#anyway not posting these in the main tag cause that would make me a hypocrite

[lumiilys]

Ofmd fandom my beloathed

[raayllum]

I'm honestly amazed how people can stay strong to their opinions despite all the negative people, antis and critics(not that bad, but still) going around the fandom.

It’s honestly not that bad (from my perspective, anyway) - nor is it that hard, honestly. I can’t speak for any social media site fandom wise except for tumblr, but TDP fandom on tumblr is overall beyond fantastic and one of the nicest fan communities I’ve ever seen. There were definitely antis on tumblr in the early days of the fandom (especially pre show) to the degree it was something I  worried mildly about - I’d experienced harassment before as a teenager and seen it almost ruin other fandoms - but that quickly faded post-s1. I was scrolling through the early pages of this blog the other day out of curiosity and I couldn’t believe how many people from the first three months ish in the fandom just left even before season two came out, but who knows why, honestly. Sometimes people’s interests do just change!

Now, I do generally have pretty thick skin. I was somewhat in the ATLA fandom for 5+ years where every opinion I had was exceedingly unpopular (something the recent surge in 2020 has changed, thankfully) to the degree it would frustrate me. I had to be very picky about who I followed to try and find anyone like minded, or at least not super off the rails with how they were viewing canon and tagged appropriately. I was also in the Voltron fandom and had to very much sequester myself away with my mutuals in order to remotely have a good time, and even then I saw a lot of bullshit (a lot of particularly nasty ableist shit that was then unfortunately replicated in canon).

I’ve received whack ass fandom hate, such as “you hypocrite you hate [insert ship here].” Me, confused, looking at post I made talking about why said ship is fine or interesting only three days prior. 

I have also been in classes of 40-60 people and been the only one presenting an opinion and have had people crap on it (the professor then gave a ten minute spiel on why my view was the theme of the course and the work we were studying, but I digress) because I don’t mind standing alone. That’s just kinda a part of life. People are not gonna agree with me all the time. It can be frustrating (or sometimes, a learning experience), but we all gotta deal with it.

So here are the tips for making it work:

1) Get used to blocking people. The block button is your absolute best friend. If someone posts a fandom opinion you’re really tired of seeing everywhere, even if it’s not bad per se, but just one you disagree with? You can block ‘em. Do it. There’s no shame in it - and I definitely have, like, all the time, for TDP, and for other fandoms. You can always change your mind later and unblock later, but there’s nothing like being preventive!

2) Unfollow religiously. Mutuals are fun, but tumblr romanticizes that sort of ‘relationship’ way too often, tbh. You should never feel pressure to follow people for any sort of reason. For example, there’s a lot of people on tumblr I really like, and I generally like their content a lot, that I don’t follow, cause they reblog a lot of something else I’m not interested in or don’t want to see (and don’t feel like / can’t blacklist for whatever reason). So I unfollow very easily and I go onto their blog or the main tags, search up whatever I’m interested in, and reblog from there. 

3)  You don’t have to engage with or listen to every opinion. This relates back to the other two, but you can just say “no thank you” and dip. For example in TDP, I see some people take a really critical stance with how the show treats dark magic. I think a lot of those takes are disingenuous (the show’s portrayal of dark magic, to me, gets more complicated as we go along, not less) but people are fully entitled to their opinion. I just don’t have to see it or engage with it. Cue block or unfollow button, boop! 

4) You can’t care about what other people think. Not of you, not of characters, not of ships. Easier said than done, I know, especially when people will sometimes make a huge judgement on a very tiny thing, but it is the key. You can never control someone else or their opinion. That’s not to say don’t be considerate, or not to approach people in good faith - I have successfully changed people’s minds on the internet before (I’m up to 10, thank you very much), it is very possible. But those were people I thought could be open to having those sorts of discussions and I was fully prepared for it to go badly / not go my way. But I had to be able to not care if it didn’t go my way, and sometimes it didn’t. 

And usually people who are extremely judgemental online all the time - repeatedly, constantly, about ships or story beats or anything and only seem to like one or two things from a source material - probably aren’t pretty happy. Cause they’re spending all their time either shaming people for things or trying to change other people’s minds. And if you spend all your time trying to convince other people of something and caring about how they do things, you’re not going to be happy. This is true for everyone.

This is not to say you can’t consider other people’s viewpoints (especially privately), either. For example, I read some of the critiques with dark magic, thought it over, tried to think about it more objectively / see where those interpretations were coming from, and still went, “Nah, not for me, I don’t agree” and blocked whoever I needed to. Cause consideration doesn’t equal engagement and that’s more than alright.

No one has power over you that you don’t give them, especially in an online space like this. Curate what content you see, block profusely, unfollow when you need to, and make sure that your fandom experience is first and foremost what you want and curate it for yourself. 

It will be much brighter that way, I promise.

[youvegot-timetogrow]

v. cool of you to ask for receipts and then have replies turned off in your post, unless you didn’t actually want receipts and just wanted to look self righteous in the fjorester tag. unfortunately for you, I’m stuck in a broken down bus and your post is just right there, waiting for me to be petty. but yeah, on Twitter, the worst of the discourse has been from widowjest & beaujester accounts, as well as people who don’t even watch CR but hate the fandom who are repeating hearsay to prove we’re all toxic rabid shippers who aged up Jester, who was formerly a toddler, for the sole purpose of making her a sex object (/s). the age gap/aging Jester discourse has been pushed by all three camps, and there’s been some shitty hypocrisy from widowjest shippers on Twitter. I blocked one person who repeatedly tweeted “you can be uncomfortable with the fjorester age gap and still ship widowjest” which,,, the fuck kind of logic is that statement based on? and several people @‘ed Matt this weekend for supposedly calling out widowjest shippers with his Twitter thread even though 1. he didn’t name any names and 2. as mentioned, there are several camps of people pushing this discourse, so why on earth would Matt have the impression that just widowjest shippers are the cause of it? Anyway, this is all to say that over the past few days, some widowjest shippers have been shitheads and other have really been displaying some victim complexes, so your post in the fjorester tag reallllly seems to follow that second trend. you really just look like a bonehead when you cleary know enough about the current discourse to know that it exists, but don’t have anything to offer than a “not all widowjest shippers, just Twitter widowjest shippers” post in the main fjorester tag. Have you instead considered calling out the people who have made the handful of “this is how Caleb can still win Jester” posts in the main fjorester tag, which *do not even try* to hide the fact that they view Jester as a prize that can be won, shrouding their misogyny and infantilization of Jester with cries of “wouldn’t it be so angsty and romantic”??? There are obnoxious widowjest shippers, just as there are obnoxious fjorester shippers, just as there are for literally every ship in every fandom. either own that fact or stay out of fandom arguments

Hi anon, hope you got off the bus fine and home safe.

Ima start off by saying i... Genuinely did not realize the replies were closed (i just checked and they were set to followers/mutuals only. I hope that's fixed now). You're free not to believe this but I'm not exactly big on Tumblr and i am also not on Twitter (virtually; i do have an account but it hasnt been used in years, and having a vague idea of what goes on there i tend to steer clear).

Having said this...while it wasn't in my intentions, I see now how that post comes off as self-righteous, victimistic and defensive, and I should probably have known better than to post it in the f/j tag (I'll probably remove that tag). While as I said it did not come from a place of hatred, either for the ship or the shippers, it really doesn't add anything to the conversation.

I understand your frustration and I'm sorry that my post only contributed to fuel that sentiment; it was born out of my own frustration to see the community and content creators I love constantly under fire, but I realize that your community is right now under a similar fire and I should have been lifting you up, not trying to shift the blame to someone else.

From what you're describing of the Twitter discourse, the age gap argument does come off as extremely hypocritical, especially from the w/j side; so much so that I genuinely did not conceive there could be people actually making that argument. I haven't seen any on tumblr, but that might just mean i did not look hard enough/scroll down enough in either tag. I did see some negativity on the w/j part, but it mainly boiled down to sadness/disappointment/taking some time off fandom, but the same posts came with congratulations to f/j shippers, so I kind of assumed that was all there was to it. That was my mistake as all my years watching fandom from the sidelines should have taught me that the well of toxicity in fandom is a bottomless pit and can hide on any side.

(same goes for your plead to call out the toxic part of the fandom rather than pointing fingers elsewhere: believe it or not, I haven't come across any of the examples you made. That is on me for not looking thoroughly enough I guess, but still)

Finally, I think I will take your suggestion and avoid fandom discourse altogether from now on, probably even going so far as to unfollow a couple of my favourite meta blogs or creators who discuss such topics. Might go the extra mile and avoid fandom alltogether and just enjoy the show.

Stay safe out there!

[uneryx]

Renee Gets Salty About Dark Magic

This post got long, and got away from me, so I’ll tl;dr it

1. dark magic is a metaphor for consumption and materialism and is ultimately bad because it harms others unnecessarily and is not a sustainable resource

2. the elves were dicks for banishing humans but (especially if humans sucked all the magic out of the land themselves) they were kind of justified, even if it was an extreme measure

3. Eating meat is not the same as dark magic if you’re looking at things from an animistic point of view, which the elves likely do

4. it’s okay to like problematic characters and you don’t have to portray Ezran as a monstrous enfant terrible to feel okay about thinking Viren is justified in what he does.  In fact, pretty please stop doing this, everyone in all fandoms. It’s fine if you don’t like the protags but that doesn’t mean you get to say Ezran or Rayla or whoever is EVIL. It’s called Ron the Death Eater and it’s a fandom trope that has pissed me off for going on fifteen years. Deliberately misreading the text isn’t cute. Stop doing it.

5. The show isn’t over, be patient, you’ll probably get to see some comeuppance for stuff anyway. And if you don’t, there’s always fanfiction. 

6. For the love of baby adoraburrs please tag posts that go in the vein of “the writing is bad because Viren is portrayed as a classic villain/elves good humans bad/the protags aren’t held accountalbe” with “TDP CRITICAL” I would greatly appreciate it because I’m getting super annoyed with posts that deliberately misrepresent canon to uphold a favored side and it’s affecting my enjoyment of the show. Now! Actual long and discourse-heavy post under the cut!

 Ugh I don’t want to start a big ol’ argument with people because I’m still on vacation and don’t want to spend the rest of today arguing about cartoons on the internet, but this has been on the kettle for a while and I feel QUITE STRONGLY about some of these things, so just... let me express my views here and don’t come for me because I’m about to talk about religion and sociology. 

Dark Magic is a metaphor for unchecked consumption and capitalism.  1. The theory i’m seeing floating around that got my dander up is that the elves and dragons drained the western half of the continent of magic to keep magic away from humans. I think that, based on what we’ve learned from canon, this is highly unlikely and would be weaker writing than what I think actually happened. Instead, Dark magic was going on for a good solid 800 years (Rise of Elarion is 2000 years before canon) before Sol Regem faced off with Viard (1200 years before canon). The division of Xadia was another 200 years after that. Humans had a solid honking millennium of unchecked dark magic. It is quite likely that the reason the west is entirely devoid of magic, and that humans were banished there, is because they sucked all the magic out of that half themselves. Poor innocent baby humans nothing. They got a taste of power and progress and, like real world humans, let that get WAY out of control.

2. “But Lujanne eats bugs, she’s a hypocrite for saying Claudia can’t squish bugs for pancakes” I want you to go down to your local new-age/witchy bookstore and find yourself an animist that eats meat. You are going to get glared at SO HARD if you whip out the “you think animals have souls but you eat meat!” chestnut. Because here’s the thing.

Eating meat/animal products is an act of life, necessary to sustain the life of someone else. We don’t vilify wolves for eating deer. You gotta eat to live your life, and the human (or, we can assume, bipedal humanoid) diet includes a need for complex protein chains, quite often found in animal meat. 

But the reason that we find cannibalism repulsive in western society is because it’s eating another human, despite the fact that humans are made of meat. It’s eating something that we consider sentient, dignified and possessed of a soul. Of course, the taboo also derives from the fact that you can contract prion disease from consuming human meat, but people in 11th century Normandy didn’t know that.  It is quite likely, especially given what we’ve seen of magical creatures and Ezran’s ability to talk to animals, that elves view non-human/elf creatures as sentient and possessed of a soul. If that’s the case, then OF COURSE they would see dark magic as horrific.

But eating meat is not on the same level because, as we see from the assassins, death is a part of life, and sometimes necessary. I imagine that hunting and taking a creature’s life for food is an act that is done with respect. The creatures are honored or thanked before they’re eaten or turned into leather. Highly ritualized to dignify that creature’s life.  Dark magic doesn’t do that. Dark magic sucks the whole life out, without so much of a how do you do.  It’s treating a person like a thing. It’s sucking all the life and essence out of someone so you can shoot fireballs or make fluffy pancakes. Lets be real - you don’t need to do either of those things, so the creature thus died in vain. 3. “The elves are selfish bastards for hogging all the magic.” I agree. Granted, their attitudes may have cooled in the ensuing centuries. It’s a new dawn, the era of Zubeia. We might see elves getting over their uppity selves and working to help teach humans magic. We might also see the show explore that kind of prejudice as Callum learns more magic. In fact, I hope we do. However, two wrongs dont make a right.  If Japan bombs the absolute fuckshit out of Hawaii, that does not make it okay to flash-fry Nagasaki with a weapon that blights the land and its people for years and years afterward.

To the elves (who are magical creatures and therefore totally usable as spell components), that’s what dark magic is. Suddenly, haha oh fuck, the humans have a fucking NUKE that every elf and dragon in Xadia is vulnerable to.  If a weapon was devised that ONLY a certain portion of the population was affected by, you better bet your sweet bippy that people would panic and make it forbidden and illegal, and severely punish the people who created it. ESPECIALLY if those people were already marginalized. Sucks, don’t it? Doesn’t mean the writing is bad for portraying people having a realistic reaction to something that is harmful to them. The elves aren’t justified in hogging the magic, and I hope future chapters will explore that. But the elves ARE a liiiiiittle bit justified in freaking out. I hold they could’ve come up with a better solution than BANISH HUMANS, but they didn’t. Makes for interesting story conflict, doesn’t it? 4. “Humans NEED dark magic!” / “Calling dark magic a shortcut is dumb” Did they tho? Did they really? Really really? We, modern day humans, don’t NEED smart phones (which rely on several rare earth minerals and are causing untold ecological disaster in areas where they’re miend). We, modern day humans, don’t NEED coal power (which is controlled by coal companies, who keep telling us that we totally do, despite many scientists saying that renewable energy is ready to go whenever). We don’t NEED blackberries from Mexico year-round, or a whole hell of a lot of the things we have come to rely on and consider part of our every day lives. All of these things are unnecessary and shortcuts to progress.

The only - ONLY! - good, necessary thing we’ve seen in canon that dark magic was required for was using the magma titan’s heart for saving people from famine.

A lot of the complaints about sustainable energy and efforts to heal the planet as climate change become increasingly a crisis stem from the fact that doing things RIGHT, in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t strip every last resource out of our home, is that it takes time. It takes SO MUCH TIME to do things properly. Yeah, we can keep going with our coal and our gas-guzzler cars and our fracking and our rare-earth metals... but we ARE going to run out. And then what?  Dark magic is the same principle. Eventually, you’re going to run out of resources. 

5. Where I think the show is going My main beef with those (and there’s a lot of ya, so I’m not intending to single anyone out) who say that the writing is lazy for dark magic bad elfs good is that the show is not over. Wonderstorm is doing their damndest to give us the saga. And they’ve said, out right, that there WILL be books, if nothing else.

You can’t judge a story’s merits when it’s only been half told. Right now, what the show has done is it has shown us the worst and best of the elves (for example, Khessa’s purity test vs Rayla refusing to kill Ez so she doesn’t perpetuate a cycle of violence) and the worst and best of the humans (ex: Viren forcibly turning thousands of people into monsters against their will vs Viren risking his life in order to save thousands of people from famine). The show has done well to demonstrate that there is good and bad in everyone, and it’s the choices you make and the respect you show others’ autonomy that makes you a good or bad person. The dominoes are in place. The saga has only begun. Being mad that Ezran burned an army (that he likely knew from Soren was invulnerable to fire) or that Aanya shot Kasef in the face (when Opeli would have told her that Kasef conspired behind Ezran’s back to usurp the throne, which is AN ACT OF WAR btw) means you aren’t looking at the big picture. There WILL be consequences for those actions in later seasons, mark my words.

I’m sorry if you’re a Viren or Claudia stan, but they have made choices that hurt other people, and it is in no way shape or form Ezran or Callum or Rayla or ANYONE ELSE’S fault that they made the choices they did. Instead of being mad at the show for not portraying your fav as an innocent victim, be glad that you got such a wonderfully complex set of villains who, quite likely, will get a bomb-ass redemption arc. In fact, I’ll bet you anything that Viren’s walk back from the edge has already begun. The dude fucking DIED, and he’s not going to be eager to get in there and get all grabby with the power any time soon. 

That’s what good writing IS - conflict. Tension. People making morally questionable choices. We like it because every day people are hypocrites and morally questionable. You, and I, and everyone we know. Nobody’s perfect and getting cranky and painting the protagonists with the broad villain brush so you can feel good about liking a problematic fave is... some peak tumblr bullshit, tbh.  It’s okay to like characters who aren’t perfect. How fucking boring fiction would be if everyone was perfect.

Now if I can ask my mutuals to please tag their criticisms of the show that go in the vein of “the writing is bad because dark magic is portrayed so negatively/they don’t hold the protags accountable/elves good humans bad” with “TDP critical” I would greatly appreciate it. It’s getting to the degree where things are becoming very not fun and making me cranky.  Thank you, Renee out. 

[kokoro-no-kizuna]

Mobile Friendly Rules (Read Before Interacting)

THESE ARE JUST A FEW GENERAL THINGS I FEEL ARE IMPORTANT TO BE ADDRESSED BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER, SO PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO READ THEM.

I know they seem long but some of it is also just information I thought was important for you to know before interacting with me.  And a lot of it is generic stuff too but please still read anyway. 

- ★ First and most important thing is that the mun has a very serious cannibalism trigger, which includes ANY form of people being eaten (including animals or monsters or any such other creatures eating people). (Excluding vampires, as that doesn’t typically involve the eating of human flesh, and rather simply blood itself. Zombies however, are included). As such, please tag all SNK or Hannibal related posts, especially with such things in them, but even the ones without such scenes in them, due to the fact that these two shows/fandoms are the reason I learned I have this trigger, and so the entire thing now can cause my trigger due to association, and memory connection to it. Also I ask that you tag any other shows/fandoms/gifs with such things in them as well. Please and thank you very much. My blacklisted tags are: SNK, Shingeki No Kyojin, Attack On Titan, AoT, tokyo ghoul, tg, Hannibal, Cannibalism, tw: cannibalism, twd, the walking dead, walking dead, zombies, and hunting trophies.  Any form of these (capitalization does not matter, however spaces do) will be caught by my blacklist, so I would appreciate it if you’d use one of these for those posts. Also suggestions for other possible blacklist tags that I may have forgotten are much appreciated. Also as an added note, I will not follow, RP with, or associate in ANY WAY, any blogs that have to do with my triggers. (Multi-muse blogs can sometimes be okay, this more applies to blogs that post SPECIFICALLY about the fandoms that trigger me). If you are a multi-muse blog that has characters from these fandoms, all I ask is that you be sure to tag them with the fandom they are from, with one of the tags in my list, and tag any of the triggers. We’ll be perfectly fine if you do!

- Secondly, I am not here just to to roleplay smut. I WILL do so if I feel like it and if the roleplay goes that direction after building up the relationship, however I am not here for that. I do prefer however if our smut RPs are placed under a read more, if at all possible. I will not RP smut with underage muns however. Underage muses, depending on the age (and if our muses are close to the same age, eg: Both our muses are 16, cuz teenagers do things, as much as we might dislike the fact they do, and no matter how much we wish they wouldn’t) I may still write it. It’s very dependent on the particular muses. I will not RP smut with a muse that is 18 or over, and a muse that is underage. I will not RP smut with muses that are legitimate children (14 and under). However despite my willingness to write it, it doesn’t mean that it will happen if the other mun is not comfortable with. I don’t force it. I don’t need it. I just basically accept that that kind of stuff happens, and it’s a very realistic thing. My nsfw tag is #n;sfw so you are aware, because the original nsfw tag doesn’t work as well anymore.

- ★ I am autistic. I know I don’t seem like it at first, and sometimes it’s hard to tell, however I am, and I also have ADHD, and it does affect the way my mind works with things. Sometimes having things done certain ways makes all the difference between if I can do something or if I can’t. If it sounds like I want to do something, but seem to struggle with figuring out how, please feel free to make suggestions, or start the thing yourself! It’s actually REALLY helpful when I get stuck. My being autistic can also affect who I can roleplay with, and how I roleplay, and how I think. Please keep this in mind, and try to be understanding. If something bothers you, or you don’t understand something, just ask me! I’ll do my best to explain, or fix it.

- Though it may not always seem like it, I am VERY shy and awkward. I’m actually legitimately terrified of new people, and trying to talk to people I haven’t spoken to before, or very much yet, almost makes me feel like I’m going to have a panic attack. If you want to RP with me, please message me! Chances are I’d LOVE to chat with you and RP with you, I’m just too terrified to talk to you.

- I struggle with chronic depression, and sometimes I may disappear for a while if I have a spell that gets particularly bad. Please be patient with me, as I will never forget about you and will always return. Also since it needs to be said, I also have EXTREME, doctor diagnosed anxiety. Sometimes it gets the better of me. Same with depression. Sometimes I have bad days. So I vent, and get frustrated with things. Little things bother me a lot more than they would on a normal day. If you can’t handle that or are going to be a hypocrite about it then please just leave right now. I don’t need your negativity. I have enough unwanted of that in my head as it is, which I combat and fight against every day.

- I am a multiship/multiverse blog, however my muses will likely be very selective with shipping for the time being however I am still happy to discuss ships and will happily consider them. Also a note, that I will ship with multiples of the same character, if the mun of those blogs wishes to ship with me. I find each relationship is different, seeing as each mun plays their character a little differently.

- I will do crossovers sometimes with fandoms I am familiar with. Crossovers always depend on my mood and how well my muse can interact with a character, as well as how well I know the series the character is from. Please forgive me if I choose not to roleplay a specific crossover. I still like you, I promise. If you’re unsure if I know your fandom, just ask! I do know of a lot of fandoms, so there’s a good chance I might.

- I ship based on chemistry. Sometimes I can develop a ship quickly, especially if I know the other muse’s personality well, and know they will mesh well with mine. Other times, a ship takes time for me to develop. Please be understanding and patient with me on this.

- Do NOT under any circumstances, force a ship on me. I am usually quite good at expressing ships I am okay with, and it will usually show in my writing. If you are unsure if I ship something or not, feel free to send me a message and ask me. Most of my characters have their own way of showing interest in someone, however most are usually pretty clear in expressing it in some way. Sending memes for interaction is fine for anyone whether we have interacted or not, and I will usually reply to those, however do not force a ship on me outside of that. If one develops between our characters, then fine. However that is a MUTUAL thing, so I do not take kindly to someone just deciding something is a thing. If you want to try to build one between our characters, then go ahead. Just please show me respect. That is the biggest and most important thing with me, is respect.

- I will write anything from 1 liners to multi-paragraphs when I RP. I usually stick to 1 or two shortish paragraphs, and that tends to fluctuate or shrink depending on how much information is needed to describe a scene. If we start out with a shorter paragraph, and I make a reply a fair bit longer, I will likely revert back to the shorter paragraph again within 1 or 2 replies. However you are welcome to write however you wish, just as long as you can give me something to go on. (A one liner in response to a 10 line paragraph for example, I will struggle to reply to.)

- I do not tolerate anon hate of any kind. Not towards myself, nor towards others. I will respond to it in a way that will make the sender feel rather like an idiot, and I am very smart and capable of doing so, so please be advised of that, if you intend to do so.

- I will RP more violent NSFW RPs, however ONLY as long as I am in the mood for them. Anything triggering will be tagged. The mun of this blog is (well) over 18.

- Apologies, but I absolutely WILL NOT RP with people who RP in first person. It is something I cannot stand and I just will not do it.

- ★ I am better at roleplaying ships with males (BoyxBoy/Yaoi/etc), due to being more familiar with it and having more experience with it ((as I myself am very very very gay, and also trans (which is where the issues with writing about female parts makes me very uncomfortable comes from) )). I may however attempt to ship romantically with female characters, since romantic ships I can do, but please keep in mind it is something I am not as good at or as comfortable with, so if in the end, I decide I am unable to do so, please be understanding of this. (Especially if smut is included in the ship. I cannot smut with female characters, sorry. I am well aware it’s dumb that my brain rebels to it but it doesn’t change the fact that it does.)

- I am slightly fickle about things I can reply to. I try very hard to reply to everything, however one thing I am not good at, is sudden changes in roleplays. As much as I hate to admit it, and try to pretend it isn’t true, and even though I am quite good at managing it most times, I am autistic, (high functioning form of autism) and that is one of the few issues I struggle with the most. If you sense a roleplay is changing directions, please hint at it to me in the tags or something the reply before it does, since even that small little hint can be enough to help keep me from having to drop an RP. Even if you are unsure if it will or not, letting me know that you think it MIGHT possibly happen (since we don’t control our characters) is a huge help to me. This particular issue is the main reason that 95% of my dropped threads end up dropped. And I always feel terrible when it happens, so please help me to get better at this.

- I can be slow sometimes (or often) with asks or replies. This usually happens because of my muse being fickle or me thinking a meme or ask prompt would be fun, however sometimes when I actually get them, my muse decides to just be like NOPE, or my depression kicks up and I lose all motivation. Also sometimes I tend to forget things, or leave stuff in my askbox to reply to later, and then I forget about it or get distracted. If this happens, I apologize. Please try to be understanding of this, since I will NEVER ignore you or your asks on purpose. (The only case where it would be ignored is if it is something stated in my rules that I cannot respond to, that you obviously failed to read or are attempting to do anyway.) I do reblog things with the INTENT to answer EVERYTHING that shows up in my inbox, however my intentions don’t always pan out.

Next topic of discussion.

Concerning OCs and shipping with them:

- I WILL NOT ship my muses with other OCs, unless they are extremely well developed. This is simply because unless I personally can form some form of an an emotional connection/understanding to/of a character, my own muse will be unable to do so as well.

- I am also very picky with RPing with other OCs, because of the same reason stated above. I will however roleplay with them sometimes, and do not in any way dislike them. I rather love OCs, and the diversity and color they bring to fandoms, and I actually have lots of OCs of my own for different fandoms, I just cannot always connect to them, and in those cases, I will not be able to roleplay with them. I apologize. HOWEVER. If possible, I will happily do platonic RPs with OCs that my muses happen to click with.The types of characters/OCs I am usually unable to roleplay with, are the following, which includes a list of reasons why.

- ★ OCs that are not connected to any fandom in particular/Multifandom OCs. Basically as I like to call them, floaters or drifters. I may attempt to roleplay with these. It can still be iffy, because my brain can sometimes make stuff more difficult than it actually is or needs to be, and it depends on each particular OC, but as I have recently been developing a few fandomless OCs myself, I find my understanding of them has grown a bit. That said, sometimes I need to be able to connect them with something, as each fandom has a specific world to them. I need a consistent, solid world anchor to be able to understand the character, which drifters don’t have, so I can struggle to RP with them. I’m willing to try though! I believe this issue is connected to my being autistic, since certain things my brain just refuses to understand unless it is worded a certain way or done a certain way.

- OCs from fandoms I am unfamiliar with. If I don’t know what sort of world/background your character comes from, it leaves me guessing too much and confused. I have attempted to roleplay with them anyway in the past and it just doesn’t work.

- ★ Self insert OCs. Really. Please just no. I cannot stand self inserts above all else other than Shipper OCs. Admittedly, there are a rare few good ones out there. (And those are fine). However those tend to be very few and far between, and 98% of them tend to fall into the not so good category to put it nicely, and I just.. I can’t do it. There is nothing else to say to this except just NO. I apologize for this, however I just can’t. Also, this applies to FULLY self inserts. This does not apply to characters that simply share some traits with you, as often we roleplay a character because we can connect to them somehow.

- Canon Genderbends (there are exceptions sometimes with these). This subject is a touchy one, since my mind is very rigid unfortunately when it comes to how I view them. This might stem from my own personal gender struggle (as I am trans and FtM), however genderbends have always been something I have a lot of issues with, and so 98% of the time, I will not RP with them because I have to fight my mind to reply. Temporary genderswap M!A’s however, when handled properly, are no issue for me, and in such cases I will happily roleplay with them.

- OCs with very little backstory and information, or with a confusing one, or even with none at all. In essence, poorly made OCs. I need info to RP with you. At least seriously. So sorry. I need to be able to understand your character at least a little, since I don’t do good with “lets play a guessing game” or “I literally have no idea what I’m doing” or “what the hell is going on” sort of RPs, and I have never been good at them, and so I need clear, concise information on your character.

- Shipper OCs. The type of character I hate more than any other. If you made your OC just so you could ship with a bunch of people and that is the only purpose for their existence, do not even talk to me, or approach my character. Don’t even try. I literally cannot stand these types, and they fall right up there with my hatred of self inserts. So sorry. But just no. This doesn’t mean I ship shame if your muse happens to end up in lots of ships. That’s fine. It happens. I know the feeling when muses just click with lots of other muses. Sometimes it’s like that. But if their ONLY purpose for existing, is just so you can ship with endless characters, please go away right now.

- Canonically unknown family member OCs. Whether it’s a sibling for my character or for someone else’s that was never mentioned in canon, I just can’t. (If you want to RP a family member of my character that I have mentioned in my character’s info, please ask me beforehand as I usually have an idea already of what their family member is like, but usually I will be okay with that as long as you ask me first before just going ahead and doing it.) I’ve never been able to RP with them, for a multitude of reasons, one of the main being they often end up reminding me of self inserts or genderbends. I have been unsuccessful at breaking this way of thinking towards them despite attempting to many times, and so I just cannot do it, personally. I am sorry.

Those are all the ones I can think of right now. I am very sorry to anyone who has one of these and wants to RP with me, however I simply cannot do it, personally. I’m sure there are plenty of other people out there though who would love to RP with you even though I cannot, and just because I will not RP with you doesn’t mean I dislike you or your character. I’d be happy to still be friends with you, I just won’t be able to RP with you. I’m someone who needs to be able to connect to the character I am roleplaying with on at least SOME level, for my character to be able to connect to them as well, so if I am unable to do that then I am unable to roleplay with them. (This can include as well, the WAY someone roleplays, since if there is no emotion or thought or description in replies, it gives me nothing to go on and connect to, and leaves me unable to respond, even if I WANT to RP with you.)

★ I hate to have to do this, however I have had A LOT of trouble with people not reading and following my rules in the past, and or speaking about or talking about/not tagging my major trigger, so if you have read my rules, please inbox or IM me with “Catshark”.  I ask this of people because it also helps a lot with my anxiety, and keeps me from wondering and worrying in the back of my mind if I might actually get triggered by something. I know it can be tedious to do this extra step, and I hate that I even had to add this step in the first place, however after years of roleplaying, and dealing with people, it became necessary due to several bad past experiences in tumblr fandoms. It was not added on a whim, so please take the time to do so.

There may be more added to this later if I think of something. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[themthistles]

via @mogcrow

First of all thank you. Nothing better than a wall of thoughtful interesting tags on your post.

Secondly, completely agree on the Society's shady past. They've proven themselves again and again as 1. hypocrites 2. capable of revising history when it's convenient. Actually one of my main theories is that the Courage Square Massacre wasn't this valiant defense of Nevermoor by noble heroes against the Evil Squall but rather a big Wundersmith inflighting caused by Wunsoc themselves. Perhaps by an order so messed up that some of the Smiths chose their conscience over 'loyalty' to the Society. Here are my reasons:

1. Sofia said herself that it's hard to know exactly what happened. It just seems really suspicious that instead of boosting the narrative of 'heroic Wundersmiths standing up to the evil one' they decided to purge all mention of them and turn the 'heroes' of CSM into these faceless good guys. However if the real events were to reveal the Society's involvement and the exact reason the fight occured then it seems like a reasonable thing to do. Infuriating but reasonable. You know it's like when people in movies set a car with evidence on fire. Much easier to control the narrative this way. What happened before it was on fire? Well we changed the story two times already but this third one is definitely the whole truth, we promise.

2. Look, no matter how talanted Squall is... you're telling me that they couldn't beat him? 8 against 1? Also sure he's very skilled now but at the time of the fight he was what? Twenty six? And the majority of the others were his seniors with much more experience. In fact 6/8 were his teachers. Griselda especially was this 'great' 'venerable' ancient master, 'more skilled than any of the others'. Morrigan and Squall's words. All this sounds very....eh? It would be a different story if the odds were a little more even. 4 against 5 or at least 3 against 6. (My bet is that at least Mathilde Lachance was on Squall's side)

3. Squall's hatered of the Society and him telling Morrigan that thing about them 'flipping the script' when it's convenient for them. If Wunsoc hypothetically gave a divisive order and Squall hypothetically stood by them and did their dirty work and they made him the scapegoat anyways then of course he's gonna be bitter and hateful. Squall keeps emphasising Wundersmiths as those who have no choice but to do what people in power tell them to do, granting their wishes. The way Wundersmiths were probably viewed and treated in the past is best summed up by his own words in Hollowpox:

‘Because I could. And because I had to. Because I am a Wundersmith, and that is what we do. We say yes. We do the ghastly things that are asked of us by people in power, and we do the good things, and we take none of the credit and all of the blame. It’s what we do.’

I don't think he's trying to make excuses for his actions. I think that was genuinely the attitude towards Wundersmiths at the time. You had to do what was asked of you. You could get funky with it like king of malicious compliance Odbuoy Jemmity but you HAD to do it. And that's very um concerning.

Also still thinking about this exchange between Morrigan and Squall:

‘What an awful thought, that I might be asked to help people. How truly terrible.’

‘You have no idea.’

Moving on.

Wow. I completely forgot about the signatures. Elders being hypocrites as usual and doing exactly what their behated Squall does? And being even less merciful than him cause grandpa at least lets them live until next Eventide? (the bar is so low) I agree. I too am obsessed with this.

And love the idea about the League of Explorers. Considering how proud they are of being the 'Free State' it would be extremely ironic if they are absolutely no better than the Republic in terms of colonisation. We don't know much about the concept of Pockets and how they're formed but like.... imagining the League coming in like 'Hi hello. We come in peace or whatever. Would you like to join our State?' and the locals willingly agreeing is a bit laughable.

questionable actions of wundrous society just keep escalating so rapidly that i wouldn't be surprised if by book five we learn that the elders also did some war crimes or something