#and was like yeah that reeks of racist ignorance

[honoratacarnage]

oh? are you saying that maybe one the most prestigious and credited zoos in the world..... knows what their doing??? and are only getting harassed over their animals because...... they're on a third world country filled with brown people???

but for real tho, if i see another post saying Moodeng is abused ill spam their inboxes ffs

Yeah, you’re not going to see me reblogging anything moo deng related anytime soon.

Her mouth is always open like that not because she’s silly or sassy, but because she’s trying to get her handlers to back off.

She’s agitated and frightened because she’s being manhandled and bothered far too frequently. Picking her up, poking her, spraying her with water when she’s sleeping just to get more clout to post on the internet. If they keep this up, she’s going to turn into quite the dangerous adult.

It’s messed up, and we need to stop circulating this. They need to leave her alone.

[thesiouxzy]

TL;DR:

I find solace in writing. I was going to post the piece below but after sending it to my brother & discussing it, I’m not (going to bother posting it on the other social media sites I frequent)

My brother helped me realize that I’m likely wrong, & Trump probably did win everything I mentioned by the majority’s vote. My problem is I hold on to hope for the good in others. I need to let that go & accept that apparently the majority or Americans really are ignorant, selfish dummies who are misogynistic, racist, bigots. It’s beyond disappointing! I thought that I (along with the people I love & consider friends) represented the average person but apparently we’re in a whole other world from the average American! 😳

Roach Rubes come out of the woodwork during elections & unfortunately, as we’ve just seen, outnumber the intelligent, good people. There’s no changing that so… I’m going to continue to fight for my rights & the rights of others but at the same time I’m going to step back from the news, make popcorn & watch the Roach Rubes get their rude awakening once Trump takes office in January. That’s all we can do 🤷🏼‍♀️

Believe me, I would love nothing more than to have their sweet dreams of Trump being an amazing President who makes America an amazing country with all citizens being taken care of come true, but smart people know that’s not Trump. He only cares about himself & money

——- Original post——-

If you’re going to cheat & rig an election, maybe don’t make it so obvious & out your narcissist self by “winning” ALL 7 swing states, plus the majority of the USA, the popular vote (yeah right! 🙄), the house AND the senate 👌🏼😏

This election reeks of being rigged. It’s easy to do when you have billionaires behind you (especially E. Mu*k) who want to make as much money as they can, plus evil leaders in countries like Russia & North Korea who will also benefit off Trump being president

In addition to all of this, Harris Walz had major hype, hope, & (not that this matters but still) some of the most powerful celebrity endorsements (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Oprah & many more). How does anyone with a (normal) brain not find this extremely fishy & demand it gets looked into immediately?! 🤷🏼‍♀️ Instead, less than 24 hours after the election, Biden, Harris & the Obamas are congratulating Trump on his win & telling the rest of us to hang in there & have hope. This is Bizarro World! 🤯 Is this really happening or am I asleep having a nightmare?

We’re really supposed to believe a complete POS man, who is a bully & an absolute embarrassment & disgrace, a convicted felon who has threatened to strip the rights/protection of many, eliminate important programs, deport thousands of immigrants (many of whom, like it or not, hold jobs that are crucial to keeping our country running) & literally spelled it all out in a 900 page agenda, won the election in a landslide AND the popular vote to boot?

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Mel Medarda

she is the richest woman in piltover who left her family because she didn't agree with the way they did things (conquering and murdering). she sponsors jayce and viktor, and courts jayce, which makes people upset because, you know, jayvik. she and viktor are CANONICALLY parallels with much of their imagery mirroring the other's and they are literally the same height. and people are so weird and misogynist and racist about her. they argue she is manipulating jayce and doesn't actually love him. i am cognitively disabled and cannot explain things well, but, she is so fucking shouldered

Black woman who has a romantic arc with one of the main characters Jayce. Jayce has a best friend called Viktor and their relationship is pretty important plot wise, shown as a direct contrast to his relationship with Mel even though only one is canonically sexual/romantic. So naturally fandom as the transformative safe haven it is villainized Mel horribly coming up with theories about how instead of being a complex morally grey character she's actually evil and just wants to seduce Jayce for Evil Reasons. Since they couldn't use her as a supportive female friend with no personality, others just ignored her existence entirely or acted like Jayce would ditch her for Viktor. Majority of m/m shippers will reduce her down to her relationship with Jayce and an obstacle in the way of JayVik, ironically writing her as a far worse and less complex version of the character we get on screen. The misogyny reeks and combined with the racism? It's a pretty bad case. Only slightly mitigated due to the fact that the main characters of the show are women (and the lead is a lesbian) so thankfully the male focus of fandom is lessened as opposed to filling almost every inch. Still awful to try and search for good Mel content, godspeed girlies with taste.

She's one of the most interesting characters on the show, a rich politician, smart and beautiful and has a really complicated and intriguing relationship with the city's golden boy inventor. unfortunately golden boy has a sickly twink science partner so she gets sidetracked SO BAD

Juno

She's honestly a way deeper character than people give her credit for, her arc is that of acceptance and being true to your heart despite what society thinks of you. Oh yeah and for the record she doesn't stand in the way of Lougosi because of her crush on Legoshi because I honestly think that she was more in love with the idea of being in a same species relationship than she was with Legoshi himself. I'm talking about the part where she falls for Louis and struggles with the knowledge that if she actually pursues him she's gonna be seen as a freak and never reach the social status she strives for. There's a lot to discuss with her character arc but NOOOO let's all just laugh at how she gets no bitches because Beastars fans see Juno as a joke. (I'm not mad I'm not mad it's fine it's fine)

shes cool but she doesnt have good chemistry with her canon love interest and therefore the fandom chalks her up to having no personality whatsoever. they see her as either an obstacle or a sex object basically

Done dirty by the writers and fandom alike

[thegreatimpersonator]

Yeah like idk it’s not like we’re mad at her bc she ended a 6 year relationship and maybe wants to slut it up like I feel like 90% of her fan base would LOVE a messy summer a la Calvin/Tom/Joe and she has built up enough of a persona (I guess is the word?) that she won’t be criticized for being a maneater anymore like no one wants to say negative shit about her

But it’s the man she chose. Like

Also the article saying “lol who’s taking him seriously?” like ok plenty of people. It’s not a fucking joke… he’s not just a “silly guy” like. God I hate it here… can someone with a large platform PLEASE call them out. She has way too many yes men rn

literally no one cares that she's dating. not a single person (a mature one at least) would pay close attention to her casual flings. it's that the person she chose is a racist bigot. what the fuck is so hard for y'all to understand about that.

it's the same as people being like 'yeah i dont like that she's dating him but i guess we have to deal with it' we dont have to do shit? it reeks of privilege to just simply ignore it and that opens up the topic of white feminism- people just ignoring the suffering/abuse of minorities because it's more comfortable for them... historically look where that's gotten us.

'who's taking him seriously'

the black women when he said he likes to get off to them being beaten and when he said the n word. the Muslim people who he said were all a part of ISIS. the Jewish people when he did the Nazi salute. victims of assault when he publicly supported kyle rittenhouse. disabled people when he said the r slur. queer people when he said the f slur. Korean people when he mocked their culture and disrespected their flag. that's who's taking it seriously because they don't really get a choice in the matter now do they you privileged fucking idiots.

[thrillhoues]

Since we're being honest

Sterek

OK, the gloves are gonna come off and it's gonna be a long one.

I hate this ship. For many reasons, textual, metatextual, fandom, just because it's been too long.

First, a bit about me, I didn't watch Teen Wolf until after the show ended, like two years afterwards. I thought it was a dumb show with a dumb premise and a weird fandom, but then I realized I'm part of other fandoms, and I should take the time to watch the show at least.

And I'd obviously heard about Sterek. Sterek is such a big ship, in any fandom space it was inescapable. So watching the show for the first time, I was let down by how minimal and uninteresting the interactions between Stiles and Derek felt. Derek had more raw sexual chemistry with Jackson over the first season, with Scott throughout the show, with Liam in that one scene in the gym lockerroom than with Stiles.

So that's my textual reason for not really loving the ship. I felt like other ships and characters would be more interesting paired with Derek - again, I didn't watch in real time so I didn't get invested in "who belongs with who" but rather, "This guy is hot with that guy"

Metatextual: I love a twunk with a muscle guy, I do, but Stiles and Derek are pitched so heteronormatively in stories, and that's a result of a lack of fandom imagination for the ship, that it doesn't really strike me as anything other than replicating straight dynamics with a gay twist sometimes.

Beyond that, I find that the Stiles stan / Sterek fandom is pretty fucking horrendous when it comes to Scott and Tyler Posey. Borderline - and sometimes running ramshod past the borderline into full on - racist. Stories where Scott is barely competent and can't dress himself. Stories where he's just a selfish piece of shit because he doesn't want to murder everyone in sight. Shit like that, the ways in which racism subtly bleed into fandom, that shit can take the wind right out of the sales on a ship someone likes. So yeah, but I hate the fandom racism directed at Scott and Tyler Posey. I was reading one story where all the non-white characters are either idiots, corrupt and needing to be kicked out of town, or dead. Good job, fandom, for having unexamined biases

Of course that's not all Sterek people, but it's enough of them that I can't get into their ship.

My final reason for disliking Sterek is one half of the ship has such a rabidly angry, bizarre fandom, one that's so focused on Stiles being the best character of Teen Wolf. I hate the attitude towards Stiles. I like the character, but I hate the tone, the approach, that's taken towards what's essentially a smart character with flaws. Instead of accepting that charaters have flaws - Derek, Scott, Liam have flaws - Stiles stans magnify his virtues and ignore every single time he's too quick to judge, mean, anything in favor of all his perfect virtues.

It reeks of self-insert when they write him. Gary Stu bullshit.

Anyway, long and short of it is that they're turned me off Stiles as a character altogether - heck, I wrote three fics about Stiles sleeping with different men to try and get over that thing, but I couldn't bring myself to go further because I hate Stiles. Love Derek, though.

[donfermin]

Coral Simanovich is among the worst WAG ever. I mean it. I can't believe she's making the terrible situation in Gaza about her. I don't know if you saw the interview she gave for an Israeli magazine this summer but she said "The only reason I didn't spoke that much about October 7th is because I live in antisemitic country and this country puts me in danger every day. I have bodyguards to protect me (...) etc etc" GIRL ???? No one would ever know about you or your religious identity in the street, you look like any white blonde girl, meanwhile people are in danger everyday in Gaza ??? And so much for gratefulness for your Spanish husband and his country, calling all Spanish antisemitic because the Spanish government refuse to participate in "war" (or should I say the G-word) ? ALSO. Mishel Herzig said "if you're white, gay or Jewish, they will k!ll you" Excuse me ? There are white Palestinians, Gays palestinians, and a minority of Jewish Palestinians too. Coral is a typical rich girl living in her millionaire mansion cut from the real world, but Mishel just reeks of rac!sm and ignorance.

I will tell you a funny (actually not) story that happened to me not long ago.

I have a colleague who I work closely with on a daily basis and we sometimes hang out outside of work too. I knew he was jew and he told me once he has family and friends in Tel Aviv. I honestly forgot about it as he mentioned it once when I first started working there and only started talking about it again after October 7. We discussed a lot about what is going on and he doesn't have extreme views, but he's not pro-Palestine either. I have since then distanced myself from him and keep our relationship strictly professional, but unfortunately he took a liking to me and invited me to dinner one day. There was his mom too, who came visiting him for a few days. From his stories, I knew she was a bit mentally unstable and quite toxic. However, I also discovered she's a raging zionist.

We live in the German part of the country, but we always speak French between us. We were speaking and at the table next to ours there was a couple who also spoke French, so they started a conversation with us. We were just talking a little about why we were there and where we were actually from and out of the blue, my colleague's mom said: "Yeah, Switzerland is great but it's also quite antisemitic". Mind you, it had nothing (NOTHING!!) to do with our conversation.

Switzerland is not perfect, we are a right-wing and conservative country. We can also be extremely racist, even among each other, but antisemitic? Switzerland? Doesn't she know the history of her own country??

All this to say: they will tell anything to support their cause, their genocide (and please use that word, it's not a war by all means), but all they say are lies because if they base their reasoning on facts they will lose the argument. And they know it. They are spreading senseless and baseless lies, they use the antisemitism card just to make other people feel guilty. Just to not be pictured as the bad guys. They're all excuses. They are so indoctrinated that they don't realise what is really going on outside of their own happy bubble.

[pickles-24]

All Eyes on You ( Felix)

4- Overindulgence

Author's note: This is my first fic In a while please be patient. ( Daisy Lyn is the Musian name - this is not real-)

PAIRING: College Felix!! x Musician fem reader!!

GENRES: social media au, smut, fluff, angst, mystery, drama, enemies to lovers, college au, celebrity au, non-idol au

WARNINGS: cursing, slow-burn, alcohol/drug consumption, addiction, sexual jokes/ sexual content, toxic relationships, mental health disorders, trauma, mentions of abuse, offense jokes (NOT RACIST NOR ANYTHING LIKE THAT), Felix and MC have a small age gap (He's older by 2 1/2 years) THIS IS NOT IN ANY WAY LINKED TO THE REAL DEALS!

SUMMARY: You're an up-and-coming musician with a decent platform. You and a Friend of Felix's get close eventually leading you to meet Him. Liking each other at first, wasn't in the cards due to several misunderstandings. Throughout the year You start gaining attention from more than just your fans. All eyes are on you.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" You ask not sure what could have happened to piss him off this time. The only thing you did was be extremely high. Felix looked at you again, making eye contact, "She is gone." He muttered to himself. Clearly, he didn't do a good job because you heard him. "What do you mean by that?" You ask your voice softer than you intended. He makes a turn out of your street, ignoring your question.

"Hey, Y/N." Jisung called from the backseat," Are you Daisy Lyn?" It wasn't the first time that someone asked you that. "Yeah, I am." Seungmin punched his arm, "I fucking told you, I knew I recognized her from TikTok." You turned your head and looked at him, "You know me from Tiktok?" You ask as your half-lidded eyes light up. Maybe that's what Felix meant by you being gone.

Nah. You felt great, You felt like yourself. "Yeah I've followed you for a while, I'm actually a fan." Felix raised his eyebrows, were you TikTok famous or something? That would explain why you were so out of touch with things. "I'm surprised I have a fan like I'm not famous or anything." You smiled at Seungmin, "Thanks for the support."

Felix rolled up to the Kappa Kappa Alpha house and told the boys to get out, "Y/N are you coming with us?" Jisung asked as Felix shook his head, we'll be there in a minute I need help with something. And drove off to go park. "What do you need help with?" You ask as he sighs, "How high are you?" That's why he was in a mood first, You forgot to spray perfume before getting in his car.

"Shit, I'm sorry I forgot to put more perfume." You apologized to him. "I don't like you but I wasn't trying to be disrespectful and make your car smell like weed." You explained as He shook his head, "Whatever, I don't care if you like me or not." He retorted back, "And you don't smell enough to get my car to reek of weed." Why the fuck was he being like that for. "Ok, then what the fucks is the problem? Do you have something against smoking? What's the big deal?"

That's when it hit you that the car had stopped moving, and without saying anything else you left the car and slammed the door. When you got in front of the sorority house Jisung and Seungmin were waiting outside, "Hey where's Felix?" You rummaged through your purse annoyed. "He's in the car," You pulled out your disposable and took a pull from it. You had a bad habit of smoking at any minor inconvenience. "Let's go in and meet up with everyone." You say as the boys nod and walk inside.

Once inside you find Soon and Minnie near the drinks. “Hey,” You say as you grab a cup of jungle juice. “Oh girl is higher then the clouds,” Soojin giggled as you nodded, “Damn just the clouds?” You asked taking a swig from the cup. To be honest you knew you shouldn’t over indulge yourself in your vices. But when you met Felix in his stupid blue Camero it reminded you of San. You were convinced that if he hadn’t died that night you would be with him.

You would be better off than you were without him. Then you were now. All because of that stupid drunk driver in the blue Camaro. You know it’s not Felix’s fault for having the same car that killed your boyfriend. But you hated his attitude when it came to driving and it fueled your memories.You chugged the cup and went to grab another one.

“Y/N” A familiar voice called from behind you, it was Chris and he was with a girl that looked to be around your age. “This is my little sister Hannah, Hannah this is Y/N.” Hannah stuck her hand out for you to shake. You smiled and shook it, “Hey nice to meet you.” She smiled softly and nodded, “ I actually saw you with I.N earlier and I wanted to go say hi but I got nervous.” She laughed as she confessed.

“Why would you be nervous? I’m nothing special.” You said finishing your drink and grabbing another one. “Y/N calm down this is your 3rd drink.” Soojin interfered. You shook your head, “ I’m fine” Hannah’s phone rang and she excused herself to answer it. You wandered off around the party to find I.N. You figured you could’ve asked someone but you forgot.

You wanted to forget San, not how to be a basic human being. You chugged your third drink and tossed the cup. Eventually you see someone who you recognized. You made your way towards the couch and sat down next to them. “Y/N?” That’s not the voice you wanted to hear, you took your disposable out again. Took a long pull and put it away.

“Yeah?” Your voice slightly slurred now. Maybe you should have paced yourself. Especially on the first night with the new people you met. But you couldn’t help it. You wanted to forget the heartbreak, and the unexpected and horrible reminder of it. “Are you okay?” You nodded. Your eyes glossed beyond belief. “I would be if it wasn’t for that fucking car.” You mumbled to yourself thinking about San.

It was a lie and you knew it. You broken way before San came into and out of your life. You grew used to the pain your parents caused you. But the pain of losing him cut you deep. Too deep. “Oh get over it will you. So what I parked bad.” Felix said rolling his eyes. His hand on his drink. “What? No not you. That jack ass in the blue Camero.”

To anyone who didn’t know it sounded like you were talking about Felix. You knew. You knew it wasn’t about him. “That blue Camero and Overindulgence.” You said, “That fucking car killed him, that and the fucking drunk.” The last part came out almost silent. Almost.

taglist: @seungseung-minmin

[pinkprettycure]

The way she said "anyone should be allowed to play any roles they want" she clearly has never been oppressed before (although, I know she is mixed judging by her selfies she doesn't seem very white-passing but she can still reek internalized racism and do whitewashing and race erasure on her African ancestry) or she hate reading/learning about queer and trans studies in media industry in general like I get it ppl don't like to read, but they shouldn't be surprised if ppl calls them out for choosing to be ignorant and it her own fault for choosing to be stupid and be wrong...it wasn't easy for ANY openly queer people to work in the industry back then and we all don't want to be forced in a cishet roles we don't feel comfortable to take part in.

literally honestly she should have known better, and if it weren't for the toxic and shameful reaction I would be inclined to say it was just an ignorant, clueless comment. Since the idea that "everyone should just be able to play anyone" is an appealing outlook that I understand completely, but we're not there yet.

and a lot of ppl regardless of their marginalization struggle to have any sort of understanding or empathy toward people with struggles different than them, and because they do face discrimination they think it means they know everything there is to know. thats how we get ppl chiming in on discussions of like antiblackness with "im hispanic and i dont find it racist" like huh?

but yeah the biggest problem comes from her response, lack of apology, dogpiling, bullying, and unwillingness to hear other perspectives. It's one thing to say "we should all be able to just play anyone we want" it's another to refuse to hear why we would prefer trans people to play trans roles. It's not that we want people to "only" play roles that "match", but rather giving people who haven't had a chance to try an opportunity as well as letting them work with creators and share their perspectives. A trans VA could point out hey, this line is a bit weird, I don't think they would say that!

And Wubcake also was like "what is a trans voice" and the answer is that there isn't one, but a trans voice actress who has been voice training for Years could deliver certain quirks or traits to the performance that someone who's never had to try that sort thing before for example. those experiences matter. but she clearly isn't willing to listen and sees that as a nuisance at best.

[irithnova]

hi! how did your interest in hetalia begin? also, with mongolia as well. <3

Hello! :D

Well I became interested in hetalia when I first kind of started secondary school (UK) soo I think around 13 or something I became interested in hetalia? Then at 13/14 is when I first started getting interested in the country of Mongolia, so I guess me liking aph Mongolia was just a natural marriage between the two interests haha.

I guess I started to like hetalia because I've always been a history nerd and an anime/manga fan, and I've always liked learning about different cultures, so hetalia seemed like the perfect manga/anime for me. Admittedly, Mongolia wasn't immediately my fave character, Russia was my first favourite character. I was also a weird kid and a lot of my weird friends liked hetalia too! (I say weird in a good way).

When it comes to being interested in the country of Mongolia, I think it was because I got really tired of learning about European history. Not that I only focussed on European history when it came to my different historical obsessions lol I mean I had a huge ancient Egypt phase, but I wanted more. I've heard about the Mongols and their impact on European history but it was mostly to do with the spread of the black death (the UK wasn't affected by the Mongol invasions). Also when I was obsessed with Russia (still kind of am..) there were more mentions of the Mongols so I was like eh why not.

When I started to do more research on Mongolia's history, the more fascinated I became with it. I've always had an affinity towards cultures that were labelled as "barbaric" by its neighbours (I'm not saying I view the Mongols as barbaric, not at all, just that they were labelled that way), which explains my pretty huge Scottish history phase lol.

I was impressed by what they were able to achieve despite being the underdogs at the time, and the unique nomadic culture of Mongolia further drew me in to being interested in the country and it's history. Even beyond the empire era and before the empire era, Mongolian history is incredibly interesting.

The secrecy that Mongolian history is shrouded in before they came onto the world stage because of the lack of records to do with the Mongols, the huge Mongolic/Turkic empires that came before the Mongols, what the true origins of the Mongols are, Mongolia during the Ming and Qing dynasties, mass conversion to Buddhism, Mongolia's fight for independence in the 20th century and transition from communism to capitalism, and Mongolia today, it's all just so alluring.

Mongolian culture also really drew me in. It seemed so different from my own and I couldn't help but just, idk, keep on reading about it haha.

With all of this in mind, I guess this is why I'm so interested in aph Mongolia as a character. Going about characterising a man (or woman if you prefer) with such a rich and complicated history was a challenge I was willing to take up, and the more I learn about Mongolian history and culture (bc you never stop learning! ) the more and more complex he becomes.

Many hetalia fans in the past have just brushed him off as some brute and basically used him as the local villain of the week in a lot of their fics (I mean some still do it today but it's not as bad as it used to be...) and it frustrates me to no end because it just reeks of typical anti-Mongolian sentiment. There's nothing wrong with making him the bad guy in fics, everyone is free to show the dark sides of nations in their fics or art etc (I have a fanfiction myself where he is acting like an asshole, empire era).

But as I said before, the way in which Mongolia is characterised in a lot of fics (because it's usually fics) is just blatantly racist and/or ignorant towards Mongolian history and culture, and the writers would never depict another nation is such an unflattering manner, so yeah they're just using Mongolia as a cheap villain or they cheapen the character of Mongolia into a caricature as a grab for an easy one dimensional villain, which is a huge disservice to the history and people of Mongolia.

Even now, I'm still trying to be kind of careful with how I characterise Mongolia, because ignorance doesn't have to be blatant in order for it to still shine through. In the past, I've seen people hypermasculinise Mongolia and other central Asian characters. Listen, there's nothing wrong with headcanoning a character as being more on the masc side, I headcanon Mongolia to be more masc too!

But the issue comes from when people completely have a lack of nuance when it comes to masculinity in Mongolia and central Asia, and it really runs the risk of depicting them as barbaric and backwards. I've noticed how in the past, some people would hyperfeminise East Asian countries (more often than not, China) and in turn, hypermasculinise Mongolia, and it paints a pretty ugly picture when these same writers/artists make headcanons or art or whatnot.

Another thing I'm being careful with is how I headcanon Mongolia and technology. I know it's a joke amongst people that he can't even turn on a computer (and to those who joke ab this dw I'm aware it's a joke) but it becomes an issue when people unironically go around saying stuff like that, in my opinion (I don't think he's a technology wizard but c'mon he's not completely disconnected from technology to the point where he can't even use a laptop properly).

Some people tend to romanticise the rurality of Mongols and paint them as being a "happy, simple people" who are "too good for technology/capitalism." and this is just the classic "noble savage" trope all over again, just seen through a hetalia lens.

Of course, the nomadic lifestyle, generous hospitality and connection to nature is inseparable from Mongolian culture, and I would never try to deny or argue against that, it's one of the main reasons why I admire Mongolian culture so much in the first place! But going around perpetuating the noble savage stereotype only feeds into silly ideas outsiders have about Mongolian people. I've seen Westerners say crap like they're surprised that Mongolia has restaurants and wifi! And one of my Mongolian friends had an American literally say very boldly to them "I thought Mongolians still lived like cavemen" ⁉️⁉️

So yeah, I do hope my depiction/interpretation of Mongolia is thoughtful dhdsjd sorry I did kind of go off on a tangent. I'm aware that this is hetalia and it's not supposed to be a serious anime but am passionate and I hope I didn't come off too strong 😨

I think people's downright awful/racist depictions of aph Mongolia has only made me more passionate about him because I want to prove them so wrong haha! And it's the same with the actual nation. If anyone tries to argue with me about how the Mongol empire sucked because they were just "muhh barbarians" I will absolutely argue with them about it lol.

But thank you for the ask!! 🙏😳

[a-lonely-dunedain]

day 204 of hating the Staghorns so much it defies description:

[warning unhinged petty rant under the cut]

THEY THREW AWAY RAVAEDRON'S GIFT BECAUSE THEY WERE SO FUCKING PETTY WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK like "ohhhh noo our friend is worried about our safety because we're living alone in the middle of nowhere while there's creatures of unimaginable evil about. what a TERRIBLE friend!!! we're going to hate him forever now!!!!!!" I HATE THE STAGHORNS SO MUCH THEY'RE SO ARROGANT AND PETTY AND TEMPERAMENTAL RAVAEDRON SHOULD HAVE BETTER FRIENDS. like I Get It, they don't understand the amount of danger they're in because they've been so well protected from it by the rangers, but they're SO unaware that it come across as straight up stupidity. like they're letting their literal child go out "wraith hunting" like that's a totally sane and ok thing to let your kid do. even if they don't fully understand what a wraith is, even the most basic sanitized description of it Should have made them think twice about just how equipped they are to handle themselves in the face of this danger, but noooooooo how DARE Ravaedron take even the most basic precautions in making the task of defending themselves easier, clearly he's in the wrong here! like I cannot stress this enough, there are just two adults and a literal child in that household, they can't do shit to defend themselves from a Nazgul, yet Somehow Ravaedron being worried about them makes him the "racist elf" stereotype in their minds??????? they were just looking for a reason to hate him I bet.

Maddoc Staghorn hears that Ravaedron wanted to help out before he left and then immediately says "did he befriend us... out of pity?" this man REEKS of insecurity and it's going to get both him and his family killed.

and then, and THEN they have the gal, the audacity, to pull this "ohhh noo we just reacted like that because we were soooo sad that you were leaving :(((((((((((" act at the end of the questline. like we're just going to ignore the Staghorn's casual racism then? just going to pretend this was just an "oopsie! silly misunderstanding!" and that the Staghorns are not clearly in the wrong here??? we're just gonna act like they're not terrible people? ok. what a delusional and unhinged way to react. like, right, sure, someone I (allegedly) care about is leaving for personal reasons and gives me a parting gift, and what do I do? just throw it away I guess because it didn't have the Correct Symbolic Meaning™ behind it! "We did not want paintings, or gifts!" "It is YOU that we will miss, Ravaedron." liars. you reacted to him informing you that he's leaving by yelling at him and telling him he was no longer welcome in your house. for all you knew that was going to be the last time you ever saw him and you happily tried to burn that bridge without hesitation.

They never apologized for this and I think that's the part that really gets me. like I know people react to loss in weird and nonsensical ways sometimes, so maybe I could look past it if they admitted "yeah we really messed up there, you leaving just got to us and we didn't handle it well" but NOPE! not so much as a "sorry" for their cruel words, or for throwing away the painting he worked so hard on. Ravaedron ends up needing to apologize to them for *checks notes* trying to help defend their house and painting them a beautiful landscape. right. ok.

look look, I don't mean to rag on this questline, MOST of it was great! we got some really good moments in there with the rangers! I just. that first instance with the Staghorns always leaves Such a bad taste in my mouth it's really hard to continue the quests after that point. I just need to get this rant out of my system so hopefully I'll have an easier time with the rest of it. the worst part really is just that beginning bit so now that I've finally gotten that over with it'll be easier

[dragynkeep]

love the assumption that rwde just didn't get r*byn just like we didn't get the white fang arc because we're all racist misogynists. it doesn't reek of poc and afab erasure at all.

also loving the irony of a r//wby fan acting like rwde can't understand something as thematically simple as robin hood. never mind that several different rwde blogs broke down why r*byn doesn't work, specifically in relation to her allusion. like no you bowl of soggy cheerios, we understand what RT thinks they were doing, but they failed spectacularly. the issue isn't that she's against ironwood (are you fucking kidding me? that was the reason i was excited for her and v//7) or that she's robbing atlas in and of itself (if only we saw her do it more often. not only would it make her feel less useless to the plot, it would give opportunities for bits of worldbuilding and also heists are very cool and sexy), the issue is that she's a privileged, borderline racist asshole who's put on a pedestal in-universe and out. and they butchered her allusion. seriously. how do you fuck up robin hood, anyway? oh wait, i know! make them a fucking politician who patronizes minorities, throws tantrums when they don't get their way, and is incapable of making decent decisions. anyway i'd still take sienna over r*byn even if RT fucked up her character and made her an eviler adam without the incel. a violent extremist asshole is infinitely sexier than a preachy white savior.

yeah like i’m sorry if in order to “get” robyn, you have to ignore how she as a character not only massively fails in representing her allusion both in design & characterization but how she just. fails at being an interesting character in general.

she steals from atlas to give to nobody. she whines & complains about what ironwood does & demands to be in the know without offering a hand out herself, which while “understandable” in the derived context of mantle, also just makes her massively hypocritical. none of her backup team are likeable, we have them on screen bullying the civillians they’re meant to be protecting, something we barely see them do btw. & her chair throwing moment reads less as a leader who’s reached the end of her rope because her people are being ignored by the council as a whole  —  not just ironwood, who the story will conveniently forget has the least amount of power in regards to the treatment of mantle —  & reads more as a petulant grown woman throwing a temper tantrum.

not to mention how her perpetual temper tantrums end up causing more harm than good: they do nothing to endear the council, nothing to help with jacques, actively make the situation on the cargo plane with clover, tyrian & qrow worse. i’m not seeing robyn as a leader at the end of her rope, i’m seeing a toddler.

& this hasn’t even touched the weird ass way she handles her saviour approach to mantle, which ignores the explicit troubles & enslavement of the faunus  —  alongside some weird appropriation / misdirection of “bare your teeth” that had us thinking she & her huntresses, at least some of them would be faunus  —  only to then have her explicitly other faunus when she humansplains to marrow.

there are many issues with robyn & yes, while some dudebros will hate her just because she’s an outspoken wahmen  —  ironically ignoring those dudebros are the exact audience rooster teeth themselves cultivated for over a decade  —  most rwde posters do not in fact dislike her for this apparent facet of her character. willful ignorance to this just completely devalues their point.

[cosmicclownboy]

hi- why don't you like Maria?

Oh lord.

Where do I even begin with Maria.

Season 1

Makes a joke about Alex's secret relationship being with Wyatt and finding it funny- (Wyatt who is an abusive racist dude who commits hate crimes and bear in mind she knows Alex was abused for being gay) IT'S GROSS.

Speaks about Alex's secret relationship guy being his home to Alex and literally feels his hopefulness because it is part of her alien ability and continues to pursue Michael in s2.

Maria (straight) outs Michael to Liz. That's not okay on any level.

When Liz tells Maria to speak to Alex before doing anything she ignores the advice and does what she wants.

She's really smug about Michael picking/pursuing her like she won.

Season 2

Pursues Michael at a funeral in front of Alex without talking to him.

Makes Michael's loved ones husband funeral about a relationship status

Slut shames a random woman who makes out with Michael when they were never exclusive

Enters a relationship with Michael where he has to be exclusive but she doesn't because she doesn't believe he could be faithful. That's reeks of harmful biphobia stereotypes.

Ignores Alex the whole time UNTIL she needs something.

When she appears at Alex's door she says they are even. AKA comparing Alex not telling her a secret that wasn't his to share to her pursuing the love of his life in front of him without any empathy and ignoring the whole time.

Bitches to Alex about Liz and wanting fuck all to do with her. Alex has to remind her Liz has a dead boyfriend and is struggling cause Maria only has Maria vision and lacks empathy for her 'best friends'.

Uses her mom's laptop to get the scope on Alex/Michael's relationship which reads 100% manipulative. She even says Michael is pushing you away and then proceeds to encourage the narrative where Michael pushes Alex away because she suddenly wants Michael. And of course Alex is supportive she recognises he lacks self worth and rolls over him.

Beginning of 2x06 she tries to set up Forlex to get Alex away from Michael. Once again manipulative.

Tries to make Alex feel guilty for being gay in 206 because when she was a kid she idealised being with him and had to come up with a whole new plan. He grew up in an abusive household you know that....It's not okay to say that. You know how much internalised homophobia he has.

When saying he's had good relationships provides only examples of relationships with women......................HE IS GAY.

Asks him if he would change being gay.......jfc.

Alex tearfully saying he dissociates with women because he clearly forced himself to out of internalised phobia, Maria takes it to mean she has a chance. She thinks she's the exception since a touch starved abuse victim liked to be touched by her in high school. That doesn't = consent.

When Alex, a whole ass Airforce Captain tells her it's unsafe to stay at the creepo's place she acts all I am feminist about it and this results in Alex being stabbed and Michael getting whacked on the head.

Earlier in the episode she whinges to Alex about Michael kissing another woman in front of her and how cruel it was and then proceeds to kiss Michael in front of Alex KNOWING how he feels for Michael.

In THAT scene it's clear she notices Michael's emotions towards Alex and is insecure about it. She uses Malex's feelings for each other to her advantage. She's chasing the fantasy of getting with Alex. These are two highly traumatised queer men who struggle to say no because they spent their lives in abusive environments.

Neither Michael or Alex were in a position to consent to sex that night Michael is concussed from a whack on the head . Alex has lost a lot of blood and is completely out of it. And neither would ever initiate that situation. Not to mention the assumption Michael would be down because he's bi is so harmful as a stereotype.

"I think she’s cool with her decision. She wanted some answers, so subconsciously there was an emotional comfort she needed. But she also had a little bit of an agenda. She needed some decisions made about the status of their relationships, so she thought, “Let’s throw everything against the wall and see where it lands.” I think she was just wondering if they made any progress on that front. She said it was OK for their feelings to be out in the open, but let’s just voice them for what they are. As we saw, Michael stepped up and was like, “No, I still love you and I’m with you.” Secretly, that’s what Maria was hoping for. By suggesting a threesome, she’s was basically telling Michael, “Make your choice… and I hope it’s me.” this is what Heather said about the scene. So not only was it coercive and such but she used her best friend like that with no care or empathy whatsoever. It's disgraceful.

The next day both Michael and Alex are confused by what the fuck happened. Alex due to his C-PTSD completely dissociates from the situation and Michael attempts to laugh it off despite him being hella confused. The only person who isn't confused is Maria who is listening to them from inside.

When Michael comes in she turns on the tears just in case he does want Alex afterwards. Bear in mind she is a psychic who can feel everything and she assumed Michael was going to go after Alex. Doesn't that say it all. SHE KNOWS MICHAEL IS IN LOVE WITH ALEX AND VICE VERSA. She does not care, because at the end of the day this is what she wants. She wants to win. She wants to treat Michael like this trophy that she can show off to people I got the great Michael Guerin not a relationship guy to date me.

When Michael wants to have emotional conversations she shuts it down for sex. The entirety of the relationship it has to be her way or the high way. She also recognises fairly on his abandonment issues and plays upon it, reads manipulative.

When Michael who has lost his mom and brother in the span of a few months asks Maria to be more careful about her abilities she doesn't listen. And ultimately breaks up with Michael when she can't get what she wants from him which is a yes man who will do what she says and isn't the idealised Michael she wants.

Season 3

Shits on Michael any chance she gets. She's so mean to him and he goes out of his way to look out for her.

Is dismissive of her own health despite the fact that everybody goes out of their way to help her. Liz is in California working on a way to help her. Kyle is risking his job.etc

Is fine with Liz, her best friend losing the love of her life to get a vision to prevent a murder. A vision she's only invested in because apparently in it she blames herself.

Is fine with Max or Kyle dealing with the guilt of her death had Michael not saved her.

Shoves Michael and belittles him because he's stronger then her. Infers he just sits on his ass and does nothing therefore does not care about anything....rude. There's also a weird superiority complex that her power is more important then Michaels or any of pod squad for that matter.

Creates a situation that is so bad that Kyle risks his doctors licence to give her adrenaline. Just take an ice bath or something there are a 1000 ways to give yourself adrenaline without risking your life and risking others.

Doesn't thank or acknowledge what Liz is doing for her honey has spent a FULL YEAR of her life trying to help and your just like yeah I'll let her soulmate die for my visions.

Emotionally guilts Isobel for not hanging out with her despite the fact she's hated her for two seasons and now has just randomly decided she wants to know......okay

This idea that Maria is suddenly lonely when she's the second of the main cast (first being Kyle) to have scenes with all the mains by Monday. Literally everyone is there at her beck and call but Maria is lonely??? IT DOESN'T ADD UP. Everyone's up her arse 9/10 how is she lonely everyone expresses concern and care for her ALL THE DAMN TIME. She's also narratively never had scenes that give the connotation that she is lonely. Michael has scenes that connotate he is lonely. Max and Alex do too. Maria has yet to have scenes that give the connotation of feeling lonely or depressed.

Maria comparing the alien siblings to her and feeling left out when she acts superior to them and they are literally siblings. Literally every character is somewhat left out with Pod Squad they've lived their lives assuming it's just them three against the world it's not a personal attack.

Maria is 1/8 alien at best so diluted genetically it doesn't show up and somehow she believes she has the capability of the aliens who are 100%. Say you have French DNA you don't expect to speak French suddenly.

This whole Maria never does wrong narrative and it's empowering that she's doing all of this just feels like a crock of shit tbh.

She reads like a 2000's movie mean girl.

All of my bullet points are why I don't like h Maria and it's not biased because I'm a so and so fan. Narratively she just wins up doing shitty things to Michael and Alex the most.

[wagner-fell]

Mari kicked down the dressing room door with a bang so loud Kevin jumped and spilled his hot coffee cup all over himself. Hearing his yelps of pain, Astrid peaked her head out of the curtain, laughed at his expense then shut it again. Maria ignored that.

They strutted out to where the boys were sitting and struck a pose. “Can I rock cottage core or can I rock cottage core?”

Kit didn’t trust himself to speak. He simply nodded instead. While the baby blue dress with short, ruffled sleeves looked a bit out of place paired with Mari’s bulging muscles, she looked absolutely stunning.

The Merry Hoes were located in the back room of the antique store Kevin’s family owned. The Chu’s just got a large donation of vintage clothing. Mari had just gotten their pay check from the downworlder gym she worked at. Kit and Astrid really didn’t want to do their maths homework. It was destiny.

Despite being downworlders both Blessica and Kevin still lived at home. Mari, though, lived with the rest of their pack in an old Edwardian mansion a few blocks away from school. However the five of them slept over at each other’s place of residence so often they blurred together in the young Herondale’s mind. He could really only tell them apart by their smells.

Mari’s reeked of dirty laundry as they were one of four folks on the feminine side of the gender scale out of the lycanthropy of London, Blessica excluded. Her house smelled like Ube, a type of yam her Filipino parents put in everything. Kit couldn’t complain. Ube flavoured ice cream was the best thing he’s ever eaten. Aside from Mari. Though he wasn’t usually the one… Nevermind.

Kevin’s house smelled of Longjing tea and red wine. A peculiar combination that oddly enough, worked quite well.

Astrid had two homes as her parents divorced at the age of six. Stepping into her mom’s house was like stepping into a cookie factory. Which made sense as her mom owned a bakery and lived above it. Kit didn’t know exactly what Astrid’s dad’s place smelled like, let alone looked like, but he could make an educated guess that it was similar to the Los Angeles Institute because it was in LA too.

After they separated, Miss Yang fled to Devon to dodge the possibility of seeing her ex-husband when they exchanged Astrid. Kit related to her on a deep, personal level.

Now Astrid spent her summers in America and Kit drained his battery on international phone calls.

Her three months in the USA each year helped him bond with her better when they had first been introduced. For example, her ringtone was the Perry the Platypus theme song. Blessica, Kevin and Maria had no clue what it was but when the music reached Kit’s ears, the two sang an epic duet that put Kiss Me More (the second most iconic duet in history) to shame.

“How much is this anyway,” asked Mari, turning in a circle to see if there was a price tag. In the process she sent the fabric fluttering as she went. It made them look more magical than ever.

“There is no price on fabulousness,” said Astrid. She had on loose, black dress pants, a white shirt, and black suspenders with gold blemishes.

“Yes there is,” replied Kevin. “54 euros.”

“54 euros,” exclaimed Mari.

“Well it would have been €34 but you made me spill my coffee and this shirt was 20 so..”

“Seriously, Kev. I will fuck your mom. You think I won’t?” A pause. “Wait, only twenty €20?”

“Oh, I know right! There is this incredible thrift store down on Fleet Street and-”

“Don’t care,” interrupted Mar. She took one last look in the mirror before turning back to him. “I’ll give you your parents' price, not your dramatic ass’s one.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “Fine. But it’s an extra €10 for the shoes.”

Mari looked down at her tan sandals. They leaned against the door they just excited to take the footwear off. “Racist,” she muttered under her breath.

“I’m literally Chinese.”

“Homophobic, then.”

“Pansexaul,” he sang.

Mari was silent for a moment before she banged on the door into the room Blessica was changing into her rose pink gown. “Blessie! Do I have permission to call Kev transphobic in your name?”

“Hey,” said Kevin, looking up from his task of rubbing a paper towel across his sheer, white shirt. “That’s cheating. Blessie, don’t listen to them!”

The nickname ‘Blessie’ was what her family exclusively called her. She turned red when they had first found out. Granted, it wasn’t hard to make Blessica blush. All she had to do was stand in Kevin’s general area.

“Blessica,” called Mari once again. When she still didn’t answer, Maria stood up and pressed their forehead against the changing room door. “You okay?”

“No,” Blessica croaked out finally. Her hoarse voice was laced with sorrow. Upon hearing her speak, Kevin abandoned any hope of saving his top and joined Mari at the door. Kit and Astrid were quick to follow.

“Hey,” said Astrid gently. “What’s wrong?”

Blessica began to sob. “The dress doesn’t fit right,” she whimpered.

“That’s okay,” soothed Kevin. “We have other sizes.”

“Kev, it doesn’t fit my body because it wasn’t made for my body. I just feel so ugly.” All the other Merry Hoes made various sounds of distress. Kit was instantly reminded of Dru,

He was suddenly fifteen again. In Ty’s bedroom as he told him of all the times she’d been told she wasn’t pretty by members of the Shadowhunter society. And all the times Emma or Julian or another member of her family had reassured her that she was. The thought occurred to Kit that maybe they weren’t Emma-y as Blessica needed them to be.

“It’s just like,” started Blessica, “I started taking Estrogen seven months ago, you know? And I still don’t have anything to show for it.”

His mind was racing a mile a minute. “Yes you do,” he said.

“I do?” she asked, sounding dubious.

“Your voice!”

“You do have a really nice voice,” agreed Astrid. “You could totally narrate audiobooks or something.”

“No it’s not,” grumbled Kevin.

“Kevin,” said Mari, glaring daggers at him. ‘Kevin’ in this case didn’t mean Kevin. It meant ‘Shut your mouth right or I will actually kill you’.

“No, not like that! It’s just…” he was blushing profusely now. “Her voice is like the rain. Most of the time it’s soft and warm and it wraps you in one big, wet hug. You can’t help but feel, well, blessed to get to feel it touching your skin.. But when it rains hard you feel every single drop land. But no matter what kind of rain it is, the impact is always enormous. Uh, yeah, her voice is like that.” There was a moment of prolonged silence, where Blessica had stopped crying but no one was brave enough to talk.

The door opened and Kit, Kevin and Astrid stumbled backwards. Mari didn’t. Stupid gorgous jock, Kit thought as she survayed her inferiourors.

Blessica stood in the open doorway. Her eyes were puffy and red. The dress looked perfect on her. Not that this style hadn’t looked perfect on Mari but their arms were so thick, they filled up the entire selve. Blessica was so petite you could see her bones clearly through the skin. It highlighted the flowness of the gown extremely well. “You guys like my voice?” Then, “why are you all staring at me, is it that bad?”

“Blessie,” said Mari. “You can’t just put on that in front of four people who like women and expect them not to stare.”

“Respectfully, of course,” added Kit.

“Just tell us if it makes you uncomfortable,” agreed Kevin.

“Step on me,” breathed Astrid.

“But then again,” said Mari, “you validate yourself too.”

“Run me over with a cement truck.”

“We can see your hot as fuck. But more importantly you have to believe you’re hot as fuck.”

“You could literally kill me and I’d get on my knees to thank you.”

Blessica was blushing as hard as Kevin now. They sheepishly smiled at each other before turning away. “Simp,” said Kit and he held out his hand. Astrid dutifully rewarded him with a high five.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am on the trans spectrum but I am not mtf. If you are and you feel misrepresented please feel free to private message me or just leave a comment tell me how I can fix it.

@the-wckd-powers @book-dragon-not-worm @thechangeling @the-blackdale @ithurielkeepsgettingkidnapped @illusions-give-reasons-to-live @shelvesofgold @arangiajoan @maxboythedog @noah-herondale-lightwood @its-taff @cncnbr @sofiatheskeleton @thomas-gaypanic-lightwood @im-not-ruined-im-ruination @adoravel-fenomeno

Let me know if I left anyone out. Also let me know if you want to be added or removed from the tag list.

[dalishious]

Recently I've stumbled upon this article and it blew my mind: https://levelskip.com/rpgs/Dragon-Age-Origins-How-I-Eventually-Found-Alistair-Insufferable

What's your opinion? My mind was blown away when I saw interpretation of elves being fetishised by Alistair. This character interpretation is so superficial it's almost painful. No wonder people tend to dismiss Ali as being whiny and childish if even someone who romanced him (!) isn't even trying to read him properly.

Anyway I vehemently hate this article and here’s everything I hate about it.

“He was Always Crying!”

I think it’s really gross that the first thing this writer lists as hating about Alistair is that he grieves for Duncan, calling it “over the top dramatic.” Ignoring the incorrect statement that he knew Duncan for only a few months, (Alistair states plainly that he was with the wardens for a year before the PC joins), even if it was only a few months, time does not necessarily play into the impact someone has on your life. (Or for that matter, personal interactions--for example, there is nothing strange about grieving the loss of an actor that touched your life with their work.) And Duncan made a huge impact on Alistair’s life.  Look, I work in hospice palliative care and grief/bereavement is a huge part of what we do. What this writer says is extremely ignorant, inappropriate and disrespectful to people who grieve as Alistair does; which is a lot of people. Not to get into all this now, but I could easily write a whole thing on how his character follows the common “stages of grief” in a very realistic way. (“Stages of grief” is in quotations, because while this was a classic way of looking at how grief works, more modern understandings explain grief as something that does not have a set trajectory, but rather more like a tide of different emotions that comes in and out at varying sizes and varying times.)

“Love is not conditional; it is unconditional.”

Love is, actually, conditional. Alistair is under no obligation to continue a relationship with a warden that makes a decision he is fundamentally against. Alistair does not see Loghain as a “valuable ally,” and you cannot blame him for that; not after everything Loghain has done. If your character’s opinion is otherwise, that’s their decision to make, but frankly this reeks of complaints usually put on female characters; when players hate that characters have their own agency and opinions, not dutifully following every single decision made by the PC. I cannot imagine how boring an RPG would be, if there were never any consequences or different reactions to your decisions.

“This alone made me start turning Alistair into a wandering drunk. He deserves it.”

What a disgusting, disgusting sentiment. “My boyfriend left me so he deserves to be homeless and suffering from alcoholism.” Fuck you.

“Alistair's romance—as well as his friendship—is superficial because it relies on the condition that the Warden always do exactly what he wants.”

Yeah, that’s how the approval system works. It’s not a unique game function just for Alistair. If you want to be friends with a character, you try to gain their approval. If you don’t, then they will dislike you.

You know, like how real life relationships work.

Again, this is sounding more and more like this person is just mad that Alistair has his own opinions, beliefs and morals... character.

“If Alistair really loved the Warden, he would have sucked it up...”

Seriously, what kind of fucked up understanding of relationships does this person have?!

 “Alistair is a Tad Racist”

God, where do I even begin with this one...

Alistair is excited about sleeping with any warden, regardless of race; not just elves. He’s a nervous virgin.

Alistair makes a comment about hoping he won’t get mugged in the alienage--just like how all the other companions make negative comments, even Zevran--after witnessing a mugging. It is part of a larger picture painted for the player that should be criticized at that larger scale.

I have no idea what the fuck this writer is talking about, claiming Alistair hates Zevran because he’s an elf, when he makes it crystal clear he does not trust Zevran because he’s an assassin. Like, in multiple conversations and banters.

Yeah writer, you are wrong--Alistair grew up primarily in Redcliffe, though stayed in Denerim when Eamon travelled there. You are also wrong about “the elves were servants who had to smile and kiss his ass.” Alistair plainly states that he did not grow up with any special treatment. Hell, he more likely stated with the servants, when Eamon had him sleeping in the stables and kennels.

“Unfortunately, Alistair is the exact same way toward mages.”

I can somewhat agree with this part. However, a couple necessary corrections to false statements:

Alistair does not approve of you killing the mages in Broken Circle. As the writer says later, he interjects if the player tries to attack Wynne, and interjects if the player agrees to Cullen’s request to kill everyone. “That's a bit of a drastic measure, isn't it? You don't have to do this.” What he initially says when entering the Circle is not him advocating for an annulment, but him explaining that’s what templars do. He is audibly upset about it when saying this. It is not what he wants.

Alistair does not hate mages. He distrusts mages, which makes sense after his templar training, and it’s something he needs to work over.

“Putting a mage or an elf or even a dwarf on the Fereldan throne might have made Fereldans hate Alistair as their king, but it would have been the beginning of a new era in Thedas.”

Yes, this part I do agree with as well.

It does, however, not weigh enough to make up for all the inappropriate and incorrect parts of the rest of the article.

But you know what’s worse? What’s worse is I made the mistake of looking at this writer’s profile, and finding shit like this:

[itsclydebitches]

I just want to enlighten the correct anon: bulk-buying cards was ALWAYS an issue. Before it was the rich kids, now it's rich internet stars (with internet making it into An Issue TM). That hasn't really changed, cause people are shitty when it comes to limited collectibles that can only by completed by select few. It's not a fair comparison. [Also, this argument kinda reeks of 'if you're adult you can't enjoy kids stuff, cause you're takin it from the actual kids'. Which is a bad take.]

I really don't know anything about the trading card scene, but yeah, as said, I think there are a couple different conversations going on in those asks. Discussing adults getting into cartoons is not the same as discussing adults invested in reboots of their childhood cartoons is not the same as someone buying up cards rather than collecting them "correctly," etc. The topic of adults interacting with kid's media is a hugely complicated one, as my own example of Cruella exemplifies. Is that even kid's media anymore? Where are we drawing this line? Who knows.

As for the question of adults enjoying kids stuff in general, I honestly don't think that's the angle the previous anon was intending to take. Their own interest in these franchises speaks to that. More importantly, I do understand the general phenomenon they're describing. Easiest (and perhaps most extreme) example I can give is that of the brony fandom. The issue there is not, and never has been, grown men getting invested in a children's show about ponies. The issue is not adults like the kid thing. If anything, the start of that movement had some really fantastic undertones: look at these grown men rejecting assumptions about masculinity and wholeheartedly embracing something society tells them it's embarrassing to like! So, on a surface level, that's great. I wholeheartedly support it. But it's just that: the surface level. Dig deeper and you find all the troublesome ways in which this interest has been expressed, from sexualizing the characters to outright Nazi propaganda. The conversation then is not, "Men can't enjoy My Little Pony" but rather, "At what point is My Little Pony, the fandom, largely inaccessible to the people it was created for: kids?" Now, a conversation like that is wrapped up in the issue of fandom itself and whether kids should even be in online spaces that are, well, sexualizing everything. But it's still a question to tackle. What do we do when kids can't google their favorite character without encountering porn? Can't attend a con without adults yelling at them over certain preferences? When adults become furious that such-and-such dark/gritty/romantic/nuanced thing didn't happen in this cartoon and other people have to remind them, "Hey... this is written for ten-year olds."

Those questions do exist and they are important but, as said, I think they're largely outliers. Adults get invested in kid's media the same way kids get invested in adult media and 99% of the time that's totally fine. If an adult tweets out, on the adult website Twitter, to their adult audience, how upset they are that the latest cash-grab (or copyright renewal) messed with a beloved franchise... that's not hurting the six-year old who is still going to happily see the next movie with their parents, ignorant of the drama. These are really questions about online spaces. Questions of accessibility. Even questions about how we respond to that ignorance in children: they don't know that a lot of the old Disney films are horrifically racist, so what are we, the adults, going to do about that? One answer might be ensuring that racist content doesn't worm its way into future works and that requires, well, being invested in that work. Or at least what it represents. For every "It's just a kid's story" I've seen in response to someone actually getting unreasonably upset over a story not written to their adult standards, I've seen triple that in response to someone getting upset that the kid's story they either enjoy themselves, or know their younger loved ones enjoy, is imparting some really messed up messages. Sometimes investment isn't just "I like the story" but is something along the lines of, "I like that this cartoon has queer rep in it and I'm determined that the insane struggle the writers had to go through to secure it doesn't continue into future shows." Adults write these cartoons. Adults invent them! How can we not be invested?

So there are a lot of moving parts here and, yeah, sometimes it's just a 40yo throwing a temper tantrum that the show aimed at 5yos didn't meet their specifically adult standards. But usually there's more than that going on and the response, "It's a kid's show. You shouldn't care" is never the right answer. We have kids of our own, we care about society, we grew up on that story, we study these works, we want to write them ourselves someday, we just like the cartoon... there are a hundred reasons why an adult might be invested in something aimed at kids.

[nexyra]

Okay so This is just a way to let out some frustration so I can put it out there and stop mulling on it bc I'm bad at this sort of stuff - Feel free to ignore it

I'm putting this under Read More; if your fav past-time is to call anyone who likes Ironwood's character or was disappointed by his V8 turn to villainy a stupid bootlicker who "should have seen the signs he was always a tyrant !!" please don't interact with this post. You're ultimately free to think what you want but honestly I see enough of that in the main tag when left alone, I don't need it on my blog it doesn't make me feel good.

Anyone else... well you can read if you're interested but you don't have to either. Feel free to respectfully disagree though, I'm not that bullheaded that I can't partake in a friendly argument =) I'll just be listing some things about Ironwood's reading by the FNDM who get old or draining as someone who doesn't like the V8-characterization they went with

Can people please stop just... copy/pasting real world issues on a world/characters that have nothing to do with them or a completely different context ?

Like,, I genuinely try to educate myself on real-world issues. I know I'm rather privileged so I try to listen and hear out people who speak out about the issues they live through day by day. I know why the "ACAB" moniker exists. I understand the problem that lies within the american police system (and likely other countries as well). I see why the army, on our blue planet, is criticized & its many failings. Etc, the list can go on...

But I'm sorry to say, Remnant isn't OUR Earth. Their Army's primary job is to fight actual evil soulless monsters, not people. The Ace Opps or Huntsmen are not an organization directly inherited from slave-hunting groups. James Ironwood isn't the US army general bombing Middle East. Clover Ebi isn't the racist cop you want in prison. So WHY are they treated as such by so many people ? Stories are not a 1-1 where you can take everything you know and just apply it to a completely different world.

Has Atlas been presented as a country that suffers from racism & classism ? Certainly. Has it be shown this way ? That's already more debatable since the only racist arguments we got were in Mantle (which is the city we're supposed to be rooting for so that's a weird choice but eh it's whatever). Are the characters, as persons, shown to evoke these issues in a way that deserve our scorn ? Not really.

Is Ironwood depicted as particularly racist for example ? I wouldn't say so seeing as one (or more considering Tortuga) of his Ace-Opps are Faunus & it seems perfectly accepted; and he hates Jacques Schnee's guts. So why does he get to shoulder all of our real-world issues as if he was responsible for them, in a context where (pre V8) his army had most likely never killed anything else than Grimm and was shown to elicit very positive reactions from most of the population (V3) ? (In direct contrast to the polarization that the US army might evoke for example.)

You can totally hate Ironwood because of the feelings he evoke, the trope he stems from or the parallels to be made. That doesn't mean however, that he IS truly guilty of every one of OUR world issues (pre-V8)

Just because classism is prevalent in Atlas society does not make Ironwood the figurehead & leader of this issue.

Is classism an issue in Atlas ? Yes. That's been made clear because of Mantle's state as well as Jacques Schnee entire existence & even Cinder's backstory. Does that mean every single one of Ironwood's decisions reeks of classism ? NO

Trust me, as someone who found Ironwood's V8 characterization not... well-executed & too much; there's nothing more annoying than being assaulted by posts about his fall going "it was so obvious !! look at -" only for them to then list reasons in a really biased way or even headcannons based on (again) irl problems. An exemple...

Reasons his turn was good that I see thrown around : "Ironwood left Mantle behind because he only wanted to save the rich. He's a selfish coward & an asshole !"

What we were actually given : "Ironwood suffers from PTSD, and faced with Salem's imminent arrival, he tried to save what he was CERTAIN to be able to protect aka the flying city and all the people on it including Mantle evacuees. There is absolutely no text backing the idea that he wanted to leave with Atlas because it's rich. We could even suppose that he would have left with the 'poor' Mantle if it was the flying city and rich people were hanging safely on the ground. There is indeed an issue with Atlas & Mantle disparity, but Ironwood isn't directly responsible for it."

Does that make his decision to leave Mantle behind a morally right one ? That's of course NOT what I'm saying. The situation is still very ambiguous. But the classism theme has NO place here.

"Ironwood leads Atlas & Mantle. As such, he inherently holds responsability for the issues plaguing it." THIS is an acceptable reading according to me. I would probably argue that even if Ironwood's the only Atlas leader we're shown; he actually only oversees the military & academy (where we haven't ever seen classism issues), so putting Atlas' classism issues on him still doesn't sound fair to me. However the idea & argument is sound.

Acknowledging only how his actions look/the tyrannical surface reading and not the reasonnable justifications or glimpses we were given (pre-V7) of Ironwood being more than his trope

I'll probably stop after this one, but the last thing that is both tiring & annoying after too much of it; is seeing people boil down all of Ironwood's character to the most basic summary, inherently written to paint him in a bad line. And then saying that everything led up to his downfall by using these watered-down versions of the show's events to justify it. Or worse (imo), saying that people who are not satisfied with his V8 characterization that THEY don't understand how good a character he is and don't really appreciate him.... All the while only ever highlighting his characters flaws. Please stop this.

"Ironwood brought an army to the peace Olympics why are you surprised he turned out this way ?" ==> Ironwood brought an army to a country where the civilians visibly have no issue with said-army, to protect a peaceful event that he KNOWS to be targeted by foes. It's definitely overzealous & his conviction that threats should be dealt with by blunt force IS one of his flaws; but pretending that he did it for fun or because he's a tyran is just as misplaced.

"Ironwood said he'd shoot Qrow if he were one of his men why are you surprised he shot Oscar ?" ==> Do I really need to flip through every joke in this show and consider it as absolute truth & proof that the character would enact these words if given the occasion; even when we're shown with certainty that they actually don't mean it ? (IW hugging Qrow to welcome him, refusing to attack Qrow when he's certain Qrow IS attacking him...)

"Ironwood has his military all over Mantle, there's a curfew, all of this is tyrannical why are you surprised he's also down for genocide" ==> Damn, it sure is criminal to have Mantle defended from the litteral monsters roaming inside & out, and to make sure with a curfew that the people are not at risk during the night. I wonder if any recent events could make us reconsider our stance on how evil a enforced curfew is. Mhmmm maybe a pandemic ? Nah I must be imagining things. For real though, at what point did Tyrian's framing/lies (IW has his soldiers all over Mantle because of politics/he's a tyran who refuses opposition) became the truth of the situation for the FDNM too ? Again Mantle's situations SUCK, and that's a problem in itself. Making up problematic reasoning for the situation is dishonest though.

To end this, I'll just make clear. I do not condone any of Ironwood's actions post-V7. I don't think he had to be the big hero of the Atlas arc. Nor that he was without faults. I merely think that he'd have been a better antagonist than villain. And that it'd have been nice to keep the ambiguity/morally greyness that surrounds him; the knowledge that he's TRYING hard to do what's best for everyone; that he has good intentions. That he cares about individuals too to a lesser degree, and that he had people who cared about him as a person.

For short... Ironwood as an antagonist with understandable issues, flaws & failures; making questionable choices but with good intentions ? Hell yeah. Ironwood as a villain, more irredeemable than Hazel, willing to kill people for NO reason or even wipe out a city ? I'm not convinced.