#Its weirdly infantilizing?

[quartergremlin]

i never know what to say when this happens...

transcript:

Quarter:

(It's been a little bit since i've made am illustration... It's mot the vest, but at least i finished something.)

Some guy I've never seem before:

"Wooow! You're getting so much vetter! keep it up!"

Q:

Thanks? (What are you talking about?)

[swallowtail-ageha]

"Laios isnt horny about monsters he's just autistic!"

Yeah, because this

Is a completely unhorny wholesome portrait of being obsessed with something

[nachosforfree]

"Autistic people don't understand gender" is one of the strangest generalizations to come out in recent times I think

[larnax]

no therion's story doesn't only make sense if you do a solo run. i've seen this take multiple times and every time i'm completely baffled because No It Doesn't. not true. false. incorrect.

like okay this does require you to understand that the literal words a character says are not necessarily the truth, but therion's story and gameplay both make way more sense if you accept the fact that therion is not a loner and shouldn't be one.

let's start with the beginning! the FIRST scene you see of therion is him meeting darius at age 11, who he will spend the entire rest of his childhood with and implied some time into adulthood, so he has spent probably the majority of his career as a thief working in a team, which is also borne out in his gameplay, because thief is a support class.

don't argue with me i'm right. while you can run therion as a DPS, investing in attack over speed and evasion means that therion's frailty gets in the way, and he struggles to do damage on par with olberic/h'aanit/alfyn, and cyrus/tressa do way more elemental damage than he does. however, if you instead spec him for support, share SP becomes the most insane skill in the game. a speedy therion can debuff a boss into oblivion before they have a chance to do much before stealing enough SP to let olberic fire off three divine skills without needing a refill. dancer therion is worth doubling up on weapons because his speed and evasion means that he can buff allies quickly and a dancer/thief is the only combo that will regularly dodge attacks before the late game.

therion's skills primarily revolve around giving allies openings to more easily take down enemies(i mean for balancing reasons but play with me in this space) because that's the job he had when he worked with darius. he's not an especially skilled combatant on his own because he didn't need to be, his job was to pin foes down so darius could spam sweep.

additionally, while i hate this decision badly, therion's percentages are fixed so that every chapter past the first has a necessary skill check that's very difficult to pass without either a glean info character and a KO NPC character(why did they do base 3% brigand leader's garb to him.), again because he's used to having someone else deal with gathering information and doing the majority of the fighting for him. he's not terrible at getting info out of people, but he's also not great at it, for example he just goes along with barham's scheme instead of finding a way to threaten or coerce him into revealing the info right away. like basically all of his plans would've failed if the guards or his informant had just said No and refused to help him as opposed to cyrus who responds to being told no by finding out that his informant's daughter died in order to manipulate them into coughing up the info he wants. therion might be capable of manipulation beyond basic impersonation or pretending to be friendly, but if he is we don't see it.

therion in general is also a very passive character if you look past his words at his actual actions. he resists for about two seconds when heathcote cuffs him before following their orders for the rest of the story even when he's uncuffed in chapter 2 when he's still not a huge fan of the ravuses. he again goes along with barham even when he's almost certain he's being fucked with. he is almost always either acting on someone else's orders or defending himself from someone else's attacks. the reason for this is best illustrated in one of the cutscenes with darius where it's made pretty clear that for the majority of their partnership, he kept therion dependent on him to make decisions, and because that started when he was relatively young it's likely that therion just doesn't have that strong of an instinct for advocating for himself or firmly saying no to people twisting his arm(he asks darius a question once and gets thrown off a cliff for it, implying he was even more obedient before that). he can say no once, but we have no idea if he would've given in to the bandits at the beginning if they hadn't responded to his initial no by attacking him, so it does actually make perfect sense that any of the stronger-willed travelers could just respond to that no by saying they weren't asking and dragging him along. he's prickly and verbally hostile, but that mostly seems like a defense mechanism because otherwise he's easier to coerce than ophilia. i get that this seems like i'm trying to infantilize therion but that's really not my intention, in fact that takes the Therion Doesn't Kill People point i made awhile back reflect less on his being a secretly good person and more being too passive to feel the need to finish the job and generally makes him more morally ambiguous because it's less clear what decisions he makes due to personal growth and what he makes due to inertia. is he a good person, or is he just too tired to be a bad person? ideally the story would actually go somewhere with that theme but it wouldn't be octopath if they didn't periodically drop the most insane writing that rewires my brain before either doing nothing with it or actively ruining it.

also, therion's story gets way stronger if he's in a party, because while cordelia and heathcote are (TREATED AS) the reason he learns to trust again, in-story they spend, what, one hour together maybe? cordy and heathcote are his bosses and the most either of them do cordelia using her empath powers to deduce that therion looks sad or heathcote telling him that he's the real asshole for being mad that he's being blackmailed. they're also canonically lying to him when they say they don't know what the dragonstones are, so even at the end of the story they don't really trust him(i wont spend too much time complaining abt them i just don't think you get to be a savior character if the town you own has a ghetto). on the other hand, if you do his story with a party the travel banters all make some attempt at showing therion slowly coming to trust and rely on them despite initial friction, and in gameplay therion acting as a support expresses the theme of him realizing that he actually can work in a team where his allies have his back and there are people he can trust. in that instance his final conversation with darius includes him talking about his companions, because to be here at all they have accepted him after seeing him at his worst and helped him despite it, and who he's been able to help in turn. if you're doing a therion solo run he's just talking about how his boss who's blackmailing him for free labor said he looked sad one time, which is a pretty weak climax if we're going to be real. i stand by saying that octopath works best when it's episodic and stories shouldn't rely on specific characters to work, but genuinely i do think therion's story's themes being expressed strongly in gameplay and the nature of rpgs with a party system are quite cool and my favorite thing about his story.

so it specifically annoys me when people are like "oh well he limply says no before letting you continue to drag him around" like it's a plot hole and not a character trait especially when therion's being a prickly asshole who is also a complete doormat is i think very interesting characterization!!!! ophilia commenting on the fact that therion has no instinct for revenge and therion says "yeah what's the point" makes me so normal.

ALSO why's therion the poster boy for "hey this character's story doesn't make sense with their gameplay" when primrose exists???? why it so contradictory a character whose story is about them learning to trust in their companions again to be in a party while a character who starts off by telling you to fuck off and leave her alone because this is her fight before heel-turning for no reason and then just continuing to be your ally with no justification is totally fine. also why is primrose a support class???? she's not a dancer she's an assassin she doesn't support anyone in her story and her character is about her singleminded and specific familial revenge. she's also a very strongwilled character so it makes no sense that she wouldn't just say no and mean it. i know the answer is that octopath doesn't like women so primrose just got slapped into a princess jasmine costume and femme fatale character before any of her story was actually developed but like oh my goddddddd. primrose girl im so sorry they put you in the nightmare hell dimension.

[bump1nthen1ght]

To Be Cherished (Dragon x GN! Reader) Part 2

Pairing: Male!Dragon x Gender Neutral!Reader

Warnings: Explicit Content (18+ ONLY), Dubious Consent (Consent is not explicitly asked), Slight Infantilization, Knotting

Word Count: 2300 words

Summary: “On nights like these, back at home, you typically performed a…ritual to calm your mind before bed. A rather private ritual, but a ritual nonetheless.

You slowly turn your head to Nyryym’s head, noticing the giant closed eye only 3 feet away from you.

Maybe I could.

You ponder, quietly undoing the tie around your robe and pulling the heavy covers up to your neck. With the thickness of the blankets its not like it would be too obvious what you were doing. Especially if you propped up your knees.”

A/N: Due to many requests, here's the NSFW part two to “To Be Cherished”! I decided to keep the reader gender neutral to stay in line with last one. Hope y’all enjoy!

The last few days have been weirdly tiring.

You had worked on your farm since you were 12 years old. For almost your entire life you’ve worked days of waking up at the crack of dawn, pushing your body until the very limit, sleeping, and then doing it all over again.

But you definitely underestimated how tiring doing nothing can be.

For four days you’ve woken up only when you felt like it, often taking over an hour to get out of bed afterwards. With a hot plate of breakfast on the table and an outfit all laid out, all you need to do is roll into the comfy chair and make morning chit-chat with your giant dragon captor. A captor who is all too eager to listen to your first-of-the-morning nonsense thoughts and the weird dreams you had. The routine would shift after that; sometimes Nyryym would have you try on a myriad of new clothes and pose, sometimes you’d read several of the books they had stored in their horde, and sometimes you would just take a walk around the cavern and admire the multide of illuminated flora and vast piles of treasure.

But despite sleeping 11 hours each night (often with a 2 hour sun-nap in the afternoon), you think the stir crazy is beginning to wear you out. It's been nice, this break, but the itch in your limbs begs you to be a little bit more adventurous, to have some sort of schedule to adhere and accomplish, even if it's small in comparison to farm work.

You’re lying in bed, belly full of a hot dinner and dressed in a beautiful ornate silk robe that drapes off you in all the right ways. Nyryym lays nearby, head right next to your bed as they settle into a sleep. The bed is cozy, Nryym looks cozy, but your restlessness seems to have reached a peak. You’re so tired from the vacation that you want to sleep but can’t, it's driving you insane.

On nights like these, back at home, you typically performed a…ritual to calm your mind before bed. A rather private ritual, but a ritual nonetheless.

You slowly turn your head to Nyryym’s head, noticing the giant closed eye only 3 feet away from you.

Maybe I could.

You ponder, quietly undoing the tie around your robe and pulling the heavy covers up to your neck. With the thickness of the blankets its not like it would be too obvious what you were doing. Especially if you propped up your knees.

A hot breath of air washes over your face, the slow and steady rhythym of Nyryym just nearby. It certainly seems like he’s asleep. Honestly, would a little noise even wake him up anyway?

Your hand slowly drifts down to your crotch, shooting the occasional glance to Nyryym’s closed eye. The anticipation stirs something in your gut, arousal pooling without even touching yourself.

You meet no resistance as you finally reach your sex, thankful that Nyryym had ‘forgotten’ to get underwear with this outfit. Your skin feels hot, you heart beating fast as you just caress yourself before-

“My, my, and without me?”

Your hand jerks upwards, your neck creaking as you whip around to see Nyryym’s bright golden eye.

“I-uhm-” You feel your face grow hot with your blush, holding your hands up to your chest in an attempt at lying. “I’m not sure what you mean.” Glancing down at your covers, you see no obvious sign of your nudity or your…machinations. There's no way he could see what you were doing!

“Sweet dear.” Nyryym coos, his tail coming up to caress the side of your face. “I can smell you.” The blush travels all the way to your ear tips, eyes widening.

Oh gods, this is even worse.

Nyrymm chuckles, the tip of his tail rolling down your face to your exposed neck. Those golden eyes eat up your form and despite the layers of blanket between you, you’ve never felt more naked.

“I’m-” Nyryym’s tail tip presses against your lips.

“Oh, dearie, do not be afraid.” He purrs, that familiar longing in his eyes eating away at your very bones. “I am not upset with you, only confused why you thought you had to do it alone.”

Before you can utter out a “what?” Nyryym draws closer, planting a soft (as soft as dragons lips can be) on the top of your head, then placing a lone paw on the bed. It creaks under his weight and you almost think he’s about to crush you when his form begins to shift. The humongous paw that once could carry your whole body begins to shrink and morph, scales remaining but a clawed thumb popping out. The mattress springs turn up as Nyryym’s weight lessens, his more quadruped shoulder pushing upwards and back, becoming parallel to his head. You lift your gaze and don’t find Norm's giant snout peering down at you, but an amused huff of breath across your face turns you towards his new face.

You throw your body back, surprised at how close Nyryym’s smaller muzzle is to your lips, finally getting a full view at this shifted form. While his body is vaguely human-shaped it still glistens with his sapphire scales, still all hard edges and overlapping segments. His whole head has shrunk to fit the proportion of his new form but it is still very much a dragon's face, muzzle and horns and all.

“We can have so much more fun together~” Nyryym’s eyes drift down to your shoulder, where your open robe has fallen aside and revealed your bare skin. A cold, clawed hand slips around your waist, pulling you into his covetous mouth as he begins sucking on your neck. You gasp, goosebumps rising across your arms, his talons scraping along your skin.

Well this is definitely not what I was expecting.

A rumbling purr comes from Nyryym’s chest as his other hand grabs onto your hips, the rough pads of his fingers pressing hard enough to leave bruises. Using his body weight he pushes you down to your back, your robe falling to the sides to reveal your bare chest. His hands leave you for just a moment to push aside the covers, cool cavern air rushing over your now completely naked sex. Nyryym continues sucking on your neck; The rough texture of his tongue laps against your pulse point, leaving pinpricks of desire in its wake.

“Gods, you are just-” Nyryym looks up from your neck, licking a kiss onto your jaw, “-so gorgeous. So perfect.” Nyryym pants, grabbing your thigh and throwing it around his waist. Your bare crotch rubs against his scaled one, an ice cold touch that gives you a shock. “Just absolutely delectable, my love.” There's a resounding spank as he slaps your ass, massive hands fondling the fat.

Nyryym looks down at you and you’ve never seen him so unhinged before. He had always showered you with praise and affection, but this was something else. This was hungry, this was desperate for a taste of you.

….You can’t say you hate it.

Nyryym sits upwards, still holding one of your oegs around his waist as he sucks on two of his fingers. His tongue is long and forked, licking down to the knuckle. Withdrawing them slowly, languidly, and with a pop. Nyryym winks at you.

“Gods, I can’t wait to taste you.”

Once again your horny brain is lagging behind, gasping when Nyryym takes his two lubed fingers and deftly shoves them into your hole. Like a stick stoking a fire, flashes of heat shoot up your abdomen. Your shaky moan when Nyryym curls his fingers puts a large grin on his face.

“See? Isn’t this much more fun?” Nyryym pulls his fingers out to the tip before shoving them back inside, giggling at your jerky yelp. “I knew we’d have such a great time together, pet. I knew it the moment I saw you.” He pulls the same maneuver, his free hand patting your thigh.

You grab desperately for a pillow, something to claw your fingers into and try to relieve some of the pressure. But with quick precision Nyryym grabs your wrist and places your palm on his chest. “Uh-uh.” He tuts. “I want you to grab onto me only.”

And you do, because Nyryym immeidately begins fingerfucking your hole with a determination, brutalizing your sensitive spot each time. Ridged scales scrape against the sides as he goes in and out, the schlick schlick schlick noise and heady scent all coming together to thoroughly scramble your brain. The pads of your fingers try to find purchase on his smooth chest but can’t, leaving you to feel and fondle the musculature underneath. Nyryym’s rumbling purrs vibrate through your wrist and down your arm, enough to even feel it slightly against your legs.

“I wish I had a court artist right now, darling. “ Nyryym pants, scissoring open his fingers inside you, stretching you wide. “I’m not sure if they'd be able to capture your elegance, but I would delight in having you immortalized just-” he shoves his fingers deep, “-like-” and again, “-this.” and again.

Considering your response is composed of half-muttered babbles and whimpers, you imagine you are quite a site to see. Hair eskew, robe left open and sweat pooling down your forehead and neck. You’re feeling light headed and wonder if your eyes have crossed or if the sex has just deprived you of clear sight.

But you can tell when Nyryym finally pulls out his fingers, the gaping emptiness all too apparent to your twitching lower half. The palm of Nyryym’s chest tries to scratch and paw, asking ‘Why’d you stop?’ with its fervent touches. The rumble of Nyryym’s chuckles are enough to imagine his smug face. The soft caress to your chin has you looking upwards, into his dangerously golden eyes.

“Don’t worry, we’re only just starting.”

Its only then you notice the pressure right up against your entrance, a glance down revealing Nyryym’s unsheathed cock. The tapered head taps against your lower half, the cerulean color seeming fluorescent in the low light. The cold tingle on your skin suggests it has some self-lubricant, the buzz as a droplet runs down your butt making your lower half clench. Which might be a problem, because just like everything else about a dragon, his cock is huge.

“Um, I don’t know if that will-”

Nyryym, seemingly too lost in the moment to hear what you’re saying, sheaths himself with a sharp thrust. You feel that familiar rumbling purr of his, Nyryym’s eyes going cross.

“Perfect.”

You’re cut off again when Nyryym reaches up and wraps a clawed hand around your neck, pressing you into the bed. Using his other hand as leverage, he begins fucking into you with abandon, pistoning his hips with an eagerness.

Your vision goes spotty as Nyryym squeezes your throat, fighting for breath when he releases. The sensations of his cock inside you are only heightened, every nerve electrified from the brink of unconsciousness. Nyryym’s thumb wipes a tear dripping from you eye, purring and cooing. A hot exhale washes over you as Nyryym mutters a “Fuck!”, his usually verbose vocabulary failing him at the moment. You don’t blame him, as all you can think about is the cock-head pounding all the way up to your guts.

Nyryym shoves your legs into your chest and over his shoulders, leaning down to press his chest against yours. A long tongue laps up more wayward tears, grunting and moaning with each hump. A bulbous base rubs against your entrance, wholly unfamiliar but not at all unpleasant. That buzzing self-lubricant gushes from Nyrymm’s tip, slickening up your insides and tightening that knot in your stomach. It threatens to snap with each precise thrust, pinpointed for your most sensitive areas.

“Take it, take it, take it-” Nyryym babbles, still lathering you with sloppy licks and desperate kisses. That bulb at the base of his cock is beginning to push harder and harder against your hole, the self lubricant giving it more stretch thsn you thiught possible. You feel so clsoe to the limit, thats when Nyryym grabs your thighs and bends them towards your chest, putting you in a full mating press.

“Yesss.” He slurs, lovestruck eyed watching his cock go in and iut of you. “So close, dear, so close. You can do it.”

You’re already shaking your head, entirely confident you can’t do it, whatever it is, but Nyryym grabs your chin and holds you still.

“Yes, you can. I know you can.”

And even your addled brain can figure it out, the stretch of Norm's bulge now half sinking into you. Your legs twitch, that knot tearing at the seams.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Nyryym’s shouts, eyes rolling back as he feels you clench as tight as you can around him. You don’t realize it but you’re screaming, moaning in pleasure as your orgasm hits you. As it does, that bulge slides right into you, sending a cataclysm of overstimulation as Nyryyms climaxes, hot spurts of cum easily overflowing and spilling out of your spent hole.

Your hips burn, stretched beyond their limit with your calves still thrown over Nyryym’s shoulders. His dick, still hard, pulses hot and heavy inside of you. Nyryym’s breath rolls down your neck, his muzzle snuggled into your neck. Cum drips down your ass, the tingle buzzing down your skin.

“What a good pet.” Nyryym pants, pressing a soft kiss to your neck. “You did so good, very good.” Another kiss. Another twitch inside you. “I’m so happy I found you.”

You fall asleep to that; sweet words and gentle pets. A soft embrace for their soft pet.

[whilomm]

i think part of the reason why ppl have a kneejerk reaction to others pointing out that marcille is kinda conservative (besides the usual desire to sand down characters edges to make them Less Problematic™) is that theyre thinking "conservative=republican" rather than similar to like, that girl who will swear up and down that she is SO progressive and 100% feminist and everything but when a girl doesnt shave her legs she says "ugh but its just so UNSANITARY" but at the same time if a guy DOES shave their legs she just "thinks its weird!!!", and if you point out the contradiction there ("didnt you say it was UNSANITARY to not shave? doesnt that mean you think ALL guys should shave?") she will BSoD a little bit and uhhhh i mean uhhh its just that–

or you know, someone who if you come out as a trans to her she'll accept it (after a bit of confusion and a few of the usual dumb cis questions) but maybe thinks that the way to ✨validate✨ you is to go all in on gender stereotypes like okay if youre a woman that means MAKEUP and DRESSES and LONG HAIR and ACTING LADYLIKE and PARTICIPATING IN GIRLY ACTIVITIES and NOT BEING TOO LOUD and NOT TAKING UP TOO MUCH SPACE. and if your a man that means dressing MANLY and HAVING SHORT HAIR and ACTING MASCULINE and TOUGH and BEING UNINVITED FROM THE (GIRLY) WEEKLY HANGOUT SESH

or people who like, will never outright say they HATE homeless people, like if you talk about volunteering at the soup kitchen or donating to the food bank shes like yeah!!! but then she also getting weirdly uncomfortable when it comes to actual homeless people who arent like, the model of 'trying but down on my luck', and just thinking the tents are unsightly and worrying about how if you give someone money on the street if they'll just use it for drugs and being anxious about the vague specter of "violence"

(im not necessarily saying "marcille herself would 100% do these things" but just "when people say marcilles a bit conservative they dont mean rightwing republican they mean like this kinda shit which self-proclaimed Progressives do when they dont recognize they still got shit that they picked up from living in a So Sigh Titty to work thru")

like, listen, a big part of marcille's character is that she is very prideful and sure of herself and her opinions. half of marcille's character building parts are "marcille has a preconceived notion! oh, someone challenges the preconceived notion! marcille is RESISTANT to this! oh my GOD this is AWFUL how could you CHALLENGE HER WORLD VIE- oh. oh wait no. okay you might have a point BUT SHE STILL HATES IT!!!".

she changes and she learns things! but shes kicking and screaming the whole way and kinda annoying about it and even after she has one thing challenged shes still got a whole backlog of other things she learned from So Sign Titty shes also gotta work thru even if she doesnt realize it yet. sometimes she gradually realizes these things on her own sometimes someone basically has to hit her over the head with the Very Special Episode about how halffoots arent children and orcs aren't evil and maybe shes treating falin a bit like a dress up doll and infantilizing her and like thats a problem maybe?

like. its an interesting part of her character! let marcille be a bit conservative. she aint perfect. actually theres a lotta little things she kinda sucks about. but its okay bc she can learn and have her tidy little worldview challenged and its interesting to see her go thru it all!

(and i also wonder if part of the resistance to people pointing out how shes a bit conservative in some ways is also like, refusal to admit "hm maybe i also hold some regressive views". like, the general thing of "wanting to believe you are already a perfect progressive and dont hold any shitty views" is extremely realistic, its defo a trap ive fallen into before! most of us probably have! but like, step one is admitting it rather than putting your foot on the ground and saying la la la i cant hear you)

[wingamy24]

heeeeeey its me, the one who complains about characters from a 15 yr old show. let's talk about annie edison.

"annie's pretty young, we try not to sexualize her."

first of all, i'm going to clarify that i absolutely ADORE annie. the thing is that i've seen a lot of people here here talk about britta and how her character's broken from S2-S6 (i think its more of S3-S6) but i've never seen anyone talk about annie. even though she's a more complex character than britta, i can't help but feel like she's a little broken too.

first of all, i think we all notice that a LOT of times, annie is for the male gaze. she constantly gets hypersexualized AND infantilized at the same time when she does her rage moments, which are actually really funny... until it starts getting weirdly sexual. watching annie do the "teach me how to understand christmas" song was worse than watching MORBIUS. what was that. i genuinely believe that annie WOULDN'T do that. also, the song was, once again, both hypersexualized AND infantilized at the same time, making it the creepiest scene on community IMO.

i already talked about this a bit on my britta/annie broken chemistry essay, but annie was also very different on S1. the fact that she's basically a highschool girl and very innocent wasn't ignored then, and it made some really funny interactions and episodes. after jeff/annie on S1 though, it's like they suddenly tried to make her more mature, so jeffannie doesn't seem AS creepy. news flash, it is. some weeks ago i've seen a post that had a tag that basically said that britta's traits on S1 where given to annie on S2-S6, and while i feel like that's a bit generalizing, it's also pretty true in a lot of aspects. britta definitely was the smart one of the group on S1, while annie was smart and nerdy but also "dumb" when it came to her innocence. after S1, annie suddenly is oh wow so smart and mature while britta behaves like a 5 year old. it just doesn't seem fair to me.

neither britta nor annie deserved that, and it's just proof that dan harmon is incapable of writing a female character that doesn't revolve around a man.

and, seriously, out of all men you chose jeff winger? your self insert? interesting.

guess who had to go through a hundred jeffannie gifs or gifs sexualizing annie to find a gif of her. this is one of the first ones that popped up, i was too scared to go deeper onto that gif page.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

choosing violence 10 + 16 + 22 !!!! >:333

ok u didnt specify a fandom but im just gonna do this for pd because its front and center in my mind !!!!!! oh boy i cant wait to be crucified for my opinions

10. worst part of fanon

this is a problem with every jrwi campaign and also like. most . other fandoms to be real. but it seems like my favorite characters are always the ones that get the worst of the mischaracterization beam -_- i cant tell you HOW MANY fics ive opened bc the premise sounds cool only to IMMEDIATELY close it due to "he would not fucking say that" this isnt pd but if i have to read one more fic that infantilizes gillion for not understanding Land Things im going to blow up. hes stupid sometimes yeah! but hes not ignorant and hes not a baby hes like. literally the oldest one on the crew even if its only by a year or two. head in hands

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

ok im gonna get burnt at the stake for this one but i personally dont really see the appeal of tfem ashe... like i see the appeal yeah of course i do i just dont get why people are so like... weirdly forceful and passive aggressive about it? also this is totally a personal thing no hate to anyone that does this but its kind of a peeve of mine when ppl write analysis posts ans use their headcanon pronouns like.... if u are going to talk about and analyze canon then talk about canon !!!! i cant tell u how many good ashe posts ive skipped over bc im like. we are talking about different characters here .. respect to ashe tfemers and everything but its not for me

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

THERE IS A DISTURBING LACK OF CLARENCE ALBERT FAN CONTENT. WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT MORE INSNAE ABOUT CLARENCE ALBERT. HELLO???? am i the only person that feels this way . can anyone hear me its so fucking dark in here. every day i just want to read a fic about clarence albert and i am met with this

and neither of them are . interesting to me. hell on earth. bizly PLEASE give me more clarence lore in season 3 im fucking starving.

[flagellant]

That's it, I find it infuriating and insulting that you continue to push the narrative that the USA's occupation of Japan was some purely cruel and totalitarian cudgel over a helpless foe. This is completely out of the scope of your dive into soy sauce and problematic when you state such opinions with apparent confidence.

Your remarks to the last ask were unjustly defensive of your own narrative and they stood on weak foundations.

"America's treatment of Japan was one of extreme hostility and cruelty with little-to-no care about the nation or its people, solely using it as a means to enforce American/Western ideals and principles onto an unwilling populace and using violence and illegal organized crime syndicates to fulfill those goals..."

Putting aside the unjustified hyperbole of "extreme hostility and cruelty," SOLELY?

What about revenge towards another empire previously encroaching upon its territory? What about establishing a new balance of power with the Soviet Union? What about preventing future atrocities? I have no idea why you are obsessed with forcing a single aspect of a historical regime into the forefront and outright discarding the other factors involved in that period, NOTABLY the confrontation of two colonial empires.

"a single woman in 1947 having this much power/control over Japanese-American relations"

You wish this were true but it isn't. As some have pointed out in responses, it is weirdly infantilizing of the Japanese for you to state so and in such an adamant manner. I find you nearly unable to portray either nation in a complex way in many of your updates, and it is infuriating.

You are not entirely wrong. Neither is the person asking. SCAP was involved in a lot of misconduct. Japanese entities also worked both above and below board to salvage their own economy. In the middle are a slew of individuals playing roles with varying degrees of personal or institutional intent. It is entirely possible that things happen as a combination of events that we place into multiple competing narrative after the fact.

Please stop exaggerating and aggrandizing your own narratives.

I was gonna try and respond to you seriously, but honestly? I can't take you seriously. Every time I tried I just would stop and go "I'm sorry, but this is too stupid."

I don't know why you consider the reasons you give are not "things which were used to justify extreme cruelty and hostility on America's behalf to Japan and its citizens", but it's definitely weird.

And it's not my fault that I gave three different sources from distinctly different areas of news that all supported my claim that Appleton seems to be the complete and final authority, and I guess somehow you must have missed that despite writing this big ole tirade about my response to the ask you reference.

I think I'm going to keep doing exactly what I'm doing, and I think you need to learn to read what's being said and what you're saying before trying this again. I really encourage you to send another ask about how mad you are for inventing a guy in your head.

[myragewillendworlds]

I’m a 18 year old transexual male, have known about it since I was about 10 or 11, and have been struggling with a bad dysphoric episode this past month, so forgive the irrationality and how stupid this may sounds.

Lately I have been frequenting some ‘truscum’ forums online and, though I agree with most of their premises (main point being ‘you need sex dysphoria to be trans), I’ve found some ideas that have been making me feel ‘less of a man’. Though I’m not generally feminine in posture and habit, I’m highly introverted [bordering on shyness] and have some ‘girly’ habits and likes, such as still liking stuffed animals even at my age [please, don’t take it as infantilizing myself] and enjoying making colorful notes, with nice pens and nice titles as well. My friend group is mixed gender-wise, but the majority is made cis female. For some of these ‘truscum’ individuals, this makes me merely GNC, and though I am sure my dysphoria is real and I am caving the path towards my medical transition, it does make me feel weirdly insecure and intensifies, somehow, the dysphoria.

I’ve seen you are somewhat of an specialist when it comes to topics like this, therefore I wanted to have your insight, if possible.

Thank you for reading this and forgive me for any mistakes regarding the English language, it isn’t my mother tongue.

It took perhaps mere months before the word "truscum" began being used by underage morons who had neither the maturity nor the general desired level of intelligence to be speaking for an entire community in trying to convince outsiders of its need to be taken seriously. And it was a meme word before then too, one that I always warned against using for the very reasons it almost immediately became a problem. Point being: it means nothing to me that someone calls themselves "truscum", other than that it makes them sound like an immature asshole. I have never used that label.

That being said–

I don't think behavior alone makes someone transsexual or not transsexual. Sex dysphoria does.

The only relevant question is: do you experience sex dysphoria because of the sex of your body? And because people have severely watered that definition down over the years as well, here are some follow-up questions; which, no, aren't specifically covered in this wording in the DSM or ICD, but any diagnostician worth their salt would ask you:

Is the level of distress you experience life-debilitating?

Have you experienced this at least since the onset of puberty?

Looking back at your childhood, can you (with hindsight) recognize that your male gender identity was in fact present then as well? For example: did you feel a familiarity/kinship towards male family members, did you prefer playing with boys, did you prefer boy clothing/toys/items, did it feel natural to identify yourself with male characters, did you feel you didn't belong in groups with girls/women, etc.

Does a future in a female body seem impossible, surreal and/or utterly agonizing and miserable to you?

Do you experience sex dysphoria over all your natal sex characteristics; meaning, including the actual sex organs? There is no such thing as a transsexual male that lacks dysphoria over having female sex organs. Then you're just not male, therefore not transsexual.

Finally: are there no alternative explanations that could believably explain your dysphoric feelings, such as relevant trauma or mental illness? Do you wish to transition for the sole sake of changing your sex, and not for any ulterior goals or beliefs possibly linked to trauma or mental illness?

You should be able to answer 'yes' to these questions if you are transsexual.

The things you're mentioning aren't typical in guys your age, no, but those are taught things, not biologically innate things. Chances are, if you were raised as a boy, you likely wouldn't have done or enjoyed these (as much) as they would probably not have been encouraged, either by your parents or your peers. On the other hand, if you had been born male and still had these interests, you probably would've ran into the exact same sentiments from your peers that this makes you less of a guy. You'll find that many cisgender men have similar experiences with having their masculinity questioned.

Most transsexual people, I would say, do 'outgrow' most of these social behaviors as they fully embrace and live as their desired sex (and HRT may play a role in these changes as well). Perhaps you will too, when/if you start HRT and grow up into a man. Or perhaps you'll be a man who likes coloring pencils. It's hardly the deciding factor. Not like men have to trade in their cocks the moment they're ever found guilty of pulling out a glittery marker.

[evildilf2]

i dont really think the please love yourself is rude like if the poll was about other naturally occurring features like freckles or your smile or nose or legs or etc would it still be rude to say (love yourself) to someone saying they dont like any of those things about themself? it seems like inventing an issue to present this as “inventing new beauty standards” when its still very much hated and when it Should be naturally viewed as a good/enjoyable thing or neutral at least like every other part of the body ought to be

I think in order to view body hair as neutral it must be accepted that some people desire to live without it & not have that be viewed as a negative thing- “love yourself” does not indicate neutrality, it implies that having a hairless body is “unnatural” (there are people who don’t choose to be hairless, and yet they are. Is it wrong for them to embrace their lack of body hair?)… undesirable (or aught to be from others or said individual)… and indicative of some moral failing (the idea that if you want a hairless body, you must be internalizing regressive ideas).

The beauty standard I’m alluding to is not prevalent in the mainstream, that’s correct. At least when it comes to cis women (which I specify because trans women are ridiculed for hyperfeminine presentation and presentation deemed less than feminine to severe degrees… this is also relevant here- would we be comfortable telling a trans woman who shaves her body hair to love herself? Why would she be an exception? Is it appropriate to make such exceptions, or is it infantilizing?), shaming one for having body hair is going to carry a lot more weight than passive aggressively telling someone to start “loving urself <3”… but I see people online behave very weirdly about hairlessness… implying that attraction to adult hairless bodies is pedophilic, body shaming people who have had permanent procedures to remove body hair (how does that promote self love?)… etc

In my opinion, just because an attitude is relatively esoteric, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth addressing. You can’t achieve body neutrality by shaming people for what they look like or desire to look like. You have to stop giving a shit about what people do with their bodies. #meansandendsorwjatevah

[itsclydebitches]

Imma be honest, the implications of the way the episode handled Jaune's relationship with the paper people gave me The Ick.

Because our first impression of them via Jaune is that they're literally too naive and accident-prone to be left to their own devices, to the point he has to prevent daily disasters in their town on the clock and they can't be relied to not walk into danger (i.e. the paper person who almost walked into a puddle before Jaune pulled them away).

And then as soon as Jaune leaves, one approaches RWBY and very articulately explains that they're not actually stupid accident-prone wubbies but they're deliberately causing the accidents in hopes it will return them to the tree because Jaune will not let them go through their reincarnation at the tree. Or the next stage of their life cycle. Whatever is the best way to phrase it.

I technically know what they're going for with it, that Jaune is resting a lot of his mental health on the paper people and his ability to keep them from disaster (which includes them going back to the tree in his mind), and he's so traumatized to the point it's screwing with his ability to make objective decisions to the paper people's detriment.

But then the writers make him fucking infantilize them, by saying "they don't know what they want" and that they're "...too stupid... to trust". Which the paper people around him visibly wilt at.

It comes off as a Freudian slip from him that he thinks the paper people he's self-assigned himself to take care of are too stupid to make their own decisions and implying that they're unable to think for themselves when we just saw evidence to the contrary.

Not to mention he's an outsider that is, traumatized or not, imposing his viewpoint of the world on a different culture. The Aftereans logically know better than him the functions of the tree and its interactions between it and them. It'd be easier to swallow if he didn't literally belittle their agency and their intelligence, which is really fucked up of him to say about the people he's using as a coping mechanism and not even apologize to them if it was supposed to be a heat of the moment thing.

And to top it all off, the episode cloaks the conflict between the paper people and Jaune in this weirdly unnecessary self-harm vibe. Most of their solutions to get themselves to go to the tree involves them, to put it lightly, destroying their physical form in some capacity, which is like... are we supposed to see this as Jaune driving them to this point unintentionally? Are we supposed to see them as effectively suicidal and needing intervention? They don't even get to stand up for themselves, RWBY are the ones who... try and just make things worse because they're handling Jaune's mental state with about as much delicacy as buttering toast with an anvil.

Like what the hell is this? I actually sort of liked the subversion that the paper people weren't just naive to the point of self-harm but it ends up turning into "Jaune is using these people of another culture to prop up his mental health and imposing his views on them, albeit because he had a very Bad Experience associated with the tree, but also this is driving the paper people to take self-harm adjacent actions and Jaune also does not actually respect them because he insults their intelligence and ability to make decisions".

Yes, so much this. Your second to last paragraph really highlights my own problem with the conflict because am I supposed to be rooting for a self-harm/suicide allegory? Hard agree with what you've laid out above: Jaune is an outsider, he's infantilizing them, they're actually intelligent people who have the right to make their own decisions, and I would be 100% on board with a "Jaune needs to recognize that his trauma and desire to protect people is unintentionally hurting loved ones" message if... the thing they weren't arguing over is death. Or I'd be, like, 99% on board if we'd firmly established that Jaune is wrong about the tree and this "death" is actually a good, culturally different thing he needs to learn to embrace. But looking at what the Volume has given us, that's really not the case:

The Prince came back as a totally different person: a child instead of an adult and one who now wants to behead humans instead of helping them

The caterpillar (to my mind) was actually helping the girls by asking the hard-hitting questions, but that's framed as a flaw that needs to be corrected. He's basically hypnotized by the cat and forcibly dragged to the tree - forcibly "fixed"

Jaune, a character the audience trusts, slams into the story with very strong, "THE TREE IS EVIL STAY AWAY" beliefs

Based on what we currently know, this is somewhat supported by the supposedly evil little girl using it to get back home and the nice little boy disappearing

Just last episode the character who most wants them to go to the tree, the Cat, is framed as having manipulated the girls (regardless of whether we agree with that)

So far there's been NOTHING to imply that the tree is a good thing except a) a fairy tale that the girls have consistently learned is not accurate and b) a village of paper people who are so determined to reach it that they would crush/burn/dissolve/cut their bodies to get there. That is mighty uncomfy to me. The paper people being so firm in the tree being a good thing - within the context of the whole Volume - didn't make me go, "Oh damn, Jaune is wrong and he needs to step back, despite having the best intentions." It made me go, "This world feels...iffy and there's a strong implication that the residents have been manipulated into thinking the tree is an unambiguously good thing." Which, of course, is what Jaune is really saying. His 'they're stupid' rant, while yes, is incredibly insulting, is really only wrong if Jaune is wrong. If he's right that the tree is a nefarious force that the Ever Afterans are ignorant to because they've grown up on this pro-tree narrative then, uh... yeah? I think he's justified in trying to save them?

In full honesty here what my brain immediately equated this to was a cult. We have a group of people going, "Yes! We must release ourselves from these physical forms! Once that is done we will Ascend and become better versions of ourselves! We know this is true because we've been told by people in power (the Cat) that it's true. Those who do not accept the change will be forced against their will before the tree, but lucky for us we recognize how Good it truly is and will do anything - anything - to get there :D" Real talk, but did no one else get that vibe? Seeing the flashbacks of the paper people wandering around with scissors didn't make me think, "Huh. Interesting cultural difference that Jaune just needs to learn to accept." It made me go, "Is this the fantasy version of drinking the Kool-Aid?" If you're going to have your story frame death as a celebrated rebirth and position one of your characters as in the wrong for denying them that, you have to ACTUALLY PROVE to the audience that this version of death is not, in fact, equal to our own. Volume 9 hasn't done that. As laid out above, it's gone in the opposite direction and heavily implied that this "Ascension is The Best :3" narrative is suuuuuper unreliable... so why are we mad at Jaune again? Yes, he could absolutely be going about this with FAR more tact and respect, but I'm not yet convinced that him saving the village against their will is a bad thing, no more than I'd be in the wrong for knocking a cup of poison out of a friend's hand because they think that'll get them to some utopian realm. The story doesn't clarify whether this is a true danger or not, but it's SUPER weird to me that Team RWBY accepts this at face value, after everything they've experienced here. "Jeez, Jaune, what's wrong with you? Just let them kill themselves! It's clearly what they want. Quit playing white savior and help another friend move on already :/" Because yeah, giving Jaune this conflict after Penny is... a choice. We could have had any situation where Jaune is obsessively protecting people in an effort to alleviate his guilt, but having him protect people who, like Penny, WANT to die? Serious question, but what is RWBY trying to say?? Every person who claims they want to die is 100% correct and you should respect their wishes post-hast? Don't challenge Penny's belief that she can't be healed after 20 minutes in a human body! Don't challenge the shady belief that going to a potentially evil tree will result in a better life by erasing your former self! If 👏someone👏 wants👏 to 👏die 👏you👏 must👏 help👏 them👏 die!

But, as said, it's not fully explained either way. We don't know if the paper people are correct and Jaune should have let them perish years ago. We don't know if Jaune is correct and he was saving them from an uncertain, potentially terrible fate. Plus, the story has done nothing to convince us, the outsiders, that Ascension is actually the best thing for these people, regardless of the fact that it's clearly the most accepted. When the paper person said they wanted to make things that were more durable, my immediate response was, "Then do that? You might be paper, but nothing is stopping you from taking those rocks Jaune was handing you and building something permanent." If RWBY were any other show, I'd think that the end moral was that we're all capable of change and improvement, despite (or even because of) the lives we've been given. You don't need to go off and get some magical "fix" that gives you a new and better purpose, you embrace your own sense of self and build on that, crafting your own purpose. Growth. Experience. Maturity. Literally what is the point of Little, a mouse discovering their own purpose without any tree's influence, if the show is going to push a Ascension is Good Actually lesson? The fact remains that Ever After is not an actual culture we need to learn to respect, it's a fictional allegory for the girl's journey. So... what are they supposed to be learning here? "Do what you were assigned until you're deemed useless. Then you can die"??

So we have this story that's introduced a "Yay suicide!" perspective without actually determining whether that's a reliable perspective or not and this follows an episode where a hero begs for assisted suicide because she's determined that she's most useful to others when she's dead... seriously what kind of moral is RWBY going for? The issues of all this aside, I still don't know what to do with the final scene. I mean, based on where I'm currently at I really feel for Jaune, but is that the purpose of the scene? Am I supposed to be devastated that countless lives were lost, or am I supposed to celebrate that the paper people are finally free? Were they a family whose death is a tragedy, or are they a "make believe" family whose Ascension is a victory? I don't know, but really, any "Fantasy suicide is good, actually" message is NOT the kind of story RWBY should be trying to tackle. I didn't like it with Penny and I sure don't like it now.

"Oh no, misguided Jaune kept someone from dismembering themselves and all their friends. How could he! Be more culturally sensitive, Jaune." Is that really the message RWBY is going for? That's a completely honest question. Is that really what we're supposed to take away from this episode? Death is just a cultural difference here, so shame on the traumatized human from the Death is Permanent World for denying them their murder and suicide? Like Y E A H you can write that, it's your story, but hooo boy that is not my personal cup of tea.

[dragonling348]

Yall wanna see the ocs I spent literally all day making?

Check it out:

This is Kumi (she/her), the "comic relief", by which I mean the adhd one of the trio who gets a whole lot of shit for dumbassery while she's just trying to live her life. She takes it well and plays into it, but thanks to that the others kind of infantilize her, so when she comes to the others with a legitimate concern, the others belittle it without realizing it.

Next up is Samson (he/she). Samson takes the lead most of the time, just because she's the one who's least passive aggressive out of the three. He takes the role of "older sibling", and he's very caring about the others. It's just that, well, he can be a *lot*. She doesn't make clear all the time that when she picks on the others, she does it with love.

And last but not least, this is Dusk (he/him). Dusk is intelligent, taking the role of the brains of the three. He unfortunately lords that over the others' heads, because he can. At least Samson is able to fight back--Kumi always responds in this weirdly accepting way and leans into it. If only she would just tell him it bothered her, he would stop.

oops I lied. There's one more.

Heimornos (it/its) is an omnipotent being who appears to certain humans in dreams. It enjoys putting those select humans in different situations, ranging from torturous to incredibly peaceful. When they wake, they never remember their encounters with Heimornos until they fall asleep again. It sees humans as incredibly curious beings, each one unique and interesting.

Well... *almost* all humans don't remember their encounters. Kumi slowly realizes her dreams are getting weirder and weirder, all with this same otherworldly dragon within them. She starts questioning what they mean, and as the dreams grow more lucid and more unpredictable, she begins dreading what awaits her when she closes her eyes. She begins searching for an escape from this godlike creature invading her mind.

[song-birds-stuff]

Something I just wanna get off my chest, I love Welcome Home, its wonderful and refreshing, but the fandoms treatment of Wally and aus is very questionable to me.

I've talked to @funonion001 about this but Wally is mischaracterized a lot, to the point its one of four things

1 weirdly flirty for no reason

2 infantilized and treated like hes a child for no reason

3 completely demonized with his autistic traits twisted to be unsettling and evil for no reason

And 4, he is so out of character it is no longer Wally its basically an oc that vaguely looks like Wally.

Wally has very clear autistic traits, Clown has even said he wants to explore themes of queerness and ablism, and people either removing Wally's autistic traits (his monotone voice, social cues, sarcasm, and jokes going over his head, etc) or twisting them into something negative is more than a little suspicious to me.

Another thing is the aus, now people making aus isn't the problem, obviously people can make aus if they want but its giving the same treatment the early undertale fandom did with Sans aus not to mention Wally is almost never in character in them, either being a villain/very mean spirted, some sort of flirt, or just infantilized, or even his whole personality turned to such a direction its not even Wally anymore.

It being a horror series, I expected some scary stuff in au content obviously but Wally's treatment just hurts sometimes, with the apparent themes I almost doubt we'll have a obvious villain or even a villain at all.

I won't stop loving Welcome Home, obviously not every fan is like this but I hope eventually things will calm down and Wally's very good and sincere character is treated better

[emreveria]

Fanart of Ana Huang's 'Twisted Love' (the parasite in me urged me to make this)

very messy review of that book below !<3

First of all: I was not a fan of the Book nor the twisted series (i read them all except the last one, im still at like 75% because there are simply too many books id rather waste my time reading)-

the reason i even read as much as i did is because a friend of mine decided to read the first one & convinced me that they were so bad we would have a great time making fun of them/ hating on them: keep your friends close& enemies closer type beat

im definitely not the best (or a good) writer or critic but i am an avid fanfiction reader/ cartoon enjoyer so trust me when i say the 'twisted love' plot is like a badly written scooby doo episode: all characters feel soulless & ive watched bts oneshots on youtube that had more interesting/ suprising plottwists.

The Playlist at the beginning of the book is incredibly dated and to this day i dont understand why it is even there because it adds nothing (this trend continues in the other books of the series btw). example: Burn by Ellie Goulding, also: direct mention of Hot N Cold by Katy Perry (its in the second book but i had to include that)

While the MC, Ava Chen, is an obvious self insert (& constantly ovulating by the number if times shes thristy beyond help), she often gets weirdly sexualized AND infantilized (yep) in the book. Her whole Personality is Suneshine (the trope), Baking & photography.

the story has the weirdest timeskips, hypersexualizes everyone and everything to the point that its sometimes comedic & dual pov so you can get behind the thought process of the most obnoxious male lead there is: Alex Volkov (iq over 140, build& moves like a panther, VERY DANGEROUS!!!)

Everytime Alex opens his mouth theres a 50/50 chance hes saying something so incredibly edgy in the sense that hes definitely kinning sasuke and or shadow the hedgehog. And if hes not saying it, hes thinking it: "i wasnt a protector, i was a destroyer" like who even is he...

They behave like that one PDA-heavy middleschool couple everyone thought was cringe (Ava:1 Alex:0)

overall i give it 2/5 stars because it did make me laugh a few times, but also gag (a lot)

i have nothing against fans of the series [another rant incoming] but every book in the series follows the same pattern & PLEASE there are soooo many better books to read with an actual plot and interesting characters/ character dynamics/ relationships. Twisted is just badly written Literary Porn thats it.

i reccomend just taking a peek at what ao3's het/ explicit/ between 10-20k words section has to offer if you just want pwp!

- just found out through the spanish(?) wikipedia that ana huang started as a wattpad writer and that makes so so so much sense to me

[taxitues]

my favorite weirdly specific trope is when nonverbal/quiet characters are menaces.

like they whisper something to their friend and the friend nods and says to you “hey jerry just told me they think you’re an dumb bitch lmao”

maybe its just because i’m used to autistic coded characters being infantilized in media, but something about it is so enjoyable