.

I tend to gravitate towards characters that fandoms hate, or that are narratively marginalized. I just get really protective of things like the “annoying girlfriend” trope. Like I immediately felt sooo protective of Misa in Death Note, and then a bit out of left field, perhaps, but also Harmony in BTVS when she’d reintroduced as Spike’s very ill treated girlfriend but it’s all played for laughs. They’re just treated so poorly and that really gets me.

I do want to stress though that I don’t mean to highlight m/f specifically as like particularly groundbreaking lol. Like it does take up most of the art that we have in the world. But again it’s about how people engage with the female characters and whether they’re able to care about them, and what standards they hold them to. Going back to fandom, it’s really so telling that the most popular m/f ships (obligatory Reylo mention) hinge so much on exaggerated and unexamined gender roles, and where it’s clear that the FMC is only incidental and what the fandom really cares about is the MMC.

It all comes back to the tendency to center men. And that’s really disappointing!

As is hopefully obvious by my blog content and fics, I do think that equating taste in fiction with irl morality is ridiculous. My favorite stories are about war criminals! But it’s also silly to act like actual biases and values don’t come through with how people talk about fiction and how they perceive it.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Adam B. Coleman

Published: Sep 1, 2021

Our black intellectual elite has embraced a white supremacy conspiracy theory

Why are people attracted to conspiracy theories? What makes them so intriguing that usually rational-minded individuals will suspend all disbelief to embrace an embellishment? For myself, it was the absence of information that made the conspiracy plausible. For a brief period of time in my 20s, I embraced 9/11 conspiracy theories. I felt that there were too many coincidences about odd events and that there were too many unanswered questions. I was certain that it was an inside job in order to kick off endless wars in the Middle East to forcibly seize oil for profit.

Today, I don’t believe in these conspiracy theories for multiple reasons. For one, I believe that most negative actions on a grand scale are not necessarily done out of malice but out of incompetence or carelessness. Just because there is a pattern does not mean that it is intentional. Even if I have unresolved questions about the pattern, this does not mean that there aren’t legitimate answers to explain it. 

The pattern aspect of this is extremely important to home in on because the human brain is designed to notice patterns and these patterns are highly salient to the mind in its information processing. However, what happens if someone presents information that is flawed in a pattern format? I believe that most people will choose to believe the pattern instead of questioning the information. This is how conspiracy theories flourish throughout our society, because once you see the pattern, it’s hard to unsee it.

The image of the conspiracy theorist staring at their bedroom wall with strings connecting one document to another is supposed to illustrate that they are using their logical brain, problem-solving by moving from facts to a pattern, but it is just as likely that they are working their way backwards, because they already have their conclusion—they’re just looking for any available links to the conclusion.

Much the same can be said for the people we hail as our intellectual black elite in academia. The people who show up on television shows and podcasts, giving the impression that they are intellectually sound by flaunting the institution they teach at or graduated from. Why would I, the average simpleton, dare to question their credentials when they’re using theoretical academic jargon? At times, it feels as though they’re intellectually bullying us, but it’s more likely that our own academic insecurity causes us to accept uncritically or to let slide whatever these people say.

Because we tend to feel insecure when someone shows up with an erudite vocabulary, we let them command the room. We stay silent as they speak for everyone else, or worse, we believe them regardless of what theories they’re pushing. Even if, instinctually, we feel that their reasoning sounds wrong, we still give them the benefit of the doubt because of their credentials.

Over the past few years, I’ve soured on being impressed simply by someone’s academic status, and now I care more about the content of their rhetoric. I’ve personally pushed back on black intellectuals’ narratives, ideas, and theoretical presumptions about reality. I’ve realized that there is a possibility of overthinking something to the point of having your theory escape reality. Many of these people have an Empire State Building-sized hubris, so once they adopt a theory, they ignore any challenging counterargument, much like the conspiracy theorists that I mentioned earlier.

The majority of our black intellectual elite has embraced the white supremacy conspiracy theory without challenge and without nuance. They’re sure there is no other explanation and they take any challenge to their conspiracy theories as evidence that you are working on behalf of the conspiracy. If you’re attempting to disprove the 9/11 conspiracy, you’re assumed to be an agent of the state. If you attempt to disprove the white supremacy conspiracy, you’re assumed to be an agent of ‘whiteness.’

The white supremacy conspiracy theory claims that everything in American society was created for the benefit of white people, and as such, any disparity between white people and minorities is due to that racist system. This conspiracy is a catch-all for any social issue, any historical event, and any negative outcome for black Americans.

The black intellectual elite are now officially the conspiracy theorists of the black community. They have the intellect to understand the complexities of social conditioning and human behavior, but they lack the willingness to accept that they might be wrong. When you spend your entire academic career believing in one particular concept, you will fight tooth and nail to ward off common-sense arguments against it. 

The black intellectual elite of the past used to be secluded in lecture halls across the country, but now the American public are their new students to indoctrinate. We are now unwilling auditors of their conspiracy theorizing, and we are aware of the elephant in the room that prevents us from pushing back—their race. If you are white and point out their flawed logic, you will be cast as a racist for challenging a black intellectual. If you are black and point out missteps in their thought process, you are accused of simping for the white man. For these black intellectuals, their race is used as a defense mechanism to protect their ego, fame, and profits.

These black elites don’t like to explain how they were able to make it to such great heights in this allegedly unfair white supremacist society. They never disclose their net worth while preaching about how they are victims. I’ve become very aware of the irony of these buttoned-up, wealthy black intellectuals telling lower class black people that because of white supremacy, they can’t do what they, the intellectuals themselves, did. Many of them wag their finger at white people as a whole as they are literally going to bed with a white person every night. They are walking contradictions because their conspiracy has no teeth—certainly white supremacy isn’t biting them. 

They are able to get away with espousing their conspiracy theory because there is a kernel of truth in it. No one could ever say that racism never existed or that the American government during part of our history didn’t have racist laws. But the trick of any conspiracy is that it is based on a truth, but one that is exaggerated to the point where it becomes untruth. Conspiracy theories overlook all the nuances of a particular situation in favor of apparent patterns. When such patterns rule, facts and nuance die.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

furthermore it’s something that quant kid 2 was supposedly written as “guy who sucks who we never see again” (which, underwhelming execution of that lmao even hypothetically just on paper) & then there’s will roland’s interpretation, with will never really mentioning like yeah i decided to try to put a spin on it, or anyone else really providing more specifics rather than they Liked his live & in person je ne sais quoi & acted performance. and idk, just said Je Ne Sais Quoi & the presumed approach of Acting In Earnest rather than that the character being a joke is something that the actor is inviting the audience in on. acting like “this is how it’d be if this was a person.” no character has Real internality the way a real person does but we can interpret it As If They Did anyways, a whole conceit of art imitating life imitating art and narratives / stories / media as an interpretation of life experiences / realities....winston’s autistic. writers doing caricatures of autistic people they’ve unknowingly encountered, with the assumption in life carried over to the assumption as a creator of fictionalized versions of Guys Like That which is that well i guess those weird nerd mathy computer guys are grating losers who annoy us b/c they do that on purpose, like an asshole. and they’re like really good at some specific thing sometimes, but actually that’s Sad even if it’s useful, so it’s also just kind of annoying & wrong of them. done. winston’s autistic, and that also autistic people hardly always know they’re autistic and everything can be a blend of “idk, this isn’t how it is for everyone?” and “i guess things must be my fault on account of being a guy who sucks b/c of whatever’s wrong with me & all” like, for winston to work with taylor he has to say “yeah i suck” before he gets to again mention he’s super good as his shit though, which is apparently also something that sucks of him. ok. it will never be more decipherable, except that it’s indecipherable in the very same way Being Autistic Irl is lmfao. he’s autistic. he’s also autistic b/c a) i think he is, and b) does anyone care otherwise. like who would even truly give a shit about their “winston is some guy i think. idk” interpretion enough to argue for it. or even “yeah winston is some guy who is like a cringe loser to me, idc” like is it important to you. thinking about winston as [autistic character] and secret cassandra (general secret weapon in other ways) for it as well is like, idfk, the alternative is just what most people surely do which is taking the face value “jokes boy who gets dunked on” context and not a step further. okay. i hope to god this is all rhetorical like, if anyone Is out there like “i’ll join this conversation and devil’s advocate about why it’s important for winston to be allistic” it’s like, first of all, already for that b/c the counterarguments to the counterargument are beyond [well ig at the end of the day it’s just all our interpretations =) lol like yeah no shit. anyways] include stuff again like how ppl can be autistic without even their themselves knowing it and the fact of like, irl you don’t need to go “oh it’s okay for people to do [xyz] if they’re autistic =)” like it’s way most likely to be okay whether they’re autistic or not and certainly whether you Know it or not. like, i’m monologuing out here. idc abt any other opinions lmfao like hello?? mine are more than good enough

anyways like the only discussions possible like hmm david levien maybe i have some questions but if you don’t have good answers i’ll just throw it out, idc, i wouldn’t necessarily say i trust this writing or any of you involved in it half as far as i can throw it, just inquiries for fun. i’d discuss it with will roland’s mother, or him himself. like here you can also be given [honorarily autistic] by me if you want at this rate. anyhow send post. i can’t say [winston billions autistic character] enough

[hanzi83]

Just Going Off Vibes

Blog 

I normally jot shit down that I will talk on the podcast, but I did want to write another pretentious blog where I am probably gonna repeat the same shit I have probably already said, I am going to try and incorporate big words to make me sound smarter but once you get to seeing the shitty grammar and structure to this shit, you are gonna write me off because I haven’t read too many books in my life and I am just going off vibes, which can sometimes help or be detrimental to how I come across. But once you are catching up with shit and taking in the social media discourse of the day because I can’t remove myself from the online shit since I know that everything that trends is manufactured by different factions and cults to change and dominate the  narratives, and it becomes fascinating to see how it plays out because I can already feel where the end goal is, every day you see why attempts at comedy has gone through the shitter and has just been watered down, when you see the most uncreative shit from people like “Mike Obama” trending because right wing shit heads are regressive and self hating toward themselves because most likely their search history for porn has all trans related shit to it but even if the joke was funny how does everyone repeating it and getting boosted by other billionaire funded think tanks make it even funnier, you couldn’t have come up with a better name? Like where is the creative output? It is one of those things where people have to hype up other people’s shitty jokes so in turn their shitty jokes get boosted up because by their logic, if it gets retweets it suddenly fucking means it is top shelf comedy, if that was the case, then someone like Brooklyn Dad on twitter would be considered the funniest person on the fucking planet. They think because they dominate the algorithm, that it is gonna cure their mental illness and having to cope with the fact that you ride for people who literally want to marry children and put them to work with loosened child labor laws, like most of you mother fuckers don’t even think human lives are worth it because it means you will have your shitty guns, you suffer from this online shit where you think because it is going back to 90’s regression on HGH supplied by Vince McMahon, that you think because you repeat shitty comedy that it suddenly makes it more funny because other compromised sex offenders being forced to be an online troll are the ones slapping their knee and having celebratory high fives in emoji form in their shitty fucking group chats. I am not even defending the Obamas as far as the elitism goes in being in that political world, but even if Michelle Obama was trans, so the fuck what, she is still attractive. I don’t care one way or the other, listen I am not saying she is but why is that the own on someone, like even though I don’t like Hilary Clinton and her track record, and I thought you should call her out for her resume of shit she has done, the funded sports entertainment personalities and social climbers hype up other horrible regressive shit, like even if we agreed she sucks, why would I want to be on the side of someone who is doing it because it is rooted in their misogyny they have for most women, just like if I don’t like the neoliberal shit the Obamas are involved with, the fact that people who claim to be “left” will share a laugh with some shitty right wing trolls even if their shit is rooted in racism, misogyny and transphobia. People will shit on you for voting for a democrat because there is no lesser of 2 evils to them, but then they will align with funded ideology under the guise of “Well I hate the Obamas so I am gonna agree with their anti trans rhetoric”. We are living in an era where people who have a different past then the one they presented is gonna be “exposed” because there will be documentaries, books, and television shows etc about it since everything on this fucking planet has to be exploited. I have predicted, we will get a whole series of different people who we will find out that they didn’t die and they are still alive, and we are gonna wonder how it was done and orchestrated. We have already exhausted all the fucking horrible scandals that would’ve been a bigger deal like 10-15 years ago. The reason why I wanted to mention this first is because since CNN now has a legit right wing owner, which is why the alt right targeted CNN specifically as the “fake news” because they didn’t want to actually get truth, they wanted one of their own there so it now makes it seem like it is being fair to the right wing when it has always been centrist to the right for majority of the time it has been on air, so now that anything that is said on there and other MSM outlets, it is designed for the social climbers and funded thought leaders to then dunk on it so now for a bunch of people on the right wing who hate anything LGBTQ related, you are literally doing the gayest thing ever when you are Stanning for different first ladies to begin with, you might as well be looking at US Weekly’s “Who wore it best” for different celebrity get ups to even give a shit of who Don Lemon thinks is more beautiful, like it is cool if you are into it but it is kind of gay and that is not a negative thing but the fact that so many anti LGBTQ people are obsessed with this kind of shit always makes me laugh, but you are sitting there discussing this shit while your legs are flailing in the air as you pick out your asshole hair, while trying to hide that you have trans related shit in your porn search history, you hate black people but you probably secretly hire a black male sex worker to fuck your wife while you jerk off in the corner, and then you project all that shit onto other fucking people, especially talking heads and celebs, who literally hate themselves for who they are but they then take their self hatred and direct it at a general community and influence an audience who are going to grow into the shittiest bigots on the planet and repeat your shitty humor because they are too unorginal to have their own personality. But that shit Don Lemon did was by design because he knows the right wing hates him, or is it symbolism that on the surface Don Lemon is the last kayfabed democrat there, and if he says anything nice about the wife of an ex democratic president, that the right wing leader will get the funded accounts to dunk on Don Lemon and come up with the most unclever trans joke about Michelle Obama. This is the comedy that the left is supposedly scared of because the right wing are getting too fucking good at it. This is the shit that clearly is not agenda driven and very organic unlike all that “LIBTARD WOKENESS IN OUR BEER” while all of you are basically doing product placement so you get free beer most likely. I know I am not mentally right in the head, and I have spent my life being such a caricature, but it is so alarming how much of our lives are a complete parody at this point. People perpetuating that the internet is some underground chat room that no one is looking to so their opinion seems more organic and real are the biggest sociopaths on the planet, they spend their time online organizing how to make more chaos in the discourse, then other mentally ill social climbers say fucked up shit and the ones who are perpetuating it get to have a cult to pretend they are more normal than everyone else, when they spend time destroying any art that doesn’t have their cosign or their efforts, you have to accept most online “critics” will most likely praise something if they have some involvement with it or if it goes with their political agenda, while their only saving grace is dunking on the villain of the day in an America’s dumbest criminal aesthetic, and act like they are not aligning with problematic people in the system. They know that no one interacts with my twitter or social media because I am a red flag account for group chat people who play by a script, to avoid, and they will secretly monitor what I say or write and then get angry about it that they flood your entire timeline by boosting up the worst narratives and double down on it, they will then cooperate with the hired online mercenaries, who have probably taken from my private journal to inform people if I write about them, and they will try to put me through mental torment over an opinion.

I do feel bad for specific talent who are cogs in the system who have to go through shit their billionaire bosses make them do but god am I really getting sick a lot of you in the entertainment business who help perpetuate to the toxic online shit and play innocent because you will have a sociopathic cult that will constantly fucking defend your every fucking move. All of this shit for entertainment that no one is supposed to take seriously but if you don’t like the ideas conjured up for this modern work shoot shit, people who “never take anything seriously” will have a whole fucking shrine to this shit while calling out others for lack of morals and integrity when most of you are into products that are “outside of WWE” that are still connected to WWE under the table most likely. You will give people shit for attending a shitty WWE media conference while you’re all doing Perry Mason level of investigating for this CM Punk and Elite shit, maybe the 13 year old Hanzi would’ve been into this shit but this has been completely watered down and I have never cared less about one of these, the reason why I do because they sabotaged their product for more rebooted worked shoot shit that was already exhausting itself in the 2000’s and 2010’s shit,  the pro Punk contingent who would get on anyone for having critiques of the company prior to Brawl out, suddenly have all these fucking complaints while they organized harassment campaigns against talent that spoke out but now that is their favorite messiah who got kayfabed victimized, suddenly their job was to tear down the product, undercut talent by implying their narrative of “It wasn’t supposed to happen because Bucks and FTR were supposed to face but they didn’t” and then shake down people to be pro Punk and don’t get me started on all the Elite cult members. Now we are making Alvarez and Meltzer workers in this scenario too because you know eventually CM Punk is gonna slap the fuck out of him at a press conference when it becomes official that CM Punk was getting fucked over and phased out of the company and all of this booking and sabotaging of talent just so we can cater to CM Punk’s Super Cena status. And when he comes back, they probably won’t even wrestle each other because the other part of the work is that the Elite might leave, because they need to have a “shoot” angle then as months pass by, everyone kind of gets on the same page of it being a work, and then when the match doesn’t happen, then it is “OH I THOUGHT IT WAS A WORK HUH??” like works can’t make money in other ways. But I am sick of the “smart fans” who think they are smarter than everyone else dumb down narratives and they can get away with it because the owner of these companies and some of the talent give them social permission to be allowed to get boosted up while they pretend they are against the system, but the more the days pass, their mask comes off and they are the phoniest people on the planet, they have never been on the right side of history when it comes to pro wrestling and all the shit they let slide while someone who goes off on a rant because their mental illness was triggered by racist behavior, will get shafted and isolated but an owner who has had a history of some of the most horrendous shit will get a million passes and people still defending him to this day. The only reason why people are invested so much into this is because a lot of people have helped organize this work. If it makes money it makes money, but this has really exposed how mentally depraved a lot of people are, I am not even talking about the over the top accounts that go too far, basically they are designed to get dunked on, those people are still allowed to function online to play that role, but the people who have sophisticated their propaganda and their sociopathic tendencies, and maybe I take it seriously because people like this in society will not get better and will get worse with the more power they accumulate. If they are willing to lie this much for entertainment, I am afraid to see what they would do to manipulate people into their fundamentalist beliefs that they will disguise as something else completely. 

I feel the more I write about this shit to get off my chest, I feel less and less interested in entertainment as a whole, and wrestling was the last entertainment I constantly watch but now I rarely care for anything in the product and even the online discourse feels like retreads of previous generation discourse because everyone has this attitude era fetish and all the same problematic shit from that era is gonna repeat itself and people’s mental health will get worse and there will be more tragedies etc, and people who are aligned known this so they will pretend to feign concern but then advocate for the most dangerous shit to happen because aesthetically it isn’t the WWE and that would’ve meant something 10 years ago but all these promotions are probably aligned with the head honcho company anyways, and then they present this new company like the anti WWE company but then gimmick a way for stuff WWE would do to to be implemented in this new company because it is getting out of control, like that isn’t being done by design, you really think these talents are really not supposed to be on social media saying problematic shit? Pretending these people live by regular rules is tiresome because you can’t apply the same fucking rules you do to a mom and pop shop. The discourse has just made people a lot more dumb. You can boast about how many books you read to counter me to show how smart you are, but how come people who boast about all the books they have read never have any interesting personalities, they act sitcom smart. I am not shitting on people who read books, there are plenty of them that do that aren’t assholes about it. It is like the same people who pretend they are outside but they literally go outside and are still online most of the time to get off their cookie cutter heel persona because that is all they are gonna have when they sell out and will feel more miserable that people can be a little bit more free with their opinions. When someone like me goes outside, then they hate that too because that was one of their key talking points. I know the word gas light has lost all of its meaning, especially since the wrestling world got a hold of it and prepare for that shit to be in everyone’s promos, but literally these accounts try to gaslight people because that is their only form of freedom they have, they have to be muses for other industry people to use and when they are done with them, then they will get cast aside for someone new. I say this as someone that was used as a muse for Artie Lange and I was supposed to be super happy that a celeb I grew up watching was talking to me on the phone at late hours of the night, and then he would change up one and do the same shit he claimed he didn’t about Howard doing that to me. Since then I will be happy to meet a celeb here and there but I am never going to make the mistake being a fucking “Stan” for one again even if it means I am not gonna have much social relevancy, in fact I hope I am not here longer for the eventual fascist takeover they keep normalizing anyways, and realizing a lot of your entertainment is tied to fundamentalism to the right side, it has helped me kind of not wanting to give a shit, I think if I write and bitch more, I can finally blog through it and eventually stop watching, but chances are I will wake up and I will consume more and act like George Costanza, like I didn’t just talk a gang of shit. I just wish I stepped away from this fandom shit a long time ago, especially when you know there is political motivation in the art forms you consume, some can be for good but a lot for the bad. 

Even the leaker shit in the Pentagon, even that has to be gimmicked, because every person that has been a “whistle blower” or “leaker” has always been a narrative to get information established while they make characters of the people who play those roles, and they really have to get locked up even if it means there is more than meets the eye, so the left differentiating why this leaker is bad and why that one is good won’t work either because these things, to me at least, are done by design and especially in this era where it is basically an episode of the Boys playing out where new variants are becoming public figures for the right wing causes while we keep pretending it is just some normal situation, like the creative is so fucking shitty for this “WELL HE WANTED TO LEAK IT TO IMPRESS HIS ONLINE BUDDIES” because it’s easier to accept than, it was supposed to leak so all the right wing grifters can use this to further cement their point that the establishment hates this guy and the leftists are agreeing with the establishment when “back in their day” you applauded people leaking the corruption going on. I don’t even know what was specifically in that leak, but all I feel is that it was designed to happen so now we will have debates talking ourselves into a circle of which kind of leaks are acceptable and which are not, and most of the establishment people will come off as pro US imperialists and the ones defending this guy are doing it and pretending to be anti war but more aligned with pro Russian imperialism that is gonna have  meet up at a mutual spot with the neocons in the US but you wouldn’t think that because we have to continuously sports entertain our ways into fascism. Even the manipulation of you having to sell your audience on this fake in fighting between Trump and DeSantis is dumb, because you will say you are not for either of them but you are giving your audience the impression any of them is better than one another like they aren’t going the same route. This is why the political analysis has become shittier sports entertainment with a bunch of shitty sports entertainers who think they have to present everything in a comedic lens while the world is going to implode and nothing is going to stop it. But sure, let’s talk about DeSantis’s pudding fingers or some shitty product placement with the culture war framing. This is just my opinion, just like everything written. It is gonna be another incident where it will have a bunch of elitists who will rally against video games, Gen Z, and the people who will defend this guy are gonna prop up his religious beliefs, his racism, then you got a mixture of conspiracies that he was spewing since they want to align any conspiratorial person with right wing aesthetics, then the worst post left personalities like Greenwald will pretend this guy is a hero and that means if this “leftist” is being agreed with from Tucker Carlson, that suddenly you have clowns like Jimmy Dore go on a media blitz about how Tucker is the only one who is out lefting the the Squad or whatever repeated bullshit he will spew. But the basic point is, the world is heading for very dark times, even more so than the last couple of years and we still have to present this shit in a theatrical way and dumb down our villains and gimmick up how this shit is being presented, like leaking something on discord or twitter is just as MSM as the MSM and I feel even people on the left fall for that shit, because if you were to get a little conspiratorial, maybe you could outdo the right, but it feels like some people limit it because they have plans on crossing over to the right at some point. But then again, don’t believe what I say. My aesthetic and situation in life would check all the boxes of what people consider the most discredited and people who control narratives have put me in that situation, you still hate me at your core even more so because I didn’t cross over to the right wing side. You tried so many gimmicked ways to get me there since I was the cookie cutter conspiratorial person in the 2010’s plus I have severe mental illness, you have gotten your online mercenaries to photoshop me beating up people to have my name searched and the result of “Hanzi beat up a gay couple” to dominate, in fact it is all negative shit about me when you search me and that was purposefully done and it makes you even more upset that you didn’t manifest that into a reality. You know how many times they tried to hammer home that people in my life have helped keep me in this place that I am in, and then perpetuate that I will beat up my parents, there are layers of how they can play with your mind. One of the biggest examples is when I stopped doing my journal shit and watched them double down on harassment and instilling paranoia so they could push me to suicide and having to put up with a bunch of fake “Howard Sterns” who think they could produce chaos and harassment for their own social value. And you better believe those same people who advertised my name to a bunch of patriot groups are waiting for the perfect time to go full throttle, it is just right now I technically don’t have an audience, and I am probably at my most irrelevant but dangerous people are the ones who still pay attention to me, anytime I express myself in any way it becomes a threat to their egos, it doesn’t take money off their table, because I am at my most irrelevant but they still don’t like someone writing about the possibilities of how this could be operating so they will surely have the paid trolls to smear me much more or maybe at the next limited gathering I am brought to, I will have to put up with more elitist horse shit while everyone practices their sports entertainment character like the last fucking 10 years I have been on this fucking planet. Who knows how they will extract their revenge, but people are never fucking happy whenever I publish one of these fucking blogs, mostly because it is all over the fucking place but the worst kinds of people have been given permission to be the biggest assholes, and then they get shocked that their influence and the mental illness involved with the entertainment shit, doesn’t bring in a bunch of assholes, if there are this many assholes involved in becoming these “online characters” maybe analyze the industry leaders and how they have helped this shit while a bunch of you then pretend “Oh my god why are people reading into my subtle tweets in the midst of a heavy news day where everyone is is mouthing off in all kinds of ways” you people are the one who are supposed to be respectable members of society, you go to all these gatherings and you have all the sex in the world yet most of you act like a fucking whack packer, I think I could get more sense of the world if I talked to BeetleJuice from Howard Stern over a lot of the people in the entertainment or political world. Anyways I don’t know what the point of this was. 

[ninadove]

In defense of Huntlow

A love letter to Dana and the Owl Crew

Recently, I have been witnessing an increase in anti-Huntlow rhetoric on Tumblr, which I originally ignored, knowing how intense shipping wars can be.

Earlier today, however, I came across a very inflammatory post accusing Dana and the crew of bad - if not intentionally hurtful - writing for seemingly leaning towards making the ship canon.

As an ace, demiromantic lesbian who deeply cares about queer representation in media, I decided to share some thoughts on the matter, by addressing and hopefully debunking the main accusations I have seen out there.

I. A deliberate jab at the aspec community

Due to the dreadful lack of representation in mainstream media, many aspec viewers, myself included, headcanon Hunter as being somewhere on the spectrum.

Some erroneously believe that Hunter’s obvious crush on Willow invalidates this understanding of his character, and have even gone as far as to imply that the writing team deliberately deprived them of representation - ignoring the fact that Hunter’s arc was most likely fully fleshed out long before he was introduced to the fandom.

The thing is, we do get canon representation in the form of Lilith, who might be willing to boogy down to history town, but definitely isn’t willing to boogy down with you or anyone else for that matter. And let me tell you, she is *great* representation - a complex character who is in no way demonised or infantilised.

Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, Hunter’s crush does *not* negate his belonging to the spectrum - key word here being *spectrum*. He might not fit the specific label you had in mind, but that’s alright - remember we come in all shapes and sizes!

II. Pushing a queer ship out of the spotlight

The argument here is that Huntlow has been distracting both the audience and the narrative itself from Lumity, an explicitely queer relationship that has been providing groundbreaking representation in the otherwise desperately heteronormative world of kids’ television.

I’ll be honest - I don’t really understand where this comes from. Huntlow might have been getting more fanart and fanfic lately due to the novelty factor, but in no way does this pose a credible threat to Lumity, which absolutely remains the main focus on the show as well as the most popular ship in the fandom ( in fact, most TOH artists seem to ship both pairings! ).

As of now, Huntlow is nothing more than a one-sided teenage crush, while Lumity has been getting in-depth development throughout season 2, culminating in their iconic kiss - I’m sure the team had to fight very hard for this scene to stay in, so let’s show some appreciation!

Interestingly, Raeda also benefited from the novelty factor when it was first introduced, and didn’t receive *nearly* as much backlash. The reason for this difference in treatment? Raeda is an explicitly queer ship.

And the thing is, in a series with so much representation, Huntlow might very well turn out to be as well ( cf point 1 ) ! There is a longstanding bias in the LGBTQIA community against « straight-passing » relationships and people who do not look « queer enough ». In all likeliness, we won’t get any confirmed labels for these two ( which is *fine* - they are kids! ), but it would be very interesting if the show actually took us down that road and forced us to confront our own biases.

( Also, people are allowed to be cishet. But that is not my point here. )

III. Underdevelopment and « bad writing »

As a RWBY veteran, I have grown used to Bumbleby-antis claiming the ship overtook the plot while paradoxically getting no development. This flawed logic seems to be repeated here, so let’s explore a couple of possibilities.

Personally, I would prefer Hunter and Willow’s relationship to stay as it is as of the end of season 2 - celebrating the important role first crushes can play in shaping one’s identity, even though they might never lead to any concrete romantic fulfillement. But, in the very likely occurrence that something *will* happen between these two, there is plenty of material to back them up.

A. Lumity parallels or the tomato syndrome

Some argue that Huntlow lacks development because all we’ve seen so far is one-sided blushing on Hunter’s part - completely overlooking the fact that this is exactly how Lumity started out!

The parallels do not stop there, however, as many excellent posts have pointed out. Both Amity and Hunter grew up in physically and emotionally abusive households, and connecting with their respective crushes helped them gain a new understanding of the world. In his « Captain », Hunter has found a person he can experience healthy admiration for, something that is also significant for Willow who has a history of being overlooked and underestimated.

In fact, one might even argue that Amity predicted Hunter’s crush - remember that one scene in Eclipse Lake? This is great foreshadowing!

B. Caleb parallels or the radical act of love

Now that we know more about Belos’ backstory, a key theme of the show is starting to emerge: love as a vector of rebellion, freedom and systemic change - a message that the LGBTQIA community as a whole is very familiar with.

While Hunter and the previous Golden Guards are all unique individuals with a mind and heart of their own, the fact that every single one of them ultimately chose to rebel against Belos is a strong sign that Caleb’s influence has persisted throughout the centuries. And what was Caleb’s biggest crime, exactly?

Falling in love with a witch.

The point here is not that Hunter is condemned to fall in love with a witch himself by virtue of being a clone with no agency of his own. It’s that Caleb’s hardships and bravery in the face of bigotry opened the door for him to proclaim his own independence through the radical act of embracing a form of love that the powers in place deem demonic and unnatural.

And what an amazing message to send out to a young audience.

IV. But… But the age gap is predatory!!!

I might be gay, but I can still do Maths. So let’s do just that.

Hunter is canonically 16. I don’t believe Willow’s age is ever outright stated in the series, but I assume she is around Luz’s age. Had it not been for Disney being, you know, Disney, our girl would have celebrated her quinceañera in season 3, so we can extrapolate that at this point in the story, Willow is around 15 as well.

That’s a one-year difference. Come on, guys.

Final thoughts: maybe stop being mad about everything all the time

Look guys, I get it, I really do. We have all been starving for queer content our entire lives, so when we finally get it, we expect it to match every single one of the expectations we’ve been desperately holding on for so long.

But the thing is, harassing a queer creator who is fighting tooth and nail to provide kids with life-changing ( and potentially life-saving ) representation is only going to hurt us further.

Use this energy to write fanfic, draw fanart, create a story that will inspire others the way this show does for so many of us. Campaign for more representation in media. Question your own biases and be a little kinder to one another.

And, most importantly - watch The Owl House!

[belle-keys]

This is really random, but I hate hate hate how some people call James nothing but a horny bland white boy. I think they've twisted the narrative so much they forget he's been abused; by Grace or Tatiana, whatever you want to believe, but he's been abused. His emotions have been dampened, that's why he can only verbalise physical affection. But I seriously can't understand the people who say he's never shown his love for Cordelia. As if:

Learning her language

Carefully decorating their house with her culture in mind

Giving her a fucking necklace and eagerly fantasising about visiting Constantinople with her

Dancing with her at balls even though it looks weird now that they're married

Was the minimum in a marriage of convenience. Cordelia is just blind and (rightfully) insecure to notice that James would heed her every order because he loves her.

Also, did these people even read Chain of Iron? Because the moment the gracelet was off (aka, the moment he regained his ability to fully process his emotions), James did express he loved Cordelia. In fact, he said he began loving Cordelia at fourteen. And he loves her so much he refused to ruin her fun time with Matthew in Paris.

It's just infuriating. People gloss over James to create an oversimplified version of his character that is canonically incorrect, possibly because they like Grace so much that in the span of a year they've decided to forget she's done actual harm, therefore James is just being silly by not processing his emotions? Idk, the thing is their whole anti-James rhetoric is idiotic. They can say they find his character boring, but calling him 'jist a horny man' and not acknowledging he's been abused feels so wrong.

Btw, this is no hate to Grace. She's been abused as well, it's only that when you talk about James you have to talk about Cordelia yk?

I mean, I’m gonna be honest, I follow like four (4) TSC blogs and all of those don’t even exclusively post about TLH, so I’d say that on my blog and with whoever I’m chatting with, it’s acknowledged that James being “horny and reckless” isn’t his personality or the sum of his character– that’d be reducing him to a caricature. And pretty much none of my mutuals think he’s bland either– the whole “unhinged James” bit is just for humor.

James is romantic and sensitive and caring and chivalrous and truly loves Cordelia and he shows it. He loves Cordelia and is the ultimate husband material sans gracelet. So yeah, it is annoying if people disregard his actual feelings for her. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t spend the whole of chog or choi just staring at her chest and making out. James is pretty multi-faceted, and I don’t care for any anti-James sentiments, period.

[jadenvargen]

Idk if youve made a post like this but any m4m animes/mangas you recommend? Im trying to find stuff thats not overly romance focused or like. Idol groupey?? Like ikemen. Also watched kaiji because I saw your art and my soul hurts from the first arc alone

IM SORRY FOR THAT KAIJI IS SO MUCH uhm... i think i know what you mean? i don’t read too many gay manga( bcs i have hard time finding ones i like also😭) but there’s some i really recommend! Been a while since I read some of these so I’ll try my best to warn but I might have forgotten something ;; ! anyway I have a few to reccomend!

Shimanami Tasogare

you’ve probably heard of it, it gets recced a lot, but it’s for a reason. It weaves an expert narrative, focusing on a small community of LGBT+ (an older gay man, a pair of lesbian wives, a transgender bicyclist, the mysterious agender leader, and a young child who’s unsure of their gender identity and presentation) people and how they navigate the world. Its POV character is a young closeted gay man struggling with self acceptance, and finds family and love within this group. 

warnings:

Homophobia, Bullying, Transphobia as central and constant, but also mentioned suicidal ideation, pedophilia, parental abuse, as well as cancer.

What did you eat yesterday?

If you’re not much for romance, this one’s definitely for you! Not to say the romance isn’t there- it’s just very casual. A fun and honest tale about a gay odd couple and their day to day struggles, from light to major, told with the help of food recipes that they eat for dinner every day. Very comfy. Also has a delightful live action show!

warnings: Homophobia, grindr-esque fatphobia at times, domestic abuse(one of the men is a lawyer and deals with lots of types of cases), and the biggest one would be a bad bit in Chapter 2 where a woman thinks our protagonist is going to assault her while he thinks she may be homophobic. I would honestly skip this chapter. 

Hare no Hi

A one-shot about a gay divorced dad learning his son is gay too, and struggling to know how to help him. Since it’s so short, I won’t say more but I think it’s really amazing!

warnings:

the son has a crush on the dad’s friend, who’s an adult. this isn’t encouraged by him or anything(in fact explicitly rejected) but warning just to be safe!

I hear the sunspot/ Hidamari ga Kikoeru

A HoH university student recruits the help of a go-getter shonen protag classmate to take notes, and their friendship and feelings for each other develop along the way. It’s more about the HoH guy’s struggles to fit in and what to do in life, and how to fit in a relationship in all that. I’m not HoH myself, so while I cannot definitely decide if it’s perfect representation by any means, I think the story and characters are very real and wonderful to follow. 

(The reading order is all out of whack for a lot of chapters uploaded though so I’d reccommend checking a read order thing before starting lol...Also, the last chapter is gone from most scan sites for some reasons, but just searching “chapter 29″ should lead to plenty of downloads.)

warnings: ableism, bullying

Blue flag:

Not my personal favourite, but a lot of people swear by it! Different strokes, so it might be for you. Basically: Boy likes Girl, who Likes Boy’s friend, who Likes Boy, then other complicated factors start to enter the picture. It’s a sort of relationship drama between every character in their large friend group. 

warnings: homophobia, bullying, sexual assault mention, i think i remember some weird homophobic rhetoric that was like endorsed but maybe i’m mixing things up, katy perry and taylor swift pro gay mixtape.

not a lot because i’m kind of picky and i tend not to like a lot of what i read ;_; a lot of gay stuff is just bad yaoi, hard bara which is fine but not like.. a story lol. or like.. super focused on highschoolers and i don’t care for that. some general lgbt manga i’d reccomend other would be: 

double house (character study of trans woman cis woman roomates.. and then more:) ) 

i wanna be your girl!(cis girl in love with her real girl childhood friend but struggling if these feelings mean she’s invalidating her gender but Actually she’s just bi... the t girl is straight though so be warned.) 

Ohana Holoholo (2 ex girlfriends become roommates to raise the child of one of them, and rediscover old feelings along the way.)

Koi Ga Ochitara is explicit, 18+ but if you’re an adult gay man it is. Somehow very touching and relatable.

[basilhearsanoise]

pleaseee elaborate on your homophobic sam take. it’s very compelling. i always thought sam’s early plotline with the demon blood was a queer allegory, but your explanation for his attitude towards dean’s bisexuality makes a lot of sense now that i think about it

WOW I'M A REAL SUPERNATURAL BLOG NOW YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH THIS MADE MY DAY I WILL ABSOLUTELY ELABORATE THANK YOU

there are So Many Layers i probably won't even be able to get them all down but here's some major ones. from the get-go, sam is The Opposite of dean on so many issues, and essentially throughout the show they flip. this is most notably demonstrated by the fact that sam starts out as a Devout Christian (or at least we are to assume that he is christian given his approach to prayer, god, angels, etc) and by the end of the show sam is completely and utterly devoid of faith. whereas dean is like If There's A God In Heaven, What's He Waiting For? - Elton John.mp3 in the beginning of the show, and by the end he's like "i have faith in humanity, in spirituality, in CASTIEL, in MY SON JACK," by the end. but this is just one of the MANY issues they flip back and forth on, or just slowly and surely change their perspectives to be more like the way the other brother started.

1. should we tell people there are monsters? dean says "we can't tell anyone they exist the whole world will panic" vs. sam says "they have a RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT'S OUT THERE"

but also. are all monsters evil? dean says "yes, they kill innocent people and they killed my mother and destroyed my life, they ALL deserve to die" but sam says "SOME of them must be good....it's not THEIR FAULT they're disgusting, evil and eat people uwu"

monsters/cryptids/spirits/folklore etc have virtually always been, in some way shape or form, a queer allegory themselves. the shapeshifter arc spoke to me as a trans person on a deep personal level. dracula was essentially racist propaganda. so if we take this allegory to supernatural, and say, "acceptance of monsters = acceptance of queerness" dean's hatred of them is a hatred of himself, his own inner monster, his own internalized homophobia - in addition to the fact that because he IS a queer man who has been VICTIM to REAL VIOLENT homophobia before, it would make sense that he is #antifa #acab #kill all the nazis forever #don't waste time trying to make monsters good when you could save good people from them instead. which is like. a reasonable response to have to a group of people that systematically try to kill you. but that also makes sam's "oh pity the monster dean, don't kill it, FORGIVE, JUST GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO ~ REPENT ~ THEIR SINS" ....like, even in later seasons he is saying stuff like this, and while it's true that dean SHOULD forgive some of the monsters that sam says this about, it still reads to me as two major red flags of 1. forgive your abusers to be the better person and 2. "hate the sin, not the sinner" rhetoric. sam doesn't actually give a shit about any of these monsters he gives a shit about keeping his own ideological purity. he sounds like scary youth pastors i had as a child.

this is further demonstrated by the fact that as dean becomes more accepting of his sexuality as the show goes on, he becomes more accepting of monsters. that's benny's ENTIRE EXISTENCE AS A CHARACTER: "i accept this vampire because he is honorable, and manly, and looks really fuckin cute in suspenders." that's also why sam hates benny so much even though he's the one who's been like "but monsters can be good T__T" this whole time. what the fuck other reason would he have to hate benny so much?

this is also CLEARLY the ENTIRE subtext of the Demon Dean arc - Sam FLIPS OUT about him going off with crowley because he could FORGIVE one little crush on an angel, because of the fact that he's an angel, and also because dean wasn't "shoving his unholy lifestyle down everyone's throats" but demon dean is....loudly, angrily, gay. demon dean is a manifestation of all the gayness that dean has suppressed his whole life and now he's "too indecent" for sam. this is FURTHER demonstrated by the fact that crowley literally yells at dean to "pick a side" after demon dean sides with the slighted wife in a demon deal instead of the cheating husband, literally because of the fact that the husband says "men are just supposed to sleep around" and dean gets so mad about this sexism that he kills him.

this is dean not only rejecting sexism more than sam literally ever actually does in the show (everything he says about it reads to me as idle posturing Fake Woke Shit whereas dean is a sleazebag, but he's an Equal Opportunity sleazebag) but also his rejection of being pigeonholed as gay when he is, indeed, bisexual. crowley represents the biphobia that gay people enact on bi people, sam represents the homophobia that straight people enact on all queer people.

this brings me to the next part of sam's Not Niceness - he's like, actually 100% more misogynistic than dean is. i know i'm Not A Woman but like i am trans, queer, and not dumb. sam is a fucking sadist serial killer man who treats women like garbage the SECOND they are no longer useful to him, this is most clearly demonstrated when he doesn't have a "soul" but it existed in him basically from the get-go, he is painted as the "more emotionally mature one" but that reading became so inaccurate the show literally started making fun of his character for thinking that sappy fake shit could pass as sincere care for another human being. dean actually talks to women like they're people with feelings. he routinely identifies with the victims and is paralleled against them, especially if they are victims of childhood sexual assault. sam does not talk to women unless they serve some kind of purpose to his goals and is much more routinely depicted weirdly enjoying killing enemies that are women. sometimes not even for plot reasons, it's just weird shots that nobody thought to red flag because this show is. A MESS.

anyway. another example is the one that i mentioned in the post about the confederate soldier, the fact that sam is fucking racist and dean is at least, within the narrative, less racist.

ANYWAY, THERE'S STILL MORE I COULD TALK ABOUT BUT I'LL LEAVE IT AT THIS: sam is constantly telling dean that he's not being sensitive or poltically correct but every single time it comes off sounding like a straight person telling an actual gay person how not to be homophobic. like, please, sammy, touch grass. dean says: touch grass, kill nazis.

[galactichoneybee92]

Disorganized Thoughts on Sex Education Season 3

I binge watched the entirety of season 3 on Friday, and after sitting with it for a couple days, I have composed myself enough to offer some thoroughly disorganized thoughts on what I’ve seen. 

     While I did enjoy many things about this season, I don’t understand the people who claim it was the strongest. In fact, I believe that it was the weakest. I don’t know what exactly happened during the delay, but I swear they have to have lost staff. Writers, perhaps editors? Whoever usually reins things in a bit, keeps the show grounded, and everyone in character. Whoever had that job, they’re either gone, or they’ve just stopped giving a fuck which, while relatable, is unfortunate in regards to this show. Now what do I mean by that? Let me elaborate:

1. This season was gross. And I don’t mean in general, like I didn’t like it. No, I mean that the writers decided that being sexually explicit wasn’t funny enough and decided to add just a fuck-ton of fart jokes and toilet humor. And I get it, okay? This show prides itself on being crass. But you can be crass without being disgusting. I acknowledge that this comes entirely down to personal preference, but I can’t stand toilet humor and I feel like this season really ramped it up. Every episode was someone farting or talking about shit, or that god forsaken thrice cursed bus scene. Sex doesn’t gross me out, talk about sex all fucking day I don’t care, but I don’t need to watch an extended scene of someone digging their own shit out of a bus toilet in a sock and chucking it out the window onto someone’s car. And even just smaller things, like Aimee talking about the flour constipating her or her taking a massive shit in Jean’s toilet when she and Maureen were there. Those scenes weren’t necessary for the plot in any way, which leads me to believe they were just there because someone thought they were funny and if that’s you’re thing go off, but it most definitely isn’t mine. 

2. Ruby and Otis. And more importantly, what was the point of Ruby and Otis? Now don’t get me wrong, I like Ruby as a character and I found their relationship interesting. And I think that it would have been even more interesting if the writers had devoted more time to properly developing it- Ruby was getting better as a person but she wasn’t there yet. I liked it once Otis started standing up for himself more, and demanding respect in the relationship and as she started to actually care for him she did come to treat him more respectfully. I think with more time they could have been really good. But they didn’t get that time- she said she loved him and they didn’t even work through that fiasco before he was kissing Maeve at a gas station. Overall it had a lot of potential but the way they played it left me just sitting here like...why? Like from a narrative standpoint what was even the purpose? Because from where I’m sitting it really only served as yet another roadblock standing between Otis and Maeve and even though I shipped them like CRAZY in season 1 and 2 the constant unnecessary roadblocks are getting a little old. Which leads me to my next point...

3. Why was Maeve and Otis so unsatisfying? That’s not actually a rhetorical question, I can tell you: Because the writers put so little effort into what is supposed to be the main couple on the show. I feel like they put more effort into keeping them apart and then when it comes time to put them together they’re just kind of like NOW KISS, they only talk like once after and then they ship Maeve off to America. Now I’ve heard rumors that Emma Mackey might not want to return to the show for season 4 so if I had to guess at all of this I would say that both this point and the last was a sloppy attempt to cover their asses in the event that they can’t get her to sign back on. If she does return, they can explore the relationship between her and Otis in season 4. If she doesn’t, they’re probably going to put him back with Ruby. But they couldn’t just write her off without at least touching on the relationship they spent the past 2 seasons building, even though Otis and Maeve barely interact in this season, which is frankly another reason why it felt so shoddy. They spent exponentially more time talking to other people and then half the time when Otis was talking to her he was super cringe. 

     Overall, despite loving their relationship initially, the characters have changed so much from their original dynamic, and have interacted so little, that I really don’t even know what’s pulling these characters together. It’s disappointing to admit that I’m kind of over it but honestly even the writers don’t feel invested. it kind of feels like they put them together because the audience expected it and after 3 seasons of anticipation the payoff was generally underwhelming. 

4. Otis. Just...Otis. I understand that Otis was introduced as being a very nice helpful character in season one. He was the quintessential good guy. And then in season 2 he got to explore being a douche for a bit- which is fine. He is a teenager and he was going through some shit. But I really felt that by the end of season 2 he should have resolved that particular plot point. And he was a little better in season 3 I guess? But he didn’t really progress until the end of this season and from a writing standpoint I feel like they really dragged that out for too long. 

5. What’s with this show and it’s hard on for cheating? Like seriously, why does almost every relationship have some kind of infidelity. Like, were Otis and Ruby officially broken up when he kissed Maeve? Maeve certainly hadn’t broken up with Isaac, and this was almost directly on the heels of their very emotional sex scene. There was the issue with Jean and Jakob last season, and Eric cheating on Rahim with Adam. And then Eric (for some reason) cheating on Adam this season with random Nigerian dude whose name I can’t remember. Just...why is this a thing? 

     But also can we just talk about how weird the break up was? And out of left field? Like they literally spent the whole season developing their relationship, and then they get to Nigeria and after hiding the whole time he is subtly able to talk about Adam to his grandmother. And he sounds so proud, and so nice when he’s doing so, and not at all like he’s planning to end this wonderful relationship he’s describing. And then when he gets back, guilty after cheating on said boyfriend (like he should be) he asks Adam, seemingly as a test, if he would go out to a club with him. And Adam says no because that isn’t his scene and like...Eric knows that isn’t his scene. But at the same time, I feel like if Eric had sat him down and been like “You don’t have to wear makeup or dress outlandishly, just come to the club with me because it’s important to me” I really think Adam would have gone. And if the clothes and make-up were a dealbreaker like...why? You know who you’re dating. And while wanting him to tell his mom isn’t an overwhelmingly outrageous request, when you start getting into his physical appearance then that’s just actually trying to change him as a person and that’s just a really shitty thing to do. 

6. I promise there will be some positives in this list at some point but before that...what the fuck Eric? Like, I understand that Eric wants to get out there and explore his options, find someone more comfortable doing the things that he wants to go do. That’s realistic I guess, your high school relationships don’t work out and just because Adam came out for him he still isn’t obligated to stay in a relationship with him. But from a fictional narrative standpoint? What the fuck is this? Adam and Eric were one of the most popular ships on the show. They have been foreshadowed since season one, and had so so much effort put into developing them both as characters. Adam has come such a long way. They have brought him so far out of him comfort zone that Adam in season 3 is almost a completely different person to Adam in season 1. They spent so much of this season further developing the relationship they established last season, and for what? To break them up at the very end? WHY? 

7. Following on the heels of point 6, Aimee and Steve. They didn’t need to break up. I understand the direction the writers were taking this- Aimee wants to be single for a while to fully process her trauma and get to know her own body again. And that’s valid. I just don’t like it because I very strongly suspect that she will have a new love interest next season and that all her stuff about being single isn’t going to be shown. It will all happen off screen during whatever time skip they employ between seasons and then they’re going to use the fact that she is single to introduce a new more dramatic love interest for her since golden retriever boy Steve wasn’t interesting enough for them. Maybe that’s just me being cynical but if anyone can come out of season 3 NOT feeling a little cynical it would probably be a miracle. 

8. A positive! Finally a positive! I love the relationship between Adam and Rahim. Do I want them to date? Not particularly. I wouldn’t be mad if it happens, but I really just like them as like awkward begrudging friends. Some of my favorite scenes this season were the interactions between the two of them (Once again, the disgusting bus ride notwithstanding) I like Rahim a lot more when he isn’t interrupting my ship (which is a habit of mine. I liked Ola a lot more once she broke up with Otis) 

9. I don’t think Viv was out of character. Some people have been saying that she was, but I don’t think so. She has always been ambitious and even Jackson understand that about her in the show. And even when she was working for Hope and carrying out her rules, she was never an antagonist because she never gave up her personal morals to do it. For example, when Hope had them divided into boy and girl lines, Jackson asked her where Cal should go. She told him that boys went to the left and girls went to the right but as soon as Cal was like “Im not a boy or a girl,” Viv was immediately like, “ Oh! Right! Let me ask Hope.” She approached the situation in a way that made it clear that she recognized this issue as a legitimate problem and when she went to Hope it wasn’t framed like “This person is being an issue refusing to choose,” but instead like “We didn’t account for this possibility, that was our bad. How should we fix it?” Later on, on the class trip, Viv even lied to Hope and told her everything was fine because she didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. Viv took the opportunities presented to her, but I never interpreted it as her being an antagonist in any way. 

10. I love that Viv and Jackson remained friends, and I love that Viv has her sexy long-distance boyfriend who sexts about wheat XD Her sexting was one of my favorite scenes- well written, laugh out loud hilarious. No complaints. Sexy boyfriend was indeed very sexy and honestly, Viv absolutely deserves him. 

11. Mr. Groff better apologize to Adam next season, or at the very least have any kind of fucking conversation with his son at all or else why the fuck did I watch SO MANY scenes developing him as a sympathetic character? They could have spent that time developing ANYONE, but instead we were focused on him so like...I’m going to need some kind of payoff. Make it relevant

12. I want more bonding scenes between Adam and Maureen. I love Maureen- I love her friendship with Jean and I love how she always chooses her son over  her estranged husband (as she should) I especially love her very loving and supportive relationship with Adam, even though Adam is terrible at communication. It’s a self indulgent wish, I’d just like to see more. 

13. Isaac. I made many posts after the season 2 release, about how much I despised Isaac. Unlike Ola, I find that I didn’t have a complete change of heart but I don’t hate him AS MUCH as I did before. I still don’t like him though and while you might think “Yeah but you hate anyone who stands in the way of Otis and Maeve” no. This is historically accurate and yet, this season? Not true. For example, I don’t hate Ruby. Do I think her inclusion in the story was handled poorly in a way that made the entire plot point unnecessary? Yes I do. I also feel that way about Isaac, but less so because I feel like the relationship between him and Maeve deepening was better foreshadowed and was kind of the natural conclusion given the events of the previous season. As a character though, I still don’t really like him, and after 2 seasons of him I don’t think it has anything to do with him interfering with Maeve’s relationship with Otis- I just legitimately don’t like him. And I don’t like him with Maeve. I think the biggest irritant this season was the way that, after confessing about deleting the message he was like “yeah I fucked up but only because I like you so much, just forgive me” And then at one point I believe I remember Maeve apologizing to him for her reaction to everything. But then when he found out that she kissed Otis (admittedly a shitty thing to do) he got so mad and like, held a fucking grudge about it. And I get it, he has a right to be mad, but also boy you were the one groveling like 2 episodes ago get over yourself. They both fucked up in different ways but he acts like he has the moral high ground all the time and it gets really annoying. I don’t know, maybe I’m letting my general dislike of the character color my perception of events, but this show has managed to change my opinion on characters before but it still hasn’t made me like him so I think it’s just not going to. 

14. What the hell were they trying to do with Hope? Like legitimately, what? Because I can’t quite figure it out. And that’s mostly because I feel like they were trying to make her a nuanced and sympathetic villain, but they broke a cardinal rule- To make a villain sympathetic you must also ensure that nothing they do is inherently irredeemable. For example, principal Groff. He was a grade A dick for the past 2 seasons but I still feel that, now that we have a sympathetic backstory, if handled properly he could still come back from this. He can see the error of his ways and if he works really really hard to make amends to his family he could perhaps have his character turned around. In Hope’s case however, I would argue that they did makes her nuanced, but failed to make her sympathetic because as a character she went too far. If they had stuck to her just being a general tyrant of a headmaster - enforcing strict rules and regulations but doing so out of insurmountable pressure from her own bosses -  and then softened us towards the character by showing us her willingness to help Maeve get a scholarship, her troubled marriage, and her inability to conceive, it could have worked. The trouble is when they brought in her racism and general bigotry. Those weren’t flaws brought on by stress, those were deeply rooted character flaws that the character isn’t going to overcome because by the end of the season the character hasn’t even admitted them to herself. The issues were addressed by others, but not by Hope herself, leaving me to believe that the character herself still views them as a nonissue. I would be very surprised if she even appears in season 4 and moreso if they manage to even half-way redeem her. I’m relatively certain we won’t see her again, which makes me question the effort put into her character development. 

15. I like Jakob as a character, I don’t like him as a love interest for Jean, but I LOVE him as a father figure for Otis. It’s very conflicting because I want him to stay in Otis’s life, but I don’t like him as a romantic interest for Jean. also it’s pretty clear he isn’t Joy’s father so that’s going to be an awkward fucking conversation. If she even tells him. The way the show is going I kind of feel like she won’t, or will at least put it off for as long as possible. 

16. I want more interaction between Otis and Jean. Positive interaction, not just her being intrusive or Otis being a little bitch. I like their mother-son dynamic when they’re getting along so I just generally want more of it. 

17. Adam. Adam has become my favorite character in this show and I just generally want more of him and his relationships with others. I love his relationship with his mother but I want more if him and Emily, and him and Ola and now him and Ruby. I want to see him and Ruby discussing the Kardashians. I want him to train Madam and enter her in more competitions and just ultimately grow his social circle. Get all the love and support for god’s sake this boy needs it. 

Im sure there are plenty of things I’m forgetting and you can ask me about them if you like but for now it’s late and I’m tired. 

[jackoshadows]

The ASoIaF fandom can be so frustrating sometimes.

It’s okay to admit that one doesn’t like this or that character. There’s nothing wrong in disliking a character.

I am pretty open on my blog about my indifference towards or dislike for Sansa because of her stans. I don’t make disclaimers about how much I love the character before proceeding to criticize Sansa. I am not a Sansa stan and that’s okay. My blog is a place for me to jot down my thoughts and celebrate characters, books and shows I do like. If you love Sansa as a character, block me, don’t follow me etc.

What’s obnoxiously annoying are the folks who claim to love all the characters the same and then give their ‘unbiased’ opinions which are held up as canon facts because they came from neutral book reader experts. To hell with that nonsense.

These posts reek of hypocrisy and double standards. It often tears down some characters while subtly propping up others - and it’s gobbled up by the wider fandom as unbiased interpretation of the text.

One example is pushing forth the notion that calling Arya pretty (Something that both her father and brother tell her she is in the books) is wrong, it’s sexualizing her, it’s okay for Arya to be ugly, she’s canonically not pretty because Cat/Sansa said so and no other interpretation is allowed etc. And then the same person who says all this celebrates Sansa’s beauty and ships her with a 27 year old man who falls in lust with Sansa.

Or when they say that the Arya-Lyanna (and Sansa/Lyanna parallels, because it’s always important to mention Sansa with respect to Lyanna even if said person claims to not care about Lyanna as a character) parallels are overrated and not important and they don’t care about Robert’s Rebellion characters but on their blogs there’s all these posts, fanarts and meta about Elia Martell - a Robert’s Rebellion character.

A so called book expert would note that GRRM has several characters outright compare Arya to Lyanna or mistake Lyanna for Arya in the books while Sansa has no such comparison. But no, the unbiased book expert thinks that the Arya-Lyanna and Sansa-Lyanna parallels are equivalent and are both overrated.That post just annoyed me excessively into writing this long ass rant post.

Why are these neutral, unbiased folks so interested in stripping away from Arya’s story?

In the books Jeyne Poole is masquerading as Arya Stark - but that story is only Jeyne’s, has nothing to do with Arya or Arya’s importance to the North. 

Arya is a strong warg, Nymeria and her wolf pack are a ‘Chekov’s wolf pack’ that GRRM has hung on the wall  -  Our expert opinion is that Direwolves are not all that important in the grand scheme of things.

Arya is pretty - why needlessly call Arya pretty, it adds nothing to Arya’s story and is all about sexualizing a child.

Arya-Lyanna parallels - why do we need these parallels, Arya is distinct and interesting without them.

These aspects are all important parts of the character’s story. There are so many very well written essays exploring these concepts with respect to Arya’s journey of self discovery in the books, the narrative significance of her parallels to Lyanna, her bond with Nymeria and her warging talents. For those who are interested, here are two bloggers who actually like Arya and have written about her character and character arc.

https://donewithwoodenteeth.tumblr.com/meta-masterlist

https://ashotofjac.tumblr.com/tagged/arya-stark

Some of these same people will rush to condemn any reading of the books that does not have Sansa wielding power at the end as being ‘Sansa hate’. But they will have no issues to undermine and devalue Arya’s actual book story, the relationships she has, the parallels she has, the skillsets she has, her appearance, her importance to the current story happening in the North.

There is a whole ass plot currently in the books of Northerners rallying for Arya Stark and preparing for battle against the Boltons for Arya Stark. But that’s not important because it’s actually Jeyne Poole and Arya’s story is about sailing off west of westeros.  But hey, Sansa will definitely go North and hold power and that’s like 100% happening because we are the unbiased book experts and we say it is so.

Or when all else fails - Arya is a Mary Sue, she’s a fantasy character, she’s a ‘strong female character’ because she fights with a sword, people like her because she’s a tomboy who fights. Sansa is realistic, Sansa is complex - but here are all the essays that basically transfer Arya’s complexity and story to Sansa - because it fits more with their fave, because these aspects would fit better with the traditionally feminine character even though they never tire of talking about how GRRM is deconstructing tropes. Because the trope deconstruction is only applied to Arya, Jon and Dany. Never Sansa.

And honestly, why are these people reading a high fantasy series if they hate fantasy and fantasy characters so much? We love Sansa because she’s so non-magical! Then go read non-fiction books. They also twist Jon, Arya and Dany into ‘fantasy’ characters - despite these characters going through some very real and human experiences. What’s fantasy about Arya’s experiences in war torn Westeros, Jon dealing with bigotry at the wall, Dany trying to rebuild Meereen, while dealing with famine, disease and insurgency?

Or how Jon and Dany getting any kind of happy ending or becoming rulers would be so boring, sweet, predictable, conforming to tropes, a happy ending etc. But Sansa getting love, romance, going home, becoming the Stark in Winterfell, getting her fairy tale ending - that’s totally what GRRM is going to do! No trope deconstruction there!  In may ways, Benioff and Weiss’ ending is not all that surprising -  Mad Queen Dany, Jon remaining a bastard with the freefolk, Sansa having power as a leader - are all popular theories among bnfs in the fandom. D&D wanting to wind up the show quickly with easily found fan theories is not that much of a stretch.

ASoIaF reddit is equally frustrating. Instead of Sansa stan bnfs on tumblr who pretend to like Arya and Dany while subtly undermining their story and importance, on Asoiaf reddit it’s Stannis stans who dislike Jon and Dany because these characters present a challenge to Stannis. The mere suggestion that Jon may play a role in the battle against Ramsay sends them into frothing at the mouth rage. They hate Jon, Jon is a Gary Sue because he dared advice Stannis - the greatest general ever - on Northern military strategy. Never mind that Jon grew up in the North and learned from Ned, how dare Jon Snow know more than Stannis! Unacceptable!

And I love Stannis Baratheon. I want Stannis to crush and defeat the Boltons. But unlike reddit dudebros, I can see that he is a secondary character, a tragic character who is most probably going to perish and Jon takes over because Jon Snow is a central protagonist in the story.

I feel it’s the same with Sansa. IMO, GRRM clearly doesn’t see Sansa in the same way as he does Arya, Jon, Dany, Tyrion and Bran. Whenever he is asked questions about the books, book plots, long term arcs, endings, age gaps etc it’s these characters he often brings up and references. It’s these characters who are important to him.

And that’s why there’s a lot of undermining and undervaluing of these character’s and their stories, them being described as fantasy characters, tropes, Mary Sues and Gary Sues, ableist rhetoric about Tyrion and Bran to undermine them.

I am damned certain that if it was Sansa who had all the parallels to Lyanna, or if she was the warg, or Jeyne Poole was impersonating her, this would all be ‘VERY IMPORTANT’ and on all the gifsets and essays. But she isn’t. So fandom bnfs are reduced to talking about how these aspects are not all that important anyway.

It’s like how this quote - ‘You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts’ turns up on gifsets every other day on the Arya tag but this quote - ‘Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier of Arya had been a bastard, like her half brother Jon. And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered’ very rarely does and will not get reblogged when it does.

Or when Sansa sees Joffrey trying to kill Arya and sides with Joffrey or when Sansa throws Arya under the bus and tells the Lannisters that it’s Arya who is the traitor - just sisters being sisters y’all!

It’s all about maintaining a certain narrative about Sansa - and when others point out her actual relationship with Arya in the books, we are accused of hating and wanting Sansa dead and how we should be criticizing Tywin and the Mountain instead. This is nonsensical whataboutism and ignores that people talk about  these aspects of the books because sometimes bullying, getting mocked for one’s appearance, abuse and neglect from parental figures etc. can resonate with certain readers unlike getting one’s head smashed in by Frankenstein.

At the end of the day, I wish these people would be honest about the characters they like and relate to. We are all biased. That’s why our opinions and interpretations are subjective. There’s nothing wrong in saying, hey, I like Sansa more than Arya or Dany, I relate to her character more.

I relate to Jon Snow a lot, I see things from his POV, I would disagree with the characters who disagree with Jon,  I enjoy his story at the Wall and the North. My interpretations of the text are therefore colored by my bias towards Jon. 

For others, it’s Dany or Sansa or Arya or Tyrion or Jaime. And that’s okay because these are fictional characters and liking one more than the other is not going to earn anyone woke points and lead to women’s rights.

And finally, there’s nothing edgy or cool about disparaging the central protagonists of a high fantasy series as being fantasy characters - go read other books if one is not into fantasy.

[bisluthq]

It bothered her when all that kissgate sh*t went down and she was liking stuff that shaded the Kaylors. I think if she were still chronically online she would care a lot more about what they’ve said (particularly making up narratives about her family. Ex: Tolerate It is about Scott). I feel for her though. Being at the center of such a conspiracy theory sucks a lot. She handles it well by not addressing it (which minimizes negative blowback from fans if she confirmed she was straight) and she’s cordial to the Gayl0rs who are not batshit crazy.

Eh obviously she minds all the batshit crazy shit, but she does not at all appear to mind the implication that she might be queer. She minds batshit crazy stuff generally tbh - in terms of shippers, like she shaded Haylors too back in the day. Her Tweet about not shipping her with her friends was obviously about Kaylor but it was also about… not shipping her with her friends, not about saying she’s gay, like she for sure hated Sweeran and shit too and she used to select pics that hid her guy friends at parties so that people wouldn’t make up that she’s dating her fucking friends.

Taylor doesn’t have a problem with people thinking she’s queer if they don’t also think her entire life is a lie or other wack shit about real people she cares about. This is reflected in Session invites, the fact that she followed chill Kaylors back when and used to like jokes too pre Kissgate vibes (and she didn’t like unfollow chill people when she stopped liking the jokes after it sank in that people are being serious) and other fan event invites including ATW premiere. It’s also reflected in the fact that she idk continues to do shit that can easily be read as gay like idk sing a song about how much you love a girl and how you’d even buy lipstick from her lol. Not saying she is, but like if she didn’t want people thinking she might be queer she probably wouldn’t have done Lover era the way she did it and she wouldn’t have made Dorothea (or Betty because even though James is a boy name she borrowed it from a real life girlie).

So like that tells me she’s either a bit queer and happy that people picked up what she’s put down or she’s a weird straight lady. Either way it doesn’t matter since, again, she seems mad chill about the whole thing except where people cross lines (but again that’s applicable across the fandom - she for sure doesn’t like hate Kaylor insanity more than the Kimmel abuse rumor).

Gaylor truthering and Hetlor truthering are both equally fucking insane. Saying “I think she’s straight man” or “idk I think she’s bi” based on public shit she said and did (there are arguments for both) is fair play. Saying “GOLD STAR LESBO” or “TAYLOR SWIFT VOMITS AT THE SIGHT OF PUSSY” are both insane and wrong and actively harmful - not really for Taylor who needn’t ever see this nonsense but for the young people who are questioning who come across this rhetoric.

[bthump]

thank you so much for you posts on guts assaulting casca bc quite frankly... the way the fandom frames it rather lead me to overlook it and have an uncomplicated relationship with him, all the while hating what griffith did during the eclipse. (in your opinion, what makes the fandom like this?)

Thank you for sending this, I'm really happy my posts inspired you to rethink your initial takeaway from Berserk and the fandom! lol I hope that didn't ruin the experience for you or make you dislike a character you used to love or anything though, imo the way both the Eclipse and Guts assaulting Casca are written reflects more on the writing than on Guts or Griffith as characters.

Man though there are so many reasons for this imo.

I mean for starters, there's the fact that certain takes kind of have a chokehold on fandom, like the classic "Griffith was an evil unfeeling sociopath all along and here's a nonsensical explanation for every single one of his actions that seems to demonstrate otherwise" lol. I avoid the rest of fandom as much as I can and I still see a lot of instances where someone will, say, go to the Berserk reddit or Skull Knight like, "hey I don't understand xyz moment, if Griffith doesn't care why did this happen?" and get the rote "because he's a control freak who couldn't stand seeing his friends living their own lives" answer, or whatever lol. These fans shut down discussion as often as they can and most fans just accept those answers because they don't care enough to think about it themselves, or they don't have the tools to analyse the story and come to their own conclusions because critical thinking is a learned skill that many people were never really taught.

So along with Griffith being evil all along, you have fans who might be like, "hey, it's kinda fucked up that Guts tried to rape Casca right, maybe I don't want them to get together," and get responses like "no you see he was possessed at the time, it's not his fault it was the beast of darkness who is a random evil malicious entity and not a symbolic representation of Guts' dark side at all."

As for why fans are so eager to come up with these explanations and believe them, I mean to be fair for a lot of people it's just easier to enjoy a story if the protagonist is likeable and sympathetic and not an attempted rapist lol. I can understand the urge to downplay Guts' actions there or find an alternative explanation for them, because to do otherwise would reduce their enjoyment of the story. I think this urge can be very bad when it leads to people using actual rape apologist rhetoric, like "Guts stopped before he got his dick in so it's not that bad and he should be forgiven" or whatever, but when it leads to arguing that he was actually possessed then it's like... whatever lol. You're wrong, you're misunderstanding the story entirely, but at least you're happy I guess, good for you. (yk assuming they're not being an asshole to other fans who disagree, which lbr is a pretty unlikely assumption in this fandom, but you know what I mean.)

That said there are a lot of terrible Berserk fans out there who make it pretty obvious that their bad takes are rooted in offensive misogynist and homophobic beliefs. I mean a common nickname for Griffith in this fandom involves a homophobic slur, so that should tell you the kind of people I'm talking about here. Those are the ones who I very much think hate Griffith from the start because he's got serious gay vibes, and go out of their way to find reasons to justify their hate and ignore every nuance in his character arc, while excusing Guts at every possible turn because he's the manly "hetero" protagonist they wanna be.

And yk, there are just a lot of people in general who don't like moral greys, who don't like nuance in fiction, and who want to flatten as much as they can to "good" or "bad." So Guts is "good" and therefore every bad thing he does has to be explained away and ignored. Griffith is "bad" so every good thing he does also has to be explained away and ignored.

BUT to be fair and well-rounded here, it's not all the fault of fandom. The story itself makes it easy to do this. I mean the eclipse rape was 2 chapters long, it took away Casca as a character for 20 years, it made the protagonist very angry, it was commiteed by a demon who has pointedly shown no remorse, and it was basically used as motivation for a whole revenge plot.

Conversely Guts assaulting Casca was a few pages, most of which was shown in symbolic imagery in Guts' head, Guts feels bad about it, and - and this is something I absolutely hate about Berserk lol - it's had zero negative consequences, at least so far, and several positive results. It's the inciting incident for Guts realizing he needs a babysitter and has to work on being less shitty, and Casca was already afraid of him so that didn't even change for the worse. Guts sexually assaulting Casca literally had a positive impact on the narrative. This makes it a lot easier to downplay how utterly shitty it was, and this is a major problem with the story.

And like the story itself doesn't condemn Guts for the assault very harshly despite being very clear about Guts being the one responsible. This is another thing that can create cognitive dissonance for fans and require explaining away - the attempted rape was a Bad Thing but since the story itself kind of downplays it that must mean that Guts isn't actually at fault, because if he was surely it would be a whole big thing, and not one scene that has never been brought up again.

So yeah, idk, basically I think there are a bunch of reasons for the fanbase's reactions to Guts and Griffith sexually assaulting Casca, and some of them are understandable and some of them are shitty. Thanks for the ask!

[ex-terf-anti-terf]

i want to ask some genuine questions if that’s okay bc I’ve never actually encountered an actual ex-rf who was part of the community but changed their mind

1. what is your definition of ‘gender’, if you don’t understand the radfem definition, then what do you define gender as?

2. what does being non-binary mean to you? do you not think it just traps you into another binary system of being either binary or non-binary?

3. what is your response to the “genital preference” narrative that is encouraging homosexuals to “examine their genital preference”… and how is it any difference to homophobic conversion therapy rhetoric?

again this is all completely genuine, i really do want to engage in a proper conversation about this and hear your side!

Well I do answer similar questions to these in this post, but I can elaborate on some stuff I didn't say there as well!

1. Reading the definition that you gave in the notes of this post, I agree with parts and disagree with others. For me, gender is an umbrella containing gender roles, stereotypes, norms, identity, and expression, as well as both sex-based and gender-based oppressions. All of these things look different in different cultures and in different individuals. (And I can make a different post defining each of those things at some point but I'm really tired and dissociated right now so I can't at the moment, I'm sorry.)

None of these things is inherently harmful, but many of them are used in harmful ways; by the patriarchy, by trans people, and by those who oppose trans people. The important thing to note there, though, is that each of these groups weaponizes different elements of gender.

By which I mean the patriarchy, especially the main agents of the patriarchy cis men, largely push gender roles and gender norms onto others, particularly cis women. Trans people largely rely on gender stereotypes, and gender criticals attack gender identity and gender expression.

ALL of these actions are harmful, but that doesn't make any of those individual elements inherently harmful. This is something I talk about a lot in regards to fiction. If a CC creates a work of fiction, and then a person uses that work of fiction to hurt another person, that CC is not at fault for that harm. They were creating art, which everyone in the world has a right to do. The blame for the harm that was caused lies solely on the person who manipulated that piece of art.

But I'm a little off-track, sorry. The point is, gender is a lot of things, and it is different for each person experiencing it. It can be influenced by a number of other things, like neurotype, sex, orientation and attraction, race, ethnicity, and culture. And there's not really one definition that's going to fit everyone's experiences, the same way there isn't really one definition of attraction that fits everyone's experiences.

(A sidenote, but I've noticed many trans people don't particularly care about the gender aspect in and of itself, but more about how it affects their relationship to the world, especially in regards to language.)

2. I do not! This is because nonbinary doesn't mean 'not attached to either end of the binary'. In fact, it just means 'not fully attached to one end of the binary'. (The word for the first one is 'abinary', which is a subset of nonbinary.) So I am a female nonbinary woman. (I'm also genderqueer but that has a little more to do with my sexuality than my gender.)

To answer what nonbinary identity means to me, I'm gonna draw from the post I linked at the very beginning of this response.

My lesbian identity has significantly impacted my understanding of my gender. I feel more closely tied to the idea of being a lesbian than I do to any gendered term, woman or man or otherwise.

My dysphoria related to my breasts has recently spiked in intensity, and I've found that certain things are just more comfortable for me. I find womanhood to be quite welcoming and positive, and I would not separate myself wholly from it, but I have an experience of myself as something entirely other, as well.

If I could choose any body for myself, it would be entirely devoid of sex organs or secondary sex characteristics. But I would still view myself as a woman, because the connections I've made to women have shaped my understanding of myself in a very particular way.

I've seen many women (particularly radfems/GCs) talk about womanhood as if it is inherently an oppressive, miserable thing and all women hate being women. I've never felt that. And maybe that's because I don't feel like I'm just a woman, or maybe it's something else. Who knows.

I guess the best way I can describe being nonbinary is through my wants. I want to be a masculine woman and a pretty boy and a genderless cryptid Eldritch entity of unknown intent. It's about rejecting the dichotomy of man vs woman entirely and saying 'I'm just going to be what I am, and I'll call myself whatever I want to call myself, and I don't have to deal with people who won't respect me.'

Some people on both sides like to say "gender is not a feeling!" (And depending on which side they're on, they mean this in one of two very different ways.) But I disagree. Especially for trans people, gender is at least partially about feelings. We feel dysphoria. We feel euphoria. We feel connected to certain words and less connected to others. Those are all feelings.

I would say that "man" and "woman" aren't feelings, but that's because ultimately, they're just words. They are labels that were created to ascribe social categories to differences in biology, and they don't carry any real significance.

3. I'm really, really glad you asked this, because I've been meaning to talk about this anyway. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about 'genital preferences'.

First of all, people with genital preferences are not inherently transphobic. Second of all, it is blatantly homophobic to tell a person that they cannot identify as gay if they are ever attracted to someone with different genitals from the ones that they were born with. To attempt to dictate another person's LGB identity is homophobia, full stop. I won't debate this.

I honestly think both sides fuck this up a lot, I'm gonna be honest. Trans people often take it too far, and gender crits are often homophobic about it.

I often see gender criticals (in response to, say, a cis gay man dating a trans man) say that the gay person is actually bisexual, or that they shouldn't call themself gay. And I've never been okay with that, even when I was deep in radfem circles. It was one of the big turn-offs for me, actually. This is because, in my mind, labels don't exist to dictate our experiences; it's the other way around. We take labels on because they describe our experiences. So if your label is prescriptive, rather than descriptive, and you are weaponizing that against other same-sex or same-gender attracted people, I don't trust you.

(Not you specifically, harringtn, just the general 'you'.)

I also often see trans people say "if you won't date a trans person who identifies with the gender you're attracted to, you're a transphobe" and that never sits right with me either. Recently, this has been changing a bit, but a while back when I was looking in all the wrong places, I saw this constantly, and it definitely pushed me into TERFdom.

There's a middle ground there, and I think it's this; it is entirely okay and understandable to be repulsed by a certain set of genitals, especially if one is a victim of sexual assault or abuse. I think it's important to identify the reason for that preference or repulsion, doubly so if it's a result of trauma so that one can heal from the traumatic event/s, but it doesn't necessarily have to be changed.

When trans people say 'examine your genital preference' I tend to agree with the sentiment but not the wording. The wording tends to sound like 'check your privilege' which is just... not applicable. The ability to choose who one engages with sexually is not a privilege, it's a fundamental human right. If the reasoning behind it is bigoted, then the bigotry needs to be addressed, but there is more often than not no bigotry present. I've met plenty of lesbians who were penis-repulsed and fully trans-positive.

So my tl;dr on that is I think very few people approach it from the right angle and there's a lovely gray area between trans folks' approach and TERFs' approach.

Anyway, I hope that answers your questions, this is super long now I'm sorry ;-; Feel free to send another ask if you have more!

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

Five years ago, the women on this site who treated me like trash over loving Labyrinth and shipping Jareth/Sarah were almost always obliviously consuming Radfem propaganda, or were out and out Radfems/Terfs themselves.

They were the types of people who casually threw the word “pedophile” around against grown women who shipped an adult Sarah with Jareth, aka literally one of the most popular ships for women in fandom for 30 years.

Pretty much invariably, these women had serious sex-negative anxieties, which included a severe paranoia about any and all kink and fetish, and porn in general. I saw a lot of shocking, fear-mongering propaganda surrounding sexual expression. Pretty much invariably, their method of approach involved immediate personal shock-value attacks on anyone they perceived to be “bad.”

Today, you can look at the way some people react to other popular so-called “problematic” ships and recognize the same toxic, fear-mongering rhetoric coming from women who consider themselves regular, trans-inclusive feminists. Sometimes it even manifests in the words of very well-meaning people (including myself here), who feel the need to talk about specific issues that pertain to their own experiences of trauma and oppression.

The people who shit on Labyrinth often seem to not really be able to comprehend that the Goblin King, like the film itself, is canonically a representation of a teen girl’s psyche, a soup of fears and anxieties and desires and dreams. He’s not a literal human adult preying on a literal child, and to read the film that way seriously undermines the entire point of the film. 

When I (and people of many fandoms) say “This is fiction, calm down,” I’m not just saying it’s not real so it cant hurt you and you can’t criticize me. I’m trying to call attention to what fiction actually is - artistic representations of feelings and experiences. The Goblin King is Sarah’s fiction. Therefore, he can be anything she or any woman who identifies with her wants him to be, including her lover when she’s grown and ready for such a thing.

I once took an alarming dive into Beetlejuice fandom to see what content was there (the cartoon was a favorite when I was little). Chillingly, what you’ll find is an extremely wounded fanbase, with a sharp divide between the older women who had long been shipping BJ/Lydia because of their love for the cartoon series (and whom were previously the vast majority of the Beetlejuice fandom), and a massive amount of young people riding the wave of the musical fad who had decided that the entire old school Beetlejuice fandom was populated by literal pedophiles. 

I saw death threats. Suicide baiting. Constant, constant toxic discourse. It did not matter how the BJ/Lydia fandom dealt with any particular issues that would exist in their ship, in fact I’m certain that the people abusing them cared very little to even consider if they were trying to handle it at all. The only thing that mattered was that they were disgusting subhuman scum asking for abuse. If you have at any time reblogged recent Beetlejuice fan art or content from fans of the musical, you have more than likely been engaging positively with the content of someone participating in toxic fandom behavior.

Nobody is really sticking up for them, either, as far as I saw. It’s really hard to imagine how painful it must be to have such a large group of people explode into into your relatively private fandom space to tell you that you are evil, vile, and deserve constant abuse, and also you are no longer allowed into the fandom space to engage in it’s content. But I think there’s something very alarming indeed about this happening specifically to the BJ fandom, and I’ll explain why. 

The pop-culture characterization of Beetlejuice, which is heavily influenced by the cartoon series to be clear, has always in my mind been a vaguely ageless being who matches with the psychological maturity of whatever age Lydia is supposed to be. He’s more or less like an imaginary friend, a manifestation of Lydia’s psyche. In fact, I would argue that i think most of us who grew up with the cartoon or it’s subsequent merchandizing before the musical ever existed probably internalized the idea as BJ and Lydia as this ageless, salt-and-pepper-shaker couple beloved by the goth community, similar to Gomez and Morticia. In each version of canon he may be a creepy ghost in the literal sense, but any adult who is capable of identifying literary tropes (even just subconciously) would read cartoon!BJ as an artistic representation of a socially awkward outcast girl’s inner world. Lydia’s darker dispositions and interests, which alienate her from most others, are freely accepted and embraced by her spooky magical friend. BJ/Lydia in the cartoon were depicted as best friends, but to my memory there was always an underlying sense that they had secret feelings for each other, which I identified easily even as a small child. In fact, their dynamic and behavior perfectly reflected the psychological development of the show’s target demographic. They are best friends who get into adventures and learning experiences together, who have delicate feelings for each other but lack any true adult romantic/sexual understanding to acknowledge those feelings, let alone pursue them.

Though I haven’t seen the Musical yet, I’ve read the wiki and I would argue that it embodies this exact same concept even more so for it’s own version of the characters, in that Beetlejuice specifically exists to help Lydia process her mother’s death.

This is not a complicated thing to recognize and comprehend whatsoever. In fact, it looks downright blatant. It’s also a clear indicator of what BJ/Lydia means to the women who have long loved it. It was a story about a spooky wierd girl being loved and accepted and understood for who she was, and it gave them a sense of solidarity. It makes perfect sense why those women would stick with those characters, and create a safe little space for themselves to and imagine their beloved characters growing and having adult lives and experiencing adult drama, in just the same ways that the women of the Labyrinth fandom do. That’s all these women were doing. And now, they can’t do it without facing intense verbal violence. That safe space is poisoned now.

Having grown up with the cartoon as one of my favorites and been around goth subculture stuff for decades, I was actually shocked and squicked at the original Beetlejuice film’s narrative once I actually saw it, because it was extremely divorced from what these two characters had evolved into for goth subculture and what they meant to me. It’s not telling the same story, and is in fact about the Maitland's specifically. In pretty much exactly the same way two different versions of Little Red Riding Hood can be extremely different from each other, the film is a different animal. While I imagine that the film version has been at the heart of a lot of this confused fear-mongering around all other versions of the characters, I would no more judge different adaptations of these characters any more than I would condemn a version of Little Red in which Red and the Wolf are best friends or lovers just because the very first iteration of LRRH was about protecting yourself from predators.

I would even argue that the people who have engaged in Anti-shipper behavior over BJ/Lydia are in intense denial over the fact that BJ being interested in Lydia, either as blatant predatory behavior a la the film or on a peer level as in the cartoon (and musical?) is an inextricable part of canon. Beetlejuice was always attracted to Lydia, and it was not always cute or amusing. Beetlejuice was not always a beloved buddy character, an in fact was originally written as a gross scumbag. That’s just what he was. Even people engaging with him now by writing OC girlfriends for him (as stand-ins for the salt-and-pepper-shaker space Lydia used to take up, because obviously that was part of the core fun of the characters), or just loving him as a character, are erasing parts of his character’s history in order to do so. They are actively refusing to be held responsible for being fans of new version of him despite the fact that he engaged in overt predatory behavior in the original film. In fact, I would venture to say that they are actively erasing the fact that Musical Beetliejuice tried to marry a teenager and as far as I’m aware, seemed to like the idea (because he’s probably a fucking figment of her imagination but go off I guess). The only reason they can have a version of this character who could be perceived as “buddy” material is because...the cartoon had an impact on our pop cultural perception of what the character and his dynamic with Lydia is. 

We can have a version of the Big Bad Wolf who’s a creepy monster. We can have a version who’s sweet and lovable. We can have a version that lives in the middle. We can have a version who’s a hybrid between Red and the Wolf (a la Ruby in OUAT). All of these things can exist in the same world, and can even be loved for different reasons by the same people.

I’ve been using Beetlejuice as an example here because it’s kind of perfect for my overall point regarding the toxic ideologies in fandom right now across many different spaces, including ones for progressive and queer media, and how much so many people don’t recognize how deeply they’ve been radicalized into literalist and sex-negative radfem rhetoric, to the point where we aren’t allowed to have difficult, messy explorations of imperfect, flawed humans, and that art is never going to be 100% pure and without flaw in it’s ability to convey what it wants to convey.

This includes the rhetoric I’ve seen across the board, from She-Ra to A:TLA to Star Wars to Lovecraft Country. We don’t talk about the inherent malleable, subjective, or charmingly imperfect nature of fiction any more. Transformation and reclamation are myths in this space. Everything is in rigid categories. It is seemingly very difficult for some of these people to engage with anything that is not able to be clearly labeled as one thing or another (see the inherent transphobic and biphobic elements of the most intense rhetoric). They destroy anything they cannot filter through their ideology. When women act in a way that breaks from their narrative of womanhood (like...not having a vagina), then those women must be condemned instead of understood. Anything that challenges them or makes them uncomfortable is a mortal sin. There is an extraordinary level of both hypocrisy and repressive denial that is underlying the behavior I’m seeing now. Much like toxic Christian conservatism, these people often are discovered engaging in the same behaviors and interests that they condemn behind closed doors (or just out of sheer cognitive dissonance). As an example, one of the people who talked shit to me about Labyrinth was a huge fan of Kill La Kill, which to my knowledge was an anime about a teenage girl in like, superpowered lingere (hence why I stayed the fuck away from that shit myself). Indeed, they even allow themselves plenty of leeway for behavior far worse than they condemn others for, and create support systems for the worst of their own abusers. 

Quite frankly, I’m tired. Instead of talking about theoretical problematic shit, we need to start talking about quantifiable harm. Because as far as I can tell, the most real, immediate, and quantifiable harm done because of anybody’s favorite ships or pieces of media seems to consistently be the kind that’s done to the people who experience verbal violence and abuse and manipulation and suicide baiting and death threats from the people who have a problem.

[charmspoint]

what i know abt qifrey from u talking abt him uhh ok so he's genuinely just a nice guy but also he's evil and irredeemable but also he's literally just a pleasant gentleman

I know ur not asking for a rant about this but by god ur gonna get it.

So the thing is, I don't think Qifrey is evil or irredeemable at all. We joke around the fandom (at least i hope its mostly jokes) that he's evil and crazy but he's really not. If id have to pin Qifrey on a morality spectrum I'd say morally gray but leaning towards the good.

Did Qifrey do some messed up stuff? Yes, fo sure. But I've always gotten more of an impression that he's teetering towards the edge and not completely over it. He does do damage but so far he's mostly made sure that damage was extremely localized and not actually harming other people (I talked about before how Qifrey's own memory erasing spell seems weirdly specialized compared to what we were brought to believe memory erasing spell actually does when used by anyone else).

But now comes the question

Do I think Qifrey will get worse?

Yes, 100% I believe this is where we are going towards, I said before that I'm p convinced he will become some kind of obstacle for Coco down the line.

Qifrey is going through a LOT rn. He's already got ptsd from, you know being stripped of his identity, buried alive, almost drowned and then remembering he was experimented on like a lab rat, but now it's getting worse. Before he could at least relay on the fact that even though his past was horrible, his future was bright. He genuinely loves his job, he loves his girls, he loves teaching. This monolog gets me every single time

Now he's losing his future, he's losing not only his eye, but the whole identity he built out of nothing, he's losing his teaching position, he's losing his kids, he's losing Everything he gained after he had already lost Everything.

It leaves him rushing against an uncertain time limit, desperate, stumbling, sloppy. I don't think he's thinking straight anymore, not really. I think he's convinced he is being methodical and calculating but in actuality he's stumbling forward, grasping at straws, unable to hold on to anything but his need for revenge and the empty words that his actions aren't only for his own sake.

It's all very striking, in his relationship with Olruggio in particular. Olruggio is very clearly supposed to be the guiding light for Qifrey, the one who pulls him back when he goes too far, the one who helps him resist the growing darkness. It's very meaningful how as Qifrey continues on his path he makes sure Olruggio doesn't even know about it. He said it himself, if Olruggio knew, he'd try to save him. He'd try to bring Olruggio to light again and Qifrey doesn't WANT to be saved, he has decided on a road he wants to take and he won't allow anyone to change his course. Not even Olruggio.

So do I think Qifrey is evil?

No

Do I think he'll get worse?

Yes

Do I think he'll become evil?

Not really

See here's the thing. Qifrey's desperation, how quickly he's trying to work through this, how determined he is to throw everything else under the bus if he could just achieve his goals? All of that is dictated by the fact he's running out of time, the fact that once he loses his eyesight he can no longer be a witch. Eyesight is VERY important to witches since magic is a very visual art. We've seen with Tartar how something as seemingly miniscule as color blindness can basically doom someone, causing everyone around them to say they can't become a witch without good eyesight. So complete blindness is a death sentence to a witches career. Now, it's funny how a lot of the Coustas and Tartars arc has to do with adjusting the world to disability and not the person to the world. How it's made pointed, over and over again, that people with disabilities shouldn't be written off but given proper tools that will help them function, how the world should adjust to be a more comfortable place for all kinds of people and not just those who are already adjusted to it. Without the threat of his eyesight going out and cutting his whole identity into bits, Qifrey wouldn't have to act like this, he would be able to sit and think and not rush and if he still wants to pursue brimhats he could do it more safely for himself and everyone else because the desperation factor would be gone.

So what I think is going to happen is that Qifrey will lose his eyesight but won't lose his standing as a witch because he, Olruggio and the kids will figure out how to make magic accessible to him.

Now there's of course a bunch more unaccounted for variables which I'll probably have a better grasp on after the current arc is done being translated. Ininia and Lord Restis represent a very interesting development because they are brimhats introduced specifically via healing injuries. The rule of 'medicine magic isn't allowed cuz it's a slippery slope' has been there since the beginning of the series and a big thorn in the 'yeah the witch world rules are good and fair' side cuz of course, everyone thinks healing people should be allowed. Now the brimhats we've had so far were fully ready to attack and experiment on children's bodies in order to further their own goals so of course that immediately leaves you disliking them and not putting much account into their rhetoric even though it does make sense at times, but ur not gonna listen to ppl experimenting on kids. That's why I think Ininia and Lord Restis are interesting, cuz if they aren't literally attacking children they might get a good case in about medicine magic being allowed. I think we are going towards at least some sort of medicine magic becoming acceptable considering Tartar's arc. But then the question is, if some sort of medicine magic is approved, will it be used to heal disabilities cuz like...that would kinda suck. I would much rather have a 'world should be adjusted so disabled people can participate in it equally' narrative rather than the 'just heal the disability with magic lol' narrative. But honestly this whole paragraph is pure speculation because the arc isn't fully translated or even fully out yet but I sure af am LOOKING at it. I think it will be v important in understanding where the story is going to go. I just hope Shirahama does a good job with it, but honestly she never once let me down up until now so I'm feelin positive.

Circling back to Qifrey, I do think he's one of the kindest, most understanding, most lovable characters I've had a joy of reading and studying. But he does have a black hole in him that is pulling apart all that kindness, leaving him a shattering shell. I don't think he's evil, I don't think he'll ever become truly evil and despite what he's done I don't think any of what he did is irredeemable, especially with how careful he tends to be not to take away from people more than he has to to further his own goals. But I do think that hole will eat at him more and more and that before he can get better somebody will have to notice it and help him plug it up. Olruggio noticed and Qifrey refused the help, convinced that he can't be helped, not in the way he needs. He will need proof that he can keep his future before he can ease up on the frantic hunt after his past

[stillness-in-green]

Ahistorical, Absurd, and Unsustainable (Introduction and Part One)

An Examination of the Mass Arrest of the Paranormal Liberation Front

INTRODUCTION

The title states my premise here: the breezy way My Hero Academia presents and resolves the mass arrest of the Paranormal Liberation Front is ludicrous. If taken as presented and allowed to stand without being further addressed, it serves as a breaking point from which the series will be incredibly hard-pressed to recover. Why, you ask?

From a logistical standpoint, it strains credulity. From an ethical standpoint, it suggests deeply troubling problems with the state of Hero Society. From a thematic standpoint, it unravels whole portions of the narrative’s spine. I’ll be looking at each of these facets in turn to discuss the questions they raise which My Hero Academia has not yet seen fit to answer. Many in fandom don’t seem to be thinking about it too hard, so I’d like to lay out—in exhaustive detail—all the reasons I find this plot element so wildly out of touch with causal reality.

Please note that while they are discussed when relevant, this essay is not principally about the named characters in the League of Villains or the erstwhile high command of the Metahuman Liberation Army. The sorts of consequences Shigaraki Tomura or Re-Destro would and should be facing in a courtroom are orders of magnitude beyond what Random Liberation Warrior X would be, but it’s the mass numbers of Random Liberation Warrior Xs that this essay is most concerned with, as they are the ones most in danger of being swept under a rug and forgotten by the series in its current state.

Further, be advised that this essay in its full form is both very long (about 21K words excluding Sources and Further Reading) and will contain extensive discussion of real-life Japan—comparisons to historical events, minutiae of its legal and carceral systems, and general cultural views on criminality. This will include references to imprisonment, government oppression, and incidents of terrorism both real and in the context of My Hero Academia.

Being as it is about quite a recent event in the series, it will also contain heavy spoilers all the way up through the most recent chapter as of this writing, Chapter 310. It likewise contains spoilers for the spin-off series My Hero Academia: Vigilantes up through Chapter 95.

The essay will be posted in parts on tumblr and in full on AO3. For the tumblr posting, I will provide links to other tumblr posts as I reference them; however, as I would like this to actually show up in the tags, outside links containing my sources and further reading will be provided in a separate post following the conclusion of the essay.

Lastly, I spent an entire month writing this as a fan who is sympathetic to the villains in general and the MLA in particular. If your response to the very concept of this essay is anything to the tune of, “Who cares what happens to a bunch of disgusting quirk eugenicists?” know that you and I have radically different views on the MLA, and the role of the justice system in general. You are, of course, welcome to read the essay anyway, but, having said my piece about the MLA and their relationship with quirk supremacy elsewhere, I will not be engaging with arguments or gotchas on that subject here.

PART ONE: The Facts at Hand

Before we get too deep into things, let’s lay out the basic facts: how many people are actually involved in the arrest, as well as some comparisons to real-life events to contextualize that number and provide some referents for the issues the arrest raises.

Re-Destro gives the numbers of the Metahuman Liberation Army as 116,516. A lot of people go on to die in Deika, though we’re never given a solid count. The biggest batch we see killed in a single go are the press of sixty or so people Shigaraki decays, then the sixteen-ish Toga drops, though some of those might possibly have had quirks that allowed them to survive. Any number of people certainly died as well simply in the moments we didn’t see, and who even knows how many were caught in the radius of Shigaraki’s last attack.

Further, there may well have been a measure of organization bleed when the MLA became the PLF (though I imagine trying to leave was a very dangerous proposition, giving an additional reason to stick it out on top of the general cult-like mindset the MLA displays); likewise, I find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t have been some deaths at the Gunga Villa, be it from Gigantomachia’s departure, Geten cutting loose, or combatants—be they hero or comrade—overcompensating somewhat in the middle of a chaotic melee.

I suspect it’s overestimating the depletion, but for the purposes of simplicity, let us call it 115,000 remaining members at the time of the raid.[1]

We are told that, in all, 16,929 people were captured at the villa—just about 17,000. 132 escaped in the confusion; this is a fairly negligible number, save for the fact that it includes high-ranking advisors, but not Machia and those of the Front that were with him.

We are further told, and I quote, “Their bases scattered around the country were hit too, and the sympathizers rounded up.” Horikoshi did not provide any solid numbers for this,[2] but if we’re to assume that it is just the rest of the group (more on the logistics of that bit of spycraft later), “the sympathizers” would be 98,000 additional people.

However, 98,000 may be a significant underestimation. It’s based, after all, on a number Re-Destro cites to describe “warriors lying in wait, ready to rise to action.” This begs the question: is Re-Destro quoting the entire membership of the group, or only those who actually are ready to take action? In other words, does his number account for non-combatants? Is he counting young children? I tend to assume the MLA doesn't have a retirement age as such,[3] but if they do, does his number account for the elderly?

How many more people might be “sympathizers” to the PLF insomuch as they are e.g. the six-month-old infant daughter of an MLA couple? What about the ninety-year-old man in the retirement home whose only real act of war these days is tying up the phone line at City Hall to complain about repressive quirk use laws? How about the fired-up fifteen-year-old that was going to get their official code name next month, just in time to join the first wave of attacks? If he’s being literal in his usage of “warrior,” the actual count of the MLA could easily be twice as high as the number he actually gives.

But okay, maybe Re-Destro’s number does include absolutely everyone. Maybe he’s just being rhetorical—maybe, in his mind, even the six-month-old is waiting to rise to action; she’s just going to have to wait a bit longer than the rest, is all. For simplicity’s sake, let’s stick with the numbers we have: a low-end of 17,000, a high-end of 115,000, captured not merely in a single day, but allegedly in the span of a few hours.

I’m sure I don’t need to stress that that is a lot of people. But how many people is it, practically speaking? Is there a precedent? Anything we can look to for guidance on how this kind of thing would go in real life?

Comparative Analogues

The PLF is tricky to categorize for the purposes of real-life comparison, especially compared to how they’re treated in-universe. In some lights, they resemble a protest movement; in others, a terrorist group. Just looking at the way the government reacts to them—and certainly in terms of their combat capabilities—they might as well be an all-out insurrectionist uprising! Below, I’ll examine a handful of historical incidents that cover that spectrum; they will continue to provide useful reference points throughout the rest of this essay.

The March 15 Incident

In the first half of the 20th century, Japan saw a huge uptick in socialist and communist activity, much to the general dismay of the ruling powers. In response, they passed a series of laws commonly referred to as the Peace Preservation Laws, designed to better enable authorities to suppress political dissent and freedom of speech, particularly that of leftists and labor movements.

The Japanese Communist Party was founded in 1922, but outlawed in 1925. This merely drove members underground, however, from which position they pointed supporters towards the numerous other parties with more legally tolerated leftist policies that had cropped up in the wake of the JCP’s dissolution. Following the February 1928 General Election (the first in Japan held with universal male suffrage), those parties supported by the JCP saw enormous gains in representation in Japan’s National Diet. Alarmed, the Prime Minister declared the mass arrest of known communists and suspected communist sympathizers. Accordingly, on March 15, 1,600 people were arrested throughout Japan.

Over the course of twenty years, some 70,000 people would be arrested under the auspices of the Peace Preservation Laws, the majority of them in 1925 through 1936. The laws would eventually be repealed by American occupation forces after WWII, and the JCP allowed to operate openly once again.

The Rice Riots

In 1918, an inflation spiral had driven the price of rice out of control, exacerbating economic insecurity and hardship. Farmers were being paid a pittance of the market value of their crop by rice buyers and government agents, while urban consumers were being charged an exorbitant price for the staple food, as well as a great many other consumer goods, and their own rents. In response, a series of riots ripped across Japan in late July through September. Beginning with peaceful protesting in a small fishing town in Toyama Prefecture, the unrest escalated to involve riots, strikes, looting, even bombing in demonstrations that reached major cities like Tokyo and Osaka. The scope was and remains unprecedented in modern Japanese history, seeing some 25,000 people arrested.

The Sarin Gas Attacks

If you’ve heard of any of them, it’s probably this one. On March 20, 1995, members of the cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on five different Tokyo Metro trains in the middle of morning rush hour. Thirteen people were killed and over 5500 injured, about a fifth of them moderately to severely so. If not for small errors in the production of the gas and the rudimentary distribution method thereof, loss of life might easily have been catastrophically higher.

Aum Shinrikyo was a doomsday cult, but the motives for that particular attack were much baser than bringing about the Apocalypse: at the time, the organization was under police investigation for its involvement in the kidnapping of a public official. Its leader, Asahara Shoukou, hoped that the attack would divert police’s attention from a planned raid.

It did not do so; police executed raids on numerous of the cult’s compounds, arresting many of its senior members both immediately and over the course of the following months as the investigation unfolded. In all, over 200 members were arrested of an organization that counted its membership prior to the attack as numbering 11,000 people in Japan.[4]

The February 26 Incident

There have been a significant number of uprisings and violent protests in Japan’s modern history; when looking for a representative example, I focused my attention on the military coups of the 1930s and 40s, largely because they took place in what was closest to the modern Japanese legal context.[5] Of that subset, I chose the February 26 Incident for the severity of the government response. The others disintegrated before they could be properly carried out or were met with sympathy for the dissidents despite the obvious illegality of their actions. The February 26 Incident, however, was when they finally became too troublesome to dismiss, and the Emperor himself ran out of patience.

In this period, the Japanese military had become drastically factionalized into two main groups—an ultra-nationalist group, largely powered by a group of young officers, which supported the Emperor and wanted to purge Japan of Western influences, and a more moderate group mainly defined by their opposition to the above faction.[6] Occurring in 1936, the February 26 Incident involved the young officers, believing that they had tacit approval from higher-ranked officers of their own faction, launching assassination attempts against the nationalists’ most prominent enemies in the government (six assorted Ministers and former Ministers in the Emperor’s Privy Council and the Diet) and a bid to seize control of the administrative center of the capital and the Imperial Palace, after which they planned to demand the dismissal of more officers and the selection of a new Cabinet.

The seven ringleaders had convinced eighteen other officers to lend their forces to the attempted coup, a total of around 1,500 men, calling themselves the Righteous Army. Several of their assassination attempts failed, however, and while they succeeded at taking the Prime Minister’s residence and the Ministry of War, they did not manage to secure the Palace. The outraged Cabinet demanded the Emperor take a hard line with the rebels, and by the 29th, the Righteous Army was surrounded by 20,000 government troops and 22 tanks. In this hopeless situation, the officers dismissed their troops; two committed suicide (a third attempted it unsuccessfully) and the remainder were arrested by military police.

International Examples

For obvious reasons, I prefer to limit my examples to events that happened in Japan. However, I will also be briefly referring to a few international incidents of mass arrest, taking place in India, the U.S., and Egypt, respectively.

In the following parts, I'll use these facts and comparative analogues to take a closer look at what readers were told became of the Paranormal Liberation Front.

Part Two

-----------------------------------------------------

Footnotes (Part One)—

[1] Over three months’ time, they likely gained some new blood also, simply in the course of their usual recruitment tactics. You don’t get an underground organization that size by sitting back and waiting for people to come to you, after all. I don’t know a practical way to calculate that, though, so just bear it in mind for when I talk about new members later.

[2] Possibly because he was aware that 17,000 people captured in one fell swoop was difficult enough to swallow without adding on more than five times that number.

[3] We do, after all, see some very aged people fighting in the streets of Deika.

[4] They were considerably more international than you may have heard. They had 50,000 members at the time, some 30,000 of them based in Russia.

[5] The Meiji Constitution was ratified in 1889; universal suffrage (for men) was granted in 1925. The modern constitution was enacted in 1947.

[6] More moderate, mind, in the context of the Imperial Japanese military. Neither of these factions had any time whatsoever for leftist movements, hence all those suppressive crackdowns.