#also some people are very involved in irl activism and post about it very little bc of like. their own safety

[pjharvey-moved]

you can literally know all the right things to say and still be a very bigoted person and i take issue with the idea that posting about social issues constitutes activism because reblogging a post especially while doing zero fact checking doesn’t take effort, parroting rhetoric from marginalized people and often speaking over them in the process doesn’t take effort, advocating for social justice is an action, not an identity. ie, almost every horrible man i’ve met has called himself a feminist and then turned around and treated women like their value depends on their fuckability and also mainstream choice feminism has made it even easier for abusive and manipulative men to call themselves feminist because if feminism is just about women getting to choose to do whatever they want, what if some women choose to be sexual objects to them? to be objectified, degraded, assaulted, you fill in the blanks … ? what if simply sleeping with a man as a woman — or not even doing that, just being nice to him — means she’s made that choice?

[i-promise-i-am-not-on-drugs]

Hi! This is my presentation post! I will update it from time to time! ^^

✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✴✳✴✳✴✳

— I am a teenager (between 15 and 19)!! Please don't ask me to send you money to help you with what you're going through, I will not be able to help you. It will only make me sad and uncomfortable, and make you lose time that you could use by asking the same thing to someone who can actually help you, and I will block you, I'm sorry.

And I've just been asked that so just to be clear: No, I am not interested in any kind of "sugar relationship", thank you very much. (*traumatized crying*)

— Please do not interact with me if you are racist, homophobic, transphobic or a terf, if you willingly body shame people, if you do not support and respect the disabled and LGBTQUIA+ communities, if you are sexist, if you promote any kind of non con/illegal-relationship (I'm talking about irl relationships. I don't really care if you're a proshipper, but I will probably block you if I get too weirded out by your ships.), if you are a nsfw-only account, if you are a Trump supporter, or if you don't like to see the most random post at any time of the day. Once again, I will block you.

— I am genderfluid! You can use any pronounces while referring to me, but I do have a preference for they/them most of the time. :)

— Also, I mostly go by Eleana online, but I like to be called Len too. Or by my url idc. (you can also invent a new nickname if you want!! I absolutely love those TuT) :3

— I do not have the energy to find the exact label for my sexuality, but I like to think of myself as queer and aroasepec! ^^

— I am mostly active in the following fandoms: stranger things (byler actually but shh), the goldfinch, one piece, and many others! Those are only the current mains. :)

— Most of my posts/reposts are absolutely random and probably a bit confusing lol

✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴

Here are some of the things I'll reblog/post that are related to...

... Stranger Things

— Lots of fanarts!

— Fic recommendations!

— Theories and gates

— Pretty much anything byler-related

— Sometimes actor related things. (Yes I do support Noah btw, don't come to me if you want to hate on him.)

— Memes!!

... The Goldfinch

— Anything Boreo related (fics, fanarts, headcanons, anything.)

— Character analysis and headcanons!

— Memes 👍

... One Piece

— Anything related to the ASL brothers (as long as it's not romantic. I do not ship them. They're brothers.)

— Anything related to the Whitebeard crew (as long as it's not a ship too. They're family.) (I'm only kinda okay with Marco/Ace because they can be a nice dynamic if well written and in an AU, but that's it.)

— Pretty much any ship related things that I find nice. I'm a multishipper in this fandom! (I'm chill with pretty much anything as long as it dosen't involve families!)

✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴

Some random things about me! :D

— I absolutely loooove music. It doesn't have to be any specific kind of music, I could listen to pretty much anything and I'd be happy, because it's music.

– Here are some of my favorite songs tho!

★ Ship in a bottle - fin

★ BLUE - Billy Eilish

★ The Red Means I Love You - Madds Buckley

★ Loved one - The Aubreys

★ I Hear a Symphony - Code Fry

— I am a cat person, and I'd like to adopt one or two when I'll have my own place!

★ Come Little Children - Erutan

— I am an extraverted introvert! (an introvert who has a group of extroverted friends and who was infected by them)(but still an introvert)(i dislike or am neutral about most people irl)

— Most people say I look antipathic or scary, but really I just have a "do-not-come-near-me-or-I'll-bite-your-head-off" resting face.

— My favorite love languages are physical touches and words of affirmation. :)

— I like to talk with people about their experiences and feelings, and I love to give advices when I can! :)

— My memory works in a really strange way: I can remember word by word some parts of books and their entire storyline when I've read them years ago, but it took me 7 years to know the birthdate of a friend of mine that I met when we where both three.

— I sometimes have an hyperfixation on a random thing for months and then suddenly loose any interest about it for literally no reason at all. I will might come back to it after years months and fall back into the rabbit hole lol

— And (you probably guessed that by now) I tend to overshare things about myself when people let me. (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠)

✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴✳✴

You can also find me here! ^^

AO3 →

SPOTIFY →

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And that's pretty much it! Wow I'm actually impressed if you finished to read all that lol--

Thank you for being here, I love you! (/platonically) ^^♥

[xx-slug-xx]

I’m returning from the depths for a short bit lol

Mostly to make something very clear to people who aren’t on proship Twitter or TikTok. Or like, certain radqueer communities (not all of them, just specific ones). Not that I’m engaging in any sort of call out, or informing anyone over any situation directly. Honestly, I just want to make people aware that certain things are not ok just because you drew a picture or write a fanfic.

It’s not “just fiction” if you actively want to sexually abuse someone. It’s not “just fiction” if you draw a depiction of a real life child and talk about how much you want to sexually abuse them. It’s not “just fiction” when what you’ve drawn or written is created as a form of harassment directed towards another individual or a group of people.

If you’re going to be profic or use an adjacent label, that does not make it acceptable to sexualize REAL children or harass people because they don’t agree with your self-proclaimed “right” to sexualize a REAL child. And it’s certainly unacceptable to sexualize someone’s young family member simply because you have some personal beef with them.

The moment real people are involved, it’s no longer just fiction. You can draw and write about fictional scenarios, yes. But when you involve real people (not specifically talking about celebrities and other similarly high standing figures, just internet randos) it becomes more than fiction. This is where harassment in the proship community (by proshipers) becomes the most prevalent from what I’ve seen at least.

Also, if you preach about how x-real-person or x-real-group needs to be raped, and then go on to draw those depictions, and it’s not a joke, I’m sorry but that’s more than a little concerning imo. I understand people who draw and write to cope with their intrusive thoughts or paraphilias, but when you preach about how your sexual desires that surround the concept of abusing others then you go on to draw depictions of said desires, people have every right to be concerned. Abuse should not be normalized for someone’s selfish desires. And the big three certainly should not be normalized (in practice, people with big three paras can vibe as long as it’s not acted upon irl).

Artistic expression, no matter what kind or what the driving force behind the creation of said art, is fundamentally morally good. Don’t get me wrong. However, people have every right to be upset when your driving force for creating said art is because your opinions are in favor of acting immorally in the real world. People have every right to be fearful of what someone may do when they want to hurt people and creating art that depicts it (and it’s not a way to cope). Art is just fiction, it can’t hurt you. You can enjoy it or be discussed by it. In the end, it’s not real. But the persons intent with creating that art can hurt you. It can be in the form of propaganda, it can be in the form of direct harassment. As much as I am profic, there are certain kinds of fiction that are created by certain kinds of people that are a tell for what that kind of person is capable of behind the screen. The art itself is never the red flag. It’s what the creator of said art believes in that becomes a red flag. It’s when that creator wants and plans on abusing people, and in some cases then may already have.

Sorry for my ramblings that make me sound like a mad man, but I’ve seen some horrible things said by horrible people in this past week that hasn’t set right with me. I don’t want anyone to fall down the wrong hole of the internet and not realize what they might be getting into (certain pipelines that lead to “irl child sexual abuse is fine actually”), and I want people to realize that some forms of art (the kind that depicts real people to harass someone) doesn’t mean you are immune to criticism. This could have been two separate posts, but I didn’t feel like writing two posts lol

[werewolfetone]

2nd try—

did the british have a big role regarding tensions between the catholics and protestants in Ireland (as in making them) as opposed to taking advantage/exacerbating them? the speech im reading uses Ireland as a similar situation to caste in india (hence the ‘ireland jumpscare’ lmao) . a common argument used to dismiss/ignore the latter is that it is an imperialist import (so we don’t really do anything bad, we don’t really have any privilege/advantage cause of it, etc etc)

does the same hold true for ireland? said speech (annihilation of caste, dr ambedkar) was written in 1930s iirc, so maybe late 19th cen-20th cen? (i am very ill versed in irish history, school had one page for the whole uk)

Ok so short answer, the way I look at it is that while we do have a responsibility to try and lessen protestant/catholic tensions and break down barriers for the benefit of everyone &c &c today, yes, Britain did play a role in creating protestant/catholic tensions in Ireland. Longer answer:

It's important to remember in discussions of Britain + Ireland + sectarianism, that, to quote the book Scripture Politics by Ian McBride, "there was nothing peculiarly Irish about the eighteenth century obsession with popery." Nor was there with the seventeenth century, or the sixteenth century, or the any century since the Reformation -- since the categories of protestant and catholic have existed, with the possible exception of the 21st century,* Britain and British people have been fighting for one and against the other, often as violently if not more violently than Irish people have. The reasons for this were complex -- questions of freedom, religious doctrine, and national identity too complicated for this post and which I need to do more reading on before I can speak at length about. What matters is that any actions involving Britain and sectarianism must be put into the context of Britain being a very sectarian state itself for as long as that was possible, rather than a state which just exacerbated sectarianism elsewhere. Admittedly most of what I know about caste in India comes from my Indian friends irl talking about it, so this comparison is almost certainly not perfect, but imo it's a little less like the British exacerbating caste in India and a little more like if the British had been butchering one another over caste independently and then come over to India, realised that the same caste system existed there, and immediately decided to bring the conflict over with them. Essentially it can't really be said to have been something Britain just "exacerbated" because, well, Britain was playing an active role in it.

Secondly, & perhaps more crucially, it's important when it comes to Irish history that "protestant" and "catholic" don't just mean what church one attends. In a similar way to how the Israeli occupation of Palestine is not "Jews VS Muslims" but a case of settler colonialism, "catholic" in the context of Irish history usually means one considers oneself Irish, while "protestant" usually indicates a connection to Britishness. There are many exceptions, of course! There are lots of protestant republicans and catholic loyalists, especially historically, but if, like, someone from Derry were talking about "prods" in the modern day they would almost certainly be referring to ethnoreligious conflict between people who are considered Irish and people who are considered British, rather than genuine disapproval over doctrinal disputes (there are exceptions to this, too, though. some of the stuff my mother says...). Both of these labels also often denote a whole other set of cultural behaviours apart from religion (pronunciation of certain letters, what school one attends, so on and so forth). Mentioning this mostly just because I think it's interesting, but wrt this issue I often think about how when modern sectarian violence in the north of Ireland really emerged in 1780s Co. Armagh, rather than "catholic" "anglican" and "presbyterian," those involved would distinguish the three groups by referring to them as "Irish," "English," and "Scotch**," respectively, indicating that the understanding that sectarian violence has been just as much about questions of identity and nationalism as religion for a really, really long time.

So. Do I think that, had British colonisation not happened, Ireland would never have gotten involved in any religious conflict? No. Getting into religious wars was really just what European powers did for a very long time, so a hypothetical free Kingdom of Ireland or whatever in an alternate 17th century probably would have been just as eager to butcher the protestant dogs as other catholic countries like France or Spain were. However, as real history stands, the fact that Britain's crusade against Irish catholics in the real life 17th century was part of Britain's own protestant/catholic religious war, and the fact that 'protestant/catholic conflict' in Irish history is nearly always just settler-colonial violence (perpetrated by Britain) with fancy dressing, mean that yes, I would say that Britain must take at least some responsibility for the existence of protestant/catholic tensions in modern day Ireland.

*personally I wouldn't include the 20th century in this due to the continuation of sectarian tensions in scotland

**historical term for "scottish" I am using as I am quoting historical documents where it was used. if u start discourse over the use of this word on this post I will block u

Sources under the cut

Farrell, Sean. Rituals and Riots: Sectarian Violence and Political Culture in Ulster, 1784-1886. University Press of Kentucky, 2000.

McBride, Ian. Scripture politics : Ulster Presbyterians and Irish radicalism in the late eighteenth century. Clarendon Press, 1998.

Cone, Carl. The English Jacobins: Reformers in Late 18th Century England. Taylor & Francis Group, 1968.

Coward, Barry. Oliver Cromwell. Longman, 2000.

Rees, John. The Leveller Revolution: Radical Political Organisation in England, 1640-1650. Verso Books, 2017.

[skymaiden32]

Hi everyone! This isn't a very happy post, but it is very serious. Something happened yesterday and I just need somewhere to vent.

(No members of the Thunderfam are involved; it's about people I know IRL.)

I used to have this friend. My closest childhood friend. Our parents were also friends and had the two of us around the same time. I remember he used to have a lot of Thunderbirds toys. I guess that makes him the first friend I ever had in the fandom, even if we had no clue what fandom was back then. 

Something I should get out the way is that we grew up in a religious background, and we were in the same congregation as kids. Later on when we were teens, we had a trio with another boy, who beta-read my stories for me for a while. During COVID, all our religious activities moved online, and we drifted apart. I’ll call my former bff ‘Z’ and our other friend ‘J’. 

The longer the isolation went on, I started noticing that Z was no longer attending the online meetings, and whenever his parents were there they had these weird looks on their faces. Well, one day Z organised a Zoom call between the three of us and told us he’d moved out of his parent’s house and had converted to Islam. Me and J supported his decision, there were no hard feelings, and we promised to keep in touch.

Well, we did keep in touch for a little while. Z and I met up a couple of times, but that’s pretty much it. When the pandemic ended, me and J stayed in our congregation without him there. J got baptised and Z was there. J left for university, and my communication with him broke down as well, but that’s another story. At this point, I decided to change congregations for reasons unrelated to Z and J, which I’m not gonna get into here but let’s just say there were issues. I’m happy in my new congregation, but back to Z.

My mum and her husband are still in that old congregation to this day, and once I was there visiting them. That’s when I saw Z. He must’ve come with his dad. His mum wasn’t there for health reasons, which I’ll get into in a bit. That’s when he told me that he’d met someone at university. Mind you, he’d been at university for just about a year, and they were already engaged, talking about having kids, the works. He even told me they were planning on moving to another country. He showed me a picture of his fiance, and told me I’d be invited to the wedding. That was last April.

Now, I’m already annoyed at him because we’ve barely talked up until now, and any conversation we do have is by text, extremely short, and initiated by me. Honestly, if I hadn’t seen him in person, I doubt he would’ve told me he was engaged. I’m even more annoyed.

We get to his mum now. Z pretty much cut his parents off when he left, and his mother was understandably beside herself with worry. His mum is a lovely person. I adore her and when we were younger, she was like another mother to me. When I’d come round to his place she made me feel like part of that family. Hearing that Z’s hurt her so much really drives the wedge further.

Fast forward to yesterday. I wake up early because I had a congregation meeting at around ten. I open up TikTok. I see that Z has posted something, so I click on it. It’s a slideshow post with him and his fiancee goofing off. I look at the caption. It says, “marriage has changed me”.

…

She’s not his fiance anymore. She’s his wife. 

He said, to my face, that I would be invited. I wasn’t. I was heartbroken. I still am. Not because I was interested romantically, but because I’d realised I’d lost one of my best friends. I went to that meeting, because I needed to be around people I trusted after what I just saw. But I kept thinking about it over and over. Eventually, I decided that it was a lost cause, so I sent him a congratulations on TikTok, and blocked him. I made a vent post on TikTok too. It’s still up, but I may set it to private at some point. The bridge was already burnt; I just cut the rope because there was no way to repair it.

20 years down the drain. No one ever mentions how painful friendship break ups are. He was like a brother to me, but I can’t be friends with someone who treats me like that. Like those two decades didn’t happen. I honestly think I'll be upset over this for the rest of my life.

Z, if somehow you’ve found this post and are reading it, I want to thank you for the friendship we had while it lasted, and wish you and your wife the best. May you have many happy memories together...

[godbirdart]

Hi there! Short time appreciator of your stuff (I found you a few months ago + love your style sm!!) first time asker, and this might be an odd one, but do you have any suggestions for how to get involved with the furry community? Just, where to meet folk, maybe what to keep an eye out for (good or bad!) and such? I'd love to chat to folk and such but I'm just a very nervous person ^^;

You don't have to post or answer this if you don't want to! But thank you for all the cool art and the funny memes, I love seeing Sebastian with assorted snacks ^-^ you take care!!

aaA thank you!!

i'll be honest i personally skirt around the edge of the community because i too am a shy creature that emerges only every waning moon to hand people artwork

depending on the involvement level you want, you've got a number of options. a lot of people are still active on twitter, and mastodon and cohost seem to be picking up! i know mastodon has a few furry instances, such as meow.social, though I don't use mastodon that much so I cannot say if the community there is good, bad, or otherwise. same goes for cohost. last i checked it's very much so a twitter clone, but many furries i've noticed have skipped over there. pillowfort.social has a small Furry Artists community. if in doubt, there's also /r/furry on reddit.

if you just want to appreciate art and maybe comment every now and again, tumblr is pretty good. sure the tags can be a little broken sometimes, but at least you'll find the content you're looking for when you look up Furry in the search. same goes for deviantart and furaffinity, ofc depending on your interests you may have to dig around a little to get to the content / art style you specifically like. both tumblr and twitter i find are somewhat good at recommending similar artists if you follow some. sometimes there’s a recommended that pops up after you hit follow on the profile on twitter or a “blogs like these” section on tumblr, so there’s that.

telegram and discord are still popular as ever, though i feel finding a Good chat can be a herculean task. the r/furry reddit mentioned above has both telegram and discord [both sfw].

it’s super likely there’s a local / regional furry group for your area. some meet irl, even! most of these groups have telegram chats or discords if you want to meet people closer to home. of course there's also the Countless furry conventions going on too

it all depends on your social level as an individual. you can dip your toes in just by commenting on and following other furries, or opt to attend meetups and conventions and meet people in person

as for things to stay away from, the two biggest problems i want to mention are:

furry raiders. an alt-right furry group.

people with the zeta symbol “ζ“ in their bio /  name. now, the presence of a symbol isn’t always indicative of someone’s affiliation with something, so use discretion; but the zeta symbol is often used by people who are zoosadists / into be*stiality. these people are not furries, they don’t represent what the community is about, and everyone hates them. we can and will call the authorities on these people for animal abuse. if you see someone telling “zoos” to fuck off, there’s a 99.9999% chance these are the people that person is talking about.

these aren’t the only issues of course, but i feel they’re the most prominent ones. also maybe be wary of people who constantly say things like “no politics uwu” - especially if they turn it into some furry pun like “pawlitics”. maybe i personally have just had too many uncomfortable interactions with people like this and now i’m biased, but i’ve grown to never trust that.

apologies, i’m a bit of a hermit in online spaces and can’t offer anything more specific. if anyone has cooler recommendations they’re welcome to add them in the replies / reblogs!!

[zairas-realm-gateway]

when bege met with sanji, he specifically said that he would be marrying the 35th daughter of the charlotte family AND says her name is pudding. he has a nasty history of being perverted towards teenage girls after the timeskip (he literally Turns To Stone upon seeing shirahoshi, who is only 16) and his attitude with pudding is no exception (she even comments on his perversion during the wedding ceremony. there was no "brainwashing" involved, he is just a perv.)

im a sanji fan myself, but you can't turn a blind eye from his behavior towards teenage girls. he is 21 years old in canon after the timeskip. pudding being "mentally 18" is such a gross way to explain why sanji might view her as older than she really is and as someone who was groomed by a pedophile for acting older than i actually was at the time, that phrasing sets off so many red flags in my head.

im not necessarily saying sanji is a pedophile (because i truly dont believe that he is given his attraction to All women and 16 is the lowest age hes acted like that towards), but it is still extremely weird of him and people making fun of him or criticizing that aspect of him is perfectly fine and you shouldn't take it as a personal thing. that is just how oda wrote him. (but hey at least he's not kyros or vander decken who genuinely ARE pedophiles.)

You make some good points.

Alright, I'll take the correction on Bege telling him her name. But that still doesn't give any other details. Sanji isn't told her age, occupation, baking skills, etc.

I have a lot to say on his intricate and nuanced forced relationship with Pudding.

Long post and discussion under the cut

As for for the history with teenage girls post-ts, I think it's just Shirahoshi??? And while I'm not saying that's good, I will say that I am conflicted on some of the characterization in Fishman Island. I haven't read it in a long time so I'm just working off what I remember here. While the plot of Fishman Island is great, I always have some issues with the arc itself. It always feels a little off to me. Like some of the characterizations are just a little wonky here and there throughout the entire arc. It feels like Oda forgot how to write a few characters. It also feels like he's using that arc to see how far he wants to push new gags or personality aspects he's trying to work with after the IRL mini timeskip. Like he doesn't quite know just yet who some of the straw hats are after their time skip. I'm not saying that excuses Sanji's behavior, I'm just saying it makes me conflicted over the legitimacy of Sanji's personality in that arc. Because like Oda doesn't use the "almost die from bloodloss gag" again after fishman island either so it just always kinda feels like Oda was fumbling around in the dark with Sanji (as well as a few others) in Fishman Island. That's just me, though.

As for Sanji being obsessed with Shirahoshi's beauty, wasn't that like the whole thing with her? Wasn't like the entire country obsessed with how pretty she was? I could be mistaken but I thought I remember the citizens being enamored by her as well. I ain't saying it makes it better, I'm just saying that Oda made that a weird prominent detail if I'm remembering it right.

And I didn't say that that Pudding was "mentally 18" nor do I think she is, I said that she could be mistaken for 18 in a quick meeting. Meaning he wouldn't question her age as he actually barely got to talk to her at all. I think he only ever spoke to her like 2-3 times and never for very long or unchaperoned (judging by how Pudding talked about Sanji). Especially since Pudding is an excellent actor and is actively manipulating Sanji in a specific way that Big Mom has coached her to do. Neither family cared if Sanji and Pudding liked each other or cared about what was healthy for them so they would have no reason to let them interact for very long. As someone who was emotionally abused by my mother, when I was a teenage I took on personality traits and speaking patterns of someone older than myself (a common problem with emotional abuse). People often mistook me for being older than I actually was in short conversations. If Sanji never had any actual long conversations with Pudding, he'd have no clue that's she's not actually 18. While this doesn't make things right, it would explain some behaviors.

He doesn't actually want anything to do with her. He just wants to go home.

As for what I consider Sanji basically brainwashing himself is just him talking himself into an obsessive and possibly dissociative mindset. Sanji's under so much duress and his mental health is so incredibly fractured right now that if he's going to survive, his only option is to construct a dreamworld so far out of reality that he's actually happy and in love with Pudding.

Because of the sudden influx of trauma, stress, and crippling hopelessness, Sanji's grasp on reality is quickly crumbling. He needs to take any handhold he can grab. The only handhold he's allowed to take is Pudding. He calls her his "Ray of Hope". And because of this, he throws himself so hard into her orbit that he goes to the extreme of being creepy because now his only grasp on reality is Pudding.

This protective delusional headspace he's in is so strong (again, common for people who have suffered severe trauma and abuse) that he stays in it until he sees her eye. Because he if didn't have this headspace to keep him "calm" beside his would-be murderer, the wedding ceremony on the cake may have ended in actual disaster. And all their plans would be ruined.

After he gets through to Pudding by calling her eye beautiful, the very real danger of him being murdered is gone and he's released from his protective headspace. Which explains why he's so platonic towards her during the escape and all the cake baking despite the fact that she's constantly melting when he even looks at her.

What I am saying is that if Sanji called out for simping on teenage girls was a definable trend in his personality, why is he never all over Carrot? From what I remember (and I could be wrong), he only ever treats her like a little sister. She's young and pretty but still in Zou Sanji simps over the adult women minks rather than Carrot, despite her platonically being all over him (minks are just very affectionate). Hell, he seeks out Pedro more than Carrot.

I'm not saying that Sanji shouldn't be called out for being a fucking perverted idiot. Because he is one. I'm just saying that it pisses me off when people write him off as a one-note creep not worth thinking about instead of taking the time to understand that Sanji is extremely nuanced far outside his single trait of being horny.

I will say that Sanji can be creepy but I don't get the vibe from him about being an active creep specifically towards teenage girls. Especially since he seems to prefer more mature women like Robin, Kiku, Viola or frightening women like Nami.

As for me taking things personally and getting physically ill. That's just me being stupid and having severe rejection sensitivity when it comes to Sanji. I wish it'd go away.

I think it all boils down to Oda having sus choices in character ages... It would have changed literally nothing if he had just made Pudding 18.

[wild-at-mind]

Saw a post yesterday that I got the meaning of but thought the execution was a little misguided. Basically it was saying that you shouldn't shame people for not proving with posts that they are doing all kinds of activism around the war in I/P. But it said you shouldn't do this because maybe they are doing super secret potentiall illegal activism and it's not safe to post about. When in fact I would argue much more generally- stop writing things that attempt to shame people for not 'doing enough' activism-wise AT ALL.

I really don't get this because I've been involved in environmental activism groups for the past 4 years and the most common thing people criticise environmental activist causes for is focusing too much on individual change. (Whether this if fair or not is debatable- sometimes yes, sometimes it's definitely in bad faith, sometimes people are projecting massively, and also often they are talking about some manner of corporate activism or token 'good faith' gesture from big companies that doesn't do much and that environmental activists are alsp criticising.) Therefore now there seems to be a big resurgence in trying to make individuals feel terrible until they put their nose to the grindstone enough to solve huge, monumentally vast conflicts, I am fucking confused. Ok I am being a little flippant here but I keep seeing people who are clearly feeling quilt tripped out of their minds about not doing enough. It is very concerning. What exactly do these ranty posters expect???

There was a period in 2016-2017 where I was really trying to be more involved in activism for a number of social justice issues, but I was also in a massive depressive episode and dealing with a lot of issues with black and white thinking. The way a lot of posts on tumblr were worded like 'hey you! Fuck you because everything you're doing or may even contemplate doing in future regarding activism is wrong somehow! Oh what you feel lonely and isolated? Well don't even think about mixing with anyone local to you who cares about similar issues because what if they disagree with you slightly??? That can't happen! Best not risk it.'

I don't know why people write stuff like this but I honestly find it basically locks up my brain until I can't do anything at all. And judging by some of the recent posting I've seen on here I'm not the only one. I'm not so affected now because I'm on better meds, and now I know a lot of activists IRL which has helped. Once I had recovered from the depressive episode I started getting involved in local environmental activism, as that is the main type of activism around here, and ignored the little voice in my head that I learned from tumblr saying I should get involved in more social justice oriented causes (which plain don't exist round here FYI). Turns out that people who care about one cause care broadly about most, even if they don't always get it right, and being in activist spaces in person helped me turn off the 'oh my god what if these people are...imperfect??!' inner monologue.

No one should have to justify their level of activism to you or anyone else. I'm not even going to give reasons why they may not be able to do more because everyone already knows and also because the whole line of thinking is flawed. Not posting about something does not make you complicit in it. Not exposing yourself constantly to the most disturbing and horrible news coming out of Gaza does not mean you are looking away from injustice. If your brain says that then flip the script on yourself- tell yourself that you personally looking at these things does not help anyone in Gaza. You feeling like shit helps no one.

I think people are much more able to stand up for causes they believe in when they are not being ground down by miserable guilt tripping. I think anyone who wants to avoid this needs to also avoid going along with the logic of these posts. Whether someone is doing a tonne of secret activism or no activism- it's not my business, and it's not for me to try and judge their heart and mind. Or for any of us.

[marley-manson]

character opinion bingo:

MASH: henry, BJ, margaret doctor who: martha, ten, jack harkness

do as many as you want!

Thank you! Doing them all lol, I can never resist. But I’m separating the fandoms, so I’ll do the Mash characters first and do the DW ones in a new post. Cut for length but mostly for wasps nest/baseball bat BJ opinions lol, if you love him you may want to skip this post.

Henry:

I don’t think it was a bad idea to kill him off, but it seems obvious that it was a little motivated by spite lol. I would’ve liked to see him in the dramatic seasons tbh, I think McLane Stevenson could’ve pulled off the transition, so wasted potential. But he’s not one of the Mash characters I think about a lot, so I like him, I think he was great for the satire, I prefer him to Potter, but I don’t have a lot of deep thoughts on him as a character.

BJ:

Some explanation required lol.

He gets done dirty by the fans who brush off and ignore or sweep everything that makes him less boring than cardboard under the rug to turn him into Hawkeye’s perfect supportive partner; he got done dirty by the creators who, as I’ve realized while rewatching season 4, seem to have conceived of him as a cardboard cut-out Hawkeye could talk to. Like seriously, it’s baffling how little character he has, I can’t believe the writers of an otherwise great show full of interesting characters wrote him. It’s honestly bizarre how bland he is.

I was very torn on ‘the popular ships for this character suck’ because I don’t think Hawk/BJ sucks per se, I like it in my own way, but I’m not into the popular take on it. And BJ/Peg and any combination involving them sucks to me. I think he’s overrated in that a lot of what’s interesting about him was in no way intended by the show, and I genuinely think he’s overrated in his first three seasons, like this is 100% personal opinion but he’s as interesting as watching paint dry to me no matter how much I project the gay repressed read onto him. I’m happy for people who loved him from day one, but I cannot relate at all.

I’m holding up songs to him bc I want to vid him lol. He has too much screentime in that he’s boring and I’m bored when he’s on screen and not making Hawkeye feel like shit, he also doesn’t have enough screentime because the writers REALLY should’ve written him some fucking plotlines in which they could’ve explored interesting character facets sooner than 4/5 seasons into his run.

I wouldn’t mind meeting him briefly becauses he’s nice on a surface level, but I wouldn’t want to be friends with him. See above and below for the reason my opinions are like hitting a nest with a baseball bat. And honestly... yeah I gotta say I actively dislike him. In his first few seasons I dislike him as a character construct for boring me. But in later seasons I dislike him in the way that makes me like him more as a character, which is ultimately a good thing because it holds my interest. The ways he sucks aren’t ways that endear him to me as a person, but they’re ways that engage me emotionally and intellectually. Wheelers and Dealers and Period of Adjustment are two of my favourite episodes, after all.

Margaret:

She’s often awful and i love it when she’s awful so my ‘what’s wrong with them’ is very affectionate. I would hate her irl so I wouldn’t want to meet her. And I love her character arc, I think it’s incredibly impressive for an episodic 70s show, and even just in general. I’m not obsessed in terms of like, character analysis, but straight up in terms of ‘wow that is some good ass writing what the fuck.’

[tayne-dot-exe]

I almost never interact with anyone on here but I want people to be able to Know me, so I'm trying to get into actually blogging and just spilling my thoughts and what I'm up to… its kinda weird cos I use to pretty much only have online friends and discord chats were like my main spot but I'm just not really checking servers as much and most of my friends I'm no longer at the place where I'm telling them every thought I have anymore? I want those kind of connections which is why I'm still putting it out here in case anyone here wants to go from parasocial to social, but most of it has started to feel like, not interesting enough to message any person or groupchat in particular, so I have started to prefer just waiting until the next time I see someone in person and having a long catch up chat, letting the conversation go to whats been on my mind. But thats prob due to actually going out to do a lot more social activities and trying to HAVE people I do things with irl, even though it's still pretty frustrating that I feel like I can't find the kind of person I want to build like a super codependent friendship with…

Like I think I've been trying to make friends the way that people date where I'm just meeting up with someone from lex or bumble, and I keep finding new ways that things just Aren't Working for me, I have started trying to just be pragmatic about it…. It's one thing to try to find people who are interested in the type of activities I want to do with people- thrifting and nature walks are like sooo general, but I'm going insane from people saying they want to do something and then having so many logistical problems actually going… I know I'm super privileged that I'm just free after 4pm and have a car but like… I'm tired of doing sooooo much to accommodate hangouts just cos I want someone to go to things with like driving 40 minutes extra each way to you to pick you up…. or like if you can't tell me it's gonna be another hour before you're ready to leave your house…. I live in the suburbs of a super big city and there should be gay people everywhere but I can't find anyone within 15 minutes of me who is not too ADHD to actually make plans??? And then on top of just being willing AND able to go do the stuff I wanna do you're telling me I have to build a 1 on 1 rapport with people and sometimes we're just gonna find each other annoying??

Anyway I've actually joined a ton of groups that I'm pretty happy with adding a bunch of stuff to my calendar to just run into people and at least trying to find these connections irl if everyone on lex is a bum. Biggest thing is master naturalist where I've been going to tons of moth nights and bioblitzes and making friends with educated older women, kinda funny this parks and wildlife guy who is like the cult leader of the area keeps talking to me about on cinema at the cinema cos my inaturalist is also Tayne. And I found a new lgbt social group that has some interesting people but I wish was better at posting their casual activities cos I wanna just meet people at the things that are not video games and support groups. And I wanna get a little more involved with this climate action group I did a book club with. And I found a place where I can do Tai Chi actually guided by Chinese people, and that the place also does language/culture classes for adults so I will probably sign up for that in the spring. I'm even giving "the club" a try since we have one of very few lesbian bars in the country, but I think I'm just not interested in drinking with strangers where it's hard to converse and I don't care about most of the music (love dance music but even if it was my music idk how much I care about hearing it in it's natural environment), I'm giving it my best shot but I really don't have the clubber's spirit, I like the idea of dressing up for the club more than actually going… (honestly i think most ppl I've been trying to take to nature walks like the idea of being someone who goes out in nature more than actually going too)

But like its kinda crazy I'm obsessed with making lists of stuff I want to do, and for a long time it was creative projects that I dread having to actually do but I want to be finished, and during quarantine I started thinking like, what are the things I would do if I didn't feel like I had "homework", like if I was free from the stuff I was putting pressure on myself, and I've already done and have lined myself up to do a bunch of these now… I'm very happy with the adult I've settled in to being, and I want to meet other people who are too. I've found that I am such a busy body and love having things planned where I get to go hang out and meet people!

[eddiexmunsn]

screaming at the other anon coming out here with the antisemitism fuck off

Anyways: yeahhhh I just found out TLOU has ties to zionist views and I guess the creator was- idk if Pedro is under contract but I do think it would be weird to suddenly talk about it and then everyone point out one of his projects was supposed Zionist propaganda. But also, u are so right about people waving money etc

There was a study done once that showed impoverished people are more likely to give money over those who have money because they know what it is like to go without and don't want others to.

I also know I get so busy I literally don't pay attention to anything or anyone else, and depressed and anxious about politics. I tend to just focus on the immediate in my life, but cmon....at some point you hear SOMETHING

My friend irl shared something at the start she believed was true and once finding out it was propaganda, deleted it and has shared actual facts about the war. She feels absolutely gutted about it. But it was ignorance and I've told her its okay- she has TRIED to make things better.

And yeah if DJO suddenly posted I'd feel it be performative af because like u never have before and if u don't do it again....don't profit off this ya know?

Which again makes me think of that other band and pisses me off more lmaoooo

its seriously pathetic how all these little bitch ass zionists try to defend themselves. its pathetic but also very humorous to see them try so hard to be edgy and do those stupid "gotcha" moments. like.....literally go eat the dirty shitty ass of satanyahu himself. im sure he'd love it, and then maybe they can hold hands and drink their shitty burnt coffee as they happily commit genocide and finger each other's assholes.

that study doesn't surprise me at all. people of less privilege/power/etc.. absolutely are more likely to care about other human beings period. literally the only people i don't care about are politicians and rich people. and even then, i think they deserve free healthcare and access to food and clean water.

and oof, it's rough being aware that you've actively spread propaganda unknowingly. i think one of the only reasons that shit never worked on me was my very jewish grandma who always shit talked israel and stupid ugly bibi, so shout out to that old lady. i've only talked to two of my friends about this because i know the other few aren't usually as involved and active in politics/human rights. its not that they don't believe in that stuff, it's just not something they post about or talk about, or even just aren't informed about because of some reason or another. which sucks and doesn't feel good, because i'd love to have some friends to go to protests with and such. but thats life i suppose. though some of my coworkers are pretty passionate about it so it's nice to go to work to be around others i know feel the same way that i do.

[bbyboybucket]

Okay, a little half mini meta thingy? I’m honestly very surprised that Bucky being suicidal hasn’t been brought directly in the movies/show. And I say this because his PTSD is basically the forefront of his character (other than his friendship Steve in the movies) and his arc in TFATWS was essentially mental health centered. So I do wonder why there wasn’t a tiny line drop or something.

And the MCU is not shy about the topic. In the early days, they had Bruce talk about his attempt, recently they showed Marc attempting and being saved by Khonshu. Also, despite it being a bit of a different situation, we were shown Zemo attempting suicide but T’Challa stopped him. If the mcu/Disney is willing to actually show suicide attempts, obviously they have no problem with talking about the matter.

And the reason why I’m so curious they didn’t mention anything for Bucky, is because it’s been brought up several times by crew members. Raynor’s actress specifically stated TWICE, in two different interviews, that Raynor is actively trying to get through to Bucky in therapy so he doesn’t commit suicide. The actress’s exact words being: “She wants to save his life. She knows if he doesn't do this, he is going to die. He will kill himself.” and “That's why she sees her work with Bucky as a life and death situation…. She can interpret just how bad it would be for him, and if he doesn't connect, he could die. As so many veterans do. PTSD is a horrible, horrible thing. If left to your own devices, if you go inside, you're just going to take your own life…..So her job is to not let him.”

One of the screen writers for the cap trilogy, Christopher Markus, was talking about Bucky’s character and said “Do you want to go on? Do you want to be free? Do you want to put a bullet in your head? What is it?". Seb Stan said in an interview “Bucky’s relationship with Steve may be the only thing stopping him from committing suicide.” And I’m 99.9% sure Seb said something along the same lines as that another time too.

It seems to be a pretty solid consensus amongst the people involved in the making of these movies/shows, that suicide is something that Bucky considers/struggles with. I mean, I do think that it was lightly implied in TFATWS (I could explain but that’s a post for another day) but l’m just begging the question of why they didn’t dive into that a bit, why it wasn’t explicitly stated? Especially since irl the risk factor for suicide in those with PTSD is EXTREMELY high. I mean, I’m not complaining that it wasn’t included, I’m just doin some wondering.

[ask-obt]

Is Inigo asexual or aromantic? I remember it being mentioned as asexual but he often talks like he just doesn't have romantic feelings for others.

// I've always used sexuality/romanticism labels interchangeably due to my own personal experience of living in the middle of nowhere where a lot of the folks here have a hard enough time understanding sexuality, let alone romantic attraction and the difference between them. I guess that muscle memory is something that carried over to OBT a bit when pride month comes around? Of course I understand the importance of using such labels for a lot of folks, and encourage people to use the labels they identify with! I myself am on the asexual spectrum and am biromantic, and I write Inigo as demi/ace- but for both of us, I would casually use the romanticism label as the catch-all term to describe attraction (so I'd call myself bisexual, and him asexual/demisexual).

I will be delving into some more pondering about how sexuality works in OBT's worldbuilding below the cut here- I will give a soft CW for talking about sex as a concept.

(Adding this parenthetical after the fact, but for those out of the loop, sexuality = sexual attraction, and romanticism = romantic attraction.)

This does bring up how sexuality and romanticism differ in OBT- I quite frankly don't really like the idea of pokemon reproducing sexually in my own comic's lore, so the worldbuilding makes it so they don't need reproductive organs to reproduce. And I don't think the process of creating eggs by blending aura imitates the sensations and experiences people feel when they do have sex in real life. Maybe pokemon would feel a little energized after? But I don't think it'd be exceptionally pleasurable.

So when you take out the pleasure part of sex, it stops becoming a recreational activity and a bit more clinical... The only real reason poekmon would participate in OBT's aura breeding is to create an egg. So how does irl sexuality translate into OBT's world?

While writing this post I thought maybe sexuality could indicate the willingness to have children and start a family, but that would really alienate the experiences of people who enjoy sex as a bonding experience and just want to get closer to their partners without committing to a whole family. I also thought about sexuality maybe being just cuddling? Though for me I consider kissing, hand holding, cuddling, etc. to be what differentiates a romantic relationship from a platonic one. Maybe there's still a form of heavy petting in the world even without genitalia that would constitute the label of a sexual experience? (I certainly don't think genitalia has to be involved to have sex haha)

But to be honest I don't really think about it that much since it doesn't interest me.

So I guess the conclusion I boiled it down to for OBT's world is that sexuality/romanticism end up being the same thing. I do still believe some characters are more into physical contact than others- Inigo would probably be less interested in kissing and cuddling than Dielle, who is very touchy-feely.

[proud-mama-joyce]

What the S4 volume split could mean for Byler

The recent news about Season 4 got us all excited with the hints of Byler in the posters. But I was also thinking, from a fanbase and marketing perspective, the decision to split S4 into two volumes could be good news for us.  I’m somewhat new to Tumblr, where we have a pretty active Byler fanbase, but I have spent enough time on other parts of the internet looking at Stranger Things discussions to realize that that’s far from universal. Add that to the fact that casual viewers of any show seem to be pretty oblivious to queer coding in their media, and that all presents a dilemma: If the Duffers are intending to write Byler into their show, how can they present it without blindsiding their viewers? Trope subversion works in their favor, but they would unfortunately have to be careful to avoid alienation and backlash if they plan to present an arc that involves a) permanently breaking up the expected, oft-beloved straight pairing of two central characters, b) including more LGBT characters after they have a “token gay” character in Robin (not saying I see her that way, but additional representation may be unexpected for many viewers), and c) presenting a gay pairing that is central to the story rather than sidelined. As much as we’d wish to believe otherwise, I believe a lot of audience members (speaking from my perspective in the US, at least) would need to have their expectations carefully managed in order to be invested in these developments--especially given the wide age range of fans for this show. I know a LOT of people who are pro-LGBT, but who still aren’t comfortable watching gay storylines in their movies and shows. How would they accomplish this? By making the average viewer see it coming...slowly. If we assume that Byler is endgame, the Duffers have probably been carefully observing how much (or how little) of their previous hints have been absorbed, and it seems like we’re definitely in the minority at the moment. Given the binge-watching that happens with this show, dropping a season with developments a, b, and c above might not give a lot of viewers enough time to shift their expectations if they didn’t pick up on previous hints. At the same time, they would get backlash if they released the episodes more slowly. So, is it possible that Byler was a factor in the decision to split Season 4 into two volumes? Imagine the fan discussion in the break between volumes of S4, if (when) there are more direct clues about where Byler is headed. It’ll be controversial at first because it’s unexpected by many. Older theories and evidence from the show would surface to counter naysayers, causing people to reexamine their biases and expectations about gay representation (or gay visibility IRL). Some might initially get up in arms about the fact that they’re minors, sparking a (very needed, IMO) discussion about how often gay relationships are unfairly implicitly seen as more sexual or “adult” than straight ones. There could be accusations that Byler is “woke fan service,” countered easily by how often the Duffers have openly stated that they mapped out the major arcs of the story from the beginning, and raising the question: Is it really unrealistic to have multiple LGBT+ characters in a show? (No.) People who don’t see themselves as homophobic but who are uncomfortable at first with Byler (possibly including many older fans with children who are also fans) might have a new reason to reflect on why, helping to humanize their perspective of LGBT+ people in an apolitical context. And people who feel neutral about Byler and love the show regardless will then be fans of a show depicting a complex, well-written gay storyline that they might not otherwise have chosen to watch. 

And then they’d all strap in to see the story continue. There’s a lot of wistful speculation in this post, but it’s hard to convey concisely how meaningful it would be for me to watch Byler unfold. I truly hope I get to celebrate with all of you in this pocket of the internet in a few months. 

[jjkyaoi]

I am getting so tired of how poorly some people in this fandom treat c!tommy and how differently from any other character they treat him, for example c!ranboo. It shows so much after every single stream, especiay this one and its such a pet peeve of mine because its so unfair.

If people don't like c!tommy thats absolutely fine, but don't pull stuff out of your arse to tear the character down.

When c!tommy lost henry and was clearly grieving and feeling terribly, c!ranboo didn't really deal with that very well and did a bad job comforting him and thus sometimes came off borderline mocking. And that is very justified and in character from his pov because he is not at all equipped to handle peoples mental breakdowns and shouldn't have to be, hes basically a walking mental breakdown himself. Not once after that stream did i see a comment anywhere that was like 'c!ranboo is ignoring tommys trauma/isnt taking it seriously!!bad friend!!'

But after c!tommy makes one tiny offhand comment about c!tubbo having thicker skin, from his pov also fully justified and in character, its suddenly 'ooh he isnt taking his trauma seriously!!!bad friend!" Or again today, with them deciding that ranboos 'tubbo is only using me for my items' (which was absolutely a joke and not serious lore) isn't cannon, but tommy accidentally blowing up tubbos stuff, (like tubbo did to him on his birthday btw and Nobody said a word about it BECAUSE IT ALSO WASNT CANON NOR INTENTIONAL) is.

I see people bragging about not watching c!tommys pov and not c!ranboos despite them having about the same viewership numbers during lore streams. They complain about c!tommy taking away attention from others and being the protagonist, while declaring c!ranboo who is also involved in many plotlines the 'next protagonist' in the very same sentence...

Some people just pick and choose anything that makes c!tommy look bad and put both c!ranboo and cc!ranboo on a pedestal. And don't even get me started on their totally invasive takes on the irl friendships. At this point they should just admit that they hate cc!tommy, stop watching his stuff if he annoys them so much, and shut up.

this isn’t ranboo critical in any way at all, because it isn’t his fault that people in this fandom behave this way/there’s a bias between them, but yea, you’re right.

i don’t know what it is, but people seem to be more open to supporting c!ranboo than they do c!tommy under any circumstance. and it’s like, that’s fine, you’re allowed to have characters you’re more open to supporting/you like more than others —god knows i do— but it gets the point where when you’re actively comparing the two characters/saying things like “ranboo wouldn’t ever do this” or “ranboo is so much better at __/for __ than tommy is!” is like. Okay Pal. i don’t know what it is, if i’m honest. i don’t know if it’s tommy’s abrasive personality that throws ‘em off, but the double standards in this fandom never fail to astound me —and, it isn’t always with ranboo. there’s a lot more people that are willing to be forgiving with any other character than c!tommy. there’s always the “i’m not excusing c!tommy but i can understand why he did __” or “he shouldn’t have done __!! he’s evil!! a monster!” but when it comes to anyone else it’s just “they popped off 🥺🥺🥺 deserved!! never did anything wrong!” and it’s getting to the point where i’m genuinely tired of it. people in this fandom take any opportunity they can to bash on his character but when it’s anybody else it’s just crickets, and they like do this funny little things /s, where they make fun of apologists for c!tommy for only liking a character if they’re nice to him, but then turn around and do the same exact thing and when said character isn’t nice to their fave they’re the devils incarnate, so it’s hypocritical for them to stereotype c!tommy apologists as people who only care about certain characters if they have a positive opinion of tommy when they do the same thing.

i’m just sort of tired of it. when c!tommy makes the slightest mistake i’m always anxious to check tumblr or twitter because i already know —i’m already expecting thousands of people to have turned against him. there’s such open support of c!tommy one second, but once he makes one harmless mistake it’s suddenly he’s unforgivable once again and i’m getting tired of people not bothering to understand his character and brushing him off as horrible but when it comes down to anyone else they’re way more open for second chances.

i don’t fucking understand it, is the problem.

genuinely, i don’t . i don’t understand why the vendetta against him goes so far, and i’d be open for people to tell me why they hate him but half of he time they don’t have a reason beyond him being annoying/the mistakes he’s already made up for and theyre just choosing to hold a grudge against him for.

i don’t care if you don’t like c!tommy, don’t take this post as an opportunity to debate with me (/srs), because i’m tired of explaining to deaf ears why “hey, he isn’t actually that bad guys”, because it’s 4:51AM and i’m being driven by spite and pettiness only. i will bite your head off /hj

[threewaysdivided]

As someone who just recently rewatched some of young justice through clips on YouTube for nostalgia, perused a little around the tags and found the absolute goldmine of writing analysis in your blog I just wanted to say thank you! Your knowledge and your care for these characters really shines through and reflect some truths that I feel are more appropriate than ever: no one individual should be pedestaled for the success of a narrative, especially when he seems to misunderstand his own themes. It's very refreshing to see criticism so pointed and razor sharp, especially for a series I wish was better than it is. Your essays certainly gave me a lot to think about in my own writing!

Thank you! 💜 That’s really lovely of you to say.

It always makes me happy when someone stops by to tell me that they enjoyed/ got something out of my analytical posts.  Part of why I write things like the YJ Narrative Breakdown Essays is to get the thoughts out of my head, but a lot of it is that I want to share them with other fans who might feel similarly and want to talk. (I’m especially proud of the YJ: Invasion Case Study - it doesn’t get a lot of love because it’s so long but I’m super happy with how it came out as a capstone to the set.)  It’s really gratifying to hear that someone found them useful or that it helped articulate a feeling they were having or gave them some new concept/ framework to use when thinking about other stories.

If you want more Young Justice stuff, I’ve done some Season 1 metas on The Light, A Different Take on Martian Racism and Dick and Wally’s Friendship.  I also made a short list of other stories that I think capture similar vibes to Season 1 in aspects of their theming/ genre/ character-writing/ structure/ tone etc. which might help any lingering cravings.

I also have a general writing tag if you’re looking for writing discussions, as well as this resource primer for analytical readings.

pssst!  If you want to see me try to put some of these ideas into practice, I’m also writing a fic.  It’s a YJ crossover (canon-divergent post S1) and Arc II which started this year at Chapter 18 is intended to emulate some of the things I really liked about S1, including an overarching mystery and missions.

When it comes to pedestalling individuals, I completely agree.  I think Auteur Theory and Great Man Theory are mostly fallacious - not only in art but in general.  A lot of successes are collaborative (“self-made entrepreneurs” who were actually financially supported by family or succeeded through connections etc.) and, while the lone-visionary idea makes for a simple and compelling story,it can also cause IRL problems in how it disproportionately elevates certain voices, devalues less visible work and creates unrealistic expectations.  It’s good to have a healthy scepticism about those narratives, especially when they centre on people who already had privilege greasing their wheels.

I also think we often underestimate just how many people are involved in commercial art production.  Even Books (one of the closest mediums to sole-creator) often involve input from editors and possibly a publication house - as well as potential ghost-writers, co-writers etc.  Television teams can have dozens of staff across multiple production areas, and for big-budget films and AAA Games that number can balloon into the hundreds.

The role of developer/producer can be a real mixed bag in that space.  Some are close to the visionary/ auteur type - very involved with their teams and in steering the creative process - but others can be coattail-riders or even active liabilities that their teams have to work around.  (The Danny Phantom fandom has some real showrunner war-stories).  

Still, it’s easy to see how we could go from talking about a team lead/ spokesperson as convenient shorthand for the idea of The Author™, to accidentally treating that person like they are the only significant member and attributing all the credit to them personally.

Whether by accident or design, Greg Weisman definitely presents as the visionary type on the surface (something that the fandom and the wiki creators have unintentionally and well-meaningly contributed to).  His ask blog’s visual style certainly makes him look like The Gargoyles Guy™, and the Young Justice wiki editors put a lot of emphasis on him, often directly inserting information from there and his social media straight into main page content as “unconfirmed canon”.  That ask blog also creates a very parasocial environment; I’ve seen fans write posts like they’re talking to/ about him as a friend, and directly attribute specific lines or episodes directly to him.  To look at the wiki, his blog or hear the fandom talk he is the mind behind.

However, once you look closer, he has much fewer direct creative credits than you would expect for that reputation.

And, as it turns out, Young Justice is one of 3 separate series to see substantial drops in story quality after Weisman assumed control as primary writer, with common complaints including weak/inconsistent character-writing (even for characters he supposedly helped create), poor story structure and a seemingly shallow understanding of those stories as a whole.

Now, if it was just a case of Weisman just being a passionate doofus - someone sincerely having fun exploring ideas that interest him but who shouldn’t be left creatively unsupervised because he can’t hack it narratively - that would be frustrating but ultimately fine.  It happens.  Unfortunately though, there has been… quite a bit else that has pushed me more towards parasocial enemies territory.

As I’ve mentioned before, all three series contain instances of Weisman disempowering strong female characters; rewriting their narratives to centre on men and/or a sudden desire to conform to traditional gender roles.  Plus other sexism that resonates uncomfortably closely with pick-up-artist/ incel rhetoric.  His work on both Magic: the Gathering and YJ: Outsiders was also criticised for casually racist and overtly queerphobic writing - especially in his treatment of feminine bisexuals.  A lot of the most egregious instances can be found in the book - the medium where Weisman had the most direct creative input.  Weisman also doesn’t seem to understand the difference between organic character-conflict, manufactured “negative drama” and abuse - something that combines really badly with his seeming unawareness of the invasive implications of telepathy; which results in several telepaths being written as borderline predators/rapists, only for Weisman's narratives to either make no comment or take their side.

I also find his conduct very disingenuous.  I have no problem with ask blogs but the fact that over 80% of Young Justice’s critical narrative content can only be found there, and the implied attitude that fans who are surprised by the sudden appearance of information that was never previously set up in-story are at fault for not seeking it out strikes me as creatively dishonest.  I’m also not best pleased with his responses to the criticism over his insensitive writing (discussed above).  One instance that’s really emblematic to me is Weisman getting kudos for posting a snarky twitter-clapback to a bigot asking him to remove the diversity from Young Justice, despite himself having actively attempted to erase the sexuality of one of Magic: the Gathering’s fan-favourite queer characters (a scandal that made it onto his Wikipedia page).  Respect is something that really needs to be Shown not Told, and Weisman’s work frequently shows the complete opposite.

And look, I don’t know this guy; I can’t claim to understand what Weisman’s deal is or what’s going on in his head.  Maybe he’s always been like this and it just passed under the radar until recently because previous co-creators were skilled enough to pull him up with them.  Maybe he used to be better but let the success of other series he’s been involved in, and the showers of personal praise from his ask blog, go to his head.  Or it could be something else entirely.  I think the only answer we’re going to get is that we’re not going to get an answer.

Which is super disappointing and frustrating.  Like I said in this post, we come to stories in good faith; we want to put our trust in the promises made by the narrative, we want to be able to take the creators at face value, and we want to see the love and respect we have for their story and characters reflected in the effort they put into telling it.  Fandom in part reflects the passion creators have for their work, and when those creators start treating that work carelessly, cynically, or taking their audience for granted, the fandom can start to wane.  (Danny Phantom being one of the only communities I’ve seen thrive after completely severing ties with their producer.)

Circling back to the pedestal/auteur thing, I think that mindset makes it much easier to take this kind of thing personally when it happens.  It starts feeling like a single person chose to make all those promises and show that potential to you, only to intentionally betray them; rather than the Swiss-cheese model of compounding changes, failures, mistakes and/or poor choices from multiple people that more likely happened.

In these situations it helps to remember that we are the ultimate arbiter of our personal relationship to a story.  We don’t even have to be part of fandom; our fan experience can be just between us and the part of the work we found compelling, or us and a small group of buddies who feel similarly.  There’s no rule requiring us to perform fannishness or conform to the mainstream fandom consensus.  A good book/ game/ movie/ season/ comic can stand on its own, even with a few unresolved threads - we don’t have to personally accept subpar sequels, poor-quality prequels, rubbish retcons, superfluous side-content or extraneous add-ons just because they happen to exist.

a good plot was one which made good scenes. The ideal mystery was one you would read if the end was missing. -Raymond Chandler

There are fine things that are more brilliant when they are unfinished than when finished too much. - François de La Rochefoucauld

And, for stories that are created by multi-person teams, it can really help to change how we talk about them; to step away from that auteur mindset and start giving credit where it’s actually due.

So, in service to that, here is a breakdown of main episode credits for Young Justice Season 1:

Putting this together actually made me realise that I’d had too narrow of a focus; I’d previously speculated about changes to the writing staff but I completely overlooked the impact of episode directors. Which is nuts because directors can potentially have major influence over the structure and presentation of the finished narrative.

A few things strike me.  First is that Weisman doesn’t have a lot of direct writing credits; he has the most (albeit only by 1 episode) but it barely amounts to 25% of the season, and you can see that the specific episodes he scripted aren’t ones that put a lot of character focus on the main cast or paying off the emotional narrative.  (Which isn’t to claim that he wasn’t doing other developmental/ production work behind the scenes, but it does make sense; characterisation and narrative resolution are not things Weisman is good at).

The two names that really started to stand out were Jay Oliva and Michael Chang; each individually credited as director on over a third of episodes, and covering more than 75% of the whole season between them.  That’s not to say that they alone were the secret sauce that made S1 so good (that would just be applying Auteur Theory to a new target and, while their IMDB resumes are impressive, it’s likely that other, less-visible team members were also involved) but having that level of direct input across so much of the season would have given them opportunities to maintain consistency and provide structure/ guidance.

And notably, neither Oliva nor Chang have any major credits post Season 1.   For whatever reason, the directors who handled over 75% of the episodes never returned for future entries.  (Compare most of the Season 1 writers, who do make repeat appearances - although no writer other than Weisman or Vietti gets more than a single episode per season of the revival.)  Which is a pretty substantial gap to leave behind.  From that perspective it’s not surprising that the show saw big changes going forward; to some extent it really wasn’t the same creative team driving things.

At this point we might be tempted to speculate that, if Oliva, Chang and the rest had stayed on (or come back for the revival), then Young Justice would have stayed good or at least been better than how it turned out.  But the truth is, we can’t know.  It’s possible that Season 1 was too much a product of that specific team, time, production environment and media landscape to ever last.  Maybe it was always a doomed venture; the lack of proper planning, Weisman’s creative weaknesses and aversion to endings, Vietti’s relative inexperience with original storytelling, Cartoon Network’s infamously awful treatment of “less marketable” PG-rated series, and executive mandates from DC Comics as they pivoted to push the New 52 and got increasingly spooked by the astronomic rise of the early MCU inevitably destined to force changes which undercut the narrative.  The only answer we’re going to get is that we’re not going to get an answer.

But, you know what?

Despite everything, as frustrating and disheartening as things may have turned out… Young Justice Season One is STILL really good.   It has a distinct creative verve with its combination of espionage-meets-superheroics, grounded-but-still-positive tone, character-focus and interwoven plot threads that pay off as a remarkably self-contained fair mystery.  There is a reason why Season 1 is so enduring; why people still make art, and write fic and reference those characters even now.

So, to that original team; to Michael Chang, Jay Oliva and all the other creative staff - be they writers, directors, story-boarders, animators, colourists, composers, sound designers - who are so rarely mentioned when we gush about how clever and good Season 1 was: thank you for what you gave us.

Because that first season, when Young Justice was just trying to be itself?

It really was lighting in a bottle.

Hats off to them for that.