#transphobia cw potentially? its implied

[toydrill]

beach trip

[tackypies]

cw and tw list for agartha

the next epic of remnant will be agartha. agartha is the black sheep even with the JPN fandom because of the questionable handling of its themes, its subject matter, and etc. this is a section-by-section list detailing the potentially upsetting and triggering content, to ensure that you have a safe experience

if you are uncomfortable with rape and transphobic themes, i strongly suggest you read this list beneath the cut.

what’s wrong with agartha? it’s a misogynistic “women enslave men/women take revenge on men” storyline written from a highly fetishistic perspective and has the most transphobic scenes in the game

what’s the deal with the sudden shift in tone? E.O.R was a chance for a single writer on the f/go writing team to handle an entire “singularity” by themselves. they were responsible for writing all the scenes, with the details run by nasu to ensure that nothing contradicted the worldbuilding. save for the CCC event, which was written by nasu, we don’t know the specific writer behind each E.O.R., so we can’t say for certain who was behind agartha’s. i, for one, don’t take any of the characterization of beginning-/mid-agartha as canon bc fuck that noise

i’ve received some information from @the-grand-order that indicates minase was likely involved in the writing. please see the note at the bottom of the cut for an updated version of this post to reblog.

does agartha’s writing predict fgo’s future handling of these issues? no. no other event or chapter focuses on gender and sex so heavily. (save for the ooku event, but that event handles the topic of sex WAY better than agartha.) in fact, the writers have been careful to try and redeem characterizations from agartha, as seen by caster of nightless city’s interlude. it wasn’t a very well-received storyline overall :/

how accurate is this list? i’m going off of detailed summaries of the story, so this may not be perfect. this is an overview of the most egregious parts of the story and things may be changed with the NA translation. i don’t have high hopes. consider this a general guideline and, if in doubt, please ask a capable friend to check for you

if i’ve made any mistakes or have left anything out, please let me know and i’ll update it accordingly!

cw and tw list beneath the cut. warning for rape, transphobia, sexual harrassment, misgendering, pedophilia, suicidal ideation

Another Note: i’ve removed the warnings stating that astolfo is misgendered as he/she due to the fact that astolfo uses he/she/they freely as his pronouns. please see this reblog for more information. thank you

Section One: -transphobic comment by guda, referring to d’eon as “male”

Section Three: -explicit discussion of sexual slavery and gangrape throughout the section

Section Four: -reference to sexual slavery throughout the section

Section Five: -sexual harassment and threats of rape throughout the section -explicit references of sexual slavery and rape throughout the section -extreme transphobia towards d’eon and astolfo, where the pirates fetishize their nb identities -astolfo makes a sexual comment towards young fergus

Section Six: -explicit rape scene at the beginning of the section -torture and physical abuse of slaves -discussion of raping a slave -reference to sexual slavery -astolfo makes a sexual comment towards young fergus -dahut threatens to rape guda -assassin of nightless city makes a sexual comment towards guda (”Oh, or perhaps you would prefer being called Onii-chan like before?“)

Section Eight: -guda makes a comment about not minding if astolfo and d’eon stripped in front of them (idk what category this falls under but it’s kinda ick) -transphobic scene where mash asks guda if they’ve checked for d’eon’s “real” gender, and the camera zooms in on d’eon’s chest -da vinci, guda, and mash make sexual jokes about fergus in front of young fergus -guda makes a pedophilia joke -reference to sexual slavery and rape

Section Nine: -da vinci makes a rape joke -caster of nightless city implies she would perform sex on young fergus to survive

Section Ten: -berserker of el dorado explicitly discusses sexual slavery and threatens to sexually enslave the men throughout the section Section Eleven: -mash implies that astolfo may sexually harass/molest guda

Section Twelve: -dahut makes sexual advances towards guda and co.

Section Fourteen: -long discussion of slavery, frequent references to slavery (not sexual this time, thank god) and of colonization

Section Fifteen: -reference to fergus raping women -reference to caster of nightless city’s sexual abuse

Section Sixteen: -suicidal ideation is expressed -mention of slavery/colonization -young fergus makes sexual comments/advances towards caster of nightless city throughout the section -this isn’t really a trigger warning, just a general warning that young fergus’ entire damn speech is full of cringy gender essentialist comments like “Fergus says that if [Caster of Nightless City] had a nice man whom she fell in love with by her side, along with a beloved child, perhaps she would have no time for fearing death at all. He thinks that she can’t deny it.”

UPDATE: i’ve been informed that it’s highly likely that minase, one of the writers of prisma illya, was the writer. his name is credited as the creator of four main characters in agartha. again, a big thank you to @the-grand-order for their help!

i strongly recommend that you separate the content from the author when it comes to berserker of el dorado, caster of nightless city, rider of resistance and assassin of nightless city. all of them have received interludes written by different authors since agartha’s release, and caster of nightless city as well as berserker of el dorado have been included in various events to be given better characterization. if you wind up loving the characters, go ahead and love them. they’re your children now. fuck minase :^)

please reblog the updated version here.

[astralbooks]

These Violent Delights  - Chloe Gong

Read: 08/11/2020 - 13/11/2020

Rating: 5/5

Rep: chinese main characters, chinese side characters, korean side character, trans woman side character, implied achillean side characters

CW: insects, pandemics, gang violence, gun violence, knife violence, murder, body horror, suicide, brief suicidal thoughts, child abuse, death of close family member, illness of close family member, cancer, comas, alcohol consumption, brothels, transphobia, racism, discussion of colonialism

Review: 

I loved this book! It’s a unique take on Romeo and Juliet that manages to be unique and surprise the reader at every turn, while also still being recognisable as the story that it’s retelling. Iconic scenes from the original Shakespeare play, such as the ball and the balcony scene, are still present here, but their new contexts make them feel both familiar and fresh!

This book also provides a commentary on the Westernisation of Shanghai. There was a lot of discussion of people and businessmen from Britain, France, and the USA, living in Shanghai and not being respectful to the people who already live there. Juliette notes that since this influx, aspects of Shanghainese culture have been disappearing, political control over the city has started to go to the Westerners, and some establishments have even been set up within Shanghai that bar Chinese people from entering. Juliette finds this last one to be particularly absurd, and she’s right! She also comments on the ridiculousness of being expected not to call out these injustices because by doing so she might hurt someone’s feelings. Also, while this is going on, the Communist Party is gaining support throughout China. All of the major characters in this book, being gang members, would be potential targets of the Communist Party, so this is obviously a cause for concern for them as well.

I adored the characters in this book! Juliette was such a fun protagonist! She’s vicious, she’s ambitious, she’s intelligent, she’s unapologetically herself, and she isn’t afraid to let the people she loves know that she loves them. Unless, of course, it’s Roma. Her cousins, Rosalind and Kathleen, were also interesting, as they allowed for a deeper understanding of what life is like in the Scarlet Gang when you’re not its heir. I especially liked Kathleen. She’s loyal to Juliette, generally friendly, and while she likes to avoid bloodshed wherever possible that doesn’t mean that she isn’t prepared to get involved with killing someone.

On the White Flowers’ side, I liked Roma more than I was expecting to! He’s a sweetheart, who doesn’t really want to be a part of a gang, but walking away would put him in more danger than staying does, so he’s stuck. His cousin Benedikt was lovely, and their friend Marshall was so great! Benedikt and Marshall as a duo especially were a lot of fun to read, their scenes pretty much always got me smiling! Thing is, Marshall obviously being Mercutio, I spent a lot of my time reading this feeling absolutely terrified for him. Gong made me love Marshall right from his introduction! And which character is the first to die in the original play?

The villains of this book were also done remarkably well. I’m not going to go into too much more detail here because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that I’m rooting for Tyler/Tybalt’s destruction and cannot wait for him to get his comeuppance.

Certain aspects of the fantasy plague also hit closer to home than was probably anticipated while this book was being written. It’s mentioned a couple of times that while some people are doing all that they can to prevent the spread and are staying home, some people are simply going about their lives as normal and pretending that nothing is wrong, likely in the false assumption that the sickness is something that happens to Other People. It couldn’t possibly ever affect them, so why should they alter their behaviour? The way in which the plague acts and spreads is rooted firmly enough in fantasy that it didn’t feel too real, but the links are still there. Wear a mask y’all.

If you like any one of Shakespeare, historical fantasy, gangs and/or heists, or exes turned enemies to lovers, then you’ll enjoy this book! I highly recommend it, and I’m looking forward to its sequel!

I received an e-arc through NetGalley in return for an honest review.