#Why did EVERYONE forget about this boycott

[akascow]

i saw someone say 'guys 🥹 they waited for us to grow up with her' about riley for inside out 1 and 2 and like maybe? but also its been 9 years since 1 and between those 9 years she went from age 12 to age 13 HAHA this is not a monsters university or toy story 3 situation im sorry to tell u

[54625]

I'm not sure if this is the end for the QSMP, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were shut down soon after this.

The eggs have been the lifeblood of the server since they were introduced, and having some of them permanently gone from the server is devastating for so many reasons, and bodes terribly for the future of this project. My optimism has run out. I will still wait for updates but I have no hope.

However, I wanted to write a piece for the community here on Tumblr. I know we're all very emotional right now, because while we have no confirmation that the QSMP will permanently close, we now have good reason to assume there might just be no other clear path out of this.

To the community:

Do not feel like you have to stop loving the server and everything it created. Do not stop creating art. Do not stop sharing why you loved the characters and the story and the world.

To completely boycott everything QSMP, you are discrediting the incredible work that the admins put into the server purely out of passion and the kindness of their hearts. Do not waste their sacrifices. Talk about the server and everything they did for it, give them recognition, let them know we love and appreciate all the time and care they poured into this project. Thank them by caring about their work that they put so much of themselves into.

To completely boycott everything QSMP, you are ignoring the beautiful friendships it created between content creators who otherwise would never have met, and the way it ignited such a fierce determination to learn about others' cultures in them. You are forgetting how much these streamers strived to tell engaging, relatable, fun stories, by themselves or with each other, and to have their fans talk about how much they liked their newest lore. You are refusing to acknowledge the effort put in by everyone on the project to tell amazing stories through the language barrier.

And to completely boycott the QSMP, you are denying yourself the fact that you loved this server; the eggs, the streamers, the stories, the cultural events, the laughter, the sadness, the friendships, the ship ships, the builds, the mods, the languages. You are part of this server for enjoying it's wonderful vitality and beauty and hilarity. As a community, we all are.

I have had my gripes with the QSMP fanbase, as anyone has gripes with the dysfunctional mad household they live in, but at the end of the day, I love it so much. This has been my first time actually being part of a fandom; interacting with people and sharing my art and my ideas, getting into silly debates and arguments, running my mouth off more than I should. I love this bizarre toxic fandom for all of it's worth; I love the fanfic writers (even if I think their characterisation is terrible), I love the fanartists (even if they give Pac those yellow scleras that always make me think of jaundice), I love the live bloggers (even if they clog up the main tag), I love the people who write analysis, the people who make animations and animatics, the people who webweave, and all the other things people in this fandom do to interact with the media we all collectively love and bond over.

We do not need to let this be the end of our community, as we can still share our admiration for the hard work put into this project, lift each other up, express praise where it is warranted.

And we can talk to each other, we can vent about how this has negatively effected us (provided we tag it appropriately 👁️👁️) and respond in kind to those seeking someone to speak to who relates.

The QSMP taught us the value of communication. While behind the scenes, it itself did not abide by it's own rules, we can. The QSMP itself is not the figurehead of communication; the content creators and the fans it sent this message to are. We can be an example of what the QSMP should have stood for.

I do not love the deeply flawed execution of the QSMP, but with my whole heart I love the idea; the ambition, the goal. It was noble. It, to some extent, worked.

It united communities.

Let it unite ours.

[starryjkoo]

Kinda wanna remind everyone too, when Tae dropped that Hawaii pic of him and Jk with staff right before the AYS trailer and how it sent shippers into a frenzy and they started hammering on Jikook and AYS, saying it proved it was a fanservice show, blah, blah, tk real private yada yada, Tae sending us signals, claiming his man, you know the usual. And pretty much the entire fandom was at each others throats, like it was bad. Shippers vs shippers, solos vs solos. The harassment and targeting Jikook's relationship. Guess who came online immediately after? Jimin. Jimin who had been very quiet pretty much for a long time, came to say he was doing well, not to worry, but he said something very important, that he is now a soldier and careful of what he posts online. I think his message was clear and not only a subtle message to Tae, but the fans, considering Jikook were being attacked so bad & their show being called a fraud And that is exactly what JK did, this time coming online not even 24 hours after a hell storm. So they do both defend their relationship, the best way they can without just flat out saying back off. So yes, Jimin has come online in the middle of chaos, like JK. Maybe not as much, but he and Jk are the only ones who do it when a mess is made and fans start acting up bad. That should tell you something. That they clearly don't like it, but trying to remain professional.

JK has for sure swooped in with his lives a few times to try and calm fans down (I’ll never forget that post-FESTA dinner live 😭). I think he was probably already planning on doing a live during his break, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the recent situation was also a motivator.

With JM’s comment, I’m not sure if it was intentional or not tbh, but the timing was definitely pretty funny lol so it does make you wonder. I also just appreciate his letters, they’re always so sincere and you can tell he really puts a lot of thought and care into them (I’ll never forget the first letter he wrote to us post-training, handwritten and the little creases 🥺)

But you know what I also think is super cool about Jikook? The way they also just ignore all the noise and stay unbothered.

in CH2 alone there’s Jikook going to Japan together in the middle of the situation with JJKs tagging the military, JM posting JK’s hot100 #1 while PJMs were attacking JK during Seven era, JK doing that whole Jimin live while JJKs were attacking JM during FACE era, now JK sharing several military stories that include JM right after that whole mess. I think it’s amazing that they’ve never let antis make them change the way they behave together or stop them from hanging out, making content, enlisting together, mentioning each other, or toning down their dynamic (teasing, roughhousing, or just being weird as hell lol).

I think that’s what makes tkkrs (and some other antis) so mad sometimes because they’re constantly trying to control/demand things with vmnkook - canceling orders and threatening to boycott, tried to get GCF Tokyo taken down, trending hashtags to cancel AYS, trending hashtags for all sorts of things tbh, emailing BH to stop the gay etc. They're constantly trying to demand things from the company, which is why it’s always been so ironic to me that they call Jikook the “company pushed ship” when they’re literally the ones trying to use money and other means to manipulate BH into giving them the ship content they want 😭 (as well as force them to “hide” jkk lol) so talk about projection. But yeah, none of that has ever stopped Jikook from doing their thing.

Also your ask makes me think back on JK’s JM live. I’ve always sort of thought that JK may have intentionally hyped SMFpt2 the way he did because of the ridiculous hate it was receiving. Especially because he really emphasized how much he loved the specific part antis were trying to drag. iirc he said that it was his taste or his style or something like that. I just really loved that moment, it was super vindicating lol. I remember even non-jkkr ARMYs commenting about it too, talking about it being a slap to the haters, or karma or whatever (I definitely also just think he really liked SMFpt2 tho!).

Anyways yeah, I’ve always just assumed that it’s probably a collective group decision to not address solos/shippers. Some people think it would be so simple but it really wouldn’t. If JK said something it would just be a domino effect of extreme responses (re: his NewJean’s comment). It would also drag the other members into it, expecting them to make similar statements or risk being attacked. I think that’s why it’s easier for him to address situations that only involve himself. Maybe they'll try to address it as a team one day, but imo it definitely won’t be happening while half of them are in the military with limited phone access, having to watch what they say and do more than ever.

[gacha-incels]

blurring out the rest of the post that references the boycott started by Korean female fans and then completely making up what I was making a joke about in your replies to other twitter users. PM fans going beyond the meme to literally stop people from reading. The internet is truly an incredible place lol. loving these replies especially throwing around the term terf and extremist

This last one is incredible. It is truly a case of seeing what you want to see. idk how you can click this profile and read the pinned post and think this. of course they have already created a false image of this blog in their mind that’s easy to protect their poor little gambling game from 🥺

and assuming I know nothing about how these pachinko games work is hilarious. I’ve been watching their evolution for a decade now, of course I played Limbus Company, I know how the exploitive little gambling rates and dispensing of characters work lmao that’s why it’s easy to make a joke about saving an image. this was literally THE joke everyone made about gacha games, especially when LL:SIF was super popular in 2013, that they’re expensive images you can right click and save, plenty of people joke about them as NFTs now that they have entered the cultural zeitgeist as “expensive images”, if you shit your pants over this then you’re too young to be playing these games. If you really cared about spreading misinformation you would delete your tweet, but you prefer to farm engagement and now even korean twitter users have seen it and are confused. I did not word it in a way that would be easy to google translate and even then this “gambling for jpg images” is a colloquial style joke that mainly exists in more western english speaking internet groups. This was a joke I posted for a small group of tumblr users on this blog, of course the terminology is not something I would use if it was going to be posted to 40k people on twitter and even then you went further and posted it with no context and most of it completely blurred out.

This is the last time I’ll address this because I don’t want to go off topic, but I’ll post this as it’s a good example of how information can be completely omitted in order to present a falsified image that manipulates the viewer’s reaction. I find it interesting that the reposter blurred out the most important part of the post that references the ongoing boycott of the game started by Korean women. nowhere in their replies do they even mention this. now why could that be? 🤔 unfortunately this is a flash in the pan ragebait twitter post people will forget by monday, so I don’t expect anyone seeing it to think about that aspect any deeper. Hopefully at least one person will read the information here.

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

If you don’t mind me sharing my opinion on the celebrity boycott conversation. And I hope you hear me out till the end because I think you will not like my option but I hope you respect it.

I don’t think the celebrity boycott is effective or even necessary, and not because it taking away focus from the actual cause. I have two reasons why I think it’s unimportant

First I think this will only generate performative activism and that’s why I am again it.

As a Palestinian I don’t want someone sharing sympathy and support because they don’t want to lose followers over it.

I don’t care that it brings attention to the cause, in my opinion that’s attention w don’t need. Just like mentioned Lizzo made a video after the campaign started and to me she should have stayed quiet that would have been a better choice to me. Because the cause will be forgot as soon as she hit share. Why would I want a celebrity to post one time and then forget about me until I am a trend again. What good does that get me.

The second thing is this is more becoming personal, many are putting names on the lists just because they personally do not like them.

The other side of this is harassment. I just saw a video of an Egyptian influencer who received death threats for her and her daughter because of this campaign. And the person who sent it had a picture of the kufiya and the watermelon. And to me that disgusting. I don’t care that you are an ally you do not wish someone death in my name. Even though this influencer did post about the situation and stopped posting normal content for a way in solidarity but still she received death threats.

This is the same for many Arabic celebrities at the moment. While many posted in solidarity at the beginning they are still receiving death threats and being harassed.

Which also brings up the other part of the conversation as who gets to be on the list and what qualifies as solidarity. Because some might have made one post since October 7 and they would have been exempt while others who did the same are on the list.

I was on board with this at the beginning, blocking all those who have come out as Zionist and supported the Zionist government. But this has reached a petty point, especially when it comes to middle eastern artist or artist from countries were freedom or speech can get them killed. People forget that many middle eastern governments are complicit in this genocide and these artist can lose their lives if they took a step the government don’t like. And if people argue otherwise then they are living in la la land.

Not everyone gets the freedom western celebrities have.

I think the campaign started out as very good idea and good way to spreading the word however it has turned into a a childish petty endeavour to get back at people you don’t like.

I get where many are coming from, but this is just not it for me

This is a safe space for you anon and your opinion is valid.

You are justified in your criticism of this activism being performative. For me, the intention doesn’t diminish the effect. Because at this point, the situation is so dire and so severe that the intention behind an Instagram post raising awareness doesn’t really matter. Within altruism philosophy discourse, there’s even an argument made about how all activism is inherently performative. The idea is that we do good things to feel good and thus, doing good social work is intrinsically self serving; these actions fulfil our sense of morality. However, I’m not interested in discussing the philosophy of the self-serving nature of activism.

It’s also important to look at the net effect and evaluate whether the downside of this movement is actually worth sacrificing the whole movement.

I’ve seen many people bring up this point about how some people are using this as an opportunity to get back at influencers or celebrities they don’t like. However, this can be a tricky argument to make because of two reasons. Firstly, celebrity worship culture is a disease on our society. Who cares if people are hating on the ultra privileged elites of our society? They have mansions and private jets to cry on while most people are hungry and face insecurity of various types. Secondly, sure, maybe smaller influencers also receive hate, but is it to the extent where the whole movement should be sacrificed? I have also been called out and attacked during this movement and even prior. However, it’s not about me. And I’m not going to make it about me. This is about thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians being buried alive, losing limbs, getting blown up or dying in other tortuous ways.

However, you raise an extremely valid and understated point about intersectionality. You argue that not everyone has the privilege that western celebrities and influencers have. As someone who is from a war-torn and oppressed area in the Middle East, I can confirm this is true. We can’t speak out for fear of death, punishment, torture or having our loved ones punished. This is what makes it even more admirable when a courageous person from these areas speaks out on issues that matter. We should not be harassing people who live in oppressed regions of the world. The standards are obviously NOT equal across the board. It’s disappointing that this even has to be said.

When we evaluate decisions, it’s important to use relevant frame-works such as a cost-benefit analysis. Personally, I don’t believe these criticisms justify the discontinuation of a movement that punishes celebrities for remaining silent on genocide. But this doesn’t mean your criticism isn’t valid.

Additionally, here are some infographics that illustrate the movement and the goals and sentiments behind it:

[ev3rgreenxtrees]

okay chat

i feel so strongly on this whole ‘matt in the podcast’ shit, so ima speak on it. along with the no intro.

i feel like you are all forgetting that matt, nick, and chris are fucking SIBLINGS. they are RELATED. it is completely normal and usual to cut them off, and even pick on each other. yeah matt may have been getting pissed off but seriously, who doesn’t get pissed off at their siblings. and you guys all act like someone cant have a bad day. like i can wake up pissed nd im mad at literally everyone throughout the whole day and if im mad or annoyed mf im gonna show it. i can understand why matt was acting like that, and i also understand why chris and nick were responding how they did. it was completely fucking normal sibling and even friend behavior.

and as for the no intro in the vids anymore, i completely understand. yeah ill really miss the intros like all of you guys will, but nick said it was only taking away from the content we would be receiving, and nick matt and chris themselves dont even like the intro. its pointless to continue to throw a fit about it as if nick will change his mind. and as for boycotting them? what the fuck bro. i get if youre upset about it, but you act like one single person boycotting will change the way they do things. and i say one person boycotting cus i know good as hell there wont be more people agreeing to boycott them cus what the fuck? how petty do you have to be to boycott your favorite influencers, just because they wont put an intro in anymore? even if they chose to take it out because of the hate it was getting, so what? yall shouldnt have been complaining about it in the first place. ion know if you were taught this growing up but dont take anything for granted. cus yall were complaining that the intro wasnt ‘good enough’, and you ‘missed the old intro’, but now you dont get an intro at all and ur just gonna have to suck it up.

idk if any of you feel the same way, but i have a platform and this is how i feel about these topics, so this is what i have to say about this.

[dojae-huh]

Just to be clear most Muslim world isn't even following the boycott, I'm Pakistani and I've seen McDonalds and KFC full all the time even at 2am...

Sometimes trends have an effect on the ppl who follow the idols on social media but generally the earning fan who pays for the tickets and buy merch don't have time for fanfights and struggles of ppl on the other side of the world.

I personally am not eating McDonald's but my niece who is my responsibility eats it. Also idols have no real value in international media so why would a Korean popstar promoting a charity burger hurt the cause...

Btw I've seen more sea fans not happy with the schedule but most are still posting him, the loudest ones weren't ever his fans so it shouldn't matter.

P.S. the Indonesian fans got pissed on the Korean fans and not the idol, one should never down play the superiority complex most Koreans have as if not 30 years back they were worse than most ppl they lolz at now

The racism and sarcasm made them demand the concert be cancelled and ultimately Korean fans started talking about indofans being terrorists.

In this whole situation I was just reminded the shit Koreans used to say, thanks to K-pop becoming global just made me forget it

As for unfollowing, I kind of disagree with you. Sometimes it's better to leave an idol or band then make drama. If they're over doyoung it's better for all that they leave. Everyone is allowed to like or hate stuff...

P.S. the doyoung shirt offended me more than the whole McDonald's situation... Mary and Jesus are very important individuals in islam and I hate it when ppl do shit like this (this is why I hate liberals being anti Christians too)

-------------

IG. It was not the point. (And not the case, Doyoung's situation is not even Lucas' situation). Unsubscribing might bring people you described peace of mind, but it won't change the fact that they changed their opinion about a good person due to the pressure from the masses, him being labeled "bad", and nothing else. It's like those fans who ask if the new to them idol "did anything controversial?" before deciding to stan. Or hating an author of a book without actually reading it only because of a bad review from a person who also didn't read the book "but heard it's problematic". Delegating thinking to the others, following someone else's opinion and judgement.

[mariacallous]

Turkish investigative journalist Metin Cihan has said he will not delete his tweets on X (Twitter) about a former PM’s son’s dealings with Israel, despite a court ruling.

In his tweets, Cihan revealed that Erkam Yildirim, son of former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, a close associate of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has continued to trade with Israel despite Erdogan’s party calling for a boycott of Israeli produce.

“I do not delete [Tweets]. Not claims, official sources available to everyone. That’s why you [the Yildirim family] could not even deny it. I responded to the reported [court] decision exactly like this,” Cihan said on X.

Cihan added that the judges had made a political decision. “It is not binding to me that you arrange judges [to make this decision]. I do not delete [Tweets] for Palestinian children,” Cihan added.

FreeWeb Turkey reported on Thursday that a court in Ankara had ordered Cihan to delete all his Tweets about Yildirim and his son, Erkam.

Cihan has been looking at Turkish trade with Israel since the war started between Hamas and Israel and has published his findings on his social media accounts.

Using open-source data, such the maritime trade archive, Cihan revealed that Turkish trade continues undisrupted, despite the government’s harsh stance against Israel, accusing it of genocide against Palestinians.

Members of Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, have called for a boycott of Israeli products and several large rallies condenming Israel have been organised by the party and its allies.

But Cihan revealed that senior AKP members continue to trade with Israel, including Burak Erdogan, President Erdogan’s son, Erkam Yildirim and an AKP lawmaker, Vehbi Koc.

The Erdogan family sued Cihan for slander and insult on November 29 but did not directly deny claims about doing trade with Israel.

“While the attack on Gaza was continuing, we sent 400 ships to Israel. We shipped 4,000,000 tons. We provided fuel for the Israeli planes, clothing for its soldiers, and parts for its weapons. Thank God, we sent our prayers to the Palestinians. Do not forget Palestine,” Cihan wrote on X on December 7.

Cihan has been forced to live in exile in Germany due to several ongoing cases and investigations against him in Turkey.

He previously reported on the murder of a girl called Rabia Naz in Giresun province in 2018. It is claimed that senior AKP former defence minister Nurettin Canikli covered up the murder.

During the pandemic, Cihan also revealed that the Health Ministry was manipulating the data on COVID-19 cases. In 2022, Cihan revealed an Islamist youth NGO’s secretive ties to the government and to Erdogan’s family.

[azhdakha]

Do you mind me continuing the conversation? Because I don't want to annoy you and I feel like I already did. If you do, don't read or reply.

I find it weird that you misunderstand and misinterpret literally everything I said. I don't know if that's intentional or not, maybe you have a knee-jerk reaction judgement because you're used to ruscists and tankies. You claim that you know what I mean and what I think, yet your statements completely doesn't correspond with what I think and what I say. Maybe it's my bad wording or bad English. But it is damn frustrating.

For example, you said that I somehow make the game the reason why indigenous art isn't known. Where did you drive that conclusion from? I don't know.

It does sound like according to you and several other people that share your attitude assume that there can be only two views on ussr - you either hate every single thing about it, or you condone and justify all the horrors and crimes. And yes, to me it doesn't make sense. World isn't divided on black and white.

And by that means, you label everyone, who disagrees with that binary choice as a victim of russian propaganda. I understand that you're used to hearing it, but that doesn't make the judgement true.

I have a remote idea that when you talk about ussr, you talk about a certain country. I am talking about a period of time. A period of time which lasted for 70 years and had drastically different periods, like 20-30s, 40-50s and 60-80s. A period of time during which a lot of people have lived. There were poor lower class people that were oppressed during the empire, what pushed them to support the revolution. And a good number of them came from ethnic minorities, which is why I think it's wrong to forget about this and erase them. I know that, for example, there were a lot of Jewish people among the revolutioners because the previous system oppressed them in the most terrible ways[according to Jewish people themselves]. And I also know about the purges on Jewish people by the soviet government for decades. And these two facts can coexist and be acknowledged for the same time.

And when I'm saying what I'm saying in this post, I mean that you cannot simply forget and erase all of these people's lives, all of their creations, all of their work and efforts, ban them, boycott them or whatever because they were from a wrong period of time. Indigenous people existed back then during the soviet regime too. They too had their experience. Some of them too were communists. Should we forget about that or deny that? But for some reason you ignored everything I said about the people in my previous reply. You say that if I do not talk about every single the whole period of seventy years during which ussr existed with an strong hatred, I am perpetuating the "russia good" propaganda. Or that's not what you meant? Because that's certainly what I did. It wasn't "not that bad". It was as it was. And I want to talk about it that way.

For some unknown reason you have also ignored my words about how people bash and reject social policies, social support and strives for equality all together because according to them it's "backward sovok", hence wrong by the definition in any form, and then glorify capitalism. How the fuck does that make sense? Is that also a justified criticism?

I apologize if I sound intense. I will be honest, it didn't come off as patronizing again when you claimed that you know exactly well what my thoughts are while not even paying attention to my words. My great grandfather almost died because he was thrown from the train by his own companions in arms from the white army. Not communists. And before you say that I use this as a justification of all the deaths caused by communists, I will explain: I mentioned this to point out that it isn't right to idealize and glorify those, who opposed communists, as well.

I will repeat that I don't want to sound antagonizing or accusing you of something. Eventually that doesn't matter comparing to actual issues of colonialism, to fighting the existing opression.

Okay, now I'm gonna say something controvesrial. I'm still thinking about how lately I found out that several people say that ussr should be seen as something exclusively evil, hence everything about it as exclusively evil too. And I will be honest, I don't really understand this statement, yet I realize that people have a right to hold it. But to me - I can't see anything that makes ussr worse than russian empire, or russian federation, or any other imperialist opressive countries. And I clearly don't understand how it's alright to talk, write or make a film about something set in that period of time or simply like that period in any other country is alright, while for ussr it's gross and terrible. I mean, we do watch period dramas about let's say 19th century Britain or US and it isn't seen as something terrible and unexcusable. And I think no one has any question about whether these states were opressive. The point is only about showing the truth, not romanticizing that part of the history. I also don't understand claims that communism and socialism was exclusively opressive and wrong. Maybe I'm too leftist for that. But I'm saying it as a person who has grown up and lives in an ex-ussr country and who's family lived there their entire history, and an indigenous person. As always I'm open to criticism.

Imo - I wish there were much more movies and books about how all other indigenous and colonized nations lived during ussr, instead of stupid stuff about russians.

P. S. If you thought that it's about a*omic he*rt - you're wrong. The fact that this game is sponsored by gazprom etc and it's profit goes to support ru gov and war in Ukraine is already enough to boycott the game. Plus, it overtly sexualizes women and has too many dogwhistles.

[uniwolfcorn]

Discord is planning to enforce NFTs

Hey everyone. As the title suggested it sucks to say that I heard Discord has planned to do NFTs and possibly Cryptocurrency along with it too.

For those that don’t know, NFTs mean Non Fungible Token. NFTs are terrible because they are connected to Cryptocurrency called Etherium, which uses up a lot of natural energy, which leads to more fossil fuels (or carbon footprints) being wasted, which is bad for the environment.

On top of that, NFTs are not supporting artists. When an artist wants to sell cryptocurrency/NFTs, there’s a huge fee for it. Meaning that there’s a chance you’ll lose more money than you’ll actually make and on top of THAT, it’s a pyramid scheme.

Another quick lesson. A pyramid scheme is an illegal form of investment that basically involves people at the highest top of a business/company to get the most money from new members (via high as hell entry fees and all that) who are at the bottom of the pyramid, who get little to nothing...

and Discord wanted in on that. How lovely🙃🙃🙃

Now you've noticed that the articles say that Discord put a pause on NFTs. So there shouldn't be anything to worry about right? Wrong.

Discord has been quiet over the issue and the scary part is that while they DID pause on their plans, they didn't completely SCRAPPED it. Meaning that they could still be very much working on enforcing NFTs but are trying to remain quiet and hope people forget about it.

We won't stand for this.

There is a boycott to not purchase Nitro and I ask all of you guys to do the same. If y'all have Nitro already, try to cancel it while the matter is being worked out. Another heads up is to remove Mee6 from any servers as I've also heard the creator behind it has set up pay walls and is more or less also supporting NFTs.

https://twitter.com/BubbliiToons/status/1479609617676132356

With that all said, having Discord Nitro is really stupid if it can unlock features that was already featured in countless social media apps already. Why do we have to pay for Nitro just to send recorded videos, pictures, emojis, or customize our profile banners. Even Twitter let's you do all that stuff for free! Fricking. Twitter.

You don't need Nitro to express yourself. You already do so by the power of words. So I urge all of you guys to spread the word around as much as you can. If we all work together, we can put a stop to this. Don't buy Discord Nitro and ban Mee6.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope all of y'all are having a wonderful day/night! Take care, stay safe, drink and eat plenty, take your meds, wear a mask, wash yo hands, and keep being awesome😊❤🧡💛💚💙💜💖🖤🌟

[ncssian]

If you don't write Nessian Wandavision I may have to boycott this blog, sorry rules are rules

no because one day nesta just gets fed up with her canon life and explodes with power, breaking the wards around the house of wind and replacing them with her own ones. everyone is kicked out of the HoW and the surrounding mountain and a huge barrier goes up around it. cassian gets knocked out from the force of it and when he wakes up everyone is like “your mate is a psychopath what is going on with her??”

so rhysand being a daemati has to gather with the ic and they’re all trying to find out what’s going on with nesta and the HoW. the whole of velaris is terrified of approaching the wards she’s set up and there’s like constant storm clouds brewing over the mountain. meanwhile inside the HoW nesta has manifested her own version of cassian made specifically to meet her needs; he’s sweet and protective and compassionate and nesta cant remember a time when he wasnt there for her. they live their days in the house being a perfect happy couple, content to spend all their time with each other and no one else.

but eventually fake cassian starts asking questions: why don’t we have any friends or family, nesta? why don’t we ever leave the house, nesta? why don’t we have kids, nesta? so nesta subconsciously uses her mother-granted magic to give cassian all of these things: she whips up imaginary friends and imaginary siblings and imaginary kids to fill their house.

despite all of this, the growing sense that something is wrong increases in both cassian and nesta. nesta shoves the feeling away because she’s happy with her life just as it is, but fake cassian keeps asking questions and wondering about how their life came to exist. one day someone from Outside manages to infiltrate the house’s wards—rhysand did all the work in creating a hole in the magic and the rest of them clamored for an opportunity to be the one to go inside. real cassian wants to go the most, but he’s the reason nesta exploded in the first place and everyone agrees he could make a volatile situation even more volatile. amren and even elain volunteer to go; feysand have to stay out of it because their death pact renders their entire family useless. in the end, though, gwyn and emerie are the ones who demand to go—they’re powerless enough that nesta’s magic won’t detect them and they love her enough to approach her in whatever state she might be in. so they get brought into the house of wind as part of nesta’s happy fantasy and they play the role of her best friends.

cue monica rambeau type scenes. nesta doesn’t have any memories of the outside world so she doesnt remember gwyn and emerie but when they get too close at breaking the fourth wall of her perfect dream life she gets pissed and lashes out with her powers. fake cassian still loves her through all this chaos btw and he will fight to protect her from the real world. at one point he’ll obviously have to have a showdown with canon cassian.

idk what really happens for the rest of it but obviously it’ll be close to the plot of wandavision. nesta learns that talking about her feelings and filing for divorce is easier (but way less fun) than creating a dream realm to live out your best life. dream cassian was born solely to love nesta and he’s more than happy to die that way. real cassian and ic have to live with the knowledge that their actions inadvertently caused all this drama. idk how nesta will begin to heal after it’s all over but boy the whole lashing-out-in-repressed-pain-and-trauma part that comes beforehand will be real fun.

i also have ANOTHER version of this idea where instead of nesta’s powers manifesting she ends up overdosing on pills that she’s been taking to make her forget/avoid how deeply unhappy she is with her current life. she ends up in a deep sleep and no one can wake her up but when rhysand looks inside her mind he finds that she’s living out a series of endless fantasies with Dream cassian where he acts nothing like his canon self and it’s very self indulgent and escapist and cutesy, but every time nesta’s remembers what her real life is like the dream shatters, dream cassian dies, and she has to start all over again from the beginning with a new storyline. but as her dreams keep getting more detailed and unrealistic her powers start to cause weird things to happen in real life, and dream cassian starts growing more sentient and has to find new ways to be the perfect husband to nesta or else he’ll die. all of this is very embarrassing for real life cassian who has to watch nesta’s dreams play out through rhysand and realizes how unsatisfied his mate was the whole time she was with him. as with every anti acosf idea, the ic are dragged.

[wehatejulietsimms]

Chris Motionless, NTIO, Andy and Scientology

Recently I have seen a lot of speculation about two things leading up to the TOT Tour. Let me clear things up as best I can!

1: Yes Chris Motionless has a line with Never Take It Off, the jewelry company that Juliet and her family own and operate.  However Chris NEVER promotes his NTIO line AT ALL.  He doesn't even LIKE or COMMENT on any of the posts made by NTIO promoting his line there is ONE LIKE from him from years ago, on the NTIO Instagram page when they announced his line.  THAT'S IT!

2: I cannot even find the posts from Chris Motionless's OWN Twitter or Instagram even ANNOUNCING that he joined the company.  I went back years and found absolutely nothing about Never Take It Off on either his personal Instagram page or Twitter.  Now, yes Chris is a fairly private man and does not post much but think about it, he always promotes the band and those they work with. Clothing designers, makeup artists, etc.  Therefore why would he not promote his own line?

3: Also to everyone saying we should hold Chris accountable for his support of NTIO maybe you all should look all the other designers who still knowingly promote their lines with the NTIO brand like Ash Costello who has been called out for also being an abuser, she and her band mate Nikki Misery also are under fire for not paying a former member of the band.

4: Andy and his taking a Scientology course, yes taking a course does look bad. However is there any record that he ever took more than one? Also maybe he took the one so they could have the 2016 wedding.  Don't forget Andy and Juliet technically got married legally in 2012.   

5: Does anyone submitting these posts and asks really know how difficult it is to leave Scientology!? They have a process for member's and potential members ie Andy if he did take more than one course, called auditing where they have a person sit down with them and tell everything about them and i mean EVERYTHING! Even their darkest secrets and deepest thoughts.  That is ALL RECORDED by the way. 

6: Therefore there is no telling just how much information they may have on Andy should he ever try to leave.  I do believe he may be in the process of leaving.  He and Juliet are not tagging each other nearly as much. Also if they were both in Florida Juliet would have posted a shit ton of photos of the two of them with her family but yet there are crickets.

7: Also boycotting Ice Nine Kills because their label is associated with Sumerian?!? Are you kidding me?!? That is like boycotting Halestorm because their management team is the same as Juliet's Indegoot Management.  Or how about we boycott Evanescence because they associated with Sumerian by having Juliet open for them? Anyone? No? No takers?

8: If you don't believe me look at what Scientology did to Isaac Hayes, the voice actor for Chef on the cartoon South Park.  The story for years was that Isaac Hayes quit the show because Trey Parker and Matt Stone were mocking his religion.  That is not true.  This was all confirmed by Isaac Hayes own son years later.  Isaac Hayes had a stroke around the time the episode 'Trapped In The Closet' came out in November of 2005.  Hayes could not move or speak as a result of the storke.  So SCIENTOLOGY TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE FACT THAT HAYES COULD BARELY MOVE LET ALONE SPEAK AND QUIT THE SHOW  ON ISAAC HAYES BEHALF!!!  Isaac Hayes never wanted to quit the show at all, he loved the show, Trey Parker and Matt STone realized this years later.

9: So please, to everyone saying we should boycott Andy because he appears to be a Scientologist please do your research into how exactly Scientology operates and treats members of their church, especially if they catch any whisper that a member is thinking of leaving.  Seriously look at Leah Remini and I mean really look at her and listen.  

A/N: ^^^^This is great. Thank you.

[bukatra]

Ever since the release of Encanto, there's been this increase of this infuriating dialogue where everyone is saying basically 'why didn't Disney realize sooner that they should be including diversity in their children's movies?' Like Ive seen a lot of people who are blaming Disney for this being only the third Disney movie involving a POC person. Everyone's like 'Disney has been out for over 50 years and only now are we starting to get some actual POC representation. What took them so long?'

As if everyone has completely forgotten about what happened after Princess and the Frog was released. So in case anyone either wasn't aware of what was going on or just has conveniently decided to forget, this is my memories of growing up in a white Christian society right after the release of The Princess and the Frog.

This was the first time that we had had a Disney princess who was not white and it blew up in Disney's face so horrifically it's almost impossible to find merchandise of the Disney princesses that include Tiana.

I remember in the weeks following the release of the princess and the frog, all of the Christian magazines who called for a boycott on the film. All of the white Christian women who would refuse to allow their daughters to get to the Tiana doll or to watch the princess and the frog, all of the people who claimed that having a black Disney princess was wrong or immoral, that it misled white girls into holding black girls as icons. Of course they wrapped it up in their criticism of the hoodoo of the movies villian but what they were actually saying a lot of the time was not about the plot line of the movie or the villain of the movie but about how the main female character, this black baker from New Orleans was a bad role model for their daughters. As if the idea of white girls thinking that black girls could be beautiful was a shameful thing.

This movie was so heavy heavily boycotted by the Christian right-wing culture, that very few people even remember that it existed. It's no wonder that the Disney waited until after the black lives movement matter began, after they were confident that having a POC character would be allowed, that we finally got a POC character.

And note: this wasn't a black or Hispanic character, It was a Polynesian character which is usually not as heavily stigmatized as other POC character people, making it a safer gamble for them. Disney has been terrified to show Black people because the last time they did they got slaughtered for it.

Should Disney have had more movies with poc characters sooner? I absolutely. Am I just as upset as everyone else that it's taken so many decades of princess movies to finally get a female who is POC? Absolutely. Is it 100% Disney's fault? Absolutely not. It's American Societies fault. It's because our society is so deeply racist that simply having a main character who is POC is an enormous risk. And that's not just Disney's fault; it's everyone's fault. Our society created those conditions not Disney.

[miminiac]

Korrasami had build up, just maybe not one you identified with and that’s okay...

I am tired of the LGBTQ+ community hating on Legend of Korra (LoK) for not being gay enough. The critique that there wasn’t enough build up is (1) not productive at all and (2) honestly, not true. There was build up. It may not be the build up every LGBTQ+ person will like, and it may not relate to the experience of every person’s coming out, but it was there. Korrasami was something the creators had tossed around as soon as Book 1 (not that they necessarily had permission to do anything about it). Take this quote from Bryan Konietzko’s tumblr post after the finale aired:

As we wrote Book 1, before the audience had ever laid eyes on Korra and Asami, it was an idea I would kick around the writers’ room. At first we didn’t give it much weight, not because we think same-sex relationships are a joke, but because we never assumed it was something we would ever get away with depicting on an animated show for a kids network in this day and age, or at least in 2010. (link)

The post also discusses how Makorra was never meant to be endgame after Book 1. Again, the time LoK was airing was at a point where states were passing laws to actively prevent gay marriage (LoK ended in 2014, legalization of same-sex marriage by supreme court ruling wasn’t until 2015––context is important). Did they actively write a romance in Books 1 and 2, no they did not. However, as many creators and writers, they let the characters lead them and they discovered that Korra and Asami were more than just friends. Again, taken from the same post:

The more Korra and Asami’s relationship progressed, the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for us

So what we have with Korra and Asami is not a planned romantic relationship from the very beginning, however, the characters have been leading them there since the beginning, whether they realized it or not. Now, I am a big fan of Barthes’ “Death of the Author”, so I 100% percent think that viewers/readers have the ability to inject their own narratives and that multiple narratives can coexist. However, the point of this post is to explain why a critique of “wish they did more” is not productive when it comes to discussion of LoK of a piece of LGBTQ+ media representation. Therefore, I turn to the creators to show that there was intent and there was subtext and build up within Book 3 and 4 (as Bryan discusses in his post, please read in full when you have time).

A lot of Korrasami was hidden in subtext, and that happened because of homophobia within the industry, which still exists today. Content creators of LGBTQ+ media continue to have to walk a fine line. Take Noelle Stevenson talking about Catradora:

My big fear was that I would show my hand too early and get told very definitively that I was not allowed to do this

And like with Catradora (though a little easier since Noelle told viewers that every character is a part of the LGBTQ+ community by default unless explicitly stated otherwise), people saw Korrasami from as early as Book 2 (if not Book 1 on a rewatch).

At the time LoK started airing, I still thought I was straight; I still thought I was straight when I was watching the third season and telling my then boyfriend how Korra and Asami were going to be a couple by the end (literally, when they interacted in the first episode of season 3 while Asami taught Korra how to drive, I turned to him and said it; he said they would never do that and it was a pipe dream). I continued to see Korrasami’s friendship build into something romantic (even if the characters themselves were unaware of it).  

Come Season 3 Episode 9, where Asami carries away a helpless Korra, mimicking Katara having carried away a helpless Aang. For those who had watched the original series and were big Korrasami shippers, this scene basically made it canon. It could be argued as the point that maybe the friendship switched to something more romantic. The rest of season 3 and all of season 4 only added moments between these two (side note: I came out as bisexual soon after season 4 started airing, though I had been questioning my sexuality probably since the end of season 3).

Now is the Korrasami relationship perfect, absolutely not. Bryke admits as much, but it was a significant step forward. Again, this happened in 2014, so a lot of narrative within media of states passing laws to discriminate against same-sex couples and deny marriage. The hand-holding scene everyone screams about not being enough. Well, they received plenty of homophobic backlash from that.

The critique that they didn’t do enough is not productive. It is a critique that could be said about most main-stream LGBTQ+ media. I get that we are tired of scraps; I get that we are tired of having to read between the lines because creators are still afraid to come out and say it (pun intended). However, to critique LoK as “not being gay enough” ignores the context in which it was created and what that representation meant to many of the viewers (like myself) who were discovering themselves and their sexuality at the time.

Avatar: the Last Airbender (ATLA) was made for 8-13 year olds (from season 1), and I would argue that LoK was made for that same group of people, who would have then been 14-19 years old when LoK first aired. Thus, LoK was being watched by those entering high school and college––a time of self-discovery.

Additionally, a critique that LoK doesn’t do enough leads to an idea that there is “a right way” to create a LGBTQ+ relationship, which I would argue is harmful to the community at large. If you did not identify with Korra’s coming out, that’s completely valid. If you did not identify with the way the Korrasami relationship progressed, that is also valid. But you cannot invalidate the relationship of Korrasami, as a relationship built off a friendship and mutual respect that blossomed by into something more. The relationship was not sexualized with wistful glances and blatant sexual tension, instead, it was built on a friendship and respect for boundaries.

Again, multiple narratives can be drawn given each viewer has a unique set of experiences. One such reading could show that Asami was more in tune with her feelings for Korra than Korra was about her feelings for Asami. And, instead of flirting non-stop with Korra, Asami respects Korra’s space (though we all saw her check out Korra’s back muscles) and recognizes that Korra has a lot on her plate being the avatar, a relationship is not something on the forefront of her mind. It is only after defeating Kuvira (and the healing/growth from a few episodes prior in "Beyond the Wilds”) that Korra is able to truly understand her feelings to Asami, suggesting they take a trip together––just the two of them.

Now, you may not identify with that type of coming out, but other people do. And to argue that “LoK didn’t make Korrasami explicit enough” undermines the experiences of those in the LGBTQ+ who heavily identified with Korra’s experiences and her coming out.

Holding LGBTQ+ media to this higher standard is inherently toxic. I would like to believe that these creators are coming from a good place with good intentions. There is nothing toxic or abusive in the way Korrasami is portrayed. There is nothing unrealistic about the way their relationship progressed throughout the series. It was not a fan service––it was the natural progression of the characters.

And let’s not forget that Korrasami is not only confirming a relationship between two women, but it is also two women of color. Now, it may not seem like a huge deal within the contexts of the Avatar World, but it is important to remember the context of where this show was airing.

There are things we can critique LoK on. It isn’t perfect. We can discuss the hiring of white voice actors (as a way to hold new media that is being created or will be created accountable, not as a way to just hate on LoK); we can discuss the voices within the writers room and the lack of diversity there. These are critiques that can be made of ATLA and LoK and countless of other media produced. This is a valid critique when used constructively. It is not meant to tear down an entire piece of media and everything that it has done for various communities, but rather to point to a flaw within the way media is being produced and the racist, sexist, and homophobic systems in place that determine what and how media is produced.

If we are to critique, we could look to reimagining how we create and consume media, not tearing down media that has already been produced and stands in a pivotal spot of the community. As Audre Lorde says:

For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

If we are continually operating within the systems of oppression, we will never truly be able to dismantle them. Thus, to operate within the institutions of Nickelodeon, Netflix, Disney, etc. is to be beholden to the rules and constraints of a moderate, heteronormative, sexist, racist society. If creators stray too far from that line too quickly, there will be backlash. The perfect LGBTQ+ representation cannot exist while made within these institutions.

I would like to mention this statement is not to say that we cannot critique or boycott movies or shows that are performative in their diversity. There is no excuse for Hollywood after the successes of Black Panther (2018) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) (and others) to not fill the crew and writers with the same representation being shown on the screen. We can, and should, hold production companies accountable––and given the internet, it is something we can do even early on in the production process.

I have gotten a little off track, but my point is, think about your critiques. Really ask yourself if it is a productive critique, or if it is critique that actually harms or is toxic to the community. Critiques are hard, I understand that. When we first start to think critically, it is easy to just jump on these “low hanging fruit” type critiques. It takes practice and comfortability learning and expanding your world view to construct a critique that looks at context from various point of views and experiences.

[stellacolletore]

title: you're so gorgeous (i can't say anything to your face)  summary: the springtime of youth has finally caught up to Chihaya-chan 

It was Chitose-neesan's fault. If she had just let Chihaya watch the movie in peace, not blurting any of the weird things she said last night, then maybe she wouldn't find it hard focusing in class today. The conversation started out casually enough.

*

“Say, Chihaya. I’ve been wondering,” Chitose uttered nonchalantly, eyes trained on the television.

Chihaya flinched when a zombie sprang onscreen. "Hm?"

"Mashima-kun's handsome, right?"

Chihaya blinked. Even though it was Chitose's habit to ask random things out of the blue, Chihaya still gets surprised sometimes. Deciding to think nothing more out of it, she replied, "Um, yeah. He's popular at school. Girls give him tons of chocolates for Valentine's Day."

"That's not what I meant." Chitose interjected. "I'm asking you. Do you find your boyfriend attractive?" 

Chihaya's eyes trailed off from the movie, connecting with her sister's. "W - what?" 

Chitose was looking at her with curiosity. "I don't know if it's because you guys know each other since you were kids, but I think you're seeing Mashima-kun as if he's still your classmate in grade school. Or your karuta playmate." 

Chihaya blanked. What is she getting at? Chitose sighed for the second time. Despite sounding resigned, her sister suggested, "All I'm saying is—you may want to take a good look at him." She proceeded to take a sip from her mug, attention returning to the film. 

"Wouldn't want to waste all that beauty in vain."

* 

"—haya-chan," Kanade's waving hand pulled Chihaya from her thoughts. "Is everything all right?" 

Chihaya surveyed the room, finding only a few of her classmates loitering around. She must’ve been lost in thought for quite a while. Turning to her concerned friend, she gave a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Kana-chan. What brings you here?" 

Kanade tilted her head. "Did you forget? We're having a group study in the library today. Everyone's already there." 

“Ah,” Chihaya remarked lamely. She really should snap out of this confusion as soon as possible. It was exam week—the absolutely worst time to be worrying about anything else besides upcoming tests. 

After cramming her notebooks and pens in her bag, Chihaya proceeded to move. “Let’s go, Kana-chan.” 

Maybe she should just try to figure out what Chitose meant right away. It shouldn’t be that hard to do, right?

*

"Quit it, Chihaya. People are staring," Taichi grumbled beside her, pretending to be absorbed in his review materials.

"One minute." Chihaya insisted.

Of course, Chihaya has enough self-awareness to know how silly she must've looked to others, sitting beside Taichi with her chin propped on one arm above the long table, eyes gazing intently on his side profile. She's heard whispers from the students seated at the other tables, collectively wondering whether Ayase Chihaya was seriously flirting in front of public eye. She knew her friends have already placed various bets among themselves, attempting to decipher what's suddenly gotten in the mind of their resident airhead captain.

But Chihaya can't afford to be flustered. She has yet to understand what Chitose meant.

Having no clue how to go about it, or what it was she should even be seeking, Chihaya decided to begin her inspection by listing out the changes that existed between grade school Taichi and high school Taichi.

There was the hair, of course. He kept it longer now, the just enough for the tips of the strands to reach past his eyebrows. It still looked well put and silky, though, and if Chihaya would extend her hand to rest on the mop of his head, she’s sure to find it soft, too. She was about to ask for his permission to do just that when she caught herself. That was a weird thing to ask, wasn’t it?

Discarding the thought, Chihaya focused again at the task at hand, taking meticulous notice of Taichi’s stature—his sharp features and porcelain skin, the trademark long lashes, striking amber eyes…

Do you find your boyfriend attractive?

As soon as her sister’s words echoed unbidden in her mind, Chihaya’s world shifted.

Literally and figuratively. “Chihaya!” She instantly registered concern in Taichi’s voice as her head struck against the table, having slipped unceremoniously off her arm. Heat pooled at her cheeks as the temperature in the room spiked, making her feel like she was suddenly shoved inside a microwave. Every pair of eyes in their table was directed at her, equal parts worried and confused. “Are you—” Taichi was about to place a hand on her forehead, meaning to check if she was running a fever, when Chihaya shrunk back, yelping, “Water!” 

A beat later she leapt to her feet, following through the first excuse she could think of, “I—I’m gonna drink some water.” Without further ado, Chihaya rushed out of the library and sprinted through the hallway, leaving everybody in the room dumbfounded in her wake.

*

“Never again,” Chihaya vowed, wiping off the water that dripped on her chin. “I won’t listen to Onee-chan ever again.” She pressed the one-liter bottle on her cheek, cooling her skin. How was she supposed to face Taichi now? It would be practically impossible to look into his eyes without bursting into flames. 

Chitose-neechan must know how to deal with this, Chihaya hoped. She should head home at once and demand answers. With a newfound resolve Chihaya stood up from her crouching position—before smacking a palm on her forehead. "Ah! My bag—" 

"—is here," a familiar voice cut from behind her. Spinning on her heels, she saw Taichi heading towards her next to the vending machine, both their bags slung on his shoulder. "T - Taichi," she said helplessly, her eyes instantly latching on his shoes. She gingerly inched closer. "G - give me that. I'm going home." 

He turned away from her, then started walking. "Let's go." 

Chihaya panicked. "Wait! I - I can go by myself. You should go back to the others. I'm fine, really." 

Taichi resumed walking. "No, you're not. You look like you're bound to walk into a pole, and Ayase-san would be mad at me if I let you." 

With you, I might do just that, Chihaya retorted. Having no other choice, she followed him towards the school gate. 

* 

Chihaya has always been grateful for her exceptional hearing, but today proved to be day unlike any other, and so she wasn't surprised upon finding herself annoyed with how her ears easily picked up the chatter around them. The train cart was packed with students, many of them being girls who were spending the better part of the ride gushing about her boyfriend. As unsettling as it was for her, she had to admit that the sight of Taichi studying his notes with a calm look on his face was nothing short of eye-catching. Although it had only taken a second to glance at him, Chihaya felt her cheeks flush nonetheless. In utter embarrassment, she covered them with her palms. 

She was determined to shield her vision for the rest of the trip when her phone buzzed. 

from: Mashima Taichi  to: Ayase Chihaya  Do you feel dizzy? 

 Chihaya's breath caught. Her fingers typed in a reply. 

from: Ayase Chihaya  to: Mashima Taichi  No  I'm ok 

She heard Taichi tapping on his phone. 

from: Mashima Taichi  to: Ayase Chihaya  Were exams hard? 

from: Ayase Chihaya  to: Mashima Taichi  Of course You didn't need to ask 

Chihaya was beginning to wonder why they're suddenly conversing through their phones when a new message stilled her thoughts. 

from: Mashima Taichi  to: Ayase Chihaya  Why aren't you looking at me? 

The next stop was still a few minutes away. There was no way she could sprint away from him again in this compartment. Taichi would easily see through her lies. She had no choice but to come clean. 

Since it was more mortifying to type it out than to simply voice her concerns, she tucked away her phone on her skirt pocket. After clearing her throat a bit, Chihaya declared with a slightly shaky voice, "B - because you look like that." 

"Like what?" Genuine cluelessness was evident in Taichi's tone. 

Chihaya buried her face in her hands again as she whispered, "Handsome. Too handsome." 

Silence stretched between them so much that Chihaya wasn't sure if Taichi had heard her. She risked taking a peek at his expression when she noticed him beet red, staring past the train window.

Chihaya wanted to cry. Chitose-neechan better know how to fix this mess she's gotten them in. 

*

In the end, Chitose wasn’t of any help. After laughing at her sister to her heart’s content, she merely commented, “My, what a problem you have there, Chihaya.” She threatened to boycott her sister’s next magazine release as payback.

Grasping at straws, Chihaya then dialed Kanade’s and Sumire’s numbers. As soon as all the amused reactions winded down, Kanade stated, “Although I don’t have any useful advice to deal with what you’re experiencing, I think avoiding Mashima-kun is the last thing you should be doing right now. We’ll be entering university soon, and it’ll be harder to meet each other then. You wouldn’t want to regret that, ne, Chihaya-chan?”

Chihaya sighed. “I don’t.”

“Ayase-senpai,” Sumire chimed in. In a tone reminiscent of the time she guided them confidently through making Valentine’s chocolates to cheer up Taichi, Sumire announced, “There’s only one way to fix this. You have to build immunity.”

‘Building immunity’ apparently meant weathering through all the blushing and the rapid heartbeats until she got used to them. It may be a tall order, but there weren’t any alternatives and Chihaya had been worried about making Taichi worry about her. Putting her faith on Sumire’s reputation on matters concerning love, Chihaya found herself waiting anxiously on the train platform the next morning.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you this early.” Taichi stood next to her and she grounded her feet, desperately willing her face not to redden. Glancing at him, she stuttered, “O - ohayou, Taichi.”

Small talk passed between them until their train arrived. Settling on the empty seats, Taichi regarded her with mild surprise. “To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be seeing you at all for the rest of the week.” Chihaya clasped her hands. “W - well, Kana-chan said hiding isn’t a good idea.” She struggled to make eye contact, “A - and I want to be immune as soon as possible.”

Taichi looked at her blankly for a full three seconds. Then he broke into laughter, face lighting up so brilliantly that Chihaya had to avert her eyes.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.

Chihaya can’t find it in herself to sincerely complain, though.

[scarletwitching]

just curious, why aren’t u reading comics anymore? Is it cause wandas not in anything?

So, Ike Perlmutter... is bad.

This is hard to explain, not because I don’t know why I quit but because I cannot recall why I didn’t quit earlier. I guess it was the Spiegelman thing that did it, though that’s confusing because I remember quitting in July, not August. (2019 was 87 years ago, so who knows.) Sina Grace’s post had gone up that same summer. There was other stuff too. Things built on each other until I felt like I couldn’t justify it anymore.

It was probably inevitable. Or at least, it feels inevitable now. I considered it after the Northrop Grumman incident, but that was cancelled so fast that I didn’t even have time to process it. Things like that kept happening. I’d get mad about something, then it would whoosh by. But it was all chipping away at me. And it chipped and it chipped until one day, I was done. What’s that quote? Liking falling asleep, slowly and then all at once.

A couple of months after I quit, there was some internal role shifting that I don’t understand fully to this day, but was treated as “Feige is in charge of the comics now.” There was a lot of relief in the fandom at the time, and I remember thinking this should make me want to reconsider, it should make me want to at least wait and see if things changed. But I never seriously entertained the idea. Well over a year later, I couldn’t tell you what, if anything, changed.

Regardless, some things aren’t going to change. Did you see that photo of the guy storming the US Capitol holding zip ties? He had a Punisher logo on his chest. I’m not gonna argue about the political implications of that character or how much Marvel could actually do to put the genie back in the bottle. I’m more thinking about how, as superheroes have come to dominate pop culture, conservatives and liberals have both started adopting their iconography more and more. Remember that Dan Crenshaw ad? And the ICE tweet? I hate that shit.

The thing people love to do in this situation is insist everyone who disagrees with them is “misinterpreting” the characters and stories, but I don’t know how tenable that position is. I won’t pretend I don’t know why fascist insurrectionists love these characters. On the flip side, I can’t imagine an argument for why the person I saw call Amy McGrath “the real life Captain Marvel” is missing the point. I’d say they’re bang on the money, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. The white nationalists who think they’re vigilantes are obviously the worst (by several magnitudes). I’m not saying the cheesy liberal shit is the same as fashy right wing shit, just that I’ve grown exhausted with the way that society at large engages with these characters.

Is that the reason I quit reading Marvel comics? No, but it is a reason I haven’t started again. This stuff has become so obnoxious and omnipresent that it has tainted my feelings about the source material. Maybe part of my annoyance is that I know so much about the history of this meaningless nonsense that when I see people oversimplify it in order to slot them neatly into their own political views, I know it’s bullshit. Because it’s never as clear-cut as people make it out to be. No, Magneto was not based on Malcolm X, but yes, the Avengers kind of are ICE. But only that one time. (Fucking Hickman.)

It’s not just the general audience either. People in the supposedly enlightened part of this fandom downplay and excuse (and make snide jokes about) actual, non-fictional US war crimes under the guise of defending a fictional character. Do some people around here have any self-awareness about how embarrassing they are? It is vile the shit some of y’all will say with your whole chest, as if it’s completely divorced from the real world. The level of historical revisionism, the literal neocon talking points I have seen trotted out and presented as antiracism. I am begging certain people to PLEASE talk to an Iraqi. One (1) Iraqi. Any Iraqi. (Okay, maybe not any Iraqi.)

Actually, forget that. I don’t want to burden a single victim of US imperialism with some of y’uns, especially since you have proven time and again you cannot be reasoned with. Does that stuff affect my willingness to to buy Marvel comics? Yeah, it does. The fans may not be the company’s fault, but this attitude that real people’s suffering is just an exotic backdrop that doesn’t need to be seriously engaged with came straight from them.

More than anything, I’ve been thinking a lot about Capitalism (lol, of course, I have) and how I engage with this awful system I am forced to live in. Disney sucks. We all know it. The comic industry is exploitative. We all know it. How much do I really want to support them instead of giving my money directly to independent creators? How much more watered down, neoliberal, “more female drone operators” art do I need to experience in my life?

I’m not calling for a boycott or whatever. I don’t pretend to know how other people should live their lives. I’m not even sure how I should live my life. I just know that it’s been good for me to step back and evaluate what I spend my money on and how I feel about art that doesn’t live up to my values. Will I come back into the fold with a healthier attitude and more insight than I had before? Dunno. Will I eventually want to catch up on Immortal Hulk? Probably, but I’m guessing I’ll get it from the library when I do.