#I try and stay out of discourse but this was just too stupid not to post

[ghoulwings]

Literally when has this ever happened

[sl33py-g4m3r]

I was blinded by trying to take morality too far~~ (metaphorically)

today I realized that I am in fact a hypocrite in the dumbest way~~

with my "wanting to stay away from violence" and pacifism thing; I got too wrapped up in my head and morality that I just.....

didn't notice that I was doing the same thing as those antis do with loli/shota content

but since I'm pro loli/shota, I'm a hypocrite with trying to interject morality into video games...

and now I feel really stupid about it......

I didn't realize that I was taking pacifism too far and not realizing that no; video games in fact don't cause violence.....

you can still play violennt video games and still be a pacifist. just because you kill enemy mobs in the game, doesn't mean you're killing irl...

I'm proship and always had been, I'm pro fiction, I'm pro loli/shota content....

yet for some reason I drew the line at violence cause I was trying to take my own morality too far~~~

my sibling brought this to my attention after a shopping trip when I actively started to wonder about it aloud.

not even mad~~ I let morality blind me for so long....

idk what to think about this rn.... I try not to be a hypocrite and here I am being one.....

hopefully I can ignore that this stint ever happened and enjoy games again~~

using the proship tags cause I am one~~ Just a very closeted one.

I can't believe I was so blinded by morality and being stuck in my head that I didn't realize I was one of the anti-loli people but with violence instead.....

it's funny in a sad kind of way.

and hopefully plot development for my own life~~

don't take morality too far~~ it'll land you in hot water eventually~~

time to reinstall a bunch of nintendo switch games~~ holy crap~~

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Stop misappropriating the abuse and trauma cults use through purity culture for your stupid fucking shipping discourse? Holy fuck no wonder everyone hates this whole discourse.

Since when is "priests getting shuffled around after raping kids and kids being told they're sinful because they had bodily reactions to being SAd" comparable to "Bobo the clown said my ship was cringe"

I'm not gonna answer this with The Aristocrats, as a I threatened, because I want to make a very serious point to this anon:

Purity culture isn't just religious abuse. It is most widely connected to religious abuse. Including actions in the Catholic Church and all fundamentalist Christianity. It's entire existence is about terrifying and indoctrinating people into being fearful of their own actions and bodies so that they feel certain that moving out from the "umbrella of safety" (to use a fundamentalist term) will result in them being harmed in ways they can't imagine. This is generally happening at the same time as they are being harmed by those who are supposed to be keeping them safe from all those terrible, worldly evils. Like speaking up when you're being abused. Believing you are not responsible for the actions of a rapist, and many, many other things that any person with an ounce of self-worth and good sense (two things not allowed in fundamentalist circles) knows are true in abuse situations.

But the point of the purity culture as identity in the above-mentioned circles is to teach people from birth that they aren't to have their own feelings, ideas, or instincts. They are only to follow the feelings, ideas, and instincts on the approved list in order to stay within the structures they know and feel safe in even as they feel very unsafe.

That being said:

Purity culture can also exist WITHOUT a religious structure while still being about controlling the thoughts, feelings, and actions of everyone within it. In terms of fandom, purity culture is groups of people stating that if you write something uncomfortable or gross or immoral, then YOU must be uncomfortable or gross or immoral and therefore, not worthy of the safety and moral superiority of the group.

Purity culture without religion teaches black and white thinking, encourages thought policing, and shames anyone who steps outside of a very narrow definition of good and bad by turning an entire group of people against them for being "bad".

Just like in religious circles.

Just like in the cult of fundamentalism.

Purity culture is a term taken by fundamentalists and turned into a whole way of life because the goal of fundamentalism is to make people too scared to leave. Purity culture in fandom does the same thing. It uses fear and threats of abandonment/harassment to control the way people act because a group of people decided they didn't like something, so they must try and wipe it out rather than simply ignore it.

I am not mis-using the term because "Bobo the clown said my ship was cringe." My use of the term is intentional and precise because what is happening in fandom spaces now is non-religious purity culture cult thinking. My use of the term does not invalidate or water down the use of it in conversations about religious abuse and trauma. With or without religion, purity culture is a dangerous cult of "us vs them" that is built to demoralize and eradicate those deemed unworthy.

[olderthannetfic]

Obvious Disclaimer that this is not about any specific anon in particular, not about OTNF themself, but that my following rant might *slightly* punch down on people who ARE, well, older than net fics are.

But my honest opinion is that I really don’t like it when us old heads tend to sorta…talk down to? “Adultsplain”, if that’s even a thing? To The Gen Zs, by being like “damn kids! back in my day we never used our real name or posted selfies or posted about our personal life at all!” Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of those people who never posted the real me — but not because I was anonymous and cared about online safety, because I was a liar 😂 That being said, there ARE older people who definitely over-shared or “doxxed” themselves and still do, and there’s younger people who don’t!

I also feel like being “ha, these stupid KIDS who post about their FANDOM LIFE on TIK TOCK under their REAL NAME AND FACE where IRLS CAN SEE THEM, how STUPID” is not doing anyone any favors. Is that, technically, a smart thing for kids to do? No. Has it become normalized? Yes. And does that suck for people who might be bullied or outed or whatever cuz they genuinely are dumb and don’t know better and then someone they don’t like sees their stuff? Yes.

We all talk about how there’s no more kids spaces on the internet and how that’s a shame, but then five seconds later we’ll reblog that one “At any time I’m at risk of seeing a 14 year olds opinion and that’s why I hate it here” post. There’s really so few kid spaces on the net now, that’s true. We should extend empathy and let the teens be obnoxious and pretentious in peace, rather than making it a point to “ratio” or “roast them.��� Idk personally I’d be completely unbothered if some 14 year old insulted my fic or my ship or whatever. I’d just block and move on, no need to try to argue with them.

And also, not all kids are even pretentious or obnoxious! I’m not saying we all need to take the kids under our wings, but we should be careful about not hating them just for being in their teens years, you know?

Also… telling a teenager to not post PII or not get into discourse or not have social media or whatever will NOT work the way you want it to 😭 kids are by default a little bit oppositionally defiant so telling some rando teen to Get Off Your Lawn (blog) rather than just blocking them, will encourage said teen to Stay On Your Lawn.

I just hate how it’s become normal for adults to talk down to teens online. I was harassed by adults online as a kid, then years and years and years later i went through my own “Older Than You™️”phase where I myself was a shit to teenagers, and I truly regret that so much. To this day I still need to make an effort to be careful. I saw on Twitter where an adult posted a DM from a 13 year old, mocking them. The DM said “I’m 14 next year, can I follow you? Please don’t groom me.” And the adult OP was laughing at how stupid the dm was. A few years ago, I would’ve been one of the people retweeting that and rolling my eyes at the child. Now im disgusted by the people who WERE laughing at them.

And again I’m obviously not saying we should be “nice” to the teenagers who mock us for our ships or who virtue signal too hard. But we also don’t need to make fun of their CARRDS or call them Puri-teens or rag on them just for being 17 or younger, yk?

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Teens aren't 'puriteens' just for being young, dude. They have to also be puritanical bullies.

I find the stuff about real names hilarious because, actually, if you're really Internet Old™, then you probably did use your real name... it was right there in your university e-mail address! Or your random early ISP address if your stepdad got it for you and thought the university format was the default. Thanks, stepdad.

I've done every single dumb thing from going to meet my internet pen pal at an Alice Cooper concert to flying to Ireland from Japan to stay with a fandom friend I'd never met without telling anyone where I was going and without a credit card or enough cash to flee if I had to. I remember sitting on the plane thinking "Man, this is such a CSI episode topic".

The really funny part was that despite what she'd said before I visited, we ran into each of her parents at different times and ended up going to a play courtesy of her uncle, and all of them were like "So how do you know each other?" and "But you'd met before, right? RIGHT?!"

The level of panopticon is horrifying now. Teens have my sympathy. That part really is worse, and I think it's driving an entire generation nuts and we're going to see even more shit about people wanting to run away and live in a cabin in the woods with no internet. But in general, I don't think we're so different.

[utilitycaster]

no d20 spoilers here since i know you know the gist of the drama but the fact that both kipperlilly (and the ratgrinders as a whole) and laudna are sending the their respective fandoms into meltdowns is FASCINATING to me!!! Especially happening at roughly the same time

I am now officially caught up and. not to brag but, called it re: the Rat Grinders, huh, except it's even more stupid. Like. The "but they're literally minors?" argument sort of falls apart given that they're the same age as the Bad Kids, and are actively trying to kill them, the "but redemption" argument doesn't mean shit since at no point did they make any forays towards redemption and indeed sicced a bunch of dragons on the Bad Kids, and so we're left with nothing but an impotent desire to not have a sick-ass battle in the finale of a D20 Campaign. And, perhaps, an uncomfortable realization that they are not unlike the Rat Grinders and the narrative said "lmao yeah you suck".

Laudna's shit? not that different actually. Like there's a lot of reasons why the arguments defending her are bullshit but the biggest one is that the "Laudna has never done anything wrong ever in her life and Imogen is her tether" crowd have painted themselves into a delightfully tiny little corner and they can't hide it anymore. Like, okay, so, is Laudna in control of her actions? Because if so she just attacked Orym in the middle of the night. Is she not? Because if so why hasn't she made the efforts that Chetney and FCG and Imogen (at least sometimes) did to address that? If the issue is trauma why is hers more valid than that of others? If it's abuse tell me how you feel about Caleb, Fjord, Beau, and Percy? Why is Orym shutting down the conversation when he says the Vanguard killed his family but Laudna's not doing the same when she tells Ashton not to speak to her of loneliness and Chetney not to speak to her of loss when she doesn't have a monopoly on either?

Why is it Bells Hells' job to endlessly accomodate Laudna and why are so many people suddenly talking about Bells Hells as an abstract 7-headed entity that didn't deal with Laudna's problems when those same people (if they were around at the time of the gnarlrock airing, and many of them weren't) were like "NO THEY SHOULD MAKE UP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE AND IMOGEN IS A BITCH BECAUSE LAUDNA DIDN'T MEAN IT." Why wasn't it an issue for them when Laudna's ranting about her time in Issylra and how hard it was got shut down by Imogen kissing her because that's why it didn't stay in the spotlight. Why wasn't it an issue for them when Imogen said "if you need her, that's my answer"? Why is it Orym or "Bells Hells" in the abstract who never spent time on Laudna's trauma after months if not years of throwing a fit any time someone (often me) (not always though) pointed out how much Imogen and Laudna were shoving under the rug and not dealing with? What does it say that you can't even expect Laudna's partner to be the one supporting her through this- it has to be Orym? Why doesn't Laudna have any responsibility here? At minimum she could have spoken up about the sword at at least two if not three junctures and she didn't.

There's a lot of things I hold in contempt, and after the obvious things like bigotry, two I really detest are hypocrisy and dereliction of responsibility. It's been extremely telling with both the D20 and CR discourse that people do not like seeing the story and the fandom say "hey actually you need to take responsibility for your actions, you only get redemption if you work for it, and if you leave a room hoping someone will follow you without saying that's what you want? Don't be surprised if no one does." The reason everyone was preparing to stop Laudna was because she was, in every action and decision, showing herself to be a person in need of being stopped. Can you describe this perfect balance of gentleness in which she's never pushed too hard but she does talk about her trauma and work through it and in doing so leaves Delilah? Have you demanded any other member of Bells Hells be granted that same gentleness and patience and kindness or do you think Orym should get over his grief because it's inconvenient to your arguments.

Just as the Rat Grinders show the narrative saying "being an entitled, resentful, jealous person who hurts others from jealousy makes you an easy tool to be manipulated into cruelty and you need to deal with that," I think Laudna shows the narrative (and certainly the fandom) saying "you do have an obligation to deal with your trauma, especially if it causes you to hurt others, and you can ask for help but you can't just sit on your ass waiting for someone else to initiate the process for you" as well as "if you do hurt people because of your trauma they may be angry with you, this may shape how they see you, and they are justified in that because you hurt them" and I think people in both fandoms hate being told that because I think a lot of the people sparking the discourse really do think that you can shield yourself from criticism over your hurtful actions by claiming trauma or neurodivergence or mental illness or whatever and it's like, no, you do still suck, you just also had sucky things happen to you as well.

[therealvinelle]

What do you think would happen if Edward and Bella were on the titanic when it was sinking? How would Edward try to save her?

...

It so happens I am very interested in the RMS Titanic.

(A note before we start: the sinking of the RMS Titanic was one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history, and I often find the discourse around it tasteless. I hope I don't come across as crass making a Bella and Edward on the Titanic post.)

There is a problem with your question

You ask about Edward taking a trip with Bella.

Edward would get them first class tickets, there is no timeline in which Edward gets Bella anything but first class tickets. This man spends the first three books dry sobbing because she won't let him buy her a car and in the fourth book he snaps and just does it, and it's the most stupid expensive car he could find. And then when she's a vampire a few months later he gets her a Ferrari.

Bella will be a first class passenger, and a woman. And this is where your question puts an end to the adventure before it begins, because Bella would absolutely survive Titanic even if Edward's not there.

Of the 144 first class women on board the Titanic, 4 of them died. Of these 4, we know what happened to three of them: Ida Straus chose to die with her husband, giving her seat in the lifeboat and coat to the maid, Edith Evans from what I can gather was too scared to get in the boat, Bess Allison abandoned her seat to run to the other side of the Titanic as she believed her husband was there, and the boat sailed off without her, and Ann Eliza Isham is unknown with the only theory an "unsubstantiated rumor" she wouldn't leave her dog behind.

In other words, three of the first class women who died had the lifeboats were there and waiting for them but for various reasons they didn't get in. Presumably, this applied to Isham as well.

Bella is extremely clumsy and prone to making terrible decisions, but this is one where even she would be hard pressed.

The various ways Bella may try to avoid getting into the lifeboat

"I must give my seat to another!" Won't work. When the evacuation started, it was ineffective and not being taken seriously by all passengers (there are accounts of people declining seats because they would rather stay on the warm and comfortable Titanic than get into a dingy on the freezing Atlantic), which meant none of the first lifeboats to be lowered were completely filled. They were designed to hold 65 passengers, lifeboats 1 and 2 had 12 and 18 people in them, respectively (full table here(note: I understand it shows only who was still alive in each boat when they were found, not how many originally got in). (Yes, RMS Titanic had a severe lifeboat shortage, even if they'd filled all the boats to capacity there would only have been enough for a third of the ship's capacity, or 53% of the people on board that night, but this was aggregated by a lack of crew training, procedure, and passengers not understanding the severity of the situation.) Edward, being a vampire able to hear the ship being shredded, on fire, taking in uncontainable amounts of water and the crew discussing it, and also being very paranoid where Bella's safety is concerned, will appreciate the severity of the situation and put her in the damn boat.

"I refuse to get in the boat, Edward, which means you have to bite or I'll die!" Easily refuted by pointing out he can help save people if he doesn't have to worry about her, as well as by the fact that venom in your system won't save you from drowning which is what Bella will do if she doesn't get in the boat. Sitting on Edward as he paddles around the Atlantic won't work either, she'd freeze to death long before the venom could work its wonders (it was -2 degrees celsius in the water that night. It's been argued most of the victims that night died within minutes of shock from the cold temperature. There are cases of people who were rescued from the water into lifeboats, or who were exposed to the water from Collapsibles B and A, who froze to death). Bella sulks, but she gets in the boat.

Once Bella is in the boat, she's staying in it.

Edward... I can only hope he makes himself useful, but all I can see him able to help with is Collapsible A (where the canvas sides weren't pulled up properly, making it partially submerged) and Collapsible B (overturned, survivors were clinging to the keel). He could fix one of the boats, then take the survivors clinging to the other in it, but that is a best case scenario where the man is able to be pragmatic and quick-thinking. I don't trust him to be anything of the sort, rather I think he'd be too worried about Bella to be anywhere else.

This is the man who convinced himself she needed him to guard her while she slept.

He spends the night swimming under her boat, making sure it doesn't somehow sink, get struck by a new iceberg, capsize, or hit by a meteor.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

But do you really think that he can be voted head of Commonwealth ? I remember how Gabon was mad after their docuseries implied that CW was the Empire 2.0 saying that they willingly came in but not to be insulted or something. And it seemed to me that this scheme about Harry, Meghan and the CW was dead because their tours in the CW were disastrous and because their discourse with the CW was too much Empire/decolonisation centred (during the pandemic ?) and the CW didn't like that.

Some people are also suggesting that Harry is going for an african coutry because Earthshot is going to South Africa this year (like his visit in NYC when it was in Boston or his visit in Singapore last year). So now I'm wondering, do you think he tried with South Africa but was said no ?

It's possible Harry could be voted the head of the Commonwealth but it's very unlikely. While there doesn't seem to an officially-documented process or a formal rule for who is eligible to be head of Commonwealth, I did find this:

a) the head of the Commonwealth is not hereditary and there are no term limits.

b) Charles is the third monarch to be head of the Commonwealth (following King George and Queen Elizabeth).

c) selection of the head of the Commonwealth requires a majority vote from the Commonwealth heads of government (so all the prime ministers) and

d) "Head of Commonwealth" is part of the sovereign's title in the Commonwealth realms:

our Sovereign Lord, Charles III, now, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

So it's an uphill battle for Harry (or Meghan) to be Head of Commonwealth because

It requires changing the King's titles and I don't think anyone wants to bother with that kind of administration. (Also I don't think anyone knows what kind of administration or paperwork is needed to do so in the first place.)

If William's poll numbers stay the same and he remains as popular as he is, it will be stupid AF for the Commonwealth to choose someone else as their head. They're not going to vote against King William, who's likely to be as popular and as beloved as Queen Elizabeth. And even if something happened and William was as controversial a choice as Charles was back in 2018, "better the devil you know than the devil you don't" comes to mind.

There's been a bit of leaking that Harry definitely approached South Africa after William and Earthshot announced Cape Town as their 2024 host. With the pattern anon pointed out, it definitely makes sense that Harry would try to get South Africa for something.

Which is really...ironic, I suppose, if you think about it. That even though he quit the royal family, he left the country, he made his own separate life for himself and his family, he's still demanding equal treatment to William. The entitlement just reeks.

[sketchyslushies]

Posting this here bc it’s the only place where ppl ik irl don’t follow me!!

Seabound fic!!! Kinda angst ig? It’s my first time writing a fic so don’t judge too bad ><

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Kinda spoilers for Seabound!!! And mainly Jay and Kai w a bit of Cole (not shipping!)((ok maybe VERY MINOR lava coded)) (((like blink and you miss it)))

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“She was my SISTER.”

Kai snapped, his eyes glaring straight at Jay. A silence fell over the ninja, none of them really knowing what to say. They’d never admit it, but they were useless without Nya. The team had struggled to stay civil in the beginning, and the cracks were starting to reform. It was only when Nya had become a ninja when they started realizing their groups potential. Kai’s stare stayed sharp on Jay, Jay looking back with his nervous yet persistent eyes. Kai just didn’t understand. He didn’t care. He didn’t know Nya like Jay did. He didn’t love her like Jay did. No one did. The others had gone back to normal life, albeit separated. But Jay, he stayed behind. He waited for her to come back. He knew that she would.

Jay would never know this, but Kai cared about Nya more than he cared about himself. If he really thought about it, he had practically raised Nya. She was his little sister, the reason he kept going when he had lost everything else. She was his light in the dark, the reason he even became a ninja in the first place. But he was too proud to say that, too arrogant to admit it.

“You didn’t even cry at her funeral.” Jay said, his electric eyes finally looking away from Kai’s. The other ninja all glanced at each other, stuck between interfering and letting Jay and Kai settle this themselves. It had only been a year since they all last saw each other, yet you’d assume they’d never met before. Tension spread throughout the room, thick enough to cut it with a knife. “It’s like you wanted her dead.”

“Jay, that’s enough.” Cole said, stepping in front of Kai to try to stop any more discourse. Jay was even dumber than everyone thought if he was purposefully egging Kai on. “We all miss Nya, and fighting about it won’t bring her back.” Jay looked away from Cole, scoffing, but backing off. Even he knew he was going too far.

“Whatever,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking away. “I’m going back to the lighthouse, it’s not like we’re doing anything anyway.” Jay reached for the mechanical door’s button, a hot flame burning his hand. “Ow! What the hell?!” He turned around to see Kai, his aim still good as ever. “What was that for, asshole!?” Jay sneered, not noticing Kai’s obvious anger rising. He walked up to Kai, pushing Cole out of the way. His words came out in a jumbled mess. “I seriously don’t get your problem, Kai. You didn’t give a shit about her when she was alive, and you clearly don’t care now that she’s gone. You’re just upset someone’s finally pointing out the fact that you only care about yourse-“

“Do you ever just shut the fuck up?!” Red screamed, punching Blue in the face. Jay fell to the ground, unable to react quickly enough before Kai threw in a few more punches. “You have no idea,” he shouted, “no FUCKING idea how much I care about Nya! Shut your stupid ass up before you say something you don’t know anything about!” Kai’s stature towered over Jay. Sure, he was only a few inches taller, but he was stronger and Jay knew he wouldn’t be able to do much held down to the ground. The other ninja wanted to step in, but couldn’t help but feel like Jay deserved this a bit. They really did all miss Nya, they just didn’t mourn like Jay did. He just didn’t get that. Kai’s fist would meet Jay’s bloodied face just a few more times before Kai paused. Just as he was about to land another punch, he stopped himself. Something he’d never done before. Jay looked up at Kai, noticing a difference in his expression. His dark red eyes were watering. His face stuck between anger and sadness. Jay felt a droplet of water fall onto his face. Was Kai…crying? That can’t be right. Kai’s never cried before. Was there even enough water in his system to do so? The team kind of just assumed his body heat had been too hot to manage water, but never really questioned it. Jay quickly scurried away from under Kai, leaving him still stuck in a punching position. He wiped his eyes, but the tears wouldn’t stop coming. “I loved Nya more than anything in the world, Jay. I did. She was all I had for YEARS. Do you know how much it destroyed me when she left? How much it bothered me when everyone asked how YOU were doing? How YOU were handling her death? No one asked me how I was feeling with my sister dying,” he sniffled, rubbing his eyes and looking towards the ground. “I had to keep it together. If not the team, but for me. I was the face man, the cool one. A little loss wouldn’t do much to me, they said.” His voice warping in and out of a whisper and a sniffle. “I would do anything to get her back, Jay. You don’t even know how far I’d go for her.” Jay had never seen Kai like this. None of the ninja had. The fire ninja, the most dramatic of them all, looked so small in this moment. So vulnerable. His tear stained face was hardly visible to the team, yet everyone could tell exactly how he looked.

Jay stood up and stumbled towards Kai. His bruised body was staggering, struggling to keep upright. He kneeled by Kai, getting to his level. Cole and Zane carefully kept close, just in case Jay was about to get his revenge. Instead, he positioned Kai’s shoulders up to get him to sit upward. He got a really clear view of Kai’s face, his eyes and nose red, his tears smudging the dark eyeshadow he swore he didn’t have on. Jay wiped his tears away, before punching him back in the cheek. Cole practically ran up to Kai. After all, he did always have a soft spot for his firecracker. But, before he could stop Jay from hitting him again, the smaller boy pulled the bigger one into a hug. Blue’s arms wrapped around Red, a small voice muttering out a simple, “I’m sorry.”

Eyes wide open, Kai was surprised. Before he could say anything, he subconsciously tightened his grasp around the curly haired ninja, digging his face into his dark curls and letting his tears fall.

“I hate you.”

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Hope it was an ok read!! Lmk how you liked it/id there’s anything I can work on!

[veryloovy]

I'm trying not to talk about shipping and shipping discourse much anymore for the reasons I will go over in a second, but food for thought for the MD fandom down below.

Seeing way too many people on places saying that Nuzi shippers are being annoying with it now being canon, and you know, I HOPE you guys aren't harassing people over what they ship, but this is a street that goes both ways. Nuzi shippers have historically always been discriminated for shipping it, so if they are celebrating a bit much I kinda don't blame them? Tumblr was always pretty nice to Nuzi shippers, Twitter eventually coming around, but TikTok is still super against the ship from that I hear.

Yes, I'm a Nuzi shipper myself. I have been stupid as shit about the ship in the past, but that was a me that I have literally never been until this fandom. I have never been called a pedo before for liking a ship. I have had nasty comments left on my fanwork for simply acknowledging it. Like, it warms my heart that people consider "Solved, Absolutely" one of the best MD comics out there, but even it was not safe from harassment over acknowledging a ship for like two panels. Jfc.

And after all that? I'm coming out the other side caring so much less about interacting with fandoms over shipping. I just don't care anymore. Stay in your lane and I'll stay in mine. Just be nice to each other and stop caring about this so much. Nuzi shippers, don't go out of your way to harass other shippers about Nuzi being canon because that's such a gross thing to do, especially after what we went through. Other shippers: please stop being so negative over Nuzi, you guys know the show's staff looks at social media right? They signed off on Nuzi being a thing, and if that's not your cup of tea that's fine, just don't start doom and glooming "THEY RUINED MD!!!" like some of you are doing. It's really embarrassing so see the fandom in this state. If you guys love the show, then act like it.

I will no longer be engaging in ship discourse. I'm instead going to be putting more effort into being a positive presence in the community. I'll be around whether the show stops at episode 8, or goes an additional season or two and I intend on that experience being a much more positive experience with the fandom.

[skaruresonic]

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

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

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

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

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

Ah. There it is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[leastdatablebracket]

QUARTERFINALS, MATCH 4

Propaganda under the cut!

Joseph Christiansen

Propaganda

So many reasons. He's already married, he's a jerk to his wife, he's already slept with at least one of the other romance options. That romance option goes to you before a date with Jospeh and damn near begs you not to be stupid and go with him. The worst part? You put up with all this and he leaves you to "work things out with his wife". She deserves so much better than him! One of the writers even said he's a sociopath. 

Married and a youth minister.

Cheater, cringe man, father of creepy children, possibly evil cultist, left a guy feeling used which said guy also became friends with Joseph's wife who appears to be an alcoholic likely as a coping mechanism since she's married to Joseph

He cheats on his wife, has done so before, lies to you by claiming that he's going to leave his wife when he clearly never intends to (and, in one ending, will even cheerfully suggest that you two continue having an affair in an extremely sleazy way), and judging by the fact that the other guy we know he cheated on his wife with, Robert, hates Joseph and is now very close friends with his wife, it seems clear to me that this whole "purposefully mislead someone into sleeping with you and then later drop the bomb that it was an affair" thing is repeat behavior with him. Also, I just find much of his behavior to be very manipulative and controlling; there are many situations where it seems to me that he's actively trying to paint others in a negative light while still coming off as saintly himself, such as an early scene where he subtly implies his wife is a shitty mom because she *checks notes* let their toddler out of her sight... during a neighborhood barbecue in a fenced-in yard surrounded by trusted adults and other kids. Also notice how in this scene he pushes *her* to go look for their son, rather than just looking himself, all while keeping up his "long-suffering husband" act. (and in other scenes can be found letting his other young children wander off into the woods with sharp implements and visibly not caring, but whatever). He does this with Robert, too -- the other guy he had an affair with. Almost everything he says about or to Robert is a subtle jab about his personality or his alcoholism. Classy, Joseph. Meanwhile, the fact that you can't actually end up with him in the end (because he was never going to leave his wife for you) started some of the most volatile discourse in the fandom and had people calling the devs homophobic and claiming they were spreading a message about "gay men needing to stay in loveless abusive marriages to women" (just ignore the fact that there are several other divorced gay dads in this game who all have great relationships with their kids and are not demonized in the slightest). HOWEVER, if you see people claiming he's a cultist or demon or something, that's untrue and was just going to be a non-canon spooky alternate ending that ended up getting cut. So I empathize with him a little bit for getting literally demonized by some fans for that cut alt ending. But he loses all those points by cheating on his wife multiple times and showing clear intent to continue doing so.

He's still married when you start dating him. He's also got like 5 kids that are some "children of the corn" kinda shit, and all their names have "Christ" in them

You don't even get to date him he's still married to his wife who he doesn't get along with. Tragic really

Cullen Rutherford

Propaganda

stupid racist cop creep whose fans cry about how hes "changed" and "you can't judge him he was addicted to magic drugs" nah he still chose to be a racist cop and abuse his power over innocent people and i hate him. the writers making him romanceable in da:i after how blatantly horrible he was in da:o and da:2 is baffling but i guess they had to appeal to the part of their audience who watch those "mafia boyfriend" videos on tiktok or whatever

He's creepy in origins, though still 100% willing to kill the female mage pc he's crushing on, as well as all the other mages trapped in the circle with him. He's the second-in-command in an even worse circle in 2, listening to and defending the increasingly obviously insane meredith until literally the end. He's one of the people still pushing for the circle system by inquisition, and yes he's going through withdrawals and working through the traumas of previous games. And to be brutally honest his was the first romance i took and while i don't remember much from it, its not worth all the girls going absolutely nuts over knockoff terrible alistair.

He's basically a cop who thinks being born a certain way can revoke personhood and by Inquisition still thinks mages are monsters to be controlled, not people. He gets a fairy tale cutesy romance that focuses on his personal struggles with addiction while showing absolutely no regard to the atrocities he committed and still thinks were justified. He can be romanced BY A MAGE and his actions and beliefs are just glossed over. He believes mages are 'not people like you (Hawke) and me', but if the Warden was a female mage he canonically had a crush on her and would deliberately hang around her despite the fact that he was her *jailer*. If that Warden romanced Leliana, there is war table dialogue in which he pesters Leliana for news of his 'former' crush despite her repeated statement that she doesn't want to talk to him about her. All this shitty behavior and lack of introspection gets swept under the rug by the game, not even giving the PC the chance to really challenge his beliefs. Like damn even Fenris could apologize when he lashed out due to past trauma with mages, and if anyone has a reason to hate mages it's Fenris. If you want an ex Templar hottie Alistair is RIGHT THERE. Tbh I know Cullen is a popular romance and I'm not here to tell anyone what they can or can't do or like in a video game, I'm just saying I think he is deeply undateable

Spends the first two games as an antagonist, fervently devoted to the cause of subjugating mages, then a bunch of "character development" happens off screen and the games treat him like he's completely reformed. However he's actions make it clear he still sees mages as dangerous and lesser. Not to mention if you romance him with an elf he doesn't pay your culture more than lip service respect like most of the devout characters 

He was a total villain in the first two games who was violently prejudiced against mages and uses one single bad experience as an excuse for it (a bad experience that is pretty much exactly what he in his job subjected graduating apprentices to, mind you, but this is never brought up). Now he says he's changed, but his words and actions say otherwise. He still distrusts mages, sympathises with the rebel Templars trying to kill them, and he never owns up to the terrible stuff he did and helped others do in the past two games. He totally knew what Meredith was doing and says he doesn't, and he still tries to defend her intentions. And you have no option to call him out on it. If you romance him as a mage, he angsts about how he might have seen you as subhuman in the past but NOW you're one of the good ones, and when you ask him if he'll kill you if you get possessed, he dodges the question. And the PC is written as being almost sad that she's a mage? Like 'can you love me despite what I am??' Also if Leliana romanced a female mage PC in the first game who is still alive, he asks her creepy questions about their relationship. Fitting considering his original purpose was to be creepy to the female mage Warden. 

I hate him and want to cause chaos. Plus his VA is an asshole.

Cop

I think you covered almost everything but don't forget that beautiful moment in DA2 - Act 2 where you find out some templars had a petition to lobotomize all mages and Meredith, THE HARDCORE TEMPLAR LEADER, rejects it, but Cullen says they got a point. Despite the fact that we just found out that those templars were using lobotomy (or the threat of) to rape people and get away with it. And then Cullen in DA:I is whining that anything that happened it's not his fault because Meredith kept the worse away form him so he didn't know, but also that anyway Meredith had a point and did what she had to do. Meredith does not go mad until Act 3, before she was of sound mind and Culllen was her second in command BECAUSE he hated mages as much as (or even more) than her. What the FUCK did she even hide from you, Cullen. Oh, but he changed! Because the writers make A VICTIM OF THE TEMPLARS say so. And anyway he only says so BECAUSE HE READS MINDS not because Cullen did anything to show it. Also the narrative wants to sympathise with Cullen for his drug problems while Cullen is openly attacking the only other character with the same problem for...having the same problem. And he's the antagonist, so there were OTHER things Cullen could be mad about. But he is mad about the drug problem. Also I'm not an expert on writing characters with addictions but he is an addict only when it's time to have a cut scene where you pity him. Otherwise it has zero impacts on everything else.

[lajikookbolala]

Some thoughts on this shipping discourse

I have already expressed MULTIPLE times how much I hate drama, so this is probably gonna be my last post on this topic. In the future, I might post less, not at all, or often but with only positive stuff. I just don't know if I can mentally handle being on here for much longer. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

Trying to convince Tkkrs they are wrong is not going to work.

I would like to challenge anyone here to think of a time when someone ACTUALLY changed their opinion on something after an online argument. Can't think of one? Exactly. Humans are stubborn, it's just part of who we are. Especially online, nobody is actually open to changing their opinion on things. We argue just for the sake of arguing.

And, we have to remember that Tkkrs are JUST as confident that their ship is real as we (Jkkrs) are. It may be stupid, but as a former Tkkr I would know (I had just joined the fandom and I was young, don't blame me for falling for the Taekook bs). Anyway, when I say I was confident in my belief that's an understatement. Eventually, I did stumble across Jikook, and the story is actually very funny. Again, I had just joined the fandom and hilariously, my mom was starting to get into BTS too. One day, she stumbled across a Jikook video on youtube, called me in the room and showed me, saying "look how in love these two are". I was hesitant at first (still being a tkkr at the time), but I watched it with her, because she was my mother; someone that I knew and trusted. If some random person online had sent me the same video and told me to watch it, I wouldn't have. I would be pissed and ignore it. My point is, to convert me from a Tkkr to a Jkkr, it took my own mother showing me a video, and explaining to me that with her almost 60 years of life experience, she could tell they were in incredibly in love.

Nobody's gonna listen to a random person's opinion on line. At least, not with an open mind.

2. We're just giving toxic people the attention they want.

More than 50% of what I see on Jikook Tumblr recently is answers responding to toxic people's posts, whether those people are tkkrs, antis, or solo stans. Because we answer all their stupid questions, more of these people are coming out of the woodwork to share their own stupid opinions. And then it's just a toxic circle.

Even though it may give you some satisfaction to roast random strangers on the internet (I even enjoy reading roasts by jkkrs sometimes), it's really not worth it. We're just giving them the attention they want. If we just ignored them for a while and didn't answer their questions or respond to them, they wouldn't go away, but we would definitely see less of them on here.

Also, aren't we kinda being hypocrites? When tkkrs leave hate on Jikook posts we all get together to hate on them (which is justified) but we seem to have no problem when jkkrs leave hate on Taekook posts. I know it's different because Jikook is real and taekook isn't, but again, we're not going to convince them by leaving hate comments. We're just gonna piss them off more. Honestly, I think the only thing that would shut tkkrs up once and for all is if Jikook came out with their relationship, and we all know that's not going to happen, at least not anytime soon.

Ok, I think that's the end of my rant. Please let me know if you agree with me or not. If you disagree, I totally understand. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I'm just sharing mine.

ALSO 3 more things:

1: please feel free to send me asks! I will respond to ALL of them as long as they are not toxic.

2: does anyone know any platforms where the Jikook community is welcoming and nice? It may sound stupid but I think that's what I really need right now. I have no BTS friends and would LOVE someone to talk to about them.

3: let me know if you would like me to stay on here. I'm almost definitely not gonna post any more stuff about this drama, but I will 100% post more cute and wholesome Jikook moments if y'all want me to.

I love you all, thank you so much 💜

[ca-suffit]

And also I think I've seen an interview, but don't quote me here because it could very well be fandom bs, where Sam(?) talked about the difference between Lelio and Harlequin and the only thing he expressed was the trickster nature of the Harlequin vs the lover's nature of Lelio or smth. Nothing to aknowledge Harlequin is blackface and maybe Lestat had those racist biases as a human/fresh vampire (very possible) or etc.

Here we go again..

The same old bs discourse:

Sam Reid white supremacist, defending racism.

And this laughable Lestat racist biases.

And Armand will be the one who's calling Lestat out for this, lol!! He's the SWJ of the show now.

Please, antis, change your arguments, it's already tiring.

This isn't an "anti" thing and it's a joke I'm replying seriously to this bcuz of that but ppl need to have this shit spelled out for them so here we go. We're talking about race and racism within the show and the fandom. Take your baby ass "anti" arguments and shove them up your ass bcuz ur not making this into some stupid fandom argument. This is about race and racism. Be a fucking adult. This is why we talk about race, bcuz any mention of it causes u to spiral about all the things ur going on about here. Nobody said Sam is a white supremacist or racist. He's just white. He's the bland ass book guy there to sell shit to book ppl. He's not the one who is gonna get asked race questions, it's never asked of white ppl and he's otherwise never volunteered to discuss it. Lestat would be racist as fuck IRL. He's beating slaves in the book and he's a white European. Sorry u don't know ur own man, skill issue. Did u miss the part in 2.2 where both Louis and Armand told Daniel to shut up trying to whitesplain European racism to them as if they wouldn't already know that? Loustat's whole issue is Lestat being ignorant to racism, especially his own. Every part of the world is racist somehow and white ppl are the least equipped to see or understand that bcuz white ppl are the least affected by it. Then react like this ask when learning .1% of fucking anything. This is literally what happens when fandom won't let u talk about race. This is a reflection of what society does too. We stay stuck at step 1 forever. This is exactly why tf I'm here. We're keeping this shit in the tags. We're talking about it out loud. Stay fucking pressed.

[katsigian]

Context and Dispelling Misinformation

There was a vaguepost shared within the cp77 fandom by another person and it really needs some context and clarification. This is the only time I will talk about this and after I share this, I am moving on with my life and not returning to it.

I am going to say this first: do not use this a reason to attack others. This is not drama or discourse and once I share this, I will be moving on and not adding more to it. Do not take this as an attack or an attempt to stir up shit, because it is not in any way, shape or form. All this is, is to clarify a vaguepost that concerns me and other people who have the same concern as me.

This vaguepost was directed towards me and a post that I had made in a small, private server consisting of people I considered to be my friends. The basic context of this is; I made a post expressing my feelings of loneliness and isolation and it was completely misconstrued and then vague-posted about in a very invalidating and hurtful way. The post in question invalidates all the other people who have also expressed their feelings of being left out and unwanted before. Because I am not the only person who has talked about feeling like they don't belong in the fandom. Are all of those people 'whiny asses' too? (Check alt text for description of images)

My post had absolutely nothing to do with this person. I did not mention them, I did not refer to them, I was only expressing something that I had been worrying about in a channel dedicated specifically to offering support in my small, personal server. I genuinely do not know why they felt the need to make this vague post and say the things they said in it.

Also, nowhere in my post did I make any mention of being concerned about the number of notes. I did not say or imply anywhere that I'm scared of losing notes or reblogs. Because I'm not worried about that. What I said was that I'm scared I won't have a place to belong because I've always been an outsider. I'm not part of any cliques or groups and I never have been. I don't think it's me being a 'whiny ass' to want human connection and to want people I can talk to and be friends with. Is it stupid of me to want friends? Is it stupid of all the other people who have expressed similar sentiments?

I vented in my small, cp77 based server called Red Dirt to people that I believed were my friends about something that's been worrying me since late 2022. I wasn't aware that being vulnerable in front of my friends was "attention-seeking, whiny ass" behaviour and I didn't know that I'd be seen as annoying for getting something off of my chest. I genuinely thought that the people in that server were people I could trust and people I could be open with hence why it remained in the server.

This post invalidates a lot of people's feelings and it's just plain hurtful to name-call people for wanting human connection. It's not just me who has been open about feeling left out and ignored. I'm not the only person who has expressed that they feel unwanted and like they don't belong anymore in the fandom. Another person very recently has expressed similar sentiments and had valid concerns. Another vague-post by the same person was made in regards to that and was again, very invalidating and hurtful. It's ironic that this person, after targeting someone who has never done anything wrong to anyone, stated "stay kind" as if them hurting a large group of people was kind and peaceful.

Going forward, all I'm asking for are two things; some compassion and empathy for people who are struggling in the fandom, and to not resort to ranty, targeted vagueposts as a means to try solve personal-level issues. Vagueposts don't solve problems. We have seen this multiple times in this fandom. All they do is open up the doors to harmful assumptions and allow for misconstruing words/intentions into something they are not. This kind of misinformation creates more problems than it fixes.

[jackoshadows]

Hi! I'm new to the asoiaf fandom (ik too late .. but better late than never right??) . So I'm a Tumblr girly and before even knowing about all the plot points, I knew too well about the fandom discourse - particularly sansa, Arya, Daenerys and Jon. And i wanna say why I get so many people are mad at hardcore sansa fans. Like only today I found out about the original leaked letter of grrm in 1991 and was fascinated about it, so I was reading everything related to it and finally ended up reading a discussion on asoiaf.westeros.org

Someone posted a long post about how grrm's original plot points have remained more or less the same and I was nodding along and i kid you not - the very next post was about how Arya will be a child at the end of series so many plot of hers will be Sansa's now given that she'll be a woman by westeros' standards. And I was like "weird but at least this person was polite and stayed within the topic of discussion" . Then not even TWO posts after that , there's a long post about how sansa and Jon are meant to be together (like quotes from books and their supposed interpretation - spoiler alert: totally wrong btw). Like the first quote is "poor Jon, he gets jealous because he's a bastard" and the poster is like " Poor Jon, he is jealous because he's a bastard and won't be marrying blushing redheads to make them queen of all the realm... but what if he isn't a bastard and is the crown prince?" (This is cp btw) . Like you just called your fav character a gold digger.

Jon is a bastard now so he will not be making anyone queen .. BUT when he is the prince? Lets make a PowerPoint of stupid connections that is clearly meant to be taken seriously as a proof of the never-will-happen-relationship. I may be new to this fandom but I've been in enough fandoms to know self insert ships. The Hunger Games for example, I've read crackpot theories of how Katniss should forgive Gale for playing a part in the plan that ended up killing Prim because she has killed people in the games too. For whatever reason they have the hots for Gale so they want Katniss to end up with him so they run loops trying to make that happen.

Like , I wanna read about things that matter - I was trying to read interpretations of the blocked paragraph. I want to read an absurd theory of how Tyrion will be the king at the end . I don't wanna see a ridiculously long post of a crackship in a place where nobody asked for it !! Why do they have this behaviour of promoting their ship everywhere? I mean literally everywhere ??

Like literally the entire basis for Jonsa is taking away everything GRRM has written for Arya - in terms of political arcs, importance in the North/House Stark/Winterfell, relationships with her siblings, with her parents etc. - and giving to Sansa because she's beautiful and fits into the tradfem standards of femininity. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

That's why anytime there is a discussion of Jonrya or Arya becoming Lady of Winterfell or a leader of the North, it starts pivoting to Sansa because they can only see her as leading the North because she's the right kind of girl - this in a region where Robb got his support after Greywind chewed off the GreatJon's fingers! The dissonance is real.

Also them using the leaked OG outline for Jonsa is so frigging hilarious and ridiculous. Worms for brains.

So yeah, it is annoying and frustrating but unfortunately that's fandom sexism for you. The ASoIAF/GOT fandom is incredibly sexist and bizarrely most of this nonsense is from women stanning a sexist character while holding her up as some kind of feminist icon and bullying other fans if they critique that character's sexism and bullying.

[lindszeppelin]

I was watching a video on actors' accents, and it just reminded me how ridiculous the discourse around Austin has been.

Actors constantly hire vocal coaches, but as soon as he does it he's "doing too much". The man literally got awards for his dedication to the role of Elvis, and is now being accosted for doing what "they" wanted him to do--hiring someone to help drop the accent after the project finished.

They really can't find any good dirt on him, so they'll dredge up the stupidest stuff to try to make him look bad. The audacity is amazing.

I think you described the frustration perfectly. Method acting has been given a bad rep, and a lot of people don't grasp the full concept. They just see bad eggs like Jared Leto leaving his used condoms on the doorsteps of his castmates trailers whilst doing the Joker, and they use those extremes to put down other actors using said method. There's nothing wrong with method acting, and some actors find it the most helpful to stay in character as to not lose their progress. Austin wasn't out here in Starbucks asking the barista to call him Elvis. (Bradley Cooper was for Maestro tho, so...let's talk more about that and not Austin's accent lol)

Elvis has been the most impersonated man in history, i'd say. And so Austin made it clear that he was about humanizing Elvis from the beginning. Austin is also a man of deep introspection and he researches thoroughly, more than most would for a role. It shows his enthusiasm for the role.

Now whenever he has any other movie role, people are going to bring up his voice and make fun of him. I don't know why it's trendy right now to hate on him for his voice because it was never okay to do that. They're just a bunch of snobs with their nose in the air who think they know shit about films when really they don't.

Austin won't ever win with those people and I'm glad he doesn't pander to them. He just has to keep on doing what he's doing in his career. As long as he is happy and he's okay then that's all that matters. The Elvis movie was done under such extreme and unique circumstances that you can't really compare it to another project or what another actor could do in a similar space. I know Timmy hired the same vocal coach to help him with his upcoming biopic on Bob Dylan, so his fellow friends in the acting space are backing him up. The moronic movie critics and bored keyboard warriors will always look stupid af.