#and one that was asterisks

[reigningmax]

Sorry, not a fun ask 😭! Only adding to the discourse so I understand if you don’t want to answer but honestly a lot of people in this fandom need a reality check on Accusation.

Don’t like a certain driver?? Oh so you’re RACIST. Do like a certain other driver?? Oh so you’re DEFINITELY racist. AND a fascist just to be sure. Oh you find a driver attractive (because they ARE attractive, by the way, subjectively, objectively, ejectively) and you have objective headcanons about his 19yr old self that you share within a fandom space? That’s an INSTANT pedophile passport!

But, like. You can’t just throw shit like that around with a serious tone at people who have displayed none of the traits? Sure, use them as jokes within close friendship groups, probably not the most morally correct thing to do but at least that’s in a closed space with people who understand it’s not serious and will not take offence - the impact is not lingering.

Saying it on a public platform though, accusing someone you know almost nothing of value of? Lines are crossed there. Especially without anything concrete to back it up, especially with something as flimsy as headcanons. Go out, say that in the real world to some stranger who simply observes ‘y’know, he looks like a fuckboy’ and see if you’re clapped on the back or stared at with heavily questioning eyebrows and a few angry ones too, maybe. Same with many other accusations you can find in f1blr.

So, sorry you were accused of something as serious as pedophilia, Ray. That was not right at all. And as a side note, I’m glad to have you as part of the fandom experience, headcanons and all.

No exactly to all this. They're not even accusing me of that, they're just keeping tabs on me enough to know who my friends are and going to them to start shit? If you have a problem or think something I said in tags are SO bad, then have the guts to come say it to my face. And the way they kept changing their tune and what the issue is?? Come the fuck on lmao

[tpher]

dramarama baby topher real not clickbait

[tanadrin]

the elements at the end of the periodic table barely feel like real elements to me. idk, if you can't hold a lump of it in your hand without it exploding due to radioactivity--man, radioactivity is barely the right word, it's a loose mass of neutrons and protons that only just holds together for a few microseconds--you can't do chemistry with it. it's not a chemical element, in the sense it is not found as part of any compounds on Earth or in space, because it does not exist long enough to form chemical bonds. i get that you wanna finish out the last period, make the bottom right corner nice and square. but you're not doing chemistry. you're doing Stupid Particle Accelerator Tricks.

[satsuha]

wanted to wait until i was done with all of them to post them together! bravely AND octopath my beloved

[midnight-arandombanana]

Do you ever think about how malnutrition must’ve been so common in Khaenri’ah. Do you ever think about Khaenri’ahns with food insecurity. Do you ever think about how Rhinedottir was probably responsible for the majority of food production in the country. Do you ever think about how much of herself she sacrificed to feed the country she lived in. Do you ever think about how much it hurt to have *all that work* be for nothing. Do you ever think about how shocked a Khaenri’ahn might be upon going to Teyvat and seeing food *just hanging off trees, free for the taking*. Do you

[ghelgheli]

eventually anthropologists will have to reckon with the fact that no matter how strongly their research might challenge previous consensus, their universalizing use of "man vs. woman" and/or (esp. in archaeology) the morphological commitments entailed by their use of "male vs. female" traps them firmly in the old paradigms they claim to be leaving behind

[humanmorph]

i do still (occasionally) (also when keith mentions it) think about how noone really interacted with phrygian much outside of their humanoid shape much (room, place, objects etc), and when they did it usually went with a general sense of that being so strange / weird / kind of offputting. and of course part of it is that it's jokes from the cast & saying things like 'i don't want to party inside of you' are just kind of funny, i guess*, and on the other hand (watsonian) i can buy it from the characters who were raised with/under anti-branched propaganda, HOWEVER

Get over it!! Get over it!!!!! Skill‼️ Issue‼️

[sergle]

I love to hear what people say about Youtube Drama* but it's SO tacky when it gets so offbase that the posts people make start to be about completely off topic infighting within the Watcher fanbase

[muirmarie]

Me: I joke about writing the same McCoy centric story over and over again in different ways

Me: and like. I love doing it and imma keep doing it because it makes me happy.

Me: but also. I do sometimes wonder if it's like. A little Much.

Me: like maybe I should branch out or something

Me: [reads another fundamental and extremely insulting misread of McCoy's character by someone who is clearly making a Choice to cast McCoy as the villain, because they have to get him out of the way of spirk, because they're too???? idk immature??? to realize that even when you're in a relationship with one person, other ppl can and SHOULD still be important to you]

Me: lmao I hope I AM too much actually!!!! I hope it is 100% obnoxious how much I love that doctor!!!!! Time to write more versions of the same story of McCoy being forced to realize that he is loved and cared for!!!!!!

Me: I KNOW MY NICHE AND IMMA DIE IN THAT NICHE, THANKS

[yesterdayiwrote]

Also amazing to me that George and Lewis can turn up, spend the whole morning giggling and joking with each other, have an entire race where they have absolutely nothing to do with each other from lights out to chequered flag, and yet we still end up in a situation where George gets abuse for yet more unspecified conspiracy nonsense that is nothing to do with him...

[arsenicflame]

Hornigold's Izzy was the worst, of course. A version of himself that never escaped that terrible place, who lived his life as little more than an object. He still has nightmares about all the things Baz told them, about all the things he didn't.

It doesn't really surprise him, after the first ones, not at its root. To be Izzy Hands is to be someone's after all, though seeing his own face on someone so fundamentally different to him never gets less weird. The people who these other Izzys attached themselves too often left him with more questions than answers. Jack's Izzy, he can understand, from a certain view, though the man himself felt like a fever dream. The less said about Stede's Izzy the better, he's never going to forgive him for the ideas he put in his Stede's head.

Then there was Sam's Izzy.

The first thing anyone noticed about him was that he was happy. He smiled and laughed without thought, and went through life with an ease Izzy didn't think he had ever felt. The crew took to him immediately, accepting him in a way they never did the other Izzys, and certainly not their own. They prodded him and asked him endless questions, and he took every touch without a flinch and answered every question without a hint of a grumble. This Izzy was free. He was open, unburdened, trusting. He was happy.

Sam's Izzy was the one that hurt the most to see. He could accept the worst that Hornigold could've offered, that he would have suffered and been broken. It was infinitely harder to see that he had a chance to be this happy. That it slipped through his fingers.

He's never looked back before, but now? Seeing what might've been? He can't stop himself from considering the possibility that maybe he made the wrong choice back then, going with Ed.

[braisedhoney]

May I have a little *muah muah* from Valentine Narrator? *blinks innocently*

- GG anon

... ah, what the hell! why not. requests are closed atm, but it's valentines season, so I’ll do this one for the people who want it!

genuinely didn’t expect to draw this guy again but lovecore themed narry is probably the only one who’d do it sincerely, so you’re in luck!

(once again this lovecore theme is vaguely based on the love bug au concept by @things1do.)

[possamble]

it’s no secret that there isn’t a TON to go off of when observing falin’s characterization (esp since she’s more of a tool for the narrative, and the personality that we do get from her is from other characters’ perspectives). but i’m very curious to know your thoughts on the “even if it means hurting someone else, i want you and my brother to live, marcille” part. imo, it’s probably the closest we’ve gotten to seeing her as flawed and deeper and more complex than we are initially led to believe.

plus i trust your analyses on these characters :)

ambrosiagourmet already did an analysis on that panel which was my basis for formulating falin's characterization when i was first getting into dungeon meshi and i honestly don't think it can be topped/ i really have nothing more to add to this:

"Going back the The Panel, I don't think its a coincidence that the only time we see Falin (well, non-chimera Falin) willing to do something that could hurt someone is when any potential pain will be far away from her. If she got someone hurt or killed by teleporting the party to the surface? Not only would it be far out of her sight, but she'd be dead before she had to deal with any consequences of that action."

"So many people that Falin loves have hurt her. There are understandable hurts, like Laios leaving the village, or Marcille not understanding the food. And there are bigger, far less justifiable hurts - like her parents neglecting her throughout her childhood, and sending her away to be alone at the magic academy. It doesn't seem like Falin has ever confronted any of it directly."

[icewindandboringhorror]

................ he 

[bestworstcase]

Genuine question, do you call Oz's (or Salems) circle a cult based on the ancient definition (i.e. cult of dionysus) or the modern definition of cult with the BITE model (i.e. Scientology, Manson family, etc)? And can you go into why you think they're cults, if that's okay? I'm very curious :>

generally speaking when i say cult i mean it in the non-pejorative sense of a system of religious veneration toward a particular entity, e.g. salem and ozma received cult as god-rulers back in the day. aside from. tyrian. i wouldn’t characterize salem’s present day operation as a cult because it’s Unclear to me whether the others actually worship her in any sense beyond like smiling and nodding when tyrian starts going on about Our Divine Savior. similarly ozpin’s inner circle is not a cult of him, it’s a cult of light.

In This Sense what makes ozpin’s circle a cult is the explicitly religious nature of the group. which is something a lot of the fandom overlooks because a) rwby is cooking the religious narrative very slowly and b) religion is not taken seriously as character motivation. but like, when qrow brings team RNJR into the loop he leads with "not many people are super religious these days and there’s a lot of Fake Made-Up Gods but ozpin says there’s two who Really Exist. they made us and they left behind four divine relics for us to guard from The Enemy." & it’s not an accident that he frames the situation in these terms, not is it accidental that oz presents himself as someone cursed (ordained) by the gods to stop salem. the organizing principle at the heart of this group is religious in nature—the gods entrusted us with these divine relics we must guard whilst we shepherd humanity toward redemption.

*teams RWBY and JNPR aren’t brought into that second part before ruby explodes ozpin’s whole situation by asking jinn her question, but in fairytales of remnant the story of the two brothers is attributed to qrow and overtly states the divine ultimatum:

“I disagree,” the God of Light said. “And we promised to share in the fate of our joint creation.” He gave a mighty yawn. “Let us rest, and when the time comes, we will see what Humanity has become in our absence. At that point, we will judge them. If they are worthy, we will take their forms and walk among them as equals. If not, we will take back our gifts and start over elsewhere. What do you say?” “Who will decide whether they are worthy?” the God of Darkness said. “Humanity will make it plain. If they come together in unity and find a way to destroy the evil in the world and within themselves, then they are worthy. If not … we will let them burn,” the God of Light said.

which ozpin reiterates in the commentary:

Whether or not you believe in the Brothers, or in this story in particular, the underlying message still holds value: We are burdened with responsibility for our world, and we share a common destiny. Like the twin gods, we are intricately connected with one another, and if we can learn to work and live together, we can create things greater than the sum of their parts. Remnant survived the Great War, but while the four kingdoms now cooperate and coexist, our bond seems tenuous. We have a fragile peace, and in some ways, we are more divided than ever. Even if the gods aren’t real, even if they don’t return to judge us for our deeds, we should act each day as though they are arriving tomorrow. In the end, we will be the arbiters of our fates. We will either create a beautiful, peaceful world and live in harmony together or destroy ourselves and our planet, and the gods will judge what we have chosen.

what this tells us is that a) ozpin’s innermost circle knows that the brothers will some day return for the final judgment and that ozpin is working to prepare for this, and b) the idea of the final judgment itself is not something ozma has kept secret, it’s mainstream brother-cult doctrine that ozpin publicly uses his platform as the headmaster of beacon academy to proselytize. the reason none of the kids reacted at all to the divine mandate/the final judgment is they already knew about it in the same way you’re probably familiar with the rapture in basic terms even if you aren’t a christian.

based on the fairytale anthology, i would also argue that all of this is true not only of the inner circle but of the academies writ large, because in the introduction:

When I became headmaster of Beacon Academy, one of my first goals was to introduce a deeper study of the stories that make up the fabric of our world—after all, I am first and foremost a teacher. […] It may seem self-serving to place this book at the core of a new curriculum at the Huntsmen academies; however, it also has been compiled with these academies especially in mind.

ozpin indicates that once he became headmaster he published this set of stories and commentaries and then made it the CORE of a new curriculum for the four academies; and fairytales of remnant is, again, an overtly religious text that exhorts the reader to believe in and act upon brother-cult doctrine. imagine an anthology of stories that included a hodgepodge of aesop’s fables, grimm fairytales, a couple greek myths, and a synopsis of the gospel with a commentary urging you to accept jesus into your heart. that’s what fairytales of remnant is, in essence, and the whole curriculum of the academies is structured around that. these institutions front as secular but they’re not.

(two brothers is also not the only story in the anthology that references the final judgment: the ‘circle’ depicted in the infinite man is explicitly working to “make ready for the final judgment” before they’re put to the sword by adversaries who presumably didn’t like the sound of that. so ozma’s been doing this with varying degrees of subtlety for a good long while.)

ALL THAT SAID,

ozpin’s inner circle is absolutely also a high-control group (which is what people typically mean when they say "cult"). let’s walk through the BITE model real quick ->

behavioral control.

in reality this dimension involves various practices e.g. sleep deprivation, corporal punishment, social isolation, financial control that serve to establish and maintain direct power over group members such that they become physically and/or psychologically dependent on the group and therefore unable to leave. within the world of rwby and the specific context of ozpin’s inner circle, this is Not Necessary because all ozpin has to do is invoke the dangers of mass hysteria and the grimm. we mustn’t cause a panic or the grimm will come and there will be chaos and the world will go to war.

combine this constant drumbeat (“old ozpin would always put his foot down. ‘we can't cause a panic.’ heh, can't tell you how many times i’ve heard that…”) with the reality that huntsmen work is grueling in and of itself, and that we know from 9.10 that ozpin made it a regular practice to call individual members of team STRQ away on hush-hush urgent missions with no advance warning in the middle of the night. on its own, that isn’t inherently problematic (hunting monsters is a dangerous and difficult profession, duh)

but think about what it says about how ozpin operates that working for him means being on call at all hours for top secret dead-of-night emergencies that regularly turned out to just be “routine patrols.” this speaks to his paranoia but—do you want a group of people who are permanently stressed-out and exhausted? this is how you get that, by refusing to stay organized and just set up a schedule for routine patrols such that emergency becomes routine. if nothing else this is a horrible working environment. and this sort of thing is what the dimension of behavioral control is really about, because people who are stressed out and tired all the time are more susceptible to disinformation and manipulation.

the final piece is the inner circle’s perception of ozpin as the one who must guide them because, as glynda tells ironwood, he “has experience the rest of [them] lack.” again, taken in isolation this seems innocuous until to you consider that a) ozpin does not have the experience he claims to posses—he hasn’t been fighting salem for any significant length of time because salem has been Ignoring Him—and b) ozpin does things like LEAPING to the conclusion that lionheart is a traitor on the grounds of the mistral council overruling him, and getting first verbally forceful and then physically violent when the girls start to defy him. what first appears as ozpin taking the lead because he has the most experience turns into, well, lunging at ruby because she disobeyed him

✅ sleep deprivation + fostering an artificially high-stress environment ✅ encouraging groupthink ("we can’t cause panic") ✅ cultivating dependence on the group leader ✅ threats of punishment/dire consequences for failure (the grimm) used to guide behavior

information control.

this dimension. doesn’t need elaborating. lol

✅ deception (in all forms: withholding information, distorting the facts, & systematic lies) ✅ restricting access to unsanctioned sources of information (by keeping everyone too busy to investigate or ask questions, on this see also the way oz frames raven’s decision to leave) ✅ compartmentalization of information (information is heavily controlled, different levels of information provided at different levels of commitment to the group, "we can fill you in on the details once we know you’re with us," ozpin decides who needs to know and when) ✅ encourage spying/monitoring within the group (qrow accuses ironwood of "turning his back on oz," winter + ironwood accuse him of being compromised, summer and raven both feeling isolated/unable to trust others in the group, general high levels of distrust between group members)

thought control.

also very straightforward.

✅ instill black and white, us vs them thinking (specifically, "it’s us protecting the Helpless Frightened Masses against them," and reducing every problem to "we can’t let salem divide us" and "how can we kill all these grimm"—contrast how robyn operates, the difference is staggering) ✅ thought-stopping platitudes ("we can’t cause a panic" and "i always prefer discretion" and "we can’t let salem divide us" etc, with the latter note how rwby delivers the "you’re being divisive" rhetoric through jacques first, specifically to illustrate its efficacy as a tool of control) ✅ allowing only correct / good thoughts (because if negativity then salem wins!) ✅ rejection of critical thinking or constructive criticism (this happens every time someone is informed of the first layer of truth and starts asking why it’s secret; inculcating the group rationalizations to shut down this questioning is always step one) ✅ prohibiting questioning of the group leader (in the most extreme example, ozpin lunges at ruby to stop her from using the lamp, but see also his anger when the kids don’t stop questioning his choices) ✅ other belief systems labeled as illegitimate (the brothers are the only True Gods and other religions that exist don’t count except when we use them to justify keeping secrets) or evil (salem’s rejection of the gods is construed as a desire for the world to end, in some cases overtly, and this is explicitly manipulative)

& emotional control.

the grimm do most of the real legwork here. i won’t go into the Whole Thing on how the huntsman model is an, at best, incomplete understanding of the grimm but suffice it to say repressing feelings is, demonstrably, Not Effective at warding away the grimm and small villages outside the kingdoms with no huntsmen protection are demonstrably capable of dealing with grimm outside of extreme situations (bandit raids, giants like the nuckelavee) where huntsmen would be outgunned too. which i want to emphasize because the extremely dysfunctional way ozpin’s inner circle views negative emotions is NOT practical or necessary within the context of the setting, and in fact is arguably counterproductive to the stated goal of minimizing grimm attacks.

anyways,

✅ manipulate and narrow the range of acceptable feelings (all "negative emotion" is undesirable and actively shamed) ✅ inculcate guilt or feelings of inadequacy (in leaders specifically: "if you are not always performing at your absolute best, what reason do you give others to follow you?" + the condemnation of raven and general attitude of "there’s no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat") ✅ instilling fear of thinking independently (we see the consequences of this play out in v7-9, with the incredible anxiety over disagreement) and of the outside world (grimm, constant drumbeat of inescapable existential danger which can ONLY be avoided by keeping secrets and keeping the general public complacent) ✅ specifically inculcating intense fear of leaving the group (by ostracizing those who leave [raven] and cultivating the mindset that there is never an acceptable reason to leave [it is disgraceful and shameful to retreat, leaving is "abandoning your training/duties"], plus terrible consequences if someone leaves [without the spring maiden we’re all going to die]; with ironwood this escalates to him going to extreme, violent lengths to get penny back under control and punish winter for defying him)

note how:

many of these behaviors continue and/or escalate after ozpin’s death, because the members of the inner circle continue to follow the example he set and because the kids (ruby n yang especially, having been raised from birth by members of the inner circle) were inculcated with the foundational mindset and beliefs in academies that the inner circle a) controls and b) uses as a recruiting ground; and

since v6, the narrative has been developing character arcs that examine the Many Ways this system traumatizes and breaks people. this is of course exacerbated by the fact of the apocalyptic war happening, but the broken old guard—team STRQ, ironwood, ozpin himself, gretchen rainart—are there to make the point that the inner circle was breaking and traumatizing people long before salem went to war. so the abundance of these high-control methods exists in conjunction with the narrative focusing on how harmful and destructive all of it is; the inner circle is intended to be understood as deeply dysfunctional, and the huntsmen academies as failing institutions doomed by the inner circle’s beliefs and methodology.

so whether the Specific Authorial Intention is to depict a high-control group/cult, in the more general sense the inner circle is overtly meant to be Bad News. things like the sinister framing with pyrrha in v3, ozpin physically attacking ruby when she used the lamp, the throughline from things ozpin teaches ruby in v1 to her breakdown in v9, the whole Situation with summer and raven in the past, etc, all of this weaves together to paint a very fucked up picture of how the inner circle functions and the ripples of harm it causes.