#But my blorbo really did do all those bad things

[kyliafanfiction]

Boiled down to an overly reductive binary, there's really two approaches people can take to 'spicy toxic problematicness' for a character.

Either it's the starting point for the character, or it's the ending point for the character.

That is, for some people, the real fun is in detangling a fucked up mess of a character and bringing them to some level of... if not 'okay', then at least 'more okay' compared to before. It's not about turning them into a fluffy harmless woobie that barely resembles themselves, all the rough edges filed off, but it definitely does ultimately involve them ending up somewhere more functional than they began.

For others, the toxicity is the goal, the draw, the end game. They want the characters to get... well, worse implies a moral judgement that doesn't always apply, but to borrow a phrase I heard someone use a few weeks ago, they probably want to accelerate a character's fucked-upness. That end point may involve them still being better off in terms of their lived daily reality, maybe even involve them hurting less people, or even helping people, but they're more fucked up than they were before, even if in different ways.

Obviously, this is, as I said, reductive, but separating out the two trendlines when it comes to fandoms for the kinds of characters or ships that attract this kind of binary can be hard, and can result in intrafannish issues, because people may tend to see one as the only acceptable approach, or at least the only form of approach that involves real appreciation for the character.

But neither one is solely valid, even insofar as this binary really holds water in lived reality.

Hard to keep in mind sometimes.

[emily-mooon]

I feel mad >:(

[anthurak]

After rewatching Mastermind, I feel like the episode actually draws a very interesting distinction between Blitzo’s and Stolas’s respective big ‘Heroic Sacrifice’ moments. Namely in whether they are genuinely necessary sacrifices or a wasteful moment of a character pointlessly throwing their life away.

You see, when Blitzo does his big ‘throwing himself on the sword’ moment where he takes all the blame on himself in order to get Moxxie, Millie and Loona spared, it’s a genuinely heroic, necessary act.

In this moment, Blitzo truly did have NO other options. They were ALL being threatened with death, so Blitzo leveraged the one tiny bit of power he held and took all the responsibility onto himself.

This is very much not a case of Blitzo ‘throwing his life away’. Right then, he was going to die no matter what. But through his sacrifice, Blitzo made sure that the people he loved would live.

Now let’s contrast this with what STOLAS did. He does do essentially the same thing Blitzo just did to save him just as Blitzo saved his loved ones.

But in context, Stolas’s big moment of sacrifice is a complete WASTE. Because while Blitzo truly had zero other options, Stolas DID.

I mean think about it; Stolas is a Goetia. He has POWER, he has influence. The ABILITY, at least potentially, to save Blitzo.

But did he attempt to use any of that? When he appeared in that courtroom, did Stolas try to argue Blitzo’s innocence? Try to push back against his brother-in-law’s scheming? Try literally anything OTHER than big dramatic self-sacrifice?

No. Literally the first thing Stolas did was go straight to throwing everything away, INCLUDING HIS LIFE to save Blitzo. Admitting to whatever made-up bullshit Andrealphus used to frame Blitzo and co. in the first place and just throwing himself on the sword right off the bat.

And that’s not a good thing!

Blitzo was ready to sacrifice his life after it became clear that there was no other way to save his loved ones.

Stolas was ready to sacrifice his life because it seems to have been the first thing he could think of.

Do I really need to spell out how this is a VERY BAD THING for Stolas?

Especially given that one of those things he immediately decided to throw away without a second thought to save Blitzo happens to be HIS DAUGHTER.

I mean, you want a character contrast?

One of the last things Blitzo says is to ask his two best friends to take care of his daughter.

While I think it's pretty goddamn clear Stolas wasn't even THINKING about his daughter.

And before anyone pipes in with any trite about how their precious-little-blorbo-who-can-do-no-wrong ‘didn’t have time to think of anything else’ and ‘was just trying to protect the man he loved’,

Again; LITERALLY THE FIRST AND ONLY THING HE COULD THINK OF WAS THROWING HIS LIFE (and daughter) AWAY TO SAVE BLITZO. How the FUCK is that supposed to be ‘good’ or ‘excusable’?

And despite the ‘wholesome Stolitz domesticity’ ending note, Stolas’s reaction makes it pretty clear he is currently processing just how MASSIVELY and UTTERLY he just FUCKED UP. Particularly the whole ‘Oh shit I just threw away my daughter…’ reaction to Blitzo and Loona embracing.

Overall I think this is very much a deliberate contrast meant to highlight these characters’ growth, or lack thereof, as well as showing how they deal with a moment of true crisis.

For Blitzo, this is very much a make-or-break, back-against-the-wall moment where he demonstrates how much he truly loves his new family with a truly heroic act of self-sacrifice. Blitzo knew he was going to die no matter what, but he made sure that his loved ones would be saved.

Which of course is meant to sharply contrast how STOLAS handles the situation.

Blitzo’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how much he loves and cares for his new family, to the point where he will lay down his own life to keep them safe. Whereas Stolas’s moment of self-sacrifice demonstrated how little he cares for HIMSELF, or anything other than Blitzo. To the point where his first response was to throw away everything, including his LIFE, and his DAUGHTER, to keep Blitzo safe.

[theshepherdshound]

9, 11, & 40 for the narinder ask thing if you don’t mind :)

tbh i will always talk about blorbo so all good- he's on microwave in my brain even if i can't write about him and the lamb rn

9. Do you have headcanons about who his witnesses or ‘bosses’ would be pre-exile? If so, who are they?

in all honestly i haven't put too much thought into it no, so instead here is a bunch of narinder pre-entrapment, post narrative spoiler, while lucid while i think on it

he did find the tail on the robe a bit excessive (and really he should have a veil but it is super annoying to draw and not make his face disappear) but the simplest answer is just that to me it is likely given his providence that he would've needed any given that the only way someone might find him unattended he'd be in the void and they'd be dead anyways and any mortal who touched him would die so what would've been the point really? it's not like they'd be able to spend time with him or the void or be near him for any extended period of time it's not like mortals are people anyways

11. How did Narinder feel about his priests, witnesses, and followers?

who?

(really he does have many feelings about it but why he has many feelings about it is narratively relevant, but He Does Not Feel Great About It and would really rather it went back to the way things were before) but- given he can experience 4D (and often it is unwillingly) it is mostly kind of hard to think of them as anything more than kind of a mass of colours and emotions in multiple moments in time. who the might've been or could be and never were- looking at an individual as someone you were taught to never see and struggled with to begin with kind of explode into all possibilities makes it best not to think on them it's not like mortals are people anyways- right?

40. What is his biggest struggle after being spared? Fitting in with the cult? Seeing the lamb’s face daily? Chronic pain?

his hands don't work as well and often can't do fine tasks- which when i was going through this questions was one i was like MMMM because i get to talk about one of my favourite thoughts around the motif of survival and narinder cats are prey they're hunters too of course, but there's also something interesting to me about an animal characterisation that is both predator and prey; that cats exist in this kind of between space of fight or flight. and it really depends on the situation what they choose to do! but most tend to attack when backed into a corner narinder was most certainly backed into a lot of corners all of the bishops are prey animals that are in some way potentially dangerous- small things that fight to survive and sometimes win. leshy is the most of a stretch here- but there are worms that are predators SO i stand by it but now he can't- he lost enough dexterity that on a bad day he cannot defend himself. and what do you do when everything you are is built on that concept; surviving at all expense, no matter what, taking down every obstacle that stood between you and the safety of yourself and those you care about?

what does he have now? what is there after being the one that survived? and having done so to have lost your last defense? in some regards i don't think that struggle stops, that fear is so deeply baked into his loose concept of self that there isn't really a way of dealing with it beyond management it is a huge part of what makes him kind of a wet paper bag of a person- he's essentially just managing to not have a panic attack most of the time

he's so silly WHEEEE

[olderthannetfic]

sorry it didn't entirely occur to me that race play wasn't inherently racist. Guess I literally should've just googled that to see, flew over my head. Wasn't intending to be bait or whatever, I was genuinely confused what goes too far in fiction or not, since you could write practically anything including immoral stuff. It was hard to wrap my head around and entirely forgot POC could write stuff that would be considered racist if a white person did it. My bad I understand the reasoning now. Again sorry was genuinely just curious cuz I'm not a "professional" in what's right or not (I usually follow the majority to determine what's right, I'm a sheep, my biggest fear is to be offensive in any way so I try to listen to people who know their stuff and follow), terms and complicated words (at least complicated to me) tend to go over my head. Perhaps I should've used a tonetag to show I was being genuine in my response and meant to be curious and not to harm. I apologize sorry for making you mad have a nice day/night afternoon :) I really appreciate the work you put in this blog, it's very informational for me

--

Oh god. You're in earnest? Well, in that case, you were doing a pitch-perfect imitation of the people you've been reading, and those people are annoying.

--

It's fiction. Who cares what's in it?

The thing that makes it matter is how the fiction is disseminated and the whole context around it. For example, media aimed at young children is held to higher standards because four-year-olds often aren't that competent at telling fiction from reality or understanding that depiction isn't endorsement.

Mainstream US TV shows have millions of viewers. If they reinforce mainstream unconscious prejudices, that tends to encourage the audience to continue unchecked in those beliefs.

Weird niche porn or fanfic on AO3 have tiny audiences, often deal with things that are already contentious, and are labeled as non-mainstream in the first place by their very nature.

"But what if people write immoral fiction?" is itself an unethical position. It is the domain of the religious right, radfems, and other assholes who believe in thought crimes.

Yes, sheep do follow these people. This is an unethical behavior, but it is common.

The tyranny of the majority is not a good thing. The fact that a large number of people on social media say that such-and-such makes them feel gross is not an excuse for them to tell a smaller group with "gross" tastes what they're allowed to do in their own circles. Lots of people are horny over weird shit. This is fine.

The fear of ever offending anyone is a prison that will cause you to make bad choices.

Genuine harm is bad, but lots of people are offended at the drop of a hat. Yes, this goes for nonwhite people too, and it definitely goes for idiots white knighting in fandom spaces and going "You can't write X about characters of color! You can't write Y! Everything is problematic!"

As has been discussed on here many times, a lot of fans, including nonwhite fans, find that kind of behavior stifling to the point where they can't write about those characters at all. The response is often a huffy "Well, they shouldn't feel like that." But they do feel like that. It's not on purpose. Most people feel like that, to be honest. Living in a fishbowl has a chilling effect on art just like being afraid of offending paralyzes you yourself.

Offensiveness is highly dependent on context. Not only will it vary with your cultural background, but a great writer can handle material and make it feel nuanced, while a crummy writer will fall flat on their face with the same material.

If we are too precious about "Nobody should ever offend anyone", we're calling for all fans to publicly disclose their demographic and for all fans to be extremely skilled. Pity the poor, dumb teenager who just wants to write about their black blorbos because they are black themselves... and a shitty writer... who likes sex pollen.

If you look again, you will notice that a lot of fandom drama around offensiveness boils down to "You have a rape kink and that's not okay".

The bottom line, anon, is that fandom has a bullying problem. The internet has a bullying problem. People who are too scared to have their own stance on what's offensive or what's correct behavior are easily weaponized in bullying campaigns. This is the problem with being a sheep. You'll reblog shit saying "Well, I'm not sure, but this sounds important..." and then it turns out to be a smear campaign. Or maybe you personally won't do that, but you will stay silent when you should speak out.

Doing the right thing often involves offending people.

Look, anon, I've been canceled before for supposedly being "fandom's worst racist", and yet there are a bunch of fans of color in my comments section because they're tired of prissy jackasses who won't ever expose themselves by having an opinion, think it's more important to never be wrong than to have a conversation and risk changing their minds, who think only one very specific, very American, and very era/platform/fandom-specific standard is okay, and who hate on kinky fanfic day in and day out.

--

To interact with other humans is to risk offending someone. Yes, I think it's on all of us to at least recognize extremely blatant racist stereotypes, but that doesn't mean agreeing with every single moron who walks up and goes "I had a yucky feeling, and now that's your problem."

A lot of this pearl clutching makes one think of that line from Cold Comfort Farm:

"I saw something nasty in the woodshed!"

The matriarch of the family took to her bed years ago, claiming to have been prostrated by the sight of some unnamed horror (in context, probably people fucking). For years, she has used this supposed ~harm~ to bully and control the rest of the family.

Fandom is also full of this behavior lately. "Other people's fiction made me shake and cry!!!" is not actual harm. It is, at best, people who are genuinely upset but who need to take it up with a mental health professional. Very often, however, it is shitty, manipulative, abusive behavior that is entirely intentional. Do not fall for it.

Some people are just children and need to be told "No."

[germesthegenie]

Actually had most of this done for a while but wanted to wait until I finished Arc 7 and had time to type out all of my thoughts, which can be found below

Settling into a rhythm of doing 2 arcs per one of these post

Arc 6

Nice to see the Undersiders in action again + Vista

Will say Victoria’s fights, while still good and interesting in things like Aura and the careful use of the Wretch, doesn’t have the same variety and fun stuff as Skitter. I do get that it’s kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Taylor’s “How do I use my ‘weak’ power (her words not mine) to take down this stronger foe?”, instead being more of a World of Cardboard situation with less control / mental stability. Tradeoffs I suppose, there will probably be some stuff to help it shine in its own right (Victoria’s internal monologue after accidentally hitting someone too hard with the Wretch in 6.4 was good)

That said, the rest of the team has a lot of fun stuff going on with how they can use their powers. Kenzie even got to drone strike Mama Mathers, which is perhaps the funniest way for that fight to be resolved

The fight with Cradle and Operator Red was neat. I mean, not for Rain, but at least that meant we got to see Scapegoat again- oh hes Fallen? Huh.

I like Chicken Little, even with just the bit we see. Lets hope third times the charm, Lisa.

Super Magic Dream Parade is… certainly something. Might go into the “niche characters to draw” pile

I like the subversion of what they thought was gonna be them destroying the portals and instead expanding them. The separation of humanity to different Earths felt like more of a backdrop/flavor so far, hoping this means we get to see more of the variance between the worlds

Arc 7

What felt like 3 arcs in a trenchcoat, this one took a long while to get through (partially because of school starting up again midway through)

I like the little mini trials as a sort of epilogue to the past 2 arcs in what is for the most part a transition period before I assume is the next big event with the group behind the portal attacks. Nice little moments for Rain.

Yamada’s missing after the portal incident? Damn that sucks hope they can mamage without her- RILEYS MISSING TOO WE GOTTA GET THEM BACK

Jokes and blorbos aside, those two being missing are pretty bad for a lot of reasons, both within and outside Breakthrough

Victoria’s meeting with the other therapist was rough, though for understandable reasons. Never really thought of the implications before on her being potentially Ship of Theseus’d from stray cats

Victoria getting to see a bit more of the ugliness going on in Breakthrough, starting with Chris lashing out. Completely reasonable for him to, but damn went right for the gut with the Amy mentions

Speaking of things tied to Amy, hi Marquis! I just drew you! I can’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or he just did the equivalent of accidentally hitting every negative dialogue option but damn

A lot of buildup towards what I can only assume to be Teacher’s Cauldron making a play, especially with the Nieves interlude. Not sure what his goal could be supporting an anti-parahuman movement, other than ig weakening his main enemies in Citrine and Tattletale.

Eclipse

As someone whose first experience with Worm was making a character who was a former Boston Ward, I was excited for an arc that was at least in part all about Boston

Ashley’s trigger is tragic. I had a feeling any trigger involving pure destructive power like that was either bad leading up to the event or in the direct aftermath, and that was both.

Interesting to see how many different players there were in the Boston Games, as well as the more familiar faces like Accord and Blasto. I liked the bits of their dynamic and personality in Worm, and was glad to see more of that and how their rivalry started here.

Look. I still hate Carol. But I can’t lie, some of her lines during New Wave’s fight with Damsel were kinda cool. Now just keep that kinda cold energy for villains and not, y’know, your daughters.

Poor original Damsel, fought like hell against heroes, villains, and her own powers half the time, and didn’t even get a seat at the table. Not to mentioned played from the start by J. Maybe. Never did get confirmation he was actually a spy iirc.

Oh hi Jack! And yay Riley! Nice little tie in back into the Worm timeline. Well, nice for us, horrific for Ashley. Again, poor original Damsel.

Also intro to the other Ashley clone, neat! Also interesting stuff at the end with the mystery memory.

Kenzie Interlude (bc this also deserves a whole section)

irl was doing some labwork and decided to put this behemoth of an interlude on the audiobook to listen to in the background and that was a wild experience

The dinner was just painful to listen to. The way the parents were more focused on themselves or how things looked vs their daughter literally bleeding… like I wanna say it bordered on over the top but like with the bullying in Worm this kind of stuff and worse does happen. Glad she got out of that… right?

The little callback to Victoria doing the whole crisis point thing in Arc 2 was nice, though

Everything was going so well with the foster parents and then… that. Honestly didn’t fully get it at first until reading the comments on the website and… yeah. It’s not her fault, she was 8, she was traumatized and afraid of being separated from them and then the poorly worded search. Keith could’ve handled things better but it was also traumatizing on his end. Just an awful situation overall.

How does it keep getting worse

I’m gonna be real I went into this thinking the parents were gonna be robots or holograms with AI like she had in Glow Worm and it was gonna be sad as like a pretend of what should’ve been but… no I could not have predicted any of what was actually going on whatsoever.

Gonna need to remember to not draw Kenzie smiling if shes meant to be happy damn

[cripplecharacters]

I know we (disabled people) aren't a monolith and all that, we'll all have different opinions on what is and is not offensive, but I want to ask if you can explain your opinion on cosplaying a disabled character a little more, because I don't really understand how portraying a character accurately, disabilities included within reason, would be offensive. I could see the use of an aid that other people could be actually making use of being harmful, and I can see not treating the disability in a respectful manner by making a joke of them being harmful, but as far as the inclusion of scar to cosplay a canonically scarred character goes, I feel like excluding them seems more offensive to me, it feels like erasure of the character's disability. If for example someone cosplayed a character I made that I was using to portray my own disabilities, and the cosplayer didn't include those disabilities when they could do so, I'd find that really insulting and hurtful. I guess it feels like too nuanced of a topic for a blanket This Is Good or This Is Bad answer if that makes sense? Sorry if this comes across as antagonistic or hostile, I'm not trying to pick a fight, I just want to understand your perspective.

Hey, I'm fully aware that there are a lot of opinions going either way (from "literally everything is fine" to "abled people shouldn't cosplay disabled characters at all no matter what"). I did a longer reply about the same thing in this ask that maybe will explain some of it better. There are also opinions of other mods on this in our #cripping up tag.

I don't consider not including a character's disability in cosplay as erasure, since to me it's just dressing up as a character with your own body and all. I think everyone should be able to cosplay everyone regardless of what their "factory settings" are, just don't pretend to be a minority that you aren't a part of in your normal life. I see pretending to have a disability for "character accuracy" as more offensive, your canvas for cosplay is yourself and if you don't have that disability then you just don't and that's completely fine. For the sake of not being accidentally insensitive I won't be making comparisons to other kinds of "pretending to be a minority for cosplay", especially since most other examples would be much worse anyway. To me, this whole practice is just... unnecessary. Work with what you have the same way disabled cosplayers shouldn't cover their disabilities when cosplaying abled characters.

I see your example of a potential cosplayer not including the disability in a character that you have made. I make disabled characters too, a lot of them even (probably granted for a mod on this blog). Some of them share my disabilities. And I think that we just have fundamentally different opinions because I'd vastly prefer for someone without my disability to just omit it rather than pretend parts of their face don't move or aren't symmetric. It'd feel like mockery to me, I don't want anyone to pretend to have a facial difference for any reason. If someone tried to dress up as literally me, I'd have the same opinion - do the clothes and goatee, but leave my gait disorder and half-moving mouth out of this. Obviously these things are part of my identity to an extent, and they make me who I am, but pretending to have them to imitate me feels more akin to bullying than authenticity. To be clear I get why you have that opinion, I just feel completely differently about it. And I don't think either of us is wrong or not wrong, it's just a different view of the same thing.

At the end of the day though I don't really care about how people cosplay their blorbos if all they do is dress up and take some photos like most cosplayers do. I just answer questions when directly asked rather than go out of my way to talk about this since in comparison to a lot of other issues this doesn't have big enough of an impact on me to be too bothered by it (if I had to do a list of ableist things I'm annoyed by I can't imagine a world where cosplay would make the list). I'm guessing that most askers don't know any handy person with an FD they can ask that so they come here, and I try to be helpful to the best of my ability.

I think the smartest thing a person can do is read a few opinions of different people and make a decision for themself. There is no one convenient consensus to follow (that I know of?), so it is what it is. If there is a potential cosplayer who is reading this ask and thinks that the asker's opinion makes more sense to them, then that's what they should probably do. The only thing I insist on is that they have fun cosplaying (rather than stressing over what person on the internet is right) because otherwise what's the point...

What I do consider important personally is the original thing I brought up, which is how abled people use facial difference as a costume in order to scare or disgust others. That is insensitive, offensive, and always in poor taste, it spreads misinformation about visibly disabled people and creates a negative image about a whole group of people, a lot of whom dread this time of the year (as mentioned in the article). Talking about this is in my opinion way more important than any Comic Con cosplay of a fictional character will ever be or has ever been, which probably influences my opinion on cosplay. When I think "fake facial differences", I'm reminded of horror villains with make-up that tries and fails to imitate how visibly disabled people look like. I associate fake scars and fake burns and fake skull shapes with this problem strongly, and as you can guess I don't like it at all. I find the authenticity argument hard to believe for myself when what is usually originally portrayed is an abomination of VFX designed to make us look scary; for most of these characters there is nothing good coming out of their "FD representation" anyway. If Freddy Krueger magically started to be shown as abled I'd be glad, not mad that the character who genuinely horribly affected how people from my community are seen is no longer doing that.

This might be a radical take, but most existing characters with facial differences literally shouldn't have them. The way they are portrayed shapes how people are seen for the worse and if I had a "disability erasure" button for all the Scars and Voldemorts out there I'd make them as abled as possible.

Is this how all people with facial differences feel? I don't think I can go and ask each of them but definitely no, it's just the opinion of A Guy on the Internet (many such cases!) and rather than anything else I just want to share my view on stuff, so askers can hopefully make a more informed decision - whether that's writing, drawing, cosplay, etc. If someone reads my take and decides that they want to do the opposite, at least they have a bit of context on how some people might feel about it, and I think that's still valuable.

This is my opinion on this and I hope this clears it up more,

mod Sasza

[danmeichael]

Can u talk about why JC is your fave

jiang cheng was not my favorite character for a long time. specifically, i actively disliked him when i first watched the donghua.

a turning point, funny enough, was actually the scene in the donghua where he chokes wwx. which i think says a lot about me... much like that scene says a lot about jc.

that was a scene that really humanized jc for me and showcased really clearly what he was in that moment. a lost child, a helpless child desperately vying for any amount of control through violence and lashing out at those around him because of it.

i like when characters do that -- when they hurt the people around them in moments of weakness without really meaning it.

you know when a character asks a loved one to run an errand for them, and something terrible happens while they're running that errand? maybe their loved one gets into a car accident and dies, for example. and instead of blaming the conditions on the road that caused that, the other driver in the accident, the hospital for not saving them, they think "if only i hadn't asked them to go out?"

it's because it's smaller. it's easier to conceptualize that blame, it's easier to grasp guilt or to place fault on a single, knowable entity.

reality isn't like that. there is no one singular point of fault. it's not their fault, not really. but a single point of failure is easier to conceptualize, to cope with, more satisfying in the moment than "sometimes things just happen"

jiang cheng doesn't hate wei wuxian, he isn't really mad at wei wuxian for saving lan wangji. or rather, he won't be when he's calm or in hindsight.

but he needs something manageable to be angry at. he needs something smaller, some neat, easy solution this all stems from that he could say "this wouldn't have happened, if--"

he doesn't really blame wwx. but in addition to... everything, wwx is also the one stopping him in that moment from doing the thing he could do to, his monkey brain thinks, exert control and make it hurt less.

this is wwx's fault. this is wwx's fault, because he saved lan wangji, because he wouldn't let him go back to try to save his parents, because he wouldn't let him try to get revenge. but it's not, really. and deep down, he knows that. he knows the wens would have come for them eventually whether wwx saved lwj or not. he knows he could not have saved his parents. he knows that he would have died trying to get revenge and left jyl and wwx alone. he knows there's nothing he, or wei wuxian could have done.

but being out of control while you're in pain is scary. so he lashes out. because he can control being mad. because he can hurt wei wuxian. because he needs something, anything in that moment to feel like he isn't spinning out and about to crash.

i think that violent ugliness in response to his own suffering is compelling.

that sort of added onto the endless "what if" pursuit common of fandom, after finishing the novel and finding that jc and wwx were still estranged. logically, that was the best possible ending. them suddenly getting along at the end of the book for a happy ending wouldn't have made sense for either of their characters. them making up in a way i found satisfying would have taken another 2 english volumes and circumstances i can't even imagine, and mxtx might not have even written it in a way that i found satisfying even under the theoretical that she did devote an entire additional novel to making it happen.

but that ambiguous, unwritten, theoretical making up that exists in my minds eye haunts me.

even after all that, i still didn't *like* jc. he was compelling, i appreciated him as a mechanism in the narrative, but he wasn't my blorbo. i didn't *like* him in the way i *like* other favorite characters.

no, no. the real catalyst is that nobody who dislikes jiang cheng dislikes him for the right reasons and it pissed me off so bad that i became protective over him.

there's plenty of good reasons to hate jiang cheng but you're just MAKING UP ONES that DO NOT EXIST and IGNORING ALL OF HIS INTERESTING CHARACTER WRITING.

what do you MEAN he doesn't love his brother?! what do you MEAN he only warmed to jyl's marriage because he came to see her as a political pawn and didn't actually love her either?! what do you MEAN he should have just been GRATEFUL that wwx surgically placed his entire fucking martyr complex into jc's body while ACTIVELY LYING TO HIM ABOUT IT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S A MISOGYNIST? WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S *COLORIST*????? AM I FUCKING LOSING IT????????? DID I READ A DIFFERENT FUCKING BOOK??????????????

being so pissed off by incorrect analysis of his character made me think about him as a character, his nuances, his relationships with his family and his position of power.

there's no specific trait or scene or thing about him that makes him my favorite. he's just a good shape. he clicks into my brain in a good way.

[quinloki]

Kink Headcanon request: Spanking, Roleplay, and CNC for Rayleigh, Beckman, and Marco please

>.>

okay but Marco sandwiched between--

AHEM.

This is a great collection of blorbos and kinks, and before my mind goes down a rabbit hole, I should probably work toward focusing on the actual kinks XD

Benn Beckman:

CNC - Yes- Free Use might rank a little higher for him, but not by much honestly. He enjoys the consent. I mean, well, you know what I mean, but specifically he likes having you ask for it. He likes asking, or telling you that he's going to do something and have you agree.

He could probably get it with CNC or Free Use, making you agree even though you don't have a say, but that's not really what he's after. Even if you do say no, he's not going to take the first no as gospel. He won't do anything until he gets that yes, but he's not negatively coercive about it.

He'll just plead his case, explain in detail exactly what he means to do, and how you'll react, and well, I mean, maybe the CNC has its uses if you're nervous.

Roleplay - Yes - He's not against it, but for the most part I feel like time can be of the essence for this man. He's got ample enough down time to take care of you, but you never know when there's going to be a battle. When his captain's going to come calling for him, or when one of the crew is going to knock on the door.

He's more than happy to play at interrogation, or let you pretend to be a maid and serve him, but what he really wants is to buried deep inside you, telling you how good you are, how good you feel, how much you've begged him for this.

Spanking - Yes - He does love the way it makes you squirm. the sharp gasp of surprise, the sweet mewl of pleasure, the way you wiggle when it starts to sting, the way you cling to him when he squeezes your red cheeks with his hands.

He certainly has nothing against it, that much is clear. He'll pepper it in between other things, but unless he's using it as a kind of punishment, it's not something he does often.

>.> Ask him to spank you though, and watch that tanking tick up a notch or two.

Marco:

CNC - FUCK Yes - There's a good bit of overlap between Free Use and Consensual Non Consent, but there's definitely a difference in vibes. At least from my perspective, and I think from Marco's too.

Enough that Free Use is a rank higher than CNC, though if you start taking different Marcos into consideration it would waffle a bit XD but Free Use sounds like something you volunteer for, and CNC is something you're volunteered for. (I'm sure others see it in the other directions because things that overlap this much can have very personally variable nuances.)

But I'll say - Good Marco isn't too different between Free Use and CNC, though he might be a little meaner with CNC, reminding you that you conceded your right to consent.

BAD Marco, however, might be all smooth and gentle with a Free Use agreement, "reluctantly" listening when you ask him not to. But with CNC he's going to have you so tied up you won't be able to ask him anything.

Roleplay - FUCK Yes - Ranked a little lower when it came to Teacher/Doctor specifically, but I do think Marco likes the idea of roleplay overall. He might get hung up on some of the details, but he's more than happy to indulge in it.

He does need some time to really get into it. The first time you can see that usual confidence slip a little. Maybe he's the big bad pirate, and you're the poor, helpless marine recruit. Maybe after a few tries he's the corrupt Marine Captain, and you're the poor helpless little villager. This time there's outfits, and he's wearing the cape he took off a captain or admiral.

Role Playing certainly awakens Marco to how fun it is to bully you.

Spanking - FUCK Yes - I think he's fairly neutral about it until he lands a good slap on your ass and you make a sound you did not mean to make. You both expected a squeak of surprise, and instead it was one of those kinds of moans that rolls around in your bones and makes your back arch involuntarily.

Next thing you know he has you over his knee, legs locked with his, one hand at the back of your neck holding you in place and the rubbing your ass cheeks while he's telling you that he needs to see exactly how much you enjoy this.

For science. Nah, he's not going to lie, he's doing this until he knows how to bring you pleasure or pain exactly as he wants. Maybe you'll cum from it if he gets good enough.

Silvers Rayleigh:

CNC - Yes - Rayleigh is the kind to check in once and probably not worry about it after that. Between his experience and his skills, he can pretty much guide you to where he wants you. That makes something like CNC or Free Use not all that different from how he operates.

But if you talk to him about doing either beyond just a session, he's happy to oblige. The way he'll rut against you from behind, holding you in place with one hand, kissing your neck with his lips, and fingering you with his other hand. Bringing you to orgasm while you've got dishes in your hands from the chores you were in the middle of, and once you're satisfied he'll go back to what he was doing before.

If he desires more, he'll take more, and probably take over doing the dishes if he's railed the life out of you. He's a good guy like that XD

Roleplay - Oh god you don't even know - He's probably pretended to be all manner of things that weren't pirates, spending years by Roger's side. He probably had a good number of jobs before he even met Roger, and more after he retired. And the jobs he hasn't worked I imagine he knows a lot about.

He'll be a marine, a teacher, doctor, captain, etc. etc. He's more than happy to oblige. You won't get him to break character either. The one time he played a priest, you ended up spending the entire day completely nude in penance for your naughty thoughts. Sitting on his face while you tried to get through prayers without cumming certainly off set him making you pull weeds in the garden for an hour, swatting your ass when he felt like it.

Spanking - Yes - Oh he is good at it, don't doubt that, but it's just a little lower on the list for him over other things. He'll pepper a swat in here and there as he does other things. A sharp slap on your ass to get you to focus, a precise smack of your pretty pussy to push you over the edge despite your babbling that you can't possibly cum anymore.

He may, on occasion, bend you over his knee and give you a full and proper spanking, but he's more likely to spend more time fingering you while you're in that position. Forcing you to squirt while you're bent over, or prepping your ass for the next round.

If you ask him nicely, however, and you've been good for him, he'll spank you until you're crying for him to stop.

How May I Kink Your Head Canon?

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

For some time I thought about if I should post anything, but I decided to do so in case anyone else needs it (because I have been a tiny bit burnt out for the past year or so):

Your hobbies are supposed to bring you joy. Don't let it become a job; a "responsibility". You don't have to be "on" every day

Chances are that there will be someone who keeps bugging you even after politely telling them that you're not interested or that "you might consider it" or something along those lines. (This is how I ended up doing some role-playing for a fandom I was not interested in, in my dms) Some people will keep expecting things from you, while ignoring your boundaries. Don't let them (aka block; they might call you "mean" or "rude", but you're not)

You can't cater to everyone, so it's better to have your group of friends, along with some friendly acquaintances with whom you can make the best of your fandom experience

A block isn't a reflection of morality or "badness", especially on algorithm based mediums or Discord (tip: if you're in a larger public server with someone who overwhelms you or annoys you, blocking them will hide their messages from you. It's like being able to be in the same club house without forcing yourself to engage with someone) Yes on Tumblr you can always unfollow, but you can still see their posts in the tags. Cater to your experience. A block isn't a big deal (I know I have been blocked by people who don't like seeing reader insert fics in their feed/tags, and that is completely fine. And I have probably been blocked for other reasons as well. It's not a big deal)

Promote things you want to see, create things you want to see, and enjoy the process

Publishing that Work/Art/Fic is scary, but that is the only way to get it out there (and if you're worried about "not being 'good enough'" whatever that might mean, remember that you have to start somewhere. I started with sentences that were all over the place, and just last year got a comment about having good grammar; after 3-4 years of writing in a foreign language)

Be cringe. Be free. Do things you enjoy! Pet a dog, go for a walk, draw that oc or blorbo or both or daydream about them. The world is bleak rn, but you have to try and find enjoyment from little things. You can't give from an empty basket, so if you're spent all the time, being there for those you care about becomes impossible somewhere down the line. "You have to take care of yourself, in order to care for others." Stop to breathe

More often than not, you just existing and enjoying life brings a kind of stability and enjoyment to others. I think about this one time in high school chemistry class, where I was knitting (yes Chemistry, don't ask), and this one girl came up to me afterwards and said something along the lines of "I was feeling a lot of anxiety in class, and then I saw you knitting, and I went 'okay, [she]'s knitting, it's going to be okay'". I still to this day don't really know why that was, but it did tell me a thing: people around you, especially those who seek you out, follow you on social media, ask you out just to hang, they like having you around. And to these people, you existing as you are, including taking a step back when you need it, you are valuable as you are

[majorproblems77]

Hello LU fans! I'm back with another LU update analysis! :D

Are you ready cause there's so much to unpack I'm gonna be here a while. Like last time I'm gonna put a timer on lmao, see how long this takes me.

As always grab your popcorn and drink of choice, cause we need hydration in this life.

all art belongs to @linkeduniverse and Jojo, and if I pull panels from any other pages I'll let you know where it's from! :D

Obviously spoilers for Dawn 8 :D

And a note, I've not played TP or WW, you'll see why thats important later.

Let us begin, shall we!

Man, Poor wild, he's probably beating himself up like there's no tomorrow right now. He looks HORIFIED.

Probably because in technicality, he failed.

I love how he's holding his sword here too. Kinda acting as a shield to the conversation.

Same expression as wild. He also looks horrified. Infact the resemblance between these two in uncanny.

Man time really is the dad isnt he. Unimpressed dad look at 12'oclock. Jokes aside he doesn't look angry about it. He looks like he now gathering information from those who finished the fight. As we know once he left with Twilight he was the only other one to not make it back to the fight.

Thats a fair sentence, thinking about it, I think the only other game where Iron Knuckles appear is in one of Hyrule's games? I'm surprised he's not mentioned anything about it.

Most of the others do have armoured enemies though. So while the others dont have direct experience I assume they have the basics.

All but, Sky and Wars None of them fight armoured enemies like that in their games.

I assume because he's defeated this thing like it was a guardian (Stasis and then wailing on it cause that's what i would do lmao) He assumed it was defeated when it exploded into pieces. Like guardians are prone to do. tbh he was probably gonna go back to look for loot at some point.

You tell them Wind. The small hero, underestimated by everyone BUT Time. Was correct thank you.

Justice for the windy boy.

God Wild really is beating himself up about this. I love the fact that we see four's reaction to this statement. As to be honest. Over the last few nights, Four and Wild have had plenty of bonding moments. These guys are gonna become best friends.

And now we get Time.

The way he's looking over these panels. That look. He know's he's the leader of this group but something that Time isn't used to is making Permanent mistakes.

He has the Ocarina of Time, and when he was back in Termina every time something went wrong he could just play the song of Time and restart the three-day cycle with no trouble at all.

Time, as a person. Isnt technically used to failing.

This panel is stunning. It's what I assume is going on inside his head. It's so pretty. It's so detailed it's just oh man easily one of my favourite panels.

now you know i had to talk about panels with my beloved blorbo in.

first off he's so pretty. Jojo has really outdone herself with just how amazing these updates have looked. The lighting the shading its all just so incredible.

The first half of this panel with Sky's face. He, He is beating himself up about the injury. He had nothing to do with it but he cares so much about the rest of the group he feels bad. He kinda looks like he's thinking about it. Like he can see it. Like time did but we dont see inside Sky's head.

Makes me think about what exactly he saw.

And Twilight's face, he looks so sad. His little pout. Poor wolf boy, which we can now call you properly as the rest of them know now.

And to be honest I'm glad he's standing his ground. Mr, My injury isn't that bad before falling over. the stubborn ranch hand strikes again.

The parallels from this frame and the one from later have been mentioned elsewhere but I'm just gonna post the frame here as it's turned up. Run you coward lizard. Run.

Captain link is back. Poor warriors, he's still showing signs of being stressed. He's one of the only one's who hasn't been able to rest over the downtime that they've had. He's been busy being in charge of the group while Time was out.

I can only assume it's only a matter of time before this comes back to get him. Maybe he is next on the chopping block? (Pun kinda intended) Something could happen and he messes up and gets hurt of causes someone to get hurt.

oh and also

THE SCARF

THE SCARF THE SCARF

IT HAS RETURNED ALL HAIL THE BLUE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BLANKET WARRIORS NEEDED YOU.

None of us did, Hyrule.

The boys ever, I'm glad they are talking about this like this. And that it's legend who's starting to throw ideas out there like this. As the one who's got the most experience in the group, it makes sense that he would be the one to start offering ideas as to Why not just how.

Because you pissed it off Sky. Because half of you pissed it off. In fact I do believe he had a bunch of panels in Shifting Shadows pt2 where you indeed pissed it off.

The entire reason it started running from you and Twilight had to track it was because of FI's reaction to his sword.

Wait... that explains the guilt. It is actually potentially Sky's fault. Or if he's anything like I think he is. He remembers that fight with the shadow and knows.

He knows.

Also, with clenched fist Sky is ready for a fight. Next time the shadow turns up I assume he's gonna go after it when it's inevitablebly goes after Twilight/Wild. Maybe he'll jump in after being told not too because the Master sword appears to be the only thing as of right now that can fight the red stuff that comes off the shadows sword.

did you hear Warriors shiver? I did.

And you'd know all about that wouldn't you Four. :D

Also

Mandatory Sky appreciation picture

Him's my beloved blorbo. He's wonderful. Such a lil guy. Bestest bean. My beloved. /pl

Anyway moving on

Oh yeah, the amount of power that the items list contains We've seen the arsenal that they have between them (in the December art).

We saw what just Time could do.

Now add the rest of them and the enemies dont stand a chance. They've just gotta figure out how to either avoid the weapons of each other or work as a team with the arsenal in hand to fight better.

Like imagine if Twilight used his gale boomerang to send Wild into the air.

(Writer brain go brr, gonna write that down)

It's basically Revalis Gale.

This man is so damn dramatic I love him

And here's the parallel frame

the shadow running towards Warriors vs running away from Twilight.

You know thinking about it... Shadow didn't shapeshift until Twilight did. The push towards Warriors was when shadow thought they were on level footing.

But when Twilight went after Dink, he was the one who had to flee because he lost his advantage.

ANGRY SKY ANGRY SKY ANGRY SKY

The man is pissed that Shadow hurt Twilight. He is so damn mad and I think that he is saying what he would assume Fi would. (With more emotion because well, Fi)

Also that last frame.

TIME AND SKY ANGST ON THE HORIZON?

time is looking towards the master sword. And he looks angry. This will absolutely have gone unnoticed by the others because if they saw he was angry it was probably just because of the conversation topic.

god I love the dynamic here and I'm excited to see if it goes anywhere

Him's I love his simple way of agreeing its wonderful.

I approve to wind let's go blow some stuff up!

Hyrule shows the group why he is called the traveller. The man just wants to go on his adventures let him go!

Sky is so proud of himself

this face says 'Look guys I didn't give it to the weird toilet hand! :D'

I love this man a healthy amount.

One last thing before I go

I love this update as a whole, seeing the group gear up and getting to see the layers of the armour and straps and fastenings being put on while they are having this discussion is amazing.

I'd give you a collection of pictures but Tumblr is being rude and I can't post more than 30. So you can have these as all four panels show what I'm talking about.

Twilight adjusting his gauntlets warriors adjusting his scarf.

Hyrule attaching his shield to his back and putting his sword strap on.

God, I love this update so much. It was amazing and I very much enjoyed it. Let me know what you think! :D

Thank you as ever for reading my rambles i appreciate you :D

Have a wonderful day and dont forget to hydrate! See you next time!

[smaller-comfort]

For the blorbo ask: Let's go with Resh'an and ohhh, give me your thoughts on Sephiroth. As for which questions: 1, 6, 7, 13, 14, and 24.

1. who’s the Blorbo that you’ve never posted about on your blog?

I'm trying to think if there's any secret deep lore blorbo to unlock here, but I do periodically froth at the mouth about the Imperial Radch and Locked Tomb characters that I love. There's the Active Blorbo Roster and then there's all the characters sittin' on the bench in reserve, right?

And there are a lot of those- all the part 5 JJBA kids, Shanks from One Piece, Hakkai from Saiyuki, Mustadio FFTactics.

6. if you could talk to your Blorbo, what would you say to them?

I used to do a lot of 'interview the character' writing exercises when I was younger, but it's not really something that jives with my brain these days. So the boring answer is, I wouldn't say anything. I'm a bad conversationalist.

The *funny* answer- okay, so you remember the era of geocities websites with goofy "under construction" gifs and entire pages dedicated to script-style interactions between the site owner and their favorite characters, right. I had one of those. It was where I posted my multichaptered mary sue self insert oc/Sephiroth fanfic. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called- no, wait, fuck, the title was "To Shed a Tear" holy shit I wish I hadn't remembered that-the oc was Rufus' sister and a member of the Turks, and look, it was 1998, I had to teach myself html somehow-

Uh. Anyway. So, ultimately, I would probably be apologizing to Sephiroth for all of that, and then maybe just asking for a swift death or something, idk.

I'd have nothing to say to Resh'an because in the ARG he's explicitly stated that he doesn't want to talk about his personal life with the rest of us, and I would attempt tobrespect that boundary. (Really, most of what I might say would probably get me banned from the Sabotage discord.) (I'd probably have to apologize to him for all the fanfic, too. *cough*)

7. what’s the one thing the fandom gets wrong about your Blorbo?

Sephiroth was not involved in some kind of well adjusted five person SOLDIER polycule pileup before the Nibelheim incident. That man has never looked at another human being and experienced a sexual thought in his *life*.

(This does not prevent him from walking Zack on a leash when the occasion calls for it, but like. That's just being a responsible friend. Sometimes Angeal is busy.)

I'm open to a lot of different interpretations of Resh'an right now- the fandom is so small, I'll take whatever I can get and be happy about it, honestly. I'm sure there are people who think *I'm* the one getting him wrong, though, and on some level this idea pleases me in the blackened, contrarian corners of my soul. Sorry, I've taken your mysterious mentor character with a tragic past and turned him into a sopping wet rag with erectile dysfunction. (I'm not that sorry.) (technically it's not ED it's anorgasmia *is shot*)

13. is there any crime, any wrongdoing your Blorbo could commit that would make you stop loving them and remove them from your hyperfixation entirely?

me, sitting on the front porch, sipping a shitty cocktail while watching Meteor about to obliterate the solar system: ...nah.

This kind of gets into like...Doylist/Watsonian characterization, right? The character is just going to do what they're written to do. So is there anything Square Enix could do to make Sephiroth stop being my blorbo? I guess they already did Crisis Core so like...It really doesn't get much worse than that. (I say this, but I haven't finished Rebirth! I am only vaguely aware of the major plot divergence stuff.)

All that said...Squeenix can't take the OG away from me. I'm stuck with the general background radiation of the Compilation, but the things that made me love the game, and the experience of playing it as a child, are always going to be mine. My particular take on Sephiroth exists largely independent of canon and the current fandom at this point.

For Resh'an- let him war criminal even harder! XD

Really, though, I'm steeling myself for inevitable disappointment around his canon backstory and the ultimate resolution of the story. This is not meant to be any shade on Thierry Boulanger's storytelling skills- but being part of the fandom for an ongoing story is always a unique experience, and it tends to leave you with complicated feelings towards the actual conclusion of the story, no matter how good it ends up being.

But if he and Aephorul turn out to be stereotypical anime rivals pre-immortality, I will be *extremely* annoyed (I say, as I write them constantly bickering and antagonizing each other). But I don't think that would even be a deal breaker for me at this point.

14. have you ever distanced yourself from your Blorbo / have you ever left a fandom because people in the fandom were being too toxic?

Maybe back when I was more active in fandom in general? My memory is too fucky to answer this properly, I think; I know there absolutely were people in AC fandom who made me want to eat paint, but I don't think they were why I left. Most of the time when I leave a fandom, it's because I get bored or lose interest or fall into a depression hole for half a decade. (The depression hole is what makes this hard to answer. From 2018-2023 I wasn't on tumblr or fannish twitter and I wasn't really reading fanfic or "doing fandom" at all.)

I've left/avoided certain fandoms because of non-fandom interpersonal blow ups with specific people- I've had several friend groups explode messily over the years, and avoiding some of those people meant avoiding fandoms we used to share. (FFVII was briefly, tangentially one of those for me back in 2009.)

Now, I'm more likely to distance myself from a fandom if I find it annoying, honestly. I spent like ten minutes in the In Stars and Time tag and very quickly determined that it was Not For Me, and that's totally fine! It's a perfectly lively fandom, it's just not my thing. Same with Baldur's Gate and Arcane (and to a lesser extent TLT); I just get the curated content from my lovely mutuals, and if there's anything else going on, I pretend I do not see it.

24 if you could change one canonical thing about your Blorbo, what would it be?

Lemme just- *slam dunks Genesis Rhapsodos into the trash* And look! Nothing of value was lost. Nothing changes in the story that needed to be changed. The tragedy still unfolds, and it's 50% less idiotic! Angeal can stay. He's fine.

Maybe they've fixed the idiocy in Rebirth. I doubt it, though. Sephiroth's appeal initially comes partly from him being a bit of a blank slate- the players get a very limited window into who he is and what his whole deal is, and that vast *potential* is where some of the best (most unhinged) fanworks develop. The OG is very deliberate about how it treats Sephiroth as a villain- he's literally the shark from Jaws, hovering under the narrative. Twenty five years later he's one of the most recognizable video game villains in the world, so I understand *why* Remake went a different direction. But it's still a little disappointing. Sometimes leaving things vague and mysterious is good, actually!

Anyway, other than setting Genesis on fire- I don't know. Put him in one of those slutty turtlenecks with the boob window. It's what we deserve. (The serious answer- sort of- make him 2000% more body horror about the Jenova cells. Give him tentacles to go with the fucking angel wings.)

As for Resh'an- we've got three more games to go. He's sitting firmly in that sweet spot of unhinged potential; we don't know enough about his backstory yet for me to want it changed. So, really, the only change I'd make at this juncture would probably be to give the Great Eagle more tail feathers. It just *bothers* me, okay. Why are there only three.

[weirdwonderfulworld]

the podwatcher abt the april incident pissed me off so unreasonably bad sjshhshshsh. i do go to bat for these boys more than i probably need to BUT i know it's because people were so nasty to them for the wrong fuckin reasons.

the delicate way the guys approached that episode was really hard for me to listen to. just them saying over and over again that they're sorry, they lost sight of the fans... how it took this long to talk in-depth about because it weighed heavily on them, and you could hear it in their voices and see it on their faces... but also them gently explaining that they never did it out of greed—NO FUCKING DUH!!!! creatives do not continuously pour everything they have into their creations when they're looking for a quick buck.

but my god, the way so-called fans treated them like the decision wasn't, at the most, a mistake or oversight. the ways people tried to frame it as something so malicious that it warranted personal attacks. the way racist assholes scapegoated steven for everything, when all three of them accepted fault (while also noting that steven's shows are generally cheaper to make than the other's).

it's frustrating to see creators demonstrate their values and morals through the things they share with the world, and people ignore that because they're too busy feeling slighted. it's frustrating having to hear the guys explain their original vision for the channel when it was always right there for anyone to see had they used their fuckin eyes.

for me, it's not that people were sad about potentially losing something they loved—that was never my issue. but "fans" also got so mad that they found a way to ignore what made them love the content in the first place, to justify saying the cruelest, most self-righteous shit abt people who have always focused on creating an inclusive, genuine community for other freaks and weirdos and passionate creators.

i thought that community was mostly cool. but it turned out the pool i was chillin in was rampant with racist selfish asshole barracudas who don't make anything at all yet have all the opinions on how creations should be consumed. like i know watcher appreciates any and all support from fans new and old. i know they're eager to make things right and whole, and i know that's the right outlook to have. it's healthy for everyone. but personally, the spiteful, frigid cunt in me hopes the nastiest bitches don't come back to the fandom now that they can get their ~blorbos~ for free again, and feel righteous in doing so. i don't ever wanna be chill with those guys.

[multifandumbmeg]

One of most fascinating things about fanfiction is that it's fundamentally about stripping the characters down to what you believe are their core traits, and everyone has a different understanding of what those are. Yet there are also largely agreed upon understandings or trends which collectives sometimes agree upon even when there's no textual evidence (especially with characters that were originally written in a flat way or had very little time in the actual text).

There's an obsession with "accuracy" of how you write a character, when in reality we're all we're all making innumerable decisions (conscious or not) about which of the character's traits are most important for them to be recognizable, which traits would come up in this particular instance, which traits would be different IF [insert AU here]. Purpose is also a huge factor. Some people just want to recreate the character and even original text's voice as much as possible while writing a moment they didn't get to see in the main text. Some people ((calling myself out)) go way too deep with the psychology and write VASTLY different from source material AUs in which they spend countless hours considering how differently the character would be/behave under those alternature circumstances.

And then some people just really want to imagine their blorbo doing one specific thing, and if textual evidence or reasonable inference would strongly suggest character would never, who cares? Some people care a lot, I have been said person before as well, and it's tempting to just write it off as "bad writing", but you really shouldn't. For one thing, when somebody writes a goofy textpost, is that bad literature? No. Because they weren't trying to write high-brow literature. And perhaps more importantly, I would urge you to refrain from labelling (even mentally) anyone's fanfiction as "bad writing". Instead, consider what they were trying to do (really you should do that with all things you read, but the rest of these apply more to fics).

What core traits were they trying to portray?

Did OP just want to see blorbo in this random smutty circumstance?

Is this person writing in their native language? Did this person have a beta/proofreader at all? Remember that people are doing this FOR FREE and without the help of professional editors like a real piece of literature. At best we have honest friends to bounce ideas off of or point out our typos. Frankly, no one owes you the fully proofread version. I once had someone comment on one of my 100, 000 word longfics that English grammar in this chapter was a bit shaky (implying I'm not a native speaker, which is so rude to begin with), to which I replied I am a native English speaker, 100%-ed the English section of SAT, all AP English classes all A's, and I even TAUGHT English, but I often write late at night halfway delirious and I do not in fact proofread the 1,000, 5,000, or sometimes even 10,000 word chapters on these longfics before I post them DAILY. DAILY!! Appreciate that you can comprehend this garbage it all, or I'm gonna start posting in hieroglyphs.

But I digress, my point is really that collective fandom conscious and the inherent inferences and interpretations (really key word here) every fic author makes are fascinating and really represent the core skills of literacy. We should all appreciate that more.

[utilitycaster]

Regarding that ask about Essek: I find the dislike of Essek among CR3 die-hards very funny, because I do think that he had some of the most tangible complaints regarding religion vis-a-vis the theocracy of the Dynasty.

Not saying "Predathos should have eaten the Luxon" or "Ludinus was right actually", but more that there are some serious issues hinted at, I would even go so far as to say, systemic ones, tied to the Dynasty being first and foremost a theocracy, and that, while I'm firmly in the "Essek absolutely was wrong to do those things, he did those things first and foremost for his own selfish gains, and his journey throughout CR2 and supplemental appearances work SO well as a foil to Caleb's own thematic journey of coming to terms with the consequences of ones actions" camp, I do think he wasn't wrong to have seen issues with how the Dynasty works and to say "Hey, doesn't this seem just a little fucked up?"

And like...maybe part of the issue is that all of this is tied to Luxon worship and can't easily be retrofitted to also apply to "The Prime Deities are actually horrible tyrants that need to die for mortals to truely flourish" argument. And that this is, again, not actually a "God" Problem but more a "Mortals using religion to gain and maintain power over others" Problem...

Still funny, tho. Thoughts?

Hi anon,

This serves as both a response here and also kind of one in general to a lot of criticism of Campaign 3 and those who think it is good, particularly those who must use criticism of Campaign 3 to prop it up rather than find a defense on its own merits:

I think there is a case to be made that the Kryn Dynasty and Luxon worship is by far the strongest analogy to real-world religion and particularly Christianity: it is an explicitly proselytizing and expansionist theocracy with a head of state who is both a religious and political figurehead, worshiping an entity that does not specifically answer, ie, a degree of genuine faith is involved. There is a reason Essek, as someone who struggles with the dynasty, is catnip to many a lapsed Catholic.

However, you may have noticed that I've really pulled back on writing up new criticism of C3 other than in direct response, and even that has been terse, so here is the thing. You cannot argue with people who aren't smart enough to argue back and I am personally, as a person who loves arguing, making an effort to focus my energies elsewhere. I don't think the people who like Campaign 3 are even getting the point of analysis of Essek as a character within the context of his culture, or his character development over the course of Campaign 2, or as a narrative foil to Caleb, or getting to the point of rejecting him because he is, as the nonreligious person, also very much portrayed as a traitor. I think the truth of the matter is that most of them are too fucking stupid. They are motivated in their dislike of Essek by stupidity and spite and jealousy that he's more popular than their blorbos and shadowgast has more fics than their ship and Campaign 2 is more widely beloved. It's that simple. The mere fact that the talking points of "you cannot criticize improv", "you cannot criticize something the creators enjoyed making," and "the real problem is that people say Campaign 3 is bad instead of explicitly spelling out that it is only their opinion please don't be mad at me uwu" had significant buy-in and traction among c3 defenders probably should have, in retrospect, been more than enough for me to go "not worth it" like 3 weeks ago. The fact that at this point they're just making up lies and unsubstantiated hypotheticals is enough for me to say "not worth it."

So with that in mind I am very open to talking meta about Essek and C2 just like, on their own, and I'm not shutting down all conversation of/questions about Campaign 3 until post-wrap-up - indeed, I'm sure I'll have shit to say about the wrap-up, but at this point it really is like. Campaign 3 was not very good, a not-insignificant portion of its fans are stupid and unpleasant people who bite your ankles if you don't validate them in their unpleasant stupidity, and I think that my goal is to move on and focus on the many superior CR works, ie, pretty much all of them.

[olderthannetfic]

So there was a stupid, badly executed major character death in my fandoms canon. And fans trying to defend that media from other fans frequently argue that we simply can't "handle" MCD and need to grow up and get over it rather than being upset that character died in a really poorly written way.

I'm now watching a different thing, with a really well executed, beautifully tragic MCD. And I'm essentially petty and salty of being talked about like a wittle weak baby who can't handle big mature themes.

I can appreciate meaningful, well done MCD. I am not a lesser or less mature fan because I point out when it's done badly for shock value. I am allowed to be mad my blorbo died for nothing.

And why do fellow fans so often feel and act as if they have to defend their franchise from any critique from fellow fans?!? Or worse, tell fellow fans to leave the fandom if we're not thrilled with what fandom gave us. I'm still writing for it, which is contributing more than some who only mocks and attacks fans who disliked how things went.

--

I am so fed up with people crying about how MCD is such a valid artistic choice. 99% of the time, the interest and value from some character's occasional future appearances in an ongoing piece of media would have added up to more than the death did even if it was wonderfully well done.

A death towards the end often takes a gigantic shit on the other themes of the piece or is idiotic in light of genre conventions that would normally make that uncurable poison/lingering illness/minor flesh wound non-fatal.

Nearly nobody wails that some two-hour film festival fare shouldn't end in the lead's death. We all know those are going there, and they often do it competently.

"You should like my bad art because consuming drivel misery builds character" is never a sympathetic argument.