#please don't discourse in my notes about if 'murder' is a good thing or a bad thing

[tavina-writes]

MDZS Society! aka: there's a lot less killing than you'd expect

This follows from this post and also the recent translations of MXTX’s most recent interview (which I can now no longer bother to find bc this has been sitting in drafts for like, siiiix months? More? Oh god anyway.) which reminded me about my feelings regarding MDZS society and how different it is from the martial societies we see depicted in typical modern wuxia. (Small disclaimer, I am a wuxia genre fiend and I love like, thinking about fictional societies so this is like, “AHA! You’ve unlocked my trap card!”) 

For the purposes of this, I’m going to be looking at MDZS/CQL’s depiction of the jianghu (which I think is fairly similar! I don’t actually think the show writers made CQL’s jianghu/martial society more genre typical than it was in the book) and comparing that with modern classic wuxia (mostly Jin Yong and Gu Long works.) For this comparison, I’ll be looking at a Jin Yong book — Legend of the Condor Heroes (which is widely considered the starting point of modern wuxia as a genre) — and one Gu Long book — Dagger Li/Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword (widely considered his most popular work) — and seeing how their societies differ from MDZS society. 

This will likely come in two parts because this one was already getting long, and I don’t think we can fit “how often does nobility exist in a typical jianghu and what do bloodline sects look like normally versus what they look like in MDZS” in this post along with the main topic of “is MDZS society a particularly physically violent place?” 

This post discusses how often cultivators are socially expected to kill people. Like, actual living human beings instead of, say, monsters or ghosts which have been categorized differently than like, human beings. 

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Dagger Li but this was already much too long sorry. Feel free to hmu for more thoughts though.

Now, it might be easy to think that cultivators killing actual people is a really common thing in MDZS/CQL universe! After all, they do have martial arts training and one of the prominent things about the first life is just how many people die both in the Sunshot Campaign and the fallout afterwards. However, I would argue that a lot of the traumas and related issues and reactions that happen in MDZS happen because cultivators are, by training and education, not actually prepared for killing actual living breathing human beings! (And also that the morality of this world prevents it for the most part) 

Now, we do actually get a pretty good window into what the typical training is like for young cultivators in MDZS, because we get a fairly well defined schoolhouse scene where LQR is asking them questions about "how do you tell the difference between various different problems we have to solve?" and "how do you go about fixing this problem?" and none of those include the moral quandary of "if I, a young cultivator out in the Jianghu, see a guy who is doing something I morally disagree with, under what circumstances do I beat him up and/or kill him." This does not appear to enter the curriculum at any point, leading me to believe that the morally correct number of people not like, ghosts or ghouls or fierce corpses, a regular average MDZS cultivator is supposed to have killed is approximately 0.

Which. Is a thing you get in a normal martial arts wuxia jianghu. There is generally the threat of "oh yeah this that or the other faction will be doing shitty things and thereby try to murder you." Instead, in MDZS/CQL most of the heirs of sects are...attending school together. Doing teenage things like partying and gossiping and attending classes.

And sure yes, there was a case of WWX and JZX trying to beat each other up. But the sects did sure let their kids stay at Lan summer camp for months on end (sometimes repeatedly, see NHS) without fearing for their lives or that anyone would steal another sect's techniques or otherwise causing real havoc or intersect warfare etc.

Which is infeasible in any other sort of Jianghu situation. For example, contrast this scenario with this scene from LOCH where Guo Jing's shifus are giving him advice since he is newly 17 and about to set out by himself into the great big world:

Guo Jing therefore bid farewell to his teachers. They had witnessed his battle against the Four Demons of the Yellow River, and were not too greatly worried. The young man had proved that he knew how to use the skills that they taught him. Therefore they let him leave alone. On one hand, the meeting of outlaws in Yanjing worried them greatly, so that they could not ignore it; and on the other hand, a youngster always had to travel the jianghu alone, in order to learn lessons that no teacher could pass on. At the moment of parting, each made their last recommendations. As usual when the Six spoke after one another, Nan Xiren was the last one to express himself. "If you cannot defeat the enemy," he said. "Flee!" He knew that given Guo Jing's dogged character, he would prefer to die rather than to surrender, if he met a master, he would certainly fight to the bitter end, even at the risk of death. That was the reason Nan Xiren gave him this common sense warning. " Martial arts have no limits," added Zhu Cong. " As the proverb says, 'For every peak there is one yet higher', so for every man there is one stronger. Whatever your power, you will always one day meet a foe stronger than you. A true man knows to retreat when necessary, when facing grave danger, it is necessary to contain one's impatience and anger. This what is meant by the adage, « If one preserves the earth and its forests, one does not fear to lack firewood ». It is not therefore not cowardly to take good advice! When the enemy is too numerous and that you cannot face them there, it is especially necessary to avoid being too reckless. Keep in mind Fourth Shifu's advice!"

Does this seem like the sort of advice that any Young MDZS Cultivator would get? "You're a good kid, but when you go out into the world, there will be people who straight up want you dead even though they met you 15 minutes ago, you cannot persist in fighting with these people because they will want you dead and you are a baby cultivator who needs to learn to run away when shit gets rough or you will be dead."

And again I come back to how MDZS cultivators are more like occupational ghostbusters because this really does inform how their society functions and runs and how everyone reacts so badly to the Sunshot Campaign beginning and its aftermaths and possibly explains how JGS could get his way after Sunshot.

Because what happens when you get a society that does train heavily in martial arts and have Able To Kill Real People Weapons who spends most of their time solving very black and white situations of "okay is this ghost whose eating people's livers good or bad? y/n?" and a clear hierarchy of "how do we get rid of the ghost eating people's livers in town x" instead of say "is it morally correct to kill this group of bandits who's been threatening the town" or "is it morally correct to kill this shitty businessman who's been holding people hostage and threatening to hack off their limbs" you have a reduced level of philosophical musing on like, "what is the purpose of martial arts, which is designed to kill people and what do I use martial arts for?" and "under what circumstances and situations would I personally find it morally correct to kill a man?" Which are all questions that Wuxia coming of age stories typically have, and I think MDZS does have, but expressed differently.

Again, it appears that the number of Real Live Human Beings that it is morally acceptable to have stabbed in your life is approximately 0 in this universe, and the expectation that you, personally, might have to fend off people trying to stab you over brunch is also approximately 0.

This also leads to a situation where like, questions of vengeance have very difficult escape hatches! If your parents are murdered on the job by an evil rampaging ghost, this is very sad and tragic and now you're an orphan and of course that's not good, but this is a occupational job hazard, not like, "Yeah Joe Bob from the sect down the street murdered my dad because #Reasons~, and now it's my legacy to grow up to murder Job Bob from the sect down the street to avenge my dad."

(I have a whole essay about how this pertains to both of the Nie Brothers, and how it pertains to JGY and also Jin Ling, and how this seems to routinely fuck people up in MDZS in a very specific way we don't typically see in other wuxias, but this is getting SO long as it is).

But yeah "the socially acceptable number of real living people (instead of ghosts or demons or fierce corpses or whatever) to have killed in your lifetime as a cultivator is approximately 0" means that the Sunshot Generation gets really really fucked up by all of this "killing real people" they did.

Which! might be why JFM was so slow to move on "yeah the Wen are threatening to kill your heirs." <- socially inconceivable behavior. Why society in general is so shocked by Xue Yang and the murder of the Chang <- which would be bad normally but not quite like this. And why no one did anything specific about JGS even if they felt he wasn't entirely correct. What are they going to threaten him with? Death???? A trial of his peers? Social Shunning??? Public shame???

"But Tav how does this relate to CQL!Su She's morality?" I hear you ask. Well you see, the question of "he should've been ready to die for his sect!" is utterly baffling in a society where nobody is expected to be ready to die for their sect on a regular basis because the idea that you should be ready for someone trying to stab you before brunch is utterly nonsensical in a world where most people expect that the baseline number of murders a cultivator does in their lifetimes is 0. That's the world he lives in.

On this regard CQL!Su She is utterly blameless. Nobody handed him a rulebook or expectations sheet for "the sect down the street will try to kill you" nor SHOULD they expect he'd be ready to die at a drop of a hat when no part of the education or social expectations include "ready to die for your sect because it's routine for people to try to kill you."

If you don't even expect to be stabbed and possibly die at a discussion conference where there are lots of cultivators from many sects why on EARTH would you expect to be facing down death in your own home when there's. cultivators here to kill you, this situation is so out of left field?

[bonefall]

So, I'm writing an essay on the whole STATE of misogyny in WC for one of my university classes, and I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of things! No pressure of course, please feel free to say no!

A) Could I reference your good takes with appropriate harvard referencing and links back to your blog?

B) Are there any specific moments from the books that you think should be covered the most?

C) The end result will be a visual essay, so it's like those fun infographics people on Tumblr make on like ADHD and stuff, so when it's done, would you like to be tagged to read it?

(Sorry for anon, I'm nervous lmao, but if you'd be more comfortable I'll resend this off anon)

AAY good topic! You've got a lot to work with. Absolutely feel free to reference anything I've written, and tag me when you're done.

While you're here and about to write something so legitimate, I'm also going to recommend you check out Sunnyfall's video on gender in Warrior Cats. She breaks down the arcs into numbers, directly comparing the amount of lines mollies have to toms, and examining the archetypes women are usually allowed to be.

I think it's a must-have citation in a paper about WC misogyny.

...and, I think it's insightful to look at the WCRP Forum thread about the video. Note how the respondents immediately come into the thread to complain about how the video is too long so they didn't watch it, dismissing Sunnyfall as not being entertaining enough to hold their attention, even whining that she starts with statistics to prove her point, which I'm convinced she did exactly because they would have cried that she "had no evidence" if she didn't.

I am not a scholar, so I don't know how to document or prove that the books have an impact on the audience outside of anecdotes. But I think if you do write a section about fandom, it would be worth mentioning the in-universe and metatextual apologia for Ashfur and its reflection in the real world discourse, the authorial killing of Ferncloud because of fan complains, and the utter defensiveness against the discussion of misogyny you see outside of Tumblr.

You may also want to check out Cheek by Jowl, a collection of 8 essays about sexism in xenofiction by Ursula K. Le Guin. There's a very unique manifestation of authorial bias in animal fiction, having a lot to do with how the author views "the natural world," and it's worth understanding even though Warrior Cats are so heavily anthropomorphized.

So... Warrior Cats Misogyny

I think discussing individual instances can be helpful, but I'd implore you to keep in mind what's REALLY bad about WC's misogyny is framing and the bigger picture.

Bumble's death is shocking and insulting, but it's not just that she died. It's that the POV Gray Wing sees her as a fat, useless bitch who took his mate so she deserves to be dragged back to a domestic abuser, and he's right because the writers love him so much. It's that Bumble's torture and killing only factors into how it's going to hurt a man's reputation.

It's how Clear Sky hitting, emotionally manipulating, or killing the following women,

Bright Stream (pressured into leaving her home and family)

Storm (controlled her movements and yelled at her in public)

Misty (killed for land, children stolen)

Bumble (beaten unconscious, blamed nonsensically on a fox)

Alder (child abuse, hit when she refused to attack her brother)

Falling Feather (scratched on the face, subjected to public abuse and humiliation)

Tall Shadow (thrown into murderous crowd, attacked on-sight in heaven)

Rainswept Flower ("blacked out" in anger and murdered in cold blood)

Moth Flight (scratched on the face for saying denying medical treatment is mean, taken hostage in retaliation against mother for the death of his own child, which he caused)

Willow Tail (eyes gouged out for "stirring up trouble")

Is seen as totally understandable, forgivable, or not even questioned at all, when killing Gray Wing in an act of rage would have been "one step too far" with the ridiculous Star Line.

"Kill me and live with the memory, and then let the stars know it would only matter if a single one of your murder victims was a man."

It's the way that fathers who physically abuse their kids out of their ego (Clear Sky, Sandgorse, Crowfeather) aren't treated anywhere near the same level of narrative disgust and revulsion the series has for "bad moms", even if they're displaying symptoms of a post-partum mood disorder (depression, anxiety, and rage), an umbrella of mental illnesses 20% of all new mothers experience but are heavily stigmatized with (Sparkpelt, Palebird, Lizardstripe).

It's Crookedstar's Promise giving him two evil maternal figures in a single book, while bending over backwards to make every man in a position of power still look likeable in spite of the fact they're enabling Rainflower's abuse. Leader Hailstar is soso sorry that he has to change Stormkit's name for some reason, in spite of leaders being unaccountable dictators the other 99% of the time, and Deputy Shellheart functionally does nothing to stop his own son from being abused or even do much parenting before or after the fact.

It's the way men's parental struggles are seen sympathetically, and they don't have to "pay for it" like their female counterparts (Crookedstar's PPD vs Sparkpelt's PPD, how Daisy and Cinders are held responsible for Smoky and Whisper being deadbeats, Yellowfang's endless guilt for killing her son vs Onestar's purpose in life to kill his own), even to the point where a father doesn't have to have raised their kids at all to have a magical innate emotional connection to them (Tree's father Root, Tom the Wifebeater, Tigerstar and Hawkfrost).

It's less speaking lines and agency for female characters, being reduced to accessories in the lives of their mates and babies, women getting less diversity in their personalities, with even major ex-POV characters eventually becoming "sweet mom" tropes.

You could zoom in on any one of these examples and have an amoeba try to argue with you that "Oh THIS makes sense because X" or "Ah well my headcanon perfectly explains this thing" or "MY mother/girlfriend was abusive/toxic/neglectful and I've decided that you are personally attacking ME by having issues with how a character was written or utilized," but the beleaguered point,

That I keep trying to hammer in, over and over, across books worth of posts,

Is that these are trends. More than just a couple one-off examples. It's the fabric that has been woven over years, showing a lack of interest in, or even active prejudice of, women on behalf of the writers.

LONG STANDING trends, which have only gotten worse as the series progressed. From Yellowfang being harshly punished with a born evil son who ruins her life in TPB and the mistreatment of Squirrelpaw that begins in TNP, all the way up to the 7 Fridgenings of DOTC and Sparkpelt's PPD being a major character motivator for her son Nightheart.

So, I would stress that in your paper, and structure it less as "the Sparkpelt slide" and "the Yellowfang slide," and more as "The paternal vs maternal abuse" slide, and "the violence against women" slide. They're really big issues, there's tons of examples for each individual thing.

Anyway to leave off on a funny, look at this scene in Darkest Hour that I find unreasonably hilarious,

"Everyone who matters to me; my truest friend, my sensible and loyal warrior, the wisest deputy I've ever known, and 2 women." -Firestar, glorious idiot

He can't even think of a single trait for either of them what the hell does "formidable pair" mean lmaooo, when I finished a reread about a year ago this line killed me on impact.

[archie-sunshine]

Mb if youve already answered this before, but what are your thoughts on Ratchma? (Not just the sexy bits but also just the. Mess that is their relationship lol)

ooohhh girl....

Ok so this sat in my askbox for a bit, not because I don't have ideas, but because I have... far too many. I FINALLY got my shit together though. Ok first of all I'd like to say this post is a little bit pharma heavy, i feel like I would write my ratchet prettyyyyy close to canon?? I think i take a few big steps away from canonicity with my pharma

SECOND. here's what I think ratchma's vibe was as simply as possible

I think it began pretty normal all things considered!! I think he was a little bit clingy, a bit possessive, but like... it becomes odd when he's feeling like this about someone he's not even dating.

This SHOULD have been mitigated when they started dating. it was not. because Pharma is decent at hiding his weird side, and Ratchet was too busy to notice really, because he had a job and he cared a lot about it.

TW: UNDER THE CUT CONTAINS MENTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE, CODEPENDENCY, TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS, INSANITY/MENTAL BREAKS, BAD MENTAL HEALTH, AND TRAUMA THOUGH THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE NOT INCREDIBLY IN DEPTH PLEASE BE SAFE!

During this time I do think pharma's BIG issue was that heeeee can imagine his way through anything. I think he was more in love with the idea of ratchet than he was with how ratchet actually was. I feel like pharma based a lot of his desire for ratchet less on him as a person, and more on his skill as a medic, and the rank he perceived him to have. It wasn't really out of manipulation or power grabbing so much as it was like... an obsession with an idealized version of Ratchet that doesn't really exist.

I feel like obviously that would kind of lead to some mild gaslighting on pharma's part. where if ratchet did something that didn't fit with his worldview, he would act like it didn't happen, talk about it like ratchet did what he wanted. Again, I think he got away with this because Ratchet was genuinely just too fucking busy to deal with it.

I think as well, his downfall was also his possessiveness, I don't think it's too much of a leap to say pharma would have been at best cold to those he saw as a threat to their relationship, and at worst, outwardly combative. I think he'd take a swing either socially or figuratively at whoever was 'in his way' if he thought he could get away with it though.

I think on ratchet's part, it's really difficult to be in a relationship with someone who puts you on a pedestal like that. To know everything you say has a 50/50 chance of going in one ear and out the other if they don't think it 'makes sense' for you to think that

Again, I don't think ratchet was really helpless, but judging by the way he ended his relationship with pharma by canonically GHOSTING HIM, I like making sense of that for ratchet by saying I think he had a few pretty good reasons not to end things properly, namely that pharma probably wouldn't believe him.

SIDE NOTE- PHARMA'S SANITY

Okay so I've seen some discourse about people who think pharma was always totally crazy, so i'd like to start by saying I don't think pharma was as cutthroat and murderous as he was at the end of the delphi arc, I think he's always been a liiiiittle bit off. I think pharma is a tragic character doomed by the narrative, I do think he had a hand in that narrative.

I've put together a helpful little chart here to illustrate!!

I fully believe that pharma was pushed to the brink by the situation with the djd, I think he would never be the person he is now without that situation. I feel like it's kind of stupid and naive to say that pharma was always gonna end up like that bc he was a little toxic and weird and bad for ratchet, I think having to betray your oath and butcher your patients for an insane t-cog addict is enough to really drive someone insane.

I feel like pharma dives off the deep end with wild abandon when he realizes Ratchet has met him again at his absolute worst, bringing around someone he seems to really adore(drift), now knowing that ratchet will never trust him again and that he sees him as a murderer and monster and there's know way he can delude himself out of that. I think he sort of goes 'MAY AS WELL!!! NOTHING MATTERS!! AHAHAHA'

NOW AS FOR. *AHEM* EVERYTHING ELSE.

I think pharma brings all of that possessiveness and insanity directly to bed with him. I think he would do anything for ratchet, i think he wants him so bad it makes him think terrible thoughts. I think he'd dissect that man if he got the chance, I think he's the type of guy to be like 'i gotta crawl into his ribcage or I'm not close enough to him' you know??

basically I think pharma is a simp and wants to rip Ratchet apart with his teeth. I think he would say 'oh yeah ratchet whatever you want to do is fine!' and he would mean 'i would do anything to feel your warmth against me for even one fucking second, youre mine, you are mine forever i will die without you'

on a more lighthearted note, Pharma is the type of guy to be like 'PAH! I WOULD NEVER STOOP SO LOW AS TO HAVE A MEDICAL KINK!!' while having the worlds most massive medical kink. I think if he got to do Ratchet's physical he would cum so hard he died. I think pharma has a thing for control, but he can spin literally any situation in his head so that he's in control, and so no matter what position he's in with Ratchet, he's pretty happy.

With anyone else though, he tops or power bottoms, no question, no room for switching.

OUGHHH GOD THIS WAS WAY WAY LONGER THAN I EXPECTED IT TO BE!!!!! AND GOT SO FUCKIN HEAVY I GUESS!! ANYWAYS!! THANKS FOR TUNING IN!!

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Light Yagami from Death Note vs Edelgard von Hresvelg from Fire Emblem: Three Houses

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. please be normal in the notes, i will not hesitate to block if you harass people)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Light Yagami:

LOVE: - "He does some messed up things but have you considered: fucked up protagonists rock :)" HATE: - "this man makes me sick. ive genuinely had manic episodes over hating him. i have trauma from his existence in general. not even because of the murder. because hes a sexist cheater :(" - "My cousin and I frequently debate this. I think despite his 'intentions' he's ultimately a despicable character who cares for nobody but himself. She disagrees and says that he is just trying to do the right thing and making a difference in the world (she still thinks his actions are wrong, but she doesn't think he himself is despicable)" BOTH: - "I mean cmon man"

Edelgard Von Hresvelg:

LOVE: "People either claim she's the hero or the irredeemable villain with no in between. She's also my lovely wife who has never done anything wrong in her life." "I never even finished her route and remember nothing of what happens in that game but I DO remember the absolute warzone the fandom turned into because of her. She staged a coup and overthrew the head of the government/church and I think that's pretty cool of her. "But she committed war crimes!" God forbid women do anything." "I lied in the previous question. I don't hate her or love her in fact I have never even played this game. But I keep finding people making up Discourse™ featuring wild accusations of bigotry towards both Edelgard fans and Edelgard haters so I feel that she belongs here. (Also my friend hates her. but HER friend loves Edelgard. So even in my small social circle there is a clear polarization.)" "ok I don't have any solid propaganda because my opinion of her is more positive-neutral, but. she fits the spirit of this poll. trust me." "[three houses spoilers] Yes she started a war but it was the only apparent way to break the chokehold the church had over everyone in Fodlan. Also she’s the only lord you can gay marry so I’m hopelessly biased" "every time i go into the tag its either "edelgard is perfect no notes!!" or "edelgard is literally a fascist!!!". ive never seen someone with a neutral opinion of her. i yearn for battle." "I know very little about her to be quite honest! But good god. As a fire emblem fan for the GBA and engage. I have NEVER seen such a decisive character like Edelgard. Jesus Christ. I still find stuff in those tags. What the hell!!!" "I don’t even go to Fire Emblem but even I know that Edelgard has never done anything wrong, ever, in her entire life, and that if she did any war crimes they were a SUPER effective use of girl power. source: I am a lesbian. (realtalk I genuinely love a noble-minded extremist revolutionary and think Edelgard is a great character, so it’s kind of a shame that opinion on her seems to simply split down the line of “whether the person wants to kiss Edelgard or Dimitri more.”)"

HATE: "So on the one hand, she's fully willing to kill and burn and murder her way to a "better future" at the expense of the present, but on the other hand she's pretty cool and #girlboss. She's also a canon gay romance option, but idk if that makes her more or less problematic." "I just. I understand why people like her. I really do. And I don't have anything new to say for why I dislike her. Edelgard fans and stans have heard everything. She has great points and motivation, but her methods are wrong. She hitches her ideals to the first good opportunity and never reconsiders her allegiance when things go off the rails. She hates the church for "lying to people" and proceeds to lie to her own populace herself in her own route. She gives Claude an opportunity to live because she knows he believes in her goals. But Dimitri and his Kingdom are too beholden to the church to ever be offered such mercy. She herself acknowledges that the change she wants to see is more quickly enacted through war than subtle and slow societal change. She recognizes the human toll of her actions, but she justifies it through flowery language and an insistence that the change needs to happen now or it never will. I honestly find her so interesting, and I agree with a lot of her thoughts about the need for societal change in the world of FE:3H. But people latched onto her and propped her up as someone who can do no wrong. And that just never sat right with me. I just think she’s a hypocrite who got put in front of a shiny means to her end and was immediately blind to every other opportunity around her." BOTH: - "I dont even play fire emblem but I cant escape people not shutting up about how much they love or hate her" - "You said there were no hate answers for her...and I don't really hate her so it wouldn't be right but I wanted to balance things out some. She's the perfect storm of a character who sounds right and progressive and has a route all to herself that doesn't contradict that...but once you play other routes, it becomes clear she's kind of. full of misinformation. And attacking people who don't deserve it. Also a LOT of the divisiveness I'm willing to blame on the writers rather than her, for having her both be Evil Tyrant we NEED to take down and Sad Uwu Baby who just wants to eat cake and laze around and loves You the Player SO MUCH."

[iohourtime]

Ryosuke Yamada: SIDE B - Change

anan 2347

(There is some paraphrasing of the original article. Please let me know if there are any errors.)

Note: This is part 2 of a 2 part interview. You can read “Side A - Expression” here.

Yamada Ryosuke has been involved in various forms of expression, but there is one thing that he has cherished above all. That's the job of an actor. When he participated in his first drama “Tantei Gakuen Q” at the age of 13, he discovered the enjoyment and had been passionate [about acting] since then.

“I simply like this genre of work and this feeling of love has never changed since my first drama. With respect to acting, I have to become someone I haven’t seen or know before, and to do that, I have to think hard about who this person is and why he feels this way. However, the time [thinking about these things] is fun. The feeling is like when I just made a new friend and it is really nice to spend time with that person. I’d wonder about the kind of person he is, and the more I find out, the more interested I am. I think [the process of discovering a new character] is close to that. If this character is a historical figure, I can do research into the history and background of the person; if this character is fictional, I can make it up using my imagination.”

What comes to mind is a character in the movie "Moeyo Ken" released two years ago - Okita Souji, a genius swordsman of the Shinsengumi who is said to have died at the young age of 27. While there is a strong impression of him as someone with a tragic fate, but as played by Yamada san, who smiled innocently as he committed brutal murder without hesitation, his innocence was more intense than his fragility and was realistically portrayed.

“That movie was special. I think a big factor was that I was staying in Kyoto during the filming, so I was able to immerse myself in the real thing the whole time. When I went back to Tokyo, I was only doing group activities or recording variety shows, so there was little time to return to reality, and I felt that my sensibilities were gradually sharpened. I got so caught up in the role that it became normal for me not to drink or eat anything during that time, and I got sick... It was something I have never experienced on set before.”

The reason why he was so absorbed in his acting work was because he had tasted moments that shook him just by thinking about them.

“Just like with today’s shoot and when I was on set, there were moments when the actors, the camera operators, the lighting team, the audio team… and everyone involved were completely engaged as they worked together. It was the best feeling when I encountered these [moments] and I feel like I'm desperately trying to relive these moments again."

Because he valued his acting career, I wanted to ask him about his position as an idol. Perhaps because of this title, there are times when his acting is viewed with prejudice.

“I think it's more because I'm a Johnny's rather than being an idol, but I accept that as my destiny. There are hindrances with being a Johnny's, but on the other hand, there are things I can do because I'm a Johnny's and I think that's a huge benefit. If I don't want others to complain about me, I can only silence the discourse with my abilities. In fact, some of my senpais have done exactly that. On the contrary, it is only due to my own lack of ability that I can not do it. The idea is rather simple."

In the midst of such a conversation, he casually said, "Being an idol may be your vocation."

“Since I don’t know much about the world outside of [the entertainment industry], I won't be able to use [my skills] out there (laughs). However, since I've been an idol for a long time, I'm good at presenting what is needed [of me] in an instant. Although I also have a clear idea of what to do. However, what is asked of me is not always the same, so it is important to keep track of [the requests] and that is quite difficult. If I don't study how to present myself properly, I might not be able to do it. I've been conscious of that since I was small, so I'm good at it."

For example, during a live performance, your image is projected on the large screen at the venue.

“Basically, there are about 15 to 20 cameras installed at a live venue and the “switcher” decides when to cut one camera feed and switch to another. The other day, the switcher praised me, saying, "It's amazing that no matter what situation, no matter where the camera is faced, Yamada kun can find and look at it 100% of the time." I haven't been very conscious of this up till then, but if he said so, it must be true. Nowadays, cameras have a light that turns on when it is live, so the moment it lights up, I can find it in about a second no matter how large the venue. I want everyone at the venue to enjoy the show equally, whether they are sitting in the front row in the arena section or at the stands at the back of the dome. When [the camera] happens [to face me], I can interact through it so it can be seen by a lot of people, and I think that will be fair to everyone who has come [to the concert]. So when I think about that (including the technique), I feel that [being an idol] is my vocation."

However, he has been active since his early teens and there were times when he resisted being an idol.

“But it's work. It's amazing to know that there are people who are happy because of our hard work, right? I've thought about quitting several times in the past, but I still haven't quit, so I guess that's what I want to do after all."

He is the type who obsessively pursues things that he likes from the start. Gaming is something that exemplifies this. Among the games he’s enthusiastic about is "Apex Legends" and he reached the highest rank of Predator in February this year. Only the top 750 players in the world can attain the Predator rank. [T/N: Ignoring the 14+ hours of live streaming when he got the predator rank, he also just streamed for 9+ hours in the morning I wrote this part. Obsessive sounds apt.😅]

"Simply speaking, I find gaming fun. Especially when I’m playing with the pros, my motivation shoots up and I feel like I need to get better and I want to get better. After all, I want to do well. I want to be good at acting, I want to be good at dancing, and I want to be good at singing. Once I'm hooked, I want to taste and see the same thing all the time, so I keep doing the same things and that's not a problem. In my mind, rather than hard work, I feel like this is what happens when I pursue what I want to do.”

He started a gaming channel on YouTube called “Leo’s Playground” (Leoの游び場) two years ago, which is now a popular channel with about 860,000 subscribers. [T/N: I just checked and it’s now at 924,000 subscribers.]

“Regarding this, I am just really enjoying myself. I’m not conscious of being watched, it’s like I’m revealing my private life (laughs); it is really just a hobby. There are people who enjoy watching it, new fans are also increasing, and that’s a plus for both myself and the group, so I'm really grateful for this era. For me, I’m glad I can show my kouhai’s that there are other paths like this."

Yamada san said that since last year, there has been a big change in his approach to work. He used to think more about the group than anyone else and take the lead, but he said he's become more focused on himself.

“There was a time last year when I felt a little out of sorts. I cannot say more about that but after going through that, I thought I should take better care of myself.”

And at this time, he is turning 30.

“You may look at me like this (laughs), but isn't 30 years old a proper adult? It's the age when I have to look at myself and think about how to live. Up to now, I have been thinking about how to give back to the group through my solo activities. As a result, I have chosen not to do some jobs or things. But from this point on, I don't think I’ll make it too complicated and simply go “I’ll do it because I want to do it” or “I won’t do it because I don’t want to do it”. I think I should prioritize myself more. Of course I'll continue to do activities for the group and the fans, but it has always been a 70/30 split, where 30 were things I did for myself, so I'll try to reverse the ratio. I don't know if this choice will turn out to be good or bad, but I'm going to give it a try anyway." [T/N: About damn time.]

[bringmemyrocks]

“this blog” has fucking exposed themself as a fake Jew claiming to be Jewish for diversity points! like holy shit, if you don’t know the fucking basics behind “am yisrael chai” there’s no way you’re Jewish. like at all. you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to lie about your ethnicity and religion to support hate crimes against Jews.

First, this is a distraction from the genocide that is ongoing in Gaza.

Any dumb jumblr discourse rn is a smoke screen to hide mass-murder and should be treated as such and ignored.

However, I thought anon raised some points some followers may not have heard before, so I summarized some info below. The only non-Jewish source I site is Amnesty International.

Am Yisrael Chai absolutely has been turned into a Zionist slogan.

Even a liberal Zionist would admit this to you readily.

That does not mean it has never been used in any other context. It predates the Nakba by a few years (not something centuries old), but it became popularized in the 20th century as a nationalist slogan, and today it remains a nationalist slogan. The earliest recording of it comes from 1945, in which the singer shouted it right after singing Hatikvah, the zionist anthem. The meaning of words and phrases can change over time, but "Am Yisrael Chai" has only ever been a nationalist rallying cry at any time in which it was actually popular. (And Hatikvah has always been a Zionist song.)

There's more I can say about mealy-mouthed use of the phrase "The Jewish People" as opposed to "Jews" or just "Jewish people" to not-quite-but-basically equate Judaism with Israeli national identity, but that's another post.

The phrase "Am Yisrael" refers to the world's Jews the same way "the Ummah" refers to world Muslims and "The Body of Christ" refers to world Christians. However, just because there is a non-nationalistic interpretation of "Am Yisrael" does not mean that "Am Yisrael Chai" is anything but a Zionist slogan to any meaningful degree right now.

On a similar note, there are also plenty of Zionists who will try and convince you "Am Yisrael" means that Jews have always had a nationalistic self-concept, always wanted to start up an apartheid ethnostate, etc. etc. it's all lies. (The best source for this is the intro and first few chapters of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, but if anyone has other comprehensive sources that aren't behind a paywall lmk.)

If you get all your information from Jumblr, I am not surprised that they had convinced you otherwise.

Check out https://decolonizepalestine.com/ while you're at it.

p.s. "this blog" shows you've read my about page several times. Thanks. I'm a gay guy who did years of orthodox conversion before going conservative. The years of homophobia taught me not to care what assholes think about my religion or my sexuality.

You're correct on one thing, though, Judaism is not my ethnicity because it's not anyone's ethnicity; it's a religion which has many Jewish cultures and ethnicities both historically and now. And even if we were an ethnic group like the Rromani, it doesn't give us a right to set up an apartheid ethnostate. Look up Elmer Berger--it's not just orthodox Jews who argue against Zionism from a religious point of view :)

(Judaism not being an ethnicity does not mean antisemitism does not exist or that it should not be fought against.)

Comments are on and I will respond to good-faith replies. As usual, feel free to plagiarize in whole or in part if you want to share for whatever reason--just don't include my username.

rbs are off for now bc I don't want the libs arguing "Judaism is an ethnicity because I want to feel oppressed" but if you really wanna rb it I can turn them back on for a short time. Please consider copying and pasting my part and making that into its own post tho.

[ooops-i-arted]

If people aren't going to bother understanding what attachments actually are in Jedi culture or try understanding the Asian religions they are inspired by and instead dismiss it? Then they need to just refrain from writing Jedi at all instead of spreading more misinformation. Like how are fans going to even properly analyze and critique the Jedi Order if they don't even know WHAT they're actually critiquing and base their opinions off this fandom playing a long game of telephone? I'm getting really tired of seeing the same discourse of how Jedi discourages emotions like love or sever cultural ties or prevent cultural expression when that's not supported in the original six movies. Also, imagine being that dense to think Grogu's or Reva's trauma was caused by the Jedi order instead of the Empire that genocided their culture or the traffickers that sold Force sensitive people. Clown behavior.

A+ rant, I definitely sympathize. People really do overemphasize the no emotion things when like, it's VERY explicit it's about regulating your emotions. Right in ANH, Luke is missing his Death Star shots until he calms himself down and focuses. My personal favorite is Obi-Wan vs. Maul. Obi-Wan is consumed by grief and anger when Qui-Gon is killed, and almost gets himself killed - until he controls his emotions and is able to kill* Maul. We see him attending a funeral later where he (and other Jedi) are shown mourning Qui-Gon, so it's not like he can't have those feelings. He just isn't allowed to be ruled by those feelings, which, when you have superpowers it's a good thing you're not blindly ruled by emotion. Anakin goes apeshit because he's so ruled by his fear of losing Padme and look how many people die.

*Side note I feel like Maul living is stupid (he was cut in half!) and invalidates this incredibly important moment in Obi-Wan's character development and I will never acknowledge that Maul lived past TPM.

Lol when watching Kenobi, where Anakin is shown murdering children on-screen so explicitly they had to put a content warning (and personally as a teacher I even found it a little triggering/anxiety-inducing) my first thought was still "and Those Certain Fans will still blame the Jedi for this/defend Anakin." Sigh.

I usually just scroll past those discourse posts because well, they're just... irrelevant to me. Sure, I can see why people wanna critique them, because realistically the Jedi could have a lot of issues. But this isn't our world, this is a galaxy far, far away, and George Lucas approached it as mythology/fantasy more than anything. The good guys are good because they're good and are nice and help people. Narratively, that's really all there is to the Jedi. Some people like to go deeper than that, or flip the narrative. Me, it's enough. To each their own.

Plus Star Wars has a very unique approach to children being portrayed as being just as capable as adults. Does it work in the real world? No of course not! It's there because it's what makes Star Wars truly for all ages and enjoyable to all. 11-year-old me wrote fanfiction about my Very Mature 14-year-old Jedi OC being a Super Amazing Awesome Smart Jedi Commander in the Clone Wars because I was 11, 30+-year-old me obviously knows I was an idiot at that age and a 14-year-old kid has no business being in a war but 11-year-old me just enjoyed living vicariously through a story/media that didn't treat me like a dumb kid just for being young. I think adult fans kinda forget that aspect and get hung up in "omg the Jedi treat kids awful" when it's a story that supposed to appeal to kids, that's why you get young heroes and heroines. I loved it as a kid. I saw you got a laser sword and never had to get married, sign me the fuck up, and I've been a diehard Jedi fan ever since.

If someone doesn't like the Jedi, cool, us Jedi fans don't mind that... but please stop ganging up on us and telling us we're terrible. Just let us enjoy the Jedi in peace and we'll let you write your discourse posts in peace. Simple.

[figkeele]

8, 13, and 24 for spiderverse/your current main fandom. I hope it takes your thoughts away from the shitty day. Also, *hugs* ♥️.

Aww, thanks! Silly things do help!

Note for any poor soul reading this, this will be not just spoilery for Across the Spider-Verse, but absolutely negative! :D It's a choose violence ask after all.

Also, considering the movie is out for like 7 days, thankfully I could detach from the fandom before I GOT VERY UPSET. But I needed to unfollow people already for my blood pressure lol. It is a silly thing! I'm very well aware of it.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

People think the writers already knew the twist ending of the second movie when they wrote the first one. That the 42 motif that we see everywhere in the movie is a NOD TO Earth-42! When it's clearly not, omg, why would it be?

In the comics (and other places) Miles is bitten by Spider no. 42, and the latest comic run had 42 issues (a nod to this big number), Miles won the lottery with the number 42. It's a thing. Oh my god! I can't take this anymore, please just kill me.

Sure, they might have had some ideas of doing the fate vs. free will thing, so they put in the spider from a different universe - or, they just built upon the blocks that were already there. But this 42 thing... this was always an easter egg, a nod to the comics.

13. worst blorboficiation

Miles G. Morales. Yeah, he's not grief and guilt-driven like all the Peters usually, but that doesn't mean he's a cinnamon roll! I know, I shouldn't base my Miles knowledge on comics, but... but... When he just fucking straight up smashes the cure for his clones??? He can be impulsive and fucking angry, people.

So the thing is, I see a lot of debate around how cheap a move it was that they made an EVIL MILES (when come on, he's my favorite comic villain stfu), because clearly, Miles is ALL GOOD.

And while yeah, he's not course correcting (due to grief and shame) when he gets his powers like Pete, he's not a cookie-cutter good person. He is a force to be reckoned with, for sure, but for good or evil, it depends on his world. In the original 616 continuity, he's a straight-up villain, Wilson Fisk's best friend. So like????

So no, he isn't destined to be the Prowler, nor he is the purest fluffball people make him out to be. And I really hope, in the next movie we see, that even if Miles-42 would have gotten his power, he would not have been a good person, it's not the powers that make him. No great power, great responsibility here, sir.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"My favorite Spidey wouldn't side with Miguel, they would try to save Miles's dad" vs. "To be a superhero it means you always choose the greater good."

Everyone has such a fucking black-and-white opinion about this and tbh, yeah, I think a lot of Peters (especially 1048 Peter) would not side with Miguel. So this was a specific thing I didn't like about the movie, but if you dare to criticize it, then you are just dumb and you don't get what it means to make sacrifices.

But the point is: while the theme of this fucked up trolley problem would be interesting, it doesn't mean coldheartedly straight-up murdering people lol. I still don't think the movie handled this topic very well, but the discourse around is... just making me nope the fuck out of fandom.

[starwaia]

Re: shipping and harassment (BYF, of sorts)

Update: I'm more firm about this now. I literally can't go and look through every single post I interact with's notes to watch for if I've accidentally reblogged from an anti. If you don't want me interacting with you, block me. I'll block anyone who I see has pr0sh1ppers DNI in their profile but I can't go through every single carrd, pinned post etc. and really, no one should have to do that to avoid being harassed. If you support harassing real people on behalf of fake ones, stay away from me. I don't want anything to do with you. Shoo. Leave.

If you don’t know by now (and if you follow me you should, I've reblogged enough related things for it to be obvious), I’m a p/ro sh/pper. I recently reblogged something that is a good explanation of how that works and why that doesn’t automatically make me a terrible shit person- though I guess some people may disagree.

But it basically means, for those who don't know, that I am against harassing, doxxing, suicide baiting, or otherwise harming people due to the type of fiction they enjoy. There are some things that squick me out, but I would rather curate my own experience than put people through hell for liking dark fic or the "wrong" ship. I've seen enough to know that it's never worth it. And if you are worried that "bad" fiction will make people do bad things, refer to the works of Stephen King and consider how many people read those versus how many murderers there are. If someone is a creep they would be a creep regardless of whether fanfiction exists. Fiction can have effects on reality, but not in the absolute way that some people think. I don't want to argue about this but if you want to do your own research, I reblog discourse about this topic every so often, mainly so I can find it again later. So if you're bothered by that I understand if you don't want to follow.

I literally can’t go through every person I follow and look through their DNIs and unfollow if they don’t like that. So I’m making this post in the hopes that anyone who wants to unfollow me because of this will see it and block me or do whatever feels best for them to avoid interacting with me. I don’t want to debate this, I don’t want to be harassed. I want to respect the boundaries of people on here who for whatever reason disagree with me and don’t want to interact with me because of it, but I can't do all the work myself. If I see someone has a DNI related to this, I’ll unfollow and probably block them for the sake of respecting boundaries, but I can’t just go through every follower/followed user on my list, though I might try to do it a bit at the time if I can.

I really don’t want to fight over this, just please do what you need to do to feel safe that does not involve harassing me or anyone else. Thank you.

[ask-the-milgram-prisoners]

[META] Blog intro (pls read)

Hi, this ask blog was created by @doctorbunny (me!) and is going to be all in good fun.

What is MILGRAM?

MILGRAM is a multimedia mystery project by Takuya Yamanaka and DECO*27. It is a series on YouTube of animated music videos about 10 strangers who have all commited murder (in some way) and been brought to the mysterious MILGRAM prison run by Jackalope and amnesiac guard Es. There is also audience participation as we get to vote once per day as to whether we think a prisoner can be forgiven or not (the English translation uses 'guilty/not guilty' but do not be confused all these characters are said to be guilty right from the start, we're voting on if we can forgive them) As I write this, we're approaching the last MV of season 1 so now is a great time to start if you haven't already! [link to the official YT channel]

Ground Rules

Mostly just basic stuff:

Don't send in asks that are bigoted/discriminatory/exclusionary in any way

Don't send in any NSFW/sexual asks

Don't try to start drama (about irl issues or fandom junk)

I struggle with tone myself, so I'll usually give benefit of the doubt here, but please try to not be rude

Don't bash any characters/ships (you don't know who someone else's favourites are, after all)

Don't even bother trying to send in harassment. It will be deleted without comment

Don't send in personal information/trauma. This is a public blog and i am just an internet guy, not a therapist.

I love theories but this is a character blog so do not send in theories/speculation about what will happen in the story

On a similar note, since this is an unoffical blog, I do not know where the canon story will go, so do not send in asks about the character's murders (EG 'Shidou, how do you feel about killing so many people?' or 'Haruka, who did you kill?')

This is going to be a light hearted blog, so whilst MILGRAM deals with heavy subjects like abuse and murder, I will not really be diving into that stuff so keep heavier asks to a minimum, even if they are based on canon things.

Don't send in asks that could be major triggers (so mentions of SA, EDs or SH, for example)

Shipping

In MILGRAM ship names are based on prisoner numbers: - So 0204 would refer to Yuno (Prisoner 002) being shipped romantically with Muu (Prisoner 004)

I enjoy shipping and do prefer some ships over others, however since starting this blog I realised that I don't really have interest in including that stuff here

If I do make ship content it will probably not be in ask comics

Feel free to send in ship-based asks anyway but I may not end up answering it depending on my opinion about the ship/specific ask (don't take this personally, for example I don't ship Mahiru and Shidou but there's no deep reason for that, I'm just not interested in it and if you enjoy it then I'm happy for you!)

Originally I was going to have a list here of ships I did/didn't ship but what i was into kinda changed over time so maintaining a list would be a pain, since I might not even end up drawing it here anyway

Already stated not to send me discourse. But I'm repeating that here because I just have no interest in that stuff.

Warnings/disclaimers

As mentioned above, MILGRAM deals with some heavy topics. I want this blog to be a fun place. If anything darker happens I will try to tag it but please feel free to ask me to tag something! (but if you can handle canon MILGRAM, you'll probably be ok here) (sorry this was so long but I wanted everything in one place)

edit 1: changed up the Shipping section a bit

[trashyeggroll]

Please explain appeal of Danolsen to me cuz I honestly don't get it! My blocks for shipping it currently - it feels like a make up for Kara/Jimmy being broken up so fast not an organic pairing. There's no filler to their relationship it's all just cute looks this season. Kelly in S5 feels like she could be replaced with extra of the week & nothing would change sadly. So why should I ship Danolsen 2.0 when I could just rewatch Sanvers stuff or another show?

Ok ok ok wait, parameters here. What are the terms of the discussion?

filler vs cute looks: usually I would use the word filler to describe vapid or irrelevant content (“empty calories”); in the context of your message, I think you mean substantive storylines vs the cutesy moments?

Danolsen vs Dansen: just so I don’t confuse myself, if I say Danolsen it’s Kara/James and Dansen is Alex/Kelly

Some overhead disclaimers from me:

1. While Dansen and ThunderGrace are often used as examples of white wlw rejecting wlwoc, we’re talking about an entire media landscape and the experience of being in wlw fandom spaces online, whether this hellsite or AO3 or whatever.

There are a lot more ships of varying degrees of development/duration involving women of color out there, across networks. All American has Coop/Patience. I hear Annalise Keating’s storyline is all unfolding around her wlw identity in How to Get Away with Murder. Proven Innocent made me cry with the romance between Madeline and Wren. Charmed has had like four or five romantic interests for Mel Vera. Freya and Keelin got fckn married in The Originals, and they’re still married in the sequel spinoff.

And if you spend enough time looking for wlw content around this site, you’ll see that white wlw are watching whole series and movies even the single gifset of wlw content… but it’s never these couples. “This fandom” and “that fandom”, whatever—but it’s almost never interracial couples or wlwoc. Why? Why do people spend the time writing whole apologisms for Gentleman Jack and the predatory behavior of Anne Lister, but they “just don’t see it” for healthy relationships? Why is it more appealing to watch fascist propaganda ruining the lore of witches, cheering on the love of someone who isn’t even aware that the person she loves is part of a massive campaign to force people to die by suicide en masse?

And we see when media rises and passes from blog to blog, too. Word of mouth is absolutely a thing, even here on the ol’ tumblr, so we see how a single kiss from a series circulates like wildfire and a whole gifset of ThunderGrace gets no notes—over and over and over and ov

2. Whenever this topic pops off in the Discourse, almost without fail, and a white wlw reacts to the above questions, it’s about “chemistry” or an adjacent concept. Again, this isn’t about one single ship—it’s about black women and nonblack poc being told their ships just have “no spark” over and over and over and ov

3. While there is logic to comparing ships in terms of quality, duration, and volume of content in order to assess who reasonably or “rightfully” gets more attention or dedication, that’s all just subjective and honestly sounds like bull to me. See #1.

4. Unless you’re a Trump voter, you’re most likely reading these posts and going, but I’m not racist, and I’m only one person. It’s easy to say. But we are all a product of a racist, xenophobic system, and at the end of the day, you can do what you want, watch what you want, but if you get defensive about these indirect callouts… It’s up to you to put words to why that is.

Ok, parameters set, now I’ll get to SG—

Making up for Danolsen: Honestly I highly doubt that that’s what the writers were trying to do—it’s an entirely different couple? Unless the implication is that they’re trying to treat an interracial couple better, which… is a good thing? I’m of the mind that SG added Azie because the cast would be almost entirely white once Mehcad left. Remember, Kelly Olsen was not introduced as a love interest for Alex, but the actresses thought their chemistry was too good, and they asked for it, which I thought… is exactly what we want from shows. I think the fact that she’s James’ sister is arbitrary, just a means to plug her into the story, and they’ve been winging it since then.

Dansen content in season five: I guess there are multiple elements to this, but for the “no filler” bit—the question is what kind of filler you want. They had lots of romantic moments early in the season, and then continued to be happy and in love. So is the content you want relationship drama or storylines that cut closer to the core of each episode? Because when I go back and look at Sanvers, there was a lot of pain and struggle in that relationship, which is sometimes how they go until people get their bearings, but ya’ll… It doesn’t have to be that way. There was Kelly’s PTSD moment and subsequent breakup with Alex, but they resolved that in one episode and… that’s a good thing, too. They talk about things, openly and truthfully, without shame or strife, and that’s what a good relationship should look like, whether it’s wlw or any other variation.

Like I get that the meat and potatoes of TV romance has always been friction. No story without conflict, right? But I worry that the insistence that Sanvers had so much more chemistry is largely based on the sharp rises and falls, which yeah produce lots of emotions and stirring words and speeches with clauses that you can print on a shirt, but that type of relationship will always burn out, or burn you out, if you don’t figure out how to prevent it from getting to that point.

So what I’m saying is, see #2. Nobody has to do anything or support anyone, but there’s no absolute truth to interpretation of a relationship. I’m sure I am preferential to Dansen over non-canon ships like SuperCorp because I’m old and married and I move through the world as a team with my badass wife, and that’s what I see for them. Kelly brought Alex her lunch and Alex practically squealed with delight even though they definitely woke up in the same bed a little while earlier.

And what’s confusing to me too is, you don’t have to stop shipping Sanvers? That relationship existed, the content is there, the storyline was ended with a padlock? (Folks: Please do not ever stay with someone hoping they will change their mind about having kids) But you can also look at how happy your fave is with her new girl and see it for them? Maybe kudos some fics, reblog a couple gifsets, not tweet about them lacking chemistry?

At the end of the day, a tension here is that the big picture makes fandom spaces feel hostile and dismissive towards fans of color, especially black women. How is someone supposed to feel when they finally have a complex, long lasting wlwoc relationship in front of them, and it’s constantly degraded for “chemistry” reasons while all the white ships, even ones with zero canon content, float to the top and get all the art and content that we are all here to enjoy? The whole issue is that fandom and culture are, and have always been, lenses into society and people’s worlds. It’s a question of empathy and openness and accountability, and it’s not just about one ship versus another.