#just shows how bad the discourse on this has gotten on some of these issues
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@notstinglesstoo replied to your post “The thing is, and I haven't gotten a chance to...”:
I saw someone not long ago say cr has always felt like a product to them vs D20 feeling organic and I protected my peace but I did want to ask them if they were brain dead
Oh man I wanted to address this at length because I feel this. My posts have been centered, again, specifically on published journalists picking Daggerheart aprt critically and applauding themselves for doing so despite it being within a couple of hours of its release and therefore any analysis is necessarily going to be based on at best, a skim, when they just as frequently will claim D20 seasons/Kollok are flawless works of genius based on only a partial read, but man D20's got a fandom problem too. (and all of the following comes with the caveat of "I really enjoy D20, and Dropout, and while we're at it WBN and NADDPod which both are half D20 Intrepid Heroes cast, and think Brennan is a particularly brilliant GM, and also it's obvious that the D20 and CR casts are on great terms, and wish the fandom for D20 were more welcoming and enjoyable because I feel it wasn't like this when I first started watching, as a CR fan, in late 2019 and has since curdled into something really weird and bad.")
The first point is the obvious one: technically speaking these are both products. These are performers doing an art form; it is also a portion of how they make their money with which they can buy goods and services. Believing that art is inauthentic when the artist gets paid and acknowledges that is a thing that happens is a fucking libertarian position at best. Like cool, you think only people who are independently wealthy by other means can make art, because it's not real labor, my kid could paint that, etc etc.
The second point is also pretty obvious. I have pushed back pretty hard on the "uwu CR is just watching friends! it's like we're in their living room" mentality among the fandom, which has decreased, thankfully, but like...it did in fact start organically as a private home game, and they decided, when invited, to make it A Show For An Audience. D20 was created on purpose as a show for an audience. This doesn't make it bad or fake - reread the previous paragraph - but in terms of "this is an group of people who really played D&D in this world together even before the cameras were rolling," Critical Role literally is that, and D20 is not.
I think beyond that...my biggest issues with the D20 fandom are first, the level of discourse is abominable. The tag is almost always just shrieking praise and the most surface-level readings possible. I keep bringing up the "Capitalism is the BBEG" mug but it genuinely sums up so much of how I feel; people who want their existing beliefs fed to them as surface-level no-nuance takes. I mean capitalism is fucking terrible but I do not need every work I watch to have a character turn to the camera and say "capitalism is bad" to enjoy myself, and indeed it makes it harder due to the lack of subtlety and grace. For all D20 fans complain about how unhealthily parasocial CR fans can be (and some can be), I find that a lot of the most unhealthily parasocial "how dare they BETRAY my TRUST by having a ship I don't like or not speaking up about every single societal ill" ex-CR fans move over to D20 and then pull the exact same shit; it simply doesn't get called out. Every time D20 fans are like "we don't want to become the CR fandom" it's like "your toxic positivity and unhealthy parasocial behavior exceeds the HEIGHT of what I've seen in CR; the main difference is that CR started in 2015 when D&D was still shaking off the raging bigot dudebros and so in the early days it acquired more of those fans, whereas by the time D20 came around the landscape of who played D&D and watched Actual Play had shifted wildly, and you need to judge September 2018 D20 fans in parallel to September 2018 CR fans, not September 2015 CR fans."
I also feel, and I alluded to this in the post about journalism, and other people have said this better than I have, but the pedestal people have put D20 on does feel like a single...not even misstep, but just, difficult choice that doesn't capitulate to the loudest fans will bring a good chunk of that fandom crashing to the ground. And that includes the journalists. For all the fans of CR can still be obsessed with the cast to an unhealthy degree? The cast and company have put up pretty strong boundaries and have not budged. D20 hasn't, and I think the second they do - and I think it will be for their benefit as a company and a channel - a big chunk of their most vitriolic CR-hating portion of the fandom will viciously turn on them.
#notstinglesstoo#nonrebloggable bc god it's hell week for me i know i've been shooting off opinions bc that is how i blow off steam#but like. i can't have this break containment i got shit to do
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Good morning/ evening! My name’s Sam and I’m currently a film student hoping to get into freelance writing. I’ve got a couple questions if you don’t mind (hoping you haven’t already answered them and I just missed them).
When you first starting making your own films, did you have already have thick skin for any critics/ bad reviews? Or is that something you grew over time?
Also, for your production company, do you hire interns and PAs or do you prefer filmmakers with more experience?
Thank you!
To your first question, I do not have a thick skin in that area AT ALL and never have. I don't know many people who do.
I'm often approached by fans who will talk about what a project of mine means to them, or I find a review or think piece online where the author really connected with my work. I want to let that feedback in, because it's validating. But letting it in means letting ALL of it in, even the negative. I don't really get to pick and choose. Once I decided to let myself react emotionally to other people's feedback, those gates are open I've got to accept whatever comes through.
I take my work very seriously, and tend to pour my heart and soul into it. We make these things because we love them. It can literally take years of daily work to do. When people love it, it feels great. When people don't, it hurts. There's really no way around that.
Film criticism has, like a lot of things, devolved over time. I was a massive fan of Robert Ebert, who was thoughtful and sophisticated in his critiques (most of the time), and tried to approach each movie he watched on the film's own terms - from the perspective of "how successful was this at achieving what it set out to do?" I see a lot of criticisms today that don't do this, and instead are lamenting what a movie is or isn't, saying things like "I wish this was more..." or "This isn't good because I wanted it to be something else."
"I wanted a ________ and what I got instead was ______ so it sucks."
The other issue is that loud, sensationalized vitriol gets more clicks. Negative reviews, especially brutal and callous ones, get more attention than positive ones. I've gotten to know and befriend some professional critics over the years, who have all told me that the positive reviews don't generate the audience reaction quite like the negative ones. People enjoy watching things get beat up. We reward the wrong kind of discourse, and that isn't unique to film criticism - it's everywhere. That's just a symptom of our culture.
One of my great frustrations is how we assert our opinion as objective truth. There's nothing more dangerous than tweeting "I liked ______ movie!" The comments flood in about how you're wrong, how it sucks, blah blah blah. People think their own taste is somehow factual. If someone says "I had a fantastic steak dinner last night and I loved it," we don't say "you're wrong, steak sucks". We understand the concept of taste when it comes to other things we consume, but when it comes to entertainment each one of us thinks we're the ultimate authority.
For myself, my producer and my wife have long discouraged me from reading reviews. I still can't help it. It's not healthy though. I can scroll past a dozen positive ones, and they evaporate in my mind, but I read one scathing thing and it sticks with me for days. There is one particular review of MIDNIGHT MASS that is one of the most baffling and frustrating things I've ever read, as the author appears to have misunderstood just about every aspect of the series, and drawn the angriest, most misguided, most erroneous conclusions. I read it with my jaw on the ground... "but they're objectively wrong. That isn't what happens, and that isn't what the show is even about." But what can I do? Who am I to say their experience of the show is invalid? They feel how they feel, and that's fine. That's okay. It has to be.
So your skin doesn't get thicker, it is a bizarre emotional experience to put something personal out there into the world and see the gamut of reactions. But at a certain point you have to remind yourself that it's impossible to please everyone, and that these projects don't belong to the filmmaker - they belong to the audience, and each and every one of those experiences is unique and valid. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned, and perhaps the critique can help you grow as a filmmaker.
I have similar feelings when I see someone trashing someone else's work I happen to love - for example, I remain baffled by people who didn't like EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, but that doesn't mean anything. It didn't work for them, that's all. Nothing works for everyone.
I have found over the years that I respect and appreciate analyses and criticisms that take this more personal point of view, and talk about their own interaction with the work as opposed to just dismissing it outright. When someone says "this movie didn't work for me," or "I didn't connect with it," or "It just wasn't my cup of tea," I have a much easier time taking it seriously. It's changed how I talk about my own reactions to movies or shows that I didn't respond to. And I found that it's made it much easier for me to enjoy things even if they aren't quite for me. Instead of being reactive and saying "it sucks" or "I hate this," I've gotten better at realizing it's not a binary experience - I can look at what DOES work for me, and I can appreciate it, even while other elements might not.
It makes for a much more nuanced discussion, and helps me grow. Sometimes, though, it's just the wrong thing to watch on the wrong day, and that's fine too. Maybe that makes it a little easier. If I step out of something and just really don't enjoy it, it helps remind me that it's not personal. Clearly, other people DO enjoy these things, sometimes I'm very much in the minority. And when that happens, I can say "oh, it's not so bad if someone hates a movie I made, or a show, or whatever. Life's too short."
But I long ago decided I'd never say anything negative about someone else's work in public. I know too much about what it takes to make a movie, and I'm not a critic. I'm a filmmaker. This town is too small, and there is zero upside in dragging another filmmaker's efforts. On the rare occasions when I do see another filmmaker indulge in that behavior, it is always a terrible look. And it can have real-world consequences - there are a few filmmakers who I've seen publicly slag off other people's work, and I quietly decided never to hire them. Like I said, it's a small town... and most of us read what people say about our work.
We should get back to that work, remember how lucky we all are to do this for a living, and leave that kind of thing to the critics.
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Like Buck, Shannon and Eddie would not be besties, so definitely agree with your take there. Truly if Shannon had lived and been featured a bit longer then it would have been her and Eddie trying to navigate the divorce and because you can’t have a Ryan Murphy show without drama it probably would have resulted in some other implosion, and I just don’t think Shannon was going to get to the point of being the mother that Chris needed and Eddie’s co-parent. So by extension Buck would of course be firmly supporting Eddie and Chris….legit he would be cordial at most to Shannon.
Bless you for seeing the bigger picture. <3
I think most of us can admit that the sudden focus on Eddie + Shannon's relationship in 6B was because, at the time that plan was decided on, the fate of the show still hung in the balance. Ofc Eddie has to look back on his relationship with fondness (*gag*) to show that he's looking for that "spark" again, that instant connection. And, agree with it or not - most don't - the show wanted him to feel optimistic after seeing Marisol again, which is a direct contrast to Bobby having to talk him into reaching out to Ana. (Another example of KR & co. changing the smallest of details to make it seem like this next time was meant to go differently...)
But had Shannon lived? She would have gotten the same treatment as the other "outsider" parents until (as we saw in 6B) the story had to reach a conclusion.
Tim has previously said that killing Shannon off allowed the writing staff to explore more of Eddie's story (the fighting arc, Buddie conflict, confessing to Bobby and the one therapy scene in 3A).
This, along with the negative fan reaction that could have been swayed had she started to change by the end of the season, should have made it evident by now that there was no intention of making Shannon a better parent, or a better friend to Eddie, anytime soon.
There's no drama in that.
I have noticed that people get my feelings on Shannon twisted a lot (probably on purpose because I'm so disliked for...talking about my disability? ig?), but I think her characterization is good for tv.
If you don't like her it's because you can recognize that she was written to be a bad mom.
And those bad moms are walking among you irl! Some even live in the houses of people you know even if those people aren't telling you about it!
For me and the handful of us who have actually experienced the type of upbringing this fandom saw on screen (*waves*) - and if we can be real about it, Tim went easy on her and Chris because it's a family show - the problem (the "discourse") occurs when people are earnestly co-signing her behavior because "shit, I'd probably leave, too" or repeating ableist opinions about how hard disability on the mother, *especially* while dragging parents for not understanding issues they can more easily relate to. (Yeah, we see all of it.)
TL;DR Representation does not have to be positive for it to matter. It just needs to be real. And even if that reality only connects with one person, it still matters. Everyone has a story and no two stories are the same.
#anonymous#tina speaks#shannon diaz#i am not tagging 'anti' for the ableists soz#eddie diaz#christopher diaz#tv: 911#tv: 9-1-1
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You might have partly answered this in sole way or another (either in your fic or on Tumblr) but how would you rate Obi-Wan asa Master to Anakin? There's this Dave Filoni discourse, because in his opinion, Qui-Gon would of been a better teacher had he been the one to train Anakin. In fact he claims that Anakin would of never turned if that was the case, which I don't agree with. What's your take on this? What do you think of Obi-Wan as a Master and his relationship with Anakin? I'd love to hear you thoughts on this.💜
I'm sorry, you asked a very specific question and I have been overwhelmed at the idea that Dave Filoni thought Qui-Gon Jinn would have been a good master for Anakin, and would have prevented him from falling. Did you...did you see that man? Did you see how he never listens to people? How he ignores and dismisses Obi-Wan? How he treats Anakin??? You think Qui-Gon Jinn would have taught Anakin how to listen to other people, and not just steamroll over them with Force powers? You think they wouldn't have fought over right and wrong, and Palpatine couldn't have convinced Anakin that Qui-Gon "I do what I want" Jinn didn't take Anakin seriously??? I...I just...wow. What a different character interpretation. Did we watch the same movie? This explains so much about what I didn't like about TCW.
I think the only way I can talk about Obi-Wan as Anakin's master is to set aside the doomed to failure aspect of the meta knoweldge that Anakin would become Vader. Like, if that is true going in, literally anyone who took on Anakin would have to fail at some point, so lets assume it wasn't inevitable.
I think the opening of AoTC shows a pretty interesting and honestly good relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Anakin is not 100% on board with Jedi teachings, but he's willing to talk to Obi-Wan about his struggles and feelings, and clearly cares about him. So Obi-Wan was just fine from a perspective of being a person who could love Anakin and accept him as imperfect by Jedi standards.
Anakin doesn't seem to struggle with any Force skills, so Obi-Wan was clearly a decent teacher in that respect. Anakin didn't always respect Obi-Wan as a teacher or authority, but it's unclear how much of that is just normal student/teacher tension vs Anakin having power dynamic issues vs Obi-Wan's inexperience in being a teacher and inspiring respect and emulation or obedience.
Obi-Wan's weaknesses were giving Anakin too much leeway in the long run, and not having the political and social savvy to recognize the danger of and prevent Palpatine from getting close to Anakin. Obi-Wan also failed to convince Anakin of the dangers of befriending Palpatine, which...oops. But he probably didn't think the consequences of that friendship would involve Sith levels of catastrophe.
Anyway, I don't think that Obi-Wan should have been Anakin's teacher, but my concern has always been more along the lines of Obi-Wan jumping into the position haphazardly in a moment of grief, without any previous experience, and not because he was a bad mentor or a poor fit for Anakin.
And I wouldn't say that I know who a better option would have been. You could theoretically convince me of just about anyone. I think baby Anakin would have gotten himself attached to anyone who took him in at that point. Someone who actively disliked Palpatine and knew how to make Anakin dislike him or mistrust him obviously would have been the best from a controlling the narrative perspective. I think Aayla Secura would have been an interesting choice from what I casually know about her. Saw someone suggest Kit Fisto and I thought it was fun. I love Plo Koon, maybe that would have worked. Or maybe someone completely different.
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️ “solidarity doesn't mean "shut up and fall in line, don't question the rest of the community" it means LISTENING to marginalized people when they speak up about issues that are actively detrimental to solidarity within a community! that’s why nonblack solidarity for Black folk does not exist!”
⭐️ “a lot of people using "intersectionality" and "identity politics" while having never read the documents those terms were coined in which would show why those terms have specificity to Black struggle, particularly the struggle of Black women. bold move to respond to people pointing out the erasure of Black women by... *checks notes* misusing terms from Black women and erasing their fundamental role in creating them.”
⭐️ “combahee river collective statement is like a 15~30 minute read. a lot of yall really have no excuses for the way you talk about identity politics as if you havent read it.”
⭐️ “Identity politics was literally formulated by CRC to center Black women. Tf is you talking about. The demand for solidarity was directed at people who aren't Black women respecting Black women's autonomy and learning to apprehend the totality by centering our particular struggles”
⭐️ “Black people do not need "anti-racists", we need people who are anti-antiBlackness. if you can't name antiBlackness specifically in order to broaden and dilute struggle against it, you are not performing solidarity.”
⭐️ “cis Black women experience ungendering as a function of fungibility. this is not something that is applicable to white women regardless of their other marginalizations. the reason why it's so easy to notice similarities between antiBlackness and other marginalizations is because Blackness exists in an anterior position to them and is interstitial; its ontological plasticity forms Euromodernity itself and informs the marginalizations it produces.”
⭐️ “Please use #DignityForBrianna instead of using hashtag SayHerName to mourn Brianna Ghey. That hashtag is for Black folks killed by police violence, for that community to mourn & fight.”
⭐️ “why the specificity of criticizing state forms of anti-black trans violence is necessary is cuz if anything comes out of this it will be something like "Brianna's Law" & it will fund putting cops at playgrounds to "protect" trans kids from "bad ppl" & we know how that goes”
⭐️ “The extent to which ppl do not respect the expertise of Black scholars on our *own shit* (Black history, Black sociology, Black studies, Africana philosophy etc.) is really incredible. I don't mean that they question you. I mean they don't assume it requires any reading to do so. Like you can just read one book, or follow some Twitter threads or some shit, and argue with somebody that's been studying the same shit for decades. And it's not just nonblks that do this. Though the same ones wouldn't go past two sentences with a Hegel scholar. It's really a measure of how little everybody appreciates the work that has gone into Africana Studies, that they think they can just casually step in and "actually" people who dedicate their lives to it, no matter how many references we drop they aint know affect their claims.”
⭐️ “y’all don’t even wanna have the conversation about how black trans girls are being trafficked and killed at a much higher rate and they’ve never gotten this level of attention. Black folk are hypervisible to the state and it's various extensions and invisible to the broader movements in conflict against the state.”
⭐️ “the lang of "hate crime" whose origins are largely WHITE & invoke state protection/more police for WHITE targeted groups (see Dean Spade's crit of Hate Crime laws/logic in Normal Life) is a v succinct exmpl of why Black Trans analysis maintains its differentiated specificity”
⭐️ “Calling “Say Her Name” “intellectual property” like it’s a slogan for a brand & not an actual movement is misogynoir, anti-black & violent.” “genuinely not sure why this "discourse" is still happening for no reason for it bc ppl rn are using #HerNameIsBrianna #DignityForBrianna #RememberBriannaGhey if they want to use hash tags and are continuing on with the work that actually matters w/o splitting movements” “It’s honestly Disturbing how people engage with Black feminism. First y’all divorced identity politics from its meaning, disregard intersectionality & now arguing about the meaning of #SayHerName. Y’all only engage with Black feminism to find ways to center yourselves” “we are fighting for the abolition of sanctioned gender violence AND state/police gender violence. yt feminisms incl yt trans feminism have "fought" against the former by materially funding the latter”
⭐️ “can we acknowledge that at the same time we’re doing “intersectionality is liberalism” debate, people are doubling down on the erasure of black gender marginalized victims of state violence by co-opting a campaign coordinated by Kimberlé Crenshaw in real time. what a coincidence.”
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Collector for character bingo?(～￣▽￣)～
i love this funky little guy SO much, they're so fucked up and i can't wait to see where it goes
i really love the implications we've gotten so far - this godlike, childlike being trapped for some unknown amount of time in total isolation, with only Philip Fucking Wittebane to talk to for the last few hundred years, and i'm super excited to see where it goes
they've only been onscreen for a cumulative few minutes but those minutes meant so much to me and i want to see more!
they're just such a fascinating villain to me. a very different type of villain from Philip, who's an evil motherfucker because he intentionally chooses to be the worst possible person.
the Collector, meanwhile, is more like... he's a bored, lonely, isolated child with unspeakable cosmic powers. he's capable of immense cruelty, but even the glee he seems to take in it seems a lot less like Philip's intentional sadism and a lot more like, well, you know. a kid who likes to break their toys.
there's a lot of arguing back and forth all the time about what the Collector is personally responsible for, how bad they are, etc etc... as has been pointed out, we have only the words of the Titan Trappers that the Collector wanted them to hunt and kill the Titans, so i definitely think that firmly declaring the Collector definitely 100% on purpose did goad the Trappers into hunting the Titans to near extinction is a bit premature.
they do seem to be very childlike and not understand the ramifications of their own or other people's actions, but that doesn't mean that their cruelty isn't cruel or doesn't need to be corrected.
it confuses me when i see people say "people are excusing their actions because they're a kid", to be honest. this is a character i see a lot of weird discourse about and it kind of seems like everyone is talking past each other at best or being very disingenuous at worst.
like... yeah, they're a kid. this means their understanding of things is not the same as an adult's. kids are often cruel and careless and break or destroy things or hurt people/animals/insects without meaning to, because they don't understand. add in the psychological effects of isolation, plus being exposed to Philip Fucking Wittebane for the last few hundred years, plus being a literal cosmic entity with godlike powers, and you have the perfect recipe for someone who just legitimately does not know or understand what it means to be hurt or killed or scared or suffering and therefore doesn't understand or care how they're hurting others - which doesn't mean he doesn't still need to be prevented from hurting people, but like, we do in fact treat things kids do wrong as different from things adults do wrong for a reason, and this isn't a case of like, "uwu he's a baby 17 year old who can't be held responsible for any of his own actions" lmao.
i'm very hopeful that the Collector is an antagonist who presents problems that CAN be solved with compassion. showing Philip compassion wouldn't have worked, because his issue was never that he just didn't know any better, but showing the Collector the kind of genuine love and care that includes rules and boundaries is something that could really have a strong effect, i think, and i hope that's where his arc is going.
so i'm excited to see what happens with them in s3!
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Vent o’clock: People need to understand that shipping will and mike is fine, but it’s truly (and I’m sorry to say this to Mike and will fans) not gonna happen. Not only is it too late to develop a relationship like this in the last season of a show. But also, There has been no indication AT ALL of mike returning wills feeling and a script that however way you interpret it isn’t proof because the millions of people who need to know these indications aren’t gonna read the script, if they were to want to drop hints at this “developing relationship” they need to make it clear for everyone not 1% of the audience who read the scripts. Moreover, people seem to interpret mikes insufferable (I don’t personally find him insufferable but I can see how other maybe do) character traits on him being secretly closeted which I know for a fact is not the case and NOT because I think it’s impossible for mike to be gay and there can only be one gay character in the whole show but because and talking from a writing stand point it would be too late in the show to establish it (look at how much it took them to establish will). What’s so annoying to me and what I see people putting as *proof* is whenever anyone talks about wills sexuality they always take it as confirmation to mike and wills relationship and it’s what started the *queer baiting* nonsense. Like wills SEXUALITY is established not mike and wills relationship, I swear I’ve seen people use Noahs interview from when he confirmed his sexuality and being in love with mike as proof for byler and it’s like ??? This is actually disrespectful to will, that his own sexuality and him coming to terms with it is always lumped with a non existent relationship (smh) And the main reason why they won’t happen is because they’ve always and I mean always said that Mike and eleven is their main couple they want them to be Superman and lois lane or iron man and pepper potts, leia and Han it is very clear that they want them to be like that iconic sci-fi couple that can be remembered till the show ends and years to come (whether they successfully make an iconic relationship it’s not the point but I’m talking about their intention). Anyways that’s my rant, I’m just so annoyed that people think that people who want eleven and mike to stay together are just “Milevens” like I’m not a shipper and I don’t care I’m just a fan of the show but my social media has been full of byler content and I’m just confused like there’s a difference between interpretation and just blatant delusion. Byeeee thanks for listening xoxo
Yeah I mean all of this discourse very much exists only inside the fandom bubble, I think that’s the most important thing to remember. No matter what our opinions are, we’re all weirdos that spend a lot more time than the average Joe talking about stranger things. That’s the first thing to remember lol.
Genuinely I do not think anyone outside the fandom really saw what went down in season 4 and thought mike has feelings for will. The “mike fighting homosexuality” theory very much exists only in the fandom space… nobody outside of tumblr/tik tok saw will crying in 4x08 and mike not even noticing and thought “damn mike is in love with will but just can’t acknowledge it.” I think a good portion of the GA was annoyed with mike bc they’re protective of will and thought he was a bad friend (and imo they’re wrong lmao but that’s a diff issue) but to the millions of ppl watching this show, the issue of “will mike and will get together?” is nonexistent.
Truly everyone is entitled to their opinion, I think that needs to be reiterated. There’s nothing weird or wrong about shipping Mike and Will. But I do get that it has gotten a little out of hand, post vol 2 especially, so I get the need to vent. Like some people have been disrespectful and frankly a little wackadoodle in the way they’re treating others. So long as everyone stays in their lane and nobody annoys me with their opinions (e.g. reblogging my gifsets with ur paragraphs long b*ler analysis in the tags), I’m cool.
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The little touches of truth
At this point nearly everyone has gotten around to saying that the United States has a fascism problem. I remember watching as more and more formerly "right-wing" pundits crossed that line, I remember feeling growing alarm and being told that speaking the name of what I was witnessing was "alarmist." So, you'd think that this arrival at a consensus among "the left" (people too far left to be called Democrats) and "liberal Democrats" (the more left-leaning part of that party) and even some "moderate Democrats" (such as Joe Biden) would be a big relief.
It hasn't quite worked out that way. The amount of eliminationist, sincerely frightening rhetoric you can find on any randomly selected 10min segment from the Tucker Carlson show is so far off the charts I wonder how we will ever survive this.
Because, as the center has been waking up to just how far from reason voices on the right have drifted, that rate of drift has only accelerated. The code words and dog whistles have fallen away and accountability for even the most obvious lies has no meaning.
Recently, the talking points have been about immigration. Specifically, trying to link fentanyl to immigration. This isn't just a lie by omission or exaggeration, it's an outright fabrication. There is no correlation.
Likewise, have you wondered why they keep on trying to pull the "bus immigrants to a blue state" stunt when they have never gotten the outraged and disgusted reaction they expected? Well, all of the right wing news outlets have simply been lying about how the immigrants are received. They take complaints about such trips being organized on dishonest premisses, and without any notice to the receiving cities and pretend that it's the disgust and rejection they anticipated. Because that's how they would react to people in need. Everyone must be that way. Meanwhile in NYC we are thrilled to have more immigrants. Just please don't trick anyone or humiliate anyone by calling them dirty on your news programs.
Just as alarming as the lies are the very few instances where the right will say something that is, at least in part, true.
For example: Anyone who talks about "over-population" with respect to climate change or any other topic is peddling a deeply dangerous idea. Though the right-wing spin on this topic seems to be more about a zero sum game where you have to eliminate before you are eliminated. But, they are correct that looking to population control is bad.
It's also not a good thing that young people who want to start families are putting it off for economic reasons. Though, I suspect we are picturing very different "young people" when we point this one out.
It's bad that two incomes are required to keep a household afloat. (but can we discuss this without telling women to go back to the kitchen?)
On a recent Tucker segment he talked about the immigrants sent to Martha's Vineyard and showed an aerial shot of Obama's mansion. He raged with glee about how many "illegals" (these immigrants were legal) could live in it. It was gloriously populist on a surface level. The kind you rarely hear in US political discourse. But, it was also underlined by racism and the head spinning irony that Tucker himself lives in a mansion on an island for the rich.
Oh, but at least he hates the same people "you" do dear viewer.
Going layers further ... there is very little difference in the immigration policies of the two parties. Democrats are a bit better, but it is only a little bit. The broad trends are very much the same. Obama deported more people than any recent president. It didn't matter. Simply talking about the issue as if those involved are fully human is crime enough.
Democrats can never win by out-republicaning republicans. They will simply lie and say you never did any of those things. And look, you've become a kind of monster just to win. Was that worth it?
Is Obama's house a capitalist obscenity? Probably.
Could many many people live there when he hardly even uses it? Of course.
Is it disturbing that this is the only populist talk, put into such stark and simple terms we will hear on US TV? Deeply so.
That it exists at all means that there is thirst for such talk, and look who is controlling the conversation. And what hateful ends they will seek to direct it to realize.
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Quackity and Schlatt’s Relationship - More Complicated Then You Think
(this is all /rp and about the characters from the dream smp! pls assume i have the dignity not to write analysis of youtubers)
recently there was a bit of discourse surrounding the relationship between Quackity and Schlatt floating around on tumblr. tho i never saw the original post that sparked the conversation, i did see a few posts that were inspired by it mentioning how they disliked that the original post implied that Quackity and Schlatt were mutually abusive and/or equally bad for each other
since i never saw the original post, i can't be sure if that's what the op meant to imply. it's not really my place to speak about a post that i never got the chance to read. BUT the conversation that was caused by the post in question did get me thinking about how this fandom treats the relationship between Quackity and Schlatt and how little nuance there is in discussions about it
now before i say anything else, i want to make a few things clear:
i don't think Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship is mutually abusive. no need to worry about hearing that from this post
i don't look down on ppl who have different interpretations of their relationship
there will be potentially triggering content in this analysis. i will place a quick warning whenever i think one is needed!
their relationship is romantic in canon and therefore i’ll be treating it as romantic
alright now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, we can finally get on with the analysis! i apologize for how long this is gonna be
part 1: let's talk relationship!
i think we can all agree that Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was not exactly a healthy one. tho it didn't start out that way, it certainly turned into what could be read as abusive or toxic (i personally read their relationship as being abusive in its later half due to evidence provided by the text, but i understand if others prefer to view it as just toxic instead)
but what happened that led to their partnership ending so badly? what caused all of this mess?
well, it was a lot of things. but we will get to that later. let's talk relationship first!
from the very beginning, Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was pretty one-sided. tho they both clearly liked each other as friends/partners in crime both before and after the election (yes they did interact before the election!) Quackity was also interested in Schlatt romantically- something that Schlatt wasn't fully committed to
as we all know from the infamous date stream and from a few other moments, Quackity and Schlatt enjoyed playfully flirting with each other- tho it was pretty obvious that Quackity was more serious about it then Schlatt was even tho Schlatt considered Quackity to be very attractive
in my opinion, Quackity is someone who wants a long term relationship, while Schlatt is more interested in flings. this can be seen in Schlatt refusing to marry Quackity and rejecting most of his advances while Quackity tried his best to convince him to feel otherwise. Tommy put it best: Quackity is just one of Schlatt’s many bitches U_U
to Quackity, the romantic aspect of their relationship was very important. because Schlatt never actually shot him down or told him that he didn't feel the same way, Quackity took that to mean that they were truly in love. Schlatt on the other hand wasn't very invested in the romantic side of things but clearly valued Quackity’s looks and his support as an ally against Pogtopia so he never fully rejected Quackity’s advances
this might not seem like too big of a deal considering the other things that happened between them, but i think it shows part of the nature of their relationship. there is a lot of miscommunication and, on Schlatt’s end, manipulation of emotions. love is a strong motivator for loyalty and Schlatt is a smart guy who would know how to use that to his advantage
but that isn't to say that Schlatt didn't ever care about Quackity!
Schlatt is a complicated guy and figuring out when he's actually being genuine can be pretty difficult. but i think there are some moments that point to Schlatt genuinely caring about Quackity
when he was alive, Schlatt was pretty paranoid. not as paranoid as Wilbur, but certainly up there. but there were never any times where he truly questioned Quackity’s loyalties after his first day as president. Schlatt also seemed truly upset that Quackity betrayed him, bringing up their status as partners in crime while ranting about how much it hurt him and singling Quackity out while talking about how he had been abandoned during his time of need
Schlatt also spent a lot of time sulking after Quackity betrayed him and whining to Ponk about needing a new bitch. this is in contrast to how angry he was after Tubbo betrayed him- both during and after the execution
there is also the situation with the Big Man Gym
after being dead for a while, Schlatt contacted Quackity despite them leaving off on bad terms and asked for him to visit him in his cave gym. when Quackity showed up, Schlatt talked about how he valued their relationship and the good times they had together. tho this can easily be seen as emotional manipulation, Schlatt’s a lot smarter than he seems and- if he doesnt have memory issues due to being a ghost- would know that Quackity’s opinion of him was in the dump at the time of his death and most likely wouldn't have improved since then. Fundy has a higher opinion of Schlatt than Quackity does and is someone who obviously craves validation. but Schlatt went to Quackity first anyway and trusted him to help revive him
i think that this is all good evidence that points towards Schlatt truly caring about Quackity as much as someone like Schlatt can care about anyone- or at least valuing him as a companion
i also think that it is pretty common knowledge that Quackity cared about Schlatt- and possibly still does- but i will go over a bit of evidence that i haven’t already mentioned before we move on to the next part
Quackity tried multiple times to impress Schlatt (like when he lied about knowing how to play chess), would attempt to help Schlatt when he was drowning in water, sadly said that they could have had something together while Schlatt was dying in the caravan, and implied that he wouldn’t have left if Schlatt hadn’t taken down the white house. Quackity also willingly went to the Big Man Gym after being summoned there by Schlatt and wanted to revive him long before the revive book became part of the story
part 2: what made it fall apart?
everything i've said so far has been pretty interesting (hopefully) but it doesn't really answer the original question: what went wrong to turn Schlatt and Quackity’s mainly positive partnership sour?
well it comes down to two things in my opinion: their incompatible desires for political power and Schlatt’s deteriorating mental state
Quackity wanted political power from the beginning and wasn't afraid to be open about his desires. he pooled his votes with Schlatt because Schlatt offered him the position of vice president, something Wilbur and Tommy weren’t willing to give to him. tho Quackity obviously cared about L’Manburg and wanted to see good things for it, he also desired power and was willing to team up with someone he didn't fully agree with to get said power
at 32:40 in this video, Quackity talks about how in politics everyone uses everyone so it's alright if Schlatt is using him. he then talks about how he doesn't want to be a man with no power and how he understands that Schlatt’s main goal is also gaining/keeping power. Quackity also shows a bit of his naughty evil side by saying if he overthrows Schlatt then the fun ends too early!
(side note: these two are pretty evenly matched in intelligence and manipulativeness, i love it!)
it's a bit of a fandom misconception that Quackity was a love sick yes man during the Manburg era. tho Quackity did want to please Schlatt and was in love with him, he didn't shy away from standing up to or disagreeing with Schlatt when he believed it was needed
at around 26:12 of this video, Quackity and Schlatt meet together in private and Quackity tells Schlatt off for playing down his role in the power structure of Manburg. since this was very early in Schlatt’s reign, Quackity shows no fear towards him and confidently tells him not to treat him like that
Quackity also broke Niki out of jail after regretting letting her be put there in the first place, tried to convince Schlatt to not execute Tubbo, jumped in front of Fundy when Schlatt tried to attack him, tried to stop Schlatt from tearing down buildings, and attempted to protect the white house he built from being destroyed by Schlatt. these are not behaviors of a pure yes man but of someone who, despite fear, has the confidence to speak up for himself even when disrespected by someone in authority
Quackity has always been someone who wanted power and someone who was never a yes man to authority. this contradicts with how Schlatt believed Quackity should act as vice president. in Schlatt’s opinion, Quackity’s one job is to sit around looking pretty while Schlatt does all of the important things and holds all of the power. Schlatt was a big fan of promoting people to worthless positions of authority and its pretty obvious that he considered vice president to be similar to the fake positions he gave Fundy and Tubbo
in the end, this was a big part of what destroyed their relationship. like it or not, Quackity’s a power hungry guy and always has been. he didn't like that Schlatt constantly shoved him aside and refused to listen to him
now onto the nasty bit...Schlatt’s mental state
cw for mentions of alcoholism, mental deterioration, and abusive behavior
before i say anything more, i just want to say that i don't think having issues with alcoholism makes someone a bad person. i personally have some issues with such things so it would be pretty stupid of me to say being an alcoholic makes you a bad person. alcoholism does negatively affect your cognitive functions tho and, combined with other health issues, can cause some of the very serious mental problems that Schlatt clearly struggles with
throughout the Manburg era, Schlatt’s mental state rapidly deteriorated. he went from a pretty normal- if eccentric- guy who had a drinking problem, to someone who was delirious most of the time. it's a sharp and noticeable decline that caused a lot of pain for Quackity due to Schlatt often taking his excess aggression out on him by yelling at him and/or belittling him. tho Schlatt often belittled Quackity before he went fully off of the deep end, it was never as aggressive as it was when he was in this delirious state of mind
it was during one of Schlatt’s most aggressive and delirious moments that he tore down the white house despite Quackity’s protests. as we all know, this caused Quackity to snap and kill Schlatt (it's more complicated than that but we will get back to that). as mentioned previously, Quackity implied that he would have stayed with Schlatt if the white house hadn’t been destroyed
in my opinion, these two things combined are the biggest reasons why Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship fell apart. their differing desires for power were not compatible and Schlatt’s awful behavior while his mental state declined caused a rift between them that couldn't be fixed
part 3: how toxic was it really?
cw for emotional and physical abuse
as i said all the way back in part one, Quackity and Schlatt’s relationship was not healthy. i have provided many examples in the other two parts that shine a light onto why it wasn't healthy, but i didn't show the entire picture
there are many moments that show exactly how Schlatt treated Quackity when he was acting at his worst and none of them are pretty. tho Schlatt was never truly aggressive with his insults until he started to go off of the deep end, that doesn't mean that what he said wasn't negatively affecting Quackity
Schlatt would belittle, insult, and mock Quackity for his appearance not being up to his standards, for his opinions, and for being emotional in ways that Schlatt disapproved of like crying. tho Schlatt would often brush off Quackity’s reactions towards this cruel behavior, it's very clear that Schlatt’s treatment of him has stuck with Quackity in many ways
Quackity is very sensitive about his appearance and it seems to be because of how badly Schlatt hurt his self esteem during their time together. Schlatt tied Quackity’s worth to his appearance and then would claim he wasn't meeting his standards of attractiveness. we can tell that this has stuck with Quackity because of his sensitivity towards people bringing up the scar on his face (something that greatly alters his physical appearance) and he still reacts very badly when Schlatt calls him the mocking nickname flatty patty
speaking of flatty patty- that stupid insult shockingly has a lot of weight in Quackity’s relationship with Schlatt. tho its something the audience is meant to laugh at, the nickname also shows just how little Schlatt respects Quackity because he's constantly throwing it around just to make Quackity upset. Schlatt’s last words are flatty patty all because he wanted to get in one last dig at his ex and ruin Quackity’s day even further
Schlatt tends to do a lot of things that are intended to make Quackity upset. tearing down the room Quackity made for him in the white house is the biggest example of this- especially since Schlatt mentions how it will upset Quackity while he does it. you can see this moment at around 19:10 of this video
and now let's get into the elephant in the room when it comes to these two: Quackity was scared of Schlatt. tho we never really see Schlatt hit or attack Quackity physically outside of their confrontation at the white house or their confrontation in the caravan, these clips imply that Quackity was at the very least scared of Schlatt physically harming him in some way
as for actually physically harming him, Schlatt hits Quackity multiple times with a pickaxe and with his fists during their white house fight. Quackity hits Schlatt a couple times too, tho these are all primarily defensive blows since he is trying to protect himself and his property. he also chases after Quackity with a bow after Quackity’s plan to trick him into signing Manburg over to the Pogtopians fails and hits him multiple times during the caravan confrontation
all of this evidence shows that Schlatt was an abusive (or at least toxic) partner towards Quackity and someone who greatly affected him in many ways
tho Quackity did a few questionable things throughout his relationship with Schlatt (such as trying to get Schlatt to have sex with him despite Schlatt not being interested as shown in the later half of this video) and did some downright morally wrong things during his time as vice president of Manburg, no one deserves the pain of an abusive relationship- even a person who has done bad things
as a brief side note before we move on because i know people will bring it up if i skip over it, Quackity did- and most likely still does- want to literally possess Glatt. he brought up reviving Schlatt and using him as a political pawn after Schlatt’s funeral and during their conversation at the Big Man Gym Quackity talked about owning Glatt and having him work at Las Nevadas with no pay
this is unsettling behavior to say the least but this essay isnt about the aftermath of their relationship so much as it is about their relationship when it was actually happening. maybe i will make another post talking more about how Quackity’s relationship with Schlatt affected him even after Schlatt’s death and/or about Quackity’s relationship with Glatt
part 4: final thoughts
i’m not exactly sure why the nuances in Schlatt and Quackity’s relationship get lost when it comes to the fandom, but it’s pretty disappointing to see. hopefully this essay can help people take a closer look at canon and maybe even help them find something interesting that they’d want to explore!
tho the point of this essay is to clear up any misconceptions and hopefully add some nuance to the conversations surrounding Schlatt and Quackity’s relationship, i also wrote it in hopes of showing people how fascinating these two partners in crime were back in the Manburg days. i didn’t cover everything but i think i did a pretty good job for my first analysis post in the dsmp fandom
also since you read to the end, i must say thank you! it really does means a lot to me that you did. i hope you enjoyed and maybe even learned something. this post can be used as a resource if anyone wants to use it as such
here’s a tiny devil Quackity for your troubles <3
#quackity#jschlatt#manburg#dream smp analysis#dsmp analysis#posts by me#this was really fun to make!! i worry it wont show up in tags tho bc of how many links there are in it#so pls reblog!! if you read it and liked it that is haha#meta by me
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Cookies and Fingertips (M)
Some Jimin loving! We love to see it! I hope you all enjoy this installation as I try to figure out how to properly flesh out characters in a drabble series. Am not sure how I’m doing there but I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless. As always, tips are not required but greatly appreciated, just like your thoughts! Pls share your thoughts though, they brighten my day!
Note: This is part of a drabble series The Household’s Bunny
Summary: You and Jimin met long before you moved in, and yet, you’re not sure if he even likes you. So what else is there to do but take every opportunity to talk to him until you figure it out?
Jimin has had a debilitating crush on you long before you moved in and he is almost positive there is no way you’d feel the same. And yet, he doesn’t have the strength to properly avoid you.
Word Count: 4k
Warnings: 18+, soft yandere-ish, obsessive thoughts, possessive thoughts, fingering, handjob, subspace, cum eating (sorta?), discussion of hospitalization, mentions of a stalker, mentions of passing out, the word “fat” is used, a moment of thigh riding, surprise kiss, insecurity
Jimin looked across the courtyard as his eyes remained fixated on your form. You were a simple second year in college and he was just a breath away from graduating. He first laid eyes on you a mere year ago and he can't remember what life was truly like before you smiled at him. You both had only ever exchanged pleasantries, so he opted to wait for the right time to make his move.
“That’s not true.” Your voice snapped Jimin from his staring contest with the PowerPoint slides, “That’s an antiquated idea, not a proven theory.” He looked to you, a couple rows down. You were plump and cute to say the least. He recognized you from a few of his courses. He had heard you were a double major in Art and… damn, what was the other?
The man you had rebutted had his face turning red, “It is proven, it was studied in 1973 with significant results yielded.” Jimin had no idea what you both were debating but he watched a sea of student nod in agreeance with you, some with the guy. What class was he even in? He looked at the PowerPoint slides, reading them for the first time today. Ah, he was in his psych of gender class. Maybe you were a psych major.
“In 1973, with no women in the participant pool, are you not seeing the issue in making a multi-gendered generalization whilst utilizing one genders perspective, a perspective that is also quite dated, mind you?” You cocked a brow and Jimin found himself a bit amused at the man who scoffed.
“You learn those words in high school two months ago?” He snapped back and Jimin grimaced along with most of the lecture hall.
“What? You need me to define them?” You quipped, eliciting some laughter as the professor regrouped.
“Ah, educational discourse.” The professor joked lightly as Jimin’s eyes remained fixed on you as you noticed a few lingering gazes on you, shrinking in your seat.
He saw you in the lunch hall, sitting alone, not uncommon for anyone in college, except your eyes were a bit puffy. Before he could even question the urge, he acted. Within a few steps, he was at your table and you looked up in confusion, “Uh, hi?” You meekly spoke and Jimin realized he had no plan.
“U-Uh, you… uh… do you like the cookies?” He forced out and immediately wished he could disappear.
You looked down at the cookie on your plate, “Uh, yes? Is-Is this a fat joke or do you actually want to know?” You asked cautiously.
Jimin’s eyes widened, “No, I mean yes, I mean no, I would never make fun of your weight.” He squeezed his eyes and sighed, not able to see your growing smile at his mental turmoil, “I have psych of gender with you and people rarely talk in that class so I thought you were pretty cool.” He smiled and he noticed you relax.
You nodded, smiling slightly, “Ah, I see. Thank you.” You beamed and it was like he felt the warmth from you, “I don’t do super well with attention but I also have poor impulse control.” You chuckled and he finally understood why you had cried and his heart strings were tugged a bit, “And yes, the cookies are good.” You split one in half and offered it to him.
Life goes by a lot quicker when one waits for the perfect opportunity. This much he found out quickly when he found himself a year later, looking across the courtyard at you, this time as your TA. He tried dating to get the daunting idea of talking to you after that singular interaction in which he forgot to give you his name from his mind to no avail. No matter, surely this would be the year.
”Jiminie is so hot!” Jimin continued to pretend not to hear his ex, Yoora, whine in your ear as he observed the intro to modern dance class.
You looked to her thoughtfully as you stretched, “You mean the TA, that is not that far away?” Your voice was lowered, but he could still hear you. He found himself listening closer, wondering if you remembered the singular interaction you both had. Yoora nodded in the corner of his eye.
“Yep.” She affirmed, “We dated, it was magical, and he’s still hot.” She mused and Jimin grimaced a bit, feeling bad he dated a girl that seemed to be a decent friend of yours, “Do you know him?”
Jimin perked up a bit, “We talked once, seems nice, is obviously hot.” You shrugged, “I doubt he remembers me, though.” You leaned down to reach past your left foot as Yoora urged you on with her eyes, “I had gotten into a weird debate with this one dude in a class we had and he saw me after, and I had just cried because I hate arguing and stares.” You and Yoora laughed a bit, “Then, he just came up to me and asked if I liked the cookies I were eating, and I wasn’t sure if he was calling me fat at first.” Yoora gasped and Jimin felt pain just thinking about the awkwardness, “He wasn’t, and he got cutely flustered when I asked and then I gave him half of my cookie and that’s all.” You moved to your other leg, “And then he never talked to me again.” You laughed and Jimin wanted the floor to swallow him.
Another year goes by. The day before he was going to try and ask you out, you were hospitalized. He didn't know how to even approach the topic with you, but he did try to be there for you throughout that year. The professor he was TA for insisted Jimin also utilize his emails, so all throughout your brief stay in medical care, it was him who received your bubbly emails. The emails full of little emoticons and exclamation points that made him giddy and took him hours to conceptualize a response to. Although you didn't know it was him giving you extensions and safe regards, he still meant it.
He was practicing when he got the email,
“Attention students,
We have received knowledge of an incident that has resulted in the hospitalization of a student that occurred within an apartment close to campus. Proper authorities have been notified and the student is recovering well. Please remain safe and vigilant.”
His face twisted in confusion when he got a text from the professor he was TA for that you were the student in question.
Throughout the semester, Jimin watched you with careful eyes as you slowly acclimated back to yourself. He wondered how he could have been so blinded by your smile that he couldn't properly see your eye bags or the way you looked over your shoulder when you thought no one was looking at you, or how he couldn't see he wasn't the only one looking at you.
When you returned, he watched your eyes relax and your guard go down again. He just wished he could've been there to help you get there. He trudged home one day and found you, and then his whole world was flipped by you again.
Since moving in, he found himself way more advanced with you than he ever imagined. You would plop next to him on the couch and give him a smile, "How was your day, Jiminie?" You beamed at him each time and he nearly choked on his spit each time.
He would mumble an answer and you would hum before watching TV with him, a show he deliberately put on each time he heard you come home. Eventually, you began watching competition shows together, theorizing who would win what. It was comfortable and close, and he found himself falling for you even harder.
"Do you wanna have lunch together?" Your voice pulled him from his thoughts in the practice room he had on his floor in the building. He had agreed to help with your final. The only time he could talk to you without it being a mental nightmare was when it was about dancing. The only time he could initiate contact was in this studio.
The studio gave him a certain air of confidence that even you could see. He wasn't a different person, more so multi-faceted. There was the shy and bumbling part of Jimin just as much as there was the sharp-eyed and focused Jimin. Not to mention the way his fingers would dance on your form as he gave you pointers made you unreasonably aroused.
Even so, determined to challenge himself, he nodded, "Lead the way." His voice was smooth even after two straight hours of practice and you wondered how he could look so hot work out clothes.
You both decided to pick up food and eat it at the studio. You sat across from each other as you ate in polite conversation. It was after you both picked up the food and sat on the floor you spoke up again, "You know, Jiminie." You started, eyes shyly fixated on the floor, "I wanted to thank you for not telling the guys about my, uh, incident a year ago." You finally looked him in the eyes, a soft smile on your face, "Not that it's a huge secret, especially on campus, but I just prefer to tell people myself." You mused.
He blinked, surprised you would thank him for something like that, "O-Of course, I mean, a lot of rumors were going around anyways, so even if I did want to tell them, I doubt I have only the facts." He shrugged, "It's not anyone else's business regardless."
You stifled a little giggle, "Yeah, some of the stories got a bit crazy." You sighed a bit, "From a stalker attacking me to me passing out in the middle of the street." Jimin looked up at you. You didn’t meet his gaze, most likely reliving the aftermath of the whole campus finding out you were hospitalized and are a cam girl in the same week. Not that you were ever hiding you job, but you just wished you could tell people on your own terms.
"Yeah, some crazy things get told in the Arts department." He murmured, "I only knew most of the facts because your TA for Professor Lee's class."
It was your turn to look up, but instead of confusion he saw a polite smile, "I know, silly." You chuckled and when you saw his confused face you looked at him incredulously, "Come on, you're Park Jimin! Of course I'm gonna know the 'hottest dance major'" You fake gushed and he finally broke a laugh, making you giddy.
"Of all things to know me by." He shook his head, smile still present.
You studied his face as his eyes scrunched and cheeks lifted, making you smile as well, "I've never made you smile before and your smile is so pretty." You mused, "I need to step up my comedy game."
"You've never seen me smile?" He looked surprised at this, considering he always smiled like an idiot when he stared longingly at you.
"I mean, sort of, but not to this degree." You shook your head, "I was starting to think you didn't like me for a while."
His eyes widened at this and he panicked, "No, no! I do like you, a lot!" He exclaimed, much to your amusement and to his dismay. You watched him get red with a grin.
He stammered, staring at his fork before he heard your melodious laugh. He looked up and his face softened at the sight of your smile, "You're too cute, Jiminie." You reached forward and pinched his cheek, making his breath hitch. Your cooing tone made something click inside him. He didn't want to be just cute to you, he wanted to be more than any adjective, he wanted to be yours.
He reached up, hand going to wrap around your wrist loosely, "I was the hottest a second ago and now I'm just cute?" A glint of confidence shown in his eye as he made you gulp, "Is that all you think of me, y/n?" Your own name coming from his mouth sent a shiver down your spine and a beat to your core.
You were in a trance while being eyed by the man with a vastly different energy than he had just moments ago. You shook your head lightly, "I think you're beautiful." He cocked a brow and you scrambled for more words, "I had a huge crush on you from the moment I gave you half of my cookie." You breathed before even thinking, snapping you back to reality as you watched his eyes widen, "Ah, me and my mouth!" You admonished yourself, "I didn't mean to make you uncomf-" You frantically moved to take your hand back only for his grip to tighten, pulling you forward, placing your hand at the nape of his neck while his arm wrapped around your waist.
You gulped at the newfound closeness, bodies nearly pressing against each other as he eyed you sharply, "Do you mean it?" He breathed, "You had a crush on me?" You made a move to slink away, but you he gracefully laid himself down with you on top of him, his thigh mere centimeters from your core and he gave you a mischievous smile, "Don't leave me hanging." He teased.
"I-I mean… yes, but can-"
He cut you off with a sigh and a laugh. You braced yourself for him to laugh at you, and say how weird it would be had you confessed and how weird the idea of you two together would be.
It's a song and dance you've seen many times as a hopeless romantic chubby girl. Of course, now you know you were just too much woman for such little men, emotionally little at the very least, but you would be a liar if you didn't still feel the hurt of humiliation. The last thing you wanted was to look into Jimin's eyes and find the same pitying glint, but you were nothing if not a bit brave, at least sometimes.
You forced your eyes from his chest to his gaze and found… an emotion you've only every seen in the eyes of your housemates, an emotion you don't quite know yet, even if you felt it too. At your curiosity, Jimin beamed at you further, "I'd be really frustrated right now if you weren’t on top of me." He chuckled a bit and explained further before you could ask why, "I have had such a huge crush on you for years now." You balk at this, shaking you head.
"That's not a funny joke, Jiminie." You huffed, "If I were even a bit more gullible, I would seriously believe you and then my feelings would be hurt-" He pulled you flush against him as he captured your mouth in a soft and sweet kiss. He was slow, but focused, in the way his mouth moved against yours.
Inside, though, Jimin was freaking out. What if you didn't actually want to kiss him? Why didn't he ask beforehand? Should he pull away? But your mouth feels so good. Are you kissing him back or is he just that enthusiastic?
You laid his worries to rest when you used the hand at his nape to pull him closer, mouth opening to nibble on his bottom lip. He groaned lightly, pulling you closer as his tongue mingled with your own and he pressed his thigh into the thin material of your leggings. You gasped at this and it was like a fire lit within him as he sat up and shifted you for your legs to be on both sides of him as he pressed his mouth onto yours further.
His fingertips danced along your form in a much different context than you were used to, but fuck, did it feel nice. Where one arm was securely holding your waist, his hand reached beneath your shirt, getting accustomed to the soft skin as he waited for you to nod. You wanted him to touch you further. You didn't understand what all these hot men wanted with you, but right now, it didn't matter one bit.
Jimin's eyes rolled back when he reached in your sports bra to run his fingers over your hardened nipples. You twitched against him as you gasped, fingers intertwining with his hair roughly, "Shit." He groaned at the sensation.
You both sloppily kissed as he explored your chest with his hands, moaning into each other's mouths at the euphoria of unresolved feelings coming to fruition and the sexual tension finally snapping as you gave him unrestricted access to feel you beneath his fingertips, "Wanted this for so long." He murmurs into your mouth, "So beautiful, fuck." The praises don't stop, and only further spur you wandering hand on as you feel his sculpted stomach.
"Wanna touch you." You whine as your fingers play with the waistband of his sweats and he nods, his own hand travelling down to cup your core, making you squeak, "Fuck, I'm so wet." You realized, half embarrassed and half aroused.
You could feel his amusement as he slipped his hand beneath your tights and panties to make skin to skin contact with your soaked core, and he didn't know how he made it this far, but he just wants to keep going as he feels you soak his hand, "Yeah, baby, you are, just for me." He moans when you follow his lead, hand wrapping around his hardened erection and giving a small squeeze, "Shit!" He gasps as you wiggled your hips against his hand, grinding yourself little by little.
Your hand massaged the head, smearing the precum as you begin stroking him. You both continue moaning into each other's mouths as his hips jerked and you twitched against his hands, "So fucking wet, baby, so sexy." He growled and he slipped a finger inside of you, him groaning at your pulsating warmth wrapped around his finger, "Slid right in, angel." He praises and you let out a choked gasp and he presses his thumb against your clit.
He drank your moans into his mouth like they were an oasis in the desert, and he’s not sure how he’s lived this long without them. Without you by his side and in his arms. He held you close, refusing to even consider loosening his grip because your body against his was bliss in the highest form. You were his, even if just in this moment, and you would be nobody else’s. Nobody could make him feel the way you do, and he, along with the other men that resided in the building, were determined to hold the same monopoly over your emotions. He refused to entertain the idea of anyone beyond this building making you feel anything close to what he was now as he pushed a second finger in, relishing in the strangled moan you gave as you babbled about feeling full.
With the excitement of his dream girl dripping against his hand and your own hand working expertly on his dick, Jimin could feel himself getting close and you could tell from the breathy whines he gave you as he began thrusting his hips in time with his fingers inside you, "Cum for me, Jiminie." You purred before licking at his tongue and he came beautifully with his eyes screwed shut and mouth open as you swiveled your hips agains his, now two, fingers.
"Baby, so good." He whined as his high settled down. He shifted all focus to you and your impending orgasm as he watched you fuck yourself onto his hand, "Feeling good, darling?" He asked teasingly and you nodded dumbly, lips pressed together as you felt your high approach, "I can feel you clenching around my fingers, fuck, you gonna cum in my hand all pretty?" He cooed and you nodded as he met your thrusts, making you clutch onto him harder.
"Can I cum?" You whimpered and Jimin could almost feel himself get hard again at how willing you were to give him the reigns.
"Because you asked so sweetly, of course my love." He let the name slip before you both could even acknowledge it consciously. However, the closeness and the intimacy of it all sent you over the edge and you bit down on his shoulder in attempt to hide how loud you were. He held you close, not minding one bit at the mark you were surely leaving as he fucked you through your orgasm, "Felt good, angel?" He mused and you tucked your face into his neck as you nodded, holding him close as his finger stilled but kept you full until he felt you relax.
You both giggled as you met eyes, licking the other person's cum off of your hands, "Thank you Jiminie." You hummed cheerily.
"Thank you, bunny." He chided before giving you a kiss, "We all really, really, like you, you know that right?" He asked and noticed your hesitation.
"Sure, but people can be sexually attracted to me and not want to… be with me." You spoke wistfully, "People can like me and not want to be with me." You let out a humorless laugh, "And few things make me feel as dumb as getting my hopes up for no reason." Although you had a tendency to do it time and time again.
"Don't be scared to assume we want you as much as you, hopefully, want us." He spoke quickly before he planted another kiss on you and the affection made you smile.
"You realize the irony of the statement coming from you, right?" You chuckled as he helped you stand on shaky legs before just carrying you, "I cum once for you and all of sudden you know everything and are all confident." You chided, unsure how to process his words yet, mind hazy from your orgasm.
"What can I say? You opened my third eye." He joked and you rolled your eyes before leaning your head on his shoulder, enjoying his embrace, the idea of your housemates loving you back seeming just slightly less like an outlandish fantasy, "Although, it will wear off and then we'll have to do it all over again." He sighed dramatically and you giggled.
"What a shame." You fake gasped, "I hate engaging in sexual relations with hot guys." You complained sarcastically.
"So you do think I'm hot!" Jimin cheered triumphantly.
You laughed against him and realized the only times you felt so free were with your beloved housemates. You wondered if they felt the same. You also found a more insecure part wondering for how long they would feel that way. How long would it be until a girl, or several, much prettier than you or less needy catches their attention. You wondered if you could take the pain of watching the sincerity drain from their eyes just as you've seen in your mom, your dad, your uncle, your first relationship to your last. You wondered what it was about you that made it so easy to be left behind.
Jimin's phone pinged, ripping you from your melancholic thoughts. He sighed, pulling it out and you fought the urge to see if it was another person vying for his romantic attention. He didn't belong to you, even if you wanted him to, "Ah, Namjoon wants to know if you want the demo for the new zombie game he's working on and Jin wants to know if you'd like your first pick of the new stickers he got, and Hoseok wants to try a new hairstyle on you and ah, they all sent me something to ask you…. Gosh, they all think I'm your secretary when we're together." He whined and you held onto him tighter with a light laugh as he went through everyone's inquiries for you.
You also found yourself how you went on this long without them and how you could even consider hesitating if they asked you to stay with them for much longer.
Tip Jar
#yandere bts#bts au#bts fanfic#bts smut#jimin smut#park jimin#yandere jimin#yandere bts smut#yandere smut#the household bts
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I've been seeing a lot of discourse posts about exile today (both from you and others!) and while I def agree that exile is being handled SO poorly and it's really frustrating, what's the context behind recent stuff?? did something happen today that specifically related to exile? /gen question im just kinda confused lol
don't have many clips or anything rn.
but basically c!bbh did a lot of blaming c!tommy for things again, like breaking the statue he made him when he died, among other things, putting him on the same level or worse than c!schlatt or c!dream when he spoke?
and he did this while touring around new member cpk. most the fandom critical and discourse has been centered around this, because it's a pattern that keeps happening where the new members of the server keep getting told things like how c!tommy is awful, without people saying much about c!dream other than 'he did bad things'.
this is a problem of course because it leads to a bunch of new characters being given massively unreliable information and has led to a lot of the newer characters thinking c!dream is a good guy. which, mind you was fine the first few times! unreliable narration and information can spice up a story.
but it's becoming an issue when nearly every character is blaming the wrong person, new and old.
especially since so many have witnessed things dream has done first hand to harm others. although of course the cc!s wouldn't think c!dream is a good person, it keeps unintentionally pushing this narritive of victim blaming c!tommy for the shit he went through. 'well MAYBE he'll learn a lesson this time!' when time and time again he's suffered and not learned anything.
and like, so this is a problem because you would have people like... like c!eryn! who for a long while thought maybe dream was a good guy, and thought building shrines to him around would for some reason help tommy, not realizing the extent of things dream did to him. luckily, he and other characters like c!michael have gotten some information for this to change.
but there are still new and old characters that ignore information they've been given, so people are just really frustrated that some things like c!tommy's abuse, ptsd, and trauma is used against him constantly, regardless of whether he 'deserves' it or not, and by introducing more characters or at least explaining to them that he's 'awful', and this keeps happening... its frustrating. especially since, at least during the hiatus thats sort of been going on throughout most of 2021 and 2022, where content isnt being created as much as say, 2020, it means these characters that start off hating tommy because they're being misinformed, don't really get the development to learn otherwise? and most likely won't.
its just this trope on the dsmp at this point. what can you do with your character when you join? make a list! past trauma? sure! friendship with other members? yep! hate tommy? that one too.
even if it's utterly unwarranted. there are characters that have their dislike of him, for one reason or another, such as jack manifold, and their hatred or anger is valid, however they also don't go around saying that maybe he deserves to continue to go through pain or abuse, or at the very least they also recognize that dream is much much worse.
so... the discourse stems from this, and talk of stuff like this has simply brought up other things in a sort of similar talking vein, that there's been discourse about before.
things like how almost every character on the dream smp, who was on it at the time, showed up to the final disc confrontation. they saw dream with his axe poised to kill tubbo. they were seconds away from walking in on a murder scene. they also saw the bunker. they saw his plan to steal everyone's most valuable pets and loved ones. even a cage to put skeppy in.
they see all this, they hear dream is the one to have sam make the prison, and once he's weak they nearly all agree to put him into it.
not only that, they saw him bomb a country down to bedrock. they saw that, even in prison, he murdered tommy, they mourned the kid! would talk about how fucked up he is. but then tommy came back and....
the only things they can say when new people enter the server and ask "why is dream in prison?" "he did some bad things."
the only characters really exempt from this are eret, sapnap, and captain puffy.
whatever the reason for this is, leads to all the stuff stated above, where for some reason tommy has become this scategoat for everyones problems, even things caused by characters like dream, and it gets so bad as some characters saying maybe he needs to have his trauma used against him so he 'learns something this time', when its been proven that never works. all it does is make him panic and lash out.
the only times c!tommy has ever learned anything, is when he's talked to. when someone explains why he cant do something. if someone kindly asks him to give something back, or says they're upset about something he's destroyed, and just... talks to him like you would any human being, he feels bad. he's apologized. he usually tries to make it right if he's able.
and that is consistent in happening yet.... for some reason its just easier for characters to go "i hate that guy" without any rhyme or reasoning, and for new characters to look at people like c!dream, a murderer and abuser known by many, be told he's just 'kinda bad' and go 'well maybe he's misunderstood', and very rarely be told different.
there's a lot of different reasons people are upset over this, yknow.
anyway, sorry anon for getting to this a bit late!
'
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I'm a Chinese, nationally and racially. Racial projection seems to be a common practice in western fandom, doesn't it? I find it a bit... weird to witness the drama ignited upon shipping individuals with different races, or the tendency to separate characters into different "colors" even though the world setting doesn't divide races like that. Such practice isn't a thing here. Mind explaining a bit on this phenomenon?
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Sure, I can try. But of course, fish aren’t very good at explaining the water they swim in.
Americans aren’t good at detecting our own Americanness, and a lot of what you’re seeing is very much culturally American rather than Western in general. (In much of Europe, “race” is a concept used by racists, or so I’m told, unlike in the US where it’s seen more neutrally.) Majority group members (i.e. me, a white girl) aren’t usually the savviest about minority issues, but I’ll give it a shot.
The big picture is that most US race stuff boils down to our attempts to justify and maintain slavery and that dynamic being applied, awkwardly, to everyone else too, even years after we abolished slavery.
There’s a concept called the “one drop rule” where a person is “black” if they have even one drop of black blood.
We used to outlaw “interracial” marriage until quite recently. (That meant marriage between black people and white people with Asians and Hispanic people and others wedged in awkwardly.) Here’s the Wikipedia article on this, which contains the following map showing when we legalized interracial marriage. The red states are 1967.
That’s within living memory for a ton of people! Yellow is 1948 to 1967. This is just not very long ago at all. (Hell, we only fully banned slavery in 1865, which is also just not that long ago when it comes to human culture.)
Why did we have this bananas-crazy set of laws and this idiotic notion that one remote ancestor defines who you are? It boils down to slavery requiring a constant reaffirming that black people are all the same (and subhuman) while white people are all this completely separate category. The minute you start intermarrying, all of that breaks down. This was particularly important in our history because our system of slavery involved the kids of slaves being slaves and nobody really buying their way out. Globally, historically, there are other systems of slavery where there was more mobility or where enslaved people were debtors with a similar background to owners, and thus the people in power were less threatened by ambiguity in identity.
Post-slavery, this shit hung around because it was in the interests of the people in power to maintain a similar status quo where black people are fundamentally Other.
A lot of our obsession with who counts as what is simply a legacy of our racist past that produced our racist present.
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The other big factor in American concepts of identity is that we see ourselves as a nation of immigrants (ignoring our indigenous peoples, as usual). A lot of people’s families arrived here relatively recently, and we often don’t have good records of exactly where they were from, even aside from enslaved people who obviously wouldn’t have those records. Plenty of people still identify with a general nationality (”Italian-American” and such), but the nuance the family might once have had (specific region of Italy, specific hometown) is often lost. Yeah, I know every place has immigrants, and lots of people don’t have good records, but the US is one of those countries where families have on average moved around a lot more and a lot more recently than some, and it affects our concepts of identity. I think some of the willingness to buy into the idea of “races” rather than “ethnicities” has to do with this flattening of identity.
New immigrant groups were often seen as Other and lesser, but over time, the ones who could manage it got added to our concept of “whiteness”, which gave them access to those same social and economic privileges.
Skin color is a big part of this. In a system that is founded on there being two categories, white owners and black slaves, skin color is obviously going to be about that rather than being more of a class marker like it is in a lot of the world.
But it’s not all about skin color since we have plenty of Europeans with somewhat darker skin who are seen as generically white here, while very pale Asians are not. I’m not super familiar with all of the history of anti-Asian racism in the US, but I think this persistent Otherness probably boils down to Western powers trying to justify colonial activities in Asia plus a bunch of religious bullshit about predominantly Christian nations vs. ones that are predominantly Buddhist or some other religion.
In fact, a lot of racist archetypes in English can be traced back to England’s earliest colonial efforts in Ireland. Justifying colonizing Those People because they’re subhuman and/or ignorant and in need of paternalistic rulers or religious conversion is at the bottom of a lot of racist notions. Ironic that we now see Irish people as clearly “white”.
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There are a lot of racist porn tropes and racist cultural baggage here around the idea of black people being animalistic. Racist white people think black men want to rape/steal white women from white men. Black women get seen as hypersexual and aggressive. If this sounds like white people projecting in order to justify murder and rape... well, it is.
Similar tropes get applied to a lot of groups, often including Hispanic and Middle Eastern people, though East Asians come in more for creepy fantasies about endlessly submissive and promiscuous women. This nonsense already existed, but it was certainly not helped by WWII servicemen from here and their experiences in Asia. Again, it’s a projection to justify shitty behavior as what the party with less power was “asking for”.
In porn and even romance novels, this tends to turn up as a white character the audience is supposed to identify with paired with an exotic, mysterious Other or an animalistic sexy rapist Other.
A lot of fandoms are based on US media, so all of our racist bullshit does apply to the casting and writing of those, whether or not the fic is by Americans or replicating our racist porn tropes.
(Obviously, things get pretty hilarious and infuriating once Americans get into c-dramas and try to apply the exact same ideas unchanged to mainstream media about the majority group made by a huge and powerful country.)
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Politically, within the US, white people have had most of the power most of the time. We also make up a big chunk of the population. (This is starting to change in some areas, which has assholes scared shitless.) This means that other groups tend to band together to accomplish shared political goals. They’re minorities here, so they get lumped together.
A lot of Americans become used to seeing the world in terms of “white people” who are powerful oppressors and “people of color” who are oppressed minorities. They’re trying to be progressive and help people with less power, and that’s good, but it obviously becomes awkward when it’s over-applied to looking at, say, China.
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Now... fandom...
I find that fandom, in general, has a bad habit of holding things to double standards: queer things must be Good Representation™ even when they’re not being produced for that purpose. Same for ethnic minorities or any other minority. US-influenced parts of fandom (which includes a lot of English-speaking fandom) tend to not be very good at accepting that things are just fantasy. This has gotten worse in recent years.
As fandom has gotten more mainstream here, general media criticism about better representation (both in terms of number of characters and in terms of how they’re portrayed) has turned into fanfic criticism (not enough fics about ship X, too many about ship Y, problematic tropes that should not be applied to ship X, etc.). I find this extremely misguided considering the smaller reach of fandom but, more importantly, the lack of barriers to entry. If you think my AO3 fic sucks, you can make an account and post other fic that will be just as findable. You don’t need money or industry connections or to pass any particular hurdle to get your work out there too.
People also (understandably) tend to be hypersensitive to anything that looks like a racist porn trope. My feeling is that many of these are general porn tropes and people are reaching. There are specific tropes where black guys are given a huge dick as part of showing that they’re animalistic and hypersexual, but big dicks are really common in porn in general. The latter doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing the former unless there are other elements present. A/B/O or dubcon doesn’t mean it’s this racist trope either, not unless certain cliched elements are present. OTOH, it’s not hard for a/b/o tropes to feel close to “animalistic guy is rapey”, so I can see why it often bothers people.
A huge, huge, huge proportion of wank is “all rape fantasies are bad” crap too, which muddies the waters. I think a lot of people use “it’s racist” as an easy way to force others to agree with their incorrect claims that dubcon, noncon, a/b/o, etc. are fundamentally bad. Many fans, especially white fans, feel like they don’t know enough to refute claims of racism, so they cave to such arguments even when they’re transparently disingenuous.
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Not everyone here thinks this way. I know plenty of people offline, particularly a lot of nonwhite people, who think fandom discourse is idiotic and that the people “protecting” people or characters of color are far more racist than the people writing “bad” fic or shipping the wrong thing.
But in general, I’d say that the stuff above is why a lot of us see the world as white people in power vs. everyone else as oppressed victims, interracial relationships as fraught, and porn about them as suspect. Basically, it’s people trying to be more progressive and aware but sometimes causing more harm than good when those attempts go awry.
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I think people may have gotten the wrong idea about what is and isn’t appropriate to talk about when speaking negatively about ships, and I apologize if I made anyone feel like their opinions weren’t valid or welcome.
It is totally reasonable and understandable to be upset about how Yams completely botched the Ackerman mythology and his handling of relationships in SNK, but there’s a big difference between complaining about Yams’ writing vs. the ship or the shippers itself. Generally, if you have to post negatively about another ship, you should make all possible efforts to keep that post out of the tags of that ship, ideally putting the negativity behind a cut so people don’t have to scroll through it.
It’s okay to post about:
being pissed off at the lack of Ackertalk
wanting Rivamika to be canon, and being disappointed that it’s not
parallels between Levi and Mikasa being ignored
why Rivamika is a great couple
why Rivamika endgame makes more sense to you than other ships (while abbreviating those ship names to make sure the post stays out of their tags)
ships that do not make sense or seem toxic to you (again, while keeping it out of the tags)
being attacked by other ships when you have proof that hate is coming out of a certain ship (out of the tags)
making fun of anti-shippers who attacked you first (in my eyes that’s fair game since they came to you; starting fights is not cool but ending them is acceptable)
Yams being a bad writer
Kawakubo and other editors meddling with the story
wheelchair seggs go brrr (it’s funny, not to mention that people who use mobility aids can and do have full, satisfying sex lives and it’s ableist to insist otherwise)
It’s not okay to:
post about why a ship sucks without abbreviating or altering the ship name in some way so it doesn’t show up in their tags
message people with anti bullshit or otherwise troll and harass them
make accusations about other ships/shippers that relates their preferred ship to how they are in real life (saying someone is toxic, supports abuse, incest, pedophilia, etc. because of their OTP)
insist that canon ships are more valid that non-canon ships
dedicate a blog solely dedicated to hating a person or ship (that’s more for your own mental health than anything else; it’s not healthy to focus on the negative all the time)
It’s perfectly fine to hate certain pairings, have “problematic” opinions, be pissed off, and want to rant. The issue is that there’s a time and a place for that: group chats, private messages to shippers who you know side with you, or placing your salt (with ship names removed) behind a cut, like I’ve done below. Otherwise you run the risk of alienating or hurting the feelings of your fellow shippers, whether they’re from another ship or multishippers from your same ship.
I also think there’s a limit to what kind of negative stuff you should post. Valid criticism is okay, being intentionally inflammatory is not. For example, the other day I made a joke in a private group chat about EM being bestiality and necrophilia as a play on RMs being accused of loving pedophilia and abuse. (Obviously I do not actually believe that, but in that chat the context is different since I’m with close friends who have literally received death threats from EMs for shipping RM and EH.) However, I wouldn’t say that on here except for this limited context: to illustrate the kind of intentionally inflammatory thing I would not normally post and to point out that I also say shitty things, I just try to keep them out of the general discourse.
Lastly, if you want to be extra courteous, you can also include a warning with your post and throw it behind a cut, so you can write something salty without stepping on any toes. (Here be complaints about my issues with JK endgame.)
I think a JK ending sucks almost as bad as an EM ending, narratively speaking, because of the same completely unrequited love → ??? → mutual love progression. I always headcanoned Jean as having moved on from Mikasa because of this clearly one-sided crush, and without further context I don’t like the idea of them being in an endgame relationship. To me, it feels like Mikasa is settling for Jean in the absence of Eren and that Jean’s feelings have regressed. (I know there’s some speculation that Eren sent Jean a paths-memory of him being married to Mikasa but that just creeps me out, like Eren went over Mikasa’s head to choose a partner for her.) I don’t mind JK as a couple — I actually shipped it before the forest scene with Levi — but it just doesn’t sit well with me in canon as it stands, considering that Mikasa has never been shown to reciprocate Jean’s feelings.
This is part of a larger complaint with the way Yams handles romance generally, by smashing two characters together with literally no romantic development between them. I’d probably have this complaint about any endgame couple short of RM, but that’s also my shipper bias talking.
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Harley Quinn anon here;
It's seems they were both targeting both the writer and the bi person around the same time the whole 'Ivy is a lesbian' discourse started, it just happens the bi person was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It just one of those thing that got blown out of proportion (as always on the internet).
I guess the people angry at the writer maybe got too involved with the DC alternate universe comic DC Bombshells where they made a few characters lesbian instead of their current canon sexuality? (I'm trying to figure out why a bi character existing isn't the right type of 'gay' for some so called fans)
I do agree with you on the Winn side of things
In regards to the Supercorp thing;
The other shows made by CW are absolutely terrible at writing romances for both het couples and lgbt couples (Riverdale). And in general their overall storytelling is rushed and rarely consistent with with their characters (*coughs* Kara being capable of kicking her cousin's arse *coughs*).
So as much as I love Supercorp, I know the CW would just make it shit as the show is now (thank god for fanfics)
Lar Gand aka Mon El and tv Mon El aren't the same person in a lot of ways. Same with Maggie Sawyer; in the comics she's a divorced lesbian with a kid. They've kept some of his hot headedness but really, as someone commented on the previous ask, he is Superman's Dick Grayson.... up until the rebirth canon... they did the Legions real dirty including my boy Lar
Hell even in the recent comic canon (not rebirth) on Prime Earth Lena Luthor is a decent person (she hasn't committed crimes unlike her alt earth), though I think she has cancer or something? I'll double check that
Anyway, I guess I'm just annoyed about the petty bullshit and just how the CW has handled all of their DC content.
It's an unnecessary shit show during a pandemic :/
We love cancel culture... It's beautiful, how people take htings out of context and blow thing out of proportion to hate on the others and even don't give them space to learn things or dunno, change their minds or simply having different opinion that still can be correct.
I remember the Bombshells and them making some version of Kara lesbian and dating Lois and that was used as a proof sc endgame. That were the easy years.
I don't watch other shows, so I don't know. Sometimes i see Avalance on my dash and most people are happy about them, but some complain. You can't make everyone happy, I guess. But I have zero knwoledge about other CW shows (minus SPN, LOOOL)
But you know, CW in general sucks in the shipping and couples department. Is there a show that made them right?
As for the storytelling, especially in SG, I blame Jessica and Rowner (Rovner? too lazy to check). They both had zero knowledge or LOVE for comic books and it shows. Gossip Girl Woman should have not have been involved in a show based on comic books, end of story. They seriously have no idea what to do with KARA, not only every other charcter.
On the other hand Kara kicking Kal's ass was in AK's era (fuck him very much). Am I the only one annoyed how Kara's biggest strenght is her personality, compassion etc? And that her physical strenght is important and yay for kickng asses, but that's not the core of her strenght???
Yeah, I know they fucked up Mon Mon and he is not like his comic book selves, but I still I enjoyed him very much. Still annoyed how they erased his allergy easily, because him struggling with health is one of his nice flaws in the comic, ignored the Daxam - Krypton issues and made it "Daxam bad, Krypton good" thingy and erased his historian-engineering kinks? Plus, Imra???? I can't imagine being a comic book fan and not breathing fire.
The worst thing is Chris would absoulutely NAILED that Mon-El TT
Somewhere she was decent but on wheelchair, I think and of course we could have not gotten that.
I think you are not teh only one.
It did, and I feel you. Also, it's super nice to exchange thoughts with not typically butthurt sc stan here, so thanks :D
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Sorry, but [REDACTED] Doesn’t Matter
Spoilers for Persona 3 after October and the ending, and for P4 and P5 “choice moments” or endings
I’m keeping this intro very vague just in case this pops up for someone who hasn’t gotten to this point in the game, or beaten it, but I will go into full spoilers mode under the cut. To give the most basic overview of what this is, it pertains to the loss of a party member in Persona 3.
Now with that over with, welcome to me complaining about a really big issue I have with the whole debate between saving Shinji or letting him die.
Whenever this debate comes up, the number one complaint against the option to let him live is that it “goes against the meaning of the game.” Personally, I find this claim to be untrue for two major reasons. One is that I don’t think it really goes against the meaning of the game in the first place, and also that the game does a very bad job at...making any difference between the two at all?
For my first point, I’ll clarify what I believe the meaning of the game to be. Obviously there are tones of death, and moving past death. However, I don’t believe the message is just “Everyone will die one day, and we need to accept that.” The message is “Everyone will die one day, so we need to make the most of our lives.” This is why Akihiko and Ken find their resolve, because Shinji is gone but they can still continue living their lives for him. This is why SEES continues to live their life to the fullest, because it is what the MC allowed for when they sacrificed themselves. I’m not sure how some people seemed to miss this, or maybe they just didn’t make the same connection, but it seems like it would be hard to miss.
The reason that saving Shinji’s life does not go against this message is because he will still one day die, probably still young because of the drugs, so he still has time to live his life to the fullest. Perhaps you could connect it in a certain way that he is also living for the MC, because they saved his life. The fact that he didn’t die does not take away from the weight that he was willing to die, and thought he would, by saving Ken. It could even go to show that even if you are ready to die, and you somehow get a second chance, that second chance should not be squandered.
That being said, I find the second reason to be a bigger issue for me personally. Before I played P3P, I knew it was possible to save Shinji. I played the Male route first where you cannot save him, so I experienced his death. While I liked the impact, I decided to see the other side of the coin and saved him in my FeMC playthrough. When I actually got to the point where this happened, I was legitimately shocked by how....meaningless it all was?
What I mean by meaningless is that outside of the different scene with Akihiko mourning over his hospital bed instead of the tribute, and the very end of the game where one person who is optional to talk to who says Shinji woke up from his coma (also the NG+ scene but that’s only if it’s NG+ and you romanced him), all of the dialogue is the absolute same. Don’t get me wrong, the two mourning scenes do have a different “feel” to them and are both executed well, but legitimately there are no difference outside of those 2/3 instances, and 2 of those 3 are completely miss-able. Everyone else acts like he is dead. I don’t know how Atlus messed up so bad with not changing any of the dialogue (which is not even voice acted most of the time), but I’m guessing that they just didn’t want to spend the time on it. Even after one quick search on google, I found another person who asked if they actually saved him because everyone was talking the same.
As I mentioned earlier, I knew it was possible to save him and I also knew it was kind of a divisive topic in the fandom, so after figuring out the real “impact” of saving him I was....so confused. I thought “All of that discourse, over nothing?” I at least suspected that maybe the group would visit him, or he would show up in the base game at the end (not NG+ scene), or at the very least Akihiko or Ken would talk about him as if he was still alive, but nah there’s nothing like that. Obviously the player knows he survived and can imagine maybe what the rest of his life will be, but the game does a shit job at actually making the choice mean anything. Both scenes with Akihiko talking to him are sad and impactful, and the dialogue with Ken’s resolution doesn’t change in the slightest. Honestly, like I said outside of those 2/3 possible scenes, I see absolutely nothing to gain in doing one over the other unless you want to see Akihiko cry in an auditorium or in a hospital room.
On top of all of this, there is also the sentiment that this person wrote, and I believe many others also agree with (in relation to FeMC and P3P. I took out the rest of the post because it wasn’t relevant to this topic at all).
Now, they didn’t elaborate much on this, but after what I just said about how the game doesn’t really make any changes at all and sorting out the “meaning of the game” I’d be really interested to see what their reasoning is. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine how this “literally ruins Akihiko and Ken” when their dialogue, cutscenes, and growth are 99.9% the same. That part alone is a bit frustrating, but what really gets me is how they don’t like the FeMC at all (or p3p, which was said earlier in another comment by them) because she can do this optional choice?
Obviously, anyone can dislike choices that are optional in a game. That’s just how it goes if you have multiple ways of doing things. Some you’ll like, and some you wont. However, why is it that basically every time I see someone say they don’t like the FeMC it’s because of a choice in the game and not something about her actual character? I really can’t stress enough how insane it is (to me) that people cannot disconnect what you as the player can choose in a game from the actual character. Because, do you know....believe it or not...there are people who play the FeMC route and don’t save Shinji? Or don’t romance Ken? Baffling, I know!
Is the FeMC somehow a better character if Shinji still dies or Ken isn’t romanced? Not to these people, I suppose. Somehow she’s still just as disliked, because the option was there in the first place. I honestly don’t know why this happens, but it’s also complete hypocrisy on their parts. Do they not like Yu for being able to murder Namatame? Or how about Joker, who can enslave all of Tokyo (the world? I don’t know if it’s made clear) if he accepts Yaldy’s deal? It’s very likely they still love those two, or at least one of them.
“But Casual, those don’t matter because they’re not canon!”
Neither is saving Shinji or romancing Ken, so kiss my ass :)
.
.
Anyway.
Just to make this clear, this post isn’t meant to bash people who dislike saving Shinji (or perhaps the implications of doing so) or dislike FeMC, but to point out how the game really takes none of this into consideration and that it’s a bit ridiculous for people to dislike FeMC for reasons that they seemingly don’t take into consideration for the other protagonists.
It’s kind of hard to put into words, but I’m just utterly baffled on how much trouble this causes when it’s really worth nothing. I can understand how people who only experienced his death could be affected, but only in the sense that they either think it goes against the “everyone will die” message and/or comprehend Shinji’s impact even after the game/story is over (which is done by their own volition and the game does not hint to at all).
However, at least as far as the game is concerned, both choices result in essentially the same outcome. Sorry, but Shinji’s death doesn’t matter (to the game).
#persona 3#persona 3 portable#p3p#persona 4#persona 5#persona series#shinjiro aragaki#akihiko sanada#ken amada#minako arisato#hamuko arisato#kotone shiomi#if you cant tell I'm passionate about this#also saving shinji or not are both valid choices#still wish the game cared though#literally the ??? meme when this happened in my second playthrough#thought to myself did I actually save him or what because they're talking like he's fucking dead#akihiko: oh I'd love to see shinji again#THEN JUST GO SEE HIM HE'S AT THE HOSPITAL
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Okay, I’m not sure if what I was trying to say in my last post was said very well.
I completely understand the tagging situation from the First Wave with the DC fans. That’s discourse that is mostly solved and we can’t do anything about those who are forever gonna be bitter or lazy. I’m not talking about that stuff.
The stuff I want to prevent/limit is the hate that comes after our fandom deliberately. And yes, I know I can’t stop it. None of us can stop bitter, antagonistic people from being bitter and antagonistic. None of us can stop people who just want to be angry.
I’m not talking about stopping them, though.
I’m talking about what we can do to protect ourselves as creators and consumers in this fandom. As people who love and appreciate what the creations and people in this fandom have to offer. In simplistic form, I’m saying we need to learn how to shield ourselves from bullies. And there are methods we can use to make ourselves less of a target to the people who go after us, and methods to cut their attacks off short. None of these methods are fool-proof, but they will work to filter out a good majority of the shit we would otherwise be showered by, like a big umbrella against Assholery. Sure, the wind might still blow some in our face and we might splash in a puddle or two by accident, but at least we aren’t soaked.
So let me list the various things that can help you shield yourself from hate/harassment/antis who might just be out to get you.
1) leave the fandom.
The most effective, but least attractive method possible. This is limited to being a last ditch effort, if things have just gotten too hard to handle. I’m covering it first though, because we have to acknowledge that it is a viable method. If you feel trapped, hated, bullied, I’m sure all of us in this fandom would prefer you take a break and leave us for a while in the sake of your own health and safety then stay where you are miserable. This is less of a problem for us though, because mostly this option is gonna be for fandoms where the discourse and attacks are internal. Maribat is largely a peaceful and supportive/healthy environment once you’re inside our little bubble, the main discourse comes from outside in. So let’s focus on the main point of this post— how to keep our bubble from popping.
2) Make it apparent right away that you are Unapologetic.
Whenever you post content or are approached by someone about the topic of your fandom, don’t you DARE ever apologize for liking what you like or posting unproblematic content. You need to make it clear right off the bat that you are not gonna be swayed, bullied, or shamed out of your fandom. Stand with pride and make it clear, but don’t be verbose about it. A simple “Don’t like, don’t read” is classic but sometimes if you’re posting/talking during a more confrontational period of the fandom, you need to up your game to reflect that. The funny thing is, people can easily be intimidated by swearing if it isn’t directed at them or clearly antagonistic. If you’re swearing in a joking, casual or even in a manner that shows you’re not taking yourself too seriously, people will usually avoid picking fights with you. For this, my favorite lines to use on my work include;
“Don’t like, I don’t fucking care. I fell down the rabbit hole.”
“Don’t bother reading if you’re not into this, this shit bitch-slapped me and dragged me along on it’s adventure.”
“I’m addicted to this fandom, don’t bother trying to save me. If it bothers you, I don’t give a fuck. Save yourselves.”
3) Don’t approach or interact
Unless someone comes at you first, never try to persuade someone away from hating us. That just makes you a target in an empty field, for the vultures to surround and gang up on. If someone approaches you with provocative but not overly insulting or intelligent language— I.e; trying to start a fight, vague insults not always relating to the fandom itself, trying to insult your character/judgement— do not respond. Delete the message, block the account, and surround yourself with fluffy good stuff to forget the wanna-be harasser. These people are often not brave enough to outright start a fight, and want you to get defensive first so they know the weak points in your armor to exploit. Defensive statements declare your own insecurities, don’t get defensive. It gives them a way to win without having to defend themselves or feel vulnerable— it’s like exploiting type differences in Pokémon. You wait for an unfamiliar Pokémon to expose it’s type, then snipe it with the moves it’s weak to. Then, you have a near sure-fire win even with under leveled Pokémon on your team.
Don’t be a proud Infernape that gets sniped by a weak-ass level 5 Piplup. We’re strong, don’t show them the chinks in our armor.
4) Have a support network. Even if they don’t know they are your support network.
The fandom as a whole serves this purpose, and this is mostly gonna be a tactic you use when the discourse is inside the fandom, but there can be uses for this in discourse from outside the fandom as well. If someone tries to act like they like your story/art “but...” they passive aggressively state things they “would prefer” or they try to make it sound like you made stupid mistakes (a tactic to make you insecure about yourself) instead of kindly pointing out errors or offering constructive criticism (ex: “you know you put your trigger list somewhere where it’s useless right? Love your story though.)—THESE ARE ALL PROVOCATIONS. They are trying to make you insecure so that you change things about yourself, your work, or jump through hoops to try to “make it up” to them when you did nothing wrong and there are no problems to fix. Do not fall for it! Instead, politely as possible, bring the issue into a public space where you feel safe/trust the people in that space to keep the bullshit from escalating. For me, I straight up explain my reasoning for the placement of my trigger list as if I’m advertising a particularly boring but important product that I’m selling, then offer places for them to bring the issue into a discussion with others. I send them to a discoed group or right here to my tumblr, and I immediately make the issue into a big discussion (do YOU think there is anything to change? Let’s ALL talk about it) so that I am no longer isolated and easy for them to harass. They might refuse to join the discussion and further try to pressure you, but do not cave. Merely say that a public discussion has been started, and if they are actually, legitimately concerned about the way you do things then they can debate it in a public setting. This way, you have back up. 9/10 people who try to target you this way will back off and never enter the conversation you started.
5) Do not fight back.
This sounds counterintuitive, but a lot of the time once discourse gets this bad, arguing/defending/ trying to prove your point only fuels their rage more. I have found that people hate very little in this world more than they hate being wrong. And people who hate being wrong will fight to the bitter death about their opinions, no matter how invalid or hurtful they are, in the favor of their blissful ignorance. Remove yourself from harmful discussions or those that seem to be going in circles as soon as possible, and try to surround yourself in your support group. Never let people make you feel stupid, your opinions illegitimate, or your likes/dislikes invalid or evil.
6) Try to learn how to recognize bullies in disguise
It’s too much for me to try to cover here, but you need to PLEASE look into how to spot gaslighting. Tactics of gaslighting are often used to attack others and try to make them feel like their own opinions are invalid or their mindset untrustworthy. People will often approach you in the guise of friendship/support/ “I am not into this, but...” and while this is not always a red flag, we have to keep our eyes open for any signs of this person or their approach being rooted in anything other than legitimate curiosity or kindness. Not all suggestions that say they are out of concern actually ARE. Keep an eye out for warning signs, and cut off interaction once things seem like they may lead to an argument or you being in a vulnerable position if you continue interacting.
(Brief mention of s**cide and threats in the section below)
7) If all else fails, BLOCK THEM.
No hesitation, we don’t need this shit. They make a second account? Block that too. Don’t respond, only take screenshots or reblog if it is directly harmful information that can/should be documented (words that encourage suicide, threats, insults that seem a little too specific for comfort) and give the evidence to someone you trust to look out for you. A therapist, a family member, or even the authorities if you deem that necessary. Just don’t handle it alone.
We are not responsible for other people’s actions, opinions, or anger. Take the steps to protect yourself instead of trying to reconcile. Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t an option. Both parties have to be willing to reconcile, and it is clear they have nothing in mind but hurting us. So raise your shields and protect yourself and your friends, we’re not gonna lose a war to petty jerks.
#tw: harassment#bully prevention#bullying prevention#steps to protect yourself#maribat#ml x dc#mlb x dc
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