#then that means /you/ think the game promotes incest

[achamocha]

forever baffled at people who willingly consume media that portrays problematic content in a positive light as an integral part of their plot and then get mad when people in the fandom include said problematic content in their fanworks. 'why is everyone shipping incest' YOU ARE A FAN OF THE INCEST GAME

[proudproship]

If antis really want "problematic fiction" to completely cease, then maybe stop doing it IRL first.

"we need to protect children and keep them away from dangers!" and then they proceed to tell children to off themselves.

"children should not be exposed to sexual content, and should know about consent!" Proceeds to make uninvited claims that a minor is a pedo or groomer (in a lot of cases, I'm curious if antis calling children these things is a kink... Pretty sure pushing kinks onto minors is illegal, antis!! Stop that!!!)

"it is not okay to romanticize fictional things that would be illegal IRL!" I cannot begin to tell you how many antis I've seen in the Hannibal fandom, your boyfriend fandom, hazbin hotel/helluva boss fandom, etc etc

"if you consume lolisho, it means you're a pedo!" yet again, antis in the wrong fandoms. I've seen antis in that weird loli catgirl game fandom (no idea what it's called) and miss kobayashi's dragon maid fandom. Also wait until they learn adult characters can be lolis too lol.

"care for victims!" continues to tell IRL CSA/CSEM victims to off themselves because they show symptoms...

"minors should not be in adult spaces!" then get off of my ao3

"we're not a cult, it's proshitters that are the cult!" Proship kinda automatically promotes freedom of thought and opinions, so no? And i was in an antiship discord server that LITERALLY BY DEFINITION WAS A CULT so I think I have the right to call y'all a cult... Plus if you want us to stop calling you a cult then maybe stop calling us one 💔💔

Bonus: "TCOAAL promotes incest!" it didn't happen in the game even (it was a dream, or so I've heard), plus it portrayed it negatively, was an optional route that was given warnings, and apparently is the most illegal thing in a horror game about murder??

im so fucking tired

[willowsz-plantsz]

Hey there! I’m Katta! This is my INTRO!!

Hii!! You can call me Katta or Rose/Rosie/Rosalie, whatever.

I am a MINOR! Please, don’t make any sexual comments to me or any people on my page, as it makes me uncomfortable and most likely the other person.

I am bigender, lesbian, and demisexual. I go by He/She pronouns! I look more feminine, but I act more masculine! (I prefer the ‘He’! Pronoun!)

I am a multishipper! This means I ship characters and people with multiple others, an example: I ship Huntlow (Hunter x Willow from The Owl House) and I ALSO ship Willuz (Willow x Luz from The Owl House)! I am NOT a proshipper. Proshippers are VERY different from multishippers. Some can be both! Proshippers are people who ship problematic ships! Such as, adult x child, sibling x sibling, abused x abuser, any incest in general, such and such. I do NOT promote that and do NOT ship it.

I am in plenty of fandoms, yes, but I am mainly an Owl House blog! I have plenty of fandoms, though. The Owl House, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, Anne with an ‘E’, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Hunger Games, Ramshackle, Ride The Cyclone, Waitress, Heathers, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, Steven Universe, Delicious in Dungeon, Smiling Friends, Bojack Horseman, Komi Can’t Communicate, BNA, Violet Evergarden, Young Sheldon, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Show and Book), Total Drama Island, Pokémon, Aggretsuko, Inside Job, and a buncha others I can’t really think about right now!

I am a WRITER! You can find me on AO3 as willowsz_plants , you can find me on tiktok with the same user name! I’m more active on tumblr, though.

I have two current WIP’s and many other ideas, but I’m focusing on two! Both being Hunter-centric, yet being a Willow fan lmao. New Beginnings is a Human AU, and so is my other WIP, ‘Discord’. I just so happen to love AU’s, thank you very much.

I use hashtags to categorize my account, for example! #katta rambles for my rambling, #katta reblogs, for reblogs, blah blah blah you get the gist!

I have autism, so if I don’t pick up on things sometimes, please don’t blame me! I also have OCD and PTSD.

Anyways, I use tone tags a lot! So, if I don’t pick up on things, PLEASE, use tone tags. Very much appreciated!

Okay, BYEEE!!!

[lyricfulloflight]

Ask game: 🍦 🙀 🎧

I hope you get some pain relief soon!

Favourite Ice Cream: We have a local place, the Frozen Paddle, that makes an ice cream with honey crackle in it and it is the most delicious thing ever! For more traditional flavours, I go for mint chocolate chip.

Pet Peeve: Oh, I have a few, as most of us do I would think. Thinking of fandom pet peeves, my big one right now is the moralization of shipping. This 'my ship is better and your ship is wrong and you are a bad person for shipping that pairing' type attitude.

Listen, I'm fandom old. I have read and shipped lots of fictional characters and some of those pairings have been very problematic on multiple levels, but they are intriguing and make for good fiction and interesting stories. It doesn't make you a bad person for being shipping fictional characters! They aren't real! If I read or write fic about abuse, incest, ships with age differences and power imbalances etc. that does not mean I am promoting those things in real life.

I know ship wars have always been a thing, but I feel more recently those 'wars' have been so distasteful to me because they are so judgemental and they paint others as 'bad' people for shipping certain fictional characters. I am very much not into that at all.

Favourite Type of Music: Oh, I actually came up with a name to describe my favourite type of music "Sad Indie Folk".

If it sounds semi depressing, introspective and uses mostly acoustic instruments, its probably my jam. This includes: Noah Kahan, The Avett Brothers, Simon and Garfunkle, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Paper Kites, Iron and Wine, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Jeff Buckley, Avi Kaplan, Crosby Stills and Nash, Cat Stevens, etc.

I actually have a pretty broad music taste and listen to lots of other styles of music as well, but Sad Indie Folk is my ultimate vibe.

[arlosworld91]

New Intro Post

Hello and welcome to my intro.

——Introduction——

My name is Arlo, but you can call me Lizzie or Kit if you so wish and I was born in 2005.

My pronouns predominantly are: He/They + Ze/Zem/Zir, She/Her.

I’m an agender person, but have multiple different gender experiences. I’m acespec and arospec, and also Pan, Abro and Omni (don’t ask how that works, I don’t know either)

I talk a lot about men, but also I have queer attraction to women.

My terms can be found in my pronoun page, and i hope you find that of interest.

My preferred terms are masculine and neutral terms (most fem terms make me icky but would like to experiment.)

——DNI List——

I do have a DNI, which goes as followed, please don’t interact if:

You don’t respect good-faith identities. Including: Xenogenders and Neurogenders, Neopronouns and Emojiself Pronouns users, M-Spec/Bi Lesbians/Vincians, Conforming Identities (including heterosexuals, cisgenders, allosexuals, etc), Plural Systems (including Endogenics), Alt/Non-Verbal Individuals.

Normal DNI of Homophobes, sexists, racists, etc.

Supportive of bad faith identities, and share, promote and identify as them, eg. zoophiles, MAPs, incest, etc.

Use the word ‘Woke’ out of its African American context. I don’t even condone the mocking of people who do and jokingly using it.

NSFW/NSFT blogs.

Pro any kind of abuse.

Anti recovery.

Anti men/women.

Mock, jock about and are racist towards people regardless of country. (Note that means countries that you don’t think can be discriminated against, e.g. UK, USA., etc.)

Speculate about celebrity identities. And also making them uncomfortable and breaking their boundaries. (Note that this includes YouTubers)

Pro Israel, and are a Zionist.

I do have a DNI for minors but it’s generally tread lightly, and for anyone younger than 15 please do not interact.

——Please Interact If——

Enjoy the MCYT series: Hermitcraft, Empires, Life Series.

Are a big fan of writing, regardless of what the writing is.

Are a big fan of reading!

Are a fan of any of these artists- Louis Tomlinson, Taylor Swift, Little Mix, Niall Horan, Adele, Avicii, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons, Lewis Capaldi.

Language Learner! (Not gonna state as it could change)

Playing the Sims, Minecraft, Football Manager.

Hunger Games fan and/or Stranger Things fan.

Learning about LGBT Terms.

Enjoy History and/or Etymology.

Dog and/or Cat lover.

——Boundaries——

Asks? Sure! Feel free!

DMs? Ask, unless we are mutuals!

Shipping with others? Hell no.

Flirting? Hell no.

Compliments? Sure!

——

That is the end of my intro list, I may have missed some things, but who cares, I hope to talk to you soon! I am kinda lenient and I can just block you.

[babyleostuff]

the anime issue is being brought up now because someone was trying to call out another idol for watching it (this case was also a little old). Now every idol who’s ever mentioned it is being dragged into the conversation. The original call-out might have just been a random shot by the type of people always out to cancel idols. This one just happened to gain traction now

Made in Abyss was extremely popular and well-acclaimed for its plot, characters, and world-building when it was released. I’m not surprised multiple idols have seen and mentioned it. The story is a gory horror fantasy, that does edgy things to be shocking and sensational. It’s a medium where you’re often ignoring distasteful or immature jokes, caricature, tropes, etc as embellishments to an otherwise interesting story. You might become desensitized and overlook things you would be more alarmed by if you thought of it in a real world context.

I will say that the manga is by far the worst offender, the anime is cleaned up a little, and the Korean adaptation might be sanitized even more. I understand people’s complaints because the disturbing themes still aren’t exactly hidden, but I don’t know if I expect a casual watcher to be watching with a critical mindset. Sometimes someone’s just watching a popular anime without thinking that deeply about it.

The major complaints were the youth of the main characters and gratuitous nudity, body fluids and functions, torture, gore, etc. Maybe it’s jarring and horrifying to make you feel uncomfortable on purpose. But it’s frequent, often unnecessary for the plot, and a lot of it’s presented in sexualized depictions even if it’s completely not sexual within the story itself. A lot of people also question the author’s…interest and love of children.

So we’re battling a few moral dilemmas when engaging with this story. Separation of the artist from the art. Does the media one consumes reflect their values? Expectation of idols to be morally superior. And then some of the outrage sounds like rhetoric used leading up to literary (and fanfiction) purges, and you get to the slippery slope of censorship and banned writing.

I’m trying to present a little of both sides. Yes I hope people are able to look at stories like this and be critical of the pedophilic framing. I don’t want to normalize or imply support for the author, inclusion of these story tropes, or anyone interested in them in that way by promoting such works. But also people will write disturbing stuff and it’s up to you to police your intake.

Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, The Office, Friends, Brooklyn 99, Disney princess movies, Ghibli, Hunter x Hunter, SpongeBob - many popular stories and franchises contain problematic elements under scrutiny. For many issues, people don’t assume reading or watching it means you engage or support it (think stories involving mafia or gang violence, domestic violence, war, cannibalism, murder, even incest). Topics like sexual orientation, gender, and sexualizing minors seem to be the ones that frequently spark the most heated responses and threats of censorship.

That’s my long spiel on this topic. I don’t want to dismiss the concerns, because I do hope people are critical of the media they consume and recommend. Sometimes, that’s being able to parse through the good and the bad of a story and be aware of it. There aren’t completely unproblematic and unbiased stories just like there aren’t perfect artists, writers, and idols.

I’m not sure this will be directly addressed by any idols. Others have liked controversial stories, animes, characters, and people before and I think they usually just let it pass quietly. I imagine if they engaged with it as just a harmless piece of entertainment- they’re not going to think much more of it. Maybe idols will know not to mention it in the future

oh my, you’re so well spoken 👁️👄👁️

thank you so much though, this truly makes more sense to me now

[best-type-moon-couple]

Welcome, one and all, to THE BEST TYPE-MOON COUPLE TOURNAMENT!

If you’re anything like me, then you either love Type-Moon’s work or you like it whenever you see a couple who love each other a lot. As you know, Type-Moon has a lot of couples spanning across all their works, so of course I thought to myself “who’s the BEST couple?”. And while there are many couples that are an amazing in their own rights, I wanted to know the most popular across the community. And thus, we reached this point.

So, starting now until Sunday, November 5th, 2023, I wanted you guys to send in contestants for who you believe to be the BEST Type-Moon couple, and I’ll put them into a tournament poll and see who wins from there.

If you’re looking for any rules and stuff for what qualifies, then please check the division below to see what is and isn’t allowed.

So, with that, submit your votes and check back on the 5th to see how everything plays out.

Alright, so let’s get started on what is and isn’t allowed for your submission:

The couple must be from a Type-Moon property. (This could be from Fate, Tsukihime, Garden of Sinners, Witch on the Holy Night, whatever, as long as it was published/associated with Type-Moon then it’s fair game)

Don’t include minors. (I don’t want to see any minors/children being submitted, even if they’re being shipped with other minors. They deserve better than to be dragged into what is essentially a huge ship war. For characters like F/SN Illya, we’ll probably have a poll later to see if stuff like that should be allowed)

Don’t include siblings or family members. (While step siblings are arguably qualified for this competition if the story actually allows it, I’m looking at you Shiki and Akiha, I’m barring full-on incest. If you submit two siblings and there’s no proof that this sort of thing is ok then they’ll be disqualified)

Make sure that the canon can support the pairing. (While couples are definitely supported in canon there could be pairings in the story that featured people who aren’t necessarily couples but could be seen as one much to the point where the story provides some proof that they could be a couple. As long as a reasonable argument can be made for a pairing with evidence from the original work then they can be submitted into the tournament. Unfortunately, this means that crack ships or ships with basically no evidence from the story can’t participate in this tournament)

Don’t be weird. (Seriously, I want to emphasize to not be gross. This is supposed to be fun and lighthearted, so I don’t want to see entries meant to raise conflicts or to disgust other people. I want this to be a place where people can talk about couples in a safe environment)

Promotions for couples during are allowed and encouraged. (Share the news to everyone, make propaganda if you want, it’s all in good fun anyways. Just keep it civil, friendly, and overall fun)

Rules can be added/changed if needed. (While I don’t necessarily want to do this if not necessary, I acknowledge that the rules provided now can’t encompass everything so they may be changed later if needed. Changes will be announced when it happens)

Now, as for what can qualify for a couple, we got a couple of requirements:

Must be an actual relationship in the story where both sides acknowledge and reciprocate each other’s feelings (of course, this has some leeway, but it most be consensual from both sides)

If a person has more than one option for a significant other, then I implore you to submit only one pair at a time (I’m not giving the visual novel protagonists their entire harem, I don’t think that’s fair)

If a relationship can work 100% guaranteed with more than 2 people and it’s acknowledged by the story, then I’ll allow it (polygamy is about consent, but the story has to acknowledge that the participants acknowledge it as polygamy first)

Try to keep it within Type-Moon. (dependent, while there’s definitely possibility that people, read: servants, had multiple wives/concubines/whatever during their lives, I won’t go after all of their spouses if they don’t even acknowledge them or they don’t even have sprites in anything. I’ll only go after them if they are acknowledged and have sprites, unless I can find a way to make it work)

Examples for above:

Not Allowed:

Shirou x Saber x Rin x Sakura (Too many people and ultimately detracts from the purposes of the routes)

Altera x Kriemhild (I know there’s stories of Kriemhild and Attila getting together and other scenarios like that, but since F/GO doesn’t acknowledge it I can’t either)

Gunnar x Brynhild (Brynhild never mentioned Gunnar or even considers him as a partner, thus it isn’t allowed)

Kiso Yoshinaka x Yamabuki Gozen x Tomoe Gozen x Fuyuhime (Look, they’re all probably wonderful together, but since Yamabuki and Fuyuhime don’t have any sprites attached to them, I simply can’t allow it because I can’t give it the justice it deserves)

Allowed:

Shirou x Saber, Shirou x Rin, Shirou x Sakura (If you want to submit more than 1 couple then go ahead, just keep them separate unless you have proof that a polyamorous could work)

Siegfried x Kriemhild, Sigurd x Brynhild (As long as there’s love and they both acknowledge their feelings then it counts)

Odysseus x Penelope (If I can find sprites to represent spriteless characters, then I can do my best to include them)

Gilgamesh x Enkidu (An example of “They’re arguably a couple”)

Akiha x Kohaku (An example of “if you can scour enough evidence from the story to make a decent argument, then it’s allowed”)

When it comes to submissions you can put it in anyway you want, but I would prefer if you included:

Full Names (If possible)

Series of Origin (Include for both)

As for servants, you should include:

True Names

Place/Myth of Origin (Optional, include for all applicable parties)

Region of Origin (Optional, include for all applicable parties)

Examples:

Shirou Emiya x Artoria Pendragon (Fate/Stay Night)

Shiki Tohno x Arcueid (Tsukihime)

Amakusa Shirou Tokisada x Semiramis (Fate/Apocrypha)

If you don’t know if your submission fits these rules, then submit it anyways. The worst thing that could happen is your submission not appearing (that or a vague mention for future reference on what not to do)

Hopefully I made myself clear. If you have more questions then simply message me. Let’s get those submissions in and get this tournament ready!

[proshippy-fox]

hi there! I'm not really knowledgeable on fandom culture and rules and i can't get a clear definition of what proshipping means for the life of me. sometimes i see an explanation that makes me think "oh ok that just sounds like how any rational person ought to engage with media/fandom" and then i see an explanation that makes me think it's kinda unhinged. so! i came across your blog and thought i might ask for what it means to you if you have the time and energy for it? my vague understanding of it is that it's like, yall don't reject anything with fandom/media, like, even the "problematic" stuff. does a proshipper mean you have to accept everything and engage with everything with an open mind, or do yall set your own boundaries on what you don't like and prefer not to engage with, without forcing that boundary on others? i took a brief spin over the most recent posts on your blog here and i've gathered that proshipping means yall don't want to like, mandate the media/fandom that everyone experiences bc one specific person doesn't like it/thinks it's immoral.

my stance on fandom and media is usually, there are things i don't like, and i set my own boundaries on what i wish to engage/not engage with. And like, i've definitely read some weird stuff, and I've decided that those just aren't meant for me. As long as something doesn't actively promote/cause harm to anyone in real life, I don't really care what people choose to do with their own media experiences. Which, that kinda sounds like some descriptions of proshipping that i've heard? But again, even just trying to google the definition never gives me a clear answer.

Anyways, answer this on your own time, I'm in no rush to get an answer I'm just curious. Thank you!

heya! being proship is generally "whatever fictional media or tropes that someone is into is not an indicator of their morality and character," at least to me.

I use the label because personally, and logically, it doesn't make sense to cherry pick tropes and say stuff like "violence is often glorified in fiction (especially video games) but it DOES NOT cause real life violence, while sexual violence or other things deemed illegal and immoral in real life being glorified (or even just depicted at all) in fiction DOES cause real life harm." the average person knows that immoral and/or illegal things are, well, immoral and/or illegal, and does not let depictions and enjoyment of such scenarios within a fictional setting affect their real life views.

and about boundaries I believe you would be correct in that most proshippers set their own boundaries and do not enforce it on others, not that proshippers have to accept and engage with any type of media. everyone has their own squicks and triggers, after all

I do agree that they are something you enforce on yourself, especially online. it is pretty rude to insist someone stop posting because it makes you personally. blocking and muting are the most common way to avoid content, which is also why tagging correctly is a big thing. (and especially recently, with the way tumblr tags work. "cw inc3st" will get past your filters if you only have "cw incest" filtered. I assume most of that problem comes from tiktok and maybe twitter, unfortunately)

the community is pretty big and, as with all sizable communities, things get confusing and mixed up.

anyway, I tend to talk a lot, but I hope this helped. thanks for sending an ask!

[victorianvivisection]

The Coffin of Andy and Leyley promotes incest NO IT FUCKING DOESNT IT LITERALLY DOES NOT PROMOTE INCEST WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??? What part of your brain is so messed up you genuinely GENUINELY think someone will play a god damn video game and think MAN I THINK I SHOULD FUCK MY SIBLING??? I SWEAR I WILL DEFEND THIS GAME UNTIL I DIE PEOPLE ARE NOT ENTERING INCESTUOUS RELATIONSHIP BECAUSE OF A VIDEO GAME

Liek yeah sure I completely understand being uncomfortable with incest, I understand being uncomfortable with a lot of topics but don’t you dare fucking say it’s PROMOTING it god have like an OUNCE OF MEDIA LITERACY

[sorryyourenglishteachersucked]

The thing about how modern fandom has organized into a war between "antis" and "proshippers" is that...there are so many things that are WAY bigger than fandom wank wrapped up in this, and it is terrifying how all of this gets reduced into ultimately meaningless wank about which fictional dolls should kiss.

Let me ask you a couple of questions:

When you say "antis DNI", do you mean "antis" as in people who claim to be "protecting fandom" with their ship policing but have only ever gone after ONE het ship en masse for SOME ~inexplicable~ reason, assume their (mostly queer) peers are sexual predators by default and have to be trained out of predation and that many of us can be corrupted at the drop of a hat, see a fan space that isn't designated for them and assume it must be so closed off to harbor child abusers, hear "sexual expression" in largely queer spaces and immediately think "PEDOPHILIA AND INCEST!!" with absolutely no critical thought, are content to throw really heavy violent criminal accusations at largely marginalized people over flimsy-at-best evidence (and yes, finding entertainment value in the fictional dynamic between two people with an age gap that may be questionable irl IS flimsy at best), think that fandom will somehow manage to promote incestuous abuse even after Game of Thrones failed to do so despite having a much larger audience and having framed its questionable content as being ~there for realism~; and instead of just Disliking things, insist on finding reasons that no one can possibly like it without being A Horrible Person, often while arguing that questionable content in their own preferred media is Totally Fine IRL Actually and in the MOST extreme cases, actually seeking out real CSAM to weaponize against the targets of their ire?

Or do you mean people who dare to acknowledge that hey, there's a lot of irresponsible-at-best marketing and framing in mass media, like how rich and famous writers and directors insist on including gratuitous graphic sexual violence and excluding POC for "historical accuracy" in fantasy settings with dragons and shit, and a lot of racism and other really questionable shit in fandom, the fact that fandom is mostly composed of marginalized people does NOT make this okay, and hmm, maybe we need to criticize that and find a way to reduce it?

When you say "proshippers DNI", do you mean "proshippers" as in self-righteous edgelords who treat anyone setting a boundary about potentially triggering content in their own fan space as a personal attack, cannot hear criticism of their favorite thing without screaming "CENSORSHIP!" just like any right-wing chud but veiled in the language of social justice, defend hate speech and symbols in fan spaces in the name of "protecting freedom of expression" (at least as long as the hate is not aimed at them); turn edgy fanfiction into the golden calf of queer liberation such that it is not just an EXAMPLE of queer media that is often disproportionately attacked, but THE be-all and end-all of queer rights, make openly hating children and infantilizing teenagers into a cornerstone of their public-facing personalities and act like random rude 14-year olds on the internet are a bigger threat to queer expression than SESTA/FOSTA and payment processor cutoffs; deliberately chase children out of fandoms of media for children, and often create content with the primary motive of upsetting as many people as possible more than actually enjoying it themselves?

Or do you mean people who recognize that designating spaces for freedom of expression, including sexual expression, is really, really important especially for the historically marginalized groups that created the framework of transformative fandom culture; that there will ALWAYS be people who want to explore darker subject matter in fiction and coming up with tools to make that safer for all involved is a more beneficial AND more practical endeavor than banning most "bad" content outright; and that broadening the definition of "pedophilia" (which, yes, the former definition of "antis" ARE very much doing - here's a hint: for just one example, no matter the age gap, a relationship between two adults will NEVER be pedophilia, ever) and assuming it MUST be at the root of any "deviant" sexual expression has a long and bloody queerphobic history and it's REALLY FUCKING ALARMING how that mentality, right down to "freak" as the peak insult, has been so thoroughly introduced into a microcosm that is mostly composed of queer and otherwise marginalized people just by disguising it in the language of social justice?

Because, idk about you, but I don't want either of the former definitions up in my shit, but the latter? The latter positions can and should coexist.

We should be criticizing how entertainment juggernauts abuse their power and reach to keep society venerating people who look and act like their CEOs above all else, we should be criticizing the way "conventional" (read: "slap a bikini model on the ad and frame her as the product") sex appeal is treated as a necessity for marketing anything to adults, and we should be criticizing how often taboo fetishism is marketed by multi-billion dollar companies to the demographics most likely to be desperate enough to forget that some taboos exist for a damned good reason (i.e., lonely straight men with disposable income) just because that might give them a better quarterly report!

We should also be criticizing the wave of "LGBT-positive" thinly-veiled conservatism that's popping up in line with rainbow capitalism and teaching people how to recognize that just because someone can speak the language of progressivism and social justice, that doesn't necessarily mean their values have the best interest of marginalized people other than themself at heart.

The fact that this near-inevitably ends up spiraling into a highly polarized screaming match, occasionally touching on the bigger picture but only briefly before circling back to what is still EXTREMELY niche drama is...disheartening to say the least, because these are very real issues with way bigger implications than just ship wars. Bigotry making excuses for itself (the eagerness to call a ship "pedophilia" that is rarely directed at het ships, the fact that the energy put into fighting "problematic ships" by mostly queer and disabled small-time creators is rarely directed at major media creators, the ableism of "yeah well toughen up or gtfo snowflake", the defense of hate speech in the name of "freedom of speech" as if that hasn't been a neo-nazi dogwhistle for decades, etc.) and the concept of how hobbies can be used to radicalize people into some really awful ideologies, misdirection, overstatement of harm, understatement of harm, echo chambers that enable such overstatement and understatement of harm, the veneration of a platonic ideal of "children" as a rhetorical device while throwing actual children under the bus (exactly as anti-choice politicians do, but yet again veiled in the language of social justice) - all of that is wrapped up in this.

It is, by far, my least favorite mass fandom drama to date.

[bobataeminsuga]

thoughts on kaeluc? /gen

ohohoho getting political in my ask box now hm?

now before I state my opinion i just want everyone to know that you are free to block me if you disagree or anything. this might be a little long so brace yourself

in summary: i literally do not care.

i dont ship kaeluc/luckae, but im not one to hate on a ship or hate anyone because of a ship. i’ll find fanart of the ship and i’ll be like “oh thats cute/the art is really good,” like it, maybe reblog. im on a very neutral level here.

do not harass people online. thats it. thats the short and simple way of saying it.

personally, i see them as sworn brothers. thats how kaeya and diluc are referred to in the original, chinese version of the game and stories. which is not equivalent to adopted brothers. its a kind of like found family, friends who are close enough to admire each other, die for each other even, as if they were brothers, from my understanding of it. now i dont want to ramble about cultural differences and the meaning of sworn brothers so please do your research on that - im not chinese so im not the greatest source for this and am still learning about it myself. feel free to correct me if you are chinese and have a better understanding of this!

now in no way do i support incest. if you think that this ship promotes incest then feel free to block creators, accounts, and tags for this ship, you have no obligation to keep them unblocked. if you feel like its necessary to harass real people because of this ship, you’re better off blocking them. please take a minute to take into consideration what you’re actually doing by harassing these real people. have you changed anything? have you put an end to real life incest? have you saved anyone? did you make anyone’s day better? no? then don’t do it. it’s unnecessary and i hate how this fandom in particular has such a hard time understanding that.

ships do not define people.

many kaeluc shippers have their reasons for not seeing kaeya and diluc as brothers and all the kaeluc shippers i know are anti-incest when it happens to real people in real life.

i’ve met super nice people who ship kaeluc. they’re super chill and even towards antis they still try to respond nicely, but when they get harassed tons of times they get fed up and may start acting rudely.

i have never seen kaeluc/proshippers ever say “kaebedo shippers should die” “antis can k word themselves” “im going to start blaming all my problems on chiluc shippers” etc... they just ask to dni if youre an anti

call me a proshipper, tell me i deserve to die, idc idc, i do not ship this ship but im not completely against it. im just so fed up with this type of discourse in this fandom and if you feel the need to attack/harass/threaten people online for this then please for the love of God block me. seriously, i will not take any offense from it, i’ll understand. otherwise i will block you instead.

[maxmagi]

Some people here have been complaining about the people shipping Liu Kang and Kung Lao because the new Mortal Kombat movie has them as "cousins."

This is not the first tumblr post to clarify that they are not, in fact, cousins in the movie, so I don't know why people are still running with that idea.

Liu Kang explains that he was a stray plucked from the streets. He calls Kung Lao "shixiong," which means older fellow apprentice (male) / big bro disciple. The English translation, "cousin" is fuxking WRONG.

Their relationship is more like senpai and kouhai / senior and junior students training in one school, under one teacher etc.

To clarify,

In the movies, are they cousins? NO.

In the games, are they cousins? YES.

They're very distant cousins and technically can marry or whatever. We've seen and read that shit in a hundred Victorian novels and movies but since they're straight no one bats an eye.

Do I think they should get married and have babies? No. My personal preference for them is as brothers. I wanna see more brotp content about these two but the well is dry and I just want more close interactions between them.

Whatever and however you see them as, that's up to you. But don't go around acting morally high and mighty by calling their shippers perverts or immoral or incest fanatics when they're only basing it on the fact that the actual Chinese/Mandarin word spoken was "shixiong" which is not in fact "cousins."

If the producers retcon that in the sequels and go, "Well, look, they're actually closely related cousins!" That would be a different story and so "cousins" would be essentially appropriate.

All I'm saying is don't spread misinformation, especially about that cousins part. It annoys anyone who knows what "shixiong" means.

EDIT: Word of God is that they are not in fact blood related in the MK games. So haters have no grounds to stand on when accusing the shippers of promoting inc*st.

[drawing-way-outside-the-lines]

Indefinite Hiatus.

To anyone reading this, I ask that you respectfully do not reblog this post, as it is very personal, thank you. That being said, the post is long, I’m a writer, what do you expect? But there were so many things I needed to get of my chest, whether anyone reads it all or not, simply doesn’t matter. I had to speak it all out, in order to move on. I will as such hide it under a cut, in case anyone should be curious why I am going on hiatus. Which I don’t usually do, I tend to just take off for a couple of days when things bother me enough to leave. But I thought this time I had to make an announcement, as it is quite possible I am simply just done with this place, and wont be returning. I simply don’t know at the moment, and none of what I write in this post, is written as a form of attention seeking, nor a way for me to get people to show me attention or beg me to stay. If I’m going, I’m going, and there’s nothing anyone can say that would make me stay. I simply make the announcement out of the respect for the few followers I still have some respect for. I wont just up and leave with no word when there’s people on here I still care about. So to be abundantly clear. This is a hiatus. I might be back. I might not be back. Only time will tell. I may some days hang around to check up on cc, you may even see me reply a person here and there, and not reply others. This isn’t anything personal towards anyone. I am simply a person who constantly bend over backwards for everyone else, then push myself repeatedly aside. And I am officially done with it. From now on if you see me online, on any sort of platform, I will not feel bad in any sort of way for not being available, simply because I am online. From now on I will only engage in things that resonate with me, when they resonate with me. Anything else steals my peace. And I no longer want to allow that. I might be gone a couple days, I might be gone a month. Maybe you wont ever see me return, and that’s that. I will take the time I need, even if that means for good. I will no longer put others before my own well being. I might even come by to reblog this post a few times, simply for the fact that I spent many hours, weighing my words, trying to make them as polite, yet clear as possible. I spent lots of time and energy on this, so if I during my hiatus come by to reblog it, it’s not a way to seek attention, or more likes/comments. It’s simply that I made a large effort, and I want as many of my followers to read this, so there’s no confusion as to why I am suddenly gone. If you want me to clarify further than that/you’re curious what finally made a “kind” person give up, it’s all below the cut:

I’ve been sitting on this for a couple days. Debating on whether I should say something or not. But I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to be as transparent as possible, in hopes that, it may, help someone else avoid being in a similar situation. Maybe someone will learn something along these lines of words I so carefully have put together. Preventing someone else from getting hurt. One can hope. And I also hope by speaking up, I can release the negativity I have been carrying, and set it free. Preventing it from weighing me further down. A few days ago, I entered one of my oldest characters, Odette, into a model casting, for Billsims. An experience that should have been fun and enjoyable, but instead resulted in making the decision to pull Odette out of the casting, to avoid Billsims potentially getting in trouble. You see, on the application info post, Billsims mentioned that it would be nice if a bit of info would be written about the sim we would enter, but it wasn’t a must. I decided, as a writer, to write a bit about my character, cause you betcha, as soon as someone mentions they might want a few words about a character of mine, -and my words start spilling like iced tea on a hot summers day! So I added the basic info I thought Odette herself would find important. Among that, I mentioned she’s a ‘Romanian Gypsy’. I did this to best clarify what Ethnicity she has, and what she classifies herself as. If I had simply written ‘Roma/Romani’, many people might not have understood what was meant. And I wanted to be as clear as possible about her, plus the word Gypsy, is simply what she has chosen for herself. I furthermore added she’s a proud woman, and a Pagan. Surprise surprise, someone didn’t like this info, and decided it was okay to point that out on my application post.  I still don’t understand some people’s need to constantly nitpick at anything they see online, specially in public, and specially when it comes to people simply having a hobby, enjoying said hobby peacefully, without harming anyone. Now, the post is still up on my blog, the comments are still there. Anyone is free to go have a look if they wish to know exactly what was said. But that being said, I hope and would like to think my followers are old enough to not attack anyone. Please. It wont solve anything. I also ask that no one bother Billsims about the matter, he was perfectly wonderful about it all, and had no issue with neither me, nor Odette. I was the one who decided to pull her out of the casting, in order to protect him, he even told me I was more than welcome to enter someone else. I decided against that however, to protect my peace. Something a very wise person told me to do. Thank you. I stopped replying to the person after my first reply, simply cause I saw no reason to engage in a debate that would lead nowhere. It seemed as if they already had a rather twisted view of me or my character or what was going on, quite possible a mix of it all? So I let them stay in their belief. Trying to convince them otherwise seemed like a tedious task, I had no energy to take on. And I instead went for advice from a trusted person, and enjoyed a long peaceful and uplifting conversation, rather than a fruitless quarrel with someone that was already so sure I was out there doing all sorts of harmful things through my character. I suppose the person commenting wasn’t a follower of mine, and if they were, I cannot imagine them to be a longtime follower. You see, I am aware Gypsy by now is often seen as a ‘slur word’, as this person was trying to educate me. I do not write something into my characters without making at least some sort of research first. Had this person been a long term follower, they would have known, I rarely ever use that word. As a matter of fact, not so long ago, I posted the bio of another character, Gabriella, she was also listed as ‘Romanian Gypsy’. So is the rest of the Lupei clan that both Odette and Gabriella belong to. They have always been listed as such. Ever since I started on Simblr 5 years ago. No one has ever commented on it before. And when I posted Gabriella’s bio earlier this Autumn, I was even met with surprise that I have Roma characters. So it seems, even long term followers hadn’t noticed. Which must mean, I am certainly not a person spreading the word around. It’s not the first time, I have had to get ‘whipped over the back of my head with a wet newspaper,’ by someone who thought I needed some schooling. I have had that experience twice before. So 3 times in total the 5 years I’ve been here. What a rebel I must be, since I have had to be corrected so many times. Once for having many gay characters in Polyamorous relationships. Once for having twins/blood related characters dating each other, and was as result accused of saying incest is right and spreading it as if everyone should be doing it. Which I never did, and never would. We have Game Of Thrones doing that already. First of, I simply don’t agree with that. I don’t think incest is right. However, I also don’t think it is wrong, if the people involved love each other and can make it work. And yes, that is possible. The person getting their panties in a twist over River and Jackall being a couple, did mention they had experienced incest close hand, so I do wanna defend them, and give them their space to be outraged, since I could understand it was a trigger for them. However, I cannot prevent everyone’s triggers, nor is it my job to do so. It is up to you to avoid your triggers, and to find a way to deal with them, so when someone does trigger you, you can handle yourself the best way possible. The whole world is never gonna wrap you in cotton. You need to wrap yourself. It took me no more than 2 minutes to find a very informative Wiki article about how incest IN FACT can be between two consensual adults, which the individual claimed could NEVER exist. Furthermore it can happen between two consensual adults whom happen to love each other just as dearly as two people in a completely “normal” relationship can. Two minutes research was all it took. Imagine if people would do just a minimum effort of research BEFORE they start attacking other people. Imagine a world like that. By all means, if I were out there on the street corners of the world, with pamphlets promoting incest, drag me to a side and slap me. That aint cool. But I am just over here, in my quiet little corner, doing my own thing, which btw you are more than allowed to disagree with, but don’t come knocking on my door with your disagreement. The very few posts I have ever shown of my incestuous couples, have all been very tasteful. And although it is mentioned on each characters bio, whom they are in a relationship with, I think it’s been years since I last even posted a pic of any of said people. I have posted far worse things, and no one ever mate as much as a squeak about it. Still, you are allowed to disagree, I just wish you would handle it in a better way than schooling everyone who does something you mildly (or even strongly) disagree with, and save the schooling for the real issues such as child pornography, Nazi’s, global warming, racism, whether people should wear a mask or not, and any sort of abuse/bullying. Here’s three alternatives I welcome on the other hand: 1. Scroll on. (I have talked with several of my long term followers, and they have confirmed they don’t always agree with the things I post, but they follow anyway, because they enjoy the majority of what I post, and the rest they simply scroll past. It doesn’t ruin their day, or their enjoyment of following my blog in general.) 2. Unfollow. You are always more than welcome to unfollow A-NY-THING on social media, if you do not like what you are seeing. When you subscribe to something/someone, the moment you no longer enjoy what you are seeing, you always have the chance of unfollowing. It’s not a permanent subscription for the rest of your life. Nor a chance for you to try to change what others are posting about. Specially as long as it isn’t harming anyone. 3. Block. The button exist on the vast majority of social media for a reason. Use it if you believe something or someone is so bad that it/they steal your sunshine. Block block block, and move away from it. If you keep hanging onto something you have blocked, what’s the point really? You’re still allowing it to affect you. Move on. And for the umpteenth time, even if my characters does something/say something/engage in something, doesn’t necessarily have to mean I agree with them/their choices/their lifestyle. With some things I do, others I don’t. I’m a writer. I enjoy writing things that challenges me, and challenges the reader. I simply don’t find joy in writing the typical white picket fence story where everyone fits into society, and everything is butterflies and Dandelions. But at the same time, I also don’t run around nitpicking at the people who do enjoy writing or reading these types of stories. The thing is, it’s fiction, right? I’m not writing about real life characters. So I ask you, do you believe every piece of fiction you have ever read? Does Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter align with real life? If you can say no to that, then why on earth are you so dead sure that the fiction I write align with reality? For the last time, I do NOT agree with incest. For my characters, which btw doesn’t end at just River and Jackall, I do believe in it, simply for the circumstances of how the relationships happened. But you would have to read my whole story to finally understand it all. But I am not cramming it down your throat, specially if you have already made it clear you disagree. To that I once again want to add, my story is nowhere public, so I am really not in any way educating anyone on incest or ‘Gypsies’ or polyamory or anything else. I think polyamory is cool for the people who enjoy it. Have I personally ever been in a poly relationship? No. But I am at the belief people can do with their private life what they wish, as long as they aren’t harming anyone and everyone involved agrees. And to get back to what this post originally was intended to be about, the matter on Odette’s post, I have a few last things I need to say before I put the matter to rest: I'm not representing all of Romani, when I speak for my character(s). I never once mentioned this is how all Romani is. So if that’s what you read, that is on you and the words you add to mine, not my actual words or intention. I'm simply allowing my character and her family to be whatever they want to be, and call themselves however they see fit. As long as they are good kind people, it shouldn't matter much what they call themselves, as long as they don't use slur words for others. I never once claimed that all Romani is Pagan. Odette is. Her father or twin brother, isn't. Odette comes from a mixed background, and is as such a mix herself. And how beautiful is that? Wouldn't it be a shame, if we were only ever allowed to be just one thing in this life? I am not out here educating people on Romani culture, I am not calling people Gypsy in real life, nor do I do it online. In fact I don't call anyone anything in real life, cause people's skin tones simply doesn't matter that much to me. We are all just shades. No shade is more important than the other. We are all decaying plant food. Really. Odette has proudly chosen this word for herself, just as her family before her has been proud to do so. I have in no way portrayed my characters in the meaning of any sort of slur word. They are all highly intelligent well educated people. Odette is under education as a nurse. Her father is a well known and well respected doctor. Furthermore, they are all shape-shifters, whom can shift into very large wolves. Odette’s father being the Alpha. Wait, does that mean I am calling all Romani werewolves? It’s fiction. I am not standing on some stool somewhere preaching to anyone. I’m just me and my characters. I keep it between them and I 99% of the time. My roomie has a friend whom proudly calls herself a Gypsy. She has family whom proudly call themselves Gypsies. So not everyone views this word as bad. And yes there are real life people out there, who sees the word as positive and call themselves by it. Are you going to run after them too, and dictate what they are allowed to call themselves? Or is that only reserved for Simblr’s you disagree with? You simply can’t box up a whole minority like that and claim the word is always offensive and no one is allowed to use a specific word to describe themselves. Furthermore: Mixed background/ethnicity/religious beliefs/spiritual beliefs is a thing in the real world too, not something I made up over night to harm anyone. 'Gypsy' has never been said as a slur word coming from me, it was never ill-intended, and never will be, just like gay never will be said as a slur or ill-intention coming from me. Yet gay is also a word that has quite often been used as a slur. And still is. So, should we stop using it all together? No. It can be said in good intention, and in bad, it all depends on the person using the word. And people should surely be allowed to call themselves gay, shouldn’t they? Never have any of my Romani characters been portrayed in a bad light. (Or gay characters for that matter, but that's not what the subject is about)   And if they ever would be portrayed in a bad light, it would certainly have nothing to do with them being Romani. I personally see no point in that. My story and my characters are a source of joy for me, I have no intention of bringing racism into it. Now, we can agree that the word Gypsy is by now used as a slur, but it wasn't originally a slur, and once again, I do believe a person is allowed to call themselves whatever they may wish. Odette and her family wouldn't call other people Gypsies, unless they knew they were okay with it, and proud. Added to that, I do not believe a word can be racist or a slur in itself. A word is just a word. A string of consonants and vowels tied together to create a sound. It's the person using the word, who gives it ill-intentions, not the word itself, unless it was deliberately created with the only intention of hurting. Which as far as I am aware, wasn't the origin of the word Gypsy. 'Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries C.E. They were called "Gypsies" because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called "tribes" or "nations." Most of the Roma in Germany and the countries occupied by Germany during World War II belonged to the Sinti and Roma family groupings. Both groups spoke dialects of a common language called Romani, based on Sanskrit (the classical language of India). The term "Roma" has come to include both the Sinti and Roma groupings, though some Roma prefer being known as "Gypsies." ' - Source: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/roma-gypsies-in-prewar-europe So to really boil this whole thing down to the bone, so hopefully this wont ever be an issue again: I do not use the word Gypsy in my day to day life. By creating a character who addresses herself as Gypsy AND also happens to be a Pagan, I do NOT in any way indicate that all ‘Gypsies’ are Pagans. I simply state that my character is. Nothing more, nothing less. I do not agree with incest in real life, though I do believe people are allowed to do with their private life as they see fit, as long as they aren’t harming others, and everyone involved is agreeing. I do not promote Poly relationships. Although once again, I’m a firm believer that people are allowed to do with their private life as they see fit yadda yadda... I do not promote being gay or any other sort of sexuality for that matter. Not that I have ever been accused of that, but I wanted to cover it anyway, cause who knows, it might be the next one I should get corrected for. I have a few times mentioned being trans, that was also not in any way a promotion. I do not promote Necrophilia. And here I really must snort. Some years ago (on an old blog, not this one) some very dear followers of mine, gently persuaded me to make some rather graphic pictures of my character Raven, literally f*ck*ng some corpses. It was posted in October as some satirical Halloween-ish post, as far as I remember, and was started from a simple question of, IF, it could be done in ts3? I was then challenged to do it. I did. People clapped. I’m sure others cried. But to my surprise my follower numbers didn’t drop, they increased? No one came running to ‘teach me a lesson’. No one came around to tell me what my demon was allowed to do or not. He was free to do whatever/whomever he wanted. And that’s the thing. There’s so many things in my story, and about my characters, that you don’t know. Cause I don’t post it out there for everyone to see. Cause I am not trying to promote a thing. I am simply here to challenge myself, and along that line challenge the few people I ever trusted to be my readers. You see, I don’t write for the numbers, meaning I don’t write a story that is meant to have a large following. I write for me, cause it is one of the only things that has ever helped me get through life, and fight some of my inner demons, to fight complications, to fight grief, to cope with all sorts of personal things I’m going through, and to have a place to escape to when life is too scary. I write for the content, the depth, for me, not for the fame, not for likes, not for anyone else. This is mine, and I don’t promote it on any scale, I keep 99% of it in private, and the rest I do air in public I air on a very minimal scale. If you decide to get offended about the fact that I drizzled a specific word once on a post, and a handful of times on my personal bios, well, that’s on you. It’s not a word I am out there spreading like a wildfire. People that has followed me for years never saw it till recently. Which should really speak loud of how little that word has ever come from me. I’m a respectable person. I do my best to respect everyone around me. At any time. Even when people don’t deserve an ounce of my respect. But that does not mean I should be weighed down with the burden of never offending anyone, cause then I might as well never speak again. Fact is, now more than ever, people are so offended by almost anything they can come across on social media. Jumping to conclusions here and there, when all they could do is simply ask, before getting offended and as a result decide to school or attack everyone around them. For no one to ever get offended again, we should all log out, and never sign in again. Why does it have to go to these extremes where no one can speak a word any longer, cause everything is an offense, a trigger, a slur? So I stay here in my little corner, doing me, doing my characters the way I like them. It is up to you to agree or disagree. You are free. But don’t come at me expecting I’ll change a thing for you. Cause you will only get disappointed. These people and their story is my way to cope with life, and as long as I am not out there shouting slur words at people or promoting certain ways of lifestyle, or deliberately harming anyone in any form of way, I cannot see why I shouldn’t be allowed. Just as you are allowed to do your own coping. Just as you are always allowed to scroll on, unfollow or even block things/people, you disagree with. Odette stays the way she is. So does the rest of my characters. It wont ever change because someone disagrees. The only way my characters change, is by character development, which mostly they decide for themselves. And I simply don’t see it in the cards that Odette will wake up and not feel Gypsy or stop using that word to describe herself, cause she personally sees nothing negative in it. Nor will she stop being Pagan because her mixed religion/background is making you uncomfortable. There’s plenty Christians out there, with Jesus or Bible quotes tattooed on them, yet Leviticus 19:28 say: Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord. Interpret that the way you want it. But allow my character to do her religion the way SHE sees fit, simply for the fact that I am sure you want the same respect. I will not ever change my characters or my story for anyone but myself. You can express your dislike from here and until you get tired of repeating yourself, you can unfollow, you can block, you can even report me and get my posts taken down. You can even take it as far as getting my blog shut down. It wont make a difference. My story has been written for 6 years, some characters was written even longer than that. The story is over 200 book-length-chapters, close to 300 as a matter of fact. If I should change anything for a person I don’t even know, it would be almost 300 chapters I would have to reread and rewrite. Would you do that for some person that came by a post of yours, disagreeing with the way you portrait your own original character? If your answer is yes, I truly feel sorry for you. Lastly I want to say, try to be kind. Try to breath before you go and attack someones way of doing their own thing. Before you accuse someone of portraying something a certain way, maybe take a look at the persons previous work. Is it a one time thing, or is it a reoccurring matter? It may just be an itsy bitsy thing that you are blowing out of proportions, sorta like entering a conversation you know nothing about and then start correcting people left and right. It makes little to no sense, and in most cases, even if you might be meaning well, you end up doing more harm than good. Like in this case. You didn’t get to teach someone something they didn’t already know. You didn’t stop someones inappropriate behavior. What you did on the other hand, was extinguishing someones last spark. Their last will to keep going. You take that to the bank now, and be proud of yourself. Was it worth it? You can always accuse and assume. You’re free to do just that. But maybe in the future, try to replace accuse and assume with politely asking if your ‘concern’ is valid or not. Try to be mindful, try to be kind, try to consider that maybe the person you are about to put on the school bench/attack/bully or whatever you are about to do, is fighting an invisible battle you know nothing about. Maybe you are going to be the last straw for them. So try to weigh it all, is your righteous crusade worth it? Is it worth it to spill your two cents on a possible harmless matter, just so you can feel you fought a righteous battle and took someone ‘evil’ down, whom in fact were just trying their best to survive, by doing the one thing that helps them through it all, in their own little corner, harming no one. You know, there are tons of people like that out there. Making someone online feel so absolutely useless/worthless that they end up taking their own lives. Then blame the victims for it. Now, I might be a pretty strong person, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be at the end of my rope, and you simply don’t know. Do you? Thank you for taking your time to extinguish my last spark.

[panlight]

Do you like or dislike Bella's catatonia in NM? Is it overdramatic teen angst? Or an obvious consequence of a supernatural love? Or a badly-written metaphor for depression? Do you think Meyer writes Bella well there? Would you have included the COMPLETELY blank pages? How much of what Bella tells us is unreliable?

It’s . . . not my favorite, mostly because I don’t feel like SM had done the work to convince me that Bella lost “the whole family, the whole future [she] had chosen” and not just Edward. She SAYS that, but I don’t feel it, if you know what I mean? I don’t feel like we saw enough of Bella with anyone besides Edward and maybe Alice for me to totally buy into this as a profound loss vs the end of a (relatively short) romantic relationship. I think if we had seen that summer between Twilight and New Moon it would have solved some of this problem for me. But basically all we get of Bella + the Cullens before they leave is: the baseball game/rescue from James/prom (but they’re just kind of there not really interacting)/awkward birthday party. That doesn’t convince me she’s already integrated into the family, personally. 

I DO like the emotional impact of the blank pages, though. I think that was clever and creative. 

I think SM meant it as a supernatural sort of loss and not an exploration of mental health. She made some comment once about how her books would never be Oprah books because. . . hold on let me find it:  “I don't think my books qualify to be Oprah books. I think you have to take on bigger issues than Vampire/Werewolf love to make her interested. I don't have any incest, adultery, spousal abuse, mental disease, molestation, anorexia, suicide, cutting, etc.”  Which, I mean, actually she does have some of those things, especially in backstories, but they aren’t the focus. New Moon is a love story; it’s not an exploration of mental health, but man I wish it were, because that could have been really helpful and promoted some better messages than we got. I think she intended it as some supernatural proto-vampire mating response (and I’m personally not here for vampire mating mythos like meh I want varied relationships--like humans!--and not ‘every vampire behaves Y when X happens to their mate’) and not as normal human depression, the main reason being that as soon as Edward comes back everything’s all better and there’s absolutely zero follow up about her depression or reckless behavior or hallucinations or Edward’s attempted suicide, it’s just like “OTP is back together! Everything’s back to normal!” 

All that said, a lot of people really relate to Bella’s pain and grief and depression in New Moon and I don’t want to take away from that. It can be helpful, cathartic even, when you’re going through something to see it in fiction; it makes you feel understood and less alone, and if Bella’s reaction in New Moon was a comfort to people then I’m glad. I just think it could have been more powerful if it were treated more like a mental health issue rather than a consequence of supernatural vampire love. 

[princesspiratecat]

Challenge Rule Change....Again

Yes, I know I know- I’ve changed the rules so much! But hey, that was kind of the point of playing my Banished based hood according to the rules: To figure out what works and what doesn’t work. And quite frankly, there are a few things that I’m unsure about since the two games are so different.

1. Firstly, should I throw the whole class-based system out the window? In the game, Bannies marry whomever is pretty much available. And I have issues with that, because I’ve seen BROTHER AND SISTER marry one another when there was a whole pool of nomads for the game to choose from, and my entire town quickly slipped the murky depths of the slime-filled waters of incest. GROSS. Clearly we can all agree that that was lazy programing on the part of the Banished creator. (Also, Bannies don’t have last names) But aside from the incest issue...

Historically, societies just didn’t go around marrying whomever they wanted to unless it was a very rare love match, and marriages were arranged to be beneficial to the families involved. This was especially true of the upper classes, and I don’t feel I can ignore these rules, even though Banished does. I don’t want to be too strict, but we have to have some rules, right? Incest just isn’t permitted in the sims, not even between first generation cousins (at least, not without a mod).

My issue with the class-based system is that there simply aren’t enough marriage prospects for the second generation of Builder Class family to choose from. I let ARC determine my population, and my Builder family had 5 children. Since the only class they can marry with the current rules has only one baby girl born so far, there will either be a huge age gap between the couple (not uncommon historically), or only a few of my 2nd generation will be able to marry anyone at all. Not to mention that all the brothers and sisters marrying into the one family makes the next generation first cousins on both sides, which can cause the whole town to dip into those slime-filled waters again. NO. 

2. Should I add new classes? I’m thinking heavily about creating an Educated Bourgeoisie class. These can be the physicians, teachers and clerics which the Builders are free to marry. Although I’m not sure if I should make them above the Merchant station, or on par with the Merchant station. I’m leaning towards slightly above because not all merchants were educated, and shop-keepers and tradespeople were often looked down upon by the upper classes in many ways. Providing a service or good is servile, after all. 

If I do make new classes, should this happen via social promotion? (IE the lower classes move up, with requirements of course) Or should new families be created specifically to fulfill the roles? Right now I’m leaning towards the former, simply because it makes more sense and it won’t take as long for settled families to meet new requirements. At the same time, it would be nice to have fresh blood come into the town without having to be a nomad first. I guess it depends how much I want to mimic the actual game, right? 

3. I’m also thinking that starting completely new settlements on the same map or in vacation hoods with new Founder families might be the way to go as well. As there are a lot of Banished players that don’t ever let Nomads in, and this could be a preferable option for them. It means you are doing two challenges in one, and that could be really fun! 

Any feedback is appreciated, I’d love to hear your ideas especially if you are considering playing this challenge. 

[bumofthewild]

Zagreus and Thanatos are brothers please delete that and stop promoting incest

hello

i’m gonna talk about the game so after this i advise people who do not want spoilers to not read after the read more. but if you want an answer regardless i’ll try not to be spoilery in my explanation.

tldr; apparently a dev has clarified that they’re not brothers here [x]

my friends say i can just link that and not go into it but i take these things really seriously! and it must be clear from my other asks by now that i don’t answer more involved asks in short sentences. so to start lemme just make it clear that i do not promote incest or any other harmful content like that. i have and continue to be pretty vocal about how much i hate the fetishization of problematic content on twitter, but i’m not as vocal about it over here because i just post art and don’t speak much unless i get an ask.

i figure after me saying this the question is how am i saying i don’t promote incest while shipping two brothers.

well i just don’t agree that they’re brothers. thanatos and zagreus were both raised by nyx, right. which makes them, in the usual sense, foster brothers. i mean that makes sense. BUT while playing the game it became clear to me really early on that that was never a relationship any of the characters including them entertained between them, and that they were more like childhood friends. certain dialogues you can get from the characters, such as zag saying things like “i always knew nyx wasn’t my mother” and that he felt differently from hypnos and thanatos who refer to each other consistently as brothers, and to nyx as their mother (while zagreus just calls her “nyx”), made me think that the game was trying to define their relationship differently. i believed these were attempts to distance the characters from the idea that they were brothers and i am pretty satisfied with that.

now i’m not saying that these aren’t things that make for a pair of foster siblings. i obviously don’t think you need to be related by blood to be siblings, or call whoever is your mother “mother” or whatever. that relationship is different for everyone. if you see the relationship as familial then that’s just what you see it as. i don’t think it’s a case where if something is making you uncomfortable then you should force yourself to get over it. really it’s just that while playing it i personally, ME PERSONALLY, didn’t take that to be their relationship. and i know a lot of other people don’t as well. and i think that the game has done this on purpose because it attempts to clean the incest out of relationships regarding other characters as well. i won’t say who for spoiler reasons, but for example there’s a character who is usually related to zeus and hades etc, and to prevent an uncle/niece relationship they rewrote that character’s lore. and that’s enough for me, because i am not interested at all in entertaining the problematic greek myths and would much rather focus on the sanitized versions presented to me in the game.

if the game had thanatos and zagreus acknowledge each other as brothers at all, i wouldn’t ship them. and i can say this because that’s how i felt about the beta of the game where that’s what they were like. i didn’t play the beta, my friend did, and they showed me old screencaps where the conflict of their relationship hinged on the fact that thanatos had to get used to a relationship where zagreus was no longer his brother. fans reached out to supergiant and were like “that's weird and uncomfortable because thanatos is a romance route” so they changed it to what it currently is, where they see each other as just childhood friends and the relationship was never familial. 

to be clear, i’m not saying “oh it’s greek mythology so it’s bound to be fucked up”. i don’t think that’s a fair argument because the game simulates very human relationships for its characters despite the fact that they are gods or whatever, and it’s humans playing the game understanding it through their human lives and whatever, so if anything supergiant should be expected to clean that shit out of their game. thus i think they purposely tried to be ambiguous about the mythology for the sake of sanitizing it. but i also think that people are allowed to have different interpretations of things and whether you want to consider the original greek myths or just the game etc. is up to you.

if that’s not enough for you, then i think you’re just going to have to block or unfollow me and block the thanzag hashtag. because while you’re entitled to your opinion i think i am entitled to mine. i’ve given this a lot of thought since playing it the past weeks or so because i take these things seriously and have no desire to make people uncomfortable NOR THE DESIRE TO SHIP INCEST. and i also just want to have fun playing a game i really like and drawing a relationship i find very interesting. because i think, FOR ONCE, there’s a piece of media that is attempting to do right by its fans and allow for complexity on a side that is more moral than these things usually are.