#if you try to say there's nuance i will block you
Note
https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/748370073567313920/i-think-for-me-one-of-the-big-stumbling-blocks-i
I agree with the points in replies that it’s the pushy loli guys’ behavior that marks them as creepy and you’ll never know the people who are quiet about it, because they are not creepy and show that by respecting people’s boundaries.
But idk… people in the reblogs are insisting that there’s never any relationship between the fiction you like and your IRL fetishes and, cmon. Can we all agree that that’s oversimplified in the opposite direction? Some people do choose particular media because it gets them off. And there’s def anime that wouldn’t appeal to you unless you’re specifically into the idea of fucking lolis being a-ok. It’s different from media that has other features and that’s one element of it, or it’s specifically about that it’s an unrealistic fantasy,
I think the conversation isn’t helped when we act like admitting that means you support censorship or think things should be banned, or support anti style harassment. I mean there’s a difference between the kind of thing anon is talking about with privately judging people, looking out for red flags, deciding privately that you don’t want to hang out with people who are into certain things, vs. harassment campaigns and callouts and trying to get people fired like antis do.
Fiction rarely has an exact 1:1 relationship with what you are into IRL… but it’s also not completely UNrelated all the time, either. Especially when talking about porn. And by telling people it’s ever wrong to even privately judge people for those preferences you ARE in fact discouraging people noticing red flags and also just forcing them to deny their lived experiences.
….is what I think anon was trying to say anyway.
I don’t think erasing all nuance really helps anything but deliver people who’ve had experiences like anon’s into the hands of antis. Like there needs to be a safe space for people especially women and LGBTQ+ people who’ve dealt with abusers and creeps who used media as a part of their abuse, to talk about their experiences without being shouted down for not having the “right” rhetoric.
I think part of why antis are a problem is a lot of people aren’t finding much other room to talk about that. Anti spaces are the only ones that seem to acknowledge that. Like I think anime fandom especially younger spaces really have an anti problem because anime fandom more broadly has such a big creepy dude problem and, even if not every single person who likes loli/shota/etc. is a creep, it’s hard not to notice that the friendlier an anime fan space is to discussing that stuff or discussing rapey slavery isekai or whatever, the more it draws in higher numbers of creeps. You can be a non creep and like that stuff, but it does have an overall higher percentage of creeps who like it than, say, your average shounen action show and let’s not pretend we don’t understand why.
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I can only speak as a person raised Catholic (heh...), but let me present a wild scenario.
Could you imagine the actual Holy Spirit having a clear and direct sentient influence in your child's life?
With this connection to the Holy Spirit, he starts performing absolutely insane miracles that a Child shouldn't be capable of and by the age of 8 God's chosen priest shows up like "Hey kid, have you heard of our lord and savior Jesus Christ? In my day, he was super sexy. You’re special. I'm going to train you and later you should probably go to a religious school."
And then, by age 17ish, Jesus himself shows up like, "Yes, twas me the whole time. Let me train you one on one my child." And then a year later, your son tells you he's sleeping with Jesus?
Like...does this help anyone understand what happened to Gale better? Or does it help that the Mystra analog is depicted as a man? Do you need me to hold your hand and tell you that even if Gale showed interest, it was on Mystra, as the omniscient god with all the power in the relationship and Future sight?!, to not fucking sleep with the mortal who maybe became an adult 5 minutes ago?
#you do realize there are books that state the weave is mystra and mystra is the weave#she uses the weave in. the. game. to lovebomb him in act 2 and arguably in act 1#tw grooming#gale of waterdeep#gale dekarios#bg3#bg3 spoilers#baldur's gate 3 spoilers#baldur's gate 3#he deserves so much better like holy shit#the willful ignorance is troubling#like *gestures wildly* how are you denying/disregarding this?!#she HAS A HISTORY tf is wrong with you people#I've seen many people who have done the research state this Mystra is all Mystras too so#given her past history and the fact she's still doing it she's absolutely on the line for her past sins#wtf#fuck mystra#if you try to say there's nuance i will block you
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I started the last post with "I'm so tired" too, but it just gets more true every day.
My last post was about how my real life sucks, but man, I can't even come to the internet as an escape from the intellectual collapse of academia anymore.
I'm just trying to browse in peace without being bombarded with people virtue signalling, advocating for media to be sanitized, and arguing over whether it's morally responsible to ship a character who is a literal murderer with someone that he said something mean to once.
Like, is this where we're at?
Is this really where we're at?
#IRL stuff#well#internet stuff#I went through a period of just trying to block anyone whose takes#were so utterly devoid of thought or nuance#that they actively gave me headaches#but I CAN ONLY BLOCK SO MANY PEOPLE#I can't block an entire generation's prevailing Puritan mindset#rant#someone save complex media#at this point although I hate to say it#I think we gotta start gatekeeping some stuff again#'Sorry but you have to demonstrate your critical thinking ability before we let you watch this show'#I'm sorry this is so mean sounding#but I am actually EXHAUSTED
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jing yuan and yanqing are giving zhongli and xiao if the latter’s canon relationship was Actually fanon’s made up father figure/adopted child dynamic
#idkkkkkkkkkkkkk who looks at zx and is like 'you know what. this is a healthy parent child relationship'#like girl by fitting them into father son boxes you are actively making their relationship imbalance Worse#if you do that and dont shy away from it i respect that but if you say dad/son makes their relationship more wholesome or whatever like WHY#now i wont deny shippers might do that too but i see the dad son version so much i think im just averse to it by default#also because i think father son makes people actively Try to make their relationship something that its not and it erases a bunch of subtlet#subtleties in it. it's the nuanced r/ship -> entirely unproblematic and flavorless r/ship that i hate#also the number of people who'll block if you ship zx. like damn thats crazy you guys really think theyre father son (fake)???#at their peak they're like. 4000 year old guys who have too much history and repression and some weird entanglement of 'nah im bothering him#too much' and 'gotta protect him w my life' complexes. and then this devolves into theyre never gonna kiss until 3000 more years have passed#listen they just Contain Multitudes idc if you dont ship it just dont make it into dad and son and we will be so gucci#jing.yuan and yanqing are like different i think mostly bc yanqing is actually like a minor and jing yuan is also a normal ish person#plus the light cone and the abouts?? yeah this is an actual like adopted parent/child thing#also good or bad news i caved and am now playing hsr. the plan is to pull yanqing and then go on infinite hiatus in the game 👍#JWKFLJWEK i dont think theres really any draws for me besides him. personally neutral on turn based combat and the open world isn't giving#the only saving grace i have rn is 1) ive gotten to the part where bron.seele is real and man theyre gay 2) trailblazer trio 3) tall female#mc 4) everyone has way better emoting abilities than genshin 5) su.shang's really cute <3#the story doesnt really interest me though its like cool but not mindgrippingly interesting#tbf i think genshin is the same way storyline wise (at the beginning) but the difference is that turn based combat isnt really my thing LMAO#ramblings!#zhongxiao#if you want to filter it out ??
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fans of wrestler redacted having to hard pivot to claiming aew is as morally bad as anything wwe mcmahon bc their guy is willing to compromise his stated values if they will give him a job is so funny. like you cant be mad at people for believing aew is better morally than vince mcmahons big conservative fundraiser sponsored by mbs when your guy himself has made his reputation on making the point that wwe bad for nearly a decade now. their are bad people at aew too but it is not systemic to the entire company's existence at the highest levels the way it is in wwe.
also since people on twitter are trying to pretend he was a lone voice of trans rights and got forced out bc of that im also gonna note aew had a trans womens world champion when p*nk was still working for fox's wwe backstage.
#you cant send me anons on my blog bc i have had asks turned off for multiple years now die mad#personal#his elite beef was w a bernie bro a bisexual and two (yes christian) guys who support gay rights and dont support tr*mp like#sorry vince mcmahons still legally wed wife runs tr*mp fundraising#sorry that collision had nyla on once in the second ep for the owen and then literally never again#sorry that collision was the show made for c******e fans and it took ur guy being fired for a joshi wrestler to get on it#sorry ur guy praised zaslov before having to pivot to being the union guy bc kenny isnt online enough to have seen a video from a con lol#i believe he does try to be leftleaning but his overwhelming ideology is of the self not of the other sorry#what he was doing at the end those beliefs were only tshirt deep die mad#i could go further i like adding nuance and details to things but its pointless. i just hope the weirdos who harass people on here over#their favorite guy and who fail to realize that whatever shit they say on their blogs is the same shit twitter people are sayings#i hope they move on to something that actually brings them joy so that they dont need to harass people for having a different opinion#like sincerely if someone interacts w a post of mine or if i look at someones blog bc they posted a good wrestling thing#and i see a bunch of stuff i dont like for a wrestler i dont like#i just block and move on#i really hope they start doing that as someone who used to post on here a bunch several years ago about all the hatereading i would do#it genuinely is an unhealthy mindset and its something i had to work to grow out of i hope they do too
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NOOO WHY'S THERE BI LESBIAN EXCLUSION IN THE ORIENTED AROACE TAG.
#DUDE. YOU'RE LITERALLY IN THE ORIENTATION THAT IS MASSIVELY BUILT ON THE SPLIT ATTRACTION MODEL#AND YET YOU CAN'T EVEN COMPREHEND THAT ALLOS COULD HAVE THE SPLIT ATTRACTION MODEL?????#(not saying all the bi lesbians are alloallo just trying to point out op's foolishness)#(also there's probably people identifying as bi lesbian for reasons other than that which is also valid#but pointing this out because it's in the oriented aroace tag)#like. it won't cover all the nuances but i can think of an extremely simple explanation for bi lesbians existing#you can just have different attraction types to different genders. it's simple!#dw i'm not getting too angry at this i'm just baffled by their chopt logic#anyway. bi lesbians are extremely valid and if you don't agree get out#queer discourse#<- not looking for any debates here just tagging for filtering purposes. get gone if you disagree. or think and change your mind.#tw discourse#cw discourse#if anyone knows the specific tags people have filtered for mspec and bi lesbian discourse let me know#just hovered over their accounts to block them. the asker is a minor so i guess i can understand them being stupid#but the answerer is 24 you should have developed critical thinking and common sense by now#rancid takes#<- gonna use this as a general tag for filtering
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lol if you call other people cuntboys unironically um. idk dude .kinda weird.
#if someone tries to start discourse with me i will block them lol. just btw#i just idk. thought we had agreed that reducing people down to their genitals was wrong?#but like..................#idk dude. its just a weird vibe when you look at poc talking about their experiences in trans spaces#and immediately try to take all the nuance out of it and say these people are oppressing you by (checks notes)#talking about the issue with white supremacy in queer spaces#anyways! if you follow me and you think that men dont experience unique types of oppression FOR BEING MEN#(poc men; queer men; etc)#uh please block me lol#bug shut up
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Damn anon you really think I give a fuck
#got anon hate for the first time today gee I wonder who it’s from#but for an actual response IF you care#then to be clear I wasn’t trying to attack you or your viewpoint you’re totally right about how the originals were still queer or whatever#I don’t know shit about them and I don’t care about them as I said#I rbed your version with all those tags bc it was the best description I could find in the notes of that post#of the exact ways in which she hurt people#and I was reblogging it in response to a conversation I’d had with my friends who WERE trying to reduce all of this down to#‘she’s not homophobic what a girlboss!!’#apologies for the lack of clarity ig#but damn you really read the fuck into what I was saying and projected huh#I get that she’s a nuanced person but I personally will not forgive her for all the other stuff she did#and I’m entitled to that#anyway this is purely for clarity sake if I don’t hear anything more in like 6 hours ur getting blocked lmao#you are way too argumentative over a genuinely tiny thing
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Sometimes as a Korean, I wish people didn’t hear about K-p0p because it’s so tiring to hear takes like...you’re all wrong! Shut up.
#the korean/korean diaspora experience is hating wacko koreaboos and hating people who don't know a single thing about k-pop#critique it and oftentimes it's racist (and just as often the critics don't realize it)#i am saying this as someone who was heavily in the scene growing up#and someone who is heavily critical of the pop side of the korean music industry#none of your takes are nuanced#why do we have to deal with either fetishists or racists goddddddddd#(or frequently both because lmao that goes hand in hand and PHEW is it gross to see so-called ~allies~ exhibit that behavior on my tl/dash)#i don't want your stupid ass take on what you think about k-pop because i frankly don't give a shit!!!!#stop subjecting me to them#i try to block it out and it's impossible#irl and online especially because look i want to enjoy my own culture okay! i don't want to be cut off from it
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I gotta tell y'all, it's really fucking depressing and stark being a small business in the age of 'all brands are equally evil' because of Twitter bullshit and brands trying to migrate to Tumblr or whatever.
If we pay for advertising, we're evil. If we don't pay for advertising, we might as well not exist on the major platforms (or on the web at all). Etsy is a hostile mess of a platform that we outgrew ages ago.
Anyway I guess what I'm saying is y'all say you love indie artists and companies that live the kind of values y'all love, but have like no nuance when you talk about this shit. If you want companies that start their people at $24/hr and make the kind of queer clothing and art y'all say you love to exist, please engage some nuance when talking about small businesses run by indie artists vs fucking megacorps. "Block every brand post!" Yeah, you know who can survive that? The giant brands. You know who immediately starts stressing over making payroll?
Yeah.
If you want little companies run by artists to survive, you need to engage some nuance. Hard on the internet, I know. But it's gotta happen.
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A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza
Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.
Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but On The Media's "Breaking News Consumers' Handbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media
The latest handbook is an Israel-Gaza edition. It doesn't aim to parse fine distinctions over the definition of "occupation" or identify the source of shell fragments. Rather, it offers seven bullet points' worth of advice on weighing all the other news you hear about the war:
https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2023/Oct/27/BNCH_ISRAEL_GAZA_EDITION_1.pdf
I. "Headlines are obscured by the fog of war"
Headline writers have a hard job under the best of circumstances – trying to snag your interest in a few words. Headlines can't encompass all the nuance of a story, and they are often written by editors, not the writers who produced the story. Between the imperatives for speed and brevity and the broken telephone between editors and writers, it's easy for headlines to go wrong, even when no one is attempting to mislead you. Even reliable outlets will screw up headlines sometimes – and that likelihood goes way up in times like these. You gotta read the story, not just the headline.
II. Know red flags for bullshit
The factually untrue information that spreads furthest tends to originate with a handful of superspreader accounts. Whether these people are Just Wrong or malicious disinfo peddlers, they share a few characteristics that should trip your BS meter and prompt extra scrutiny:
High-frequency posting
Emotionally charged framing
Posts that purport to be summaries or excerpts from news outlets, but do not include links to the original
The phrase "breaking news" (no one has that many scoops)
III. Don't trust screenshots
Screenshots of news stories, tweets, and other social media should come with links to the original. It's just too damned easy to fake a screenshot.
IV. "Know your platform"
It used to be that Twitter got a lot of first-person accounts from people in the thick of crises, while Facebook and Reddit contained commentary and reposts. Today, Twitter is just another aggregator. This time around, there's lots of first-person, real-time reporting coming off Telegram (it runs well on old phones and doesn't chew up batteries). Instagram is widely used in both Israel and the West Bank.
V. "Crisis actors" aren't a thing
People who attribute war images to "crisis actors" are either deluded or lying. There's plenty of ways to distort war news, but paying people to pretend to be grieving family members is essentially unheard of. Any explanation that involves crisis actors is a solid reason to permanently block that source.
VI. There's plenty of ways to verify stuff that smells fishy
TinEye, Yandex and Google Image Search are all good tools for checking "breaking" images and seeing if they're old copypasta ganked from earlier conflicts (or, you know, video-games). The fact that an image doesn't show up in one of these searches doesn't guarantee its authenticity, of course.
VII. Think before you post
Israel-Gaza is the most polluted media pool yet. Don't make it worse.
There's plenty more detail on this (especially on the use of verification tools) in Brooke Gladstone's radio segment:
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-gaza-edition
The media environment sucks, and warrants skepticism and caution. But we also need to be skeptical of skepticism itself! As danah boyd started saying all the way back in 2018, weaponized media literacy leads to conspiratorialism:
https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2018/03/09/you-think-you-want-media-literacy-do-you.html
Remember, the biggest peddlers of "fake news" are also the most prolific users of the term. For a lot of these information warriors, the point isn't to get you to believe them – they'll settle for you believing nothing. "Flood the zone with bullshit" is Steve Bannon's go-to tactic, and it's one that his acolytes have picked up and multiplied.
It's important to be a critical thinker, but there's plenty of people who've figured out how to weaponize a critical viewpoint and turn it into nihilism. Remember, the guy who wrote How To Lie With Statistics was a tobacco industry shill who made his living obfuscating the link between smoking and cancer. It's absolutely possible to lie with statistics, but it's also possible to use statistics to know the truth, as Tim Harford explains in his 2021 must-read book The Data Detective:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford
There's a world of difference between being misled and being brainwashed. A lot of today's worry about "disinformation" and "misinformation" has the whiff of a moral panic:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/are-we-having-a-moral-panic-over-misinformation.html
It's possible to have a nuanced view of this subject – to take steps to enure you're not being tricked without equating crude tricks like sticking a fake BBC chyron on a 10-year-old image with unstoppable mind-control:
https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/#breaking-news
#pluralistic#media literacy#fake news#disinformation#misinformation#israel gaza#gaza#israel#palestine#conspiratorialism#hoaxes#infowar#on the media#breaking news#npr#flood the zone
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I created this blog for one purpose - civil arguments against radfems and/or TERFs (I've seen some people belonging to those groups use one, some use the other, and some use both).
It is my strongly-held belief that the online/Tumblr trans movement fails at discourse in several ways, most notably telling radfems/TERFs to kill themselves wherever they pop up. (Technically speaking, Tumblr users do this with everyone they deem problematic, but that certainly doesn't make it acceptable.) This helps no one, and fosters animosity everywhere, as well as normalizing this sort of extremely bad behavior.
I have a few other problems with the mainstream trans movement. If you've read this far, I hope it's clear that I am not a TERF/radfem, but seek to argue with them civilly instead of by saying "kys terf (look how strong my argument is 😎)"
I will try my best to be as civil as possible on this blog. However, I am a human being, prone to irrationality and bad behavior just like everyone else. If I fuck up and say something unacceptable, please do tell me.
That said, you will never see death/rape/anything-of-that-sort threats coming from me. Fun fact: it is staggeringly easy to not wish for people's deaths on the internet!* Just remember that's a person you're talking to and ask yourself "Do I really want to be this hateful and rude because someone said something I don't like?"
As of this post being written, I don't block people. I can't see this policy changing unless someone committed some extremely egregious offense** against me that merited it.
There are no DNIs on this blog and you'll probably never find any. That said, if you bring racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny***, homophobia****, or similar sentiment onto this blog, I will tell you to fuck off because that is very much not welcome here.
Lastly, I am trans. (I will probably never state more about myself than that.) I will acknowledge this. This means that, yes, I may find myself biased in some respects, and I will try to keep that in mind.
*Oh yeah, I will sometimes probably be sarcastic, mildly angry, etc. on this blog. As stated, I am a human being, so please tell me if I say something fucked up. However, apart from that, this is a blog that is civil, but certainly not one where I will never use humor, anger, memes, or normal internet user stuff. I have emotions.
**No, that is not equivalent to "someone said something I don't like". To me, "egregious offense" means "you put racist comments on all my posts" or "you sent death threats in my inbox" or similar.
***I mean actual misogyny. I most certainly don't deny that trans women face misogyny in unique ways, but there is nuance here and I am not about to go around claiming that any criticism of mainstream trans movements is misogyny. "Trans women are disgusting and should be killed" is (trans)misogyny, just like "women are disgusting and should be killed" is misogyny. "A lot of online trans spaces seem to be encouraging bad behavior" is not.
****Same with homophobia. "Gay people should go to hell" is homophobia. "Online queer culture sometimes promotes entitlement and here's why I think that" is not.
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God I am so tired of Bramble fans who refuse to use critical thinking and believe that brambleclaw and squilf are equally bad. Many also hate on moonkitti's video which they most likely haven't even watched or misconstrued points in it. You can like a character without defending all their actions please I'm begging you
And people will sometimes jump to their defense, saying that people just dogpiled them for liking a character the fandom doesn't like, and while that can happen, sometimes people are actually dogpiling them for ignoring abuse and insulting creators with different opinions
(Some discourse happened on Twitter recently about this but it's something I've seen happen before, I'm not specifically talking about anyone)
I'm going to be honest and drop my feelings.
Never have I ever actually SEEN a Bramblefan "get dogpiled" for liking Bramble.
I come out here on my massive soapbox every couple of weeks and drop whole essays on this guy, I chat casually about how important he is to me as a character, both as someone who was abused in a way similar to Squirrelflight AND as someone who can relate to Bramblestar's situation, and before BB got so large and my attention was easier to divide I even ran an AU called Sweet Nothings which had a "big brother" Bramble take in it.
There is no shortage of Bramblestar-related posts around here, yet, I have never, NEVER gotten shit for when I talk positively about Bramble.
In fact, he's commonly cited as one of the favorite cats to see on this blog from my audience. I get praise for addressing him with nuance, explaining how his actions are abuse while also keeping him human, talking about how his life is a painful cycle of self-doubt that makes him double down on his worst decisions. Every time I post about him, I get an influx of comments centered around how my takes on him are appreciated.
What I DO see is people who make art where they try to bothsides him and Squirrelflight, or say something completely false about his behavior, or straightup post DARVO tactics to defend their fav's honor. When someone makes a comment that goes "uhmm? Bit strange innit?" they call it "harassment." Or when people block them, they call that "receiving hate."
OR when someone makes a vaguepost like "Heyyy, DARVO is an abuse denial tactic where the abuser or their apologists Deny the abuse took place, Attack the accuser, and then Reverse Victim and Offender to claim they were actually the person harmed. Bramblestans are playing this out, step for step, and that's bad!" they call THAT dogpiling.
Meanwhile Moonkitti got death threats and was actually harassed for posting Bramblestar Is Worse. To the point where she is hesitant to ever make another video on the topic.
So y'know what? Hot take? The stans don't actually like Bramblestar. They like the vague idea of a sadboy character who broke free from his dad's legacy so they slurp up the framing of the notorious abuse apologist writers, and they get mad when people who have critically engaged with the books don't see what they desperately crave.
How can you really LIKE a character if you can't engage with their actions? If you need to surround yourself in an unpoppable bubble and can't accept anything he's done in the 20+ years he's been active? How can you truly love a man without all his mistakes?
It's sooo hard to be me, Tumblr User Bonefall, the ONLY one who likes Bramblestar correctly. It's rough out here.
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I keep seeing so many people here getting angry that this season is "vilifying Ed", and it's depressingly fascinating to see how others can watch the same show and somehow see something completely different. Is it simply the lack of media literacy? Is it the inability to appreciate and enjoy complex, nuanced, morally grey characters without willfully blocking out anything even slightly unpalatable about them to the point where the character they think they love isn't really that character anymore?
Because, uh... Season 1 already "vilified" Ed plenty. Except "vilify" is the wrong word, of course. It wasn't in any way malicious or mean-spirited, quite the contrary, it was often played as comedic (until the end of episode 10 when it was anything but) - Ed was always meant to be a sympathetic character, he's a protagonist after all, and the show's portrayal of him is very compassionate. It merely refused to sugarcoat or shy away from his darker side. He's literally history's most famous pirate, you don't become one by being nice and treating everyone gently. He ambushed and strangled his own father to death when he was like 9 years old (100% deserved and justifiable ofc, but it still bears saying it out loud like this just to comprehend how unhinged this actually was). He loves torturing and maiming people for fun, and sometimes even animals (that scene with forcing a turtle to fight a crab). He didn't give a fuck about his crew members dying to satisfy his whim to meet Stede. He entirely failed in his role as a captain in ep 4. He effectively played a double agent with Izzy and Stede for a while before changing his mind. He attempted to murder Lucius. And while you could try to argue his punishment of Izzy was at least to some degree deserved, not only cutting Izzy's toe off but forcing him to eat went beyond punishment, it was sadistic torture.
So, yeah, please just read all that and take it in. And then remember once again that Ed is also a traumatised, lonely, depressed, sensitive, creative, curious, deeply passionate person yearning for true love and for something different in life... just like Stede. He loves music and can play the piano. He wrote a very vulnerable song and sand his heart out. He likes his tea with seven sugars. He enjoys fashion and dressing up. He has such a limitless sense of wonder for the world. He went on a trek with Stede just to make him happy, even though he hated nature and was in a shit mood that day. He wants to host a talent show. He wants to become free. He's clever and funny and fascinating. I love Ed.
Yes, it's possible to reconcile those two sides of him and accept both sides as the "real" Ed. You have to reconcile the two sides if you want to enjoy him as a character, because if you don't, you're going to either detest him to the core (which would make enjoying the show practically impossible since he's sort of a main character...), or you'll only be able to enjoy a diminished, crippled, cardboard cutout version of his character, which would be such a pity and a massive disservice to the creators of this show who worked hard to create interesting, multidimensional characters.
Not to mention you'd be missing one of the core messages of the show - the idea that people still deserve love and can be loved even if they're imperfect, or not necessarily good people. Because love is a human condition. It's not a sole dominion of "good" people. "Bad" people can fall in love too - even if, just like them, that love isn't exactly "nice" or "pure", and neither are the relationships that stem from it. They can be messy and exasperating. But "bad" people can also grow and change because of it. That's what OFMD is ultimately about - growth and change, learning to accept yourself but also become better. That can't happen if the character is already 100% perfect the way they are.Ed is far from that. So is Izzy. They can both become better, and they both still deserve compassion and understanding, because that's the environment people need to become better.
So, if you're mad that at the start of S2 the crew are sympathetic to Izzy's suffering and want to help him instead of kicking him when he's down, and what Ed did to him is being acknowledged as cruel and wrong... congratulations, you have completely missed what OFMD is all about.
#normally I hate fandom drama and hate getting involved but I've seen too many of those posts#so unfortunately it needs saying#and tbh there seem to be a few Izzy fans out there who are unreasonably hateful and unsympathetic towards Ed too#so they need to hear this as well#izzy hands#blackbeard#ofmd ed teach#ofmd#our flag means death#our flag means death s2#ofmd s2 spoilers
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Act 4 Prologue (Azel Radwan)
Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies.
At the same time, in Tanzanite--
The throne room located on the palace's top floor was filled with the joy and excitement of the people.
Amongst the clamor surrounding the night, the immense full moon enveloped the people as if protecting them.
Azel: "Silence."
With just one word from the deity atop the throne, the people immediately fell silent, looking up at the god with awe.
His mystical eyes, filled with stars that seemed to belong to the night sky rather than a human, scanned the people with compassion.
Azel: "The divinations have revealed your fate. Under the divine will, you need to formulate a policy as soon as possible."
Azel: "It's up to you whether you want to utilize or disregard the mercy of the gods. Just don't disappoint me, for the heavenly moon is always watching over you."
As the current deity rose, the people who seemed lost in a daydream all kneeled and bowed their heads simultaneously.
Among them was a man wearing a crown.
King of Tanzanite: "We've prepared a banquet for you. Please, do join us."
Azel: "I appreciate the offer, but with a God present, you may find it impossible to indulge in wine."
Azel: "I shall take my leave, so do not concern yourselves. Ah, and a farewell is unnecessary. I dislike unnecessary fuss."
Azel: "Well, then, have a good night. May the divine grace be upon all the people."
As the fervor waned, the natural tranquility of the night returned.
The deity, walking with resolute steps, suddenly halted when a woman, a dancer, blocked his path.
Woman: "Greetings, esteemed deity."
Azel: "I've just said that your concerns are unnecessary."
The woman held a variety of banquet dishes, their enticing aroma filling the hallway.
Woman: "I apologize for misunderstanding the divine will. However, I thought perhaps you might not attend the feast tonight."
Woman: "This is a modest offering from me. If you would be so kind, may I serve you?"
Azel: "I appreciate your dedication. However, it's unnecessary."
Azel: "I'm in a hurry, so could you please step aside?"
Woman: "Please don't say that. After the lengthy divination, I'm sure you must be hungry."
Azel: "No, it's fine."
A rumble suddenly came from his stomach, momentarily disrupting the sanctity.
Azel: "Anyway, it's okay. Leave me be and go to the feast."
Woman: "Please wait!"
The woman attempted to block his path again as he tried to move forward forcefully.
Azel: "Ah, these clueless folks who just don't get it, no matter what you tell them."
Unaware of his muttered words, the woman stumbled over his foot while trying to approach and fell to the floor along with the dishes.
He looked down at the scattered food and the groaning woman without even offering a hand.
Azel: "Poor thing."
Woman: "Esteemed deity?"
Azel: "I feel sorry for the food that was wasted."
Despite smiling gently, his mysterious eyes seemed completely unconcerned about the events that had taken place.
Azel: "Lick it up."
Woman: "Eh?"
Azel: "It would be a pity if the food went to waste, wouldn't it?"
Azel: "Look, this soup still looks edible."
Azel: "If you crawl like a dog and lick it up, it won't be wasted."
Woman: "What are you…?"
Azel: "Of course, I'm a kind god, so I won't force you to do anything."
Azel: "You're free to follow or defy God's will."
Woman: "........."
Her hesitation lasted only a moment.
She lowered her face to the floor and began licking the spilled soup with her tongue.
As she repeated this several times, something suddenly happened.
The woman's skin gradually flushed, emitting a scent suitable for the night, and her heated gaze met his impassive expression.
Azel: "So you really did slip in an aphrodisiac. Your fortune for today seems to be very unlucky, doesn't it?"
Azel: "Ah, no. Perhaps it's actually very fortunate."
Azel: "Since your beloved god didn't taste it."
Woman: "Please have mercy."
He turned his back, keeping his distance from the woman who reached out to him.
Azel: "Feel free to please yourself all you want. Well then, I'll take my leave."
Azel: "It's already past my working hours, and working overtime is just out of the question."
Woman: "I like you! I'd do anything for you!"
Woman: "Would it be a sin for me to love you?"
Azel: "Let me tell you one thing."
Azel: "Gods don't love people because love is worthless."
Azel: "If you are willing to give me a fortune equivalent to Prince Silvio's, then I might consider it."
Azel: "But if not, it's unpleasant to even have you in my sight."
Woman: "........."
Azel: "Since it looks like you're not getting what I'm saying, let me make it clear."
Azel: "It's time for you to disappear. Get out of my sight, slut."
Woman: "Eeek!"
As if it were all a dream, his face lost all compassion.
With a coldness rivaling that of the desert night, he stared at the woman as if she were a bug.
Azel: "Your feelings are neither love nor anything of the sort. It was just the prattle of a depraved slut drowning in filthy desires."
This time, there was no one to stop his stride.
The god laughed and smiled under the divine glow of the full moon, devoid of mercy or compassion.
Azel: "This nation under the protection of gods is still living in a happy dream."
Azel: "Even though the day when this eternal dream shatters is approaching, I wonder if I'll ever be able to laugh at it."
☆ Ikepri Masterlist
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Fellas, I haven’t written a post like this in five years, and I hoped I’d never have to, but here we are. Recently I’ve been seeing a couple posts in the Slay the Princess tag spreading negativity: complaining about certain characters getting more attention and different treatment, implying rather serious things about people who prefer one character over the others, generally trying to start drama. (That is what I assume the posts are meant to do, since I would hope everyone remembers that if you don’t have anything nice to say...) The topic of community within this fandom is very important to me so I feel it’s necessary to give a very gentle reminder of what the game is all about.
Attempting to shame other people for focusing on specific characters is horribly inappropriate. The game only has three characters, and there’s not much room to ignore any of them given their importance to the story. If people love the Princess, that’s because she’s literally in the title of the game; if people love the Long Quiet, that’s because they are an expression of you as the player; if people love the voices and the Narrator, that’s because they act as your companions throughout the game.
I’m really glad that most of us appreciate all the characters! But you cannot expect every single person to have the exact same opinions about every character. We all come from different walks of life and we will all have our own specific reasons for loving a certain character more or less. Whether you understand these reasons or you’re making general assumptions about why they’re particularly drawn to them, it isn’t okay to be rude about it. As the saying goes: “don’t yuck someone else’s yum.”
It truly makes me sad to see that, considering this game is about perspectives (especially perspectives that conflict), some Slay the Princess fans refuse to extend the courtesy of hearing someone out- and, barring that, leaving them alone. Seriously, if something bothers you there’s a block button!
There is, of course, nuance; if you’re speaking with a friend group in private and everyone has explicitly stated this kind of behavior is acceptable, then have at it. My problem is when people do it to random strangers- they are not engaging in fandom to listen to others rag on about them and insinuate things like misogyny and misandry.
Kindness is free, don’t forget to like and subscribe, etc.
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