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apostatehamster · 7 months

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Oh no! Another person's 2 cents on the OFMD finale situation!

Yes, because unfortunately my mind still hasn't settled and is in a state of disbelief over what happened, and I am trying to unravel all of this to make sense of it. Written from the perspective of a sad Izzy fan, so if you do not care to read about that or are simply tired of reading these mind pieces... well don't. And do not bother interacting.

I want to preface this by saying, I do believe Writers should be writing the story they think is right. It is impossible to please everyone so I prefer Author's sticking to their vision rather than bending to the loudest (in most cases, read: displeased) voices of the audience. However, I also think people are entitled to voice their displeasure over writing decisions in a constructive way. I don't condone hate towards authors, actors or anyone involved in the making of the show and if you feel angry enough to send hate or threats, take a walk and calm down instead of being a jerk. That being said, I watched many shows with decisions I did not agree on and few made me as angry & sad as this one, hence me trying to dismantle why.

False marketing, expectations and broken promises

Frankly I hadn't seen much advertising about the show before, most of it was fandom activity that praised the show as feelgood and comfort, with good queer representation. I got into it pretty late, so I can't tell what the show itself presented itself as, but to me it seemed like they fully embraced that image and encouraged the show to be perceived as such. It's a rom-com after all, many laughters and sappy feelings. A safe space-ship for outcasts, so to speak. We expected drama but also making-up and possibly more shenanigans. What we did not expect, was a rather prominently featured character dying as one got used to happening from other shows.

OFMD promised to be different, or at least that was my and many others' impression, and then it turned that around in the last 10 minutes of the finale. But more about that and tonal shifts later.

What baffled me most were the interviews hailing in at the start of season two. I've read articles about how season 2 was leaning into the Ed/Izzy/Stede triangle with David Jenkins saying these three "are on an arc together that’s pretty inseparable". I mean we had Izzy being called a jilted lover before, and in addition to Ed & Stede's love declaration, we also had Izzy declare he had love for Ed, and Ed as well saying He loved him, best he could. There was a lot of love, but it was complicated, and the article gave hope that this season would sort this out.

But after the finale, we got interviews that declared Izzy was a father/mentor figure to Ed, which is such a weird claim that is absolutely unfounded in the way the characters interacted with each other, as well as the fact that Izzy's death apparently was something planned from the beginning as an ending to his arc. And well, I find that death separates characters quite definitely.

I am not saying that Steddyhands was promised to us, gods no, but we were definitely given a chance at it happening, when in fact, the ending had already been written as the complete opposite.

Reception and cognitive dissonance

Every person is different and thus has different feelings and opinions. I've seen Izzy fans hating the finale obviously, I've seen Izzy fans who said they liked it. I've also seen people who weren't explicitly Izzy fans say, they did not like the finale, so really, opinions can go any way.

However what baffled me is Jenkins feeling he delivered a truly happy end. Personally, I've never watched a character die and thought "This makes me happy." I especially would never describe a character struggling through hardship, just to ultimately die as happy or beautiful. I can only imagine that the focus was on Ed and Stede, when a happy ending was mentioned, but Jenkins kept pointing out in the interviews, how Izzy was his favorite, which gave hope for a happy ending for Izzy as well. As much as I enjoy seeing my favorites go through hardships, I also prefer to keep them around by not dying. I especially do not build my favorite up to be a well fleshed out character with growth, just to reduce them back to a plot device for the main character.

I know this is all based upon the interviews, and less on the show, but when I read "And what's the most interesting thing we can do with Con[...]?" my answer definitely wouldn't have been "kill his character off". Con O'Neill does a great job at playing emotional scenes, but we already had him act his heart out in the first three episodes. A last hurrah wasn't needed.

I am also trying to put myself in David Jenkins' shoes here, because I think he truly expected the last episode to be a happy ending, and a gift, just to be proven differently. I just wonder what went wrong, how one can read the room so completely wrong.

It wasn't malicious, but the fact that it was apparently meant to be a genuine attempt at offering a happy end makes it even worse.

Tonal shifts and established in-Show laws

It's an understatement to say that the tone of season 2 was decidedly more dramatic. To the point where I questioned myself if this was still allowed to be called a comedy show. I would have described season 1 as mostly slice-of-life, little adventures between the crew and the captains. People got hanged, fingers severed, people got stabbed, but you never felt the threat of actual death hanging over anyone's head, because everything was kept humorous. (Speaking of the non-baddies here. Calico Jack got a cannon ball to the head but with plausible deniability of his death & (apparently) an interview saying he could be brought back, if needed)

Enter season 2, which starts off with murder attempts, major wounds and a suicide attempt. Nothing was played off as a joke, and for that I am grateful because that would have been in poor taste, but the tone was noticeably different and darker. But it still wasn't 'realistic' by any standard. With no real doctor on board, Izzy should have died from his wounds and comatose Edward would have wasted away in the hidden cabin. Everyone came out (fucked up but) relatively fine.

The show goes back to the humorous tone with Anne & Mary who enjoy a good backstabbing and poisoning. We had our crew surrounded by death and a curse in the next episode, but there was any fear of them coming to harm, obviously. The crew gets boarded and tortured by Ned and his crew after that, but they are able to take it out and come away unscathed (some wounds aside). Oh no! Stede challenges Zheng Yi to a duel! Which we know means no one is allowed to interfere, until one of the duelants dies. But it's fine, Zheng Yi is just playing with her food. But watch out, a Cannonball flies towards Zheng Yi's head! Ah but she is fine, she escaped. The Swede pulled a Rasputin and got immune to poison without him even noticing! Look, even Auntie survived the explosion, badly wounded but she lives. Oh no! Izzy gets shot! But it's his left side, we established no vital organs are there. Roach and Stede are already on their way to get bandage- Wait they are back with no bandages, and Izzy he-

Oh, wait. He...died?

When watching season 2 I legitimately considered Izzy dying as an end result, because I am used to my favorite characters dying, frankly. But then I dismissed that thought because OFMD has proven again and again, that people do not die. Heck, Lucius was considered dead in the season 1 finale and he came back, albeit traumatized. But he lived to tell the tale.

Season 2 finale made it a point to leave no room for doubt that Izzy did indeed die. They dug him a grave, and they panned to his grave at the end to remind you, he is definitely dead. So, why did Izzy have to die in a world where our favorites can survive about anything? "Pirates die, that's just pirate life", okay but why was he specifically singled out to be the only pirate dying? In comparison to everyone else, it feels unjust, and it feels cruel towards the fans who felt safe in the knowledge that this was the one show where none of their favorites would die. And it feels like such a betrayal of the fans’ trust, who had hoped this show would do better.

I've seen a take along the lines of "Nowadays people expect the stories to be written explicitly for them, and then they get upset when it doesn't happen" and that take pissed me off enough to write this down. This isn't a case of entitled fans asking to change the story to be exactly what they want to be, there is fanfiction for that. No, this is fans upset that their favorite character got singled out by the narrative to be the one exception to the no dying rule. And I use the narrative loosely, because there was no ramification to the death that couldn't also have been established by the character staying alive and giving advice, so the death didn't even feel purposeful. And for a show that always stresses the "Talk it through as a crew" point, they did not care much for choosing talking it through as a solution.

I also heartily disagree that Izzy's arc was over and had no more stories to tell. I mean the guy followed Edward around for decades, I would have loved to hear more about their past.

I would have especially loved to hear more about their future, as two people who learned to let go of Blackbeard and became their own people again. Where exactly did the idea of that even come from, I don't know.

Pacing and Confusing decisions in the Final episode and the build-up into nothing

(Rambling alert!)

Personally I didn't feel any pacing issues until episode 6. While I generally liked the episode, it felt crammed with both set-up of the baddie, fun-times, then appearance of baddie (and disappearance) and return to fun-times. The episode ended and I was literally perplexed that it was over, like we basically ran through that episode. But episode 8 took the cake.

Now I am well aware they had to cut corners, and the strike didn't make it easier either, and I wish we could have seen the result without these factors. But we got what we got now, and I have to judge based upon that, but I really would know how the final cut decision came to be.

I did like the beginning with Ed chilling as a fisherman, but in hindsight I wished they had cut that part a bit shorter to give more room for the final parts. We get a lot of Ricky dicking around the pirate republic, showing Jackie reluctantly bringing them drinks. Later on she finally decides to poison him. Why she didn't do so earlier, I have no idea, unless the show is trying to tell me The Swede had to build up enough poison tolerance within one episode to withstand the poison attempt, which would be ridiculous. Why the Swede was held as an emotional hostage, I don't know either. I don't want him dead but Jackie has many other husbands, the Swede being singled out was more to hurt the viewers than for Jackie imho.

We have Zheng Yi suffering through Stede's presence. Our queen is suffering through the loss of her whole crew and her aunt, while Stede unsympathetically offers that being a failure gets easier. I expected more compassion from a guy who treasures his own crew and also enjoyed the hospitality of Zheng Yi's ship, but okay. Being a dick for the sake of comedy, I suppose. "Thing's have a way of working out. At least for me" And Zheng Yi proves Stede right by killing the soldiers, and Stede claims that went just as planned. I am not sure what happened to the Stede who successfully avoided being backstabbed in episode 5 and defended his crew in episode 6 and actually seemed competent, just to go back to an ignorant fool, but hm.

Fisherman Ed returns, thinks Stede in danger, and recovers his leathers that somehow are still in the same place, after mindlessly killing everyone in his way. Whatever happened to not wanting to be a monster and not killing and running away from that, it doesn't matter anymore. The flashback of pop-pop tells him he needs to go back to what he is good at, and I guess... this is it??? The Kraken rises from the sea again. Will there be consequences for Ed's emotional state after that? Well, no. Not really. Or not in this season anyway.

Okay Ricky invites Izzy to a drink, he's quite obviously a Izzy fanboy. For what reason he took him out of prison, I don't know. He later says "Sad, I wanted to let you live", implying he had plans for Izzy. What those plans were, we will never know, Ricky never tells us. Izzy talks about what piracy means to him. "It's not about getting what you want" and I don't know if he means pirates generally robbing ships to get treasure, or of himself being perceived as a mastermind or being a captain, because he never inclined he wanted either. So, what a weird thing for him to say. "It's about belonging to something when the world has told you, you're nothing" is a beautiful line that makes me wish we had gotten at least some backstory to Izzy. Then we're shown a picture of the crew from season 1.... with Izzy in the background, quite obviously not belonging (yet). What an odd choice to cut into. You could have used something from season 2 that showed him actually belonging

Ed finds one of Stede's love letters, it's cute, but I am not sure why we needed that to somehow reinforce that Ed loves him. We already saw him worry for Stede and literally revert to his Blackbeard persona to set out and save him. He also didn't leave because he didn't love Stede or doubted Stede's love for Ed, but because he needed to find himself first to make it work. It's not a long scene but it took a bit of the momentum of the Kraken rising from the water from me.

Ed and Stede see each other again and we have a callback to the episode one opener. Which was also the moment where I slowly realized, death was in the cards for Izzy because that dream sequence meant his death. But no, this is OFMD, it'll be fine...

We're back in the cell, and our mates are trying to escape. Auntie is there! Very much alive, despite having been on an exploding ship. Who brought her there?? When was she brought there?? How long has she been there and why did no one bother to check the cloaked figure in the corner? NEVERMIND, Auntie is here and alive I suppose. Bleeding out and we've got no supplies to treat her, but she will walk it off just fine.

Captain trio congratulate themselves on beating a bunch of soldiers. Honestly impressive, outnumbered as they were. Mh, maybe they should get back to the crew tho...?

Auntie realizing she was harsh on Zheng Yi and admitting maybe she needs a different approach. I am seeing a parallel to Izzy later admitting his approach was wrong too. Except (and excuse the bitterness) Auntie gets to continue to "mentor" Zheng Yi.

We get a weird hard cut from "I don't do soft" to the talk between Izzy and Ricky. I really thought the talk had been talked, but some more insults get thrown at Ricky, and the deus ex machina happens as all prisoners are freed from prison, the captain trio arrives and all soldiers die of poisoning. Personally this was the moment where I had to slow blink in disbelief, because everything was happening so fast.

Stede talks about how they need a plan, and how a royal hostage could prove valuable. Another hard cut "SO, that's the plan". We do not hear the plan. We just gather from the following montage that it has to do with dressing up as English soldiers. We get a montage of everyone preparing for battle and dressing up, looking cool in slow motion. And, they did look hella cool, but there was so much buildup for them dressing up for the plan...without knowing what the plan even IS.

And then the plan apparently is.... just Izzy holding Ricky hostage? And the rest waits around and sees how it plays out? And they're just trusting Ricky to go along with their plan and say what they want him to say? Why was Izzy the one who had to hold Ricky hostage? The one person with a visible wooden leg? Not sure if peg-legs are an established pirate thing in this world, but the British seem to think so, because they look down at it. Why did no one check that Ricky had no weapons on him beforehand? And most importantly, where the fuck was Stede during this suicide plan? He is the one who planned it, yet he was nowhere around the group with Ricky, nor did he fight any Soldiers. He only reappears when everyone is running away. What the hell!! Where'd he fuck off to. Again, all this epic plan build up, for the barely existing plan to go up in shambles within 5 seconds, and then they all run. At this point they could have just left Ricky at the Inn and attempted to walk to the ship safely in disguise without ever drawing attention to the soldiers, and they would have had as much chance.

Ed asks Izzy if he is okay and I raise an eyebrow, A) because we as the viewers barely saw him get hit and B) Ed hasn't cared much about Izzy after Stede returns. But okay, we're stumbling back to the ship, surprisingly no one else gets shot.

Izzy is bleeding out on the ship, Stede and Roach run off to get bandages. "Bonnet is in charge, oh great I am fucked" is a true statement, considering Stede was in charge with the plan already and got Izzy to here. Later you hear footsteps approaching offscreen, which I guess were Stede and Roach. They just appear again, with no bandages and no comment. I don't want to get into detail how much I despise Izzy's parting words, and the message they send out, but Izzy throughout this season proved he wanted to live and got ready for living again, just to end up saying he wants to go here, and it's just so utterly wrong. This scene was presented as someone who was healed and now got to die amongst his loved ones, but he was not healed. He practically still believed he deserved what he got, and he died believing Ed did not need him and thus he was unnecessary. If he truly was healed, he would fight to live, if not for himself and his new found family, then for Ed who he still loves, but no. Okay maybe I did want to go into detail, but anyway, many have said it better than me already.

The crew who bonded with Izzy over the whole season stands mutely in the background, leaving the stage to Ed, who has barely cared about Izzy all season. Out of nothing I am supposed to believe Izzy means something to him, after Ed shot him down, discarded of him, happily mentioned to Frenchie that "But most importantly, no more Izzy" like Izzy had been the bane of his existence, the guy he didn't even have the balls to approach first to apologize but instead mocked Izzy when Izzy himself finally broke their silence, I am supposed to believe that Edward suddenly realizes Izzy's worth and that he deserves to be the one grieving, not leaving any space to the crew? I don't think so.

All season I was waiting for them to make up again, patiently, full of hope, but the remaining episodes got less and less. And I held out hope for them to bond over talks and teamwork, remembering how well they worked together before it turned sour, acknowledging that they could do better if they tried, but instead we got this. This is supposed to help Edward move on as Not Blackbeard, but Izzy had already encouraged Ed to not be Blackbeard, yet Ed came back deciding on his own to don his leather outfit again. This is such a back and forth, it's frustrating. They could have accomplished growth without a death, but I've already talked about that.

Also Izzy telling Ed has family now, because the crew loves him. Ed bonded exactly with one person outside of Stede, and that was Fang, who was once Blackbeard's crew anyway. Other than that Ed only hung back and did not give a shit about what the crew was doing, but sure they love him after the non-pology. Where were the scenes to back this claim up, it was utter nonsense.

Okay, we get a burial. No one says a thing, no one's got to say a thing about their unicorn. Everyone leaves, and "That's that then". Stede talks about Izzy, like he hasn't personally bonded with Izzy over the last episodes and like he was simply a guy Ed dragged along (the way season 1 Stede would have felt). Also, no acknowledgement that Stede's plan was what got Izzy killed whatsoever, no remorse.

Aye no time to be sad, we got a wedding now! It lasts less than a minute screen time, and I am still recovering from the emotional impact of a death scene + burial, maybe give me a minute so I can feel happy for LuPete? No? okay.

Stede and Ed decide to build an Inn, nothing either of them has experience in. Also the "family" Izzy promised Ed is sailing away, so that was for nothing as well. What happened to Stede wanting to be a pirate? What happened to Ed returning to being a pirate, because it's what he's good at? What exactly made them change opinions to leave their crew behind and start this? *lame hand gesture at Izzy's grave* This?? I am usually good at looking for clues and details and figuring stuff out in between the lines, but I am left clueless as to what inspired this.

I am 100% sure there were missing scenes that could have helped soften the blow of the death at least, but like this the episode feels jarringly badly patched together. There is no visible impact to the death that would explain the necessity to the narrative (and yes, we are in a story, not real life. Plot points happen because they bring the narrative along, and it didn't here) With everything established beforehand, it felt like the death got shoehorned in, simply because someone said "I want this character to be dead at the end of the season", and then a story was somehow built around this.

And of course people are upset about this, when I watched I thought it was a joke and I was waiting for the little wink telling me it's not what it seems. The theme I gathered from this season was "belonging", and to see the guy accepting that he belonged and deserved to be loved to be left behind and denied a chance to continue with the crew where he BELONGS, because he's dead and gone, is a very stupid choice.

The season had many unexplained and unresolved things that I chose to overlook because the show was still ongoing and I had hoped they would all work out in the end, but they didn't and this sours the whole experience.

Fandom

This has less to do with me unraveling the happenings of the show, but whatever.

I joined very late, a few weeks before season 2 aired. I was however vaguely aware that Izzy was controversial to the fandom and that fans got hate mail for liking the character who "broke the main couple apart". So going into the new season as someone who utterly loved Izzy in season 1, I was skeptical lol

But it was a nice experience. Season 2 showed parts of Izzy that I had already seen but in a way that made it clear to everyone that this guy has Emotional Layers TM and is capable of more than just being the guy throwing a hissy fit. Everyone could sympathize with him, people enjoyed seeing him, and I legit loved going through the tags of the gifsets and reading all the reactions.

Generally I loved seeing the reactions after every new episode, seeing how fandom came together to talk over what happened, and over what they enjoyed. I had expected a very split fandom but it seemed season 2 was somewhat gluing it together. Izzy was finally an "accepted" character and thus it was "okay" now to love him, now that he wasn't trying to break Ed/Stede apart either. The show was feeding fans too, I felt like I feasted every episode up until the finale happened.

And /then/ the finale happened and the illusion went away.

Up to then I thought this was a season for the Izzy fans, with the opener episode showing how ridiculous the take of "Izzy has to die for Ed/Stede to be happy" was in a mocking dream episode, I thought that was David Jenkins acknowledging the hate that has been sent in the direction of Izzy & his fans, and how it's Not That Easy. And then he proved Izzy was more than that.

And then he killed Izzy off, so Ed/Stede could be happy and we've come full circle again.

Of course Izzy fans were upset, because it felt like a final fuck you after a season full of promises that it would be okay, and of course people were voicing their displeasure and sadness over it. Some people were downright grieving the character, and I can tell you I Am People. I went through the 5 stages of grief, through bargaining and anger directly after the finale, sadness the whole day after, crying over it because it felt so unjust to me. And maybe these reactions seem extreme to you, but that does not mean that people aren't feeling awful about the finale, that it truly hurt them. And you do not get to mock people for feeling in pain. What do you gain from that? If you liked the finale, fine, everyone is different, but allow the people who were shaken by it to express their emotions. Processing emotions takes time, and as a part of this I wrote a goddamn essay to make peace. The least you could do is not be a dick.

Parting thoughts are that the final episode was both a product of unfortunate cuts in screen time, and a writer who didn't expect the effect it would have on the audience.

I am not hating on David Jenkins, I loved every other episode of the season and eagerly anticipated the next one, but I am so incredibly sad that one botched finale broke my trust into the show, soured my love for the previous episodes with the knowledge of what it all built up to, and left the fandom back in shambles.

So long, and be kind to each other.

#ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 spoilers #izzy hands #ofmd meta #That was the longest I've ever typed. But also at least I feel more content now #You actually do have my respect if you went through this #and to everyone still struggling with sadness: i feel you #ofmd critical

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icarusallusion · 3 months

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On the kick of relationships I feel were a bit wasted on lack of expansion and fandom media literacy.

Volgin and Ocelot. While they definitely do not stem from the same problems as Kazuhira and Quiet like I talked about in my other post, I still feel they aren't explained enough, hours of exposition but nothing quite explains why they are the way they are. Part of that leads to their allure as characters, the years of character building we don't hear or see, but their subtle relationship really falls flat on a lot of gamers I've found.

Into them themselves before I get into all the meta stuff.

Volgin doesn't waste time torturing and shocking people who minorly inconvenience him. He kills Granin pretty much just for fun, shocks and sexually tortures EVA, tortures his own men from the simplest lack of respect, and nukes a facility which kills multiple of his countrymen. All of these disturb Ocelot, but he never says much about it until it comes at the pain of Russia itself. (i.e killing Granin who benefits them and Russia in turn, not truly caring about torture when he learns its for a spy, feeling bad ahout killing Russian men even those who go agaisnt the GRU, and the nukes destroying Russian soil and countrymen)

However any time Ocelot calls Volgin out on his sadistic and cruel behaviors, Volgin never says anything truly negative back to Ocelot. For a man who does awful things to everyone else the way he hesitates to hurt Ocelot whether through physical or verbal means was always interesting to me.

Especially this interaction after Granin is killed by Volgin.

Volgin speaks down on Ocelot, however this isn't done in an insulting way, it's simply the truth in Volgin's eyes. Volgin raised Ocelot since he was 16, Ocelot is still decades younger than him, and is still ranks below.

To Volgin, Ocelot needs to be weeded out himself, of the care he deeply holds for Russia. Volgin undermines Ocelot and how he feels towards the war and cruelty surrounding it, that his feelings have no place within the war and that they're a threat to their organization. While on the surface it refers to how Ocelot is too hot headed and jumps the gun, that he won't be able to focus if he is always judging others. On a deeper level, it read to me as Volgin cares for Ocelot. That the judgement from Ocelot doesn't just break the GRU's unity, it breaks Volgin's unity with Ocelot.

Volgin doesn't want to get rid of Ocelot, that much is evident when in the final boss battle when this is their exchange.

Ocelot shoots at Volgin, disobeys orders, disrespects his title, etc, etc. Despite this, they have the same back and forth they always do. Volgin simply keeps ordering him until Ocelot just leaves. It comes across as Volgin trusts Ocelot to find the bombs, either that or views him too inferior to do any real damage on his own devices. All and all, Volgin doesn't care about Ocelot's disrespect towards him when if it was anyone else they'd be dead.

Speaking of the boss fight, it really added more to their relationship.

THIS ESPECIALLY

Volgin comes so close to shocking Ocelot, but he can't, simply just a warning. Then in the next scene, Ocelot looks to Volgin for reassurance on his aid to Snake. This back and forth always ends each word from Ocelot with an obedience to Volgin.

The fact Volgin and Ocelot have whole conversations with each other from body language alone and the way Ocelot himself relies on body language really is such a good detail

The way they simply talk with one another also always felt like a parent to a child to me. (Maybe a very bad parent but still) In a way, they are a very fucked up found family.

Ocelot kidnapped by The Philosophers as a baby, sent to the GRU to be a spy at 16 and being guided through the rest of his years up until the end of teenage life by Volgin who he knew he'd have to betray at some point. Volgin who was raised by a member of The Philosopher.

While family has never been something they have been expanded on with, I think that speaks more. Neither Ocelot nor Volgin have any semblance with family. They are each other's only sense of that. Through the traitorous attitude of Ocelot and through the hedonist sadism fogging Volgin, they are the only people who get each other but ultimately are not fond of each other in most scenarios. They serve as a twisted parallel of The Boss and Snake to me.

Which sucks even more when The Boss is literally Ocelot's real mom, don't know how to thread that in either, but it's just ughhh literally custody battle between The Boss and Volgin every time they're on screen together with Ocelot

I could talk forever and ever about the analysis between them, but onto the meta. My issues are not within any prejudice or forced characterization like Kaz and Quiet. However, I feel they come from the writers thinking they were not interesting enough. They don't put a lot of their relationship on the surface and by the time players realize their relationship the game is over. MGS is really a game that always deserves a second playthrough to fully grasp its ideas and characters.

Volgin and Ocelot didn't grasp a lot of people because they weren't pushed and pushed like EVA and Snake. They were an afterthought in the game while I think they really could've been given more, considering how much of Volgin affects Ocelot. Ocelot liked torture because of how Volgin raised him, Ocelot has a complicated relationship with Russia partially due to Volgin, and Ocelot's relationships with people are forever shadowed by how Volgin raised him.

I think they really could've been something so interesting, but so much of it was swept under the rug by other relationships and topics within the game. I don't know, tell me what you think this is mostly spit balling about two characters I really like. 🐆

#metal gear solid #revolver ocelot #volgin mgs #looking back on this definitely couldve written this better lol

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yutaholic · 5 months

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Thank you for even making that post because I honestly feel like I’m going to explode!! Championing every issue is EXHAUSTING. I have such empathy fatigue. Bombardment of “rules”, behavioral guidelines, services, companies, networks + food brands & PEOPLE to boycott ALL THE TIME. Fandom is space many of us come to unplug from reality…it’s certainly my hyperfixation & ppl be like “well then get another one because you shouldn’t support–” IT DOESN’T WORK LIKE THAT. Fuck. I can’t take it anymore. Calls to action being in EVERY single place have weakened my mental state even more than it was before which was already on “pending disability” level of severe & now I’m just. burned t-absolute-f out….at everything!! I can literally FEEL myself unraveling. Kpop stans & their toxic activism can go to hell. They’re so worried about making sure to condemn others for “not doing enough” or being bad people, that they don’t even realize their actions are making them into bad people. This shit takes a toll on mental health, there is science behind this, it is real and what happens to human beings when inundated with constant terrible news, and it’s not just being ~too privileged to care~ but these performative mfs have no concept of blacklisting anymore and just want to assume the absolute worst about someone, call them names & wish harm on folks who are at the end of their ropes! It’s maddening! So even if compassion fatigue isn’t why you didn’t go out of your way to Denounce and Drag™️ him (bc you totally have the right to simply not want to do that on a fanfic blog!) I’m just glad someone else stated that this is supposed to be an ESCAPE. fuck.

Baby, burnout will fuck you up. Don't do that to yourself. Take the time you need and recoup. Life is a constant war and you can afford to lose a battle here and there to focus on your own health and well-being. Getting yourself back into a good place mentally will be a huge win. We both know the ppl obsessed with performative activism aren't doing anything from a place of compassion. The real ones are out there making change, not sending people death threats online from the comfort and safety of their mommy's basement.

When I posted the pic of NCT Dream and Big Time Rush, I wrote in the tags how BTR was something my sister and I loved and bonded over. We watched the show even though it was obviously a kids show and we were both adults. It was just something that gave us joy. My sister passed away years ago and anything BTR-related will make me teary because I think about how much we laughed together over it.

So the first thing I get are messages over how problematic BTR is, that I should delete the post or I'm pro-genocide if I don't dislike them. Ngl that made me so upset because I got a bunch of faceless people trying to taint some precious memories of me and my sister. If they came at me trying to educate me on things I didn't know that would be different, but it's straight to judgment and hatred toward me over something I posted that was totally innocent.

Meanwhile I get criticized for posting about a kpop group instead of reblogging every call to action post. I donate my money to these causes, but I don't post about it because I don't need my ass kissed for doing what I know to be right. I am 1000% sure the anons in my inbox that try to police me have never given a dime to anything, but are policing people's blogs for not reblogging posts or talking about it more.

I feel bad that I haven't been very active on here this year so I try to come on when I have some free time to interact with you guys. I make a silly post about Doyoung and get anons tearing into me for it like I'm his social media manager. Okay so because the world is going to shit we aren't allowed to enjoy anything?? Can't make jokes about anything. Can't show support for anything. Just wrong on every fucking count.

Believe me I am so goddamn aware of how lucky I am that I can sit here and say I'm very privileged that I live comfortably in the life I have. I know what's going on in the world and I do my part to help where I can, but I also have to keep functioning. I don't want every minute of my life to be seeped in anger, I did that for a long time and it not only eats away at you, it makes you ineffective in actually changing the things making you angry in the first place.

This was just supposed to be a blog where I posted my stories. One of the few places I could go and not constantly be reminded of how fucked up the world is. I've always said that people who told me reading a fic of mine made their day a little better or helped them escape for a bit were always my favorite. That was what I came here for and I loved being able to share the tiniest moments of peace and quiet with others through stories with guaranteed happy endings.

I'm frustrated because I have 4 drafts ready to go next year. I got the story posts done and made all the headers. But I don't want to post them. I have no problem admitting I'm selfish and spiteful. Even though I can turn off anon, I can't block these miserable people and I don't want them reading my stuff. They don't get to consume my content and then tell me to off myself right after.

A massive fuck you to those of you that ruined this blog for me.

#empathy fatigue is real #and the reason these shitheads arent getting tired #is because theyre not doing any of it from empathy

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scorpio-karma · 12 days

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Do you have any Unpopular vampire diaries opinions ?

I would honestly argue that all of my opinions of TVD are unpopular but that's simply because I don't like the show and hate like half the characters. Also the part of Fandom I participate in, the Bonnie Fandom, has similar feelings so what is considered an unpopular opinion there is a very different metric. As I've pointed out in some responses, we have completely divorced ourselves from canon, so a lot of things put out narratively in canon that most of the Fandom follows even with their AU's is completely out the window. I, and a lot of my mutuals, basically only seek to improve on the small bots we liked as a way to heal the trauma the show left us with.

So with that as our basis this is what I'd consider my unpopular opinions.

Kol is irrelevant as far as Originals go and I don't ship Kennett. This is one I stay mostly silent about because a) it was always a crack ship and b) I genuinely think it wouldn't be as popular of a Bonnie ship had Plec not brought them into an argument unprompted, but most of all I can't find it in me to care about the character enough even read in fics. I did a rewatch of the show to see if there were just episodes I missed where he was more prevalent than I remembered and nope. I didn't watch TO, so the idea of having to go to a whole different show to get the characterization of a character for a ship doesn't appeal to me. Do I think Kennett fans were done dirt by Kolvina? Yes, but that's a pattern with all of her ships going all the way back to season 1 and Tonnie shippers, so it ends up low on my list of grievances.

Bamon could have been a good ship. Now this is more of something unpopular with my main Fandom, Bonkai as it is her most popular ship at least quantity-wise, but it's mainly unpopular because most of us can't stand Damon. I will say, he's not even in my top ten favorite characters but I do love the natural chemistry between them and if they had followed a more logical route in season one they would have been at the very least interacting more in season 1 since his entire plan hinged on Bonnie and he literally tried to accomplish that by not speaking to her once...

There are some staple tumblrs here that are kind of like an authority in the Fandom as in they've written a lot of metas that most Bonnie fans agree with. There's one that I started following when i first got here that I will not name (no need to actually bring them in and I honestly haven't checked their blog in years) that I disagree with most of their takes. While they are a fan of Bonnie and Bonkai, their metas rely a little too much on chemistry. While that's a big part of what attracts me and people to a ship I personally think there needs to be more because a lot of their examples involve a very subjective perspective. They mostly started following a whole different tvd ship that I don't like so I didn't read too much into their metas, but I realized I didn't care for the takes with the ship I liked so I stopped following them altogether.

The Bonkai Fandom isn't dead. While there's a significant decline in content, myself include, I don't think we can truly call it dead because there are still people making content and consuming that content. Fandoms need the source material to keep alive, at least in the sense where there's still events and regularly updated post, but to say something is dead just downplays the people still contributing and still consuming. We're now just in our quality-over-quantity phase because I guarantee other tvd ships churning our content everyday is going to be rough.

#bonnie bennett #asks #unpopular opinion #please don't take these as attacks #they are opinions about characters and tvd #not you

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sky-is-the-limit · 5 months

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hi! first of all i want to tell you that your page is very fun to read, thank you for it! but… i sometimes (really often) see things that makes me sad and even somehow guilty?? i don't really care about Gaz, and i like Konig. and i was pretty ok with it, until i started to see your posts that everyone who doesn't like Gaz and likes Konig is racist???? like, why??? i can understand why people like Gaz, but he just seems plane to me? and that's all. he is just not my type??? and Konig, though he is just an operator in multiplayer and has a very little backstory, i still love it and his accent very much. i have a very long list of black crushes male and female. but i just don't like Gaz. and when i make things that i like i include characters that i like and don't include those who i don't??? i just don't call them 141 if i include Konig and don't Gaz. if i want to make 141, Gaz is always there, because he is a part, even if i don't care about him. and your statements really makes me sad and upset about myself, though i'm old enough to understand that i have my right to like and don't like who i want. sorry for my long ass essay in a bad English. please don't hate me?? p.s. you are very pretty :c

Okay, I'm sorry but can you tell me exactly when did I say that anyone who doesn't like Kyle is racist? I specifically mention in whatever post I make regarding people leaving Gaz out of 141 that many have weird, racist undertones, I never said that if you don't like Kyle as a character, you have to be racist.

You can like/write/consume whatever on earth you want, love, I'm not a babysitter nor I own the freaking games. I'm a fan in this fandom and a gamer who loves this franchise therefore I am ALLOWED to express my opinion/thoughts/likes and dislikes regarding said fandom in my own blog.

You can build König a tall ass statue and make sacrifices to his name, darling that's your right! You like him as a character and that's cool, you're allowed to like whoever you want and dislike whoever you want, I ain't gonna burn your phone for not liking Kyle nor call YOU specifically racist for not liking him as a character, though, frankly, it doesn't make sense at all but again that's a me thing.

However, noticing how fucking racist this fandom is for having a pattern of excluding the only black character from his own content and replace him with a white man that has nothing to do with it, even though Kyle is literally the main character then yeah I'm gonna call it out and no one will make me feel bad or wrong about it.

When real people get hurt, real poc get hurt by seeing the only person representing them being tossed to the side for literally no fucking reason then I'm sorry but I don't really care if my dislike towards an irrelevant mf is such a discomfort to you or anyone else.

Because me not liking König or calling out a collective of bad behaviour in a fandom does not affect you at all if you simply click the 'x' next to my post.

I understand the annoyance of seeing people disliking a character that you like but you can literally unfollow/block etc cause if I were to get upset whenever some stranger online disliked my fav fictional characters, I'd end up in anger management or something.

Love, if my content or opinions make you sad for whatever reason (said reasons being about fictional characters and not real life issues which is what most of my Kyle defending posts are about) then put your mental health first and block me, I can promise you that's its okay to do it when you see something that you don't like!

However, with that being said, I will not change my opinions/criticism for anyone, I don't do it in real life with real people who I interact with and I will not do it on a silly lil tumblr blog when it comes to concerning issues such as racism that is very much present in the Call of Duty community.

My criticism is not for people who simply don't like a fictional character who happens to be black. My posts are very much targeted towards a very specific demographic and I really don't understand this but I respect your feelings and will very much encourage you to not follow this blog if it makes you upset, it's okay and understandable!!

With all that being said, never apologise for your English. Be proud that you speak more than one language! It's not my first language either:) Thank you for reaching out and explaining why you feel that way, I hope you the best, dear anon. Take care<3

#ask #cod #call of duty

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livebloggingmydescentintomadness · 1 year

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You’re probably not going to see this, but as a teen that started following you for ace/aro posts, your takes on purity culture and antis have been really important to me. To be honest I haven’t cared about proship/anti discourse in years and find the terms to be reductive and oversimplifying but I’m so sick of seeing call outs in my social circles that sum up to “this person that is open about the fact they like dark content likes dark content!” Like, I thought you didn’t WANT to interact with them, why are you mad that they’ve made their beliefs clear enough for you to block?

I’d never harass someone over fake people that don’t exist but I guess I have pretty “anti” tastes- pairings between a 16 year old and an 18 year old are enough to squick me out and my current fandom has a very popular incest subculture which is. A lot. But at the same time subjects like grooming and SA/CSA recovery are very fascinating to me, and your posts have helped me shake off the guilt I have about that and fear of being seen as an abuse apologist if I write fics about those topics.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this. Just, thank you, I guess. I hope you have a good day/night/whenever you read this :)

hello, dear, i'm so glad that my blog could be helpful to you <3

i agree with you that the anti/proship terminology does kind of feel like it trivializes really important issues, but please allow me to clarify one thing - being "proship" has nothing to do with WHAT you ship and everything to do with HOW you ship. it's not about taste, it's about philosophy.

i actually have pretty vanilla tastes myself; i typically avoid most dark fic, i'm not really into kink, i don't usually like "dead dove" type content, and most of my ships are not particularly controversial. the only incest ship that doesn't gross me out is thorki, because like, they're millennia-old alien space gods based on north mythology; incest is kinda the least weird thing going on there. i have a few ships that could be called abusive, like erik/christine from the phantom of the opera, but generally speaking, my tastes are tame and i just like a good fic with some tasty angst , a little sappy smut, and a happy ending.

however, i understand that other people ARE into all the stuff i'm not into, and it's none of my business what they enjoy, and, critically, my discomfort with those works does not matter, no more than it dictates what i choose to engage in and what i choose to avoid.

my discomfort with darkfic doesn't mean people who like darkfic are immoral, or that darkfic itself is immoral. it means that i don't read darkfic. i understand that my comfort and discomfort are not the moral code of the universe, and furthermore, that a quest for "moral purity" is not only impossible, but actively harmful. a lesson i learned quite well growing up in the baptist church.

using the title of 'proshipper' doesn't mean that i personally like "problematic" ships or whatever, it means that i find harassing people over their fictional tastes reprehensible. it means that i understand that there's a big, big difference between what you enjoy reading in fiction and what you approve of or endorse in real life, and that part of the purpose of fiction is to give us a safe place to explore dark, fucked up shit where it won't have real-world consequences. fiction is an outlet, not a mirror.

even if i personally find the content deeply disturbing, i understand that it is simply none of my fucking business what other people read and write about, provided that they tag the content properly. that's being proship.

anyway, i'm glad that i could help relieve you of your guilt. take care, dear.

#fiction #purity culture #fandom #csa tw #incest tw #anonymous #ask

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lunar-years · 11 months

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i love roykeeley, but some of the shippers are so toxic, i never interact with that side of the fandom just so the ship isn’t tainted for me (which has happened to me in other fandoms in which fans will ruin a ship i love)

disclaimer: this is an oversimplification and absolutely not ALL shippers etc., this is just my personal experience please don't come at me with pitchforks yada yada...

I think many people who are very intense about roykeeley (and very aggressively anti-ot3 and quite loud about that) fundamentally misread both halves of the ship they claim to love and talk about both them as individuals and the relationship in weird, reductive (cough also heteronormative cough cough) ways I can't stand. It's like they feel the need to alleviate them of every problem that canonically existed since day one of their relationship for...some reason? I guess I just don't get it. Isn't it more fun and interesting to love characters and their relationship because of their flaws and tribulations and complexities?

Instead they act like all of Roy's issues were something the writers threw in because they ran out of relationship ideas for the two of them and wanted to throw in some drama just for kicks, instead of a slow and very gratifying personal growth arc that's been building for 3 seasons, and that Keeley is little miss perfect with no flaws whose personal s3 storyline was inherently bad or OOC simply because it pulled her away from Roy. (And what they don't admit but I feel is often underlying is that it's because they truly only care about her in the context of Roy's storyline. a bit ironic with how they talk about the finale royjamie scene ~"Roy would NEVER treat Keeley like a trophy to be won!!!"~ and then two seconds later are tweeting about how Keeley needed to take him back and why didn't she just reward Roy for finally doing the bare minimum...the call is coming from inside the house friends!!!). And look, I had a LOT of problems with the s3 Keeley storyline as well, they did the character such a disservice imo, but there are different ways that people talk about WHY it was bad that are...so misguided and questionable??

So yeah, I love them very much but I feel like the ship I like is completely removed from the predominant impression of the ship in several corners of the fandom/the general audience. I like them because they are messy and complicated and make a lot of mistakes and love each other so very much but the love still wasn't enough to save them. I love that they need to go on individual journeys first, but that the door is very much still open for them to find their way back to each other because the love has never gone away. The love is still there!! It is a beautiful and tragic and so very human. However, the misread on them is uhm. Loud. And can be very overpowering and definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I see deeply stupid takes. ANYWAY.

#sorry for the rant and negativity this morning!!!#i love all three sides of my triangle and their individual couplings deeply and equally #however. i do not love all corners of the fandom equally. but who does you know! anyway it's all good ship and let ship #ted lasso #asks #roy kent #keeley jones

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juneviews · 6 months

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now that the krusty elements concert is over, i'm cackling while thinking about that one anon who said that gun doesn't like krusty anymore, only for them to do a whole ass romantic skit/act and krusty slapping gun's ass and then gun doing a kissy face to krusty ...💀 yeah as much as the fans like to think that their faves pick and choose their peers based on saint-o-meter, i think most of the people/actors in the thai BL industry (not only gmmtv, there are problematic people in other companies who are doing just fine today) simply do not care about these problematic behaviour as much as their fans/we do. i even saw pp krit and gun hugging and kissing f*ei during an event. 💀💀💀💀

I think it's bc they still have to act professional with everyone bc it's their colleagues, so even if you don't agree with someone you can't really ignore them or publicly call them out or it will reflect badly on you, ESPECIALLY if everyone involved is in the same company like the examples you gave. there's also a huge difference between thai fans & inter fans, and often times an actor gets cancelled solely by inter fans so they get to keep all of their benefits since all of their revenue from projects, ads, fanmeets, etc. are in thailand. that's why krist is hated in the inter fandom but could sell out two concerts in like a day in thailand, and why foei is also hated but still is the ambassador for chang, the biggest beer company in thailand, alongside bright. especially for foei, I think thai fans genuinely didn't realize that him reblogging that video was lgbtq-phobic bc it was in english and can be very hard to miss if you're not already politicized enough to understand the implications of it. so yes, very rarely is there true consequences for a thai actor, and their colleague keep interacting normally bc most of the time they don't know any better.

xxx

#answers

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eternalwritess · 2 months

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hi! can I get a romantic matchup from hazbin hotel? please & thank you!

I'm bi and I use she/her pronouns. I'm an INFP and a taurus. I'm also the oldest child in my family so basically I believe that I'm responsible for everyone's happiness and I tend to make sure everyone around me is comfortable even (and especially) if I'm not – I'm the mom friend and the burnt out gifted kid of my friend group. I'm pretty sensitive and empathetic so for example I can get upset simply because someone around me is in a bad mood. I overthink every single thing in my life and constantly get anxious over small things. I struggle with my self-image and low self-esteem. because I'm afraid of what people think of me I find it hard to interact with people I don't know well enough, so I often appear reserved in bigger groups of people, but when I'm with those who are close to me, I become more open and outgoing. I care about my loved ones deeply and I could literally kill for my friends and family. I'm good at comforting people so others tend to see me as someone trustworthy. My sense of humor mostly consists of sarcasm and bullying my friends lovingly but for some reason people often tell me I'm funny. I'm also a very loyal, loving and affectionate person and I mostly express my love through words and physical touch. I'm a hopeless romantic.

as for physical appearance, I'm 5'5 with hourglass figure. my body is more on a softer side, if that makes sense?? like I wouldn't call myself chubby, but I'm not exactly thin either. I have dark brown wavy hair of medium length, dark brown eyes and light skin. I wear glasses. my style is pretty feminine, I love wearing skirts and dresses, and my clothes are mostly of dark colors like blacks and dark reds. I love wearing dark make-up and hardly ever leave home without maroon lipstick on. I also love painting my nails and wearing a lot of jewelry.

my interests&hobbies include: drawing, reading (I love detective stories and romance books) and listening to music (I'm a huge swiftie). I also watch a lot of movies and shows. I like daydreaming and I spend a lot of time just thinking about my fave fandoms, creating my own AUs and characters and whatnot, and I enjoy creating fandom related content like making playlists, fanart, headcanons, etc. another thing I love a lot is learning languages.

I love your writing and I'm really curious to find out who you match me with! thanks again!

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕕 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙…

𝓥𝓪𝓰𝓰𝓲𝓮!

You were most likely a demon that she injured but didn't kill and when she fell she saw you and immediately felt horrible for it

Charlie noticed her feeling down and most likely asked her what was wrong. When she said that you were someone that she hurt (most likely added in a past life even though it wasn't true) Charlie pushed her to go over and help you out because of her whole thing of redemption

You were most likely terrified of her but she helped you out. Bandaging your arms and talking with you while she did it

"So uh... how'd you end up here?"

She was most likely awkward at first with Charlie beside you guys hyping you both up but you soon got to know her and you both ended up staying at what was at the time the Happy Hotel

As the hotel went on you both most likely started feeling somewhat responsible for the hotel and when Vaggie noticed how it might be affecting you in a bad way started forcing you to take breaks

"You need to take care of yourself... plus you can't help out drained and half dead or... deader"

Vaggie tries to control her mood for you making sure that she doesn't get too upset but every now and then she does end up slipping and when she does she feels really bad and ends up buying you a few books to read

She helps you reach out constantly trying to push you, not too far but far enough so that you're not just stuck in the hotel all alone when her and Charlie go out

Vaggie calls you pet names all the time and compliments you almost every day. Its constant hugs and kisses, she wants to make sure that you feel safe in your own skin

"You look absolutely stunning babe"

You and her have the same sarcastic humor and she loves that you get all of her jokes

She loves it when you nag at her and will always laugh at your jokes and tell you how great you are at making them she might try and get at you back every now and then though but in a loving way

"Oh come on that was a good one"

With her it is constantly cuddles and attention when she regained her wings it only increased. She would constantly sit you down just so that you could preen them

Your gentle with her wings and she loves it she constantly shakes them with excitement and will lay down on your lap afterwards snuggling up right next to you

She then will thank you with kisses peppering your face with them all over <3

#match up #hazbin hotel matchups #hazbin hotel matchup #matchup #hazbin hotel match up #hazbin hotel #hazbin #matchups #hazbin hotel match ups

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 2 years

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For this fandom to acknowledge Jimin and Jungkook are the closest, Jimin and Jungkook need to acknowledge that first, in words.

Yes, they both have said (even done) things that indicate they are the closest duo. The members have said things. There's a lot of other content that indicate they are very close. But Jimin and Jungkook have never openly acknowledged their friendship.

What is Jimin to you? Jungkook goes cute, charm. He's stuck with that for years. And then he feels the need to make unnecessary excuses... "I go to Jimin's room cause it's the closest". Does that mean if RM's room was closest, he'll be in Rm's room 3 times a day? Why is it hard to say he spends time with Jimin simply cause he wants to or whatever, anything something more honest? "Why do you always film Jimin".. "cause he is always around"... "HIS room, HE" ... its never about Jungkook, is it? Its not his choice, just chance? "Jimin knows me best, Jimin cares for me, Jimin gives me food"... fine. But what does Jungkook feel about Jimin? Is he a friend? Closest friend? Brother? Family? He has never labelled their bond. But, he's fine calling V his friend. Does Jungkook care about Jimin? We know he does, but only through his actions, cause he never speaks about how Jimin matters to him. I know he doesn't have to. But this fandom is stuck on what Jungkook says, his words. And his words and actions don't match when it comes to Jimin.

Jimin has stuck with "dongseong" for years when it's about Jungkook. And yet he's open to describe his bond with V or RM or others without any issues.

Fandom doesn't question Vmin, cause Vmin "speak" about how they apparently feel about each other. They call themselves soulmates, so the fandom calls them soulmates too. They labelled their bond, the fandom accepts it. Even if they aren't interacting on sns, the fandom believes they are close. Because vmin said so.

That's not the case with jikook. In 9 years, neither Jimin nor Jungkook have spoken about what they mean to each other. So the fandom doesn't know how to label their bond. Cause they haven't labelled it themselves. I can understand that. May be if someday they are open to freely say they are closest to each other...things might change.

You are so close in answering your own question. Sooooo close 🤏. Go back and carefully read your ask.

But I will say one thing. As much as this fandom refuses to acknowledge it and unfortunately it has negative consequences all the time, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's all just pointless internet talk which I hope and I actually believe it doesn't affect the people in question. Words do matter, but I hope they're smart and strong enough to not let any of it get to them. Not just JM and JK, but the rest of them as well.

And the fandom not knowing how to label Jimin and Jungkook? What are these fans? Stupid? Do they need to be told what to think? (Of course they do, cause thought control and all that). They can use their brain. This is really not a complicated issue. And there is no need for some specific label because it what world, thinking that they're at least really good friends, is not enough?

#bmt asks #jimin #jungkook #jikook

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epickiya722 · 2 years

Text

BOUNDARIES

Alright, it has come to my attention that no matter what the age, gender, sexuality, race, and religion some of you don't understand what BOUNDARIES are.

Simply put, boundaries are lines you don't cross. You don't smudge the line, poke your toe over it, hell, you don't get on the damn ground and sniff at it. Boundaries are set for someone to protect their well-being and in some cases, others.

Lately, people have became real bold in crossing in territory they shouldn't be in.

DNIs aren't posted on people's bios and pinned comments to look pretty. People just don't block people because "they're scared". People don't have age restrictions or warnings for no damn reason. All of that is for the purpose of keeping their sanity and yours if there are certain triggers and whatnot.

Some of you be "oh, these people don't interact" because you want to "keep the peace", but the moment you see a post you don't agree with, you get in your fucking feelings, you click reblog and say whatever and it would be something you dug out your ass like threats and teasing the person in a malicious way. And even after they reblog back and apologize you still continue on because you're a jerk. You're an ass. You think you're really doing something, feeling all bold and mighty when you're really just trying to feel like some sort of god because you have issues you need to sort out but don't care or want to because you have that much pride.

When someone says "I'm done here", LET IT GO. Neither of you may ever come to an agreement and because of that, don't continue on. Don't drag it out. Don't waste your time.

About those DNIs? Let's run that back. I said it once and I shall say it again. DNIs are typically placed in the bios or someone's pinned post. Which means it's the first damn thing you'll see when you explore someone's blog. Minors, if an adult has "MINORS DON'T INTERACT" BIG AS DAY UP THERE, DO NOT INTERACT. If you are old enough to have a Tumblr, you're old enough to monitor what you consume. Don't be that person to continue on an adult's blog and get uppity when they have 18+ content. You were not invited. Don't think because you're a minor that you lack common sense. I know you don't. I know you're fully capable of thinking because some of you do like to play games and think you can play victim because you're a minor. It's not cute. You're old enough to know better.

Oh, that goes for you adults, too. Don't be arguing with these minors. If a minor says they're uncomfortable, you back the hell off. You're an adult, act like it. If that minor is still stalking around your blog, block their ass. Block, block, BLOCK.

Be it on here, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook... hell if MySpace dug itself out from under the ground and said "I'M BACK, BITCHES", I don't care what social site is on, YOU PEOPLE NEED TO ACT RIGHT.

If you're pro-choice and you see a pro-life post, don't think it's cute to reblog the post to start something. Just move the hell on with your life. You won't come to an agreement about abortion. Don't bring in that negative energy. And vice versa.

If you ship IzuOcha and see a BakuDeku fanart, don't reblog it to call it trash. Don't be an ass over a damn fiction romance. You can't be that fucking pressed to see a drawing of two boys holding hands no matter what their relationship is. It goes the same for everyone else.

If you're someone who doesn't want to see anything Harry Potter related, don't jump into the fandom. Get out of there. Don't watch the movies, don't touch the books, don't reblog the gifs, don't taunt at the Potterheads who still support the series. Do better.

Damn, I repeat, if you're underage and an adult says don't interact with their blog, don't think you can just do that, regardless if you're behind a screen. You don't interact. You're gonna see something you don't wanna see yet and then be the same person who complains. No one here is your parent so don't whine as such. And vice versa. Adults, if a minor is uncomfortable with you, distance yourself. If you're still engaging yourself with them, then you're a creep.

If you're not someone of color and you see a post that someone of color has and you don't agree with, then skim past the post. Most likely, you won't understand where they're coming from.

Boundaries, people, boundaries. Familiarize yourself with the rule that they are placed there to not be crossed. Don't tiptoe over someone's boundaries because you feel the need to and don't do that to yourself.

If someone decides to continue on with the debate, block them. Don't feed into their stupidity. Give yourself that peace of mind. Give yourself the room to breathe. If you are someone who doesn't like a fandom, ship, topic, whatever it is, EXCLUDE yourself out that space. Do you really want to continue damaging yourself like that?

DO NOT CROSS BOUNDARIES, BE IT YOUR OWN AND SOMEONE ELSE'S!!

#just kiya's thoughts #boundaries #don't cross them #be respectful of others #and respect yourself

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sizzlingpatrolfox · 1 year

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it's so funny how when jikook have a cute moment jkkers will be like "they're open and proud, they don't care if everyone knows they're boyfriends". then when jimin and jungkook don't interact during a photoshoot or jungkook doesn't participate in jimin's letter performance they're like "the company is forcing them apart, bighit is pushing taekook as the official ship". they truly are exactly the same as taekookers at this point it's so sad. mocking tkkers for years and then resorting to the exact same conspiracy theories to explain why jikook aren't interacting much anymore

This person put it really simply:

"You either die a hero or live enough to become a villain" 😭😭

Shippers are shippers. Even the ones who call themselves "supporters" ARE SHIPPERS. I never cared calling myself a shipper because there's nothing wrong with that. "Supporters" are just, if not MORE deranged than shippers, actually. Jikookers and taekookers are both the same because they're all shippers. As I've said, I've been in the one direction fandom and jikookers have started to sound like larries too.

Taekook posting each other on instagram was "work", instagram were "professional" social media accounts, Jungkook posting photos with Taehyung there didn't matter because it was only social media. Jimin and Jungkook literally never interacted with each other publicly on instagram and jikookers were all about how jikook didn't need to be online because they were together 247 physically and social media is performative and fake. Now, weverse (a social media platform) is the place for love confessions.

They're literally changing the narratives and excuses as they go, too. They've even started contradicting the things Jimin and Jungkook themselves say and calling them liars, exactly the thing they used to hate about taekookers. Spent years telling everyone to watch real content and real interactions but now they say the real content is a lie lmao. At least we're all on the same page and agree that Jimin and Jungkook do not see each other. Even the most delusional jikookers, I know that thought it's itching in the back of their minds. Because there have been signs.

The selective blindness too is annoying. No, Jungkook doesn't mention hanging out with Taehyung. But he doesn't mention hanging out with Jimin either, so what's the difference? Him not mentioning his dates with Taehyung and wooga doesn't mean they didn't happen or that he's embarrassed of it.

I've also been noticing a certain discourse and speech pattern arising... that Jungkook is somehow rebelling against the company by doing his lives. So Jungkook does whatever he wants and doesn't care about the consequences and goes against the company all the time. But then he also is apparently being told by the company to not interact with Jimin and he's abiding by the rules? So which is it..? That's yet another narrative that jikookers have taken from taekookers word for word lmao. Now, Jungkook happens to be a hero and the prince charming saving Jimin when he had 10 years to do all that. Ten years in which Jimin literally hard carried the "ship" and never for one second was ashamed of his friendship with Jungkook or being himself; but now after two wlives Jungkook is the brave one fighting for their relationship lmfao. You can't make this up.

Part of me is petty and wants Jimin to just post on instagram for Jungkook's debut single and call it a day (which, if we're correct about Jimin distancing himself from JK, that's what's going to happen).

Another part of me is petty in a different way and wants Jimin to show up at Jungkook's schedules or filmings or something because people are getting wayyyy too comfortable spreading the conspiracy theory that hybe was prohibiting Jungkook from being there or something and that's why he can only do lives from his home and watch Jimin on YouTube and that's his way of fighting the system. So that petty side of me wants Jimin to show up and just Be Jimin the way he's been all these years because that would set the story straight and tell it exactly how it is: that JK just didn't care to be physically there or be involved; nobody ever told him he couldn't go near Jimin or interact with him.

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dutyworn · 1 year

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plotting (and also a meme) call! hit the heart for me to message you about plotting or if that’s too much right now, send the word “memes” as a reply to this post (along with whom for if you run a multimuse blog) and i will send you memes instead!

— you don’t need to have any idea what you want, but if you do, don’t be shy to share. just please have a muse in mind if you run a multi (or even several, i will gladly plot multiple things). we can simply think of a vague trope, a muse dynamic, a random single happening, to work towards, or get into the details, either works — i do have a wishlist tag for inspo if we're stuck but it’s not very many posts at the moment — all verses available; i have verses for all throughout the trilogy, pre-game, post-game, no reapers au, squadmate au, and a “wrong universe” kinda crossover verse for inserting shepard into other fandoms — i will gladly help you insert your muse into mass effect if you want. i will gladly have your muse tossed in mass effect in a “wrong universe they know nothing” kind of a crossover if you want. i will also gladly throw wren into your muse’s universe if you’re ok with her keeping her background and it being a “wrong universe” type of a thing, as i am not open to developing full au verses for her (she needs to at the very least keep her generic military history in the alliance for me to know how to write her but canon offers multiple plot points to potentially cause a tear in space-time for plopping her to your verses; be that the first prothean beacon for something relatively spoiler free or preferably the crucible at the end of the trilogy for if you don’t mind spoilers in my narrative) — i am open to plotting with any type of dynamic (friendly, hostile, eventually romantic, anything) in mind, if you want, please feel free to ask — we’ve never talked before? hit the heart anyway. we have 897987634 plots going on already? hit the heart anyway. — i can’t stress enough how much i don’t care if you know nothing about mass effect. i am happy to explain things, or play in a setting where your muse doesn’t need to know this stuff, either — as a general reminder, i can take my time responding to ooc messages and i rarely chat totally “real time” even if i am online. please don’t take this as a lack of interest. no need for you to make yourself not respond immediately if you prefer that, or ramble while i’m doing something else or offline, you are not overwhelming me; or, ofc, it's ok also if you take long times responding — i prefer discord and my handle is waywarded#6194 but if you prefer tumblr ims i can do that too

LONG POST IS LONG but i wanted to like. put guidelines to make it... less intimidating than just a simple “heart to plot”? but like also feel free to just not read any of the above and hit the heart to plot! i'm autistic and tend to forget most people don't need a whole guidebook on how to do a basic social interaction, sorry

#this got away from me #BASICALLY HEART TO PLOT FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THE WHOLE LIST LOLOLOLOL #; outofarmour #havu be normal for 5 minutes #...nO

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aro-attorneys · 1 year

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Oh the complicated...state of Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice.

I'm not sure how to word this well so I guess this will just be a rambly essay or something.

I feel like my expectations were already lowered, which helped me enjoy any mainline game after the trilogy more (probably). I'm leaving AA4/AJ out of this though because it feels a lot more like Good Old Ace Attorney game that is clearly a follow-up after the trilogy and has the "retro" Nintendo aesthetic (can't believe I can call it retro. god).

Going into the Trilogy, I knew almost nothing about AA aside from "people ship the blue and red/pink guy" and a few memes. None of that knowledge came even close to the True AA experience, so I was rather blown away by the quality of the games.

Moving my way into the fandom after finishing AA3/TaT made sure that getting "spoilers" is inevitable. A combination of Fandom Exposure and having Friends who already played the games caused me to kind of receive...mixed reviews for post-trilogy games? DD and SoJ were the most controversial (I guess AJ just aged really well bc I mostly see praise for it nowadays). The overall impression I got was "not bad bad but also Not That Good either". (some takes were more on the negative side but some of them were more on the..."forgiving" side.

I really loved AJ, so I was wondering how DD and SoJ would hold up in that case. Like...maybe it wouldn't be that bad or something, you know? And the overall impression they gave me was Kind of a Drag but Not Bad.

Cases felt a lot longer. I guess that was only natural after moving to a better Nintendo system with more memory and processing power. But sometimes Cases that are Longer are Bad. It felt like they had more padding just to fill up some time and it made me move through the storyline incredibly slow; I got distracted easily because they failed to keep my attention. I know, big surprise from someone with ADHD lol. But the Trilogy simply held my attention better because with the limited space they had, everything had to kind of Move Faster for the plot to happen and every line contained important information.

Anyway, that's mostly a mechanical issue. I think another issue, one that most people probably agree on, is that it's very sterile. The first 4 mainline games clearly took more risks. They wanted to tell their story and felt more experimental; it felt more integer in a way. The games had a story to tell, a direction they wanted to follow. Whereas DD and SoJ so far feel very...safe. I'm sure others before me explained it better than I can, but I will try regardless:

The Trilogy and AJ didn't shy away from letting characters react pretty intensely to the situation around them, especially Phoenix. Because things were stressful! There wasn't a constant yelling of course but you could feel how stressful the final cases were for everyone involved.

I think the best example I can think of is Trucy. She was introduced in AJ and they made her instantly likeable to me. You're also immediately invested in her since she's the daughter of Phoenix. And you want to know what happened! How did she end up in Phoenix's care? Is she hiding something? Who were her biological parents? And by the time you unravel that mystery, you're invested enough that you can emotionally feel the importance of the bond between Trucy and Phoenix. AJ even ends with Phoenix stating how well he knows her as her adoptive father! You get a little glimpse of how both of them truly feel and it's just...so good.

And all of that was thrown out the window in DD (and SoJ by extend). They barely interact, they don't even mention any of the terrible things they went through together.

And that's the impression I have throughout both DD and SoJ. They do have compelling characters that I care about. I loved Athena's storyline! And I liked going against Blackquill! And so far I really like Apollo and Dhurke's storyline as well! But none of them really have the same lasting impact on me as the Trilogy and AJ had on me. I would say it's just AA Fatigue (I've been playing these games for so long lol), but even then. I've worn myself out during TGAAC too and yet its impact on me is much greater.

I know this "playing it safe" actually pissed some people off, or at the very least made them stop playing the game. To me, they are still enjoyable. But that is also about it. The only exception for me was doing Athena's trial in 5-5 which gave me the same excitement + stress feeling I had during the trilogy sometimes. There's also some other moments in both games that are actually really good. But if I had to give an overall expression, it would be Enjoyable at best and Dragging at worst.

Tl;dr: DD and SoJ are not Bad to me, but it does disappoint me a bit that once they knew they could just get money with a Safe AA game, they stopped taking creative risks and made Just Average Games.

Last side-note: I am aware of the rumor that Shu Takumi said to ignore AJ as much as possible due to its controversy. Ironically, I see most fans nowadays really like AJ so uh...hm.

#ace attorney #dual destinies #spirit of justice #phoenix wright #this wasn't gonna get a readmore but it got longer and longer so...hhhh

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astercontrol · 10 months

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I think the only sustainable form of online interaction is the small group-- be it a Discord server, a Mastodon instance, an email cc'd to a dozen friends who've been replying to each other on it for a year, or what-the-heck-ever.

And I'm not saying such online groups are likely to be sustainable individually. I'm saying that 1. they theoretically CAN be, and 2. when they fail they aren't utterly destroyed or fundamentally changed in their nature, they just break up into similar small groups that retain whichever social connections want to continue.

And this is a feature that only small groups can really manage...

(cw: troubling and depressing thoughts about Moderation Drama, debates over banned content and the boundaries thereof, potentially triggering topics)

The reason is because any moderation done on such groups is done by a person or people who have some capacity to grasp the job they're doing.

And who are doing it because they care about it. Not because they have some delusion that free social media can ever be profitable.

Now, their job is NOT EASY. It's extremely hard, sometimes. Even if you have a small number of people to moderate, you can get very overwhelmed very fast by the task of trying to enforce rules, trying to decide just what is and isn't covered by the wording of the rules, fielding accusations of bias and second-guessing yourself on whether you're enforcing rules equally and consistently for all members of the group. I tried it once, and I don't want to again.

But if the group is small, at least there's a good chance that the people in it will be making a good faith effort to get along with each other and resolve disputes reasonably.

The bigger the group, the more likely that there will be a large number of people on it actively trying to exploit loopholes in the rules or gaps in their enforcement-- often with the goal of spamming, scamming, or harassing people. And there is simply no way to moderate this sufficiently.

Say I'm in a small group of fanfiction writers, and the rules of the group say "no explicit sexual stories involving minors."

So far-- thank goodness --every small group I've been in lately has respected that rule-- no attempts to challenge it or debate its boundaries.

But ...That's a rule that could be a subject of intense debate if people WANTED to argue about it. How do you define a minor in, say, the world of Tron programs (who can look and act like adults on the same day they're created... and whose time system is so enigmatic that we can't even agree on what's the equivalent to a "year")? And how do you define an explicit sexual story, in the Tron fandom (where many of our erotic scenes are about characters touching each other's circuits nowhere near the genital area, and the climax gets called things like "overload" or "restart")? How in the world could you define any of the borders of that rule?

But a small, cooperative group will probably just go with it, and will have an overall agreement on what is meant, and will probably have no interest in breaking the agreed-upon spirit of the rule or debating the gray areas.

Now imagine a group large enough to have subcultures of not only spammers and scammers and trolls, but also bitterly feuding armies on both sides of a culture war. Right away, you'll be dealing with countless members finding ways to use that rule against each other:

"If you won't ban him over how he acts when he's debating social justice, you should at least ban him for posting a sex story about that character who never canonically has an age but In My Opinion is clearly an underage teenager"

"Moderators are biased against me! They used the no-sex-scenes-about-minors rule to ban my story where the character has flashbacks to being abused in childhood, but they won't ban that story about him hooking up with the AI right after creating him, even though the AI is less than a day old so it's clearly eroticizing this thing between a man and his newborn infant son"

"He has no business moralizing about other people's writing after THAT thing he wrote! just because no one's circuits turn purple in the scene doesn't change the fact that energy transfer is SEXUAL and between that pairing it's seriously CREEPY"

"I'm not slut-shaming her, I'm just saying that the OC she uses in her slutty roleplay claims to be 21 cycles old, so she'd BETTER make it clearer what side she's on in the argument over whether 'cycles' are days or years"

And the moment you get enough people questioning the boundaries of a rule like that (with or without ulterior motives against others, or accusations of unfairness) ... the moderator suddenly has to deal with constant attacks from all sides regarding their interpretation and application of the rules, no matter HOW many times in how many ways they tweak the wording and enforcement.

Not only can you not make everyone happy-- you can't even make everyone stop actively rooting for your death, calling you an oppressor/abuser/predator, and trying to cause you real-life harm. With enough people, the category of People Causing Serious Problems becomes far too big to be dealt with.

At this point a conscientious moderator who cares about the group will likely just give up.

A corporate owner of a social media site, who's gotten rich entirely by convincing stockholders that this venture will someday make money, is going to keep trying... but is not going to care enough to do it well. At all.

So... part of me hopes every online group I belong to will always stay small.

And I take at least some comfort in knowing that if the small ones get just slightly too big, parts can always break off and start anew.

(Dividing after reaching a certain size is natural cell behavior. Whatever is going on with major social media..... is not.)

#social media #groups #tw depressing thoughts

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