#Anti-Word of God

[kyliafanfiction]

One issue I have with the whole 'Wildbow said Aura Theory isn't True' is that the whole theory comes from, or at least got big, because of a comment he made in reply to a fan comment.

Now, I have read a reddit thread where he said something to the effect of 'I was tired, not paying attention and didn't give the right answer' or something to that effect. And like...

Okay, fine. He made a mistake. Took him three years to notice and correct it, or something like that, but fine.

But that calls into question literally any other Word of God statement he's ever provided, at least in answer to a question or comment. Because he could have bene tired and not paying attention and given a wrong answer then.

And since so much of the wormverse is understood through WoG because of the tight confines of much of both Worm and Ward in terms of POV, that means... a lot of what we think we know about the Wormverse could be 100% wrong.

Like, how many landmines are littered around in his WoG that he's never caught because they never caught on, never became popular fic trends or correcting them never became central to a sequel or later part of the work?

At that point, should we care about his WoG at all, when he could just reveal he was wrong?

Like, to be clear, I don't think Aura Theory is a necessary explanation for Amy's obsession with Victoria. Nor do I think, even if it was true, it would actually mean Amy didn't still actively choose (albeit while in the midst of a psychological break after the sort of shit that would break most people under the sort of stress she was under).

I do think Aura theory is interesting, and it's worth exploring in a fanfic (because fanfics can be 'hey, what if X that isn't true in canon was'), and I wish there wasn't a contingent of fans quite so rabid about constantly screeching 'it's not canon' anytime it comes up in discussion, but...

Really. Either Wildbow just up and retconned the Aura or he doesn't police his WoG properly and it calls everything else he's ever said into doubt, unless it's specifically backed up by material in the text that can be taken as 100% unbiased/reliable.

Or we can just not care about WoG at all, which is really the best way to do things in almost every fandom, because ultimately:

If It's Necessary To Understand The Work, A Character In Said Work Or To Understand the Intent Of A Scene, It Should Be In The Work Itself.

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

JK Rowling being a Holocaust denier wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card but in hindsight it probably should have been.

At this point I don’t care how much Harry Potter means to you, I don’t care if it saved your life, if you think having some dumb fucking House scarf from a made up fantasy series is more important than calling out a white supremacist, transphobic, ableist hag then YOU are part of the problem and you are just as bad as she is.

[kyliafanfiction]

I mean, caring more about shipping and memes and characters is usually a bigger thing in fandoms over the themes anyway, so Worm's hardly unique in that regard.

I've written before about how I subscribe to a specific form of the Death of the Author theory that I call the Primacy of the Text; that is, when evaluating a work of fiction, the most important things to consider is the text of the work itself. All else, including the pronouncements of the author, are of at best secondary importance.

So, this is why I don't really pay much mind when authors try to use "word of god" to establish facts about their stories. If it was really important, it should have been in story. Wildbow, for example can say all he likes that Taylor is 100% straight, but that's not the text he wrote. He wrote her acting like an in denial bisexual, and it's the text that should carry the most weight.

I don't get particularly annoyed when he does this, though. I don't really pay much import to it at all. Everyone has a right to their headcanons, after all. But that's not how most of the fandom seems to view it. Most of the fandom seems downright offended when Wildbow says stuff about the stories that he wrote.

I've also written before about how the bulk of the Wildbow fandom doesn't seem to have much interest in engaging in the text of the work. This is true of many fandoms, but seems especially true of of the Parahumans fandom, where a sizable minority hasn't even read the text, and even those who have seem more interested in shipping and memes than in seriously engaging with the themes of the story.

And I suspect this is why the fandom gets so mad whenever Wildbow ties to use Word of God on them. Since they don't engage with the text directly, headcanons are the only thing they have left, and so of course they'll be outraged when Wildbow tries to act like his headcanons are more valid then theirs.

[eroticcannibal]

You have got to all stop calling Jews zionists just because they are Jews.

[romanticatheartt]

*writing acosf bonus chapter*

Sjm: Okaaaaay so I need to end this ship. What better way to make Elain feel small and shy around him instead of making Elain make the first move to kiss like the rest of my fmcs, he's going to be the one, and then to make it even worse he's going to call it a mistake!! And then when Rhysand asks him "what of Mor?" it would show that Elain, just like Mor is a distraction to him. Oh and make him to think of no future with her... yeah these are all very clear red flags!!!

*some* fandoms: Omg Azriel wants to eat Elain's 😻 so romantic!!! He thinks of her while he jerks off. He's so in love with her and sjm is going to give us forbidden love romance🥰💕

Sjm: I mean I also wrote that his shadows dance with Gwyn's breath and dance with a silent music that *nervous laugh* can only be concluded as mate signs, that's how I wrote other mated couples... oh and he thought of her smile!! Isn't that lovely...

*some* fandom: Gwyn is a siren and lightsinger who lured Azriel to make him stay away from Elain and made him to gift that necklace to her!!!😠

Sjm: *weirded out*

*writing hofas bonus chapter*

Sjm: Well... that sorta back fired??? So now I'm gonna write Azriel saying he has no partner, lover or any mate that he knows of. That will be enough to show how he's single asf. AND on top of that his shadows danced again while he hummed a music and who else sings? Yes, Gwyn. Who's the only one Azriel was comfortable enough to say something personal about himself and no one else!!

*some* fandoms: OMG Azriel doesn't want to tell anyone that he's secretly seeing Elain, he wants to protect her. Ah we're getting our forbbien romance!!

Me:

[gay-otlc]

Marginalized people have a right to define their own oppression, and their language shouldn't be dictated by people outside of that marginalized group. Unless you're transmasculine, then you're only allowed to talk about the oppression you face using words that non-transmascs decided on

[princessefemmelesbian]

Transandrophobia truthers are so damn racist and white oh my fucking god y'all actually piss me the fuck off every time you tokenize Black and brown men for your stupid as fuck "mra but make it trans-inclusive" ideology created by a creepy guy with a corrective rape fetish(something I'll never let up on for as long as I live, btw). If I ever see another one of y'all say "Black and brown men face discrimination because they're seen as overly masculine and that's why masculinity in men is oppressed in this society" I will literally kill myself. Stop using Black and brown men as brownie points for your bullshit arguments about misandry being real when you don't have the slightest idea how racialized oppression works. White boys are so annoying and dumb istfg.

@punkeropercyjackson @punknicodiangelo @pinkpinkstarlet

[dootznbootz]

I don't think Greek Mythology retellings/adaptions/inspired/etc. are necessarily "evil"...but I DO think people REALLY need to understand that there's a huge difference between the actual mythology and certain media.

I feel like people have to basically do a "Fandom ___" to say the different versions. Like "PJO ___", "Hades game ___", "TSOA ___". For it to be understood that these depictions are DIFFERENT. I'm saying this as someone who grew up reading PJO and still has a soft spot for it. But as someone who really loves Greek Mythology as well, I sometimes get really SAD.

I'm going to use the comparison of Howl's Moving Castle with it's Book Vs. Movie. I enjoy both!!! But they are honestly very different. In the movie there is no "sister swap", Markle isn't a young teenager, Sophie doesn't throw weed killer at Howl, and many more moments. But I enjoy both because even though there are changes they still keep components that are ingrained into the characters!

In some Greek Myth retellings/adaptations/stories/etc., characters are...SO different from the source material. That's fine...Choose what you want with your story... But folks should know that the modern adaptations are NOT the source material!!!

It bothers me that a lot of these wonderful myths and stories are twisted up and seen so differently because of a modern version of them. You can have that character be "awful" or a certain way in your story. But I almost feel that as fans, it's not good to generalize them or see it as "This is the truth". People are hating the mythological figure when it's only in that interpretation they are like that.

In PJO, Ares is "Zeus' favorite", isn't a good dad, a misogynist, etc. The actual myths? One of his Epithets is LITERALLY "Feasted by Women", in the Iliad everybody basically bullies him with Zeus literally saying he hates him. He cries when he learns one of his sons is killed in the war. He literally kills someone about to rape his daughter. Ares isn't perfect but it makes me sad with how he's viewed and talked about when it's only in PJO he's like that. Same with Dionysus. Read the Bacchae, you'll love it.

In Lore Olympus, Apollo rapes Persephone (noticing the fact that modern takes on the myths add rapes where there never were hmmmmm) when he never did in any of the myths.

In TSOA, Thetis is cruel when in the Iliad, she is such a loving mother to Achilles. She grieved alongside her son over Patroclus. Also with Agamemnon. In Ipheginia at Aulis, Agamemnon is a MESS. He adored his children.

In Circe, Odysseus is viewed as a selfish man who ONLY hurts others and doesn't care about his family when that is LITERALLY his one consistent character trait. HE is actually the one who is the victim of rape. Circe was never raped.

Medusa is only a victim in Ovid's, a Roman man, works. Not in GREEK mythology. She was just a cool monster. Leave Perseus alone. Poseidon and Medusa actually had a consensual relationship in Greek Mythology!

These adaptations/retellings/inspired by/etc. whatever anybody wants to call them, are not the real myths! They may be similar in some ways but to just generalize them or hate the deity/mythological figure because of something they did in the new media feels fucked up!

You can enjoy these new stories. There's nothing wrong with that!!! But know they're not the real myths. Maybe even label it as "I hate ____'s version of ____". As that makes it clear what version you're talking about.

[dragondream-ing]

If someone defends Rhaenyra’s usurpation because of tRaDiTiOn, they better be waving a Maegor banner proudly.

I’m being serious.

So many people in this fandom care about the tradition of Westerosi inheritance and act like yelling about it justifies team green’s actions. They never seem to take into consideration what it means.

This post is inspired by my allergy to inconsistency and hypocrisy. Here we go.

The only consistent tradition of Targaryen succession is the ruler choosing their own heir. Sometimes that aligned with Westerosi tradition, often it did not. And it started with the very first heir. So either you admit Maegor was the rightful heir over Aenys, or you admit he wasn’t because Aegon the Conqueror said so.

Let me explain.

Visenya was Aegon’s first wife. In Westerosi tradition, Rhaenys would be considered at best a mistress and her children out of the succession or, at the least, behind Visenya’s children. The lords accepted the validity of Aegon’s plural marriage because they didn’t have the power to oppose the Conquerors, simple as. Tradition didn’t matter in the face of dragons. It is not a genuine argument and hasn’t been since the creation of the Crown itself. House Targaryen’s exceptionalism went beyond incest and dragons from the start, and accepting Aenys as king shows the nobles accepted this when it was convenient.

So I’d like team green to be consistent. Is the king’s word law, a la Aegon choosing Aenys as his heir? Or is this a break from tradition that was only corrected when Maegor killed his nephew and took the throne?

It gets messy from here. Maegor, as we know, didn’t have a child, so he chose his great-niece, Aerea as his heir. Jaehaerys was still alive, he could’ve chosen him. Heck, that might’ve eased like a drop of the tension between him, Jaehaerys and Alyssa Velaryon. So if you’re a tradition truther, Maegor was the proper king but then chose an untraditional heir. Hmm.

Then we get to Jaehaerys, and a tradition truther might think YES, THAT’S OUR GUY. But he’s really not.

Yes, he stopped considering his eldest living child, Daenerys, as his heir after Aemon was born. But then Aemon died.

Aemon did, however, die with an heir. Her name was Rhaenys. In Westerosi tradition, she’d inherit after him, because a daughter inherits before a brother. Now, I know the lords do all sorts of things to circumvent this (see Alys Karstark), but that *is* Westerosi tradition.

Did Jaehaerys follow tradition? Nope. He picked his second oldest son, Baelon.

Some might say there are logical reasons for this. Baelon was a warrior, older, and had grown sons. Rhaenys was like 18, married to an ambitious lord not named Targaryen, and at risk of dying in childbirth (Baelon was named heir in 92, Rhaenys had her first child in 92). HOWEVER, we see with Jeyne Arryn becoming Lady of the Vale while still a *toddler* that Westerosi tradition doesn’t set aside claims merely because such concerns exist. In fact, in ASOIAF, some Lannister married an f-ing BABY to lay claim to her lands because *she* is the acknowledged inheritor.

You could argue that it matters more when it’s the Crown, and I’ll concede that while pointing out you’ve made my argument for me: isn’t that a good reason for the Crown to do what it wants instead of following traditions that hamstring it?

If you’re a tradition truther, however, you should be in a rage and insisting Rhaenys inherit, and you should be outraged by what was done to her at the Council of 101 after Baelon dies. Her claim wasn’t even considered, Laenor’s was���ya know, her toddler son who got his claim *through* her.

So then Viserys takes the throne and continues the Targaryen custom of choosing his heir. And the tradition truthers of the fandom rise up and boo, and they cry “duty and sacrifice! What about tradition!?”

Just admit that the lords of Westeros, Alicent, her merry band of greens, and the fans that make excuses for them didn’t and don’t care about tradition unless it suits them, and they only become vocal about it when a woman stands a good chance of inheriting over a man.

Viserys never wavered in his choice, the realm knew it and so did the greens. This is precisely why Rhaenyra had far more support than her brother, and why the argument that the realm wouldn’t accept her is bs. The realm DID accept her. Because they understood something many in this fandom struggle to

There was only one consistent tradition of royal succession between the Conquest and the Dance: the ruler chooses their heir.

[kyliafanfiction]

Wormblr Confession: In the past, initially to win an argument and eventually just to see if people would notice, I have said some random but plausible made-up bullshit and just said that it's a quote from Wildbow. Thus far nobody has noticed, and I have won a lot of the arguments I engaged in using this technique. This has only further radicalized me against treating WoG as gospel, but I'm not going to stop doing this because it's extremely funny.

Pffft.

That doesn't surprise me. The man has said so many WoGs and some of the ones I've seen sound so batshit and contrary to the text that one can really believe he'd say almost anything.

But yeah. That also sounds fun.

[novablisters]

if I had a time machine I’d erase harry potter from existence not necessarily just out of hatred for jk rowling(though that is a very strong reason) but also because it’s fucking annoying how culturally dominant it is I want people to stop talking about it I want to not think about it it’s not that good it’s not that interesting shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP. SHUT UP.

[heartsgettingwiser62]

Mike's definition of normal went from this, caring for his best friend when he went missing (regardless of the reason people said he went missing) and willing to do anything to find him:

To this:

A.k.a., what Mike used to think was normal vs what society taught him 'normal' was.

Bonus:

[eroticcannibal]

Oh hey that stupid fucking post is on my dash. Anyway the point was obviously that the idea that cognitive restructuring fixes an actual, real life problem is a bit fucking silly. Something like this would be more accurate:

People are obsessed with CBT over actually addressing issues and actually being treated like shit negatively affects peoples mental health even if they don't blame themselves for it.

(This is why many ppl object to CBT for trauma, power imbalances, marginalisation etc. Treating the thoughts as the issue is counterproductive in MANY situations. Its also not nearly as effective a treatment as it is claimed to be. And DBT also has many of the same issues)

[avocado-frog]

Man I hate being able to read

[here-comes-the-moose]

What I Think Each Member of the Bad Batch’s Favorite Taylor Swift Album(s) Would Be (Plus Bonus Phee and Bonus Fives)

Hunter- Taylor Swift

Wrecker- Tie between 1989 and Fearless

Tech- Red for “All Too Well” alone (he’s very into lyrics and their meanings; also enjoys Folklore and Evermore)

Crosshair- Reputation (he’s also a really big fan of Red and Lover, but Reputation has a special place in his heart; he’s a huge Swiftie though so he likes all of them)

Omega- Speak Now (Reputation is a very close second because Crosshair likes it so much)

Echo- Folklore (followed very closely by Midnights and TTPD)

Phee- Tie between Red and Evermore

Fives- Midnights

[bagsbyler]

saw this on twitter and IMMEDIATELY thought of byler