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redjennies · 21 hours ago

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*long sigh*

all right this is one of my most resurrected posts and to be quite honest, i think most people get what I'm saying here, but it could be clarified because the second it gets away from a circle of people who get it, people seem to lose the thread pretty quick. it was about a trend I noticed regarding the types of fans C3 was both attracting and whose voices were being heavily elevated within the fandom. with the campaign ending, it only feels right to say my final piece about it and be done with it.

first, this post is about whose stories and voices are centered in fandom. it is not about the cast (though having a predominantly white, culturally Christian, US American cast does influence it because they are telling stories from that lens.) it is not even really about the characters, themselves, and whether this is. it's about the fans, and specifically, it is about the lack of compassion and desire to understand, I see a particular type of white (often for lack of better word, "WASP"-y: raised middle class, culturally Christian, and/or US American/English/Canadian/etc) queer fan extend to anyone who falls out of an extremely narrow lens of "this is the default queer experience" or heaven forbid, to people who are not queer but are marginalized in other ways.

it is about how this phenomenon happens because they have been trained to see their queerness as their only identity (and therefore, in their arrogance, the only identity that matters) as it is the only thing about them that deviates from that WASP-y "default." through this lens, stories that are not relatable to that audience are largely ignored unless they are exceptional enough to be the "Academy-Approved POC Film of the Year" to be tokenized by white liberal audiences and stories that do touch on queerness but are primarily about other things like race/class/disability/etc are whitewashed into something more palatable for that hegemonic "default" audience to the point where it is practically unrecognizable from the original story. this is not unique to CR. this happens across all audiences and therefore, all fandoms.

clearly, this phenomenon leads to a problem in fandoms. if we are not extending empathy to the characters and stories that discuss perspectives that may be different than our own, than we will not be extending empathy to the real breathing humans who see their experiences (or the experiences of people they have known) in those stories. there was this post or article about why we need better POC representation that I read way back in the day and have never been able to find again that really stuck with me that said something along the lines of "we don't need representation because no black person can relate to George Costanza or Rachel Green. we already do. the problem is that white writers and audiences do not relate to black people and that shows through the kind of black characters white writers create." and I think that sentiment is relevant to what I'm getting at here. a lot of white queer fans on tumblr are often half-listening when a story is told, choosing to only pay attention when things are about them because at the end of the day, they have the privilege to do so. therefore, the fanworks they create reflects that lack of interest. the metas and fanon they write reflect that lack of interest. soon enough, the fandom itself reflects that lack of interest.

and worse yet, because queer people are an oppressed group (and to clarify, I don't want to come across like I'm saying just because we're white queers, we're not "really oppressed" or whatever), this lack of interest and compassion for people who are different than you becomes actively celebrated in fandom spaces. you have relatively privilege white queer people on tumblr loudly proclaiming characters only matter if they're gay, stories only matter if they're queer, and so on and so on. which on some level is fine if you prioritize reading and watching stories that have to do with queerness, but you do need to be aware of a massive bias you may have to what "queer stories" even are and how you are interacting with them and who you are leaving out. a great example of this is why every time there's a black bisexual male love interest in a video game, y'all keep calling him "too straight" and therefore "boring" and then getting mad and defensive when someone calls you on it. like I mean-- hit dogs holler. ¯\_(*ツ)_/¯

anyway, I was going to close with tying this concept back into CR and how there was a rot that permeated C3 and how this attitude straight up alienated a lot of fans. (god knows I got shouted out of this fandom until it got so dully unpleasant that I couldn't bring myself to give a damn anymore, and sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, I hope everyone who participated in the near constant harassment I received for the great crime of maybe being annoying as I made my little jokes and shared my thoughts has a bad fucking life. fuck you. learn how to use the block button.) but @utilitycaster who has been following this campaign as well as other actual play shows a lot more closely than I have already touched on that in a pretty dead-on post that I highly recommend.

so here is what I will end on, the phenomenon I've been describing throughout this post is in no uncertain terms, a form of bigotry, and as far as the people who have to live with that oppression are concerned, a queer bigot is not any less harmful than a straight bigot, in the same way a female bigot is not any less harmful than a male bigot. so if you sincerely want to your spaces to be more inclusive and aren't just saying that to "do a leftism," you have to accept your own part in that, regardless of who you are. you have to stop and pay attention to what kind of perspectives you might be ignoring, and stop immediately shouting at people because you interpreted what they said in bad faith. you have to learn how to just shut up sometimes and be a little reflective. i'm not always great at that, but it's a skill you have to practice even if you fuck up. you can always change your mind with new information and new ideas and new perspectives, but if you instinctively chase off everyone who might be willing to talk about something you've never considered before because you're more concerned about being right than learning, you're going to get a rot in your community that is really hard to get rid of once it festers enough. because if you've been told your whole life that the rot is the default and that it is normal and that it's the way it should be, you're never going to notice it's even there.

tbh the Critical Role fandom, along with most fandoms, has a problem with centering easily digestible metaphors for white queer experiences (and even then only those that check all the boxes of the purity list) at the cost of seeing stories through the lens of race, class, mental and physical disabilities and how those can intersect with queer experiences.

for example, putting an unnecessary amount of effort into proving Jester's attraction to Fjord is compulsory heterosexuality while ignoring that Fjord and Jester were both explicitly biracial characters from different class backgrounds and how that class difference intersected with their self image. a general refusal to really interact with Chetney as a character that is heavily coded as mentally ill and uninterested in being "cured." Veth being deemed the token straight Karen despite being a young rural mother of color struggling with addiction and having an arc that was heavily coded as trans, and Ashton, a nonbinary lower class punk with chronic pain, being considered just a man when it comes to ship wars. etc, etc.

#just thoughts really

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iniziare · 2 months ago

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do you write?

Mel semi-dared me to type: “No, leave me alone.” So I have to include it. But in all seriousness, I'll respond this once, because it does allow me to update people a little bit. Though please know that your notification did have me pause mid-writing. Now, I want to politely, and respectfully direct you to my description on both dash-only and on my blog's theme, I also want to point your attention to my pinned post, and I believe that it's even in my rules, but I could be wrong. Though let me repeat it here:

The depictions you'll find here are canon-strict, and so you can expect many analyses of all kinds here, as dissecting the characters that I write is what I'm passionate about, and what I'm here for (and to write, of course!)

I admit, usually I aim to write more threads/asks consistently even if I'm excessively slow, and though I haven't updated the dash about my circumstances for a while (as I'm decently private about my life), know that writing meta has simply come a lot easier lately when time has permitted me to be on Tumblr. Now, that doesn't mean I don't value people's interest in writing with me, and I will live up to the promises that I've made that I will get to that (as I have occasionally done lately, and was in process of doing again)— but when meta comes easier to me, then I prioritize that as of late, simply because stress' best counter is the distraction that comes the easiest. Now this isn't by any means a waste of time, as it plays into what I quoted above. Because ultimately, here's my thing: I make it exceptionally clear everywhere on my blog that I am canon-strict (or as Tumblr, sadly, disrespectfully seems to call it nowadays: a 'lore purist'), and that this leads me to write a lot of analyses left and right on the characters that I write, but these are fundamental to understanding my portrayals of them. If that isn't your cup of tea, sir, or ma'am, then maybe this isn't the blog for you, and I don't mean that with malice, or in disrespect, but simply as a simple rebuke. In that, I greatly appreciate you checking in on behalf of my writing partners, but I'm also quite certain that they have the capacity to approach me themselves if they have any concerns. Have a nice day or night, wherever you are!

#[ inquiries: out of character. ] they do not know what to make of me. i have kept to myself; for fear of giving them purchase to cling to.#[ i don't have qualms about the message-- though it is a bit of a thing of... if you're waiting to write with me-- ]#[ which bless you; i'm humbled-- but you're more than free to come to me and express this. my answer would've been a lot different. ]#[ instead of having to address it like this; which i'll always do with a bit of a firmer hand. ]#[ but also; i have apologized to people on numerous occasions. but i don't like to half-ass writing. i'm not here to write 50 words. ]#[ i don't do one-liners. i want to give the quality that i know i'm capable of even if i'm a bit rusty. ]#[ and that takes time for me. that isn't just a switch that i can flip and go 'ok! I'LL WRITE'. ]#[ if you've paid attention; you do see the thread or ask come out. amidst a /lot/ of meta. but the meta is important to my blog. ]#[ it has always been. it's always been part of the foundation of my blog(s) and if that isn't up your alley then i present you with... ]#[ many other writers who touch on the same muses as i do. ]#[ but my meta /is/ part of my writing. it /is/ part of my blog. of my portrayals. ]#[ and i know not everyone is game for that and that's okay. but then know it'll /always/ stay a fundamental part of my blog. ]#[ and while threads/asks will come more frequently; they are slower at present. that just is how it is in my current situation. ]#[ to sum up/remind: i'm in the midst of moving/apartment hunting and my roof over my head is an airbnb. so a certain stress hangs over... ]#[ my head. so whatever gives me most distraction; i will indulge in. i have numerous drafts in the works. they'll come out. ]#[ if you're patient-- i thank you immensely. my gratitude is endless. and if you're not; that's okay. but then kindly... ]#[ and respectfully seek the door and let yourself out. ]

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butch-bakugo · 2 months ago

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Its not a shock to me that most "transandrophobia doesn't exist" people are trans women, mostly white trans women. They have a very specific image of what a trans man looks like and it's only two categories: the hyper fem, tits out, make up, twink trans man who doesn't pass nor try to and the hyper masculine, bearded, t'd up, all the surgeries, big buff trans man who you could never clock. They genuinely think every "transandrophobia truther" is lieing about not getting privileges they don't fucking have.

They genuinely believe every trans man passes and therefore we get male privilege and they get backed up by trans men who do pass and think a cis man making rape jokes with them and asking about their lift set is male privilege. Lemme shatter the illusion because as much as you like to scream about some wide spread privilege that doesn't exist, most trans people, in general, do not pass. This is especially true for trans men due to the hyperfocus society puts on feminine features. I have never met a fully passing trans man and I've met over a hundred personally irl. never. I know they exist but the fact y'all think we, en masse, get male privilege is factually just fucking wrong.

Trans men are not more acceptable or palatable to transphobes. Trans men are not more likely to pass. Trans men in mass do not get male privilege by virtue of our lack of passing and our medical history. Most trans men are still affected by the gender pay gap and thus can not afford surgeries.

You do not acknowledge the existence of non-passing trans men, only uphold the voices of trans men who pass and have the money for surgeries (a small percentage) then wonder why trans men laugh in your face when you make claims about male privilege we do not experience.

We are more likely to be conversionally raped than you. We are more like to be forcibly detransioned than you. We are more likely to experience domestic violence than you. We are more likely to experience hate crimes than you.

Trans men's hyper visibility in online spaces dose not transfer to real life visibility. You are more likely to see white cis gay men and white trans women in any media or ever mentioned than even white cis lesbians or white trans men. Your rhetoric is the origin of the "theyfab" myth. Our issues are invisible to you cause you do not care about other trans people besides yourself and other transfems. Everyone and their trans mother knows about transmysogny and the issues you personally face yet you expect trans men to be silent about their issues and feel like they should be silent because they are men. Trans men are more likely to experience litterally all forms of violence over trans women in every single avenue of violence that exists; religious, sexual, domestic, familial, etc. We are more likely to be stopped and abused before we socially transtion than anyone else due to hyper vigilance of society over afabs. You can scream all you'd like about how we only bring up our sex/the gender we are often raised as when it's convenient but you always ignore those often traumatizing experiences when it's convenient for you.

Many Transmascs and trans men had a traumatizing upbringing because society views us as "bad women" and " bad women" get treated so much worse and by many more angles than "bad men" specifically because we were forcibly assigned as women. You take advantage of a lack of nuance in the community by trying to group us with cis men specifically because you group yourself with cis women. News flash, neither of us and our experiences should be grouped with ANY cis group because we do not have cisgendered experiences.

I seriously think you think you are the most oppressed group in the trans community and you are not, not by a long shot. You are not the most oppressed group in the transgender community and that's a statistical fact. The most oppressed group, by far, are two spirits and cultural genders by virtue of them being inherently indigenous and indigenous people being the most oppressed race of people in the community regardless of the location they are indigenous to.

You are literally taking advantage of the things that were drilled into transmascs at a young age to be seen and not heard and to be quiet and let others talk, that they are lesser than everyone. Everyday there's a new story in the community of a cis man or a trans woman getting a trans man/masc pregnant to hurt them or force them off t or to detransion, this is not a fucking accident. You are not men, no one ever said you were, but you sure love to silence them like they do.

I'm not quiet, you do not intimately know our issues the same way we do not intimately know yours, You don't get to tell us what we do and don't experience and the fact you'd rather cry wolf and suspiciously call us "bitches" than hear us out, tells me everything i need to know. That alt right to trans woman pipeline you said you escaped? Yeah, you didn't. Ur just an alt right trans woman, Try Again.

#levi speaks #people who arnt transmasc stop trying to claim you know transmasc experiences enough to say they are bs challenge #i see transandrophobia daily and i see their issues never addressed #theres a huge issue involving transmascs being raped to make them pregnant and stop their transition #its mostly cis men but ive seen multiple abusive transfems do it too and they dont talk about it #its like its a dirtt word like they cant acknowledge their own but expect us to apologize daily for the existence of kevin garrah #a trans man that wasnt remotely blair white Caitlyn jenner-ing up the trans community and disappeared 7 fucking years ago #curious why you guys keep haeping on our one guy when every week theres a new white transfem on my fyp #talking about the woke cult and how shes the only good one #then 3 weeks later apologizing cause the leopard ate her face #im not blind i notice a pattern #its always white trans women and cis gay men acting the fucking fool and i dont think thats an accident #i dont think theres no common thread #i still think they are women i also think they are still white and still think they have some masculine invincibility to criticism #then get shocked they arnt treated as darling princesses by the racists and transphobes they try to appeal to #i do think people that claim transandrophobia isnt real are doing so from a place of mysogny #wether thats internalized or not #they always sound like fucking reddit incels #just listening to the language they use when they talk about transmascs and cis women only tells me their fave podcaster is joe rogan #just bleeds pewdiepie asmongold ben shapiro nonsense #and then cry and point at you like every other white woman with her tears when you point it out 😂#i do not think most transfems are part of this issue #i do think they have general ignorance about issues facing the transmasc community but i think thats a two way issue #most transmascs dont know all the issues taking place in the transfem community #im specifically talking about the transfems who make hating transmascs and cis women a full time job #and claim they only feel safe around cis men #like ok you just outed urself as a run of the mill mysognist drawing weird lines but ok #before someone acts the fool im both #im intersex with transmasc and transfem experiences and identify as both #its ridiculous that i get slapped with an anti-self label cause i asked a transfem to care about the other half of the fucking trans communi

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nugatorysheep · 4 months ago

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Sometimes being unpopular is a good thing, actually

#wild that the pearl/greg thing I posted in some twitter thread to prove a point escaped containment like it did #but even more wild is since like half a dozen other people more popular than me reposted it I escaped all allegations #like holy shit i've seen shit about this on tiktok and youtube and have yet to take the fall for any of it #I love being hated by half this community it's a blessing is disguise lol #nugget rambles

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helreginn · 3 days ago

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For sure! We used to greeters to make people feel welcome. I understand why we don't anymore, as most sit unanswered but it was something!

And we used to reblog memes from each other, not the source and it was how we engaged and it made us more aware of reblog karma. Rebagle a meme, send a meme.

And I'm gonna be REAL contentious right here and say that some MuMus simply have too many muses. A lot of them, actually.

When you have that many muses across so many fandoms it can feel very difficult to track and gauge which fandom you are even part of. Sometimes I click on muse lists and I just close the entire blog because there are about 200 subheaders/categories before I even GET to the muses.

I think it's very impressive that so many people CAN rp so many beautiful and exciting muses at once. A lot of my favourite RPers, I just sit in awe of how they can so fluidly change between ten muses an hour but when blogs used to be themed, even as far as MuMus (Eg, all Supernatural muses or all Viking muses) it was a lot easier to engage with those blogs rather than ones you follow and you even sorta have to check back every 2 months to be sure the muses you liked writing with that partner are still even on the roster. (Not to mention unless you're making a promo for each tv show / fandom you're losing half the opportunity to interact with those fandoms because they ARE so small now. And few people are gonna do that)

And half the breakdown of the RPC, I don't even think is the RPCs fault.

Every fix we got for what Tumblr took from it's previously functioning website is kinda clunky.

As a whole, you can see where the userbase has really grown up a lot. We're busy we're tired and our tags don't work. I love pages like @indiestarter that are helping to broadcast peoples' opens because the tags just don't cut it anymore as far as finding and being found in the RPC.

And then we can't have themes easily anymore so it's all google docs and carrd and that's great but it's just not the same as being able to click through someone's tumblr and read their threads, read their bios etc all on one page.

Tumblr as a whole has shifted from a reblogging website. Nobody reblogs peoples' gifs/art etc anymore. Across RPC and just general tumblr. But that carries back over to us in that we are now afraid to reach out. To busy peoples' notifs.

It's fairly obvious the people that have the most fun are the ones that DO reach out willy nilly and just fuck around and be cracky and jokey and talk ooc. But we're all chicken butts (Myself included) and don't reach out very much anymore.

And THEN when we do, tumblr hates us and we don't get notified of our IMs anymore either.

TLDR, we can't go back to that tumblr culture because tumblr itself is broken now. :T

hello my loves! i've been having this conversation on my main rp blog for a few days now, and so i decided to bring it here and have it with you guys too. before we go any further, please respect one another in the comments, this is just a little conversation about our thoughts and opinions!

so i've been on tumblr since 2015, meaning i've seen a lot of different eras in the rpc here! and it occurred to me that even back in 2018/2019, things in the rpc felt a LOT easier! we had dash events, group verses, people seemed to find it much easier to interact with their mutuals, we were a lot more relaxed about out absences and just generally seemed a lot happier and more of a community!

my question is this: do you think the rpc was better in the past? and if so, what do you miss specifically? what do you think needs to change for the rpc to be more of a community?

#OutofÉljúðnir

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dykeyuu · 11 months ago

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every day when i wake up i say to myself “dykeyuu you are not purchasing any sanrio merchandise today” but then i find the deal of the century……..

#like. i only buy it if i know for sure ill NEVER find it at that price again #2007 corduroy keroppi that literally doesn’t exist on the internet? $16 #i came across it by chance and it took me hours to find evidence that anyone else had ever owned one #found a chococat one too from the same series but it’s pricier…#but it’s the only one listed anywhere that i can find so. perhaps #sike i found one in the philippines there’s TWO corduroy chococats on the internet #i mean there’s literally one reddit thread i could find from years ago confirming that this series existed #and it’s only got like two commenters who only vaguely remembered the series #and a handful of worthpoint entries confirming that a couple of each of them had sold on ebay at some point #all the other sanrio corduroy plushies i could find were from other series #there’s a hello kitty and my melody from the same year but it wasn’t the same series #both series were rereleases in 2007 and the original release year for hk/mm was earlier than cc/k #20in 2012 fiesta keroppi? $40 when he usually goes for $100+#(this includes shipping…)#was devastated to find an etsy listing for the 2010 limited keroppi build a bear for $85 that had already sold…#the next cheapest one of those is like $140 #and dont get me fucking started on chococat #no build a bear should EVER go for $500 #like be serious. maybe it was limited edition 14 years ago but it’s still a damn stuffed animal #manifesting they rerelease the original sanrio build a bears to beat the price gougers into submission #the intersection of two special interests: sanrio and buying things from people who don’t know what they have #throwback to the 1993 keroppi squeaky toy that i thrifted for 25 cents #just looked it up to see and i found the exact same one but only on worthpoint #he used to be a keychain… mine is just the little guy with no chain #comparable one from the same year same size/material etc just different design goes for $20+#context i refuse to make a worthpoint account and pay them just to see what things sold for on ebay they can kiss my ass #me when i need to infodump but gf is at work and has already heard like half of this

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bladesalvation · 11 months ago

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kinda down abt not having a whole lot of relationships for any of my characters knowing damn well I am at least part of the problem--

#ᵗʰᵉ ᵗᵃᵈᵖᵒˡᵉ ⁱⁿ ʸᵒᵘʳ ʰᵉᵃᵈ. // ᵘˡᵗʳᵃ ˢᵖᵉᵃᵏⁱⁿᵍ #tbd #I just feel like #ik im slow to reply to stuff both here and with Gortash #I could use to reach out more but idk man #I tried a couple times and idk if the people just ignored/deleted my ask but #it kinda hit that im not really any different from any other Tav/Durge #what can I do man idfk #bc I got multiple threads and half of them never even got off the ground and they were starters I made #I just feel like my multi is kinda useless and I dont have a lot to offer #I wanna reach out to people but I also am just scared im gonna get more of the same?

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desalvar · 4 months ago

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ayo i'm not dead!

#sorry i haven't been on folks #and in saying that for the 3475982th time i'm also admitting i'm just trash with keeping on top of things currently #and have been for the past year or so #/factually/#older moots know this isn't new #other people warn mutuals for a half week break meanwhile i get overwhelmed one day and poof for half a month randomly #generally not a great way to do things..#and i'm sorry for leaving beloved folks in the dark too. i don't mean to. i'm just at my wit's end occasionally #granted 90% of it is real life stress threatening to manifest on here which can't be helped sometimes so the need to remove myself is fair #but in acknowledging that like a healing anxious adult or whatever i have to also recognize that this hobby used to unwind and calm me #so i'm in the process of wrestling with how to.. make it that again for myself? in a way that doesn't bug me #for example how to just be Around without feeling unproductive with threads and the like. be fine with Writing Slow TM (rp and dms alike)#+ other things i have to bare knuckle through #this isn't so heeheehoohoo craziest thing happened in real life like usual because hey i'm not unique in my experiences and this IS the-#-whole point of a hobby that involves community. that you could just chill with the gay people on your phone no matter what happens #so i think i'll be doing that.. somehow - in moderation and without too much pressure preferably #and sort of figure out how to be Here #and on my other two blogs hsdfjsk #/negative #? i guess?#i really came back w/ the full burnout jumpscare #but it really has been A Whole Year of this

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zaycheese · 1 year ago

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Uhhh snapdoodles, probably a librarian, or a star on hit kids cartoon show wild Kratts, I wanted to be one of the Kratts brothers.

@jasperthejest @purpleartrowboat

if we lived in a world where u had to do the career u were first interested in as a child what would u be doing, id be a firefighter

#Reblogs #Or a veterinarian #Like half the other people in this thread #I wanted to be like my mom #Who's also a vet #I remember people would ask what my mom did and I would be like “She's a vet!”#And they would be like #Well tell her “thank you for her service”#And I was like #Damn right #My mom works hard

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kxllerblond · 2 years ago

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Happy Tuesday everyone, I will now be unloading unsolicited opinions about the RPC.

People take 'This is a hobby!!' way too far to the point you are not taking into account other real people also exist and are only thinking about yourself and it can come across as scummy and self-absorbed and a lot of people use the 'just a hobby!' to excuse this shitty behavior and an inability to communicate with other hobby enjoyers like adults.

No one should get mad at people for dropping threads or not being active, but it's also super shitty to just ghost people and go 'teehee just a hobby so you aren't allowed to be upset!'. Like, yeah, you have limited time and a real life but so does?? everyone else on here?? It's super not cool to just invalidate people who are upset their limited time is, in their view, being wasted.

Obviously, I'm not defending people that don't just unfollow or block and move on and who get passive aggro about it all. And I'm also not calling out the people that don't do much but are like PRESENT to some degree even if it's just ooc shitposting.

I mainly mean the people I see who refuse to do threads, to answer asks, to communicate when stuff is being dropped to some degree, to participate and be social in any capacity and then get kinda pissy when no one wants to send them shit anymore. Like you are entitled to exist and participate in this hobby as you see fit....but it is a social hobby. You HAVE to give to get and if people pin you as someone who only takes, they're going to stop giving. None of us have little meow meows that are so interesting that we can just expect people to frolic to them and gush about them and shower them with interaction without some sort of reciprocation.

And, frankly, I don't think there's room to complain when that happens. You can't have your cake and eat it too in this scenario. You can 'this is just a hobby!' your way through things how you like, but you also have to realize the consequences of that and you can't be upset when they come down on you and your blog.

#like I KNOW there are ppl here i am chill with who do not interact with me as often as before because i am a notorious thread dropper #and not everyone can do that short thread. drop. new thread. drop. manner of rapid rping #and thats FINE. i accept that consequence.#and there are ppl im chill with who i dont send memes to much anymore because they never answer them or never return the favor #doesnt mean im mad about it doesnt mean i fault them for it. ppl have lives. but that the consequence and it involves me redirecting my tim #and energy to send memes to ppl who DO engage in return etc #there's just been this sudden surge in like....entitlement ive noticed. and it's just sort of co-opd what used to be a message #directed at ppl that were being demanded to reply to things the same day etc like it was a legit /good/ message #now you cant even like unfollow someone without them being like ITS JUST A HOBBY HOW DARE YOU UNFOLLOW hostility because someone is choosin #to take their business elsewhere so to speak so they can have fun with this hOBBY. its so...weird ykno #we dont owe anyone anything but a lot of ppl forget the second half of that which is #yeah but other people dont owe us anything in turn either #cw long post #cw negativity #well i mean only if you see urself in this post i guess OOP. otherwise man idk #dont get pissed at ppl for not hobbying to ur speed or standards #but also dont be surprised to learn ppl are different and have different paces and shit and WILL move on #if theyre not getting enjoyment out of the pace you're hobbying at #ur not entitled to their attention just like they're not entitled to urs ykno

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valeriefauxnom · 8 months ago

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Things that the "It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named" Manga hinted at that might have been interesting, were it an actually good work:

So, as we all know (or maybe we don't?), there was a terrible two-part Dragalia manga that they made at the beginning, likely just as a sort of advertising. One problem: it was bad.

For starters, whomever was in charge of it seemed to have a very, very poorly understanding of Euden as a character. The best I can describe it is if you put Euden, Emile, and dash of Leonidas' inability to remember his siblings' names into a blender and let 'er rip. And I dunno about you, but Emile and Euden are not exactly alike. But no, somehow the writer got the understanding that the reason Euden hasn't set out to form a pact was out of laziness than just a peacekeeping measure that the actual Euden was doing (well, a bit more to it than that, but I'll come around to it later).

When combined with the author unable to not have Euden be, let's say, weird in regards to Zethia (a thing that Dragalia itself commendably relentlessly fought against even to the end despite a depressingly large party of the community thinking otherwise. Before I get on that whole tangent, I'd just like to remind everyone that in the very last event they both stressed that no matter what they still see themselves as siblings) because, you know, everything's gotta be stereotypical (read, bad) anime and manga, right?

So yeah. Needless to say, we are pretty much wholly in AU territory from the start. WillofWinnie aptly described it (a headcanon I have incorporated) is that it is Euden through Emile's perspective, ie, assuming Euden is more like him and otherwise putting him in an unflattering light.

However, AU itself is not necessarily bad. And when I look at the few little hints of what might have been an interesting alternative telling to Dragalia, I just mourn all the harder that it might have had something compelling.

Here's a collection of things that might have been fun/interesting, were they not in so poorly a manga. That's right, I'm addressing the dragon in the room, the biggest forbidden topic in the Dragalia Fandom, and made myself Suffer(tm) to not only snip out parts that I think might have had potential, but also incidentally make this thing look much better than it was! Strap in, folks, cause this is gonna be long!

-First of all, this isn't even a manga-exclusive thing, but I just like seeing Sol Alberia properly. Turns out it's this massive city enclosed in walls!

-Perhaps the biggest change implied of all is that manga!Alberia seems to have a much more fluid understanding of who the next-in-line is. In canon, it's pretty much lock and key that provided nothing happens, Leonidas will inherit. Nobody really challenges his authority as heir-apparent. And with him regularly reaffirmed to be the eldest, it's clear that he isn't actually a younger sibling that just happens to be the favored for the throne right now.

Euden (well, dream Euden, but this imagining of him is of a much more in-character version of him than Gala!Mym's imaginings) even had this to say in a story:

But the siblings in the manga are stated to be in an outright inheritance war, which, since they're not just murdering each other, means that there would be other ways to gain the throne without eliminating the competition through death:

(Gotta say, the overly-ominous framing of the siblings is something pretty funny to me even if they are indeed bad news early Dragalia)

This could be its own point of interest, because notably, it's the exact thing canon Euden feared pre-game. Canon Euden establishes that his primary reason for not even attempting to make a pact is because he doesn't want to be viewed as usurper with dreams of power, now making a move. He'd rather be viewed as the weak, ineffectual sibling that is no threat to preserve harmony. However, given the more locked-in inheritance order in canon, Euden's fears are perhaps slightly excessive.

For the siblings to be worried about him as a true threat, they'd have to be worried about him killing Leonidas, Phares, Chelle, Valyx, and Emile before he'd be the crown prince. Of course, there's other ways to gain power, but the fear he's trying to take the crown would likely be a more remote fear.

In Not!Euden's world, though, Canon Euden's fears would be fully justified. Here, the throne is not near-guaranteed to rest in Leonidas' hands, and here Euden is immediately a threat if Aurelius starts to view him more favorably than his 'competitors'.

On a tiny note, this might also help align one of the relations diagram they put out as an ad before Dragalia launched, wherein Leonidas and Phares mutually consider each other 'worthy rivals':

In canon, we mostly only see shades of this relationship in Phares' lines wherein he comments that his alchemy work started after Leonidas' and how he's happy to have surpassed him in that, as well as Leonidas' general respect (well, for Leo) of Phares, but that's all. In the manga, though, they could be rivals in a more true sense for the throne.

The implications of this big change are also interesting in regards to Emile. Emile is his same-old abrasive self in the manga, but in the manga world, some of his initial anger would also be more justified surrounding Euden being sent out to pact.

As was ever-so-gently brushed upon in canon rarely, the Dragon Choosing and pacting is not an easy process by any means, physically or mentally. Here, Emile is upset that Euden has essentially been given a fast pass and cut the line, the agony, all that, and is in his view being favored by Aurelius, which I think is fair.

Aurelius might only be doing this just for the emergency of the situation instead of letting the Dragon Choosing/pacting being a voluntary endeavor like it was for the rest, but Emile (and likely the rest of the siblings) would naturally view this as huge favoritism and a sign the throne might go to Euden if they don't do something to regain favor/make him look bad.

And you know what? That might have been an interesting AU direction to take things, had they committed to it. The understandable misconception that Euden is now somehow the golden child (even more inconceivable compared to canon Euden as it is) leading to sibling arguments for the throne could be cool.

-On a lighter note, not!Euden is correct in one thing: Emile certainly will bring harm to him!

-Euden vs Combat, fight!

The relationship between Euden and not!Euden regarding fighting is a very interesting contrast. Both don't exactly love it; Euden might go to lengths to try and resolve things before coming to blows, but is ultimately willing.

Not!Euden, though, while he similarly dislikes fighting, goes a bit further than Euden does.

He skips sword lessons (a thing only attributed to Emile in canon), completely lacks any sort of will to fight. As I mentioned at the start of this, the bulk of it is attributed to laziness, but there's a small caveat.

This is where it gets frustrating, because at times the manga edges close to the canon personality of Euden but shies away from every fully meeting up to where it could take it in a new direction whilst remaining true to the core. Case in point, not!Euden here also dislikes fighting/power because he dislikes spilling blood, and because, as Zethia puts it, dragons=power=conflict to this Euden, tying back in to the whole inheritance war.

This could have been an intersting fork off of Euden, because they additionally share another divergence: talent, or lack thereof.

Canon Euden is actually addressed several times to not really have any talent in swordplay. He's fledgling, mediocre, as remarked by people like Raemond and Leif, and lacks for the natural skill Leonidas or any of his other relatives might have had with a weapon.

It's only through his incredible hard work and perseverance he's shown to have (plus all the do-or-die moments he's forced into over the years) that he gains the skill that he does, which again immediately contrasts with not!Euden skipping outright.

And yet, manga!Euden is noted to have talent. He's just not using a lick of it to actually gain skill.

This might just be Leif trying to puff him up, encourage him, but it doesn't seem to be when he's privately talking to Aurelius later:

(Leif get some sleep to get rid of the bags under your eyes, even if I'm sure dealing with this iteration of the family is even more taxing than normal). Ahem. The point is, is that this Euden has talent but no will or drive to get better but canon Euden has the inverse. While it might be tempting to frame this as an immediate way that the manga is worse ('oh of course, he's secretly got all this talent that he can just bust out at the convenient plot moment, get stronger for doing nothing at all'), I could see it as an interesting fork to Euden as a character if they handled it right, which they admittedly wouldn't in the manga.

What I mean would be mixing some of what we know about canon!Euden into the mix. Namely, Euden has a notably deficient sense of self-worth I've gone over several times. With siblings like Emile and Leonidas, it would be easy to further that into a thing partially caused by their attitudes that tend to push down others. In essence, I think one could have reconstructed his low self-esteem as a result of sibling bullying to the point where he even views trying as a futile endeavor, but as the story goes on and as he is no longer 'under their thumb' quite as much and then can actually use that room to allow any talent and skill to bloom. A sort of healing process and the change from derision to encouragement from those around, you know?

I'll stop there before I go start writing an AU of a bad AU of Dragalia, but hopefully you get where I'm going with that idea. The point is, him having all this apparently ~secret talent~ doesn't necessarily have to be bad!

-On another more lighthearted/less plot-heavy note, I will commend the artist for taking the bold step in finally giving Zethia some darn shoes, even as sandals.

-Honestly, regarding Zethia, she just kinda girlbosses her way through the manga, and good for her! Plenty of legitimate criticism can be levied with the way Zethia is initially handled as just another damsel in distress, but in its brief, generally poorly life, at least this manga's Zethia was kicking butt.

She's unequivocally the stronger between her and Euden, and as a result her overprotective side is on better display from the get-go (as both the twins had it in canon, and a later plot thread was actually getting them more independent of each other. Euden's was just naturally the one with more exposure)

Also ouch on the roasting there Zethia, but not!Euden probably deserves it.

Hard as it is to give credit where credit is due for this, again, good for her! (Even if it is just set up as a means to point out that terrible old 'protagonist is a useless baby' trope in anime/manga, but I digress.)

-Back to plot heavy stuff, Aurelius vs. Morsayati, fight!

As we know from canon, Aurelius was perfectly fine until he entered the Binding Ruins, wherein he was possessed by Morsayati and then started chapters 2-26. Manga!Aurelius, though, apparently seemed to have potentially had a bit of creeping Morsayati in the blood from the get-go.

I think this also would have been an interesting fork, since it also can connect with actual canon knowledge. Alberius explicitly sealed Morsayati in his blood, with the aim of his dragonblood being so diluted over the generations that Morsayati could no longer reform/possess one of his descendants. With this in mind, it's more than feasible to instead change the Other's possession method as more of a slow creep than an instant take-over as with Aurelius and Zethia.

It could have been interesting to see Euden slowly have to weigh if this is his father anymore, if Aurelius initially displayed more of his own personality. Canonically, his change is so abrupt and so jarring that Euden instead is devout in his correct belief that this just can't be his Father, and instead some shapeshifter thing masquerading as his father, whom he seems to view as in need of rescue:

With that in mind, I think it could have been compelling. Maybe the possession is still fully completed at the Binding Ruins, except maybe the Other just slowly pushed Aurelius into going there. Maybe Euden then and the townsfolk get worried over all the siblings the moment they feel as if any in the royal family might be starting the path to possession. Maybe Euden himself has to personally grapple with fears that he's somehow being possessed as he grows more used to having to make hard decisions as a leader in war and all that, that he views as 'evil'.

Also, we later find out in canon that Aurelius went to the Binding Ruins in an attempt to help Nedrick and was consciously gambling with controlling the Other's power for that end, which almost assuredly wasn't in the minds as of the manga's inception, but maybe it could be tied into that.

Aurelius, increasingly fearing, perhaps paranoid for how he's going to protect all his family, -including Nedrick still suffering on the north side of the continent, -starts heeding that little voice that in the Binding Ruins, surely there must be something from the ancient civilizations there he could use to gain power enough to protect his children? Again, not to create an AU of a bad AU, but I could see potential!

-And last but not least, on another lighter note, but given not!Euden's...everything, I do appreciate that his personal guards(?) are always prepared for when they need to use their magic lassos to bodily drag him down from a tree:

Given that we do know that Euden had at least a minor proclivity to go outside the castle/escape when he wasn't supposed to growing up, it might have been funny to see some of Euden's escapades, instead of not!Euden's. That being said, the guards also channel one's feelings quite well in regards to having to deal with this not!Euden:

So yeah, there's a little bit about NotMy!Euden's thankfully brief if disastrous stint in the world of manga! My apologies for either informing you or reminding you about it, but I do hope you gained something of vague interest from this, or rather, what it could have been!

#dragalia lost #dragalia #gotta say it's also darkly funny that despite actually being on screen we still know 0.0% more about Euden's/Zethia's mom.#Honestly surprised they never picked that thread back up again or even cleared up the long-standing speculation #...that the siblings were actually largely half-siblings with each other. I personally don't ascribe to it since I don't think Aurelius is #that kind of dude but I will acknowledge there are some potential hints? And no I'm not counting things just like Valyx's looks since he #...could just take after his/their mother. Maybe I'll discuss that Big Question later but yeah. We didn't even learn a name for his mother!#Sorry again for subjecting the innocent people's eyes to the Dragalia manga. I swear I tried my best to pick what to show carefully!

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