#and a Lot of them are Extremely racist and xenophobic.

[mx-paint]

.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Writing Advice #?: Don’t write out accents.

The Surface-Level Problem: It’s distracting at best, illegible at worst. 

The following passage from Sons and Lovers has never made a whit of sense to me:

“I ham, Walter, my lad,’ ’e says; ‘ta’e which on ’em ter’s a mind.’ An’ so I took one, an’ thanked ’im. I didn’t like ter shake it afore ’is eyes, but ’e says, ‘Tha’d better ma’e sure it’s a good un. An’ so, yer see, I knowed it was.’”

There’s almost certainly a point to that dialogue — plot, character, theme — but I could not figure out what the words were meant to be, and gave up on the book.  At a lesser extreme, most of Quincey’s lines from Dracula (“I know I ain’t good enough to regulate the fixin’s of your little shoes”) cause American readers to sputter into laughter, which isn’t ideal for a character who is supposed to be sweet and tragic.  Accents-written-out draw attention to mechanical qualities of the text.

Solution #1: Use indicators outside of the quote marks to describe how a character talks.  An Atlanta accent can be “drawling” and a London one “clipped”; a Princeton one can sound “stiff” and a Newark one “relaxed.”  Do they exaggerate their vowels more (North America) or their consonants more (U.K., north Africa)?  Do they sound happy, melodious, frustrated?

The Deeper Problem: It’s ignorant at best, and classist/racist/xenophobic at worst.

You pretty much never see authors writing out their own accents — to the person who has the accent, the words just sound like words.  It’s only when the accent is somehow “other” to the author that it gets written out.

And the accents that we consider “other” and “wrong” (even if no one ever uses those words, the decision to deliberately misspell words still conveys it) are pretty much never the ones from wealthy and educated parts of the country.  Instead, the accents with misspelled words and awkward inflection are those from other countries, from other social classes, from other ethnicities.  If your Maine characters speak normally and your Florida characters have grammatical errors, then you have conveyed what you consider to be correct and normal speech.  We know what J.K. Rowling thinks of French-accented English, because it’s dripping off of Fleur Delacour’s every line.

At the bizarre extreme, we see inappropriate application of North U.K. and South U.S.-isms to every uneducated and/or poor character ever to appear in fan fic.  When wanting to get across that Steve Rogers is a simple Brooklyn boy, MCU fans have him slip into “mustn’t” and “we is.”  When conveying that Robin 2.0 is raised poor in Newark, he uses “ain’t” and “y’all” and “din.”  Never mind that Iron Man is from Manhattan, or that Robin 3.0 is raised wealthy in Newark; neither of them ever gets a written-out accent.

Solution #2: A little word choice can go a long way, and a little research can go even further.  Listen carefully to the way people talk — on the bus, in a café, on unscripted YouTube — and write down their exact word choice.  “We good” literally means the same thing as “no thank you,” but one’s a lot more formal than the other.  “Ain’t” is a perfectly good synonym for “am not,” but not everyone will use it.

The Obscure Problem: It’s not even how people talk.

Look at how auto-transcription software messes up speaking styles, and it’s obvious that no one pronounces every spoken sound in every word that comes out of their mouth.  Consider how Americans say “you all right?”; 99% of us actually say something like “yait?”, using tone and head tilt to convey meaning.  Politicians speak very formally; friends at bars speak very informally.

An example: I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Texas, in which case I’m from “Baltmore, Marlind.”  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Pennsylvania, in which case I’m from “Balmore, Marlin.”  If I’m speaking to a fellow Marylander, I’m of course from “Bamor.”  (If I’m speaking to a non-American, I’m of course from “Washington D.C.”)  Trying to capture every phoneme of change from moment to moment and setting to setting would be ridiculous; better just to say I inflect more when talking to people from outside my region.

When you write out an accent, you insert yourself, the writer, as an implied listener.  You inflict your value judgments and your linguistic ear on the reader, and you take away from the story.

Solution #3: When in doubt, just write the dialogue how you would talk.

[solid-white]

Saw a take on twitter submitted by an anon that HeavyMedic ships aren't likely to work if Heavy isn't mischaracterised, and that they simply only like medic.

Honestly, true. I LOVE fics where heavy is characterised as soft and caring. Not only is it a stark contrast to how he's portrayed in battle, it fits how he is more canonically, AND it's generally a more enjoyable read.

Also agree with most of your takes. I think the Soldier is still xenophobic/ racist but it fits the classic Patriotic Republican during the Red Scare more imo

People think Heavymedic won't work unless Heavy is mischaracterized??? That's just blatantly false, it's HEAVILY implied they have something going on in canon, there's a literal achievement in game called "beaux and arrow" where Sniper has to shoot a Heavy and Medic duo. They can totally work with Heavy's canonical personality.

Even in just game play Heavy mains always have a Medic main sticking to their left ass cheek, that's their ENTIRE dynamic, they are LITERALLY made for each other.

Bringing up the Heavy mischaracterized point: Heavy is one of the most "sane" mercs because he's doing this out of passion and for his family, it's very blatantly obvious he cares for everyone in a big brother sense. He IS soft and he IS caring. Those are his core traits aside from strength. I don't get why people always think he's not when it's standing right in front them.

And Medic too, yeah, he can be a dick at times, he also has a severe God complex, but when it comes to the team? He was literally playing the long game for them with the classic mercs. Not to mention he doesn't participate in battle much, he just enjoys the observation part. Which is also why he sticks to Heavy a lot.

He ALSO uses Heavy as his personal guinea pig, and Heavy wouldn't allow just anyone to do that. Heavy respects Medic A LOT. And so does Medic.

And finally, Soldier being racist: it totally makes sense for someone as patriotic as him, especially during that time period. But because people think Soldier is racist sometimes people think he hates black people when Demo is right there. He isn't racist-racist, but more ignorant and just extremely patriotic. He really does not give shit who you are as long as you're American.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[serpentface]

I’m sorry to keep bombarding you with questions; but I really love your worldbuilding, and the story so far.

You’ve established that cannibalism is a serious taboo in Wardi culture, which overlaps with a hatred of scavenging animals. You’ve also established that Cynozepal funeral rites involve cannibalism and/or feeding the body to scavenging birds. Do these differing religous practices contribute to Wardi racism/xenophobia against Lunar Travelers and other Caelin?

Cynozepal is very, very far away (VERY approximately the distance between Japan and England, though the landmass is laid out differently and travel between the two regions by sea is MUCH easier (though still pretty prohibitively far) than this irl distance comparison) and is not a major contributor to overseas trade, so direct cultural interaction is rare and the (already quite rare) caelin immigrants/traders/travellers in Imperial Wardin are almost never of Cynozepali ethnicities. But it IS known (in inaccurate, warped ways) and does have effects.

Traditional and contemporary Wardi religion holds that the only guaranteed way to reach the afterlife is to have the body be prevented from rot or consumption, and being cremated whole and intact. The soul remains in the body after death and has to be sent off by fire, allowing the soul to travel intact to the afterlife in the Lunar lands. Being allowed to rot or be consumed will instead trap the spirit as an earthbound ghost, a restless and dismal afterlife which may warp the soul into an evil spirit. (There are workarounds if a body is found rotten or partly eaten involving rites that attempt to call the spirit back to the body so it can be sent off in fire, but this is not ideal). A lot of racist/xenophobic rhetoric tends to focus on funerary practices of 'heathens' and/or 'barbarians' who allow their dead to rot, and those who perform sky burials are particularly reviled as uniquely damning the souls of their dead (Finns and some Royal Dain along the Viper practice sky burial, which is used as one of many justifications for extreme bigotry).

Ritual consumption of the dead by people is basically unheard of in the surrounding region and is imagined as among the most hideous acts of barbarity, almost inconceivable as a cultural practice rather than an act of insanity. It's something that would occur in tall tales and horror stories, surely not something any people would actually do. The average person in the Imperial Wardi sphere is not going to even begin to try and understand that these practices, where they occur, are also means of honoring and laying the dead to rest, and instead imagines it as the utmost depraved brutality.

Cynozepal is Known in the region but almost never directly interacted with (due to aforementioned distance and its lack of major involvement in overseas trade). It is instead heavily mythologized and described through tall tales, and many of these center on heavily distorted descriptions of the common native sky burial practices (part of which involve Lunar Emissary monks processing the body and consuming the organs that house the souls, and taking a day long flight following the sun, thus delivering the dead to the Solar Dragon and sending them to rest). Absolutely none of the nuance or meanings of this practice is retained or acknowledged, and it is twisted into descriptions of a race of bloodthirsty cannibals who damn their own dead, and have a sort of boogeyman status as a horrible but distant foreign evil, thank God they're so far away northwest, etc.

It's actually established canon that a troupe of Lunar Travellers made it all the way to Imperial Wardin (arriving via ship at Godsmouth) in the fourth year of the famine, which was a rare direct exposure to any strand of Cynozepali religion in the worst possible way, by the worst possible representatives, and at the worst possible time. The Travellers represent an EXTREMELY niche and radical offshoot of Cynozepali religious traditions, being a proselytizing doomsday cult and sometimes allowing their vultures to consume the dead without consent (they conceptualize this as a benevolent act, saving the souls of the dead from annihilation at the world's impending doom). (This sect tends to be pretty patronizingly xenophobic themselves, seeing their act as saving ignorant foreigners whether they like it or not). This often subjects them to violence even in more accepting, less hostile contexts, and most believe that spreading the Word of the endtimes is worth the risk.

There tends to be low tolerance for the active proselytizing of foreign religions in general in Imperial Wardin, and especially not ones from people hauling around vultures and warning that the end is nigh and the masses of famine dead must be consumed in sky burial to be saved, lest they be annihilated at the world's ending. All members of the troupe were killed by a mob, and a wave of violence towards the city's small caelin population (who were mostly Czekl traders and not even remotely connected) followed, with many being forced to flee.

The news of this occurrence spread throughout Imperial Wardin and was a small but significant contribution to mass cultural anxieties at the time- God is severed from its lands, the land is dying, the people are dying, the worst types of ~Foreign Evil~ imaginable are infiltrating to desecrate the dead. It pretty quickly became mythologized and twisted into stories that the countrysides are now crawling with the far western cannibal dragonfolk, descending like crows to feast on the dead.

[clegfly]

Woo, it’s about time I made one of these… *cracks knuckles*

MORE ABOUT ME!!!!

HIIII!!!! My name is clegfly, or just cleg!!!! I’m an artist/ writer / professional paint drying critic/j. I’m just a silly girl doing silly things, don’t mind me. I use she/her pronouns and I am aroace!!!

LIKES

BULLET POINTS BULLET POINTS BULLET POI

Pancakes. All day. All the time. Everywhere, anywhere. Pancakes

That goes for bacon too

JELLYYYYYYYYYY!!!!1!1!1!

Why are these all foods what else do I like uhhhh

Warm. And cosy bed. And fire. And all that stuff

OLD COMPUTER AESTHETIC!!!!!! N64!!! WINDOWS XP!!!! ALL THAT SHIT

Bugs in theory

PLANTS

MUSICAL THEATRE

Graphic novels

Video games… ough my beloveds

Books

Okay now this is too long

Oops

Sorry

JELLYFISH JELLYFISH JELLYFISH

The ocean full stop actually

In theory

CHINCHILLAS

Uh

Yapping

Analysis

DISLIKES

anything on my DNI >:((((

Bugs in practice

Sport

Exercise

I’m literally hero omori

Commitment

Stress

Internet drama

Anyone who gatekeeps like. Anything.

INTERESTS???

All day every day, baby.

MAINS

OMORI- main interest as apparent by one peek at my blog… The brainrot is immeasurable and everlasting. Send help. It’s been almost four years. I love this game, its characters, story, EVERYTHING so fucking much. I’m like a billion pounds in debt to it also. I will be homeless but at least I will have my big ass heromari collection.

PMMM/ Madoka Magica- my favourite show! Consisting purely of sparkles and sunshine!!!! Why are you crying??? I’m sure not!!!!

DDLC/ Doki Doki Literature Club- another favourite of mine!!! I see a well-written cast of characters I deeply relate to go through extreme horrific horror beyond any of their comprehensions and I’m SOLD!!!

Coraline- the horrors are all consuming, but at least it’s both a visual and extremely well-written treat!!!!

TADC/ the amazing digital circus- won’t lie, watched this show when the pilot dropped and LOVED it, but forgot about it after a while as it didn’t stick with me. Then episode three came out and I’m now reduced to a blubbering mess whose brain is now significantly comprised of two fictional chess pieces. What happened? I don’t know. Send even more help.

LITTLE GUYS THAT HURT MY BRAIN SOMETIMES

Petscop

Fnaf

BATIM/ bendy and the ink machine

BSD

Deltarune

Undertale

Hawaii: Part II

SUBJECT TO CHANGE BECAUSE IM PROBABLY FORGETTING LIKE 20 AND ALSO HAVE LIKE 20 STILL TO DISCOVER

HOBBIES?!2!2!

Ya!!!! :D

Art

The main thing I do on my silly little page!!

…in which the art is mostly unfinished doodles… but that’s okay!!!! We ball anyway

YOU CAN SEND THE CLEG REQUESTS!!!!! ALL DAY ANY DAY UNLESS I SAY OTHERWISE!!!! Do not expect premium quality though lmao. (And also nothing related to DNI. Shouldn’t have to say this but. Uh. Yeah)

You cannot yet commission the cleg :(

Writing

Currently on a writing hiatus and have been for a little while (5 MONRHS WHAT) but… i do!!!! That!!!! Aka I write fan fiction AGH

Mostly. Heromari stuff. Actually all heromari stuff. I think I have one fic that isn’t heromari and it’s one I co-authored I love them your honour…

Yeah

DNI

Bit of a bummer, but I gotta set my boundaries to keep the weirdos out!! That being said, do NOT interact with my blog whatsoever if you:

Are a shotacon, lolicon, proshipper, pedo, etc etc etc. (yucky. Yuck yuck yuck. Fuck off)

Are homophobic

Are transphobic

Are aphobic/ arophobic (why. Why are you even still here)

Queerphobic in general actually get OUT!!!!

Actively shit on any of my main interests. Like ACTIVELY go out of your way to tell me how bad it is (what. What is the point. Just go)

POST ANY NSFW FULL STOP!!!!!!! (I am EXTREMELY sex repulsed and have been especially lately, I will block you on SIGHT)

Are racists/ xenophobes

There is likely LOTS more I’m forgetting so I will update this later… also just saying I reserve the right to block ANYONE no matter if you fit into this criteria or not. If I don’t vibe with you I will politely block you and look the other way!!! No theatrics required

Anyway with all the negative stuff out of the way… I really hope you enjoy my blog!!! I’m just here to have fun honestly and express my ideas and passions and work on a little page of the internet so!!!! Hope you have fun too!!!! :D

[yourtwistedlies]

❝ women’s hearts are lethal weapons ❞

val ! ✩ she/her ✩ minor ✩ jason grace’s gf (REAL) ✩ speak now obsessed ✩ gracie abrams lovebot ✩ summer baby ✩ certified procrastinator ✩ professional listener ✩ pathological people pleaser ✩ general amaya’s #1 fan ✩ fitz vacker defender ✩ honorary grammar police ✩ kpop stan (mostly ggs) ✩ my moots’ cheerleader ✩ under the illusion i can write ✩ somewhat smart ✩ cabin 13 girl ✩

dni: if you are racist, homophobic, xenophobic, support kill all ___, sexist, 18+ only, religiophobic, creepy, toxic, or literally just a jerk, please leave!

byi: i swear sometimes!! i also adore using cute nicknames and pet names for my moots!! if you don’t feel comfortable w/ that or anything else, please let me know <33

moots - wattpad - ao3 - carrd - follower event (coming soon ⁉️) - save the children!

•̩̩͙⁺ the basics ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

call me valerie/val or twisted!!

she/her, straight (heterosexual), minor (18+ only acc’s please do not follow), 18+ do not interact unless i interact first or we are moots (on my list or to be added- i am the judge of who is to be added), cancer (zodiac, but i don’t believe in them), Christian (i post about it sometimes), << summer baby, entp (mbti), 8w7 (enneagram), ambivert, slytherin, cabin 13, shade (guys i swear i wasn’t trying to be edgy or smth with the past two and this 😭😭 i took the official quizzes i promise lmao), swiftie, kpop fan, staying up writing until 4am gives me life, purple is the best color (this is not up to debate, only yellow even comes close), proud notes app writer, CATS > DOGS (occasionally my verdict changes), bunny lover, chronic platonic sofitzer, i’m either hyperactive or extremely tired (there is no in between), people say im smart, but sometimes i feel like the biggest idiot ever lmao, and ofc dex dizznee’s much needed publicist (my favorite role of mine ever)!!!

•̩̩͙⁺ music ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

taylor swift, olivia rodrigo, sza, conan gray, alicia keys, emei, gracie abrams, maisie peters, sabrina carpenter, laufey, queen riri (rihanna), adele, beabadoobee, tiffany day, le sserafim, ive, newjeans, itzy, nmixx, stay-c, aespa, everglow, txt (baby fan), illit ＆ more kpop, lizzy mcalpine, pheobe bridgers, nessa barrett, pinkpantheress, claire rosinkranz, lyn lapid, alessia cara, reneé rapp, mckenna grace, and more!!

as i hope you can tell, i like a lot of music :)

•̩̩͙⁺ books ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

pjo, hoo, (never read toa, but yes, ik what happens in tbm), the rrverse, kotlc, city spies, ss (spy school), alex rider (not done with rr), the academy for the unbreakable arts,

and my many other fandoms i’ve forgotten about (dead magisterium fandom oop-)

i’ll add more fandoms as i remember them lol

•̩̩͙⁺ ships ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

rayllum, clauderry (stfu they’re adorable), percabeth (otp energy), sokeefe, dexiana, tiana (yes i know im the most indecisive bitch ever shut up you toad /jjjj i actually love u platonically), jason grace x ME (/j but i do love him lol), and more!!

•̩̩͙⁺ blogs ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

side blog: @yourtangledpromises

taylor blog: @iknowplxces (guys this is so abandoned + has my old intro 🤮 ignore this js trust - august 15 2024 val)

and perhaps more?? (muahahaha)

•̩̩͙⁺ side note ₊˚. ↴ ·˚༘

if you’d like to be added to my moots list, or talk, please tell me (by wonder girls)!!

if we’re moots we’re actually bffs now (you just don’t notice it yet)

if i don’t respond to your ask/tag/rb/literally anything immediately i am not ignoring you!! i’m just lazy or busy and will do it later <33

im your biggest fan btw

1 Corinthians 16:14

with love,

valerie

[usaigi]

How @yellowocaballero and I Fixed Daredevil by Headcannoning Him as Mexican

When Daredevil first appeared in 1964, he was a second-generation Irish-American from Hell’s Kitchen, a working-class Irish-immigrant neighborhood. In a time where Irish people weren’t viewed as “white” or “real Americas.” They were a part of the oppressed working class, the bottom of the food chain, who had nothing but their religion, the vehicle of their culture from the old world, to keep them together.

Note: Today, the argument that “Irish people aren’t really white” has been co-opted by white supremacists and has often been used in bad faith against POC. I want it to be clear that what is considered “white” is and has always been a political term with no backing in science. Discrimination against the Irish back in the day was tied to anti-Catholic sentiment in predominately Protestant states, such as England, Scotland, and the United States. Naturally, Anti-Catholic discrimination overlaps with nativist, xenophobic, ethnocentric and/or racist sentiments (ie Anti-Italian, Anti-Polish, Hispanicphonia).

Jack Murdock was a poor boxer with no education or prospects who had to exploit his body to provide for Matt. And recognized that not a way to live and thrive, so he pushed Matt into academics for social mobility. Sound familiar?

At its core, the story of Matt Murdock is an immigrant story. Matt has the immigrant mentality;  immigrants-get-the-job-done type of thing. Gotta hustle and became a lawyer because that’s how he moves up the social and class ladder. And when he does “make it” he chooses to stay and help his neighborhood because he has a cultural connection to it. 

This worked in 1964, I don’t know how much it works now.  

Hell Kitchen isn’t a rough neighborhood primarily occupied by working-class immigrants, it’s another gentrified hipster hellhole. Irish people and people of Irish ancestry in the United States no long face systemic discrimination. 

Therefore, modern-day recontextualizing is to make Matt Mexican. 

Technically, Matt can also be from any other Latin American country or Filipino but I lean towards Mexican since a) this is my post go make your own and b) we get the most discrimination from the mainstream media. Yes, a lot of it is because racists use “Mexican” as a catch-all term for anyone from Latin America but still. Trump made his presidential platform by calling Mexicans illegal rapists and druggies. 

If Matt was actually the son of Jack Murdock*, an undocumented brown immigrant living in a working-class immigrant/POC neighborhood, it gives him the underdog immigrant arc the character is missing in modern-day adaptations. Matt's core is still the same Matt we know and love, he’s still the son of a boxer, whose dad’s pushed him into succeeding academically, who lost his dad to gang violence, and who is extremely Catholic. Someone who wants to fit into middle-class educated (white) society and feels like he has to suppress the "devil" inside until one day he can’t. He's seeing discrimination and poverty and crime and gentrification tear his neighborhood apart and the police turn their back on it since it's predominantly POC. The law has failed them, he's not going to fail them too. 

Meg made the fantastic point that Matt should still be white-passing (and ginger) so he could exist somewhere in between worlds.  And Matt takes advantage of that, as well as his Columbia Law degree to help his community. Matt not using his conditional whiteness and the fancy degree to “escape” his community and instead help it.

[doberbutts]

Those messages you received sound exactly like my extremely racist and islamophobic sperm donor. Hes been going off for years about how 'the muslims are gonna do a shariah law in England' and 'you'll see how pro-queer the muslims are then when they get into power and kill you'.

I cannot imagine being so hateful about a group of people that you end up willingly talking like an abusive, racist, xenophobic drunk who never had a correct opinion in his life.

The funniest thing about the "you'll swe how queer Muslims let you be" thing is that almost all of the Muslims I'm friends with are queer themselves. It's literally never been an issue between us.

Anyway considering this person went off on a tangent rant about my pets that have died from debilitating health conditions literally no one could prevent, most of which were rescues who literally came to me already sick, and the one that didn't lived until he died from the most common form of cancer for the entirety of dogs... all because I reblogged a photo of black hair with beads... I think it's safe to say this person would always have completely lost it on me the second I stepped a toe out of line.

The FUNNY thing is that I don't know or talk to them. So all of their scolding and freaking out is like. OK you are a relative stranger getting big mad at me for a really stupid reason and you think I'm going to do more than "wow that's a lot of words that could have been resolved by just pressing the unfollow and/or block button my guy"

If "don't kill civilians" is too radical of a position for you to swallow then I think I actually want nothing to do with you tbh.

[drownedinlavender]

Eric is a character. He is a work of fiction. All of these characters that we know and love and fawn over are just that, characters, they're make believe.

I understand being uncomfortable by the hate speech, that's one thing, but I see people actually hating him like he personally killed their parents and made them into chilly. Matt and Trey write him as a bigot because someone has to be in order to write the story they're trying to tell, in order to get the point across they're trying to make. Someone HAS to be the villain. And when he's extremely anti semetic, xenophobic, racist, he loses because that's the message. Bigots lose. Bigots are a joke.

Matt and Trey stated in an interview that Eric is the product of his surroundings and as someone that grew up in a middle of nowhere town in Wisconsin, there were a lot of kids that shared many similarities with Cartman. They were racist, xenophobic, and just straight up mean. Many of which told me my family and I should go back to Mexico where I belonged. But they also all came from broken homes. A lot of them were simply attention starved, neglected children internalizing the problems of the adults around them. And looking back now, I don't hold any ounce of contemp or negative emotion towards those children, my heart goes out to them. They didn't have anyone that cared enough about them to correct their behavior. Any kind of attention, including negative, was better than none due to how neglectful their gaurdiens were.

This isn't me arguing why people that hate Cartman should love him, or hold pity for him. On the contrary, I hate to argue lol. This is only me divulging my thoughts on a character I personally think is written with a lot of dimension and depth. I like the idea of Eric as a character. A 10 year old child overly spoiled by his crack addicted, sex worker mother who is lonely and isolated to the point of only relying on her child for friendship so she treats him more like a friend than a child thus creating a spoiled, deeply insecure, self centered, bigoted asshole of a kid. His mother, along with most of the adults around him, failed him and now he's making it everyone's problem. His childhood is like a joker origin story lol how wild

Anyway, that is all :'D

[nopesjsgwhqgsx]

Who The Fuck Am I?

Hi! If the need arises, you can call me Teddy

I use they/them pronouns but I’m chill with masc pronouns too, I am also, extremely queer, also a minor

If you’re in a good place mentally, etc… you should check out this post with details on how to support Palestine, Congo, etc…

I am absolutely rabid over 80s horror, pop culture and ancient history, authors like Grady Hendrix, Donna Tartt and Neil Gaimen, as well as Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, etc…

also statues and art, particularly Van Gogh (on the art front)

My music taste is all over, but currently I’m listening to a lot of David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Sunday Cruise

I’m bilingual (French and English) and trying to learn German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese, so any language help would be appreciated!

anyways I am desperately screaming into the void and if you want to scream back, it’d be greatly appreciated!

Homophobes, Transphobes, Racists, Xenophobes, People who interact with intent to be creepy or rude DNI please

[tossawary]

Watching "Batman: The Animated Series" (90s) is a lot like watching G1 "Transformers" (80s) in that they are both very much products of their times. I would say that the writing for BTAS is generally solid, decent more often than not, but rarely spectacular, especially watching it as an adult. It has its standout moments. G1 was generally very bad in a mildly entertaining way, with some rare exceptions on the better side of okay and some very cool concepts. They both have a lot of Potential, with key elements that went on to be explored in future iterations.

But both of them will occasionally take hard turns into "aged quite poorly" material, which is the nicer way of saying, "This was bad then too and they should have known it was bad." The degree of the offenses will vary wildly. Sometimes, female characters are kind of cool, but then female characters might suddenly be framed as strange, irrational, delicate creatures whose behavior simply cannot be fully understood. Sometimes, it's time for "The Orientalist Episode", which usually ranges from a fetishtic fascination with ninjas to an extremely racist depiction of the Middle East. BTAS definitely falls on the side of copaganda (yes, despite acknowledging that Some Bad Police Exist) and there's a lot of casual ableism in general, even though the show generally endeavors to be sympathetic towards people who are mentally ill. And so on.

Which is why I can only recommend the show with certainty to people who already like Batman to some degree. I'm pleasantly surprised by how often the show casts greedy businessmen as the villains or the inciting incident for the villains, as they engage in very recognizable cost-cutting measures or illegal activities to screw over the little guy (for example: terrorizing poor people out of their neighborhood to get their hands on the real estate). It contains a wealth of minor characters and one shot storylines. It's a major influence on basically all Batman media that has followed it.

But, holy shit, that episode I just watched with Ra's al Ghul and Talia was SO BAD. "Oh, fuck, they're going to Asia again, how weird are the writers going to be about it this time? How unintentionally extremely racist / xenophobic are they going to be about this? Because they're ALWAYS at least a little weird about it. Wait, what happened to Talia's previous characterization? OH, FOR THE LOVE OF-"

[txttletale]

this isnt a defence of dnd but I was hoping to ask for clarification on a couple points you made that I dont fully understand and I'm clearly missing something. Namely that you mentioned racial connotations to the barbarian class and colonial connotations to the ranger class. Like I understand the term barbarian has imperial and xenophobic overtones to it but I can't tell where there are specific native stereotypes in it as it appears in dnd

yeah, i mean, a lot of the forms of racism that are at play here are deeply embedded into cultural norms and popular tropes, so if they're not stereotypes that affect you it can be easy to miss them. i'll be going solely by the DNDBeyond official class description: i've highlighted relevant sections

so, first of all, notice the very telling use of the word 'savage'. this is an extremely racialised term that is used against indigenous people to this day. yes, it's used here as an adjective rather than a noun, but in context it's telling, especially alongside 'tribe'--another very racialised word: europeans have 'ethnic groups' or 'nations', indigenous peoples have 'tribes'. 'savage tribe' is how indigenous people have been described for a long time, especially during the height of colonialism. some easy examples i found with a minute's googling:

note also the 'elk herd'. this class description is going to keep hammering home that barbarians are from nomadic backgrounds. a very common defense of the barbarian class is that it's based on norse berserkers--which is true to an extent, especially wrt 'rage', their headline class ability--but while the norse conducted raids and invasions, they lived in settlements. vast swathes of the conceptual makeup of the fantasy barbarian is derived from the colonialist imaginary of the nomadic, 'warlike', 'savage'.

moving on, we're hit with a barrage of direct comparisons to animals. now, i'm obviously not saying that it's racist to ever compare a character to an animal--but the barbarian class very explicitly represents a group of people with a certain lifestyle, and in the real world, comparing groups of people to animals has been a longstanding method of dehumanization that's been applied especially brutally to indigenous and Black victims of colonialism. and while 'animal spirits' is a fun vulfpeck song, here it's clearly invoked as a caricature of 'primitive' spirituality. why are the spirits 'fierce?' why must they be 'animal spirits?' why do other classes in DND invoke gods and demons, but the barbarian invokes 'spirits?'.

now it gets even more blatant. the barbarian is 'primal' -- they have an 'animal nature' -- they're explicitly contrasted to 'civilization' and associated with 'nature' -- this is a textbook example the 'noble savage' stereotype and it's as old as colonialism. and of course, the barbarian comes from 'tundra, jungle, or grasslands'.

so, here we have a very explicit confirmation of what i was talking here earlier re: barbarians very clearly intended to be nomadic peoples. they live in the 'wild places of the world' -- another colonialist trope rears its head here, the idea of an 'untamed wilderness' that can only be mastered by colonial domination, where the people are also 'wild'.

a 'frontier', huh? the idea of the 'rough frontier' is pure unadulterated colonial fantasy, straight outta manifest destiny. the 'frontier' is the area along which settler-colonialism takes place, where the civilized 'us' meets the savage 'them' in the context of the colonial national myth. and of course, the suggestion that your barbarian character might be a 'prisoner of war, brought in chains to ''civilized'' lands' is pretty clearly founded in the very racialised institution of slavery! (interesting to deploy the scare quotes around 'civilized' now when you were just drawing a fully unironic primal/civilized distiction a paragraph ago, wizards of the coast)

these same ideas about the ‘frontier’, about ‘wild lands’ and ‘the edges of civilization’ (and ‘civilization’ as a geographic notion with ‘borderlands’ that need to be ‘protected’) can incidentally also be seen here in the ranger’s flavour text. again, the idea that ‘civilization’ has a defined endpoint, beyond which there’s only ‘wilderness’ and ‘barbarians’ and ‘savage tribes’ has its origins in the roman empire, grandfather of modern imperialism, and the idea’s hold on the contemporary fantasy genre consciousness has its roots in manifest destiny and the american western frontier, where it serves the ideological purpose of obscuring the bloody and brutal wars of conquest that were waged nonstop against the many people who lived on the ‘uncivilized’ side of that imaginary dividing line in order to push the ‘frontier’ forward.

now, this part isn't on dnd beyond so i’m using a shitty little rulebook scan i found online bc i cba to properly pirate 5e again for this post, but by far the most played barbarian subclass is the path of the totem warrior. with the terms ‘spirit animal’ and ‘totem’, dnd 5e very specifically appropriates the real-world religous beliefs of native peoples. the term’s been beaten into the fucking ground over the last few years but this is some of the most cut-and-dry cultural appropriation i can imagine. and what does the path of the totem do? it gives the barbarian the abilities of animals, of course. Wolf Totems and Bear Totems and Eagle Totems, oh my! right back to the noble savage, the ‘wild man’, the dehumanizing animal comparisons we were talking about earlier.

now some of this, in a different context, could be innocuous and inoffensive. it’s not in a different context, though, it’s in this context--and in this context, it’s pretty clear that the ‘barbarian’ class has both feet planted firmly in the colonialist anti-indigenous imaginary. if you want a little more reading on this, this is a great article on the topic--but tldr: the colonial myth of the ‘wild frontier’ is load-bearing to the concepts of the barbarian and the ranger, and the barbarian in particular has anti-indigenous racist tropes marinating its flavor text.

[youtube-arc]

⋆｡°💻 welcome 💣⋆｡°

☆ Bia / Star ☆ she/he/they ☆ adult ☆ indie animation sideblog ☆ 3D Artist ☆ about my oc, Hench (under construction) ☆ follow from @/theangelcatcrying

☆ Requests for SM64 renders are always open, just send it on my askbox and I'll see if I'm capable to do

☆ long analysis ☆ my renders

more about me below

💻 Hi! In this blog, I talk mostly about SMG4, other Glitch shows and Eddsworld!

💻 I'm always open to watch more indie animation, tho; if you want to recomend me one, be my guest

💻 I'm an overanalyzer at heart and i love to yap about my conclusions, findings and personal interpretations.

💻 I write fanfic (obviously), but only in my mother language (portuguese)

💻 I do extremely affectionate posts about SMG4 (character) sometimes, it's all in good fun tho, don't take it too seriously.

🎸 I talk a lot about ships, and my favorites are:

🍝 SMG4: Mar34, 34, Mar4, Mar3, Megari, Megesti, Bob4 🥤Eddsworld: Polysworld, EddTom, EddTord 💣 Misc: Dizzy, Vizzy, Dollzi, Bellcinia, MegWisk

🎸 I have an OC x Canon ship! It's my oc Hench and Minion from SMG4, I call it CottonKandi (name coined by @/love0dragon); more about it on Hench's intro.

💀 You are free to use my renders! I just would like to be credit in some way, since I don't want to watermark them for now. I feel honoured when people use my renders tho <3

💀You are more than free to drawn and use my oc, I would love if you do! But I have some guidelines for it that; It' nothing strict, just don't use her to promote hate speech, respect their gender and sexuality and don't put her in heavily sexual and gore content (suggestive and light gore is okay!)

💀 You are not welcome here if you are a bigot (racist, homophobe, xenophobic, classist, ableist, etc), a proshipper and/or ship Puzzle4 in especific, this ship makes me deeply uncomfortable.

More about me:

[g1r-ap0ca1yps3]

Intro to my account!

Hi I'm Conan i often go by the nickname Cade though I wont use tumbler a lot and if you want to get in contact with me your best bet is my Pinterest which I'll link at the end but yeah i guess I'll say some things about myself

I'm a transgender boy i use the term demi boy more as a side label since I also identify with xenogenders but mostly just a boy lol i use he/it pronouns along with all neos and yeah thats it for my gender i think

Okay i use a lot of stuff for my sexuality but basically I'm aroace oriented and omni romantic + i use biromantic as a umbrella term. I'm ambiamorous which means I'm open to polyamory and monoamory relationships. i use a lot of labels so if you wanna see them all check out my pronouns page I'll link it at the end

Next i guess I'll talk about my mental health lmao so basically i have depression and unspecified anxiety disorder professionally diagnosed also professionally diagnosed ODC and dyslexia and Dysgraphia so if theres any spelling or grammar mistakes in this please be patient

I'm trying to be scene and emo but i listen to a lot of different music genres my favorite are scene, scenecore, hyper pop, pov: Indie, scenemo and emo. I'm alternative kinda scene kinda scenecore kinda emo just a blend lolz.

I'm a huge anime fan i love things like ouran host club, banna fish, SK8 the infinity, Bungo stray dogs, ohshi no ko, the stranger my the shore, toilet bound hanako kun, demon slayer, yuri on ice, sasaki to Miyano and a lot more i also read manga when i can find it online for free cuz I'm broke asf

I'm a minor so any donation requests will be ignored as i cannot donate and i also don't want to repost something if i don't know if it's legit so i apologize but i will just delete those dms and comments i do hope if your in actual need of help you can raise the money but at this moment i am not able to help and am not able to confirm your legitimacy

I see people putting a dni list so I'll make one too ig? If your Racist, homophobic, transphobic, ablist, xenophobic, extremely judgemental, say things like "OMG I'M SO AUTISTIC/ADHD/ECT" and you don't have that thing, really anything toxic in General your a dni. A few more things that aren't necessarily a dni but kinda are? If you hate on furries, therians, otherkin, alterhumans, ect. I'm not any of those but in my opinion it's just stupid, annoying, and petty to hear people hate on them when what they do literally doesn't affect you whatsoever so yeah a dni but if your neutral to them then not a dni

!Important! Even though I've put my sexualities and wanting a QPR I'm not open to online dating and never will be!

Yeah i think thats it I'll put the links to some of my platforms I'll update this whenever things change also keep in mind my TikTok is not my personal account it’s my online one

[mexicancat-girl]

I saw some of your takes abt tbosas (and it was refreshing seeing someone with media literacy talking abt it), but as a fellow latin-american person, I wanted to ask you a question: did you also feel extremely disturbed about the way coriolanus talked and thought about D2, its people and its customs? the way he talked and mocked them made me think so much about the way gringos talk about latam that made my skin crawl, but idk, maybe it was just me, so I wanted to know the opinion of another person who's latine too ☠️

Coriolanus is incredibly xenophobic throughout the novel. It made me feel disgusted every time he disparages the people of the Districts, and the Plinths specifically.

As someone who's parents immigrated to the US many years ago, I could see the Plinth's story heavily mirroring that of immigrants. Leaving behind one's homeland and attempting to assimilate, to play the good citizen. But no matter what you do, you're not "American" enough to fit in America. You are ostracized and isolated by white folk. But you're not wanted where you came from, either, because you've picked up too many of the new customs and scrubbed away your identity to fit in.

Sejanus even admits that he doesn't feel like he fits anywhere, that he still feels like he's part of District 2, he's still District, even all the years of living in Capitol. That people only tolerate him and his father because of their money. The way he was isolated since he was a child--to the point that the only friend he feels he has is Coriolanus, just because the other boy didn't outright mock him--says a lot.

Sejanus being played by a Puerto Rican actor also adds to the immigration themes, especially mirroring the current situation with the US colonizing Puerto Rico.

The fact Lucy Gray is played by a latine actress, and Coriolanus goes out of his way to insist she isn't fully District to both himself and the people of the Capitol to help her win, just shows that she is treated as 'one of the good ones' and a model minority. She didn't 'take away' anyone else's status in the Capitol like the Plinths did with their arms dealing--which is partially why Sejanus and the Plinths are so despised by the elite of the Capitol--so she's given much more leeway as an underdog.

Overall, yes, the way Coriolanus spoke of Sejanus and his family made my skin crawl. It reminded me a lot of my own experiences as Latine in the US.

Coriolanus goes out of his way to mock Sejanus' empathy for the poor and downtrodden, his closeness to his mother, and the way they gift those close to them food/dishes from their homeland. And yet Coriolanus takes their charity, takes advantage of their kindness and empathy, and even adores how nice the cooking tastes from Ma Plinth, despite his inner monologue insulting all of it.

Suzanne Collins really did well with showing how much of an entitled, miserable racist little piece of shit he is. I just wish white fans could see his flaws for what they are instead of being dazzled by his actor's good looks.

[koduflower2000]

"It's time to think outside the box 🤔🧐"

Hi! I'm Kevin, but you can also call me Kodu, if you prefer. I'm the actual guy from Twitter (X).

Pronouns: He/Him/They/Them (any of these is fine)

Age: 19 years

Nationality: Sri Lankan

Timezone: Indian Standard Time (IST) (GMT+5:30)

A straight guy who supports the LGBTQ+ community (more specifically, I'm a straight cisgender ally)

A silly child at heart

Open talker (yes, you can be friends with me if you want)

Draws art just by using a mouse.

Speed variation of me drawing is frequent (sometimes I draw faster, other times I draw slowly)

I'm currently learning Russian BTW. Я не знаю что я делаю. 😔

Also I'm learning Spanish, and a little bit of German and French for entertainment. I hope to learn Ukrainian, Arabic and Danish any time soon.

I do music (it's actually one of my favorite things to do)

I do programming sometimes (I haven't uploaded a single cool project in here at all, as I remember) (another one of my favorites to do)

I mostly don't swear, except when I feel intense emotions. (if you're comfortable with reading my posts with swear words, go ahead. I won't judge)

I reblog a lot, so if you really wanna see what I've been working on, here are some tags in which you can look around.

#koduflower2000 art - art by me

#koduflower2000 projects - will be a tag in which i present my art and music projects.

#koduflower2000 talks - mostly something i wanna say

#koduflower2000 answers - a tag in which i answer to tumblr asks in my ask box

Interests

BFDI:TPOT (Battle For Dream Island: The Power Of Two)

BFB (Battle for BFDI)

BFDI (Battle For Dream Island)

III (Inanimate Insanity Invitational)

AvA (Animation vs Animator) series

AvM (Animation vs Minecraft) series

Bluey series from ABC Australia

Chickn Nuggit (i'm sorry i didn't tell you earlier)

Minecraft

Saw and Gaty (totally okay with those ships actually)

Airy and Popcorn from HFJONE (totally okay with those ships as well)

Fanfictions (started writing one btw)

Rhythm Games

Gaming

Computers

Linux

Information and Communication Technology

Language and Culture Learning

Science

Technology

Sports

DNI list:

Basic (you already know it)

Ableists

Anti-semitic people

Racists

Homophobic people (basically homophobes)

Pedophiles (basically MAPs)

Sexists

Xenophobic people (including islamophobes)

Transphobic people (basically transphobes)

TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists, in other words, transphobic people who spread their gender opinions which are considered to be uncomfortable to trans people)

Advanced

Extreme NSFW accounts (a.k.a. the accounts with >=90% of the posts which are NSFW)

Pro-Israel people (I support Palestine, and no one can stop me)

People neutral with Palestine and the Palestinian people (Palestinian people are the best and they're considered innocent. Period.)

Zionists (If you try to interact with my account, I would like to fight you and block you.)

Proshippers (problematic ships, not professional ships)

Comshippers

People who spread misinformation against me

On thin ice

People who harass me or any of my moots.

People who think they're superior than everyone for no reason. (the only reason why i put it there is because i want people to talk with me instead of harassing me, because i already had a lot of traumatic experiences on twitter)

Blog Landmarks

tee hee moot rose! ^ ^

me too (a tribute to all my previous moots who have been disappeared from the internet)

kinda the reason why i don't interact in here as much as i wanna

the most important thing in tumblr that hits you hard like a high speed train

elements of the intro are subject to changes which occur periodically