#I can't stand the misinformation I'm seeing

[bookofmirth]

I've searched literally every ask I've gotten in the past three years because I know I've said it before and I wanted to reblog it, but:

Elain is not the only person who can find/wield Dread Trove items. She never has been. The main requirement for finding Dread Trove items is being Made - it is not related to specific powers. So who is Made?

Elain

Nesta

Feyre

Amren

Miryam

Amren and Miryam's circumstances are a little different, but they were all Made if different ways - Elain and Nesta in the Cauldron, Feyre by the High Lords, Amren made herself, and Miryam... I forget and don't really care. The only reason Feyre didn't try to find the mask and harp in acosf is because she was pregnant. She is still alive and can still find/use those objects, because she is still Made. The main reason that Elain didn't try to find/wield those objects in acosf, despite offering, is because Nesta and Az prevented her.

The point is that all of these characters are Made, and are still Made, and Elain is in no way the only person who can find and/or use these objects.

[broadwayfangirl222]

I don't usually comment on this stuff, like at most I'll just find post I agree with and reblog it but I wanted to share my own thoughts on this:

In light of the leaks and all the spoilers and people commenting on the first two episodes. I'll just say, the anti/critical crowd has lost any and all credibility to me. I don't even mean this in a disparaging or negative way, I just legitimately can not trust their takes anymore. This isn't because I'm a stan who can't stand anyone not liking something they like. I don't care if you like vivziepop's shows or not. Like or don't like whatever you want The reason why I can't can't trust anti/critical takes anymore is because I've seen the most bad faith criticism and takes. I've seen it for the episodes I've seen so since I can't/won't watch the two hazbin episodes yet I'm gonna guess it'll be about the same for those. Like just off the top of my head i've seen takes from ciritics that are like: Somehow it's bad writing for Ozzie to make a whole point about consent, that it's somehow bad for the angels to be similar to the demons (which is the whole point, the point is they're not so different from the demons and the angels are massive hypocrites), Stella never physically abused Stolas 'cause he caught her hand before she could hit him, that somehow this scene between two disabled characters is somehow bad:

not even "it was bad representation because (x,y,z reasons)" Just...it was somehow bad to have this in the episode at all and how the writing for this would've apparently been better if the kid dealt with ableism or was mistreated before this.

And these are from people who at least watch the show/know the basic info about the show since I could be here all day if we go into the misinformation and flat out lies that muddy up the water. Not to mention the harassment being flung at both fans and people working on the shows. I've seen antis/criticals start attacking the people behind prehistoric planet and how the show is now ruined because Vivziepop made a post simply saying she was a fan of it. I've also seen people admitting to lying about working for Spindlehorse so they can lie about how bad the working conditions were. I would genuinely be willing to hear criticism of both the shows and crew if so much of it wasn't obviously done purely in bad faith and there were way less people willing to literally lie and fabricate things to make the shows and crews seem worse than they actually are.

Again I don't care if anyone likes the shows and crew or not. Like I said earlier everyone's entitled to their opinion and nothing/no one is perfect. I just get frustrated about (the lack of) media literacy and care about the very real world consequences that can come from some of the stuff being said/posted. For there to be any kind of actual conversation about this, and not just two camps of people yelling at each other, first, the harassment just needs to stop all together. No one deserves harassment, especially over something as frivolous as a tv show. Next, we need to get rid of misinformation especially when it relates to real people. Actually look into the info you're spreading or see being talked about, make corrections and admit if something ended up being wrong/misinformed.

[curatoroffiction]

Overprotective Part 2

The first post of this story can be found here. The post this story was based off of can be found here.

Your words hit Lucifer like a truck. He grabs your arm, stopping you, and when you turn to yell at him, you pause when you see the visible fear and pain in his expression.

You two are soon joined by Mammon and Beelzebub standing in the doorway, having followed you in your frustration. The two arrive just in time to hear Lucifer ask you "What do you mean you hope you die?"

You didn't really mean it, you were just SO tired. So fucking tired. So done with having every little thing in your life softened and controlled.

Before you can answer, Mammon blurts out "WHAT D'YA MEAN YOU WANNA DIE!?" while Beelzebub quietly stares at you, trying to understand.

Mammon's outburst attracts everyone in the house. It's hard not to hear him.

Soon the brothers are all spilling out the door, and you think you can even see Belphegor somewhere hidden in the background.

You sigh. "… I can't keep doing this thing where you guys control every part of my life. I can barely deal with you controlling ANY part of my life." You shrug Lucifer's grip off your arm, and you finally begin to address the issue head-on.

You look to Levi; "I want to be able to watch sad movies and sad shows. I want to enjoy the angst. I want to be able to cry. It's good! It's healthy! What ISN'T healthy, is avoiding sad things all the time, like they're going to kill me!"

Levi cuts in; "But they COULD kill you!" before quickly getting quiet again, not meaning to talk over you.

You stare at him in frustration and confusion. "… What do you MEAN they can kill me?"

"Humans who watch more sad shows tend to live shorter lives.."

"…" It begins to click for you. But you also have to rectify this misinformation; "Levi, those statistics don't imply causality. If they're even real, they'd imply correlation. People who only watch sad things that are painful probably aren't living very happy lives to begin with. They're probably trying to cope through a tough reality, which would likely be the REAL cause of their shortened lifespan, in conjunction with a HUGE number of other factors."

"…"

"Watching sad shows is good, and can even help with test-running sad scenarios before they happen in a low-stakes environment, which is GOOD for emotional health and wellbeing."

"…"

"If all I ever do is watch sad shows, then yeah, maybe I need help. But that's not the same as watching a few in a rotation of other medias."

Leviathan looks rather embarrassed.

"And you!" You turn your attention towards Asmodeus. "Asmo, you can't keep trying to destress me all the time! Stop giving me creams and tinctures and your new balm of the week! I want to stay up! I want to live a little messy!"

"But those things are GOOD for you! I never push anything on you that I didn't already use myself!"

"That works FOR YOU - It's not going to work for everyone! It makes my stress WORSE when I have to adhere to your strict regimen! It's exhausting and frustrating, and it takes any joy I got out of sharing those bonding moments with you, and sucks the life out of it!"

Asmodeus realizes he never considered that you weren't enjoying being doted on. He LOVES being doted on, so he thought you would want the same thing. Looking at you now though, and realizing his behavior contributed to this stress and this problem that's coming to a head now, he feels… Not great.

As Asmodeus gets quiet, you look to Satan, who is surprised. "Satan, I get that you're worried about my health, but when you treat me like I'm not doing enough? It's so fucking insulting. Telling me to take care of my health like I'm not already doing that. Telling me the statistics of illnesses and injuries isn't useful, it's fear-mongering at best."

"I just thought that someone in this house should be wary of what can befall a human - You're all so delicate."

"But when you treat me like I'm paper, all I want to do is just tear myself apart! If I can't walk down a set of stairs without you telling me the statistics of stair-related injuries and trying to hold my hand, I'm never going to feel like I can live my life! Imagine if YOU had someone constantly walking through your room, telling you the statistics of book avalanche-related injuries, while touching all your stuff and changing everything so you can't live the way you want to!"

The contrast to his own life makes Satan double-take. He never realized he was being controlling and invasive, but your comparison brings light to how his behavior could damage your relationship. "… It would be rage-inducing."

"Exactly! And Belphegor!" Belphegor tries to hide himself, but the brothers part under your frustrated gaze, and you can see the sleep demon anxiously shifting under your scrutiny. "Belphegor, why are you avoiding me??"

"….." He's quiet, struggling to put words to everything. Beelzebub realizes his brother's been hurting, and he hasn't realized because he was so concerned with your wellbeing. Beelzebub gently rubs Belphegor's back, and Belphegor covers his face, looking away as he finally is able to get out the words; ".. I didn't want to hurt you."

His reasoning is different from everyone else's. It's reasonable in the fact that it's already happened.

Though, what DOES make it unreasonable, you have no problem telling him; "If you don't want to kill me, you're not going to! You don't kill people you don't want to! And besides, if it's a fear of accidentally hurting me, that's normal! People accidentally hurt the people they love all the time! People don't accidentally KILL the people they love all the time, and what you did to me when I first arrived in Devildom WASN'T AN ACCIDENT!"

Belphegor is silent, soaking in your explanation.

Your voice softens as you become a little less frustrated, being able to voice everything that's been bottled up inside; "SO- As long as you don't want to kill me, you're not going to. And if you accidentally hurt me? I'll heal. We'll work through it together-"

"What if I hurt you in a way you can't heal from? Demons are strong and- …" It chokes on the edge of his tongue, threatening to come out. He tries to hold it back, but he can't. "And.. I know better than anyone how easy it is to snap your neck. It was like a toothpick. Do you know how terrifying it is to realize that I have to control my strength to that level around you? All it takes is one playful shove, and you could end up in the hospital- Or worse. You're so much more delicate than you realize, and we have to be so much more careful than you realize."

It's here that a silence comes over everyone as you soak in his explanation. You never really realized how difficult it was for the demons to reign in their strength to keep you safe. You thought it was fairly breezy, since everyone else seemed so relaxed until recently.

It's your turn to feel sheepish.

".. I'm.. Sorry. I didn't know. But there has to be a middleground. You avoiding me makes me feel awful. I feel unloved and unwanted and ignored. I don't want to be safe at the cost of our relationship. And my safety shouldn't be an ultimatum."

"…." Belphegor's eyes are sad, and he's been trying to hold back the tears, but he can't. Beelzebub holds him and tries to comfort his brother.

The demon of gluttony realizes he too has been trying to control your life too, which has probably been causing you undue stress, which is probably why you ran out here in the first place. ".. I'm sorry for making your life more stressful, _. I want to keep you safe, but it's obvious that I should have talked with you about it."

The apologies start spilling as one by one, the brothers begin apologizing for controlling your life and making you feel ostracized.

Mammon doesn't apologize as he doesn't feel like he crossed any boundaries, and makes it known when Asmodeus elbows him. "Hey, I didn't cross any boundaries!"

"… I mean, trying to feed me shady vitamins out of a bag is hilarious, but also probably not exactly healthy."

"But I've been making you better food too! Packin' the nutrients in!"

"Is THAT why you learned to cook all these new dishes??"

"YEAH!"

"…" His kindness and effort were sweet, and the least invasive of the brothers' attempts to help you and prolong your life.

But those weren't the only things he was doing. "I need you to stop trying to give me protein shakes and vitamins and whatever 'health supplement' you find on the shelf. The health supplement market is really messed up. I've lowkey been avoiding most of what you give me, because there's no regulation in that market, and it actually COULD hurt me."

He's stunned. He figured some of his methods might've been a bit harmful, but he also figured he would get enough right that it would cancel all the bad stuff out.

You continue; "Can we all find a middleground? Why are you all so scared of me dying right now? Did something happen?"

Lucifer nods, having been listening; "I think a middle-ground would be better. If you're feeling stifled, that's not healthy either. And it's obvious we need to take better care of you-"

"Why do you NEED to take care of me?" You turn to Lucifer, exhaustively. It stops him in his tracks and he stares at you, confused.

"… Because you're precious to us."

"But I'm not helpless. Do you not trust me to reach out when things are getting difficult? I can advocate for myself, Lucifer! It's so demeaning when you treat me like you know better, and like I'm just some bumbling idiot who you have to keep from dying!"

The words cut deep. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to make you feel like he looked down on you. You are one of the most important people in his life, and he adores you. The fact that you haven't been able to see that causes Lucifer to become quiet as he reflects on his own behavior.

He should have reigned in his brothers. He should have given you space. He should have advocated more for giving you your own voice, not talking over you with what you should have been doing.

It all seems so clear and so obvious, but it took you speaking up for him to realize how much he's been ignoring your emotional needs in care of your physical health.

And with this whole meltdown, he's realizing that it was the breaking point.

"I too, am sorry, _. I never meant to make things more difficult for you. I love you dearly. I will be better, going forward."

You finally seem to relax as he apologizes.

But he continues; "Can we please talk about your mortality, though?"

Everyone can see it's not exactly a conversation you WANT to have. But you know it's one you need to have. ".. Okay."

Levi sputters out with his frustration first; "If you die, then I won't be able to share the rest of my life with you. There's so much that can happen when you're gone. I know you're not going to live long, and it scares me. I don't want to reach a day where I want to knock on your door to ask you to hang out, but I know you'll never answer." He's tearing up as he says this, his body physically shaking.

Asmodeus gently rests a hand on Leviathan's shoulder, looking to you, a sad expression on his face. ".. I think a lot of us share that sentiment. We want to get in as many good memories as we can, because you are such a precious, amazing, wonderful person. You are a once-in-eternity kind of person, and we will never be able to fill the hole you'll leave when you die. It's so hard to think of moving on when we've barely gotten to share a life with you."

Satan fidgets with his fingers against his leg, but he can't keep himself contained any longer, cutting in; "Solomon's here to stay forever, why can't you be too? We know it's possible. We know you could stay alive forever. The bastard says he doesn't remember what he did to curse himself with immortality, and every immortality curse I've found comes at a great cost…" He finally looks to you directly. "But all of that aside, it's hard to even broach the topic with you. Do you WANT to live forever? It would be selfish for us to ask you to carry the pain of watching every one of us die, just because we can't bear the sight of losing you. I can't bear the sight of losing you.. But it feels so selfish. And I don't want you to ever reach a point where that sorcerer is the only friend you still have left that hasn't died. …" His voice trails off in frustration, losing his train of thought to the idea of you living eternity alone with Solomon. You can see Satan's grappled with this issue for a while.

Belphegor picks up where Satan left off; "It's hard to imagine a world without you. You came into our lives, and it was like breathing for the first time in a long time. We love who we are because of you.. And I think we're all scared of who we'll become when you're gone. Losing you will be right up there with losing Lilith as the worst things we've ever experienced, and we won't have another you who can help us through it. We wouldn't WANT another you. …. But we simultaneously recognize that it's not your responsibility to help us through it."

Seeing his brothers going back and forth about their feelings, Mammon can't help but be grounded in the moment. ".. I think we wanna take responsibility for it now, because when you're gone, we're gonna hafta take responsibility for it anyways, yeah? …" He looks anywhere but directly at you. "…" His silence is hard as he chokes back the tears, trying not to fall apart in front of his brothers, but between Levi's crying and Asmo's sniffling and everyone else's pain, it's hard for Mammon to keep strong.

So Lucifer steps up to the plate. "We're sorry for pushing all of this on you, _. It shouldn't be your responsibility to help us through the pain and loss that hasn't even afflicted us yet. It's hard to talk about this without accidentally putting pressure on you to choose an eternity that could hurt you so much worse in the long run, just to keep our own heads on straight. Do you understand? We promise, it was never meant to make you feel belittled, we just.. We've never dealt with something like this before; A slow attrition of loss that we either have to accept, or find a way to fight.." He gently rubs your back, looking you in the eyes. ".. And we've never really been the kind of people to back down from a fight."

"…" It all makes sense. And hearing their hearts laid bear like this clutches at your heart. You never wanted them to feel like they couldn't come to you about this, but you understand how it got this bad. It would take facing all of their fears and letting you come to an answer at your own pace, without pressuring you. THAT'S why they tried to prolong your life without saying anything. THAT'S why they kept talking about your health. THAT'S why they kept trying to circumvent the issue.

You continue; ".. I appreciate the honesty, guys. I love you all too. I don't want to leave you guys all alone, but.. You're right. Immortality would be a huge decision. If it's even achievable. … And I understand why this all happened. I understand why you guys pushed the way you did. I think we should keep talking about this, but, taking it a little slower. That way, you guys aren't completely holding back the floodgates, but I also don't get overwhelmed. Whatever happened, whatever fate I choose for myself, I do want it to be my own decision. But I think I NEED to make that decision. I've put it off because I didn't really want to think about it, but.. I don't want to put it off until it's out of our hands."

Lucifer rubs into your back, listening. All the brothers listen.

"Until then, until I figure out if I want eternity or not, can we please go back to how things used to be? I'll do my best to take good care of myself, and advocate my needs, but I need you guys to trust me that I'm going to take care of myself and let me live a little, even if it's risky. I promise, I'm not going to be diving off the roof, but I want to be able to play games that make me sad, eat junk food that gives me pimples and might not be GREAT for my heart. I want to hang out with you guys, even if I could get hurt. I want to not be reminded of my mortality constantly, and be able to make my own choices about my own limits. I promise to be good to myself and reach out if I'm struggling, but you guys gotta promise to be willing to let me take more responsibility for my life again."

"You need some good things in your life though." Levi doesn't want his efforts to get lost in the shuffle.

"I'll make sure to set aside time to enjoy good shows with you that are happy and show how good life can be. Can you sit with me through the sad ones and help me pick up the pieces?"

Levi nods, wiping his eyes.

Asmodeus takes this chance to add; "You also need to be gentler with yourself. You can't be up at all hours of the night every night."

"I'll be good about my self-care, making sure I'm getting good sleep and relaxation. Can you love on me when I don't want to be presentable and good and I want to just throw caution to the wind sometimes when it comes to the littler self-care things? I don't want every minute I spend with you guys to be an exercise in avoiding death. I want to LIVE a little, which means we'll get messy and make some bad decisions sometimes."

"Of course. But only if you're not letting yourself fall to ruin. I don't want to watch you waste away.."

"I promise I'll reach out if I start to struggle, and I'll accept your help if that time comes."

"Thank you."

"And your health-" Satan adds, a little embarrassed, but not wanting it to go unaddressed. "You need to be wary of how dangerous this world is, and how fragile a human body is."

"I won't go throwing myself down the stairs or taking wildly unnecessary risks - So long as you let me take risks and get hurt sometimes. I'd rather you help me patch myself up after getting burned or cut than to live my life constantly cushioned." You look to him so earnestly that Satan is flustered, but he understands. Life without risk isn't exactly living.

"I think I can do that."

You look to Belphegor, who has been quiet this whole time. ".. And Belphegor, can you please be in my life again? I miss you."

"… What if I hurt you again?"

"We'll figure it out together."

"What if I can't control myself?"

"You have 6 brothers who will happily kick your entire ass if you go Human Murderer on me again. You should rely on your support system. Don't be afraid of fighting with me. We need to be able to have fights and disagree and have bad days sometimes. What matters is coming back together and making things right, and relying on our support systems so it doesn't get out of hand. Alright?"

Upon mention, his brothers quickly crowd him and hug him and hold him, reminding him that he's not alone in this. He's not alone in learning how to be better to you.

"…." Belphegor nods, tearing up again, soaking in everyone's love.

Mammon scratches his cheek as he looks to the side and adds "Since we're all talkin' about ways you can stay alive longer.. Can we come to you when we find stuff that could be an option? There's gotta be more options than forever immortality an' death, yeah? Witches stay alive for ages!"

"… Only if you don't pressure me to take it, and you let me be the ultimate decider, and you don't bombard me with stuff all the time. I don't want you coming at me with 'Prolong your life now' schemes every other day. I want to be able to live with you guys, and live the life I have, however long it's going to be. Alright?"

".. Alright." Mammon seems more comforted in the idea that he can keep looking for ways to give you more options.

Beelzebub slowly moves towards you, silently wrapping his arms around you in a hug. You hug him back. The brothers begin all coming close to hug you. Beelzebub apologizes once more; ".. We're sorry for stressing you out. Thank you for listening to us and our concerns. You're important to us. We love you."

Hugging as many of them back as you can as you're squeezed softly into the fold, you respond; "Thank you guys for talking to me about it instead of continuing to be weird and stand-offish. We'll figure it out as we go. In the meanwhile, let's make good memories."

The brothers begin heading inside, you following them.

Lucifer lags behind a little, tugging a trinket out of his pocket. It's a pendant which would keep you from aging which he picked up thinking you might like it - But considering the conversation and the boundaries you've just set, he thinks it would be best to just.. Be in the moment with you.

He stuffs it back into his pocket and comes to join the group in the house, and he opens the door just in time to hear Levi cry out "NO BUT THAT IS THE SADDEST ANIME EVER-" followed by your hallowed cackling of 'making up for lost time'. Lucifer smiles to himself.

However long they have with you, it's the greatest treasure of all.

[olderthannetfic]

I abandoned all fandoms with lots of discourse ongoing for my mental health, but also because I couldn't stand the multitude of people with huge blogs whining that, if anybody told them they had been rude to someone, their immediate response would be "You're just saying this to me because you can't stand a woman of color not bowing down to your will."

For fuck's sake, dude, I'm not seeing your face in real time, I've got no fucking clue of how you look. Unless your blog has a very specific name, no one knows who you are or what experiences you've gone through.

"You're telling me I'm wrong because I'm a POC"

How about I'm telling you you're wrong because you're talking shit/are spreading misinformation/are being a bigot? Why is that never an option?

--

[sharonccrter]

what's baffling to me is this group of fans who feel very confident that lestat is going to continue to be this mustache twirling j depp stand in for the entirety of the show. like do they honestly think the writers are going to throw away 13 books worth of characterization in favor of the one depiction in the Lestat Misinformation Novel or have they somehow managed to avoid all book spoilers?

i think the writers will be able to navigate the flip from antagonist to protagonist with the genpop who don't know anything about the books because they arent thinking as deeply about the societal implications as much as a tumblr/twitter stan looking at this show through a social justice lens. But I have a hard time seeing it work for that subset of fans, and i'm bracing myself for the space here becoming even more contentious than it already is.

Oh, I agree. I think it's going to get worse, especially when we shift from Louis to Lestat being the main character. I definitely think Louis is still going to be a main player, but the narrative is gonna shift, and that's gonna make certain people unhappy.

I also think the writers and Sam have hinted that there are scenes from s1 they plan on revisiting in s3, from Lestat's POV, and I think that's also gonna make certain people unhappy. It will mostly be the non-book readers looking at this show with 2024 morality glasses who can't see that Lestat is more than one thing. Like, I do think s3 will win some people over, but I think people who are dead set on thinking Lestat is some irredeemable abuser are gonna have a hard time. Especially seeing as their looking at this scene completely differently to how the writers intended it to be received.

But hey, book 2 is my favourite, with book 3 coming in a close second, so I'm ready to see them adapted well.

[masterhallmark]

I'm really sick of the "Pirates are Lost Boys who grew up and escaped Pan" theory

1) The book is a children's story, not a horror novel.

2) The idea Peter kills boys who grow up is based on one throwaway line that says he "thins them out" if there are too many, which can mean several different things.

3) HOOK WAS A PIRATE WITH A CREW BEFORE LANDING IN NEVERLAND! He literally has a backstory in the book and several speeches J.M. Barrie gave about going to Eton, running away, and becoming a pirate. The crew arrived in Neverland AS IS.

4) The book mentions Peter will travel with the souls of dying kids halfway to the afterlife so they aren't scared. He also desperately begs children to save Tinkerbell, tries to sacrifice himself for Wendy, saves Tiger Lilly while commenting that the pirates were being unfair when capturing her, even tries to help Hook regain his footing during a fight, and saves the Neverbird's eggs from being destroyed. Does that sound like a psychopath to you?

5) The ONLY TIME we see Peter try to kill a Lost Boy is when he mistakenly thinks said Lost Boy killed Wendy, and said Lost Boy told Peter to kill him. Once it turns out Wendy is alive, not only is the boy forgiven, but the only punishment Tinkerbell (the actual culprit) gets is banishment.

The entire purpose of the book is to contrast the innocence of youth with the responsibilities of adulthood. The negative traits Peter has are meant to show the dangers of refusing to grow up, while Hook is meant to show the dangers of growing up TOO much. Hook OBSESSES over good form and acting proper to the point he almost FAINTS when Wendy sees a stain on his shirt.

Also, the entire book "Peter and Wendy" and every other variation of the story JM Barrie wrote is FREE on the internet. Anyone can read it RIGHT HERE http://neverpedia.com/pan/Read:Peter_and_Wendy

There is no good reason for this misinformation spreading. It is easily available.

Passages from the book under cut, since last time I posted something like this someone tried to argue with me

At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened.

-----

"It lifted Michael off the ground," he cried; "why should it not carry you?"

"Both of us!"

"It can't lift two; Michael and Curly tried."

"Let us draw lots," Wendy said bravely.

"And you a lady; never." Already he had tied the tail round her. She clung to him; she refused to go without him; but with a "Good-bye, Wendy," he pushed her from the rock; and in a few minutes she was borne out of his sight. Peter was alone on the lagoon.

The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.

Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure."

------

Nevertheless the bird was determined to save him if she could, and by one last mighty effort she propelled the nest against the rock. Then up she flew; deserting her eggs, so as to make her meaning clear.

Then at last he understood, and clutched the nest and waved his thanks to the bird as she fluttered overhead. It was not to receive his thanks, however, that she hung there in the sky; it was not even to watch him get into the nest; it was to see what he did with her eggs.

There were two large white eggs, and Peter lifted them up and reflected. The bird covered her face with her wings, so as not to see the last of them; but she could not help peeping between the feathers.

I forget whether I have told you that there was a stave on the rock, driven into it by some buccaneers of long ago to mark the site of buried treasure. The children had discovered the glittering hoard, and when in a mischievous mood used to fling showers of moidores, diamonds, pearls and pieces of eight to the gulls, who pounced upon them for food, and then flew away, raging at the scurvy trick that had been played upon them. The stave was still there, and on it Starkey had hung his hat, a deep tarpaulin, watertight, with a broad brim. Peter put the eggs into this hat and set it on the lagoon. It floated beautifully.

The Never bird saw at once what he was up to, and screamed her admiration of him; and, alas, Peter crowed his agreement with her. Then he got into the nest, reared the stave in it as a mast, and hung up his shirt for a sail. At the same moment the bird fluttered down upon the hat and once more sat snugly on her eggs. She drifted in one direction, and he was borne off in another, both cheering.

-----

"It was poisoned, Peter," she told him softly; "and now I am going to be dead."

"O Tink, did you drink it to save me?"

"Yes."

"But why, Tink?"

Her wings would scarcely carry her now, but in reply she alighted on his shoulder and gave his nose a loving bite. She whispered in his ear "You silly ass," and then, tottering to her chamber, lay down on the bed.

His head almost filled the fourth wall of her little room as he knelt near her in distress. Every moment her light was growing fainter; and he knew that if it went out she would be no more. She liked his tears so much that she put out her beautiful finger and let them run over it.

Her voice was so low that at first he could not make out what she said. Then he made it out. She was saying that she thought she could get well again if children believed in fairies.

Peter flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties, and naked papooses in their baskets hung from trees.

"Do you believe?" he cried.

Tink sat up in bed almost briskly to listen to her fate.

She fancied she heard answers in the affirmative, and then again she wasn't sure.

"What do you think?" she asked Peter.

"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."

Many clapped.

Some didn't.

A few beasts hissed.

The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to get at the ones who had hissed.

"And now to rescue Wendy!"

[queenhellwitch]

Jared Fucking Padalecki.

Re: Twitter, and the bunches of people who are criticising Jared for not being as good at acting as Jensen (misinformation about Jared's "problematic nature" aside, the intricacies of "he's not your fave but he's right there in every episode so he's not a bad actor, he just annoys you" aside, and the [probably correct] "you just hate him cuz he's not part of your ship" ideas also aside...)

It's so easy to see Sam as the boring, huffy, grumpy one who is only there to piss Dean off and to piss on Dean's always ever-so-hilarious bonfire (I've actually seen people use Sam's 'I'm so done with this shit' persona as the reason to claim Jared is a bad actor - that he's merely playing himself, just stands there and "huffs and puffs", he's booooring, wah wah. Tell me you've never seen Jared being Jared without telling me etc etc...)

And then there are people who understand and love Sam. We relate. His trauma is palpable and we see it and feel it and can't ignore it, like a lot of fans of this show seem to do.

But there's an extra nuance - and I'm gonna be extra patronising here - it's called understanding the dynamics of the game. Acting is a game of tennis. It's a call and response, a dance. J2 talk about it ALL THE TIME.

Dynamics. J2's chemistry, their brotherly relationship on and off screen and love for each other cannot be denied. But also, thanks to these TWO SKILLED ACTORS, Sam and Dean are a beautifully crafted comedy duo. The clip from "LARP and the Real Girl", where Sam suggests belladonna, and Dean and Charlie say "The pornstar?!" - that scene? There is a beat. Of perfect length.

And Sam says, "...the poison." It is a great example of masterful acting/comedy dynamics. People who clip/gif this scene after "The pornstar?!" and miss the next line absolutely suck. The reaction from Jared/Sam is what absolutely MAKES this moment as great as it is. It is absolutely, perfectly perfect, straight-man comic timing. He masters it, every time, every episode.

Then there's all the other things he does to bring the Sam I love to full, dynamic, dimensional life. Let me count the ways.

Just the other day I watched a clip of 20-year-old Jared giving an interview with the rest of the cast of "House of Wax". He talked about the lighting, the angles; he mentioned all sorts of things. Bashful, rosy-cheeked and so earnest, full of awe and respect for the art of filmmaking, even when his fellow young cast members were either jibing each other, or silently lounging, sunglasses on, like rockstars.

He's a beautiful actor because he cares so much about how a story is told.

He's a beautiful actor and one who deserves to be celebrated.

https://youtu.be/toiE_Q5S290

[antiendovents]

I'm just so fucking tired of endogenics the amount of panic attacks I've had over them is insane??? I mean like I understand them to a degree but like what the fuck man. This is my disorder not yours, to go and gatekeep and pretend that this all can just magically happen. Like dude this isn't some fucking magically friends in your head type deal. This all genuinely is a TRAUMA DISORDER. AND SHOULD BE TREATED. LIKE A DISORDER. NOT NORMALIZED.

Honestly a part of me wants to become pro endo just to get it over with and then just accept the fact they exist or some shit even though they don't and they're all just systems in denial....

yeah. Endos have caused us lots of stress before, I swear just seeing them in our communities doubles our stress level automatically. I hate how they mock our disorder and act like it's something desirable or fun to have. Sometimes I wanna just be endos neutral but based off the amount of hurt and misinformation endos spread (and cause) I cannot do it. I can't stand endos. We understand being tired, but we just can't ever imagine being pro-endo. Even being endo-neutral sort of irks us at this point, because like how are you neutral on science?? (I understand how, I just get really pissed off at times, do not take this personally).

[matan4il]

I spent some time with a friend yesterday. We briefly came on the topic of Palestine. Briefly because I knew we would have opposing views as she's Muslim. I have sympathy for Israeli and Palestinian civilians. She only has sympathy for Palestinian civilians. She wouldn't even refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation. And it made me wonder how many Muslims have been told that Hamas is not evil? How many are taught that Israel is getting what it deserves? It makes me wonder why there are many many pro Palestine protests calling for a ceasefire but Jewish communities are getting no support whatsoever. Saying the word Israel feels like it is something dirty. And I am scared. I know Israel and Palestine have been in conflict for years and Israel has oppressed Palestine for a very long time. But how can people think that a terrorist organisation will bring them liberation?

Hi Nonnie, I'm sorry you had this experience. I'm sending you hugs!

I wanna introduce you to Mansour Abbas:

He's a devout Muslim Israeli Arab, and the chairman of an Arab Islamic party in Israel. He's not a part of the current governing coalition in Israel, but he was a part of the last one. He is still a member of the Knesset (MK, member of the Israeli parliament).

A few days ago, MKs were invited to see a 40+ minutes long film composed of footage from the Hamas terrorists, CCTV, victims cellphone recordings, etc. It's some of the horrors that most people haven't seen. No MK had to attend, and quite a few chose not to. I can understand, many of those who watched the footage fell apart, some couldn't stay to the end.

Mansour Abbas chose to come, and he brought with him two MKs from his party. One of the Jewish MKs said Abbas was crying during the screening. Abbas himself made it clear that what the Hamas terrorists did was sacrilege and goes against everything that Islam stands for. When one of the members of his party, an MK who didn't attend the screening, denied the horrors of the massacre, he demanded that she resign from the Knesset (heads of parties can't fire MKs, the latter have to resign). She's refusing to, and according to journalists, Abbas is looking for other ways in order to sanction her.

I'm saying all of this, because I want it to be clear that, much like every other human group, Muslims are not a monolith. Yes, there is a history of antisemitism in Muslim majority countries, that tends to be ignored (something that we have to address, if we want any hope of eradicating that antisemitism and make relations between Jews and Muslims better). Yes, there is a tendency to present the Palestinian issue to Muslims as if it's an Islamic issue, so they're all meant to take the same stand on it (and of course that can go hand in hand with a lot of misinformation. I have an online friend, who lives in a country, where I expect none of what she hears about Israel and Hamas is true). But Muslims are not a monolith, especially ones who live in the west, and have free and full access to information, to the real historical records, and not just to anti-Israeli propaganda.

So that brings me to two points that can and do coexist:

I do NOT want to treat all Muslims automatically as if they will for sure be against Israel to the point of having no empathy for Israelis and/or Jews...

If they are against Israel to that extreme degree, and if they are living in a western country, then it is, at least partly, on them.

And in this context, I'd like to share this vid that was sent to me.

So regarding this friend, I guess it's a question of how you feel about it. Do you think she has the conditions to look beyond this narrative, and see Israelis as people, who deserve empathy just like everyone else, and yet she doesn't?

(as a very small footnote, I wouldn't say that Israel oppresses Palestine, 'coz that makes this conflict far more one-sided than it actually has been...)

I'll say that for myself, that friend who lives in a country that is defined as an enemy of Israel? Where she will never get the truth (and that country doesn't exactly have free press in general)? I don't hold it against her. In her context, it's pretty amazing she's even talking to me when she knows I'm an Israeli. But other Muslim friends I have? Or even other non-Muslim friends from the west, who know Jews, who should know better than to uncritically accept a de-humanizing narrative? Yeah, I feel differently about them. IDK if this helps you in figuring out how you feel about this girl. I hope it does.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

It’s funny that Omid is pushing that Harry is willing to speak to Charles and William. According to Harry in Spare, during that conversation after Philip’s funeral, William told him that he loved him and just wanted him to be happy and even used their secret Diana code, but it was Harry who turned down William by saying he doesn’t believe him anymore even though William swore on Diana’s life. It was only after that, it seems, that William began to truly cut Harry off. During the Queen’s death, he didn’t bother replying to Harry anymore. So my interpretation is, Harry refusing to believe William during their conversation during Philip’s funeral really hurt William. Imo, the only thing that could bring the brothers together is Diana, and that didn’t work, that’s why I do believe their relationship is now irraparable and not even Charles’s cancer diagnosis and eventual death in the future could fix it.

But my question is, what changed with Harry? He refused to believe William when he said he loved him and wanted him to be happy, so why is he now positioning himself as the one willing to make amends? Did he just have to publish Spare first? Is it kind of like “let me just get this off my chest and out into the world first before I make amends”? Lol.

But also, William said during Philip’s funeral that he was feeling really bad about how things turned out. Do you think Harry is justified for not believing William swearing on Diana’s life because William is guilty of having done something bad to Harry? Do you think William icing Harry off ever since that conversation might suggest that William does think he has legs to stand on and is not entirely guilty?

I think Harry is an unreliable narrator and probably dramatized the confrontation with Charles and William. I can't see a 40 year old man, certainly not one as composed as William, screaming "I swear on Mummy's life" -- not ever, and certainly not in public or outdoors where someone could risk hearing them.

(And also the idea that the only way Charles can discipline his almost 40-year-old sons is to threaten them with their mother? Look, I know it's different in the UK and the royals are different from everyone else, but that's just bizarre.)

Imo, the only thing that could bring the brothers together is Diana, and that didn’t work, --> This is actually really astute, anon. I think this is exactly what has happened between them. Someone invoked Diana and it crossed a line for the other one. If I had to guess, it was Harry invoking Diana in the Oprah interview that crossed a line for William and those tensions boiled over at the Frogmore Peace Summit.

So getting to your questions -- Harry is much like Meghan in that he projects what he feels/does onto other people. That he doesn't believe William swearing on Diana's life means anything is because he himself doesn't believe that swearing on Diana's life mean anything. (And if invoking Diana is the only way to stop this, then why didn't it happen sooner? Why didn't Harry invoke Diana with the "misinformation" in 2018/2019?)

Most likely there was destructive behavior on both sides and both brothers are justified in how they perceived, received, and responded to it. Does that make one more justified than the other? I don't think so - but what Harry implies is that William is "wrongest" because he's the oldest, so it's on William to fix everything. Which is shitty. But also perfectly normal because in some families, you never grow out of the "role" you were assigned as a child. How normal that the BRF is like this too.

And yes. William icing Harry out since Philip's funeral does mean that he feels he's right in whatever happened. But they've both dug in and they're both entrenched on their own "I'm right, he's wrong" side that nothing will probably fix this. William not budging on any of this, especially in light of the cancer diagnosis, does make me think William knows more about whatever this is than Harry thinks he does and that is playing a bit role in what's happening. Or not happening.

what changed with Harry? He refused to believe William when he said he loved him and wanted him to be happy, so why is he now positioning himself as the one willing to make amends? Did he just have to publish Spare first? Is it kind of like “let me just get this off my chest and out into the world first before I make amends”? -> Sort of. Judging by the interviews Harry did to promote Spare before the book came out, he was expecting everyone to become much more sympathetic to him and that Spare would restore his reputation and make him popular again. But instead, Spare made him a complete laughingstock, no one took him seriously, and it performed poorly (it didn't sell out, he probably didn't make his advance, and the Spanish PRB branch undercut his marketing by leaking early). In other words, Spare only made Harry's life more miserable. He's going back to the royal family demanding amends because those stories get him the positive attention he wants, makes William look like a bully (which he tried to do in Spare but no one bought it), and he thinks he can legitimately lovebomb the BRF into taking him back because after all, if that's how Meghan got him to fall in love with her, then surely if he does it to his family, it'll make them like him again.

[freevoidman]

The Pros and Cons of Silent Hill: Ascension

Hey there! Are you planning on sitting through Silent Hill Ascension, either because you're excited, want to build up hype/support for further Silent Hill projects, or maybe you're curious about what new shit show Konami's cooked up? Well, I've sat through the first two days, and let this post be a quick run-through on the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly about Silent Hill: Ascension!

Pros:

There's honestly very little, but I'll run through them nonetheless.

Voice Acting is, right now, okay. Some actors are clearly better than others. I have to give special shout-outs to Rachel Hernandez and Xavier Candless. They're both doing really well with their characters so far and I'm excited to hear how they'll act in more emotive scenes. Of course, we're only two days in so we'll see how that changes.

Silent Hill Ascension features minigames which average around "okay." I'll talk about it more in the 'Bad' section, but the good ones are fun little brain teasers that I find satisfying enough to solve. This is not across the board, but it's enough of a positive that I felt it okay to list.

The site is functional enough that the catch-up videos seemed to work without any hiccups (edit: so long as there isn't a livestream occurring at the same time. If you want to play catch-up 30 minutes before the new stuff is released, odds are the livestream will cut in and mess up your video). Plus, the grace period for decision making is very generous so far, ranging from a full 24 hours to multiple days, so they do give you enough time if you can't watch live.

Credit where credit is due: the monster/creature designs are genuinely well-made. You can clearly see where the budget went, and it was towards making these things look cool and be animated well enough to translate that creepy factor. While nothing is abundantly original right now (we've yet to see the flaming box head guy) I won't short-change the monster designers and animators here, they put effort into this.

There was a bit of misinformation spread around that you'd have to pay to participate. Thankfully, that's not true, you can "play" Ascension without paying a cent and I, personally, wouldn't call this a "pay-to-win" type of game with its set-up. In other words: DO NOT PAY, it's absolutely not worth it here.

Bad:

Animation quality shifts from middling to horrible. The main criticism I have for this "experimental idea" is that everything Ascension tries, the 2000s nailed long before. If you've ever seen one of those 3D straight-to-TV movies that airs on cartoon networks during the holidays, congrats, their animation is likely better and has more charm than Ascension. Characters in Ascension move stiffly, either emote too much or not enough, and lip syncing seems off no matter which language you pick. Animation in SH1 is easily better than this, so don't expect a visual spectacle.

As an addendum to this: Ascension is dark--no, not the content, it is literally hard to see. Going into a Silent Hill-adjacent media, you expect visibility to be impacted by fog. Ascension, on the other hand, skips the fog entirely and just makes everything dark. It is incredibly difficult to see anything that's happening (this includes QTEs which, hoo boy! look at the next segment for that). I don't want to be cynical, but I truly do believe that part of the reason why is to cover up the stiff animation. Until Dawn and other Dark Anthology games had some moments of animation weirdness, but Silent Hill Ascension is easily worse than that on a pure technical level.

App and website responsivity is baaad. Minigames are designed for both platforms with zero differences, but this means some minigames are better on desktop than on mobile and vice versa. Two minigames stand out as particularly mixed/bad: a find-the-object game and a guitar minigame. The find-the-object game was better on desktop because your hovering cursor could find clickable areas more easily than on mobile. The guitar minigame was just bad--it wasn't a rhythm game, it was a game where you had to click finger positions for chords on the guitar strings and, my god, it played horribly no matter which platform I picked (though mobile was noticeably worse) and actually hurt my ears.

As an addendum to that, the live QTE events (yes that's a thing) ALSO suffer from this lack of responsivity, with more destructive results. Live participants were abruptly thrust into QTEs with no warning, no tutorials, and no preparation. There were 4 types of QTEs: a quick button press, a hold-release button, a rapid-tap, and a quick swipe. Of these, only the hold-release and rapid-tap worked regularly. The quick press barely responded, and the swipe indicator is practically hidden due to it being borderline invisible.* While you can try the minigames over and over as much as you want, the QTEs are limited to the live showings and cannot be "replayed." In addition, they have been heavily implied to be a major determining factor as to whether or not characters survive, so if every character's fate is based on successful QTEs, every character is going to die in this show, no matter what you do. This is why I said it's not pay-to-win, you can't pay your way through live QTEs, and this set-up feeds into the unsatisfactory system the entire "game" perpetuates. Even if YOU do well, decisions are based on the community, so if they fail, tough nugs.

The story isn't shaping up to be anything remarkable. There's no major hook in the opening scene and even less of a hook for the three scenes that followed. I'm not intrigued by the "horror" being shown, the way this is being shot and told is more confusing than anything else and, while there are some 'good' actors in this, a majority of them are bad and lack any hutzpah to sell the continued experience. I'm going to hold out for the end of the week, when the first "episode" is done airing, but if nothing hooks me I'm not going to continue.

Ugly:

The "Battlepass." Oh dear god the Battlepass. By paying $20, you can get more "influence points," which you can use to determine actions in this game. You also get exclusive little emote stickers for the live chat (oof) that are, at best, a cringey nightmare and, at worst, absolutely stupid and useless. You also get accessories for your avatar (did I mention there's an avatar? it's so pointless I don't even know WHERE to put that tidbit). Why is this even here? You already have freemium options where you can buy influence points, what does a battlepass add?

The "live chat" just shouldn't be there. I'm sorry, it shouldn't. You can already see the community casting votes and helping with QTEs, having a live chat that is barely moderated with hundreds of thousands of people signing on at 9 to watch the stupidity unfold is a bad idea. It also contributes to the stupidity of the Battlepass system--I don't want emotes, I don't want a 3D avatar that can appear in the show if I give enough points--so nix the whole thing. EDIT 11/1/2023: I kinda got my wish! After the amazing lack of moderation on launch, they've either temporarily OR permanently disabled the live chat! Unfortunately, the video's dimensions to compensate FOR live chat have not been altered, so there's a big gap of black negative space where it should be. People can only reply with the dumb stickers the devs have shoved into this, BUT if you have the battlepass, you can apparently type messages! Ironically, this retroactively gives the battle pass an actual fucking purpose since it gives you a privilege, and the stickers serve a purpose since they're the only way for non-battlepassers to communicate in live chat. Fucking brilliant, they've stumbled backwards into an unintentional solution. EDIT 11/4/2023: Genvid's CEO, Jacob Navok, has made various claims on twitter that of course they tested they tested their AI moderation for basic slurs, it's just that the system got overwhelmed by day 1 traffic. Well, I absolutely DON'T believe that (the testing, not the overwhelmed thing, connection and stability were terrible day 1) seeing as people are getting around not being able to TYPE swearing and horrific racial slurs into chat by simply making their usernames swears and slurs without any letter substitution (a la leetspeak). Here is a link to a video of someone who was streaming Ascension and had the chat open, only to see have someone with the user name "Fuck_[n-word]s" in chat (I'm not typing the actual slur fuck that). When he goes to try and flag the user, he is given no ability to report the username. So, yeah, even if you see some incredibly racist/bigoted shit, you can't flag the user and report them to, y'know, assist with the absolutely real robot-powered moderation that totally exists! If there was the most BASIC moderation in the world to catch english swears and slurs, that username would not have been permitted under any circumstances, so I fully do not believe this fucker.

The decisions themselves shouldn't have labels. What I mean by that is that, so far, every option has three possible options. These options are labelled under three categories: redemption, suffering, and damnation. In other words, the watcher can literally see the paths leading towards the "good, neutral, and bad" endings for Ascension. This shouldn't be a thing, period, because it immediately introduces biases into your choices. Every option so far has been massively skewed towards the "redemption" path because people aren't blind, they can see the "good" ending on the horizon, and they want to go for it. The worst part is, the options on their on aren't explicitly good or bad, so if they got rid of that labeling it'd still work. idk, it just feels stupid. (NOTE: day 2 introduced ONE choice that doesn't have this same labeling system. No clue if that's a bug or if there are going to be decisions that don't have a label. Even then, it seems like a small decision in the overall scheme of things, so... :shrug:)

Yes, the decisions are permanent, thus denying you the ability to see 2/3s of whatever Genvids has worked on. I just think that's dumb and, though many in the community have criticized this already, it feels even dumber when watching the show play out live. There's no way that the money Ascension could possibly make would subsidize the effort put into this if you're effectively nixing 2/3s of anything you can see (and it does seem like major alterations to the characters and their routes so far, nothing minor, so... yeah, you're missing out on a LOT). This also means that because of the audience effectively being enticed to pick the clearly labelled "good path," if you put any effort into a different choice, odds are you wasted your time with minigames for the day. This means Ascension is set up to be as unsatisfying as possible for individuals, and only satiates half of the community engaging with it. There is no way this is going to last the entire scheduled 6 months this is intended to run for if this is the system they're operating under.

In conclusion: give this one a pass. If you're really curious, you can watch now and get a good idea of its future quality. This isn't remarkable at all and looks more like a time sink than anything "fun."

I still don't understand why this isn't a video game, other than Konami hoping some suckers will pay for the influence packs and get them more money than a $60 one-time-purchase. Quantic Dreams and Supermassive "Dark Anthology" games are really fun and well-liked because of the CYA angle they take. This could've made a decent amount of money if it were just, y'know, a normal game.

*MINOR EDIT: tested the QTEs on desktop instead of mobile and they were better overall: prompts respond easily to mouse clicks and aren't nearly as invisible on my phone screen compared to my desktop. If you are REALLY interested in trying it live and getting a feel of the "authentic, live experience", I'd recommend accessing the site on desktop over downloading a mobile app.

EDIT 11/2/2023

Yeah I know I keep editing this honestly BUT I do have a big-ass critique I just noticed relating, again, to the minigames.

Here is a screenshot of the rewards you can receive for your performance with the minigames. You are rated on a scale of 1-3 stars, with a failure being 0 stars. In return for your performance, you gain "Interactive Points" and EXP. Tell me, after looking at this screenshot, what the problem with these rewards might be:

Do you see it? Well, if you don't, let me point it out to you.

THE AMOUNT OF INTERACTIVE POINTS YOU RECEIVE, THE CURRENCY YOU USE TO ACTUALLY MAKE DECISIONS AND PROPERLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE STORY, GOES DOWN IF YOU DO WELL AT THE MINIGAMES. THE GAME ACTIVELY PUNISHES YOU FOR PLAYING WELL.***

100 interactive points, by the way, is not enough to vote on a decision! You need 200 minimum. You also cannot repeatedly play the minigames to farm IP or EXP so, once you get two stars, you can't get the rewards for three or vice versa. And remember, if you're not a battlepasser, you only get two of these minigames per day.

Why on earth is it scaled this way? The difference between two stars and three stars is the exact same, why does it not increase when you do the minigames well? 100 for one star, 200 for two, 300 for three, it's so god damn easy AND you can still keep the scummy interactive point packages they sell!

But, I here you asking, what does the EXP do? Well, ignoring that a 10 EXP difference is exceeding minimal, EXP gives you... nothing!

Yeah, not even kidding with this one. There does seem to be a leveling system attached to your profile, but I cannot see a single thing connecting it to rewards (which are across the board useless), giving you a power boost with your voting, or just giving you perks. As far as I'm aware, EXP doesn't grant you a god damn thing, and that's the only increased reward from doing well.

***CORRECTION (because nothing in my life can ever be simple): the minigames DO reward you better than the screenshot above. Just did today's minigames and I got 330 IP from a 2 star ranking. However, if that's the case, I GENUINELY do not understand why this is labelled incorrectly? This doesn't even add up correctly (the 1 star + 2 star ranking should equal 300, NOT 330).

So, at best, the site is poor at labelling things (which wouldn't surprise me, the UI is a mess most days on this) OR my view of the site/rewards are bugged! Who fuckin' knows at this point. Sorry for the long rant y'all but honestly? Considering I only noticed the labelling earlier today and couldn't test this until the reset happened, I could only go off the labelled point system above.

I WILL say that tonight was the first night the community succeeded at the endurance scenes! I'd be happier about that if the game itself gave a shit, because apparently, what we do does not matter (as this game seems rapt with telling us)

Yes folks, despite the community succeeding two (2!) of these long ass, repetitive QTE events, for some fucking reason, Karl's hope went down further! This is, again, despite the fact that the community AT LARGE succeeded for the first time since the premiere date, but we still lost! Fucking how.

[jikookuntold]

thank you for that, I went down a rabbit hole and needed a level headed person to explain. JM and MY seem really close and I guess I found it more believable than other ships. I absolutely adore JK and JM and I cannot, as a new Army, understand how people cannot see their bond and try and find moments that aren’t there with others, or looks or touches or even in a behind the scenes where they say JM was moaning in Sugas room. It’s so disrespectful of all the members to do this. It grosses me out tbh.

You are weclome, and I appreciate your trust in me. That's true, Jimin and Yoongi are very close, and Jimin has sweet moments with Yoongi just like he does with Namjoon, Hobi or Jin as his other hyungs. But the reason Ymners make up and spread disrespectful lies and misinformation like that, is very clear, and it's Ymn being the side ship for Tkk which has the biggest group of shippers in the fandom. They use Ymn to complete and secure their fantasies, and in one way or another, they need to include Jimin in those fantasies.

But how did we come to this? It's kinda complicated. When you are new in the fandom as a shipper, things are a bit confusing because you are not educated enough to fact-check things, and it's difficult to see what's important as a ship moment and what's not. Unfortunately many shippers take advantage of this confusion and lack of knowledge, and manipulate the newcomers with edited, cropped and altered content or totally twisted narratives.

Every new fan has exprienced this manipulation in some level. Even I, as a Jikooker, had noticed that some of the moments I had watched in compilation videos, were cropped or taken out of context. But I never find anything that was changed in a manipulative way or made out of thin air. I'm not claiming that everything Jikookers say is true, but we can claim that when some misinformation starts to spread, it usually gets corrected and doesn't go on for a long time. Some Jikookers even go overboard with this and start to dismiss the legit moments, and that's why we have a big breed of woke Jikooker, which I don't understand why they bother calling themselves Jikooker, but their wokeness is usually the starting point for the process of leaving.

Anyways, I stopped watching YT analysis and even compilation videos after 2019 and followed everything real-time, but after a while, I realized watching original content is not the only thing you need to do. And there are two other things you need to keep in your mind:

1. Ships and being ship focused all the time, ruins your experience as a fan. If you keep being focused on who stands next to whom, who touches whom, who mentions whom, you can't enjoy the content you are consuming. I'm not saying I don't focus on my ship, because I clearly do it in a deep level, but I try to separate it from my experience as a content consumer, that's the reason I have this blog to organize my thoughts and perceptions on Jikook and it help me not to go down into that rabbit hole.

2. Details matter, but you should not get caught up in them. We pay attention to the details when we review and analyze the moments, but not every detail matters. For example, the date on Jimin's freezer screen was an important and clarifying detail in that content, but JK saying "It's been a while" is an insignificant detail. He could have said it as a mere joke, or refering to the house or maybe just two hours of separation from Jimin is a "while" in JK's dictionary, we don't know. We don't know many things, and we can't judge and analyze everything. Fighting with haters who try to debunk these insignificant details has no use and just gives them the sense of victory they are looking for.

When you try to see things as a whole and stop focusing on irrelevant and insignificant stuff, your mind starts to filter out the unimportant facts and moments and detail, and you don't get insecure or defensive when someone questions or even debunks those details. And what remains, is a collection of special, huge and undeniable facts and moments that spoke by themselves. The level of undeniablity is so high here, that the antis need to use conspiracy theories like fanservice and company force to dismiss them. And I think that's very telling.

[goaways-stuff]

Heyyy can I request some soft smut with Steven Grant?

As in this being his first time and he doesn't really know what to do and he's his usual stressed and anxious self not wanting to do anything wrong and accidentally messing up a lot like this?

Kinda him needing a lot of reassuring from the reader and him being lowkey embarrassed about feeling arousal for the reader

Yes, I love this anon! Steven is so soft and sweet and such an adorable dork.

Reassurance

pairing: Steven Grant x gn!reader (mentions of Jake Lock and Marc Spector x gn!reader)

warnings: smut, loss of virginity, fingering, oral (male and gender neutral receiving), unprotected sex

summary: Y/N's coming to Steven's flat for the first time. He's beyond nervous, but his nerves are settled after a good time with his lover

word count: 3k

a/n: I don't have DID myself, but tried to stay accurate to the show and real life, so if there's any harmful stereotypes/misinformation please don't hesitate to call me out. Also thank you so much for all the love on the moon knight fics recently!

dividers by @firefly-graphics

Nervous was one way to put it for Steven; you were coming over to his flat for the first time. After several dates of getting to know each other, you suggested meeting up at one of your places for a night in. You wanted a night with him of just the two of you alone, with the exception of Marc and Jake, of course. You had only met them a few times but considered yourself in a relationship with the three of them nonetheless.

Steven paced the floors and watched the clock tick, waiting for your knock on the door. The tea was being kept warm on the stove, and dinner was almost ready in the oven. What if you didn't like the food? Was his flat too messy? Doubts were running through his mind. He did try to clean up; the books were put away, but it was still cluttered as he had so many. He mentally cursed his fixation on ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology.

A soft, rhythmic knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Coming!" He shouted, scrambling to the door. He struggled with the locks before smoothing his shirt out. He took a deep breath and opened the door. "Y/N- I," his breath caught in the back of his throat at the sight of you. "Wow, you look amazing," he said with a love-stricken look on his face. You sure did clean up nice. Your outfit was fancy but casual enough for a dinner and movie at home. How did you manage that?

"Oh gods, come in, love. I'm so sorry; I was just staring at you like a knob. " He apologized as he realized you were still standing outside his door.

"No worries, Steven. I mean, look at you, handsome. Love this shirt; it looks really good on you." You said, going in for a kiss on the cheek.

Steven swore his heart nearly beat out of his chest like an old cartoon. You kissed his other cheek as well; you had to make it even.

"How do you like your tea? I've got some freshly made on the stove, and dinner should be ready any minute now."

I'll take it however you take yours," You smiled, taking in his flat. It was just so...Steven. The books that had been attempted to be put neatly on the shelves, the goldfish swimming in his tank with postcards surrounding it, a cluttered table with open books next to scribbles in a notebook. Steven returned with the tea and immediately started apologizing again.

Y/N, darling, I'm so sorry, I should've offered you a seat, here- come sit down with me and I'll get a movie started, yeah? Or do you want to wait on dinner, and we can just...talk? I don't know; I've never really had anyone over before. This is so new to me," He rambled.

"It’s okay, Steven. I was just checking out your flat -"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout it - not the nicest or cleanest around. Sorry for the clutter. I just get way too ahead of myself, and I see a book on anything Ancient Egypt, then BAM! It's here at home with me. Can't help myself, ya know?"

"I was actually going to complement it. I really like it. I mean, it's cozy, and I love the goldfish. It's very you, and I like you," A blush spread across his face. He muttered to himself about how He could hardly believe anyone like you could like silly ol' him. You went to finally take your seat beside him before the oven went off, signaling that dinner was ready.

The two of you ate and struck conversations with each other. You were still curious about Marc and Jake and asked how they were doing. "They're alright; we're all still trying to adjust with being aware of each other and all, ya know? Definitely weird, and I'm actually surprised that it didn't scare you off. I mean, if it were me, I would've if I were you."

You grabbed ahold of his hand and rubbed your thumb across it. Wow, he had big hands. Long, thick fingers. No- not the time.

"Steven, I like you, and while surprising, it doesn't scare me off. I like you, and I like Marc and Jake, too. I'm excited for what our future together holds."

Yet, another blush spread across Steven's face. How did he manage to snag you? I mean, you had been his longest relationship so far, and you wanted more with him; you wanted to have a future with him. His heart fluttered in his chest, which turned into butterflies in his stomach. He squeezed your hand and looked up at you once more with a love-stricken face. It was your turn to blush now. He didn't even have to say words to describe how much he liked you as you could see it in his eyes. His gorgeous, coffee eyes.

"I guess we should get the movie started, yeah?" He asked, interrupting the silence. You smiled. "Yeah, I guess we should."

He got up and then took your hand in his, being the gentleman he is and leading you to the couch. He turned on a movie you both agreed upon before taking his seat next to you. You leaned your head on his broad shoulder, causing him to stiffen before relaxing into your touch. Eventually, you moved your legs over his lap and, unknown to you, pressed your thigh against his dick. His heart quickened, and his breath hitched. You turned your head, looking at him with concern. He played it off as a cough and shifted his hips, but he only rubbed his dick against your thigh, which didn't help him whatsoever. He was more aware of how good you looked and how your clothes only accentuated your gorgeous body. He wrapped his arm around you, trying to return the same affection you were giving him. The feeling of you under his hands just worsened his problem. Poor, touch-starved Steven was embarrassed. He felt as though he was sullying this special moment with you. His problem just kept growing, especially as you shifted your his on top of him, and he struggled to keep an ungodly noise in.

While you didn't yet notice his arousal, you did notice his struggle and were concerned for him once again. "Steven, are you sure you're okay? Is this too much? I can move or-"

"No, you're perfect, sorry, I mean, you're fine. I mean, you are perfect. You just don't have to move, I'm fine- I just. I'm sorry, I don't want to sully the moment I just…" He trailed off and went quiet.

"Steven, you can talk to me. I know things are still new, but I won't judge. You're not ruining the moment, pinky promise." You said, holding out your pinky to him. He smiled lightly and took it in his pinky before taking a deep breath.

"I just, when you put your legs over me, your thigh kinda- was on my- your thigh was on my dick and then I tried to shift my hips so it wasn't but it only made it worse, then you shifted your hips- not that it's your fault. And I couldn't help but notice how good you look, and now I've got a whole problem," He said, gesturing to his crotch. You immediately swung your legs off of him. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't meaning to, I swear. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do-"

"No, it's not that I don't want to, I mean- unless you don't want to, I just, I've never done anything before. Nothing past a bit of making out." His face was fully blushed, and he was fully embarrassed. He had ruined the moment, and now you were worried about him, and you were worried that you had ruined the moment.

"Do you want to do it? Tonight?" You asked, you could feel arousal sparking in you at the hope of finally feeling him.

"Oh, gods yes- but only if you want to," He said shakily. You pushed yourself into his lap, your legs on either side of him.

"I want to. We can go slow if you want, and if at any point it's too much, we can stop. Okay?"

He nodded. You leaned in and kissed him gently at first. You let him get comfortable and encouraged his hands to roam your body. You moved your own hands into his hair, massaging his scalp and pushing his face into yours. He let out a soft moan as you started grinding your hips into his. You deepened the kiss further and caressed his face.

You finally pulled away for a breath, and the sight in front of you had you even more aroused than you already were. Steven's lips were slightly swollen and reddened from your kisses and light nips, and his eyes were blown with lust. His breathing was labored, and his hands were gripping into you, eager for more. You went for the buttons on his shirt, looking up at him for permission. He nodded frantically. You unbuttoned it, one by one, taking your sweet time as you slowly revealed more and more of his body. You admired his build. He was hiding all of this under his baggy clothing. His perfect abs and pecs are soft but strong. He was by no means shredded, but that didn't matter to you in the slightest. In fact, you much preferred this over some shredded guy with a huge ego and nothing else.

You kissed his neck, then collarbones before moving down and nipping at his chest. He arched his back into you as you got closer to his nipple. You moved your mouth onto it and sucked gently, letting your tongue flick over it. You looked up to gauge his reaction, not wanting to push things too far. Steven was overwhelmed with pleasure as you found a sensitive area of his. You continued rocking your hips, starting to feel the arousal of the both of you making wet spots on your pants.

You continued your assault on his nipples, making sure to switch between them. Steven was practically whimpering from your actions as Marc and Jake were in his head, mocking him. Steven didn't care- he couldn't care. He felt much too good to give a single shit about what they were saying. He wanted desperately to please you back, but the way you were moaning made him want to stay where he was.

You stopped your attacks on his chest, much to Steven's disappointment, but it didn't last long as you removed yourself from his lap and onto your knees in front of him.

"Can I, Steven?" You asked, giving him your best doe eyes as you went for the buckle of his belt.

"Oh, yes, please, dove," He whined, doing everything he could to not jerk his hips in the air.

You took his belt off, followed by his pants. His boxers did very little to hide his hardened cock and the stain of precum let you know exactly how much he needed this. You slowly took his boxers off, finally letting his erection free from its former confines. The sight was gorgeous. His cock jerked at the sight of you, and precum flowed from the purplish-red tip. The veins were prominent, and his pubes had been recently trimmed.

With Steven fully naked, you wanted to even out the playing field, so you stripped to your underwear, causing more precum to flow from his needy cock.

You looked up at him one last time for permission; he nodded frantically once again. You took his girth in your hands, barely able to fully close your hand around it, and started stroking using his precum as lube. You leaned in, kissing the tip before taking it in your mouth. His taste was heavenly, and you couldn't get enough. You took him in as far as you could without gagging, using your hand to stroke the rest.

"Oh my god, Y/N, darling- that feels so good. You're so good, oh my God. Please," He whined. He continued his praises to you before eventually pulling you off of him, not wanting to cum just yet.

"Please, Y/N, let me pleasure you, please. Show me how you like it, show me what to do," He begged.

He had been so embarrassed earlier, but his confidence grew with each passing minute. He wanted to explore your body and find every little tick that gets you going.

"I'll show you in bed," you replied before getting up and making your way to his bed. He followed you like a lost puppy.

"You're so gorgeous, dove," He said, admiring you as you walked to the bed. You laid down on your back, inviting him on top of you. He hurriedly accepted and began kissing you once again. He followed your action from earlier and made his way down. He kissed your neck, finding the spot that made your back arched, and paid special attention to it before moving down. He kissed your chest and stomach, testing the waters with little nips. He praised your body; he wanted to memorize every scar, stretch mark, and freckle on you. You were perfect- no- so much more than perfect to him. You were divine.

Now, it was his turn to look up at you for permission when he got to your undies, and it was your turn to nod frantically. He took them off slowly and moaned at the sight of your now bare body. The word flashed through his mind once again. Divine. Instinct, or maybe muscle memory from Marc's encounters kicked in as he buried his face between your thighs. He pleasured you with his mouth, licking and sucking. Your eyes rolled back into your head, and your hips bucked up. Steven was a natural, but he needed to use his fingers. Both for you to get off and to warm you up.

"Steven, fuck that feels so good, baby, but I need your fingers, please," you begged.

Steven was nervous to use his hands, but you wanted them, and he only wanted to pleasure you. He slowly brought them up and pulled back from you.

"I don't know what to do with them," He admitted.

"That's okay, I'll show you."

He brought his hand back up; you took his wrist and brought it to where you needed it most.

"Use your middle and ring finger, Steven."

Steven didn't respond to Marc's comment but took the advice, starting with his middle as he slid it into your waiting hole.

"Atta boy, use your fingers to get 'em ready."

Steven muttered a "shut up, Marc," to himself and continued, moving slowly before adding his mouth into the mix. The combination of his mouth and now two fingers had you teetering on the edge. Your hips were bucking into him, and Steven moaned at the sight of your pleasure. He rut his hips into the bed, trying to relieve some pressure.

"Fuck, Steven- so good. You're doing so good. Please don't stop, ohmygod." You fought to keep your eyes open as the sight of Steven, blissed out between your legs, was enough to nearly throw you off the edge. "Steven, I'm close- please. I need you to fuck me- please Steven."

He was hesitant to stop, but the knowledge that you wanted him- no needed him had him pouncing on you. You lined his cock up to your entrance, letting him slowly push in. The noises the two of you made were unholy- noises that neither of you would admit to later, but there was no shame between the two of you now. You both wanted to explore each other's bodies, a nearly primal need.

He moved slowly at first, getting a feel for it. He paid special attention to your face, your sounds, and how your body reacted. He wanted to make you feel as good as he was able to.

"Steven, you're doing so good, but I need more. Don't hold yourself back. Faster, deeper, harder, please Steven," You whined.

"Yeah, Steven, give it all you've got."

Steven moved your legs over his hips and let himself go. He pounded into you. He thought your mouth was heaven- this was far beyond that. Your tight warmth surrounded his cock and squeezed like a vice. He let his thumbs brush over your nipples, causing your back to arch into him. The only words that you could form were Steven's name and praises to him; your praises fueled him. He took your hand in his and held it, as a way to show his care for you. You leaned up and connected your mouth to his. He continued his assault on your hole but was gentle with his kisses. They were soft but deep. Your other hand was wrapped around his back, holding on to him and pulling him impossibly closer. The rubber band that had built in your stomach was about to break, and judging by Steven's sounds and more jerky movements, he was right there with you.

"Steven, baby, I'm close. Want to come with you. Cum inside me, please. Wanna feel you cum inside me," you all but screamed as you fell over the edge. The sight of you releasing all over his cock sent him spiraling into his release as well. His hips stuttered into you as he felt your walls milk his cock for all it was worth. "Y/N, shit, dove- you're squeezing me so effing tight. Feels so good- so fucking good."

You felt his warm release coat your walls as you came down from your high, your breaths labored. Steven did his best to keep his weight off of you as he came down from his own high. Eventually, he rolled beside you, nuzzling his head into your neck. He muttered sweet praises to you, still on cloud nine. You returned them as he got up to draw a bath for you. You let him carry you to the bathroom, but you got in the tub yourself, not wanting to have an accident. You bathed each other off and exchanged compliments. Steven's ego was boosted as he had finally lost his virginity to someone he held so dear to him.

[helios-co]

At this point when I notice "antishipper" or "proshippers dni" in the bio of someone I actually like, I just kinda assume they're misinformed until I see otherwise...

Just to set the record straight, a proshipper is someone who doesn't attack people for shipping problematic ships. Sometimes that's because they themself ship problematic ships like incest, adult/minor, or abusive ships, but the only thing you can actually know about a proshipper's views is that they follow the policies of ship-and-let-ship and don't-like-don't-read. I call myself a proshipper because I'm not gonna harass or publicly shame people who ship stuff I don't like or agree with. I've posted anti-izuocha in the past with some malice, sure, but that was from the perspective of defending canon. People claim it's "clearly canon" when it's not and it pisses me off. But if someone tells me "I ship izuocha whether or not they're canon because I think they're cute together and that they'd be happy together" we have no problem. I respect that 100%. I'll maybe try to convince them of my own views but I'm not gonna be a bitch to them if they stand firm in their own.

The entire concept of being antiship is pro-censorship and pro-harassment. It's saying "if you ship something bad in fiction you deserve to be called out because you're a bad person and I hate you". Even if people DON'T ship the bad thing and they just write or draw it because the dynamic interests them, the same way people write whump of their fav character or draw gore, the antishipper view is "you're hurting real people by creating fictional works and you're a shit person". I think that's bullshit. I am anti-censorship. Keeping people, especially children, from seeing shit that isn't for them, is the job of the adult. If they're an adult, they need to be aware of the shit they can't deal with and curate their own experience based on it. Tumblr let's you block tags you don't wanna see. Ao3 has it's entire revolutionary tagging and filtering system to let you pick what you do and don't wanna see. Don't like, don't read. If they're a child, it's their adult guardians' responsibility to monitor their internet access and let them know (constructively and gently!!) what to avoid online. If your kid is seeing nsfw online, no matter the topic or ship, don't blame it on the content creators, blame yourself. The only thing I expect of the creators is tagging your shit properly with the necessary content warnings and spoilering text or images on certain platforms when it's needed.

Anyways, this is probably gonna be our only post on this subject, but our views are out there now and we're standing by them.

[milksnake-tea]

Hey guys, I know I said that I didn't want to talk about politics anymore, but I wanted to address both my past actions and the current situation going on in Palestine.

I've gotten more information on the war, and I've deleted the reblog post about the torture videos apparently done by Hamas. After seeing what was happening in Palestine, I can't go with my previous take of "both have bad sides".

Say what you will about Hamas, but you cannot excuse genocide and the mass murdering of innocent civilians. You cannot excuse cutting off a city's access to the outside world, killing children, and destroying homes and hospitals in an act of "self defense".

I don't want to just stand by and do nothing, no matter how much I'm afraid of politics. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did. I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanted to see on my blog, but considering my following, I want to help in whatever way I can.

I'm not the person to go to if you want more information on the war, because as I said, I have a tendency to be misinformed and confused. Therefore, I'm going to list articles and websites that do have the right information, as well as places to donate and support the Palestine cause.

list of resources to help support palestine

decolonize palestine : a resource for information and debunking myths about palestine

arab.org : if you don't have money to donate, just clicking will donate to the palestine cause

list of donation resources for palestine

palestine masterlist of resources

[veliseraptor]

Hello ! I've read a lot of the posts you shared or wrote about horror, especially in reaction to "pearl-clutching" discourse against the whole genre.

It was very though provoking (thanks!) but I was wondering if/how you draw the distinction between that and, well, honest and "legitimate" bad review / negative analysis of some individual stories who happen to be horror ?

Oh, for sure. Of course there's legitimate criticisms to be made about individual horror works, or even about horror as a genre on the whole. I'm never going to claim that there isn't. While I do feel like there's a place for the "let people have fun" school of thought around media criticism, I don't think it should be a blanket smothering of all criticism - mostly, as with so many things, it is worth considering your time, place, and audience. For your own sake as well, I find.

I do think that sometimes the language of "criticizing" or "being critical" has become a handy mask for people to say whatever they want in some of the same (though less pernicious) way that people use "I'm just asking questions" to shut down discussion of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Again, #notallcriticism, much of it is good and beneficial and keeps things fresh (and me thinking), even the criticism I ultimately might end up disagreeing with. And at the same time, I do see the tendency popping up sometimes to use the idea of "legitimate criticism" as a way to shield a person from disagreement (the somewhat infamous "think critically about x" translating to "and you'll agree with me" comes to mind.)

As far as the how, well, it's certainly a little your mileage may vary - what I might read as an unfair review of a book I liked, for instance, someone else might read as a well-deserved ripping to shreds of a mediocre work, and it's certainly possible for neither of us to be "right" about which it is. Some of this - maybe even a lot of it - is a matter of perspective.

I guess I would think of two things that shape my perception of how someone is talking about a work or a genre, in general and in particular with horror:

1. Is the writer familiar with the genre? Do they have at least a passing familiarity with the conventions, tropes, and other narrative tics that tend to crop up? If not, are the criticisms they are making marked by that lack of knowledge (ime some of the discourse about the A Song of Ice and Fire falls victim to this, sometimes). I'm not saying that criticism is invalid coming from someone without genre knowledge, but I am saying that I'm more inclined to be skeptical of criticism that comes from someone who clearly dislikes the specific genre they're discussing, because it sometimes feels like a willful lack of curiosity and unwillingness to engage with a text/genre on its own terms.

> Addendum to this: is the writer familiar with the genre as it stands recently? Horror now looks rather different than horror fifty years ago, just for instance.

2. Is the argument or point they're making actually coherent? Is the analysis solid and grounded in at least some kind of evidence or source? (Is the author using screenshots of tweets in lieu of actually writing about the phenomenon they're discussing?) I can't always but I'd say I can usually at least recognize, even if I disagree, when someone is actually taking what they're engaging with seriously and when they're not (in terms of the work put in to convince me what they're saying is true, relevant, and important), and if they're not taking it seriously then why should I?

And one more, I guess, which feels obvious but sometimes on the internet isn't, because people love to have opinions (I get it! so do I!):

3. Has the writer actually read (or watched/played/whatever) what they're talking about? This ties in a little with point one but is slightly divergent, because someone can to an extent be familiar with a genre without having read it. But someone talking authoritatively about the problems with something they haven't actually had direct contact with, based purely on a set of cultural osmosis and related assumptions, is frustratingly common, and people will assume that they know what they're talking about from that alone and are qualified to make a sweeping judgment from that position. And I'm just not going to take criticism made from that perspective very seriously.

That's how I'd draw my lines, anyway. I don't claim to be an authority, certainly; I'm a gal on the internet with a big mouth and a lot of opinions. I think the important things here though are a. I certainly don't think that there's no such thing as legitimate criticism (in the negative sense) of horror works or horror as a genre, and b. I have particular standards for how I judge that criticism based on content and context.

I guess it's also worth noting, with this particular example, that the other question is "how much does this feel like it aligns with the present moral panic around dark or disturbing content in fiction?" and if the answer is "a lot" then I'm significantly more likely to dismiss it.