#a lot has happened in the past year wrt to lgbtq+ rights and it's been ... rough to say the least

[playitagainmyjohnny]

happy pride 🏳️‍🌈

[datastate]

hello hollow knight fans. here are a few notes on some insensitive behaviors / takes i've noticed as of late. this is not a callout toward any specific person - however, if these vague statements fit you... they fit you. please listen.

to preface, i am a neurodivergent trans filipino kid who has been involved in the hk fan space for about a year. within this time, i have met a few wonderful friends of mine and several other acquaintances i greatly appreciate. however, what i've witnessed from others over this does admittedly wear on me in some ways; even after blocking them, or even in times i am otherwise 'offline', i am often reminded of their words, some being so blatantly racist or transphobic i cannot believe they can speak with such conviction. these things are stressful if not genuinely upsetting or frustrating to witness. i realize my word or drawing attention to these things will not prevent these incidents from happening, but i do hope it helps you reevaluate if you read through.

i believe in viewing media with analysis and supporting interpretation from there, however, such interpretation should stand against contention and, especially with nastier interpretations, ought not be so prevalent without being challenged or rightfully criticized. you are not immune to criticism simply for being in a fan space, especially if you like to claim fan content to be actual art.

let's begin with fiction, and work our way up toward issues outside of meta. (warning for an extremely long post)

on: LURIEN - FETISHIZATION / HOMOPHOBIA

a large, common issue in fan spaces is when mlm relationships are overly emphasized by fans, almost to the point of obsession. the characters are often simplified to fit rehashed roles for the sake of fans who wish to ultimately fetishize gay relationships for their own pleasure. in the past, i remember a lot of these fans were girls who self-identified as “fujoshis” and made shipping these characters off an unreasonably large facet of their personality, often never connecting with irl gay people, but this fictionalized version made to cater towards them and other creepy fans like them. there is a difference in enhancing gay representation in media, and fetishizing gay relationships. many fans, especially (cishet) girls/women, fall into the latter

however, there are some stereotypes lgbtq people can also fall into in their own works. often unintentional, but there nonetheless

wrt lurien, it is incredibly frustrating to see his character be boiled down to “gay romantic wreck for the pale king” as if that’s his entire personality. people will place such emphasis on his love for the king, practically infantilizing him or causing him to be entirely dependent on the king's validation. there is much more to his character, and you must keep in mind he is an adult with a serious position. while his softer feelings may be shown, it is incredibly inappropriate to have his entire character dedicated to pk's image when he has other aspects of life you can focus on instead of revolving his entire character around this romantic interest in the king, or painting him as incompetent when nervous under the king's gaze. underplaying his character for this so often does often make mlm feel uneasy.

(an aside - please, stop calling him, or any others honestly, a simp. that is a heavy insult that shouldn't have been popularized in this form in the first place among people unfamiliar with AAVE)

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on: THE PALE KING - WHITE FOCAL POINT

this may seem irrelevant, but do you know why the tumblr sexyman phenomenon was first criticized? exactly what aspects it entailed made it so distasteful? if not, let me explain the more serious gist as it's often undermined with jokes: characters with no human form (bill cipher, wheatley, etc...) were given an 'attractive' / 'sexy' shape, idolized by fans as young thin white men. under this guise, as is applied with other white men in media (prominent example i can think of right now being kylo ren - character which was so influenced by the fans due to its lack of competent writers it became 'canon'), fans - often white themselves - began narratively shifting the stories to sympathize heavily with these white men, or found it 'easier' to empathize with them regardless of their actions.

while this (subconscious?) racism is a genuine complaint often found within fan spaces, it was most prominent in this phenomenon that fans were more drawn to excuse the atrocities of their white faves and provide them depth rather than dare to explore any other characters, especially those of color, beyond something flat or in ways which would uplift their white man.

what does this have to do with tpk? well, he is, by most definitions, a 'sexyman' in how several fans will treat and excuse him. much of this also applies to the white lady, as i will bring up in an individual later point. let me bring in some specific examples he is ‘woobified’, from what i’ve observed:

-> disregarding: MASS CHILD MURDER:

it is obvious tpk did this in an attempt to save his kingdom, i am not trying to dispute his reasoning or how he went through with it in-game, or say you cannot expand on his character. i simply mean to place this as a reminder that all of the children he had were created to be used. even if he did grow conflicted later on, it frankly doesn't matter because it has been done. he refused thk personhood and denied the rest of... thousands upon thousands of children, their very right to breath. none of his kin are required to forgive him after this, and there is trauma all of the vessels have suffered due to his and wl's actions.

even within "AUs" where the infection is rendered null and the vessels no longer need to be killed, i must admit as a person who has dealt with abuse that it does feel wrong to create some... "happy family" out of it, as if the point of the game has been forgotten. these AUs also tend to disregard the more obvious journey where ghost gathers paternal figures who genuinely, unconditionally, care for their well-being in contrast to their birth parents.

at best, these AUs are tone-deaf, and at worst, they are sympathizing with abusers for the sake of fluff. it becomes especially clear people don't understand the scope of the child murder despite witnessing the abyss. fact is, this act is unforgivable even if you wish to show him improve (and let's be real... after this you can only go up) afterward. these AUs do feel shallow as well when the only vessels people seem to allow to live are the few who survived the massacre only to die in other areas of hallownest: ghost, thk, broken vessel, and the greenpath vessel. the point of hollow knight is that these vessels mattered, yes, but as did all of the other lives stolen. they could've been one of the millions forgotten in the abyss, left to rot... why do you pretend pk would give them special treatment? is it because you wish to see a loving, family-guy side to him, to make it easier to empathize? there are so many others he could be close with, instead of forcing him into playing the role of a father he straight up isn’t fit for, nor would his kids accept (need i remind you, despite carefully picking up items from other corpses, ghost chooses to desecrate his to grab the kingsoul.)

now, a few vessels living isn't a bad idea - so long as it’s handled well. forcing pk to reconcile in small manners is fine. i honestly don’t often care about what happens in AUs, as they are obviously not meant to be reflected of ‘canon’ - however, where i take issue is where the pale king’s feelings are valued over the people, the children, who were killed en masse. you cannot pretend you wish for the vessels to merely have a happier life - when they’d have a much better time with so, so many other characters we meet in-game or who would theoretically be alive to care for those who remain, who may have been able to flee during hallownest’s time. you are placing value on the oppressor rather than the victims, valuing his thoughts and feelings despite being the perpetrator when you are creating AUs like this.

-> disregarding: "NO COST TOO GREAT"

the iconic line... that everyone seems to forget? the king admits here, in his mantra, he holds no moral line. the ends will always justify the means, and he is the righteous judgement to decide that. even if regret from the vessel plan twisted this phrase to take on more of an ironic or regretful tone when we read it with the dreamnail in-game, you must remember this was a phrase he has stuck to for the majority of his life. depending on interpretation, he may not be entirely ruthless if he can help it, but you cannot ignore such a large aspect of his character. he is calculating, and he is confident in his ability to weigh the scales regardless of personal preference. the only time we see him condemn another for ‘being wrong’ (that isn’t the radiance) is when he killed xero - and even then, that is because it is going against his right to rule as king. i understand xero was infected at the time, but i believe it is very telling that xero was nonetheless made out to be an example rather than a victim of the infection to be honored. his grave doesn’t even showcase his name.

tl;dr for this section is: you don’t need to unreasonably soften him to make him interesting when it comes down to it, this is what he believes, and there is a lot you can do with this and his character as a whole without babying him or making him overly-sympathetic!

-> obligatory: THE WHITE LADY

the white lady is not a victim, or a fitting / caring parent either - she is a perpetrator just as the pale king, even if she had less of a direct hand than he did. in-game, she still denies thk’s personhood and urges ghost to do her work for her, hanging themself in their sibling’s place as if they’re meant to be just as hollow. she has resigned herself to self-pity and acting as if there’s nothing else to do - although hornet still works to act in hallownest’s protection, now alone due to her inaction.

while she is wonderful with her words, being polite and calm in her phrasing and obviously skilled socially, her messages are cruel once you read through what she asks of you. she is not caring of ghost’s well-being - i honestly doubt she even recognizes them as her child instead of merely another vessel. she was complicit in thk’s abuse, and she has caused to heavying the mantle hornet’s taken up due to her idle regard. she is not... nice, necessarily. although she can easily act the part.

honestly, her demeanor reminds me of a few (grown) white women i’ve met in the past who would victimize themselves once rightful criticism was brought to light (often in regard to not tolerating their (unintentional? you’re an adult, though...) racism). they will use their more vulnerable status as women to cover up their other issues and essentially deny the fact that poc are asking them to change their behavior to be more mindful... they will pretend trans women and men of color, especially, could not fathom what it’s like to be a minority solely on the basis of transmisogyny and the idea that men of color, being men, are somehow oblivious to the hardships of being a minority.

with this in mind, i’ve noticed that within fan spaces she is often more likely to be absolved than pk on the basis of her being pressured or oblivious to what she was doing. these are takes which are often used to support the ideas that white women are always victims of circumstance rather than complacent with what power they do hold over several others. she is no more a victim in this plan than pk, even if she did physically distance herself afterward and bind herself. she may genuinely care, yes, do give her depth, but keep in mind she is disconnected from her own creations - whether to actively deny her own atrocities or make the plan easier to commit to and continue, this is how it is. she is complicit in so much and her atrocities should not be forgotten simply to be depicted as an innocent, caring part of the white family image people like to craft. i am going to touch on her acting first to steal unn’s land in the next point, but for now i will leave this section with this:

it’s okay to like morally grey or villain characters for being morally grey or villains, i promise. you can put reasoning behind their actions without needing to make them sympathetic or erasing what they’ve done or projecting what they’ve done onto others.

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on: THE PALE BEINGS & HALLOWNEST - IMPERIALISM & COLONIZATION

in no sweet terms, hallownest has stolen areas around, pressured other civilizations into accepting its terms, and attempted to impose upon deepnest as well. it’s fine writing, though people do seem to shrug it off in a myriad of ways which is...disappointing, and deeply uncomfortable as a filipino person, to hear how these groups of people were asking for it or were helped out by hallownest, even while doing well on their own prior to it being established on their lands

-> subtext: MOTHS (& MUSHROOMS)

a point i must address immediately is the fact i have repeatedly seen sentiments where the moths were a monolith in their willingness to submit to hallownest, taking the seer’s words at face value. while i love the seer as much as the next, she is not immune to the story hallownest has created, having been born after the moths were already “well-integrated” into its culture, and she is obviously bitter over her lack of direct connection with her culture - assumedly having to search it out on her own, as markoth had.

what do i mean by ‘the story hallownest created’? well, based on real examples, there has always been reasoning for colonization as somehow freeing more “primitive” peoples from their ways by introducing them to recently made technology. or, otherwise “helping” them in ways they are somehow incapable of and didn’t ask for. when searching for examples, i must admit hallownest immediately reminds me of japan’s attempt at “uniting” all of east asia during WWII; the short of it is that it succeeded in culling countries for resources and used puppet regimes for its own means in leading them toward supposed greatness they were too inferior to achieve otherwise, under imperialist japanese rule.

in the context of hallownest, it is entirely possible that there was a similar case in leaders of the moths being bribed and/or threatened into soothing over any doubts for hallownest’s good intentions, and leading their people into accepting hallownest’s rule / influence. another part you must remember is that... the moths are generally pacifistic people. and hallownest is a large area which is quite trained in its weaponry. even for the few moths who broke tradition to take on weapons, there were so little in comparison to the army hallownest had at its disposal.

even after hallownest was established, even if its pressure on the moths wasn’t entirely forgotten by this time, it was likely brought up as a place for opportunity and hope for moths to flock to if they wished to achieve something great. over time, culture will either be assimilated into hallownest’s mix, or it will become irrelevant due to how few people are there to continue on tradition. eventually, it began to fade over generations being drawn to hallownest - or perhaps in a worse case it was a situation where the children were led into being indoctrinated with hallownest’s mindset with little (if any) connection to their culture, as was the case with so many real kids separated from their people. it was not an active choice... it never is! no culture asks to be erased, or locked away as the spirit glade was! no one wants to lose their connection to their people or to family they trust! within this, it is disrespectful to insinuate otherwise, knowing what became of the moths.

as for the mushrooms, while i admittedly haven’t thought on them much, it is saying something to the fact their area is referred to as a path to the city rather than a separate society in its own right. the mushroom people have been entirely integrated into hallownest, with hallownest’s people almost constantly having that presence on their land, there must’ve been some distaste even if they did comply for that peaceful end, to preserve themselves as i’m sure hallownest was unwilling to yield and attempt to find another place from queen’s station to the city that would still be close to the archive.

tl;dr of this is that it’s unrealistic to act as if the mosskin or mushrooms were asking for hallownest’s rule, especially when contrasting the moths’ pacifistic traditions against hallownest’s “defense”

-> boundaries: MOSSKIN & MANTIS TRIBE & HIVE

while the mosskin relinquished some land for ‘greenpath’, they have more of a defense than the moths and are allowed to keep most of their heartland that hallownest doesn’t especially need for it’s path leading toward the capital. another loss the mosskin suffered is to the white lady - someone they clearly hold distaste toward with their warning for the lands beyond being run by someone who does not share the dream. it is extremely likely that the white lady stole this land for her own - much different to what’s implied with monomon (or another uoma) and unn having worked something out for fog canyon to be established on unn’s land. while they are tolerable of bugs on some parts of their land, they are actively defensive as to not lose more of their land.

the mantis tribe seems to have among the strongest forces in defending their home (only ever betrayed from within) with renowned skill which is especially helped due to their values and emphasis on sparring to prove honor and the like. it is because of this that they were able to keep a truce, rather than be overrun with outsiders.

as for the hive, it entirely rejected hallownest once it came into the area, closing off. while queen vespa is vaguely aware of the vessel plan, she may have been the only one to ever leave (or an informant of hers; due to her height) to discover this information, as the hive itself seems to have been purposefully cut off from the areas outside which could plausibly be under hallownest’s influence or rule. the hive risked nothing by letting themself open to hallownestian outsiders

and. well. of course, there’s another group i’ve not yet mentioned which also stood their ground. they deserve their own section with how much i must touch on

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on: DEEPNEST - RACISM IN TREATMENT OF CODED INDIGENOUS CHARACTERS

wow! the racism in how people portray them is...something else. even before i really realized how people regard the moths, i was incredibly upset with how the beasts (likely a title for outsiders to dehumanize them - coined by and/or imposed by hallownest), spiders and herrah especially, were treated by fans as overly aggressive, confrontational, and as if they had no social empathy or regard for lives when each is either reasonable or something hallownest is quite frankly not entitled to after what it’s done.

-> regarding: DEEPNEST HOSTILITY TOWARD HALLOWNEST

as is a similar case with the mosskin, hallownest was attempting to establish itself in a part of deepnest - although here, they went through with it without getting any consent in taking this land for their own. even if deepnest and hallownest were on equal terms, it was even worse to betray that trust and begin to take their home for your own without working something out. while it may have seemed cruel to not spare the lives of people who were simply working a job, and the fact that there were several corpses of common pillbugs scattered in deepnest, fact is that if they are under the impression that if begin to show any leniency that hallownest will use this weakness to take them. besides, explaining their reactions here is an entirely different case than the reasoning behind pk and wl, as it is more of a “punching up” mindset rather than people already in power abusing this - as is the case with slavery in hallownest, or the class divide evident in the capital. deepnest is trying to protect itself and its culture, especially with how much it clashes with hallwnest’s set up - one has to cave in for the other to reign. it would be better to form a truce, but it takes the infection to get them to land on those more neutral terms with how ambitious hallownest was in thinking it was entitled to deepnest’s land.

deepnest was not hostile without reason, and it is quite underhanded to paint the spiders especially as irrational in their anger or frustration. you may allow them to be angry - of course you can! they’ve had to put up with all of this! - but do be sure that you are not shifting focus to the pale beings or hallownest as if they are in the right for what they’ve done to try to assimilate deepnest’s own culture. let herrah show her anger, let hornet be frustrated with her father and wl, but never paint this more “negative emotion” as unjust, unless it is of course from an unreliable narrator’s perspective, but even then there are smaller ways to prove deepnest and those who argue for its safety from hallownest are objectively in the right.

-> obligatory: QUEEN HERRAH & THE DALIANCE (warning for references to sexual assault in section)

since i have already gone over the unsavory aspects of making herrah and other spiders overly aggressive, i will briefly talk about the misconception that herrah. pressured tpk into creating hornet

while it is true this was not the best situation for hornet’s conception, it is quite clear that herrah was just as desperate as wl and pk. herrah wanted to leave someone behind who she could trust would protect deepnest - and with hornet being of the pale beings, a half-god, herrah probably hoped that would keep the pale beings from daring to siege deepnest as to not earn hornet’s ire after herrah was put to rest. while there was risk that deepnest would begin to be drawn into the pale beings grasp because of this, it was better to help ensure her child had a connection with deepnest’s current culture as to try to encourage them to keep it as it is, along with deepnest’s own stubborn will in preserving themselves. all she asked for was an heir, preferably of her blood, though i’m sure being mortal she would’ve eventually folded just for the chance her people as they were would survive.

people seem to twist herrah into being someone who assaulted pk, although it’s clear the two worked something out prior to it, and wl agreed that this was fine. if pk was truly against it, either herrah would resign the desire for it to be of her brood, or pk would’ve attempted to reach for the help of another.

not only in this case are you villainizing a character coded as a person of color, someone you’d likely already portray as needlessly aggressive, but you’re pulling out the white character as the victim helpless against this other, who had absolutely no choice even though he hated it all the while... if you have done even an ounce of research on the baseless accusations white people will throw toward poc - especially dark-skinned people - regarding assault, you will realize how. bad this is, especially seeing as in-fiction it can be explained and fixed to not have such a power-imbalance or needless pressure.

+ bonus points if you somehow have missed the line where it’s insinuated the higher beings don’t much care about polyamory? of course, wl and pk share a soul, but they don’t seem to mind relations outside of this, especially for something as temporary as herrah’s agreement.

basically, there’s no real need to have made this be so uncomfortably and needlessly non-con on pk’s part. you can bring in the situation with nuance without being creepy about it, i promise.

-> now: HORNET & BATTLE / AGGRESSION

hornet laughs during your battle with her! it’s a nice note that team cherry added, and does add a lot of characterization to the person she’s grown into being after deepnest and hallownest’s falls, using this sort of battle (rather than sparring) to entertain herself and likely seeing it as an inherent part of her life now. outside of battle, she comes across as cold and collected, often not showing much personal care for ghost even if they are a bit intriguing.

however, people will take her demeanor and twist it to make her far more aggressive and verbally confrontational than she’s ever been. not only does it not make sense, but it’s likely linked to people’s treatment of the other spiders. while she can come across as apathetic, and i certainly know i write her that way due to personal nd hcs, it’s very... uncomfortable to have her be thrown to emotion and/or heartless/uncaring toward other's own emotions, especially when she’s stated in-game that she is not heartless even if she keeps her own emotions under wrap. there are times she will snap, yes, but i’m not talking about that. i am speaking of people who make her entire character some sort of ‘anger personified’ without much nuance behind it. it’s a similar problem to what people do when characterizing her mother, reducing them to one trait to make it easier to do jokes or... write serious fic? which you would imagine would at least try to give her depth, and yet she is stripped of her personality and turned to something extremely bland and a caricature we have seen over and over again for the sake of [trope fic here].

( i will also note here it is quite uncomfortable to refer to a younger hornet’s being rambunctious as being “feral” - doubly so if you will blame this half of her on her spider blood. while, being a spider, she may enjoy bouncing around much more than the average bug, there is no need to... negatively associate / outright blame her excited, occasionally chaotic, nature on ‘oh it’s bc she’s a spider’..??? )

-> aside: HERRAH (AGAIN)

please. stop making herrah out to be a bad mother, especially if you are going to use this to uplift pk and wl being parents. you do realize how it’s bad to imply that she was somehow awful and abusive solely on the basis of her title of ‘beast’ and/or "abandoning” hornet, while wl and pk killed thousands upon thousands of their own kin, and pressured the one remaining into upholding their ‘being hollow’, yeah? especially since i’ve already established herrah is coded as a character of color? this isn’t to mention the assumption white people already have that they’re only ever helping / saving by adopting kids of color, often without allowing them any real connection to their culture.

if you need canon reasoning to avoid this stereotype, while herrah did conceive hornet for her people of deepnest, she ultimately admits that she was driven to give her life so hornet could live on in relative peace alongside her people. herrah didn’t fully realize the dreamer plan would fail, that she was leaving behind a child in a world worse than what she knew - all she saw was the chance hornet could live without fear of dreaming, with the deepnest people as her comfort... even hornet says she cannot blame herrah, that despite everything she is thankful for the life herrah tried to give her.

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on: GIJINKAS - RACISM & FATPHOBIA

you really need to consider what biases you’re bringing in when you make gijinkas / human vers

why have you portrayed all of the characters you personally sympathize with as white? quirrel, cloth, myla, monomon, the seer… meanwhile in stark contrast you’re fine tossing shades of ‘tan’ onto the ones more prone to violence? tiso and hornet esp, the other weavers (depending on inteprretation.)

the weavers and the moths especially both have stories reflecting real events, it does make sense that they’d be adapted as poc - but you shouldn’t portray them as irrational or ‘more violent’ or ‘more argumentative’ in comparison to the others (prime example being herrah; there’s no reason she’d be less reasonable than lurien.)

this isn’t me saying to ‘mindlessly make everyone a poc’ because then that’s how you get the pale wyrm / white king being portrayed in a manner he’s not fit for, and often it ends with people drawing white characters but with their skin color being the only thing changed - nothing bothering w giving their hair texture or changing up their noses to fit, or sometimes not even letting their eyes be brown, but a ‘palette swap’ of a white character.

i will also say that it is harmful to erase the body types of characters. if you feel unconfident with trying to draw fat characters, practice! it does help to at least try rather than stay in this fixed mindset “oh well i suck at drawing them so i just Won’t draw them at all / will change their body type :/” you know? also, please don’t be afraid to draw characters with (visible) disabilities! it does make people like myself feel comforted to see us remembered, especially if you do make notes on the pain we must deal with alongside it.

be mindful when you’re making human takes so you don’t fall into negative stereotypes when you’re doing drawings on the side using these designs, or in the designs themselves as applied to the characters as we know them (or how you portray them… in which case, regarding race, there’s a whole issue with how the weavers are taken that i previously spoke about)

remember you aren’t locked to a single design if you realize you were (likely unintentionally) showing off designs w these negative connotations, you can change them, and how you treat a character, at any time. please be mindful, and do research on what cultures of the ethnicity you are going to make the character be.

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on: THE VESSELS - MISGENDERING

it is really, truly, not difficult to not misgender. even if you are learning english, you must become accustomed to the pronoun sets they/them (for groups) and it/its (for inanimate objects). while you may personally believe it’s somehow dehumanizing to refer to people with these pronouns, it is worse still to outright misgender them. there is no excuse to not use these pronouns - although the vessels may be ‘gendered’ in your translation of the game you are accustomed to, when you are translating back to english you must keep in mind that the they/it sets are purposefully used and this is another part you must translate if you mean to communicate with other english players.

if you are aware that they/it sets are used in the english translation, and you still refuse to change your behavior, then you are being transphobic! there’s no way around it - if you can’t use they/it sets for something as simple as fictional, i truly doubt you’d be able to use those sets for me or any others who do not use he or she pronouns what with how adamant you are that these pronouns are somehow incorrect simply because they “don’t exist” in your language (outright ignoring the trans folk who have made room for additional pronouns in your native language)

gender isn’t equivalent to the pronouns used, but it’s a fine indicator oftentimes. using he or she in reference to the vessels in-game which are only ever referred to with they/it is immediately something that will make trans (specifically nonbinary) people uncomfortable with your presence because it comes off that you’re trying to give them genders - regardless of whether or not you try to excuse this with saying you still view them as nonbinary (often as demiboy, demigirl, etc.). there are plenty of nonbinary people who will use he or she pronouns, but in this case, the only pronouns used are they/it and it doesn’t take much to keep that in mind. those are still pronouns that plenty of people identify with and it doesn’t take much effort to fix up your behavior and quit calling the singular usage of these pronouns “incorrect”

while i admit team cherry is not the best with nonbinary rep in the vessels, that is no excuse to claim they somehow need genders to overcome their trauma? their trauma is from being disregarded and dehumanized, not their pronoun usage. if using it/its squicks you out, it doesn’t take much to at least allow the decency of using they/them instead for them, regardless of whether or not you’re a native english player.

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on: FANDOM IS OFTEN UNWELCOMING TOWARD FANS OF COLOR

this is a well-known fact, honestly. fandoms, especially large ones, are hostile toward poc who dare to speak out on their favoring of white characters and disregard for characters of color - no matter how complex they are in the base material. while they can write poetry out of the flattest white side characters, they somehow struggle to consider characters of color in their full potential or depth.

i have already spoken on about this, so i will attempt to keep it short: several times i have simply reminded and somewhat expanded on what team cherry has given the societies outside of hallownest, only for white (adult) fans to counter me with remarks that are simply taking the lore on these societies at face-value. the ironic part? they will emphasize the depth and nuance to pk’s character in turn, despite his one direct dreamnail line. the mosskin, the mantis tribe, the moths, deepnest - they all have just as much environmental storytelling as hallownest (which is centered around pk) does, with even more written lore as to how they functioned and what beliefs they hold. there is much depth there, and yet people would rather favor expanding on the pale king instead of these people, and will even go as far as writing these people off as one-note.

when i attempt to relate events, or at least my more in-depth interpretation of them, to real colonization examples (often regarding the philippines), i am often brushed off as reading too much into it, or that the pale king “had best intentions” and it was somehow really the original culture’s faults for letting their culture be erased / forgotten in place of hallownest? it does hurt to see a lot of you give such depth to hallownest, but quickly cut down anyone who tries to explain hallownest isn’t flawless, and point out their atrocities toward specific peoples that the groups are still attempting to recover from - especially when i will base it on my own experiences as a filipino person who once had a direct connection with my heritage. if you, a white person, can project being trans onto the pale king, could you please let me project my own experiences onto a people that does have basis for what i have researched without feeling the need to make snide remarks about my work or sincerity? especially if you haven't done research yourself.

outside of my own experience, i have seen other friends of mine (or - not even friends! i have seen a few people in the hk tag i do not (yet) follow who i notice deal with this) propose their own ideas of adding their culture to the societies to expand on the depth of them, only for hk fans to disengage or, essentially, say it’s unrealistic for the culture to adapt these traditions. they have yet to provide a good reason as to why, even for giving hallownestian traditions which do not entirely line up with western traditions that the kingdom seems to be based on.

returning, i understand wanting to explore hallownest and how it functioned in its prime, and i understand most western folk find it easier to expand on them as it does seem to have similarities to the ruling there. i am not trying to criticize this part, as i have done the same! i enjoy exploring the characters such as the five knights or the dreamers and their companions, especially, and i tend to favor hallownest too, believe it or not. however, i feel it becomes very clear when people haven’t truly… thought about the other societies beyond how they can fuel the pale king’s story of attempting to ‘coexist’ with them, or their own individual systems and how those would clash with hallownest’s, how most common people immigrating from their homes to hallownest would need to adjust. the societies don’t feel so distinct, and their values begin to feel muddled and underwhelming because there is such an emphasis on hallownest and its grandeur, its end-all plan to encompass the entire area as its own.

i am not asking you to direct attention to muses you do not click with, but… please do consider why you cannot, especially if you find it easy to relate to the pale king or white lady.

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on: OTHER COURTESIES

-> don’t tag hk-only art as siIksong? please. crosstagging is not only annoying for fans, but it’ll keep some of your art from being seen from people who have the ss tag blocked until it’s released!

-> if you must sexify the bugs, be sure to mark said content as explicit or other ‘not safe for...’ tags

-> please don’t talk about how much you hate a character in the tags of someone’s art

-> please be sure you are not misgendering characters other than the vessels; i’ve found the wiki is a fine place for double-checking if need be

-> it costs nothing to see someone who portrays a character with a stigmatized disorder and not call them an ableist slur for it, especially if it is depicted respectfully and doesn’t lean into dark fiction without any warnings

-> on that note, please do try to do your own research and challenge your biases! it’s a process of changing, and you may (re)initiate it at any point.

-> be sure to listen to people of color, this is a definite if you’re white. however, if you’re a poc (esp if you’re light-skinned) it still doesn’t hurt to listen to others. we all have different experiences!