#this problematic character’ as the next

[pollyanna-nana]

Look. I know some people are going to want to mail a pipe bomb to my house for three houses discoursing again in 2023-almost-2024 but can we please, for the sake of my goddamn sanity, agree that Edelgard waging war for any reason was objectively bad. “Well it was to oppose the church-“ Starting a war is bad. “The other countries didn’t give in so she had to-“ Starting a war is bad. “Well there was nothing else she could have done-“ Starting. A. War. Is. Bad. There is no possible justification on this planet for doing so that makes it a remotely okay thing to do. It is not a “necessary evil” and I hope people don’t take this mindset into actual real life conflicts happening right now as we speak. Yes she’s hot and cool and interesting but if I see one more person genuinely saying she was 100% correct I’m going to eat glass on live TV.

[c-kiddo]

heard a taliesin character was up to some dumbass self destructive behaviour again

[thefiresofpompeii]

i hope ruby gets a well-that’s-alright-then-style notdeath. on the one hand it will make haters mad because oh no not another companion with an impermanent end (and i like to see haters mad) on the other it would require creativity to depict this in a new way + i love all the implications i love the dark fairytale quality of these companion exits i love my un-undead schrodinger’s women

with the way the legend of ruby sunday is titled… legends aren’t usually told about living people. legends are stories of the bygone past, of an age long since over, fictionalised and overgrown with folklore like barnacles sticking to an abandoned shell. there is such a thing as a living legend, but they’re exceedingly rare. the unmistakeable raven’s call in the 73 yards teaser, the trailer’s cut to fifteen crying alone after promising to cherry he’d protect her daughter… the foreshadowing is clear as day…

and yet. there’s one massive HOWEVER. ruby appears in s15: millie’s been spotted on set filming it. which leads me to believe — the doctor isn’t one to take the time travel route and revisit companions that in his future are genuinely dead. that would hurt too much, it would cause unnecessary trauma and could break the timeline. that must mean ruby stays alive in some way. ish. she’s alive and a legend and a mystery. girl-ballad girl-song girl-paradox

here she is, fading out.

p.s.: thesis statement on moffatgirls from the tags i left on somebody else’s post about charley pollard.. well it belongs here since it’s basically the semiotic hurricane swirling around ruby at the moment :)

[gumm1defloor]

I would like a Valentino character analysis post so much right now actually, in general but also regarding his behaviors and mannerisms in episodes 2, 4 & 6 specifically now that the actual show is out and we don't have cherry pick uncanonized content and possibly outdated information

something something period specific socioeconomic implications of Vals caricature and how it relates to his personality and the various persona's he curates based on his relationships to the person he's interacting with and the environment he tries to take advantage of. Something something really don't want to rely on twitter for this and not overly enthusiastic at the prospect of reddit so here we are

[bisexualseraphim]

I can’t believe this needs explaining but a same-gender relationship by definition cannot be “heteronormative” lmao. The way two WOMEN date or have sex with each other or get married will never be heteronormative because they are not in a heterosexual relationship. And yes, this includes butch/femme relationships.

Like do you really think homophobes are looking at a twink and a bear holding hands and thinking “well the idea of them being inside each other turns my stomach but one is slightly more masculine than the other so I suppose it’s okay. Oh and they’re wearing T-shirts that say ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ which basically means ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ even better.” What world are you living in

[ferusaurelius]

Izzy and Who Does the Work

So I was thinking the other day about work dynamics and how one early interview compared OFMD to a workplace comedy. The comparison was fairly thin, since there was a throwaway line about the crew of The Revenge spending all of the first episode deciding whether or not to murder Stede (their captain/boss).

However, there’s also this much better take: a conversation between the most excellent meta writers @chuplayswithfire and @knowlesian about Izzy the toxic leader that I want to riff on a bit. 

And I want to talk a little about what it’s like to be the person who works for a toxic manager (aka: Izzy) and that journey and why it’s harmful/erasing to believe Izzy when he claims he’s doing all the work.

At the root of his claims is an unfounded belief and self-perception (toxic, untrue pretty much in any workplace):

No one else is competent (arrogance)

Confuse direction (delegation) with action (work)

Assume things will fail without their involvement (micromanaging)

We’re going to talk about the impact beliefs like this have on others and their experiences. 

Because really important and complicated tasks are by necessity collaborative, there’s a truism in strategic studies that: “Remember, terrain doesn’t wage war. Machines don’t wage war. People do and they use their mind!” 

No matter how good a plan or a strategy is, unless it’s executed well (by the people on the ground) it will fail. Izzy reminds me of the guy who just doesn’t quite understand the above because he treats everyone around him like interchangeable action-doing machines. If they would only just do everything exactly like he says, everything would work and be fine!

Izzy does not live in actual reality by any measure.

Izzy justifies his violence toward others as necessary in order to get them to conform (except he calls it ‘doing the work’) and that ends up hurting everyone around him and even himself ... when it’s people like Fang, Ivan, Frenchie, Oluwande, and Roach quite frequently doing their work well IN SPITE OF HIM or primarily out of some loyalty and admiration for Edward Teach, Blackbeard, most brilliant sailor alive and (actually good) leader.

Blackbeard’s crew notably has no love or loyalty for Izzy ... they reserve it for Edward, who also instantly wins over the crew of The Revenge, too.

His reputation precedes him.

Good leaders:

Say thank you.

Give credit to the team.

Listen to the ideas of others.

Remain confident and humble (because it’s important that people WANT to do the work).

Does the list above remind you of anyone? If you said Edward Teach you were correct.

It’s fun to watch Edward TEACH (haha a pun!) these techniques to Stede and it’s a bit FLABBERGASTING that Izzy has managed to serve and follow a good leader for so many years while LEARNING NOTHING. 

Izzy believes he’s essential to Edward’s success ... when the crew has been organizing things just fine because they love Edward, a bit like Izzy himself does (while making it weird forever). In fact? When Izzy removes himself from The Revenge after the duel? Nothing melts down and nothing implodes. 

Fang and Ivan have things on lock with or without Izzy giving them a hard time -- and we even get that beautiful “co-captains” moment with Edward and Stede that breaks me on every rewatch because they suggest it, bashfully, together in the same moment. 

Izzy Hands You Elitist Jerk

Izzy Hands is the man who remains ignorant because he thinks he knows everything -- he’s the kind of person who cannot be taught. 

In the rock-climbing world, a beginner who confidently ignores everyone’s offers of help or education is known as a “gumby” ... after the hard rubber kid’s toy that nothing will stick to.

While Izzy is far from a beginner at piracy (that’s Stede), unlike Stede he is willfully and comfortably blind to the talents and contributions of others. 

Izzy is the kind of person who equates vulnerability with shame and who is terrified to admit he doesn’t know something. 

Izzy is someone who demands respect without earning it (abuse of positional authority), who takes credit for the work without doing it, and who punishes people who have done nothing wrong (in pretty consistently gross ways).

I love to hate him and I hate understanding him. He’s a pretty good example of a toxicity death-spiral and, as Edward calls him: a real bummer. But enough about Izzy, let’s talk about one of the people he’s unjustly ignoring.

Consider Fang - My Hero

Fang is unironically the most amazing crew member and Izzy treats him horribly from Episode 03. 

Who spots The Revenge run aground in the intro shot with Blackbeard’s crew? Ivan and Fang. Who leads the shore party? Izzy. Strike one.

Who pulls Fang by the beard (what the FUCK) when he asks why Blackbeard wants to follow Stede’s ship and then tells Fang it’s not his job to fuckin’ think (EXCUSE ME) in the most heinous way possible? Izzy.

To be honest if I were Fang I’d have murdered Izzy right there, but Fang’s too nice a person to do anything but tell it like it is:

FANG: Ow, that really hurts! I hate it when he does that.

Implying this is NOT THE FIRST TIME this has happened to him. This is yet another of Izzy’s toxic entitled power moves to keep other people “in their place.” With all the loaded classist, colorist, and racist associations of that phrase fully intact in these scenes, by the way!

We see Izzy once again making things awful in the scene with Lucius cleaning barnacles, which is yet another pointless cruelty and/or punishment. Who pulls Lucius up and rescues him? Fang. Who says no one has ever taken an interest in his form before? Fang. 

Lucius is right to say that Fang’s never met anyone worth a damn!

Who is it that tells Lucius (and by extension Roach and Frenchie) about Izzy the Spewer? Fang.

Who listens to Edward telling ghost stories in Episode 06 and says it seems like he’s having an awfully nice time? Fang. Who says it’s the most open and emotionally available he’s ever seen Edward? Ivan.

Izzy is the only person in the named ‘original’ crew of Blackbeard who calls this openness seduction and insists that the plan is still on, because “he promised me.” Excuse me Izzy WHAT? When did Edward promise you shit? Never that’s when.

Which brings me around to the problem with Izzy: he thinks respect is what he’s owed, not something earned and voluntarily (freely) given. Izzy Hands doesn’t say thank you to anyone. 

Even when Edward Teach signs the Act of Grace to save Stede Bonnet (because he loves Stede, because Stede is his friend), Izzy is the one in the corner telling him he doesn’t have to do this. Like the only reason anyone could ever make a sacrifice is because it was pried out of them by force rather than -- as the title puts it -- through grace.

Responsibility Doesn’t Mean Taking the Credit, It Means Taking the Blame

Let me tell you I, like Fang, have worked for “an Izzy.” 

And in the MMO gaming realm (a bit more like piracy than most capitalist workplaces, imho!) ... the Izzy Hands attitude is pretty endemic and that dysfunction bleeds over into drama, greed, and self-serving petty awfulness.

Why compare MMO raid groups to piracy? A few reasons:

It’s not a formal commitment. You can stay or go at any time.

You have your choice of ‘crews.’

You have your choice of leaders (insofar as if someone pisses you off, and you’re in a place of trust, you can steal their shit and laugh your way to the bank - think Calico Jack)

Standard procedures vary based on the group (culture, respect, organizational structure, etc.)

The informal-but-still-structured nature of the endeavor means having to decide where to place your effort -- having just enough trust in the group leadership that you won’t get fucked over (you’ll get your loot) and that as a whole the group can take on big challenges without those being totally futile

Picking the wrong group is a waste of time (you get no loot; Stede’s crew is starts out here even though they get a salary)

Picking the group that gets things done but are miserable fucks is miserable (Calico Jack)

Picking the right group is badass and can be a source of pride AND loot (Edward Teach, Thee Great Blackbeard)

Edward is that phenomenal raid leader with a fantastic crew who has an absolutely jack-shit “co-leader” who is ruining everyone’s day.

Stede Bonnet has it right in Episode 04!

STEDE: Ed, do you know this guy? Because he’s an asshole!

And you know what really breaks me about this scene? Stede Bonnet in Blackbeard’s clothes is standing in for what Edward has to put up with in managing his unhinged, angry, furious, exhausted, taking-the-credit-but-not-the-responsibility first mate, one Israel Hands.

The biggest power move in my current place of work that defuses conflicts?

“I take full responsibility.”

Izzy Hands takes and takes and takes everything except responsibility.

Look What You Made Me Do

So yeah, as much as I enjoy Izzy Hands as a character, I can’t help but think his protestations and his viewpoint are not to be taken seriously, much less justified.

Leaning too far with OFMD meta analysis into Muppet-land, or corporatism, or any of a number of other useful metaphors ... can tip over into accepting Izzy’s harmful self-justification (excuses!). 

Careless use of metaphor has the double-bind effect of letting Izzy take credit he has not earned while erasing the work that the rest of the crew are doing more quietly (very well, thanks, because they’re amazing and they just DO what needs to be done rather than grandstanding about it):

Frenchie - A bard. Invents pyramid schemes and fanfiction. Sews. Code-switching master who Edward picks for his “new crew” because he’s a badass who was ‘in service’ for a minute, has a mind like a steel trap, and navigates every situation with grace and aplomb.

Oluwande - Voted Captain after Izzy gets thrown overboard. Level-headed. The man Blackbeard’s crew picked to lead them instead of Izzy when they thought Edward Teach was never going to return.

Roach - A chef, a “knives are knives, meat’s meat” doctor who will always get the job done. Treats scurvy. Makes a mean tapas. Calls Stede on his bullshit (I wasn’t asking you, I was asking him (Buttons)). Embodiment of ‘fuck around and find out’ (entertained). Wins the award for best smile.

Ivan - Professional with an eye for valuables (spotted the Revenge aground; dibs on the gold teeth; ‘I’ve never seen him so open and emotionally available’).

Fang - BLACKBEARD’S HELMSMAN. Buries Lucius’s finger at sea.  ‘That Brown Peter, he can’t be first mate. I saw him talking to Izzy about it before. Never. Disaster. No offense, Lucius.’  Give him a dog in season two.

Did you notice they were all men of color? 

Because if we talk too much about how Izzy “just wants performance awards and recognition” I am afraid we are contributing to ignoring at whose expense he is operating, and once again justifying a white man’s mistreatment of POC while he(we!) ignore, minimize, and erase the actual work they are doing.

And that’s not a narrative I’m looking to repeat or reinforce, and I am as capable of fucking up as the next hyperfixated OFMD meta writer, so ...

Moving Forward

That mutiny scene at the end of Episode 09 has something to teach us!

Go back and re-watch it! It took me a bit to get all the dialogue (had to turn on captions because there’s a song playing at the same time):

IZZY: Okay, okay! Maybe, maybe we got off to a bad start. But, what, what, what, what, can I do differently, huh? I’m open to suggestions!

ROACH: Mm-hm! (Delighted, smiling like it’s his birthday, getting ready to throw Izzy overboard)

IZZY: Pete! Help me out here!

PETE: For the record, I never formally accepted the role of “first mate” and I fully endorse this mutiny.

IZZY: Gah! Y-you, you, you don’t have to do this. Part of good leadership is restraint. [Looking at Oluwande.]

OLUWANDE: Everyone’s got their own style.

Like LOOK AT IT???

This show is so good I swear. And if you’re gonna doubt me or doubt other meta writers about the anti-racist beats (Ivan and Fang are in the foreground during the mutiny, all of the people throwing Izzy overboard are men of color ... and the people Izzy has hurt the most are the ones taking the lead in pitching him overboard) ... FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING BELIEVE THE SHOW.

Izzy even uses the classic racist tone-policing excuses to try to get some sympathy!

“Part of good leadership is restraint?”

IZZY GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK. WHERE WAS YOUR RESTRAINT WITH FANG? (His poor beard. It really hurts, Izzy you bag of dicks. As you would know if you ever listened to him.)

Anyway! 

Thanks Izzy fandom I love you, I’m one of you, but let’s not make Izzy’s exact same mistake by believing his warped self-serving story about how he’s the one doing all the work.

Maybe (if you’re a white fan like me) ... start by taking responsibility to focus on THE HARM IZZY DOES TO OTHERS and taking a second or a third watch looking at the people around him rather than ... you know, minimizing the harm and exclaiming ‘but he did the work!’, just like he tries to do when he’s getting thrown overboard.

Here’s the on-screen truth: the crew’s just fine without him. Better than fine! Living their best lives! Getting free of a toxic ex!

Acting like Izzy is the only competent pirate on a crew of otherwise muppets erases the men of color who are amazing and doing just fine without him and don’t need that bullshit in their narrative -- from Izzy, from fandom, from meta writers like me, or from anyone.

Blackbeard’s crew and the crew of The Revenge deserve better, especially from people like me who write about Izzy Hands.

Because I’m thinking a lot about Fang and Frenchie lately, who are my personal heroes. And Jim. 

And where OFMD is going to go with everyone, including Izzy, in our renewed-for-pride Season Two ... so what do we do? We talk it through as a crew.

See Also: It’s Not About You, Izzy for the other half of this meta where I talk about why OFMD is (rightly) Edward Teach’s story and the narrative framing could not be more clear about that.

[vasira96]

can’t stop thinking about zoolander

[skimmeh]

ack the stuff you said about dsmp and its ending and stuff—i feel that. its like this painful nostalgia of what the thing used to be and the fact that it’ll never happen again… i get nostalgic over the lmanburg anthem lmao. im still having a hard time getting over it ahaha.

i honestly hate the ending but i suppose it had to end sometime. Season 2 getting canceled… like you said, there is some comfort in that, but at the same time its so sad to think that it’s finally, officially over. two years of watching funny block men play the funny block game. it was so fun.

is feeling this way over a silly minecraft server overreacting? maybe. but nonetheless theres still that sadness. i just pretend theres a real ending where the nuke doesnt blow everyone up and these amazing characters ive grown to love just live on in their happy little lives.

anyway just wanted to say this after seeing your recent post. in all honesty, i miss dsmp. but seeing that someone i look up to feels the same way i do makes it a little bit easier to bear, i think. so thank you./gen

Hello anon!!! I'm glad I was able to make you feel comforted and better with just a silly Tumblr post (which also was a bit of a rant haha)

Yeah, it's a painful kind of nostalgia. Which is a bit bitter (due to the nature of how ...the dsmp sorta had a very, rather than ending with a big bang, it was more sorta drawn out thin and had a more than unsatisfying ending. its okay,I think as a fandom we are all making our own au endings to replace that one haha)

And despite all the hardship around this dumb lil server, I don't think I regret getting into it. And I still teasure the story and characters so dearly.

I think you're aloud to have such strong feelings over a silly lil thing, cos I think we're past the point of thinking it is dumb to be so invested in a Minecraft server. It was so fucking cool, and not just the server, the fancontent. I would argue that was the thing that made it so loved and engaging to be a part of. The fan content was unmatched and filled with talent.

People who think it's dumb to have a generally fun time within a fandom and to mourn that when it ends, are boring. Yeah it was a Minecraft rp, but it was also the some of the funnest times I've ever had within a fandom.

The dsmp may have ended but the creativity that made it so great is still here, with the fan content and cc, who will go onto new things and continue to make great things and improve.

And besides the story and characters are still there. It's like putting one of your favourite book on a shelf. You can always revisit the story, maybe take something different from it after time.

And I'm sure there will still be fancontent created from the characters, I know I still plan on drawing and writing stuff.

I can't let go of these characters just yet haha.

It's just now there's room for more things, I don't think anything will replace what the dsmp was,I don't want that.

I guess what I'm saying is I'm excited to see what comes next!!! And I'm thankful for the experience of what the dsmp was.

[hesitationmarx]

when someone says __ fans or __ shippers or __ apologists DNI (in the context of media/fandom) do u mean don’t talk about that thing on ur posts or at u? or do u mean if i’m entertained by something u find problematic i literally shouldn’t interact? bc i’ll respect that too but i don’t love it as a trend

[samwisegamwise]

i love ace headcanons let's hc everyone as asexual forever <3

[ssreeder]

Sorry for sending that Jet/Suki ask a while ago. Saw your reblog tags under some chiptrillino art and it sounded like you shipped them. We rarepairists get overeager sometimes. I’ll just leave you alone. 😅

OMG ANON NOOOOO!!!

Please don’t leave me alone!! I’m so sorry! I have been struggling to answer asks for about a week (I’m very behind but I love every single ask I get) & I did post my love for Suki x Jet (jetki? Jetski?? Idk anon idk haha) & I’ve gotten a few asks about my Jet / Suki tags - I have just been trying to find the best way to answer.

You’re not overeager at all, I’m just a slow responder & forgetful. I am sort of showing some of their compatibility in my fic LIAB, but I don’t know if they’ll end up together or just friends (we’ll see… jets gotta live)

But they are one of my favorite ships because I think they have a lot of potential (if you don’t like Jet I’d probably skip this ask)

Jet is passionate, a skilled fighter, cocky, charming, a leader, attractive, cares about people (come on now he took in a bunch of orphans and built them a treehouse I’m not arguing with anyone about this) and has a tragic backstory.

Suki is also passionate, a skilled fighter, charming, a capable and strong leader, cares about people, funny, and a beautiful girl.

I feel like Suki would have the ability to put Jet in his place and have all the skills to back herself up if he challenged her. They would compliment each other in their fighting styles as well as their banter because they both have a sharp tongue and a snarky sense of humor. They both can relate to the pressure of being in a leadership position and depending on how you see Sukis backstory they could also share the pain of losing loved ones.

I think out of everyone, Suki has the best chance at making Jet WANT to be a better person and she could give him a reason to actually fear disappointing another person. Jet would also possibly feel truly loved for the first time since losing his parents so young which might help breakdown his cold exterior and soften him a little.

I’ve always really liked them together, and I have a few fic ideas with them as one of the main ships (haha & one with Zuko third wheeling them with his silly gay self) and all sorts of ideas of how they could grow and what a future together would look like… it’s just hard for me to articulate why I like them together so I hope I did them justice by answering this ask lol.

I’m sorry if I seemed like I was ignoring you, it was never my intention to make you feel like I wasn’t interested in answering… I just don’t know how to make my thoughts make sense sometimes (ignore the fics I’m writing those don’t count) so I hope this made sense!!

[finnlongman]

I saw a really good post a while back that said you can't write for the bad faith reader, because it will ruin you and make you second-guess everything. Yes, there will be people determined to misunderstand you and assume the worst, and others who will misunderstand you without even trying, but you can't write solely for them. It will poison your mind and your story and your creativity.

I'm thinking about that a lot while writing this current book. Currently it is not saying what I want it to say, because it's a first draft, and first drafts rarely do – but there also moments of doubt where I find myself worrying about what other people will think about the things I am trying to say. I worry that they're "problematic". I suspect they will be considered "bad representation", even the parts that feel truest to me. These are ideas I try not to think about when I'm writing, because they're impossible moral standards and they're also a trap (nothing is ever good enough, and things that come close rarely make for good stories). But my brain is internet-poisoned enough that it's difficult, because it feels at times like the bad faith reader is a permanent resident in my mind.

Partly to counter this, I've made a point recently of reading a few... challenging books. Some of them have been upsetting, others just thought-provoking; one or two have genuinely haunted me in a bad way, but that in and of itself is useful. It reminds me that whatever I'm doing, somebody else is doing something that pushes more boundaries, and they're doing it with a lot less fear than I am. It also reminds me to be bolder. I spend a lot of time in kidlit- and YA-dominated spaces, for obvious reasons, and though I like to explore some pretty difficult concepts in my YA, there are limits and there are ways of handling things. But in adult books, I'm being reminded, you can push further. You can do more, and worse, and less apologetically.

I don't want to be an apologetic writer. I also don't particularly want to be a graphic one, or to write with the intention of provoking shock and disgust, because that's not my vibe, and I don't think I'd be very good at it. But I think sometimes when I let the morality police worm their way into my head, I need to think more about aiming for the latter, in the hope of avoiding the former.

And as such, I think the only effective weapon against the voice in my head that says "isn't this Problematic™?" or "don't you think it's Bad Representation for this character to behave in that way?" (how I hate the fact that this idea is even in my head in the first place) is to say, "So what! Let's do it on purpose! Let's write messy problematic bad rep featuring absolutely garbage characters and see if the world ends!"

Because quite frankly, I think nothing I come up with is going to be as bad as my brain is afraid it will be. But maybe if I convince it there's nothing to be afraid of about doing that, it might at least produce something interesting. Something that isn't afraid of itself, and doesn't feel the need to sandpaper off all its own sharp edges, and which asks questions without necessarily having the answers.

[worstloki]

if you can gush constantly about enjoying a piece of media but diss the idea of people disliking the same thing unless/even though they provide detailed reasoning or proof with citations... idk I feel like you need to reassess something

[beaft]

saw a post recently which was like "reasons not to support jk rowling" and it listed off all the horrible shit she's been doing/has done in the past, and then for some inexplicable reason it finished off with "gave snape a redemption arc he didn't deserve".

now, i might be misreading, but i feel like "perpetuating violent transphobia in a way that actively furthers a culture war and endangers the safety of a marginalised group" is maybe in a slightly different category of criticism than "redeemed a character i didn't personally like"

[ineffably-human]

I am once again asking you to consider that there is a space in between 'Guillermo the insecure victim of Stockholm syndrome who Deserves Better' and 'Guillermo the worst sociopath of the Murder Blood Orgy House who has personally killed every human victim with his bare hands'.

And there is a really amazing character in between those two deeply boring options if you all just believe in yourselves.

[elftwink]

i always have this dilemma when i need to confirm a character is trans in a story for whatever reason where i go “should i confirm which characters are cis?” because i firmly believe that only mentioning marginalized characters contributes to viewing cis people as the “default” and priming the audience to always assume a character is cis unless told otherwise. explicitly outlining both cis and trans people instead would demonstrate that both are normal and equivalent ways to exist, without one being more ‘deviant’ than the other.

but on the other hand i hate confirming characters as cis because who wants that many confirmed cisgender characters. i need a fictional world where if someone asks me “is [x] trans?” i say yes regardless of who [x] is. [x] could be a sentient book and i still wanna be able to say they’re trans if i want