#(not attacking anyone PLEASE don't start Discourse about this thank you!!!)

[nebulouscoffee]

bashir garak or ezri

Oooh great picks! I shall answer for all three😊

Julian

one aspect about them i love

That whole backstory with Kukalaka is SO endearing honestly; it really just gets to the heart of who he is, even by itself- but when paired with the whole 'Jules' reveal, it takes on a whole new poignancy

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I've seen Julian described as naive a lot, usually because he "assumes the best of people"- and I'm not saying that isn't a valid read, but it just feels very incomplete to me! Yes he's childish sometimes, but he's not a baby lol- he's just strongly, strongly driven by the belief that people can always become better. We see him get VERY angry and snarky and (fearlessly) combative with people he believes are in the wrong; people who don't show any flexibility in their perspectives. But the moment a person shows any sort of inclination towards growth or evolution? He puts everything aside and believes in them. To me, this is not naivety- this is courage; even if (especially if!) he may get it wrong sometimes. DS9 (like the real world) is full of people who'll insist that wrongdoers will never change and only deserve to be punished for their mistakes- and imo, Julian makes a fascinating, refreshing, and essential foil to this. (On a more specific note- he does NOT hang out with Garak because he doesn't fully understand the atrocities Garak committed!! Not beyond 'The Wire', anyway. He literally heard (and at the time, fully believed) multiple stories involving Garak being 1. a Gul during the Occupation, 2. a mass murderer (with victims both Cardassian and Bajoran), and 3. an interrogator of literal children. If not the exact details, he certainly knows the magnitude of Garak's crimes- he just chooses to go to great lengths to save his life anyway. This says something way more interesting about him, I think- about his inclination to believe in anyone he thinks would grow better if given the chance, and his willingness to be the one giving them that chance. Which, incidentally, is also why I struggle to see him cutting off his parents, though I do understand why people find value in reading & writing stories like that)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

He is a polyglot, but this is one skill he very much keeps to himself. The reasons why are complicated, and linked with how his ideas of home and family and lineage and history and Earth and connection and talking and talkative-ness and "skill" are all somewhat tainted by the discovery of what his parents did to him

one character i love seeing them interact with

SO many options, but let's talk about Jadzia- I love how they moved past the initial awkwardness of Julian's crush on her into this deep, supportive, fun (!!!) and extremely loving bond. There's a lot they have in common (Extreme Imposter Syndrome Buddies :D) which means they always know when the other needs a good pep talk, and it's adorable. I love how they have no boundaries sometimes (Jadzia buying him porn will always be funny), I love that they're in cahoots, I love that they make each other laugh- they care about each other so much!! I honestly think it was one of the best-written friendship arcs between a male and female character on Trek, which is why I'm always so *sighs deeply* about Julian's feelings for Jadzia being dredged up again in- ///cuts myself off because you've heard this rant before from everyone and their moogie haven't you///

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Fascinating conversations Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys could've had (my beloved): long-term health issues in Bajoran mining victims & Resistance fighters; nature vs nurture and their "dangerous" Augment/Mirror selves; Sisko as Commanding Officer vs Sisko as Emissary; nerding out over Bajoran music; why must Jadzia Dax be so beautiful; complicated connections with cultural roots; Kirayoshi & postnatal care; the concept of "forgiveness"; revisiting that "frontier medicine" scene to highlight how much they've both changed; Kira offering a kinder approach to "Jules Bashir died in that hospital" through the concept of a pagh

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

He never, ever let the whole Jem'Hadar thing go. In fact, he actually set up this secret rehabilitation centre in Goran'Agar's name after the war, which now provides intensive care for all the Jem'Hadar and Vorta left behind in the AQ. He told me himself :)

Garak

one aspect about them i love

It's been years since my first watch, but I'll never forget how excited I got every single time I saw "Special Guest Star Andrew Robinson" in the credits lol. You just know you're in for a great one; he's such a fantastic and scene-stealing character!

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I just feel like, for a character whose most famous line is "They're all true, [especially the lies]", there is WAYYY too much discourse about him that approaches him from extremes? And it always misses the point imo. Garak was a spy, assassin, interrogator and torturer for the Cardassian government, who participated in (or at the very least, aided) a colonial and genocidal occupation, and expresses supremacist, xenophobic and fascist beliefs for the majority of the series. Erasing any of this is would be erasing not just who he was, but who he is. But the lack of imagination re how to move forward with him if we are engaging with such themes is equally, if not more, frustrating to me. Sure, a lot of the cutesy art and fanfics can have him behaving overly sincere and out of character- but the counter response is always "how dare you woobify this racist war criminal he's violent and dangerous and bigoted and therefore he would NOT do or say or feel any of that!!!", and- okay, so is the idea of him designing and sewing dresses out of character, then...? Is the image of him debating books over lunch with a bib tucked in too woobified? Is the notion of him trying to set up a fellow (Bajoran!!) business owner on a date too fanfic-ey? Because guess what- that's literally how he behaves on the show! Garak is a self-aware self-woobifier, that's literally the whole point, he's "just a plain simple tailor" wink, wink- and without at least some element of that comical mundanity, that sort of absurdist domesticity, the character just isn't recognisable imo. Garak is the con artist who fell for his own con; he's spent so long playing various roles that he now over-performs everything and has no idea where the performance ends and the genuine begins, literally what makes his character work is that you're looking at this war criminal just doing benign stuff like sampling drinks or watching a tennis match or gifting his friend chocolates and wondering just WHAT is going on inside his head- and, "he did horrible things and therefore must be incapable of any form of sincerity or affection or regret and the perception of any of those things is woobification" is such a reductive (and boring!) approach to him imo. I don't mean any of this as apologia; there are many, many ways in which a person can be bigoted and cruel, and Garak is those things- I just feel like people often misrepresent the manner in which he is those things (usually by making him unfunny and weirdly macho, which I just cannot understand at all😂)

TL;DR- Garak the poor sad misunderstood baby who never enjoyed any of the bad things he did and only thinks about Julian Bashir 24/7 is out of character, sure- but Garak the violent emotionless villain who treats all Bajorans abusively 24/7 and will never ever grow or change is... just as divorced from canon imo (imo!! Emphasis on "o"!!)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Garak himself doesn't always fully remember the details of his past; he has this very Cardassian ability to specifically delete anything he wants to from his memory, and he's better at it than most (though, still not always successful). Only thing Garak regularly tops is the List Of People Garak Lies To basically

one character i love seeing them interact with

Well, apart from the obvious- I think every scene between him and Odo in IC/TDIC is incredibly immersive and top tier! The actors are SO good together, and the only reason Odo isn't in the next category is I actually think it's perfectly in character for both of them to just never bring up the whole torture thing ever again

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

KIRAAAAA but tbh, I'm more interested in their post-canon dynamic than anything, so instead I'll go with Sisko! Every time these two are on screen together, amazing. The effortless back and forth. The intellectual battling. The subtly flirty line deliveries(!!!) The palpable shifts in the power dynamic. The oddly respectful snarking. Again, the way these two actors are SO GOOD

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Some may claim that Garak hates the more outlandish civilian outfits that Jake and Julian wear. I say he made them

Ezri

one aspect about them i love

The sheer impact of actually getting to spend a whole season with the next Dax (after years of only hearing about Curzon) just cannot be overstated imo. Like, we the audience got to experience firsthand what it was like for Benjamin to first see Jadzia walk out of that shuttle; for Jadzia to wake up one day and find herself the newest link in a long-revered chain- we actually saw the new host struggling to adjust, reconciling all those lifetimes of memories all over again, rekindling and redefining Dax's old relationships (the relationship with the audience very much included!)- and then on top of that, the new host wasn't even trained to take on the symbiont?? What an incredible character premise! I was obsessed from the moment she said "Hello Benjamin it's me Dax"

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

Ezri is Jadzia's successor; not Jadzia's replacement. She cannot replace Jadzia- that's literally the entire point of her arc, that she should stop trying! She's a fascinating character in her own right, and also extremely interesting to think about and discuss independent of whom she will end up/should've ended up with

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Ezri Tigan was not "anxious" in a rambly nervous way like Ezri Dax, but more hyper-competent and "I'm always unhappy because everything I do HAS to be perfect so I'm never satisfied and I hate myself" (which was definitely how she was trained to think by her mother). For this reason, joining with Dax actually ends up being good for her in the long run! Nothing drives an oppressive voice out of your head quite like suddenly having eight other voices in there lol

one character i love seeing them interact with

I know some people don't like her and Worf mistakenly thinking they're in love and hooking up and then realising they work better as friends, but I actually think it's very understandable for both of them, and the friendship they form afterwards is so wholesome. That scene where he asks for her advice and she just calls out corruption in the Klingon empire is one of my favourite Ezri scenes ever :D

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

It is my firm belief that Sisko and Ezri's S7 arcs should have revolved around each other. Ben's journey at this point is so tied up in his ever-growing disconnect from linear time and corporeality, and imo nothing grounds this better than his three-lifetime bond with Dax! He should have talked about the Prophets and Benny Russell and the whole concept of destiny with his favourite old worm. It also would've been revelatory for Ezri, who herself is trying to adjust to the non-linearity (300 years of memories she can't easily get in order) and non-corporeality (whose body IS this anyway???) of being Dax

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

I know we all have our theories as to why and how and when exactly she and Julian break up, and while I do enjoy the drama sometimes, I still fundamentally feel like it would be short and amicable and they'd remain close friends for life. Or maybe I'm just a big sap hehe

[ni-de-mama]

ace attorney fans on discord, yall are fucking stupid. genuinely this is the stupidest discourse ive seen in my entire fucking life. the owner was removing unsafe people from her server. it's HER fucking server and she has the complete right to. dont dms exist? who the FUCK is policing you here? why do we need to have this fucking war when you could just go to another server with that banned member? fucking hell, have some common sense. the fact that adults are getting so aggressive makes it even worse. the minor here is making stupid decisions and saying stupid things and yall are encouraging her. nobody from the mod team was fucking coddling anyone. they were literally just saying we shouldn't fucking encourage harmful behaviour in their server. literally go encourage it in another server and it won't be any of the mods' business and they won't give a flying fuck. and what's with rejoining after ban with a new account? why the fuck are yall even trying to stay at this point if you hate this server and the mod team then fucking LEAVE. literally what do you want?????????? clearly the mods are being sent into panic attacks because of yall. do yall feel great now??? i was so glad i found a space i could talk in with other aa fans, and now ive lost that thanks to yalls stupid fucking discourse over some idk nearly 30 year old who doesn't know how to communicate properly. and the minor in question? not everything is about you. even i can see that, as a lurker. protecting minors does not mean bending to your every will. fucking hell, this server wasnt made just for you. protecting minors meant protecting all the other minors who felt unsafe, good for you if you didn't! you don't have to be so selfish and want the adult to stay so the other minors can feel unsafe lolllll. why did that mod have to justify them being uncomfortable around that adult? does it not matter that they just did? and now the mods are the ones shutting you down? use your fucking brain please. can't believe i have to lose this place because of this. literally everyone got too comfortable with hurting the mods here. its not even like yall couldve done a better job communicating with the banned member, the mod team clearly did their best to communicate with someone who only knew how to retaliate to their every request. are yall blind? i could see that happen, how come yall couldnt? bc yall are their friends obvious fucking ly. not to mention the banned member started spreading rumours that the owner called them a predator? fucking almost 30yo and youre still spreading rumours? christ on earth lol i saw everything. i saw the video i saw screenshots. that did not happen. is it that hard to look at this situation with less bias towards the ""victim""?? hope yall are happy that yall hurt the other members who love this place, and most of all the mod team who has to deal with yalls bullshittery. fucking wake up and see how stupid yall have been acting. jfc this is disgusting, yall disgust me, in a server for a game abt law yall clearly have not learnt anything. bringing your horrifying reading comprehension from tumblr to discord. sorry, clearly yall did not even fucking read whatever the mods said. yall ask for an explanation, the mods gave you one, you rebut it with a completely irrelevant point and then we go back to square one? not only that but yall kept demanding answers angrily, hostile and aggressive. how many times did the mods say they would be releasing a statement soon? yall asking for answers would give them no time to write it. and they have fucking lives outside of discord, unlike yall who have nothing to do but shout at strangers on the internet because they wont bend to your will in THEIR server. yall make me laugh. grow the fuck up. all of yall need to grow the actual fuck up.

[levi-supreme]

May I ask, do you have any unpopular aot opinions?

Hi anon!!! Aww thank you for sending me this ask haha I am very surprised but touched!! People don't usually send me asks like this so I am very happy to answer hehe.

Also, no hate, but all these are my own personal opinions and thoughts, so don't flame me!! Everyone interprets the characters, manga, and anime differently so please don't be offended by what I say.

Answering below the cut in case anyone wants to avoid seeing this and any potential manga spoilers!! Also tagging this with my ranting tags just in case because knowing me, I talk too much XD

Eren's decision on The Rumbling

I've talked about this before (somewhere in a reply to an ask) and I know we all don't agree with Eren's choice of committing massacre with The Rumbling, but honestly, this was what Eren decided, and it was what he deemed was the 'best choice'.

If this was how Isayama wanted Eren to act and this was what he thought was the decision Eren would decide on, then we should all just respect Isayama's choice. There's no way he can satisfy every single reader out there. Sending him hate because of this isn't acceptable.

Thoughts on Gabi and the Marleyans

Ah, yes, everyone's favourite discourse. I believe everyone has something to say about this, so I don't want to talk too much about it. Yes, I don't like Gabi, and yes, I don't think I'll like her ever. But do I hate her as a character and for killing Sasha? No.

Gabi was raised as a child soldier and with what was widely accepted as 'correct' in Marley was that everyone across the ocean is a 'devil'. What she did was out of survival instinct and it was just unfortunate that Sasha was at the receiving end of the blow. Marley was under attack by what she knew were the 'devils'. As a soldier, there's no 'home' without your country, and of course she would go all out to defend her homeland. It could have been anyone that was dead; Connie, Jean, literally anyone else up on the airship.

I love Sasha and I'm obviously pissed about Sasha dying, but as what I mentioned above, if Isayama wanted the plot to go this way, then who are we to say otherwise 🤷🏽‍♀️she got her character arc and development, and I'm satisfied with how things turned out.

Idk if I'm going to get flamed for this lol, but I really can't relate to the Marleyans too, and I don't like them, maybe except Pieck, Colt, and Niccolo (and maybe Porco). I don't agree with their ideology and I don't agree with many of the things they do. So yeah, I'm with the Eldians, and don't try to convince me otherwise haha.

Thoughts on character ships

Okay LOL I know I AM probably going to get hate mail or flamed or whatever for saying this, but I dislike almost every character ship out there except for Eremika and Niccolo x Sasha. Yes, character x Levi ships included. I have two popular Levi x character ships blocked because I dislike it so much lmao (have fun guessing which two).

Yes, I do ship Levi with someone, but I'm not saying who (those who know will know. Those who don't... please stay that way) because I don't want to start a discourse here. It's up to your own interpretation on who you want to ship whichever character together, but bear in mind that nothing is actually canon and confirmed by Isayama.

You can ship whoever you want, but don't force your ship on others and shoot them down saying that your ship is the 'best'.

Thoughts on the manga

People have sent hate mail and death threats to Isayama over the manga, and seriously people, DON'T DO THAT WHAT THE HELL????????????? It's all work of fiction, and honestly this is such a disrespectful and low move. If you don't like what you read, then don't read it?? Does sending hate mail to the mangaka make you feel better, or you think something you dislike about the manga will change?

I love the manga and all its spin-offs (No Regrets, Lost Girls, Before the Fall included) and yes there are certain things I dislike and things I don't agree with, but this is a work of fiction and people should just chill and enjoy the manga as it is.

This also applies to people sending hate to fanfic writers for writing certain topics that they don't feel comfortable with. If you don't like what you see, then don't read it??? Writers tag their work with the appropriate tags, so filter those tags away?? Don't send hate to people for things like this.

Thoughts on the anime

I know there's this whole WIT Studios vs MAPPA whatever and I love both animation studios, and both have their pros and cons. In my humble opinion, both animated the action sequences and fight scenes really good, but WIT Studios did a fantastic job with colouring and animation of the character's irises (which I love) and I like the way they animated the titans a little more. I like how MAPPA beefed Levi up (*slurps*), but I prefer the way WIT Studios animated Levi (Season 3 hello??????)

The only thing about the anime that I'm unhappy about was how little we got to see of No Regrets. The manga had soooooo much backstory of Levi, Isabel and Farlan, and there's so much more story about the Veterans as well. It's sad that they reduced eight amazing chapters in the manga to two OVA episodes and they cut out so much story telling as well. And this is why,,, I am always a manga over anime person.

One last thing that I may get flamed for (which I don't really care lol), is that I literally don't care about the English dub. Yes we all have preferences, some prefer Japanese, some prefer English. But similar to what I mentioned previously, don't go telling people how much you like one version and shoot down the other.

Also, I don't care about Matt Mercer and how sexy he sounds as Levi. Kamiya Hiroshi is my one and only Levi and his voice is the one I hear in my head every time I write Levi's dialogues and voice in my fics. Therefore, my choice of words when writing Levi's dialogues, his speech patterns, and my description of Levi's 'voice' is very much based on Kamiya Hiroshi's interpretation of Levi and the Japanese language. Which brings to my last general thought and point:

Thoughts on Levi

WELL I am a Levi blog after all, so obviously I have to talk about my husband and save the best for the last hehe. Also, another reminder that these are just my thoughts and feelings, so please don't tell me how much you disagree with me and how I'm wrong ;~;

I know many people say Levi is a cat person, but I beg to differ. In my head, he loves dogs. And I don't want to elaborate more because I know people are going to debate and tell me how I'm wrong lol.

Also. If Levi had descendants, he would NEVER name them after Kuchel, Isabel, and Farlan. I don't think this is how he would honour them and his memory of them, especially with Isabel and Farlan. I feel that Levi's biggest regret was detouring from Farlan and Isabel and going on his own, which indirectly caused Levi to not be there when the abnormal titan attacked them during No Regrets.

I don't want to talk too much about No Regrets since some of you may not have read it, but in gist, Levi was supposed to do *something* alone, but Farlan told Levi to trust him and Isabel to let them help him. On their expedition outside of the walls, once more Levi told Farlan and Isabel that he was going to do *something* alone and the two of them should stay with the group, but Farlan wanted to follow Levi. Levi told Farlan to trust him and stay, and he will do *something* alone. But when he didn't do *something*, he came back and saw Farlan and Isabel already dead. It was raining heavily on that day, and I also feel that Levi hates rainy days because of this. I feel that he blamed himself for causing Farlan and Isabel's deaths, and he would be guilty about this forever, no matter how many years passed.

By naming his descendants after the closest two friends he ever had seems to be rubbing salt on his wounds, and it would be an insult to his memory of them.

I also don't think Levi has a huge dick please, like my man isn't that long and thick everyone thinks he is. Levi's probably four to five inches max and his dick is slender and pretty. Who cares about how huge his dick is anyway, right? It's the sperm that fertilises the egg so you know, I care more about his balls and sperm count than how huge his dick is because his dick can't give me a baby but his sperm can XD also. His dick can do wonders okay he knows how to make you feel good in other ways so, who needs a huge dick anyway?????

Levi faced severe malnutrition and starvation since he was a kid, and in the environment he grew up in, Levi's physical health wouldn't be at the best. Of course through military training and living above the Underground did him good, but I feel that Levi's immune system wouldn't be the best. He probably would also have a pretty sensitive digestive system and can't take things like dairy, spicy food, or too much meat.

Levi probably sleeps with a candle lit, his bed is near to the window, and he never sleeps with his back facing the door. I feel that he's hypervigilant even when asleep, and he probably has a small knife or blade (the one he used in No Regrets maybe hehe) hiding underneath his pillow in the event that he feels threatened or under attack. His bed is near the window so that he can escape fast if he was under attack. He also probably sleeps with a candle lit because total darkness brings back bad memories of his time in the Underground, and the warm candlelight helps him feel safe.

Okay I think I've talked too much that this is becoming too long XD I hope you like my answers, anon! And once more, these are all my own thoughts and interpretation, so please don't start a discussion/discourse over here even if anyone disagrees with what I said okay ;AAA;

Feel free to send me any other thoughts and asks if you want as well! My ask is always open for Levi and SNK thoughts hehe. If you've read all the way here, thank you for reading through my rambling <3

[imagine-dethklok-scenerios]

Hi! These imagines are pretty rad :) keep up the great work. Don't know if you're taking requests, but if you are; what kind of yanderes do you think Dethklok would be?

Ohhh thank you!! Of course of Course!! 

Nathan: He would be Shuuchaku-gata: Obsession type. Doesn’t help that this guy is pretty much silent about his thoughts. You would never know the amount of time he has spent obsessing about you. Pretty much the stalkerish type as well.

This type will try to learn everything about their love interests, including personal information, hobbies, routine, etc. They will send messages regularly to check on their love, asks why they haven't answered if they didn't, wants to know what they're doing always. And, if possible, walks around with them all the time as well.

The obsession type doesn't necessarily want to monopolize you. They'll let you hang around with friends, etc. but wants to know everything you do. They probably want to go with you, too. If they can't go somewhere with you, they might stalk you.

If they learn a person is too close to you, they might attack.

Pickles: I can see him as Ison-gata: Dependence type. Pickles is needy, especially from this discourse of his childhood and his parents neglecting him. He would need your attention constantly or else he may feel like he would die.

Can't live without their love interest, and will beg them to not leave or throw them away. Claim that they will die or kill themselves if they leave. May lose will to do anything if they aren't watching. If their love interest does, in fact, leave; they might go full crazy and end up doing something crazy like going on a murderous rampage. 

Skwisgaar: He gives off Dokusen-gata: Monopoly type. This Swede doesn’t want you with ANYONE but him. Shocking for this sex positive guitarist. He wants your love to only belong to H I M. 

They want to monopolize their love interest. And will ask who they're talking to and hanging with, in extreme cases won't let them be with anyone else, regardless if they are well known as a mutual friend.

This type of behavior is unfortunately common in real life. It displays insecurities and lack of trust in the relationship which might develop into much worse yandere behavior.

Toki: This poor boi would definitly be Sokubaku-gata: Restraint type. Nearly everything he loves always dies prematurely, always leaving him behind. When he set his eyes on you, he knew you had to stay alive. With him. Safety tucked away from things that you could hurt yourself with. 

They want to be with their love always, and always, and always, AND ALWAYS, AND ALWAYS. That means they'll probably kidnap them and lock them into their house so they're forced to stay with them.

There are variations, some lighter, some worse, but the general idea is that they want themselves and their love to be inseparable.

Murderface: Sadly he has the case of the Mousou-gata: Delusional type. An unrequited love, based on a misunderstanding on his part. But it’s too late, you already have his heart. And now he wants yours whether you want to or not. 

Similar to the "wrong idea" type above, but far worse.

When their insane love is unrequited (for obvious reasons), and they start running away from the crazy person, they'll think it's because they're embarrassed, and not because they don't want them. Their love distorts the reality they perceive. They see a bunch of delusions instead.

The delusion type may also be in denial something unpleasant happened. They'll just forget it happened. Their memories may also be replaced with delusions: they'll remember a love being extremely nice to them when they were actually indifferent, or them saying saying they liked them before they even met.

TW Under Cut: Self Harm. If this triggers you please do not read. This is your first and final warning.

Magnus: And lastly, Magnus here simply just can’t live without you. He NEEDS you. If you leave, he’ll make you stay... by Jishou-gata: Self Harm. He knows how badly you will feel if he hurt himself. A few drops of blood and you come runnning back. Like you always do. 

They harm themselves, cutting wrists, etc. in order to get their interests' attention. This often happens when they're ignored. The "dependence" type might evolve into this if they are abandoned.

There are two sub-types to this;

First, the one where they harm themselves in secret and have a love notice their injuries, then they say "it's nothing to worry about" hoping they worry about it more. This is usually something light like a knee bruise.

Second, the one where they harm themselves in a love's face as a way to say "I'll kill myself if you leave me", forcing them to stay by their side by guilt.

[meticulous-nova]

The Tevyat Travel Guide

Ad Astra Abyssosque! Welcome to the Adventurers Guild.

Hey, guys! Welcome to my new blog, "Critical Overthinker". My name is Nova, and I'll be using this blog to start in depth conversations about Genshin Impact and the world of Tevyat. Some things I'll probably talk about are gameplay, lore, writing, characters, character relationships, and world building. A lot of my personal opinions will go into this, and I will probably talk about Genshin Impact from a writer's standpoint but also from my own biased perspective. Please be aware this will likely become a highly opinionated page. With that said, let's lay out the ground rules real quick.

RULES

1. Respectful and mature conversations only. If I witness attacking, trolling, or anything else that takes away or inhibits healthy conversations over fiction, you're getting blocked. Personal attacks over a video game is not going to be tolerated here. I have no interest in allowing people to prioritize fictional characters over real people, so watch yourself or I will remove you.

2. I will block users at my own digression. This is pretty self explanatory, but not only will I block you if you break other rules, I'll do so simply if I feel like it. My mental health is more important than your "opinion", and if I see an absolute ass take, I'm probably going to take the liberty of blocking you so I never have to see another one of those. Thanks.

3. Do not demand content of me. I will have my asks open for anyone who has questions or rambles or stuff like that. I don't promise to answer you ever, so don't throw a fit if I don't respond. It's probably not personal, but I'm a person outside of this blog.

4. Rules are subject to change and expansion.

DO NOT INTERACT LIST

Kindly do not interact with my page if...

You sexualize characters with child models (Klee, Qiqi, Diona, Sayu, Yaoyao, Paimon, etc).

You ship Kaeluc. (I recognize that Kaeya and Diluc are brothers in the English Dub because of translation issues. It still makes me uncomfortable for personal reasons, so please just respect this.)

You start age or ship discourse over characters with unconfirmed/ambiguous ages. You think Yunjin is a minor? Cool. Nice headcanon. Moving on.

You start ship discourse over characters with unconfirmed sexualities. You ship Keqing with Ganyu and think they're both lesbian? Cool. Nice headcanon. Moving on.

My do not interact list is also subject to change and expansion, which it probably will very quickly. Interacting with this fandom on other platforms has given me a very short fuse as far as what levels of stupidity I can handle.

Alright, so I think we're done with all the not fun shit for now. Now here's some fun facts about me relating to Genshin Impact!

My main:

I'm drawn to Eula mainly for her play style. She moves beautifully while still possessing the power of a claymore, and I started playing during her first banner and missed her, so I quickly jumped on her rerun. She's been my main dps of choice ever since.

My Highest Kin:

Unfortunately, I don't have Yoimiya, but I do kin her, as the talkative, easily distracted, ENFP she is. I don't think I've yet to find a character that resonates with me on an emotional level in Genshin yet, but I'd say I definitely kin Yoimiya nonetheless.

Best Boy:

This is my precious child. I must protect him at all costs. I'm a proud member of Benny's Adventure Team. Enough said.

Best Girl:

Does anyone hate Beidou? Because honestly, if you do that's embarrassing and frankly I should add you to the do not interact list. /hj

Current Favorite Ship:

Ah, yes. The first hot take of this account. I love Ittosara, and they will probably get a dedicated post, but for now if you haven't read the Emblem of Severed Fate descriptions, you should do that, lol. They're just two bisexuals that happen to be dating.

Well, that's all I have for now! I'll probably add a master list at some point, but I don't know how I'm going to organize that yet, but welcome and I hope we can be friends!

[thejustmaiden]

Fiction and Real Life Go Hand In Hand

This blog goes out to all those pro-Sessrin fans out there who refuse to acknowledge the very real effects fiction can have on our world and vice versa. I highly encourage other Inuyasha fans who defend/enable these shippers to read this, as well. I assure you, by no means are my intentions here to stir up trouble. Honestly, I just want some good healthy discourse for once if that’s not too much to ask. If you do decide to engage, please be mindful of that and treat others with respect and I will do the same in return. All in all, the goal of this blog is to exercise my right to speak out and be critical about content I believe to have very potentially detrimental repercussions. I ask that you not attack me or insult me simply for stating an opinion. Thank you! 

It’s like the title says, meaning fiction does matter. Where do you think we get ideas for all the stories we tell? Where do we draw inspiration from in the first place?

Real life, that's where! And yes, always with a touch of imagination! Long story short: fiction matters because real life does.

Allow me to elaborate.

Shippers of the Sesshomaru x Rin (Sessrin) pairing say it's not fair of us to throw around serious accusations or use certain deragatory terms that suggest such awful acts like child grooming or pedophilia because of the harmful implications. One of their reasonings being that some people IRL have actually lived through these traumas, so we shouldn't dare to assume they're comparable since one is just fiction and the other is not. But this isn’t about which is worse than the other, because they’re both super problematic. All we’re literally doing is making a link between grooming in real life and grooming in fiction. They mirror each other. Same issue; different mediums. We’re not undermining any one’s past experiences with grooming or the like, nor are we prioritizing fiction to diminish real life abuse. They’re both awful in numerous ways and that’s all we’re trying to say. In fact, if anything we’re attempting to demonstrate just how crucial this correlation is between them. In order to protect past victims and prevent future ones, we must remain vigiliant of the content we consume, and yes, sometimes that means we have to challenge it too. Just because it’s widely-viewed does not make it widely-accepted or well-received. It is paramount that we educate ourselves on how to be more critical of some of the harmful tropes and images that are still way too prevalent in mainstream media. Sexualizing young and pre-pubescent girls is way more normalized than some of us even realize. It’s sad but true that Sessrin is just one of many examples. I know it feels like society has failed us in a lot of ways, but it’s never too late to re-evaluate and re-learn better and more improved ways of viewing and processing information presented to us.

Our mission: Let’s not show our kids that grooming or any other form of abuse are acceptable if they may ever come to experience or encounter it themselves. Be it the real world or on screen. Deal? 

There have been a number of occasions where real life victims do speak up against the Sessrin ship and express how extremely uncomfortable it makes them feel by what it represents. The problem is that it’s becoming more evident now that many of their fans will dismiss anything purely on the basis that we pose a threat to their ship and nothing more. What it comes down to is they have no real leg to stand on and cannot possibly top any of what we have to say so instead they simply disregard it. Our inconvenient truths don't fit into their ideal *cough* OOC *cough* narrative so they just choose to be willfully ignorant. It conflicts with their fantasy, so rather than present a sound argument of their own, they flat-out reject it and offer no plausible back-up behind their reasoning besides "I don't interpret it that way." GUYS, CHILD GROOMING IS NOT UP FOR INTERPRETATION.

Just because you so desperately want your ship to come true does not mean you can up and decide to redefine a word so that it caters to your stance. Remind yourself that these are complex AND objective terms that we have no right to fiddle with to serve our own selfish purposes. This is why we can conclude that there's no debate about Sesshomaru's actions towards Rin embodying child grooming.

I apologize if any of my words are triggering by the way, so please feel free to take a break and return later if that’s more suitable for you. it's just really important that everyone in this fandom comprehends the extent in which Sessrin going canon is catastrophic. And no, I'm not exaggerating; I'm simply speaking the truth. Shippers justifying these horrible acts- yes, even in fiction- is usually due to the stubborn refusal to hear us out. No offense to anyone (just stating facts), but more times than not antis like myself feel as if we’re talking to a brick wall when we interact with Sessrin peeps. They go in circles and never expand on their perspectives. 

Just a head’s up: THIS GETS LONG. Stick with me. :p

Just look at their take on the Inukag vs. Sessrin relationships for example. This isn't a question of age gaps, this is a question of physical/emotional compatibility. Inukag are the same age mentally wise regardless of one being demon and the other not, whereas Sessrin is not and never will be, and yes, even once she's an adult. The thing is we have debunked this time and time again, because they’re not the same and therefore not comparable, but for some reason these fans won’t drop it. Nothing has changed in their argument, yet they’re persistent in bringing it up. I choose to not go into more detail, since like I said, you can find it around everywhere. I just wanted to touch upon it briefly to prove a point. Maybe it will come up again later in my blog though! 

Where was I earlier? Right, child grooming! Haven't you guys realized that what you’re doing is precisely what child groomers do to make excuses or deny any grooming took place at all? (FYI: I’m not accusing you of being child groomers yourselves.) “They reciprocated so the feelings are mutual" is a typical groomer response, but of course it varies. More often than not, victims of grooming aren't even aware they've been groomed until much later. That's how manipulative groomers are that they can legitmately convince you that maybe you're wrong in questioning their motives. Perhaps in the victim’s mind that because one huge indicator of grooming never actually took place it technically cannot constitute as grooming. They start to doubt themselves even though their intuition is telling them something’s off. They should just ignore it then since it can’t possibly be grooming if that one particular thing never happened, right? Wrong, grooming isn’t strictly this or strictly that. It's much more complicated and multi-faceted. This is why the “but Sesshomaru left Rin in the village” point upsets me greatly. HE WAS STILL INVOLVED IN HER LIFE, Y’ALL.  

On top of that, are you aware that this is the exact same kind of predatory mindset pedophiles use to describe their infatuation with children? They'll say things like, "I don't see them as an adult and a child. I see them as two people with a soul connection." Okay no joke, I wish I was lying, but that is literally a point one pro-sessrin fan on here recently used to defend this ship. It both astounds me and terrifies me that they don't see the glaring similarities they share in common with actual pedos.

Alright, I want to quickly return to what I was saying earlier about fiction's impact on real life. (Sorry, I’m a bit of a scatterbrain!)

The characters and their worlds in our stories that we dream up and bring to life are nothing short of awe-inspiring and magnificent if we so choose them to be. If it wasn't for our imaginations, stories like Inuyasha would have never come to exist. Fiction provides us an amazing outlet where we are given the opportunity to express ourselves and explore its infinite creative possibilities.

But strip away all the demons and magical components of this show we all love so dearly and what are we left with?

At the very core, Inuyasha is a story that's very reminiscent of the human experience: love, camaraderie, a sense of purpose, and much more!

So perhaps we got a full-fledged dog demon like Sesshomaru, but does that necessarily mean we can't relate to him or understand him simply because dog demons don't exist in the real world? Well, I hope that's not how you view it or else you're missing the whole point of why humans create stories to begin with. We create them to make better sense of and thus connect with the world we live in. And when you really think about it, our stories are just a celebration of life- both our struggles and our triumphs. Now I'm no philosophy professor, but I'm pretty sure they'd say I hit that nail right smack on the head. ;)

All shitty jokes aside, the whole reason I’m mentioning this specific example in the first place is because this recently came up with another Sessrin supporter. That supporter tried to defend the ship by stating that we aren't allowed to use Sesshomaru as an example to judge by since his kind don't exist in the real world.

Now if it isn't evident already, this "it's just fiction" argument is a popular go-to stance many Sessrin fans will resort to once they've run out of ideas and are metaphorically backed into a corner. The funny/sad thing is that they seem to sincerely believe this is strong enough evidence to defend their ship with, but per usual, they fail to see how hypocritical that would be. I’ll clarify soon down below. 

Seriously, since when did we decide that fantasy- or any story genre for that matter- stopped reflecting the real world we live in? I mean, we humans are the ones writing these stories. Our human influence is bound to make an impact in some capacity. In fact, we want it to!

Obviously none of us have ever met a dog demon like Sesshomaru, because how could we? Let me tell ya, this is gaslighting at its finest! This is a fictional story with fantasy elements, so of course there will be beings and creatures in their world that don't exist in our own. Does that somehow translate to the fact that nothing from the story of Inuyasha can be applied to our own personal stories or that there aren't meaningful messages to be taught and learned?

So on the flipside, if they're not screaming at us "it's just fiction" for the hundred billionth time, then they are, believe it or not, doing the reverse and comparing it to real world history. One instance of this is how they tell us we're making a big deal about something that isn't real, but go right ahead and use the history of feudal Japan to support Sesshomaru's decision to court (aka GROOM) a young girl because that's how it was done back then. And so, your point being?? It wasn't right then just because it was legal, and it's most certainly not right now. This is how all of their arguments go by the way, where you'll constantly witness a cherry-picking approach. It's agonizing to endure contradiction after contradiction in their arguments filled with nothing but holes in their logic.

I'd just like to add that if we're overreacting to this fictional ship like they love to say we are then technically so are they. They tell us things like "grow up" or "nobody is telling you to keep watching," yet fail to realize they're reacting just as fervently as we are but just on the opposing side of the same damn argument. I find it interesting how they're as invested in this show but pretend they aren't then STILL have the audacity to say it's only us who care this much!? So thank you Sessrin shippers for further proving our point that fiction is more than capable of affecting reality and the people- YES, US- who reside in it.

It's insane that people act like pedophiles and other creeps don't enjoy entertainment too like the rest of us. Believe it or not, they look just like you and me most of the time. Yes, that means they can easily pass as a “regular guy” if they so wished to. My question to you is how do you think pedophiles will take it when they discover others- underage fans more specifically- who dig the same kinda media they get off to? Maybe not in the exact same way, mind you, but there's a thin line between them when you really think about it. I mean, what other explanation is there for why literal pedos on the internet have been known to sneak into pro-sessrin group chats here on Tumblr before? (Thankfully, they were later kicked.) I know that for a fact! It's almost as if the universe is trying to tell them something they refuse to listen to elsewhere. Hhmmm I wonder what that may be. 

I imagine it’s possibly one of the hardest things to admit out loud and to themselves, but I can almost guarantee you that most of these Sessrin shippers who are victims of CSA and who still see no issue with Sessrin must be living with some sort of unresolved trauma caused by the very abuse they claimed to have undergone. It's been proven that victims who do not seek or properly receive the help and treatment they need in order to address and live with a traumatic experience such as this are more likely to perpetuate that very same abuse themselves in some way, shape or form. What if in this case fiction is enough for them, but who's to say it won’t eventually manifest itself in other more dire and far-reaching ways? It's not like we haven't seen this vicious cycle before, and I can promise you that Sessrin won't be the last. LET'S STOP NORMALIZING & GLORIFYING THE ROMANTIZATION & SEXUALIZATION OF CHILDREN. Fictional example: Usagi Drop. Need I say more? Real world example: Woody Allen. Again, need I say more?

Bottom line is that Sessrin shippers don't want us to think too critically about this ship of theirs, because if we dig too deep then they're forced to face the very troubling implications this pairing really stands for. Of course they'll never admit to them, because instead they rather double down and grasp at the same old straws as long as it means their precious ship is protected at all costs. Screw everyone else if that's what it takes, because they'll threaten to burn down legit buildings in real life if that ensures Sessrin goes canon! (True story, this happened on Twitter.) They’ll taunt and bully anyone who disagrees. Even if all you literally say is that you don’t like the ship, they’ll gang up on you. Tell them about your past experience with being groomed? They’ll laugh in your face. I wish I was kidding, but I assure you I am not.  And they say we're ridiculous and taking this way too seriously? Yeah...

The typical behavior of a Sessrin shipper demonstrates an overly aggressive front since they're usually on defense mode anyway. They only want to ship their sick ship in peace in other words. But just because neo-nazis have a right to spew their bigoted ideology, doesn't mean we don't got the right to punch them! Freedom of speech doesn't equate to freedom from consequences. And Sessrin shippers wonder why they got so many haters. Just sayin'.

Their presence on other platforms like Twitter and Reddit are some examples of how delusional and unstable some Sessrin fans are capable of becoming. Even recently, an anon here on Tumblr sent Richard Ian Cox (English VA for Inuyasha) a totally uncalled for ask telling him that "sessrin is love and there's nothing he can do about it." (That's not verbatim, but if you're interested I'll link you to it.) It appears they discovered that he didn't like Sessrin based on how he had been replying to asks, and just for that reason alone they thought they had the right to harass him. For simply stating his opinion, y'all. They didn't even have the decency to show their face either. Talk about immature and cowardly! 

Just yesterday (or was it the day before?) a fanatic Sessrin user on Tumblr- who’s also been known for hateful remarks on Twitter but those tweets have of course been deleted since then- went out of their way to not only lurk in a group chat they don’t belong to on here but to then proceed to harass a few of us in there. They had the guts to take screenshots from that group chat, tag us in posts on their page regarding what they read in there, and without our knowledge or permission went ahead and actually blogged them?? I mean, who calls out people behind their backs while they're just minding their own business?? It worries me how unhinged and out of touch with reality some Sessriners are. Not all of them, but a whole lot of them. 

It seems all they are doing is looking for trouble, as they just can't stand how much we hate this ship. So it's more than okay if they love on their ship but it's not okay if we don't and we should just keep our mouths shut. But since when do Sessrin fans have authority over our opinions? Even if they were officially canon, nothing is ever gonna change our opinion. Now when they actually do decide to participate in discourse with antis, you'll see them fishing for excuses to bow out. How they normally go about this is by fabricating a way to blame us antis for their exiting a conversation as if we're being the irrational ones here.

There’s no denying that some antis can also be overly blunt or aggressive (nobody is saying we’re perfect here), but speaking for myself, I know I would never make such nasty comments about other fans and their personal lives. And honestly? It would make me feel like shit talking bad about someone I don't actually know. Nah, I won't stoop to that level or give haters that satisfaction. I may not attack them as people, but that doesn't mean I can't attack some of their messed up ideas that threaten to distort how we should or shouldn’t perceive certain dangerous situations and events. Seeing as how for me this is more than just a matter of opinion- it's a moral responsibility and even an obligation.

I know it's difficult to remain civil when things get heated and people start taking things personally- yet more proof that fiction impacts our lives- but that's the only way any of us will ever have constructive discussions about serious topics like this. Unfortunately, Sessrin shippers, from what I can tell, are incapable of engaging in real discourse for the most part. They may be vocal but that doesn't mean they can pack a punch. I’d really love to be proven wrong someday.

Okay, moving on! If they're not involved in some big-time gaslighting then they're using their infamous strawman argument approach.

Sessrin fans’ sole purpose isn't really to defend their ship, per se, but rather to deflect and antagonize. They like to mislead in order to shift the focus/blame onto their opponent or something else that's not related so that they can stray from the main point. 

Take the drama CD for example. It's officially NOT considered canon, right? But that hasn't stopped many fans from referencing it anyway so let’s too consider it for a moment. The point is that they use its "existence" whenever convenient then deny it or downplay it whenever it’s not. So on one hand, it's plain as day that they celebrate it as proof of a romantic future for Sessrin. But then later once we point out to them that Sesshomaru is essentially confessing to Rin that he will wait for her until she's of age, they'll brush it off and quickly add that they didn't interpret the scene that way and leave it at that. I mean how else would you interpret it? And if it's not a proposal of sorts then why exactly are you bouncing off the walls about it to begin with?? If that's all it means is nothing then why are we even talking about this?! You see what I mean here??! And somehow we're the crazy ones? 

Let me to be frank with you. If you haven’t listened to it already, this proposal he offered her sounded like a declaration of love in a multitude of ways, which is wildly inappropriate since Rin was only 12 at the time. Signifying that Sesshomaru was/is indeed grooming her. Well, that is if you choose to recognize the drama CD. Nevertheless, whether you do or not, I personally hate that this non-canon satire is even associated with the Inuyasha name to begin with. Ugh. 

Intentional or not, Sesshomaru made a deliberate decision in that moment to tell a little girl- and not just any little girl mind you but a girl he's taken in under his care for a good year- that he would wait for her if she so chooses once she's old enough. 

The issue is that it isn’t only age of consent we’re concerned about regarding this pairing. What Sessriners fail to see is that this grown male authority- her vassal, her guardian, her adoptive father, or whatever you wanna refer to him as- is basically making a move on this girl he had in his company for quite some time. There's no sugarcoating that. Us antis call it how it is, and I'm sure as fucking day other people who don't watch the show would most certainly agree that the Sesshomaru/Rin bond is filial. Set aside those rose-tinted glasses of yours, and going by everything we’ve been delivered in the manga and parts of the anime (and NOT the drama cd), there are literally no hints that indicate a blossoming romance between this adult male demon and this small human girl he’s taken under his wing. You can imagine them all you want if it pleases you, but that doesn’t mean they’re there. Adult!Rin is a figment of your imagination, nothing more. The idolization of this pairing is pretty disturbing seeing as all we have to go off of in canon is Child!Rin. There have only ever been sweet and innocent moments passed between the two, which is why I’m positive that an unbiased viewer or an outsider would state their dynamic resembled something akin to a father-daugther relationship. I would bet a shit ton of money on that, believe you me!

Rin's inhibitions are low because children are naturally naive and don't know any better. Remember, she adores and trust this man with all her heart, so why would she think any of this so-called grooming is not normal behavior. (I only say “so-called grooming” because I don’t think Sesshomaru bringing her gifts in the village has to be a romantic thing.) Or how would she ever be able to understand that she’s being taken advantage of if she has no previous experience with it? Maybe if she was present for that time Inuyasha and the gang scolded Miroku when they had learned that years previous he had supposedly proposed to this young girl in the village they were visiting, then Rin would. And he didn’t even assist in helping raise her but look at how they reacted! How is this any different than Sesshomaru hooking up with Rin later? It’s actually worse in Sessrin's case. Do you honestly believe that Inuyasha and the others would take kindly to this?

It's not uncommon and considered harmless for young children to have crushes on adults, after all, but the adults in these scenarios should never resort to using and abusing the position of power they held or continue to hold over this child for any reason whatsoever.

What I'm trying to get across here is that no matter how you spin it, Sessrin can NEVER be deemed a morally acceptable pairing. Like ship what you want, we're not saying you can't ship Sessrin. What we're saying is this:

STOP referring to their bond as "pure" and not expect backlash for your grossly inaccurate statements. Just admit it's toxic, because it's extremely harmful to many viewers- and not just victims- to pretend and suggest otherwise.

Please remind yourself of the very real canon fact that Rin traveled with Sesshomaru and they established a bond all while she was just a girl. Oh, and he saved her life too many times to count, not to mention brought her back from the dead TWICE. This is why I don't care much for your counter argument "that dynamics can change over time," because although that's true, like with everything in life there must be standards we adhere to. Exceptions to rules, if you will. Our own basic morals demand it.

For instance, it’s normal that some childhood friends begin to like each other as more than friends years down the road. Nothing wrong with that, because that's a natural and healthy occurrence. Now you cannot apply this to an adult and a child for obvious reasons, but what you also cannot do is apply this to an adult who met and knew another adult while they were still just a child. Why? Well, because it'd be like betraying and perverting that former child's view of you. They were never your equal because your established dynamic resembles that of one an adult posesses with a child even once they've grown up. Think about it this way: it's in the same bracket of family members or family friends who've watched you grow up and mature into an adult. Then later just because they're all grown up, does that mean that those children "are not off bounds" - that's quoting a Sessrin shipper by the way- to these certain family members and family friends? 

If you're still struggling to grasp this, I urge you to take a moment (or all the time you need!) to really put yourself in that child's shoes and self-reflect. Would you truly be alright with a family friend you haven't seen in years (but sorely missed because they used to occasionally babysit you) just someday coming back into your life and then very inappropriately flirting with you or even making sexual advances on you? (Sorry for the run-on!) Or even worse, can you picture this happening to one of your own children??! Seriously, ask yourself that and sit with that for a while and really take it all in. It’s not fun, I know, but if that’s what it takes to help you finally understand then please try and practice more ways to utilize your self-awareness in the future. It’s for everyone’s benefit, not only yours, I promise! You'll also find it makes it tremendously easier to empathize with others.

I got news for those fans who don’t view Sesshomaru as a father figure to Rin. The title we give him doesn’t hold as much weight as a lot of us are making it out to be. Let’s try to be neutral here and stick to the hard facts, shall we?

*Sesshomaru is an adult male authority whose protection Rin is under*

*It’s safe to assume that Rin has grown attached to him and maybe even looks up to him*

*They care about each other and the other's well-being*

*He has has played a crucial part in her supervision and care for a significant period of time (yes, even if it’s just passing a message along to Jaken)*

Not so random anecdote: In an Inuyasha episode I recently revisited, Sesshomaru had just rescued Rin from Kohaku who had been possessed by Naraku and was ordered to kill Rin. Anyway, at the end of their scene you can hear Jaken ask out loud, “what should we do for dinner, Lord Sesshomaru?” And that’s about the most domestic thing I’ve ever heard come out of his mouth. They’re such a family dammit and nothing will ever change that!! <3

This is precisely why I could never in a million years view those past students of mine in a romantic light. I don't care how many years have passed, it's just not possible for me. Just the idea of pursuing a romantic and/or sexual relationship absolutely repels me.

Speaking as a former teacher, you don't need to be a parental figure who's around all the time in order to have great love and affection for a child. I would've done absolutely anything in my power to protect them even though they weren't my own. Then again, I did consider them my children in a way even if wasn't in a familial sense. Does that make my love for them any less unique? No, it's just different but not inferior. When you stop to think about, it really doesn't take as long as you may think to establish rapport with a person, particularly children. Connecting with a child is almost instant (but of course some are more receptive than others), and once you do make that special connection one can only make with a child, a strong and overwhelming need to guide and protect them kicks in almost automatically. The unconditional love an adult feels for a child is powerful and constant, and nothing should ever change that. As much as some of you really want to believe otherwise, that feeling doesn’t just go away because they turned 18. In your eyes, they’ll always be that kid.

I get it, sometimes when we escape into these fictional worlds of ours, it's difficult not to project our own wishes and desires onto certain characters. I don't blame fans for picturing themselves with Sesshomaru- I know I did haha- but never once did I self-insert myself as Rin. I know she's one of the biggest catalysts for his character growth- if not THE biggest- but how and why does that need to turn romantic? There are other antis who I have spoken with on this. They informed me that they used to live vicariously through Rin and ship them together, as well. As they got older, they later learned how weird and twisted this ship actually was. That's what's supposed to happen, y'all, you're supposed to grow out of that fixation. 

Now take your mind out of the Inuyasha universe for a second and hypothetically (or not hypothetically if you have kids) answer me this: if and/or when you ever have a child, would you genuinely be comfortable with the idea of them dating and eventually marrying their father’s best friend who was also there to witness them grow up? Be honest please. 

I highly doubt you would want that- or at least I hope not. You see, that's another MAJOR point I've made a few times already and yet you Sessrin shippers continue to avoid the question. It's pretty obvious it hasn't been rhetorical either. Ignorance is bliss?

Finally, I’d like to address one more point. It seems there is a HUGE misconception and I'd like to clear it up real quick. That is Sessrin shippers misinterpret one of the issues we have with this ship. They chalk up our complaints of Sessrin being canon (which is a LIE, nothing has been confirmed yet) to us just being salty because that somehow means our ships aren't or won’t be. I assure you, readers, other antis and I will attest that this ain't about dumb shipping wars, this is so much bigger than that!!!

I noticed recently that some Sessrin fans have even begun calling us Karens lolol like if anybody is a Karen it's them! This ain't about some mere difference in taste, this is very likely to have LONG-LASTING NEGATIVE EFFECTS. Sessrin going canon is a very harmful message to send viewers and children/teens especially. So if anything, it’s these shippers who are being the entitled ones here thinking that the fact we don’t support their ship is the worst thing in the world. NO, THE REAL PROBLEM IS CHILD GROOMING. GET OVER YOURSELF.

Out of nowhere, some of them even started assuming all us antis were white, which in their books is also equivalent to Karens or even white supremacists somehow?? Those aren't one in the same, but it's easy to make it appear that way when the US is currently tackling major systems of oppression and racial injustice. Because to them, all antis must be from over here. (Yes, I'm American. But no, I'm not white.) How else can anyone explain not shipping Sessrin, right?! Somehow they have it in their heads that ALL of Japan and surrounding places are super approving of this ship, and that everyone else isn’t because of their upbringing and “Western way of thinking.”  

To give you an idea of what I mean, look back at what I talked about earlier with their incessant mention of Sessrin vs. Inukag. Because THIS is another popular example of how these shippers present their side and then ignore all the facts. Many fans have already proven how fucked up and inaccurate it is to label whole countries and cultures. It’s like they simply think mentioning it makes it count even though we’ve discredited their points over and over. Nah, you got to back it up with good reasons that support your side of the argument. That’s How To Have An Argument: 101. So at the end of the day, all they're actually achieving in doing is making dumb and entirely unrelated accusations based on nothing just to lead to deductions that are equally unfounded. Nothing at all is accomplished but more gaslighting and hurling of insults on their part = a complete waste of time for antis = an excuse for them to peace out early from the conversation & that’s what they wanted all along

We’ve reached the end (finally! sorry for all the rambling!), and I hope those of you who stayed till the end or read enough can take something positive out of this. As many Inuyasha fans are aware, there will be a livestream with the VAs for Sesshomaru and Rin coming out within the next few hours. We don’t have all the details yet, and afterwards we probably still won’t. I’m not just talking about Sessrin here but about the sequel in general. Whatever happens, please just remember to be kind to one another. If you don’t think you’re capable of doing that, then it’s best you vent and fume elsewhere. Easier said than done, I know, but just try. Throughout this blog, I admit there were moments where I got frustrated and took some jabs at Sessrin shippers. Please believe me when I say that I do not and would not ever wish any of you ill will. 

Inuyasha was such a huge part of my childhood, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m anxious as hell that Sunrise will ruin one of the best things I loved about this show. So pardon me if my reactions are too visceral for your liking. haha Also, like the movies and the drama cd, this sequel is not in fact canon. Therefore, for those of you who disagree or who still plan to enjoy this new series, respect the fact that some of us fans will definitely “cancel” it if we feel that’s what we have to do to come to terms with it and move on. Fans have that right, after all. Why should we get on board with something if it’s so uncharacteristic of and unrecognizable from the original source material? If all this is some sort of cash grab of Sunrise’s doing, then count me out. I truly hope that this sequel turn outs being a lot more promising than a lot of us are expecting. I’m begging you, Sunrise, I wanna believe you’re better than this. Please and thank you!   

By the way, if you’re interested, feel free to check out my two other blogs on this same subject. Click here and here. The last two screenshots do not come from something I’ve written myself. If you’d like to read more from where those came from, let me know and I’d be more than happy to send you the links. Okay, bye for now. Peace out and stay safe, everyone! 

[podcastwizard]

Thanks for laying out stuff about Graduation in a clear, non confrontational way. TAZ fans either fall on the side of Balance is the only good thing or Travis is doing a good job, be nice, don't hurt their feelings. It makes it hard to have a real dialogue and it's no wonder Travis feels like he can't get actionable criticism online, although like you said, that should NOT be where he's searching for criticism.

i wasn’t going to start this up again but i keep seeing discourse on my dash - like one post said something along the lines of “can we just agree that both griffin and travis are good dms?” and i’m like...that’s not as impartial of a statement as i think you think it is. please allow people to have their opinions. it’s not attacking anyone’s character to express some discontent with their content. 

[kardemomme-kisses-archive]

What makes you think that skam could be paralleling the deilig er jorden from season 1?

Hi there! Hmm there really isn’t something concrete that points out to the plot being stirred towards that direction, but with all the miscommunication piling up from both sides and the tensions escalating I’m afraid we’re soon going to reach a point where something drastic will need to happen for the girls to notice and take action to support sana. Because we see again and again that after those few initial attempts by noora which were shut down, the girls haven’t reached out to her anymore, they haven’t made the connection between sana’s erratic behaviour and the fact that she is hurting and in an even more worrying development, they didn’t ask for the reason why she created saranors2 after she confessed. I also find the fact that sana did not explain why she did it in her apology a little worrisome as well because the friction between them is very high right now and this complicates things even further as far as misunderstandings go.

Moreover because after some of the things the girls have said and done, all  the little microaggressions the flinches, the words they didn’t even realise were ignorant and hurtful… it seems to me that there might be a need for something major to happen for them to shake this mentality away and realise how wrong they’ve been and Julie does love her parallels! But I also believe Julie is perfectly capable of resolving this through conversation alone, I still have faith in her! I guess I just feel like there is so much history especially between vilde and sana right now that a simple apology would be a bit underwhelming and I’d definitely love to see a reversal of the deilig er jorden scene with the girls taking care of sana for once, but we’ll see!

[emperorren]

(1) I haven't been involved in the Rey discourse so maybe I'm not interpreting this correctly, so please bear with me - but it's always been clear to me that while Rey *is* morally right, her impulsiveness did get the better of her. And I don't think she's a bitch for it: it was a stressful situation, she had just gone through a lot of adrenaline, and it makes perfect sense with her background and her characterization. She wants Ben to stop the shooting on the Resistance - which again, I get,

(2) but the problem (for me at least) is that even if the narrative wants me to believe the morally right thing for Kylo would have been to do that, he can’t - for the simple and good reason that he’s just committed high treason, and ironically enough, to save Rey, not to mention that she got herself in that situation thanks to a poorly thought plan where she almost lost her life. Calling that off is signing his death warrant, for real this time. After that, it’s joining the Resistance (or what’s left of it) on Crait for a long, painful death, because neither of them has a way of knowing that Holdo is going to ram into the Supremacy. Kylo is aware of the chase and in what state the Resistance is - Rey is not. But for the sake of the argument, let’s say Rey and Kylo could have done something… with, um, the Force, to help the Resistance, and that Kylo says no just for the evulz and still tries to get Rey to be with him, I still think Rey handled the situation poorly?Not even in a sense “she should have said yes”, because again, I don’t blame her for saying no. I guess what makes me uncomfortable is that her reaction is very similar to how Luke reacted a few years ago, and Kylo sure interprets it that way. A scene where the two of them start screaming at each other and that ends with the same outcome would have been better - mainly because the way I perceive it is that Rey basically strikes straight into Kylo’s PTSD - involuntarily, but it does leavea bitter taste in my mouth, especially that the argument seems to be that “Rey did nothing wrong”, while the movie is all about failure, so I don’t see why Rey should be exempt of it. And I don’t want to see Rey on her knees, tbh - just thinking of that makes me gag - just a little acknowledgement that while impulsiveness might have worked on Jakku in order to survive, it’s not going to work all the time. And that’s Rey’s fatal flaw, in my opinion - and it almost was fatal in TLJ.

I dunno. Rey’s impulsiveness served Reylo well when she dumped Luke’s ass to run to Kylo, didn’t it? 

My problem with this reading is that it basically validates Luke’s “this is not going to go the way you think” stance, and frames Rey’s urgency to show compassion to Kylo as a “fatal” flaw she needs to fix, which imo is all kinds of thematically wrong and messes up the subtext. Rey was NOT wrong to be impulsive, to want to act immediately to rescue the lost boy from his lifelong captor. Her instincts were not wrong—the circumstances were. If anything her impulsiveness, optimist thinking and even, allow me the term, ignorance of the complete ramifications of Ben’s fall (she only knows the tl;dr version of all the parties involved minus Leia) are what allowed her to discard all her preconceptions and open herself to Kylo so fully and earnestly in the first place. She saw a glimpse of Ben Solo and immediately ran with it—despite having NO idea of what it was like to live with Ben Solo and his growing darkness for 20+ years. Was she supposed to think this through, ponder the pros and cons of trying to redeem Ben carefully, consider the fact that maybe he wasn’t just *stolen away*, but also had ideological reasons to side with the FO, and that she needed to bring better arguments to the table to actually convince him? Probably. But I bet this would have paralyzed her just as it paralyzed Luke. Sometimes knowing all the facts and the nuances of a problem, being too deeply and personally involved with it, can prevent you from seeing a solution. And imo Rey was able to see it precisely because she’s essentially an outsider, unrelated to all this skywalker drama until two weeks ago.

Rey’s failure can be seen as the failure of the hero in the face of bigger circumstances than what she could handle at the moment. The fact that Kylo wasn’t wrong in not wanting to immediately run to the Resistance either adds nuance to their current conflict:

I guess what makes me uncomfortable is that her reaction is very similar to how Luke reacted a few years ago, and Kylo sure interprets it that way. A scene where the two of them start screaming at each other and that ends with the same outcome would have been better - mainly because the way I perceive it is that Rey basically strikes straight into Kylo’s PTSD

and that’s the tragedy of it, isn’t it? Rey does this because she was basically cornered into an either/or choice, and the result is that Kylo sees another person he loves raising a weapon against him.But judging from her face when the tug-of-war starts, she is perfectly aware of how this would look to Kylo, and it kills her.Still, she has to—Kylo was cornering her with an impossible choice, he had two sabers and she had none. Both Rey and Kylo’s actions contributed to the way the events precipitated, but neither was able to foresee it. The thing is—from a storytelling perspective, their personal conflict needs to be genuine and believable, and both have a right to perceive the other’s behavior as a betrayal.If you had it any other way, there would be no Crait, and it would be extremely difficult to set them up as “complicated enemies” for IX. But at the same time, both need to be able to eventually acknowledge—and forgive—each other’s motivations for acting the way they did. 

But most importantly, for all you can see Rey’s impulsiveness as a mistake, she really did better than anyone else who still loves him: Luke didn’t try at all—didn’t even bother offering a clear explanation of what happened at the academy, just packed and left to go sulk on his hermit island; Leia keeps on holding hope but from a distance, in secret, while officially leading military attacks on Kylo; Han did reach out to him but it was too little and too late, and he didn’t think it through, either (did he consider Ben’s realistic possibilities to go home with him, when “home” is the Resistance?). Rey, at least, formed a connection with him, gave him a reason to believe in a possible bright future, and didn’t simply go in the lion’s den to plead with him—she offered her physical help to get rid of Snoke. She got one thing right that nobody else did: that Kylo didn’t just need an escape plan, he needed to destroy the voice in his head for good. And she went there to help him do exactly that.

[wedontcareaboutyourbinary]

1) I don't really have any opinion on MeToo other than nice if it works but as far as I know it's a binary issue with the whole oppression aspect. It's my friend who's into that stuff and wants to punish evil-doers and all that jazz while she can. So when these random guys targeted me and started following me around and do the occasional butt grab and weird panting in my ear while looming over me she sees this as a prime opportunity to implement her newfound power. But based on the

2) “compliments” they were panting into my ear and that nonbinary isn’t really a thing and I go around tits present and I presume they were straight so even if they didn’t tell me they thought I was a woman I assume they were aiming all this to a woman in their minds. So it’d be misdirected misogyny or something like that. Kind of when people think I’m a foreigner because I was given an exotic name but it’s not actual xenophobia because I’m not a foreigner. But anyway it’d be co-opting

3) women’s experiences because misogyny is meant for them. If they would’ve somehow guessed I’m nonbinary then I could’ve said it’s transphobia or whatever the word is for nonbinary people or maybe exorsexism if I had corrected them and as nonbinary isn’t a thing they probably wouldn’t have believed that. But as they probably thought I was a woman it had a misogynist intent and a non-woman can’t experience misogyny even when I was harassed it wasn’t about me and I can’t make women’s

4) issues my issues. So if it gets reported everybody will view it as misogyny and I end up leeching on women’s work to end harassment towards them unless I correct it by outing myself. I mean if a man is mistaken as a woman and harassed based on that they can’t say it was meant for them so why should I be allowed some special treatment just because I happen to look like a woman to everybody? It’s my problem I should solve by myself and not use it to make issues that aren’t about me literally

5) about me. There are lots of actual women who get harassed without me barging in to mess it up for them just because I pass as a woman and could go on forever wondering is all harassment I ever face really about people aiming it to me as a “woman” or me as a person they don’t like or respect. Statistics say it’s the former but I’m not going to stick around to ask when people start groping me so I aim to respect women and stay in my lane and stay out of their business both good and bad.

There is a lot to unpack here, but I’m going to start with the part that I at least can find vaguely humorous: you have here sent an ask saying that an issue is binary, to a blog whose URL is literally ‘we don’t care about your binary’.

Oppressive binaries are generally false ones constructed to condense the oppressive structure into a nice straightforward us vs them situation. This is useful for the oppressors, not least because it makes everyone who doesn’t actually fit the Designated Oppressed Group question their own experiences no end, and it splinters various marginalised groups because they don’t see the common roots to their marginalisation.

The binary is false. Gender is not a binary. Neither, shockingly, is gendered oppression. And I pointed out yesterday that there are several systems interlocking within the realm of gender-related oppression.

The idea that gendered oppression is a binary issue relies either on subsuming everything bad that happens to non-cis people under misogyny (and a lot of it does overlap, not least because of ‘misdirected misogyny’ and the fact that, thanks to the oppressive group doing their best to model ‘them’ as a single cohesive group, anyone who isn’t a cis man is likely to get boxed into ‘woman�� at some point, but misogyny does not explain everything that trans, NB and genderqueer people face!), or denying that anyone who isn’t a woman could ever be oppressed for something related to gender.

That, as Lune pointed out yesterday, is gender reductionism. It focuses on a specific identitarian distinction (between ‘man’ and ‘woman’) without any actual regard for the lived experiences of non-cis people. As such, it is not a functional model for explaining the marginalisation of non-cis people.

Of course, how much of that I can really explain to you I do have to question, given your statement that ‘nonbinary isn’t really a thing’.

Please think about who you sent this to and why you worded it that way, anon. What is prompting you to ask a group of people who consider themselves nonbinary for advice, when you apparently don’t even believe that ‘nonbinary’ is a thing someone can be? Hell, what’s prompting you to identify with the label if you don’t believe it exists?

I’d wager that someone else’s words are coming out of your mouth there. Do think about why you’re letting those words do that. Why are you holding onto that version of the world? What’s it offering you apart from invalidation, dismissal and erasure?

but it’s not actual xenophobia because I’m not a foreigner

You know, I’d be inclined to say it is? It’s a negative reaction to something perceived as being From Elsewhere, so the people having the reaction are definitely, you know, xenophobic? Even if they happen to be wrong about the thing being From Elsewhere?

And if this is meant to be a parallel to your experiences of misdirected misogyny: you’re pulling a complicated mental runaround here that would imply that bigotry is not real when directed at you because you’re not the Target Group, and that said bigotry is directed at you because you are mistakenly assumed to be the Target Group.

Taken together? Those two things would suggest that the people who harassed you, even though they presumably harassed you because they assumed you were a woman, aren’t actually misogynistic, because it can’t be misogyny if it happens to you.

Does that make sense to you? Does that sound like a sensible way to model oppressive systems? Because to me it does not.

If they would’ve somehow guessed I’m nonbinary then I could’ve said it’s transphobia or whatever the word is for nonbinary people or maybe exorsexism if I had corrected them and as nonbinary isn’t a thing they probably wouldn’t have believed that.

I mean… it was transantagonistic anyway because they assumed your gender based on cissexist criteria? Oppressive systems overlap! I’m going to have to repeat that a great many times, I suspect!

And again with the ‘nonbinary isn’t a thing’. What is it, to you, anon? And whose definition are you actually working off?

I can’t make women’s issues my issues

… more than one group of people can have the same issue? Oppression is not as binary as a lot of analysis would make it. 

(And I know we love the binary analysis because it makes things so simple and easy to understand, and if we try to analyse things in a less binary way things get incredibly complicated. But if our theory is not complicated, it will be wrong. And that is worse.)

You’re talking about a kind of harassment that serves to reinforce power. Misogynistic social structures are a major power dynamic where that kind of harassment is used to reinforce that power, but it is not by any means the only one.

Again: yes, absolutely, be aware of who’s being disproportionately affected, be aware of why you’re being targeted, none of that is bad practice exactly, but this is about an incident in which you, you specifically, were harassed, correct?

Whose experience is that if not yours, anon? Who is actually the target of this harassment that was directed at you if not you?

I’m also going to point you to the last point described in this post, the Mistaken Identity Argument. Please have a read through of that post, and take a good long hard think about what it might imply about NB people as a group and their experiences that you’re so willing to deny your own experiences this way.

(Exclusionary rhetoric is often recycled. Yes, that post is from a ways back in the anti-ace discourse, comparing it to the exclusion of bi people. The underlying principles will likely hold true across a great many other cases. And you really are repeating the Mistaken Identity Argument damn near word for word here.)

So if it gets reported everybody will view it as misogyny and I end up leeching on women’s work to end harassment towards them unless I correct it by outing myself.

This is honestly a fascinating (if disturbing) thing to read, because… well, surely, if your experience is misdirected misogyny, and gets reported and understood to be a misogynistic attack, then it being reported will in fact help women work towards ending harassment motivated by misogyny? How is it ‘leeching’ when it’s helping women get where they want to get?

The only explanation that’s actually occurring to me is that you think it would somehow be inappropriate for the success of one group to have beneficial effects for another group (in this example, it’d be somehow inappropriate for efforts to reduce harassment towards women to also reduce harassment directed at you). Which… what even. Curb cutter effect, for one, and for two, oppression overlaps. That is the way of things in this bastard society.

I mean if a man is mistaken as a woman and harassed based on that they can’t say it was meant for them so why should I be allowed some special treatment just because I happen to look like a woman to everybody?

It would be an attack motivated by misogyny directed at someone who is not a woman. It would be harassment, and the man in question would be well within their right to be upset and distressed over being harassed.

I’m not sure what this was meant to clarify. Yes, the man is not necessarily an intended target of misogyny. But if they got taken for a woman and harassed over it, then it’s still that man who has been harassed. It might not have been ‘meant for them’ in the sense that they’re not actually a woman, but someone decided that they were an appropriate target and harassed them because of it. It’s still wrong even if it’s ‘misdirected’ misogyny. That goes under the same principles that any other case of non-women being on the receiving end of misogyny-motivated harassment would.

(Also: you realise that there are men in the world who go through harassment for exactly the same reason you did? There are trans men who haven’t, can’t or won’t transition in a way that gets them read consistently as men?)

There are lots of actual women who get harassed without me barging in to mess it up for them

And how, precisely, are you messing things up for them? Are you forwarding any kind of argument or politics that contradicts the aim of ‘reduce misogynistic harassment’? Sure, having to contend with an understanding of oppression that isn’t binary means more headwork, but if we don’t do that headwork, we’re going to be working from a bunch of faulty premises. Unless you’re also going to start arguing that non-cis people don’t experience any kind of independent oppression, that shouldn’t be all that controversial a statement.

Statistics say it’s the former

I’m not going to argue with you about why you think you’re being targeted, but my inner scientist will never shut up if I don’t address this: of course the bloody statistics say you’re being targeted for being read as a women when most of them don’t even account for the existence of nonbinary people.

How many official documents have you come across that have options beyond ‘man’ and ‘woman’? Society is exorsexist, folks! And outside the realm of assorted alphabet soup communities, most statistics won’t go any further than the official documents.

So like. Yeah, women are disproportionately chosen as targets of harassment. But let’s not get too wrapped up in what statistics that don’t even acknowledge the existence of NB people say about our experiences, mmkay?

Now, for the record: please understand that what you’ve plated up here displays a great deal of exorsexism. There’s the blatant ‘nonbinary isn’t a thing’, for starters. Quite frankly, there’s fuck all we can do to explain exorsexism or anything else to you if that’s the stage you’re operating at. I can go on all I like about how NB people specifically face forced invisibility and denial of identity, how this serves to splinter marginalised communities and play them off against each other, how modelling gendered oppression as being about man vs woman disservices NB people specifically, but if you can still find it in you to respond to that with ‘nonbinary isn’t a thing’, then… what the fuck are you expecting from us?

Then there’s your incredibly binary-centred understanding of oppression. This blog spends a lot of time on the subject of how binary-centric privilege politics fail NB people, and here you are, just… plating up more of the same. Why? What are you expecting us to say in response to this anyway?

Further: other NB people in the world have experienced harassment. A fair few of us have experienced it while closeted and pretending to be women, or just straight up being misgendered as women. When you say that misogynistic harassment couldn’t possibly matter when it happens to you because you’re not a woman? You’re telling one hell of a lot of other NB people that you don’t think we’re allowed to be angry or upset about the harassment that happened to us, because that also happened while we were being misgendered as women.

And I’m going to get very serious for a moment here: what you’re doing - distancing what happened from yourself, giving every excuse you can think of as to why it wasn’t actually bad, why it didn’t actually matter - is classic trauma survivor mentality.

It’s a survival tactic, it’s the kind of thing that keeps us alive when we have nowhere else to go. When you’re making it about your experience of having a certain marginalised identity the way you’ve done, it has splash damage. It’s a mental framework designed to endure, not to improve.

I don’t know if that’s what going on with you. I don’t know a great deal at all about your situation. I can’t do more than offer ideas.

And based on the fact that basically everything I’ve said here is the same stuff I said yesterday, at greater length, I can only assume that you’re not hugely open to taking in those ideas at present. That’s for you to deal with in your own time, you’re the only person who can live your life. I don’t know what you’re expecting us to offer you when you can’t even do us the courtesy of believing that maybe we do in fact exist as NB people.

So I’m going to return to yesterday’s questions that you never answered: do you honestly believe that it’s okay that you were harassed because it was by mistake? Do you honestly think that your harasser should get away with doing what they did because they did it making incorrect assumptions about you?

I’m not asking for some defeatist blather as to why you aren’t allowed to have an opinion on your own life and experiences because someone else was transantagonistic and exorsexist on top of being misogynistic and misgendered you. I’m asking do you honestly believe that what happened was okay and should be dismissed?

- Cade

[janiedean]

Same anon as before -first off I don't give a rat's ass about specific movies like Ghost in the Shell, and *cultural appropriation* is not what I talked about so why do you even bring that up in response to my ask? And I personally DO support shows/movies with good Asian-American roles, but they're SO FEW. You can't argue that 'OMG THEY EXIST CHILLAX' because one role versus two thousand roles is not representation. My problem is with taking roles and representation away not cultural approp.

ALSO FYI -I'm NOT American *shocked gasp* so please quit with your 'lol us-centrism'. I'm fed up with whitewashing, I agree with you on ALL THE POINTS ABOUT CULTURAL APPROPRIATION NOT FITTING INTO THESE SPECIFIC ISSUES, but you still made it all about that when I only talked about the fact that the reason people are upset is NOT bc of c.a. but because of it pushing away non-white actors which is a huge problem in America (and other places). I don't want a fight and never brought up c.a. -YOU did Also, attacking me for saying 'Japanese natives doesn’t care because it doesn’t affect them and their careers' is hypocritical as fuck since the only reason I brought that up is bc of ALL THE POSTS ON YOUR PAGE saying exactly that -'LOL Japanese people don't care about white actors taking these roles, so why should Japanese-Americans lololoool?' I wanted to respond to that by stating exactly WHY that was, but you decided to throw a fit about it and make it something entirely different. Thanks.

... wow. anon I’ve sat over this for hours because I’m honestly too tired for this but congrats, I’m currently watching the current italian edition of kitchen nightmares and replicating the expressions of the host.

anyway.

I don't give a rat's ass about specific movies like G*host in the Shell, and *cultural appropriation* is not what I talked about so why do you even bring that up in response to my ask

ah okay, and someone asked me about g*host in the shell yesterday, you send me an anon ask three hours later without specifying it was about something else, how the hell am I supposed to guess it was not about it? never mind that all the conversation re the topic on tumblr the last six months has been 90% g*host in the shell and 10% i*ron fist sooooo. guys idk if you mistook me for doctor strange or something but I don’t read minds. also ‘cultural appropriation’ is literally brought up everywhere whenever discussing whitewashing in movies. it goes hand in hand. do you even browse this fucking website or not? because guess what, that’s how the conversation on here goes. it’s always whitewashing + cultural appropriation. always. always. I bring it up because it’s fucking relevant.

never mind that just the idea ‘we don’t care if the japanese don’t mind americans playing japanese characters because it’s damaging to us’ is inherently appropriative.

And I personally DO support shows/movies with good Asian-American roles, but they're SO FEW.

idk, I listed the first five that came to mind but there’s more of them. also I don’t particularly care whether you do (I also do btw), I care that most people don’t, so going like ‘japanese americans or chinese americans are damaged by bad representation’ when people in general don’t care about those shows or throw the asian characters under the bus and it’s always complaining about ONE thing vocally (ie scarjo or finn j0nes) rather than promoting shows that have asian characters (have I ever seen any post promoting fresh off the boat in my life? nah I just know from three gifsets reblogged by europeans). like, if someone complains and then doesn’t support, which is the destiny of 90% of the shit discussed on tumblr since everything I watch with minorities that’s done well gets ignored or canceled. aha. there won’t be more if people complain about everything rather than watching it. without even going into asian americans... people wanted the peggy carter show for years, they got it, they complained about lack of nonwhite characters and din’t watch it, in S2 they did what fandom wanted and quality plummeted (I couldn’t even finish it) and it didn’t get renewed. it’s exactly the same story. you can’t expect majors to make more shows with asian characters if whenever they make them they tank. it’s not the point that there’s little of them. it’s that you will never have more of them if you don’t watch what little there is as imperfect as it is.

like, it’s basic capitalism. it’s the principle of demand/offer. if you demand and they offer but you don’t take what they offer then they won’t offer, if they know they’ll make sure cash off white actors. and you might not be the problem but the majority of people complaining about this shit who then doesn’t put their money where their mouth is is a problem. amazing, innit?

You can't argue that 'OMG THEY EXIST CHILLAX' because one role versus two thousand roles is not representation.

I can argue that if you watch that one role vs two thousand and you make the producers know that it’s a winning strategy then it’s going to become five roles every thousand and then ten every thousand and so on. if you don’t support what you have then you can’t complain you don’t get any. it’s some representation. start caring about it. it’s the same discourse as ‘I have to headcanon character X that I like as lgbt because representation’ when the fandom has another five lgbt characters who aren’t as cool or hip and get ignored because they aren’t the protagonists. good lord, go complain about this to the bunch of people from the 1*00 fandom who sends bob m0rley racist crap and excludes that bellamy can be the romantic lead, not to me. because if when you have an asian (or half-asian) man as the romantic lead and the show tanks or the guy gets racist backslash and their character gets vilified is not exactly the nicest way to go about it, isn’t it? I’m not even saying chillax. I’m saying that when they exist ppl don’t care so it’s really fucking ridiculous they complain about whitewashing when they don’t support what they have.

My problem is with taking roles and representation away not cultural approp.

You do realize that the moment you say that ‘it doesn’t hurt japanese or chinese or koreans or what have you but japanese/chinese/korean-americans so their opinion doesn’t matter’ you’re... basically superimposing your values over theirs because it implies that their opinion is worth something but their opinion is more worthy, which is a thing that is inherently appropriative since it means that you have more right over their roles than them.

anyway, whenever people on tumblr complain about that shit, as above, white people appropriating culture by whitewashing characters is a thing that happens 99% of the time, so.

also, as stated, just mentioning the last two fiascos: with ghost in the shell as the other user who reblogged this with the addendum the movie itself was appropriative and a bad idea because it wouldn’t have worked with anyone but the japanese so an X-american playing scarjo’s role would still��have been appropriative/incorrect. in iron fist the main character was white already so there’s no taking rep away, and the problem is that it’s culturally appropriative that he does martial arts and a bunch of other things, too bad that the chinese don’t care but their opinion doesn’t matter. so whose representation got taken away since they didn’t *whitewash* anyone else in that show? who even fucking knows. also: taking away roles from asian-americans means that you are adapting something and changing the characters’ ethnicity because if something’s taken away then it had to belong to someone in the first place. if white actors TAKE AWAY a role from an asian then the original role is asian and the white actor plays it (like scarjo in theory), but like then it means you’re adapting something. and if you’re adapting someone asian then having asian-americans in it is not the same thing at all. now the asians themselves don’t care so whatever but you can’t just go and say that it’s the same fucking thing all around. and if we’re talking original things you need more people to write roles created for asians or blind cast more asians, but in neither of these cases white actors are TAKING AWAY ROLES FROM ASIANS. I mean, it can work with death note because it’s taking a japanese story that makes no sense anywhere else and putting it in america and at this point having japanese-americans would have been way better than the shit going on now -

too bad I don’t see that much complaining. not as much as scarjo or finn jones. aaaah well guess it’s because one of the racebends wasn’t white.

anyway, like, learn what words mean because I’m at the first part of your ask and you already aren’t making a solid argument. whatever.

I'm NOT American *shocked gasp* so please quit with your 'lol us-centrism'. 

well, ‘the japanese opinion doesn’t matter because the japanese-americans are the ones hurt when it comes to adapting movies with japanese roles’ (I’m not saying asians bc not all asians are the same thanks) is the most US centric drivel you can spew. sorry that’s exactly what it is. if you’re not american whatever, you’re still spewing US-centric drivel and

where you come from. it’s still US centric. and it’s still a problem. because this entire discourse is so US-centric I still wanna facepalm into eternity.

you still made it all about that when I only talked about the fact that the reason people are upset is NOT bc of c.a. but because of it pushing away non-white actors which is a huge problem in America

and since on here it comes from people who don’t put their money where their mouth is,

all over again. also, excuse me but why the hell should I be more concerned about the issues americans have when their point is ‘it doesn’t hurt community X that I AM APPARENTLY SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF BUT IT HURTS ME SO THEIR OPINION IS IRRELEVANT BECAUSE THEY AREN’T DAMAGED’ (???) which honestly does not generate any sympathy? if that’s your point then sorry I’m not even very much interested in hearing it because it sounds arrogant af and again appropriative af of the original media because it assumes that americans have more rights on the original the moment that the opinions of who created the original are lesser.

and pushing away non-white actors will start stopping to be a problem when people go watch the stuff that has non-white actors in it without finding it inherently problematic from episode one for reasons that are irrelevant 95% of the time. I still ain’t seeing that happening.

like, idk if it was clear, but the moment anyone brings up to me ‘I don’t care about culture X because something related to it hurts americans most’ I am entirely done with taking you seriously. if it wasn’t it’s clear now. and that goes along with americans complaining that anime doesn’t have representation made for american audiences. 

actually, you know when was the first time I heard this dumbass ‘it hurts us and not them’ thing? a few years ago avril lavigne made a song for the japanese market where she was dressing lolita style and singing a few japanese words into the lyrics. the japanese were insanely happy about it. the americans were crucifying her for CULTURAL APPROPRIATION. the japanese went like wtf are you smoking. the americans replied ‘THIS REFLECTS ON THE IMAGE OF JAPANESE-AMERICANS NOT ON THE JAPANESE SO IT’S AN ISSUE EVEN IF THEY THINK IT ISN’T’. a song conceived for the japanese market only.

it’s exactly the same mindset. if you want to have this discussion the ‘I don’t care what the japanese think because they aren’t affected’ part of it needs to die because no one from outside the US will ever take it seriously in eight cases on ten. I imagine you’re one of those two. or maybe you have more empathy than I do. good for you because I exhausted my empathy on this topic a long time ago.

I don't want a fight and never brought up c.a. -YOU did Also, attacking me for saying 'Japanese natives doesn’t care because it doesn’t affect them and their careers' is hypocritical as fuck since the only reason I brought that up is bc of ALL THE POSTS ON YOUR PAGE saying exactly that 

‘I don’t want a fight’ next time don’t write me an ask with caps in it like ASIAN AMERICANS DON’T HAVE ROLES wow as if I don’t know that, and you don’t write an ask completely misunderstanding the whole point of the discourse I’m making.

as in,

LOL Japanese people don't care about white actors taking these roles, so why should Japanese-Americans lololoool?

CONGRATULATIONS YOU COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT AS ABOVE. because from an asian-american POV, caring about white actors taking asian roles saying that the whites CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE THOSE ROLES (because they say it) and then saying ‘well it doesn’t affect them but us so we don’t care if the japanese don’t agree’ is fucking hypocritical. and if you’re supposedly defending japanese or chinese or korean or x-asian culture and the people from that culture tell you to chill then you can’t say too bad their opinion doesn’t matter anymore, because they’re speaking over them and you can tell me CA is not the problem but it fucking is because it gets brought up in this discussion 99% of the time the discussion is happening. and again, I frankly don’t really care about this entire drama when that is the point you’re starting at.

also idk if I was japanese I’d be *affected* about americans remaking my country’s stuff badly but good for them that they don’t care, they’re better people than I am. I’m still salty because of the americans remaking i soliti ignoti and it came out in 2002 and there wasn’t even one italian actor, but since it was dumbed down criminals from the original criminals maybe it was better like that. I’d also be pissed that my original is less known than the american remake which will have more distribution because it’s american when the original is most probably a lot better but that’s an entire other can of worms. but like, that totally doesn’t matter (if any japanese feels like that) because how americans feel about it matters more? okay then.

I wanted to respond to that by stating exactly WHY that was, but you decided to throw a fit about it and make it something entirely different. Thanks.

thanks, I’m absolutely informed about that already and I already think it’s not a good excuse to exclude the japanese from the conversation.

also, anon, I don’t know if you guessed already, but let’s just state it for everyone to hear: I’m here for fandom. I get a lot of traffic for things that aren’t fandom. I’ve been here since 2011. this whole social justice fail has been going on since at least 2013 if not before. I’ve tried the nice-to-everyone approach and given that half of the time it doesn’t work, that half of the time it gets me wank (not as much as it could but still some) and in rare cases it gives me enough anon hate/idiots in the askbox that would wear anyone’s patience thin. given that in 2014/2015 I wasn’t working sort of steadily but last year I was and this year I am and I’m more tired and older and with a lot less time for bullshit, if you come out with a fairly condescending message that’s sprouting one of the most dumb hypocritical things that US tumblr has ever managed to come up with, I’m not gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn’t want to start a fight because I stopped giving the benefit of the doubt the time last year when I was trying to be extra nice to someone and honestly ask them for clarification about a thing I didn’t know and I got, uhm, six hours of people being assholes, some really fucking low anon hate that ten years ago would have sent me into a full week of existential crisis and I had to block like, 100 people in one hour.

I have no time whatsoever to waste giving people the benefit of the doubt especially when they dump US-centric crap into my inbox, because ‘X’s opinions on X’s culture is less relevant when it’s all about X-americans’ is US-centric crap. I didn’t throw a fit. I’m just really fucking done with the rampant hypocrisy on this website and its tendency to address the symptom and not the cause. as in, screaming about white actors working more than asian actors when asian actors would work more if those same complainers actually watched their shows.

and with this I’m really done and never wasting another forty minutes of my life on the topic, good thing watching kitchen nightmares isn’t anything that requires putting any mental effort in things.

[beanincorporated]

here's an open invitation to attack me i guess

Okay. I have my head on a little better and want to respond properly to you, even though I'm certain it'll eventually push me into a debate I don't really have the patience to deal with. Nevertheless:

I believe I've expressed it before but I didn't know what being bi meant until around the time I turned eleven, and the definition given to me at the time was the attraction to cis boys and girls. I didn't know of trans or nb people until after I turned sixteen, but (thanks to tumblr), I learned about orientations beyond gay, straight, and bi, by the time I turned thirteen.

Even though being a young teenager is generally a trying time I had to do it while processing and going through trauma, which made the whole self discovery thing really difficult. I don't have a lot of shame in saying I went through a lot of different labels before I found the original 'hearts not parts' argument and felt my world fall into place. And I want to preface what I'm about to say with: I tried to call myself bi on more than one occasion and, given my limited knowledge at the time, using the label for myself felt wrong and exclusive. Calling myself pan felt honest and real, considering I cared more about the personality of a person than what gender they were (though their gender would be acknowledged and respected regardless).

And of course, I learned about nb and trans people at sixteen, and started identifying as nb. Maybe I wasn't on the right side of the internet (because I focused a lot on politics, pop punk, and popular tv shows), but I didn't know discourse for what people choose to identify as even existed (excluding actual hate) up until the last year. And admittedly, even with the limited time I spend reading arguments in discourse tags, I've seen a bunch of arguments and a lot of outright disrespect that make me feel really awful for who I am. And for the sake of your ask:

I know pan, as a label, is historically rooted in trans and biphobia. I know the argument of prefixes means nothing in the grand scheme of it all. I know there are people who claim being pan makes one inclusive, and therefore 'better' than bi people. I know there's a lot of debate as to whether or not the two are interchangable, and I don't believe they are. I know the definition of bi isn't what I originally learned. I know there's a fair amount of people who believe it's mogai crap.

And while I am aware of it all, I can't really alter myself.

I don't know who is right, or if there is a right (because, honestly, it occasionally feels like people find stuff to argue about for no reason other than to argue and have some kind of superiority complex for making people feel shitty). I don't know if me being pan is completely certain. I do know, however, that I don't use the label from the same perspective I had when I was thirteen, but instead because I don't feel comfortable calling myself anything else at the moment.

And as much as people don't enjoy that, I don't particularly care. My job isn't to make the universe comfortable with me, and it especially isn't to please one stranger on the internet.

So, like I said: take it to an actual discourse blog next time, and leave me to be as happy as I can while I'm not actively hurting anyone.

your orientation isn't real

are you really gonna start this crap with me