#I cannot think of a worse fit for me as a person honestly but there’s also no one I know of that pays more without a degree

[yongseungkim]

.

[tealchameleon]

[viivenn]

making an important announcement about some things i’ve noticed in the gwendoline christie fandom that really bug me.

disclaimer: read this at your own convenience and discretion. i am not responsible for any sort of hurt feelings and frankly… i don’t care. if you’re mad about this, you are probably the problem. /lh

to start with id like to begin on a positive note so that i’m not diving into negativity, i don’t want to be completely negative about my experiences because i’ve actually met some of the kindest people in the world through this fan base.

the gwen fandom, the gwandom, the gwendoline christie fandom , the lesbian cesspool, has been an incredible experience that i’m grateful i’ve had the pleasure of being apart of.

i went through a rough patch during november, and if i hadn’t found out about gwen, or met such wonderful people during my time here , i honestly wouldn’t be here right now. i owe my life to these people, gwen included. i will forever adore miss christie and what she stands for alongside the friends i’ve made along the way.

and while i know someday this hyperfix will end, it’s really disheartening to me when a fandom is what makes me grow distant from things i enjoy. it happened before, i feel as though it is happening all over again.

and no, i’m not taking issue with anything like the catrissa stuff or the brienne and larissa ship going around or anything like that. i like that we can all be weird together and enjoy aus like catrissa and crackships like bririssa (not sure the official name that was decided lol). my issue is the amount of content i’ve seen that either focuses on gwen herself, or the strange relationship with minors, or the odd artwork of gwen, and the absolute disgusting behaviour towards giles.

gwen would be absolutely appalled seeing fanfictions of herself that involve nsfw or just her in general, anyone would, it’s disgusting to make works of real people in that setting. it’s like you’re treating them as an original character you can mould and manipulate as you see fit and using someone who is real with thought and feeling and consciousness for smut fics is not okay, or any fic in general. i totally get the hype around her characters, i literally have “brienne’s princess” in my bio and i’ve had “jane murdstone’s bloodbag” (in reference to my vamp au) as a name in a discord server.

but i think the fandom has begun to blur the lines between fictional characters and reality settings when it comes to gwen and the personalities she portrays on the television screen. it’s not fair to her. it’s disgusting. i’ve seen a minor do it, i’ve seen a grown adult do it. it’s something i don’t see shamed and frowned upon often enough and it’s really not okay.

on that note i’d like to quickly mention the photos, we alllll know what photos i’m talking about. the bunny one, the nudes, the ones gwen has expressed regret towards and wishes to not have them spread. was there not a “fan” who brought her a book of her nudes and wanted her to sign it? that person who was blocked on instagram by gwen because they reposted her nudes on their story and tagged her???? how can you refer to yourself as a fan after behaving so abhorrently? absolutely disgusting behaviour. as a collective fandom we need to stop touching those photos (metaphorically speaking) and leave them in the past.

i’ve been told of numerous circumstances in which adults have shown their nsfw works to minors in this fandom and it has to fucking stop. it’s disgusting!! how can you do that knowingly? i constantly ponder terminating my account after a minor got ahold of my nsfw work, and upon realising they WERE a minor it was as simple as blocking and moving on. it’s truly not that hard, folks. and the minors on tiktok who fight with others saying silly things like “that’s my wife” or worse. i’ve seen it all, i feel like, and the more i see it the more sick i become. i cannot stand it.

i have seen and heard of fans who have fat shamed gwen for that one pink dress she wore to the met gala. she looked so happy in that dress, and the audacity one must have to fatshame that poor woman on twitter then turn around and continue to proclaim your ‘love for her’ as if you’d done no wrong? are you fucking serious? are you mental?

and the sexualisation over the porcelain doll look, gods some of you are sick. those were not real breasts, people. considering the fact she wholeheartedly regrets her nude photoshoots , what possesses you to believe she would actually flaunt her chest in that outfit?

the blatant mistreatment of poor giles is not fucking okay either. just because you’re jealous of someone who makes her immensely happy does not give you the right to post something so vile and cruel about him. shame on you. why do you believe this is okay to post:

????????

are you serious? have any of you stopped to consider how HAPPY giles makes her? or is her happiness the last thing you ponder when you look at her? have you even noticed how unhappy she looks lately? have you truly paused to consider how she would feel about seeing this on your page, random twitter user, or the rest of you who think this is okay? bless your hearts.

and some of the absolutely horrific things i’ve seen about her online and the hurtful behaviour towards giles makes me question the difference between a fan and just the general paparazzi. because if you truly loved her and you truly loved giles then i would not be ranting into the fucking void about it for no reason.

i avoid interacting with pages i find problematic on here to keep from stirring the pot but tonight i chose violence and got reeeeeal pissy about how i felt about this place. it’s not okay what i see on here and it’s getting exhausting seeing the same cycle of content on a daily.

that’s everything i have to say, i think. i probably missed a lot that should be discussed in the comments but i’m done for now because i know if i go on i’ll probably cry.

before you post things about real people with real feelings , stop to consider how they will feel those real feelings towards the content you put out. chances are you’ll become less problematic and obnoxious that way. 💘

[stormsbourne]

honestly though dragon age 2 was the exact perfect game to follow dragon age origins and it's almost entirely because of the things that most hardc0re gamerz hated most: the inability to change or divert what happens

you go from a game where you are a special rainbow star who the plot and world seems to rotate around to a game where you are just a person who ends up a significant figure mostly by chance. in origins you are one of the only survivors of a mass betrayal by the king's right hand man, and you have it drilled into you again and again that your choices matter. not only do they matter but they are the fulcrum the worldstate moves around. not a fan of the werewolves? kill them all off and let the guy who cursed them in the first place off scot free. think golems would be a sick way to really fuck up an archdemon? revive that ancient tech at the cost of who knows how many lower-class and casteless dwarf lives. you are the one who determines if the archdemon dies or gets reborn as a supernatural infant boy. it is all on you.

in dragon age 2 almost nothing is on you. the other characters have goals and motivations and you might be able to slightly affect them, but some things happen regardless. fenris always kills hadriana. anders always blows up the chantry. isabela always has already stolen the qunari artifact and merrill is not capable of being persuaded not to fuck with the eluvian. sure, you can affect their fates. do you sell fenris back into slavery? do you kill merrill's entire clan to protect her reputation or let her take the brunt of it to spare them? does anders live or die? bethany? carver? but the actions the characters take mostly happen regardless of hawke's input. the worldstate does not morph to fit what you want it to be anymore because the characters have too much weight in the people they already are.

and the wider plot reflects this, too. the qunari are unwilling to negotiate a peace, especially once they deem kirkwall too far gone to be worth saving. meredith is set in her ways and cannot be convinced out of her mindset. you cannot save leandra. anders, again, always blows up the chantry. hawke is involved in many of these events but they are far from being the fulcrum the world spins around. they are just a person, like most other people, caught up in the conflicts of forces so much more powerful and more ingrained into society than they are, that the best they can do is to ride the waves. to leap forward as the world changes around them, as flemeth fortells early in the game. the big reveal varric hesitates to tell cassandra for so long is that hawke was just a person, caught up in a million conflicts that they tried to stop but could not because the world was already too set against them. a fish struggling upstream for its whole life, and if you buy the depiction of hawke in inquisition, one who sort of resented the role they ended up playing in what became of the wider world.

it's perfect. it's beautiful. I know the narrative these days is that it's so constrained because of the short dev cycle, and while I do think that if the dev cycle had been longer there would have been more polish and shine, I think this theme was always intended because it's such a perfect foil to origins. origins says show me how important you are, the world your warden wants to create. da2 says that the world already exists, and the best you can do is try to keep things from getting worse, and make a tiny impact for the better in the lives of the people around you. the mages you help escape kirkwall while they can, the people you manage to save from slavers. maybe you can't change the world, maybe it's too set against you. but you can change something. some little things.

it slaps.

[icanseethefuture333]

Random ass question, but what do you think is the best way for a 4/10 girl to become at least a 7 out of 10? I’m aware that “beauty is subjective” but I’m literally below average, 4/10 is being lenient for me lol

How to have confidence in your physical appearance 🎀

First of all sweetie,

let's not rate ourselves on a scale about how pretty we are! It's really degrading and I feel like you deserve so much better than that. Living in a generation where filters are oversaturated, people using AI to edit their photos, and incels with porn addictions and have never felt the touch of a woman, will call the most beautiful girl "mid". It's so understandable why one's self esteem can feel low at times. You need to change the way you talk about yourself (especially me). Beauty always start from within - as redundant as that sounds. You can't feel pretty if you're not focusing on the reason why you feel this way. A pretty soul (and self concept!) makes a prettier face. Moving on, let's get into the actual tips of a glow up 💖

Let's address the elephant in the room 🐘: you're not ugly, just acting pitiful

Have you ever wondered why you have seen those people who are considered "unattractive" or "unconventionallly pretty" by others be in successful relationships or popular with their peers? It's because they have confidence. Have you ever been attracted to someone that may not necessarily fit the beauty standards or be considered a jaw dropping model, but you thought they were cute anyways because of their personality or charm? That's exactly what I mean. You can be a pretty face or have a nice body, but have terrible self esteem. Living in California my whole life I come across this everyday. There is plenty of beautiful people here, but there is also a lot of people with no sense of humor and no offense, but have no personalities. In other words, you can be attractive, but superficial and boring.

To feel beautiful or more like a "10" even on your worst day is mainly having a good self concept. You need to think with the mindset of "I am the baddest bitch even on my worse days and nobody can make me feel different about that, not even me." Our concept can be changed, reshaped, rebuilt, morphed, etc, into any way we want it to be. Our self concept and dominant thoughts are created by our previous past experiences and what people have told us what we are. For example, if you were bullied in your youth and somebody picked on you for your features. Why would you give a fuck about what a bully thinks??? A person who humiliated and traumatized someone at a weak point in their life does not matter. Their opinion, their actions, their thoughts - doesn't matter. You can change yourself anytime you want, we are animals, we are literally mean to be apart of this cycle called life and our habits, attitudes, opinions, etc, can change at any moment. We are meant to grow and adapt. You get to decide who you are, what you feel, and how you wish people to perceive you. Nobody else. So when you repeatedly say things to people like "I'm not beautiful", they're gonna get tired of it honestly and be like "Yk what damn bitch I guess you are ugly!" because it gets tiring to hear someone complain about the same thing even when they just reassured them (again, I'm guilty of this too). So when you depend on someone to make you feel good about yourself, that's just codependency. You are also giving them the power to manipulate you. Don't do that. Be free and be independent, love yourself. It's your self esteem and you cannot be dependent on anybody else to fill that void you have within yourself.

As Katt Williams said, "It's the esteem of your motherfucking self!"

Why it's not your fault you don't 'feel" pretty

Like I said above, you are most likely a product of your surroundings. Most people are not raised by their parents to have good self esteem or to teach them how to be confident or emotionally secure. There are many environmental factors to insecurity and that it is okay if you are never 100% feeling confident about yourself. People in the media construct this ego to seem "cool" and act conceited as a way to avoid being seen as weak to society. You can be confident and also have insecurities. Confidence is just about being secure with the essence of who you are and setting boundaries when necessary with other people when it comes to that. A confident person doesn't tolerate disrespect.

"Conceited" or confident?: how to avoid confusing the two

I think the most irritating thing to me that is normalized these days is narcissism and conceited people. People will literally act boastful and cocky then say "I'm just confident". Behaving like a narcissist or saying that you are one is not cute and never will be because it's literally a personality disorder, a mental health condition. Everytime I hear this it makes me want to roll my eyes so far back into my head. Try to avoid being this person with a "God complex" because there's a difference between a person who is being loud and fake with "confidence". A real confident person makes moves in silence and is genuine with themselves. If you have to brag or put another person down to feel like hot shit, then you're not a confident person, period.

Tips to enhance your beauty

As I said before anon you are already a 10 in my eyes, but I understand how it feels to not feel pretty at times and we all have our days when we are looking "rough". Here are some self care tips I do that helps me feel pretty and pampered physically ✨️

Get some beauty sleep! This is not just a saying. When your body has time to rest it gives you time to reset & have more energy for the next day. Getting plenty of sleep helps prevent dark circles & puffy eyes as well. If you struggle with falling asleep spray lavender pillow spray, drink tea, or play asmr/soothing sounds.

Skincare & hygiene, this is such a crucial step that everyone should practice in their daily lives. All of us have different skin textures and when we neglect our skin it causes a dry, oily, or bumpy surfaces. Now skin texture is totally normal but if you notice the days where you are not washing your face frequently enough, your skin either looks dull, dirty, or you experience more pimples / acne breakouts. Not to mention how dirty we feel when our body is projecting a certain odor. You don't need to have an extravagant routine, but at least try to have about 4 hygienic products (soap, deodorant, lotion, & body spray/prrfume) and 4 skincare products (facial cleanser (I recommend double cleansing!), serum, SPF/Sunscreen, & face lotion).

Mirror work, saying affirmations in the mirror has proven to be helpful for people's self esteem & feeling more confident with their physical appearance.

Change your wardrobe! Start dressing for your body type & how your ideal self would. It might feel uncomfortable at first but you will feel so much more beautiful! You could try finding videos on tiktok of people with your body type to help (for example, if you are plus sized, you could search your desired aesthetic & find people with the same shape as you).

Detox from social media 📱, learn when it is time to take a break from your phone & engage with the real world. Scrolling for hours on your phone can be really harmful especially if you're reading negative comments or watching videos that are self depreciating.

Follow people who uplift you, not tear you down. If you are following people who obviously are negative or affect your self esteem somehow, then you do not need to be supporting them.

Make appointments! Whether that is a doctor appointment or lash, nail, or hair appointments. Take care of your mind, health, and body. You could ask your doctor what vitamins you should take or also seek a counselor/therapist to find the root of your insecurities in a safe place. Also sometimes just getting my hair or nails done makes me feel more confident!

Learn to treat yourself. Buy yourself flowers or a gift you always wanted but never received. This could be anything, it doesn't necessarily mean to spend money. For example, cooking your favorite food, having a lazy day, etc. Remember that you deserve to be happy!

Lastly, beauty spells, glamour magick, and manifestation are popular methods for people who wish to enhance their physical appearance. I do all of these myself and I always feel so hot afterwards!

I hope you found these tips helpful beautiful ♡!

[soft-pine]

woke up to these lovely DMs and while I'm of course not going to post this person's account, I am going to respond publicly. (cn discussion of SA)

okay so to preface this, you're somewhat correct. what we are doing - what we are all doing is an interpretive task. objectivity really doesn't exist - on my side or yours. and i'm not claiming it does. i have said and said again and said over again that i'm not trying to exclude or skew things. but sometimes i am simply not going to interpret a scene the way someone else does. and that's okay. please take your own notes! hell copy-paste mine and delete everything you don't like! add whatever you want!

that said, i made these notes with the intention for it to be useful to other people so if it seems like something is categorized wrong or not included, we can talk about it. i've said and said again and said over again that i am open to specific feedback. and where i have received specific feedback, i've made the small changes suggested!

but this is not specific. and honestly is virtually meaningless to me at this point. just because the notes don't sit right with your feelings about the show is not, in and of itself, proof i've missed anything. especially, especially because one of the reasons i made this document is because i saw frequent, unsubstantiated claims get circulated widely and i wanted more information to fall back on. so tell me what i've missed specifically or don't bother.

i'm sorry that you don't like that post. but honestly things can have some fucking layers. do both sam & dean make jokes to each other that make light of SA & demons, yes. are they both men who were raised in a misogynistic culture and have better and worse moments at treating each other and those around them with respect, yes. do i fucking hate meg and wish she would stop assaulting both of them, YES!

was i pointing out that there is a pattern of dean thinking about femininity and women and being embodied as a woman, yeah. it's not like i cannot engage with that comment in multiple ways. it's not like it's not in my notes.

but also like i don't go search up posts about sam's gender by people who are primarily interested in sam and say how their post is shitty to or diminishing of or not fully accounting for everything dean has experienced. that would be a waste of my time and theirs. i'm sorry i didn't talk enough about waffles in my post about pancakes but you're not in an ihop. you're in my kitchen right now. i make pancakes. we are eating pancakes.

but i take issue with again and again. point me to it. show me where dean does this again and again? like i am genuinely asking what am i missing. where is the repeated mocking? tell me what episode, what scene and i will add it to my notes and my understanding. heck! if you don't have that information, i'd take a gifset or a sam-centric meta post and put the puzzle pieces together myself.

i don't know what to tell you. these notes were compiled over the course of over a year and two full supernatural rewatches plus some. i am currently rewatching supernatural. i am never not watching supernatural. i am never not taking notes.

and i fully own my dean-centric POV. that's not gonna change. but that doesn't mean that as i was watching the show, side-by-side with the transcript page open, rewinding and double-checking and adding notes, that i was just leaving things out willy-nilly that didn't fit into my view. honestly, when i started these notes (primarily to record how sam & dean articulated their feelings about john), i didn't expect a lot of these categories to turn out this way. i don't need them to be like this to love dean and i was and am open to corrections that change these numbers. but you have to tell me what they are. and not just claim they simply must exist.

now on to this. honestly if you've been even an ounce as careful looking over my notes as i was making them, you'd find that a lot of the dialogue about possession being like SA comes from dean. that is not to say that i don't think that's how sam experienced it or that he can't feel it without saying it aloud or that fans can't interpret that that is how he is likely feeling.

but don't come here and tell me i need to consider this when i fucking marked down all the times in season 5 that dean compares the prospect of michael possessing him to rape. when i watched the scene in 14.03 when dean undresses the clothes michael dressed him in. when this is like one of the main themes of my main fic. like you don't know me. dont come on my blog and scroll down far enough to find a post you hate and then tell me you can somehow know all my thoughts on a topic that post wasn't even about.

i have never claimed that dean is being victimized by sam. if that's what you get from my notes that honestly says more about you than me.

and that's the real issue isn't it. i simply must be so biased but you all... all the people yelling at me that i've missed so much are, what... not engaged in an interpretive task with inherent imperfections and bias?

i am trying to be as honest, open, correctable, and sincere as i can about this but i don't have to skew my document until the numbers look right to you.

[yetanotherexhaustedalchemist]

Yandere song picks reasonings

A follow-up to my post where I assigned each of the boys (minus Ortho, obviously) a yandere-adjacent song. This list probably won't make sense unless you've read that first. My reasoning may or may not be solid, so feel free to suggest your own picks if you want!

Riddle: I like the idea that Riddle would be resistant to the obsessiveness that comes with being a yandere; not that he isn't obsessive, but that he doesn't like what he is feeling. I think he would dislike that he fell in love when he is supposed to be focused with school - but since there's no going back, he thinks he should be allowed the equally obsessive highs of love. (I also saw a animation of Riddle to this song on tiktok which inspired me)

Ace: The almost casual vibes of the song fit Ace nicely - he strikes me as the kind of yandere who'd switch between dangerously serious and joking and chill. The verses are more sinister, but the choruses are playful enough to almost make you forget the danger.

Deuce: Evil Deuce has a present father ig Delinquent Deuce = Yandere Deuce. At least yandere Deuce would at least try to put up a civil act so he wouldn't scare you off, but it goes without saying that he wouldn't be very good at it.

Cater: Out of everyone, I really think Cater would be one of the most self-aware yanderes. And he would lean into it. He knows how to show people what they want to see. He'd be the type to shower his beloved with so much affection that you wouldn't really want to acknowledge the skeletons in Cater's closet. 

Trey: I don't have much to add, honestly... The song's desperate almost remorseful themes just seemed to fit him. 

Leona: With how Leona feels like he's always second best, I feel like he could really attach to the idea that it's you and him against the world (for better or worse). Yeah.

Jack: It's called The Wolf, what do you want from me? But seriously, if someone has generally as kind as Jack was to be a yandere, it would be a primal and feral kind of thing. 

Ruggie: The vibes just fit him somehow, idk. He's a sneaky, persistent type. I also like to imagine him pestering his beloved when they're working a shift at the Mostro Lounge.

Azul: Sophisticated vibes and desperation to be loved are just Azul to me.

Jade: Jade is - and i cannot stress this enough - absolutely unhinged. He's absolutely one of the more violent/brutal yanderes, and he'd do it just to see how you'd react.

Floyd: The laid-back threats of violence are very Floyd, and it's basically canon that he's in the mafia anyway. He'll be the one busting kneecaps though. (Replace Johnny with Shrimpy, perhaps?)

Kalim: *muffled sobs*

Jamil: The sinister manipulation and cruel ultimatum feel like Jamil's style. I don't think he would be as delusional/unaware/convinced of their innocence as the singer, but I can picture him pretending to be more desperate as a manipulation tactic.

Vil: It's so refined and elegant? It's about poison?? Need I say more

Epel: 'Baby, I'm a gangster too' fits Epel's innocent appearance and unruly personality really well, I think. He strikes me as the kind of yandere who'd be jealous over most things.

Rook: It's already canon that he's obsessed with beauty, that's just Rook. 

Idia: This would be him with his beloved when he overblots and tries to reset the world.

Malleus: LISTEN Music of the Night (and a lot of Phantom of the Opera songs) are just so Malleus to me. If he sang this to me I'd be 2000% seduced. that's it, that's my reasoning.

Silver: Darling's lyrics are something like a distorted (dare i say, twisted) fairytale love song. It just works for Silver.

Sebek: Sebek is enthusiastic about things he's passionate about (cough cough Malleus) and I think that could quickly spiral into something much more unhinged in a yandere senario. That plus crocodile's status as apex predators and his large appetite... (Would he actually eat his beloved? probably not. hopefully not.)

Lilia: Loveit? Has such a... practiced insanity to it? The singer's actions are carefully executed and very premeditated, but their mind is totally warped, and I think that fits Lilia's terrifying war general/loving and mischievous faerie duality. It's a duality that would be terrifying if he was a yandere, for sure.

[keewu]

What VOCALOID/utaite song fits the sds characters?

This is basically me combining my two biggest interests haha, but yeah I've really thought about this.

Meliodas: Aun no Beats. So from what I've read and what I think the meaning of the lyrics is. It's a person who mourns the death of their lover, and not being able to be together anymore (we all know why this checks out) the line that stuck out to me was "we were going to be together forever" anyway I really like this song and I think it fits him.

Elizabeth: Yume to Hazakura. This is a really beautiful song and its very melancholy. It talks about distant memories and unforgettable words, tbh I think it just fits her vibe. For Meliodas I had like a reason I don't think I have for this one. But it fits her and it's a beautiful song.

Diane: Lonely Universe. It was HARD finding a song fitting her man. But I think this is cute and it's her feelings toward King. It's in my opinion about a person who loses someone (King making Diane forget about him) and waits for them to come back, like they are always looking for something. It also feels like the person waiting is quite alone which Diane was after she left the giants, she didn't have anyone since the humans found her scary.

Ban: Vita. I gotta give my man a depressing song bro. So I can't really find the "meaning" of the song so I'll just make my own conclusions. It says "I'm living as best as I can" and "dying as best as I can" and I feel like that resonates with Bans character, you can't tell me that man doesn't want to die when he deliberately went to prison to get tortured. It also says "it's getting worse and worse" which I feel like Ban felt when he said that everyone he likes ends up leaving him.

King: Lemon. Ya'll I cannot not give King the yaoi angst okay. So the song is about grieving for a loved one, someone who's already passed (Helbram hehe) it has lines which are very beautiful like "Even the pain from that day, I still loved it all with you" and "more than I knew I was in love with you" (if you can't tell I really like King x Helbram) overall the melody of the song fits him too and overall I really frickin love this song.

Gowther: Hitomodoki. This is a mafumafu song (one of my fav artists btw) and Hitomodoki means kinda like Pseudo-human which in of itself fits my boy here. As soon as I listened to this song I thought how much it fit Gowther and I could go on a super long rant, but instead I'm just gonna drop some lyrics on you cause you'll see what I mean. "Is this hole I had mistakenly opened within my heart" and "In this human form, without becoming a human" and "oh, my heart — I once wished that you would have stopped" like you get what I'm putting down??

Merlin: Rollin' Girl. I had so many songs for her, like bitter Choco decoration, bad apple, lost ones weeping etc. But I decided to go with the old classic depression song. Again from what I read and how I interpret it, it's about a girl who's very lonely and needs help but never accepts it from other people. Even though she's in pain she want to keep "rolling" each day at a time (continue to live) she always wants to be perfect/succeed. Lyrics: "it doesn't matter how It turns out, that's just a downward hill towards more mistakes" anyway I feel like this song really fits her. Also this song may or may not have been my most played song last year and Merlin may or may not be my favorite character hehe...

Escanor: The reason I wanted to die (Boku wa shinou to omottetanowa. So as you can see this is a depressing song once again (all these mfs be traumatized) and its a really beautiful song that really shows how Escanor feels in my opinion. It sings about reasons to want to die and it's about grief and despair but also hope. The lyrics "The reason I wanted to die is because I hadn't met you yet" and "I fell in love with this world a little more where people like you were born" feels a bit like his feelings toward Merlin which is cute.

This is honestly mostly for myself but if you enjoy reading all this thats great!!

[worriedvision]

"i needed you, and you werent there" said by reader with scara or tighnari? (sorry this is like my third request lmfao)

Honestly don't worry haha! I like getting requests, the problem is sometimes a request can be too fluffy for me to write well lmao. Gender neutral reader. Doing this with Tighnari where his plan backfires.

--

What got you into this predicament?

Well, you were supposed to have Tighnari helping you clear this withering zone. He gave you specific instruction to wait for him, but you could see the zone getting worse by the second. He was normally so good with his times, and now he was nowhere to be seen and it was 20 minutes since the original time.

Despite not having a vision, you decide to push forward and clear the zone anyway. Determination got you through it, earning you a pyro vision. Unfortunately, Tighnari still was not there for you to report to.

--

"Are you sure this is a good idea? They do not have a vision." Tighnari asks, the man across from him not seeming to care about the risk.

"If they cannot clear a withering zone, they should be demoted." Alhaitham explains. "I know you have a 'thing' for this person, but they aren't trying hard enough."

"Hard enough at what, exactly?" Tighnari tuts, Alhaitham shrugging.

"Well, they don't do the necessary work. It's as simple as that."

--

The walk back made you reflect on your actions. You were held back because you had feelings for Tighnari, and you couldn't help but realise how silly you were. In your eyes, this would have either harmed you or killed you, and Tighnari knew you were not a vision holder.

Yes, you were going to leave your position. You had enough mora to keep your rent going for a few months, and you could find a new place to work or, alternatively, stay.

Instead of reporting to Master Tighnari, you storm off to your home to write up your resignation.

--

"I see you cleared the withering zone." Tighnari states, clearly impressed. "Ah, a pyro vision. Fits what I think of yo-"

"This is my letter of resignation." Uh oh. "Yesterday's withering zone made me realise that you're been holding me back, and you didn't care enough to show up for something as vital as clearing a withering zone."

"Please, allow me to-"

"I needed you, and you weren't there." You explain. Tighnari shuts up, knowing this to be the truth. "After two weeks, I no longer wish to see you. The positive feelings I had for you have burned out, and I refuse to stay in a position I know I don't deserve."

Before Tighnari can explain this was a plan set by Alhaitham, you walk away with your assigned work for the day.

[wheelie-sick]

was curious about your opinion on terminology: i, a bipolar person, am technically fine calling myself and identifying as bipolar. but i also think the older terms do a better job of describing my experience? like i feel like “dysphoric mania” describes me so much better than “mixed episode.” and manic depression makes more sense to my brain. but i’m also young so people expect me to be in the know with whatever mental health terms that are in vogue rn. anyway, i was just wondering what you thought about these terms and the policing of how ppl talk abt their own mental health

[disclaimer i know the dsm is bullshit and psychiatry is an oppressive system]

I think mentally ill people have every right to define their own terminology for their own mental health. it shouldn't be up to psychiatrists to determine how we talk about ourselves and that might mean that people's terminology is inconsistent but that's okay! because part of autonomy is autonomy over language. I think people not only should but need to respect the preferences of individual mentally ill people. psychiatrists do not get to define us and our communities.

I think that the way mentally ill people police other mentally ill people's language only aids the control the psychiatric system has over mentally ill people. I think it's worse when someone without a specific mental illness does it. we know the language we prefer and we should be granted the presumption of knowledge over terms. often people approach people using terminology that deviates from the DSM with "education" because they assume that whoever they're talking to just isn't aware of the "correct" terminology. the assumption that we are unaware of our own language often stems from biases suggesting we cannot be knowledgeable about a mental illness unless we conform to what psychiatry says about us

I do also recognize that it can be helpful for outsiders to have a "standardized" set of terms to use for broad statements. while I think mentally ill people get to use whatever term they want with their broad statements I recognize it's different for outsiders (though honestly I could write a whole essay on the divide between mentally ill and not mentally ill and how these boundaries are made up somewhat arbitrarily. some people clearly fit in one box or the other but many people exist in grays because people aren't made for boxes. for the sake of this post we're pretending that there are clearly defined boxes) this is especially true when you consider the nuances of some terms and their histories (and often their histories of harm) I think it's helpful for people who aren't intimately familiar with a community to have a "default" set of terminology to fall back on because not everyone is going to be incredibly knowledgeable about bipolar terminology but might still need to refer to bipolar disorder and people with it.

TLDR: people should respect the terminology of individual people. psychiatrists do not get to define our language. mentally ill people policing other mentally ill people aids psychiatry. it helps people without a specific mental illness to have a set of terminology to fall back on when they're unsure.

short answer: use whatever language you want, it's your mental illness!

hopefully you were looking for a long response 😅

[communistkenobi]

i know next to nothing about queer theory, but i did exist online during (what felt like) huge exclusionary periods (ace discourse, bi/pan discourse, and transmedicalism were the big ones i remember)

i wonder if the first drive for sexuality being something unchangeable and intrinsic to you had something to do with those things, that queerness was fixed and definable, which meant that there were strict lines to be drawn about who was and wasn't gay/lesbian/bi which was only made worse by trans and nonbinary people who didn't exactly fit the previous molds

ill be doubly honest and say i only interacted w/ the community online at the time bc living in a homophobic country doesnt give you a lot of opportunities to meet up in person which means my view of the whole thing is skewed. im not sure if this makes any sense

What I’m about to say isn’t a diagnosis of the causes behind those discourses (partly because i don’t think there is a single reason animating those arguments), but like I guess in general a very baseline authority people fall back on is biology. Dominant reactionary discourses describe being gay trans etc as a lifestyle choice, as an active decision to participate in sexual and gendered degeneracy, and so a very appealing counter-claim to make is to point to biology - we are born this way, we can’t help who we are just as cishet people cannot help who they are, so you should accept us because we can’t change our identity. That rhetorical strategy requires/assumes a stable sexual and gendered ontology, a primary authority of the body that can’t be altered. While I believe this argument is fundamentally flawed, I think this is a straightforwardly easy argument to make re: sexual orientation. With trans and non-binary people this is more difficult because the foundational claim to our existence is that gender is mutable, is alterable, is subject to change (and also “I’ve felt this way since I was a child” is a pathological model of gender dysphoria that is enforced through medical and psychiatric institutions, not a reflection of lived reality for many, many trans and non-binary people). That doesn’t necessarily mean being transgender is a “choice” (although if someone said they woke up one day and chose to be transgender then that is a perfectly authentic justification), especially because “choice” in these discussions is often framed as individualised, private, detached from the social world - we are all just free agents making rational autonomous decisions in a field of equally rational choices, etc. which I think is a very impoverished way to understand choice and agency. Gender is an institution, it is a set of behaviours and performances that we choose to engage in in many different ways, and my use of the word ‘choice’ there does not imply these choices are free from coercion, violence, or harm. I chose to transition, I chose to engage in performances and behaviours that signal to the social world that I am a man - where that desire to make those choices arises from is another matter, and honestly not one I’m super interested in figuring out. Like if I discovered the ‘origin’ of my transness it wouldn’t make any difference to me. Similarly, how I choose to signal masculinity is very obviously bound up in dominant gendered assumptions. Trans people get accused of upholding gendered norms a lot, but that’s only because we aren’t taken seriously unless we do so! It is a survival mechanism that allows us to better navigate incredible amounts of violence and social exclusion, and arguing that our desire to do gender with our bodies comes from some grade-school assumption that dress = woman and pants = man or whatever is pure projection on the part of cis people. cis men think if they drink pink wine they’ll become gay - trans people are not the ones enforcing these norms here.

Getting a bit far afield here, so to loop back around - I think a stable state of sexual and gendered subjectivity or “being” is very appealing to a lot of people because it’s a way to dismiss reactionary fears and to justify to yourself that your oppression is entirely out of your control (which is true obviously!). Again I think these arguments are flawed because they buy into cisgendered and heteronormative ideas about gender and sexuality, that it is a biological burden imposed on us, that deviance is not a choice, that gender is done to us as opposed to being gendered agents, that we are similarly trapped in a sexual prison and should be accepted on those grounds, etc, but they have massive rhetorical power.  

As I’ve said before I’m a pretty staunch believer in Butler’s assertion that it is social all the way down, that gender is not discoverable in the body but rather the body is the medium through which gender is done in the world. Cis people choose to do gender just as much as trans people do! The only difference is that institutional architecture is set up to facilitate and make invisible (in very misogynistic and racist ways) those gendered practices. I think the stronger counter argument to make is that cis- and het-normativities are deeply violent and miserable status quos that need to be dismantled and discarded, that true choice can only emerge vis a vis gender and sexuality once those institutions are abolished, and that choice is actually a desirable end-goal - I want people to be able to participate in gender and sexuality as free agents, as non-coercive practices that are sites of great joy and wonder and pleasure. And this world is only possible if we accept that there is no gendered or sexual ontology, that it is all smoke and mirrors, that this current system’s primary function is to reproduce the nuclear family, to maintain the hereditary nature of class and wealth and race, to provide a standardised system of labour division, to maintain a distinction between the public and private labour realms, and so on.

So again like, is this what animates discourses about who gets to be counted as lgbtq/queer/whichever label you want to use? I don’t know. Probably some of it has to do with that. Queerness is in party a pathological category that is used to describe a failure to meaningfully reproduce cishet norms and practices, it is a set of relationships you have to legal and political and medical and administrative institutions (which is especially true for trans/non binary people). I like this definition because built into it is the possibility of change - I do not want trans people to be assimilated into cishet society, I want society to become transgender, thereby making transgender an irrelevant medical and legal category of person. Much like communism aims to abolish class by universalising the proletariat, I want to abolish gender by universalising the legal and political and medical mechanisms of transition. Only then will cisgenderism be abolished.

One thing I have been thinking a lot about is something a friend said to me, which is that human rights to do not begin with a definition of human - in the same way, I think trans rights do not require a definition of transgenderism. Just universalise and de-pathologise the mechanisms through which transition is expressed. Make it easy to change your name, remove all barriers to hormones and surgery, make everyone economically secure enough that they can change their wardrobe however they please,  desegregate all gendered spaces, de-gender clothing, remove gender markers from all documents, and so on and so on. Doing so would make both cisgender and transgender an irrelevant legal and political category and, again, allow choice to emerge as a meaningful mechanism of gender expression. 

This isn’t a comprehensive policy platform, there are many things I’m sure I haven’t thought through and a large portion of this discussion has to contend with the colonial and white supremacist nature of the western binary gender (bringing us into discussions of decolonial efforts, socialist efforts, and so on), but this is already getting long and I feel like I’m rambling. But like fundamentally I believe in a radical political imaginary that argues that all of this is subject to change and therefore any arguments about an essential gendered or sexual being is, at the end of the day, a reactionary description of gender and sexuality 

[princess-aeducan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Gameplay Reveal Thoughts

Okay for one thing, I am so happy to be making this post. Going from people voicing doubts about the game coming out at all to a Fall 2024 release window is so exciting. 10 years and it’s finally almost here.

-The game is absolutely gorgeous. I love the design of Minrathous, I love how gobsmackingly different it is from Ferelden. Dorian’s complaints from Inquisition all make sense now, and it’s fascinating to see a place that is not repressive of magic- the fact that it resembles sci-fi levels of tech but is all powered by magic is sooo fun and interesting to me. I also think it’ll be an interesting contrast to the more classic fantasy style locations we see at the ritual site and throughout the screenshots the developers have posted. It makes the world feel so much bigger, diverse, and more fleshed out.

-Unpopular opinion and I totally respect why others dislike it as it does look quite different, I’m actually looking forward to the combat. It honestly just looks more fun to me, as I tend to favor a more action/real time style anyway. That being said, I do dislike the 3 person party change for banter reasons and do think that’ll make it feel significantly less like classic Dragon Age. I feel like I’ll get used to it pretty fast, but it is a disappointment. Controlling companions isn’t mandatory for me but it was always nice to be able to try out all the classes, so that’s a loss as well, although one I’m less bothered by.

-I like the way the characters look, but do understand it could take a little bit of adjustment. Harding got a massive glow up, she looks gorgeous. So excited she’s a companion, and that we’ll have our first romanceable dwarf! Not a huge fan of the way Solas looks in this style, but I don’t feel particularly upset about it anyway. Not sure what it is. Varric looks great, but like many others, missing his ginger hair. All in all, less drastic changes to returning characters than we’ve seen in previous titles, I will never be over how much they butchered Alistair in Inquisition. I love the designs and vibes of the new companions, Neve is a fashion icon and sooo fits in with what Dorian has set up for us to expect from Tevinter. I can’t wait to meet Davrin in particular, because god I miss Grey Wardens.

-On that point: Factions have me maybe the most excited. I cannot wait to be a Grey Warden again, I’d been holding out hope! I liked that the faction was referenced in the gameplay reveal as well, and hope it’ll change small things throughout the game, at least through dialogue. Also will have to play as an Antivan Crow at some point. A bit sad this won’t include a playable prologue like Origins, but since DA2 and DAI I wasn’t expecting it. Just always something I’ll miss.

-A red flag for me is how little Rook was prompted to make dialogue choices. I hope that because this is simply the prologue and therefore focused on binary plot progression, that this will be different in more dialogue-driven sections, but it’s something to look out for and be wary of. I’m okay with Rook speaking on their own occasionally, but if that continues, I hope it’s at least like Hawke where there’s some variation based on personality.

-Also yes, excited about the return of the purple Hawke icon! The dialogue wheel in Inquisition felt more bland to me than in DA2, so if the wheel is what we’re stuck with, I’d rather it lean more to its DA2 execution.

-On narrative: I cannot BELIEVE the game just jumps into “let’s confront Solas RIGHT NOW!” I was not expecting so much plot from the gameplay reveal. I am very intrigued by what’s coming next with the evanuris, and what it will mean for Solas’ role in the story. I’m kind of obsessed with the fact that it begins with Rook fucking things up worse, I think that will be magnificent to explore for roleplay and the repercussions for Thedas will be massive. I know there were concerns about tone, but this gives me hope that we’ll have the fucked up shit Dragon Age is known for. “Just some guy who makes things worse” is a great start for a protagonist, and reminds me of DA2 in some respects.

-My brainrot is horrendous. I have so many more thoughts all of the time, but tried to just center on the gameplay reveal so I don’t yap forever. But always feel free to send asks, and expect more posts as we get closer and closer!

[goldensunset]

genuinely is there a writing reason for n to still dislike poke balls after bw1. like to him, they were a symbol of trainer's abuse towards their pokemon, but actually that's wrong and trainers get along very well with their pokemon so the poke balls shouldn't be a factor anymore right?? i think you said before too and i think the same thing, poke balls are just a safety mechanism so your 5 billion degree scorching hot magcargo isnt just wandering the streets melting the sidewalk

spinoffs might not be canon but there are regions where poke balls aren't used At All in the ranger series, and they're not inherently better or worse than mainline regions for it. cannot understand why he insists its all still going to be better if we Just get rid of poke balls

right like… i don’t fully get it. i mean i guess people might still have their opinions and preferences and it might just not Feel right to him, even if it isn’t like actually harmful. n doesn’t seem like he necessarily cares about human infrastructure he seems like he’d gladly let his magcargo torch the sidewalk and if you can’t accept it for what it is you shouldn’t be its partner but like lol idk

i guess like pla kinda touches on that too how some of the clan members thought of it as a disgrace to keep them contained but afterwards were like ‘i see. this is simply how you choose to relate to your pokémon’. like it’s just a matter of personal choice and relationships like there’s no one size fits all solution. they come to realize that

like i think of em kinda like dog leashes the dog obeys and could get off the leash or jump the fence etc if it really wanted to but it knows this makes its human feel safer and more secure

see like to oppose the use of pokéballs is not necessarily to say you think animals should run free and cause mayhem, but rather it could just be saying that it’s tragic that this is the current working relationship and that in an ideal world you’d be able to trust your dog to not maul another dog or tear up the sofa etc. sounds kinda like him saying ‘skill issue as a trainer. get better at getting them to love and trust and listen to you’. yeah look that’s easier for some people than others. easier for some species of pokémon than others. no matter how much your molten rock pokémon loves and trusts you it is still made of molten rock. do you want it to stop being made of molten rock

see like that mindset is kinda ironic to me bc i would argue that’s actually even more misguided and harmful in a way. to say that one day we’ll be able to overwrite a wild living being’s nature and get it to willingly behave for us? to force it into a certain box of behavior? or to say that we should let them do whatever they want and who cares about humans in this situation. neither extreme is ok

quite honestly the ideal world in which humans and pokémon coexist IS the one with pokéballs. where they consensually stay even if they’d rather be outside em because they love and trust their humans and value the relationship. social contract theory. we give up things we like for a greater good. dogs let themselves be domesticated they could kill us but they don’t bc we do nice things for them

tldr. i think n still has some learning to do about the world lol. well-meaning yet still ignorant in a way. also he has a massive advantage with his empath powers like dude check your privilege of course you can keep your nice tame baby mammal under control but what about the muk owners

[transformerswoc]

The TFP "Airachnid" Problem

Like I said, I'm gonna make essays and discussions regarding women in transformers <3. The first person is tfp Airachnid.

TFP Airachhid is honestly, the litmus test for how I feel that Transformers fans can handle “mean” evil, women. Because the hate train that she received and the hate she still receives is massive, and it rounding up to “she killed cliffjumper” or “she’s mean to arcee and starscream” “she killed breakdown” just shows that this fandom wouldn’t really be ready for a female villain that was worse than her, or that just did not give a fuck.

And honestly, that is soo unforutante because we see male characters, like Starscream and even like Megatron, who are basically like Airachnid, if not worse, getting love and support for their actions.

She’s not supposed to be nice…she is a villain a straight up, in your face, villain and that is interesting. Yes, other Airachnids/Black Arachnias get love, but a lot of them are morally grey or complex.

A lot of them either turn good or ambiguous in the end, or aren't who we think they are, giving them a very empathetic past to almost excuse their actions.

Yet, when we have villainous, no morals Airachnid, which I find made her character far more intriguing, it seems that people just hated her, and would hate her for the things they loved with the male villains. She was the perfect mixture of Starscream and Knockout, with Megatron’s brutality, and she was just…hated for it.

And it made me realize that in terms of female villains, we haven’t ever had one like her. One that says ���fuck you’ to morality and shit, because I just do not think the fandom could handle her. And I’m talking about in the TV Shows.

There are female villains in the live action, but that is another topic for another time.

Lastly, to me as a Black Woman, I cannot help but feel a lot of hatred toward Airachnid is people not checking their own racism and antiblackness. I think it’s easy for people to, not even realize it, but hold black women to higher moral standards than others. The point is that, Airachnid is voiced by a Black Woman and fandoms tend to be very critical toward Black women whether they be live action, voicing characters, etc. black women are either too much, or not enough.

Funnily enough, we are seeing this with ROTB with tons of people who aren’t black women, bashing the representation of Black women in ROTB and saying they aren’t doing enough or they’re pointless.

And this brings me back to Airachnid and how fandoms tend to, unknowingly be very heavy and critical toward black characters, but especially, Black women characters as well who are mean, or who do not fit to their standards. That is just my perspective from a black woman.

I’m not going to sit here and say that everyone who dislikes Airachnid is racist, but I will say separately that I think a lot of reasons for disliking Airachid are rooted in misogyny.

There has been no good reason for disliking Airachnid that I haven’t seen laced in some form of misogyny, because every reason she is hated, you can trace back to a male villain doing the same thing, if not worse.

Given fandom’s negative reaction toward Airachid, I wonder if we’ll actually ever see such a cold, heartless female villain like we did her. I think that only thing that makes things ‘acceptable’ is if a female villain has complexity, or has depth or will eventually be a ‘good’ guy again, or at most, morally ambiguous. That is what makes a female villain acceptable and frankly, that’s not fair but unfortunately I just feel…that’s how it is.

Another thing I noticed, which I will make in another essay, is how TFP tends to shame any form of ‘feminity’ especially in its women but also, in queer outwardly femme charaters, like Starscream.

The ‘tom boy’ or ‘one of the boys’ perosna is something that we tend to see with Arcee and Miko. And forms of femininity such as motherhood, or being outwardly femme like Airachnid or Starscream are seen as ‘bad’ by the narrative.

What I mean by this is that, June is shamed for being motherly toward Jack, by Arcee and by Miko and it is something that she is made to feel bad for, for wanting to care for Jack. Arcee and Miko are portrayed as I said, as being ‘one of the boys’ Arcee herself made a negative comment toward the idea of being PINK…which is ridiclous.

Airachnid and Starscream are both heavily femme and queer coded, but they are shamed by the narrative and the fandom. Starscream is brutalized on the daily, and Airachnid, who is outwardly femme tends to be seen as irredeemable by the fandom and also inexplcitly evil by the narrative.

TFP’s issue with femininity  is something is something I certainly want to talk about later on, but given this essay is just about Airachnid, I will stop here.

The last thing I'm also going to say is that I don't think that the writers knew, or understand how to write a female villain for a notoriously misogynstic fanbase. There are reasons why the other female characters are 'acceptable' and it's because they are for the most part, written in a way that is okay for a male audience. That doesn't mean they don't face their fair share of misogyny...they do. Especially Miko.

But an outwardly evil femme fatale who doesn't give a fuck about it...the fandom is just not ready for such a character. And while I don't think the writers needed to pacify her, i do 100% believe that when operating in a misogynstic fandom, you should learn how to write a female character in a way that will not get her dragged the way Airachnid has been dragged.

If you enjoyed my essay, please share and consider following?

Please follow my twitter, where I'll also talk more about women's topics in TF.

[pompadorbz]

Honestly, I stopped participating in the character polls in any major capacity after I made my one post about it around a week ago. The tags were deeply aggressive over something so minor and honestly watching people i care about be called misogynists and sent anon hate made it impossible for me to be assed enough to participate. At this rate, I don't care if this post gets hate, because it would only serve to prove my point. These characters are not real and cannot care about your opinions because of that. I said something of this vain in my last longer post about it but for the sake of reiteration: If you are framing your harassment of others as social activism for the sake of making a fictional character win an unofficial tongue-in-cheek tournament that everybody is going to move on from in less than a month, then honestly shame on you. I couldn't think of a more pathetic direction to steer in if I tried. For the record, this applies to any person on any side of any character that was involved at all. I have biases towards certain characters but that bias is not worth extending to those who saw it fit to use guilt tactics and harassment on those who were just trying to have fun. To those who did, you know who you are. Now, nobody gets to win, and honestly, maybe that's for the best. Because whatever winner we would have gotten might have resulted in far worse.

[skaruresonic]

Remember me? To start off: I'm sorry about triggering some terrible and mentally painful memories when I went off about how I felt about the state of Flynn criticism. I never intended that. I wasn't defending or, heck, even trying to invite discussion about Flynn's rabid fanatics anyway. I could've chosen my words better, but aside from the detractors' mentalities, I meant to focus on Flynn ONLY. And I have nothing against your or their fan fictions. I do fan fiction, too. I just noticed what seemed like extreme shilling surrounding their exposure. I don't aim (and never did) to change minds about the dude, but I find the constructiveness of the critical discourse has been long lost.

Fitting that I received your ask on the first-year anniversary of my visual novel.

And I have nothing against your or their fan fictions. I do fan fiction, too.

Then why bring it up? What does "and your fics aren't even that good" add to the conversation about another writer's work?

I just noticed what seemed like extreme shilling surrounding their exposure.

Ah. There it is.

Look, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. But before I do, I want you to know I'm not angry with you, just annoyed - and perhaps angry in general at the overall situation we're in.

Honestly, the current climate is reminding me of the time antis gentrified Half-Life and caused the old guard to disperse. Everyone in our mutual circle is drifting away from Sonic in some form or another because it's such a toxic cesspit, and what's worse, they blame us for it. Would you want to stay in a situation like that?

Anyway, I have no patience for "you keep shilling your work" anymore because that standard only seems to apply to us. If we held everyone else to that standard, this entire Chili's would be revealed as hypocrites in an instant.

The fic mocking is not an isolated event. I've seen it happen over and over again, for years. Folks mocked Crusher's fic and OCs on TV Tropes. Folks mocked Darklight's OCs on Twitter. Folks sneered that we were too stupid to comprehend storytelling, and once someone said "none of them can even draw."

They can never leave it at "their criticisms suck." No, they have to make things so much more personal than they need to be. In the absence of an actual argument, they call you names, say you deserve all kinds of punishment, including but not limited to death and rape. Crusher had to delete hundreds of threats from his inbox. So please forgive me if my patience has waned paper-thin.

Folks feel the need to knock us down a peg because they think it's "warranted" on the basis of "we have egos." Which is a riot when, again, everyone on social media shills their work. That's what fandom does. You cannot throw a rock in here without hitting someone who thinks their AU improves on the games. I don't know why IDW is so sacrosanct that saying "I could probably do better" is considered blasphemy.

Whether or not my friends shill their own work as being "better" than IDW or whatever else is irrelevant. IDW staff are professionals (or should be, anyway); what do they care if some rando thinks they can do better? Besides, have you heard Flynn's recent grumblings about how he's tired of having the same conversations about his work since he was in high school? Why does he keep answering questions he doesn't want to dignify with a response? Why does he sound so miserable for someone who essentially Won the Game(tm)?

People telling you your work sucks a couple of times, yeah, maybe you can chalk that up to trolling. But when damn near everyone takes the excuse to hit below the belt, you start to feel less like "don't feed the trolls" and more like you're deliberately being targeted as a punching bag.

And I'm sorry, but I have no patience for that stuff. Take whatever umbrage you want with the state of criticism these days, but leave the fic out of it. That's all I ask.