#are these people trolling or stupid I genuinely can’t tell

[eventide-paradox]

GENUINELY WHEEZING AT THIS THREAD-

What does the arab in your carrd mean? Is it like afab and amab?

.. i’m palestinian

[aroace-ventplace]

…can’t believe i need to say this in 2024, but if you see a tumblr blog that’s an obvious sockpuppet, just block them. don’t give them any attention.

for those who weren’t aware, a sockpuppet is an account that someone uses to pretend to be someone they aren't, usually for the sake of accomplishing a particular goal. "asexual" sockpuppets were used extensively in tumblr's ace discourse years (which reached their peak in 2016-2019). aphobes and exclusionists made blogs where they roleplayed as exaggerated aspec caricatures, trying to paint asexuals as childish, ignorant, bigoted, etc - in a word, "cringey." crazey-acey-in-spacey was an especially notorious example of a sockpuppet that a lot of people took at face value, since their deliberately outrageous behavior (falsely) confirmed a lot of the biases tumblr users already had about aspecs. it's NEVER worth engaging with any of these accounts - don't feed the trolls, as they used to say.

ways to spot an "asexual" sockpuppet:

makes a lot of statements that are intentionally tone-deaf and offensive. especially look out for sudden mentions of race/analogies to racism ("ace genocide," "ace reparations") - a common tactic in the acecourse days was to paint asexuality as a "white" orientation, and to suggest asexuals were racist.

references other infamous sockpuppets like crazy-acey and the "warm milk aceggot" post.

makes claims about famous people being aspec, especially people who are known for bigoted beliefs. it was very common for aphobes to make asexual moodboards of people like thatcher or trump; they did this to paint aspecs as out of touch with reality and the wider queer community, and to strengthen the association between asexuality and bigotry.

use of the words "acey" or "asexy." some people do use these words in a positive sense now, but anti-aspec shit-stirrers used them a lot back in the day to imply asexuals were stupid and childish. (and if we're being honest? autistic, too. the aphobic parts of tumblr had a VERY strong undercurrent of ableism.)

this one's a bit less common, but watch out for references to christianity. one widespread aphobic talking point is calling asexuals "puritans" and suggesting that they're aligned more with conservative christianity than the rest of the queer community. aspec christians certainly exist, but given the history of this site, it's just better to double-check aspec accounts that bring up christianity out of the blue when they're engaging with other blogs.

it can be hard to tell the difference between a sockpuppet and a genuine aspec account if you don't have the exact same amount of 2016 tumblr brainrot as me, so feel free to message me and ask about anything you're not sure about - my dms are always open 👍

[yourpeepysucksdotorg]

Looking back on my syscourse days with the wisdom of age, I feel as if I can pinpoint a single psychological concept that explains why syscourse is so prevalent to begin with, and why it’s so toxic and inescapable; group polarization. Basically, people are more likely to come to extreme conclusions or make risky decisions when in a group with those sharing the same ideologies, even though most members of the group will have the same core beliefs that aren’t nearly as radical.

In syscourse, this most often occurs when people debate the validity of endogenic systems. It also makes it impossible to have a good-faith discussion on the matter.

I’m not endo-neutral, and while my thoughts on the matter can be found elsewhere on my blog, I’ll remain neutral for the sake of this post making it to as many people as possible, because I genuinely believe so much fighting could be stopped if we just recognized the unhealthy patterns we’ve fallen into. Disordered systems who are anti-endo seem to blame endogenic systems for a lot of things, and while I’m not endogenic, I can pretty accurately guess that having a bunch of strangers tell you that you make their lives worse by expressing your identity makes you feel shitty. This keeps the two communities separated outside of verbal spats, and of course, after these spats, members of both communities will want support. Once again, I can’t speak from the endogenic perspective. But I know that anti-endos will continue to perpetuate that endos are bad, that you didn’t do anything wrong, that they’re just dumb and stupid. Which, I can assume this keeps endogenic systems in constant defense mode, as they constantly have to check which system blogs or servers are or aren’t okay to interact with, out of fear of being attacked by other systems, or worse, becoming some kind of lolcow for singlets.

When both sides feel like they’re being attacked, no productive discussion can be had. Once again, I do have my own opinions on the matter, but right now, I’m really just advocating for all systems to treat each other like living beings. If someone is being terrible to you, there’s no pressure to fight back. Just block them. While that one person might be an asshole, there are so many more people who care about you, support you, and want you to exist more than you even know. This is a saying as old as time, but don’t feed the trolls. Don’t aggressively retaliate, because you’re just giving them more material to bend to their will. And if you’re the one perpetuating assholery, just stop.

Maybe I’m just being an optimist, but I believe that so much syscourse could become irrelevant if we realized that the world isn’t black and white, and there aren’t good and evil systems. We’re all in this together, singlets are still gonna treat us like we’re nuts. We need to stand united rather than push each other further and further away.

[sugar-coated-prat-dragon]

Title: Gwen hated magic for nearly killing Merlin in the Poisoned Chalice episode

Bonus: Gwen acknowledges that most people affected by the magic ban were old lady’s with cats 🐈

Episode: To Kill the King

Questions by @tansyuduri

Tagging: @miyriu

Question: Morgana's age is important because throwing a future noble in the dungeons with no real reason is just a stupid thing to do on Uther's part, if he wants to keep them loyal?

My answer: Uther views nobles as being the only ones to have any worth, but those of lower rank (which would be pretty much anyone under him) are entirely dependent on his whims.

We see this with Aulfric and Sophia, who he believes to be nobles. Yet, he has no problem threatening them.

Considering the fact that even some of the neighboring kingdoms decided to implement anti-magic bans in their own territories when he did, both out of fear and respect… such an example of his influence makes it clear that Uther has succeeded in making his kingdom the most ‘powerful and influential in the realm’.

It seems like there are few kings or queens who would dare to challenge him, never-mind lower ranking nobles.

Uther has a lot of power and influence.

…And he knows it.

Book description: To Uther, only nobles have any worth.

Those of lesser rank may become well regarded - Gaius, for example - but their fortune is entirely dependent on the king's whims.

CRUEL TO BE KIND: Uther thinks he's being cruel to be kind, helping Arthur and Morgana understand the evils of magic and the difficulties a ruler must face.

Question: Tauren: “Bribery is Rife At Camalot. I will use the corruption at the heart of his kingdom. And such abundance of gold will buy me into the kings chambers -- even to the king himself.”

This is the only time we hear about this. So why didn’t Morgana use it the kingdom when SHE turned against him?

My answer: Agravaine did indeed use bribery in season 4 when he tried to get Eoghan (the mapmaker's apprentice) to obtain the plans for the siege tunnels.

Gwen (when she’s possessed and working for Morgana) threatens Tyr, the stablehand to the king, in order to have him sabotage the saddle and he does so out of fear for his mother’s life.

Also, the assassin Myror used bribery to find out that Arthur and his knights were supposedly headed toward the Northern borders on horseback.

So bribery is alive and well in Camelot.

Book description: Myror was not, at that moment, on his way to Camelot. Over the course of his career he had found that he could get any information if he was prepared to pay for it, and he had already discovered that Prince Arthur was leading a small party towards the Northern Borders. It was the perfect opportunity.

———————-

Question: Does Arthur telling Gwen, "You'll have your home for life" mean she'll no longer have to pay taxes to her fudual lords for her home?

My answer: It’s possible that Arthur meant that, but I find that unlikely since the prince can’t control whether his father taxes people or not (the troll episode proved that even before he was temporarily disinherited).

Since Arthur specifically said, “your job is safe. And that your home is yours for life. I guarantee you that.”

I think it’s more likely that Arthur was referring to him making it so that her father’s house would be passed down to her without complications (since she was an unmarried peasant woman).

And that Gwen would be able to keep her job as a personal servant to a noble woman, despite the loss in income/status that would become her new normal.

Book description: After the death of her father, Arthur visits to assure Gwen that her home and job are safe and to offer his help - even through her grief, Gwen can sense that his compassion is genuine and heartfelt.

By the time Arthur lies dying from the Questing Beast's bite, Gwen is devoted to him - telling the unconscious prince that it is the thought of his ruling one day that keeps her going.

Question: Morgana: You sent him into battle, You promised him reinforments and them gave him none. You sent him to his death.

Was this like one of those very hard calls commanders sometimes have to make or just Uther being an ass as usual?

Was this before or after Vivianne (Morgana's mom) died. Because if it was before I am giving Uther some serious side eye, even subconciously he could have done it because he wanted the lady he hooked up with while her hubby was gone?

My answer: The “Magic Begins” book, mentions that Uther took Morgana into his care when her father died and since we know she was ten years old at the time, that implies that her mother was already dead by the time she was effectively orphaned and taken in as the kings ward.

Morgana also apparently grew up being torn between being grateful to Uther for raising her and at the same time blaming him gift his responsibility in her father’s death.

- I think it’s unlikely that Uther purposely caused Gorlois’s death, since the king clearly respected him, but I can understand why his daughter would feel resentment for him being unable to send additional troops.

Book description:

Magic Begins book: “Uther didn't like arguing with Morgana - after all, she was his ward, the child he'd taken into his care when her father died.”

MIXED FEELINGS: Morgana struggles with her emotions towards Uther. He has given her a home and cared for her, treating her as he would a daughter of his own, and part of her thinks of him as a father.

But she holds him responsible for her own father's death and cannot forget everything that has been taken from her. Morgana finds the king's attitudes frustrating.

Question: Merlin: “Everyone hates him” (referring to Uther)

I wonder how Uther's views on magic are seen by everyday people. We have hints that they don't like magic but never anything definative?

Merlin's comment of everyone hating Uther also needs to be looked at, because it means the people Merlin knows the opinion of DO hate Uther?

My answer: It seems like the monarch’s of neighboring kingdoms were relieved by the magic ban, because a powerful sorcerer could be a threat to a king.

Meanwhile, Gwen herself mentioned being able to hate magic as she watched Merlin suffer through the effects of the poisoned chalice that was killing him and the evil magic that had caused it. (Source: “The Poisoned Chalice” book)

In that same book, Gwen mentioned that the magic ban also caused terrible witch hunts in the kingdom that predominantly resulted in the accused being an old lady with a cat who was acting a bit ‘oddly’.

So I think it’s safe to say that even normal citizens were afraid of powerful magic, because they’d seen the damage it could cause and yet still acknowledge that innocent people were sometimes caught in the crossfire of magic related paranoia.

Book description: Uther has formed alliances with many other kingdoms, and out of respect - or fear - for Uther, their rulers have accepted his ban on sorcery and enforce it in their territories too.

To many, the decree came as a relief; a powerful sorcerer could threaten a king, but no rulers had previously dared to challenge the might of magic.

- Gwen frowned. She had seen the girl. So young and pretty and, if she was being honest, sweet-looking.

The idea of her being a powerful sorceress... it sounded like madness. It was like some of the insane accusations that were occasionally made in the villages, and even in the city, whenever some poor old lady - usually someone with a cat - behaved a bit oddly.

Uther had managed to instil such a dread of magic in his subjects that 'witch hunts' could flare up at the drop of a pointed hat.

- And the truth was, Gwen had no idea what a powerful sorceress might look like. The old woman who had sought to drive a knife into Arthur's heart - she had used her magic to transform herself, to disguise herself as Lady Helen of Mora.

Magic was a dangerous and powerful thing, and if magic had done this to Merlin, well, Gwen understood more than ever why Uther hated it so and had outlawed its use.

Question: I wonder at the dialogue that seems to suggest there was misuse of magic beyond just Ygraines death around the time Uther banned it?

My answer: Obviously, not all magic users were bad (in fact a vast majority of them were probably innocent), but there were many who used their magic for evil and believed that they should rule, because of their power.

Sorcerers also helped opposing chieftains to fight battles for more power and to the normal citizen, it seemed like the kingdom was in chaos, due to the magical power struggle.

However, Uther ruled over that same magical land with no desire to destroy it, until he had Gaius seek out Nimueh at the Isle of the Blessed to gift him an heir and he learned the hard way that no king could rule over magic (it had its own laws and repercussions).

Book description: Uther Pendragon once ruled over a land of magic, but when he loses his wife, his hatred of sorcery becomes all-consuming.

A KINGDOM IN CHAOS: Once Camelot was in chaos. Opposing chieftains vied for power, enlisting the help of sorcerers where they could.

The sorcerers, for their part, believed that magic should rule, and were happy to betray their patrons if it seemed advantageous. Dragons ruled the skies, bringing terror to all who saw them.

2. UTHER CONQUERS:

Into this land came Uther Pendragon, who made himself king through conquest and took the citadel of Camelot as his royal palace. He set about bringing order to the land.

Magic was tolerated - after all, it had always been part of the world; who could imagine a land without sorcery?

However, as many rulers had done before, Uther looked on magic as something that could work for him - and found out, as so many others had done, that this was not the case. Magic has its own laws, and cannot be ruled by a mere king.

3. Once the land of Camelot was a dark and dangerous place, a realm of sorcery and chaos.

Then Uther Pendragon drove magic from the land, and made Camelot an ordered and lawful kingdom.

[as8bakwthesage]

My Experience With Lily Orchard + Fuck Her

Now, if those of you who know me or have been following me for a while will know that I used to be a massive Lily Orchard fan. I used to support her, I defended her, and I was once a member of her patron even.

I’ve heard stories from people, former friends, former fans, about how much of a manipulating and nasty bitch she is. At best, she’s lashed out at fans for drawing innocuous fanart and for bringing up topics in stream that she doesn’t approve of (I’ve been there, I’ve seen it), and at worst she’s a lying abusive cunt who can’t help but make people around her miserable.

And while I’ve not been the subject of Lily’s abuse, I have been witness and bore the blunt of her passive aggressive horseshit, her manipulating situations to make me appear like a cunt for daring to correct her on an opinion of a book she never fucking read, her shamelessly putting me on blast in one of her videos where she insinuated I was stupid for asking a question about LGBT+ rep, for telling me and other fans to stop talking when we tried to defend our positions in chat.

I’ve had to walk on eggshells around her because I feel like every word I say or anything I do will be seen as an attack on her despite me being a fan of hers for literally fucking years and she knows this. I’ve been a fan of hers since I was 15-16 and I’m 22 now. With no other content creator have I felt the need to be so fucking careful of what I say.

And when I sent her an ask telling her that her yelling at others on stream for seemingly no reason was actively triggering me (mind you, in the nicest way possible because I couldn’t hurt Ms. Orchard’s feewings oh nuuuu) she ignored my ask. Do I have proof she saw it? No. Is she a large enough content creator that she receives so much interaction/asks on her tumblr that my ask got swallowed? Also No.

If you’re a Lily Orchard fan, I am not a needless hater, I am not a stalker or a troll or a bigot. I’m a transgender and biromantic/asexual person myself who is Native and actively participates in activities regarding my tribe and culture. I’m white passing like Lily is. I used to be a fan of hers for fuck’s sake and an active one too.

But here’s the thing - she’ll suck you in with her bold commentary and criticisms and some of it is genuinely really thought provoking and interesting. On the outset she has a “no tolerance for abusers” policy and she’s charismatic to an audience of teenagers who were being abused. Fuck, she helped me realise I was being abused and when the Toonkritic shit came out, that slowly started to help me realise I was being groomed by my exe (TheHauntedReader)

I convinced myself for the longest time that just because Lily wrote “Stockholm” that it didn’t mean anything. That all of her weird takes and opinions were just a quirky “haha i did this in my youth and i regret it” moment. But this isn’t 13-year-old me writing weird fanfiction between an adult and a child when I didn’t fucking know any better and was being actively groomed and abused, this was an adult who wrote CP and romanticised it and tried to get away with it and who should have known better!

And once you are a fan of hers, it’s hard not to become emotionally invested, especially if you’ve always seen her behaviour as normal, which I did. A lot of her fans are abuse/trauma survivors and she knows that. So many of us have confided to her that she helped us realise we could be happier and that we could escape. That we were more than our abuse. These are powerful things to talk about.

But she doesn’t care about us. Never has. Never will. She convinced me and has convinced others that us asking her stupid/silly questions is damaging to her. That it’s caused her so much emotional damage and stress that she can justify lashing out and verbally abusing her audience, y’know - the people who gave her a career. By her own admission, she hates us, but expects our support when she’s being harassed??

Girl, fuck off.

But that is just my own experience. I’ve seen some shit in the past couple of days that I can’t unsee and I encourage you all to look into it because it’s such a dark hole that the phrase “stare into the abyss for too long and it stares back” is what I feel like right now.

And I know why I feel like this - I invested energy and money and emotions into this woman and her channel. I’ve supported her. And no, Lily, this is not about me wanting to be your friend. It’s about me asking for some fucking decency as someone you at least know of and at most you know supported you? To not lie and misrepresent what I’ve said and then vaguepost about me?

Have I made mistakes? Yes. But that’s no excuse to berate and yell at people who have only asked stupid questions or fuck, even made goddamn harmless jokes??

Also, if fans/friends of Lily’s are harassing @asunnycoffee you guys are the fucking worst. Don’t fucking attack my friend you raging cunts. I have a couple ideas of who you might be, but I know you won’t air out your dirty laundry with me, Ginger.

You guys are pathetic.

Lily doesn’t care about her fans, she doesn’t care about her friends, and she’s certainly not going to start anytime soon.

[phannieconfession]

i have a question for you not abt dnp - do you get a similar amount of anons each day? is it cyclical? do you only get an influx when something major happens (phullet for example)? do you get asks you don’t publish or will you actually publish anything? how do you deal with asks that you really disagree with or are like genuinely offensive? i guess that’s multiple questions lol im just curious how you manage it and all

hi!

i get anons every day, though there are usually a few more when something major happens. i don’t really keep track of the numbers, though.

yes, i do get asks i don’t publish. sometimes i don’t fully understand the confession but i’ll post it anyway and then i'll get five angry anons telling me it was apparently the rudest thing ever. sorry about that.

when it comes to asks i disagree with, i try to stay chill. very few things genuinely enrage me because, at the end of the day, this is just a stupid confession tumblr blog. that said, i do sometimes misinterpret the tone or meaning of a confession, and i’ll post it without realizing how it might come across. so, again, sorry.

i’m a very… how do I put this? open-minded person? i have a lot of empathy or at least i think i do and i try to see the good in everyone and give people the benefit of the doubt. that said, i’m convinced that more than half of these anons are just trolls, probably the same person contradicting themselves on purpose to annoy me and everyone who follows this blog. basically, it’s bait, and i get it. that’s kind of the whimsy of a blog like this. it doesn’t annoy me, but it does sadden me when they bring up really hurtful topics just to be mean.

because of my personality, i can’t just ignore all of it. I know other types of people might handle this kind of blog or these kinds of asks differently, but i’ve chosen to stick with my own approach, that's not to say i don't welcome suggestions on it or even people helping. if i come across something i understand to be extremely offensive, i’ll block the person but honestly, i usually believe these people are either trolls or just ignorant.

i honestly wouldn’t recommend managing this kind of blog to most people, but i think my unbothered attitude makes it easier for me (among other factors). oddly enough, i find hate anons kind of motivating. on the other hand, compliments are different. when someone says something nice my brain immediately goes, what do you mean? this is garbage, and i’m just posting other people’s opinions/confessions with dumb comments added to them.

and you didn’t ask, but I do want to say that i genuinely love all of you because i love phannies. when topics get really bad or controversial, it does affect me, as in, it makes me sad. but I guess that’s to be expected.

this doesn’t mean i don’t criticize what’s being said, i do. But I still try to give the benefit of the doubt where I can and give that person a voice on here. once but not twice. i post and see how it goes. i know it makes some people reallyyyy angry but i trully believe this kind of blog without controversy and only the wholesomeness are just no true to what a confessional is, as in, people giving their own private thoughts they are too scared to send to anyone or post on their own blog, this is why they come in here and if their opinion is bad then they get the correction they need by other anons and i think that give for an exchange of opinion and make some people able to reevaluate themselve instead of simply blocking them and letting them marinate in their own stupid bad takes. that it is if they aren't just trolls.

my intention isn’t to spread toxic views at all but to expose certain thoughts and invite dialogue. i can’t always know for sure if someone is truly a troll, so i try to give people the benefit of the doubt instead of blocking them right away. i totally understand people who want a space that’s purely wholesome and hate to see controversial topics around. to those people, i’d say: i’m sorry, but this blog might not be for you. feel free to block me, and you won’t see it anymore. i do try really hard to tag recurring controversial topics so people can block those specific tags if they prefer. ultimately, i judge there is a need to have balance in these confessions without censoring every controversial take.

i hope i make sense :)

[chainsxwsmile]

@honeybilbyrp​ answered:

“Afraid?” Kitty chuckled, “Please. I’ve coughed up hairballs scarier than you!”

She was bluffing, of course. After all, any sane feline (or, really, any creature relatively near Kitty's size) would recognize that this troll was frightening.

And so, fur bristling, she still hadn't budged all the while from her offensive stance, with a paw outstretched wielding her dagger which pointed straight to him. A small bead of blood dripped from the end of its blade, stained from when Kitty had swiped the troll across the nose for getting too close for comfort a moment ago. Though it looked like a pretty small cut on him, and she would figure it probably felt like little more than a papercut to someone of his size. But it had been a warning in any case, more than a genuine attempt to seriously harm him, simply to indicate that this pretty kitty wasn’t a vulnerable victim.

In fact, come to think of it, those words of reassurance, when Kitty would assume that most creatures would be anything but polite after being essentially attacked, only made her feel even more like she should be very suspicious of him. And, maybe his seeming attempt at reassurance was sincere… But it also just as easily could have been him trying to trick her into lowering her guard to get the best of her.

And that was a risk Kitty knew she wasn’t stupid enough to take.

Fortunately for the feline, Bruce had taken plenty of worse wounds from a myriad of unfavorable characters, ranging from the occasional mob rallying to drive a ‘violent, mindless Troll’ from their borders; to poachers willing to get their hands dirty to acquire valuable teeth, claws, and bones from Bruce. 

“Well, regardless; sorry I gave ye a bit of a start,” the Troll said, leaning away to the side on all fours, unobtrusively, with some attempt at conveying his disinterest in a violent clash. “Reckon I’ve got a bad habit of accidentally sneakin’ up on people.” An abashed albeit toothy grin swept across his lips as Bruce raised a claw to wipe the tiny dots of bramble-berry black blood from the cut on his wide snout. 

“I don’t reckon you know where I am? I’m ‘fraid I’ve gotten a bit turned ‘round a few miles back. Can’t really tell the direction of the sun with the overcast,” Bruce asked, without going into too much detail. Judging from the stranger’s first words, she didn’t appear to be someone who would jump at the opportunity to hear Bruce’s sob story of finding a home and a bridge and a community what not. 

[fairybr4t]

Hey just so you know someone IS trying to get people to troll you they post your account in a trolling group on fb it’s really pathetic they are like obsessed with your blog and talk about how you did something to their boyfriend or something like that.

okay but how do you know about this?? you sound just as suspicious tbh. like i genuinely can’t tell if this real or not because of how ridiculously stupid it sounds. this sounds like something a bunch of 13 year olds would do and last time i checked i didn’t do anything wrong to a bunch of middle schoolers LMAO

[nerd4music]

I reacted to one of your post about the negative reaction TOWL had gotten from some people because it was its own show and not TWD S12 and the basic comprehension problem that is happening etc etc.

The show ended a few weeks ago now and I still have some TWD/TOWL stuff pop up on my timeline and a lot of it leaves me just ????? Because it‘s people having these big eureka moments about any and every scene of the show and I genuinely can’t tell if it’s a case of sarcasm not coming through? Or are they really having these big revelations? And that last option is almost scary to me because you needed several weeks after this scene happened (/the whole show happened so you had all and every context possible) to reach this conclusion…which is honestly just understanding what happened in the scene?? Because there’s no analysis or interpretation or or or happening here..you just realized what happened in the scene, that’s lt. It’s like they spend the whole scene telling you this is a table and it took you several weeks to go, OMG I finally figured this scene out, it’s a freaking table!!

The way I stay perplexed at those tweets. Atp I cannot tell anymore if it’s people trolling or if they are being genuine 😬

Real talk, it's probably a combination of being obnoxious and obtuse. A lot of people do not like or even understand the stuff they're watching, they're simply watching it because everyone else is. So they're not paying attention to the themes or the actual story. Plus, trolling and stupidity as engagement farming is basically what a good 80% of what twd fandom, esp on twt is made up of, now. If they're not antagonizing, they're not getting the numbers.

In between the nonsense though, there are some genuinely good and interesting thoughts and I think it's cool when people point out parallels or bits they missed on a first watch. The meta, at least here on tumblr, has been good to read through. But yeah, the comprehension is...something.

[trilies]

copying a reply i've given before: As someone who was there from ground zero: It literally all started because some rando thought it was cringe. Literally that. They picked a single dumb comic panel, whined about it on twitter, and it picked up speed from there. But it’s not enough to just…. not like a thing. There’s no *clout* in that. So you had a whole bunch of people starting to spew homophobic bullshit, but hiding it underneath fake ass concern trolling. Because wish fulfillment from a queer artist living in a queerphobic country is, uh. “bad representation”. That a lot of the “ironic” homophobia looked a whole lot like the genuine article was something a lot of people tried really hard not to think about. Also added into the mix were a LOT OF TRANSPHOBES who were really psyched to spread their bullshit rhetoric. Lots of “real men don’t like stuff like this” (very “no fats no femmes” on grindr of them) and “this is fujoshi bait” or OUTRIGHT calling the creator a woman As a note, the creator is a trans man. Even now, a lot of the arguments against it are literally just “he’s fetishizing queer men”, which is an interesting thing to say about a trans man. Of course, when you ask them just what that means, they go weirdly quiet. No one wants to admit that they sucked shit straight from terf ass. And that’s not all. Because cringe and accusations of bad representation are still not enough for the clout hungry. so some dedicated haters dug NEARLY A DECADE BACK just so that they could find some shit. Ironically, the shit they found, they only found because the creator had already apologized for it before the shitstorm was even a bubble. You’ll find that the detractors often like to frame it as much more recent matters than they are, because, again, this all happened near decades ago There’s two main things 1. He said a racial slur For context, he was quoting that one Free! meme video series on youtube, and was a non-english speaking teenager. Like, this is context (just like how long ago this happened, and his apology) that detractors like to mysteriously leave absent in their explanations. (Fun fact, when this was all first blowing up, I kept hearing vaguely about the slur usage and was like “Wow that seems way more important than the stupid cringe shit”. And when I finally tracked down someone with a screencap using it as proof of what a horrible person he was….. It was literally the screencap including the creator apologizing. So it was never about genuinely caring about racism.) 2. He drew RPF of BTS members once. ….While being younger than them. …Which he also apologized for when he grew up and felt he’d overstepped boundaries. He went on to delete his posting of the comic, although it continues to live on in part because the haters saved it and keep spreading it around. All of that are the excuses people like to use as they literally tell him they hope his plane crashes tldr People hate it because they can’t just Not Like A Thing, they have to make it a moral panic, no matter what lies they have to make in the process, and now they’re puppets for bigots.

Why do people hate the boyfriends webcomic and the creator so much? I know people say the creator's fetishizing queer relationships but like, I remember he's gay and trans so I'm pretty sure that's not the case, I also checked his carrd and there's nothing about him being a proshipper like someone said. And I thought it was obvious that the characters were supposed to be stereotypes, so it's not like the creator was hiding it from people.

[ganymedesclock]

Tangenting off the last post, basically what I dislike about power fantasies is that I think it can be really tempting to give your favorite character / the main character in a story a bunch of advantages, and I won't deny anybody can have their power fantasy and eat it too- it's an old staple for a reason and it'll probably long outlast me. We all, sometimes, want to see a character we love do something really cool.

But.

For me, personally, I think a lot of the stories I'm drawn to or try to recreate work better by having dense ensemble casts who are kind of in lockstep with each other- not all on the same page or powers, but I've never liked contexts that rely too heavily on Stormtrooper Marksmanship or other ways where the 'extras' have to take an unrealistic competence nerf to make the heroes stand out.

I like the unpredictable factor that even if you're the chosen hero of some-or-such, and frighteningly overpowered, raiding a base with ten Ordinary Guys, that each of those ordinary guys can be a threat to you, especially if they gang up- that there's no level of power that outright trivializes the Little Guys. To me, I think this makes it feel more earned if and when the hero does something cool, because you know it wasn't effortless.

In general, as a writer and as a reader, I like stories where people don't necessarily all feel idealized, but everyone comes off like they have a realistic amount of capability to find their butt in a dark room. Even if a character is being highly ineffectual, if they actually have a character reason for it, it sticks what point I'm actually trying to make about them clearer. 

In the short-term, it might feel satisfying if a pompous noble who's suspicious of a main character is just a complete idiot who doesn't know what's going on because he's stupid, and he's surrounded by people who flatter a wholly imagined intellect- but I think it's a lot more realistic and speaks more to his actual character flaws if the noble is genuinely intelligent and perceptive- just self-satisfied and vain.

And this kind of stuff can turn malicious fast, or feel like it’s in bad taste. The attitude of “yes, you’re RIGHT, every person who doesn’t immediately flatter your sensibilities about what’s important is actually a vapid idiot who’ll never have any insight or perception you need to care about” is a very bad way to manage your bit part characters. It cheapens your hero, no matter how cool, to being the lowest common denominator- is this guy actually worth respecting or is he just the only guy who isn’t “weird”, “gross”, “stupid” or all of the above? If Our Hero is worth telling a story about, they would remain worth it if everybody else also had interest and depth, right?

I’m certainly not saying everybody else has a moral imperative to give every bit part character an internal plot and characterization and history that may never see the light of day because they’re ultimately here to tell somebody the baker was attacked by the troll mafia or something, but it’s important to check yourself on how and in what ways you signal this character is “nobody important”.

If for nothing else, making your side characters and extras not at-a-glance distinguishable from your main characters due to giving everybody a general level of nuance and detail makes it that much easier to set up twists by putting important characters in a crowd and not having them all immediately stand out. You can’t play spot-the-protagonist if everyone has crazy yugioh hair!

[peacerisendove]

EPISODE 58

HERE’S A PLAY BY PLAY OF ME READING THIS EPISODE.

Me: “Oh, okay so they DID have sex.“

Me:

-SCREECHES AT BIG ETHEL ENERGY-

I FUCKING KNEW HOW DARE THEY

I KNEW HE WAS ASEXUAL/AROMANTIC!!!! HOW DARE THEY STRING US ALONG THIS STUPID NOT-MYSTERY FOR 58 EPISODES. YOU COULD HAVE DONE THIS SO MUCH BETTER!!!  -AAAAAAAAHHHHHH-

WE FUCKING BEEN KNEW!!!!!!

GOD. I LOVE ACE/ARO JUGGIE, BUT THIS TONE THAT EVERYTHING IS ABSOLUTE OKAY AFTER 58 EPISODES (AND WHO KNOWS HOW MANY YEARS IN THE STORY).

Re: The Trula being an exception shit - I’m willing to look past with skepticism because being ace/aro is not something that fits into a fixed set of parameters. Sexuality is fluid and how you experience differs between people. If Jughead is our only ace/aro (maybe demi?) then his representation of asexuality/aromanticism feels kinda iffy if you’re depict him as having an exception. It feels like his character is playing into the very thing you say he’s unhappy with. You’re displaying him and his sexuality as having “found the right person,” which (I’m only asexual so I can’t definitely speak for the aromantic experience) feels so incredibly insulting.

Though they also don’t explicitly state he’s asexual or aromantic which sucks. Do better Big Ethel Energy. Why are you afraid to say it???

BUT GOD YOU’RE JUST SWEEPING IT UNDER THE RUG NOW IT’S DONE LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER PLOT POINTS!!! (Ex: DILTON BEING THE INTERNET TROLL/BULLY (They treated you so bad Dilton, my boy. Honey you did not deserve that), VERONICA’S CHEATING!) YOU’RE SWEEPING UNDER THE RUG.

I am glad there is communication and that they handled it so maturely. But they both spent YEARS feeling a certain way. If I was Ethel and saddled with the emotional baggage due to someone’s treatment of me I would not be over it so fast.

I genuinely appreciate these panels.

But it also feels so wipe-my-hands over and done with. I’m also still a bit bitter that asexuality and aromanticism was a ~mystery~ plot point and was the REASONING WHY JUGHEAD WAS ACTING SO COLD THIS ENTIRE TIME. If you’ve been following along with my read along/rants you know that I think that using his sexuality as the reasoning for his behavior feels reductive. Though, I guess with how Jughead states that he deals with people telling him, “You just haven’t met the right person,” when it comes to romance I understand that he would act irritated by it all or cold to justify his behavior, but I also can’t since he’s been portrayed as acting cold toward the people who only show him romantic interest not those who are dismissing his feelings.

Yeah, no, I’m going back to my original opinion that how they handled this could have been a lot better. They made him cold and crotchety because of his sexuality. That’s not good.

This plot point could been handled so much sooner.

...And honestly does Jughead’s dislike of Ethel actually make any sense? Guy’s my brain is bouncing about as I think about this. They had sex, he found out he wasn’t interested in anyone sexually or romantically, and then he proceeds to avoid her and get pissy at her when she returns home? No, his initial dislike of her makes no sense. Even if you spin it as she reminds him of that time/he has some sort of lingering frustration toward the event of them having sex. It just doesn’t fit right. Emotions can be irrational/misdirected, but I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. And if that was the intention it’s portrayal has missed the mark.

I feel that the writer PLAYED this UP for the tension. His initial reaction toward Ethel in this series makes no sense.

ALSO TRULA FUCKING KNEW???? I’m glad she didn’t say anything cause he wasn’t out, but she also didn’t fucking help with stringing this along. Like I know keeping your nose out of things isn’t good for plot progression, but I’m just ‘Hmmm“-ing how Trula handled it. She can absolutely be a flawed character/ unreliable narrator. NO one has to be perfect in this comic, but I don’t know something with how Trula’s information was handled or presented doesn’t sit right with me.

Alright, so yeah. That’s it for me reacting to this episode. Jughead and how they treated his character was my emphasis for reading this long, so now I wonder what I’ll latch onto next. Maybe if there’s more info or mystery about Ms. Grundy (making her a lesbian was a phenomenal idea 10/10), but I don’t think so? We got answers there, but it also didn’t feel like a finish plot line.

This webcomic feels like a jumble. Anyway that’s it for my ranting this episode.

My personal highlight of the episode: Jughead has an undercut/shaved sides which I like aesthetically.

If you want some straight up good representation of asexuality and aromanticism please check out Jughead 2015.

Also here’s a collection of screenshots of Juggie being ace and aro from the comic if you want to take a look and see what the comic is like. I can’t recommend another comic more highly than Jughead 2015.

[anamericangirl]

Americans to non Natives? Is it still racist to say if he was right? Is it always racist to question, even if your suspicions are correct? Or are people just never supposed to say anything because on the chance they're wrong suddenly they're a racist now?

I can’t tell if this is a genuine question or you’re actually trolling.

It is racist to question Native ancestry just by simply looking at them. That’s our entire point. The entire point is that he didn’t show any other substantial evidence for his “doubts”.

As an American, you should be aware of how Native ancestry works because I’m assuming you took a basic history class and I’m sure Trump knew this too ( unless he didn’t and you’re defending a complete moron which would be true either way )

So if you’re aware of how Native ancestry works and how it’s approved, why didn’t he take this into account and actually provided some solid evidence for his claim. Because simply going off “They don’t look Indian” is the most laughable thing I’ve ever heard. It sounds racist because it is. If you know anything about Native American history, you would know why and how that was a tactic that was used to erase Natives.

Yeah I get you're saying it's racist to question Native American ancestry or be wrong about how it works but it's not. Racism is making derogatory remarks usually based on the idea that they are inferior because of their race. It's not questioning something or being wrong.

Like this isn't even about how Native American ancestry works. If you're stupid enough to think Trump was claiming ancestry is determined by how people look then you're too stupid to have this conversation. We're not even talking about people who had been determined to have Native ancestry through a tribe.

Explaining how Native American ancestry works doesn't make any point against anything I said because that's not what this situation is about.

And, once again, people don't need to have substantial evidence to make a fucking observation. You all are so dumb.

[ryozoro]

Hades Playlist - ii.

NOW PLAYING: Vampire [Dominic Fike]

cw; nothing really, very small mentions of manipulation and murder

an: SORRY FOR THE LATE UPLOAD , THINGS GOT BEHIND SCHEDULE :(

“The curious are always in some danger. If you are curious, you might never come home.” – Jennette Winterson

She couldn’t get him off her mind; ever since she met him, all her thoughts have led back to the droopy eyes and the slick back hair that seemed a lot softer than what the gel presented it as. The whole idea of her thoughts tracing back to the eldest of the Haitani’s and her heart beats mimicking each time the octave of his voice dropped with every word he spoke to her, made yn almost forget all the rules her big brother placed when it comes to men.

Why does she yearn to be in the presence of someone who would not hesitate to take her life for a laugh amongst his gang? Why does she want to run into the back allies of each street in hopes of accidentally bumping into him? Why isn’t she able to use common sense and erase the memory of him out of her head? Why does she feel like fate has strung their paths together on purpose? Why – you know what? Maybe she latched onto Ran so fast in hopes of forgetting someone else that continued to plague her mind daily. Maybe she is becoming obsessed with idea of someone not seeing her as a kid. That has to be it, right? Ran, ‘Tani-Senpai,’ shares the same interest and even wants to talk to her later as if they have been old friends. That has to be it —

“Yn!” her brother’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Are you okay, ya idiot?” She took note that everyone at the table was staring at her, waiting for her to answer Draken’s question. “You’ve been spacing out since we got here,” Draken frowned as he plucked a piece of food from her plate, “are you sure that nothing happened on your bike ride to the shop?”

“If you were riding to the shop, I would have gladly picked you up,” Inupi chimed in with a soft smile. “I told you to treat me like I’m another older brother.”

“Hm,” yn hummed while avoiding eye contact with the blonde man, “wanted to surprise my troll of a brother and I figured you were off because its Tuesday.”

“Ah,” Inupi gently laughed as he watched her play with her food, “you remembered my schedule?”

Of course, she remembered his schedule. Yn knew almost everything about him; from the origins of his beautiful burn mark to his favorite snack in the vending machine back at the shop, yn knew and fell in love with it all. Draken always teased her about being in love with Mikey or Hakkai since she always seemed relaxed around them, but little did he know that his little sister was in love with his best friend and business partner.

“I’m honestly shocked that you kept it the way you did,” yn side-eyed him as she raised the other hand to pick at the bandages that wrapped along the underside of her jaw, “but at the same time, I’m not that shocked considering old people love to stick to their schedules. Wouldn’t want you straining your back, Oji-chan.”

Inupi laughed – God, she loved that laugh - whole heartedly to the point he began choking on his food. Of course, sitting with their friends and family, Inupi’s contagious laugh spread amongst the others and the people around them either ignored it very well or gave them silent glares in hopes they would stop; surprise, they did not. Hell, if anything, it got worse – so much worse – to the point that Mikey, Takemichi, and Chifuyu all fell out of their chairs.

“I – what did I say that was so funny?” yn pouted as she fished her phone out of her pocket, “I just called him the old man he was.”

“That’s why, brat,” draken flicked her forehead and chuckled, “we had made a few bets on what you would say when Inupi had talked to you. Surprisingly, Mitsuya guessed you would have called him a grandpa.” Draken and the others proceeded to give Mana’s big brother 200 yen as they got up off the floor and calmed down.

“So, Yn,” Takemichi looked her in the eyes with a dopey flushed face.

“Watch it ‘ Mitchy,” Kazutora playfully warned, “don’t wanna embarrass the poor girl since she just got back.”

“What is it, crybaby,” she asked hesitantly as she scanned over his face, noting signs of mischief lurking in the corners of his smile. “It better not be something stupid, or else I’m telling Hina-san about what you did last time you came over to the shop.”

“Oi, you’re so mean – just like your brother,” Takemichi pouts and fans his hands towards you, “but it’s just a simple question, neh.”

Yn enjoyed Takemichi’s presence more than someone from an outside point of view would have thought. He always served as a hero in her eyes as he saved Mikey from the dark path he began to walk and how he constantly reminded her brother on how much his deceased lover, Sano Emma, watches over him and guides him to all the good things that happens in his life. He was an amazing guy and one that she wished had set her expectations for her taste in men, but her heart yearns for those who are completely out of her grasp.

“Just ask or else I’m calling Hina-san,” yn smirked as she brought her phone screen into view for Takemichi to see that “Hina-san <3” contact was pulled up and only one press away from being dialed.

“Oh, you bully!” Takemichi sighed dramatically, “I was just going to ask how long you have been into gilfs?” Draken choked on his drink and Pah-chin was patting his back in hopes of easing the rough coughs. Everyone at the table began to cause even more ruckus with tears of laughter as yn sat there dumbfounded.

“w-what,” she scratched her head and looked around the table in hopes of someone taking note of her clear ignorance at the word that Takemichi had claimed her to be attracted to. Since no one answered, she decided to speak on her own, “what the hell is a gilf?” Much to yn’s dismay, the table went silent for a brief second before bursting out into an even louder fit of laughter. “Well?! What the hell is it?”

“Yn, love,” Smiley spoke between hiccups and giggles, “it’s the same thing as a Dilf or Milf, but for old people.” After he finally finished his sentence, he leaned against his twin and laughed even harder.

“I-,” yn stood up and threw her dirtied napkin and spoon at the man who made the joke, “I’m not attracted to gilfs you fuckin idiot.” Yn moved behind Takemichi and put him in a headlock, “what made you even think to say that ya CD sellin’ pervert.”

“Oi,” Draken said from above her, “let ‘Mitchy go or else I’m taking you back all the way to Fukurodani and asking them to volunteer you for the summer school tutoring.” Yn dropped her arms in defeat and made her way back to her seat. “And you,” Takemichi looked up at her brother with a teary-eyed smile, “go clean your hair up before your wedding. It’s in three days and anyone can tell you pick at your split ends during your down time at work.” Draken laughed as Takemichi’s expression turned into a pout and he began punching Draken’s solid abdomen.

“Oh,” Angry stood up abruptly, “yn, could I see ya outside really quick?” Despite his rough tone, everyone knew he was asking in the kindest way possible.

“Yeah, sure,” yn got up with a pout and made her way to the exit with Angry trailing her with a hand on her mid-back. She was confused as to why they went outside at such a fast pace, but she just assumed that Angry wanted peace and quiet away from the others. “So,” yn smiled at the younger twin, “what did you – why is your face angrier than usual?” She titled her head at the man but he was quick to grab her hand and guide her towards his bike.

“Hop on,” he straddled the seat and waited for her to do the same, “don’t worry, Draken texted me to take you back to me and Nahoya-nii’s shop. So… hurry up, please.” Souta stopped her right before she got on and placed a helmet on her head, “safety first because I’ll hurt you if you get hurt,” he said as he proceeded to adjust the straps enough to keep her safe and comfortable. “Get on, Princess,” he kicked up the kick stand and took off fast out the parking spot.

“So – uh,” yn spoke aloud as they arrived at a stop light, “why did nii-chan tell ya to take me to the shop… I wasn’t done eating.” She felt her stomach rumble and she pressed her cheek to Angry’s leather cladded shoulder blade and readjusted her grip on his waist as they began moving towards the backroads to get to the Kawata’s Ramen shop.

“I’ll make you a bowl when we get there,” he relaxed his upper body so yn wasn’t laying against hard muscles, “and we left because everyone kept staring at you.”

“Psh,” yn rolled her eyes, “they were staring because I am a strong, independent woman who managed to put a MAN in a headlock like a bad bi-.”

“Enough of your ‘bad bitch’ talk, I believe you, but I promise you that was not the reason.” Angry spoke through a breathy laugh, “the cook and the table in the corner was kept looking over you. Don’t you think it was weird how when they brought our orders out and Draken said your rice was missing an egg and the cook came out and apologized himself?”

Yn pondered on the question for a bit but then shook her head gently and nuzzled inbetween the center of Angrys’s back, “no, to be honest, I thought that the cook just hates when he messes up. It can’t be that deep, yanno? Oh! Maybe they mistook me as an idol?” She felts Angry’s laugh bubble from his chest to his shoulder blades; Souta’s laugh honestly made her feel like her jokes were genuinely funny to listen to.

“Hate to break it to you,” Angry brought the bike to a gentle stop as the arrived towards the ramen shop, “but you don’t present yourself as the ideal image of the idol you probably think you are.” Yn joined Souta in the small fits of laughter as she gently punched him in his side.

“Oh, shut up,” she let out a soft breath as she hopped off and carried the helmet with her as she made her way to the employee back door. “Open up, yeah? ‘M reeeeeally hungry.”

“Already ahead of you, ya dumb brat,” Angry bumped his hip gently against yn’s and unlocked the door and pushed her inside. They placed their helmets and jackets off in the staff room and made their way towards the kitchen where she sat at bar stools and Angry started up the stove to boil a few eggs and moved to chop up some green onions. “You want beef or chicken, idiot?”

“Sheesh, souta-kun, if ya wanted to marry me – just say that,” Yn teased as she propped her head onto her two hands, “your terms of endearment have been getting sweeter and sweeter by the minute~ but! I do want chicken please, been not feelin like eating cow and pigs lately.”

“Yer annoying,” angry threw a small, chopped onion at her, “in your dreams I’d marry you. Plus, I KNOW I’m not your type. You go for mechanics with burn marked boys that work with your brother -,”

“OKAY, NOT NEEDED,” Yn pressed her face to the counter, “asshole… He’s my type, but I’m not his. He’s like, Makima and I’m Denji… please tell me you understand that because it’s the best I got.”

“I understand it, and I just want to say that that is the most tragic thing I have heard from you in a while – oh, but back to the restaurant,” Angry said as he slid a small chocolate mochi from out the freezer and towards yn on a cute, small plate, “there was a customer who went into the back the second he heard that your order was wrong. I thought it was weird because what cook comes out that frightened when they get someone’s order wrong, but then your brother texted me saying that every man there had their eyes on you as if they were in charge of watching your every move. At first, Hakkai noticed some of the men sporting a ‘Bonten’ tattoo on their wrist, so we thought maybe they were after Mikey, but then Mitsuya texted us when he went to the bathroom that he heard some of the guys saying your name. Once that was said, Draken immediately told me to take you away from there… I do have a question for you though.” Angry began whipping up the ramen in the most tasteful way and side-eyeing the young ryuguji, “did you by chance get into it with a few Bonten member’s when you first got here? Is that why you’re all bandaged up?”

“Souta,” yn felt her heartbeat pick up but remained composed, “nothing happened with what ever ‘Bonten’ members… you know how weird some gangs are…”

“I trust you, brat,” Angry’s frown deepened once he noticed that the eggs were ready to be cut and the chicken was ready to be fried, “I just don’t want to lose another family member, okay? We babies have to stick together.” With that, he paid no mind to the situation, making a small mental note to tell Draken that one of the members there probably just thought yn was pretty. “Oh,” Souta looked back at yn, “one more thing.”

“Y-yeah, of course,” yn snapped her eyes to meet his gaze, nervous that he might have picked up on the fact that she lied about not coming into contact with any members when she first arrived, “what’s up stinky?”

“Just be careful,” Angry passed her a water bottle, “don’t trust anyone who isn’t in our toman family; especially not a Bonten member. He’ll take you in, manipulate you into believing you can’t live without him, and sell you off with no cares in the world. That is, if you’re lucky enough not to be killed in the middle of the street for entertainment.” Souta turned back around to finish up the ramen.

“Yeah,” yn felt a chill go down her back, “I’ll be careful… I promise.” She honestly didn’t know how to feel, after all, she just met with the man who presented her with an unrequited love, another man who made her heart yearn to lurk into the depths of the shadows, and someone whom she considered family just told her that one of those men would lead her onto a road of misfortune. Lost in her thoughts, she felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. She pulled on it and felt her stomach drop as she was greeted with two notifications.

Draken bacon >:D : You okay kid? We’re heading to the restaurant right now, ‘m sure nothing was wrong – just wanted ya to be safe. me and inupi there in a bit, the other boys are getting stuff together for our dinner tonight. don’t annoy angry too much <3

Tani-senpai <3: why did you leave so soon pretty girl? Didn’t mean to alarm you, but I sent your picture to quite a few of my juniors and underlings, delinquents if you will – just wanted them to know not to touch what isn’t theirs. N e Wayz, I have time now, do you want to call now?

Were the gods telling her to remember her caring brother’s rules on men or to listen to faint voice of curiosity that lingered in her young and ignorant mind?

Previous Song | Playlist | Next Song

Taglist: @richiyo @haitanigigi @chifuyusprincess

ryozoro©

[arctichotch]

that anon isn't telling you "listen so you can be convinced" they're telling you put your biases aside when you do listen. Cuz you don't. you say you've engaged civilly but I honestly can't remember seeing it once? It's always shooting the other person down immediately. You only look up evidence that supports your theory, and look at everything through this lens of "I'm right and they're wrong" and so of course literally everything depp supporters say will sound stupid, because it doesn't support what you already believe. like that anon never said believe what depp supporters say, they just said LISTEN without the intent to shut it down just because you don't believe it. I really don't know how they could make it clearer?

i’ve talked to many depp supporters civilly, not really on anon though. always has been in replies to posts/in dms/twitter. anon asks have been like a magnet for trolls like 90% of the time and the other 10% has been dumb ass points that make absolutely 0 sense.

i just am so fucking confused as to how me supporting amber, and seeing clear evidence to back up this, is equal to me being bias or “only looking up evidence that supports my theory.” i just don’t get that. because yeah if i believe that amber heard was abused, like many others, i’m not going to be saying “oh but this piece of evidence shows she could be lying” because i do not believe she’s lying.

not everything depp supporters say is stupid. some of them do have some points where i look at it and see how they have come to their conclusion. yet if you dig a bit deeper into it, like many need to, you can see the whole truth/the full context of it (e.g., the tell the world tape)

like, once again, i have listened. repeatedly. but if someone is being outright hostile/making genuinely unbelievable accusations, i’m going to shut it down??? they’re sending pro-depp “evidence” to a pro-heard blog, what do they expect? do they want me to sit back and mindlessly agree with them?? like i don’t go out looking for stupid reasons to shut them down, i base it on genuine facts, as i have always been clear about. i have no bias, not towards amber, not against johnny, not for/against women/men.

i just find it incomprehensible how me being sure on my stance, not believing e.g., that the uk judges were corrupt and the jury was 100% correct etc., makes me in an echo chamber or have a bias.

i’ve been talking about this whole thing for like 2.5 months, so yeah i’m pretty sure on my views. but i’m yet to see any concrete argument as to why amber heard was not a victim. literally none. that’s not me being bias or in an echo chamber or whatever else you want to say, that’s literally just how it is. i can’t look at people saying amber paid her witnesses or the uk judges were liars and believe that without doing some major tin foil hat thinking.

so if i compare this to another case e.g., chris brown/rihanna. do i have a bias or in an echo chamber for being unwilling to believe the “evidence” from those who support brown? because i know he’s an abuser and that he abused rihanna. so am i biased for refusing to believe the opposite? same goes with any other situation similar to depp/heard.

like i just don’t get it. people are voluntarily sending me stuff on anon, that are often times wild theories that i can’t see any logic to without really stretching my brain and believing amber heard is some evil, conniving woman who strived to take down johnny depp from the day she met him. i’m not going to sit back and genuinely consider that because i know it’s bullshit. but if someone comes at me with genuine evidence as to why they believe what they believe and are civil, like many have in replies/dms etc. i’ll engage in a discussion with them, and consider their evidence.

[wandering-soul-1993]

I lost a follower today… …not that I had that many to begin with

Greetings! Welcome to another episode of “Random Thoughts from the Author’s Brain.”

Once again, I appreciate those of you who take the time to read my post; thank you for your time. As always, I hope I can help at least one person feel not so alone. This post is NOT and NEVER WILL BE a jab at the Vampire Chronicles fandom, my mutuals, or anyone else who stumbles across my blog. The VC fandom is one of the most welcoming and fun groups of people I’ve ever been a part of (trolls excluded). Everything discussed below is all internal.

TL/DR: You are perfect just the way you are and your worth is not based on the number of followers/likes/comments/reblogs/shares you have on social media. Stay your perfectly imperfect self!

The reason I started this post the way I did is that noticing I was down a follower brought back a whirlwind of negative emotions ranging from inadequacy to incompetence; feelings I’ve been dealing with since I was in middle school. It wasn’t even someone in the Vampire Chronicles fandom who quit following me!  I’ve been on Tumblr for a grand total of three months and I’ve already received an achievement for liking 1500 posts. I don’t know if that’s an accomplishment or a cry for help. What ends up happening is I compare myself to everyone else and start to feel like I’m not contributing enough to belong to the fandom. Crazy, right? Welcome to the world of General Anxiety Disorder. Social media isn’t the only aspect of my life that is affected by GAD. In a nutshell, I try so hard to be someone I’m not that it ends up backfiring. I stop being my genuine self and people can tell, IRL and on the internet. Here’s an example: I don’t read the VC books—or any book for that matter—for analytical purposes; I read them as an escape from reality, so I don’t have a lot of meta to share at this point simply because that’s not the mindset I have while reading. Instead of enjoying the meta that other creators have shared and sharing my headcanons and other thoughts as they pop up, my anxiety ladened brain tells me that I’m not a true fandom member because I don’t do something like someone else. Believe me, some days it can be overwhelming and sometimes crippling. It completely takes all the fun out of fandoms, books, the very few public events I attend, and my friends can pick up on it as well. (Sidenote: learning to cope with GAD is a lifelong adventure with good days and bad days. A bad day does not equal a bad life. If you find it difficult to move forward, at the very least, please don’t go backward.)

In real life, I am as introverted as they come. When I was in college, my psych professor did an introvert/extrovert test and told us that statistically there would be one person on either end of the spectrum. Guess who was the introverted outlier. The point I’m trying to make is that my real social circle is a small group of close-knit friends and family, so why do I get myself worked up when my internet life is different? Part of it goes back to those feelings of inadequacy I mentioned earlier. I’m not saying my generation started the fanfiction craze, but I personally have been writing cringeworthy stories and unholy ships since the sixth grade waaaay back in 2005-ish. (fun fact: Pirates of the Caribbean was my very first fandom). My writing, thankfully, has improved greatly since then and I hope to one day become a published author; in the meantime, every time I post something on Tumblr or the two stories I have now on AO3, my stomach churns. What if people don’t like it? What if they think it’s stupid? What if I’m laughed out of the fandom or off the internet? None of that ever happens. I am humbly and graciously thankful for the positive reception and feedback my writing has received.

The lesson here is a simple one: it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. You can’t please everyone; some people won’t like you or what you create. That does not make you worthless or a failure. The number of followers does not equal your worth; neither do the number of likes, shares, or reblogs you get. Don’t let anxiety steal your joy.

This is a lot, I know. It’s hard for me to come on here and spill my guts, but the thing is, I wish I had someone to tell me this when I was a teenager and in my early twenties. I wish had someone who reminded me that I was good enough, more than good enough, regardless of my social media presence. I’m lucky to have a fairly supportive family now (they haven’t always been). Don’t get me wrong, I butt heads with my parents often; they don’t understand why I have tattoos and like all things dark and spooky, but now that they realized this isn’t a phase, they didn’t try to change me anymore or force me to be someone I’m not. Not everyone is so fortunate.

So please, let me be the person who tells you that you are perfect as you are. Whatever it is that you like, whatever your niche is, own it. Don’t let anyone try to change you. If you have those people around you, friend, life is too short for that negativity. Having anxiety, depression or other mental health problems does not make you less than. You are not alone if you’re struggling with it. If anyone ever needs a place to talk or just vent about living with anxiety or depression, my inbox is always open. You are worth more than those numbers. I promise you that the world is better with you in it.