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kalamity-jayne · 2 months

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Another thing I find interesting about this latest tumblr drama is the CEO outlining his "beliefs and principles". To me it's a striking example of how cis people do not understand us and make no real effort to understand us, which of course kneecaps their ability to see things from out perspective or even have real genuine compassion for us.

For one thing, I think trans women are not going to be won over by outlining your anti-transphobia principles, we don't give a shit that you've read the yogyakarta princples or how many LGBT people you have on staff (especially since it is still unclear whether or not there are actually transfems on the moderation team which is what would actually matter here), or what sort of benefits you offer your trans employees. All good stuff to be sure but that doesn't absolve you of wrong doing and we are so used to people doing this sort of thing to be like, "see, I'm one of the good ones! Don't be mad at me!"

Like, to use an unrelated example, the former head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has done enormously important civil rights work and taken down many powerful hate groups, had to resign a few years ago for racism and sexual harassment, both of which are antithetical to the work he was doing. You can be doing things that help was with one hand while the other hand actively harms us.

Furthermore, trans people are always reading between the lines, we have to as a matter of survival. There are a number of things photomatt has said in his beliefs in principles that will read very very differently to a trans woman than it would to anyone other person reading it. For instance:

I bet any cis person reading that is nodding their head in affirmation to this but to a trans person the headline here isn't "I support the right to medically transition," it's actually, "I don't support transition care for trans youth." And whenever a cis person specifies they support transition for adults that tells us more about what that person's actually believes than they realize.

So all of Photomatt's attempt at establishing his pro-trans bona fides are absolutely hollow when you don't even need to read between the lines here, not when he's followed her to a different social media platform to continue throwing a tantrum at her. Matt's "principles and beliefs" are nothing more than a meaningless genuflection because it's motivated not by the selfless desire to make us feel safer here, it's motivated by his need for us to think he's actually a "good boy" and this all just a misunderstanding.

We aren't stupid Matt, we encounter schmucks like you every👏single👏day.

#tumblr has a transmisogyny problem #photomatt #hammer car #predgesterone #transphobia

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weebsinstash · 1 month

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Do you ever wonder how complicated or nuanced it might be setting personal boundaries with a poly yandere Asmodeus and Fizz. Like do you ever workshop Lust Ring worldbuilding culture and realize "oh wait shit wouldn't it paradoxically be really easy AND ALSO borderline impossible to be open with and enforce your personal boundaries in a place perpetually encouraging the most openly brazen of carnal displays"?

Like. Obviously I like one of them more than the other but silly little guys are growing on me and, just. Imagine being a Sinner and being down in the Lust Ring and realizing they have a completely different culture around just, showing your body and being open with yourself and your desires and, you're suddenly not sure what things are sexual harassment or considered their normal culture and you're not sure what you're even allowed to verbally express discomfort against because. Is it actually something normal and YOU'RE being weird and mean to THEM? Or, are you unintentionally letting people do REALLY creepy things to you?

You move out of Pride and your new coworkers in Ozzie's building are constantly eating dick and pussy shaped foods? Your coworker is throating a dick shaped ice pop at their desk? Your coworkers are varying levels of half naked? That's not perverted, it's normal and healthy and they're confident in their healthy sexuality :) oh, but you think that's weird? You don't want to look directly at someone's tits when they ask your opinion on their new nipple piercings? Aw, aren't you cute, being too shy to be open with yourself! maybe we all need to show you a few things to welcome you to Lust--

Like, I know Ozzie is dead set on consent but I often brainstorm different variations of those opinions or otherwise in a yandere setting. Ozzie is accepting and open and body positive! Therefore he might be completely in the nude while he sits in a recliner and you're asked to bring him something and he ISN'T EMBARRASSED AT ALL. Aw, he doesn't care if you see his dick, he's not ashamed of his body :) and you don't want to tell him to cover up because he's so nice to you, right? Like..... the perfect fucking gentleman BESIDES these um. Conflicting opinions on modesty and boundaries. Like genuinely he is such a good man fr i want him biblicly 😩❤️

These two out here with their fucking "what are you talking about, this blatantly sexual thing we're doing isn't sexual at all, you're being weird and seeing things thst aren't there and also dont kinkshame us wow thats rude?" bullshit. Oh so you got too drunk at an office party so they made sure you got home safely so no one took advantage of you? Yeah that's cool! Or it would be if they didn't take you to THEIR home though! Oh, it was weird for you to wake up literally sandwiched between them in a pair of pajamas meaning they undressed you? Yeah? Well you had to get your sleep and there's only one bed and they wont make you sleep on the couch and Ozzie's chest is nice and broad and warm and Fizz can rest his face on your tummy and-- why are you scowling and looking grossed out, they were just making sure you were warm and cozy, but if that made you uncomfortable, they're sorry you felt that way from them just trying to so something nice for you--

I recognize it's canonically antithetical to his actual beliefs but yandere Ozzie who is like "oh you're not comfortable sharing details about your sexuality or your body or your sex life with me? I mean. Oh gee it would be like so awkward if we were having drinks as friends and I charismatically loosened your lips over time by repeatedly pressing the issues until you give in! It's not a real 'no' if it eventually becomes a 'yes' right?"

Fizz is like. A fucking jester. He's a clown. He's THE silly little guy. So you almost regard him as this nonsexual cartoonish entity until he occasionally has shit slip out of his mouth that reminds you No Honey That's A Grown Ass Man, he's saying shit like "oh wow seeing that crop over there reminded me of the other week where Ozzie and I were doing horseplay and you should've SEEN when I took one to that huge butt of his, he was SCREAMING into the bridle gag and-"

I FEEL LIKE YOU'D CATCH THEM LIKE, ULTRA WEAPONIZING T H E I R RULES. Yeah, consent is important! That's why you're not allowed to flirt with that dilfy incubus, because, what is that in your hand? Gasp, is that a single shot? You've been drinking therefore you can't consent and you're being CARRIED away if that gets you to stop talking to this guy

Like imagine you're this shy bullied little thing and Admodeus is treating you like this precious egg that he can't wait to hatch and then it's like, you're dressing up sexy and coming on to someone ELSE talking about how you wanna suck THEIR dick and suddenly he's all "uh um uh hm you know what?you're moving too fast, people are gonna take advantage of you, you're not ready, let me take you home--"

"BLOWJ0BS FOR ME BUT NOT FOR THEE" for reeeeeeeal!!!!! You're sitting in like, the living room, basically forced to be celibate (unless ya bone them) and in the next room over IN THE ONLY BEDROOM you're hearing like *spanking* *bicycle horn* *that one oh yeah sound effect* *shaking tin sfx* *water splashing* *rubber ducky squeaky noise* *slide whistle* *whoopie cushion* and then the both of them limp out of there visibly disheveled and asking if you want to order a pizza because WOW THEY'RE JUST WAY TOO HUNGRY TO COOK DINNER TONIGHT FOR SOME REASON--

#yandere hellaverse #yandere helluva boss #hh #yandere x reader #yandere stuff #hb #sinprompts

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iravaid · 3 months

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Replaying VtMB again for the zillionth time and I really can't help but gush about the opening cinematic and how Much there is in it. It does a lot to subtly establish the setting and dynamics going on in Kindred LA.

The meeting to announce the fledgling and the sire's fate takes place in a theatre, the orchestral pit a physical barrier between LaCroix and the rest of LA. He is giving a speech with all the pomp and show a Camarilla Prince is probably expected to, and barely anyone can give half a shit about what That pathetic man has to say. Just about every important Kindred you encounter throughout game is there, which I love. Velvet is blowing a kiss at Strauss; Isaac is boredly checking his watch; Therese is shifting uncomfortably in the front row; Jack is in the shadows glowering out at the stage; Damsel, Nines, and Skelter are grumbling amongst themselves; Gary and Ash can even be seen when everyone is leaving. Their disdain is palpable. He never earned their respect; he's never gotten his hands dirty, because there's always some desperate underling looking to pay off debts or claw their way up the tower and do the work for him. He's just another figurehead that they're waiting to finally get ashed either by his own people, or some lucky Sabbat bastard.

And it really sets the scene of a recently muscled in Camarilla pressing their weight down on an LA that just about survived the siege of the Kueii-jin. The third major conflict in the city in about 60 years (initial revoult, sabbat siege being the others)(Nines was there for all of those, something important to note imo). The Anarchs have thinned ranks, no Revolutionary Council, and a 'leader' who believes the Anarchs having a leader is completely antithetical to their cause and so refuses to use that title in any meaningful capacity; they were in no place to effectively fight back against the Camarilla swooping in to try and stamp out the Free State for good. And yet, when the sire is executed, the people look at Nines for what to do next, and he is spurred to speak out amidst a crowd of apathy.

Maybe some of this is coincidence. Maybe it's just recycling assets. I still like it, and think it holds weight in the story.

#big feelings about vtmb once again #vtmb #vampire the masquerade bloodlines #nines rodriguez #sebastian lacroix #vtmbposting

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disabledunitypunk · 3 months

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I cannot get over just how much policing slur reclamation doesn't matter or help in the grand scheme of things.

Here's a handy chart for determining if someone is doing harm by using a slur.

Are they using it for someone who has not consented to it in any way?

Are they using it in a negative or derogatory way towards others or themselves?

If the answer to the first question is yes, it is harmful because it is using loaded language with a history of being used to harm people without permission, therefore furthering the trauma from oppression even if not intended as negative.

If the answer to the second question is yes, then it's reaffirming the idea that the way someone exists (as described by the slur) is bad and wrong, and that therefore anyone who shares that specific aspect of identity is bad for it.

If the answer to both is no, then quite frankly, it doesn't fucking matter. If someone uses a slur to describe themself or an explicitly consenting party in a positive way, they're literally not harming anyone. Quite frankly, I do not give a shit if they have the "correct" identity to reclaim that slur. I'm going to assume they find it meaningful to their specific identity in a way that makes it useful to them, and leave it at that.

You can make all the arguments you want about how you don't know why someone might be using a reclaimed slur, how the relevant identity might not be visible, how someone can be profoundly hurt by a slur without having the "right" identity, how erasing what a related group of people face based on the violence being "misdirected" and "actually aimed at [other group]" is lateral violence, how you can't actually determine how a word is used against a group you're NOT in and therefore can't actually determine it's exclusively or primarily used against only your group in most cases - and I have made those arguments!

But at the end of the day, I feel like that's meeting laterally violent people where they're at. At the end of the day, it may be uncomfortable to you to hear other people reclaiming certain slurs, but it absolutely does not do material harm if the usage is not negative and the people being labeled as such are consenting.

However, harassing people over the language they choose to apply to themselves and explicitly consenting others, barring them access to community spaces and resources, and essentially enacting punitive justice on members of the community for the crime of... using language for themselves that you don't like?

That IS harmful.

Kill the cop in your head. They are antithetical to our liberation.

#disability #unitypunk #ableism #whatever slur you think this is about it is I prommy #slur discourse #and yes this goes beyond disability justice and the disabled community #I mean this about every identity that I can speak on #(though I remain neutral on ones I can't as I may lack context for those that may change things)

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loserchildhotpants · 1 month

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My Notification of the End of the World

Pharmacy: you have (1) prescription ready for refill

Bank: Low Balance Notice

Bank: your unique login code will expire in 30 seconds

[spam call]

Friend: idk why she doesnt invite you, everyone else is always there

Social Media App: 5 bots and 30 morally antithetical strangers have replied to your post

Newsletter: there are fires, floods, starving, suffering people and animals, rampant corruption in establishments of power, and you can do very little to stop it, but there were some great outfits spotted at the Oscar’s!

Email: buy our thing

Pharmacy: you have (1) prescription ready for pick up

News Alert: There are 2 more new active epidemics, and the state you can’t afford to move from is one of the most egregiously sick

Social Media App: lots of people you know are enjoying an event you couldn’t afford to go to, even if you felt safe in such crowded spaces

Bank: Low Balance Notice

Mom: well, I guess I’m just the worst mother in the world…

Email: buy our thing

Dentist: It’s time to schedule your cleaning!

Friend: hey, im having a shit day, can i call?

Email: we noticed you were on our website — why didn’t you buy our thing?

[spam call]

News Alert: several government bodies have rolled back rights and freedoms you have grown up always having access to

Social Media App: 3 people acknowledged your personal post

Friend: i WANT to break up with him, i just don’t know how to

Father: Google it. Just sign the papers

[AMBER alert]

Bank: your unique login code expires in 30 seconds

Pharmacy: you have (2) prescriptions ready for pick up

Husband: do NOT use that card - hold on I’ll call and take care of it in a minute

Animal Clinic: test results are back, please call

Friend: idk why I pay a therapist when I can just call you lol

News Alert: the phone you’re operating is a direct result of the on-going genocide and inhumane cruelty in the Congo

Email: buy our thing

[spam call]

[scam caller]

Social Media App: your friend posted for the first time in six months

Father: well your aunt wants to know how you’re doing so give me a call and let me know how the year went for you

Email: These 5 paid studies rejected you

Bank: Low Balance Notice

Husband: it’s gonna be another late night

Mother: not that you girls care

Sister: I’m just going to ignore it

[Flood Warning]

Psychiatrist: We cancelled the appointment because when we charged the $150 co-pay to your account, it was declined, and all appointments must be paid for in advance

[scam caller]

News Alert: The on-going genocide in Palestine is perhaps the best documented genocide in history, but is still being denied on all major news outlets as it escalates

Email: 200 people enjoyed your passion project, 3 people left you any form of encouragement

University: A prolific criminal that got away with his hate crime very publicly is here to talk about his side of the story in a sympathetic frame, and we encourage the marketplace of ideas, so please come politely tolerate his hate speech

[spam call]

News Alert: the crimes against humanity in the Sudan, Congo, Palestine, Haiti, Papua, Ukraine, Cuba, Yemen and Amhara are getting increasingly brazen, and unless you can spare more money, there’s little you can do to effect real change

Friend: oh, I’m sorry you’re feeling badly - we can talk later

Email: buy our thing

Distant Relative: I just don’t understand why you can’t spend time with your mother

Social Media App: to appease the conservative CEO’s of the companies connected to our ad revenue and relevant mobile banking apps, we will no longer be allowing whatever we loosely define as immoral or distasteful artworks

Friend: I’ll definitely read your thing later!

[scam caller]

Pharmacy: you have (2) prescriptions ready for refill

[High Wind Warning]

Bank: Low Balance Notice

Friend: it was just supposed to be for fun

Husband: No, I’m out of PTO, and I don’t have that high a fever, it’ll be okay

Friend: you need a vacation

Bank: your unique login code expires in 30 seconds

News Alert: New York Times journalist describes how your unhappiness and anxieties are a symptom of serious pathologies, and also entirely your own fault

Me: sorry it took me so long to reply. I had to put my phone down for a little while.

#melanie writes #poetry #melanie’s original writing #my stuff #personal

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dr3amofagame · 5 months

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like as far as the finale streams go, there's quite a bit that we can say preeeetty definitively were lies. c!dream literally goes into this whole thing like "this is the part where we monologue at you" to c!tommy, which is taking the credibility of literally everything he's saying and cutting it at LEAST by 80%

(me too tubbo)

the saw trap, rather definitively, was 100% bullshit top to bottom. i mean, come on now. dream literally gives him steak that they could've used to depress the pressure plate, and he's completely unsurprised about the two of them surviving. plus he literally added a bonus "WE'RE DOING THIS BECAUSE WE'RE EVIL" thing. like, laughably fake.

along those same lines, i mean, the "we killed vikk and lazar in every possible way for months" doesn't seem credible in the slightest. first of all, what months? unless they were doing so post-prison (and they continued to do so...after they supposedly found out about revivals causing instability???) -- and the whole point of bringing that up in the first place was pretty much just to set up for the saw trap. any and all death experimentation seems kinda limited by the fact that XD was apparently getting pissed over it

speaking of which, have we considered how funny it is that like there's a good chance that fewer problems were caused by the revival experiments compared to like. foolish dying from fall damage while building. bc foolish SURE DID DIE A LOT

i also want to bring up the "bring an army here to fight against us" moment just because it's ... so overt. i don't think it's a lie, but was dream like more than heavy-handed in hinting at what he wanted tommy and tubbo to do? holy shit yea

like, it's giving "talking about putting c!tommy in the prison" levels of overt.

the rest of it gets...a little murkier though, and in part because c!dream seems to at least, to some degree, contradict himself? i mean, what he says about death being permanent is SUCH a glaring example of this

like, he's clearly got some strong opinions on the permanence of death and revivals that he brings up. a lot. but at the same time, death being impermanent is also a problem...

...and specifically, a problem in the eyes of the god here. which is accurate--we've seen XD specifically make a whole Thing about how he needs souls, how he needs death. (though it does look like he's also kinda...beholden? to something? when he mentions that too, which is interesting.)

and look, here, too, when talking about death:

like i think it's pretty undeniable that c!dream...doesn't. actually want people to die. he's got an issue with this whole death thing. like--look at what he says, even, about the fact that they have to kill everyone? he literally calls it a problem. hell, when he could, by all means, technically get "closer" to his goals by killing c!clingy, he doesn't take it. he even revives tommy after killing him.

he's very explicit about not wanting death in the final stream, as we see here:

i've seen a few interpretations about what dream wanted being to, essentially, become immortal with punz after killing everyone. and i always didn't really agree, though i couldn't pinpoint specifics either--for one, the specific point of "only you two will be left" is something that tubbo points out first, not either dream nor punz. further, when dream mentions who would be left after "killing everyone," he actually specifically doesn't say that it's about the dream and punz show and the dream and punz show only--it's a choice of "join us in our research or die."

further...well, it's rather antithetical to what have been c!dream's stated motivations the entire time, right? dream doesn't want peace on the server in terms of just having like one (1) other person around that agrees with him or whatever. and again, there have been some mentioned contradictions just from these two streams alone. but looking at the contents of these last two streams again, and especially looking at the focus c!dream has on "everyone living forever and being friends and being invincible and the server being completely vanilla again" plus the return of mr. "end justifies the means", i can 100% see some kind of plan where--facing an immediate world reset--c!punz and c!dream decide to go for plan "kill people to appease the god while gathering anyone that's willing to do research with us to Figure Out How To Fix Things." the emphasis that c!dream presents on death not mattering, calling the revive book the "greatest thing" that's happened to the server, even, going "yeah it might hurt, but we can go back" seem to suggest that everyone that was babyjailed in limbo in the meantime would then be able to be revived after they idfk kill god or whatever.

like. i don't think they actually have Too Much of a plan, though we don't know that much bc we don't know how much their research went into. hell, we don't even know how much XD is actually involved in all of this! the events that trigger everything that happens looks to be almost completely out of punz and dream's control--they didn't seem to expect or even know about the nuke, they weren't involved in the egg hatching, and they weren't with eret and foolish fighting XD. all they did was...well punz revives dream and dream kills and revives tommy. (which, ironically, also what they literally said they shouldn't have done because it's what caused the instability????) -- as i pointed out in the last post, i'd say a degree of like "this is inevitable nothing matters" definitely affects c!dream in these streams, with the end of the world kind of happening around him. but as for whatever goal he DID seem to be working towards, the idea of doing research + wanting knowledge + murder for like, an actual purpose that aligns with earlier stated goals (preserving the server and making it so that people can live in peace without being haunted by death and pain and destruction) feels like it reads relatively well with what we know about 1) XD having to do with the reset, and the server being a cycle that involves worlds coming into existence and ending over and and over and over again and 2) what c!dream says in these streams, specifically referring to his stated end goal of living forever with everyone and not simply striving for immortality in its own right

#c!dreamisms #hopefully this makes sense?#thanks sumwan for the transcriptions !!! :D #long post

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godtier · 3 months

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so i wasn't gonna make a separate post about this but @sapphire-weapon had a post (that i reblogged a few days ago) in which someone mentioned that they think it was a missed opportunity in RE6 for jake to not have spoken to wesker. i had a p long conversation with sirea about it and my thoughts about that sentiment, but it was also nearly 3 AM my time when that happened so i dunno if i was even articulating my thoughts properly lmao

and yes... this is technically a meta post and i know i said i was gonna do the mmx meta post first... but this one isn't gonna be nearly as long (i hope) and i gotta get the brainworms out before i die

(quick edit note: i reworded the list item below from saying he was "likely a drug addict" to "likely a recreational drug user" because i feel like that better encompasses what i'm trying to get across

(another edit note: i made another post regarding jake's usage of drugs that stemmed from this post! it's marked as mature bc of drug usage, so it won't show up in tag search. if you're interested in that, look here!)

so the idea that wesker being alive in OG RE6 would have brought an opportunity for jake's character is kinda, imo, antithetical to the purpose of jake's character in the first place.

when we meet jake, we know a few things about him, right off the bat:

he's a mercenary

he's likely a recreational drug user or at least heavy/risk-taking user

he doesn't give a fuck about anything but making money

his whole character journey is going from this selfish, money-focused dickhead to someone who actually cares about doing something good, just because it's the right thing to do. at the start, jake refuses to simply give his blood away when sherry mentions needing it for a vaccine. no, he wants a cash payout. 50 million dollery-doos for a pint of his blood. by the end, he lowers the price to a mere 50 dollars. one could argue that was symbolic and he actually didn't care if he was paid or not, but that's neither here nor there.

but why was he like this? because his childhood was shite; his mother was sickly, he had no father figure, and by 15-ish, jake had to learn how to hustle to keep food on the table. and by "hustle" i mean "do a bunch of mercenary work and killing people." and when shit went south with his little group of mercenaries (their entire group was sold out by a heel-turner), jake basically went "fuck alla y'all" and lost all sense of conviction or morals.

during the game, he expresses his bitterness for his father, wesker, pretty clearly. even though his mother still loved wesker, tried to raise jake to respect him despite never knowing him, it didn't matter to jake. he hated that guy. well, really, who doesn't?

we're not gonna talk about excella rn ok

jake's entire character arc is built up around this hatred as well as a subconscious fear of becoming his father. the fear part doesn't show up until later in the story, after he and sherry were captured by the Big Bad's organization. they were both experimented on for several months, during which jake overheard the researchers talking about his father, wesker. this gives jake a sort of "explanation" as to why he is the way he is; he takes the "nature" side of the nature vs nurture argument.

ofc sherry scolds his ass and basically tells him "grow up and take responsibility for your actions."

and here's the thing... this fear, narratively, works just fine without wesker being there.

(since this got obscenely long, pls continue below for the actual explanation lmao)

jake eventually comes to the conclusion that yeah no it's definitely up to him to not become wesker, not his genetics. he does this without wesker being there. that's the entire point of his character journey. in order for an interaction with wesker to even matter or have any sort of impact on jake's character arc, his character arc as a whole would need to change.

see, imo, wesker being there diminishes a lot of the power of that journey. in the game, he isn't there for jake to scream at, to question. all those thoughts in his head that might be circulating around, like why he left his mother, why he did what he did, etc, cannot be answered. this is not a bad thing in a character arc as this is shit that happens to people all the time. people don't always get the answers they may want from family members because those family members are dead. they have to learn to move on without those answers or they have to rely on people who knew that person to fill in the blanks. this is what jake already does in game. he has to rely on sherry, and by a smaller extent, chris, to fill in those blanks for him.

but we as players, observers of the narrative, already know the answers to some of those questions. why wesker did what he did, primarily. anything else is only pertinent to jake and him knowing those answers doesn't change anything for his character arc as it is.

if wesker was there in the game, what would that even add to jake's narrative? a scene where jake yells at his dad? asks him "why did you leave?" when wesker wasn't even aware that he had a kid in the first place? remember: wesker had no fucking idea that he had a child. there would be no reason for wesker to even believe jake in the first place. sure, there could be a scene where he goes "well i'll be damned, ig he really is my misfired chromosome," but... then what? what does that add?

you could argue that wesker could use jake, maybe try to manipulate him into doing shit for his plans, but... that wouldn't work with the way jake's characterization is mapped out. his entire characterization would have to change for this to work in a satisfying way.

jake already hates wesker without ever meeting him. he would not willingly participate in anything wesker offered to him. he already knows that wesker nearly destroyed the world multiple times and had a hand in destroying an entire city. even if jake has no moral compass at the start of the game, by the time he learns about what wesker really did, who he really was, he's already showing that he does have one, it was just dormant up until that point. he's clearly disgusted by what wesker did. what foothold would wesker have that wouldn't immediately result in it just falling flat?

given how wesker is, i could see him perhaps belittling jake, maybe saying "wow you suck for being my spawn," or something during a fight with the intent to rile him up. would that work? no, not narratively nor not in the way jake is characterized. again, jake doesn't want to be like wesker. why would insulting him and saying he's not "as good" as wesker expected him to be motivate jake or even anger him? it shouldn't, because jake doesn't want to be anything like wesker. if anything, it may annoy him, but that's kind of a lame reaction, right?

if anything, the most i could see culminating out of this would be jake standing over wesker after he's defeated again (because it's resident evil and obviously wesker can't win) and having a "wow idk what i was worried about" moment. that's it.

but he doesn't need that. having a scene like that cheapens the weight of him figuring that out himself, without wesker there as "proof."

because the point of his story, of his character arc, is that he figures that out on his own (and with the help of sherry and the events he witnesses) because he has to. he doesn't need wesker there to spoon-feed that to him. he figures that out by working with sherry, by seeing the effects of the C-Virus on everything that it infects. wesker being an abstract entity in his life is enough, because the frustration of not seeing him, not being able to put a bullet in his skull himself, fuels the rest of his journey.

this is where i think that people who make these observations or criticisms (primarily those who think that jake's character would have been improved if wesker was there) need to understand the difference between what's good for a character as a person and what's good for their arc.

interacting with wesker would be good for jake as a person, in that he would no longer need to wonder about it. the answers would be spelled out for him, and he wouldn't have to do any wondering about the what-if. he wouldn't have any doubts left that he'd need to untangle.

but in doing that, it cheapens his arc; it would do more of a disservice to it, imo, than anything else. it would make his journey more formulaic and boring.

it would also clutter up the already cluttered narrative of that game. you have him not only struggling with his heritage, struggling with the fear of becoming his father, struggling with needing to be the "savior" by giving his blood, struggling with his moral compass, but now also struggling with seeing his father for the first time in person?

it makes his arc top-heavy. in that scenario, you could easily replace him with another, completely new character who has zero ties to wesker and the story wouldn't change in any meaningful way. the reason why it works the way to does now is because wesker is already dead. it creates that internal conflict, that internal frustration, that jake has to learn how to deal with since he cannot take that frustration out on his father in-person. he has to make peace with that struggle in other ways.

now, that's not to say there aren't ways that adding wesker into the story of RE6 that don't disrupt that balance. primarily, when it comes to a potential RE6 remake, the writing team can (and hopefully will) rework aspects of the entire game to make the plot more streamlined. this could include adding wesker in and redoing jake's characterization and character arc entirely.

this would be the only way i could see it working out. if jake's entire motivation was changed, his entire backstory was tweaked, then wesker being around could probably work! an interaction between them could be made to make sense and not bog down the rest of the plot as a result.

sirea also mentioned to me in our conversation that adding wesker in to RE6 remake could actually help streamline the plot and i do agree with that. she mentioned that all of the main characters have a tie to wesker in some way, which is absolutely true. having him there would neatly tie their campaigns together in the plotline and make the game as a whole feel less disjointed and messy.

this is especially true when we consider there are 4 fuckin campaigns that all run alongside one another and intersect at random points. it gets so fucking difficult to page through and figure out when certain things happen in the plot. you'll see them happen in order in chris's campaign, for example, then you go start leon's campaign and have to start over again and try to remember what happened at the same time during chris's campaign and so on.

now imagine that not with just two campaigns but four. it gets gross quick. sure, there are parts where the characters run into each other and that helps ground a general timeline in your head, but as far as time elapsed... it's so fuckin hard u guise

there's a reason why it's so hard to summarize the plot of RE6. it's because there is just so much going on in that fucking game.

anyway, that's my rant/sort of meta analysis about why i think wesker didn't need to be in OG RE6 and probably would have made jake's entire arc stupider than it already was

#resident evil #resident evil 6 #jake muller #albert wesker #meta analysis #pls don't look at me i only write posts about characters no one cares about #stay tuned for my meta analysis on HUNK next #(may or may not be serious about that)#(also this post is the epitome of tl;dr)#(u been warned)#text post

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blackstarchanx3new · 7 months

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yes, surprisingly I’m putting another one because I’m annoying

so-

out of these LOVELY carbon based life forms

(Yes I am aware my art sucks, but ibis paint and shattered iPhone do NOT MIX)

would win in a fight (-triforce stuffs because that would give unfair advantages I think)

I swear, people always wanna power scale characters I write and my response will ALWAYS be:

"Well that depends"

Because I don't write characters based on "Is he over 9,000!?" dragonball logic lmfao.

Dark Link HYPOTHETICALLY could slap the ever loving shit out of all 4 Links if he used his powers right RIGHT NOW in the comic. Comic could be over within 2 seconds if that was the case. (Shadow is disqualified because the triforce of power is)

Because the dude, can literally break your mind in a second and then stab the fuck out of you if he REALLY felt like it.

But...He WOULDN'T. Because in his own words that's "Boring".

Dark Link doesn't play the typical "WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF MY WAY I'LL RULE THE WORLD" because that's literally the last thing on this dude's mind.

Dark's motivations keep him from doing anything that'd end the comic.

Dark's motivations of wanting to be given affection completely cancel out the idea he WOULD hurt the Link's physically long term because he wants them alive.

So the idea "Dark could slap everyone in a second flat" is null and void imo because of characterization reasons. He'd. Never. Do. That.

HE COULD. But he WOULDN'T.

I find hypotheticals that completely disregard the characterization super boring as well "Who is the strongest" Is such a silly question.

Because it tosses out the question "Well would they really do that?"

How do you define power?

Especially when placing arbitrary restrictions like "No Triforce" because, well.. you know the answer then?

Shadow Link is the strongest because he has the triforce of Power. He trumps Dark in that department but also has control over Dark because Dark is a demon. But then, Link hypothetically can slap the shit out of Shadow if he really needed too...Because Link canonically has the power to slap Gannon silly.

But "Why the fuck would they do that" is the prevailing question?

They are written this way for a reason.

I make strong as hell characters (Dark included) but the "power scaling" is mostly defined by their personalities/what they'd actually do.

Because then we get into the question "What is strength actually?" emotional strength? Physical? Magical?

I have a writing rule:

OP Character? Make their restrictions based on their personality.

Cause this isn't two characters fighting in a void...this is a comic with a story flow and specific characterization built the way it is to get to a point.

"That's not what the story is about" is the blunt answer I have.

Dark doodle for my writing rant troubles.

I guess what bugs the hell out of me by the question "Who's the strongest" is

"What the fuck led to this hypothetical death match to begin with?"

and I just cannot fathom a reason why this would be happening because my characters are not written for these weird hypotheticals.

The fights that are in my stories are there, because it furthers the plot. Not to show off power?

They're written for the story they're contained in, in which there are very specific rules they must follow because my brain said so.

"Character x will win this fight, because that's how the story goes, if it were to go the other way, the story would end."

The question itself is antithetical to the idea of the stories I tell.

#four swords returns #four swords returns au

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nonbinarygamzee · 8 months

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i think it is very interesting how people pick and choose which characters to sympathize with on the basis of being reduced to plot devices or being in general captives to their narratives. and obviously you dont have to like or give a shit about every character to exist especially not in a work so simultaniously dense and flat as homestuck, but i have both an intense interest in sociology and too much experience with how this fandom treats people for liking the "wrong" fictional children not to be eternally preoccupied with what makes these distinctions. when the character is liked, they are allowed the grace of being kind of poorly written; its the fault of the author, or theres some significant nudging about of their story beats to recontextualize them into something more nuanced and whole. by contrast, if the character is generally agreed upon to be uncharismatic, their personality flaws are inflated and the flatness of their writing is either erased in preference of integrating those authorial decisions into the characters personality (regardless of how glaringly contradictory) or more concerningly becomes a means of shutting down criticism on the basis nobody should care about the unserious/unwritten ones anyways.

interestingly, with gamzee in particular, ive found that people tend to do one or the other moreso than both; dont get me wrong, theres still a plethora of moralizing over peoples sympathy for This particular fictional child going on, obviously, thats basically the reason i am trapped here. but because gamzee is accepted as not a character but a plot device or an obstacle, a lot of people arent invested enough in her potential personhood to insist that the (antithetical) ways that she behaves are proof of her being "iredeemable". but they still have a negative emotional response to people having investment in her character. it isnt relevant whether or not shes a bad person, or whether she is being puppeteered, because her functionality in the world she exists in is to propagate the story and stand in opposition to its protagonists.

however as interesting as i think that is and for all i do think it says about an individual persons approach to homestucks presentation, i also cant ignore that that dichotomy only really started to Exist once it became less in vogue to harrass people for their character allegiences. in the same way, it seems like we as a fandom cannot escape the trap of being really, really weird about tavros every couple of years. skirting around some of the more blatantly ridiculous stuff because i do actually value my sanity a little bit, he is definitely one of the characters i first noticed people using critique as a pretense for passing judgement on people who liked or cared about him. again basically coinciding wiyh when it stopped being generally socially acceptable to just openly laugh about what a pathetic loser the disabled kid being humorously abused onscreen was. when ableism started to become a topic people cared about and disabled people and fans who related to tavros began to provide more in depth critique of the writing choices, and of fans, namely fans who made very light of his disability or who had a general refusal to talk about vriska's(and others but you know why its about her here) ableism, there was a massive uptick in people feeling the need to talk unprompted about how boring and shitty tavros is, questioning how anybody could like him when hes so badly written, etc. all in ways that did not try very hard to hide the fact that the concern about character writing was disingenuous and only really served the purpose of shutting down critiques of ableism in the fandom and comic. obviously this all seems to stem from investment in canonicity but i do notice it informs even the choices of people who approach their engagement in a "my city now" type of way. because the presentation of these characters impacts the wider perception, which impacts the ways people will deconstruct them. and this is why the idea that "homestuck doesnt have a canon" is a lie being sold to you for the sake of shutting down investigations od authorial motivation. was not intended to be epilogue snark but thatd as good a way to end this nonsense as anything else.

#not rereading if i made a msitake or dont make sebse thats on you for not being psychically linked #its clown town #gamzee #tavros #meta

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drivestraight · 12 days

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hi! i am writing a character study right now (for a completely different fandom) but ofc objects in mirror keeps coming to mind because your characterization was so amazing and on point. do you have any advice for character studies specifically? and also, how did you gain the inspo for the plot in objects in mirror? was it a planned out thing or was it more just like a few key bulletpoints and then you went from there? i would love to hear about it and i appreciate you and your writing endlessly!!!

thank you so much! i have a bit of a rambling answer so i'm putting it below the cut:

i guess for characterization, the way i try to approach it, is to just keep them as human as possible in a way? like i don't think anything i do is exceptional or novel at all, but the way i think about it is to think through interactions, and go through the whole "would he do that? would he say that? would any normal person do or say that? what would X's response to Y doing this be? what is X and Y's relationship like and how do i get that across?" and i guess a lot of that is having a grasp of the "source material," so like. all the little videos that give us insight onto what they're like - and obviously that has its limits. like we really only do see glimpses, and a big part of rpf is filling in the blanks in a compelling/reasonably realistic way, and that's all up to you.

like obviously you can't reflect reality but i think it just comes down to portraying the characters so that they don't feel, like, caricatures rather than characters. and since you're doing a character study i'd assume you're writing it in like, a racing setting - in cases like these i do feel like it's more restrictive/difficult to get characterization "right," as opposed to in an au, where the characterization can feel real and compelling despite being pretty different. and this isn't to say that there's one right way - not at all. but like. making it Feel right in in an f1 setting, i'd say, is a little more narrow. it all comes down to just being thoughtful, i guess?

i do get kind of picky lasjf;lsaflaskjdf like sometimes when i feel like people try to give, for example, max or charles nuance, they go so heavy on like self-pity and trauma and inferiority it's like - is this a character who is even at all compelling? if this guy thinks he's so shit at everything like what's the point...😭 (unless he's getting rawed as a solution. that's always okay)

it's that sort of thing i mean like. it doesn't have to be accurate (we have no idea of what that actually means), but like... i do think to some extent it's important that you put thought and care into how you are portraying someone and not go too far into one extreme rather than the other. People have nuance. they can want antithetical things. etc etc. so it's just having that in mind, i'd say.

but like. if i'm being honest. not to like invalidate everything i've said above. i don't really think about it That much?? i kind of like. i pick the person i'm writing in the pov of, and just try to put myself in their head (as much as that's possible lmao), and things kind of just go from there. like i think i think about characterization when i need to, but it's more nowadays wrapped into my writing process as a whole, rather than something i think about in isolation.

and obviously i don't think that my word is gospel. this is just how i try to think about things and if this doesn't gel with you, throw it away lksjfd;lksad i'm just one person on the internet writing rpf

WOW okay i rambled a lot. onto your second question.

objects in mirror was largely unplanned. i think i've explained the story a couple times on here, but i'll just do it again haha.

when i was writing on the limit, i just wanted to write a fic about 2 guys talking. i didn't even think about writing a romantic relationship for them (deep enough in my discord dms is me talking about how i will Never ever ever ship lestappen or any sports rpf ship because i thought it was cringe), nor did i go into it with the intention of having charles go to red bull. i kinda just wanted him and max to have a drink and talk. originally it was supposed to be at the FIA gala but then i changed it, etc etc, and then we got on the limit.

leave no space was also kind of unplanned. by that point i started getting into lestappen as a romantic ship so then i was like. i wanna write something. hmmm. and then i just started writing something lmao. i think about 90% of the fic was unplanned. just vibes. scene after scene depending on what i felt like writing. maybe a bullet point here and there.

all to play for however... like. i was so against writing it at first because i knew it would take a lot of planning and effort. but then as more time passed i caved because i was like - this part of the story needs to be written. so then i literally made this spreadsheet along with plans for each race. dkfja;lkdfjsa. really an endeavor of massive proportions it was like a 2 month writing affair which i rarely ever do...

i guess "sources" of inspiration were like. seb's 2013 campaign, multi-21, spain 2016, etc etc. like past racing incidents were fun to think about/helped give inspiration for some of the incidents and this fic. and i think that one time lewis drove into the wrong pitbox lmao. and i guess also the wikipedia article of alexander the great. and also this one dream i had about someone calling me in the morning that turned out to totally be fake. <3

anyway yeah. i hope i answered at least some of your questions 😭

#asks #writing meta #objects in mirror #fic asks

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lennjamin-o7 · 8 months

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Rereading the last chapter of TBTF like ya do, and I'm starting to get concerned. When it began I was firmly in Camp Sonboy and couldn't wait for Techno to be turned, but now I'm not so sure. I'm not going to ask if he gets turned vampire or not, as that's a hella spoilery question, but I will ask: what kind of ending do you have planned? Does Technoblade end up happy? What about the vampires?

I will say that I don't like writing tragic endings. I enjoy reading them sometimes, but anything I write will AT LEAST be bittersweet.

I will also say that we are NO WHERE near the end of TBTF, so much that I am sometimes a little overwhelmed with how much I have left to write. And I have character development planned for SO MANY of the characters.

Also, the name of the fic is the question I want the story to answer. What does it mean to be truly free? What is freedom? True freedom? Is it only autonomy? Is it choice? Is it possible without power? Is freedom only possible if you are alone? If no one asks you for help? If no one relies on you? Do responsibility and duty inherently infringe on freedom? Is being selfless a cage? Is being selfish the only way to be free? Is selfishness even freedom? Can love be a cage? Can love be a key? Is love a chain? Are ALL gifts a burden? Can a parent's expectations be a trap, even when the parent is only trying to do what they think is best? Is expecting someone to change for the better a tyrannical expectation? Does Freedom give a person the right to ignore people in need? Can someone who couldn't give a damn about your happiness lead you to freedom? What is the relationship between freedom and happiness? Is something that feels free for one person the same definition for others?

But in order to ask the question, I feel the need to show how other characters have answered it, at this point. You aren't the first to mention how Wilbur's actions in the last chapter are sus as fuck. And maybe Wilbur's actions feel antithetical to the concept of freedom. And maybe it IS antithetical. But sometimes you need an antithesis to show the thesis.

And, as a slightly spoilery answer:

Tommy, Wilbur, and Phil are going to get their shit wrecked at some point because of the way they choose to act now. It will come back to bite them. I don't plan on letting them get off scott free. :)

#lenn writes #ask and ye shall recieve #to be truly free #amethyystfox

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seeminglyseph · 2 months

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also everyone points out that Sir Pentious gets praise and Angel Dust doesn't for doing the skit, no one points out that the skit is specifically designed and written like "hey, everything that Angel Dust is, is dirty and wrong." like it's about how drugs and sex are bad. like. on top of how he's acting in the skit and not getting complimented, the skit itself is framed as the things Angel is known for doing are antithetical to the cause and so it's like a double punch of like. being judged by the people around him *and* the new guy is getting all the attention and praise when he's also participating in the activity.

Then he goes upstairs and listens to the messages from Val about he's a trashy addict whore, and will always be an addict trash and he can never change and he should just go back to Val and give up on redemption. Which sinks him deeper into his self-loathing. (and when I tell you that scene with the messages going back and forth between 'heyyy I miss you' and 'you worthless piece of shit' and 'I'm sorry you just make me so angry' had me *fucked up*)

Angel is a really good depiction of like. a million different things. he's triggering but like. it's not bad that he's triggering. it's like... 'oh yeah that's some real shit' in this stupid cartoon femboy spider. like how dare you make me feel things while wearing bootie shorts you bitch

#seph watches hazbin hotel #angel dust #hazbin hotel angel dust #i don't want to have these feelings #but here I am having these feelings #this is fucking unreasonable I'm an adult

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sas-afras · 2 months

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ramblin about shit

as bittersweet as it is to say i don’t think id ever want to return to making sas/smn, or at least not the way i was doing it back in 2017.

i was, as you all know, an extremely extremely lonely kid with a shit home life. posting my art on tumblr was my Only outlet, and i threw myself into it as hard as you’d expect. i stuck with sas way longer than id ever done with other art projects because of that, especially without any breaks and that was utterly miserable. it contributed to multiple severe burnouts!!

when i’m Not dangerously starved of positive attention i prefer to draw whatever stuff takes my interest and flip between different projects as the urge hits. along with that i love to experiment with my art, learning new techniques and styles and workflows… drawing the same thing in the same way over and over again with no break gives me hives now, and i actually have adhd medication!! like dont get me wrong, working on sas was amazing and there is very little about that experience i would change, but my god i did not know how badly it burnt me out at the time. shit was miserable— and my dumb little alexithymic ass didn’t even understand why 😭

but i felt like i Had to keep at it, because the attention i was getting out of posting it online was, as i said, my only outlet. people liked sas, and posting other stuff didn’t get me the attention i needed, so… that was it. my relationship with Gaining Fandom Popularity was nottttt healthy lmao but what can you do

i’m happy to say now that i’m in a way better place, both mentally and Literally, and have the freedom to just kinda fuck around and do whatever for my personal art. not having a (self imposed!!!) timer for when i have to Get The Content Out has improved my relationship with making art AND my understanding of what i need as a creative

but that exact lack of structure that i Need to not go completely insane (fucking around style wise, taking six month breaks from projects to goof off on other shit, etc) is kind of antithetical to The Webcomic Environment. its almost antithetical to the Me Finishing A Single Gotdam Thing environment but i prommy i make it work lmao

but yeah. all that 2 say. even though i am currently having a Penn Moment and regaining my love for fo4, i shrimply do not think sas is gonna come back the way it once was. if anything id draw all of it in private and post everything at once after it’s done, but i dont really feel the urge at the moment. im just havin fun, bein goofy, etc.

anyways if you’re an OG from the me-actually-posting-comic-pages days, i love you. thanks for sticking around even after that dried up lol. kiss

#not art #if anyone responds to this saying i just don’t have discipline… maybe you’re right!#but i think enjoying yourself as a creative is (sometimes) a little more important than having discipline #i’m only just learning how to enjoy myself. everything else can wait until later

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amarriageoftrueminds · 10 months

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a reason why the current captain america comics + sentinel of liberty feel so Out Of Character + damaging to the characters or sometimes feel created out of spite for the existing Bucky & Steve + feel like they're more worried about having every combination of characters punch e/o + mainly beat up the flattened and OOC stand-ins for spectacle,

the reason is probably because once one goes online they can see the people who worked on it announcing their work who are people who literally and openly despise the characters and have years of hate tweets against them, who even threw reference their long standing reputation for hating the characters in their announcement post 🙃

that and the main guy working on the admitting he doesn't like reading comics but listed an exception that's such a wildly different genre/style .... which honestly explains a lot

no wonder so much of the Cap comics feel so meanspirited/edgy/antagonistic towards the main characters whose stories we're trying to follow, so many of the people working on them hate Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers and mangle their characters so much and flatten them to cartoonish levels

and sadly most "fans" don't even care how the characters are treated and praise SoL for having good art.. which okay on a technical level I agree but whoever ordered the character designs must also be part of the higher-ups at Marvel who decided Steve & Bucky's characterization should be axed, because their designs keep making them more and more ugly and tropish than actually them, and in the context of the everything else it feels purposeful !

I can't help thinking of that old analogy about Colonialism, that it's like moving in to squat in someone else's house, saying 'wow I love how you decorated it!!' but then... redecorating to make it a carbon copy of their own house, anyway??

That's what Disney does when they take over an IP.

Film and now comics too.

The people given control of these important blue-collar Jewish characters don't give a shit about their origins, why the characters are supposed to be a certain way, to express certain values (or that to express the opposite makes a nonsense of their very design). And certainly don't want to hear that it was those very values, antithetical to their own, which made the characters popular in the first place.

(A broke Jewish Spiderman?! But how is a rich Christian supposed to find him relatable? A Cap who punches Nazis, befriends minorities, protects Jews, defends his out gay best friend, fucks up corrupt businessmen, and doesn't give a shit about chasing pussy? But what will the cishet shareholder bros think?!)

They just want to have IP that matches the Company Brand -- a Straight Man for a Straight Woman (with the promise of a future Nuclear Family in Suburbia), expressing values that won't alienate potential right wing customers.

And Hollywood's much the same, which is why they picked the (ugly, mean-spirited, OOC) Ultimates run of comics for Whedon to adapt, and not another.

#hey nonny #dat's me #toAyourQ #comics #anon idk anything about that announcement tweet ur referencing tho #any chance of a link? *as much as it will no doubt enrage me*#anti disney #anti mcu #SoL in particular from what if I've seen is just blatant smearing of Bucky and sabotage of a decades-long relationship #with (of course! what a coincidence!) an MCU-style piggy (cynthia the nazi) shoved in as if she has any right to be there

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