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bellaaldamas · 22 days

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I just wanted to say, thank you and the other fans from this part of the GoW fandom.

In a place full of trolls and gamerbros who turn characters that they deem annoying into irredeemable, useless bitches (Freya, Angrboða) and characters they do like are reduced to either prize for someone (Thrúd, Sif and somehow, Freya again) or into their masculinity idol (Kratos, whom they only accept as the testosterone caricature godkiller and his development seen as creators turning him soft. This claim is at it's peak with Ragnarok, but it was there back in 2018 such as wanting Kratos to beat or even kill Atreus for "acting like a brat". What a horrible mindset!) - It's nice to have a side with people who are welcoming, creative and genuinely fun to interact with.

Your analyses - both fandom and in-game inputs - are a delight to read. They're beautifuly written, intelligent and well formulared, I always feel smarter after reading them.

Apologies if you prefer to discuss this in DMs, I wanted others to read this too.

I wish you a wonderful rest of your day/night 💛

Thank you so much for this message, this kind of feedback truly makes existing in this - and, admittedly, other fandoms - worth it. Your summary of my ramblings genuinely took me by surprise as I haven't been "conventionally" active in the fandom intentionally due to negative past experiences with other fandoms. Those occasional inputs I do come up with are mainly hastily written bursts in broken English.

I don't make a secret out of the fact that in my experience all fandoms, definitely not just Gow(R), are toxic to varying degrees due to trolls employing the very same tactic everywhere they go. For one, it's creating the illusion of dominance of their opinion in terms of quantity (as they have no arguments to back up their stance other than canon twisting nonsense they clearly realize that "quality" is not their strong suit). To attain that, they resort to a number of other tactics typically used by abusers both online and in real life.

As such, whenever trolls see intelligent and thoughtful people refuting their "points" they know they cannot come up with a single canon compliant rebuttal. Therefore they dog-pile in droves as to wear down the opponent who inevitably has to stop responding to them at some point. Because a logical person who dedicates time and thought to formulate an argument, fact checks and brings up evidence and quotes from the source material simply cannot withstand a wave of unhinged trolling coming at them left, right and center. They certainly cannot respond to each ridiculous one line statement of the trolls (such as the types of statements you bring up, in the vein of "Freya is a b1tch, she should've DyEd instead of He**d*all!!11!!") by typing out a thorough and researched response each time. As it would require not just spending hours on it but repeating themselves numerous times over.

The above behavior from trolls is what caused me personally a burnout from the fandom culture overall and led to my taking a distance. When I engage with people in online communities I tend to avoid blanket statements and try to always back up my points with examples from canon. Trolls don't need any of that and always dismiss those points or, at best, make it look like they acknowledge them (by quoting back). But instead of replying with canon facts they resort to Strawman Arguments or Ad Hominem.

In Gow(R) and other gaming fandoms there's also the matter of the trolls looking for "backup" in the form of big bloggers/reviewers who express, in some respects, a view of the plot and characters similar to them. Which trolls use as another "proof" their opinion is supposedly held by the majority. But the uncomfortable - for them and those reviewers - truth is that YouTube community (a cesspool of trolling as of now) represents hardly even 1 percentage of the general audience (one that pays actual money for the games). Which at most passively watches some of those videos, mainly when they have a click baiting title.

A prime example is that "viral" video with millions of views about Atreus supposedly "having a crush on Thrud". Looking at the comment section it becomes obvious that the people leaving humorous and lighthearted remarks don't take the video or the title statement seriously. Whereas the actual trolls who consider Atreus a "selfish little runt" (c) but somehow good enough to be a prize/reward for Thrud (whom they either sexualize or treat as their girlboss self insert); and who deny that Atreus and Angrboda is the only canon budding romance arc in the series are the same four or five people/nicknames. Who can be observed under other Atreus/Angrboda videos with their nonsense.

Furthermore, trolls actively participated in making the "Atreus and Thrud" piece viral in the comment section for at least one Atreus/Angrboda tribute video by mentioning the AT video and the amount of views it has. And openly insisting it somehow "proves that the fans want" Atreus and Thrud as a romantic arc for Atreus - the very same character they consider unworthy of being a secondary protagonist let alone becoming the main lead of the series or having his own spin off. But, as noted, they believe him to be acceptable enough to become a trophy man for their preferred girlboss.

That in turn brings us to another issue of male characters absolutely also being susceptible to objectification and being reduced to love interests and plot devices for female characters whom fandom minority treats as a part of their personal power fantasy. Atreus hating trolls originally didn't even deny they hated Angrboda "by association" with Atreus - thus even they initially admitted she was intended as his potential romantic partner by the narrative - because women to them are just men's extensions/accessories. But when they realized this argument makes it very easy to dismiss them for the bitter misogynists that they are they changed the tactic (also classic troll pattern) and started to distort canon in order to invent "arguments" to justify not just their Atreus hating but also their Angrboda hating stance.

To "warm up" they originally started calling Angrboda a "woke points character" which I cannot stress enough is utterly laughable when coming from Atreus/Thrud shippers. Because if there is a woke points or fan-service character in GowR it would be Thrud and Heimdall, respectively. They're the only ones who could be either removed entirely (Thrud) or replaced/have their screentime reduced to one or two scenes and the story would've been exactly the same. Thrud's Valkyrie aspirations have no influence on the plot whatsoever and are a complete filler. I'm saying this not because I dislike either of them but because it's an objective fact that smashes troll arguments flat.

Then there is the matter of the trolls being unable to stand the fact that interactions with Angrboda is Atreus's healthiest and most positive relationship in the story. It especially challenged them that Angrboda always valued Atreus's personal choices and didn't once question him (even when she disagreed with his train of action), his moral character or his right to take his own independent decisions (on the contrary, Thrud questioned his every move and deemed him untrustworthy the moment he made one, genuine mistake with Garm - and the trolls deemed it admirable because "finally someone put that little runt in place"; they don't actually ship Atreus and Thrud, they ship their own aggression and disdain towards Atreus projected onto Thrud).

Angrboda let Atreus exercise his agency (another troll nightmare as they cannot stand the very idea of Atreus having any) even when his actions went directly against her mother's words about the giant marbles or against the prophesy itself. That is, despite Angrboda considering the prophesy which killed both of her parents her lifeline. And believing that delivering said prophesy and the giant souls to Loki was her one and only mission in the existence full of loneliness (years of not speaking to another person, per Angrboda's own admission). As well as full of hard labor she had to engage in daily at a strikingly young age (purely out of love and sense of responsibility for every living thing in Ironwood) because there was no one around to help her (Atreus understandably expressed astonishment and admiration at that which Angrboda appreciated but - which is no less important - pointed out they're the same age; implying that she knows and acknowledges Atreus/Loki has gone through a lot himself and fared well). Even Angrboda's grandmother broke due to challenges that only made Angrboda more caring and compassionate.

Which is another point worth addressing about fandom culture because it tends to put down gentle and vulnerable girls and women as "unfeminist". Modern "feminism" has little to do with woman empowerment or rights and is a repackaged patriarchy that praises women/female characters as strong and independent only when they take the aggressor and conqueror mantle from a man.

Kratos fell a victim of a similar thinking on part of both the gamebro AND the "progressive" segment of the fandom. I realize Tumblr is not ready yet for that conversation, but masculinity is not inherently toxic and neither is femininity. What both gamebros and woke types cannot handle is that Kratos's development and Angrboda's character represent the type of masculinity and femininity, respectively, that isn't imposed on them by the sexist society but that is based completely on their free will and life experience. Moreover, Thrud is the one who was heavily influenced by the toxic environment she grew up in. Therefore considering her a "feminist icon" is both factually wrong and unwise (even if we discount her "treacherous ex wife" comment in regards to Freya because that was ALSO a part of Odin's toxic influence that she can now, hopefully, work through and move on from).

But the most delightful part is that none of those troll views and arguments have proven to matter at all. GowR developers went on to do literally every single thing trolls dreaded. Freya was not made into a "big bad b!tch who deserved to be killed by Kratos for being a less than perfect mother" (even though not only was Kratos the furthest thing from the father of the year in Gow18 but as you note, the very same people wouldn't object to physical violence against Atreus at his hands). Kratos continued to work towards healthier existence and carving a better path. Angrboda remained an emotionally mature, loving, caring and independent person with a potential of her relationship with Atreus going further in the following installments. Atreus is clearly set up to have his own spin off or remain a secondary protagonist or even become the main protagonist next game. That in and of itself is a prime example of how irrelevant trolls and their entitled demands are in the grand scheme of things.

That being said, as I always point out, we should keep in mind we cannot control media we consume, only our experience with it. A healthy emotional distance from it is the only way to avoid stress if/when the writers come up with decisions we might not like or find offensive. Mental well being should be our priority and media created by others should never define us.

Thank you again for this positive and inspiring message. Have a great and fulfilling time yourself <3

#reply #countlessofvoids #text

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mysillylittleseerblog · 1 year

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Valhalla is not heaven, and other reasons fascists are dumb dumbs.

The utterly, bewildering, so funny it's depressing thing about neo n@z1s and blanc enthusiasts being so fucking quick to appropriate Norse iconography as a symbol of their "proud heritage" is that they consistently demonstrate a grasp on Norse Mythology as deep as the Marvel Cinematic Universe does. Not a dig on the MCU, but, let's just say creative liberties is an understatement when it comes to representing Norse Mythology.

The primary point of interest boils down basically to the concept of the "exhalted warrior death." As fascism is the ideology of hero worship, on a surface level, this makes sense. Old Norse Culture was one largely defined by conflict and vikinging as a trade.

Many Norse beliefs are shaped by, designed to inspire and exhalt the warrior who fights without fear. Their society in part relied on "the hero warrior."

Couple things though:

1. Not all Norsemen were vikings, and you REALLY aren't one.

You think the Norse belief system was so heavily lazer focused on a single profession in what needed to be an entire functioning community everyone that wasn't a viking was poopooed to damnation and/or a dishonorable life? No bitch. "Hel" in Norse mythology is just where the dead ARE. It's a very morally neutral place to be. Hel be vibin'. Odin, Freya, and possibly Njord were collecting souls for a very specific reason. That being . . .

2. The souls of warriors were being brought to Valhalla (among other places) to train for a final battle THEY WERE DESTINED TO LOSE.

Y'all fucking forgot about Ragnorok didn't you? The souls in Valhalla are being conscripted to a suicide mission. It's a place of honor to be chosen, but it's not a reward.

The training is apparently honestly a bitch in a half in it of itself supposedly. I guess you get god mead, though. Sit next to Odin at the big boy table, maybe. An afterlife of pain and awaiting doom for beer and for daddy to notice you.

That's the thing, though. Valhalla isn't supposed to be Heaven. It aligns with many other Norse Myths in that it exhalts to bravery in the face of certain annihilation. Valhalla as a function of beleif designed to psychologically break past the human instinct to prioritize self-preservation. The quality in which it exhalts is not the hero's death, but embracing doom. THAT'S WHY Odin chose warriors who died WITH WEAPON IN HAND, as in, they already faced one destruction, they can face another.

The army of Valhalla weren't even the only deaths of honor Odin recognized one could achieve. The Volva were all very much in Hel once they died, and they are all distinguished as Odin's special little future-seeing squad in the mythos too. And that's JUST Odin, ignoring the other gods who chose souls for their armies.

Norse mythology, ironically to the point of head-exploading farce, spits in the face of the concept of the Hero's Death as defined by fascism. "Dying for the cause" is a Christian/Abrahamic value that they are retroactively interjecting into Norse belief because historical self-insert fanfiction that is the Arian Mythos. There's no fucking point in training and fighting in Ragnorok, everyone is destined to fail, everyone knows it, and that's the fucking point.

The concept of Ragnorok and Valhalla was not even universal among the Norsemen. The inevitability of death and rebirth is just kind of a given as a natural truth in most pagan beliefs. Everyone you know and love is going to die, and then something else will come from the ashes. Literally "chill bro it be like that sometimes."

And if that's not enough to convince you fascists don't actually know shit about Norse mythology, I can tell you all about how fucking gay it is.

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proxylynn · 8 months

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Which character is unreasonably oh so awfully misunderstood without a doubt in your mind?

[Ares. Greek God of brutal warfare, courage, and the spirit of battle. He usually represents the distasteful aspects of brutal warfare and slaughter. Ares was never very popular, and his worship was not extensive in Greece. But something most don't recognize about this disliked brute is...unlike most other immortals in his family, he is the most passionate and protective son of a bitch you will even find among the Gods. This is a god that begets the first trial among the gods for what he did.

The Areopagus ("mount of Ares"), a natural rock outcrop in Athens, some distance from the Acropolis, was supposedly where Ares was tried and acquitted by the gods for his revenge-killing of Poseidon's son, Halirrhothius, who had raped Ares' daughter Alcippe.

In Homer's Iliad, Ares has no fixed allegiance. He promises Athena and Hera that he will fight for the Achaeans but Aphrodite persuades him to side with the Trojans. During the war, Diomedes fights Hector and sees Ares fighting on the Trojans' side. Diomedes calls for his soldiers to withdraw. Zeus grants Athena permission to drive Ares from the battlefield. Encouraged by Hera and Athena, Diomedes thrusts his spear at Ares. Athena drives the spear home, and all sides tremble at Ares's cries. Ares flees to Mount Olympus, forcing the Trojans to fall back. Ares overhears that his son Ascalaphus has been killed and wants to change sides again, rejoining the Achaeans for vengeance, disregarding Zeus's order that no Olympian should join the battle. Athena stops him. Later, when Zeus allows the gods to fight in the war again, Ares attacks Athena to avenge his previous injury. Athena overpowers him by striking him with a boulder.

Cycnus (Κύκνος) of Macedonia was a son of Ares who tried to build a temple to his father with the skulls and bones of guests and travelers. Heracles fought him and, in one account, killed him. In another account, Ares fought his son's killer but Zeus parted the combatants with a thunderbolt.

Ares is many things. He is a rage. He is stubborn. He is simple. He is flawed. But Ares is a God who will not stand by when his kids need him. He will even go so far as to disobey his father, the King of the Gods Zeus, if it means to defend/avenge his children. And I fucking love him for that. More need to see him for this aspect of his character.]

#ask op #Ares #Greek Gods

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rutadales · 11 months

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Honestly that c!Dream & c!Foolish (& c!Sam) convo is one of the best things I've ever seen. A gift from the heavens. It makes me very happy to see it being talked about and I would love if you talked about it more 😁 (feed me.)

OHHHH where to start....

I gotta rewatch that stream sometime and just break everything down line by line but for now something that always sticks out to me is how cdream talks about cfoolish and the power he supposedly holds. Long post ahead

Dream says that he wasn't sure Foolish or the vacation home was real, that the premise of "incredibly powerful person with incredible wealth living peacefully in an incredible land" is inherently unbelievable. He thought Foolish, and his home, was a myth. Which, I think Dream says for two reasons, the primary one being to provoke Foolish. Needle him into potentially giving too much away. He also does this when he calls Foolish "quackity's bitch" before ultimately changing tactics. The second one being, Dream genuinely can't believe something like that exists. Probably more in a "something sinister is hiding beneath it all" way. Foolish and everything he represents is too good to be true.

Foolish is also completely able to hold his own verbally against Dream. This isn't Dream completely powerless in the prison or Dream naive to how people manipulate conversations, this is Dream at his peak when it comes to controlling an interaction. The whole set-up is at Dream's behest. He chose to go there to talk to Foolish. He picked the location, the time, and the other party. Foolish should be playing defense, and for the most part he is. He's just reacting to Dream's confrontation.

Keep in mind that this conversation is also just a power play against cSam. Calling them friends, ordering him around, practically daring Sam to even try to treat Dream how he did as the Warden. It's all very intentional. A lot of this is to show Sam that Dream is free, and he can go anywhere he wants, even to Sam's peaceful friend who hasn't hurt anyone. And he can tell Sam's friend exactly what Sam did, and there's nothing Sam can do to stop it. The single most lasting part of this conversation is the damage it does to Sam and Foolish's relationship. They are never the same after this. I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain this is their last canon interaction, at the very least it's one of their last.

(quick sidebar; foolish is the one Sam went to to vent about the prison, to talk about how hard it is!! foolish went from "you're a good man" to "everyone is a scumbag" I AM GNAWING AT THE WALLLS OHHH MY GOD)

But, even though Foolish is playing defense here, he instantly plays at Dreams speed. He's very quick to levee what dream's done against him while at the same time doing what almost no one has done: listen. Foolish is receptive to what Dream is saying, and isn't shutting him down on principle. I think this is something only Foolish could have done; something I've said before and will say a million times is Foolish has this incredible capacity for forgiveness and kindness in a way that no one else on the server has. He's incredibly lenient and incredibly docile. He never hits first, and never without provocation. Foolish also has no history with Dream, unlike Sapnap or Tommy or Bad or anyone else Dream could have come in contact with. He's also stronger and more present than any of the other newcomers. Keep in mind Foolish joined, and then literally the next day Dream was in jail. He just missed him.

All this to say that conversation is basically this perfect storm, both giving and conceding more than they'd like and both taking what they really want. Foolish: a potential way to avoid death, Dream: a potential safeguard against quackity. The whole thing is like a game of chess, so strategic. If giving more time, I really think there lore could have gone some awesome places. Again, dream and foolish both fear the finality of death and both had ways to circumvent it. Foolish would have gone a long with the Plan I just know it.... Alas 😔

#c!droolish #c!dream #c!foolish #dreblr #root talks #long post #ask #got rambly but oughskfogi THEY DRIVE ME NUTS #THIS CONVO MAKES ME WANT TO EXPLODE OHHHH MY GOD #c!sam #hiiii pookie it's been a minute I love u my absolute scumbag <- me to csam #Also when it first happened I got multiple dms and pings from the cdrm server I'm in letting me know 😭😭 it was so sweet

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jyndor · 9 months

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you get me, cassian andor gets us both, we are all vibing with each other it’s beautiful

honestly truly <3333 it's such a great example of diego's insane talent lol like you see the absolute vitriol and disgust cassian feels towards cops, he's like 'bitch what are you looking at?' at first, it's giving jyn 'brawl first think second' erso energy lol. not to make it about ~~~them~~ but i truly have imagined her giving those exact first few looks a number of times. except in her case, i see her doing what cassian can't really afford to do in this scene, which is popping the fuck off and starting a bar fight lol.

because he knows it won't end well if he gets into it with these pigs, he makes himself sort of settles to a quieter loathing, and then a shift to fear for himself and also probably for this woman showing attraction (feigned or not) to him in front of them INSTEAD of them first. (also interesting that we see her later being brought in to identify him).

and what we see is that because cassian is an immigrant from an indigenous diaspora it really doesn't matter how he reacts to the cops who represent settler-colonialism/imperialism despite not being agents literally of the empire (acknowledging that the depiction of kenari is... problematic to say the least lmao - diego is a white latino man and while that makes him subject to lots of xenophobia and racialization in the states, the show is trying to represent kenari as indigenous latines which... sigh justice for fest - fest works so well as a colonized planet full of rebels smdh ANYWAY). in the same way that he gets targeted on space miami for literally just walking around, it doesn't matter what he DOES - his existence is a middle finger to the empire and before it to the republic's colonialism (i think supposedly the separatists are the ones who fucked up kenari but given that pre andor!cassian was a separatist on fest i'm just gonna disregard this like so much else i don't like about new canon lmao. but even so, it's not like the separatists didn't do their own colonial bullshit too).

we're all fodder for capitalist white supremacist colonial patriarchy, but there's people who generally get the brunt of the brutality. we see this in the narkina arc, and also in wobani because it's not a coincidence that jyn (a coreworld-coded white woman) is roommates with a non-human. while I do think that there was probably more intentionality with casting the narkina folks than the wobani folks because we see like two minutes of wobani, not to mention that there's a lot less empathy shown to the prisoners in wobani in rogue one. lol draven literally telling jyn he'll put her ass right back in prison if she doesn't help, the other prisoner who speaks on the transport is literally comic relief, and obviously the prison break is for ONE woman, the rest can stay ig because abolition is not what the alliance is about.

it's actually something I was just thinking about recently because of this video essay by fd signifier on youtube, it's called fuck the police and it is excellent. in it, he talks about the history of prison abolitionism and how the movement really started within prisons. these guys had nothing but time because their freedoms were stolen from them and started educating themselves on leftism. it's like they had their lived experience which radicalized them like nothing else can - as fd says, they saw first hand the brutality of the system like most of us who have the time and resources to even search for youtube long form video essays ever will. so much of the base of leftist radical movements begin with people in prisons. they are the minds behind abolition. i wouldn't have become an abolitionist without hearing from them about their experiences, no matter how much empathy I may have. how could i? i didn't become anti-capitalist until I worked myself into a broken mess in retail, no matter how much i cared about workers.

we see throughout the show that cassian has a moral code, he has a set of principles and beliefs that he largely tries to suppress in order to stay safe and relatively comfortable. andor!cassian isn't my favorite interpretation of his character but anyone who takes him at face value when he says he doesn't give a fuck about revolution is missing the point imo, same way they miss it with jyn erso. cassian gets this idea in his head as a teen that actively, violently resisting will result in him being denied freedom (first as a child on kenari, then after clem is murdered and he goes after the troopers). what he learns on narkina is that it actually has very little to do with him actively resisting, although of course that will probably result in him being harmed. it has to do with who he is, what he looks like and how he sounds. and most of all, that he is not safe from oppression and fascism no matter what he does to keep his head down (which is clearly not in his nature to do lol). it's why jyn saying "it's not a problem if you don't look up" is such obvious bullshit (even though she is saying it to hurt saw and not because she actually believes it).

it's important that while cassian is personally innocent of the crime he was convicted of, that undoubtedly many other prisoners were also innocent, we have no idea if any of the others actually did commit crimes. prison abolitionism as a movement is built on the work done by people in prison - and some of them absolutely committed crimes in their lives (and many were in gangs, like George Jackson), and many others were political prisoners. but it's not about what they did - like with the point the narkina arc makes, it's about what they experience inside prison.

and speaking of abolition because i can't HELP myself, I've gotta bring up the show's treatment of its Black characters.

like ??? the writers know what point they're making throughout the show. and that point is about how it doesn't matter that cassian ultimately doesn't go off on the cops in the brothel, that he tried to remain quiet and keep his head down on niamos and everywhere else he went, he was target number one of the morlana cops because the sex worker is (is she named? LOL i feel bad just calling her that but i don't remember) a pretty white (and an additional factor in SW: human) woman who shows more attention to this guy who is an immigrant and has what she even fetishizes as "dark" features.

the prisoners we are most familiar with - the ones we empathize with most because they work closest with cassian - are almost all white and their actors mostly from the global north (honestly the uk which... LOL okayyy). meanwhile the shots of the revolution show us how much of the prison population is NOT white. cassian is working with a Black prisoner to fuck up the pipes but we don't really see him interacting with that guy ever lol. the older man whose death pushes kino loy over the edge is a white man.

it's just... W H Y. i get it, melshi is from rogue one, but even the fact that he ended up sort of more important in rogue one than sefla (a Black man who outranks melshi lol) just because gilroy liked duncan pow a lot, and then sefla just kind of dies unceremoniously, like many of the Black characters in andor. gorn dies very similarly, but at least his character has a fair amount of screen time and is treated pretty well otherwise (although i'm tired of the diversifying the empire thing. lol it's the empire, they're all white men with the occasional rare white woman who girlbossed her way in).

it's not that you can't have andy serkis doing the damn thing, or introduce melshi to cassian in prison because now they're brothers in arms and ugh my heart <3 because I know that narkina also represents nazi concentration camps as well as us prisons, and none of these things are one-to-one perfect representations because it's fiction.

i hope the next season does better by its Black characters since this show is making points that have been made by Black people for ages.

um anyway that got away from me lmao

#cassian andor #rogue one #star wars andor #star wars #anti-blackness #racism #xenophobia #fascism #white supremacy #meta #colonialism #imperialism #hmm is there anything i've missed in the tags? idk #indigenous rights #thats one

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alybur635 · 6 months

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*Pulls up a chair* So, you wish for me to go on eh? I've had thoughts myself regarding the options

I want to start off with the fact that I don’t think Hizashi’s death was entirely necessary considering the situation at hand. The only reason that came about was to supposedly avoid a war from possibly igniting over the death of the land of lightning’s ambassador and violation of a newly signed treaty. But realistically, I find the idea that Hizashi Hyuga even had to choose doing this ridiculous. I mean you’re gonna sit here and tell me that the Hokage was really okay with putting all the pressure of avoiding a war with another village upon a single clan because a failed kidnapping of a child resulted in someone dying? You’re gonna tell me the Hokage seriously couldn’t find any other ways? I find that ridiculous! I seriously have a hard time seeing how such a situation escalated the way that it did unless the Hokage purposely didn’t push for further compromise or just didn’t get himself too involved with the whole ordeal. The whole ordeal was a political mess that I feel that the hokage didn’t engage in enough, ultimately adding to the cost of Hizashi’s life that day. IDK I find that whole situation infuriating because surely if more involvement and further investigation was done, they would’ve been able to prove the Land of Lightning was at fault and had violated the treaty first while also proving what Hiashi did was justifiable.

I think his death also played tremendously on his twin and Neji. With Neji it’s a little more obvious to us the viewers/readers: he becomes a traumatized, angry, bitter child who clings to this idea of fate and destiny to cope with his father’s death and the position he has in his life. He openly despises the main household for who they are and what the clan represents: masters who chain down the “servants” like birds to cages. I remember seeing this really cool in-depth look into Neji’s character by the @everyneji blog and I *seriously* recommend checking it out, I think it better explains how he’s been shaped due to his father’s demise.

Now in Hiashi’s case I feel it’s a bit different to see, but I think Hizashi’s death has played a huge part into the man we see him as, especially in OG Naruto. We see the guilt he has for the indirect part he played that led to his brother’s death, but I don’t think it’s just the guilt that came. I think he became as jaded and harsh as he is because of his demise. We get to see that around episode 480ish (pls don’t quote me because I don’t remember the exact episode) but we see that Hiashi here isn’t as…shitty as what he is now. Yeah he’s the head of the clan and YES he still does use the curse mark against his brother, personality wise he isn’t as stoic or demeaning as he is. So in my own opinion I feel he was at least a lot more tolerable when his brother was alive, and him dying resulted in Hiashi being this jaded hardass we the viewers first see in OG Naruto. Now don’t get me wrong this is *not* to defend him and his shitty attitude + actions, this bitch needs to fr be pushed down a flight of stairs. And no I don’t think he was correct to wait as long as he did before telling Hizashi’s LITERAL SON the truth about his dad, that was so stupid. He needs a boot to the head.

Now back to Hizashi and him not being dead:

I don’t necessarily believe him still being alive in the story would’ve changed too many aspects of what we’ve seen in the show. I mean Neji and Hiashi certainly would’ve had adjustments to how they are. But, I still think Neji would still have been angry and resentful for different reasons. Hizashi was easily a good father; he could see Neji for the potential he had and had ultimately blamed his own birth for Neji’s position in life. I mean mans literally wanted what he felt Neji was deserving of. But he also seems like the man that would’ve taken on his kid’s punishment if it meant Neji never had to feel the pain that comes with the curse mark. And even if he couldn’t do that, I think Neji would’ve still resented the main family as much as he did for the abuse he and/or his father would have to endure as branch members. I mean kid Neji adored his father, I have no doubt seeing his father punished by his uncle and the main household would be enough reason to spite them AND still somewhat cling to the idea of fate, just maybe not as tightly.

So while I think several aspects of the story could’ve remained if Hizashi could’ve lived, I still think it would be better to bring him back because it would mean Neji would have him in his life. I mean, Neji was a 4 year old child who had to lay his eyes upon his father’s corpse, that shit’s messed up! I’m sure before team guy entered his life he was a lonely kid; he didn’t have anyone in the clan that was nearly as close to him as he was with his father. I mean at least if Hizashi was alive Neji wouldn’t have been suffering with his pain completely alone for several years. He would’ve been at least a happier character with his dad, he deserves that man in his life. And Hinata + Hanabi deserved someone they could go to if their father was being too much for them, he would’ve been a cool ass uncle who isn’t as bitchy as his twin lmao.

IDK Hizashi was a good man and a good father, Neji deserved to have him in his life entirely. Neji would’ve had someone beside Hinata in the clan who he could turn to for anything. I feel his death was one of those that could’ve been real avoided but wasn’t because of outside forces (also Kishimoto didn’t want a good dad existing in Naruto). Also, if I chose to kill Hiashi that would mean Hizashi would have to see him in the afterlife and imo Hizashi does NOT need to deal with that man in his death, he needs his peace LMAO

#ty chaosnojutsu for asking me to continue on with my incoherent thoughts!#alybur thoughts #hizashi hyuga #hizashi was actually a neat character and him dying fucked up his kid n twin #but i mean the option of killing off hiashi isn't wrong I can see why other's might want to do that instead #hiashi is a bitch fr

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brf-rumortrackinganon · 4 months

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Weren't Victoria Jackson and Bill Guthy the Republicans the Harkles were hanging out with?! Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not sure, so I did some research on this.

Victoria Jackson is a makeup guru who got her start selling on QVC. Bill Guthy is her husband who owns a direct-to-consumer marketing company that represents several beauty/make-up brands, including Cindy Crawford's and JLo's, and the company is thought to be one of the first to successfully market celebrity influencers.. They owned the house where Meghan did her photoshoot for The Cut. Victoria and Bill have a daughter that died young from an autoimmune disease and now they run a charitable foundation to fundraise for research on that disease.

Victoria was also on the Archetypes podcast. She was a guest on the 'bitch' episode. (Which, can I just rant about that for a second? What the fuck is Meghan's deal pretending to be so offended by the word that she can only call it "the b word"?)

Supposedly Meghan and Victoria were introduced through Gloria Steinem. They were hanging out around the time that Meghan's PR was teasing a possible beauty brand/influencer deal so I think she was trying to get a deal with Victoria and Bill, which didn't work because six months later she signed with WME and we've heard zilche about them hanging out.

Further, I'm not sure that they're the Republicans that the other anon was asking about. Victoria is currently a cabinet member of the White House Historical Association's council/cabinet, which is traditionally a nonpartisan organization so they don't usually like to hire/staff with people in partisan politics. (They're the ones who do the annual White House Christmas ornaments, which commemorates the historical legacy of the White House and the presidency, never the current occupants of the White House - which was very surprising to learn.)

Beyond that, they do keep their political affiliation very quiet so if they are Republican, well...who's Meghan to care when they have a private jet that she can use?

It's also speculated that their home was used for the Oprah interview too. It seems pretty plausible to me. I bet we'll find out in Meghan's memoir, if she ever writes it.

There is another Victoria Jackson who is much more outspoken in her support for Trump. This Victoria Jackson is a former SNL star from the '90s. In addition to sharing the same name, the women share similar internet brands - SNL Victoria Jackson is on social media with handles victoriajacksonofficial and victoriajackson while Makeup Victoria Jackson's website is officialvictoriajackson - so that could be where the confusion is. It's an easy mistake to make; I've found several articles that did it too.

But long story short, I can't find a record of Victoria Jackson and Bill Guthy's political activisim so I can't say with any certainty that they're the Republicans that Meghan and Harry have been hanging out with.

#ask #sussexes #brf

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thewizardprincessau · 14 days

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hey. dont cry. dissection of the passerine animatic + the accompanying character study ok? ok.

tldr: my son chun tao she is so fucking ill

Honestly Passerine is THE Chun Tao song. To me. bc it fits really well with his religious guilt, but i also like to recontextualize the chorus to instead be him talking about eri. they were the one really pulling the weight during the early days of their friendship, and chun tao feels a lot of guilt for that

but first! the animatic! it centers around chun tao's guilt for eri being so sweet to him despite him being a stoic ass cold bitch. i actually color-picked the palette from the album cover of eurus (that passerine is from) and slapped on a noise filter to achieve that same grainy effect. it looks nice 2 me.

eri is represented in a distinguishing yellow, someone bright and unique to chun tao, while he himself is colored in the same white as all the other details in the background. While making him the same color as the lyrics helped establish they were His thoughts, him blending in w everything else while eri has their own unique color is his way of putting eri on a pedestal, viewing them as more important than he'll ever be. they're the monarch and he's just their prince consort. that's how he always thought of it.

i dont have much to say about these frames in particular but here are their corresponding parts in the study! theyre just meant to establish their relationship w one another before leading up to the next part, where he sees eri as this blinding light, but just cant let go of that one sign of weakness they had shown him during their wedding. a small glimpse of a them he didnt quite understand yet, and never made the effort to.

at some point, chun tao Snaps and berates eri for trying to get so close to him. at first i wasnt sure if his mindset made.. sense? but connecting the dots from earlier, it DOES make sense if you see it through the point of view that he sees eri as someone above him. chun tao isnt someone who deals with people and he's used to impersonal business relationships and he thought this would be another one of those which is why he's so shocked, caught off-guard, even offended at eri threatening his status quo. brother hates vulnerability, and it terrified him that someone was trying to get through his walls, so all he could do was lash out.

im not absolving eri of blame either though.. i think they still had some wrong in not immediately recognizing chun tao's boundaries. they were so eager to be her friend, they dont realize they might come across as overbearing. and they were, in a sense, but chun tao does also realize its unfair to them to take their innocent gestures of friendliness with so much malice. they just have conflicting ideas on the world, and it clashed, and no one's totally wrong but no one's totally right, they were just coming from their own places.

In here chun tao watches as eri reels back and apologizes for all the things she had shouted at them at. but it's also the same moment chun tao realizes that she does Not know much of anything about eri at all. it's very faint, but there's the outline of a sobbing younger eri staring straight at the screen, supposedly at chun tao, like a reminder of the eri she never got to meet herself. one that was hurting just like her. and that younger eri still resides in the one standing before her crying too, she just never got to see that side to them because she never bothered to figure that side to them out. (AND the "your" is intentionally written twice, like its referring to both eri in the present and eri in the past. by failing to understand them, chun tao feels like he's failing both eris.)

as mentioned earlier, chun tao gets mad at eri for having a "perfect life" and thinks theyd never understand her. but. the thing is. chun tao isnt LETTING them understand her. she keeps pushing them away. and she realizes it was presumptuous to assume they would understand her, because well. she.. doesnt even know what eri's Been through atp. she just assumed eri's life's been perfect because theyre so composed and chipper, but she didnt know who they were a couple years ago at all. she thinks that bc eri's secret relationship is lovey-dovey that their love is perfect, but chun tao didn't see their toxic yuri of a start and that they face a lot of problems as a couple too. chun tao thinks that bc eri is so well-loved by the public that thats that, but she remembers that people gossiped AND gossip hard about them bc of their status as a non-sorcerer. they were dehumanized and alienated by the public too, just like her. and this realization hits her HARD.

he then tries to make an effort to be more involved in eri's life after this point, reconciling with them and becoming their best friend. okay tbh the scene described in the character study is NOT the same as the one pictured in the animatic but i HAD to get a hug in there somewhere.

the last two scenes are a BIG flashforward to ursa's creation, where chun tao is panicking hard about eri literally dying to create their homunculus baby. also ursa is drawn in white but has eri's yellow present too, showing how he's a combination of them, their little kid :D

the whole lyric bit of "but i cant shake this feeling that i was only pushing the spear into your side, again and again and again" is supposed to represent chun tao feeling like a thorn on eri's side causing them pain. he scolded them for being nice to him, and they went on to sacrifice their life in a dangerous ritual to create their son and uphold tradition, but he just feels so so guilty for all of that. he cant shake the feeling that he's a source of their pain and suffering, and it eats him up alive.

-----------------------------------

ok ANYWAY moving on to the CHARACTER STUDY NOW!!!!!!!!!! just parallels and stuff w the writing

guys im a fucking feature writer of course im going to start and end with the same phrase ("chun tao is not a people peson, and his family knows this very well"). chun tao refers to two different families in the opening and closing segments: in the first he refers to his biological family, and in the second its about the family he found and made in quiro. both his families knows he struggles with social interactions, and his bio family (his cousins) make fun of him for it, so he goes on to detail how he views social interactions as a system, a formula he understands. his family in quiro instead tries to HELP him get better at it, and he instead recognizes that social interactions are something personal that require heart and genuine investment (shown in how he notes that ursa cares about him deeply), even moving past his frozen style of speech with the mention of jokes. tldr he's fucking cringefail at socializing and his bio family called him cringe but his chosen family said he's cringe but free. what

Perfect life/love/reputation. At first he hates eri for having these "perfect" things and thinks theyre sooo happy because of it, but later on realizes that their life isnt perfect and neither is his, but he finds joy in what he has anyway :)

the repeated mention of chun tao saying he'd never fall in love with eri bc he's so stuck in his rigid view of romance, but later comes to love eri as his best friend AND love his found family too :'3

chun tao wondering earlier if she should try to emulate eri's pleasantries, and ends up doing so later down the line! both lines have the same structure with the "quick greeting + smile despite being tired"

"Ahia" is Chinese for the eldest brother and it's also used to refer to children to know their birth order. Chun Tao calling Ursa this is an acknowledgement of him going to be a big brother soon! tbh in my head thats what the meeting eri called for is about but its just my headcanon (<== SAID THE ONE WRITING THE STORY)

ALSO i dont have screenshots to show but eri is only intentionally mentioned by name in the flashforward, to show how back then chun tao only saw them as THE princess/monarch but eventually comes to recognize them as eri, his bestie :3

oh my god i. think thats it? good god. might add onto this if i remember more but. thank you for entertaining my insanity why is this 1400+ words I NEED TO EAT BRUNCH

#text #lore #chun tao #eri #ursa

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thetentaclecommander · 6 months

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This is an 18+ blog. Pretty much anything under the Ao3 archive warnings section, and then some can and will likely be represented here, so no histrionics, plz. I don't have a DNI or 'required reading' but do have 'things' listed at post bottom in case they are like deal breakers or whatever so you cannot say you weren't given advance warning as to my content. *I will not waste my time reading DNIs or Carrds. The block button is a great (sex) toy and you are free to use it at will. I sure as hell do.* +++ FAQ Who is this? Hi, I’m TTC

I write Nemesis and Jill boning a lot. For the plot, supposedly. Been doing so forever ago. What are you? An immortal sentient tentacle who moonlights as a jaded fandom old. I can and will out-drink you. What other names have you've gone by? I've lovingly been called That Tentacle and Server Satan. I'm a walking kink-filled perv factory full of bad ideas, hence the names. + What fics do you write? Fic list for the Devil's Saga AU. The Ships in the AU My AO3 + Tags for Blog Navigation Here. + (Con't under the cut for more general info and disclaimers)

Why is...this? Because I want to see more Nemesis/Jill content, and it’s a bitch to find. Also, after years of putting off even joining Tumblr, I wanna share my AU and keep this crack ship alive. Maybe even fanwank on my thoughts about Toll and Onery or even on Jill, the long-suffering bad bitch that Cap keeps forgetting has a compelling storyline right there. But this is mostly just blatant shilling of my AU + What’s your fandoms? Resident Evil. To be clear, I mainly stan RE3: Nemesis, not the remake one. The 1999 one. But in general, I like this goofy series, boulders, nonsense science, bad plot, and all. I do like other stuff that I might occasionally reblog. Could be silly shit like Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel or Arcane to heavy shit like BTD. I'm random like that. + Format of each post: A snippet, a link to Ao3. I’ll list any pertinent CWs if needed. My fics tend to be 18+ some of them marked with Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings and DD:DNE (ie unapologetically dark shit cause RE is a survival horror franchise), so keep that in mind. I might drop early snips; I haven’t decided on that yet. + Is Nemmy -ever- nice in your fics? Pffft (well, he’s 'nice' in bursts, as in a burst of tentacles through Brad’s face). In seriousness, in my take on him, he’s complicated, having the ability to be ""kind"", and ""caring"" but is a Tyrant through and through - basically closer to canon. I like canonical villains and I like my monsters monstrous and, at times, barely grasping that human/monster line. Expect infestations and murder. + What is your stance on RE3 (1999) and RE3: Nemesis (2020) 1. remake Carlos got the glow up omg 2. Jill was sassy in both and I do love og but ngl remake!Jill was so done and I feels her 3. the monsterfucker vibes was mostly immaculate 4. og Nemesis was hotter and scarier. 3make massacred my boy (I don't judge those that like 3make, but maaan my boi T.T) like my biggest gripe along with the cut content was the game missing the point of Nemmy entirely reducing him to an annoying superman jumping nuisance and honestly lessening the N/J shippy vibes for me + Do you do fic requests? RPs? No. I simply don’t have the focus/time to do requests or things outside of my stories. I write what I want when I want. + Do you do DMs or Asks? I just flit in the night and talk when I feel like it. I prefer all convos in the broad daylight on public posts. But I’ll open my Asks. Be stupid, and I’ll simply close them. Capisce? Also if you DM me wastes of time things like 'Hi', 'hello' - the kinda shit ppl mock on dating sites especially with a pretty much blank profile, you'll be blocked. In fact, I block pretty freely as I value my time. + Don't Whine, You Know What I'm About [Disclaimers To Save People Time] This Tentacle posts here: -sex acts that ranges from soft to oh gods please don’t kill me -urk- -tentacle murder/parasitic 'fun'/horrible things occurring -high/low brow story drama (think Gothic Horror-esque) -crack ships mixed in with canon with zero regard about their 'purity' -monsterfucker shit, duh This Tentacle: -believes that fiction does not have the power of a death note over one's actions and believes people are not inherently stupid or unable to understand for themselves what they engage in -holds sex positive/pagan/kink and leather/poly/queer friendly/profic views -is against the -isms and/or -phobias used against others -laughs at killjoy puritans; your hell/churchy-speak means nothing to me a lifelong heathen eldritch egg laying being If you hate any of these you’ll -not- have a fun time with my content. Also, this shouldn't have to be said, but kiddos (under 18) Be not seen or heard as per ye old adult fandom rules. I reject all signal boosting requests/callouts; promotions will be at MY discretion. (More than likely, the answer will be 'no'.) We team SALS/DLDR/YKINMKBYKIOK in these parts. Be freely stupid with your ships; none of it’s real. Fandom is stupid, don’t take it so serious. Also, the murderkink. Gotta have the murderkink and worms. A'ight, Enjoy!

#nemestine #nemesis x jill #monster x human #crackship #rarepair #materialist #dead dove fic #villianfucker #monster fucker #terat0philliac #thetentaclecommander writhes and speaks #dldr #ykinmkato #sals #that libertine tentacle just squirming all over the place #fic masterlist #ao3 fanfic #rare pair

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kob131 · 1 year

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And completed both Tea Parties (Episode 2 apĺnd Episode 2's Witch Side).

A. So Berkenstal was the protagonist of the first set of games, now aiding Battler against Beatrice because she knows his pain. Neat, maybe I'll go check out Higrashi after this.

B. There seems to be some kind of conceptual battle betwern the witches and their powers, Beatrice being 'Endless', Berkenstal being 'Miracles' and the new girl Lambdabesta being 'Certainty'.

'Certainity' beats 'Endless' because once you reach the end, it's no longer Infinity.

And 'Miracles' beat 'Certainty' because a miracle surpasses any known limit or end.

I'm not saying they represent these ideas, just that they hint at their true natures. Which confuses me- Berkenstal's ability actually surpasses them both. 'Endless' supposedly beats 'Miracles', likely under the idea that a miracle doesnt matter to endless failures. ... But that doesn't matter. A miracle would still surpass it.

There really is no reason for Beatrice to let her stay unless she didn't care all THAT much about winning. Which...yeah, sadists WANT to win

3. Battler is also in the Witches' room, he just ain't talking. Too devastated from his loss I guess. And of course, Beatrice's response is 'force feed Rosa her siblings'.

Because this bitch has never read a Greek Myth before.

4. Speaking of- the witches and even the character talk about Beatrice falling into patterns and making things overly complex, losing sight of her goal in her means.

Makes sense. She pulled the 'locked room' scenario roughly...seven times now? After a while, Battler's gonna find the chink in the armor. Especially since she suffered a humiliating defeat simply because she wanted to indulge in seeing his pain. A woman who lived for a thousand years lost to a boy who hasn't lived TWENTY. Bitch showed she could screw him over and yet he got a clean hit in regardless. And her screwing him over was clearly done as a result of her bruised ego.

She keeps pulling shit like that and she'll find herself unable to recover. I'll even bet that as the game progresses, Beatrice will start losing more conflicts even as Battler breaks, likely leading to the Answer Arc being him revisiting his lost fights and winning the rematches, all because her sadism has made her predictable.

Still, it was such a joy to hear Dread of the Grave play as she announced her 'perfect' victory. Which reminds me-

5. Beatrice has some unresolved issues with Kinzo, doesn't she? That whole bit of her following him around, trying to meet with him, showing up as he said he loved her and mentioning that no human woman would love him for that...before saying she wasn't human.

Combine that with how Battler's breakdown mirrored Kinzo's wailing, Genji's own comment that Battler is like his grandfather in his youth (i.e. when Beatrice met him), how the Character tab mentions him inheriting Kinzo's magical resistance and how her taunt of Battler rising again DIRECTLY has her compare him to Kinzo in a flattering way-

This whole game is just her working through her Kinzo issues using Battler as a substitute, isn't it?

#KOB and Umineko

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potteresque-ire · 2 years

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The Big Politics Meta

0. Introduction; content notes and warning 1. The Boring Overview: 3rd Time is the Charm? 2. The Political Legacy of 2/27: A Hypothesis >> 3. Case Report of a Traffic Robbery, Committed October, 2020 4. Two Stories about a State-approved, Top Traffic Star 5. Afterthought: The Big Environment

(Below the Cut — 3. Case Report of a Traffic Robbery, Committed October, 2020)

Professor 沈逸 Shen Yi deserves an introduction.

He is a professor of internal relations and Director of the Centre of Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University, one of the most prestigious universities in China. Known as an expert on “the United States problem”, Prof S also holds the honour of being denied entry into the U.S. by the Trump administration in 2018, for suspicion of espionage. He is an influencer of the nationalistic persuasion, not only for netizens but also, supposedly, for President Xi. Rumour has it that Prof S is a 內参, i.e. he collections information and writes analyses for the President to read.

Prof S’s personality is also worth an introduction, and there is no better example than what happened in May, 2021, when India had a surge of COVID deaths. 長安網, the Weibo account of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (which oversees all legal enforcement authorities in China including the police force), posted the following on its blog:

The text of this 2021/05/01 Weibo post by 長安網 said “China lighting a fire vs India lighting a fire”. The left photo showed the launching of the Chinese rocket LM-8; the right photo showed a mass cremation of COVID deaths in India. The tag was # INDIA’S NEW COVID CASE COUNT EXCEEDS 400,000. (Source)

It caused an outcry among a significant fraction of netizens, who thought the post went too far. No matter how much border conflict there was between China and India, they opined, deaths from causes like COVID shouldn’t be used for jokes, for propaganda. The post was deleted after it caught attention internationally, and it sparked a “debate” between Prof S, and the editor of the State Tabloid Global Times then, 胡錫進 Hu Xijin. The reason why the word debate was in quotation marks was because Prof S and Hu didn’t actually disagree on a critical point — India deserved the deaths, the suffering. The difference in opinion between them was whether the government should spell out that sentiment, and made it known to the world.

Hu believed the answer was no. Official blogs representing the state should exercise restraint, he believed, 高舉人道主義大旗，表達對印度的同情，將中國社會牢牢置於道義的高地上 “raise the flag of humanitarianism up high, show sympathy to India and put the Chinese society on the moral high ground (in the eyes of the international community).” To put it simply, Hu believed the government should pretend to care for show.

And here’s the even more ... enlightening opinion from Prof S:

“These photos are pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, humanitarianism, ‘community with a shared destiny’ (Pie note: a phrase from President Xi that means humankind shares the same future) are all needed. At the same time, (showing) temper against the kind of coquettish cheap goods like India is also needed. As to all the saint mother whores, if you want to get sentimental, please go to India to burn some wood.”

A tiny lesson on Chinese slangs: cheap goods 賤貨 is a derogatory term customarily used to degrade women, meaning roughly the same as “bitch”. Saint mother whore 聖母婊 is an equally derogatory term used to insult people who have expressed a more humanitarian world view, mocking them as being so overflowing with love that they don’t indiscriminate to whom they show affection, much like prostitutes. Prof S used the former slang to describe India, and the latter, the sympathising, outraged netizens.

I hope this paints a picture of how Prof S exudes charm (or just … exudes). For all his shiny titles and oration skills, however, Prof S is as well known among Chinese netizens for being something else.

Prof S is a famous Gg Anti.

To understand why that is, we turn back the clock another seven months, to October, 2020. There was an incident involving Gg’s birthday celebration that year, one that, if c-turtles have to refer to it, they call it 川美事件 The Incident of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. i-Turtles who have been around longer probably remember that incident as well. Essentially, KaiXiaoZao — you know, the rice box meal Gg endorses? — planned to have to a drone exhibition near the school to celebrate Gg’s birthday. However, it had to cancel the event at the last minute due to COVID and crowd control concerns. Gg fans were already in attendance, and they stayed for a short while, enjoyed a bit of fun.

But the gathering, the celebration was soon re-painted by antis as Gg fans disturbing the peace of the school and also, them defiling the space. In truth, Gg fans were in a public shopping area outside the premise of the school proper, and the graffiti of Gg’s name shown as evidence of the defiling was not only an hour’s distance away, but on a graffiti wall that welcomed anyone to write and draw on it.

Antis and fans fought, and given this was a few short months after 2 27, the inaccurate retelling of the event spread.

Luckily, a local Chongqing TV station stood up for their Chongqing son, investigated and cleared the name of Gg fans, and by extension, Gg. Weibo censored 28 accounts for spreading misinformation, silenced them for fifteen days. People’s Daily and several other state media reblogged the TV investigation, as well as the doled-out punishment online. In three weeks, the police would confirm that no illegal activities had occurred that evening.

That was the start and end of The Incident of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. But there was actually a side story, a subplot …

Enter Prof S. The day after the TV station and Weibo cleared the name of Gg’s fans, he commented on the post by Weibo that had announced the censoring, opined that Gg’s fandom needed to be 有效治理 effectively governed, or managed — joining the sentiment of Gg antis that Weibo had only stood by Gg’s side because Gg gave it money. (Which is, by the way, a garden-variety accusation in c-ent fandoms; almost every fan war in c-ent involved accusing stars of bribing or paying something, be it a platform, “Capital”, YXHs, water army etc)

(c-fans confrontations are often verbally violent, but rarely verbally innovative).

Then, he happened upon the following tweet on Twitter with a photo of Gg’s birthday gathering, and posted it on his Weibo with a comment:

“Interesting. Activities of fans of a certain star has been interpreted by foreign media as an illegal, Tibetan Independence activity. 😜 What’s going on?”

Please read the English text of the tweet as well. SCAFI stands for Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, the location of the birthday gathering.

Giving a tweet like this one any political weight defies common sense. If any form of assembly for the alleged cause had broken out within mainland China, every international news media would have been on it, not only a Twitter account that, by the way, had “gamer” in its profile that could be verified with mere minutes of scrolling. The tweet itself was buzz words galore, as if inserting more politically-sensitive words would boost its credibility, when the effect was exactly the opposite.

For one, the evidence it presented to support the claim that the gathering was for Tibetan Independence was … SCAFI being “not far from Tibet”. Even if we discount the obvious leap of logic, the distance between Chongqing and Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, is slightly longer than … from Berlin, Germany to Istanbul, Turkey.

Just saying. (Source: Google)

Umbrella revolution was even further, geographically and culturally: it was the name of the protest in Hong Kong in 2014.

This tweet might have been able to trick someone whose understandings of English and politics were both very limited — but an international relations professor like Prof S? Unless he was a fluke all the way, the chance of him truly believing in this tweet was infinitesimal.

Still, he posted it, and added more misinformation by calling the account “foreign media”.

The response Prof S evoked was predictable. Gg’s fans came to him, some tried to explain and others, in a manner customary of their fandom culture, scolded and insulted Prof S as if he had been just another fandom anti. Meanwhile, Prof S provoked Gg’s fans further, reminded his readers that “cyberspace governance” was his speciality (one of his official positions in Fudan University), and “performing risk assessment” for the kind of activities that could “possibly lead to Color Revolution” — with “the kind of activities” referring to Gg’s birthday gathering — was the focus of his academic research (Source):

In China, this is an awful thing to say about anyone without proof.

“Color Revolution”, which referred to the series of pro-democracy, street-level uprisings in the former Soviet bloc in the early 2000s, is a term heavily used in the Chinese political rhetoric. The rhetoric, which is shared by countries like Russia and Vietnam, is that Western countries — in particular, the United States — orchestrate these popular movements in attempts to overthrow the local governments. Hence, the propaganda surrounding the Hong Kong protests, for example, has involved the CIA secretly handing out money to millions of Hong Kongers to march; and the protests themselves have been referred to as Color Revolutions by the state media. President Xi himself is a frequent user of the term, and is thought to be obsessed with it.

An accusation of starting a Colour Revolution is, therefore, very serious. It’s the equivalent to saying whoever is starting the revolution is colluding with foreign powers, and attempting subversion. Overthrowing the Chinese government.

The defence from Gg fans necessarily escalated. Some, being young, angry and worried and unfamiliar with the numerous political red lines in their country, said things that were, frankly, … much better left unsaid. Melon eaters gathered. “Prof S vs Gg fans” was on the verge of 出圈 Exiting the Circle — became a topic of popular interest, instead of fandom-limited interest. The question by Prof S, 你是什麼粉? “What fan are you?” — the question he eventually asked everyone who challenged him, whether they were fans, or passerbys concerned with such a serious allegation having being thrown at young fans, made it onto the hot search. Some Gg fans realised by then that this Prof S was no ordinary anti, that he was a well-known political influencer and asked fellow fans to immediately stop their defence, but it was too late.

Gg anti’s from 2 27 flocked to Prof S’s social media spaces to be his followers, excited that they had gained someone so important on their side. While this was all happening, Chongqing police formally cleared Gg fans from any wrongdoings during the birthday gathering on October 21st. Five days later, on October 26th, Prof S made a faux-pas in the eyes of the fraction of antis who had joined 2 27 as protest to the fic reporting. He pointed to the same fic associated with 2 27, tagged CCTV, Chongqing cyberpolice and claimed that that was the characterisation (referring to M/M CPs) that made Gg famous.

To put it differently: Prof S reported.

This is of note, because it raised a question — had Prof S been even truly familiar with 2 27 before, and along that, the supposed ”dangers” of Gg’s fandom that he was claiming required “effective governance”? Joining the reporting of the fic in October 2020 — wasn’t that a little ... late?

In all cases, this reporting post was, of course, incendiary to both the fans and antis. They came to his blog again, another big argument was about to begin, and …

Prof S deleted everything related to Gg in his blog. In fact, he went so far as to make his blog private for a week. He was tired of it, he explained, and the deletion was his own decision (ie, he wasn’t censored by Weibo). The graphic he used tor the explanation post included the phrase 說正事專用 — a popular phrase meaning “for serious business”, implying that talking about Gg and his fandom wasn’t serious enough to worth his time and effort anymore:

And this marked the end of the side story of the Incident of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, the 2020 birthday gathering.

Gg fans, per their custom of not talking about politics, never mention it again. The antis, meanwhile, continue to follow Prof S as their spiritual leader, joining the ranks of nationalistic “Little Pinks” that were originally his audience. After the mass cancellation of celebrities via the Clear & Bright Campaign in summer 2021, they went to him, dismayed that the only “casualty” associated with Gg was the temporary silencing of one of Gg’s Big Fans. In the ensuing conversations between Prof S and the antis, Prof S pointed out that as far as he could tell, GG didn’t have any background — ie., Gg didn’t have any connections in the upper echelons of the government, and/or the business moguls. And the issue at hand — the continued survival of Gg and his fandom — was the consequence of “(Gg’s) monopoly on the platforms”, “tens of millions of PR money”, “a MCN (multichannel network) ecosystem that has remained unregulated” (MCNs in China, more often associated with net influencers and their e-commerce live-streaming, are also involved in short video production — including short videos that spread rumours and false content), “a fandom with basic, self-organisational ability”, “active Big Fan(s) (whose existence and activities are) based on profits”,”a purely symbolised star image” (ie, Gg being viewed as a symbol, an image, instead of a real person), and “a completely new, inexperienced management”:

The thing is, there is truth in what Prof S said, in that the listed elements: PR, MCN, the heavy profits associated with fandom and everything associated with stardom, really, have been widely considered as important building blocks of the c-ent we know today, and the causes of much of its woes. C-fans are aware of that. Most of us overseas fans, too, have heard of YXHs and water armies, for example, which is part of PR, and the havoc they can raise. While PR has, indeed, been used for (excessive) hyping and initiating fan wars, however, it has also become increasily necessary because of the existence of antis — ie, of people precisely like Prof S and his audience. Stars are also far from the only people who hire and pay for PR. Investors and production companies who have hired the stars for to-be-aired projects have equal, if not greater concerns about the stars’ reputation, and in the power balance between them and the stars who have yet to get famous or have just got famous (like Gg in early 2020), they have a clear upper hand — hence, they are more likely to be controlling the PR message than the stars themselves.

In all cases, the involvement of these elements is by no means restricted to a star or two, or the top traffic stars.

So, why make Gg’s fandom the target? Here was Prof S’s response:

(Underlined in red) “Gg fans are the most archetypical of the complete loss-of-control of fan economy. It is also the most difficult to put to order, and so, the effects of bringing it to order will have the most significance as a benchmark.”

Prof S wanted to make an example of Gg and his fandom, and he wasn’t shy to say it.

Not that this statement really mattered, but here are some questions I have about it, from a simple logical standpoint: If Gg’s top traffic status was purely the outcome of a fan economy run amok, surely there has got to be an assembly line of top traffic stars by now, hasn’t it? And a galaxy full of them taking over Gg’s place? After all, according to this theory, all it takes for the next Gg is happen is to invest a lot of money. Gg has no background — Prof S said so himself. Gg’s rise to stardom also happened after 2018, after Fan Bing Bing’s tax evasion case and the draining of c-ent capital resulting from the government’s aggressive, retrospect tax collection; Gg’s income has therefore been far less compared to stars of equivalent popularity from several years ago. 2 27 also happened a mere six months after Gg’s rise, i.e. Gg had yet to accumulate significant wealth then. This means, especially in 2020, Gg was far from being the most affluent by c-ent’s standards. There are certainly people, and companies, with much more to spend on star making, and top traffic maintenance. Why haven’t they built the next top traffic star?

More importantly, if the elements listed above, the PR and MCN etc, are truly the ingredients of top traffic-dom and the evils associated with it, then why not put these elements to order first? Why did Prof S, an expert on cyberspace governance, choose to target their consequence, a fandom, instead?

A piece of news from March, 2022, published by 新華網 Xinhuanet, may offer a glimpse to the reason why. Xinhuanet is the online arm of 新華通訊社 Xinhua News Agency, the official state news agency and China’s highest-ranking state media organ, and is traditionally responsible for much of the country’s propaganda. In the news, Xinhuanet announced its collaboration with a media company, Hai Xi Chuan Mei 海西傳媒, which would focus on the website’s 內容資源強化、品牌價值提升、渠道流量拓展, content fortification, brand value enhancement, and channel traffic expansion.

What is brand value enhancement but PR? As it turned out, too, even a website with Xinhua in its name needed, and wanted, traffic. Who had it sought expertise from for this important collaboration then? Who was the very lucky one chosen by Xinhua to polish its image?

Here’s the description of Hai Xi Chuan Mei (Source):

海西傳媒 … 是一家集經紀、演出、製作、合作、投資運營於一體的綜合性文化傳媒公司。公司成立至今，形成了以藝人經紀為主體，綜藝製作為新骨幹的產業鏈，同時與業內影視製作、發行集團聯手打造經紀聯盟平台。

Hai Xi Chuan Mei is a comprehensive cultural media company integrating management, performance, production, investment and operation. Since its founding, it has formed an industry value chain that has star management as its focus and variety show production, its backbone. At the same time, it has formed a management alliance with film and TV production and distribution (business) groups.

Yes, Xinhua had sought expertise from c-ent, and from a star management company, no less. This Baidu (Chinese Wiki) page about Hai Xi includes a list of the stars managed by Hai Xi; look carefully at the photos at the bottom of the page, and one may find a familiar face or two.

Xinhua, at the very least, didn’t appear to even mind sharing the same image polisher with traffic stars.

Prof S’s statement rings a little differently with this piece of info, doesn’t it? The government may not actually mind a loss-of-control of fan economy, if the benefactor, the idol built by the fan economy is itself. Companies like Hai Xi are pretty much the embodiment of the elements Prof S have listed; rather than "effectively governing” them, however, the government is working with them, learning the ropes of image and traffic boosting from them. As such, there is little indication that the government actually intends for these elements to be “put to order” — instead, with 去流量化 “removal of traffic” from c-ent since last year, the intention is far more likely to be for these elements to work for the government instead.

For reasons that would be clear in a bit, Prof S was likely aware of this — not about the Xinhua - Hai Xi collaboration that had yet to be publicised, but the thirst of those who spoke for the government for image, and for traffic. Hence, his shifting the target to the consequence of these elements, the c-ent fandom, which the government had already been clear in its intention to “put to order”, to weaken.

Between possibly offending the government, and definitely offending someone without background, Prof S knew the smart thing to do.

As to pinpointing Gg’s fandom as the archetype that should be put to order — 10 days after this conversation, Gg would be performing as the Asian Games Ambassador.

Gg singing at the Asian Games Countdown Concert, 2020/09/10. At the shot of the audience in attendance (bottom photo), netizens commented that they were already nervous at the sight of it. The high-back chairs, the white covers, the placards, the suited, stiff postures were all visual clues that the seated officials were Very Important People. (Source)

Contrary to Prof S’s statement, there has been little indication that the government has anything personal against Gg, or that it plans to persecute him specifically in any way. The antis did get an idea right: if the government wanted to cancel Gg, it could have done so easily in the summer of 2021. After all, the list of crimes for 趙薇 Zhao Wei, whose name was removed from her filmography at the time, traced all the way back to an incident that had happened 20 years ago, in 2001, when Zhao had worn a skirt printed with the Japanese military flag.

Time is never an issue when the Chinese government has its mind set on handing out a punishment.

So, why did Prof S said what he did? I’m not him (thankfully), and so, I shall not speak for him. All I can say is this — what he said was music to the anti’s ears. It kept them in Prof S’s fandom for another day.

Yeah, fandom.

端傳媒 Initium media, a Chinese-language news site based in Singapore, is a relatively rare find in the Sinosphere in that its political leaning has been difficult to pin down, having been alternatively accused as pro- and anti-CCP. Equally rare is the attention it has given to 2 27: it reported on the incident not only while it was happening, but also, a year later. In its 2 27 anniversary review — the only one I know of from overseas (uncensored) websites, and written following journalistic standards — the reporter traced the incident’s evolution from its earliest, politically-charged focus on censorship and freedom of creative expression, to, finally, a fight between pro- vs anti-Gg fans that had little significance outside fandom, and the attitudes that had led to this change.

This is a news site with an understanding of Chinese fandom culture.

The same media, two months after 2 27’s anniversary and shortly after the Rocket-and-Cremation post, published a scathing analysis on Prof S, and the roster of nationalistic political influencers similar to him (there are a lot). What was scathing wasn’t any particular word choice, but rather, the angle it chose to portray Prof S and his rise to fame — as a traffic star. This is a long article, and I’m only translating a few relevant parts:

而觀察者網內部，沈逸是流量大咖之一。在觀察者網的bilibili頻道，他關於美國政治史的付費課程（價值108元）「白宮裏的主角們」，在本文寫作時，已獲得愈1100萬累計播放量，完全付費部分的單集播放量超過35萬；而他個人帳號的微博粉絲則達到119萬。沈逸的明星效應，固然是因為他具有其他觀察者網主播所不具有的學者身份 ...

And inside Guancha Net (Pie note: one of the most prominent nationalistic news sites in China right now), Prof S is one of the traffic stars. In Guancha Net’s Bilibili channel, his paid course on American politics (priced at RMB 108), “The Main Characters in the White House”, has already achieved a view count of 11 million at the time of this article’s writing, with 0.35 million being the episodes that are paid only, and his Weibo follower count has reached 1.19 million. Prof S’s celebrity effect has been contributed by his identity as a scholar, which isn’t shared by other vloggers on Guancha Net …

... 至於美國國內的政治結構、權力機構、選舉等方面，沈逸很少涉及，分析也淺嘗輒止，無非是「旋轉門」等入門理論，加上「政客短期利益vs國家長期戰略」之類的陳詞濫調，最後還都要回到「遏制中國」、「顏色革命」的落腳點上。可以說，沈逸在美國政治領域的專業素養，並不顯著強於他在觀察者網的非學者同行。

… As to the domestic political structure of the United States, its corridors of power and elections etc, Prof S rarely mentions them, and his analyses of them are also very shadow, nothing more than the basic theories such as the “revolving door”, plus cliché concepts such as “short-term gains for the politicians vs long-term strategy for the country” that, inevitably, conclude with “containment of China” and “Color Revolution”. One can say, Prof S’s professional knowledge in American politics is not evidently better than his non-scholarly colleagues on Guancha Net.

在2020年，沈逸「下場」與肖戰粉進行對罵，就獲得了巨大的關注度。無論他是否有意為之，參與流行文化中的脣槍舌劍，對於社交媒體時代的「網紅」而言，都是必不可少的。而同時，「學者」稱號卻是一個光彩照人的「人設」，讓他能夠區別於其他流量型主播，並給自己的欄目披上「理性客觀」的外皮，從而產生持久的吸引力。與娛樂明星不同，明星學者所需要的出位不是緋聞或者組CP賣腐，而是通過不斷極端化的民族主義、煽動性的排外主張、對國際局勢危言聳聽，把新老觀眾吸引到自己的節目中來。

可以說，沈逸既是「流量型學者」的代表，也是「學者型明星」中的佼佼者。其首要身份是流量明星，而學者只是明星的人設。

In 2020, Prof S “entered the game” and held a scolding match with Gg fans, and attracted an immense amount of attention for that. Whether he did so deliberately or not, to participate in the verbal sparring associated with popular culture is a necessity for an online influencer in the social media age. At the same time, “scholar” is a shining “characterisation” that distinguishes him from other traffic star vloggers, and it covers his programmes with a “logical and objective” skin that renders them attractive. Unlike entertainment stars, star scholars achieve the required provocation not via romantic rumours or M/M CPs, but via increasingly extreme nationalism, inflammatory xenophobic theories, and alarmist perspectives on international politics, to attract audiences old and new to his programmes.

One can say, Prof S is representative of the “Traffic Scholar”, and an outstanding “scholarly-style star”. His first identity is a traffic star, and scholar is only his star characterization.

(May I say … Ouch? 😂😂😂)

The take-home messages from this article are:

- Prof S is a traffic star, and precisely the kind of traffic star the government wants to remove from c-ent: all traffic, but with questionable actual skills.

- Prof S not only called Gg’s birthday gathering a Color Revolution, he called many other things a Color Revolution.

- Prof S seeks attention to attract new fans and traffic for himself and Guancha Net, where he rose to his (political) traffic stardom; he has done so by 1) engaging in popular culture, in particular, provoking Gg fans and antis in 2020, and 2) making incendiary political statements.

My reason for including in this meta this story, this “conflict” between Prof S and Gg’s fandom, is because I see it as another case of traffic robbery. By evoking Gg’s name and catching the attention of his fans and antis, Prof S profited, and the nationalistic news site that hosted him, that was so beloved by the “Little Pink”s who tended to support President Xi’s ideology, also profited. The antis, to show their support for Prof S, had purchased Prof S’s online courses, much like fans in c-ent buy their favourite stars’ endorsements. I mentioned before, that Prof S was likely aware of the thirst of those who speak for the government for image, and for traffic — he was likely aware because he was one of them.

And Prof S the political traffic star returned the love of his supportive fans by keeping the fantasies of his supportive fans alive — among these fantasies, the fantasy of Gg’s downfall. Hence, the statement about Gg’s fandom being the archetype; hence, the promise of putting it to order.

This is so ridiculous, isn’t it? But this is the thing we cannot forget — as much as Prof S is … Prof S — he * is * influential, he is still a professor (which comes with a halo of respect in Chinese societies), and he still may have President Xi’s ear. This case of traffic robbery, also, once again shows how little control the star and his fans have in these situations. If the articles from Procuratorate Daily controlled the timing of 2 27, then, Prof S controlled the timing of this story — he started it when he decided to post about the birthday gathering, he ended it when he deleted everything because he got tired of it. One may argue that Gg’s fans, at least, set the scene for 2 27; the same thing can’t even be said about what happened here. The fans didn’t do anything, until they found themselves and their idol being smeared by potentially serious political allegations, and reacted.

I hope this story lends a little more weight to the hypothesis that, in the post 2 27 government-fans relations, stars and their fans are becoming the passive, reactive parties. While people like Prof S aren’t strictly the government, they are also not not-government — nationalistic political influencers, whether they are prominent media sites like Global Times or Guancha Net, or individuals like Prof S, or gangs like the anonymous Little Pinks everywhere online, they wouldn’t have achieved the prominence they have in the Xi era without implicit government approval. And there’s no way to tell when these people may wish to “borrow” a little traffic for their own use, especially in politically sensitive times such as now.

And when such borrowing happens, it is difficult for any star and their team to stop their fans from reacting — Chinese fandoms are incredibly reactive, that’s the culture and no one can change it overnight, or singlehandedly. If politics is involved, the hands of the star and their team are even more tied — they can’t say aloud, please don’t touch this subject matter, or please stay away from this person — because to do so means they know what is sensitive, or where a political red line is, and often, that creates another issue on its own (I talked about the Paradox of Li Jiaqi here).

One may notice too, I’d like to add, how cavalier, how ... careless Prof S was through the entire story. His choices of emojis, for example; his exiting the scene because he got bored, because this wasn’t serious business for him — when he could be destroying the serious business, the career, of someone else. For him, those he had robbed the traffic from was collateral damage, he didn’t care.

Note that he used the fan cheer emoji when talking about India. Why the demeaning slangs? Because they were attention-catching, traffic boosting. He wasn’t above using even COVID deaths for his own gains.

People without empathy are especially tricky, if not dangerous, to deal with. If some of you are wondering: why are people like him in such prominent positions of influence? The only answer I can think of is ... dictators love sycophants.

And this is why, with traffic robbers like Prof S around, like Prof S who had political influence and his own fandom and his shiny “scholar” image, and with Gg’s birthday having already had a history of being “controversial” before, I can understand why October 5th, 2022 was a quiet day in our fandom. This case of traffic robbery lasted approximately 3 weeks, and the 7th Plenary Session was starting on the 9th this year. It would be cutting a little too close.

There will be more birthdays to come.

#pie metas

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