#you did point me to some legit publications' critics

[jlf23tumble]

"but go on and send me some links to 'big' and real pubs that are somehow trashing louis" FITF review by Alim Kheraj, the Guardian. A Harry fan. Walls review by Ashley Bardhan, Pitchfork. A Harry fan. Walls review by Alexandra Pollard, Independent. A Harry fan. All these reviews counted towards the metacritic score.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello🤗! It's the anon who has a geeky mom!

Made it through chapter 5 and here's my Mama's thoughts. Warning: she cried A LOT.

She's kind off curious about Mickey and wondered if he could be important in the future. She got upset when no one knew who he was lol. "Mickey Mouse was my childhood! How could they?!" She cried. She also got really worried for Yuu and the Overblots. She's surprisingly quick to guess that Vil was about to overblot because of the epilogue from last chapter.

She was excited that the school held festivals because her school did that.

My mom screamed when she saw Riddle and Kalim again. She wanted to know if Riddle was able to get through with his mom. I should mention she wants to adopt the overblot victims.

She kept on roasting Vil throughout the chapter, especially whenever he acted mean towards Epel. "I'll show you who's a potato you Bratz doll rip-off!". She legit said that.

She thinks Rook's creepy 🤣. She also wanted Leona to sing.

She instantly fell in love with Ortho.

My mom, ever the music lover, started jumping excitedly during the audition. She even clapped and cheered for all of them.

She thought the songs were bops.

Neige and the Dwarves are adorable to her.

During Vil's overblot and flashback, her disgust towards Vil turned to empathy. She especially felt bad when Vil was being bullied. On a lighthearted note, she wished my dad was like Vil's dad.

She's so proud of Deuce she literally cried tears of joy.

She thought that Malleus and Yuu's friendship was cute. She wished there was an option where we could call Malleus MalMal instead of Tsunotaro.

She was kinda down when NRC didn't win but was happy for RSA nonetheless. She called it karma that Vil was forced to sing with Neige. She felt bad for Jamil though.

My mom legit bursted into happy tears when she saw Mickey in the flesh but that joy turned to fear and worry when Grim attacked us. "What happened?! Is Yuu alright?!"

And now she thinks Idia is sketchy. She refuses to believe Ortho is in on this. "Nooooo, not the cute robot boy!"

As a sidenote, she said that if I ever went to NRC, she's pulling me out immediately 😂.

[Here’s the other installments for the Mom Anon: Ep 2 / Ep 3 / Ep 4]

Don’t ask where Ep 1 is; I don’t actually recall having received an ask specifically about that—

Good, feed TWST your tears 😊

Your mom can join the rest of the TWST theorists on the true nature and meaning of Michard Mouse who has lost all of his fame and extensive media empire in this world 😩 I think at this point the pattern for OBs has been well established (though the festival setting is certainly new and provides an added element of public exposure to the threat). djsvwjxnkss Imagine being some happy-go-lucky festival goer and you witness a celebrity causing chaos 😅 I think you’d just drop your cotton candy and run for the nearest authority figure at that point… Good thing the NRC boys were able to keep the OB contained though!

Yeah, it’s always exciting to see old characters return in later episodes your mom’s in for a treat with episode 6. We can see how they’ve changed since we last saw them. Unfortunately, we don’t get to hear of the aftermath of the conversation Riddle had with his mother, but it’s nice to just catch up with the dorm leader that started it all. (And, of course, Kalim is also present being a good boi 😌)

Mmm, I don’t think Vil acted the nicest (especially not this episode) but 🤔 I do think it’s interesting to observe how much harsher the criticisms made at his expense can be. I get the sense that people think it’s okay to call Vil out for his cruelty, but hesitate to do the same for others (such as Riddle), even when those characters have all done/said abhorrent things. I wonder if that justification comes down to Vil being the type of person who doesn’t like to show when he is hurting or being affected by negative comments (versus other characters, who are more overtly emotional or reactive). It comes with the territory of being a celebrity: you need thick skin to survive in the entertainment industry, where everyone will be judging you at all times of the day. It must bring him a lot of distress, and it also leaves him in a tough situation where he often cannot outwardly express his frustrations.

I don’t know, it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable seeing Vil in particular receives certain kinds of vitriol from the fandom, because I’m sure he’s also getting that in-universe from his “haters”. No matter where he exists, he must be facing intense public scrutiny (sometimes on very superficial things too), and I don’t know how he manages to deal with it. Like, even in the comment quoted, it’s not Vil’s character being insulted but his appearance (even if his appearance is totally unrelated to the situation). I guess it’s easy to roast celebrities when you only really get to see slivers of them in various media or maybe they’re seen as living “perfect” lives, but I don’t agree with being mean to them (or to anyone, really 💦). Confident people can still be hurt, and those in seemingly glamorous positions have valid issues. That isn’t to defend their missteps, but rather just me being sad about a general lack of empathy 😔

Let Rook beeee 😭 I won’t stand for this huntsman slander— Funnily enough, the game has teased Leona singing a few times before (most recently in Endless Halloween Night), but we’ve never actually heard him do it.

The VDC auditions were so cuuute 🥰 I really enjoyed the variation in their performances, as well as the characterization of Rook and Vil that we got through it. Rook is the positive judge that can see the charm points in each individual, but Vil is the more critical judge that can really “read” what is at the core of each person’s performance. For example, he mentions that Cater’s performance doesn’t seem to have heart behind it and that Lilia’s performance makes him seem older than a high school student. MY FAVORITE ONE WAS ORTHO THOUGH, his was so cool!! They patched his scene so that he sounds like a Vocaloid while singing, which was an excellent touch 🎵 (Great job with that one, Idia!)

Mmm, I personally don’t care for the songs in episode 5 (with the exception of Piece of My World, if that counts), but I’m glad that others enjoyed them so much! I feel similarly towards Neige and the Dwarves; there’s nothing offensive about them, they’re just a little… bland for my tastes. Cute, yes, but ultimately bland.

Vil and Azul have similar backstories in that they involve being bullied and then using that experience to fuel their efforts to better themselves and to prove their worth to their peers. I think this is why those two are able to garner sympathy (but not always empathy) from the fandom. Oddly enough though, I usually see people not forgiving Vil for his actions while also exonerating Azul for his. This… has always been weird to me, because I see Azul as someone who has done much more damage over the years than Vil has—and what’s more, Vil is one of THE most apologetic OB boys of the cast and clearly owns up to his wrongdoings. I think this difference comes from the perception of each boy; again, Vil is often viewed as harsh and overly critical, and not a lot of the general public can relate to his being a child star, so he earns less empathy overall 💦 Some of this perception also comes down to a misunderstanding of his reasons for Overblotting; I've seen many label it as shallow or driven by vanity when... well, that's not entirely true. He's ultimately looking for approval and validation of his identity and the work that he does, and that's something I think everyone wants. I just wish more people were open-minded when looking over Vil's backstory. Just because he had a successful career and a supportive father doesn't mean Vil didn't struggle to get to where he is today. Even then, he's not entirely happy with himself. That's not Vil being spoiled or entitled, that's Vil thinking he can be even better. It's that ambition and drive that defines him.

aiudbaidbabsd Vil's dad though 😫 the real OG... It must be hard for a big star like him to make time for his child, and yet he still manages to do it. It's also just nice to see a supportive parent for once in these flashbacks instead of people like the Viper parents and Mama Rosehearts (or not really involved in or aware of the formative trauma like the Kingscholar parents and the Ashengrotto parents).

When I first played through episode 5, I wasn't expecting Deuce to get his unique magic at all. Now that it's said and done, I think we can all share in his pride and excitement. We've followed him on this journey for so long, and he finally gets this big payoff and he gets to rub it in Ace's smug face.

Episode 5 is a big turning point in terms of Malleus and Yuu’s relationship; this is when his true identity is revealed to them and everyone else becomes aware that they know each other. As I’ve said before, I don’t find myself convinced by their friendship due to how little they interacted during the main story, but I guess that’s just a consequence of the writers trying to keep Malleus “mysterious”. I’m sure plenty of people find him and Yuu endearing in spite of that.

I believe the significance of Malleus being called “Tsunotaro” even after his true name and title are revealed is that it calls attention to Yuu just treating him like a normal person. There’s no option to call him some variant of his actual name because “Malleus” is inherently associated with big titles: the dorm leader of Diasomnia, crown prince to the Briar Valley, one of the strongest mages in all of Twisted Wonderland. These isolate him from others, and it’s of great importance that Yuu is an exception to this and treats him like an equal.

Haha, there’s always that initial hit of disappointment when the results come out. It’s good that your mom didn’t linger on the sadness and the defeat for too long and was happy that the nice RSA boys cinched the victory. Everyone singing and suffering together at the end was the perfect way to conclude the Pomefiore arc~ (Jamil’s deadpan tone and face were 👌)

cbssksnsn That’s a first 😂 I don’t think I’ve seen many people get excited at the idea of meeting Mickey; I feel like most TWST fans (myself included) are quick to meme on him or theorize, or they’re just put off by his presence at all. It certainly feels a little “out of place” with the aesthetics and the world (at least until it gets further explanation).

I was worried about Grim attacking Yuu too but 😔 it ultimately just amounts to nothing more than a cat scratch, which I found disappointing (as it’s really low stakes despite how serious the situation is framed). That’s probably a relief to others though, I can’t imagine that most would be eager to see Yuu and Grim in pain.

… Since when has every end of episode preview for the next ever made the next OB boy NOT look sketchy?? 👁 👄 👁 It’s okay, no matter how sketchy Idia may be, Ortho’s there to balance it out with his innocence.

Isekai’d into Twisted Wonderland with your mom?? 😂 I don’t think the main story would be able to happen if any sane, responsible adult was actually present long enough to keep the kids out of trouble looking at you, Crowley.

[writterings]

In one of your tags you mentioned you went to a witch school (if I remember correctly) and learned properly on occult studies. I was kinda curious about that, how did you find it? How did you find out it was legit? Where I live there was a famous New England witch trail that occurred so we’re kinda swarmed with the popularized version vs the legit witch craft

i'll tell you the exact name of it if you dm me!

but i honestly just found out about it by talking to a coworker. she had recently graduated the program and seemed to enjoy it, so i gave it a shot. i don't live near the school but they offered classes online.

im not going to lie, i was super skeptical of it at first -- as i am, honestly, with all new age beliefs and religions. what i think helped me choose this school is that they don't care if you believe in what they believe, and you can drop out at any time. they also don't care how much you get involved with them and any money requirements are based on a sliding scale so they can accommodate people who can't afford the rate of compensating the teachers. (edit: the only money fees actually are just compensating the teachers for their time in which they make class materials for you, teach you, and review your homework)

i also read up a lot on cults before joining, tbh, to make sure it wasn't a cult. and, like yeah, anything can technically become a cult with the right language and wrong people -- but i'm pretty sure it's no more a cult than an average christian church or, like, crossfit.

now, i don't believe in everything this school teaches -- some specific teachers teeter the line of cultural appropriation in their personal practices and ideas, and that's not something i agree with -- so i mostly just try to think critically about all the information they give me (even if I agree with it) and they 100% welcome that!

they teach from a variety of sources and from a variety of non-closed practices, and even have speakers from closed practices give guest lectures sometimes so us outsiders to the practices can learn some reputable info and perspectives.

i also like that they're very science first. even when we talked about healing stuff, my teacher was like, "look me in the eyes. i personally believe that healing energy exhanges and traditional herbalism can help with ailments like a sore throat or achy muscles. but. BUT. listen to your doctor. what we do is not genuine treatment for serious issues, mental or physical. science is real and we will cover some anatomy basics in the next modules to prove how science is real, even though we all believe in magick to some degree."

their books are also available to the public and they have some free classes/ceremonies/festivals as well.

anyways, that's how i learned about it and that's how i know it's legit! (as legit as a magick school can be, like that kinda just comes down to personal belief at some point) i'm probably going to take some more classes with them in the future.

[smokingtiger]

I guess it’s good you were spared the major hate train against Jimin by the solos of all the other members + all other kpop fandoms. The first 3 weeks of Face were hellish with how intense the hate was. I don’t want to compare hate against members but I wish Jimin had only fraud and payola allegations against him, which he also had, but a lot of it was the most disgusting s*xually charged hate tweets which literally made me cry while I was reporting it. I also have words muted but it still got through on my tl because of how intense and vile it was. He was basically the punching bag of whole stan twitter. Anyways its good you are an OT7 and love Jimin since I can’t say the same about quite a few of them. And my intention is not to call out people calling out solos, which they should do. But it should never be selective. And I apologise if I came across as aggressive.

I saw some of the hate towards Jimin during the FACE era, but I usually scrolled, blocked, and moved on. I'm not one to engage, as I've said before.

Also, crazy to accuse Jimin of payola when Like Crazy barely got any spins. Billboard literally modified their rules so Payola could become one of the only 'legit' ways of generating high rankings on the board. Fans buying albums? Fake. Corporations spending millions to have a song force-fed to the public? Legit. Okay, Billboard. Okay. I get it, you get a nice cut out of this, but album sales? You're not pinching a pretty penny there, I suppose.

I also saw that one tweet that reached the ugly side of stan Twitter where someone said that a lot of the hatred towards Jimin is ROOTED in misogyny. That's true, a lot of the hatred towards Jimin has misogynistic undertones that cannot be ignored. Jimin is a victim of the patriarchy. Men can be victims of the patriarchy. This is common sense, we all know this. But people abandoned all critical reading/thinking skills and said that OP was trying to equate Jimin's hate to the female experience. No one was saying that, but if you want to be a certified stan Twitter hater, your IQ has to be less than 2.

I also saw a few tweets referring to his encore + in-ear situation, but I ignore every single one of those tweets, because there's not one person in that thread who can confirm, without a doubt, that their idol has not had a shaky vocal performance. As someone who did professional singing lessons, it's not entirely realistic for a singer to be at 100% all the time, especially if they've been doing weeks of promotions, studio recordings, and running on little sleep. Every vocalist has 'bad' vocal days, but that doesn't make them bad singers. I also draw and I've had several bad art days, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad artist just because I couldn't draw the way I wanted to at one point in time.

The whole point of OT7 is to love all of the members. To support all of the members. If someone claims to be OT7 but has no issue throwing a member under the bus, then they're not OT7.

Don't be sad anon, check out one of my favorite Jimin Twitter accounts, they post super cute pics :P

[misseliseeee]

Heeeey, I know sasabihin mo na naman ang self-pity ko.

Pero legit, I wanna genuinely say sorry for everything that I've done to you. Sorry na I'm pulling your triggers whenever you're in bad shape. For the very 1st time, you wanna grow yourself in terms of mindset then you had a setback na instead of me reminding you of what are slowly learning na. What did I do? I pull your strings and started accusing you of things.

When I started talking to you again, I intended to just really help you back to God. Parang I was doing it kasi sobrang nagui guilty paden ako how your relationship with God turned out. Yeah, I know it's your relationship with God. But I still can't help but to blame myself somehow. That's one thing na I'm trying to figure out how to move on. When you made me realize na I'm pushing you too hard. Na looking back, I'm trying to change you sooo bad. Looking back, I was so blinded by my anger with you. Pero in reality, I was the one being mean to you. I was so in denial lagi na, sabi ibang mga tao ung bad side mo lagi ung na mag magnify ko. Sa taas ng pride ko, ndi ko maamin sa sarili ko na ang dami dami kong pagkakamali sayo. Sorry na nasisigawan kita in public dati, sorry if instead of me praising you in public and correcting you in private eh, Im did it the other way around. Sorry napapahiya kita sa harap ng maraming tao. Ung tipong, sinasabi ko I want you to practice your authority, your leadership pero ako din ung dahilan bakit ndi mo sya ma implement. Sorry, if I was trying to manipulate you at some point. I know lagi mo sinasabi, ndi ka na galit and all. Pero you never voiced out all the deep reasons bakit ka galit sakin. And I guess, like what you've said. You trained yourself to be numb sa feedback sa criticism. Dati ndi ako naniniwala sa karma, pero when I met you. Im like deeeeym. It's true. Dati ayoko sayo. Ung lagi mo sinasabi na bakit kita pinagtyagaan, bakit ang patient ko sayo. Nung una superficial lahat un. Nag re reply ako sayo dati kasi feeling ko obligation ko un as a President. When I fell hard for you. Then I remembered nung tinanong kita moko ginago, sagot mo lang sakin. Bakit, may rason ba dapat para mang ago? I guess, I deserve every bit of pang ga gago mo on how I treated you. Sigi, sama na natin sa equation na Im helping you in building your skills to be ready in the real world. Pero, how I treated you was impolite. Alam mo ung kahit na ang rude ko sayo, youre still polite to fake it to listen to my rants and kaartehan in life. Ang self-centered ko paden pala.

I was doing well in my career, but then I wanted to have more. I craved for more. But then, nakakapagod magpanggap na mabait just to please everyone. Dati joke lang na sinasabi ko na aware ako na masama ugali ko. Pero lately ko lang na realize na, this world is already full of it & its not how I am suppose to live my life.

Nakakahiya na Im sharing bible verses to you when you know me so well nmn. Sobrang laki kong joke sayo on how other people see me. Journeying with you, unleashed kung ano ba talaga ako at sino ba talaga ako.

Alam mo ba sukong suko na ko sa buhay ko. Naiinis ako sa sarili ko na alam ko naman pano gagwin ung mga bagay bagay. I have the answers to my questions, but I can't seem to pull myself together. Nakakapagod na mabuhay ng ganito. Ung litong lito na ko. Na dapat ndi naman. Gusto ko nalang mawala para matapos na lahat ng pain, hurt, confusion, dismay. Naiinis ako na I push people away from me.

Alam mo ba ung 2 weeks ako naka quarantine, naka SL. Ang dami ko na realize, nag flashback lahat ng masasakit na events ng buhay ko. Na realize ko na, ung mga deepest pains ko pala ndi ko pa na hi heal kasi Im scared to face them. Alam mo ung pakiramdam na I know what love is, I know what it looks like, but I never know how it genuinely feels kasi never ko pa sya nararamdaman from anyone. Nakakatawa na lahat puro head knowledge lang ako.

Lately ko lang na realize na ang problematic ko palang tao. Pero again, alam ko naman sagot sa lahat ng pinagdadaanan ko. Sobrang duwag ko, ung mga counseling sessions ko sa psychologist, lagi ko ni ca cancel last minute.

Just days back, I opened up to someone na Ill be attending a pschylogical counseling this Sat. Then sagot nya sakin, ay tama yan mabuti pa nga. Pero the tone of the voice is sobrang condecending. Na parang shes saying na nababaliw ka na. This person, i loved this person with all my life. I never felt so betrayed na, ndi ko man narinig sakanya na, that's good choice to seek professional help. I never felt the love & care.

After that, sobrang naco conscious na ko na sobrang mali ko as a person. (This is one of the reasons why sayo ko din binato ung coaching sessions, kasi I dont think i can pull myself together for a session)

Sorry kung ang daldal ko na naman. I just need to get this out of my chest para sure ako na ndi ako sa office sasabog bukas.

[prismatic-bell]

So the other day I said a thing about how I felt like a line could be drawn between antis, and the rise of 24-hour news networks. I’ve given that thought some time to bubble to see what, exactly, my brain meant by that statement, and here’s what I’ve got:

When I was a kid (back in Ye Olde 1990s), we had three major news stations in my town: Channel 12, Channel 24, and Channel 35. These corresponded to NBC, ABC, and CBS, but I don’t remember which one was which so don’t ask me. Anyway--you had a half hour of news at 8 or 9 am (depending on which station you watched), an hourlong program at noon in which half the program was stuff like “here are today’s beach closures and some recipes and also if you’re looking for stuff to do with the kids this weekend here are local promotions,” and half an hour at either 5, 5:30, or 6 (again, depending on which channel you watched). One of the three stations also did a half-hour capper at 10pm. So unless you were watching all three stations, and picking the news every single time, the max amount of news you were going to get was like an hour and a half. If you wanted more news than that, you read the newspaper. When my mom was a kid (back in Ye Olde 1960s), this would have seemed like an inordinate amount of news--for her, it was half an hour at 6pm and ten minutes at 10pm and then the station (there was only one station that did the news) played the National Anthem and went off the air until 6am, at which time you might get like . . . the weather and a traffic report.

For anything else, you read the newspaper.

Now with only half an hour to present a whole lot of news, what are you going to do? You are going to stick to the facts. You don’t have a choice. You have a very short time to fit a whole lot of information. “Notre Dame cathedral caught on fire today. French firefighters are working to get the flames under control, and authorities in charge of the cathedral are doing their best to remove relics, paintings, and other holy objects while it’s still possible. French President Mr. Somebody addressed the nation and stated every attempt to save the building, and to rebuild the damage, will be made. In local news . . . “ And that’s it! If you want more information, you’ve got to wait for the newspaper in the morning, and you’re going to have to get a copy of the New York Times or USA Today, because the local paper will only have a blurb, and that blurb will mostly cover what you just heard!

But then the news changed.

By the time I was a teenager, the non-cable news looked like this: All three channels had a morning show that started at 5 or 6 am (depending on your station) and ran until 8 or 9 (depending on your station). The station that ended at 8am then had a half-hour morning news show. The mid-day news at 11 or 12 was still an hour. Channel 35 did a half-hour news segment at 5 and another at 5:30, back to back. The other two stations simply did an hourlong segment. And then one station did half an hour at 10:30, and the other two did hourlong segments at 10pm.

What do you do with that much time? Well, you expand. Yes, you can fit more news, but you can also fit more about the news. “Notre Dame cathedral in Paris went up in flames today. The fire began in the famous historic bell tower, and spread to the roof. At this time, portions of the roof appear to have caved in, and there are concerns about the integrity of the medieval stonework in the cathedral walls. French firefighters have been working since 8am Paris time to get the flames under control, and authorities in charge of the cathedral are doing their best to remove relics, paintings, and other holy objects while it’s still possible. Some firefighters are also helping with this project, as portions of the building have become too unsafe to enter. French President Mr. Somebody addressed the nation late this evening and stated every attempt to save the building, and to rebuild the damage, will be made. Of the cathedral itself, Somebody said, ‘Our Lady has weathered worse troubles than this. Paris as a city, and France as a nation, will overcome.’ In local news . . . ”

Still facts, but a few more facts. At this point the internet as a public thing is just past its infancy, and in theory you could go look up some stuff on, like, AOL, maybe, about what was happening.

(Nina, you were talking about antis . . . ?)

(Yes, I was. Bear with me.)

But at this point you also saw the rise of Fox News and CNN.

Now up to this point, I could trust the news. That is important to know. “Nina, American news is full of propaganda--” Listen, you’re not wrong, but the point is, if Scott Brennan told me Notre Dame cathedral was on fire and priests were trying to remove the holy relics, I could safely assume Notre Dame cathedral was on fire and priests were trying to remove the holy relics. If Channel 24 told me “the blizzard of the century” had occurred the night before, I could look out the window of my snowed-in house and go “yeah, that seems legit.”

I grew up, in other words, in a world in which facts were facts. We didn’t waffle or wring our hands over whether or not Notre Dame was on fire. And this allowed me to take a similar approach to fiction: it is a fact that murder is wrong, and knowing this, I can read a book in which someone commits murder for very good reasons, but still know they did something wrong.

But now you have 24 hours of news to fill.

No matter how you pad it, no matter how many voice clips you play or retrospectives you do, you cannot find enough news in the world to fill 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. You just can’t.

So they started adding “opinion pieces.”

Notre Dame is on fire--is it worth saving? Notre Dame is on fire--but is it as big a catastrophe as it’s made out to be? Notre Dame is on fire--but France has been steadily calling themselves a secular nation, so is this the punishment of G-d? Notre Dame is on fire--

--wait, what was that?

Yep. You saw it, I saw it, we all saw it. But as the “opinion pieces” slowly took over the regular news and stopped being called “opinion pieces” and started being called “programs,” it became less and less clear what was and wasn’t fact.

Now obviously Notre Dame is on fire. But now we have to ask ourselves: is it worth it to save it or not? Is the financial cost outweighed by the history? Will those answers change depending on how bad the damage becomes? And you, lonely elderly person in your chair whose predominant socialization these days is at church, how does this make you feel about French people? These are questions that once would have been asked of the church caretakers and the French government. Now every single person is being asked to think about them, without being provided all of the context that is available to the church caretakers and the French government. And along the way, you get these nice, nasty little bits of prejudice and slanted thinking and bias sneaked in.

I told you I’d come back to antis. And here we are.

The vast majority of antis are very young. They grew up in a world where those “programs” were the norm. They were not provided with a cultural basis of “these are the facts.” They were provided a basis of “here is what I think about the facts.” They were provided a basis of, as Mr. Banks said in Mary Poppins, “kindly do not cloud the matter with facts.”

There are no facts! Who fucking cares! An anti who’s 15 years old today was eleven years old when we were introduced to “alternative facts”! Is it wrong for a 27-year-old man to pursue a relationship with a 13-year-old girl? Depends on which news channel, and which presenter, you ask!

They literally grew up in a world in which critical thinking was discouraged. Once upon a time, you would have seen on TV that Notre Dame was on fire, and at dinner--or whatever your family did for together time--you might say things like “going to be expensive to fix that, I wonder what they’ll do,” but you wouldn’t have been hit with six presenters telling you exactly why Notre Dame should/shouldn’t be rebuilt. And don’t forget--even if you, personally, do not watch the news (or read it on the internet, which is just as bad, because everybody’s after those elusive advertising clicks, everybody needs the “scoop” two seconds before it happens), you know people who do. You hear their opinions and their hot takes and their retellings all around you. And those  opinions and hot takes and retellings will be colored by which “program” that person saw first.

Watch the first thirty seconds of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn2RjahTi3M

Walter Cronkite, a legendary news anchor, giving his opinion on Vietnam. You will notice that he states, very clearly: “it seems very clear to this reporter.” This is Cronkite’s opinion, nothing more, and he makes it clear that he is speaking only for himself.

Now skip to approximately 1:05, and watch him report the Kennedy assassination. You can see he’s emotional, but also keeping it under wraps as best he can because he has An Important Job To Do, and that job is twofold: to deliver the news accurately and concisely, and to keep the American public calm (you can see this when he hurriedly says Johnson is probably taking the oath to become President; a missing VP would be a crisis at this moment). This is a man who’s just found out the most beloved president in modern times is dead. And not just dead--murdered. It’s not like Kennedy had a heart attack, his damn head was blown off. This news is still coming in so quickly that you can see him glancing off the screen to get fresh reports. He’s one of the first to receive this absolute blow--and he’s still holding it together, barely wavering. (When I was a kid, this role would go to Dan Rather. He was no Cronkite, but he tried.)

Where is that kind of rock for today’s teens? Imagine--heaven forbid, in the state our country’s in right now--that tomorrow we get the news Biden was shot.

How would we get that message?

Would it be delivered by an even-keeled, just-the-facts reporter like Cronkite? Or would we get it from a bunch of half-hysterical articles and crisismongering “programs”? And would it be delivered to us straight, like Cronkite did, or would it be buried in three days’ worth of opinions on his “legacy” and policies and What This Means For America?

Now: how are you supposed to build any kind of strong convictions and moral compass on a world like that? Where anything can be true if enough people have an “opinion” on it? Where the facts get immediately buried in a wave of bullshit?

Antis are reacting to a world of “opinions” and “programs” being thrown at them 24/7 by trying to create a world they can control, where there are in fact things that are true, in a world that has actively refused them the opportunity to learn how to parse and process facts. And so what they’ve come up with is this grossly distorted version of facts, because gross distortions of facts are all they know. It’s all they’ve ever seen. They’re perpetuating a system they don’t even realize they’re part of, because they never experienced life before it existed.

They’re not lying when they say they were heavily influenced by fiction because the bounds between fact and fiction have been actively erased. On purpose. And it’s difficult to grok that, if you grew up in a world where you didn’t have to go seek out photographic evidence to be absolutely certain that Notre Dame was, indeed, on fire.

So what we need to be doing, first and foremost, is rebuilding that wall of facts, that line of truth. Otherwise, what we’re going to see is more of this, but getting worse daily.

We set them up for this, and now we’re paying the price for it.

[spoopylay]

hiii pretty

can i request some hq boys reacting to their s/o being offended in public??💕

i would really appreciate if you make some for Bokuto and Sakusa ❤️

i love your works. don’t overwork yourself baby😊

(sorry if i made any mistakes but english is not my first language☹️)

Tysm for requesting❤️!! (And that’s fine, English isn’t my first language too lol)

Hq boys x chubby s/o getting offended in public

Sakusa

You two were in the park, taking a walk and just admiring each other’s presence

Sakusa loves how you much you take care of your hygiene and loves how your body looks too.

Although some people think otherwise about your body.

A toxic friend of yours who has been trying to get with Sakusa approach you two.

“Heyy Kiyoomi~! Oh hey y/n.”

Lemme just search up how to beat the shit out of someone on wikihow rq

So anyways she’s talking and then insults you about how you look.

Obviously you get offended and leave and Sakusa is just looking at you like “👀 someone fucked up”

He knows what that girl said was very mean and decided to put her in her place

“You know if you were jealous of my beautiful s/o, you could’ve just asked them for some advice on how to look better :)”

Sakusa can be very mean with others when they upset you

Later he went to your house and told you everything that happened and tried comforting you.

“Y/n why would you care about what she thinks. You are the most beautiful, amazing, spectacular person I could ever ask for.”

Although he doesn’t do this much he gave you a kiss and the two of you ended up eating movies the rest of the night.

Bokuto

Bokuto was meeting your parents today

He was so nervous and would not stop asking if they were going to like him

“Y/n are you VERY SURE they will like me?”

“I really want this to go well!”

Later that evening he comes over to your house and meets your parents.

They were a bit skeptical

“I still can’t believe our y/n was able to get a boyfriend.”

“Yeah, considering the fact that they look like that.”

You’re parents have always been very critical towards you but you were able to deal with it.

But now that they said it in front of YOUR boyfriend you now start to worry.

“What if Bokuto doesn’t like that anymore?”

“What if he wants to break up.”

You immediately run up to your room before the tears could start spilling out of your eyes.

Bokuto doesn’t realize it until a couple minutes later that what your parents said really hurt you.

He walks into your room and finds you crying, so he sits in your bed next to you and wraps his arms around your torso.

“Baby what’s wrong,” he asked.

You then go on to explain that what your parents said maybe made him think that he might to break up with you.

Bo let’s out a small chuckle and gives you a kiss on your forehead.

“Y/n I would never ever break up with you. You’re so beautiful, amazing, talented, smart, funny, etc. What your parents say won’t ever change how I see you.”

Oikawa

You and Oikawa had just started dating

How it started was you would occasionally help out with setting up stuff for his team and he just caught feelings for you from there. Not to mention that he also fell in love with how you looked. Like c’mon, that ass was lookin too fine.

Anyways, he word eventually had gotten around and people were happy for you two lovebirds.

But the fans girls were ready to rip you to shreds.

At this point they wanted you dead because of how many times they’ve seen you and Tooru holding hands in the hallway.

One day after practice, you were waiting for Oikawa to finish up with practice. You were just looking down at your phone until a girl approached you.

“Hey! So I hear that you and Oikawa are dating? Gosh do I feel bad for him! He’s probably just dating you out of pity. Like come on, who would actually date someone who looks like YOU?!”

You looked at this person like they were a whole different species for a second. Like EXCUSE ME, HOW FUCKING DARE YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT?

“Ok listen, I don’t know if anyone told you by now but bitchy isn’t a good look on you. You and your fan behaviour can go somewhere else cause I’m not taking your bullshit today,” you said walking away.

Although you kept a brave face on, deep down you were a bit hurt . Did Oikawa really date you out of pity?

You got a text from Oikawa asking where you were. You didn’t wanna talk so you told him you didn’t feel well so you left a bit early.

You see, since you two started dating he developed some type of sixth sense where he can always tell whether or not something is bothering you.

And in a time like this, his senses are telling him that something is bothering you and that you weren’t sick.

He later knocks at you door and you answer

You see your boyfriend at the door and was like, “ 👁👄👁 well shit.”

“Y/n something is wrong, so spill it.”

“DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME,” you loudly blurted out.

“Wha-, of course I do y/n, why wouldn’t I?”

“Because well... I look like this and I-,”

Oikawa put his finger on your lips so you can be quiet and proceeded to say, “ y/n I don’t know what has got you think this lately but it’s wrong. Of course I love you and what do you mean your look like that? All I see is a badass person with godly looks that could kill. Also trust me, if I didn’t like you I would’ve straight up told you.”

Kuroo

You just got out of a toxic relationship with your ex.

You’re now with a new guy named Kuroo, a third-year at Nekoma high school and captain of the volleyball team.

Your boyfriend legit adores you, from your chubby cheeks to your squishy hips, he loves it all.

He was taking you out on a shopping date at the mall because he LOVES to spoil you.

You guys were walking out until your ex saw you and you saw them.

The two of you exchanged looks and he walked over to you.

“Hey y/n, long time no see. I see that you’re with a friend, huh?”

“Actually, he’s a my boyfriend.”

Your ex then walks over to Kuroo and gives him a pat on the back saying, “ I am so sorry you’re being put through this. I know it’s hard dating an ugly piece of shit.”

Your ex the walks away laughing while you’re just standing there trying to process what the hell just happened.

The rest of the day you stayed silent, only speaking when it’s very important

Kuroo was trying to get you to talk the entire day but couldn’t even get a peep out of you.

At some point he got fed up and threw you over his shoulder and placed you on his bed.

“Y/n we don’t hide secrets from each other. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“Am I good enough for you?”

“Good enough? You’re more than good y/n. You’re perfect. You’re absolutely amazing and I would never second guess our relationship.”

[lily-orchard-gossip-blog]

Hi, I’m not trying to troll here and am legit asking because I don’t have much reading comprehension

How are Lily’s statements about the recent stalker contradictory? Like I’ve read them all, and the only thing that read as off to me was the fact that there was no public police record on the incident, but that’s it.

Idk, the stuff people were pointing out just felt like Lily was distressed and unable to give out the full story at the time, which would make sense.

Alright, so, the first oddity happened between her twitter and her tumblr, and this has been jotted down by hypocrisyofandrewdobson, so here's the link:

https://hypocrisyofandrewdobson.tumblr.com/post/672316383653134336/lily-orchards-official-tumblr-for-those-curious

But to quickly sum it up, on tumblr, Lily claimed that she was sent an image of her apartment and then an "altercation" happened that involved the police.

Now, Lily claiming that the guy was charged with criminal harassments (aka stalking) and making threats. The first issue is that, in Nova Scotia, someone can only be charged with criminal harassments if this has been a repeated offence that is carried over a period of time.

She's also rather vague on what kind of altercation happened. But it's fine if it's vague, because we don't need to know.

But then when you look at her twitter, she claims that someone came to her building and threatened her and then got arrested.

So already, eyebrows are shooting up, because the stories don't follow each other very neatly. Someone coming to her building threatening her conjures up different idea's then someone sending an email with an altercation at a presumed later date.

But trauma could play a role in this, so while it's a bit sketchy, it's nothing definitive. But this does stir her fan up to try an take a stand against those who criticized her.

But again, that could easily be hand waved away but her being shaken up.

Now, you already know about how it's weird that there isn't a police incident report, and Lily specifically name dropped the RCMP, who have no record of this.

Though, she never dropped their name on twitter, only on tumblr, where they don't operate.

So now more eyebrows are raising up, but again, maybe she meant the local police.

What is, in my opinion more definitive proof that this is smoke and mirrors, is what she said about the incident in her stream.

Now, Cypher linked it, but I'll do one better, because someone was lovely enough to actually isolate the clip in question, so here it is:

Now, here's the notable things about this clip:

1- Not only did the stalker send her a photo of her apartment building with a "This you?", but apparently the guy decided to send by using his data, standing outside that very same building.

Right, no.

Unless this is the worlds dumbest stalker/harasser, they would have taken that photo, and left the premises before sending it to her, because the point is to freak her out from a distance. Terrorize her mentally. While stalkers do show up around the premises, it's usually not to automatically send a creepy email, especially when this is the first time they've done that.

And this sounds like it was the first time.

2- We are asked to believe that Lily, upon receiving this email, decided to leave her apartment and confront this person, and that turned into a fight.

Questions I have from this: How did she know that the person she confronted was the stalker?

Did she ask? Why would he tell her? Even if, in some weird chance on earth, she was right, the guy would have lied and denied all of it and try to leave, not try to attack her.

So did she throw the first punch? It sounds like she did, but maybe he threw the first punch. But then why did he bother sending an email, if the goal was to hurt her? Why didn't he just attack her on the streets if that's the case?

It raises to many questions.

3- She won the fight and sent the guy to the hospital, and he's going to be arrested and she's pressing charges for Criminal harassments.

Yeah no. That's a fantasy.

Why do I say that?

Because the police would have arrested her, not him. For Lily to have beat someone in the streets to the point where hospitalization was required, and not be arrested, the guy would have had to show clear intent to harm.

And he didn't.

Lily got an email, left the premises, found someone she suspected sent the email and beat him up to the point of hospitalization.

And image being a cop, hearing all of that, and going "Welp, sounds like you had a good reason to beat him up. Let's arrest him."

NO!

The police don't care why you punched someone, if you put that person in the hospital, you are liable. Unless that person began shooting at her and stabbed someone, Lily would have been charged with aggravated assault.

But here she is, proudly boasting about how she got to beat someone up and get away with it.

If you need something more, I can see about maybe making a timeline with her tumblr posts, but that's the major run down of this story, basically.

I hope it helps you better understand where people are coming from, and thank you for asking about it. I really do appreciate the good faith being given here.

[klaineownsmysoul]

I just can't believe that there are people who still believe every single word a public figure/celebrity says, most of the time they LIE. Did C lie about some fans harassing his bf? I have no clue, but if someone was indeed harassing him, that is just not correct. There are crazy fans in every fandom. If people still believe every post or tweet is posted personally by the celebrity, they are just naive and gullible. I don't believe in CC, but that's just my opinion. I do believe D is closeted and just because he posts something or says something nice about someone doesn't mean he actually thinks that, it is most likely PR, just like the unnecessary refurbishment of RR's house. People should wake up and not believe everything they see on the internet. Side note: I couldn't even get mad at yesterday's show because everything is just so ridiculous and bad-acted that it's funny.

At this point, if you aren't side-eyeing basically everything that comes out of Hollywood, you are just willfully ignorant. Its all calculated to a specific end and they don't think twice about contradicting their past selves if it serves a current narrative. Case in point: C saying towards the end of glee that he had no idea who D was when he joined the show when there's a whole interview of him talking about seeing D in AVPM way back when. Like season 2 back when. That's just a blatantly obvious, easily disproved and stupid lie. With regards to this podcast mess - I haven't listened to it and I wasn't on tumblr for most of glee's run so I wasn't really privy to a lot of the goings on that happened bts. Can I believe that there were people who crossed the line of fandom and behaved like assholes? Yes, definitely because it still happens. That kind of behavior is not exclusive to the glee fandom. You will find people like that everywhere. Whether or not they did exactly what he said they did - only he knows that for sure. Its a weird thing to bring up now 6 years after the show has ended as it effectively (and unfairly) paints a bullseye on a specific group. I'm not sure what he was hoping to achieve with this. The CC people that I've interacted with here are lovely and would never in a million years even think of things that horrible. Keep your thoughts and opinions to your own little blog and you don't tag the person in your post - its as simple as that. Who are these nobodies who have that much power that they think they can get a complete stranger fired? If they did indeed behave this way, then that is appalling, completely batshit crazy, and unacceptable - they need professional help. Its not funny, its scary. There's no need for that ever. At the end of the day, its his life and what he does with it and who he spends it with is his business. There's a pretty simple solution if you don't like the person anymore or don't like what they are doing: you can simply stop following them. You don't need to engage in some sort of bizarre smear campaign that has real world implications. Remember all those toxic twitter teens who were ready to draw and quarter D a few months back over that nearly 10 year old pic of him or a comment just as old? The awful things they said about him, the nonstop tagging of him and the flooding of every one of his SM posts with their bullshit? The "you're dead to me if you choose to remain a fan of his" ultimatums? I do! That's the kind of stuff that drives celebs away from SM and ruins it for the rest of us that know how to behave. You're creating an issue where there wasn't one and that's sort of what C did here with his comments.

From my point of view, the issue with C and D's SOs isn't so much that they are with other people, but more to the kind of people they seem to be. I don't know much frankly about W. He's not shoved in my face 24 hours a day and a hovering annoying presence at everything C does. You'll find more pics of C solo or with AF than you will with W. That's why he bothers me less and why D takes more criticism on this. But from what I've heard about him, he's said and posted some pretty awful things in the past and if people choose to not like him because of that, that seems valid to me. As fans, we can only judge celebs by what they say and do and our perception of them - its all we have. My dislike of M is not because she's with D and I'm a super jealous old spinster. And its not because I'm a self hating misogynist. Its because of the way she clings to D and his career while doing nothing on her own, the way she uses him for her own selfish purposes, and the hypocritical way she claimed to not to want to be in the public eye but yet shadows D at every event he goes to because it means cameras and photos and recognition as his wife. That tacky awful commercialized wedding was the last straw for me because I haven't been able to hold my tongue since. And if you follow someone long enough, you can get a pretty good idea of when they're being genuine and when they're bullshitting you or in D's case, when its him posting something and when its a member of his team. For example: where he supposedly proposed. By lying about it - either then or now - you've created a mess that didn't previously exist. Its a fairly simple straightforward statement that most people get right the first time: where they asked their SO to marry them. D says Japan, RR says D called him saying he wanted to do it when he was outside a bathroom in Miami. So the answer is either a) D b) RR c) none of the above. I'm going to go with c, thanks. Unless RR is going to come back and say that D decided to ask her in Miami but then waited until they were physically in Japan to do the asking, I'm going to go with neither of you are right and the reason D blew off the question every time he was asked about it by saying he didn't want to bore us is that you hadn't come up with a good enough and believable story yet. Much like the engagement ring that hadn't been locked down until RR could find a designer willing to make a ring with a diamond big enough to soothe her ego and give off the pretense of being legit. He probably put more effort into that than anything in D's career in the last 5 years. Do I think that RR did help D at one point when he was starting out with gigs, jobs, things like that? Sure. No problem. And maybe they were friends and liked to hang out and jam together. But do I also think that D has outgrown him personally and professionally at this point? Hell fucking yes. He needs a grown up to take his career to the next level and RR is not that person. He completely failed to capitalize on all the awards and well deserved hype D got from ACS and for that alone, he should have been fired. He needs someone who wants to do the work because they understand the rare find they have in D and that their job is to promote him, not themselves. The IOU ep was nothing but a self serving hour of D trying to make RR look and sound like he's not a complete waste of space on top of getting a cut of his fee as his manager. If you look at D's page on the very sad H/yphenate website, you will see the 3 biggest roles D's had are not listed. No Blaine. No Hedwig. No ACS. But oddly enough, a mention of his record deal with Columbia, which I thought went kaput ages ago and his hosting of the Teen Choice Awards in 2013. You know - the big times. Why? I'm going to assume its because he got those roles without RR's help so he doesn't want them there and what does that tell you? It should tell you everything. This is why your manager should be your manager and your friends should be your friends. Its like a parent who wants to be their

child's friend instead of the authority figure they need.

Too much of D's SM has the look and feel of pr and useless ads and just flat out nonsense and that falls squarely under RR's domain. He's a 34 year old man with an established career, not a 21 year old newbie just starting out but his SM doesn't reflect that in any way, shape, or form. The sooner D can cut his losses and break free, the better off his career will be, the more adult he will sound, and the happier I will be.

[chocolatecoats]

Helluva Boss Episode 5 thoughts

Since I’ve ranted/talked on Helluva Boss before and I’ve looked through the Helluva Boss critical tag often, I thought “Hey, why not continue?” Short version: I give the episode a 7/10. Better than episodes 4 and even 3, but still it could’ve been better.

Long version: SPOILERS AHEAD!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. The animation is obviously more choppy than previous episodes, I’ve heard that SpindleHorse is on a much tighter budget now, but the choppiness kinda hurts to watch. I’ll give credit where credit is due, and say that some animation with Striker was rather great, especially with that last shot of him. But I’ve seen people on Youtube call this episode cleany animated already and question whether or not we watched the same thing.

2. Stolas’ and Blitzo’s relationship is rather uncomfortable. Stolas constantly makes sexual remarks at Blitzo even in public, he gives him no choice to have sex with him in exchange for running his business when legit he could be doing anything else as payment, and Blitzo clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Stolas otherwise, even having an alarm button for him at the HQ.

Usually I dislike the “Oh you would praise/hate this character for their actions if they were THIS gender!” excuse because bad writing is bad writing. But I feel that if Blitzo was a girl and the relationship with Stolas played out the same way it does, it would become less funny and more creepy to more people, as well as spawn much less fan art. Just because it’s a guy getting uncomfortable or that it’s a same sex relationship doesn’t mean it’s ok!

3. Though Blitzo is still unlikeable as hell. Him bullying Moxxie when he’s obviously saddened or anxious has made me continue to wish for his ass-kicking.

4. The show has remembered that Millie cares about her husband again, but I wish she’d stand up more to Blitzo. If she won’t, I’d like a reason for why. Perhaps it’s because she’s worried on getting fired for too much backtalk?

4. Moxxie once again gets abuse he doesn’t deserve, but it’s good that he got an episode ending that wasn’t him mentally or physically hurt, even if Episode 4 made me dislike him.

5. I do like Striker! His design is a neat change of pace from all the overly red imps, and I like the cowboy aesthetic. Also he’s voiced by Norman Reedus like what? How did they manage to get him?

He kinda reminds me of Rattlesnake Jake from Rango, albeit way less cool.

6. I believe the pacing here went by waaaaay too fast.

7. On that ending...yeah it seems Stella’s gonna be a real baddie. But regardless, this doesn’t excuse Stolas’ relationship actions. They’re both awful and I feel bad for Octavia here for having to deal with them.

Though I am curious if she knows...or even cares about what Stella’s trying to do. EDIT: The fight scenes were pretty well done! And even though the animation could get choppy at points, the shading in this episode looked really pretty! Like DAMN!

Overall, while its a big improvement, and I’d say it’s probably tied with Murdr Family for second best episode. Although....Vivziepop still isn’t the great storyteller I’ve seen Youtube comments consider her as. Getting well known voice talent for this show really isn’t worth the cuts to animation frames.

[chibimyumi]

Hi, I hope you're doing well and staying healthy. I've read your post about how Elizabeth attacking ciel is sexism. What about Sebastian getting bully by Frances? Frances is a noblewoman grabbing a servant's hair in front of other people. And fans (including me) are like: oh! What a lioness! Even the devil himself is terrified of her! what if it was the other way around? The idea of a nobleman grabbing a governess's hair calling her nasty and indecent makes me uncomfortable and even angry.

【Response to post: Sexism against men and Kuro Sexist jokes】

Dear Anon,

I’m doing well, thank you very much. I hope you too ^^

Your question is a very good one, and it really had me thinking for a while! I myself admittedly do laugh very hard at Sebastian getting a hard time from Frances. But indeed, like you said, it is still bullying, and bullying is bad. In this post-feminist era, we have been so trained to see women bullying men as ‘funny’ or ‘empowering’, but women getting bullied as unambiguously bad instinctively, that sometimes we forget to check our double standards.

Feelings are feelings, we can’t help what we feel. But how come then that to many of us, Frances bullying Sebas is so funny, but Lizzie almost murdering O!Ciel and Nina bullying men not? This post is merely an attempt to explain this feeling for myself too, but hopefully we can all reach SOME explanation together as well???

Let us first look at in what ways Frances has been making Sebastian’s life hard. From all the interactions we have of these two so far, her main points of criticism seem to be his hair and his lack of professionalism.

Slovenly Hair

Sebastian’s hair is something we’ve gotten quite used to now after more than14 years. In Sebastian’s time however, his hair really would have been the height of impropriety for his profession.

Just like I translated O!Ciel’s looks to 2020 standards, I quickly translated Sebas’ hair to 2020 standards as well. Very clean, innit?! Very professional, innit?!

Even without the translation however, if we look at the worst of wigs from the Kuromyus, we can also see how Sebastian’s hair would be atrocious in any formal setting. Look past the fact that these actors are supposed to represent a drawn character. Just imagine being in a fancy restaurant and encountering a dead-spider feather duster on your waiter’s head.... erm....???

Something that is objectively bad on Frances’ end however, is that chapter 14 is not the first time that Frances has seen his ‘slovenly hair’. If his hair really is so unacceptable, as an authority figure Frances has the right to say something about it. However, as it seems, until this point she has never communicated at all (no, “hinting” is not the same as communicating), so Sebas had no way of knowing what he “did wrong”. She immediately grabbed for Sebastian’s hair without mercy, probably because her crept up frustration got the better of her. This is indeed entirely too harsh for a first time call-out, and entirely on Frances.

Much later in the story Frances criticises and touches Sebastian’s hair again, and this time in public while he was infiltrating as a teacher. Here Frances is even publically humiliating Sebastian in front of his students and other high ranking guests.

Especially when you keep in mind that Frances is a noblewoman and Sebas a mere servant, Frances is indeed abusing her power against a servant who cannot strike back at all.

This is indeed power play. However, though it does not justify anything, in the very least her criticism does have ground; Sebas’ hair is by all measures inadequate for any professional setting. Just be nicer about it, Frances.

Useless Butler

Now, let us look at the other reason Frances disapproves of Sebas. Sebastian is a very competent butler according to most people. To Frances however, this claim is empty. When she arrives, parts of the estate have been destroyed and something very literally exploded in her presence.

Even though Sebas is not the person actively causing the explosion or the destruction, as the senior servant of the household, it is literally his job to manage the other servants. So yes, here too, the fact that things can be destroyed in the household because he either hired inadequate staff or because he mismanages his household, DOES INDEED prove he fails at his job. As the aunt of O!Ciel who cares about her nephew AND her paternal home, Frances is in her right to be concerned and call Sebastian out for NOT doing his job.

In chapter 14, Sebastian’s schedule was all over the place and kept changing the plans for Frances. It is no wonder that she would be quite annoyed and doubt Sebastian’s adequateness. When you know your 13 year old nephew’s household is in the hands of somebody so apparently inadequate, anybody would probably be concerned. However annoyed though, Frances does not overstep any boundaries about this specific issue; she is simply supremely unimpressed. Fair enough?

Compliments where due

Something that is quite interesting though, is that despite disapproving of Sebastian, Frances does also know when to compliment him when due. After Sebastian has saved Lizzie’s life without boasting, Frances recognised how the butler does indeed have some value and the correct attitude as a servant.

She says “though you look indecent what you say is true,” and it is yet another jab at the demon’s expense. But here she is also showing that she is willing to acknowledge somebody’s achievements, looking past appearances.

Before Frances leaves, Frances jabs at Sebas a bit again, but she really is not doing anything dickish this time. Instead of making Sebas think she’s simply chosen him as target to be a prick towards, she concretely states why she doubts his professionalism. She mentions the smashed tea set, bare garden and burnt food; mistakes that are objectively unacceptable. Instead of yelling at him, she actually gives him constructive criticism. So here too, Frances is quite stern, but her grounds are solid.

In the Campania arc Sebas shows up again with the hair Frances disapproved of. Frances clearly wants to do something about it again because in her eyes, the butler simply won’t learn. But given the circumstances and Sebastian’s proven usefulness, Frances actually does shelve her agenda. Just like above, here too Frances shows that she is capable of acknowledging somebody despite their looks.

Later when the zombies dramatically outnumbered the living humans, Frances sends Sebas - who had come to her aid - back to her daughter and nephew. By sending Sebas back, Frances also shows that she in fact trusts this ‘slovenly butler’ with the lives of two children she loves deeply. Sebastian protests, but Frances immediately replies: “don’t you trust our ability as swordsmen?” Here what Frances is functionally saying is: “I trust you with your abilities, so you can trust us back.”

In short, Frances is harsh and doing power-play against a servant, but she can shelve her agenda, and does acknowledge Sebas when due.

Contrast to Nina and Lizzie

So now we have seen how Frances bullies Sebastian, and her motivation behind all her points of harshness. As we have seen, Frances’ only points of criticisms are concrete ones; Sebastian’s lack of professionalism in looks, and his lack of professionalism in management. She goes about them too harshly, but all points are legit criticisms, and something Sebas CAN and probably SHOULD work to improve.

Nina

This is in stark contrast with the way Nina bullies her victims. As far as we have seen, none of Nina’s victims have offended her in any way, nor does she ever give any concrete criticism. She has just decided that because men are men, they don’t deserve proper treatment. Even when providing clothes for men is literally part her job, she refuses to provide the ‘professional service’ she is being paid for. And because she is AN EMANCIPATED LESBIAN!!!!!!! #FEMINISM, it’s FINE (!?!?!?)

Unlike with Frances’ criticism of Sebastian’s inadequate hairdo and managing, being ‘men’ is not something any of these men can do anything about (except Sebas, but Nina doesn’t know). Bullying is always wrong, always low. But it’s EVEN lower when you bully somebody for who they are, and not what they do wrong. What does not help is that Nina seems to only be capable of treating people nicely if they happen to be sexuality-wise compatible with her... but if you are, you’ll get molested. What is wrong with you, Nina????

Yes, Frances is saying: “you are a man, and yet your fringe is so long”. So on the most surface level, it is a woman saying this to a man because he is a man. As we later get to know Frances a bit better though, she would be harsh to anybody who looks slovenly. She just has different hairstyles which she considers appropriate for men and women respectively. Had Sebas been a woman and his hair was the ‘feminine equivalent of slovenly’, Frances would most likely have acted exactly the same. So in this sense, unlike with the jokes using Nina and Lizzie, it is not purely: “Haha, girl bullies boii, lol.”

Something else that is terrible is that what Nina does seems to be systemic. Logically it checks out too; it can’t be that only since the past few weeks she’s decided only women and young boys deserve her kind treatment. For all we know, Nina’s been treating the male Phantomhive staff like this for 2-3 years. Sebastian’s comment about Nina thoroughly ignoring men again with “as always” further supports this theory.

With Frances in contrast, in chapter 14 (so barely a year ago in story time), Sebas seemed to have no clue whatsoever about Frances’ terrors. Sebas announced Frances’ arrival to his master and is very calm about it. It was not until O!Ciel alerted Sebas about his aunt that anybody even guessed what hurricane was headed for them. As such, we can safely conclude that Sebas had only been subjected to Frances’ criticism a couple of times, unlike having had to bear with Nina for years.

Yes, Frances still should have communicated, but I already addressed the details above. Still, the point remains that even though Frances is overstepping boundaries and abusing her power, her criticisms are at least not empty.

Lizzie

Lizzie too just like Nina, had zero grounds for showing that much aggression. She did not give anybody the benefit of the doubt, did not communicate, or even so much as give O!Ciel any chance to explain the situation. So far O!Ciel has given Lizzie no reason to think he’d cheat on her, and yet she hurled so much aggression at him Sebas had to intervene.

Still, Lizzie is marginally better than Nina because she is not systemically bullying O!Ciel. It is a one time event. However, this one makes me more annoyed with Yana because it means that even Yana had to use this stale, stale trope of “LOVE TRIANGLE COMEDYYYY”. Have I ever mentioned how MUCH I hate love triangles and jealousy???

Conclusion

Feeling wise, the most important reason for why Sebas being bullied by Frances is funny is probably because of who Sebas is. Sebas is otherwise an all-powerful demon, but to see him inventing colours to shit at Frances - a human Sebas could crush between his fingertips like a cookie - is just hilarious. Had Sebas been a human though, I would not have laughed so hard personally.

Rationally however, Frances is doing power play against a servant who cannot talk back, so it is still bullying, and bullying is inexcusable.The only bit of “right” Frances has is that she does not seem to be systemically bullying Sebastian, and that her criticisms have some ground.

So if Nina and Lizzie’s behaviours played for jokes are like... a -7 and -9 respectively, Frances’ at least scores a -2 for me?

(Yes, as we’re talking about bullying anyway, I just have to make a jab at Vincent.)

Afterword

Something not really related to why “Frances:Bad”, “Nina-Lizzie:Worse”, but I do wish to mention is Yana’s improved drawing skills. I have no proof, but I think it MIGHT have been where this Frances-joke originated.

Yana’s time in the more traditional mindset of manga-worldview really showed, especially at the far beginning. Besides, she was still in the process of finding a way to draw handsome men. In the more traditional mindset of the early 2000s, handsome men were just not supposed to have slicked back hair - “that was reserved for old men and nasty dudes!!” Yana’s discomfort with drawing handsome men with slicked back hair was clearly visible in Sebastian’s early appearances, and making the ‘”hair, back!!! says old-fashioned lady” was potentially even a way of Yana to laugh at herself.

I don’t know who else is old like me and grew up with 80s to early 00s manga, but at the time, hair for handsome men was a BIG deal. In that world ‘slicked back hair’ just carried a certain laughability about it; a “rule of not-cool”. To me at least at the time this ‘laughability’ really resonated with me, and Yana probably also trusted this same ‘unspoken rule’ to resonate with her audiences.

Much later though, Yana clearly grew more comfortable and  maybe even fond of slicked back hairstyles as she confidently chose to portray Sebas as ‘appealing’ while wearing his hair in the style Yana previously disliked.

Again, I have no proof, but I can’t help but think that if Kuro had started 10 years later, the running gag revolving Frances might look altogether different.

What do you guys think? ^^ Cheers, and stay healthy!

Character analysis Nina Hopkins

Character analysis Vincent Phantomhive

Sexism against men and Kuro’s sexist jokes

MASTERPOST Gender in Kuroshitsuji

MASTERPOST Analyses & Info

[omegas-spaghettios]

In Defense of Bo-Katan

This character receives an enormous amount of hate and it is so unfair.

Before I begin, I have a few disclaimers to make.

1. I used to be on the hate train for her. When TCW S7 and Mando S2 aired, I hated her. Absolutely loathed her and I was vocal about it. You could go back and find a trail of me hating on her, I want to admit to that before I go on.

2. I love every character I talk about during this. When I compare her to other characters or discuss other characters, it comes from a place of love. Flawed characters are the best characters because it makes them feel human.

3. I am not defending her from a moral standpoint. She does some pretty awful things. What I'm arguing is that a lot of criticism levied at her for being a "bad character" is unfair because what she does either lines up with her motivations and thus makes her a well written character (if not unlikable), or she does things and gets slammed for it when male characters do the same things and get away with it.

I'm just gonna go chronologically and discuss major talking points on why people hate her.

1. Her Discussion with Kenobi in 7×10

People hate on her because of this, and that could be fair, depending on how else you view Star Wars. Bo was responsible for helping bring an organization to power that killed her sister, she weaponized the death of her sister against Obi-Wan, and also her organization (Death Watch) has tried to kill Obi-Wan many times. She is overall being incredibly unfair and awful in this scene.

Okay, so she helped kill a woman important in her life, weaponized that death to guilt Obi-Wan, and also is responsible for attempts on Obi-Wan's life.... why does this feel familiar....

Anakin did much, MUCH worse than her, yet he is still loved. I love Anakin! But it pisses me off that when Bo does it it's a valid reason to hate her and one of the two most commonly listed examples to hate her, but when Anakin does it he gets nuance. Anakin's character and motivations line up to that event, it makes him a flawed character. But when Bo does it, we just hate her?

"But she doesn't have the development to that point like Anakin" the entire Prequel Era is the story of Anakin, no character has as much time dedicated to them. How can Bo have that much development to make it "believable" when the only character who can rival Anakin's level of development is Ahsoka?

If you hate both Bo and Anakin then her Discussion with Obi-Wan is a 100% valid reason to hate her. This is not to say you can't hate her for that, this is to say that there is a lot of hypocrisy in the fandom over this.

2. Sabine Wren

I'm not gonna spend much time on this, cause it isn't a huge reason I see often and it's just, so easy to debunk. I love Sabine and her arc is good, but from a Mandalorian standpoint, she's lucky she left the planet with a decent public standing. She makes a weapon for the empire that is handcrafted to kill Mandalorians and names it after Bo's dead pacifist sister. Under no circumstance is any Mandalorian required to treat her well after that, especially Bo.

I know she has an arc to redeem herself over the course of the show, but imagine if a public figure irl did that. No one would care how hard they worked to redeem themselves, no one would ever trust them again and that is valid.

3. Bo's discussions with Din

The way she and the other two scoff at Din is not kind at all, it's pretty rude. But guess what? Din got aggressive first when they took their helmets off.

I understand being in a cult means your view of the world is purposefully warped and information withheld so he doesn't know better, but why does Bo have this responsibility to be kind to anyone who is mean to her just because they might not know better? Why does Bo NEED to give everyone the benefit of the doubt?

Din was aggressive and accused them of not being mandalorian FIRST, he doesn't know better and that makes Bo's treatment of him less than ideal, but why does she have to respect his beliefs and identity when he IMMEDIATELY is trying to rip apart hers?

She never even says he isn't Mandalorian, just he was raised in a cult, which he high key is. The amount of identity suppression and implied information control in The Children of the Watch or whatever they are called is very cultish.

4. The Boba interaction

This and the TCW S7 interaction with Kenobi are the two big ones I see very frequently.

Before I begin with her motivations, can we talk about how blatant the one-sided hate is in this scene anyway? Boba is standoff-ish and aggressive right from the get go, audibly calling them a waste of time, ridiculing Bo for wanting to liberate her literal ancestral homeland, calling her all sorts of names, etc. Boba is by no means trying to be respectful or diplomatic but that's fine, but when Bo gives the same energy as him she gets hated. Again, Boba starts it by saying they were a waste of time.

Getting mad that she called him "not a real mandalorian" is pointless because he immediately says "never claimed to be". Boba isn't Mandalorian. He isn't. He doesn't view himself as Mandalorian and his connection to the armor is just because of his father, not because of Mandalorian heritage.

Her seething hatred for clones and attacking Boba with it is awful but it's understandable within her character. Clone Troopers came to help in the Siege of Mandalore with the explicit agreement they would leave once Maul was captured. Maul was captured, Order 66 came down, the clones never lifted their occupation. Does that mean her hatred of all clones is justified? No. But is it understandable from her viewpoint? Yes, and that makes her a 3 dimensional, flawed character.

We know it wasn't the clones' fault, but we have no reason to believe Bo knows about the chips. Even then, it is established in Rebels when Kanan first meets Rex and crew that people who know about the chips don't necessarily believe it. It takes discussion with the clones themselves and evidence to sway his belief. So even if Bo knows, why does she need to believe it when Kanan initially didn't? Bo hasn't had any discussions like Kanan and Rex had with a clone on screen, so the evidence already shown in previous media lines up with her hating clones.

Also, the weird stuff with the darksaber is not her fault. It's legit just the writers changing how it works to write their story so now she has to bend. It's inconsistent between Rebels and Mando but literally every character shown so far suffers from it. The Saber has not been won in combat since Maul killed Pre Vizsla, the whole "rightful heir" thing is just a mess and is more inconsistent writing that affects star wars overall, not just Bo.

Conclusion

Hate her all you want but stop letting men get away with the shit you hate her for lmao

I still don't particularly love her at all, I don't tend to think about her much, but y'all, come on.

[yoitscro]

I still haven’t watched the video...BUT.

While I’m still of the belief that Sarah Z probably shouldn’t have posted some “rise and fall” video on Homestuck --which uses the traction of 4/13, a positive day for a fandom that likes to eat itself, to give attention some to criticisms involving speculative allegations-- , I’ve seen more anger from people that I frankly don’t trust being upset about it being a “hit” video to tear down WP, and jumping the gun to the point of threatening legal action, versus actually seeing casual watchers talking about the discourse; more so about nostalgia and “ah, homestuck exists still”.

I assume the paranoid jump on the video is because of casual watcher’s potential reactions? But there’s, also, more reactions toward the team’s response versus what the team + team friends were presumably worried about...so like. I guess the fire being fueled is ironically only being fueled because it’s being blown out of proportion, and thereby brought to peoples attention through *that*.

Sarah’s video is not 100% right. There are false facts from what I’ve seen briefly of. I personally don’t think that a person who’s read Homestuck but has only existed in the fandom space primarily during certain years has the same, fair perspective as a current homestuck that’s been aware of the environment going on, especially on Homestuck Twitter. Instead of things being made in 10 days, apparently, and there not being any effort to reach out to anyone on the team before presenting information, I would’ve just, you know, not done that. At least give it a shot, you literally lose nothing but avoid many things later.

The team has also faced blatant threats and harassment, which isn’t the same as other queer or poc people criticizing how homestuck handles content in their own space, but it exists. There’s certainly a reasonable, human reaction that I get, which come from the anxiety of being put on the spot by a something-thousand subscribed youtuber while you’re trying to figure things out in the background as things have been quiet, right after the turbulent year of 2020. I’ve actually been really frustrated that people haven’t considered that and that these reactions are coming out of nowhere. There is a trauma to consider since this is not the white guy taking the brute of stuff despite people using Hussie’s name as a synonym for the team.

There’s also the fact that Gio was apparently not asked to be used in the video beforehand? At least that’s what I’ve heard, which if true was an oversight, given how one may want to ask “hey, i’m making a video on your articles which could absolutely put you in the center of this since I’m using your online identity; let me get your permission at least.”

That said, based on audience reaction, and how it’s been the opposite of what a handful of people associated with officialized content expected, which is the reason things are being targeted right now, I feel like this is an...overreaction. 

Again, I haven’t watched the video. But the video existing with the whispered points it’s brought up is the reason that things exploded yesterday. I’ve seen more dislikes of Sarah’s video from a loud minority who, 1. are people who refuse to ever criticize the issues with Homestuck for actual years, and 2. people who have watched 20 minutes of it and heard what they wanted to hear, versus seeing the criticism acknowledged by everyone else, outside of an acknowledged comment before moving on. The reaction is what’s giving it the most attention, actually.

Apparently in the video she mentions how she’s not trying to enable any harassment, states that somethings presented are just speculation, and doesn’t namedrop anyone specific?

That seems like a cliche way to act like someone can’t ever respond to stuff like this, but that’s usually saved for smaller followed beef on tumblr or twitter. Not a company or it’s contracted IP.

I’ve seen the people say it wasn’t that bad and have honed in on WP + acquaintance reactions versus what was said in the video. It was just something that was posted on a day where so much other 4/13 stuff was going on, which could’ve been given attention instead of one person’s video, which was apparently 2 hours long, and was already being venomously hated before one would’ve been able to watch it in full? (The idea of the anger coming from those who haven’t watched the video is...not surprising. There have been people put on blast for HS opinions for just a sentence.)

The kickstarter update’s response could’ve been posted itself, versus all the stuff prior and after it (the supposed legal action), but I honestly think that it shouldn’t have taken a breadtuber’s threat on Homestuck’s reputation for fans who ACTUALLY engage with it to have communication with what’s been going on, which we’ve been asking for for years. There’s a trust that needs to be rebuilt on both sides, be it from entitlement, elitism, or bullying, and this did not help.

I don’t like that Hussie only speaks up when a boiling point is reached, and people who work on his team are beyond gone or dealing with the fallout with how he’s neglected his IP and the fans that’ve somehow stayed to support it; crowd control and community management is important, and every other indie creator or small team on the internet who thinks ahead has been getting this. And I honestly hope that anyone who is legit having a terrible time producing HS content considers whether or not they should continue to stick around, for their own mental health.

If by a week from now we’re talking about the reaction of the video and the video itself is potentially long out of people’s mind well. That’s the point of this rant.

and on the other side, quoting a friend:

Sarah z's video didn't need to be released on a day of celebration for a healing fanbase and that video regressed that and caused the official team to have fucking public panic attacks.

Not a great 4/13, tbh.

[egyptian-sun-god]

Never Have I ever S2

SPOILERS.....Turn back now I’m serious.

I’m waiting....

Okay cool your fault at this point

I was fairly critical of NHIE S1, I won’t lie. And I’ll be real I still stand by the fact that NHIE S1 was fairly meh overall. 

But holy shit, they knocked this season outta the world man. The show really really found its proper footing this season. They were smart to keep the cheating for only two episodes and explore the repercussion for the other 8. 

1.Devi Vishwakumar.

Let’s start with the main character.  Devi still does immensely fucked up shit this season. Dating two boys and have them find out in the MOST humiliating way possible. Yikes. Being a really sucky friend to Aneesa and starting that rumour about her (inadvertently) and pretending to her. Stalking her mother and being possessive of her. The really awful apology that was pretty self centred, a bit not good. 

 But she really does do her best to improve and I am SO proud of that. She uses her father’s advice and apologizes better to Aneesa, she actually handled the Ben and Aneesa dating WAAAAY better than I’ve seen some people handle things like that. I might’ve blown a fuse if two of my friends had 4 tickle fights and had major PDA sessions when we were trying to do a group project. Like she handled that shit fairly well all things considered. Devi actually gets into the beginnings of delving into her trauma and her temporary paralysis and healing from it. I

 really see how the label ‘crazy’ weighs on her and how she blew up with it and the message of destigmatizing mental illness. (Crazy Aneesa and Crazy Devi)  Her properly bonding with her mother and watching videos of her father and remembering/honouring his memory hit REALLY HARD (since I lost many people in my family recently and that fear of forgetting them has been real). Devi is actually beginning to heal from the loss of her father by strengthening the relationship with her Amma. And the slap from Paati was so so needed, it really gave her a better respect of her mother and fixed the problem I had with Devi mouthing off so much to her Amma. I live to see good maamiyar marumagal relationships. Her relationship with Paxton is really good and it gets developed very logically and having her be scared of being pathetic but in the end she accepted her own self worth and stopped chasing after them which was good. 

Overall Devi really blossomed into her own developing person and I actually like her so much more this season. 

2. Paxton Hall Yoshida

I was honestly, like genuinely sad last season he was like 80% eye candy with not much else going for him. Paxton had so much faith as a character and Ms Kaling has really pulled him into such a better person this season. 

Paxton got hit by a car before swim season, lost his ticket to college and wow, got two timed by a girl he liked all in two episodes. If he was salty about that for more than one season I would’ve completely accepted it. Cause that’s a bad public humiliation. 

Paxton episode really really made me love him as a character (honestly more so than Ben) I think because I heard Paxton’s entire worry and irritation that he was being underestimated and no one really expected him to go to college from a friend of mine not more than a month ago. That shit is real, and it hurted my friends a lot that people were really underestimating them and just seeing them as a dumb athlete who has no hope of college. It’s really nice to see Paxton actually want to go to college and learn Japanese American side with his Oji-chan giving him advice and supporting him. And him bringing his grandfather to speak about the internment camps, that seriously do not get spoken about enough.

Also him putting effort and making a genuine effort to work hard and bring up his grades with Devi and therefore bonding with her was really nice to see. I wouldn’t mind them being endgame but Devi does really work a lot better as his pushy Indian mom/best friend/tutor.  And Devi getting mad at him for him expecting him to hold his hand throughout really hit well. Was it deserved yeah. But Devi also did blow him off after promising him to study so his anger is justified there. I’m just kinda vibing with Paxton like coming up and taking a better interest in school and being a full 3D character. And that one scene where he gives the extra credit presentation and Trent high fives the man. Classic. 

Can I also just say, it’s kinda valid that Paxton didn’t want to date her in public. Is it a dick move...yeah? But he’s within his rights to ask and she’s within her rights to deny. And he didn’t press her once she said no, he went along with it. And what Devi pulled on him is awful, and speaking as someone who’s seen popular kid cliques. Reputation really is important. Like what Devi did made Paxton lose face, if he gets back with Devi he ain’t gonna have any respect left in him. And Paxton was pretty right in deciding to not date her publicly, like even in the end he knows that his reputation is shot for what he did. Do we even know if Paxton has friends that aren’t fixated on his social status? Because becoming a social pariah without having any support of friends is gonna hurt like a bitch. Lord knows how Paxton gonna deal with it. I think Trent might be his only homie after the social downfall he will inevitably face. 

I’m just gonna say, Paxton is my favourite now and I’m really rooting for him. Something I decidedly did not do last season. I’m happy Ms Kaling developed him so much and got me interested. 

3. Ben Gross

Ah. Ben. Ben’s not my faaavouriteee.......like he’s fine. But I don’t love him. I can definitely see him and Devi becoming an almost endgame couple though. Especially with S2 ending. 

Ben is fine and he’s pretty developed, especially with his episode in S1 and it was good he took a backseat this season and let everyone else star. I feel like he’ll come back strong next season though. 

Personally do I ship him with Devi? No. I’ve been in a friendship with the similar competitive dynamic as Ben and Devi. And it was terrible. We loved to argue and we got each other’s super brainy side as Devi puts it. But we pushed each other faar too much and even the small things became arguments and each pthers achievements became jealousy. So yeah....I don’t have too much faith in the dynamic due to personal bias, but I’d love to see how it gets handled. 

Also my brother Ben, PDA is a thing and it is common courtesy to refrain from it. Man’s really going at it with Aneesa half the time. But also the moment where Aneesa sort of choked on the presentation and Ben’s irritation at it gave me BAAAD vibes. It feels like while Devi can match him, they might push each other too far, 

4. Kamala 

I LOVE KAMALA. Girl is an ENTIRE vibe. My sweetheart, love of my life. I could go on. I really like her development as well and the banter between her and Nalini. The part where Nalini practically said she looked like a call girl and she was like ippadi potathaan velaila mariyaatha kidaikum. I legit had to pause, scream in laughter for a good few seconds. 

They had such a good story with her and wanting to fight against the fact that they took her work and didn’t credit her and everyone was telling her to like take it bowing. Prasanth’s advice unfortunately checked out to me, because I’ve been told that all my life. My dad says it a lot and I know he doesn’t say it cause’ he doesn���t believe in me, but he loves me and wants my life to be easier and for me to succeed and his experience is that he’s had to deal with things like this and fighting won’t help. So yeah, what Prasanth said did not rub me the wrong way at all and I agreed with it and I’m fairly disappointed about that. I get that she got nervous and had cold feet about marriage but I do hope she and Prasanth can work this out through communication. Because I really don’t feel like Prasanth is the bad guy here. It’s just a miscommunication. 

So yeah, a LOT of Kamala’s storyline continues to really hit me hard. 

5. Nalini Vishwakumar

Nalini really had so much more screentime to blossom. I love that she has a good relationship with Mohan’s amma. It’s wonderful and I love it. Also I was shocked to see the house in Chennai. Like this house...in Chennai. The Chennai I’m used to and the Chennai they are used to are different Chennai’s. Basically wealth gap is crazy as hell and I was lowkey highkey confused if the actually shot this shit in Chennai. But props to the directors for putting some proper Tamil vibes in there. Like the scene where they kaala thottu kumbudurathu (touch the elder’s feet) before they leave for the US is so real and so vibes. I like that they decided to bring paati back. I was like hoping for it.

Also they really went at developing Nalini’s character as a workaholic mom who doesn’t get her daughter. That’s also a really common thing in Indian households with one working parent so I’m happy they portrayed that. I’m happy Nalini actually has a life outside her family portrayed and is still such a typical mother that it hits HARD. I love Nalini and she really developed as a character dealing with grief from Mohan’s death, the wish to move on with Dr.Jackson but knowing that she isn’t ready yet. 

They gave her character a life and proper working outside Devi and it really has shown to develop her character and impact her relationship with Devi. The advice to “just say yes” works with cousins and younger siblings as well, I’ve heard it before and used it..and it saves so much time. Especially with small children. 

(A memory I have is of my younger cousin going on and on about a princess and a castle and fighting a dragon and the witches and so much fantasy shit and ended with do you wanna come? I just clocked off my CCA’s and I had no energy left to question it so I just went yeah sure. Easiest decision, and 10/10 advice. )

6. Aneesa

I’m not gonna lie. I was skeptical of Aneesa and I didn’t like how Devi saw her in the trailer. But Aneesa reminds me so much of me....and its killing me. 

Also the scene where she charms the hell out of Nalini and paati ma has literally happened to me before. Most of my Indian friends hate it..because I was raised with a lot more traditional manners with my grandparents so me and my siblings all are old fashioned which parents LOVE. And I really saw that Aneesa charming them and Devi also realizing, Damn none of my friends actually treat my family the way they should be treated, perks of having an Indian friend. 

Also the scene where she gets Devi out of trouble is so so real. Because if you have one responsible friend that you parents trust, you could lie the hell to them, get you homie to back you up and it will work. Personal experience. So yeah, Aneesa character resonated with me a lot.

I also like that she wasn’t just a popular 1D Indian girl but she was genuinely cool and actually had proper issues and development where she gets more open to Sherman Oaks and actually kinda properly rebels against Noor, with having Ben as a boyfriend. 

I feel like Aneesa has a lot more potential for growth, especially with the relationship with Ms Noor and Aneesa acting as a foil to Nalini and Devi’s. Also, I feel like Aneesa can grow within her social status at school as well and have Devi maturely handle it. Aneesa I feel will really really challenge Devi’s ability to be mature. 

7. Eleanor and Fabiola’s plotlines

Okay like actually, major props to Ms Kaling man. This show touches so so many teen issues in one goddamn show. Emotionally manipulative relationships. So SO good. A lot of newer age relationships have a much more subtle and dangerous line of abuse that’s hard to find out. Like honestly it took me a while to see it as well and I realized oh fuck. oh fuck...I see it it’s bad. They really got the essence of Eleanor’s flamboyance matching with Malcom? (is it Malcolm..fuck it it’s Malcolm now) his “suaveness” and traditionally charming tendency. It made sense and it’s very realistic how Eleanor got played like a damn fiddle. I also again feel that the make up was faar to quick but I really appreciate that Eleanor got her own storyline with her step-mom and understanding of relationships instead of the show hyperfocusing on just Devi. I respect that a lot.  Petition to get a Eleanor narration episode. 

Fabiola’s storyline also was well taken. It’s an interesting added layer to the queer experience and how queerness can be expected to be performative and but really its all about being more of yourself. The idea that queer people don’t owe nobody anything or have to perform an ideal version of queerness and Fabiola struggling with that kinda hit. The part where they talked about her mother learning to support them and being Cricket? Queen/King. Like being trailblazers for the POC community and the LGBTQ+ community having overlapping struggles. Again, I liked that Fabiola was getting more personal screentime and less of her story revolving around Devi’s. 

8. Everything else

I liked that there was more Tamil being casually thrown around. Like the Kamala vaadi to hold the suitcase down as they zipped it together was funny and relatable. The accents were really interesting because I promise you, I had no clue what they were saying sometimes. Nalini’s dialogues in Tamil were like immensely difficult to understand, and my Tamil is fluent. This isn’t a criticism... I’m fairly certain the difference is to do with the regional difference. American Tamil and Malaysian + rural Tamil slang are going to have huge accent differences so there’s no surprise that I found Nalini’s Tamil hard to understand. 

I’m really really really meh about the Kamala and Manish/Mr Kulkarni thing. I still think she should sort it out with Prasanth maybe but I’m open to seeing where it goes. I might change my mind with it. 

This show like any other show had its highs and lows. But I really really do feel that NHIE season 2 managed to truly figure out what the hell it wants to do and developed into a very strong and very entertaining show in terms of representation and diversity. I’m looking forward to season 3. 

[vrishchikawrites]

I dont think these fanon takes are a minor thing, I think its more of a cql thing, if people have watched the drama first/only, their perspective is heavily influenced by it, its no fault of the actors but the script heavily does change stuff, WWX is made to cry 82 times in cql? In novel its 2 at most, JZXs death and when he returns from the dead, his resilience trait is..gone. Jiang Wanyin is shown as soft instead of brash/impulsive that he is, JYL has a fixation on family stuff 1/2

Which is more subtle in the novel, to remove WWX remembering LWJ in burial mounds they add lotus pond scenes, this instead shows that WWX missed 'home' or 'regretted' his actions, in novel he never once did, he wasn't bitter/guilty because he knew he was in the right, and Wens were grateful to him, the public hanging of Wens??? I mean, the whole arc was what rumor mongering does, no one knew they were innocent people because this was hidden from them, people like LXC and NMJwouldNOTstandforit2/?

What is up with Mian Mian being from a bigger sect when she worked hard in a smaller sect to gain a high position and then discarded it for righteousness? ? What about JZX? His arc has him an only child thus influence on his pompous behaviour, and he steps up to save Mian Mian 'daughter of a servant' not his close friend, it highlights him not care about status when looking at people, and sure JWN throw the person down the cliff your sister died saving, what a way to honor her sacrifice 4/?

How they changed JWN into a 'soft' person (with emotional scenes on screen)when he is brash/impulsive fixation on yunmeng trio, JYL with family, WWX never regretted his decision, ever, hes in the right thats why, he doesn't throw the seal into the crowd, he dies from the backlash of destroying the seal because of the very reason he knows they'll use it to harm others which he didnt want. It seems more like scrip writers didnt address mxtxs work as an adaptation they were adapting 5/?

Anon, I'm assuming you said what you wanted to say? Idk, but let me reply to these?

Bear in mind, I watched the series once and actually fast forwarded a few scenes.

I agree that CQL has colored people's opinion on the characters. But I still don't get the takes. Even if CQL softened JC significantly, his actions are still Very bad.

Even in CQL, he-

1. Owes a debt to the Wens and refuses to disclose it.

2. Knows people in the BM are harmless and there's a child there.

3. Doesn't support WWX at critical times, showing division instead of solidarity.

4. Lets the woman he was intent on courting burn before his very eyes.

5. Participates in a seige against his martial brother.

6. Helps that martial brother commit su*cide.

7. Threatens a resurrected wwx multiple times.

8. Tries to fight wwx when he was legit bleeding and swaying in front of him.

9. Goes 'what of my mother, father, sister,' during the whole GC conversation at the temple.

10. Treats his nephew like shit.

11. Benefits immensely from WWX's death.

This is just from the top of my head. Just CQL material.

So, all of these things aren't subtle. They're not nuanced actions of discreet character that you need to dig into. All of these incidences are significant events, clearly described and showcased in CQL.

Blaming CQL is well and good, it has a lot of flaws. I agree with everything you mentioned. But, my thing is, CQL JC is almost worst. CQL WWX is actually more innocent. CQL goes solidly white vs. black morality. LWJ and WWX on the right side, everyone else (juniors and wn not included) on the wrong side. It can't be clearer even in that, somewhat clumsy, adaptation.

What I think is happening is people are overly identifying with a foil character. Instead of thinking, "Well, this is how this character works, these are his actions" they go, "this is how the author, unjustly, crafted my fav character. His actions are the author's fault and really, he is better deep down inside of him. You just don't understand him like I do. Really, the author was unfair to him."

All the while, they forget this is a fictional character crafted from the author's imagination and not a real, dynamic person.

The case with MianMian is ridiculous. Her character is compelling in many ways and CQL definitely messed it up. JZX would've benefited from that nuance. I won't comment on how much I hate the low self-esteem so prevalent in WWX's CQL characterization because it makes me scream.

But even then, WWX is shown as competent, confident, and so done with everyone's bs. He clearly reached a point where he only cares about LWJ. It is pretty obvious that in his opinion, everyone else (aside from juniors and wn) sucks.

CQL may be iffy, it isn't fully to blame. Fanon takes are... well, just some people deciding they wanna ignore the source material and believe their fav character is different. Which, sure. I don't mind.

Still doesn't change the fact that they chose to interpret characters in a certain way despite all evidence to the contrary.

[weaselbeaselpants]

Weird week behind me weird week ahead of me but I’ve done a lot of self reflection and came to the weirdest epiphany. The older I get the more I realize all my ‘problems’ with VivziePop - her thoughts on criticism;  the choices she makes in story telling; some of the people she’s worked with (not that any of that’s my business; I’m not her mom) really aren’t about Viv, but more about her fandom.

I’m speaking of the preHazbin era Viv here and as someone who’s only watch horny fish jump at the surface rather than jump straight into the Hazbin-fandom, but given my ‘noncritical’ fellow fans have told me that the Vivziefandom now is also terrible - I guess I’ll go over my experience and make the most out of what I do know.

I followed Viv in 2009 and fell off in 2013 cause I kinda just lost interest and found myself wrapped up in other fandoms. I’ve always felt amicable about her content; I could give or take designs or the way in which she wrote characters -- ((Zech represent!!!)) but it’s honestly surreal and really fun seeing this person I recognize make it big and improve so much. Like I’ve said before I am very happy and very impressed with Viv doing all she’s done in the span of TWO YEARS. wow gurl.

Trouble is, there was the particular breed of fan who really made me...uncomfortable. They felt almost possessive of Viv’s attention. They sang praises about her work in a way that just made me want nothing to do with it because I was worried if I drew those characters these people would be like ‘hey, I’M Viv’s fav artist, not you!”. They would  unironically write Viv messages like:

“you are a GOD” -- “I’m so not worthy compared to you” --“I wish I was as talented as you” -- “YOU ARE EVERYTHING AND CAN’T DO WRONG VIV”.

The kind of messages which were meant to sound flattering but, intentional or not, came off as gaslighting, like they were guilt tripping Viv about being better than them. This behavior, treating your favorite artist/internet personality like your superior and groveling like Starscream, it strikes a nerve with me; partly because I was this way with my favorite artists and influences back in the day,  but also because once I got a taste of that treatment myself I realized just how bad it could be:

There was once a girl on dA who was jealous of me because of the attention I got on my art instead of her. I told her that I wasn’t gonna stop drawing but also that there was nothing wrong with her art and she’d find her place. It was weird being put in that position where someone is very clearly upset at you but also looking for your approval.

The second was some scumball who I blocked in 2016. He wouldn’t speak to me, only write condescending, backhanded comments on my art; check on my profile daily; call me a bootlicker (cuz I took commissions) behind my back; redrew my art and would talk about me in his personal artist notes about how I ‘probably wouldn’t see this’ - oh yeah all the while he did fan art of my characters but again never spoke to me when I replied. When I finally messaged him about his behavior he said he thought I was “really overrated” and “bad for the fandom” cuz I took money and kept him from getting the love he deserved. It took messaging another person within our fandom, one I had been in spats with online before, to finally realize I shouldn't put up with that bs....

That guy who was stalking me btw did so while I was well under 1.K watchers and am still pretty obscure. Anyway, I had one guy unhealthily watching me for the wrong reasons. Just one. This is why when Viv says she “hates creeps” I 150% believe this woman and am not about to call her a liar who just can’t take criticism. Like, if you really think that, I’m sorry but you don’t know what Viv’s gone through from both her critics AND fans.

Of course, a lot of people will be like “I bet you’re just jealous and really just want that kind of attention yourself so you’re preaching to the choir”, but like...no. I am envious of just about any creator who’s the social butterfly I’m not, but, like, if I'm jealous of an artist none of that is that artists’ fault. Ever. It’s my own issues with being comfortable with myself are at stake. If I criticize Viv’s work it’s not because I see her as competition or my Squilliam Fancyson; it’s because I’m a critical fan of animation and cartoons and have my own thoughts to share on the cartoons of an artist I’m familiar with.  Jealousy/envy/mixed-admiration/godIwishthatwereme.jpeg feels are totally natural and valid emotions when you’re a creator. Envy becomes a problem when you internalize, weaponize, and scrutinize people on the basis of them being what you aren’t which -yes - some people do in the name of criticism. ((Although, I would hardly say some of the nastiest AntiViv folk are jealous as much as they are angry that this project they think is harmful is getting attention and using that as justification for some really shitty behavior of their own, which no, this post is not a part of by virtue of coming from a critical fan.))

Critique can come from either a good place or bad place; good critique can be used to bad ends and bad critique can come from a well-meaning place, and vice versa.   It’s the difference between many a criticalfan having a sour taste in their mouth regarding the Viv’s base but persisting in a critique+admiration separate of that, and this asswipemonster trying to weasel his way into Spindlehorse while also bashing Viv on a public forum for clearly vitriolic reasons. He was a creep.

So yeah um please stop insisting that every Hazbin critic is just jealous’ because a) there are people who have a past with Viv’s base and that clouds their judgement, but in a lot of cases that doesn’t invalidate their feelings or thoughts on her work separate from that, and b) I’ve seen what clingy gaslighting jealous fans are. Spoiler: they’re not so much Annie Wilkes as much as they are Tommy Wiseaus. You don’t want Tommy Wiseau following you.

Another bad vibe I really picked up on that I can kinda confirm is still probably the case now: people think that they know Viv and the Spindlehorse crew and have the right to send them shit they don’t need or WANT to be seeing.

Like, I talked with Viv once ages ago. I don’t remember what I said other than we were talking about Frankenweenie, I think. She was nice. Outside of that she said “thank you” to my comments on her deviations but that’s it. I DO NOT KNOW THIS WOMAN AND unless you’ve worked with or are a legit friend/mutual of hers, NEITHER DO YOU. But I don’t think every Vivzie stan/critic knows this. Whether it be people assuming she MUST think they’re headcanon is now canon-canon cuz she liked a comment they made; or some critic thinking they must have seriously hurt her pride because they’ve been blocked by her on twitter (or you know, maybe she and the rest of Spindlehorse is tired of getting @s and don’t have to time to read through your analysis so they’re gonna just block and move on cuz they’re busy).

Just because the creators talk with fans doesn’t mean fans are literally their best friends and have a part in the show’s direction. And yes, critics and reviewers fit that bill as well. Know your damn boundaries people.

If you find/make some kind of contribution as a viewer that’s awesome but you should never expect nor DEMAND the creator see it. The most obvious horror stories involving this and Helluva/Hazbin have been the Instagrams made by the crew being harassed by incestpedo enthusiasts, but it applies even to just @ing creators as well.

I’ve seriously had someone tell me to just take my criticisms directly to Viv and like...no. Why would I do that?

I respect Viv and the artists working with her enough to know that they’re working their asses off on an animated series and should not be bothered. I don’t want them to stop all they’re doing and reply to me. I want them to keep working. Also, that kind of logic makes me wonder how many critics Viv’s found because she found it on her own or if some obsessed fan told her about it - which is really messed up cuz if it IS just good critique you’re, again, just pestering her, and if it wasn’t critique but full on harassment WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU MESSAGE HER ABOUT THAT ANYWAY? I’m sure she doesn’t need to be reminded that people drew and said really awful shit about her on Tapatalk. My point being I’m sure what people think they’re doing is

“OOOoh Viv lookitwut this person is doing in our fandom we need to ban together against this toxic behavior”

but what they’re actually doing, and sounding like, is -

“Hey Viv I know you are working so hard on the show and you’re trying to figure out where to go from here but LOOKITWHUTTHISHATERSAID. LOOKATIT! VALIDATE ME VIV AND PUT’EM IN THEIR PLAAAAAACE!”

TL;DR Viv’s fanbase back in the day consisted of everyman artists and interests but there was this one breed of fan -who I hope was just a vocal minority- that ruined it for everything else.

Call it stanning or ‘simping’ or as it’s classically known, ‘white knighting’, whatever it was it really soured a lot of people on her because of those fans.

That’s why the DollCreep drama got so bad from what I can tell. Doll and Viv had a falling out and then called out eachother online where people who took it upon themselves to speak for them starting throwing mud.

Back in the day I remember Viv used to get mad at artists for ‘stealing’ her style. I think this attitude from Viv directly has vanished but I remember it happening because one of the people she thought was stealing her style did art for me at some point and they were basically shamed/chased off deviantART by a gaggle of these really nasty Vivfans.

inb4> “VIV WAS AWARE AND STILL WEAPONIZES HER FANS THO”

I don’t know that. And honestly, where I’m inclined to believe she’d do something like that then I think Viv is really different and has improved her business and public image from her college days. I’d be very disappointed in her if she was pulling a Butch Hartman or Derek Savage, but I just don’t think she is one, k?

Viv is more self critical and aware than any of these uber protective-gatekeeping fans give her credit for. She said on the Pizzapartypodcast that she knows the Hazbin pilot wasn’t perfect; she’s been able to identify the problems with old Zoophobia; this woman knows that criticism of all kinds need to exist and from what I see she sounds like she’s trying to get used to that. It’s just, you know, when you have nasty antis badgering you, stalkers, obsessive yes-mam’ fans, opinionated shit posters, r34 artists, entitled shippers and the NDAs of a company alongside your own branded image - all that negativity, even the constructive bits, tend to clump together and you just want to scream at it so you can finish the damn cartoon already!!!!

TL;DR: PART TWO

VivziePop/mind is basically indie Tim Burton.  Her work is fun, shallow and made with love but is marketed as being for everyone when it’s really not. Parts of it I love to watch; parts of it drives me crazy cuz of reasonswhatev this isn’t a review.

BUT any fanbase where people tell me I should just “expect what’s coming to me” when I’m trying to argue against dragging creators into fandrama is troubling. People have a parasocial bond with fandoms and their creators and they need to learn when to back off.