#...this better not get me a bunch of bs in my inbox

[mikasaerens]

"Oh boo hoo the colonizer I like HAS to be queen of a continent she has no actual ties to that was permanently scarred by her family's regime instead of giving its sovereignity back to the people who actuallylive there and have for thousands of years" shut up you sound so annoying

Dany has NO right to Westeros. Miss me with that mhysa white savior shit too the Targs are a bunch of master-race-coded slavers who literally created the propblem she's failing to solve. (When people beg to be slaves again rather than live under your rule you are failing. Also she literally took a cut from slavery, refused to punish people who raped and forcibly impregnated bedslaves, and kinda entered into this bullshit with no fucking plan as a mentally disturbed teenager- it is not normal to burn a slave alive for rebelling, practice human sacrifice to get your vile fucking 'children', celebrate when you find out thousands of people are dying on another continent, or obsess over some stupid fucking prophecy that has already gotten two women killed- so she has no business leading anyone).

Also I don't ever wanna hear shit about Palestine from you since you clearly think mass murder and horrific abuses of power are fine if it's your favorite ultrablonde nazi-looking 'fire and blood' fascist #girlboss with three flying nukes and nothing but entitlement doing it

This is perhaps the most deranged ask I’ve ever gotten. And I’ve gotten a lot of deranged ones from you sick Zionists that drag Palestinians into “fandom drama”

This is a FICTIONAL book… calm the fuck down. No one has been killed, there is no slavery or slaves, or human sacrifices… it is NOT real. Remind yourself of that because you sound severely mentally ill. It’s concerning tbh, I’m worried about you.

To address the bs you typed in your post-

Daenerys is not colonizer, nor is she a white savior. She doesn’t fit any of that. Her ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror is a conqueror not even someone I consider colonizer since colonization in real life is NOTHING like what happened in the books. I actually come from a REAL LIFE colonized country and have family members who were alive before independence so to hear you call Aegon and Dany colonizers clearly tells me you know NOTHING about colonization.

Calling Targaryens “master race coded slavers”… whatever breakdown you are experiencing is something you need serious help for.

Targaryens haven’t owned slaves since before Aegon the Conqueror’s day nor have they ever since. In fact it is a Targaryen right now ending slavery. No one else but a Targaryen.

Daenerys made some mistakes in her rule and ending slavery isn’t supposed to be perfect. It’s better than your dumbass faves who sit around eating lemon cakes. Daenerys is a character who actually is involved with high stakes situations where there are opportunities to mess up. Your lemon cake loser fav never does/involved in anything important so she will never make those same “immoral mistakes”.

Daenerys had every right to kill the person who murdered her child. The fact that you argue against this is sick. You must also hate Sansa for killing Ramsay. Or Jon for killing the people who killed him, or Sandor for killing his brother or Cersei for killing her abuser husband, or Olenna for killing Joffrey etc.

The last thing about Palestinians- babe don’t lie. We know you’re a Zionist. In fact I know the account that sent this and I will expose your ugly ass if you ever come into my inbox again.

Calling Daenerys a Nazi fascist because she dared end slavery (even if it was imperfect) wow.. you’re right she should’ve taken her large army, her three dragons and left slavery intact lest she end it “imperfectly”

You are so delusional, with not one functioning brain cell.

Face it, Daenerys is THE hero of the story. She has dragons, brought magic back to the story, is a QUEEN, is strong, intelligent and has actual purpose in the story and is the daughter of the most interesting/important house in ASOIAF. She is not a villain and asoiaf is not for you if you hate her so much.

Go read another story since you have tragically misinterpreted this one.

And yes, Daenerys does have rights to Westeros. Her family created the Iron Throne, her family created that castle and King’s Landing. They have ruled for hundreds of years. And no idc if she actually ends up on the throne, that will be Bran. But Daenerys is and will always be the better ruler and queen.

Oh and I’m NEVER going to stop talking about Palestine

[hotmess-exe]

hi! I saw u in the notes of a post abt male writers getting mad when their audience is largely female & u mentioned racism and homophobia in knb. I totally believe it given how toxic the "aLpHa MaLe" side of the fandom especially can be toward non-straight,non-male fans & the accidentally-queerbaity vibe of the show in general. but I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate bc Idk much abt the author if thats what u meant. if you'd rather not though, feel free to ignore this. have a good one :)

ohh man, it’s been literal years since I was into the fandom like that, but I’ll try to summarize as accurately as I can. (post anon is referring to) and I speak from the perspective of someone who

does not speak or read Japanese

LOVES fictional media with complex and interesting characters and

shipped Midorima and Takao like fucking Fed-Ex.

i don’t use twitter or other social media so i’ve genuinely never interacted with any potentially toxic male portion of the fandom. literally gonna tag my bestie @lia-nikiforov for help on this as i’m sure she’ll be able to fill in the blanks of my memory and recounting. (if you're so inclined, friend 😌) and y’know what?

let me lay this out as a timeline of disillusionment.

2012 - I get into KnB the anime. cool character designs and development, i actually know enough about basketball to enjoy the sports perspective (and how ridiculously camp it is), and it’s my first foray into fandom. Can’t wait for the second season so I get caught up on the manga. I fall so in love with my pairing that I start writing fanfiction for the first time in my life. Make online friends. etc etc me love basketball anime

Then this shit happened:

I’m not going to claim to know what this was entirely about, but it really just seems like some homophobic domestic terrorist trying to malign the yaoi fangirls that were quickly flocking to the IP after the anime came out? for some reason??? [x]

Was that the yaoi fandom’s fault? Nope. Can I see Fujimaki, a cis straight dude trying to write a manly basketball manga, being exhausted, annoyed, and possibly resentful of them for it anyway? Yeah, i can see it. so next...

Hyuuga (Fujimaki’s expy) calling Reo (a fucking angel) a gay/trans slur

this post summarizes that shit from when the chapter came out... i remember being very, very disappointed and rocked

https://akashiseijuros.tumblr.com/post/70004569298/how-can-i-summarize-the-knb-debacle-to-a-friend-of-mine

and this dissects the actual scenes of the manga (left out by the anime because god knows the studios wanted to keep raking in fujoshi cash uninhibited)

https://icecreambat.tumblr.com/post/80582483128/waaait-hyuuga-is-homophobic

this is coming in a manga where the author is well aware, perhaps overly aware of how much gay shipping goes on in his fandom. i mean, i don’t think it’s far off to say KnB set the modern roadmap for how marketing would utilize queer-baiting to the MAX for shows like Free in the future (but correct me if i’m wrong). this garbage was an intentional message to readers and no one will convince me otherwise. specifically since he chose Hyuuga to say this, who Fujimaki said in past interviews (and in the manga itself I wanna say??) that this was the character he most identified with.

Extra Game/Last Game: featuring the Scary Black Savages Antagonists™

this was my final straw—the Americans in Extra Game. I never watched Last Game. the love was gone by then. not only are these literally the only Black characters of any importance in the entire series... they are fucking morons, violent, cheaters, and mindless minions of their white, blond team captain.... like.... wow man WOW. Fujimaki’s greatest talent as a writer, in my opinion, is his character design, writing, and development.

So, at best, these Black characters were either lazily depicted as savages or purposely depicted as savages.

it also didn’t escape my attention, as a Black writer, how Fujimaki further establishes the Americans as villains by having them call the Generation of Miracles “monkeys”....... while depicting the only Black characters like THIS:

I can’t even fight this description because it’s fucking accurate:

this creepy fucking panel featuring a naked Jason Silver, in reference to his natural “Exceptionally Strong Body” skill 😒 🤢

Upon his intro, he’s immediately the most repulsive kind of villain, literally coming after a Japanese woman in the way all anti-Black racists are terrified of

Having these trash Black characters call the Japanese main characters “monkeys” is kind of like giving your own racist ass a pass.... a pass to depict them as barely human, dark-skinned thugs. And I DO mean this in the context of the rest of Fujimaki’s character designs and his general art style—these characters were supposed to all be in the same age group as the Generation of Miracles!! He even made fucking Hanamiya (a certifiable psycho lbR) look like a recognizable, interesting human being, so why the fuck did these Black Americans get smacked with the ogre stick?? It’s also a (barely) subtle way to give any readers who might already be INCLINED to call Black people monkeys the pass to say something along the lines of, oh, idk, “Oh, THEY’RE calling our faves monkeys??!?” and this is not just an assumption, I definitely came across some liberal usage of the n-word while looking up the stupid shit for this post (fuuuuuunnn)

I’m supposed to believe the Black people are calling the Japanese people monkeys. the only fucking Black people that aren’t fucking NBA players. (oh, excuse me, with the exception of the one African character who’s entire personality was a “funny” name and being an arrogant, lazy simpleton with no skill beyond being tall as fuck.) If he wanted to make the American antagonists racist against Japanese people, that is totally his right as a Japanese writer. i’m not, at all, the type to defend the US or Americans just for the sake of defending the US and Americans. If you wanna have racist, ignorant Americans be your antagonists in a story, I got no issue with that. I don’t even care that the Black characters are villains—that’s obviously completely fine because they were always going to be the antagonists to our mains, the protagonists. Make them villains! There are infinite cool ways to do that shit!

But not like this. Jfc not like this. The Black Americans calling the Japanese characters monkeys. Monkeys. MONKEYS of all things and I’m supposed to read that and be like oH OK YEA THAT'S BELIEVABLE

do i think it was all intentional? i’d honestly be shocked if it was. does that make it ok or acceptable for me to sign off on and ignore? lmao fuck no?? I have too much self respect???

ugh to end this unpleasant trip down memory lane

so clearly someone like me (queer, into queer relationships, Black American, African) was never meant to consume this dude’s fucking basketball manga. which y'know, eventually i had to be like fine, whatever. you win, dude, i literally can't even enjoy your IP anymore. guess that’s what you wanted, good for you, gg. if others in the English-speaking fandom had recognized and said any one fucking thing about it, I might have stuck around longer? but a lot of people fell off during and after Extra Game just cause it sucked and the people who stuck with it just... didn't care. either didn't notice or didn't care. which isn't surprising! English anime audiences ignore the fuck out of racist depictions in anime all the fucking time.

it wasn’t an unpopular opinion at the time that Fujimaki had written himself into several corners (at one point he confessed he'd made Akashi overpowered and wasn’t sure how he could be beaten)—which I don’t blame him for! I can't imagine how much external pressure there is when your IP becomes this wildly popular so quickly and in a way you did not at all intend or expect. and before you're even close to finishing it. that's fucking difficult. I can also imagine there were times where it felt like it no longer belonged to him, god only knows how many directions he was being pulled in while writing the final volumes. But considering how much Fujimaki clearly couldn’t stand how gay his fandom was, very little of what I described up there was unpredictable, unfortunately. I do feel it firmly fits into the category of male creators resenting and punishing their female fandom.

However, you could also sense the artist/writer’s fatigue in the way plots were developed and loose ends were tied up, in the interviews toward the end... and the fact that his next project was slated to be a golf manga in a far more realistic style that the KnB fandom wasn’t at all interested in. on the one hand, I think it makes complete sense for him to do something totally different from KnB after such a ridiculously intense bout of success and attention like that, both from a creative and like mental health standpoint, but, again—there’s a lingering sense of resentment.

and to reiterate

i don’t know anything about the non-shipping parts of the fandom. nothing at all. I also can't claim to have been that into the fandom (I ignored and avoided drama and getting super into the voice actors, musical projects, etc). All I can really speak to is my personal connection to the show, manga, and characters, my initial personal respect and admiration for Fujimaki as a writer, and the feeling of both of those things slipping away. Slowly at first, then all at once; and strictly because of Fujimaki’s creative decisions. this isn’t even getting into the fact that Extra Game genuinely was crap from a perspective of character consistency and development on several fronts. again, it felt like a writer who had already fallen out of love with his own work adding this on because there just was the expectation of one... Final Game 🙄

Kuroko no Basuke just makes me feel sad and cold now when I think about it. but at least I made some friends through it, yknow? well, i fell out of touch with most of them. maybe i should tag them here? i stick by what i said here but i’m curious what others who were in the fandom at its peak think.

will you recognize me guys? you still there? i came back to tumblr i don’t watch animes no more lol

@yokofujioka @shunnaoaddict @leona-dracontis

[shannarous]

My big experience with Naruto fandom has taught me something I wish all Sakura/ss fans could understand: mostly haters don't dismiss both Sakura and ss because they are “dumb” or lack reading comprehension, they just do that because Sakura/ss get in the way of their fav characters and ships and since the fandom validate their bs, they feel secure in their obsessive hatred and delusion. This why there are the double standards towards Sakura and ss.

What still keeps them going on with their sick hatred is the fact that in their eyes, Sakura didn't get “punished” for her “sins” (not loving Naruto romantically, but his rival. Being the female leader, being an emotional woman and being sidelined by her own writer, as if it was her fault or as if shounen isn't a genre where the main focus is glorify men) and since these people are also bitter, they want the fans to be bitter, too. It's literally a case of projection. In Twitter since 2020, people literally create hateful accounts every fucking day just to stalking and harassing Sakura/ss fans. If they couldn't get a revenge on her in canon neither ss being as miserable as they wished, they don't want to see people showing anything positive about her/ss, since they know so well their hatred is irrational and biased.

I just wish Sakura/ss fans could stop giving them so much attention. It empowers them and it truly make them feel they're somehow brave, when they are nothing but a bunch of cowards who think harming real people over a drawing is a great move.

Sorry, I've been pretty busy recently so this ask has been sitting in my inbox for quite a while.

I agree with you, anon, at least to a degree. Most of the time it's really wiser to try and ignore the haters, it's what I do too. Mainly because from my experience it's wasted time to talk back to them, because even if your arguments are better than theirs, even if you have solid proof for your point, they won't acknowledge that anyway, let alone change their mind. After all, they're not starting the argument (or rather fight) with the intention to be convinced. They don't even want to have a constructive discussion, so I don't bother trying to start one with them.

But. The problem is, even if everyone ignored them, they wouldn't stop. And I get other fans who want to talk back to them. Most of the time they don't want the haters to completely take over a platform and I support that.

Nonetheless I am not one of those who talk back (anymore) and I try to avoid confrontations with haters completely. While I recommend doing the same, I fully support those fans who still talk back too. If I ever see a confrontation like that, I can always show my support by liking the comments of the Sakura/SasuSaku fans.

[myrfing]

Regarding all your everything about today's WoL question xD

Yeah I get you ;w; like I do think it's fine if like ... That's how they write their WoL -- if their WoL perceives their relationship with the Scions to be not great. And often times I have to remind myself that how their WoL perceives it =/= how the player actually perceives it. But sometimes people do insist that the Scions don't really care about the WoL and that does make me a little sad fjdkskf. Especially after everything in ShB and EnW.

But. That's them and I have my own thoughts, so. Poyo ... Sometimes I wonder if FFXIV is as free as people say ... There wouldn't be so many interpretions of the WoL and their relationships with the Scions otherwise, but I'm a little rigid about the WoL + Scions relationships I see in the wild?

Also sorry for, dumping thoughts into your inbox. You might have noticed a bunch of new notifs as of late but I'm shy so. /Rolls away

OH. HI first sorry for being so gung ho about my opinions I do recognize some people put conflict between their wol and scions because their wol is just meant to have issues and complexities about anything from their goals, to heroism, whatever. Some of my favorite wols/writers in the fanbase have written their little guy to completely reject being the wol and the scions, to have run away and be very bitter and angry towards even the gentlest attempts to get them back, and I love what they wrote.

I do personally think though that the msq is a very linear and somewhat rigid story, and a lot of people just sort of…struggle with that. Maybe cus they like the antagonist characters more, maybe because they disagree with the scions politics and goals, maybe the story just doesnt work with what they want for their wol, maybe they just don’t plain like the scions as people and end up feeling like they’re being “forced” to do all this crazy shit “for their sake” when nothing they want aligns with the scions. like I have issues with the scions and always had since arr and to a point I suspend my disbelief but. A lot of people seem to think yeah none of this WAS worth it a majority of the game is boring ridiculous bs and I only liked amaurot/whatever. and they want this to be the reality for their wol without blame, for them to have a good reason to blame others that just…doesn’t really exist. So then all the quests and trials are just an unwanted burden, even though…this is just the leap of faith you give towards a video game that asks you to play it. like game mechanics suddenly are a personal affront, minfilia asking you to turn in a quest to her becomes an indication of her like, moral failings and inconsiderateness, alphinaud being gung ho about better eorzea is just a marker of how he’s a coldhearted despotic 16 year old dragging around your sad chained up angel wol strongest person ever btw with a leash. but instead being like oh yeah I want a canon divergence big time from the get go a weird number of people just preach their wildly poor faith readings about fairly mild and well-meaning characters as truth LMFAOOO. which like, sure, everyone go ham and have fun, but I see a lot of resulting complaints directed at the writers with weird amounts of vitriol. like oh the fucking scions are cruel ingrates towards garlyman1 and the writers wont let me yell at them for it in the new patch, they don’t know what they’re doing with their own themes. in the future i want the option to say/do [shit that would be absolutely wild for the character known as “Thee WoL” to suddenly say with no buildup and is entirely substantiated on their oc’s story]. like people legit turning on ishikawa WHOOO is not a perfect writer by any means but for just running with the basic premise that “the wol and the scions are friends and they want to do good by the world”. and this thing is the basic impetus that progresses you along the entire story and lets you experience its content. Some people have expressed such heavy disgust at this basic ass core thing that you had to play along with to play the game since you first spoke to the scions that I just…????. I guess it makes me think like do you actually LIKE the story or. did you go through 263836822 hours of it just hating the vast majority of it. which would be less weird if the game wasn’t so long and expensive and didnt require so much deliberate choice to keep playing.

and admittedly this is just me turning my nose up at shit out of my own tastebuds but some people will reach to make any character who in canon is like, just some guy living life, into bizarrely evil total fucking incompetent or manipulative assholes who are obsessed with making the wol’s life hell and whose entire existences revolve around making the player specifically the…biggest victim I guess. like jesus on the cross shit. every day wake up eat my cereal traumatize the wol who bears the weight of all the worldly sins because nobody thinks they are just #human and are content to let them suffer alone. and I personally find that uber masturbatory and weird in any writing lol. in the end I think a lot of what people write and how they write it is a communication of ideas and if that idea is “everyone sucks and is so mean to me the most sane and rational and human one of all time” and if you have to reduce the humanity of other characters to bolster yours to the point they have no resemblance to their original selves im going to be like your ideas fucking suck dude. also sorry this turned into another humungo rant it is cool to have you share your thoughts with me and i dunno if this is anything for making a distinction or finding the balance between “player freedom to write their own story” vs. actual misinterpetation. in the end i dont know what’s going on in people’s heads for sure

[thedreadvampy]

So like there's still that ask expanding on the Exclusionist Leads To TERFery argument sitting in my inbox and I will respond to it when I can formulate an answer that's less than 2000 words long.

but I wanted to spin out a specific thing which is that anon repeated the ol' "queer is a slur is TERF Rhetoric that TERFs Started" and that is something I have a very DIFFERENT lot of feelings about

the idea that queer is a slur wasn't started by TERFs. It was started by.......people using queer as a slur........a thing that they still very much do.....

Look, I like the word queer. I self-describe as queer and I use the word queer interchangeably with LGBTQ. I have friends who only want to be called queer bc it sums up the fluidity or nonspecificity of their identity. I think queer is a useful and valuable terminology for us to have in our wheelhouse and personally I prefer it to LGBT because it makes a lot more space for the muddiness and complexity of sexual and gender identities.

but it's a slur.

or at least, it originates as a slur. it gets its power from being a reclaimed slur. when people say "we're here we're queer get over it" they're throwing the word back in the faces of those who use it against them and saying "you don't get to own this part of me, I'm taking back ownership".

and like. that's a reclamation and I believe powerfully in the strength and beauty of reclaiming that word

but it's also not unreasonable that people who have been hurt by it (which. in the wider world it still is often a slur) might not want to reclaim it or deal with it.

like. I love the word queer and while I wouldn't refer directly to someone who hates it as queer, I do passionately believe in its value and use as a general term. but. it's reductive and honestly offensively unkind the way many people act as if having a complex or negative relationship to a word often flung as a weapon, with a long history of violence as well as reclamation, is evidence of gullibility or malice.

there are a lot of reasons people don't like the word queer and some of them I find odious - the vitriol some people sling around at "kweers" in their hatred of the term queer is honestly just. depressing. and there are people who hate it because it runs counter to their desire to carve the community up into neatly divided Ls, Gs, Bs and Ts and also forget the Ts. but there are also people who think queer is a slur because it's been used as a slur against them. or who don't believe in reclamation. or who are uncomfortable with a word reclaimed as a defiant political statement being coopted by corporate interests.

like there's a lot of reasons people have to dislike the word queer and consider it a slur. and to boil them all down to "oh it's TERF Rhetoric" is not just reductive it's largely untrue and it's aggressively uninterested in other people's experiences and needs. and to say "queer was never a slur until TERFs started spreading this rhetoric" is a) factually untrue and b) ignores a century or so of very diverse opinions about the use of the word.

also. relatedly. other people have said this better than me but this watering down of what TERFism is and this framing where everything bad is TERF Rhetoric honestly just feeds into TERF's ability to fly under the radar like. a lot of TERFs consider themselves queer, because TERFs are not a monolith, they're a disparate group limited by a core philosophy that is specifically and only defined by a hatred and distrust of trans womanhood.

and a lot of people who aren't TERFs hate the word queer, or, like me, like the word but think whether or not it's a slur is very situation-dependent.

and this tendency to say something false about TERFs to bolster an unrelated point (TERFs created the concept that queer is a slur) if anything helps weaken people's resilience to TERFism because ultimately the strongest recruitment tactic TERFs use isn't a slippery slope of exclusionism, it's trauma. like any reactionary movement, they hook onto people's trauma and fears and they tell them 'you're right, you're heard, you're suffering and the world's against you and it's their fault.' and if someone comes into an LGBTQ space and says 'I am exhausted by having the word queer spat at me I never want to hear it again' and a bunch of people turn around and say 'uhhhh claiming that queer is a slur is actually terf rhetoric so we're not interested in you spouting TERF Propaganda' like. Is this helping the community? is this resisting TERFs? or is it just muddying the lines of what TERFs are and why we don't want them here and reducing them to an abstract The Bad People?

[katribou]

by the by thanks a bunch for some of the msgs the other day i wasnt particuarly looking for anything and im usually better at shaking things off just because ive Been On The Internet So Long (cursed) but i guess i just snapped after posting a single thing and getting the usual bs in my inbox -__-; gonna try hard to not let eejits ruin things for me though...

[severelynerdysheep]

So I read your post on wool, and so many things I didn't know and I truly feel awful! I try to live eco-friendly and sustainable, and I recently learned to crochet to help with my anxiety. My fiance bought me a bunch of yarn second-hand and some of it is wool, which is really not good.

But thank you for also providing links to eco-friendly and vegan yarns! Not many people also provide links to alternative things during informative posts like these, but I really appreciate that you did. So now I know what to avoid, and what to get instead (and if I can find small businesses, it's even better!) Thank you again, have a nice day! 🌼

The wool industry is incredibly deceptive in its propaganda, both ethically (most importantly) and in terms of BS “eco-friendly” claims. But I’m really glad my post was helpful for you, and that the links to some ethical yarns were helpful. As someone who was super into crochet before my EDS completely ruined my ability to do that, if you ever want some more specific yarn recs feel free to pop into my inbox anytime!

[inviouswriting]

obscure asks answered 3

The rest of them.

26. what do you think about genderbent ____ (insert someone here)

Arjuna. Love this one as a gender bent since it is a canon point in his story.

27. what breakup was the hardest, if you had one?

Not answering this one.

28. do you have someone where you can’t decide if you like them romantically or just as a friend?

Answered already~ 

29. what do you think about tumblr discourse?

I think it is bullshit. Now I speak with the upmost love to alot of you.

But giving weight to these dumbass anon hates in your inbox does nothing. You’re better off deleting their asks and not giving them the time of day or letting them rob you of your peace. I mean this. You just don’t invite it or give them the chance to keep coming in that way. As for these people who need to step into others personal spaces and harass them. At the end of the day, your words do not matter. The fact that some can be affected is sad, truly sad if they’re hurt that way. But take this from someone who has been through it ALL. The best thing any of you can do is show these idiots they do not matter in your life. They’re just a thought and should remain an after thought. It hurts yeah, but what hurts worse is showing they got in and under your skin. They can attack you further. So how you choose to handle them and enable that behavior is up to you. I rarely get anon hate, because I either fly under the radar of these people. Or I simply give off the “I don’t care” attitude too much that they can’t really touch me. There have been the few, but the people that sent those were former friends who knew how to hurt me. Do not let a random stranger rob you of your joy for a small jab.

As a whole, discourse is BS, if you can’t respect someone else’s opinion on something. then that kind of shows your personality.

30. what instrument do you wish you could master?

Violin.

31. how easy is it for you to be honest?

Pretty open book. I don’t lie often, if I’m put into a position where I have to lie, I will probably drop the person who is making me feel I need to lie about anything.

32. do you have any strange interests?

Tarot.

33. do you have any strange fears?

I guess this is considered strange. Worms. I have a phobia of them. particularly parasite and maggots. Earth worms are okay. But the other ones. I’ve ran into traffic once because around my feet was a whole bunch of maggots. This is due to a story I heard about the man who organized the extermination on those who practiced Mormonism. In how he was eaten alive by worms. Just no.

34. what food do you binge on when you’re lazy?

Candy... probably peanut butter m&ms. They’re my go to..

35. when you get angry, how do you show it?

Depends on the level. But seriously angry? It comes in waves.

Short brisk, I am vocal about what irritates me. 

Hurt on a deep level. I withdraw completely.

36. do you have any impulsive movements? (twitches, ticks, flapping, etc.)

I mess with my hair alot. I also will pull hair out. This is a nervous tick and a comfort one.  Want to know if I’m uncomfortable, am I messing with it and pulling strands out.. or just messing with it. I keep like a lock of hair out to fidget with so I am not sitting or standing just pulling strand after strand out.

37. what do you listen to music on?

Answered already.

38. are you left brained or right brained?

I am both. I just did a test to answer this and scored a perfect 50... so both.

39. earbuds or headphones?

Answered. Headphones.

40. do you like light blankets or heavy blankets?

[writinglionqueen]

Nice to see a positive Drew blog! I'm sure there are many others, but I saw your post about why you love him and how he inspires you and I thought it was refreshing to see. Especially with the way other blogs have just been nasty about him, making fun of his fans and spreading unnecessary hate about him. I think they took that Q&A thing way out of context. I don't think he meant anything malicious with his response about his favorite women's match. He may not be perfect, but who really is?

Continuing with the frist anon. People are calling Drew misogynstic because of that response when there are others who have said worse or people who are actually misogynistic and nothing gets said about them. Anyway, sorry for the rant. I just wanted to say I'm happy to see a positive blog for him. Everyone messes up, we're only human. But Drew is far from being a bad person.

~~~

Ok....I have a lot to say about this....so I’m going to put a keep reading link. 

Especially since the toxicity of some blogs has like been a prevalent issue for me and some of the blogs that follow me.

I’m going to start by saying, because I have to because I also know how not to be so far up my fav’s ass, that Drew’s joke was a little shitty. I can see why people may have an issue with it (even as someone who wasn’t around for watching wrestling up until 2 years ago....I didn’t know it was a joke so I thought it was genuine. Seeing how it apparently is a joke that a lot of people have made in the past when it first came out) The backstory behind it clues that it was a distasteful joke. Kinda disappointed that he made it..but as you said, he is only human. Everyone has made a distasteful joke in the past. Not one soul can say that they’ve never made a distasteful joke before. The idea of purity culture (especially in fandom) sometimes is so frustrating. No one is perfect. Not even Drew. No fav is perfect either. 

Was it distasteful? Yes. Was it a little shitty given it’s history behind it? Yeah.

I’m going to say this though, (in my opinion), calling him misogynistic for that one joke is just a little bit of an extreme take on it. Since he sings the praises of his female coworkers as well when given the chance or seeing things they do (and in the same tweet, his favorite match was a match where two women got to hold a match in a place that was off limits to female talent until a year ago.) This video comes to mind when he talks about his female coworkers being “just as good, if not better than the guys” at times. It was one joke, one time.  

There are so many worst things people have said in the past. Anything that spewed out of Lawler’s mouth comes to mind. (Especially since it’s continuous vs one time....) His one joke wasn’t that bad compared to actual misogynistic bs I’ve heard and seen from other people in the company this year alone and in the past. He doesn’t have history of making misogynistic comments either. It was just this one time. (People are gonna bring up his first wife in any conversation too because people think it’s evidence of his history because they see domestic violence and think the male in the relationship is the abuser. His wife was arrested for assaulting him. Not the other way around and it’s been said before and time again and you can find those articles in a simple google search)

To say, the same blogs that continue to be nasty about him and also be nasty to his fans (whether they believe they are being nasty to other fans or not) are the same ones that would tell other blogs to stop making fun of people’s favorite matches and their favs in the same breath of just being downright nasty to other fans for who they like and which matches are their favorite....so....take what they say as null and void. The same blogs have caused so much unnecessary drama and have caused other fans to legit feel bad for wanting to like wrestling or their favs. No joke. So many people have come to my inbox and DMs because of these blogs. They’re the same ones that will start making up shit about you if you disagree with them as well. (just the most toxic bunch I’ve ever met on this website in the last 6 years)

No one is perfect. But the ungodly amount of toxicity I’ve seen from some specific blogs on here because people want to enjoy Drew and him being a champ and others hating that has reached a boiling point.

To reiterate: Drew isn’t perfect. He made a bad joke. I’m disappointed to learn that it was a bad joke and disappointing he made it either way, but everyone has. It’s being human. I do not believe it makes him misogynistic because....that’s extreme in comparison to Lawler who says way worse things when he was on commentary. And the same blogs who continue to shit on him....are kinda just also nasty to other fans they don’t agree with so. You win some you lose some. The way I see it, they’ll never like Drew, even if he never made that joke. And they won’t ever like his fans because we want to enjoy him being champ. Just stay clear of them and block them. I already have. It’s made my blogging experience 10 times better. 

[losingmyjustice]

@nurotoxin​ sent;

What do you know now about rp that you wish you knew when you first started?

“To Be Honest!” Meme

To be honest, two things actually; XKit, and basic rp etiquette. Keep in mind that when I was new 'round on the rpc, I was also new on tumblr in general. You can reckon how that went.

I, uh, mixed up between inbox & im's a lot, didn't realize what mutuals-only precisely meant, had a theme that didn't fit rp blogs at all, replied to random starters in the starter call tag as if that isn't weird, couldn't read the air regards to dash comms, icons were in various sizes, for quite some time I didn't even know what cutting posts meant, — and unfortunately uh. no one corrected me w/ these things I just learned from trial and error. Kinda unfortunate but understandable that everyone just went "i dont perceive it" on me,,

Though, even when that improved, I still didn't know about xkit because?? despite everyone using it I just never caught wind of it until like 2-3 months later? Don't get me wrong, I did "cut" my posts, but I did it manually with html. Yeah. I copied their text, copied their icons, put their url link and pasted the text below, then used html for the blockquote because if you don't then the picture won't be included in that block.

There's more but you get the gist of it. I... would have done much better if I would have had some crash course or smth.

What would prevent you from following someone?

Hfrjkmnjn uhh,, to be honest, various factors? On here my usual first concern is if they're affiliated, which instantly clears out a bunch of other worries too, since if they're with isola they naturally (should) follow the group's rules too. On Indie I additionally have to check how their postin' is lookin like, aka if they're actually active or are just filled with OOC posts. Also had a guy who did do IC posts but had like...300 posts a day with just one-liners? Glancing away from that—

While I won't reblog anything political here, I don't mind should they decide to do so, aslong as uh. yknow, it doesn't make out their blog or is supporting some sickening bs like homophobia. Generally avoid interacting w/ anyone that fits into the typical Do-Not-Interact criteria, though, to be honest its something you only spot later on rather than when you just followed.

Then checking out their rules, uh — especially on this blog its highly important. Most Rules are self-explanatory and all, but if they got a trigger list that includes suicide talk,, yknow. Uh. Maybe not the best idea to follow?? And if there's a "No Minors" rule, you already know what that means for me.

In the end, though, I'm someone who acts a lot upon intuition, aside from these obvious bits i just listed. I also tend to follow people I'm pretty certain won't follow back solely for the sake to watch their writing on the dash and all.

[comicteaparty]

May 20th-May 26th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from May 20th, 2020 to May 26th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following  question:

How do you personally keep track of everything you read?

carcarchu

for western webcomics i Don't unless i read them on tapas or webtoons where it saves my place. otherwise if it's something i really love i'll leave it in a tab indefinitely saving my spot. for eastern webomics i religiously update my reading history on anilist or MU

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I uh

Don't

Capitania do Azar

I keep RSS feeds on things I absolutely must not forget and also keeping up with people's twitters

tho twitter is a very unstable way to get update notifications because things get lost real fast

but RSS never really failed me

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Bookmarks. If a comic goes onto my reading list, it goes into my bookmarks. I used to do RSS but that habit died with google reader.

RebelVampire

A mix of memory and Archive Binge (https://archivebinge.com/). Although these days probably more the former just because I have so little time for any reading I only do in bulk to the point I'll usually remember where I left off since I fortunately have a pretty good memory once I read a few pages. That being said, I have been considering switching to RSS feeds just for convenience, but time has really gotten in the way of me doing that as well. XD

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

...Poorly

Unless I get an email notification about it, or see an update on Twitter, I usually forget about the comic for a while. But the good news is, when I do remember, there are often many new pages to come back to. Like a mini binge!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I'm really bad at it, which is why I typically read comics on host sites like Webtoon, Tapas, etc. (Sorry all you personal website peeps!) I make very rare exceptions, because it's just too difficult for me to keep track of all the websites and all the new pages. The only other way that I can keep track is if I'm in the Discord server for a particular comic. If personal sites had easy to find email subscription buttons or something though, I'd probably be able to keep track better.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Mailing list for "finished this chapter!" emails sounds reasonable. So you only get it every chapter.

Though for people who do longer chapters, maybe "finished this scene" emails might be a better option.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't mind page by page updates, but I might be one of the few that does a pretty good job of remembering what happened every page. But yeah! Email updates would so help me since I my email alerts my phone, so I can check important stuff (and comics) right away if I want to.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I personally wouldn't want email for every new page for every comic I follow

I also don't mind page by page updates, but for email, it's different.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I usually just keep the tab open for them on my Chrome....but most of the comics I read are from tapas/webtoons. However.....getting email updates would honestly flood my inbox, so I probably wouldn't want that

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean, my inbox is already flooded with BS, lol. If you've ever bought something online or made an account anywhere, your inbox will be flooded, so it's really a minor inconvenience for me.

Also, you wouldn't be required to get email updates if you don't want them, but the option would be nice

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Email for "every comic you follow that updated today" could work, like if a site like archivebinge could work that out.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Oh that would be lovely

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Honestly i like that idea too!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean I guess we already have something close -- just bookmark AB and go there

But an email feature would definitely simplify it for many folks

DanitheCarutor

Oh man, I use public hosting sites, Discord and Twitter, which isn't the best for stand-alone site comics. Every so often I bookmark a comic I plan on reading, but then I always totally forget about it. There are a couple comics I remember every blue moon like Sister Claire or that comic about a Mexican Catholic kid trading his soul to summon a demon, or something, but then I end up forgetting where I left off... <_<' I heard using an RSS feed is good, but I'm pretty particular about stuff being in my inbox, if I get emails for a bunch of comics I'll probably just get annoyed. Lol

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, yeah, that Archive Binge email idea is great or even like, what updated this week instead of just today. I also use bookmarks. And also I just have a million comics to start open in tabs. I do now have the Webtoon app so I can follow a handful of comics that don't have they're own site, but my preference is definitely for homesites. Maybe I'm just an old lady in that respect TuT I also usually read in little binges, but I also follow creators on Twitter/Instagram so I can see when those page updates post. I'll be honest, I don't really understand how RSS works X') I assume it somehow pings you when a site updates, but the mechanics of it I just don't know. But I definitely do have an RSS feed enabled on my site because I know some people use it.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

RSS just works like any website where you subscribe to accounts and read a feed with the updates -- Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, whatever. Except that it isn't limited to a specific website, it's universal. You get one RSS-reading app and it can subscribe to any feed from anywhere.

Mine combines a couple different blogs, comics, podcasts, new fics posted in AO3 tags, and at least one Deviantart gallery. (Back in the day I put a couple of tumblrs on it, before I took the plunge and signed up with tumblr...)

Although for webcomics I use a combination of Archive Binge and ComicRocket. (If one of them isn't getting the updates for a specific comic, I follow it on the other one.)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I agree with LadyLazuli, if it wasn't for my Webtoon, Tappytoons & Tapas comic apps, it's hard to keep track elsewhere. I also rely on comic related discord channels or I watch for banners to show up to remind me to check out the comic series. Likewise, I want to get some sort of fun memo pad reminder to 'check up this series'. Another good source I love is Webcomic Library https://tagpacker.com/user/webcomic.library Luma did a great job categorizing them so it's easy to find titles with genres I'm interested in(edited)

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

yesss Webcomic Library!! they're so great

[yiqiie]

IDOL PRODUCER S2: E2 THOUGHTS

every week, i’ll sit down and watch the newest episode of Idol Producer Season 2 《青春有你》and write down all my thoughts. nothing get’s left out so get ready for a bunch of memes, shit posts and rants as we get through another season of our fave survival show 

feel free to send me any questions to my inbox and i’ll answer them asap!

a/n: sorry this is late! i forgot the episode was released yesterday welp but tbh saturday night is probably gonna be my upload day anyway 

start time: 10:42 am 

my internet is experiencing problems woooooo so this will be interesting 

so many goddamn ads 

wait who’s the team who were playing like instruments and shit??? they sounded AWESOME

oh damn recap of zyx being pissed off 

MILK ADS 

that chewing gum is actually pretty good ngl 

also the theme song is getting catchier so don’t be surprised if i start liking it 

i still feel so bad for the kids who are sitting out IN THE COLD 

[break while my internet decides if it wants to continue being an asshole]

MC JIN YOU’RE HILARIOUS I LOVE YOU 

‘if you’re a rapper, PLEASE LEAVE’ i’m dead 

zhang pd is sighing lmao 

chen si jian leggo 

IT’S A RAPPER I’M CRYING AHAHAHHAHAAH 

*awkward silence* 

he’s shaking omfg poor baby 

also minghao is really cute ily i never said it before 

HE WROTE THAT?? oof you got talent boy 

he got a zyx serious nod 

wtf he was so quiet??? and now he’s just rapping the shit out of this song 

HE CAN SING YES YOU GO BABE 

oh damn those lyrics 

is it an A? i saw in the description there might be an A today 

IT’S A B YOU GO SWEETHEART 

IT’S THE SMILER FROM LAST EPISODE 

i love their suits 

LI ZHENNING BABE YOUR SMILE 

black pearl i’m crying his skin is GORGEOUS 

HIS POUT 

ALL OF THEIR SMILES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL 

zyx and mc jin talking about shi mingze being similar to kris wu 

LOOK AT ZYX’S FACE MY EXO FEELS 

he looks like my uncle I SPIT MY WATER OUT LMFAO 

jia yi’s CLAPPING I AM IN LOVE 

THAT ENTRANCE 

HIP WIGGLING I LOVE IT 

the song was damn good 

mc jin lmfao HIS SOUNDS 

even the trainees know that their bets on other trainees’ grades are probably gonna be wrong lol 

YOU’VE SCARED THEM ZHANG PD 

jia yi why are you so fcking cute 

NO ONE IN C EITHER 

well their prediction wasn’t wrong they said all of them would be D together 

but :( i really liked their perf 

HE WANTS TO GO ON STAGE JUST TO SEE ZHANG PD 

what a precious bub i shall protect 

stretchy bendy boi

xu long han uwu 

WAIT 

HE WAS THE ONE WHO CALLED ZYX A DIMPLE LIAR 

AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH 

[pls excuse as my wifi loads again]

LI RONGHAO NOT UNDERSTANDING THE JOKE 

i actually love him 

oh jesus this song brings back the memories lmfao 

THIS KID IS FCKING HILARIOUS I LOVE HIM 

stretchy bendy boi again woooooo 

I’M CRYING HE’S SO FUNNY I LOVE HIM MUM 

we already knew he was F but still ;; 

YOU MADE A GOOD IMPRESSION THOUGH GORGEOUS ILY 

YAO MINGMING ILY HE’S SO CUTE 

LOOK AT HOW ADORABLE ALSKDJALSD

6 years as a trainee damn boi 

oh shit 

how is being this good at dancing fair holy goddamn 

THEY CAN SING TOO WTF THIS IS NOT FAIR 

[wifi cut off again so guess what i GET TO WATCH THE PERF AGAIN] 

zyx has his serious face on 

wait they just got up from that position WITHOUT THEIR HANDS 

HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE

uh oh they ain’t getting As or Bs 

A C AND A D NOOOO 

okay i agree with his comments but c’mon they were nervous 

don’t worry babes you have plenty of time to improve! ;;; 

zhou shi yuan oh god i need to remember names 

HE DOES BIOMEDICINE?? DAMN BOI 

deep voice holy shit damn 

VOCALS VOCALS VOCALS 

omg so many vocals today 

BROMANCING ALREADY SHARING MILK 

okay that sounds weird 

THE BOY HE CHEERS AT EVERYONE WHO IS HE 

others: :| 

this boi: :O

omfg he’s a fcking meme too 

[paused while my mother makes me watch a David Attenborough documentary on bamboo] 

MAVERICKS LET’S GO 

MR X’S SONG WHOOP WHOOO 

IDOL PROD S1 FEELS LEGGO 

IT’S ACAPELLA HOLY SHIT LET’S GO 

vocals damn holy shit 

okay the dancing may not be as on point because there was a bit where they weren’t doing anything 

BUT I STILL LIKE THEIR VOCALS 

YAO CHI WHAT THE 

WE HAVE A B BABES 

GUAN YUE FINALLY 

MY BEAUTIFUL SMILING BABY BOY I’VE MISSED YOU 

even yixing is in love with his smile i can tell 

those sharp dance moves though 

I LOVE GUAN YUE GUYS 

honestly that was my favourite performance i don’t care what other people say 

it’s probably gonna be a B 

even though i want him to get an A 

LIAN HUAI WEI MY FAVOURITE BUB 

li wenhan holy shit you are fcking adorable 

YUEHUA LET’S GOOOOO

he forgot to bow WHAT A CUTIE 

LI WENHAN BEING A LEADER I LOVE 

babe don’t say you don’t want an F because zyx can sense fear and he’s gonna give you one 

i’M PRAYING FOR YOU ALREADY 

wenhan is such a soft boy omg 

JIAYOU BABES I’M ROOTING FOR YOU 

oh goddamn these slow mo shots are killing me 

OOF WENHAN GAVE ME A LOOK 

picking up the rose petals I AM DEAD 

guys i still really love jolin she smiled at me and i just forgot about my love for all the others 

jks li wenhan is singing at me now 

i want him to get an A but my bet is on a B 

NO Fs OR Ds WE DOING GOOD 

hu chun yang is really cute just saying 

told y’all so 

even though i wanted him to get an A

YES IT’S THE BAND HOLY SHIT 

THIS WAS SUPER GOOD IN THE PREVIEW 

oof i love it i love it i love it 

probs not gonna get the results i want them to get but WHO CARES I’M STANNING 

all Cs i can deal with that 

LIKE MY DAD POOR LI RONGHAO

i really like this guy’s suit 

wait i forgot his name 

i’ll wait till zyx says it again lmfao 

ZHANG PD SAYS HE’S HANDSOME 

chen you wei THAT’S HIS NAME 

HE GOT AN F WHAT 

oh here we go gramarie

okay i gotta say gramarie is really good at picking songs 

like last year it was a really good song too 

when are we getting an A 

the accents are so cute AHAHAHAHA 

zyx is losing his shit 

i missed their names though and their company 

there aren’t any left????

are there seriously no As?

oh damn 

i just noticed that the new trainee clothes are from new balance 

I AM CRYING FROM LAUGHTER 

such a good reference to ‘balance’ 

they’re really not going to give zyx a break lmfao 

theme song practice leggo

IT’S THE SM PRACTICE ROOM 

MY SM FAMILY FEELS 

i really do love the new uniforms 

THE DORMS 

WE’VE MISSED YOU 

bruh the gifts are better than last year 

wenhan you’re adorable omg i’ve said this so many times 

SOMEONE HAS A YODA AHAHAHHA

XU MINGHAO YOU’RE A GORGEOUS BOI 

and you’re a cutie too 

he speaks so softly too ugh ily 

lmfao their hands look like jellyfish ngl 

but damn xu minghao you’re a good teacher 

wang jiayi ;;; working when everyone left already 

ngl i’m not feeling the broship like last season where people would go out of their way to help each other 

he’s literally by himself and it’s nearly 6am 

jesus this boy is hard working 

LMAO once one person comes in everyone comes in ahahhahha

okay okay previews here we come 

wait removing the centre decision 

TO WHAT

oh damn future stages what a look 

I LIKE 

sidenote: i took a ss of this beautiful boy but forgot where i was going to put it so i’m gonna leave it here anyways. enjoy :)

finish time: 9:47 pm 

that’s all folks; tune in next week for another episode of mai’s shitposting whilst we suffer through another survival show together!

[aegor-bamfsteel]

So GRRM apparently said Bittersteel and Calla didn't have children, what do you think about this new information? What could be the reason for them to not have any child? Is it possible for either of them to have bastards? How does this information affect Aegon Blackfyre theory?

These are all fantastic questions, anon, and ones that my very patient followers/askers in my inbox have been waiting for me to talk about! I’ve been out of the loop on new asoiaf info due to feeling a little bummed out with fandom for a few months, so GRRM’s Summer 2018 interview actually slipped under my radar. I didn’t find any print transcripts of it when I did a hasty Google Search, so here’s a reddit thread talking about the revealed information; the only part that’s relevant to my answer is that when asked if Bittersteel aka Aegor Rivers had any offspring, GRRM replied with “No, I don’t think so.”

And now, to answer your questions under the very long and probably wanky cut:

Question 1: What do I think about this new information? Well, what GRRM said is a little different than Aegor and Calla not having children; he specifically said he thinks that Aegor probably didn’t have children. We have to consider whether or not GRRM would give out highly plot-relevant information in an interview years before the possible Big Reveal, so he might simply be lying (although I don’t recall whether or not he has directly lied before in an interview). Yet assuming this is the truth, I’m personally rather disappointed that Aegor probably didn’t have children for a few different reasons. Not because I support a theory with a ton of gaping holes in it that nobody else likes to talk about, but because I like Aegor Rivers as a(n idea of) a character and a lack of a close family life is just another personal tragedy of his.

However, the idea that Aegor never had sons (that reached fighting age/were able to fight) is from my point of view pretty clear from the text of twoiaf. I had pointed out to warsofasoiaf prior to making this account that the fact that Aegor’s sons were never mentioned in twoiaf is a strike against the Aegon Blackrivers theory; we don’t know much about Aegor, true, but we do know about his devotion to the Blackfyre cause and how Blackfyre family members personally fought in the rebellions in Westeros, so it would be out of character for Aegor not to have any putative able-bodied sons take the field. While perhaps they were too young to fight in the Third Blackfyre (especially if Aegor’s wife was in fact Calla, at least 13 years his junior), there is no excuse why they were not mentioned fighting alongside Daemon III or Maelys. The way Yandel describes leadership of the Golden Company is another strike against Aegor having sons or even later descendants; he writes that until Maelys the leadership was held by the descendants of Daemon Blackfyre rather than Aegor Rivers, and if the leadership was as nepotistic as Yandel implies, you’d think male descendants of Aegor Rivers would be the among first ones acclaimed captain-general after 241. But all of the known captains-general were Blackfyres rather than Aegor’s descendants (there was no way Aegor’s descendants would’ve been allowed to take the surname Blackfyre given the fear that he was wielding too much power over the cause, as both Daemon II’s failed Rebellion and Aenys’ arrival in Westeros demonstrates). I find it implausible that if Aegor Rivers had descendants the Golden Company would’n’t’ve known and kept them as safe as possible in anticipation of them at least joining the Company, if not fighting for the throne (certainly older exiles like Harry Strickland use their exile ancestry as a form of seniority over others, and a Bittersteel descendant would surely use his ancestry in Company politics).

But I would’ve liked Aegor to have had daughters. I think it could’ve been a bittersweet parallel to the Bracken sisters; that the sexual violence done to them by Aegon IV would give rise to women proud of their female ancestors who sought revenge on the Targaryens. After Aegon IV tortured and executed Bethany and her father and lover, Bethany’s lover Terrence Toyne was avenged by his biological brothers who killed Aemon the Dragonknight, but who was there to avenge her? She had no biological brothers, only a sister who had a son who grew up to spend his life trying to kill and displace Targaryens. It seemed that nobody cared what had happened to Bethany but Aegor. But if Aegor never had children, that lineage is dead and the cruel injuries done to Bethany and Barba can never be avenged by a direct descendant.

It’s just one more horrible thing that happened to Aegor Rivers, a character whom I admire because of his continued survival despite all odds, and it makes his character less interesting: Just like his mother’s, Aegor Rivers’ life was an unending string of tragedies; a permanent exile from 2 weeks old, at age 6 his aunt and grandfather were murdered by his sperm donor without due process, he was raised close to a disputed territory (the Mother’s Teats) that bore the scars of Targaryen cruelty (Daemon Targaryen’s dragon Caraxes had burned Bracken land in 129), and that’s not even getting into what the Targaryens/Brynd3n Riv3rs did to his chosen family the Blackfyres (they essentially slaughtered Daemon and his descendants like they weren’t human). I’d just like some hint that he could’ve been content; that maybe he was more than just an enemy for the Targs/Brynd3n Riv3rs to beat down over and over, but a character with his own life and loving bonds outside of war and tragedy. The idea that he had a wife and daughters introduced a possible different dimension to him; his descendants would’ve been a physical manifestation of his survival to live on in the face of hardship. Yet assuming GRRM speaks the truth, he was just as miserable in his personal life as he was in his dealings with Westeros.

Aegor Rivers having offspring would’ve further made him a foil for Brynd3n Riv3rs. Not because I don’t think Brynd3n Riv3rs didn’t have offspring (although I do believe he was childless), but because BR is very much associated with death and destruction. Every time he’s mentioned in D&E and aDwD, he is compared to a corpse. Each institution the Powers That Be put him in charge of he utterly ruins or dishonors, whether that be as Hand, Lord Commander of the Wall, or the Last Greenseer. By contrast, Aegor Rivers is shown to be a creator of institutions, founding a mercenary Company unusually known for its dedication to discipline, brotherhood, and honor. If he had had children, it would’ve forced the Aegor=life Brynd3n=death symbolism even harder, as Aegor would have physically created a bunch of children who lived beyond his own lifetime.

It just irritates me that GRRM seems to care so little about Aegor that he might not have even thought about him having children. That’s another interpretation to GRRM’s “I don’t think so” answer; that he put so little thought into the life of one of his more influential historical characters that he wasn’t even sure if he’d sired offspring (this is assuming, as I do, that Aegor’s possible descendants aren’t really relevant to the plot of asoiaf). GRRM has answered with “I’m not sure. I need to check my notes” to some questions about his secondary characters, such as where Oberyn Martell was during Robert’s Rebellion; and as of late he seems to have had trouble keeping his facts straight (he endorsed Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson writing twoiaf because they apparently knew canon better than he did. Which does not make me hopeful for future book releases), but he doesn’t seem to have even had notes on the subject. And either in the same interview or one shortly before/after, GRRM confirmed that in the face of all logic, Brynd3n Riv3rs was allowed to take Dark Sister with him to the Wall despite being a criminal to the Crown with the only Valyrian sword the Targaryens had in their possession. So not only did GRRM flatten and dismiss Bittersteel’s character, but he further nullified one of the few times Bl00draven ever got comeuppance for his atrocities. There’s no sense of balance to their conflict; everything somehow goes BR’s way while BS is condemned to live a life of misery and fade away into nothing. And, contrary to what GRRM likely wanted, this double standard only makes me pity Aegor more and pray for BR’s painful death.

Question 2: What could be the reason for [Aegor and Calla] not to have a child? We know so little about what happened between Aegor and Calla that I think it’s best to look at what we do know—that shortly before the First Blackfyre Rebellion, Daemon I agreed to wed Calla to Aegor—and then examine possible answers to the outcome of Aegor+Calla being childless. Solutions that I can think of, in order of how plausible I think they are:

The marriage was never consummated: Aegor had a Targaryen sperm donor, sure, but he was raised by the Brackens and spent his life fighting against Targaryen supremacy. The idea that incest (one of the most obvious parts of Targaryens believing themselves above others) disgusted him isn’t impossible. That Calla was at least 13 years his junior and knew him since she was a child could’ve disgusted them both further. Also, Aegor was often away fighting in mercenary companies, which decreased the amount of time the two spent together to consummate. Therefore they could’ve had a sham marriage meant only to bind Aegor and the Blackfyres closer together. However, I consider this the least likely answer because 1) Yandel implies that Aegor suggested the marriage in the first place and 2) Aegor is characterized as being very focused on the Blackfyre Cause to the point of losing many of his scruples by the Fourth Rebellion (referring to his ineffectual alliance with Torwyn Greyjoy, a traditional enemy of his Riverlands home), so he’d hardly balk at uncle-niece incest.

Either Aegor or Calla were biologically unable to have children: If this is true, my money is on Aegor, since female fertility in GRRM-land seems to be passed on from mother to daughter. They stayed married until Aegor’s death in 241, and because Calla was 45-56 at the time, she never had any other children.

Calla died before she could have children, perhaps in childbirth: I hate, hate, hate this possibility since it reduces and then fridges a female character for her ability to bear children, but given GRRM’s track record of killing off married female characters in childbirth, it’s a plausible explanation. Aegor never remarried after her death and so also died childless.

Daemon I only agreed to wed the two; he didn’t even officially betrothe them, let alone had a wedding. Thus the marriage never took place at all because…

Calla died before they could wed. I also hate this possibility for creating and killing off a female character to be a cheap red herring, but again I wouldn’t put it past GRRM. In this instance, there’s a historical parallel in the figure of Princess Louisa Stuart, James "the Old Pretender” Stuart’s sister who died unmarried at age 19 from an outbreak of smallpox that struck both siblings. The same results ensued as in part C.

There was no political advantage for it to occur, so Calla married someone else: If you think Aegor was a bad match for a would-be Princess when he was a landless knight dependent on the charity of the Brackens/Blackfyres, think of how much worse he was as a landless exile in a society where knighthood and birth were largely irrelevant, he was geographically and doubtlessly monetarily cut off from the Brackens, and the Blackfyres themselves were desperate for wealthy allies. Although Calla had at least two other sisters (Calla was the eldest rather than elder daughter, implying that she had more than one sister), Rohanne was not going to waste her marriage potential on a penniless sellsword while the Targaryens were trying to curb her influence in Tyrosh via wedding two of their princes to Kiera. No, Calla and her siblings needed to make matches with powerful Tyroshi or other wealthy Essosi families in order to get the funds, ships, and armies to invade Westeros. Remember that Aegor’s chief strength, the Golden Company, didn’t materialize until 212 when Calla was 16-27 and very likely already married to an aforementioned noble.

Calla had children and her descendants still live in Tyrosh: GRRM’s response doesn’t indicate that Calla never had children, especially since it wasn’t made clear that she and Aegor even married. Bear with my tinfoil for a second, but her name indicates that she did have children. We’re supposed to pay attention to Calla’s name because it’s non-Valyrian, unique in book!canon, and above all, a flower name. GRRM loves his flower significance, most famously with Lyanna’s blue roses (unattainable, mysterious, rare beauty) but also with Jonquils (desire, vanity, a happy marriage) and the white water lilies of Maidenpool (purity, peace, spiritual enlightenment). In Calla’s case, the calla lily is a symbol of peace, Christ’s resurrection, and rebirth in the springtime. It’s also known for being able to survive harsh elements and is an odd misnomer (technically neither a calla nor a lily, but its own genus). Considering the strong rebirth connotations calla lilies have, I believe that Calla is the most likely Blackfyre child to have living descendants. That’s not to say that she is the only child of Daemon I to have them (see section 4.4.1 for further speculation on that front), but the implications of her name plus general Nominal Importance (she’s the only Blackfyre descendant we know of not to die horribly and she’s the only named female) indicate that she’s the person through which the Blackfyres survived.

Question 3: Is it possible for either [Aegor or Calla] to have bastards? If 2b is untrue and both Aegor and Calla were fertile, then it’s certainly possible for them to have bastards. After all, we know little about Aegor and even less about Calla. There are rumors that Aegor was in love with Shiera Seastar, and he was so often away from Tyrosh that it’s possible he had an extramarital affair. As for Calla, it is less likely for her to have a bastard (you’d think that if she did, Yandel would’ve mentioned it to discredit Aegor and the Blackfyres even further), but I guess it’s possible for her to have been like her grandmother Daena in that respect. But is it likely? I don’t think so. Maybe it’s just my headcanons firing away, but my idea of Aegor is someone who’s incredibly insecure about sex/sexuality due to what happened with Barba and Bethany; ergo, I don’t believe he would have recreational sex with a woman not his wife. As for Calla, she was part of a family under a lot of pressure to behave appropriately so as to give neither the Tyroshi nor the Blackfyre exiles cause for complaint. I do believe she had legitimate children (see 2.4.2), just apparently not with Aegor.

Question 4: How does this information affect Aegon Blackfyre theory? Compared to GRRM’s answers regarding other fan theories, this one is a pretty direct NO GO. Granted, it’s somewhat cagey (he simply said he probably thinks Aegor he didn’t have offspring, not any other Blackfyres), but think about how he’s responded elsewhere:

Example 1: When asked about Jon Snow’s death, he responded with a dry “You really think he’s dead, do you?” so he’s not afraid of acknowledging a twist most readers already anticipated.

Example 2: On a more important and impactful theory, R+L=J, he refused to confirm or rebut any useful information; specifically, when asked if any Stark other than Ned had children, he said that Benjen was at the Wall, Brandon could’ve sired Snows, and Lyanna died. That non-answer regarding Lyanna was often toted as evidence in favor of R+L=J until the show confirmed it in Season 6.

Example 3: When asked on his blog whether or not those who believe Sansa Stark and Jon Snow will reunite and get married/rule Winterfell together by the end of the series are right, he responded “Not going to say anymore than I have already” which is not the outright dismissal a supposed crackship (or not so crackship, as he’s outright dismissed more popular ships before) would’ve merited.

Thus: GRRM could’ve chosen to avoid or subtly answer the question like he did in these three examples, but he chose to outright confirm that Aegor likely didn’t have children. Up to this point, the most popular subtheory of Aegon VI’s alternate parentage was that he was a descendant of Aegor and Calla, based on Illyrio Mopatis’ claim that Maelys was the last male-line Blackfyre and the fact that Aegon VI has the support of the Bittersteel-founded Golden Company. Now GRRM’s response seems to have brought that theory down; Aegor had no children, so Aegon VI could not be his descendant.

However, rebutting Aegon Blackrivers is not the same as rebutting Aegon Blackfyre. There are several of Daemon’s children who are not confirmed to have died childless: Haegon had at least three sons who may’ve had daughters, Aenys may’ve had daughters, the two youngest sons of Daemon I may’ve had children, Calla may’ve had children by someone other than Aegor, Calla had at least two sisters who could’ve had children, and Captain Daemon Blackfyre and Maelys could’ve had daughters. The potential candidates for female-line Blackfyres is still rather large. The idea that the Golden Company would allow their king’s descendant to grow up apart from them on a poleboat amidst a bunch of Westerosi exiles rather than in Tyrosh actually learning statecraft from his noble family is a strange one, but I leave those explanations to those who actually believe in the theory. (For my part, I believe Illyrio when he said no Blackfyre will take the Golden Company home, but a Targaryen will. He just may not be the Targaryen Westeros or the readers expected.)

In conclusion, I am disappointed that Aegor Rivers was confirmed to not have had children due to character- rather than theory-based reasons; I would’ve preferred that a character that had faced such adversity had a physical representation of his survival in some descendants, but I can live with the Golden Company being his legacy. There are any number of reasons why he never had any legitimate children, but I like to think it was because he remained unwed and devoted to the Blackfyre Cause while Calla had children with someone else. I’ve read some writings by those who subscribe to the Aegon Blackfyre theory, and I can only hope that this new information teaches fandom to speculate a bit more kindly. If someone disagrees with your theory for whatever reason, never call them delusional or say that they are “just fooling themselves.” Never take any theory as obvious, as everything is speculation until confirmed by canon or Word of G-d. Always consider other people’s arguments and try to build your theory based on the text rather than warp the text to fit your theory. And above all, listen with compassion.

Thank you for your interesting set of questions, anon. I hope that I have done them justice in my response.

[sugarbear2001]

I woke up at the butt crack of dawn to go to a thrift store that was having a 76 cent sale on all green tags including a bunch of vintage inbox barbie dolls. Got to the store super early and waited other people were also waiting for the sale one of which was this middle aged woman had a sinking feeling that she also wanted the dolls and I was right. A miniute before the store opened the people inside started to take all the dolls down off the shelf and the woman said "they are taking down all my vintage collectable Barbies". Thing is I saw those same dolls the day before and a girl told me they'd be on sale that's the reason why I got to the store early. I walked into the store right behind that woman and they just gave all the dolls I was upset but didn't want to fight about it. One policy of this thrift store is that they don't put things on hold for you and I run into this many times so I don't understand how this woman was able to get all of those dolls.

My mom spoke to me who had a really funky attitude about the situation but then we left and she called the manager who fed her some BS story about how they take everything with green tags off the shelves for the sale. If that was the case then why did the other things that the girl yesterday pointed out to me as green tags were not taken down? Needless to say I will not be going back to that thrift store because I've had multiple issues with them in the past and this is just too much. I know I'm gonna find something much better than those dolls that lady took and I'm not even upset about it it's just a piece of plastic at the end of the day.

[reminiscent-bells]

RIP(?) Idle Thumbs

And now, a bunch of nerd BS about a podcast.

I went back and did the math the other day and I’ve been listening to Idle Thumbs for about 5 years. (First episode: #84, “Nineties Cockpit Freakout”.) I started listening because I lived in South San Francisco and commuted on BART/Muni to San Francisco proper every day, a trip of about 2 hours one way - I needed something to pass the time and knew that podcasts were big, and someone online suggested it.

I was hooked pretty much immediately. As the label says, it’s “a podcast about video games”, although over time the scope of that has creeped to include board games, movies (okay, mostly Jurassic Park), “live experiences” (e.g. escape rooms), and a ton of other stuff. The hosts have created/been involved in the creation of two of the most-talked-about games of the past several years, Gone Home and Firewatch, been accused by 4Chan of being the conspirators leading a vast feminist cabal dedicated to destroying video games, finally met ‘cast muse Jeff Goldblum in person, and, obviously, rebuilt their recording studio as a tribute to the secure conference room from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Not too surprisingly after roughly 8 years, the current core crew of the rotating stable of Thumbs have stated that last week’s episode 300(!!!) marked a stepping-down of the weekly production schedule in favor of pursuing a new project, “Important If True”,  a more freewheeling discussion about science, entertainment, and technology. It’s not dead and buried (a new “bagblast” episode devoted to going through the show’s always-stuffed, always-fascinating email inbox, is slated for next week, and future episodes have not been ruled out), but it feels like there’s a smoggy orange Los Angeles sunset gel across the sky, y’know?

I’m usually not the person who writes this kind of thing, having been bred from the kind of New England family that subtly demands any display of emotion deeper than a hug be crushed, Giles Corey-like, into the earth, but the show has been a real source of peace of mind for me over the years - something to laugh about when things seemed grim, and a friend of sorts when real friends were far away. Here are some of my picks for episodes you should listen to - I mostly recommend it if you’re into video games, as that’s what most of the chatter is about, but there may be bits and pieces here you’ll enjoy even if that’s not your thing. Heck, even the episode descriptions themselves can be pretty funny, as they gradually evolve from staid descriptions of the episode contents to something more elaborate and strange.

103: A Person-Shaped Thing Is A Person: The origin(?) of Robot News, a recurring segment about the coming robot apocalypse, where the team extrapolates out the Petman robot to its logical conclusion (i.e.killing people)

107: GIANTBOMB.COM / 110: That Thing That You Needed To Say: I think (or at least I like to think) everyone has a point in life where they realize Corporations Are Not Your Friend. This duology-of-sorts, about E3 2013 and the dueling Microsoft/Sony press conferences, is a solid autopsy of several days of multimillion dollar spin.

159: Wilson’s Ghoulish Countenance: The first episode with games critic Danielle Riendeau as a regular cohost, this marks the beginning of a really great run of episodes. I wouldn’t call it a golden age, because one of the great things about the show is how there’s not really a core group of hosts and each change in the crew steers things in a different direction, but if you don’t want to start from the beginning, this is a good place to jump in.

165: KeLo. Is. Here.: The show is sometimes at its best when something completely non-game-related drives the conversation. Exhibit A is this episode, which is mostly focused around a weird dream cohost Nick Breckon had.

171: The Curious Case of the Rhode Island Reader: Strangely, I remember this being one of my favorite episodes, but I couldn’t tell you why.

172: http://malaise.ennui/: Easily one of the great lost games of this decade is Silent Hills, a sequel to the long-running horror game franchise Silent Hill by film director Guillermo del Toro, game director Hideo Kojima, and The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus. Hills died on the vine following the collapse of publisher Konami’s video games division, but not before producing a nightmarish demo, P.T., which in turn produced this great episode discussing horror games.

196: Ode On A Grecian Hat Sale: The first(?) in a series of discussions about the weird, seedy underground world of hat trading in popular shooter Team Fortress 2. (See also 208: Buds Are Out, Keys Are In)

200: The Idle Thumbs Super Show: The first show where all cohosts to date (”the sixpack”) are present is both an absolute zoo and an absolute treat.

234: Mister Neighbor: This might be another good jumping-on point. This is technically a few episodes after Danielle left and James “Spaff” Spafford came (back) on, but it’s the first of a more introspective series of episodes, for lack of a better term.

245: Psyching Out That Bear through 248: The Bear’s Black Heart: The “bear saga”, which I can’t say anything about for fear of spoiling the ending, which is the funniest moment of maybe the whole run and had me laughing until I thought I was going to puke.

270: BIG GAME HUCKSTER$$$$: A really sharp, insightful discussion on video games and gambling.

295: Good...Bye through 299: Somebody, Somewhere, Somehow, Something: Yeah, it’s a little precious to pick the last big block of Thumbs episodes as the end of this list, but these are stuffed to the gills with what makes the show great - BSing about game interface minutiae, spinning out vast, elaborate theories about pointless game lore (see the discussion of Mario’s dark destiny in 298), and old friends hanging out. Even 299, where it becomes clear that some kind of end is nigh, is a genuine great episode.

If you made it this far, I’ll plug for some of their other shows: Important If True is hilarious, get in on the ground floor now. Danielle didn’t go far and cohosts spinoff show Idle Weekend, which has a very different pace but is very much worth your time, The Idle Book Club is a thoughtful monthly discussion of a novel that has really helped me get out of my reading comfort zone and try new things (you can start from episode 10 when they essentially rebooted the show), and Twin Peaks Rewatch is a great companion to get prepped for the show’s return in May.

The end! Fuck Nick Breckon Congrats Nick!

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Cory Stout of Woodies, a brand that sells wood sunglasses.Cory is a very active redditor - /u/sigmaschmooz - and he'll be in the comments to answer your questionsSome stats:Product: Wood sunglasses.Revenue/mo: $250,000Started: August 2012Location: Venice, CAFounders: 1Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?I’m Cory Stout, Captain of Woodies. I started a wood sunglasses brand when I was 28 years old.Our main product is walnut wood sunglasses that I sell for $25 on Amazon and Woodies.com I hired one employee (my dear mother) and she’s won Employee of the Year for 3 years in a row ;)In 2018, I topped 3.5 million in revenue and somehow ended the year with less money than when I started! I bought a Bentley to celebrate…What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?I studied Economics at the University of Florida but the real education was scalping football tickets outside of the stadium. I really learned my lessons on those streets...For example, there were a lot of characters I learned to deal with. The ticket street hustlers are really really sharp dudes. They would always ask to see my tickets, and make me offers on them.They would always lie about what they were holding, or what they were selling for. I had people steal my tickets, I had people try to muscle me off popular corners. The best thing about this experience was all the times I was told no.I would stand there for hours shouting ‘who needs tickets??’ and people would narrow their eyes at me and keep on walking. I learned that eventually, you’ll almost always find your customer. On the days when demand was high, I would return to my dorm room with 5 thousand in cash when I started the day with 500.I would buy student tickets all week, buy the upgrade sticker so anybody could use them, and sell them for mega profit on gameday. I made tons of money, I lost tons of money too (when it rained unexpectedly), I made friends and that’s what led to my next step.One of those tickets friends I made turned out to be my best friend. He went to China to study International Business and I went out to visit him a year later. I spent 6 weeks there and I go to see first hand how the world’s products are made.Some photos from my trip to China:Watch bandsI came up with the idea for an interchangeable watch brand, TIKKR, and I used my ticket money to get the ball rolling.To validate this idea, Mike flew from China with a bag full of watches. I was living in Austin at the time and we went to a party brunch to try to sell some watches. I gave one watch to each of the bartenders for free, then we waited.It wasn’t 15 minutes until we had a line of people offering to buy watches from us. We didn’t take their cash, but we drank free all afternoon long and had a hell of a time.I ordered 1,500 watches for $3 each and I set the price at $65. I barely sold any at $65, but I convinced Groupon to pick them up and offer a deal.A $65 watch for $32. I sold a couple hundred, I ordered more, I sold a couple hundred I ordered more. Then I sold a couple thousand in one day! Too bad the supplier was super late with the shipment and I had thousands of upset customers at Christmas time. TIKKR ended up folding leaving me back at square one with only about $15,000 to show for it all.Then I was back to China and this time I came back with the idea for wood sunglasses. Wood sunglasses were just coming on to the scene, We always had the first look at products coming out of China because we were always watching the markets in Guangzhou.We would see a cool looking belt show up at the markets, then a month later we’d see somebody on Kickstarter making 200k. Wood sunglasses seemed awesome so I tried to jump on them early. The same Groupon rep still wanted to work with me, and I was able to sell 8,000 glasses in a week with a launch on Groupon. On a side note, that Groupon rep worked out a deal for himself that he got to invest in Woodies before the deal ran. I took the deal (what choice did I have) and I was able to buy him out a couple years later)By the way, I’ve written a couple posts on reddit about how I got started if you want to check them out...Buying and Selling in China: The New American Dream (2015)Every tool I use for my business (2017) A lot of these have changedI also did the Shopify Masters PodcastTake us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.I just went to China and found three suppliers on Alibaba. I toured each factory and chose the one I felt the best about.Price wasn’t the most important consideration. It really came down to a comfort level with the supplier. The rep that I would work with closely spoke great English, they presented themselves well, they showed me their equipment and let me tour the factory while they were in production.PRO TIP: If you visit a Chinese factory, ask politely to the use the bathroom. They will have to oblige, and if you find a really messy, disgusting bathroom, then it’s definitely a red flag.Granted, there are a lot of disgusting bathrooms all over China. But these factories have millions of dollars worth of machinery, if they can’t put together a decent bathroom for their workers, then they are probably corner-cutters.They had a whole wall of every sunglasses shape you could imagine, it didn’t take a lot of designing on my end.Describe the process of launching the business.From there, I noticed that a lot of people were getting rich on Kickstarter, so I decided to launch a project to add new styles to Woodies. They were actually all the same style, but I wanted to add 7 new colors to the collection. I really just needed an excuse to launch a Kickstarter campaignI set my sights high and decided I wanted to hire Kendall Jenner for the video shoot. It started out as a joke really.My friend was kind of daring me to find out what her rate was. I just called her management, and next thing you know I’m negotiating with her agent.I got them down from 150k to 25k. 25k was just about all the money I had in the world, but I bet it on this idea. At this point, I’m basically the dude from Fyre Festival, walking around pretending like I had enough money to pull this off. I hired a really good photographer, videographer, hair, makeup, extra set hands, cool locations, classic cars, plane tickets, it was SO CRAZY, but somehow I pulled it off.I organized the whole photo/video shoot, I picked Kendall up from her house that morning wearing my captains hat, and we had a full day of driving classic cars, taking pictures on the Malibu beaches, and doing our best to capture the essence of Woodies and the new sunglasses.The Kickstarter project wasn’t a huge success, but it kept me going long enough to start selling on Amazon. I found a new supplier and started making wood sunglasses with plastic frames. They were cheaper to make and sell and the bonus was they didn’t break as often.Warranty issues were a huge headache with the full wood sunglasses (and still are).Wood sunglasses have less tensile strength than plastic. They are better for the environment overall, but a little less durable for the user. I started out with full wood sunglasses, but the return rate was nearly 20%, impossible to really turn a profit without a bunch of 1-star reviews. So I switched to mostly wood temple glasses with a plastic frame. This brought my costs down and my return percentage to about 5%. And now I could enable my customer service to send new sunglasses no questions asked, which resulted in lots of 5-star reviews about our customer service team.Well they took off on Amazon and I dedicated myself to becoming an Amazon expert. I listened to all the podcasts and read all the blog posts I could find. Shoutout EcomCrew I took the basic fundamentals that are out there and I added a couple of my own twists. That was about two years ago. Since then, I’ve just been really diligent about staying in stock major key and managing my PPC spending.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?I have basic knowledge of Facebook ads, email marketing, SEO, etc but Amazon just really really works for me, so I didn’t have the big incentive to build a huge list.Amazon brings me 100 brand new customers everyday for very little acquisition cost. If I tried that on my own, it would take a TON of work and it wouldn’t be nearly as effective as Amazon, so I took the easy road on this one.I wrote this post about Amazon strategy not too long ago, I followed all of my own advice.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Business is doing great today, we almost reached 4 million in sales last year, even though my profit on that was a lot lower than you’d think.Less than 10% of that number actually counts as profit on my books. Before the profit police come commenting all over this thread, I was able to pay myself a decent amount that’s not included in that number, and I also invested in 8 classic cars this year as I get a new venture off the ground, instagram.com/captainsclassics.My ACOS on Amazon hovers around 30% with a monthly spend of about 50k. I have less than 5k email subscribers and I rarely email them, I think people are starting to get bothered by all the automated marketing out there, and that’s actually a big reason they choose to shop on Amazon, just to not subject their inbox to automated email cancer.Side note, I’m getting sued by Luxxottica for a BS trademark infringement. So the entire business is being threatened by them.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Believe in yourself and just keep going no matter what. Of all the friends who started a business at the same time I did, almost all of them are still in business and doing really well. If you just stay in business, you almost can’t help but grow.I read the 4-Hour Workweek many many years ago and it really set my thinking from day one. I just wanted to be really really good at one thing, and that’s what happened with my best selling product. I was able to ‘set’ the market.Once I did that, no one would be able to:Beat my priceOutnumber my reviewsOutspend me on PPC.The distance between me and 2nd place on Amazon got bigger and bigger.I wanted a simple business, I wanted it to be automated, I wanted to be able to run it from anywhere. It took a lot of discipline to turn down ‘good’ deals sometimes.But I decided simplicity was that important to me. It’s only really possible with an Amazon business with FBA. I remember the old days when I had to use a 3PL, 2/7 would not recommend.I don’t sell on Etsy, Ebay, or Wal-Mart (even though they wrote me an unsolicited PO). I don’t sell to retail stores. The one time I broke this rule was trying to expand to Europe on Amazon. I wouldn’t call it a disaster, but it took way more time/energy than it has paid off. I’m closing down those operations currently.I hired my mom as my customer service rep 3 years ago and the business absolutely flourished once she took over. 1. It let me focus on sales and growth 2. She’s so much better at being really really nice than me.What platform/tools do you use for your business?I’ve got a great reddit post which I wrote all about this.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?I listen to the EcomCrew podcast pretty regularly.It’s a really straightforward informational podcast, they actually give really good info. They’re both Amazon sellers, so they tend to focus most of their discussion on Amazon.I’ve met Mike out in Hong Kong and he’s a really solid guy.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Pick something that you’re going to enjoy selling/talking about nonstop.You are your biggest marketing tool especially early on. Be prepared to be the face of your company.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?I hired my mom for customer service and that’s about all I need.I probably want to sell Woodies in 2019, any buyers out there?Where can we go to learn more?Woodies.comInstagram.com/WoodiesIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM