#also; if you really dislike a character and would just like to vent about them; please tag it appropriately with an anti- tag!

[thevalleyisjolly]

I think part of what troubles me about the opinion that Maglor and Maedhros were the “best” people to raise Elrond and Elros is that many (though not all) such interpretations often refer to fanon interpretations as if they were canon.  Which there’s nothing wrong with enjoying fanon!  But when popular fanon starts being treated as a definitive canon and subsequently starts being used as a lens for textual interpretation and engagement (and in some extreme cases, an excuse for bashing other characters), that’s when it gets a little eyebrow-raising. 

So in this post, I’m going to examine some of the more common fanon beliefs and headcanons around Maglor and Maedhros as parental figures/guardians to Elros and Elrond.  The point is not to debunk them and say that you cannot interpret the texts this way or enjoy them as a fan reading.  Indeed, if there was no textual or analytical basis for these headcanons altogether, they would not exist.  Neither is this meant to bash anyone.  Rather, I’d like to show that many of the assumptions we hold are nowhere near as solid or definitive as they sometimes seem to be, and that there is in fact room for a plurality of different headcanons and readings to coexist without elevating one over the other.

1. Maedhros and Maglor were both involved in Elros and Elrond’s upbringing.

As the wealth of Kidnap Fam content demonstrates, this is a very common headcanon.  However, let’s look at what the Silmarillion says.  Bolding is mine for emphasis.

For Maglor took pity upon Elros and Elrond, and he cherished them, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maglor’s heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

Nowhere is Maedhros mentioned.  He is mentioned in the version of the story included in The Fall of Gondolin, where the passage instead reads:

For Maidros took pity on Elrond, and he cherished him, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maidros’ heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath. (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”)

Christopher Tolkien’s commentary directly interjects after this to observe that the passage was rewritten to be the version in the published Silmarillion, which is an interesting distinction to make when the entire version of the story it comes from is very different from the one in the Silmarillion; it is also worth noting that apart from changing which Son of Fëanor it was, Tolkien kept this passage nearly verbatim in the Silmarillion.

Maedhros is also mentioned in the preceding chapter, in Tolkien’s sketch of the mythology, with the line:

Their [Eärendel and Elwing] son Elrond who is part mortal and part elven, a child, was saved however by Maidros. (”The Conclusion of the Sketch of the Mythology”)

So yes, there was once a version of the story in which Maedhros was the one who spared Elrond (Elros did not yet exist, at least not as Elrond’s brother, at this point in Tolkien’s thinking).  This version of the story differs quite significantly from the published version in the Silmarillion; as Christopher Tolkien comments, the Silmarils were of much less significance and had differing fates (Beren and Lúthien’s Silmaril was lost in the Sea after Elwing threw it in, Maglor threw another into a fiery pit, and the third was taken from Morgoth’s crown and launched into the outer darkness by Eärendil).  Also notably, Eärendil does not intercede on behalf of Middle-earth before the Valar.

Of course, being a Tolkien fan pretty much entails picking and choosing which bits of the Legendarium you like.  If you want to take Tolkien’s original thinking that it was Maedhros rather than Maglor who cherished Elrond and Elros, and mix that with the more common version of events in the Silmarillion, go wild.  You can say that the narrator is unreliable, that it makes logical sense for Maedhros to be involved, or that it’s simply more fun to imagine domestic shenanigans with the last two Sons of Fëanor.  But there’s a difference between blending versions of the story as your own personal headcanon, and asserting that headcanon as the one true fanon.

It is also interesting to observe that at no point are both brothers mentioned in relation to Elrond and Elros; it is either Maglor or Maedhros.  The version in The Fall of Gondolin has Maglor sitting by the Sea and singing in regret after the Third Kinslaying while Maidros saves Elrond; in the Silmarillion, it is only Maglor who takes pity on Elrond and Elros.

2. No one else cared about Elros and Elrond; only Maedhros and Maglor did.

Very explicitly in The Silmarillion, “Great was the sorrow of Eärendil and Elwing for the ruin of the havens of Sirion, and the captivity of their sons, and they feared that they would be slain...” (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”).  But we also read:

Too late the ships of Círdan and Gil-galad the High King came hasting to the aid of the Elves of Sirion; and Elwing was gone, and her sons.  Then such few of that people as did not perish in the assault joined themselves to Gil-galad, and went with him to Balar; and they told that Elros and Elrond were taken captive, but Elwing with the Silmaril upon her breast had cast herself into the sea. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

Again, bolding is mine for emphasis.

What we see in the Silm version of the story is that 1) when Sirion was attacked, Círdan and Gil-galad raced to help but were too late, 2) a very large percentage of the population of Sirion died in the Kinslaying, and 3) those who survived reported that Elros and Elrond had been taken captive.  That’s it. 

True, there is no mention of any rescue attempts or negotiations, but there also isn’t mention of anything else because at this point, the narrative returns to Eärendil.  Which makes sense, because the voyage of Eärendil is the whole entire point of the chapter, and arguably the climax of the version of the narrative that’s in The Silmarillion.  It’s not “Of the Captivity of Elros and Elrond,” or “Of the Third Kinslaying,” the main focal point of the story is Eärendil sailing to Aman and pleading for all the people of Middle-earth.

There’s also another version of this story in The Fall of Gondolin, where we read:

...but the folk of Sirion perished or fled away, or departed of need to join the people of Maidros, who claimed now the lordship of all the Elves of the Hither Lands. (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Noldorwa”)

In this version, the survivors do not go to Gil-Galad, but either flee or join Maedhros who now claims lordship of all the Elves.  If you go by this story, then there really is very little possibility of a rescue, since 1) Maedhros is now the most powerful lord among the Elves and claims authority over all who are left, where would they even go if they got away, and 2) it would therefore be a betrayal to stand against or attack one’s lord.  It also opens up the possibility that Elrond (this is the version without Elros) had other survivors of Sirion around him while he was a captive, and was therefore not alone.

What all this means though is that we can headcanon whatever we like regarding what happens in Beleriand during this time, but we really don’t have enough information to definitively say what did or did not happen.  And what information we do have in The Silmarillion at least suggests that Círdan and Gil-galad cared about the people of Sirion and tried to help them, and also that the people of Sirion were not in great shape to be mounting any sort of attack on Maedhros and Maglor.

Also, just because someone who survives a horrifically traumatic mass murder which killed nearly everyone they knew does not immediately go out and fight for the well-being of other survivors, it does not therefore mean that they don’t care about them or that they care less than the perpetrators.

3. Maglor raised Elros and Elrond to adulthood.

This is another one of those instances where the absence of evidence does not make a positive.  We don’t actually know for certain how long Elros and Elrond were with Maglor.  In the early letter where Elros and Elrond are found in a cave, it is implied there that they were left there by the sons of Fëanor after they were taken captive, and later found by other, unspecified Elves.  In another version, in The Fall of Gondolin, it reads:

Yet not all would forsake the Outer Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an Age in the West and North, and especially in the western isles.  And among these were Maglor as has been told; and with him Elrond Half-elven, who after went among mortal Men again... (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”)

This is also the version of the story where Elros does not exist and it is “from [Elrond] alone the blood of the Firstborn and the seed divine of Valinor have come among Mankind” (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”). 

Then there’s also this which Elrond says in Fellowship of the Ring:

Thereupon Elrond paused a while and sighed. ‘I remember well the splendour of their banners,’ he said. ‘It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.’ (”The Council of Elrond”)

What we see is that Elrond, at least, witnessed the end of the War of Wrath, including the breaking of Thangorodrim.  Then there is this passage from the Silmarillion:

Of the march of the host of the Valar to the north of Middle-earth little is said in any tale; for among them went none of those Elves who had dwelt and suffered in the Hither Lands, and who made the histories of those days that still are known; and tidings of these things they only learned long afterwards from their kinsfolk in Aman. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

In most versions of the story, the Elves who lived in Beleriand took part in the major conflicts of the War of Wrath.  Men do -“And such few as were left of the three houses of the Elf-friends, Fathers of Men, fought upon the part of the Valar...” (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)- but very clearly no Elves.  So Maedhros and Maglor did not participate in or witness the main battles of the War of Wrath, but according to Lord of the Rings (which I would argue holds the “most canonical” status over every other text in the Legendarium) Elrond was there to remember firsthand, if not take part in, major events in the War, suggesting that they were no longer together at that point (which does not preclude Elrond returning to them afterwards, though it would be a very tight timetable with the Fourth Kinslaying).

Returning to the original point, Elros and Elrond could very well have stayed with Maglor until they were grown, even up to and beyond the Choice.  They could equally have left Maglor and Maedhros at any point, or Maglor could have left them with their other kin.  Tolkien changed his mind a lot about the details of the end of the First Age!  There are a good number of different canons, to say nothing of opportunities for different headcanons. 

4. Elros and Elrond turned out to be great people which is all down to Maglor (and Maedhros)’s childrearing (and therefore they were the best possible people to raise them).

Hear the sound of that old familiar bell ringing again?  Absence of evidence one way does not mean that another way is automatically true!  We actually don’t have any information at all about how Maglor brought them up, only that emotionally, there was some element of mutual love in the relationship.  We don’t know for certain how long Elros and Elrond were with Maglor (a few months? a few years? all the way to adulthood?) and we don’t know how or what sort of things Maglor taught them or to what degree they absorbed those lessons.

Yes, Elros and Elrond became great people.  But there is simply too great a gap of information to correlate (either positively or negatively) all their future deeds and character to Maglor (and/or Maedhros)’s upbringing.  Not to mention, people are not only the products of the people who raised them.  So many people influence us on a daily basis, from friends to coworkers to enemies.  While Maglor (and Maedhros) doubtless did have an influence on how E&E grew up and who they became, it seems a little reductive to credit them as the defining factor in Elros and Elrond’s morality or greatness, when both of them (E&E) lived very long lives for their respective fates and met many people and experienced many things.

Narrative Analysis: What’s this about themes?

Textual analysis aside, there’s one other factor which I think is missing in a lot of these discussions, which is genre.  The Legendarium is full of tragedy.  Good people make bad decisions, or suffer (often unjustly) the consequences of another person’s decisions.  People are placed in terrible situations where there is no “good” or “right” decision, where anything they choose has tragic consequences.  Sometimes people make decisions believing that it is justified or for good, only to discover that it was very much the opposite.  Sometimes people know that what they are choosing will hurt them or others, but for one or many reasons, they do it anyways.

The point being that many of the characters Tolkien wrote are purposefully nuanced and tragic.  Yes, there’s a Dark Lord and some very terrifying spiders who are unequivocally evil, but otherwise, nearly every character is some shade of grey.  Characters make decisions with both positive and negative consequences; they exist simultaneously as figures of both heroism and antagonism.  In short, they’re complex!  That’s why they’re so compelling and enjoyable!

So why set up a dichotomy of “So and so is better than so and so”?  Rather than pitting the sons of Fëanor as “the best” in comparison to other characters, why not embrace the complexity of the narrative? 

In order to save the entire world, Eärendil and Elwing had to leave their young children forever.  They could have decided to go back and try to rescue their children, and in doing so they would have also doomed the entire world.  Whatever they chose, someone would suffer for it.  It’s a question that we see explored a lot in fiction but which most of us will never have to confront ourselves: if you were in a position where you had to choose between your loved ones and the fate of the world, which would you choose?

Maglor, a character who has acted almost exclusively as a follower throughout most of the narrative, for once realized the consequences of his actions and, crucially, took active responsibility by caring for and cherishing the children he kidnapped.  It does not absolve him of responsibility for the Kinslayings because children are not tools to redeem the adult figures in their lives, and in any case, it is a fruitless pursuit to attempt to moralize fictional characters existing in a very particular setting and narrative.  However, it is a significant moment in his character arc, especially as we afterwards see him begin to openly contradict and disagree with Maedhros, multiple times within the same chapter after being a relatively silent follower throughout the narrative.  Which makes it all the more tragic later when he slays the guards with Maedhros and steals the Silmarils because we know now that he did not want to, that he might have chosen differently, but ultimately he did not.

Maedhros knew that the kinslayings were wrong and repented of them, and did not attack Sirion for many years.  However, he still did it in the end.  *mumbles in V for Vendetta “I have not come for what you hoped to do, I have come for what you did do”* He did not kill Elrond and Elros, and in some early versions of the story, was indeed the one to save them rather than Maglor.  He also continued to kill in the name of the Oath.  Rather than isolating any one of these things as proof of goodness or badness, all of them work together as part of his tragic figure - a prince, once great, with good intentions, who has fallen to such a point in his life that all he can see around him anymore is death and despair.

(On a side note, Maedhros-Hamlet AU when)

Elros and Elrond were young children who survived a horrifically traumatic event.  They were able to develop some sort of loving relationship with Maglor (or Maedhros), and as adults, they took pride in Eärendil and Elwing as their parents.  Rather than pitting Maglor against Eärendil and Elwing, is it not more important that amidst the apocalyptic horrors of late First Age Beleriand, Elros and Elrond had adult figures in their lives who loved them and cherished them, both before and after the Kinslaying?  Love is not the only important thing in the world, of course, and it is not meant to justify any of the actions taken by the aforementioned adults.  But.  Amidst the tragedy of the broken world they lived in, they were loved. 

Summary: Headcanons are great and can co-exist with each other

Not to belabour the point, but there is really so much we do not know about the end of the First Age.  Tolkien changed and developed his thoughts on his world throughout his life, and even with what he did set down in writing, there are plenty of gaps where we can only guess.  That’s part of what makes the Legendarium so fun to engage with as readers!

With all that in mind, there’s nothing wrong with having a preferred version of the story or a favourite set of headcanons, so long as we acknowledge that they are not the only way to engage with the text.  Furthermore, fiction and fan engagement is not meant to be about the moral high ground.  Especially with the complex characters and world that Tolkien created, you don’t need to put down other characters or narratives in order to justify your preferred reading.  It’s First Age Beleriand!  To modify a parlance from Reddit, Everyone Sucks At Least a Little Bit Here.  Characters can have good intentions with tragic consequences, make bad decisions but have some good come out of it nonetheless, or do things which have both positive and negative impacts.

Eärendil and Elwing do not need to be horrible or unfit parents in order for Maglor and/or Maedhros to genuinely pity and cherish Elros and Elrond.  Those are separate relationships with no correlation.  And none of them need to be perfect parental figures in order for Elros and Elrond to have real loving relationships with all of them.  It’s not a competition for who can “best” raise Elros and Elrond or who loves them “the most.”  You can love Maglor and Maedhros as good parents!  There’s just no need to go putting anyone else down, or to treat it as the one definitive interpretation of the characters and the story.

[basilbots]

That's it? That's the conclusion for these characters? That was just retroactively making multiple arcs feel pointless.

So they killed Nexus. Not really a surprise, but not any less disappointing. We have Nexus' entire story now, and it is extremely unsatisfying, New Moon having so much promise and an interesting direction for his character only for that same character to be quickly assassinated for the sake of Old Moon returning. Full rant undercut. Primarily making this just to vent out a lot (but not all because there's too much to talk about) of my feelings regarding Nexus.

Let's start with just New Moon, I'm going to admit I did not like the concept of him first. But not actually because I disliked NM as a character, but because Old Moon's death bothered me. It felt like OM was so bad that they didn't want to go through the effort of having him improve, so he was killed off instead so he didn't have to do any of that, escaping responsibility. We'll get back to that point later. However NM itself was fun, and I especially enjoyed seeing all the struggles that came from OM's existence how it influenced his relationship with Sun how NM tried so hard to not be like him while also having to fill that role.

And then Solar died, and New Moon spiraled in his grief. He was devastated, he felt like he had to fix it, nightmares and hallucinations prevented him from moving on, and he understandably lashed out at the others when they tried to stop him for a reason that boiled down to "but killing is bad though". Let it be clear that yes yelling at his family was bad and hurt them, but painful arguments in family esp when fueled by grief like this is a normal thing, and tbh nothing NM said was worse than things OM had done not out of grief but just out of anger. Which makes the fact this was treated as a huge deal that meant NM was being cut out of the family for worrying, and later on EXTREMELY worrying when they pushed the idea of KILLING him. What the fuck. For what, because he was Planning on doing something morally grey that Unintentionally could have greater spanning consequences? You can't just stop him normally we have multiple characters pushing for murder when we just established that murder is bad? This whole execution of NM being terrible and so big a threat that killing him was on the table is so forced and rushed, I hoped it was just a fumble of an execution to get to Nexus who would have a better arc, but now I can't help but feel that they were just trying to get rid of NM regardless of if it made sense. Because at this point he hadn't really done anything to warrant this, not up until the last moment when he didn't care about Earth being in the line of fire, which we immediately see him regretting in the next ep until Dark Sun comes along and any regret has "mysteriously" vanished.

Dark Sun is a great example of Nexus' development being littered with hints that things are not as they seem and that Nexus' downward spiral is being influenced by something,,, which never gets seriously addressed as to why Nexus happened. From the start NM's descent is called sudden and extreme, we see Dark Sun obviously manipulate the situation to make this all happen, we see Nexus' head literally being messed with by Dark Sun, Nexus starts messing with a power known to be corrupting, etc. Is any of this ever treated as a potential reason or Nexus' behavior? Nope! He's just evil sorry. We shot down the idea of a virus or Rex infecting him while pointedly ignoring nsp potentially affecting his mental state or Dark Sun clearly manipulating him. Let's just ignore how much this switch up doesn't make sense because we need to make Nexus feel irredeemable and that he did all this himself for Old Moon to come back.

Because oh yeah Old Moon came and even though he sucks he became the better option even before Nexus did anything because ??? it's been a long time so we have all forgotten how bad you were. Mr beats his brother regularly, literally threatened to murder Sun for not being able to control Eclipse, last moments with Sun was trapping him in a box and wrecking his mental state further. Yeah that guy has been treated as better than New Moon ever since NM yelled at Sun and Earth y'know when he had barely done shit. The point I made about how I felt like Old Moon's death was a way for him to get out of improving himself? Yeah that's validated now, because OM is successfully doing that even more egregiously than I feared originally. He literally got to swoop in as the better option not because he had actually improved himself, but because time has made us forget how bad he was and Nexus is being cartoonishly evil in comparison. I hate this. And now with Nexus dead and Old Moon for sure staying around I can't help but feel like New Moon's existence was,,, pointless. A year's worth of character development from one of our main protagonists down the drain because it was all just a buffer of NM doing the work of improving as a brother for OM. New Moon's gone and Old Moon has taken his place as totally improved Moon brother, but we've swapped out the identity struggle with NM to OM failing to not be a dick to Sun multiple times. But this has yet to be addressed because it's small potatoes and unlike with Nexus he's only doing this to Sun so who cares right? I would say New Moon's personal issues also end up never addressed, but they do actually! All of his fears regarding his place in the family came true, but he's dead so who is going to talk about that now.

I could go on about how much Nexus did not do enough to earn his death, that having Nexus' main targets being Ruin and Old Moon while he didn't hurt his family nearly as much did the opposite of make him feel irredeemable, that Moon being the main protagonist pushing for Nexus to die while everyone else had conflicted feelings did not make me cheer for Moon it made me want to see Sun punch him, but I'm going to refrain and focus on how Nexus' being dead and gone ruins arcs for me. So New Moon was pointless and just a set up to make Old Moon look better when he came back, but surely Nexus did something for Dark Sun's plans? ... Dark Sun didn't have any plan beyond making Sun kill Nexus, and left with an air of finality that even for a chronic liar makes me doubt he'll come back in the capacity I want him to? Oh. So the Nexus arc didn't have a point either, and Dark Sun feels lackluster if this was really it. Nexus was just a spare Moon for Sun to kill against his will, and since Dark Sun doesn't seem interested in using that as a way to personally manipulate Sun further into hating Moon's or anything like that Sun is just going to be sad he killed his brother… Just like he was when Old Moon originally died. If I were to be extremely pessimistic and oversimplifying things I'd say this just further proves New Moon shouldn't have been a thing at all, they should have just waited a bit for OM to be revived after he died to have this same effect with Sun mourning.

The thing that will (just barely) save New Moon/Nexus for me, the thing I wanted to wait to see the follow up for (before I realized this rant was too long already and got impatient), is how his death personally affects the characters. All of them. He needs to haunt the narrative for the rest of the story just like Old Moon was doing. Nexus was not just an antagonist, he was not just the obligatory villain of the arc that got fumbled as has happened before, he was our main character for a year, he was their brother for a year, and he should be remembered as such. The family should remember their young brother that they failed (because they do admit they made mistakes with Nexus even if it wasn't the leading cause to his fall) who will never come back, and he should not be completely forgotten in a months time just because Old Moon is here to be the good Moon brother now and Nexus died a villain. If no one cares to remember him, who he was, then what was the point of him?

[l-in-the-light]

Facing your own abyss in Silent Hill 2

Every save point is a red square. Looking at it is painful it's like... someone's... groping around my skull. Every hole James jumps into...

...is a square. The tv at the big reveal is an old crt one with a square screen.

Even the bathroom's mirror at the very beginning of the game is a square. Who cares about a bathroom's mirror, right? But the whole game starts with James staring at himself, into that mirror. He's staring at himself. Staring into the abyss. His mind is his own abyss. We've been looking at it the whole time, from the very start of the game.

"He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into himself. The truth can only be learned by marching forward."

James starts the game by staring at himself. He's not afraid of death. He thinks he wants to find out the truth, because things don't make sense to him, he can't understand anything, but he feels something is wrong.

But at the last save point, James looks away from the abyss. He was not ready to find out everything. He doesn't want to look into himself even deeper. He's afraid of what he can find. Please stop staring at me, I don't want for you to look into myself. I don't want to see any more.

A hot take: there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes it might be better not to stare too long. Heck, it takes so much courage to do that. Many, many people would rather continue their lives by holding false ideas about oneself, choosing safety over feeling uncomfortable. It's a very human thing to do. Just sometimes you don't get that choice and you can't live normally unless you not only stare back, but also jump right into that abyss. It will be terrifying, you might find things you wish you never knew, you might find out nothing of what happened to you was ever your fault, but it won't make you feel any better anyway. It's when you're at your limit that you're literally forced to face it, when you buried what made you uncomfortable so deep that you feel overwhelmed and numbed, and you don't even understand why - because you hid the reasons. Or you can just run away. Some would prefer death over the truth.

This can happen because of our mental health crashing down. Unresolved traumas, feelings, belittling our own pain, trying to fit a circle into a square hole, unbelonging.

Ultimately, it doesn't even matter what is James' personal struggle, because anyone can relate to this in some ways. You can't escape abyss for forever, we've all been there and we all will be jumping into abyss again, and again.

But this has to be said, I'm sorry not sorry:

Sometimes you will get lost in your abyss to the point you will project your own issues on other people. It's a way to make you feel more secure, safe, when you tripped over some uncomfortable truth. Because you normalize it and it can't be overwhelming anymore if everyone can relate to it, in other words: you try to belittle the problem so that the "uncomfortable feeling" goes away. It becomes normal, familiar, tamed, nothing to be afraid of as the result. But is it really fair towards the people you did the projecting on? You're not helping them or respecting them if you just throw your own issues at them like that. And this applies to Silent Hill fandom as a whole, actually, because:

Every Silent Hill game (even the bad ones, even freaking Ascension) and movie: *shows clearly that the story is about PTSD, characters suffer from symptoms and hallucinations, are triggered by sounds, suffer from victim blaming etc.*

Every second fan on reddit: James is just sexually frustrated, he doesn't have any trauma, and even if he has one it doesn't matter, what are you talking about?! You're reaching! Everything is horny and sexy in this game, my interpretation is CANON! The town is evil and it punishes James and Eddie because they're bad people! Angela did a bad thing but didn't deserve it btw.

This is mostly me venting a bit, feel free to dislike it, but I need to get it off somewhere and I decided: tumblr it is.

Like, literally, all Silent Hill series entries share a theme of PTSD, but some people will go to extreme lengths to deny it and call it "reaching" WHILE saying "sexual frustration is canon". Alessa suffers from PTSD in SH1, James, Eddie and Angela suffer from it in SH2, freaking Heather, Claudia and even Douglas suffers from it in SH3, Henry and Walter in Silent Hill 4, Travis in Origins, Alessa in the movie, Heather in the movie, Cheryl in Shattered Memories (she's even in a therapy, come on, get a clue!), Alex in Homecoming, Murphy in Downpour etc. etc. etc. They all went through a trauma, Silent Hill reflects their traumatic experiences (that they don't want to remember!), they have to face their triggers putting them through the traumatic event again and again, and then delusions attemping to lull the mind into a fake sense of comfort. Their monsters are the delusions, not their horny desires!

Btw if you see your monsters as horny creatures, then maybe you're understanding it all wrong. It's supposed to be a delusion or fear, if you're horny and just want to hump things and that's why everything you see is sexy, then it's definiely not something you actually fear, and if it is, then I think you have bigger issues to deal with than sexual frustration here.

That being said, the creature monster designer, Masahiro Ito, called those monsters "delusions". Delusion is something that isn't an accurate representation of a concept in your mind. Delusion is far removed from reality. You want to believe a lie, because you can't handle the truth.

Now, if monsters are showing your sexual frustration that you don't want to admit you have, then they should be dressed like nuns instead. You want to deceive your mind, you want to believe you're not *that* horny and are faithful to your one and only, you can't handle the possibility that you're thinking of having an affair on the side.

Let's unpack this monster (Abstract Daddy/Ideal Father), having all of the above in mind:

It's a surreal creature consisting of two people, it has two heads and two mouths. And it's not literally showing intercourse like so many in "sexual frustration is canon" camp are claiming. Because that would be *a literal representation*, not a delusion. You would literally be seeing what happened, forcing you to face it in it's full horror and that can't make you believe in a lie (remember, the idea is that: you can't handle the truth, your mind is creating a delusion to calm you down). It's a self-defense mechanism fighting back against the trauma. You need to get rid of that delusion so you can face what actually happened!

There's one more description of Abstract Daddy in Japanese that is never truly translated into english. It's おぶさったとおちゃん (obusatta tōchan), loosely it means something like "piggyback daddy"; a dad carrying a child on their shoulders/back. Now look at the creature again. It looks like a smaller person is clinging to a bigger one, if you consider that the whole frame belongs to the person on the bottom and is "their body". Perhaps the door/bedframe person is carrying the smaller one on top of itself, but since the child is heavy/older now the frame ends up bending towards the ground. It's an image of a dad carrying his child.

Kinda like this (Inu Yasha is here just to illustrate the concept). That's why the limbs are hanging loosely like that on the monster's design.

Wait a moment, but why is the frame so big under the top person? It doesn't look like part of a body at all. That's because of the subjective perspective. When you're a small child, your dad looks especially big to you. When you cling to his back, you feel like it's so broad, strong and big; so big your hands won't meet when you embrace him. And most importantly, makes you feel safe and secure, because a father should protect his child. I could swear I even read lines like that in mangas or heard them in movies before, because that's definitely not my own impression there I thought up on my very own.

In order to see the truth that your parent was an abuser, you need to get rid of that "safe and secure" feeling of delusion you're experiencing. The monster is wrapped in cloth btw to obscure the truth, what you see on the surface is incorrect, the truth is trapped underneath (and if you want to, then NOW is the moment to jump to your intercourse thoughts or draw a parallel to Mary on sickbed. Let's call it an extra layer to this monster). Literally uncovering it would be the very definition of a horror.

Extra thought: the monster attacks James like it wants to protect Angela from the possible stranger (what an Ideal Father should do, indeed). Makes the whole scene afterwards have a lot more sense too, with Angela calling James a disgusting pig who is also only after "one thing". She considered James a threat, but it wasn't a conscious fear until the defeat of the monster. Next time they will meet, Angela starts to mistake James as her mom instead, so the whole paranoid delusion of James being a threat (because he's a male and males became her PTSD trigger) got dissolved and it's the result of Abstract Daddy's defeat. Angela now knows who was the real threat.

Finally, after 10+ years I solved the mystery of Abstract Daddy. You're welcome if you enjoyed the ride. I don't even like this monster's design all that much (I find Mandarins way cooler). But this isn't the end. If Abstract Daddy is a delusion, it means all the other monsters are also delusions and HIDE the truth, not "expose" or "manifest" it in straightforward manner. Only getting rid of them by unwrapping the actual thing underneath will lead you towards truth, believing the surface level will leave you delusional. There's still a lot to unwrap about the 9 delusions of James.

Yes, Abstract Daddy is how the monster looks like for James. We never knew how it looked like for Angela. Just the name alone suggests James has some trauma related to his father as well, which is a link that connects James to Angela.

And you know what, it's fine if you thought all this time that James is just sexually frustrated. I don't know how you can explain to yourself the fact that he needs to fight the sexy creatures instead of being overjoyed he can "'get some" finally. I thought that's how touch starvation works? But even if you somehow projected your own fears onto James it's alright. You just caught a glimpse of your own abyss and maybe you're not yet ready to stare back at it. We all keep doing those mistakes. It's just human.

Yes, of course me too. Why else do you think it took me 10+ years to solve this mystery? And it's only a start of it, we barely made it under the surface of this iceberg. But I feel like most Silent Hill fans aren't even remotely interested in any interpretation that opposes "sexual frustration" angle, especially now after Masahiro Ito denied that's it's not a canon interpretation, yeeting it back to "headcanon" category where it always belonged.

Yes, sexual themes are there in the game to make you uncomfortable, but if you know the sources of inspiration (Jung), then you know the uncomfortable levels get much deeper than your post-pandemic touch starvation. Maybe you're not ready or not interested to go that far and it's alright. I'm actually not so sure I'm ready to face the deepest depths of James's abyss myself. It both fascinates and terrifies me. We might have to go full Lynch on Silent Hill 2 and realize that nothing is what it actually seems.

Link to my previous interpretation essay on Silent Hill 2, in case anyone is interested (it's about merging of Otherworlds): https://www.tumblr.com/l-in-the-light/765829615005597696.

[impactedfates]

hola mijo 💓puedes hacer the tall males as dads? like for example welt, blade, jing yuan, luocha, dan heng i wish i could argenti to this list 🥰 but he not out yet so hottie okay gracias 🐾☝

★ A/N: Hola!! Yes I can :)) We all love a father figure right?

☆ Genre/Trope: Platonic + Familial

★ Format: HeadCannons (Separate)

☆ Warnings: None

★ Extra: Just HCs of the HSR men as dads, you can view yourself as their child or as their lover // I only did the characters that you've stated in the request excluding Argenti // Not proofread

Welt as a dad is a 10/10. He would be so supportive no matter what you'd want to be. He has his own child back in his actual universe after all and takes care of him so well.

He's the type to proudly show those messy drawings his kid makes to his friends and act like his kid is the next Pablo Pacasso even if all they drew was a stick figure.

He also wants you to try new things but he won't force you if you truly don't want too, all in all. Welts such a sweet and supportive dad <33

Blade as a father? Now I wouldn't say he's the worst but he's not the best either. Biological or not, if he was tasked to take care of a kid, he will. He may not understand much about how to be a good father he manages to keep them fed, clothes ect. And with the help of the other Stellaron Hunters they're taken care of well

.

.

.

Except when it comes to affection. He'll try his best but his job makes it hard for him to really be home and hang out with his kid, not to mention he still has that want to die. He's emotionally unavailable most of the time. He's trying his best but he won't be much good if someone were to want to vent to him (Sorry!)

He can also sound harsh in some of his words and the kid may not get the message he's trying to convey! He may say something he sees as positive but his tone and what not makes it seem harsh.

Overall? 7.5/10 as a father

Jing Yuan I think is also a great father! Though like Blade, his job does make him unavailable most of the time. Especially since he's a General.

BUT, we both know this man would drop anything if his kid were to message/call or anything of the source of they were in trouble. Even if it was to just make a complaint about the babysitter he hired to take care of his kid.

He does everything he should to ensure his kid is loved and taken care of, and sure he may not have as much time as he'd like to spend time with his kid, he tries his best.

As a father, I'd give him a 9.5/10.

I'm unsure what Luochas thoughts on about taking care of kids in all honesty. As a doctor himself, he is aware of the cycle of life but whether or not he wishes to be apart of helping the kid grow up is unknown.

I don't think he'd have any adopted kids or something like that, however if he were to get someone pregnant he wouldn't leave them. He was a factor in how the baby was made and if the other person wishes to give birth to said kid then he'll help.

He's not a distant father per say, maybe strict but he doesn't mean to come out as harsh. He does everything a father should do and encourages his kid to study and all. He's not the most amazing father to have, honestly his kids probably prefer their other parent over him (Unless they left him and he became a single father)

All in all, while he may not be the best father he's not the worst and probably is just your average dad. 8/10

I love Dan Heng so much if you didn't know (I say as if my tumblr theme isn't Dan Heng) and this isn't even a bias but I do think he'd be a good father.

He's so worried he won't be but he really is. He remembers everything his kid likes and dislikes and applies it when he's cooking or buying something in general. He won't force his kid to do anything they don't want and will help them study.

He'd be proud of his kids, even if their grades are bad. To him, as long as they tried that's all he cares about. He may struggle with showing his care towards them, however it's easy to see he's trying.

If I had to choose out of all the male cast who I think would be the best dad? Probably Welt. I mean from what I know he already has the experience with kids and now he's taking care of 3 more (4 if you wanna count Pom Pom)...but also it's funny to call him Grandpa instead-

[chaifootsteps]

chai, I got into an argument on tiktok about helluva boss

so it starts off seeing a video take of OP explaining haters creating standards what not to see in certain fandoms and this would backfire on said haters when their own standards don't meet a newer rules of your own fandoms. basically don't hate or bully too much. then I saw a comment from a hh fan stating this is the same for helluva boss anytime people criticised its story and the harmful topics it presented. they're the so called haters. personally I thought that's not entirely true. so I just replied the basic criteria hh quips like how stolas is problematic and stuff and it's also the diehard fans that's ruining the fandom.

and they replied I can personally dislike things without hating it (which is impossible) and I shouldn't bother the fans with my criticism or not watching helluva boss properly to know how great it is. and also shouldn't indulge in the cringe culture cus that's one of the so call reason people hate helluva. so I said I was actually an ex helluva fan but then I matured to finally realise stolitz is garbage and I threw in that the whole show is cringe.

then the fan retorts back that I'm a hypocrite and a hater that the video OP stated. and then they sarcastically congratulate me for maturing to notice the hh bad writing. (I checked their bio and their age is 33. I'm a decade younger than them wtf)

I was like... damn I really don't learn my lesson to engage these type of hh discourse on social media. the same thing happened when I wrote a simple stolas criticism under a yt hh video called "how hell society ruins imps" (if you remember I was the same anon who vent you about this) and the youtuber pulled out a 4 paragraph essay that I was wrong and stolas is a likable character.

but at the same time, was the fan right about me being a hypocritical hater? like I all said was helluva boss has bad writing and they immediately blow off on me. like I'm sorry I'm not riding hard on viv's dick and licking her shoes for her amazing animations and storytelling. honestly tiktok discourse is becoming worse as twitter.

Nah, sounds like you were justified. You can't reason with some of these people, because they take any amount of criticism towards their favorite show as "You're a bad person and you don't deserve to have feet."

[cynthiav06]

Do you think there are insanely few couples with Percy in this fandom? Characters that are well thought out and have a backstory. For example, Rachel and Percy are an interesting dynamic and a repetition of the Theseus myth with a different end to the story. Or Percy and Michael Yu (Apollo's son who fell off the bridge) It would be interesting if he survived: Percy feeling guilty for the fall, and Michael comforting him. Or Will and Percy, where both feel the guilt of the survivor (Will is the doctor, and Percy is the commander and leader), or the same Percy and Nico with their story and attempts to talk. Percy and Ethan would be a real pain in the ass with a story and explanations. But they don't nominate them as a couple? Like Pernico, they can be found, but everything else? Will's only fanfiction/The Percy I found was the one where he cheated on Apollo with Will, and Will cheated on Nico with Percy. And I really can't stand cheating.

It's a general problem in the fandom, especially prominent in Percy ships, which is that there are very few of them, and it is made to seem that liking any Percy ship other than Percabeth is taboo. It's only recently that there's an influx in other ships, and even that is miniscule in comparison to the excessive Percabeth fic pool . I know how bloody frustrating that is. For a good amount of time, I have vented over that.

Another problem along the same lines is fanart. There's extremely little fanart on any other Percy ships barring Percabeth. This has created a very toxic sort of environment in the fandom for alternative shippings. It also discourages people from making other fanarts and fanfics due to certain toxic Percabeth fans. ( I am not saying all just most of them). Hence why you won't see much material on most of the ships you have mentioned.

I think the fandom has forgotten that people can ship whoever they want, canon or otherwise, and that's the point of a fandom. We are allowed to disagree with the canon and dislike cause in the end books are subjective and we can choose to like and prefer whatever interests us as a reader and there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT! Especially to Percabeth stans and recently Solangelo stans, you have your ship, no need to force it on everyone else, sure you can make points about why it's good or why people should like it but that doesn't mean have to or should.

You can dislike a ship and even express why you dislike it, but you can't tell people what they can and can't like. Just give your opinion, try not to be negative or offensive , just stick to the facts and objective reasons why you dislike it or just say it's a personal preference .

I personally generally either favor Perachel or Percy with no romantic partner. But I have read and seen some other Percy ship fanfics.

Perpollo and Pernico are kind of popular and I have read some fanfics of that category though Pernico's popularity suffered greatly due to Solangelo stans as such and some other opinions. (I have covered my thoughts on both Solangelo and Pernico in an old post of mine so check that out if you want).

Other alternative Percy ships I have seen mostly are Percy/Jason or Jercy. I kind of like where thea are going with it cause I really liked Percy and Jason's this odd but very unique dynamic they have and I really wanted it explored more but after the events in HoO and TOA and what happened to Jason( I refuse to accept it still due to no actually compelling and necessary reason behind it plot wise or character development wise), I kind of gave up on it. I really thought Rick Riordan would flesh their dynamic out more thoroughly other than whatever misguided rivalry he was trying to stoke between them. (Let's just agree that despite minor envy they might harbor for each other, they have much higher respect and admiration between them).

There's I think a few who consistently ship Percy and Artemis I think? Which I really thought was very contradictory and just simply not viable in canon or by fanfic cause Artemis is a maiden goddess.

There's Perclarisee which I mean I am neutral on it. I can see what it's based on but I actually liked Clarisse with Chris and I kind of thought of them better of as good friends who bicker a lot( I have a post on Perclarisse as well).

I once made the mistake of searching all Percy ships on ao3. It's safe to say I will never be doing that again ever. The absurd and deranged pairings I saw. Not even bleach will get that out of my eyes or mind.

As for Michael Yew, I am not sure about a romantic pairing of him and Percy, but in an au, it can kind of work, I guess, but I just don't see the appeal. I mean one moment of trauma bonding can't be the basis for a whole relationship.

As for Will and Percy, I see the parallel you are trying to make, but Percy can heal himself, so he's not really in need of a healer most of the time. Cause his power and ambrosia fix most of his injuries. Overall, I just don't think they are very compatible, but I will try and find fics about them for you.

Ethan and Percy? Where the hell did you find that? I don't think anyone ships that. Percy should have killed Ethan the first chance he got. That bastard really really had it coming. Even after Percy spared him so many times, he had the audacity to try and kill Percy. Absolutely not a pairing.

This is like the people who ship Percy and Luke. There are some, and I have never understood it. Luke tried to kill Percy multiple times and showed no remorse for it, and Ethan is the same. They are enemies, not a pairing. Not everything has to be enemies to lovers. But I suppose to each their own, everybody has their own preferences.

As for cheating , to whoever wrote that fic, stay the hell away from pjo respectfully cause neither Percy nor Will would ever do that to anyone. This literally goes against their very nature itself. To people who write cheating Percy fics, his fatal flaw is literally LOYALTY, what the hell is wrong with you?

Anyway, I am very sorry for this devolved into a rant. If I find any Percy and Will fics, I will reblog this post with recommendations.

[yanderes-galore]

Cyberverse shockwave Vs soundwave X Cybertronian reader?

Oh this could be fun! I watched some of Cyberverse on YT so I hope I get the characters accurate ^^; I'm not done with it so expect some inaccuracies.

Yandere! TFCV! Shockwave vs TFCV! Soundwave with Cybertronian! Darling

Pairing: Romantic - Rivalry

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Cybertronian/Cybertronian pairing, Stalking, Manipulation, Recordings, Kidnapping, Attempted reprogramming/brainwashing, Dubious/Forced relationship, Jealousy, Violence, Stockholm Syndrome mention, Sadism, Implications of torture, Attempted murder/Implications of murder.

The two already have a rivalry with each other.

Soundwave is loyal to Megatron while Shockwave is willing to replace him if he keeps messing up the job.

The two already try to sabotage each other.

Hell, Soundwave is even petty about it, taunting Shockwave whenever he can.

So even before adding any sort of darling into the mix they dislike each other.

Which makes them a pair incompatible of sharing.

I'd imagine the easiest way to do this with a Cybertronian darling is if you were a Decepticon.

Then you're on the same side and tracking you is much easier.

Then there's the harder way, you being an Autobot.

That or you are a dissenting Decepticon no longer believing in Megatron's cause.

Either way, those are some ways you could be a Cybertronian! Darling.

Let's discuss a Decepticon/Dissenter! darling first.

Both of them are able to keep track of you due to scanners.

Soundwave can track you via cameras and always seems to know where you are.

Meanwhile Shockwave can use his mini spider turrets to track you if he needs to.

I imagine the two would treat you relatively well as a Decepticon.

They appear emotionless at times, maybe even like they don't care about you... they do.

They just show it in their own way.

When Soundwave calls you up to him or meets you alone he eagerly listens to you.

His speech is limited, preferring not to talk for the most part, but he'll greet your presence.

It's hard to tell how much he cares until someone tries to take your attention from him.

He sometimes records your conversations to listen to later.

He may even look for songs you possibly like to play for you in private.

He isn't the most affectionate but does care for you as a fellow Decepticon.

Even it doesn't show much.

Shockwave is often looking for someone to vent to while he works in his lab.

Or just some sort of chatter.

Shockwave would call you to his lab to talk to him.

If you're not busy he likes the company, yet he's another one who isn't very emotive or open about his attraction to you.

He just appears selfish at times but does like to confide in you.

Decepticons often can't trust each other but you're one he appreciates.

The two like you in their own way as a Decepticon, things only really go down hill when they catch on to each other.

The two hate each other.

Even more so when they realize the other has feelings for you.

So this isn't corrupting a good relationship, no...

This is making an already bad relationship worse.

The two are competitive, similar to how they were when Megatron offered the position to replace Starscream.

They'd sabotage the other no matter how destructive.

They'd probably even use their power over you to make you listen to them.

Shockwave keeps a closer eye on you with little turrets on the walls.

Meanwhile Soundwave goes out of his way to occupy your time and destroy any turret he finds.

I also wouldn't put it past Shockwave to put extra trackers on you.

The Cyberverse iterations of these Decepticons are rather petty towards each other.

They'd taunt one another, everything is a competition.

A challenge to see who can make the next move....

Meanwhile you just want to get your work done fo appease Megatron.

You don't really want to be involved with either of them.

Romantic relationships for Cybertronians happens, but they're unnecessary.

Shockwave tries to make things convincing by saying you're one of the only Decepticons he can tolerate, you'd two would be compatible.

Soundwave tries to either order you away from Shockwave's lab or convince you that Shockwave isn't loyal.

Soundwave's loyal. You can trust him to have your back.

I imagine the two could be rather violent towards each other.

Fights between them are either left alone or broken up by Megatron.

When it comes to Decepticons it's a pecking order.

You've got to fight for power.

Fights are normal for Decepticons, except this isn't for power.

This is over you... a partner they don't even technically need.

Before they can scrap one another they're stopped.

However if left unattended I can see the two nearly putting each other out of commission.

Now just some food for thought, imagine a dissenting darling?

You used to agree with Megatron and now you don't.

Obviously you try to hide it until you can strike a deal with the Autobots.

But Soundwave and Shockwave will know.

Soundwave's response would be to immediately keep you near him, in a way he's detaining you.

You needing constant surveillance gives him the excuse to watch over you.

He may even convince you to stay a Decepticon if he forces you into something with him.

Shockwave would be "tamer" than Soundwave.

He understands, he himself has wished Megatron would do better.

If anything now he thinks you share some beliefs.

Which is only another excuse to make you and him a partnership.

Here's another way a rivalry could world.

Cybertronian doesn't just mean Decepticons.

You could be an Autobot too.

The two would constantly try to track your whereabouts in an attempt to capture you.

I imagine when they take you prisoner that's when obsession starts.

Soundwave would be one to try to immediately break and brainwash you.

He'll rewrite what makes you an Autobot and make you a Decepticon...

Even better, he'll make you his.

Shockwave is also one who likes the idea of breaking you.

He wants to experiment on you yet also give you Stockholm Syndrome.

The two would still fight if they realized they were falling for you, an Autobot prisoner.

They both wish to make you fall for them as their little puppet, yet fight to see who gets to keep you.

The two spilling Energon is common.

No matter what type of Cybertronian you are you find it unnerving.

The two least emotive Decepticons? The most cruel soldiers of Megatron? Fighting over your attention?

Impossible... right?

If one of them manages to scrap the other it's impressive yet also an issue.

They will either lose their doctor or a second in command.

The victor won't really care.

After all, they finally won't have to fight with an inferior rival anymore.

Plus... they have you, their most precious Conjunx Endura

[orrianreaper]

GW2 people - Pitch me YOUR idea for an Expansion!

What's the theme, where are we going, what lore threads are we picking up on, what's the story premise, what mechanics do you think it could have.

I love spitballing ideas when I'm talking with friends so I'm posing the question To Everyone because I know everyone has some pet concepts floating around. As self-indulgent as you'd like, as unrealistic as you like, just throw ideas around, I wanna hear them!

The One I think I have the most rounded ideas for would be an Underwater Expansion. Picking up on the threat of whatever is terrorising the deep oceans, having some exploration of the Largos and bringing back in the Quaggan and the Krait maybe!

I love the sort of depths we get in maps like Frostgorge sound, and underwater combat has badly needed a rework and a tune up - there's loads of skills which straight up don't work and break entire builds underwater, and this would be a perfect excuse to try bring it up to speed. Maybe even make the underwater weapon sets function on land, to satisfy those who're after more weapons. You could make the maps a mix of true underwater and perhaps giant air bubble caves so you still had some land exploration even in maps otherwise set deep under the ocean. A map meta split with land phases and water phases. Additionally as personal bias wish, I'd love map event/meta design more like HoT. A map-wide Story with a few chains with specifically Build into the actual true Meta. I also simply love the idea of having a bunch of enemy designs based of the ocean and the abyss, there's so much incredible inspiration and interesting marine life. and biomes too! Give me a hydrothermal vent section in one of the maps, hell underwater 'water' in the form of brine pool 'quicksand'.

The Turtle might get some more use out of it's underwater, and skimmer would absolutely get spotlight as a skyscale isn't going to get you too far here - hell maybe even some speedy new underwater mount could be a fun addition to the roster.

I can see a plot being around trying to work with the Largos, The 'Terror of the Deep' being a danger and learning from them about how to survive the hostile environment and also convince them work with you to Hunt the 'Terror'. Maybe you come to the area of the ocean with the Quaggans and it's convincing the Largos to take them seriously as allies against whatever you're fighting? A quaggan companion character would be really fun, and you could easily bring back Sayeh al' Rajihd from the personal story given Largos involvement. I think not only would it be something very different in terms of the maps, which granted quite a few people might not like (thalassophobia reasons, or general Dislike of Water Gameplay reasons), but I think a rework of the underwater mechanics would benefit a bunch of places and it's something that really doesn't get touched outside of base game and maybe like, the Leviathans in EoD. There's so much neat creature design inspiriation swimming around out there, and I know so many people love the largos and even if not playable getting to see more of them could be neat! Also - it'd finally make all those legendary full people happy. A Legendary Aquabreather :P.

And a new suite of legendary underwater weapons since the G1 set. (and not themed pretty please make them all Unique.)

[hfjonewiki]

Hi! I hope this isn't a strange thing to ask but could you tell me more about ii-critical? I'm writing a research paper on the ii community and I wanna gain more insight to what that part of the fandom was all about.

My main questions are: Why did it exist? Why were you apart of it? What were the posts like? What was the biggest drama? Hell, what platform was it even on??

I wasn't that deep in the OSC when it was up and running (only really got into the community in ~2018) so a lot of community context from that era is lost on me. If you have any other object show oldhead insight for ii you wanna share, please do! I find fandom fascinating and would love to here more stories.

hoooo boy...... cracks knuckles. i went over it a little bit in a previous post but i'll try and give more info this time

(also this should go without saying but please don't try and seek out anyone mentioned or involved its been like 6-7 years since all this happened. also most of us were mentally unstable teenagers hence the. everything)

ii-critical originated as a tumblr blog created by someone named mira (i have no idea if they still go by mira or what their pronouns are now. i'm just gonna stick to they/them for convenience) as a way for them to discuss their criticisms towards the show's writing. the blog was created in mid-to-late 2017, during a time period where "(media) critical" was becoming a common tag. the trend was started by "su critical", a tag created by steven universe fans to discuss the show's faults in response to the show being in a rut of making some VERY dubious decisions (i believe it was started around bismuth's introduction, which was heavily criticized at the time for MANY reasons). the "critical" tags were often created for fandoms who tended to be hostile towards criticism of the media they were based around. the inanimate insanity fandom didn't really have that issue, thankfully. and so, the blog "ii-critical" was born.

at the beginning, the posts were about mira going through an episode beat by beat, and pointing out things they both liked and disliked about it. occasionally, there were posts analyzing a specific character. i'm kind of speeding through the "what were the posts like" section because that is by far the LEAST interesting part of the ii-critical mythos

i found the blog very shortly after its creation. it caught me at a good time, because i was at a point where i was becoming disillusioned with the show (episode 11 was the most recent episode at this point, and i really disliked it due to it being at the peak of ii's melodrama era. the show just felt miserable to watch. s2e11 sucking butt is still an opinion i stand by today Lolzor). mira and i started talking and i was brought on as the blog's other moderator, and i wrote my own analysis posts.

the blog was decently successful and didn't actually get that much hate. most people agreed with our criticisms and were, like, normal about the concept of a thing they liked being flawed. at some point we had a decent amount of followers and made the ill-fated decision to create a discord server for the blog. for added context: at the time of the server's creation, mira was 13, and i was 14. we were NOT old enough to be running a public discord server that at least 50+ people ended up joining.

the server had a lot of problems, mainly in regards to the channels. since we were both at the age where you are hormonal and stupid, we decided to make the nsfw channel accessible to everyone, and didn't even ask for people to include their ages in their intros. a concerning amount of people assumed that mira and i were both adults, or at least older teens until we said otherwise. we also had a blacklist and vent channel, which, word of advice, you should NOT have in a public server. shit gets out of hand SO fast. i vividly remember there being at least one guy who posted in the vent channel on a near-daily basis about pretty serious stuff. trust me when i say that people shared some HORRIFIC information in there. also, we had an emoji that was just a drawing of donut from bfdi with his whole cock and balls hanging out because we thought it was funny. i'm pretty sure there wasn't a "please don't post the donut balls emoji in non-nsfw channels" rule anywhere either.

i could go into more detail about various happenings, but that delves too deeply into interpersonal drama that frankly has no business being shared publicly. one of the most concerning things that happened, however, was this one guy who would come in vc, barely say anything, and fuck around with his gun the whole time. and yes, you could hear it. eventually we got reports of him being predatory towards a younger member of the server, and he was banned. i think that was the first thing that made mira and i go, "oh, we might've fucked up". there was also another incident where somebody was leaking information from inside the server (yet another reason why the vent channel was a HORRIBLE idea), and we banned a bunch of inactive people until eventually realizing somebody had stolen the username and pfp of a real user and impersonated them to stay in the server. this whole ordeal lasted like, two weeks. and again!! we were just BARELY no longer preteens at this point!! and we still thought, yeah, we can handle this. we're super capable. at one point we hired two other moderators (one of whom was 14-15, and the other was an actual adult for once. having an adult moderator led to us FINALLY locking the nsfw channel off to minors, since we had somebody who could moderate it for us), but this was towards the end so most of the damage had already been done

i was removed as a moderator on the blog after a large amount of interpersonal nonsense that, again, i'm not going to get into. it was mainly just because i was spending too much time in the server instead of posting on the blog like i was supposed to. a couple weeks later, i was suddenly banned from the server and mira had blocked me on everything. again, interpersonal nonsense and both of us being mentally unstable, not anyone's business. we reconciled a few months after and both apologized for being dumbasses, so we at least ended things on better terms.

another notable thing is that sometimes, crew members would pop in and out of the server, and they were surprisingly chill about the blog's existence. it was mainly justin and sam from what i remember, and resulted in this legendary image:

i don't remember this bit, but at some point taylor may have responded to one of our posts and was Not Nice about it? again, i don't remember this, take it with a grain of salt. but knowing his history with getting into shit with fans for no reason and how it got to the point where it was cited as a reason he was removed from the team, yeah that tracks

talking about ii-critical is strange, because i don't know where to draw the line between "infamous blog from the early days of the tumblr osc", "stupid pointless infighting between teenagers", and "genuinely horrible decisions and moderation that caused real damage". i'm trying to stick to just the first one and giving info about the last one when necessary. i'm aware a lot of this is gonna paint my past self in a VERY unflattering light, but that's who i was and what i did when i was 14 and i just have to accept that.

ii-critical was just a facet of the tumblr osc circa 2017. a lot of what happened can be traced back to larger issues with the fandom, especially when it came to restrictions on nsfw content. remember, this is pre-tumblr porn ban. i knew an ALARMING amount of people who had nsfw blogs, and even posted nsfw art while they were minors. i don't wanna seem like i'm making excuses for fucking up when it came to moderation and keeping our members safe, but it's important to know that the blog and server were very much a product of a specific point in tumblr history. we saw minors casually posting nsfw on a regular basis and thought, "yeah, it should be fine to have the nsfw channel open to everyone, right?" and like i said, we didn't originally require ages upon introduction. people didn't realize how badly we'd fucked up until the damage had already been done.

i could go on about the dozens of other ways i fucked up, but that would start to dive into the interpersonal side of things. i think i covered everything that actually mattered. i don't plan on talking about ii-critical to this extent again any time soon. everyone who both ran and was part of the blog and server have moved on, i don't wanna keep dragging people back to what's probably a very unpleasant period of their lives.

that said, if prompted, i will talk about the 2012-2014 deviantart era + "dark ages" of the osc AT LENGTH if prompted. i swear i have wisdom beyond the shitty blog i ran with my friends as a teenager. you dont even know about the Ball OC Discourse

[sunderedazem]

I know i already have a dawntrail reaction post here with a genuine take but i am going to bitch again because i saw some condescending shit and got annoyed. So yeah. This is a vent. If it's not about you then it's not about you, you know? I'm not naming anyone b/c it's an aggregate annoying not a That Person Is Annoying.

Anyway.

Have a certain segment of the people who liked all or most of DT considered that perhaps, some people who disliked parts of dawntrail (especially the latter half) dislike it because they understood and actually just *disagree* with the themes and portrayal of the themes of that portion of the game? I don't dislike it because I didn't get it or because i didn't interpret it correctly (because this shit is subjective too!), I dislike it because it feels like it's spitting on the themes of the previous two expansions to me. Maybe the patch quests will resolve that dislike, i don't know. The Arcadion raids are helping a little, admittedly. If it keeps going like that I might start appreciating things I didn't before.

(Spoilers below here)

BUT- I will never be okay with the fact that all of Living Memory gets deleted, and the people of Alexandria do not have their memories of their lost loved ones restored. To me, that is not moving on, or moving forward, and our characters, the Scions, and the Tuliyollali (?) do not actually have the capability or right to remember these people on behalf of Alexandria when Alexandria's people *still exist*.

The past two expansions have involved uncovering and remembering, or at least acknowledging, a forgotten people, while also protecting the people of today. The Ascians are not an existing society deliberately divesting themselves from their past, they are a nearly-dead people who want the past back. And we choose to remember them, as Emet-selch asks, because we are his last chance of Amaurot not being utterly lost to time. We are literally his last resort. Our win means his people stay dead. He asks us to remember because we're the only people left who even know a little bit about Amaurot.

But Alexandria is a society that is still present! It still has its own culture, its own history, it's own right to keep and change and preserve all of that! But it's people don't appear to know when people die (or if they're killed for their souls, as is implied with Ambrose) or about psychonekrosis. They literally don't remember death. And they all deserve an actual chance to be able to preserve their own culture and history and to remember their own dead! Shutting down Living Memory with NO provisions made for them to be able to preserve the memory of their past *if they so choose to* is nothing like the previous themes of FFXIV and I don't like that. At all.

I am very tired of people acting like a dislike for Dawntrail indicates incomprehension or worse, malice somehow. Or acting like this point of view is completely incomprehensible and means "you're just mad it's not SHB and that's unfair to the devs" or etc. (or the worst- somehow assuming I'm a reddit dudebro who hates Wuk Lamat because I can't handle a leading woman if I ever mention that I thought her character was misused in the latter half of DT.)

I'm really, genuinely happy for you if you loved the latter half of DT. It was visually stunning. The music all slaps. Heritage Found is fucking eerie as shit and the intro to this part of the game with Namikka gave me good heebiejeebies. I can see why people enjoyed it. But to me, the end felt like a series of just...shock value emotional moments. It felt pointless and worse, kind of careless and callous (at least from a Watsonian viewpoint). And I would like that to NOT be called a "red flag lol" thank you. I'm perfectly sure I can hold a normal fucking discussion with people who loved the shit outta Dawntrail about things we mutually enjoyed.

Idk man. This is a vent post, obviously. And I do get that Twitter and Reddit are being Twitter and Reddit. I'm not on them for a few reasons but that nastiness is the main one. But it's also really fucking annoying to keep seeing shit that amounts to "If you dislike or criticize DT at all you're a nasty foul person/stupid idiot who is objectively wrong and you're not worth speaking to ever again." Like dude- can we NOT reactively slide to the polar opposite of the reddit dudebros. Can we just acknowledge that they have viewpoints that are shit *outside* the game that are causing them to have shitty other opinions.

Sighs. Anyway.

[stillaclownlol]

Disclaimer: please please please please please please please please please please please please please please don't read this.

Actual disclaimer: CW/TW for abusive/toxic relationships and most of the things they entail. Mentions of mental, physical, and financial abuse. If you don't like any of that stuff, PLEASE don't read this.

Also, this is long. Idk...I think about toxic ships a lot 🫠

Most of these are just reflections of the characters themselves but there's some stuff in here from my last relationship.

Just to clarify, I don't see the characters as this bad, this is just for fun/venting purposes, I'm not condoning this behavior irl... It's just some thoughts I had about some of their toxic behaviors and if they were already older. I'm not saying any of them would do this in canon 🤡👍🏽 Unless their morals dropped dramatically for some reason idk

(I was groomed at age 11-12 by somebody 12 years older than me for 6 years so I think I have some experience in the toxic relationship department lol)

Aidlyn relationship HCs if they were even more of a hot mess wowie

-Most of these are just like. Red flags they have that have been amplified to the max. Like how I say Aiden getting Ash expensive gifts isn't necessarily a bad thing, but here it reaches a toxic level. Like Aiden getting Ash things so expensive she can't hope to pay him back, or things that have to do with her livelihood (a car, renting an apartment, etc etc). Then he'll be like guilt tripping her that they spent all this money on you when she literally didn't ask bro. Wants to scream at him to take it back but like...she needs it tho so she's gonna shut up...

-Its really easy to make Aiden toxic cuz like he already has some behavioural problems haha 🫠

-Lowkey Ash is the type to rip Aiden a new one when her patience snaps. She has so much she wants to get into (pushing her boundaries, being an idiot, giving her a heart attack from stress, "ruining her life" if she's really over everything)

-He would threaten or actually go through with SH for her attention 🫠 pain doesn't really mean anything for him, it hurts worse when she leaves anyways... (SO glad I'm over that)

-She ignores/avoids him for long periods of time without actually telling him what's wrong because fuck it communicating is hard and like why even bother because she thinks he won't listen anyways (GIRL you have to ACTUALLY say smth)

-But I mean who can blame her cuz Aiden is real into that toxic positivity crap and likes to ignore all the problems in the relationship and tells everybody that everything is great (she does too don't worry) (worry.)

-Shes a bit of a hypocrite sometimes cuz she likes to ignore Aiden when he's getting on her nerves but she can't take it if HE'S ignoring her for once. She says she's just suspicious of what he's doing but. You know. Not that he would leave her but like if he did try she would. Not take it very well?? Aiden would be impressed.

-he's kind of. Weird. I don't really know how to explain it he just has like. A Weird Aura. Around her especially. Says weird things, sometimes inappropriate or threatening. But Ash literally feels like she's going crazy because he's ALWAYS like that so she can't tell that it's not normal or if he's just. Weird.

-They're the kind of couple to bruise each other's wrists ♥️ /sarcasm

-He'll push her boundaries and ignore her a lot because like he doesn't understand that she's being serious and that not everybody likes the things he likes. Grabs and touches and holds her a lot even when she doesn't want him too. Sometimes she goes along tho because she thinks it's not normal to dislike touching in a relationship or that she just needs to put in more effort (I'm projecting so hard rn) Also thanks to my bestie for this one! She's so smart

-Both possessive and overprotective little freaks. I feel like Ash would kill somebody for him and then she'd just fucking spiral and have a mental breakdown and the love-hate relationship would get worse, and if Aiden did it he'd just be "lol. Lmao."

-Loss of identity and self for both of them. Aiden has that disciple complex and his life pretty much revolves around Ash. Ash feels like she fell down a rabbit hole....

-he has no sense of consequences, his self destructive behaviors would be WAY worse here and can include Ash at the same time (like going over the speed limit while they're both in the car)

-but also she like lowkey enables his behavior because she knows that to stop it she'd have to leave him and she doesn't want to be without him. She definitely excuses his behavior to other people even tho she'll get on his ass about it-

-bit stalkerish and follows her around, she knows he's doing it tho- but yeah he won't leave her alone most of the time 🫠

-She goes into nervous breakdowns. Starts throwing stuff at him and when he gets closer she'll hit him, and he just holds her until she tires herself out.

-Oh man, he's pretty much addicted to her. She saved him, breathed life into his existence, made him feel alive for the first time in years, and what a euphoric feeling that is for him.

-Ash feels like she has to walk on eggshells around him because she doesn't understand what sets him off. She's generally more worried about him doing something to other people or himself than her own safety tho.

-They're really awful for each other but like. There's really nobody else for them, they just have to not get other people involved in the forest fire that is their relationship (The rest of the gang: 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️)

-Aiden and Ash: *literally just standing next to each other*

Aiden: *Looks at Ash*

Ash: ...?

Aiden: *Predator instinct* :) *Bites her cheek*

Ash: !!! MOTHERFU-

That's the relationship basically.

[unboundprompts]

hi im not able to consolidate a comprehensive storyline, i just have fragmented pieces of what i want to write.

Storyline- two best friends who are popular and are suffering from their own problems

character A is an athlete who is depressed after seeing his stats in recent matches

character B is also an athlete who rarely gets a chance to play in the matches which has tremendously affected his self esteem

also they kiss when they drink but they don't always remember and shrug it off as a mistake if they do.

Pls help me :)

Hi friend! It looks like you've got a great start, your story sounds like it has a good backbone to it. (I love the "also they kiss when they drink" lol it made me laugh)

I've got a couple ideas that might help you out, feel free to ignore them or alter them in a way that suits your story best.

Setting:

Are they college athletes? On an adult league? Professional athletes?

The setting of your story can help develop your plot and your characters, as well as provide extra obstacles for your characters to overcome.

If your story takes place on a college campus, your characters will have to worry about keeping up with their studies, balancing their friendships with their studies and their sports, etc. They'd also be living close together (maybe in dorms or a shared apartment near campus). You can have them go to college parties together, train at the gym together, etc.

If they are professional adult athletes, perhaps you can have them traveling to different places for their matches. Sitting together on the bus, the plane, etc, staying in the same hotel, spending time together at the hotel bar.

Their Relationship:

Are they athletes in the same sport? Teammates? Rivals?

I imagine Character A venting about their stats and Character B responding, "At least you get to play." They offer each other some comfort because they both understand what the other is going through to some extent.

Maybe some of their other teammates grow to dislike them because one of them is playing poorly and the other is a "benchwarmer." The two of them becoming outsiders on their own team force them to grow closer to one another (maybe reluctantly, in an enemies-to-lovers kind of way. One of them still clings to popularity and is rude to the other until they realize they are more of the same.)

After every game they go out to celebrate with the team (If they're in college, maybe it's at a party with other students. If not, maybe it's at a local bar). Somebody insults one of the characters, either for playing poorly or not playing at all, and the other comes to their rescue and defends them. (And then they kiss obviously)

I really love the idea that they both mutually want the other, but are too afraid to admit it so they just chock it up as a mistake. If you're looking to make their romantic relationship a part of your story, I think having one character in major denial about their feelings would suit this scenario very well.

The Root of Their Problems:

Maybe Character A is dealing with an outside problem (unrelated to the sport) that causes them to play poorly and their stats to drop. Their sport was a distraction to the problem, but it is being affected by their performance and it only makes their depression worse. They go from being a great player to having one of the lowest stats on the team. Will they ever open up to Character B about their problem?

Character B rarely gets to play (is it due to being underestimated by coaches? Do they not have good chemistry with any of the other players and therefore can't partner with anyone? Or are they unable to attend the matches for another reason? Why are they not being allowed to play?) and therefore has low self-esteem. What else does this low self-esteem effect? Their performance in classes? Their personality around friends? Does Character A notice? What does Character A do about it?

Will these problems ever escalate to a point that they quit their sport? Will the coach temporarily stop them from playing until everything is sorted out? And what kind of effect will these consequences have on your characters?

How do you plan to resolve their problems? Obviously, depression and a low self-esteem don't just go away. Will their relationship make it easier for them to cope with what's going on? Will they both begin to play in the matches better? Maybe they start to work together more than they did and their performance improves?

Timeline Suggestions:

I think if you start with having at least Character A still being a major player on the team and doing well, then seeing their performance slowly decline throughout the story will be more impactful to the readers (obviously just a suggestion).

If you go with the route that an outside problem is affecting their performance, you can reveal what that problem is early in the story, or maybe you'd like to save it for a moment between Character A and B when they're having a heartfelt conversation.

You could have the characters celebrate their match and establish the relationships between them during this scene through dialogue and actions. If Character B, at this point, is not playing in the matches and you want to start their relationship off rocky, then you could have Character A give them a hard time. If you want them to be good friends from the beginning, then Character A can drunkenly comfort them (and then they kiss?).

Slowly, Character A's problems are starting to affect them more severely. Maybe show them interacting with other people, have them not do good at practice, etc. If the coach would ever prevent them from playing later in the story, you could foreshadow this by having the coach sternly talk to them. Tell them to clean up their act and get it together.

Does Character B notice A's mood? Do they intervene? Does A appreciate this gesture? Does it start an argument or do they grow closer together?

First match since Character A has been off their game doesn't go well. Are they angry? Sad? Do they just shrug it off? Do their teammates tell them not to worry about it? Are they offered comfort or are people upset with them for not doing well? Did their team lose because of them? What does Character B do?

Their performance slowly continues to decline. How does this affect their mood? Does Character B offer them comfort? Try to talk to them about what's going on? How does their team react? Their coach?

If Character B tries to comfort A and it doesn't work, how does this make B feel? If A gets angry with B, how does B react to this? Does A notice their reaction? What do they do about it?

More bad matches that lower Character A's stats, and they feel like they've hit rock bottom. Maybe they finally open up to B about their problems and they have a heartfelt moment. Feelings begin to develop?

You could start to focus on their relationship more here. More drunken kisses, more motivational conversations. Maybe they start to practice and work out together more.

If you want to go this route with their relationship, maybe some other character starts to notice that they are getting oddly close. Maybe they bring it up to one of the characters and that scares them away. Alternatively, it could bring them closer together.

Raise the stakes. Perhaps the coach is unhappy with their performance and gives them an ultimatum? Their team turns on them? Their relationship is in rocky waters?

Begin to resolve the problems. Solidify their relationship (if you want them to get together as a couple, that is), have them find motivation for their matches.

And then happily ever after! Unless...

I hope this helps you! I love angsty scenarios so I feel like I set you up for a lot of heartfelt conversations and breakdowns in each other's arms. That might not be the direction you want to take but I just couldn't help myself haha.

Obviously, these are all just random ideas for you, you can take them or leave them. I'd love to see what you do with this story! If you end up posting on Tumblr, I'd love to be tagged so I can read it!

If you like what I do and want to support me, please consider buying me a coffee! I also offer editing services and other writing advice on my Ko-fi! Become a member to receive exclusive content, early access, and prioritized writing prompt requests.

[spyroforlife]

not gonna reblog the actual post I saw because I don't feel like derailing and I will always just give people room to be haters on their own blogs, I understand the venting, I do. But it's always so funny to me when I see posts like "just let this ace/aro character be ace/aro you weird fuckin shippers!!"

because like

babes

they still are

they literally are whatever they are in canon. That is always gonna be the same. The representation is not being taken away from you in any way whatsoever because other fans are doing what fans do and making silly lil shipping drawings and fics, because they just personally find shipping fun and will do it to literally whoever they find interesting and want to imagine in situationships

The creator of your fav ace blorbo is not gonna go on Tumblr.com and look in the fandom tags and see a drawing of them making out with another character and go "hmm you know what. I dig that more actually. So asexuality retconned, he's gonna fuck (character) on screen now <3"

That doesn't happen. Can seeing the ship art be off-putting if you can't see the character being like that? Of course! Yes! Not denying it! But like. They're not changing anything about the character in canon. It's not some kind of problem in fandom that needs to be fixed. Shipping just happens, pretty sure it's a goddamn rule of the Internet.

But I promise you, there is still gonna be a variety of fans who would MUCH RATHER actually focus on that asexuality and/or aromanticism and discuss that, and portray it in their works. You can follow those people specifically, and join in their discussions! And who knows, it might get more people talking about it, so you'll see more of what you actually wanna see with the character.

It's just like. Idk. I get complaining but I just start feeling itchy as soon as it takes a turn into any sort of "so other people SHOULDN'T do x/y/z with blorbo actually" because okay hit the brakes, fandom is just for fun, it's a hobby, shipping is just playing around in imagination land and who cares if people do dumb or impossible things. You can dislike it, you can want to avoid it, but trying to tell other people what they can and can't do with fictional characters??

idk man. just rubs me the wrong way I guess. And in the end I'm just ALSO bitching about a fandom thing on my own blog and this ultimately doesn't matter too much to me because I DO have a job and fandom is just a hobby for me.

But I guess I just really don't see people shipping aroace characters as a big deal, because let's be real shipping has ALWAYS been about ignoring canon sexualities, this is nothing new. People will literally just smash together whoever they find hottest, or the most fascinating, or the most fucked up, or whatever tickles their fancy. And what's happening in some weird lil corner of fandom just isn't gonna have any impact on what actually happens with the canon character relationships, and it was never about that anyway, so. who cares and let people have fun. I promise when you go back to whatever media your blorbo is from, they're still gonna be their cool asexual/aromantic selves, because canon isn't fanon

signed, an asexual who gets amusement from dumb ships because I know I personally would never do this stuff but it's fun living it through random fictional characters <3

[voxasks]

ᡣ𐭩 • ｡ EVENT : 200 FOLLOWERS <3 ( CLOSED )

just to avoid any confusion, please type the emojis in the beginning of the ask and nowhere else unless you’re signing off as a specific anon, thank you!

this event is ENTIRELY based off of @hellishradio’s <3

asks regarding this event will be tagged under ‘.voxasks 200 event’.

— contents :

𐙚 ASK THE EDITOR !

𐙚 INTERACT WITH VOX !

𐙚 KIND WORDS .

𐙚 ASK THE EDITOR !

🐋 . . . ask me anything like my headcanons, opinions of my muse, how i write my fics / think of my ideas or responses, or even my personal life

🦋 . . . send me a plot / story idea you have for my muse and i will tell you how i would write it (so kinda like an imagine?) though my main blog is specifically a fanfic blog so you can also just send in any requests if you have any at @bindeds (and ofc, i take vox requests lmao)

💧. . . send a “dress/draw vox in _____” and i will draw it!

💦 . . . send me any character from hazbin hotel and i will provide any opinion, vision, or headcanon about them!

𐙚 INTERACT WITH VOX !

🫐 . . . tell me about yourself anonymously and vox will tell you his inner thoughts about you! ( gender + personality + likes + dislikes + hobbies + etc, you don't have to answer all sections if you're uncomfortable! )

🧊 . . . put vox in a specific scenario! and he will react!

🌊 . . . vox can't lie LMAOOO send any asks and my muse will tell his truth!

🛝 . . . ask a question! works like a regular ask but i will add an ooc comment of my headcanon so there's more info!

❄️ . . . send in anything you're sad about, whether it be a vent, something you're stressed about, etc. vox and mod will give you advice! ( send anonymously please, and include any trigger warnings! will be tagged ‘.voxasks advice’ so if you don't want to see asks like this, please block the tag. vox won’t be such a bastard obviously, because i just know this man has SOME sad backstory somehow )

🥣 . . . send any confessions and vox will react!

🐳 . . . send a headcanon about vox and both vox and mod will react!

𐙚 KIND WORDS .

🍓. . . i love how you portray your muse

🍇 . . . i love your aesthetic and graphics

🍒. . . you're one of my favourite blogs

🥩 . . . your posts always make me happy

🍿. . . im grateful for your blog

🥤. . . admiring from afar

i look forward to your asks guys, thank you again so much for 200 ! it really has been so fun with you guys <33

[derangedfujoshi]

A bit of a vent but also a post to make things very clear (thus why I'll post it in the main tags).

I don't care nor mind if people disagree with me about my shota spectrum or how I define shotas. I think my reasoning is solid for I base my judgement on the og shotas and the other existing categories (femboy/bishounen etc). To me the difference is as clear as day and I do not agree with the statement that categories are subjective; you wouldn't call Kagamine Len a bara, would you now.

So, I don't mind, I stay in my lane and don't go out of my way to tell people I disagree with them under their own posts or in their inboxes but, probably because I'm one of the few blogs openly posting about them, I'm not granted the same grace and I've had a few annoying altercations either in the comments of my posts or in my inbox (example and reason why I've decided to talk about this a bit).

So you don't agree with me, that's completely fine, I'm not going to change my opinions, but I want to ask what is a shota TO YOU, exactly? Because honestly some of you seem to confuse "cute kinda short boy" with shota which is a bit silly to me because a character can be cute and short and NOT be a shota which is fine, it's totally fine and I sincerely do not understand the urge of shoving them in the shota category and the offense people take when being told those are not really shotas. Like, why are you mad about it? There's nothing to be mad about, I simply don't get it... Is it because that would make it less "problematic and hot"? That's the only reason I can think of and again, kinda silly, you can still shota-ify them so what's all this fuss about?

I don't know and honestly, I don't really care, I just wanted to let off some accumulated steam because I'm trying to enjoy my silly little time on the internet talking about my special interests and having annoying comments thrown at me or even being vague posted about for something so trivial is really starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

If you dislike my takes block me, block my tags, whatever I truly do not care and would prefer this over getting asks telling me -anonymously- how much you disagree with me on something so SILLY but that I hold dear.

I don't want to start disliking posting about shotas so please, by all means, block me if you feel like I'm annoying with the way I think and do not let me know. I don't have to know nor do I want to. I just want to do my thing in peace for me and for those who agree with me and enjoy what I do, simple as that.

[sparkle-confessionalcabinet]

Hello!! What's your opinion on the fandom / character rules that KC forces (you cannot like Cuddles, you can't judge Uni or Doom, etc)? I'm curious about your answer. -🧪

honestly not much different from other critic blogs, i understand the more basic ones like no gross or problematic shit but the character specific ones are really stupid. these could work for a small fanbase but would definitely go to shit if the fandom gets bigger

the cuddles one is really stupid. cause like theres always people who are gonna get invested in villains and want to see more from them so trying to force around one solid interpretation of a character is dumb. even then cuddles has barely done anything batshit crazy other than being mean to poor old uni :( !!!! and being a straight white man TM

also if cuddles is such a personal and major representation of kittycorn's trauma, why even have him in the comic in the first place?

kinda similar to my cuddles point but trying to force people to like or dislike certain characters just dosent work since people have their own preferences and opinions. kittycorns gotta understand that not everybody is going to care about the rat or puppycorn no matter how much they mean to kit

if the more specific guidelines being broken really upset kittycorn, squeak could just start using the block button or some shit man its there for a reason (kittycorn could also just use this for critic blogs/tags in general but noooooooooo, squeaks gotta make vent posts about it instead of dealing with the issue more directly!!)