#arguably it makes me more aware of the accusations

[dumblr-account]

Orange Side Theory

So I’ve been trying to think about what this Side can represent that no other Side has quite embodied. I knew it couldn’t be Anger; a, that’s more of a feeling than a personality aspect, and b, we’ve seen plenty of other Sides get angry (i.e. Roman, Janus, obv Logan)!

Then I thought it could relate to Thomas’ feelings for Nico, since that arc and the Orange buildup arc has been quite intertwined thus far! So I tried to think of aspects that could relate to those things: Desire, Jealousy, Lust. But none of these quite fit either, since Roman has been a common source for such feelings for Thomas in the past! Someone on YouTube even suggested that this new Side might be Irrationality, but that is also a part of Roman’s package as the ego!

Then it hit me. Out of everything we seen from the Sides thus far, we never really seen a Side that blames others. Most of the Light Sides blame either Thomas himself for issues (Logan reprimanding him for not making a schedule, Patton and Virgil accusing him of wanting to do Remus’ ideas) or blame some other Side(s) (Roman is especially guilty of this habit). Even Janus and Remus, who act like they don’t care about other people, are sooner to point fingers at the other Sides for their repression than at external factors! The closest we get is Janus criticizing the concept of society, but he seemed more like he was attacking the system rather than the individuals participating in it!

The other closest to blaming others could be found in LOGAN of all people! In DWIT, while he concluded Virgil and Patton as the source of Thomas’ anguish, he also emphasized how Thomas’ childhood upbringing and religious education as the original reason why the split between the Creativitwins and the repression of Intrusive Thoughts happened in the first place! While this could arguably be critiquing a system rather than people, this felt more personal and specific compared to Janus’ “W E I N A S O C I E T Y” speech in SvS!

With all of this in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if this Orange Side will embody this “blaming others” aspect Thomas has been missing. After all, no matter how kind we think we are or try to be, every human feels angry with others every now and then. And it doesn’t help that Orange surfaced from Logan when Thomas started looking upset that Nico hasn’t texted back!

So what would be the name of this Side, if this is the case? My best guess is it would be Resentment. Other possible names are Judgement, Blame, Wrath, and Bitterness. If anyone else can think of other words that would fit this Side, by all means share down below!

I’m not sure if I’m even close to deducing what this Side would represent, but I just wanted to throw my two cents in before who knows when the finale will drop! That, and I’m low key tired of seeing the Anger theory.

Edit: I’m not saying Sides can’t encompass feelings! I’m aware Virgil embodies fear, and Patton is the core of many feelings! I just mean the feeling isn’t standardly the concept TITLE given to a Side! The closest we get is Virgil being called Anxiety, and even that feels more like a state of mind than just feeling anxious. Same with my Resentment Theory. I didn’t mean to antagonize anyone, emphasis on the “low key” part of my dislike for the Anger Theory. It just feels too on the nose for me, that’s all. I’m sorry for offending people.

[joyousmistake]

today i fucked up by listening to adam macintyre’s review of toxic gossip train and hummed it all day around a bunch of echolalilc autistic toddlers and now at least two are humming too. the internet was truly a mistake

[ressjeon]

storge: painting | myg

summary: you're busy preparing something for your one-two arguably little ones without thinking they'll do the same to you

rating: pg | word count: 0.8k

genre/au: slice of life, domestic!au, family!au

content: dad yoongles 🥺 and cute stuff (what is happening to me)

a/n: happy 30th birthday to the loml yoongi! finally posting a dilf drabble for him and posted on time. i suddenly wrote this out of nowhere after seeing some clips from the RUN episode last year because he's just a husband material oml i couldn't help it >.<

The smile hasn’t left your lips when you hear the bickering at a distance. 

You’re currently approaching the door right at the corner, carrying a tray of snacks and a pitcher to where the source of the noise is from. You knock as soon as you reach the door but they couldn’t seem to hear it because when you opened the door, your daughter and husband are still arguing in front of a canvas on the floor.

More like your baby girl complaining while Yoongi is purposefully being stubborn to tease her.

"daddy, come on, it's pretty easy" your toddler huffs as she tugs on Yoongi's rolled-up sleeve. Your husband’s wearing a yellow suede shirt, paired with a white one underneath that made you mildly concerned about getting dirty until he reassured you that he’d be careful. He’s wearing a long dark green canvas apron but even if it gets messy later on, he’d never mind so long as it makes his little girl happy. 

Your daughter’s little eyebrows are still scrunched together as she stares at her father's canvas. She seems to want him to paint a similar picture as hers, with bright colours closely depicting a flower garden. Your heart melts at what you’re seeing, Yoongi watching your daughter fondly while she tries to teach him how to paint like her.

The art supplies scattered around the covered floor that they're both on just add how beautiful what you’re looking at is. And now you know what to paint on your canvas.

You have to carefully mind your steps until you reach the table so you can place the snack tray you’re carrying.

It’s the weekend and you’re both thankfully off from work, allowing you and Yoongi to have a bonding time with your daughter. Every week, you let her pick on what activity you’re all doing as a family and this time its painting.   

"he's too lazy, mommy!" your daughter accuses, finger pointing at her father while holding a mini paint brush with her other hand. She’s pertaining to the plain hues of colour that Yoongi has been painting so far and it made you giggle. You approach his sitting form to see his progress so far. 

"not bad yoongs" you stare at his canvas of greys and blues with a teasing lilt in your tone making Yoongi pout.

"can you see my ruthless brush strokes? my plan was to only paint whatever comes to mind" he complains, lips puckering at your comment and it makes you laugh even more. 

.

"okay, break time for now" you called, unloading the snacks and a pitcher of pineapple juice. Your daughter immediately drops her brush and excitedly approaches you, having you remind her to be careful not to step on anything.

You handed her a glass of juice and a small slice of pajeon. 

"thank you mommy"

“ask daddy to get his share”

She hesitates a bit before calling for her Dad in which Yoongi replies with “i’m almost done baby”. 

He's getting lost in what he's doing again, similar to when he's working that you often have to remind him to get breaks.

“the hotteok’s gonna get cold Yoongi'' you playfully scold him, aware that he usually prefers to eat it quickly while it’s hot.

This got his attention and he eventually stands up, following his daughter to where you’re currently sitting. He grabs a bite and takes one fish-shaped bread after, humming when he tastes the red bean inside it. Of course, you have to make two flavours since he prefers that flavour while your daughter loves the custard cream filling like you do.

You help your daughter sit in her chair and move towards Yoongi next, bringing up his left arm to take off the hair tie from his wrist. He raises a brow at you, munching another piece of hotteok. 

“you’ve been moving your bangs a lot earlier, don’t want any paint on them” you smile, gathering his hair and pulling it back before securing it with the hair tie you’re holding. Yoongi's hair has been very luscious since he started growing it, and you've been doing your best to keep the scissors away.

However, you’re starting to regret doing so and your husband seems to notice it. Yoongi knows how you love his man bun, that little quirk of his lips stayed the entire time until he finished his glass of juice. 

He stands up to grab his apron to finish his own canvas, ignoring your flustered reaction. 

“mommy, come” your daughter breaks your reverie when her tiny hands reach for yours, dragging you to the empty canvas on her left side.

They've both gone quiet and are now focusing on their own canvases so you decide to do the same. You sat down and stare blankly at the canvas, forgetting what you wanted to paint when suddenly you feel strong arms caging you from behind.

Only then do you notice the paint streaks on your daughter's face, who's grinning widely while holding her small wood palette in her hand, fingers coated with paint as they reach out to your cheeks.

“your turn” Yoongi whispers beside you with his gummy smile, giving you a quick peck on the cheek before applying his paint-coated fingers to your other cheek.

In the end, you never get to paint anything on your canvas.

divider by: @cafekitsune 💕

[seriousbrat]

I know abt the shit that Snape stans say abt Lily, but what do Marauders stans say?

You mean negative stuff? Well a lot of it isn't really directly negative, it's more just that people need her out of the way so they can ship James with Sirius's rando little brother. Even though this is ridiculous because nothing is stopping anyone, but I think newer Marauders fans can often overcompensate because many view shipping/stanning as a moral act, so the fact that they obviously don't care about Lily makes them feel guilty lmao. In fact I think there's arguably a tendency among mainstream marauders fandom to be overly positive about Lily just in a way that lacks the consideration and complexity people give to their favourite male characters. Like yes she's a girlboss but what else? Well-written characters are supposed to have flaws and foibles balanced with strengths, that goes for women too.

So while making her out to be a traitorous she-devil is obviously something I dislike, I think it can go too far the other way too, where she's just a 'sweet lesbian girlie' happily dwelling in the background with no real problems or depth or protagonism of her own.

Lily's often made a background character in The Story of Regulus, at the service of the narrative needs of the male protagonists, and typically paired with a random female background character in a way that can feel like an afterthought and really just a convenient shunting aside of Lily's character masked by faux-progressiveness. Making a character queer isn't a replacement for giving them depth and nuance. It's especially grating when the same people accuse anyone who points this out of 'reducing Lily to being a mother' even though it's that section of fandom who often uses Lily as a surrogate/baby-making machine for the male characters, which is quite literally, in the most literal, biological sense possible, reducing her to being a mother lmao.

For the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with having Lily be a background character, or not using her at all, on an individual basis. (although I admit I find using her as a surrogate fairly appalling as a concept. but that's just me.) I myself have used her as a background character and paired her with Mary in Lippy Kids. Also, it's fandom and people are going to do whatever they want, it's not up to me to stop them and I wouldn't want to lol. I'm not going after individual people for doing this in their own writing.

As I've said before though, I believe it's worth pointing out in a general sense because it's such an overwhelming tendency. I think simply being aware of the fact that you and people around you centre men in life and art is a positive thing-- even if you don't actively do anything to change it, because sometimes talking and thinking about the issue can lead to it changing on its own. We all do this to some extent-- I recently went through my own fics and realised I have more male-pov fics than female. I'm not going to write anything purposefully to correct this because that wouldn't feel natural and it's not a huge issue on its own, but I'm just aware of it moving forward.

Looking through any marauders' era tag (even the jily tag rip) or ao3 categories/statistics, etc, gives you a pretty clear idea of who is prioritised by fandom and who is not. And the argument that Lily is too minor of a character to care about falls a bit flat when characters like Regulus, Barty, and Rosier are so much more popular in mainstream marauders fandom than she is.

Curiously I have seen Marauders fans use the same exaggerated criticisms of Lily that Snape fans do (viz. 'she was a terrible friend!!11' which is so ridiculous given none of these beloved male characters are winning friend of the year awards.*) AND I have seen plenty of Snape fans who are normal about Lily, either because they like her themselves or are just able to be objective about characters lol. So either way it's not a universal thing.

* arguably except regulus but his friend of the year award is because of what he did for kreacher, not james or sirius or barty or anyone else. and regulus stans never care about that. stop lily erasure but also on a minor, less relevant note, stop kreacher erasure

[tamamita]

This isn't an accusation of hypocrisy. But you run an 18+ blog, and you're openly bi. I thought open sexuality is generally seen as impermissible or forbidden (not that it's really stopped anyone)? Like I know there's a rich tradition of openly queer poets and whatnot in the Shi'a world, but those were arguably more secular times. Do you have authorities you look to who defend LGB(T) issues? I saw you recommend Ahlulbayt; aren't they pretty conservative on these grounds? Is it something personal like your own understanding of the Qur'an? Something else? This is a good faith question; like I'd like a resource for some less studious Muslims I know who are gay but believe there's no reconciliation with their faith. Sorry if you get this too much.

I am very well aware of the things I do, I mean, I'm a porn artist, that enough should entail a pretty significant transgression.

The point I'm trying to make is that Islam for me is fascinating, I find its history and tradition to be extremely interesting to me, especially as someone who was fostered in a Muslim household. It's obvious that I hold my religion dear, but there are a lot of things that compromise with my sense of morality, and no matter how much I study it, there's no way I can harmonize it with my sexual identity. Questions such as LGBTQ becomes a highly discussed topic, because it's obvious that no matter how you try to rationalize LGBTQ within an Islamic framework, it's impossible, given how clear the prohibition is in the Scripture.

While I may be a theist in a sense but with a strong adherence to Islamic religious identity, there are a lot of things strongly attributed to scripture that you must adhere to. Your moral objectivism is strongly shaped by Scripture, so you are forced to submit to the various laws, regulations and ideas that may contradict with your moral perception of the world. But I'm not here to take away peoples' happiness; I believe any LGBTQ Muslim, whether religious or spiritual can find peace in the religion, and whether that is a contradiction or not, you should not exclude them from their religion. Spirituality and religion are two different things at the end; religion is a personal matter. After all, Islam has many strong points and forms an important cultural and religious identity but archaic societal norms simply can't be upheld in a world that is rapidly developing and changing, and Muslims must come to terms that homophobia exists within their scripture, as is the case with all abrahamic manuscripts.

[cravingpepsimax]

Unintelligible rant:

Putting aside the fact that shipping does not reflect anyone’s morals or values and is not indicative of personal relationships (or at least shouldn’t be), it’s just fun to just explore these dynamics

If these people who get so mad about stancest shippers are mad because they think that means they’re actually into incest, what does they say about them and their tastes that they ship Billford, a canonically abusive, manipulative, hate filled relationship?

LEGIT LMAO

the funny thing is that antis that ship b1llford do… exactly what they accuse proshippers of doing? i’ve seen so much cute fluffy b1llford content made by antis, i’ve seen antis call things that were a part of bill’s abuse hot, and it’s like… guys, aren’t YOU the ones that claim to be against the romanticization of abusive dynamics? WHAT IS THIS IF NOT ROMANTICIZATION OF ABUSIVE DYNAMICS????

the truth is that many antis, as intense as many may act, don’t have any actual moral backbone. few years back, liking b1llford WAS considered proshipping. they don’t care about protecting others, they care about liking the morally correct thing.

this is one of the many reasons i stopped being an anti. honestly? to an extent, i still believe that shipping can have a negative impact on reality. there aren’t — and never will be — any studies specifically on the impact of shipping Problematic Things, so i’d hardly die on this hill, but the logic does make sense. if you’re in an abusive relationship, and you primarily consume media that says that behavior isn’t abusive, or that it’s hot or whatever, it makes sense that you wouldn’t really question it. especially if you’re a child.

but then i noticed that — despite what other antis were claiming — no one was acting like this was what they actually believed. in fact, quite the opposite! they’d harass and call proshippers pedophiles, despite that, one, calling someone a pedophile because of what ships they like being fucking insane, and two, proshippers — particularly ones with a fixation on adult x minor pairings — being victims themselves. accusing anyone of being a pedophile due to the ships they like is insane, but accusing a VICTIM of being a pedophile? because of what fictional characters they make kiss? that’s fucking evil. it certainly won’t get them to reconsider how healthy their coping mechanisms are — they’ll just double down.

and then, just. all the pieces started falling apart!

if antis care SO much about reducing harm, then WHY do they keep parroting the impossible solution of “oh, just make it all go away,” as if that’ll EVER happen? why do they never promote any form of like… shipping harm reduction??? like, i acknowledge the possible harm of shipping adult x minor pairings, but i still ship dipford. it’s not that i just don’t care, it’s because there are things you can do to minimize the possible harm. going “STOP IT!!!” does NOTHING.

why are abusive ships like b1llford suddenly okay now??

why is shipping incest bad — how could shipping two consenting, but related, adults actually be used in a harmful way??? if you’re trying to coerce someone into an incestuous relationship, you probably have more effective methods than shipping. arguing that shipping could be used to harm children makes sense, this is often done online and children are very susceptible. arguing that it can be used as a tool to normalize abuse to a victim is a stretch, but arguably still plausible, especially if it’s an online/long-distance relationship. but incest???? no! what???

i’ve seen some people argue that shipping incest can end up with you becoming attracted to family members, but like, 1. what the fuck that’s not how ANY of this works, and 2. that hardly seems like it’s on the same tier as “something that could be used to groom minors”.

just. none of it ended up making any sense?????? and then it hit me — whether they’re aware or not, they don’t actually care about the possible harm — they care about doing what is socially acceptable. that’s why it’s okay to ship b1llford now. because shipping abuse is now considered okay.

[beardedmrbean]

Zoomer Huey, I tend to see people saying why Gen z don’t have sex much.

Holy

Fucking

Shits

These journalists surprisedly have WORSE self awareness than there boomer relatives

Here a hint https://x.com/swannmarcus89/status/1762582001507323991?s=46

And gender dynamics are…nuked in the fields they are surveying. Women and girls are told that all men are predators and misandry is left unchecked

Also, why Hollywood act surprised about the sex abuse?

We all heard about the casting coach, and how suspiciously people from working class backgrounds like Micheal Jackson (yes his dad had his music connections. But essentially mj was a slave and was arguably was the first black child star unless I’m missing someone) and Walt Disney (though not as bad) are painted as monsters while the actual monsters are protected for decades

I mean look at Judy Garland, she was a sweet person and she did help the LBGT in Hollywood and supported the civil rights movement

But her “crazy” behavior makes more sense because she was sexually abused at a extremely young age

And she not the only one, Shirley Temple, the boy who played at the first LA Dennis the Manis

Oh and the Peter Pan actor (a lot of people leave out the part where ALL of Hollywood basically says he can choke and die because he was “too” Disney)

But sorry about the Gen stuff, but the false rape accusations, maybe if you guys didn’t view men (especially white ones) the same way Nazis viewed the Jews while saying all the working class men were Weinstein.

My Gen would have more sex

Entertainment industry has been like that since the beginning of forever, probably less so when women weren't allowed to participate but still a thing I'm sure.

As for Judy Garland it was nice to see people come out swinging in her defense when someone tried to start shit over well

She was not in control of her carer, saying no was not an option for her with this, but dumbasses that can only think in terms of today's standards never think about that.

Jay North (Dennis the Menace) did ok, so did Shirley Temple, plenty of others not so much, more recently we can look at Drew Barrymore and RDJ who both had fairly public meltdowns and problems.

Drew was ruined since her first film was ET and Spielberg takes care of the kids on set, going beyond the legal requirements.

Bobby Driscol was the Peter Pan VA top of his Wiki article.

Robert "Bobby" Cletus Driscoll (March 3, 1937 – c. March 30, 1968) was an American actor who performed on film and television from 1943 to 1960. He starred in some of the Walt Disney Studios' best-known live-action pictures of that period: Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1949), and Treasure Island (1950), as well as RKO's The Window (1949). He served as the animation model and provided the voice for the title role in Peter Pan (1953). He received an Academy Juvenile Award for outstanding performances in So Dear to My Heart and The Window.

He just fell into the child actor pit, where he wasn't "cute" anymore couldn't get gigs and couldn't adjust to not being in the spotlight, the way he went and nobody knowing is awful to think about still.

Jackie Coogan, on the other hand was a different story.

His parents sucked and as a result there's a series of laws named after him California's Coogan Law all about protecting the earnings of child actors from their parents. % goes into a trust iirc.

He ended up OK in the end though

The false accusation thing, #me too hurt women because #believe women was taken advantage of to such a degree that even this coming out to light

has still probably not cleared up for the trooper, and men are opting to not mentor women because of not wanting to risk a false accusation, everyone screams about how rare they are, to which I say so what, why should they assume the risk even if it's minor

Former VP Mike Pence came out and said he won't be alone with a woman that's not his wife in order to ensure that there is no possibility of someone making a claim of impropriety.

And he got this response

Why is anyone going to put their neck on the line when something like what he said is going to get this kind of response.

Maybe instead of crying about how rare false accusations are they should focus on shaming the people making them and coming up with solutions to keep them from happening.

You know instead of blaming the victims of the false accusations.

All this and so much more going on that isn't in this ask goes to the I don't blame people for not having as much sex, it's actually kinda nice too, fewer std's this way.

I went on a couple tangents, hope that's ok

[roxannepolice]

I guess brainrot over the idea of an ineffable husbands style tensimm kiss won't let me sleep so.

I think, leaving aside the general collective unconscious and David Tennant in a telepathic mode of transport, the main reason the dynamic hit as so similar is this kind of. Absolute versus relational morality? I mean, this is what's on the deepest level, because the most apparent aspect is the idea that one of these semi immortal entities believes the other can be kind of restored to the state of goodness? And not just this person specifically, I think Aziraphale in general and the Doctor mainly as Twelve tbh just have this worldview where good is somehow definite and in a way natural for the universe? Oh yes, Twelve will be making speeches about whether he's a good man but the very asking of such a question implies "good man" is something definite, something that one can be. And oh yes there may be villains and monsters but you know if we all just sat down and talked then sure everything could be figured out. And this is more obvious than ever in his attitude towards Missy, where y'know. She just never heard the music. Whatever that metaphor means. Just as Aziraphale assumes Crowley can just be restored to the angelic status, because sure it was just a misunderstanding right he means he's not actually evil right? In a sense, pre-time angelicness and childhood are parallel in that they both assume a mind that hasn't developed individuality yet and I guess this is why Moffat is obsessed with throwing children at the audience 24/7.

And I find it fascinating that where everyone sees Aziraphale is wrong (or, indeed just needs to figure out Heaven is evil), Twelve's clockwork orange vault is generally hailed as reaching out to the truth behind the Master that Missy got closer to than any regeneration we've seen. For some reason, because sure as hell not because of anything that happened in EOT. And that's writing for you: if it's intelligent enough you'll look at something fundamentally similar and see completely different things.

Now, Crowley and the Master have more relational relational ethics - and relational is not the same as relative. And sure as hell don't think the universe or any individual will "naturally" veer towards good. In fact, they're both pretty cynical about, at least human, nature. Difference is Crowley needs to get drunk from Spanish inquisition, while the Master thoroughly enjoys letting future humans go murder their ancestors for fun. I mean, Missy even calls the Doctor out for his absolute and sentimental idea of good, except that's framed as her being in the wrong. And then there's the whole "Paradise. You've destroyed paradise! - They were lazy. I made them hungry" exchange between War and Saxon Masters in Masterful. Serpent in Eden, anyone?

And I think that this is why tensimm give off those vibes that they were closer to understanding each other than ever before. Obviously, the moral divide is still there, as it has to be, but I think Ten, especially in EOT, is more aware of how easily one can slip into a vengeful god, and all this to SAVE someone, than ever before. So while the moral divide is arguably widest it's ever been, the perceptual differences between the Doctor and the Master are almost gone in those episodes. And I suppose the metaphor of the Doctor hearing the drums is pretty pertinent here.

Now, before there's any accusation of moral nihilism on my part - no, there isn't. I specifically wrote of moral relationality not relativism. An action or attitude can be good or evil, the thing is that every individual exists in a net of their relations to others that they can't get out of through spontaneous epiphany. And at the same time the idea of absolute good is necessary, precisely because the general momentum is towards... the opposite. At the same time, there is nothing vile that hasn't been done in the name of higher good. Again, dialectics.

Which is why I say the Master (the Simm!Master, reduced as he was) fell where he stood no less that the Doctor in season 10. Like, this absolutely wasn't the intended point and I still say the mutual suicide was peak contrivance, but. work's intent. And all of this goes back to platonists vs. sophists, you know.

So anyway, it's still Ten that desperately grabs Saxon's lapels and kisses him in hopes of making him stay where they can be happy together.

[vidreview]

VIDREV: "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" by Hbomberguy.

[originally posted december 7th 2023]

i didn't initially plan to do a full VIDREV for this one. it's a long video that speaks plenty for itself, revealing a veritable cottage industry of video essayists who've found great success in brazenly stealing the works of marginalized creators. it's an infuriating watch, especially as someone who has put a lot of work over a lot of years into getting better as an essayist. at a moment when the gormless profit-chasing business degree havers of the world are pretty unambiguously winning in every avenue imaginable, it's gratifying to see someone like Hbomberguy use his significant platform to at least make a dent in that trend. i had a few gripes, sure, but i didn't figure they were worth the trouble. of course now it's been out for a few days, the video already has over 6.8 million views, and people are still talking about it on every single social media website of note. watching that discourse evolve from afar has sharpened some of the round edges on my aforementioned gripes, and given me reason to think that maybe weighing in isn't a totally fruitless endeavor. and besides, what's the point of having a video essay review blog if you're not gonna review what is arguably the video essay of the moment? ahhh, there's a Faustian bargain if ever i heard one.

in this post, i'm going to be critical of Hbomberguy's "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" on a few fronts of debatable importance. but first, i want to make it clear that i am genuinely grateful to Hbomb for putting so much time and effort into this investigation. plagiarism is a serious accusation that requires commensurate evidence, and Harris's got that covered in spades. the case is made so much harder to deny by the frequent juxtaposition of a plagiarist's voice-over with the original plagiarized text on screen reacting to minor trail-covering alterations. these sections occupy the bulk of this video's near 4 hour runtime, and while i have some issues with that length, i understand that the deluge of evidence is precisely to make sure that none of the plagiarists in question can continue dodging accusations the way they have done previously. in this process, Hbomb lays out a consistent playbook utilized by all manner of plagiarists, and (hypothetically) gives viewers the tools and awareness they need to better spot plagiarism in the future. this matters because, as he rightly points out, youtube isn't a fun little hobby site for posting silly cat videos anymore, there's real money to be made on the platform and virtually no oversight to protect creators with ethics and integrity (i wanted to pull a direct quote here but alas, you can't ctrl+f a video). it's an open question as to how or whether we can fix this problem, but we don't get to that conversation until we acknowledge that plagiarism is a legitimate, widespread, materially harmful phenomenon online. none of what i have to say in this review is meant to minimize its broad success in calling attention to a very real problem!

that said…

in the days since its release, i've seen a lot of back and forth over what this video is about. on one side you have folks calling for the blood of James Somerton and others mentioned in the essay, saying "fuck these people specifically." yet on another side, many insist that you're missing the point if all you see is more drama for the drama mill. "this is a systemic problem" they say, "that's what the video is about." i'm inclined to agree more with the latter than the former, as Hbomb does consistently circle back to talking about the unpaid victims of plagiarism, ending the video by explicitly highlighting underrated queer creators and even saying outright that he doesn't want the end result to be limited in scope to just retribution against these specific plagiarists.

and yet, when i see a meme like this one:

i can't help but think… is that what the video is about? is someone who just sees the drama missing the point? yes, certainly, Hbomb says as much, but how much does he actually say it compared to everything else? what's the proportion of (to be overly reductive) "drama content" to "systemic criticism"? because it seems to me that anyone who only/mostly gets "wow fuck these people in particular" out of this video has done nothing less than take the video in aggregate. the bulk of its runtime is spent detailing very specific acts of plagiarism, and while yes, as i said above, this abundance serves a very real purpose, it shouldn't go unacknowledged that the tone of these sections is often one of ridicule and mockery. i don't mean that as a criticism in and of itself, to be clear. you can draw a line from here directly backwards through all his "Measured Response" videos, dude cut his teeth on knocking overconfident hacks down a peg, a bit of ridicule and mockery is to be expected. but that does ultimately mean that Hbomb spends most of the video saying "fuck these people in particular," in a tone of voice he honed through many other videos devoted to saying "fuck this guy in particular", only occasionally stopping to add that "plagiarism is popular and insidious and even creators you trust might be doing it" before moving onto the next scornworthy particular guy. so it kind of doesn't matter that one is "the point" and the other is "missing the point" because he's genuinely saying both things, and he's saying one of them significantly more often than the other. you can't tell me the dunks aren't at least part of the point, and if they're part of it then they can and will be misconstrued by some as the whole point. the entertainment and spectacle of knocking these plagiarists down a peg is an indulgence that, while certainly earned, does exist in concrete tension with the systemic arguments that are meant to take priority. now, some of this does come down to how internet culture has shifted in the last decade to facilitate a much more aggressive style of engagement overall, which Harris cannot control no matter how often he says "don't harass the plagiarists." there isn't really a perfectly right way to go about this, and under the circumstances i do think he did far better than others might have done in his stead.

but even still, i think this misapprehension is made worse by the essay's conclusion, which in my opinion largely fails to tie the whole thing together into the systemic argument that supposedly is "the point" some viewers are missing. Harris commendably points out how the so-called AI revolution is at its core an act of automated civilization-scale plagiarism, and that future instances of plagiarism may be harder to catch precisely because of this technology. frankly i wish that perspective had taken up a solid 10% of the runtime rather than a couple paragraphs at the very end, seeing as on balance it's the far bigger and more likely threat to the livelihoods of people watching than old-school direct plagiarism, but that's me. what really bugged me was the brevity with which he discussed possible solutions to the problem. he rightly points out that youtube implementing a plagiarism reporting system would just be another tool for bad faith actors to silence marginalized creators on the platform, and then… he kinda gives up? he shrugs his shoulders and says, well, for now, just talking about plagiarism and spreading awareness of it is enough. for as well-intentioned and, generally speaking, true as that is, it bugs me as an essayist because i believe that a big part of the job is or ought to be expanding the audience's ability to imagine what's possible even if you aren't 100% sure about the answers yourself.

these are all very much "how i would have written it differently" criticisms, so they aren't particularly worth much, but i do feel it's odd that he doesn't even broach the subject of federal regulation, platform control, unionization efforts, or even just good old-fashioned consumer activism. virtually every website that the creative economy hangs on is a venture-capital backed corporate venture, and their ad-driven models for profiteering at a moment when wages are stagnant and layoffs are happening everywhere is, like, the reason this is such a problem. to address plagiarism as a systemic issue, we need to understand the systemic enablers of it as a behavior. if creators weren't getting such a small slice of the revenue pie, if we had more control over the platform and what rises to the top, if the companies that owned these platforms were beholden to federal regulations, if the government increased arts funding and gave out grants to independent creators that involved third-party quality checks, if online video creators had any manner of collective labor power, if the cost of living was lower by way of public healthcare, free education, mass public transit, and affordable housing, then this would be a drastically different conversation. these are not non-sequitors! this is as much an economic problem as it is a cultural one, so any proposed solution that stops at changing the culture is necessarily incomplete and doomed to fail.

look, i don't expect Hbomb to have the answers. nobody has the answers. but i think it's a bit short-sighted to leave so many possibilities unsaid when the one concrete possibility discussed is immediately (correctly) written off as a bad idea. it leads to a conclusion that feels iffy, a bit defeated, lost at sea, and that's an infectious mood. if the first step to solving plagiarism as a systemic problem is to encourage talking about it openly, i think it's equally important to at the very least gesture in the direction of the many possible avenues for a systemic solution, no matter how impossible or ridiculous they might seem in the current political climate. in point of fact, i think it's of utmost importance to include these possibilities precisely because they seem impossible, otherwise we will forever be trapped in a world of insufficient half measures, meekly reifying the conservative austerity of the liberal order because it's easier and safer than taking a wild shot in the dark.

again, i want to stress that this is a deeply subjective criticism. i'm an ornery Marxist, of course i have these kinds of gripes. and it's easy to get lost in criticizing what isn't there, which as an exercise generally tells you more about the critic than the object being criticized. so, to close out, i'm gonna shake my fist a little at something that is there.

there's a moment at about one hour thirty-five minutes in where Harris turns on some colored lights to get that patented blue-purple Bisexual Lighting, and then he says this:

This is a whole style of video now, and by "style" I mean one person did it first and then a bunch of boring people ripped her off. Stealing from lots of places is inspiration, but stealing from one place is plagiarism… unless you call it The BreadTube Style, and then it's fine. I don't even know what a BreadTube is, I just woke up one day and was told that I was in it, and that people hated me for being in it. I don't even know what it is!

i understand where this jab is coming from-- the whole BreadTube scene was a melodramatic nightmare, on account of being an audience-invented genre which that audience (and later creators who emerged from that audience) often inaccurately treated as a coherent movement. i understand the frustration expressed by a lot of creators in that first generation of left-ish essayists (Hbomb, Lindsay Ellis, Dan Olson, Contrapoints etc) with the atmosphere of that moment, and certainly don't begrudge them a desire to distance themselves from it and ridicule its shortcomings.

but this brief little jokey aside left a bad taste in my mouth. the creator he's talking about being "ripped off" here is obviously Contrapoints, who brought a colorful theatricality to her early work that elevated it above being something she shot for cheap in her apartment. this went hand in hand with her Socratic style of essaying, giving her characters a strange and vibrant world to occupy. i don't want to say she "did it first" because, let's be real, Natalie Wynn did not invent the idea of using dramatic lighting on the internet. but she was certainly the first person i saw on youtube doing it in video essays, and yeah, a lot of people followed her example including me!

but that's not the same thing as plagiarism, is it? this whole video is an extensive exploration of what genuinely counts as plagiarism: taking someone else's words and pretending that they're yours. style is almost never part of that conversation across the whole 4 hours, except where it involves use of prepackaged assets like transitions and stock footage, which Hbomb deliberately notes is fine and normal except when people act like they're the ones who invented it (this particularly comes up in the Legal Eagle section). by the terms of this joke, Abby Thorne of PhilosophyTube falls under the category of "boring people" who were "ripping off" Contrapoints even moreso than those who just lit videos like her, because she even does the Socratic-style dialogues! but somehow i don't think Harris would call that plagiarism. if the concern re: bisexual lighting in BreadTube is attribution, all i can say is that Natalie Wynn is one of the single most discussed and cited creators in the whole field. virtually everyone i can think of who "ripped her off" back in the day openly acknowledged being inspired by her at every possible opportunity. of course that's just my own biased recollection of the history, so who knows, maybe there are people out there acting like they did it first. but unlike most of the other victims of plagiarism provided in this video, Natalie Wynn is not wallowing in obscurity. her work is IMMENSELY successful, to the point where she's arguably the closest thing to a household name you can get from this space.

now, i'm sensitive to a joke like this because i always felt like if anything Natalie got too much credit for "inventing" the so-called "BreadTube style". her use of colored lights was striking and unique, yes, but it was also rudimentary and not particularly complicated. i worked in film lighting for enough years to see this "style" as equivalent to late 1910's era silent films blindly grasping at the bare fundamentals of montage that have become the backbone of all cinema. it's good, but it ain't Citizen Kane. i really hoped people would take Natalie's baseline not as a concrete template, but as a challenge to get even more ambitious and filmic with their lighting setups! instead things have stagnated, and we've kinda circled back around to a very slightly more colorful version of the standard pre-Contrapoints look. this is by no means to play down the work that Natalie did, because i know from my own years making video essays that it is NOT easy or simple to set up even rudimentary lighting that looks good. but come on man, have some perspective. she's a philosopher, not an electrician!

what's worse is that later on in the video, Hbomb talks about how many creators were inspired by AVGN to do twists on his formula, and why this was a good thing. near the end, when he's very rightly shouting out many underrated queer essayists, he spends a good chunk of time celebrating the spirit of remix that is so unique to the internet, insisting that there's a real tangible difference between plagiarism and inspiration. this is good! i agree with him! which is why it's so bizarre that there's this one aside that equates using bisexual lighting to plagiarism! it's a disarmingly hypocritical moment in an otherwise relatively on-point video, and its presence kind of weakens the rest of the essay for me (especially if you're sensitive to how near this comes to being all-out drama youtube, as clearly even Hbomb is by his own admission in the video).

the last i'll say is that i find it frustrating when a creator in Hbomb's position tries to act like BreadTube wasn't A Thing. no, it wasn't A Thing the way quite a lot of people thought it was (including many who called themselves BreadTubers). but these creators were often collaborating with each other to make guest appearances, read quotes, etc. certainly they mentioned each other often enough, which couldn't help solidifying in the audience's mind that there was indeed A Thing happening that involved multiple people with similar creative & political goals, regardless of whether or not that was the creators' intent. it wasn't formal, and it certainly wasn't A Movement (the lack of an articulated ideological spine is a BIG part of why things went sour the way they did), but they were happy enough to play along before Drama blew the whole endeavor to smithereens. and notably, successive generations of creators (like Sophie From Mars, Jack Saint, Lily Alexandre, CJ the X, and yes, also me again) saw the BreadTube genre as a place where interesting things were happening, where the kinds of things they/we wanted to create were encouraged and supported vociferously. it's no coincidence that a LOT of up-and-coming trans creators doing very BreadTube-y things got a huge boost from guesting on Hbomb's DK64 Nightmare Stream in 2019 (including me again, haha, oops), because there was A Thing happening even if most people were wrong about what, exactly, it was. none of this is to say that Hbomb should call himself a BreadTuber-- god no, i hope no one does that ever again, i'm embarrassed that i did back in the day! but this history does exist. mostly i just think this joke would've been better left on the cutting room floor.

okay, i think that's enough criticism for one day. one thought i had coming out of this is that i wish more video essays would publish concurrently with a written version on a dedicated website. not just a transcript but an article-format version. i wonder sometimes about the difficulty of indexing video essays, of getting their contents into a historical record that can be printed out and put into a library. but anyway, all my gripes aside, it's a good video and you should go watch it! preferably in chunks over a day or two!

[shenrickyz]

BOY DRAMA (;° ロ°)!!!

basically, minjae and seojun are nosy, and hikari is drop dead in love with one of his dream members | timestamp; nct sei's callisto tour (2023) | wc: 0.8k

"WHAT HAPPENED!?"

minjae can never just not scream can he? everywhere he goes he just has to make his presence aware, makani almost considers getting up and punching him in the face, but he keeps his composure, focusing on his game, which was previously occupying his attention.

hikari on the other hand is not even surprised, and turns to the culprit in the room, who pretends he has no idea what's going on or why minjae shouted like the building was blowing up. zixin just clears his throat, pretending he didn't just out the older 00 liner to the person in the group with the biggest mouth.

"a thing".

"what thing?" well shit— seojun peaks his head from behind the door, having walked past the hotel room and overhearing the conversation.

now the two arguably nosiest nct sei members were on his back, and he couldn't do anything but spill. "hikari's thing with—"

"we don't have a thing!" hikari is quick to counter, eager to disprove zixin's words. his tone of voice conveys that he is, in fact, lying, and he curses himself for being so obvious with his emotions. "we just— it was, a one time thing, once!"

"you kissed him more than once!"

"you kissed who!?"

"YOU KISSED SOMEBODY!?"

makani closes his eyes, scrunching his nose as he glares at minjae, as always, the source of noise. minjae has no time for his unnecessarily intimidating glares though, because the news he just heard is news.

seojun makes his way over to his fellow dream member, sitting down beside hikari with the largest shit–eating grin on his face. "so.. who was it?" he asks, narrowing his eyes at the older member.

"uh.." hikari awkwardly laughs. he does not want to say, he squeezes the pillow in his lap, he freezes for a moment, unable to find his voice for some reason, so he turns to makani.

makani looks up, narrowing his eyes, then a small 'ah' escapes his lips, he gets what hikari wants him to say. "oh, it was jeno".

silence.

then— chaos.

"OH YOU ARE JOKING!"

hikari closes his eyes, putting the pillow to his face, he doesn't want to see anyone else's reactions. seojun laughs, then screams, possibly louder than minjae this time.

"jisung owes me twenty dollars!" seojun screeches, and that sentence is what makes hikari look up from the pillow where he'd previously buried his face.

"you made a bet?"

"kinda.. jisung said he thought it'd be you and jaemin but he was SUCH an idiot oh he is so gonna be mad—"

"i don't think that's the most important thing here" makani voices clearly, his fingers still playing the game on his switch, but his gaze completely focused on the eldest 00 liner. "hikari is clearly in love with jeno and he's denying it.."

"i'm not!" hikari puts his hands up. "i'm not in love with jeno!" he yells, as if he was being accused of committing a crime. "it was just a thing we did".

"more than once".

"and you enjoyed that thing each and every time" makani stares at him in his usual judging manner, hikari immediately shrinks under his gaze, again clutching the pillow in front of him.

"okay.. i'm sorry, how did you two get to know about this but not us?" minjae asks, pointing at makani and zixin, who both look at him like he's crazy.

"because you'd go around and tell everybody, even non-nct members" makani replies like it's a matter of a fact, eyes going back to his switch. minjae's jaw drops, like he was genuinely offended by the clearly true words. "don't look at me like that, you know i'm right".

the words make minjae pout, but he doesn't try to argue with the older, because he'll get shut down immediately.

"what the hell is going on here?"

finally, after what seems like forever, the beloved leader of nct sei appears, looking confused as ever at why all five nct sei members are crowded into one hotel room. "hikari and jeno have a thing".

hikari gasps when that is the first thing zixin decides to say, resisting the urge to absolutely punch him. "oh! congratulations!"

"were not—" hikari groans, covering his face with his hands. "were not dating!"

"but your in love with him" makani states for the nth time that moment.

and somehow, that is the one that gets hikari to break, and he once again puts the pillow in his face. "fuck i am!"

"then why don't you just.. tell him?" seojun asks, and hikari frowns, like that's the one question he'd been dreading the whole conversation.

"because, it's too risky, i don't want to put pressure on him and i don't even know if he even likes me back it's—" he pauses, clenching his jaw. "i don't want a repeat of the michi situation.."

"it's just gonna eat you up then".

"i know i just—" hikari sighs, taking in a deep breath. "i'll tell him when the time is right!"

"and your gonna keep making out with him until then?"

minjae yells when hikari begins throwing the pillows on his bed at him.

new nct sei content for you @junjiie ^_^!!

[wutheringheightsfilm]

there are a non zero amount of self proclaimed trans allies who will accuse you of being a terf for speaking negatively about men... like okay baby i think you need to unpack why you heard me talking about men and automatically assumed it was about trans women.

literally and it's also like. i just simply do not believe in anything radfems or terfs believe. bioessentialism is bullshit. i'm fully aware that gender and sex are completely made up and i believe that. i don't think men are "inherently" anything; misogynistic men choose to act that way because they know it benefits them. trans women are women, and transmisogyny is still an issue that can hardly be talked about in the LGBT community because god fucking forbid trans women talk about the issues they face for once and god fucking forbid you point out that anyone who is TME can perpetrate transmisogyny!

"Terf" has become so incredibly watered down at this point that so many people on this site--not even only trans people, either, plenty of cis people say it just because they're just parroting things which is arguably even worse--just say it as shorthand to mean "person i don't like/disagree with" and that's insane with the amount of blood actual terfs have on their hands. the way that "terf" is just the new catchall insult of tumblr literally just devalues and makes light of trans women's suffering to be honest because very clearly these people don't take that seriously by calling everyone and their grandmother that.

I've been accused of being a terf for saying i don't want to be called queer, i've been accused of being a terf for pointing out the issue of racism and white supremacy in trans spaces, i've been accused of being a terf for denouncing "bimbo feminism"... it's actually incredibly annoying if you're going to insult me can you actually insult me with literally anything else that actually applies to the situation? like damn i expected to be called a tankie more than this

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Long Stories Vol. 6: Nobita's Little Star Wars

May contain spoilers below the break. My review of this story's movie adaptations can be found here.

First of all, I have no idea why Gian is not on the cover. That's an odd design choice, especially considering that no other volume in Doraemon Long Stories omits any of the main characters from its cover, as far as I'm aware.

This is a solid Doraemon story that I find engaging in all of its retellings, and it does a good job of placing focus on each of the protagonists. (If anything, the contributions from Suneo, Shizuka, and even Gian arguably stand out more than those of Nobita and Doraemon!)

A very unusual element of the manga that didn't make it into either movie adaptation is that Nobita's parents properly meet Papi the alien, the main "guest character" of the story. This may be the most involved that Nobita's parents have gotten in the adventure component of any of the Fujio-authored Doraemon Long Stories.

Something that is not unique to the manga but I figure I'd address here is that during the climax, the heroes are saved when the effect of the Small Light wears off on them. This plot development is sometimes accused of being a deus ex machina that has never been previously introduced in the franchise. Although it's true that it isn't foreshadowed within this story, Doraemon mentions the effect of the Small Light wearing off in the 1973 story "Uncle and the Elephant", so there is in fact precedent for this. As I mentioned in my review, by far a bigger problem (in fact, probably the single biggest problem) with the plot of Nobita's Little Star Wars in my opinion is that it never acknowledges commonly-used gadgets like the Big Light that could have easily reversed the Small Light's shrinking function.

I've already praised the 2022 movie remake for the way it adapted this story, but reading the manga makes me appreciate even more how it was able to streamline much of the plot while fleshing out the motivations and personalities of multiple major characters. Now I want to watch it again, and it's already one of my most rewatched Doraemon movies...

[good-to-drive]

The fact that people have romanticized or even sexualized your childhood trauma is disgusting. I'm genuinely so sorry that happened.

Can I tell you why I think it's important that talking about Paul McCartneys childhood trauma and it's effects on him become just as mainstreamed as talking about John Lennon's childhood trauma and it's effects on him has always been in Beatles fandom?

First, on a personal level. Have you heard of Ruby Franke, the Mormon momfluencer who has been charged with child abuse? My parents were A LOT like her and though my friends always recognized that we were "one of those" Mormon families, what they did was very normalized and justified. So, naturally, I don't like seeing abuse normalized or justified.

But more importantly on a public level. If we don't get comfortable talking about the truth of Paul's childhood and the effects of it on his thought processes, behaviors, and traits, and therefore him as a person and artist, we are going to have a flawed understanding of the Beatles music, group dynamics, and story.

Obviously none of it should be romanticized or sexualized. It needs to be taken seriously.

Yeah, I feel like that's my point.

Aside from the "it is your moral duty to hate John and if you don't you're as bad as he is" camp most people are capable of talking about John's experiences in a reasonable way, but with Paul there's a lot more resistance. I think that's partly because Paul has received a lot of undeserved criticism and hate over the years so (some of) his fans are a bit hypersensitive to anything that smacks of negativity, completely ignoring the fact that acknowledging someone's pain and trauma is not, in fact, negative or insulting (and it's arguably insulting to say that it is). And it's also probably that Paul's issues in particular are cartoonishly vilified in pop culture right now, to the point that it's almost impossible to even have a conversation about them (try talking to the average internet user about narcissism and you'll see what I mean).

But, frankly, it's also to do with deep misconceptions about the cycle of abuse and what it means to exist within it (which sounds like something you understand as well) and the savior complex a lot of people have about their faves that makes them really, really want Paul to be a poor precious kitten who just needs lots of cuddle sessions and weepy sex to fix his "issues." Which, like I originally said, is basically fine if that's what you want to do. It's essentially fiction, after all. But I wouldn't consider romanticizing abuse or infantilizing survivors to be the same thing as raising awareness around abuse, and I don't honestly think it helps us understand the group dynamic either. (I do agree that we'll never understand Paul and John's relationship if we can't accept that Paul is a human being with a past and a complex inner life just like John. That's something I've been bitching about for ages.)

I hope this isn't too nosy, but I've noticed you saying in tags that people jump on you and accuse you of "woobifying" Paul sometimes. If you're just trying to acknowledge that Paul faced trauma and deserves actual compassion and understanding then of course those people are out of line and I'm sorry that's happened, but if your idea of acknowledging this is "oh poor precious baby let me kiss it better" then, well.... You do you, but I don't think you can fairly claim there's any value in that. Yes, it's talking about abuse, but not in a way that I think we can reasonably claim is compassionate or productive.

No hate, though -- I haven't seen the posts you're referring to so idk what people are criticizing you for.

This is a really thoughtful and interesting take and I really appreciate you sending it to me.

[lemonhemlock]

happy hump day, it’s almost friday!!

imma need some people to stop acting like tg characters have hurt alicent more than tb.

there’s this weird thing where some people try to “excuse” alicent’s “wrongs”—which is something the writers did themselves with the prophecy instead of exploring aegon’s political claim + the danger alicent’s kids are in imo (im still annoyed with this choice, women are allowed to be angry, why can’t alicent be angry about her abuse and her abusers 😭 the prophecy doesn’t even make sense in this series)—by making it seem like she’s being held hostage or pushed around by her children and father (and any bond she may have with them is conditional—her father sees her solely as a pawn, criston is only there because he doesn’t like rhayenra, alicent is secretly disgusted by her children and would be relieved if she can leave their side as long as she can ensure safety) , and if it were up to her she’d happily side with the same people who ruined her life.

at the end of the day, the only people who stood by alicent’s side and tried to protect her and her family were tg—criston, her kids, even her dad. rhaenyra and co threw her 10 year old under the bus, gaslit and played her in front the entire court, accused her of poisoning/taking advantage of viserys’s illness to take control of the court etc.

like, i’m sorry but if i wanted to watch a woman drag herself because she’s opposing someone who arguably has hurt her more than any tg character (larys has them beat but still), I’d watch a novela. the amount of abuse they put a female protagonist through in order to create drama and extend the series for 100+ episodes only to end it with her happily running into the arms of the same man who publicly humiliated her, cheated on her, used her etc is lowkey the vibe I get from some rhaencient stans nglngl.

(It’s hard out here being a proshipper rhaencient enjoyer…not anymore tho!!)

in my country for chronically online millennials wednesday is frog meme day so here's me keeping my side of the bargain:

i agree overall abt alicent being angrier. she should have been more focused on crowning aegon than she was on rhaenyra. she should have been aware of the plot and on board with it. that could have been done without sacrificing her compassion or her nostalgic, residual feelings of friendship and love towards rhaenyra. ultimately this is what happens when you have different writers for each episode and no one gives them clear indications re: where the character is at & corrects the scripts for OOC behaviour. everyone has their different take on a character's journey, but at the end of the day there should be someone with a red pen in hand making sure the development is linear. that's why alicent is bitchy is one episode, then appeasing in the next

loved the comparison with the telenovelas 😅

as an aside, i've had a few anon conversations in my aegon's prophecy tag if anyone's interested

[ivyial]

hii, how are you? I stumbled upon your page and I started to check it out, upon doing that I came across one of your eagleone posts, and how you view the ship or how you view people who dislike the shop entirely for no reason at all. and to be honest I couldn't agree more. your choice of words and how you describe just makes my heart feel hope again. hope that there's actual human beings that are using a gift called a brain for once.

it honestly drives me crazy to see people literally sending death threats and literal racism to those who ship a ship that isn't quite popular. another account just a few days ago that speaks alot about eagleone and analyses their scenes and dialogues, got literal death threats that would me a grown adult puke from how disgusting to know such human beings exist.

( didn't realize to be that long LMAO )

anyway I just wanted to say that I absolutely love all your eagleone content literally makes my day <3

i- 🥺🥺❤❤ omg thank you so much anon

i've never been one for ship wars. what bothers me the most about the eagleone discourse (and the current cleon discourse on twitter as well) is how likening characters to siblings (eagleone) or saying one views the other as a kid (cleon - insane take but anyway) eventually becomes "these characters are LITERALLY siblings, they are so sibling coded to me that it essentially makes them actual siblings" and creates a breeding ground for harassment and accusations of proshipping.

shipping has always been a matter of personal taste, and it's one of those few things in fandoms where there's no need to debate about conflicting ships. in the end, you can just agree to disagree. i like X for those reasons and you like Y for those. that's it. ships are usually better enjoyed with fellow shippers. it only risks becoming an echochamber when people start to take it so seriously that their group of shippers decides to hate on everyone else, and eventually, to harass them.

which is unfortunately what is happening right now. i'm very aware of the death threats and everything else, and it's sad and infuriating to realise that fandoms will never change. idk how old you are anon, or if you were around on tumblr when it happened, but a few years ago, the voltron fandom was a big thing around here (i apologise in advance to everyone who had to live through that lmfao). klance was arguably the biggest ship in the fandom (keith x lance), so the shippers were actively campaigning for it to become canon. it got to the point where klance shippers sent the show creators cupcakes filled with glass shards to convince them to canonise the ship. I WISH I WAS FUCKING KIDDING

this stuff's not new, bullying fellow fans isn't new unfortunately, and bullying actors or producers isn't either. if i remember correctly, when supernatural s4-5 (i guess) were airing back in the 2000s, dean's love interest jo was removed from the show supposedly because fangirls lost their shit and sent hate mail to producers. but that's all speculation, i can't find a reliable source for that.

i wish people would stop taking everything so seriously and get this nasty over fiction. however, it's unlikely that it will happen, because fandoms are filled with kids who don't know any better, are sometimes fully raised by the internet and then turn into immature adults. it's rare to find spaces in fandoms were you can genuinely have fun and create content without being policed by 12 year olds, but when you can, it makes the fandom experience a lot better.

i don't put much content out there, but i'm glad to see that the few posts i write are appreciated!! i'm working on an eagleone fic rn so it definitely makes me want to keep working on it regularly and create more content 😭

[spider-xan]

re: people getting run out of the dracula fandom. It's so disheartening because this year alone I saw 3 artists leave and it's all due to the DD crowd. Only one of them still posts art for goth lit but they outright stated they're avoiding Dracula and I keep hoping someone within the DD community will call out the bullying and harassment before we lose more people.

Yeah, I know exactly what you are talking about and who the three artists are (unless there are others I don't know, which would be damning tbh), and the absolutely baffling thing is that the fandom, including the people most responsible and that circle, don't even seem to be aware of it at all - I'll see the art still being re-blogged while people are like, oh, where did X go, I miss their art, when will they be back with more art??, and it's like, man, the lack of self-awareness, especially when a lot of that played out in public.

I think part of what makes it hard to call out the behaviour is that it isn't like, isolated incidents done by random tumblr users with no clout - it's some people who are arguably BNFs in the fandom now with their own fans and followings, so anyone calling out fandom shit can and has been the target of anon hate, harassment campaigns, smearing with false accusations, and mass blocking, and then add on trying to turn it into praxis by throwing things like TERF and white saviour accusations around is like, yeah, I can see why no one - not even someone like me who isn't scared of confrontation and doesn't care about being liked by others - really wants to be the one to criticize the fandom more explicitly.