#anyways if any of you new folks are here from twitter you should look at my other rubegetta rants I talk about them a LOT

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I just woke up to see some of the biggest Rubegetta accounts on Twitter talking about one of my rants on Rubius and Vegetta's relationship, I feel so proud :')

I really do love Rubius and Vegetta and their mess of a relationship, but I sometimes get in my head and worry that I don't portray them / their relationship well enough since I only joined the fandom during Karmaland 5, so it's really really cool seeing veteran fans being like "this is a great explaination" :''')

[hazbin-but-good]

another hazbin hotel rewrite/redesign?

yup! and i'm so serious about it that i made a whole blog for it. i'm a white queer ex-cath tran doing this as an art and writing exercise, so feedback from other creatives + jewish and/or racialized folks is especially welcome.

i'm putting this post and only this post in the main tags for visibility. also, not gonna link my main, but i do make my own original stuff, and i encourage fans and haters alike to do the same.

anyway, here's a mostly good-faith 1.7k-word essay on the original. i think it's pretty funny and brings up some less talked-about points. correct me on the facts, disagree with my opinions, and ask clarifying questions, but don't come at me with any piss-poor reading comprehension.

the hellaverse is garbage, and here's why

cw: strong language, stronger opinions, intersectional feminist critical discourse analysis

1. vivienne medrano, the person

medrano was born as a well-off white-passing latina (salvadoran-american) in bougieass frederick, maryland. while attending new york's top art school, she got popular on deviantart-tumblr-twitter by being a prolific multifandom fujoshi furry who's more into ornamental character design than storytelling. upon graduation, she leveraged her fanbase and industry connections to make the hazbin and helluva boss pilots, get helluva made for youtube, and get hazbin made for amazon prime.

like every woman online, she gets harassed for no good reason, and as a certified autist, i will defend her right to be dumb, weird, annoying, and bad with words. however, there are legit reasons to criticize her:

racism, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, some antisemitism, past transphobia, past ableism

shitty boss, bad friend

cowardly, vindictive, manipulative, thoughtless behavior

skeevy friends

sucks at taking criticism

in short, i think she desperately needs a PR person and someone to clean up her digital footprint.

2. medrano's art

incurious

inauthentic

noncommittal

creatively stagnant

overindulgent, and the indulgence isn't even fun

shallow and childish framed as complex and mature

bland and boring framed as shocking and subversive

to be clear, i'm at peace with the existence of suckass art like this; i just think the money, attention, and praise it gets are unearned and should go to more interesting works, of which there are infinite.

medrano's had the time, money, and social cache to grow as an artist, learn from the best, and take creative risks, but she hasn't. if she truly has nothing more to offer, she should let her collaborators take the wheel, but she doesn't do that either. instead, she keeps getting more and more resources to make the same baby bullshit, and that pisses me off. she could be the nicest person ever, and this fundamental arrogance would still make her art blow.

stop with the pointless guilt: liking medrano's work does not make you stupid or evil. however, if you stay in the kiddie pool of culture, if you refuse to engage with a diversity of art, if the hellaverse is your point of reference for anything media-related, you can't expect to have your opinions on art, media, or culture taken seriously. you have not earned a seat at the table. you gotta hit the books first.

i cannot emphasize enough how much incredible stuff is out there if you're willing to look further than what social media and streaming services put right in front of you. if you come away from this blog having learned about just one new artist or piece of art, i'll be a happy camper.

3. the hellaverse

a. empty and confused

hazbin and helluva's content and marketing has no clear target audience. the subjects are inappropiate for teens, but the execution is too childish for adults, and lemme tell you what i don't mean by that, first.

not inherently inappropriate for teens:

sex and sexuality

violence, including when it intersects with the above

politics and religion

not inherently childish:

animation (any style)

comedy

episodic writing and/or loose continuity

young characters

fun, happiness, optimism, the power of friendship, cuteness, tenderness, sincerity, etc.

what i mean is that these shows are literally about adult characters who fuck, smoke, drink, do drugs, go clubbing, work full-time, manage their own finances, and deal with stuff like bureaucracy, sexual violence, domestic abuse, marriage, divorce, late adoption, and family estrangement.

however, none of these "adult" things are given enough specificity to create drama or comedy. it's all too stock, vague, flat, weirdly sanitized, and thus utterly banal—pure aesthetics on top of bad saturday morning cartoons. it's exactly what i'd expect from a sheltered disney kid who needs to log off and get into their local gay scene ASAP so their only contact with things like poverty, policing, addiction, and sex work stops being facile movies and TV.

if the shows were aware of this and played with it, that could be amazing, but they're not. they give you the mickey mouse version of the world with a straight face and then play looney tunes sound effects to try to make you laugh and sad_violin.mp3 to try to make you cry. now that's funny.

b. old and tired

let's make like americans and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. even within the confines of the USA, home of the hays code, the red scare, and reaganite propaganda, this neopuritan fascist state ruled by 1000 megachurches in a trenchcoat, the indie/underground animation scene has been doing crazier shit for decades. anti-war films in the 60's, bakshi movies in the 70's, the simpsons shorts and r-rated movies in the 80's, adult swim and MTV in the 90's, flash/newgrounds/youtube in the 00's, streaming in the 2010's—so what are we doing in the 2020's with this wet white rice drowned in expired ketchup? i feel crazy making this point because it's obvious if you've watched these things, but if you haven't, you're gonna be like "well, there's gotta be something new here". no! there isn't! in the words of jimmy "the scot" jordan, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

c. ideological purgatory

actually, there is one thing in these shows i've never seen before: the presbysterianism. shout out some interesting or at least intentional presbysterian art in the comments, because the way these ideas are presented here is not compelling. it just makes the rainbow neoliberalism even more confusing and contradictory.

i guess the big presbysterian things are protestanism, calvinism, and, uh, big church government? presbysterians, get your shit together. get your brand down. catholics have BDSM and vampires, evangelicals have TV and corporatism; what do you have? celtic crosses? no wonder medrano has such uninspired ideas on divinity.

d. queer deficiency

when i look at a piece of art, i ask myself: "what does this give me that i can't get from the hunchback of notre dame (1996)?" if the answer is as limp as "uhh, gay people, i guess", i can probably look for my gay shit elsewhere and rewatch the hunchback of notre dame (1996) in the meantime.

but let's say that you have no standards. you've been waiting for ages for a show about gays by the gays for the gays, and by god you're gonna get it. this is it! here we go! time for some

generic twink obliteration

male sexuality as aggression and dominance displays

WLW (sex and chemistry not included)

a couple straight femdoms

and the stalest sex jokes known to man

...yeah, it's not very queer. and by "queer", i mean "questioning or subverting gender norms (including sexual roles) within a given cultural context regardless of creator identity and intent". i'm not a queer studies scholar so LMK if there's a more specific term for this, but whatever you call it, it's not in the hellaverse much.

there's not even any transness, literal or metaphorical, just ancient drag jokes. i guess the writers thought we would've been too controversial. so much for an indie animation studio that prides itself in the diversity of its staff both above and below the line, bakshi-style. i wonder how medrano, a bisexual woman, would've felt if told that a lesbian main couple in hazbin would be "too controversial".

4. spindlehorse and the vivziepop brand

spindlehorse toons underpays its overworked staff and keeps outsourcing more and more labor to even more overworked freelancers overseas to cut costs. a rainbow sweatshop is still a sweatshop, and just because these practices may be "industry standard" doesn't make them any more ethical.

the studio has also been repeatedly accused by current and former employees and contractors of creating a hostile and abusive workplace. AFAIK, it still has no dedicated HR person, and victims are too afraid of retaliation like blacklisting and online harassment to speak out.

this is exactly the stuff that unions exist to prevent. as i'm writing this, the IATSE (the parent union of TAG, which is the parent union of all US animation unions) is negotiating with entertainment industry executives for better working conditions, and if the execs fuck around like last year, it's strike time again. so watch this space, voice your support, and don't cross any picket lines.

i hope spindlehorse unionizes, but until then and for these reasons, i don't think you should give money to the company.

first of all, all content on amazon-owned platforms is ok to pirate, and all youtube ads are ok to block. everyone involved in making the episodes has (or should have) been paid upfront, so you're not taking the bread out of anyone's mouth.

next, let's look at the succulent offerings of the official vivziepop merch shop:

$10 pins and keychains

$15 sticker packs

$20 mugs and acrylic cutouts

$25 shirts

$30 metal cards (not even tarot)

$40 lounge pants

$50 mini backpacks

random $80 skateboard deck

forgive my latin americanness, but this is all stuff you can get made by a local metalsmith, print/sublimation shop, or just crafty people in your life. it's cheaper, customizable, and better for the environment to skip all the shipping and packaging. also, not painting your own skateboard is poser shit.

the hazbin website also has $15 pins, one $20 keychain, and $6 trading card packs. people are weird about trading cards, so if for some reason you wanna gamble for a mass-produced bit of cardboard, plastic, and tinfoil, at least bulk-order for all the vivziepoppers in your area so it's less of a huge waste. better yet, trace the designs and make infinite bootlegs.

at the end of the day, buying merch is not activism. your bulk order of trading cards will not save any wage slaves from getting evicted from their overpriced studio apartments. however, the shop links you to all the credited artists/designers, and more of your bucks will actually reach them if you buy their designs directly, then turn them into body pillows or life-sized bronze statues or whatever the fuck.

go through the credits of any episode of helluva or hazbin, and you'll find even more creatives you might wanna support. get jinkx monsoon's albums on CD. subscribe to actually good artist, animator, and composer gooseworx. lots of voice actors now have patreon, cameo, or self-hosted pages where you can write better lines for their characters and have them read it. these things may not look as shiny as Official Merch™, but we all need less plastic shit and more culture anyway.

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/25/2024 OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew Sightings; Queerties; How to Help; New Renewal Effort Resources; stats; gifs; petition status; morale boost ; self care pitstop; love notes; Rhys

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

While not related to OFMD-- Leslie Jones has been nominated for Outstanding Performance Award from @naacp for "After the Cut" on The Daily Show! Just something to celebrate for our crew!

Nathan Foad, Samba Schutte, and Con O'Neill are obviously excited about OFMD coming to the UK! All seen on their instagram stories.

Next, Kristian Nairn answered some fans on the #WeeJohnDays Coming back. You can add to the thread here if you'd like.

== Queerties ==

If you're down, please vote for the Queerties each day! If you want to just vote for OFMD categories, feel free to visit: TV Comedy Best TV Performance

== How To Help ==

How To Help Save OFMD Task List - US How to Help Save OFMD Task List - Outside US

= New Renewal Campaign Resources =

Found some cool resources today if you're out campaigning on any of the platforms, feel free to use these, they're all tagged with sources. (These have been added to the Daily Recap Task Lists)

== Stats ==

Srcs (in order of appearance LTR): @lucyrosebutler , @bonnypitty @meowzawowza_ on Twitter

== Gif Resources ==

Our lovely @kiwistede made some gorgeous gifs that you can use on social media when you're @ing the networks.

==UK News==

@lamentus1 Gave us a brief update on the happenings in the UK:

Not much to report today, I’ve just been focused on promoting the show off the back of the UK talent, hoping to enlist new fans now that we have a date for season 2 on the BBC. The Guardian article was great, despite ending on a somewhat pessimistic note. It links to the petition though, which is amazing! The Guardian Article

==Articles==

We made it into the guardian! Holy Crap!

‘Unhinged – in a good way’: Our Flag Means Death was cancelled. Its fans are fighting back"

As @lamentus1 mentioned, yes, the last quote in it is very pessimistic, however I don't think that's the part we should focus on, instead we should focus on the fact the campaign got big enough to warrant getting picked up by The Guardian AND our petition was linked in it. Think of how many new folks will be clicking in?

The 20 best feel-good TV shows

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Finally Confirms UK Release Date

‘Our Flag Means Death’ Season 2: Fans Petition To Save Beloved HBO Show (this last one has a weird date at the end, which @OFMDBingo42 on Twitter speculates coincides with the end of the Social Media Strike for Palestine, just fyi it was confusing many of us).

==Petition Status ==

Almost at 81K!

== Morale Boosts ==

Feeling low cause things have slowed down? A lot of crew have brought up some excellent points across the platforms as to why things aren't as down as they feel right now. Please check out: @PehmoKoira's Take on Tumblr

== Self Care Pitstop! ==

If you are feeling overwhelmed-- stop by @flowelineblog's post! It's quick, and efficient :)

== Love Notes ==

So while looking for cast and crew sightings I found this lovely message on @VicoOrtiz's IG Story, so I'm going to share it instead tonight by @thebehappyproject.

==========================================

Our Rhys picture tonight is courtesy of @rhysdarbinizedarby via a post about "The Jaquie Brown Diaries": Night on the Brown (2009)"

I couldn't get over the look, so now you have to see it. It's literally haunting my dreams and I haven't even fallen asleep yet.

Anyway, night lovelies, hope you all have a great day/night <3 Stay safe, hydrated, and keep being the ever wonderful yous <3

[sneakyparsnipslicer]

Bodysnatchers II

[The continuation to 'Bodysnatchers', had to cut a lot of characters to fit this into a post. Enjoy]

Gavin awoke, it was daylight. He rolled over to check his phone; 7 in the morning. He put his phone down and turned to look at his sleeping boyfriend. He kissed Chris and he awoke, looking back into Gavin's eyes.

'Morning' whispered Gavin.

'Morning' replied Chris.

'Sleep well?' Gavin asked. Chris stretched and groaned.

'Yeah, I think we got a lot of mileage out of this body didn't we?' Chris chuckled. Gavin laid down.

'Oh I'll say!' Gavin chuckled, moving his hand under the sheets to massage Chris's crotch. 'Jimmy was a good pick for you'.

Chris nodded.

'Oh, did you cover that up?' Chris asked.

'Yep, I logged into his Twitter last night' said Gavin, reaching to the drawer, he pulled out Jimmy's phone and began scrolling through it.

'Tweeted just after we got back' said Gavin. He showed the screen for Chris to read.

'Hi folks, sorry to say I've had to dip this weekend, family emergency. Have yourselves the best weekend, ResidentJimmy'

'Ah, ok' said Chris, looking away from the screen. Gavin put the phone back in the drawer.

'I'll get rid of his phone in a bit, we should get breakfast' Gavin suggested, looking back to Chris, who was looking at the ceiling. 'What's up?'

'I can't help wondering if this was right. Jimmy seemed a decent bloke' said Chris. Gavin rolled his eyes and shook his head.

'He was a prude, he had all THAT going for him. We couldn't let him go to waste' said Gavin.

'Jimmy had friends, family, there'll be investigations!' worried Chris. Gavin stroked his hair.

'Once I get a new body, we can to do whatever we like. Go where we like. We'll get a fresh start' replied Gavin. These words put Chris at ease. He pulled off his sheets and got out of bed, giving Gavin a clear view of his back and ass.

'Fuck, I'm never gonna get tired of that!' laughed Gavin, deciding he had time for a quick tug.

The two headed to the lobby restaurant to get breakfast. Finding a table near a window overlooking the street, the two began to tuck into their food. Event-goers on the surrounding tables were wrapped in their own conversations, there was a great spirit of excitement about the day ahead.

'Oh Em Gee! Is that GaValentine?!' asked a voice. Gavin turned to see a face he recognised from last year.

'Oh, morning, how are you? Sorry I've forgotten your name!' said Gavin. The man chuckled.

'It's Umbrelliam, or Liam. It's been a while!' exclaimed Liam, smiling all rosy-cheeked. Liam was a porky guy, flamboyant as hell but sweet. He turned to Chris and his eyes widened, jaw dropping.

'And who's this gorgeous guy?' asked Liam, filling a seat at the table, looking Chris up and down. Chris finished his mouthful.

'I'm Chris. Gavin's boyfriend' smiled Chris, waving.

'Oh you lucky bitch! Why didn't bring him last year?' demanded Liam, looking to Gavin.

'Oh he was working last year, but we're here now' said Gavin. Liam looked between both of them.

'Must be a model or something, honey you can Chris my Redfield any day' said Liam, winking at Chris.

'What's that mean? Boulder-punching you in the fucking face?' asked Chris. Liam was taken aback, but burst out laughing.

'Gosh he's fiery too! Honestly Gavin, you've gotta find me a guy like him' said Liam, turning to look at Gavin. He took a sip of his drink and a thought struck him.

'Did you hear about Jimmy?' asked Liam. Gavin caught a nervous look from Chris.

'You mean ResidentJimmy? Yeah I think so, didn't he Tweet last night he had to go home?' asked Gavin, Liam nodded.

'Yeah, vanished. I spoke to some friends earlier, he didn't text to let them know he had to go or anything, everyone's talking about it' Liam said, looking into his glass. Gavin and Chris locked eyes for a moment, a look of worry passed between them.

'I'm sure he had his reasons, he'll update everyone soon enough' suggested Chris. Liam looked to Chris and smiled.

'Yeah, I'm sure he will!' Liam replied.

'Anyway, let's focus on the event today, got quite the lineup haven't we?' asked Gavin, eager to change the subject. Liam snapped out of his trance.

'Oh my gosh yes! I can't believe they actually got Julia Voth to come here today, her as Jill is just Mother' exclaimed Liam, grinning from ear to ear.

'Well, I'm sure I'll see you cuties there, just gotta get a couple of things from my room. See you soon!' said Liam, getting up from his chair.

'Hey Liam, do you have any plans after the event?' asked Gavin, Liam spun back around.

'Not really, why?' asked Liam, his eyebrows furrowed.

'Well, Chris and I were thinking of having some fun later if you're game' whispered Gavin, winking. Chris glared at Gavin. Liam looked around.

'Wait, seriously?' asked Liam quietly, grinning again. Gavin nodded.

'Abso-fucking-lutely!' Liam said, looking to Chris.

'Cool, we'll see you later!' said Gavin, giving Liam a thumbs up. Liam walked off. Chris leaned in.

'What the absolute FUCK was that?!' he hissed, glaring at Gavin. Gavin leaned in.

'Liam's a bit of a convention slut, he's practically gagging for any action he can get' whispered Gavin, smirking.

'Oh really? You're gonna settle for that?' Chris asked, looking the way Liam went. Gavin followed the direction Chris was looking.

'I'll see what I can do with him. Might take a bit of compressing but it could result in something nice' said Gavin. Chris leaned back in his chair and heaved an exaggerated sigh.

'Honestly hearing what he was saying, I'm worried taking over Jimmy was a risky move' said Chris. Gavin shook his head.

'Nah babe, once his body's mine, there'll be one less gossipy bitch around to risk anyone putting two and two together. I'll take him over, then we leave tonight. Sound good?' asked Gavin. Chris reluctantly nodded.

'We'd better get rid of Jimmy's phone quick, there's only so much radio silence these people can take before they suspect something's off' said Chris. They both nodded and finished their breakfast.

Liam waited in the lobby for Gavin and Chris to return, fantasizing about the night after the event. Soon enough they showed up.

'Hey besties! Shall we get going to the Centre then?' called Liam, waving to them. They both looked at eachother, then Chris shrugged.

'Yeah sure, let's do that' said Chris, and the three of them headed out with Liam and Gavin in front, Chris following. As they made their way across the city, they were approached by a homeless man.

'Scuse me Sirs, you wouldn't happen to have a tenner you could give us would ya?' the man asked. Gavin and Chris continued on like they hadn't seen him, but Liam stopped.

'Oh of course lovey! Just give me a second' smiled Liam, pulling out his wallet to find a £10 note for the man.

'Oh thank you, thank you so much!' said the man graciously.

'It's alright, times are tough darling, I understand' said Liam, patting him on the shoulder. The man looked towards Chris and Gavin and lowered his voice.

'You uh, you know those two then?' asked the man, pointing to Chris and Gavin. Liam nodded.

'Watch yourself with them, something's not right about them' said the man. Liam looked puzzled.

'How d'you mean?' he asked. The man looked nervously at them again.

'I knows a demon when I sees one. That tall one ain't right' he said.

'I think you might've hit the Meth a little hard today honey' chuckled Liam. The man shook his head.

'No Sir, I ain't about that life! Swear to me bones, you be careful!' he warned. He hurried back to his sleeping bag in a nearby doorway and returned with a flask, he pushed it into Liam's hands.

'Trust me, take that with ya, it's holy water it is, I always keeps some from the Cathedral. Please be safe' he said. He shook Liam's hand and hobbled off. Liam looked at the flask and shrugged. He put it in his backpack and hurried off after the two, who were waiting by a bin.

'Ah heck Liam, why'd you stop for that guy?' asked Gavin, smirking at him.

'Sorry, it's just I couldn't not spot him that tenner, poor fella's down on his luck. It's only decent' said Liam. Gavin looked to Chris.

'You're a good man Liam, if people were more like you the world would be a nicer place, and bankrupt!' said Chris, smiling at Liam.

'You've sure got a weird sense of humour Chris. Not sure if I like that about you' said Liam giving Chris a stern look.

'Oh never mind. Anyway we're nearly at the Centre. Did you play the RE4 Remake yet Liam?' asked Gavin.

'Oh yeah, kinda prefer the original honestly' said Liam absent-mindedly. He thought about the man's warning. Maybe something really was off about Chris.

Liam, Gavin and Chris spent the next hours mingling with other fans, meeting voice actors and developers from the Resident Evil franchise's past, attending panels and getting photos and merchandise signed. Eventually in the afternoon everyone began to make plans for the night. Liam had been hanging around a friend of his, Hannah during breaks.

'Seriously Liam, he hasn't called, he's not answering his phone, listen!' said Hannah, holding her phone to Liam's ear.

'I'm sorry, the phone you are trying to reach has been switched off. Please try again later' came the automated voice. Hannah was a friend of Jimmy's and his disappearance had been on her mind all day.

'Looks like he's put nothing on Twitter, not since last night' said Liam.

'He was fine last night when we saw him, I just can't work it out' said Hannah, shaking her head and trembling. Liam noticed this and swept her into a hug.

'Hey! It's alright Darling. We'll get to the bottom of this!' said Liam reassuringly. Hannah sighed.

'Thanks Liam' Hannah smiled. Just then Gavin and Chris showed up.

'Hey Liam, we're heading back to the hotel, you coming?' asked Gavin.

'Just a few minutes please guys, catching up' smiled Liam. Chris and Gavin looked to eachother.

'We're in Room 402, don't keep us waiting too long' whispered Chris, winking, and the two headed off.

'Got plans have you?' asked Hannah chuckling, looking at them walking off.

'Yeah, probably shouldn't keep them waiting too long' laughed Liam. Hannah turned back to look at him, a look of concern on her face.

'Say, who's the tall one?' asked Hannah.

'Chris, why?' asked Liam.

'Jimmy was talking to the one with glasses last night, but he was with another guy, not him' said Hannah.

'Might've been a friend of his?' suggested Liam, shrugging.

'Maybe. I don't think I've seen that other guy since last night either. I know there's about 200 people here today, but I've only seen him hanging around the big guy' said Hannah. Liam thought about this and remembered the homeless man's warning. Something was definitely up.

'Liam, if you're going to be hanging around those two tonight please be careful!' she warned. Liam nodded.

'Of course Hannah, I promise' said Liam, giving Hannah one final hug and hurrying off.

Liam hurried back to his hotel room. He took off his backpack and pulled out the flask the homeless man had given him. He hesitated and then began to drink from it. The water was pretty much room temperature, but he chugged it down, finished and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

'Let's see, Room 402' said Liam to himself, pulling out his phone. He sent a DM to Gavin's account on Twitter.

'Hey, just changing, be up in 5 x'

He changed out of his clothes into something a little fancier and sprayed some cologne, combing his hair in the mirror telling himself 'If it gets weird, get the fuck out of there!'. With a shaky breath he steeled himself and proceeded to leave his room. He was two floors below the 4th floor, so he got in the lift, it didn't take long to find the door. He took a deep breath and knocked.

Gavin answered the door, smiling.

'Liam! Good to see you!' cried Gavin, hugging him.

'Sorry I kept you waiting lovey, Hannah was having some issues bless her' replied Liam.

'Well, never mind her. Now it's about us big guy!' said Gavin, ushering Liam into the room. Chris sat on the bed, shirt open exposing his chest.

'Hubba hubba!' cried Liam rushing over to hug him, which Liam reluctantly did.

'So how're we doing this?' asked Liam, looking between them. Chris moved to lie down on the bed.

'You guys can get started, I'll watch and hop in when I'm ready' smiled Gavin. Liam raised his eyebrows.

'Oh, you like to watch do you Mister? I won't complain!' said Liam, turning his attention to Chris, who was smirking at him.

'So how do you want to start?' asked Liam seductively, biting his lip, crawling onto the bed, moving over to Chris. Chris pulled Liam on top of him and began to kiss him, much to Liam's surprise, but he went along with it, beginning to tongue the hunk of a man. Liam could feel himself getting hard as they pulled away. Chris began to undo his belt and pull his shorts down, alongside his boxers, where his monster cock sprang free. Liam's jaw dropped at the sight of it.

'Go on Liam, get to work!' chuckled Chris, shifting himself. Liam nodded and kissed Chris on the lips again, then kissing his neck and kissing his pecs and abs as he made his way down to the groin. Chris began to feel a bit sweaty, but he put it down to the hormones. He began to squirm as Liam took his dick in his hand and began to pump it, licking it's tip with his tongue. Gavin had already unzipped his own trousers, getting his own dick ready for entry.

'God it's getting stuffy! Give me a moment' laughed Liam, pulling his own shirt off and throwing it away, returning to giving Chris a blowjob. Chris scrunched his eyes closed and began gasping. What should be pleasure was starting to feel a lot like pain.

'Are you biting my cock Liam?' asked Chris, looking down at him. Liam stopped sucking and furrowed his eyebrows.

'No?' he insisted. Then it occurred to him Chris was squirming and groaning in pain.

'Oh shit! Are you ok?' asked Liam, looking in horror as the black in Chris's hair was beginning to drain, becoming blonde.

'The fuck have you done to me you prick?!' demanded Chris as his body began to convulse and his stomach grew. Just then Gavin lunged at Liam, trying to shove his hand into his mouth. Liam elbowed him in the ribs.

'Excuse me? What the fuck are you trying to do?!' asked Liam, turning to Gavin in fury, but Gavin looked on at Chris. Looking back Liam yelped and jumped off the bed. Chris's stomach had become huge and the mass was moving downwards.

'Someone tell me what the fuck's going on here?!' asked Liam, standing frozen against the wall as Chris was yelling in pain. Just then, the mass that was making it's way down Chris's shaft bloated it to an impossible size and Liam and Gavin could only look on slack-jawed as a pair of legs were forced out of the tip, then a body, arms and head. A whole man was ejected out of Chris's dick. He groaned in pain as he hit the floor. Liam looked to Chris on the bed, who was now blonde and had less muscle. No, it wasn't Chris, it was Jimmy!

'Jimmy!' cried out Liam rushing to him, but the new man elbowed him out the way and tried to stick his hand down Jimmy's throat.

'Oi! Get off him! What're you even trying to do?' asked Liam, forcing the man off Jimmy.

'Shit! We can't get in!' yelled Tiernan panicking, breathing frantically. Gavin looked at the sight, there was nothing they could do now but run.

'Let's get out of here!' Gavin said, grabbing Tiernan and pulling him to his feet.

Jimmy began to stir, groaning and opening his eyes. He began to register the room.

'What the fuck?' Jimmy asked, feeling pain in his body. He saw Liam standing over him shirtless and groaned.

'Oh shit, not you Liam!' chuckled Jimmy, laying his head back down.

'Jimmy are you alright?' asked Liam.

'I feel like I've been hit by a fucking truck!' replied Jimmy. He realised he wasn't in his hotel room.

'What happened? Where are Gavin and Tiernan?' asked Jimmy. Liam sat down on the bed.

'I'm not sure what the hell's happened but I think you just shot him out of your penis Darling' laughed Liam despite looking terrified. Jimmy began to piece it all together in his head.

'Where are they?' asked Jimmy, sitting up. Liam jumped.

'They said about getting out of here' started Liam. At that, Jimmy lunged off the bed, staggering to the door. Holding his breath and fighting the pain he wrenched the door open, hurrying into the hallway outside.

'Jimmy they've probably reached the lobby by now!' called Liam, but Jimmy wasn't listening. He ran past the lifts and hurtled himself down the stairs, flying in his fury down the steps. He ran into the lobby in time to see a small crowd gathered near the entrance doors.

'Where the fuck are they?!' demanded Jimmy angrily. Everyone looked to him shocked. Hannah hurried over to him and hugged him.

'Jimmy?! Oh my god where have you been?!' yelled Hannah. Jimmy looked to Hannah, suddenly the anger he felt dissolved into fear, tears began to well in his eyes.

'Oh Hannah, I don't even know what the hell's happening, but I'm glad you're here!' said Jimmy, hugging her tight. Liam arrived panting, hanging onto the doorframe to catch his breath. He looked at everyone, then at Jimmy and Hannah. Looking down he cleared his throat.

'Pardon me Jim, but if we don't get your bum covered up I'm going to start getting cravings!' chuckled Liam. Jimmy looked down, he hadn't even realised his lower clothing had fallen off. Hannah turned bright red and Jimmy began laughing, the three of them headed back to the lifts so Jimmy could get changed.

The next day everyone gathered around Jimmy and Liam as they attempted to explain what had happened the previous day and the night before. A somewhat coherent story was formed of how Jimmy had been taken over by Tiernan somehow and that Gavin had tried to cover the tracks up and how Liam had been able to undo what they'd done to Jimmy thanks to the holy water the homeless man had given him.

'Best 10 quid I ever donated!' laughed Liam. Jimmy smiled and looked thoughtfully outside.

'Whatever happened, those two are still out there. Unless Tiernan got arrested for streaking, they could be anywhere now' pondered Jimmy. Hannah massaged Jimmy's right shoulder reassuringly.

'If they show up again, they're dead!' she warned. Jimmy smiled, thankful for his friends' rescue.

'Liam, could you take me to that homeless guy please? I'd like to thank him' Jimmy requested. Liam finished his drink and nodded. Leaving everyone to talk among themselves, Liam and Jimmy headed out. They found the man and approached him. He recognised Liam.

'Sir! Good to see you. You slept safely I hope?' he smiled, looking to Jimmy.

'Hello again Ducky. Yes you were right about those two. They actually took over my friend here' Liam said, clapping a hand on Jimmy's shoulder.

'Hi, I just wanted to thank you. If you hadn't given my friend the holy water I might not be here now. Thanks' smiled Jimmy nodding his head. The man smiled happily at Jimmy.

'It's alright Sir! I could tell something weren't right about them two. Oh! While you're here' said the man, turning his attention to his sleeping bag. He pulled out a phone.

'Is this is yours?' beamed the man. Jimmy took it from him in shock, it was indeed his phone.

'How did you get this?' Jimmy asked.

'Your demon friends thought they were clever. I noticed them chuck summat in the bin over there when I was speaking to your friend yesterday. After you all left I came over to see what it was. Felt I should hold onto it just incase' the man explained. Jimmy pocketed his phone and breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled out his wallet and found a £20 for the man, that he graciously accepted. Liam also handed the flask back and the two began to head back to the Premier Inn.

'Funny isn't it? Today's the last day and we all go back home tonight, and yet this place just got a whole lot more interesting. Tomorrow it'll be work as usual!' remarked Jimmy.

'I'm still trying to process what I saw last night, not gonna lie it was kinda hot. Not every day you see a man cum out another man!' chuckled Liam. Jimmy smiled but looked at Liam concerned.

'Man, shut the fuck up!' Jimmy laughed.

'Reckon you're up for cuddles then?' asked Liam hopefully. Jimmy sighed and shook his head.

'You know what, fine. I guess I owe you mate' winked Jimmy. 'Just promise me you won't do whatever the fuck they did to me!'.

'Oh I love having men in me, but not THAT deep!' retorted Liam, and they both walked off laughing.

[jeannereames]

Dr. Reames! I read where you promised you wouldn't put up a Tumblr paywall and haven't created a Patreon either, because your school pays your salary so you can answer asks here for free.

That's cool, and super generous. Seriously. I've learned so much. The level of detail in your posts I wouldn't expect outside a university class or buying a book. So if, yeah, you get paid by them, is there a way your followers here who aren't your students... but kinda ARE ...support what you're doing? Other than buying the novels (which is actually how I found you to begin with).

Also, do you have any online classes on Alexander like those "Great Courses"? I'd love to take an online course with you if you have lectures.

Thank you!

I’m delighted people read these things! Ha. Some are rather long. But sometimes the answer is complex. (I should make a couple polls; I’m curious how much/many of these people do read.)

Anyway, to answer the questions:

No, I don’t have any online ATG class at present. I am working on putting up Alexander the Great and the Macedonian Origin (e.g., from early Macedonia/Alexander I to ATG). But you’d need to be enrolled with UNO to take it. It’s still a couple years out, at least.

As for other ways to help.

First, buy the books. (The asker said they already have.) Ironically, I get greater royalties from ebooks than paper. Sometimes people buy paper thinking it helps me more. I prefer paper books myself, so certainly buy paper if you also prefer them, but don’t pay the higher price for paper just because you think that benefits me.

TALK ABOUT THE BOOKS … on both Tumblr and TikTok (+ Bluesky and Twitter). I understand Song of Achilles had only a minor following until it blew up on BookTok. So, if you have a TikTok and really liked the books, talk about them and tag it #booktok & #historicalfiction (et al.). There have been a couple BookToks done in Italian, but I’ve not seen any in English. Doing one would be fantastic. On Tumblr, people have mentioned it and shared lines from it in the past, and some folks have found it that way. Word of mouth works. The recent Alexander Netflix series has brought new people looking for fiction (and queer-positive fiction) about him.

Rate (and review?) the novels on Goodreads and/or Amazon (or elsewhere), especially if you liked them enough to give them 5-stars. But of course, be true to your honest opinion. If there’s a fair bit of skepticism about the value of Goodreads/ Amazon ratings in the publishing industry, agents and publishers still (perhaps hypocritically) pay attention to them.

Last, and not book related, but if you read and enjoy my posts here on Tumblr, and feel you’ve learned something from me, keep in mind that it’s the University of Nebraska-Omaha History Department that’s making this possible by paying my salary. 😊

[nikatyler]

✨ Ross Goes to Baldur's Gate ✨

Welcome, Ross enthusiasts! I'm currently on my second bg3 run and I'm sort of livetweeting it. But, since I like to look back at what I play, I decided I'd archive those threads here. Yeah, I could make a thread on twitter, but honestly, reading it here is more comfy.

So yeah, enjoy, and warning, these are going to be long! ✨ Also, this goes without saying but obviously there will be spoilers, so proceed at your own risk if you haven't played yet and would like to in the future. (Please play in the future. And say it was my influence. Pretty please.)

Trying balanced difficulty this time... we shall see if I was too confident

Okay I'm already too damn indecisive about what he should look like, this is harder than I thought 🙈 I'm spoiled from the sims. With Zeph it was easy because they were a completely new character

I don't like any of the faces for him help 💀

Folks I don't knowwww, what do we think

It's probably the jump from his usual sims maxis-matchiness to this artstyle that makes me feel a bit 🥴

Also, I couldn't decide what body type to go for…one is too slim for him imo, other too buff…I'm overthinking this I know I know…maybe I'll eventually take a look at some mods for him. Not tonight tho

Actually no, I'm looking at some sims pictures of him and this body type is ok, see I told you I was overthinking it

should I make the catfish -- errr, the guardian resemble Caleb? for funsies and as a reference to where we started? 🤭

teeheee yes we're doing that indeed. I'm gonna call him...Fakeleb. Like. Fake Caleb. Caleb from Wish, if you will

THERE'S MY BOY he's alive for now

Of course we fail the very first check 💀💀 not the smartest tool in the shed, I know buddy, I know

BAE'zel time 😗😗

I'm taking a lot more screenshots this time around

he's growing on me btw, i'm starting to like his face

worst hangover of his life, last time he checked he was a happy little sim guy, how did he get here?!

he didn't pin him to the ground? where's the fun in that 🥺

Anyway, time to stop today, it's late. I really enjoy being back in act 1 though!

Original thread.

[demonic-shadowlucifer]

Let's talk about Radical Feminists and TERFs: Another collection of hate.

(Content Warning: Pretty much everything, but especially transmisia, particularly transmisogyny, eugenics and other Nazi rhetoric, racism, intersexism, slur usage, mentions of not sfw topics/not sfw sentences and mentions of sexual assault. Reader discretion is especially advised on this, as this is probably one of the most triggering posts I've ever created). Additional Disclaimer: Like with my "Let's Talk about Exclusionists" post, I've collected multiple screenshots of the horrid things TERFs and other Radfems have said or done. Not all of those screenshots are mine, some of them are things I have found on the web. Credits to especially radfemstruggles (Twitter), terfism-harms-women, terf-cringe and other anti-terf pages/blogs I've found these on. As always, I don't condone harassment. Just because someone is a TERF doesn't give you the right to harass them, especially considering a good chunk of TERFs I've noticed are literal teenagers (of course, that never excuses their actions). Just report them and block. Pride month is over, but that doesn't mean queer folks are going away.

However, neither are the bigots, and especially not the TERFs. Nope. They're still out there and as harmful as ever. "Now, wait a minute Shadow. What even *IS* a TERF anyway?" Well, you're gonna be in for one hell of a ride, so buckle up sunshine.

TERF is short for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Put simply, Transphobic "feminists". TERFs align themselves with Radical Feminism- Radfem for short, a very extreme branch of feminism. However, not every Radfem is a TERF, though Radfems are still best to be avoided due to their extreme ideology. (Likewise, not every feminist is a Radfem, let alone a TERF). How to Identify a TERF: Common Dogwhistles and Nicknames. TERFs won't call themselves a TERF by themselves. In fact, some consider the term to be a slur (News flash: no it is fucking not lmfao). There are many dogwhistles, and I can't fit all of them in here. However here's the most common ones: Gender Critical - a very *VERY* common identifer by TERFs. MERF - Short for Male Exclusionary Radical Feminist. It basically calls trans women men and also ignores the fact that there are, contrary to popular belief, men that are also feminists. "TERF is a slur/Cis is a slur" - A common dogwhistle. The latter is also used by transphobes in general. Misandrist/Proud Misandrist - Misandrist refers to hatred of men. The term originated from misogynists as a counter to feminism, however the term has been reclaimed by radfems. However, a good majority of folks who identify with this term are transphobic, so it should best be avoided. Womyn/Wombyn and their varients - Alternative spellings of "woman/women". Per Wikipedia, "Some writers who use such alternative spellings, avoiding the suffix "-man" or "-men", see them as an expression of female independence and a repudiation of traditions that define women by reference to a male norm." The term "womxn" is also used in some cases, however that term should not be a sole identifier, as "womxn" is also sometimes used by agender individuals. "Womyn" alone is also not a sole identifier, as there are some who try to reclaim it (that and there's also something about it being used in AAVE, but I can't find much info on that). However, "Womyn-born woman" should be an instant red flag. KAM - Short for K-ll all men (i). Even without the TERFy connections, I don't think I need to explain why this is bad. --It should also be noted that any variation of "all men are trash" is inherently TERFy, no matter how you look at it. You'll see why in a bit. Hygenic - Another term used by TERFs. It also references eugenics, explained further in this post. FebFem - Short for "Female Exclusive Bisexual Female". This term is common in TERF spaces, especially with Bi TERFs. However, there have been attempts to reclaim the term from the group. Similar groups that overlap - Should also be avoided:

SWERF - Short for Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminist. This group is against the objectification of women, sex trafficking and the exploitation of women in pornography. Sounds harmless right? Wrong. While it appears good intentioned at first, most SWERFs are against sex work overall, believing that women can't *truly* partake in sex work willingly. This group also overlaps with TERFs, 99% of the time, though not every SWERF is a TERF. Due to sex work being a topic that gets pretty NSFW, I won't be going over this group in this post any further outside of mentions, since I'm not qualified to talk about NSFW topics as a minor. There are, however, probably several other posts that talk about this particular group. TEHM - Short for Trans Exclusionary Homosexual Males. The same as TERFs, but with homosexual men instead of women. Enby Skeptics - A group skeptical of nonbinary identities, as shown by the name. Some TERFs may identify with this term. Longsword Lesbian/Gravity Knife Gays/Gold Star Lesbian - See here for more information regarding these groups. LGB/LGB Drop the T - A movement that claims that being Trans isn't queer. It should go without saying - TERFs aren't harmless. TERFs aren't just some weird basement dwellers on the internet. Nope. They exist *everywhere*. You know JK Rowling? She's a TERF! And probably one of the most recognizable TERFs out there (she's also a lot more bigoted beyond transphobia, so yeah). However, this post will mostly cover the online aspect of TERFism, since even the online world can seep into danger in real life. So, without further ado, let's get into the hate. Note: This post covers Radical Feminism in general, however the main focus is TERFs and similar groups. Of course, you have the transphobia, slurs and suibait.

(Image: Two Tumblr anons side by side. One word has been covered in red. One anon reads "You troons sure love playing the victim. 😂😂No won-der people can't stand you". The second reads "Hng yourself gendie". End ID).

(Image ID: An anon that reads ""They can't even say woman" Not everyone who menstruates is a woman." The reply is "Yes they are. Nonbinary isn't real, only two genders exist. Gender and sex are the same thing. Your personality and clothing preference doesn't define your sex. Your biology does. Have a good day!" End ID) ...Having pronouns is misogynistic? Really? You know women have pronouns too... right?

(Image ID: A user's twitter bio. Their username is covered. The bio reads "All I think about is karma. Pronouns in bio signify membership of misogynist cult". End ID) Seriously they're not even trying to hide the transphobia.

(Image ID: A Tumblr bio that reads "trans activism is misogyny").

(Image ID: A post from user "radfem-moira" that reads "Transwomen are men and it shows when they speak").

However, the transphobia, as despicable as it is, is not the only thing that makes TERFs dangerous. TERFs have also even went as far as to advocate for violence, as shown here.

(Image ID: A post from user "terf-vengeance" featuring artwork of an individual wearing a crop top covered in blood, reading "I punch trans activists". Below the artwork reads "Is it okay to punch transtrenders? Yes two thousand times, yes, punch them!" Also, here is something I've noticed. Notice how Radfems talk about abuse, particularly sexual abuse. In conversations regarding such a topic, women are usually brought up as the victims. Male victims are almost never mentioned, and when you bring them up they accuse you of not caring about male victims because you brought them up when talking about women. Well, you might not think much of it, but it goes deeper than just misinformation and being insensitive. TERFs don't care about male victims either. In fact, they don't care about sexual assault survivors at all if you look hard enough. In fact, if the victim is a male, they actually *encourage* it. And will sometimes admit to even *wanting* to do the same thing to men. Here's one *literally* repeating a common misogynistic argument, but with men at the focus.

(Image ID: A Twitter post with the individual's username and profile picture covered. The post reads "Males are only tools for sex and labor. THATS IT". End ID). ...this post makes me sick just by looking at it alone.

(Image ID: A Twitter post from a person named "aoi". Some information is covered. The post reads "Young boys are degenerates beyond any help. I wouldn't even oppose them getting their ass rped by grown men (they deserve that) if it wasn't for the risk that other grown ass men would also start to advocate for pedophilia on girls. I can't care less about boys". End ID). And this one is even *worse*

(Image ID: A Tumblr post featuring an anon asking "What are your thoughts on male sex workers?". The reply is "Male "sex workers" make up an incredibly tiny amount of "sex workers", and while I think prostituted men deserve to get out of it as well, they're pimped and rped by men, which makes it a male-on-male issue and not a priority for feminists"). The point of feminism is gender equality for ALL and fighting the patriarchy. This however is not feminism. This only shows that you don't actually care about gender equality. Here's one straight up admitting to want to abuse people.

(Image ID: A Tumblr post with the individual's name blacked out. The post reads "i won't lie the urge to manipulate, gaslight and psychologically torture a man and lead him to suicide has been festering inside me for a while now. studying psychology too, i genuinely think i could pull it off. they grow attachments very easily and if i could just find one that was already mentally ill i think i could do it easily". End ID). ...All I'm gonna say about that one is that I hope this individual never EVER gets into a relationship or has kids, and if they're already in a relationship I genuinely feel sorry for their partner and I hope said partner leaves them. And here's someone who sent a sexual assault wish to a literal *minor* (And when called out on it they said the screenshot was "fake").

(Image ID: Two Tumblr convos side by side, both have two messages, the first one reads, from stopglorifyingkillers, "I never called you a pedo, please point out where I had.". itchy-astroterf replies with "I hope your stupidity and misguided trust in trans gets you rped. Maybe then you'll see my fucking point.". The next convo reads, the first message from actuallyabused, "ah yes, you totally dont want anyone to get rped.". To which itchy-astroterf replies with "That's copyshopped, you dingus".) Oh yeah. You know how TERFs argue that "Trans women are predatory"? Well... about that. (Full post here - CW: Pedophilia, sexual assault, ableism, uncensored slur).

(Image ID: Three posts from Tumblr user "homohooker". Reading, in this order, "You look beautiful with makeup on !", "You're so cute 😍😍😍 but this isn't gay babes this would be straight" and "Its a sexual orientation like being lesbian or gay lol you're a fucking"- the final word is blanked out. Next to the username reads either "taling to a minor" or "talking about pedophilia" in red text. End ID).

(Image ID: A Tumblr User's bio reading "Right back at it again" in bold black text. Below it reads "Riley, 21, femle, lesbian, map, kids can consent, men aren't lesbians". End ID) This one wasn't in the post but it's from the same person sooo.

(Image ID: A Tumblr post that reads "ok but who doesn't think 12-17 year old girls are cute". End ID) Honestly, it's posts like these that make me *really* hope it's a troll. Also, let's not ignore the fact that TERFs and Radfems are more than transphobic. In fact, they can be other kinds of bigoted for example. Arophobia and biphobia in ONE.

(Image ID: A tumblr post from user "guncase". The post reads "Men cannot love. It is not in their nature to stay monogamous. You can look at the Bible, you can look at recorded history, you can look at present day - you can even look at your own experiences with men. Their love is one sided. They only love themselves, and not even each other. Find love within yourselves, your fellow women, and keep it safe, because the minute you let a Man find that love, the minute you lose it.") More biphobic crap. (I should also add that there is a huge debate in radfem spaces on whether or not bisexual women are welcome or if their "traitors", just throwing that out there).

(Image ID: Two Tumblr posts/asks with usernames censored. The posts read, respectively, "because your nullye! stop making thousands of fucking accounds and talking to yourself. go d homophobe" and "first off you're female and if you said that you're actually dating a man that makes you fucking hetero. I really doubt that you're actually dating".) I'd also like to add I had to censor an anti-schizophrenic slur in the first one, so there's that.

(Image ID: A Tumblr ask from an anonymous user. The ask reads "I hope you di in a violent and torturous way. I hope your genitals get mutilated. You are a disgusting person for even liking a male. Fuck you." End ID). And let's not forget the intersexism! (Disclaimer: Using it/it's pronouns is valid. Using "it" to describe *all* intersex people however... is shitty).

(Image ID: A Twitter post from an individual who's name is censored. The post reads "If you have XX chromosomes your pronouns are she, if you have XY chromosomes your pronouns are he. If you're intersex your pronouns are it. No way in hell I'm calling an intersex thing 'she'. You are not to appropriate my gender") Oh speaking of ableism, a lot of TERFs can be pretty fucking ableist too. ...Towards each other.

(Image ID: A Tumblr post from user "femaleinsight". The post reads "i hope all autistic men fucking di the most painful fucking death that could ever be experienced on this earth. signed, a tired autistic woman <3") (First of all, what is it with disabled/neurodivergent terfs and wanting their own kind *dead*?) ...And some can also be PRETTY FUCKING RACIST :D (Had to censor the n-word in this one).

(Image ID: A Twitter post that reads "You know saying TERF to someone is like calling someone a ner. Which are terms that are insults and pejorative"). For context, MENA is short for Middle East and North Africa. Make what you will of this screenshot.

(Image ID: A Twitter post that reads "if you see me with a machete randomly k*ll*ng mena males mind your business").

And sometimes, two and two can actually go together! A while back, I reblogged a that talked about TERFs using the word "hygienic" to mean "cis", like this individual shown below (Edit: link and reblog removed since OP fit my DNI + one of the folks adding to it was hacked and became a scambot, and I'd rather not expose people to that).

(Image ID: A Tumblr post from user "dykexy" that reads "petition to change the word "cis" to "hygienic"". End ID) Now you might be wondering, why am I bringing it up again? Well, someone in the comments of said post mentioned that it reminded them of "Racial Hygiene". Now, what is "Racial Hygiene"? Well... according to Wikipedia, it refers to "an approach to eugenics in the early 20th century, which found its most extensive implementation in Nazi Germany (Nazi eugenics)." So basically, it's eugenics. Specifically, Nazi eugenics. And with TERFs using the term "hygienic", they're saying that Trans people are inherently dirty by genetics. You might think this is a reach, but with everything shown here, there's clearly more to it.

Then again, what else do you expect from folks who do *this*

(Image ID: A Twitter post that reads "I'm not really going to spend another Saturday taking photos of trans people and running them through the sex-change filter on FaceApp to see what they looked like before, am i? I am". End ID) And act hypocritical (TERFS: "Trans women fetishize real women!" Also TERFS:)

(Image ID: A Twitter post that reads "It is so weird to me when trans people show a "before and after" when they get their first binder. If you have bad enough chest dysphoria to buy a binder in the first place, why are you showing the whole internet your tits?" End ID) And make nonsensical posts/replies like THIS.

(Image ID: A Twitter user replying to a post that reads "Me and my good friend texting about the #BodyBlitz thing: "People need to get used to gender non-conforming bodies"". The reply reads "Gee, so you are in favor of rpe culture? Telling women to "get used" to rpists and perverts in women's spaces? Really?" End ID) Seriously. Don't let the "feminist" label fool you. TERFs and Radfems do not care about gender equality or women's rights. They are using the feminist label and women's rights as an excuse for their transphobia and other bigotry. They do not care about sexual assault survivors. They do not care about women of color. They do not care about disabled women. In fact, they only advocate for the very abuse they claim to be against. They advocate for the racism and nazism they claim to be against. Don't let them fool you.

Other posts talking about TERFs, Radfems and the like, as well as additional resources: Caelan Conrad's "Gender Critical" series. A bunch of Jessie Gender videos on TERFs and Gender Criticals. The TERF to Fascist Pipeline by Kayley Whalen. The FASCIST Links Of Anti-Trans Activism Exposed by Owen Jones. Tips for Allies of Transgender People. How Can I support someone who's Trans or Nonbinary? Shinigami Eyes - A browser extension that detects anti-trans content.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

fyi: I’m staying away from leaks

If you want to know my thoughts about recent events, here they are:

So idk if I’ve ever mentioned this before, but when I started watching and reading bnha I made a point not to engage with the fandom until I was caught up, because I didn’t want spoilers. When I finally made it to the current chapter, it was around the end of the first war. That’s when I started looking at what other people were saying, and that’s when I found out about when/where leaks were. I’ve been tuning in ever since, for a few reasons that I only rarely stop to interrogate. First and foremost: I’ve liked the extra time to prepare what I want to say if the chapter contains a major revelation or cliff hanger I want to write about. It’s satisfying to punctuate my Sunday morning with a fully fleshed out essay I can immediately post. Then of course it’s also fun to participate in the Moment that leaks create, especially because they unfortunately tend to make the officials feel like an afterthought. And let’s not lie to ourselves—a major reason we tune in is because of FOMO. Everyone else is doing it. You don’t want to be left out of the conversation and not know what’s going on. I especially wanted to know ahead of time about lines that might get butchered in the official English translation. It was nice knowing that Horikoshi didn’t write that “Swiss cheese” line, right? These are some understandable reasons.

But since the routine got disrupted a little, I kinda got slapped in the face with enough clarity to start asking myself: what would I actually get the most enjoyment out of? Because when I heard the (now outdated) news that leaks were no more, I was actually relieved. So. That’s cause for some reflection. I’m like, man, what if I did tune out of social media entirely, wake up on Sunday, have my nice little home cooked breakfast, and read the new chapter for the first time over a cup of tea. What if I experienced the surprises as I turned the page and they stared me in the face, with Horikoshi’s beautiful artwork in HD.

Sure, I’d need to catch up after the fact if there’s any translation fuckery, but that’s okay. That’s doable. Bless the folks who take the time to comb through the Japanese and explain the nuance to everyone else. This is tangential, but I’ve also started thinking even more about how satisfying it would be to edit my own versions (for personal use only of course). That’s a… long-term goal, but maybe it’ll take care of my annoyance with the ‘official’ blunders and bad dialogue. The point is, idk if making myself aware of that stuff should be my #1 priority, above even reading the chapter in the first place. If anything it just makes me more pissed off and fixated on what might be wrong. Which is valid… but distracting. I should prioritize having fun as much as I can.

The other thing is, I’m kind of a social media lurker anyway. I don’t say much in the moment, and I don’t post often. On twitter I mostly just engage in other people’s comments. And it’s not like thousands of people are waiting to hear what I think. Like I said, my personal incentive is to get a head start on analyzing so I can pull together a long, thoughtful response in a more timely manner. But I don’t have to do that. I might as well just embrace my cryptid tendencies—you get my two cents whenever I feel like crawling out of my well.

I don’t want to moralize this whole thing, ask you to think about how the sausage gets made, but I will say I’m looking forward to finding out about big moments without seeing them in the form a short summary tweet first. I mean, c’mon… leakers know how to build hype to an extent but it’s still no substitute. It’s like listening to a sportscaster on the radio instead of watching the game. As we get closer to the end, I just want to savor it!

[forcebookish]

I don't care what anyone says I hope topmew is endgame and top takes mew away from that nasty friend group 🙏 I know some people like to victimize certain characters but let's be real here they are all shitty friends that constantly overstep his boundaries and I'm sure we don't need to get into all of Boston's atrocities. I guess the thing that gets me is people act like mew always has to carry the baggage of his friends and be the bigger person no matter what but somehow top is the one that is irredeemable and should not be forgiven under any circumstances?? If he wasn't cornered, manipulated, and coerced I would agree but that is definitely not the case here. Anyway this was longer than I expected and I'm not the best with words so I hope this at least makes some sense lol.

you're making perfect sense, anon!

i've seen folks try to say that boston is the "real victim" in his "relationship" with top...?????????? someone made a whole thread on twitter. if i had to say "no one owes anyone sex" once, i'd have said it too many times - but i've had to say it MULTIPLE times!!! what did top even do to boston? tell him he doesn't want to sleep with him?? tell him "stop?" nearly cry (twice) when boston told him that mew might be cheating on him? push him away when he wouldn't let go? wow, such abuse, so victim🙄 top out here literally just trying to stay in his own lane, date a guy, and work on the hostel while boston can't keep his creepy hands to himself😒 but i guess it's boston's god-given right to touch people who don't wanna be touched, apparently😒😒

and people got mad at mew for being "mean" to ray when he was frustrated about ray calling him drunk in the middle of the night. he even says, "i'm not picking you up again." again. he has had to help him out of these situations he puts himself into before. pathetic little meow meow or not, that is a huge burden to put on your friends time and time again. the drama already established that ray tells his friends he loves them when he's drunk, mew had no reason to think that ray was going through a crisis until he actually heard he was crying. AND THEN CAME RUNNING TO HIM!

re: mew's shitty friends (hey, cheum you can stay!), what's cool about the relationships in this drama is how many characters mirror each other, not being the same but being flipped and on opposite ends of the spectrum. the most obvious example is top and mew: top being sexually active, open to new experiences, and LOUD during sex, while mew is celibate, likes to stick to books, and hardly even breathes during sex. and for topmew, i personally think that's a strength!

but ray and boston are also mirrors to each other: ray looking up to/loving mew and boston hating/looking down on mew. and they both kinda ruin his life about it lol

and yeah, i really, really want endgame topmew. honestly, they seem to have the strongest relationship (at least among the boys and including the friendships) in the drama. i can't, and absolutely don't want to, see mew reconcile with boston. maybe ray, depending on how things go down - but i'm so not into the idea of mewray, because it smacks of "wearing him down." he held that torch for years.

i would never say that what ray has done is as bad as boston, but it's another case of not respecting someone's boundaries when they have firmly rejected them. (it's not just because it's not a forcebook ship!!! i promise!!! ...i mean, it is a little bit, of course😅)

and i find it very ugly that it wasn't until top and mew had someone serious in their lives that ray and boston couldn't deal. i've been saying this before the drama aired, but i really think that top and mew would have just had a normal, you meet, you date, you fall in love relationship (even with the drug use, it's not impossible to work through that as a couple), if it weren't for ray and boston actively trying to sabotage their relationship - if they were actually good friends. and the drama seems to be delivering on that theory. seems to be the point, actually.

thanks for popping in, anon! prayer circle for endgame topmew 🙏🕯️🙏🕯️🙏🕯️🙏🕯️🙏🕯️

[miawstic]

oh hey!

it's me! I'm back!

lots of folks are flocking over from twitter right now, so now seems like a good time to start again for myself as well—though I've actually been thinking about starting again for a long time now. a lot has changed in my life and in return I've changed a lot about this blog, so I'll be talking about it all for a bit.

there'll be a tl;dr at the bottom if you don't feel like reading it all, but I'd appreciate if you did!

so, hey. I thought for a long time about what to do with this account. this place spawned and held a lot of memories of people who did me wrong and the mistakes I'd made, and it was bad enough for a while that I just didn't want to look at it at all.

it took a long time to accept what happened to me and that it shouldn't have happened, and that I shouldn't be protecting and supporting the people who were involved anymore. but, yeah, I think I was kinda groomed. that sucks, and I won't go into details about it. I'm thankful to have the clarity I have now as an adult to come to terms with it.

I considered wiping this account entirely and moving to a new account—both to try to erase what happened and to have a more appropriate place to house the new type of content I've moved onto. but, I've had this account since the day I turned 13. I'm 22 now. it's been my home and I'm not letting any assholes' influence taint it and take it away from me. also, I can post what I want, lol.

that all being said, though, I have updated the look of this this place to match my current tastes! I'd like to do even more, but I'll need to draw stuff to do that. so, while this blog has already been hugely overhauled, it'll continue to be a work in progress until I get the time to make some assets for it. I also wiped a large chunk of my old posts because, frankly, nobody needs to see all of that. and, y'know, memories of being groomed and all that, lol. I'd like to totally redo my about as well—maybe make a new one entirely somewhere else?

speaking of Blogs and Posting, I should probably let you all know that I'm not going to be posting anymore megaman content anymore—neither through my own posts nor reblogs. I've grown out of that fanbase, and I think it's time to move on for everyone's sake. if that disappoints you, I'm sorry, but also, I'm not sorry because this is the best thing for me. I don't need it anymore, but I'm grateful for all the growing I did while being into it. you're entirely welcome to leave if cookie run and my ocs aren't your jam—thanks for staying with me all this time! and to those who choose to stay regardless, you have my whole heart. thank you to both!

I can't say how often I'll be posting here, as I've gotten a lot of things in my life now that eat up my time (this is a good thing, in my teenage years I would've never imagined having the responsibilities I have now!). on top of two jobs, I also co-own the cookie run kingdom wiki now! managing and improving that place takes a LOT of my time, seriously. it's made me slow down significantly in making my art, but that's alright—I seriously love it there, and I've met so many amazing people and built a lot of other skills from being there. like coding! I can do that now! I'm responsible for coding and designing a very big portion of the templates and extra styling on there, and I'm very, very proud of it! being a representative of the wiki, you can always feel free to ask me about the site, its policies, etc. here. also, I'll probably be going back to school soon...

but anyways, oh yeah, art. I've got a pretty good backlog of completed drawings that I'll be posting to here. I'll be queuing the posts to come out at probably a rate of one a day until they're up, though. no more posting 7 pieces in one day and posting the next in 3 months (at least for now 🤔). like I said, I don't have a ton of time to draw constantly like I used to, but I'll do what I can in making more in the future. as for what I'll be drawing, I mean, probably cookie run. maybe some ocs though, because I've got a few ideas. maybe things from my other interests? we'll see! I've also been sculpting a lot, actually...

and yeah, don't let the seriousness of this post fool you; I'll certainly still be reblogging dumb, non-serious posts like I always did. fixing up the look of the blog itself is enough professionalism I think 😵‍ also! I'll be letting up on all the trigger warning tags I had used in the past—scopophobia, animals, food, that kind of thing—because I've literally never been asked to tag anything like that. I mean, feel free to let me know if you do need things like those tagged, but, starting now, I'm going to take it a little easier with the tags. very common triggers (blood, abuse, so on) will still be tagged, of course.

I think that's it? yeah. nice to be here again, it's much more relaxed and individualized than twitter! I think I almost felt intimidated by tumblr for a long time since it almost feels like posts need to have more "purpose" than tweeting on twitter. but, like, I'm older and give less of a shit now. my house, I post silly thing.

---

thanks for reading if you did! here's your tl;dr:

I've deleted the majority of my old posts and revamped the look and theming of my blog to have a fresh start, to cut rotten ties, and to have a place that suits my current self. also so I don't have to be embarrassed every time I post.

no more megaman! in terms of art, it'll be cookie run and maybe some ocs, or whatever else. art won't be frequent, though, because I'm always busy with work and the crk wiki.

I'll be posting my backlog of completed art over the next few days.

I'm no longer tagging the more specific trigger tags like scopophobia (unless you really want me to???).

you should commission dani.

[interlagosed]

Hi, so im totally new to the whole idea of tumblr, i found your profile through ao3 actually... basically wanted to escape the crazy toxicity that is twitter but i am so lost here i must say... I feel like every profile (except yours and like 1 other) i follow, i end up with the grossest carlos hate after every single race, and its exhausting. Anyway, my point is: can you maybe recommend any other blogs that arent hateful hags? im okay with most drivers, but my faves are definitely the ones you also feature in your fics!

Welcome to tumblr! Yeah I'm sorry this has been a rough week to join f1blr, I had to make some changes to my following list too. I would say everyone I follow is absolutely wonderful, and honestly everyone that follows me too! I'm sorry to give you work lol but if you go through my blog and take a look at whom i reblog things from, that should give you a good cross-section of folks :) i hope that helps!

[asagimeta]

The time has come again to remind everyone that good queer representation does not necessarily equal morally good queer characters

I’ve heard that apparently there’s a renaissance of anti-Hannibal going on lately? And that + the rise in popularity of media like Helluva Boss and Killing Eve, and the addition of more openly queer charectors in existing media- from comic book based media to long-running shows like American Horror Story- I feel like this needs to be said again- not necessarily by me but I posted about it way back when Hannibal originally aired it’s finale so I figure, what the hell

Good representation =/= morally good characters

You can have both, absolutely, but you can also have them separate, and you can have all combinations of the reverse too

Ofcourse, to be clear right in the beginning, what counts as “good” representation vs “bad” reputation is going to vary from person to person, everything from life experiences to media exposure to personal opinions will dictate where you land on the sliding scale of “good” or “bad”, someone who’s consumed quite alot of queer-focused media, for example, is going to have a very different opinion than someone who’s only seen one background gay in a TV show that one time, and someone who’s a really huge fan of horror is going to have a much different opinion than someone who’s only a fan of lighter-hearted fair

With that said, in my personal opinion, the measure of good vs bad representation relies less on the character and more on the presentation of said character- less, not entirely

To get what I mean, here’s the best example I can think of:

Castiel from Supernatural is, objectively, a good charactor- if nothing else he’s morally good by most standards, certainly by the time season 15 rolls around, but his canonically queer presentation is just.... horrible, horrible representation and I’ve only met literally one person myself who disagreed with that

Cas is presented as being a really tragic figure right from the start of his coming out- the one thing in the world that would make him truly happy for even a single moment is confessing that he’s in love with Dean, even if Dean rejects him, just saying it is enough, that is..... sad

If it had been framed differently, it actually could have been very good representation, in a “I don’t need you to validate me, I’m being honest about who I am for the first time in my life and that’s enough, I’m enough” way, but it wasn’t, it was framed as pining, as “Even if you don’t love me, my acknowledging openly that I love you is enough to make me happy”, and again that could have worked if framed differently but.... it’s followed up by the infamous “Gay angels go to Super Mega Turbo Hell” thing and like.... no....

Cas is a good character who is queer, he is not a good queer character, because his existence as a queer character lasted less than five minutes and was immediately followed by literally going to what’s worse than hell for expressing his queerness

There is no way I can express the amount of levels of Bad that is, to say nothing of how Dean treats the entire experience for like.... ever... from there on out

But now let’s look at Hannibal, who is objectively a pretty bad character morally- he’s stupendously written but yeah I mean look the dude eats people there’s just no getting around that

But I would argue that he’s excellent queer representation because of how he was presented

Hannibal’s sexuality is never defined, for starters, there’s never a “very special episode” moment where he has some long-winded coming out speech, in fact we don’t quite know how he identifies but because he’s written so artfully we don’t really need to, his exact sexuality doesn’t feel like it needs to be known because, frankly, not much personal information is known about Hannibal anyway, and sexuality feels like one of those arbitrary things that he wouldn’t really care about defining

And that’s the other thing- he’s far from sexless and yet he places no emphasis on sex, he isn’t hypersexualized but he also isn’t being kept as a Ken doll to preserve the message of gay purity (because I don’t know apparently there’s a Thing some people have about how gay people aren’t allowed to be sexual???) he’s just... a person

And that’s really what it comes down to that makes him great, he’s a person first and queer second... or third.... or fourth or fifth.... it never defines who he is, it’s just part of who he is, and regardless of your opinion on Hannibal specifically, I think that is something most queer people strive for in representation

It’s great to have stories that are focused on queerness but it’s equally exhausting to only be able to have characters who’s lives revolve around their sexualities, it’s nice to go into media and go “Oh that character that I already like for these reasons is also queer, that’s so cool!”

Hannibal also skillfully side-steps stereotypes, despite falling into the category of being “polite, thin, and neat”, despite loving fine wine and fine art and fine culture, he never feels like a flamboyant theater kid with a decoration-diploma, wich is how alot of queer characters in this category can feel

His story is about alot of things and his relationship with Will is at the center of much of it, but that relationship didn’t become explicitly queer until the show was almost over- not because it was sudden or poorly written but because it was a slow build up, wich is also refreshing, as alot of times it feels like queer characters are made as explicitly queer as they’re allowed to be as quickly as they’re able to be on screen so that the show can grab those important Representation Brownie Points from episode one and either introduce a Manwhore or a Uhaul Lesbian right away and just kind of leave them in that trope until “someone comes along and changes that” or whatever, I don’t even know what straight writers do half the time, but Hannibal- as a show and a charactor- doesn’t do that, he’s just allowed to exist and tell his story, and THAT is good representation

With the heavy-handed example over with though, I want to tackle the biggest part of this entire “debate” that makes me interested in it:

Queer people are allowed to be bad people

Queer people are allowed to be lazy and unattractive and non-political and angry and jealous and yes, “bad” and evil too

Wile I DEFINITELY prefer to have morally good characters- especially after literally a century of rarely getting more than The Evil Homosexual stereotype and all it’s kin- I also don’t like the direction some people are taking this where queer people are only “allowed” to be 100% morally flawless and good and righteous at all times because it’s just so unrealistic, and because it does the exact same thing that the opposite stereotype does: Puts queer people in a box, makes us a decoration for the straight cast so that the creators get Representation Brownie Points and can’t get yelled at on Twitter, and treats us like we’re some other species (and not in the cool way like werewolves but more like... well, decorations, as I’ve said before)

And if you’re worried about the way straight-cis people perceive us due to seeing evil queer characters, you should be equally worried about how they perceive us seeing nothing but morally flawless ones

I could get into An Entire Thing about the history of Straights trying to turn queer people into what they want us to be and present an inaccurate depiction of us to their brethren for their own benefit but I’ll make it relatively simple

The old way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children was to turn us into villains so that we would be ashamed of who we really are and hide ourselves and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

The new way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children is to turn us into sexless Ken & Barbie stereotypes so we can be ashamed of who we really are and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

By sterilizing queerness into something they find more “acceptable”, they’re doing the same thing they used to, but now through a lens of “Aren’t you happy you get what you want? You can get married now! You can hold hands in public! Just make sure not to do any of that other crazy stuff you people get up to and you can stay at the Civil Rights Table :)”, we’re still not “allowed” to be sexual human beings, it’s just framed in a way that makes us feel like the people shunning us are on our side wile those same people are still in the corner going “Just don’t kiss in public ok?”

And I could go On about this for some time but let’s get back to the point-

Queer people are three-dimensional people and we should be allowed to be so, we should be allowed to have characterization outside of The Gay Love Interest and The Gay BFF and The Gay Butler and so on, outside of the stereotypes being imposed on us

That’s one of the main reasons I love Yuri On Ice so much, and love Batwoman so much.... and one of the main reasons I love Hannibal and Harley Quinn and Helluva Boss and Killing Eve so much, all of these things star queer characters and queer relationships to different degrees (Batwoman, for example, makes a MUCH larger point and political stance about queerness than, say, Hannibal) and they’re all about something other than queerness too, the charecters are three-dimensional and they’re not built around their sexualities or side peices for straight people

And none of them are PUNISHED for their sexualities either

Going back to Castiel earlier, stereotypes are hardly the worst of our worries when Burry Your Gays, Gayngst Induced Suicide, and Gay Guy Dies First are still alive and well- among others

From Frank N’ Furter in Rocky Horror Picture Show to Tara in Buffy The Vampire Slayer to, oh look, it’s Supernatural again with not just Cas, but also Charlie, and even arguably Dean (but that’s a much longer story for a much different time) and many many more... sometimes just having any gay charecter live through a franchise is enough on it’s own- setting the bar awfully low there but it’s still hard for a shamefully large amount of franchises to step over

In some cases like Tara, it can be pretty decently argued that the death has little- if anything- to do with queerness, but in examples like Cas and Frank, it’s pretty blatantly obvious, especially when the other queer characters in their respective franchises didn’t exactly fair well either....

Matt Baume put it best when he said that until recently, you had to choose if you wanted your only source of representation to be dead or evil, and most people chose evil

Now-a-days that’s clearly not the case as much but there’s still a heavy enough flavor of it there- and villains are just part of gay culture, dating all the way back to prohibition, queer people identified as outlaws because we literally were, so pirates and cowboys and other anti-heros and villains became a staple of the culture that’s still very much alive to this day, thus leading to another point: Identification

Straight people can identify with pretty much whoever they want- from superheros to princesses to any and every kind of villain

Tony Soprano is a horrible, horrible person but is notorious for being beloved among straight white males because he’s a projection of who they want to be- powerfull (and wealthy)

Stolas from Helluva Boss actually presents a pretty similar power fantasy, he’s part of a family who lives outside the larger part of the law, he can kill (nearly) anyone he pleases, he’s physically and socially powerfull, he’s wealthy, he has a nuclear family, he gets to screw around with whoever he wants with the only one taking issue being his wife, the only real difference is that Stolas is queer (and much more fashionable... and pleasant)

Queer people should be allowed to have those power fantasies as much as straight people are

Speaking as a bisexual female myself, I absolutely ADORE Villanelle from Killing Eve, I really don’t care that she’s a bitch or has killed an uncountable amount of people, it’s fun to project on her, and seeing a very flawed woman fall in love and be vulnerable and open herself up to a relationship and get that relationship with another woman is AMAZING to me, that doesn’t make the relationship it’s self healthy or good, but it’s still fun to watch and plays further into that identification

I love Korra and Asami from Legend Of Korra, they’re a sweet, wholesome relationship between two sweet, wholesome characters and I adore them... but I’m allowed to adore Eve and Villanelle too, even if the relationship is toxic and the characters have baggage and Villanelle is literally a serial killer

Ofcourse enjoying something doesn’t make it “good”, I enjoy alot of trash B rated (and C rated) horror movies too, it doesn’t mean I think they deserve Oscars (if that’s really the measuring stick we’re going to use), but I think when it comes to representation, it’s important to distinguish the difference between good queer character and a moral queer character, they just... aren’t the same

Light Yagami from Death Note, Bill from Kill Bill, and Joker from Batman are all just... horrible, horrible people, there’s no doubting that, they are morally terrible... but my god are they fantastic charecters- they’re interesting, they’re three dimensional (even if only occasionally in the Joker’s case), they’re well written and complex, there’s a reason why they’re iconic and why they’re still talked about decades after their introduction into the world, they are GREAT characters who are morally bad, and characters like Hannibal and Villlanelle are in that boat too, they just so happen to be queer- and there’s what it all boils down to

People being queer, not queer people

Some of the most beloved examples above like Yuri On Ice and Legend Of Korra are praised for being about people who are queer, people who have stories focused on other things and are just allowed to exist without their sexualities defining them, and the same should be said and appreciated for villains who are queer too

In an age where so much queer-focused media is about tragedy (the period lesbian dramas and Gayngst teen media for example), and so much of it is focused on the same exact aspects of queer life (coming out, dating around, getting or being married, but mostly coming out), it’s great to have characters who just so happen to be queer without those things being the center of their storylines- and without them being canon fodder or the Gay BFF, or being a terrible stereotype from the 90s that just won’t die...

And that by no means is to say you have to like these characters- not at all, there are PLENTY of objectively good/well-written queer characters who I don’t like for whatever reason- but to call them bad representation just because they’re bad people is sweeping ALOT under the rug

And I know I’ve harped alot on avoiding queer-centered storylines like coming out stories and relationship dramas, but those are fine, they have their place just like everything else, really, they just don’t need to have the only place- that does a disservice to so many other types of queer stories- for the heroes and the villains, because morality and goodness have nothing to do with one’s sexuality, just like one’s sexuality has nothing to do with morality and goodness

[hypocrisyofandrewdobson]

Dobson's Patreon: An Addendum to His Monument of Sins

(The following is a submission from @soyouareandrewdobson, meant to be an addendum to the multi-post submission @ripsinfest made a while back. Ironically, this one also had issues when being submitted, so I’ll be copypasting it here with all the images and links originally intended.)

In 2018, user @ripsinfest wrote a multipart series of posts for THOAD, recounting Dobson’s attempt to establish a patreon in 2015 and how it resulted in failure on a massive scale, to the point that his patreon is arguably “a monument to all his sins”.

Personally I think the post series is extremely well researched, rather “neutral” in terms of tone (letting the posts provided as evidence speak more for themselves than the opinion of the writer) and gives a detailed but quick rundown on what went wrong. Primarily that Dobson overestimated his own “value” as an artist and did NOT attempt to give his few supporters what they wanted through his artwork posted around the time.

I do however want to use the opportunity to also point out at certain obvious things that in my opinion (and likely the opinions of others) added to the failure of the patreon account, that were not accounted for in detail and are primarily related to how the internet perceives popularity and Dobson’s inability to understand, how to “sell” and make himself look good to the public.

To begin with, let’s just point out a certain truth about making money via Patreon: To do so, depends a lot on your popularity as a content creator online. That is simply because the more popular you are, the bigger your fanbase is and as such the more likely a certain percentage of people may be willing to donate money to you and your work in hopes they get something out of it, even if it is just the altruistic feeling of having helped someone they “like”. It doesn’t take a genius to see, how e.g. internet reviewers such as Linkara or moviebob (around 2800 and 4400$ earnings via patreon each month respectively) can make quite some money, while other, more obscure content creator or artists barely make money to go by, earning essentially pocket money at best.

In addition, popularity is fleeting. A few years ago e.g. internet personality Noah Antweiler aka The SpoonyOne managed to earn 5000$ a month via patreon, just shortly after establishing his account. But his lack of content over the years AND his toxic behavior online resulted in a decline of popularity and with it people jumping off his Patreon. As such, Antweiler only earns nowadays around 290$ a month via Patreon and most of that money is likely form people who have forgotten they donate to him in the first place anyway.

And Noah is not the only one who over the course of the last couple of years lost earnings. Brianna Wu makes barely more than he does, despite having once been the “darling” of the internet when the Gamergate controversy was at its peak. Many Bronies who once made more than 2k via video reviews on a show about little horses at the peak of its popularity (2013-15) earn less than 300-800 on average nowadays because interest on the show as well as people talking about it has declined.

Heck, in preparation of writing this piece I found out, that one of the highest grossing patreons nowadays is “The last podcast on the left”, a podcast that earns more than 67k a month by making recordings on obscure and macabre subjects on a regular basis.

So there you have it folks: As the interests of the internet users change, so does the popularity of certain people online and -in case they have a patreon account or similar plattforms- their chances of making money via their content.

Which now brings us back to Dobson, who was not popular at all at that particular time and managed to become even less popular as the months and years passed by.

Sure, Dobson had his fans via deviantart, people knew who he was. But the later was more because of “infamy” than popularity and the number of fans he had accumulated online were representing people interested in him at least since 2005 and did not quite represent his actual present day numbers of supporters at the time.

And mind you, the number of supporters was less than 100k, most of them likely underaged deviantart users. And if my research indicates something, then that most content creators with a halfway decent patreon earning need at least 100k+ followers in total. Because of those fans, only around 1-3% will on average then spend money on you, if you actually create content they enjoy and on a regular basis.

Which brings up the next major problem: Dobson did not create content people enjoyed and that in more than one meaning of the word.

On one hand, as pointed out by ripsinfest, he barely released any content at all over 2015 after a few initial months, despite the fact that he was obviously active online a lot, as shown by his presence on twitter. On the other hand, the few things he did create were not the stuff people wanted.

As an example: If you go to a restaurant and pay for a pizza, you expect the cook to give you a pizza. If however for some reason he just gives you a soda, you get ripped off and never come back. In Dobson’s case, the thing people wanted was not pizza but comic pages. But what he delivered was mostly bland fanart, such as of Disney and Marvel characters crossing over or KorraSami. Sure, a few strips of “So…you are a cartoonist” were still released at the time, but not really many.

To give an overview: Taking the release dates on Dobson’s official SYAC site into account, he released around 16 strips of it between March and August of 2015, the last two being “No Leia” being titled “Zip line”

Afterwards, the next official strip released was “Anything at all” in October of 2016.

Now to be fair, there was at least one more strip at the time Dobson released via patreon, that is also save to see on kiwifarms and other plattforms, which has not been uploaded to his official SYAC page. Likely because he simply forgot about it.

But I think that in itself should tell you something about Dobson’s work ethics when it comes to his webcomics. He promoted his patreon in his own video as a way to ensure he can make comics in a timely fashion again for others to enjoy, but in an environment where certain artists are capable to create multiple strips per week at minimum, Dobson could overall not manage to produce more than 16 over a course of six months, which means an average production of 3 strips per month.

For comparison, Tatsuya Ishida of the infamous sinfest webcomic (a garbage fire of epic proportions from a TERF who I think should be put on a watch list) has produced on average 4 strips per week, including full page Sunday strips, for years and nowadays even releases stuff on a daily basis to pass the covid crisis. So a mad man who wants to see trnas people die, has better work ethics than Dobson.

In other words, people expected Dobson to actually get back into creating comics (with some even expecting a return of Alex ze Pirate), but he got in fact even lazier than before, releasing only SYAC strips and random fanart as a product. Which he then also tried to justify as his choice to make because a) he had mental health issues and b) no one can tell him what to do.

And sure, people do not need to tell you what to do. But when people pay/donate money to you expecting to get a certain product in return, they should get the product. Linkara e.g. by all means doesn’t NEED to review comics to have a fullfilling life, but he got famous for his reviews, people want to see his reviews and they pay him for those reviews. So obviously, he will continue those things.

Then there is also the fact that despite Dobson’s claims how he wants to create comics for everone to enjoy and that he aims to keep his artwork online for free so anyone can view it…(his exact words in his promotional video AND text on his patreon once upon a time)

…the reality was, that he wanted to use patreon as a paywall. Something I actually kinda pointed out at on my own account (shameless self promotion) once, but want now to elaborate a bit. Basically at the time Dobson opened up his patreon, he also was on the verge of leaving deviantart as a platform people could look at his work behind. Which he eventually did.

Meaning that the only major platforms for people to watch any “new” stuff by him were his patreon or art sites such as the SYAC homepage or andysartwork. Which granted, he did EVENTUALLY put his stuff on.

But unlike other content creators who would put “patreon exclusive” new content up on more public plattforms often within a few days, weeks or a month after making them “patreon only” at first, Dobson waited longer and did barely anything to promote his sites as places to look his stuff up for a public audience. In doing so creating a “bubble” for himself that hurt him more than it helped, as Dobson made himself essentially come off as a snob.

A snob who did not create content for everybody to enjoy, but ONLY for those willing to pay him at least one dollar per month. As evident e.g. by the fact that as time went by, certain content was never released outside of his patreon at all, such as a SYAC strip involving Dobbear screaming at the computer because he saw a piece of art that featured tumblr nose.

Lastly, there is the issue of his patreon perks and stretch goals.

See, his perks were essentially non existent. Aside of the beggars reward of “my eternal thank you if you donate 1 dollar”, two other perks that come to my mind were the following: If you donated up to 5$ at minimum, you got your name thrown into a lottery to potentially win buttons and postcards of his artwork. Unsold cheap merch from years prior he failed to sell at conventions basically. There was just a problem with that thing: That lottery thing, which he also was only going to initiate when he reached a stretch goal of 150 dollar a month? It was illegal!

Patreon itself has in their user agreement a rule that forbids people from offering perks that essentially boil down to “earning” something via gambling, which this lottery by Dobson was.

(THOAD chiming in here to add that, in addition to all this, he fully admitted he would be excluding Patrons that he “knew were clearly trolls” from the lottery. Which made the already illegal lottery also fixed, so...yeah.)

The next thing coming to mind was his “discount” on previous books of his he offered online, if you donated at least 10 bucks per month to him. Or to translate it: You would get a bare minimum discount at pdf files of books such as Alex ze Pirate and Formera (you know, the permanently cancelled Dobson comics) if you paid up 50-75% of their original price on Patreon already. And considering the quality of his early works, he should have given you at least a book per month for free if you dared to donate him that much.

As for the stretch goals… lets go through them, shall we:

100$: A wallpaper per month. Something he did provide with eventually, but barely. And after less than five of those he stopped to make them overall

150$: Monthly Gift basket Lottery, which as I stated, was illegal and almost got him into serious trouble with his account. Also not an initial stretch goal he made up but instead came up with a few months into his accounts existence. Finally it got temporarily replaced by Dobson playing with the idea to use 150$ per month to open up a server and art site where people could upload stuff for free similar to deviantart, but under his administration. Promising a “safe space” for other artists. Which considering Dobson’s ego and inability to accept criticism or delegate responsibilities would have likely ended like this:

175$: Establishing a Minecraft server for him and his fans to play on. Meaning Dobson would have just wasted time he could spend on creating comics to endulge in his Minecraft obsession.

200$: Writing a Skyrim children book. Aside of the legal nightmare that this could have been (I doubt Valve would have been happy of someone else profiting of their property) I have to ask, who was even interested in Skyrim by 2015 anymore? Sure, Skyrim was a popular game and it had its qualities, but it was also a trend that had passed by that time. So in other words, there was not a market to cater towards here.

300$: A strip per week guaranteed.

… are you fucking kidding me? 75$ per strip essentially? Something people expect you to produce anyway if you want to be considered a “prolific” creator worth supporting online? Imagine if certain internet reviewers would do that, telling you that if they do not earn at least a certain amount of money, they will not produce anything, period, or less than usual. And Dobson had already proven that he can release more than just one comic within a few days, if he is motivated by enough spite.

600$: Starting a podcast with his friends to talk about nerd culture. In my opinion could only work under the assumption that people even like the idea of listening to Dobson and his opinions. Which considering how very little people like talking to him sounds doubtful. Also, considering how Dobson tends to be late to the party when it comes to nerd culture, likely tending to be out of date faster than he could upload. Finally... what friends?

700$: Returning the love, as he says it, by donating some of the money patreon users gave him to other content creators. This in my opinion is the most self defeating cause possible. On one hand sure, being generous and all that. But essentially Dobson admits here he would blow the money people give him to support HIS art on others, essentially defeating the purpose of HIS own account. He also does not clarify how much of that money he would donate, meaning there was a high chance that he would spend less than 10% of it on other creators, only creating the illusion of support while putting the actual earnings/donations into his own pocket.

2000$: A massive jump ahead. 2000$ per month would result in him getting better equipment (as in a new computer e.g.) and as such “potentially” make more comics. Mind you, only potentially.

This goal in my opinion is also the most fucked up one. Primarily for the following reasons:

Lets say Dobson would have achieved the goal and actually earned over 2000$ per month for at least a year. His annual earning would have been 24k, minus whatever he had to pay as taxes and payment for using the patreon service. And what would he do with this money? Get himself a better computer and equipment by paying a minor fraction of it once. Then he could use that computer for years to come while still having over 10k in his account, plus his monthly earnings. And he may still just produce 3-4 comics a month of a series that has as much depth to it than Peppa Pig if not less.

Sure, many patreon users have 2k+ as a stretch goal on their accounts to signify that if they could make that much monthly, they could have the necessary financial security to focus their time primarily on their content instead of a regular job. And if the content they create is actually well made, many people would support that or be okay with it.

But 2000 dollars to buy ONE computer and not account for how this money will add up over time? And that in light of such profits people may actually expect you to create more than you barely do already? That is either a case of narcissism, plain stupidity because you can't look further than 5 feet or just shows how Dobson did not understand at all the tool he had at his disposal.

Bottom line: Dobson, like many times before, fucked it up. He overestimated the potential support and resulting profits he could make, he expected that his name alone would be enough to assure gainings instead of creating content to justify support and he was unwilling to really give his supporters anything worthwhile back.

And while I am sure that there were also many other factors guaranteeing his failure, those at least to me, were his "common" mistakes most other people familiar even with the basics of internet popularity would ahve avoided.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

Can I just say that Habs “fans” who act like Carey Price’s contract is somehow patient zero of all this team’s problems drive me absolutely fucking insane? Seriously. Buckle up. This is about to be a rant.

Now. First things first. Is it ideal that the $10 million goalie is currently uh, not doing very good? Fucking NO! I am disappointed as shit with that and I don’t like seeing him struggle. I know he can be better. He has to be better. Obviously.

However. That being said.

Do I think it’s an incredibly stupid look to spend several tweets complaining about all the issues Habs defence have been having, and then also griping that they haven’t started Jake Allen enough for how he’s performing, only to then for some inexplicable reason state that the FIRST THING, the first thing that needs to be dealt with after the new coaching staff have had ONE GAME (and zero practices) to work on things, is somehow “well, the ten million dollar man in net is weighing them down, that contract has gotta go!”?

Yes! That’s stupid!!

I think that’s a very ice cold small-brain take, and not just because Price is my favourite of favourites for as long as I’ve been a hockey fan! I have reasons, dammit!! I put THOUGHT into this!!

Here, dear ppl of Habs twitter who will never read this, are some reasons why this narrative you’re concocting is dumb, and why management/coaching are unlikely to think of trying to ditch Price mid-season to fix the current problems:

1: Time. It has been one (1) game under Ducharme. He has been able to run zero (0) full practices on off days with the team. We just changed up a major piece on the Habs chess board — why don’t you give it a minute to see what fresh eyes and minds can do with this roster before you decide we are fucked? This season is fast-moving, sure, but there is time for us to ride out some little bumps here and still make a playoff spot in this Canadian division. Have patience. Do you remember what patience is? Dom is a new head coach, not a wish-granting fairy godmother. Chill. Do you remember chill?

(rest of this under a cut because I actually LIKE Habs Tumblr, and I want to be nice to you all by not making you scroll past all of it if you don’t want to)

2: Jake Allen exists. There are a couple of things I like for what this means for the Habs. Firstly, for basically the first time in his NHL career, we are not in a situation where if Carey Price is in a slump, we have to go “Ah, shit, so now our options are let his stats tank while he tries to get the groove back in net, OR throw whoever the poor backup is out there to get murdered while we plummet through the standings.... 😬” We don’t have that problem right now, because the backup is... actually good? Oh my god, the backup is actually good! Thank fuck! We’re not doomed. If I’m Ducharme, I put Allen in net for a few consecutive starts to put a solid backstop behind all my fun experiments I’m probably planning with the skating roster (to catch their slip-ups, while also giving Carey lots of time and rest with which to work hard on sorting out whatever his issue is along with the goalie coaches).

2b: Jake Allen exists and is competition. Hell, if I’m Ducharme, maybe I even play a little hardball and say “Look, Carey, I don’t want you to be an expensive benchwarmer, but if things don’t pick up soon I am going to start whoever is doing best and you will have to compete for that net.” Related to my last point, when was the last time Carey Price had to push himself to compete for net time against anything other than his own injuries, and wasn’t simply always the default starter? Has that EVER been a thing? Honestly as much as I love the idea of him being The Goalie for the Habs, I also kinda like this idea a lot because I think it could really push him to a higher standard of performance. Maybe that kind of high-pressure situation (given how much he thrives in the pressure-cooker of the playoffs) could be what he NEEDS in order to Be Carey Price again. Worst comes to worst, he doesn’t respond to that challenge, and I am very sad but the Habs have a good goalie in net anyway, because Hallelujah, Jake Allen exists! God, isn’t it nice to have Jake Allen? Bless him.

3: Money. Guys, this league is so broke right now. Seriously. Seriously. Nobody has any fucking money. The Habs probably have more money than most teams, and that does not help when it comes to offloading large contracts. Trades are a NIGHTMARE both because of the flat cap but also because travel is complicated (especially cross-border) but also nobody wants to trade within their division if possible because all your games are against them. Who in the name of fuck do you think is jumping at the idea of taking the $10 million per through 20-lots-and-lots-of-years-from-now contract of a goalie who is currently struggling, impressive past record aside? What kind of astral plane of fantasy hockey are you on to think there’s a trade out there for that within this season. Shut up. And no, don’t bring up the expansion draft, this post is a rebuttal SPECIFICALLY to the people who think that Price and his contract are the biggest problem that needs to be dealt with RIGHT NOW and first on the list of ways to immediately remedy the team’s struggles.

4: Spite. Specifically to piss you off, bud. You personally.

5: Knowing how to troubleshoot properly. Fellas, if my computer is running slowly and freezing up a lot, do I immediately decide the first step to fixing it is to crack open the chassis, remove the hard drive, and try to sell that hard drive to someone to see if I can enough money back to somehow get a better hard drive for less? No, dipshit. That’s not how troubleshooting a complex system works works. It’s the same with hockey teams. Ah, my star goalie is not performing great. This situation is deeply less than ideal. If you’re actually good at troubleshooting, the first thing you do is not “WELL. I GUESS WE’LL HAVE TO THROW THE WHOLE GOALIE OUT. HE’S TOAST.” The first thing you do, if you’re a smart coach, is you say “Okay, what are my defence doing in front of him? What are they doing to reduce the amount and quality of our opponents’ scoring chances? Oh. Oh, they’re taking a lot of penalties, and... oh, uh, some of this is very not great. Yikes.” And then you start your work by trying to make the defence actually work instead of running the same Pairs That Everyone Is Very Much Over And Tired Of, because your goalie is actually supposed to be your Last Line of Defence. And maybe during that time you give more starts to Goalie Who Is Absolutely Slaying It, so that when you start trying new D-pairs and they inevitably have some mistakes, it doesn’t immediately turn into an Oh God Holy Fuck moment every time, because that last line of defence backstopping them is solid. The reason you need to deal with defense first is because a) You know you have a reliable goalie (Allen) in your pocket right now if you need him. What you don’t have is a whole-ass proven and tested and practiced Backup D-Core you can swap into the roster in front of your goalies to make their lives easier. Fix your defense and it WILL improve your goalies, even marginally. Defrag the hard drive before you ask why it’s not working. and b) If you need to go looking for any new D-men to solve the issues, those are WAY easier and cheaper to find than top-tier goalies, and you always want to start any troubleshooting process with trying the simplest solutions first to hopefully save time and money. The better that D-core is, the less it fucks your team over if the goalie isn’t feeling themselves, because the D is going to stop more of those pucks before they ever even become the goalie’s problem. FIX. DEFENCE. FIRST. Then try to train your goalie back into top form. THEN explore your other options.

6: The vicious cycle. Guys. We literally do this once every year or second year. EVERY time Carey Price has a slump, this fanbase gets into a tizzy like the Bell Centre is burning down and he was the one with the matches. And what ALWAYS happens literally within the year, every single time? He gets his mojo back like he did last summer in the bubble and goes on a heater and everybody goes “JESUS PRICE!!!! 🙌” and is ready to name their firstborn kid after him. Until eventually that performance becomes unsustainable, and he becomes mortal again, and suddenly he’s The Real Problem With This Franchise once again. I know he’s the guy they chose to build the team around instead of a superstar forward, but oh my god folks. You’d think he was the only player on the team. Guys, I feel like fucking Sisyphus pushing a blue blanc et rouge boulder up Mont Royal once a year with this shit. This man’s entire career has been a constant seesaw narrative between “Carey Price is our saviour!” and “Carey Price should be exiled to Nome!!!!” from parts of this fanbase, I swear. Look, slumps suck, but for once we are actually lucky enough to be in a position where this team, for the first time in YEARS, does not solelylive or die by the inscrutable magical cycles of Carey Price’s goalie powers — because when he has to step back and work to get back into his groove, there is FINALLY a SECOND GUY who is GREAT. Honestly, given that the state of this team for so long has been “they will go as far as Carey Price can take them” and he has put in a pretty fucking decent job of it despite all of the team’s other struggles, I feel like it is owed it to the guy to be like “Okay, well, we have somebody else solid to fill the net right now, and a chance to really figure out our defence and special teams with this new coach. Why don’t you take a step back and work your ass off at trying to get back into the form I know you can still perform at, and we’ll go from there?”

Anyway. Some parts of this fanbase have been waiting for a fresh excuse to claim Price is overrated, washed-up, and to blame for all of this team’s flaws and ills ever since he signed that contract, if not since the start of his NHL career. Just unreal how nasty some of this fanbase is willing to be about a player who is ON. YOUR. TEAM.

Am I saying he is beyond critique of his play and can do no wrong and his contract is perfect? No! I want this team to have the best goaltending it can get, and I want them to kick ass and take names. The difference is, I still believe Carey Price is a part of that winning formula, and I also think Twitter is overflowing with idiots who just repeat what everybody else says. He’s still a better goalie than your ass would be if I stuck you out there to stop shots from Mark Schieffle, for crap’s sake.

“The first thing that has to go is Carey Price’s contract 🤪”. Shut the fuck up. You are actively making other people stupider by talking. Go eat sand. Good day.

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP Meme from " Corax" in "Chapter Two: The Changing Breeds" from the World of Darkness "Changing Breeds" book (20th Anniversary edition)

Seriously? Who writes this stuff?

You’re never going to learn the real story about who you are from that hack.

You know how the littlest kid is always the one who runs to Mom with every little thing their siblings do wrong? That’s us. We’re the tattletales.

You know why we can’t settle down? Cuz they’re everywhere, so we have to be, too.

We’re built to go everywhere, see everything. No homebodies allowed.

If there are secrets going on, you can bet there’s one of us, listening in, poking around, getting a gander — so to speak.

We see something going on — we gotta spread the word.

No, I don’t mean porn — well, not just porn, anyway.

We make the Net look like a buncha clay tablets with “Cleo Was Here” scrawled on them. We’re bleeding edge, eyes-in-the-sky, grade A, number one know-it-alls.

Information’s no good if the messenger can’t deliver it.

Oh, we’re nasty enough in a scrap, and we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves, but the truth is we’re not built for going toe-to-toe.

Fight sneaky, the way we do everything else, and you’re more likely to survive to tell a tale — or pull a prank — another day.

Most of the time, there’s a method to our madness, a lesson in the lemon-meringue.

See, some folks just don’t listen the easy way.

You should know where your allegiances lie.

Find stuff. Tell people.

Laugh, because the world ain’t getting any prettier.

You’re learning already. But, here’s something you gotta know; Once I finish teaching you the basics, you’re on your own.

Now, don’t look like that.

I mean, what’s the good of gathering stories if you don’t get to tell them in front of a group every now and then?

As for specific operations, well, I can’t tell you much beyond “they exist”, because I don’t know.

If you’re heading in a way that crosses winds with one of them, they’ll find you and tell you what you need to know about hooking up with them.

High tech, big business, politics? We’re there too.

Japan? Europe? The Middle East? You name it, one of us has an eye on it.

Well, let’s just say that if you turn over enough stones, you’re eventually going to find more than dirt underneath one.

Do your job right, and there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself in a heap of trouble soon or later.

Quit thinking so literally!

The possibilities are, as they say, endless.

Between Facebook, Twitter, and all that jazz, almost everyone has some sort of internet presence — and online friends — these days.

A couple of dummy accounts armed with stock photos and a fake bio, and suddenly I’m “friends” with whatever patsy I’m looking for more info on.

If I’m lucky, he’ll keep a running dialogue with his hundred closest buddies about where he’s “checking in” for the meeting I want to listen in on.

If I’m really lucky, he’ll jump on instant messaging and try to impress his new “follower” with some handy details that can be used against him.

Of course, if I’m unlucky, I might end up with pictures of his naked junk, but even those can be used for blackmail or sold off to the highest bidder — it’s gross, but hey, them’s the breaks in the info business.

Government agencies are required to make certain files accessible to the public. So, a lot of that stuff we used to have to wing it down to the archives office to get a gander at is now available on a point-and-click basis through one website or another.

If you can get a hacker on your side, there’s almost nothing you can’t find out about someone.

Debit card transaction records, ISP cookie files, internet site caches, phone and text message logs? Easy breezy, lemon-squeezy, if you know what I mean.

Don’t get me wrong. We were made to do what we do — and to do it well. Like any fine piece of equipment, form follows function, and all that jazz.

I thought that might get your attention.

What? You don’t know that one? I’ll tell you later.

The thing? Where you drink the stuff from a corpse’s eye, and you see the last thing it saw before it died?

Oh, come on now; don’t make that face. You’ll take to it quick enough.

There’s no better way to get information on what killed some poor schmuck, or why it was done.

See, that’s another thing about being one of us. That whole discretion thing? Not so much. We can’t shut up.

Hey, don’t tell me you noticed; that’s disrespectful.

Information wants to be free, and it’s hard as hell for us to hold back when we know a juicy tidbit.

You probably have noticed that there’s some differences between, say, me and you.

You’re probably more comfortable that way, cuz it’s how you were born.

Y’all are usually pretty cliquish, talkative — even by our standards — and a little fuzzy on the notion of property rights where shiny things are concerned.

We tend toward the twitchy loner type.

We’re generalists, built to survive anywhere, under any circumstances.

Sure, it’s fun to go poking after spooky stuff; all kinds of interesting things hiding out in the shadows.

Just make sure if you join up with a band of these guys, that at least one of you has the brains to keep an eye on where the exits are.

Don’t be dumb enough to think stumbling onto something interesting means you’re tough enough to deal with it yourself

Oh, and once they start talking? Pack a lunch. You’re gonna be there a while.

But their big money makers aren’t “things” at all — they’re secrets.

Passwords, bleeding-edge code, blackmail fodder, and anything else that someone doesn’t want brought to light?

Their CEO is riding the headwinds of technology at this point, and there are big things on the horizon for the “company”.

It’s creepy as hell.

You either high-tail it out of there, or prepare to be a part of the fighting, cuz things are about to get crazy.

They’re always picking fights, causing trouble, and generally being the biggest bitches they can get away with.

Trying to be bad, yep, yep, yep. Pulling it off? Sometimes.

Oh, and it’s a girls’ club only. No boys allowed.

Most of the time, they’re never heard from again.

There’s stuff out there that would eat a little-bit like you without even needing to spit out the bones.

I mean, time works different out there, and the rules are all wonky.

They were pure, once upon a time.

They’re the trickster’s tricksters, and they take the job damn seriously, which means they’re always practicing — and pissing people off.

It looks kind of goofy, and you walk funny while you’re in it.

Most of us are thin and don’t tan well, which makes us kinda look like underfed Goths.

It’s not a sure-fire giveaway, but it can be a clue.

Hold your head high.

We’re big, we’re smart, we’re fast, we’re beautiful; what’s not to love?

I don’t even want to talk about the feet.

It's just humiliating.

We look out for you, and you look out for us. Capische?

They talk too much, but if you know what to listen for and what to ignore, you can learn a lot. Assuming you don’t kill them first.

They irritate without making enemies.

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

[simpbur]

hello! i would like ur 40 song wiblur playlist

anon thank you so much for asking <333 while it would’ve been easier to just drop the link i have so many thoughts about everything so i explained why every single song has its spot on this list which was IMMENSELY fun for me

(also: if anyone does want the link i can provide both apple music and spotify but if u would like the apple music link i’d rather it be through dms or an ask off anon that i can make private!)

another also: i bolded all the songs for ease of perusing if you don’t want the director’s commentary and bolded + italicized the ones that i think fit Very Well

another another also: wrote the second bit of this on my laptop and the keyboard is p funky so if there are any typos or things that do not make sense i will try to fix them asap haha

saint bernard by lincoln: this is one of those like. Dream SMP Songs that i added because it fits into so many different relationships and plot lines and arcs but i think there’s some connection to c!wlbur somewhere out there. idk i asked my friend and he said to add it so this one goes out to him

amnesia was her name by lemon demon: ghostbur song ghostbur song! mostly comes from this lovely animatic

o valencia! by the decemberists: okay this is one of those songs that only really has one lyric that fits but is an absolutely banger so it’s here anyway. you’ll also notice a trend of quasi love songs that i relate to c!wilbur’s perception of l’manburg and i think this song shows this in a really cool way, esp with the chorus (‘and i swear to the stars i’ll burn this whole city down’ is The Line)

achilles come down by gang of youths: another one of those Dream SMP Songs. i think this fits better with c!tommy but i like it too much to remove it. this is a somewhat common trend with the earlier songs on this playlist (i’ve been building this thing since january, for reference)

brave as a noun by ajj: another Dream SMP Song. i think certain verses fit better than others when it comes to wilbur’s character but that ones that work really work

harness your hopes by pavement: a song that is one here for vibes alone. i have no idea what these lyrics mean. all i know is that i heard it, thought of c!wilbur, and put it on the playlist. thank you all for being here

evelyn evelyn by evelyn evelyn: sad-ist made this a tommy and tubbo song (as she should) so it’s validity on this playlist is questionable but folks used to compare it to wilbur and tommy’s relationship during the pogtopia arc and i think some points were made there

the execution of all things by rilo kiley: i’m so excited to get here because this was the first song i put on the playlist that i think really works and i thumb nailed an animatic for the last verse and november 16th so! i think it’s a good l’manburg song and the last verse has some good ghostbur lines (‘and lately you’re all alone with nothing left but sleep/but sleep never comes to you, it’s the guilt and forever wakefulness of the weak’)

i’m just your problem from adventure time: this ones a bit tricky since at is my favorite show of all time and i cannot detach this song from its in-show context very well but there is a very cool animatic with this song that landed it a spot on the playlist

man burning by josh ritter: almost became an animatic but the audio i wanted to use (which i recorded at a josh ritter concert and it’s just him and his guitar and there’s echo and it’s very haunting and pretty) has my stepbrother singing in the background and i could not edit it out so. that will probably not happen. but anyways the only hole i would pick in this song is that it’s mostly about self sabotage which isn’t really applicable but i think the imagery is cool

mamma mia by abba: here me out. here me out. this is another song that fits so well and i have spent so many hours thinking about this and somewhere there is a note on my phone explaining how every single line relates to c!wilbur’s entire arc from founding l’manburg to the resurrection (made when we thought gbur was going to get resurrected in january) and just. the metaphorical ‘you’ is l’manburg does this make any sense (another almost animatic except now that wilbur’s actually back it might become an actual animatic)

the other side of paradise by glass animals: no idea why this is here other than being a Dream SMP Song. it’s good tho

infinitesimal by mother mother: they saaaaay it stared with a big bang but they saaaaaaaay it came out of a small thing latelyyyyy i’ve been feeling like a big bang You Know

curses by the crane wives: had a thing drawn out for this song showing the comparisons between c!wilbur and c!niki because of the chorus and i think the last two lyrics of said chorus are the best thing about this one

lonely eyes by the front bottoms: gotta admit that i have no idea how this song got on here but i’ve come to associate it with ghostbur based on vibes alone. it’s a friendly song he’s a friendly ghost it works. the other tfb song coming up fits a bit better methinks

king of new orleans by better than ezra: not to put better than ezra on my c!wilbur playlist but like. something about the whole ‘tasing something up to let it fall’ motif makes me think

get me away from here, i’m dying by belle and sebastian: another almost animatic song (there’s a trend here). not only does the story told in this song work i like the lines ‘play me a song to set me free/nobody writes them like they used to so it may as well be me’ in relation to my l’manburg

montgomery forever by the front bottoms: certain bits and pieces of this song fit so well, specifically the chorus and those bits in the last two choruses Yeah (’montgomery forever and ever and ever and now they’re blowing it up/(x2)/as you started laughing and crying and trying to explain how all you want to do is leave’)

don’t look back in anger by oasis: out of all my almost animatic songs, this one got the furthest. the animatic, which I got pretty far in thumbnailing, was about wilbur and tommy and kind of drawing comparisons between their characters, also about the revolution in general. maybe i’ll finish that animatic one day idk 

snow by ricky montgomery: i wish i had a link for this so bad but!! saw art on twitter!! with the lyric ‘bury me six feet in snow’!! and went ahfsdjfk!!

burning pile by mother mother: a Dream SMP Song. also a jam there’s no real specific connection for this one but i think it could fit in a couple of ways

rounds by the oh hellos: in the same position as snow except it was on tumblr..... @ whoever made this comic i saw these lyrics in your brain is massive and your art is incredible

lovely by mt. eddy: on here for vibes alone. there’s something in the lyrical content too, but my thoughts in that regard are not very fleshed out

adventures in solitude by the new pornographers: ah yes..... the song that prompted this all...... this is a beautiful and incredibly well written song and if you’re going to listen to any song off of this playlist i’d encourage you to listen to this one. it’s place of here is mostly cause of the chorus but the imagery in the verses could all represent a part of c!wilbur and i’d love to explore that more

caught in the middle by paramore: obligatory paramore song. i think it got on here because limbo = ‘middle’ but i’m not quite sure. on the verge of being deleted if i can find a better pmore song

delicate by damien rice: one of the oddest songs on this list and i am well aware that it sticks out like a sore thumb. a song that’s on here pretty much because of one lyric, which is ‘and why’d you sing hallelujah/if it means nothing to you’ which i related to both eret’s betrayal and how my l’manburg is hallelujah yknow

bang! by ajr: almost animatic song. i think we all know what the bang is here

somewhere only we know by lily allen: ik i said don’t look back in anger has the most potential to get made into an animatic but this song might actually take it place. on par with adventures in solitude in terms of how pretty of a song it is, and probably even moreso. it’s kind of turned into a ghostbur song in my head, and makes me cry like an infant child every time i hear it

a pearl by mitski: i cannot defend this song’s place on here past the line ‘it’s just that i fell in love with a war and nobody told me it ended’

eight by sleeping at last: the official c!wilbur song needs a spot on here <3 if i can dig up the clip of cc!wilbur talking about this song in relation to his character i’ll add it but until then yeah <3

always by rilo kiley: no idea why this is on here but it fits well!! could not tell you why!! banger!!

celebration guns by stars: it’s a hauntingly beautiful song about war, and kind of one of those that necessarily isn’t about wilbur but moreso his place in the story? idk how to explain it but yes

passerine by the oh hellos: it’s. it’s from the . the fic. yeah h

oh, you are the roots that sleep beneath my feet and hold the earth in place by bright eyes: added this after the real resurrection and i think it’s because fo the imagery? also the last verse

we are beautiful, we are doomed by los campesinos!: all i have to say is ‘i cannot emphasize enough that my body/is a badly designed, poorly put together vessel/harboring these diminishing, so called vital organs/i hope my heart goes first, i hope my heart goes first!’ has always made me think of pogtopia era wilbur :(

dead weight by jack stauber: no real connection other than eret played this song during a break during the ghostbur’s january ‘resurrection’ and i heard it and went :0

point me at lost lands by tired pony: gives me season on l’manburg vibes..... i love how free and passionate it sounds and that's p much the only reason it’s on this list haha

ghosting by mother mother: added this five seconds ago because i could not BELIEVE it was not on here. ghostbur song. mans sang it on that one stream with the reverb and everything. the lyrics ‘i will be kind and i’ll be sweet/if you stop staring straight through me’ hit particularly hard back when everyone thought that ghostbur was actually wilbur in disguise