#//it's fine i don't use tumblr much anymore regardless

[zichqecs-hoard]

her!!

ssp angel!! my girl....

[observers-journal]

I dont know about you but recently I just saw someone here on tumblr using the Tenoch Huerta tagged doing the whole "you people should believe all victims because now there are mutiple woman accusing him. But you will defend white people like Ezra Miller"

Bffr.

Having you not been keeping pace and pretending to be ignorant. Many people on tumblr have been showing evidence that Elena isn't a victim, that all her so called "acts for women rights" is just her wanting political power, how she is light skin Latina who follows political that are anti-LGBT and trans. DOESN'T ANY OF THAT SCREAM 🚩

But know I bet you the who posted that isn’t keeping up with Mexcian news or how many people from MEXICO are admitting they thave either been threatened or assaulted by Elena or her family. Or better yet any document evidence against Elena that show poof she is a feminist. Even the other actress and feminist aren't clean one of them refined a man's life after convincing another actress she was SA or how the other feminist is a FRIEND of Elena which would've been fine since friend supporting friend if Elena didn't had such a dark history.

And I'll tell you this much. When this SA allegations came up I was on Elena side, however knowing Tenoch slander history I did found it suspicious. When more evidence came our that was AGAINST Elena I realized she a victim anymore regardless of her acid attack. Even if the evidence that Elena provide from her anon victims they still falled apart. While yes Tenoch being silence since the allegations is suspicious we don't know what going on on his end but I think when a other females that claim the FEMALE ACTIVIST is threating them, blocking any JOURNALIST who wants more of the story, the company that she is accusing to protect Tenoch providing EVIDENCE that they paid her, and looking beyond the Tenoch situation ND more towards Elena. People need to realize to stopping believing in the victims if there is so much evidence against them.

I think whatvi hate about this situation is that since this event is taking place in Mexico is harder for American media pick up to story unlike stories like Jonathan Majors case or the Johnny Deep case. And even when media picked up the SA allegations they didn't bother to continue their research and then dropping it leaving only the headlines the SA allegation 🙄. When there is so much more to this case that is proving innocence of Tenoch. I think unless there are other Americans who are still keeping up with this story they will know that Tenoch is innocent while Elena is a piece of shit while the majority would see his allegations.

That's a great take on the issue, Anon!

I find it infuriating, but I'm not surprised. In today's time of information overdose, all anyone cares about is the sensational news. So the allegations story made for a nice spicy, juicy piece of gossip, and it spread like wildfire. Coz people love to gossip, oh look at this actor (and racists going to the extent of labeling him as a sexual offender/addict coz he's a brown man 🙄).

Nobody cares about context, nuance, or bothering to do a little bit of research. Coz who will put all that effort! Because if anybody put even the slightest of effort, it is crystal clear who is innocent and who is not in this case. In fact, the more people here and on Twitter are investigating, the more disturbing things are emerging. We can now see there's a group of people who have come together with the sole purpose of destroying Tenoch's reputation and career.

I am a 1000% sure Tenoch is dealing with this just fine on his end. Unfortunately he is used to shit like this, although perhaps not at this scale. But I'm certain he's preparing a legal case, and there was a video posted yesterday wherein a Mexican lawyer covered the legalities of this case. All the evidence is in his favor. It's good he's staying away from social media, it will do no good to his career or his case.

I wish our group here had the means to make all this investigation gain more traction. We are trying our best, so are the folks on Twitter. But I'm also of the opinion that the American media and people have forgotten about it already. The public tends to have short-term memory. Do journalists care about clearing a man's name they very conveniently labelled as guilty? Of course not 🙄 most journalism is trash these days, barring few.

[nerdnag]

Hi Sara! You are wise and cool and I'd appreciate advice if you have any! I am trying to make friends especially with fellow autistic people in real life but it is very very hard and scary also I don't know how to find people who want friends. Do you have any advice? (Please only answer if you want to!)

Thank you Ghostly!! 🙏 You are so valid - it *is* hard and scary to make irl friends!! (... Online friends too, tbh)

I don't know if I have any helpful advice, but I'll try!

I think what's worked best for me is to meet people in contexts that are related to specific, niche interests. I'm not entirely sure I have any IRL friends anymore who are only autistic, I do have a bunch who are both autistic and have ADHD though. And all of them, I've met through various kinds of special interests.

For example, several people in my TTRPG group are neurodiverse. How did I meet them? I happened to sit next to a guy I'd never spoken to before while at a work lunch, and we got to talking fantasy books (... I don't really remember how), which got us into RPG talk, which eventually led to him asking me by the end of the lunch whether I'd like to join the TTRPG group that he and some of his friends were starting up soon. That was 3,5 years ago, and we're still playing together to this day!

Another, I met through Magic: The Gathering - we were going to the same weekend event (not related to MtG) and I saw him post in a thread about looking for people to play some games with, so I replied to him, and we pretty much clicked right away because it turned out we had lots of other similar interests as well.

A third, I got to know through playing social deception games at yet another event, in which we sort of fell into a banter-y jargon while trying to convince everyone else to vote out the other. (We were both the wild cards in every game, because I had a habit of grinning wildly and looking generally untrustworthy regardless of which role I was given, and he had an absolutely straight face regardless and was really hard to read, so we pretty quickly identified each other as friendly rivals.) Then I figured out he lived in the same city as I did, and my train was cancelled, so I used my Charisma™ to hitch a ride with him and his dad back home :D

... So based on my own experiences, it seems I've mostly met other neurodiverse people through various kinds of games, which is one of my great passions in life! Depending on what your interests are, maybe there are events, groups or such that you could be on the lookout for? Sort of like it usually happens on Tumblr I guess, but IRL it's a bit harder since you have to do more work and research to find those places and communities.

The thing is though, it will always be scary. The first time I went to play with the TTRPG group, I was super scared. I barely said anything during the first hour or so, and even after several sessions, it still took some time each time to get back into it and relax. But I always have a lot of fun while playing, and I know they appreciate having me there, so that makes it easier to relax and not worry so much. It was the same thing with the MtG friend - I rewrote that first message sooo many times, and then had a racing heart by the time I went to meet up with him. The trick for me has been to recognise when it's worth pushing through that discomfort, and try to be accepting of the fact that sometimes it won't work out, but sometimes it will; sometimes it will lead to amazing friendships, but sometimes it will fizzle out or face plant before it could even start. And that's fine.

It gets easier with time in my experience, but it never gets easy. I've sort of had to accept that I usually don't make a great first impression. It's not that I make a bad impression, I just don't think I make much of an impression at all - I probably seem more shy than I really am, and sometimes my fears make me behave really awkwardly. But after a couple times, as I start to relax and get more comfortable being myself, I think I can make a really really good impression! And I stress a little less about first impressions when I remind myself of that.

Oh, and one more thing: I've personally found that it's a lot easier to meet new people if they are there by themselves. People who already hang out in groups are much harder to approach. Because of this reason, actually, I tend to avoid going to places together with my friends if my aim is to meet new people. It means I won't have the comfort and safety of my friends with me, but it increases the likelihood that I'll approach people I wouldn't have talked to others - or that they will approach me! (The friend I met through social deception games is the opposite, though. He says the comfort of having friends with him makes him more relaxed and confident, which makes it easier for him to meet new people.)

[starblazes]

🔥give me salt

( let me air out my unpopular opinions / accepting !! )

this is going to actually piggyback off of something @iniziare talked about because it was such a good reminder. but i think people are entirely too comfortable in giving away information about themselves. i don't think a lot of us, myself included, realise how much of ourselves we actually put online over a period of time and it's so, so dangerous. i'm an early millennial, so i didn't even have access to the internet until i was in school and, even then, we were always taught from the very beginning the importance of 'stranger danger' and internet safety. i feel like over time that has gone away to such an extent that we have become too comfortable and too reliant on using the internet as a vocal platform for things that it should not be used for.

i'm talking about personal information, personal grievances, things that you think are harmless but over time become puzzle pieces of your life. things that, given a little digging, someone can easily use to locate you. and to tie-in what iniziare was saying, yes, you can make wonderful friends on tumblr. some of them can be life-long friendships, even! but also, not everyone you talk to on tumblr is your friend. there's a difference between being friendly and being friends. everyone you divulge information to, especially of the mental, financial or physical variety, may not be equipped to handle it or may not have your best interests at heart. we have turned our online relationships with, frankly speaking, strangers, into therapy sessions and therapists, sounding boards and vent journals.

back in my early tumblr rp days, i ended up receiving an anonymous letter in the mail at my physical address from a "secret admirer" who had pieced together my legal name and address based on little things i had posted over a period of years. that was terrifying. they only lived an hour from me and to this day, i shudder to think what could have happened if they had shown up at my house. and though, luckily, nothing bad ever did come of it, that is literally the premise of so many internet horror stories.

the worst part was, they weren't even from tumblr. they had stumbled upon my blog through a google search and happened to see a picture i had posted of myself on one of my blogs for munday. there's a reason you will not find me posting selfies on munday anymore, and this is exactly why. my privacy is my peace and i wish more people remembered that their privacy is theirs too, especially in an age where we willingly, and sometimes, demand so much of each other on social media. the paypal links with your full government name you used to try to make bills and get groceries, the google docs for your blogs attached to a google account with your personal information... anyone, regardless if they are on tumblr or not, can stumble upon that through the right google search.

you do not need to divulge your traumas to anyone. you do not need to air out your entire ancestral background, your location, your exact age (a range is fine, if you must divulge it), you do not need to make a laundry list of your medical and psychological conditions. normalise protecting yourselves again. normalise respecting people's boundaries. normalise respecting and protecting each other's peace.

[transmonstera]

In regards to your posts about ao3 and how vile it is in actuality, I wanna say thank you. I've not put much thought into the website I've been using but this has put things into perspective. I no longer want my work (work that I am proud of) on a website like that. Ao3 doesn't align with my values and I'm assuming many other people's who use the site.

Do you have any suggestions on a better site everyone can use?

(Side note: I absolutely adore your work!)

sure thing!

while there are no websites quite like ao3 in terms of filtering, curation, bookmarks, likes/comments etc there are a few alternatives out there!

Wattpad - I know people make fun of this one because it's where all the rpf for bands went back in the day but it is still operating and many people use it so you'll likely just switch viewers from ao3 to wattpad pretty seamlessly

Tumblr - you can always post directly on here! there is a character limit i believe of 4k so it's great for showing previews or even cutting up a small fic into parts 1, 2, 3, etc. a little clunky but it's an option if you only write short stuff! (Twitter threads can even be an option for this though again, a lil restrictive and works better for super short works!)

Google Docs + Linktree - if you have a linktree account you can always just link a view only (make sure people can't edit!) google doc of the fic! having the fics on a linktree still give people the ability to see all of your work in one place, and you can even see on linktree the click statistics for each fic! while it doesn't give the reader the ability to like/comment, you can always encourage those who do like it to leave a message on your tumblr!

Discord (or any groupchat tbh!) - similar to above you can always set up a discord server and post your fics view docs links there! it gives a curated experience and you can see the comments of people directly in the server

AO3 has seemingly made people believe that each and everyone one of their fan creations must be thrown out into the void where you hope everyone sees it and loves it. I think this has really stifled people's abilities to truly be creative in terms of making content of their favourite medias (and even with transitioning to making original work!) because you may subconsciously be adhering the current trends and whatnot of everyone else, even if you don't really like it yourself! I mean look at how common modern/high school aus still are today when I have yet to meet anyone who actually likes them. Look at how many books that have been published lately that painfully follow AO3 tag systems, where they don't even havea blurb anymore and instead just have "friends to lovers meet blah blah blah! read it now!". (Not to mention the quality of the books being published is fucking atrocious)

AO3 has ruined publishing and I am being entirely serious about that.

But back to where you wanna go with your fics now. Don't be afraid to restructure how you interact with your hobbies! It doesn't have to be so exposed and vulnerable to anyone and everyone having their say on it. I used to participate massively in fandom and I'll be honest, it made me miserable. I constantly felt like I couldn't keep up, that my ideas were wrong because another idea was more popular, and I really struggled. So I took about a hundred steps back and only interact with the media I like through my friends who also like it! And it's a lot better! You may not get hundreds and thousands of likes on fics from here on out if that's what you're used to, but I guarantee you'll have more meaningful interactions that you actually hold dear to you far more than any "a guest has left a kudos on your work" notification.

(Also just a pre-emptive thing of anyone who wants to defend AO3 on this post because "it's an integral part of fandom!" or "they need that much money because they run a site with no ads!", or you want to try and tell me that the fics on there are fine because it's fiction regardless of what the fics is (including literal fucking CSAM), just know you are completely unserious and I don't value a single thing you say. So don't even try it. How about you donate to a marginalised person's mutual aid for the first time in your life and you'll calm down.)

[meeting-strxlight-archived]

I've gotten Isa a new Faceclaim - thanks to @lex-cursus - so that's currently in the works. Might put up a starter for her (and actually put her bio into the Carrd, so people know what she's about lol) and work on her for a bit.

Might also see if I'm missing any replies from that blog, and maybe cut them if I am and redo them here so I get the reblog.

Perks of fusing all blogs into one, I suppose.

I also need to get my finger out and actually work on the Carrd, getting all bio's and such done. It's just such a daunting task; one that I really don't fully know how to tackle. It might end up being that I just create a simple google document and link that in there, rather than what that Carrd provides.

So much to do, and I feel I've never got the full motivation or time to do it, haha. Doesn't help my head's stuffy today and I've got a headache I can't budge.

Also, as a side note; Tumblr, why'd you fuck with tags? Tags were fine before 'cause they looked the exact same when you put them in. Now they change my capitalization and dashes. For example, my OOC tag should be:

{Out of Coffee - OOC}

Except now Tumblr adjusts it to:

{out of coffee ooc}

It just doesn't feel right. Might see if there's an Xkit thing there that I can use to change that. I format things in certain ways to help my brain. Maybe I'll just get rid of tags all-together; they don't really... Do much, anymore.

As another side note, if you have any feedback - good or bad - for how I've adjusted speech from simple "insert text" to:

┈➤ ❝ [text] ❞

I'd appreciate it. I'm still unsure if I like how that looks, and I might still adjust it regardless, but input never hurt anyone, right?

[blue-corvid]

Tumblr Live Hot(?) Takes

The thing that really kills me about Tumblr Live is honestly that it could have been fine -- useful even!

I already follow streamers on Tumblr! I follow artists, comedians, video game let's-players, tabletop gaming nerds, all of whom stream somewhere that isn't Tumblr! If I could watch them stream on Tumblr, I would absolutely do that!

But Tumblr. My beloved. You fucked it up so bad. You immediately made it as sketchy and annoying as possible, and now... by the point that “everybody hates it” is the thing most people know about it, i can’t imagine it would be easy to save.

So this is my open letter to Tumblr (I don't know who to direct it at -- @staff? I hope that's okay) -- here’s where I think you went wrong, and how you could fix it (if it is, in fact, fixable.)

Tumblr Live appeared silently with no warning.

When it first showed up, the only thing I heard about it was “what the fuck is this?” I Googled it and found basically nothing, and then when I looked it up in Tumblr’s support pages, it wasn’t super clear what Tumblr Live was or what it was for. Streaming platform was only my best guess.

Most of the article was about how you could make money off it. Tumblr, I can’t make money off of it if I don’t know what it is, how to use it, or how to explain it to anyone.

This isn't the case anymore, but it was a serious problem early on.

(Seemingly) no effort to make it look appealing or useful.

It looks and acts like an ad. It’s positioned like an ad at the top of the dashboard. Like an ad, it doesn’t have any connection to what I do or care about on Tumblr.

It looks to be a bunch of still shots from the live chats that it’s promoting and this is just such an unbelievably bad idea.

See, here's the thing: Tumblr has a running problem with porn bots, most of which can be quickly identified by their avatars, which are almost always (stolen) pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing.

Guess what every single image I can see on the Tumblr Live ad banner is? Did you guess pictures of attractive women, often in revealing clothing? See the problem? Regardless of my feelings on or desire to interact with cam girls (which are, for the record: I’m not interested personally but I wish you good vibes and good luck and respectful clients), my gut reaction upon seeing the Tumblr Live banner is, “That looks like a bunch of porn bots.”

When you add this to how hard it was to find information about Tumblr Live, how poorly its terms of service were explained, and the state of the internet right now (with every social media site gunning to get its teeth into its uses' throats to vampire as much sensitive personal data from them as possible), Tumblr Live looks dangerous.

When Tumblr users got annoyed with it, there was (seemingly) no effort to fix any of the problems.

Instead of explaining clearly what Live is and how it works and making it inherently less intrusive, Tumblr made excuses about how they had to try to make it profitable and doubled down on making it as annoying as possible with its stupid “snooze” feature.

Every time this stupid porn-bot-looking ad banner popped up on someone’s dash after a week of being lulled into a false sense of security, they hated it a little more.

Tumblr basically hand-crafted a sitewide campaign to yell about how bad this feature is once a week.

How could it have been better?

It’s all well and good to sit here and pass judgement, but was it not just doomed from the start? Could Tumblr really have done any better?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

Here’s how you fix Tumblr Live:

Get rid of the ad-banner-style preview placement.

Instead, mimic what people are doing for their Twitch streams already. Send out a notification on my dashboard when a blog I follow goes live. Respect the rules for normal Tumblr posts when it comes to visibility: let people blaze and reblog them and don’t push them out to people who wouldn’t normally see posts from that blog except according to users’ dashboard preferences.

For persistent notifications (since streams aren’t one-and-done like posts), put a list of blogs I follow that are currently live in the sidebar.

Because these features are no longer intrusive, you no longer need an option in the settings to toggle them off, and people who initially wrote off Live can explore it if it ever becomes valuable to them instead of making it disappear forever.

Get the stream previews off users' screens as soon as humanly possible.

Tumblr has a porn bot problem. Because people's (especially women's and especially cam girls') pictures get scraped for porn bot avatars, Tumblr users are gonna associate pictures of real live non-celebrity people (especially women) with internet scams. Forget this "keep it clean" shit -- whether it looks "clean" matters less than whether it looks like someone wants to steal my credit card information. (And on the other side of that, please understand that sex worker positivity doesn't help sex workers if a feature they use gets shut down because your average Tumblr user thinks it looks so sketchy that they won't touch it with a ten-foot pole.)

Replace the stream preview with the streamer's avatar and the stream title and/or a streamer-selected cover image.

Get help from actual streamers.

Go find Tumblr users who regularly make posts announcing Twitch streams and introduce them to Tumblr Live. For people who already use Tumblr, already stream stuff, and already use Tumblr to tell their audience that they're streaming, having a streaming platform attached to Tumblr could be a real convenience. If you have premium streaming features, find some popular streamers who use Tumblr and give them free access to those features for a while. Even better, maybe ask them for feedback on those features.

Most importantly, get people who stream a variety of different things. Even if Tumblr users don't hate Tumblr Live, if they're under the impression that it's only for one thing and that one thing is something they're not into, they're never gonna use it.

...That's it, that's all I've got. I know this post is a monster, but if anyone reads it: thanks. Good luck in to all in this new era of Tumblr.

[kelpiemomma]

TLDR: I'm not going to be on Tumblr a lot anymore. To those interested in keeping in more frequent contact, my discord account is KelpieMomma#6353. Send me a dm with your discord name if you send a friend request so I don't assume it's spam.

So, I'm not sure how many people noticed but I've been off of tumblr for a bit. The last couple weeks I've been browsing I've only felt worse and worse. It's not even posts about real life events that do it but, of all things, art. Not my friends art, which I'm always delighted to see and share, but the bigger, more popular artists. The ones who gets hundreds and thousands of notes on every piece they put up, whether it's a sketch or not. I've been feeling defeated. I'm not even stressed, I'm just tired and bitter. Tumblr has been my main website for many years, but between it and deviantart and the popularity contests on both of them...

Honestly I had a serious thought about simply not drawing anymore. Packing up my sketchbooks, selling off or giving away my colored pencils and paints. I know that art is for the creator but it's also incredibly lonely when you upload something to share and get... almost no response. Maybe I'm being selfish and greedy, and I'm not upset that my friends enjoy my work, but no matter how much I ever put up, no matter the effort I put in, I saw the same 3-5 people interacting and almost no one else. It's disheartening.

Lately I've been having feelings of being back in middle school. I had a friend back then, one I'm no longer friends with, who made art miserable. She wanted praise for her work while never doing the same for others. She would tell us about how she was getting commissions and how people wanted to interact with her art, regardless of how it made us feel. As long as she got attention she was fine. And while years have passed, and as an adult I can comprehend the trauma she was going through to make her like that, it still fucked me up and continues to do so. For me, Tumblr has become That Friend. It's become the one who wants praise for their work while ignoring others. It's become the friend who promotes the Best while those that aren't as skilled get left behind.

Once again, I'm inadequate. I'm not enough. It's a ridiculous feeling to have, I know, but I continue having it. What I put up gets interacted with by the same people consistently and nobody else. I am dragging the corpse of my ideas around, hoping that someone will show interest in helping me carry it.

So I'm kind of... done. With tumblr. With deviantart. With trying. I'm going to continue working on my fics, I'm going to keep sketching, but I'm going to be trying to give Tumblr space. I don't want to be in it constantly when it just makes me feel like shit. I might make a new account, start fresh, but I'm not sure yet.

I'm just too tired for this. I can't keep doing it. I'm not interesting enough, talented enough, or interested in enough to achieve anything. One of those things that sinks in as you get older I guess.

I'll likely still upload intermittently but I'm going to be doing my best to just... not. There's not much point to it for me.

[sexybabystevie]

i kinda want to get back into writing again, only im not exactly sure how if we're being honest. it's been so long and so much has happened i feel like i've lost the ability to do it. or the idea of writing feels so- distant. any tips on how to get back into it?

hi anon! i absolutely want to say that feeling this way is totally okay and valid! i feel like this a little bit currently, and it is pretty hard to stop feeling this way and to get out of that slump. however, i do think i can give you some tips!

also, i just want to say that it's totally okay if you don't want to write anymore, or if your mental wellbeing comes first. sometimes we get overwhelmed by what we feel we should be doing, and it's hard to just enjoy our old hobbies like we used to. if that's the case, taking a break can be good, but you can also use writing to try and cope with what's going on. (i do this a lot. you don't necessarily have to write about your situation, but you can do that if you want! i write very similar situations with some of my favorite characters - or sometimes i become a little evil and write pure angst to get through it. it helps!)

anyway, back to the tips!

1.) READ. i know this sounds a little silly, but sometimes we lose touch of how much we enjoy fics and literature because we don't have the time to enjoy others' works! reading your own share of fics can totally help, but it's okay if that doesn't apply to you or if it doesn't help at all. i become inspired by others frequently, so it's something that can assist me at times!

2.) try not to stress about it. i know this one is hard, but when we place a lot of pressure on ourselves to write perfectly, to have amazing works out to our followers all of the time, it really drains us of our drive and our inspiration, and it makes writing seem like a chore rather than something we're meant to enjoy.

3.) start out small. basically, try not to rush yourself into writing huge fics again. it's okay to do little blurbs or shorter one shots to get back into the groove of things.

4.) if you do have an idea that really inspires you, go for it! when i come up with an idea i absolutely love, sometimes the words are just easier to write, and i stress less about how im doing and have more fun! if you can do this, i totally suggest trying it!

5.) if you don't have any ideas, try pinterest or other sources. i have a boad on pinterest that's strictly writing prompts, and it's a great source for inspo and knowledge about writing! i know a lot of writing blogs exist on tumblr as well, so using those can be of great help too.

6.) check in with where your interests lie. this may sound strange, but part of the issue could be that you're trying to force yourself to write for characters or a series you no longer are passionate about (or are as passionate as you used to be). this is totally fine! maybe explore some new forms of media to write for, and incorporate that into your blog! (and don't stress, i find that the desire to write for certain series or media can come back in time! especially when/if you suddenly get more content for it!)

7.) if you're swamped with other things, don't force it! try not to stress even more about making your followes happy by giving them content. trust me when i say most of us would rather you enjoy what you post rather than feeling obligated to stress over something entirely and then post it. your health and happiness comes first, and when those needs are met it's so much easier to get back into the swing of things!

these are the main things that help me, i'm sure there are more but my brain isn't really working all that well right now. regardless, i hope that this helps you out anon! sending you so much love and positivity, you got this! <333

[stolencrownsofplenty]

GET TO KNOW YOUR ADMIN !!

name — Phoenix; Nix is even good if you want to keep from using a mouthfull of a name :D

pronouns — They/Them/He/Him/She/Her. I prefer any of these, but am cool with they/them used mainly for convenience.

preferred comms — Just prefer discord as my main communication. Tumblr IMs are used to either add someone or if they don't have a discord at all.

name of muse — The Emperor, or in some other cases The Lamb. (They do have a mortal name, but they don't remember it so dw about it.)

experience in RP — As far as memory serves, I have 10 years of RP experience under my belt. First started on Fa.cebook with an OC I've long forgotten due to it being a self insert, but eventually settled into tumblr when I discovered the website because of meme reposts. I did not know an RPC existed on here until two years in that the community was super active at that time. Went from FN.AF muses, Stev.en Uni.verse briefly, did Por.tal 2 muses for a few months, then got stuck with MS.A muses and CO.TL canon and OC muses to make up my whole history on here. I know my way to adapt to villain and hero personalities, and have years of character study with different personalities to know my way of getting the right nudge of perfecting a character personality.

Would that be enough to say I have a passion for a my craft? That's up for you to debate lmao.

best experiences — I vaguely remember getting my entire dashboard to go into a cursing (saying fuck) frenzy for a few hours when I was posting crack commentary with a few people I don't write with anymore. The RPC for MS.A was still pretty big and active back then in 2018, so when I followed a ton of those blogs, everyone kinda knew everyone; and thats where it started. I think it even went to non MS.A blogs too, but I won't too sure since I wasn't paying attention at that point.

pet peeves/dealbreakers — In general breaking boundaries one will set for their own well being. Yet another thing that turns me way off is not being matched with the same amount of enthusiasm I may have with interacting with someone. I do try my best to interact as much as possible, but it does put a damper on ones mood when the person at the end of me reaching out doesn't really reciprocate my interested energies. Yeah, irl stuff often comes first and whatnot, but if we haven't interacted during the first few months of following each other? I'll just unfollow and softblock, just to save myself my wasted time.

Sometimes people don't click and that's okay. It still sucks, but ya gotta move on with life though.

muse preference ( fluff, angst, smut ) — i don't really have a preference, as I'm normally fine with whatever my rp buds may want to throw at me. Smut I may be semi-selective with, but its not off the table if I know you and your muse enough if that's something you're interested in. I'm still outta practice when it comes to that one, but in general I like to put my muses in situations and just let them react to it. Sometimes you can get the best threads (as long you guys got the base idea plotted out) with spontaneous works.

plot or memes — Got a preference for memes as icebreakers, but plotting does get that foot in the door as well. I like the icebreakers just to let people or myself put themselves out there because it gives people a chance to interact without the pressure of having to write someone out in major detail. But I do also prefer plotting with a loose guideline when me and my RP partner can be confident enough around each other with what we both may want out of an rp thread.

long or short replies — depends on my mood and how much energy/time i have to spare! typically though, i write longer replies; i like to give lots of detail and really set the mood with my posts. it doesn't super matter to me how much my partner writes tho, i kinda just do my own thing regardless...but shorter stuff has its perks, too. so i guess i can go either way!

best time to write —Whatever my muses is feeling tbh. I do not control how my muse energy works, but I do know I am the type of putting all my moves into one big attack and then having to rest for the rest of a gaming match sorta deal. Replies take a lot out of me and I have only a limited amount of spoons when it comes to it. I let my muse guide me and help keep them track on the way so it doesn't derail the entire thread.

are you like your muse?: I mean,,,,, They ARE a self insert I created for my own enjoyment and control fantasy, but I will say I do strictly follow the mun=/=muse rules; while my muse may be a murder and cannibalistic with a colony of followers who would die for them, I do not reflect my character. Anything that happens in fiction stays in fiction. I like my character because they help with the confidence boost, but I still keep them at a distance when it comes to "am I like my muse?" questions. I love them to pieces though as any OC creator is with their baby. Just gotta remember that if I ever met them irl I would run for the hills lmao.

TAGGED: @damnlamb TAGGING:

[ghostcappuccino]

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒

welcome to ghostcappuccino! this is a hub blog for my multifandom rp sideblogs, for whose i will follow from here. this is a companion blog of ghostories, hub blog for horror/dark topics-centred rp sideblogs, and ghostflying, hub blog for pokémon rp sideblogs. the following rules apply to every sideblog of this hub.

→ activity.

i am extremely low activity on every blog, always. partially for lack of time, partially because it helps a lot my mental health, i rarely check the dash and might spend days or even weeks without being able to connect at all to tumblr. it means that i generally won't be present for dash commentaries (because i will always be late for them) and might take a while before replying to anything. if you send me something, please be patient! even private messages i might see and respond after literal weeks - i'm not ignoring you, i'm just literally not present!

→ memes & plotting.

i rarely send starters out of simply arriving late for them and not seeing them, but i gladly send them when i can! i don't mind not receiving prompts (out of being the first one not sending them usually) but i'd appreciate you not using my blog as a memes source, possibly. i work better with plotting as they hold my attention longer and i get stuck much less, but i don't mind random starters! please do send me any prompt anytime you like, i will gladly reply! i just enjoy writing so much, my friend, it's all i need to be happy to be fair. <3

→ threads.

i enjoy having multiple threads at once with a single person, i don't keep a limit! anything we'd like to write together, please let's do it, regardless of how many things we are already writing together. <3 i also don't mind if you decide to drop one or more threads of ours - no need to tell me! once again due to my extremely low activity, i know inspiration might simply disappear. don't be afraid to simply drop and move on, and eventually we can start something new! i'd rather we have fun, instead of forcing ourselves to continue something we don't want to write anymore. <3 i roleplay a little bit of everything, but i don't roleplay smut, and prefer to keep suggestive content for people i trust fully.

→ triggers.

while this hub blog is focused on more light topics of, say, ghostories, heavy topics and triggering content might still appear in my threads - because unfortunately i do like writing it, kek. triggers will always be tagged, and always like this: [trigger] //. if you need anything specific tagged, let me know! for me, i generally just ask if you can tag animal death and sexual content. i'd rather avoid interactions with characters from h.azbin h.otel, thank you.

→ mun.

hi! thank you for reading thus far! i currently go by ghost (you might have known me as cinder, zero or castiel previously), i am 28 years old, italian, and any pronoun is fine with me. i hope we will have a splendid time together! <3

[rinhaler]

Hiii luxe bb 🫶,

Do you have any tips for like growing a following on here and stuff? I’ve been putting a lot of time into my writing but I’m just not sure how to get followers and stuff ? Like I know it’s not that easy but I’m pretty new here (lmao feel like such a dweeb being new to tumblr in 2024 😭)

anyways ily thanks 🥺👉🏼👈🏼

Hi love!!

To be honest since I moved blogs my following isn't that big. It's probably big to some and small to others, but I think it's quite intimate over here? I don't have much advice to offer I'm afraid because Tumblr is very fickle I feel. You can work yourself to the bone on something your proud of and get little interactions but then something else you barely put effort into can get thousands of notes. I'm really grateful to every bit of support I've received and I love my followers and I'm happy to be able to have interactions and stuff on my work but it can definitely be discouraging when you don't get the interactions you're hoping for.

I will say, the follower count doesn't matter in my opinion. Like sure it's nice but over time blogs might stop logging in and interacting so they're just like silent followers.

But if you are interested in growing your followers, posting more frequently helps. I just post when I want bc I used to post every single day on my old blog and my growth was crazy but I got so burnt out and just hated writing. Plus, the followers I gained from doing that weren't always active so it was really difficult not knowing why I was performing so poorly despite having a larger following.

People always say you should write for yourself and it's very true tbh. I used to be mega obsessed with my follower count and interactions and it made me so miserable but since I've moved I've not cared at all. The pressure is gone and I'm just genuinely having fun writing and posting whenever I want. And then if something doesn't do well, it isn't a big deal because I had fun writing a story and sharing it regardless.

I'm not saying I don't care at all when something doesn't perform well because it does absolutely suck when you work hard and you don't get the response you'd hoped for, but I don't let it ruin my days anymore like I used to. I just shrug and move on. There's always gonna be new stories to tell and you never know which one people are gonna fall in love with.

I think a lot of people have tiktok brain too, long fics aren't super popular because people just want a quick consumable story to nut to akdhgalkdsh. I love writing long fics but I definitely do those for me, and if they do well I'm happy and if they don't that's fine bc at least I know I've written something for myself and I'm proud.

My requests often do better than my actual fics bc they are easier to write. They're always shorter and therefore easier for people to digest!

Making friends here is hard too but that's always a good way to go. I love the friends I've made here because you get to gossip about what you're working on and you can brainstorm with them too. And more often than not your friends always wanna hype you up and share your work which gets it to more and more people y'know??

Sorry this is so long and probably super unhelpful. There's no magic trick to getting interactions and followers though otherwise I'd have worn the button out a long time ago 😭😭 just try and have fun with it :) take care bby!!

[oraclekleo]

Hey Kleo! 💗 Checking up on you! Hope everything is alright with you. I've also had a hard moment but your blog helped me out that day and I'd like to return that energy to you! I hope you'll have it all figured out, I know you're strong enough to beat this and I hope you don't feel alienated with your blog coming back up lol I know the possible spamming or being noticed more than you were might make you feel you have to reach up to peoples expectations but regardless people are here because of you and the fact that your page is genuinely a safe space for us who enjoy this community. I'm happy for you and hope you get the attention you deserve, you constantly update us which is cool too and the interaction is by far one of the best I've seen in the tarot community, I genuinely feel like a friend in passing lol 💕 hope you know we're here for you and if you need to blow some steam off, you've got people who care! Hope work is okay and you get the things you deserve and work hard for! Praying for much abundance and smiles (and a little darkness 😈🤫🤌🏽). Love you and take care!! ♥️🫧💓❣️

Hey!

It's very kind of you! I'm truly grateful for your care. And yes, everything is fine. More or less. 😊

I have rested during the weekend so my fatigue went back to manageable levels. 😂 It's never gone, but at least it's not affecting me anymore in a bad way. 😁

And yes, it's a bit of a rush now when the blog is visible again but it's nothing I couldn't handle. It's Tumblr. When I don't feel like responding at the moment, I simply close the app and done. I have all notifications off, I don't receive alerts about somebody texting or messaging me. I have it like that in all social media. When I have time and mood I open the app and see the messages. When I'm not in the mood I prefer not to be under pressure of notifications. 😂 I started to mute all social media about 5 years and I must say it made wonders with my mental health. The stress dropped instantly. 😂Such a little and easy thing.

I'm happy you feel comfortable around here, that's my intention. I like to make people feel relaxed even on the internet. I'm pretty sure the world outside is hectic enough already, no need to pollute this blog with it. 😊 I consider many of you my friends and I'm genuinely happy to talk to you. 💖

I prefer not to share my burdens publicly. From time to time I might slightly bubble up with anger, it happens, anger is the only emotion I still have and can feel. However, I would never spoil the mood by ranting or complaining excessively. My issues are my responsibility and it's on me to deal with them. It's one of many unhealthy coping mechanisms I have developed over the years. It's effective though, so I don't feel the need to replace it with healthy coping mechanism. 😂

I appreciate the offer of a shoulder to cry on, though. It's very nice of you. Only I don't really cry, to be honest. 🤭

Thank you for your wishes (especially the darkness 😈😂)!

Love you, too! Be kind to yourself, take care 💕💕💕

[tenrose]

You know before university I was never a big TV shows kind of person (with some exceptions). Then I was here and at the same time ignoring my student duty and I got into a lot of TV shows at the same time. Then a few years ago, like around 2016 I think, a big shift happened and I gradually watched less and less TV shows. Then of course work, and given the fact that my work requires starring intensely at a screen for hours despite my eyesight, I admit that I don't really want to stare more at a screen when I'm home (well except my phone is right now calling me a hypocrite but unfortunately it's a bad addiction) and also I have no time. Add to the fact that a lot of TV shows are reboot, massive capitalist money maker with absolutely no substance just milking a big franchise to the last dry vein, adaptation of books because nobody who has an original idea can be a screenwriter anymore, and really you can understand why I slowly lost interest. I'm just tired to the chore. It's sad that capitalism exhaust literally every aspect of my life including hobbies. So anyway in the meantime I have been addicted to uninteresting shit on my phone (yeah it's a screen) and compulsed to keep doing this self destructive behaviour (not including Tumblr I'm fine here, it's not destructive for me since I'm way less present than before) and having no hobbies. Sometimes tried to watch some TV shows but my attention span seemed to be dead outside of work. And I was a bit frustrated to not be able to feel the addiction thing.

And of course reading. Because, unlike TV shows I have been a reader since childhood. Wasn't allowed to watch that much TV (it changed so much for my third brother...), so I only had books. But then a few years back, I read less and less to the point in the last years I wasn't able to read and this shit hurt me so much more than being unable to watch a show. Not being able to read is like losing myself. But finally after months of exercise I'm here, I read, I forget to do things cause I'm reading, I still have this bad habit to go to bed way too late for alarm the next morning but not because of my phone! And the best part is that I managed to go back to reading different things that I was used to before, and damn I feel so much more happier than before. I don't feel frustrated anymore. I don't care anymore about not watching TV shows. I didn't care before, I don't care now. Books are so much better anyway. I prefer the images from my brain over any images on a screen anyday (I'm only low-key sad that I have never been able to draw lmao). Plus, the universe of reading is so vast, way beyond american stories. I don't care anymore about not being in a conversation about the latest trending TV show, but I care about not being able to talk about I loved or not a book for hours. In conclusion I need a book club/discord whatever. But I need to be sociable... And also even though I'm happy to read now, I feel a bit ashamed to be beyond everyone else I could discuss with because of my "traversée du désert". Anyway regardless I'm happy to read now. I love books ❤️

[hopefulobjectmiracle]

thinking about how negative my drafts are bc they're the thoughts that I've collected over these past two years that I thought were too mean to share in public...and it's making me realize that y'know what? I feel like glee tumblr used to be a lot more...friendly?

in the sense that most users (apart from the extreme anti accounts) were pretty mild about their opinions and didn't really post much about the things they hated, which led to people with polar opposite opinions becoming really good friends...

but now (and this is a really recent shift, maybe just in the last month or two) the amount of negativity has definitely taken a drastic upturn (yes ik glee tumblr has been slowly declining for a while but may-june showed a huge spike in unhappy content), and I feel like the gloves are off and no one is holding back their negative opinions anymore...I've had to block so many people and yet I'm still seeing takes on my dash that are negative towards my faves - often untagged, too. a few of my more positive friends have also either deactivated or just stopped coming on tumblr (which is honestly good for them tbh), making the negative voices even more prominent 😔

so as someone who tried to limit my negativity (yes, believe it or not, I was fairly conscious of what I posted and genuinely kept most of my negative posts in the drafts until recently - except for the ones about sebastian and the weird bl/am asks lmao) now I find it harder and harder to want to stay silent regarding characters/ships I dislike or takes that made me mad, and at this point I feel like there's not much of a reason to not express my opinions anymore since most of the other people in this fandom are clearly fine w saying whatever they want now lol

anyway I don't know where I'm going with this tbh I'm just tired of holding back most of my opinions for the sake of other people when really it's my blog and I should be able to post whatever I feel like posting regardless of how anyone else feels about it

although ngl part of me still gets anxious whenever I get an ask after posting something controversial bc I worry so much about more anon harassment...the duality of blogging lol

[antianakin]

Well, for one, this post asked for bad Anakin Skywalker takes, not bad Jedi takes. This entire thread started because I had to see a bad Jedi take, so thanks for this, this is totally helping my fandom experience right now.

This is an EXHAUSTING conversation to have to keep having over and over again. I've definitely addressed it before, as have a few other people within the anti-Jedi community on Tumblr, but fine. Let's go through it again.

Generally when this topic comes up, there's a few follow-up questions it's helpful to try to answer.

If the Jedi refused to lead the clones from a moral standpoint, what is the alternative for the clones now, and is it better or worse for them in the long run?

Were the clones INTENDED to be seen as slaves or (also) closer to a draft and the writing of their situation is just done very messily and in a way that's very uncomfortable due to how close it seems to slavery? Follow-up to that, if it's uncomfortably close to slavery, perhaps this is where we discuss how close a draft is to slavery which brings up some interesting discussions about the Jedi having also been drafted and how much power the Jedi truly have in this situation.

Let's start with the first one because it's honestly just easier.

So the scenario is that the Jedi choose to refuse to fight in the war at all (because presumably fighting WITH the slave army is equally as bad as LEADING the slave army so long as we do not see the Jedi as slaves themselves because it still means they're supporting the use of the slave army). What becomes of the clones? Well, they still have to fight the war. The Jedi refusing to fight won't save the clones from that. But who will lead them now?

If your answer is "a bunch of fascist pricks who are probably in Palpatine's pocket," you'd be right! It'll just be a lot more people like Tarkin or Yularen.

How does this change the clones' experience? It means there's no longer a superior officer with heightened reflexes and instincts on the ground with them anymore, standing in front of them and blocking fire so that more men can survive. It means there's no longer a superior officer whose primary priority is going to be to preserve as much life as possible and will choose to surrender a fight to save more clones rather than push forward to victory regardless of the cost. It means there's no longer a superior officer whose teachings and morals allow them to inspire and encourage individuality amongst the clones, so it's entirely possible that all of those beautiful armor designs and different hair styles wouldn't even happen if the Jedi weren't leading them.

So I'm going to say that it's entirely canon that the Jedi leading the clones makes life better for them overall. If the Jedi refused their draft entirely the way you argue they should've on moral grounds, it leaves the clones in a way worse place overall. We can probably assume the Jedi are least SOMEWHAT aware of this, which means they're left with the choice of choosing to go along with the draft to do what they can for the clones even if it goes against their own morals, or they dodge the draft to try to adhere to their morals and ultimately leave the clones to fend for themselves against people less capable of protecting them and less willing to care for them. Which, once you look at it that way, sounds pretty selfish doesn't it? It's kind-of a lose/lose situation for the Jedi where they're damned if they do (support the slave army) and damned if they don't (abandoning people they could help for the sake of their own well-being).

The argument from the anti-Jedi crowd on this always seems to be just "well they shouldn't have done it" and never seems to actually address what the Jedi should've done INSTEAD. And I imagine that this is because the options there are pretty slim on the ground. "Dodge the draft!" Cool, how does this help the slaves you're so worried about? What does this allow the Jedi to actually DO to help the clones instead? Is this actually making life BETTER for the clones overall or is it actually making life WORSE? "The Jedi took down the Zyggerian slave empire in canon!" Yes, with the support of the Republic we must assume. Something they will NOT have in this case if they try to free the clones. So now we're just heading into "the Jedi should've destroyed the Republic themselves because it was basically a lost cause" and oh whoops now we're just saying Dooku was right and look at where that led.

I recognize that you say above you don't really give a damn about how kind the Jedi were to the clones and that it doesn't matter to you at all, so this was all probably a huge waste of time on my part, but it DOES matter to me on this topic and, I'd argue, it seems to matter in canon to the clones.

So that's the Watsonian analysis I have. In universe, the Jedi are faced with a nearly impossible lose/lose situation and they choose what is arguably the lesser of two evils by putting themselves in the position to actually do some good for the clones and save as many as they can.

Now let's hit that second point and dive a little deeper into a more Doylist analysis. Does the writing support the interpretation of the clones as slaves or is it just really badly written in the most uncomfortable way possible?

Now, this is where I will readily admit that the writing sucks, it's definitely racist, and I don't support the way they've chosen to depict the clones and their situation. But this is also where I will point out that there is a major difference between "the writing of the clones isn't done well and it has some perhaps unintended implications about the Jedi that the writers never meant to come across that way" and "the Jedi are intended to be viewed as slave owners and I am going to critique them based on that." Because I don't personally believe the second one and land way more in the realm of the first.

To begin with, I don't think that Lucas intended to write the clones as fully sentient beings. The dialogue we hear in Attack of the Clones about it when the Kaminoans are talking to Obi-Wan about them seems to imply more that the clones are sort-of sub-sentient, somewhere between a droid's programming and full sentience. What the fuck that means is anyone's guess, we're definitely in space magic bullshit territory here. But the implication IS THERE that the clones are perhaps not actually entirely sentient. So the reason that Cody seems perfectly friendly with Obi-Wan one moment and then immediately happy to shoot him down the next moment isn't because he's been mind controlled, but because he's just... not entirely sentient and he's just going to do as ordered, whether that means being loyal to the Jedi or killing them all. It's left a little unclear within the films, but that's the implication I got based on that dialogue from Attack of the Clones.

Which means that when TCW decided to make them fully sentient and sort-of change the narrative there, it's faced with a few difficulties. It's one thing to have an army of droids, or human-like men who are perhaps not fully sentient anyway. Can they truly be slaves if they aren't really sentient? Star Wars obviously faces this same question about the droids themselves, and the general consensus is that absolutely nobody intended the droids to come off like slaves because this would make Luke and Leia slave owners and that seems like a really obviously wrong interpretation doesn't it? Star Wars is by no means advocating for slavery by making two of its primary heroes droid owners. Subsequently, we can make the same argument here. Star Wars is not advocating for slavery by making the obvious good guys slave owners via leading the clones. That is not and never has been the message of the prequels, part of which is helped by making the clones less than human.

This is where the godawful racist writing bit comes in, obviously, and like I said earlier, I'm not denying any of that. It's absolutely fuck off racist to have written the clones this way, especially given who they chose to cast in the role. But if we choose to believe that Lucas was NOT intending the Jedi to be seen as slave owners in the prequels just because they led the clones in war, then it follows that the clones are NOT intended to be seen as slaves.

And this continues in The Clone Wars, despite the fact that the clones are now fully sentient. Granted, this is ALSO a really uncomfortable writing choice because while we could sort-of write off the fact that the clones weren't fully sentient and so the morals behind using them as an army is kind-of gray and nebulous, once the clones BECOME fully sentient, you lose that argument. You definitely do. And once again, I'm not denying that this was an absolutely terrible writing choice to have made given that they don't address it enough within the show to really dig into the morals behind it. Because all of the other characters still sort-of act like the clones are somewhere between droid and sentient in terms of them being in an army.

I will point out here that the ONLY characters who we see regularly advocate for the clones are the Jedi. So from a more Doylist standpoint, even if we are intended to see the clones as slaves (which I'm not convinced of), the Jedi are the only ones who we see doing a damn thing about that at all and arguing back about the clones' rights. Shaak Ti has an entire line where she tells Lama Su that the clones are people, not objects and fights for the Domino Squad to not just be "cast off." She practically bends over backwards to help Tup and Fives as much as she can.

And yes, the Jedi accept the explanation they're given about the "aggression inhibitor" chips, but we also see the Jedi actively looking into the creation of the clones and they discover that the clones are a literal Sith trap for them (even if they don't know how). When they don't have any further information to go on, they end up deciding that the clones are sentient people who have earned their trust. You could condemn that choice, obviously, call them idiots for not looking further or not assuming mind control I guess. But the Jedi ARE looking into things canonically, and when offered the choice between abandoning the clones for their own self preservation and trusting the clones enough to keep working with them, they choose to trust the clones. I'd argue the bigger issue here is not "The Jedi chose to ignore the chips that are a human rights issue regardless of whether they're mind control chips or not" but that the Jedi are now canonically given WAY too much information, making it seem a little silly that they don't connect things together that seem fairly obvious. Narratively, they obviously are incapable of connecting things completely since they need to be caught by surprise and all killed in Order 66. But once they know a chip EXISTS that had at least SOMETHING to do with a clone murdering a Jedi and then find out the clones are a Sith trap, it stops being quite as understandable that they didn't put those pieces together and look further into the chip issue.

Regardless, the reason they accept the "aggression inhibitor" explanation and don't look further is because the narrative prevents them from doing so. They CAN'T look further into the issue because they'd inevitably figure everything out and then the story doesn't happen. They're literally just prevented by the writing from doing the thing you want them to do. That's not the writers intending to make the Jedi out to be cruel and uncaring, it's just the writers of this show being kind-of stupid about how much information they're giving the Jedi and how unrealistic it is that they DON'T look into it more.

All of that tells me that even if we as the audience are expected to interpret the clones as slaves, we're NOT expected to interpret the Jedi as slave owners who should be condemned for their treatment of the clones.

Which brings us to Slick. Yes, Slick explicitly calls them slaves and condemns the Jedi for it. But do you recall what ELSE Slick does in that episode? He teams up with Asajj Ventress (someone who you could argue DOES enslave people quite a lot by virtue of being a Sith working for the Separatists) to help MURDER a bunch of his own brothers for money. So by no means does the narrative present Slick as a reliable source of information. He's a traitor who is basically in this for himself and that's it. He tries to excuse his actions with some grandiose cause, but Rex and Cody themselves see right through it. Neither of them seems to agree with Slick and they're both far more reliable and trustworthy characters. If we were meant to know that Slick was right, we'd have heard Rex and Cody say something similar to back it up, and we don't.

The best parallel to make here is to Anakin's comments about the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith. Anakin says he should've known the Jedi were plotting to take over and that from his perspective the Jedi were evil. We have literally watched the Jedi trying to arrest Palpatine because HE'S plotting to take over, so we know Anakin's LYING. Anakin says he's brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to his new Empire, but we've seen what the Empire does, we saw how Anakin just murderred children, so we know that Anakin's LYING. Anakin is making excuses for his own atrocities to justify them to both himself and Obi-Wan (and Padme).

Slick's comments about the Jedi enslaving the clones aren't intended to be taken as true. He's just betrayed EVERYBODY and caused the deaths of hundreds of clones because Ventress (a Sith who works with the Separatists who we know are ACTUAL enslavers of innocent Republic civlians) promised him money in return. He's making up excuses for his actions to justify them both to himself and to the people around him (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, and Cody). And you'll notice that nobody in that scene is buying what he's selling. This is why this comment really never has any follow-through, they never discuss the clones as slaves in any other episode really, even when it would make sense to do so (like Umbara or Zyggeria). You as the audience are supposed to just automatically recognize that Slick is LYING, so there's no real follow-up needed to this acccusation.

The problem here is predominantly that the change to the clones' level of sentience leads to them feeling a LOT more like literal slaves, so Slick's accusation doesn't seem as obviously inaccurate as Anakin's accusations do. In fact, it starts to ring as entirely true because, well, I don't know what ELSE you'd call sentient human beings who are considered products (something we know the Kaminoans call them, even though the Jedi themselves disagree). And this is an issue I am placing squarely at the feet of the writers for not recognizing. There is no way a more adult audience isn't going to hear Slick call the clones slaves and think that that's a lie when everything we're seeing says it's true. That's an issue, and I'll never deny that it isn't. But I still don't think that it's what was INTENDED to be understood by this scene.

The final piece of evidence I'll use to back that argument up is Cut Lawquane. The episode he shows up in is called "The Deserter." Not "The Escapee" or "The Runaway" or "The Freedman" or anything that might bring to mind slavery, but "Deserter" which is a lot more indicative of a DRAFT. Cut himself does condemn the Republic and some of the ways the clones were treated in general, but as I recall, Cut has exactly nothing negative to say about the Jedi specifically nor does he ever really refer to the clones as slaves. All of which tells me that the clones were being used as a metaphor for a DRAFT, but the writing was done so clumsily that what they ended up writing instead was a slave army. And that now comes with a ton of really unfortunate implications that are never addressed because the writers didn't recognize it enough to address it.

The point of the narrative is not to condemn the Jedi, it never has been. The Jedi are placed in an impossible situation with nothing but lose/lose options of evil and lesser evil. Who are we to condemn them for doing the best they can to keep choosing a lesser evil? Condemning them for being forced to make an impossible choice IS propaganda because that's literally what Palpatine intends to do by putting them in that situation to begin with. If the Jedi had refused to fight, refused to lead the clones, I imagine people who hate the Jedi both in universe and in fandom would be calling them cowards who abandoned their responsibility to the galaxy, selfish elitists who prioritized their own morals over people's lives. They can't win. And that's the whole fucking point. That's the tragedy of the prequels. The Jedi can't win, it doesn't MATTER what they choose to do or not do, they'll always lose. And if you missed that, you might have missed the entire point of the narrative.

I'm in the mood for bad faith Anakin Skywalker takes today, so if you have any of those to share, please do!