#there was SOMETHING about Jade's design on the lower half that bugged me

[sue-me-wright]

This has been bugging me so I have to let the world know and get second opinions

Did they lower his knees in the camp outfit?

Discuss

(images from @ alchemivich 's asset pulls)

[wakraya]

Alright, let me put a few points of stuff I’ve seen on the tags to rest here.

1) Jades Are A Rare Caste.

They are implied to be less plentiful than other castes, yeah, I believe Seadwellers are also rare? But here’s the thing- We have six Jades. When someone says “There’s twice as many Jades as we have Rusts or Bronzes”, it sounds like, shit, yeah weren’t they supposed to be less abundant? Except. They’re still, in total, just Six. Alternia is a planet. Lore-wise, they may be a less plentiful Caste, but they’re not even... In the double digits. This is not even the population of a neighborhood, Xefros’ suburban area likely had more Trolls in total than there are Trolls in this Troll Call, and besides it’s likely all Jades are in the same place for some reason- Jadeblood School is the biggest headcanon right now, for example, so... Why wouldn’t you have a bunch of Jades there?

2) Jades Are All Female.

This is a straight-up misconception, yeah they’re mostly girls, but canon still leaves room for Jadeblood boys. So Male Jadeblood? Yeah, can happen, and there’s nothing going against the canon here.

3) Trolls Have No Concept Of Gender.

This one is honestly baffling to me because I haven’t heard about this until the discourse today. I am assuming this comes from the fact Troll Reproduction doesn’t care who provides the genetic material? Their reproduction is not tied to gender, which has made people assume Troll junk is the same for both guys and gals. Except... That’s about it. Even though it’s silly because they’re bugs and implied to be hermaphroditic, they still show sexual dimorphism. And even if they didn’t, they still have a concept of Gender, merely based on the fact there’s Troll Boys and Troll Girls? He/She divide? With Hiveswap expanding on it and showing us there are, indeed, NB Trolls that prefer They/Them. This Gender Divide is actually talked about by Porrim, who also implies that while Fuchsia-down Alternia seemed a Matriarchy, Purple-down it was actually a Patriarchy, informing us that not ONLY is there sexual dimorphism, but also, a cultural divide. By saying that Lanque can’t be Trans because Trolls have no concept of Gender, you’re either mistaking headcanons for actual canon... Or being transphobic by equating genitalia to gender. In which case, fuck off.

4) Trolls Don’t Care About Fashion.

This is something Karkat says, and I believe Kanaya also implies she cares about it more than it’s usual? But Fashion in Troll Culture, seems to be exactly like Mail. Karkat mentions there’s no Mail they do not get a Mailbox with a Flag, yet we see Xefros get mail! Except it’s not Mail. It’s parachuted delivery straight from a website. There’s no standarized Mail system on Alternia, but that doesn’t mean companies can’t deliver things themselves, directly to their Hives. Similarly, Trolls have no concept of Fashion- They don’t care about things such as trends, variety, being dressed properly. And... Hiveswap doesn’t break this. They have more colorful clothes, and some look pretty good! But. Look at Cirava. They’re an absolute fashion disaster. Diemen is just dressed like a hot dog. The Jades all seem to wear uniforms of some sort. Fozzer and Marsti, Skylla, they are more akin to work clothes. The Soleil Twins and Marvus are more flashy, because they’re likely part of a spectacle. Most of them are either a sort of uniform or outfit that’ll fit whatever they’re doing, or a basic color with their symbol somewhere. And you can go from Bright Pink Bathrobe Stelsa, to Pirate-Clad Remele, and back to Punk Denim Elwurd. Not being Fashionable can be about trends, they may simply dress however they want, because of their interests, or their jobs.

But let’s think about this another way. Let’s say that, yeah, they did retcon Troll Fashion- Would... Would you really be mad if they retconned Troll Fashion. Like... Would you be happier if every Troll shown was wearing a plain black shirt with their Symbol, and pants or a skirt, with slight variations of a jacket or a tank top. I don’t think there’s a single Hiveswap design I dislike, and they’re all visibly varied and easily recognizable, and tell a lot about the character, which is like. Character Design 101? So I honestly don’t know what the complaint here is exactly, except Canon Purity.

5) Hiveswap Ruined Fantroll Variety

How. First of all, the entire previous point. Just, expanding upon basic Troll Clothes, showing us the extent of how Trolls dress. But also like... What did they limit exactly? We’re going to learn more about Trolls and Troll Culture and Biology, of course headcanons are going to clash with canon, but so far, what have they limited? I’ve heard about Horns, but like... These horns have all been so varied, and sure there’s stuff like hooks with Ceruleans and Jades, and Four Horns with Golds but... This pattern is also broken, with Azdaja having three, for example. We’ve seen new Psionic colors, we’ve seen stuff like Horn Piercing, we’ve seen Troll Twins, we have seen horns where the orange part starts at different heights than you’d expect and even some of the parts jutting out having their own red-orange-yellow coloration separate of the main shaft of the horn. If anything, until now, there’s always been headcanons for Horns, like, “Oh this is their symbol so it’ll be like this”, or “this is their caste, so, they’ll have big horns”, but no, we have Purples with small horns, we have Bronzes with curly horns downwards, we have a cerulean with super uneven horns, we have a gold with three horns, we have a teal with flat horns, we have rounded horns, we have hotdog horns. I’ve heard people wonder about some Horn Shapes in the prior weeks, about how they didn’t match their restrictive headcanons, and NOW you tell me they’re restrictive? There’s also been complaints about caste roles and stereotypes, and I feel people really forget that Alternia is a Tyranny that forces the inhabitants in roles they are most likely not happy with, specially for the lower castes. Like... Rusts are disposable, and likely to be bound to a life of servitude. Because they’re the lowest of the low, society treats them as such, and there’s stereotypes like Indigos being strong, but that’s not any more restrictive than Psionics being a Gold-only thing, and much like we see Zebede not having Psionics or Elwurd and Mallek having normal eyes to every other cerulean’s messed-up ones... There’s exceptions to the rule everywhere. There have always been.

I’ve also seen complaints about no mutant bloods or things like Albinism and such? And like... The fact they didn’t include it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We actually got Freckles with Zebede, so it already implies skin conditions are a thing, so Albinism could happen, if anything we have more PROOF that it may be a thing! Complaining about a lack of Limebloods and Violets, too, is just nitpicking, we know there will be Violets eventually, but either we haven’t been shown right now, or they’re just. In the sea. And we’re in the land. And Limes are likely to be a plot point, I’m expecting at least ONE Lime (Fiamet), if not more to show up at some point, and if there’s NO Limebloods I’m sure there will be at least talk OF Limebloods and their whole, you know, extermination, which is a canon thing that happened.

6) The Game’s Representation Is Bad Representation

Listen... Listen. I have friends ecstatic that there’s at LEAST three non-cis characters in Hiveswap (One trans boy, two NBs), without counting the possibility of other characters being Trans (Pretty much anyone could be), or NB (Like, I think about half of the characters don’t have pronouns on their bullet points?), not to mention, further acts with new characters. Hell, even Xefros or Dammek or Joey could be Trans. We. Literally know nothing about these characters, our information is so limited, and yet there’s already people cheering about it and super happy to see representation and I’ve seen one person in the tag encouraged to come out because Lanque is Trans. There’s also at least two Jewish Trolls, plus the possibility of Kanaya being Jewish as well, either her, Rose, or both. And yet, even though they have simply said this, in good faith, respectfully, and trying to add diversity to their roster, and even though we literally know NOTHING of how it’ll be handled yet, you... Bash them for it?

Like, okay. Lanque. The big topic today. He’s not particularly masculine, but as has surely been repeated over and over and over again, not all trans men are masculine, and not all trans people suffer dysphoria. And yeah, it’s true! It would be nice if there was a more masculine trans man! It would be great if there were trans girls! It would be great if there were more diversely coded NB characters! And there may be?? There’s going to be more characters, if not in this Act, in future Acts, and of the ones we’ve seen, many of them could still be NB or Trans. Like... Again. We’ve got three bullet points from each character. Like, I’m sorry you didn’t get a trans character that you could identify better with yet? But that doesn’t mean you have to bash the one we got? When there are people genuinely happy and encouraged about it? You’re not being progressive. You’re being an elitist asshole, if you only accept 100% perfect representation suited to your tastes, and everything else is garbage, or god help me, ‘fetishization’ or ‘disgusting’ (I have heard both on the Tags), like seriously. You’re being the oppressive one. You’re the one making representation harder than it should be.

Oh and if you’re on the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum and simply being Transphobic or saying how all of this is ‘pandering’ to the audience, really I have nothing to say, if you cannot have basic empathy for a group of people finding representation in a game which source material is extremely queer, and have to resort to bashing it down, screw you.

7) WhatPumpkin Are Doing A Bad Job

This is your subjective opinion, and I’d dare to say, a wrong opinion, but let’s not go there for now. WP has suffered a lot of hate for some reason? There have been lies and slander and bashing for absolutely no reason. People hate Cohen for some reason, and have demonized him, when so far what I’ve seen about him is that he’s a pretty chill dude. The writing of Hiveswap wasn’t like, a masterpiece? But it was fun and it got a good bunch of chuckles out of me and made me care for the characters, and even got me a bit scared and sad at some points during the game! It has that Homestuck Spark, and if you say ‘it’s not like Homestuck’, you’re... I’m sorry, you’re just an elitist, or simply don’t like the style anymore? But it carries a very similar charm.

I’ve heard complaints about Hussie not being involved in the project- Which is false, he did write the entire story FIRST THING, and is overseeing the whole project with the rest of the team. There’s also been criticism towards WP ‘failing’ at representation (Before actually seeing the representation apparently, again, we know NOTHING about the game and how it’ll handle stuff so far), and also accusing WP and Cohen specifically of adding representation because of Woke Points and like... WP are Queer as Heck? I don’t know all of them, I don’t even know how many people are working at WP. But they’re not all straight 100% for sure, and I believe they’re not all cis- And even if they ARE all cis, I also doubt a group working on such a Queer game would NOT hear out from Trans friends. What I’m trying to say, is that they haven’t shown at any point disrespect of ignorance regarding the diversity they want to tackle, they’re not doing things out of bad faith, and we haven’t seen how they handle it yet. Even if they didn’t handle it ideally! Does it need to be absolutely perfect, there can be missteps on the way there, god dammit if someone’s trying to better themselves but not quite getting it right you don’t insult them and tear them down! You show them what to do better next time or where they are mistaken, by pessimistically ignoring what they’re trying to do out of spite you’re discouraging good will and being an asshole! Which leads me to my last point for now.

8) They Could Have Told Us We Were Misgendering Lanque

This one is... Really, a bit ridiculous. Okay, let me explain. If someone is Trans and you misgender them accidentally, they’ll tell you quickly and you’ll, hopefully, correct yourself. Obviously. When the Trolls leaked, everyone latched onto Lanque as ‘Butch Lesbian’, and clung to that hope, and now that they were proven wrong, there was salt, at first, and THEN came the talk about Misgendering Lanque. And let me tell you, I think this is very selfish of everyone saying it.

What WP likely thought would happen is that they’d reveal Lanque to be a Trans boy, and people would be like “Oh! Nice, Trans Rep!”. Sure they could’ve told us back then but... Why? Lanque is not. A real person. He’s a fictional character, he’s not going to be offended because you thought he was a butch woman for a few months, in fact the SILHOUETTE alone ALREADY had people clinging to him as a butch woman. If he were a real person? Of course there’d be a quick correction. But he’s. A character. He’s just a god damn character. Who is Trans, out of good faith by a very Queer company, showing us a Trans man, who is a character, and expecting that, like NORMAL PEOPLE, we would not do something like THIS.

When you criticize WP for not telling us Lanque was a Trans Man, all I’m seeing is a shift of blame, not wanting to simply admit you were wrong and jumped to conclusions, and like- Even if there was Fanart or Fanfic of Lanque calling him a woman briefly, shipping him around mistakenly, who cares? You just. Go. “Okay, I’ll change it” or “Whoops haha this was from when we didn’t know he was a Trans boy!” Why the militant hatred? Why the absolute disgust shown today? I can’t understand, I simply cannot understand why your first reaction to “Trans boy Jadeblood” is “WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS A BUTCH LESBIAN!! I WASN’T WRONG BY ASSUMING THIS, WHATPUMPKIN WERE FOR TRYING TO MAKE THEIR GAME MORE DIVERSE”. It’s like... You just. Correct it? You just correct yourself? And yeah you can want more masculine Trans boys, that’s fair! But dismissing what we got, entirely, and insulting it, and getting like THIS, and blaming the team, it just seems.

Narcissistic. It seems narcissistic and extremely self-centered, and perfectionist to the extreme of not wanting anything other than a complete and absolute ideal, that may fit you but may also not fit others.

In conclusion?

People are happy about representation. This isn’t destroying diversity or representation, this is not reducing customization of Fantrolls, this is only building MORE on the already expansive system, and giving us representation and hope for MORE representation in the future, and if you cannot be happy for a genuine, good natured, and honestly, perfectly fine attempt, if you cannot feel empathy for the people who did feel for this representation, if you can only want to find reasons to bash something down and demonize something good and point out how BAD and NOT GOOD things are and how MUCH BETTER they could be, then honestly, you’re a deeply unpleasant person.

Give things time. Give people with good intentions chances. Learn to backpedal and learn from mistakes and simply correct yourself when you’re wrong instead of going down a hateful spiral. Learn to separate fiction and reality. Just like... Think, for a moment, when you’re writing something down- Is it a jaded opinion, or an objective fact? Will it hurt and discourage people who’re genuinely happy or trying to make others happy? Why do more harm than good when there are good intentions paving the way?

I just simply cannot understand the basic lack of critical thought and empathy of some people I have seen today, and hopefully with this I can make my opinion on the whole absurd Discourse that transpired today clear.

[unforgetabelle]

Sneak Peak at Not Alone Sequel

I’m about 2/3 (ish) of the way done the sequel to Not Alone: A miraculous Ladybug Story and the name is— Never Far Away! Here’s a preview of the super-fluffy second chapter! 

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“Chaton!” Marinette gritted out, trying to balance the grocery bag she was carrying without letting the ones on her shoulders throw her off balance. She was strong for her size, but Ladybug magic aside, she was clumsy, and these bags were just asking to be dropped.

She heard Adrien’s voice from the living room, a low rumble through the wall, and realized there was someone there with him. Sighing, she hefted the bag higher. She had just gotten a very strange voicemail from Chloe and really wanted to talk to Adrien about it, but she supposed it could wait. She hadn’t sounded too dire, but then Chloe, despite her teenage years indicating differently, was not one to be dramatic within their group.  

“Uh, Adrien?” She called more hesitantly, hoping whoever it was hadn’t heard her call him ‘kitten’. Yikes.

“Coming! Coming!” She heard his socked feet pad across their parquet floors towards them. He navigated what was slowly becoming a disaster zone, also known as her design space.  Their place was tiny, just like Adrien promised, but luckily without the leaky windows, and her design work ended up happening in the living room. She had a show coming up at the end of the year, and the only place the mannequin wasn’t completely in the way was the far half of their living room. He claimed all the fabric made it homey, but he mainly wouldn’t complain because otherwise she would be stuck at the studio all night and they’d never see each other.

He took the bag from her and it lowered letting her see his face. Why does he look suspicious? She furrowed her brow at him and  peeked over his shoulder.

Who’s here? She mouthed, nodding in the direction of their living room.

“Oh, it’s just–” he was cut off when another bag was taken from her shoulder.

“Hello my dear,” Gabriel leaned over and kissed her cheek in greeting, and she reciprocated.

“Gabriel!” she smiled, genuinely pleased to see him.

“Grab her other bag, son. I’ll help you unload.” He motioned to Adrien and then walked into their small galley kitchen.

“Hey,” he leaned over to give her a brief kiss but his father’s voice echoed from down the hall.

“Hurry up, kitten!” Adrien rolled his eyes, but Marinette burst out in laughter.

“Better not keep Lord of the Butterflies waiting in there,” she said loudly to Adrien, and heard Gabriel’s loud chortle float down the hall.

She followed him down the hall and watched the Agreste boys from the doorway.

“Can you stay for dinner, Gabriel?”

“If you have room for me, my dear.” he glaned at her over his shoulder.

“You’re always welcome, you know that. I’m glad you finally got a chance to see the place…err…finished.” She glanced around the corner quickly to see what state he had found the living room, cringing at the warzone in the corner, but Gabriel just laughed.

“He’s too neat,” He nodded towards his son with his head while he placed the lettuce and cucumber in a bowl for later. “It’s good for him to live with a bit of a mess. Us creative minds can’t help it, anyway.”

“Speaking of creative minds, I have some designs to finish for a presentation tomorrow.” She looked over at Adrien to get his attention. “Give me a bit and we’ll start dinner?”

“I’ll start sous cheffing in preparation,” he winked at her, knowing how bossy she was in the kitchen. She looked back to Gabriel and noticed he had perked up.

“What are you working on?”

“Do you want to come see?” She asked, knowing the answer. She had really gotten close to Adrien’s father in the last few years. She loved Adela too, and often had coffee and baked with the older woman when she was at the Agreste household, but her and Gabriel just understood each other. She remembered spending many an afternoon in high school going over and waiting for Adrien to get done a shoot only to completely losing track of time going through potential designs or debating the resurgence of certain trends with Gabriel. He had taken a massive interest in her work and development as a designer, always interested in her newest designs and introducing her to valuable connections every time she and Adrien attended one of his work functions. Adrien had sometimes joked that she was the protege he always wanted, but she could always see true pride in her boyfriend’s eyes and knew he was beyond pleased that their families melded so well. All he ever wanted was a large and happy family, and he fit in with the Dupain-Chengs just as well as she did with the Agrestes.

“Ahh,” Adrien sighed dramatically as his father moved to follow Marinette out of the kitchen. “Go, fly away my little bugs, have fun without me. I’ll just be here, slaving away in the kitchen for your supper.”

Marinette turned and stuck her tongue out at him, and his father just chuckled.

“Always, fur-gotten,” Plagg zipped up beside him, noticing that he was unpacking the cheese.

“Tail me about it,” Adrien threw a chunk of camembert his way and then gave him some madeleines Marinette must have grabbed from her parent’s bakery to go take to Tikki.

He heard her voice rise and fall from the other room, the way it did when she was excitedly describing something. She would start to talk louder and louder in her excitement, and then realizing her volume, she’d lower her voice, but the cycle would only repeat itself. He smiled, thinking of his two creative geniuses in the next room. He was glad his father knew his girl so well, he would need his keen design mind for what they had been talking about.

______________________________________________________________________________

“Finally, I’m invited over, and it’s only because you need something from me.” His father sat regally on the one armchair they possessed and Adrien rolled his eyes.

“We’ve invited you over so many times. It’s not our fault that you’re a global design sensation and are too busy for us.” Adrien looked pointedly at his dad, but there was a smile on his face. It had not escaped Gabe’s notice that his son had only spoke in the collective “we” since he had arrived and he had to suppress a smile. His son was one of the lucky ones and had gotten it right the first time. He needed to wife that girl.

“But I do need your help,” Adrien continued, but then stopped, nervously. Gabriel leaned forward, intrigued. He and his son’s relationship had improved tremendously in the past few years and he hadn’t seen Adrien temper his words so much since he was fifteen.

“Adrien,” he began, his tone soft, worried that something was wrong.

“No, sorry. I’ve decided…I’ve just never said it out loud before.” A brilliant smile lit up his face. “I’m going to ask Marinette to marry me.”

Gabriel was shocked, pleasantly so, but they were both very young. Then again, so were he and Adela when the wed.

“Not yet,” Adrien added, seeing the skepticism on his father’s face. “Probably sometime this  spring, so a while away. My birthday was a few weeks ago, and hers is in a few months, so we’ll both be twenty-one. I mean,” he started to ramble, “I doubt we’ll get married right away. Mari has her side design business that is really stepping up lately, her clients have doubled in the last few years, and I want to at least finish my master’s beforehand, and Alya and Nino are out of the country right now–”

“It’s a wonderful idea,” Gabriel cut him off, placing a hand on Adrien’s shoulder, and the tension drained out of his son.

“It’s right, you know? And I guess it may seem soon, and maybe unnecessary because we’re young and we’re already committed to each other, but…I kinda just want to shout it to the world.” His son looked up at him, and he was simultaneously a young boy and a grown man in Gabriel’s eyes. Now he was getting married, and Gabriel suddenly felt a wave of emotion overtake him.

“I am so happy for you both, and selfishly very excited to call Marinette my daughter.” Adrien broke out in a grin and tackled his father in a huge hug the way he did when he was younger, and Gabriel savored every moment of it.

“So you’ll help me then?” Adrien asked pulling back.

“Of course! What do you need?”

Adrien then went on to detail his plans for the ring. Sabine had not so subtly hinted about a year ago that when Adrien finally decided to pop the question, she had two jade baguettes, each about an 8mm oval, that had been passed down through her family for generation. Her mother wore them as a necklace her whole life and Sabine was given them as earrings on the announcement of her engagement. If Adrien wanted, he could use them in her ring. She brought them out and showed them to Adrien, and he knew they would be perfect. A vibrant clear green, they were reminiscent of the color of his own eyes and he could imagine them vividly surrounding the asscher cut diamond his grandmother had left him for this very occasion.

“I know it’s not your area of expertise, but the two of you talk design so often I thought you’d have a clearer idea of her style. I also want all our parents to be involved and have some input so it’s more meaningful…” He trailed off and looked at his father expectantly.

“I would be honored,” Gabriel responded, feeling his eye well up a bit at the idea and was impossibly even prouder of his son in that moment.

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:D It will be up as soon as I finish it so make sure to subscribe to me on ao3 or follow me on fanfiction (unforgetabELLE on both!)

Read Not Alone to find out how the story started! http://archiveofourown.org/works/11960415/chapters/27044556