#...which is also why giving a straight black/white answer on anything media or fandom related from me is difficult

[mss3ng]

I was tagged by @aurltas to share ten things about myself! Thanks for the tag and also sorry for taking like a day or two to actually write this stuff down XD

1.       I enjoy doing fiber arts and related crafts. I learned spinning and needle felting at a music camp a while back and I’ve always adored Tamora Pierce’s circle of magic books. I’m progressively getting better at spinning but once I have yarn I have literally nothing to do with it because I don’t enjoy knitting or crocheting. I would love to get into embroidery as well I have so many hobbies. Also, I’m not sure it counts as fiber arts but I’ve been getting into Chinese decorative knot tying and that’s also fun but makes my hands hurt.

2.       I’ve never thought of myself as a super athletic jock person but I’ve usually enjoyed sports I’ve tried my hand at. I did basketball for a bit and then danced for 8 years (I did one year of competitions and realized that was not for me, god I was so lonely and played so much Pokémon in hotel rooms in the middle of nowhere). Later on I also dabbled in kendo and other forms of sword fighting (but not fencing. Longswords are much more fun).

3.       The Gris OST has gotten me through intense studying ever since I discovered it and it’s never failed to keep me focused on whatever I’m working on, I have no idea why but that soundtrack is beautiful and must be listened to in order. But also, if I’m not in the mood for it, I’ll also swap it out with the Sayonara Wild Hearts or the Persona 5 Royal OSTs for variation’s sake. If you see me smiling at music, it’s most likely video game soundtracks (this cover of the staff roll from Link’s Awakening) or the xiaohei OST (here)

4.       For a few years in college I played clarinet in a video game orchestra where we covered a bunch of my favorite tracks. The ensemble pieces were a blast to play (chamber music sucked though because I hate playing alone on my instrument) and my favorite would either be Simple and Clean because that counter melody slaps, or Ballad of the Goddess where the main violin solo was replaced with an erhu—okay that one was beautiful and I’m so pissed that the orchestra dissolved before we could perform it.

5.       One of my more embarrassing screw ups at work was full on yanking a connector off the logic board of a MacBook pro, right when my supervisor walked in with ice cream for me. Yes, I am a certified apple repair technician. Luckily I didn’t get in trouble because these things happen. And then a few days later I found out another technician accidentally yanked off a different part of the laptop that wasn’t supposed to come off. (I swear we’re good at our jobs now, that was our first semester on the job and told to try to do things by ourselves).

6.       Birds are my favorite animals, I find them extremely fascinating and love all their strange quirks and traits. I can’t name a favorite bird because I have multiple depending on the category (Although I do have a soft spot for the American Robin) but fun fact! There is a bird called the Ash-Breasted Tit Tyrant and I love that this name exists in the world.

7.       I’ve managed to keep a semi-consistent sleep schedule throughout college and have never pulled an all-nighter before (and hope I never will). The closest I’ve gotten was going to bed at 3am to finish a short story for a fantasy class and I was a complete wreck the next day. Unfortunately, my consistent sleep schedule and early waking hours make me the perfect candidate for opening shifts at whatever job I hold. In tech, it’s not as bad since a 7:30 start time is manageable but for coffee shop opens at 6:15 it sucks to wake up an hour beforehand.

8.       Even though I love and adore houseplants, I struggle with keeping new ones alive. In my apartment I have a dwarf umbrella plant, some sort of ivy, and a monstera. They’re all in varying phases of poor health but I’m trying. I also refuse to get succulents because I like leaf leaves. The longest plants I’ve had are two spider plants propagated from my 10th grade English teacher’s plant and those things are hard to kill. I also have a money tree that is getting waaaaaaay too big to keep lugging around from home to campus and back again.

9.       I’ve only written and uploaded one (1) fanfic in my life! While I enjoy reading fanfics, I’ve never been interested in writing them, mostly because I don’t have as much fun working with pre-existing characters over original ones. I like playing in my own sandbox! But something I’ll do from time to time is sticking my own original characters from their original worlds into a crossover with media I like and watching the interactions explode.

10.       Speaking of original works, I’m a writing major (linguistics minor and I could probably cram in a Chinese minor if that was actually a thing at this college)! I write a lot! My main project is Chinese inspired fantasy with fiber arts, familial betrayal, and messing with the red string of fate trope in an unabashed aroace way. Another one that I’m in the character creation and world building process mode of is a viet-inspired fantasy project that’s got timeframe-based magic and a kingdom hearts style existential crisis. Also magic school because why not.

Wow I actually had a bunch to talk about. I’m only going to tag @liuet and there is 100% no pressure to actually do it XD. Anyone else that sees this is free to do it and tag me as well! 

[thejudgingtrash]

Unpopular Opinion;I'd rather have show!Annabeth as a kid with dark hair and eyes. Honestly,the whole "grey eyed blonde Athena kids" was odd in the books,and would be even worse in live action,IMO. While I like seeing fanarts of show!Annabeth with blonde hair and/or grey eyes,I don't see why this detail has to be faithful to the books. Besides,I feel the same about Percy,if to a lesser degree.

Yeah.

Sorry for answering this so late, I’m not really active on Tumblr therefore I tend to forget to check whether or not I’ve received some asks and I tend to take a while for answering them anyways. Also, this is going to get very long and rambly, so prepare yourselves!

My opinion on this whole casting situation and book accuracy is: I legit don’t give a fuck. More than that, I just side-eye people that were freaking the fuck out.

I essentially cut contact with 98% of this fandom (aside from few core groups) and left Tumblr last year because it’s a toxic mess and I try to avoid other PJO related social media branches (with the exception for AO3 for dumping my Percabeth fics, next one coming up soon <3) because they’re more than often even WORSE (!) than this hellsite but I still can’t escape casting news. So it’s incredibly hilarious to see so many people freaking the fuck out over something they have little to no control about.

My wonderful friend @mapendo-c essentially brought it to the point with this post but let me add my two cents to this entire situation:

2020 was hell on tumblr for the black crowd, let’s not act like it wasn’t (it was hell for black people in general if you care enough to remember). From harrassing the black PJO Tumblr side, to straight up lying to us, to doxxing, to us being called slurs in DMs and asks, to receiving open death threats and being sent lynching videos, we had it ALL. Some people that were directly confronted with this shit victimized themselves and fled the scene to this day, literally going out with a bang. Congratulations for that, BTW.

And that was only because a few people started to create PJO artwork that involved Percy of Color. Being more open to otherness. Critizing the white status quo and branching out. Questioning the constant projection onto these characters. That set a chain reaction into other endeavors and arguments but alas, this is already enough babbling. 

The fact that we had over 17 years of artwork and fics and videos and movies filled with Cocaine White Percy wasn’t enough for some of you. No, you had to break the spirits of those that are a minority and do not look like you. All of that shit was so unwarranted and unnecessary.

And then when you got warm to the idea of Token Black Percy (in 2021 might I add), you were delighted to see that he would be indeed white in the TV series as announced in the past few months. But oh wait… What was that?? Is it a bird, is it a plane? No?

ANNABETH ISN’T WHITE.

The whole world just got hit by a big rock and the apocalypse is nearing. The way some of y’all acted… Doing the same exact vile shit that you were doing in 2020 to a twelve year old, because she got the role of her life (so far) in portraying a major fictional character… The fact that y’all lost your goddamn mind without having even seen Leah act is MIND-BLOWING.

The same people accusing the black side of the fandom of likely being aggressive towards White TV Show Percy (before casting confirmation which also — newsflash — didn’t happen) are now the same fucking people freaking out about Leah as Annabeth. Tale as old as time.

I said this two years ago and most of y’all stank bitches proved me right: “Let’s be real: if Annabeth Chase would be black for example with the way she behaves, 85% of the fandom would hate her, cry for Perachel and Percabeth would be the least popular ship. I don’t trust people who are saying the opposite.”

As if anything else was about to happen… if I’m to believe certain Twitter threats and Reddit posts (taken with the biggest grain of salt ofc), some people where close to unaliving themselves because we all seemed to collectively have forgotten that Annabeth stans (this is coming from a core Percabeth shipper, so don’t come for me!) are fucking INSANE. Imagine loosing your shit on a harmless decision like a differing casting choice. Some of y’all need psychiatric help, ESPECIALLY looking at you 

“I can’t be racist, because I’m neurodivergent” crowd!!

I absolutely do not get why people get worked up about this. The minute a live version (aka NOT animation) project was announced, all of you should have collectively kissed the idea of a 100% book accurate adaptation goodbye, just as with the movie version. 

Do I think the show version will be closer to the books? 

Yes. 

Do I think it’ll be a 1 on 1 adaptation? 

Absolutely not. 

The announcement of the blind casting and therefore going for talent approach should’ve cemented the fact that this show won’t be book accurate at all.

How difficult is it to understand for some of you that the image of Annabeth, Percy, the storyline and everything else that you made up in your mind will NEVER be depicted on screen??? This is purely from a logical standpoint. I know Disney has resources and shit but they aren’t infinite. They have to break even eventually. I guess none of y’all have absolutely any idea how the medium of film works behind the scenes. 

Even Riordan’s (as the author with actual authority) initial version is impossible to bring to the screen. Trust me, there will be other things omitted or added to the show. You can either tune in, or don’t. It’s as simple as that. That is the only thing you can influence.

Coming to the next point: do all of these changes even matter?!

Stripping Annabeth and Percy of their default hair/eye/skin color doesn’t really change anything that significantly imo?? 

If you are reducing Annabeth and Percy to their appearance and not the character, what they have as traits and could represent that’s on you, sweetie.

Additionally, most of y’all are ignoring the polar opposite: the nuances and depth Black Annabeth (less so White Percy tbh) could add are entirely forgotten. How they could enrich the story, bring other perspectives in and give in Annabeth’s case the opportunity for black girls that are sexualized and treated like complete shit everywhere else on the planet (anti blackness and misogynoire say hello!) a chance to see themselves portrait in a multi-dimensional character but NOOOOOOOO!

Y’all act as if Californian Dream girl blonde, tall, tanned Anna Bethany “my father went to Harvard and I’m a descendant of Scandinavian royalty and only white people live in Sweden” Chase lives the same life and is equally as oppressed as characters like Hazel or Beckendorf. You know… the little black girl that lived through segregation, got cursed, killed and resurrected and has Hitler as her fucking half-sibling, and the token negro who was one of the very FEW diverse characters in the OG book series that got BLOWN THE FUCK UP as a plot point.

Like GIRL?! (Nella Rose voice:) ARE YOU NOT EMBARASSSSSED?!

I’m not saying that Annabeth doesn’t have her fair share of issues, all I’m saying is SHE’S NOT FUCKING OPPRESSED. Her problems are not the same in comparison to Hazel, Piper, Leo, Beckendorf, Reyna and others. I know white women loooove playing the victim (see: current real world issues where instead of listening to the warnings of black and brown women and people decades ago, they just sat around until they were on the receiving end for once), but no. This is not the fucking same.

Don’t act like it.

“Oh but the dumb blonde stereotype...“

DOESN’T EVEN FUCKING MATTER?!

Not only that, you could use that for show Percy for all that I care now that his actor won’t be forced to dye his hair/wear contacts. Percy gets treated by all fronts like an idiot (thank you, Annabeth), let him be the one proving people wrong about the dumb blond thing.

As if there aren’t other white female (main) characters that you can latch yourselves onto if you feel like projecting. And you still can, because the OG book series is still a fucking thing!! This is all about the show!

Like you, @mrhomerxsimpson have said, the OG descriptions sound unrealistic and would look tacky in the live action. Fanart ≠ real portrayal of characters. Having sparkly glowing sea green eyes would look weird in reality. The focus of Annabeth’s on her gray eyes… this is readable but would likely transfer poorly onto the screen.

And let’s not forget the trashy exotic portrayal of Cinnamon Toast Hazel and Kaleidoscope Eyed Piper. Let’s just let people and characters of color chill for a while. Please.

I’ve said it ages ago and I’m too lazy to look it up but I think that as long as Percy and Poseidon reassemble each other slightly, the show will be fine. And if these people can act. Also important.

Which brings me to my final point/question: How are some of you unable to understand that different adaptations of the same enterprise can coexist and be just fine?

Book Annabeth 

≠

Movie Annabeth

≠

TV Show Annabeth

There is a reason why you can filter the universe (book, tv show, movie, etc.) in which your story is set on AO3 and FFN. Because not all universes are the same!!!

Rowling is trash but as an easy to understand analogy: if you think about the Harry Potter franchise…

is Emma Watson automatically Hermione Granger for you? Is Daniel Radcliffe automatically Harry Potter?

Because whenever I’ve read a HP Fic they’ve NEVER come up in my mind. Emma Watson is Movie Hermione, but she’s not THE Hermione. She isn't any better or worse than Stage Adaptation Hermione. Watson certainly isn’t the Hermione in my head.

Dr. Who is a sorta weak comparison but there are a million different Doctors sooo what??

Can’t you separate different versions of the same medium? The same core story just with different faces for the same role? Am I in the minority with this??

Book Annabeth is Book Annabeth, Alexandra Daddario is Movie Annabeth and Leah will be TV Show Annabeth. And none of that is in conflict with each other.

If you still want to create moodboards and artworks with Surinamese!Percy, Haitian!Grover and Desi!Annabeth, no one’s stopping you!

If you see Aryan, Walker and Leah as the new default and want to create artwork with their likenesses, also fine!

If you want to go all white like Burdge and Viria have over ten years ago… lame and side-eye worthy but ultimately your decision.

If you want to do all of the above, go ahead!

Just chill and wait till next year when the show finally hits before y’all start throwing tantrums, jeez. Oh wait. Too late!

Peace out.

TL;DR: It really doesn’t fucking matter how TV series Annabeth or Percy look like. Their actors need to act and that’s about it. However, I agree that the book portrayals (at least to a certain degree) would look tacky on screen. Also, this fandom is trash. 

Stop being dickheads and I’m out until November or so for my new finished fic.

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Omg give us ur rant abt hating d*rklina as a ship.. im petty

Okay Anon, so i saw this the other day and I wasn't in the right headspace to answer but i am now!

So to start off, I am firmly in the ship and let ship category. You like a ship, i don't care. That doesn't mean i won't rag on the ship itself but I don't send hate, I don't really engage with shippers from ships I don't like, and I am liberal with the block button and the blacklist feature. Cultivate your tumblr/online experience, y'all. You don't owe anyone on this hellsite (or any other) a damn thing.

However, I REALLY do hate d*rklina as a ship, and I have a big problem with the way the shippers talk about it, so I hope you were being serious about wanting a rant because here it goes.

As for the ship itself, i feel like the reasons I dislike it are pretty obvious and standard. It's abusive. He is her abuser. He manipulates her. He spends months grooming her and gaslighting her, intentionally trying to get her under his control so that when he literally enslaves her it will go over easier. He never actually loved her, he wanted to use her for her power. It's not complicated, it's not really 'up for debate', that is the way its written, and the author has explained that that was the intended interpretation of her work. I mean he literally sexually assaults her in the second book, and straight up tells her he's going to kill everyone she loves so that she has no choice but to fall to him because she is completely alone in the world. He threatens to skin her alive in the second book when they're on the boat, he has no problem torturing her to get Mal to do what he wants. That's not love. He does not love her. It's pretty black and white, its explicitly written as an abusive relationship. The point was to show how easily powerful men can manipulate and abuse young naive women who don't know any better and try to see the best in people. Alina 'fell' for the version of Darkles Sparkles that he intentionally created to try to control her. Nothing he told her was true, from his backstory, to them both being 'the only one like [each other]' (hello, baghra), to using Genya to convince Alina that Mal had abandoned her, everything he did was manipulation so that he could get her under his control. It is not a romance, it is not 'a ship war', d*rklina is not written as romantic. He is her abuser. Full stop.

There is also the point about him being just a generally horrible person all around. He's not morally grey. He just isn't. He sold an 11 year old into sex slavery, forced her to stay in that situation so he could use her, and then mutilated her when she defied him. He also groomed and abused Zoya, because he saw that she was exceptionally powerful and wanted to use her the way he wanted to use Alina. He enslaved Alina. He blinded and mutilated his own mother. He is a genocidal maniac. He shows no remorse, he doesn't care about anyone but himself and his own power. He is not the type of character that should be romantically shipped with anyone. If you like him, that's absolutely fine! One of my fave characters ever is Kai Parker from TVD. Dude was a straight up psychopath. He tried to kill multiple pairs of toddlers. He brutally murdered his pregnant sister AT HER WEDDING. He is a HORRIBLE person. But I think he's a brilliant character. But do I think he's a good guy, do I want him anywhere near any characters in that show in a romantic way (ehem b*nkai)? Absolutely fucking not. Being a fan of a villain character is fine, but fucking own that shit. Villains can be SUCH good characters, but they're still villains. Erasing the bad they've done so you can justify putting them in situations where they WILL harm the people around them because you can't level with yourself about the bad things they've done doesn't make you 'woke', it just makes you look like you don't understand the media you're consuming.

Which leads me to why I have such a problem with the way D*rklina shippers engage with the ship. They simultaneously wanna say "oh we know it's toxic/bad/abusive/etc., that's why we like it!" and then also they try to claim that it should be endgame, they romanticize scenes where he is abusing her (and by romanticize I mean they literally try to frame his abuse as romantic, not like "oh yeah my ship is interacting!!". those are different things. You can be excited about ship interactions without trying to say that things he is doing to her are actually romantic), they try to argue that he is morally grey/misunderstood/etc., and they straight up try to lie and say he's not her abuser.

If you wanna ship an abusive ship, own it. Be straight up about why you like it. It's okay to be into dark shit, y'all. It does NOT make you a bad person to be into dark shit. But this idea that fiction doesn't impact real life, and that people can't call the ship out for what it is is a problem is a very troubling trend in fandom. Nobody is saying you can't ship it, do what you want. But this idea that these people are 'oppressed' because fans of the show/book continue to point out the facts about the way the story was written and how the relationship is actually presented is fucking insane. Someone saying that D*rklina is abusive is not calling you out, they are stating a fact. It's the story as it was presented. You trying to say it's not makes it look like you have no reading comprehension. And this idea that 'well i'll be on the lookout for evil shadow wizards in real life lol' is such horse shit too. His shadow wizard powers aren't the issue. He is a powerful man who grooms and abuses young women. You're telling me you lived through the Me Too movement and you wanna act like thats not a real threat that young women face every day? You're telling me that you can't see that the actual real life connection you're supposed to be making here? Okay, well you should maybe deal with that and come back to me, because that's an issue.

Fiction is meant to teach us lessons. Darkles is meant to teach us something. He is meant to show us that sometimes, powerful men lie to, manipulate, groom, and abuse young women, and we should be aware of that. The story is about a young woman who is sucked into an abusive situation, and then she breaks free and in the end she is able to defeat her abuser. That is a really powerful story, and one that millions of real life women can relate too. To pretend that that story doesn't have real life connections makes you look insensitive and frankly, kind of cruel.

So basically, in the end, my biggest issue is that D*rklina shippers love to spout this nonsense about 'knowing' it's bad and that he's a villain, and 'that's why they like him', and then turn around and try to say that he's not actually the villain, he's not actually bad, and the things he does to Alina that are abuse are actually romantic and sweet. You wanna ship an abusive ship, you do you, but lets not pretend it's anything other than what it is, but romanticizing and normalizing abuse tactics so you can feel, what? morally superior? Cool? edgy and different? That has real life impacts. You are normalizing abuse. Real people will engage with that rhetoric, and it will make it difficult for them to see abuse when it happens to them or the people around them because they believe its romantic or normal to be treated that way.

You wanna be a villain stan? You wanna ship dark ships? Good on ya, but fucking own your shit, y'all.

[105ttt]

Hi sorry if this was already asked before but could you explain a little further abt the things devsis has done?? I haven’t heard abt a lot of the stuff you mentioned I don’t mean to sound rude or anything I’m just genuinely wondering

I can tell you mean it genuinely, it’s okay! I’m happy to answer because you want to know. I’ll go through everything I said.

The Valentine’s 2021 fanart video, posted on the official CR YouTube channel, is a compilation of fanart drawn for Valentine’s Day that fanartists submitted. Some of the art submitted was chosen BY DEVSISTERS and put in the video, but not all art made it in. Two pedophilic ships, Red Bean x Snow Sugar and Roguefort x Walnut, were featured in the video. Red Bean x Snow Sugar was featured TWICE. Snow Sugar and Walnut are confirmed to be children while Red Bean and Roguefort are HEAVILY implied to be adults. Devsisters allowed the pedophilic ships to be shown in a fanart video for a holiday primarily about romantic love, therefore putting their seal of approval on these pedophilic ships. Despite fans saying it should be taken down, the video is still up as of today.

Related to the video and Devsisters’ promotion of fanart on official Twitter accounts, they are known to promote fanart that whitewashes the Cookies. This applies to not only Cookies like Cocoa and Mint Choco, who are clearly black, but also Cookies that are tan, like Alchemist. This approval of whitewashing has been going on for literal years, and when an artist was called out for a piece that Devsisters promoted, Devsisters sided with the artist and claimed that they should be respected rather than made to understand why whitewashing is bad.

Both the Dreamy Cookie Land event and the 2021 April Fools GingerBrave Trial contain sections that are known to harm photosensitive people by either giving them seizures or seriously hurting their eyes and causing immense discomfort and pain. While Devsisters altered the maps in Dreamy Cookie Land to make them less likely to hurt these people, the 2021 April Fools Trial has not changed. Devsisters should have made sure these maps were safe BEFORE publishing them to thousands of people (or more).

Devsisters misgenders its own characters on official Twitter accounts and in game notifications. Squid Ink Cookie was referred to as “she” on a Puzzle World Twitter post, despite this Cookie never having pronouns anywhere in the game. Mocha Ray Cookie was referred to with “she” in a game notification despite having no pronouns listed anywhere in the game, including cutscenes. Devil Cookie was referred to with “he” in a Twitter post despite the game canonically using only “they/them” for them. In addition, a statement from the Thai branch of the Devsisters team claimed that you can use any pronouns for a Cookie since they are born sexless (and they conflated sex with gender). This gives transphobes the “right” to misgender canonically nonbinary characters. Lastly, before the Guild update and before OvenBreak, Dark Choco and Cinnamon had no pronouns. After the Guild update, Cookies referred to Dark Choco as “he”, and in OvenBreak, Cinnamon’s Story uses “he” for them. This erases two canonically nonbinary characters, as cis people will see “he” being used for them and assume they are male rather than he/they nonbinary people.

Devsisters is not subtle about their homophobia, as well as their goal of appealing to cishets who hate gay people. They show their homophobia in how straight ships are treated compared to gay ships. Firstly, in the Valentine’s fanart video, there were mostly straight ships. I believe I counted only 4 or so gay ships, and 3 of these were either selfcest or pedophilia. Despite the majority of the art being shown being heterosexual, many people who regularly follow the CR tag on Twitter and Instagram claim that there was a lot more gay ship art submitted compared to the proportion shown in the video. The gay ship art shown was also ambiguous enough that cishets who hate gay people wouldn’t get mad at Devsisters, while some of the heterosexual art was blatantly romantic. Secondly, the treatment of ships like RaspRose and PrincessKnight, popular straight ships, is much better than the treatment of popular gay ships by Devsisters. For example, RaspRose got a merchandise item in a set of cups that also featured a cup with Sea Fairy and Moonlight and Orange and Lime. The RaspRose art on the cup is explicitly romantic. The art on the Sea Fairy and Moonlight and Orange and Lime cups are ambiguous or platonic instead, despite both of these ships being historically far more plausible and popular than RaspRose. Finally, Devsisters has been gaybaiting with Madeleine Cookie and Espresso Cookie in Kingdom, but they refuse to make them canon because that would be gay. Gaybaiting is homophobic in itself for using gay people as a way to advertise something without fulfilling the promise of gay representation. It’s also worth mentioning that they once gaybaited with Milk and Purple Yam on Twitter, but the art shown was not romantic at all, and only the caption hinted at a ship (and the caption was vague enough to be interpreted as the Cookies merely appearing in an art piece together).

Multiple black CR fans have spoken out and said that Purple Yam Cookie is a racist caricature of black men, ESPECIALLY when he is juxtaposed with Milk, a white man. Indian and Middle Eastern CR fans have spoken out and said that Yogurt Cream Cookie and Lilac Cookie are caricatures of Indian and Middle Eastern people. These are not debatable. Google the history of the portrayal of black men in non-black media, and you’ll see what I mean for Purple Yam. The evidence that Yogurt Cream is a caricature comes from the very fact that people compare him to Aladdin, specifically Disney’s version of the tale, thereby showing that their only exposure to Indian and Middle Eastern people is stereotypes in white media. Note also that Dark Choco Cookie is the stereotype of a solemn, lonely, strong black person, and this has leaked into the fandom so much that people draw them unrealistically buff and mostly draw them suffering from angst instead of having any actual character.

There was an IRL sex crime in South Korea perpetrated by a club called the Burning Sun, and a certain Guild named itself after that club and changed their usernames to the names of the people who committed these crimes. They were only forced to change their names by Devsisters AFTER people protested. They were NOT forced to disband the Guild or banned from the game. Keep in mind that these people named themselves after a REAL-LIFE SEX CRIME that harmed REAL WOMEN AND GIRLS, and the only punishment they got was a forced name change. Fuck Devsisters.

Lastly, the trigger joke. Back when Ion Cookie Robot and Cyborg Cookie were new, the official CR Twitter account made a Tweet captioned as “triggered”, and below that caption was a GIF of Ion Cookie Robot becoming angry and shifting to their Red Dread Costume, thereby implying that Ion Cookie Robot was “triggered” and became unreasonably angry. This was posted during the time when ableists were using the term “triggered” as a “meme”, which harms people with PTSD. The Tweet was deleted, and another Tweet was made that apologized for the previous Tweet, but this was only after backlash from fans. However, notice that Purple Yam Cookie is also a trigger joke. He has PTSD from being burned alive in the Oven for so long, and as a result he is easily angered (anger is his stress response). The game treats this as a joke and minimizes his suffering just because other Cookies were in the Oven (before coming to life). His anger is treated as unreasonable and unwarranted, and it’s treated as a joke. Does that sound familiar? Now take into account that his anger is juxtaposed with Milk’s “kind”, “gentle” demeanor. Yikes.

BONUS ROUND:

DevSam, a worker at Devsisters, once said that GingerBrave had a Costume in LINE that was a “sexy cat costume”. GingerBrave is a minor, and the Costume was literally not sexy at all. Why did they refer to him as sexy if he’s a minor??

Images from an official CR account showed a person dressed as GingerBrave giving gifts to a person dressed as Pink Choco Cookie, a Cookie associated with romantic love. This can be easily interpreted as romantic and is therefore pedophilic because GingerBrave is a child and Pink Choco Cookie is an adult. Why post this at all??

Buttershell Fox referred to Maple Panda with a word that was VERY close to a slur against black people in the original text of the Secrets of the Hidden City cutscenes. This was only changed when a popular Twitter user let everyone know about it and asked people to email Devsisters about it.

I can provide links and screenshots for proof if needed, but please DM me or send an ask to ask for these. I’m definitely forgetting other things they’ve done that are bad, but this already should be enough to raise eyebrows.

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

submission: sorry to bring up race issue again.

If Posey played Stiles and DOB played Scott, do you think the Sterek ship would still be popular? I just wiki’d Ao3 and if you checked its wiki page & go to the website citation 7, it shows that the top 20 pairing are all white. Scott is actually the first non-white person, ranking 21st with Allison.

People argue that Stiles is more interesting / Scott is written badly by the producers, but to be honest, it’s not like the other characters in the top 20 pairings are all well-written. Scott’s generic personality is generic, because it’s also used by other male main characters, but it’s only Scott who’s deemed uninteresting because of having that personality, while the others are shipped/praised just fine.

Another point that I’d like to argue, usually people pair the two main character in the show, right? It’s always been weird to me when I find out that only a few people ship Scott x Stiles. I’ve heard, “I only can see them as bromance, no sexual or romantic attraction at all”. But there are more “brotherly” pairs who are shipped romantically by the fans. Ironically, didn’t one of your anon said “Maybe with Ned & Peter it’s about brothers. There is this disconnect that men cannot be affectionate, kind & loving to each other. They don’t need to be gay. I like to point out Turk & J.D. from Scrubs as the ultimate broship. They love each other totally, but they are clearly very straight.“ Which is ironic, because Ned is also non-white. And that “only brothers” line seem to only affect when there'a PoC in the pairing?

For example, Steve x Bucky is veryyy similar to Scott x Stiles (relationship wise, not personality), both have this “you’re my brother, i will never leave you, etc etc”, but Stucky is probably the 2nd most popular ship in MCU after Stony.

It gets me wondering, do people say that they can’t see them as romantic and sexual because ‘unconscious’ racism? Some races are desexualized a lot by the media (especially Asian men), so maybe that plays part?

When I think about it more, it gets even sadder, because the 21st rank that Scallison gets is probably because of the main pairing Sterek, with Scallison as the background (without any sexual scenes, romance scenes are probably basic, like Scott rambling about Allison, or mentioning that Allison is pregnant, etc).

Back to the original question, if Scott was white, and Stiles was hispanic, would Sterek be as popular as they are right now? Would Scott x Derek be more popular? If Scott x Stiles were white, do you think they will have more shippers?

I agree with the anon that you had a few days ago. It comes down to appearance (which is really tied to race, and how the race is portrayed by the media & consumed by the public). Even the shittiest / most boring people can be shipped (and fanfic'ed) as long as he’s hot. I mean that’s fanfic, right? We can ‘alter’ some of the personalities to fit our imagination. And people like to imagine beautiful/handsome people. Steve Rogers is probably the most basic archetype of a male hero. But people still worship him.

I know you’ve said “it does seem reductive to me to assume that more people ship Tony/Bruce than Tony/Rhodey because of race.” I’m not saying that, but race plays a big part in appearance, and appearance plays a big part in ‘shippabilty’ / ‘likability’. I observe people can let white characters off the hook about the flaws in their personality, actions, character growth, etc. But when it’s PoC, people are tend to be more critical. Thus making the white characters more likable (and shippable) to themselves. Maybe they’re doing that consciously, maybe they’re not, I don’t know.

Scott is boring? True, but isn’t Steve more boring if we use the standard we use on Scott?

Scott makes questionable / bad choices. So do Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, or everyone.

Scott has delusional fans? Tony Stark Protection Squad exists.

I know you’re probably bored of this topic already but I really want to know your insight. Please answer this when you have time.

By the way, yanny/laurel?

DW: 

I’ve broken this up into sections to answer. And, as always, I can only answer for my personal opinions, but as someone who has been accused of systematic racism just because I like Stiles more than Scott–even though in plenty of other ships and fandoms my fave isn’t the white guy–I can only assume that the same holds true for other fans in my position.  

If Posey played Stiles and DOB played Scott, do you think the Sterek ship would still be popular? I just wiki’d Ao3 and if you checked its wiki page & go to the website citation 7, it shows that the top 20 pairing are all white. Scott is actually the first non-white person, ranking 21st with Allison. Scott is actually the first non-white person, ranking 21st with Allison.

People argue that Stiles is more interesting / Scott is written badly by the producers, but to be honest, it’s not like the other characters in the top 20 pairings are all well-written. Scott’s generic personality is generic, because it’s also used by other male main characters, but it’s only Scott who’s deemed uninteresting because of having that personality, while the others are shipped/praised just fine. 

I don’t know. A fan’s response to a character on a show is partly because of the character as it is written, and partly because of the actor who plays them. All I can tell you is that if DOB had played Scott, then that would be a different Scott than the one Posey played. And maybe the actor then playing Stiles wouldn’t have had the same screen presence as DOB’s Stiles, or the same chemistry with Derek. To me, it’s like you’re trying to say that if DOB had played Scott, the only difference would have been race, and that’s simply not true. It’s downplaying everything that both DOB and Posey bring to their characters as actors.

People argue that Stiles is more interesting / Scott is written badly by the producers, but to be honest, it’s not like the other characters in the top 20 pairings are all well-written. Scott’s generic personality is generic, because it’s also used by other male main characters, but it’s only Scott who’s deemed uninteresting because of having that personality, while the others are shipped/praised just fine.

I have said that I personally find Stiles more relatable, and yes, that Scott was badly written. Actually I’ve said that all the characters suffered from bad writing to a certain extent, but with Scott it’s more apparent because he was the main character. When he equivocates, or is a hypocrite, or does something that doesn’t make sense, it carries more weight because Scott is also supposed to be driving the plot. He is a weak character. And by that I don’t mean he is personally weak–I mean that as a protagonist his character isn’t dynamic enough to drive the plot. And I don’t mean that I think that any other character, as written in the show, could have driven the plot either. This is the fault of the writers, not the characters, and not the actors.

I haven’t checked the list of the other top 20 pairings, but I would be very surprised if there aren’t also plenty of people out there who don’t like those characters and that pairing. The difference is, it’s not automatically assumed to be racism by people who do like those characters. For every person shipping Stucky, I’m sure there is a Stony shipper going “Ew, no, no way.”

Also, lack of representation in fandom is tied directly to lack of representation in the media itself. If the white ships are more popular, that’s not necessarily that fans are actively rejecting ships with POC in them–it’s just that white characters are over-represented in the media. I talked in a previous post about the ships coming out of Black Panther–and they are catching up fast. 

Another point that I’d like to argue, usually people pair the two main character in the show, right?

Not always. The main character is Shadowhunters is Clary, right? But people ship Malec over anything with Clary in it.

It’s always been weird to me when I find out that only a few people ship Scott x Stiles. I’ve heard, “I only can see them as bromance, no sexual or romantic attraction at all”. But there are more “brotherly” pairs who are shipped romantically by the fans. Ironically, didn’t one of your anon said “Maybe with Ned & Peter it’s about brothers. There is this disconnect that men cannot be affectionate, kind & loving to each other. They don’t need to be gay. I like to point out Turk & J.D. from Scrubs as the ultimate broship. They love each other totally, but they are clearly very straight.“ Which is ironic, because Ned is also non-white. And that “only brothers” line seem to only affect when there'a PoC in the pairing? For example, Steve x Bucky is veryyy similar to Scott x Stiles (relationship wise, not personality), both have this “you’re my brother, i will never leave you, etc etc”, but Stucky is probably the 2nd most popular ship in MCU after Stony.

That’s not irony though. And you’re attempting to use one person’s opinion in an attempt to explain a pattern, when race might not come into that pattern at all. Because plenty of people ship Peter with Shuri or with MJ. And as I said in my response, I don’t ship either Peter or Ned with anyone. If you can use one anon’s opinion to give weight to your idea that the lack of Peter/Ned fics is based on racism, then I can use my opinion to tell you why it’s not. And again, I’m not saying race doesn’t come into it, but a single anecdote is not evidence of that. It’s just that it fits your confirmation bias. I don’t ship Peter/Ned, and I do ship Stucky, but I also ship another interracial brotherly pair: Stormpilot. So in my case–and I can only assume for the case of a lot of other people–it’s not about race.  

It gets me wondering, do people say that they can’t see them as romantic and sexual because ‘unconscious’ racism? Some races are desexualized a lot by the media (especially Asian men), so maybe that plays part?

Again though, this only works as a pattern if you entirely disregard Malec. And Malec is huge.

When I think about it more, it gets even sadder, because the 21st rank that Scallison gets is probably because of the main pairing Sterek, with Scallison as the background (without any sexual scenes, romance scenes are probably basic, like Scott rambling about Allison, or mentioning that Allison is pregnant, etc).

This is another assumption. You might be correct, but we don’t know because where is the data showing that it’s only background Scallison in Sterek fics? And again, if you’re attempting to say that Scallison is less popular because of race, then what’s to stop me from wondering if it’s less popular because it’s het? M/m slash has always been a huge driving force in fandom, all the way back to Kirk/Spock. M/m has always been the cornerstone of fanfic. 

Back to the original question, if Scott was white, and Stiles was hispanic, would Sterek be as popular as they are right now? Would Scott x Derek be more popular? If Scott x Stiles were white, do you think they will have more shippers?

And again, this is impossible to answer. If Scott was white, then the entire dynamic would change–not because Scott was white, but because it would be another actor playing him, and bringing something entirely different to the show, and to fics, and to all pairings.

I agree with the anon that you had a few days ago. It comes down to appearance (which is really tied to race, and how the race is portrayed by the media & consumed by the public). Even the shittiest / most boring people can be shipped (and fanfic'ed) as long as he’s hot. I mean that’s fanfic, right? We can ‘alter’ some of the personalities to fit our imagination. And people like to imagine beautiful/handsome people. Steve Rogers is probably the most basic archetype of a male hero. But people still worship him.

And plenty of people do ship Scott, and will always ship Scott. Plenty of people think Scott is hot. Plenty of people worship Scott. Personally, I prefer Stiles. But again, that’s nothing to do with race. Because I’m looking at the pictures from Solo, and I’m like “Han who? Show me all the Lando.” If we did a poll and more people thought Stiles was attractive than Scott, that’s still not a complete picture, you know?

I know you’ve said “it does seem reductive to me to assume that more people ship Tony/Bruce than Tony/Rhodey because of race.” I’m not saying that, but race plays a big part in appearance, and appearance plays a big part in 'shippabilty’ / 'likability’. I observe people can let white characters off the hook about the flaws in their personality, actions, character growth, etc. But when it’s PoC, people are tend to be more critical. Thus making the white characters more likable (and shippable) to themselves. Maybe they’re doing that consciously, maybe they’re not, I don’t know.

Scott is boring? True, but isn’t Steve more boring if we use the standard we use on Scott?

Scott makes questionable / bad choices. So do Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, or everyone.

Scott has delusional fans? Tony Stark Protection Squad exists.

The issue I have with your comparison between Scott and Steve isn’t that Scott is boring, or that Steve is boring. My issues with Scott are because of his hypocrisy, not his “boringness”. I’m nowhere near as clued into the MCU characters, but I see Steve as developing from a cookie-cutter hero prototype into a much more complex and dynamic character. And you yourself brought up the Tony Stark Protection Squad–which exists because Tony Stark, a white guy, gets a shitload of hate for his character flaws and questionable decisions. Nobody is letting Tony off the hook because he’s white, but the entire premise behind the Scott McCall Delusional Squad is that only reason Scott is not the fan fave is because he’s Latinx. And that’s just not true. 

And I think it’s important to note that there are always two characters in a ship. I’ve said before that Stucky is my favourite MCU ship, even though neither Steve nor Bucky are my favourite characters. But Bucky is definitely the one I like the ship for. I like the damaged guys with the dark pasts and the capacity and willingness to murder their enemies. It’s why I like Stucky. It’s why I like Thorki. It’s why I like Sterek and Steter. Scott doesn’t bring that to a ship, you know? But the Hales certainly do.

Usual disclaimer: Of course racism exists in fandom, because racism exists in the real world and fandom is made up of people from the real world. But when it comes down to Teen Wolf–this particular show and this particular fandom–my favourite character happens to be white. This is because I think DOB was the best actor out of the main cast, and had the best screen presence, and the best chemistry with the other characters. I also found the character of Stiles to be the most relatable to me, personally. But in other fandoms, and in other shows, the white guy isn’t always my favourite at all. And I can only assume, especially when you look at powerhouse ships like Malec, that this is true for a lot of other fans.

Yes, racism exists. Yes, it may even be the reason Scott is not the fan fave for some fans. But for many other fans–and I would hope most other fans–this isn’t the case. The fact Stiles is the fan fave in Teen Wolf isn’t proof of racism. It’s a single data point, and you can’t make a pattern from that. Especially not when Malec also exists, and is shipped enthusiastically by many of the same fans.

I know you’re probably bored of this topic already but I really want to know your insight. Please answer this when you have time.

By the way, yanny/laurel?

Laurel.