#being disabled meant i was a target for bullying

[maverickcalf]

Saw a post begging parents to put their kids in special education and it's like...

That's gonna be a yikes from me.

[sourtoasterstrudel]

Drawing more kiddies for playpen park! (An au I’m working on about a kids show written by Gerald brovlofski) These kids would be side characters used for social issues and some more important teaching moments.

Tolkien would probably be a reoccurring character before the episode that focuses on him (the episode that focuses on him is meant to teach the kids about racism. I think after that he’d become more relevant in otehr stories). He also shows up as a leading character in an episode teaching stan about jealousy and handling the idea of Kyle having friends, but other than htat stan and Tolkien are pretty chill and play sports together (soccer probably. Stan looks like a soccer kid)

I think marjorine would actually be a separate character from butters, like she’d be his cousin or something. Either way i like the idea of her showing up for an episode about destigmatizing trans people, even if marjorine herself isn’t trans (i haven’t decided yet so i drew her just as a feminine version of butters)

Wendy and Bebe both show up as reoccurring characters but as a duo one of their most important episodes is one teaching about love, and stan and wendy liking each other in a romantic way. Bebe shows up because she’s Bebe and she just needs to be there. I think maybe Kyle would feel pressured into being with Bebe so he can feel like he still has stuff in common with stan.

Jimmy shows up for an episode about disabilities. Like in normal South Park everyone loves him and his jokes and upbeat personality (and beacuase he’s an easy target to make fun of. Cartman has to get taught that even if he doesn’t think his jokes are harmful, they can be). I think that would also be one of Kenny’s first main episodes, as jimmy takes over his place in the main friend group

I realized Shelly would be perfect for an episode of being bullied at home, stan feeling like he can’t tell anyone because the person bullying him is his big sister (i swear there was an actual cartoon with a plot like this i just can’t place my finger on what it is). Even the other kids start getting bullied by Shelly, when they visit the marshs’ house.

Gerald started working on playpen park when Kyle and the other kids were still 8-10, but by the time the show was picked up by a tv station and stuff the kids were in their late teens. He definitely asked the kids for their consent on having their likenesses in the show (especially Shelly since she’s portrayed as a bully), but i think they’d be chill since once stan reaches his teenage years and starts rebelling against randy he and Shelly become friends.

This entire au came to my mind because both a kids show and South Park are made with the same building blocks, so it was really easy to switch it around and make it genuine learning moments for kids instead of edgy jokes for adults. I’ve been having fun thinking about this little au and learning the art style that goes along with it (which I’m still figuring out so yeah the art is a bit off)

[ganymedesclock]

Very good points with the last post, but I was thinking more about when a protagonist who is Hated by society for any reason gains power and influence and absolutely nothing changes about how people treat them to the point where you can feel the hand of the author. And then the protagonist gets Glorious Revenge on the people who hurt them or were disrespectful to them in any measure with their new cool powers without any reflection on how that would affect the character emotionally and morally, much less the world’s perspective on them.

This is more of a problem in fanworks where all the author wants is emotional satisfaction and vindication, but creating a section of people in your story who will forever be unworthy of redemption or change in a way that doesn’t involve groveling at the protagonist’s feet and can be freely hurt and killed without any consequence due to the way people in their group treated your character in the past can circle back around to being discriminatory. Like there was a story(granted it was fanfic) I read that had Special Magic People(Fae)who were outcasts of society because they were really powerful, then had that society discriminate against them, then painted everyone with powers as forever righteous good people and every person without as Ugly Evil Unpeople who could be slaughtered without any implications. There’s a scene where one of the Fae considers getting a ‘human servant’ like all his friends have via enchantment and subsequent kidnapping but doesn’t because it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and humans are annoying. This is not meant to say anything about the character’s morals, rather stating that the character prefers solitude Babe that is slavery. Your magical Fae society is ok with slavery.

Using power or magical-beinghood as a metaphor for queerness or disability is perfectly fine, but the problem comes when you try to make this all realistic instead of basing it on societal perception, because the thing about homophobia and racism and ableism is the fact that they are systems of power that place white, straight, rich, able bodied cis people at the top and everyone else at the bottom. Superpowers in context of sociology is more like: what if someone had a gun that they couldn’t unload, that was pointed at your head at all times. They wouldn’t shoot you with it, you think. But the gun is always there, and while the holder may not see it, you do. Which is a much better metaphor for living under systems that oppress you, with the caveat that superpowers are often inherent and social hierarchies are entirely made up.

Its just interesting how power is portrayed in the media as something that is either A. Born to or bestowed upon the protagonist and good or B. Something to be seeked out by the antagonist and bad. The idea that wanting what you weren’t given but other ‘more deserving’ people were is bad, but the idea that being more powerful than other people makes you inherently more moral rather than giving you more moral responsibility.

Ah, so you are positing the existence of type C, which is, "I want violent retribution on everyone who ever wronged me, but not to be held responsible for what I do with this power"

I think this can tie in with a lot of things. In aforementioned Danny Phantom, consider the bully character Dash. He literally introduces himself to the series by declaring- at max volume in a crowded cafeteria- that he has no future so high school is the best he's going to get.

Which is. needless to say. not something anyone with confidence says about themselves. But Dash does not exist to create problems for Danny, really; his primary function is being a justified target for Danny to punish over and over again.

People who are bullies understand that the concept of a bully is bad. They may have encountered- or fear- bullies themselves. But their solution is to idolize power and taking power. The Problem Is when I get pushed around, the problem isn't people shouldn't have the power to own/dominate others.

As you've pointed out this can run afoul in particular in social justice movements, since bullies exist everywhere and they will continue to co-opt whatever language gives them power and a platform. Some people just really, really want to hurt punish and control others. And broadly, they tend very quick to frame themselves as heroes punishing villains for being evil.

I recall back when I was in the Steven Universe fandom, someone told me their highly detailed system of how they wanted the Diamonds to die- they wanted Steven to murder Blue in front of Yellow, kill her next while she was grieving, and leave White alone and pleading before closing in for the finale.

Whether or not you like the Diamonds, or even whether or not you think the Diamonds should have died, it is obvious the objective is not removing or mitigating any threat here. The objective is sadism. The objective is wanting to punish people for ever having scared or upset you, and when a working fourth wall is at play it illuminates how insecure this mindset is. No matter how bad you think the Diamonds are, they are fictional characters, and not a perpetuation of bigotry or harmful stereotypes; they thus cannot hurt real people. The most they can do is be scary or upsetting, and even that is based on your willingness to go consume the media that has them in it. You could effortlessly turn off the tv and go watch a show where the hero makes the villain graphically explode every time, of which there are many.

But, we don't actually want things to get better! We want a justification to punish all the sinners that make trouble in our world. It's seductive it's reassuring it's a nice piping hot plate of comfort food that says "You're right forever! You actually ARE more special than anyone you don't want to interact with, your bullies or detractors actually ARE inherently lesser people than you. You will never have to face any sort of reality where people hurt your feelings but have some reason to exist or feel the way they do whether or not their actions are justified."

And incidentally, at its worst, this mentality can also utterly fail to address the very abuses it's trying to avenge. As you say, anon, it hinges on that the character remains a Dreadful Outcast forever.

Consider the plight of "Muggles" in Harry Potter. It sure feels like an amazing thing for an emotionally, materially, and physically abused boy to watch some magical giant show up, effortlessly boss his abusers around, and sweep him away from all that to a magical destiny world where he becomes stronger.

Only... at the end of every book they keep bringing him back. There are magical justifications for leaving him with his abusers. His cousin, who is also unambiguously hit and yelled at in the first book alone, does not even get the reprieves of special school even though we watch him become increasingly miserable with and enraged by his parents and their situation to the point that he makes at one point an unambiguous decision to stand by Harry with his parents watching.

This will come to nothing. Because Harry Potter takes the vicarious thrill children want to feel- that they know some secret that makes them special, reassuring when you don't think you're that cool and haven't had the life experience to invest in your identity yet- and basically turns it into, you don't deserve to be bullied because you're actually part of an old-money privileged over-class. With slaves! Why would you want to exist in a world where you reconcile with the foster sibling that pushed you around because he too was terrified of his parents and the dysfunctional house you lived in? He needs to know his place and be inferior to you, so that you can always be safe.

Because you never won't be traumatized and your trauma will never be a thing untouchable even by people who might care for you or be a friend to you, and if you decide the only way you will be safe is if you can rip a pound of flesh out of anyone who ever prods your wounds, then you won't feel safe unless you have someone on the figurative guillotine.

It's a status of victimhood that will never be lifted by any amount of power, because if you break the spell and admit that you have the capacity to hurt others and not the power to constantly be justified and eternally know evil when you see it, then that means you just might be the bad guy.

And you've made a world where nobody can even dip their toe in being the bad guy without deserving hell. So you can't be a sinner! That'd mean everything you feel is completely unjustified!

So, hail to the king, hail to the ultimate victim, whose suffering will never end because it is the throne he sits on to hold him above others.

And maybe I've played too much Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as a child, or maybe I just like monsters too much; but I've just always had the sneaking suspicion my life wouldn't improve if I could just stab everyone who ever hurt my feelings with a pitchfork.

I think using power to torment defenseless people is a bad thing no matter what that person did, and it is an unnecessary intrusion to actual harm reduction.

[dropintomanga]

Manga Over Schooling

I’m sure there’s many of us who really dislike school. We dread going to school for all kinds of reasons. Even though education is important, the social structure of schools makes it hard to learn. An enlightening post on Aeon Magazine talked about neurodivergent kids and their struggle to learn due to overwhelming stimuli that a institutionalized environment like school often presents. The article suggested that what those kids need is something very different that standardized education. It’s a really good piece with a shout-out to manga.

The author of the post suggests that children learn how to direct their own education. They use an example of a parent whose child, after years of suffering in school due to a lack of understanding and sympathy about their autism and ADHD, discovered manga and the magic that happened afterwards. These are quoted from the Aeon article

“For Peter, who is now 14, it was about manga, graphic novels that originate from Japan. Emma told me how he came back to reading after years of refusing to go near a book because of his passion for manga.

‘He’s read manga about basketball. He’s read manga that has explored lots of social themes. He’s read manga about man-eating giants. He’s read one manga about ancient military Chinese warfare. He’s read a manga about Vikings. He can tell me all about these Chinese warriors,’ Emma said. She reflected on where they were now, and how much better Peter was doing than she thought he might in those dark days when she was being called into school every day.

‘I can’t believe I’m in this position. Peter is now doing a karate club. He’s doing a fitness session. And he’s doing online D&D sessions every week. He wants to go to Japan. When he has decided something is going to happen, there’s no stopping it.’

Emma explained how much it meant that she was no longer having to follow a school schedule for Peter’s development, which she felt had always pushed him into doing things before he was ready: ‘Over the last 18 months, Peter has naturally been asking for more independence – for example walking into town, purchasing his own books, making his own bed, but also increasingly organizing his day. Being self-directed, we can insulate against the pressure and age-related expectations, allowing for natural progression that is appropriate for them.’”

This is incredible to hear. I love what manga has done for this child. I know this just one of many, many stories about how anime and manga changed young people’s lives. Yet this is a story worth hearing for people with mental disabilities. I do feel that more than not, people with lived experiences are told to stay in their place even when they improve. Societal pressure will often tell them, “You can do whatever you want, but don’t show your problems or explain them at all.” You can still live a good life full of development and free of constraints. 

Children are also smarter than you think and I wish more adults take them seriously when they legitimately ask questions worth asking and express critically-informed opinions. I’ll argue that school is often a mental health hazard due to bullying from peers and the adults who are supposed to stop it. I feel bad for parents of neurodivergent children who have to put up with the BS bureaucracy that comes with institutions that demand children to be “disciplined.”

And yes, manga is good for learning. Reading comics has done wonders for me as a kid and even helped with my schooling. We’re in an awful time where manga (due to covering topics that are considered “controversial”) is a huge target for being banned in certain parts of the world. It’s an attack on imagination and possibility. Those two things don’t necessarily grow in a school setting.

There’s more to a child’s life than school and I hope more eyes are opened to that idea just like how manga opens up reader’s eyes to alternative ways of living life.

[g1bs0ng1rl]

Learning Activity 3.5, Task 4: What do I believe in?

                     Schools are designated to educate students on necessary knowledge and skills that will later benefit them in life, but besides those purposes, they are also obligated to create a safe learning environment. Since students are within campus, their safety and health should be a top priority, it is an obligation to protect them from any acts of discrimination. I believe that it is mandatory for schools to have discrimination policy, or set of regulations that protects students from being bullied or harassed. No one should ever feel uncomfortable in an inclusive learning environment, where it is meant to provide what students had paid for: Good education. Moreover, it is a human right to be treated with equal respect and have access to basic necessities such as learning in school. 

 Students of ethnic minorities background, disabilities, LGBTQ+  are most likely to be targeted in school violence, these policies are built to penalise perpetrators. Discrimination policies should serve not only as protection for students, but also a system of counselling and guidance.  In the 2020 - 2021 education year, there has been a report of 1,198 cases of racially motivated bullying in Scottish schools (Sapouna, n.d), 44% of LGBTQ+ fifteen to seventeen age group in the European Union felt like their rights were rarely or never supported in school (UNESCO, 2023). And additionally, 41% of students who had been bullied indicated that they think bullying would happen again (National Center of Educational Studies, 2019). In my opinion, any forms of discrimination stemmed from personal prejudice and ignorance. I believe that schools should take responsibility for more coverage on racial history, sexualities, and build inclusive education for students with disabilities. Moreover, staff members should be aware and keep an eye for bullying or harassment throughout campus. Discrimination policies include not hindering any students the chance to access education, providing counselling for those who need it, and maintaining strict punishments for those who violate the policies. Punishment can range from detention to suspension depending on severity of the issues, staff members are also obligated to report any cases of discrimination if they witness it on campus. Moreover, in my opinion it includes penalising bystanders who knew of the bullying and did not report it to an adult. 

In conclusion, I think one of the most important regulations that all schools should make mandatory is the discrimination policies. To be harassed or prevented from accessing benefits like school, workforces, restaurants, is a violation to human rights. I believe that education institutions should aim to tackle social issues and by influencing students towards the right part, we can build a more progressive society in the future. I, myself, have witnessed bullying in my school and most of the times, victims are too scared to report the situation so it remains unsolved. Incidents like this can cause stress and traumatic effect on student’s psyche, discrimination policies should assure students that any forms of harassment will not go unpunished. Victims of past bullying should feel safe knowing that it won't happen again, therefore why I think it is so important to implement these policies. 

Works Cited

Brunsma, D. L., & Rockquemore, K. A. (1998). Effects of Student Uniforms on Attendance, Behavior Problems, Substance Use, and Academic Achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 92(1), 53–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27542189

Knipp, H., & Stevenson, R. (2022). “A Powerful Visual Statement”: Race, Class, and Gender in Uniform and Dress Code Policies in New Orleans Public Charter Schools. Affilia, 37(1), 79-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/08861099211010026

Meier, K. J. (1984). Teachers, Students, and Discrimination: The Policy Impact of Black Representation. The Journal of Politics, 46(1), 252–263. https://doi.org/10.2307/2130443

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights [100] UNESCO. (2023). “LGBTQ+ youth: bullying and violence in school”. UNESDOC,  1— 5. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000387193

National Center for Educational Statistics. (2019). Student reports of bullying: Results from the 2017 School Crime Supplement to the National Victimization Survey. US Department of Education. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2015056.

[motivati0n-station]

So just reeling from my latest big life pitfall (I fall hard and often).

Worked super fucking hard to do the right thing, got a big girl very well paid job, dealt with months of full on breakdowns over my lack of autonomy before summoning the strength to leave after finding a new opportunity. Take two on career front, still depressed but trying to push through, get fucking bullied and belittled despite putting all my best feet forward and making myself so small so people aren’t mean to me and don’t see me as a threat, I’ve actually ended up in a place worse than the last one, get to have lovely feelings of social isolation then get broken down into nothing by people older and more pathetic than me. So it turns out I’ll never be able to make it in group settings, at least there’s ways to make money freelance.

Months later here I am now, 15kg heavier after years of building healthy habits for it to all go away in 12 months. Back in a shitkicker job I said I’d never go back to with less pay than I could be earning just to have some autonomy in life. Turns out I get diagnosed with ADHD, I’m most likely autistic, and despite everything I was taught, I will never fit in because I don’t know how to play the social hierarchy game. Also my disabilities make me super annoying and extremely vulnerable in the working world cause I don’t fit the mould of todays expectations and I’m not visibly disabled so yeah I have to work and it’s fucking hard.

Well fuck it. I’m sick of not being the person I want to be. Next thing will happen that I dread, people find me weird and don’t want me around cause I’m an easy target and then like dominoes more people start to see me in those ways, I’ll get fired, pushed out, and walked over cause I can’t meet their productivity expectations. I’ll keep losing in life as I go because it’s a part of my programming. Despite all that I’m actually incredibly intellectual and thoughtful, skilled and educated, incredibly kind and open, very attractive and stylish, incredibly hard working and gifted in being able to see the big picture. I’m just not built to be uplifted by others and I’ll always only ever have a few people in my court. That’s gotten me somewhere. Not really sure what purpose I’m meant to make of all this.

[phantoms-lair]

A continuation of the snippet I did based off @redrobin-detective's post

~

"Do you sleep?" Danny suppressed a groan. He really wasn't feeling up to Youngblood right now. "Yes. I'm part human. I need sleep."

"When do you get it?" "Not often enough." Danny grumbled, getting ready for a fight. But to his surprise Youngblood was gone.

~

"He does need to sleep and he doesn't get enough of it." Youngblood supplied.

"How'd you find that out?" Sydney wondered. "I asked." Youngblood said simply.

"That matched what I, Technus- Master of All Things Electronic and Beeeping, have discovered from the records the machines held at his place of schooling." "And what did you discover?" Skulker prodded.

"Before he became the Ghost Child, his school records were positive. Solid Bs, good attendance, no behavioral issues. For the next month afterwards he became clumsy, after that, when we started poking at Amity, he starting missing classes, falling asleep in classes, and all his grades fell. Also something about multiple altercations with some human child named Baxter?"

"Dash Baxter." Johnny supplied. "Football star. Guy's been bullying Danny since forever."

Sydney's head swung around. "What?"

Johnny looked uncomfortable. "Look, Jazz really needed someone to talk to, okay, and I was being a good boyfriend."

Kitty crossed her arms. "You were trying to steal her body."

"I was trying to be a good boyfriend to you," he specified. "And that meant being who she wanted me to be, which was someone she could open up to. And she's really worried about her brother, so she talked about him a lot. So yeah, Baxter came up, since he's been target Danny since at least Middle School."

"I have to go." Sydney said, abruptly leaving.

They let him. They all knew bullying was a sore spot and he would need some time.

"So what we have is he's a guardian who's territory has been violated repeatedly, his human survival needs are only barely being met, his home is extremely unsafe for him, and literally the only three people who care about him are all human teenagers with little to no power because no one with power or authority can be trusted to help him." Ember summed up.

"He's going to break," Kitty whispered. "I don't know how he hasn't already."

"He's tough." Johnny reassured her. "And we're going to fix things."

"I can set traps to keep the vermin from getting through." Skulker offered. "We should probably still make forays into Amity to keep him from getting suspicious as to our intents. We'll just keep it to well after school or on weekends."

"But not too late, so he gets some sleep." Lunch Lady recommended. "I should check his fridge while you're at it. He's so skinny, he must not be eating right." "His parents will have sensors and traps," Technus advised. "Let me disable the first." "That's an excellent idea. I may be able to assist." Skulker offered. "I wonder if Sydney would want to help with the Baxter Guy?" Youngblood wondered. ~ Dash stepped out of the shower. He must have had the water on hotter than he thought, it was so foggy everything looked gray. He wiped the condensation off the mirror and a pair of glowing red eyes glared back at him. "BUUUUUULLLLLLYYYYY..."

[terrence-silver]

If Kreese had any children how do you think he would treat his sons compared to any daughters he might have? We've seen that he's all nice and kind towards women and girls but abusive towards guys so I just wondered if he would be the same way towards his own kids

The answer is simple; John Kreese was in the military in the 60's. Yikes!

I think his view and mistreatment of adolescent and teenage boys stems from the army (and the product of the times he was raised in), just like Terry's does. John merely observed boys aged, lets say, 17-19 and above being disciplined, hazed, hardened, put through rigorous, back-breaking training, shouted at by their drill instructors, shouted at by older soldiers, punished, often times beaten for all we know and ultimately tortured, captured, left handicapped, disabled and killed out on the battlefield by the time they would've been ripe enough to graduate out of high-school back home and this became normalized or at least so frequently observed in the war it merely turned into a rite of passage 'a young man goes through to become a real man'. Or a soldier goes through to become an effective combatant, on either side of the conflict. Might've seen Vietcong guerilla men younger even than the youngest soldiers at their base go into suicide mission as young as they come. War and everything you see in a war really changes a man, yes. Terry shares this philosophy. I think this is legitimately why bullying this specific age range target demographic is so frequent for both of them throughout their life. The institutionalized violence against teenagers in the army. They've seen it happen. It happened to them (especially in Twig's case, I bet). They've brought it back home. They did it to others.

Hurt people hurt people.

John Kreese might just feel (young) men are meant to withstand abuse.

Pain.

Anguish.

A good beating or ten, if you will. That's why man is a man.

He is one step away from saying 'When I was your age, I was in Vietnam".

It is not that John thinks women are weak damsels in distress (although, let us be real, for the longest time, he undoubtedly did around the time Betsy was around), but it is just that even when a girl is tough or a fighter, like Tory, John thinks that some things should never change and that men should still be expected to withstand and take hardships just by default of being men. Did this bleed into his treatment of Johnny Lawrence? Yes it did. Would it bleed into how he would treat figurative sons versus daughters? Yeah, probably. It is not that he loves daughters more and sons less, it is just that John loves them extremely differently because his own traumas would've so fundamentally shaped how he views manhood, masculinity, the role of a man, warfare and societal norms, that unfortunately, John has difficulties having a normal approach towards teenage boys even if he truly had it in him to do so. I think the ''gentlest'' he's ever treated a boy who would've been weak is Twig and that is the one anomaly in his philosophy. and which led to possibly the most innately complex relationship and friendship of his life as a result.

---

Also, another reason why John Kreese might be so close to being a misandrist; Have we ever considered that he grew up fatherless? With a sick, troubled mother? That he too passed through the societal stigma of coming from a broken, unprotected home lacking an authority figure and someone who would look after him and his mom? It would've been the 1950's and if there's anything worse than a mentally ill woman, it is a husbandless mentally ill woman. Gasp! Now that, is a tragedy, they'd say. People should consider, if we use our galaxy brains, that John's harsh view (and treatment) of men comes from an absentee father too. Before Vietnam. Karate. The cruelty of war. There was his dad who was never there. Men should be able to take a beating, withstand pain, the difficulties of life, they should be hard and strong and macho and heroic and they should take charge and lead; you know, all the things we can reckon that his nonexistent paternal figure never did. Meanwhile, his mother was a present figure, vulnerable and almost hallowed. Betsy was young and died young --- a first puppy love --- taking on the image of a near saint in his eyes.

The answer as to why John is the way John is?

Goes way back to the beginning.

[majachee]

The way certain parts of fandom take one aspect of G1's characterization and EXAGGERATE IT beyond reasonable lengths is just so... peculiar.

Take Cliffjumper, for example, I've seen so many people exaggerate his G1 attitude and behavior and make him an unredeemable bully, and it's so weird.

I'll only be talking about G1, as I'm still reading IDW1 and trying to find the Dreamwave and Marvel comics, so my opinion on comic Cliffjumper is still... undecided. But, when he appears in shows like G1 I tend to like him.

See, what many people seem to misunderstand about G1 is that it's not supposed to be that deep. Not to put down Transformers: The Movie or the impact it had on pop culture, but the 80s cartoon was an extended commercial for the Transformers toyline, and the conflicts are episodic little adventures and scuffles that are solved by the end of the episode. The characters have silly little characteristics meant to appeal to 10 year old boys in the 1980s. So seeing people take the events of one of these episodic adventures and absolutely demonize specific characters is... wild.

Cliffjumper is characterized by his hatred for evil and the Decepticons, and his irritability and recklessness. A perfect character to give silly little battle banter to. And that's... really what he does for the most part. Makes silly little comments. He's a silly, angry little man. I really like G1 Cliffjumper.

Cliffjumper accusing Mirage of being a traitor happens in the episode "Traitor" of season 2. By the end of the episode, when Mirage is recovering after the whole Bombshell mind control thing, Cliffjumper admits he was wrong for doubting Mirage, making a joke that he has a hole in his head as well. For the remainder of their screentime, they're on friendly terms again. This is the only noticeable time Cliff's accused someone of being a traitor in the G1 cartoon iirc

... the amount of people I've seen making Mirage and Cliffjumper HATE EACHOTHER'S GUTS in fanworks or interpretations is weird and funny. I'm not talking about playing around with the traitor plotline, I'm talking about making it Cliff's entire personality. Or, worse yet, people making Cliffjumper overtly hateful towards characters like Mirage, Prowl, really any character that's been characterized as being some form of aloof or socially awkward. You know, like Mirage and Prowl. Mirage's aloof nature and condescending attitude towards the war, according to his toy(?) bio, makes him the perfect target for treason accusations (though, to be clear, the reason why Cliffjumper accused Mirage of treason had nothing to do with his personality and views, but rather coincidences. Such as Mirage accidentally leading them to the previously cloaked Decepticon factory, and Cliff witnessing Mirage leading the Insecticons to the factory, under the impression that he was bringing energon to the Cons... or something... When in reality he was trying to make the Insecticons and Decepticons turn on eachother. It's all kind of stupid, in my opinion.)

Prowl, on the other hand, has a battle computer that can cause him to crash when emotional and logical feedback contradict eachother - many people interpret this as a disability of sorts. He's also aloof and serious, but also noted to be incredibly patient in his bio, but many people ignore that and just focus on his aloof nature and disability, and having Cliffjumper either belittle his disability or accuse him of treason. Which... doesn't make sense.

Yeah no, making Cliffjumper this ableist jerk who doesn't trust anyone even slightly just... goes against his established G1 character. Sure he's irritable, sure he's reckless, but deep down he's a good guy who's hellbent on defeating evil. Literally, one of his most defining character traits is his hatred for the Decepticons. And when looking at the G1 cartoon, he's never seen distrusting or belittling Mirage outside of that one episode in season 2, and his interactions with Prowl are literally never negative, so I have no idea where that idea came from besides wanting someone to be mean to Prowl for his disability and just going "hey, Cliffjumper is mean!" despite there being other characters who were way more mean than Cliffjumper ever was.

Hell, there was an entire episode, also in season 2, centered around how mean Gears is. But I haven't seen people demonize Gears. Please don't demonize Gears, he's a funny, even angrier little man.

Maybe it's just the circle of fans I find myself interacting the most with. By interacting I mean finding their hot takes on tumblr dot com and silently disagreeing with them, or stumbling upon things like fanworks or headcanons which I... also silently disagree with. I've never talked to these people or liked their posts I just silently disagree with them. And now I'm throwing my own hot takes into the ether, hoping one person agrees with me that the weird demonization of characters like G1 Cliffjumper is weird yet also hilarious in a weird, cynical way.

Also, the idea that G1 s1 and s2 background characters are capable of such indepth analyses of eachother that Cliffjumper can look at Mirage and Prowl, the latter doing nothing of note throughout the entire cartoon really, and going "hmm yes. I think these two comrades of mine, one of which is the Second in Command of the Autobot faction, are capable of slanderous amounts of treason due to the fact that they ate lunch in the library during autobot middle school" is downright hilarious by itself. Completing ignoring that Mirage being accused of treason was a one-time thing, and Cliff and Prowl rarely talked to eachother on-screen, of course.

[elledelajoie]

hope you don't mind me asking!! but is there any reason why do you hate 'Previously Unaired Christmas'? (just curious, you don't have to answer if you don't want to!)

I re-watched the episode to be able to better answer this question.

The main reason I dislike the “Previously Unaired Christmas Special” is that it is particularly mean to Kurt. I also don’t see it fitting into canon. There are things that happen and that are said that just don’t fit into canon.

This is a long answer...

To start, I lost track of the effeminophobic names Santana uses. To name two, she calls Kurt “Lady Hummel” and “Joyce DeWitt”. (An actress popular in the '70s - I looked her up.) Later in the episode, she suggests that Kurt play Mrs. Claus, which again, is very effeminophobic. If Kurt were going to fill in for someone, it would be for Santa since he is a man.

Santana buys Kurt a useless child’s toy for Christmas, which is so condescending. Of all of the things in the world for Santana to sink money into, why that? It’s just “comedy” at Kurt’s expense. And Chris has to act this is this best gift that Kurt’s gotten since his Navigator for his 16th birthday. No adult would be that excited about getting a toy they played with when they were ten. I can absolutely see having Kurt see one in a second-hand store window as they walk by and having him say that line about giving the doll head smoky eyes every day after school when he was ten. That would have been fine. But to make Chris act like it’s something that Kurt would want in the loft, where he doesn’t even have a closet or wardrobe to hang his clothes in, is just nonsensical. Something thoughtful, like a new pair of Docs would have been a good use of her money, and it would have shown that she actually had some idea what Kurt would actually use and appreciate.

She also mentions a vacation to Dildo Island, which is actually in Canada. Other than for a laugh at his expense, I have no idea why she would do this. Buying him tickets to local NYC attractions like MOMA or the MET or tickets to Broadway shows would make sense. A trip to Canada, not so much, since, by this point in canon, Kurt had gotten into NYADA. Why would she give him a trip out of the country when he’s getting ready to start college?

I hate Santana’s behavior once she gets to the mall to play Mrs. Claus. She is extremely rude to those children. I don’t find that humorous at all.

I think they way they had Kurt behave when he saw Cody was completely out of character for Kurt at that point in canon. I realize that Kurt is older and I have no issues with him being a man, finding other men attractive. and acting on that attraction. But to be so blatant about it when he was still torn up about Blaine in canon? He was taking Ambien because he couldn’t sleep. The version of Kurt in this episode did not appear at all like he was losing sleep over his breakup with Blaine.

When Cody arrives at the loft, things just go downhill. I know that the actors on Glee sang along with their recordings or performed live on set, and then the studio version of the songs were overlaid on the audio track for the episode, but having the three of them perform a Chipmunks song was just so ridiculous. There is no way that huffing helium will let anyone sing like that. And unfortunately, none of them did a very good job of lip-synching. It was just an awful scene.

I have no issues with Kurt making out with Cody if that’s what he wants to do. What I have issues with is the fact that, yet again, Kurt is not being sought after for himself. He’s a means to an end, like he was in “The First Time”. Cody just pretends to find him attractive so that he can get Kurt into a vulnerable position to tie him up so he can rob their place.

I hate that Chris was forced to insult his own physical attributes when Kurt said that line about Cody saying something about his small teeth. Enough with the teeth jokes. They aren’t funny or even true. It’s just been in the last few months that we’ve seen Chris actually smiling and showing his teeth. He has always had a perfectly normal smile. (Watch the episode where he goes and asks Holly Holiday to be their substitute. The moment she agreed, Chris/Kurt flashed a huge smile in excitement – showing his completely normal-sized teeth.)

When they look around after they’ve been robbed, it’s Kurt who is hurt the most. Nothing is mentioned about Santana or Rachel missing anything personal, but Kurt’s Broadway playbill collection was stolen.

An issue of continuity is that Santana supposedly spends half of the graduation money her mother gave her on “post-breakup” gifts and the Christmas gifts, but in “Diva”, when she’s talking to Sue, she says that she still has all of the money her mother had given her and that she could afford a McMansion in Lima Heights.

Another continuity issue is that during “Grilled Cheesus”, Sue made it so that religious songs weren’t even an option in a school club, but then in this episode, there’s a nativity on school property, which turns into a live nativity where the students all sing a religious song together.

I also think the story line of Becky misunderstanding what “green” meant is mean. Sue should have explained it to her. It’s just done for “comedy”, but making fun of someone with a disability isn’t really funny. I also find Tina to be at an all-time low with how over-the-top she is about winning the angel. (This ties with the vapo-rub scene for all-time-low.)

Where is Puck’s sister? They have this family meal at Breadstix, but Puck’s sister isn’t there.

The only thing I actually like about the episode is that Sue helps out Millie and Marley, but the house they chose to use for that set is ridiculous. They don’t have any money for Christmas, but they live in a huge house that is amazingly beautiful? That makes no sense whatsoever. It would have made a lot more sense to show them living in a small efficiency with two beds in it and no sofa, similar to a hotel room, but with a small kitchenette.

Overall, I guess as far as episodes go, this one is just excessively mean to Kurt, even more so than “Bash” and the bullying he endured at McKinley because it targets Kurt (and Chris) personally just like Santana’s rant in S6.

[mismashedsocks]

 so riordan made a half assed lame excuse on his lazy/racist writing on piper yesterday and on top of that he made another one on samirah and i’m muslim so i am going to talk about it

damn i’m so sorry these people have been pushing you past your comfort zone about your wildly popular racist caricatures of minorities that have great impact on your young, impressionable target audience. while its fine that if he takes a break for his mental health he still needs to deal with these problems you can’t just take a break and hope they go away.

why does he think everyone is bullying him. if they talked in all caps, cussed at you, or didn’t stop bothering you, i’m sorry they’re just trying to get you to realize how racist your books are, which you keep refusing to believe. i can believe that a few of them were doing it for attention, but it couldn’t be the majority. and my god, god forbid people want you to write your books the way you preferred, without racist stereotypes. 🙈

you can set your boundaries but you keep ignoring the people, you don’t listen. like you put yourself out there as a writer you are open to criticism

why does he keep doing this to seem like the good guy. you give excuses and don’t do anything and just say that its up to you, you can think whatever you want 🥰🥰. like its such an obvious excuse not to take any action.

i’m sorry but no matter how many muslims you’ve interacted with you haven’t gotten the full experience and last time i checked teachers aren’t the kids best friends soo uhm. anyways the rest of it is just him telling his experience with muslimah students so its just there.

so uhm you just said your students ‘unwillingly’ become an ambassador to everyone she knew’. and then you went to talk to them about islam to make sure you were TEACHING THEM YOUR SOURCE MATERIAL CORRECTLY. i’m sorry imagine. these are kids not some scholars you go to consult. there are so many muslims all over the internet and youtube sharing their experiences for you to access on how to ‘represent their experience’ correctly. you’re the teacher here. picture this:as a muslilm, i teach at a public school and while teaching about Christianity in class, no i would double check or some dumb shit with the students. like educate yourself i’m sorry. anyways apparently he blames his mistakes on himself then goes on to deny he ever made any mistakes i can’t.

so this is a blatant lie. 99% of muslims i’ve met have never read all of sahih bukhari and sahih muslim. usually only scholars do that when they are studying islam for YEARS. and FIVE different interpretations of the quran on top of that. ok so sahih bukhari is 9 books that are over 300 pages each and sahih musilm is 7 volumes with also about 300+ pages each. and then the english versions of the quran are 600 pages. and he claims he read five of them. i’m so sorry but no he didn’t. he writes books so fast and he released mcga around the time toa was being released almost one book per year so he did not have a lot of spare time. the rest ig i can let slide. also and if he did do all of that why does he make so many mistakes in writing samirah. and even IF you accept his excuses reading ALL of this source material is great for teaching your class or whatever but not for writing a modern day muslim. you don’t need to lie to us rick ❤️

most of this is just describing what she’s like but his writing did also add in the model minority, smart kid trope. like no they don’t have to be a terrorist or a A+ student who is the best at everything. there is a middle ground to their personality. 

i actually used to love his rep in sam. that’s how i got into the series. i saw a hijabi girl on his website. i got excited and read all of his books. i loved piper, leo, hazel, percy, annabeth, sadie, carter, nico, everyone. now that i look back i was younger and didn’t see anything wrong with it back then. its great that he tried to portray minorities but he did it so badly and now is just denying the faults that his now older readers are trying to tell him.

hey, uhm didn’t you read all of sahih bukhari and muslim? hmm i didn’t think so. anyways the way he dealt with it honestly wasn’t that bad. but the whole ‘whoops’. like why does he keep portraying himself as the innocent old white man just trying his best.

honestly how he wrote samirah as a hijabi was the dumbest thing i’ve ever read. its is totally fine if she wasn’t hijabi, many muslim girls aren’t, and that is their choice. but he decided to make her like a weird middle ground. it was so lazy and inconsistent. in the first book she says she wears it when she needs to, like in situations like going to the masjid. this was fine, since many muslim girls do that. then in the next books she wears it all the time except when she’s in valhalla for some reason. hijabi girls take of their scarves when they’re at home or with family, but making her claim the entirety of vallhalla as her family. that was just demeaning and stupid to me. it takes away its value. and i fucking hated that last sentence. for hijabis, their hijab is important and not a toy or weapon or a MAGIC ITEM. and then on top of that she would have to take it of to hide. he could’ve made it anything else. her hijab isn’t some token item istg.

i love how he admits that they are a big problem and abusive and usually engage with child marriages. i’m relatively he doesn’t understand what the people even meant by it. the practice is a problem that isn’t supposed to be seen in a nice light. the only possible way it could be slightly ok is that if ADULTS agree they 100% do not want to choose who they want to get married to and let their parents choose, and both sides agree. samirah was a child and he decided to make her wedding life decided since the age of 12. and it was ok because amir was conventionally attractive and she loved him. WHAT IF SHE DIDNT. this literally is a dangerous arranged marriage. and arranged marriages are not ok, and mostly perpetuated by victims of it who will end up passing it down their family lines. my parents got an arranged marriage and I HAVE NEVER SEEN THEM DISPLAY ANY SIGNS OF AFFECTION. arranged marriages are not a trope that your can turn around to be a quirky personality trait for your characters.

i’m sorry that’s not how arranged marriages work. most likely if she said something her grandparents would have shut her done and continued with the marriage, as that is what you usually happens. do not portray the small amount of consented, ‘happy’ arranged marriages as the majority. it is a huge problem that many desi/middle eastern cultures are trying to erase. even on top of that he writes situations where she’s going to be in trouble for acting up and ‘jeopardizing the marriage agreement’ and that her grandparents think she’s ‘lucky that she could get the fadlan family to agree to marry their son to her’. these statements are often used in forced and dangerous marriages, so don’t try and justify your actions. if you wanted to show traditional customs in a positive light, there are so many richer parts of samirah’s culture you could’ve focused on and you chose arranged marriage. 😻 all you’ve done is given parents and authority figures a westernized resource to justify arranged and forced marriages, especially with the minimal explanation on how the marriage isn’t forced in the actual books. and yes, your books do condone child marriage samirah is clearly deemed into this marriage ever since the young age of 12. she lived her life knowing she would marry amir. no one has only one crush throughout their life. imagine how she would’ve grown up. sorry you only consider opinions that align with those in you mind.

i’m going to be honest i did like that one scene it was written nicely and accurately but the explanation he gives just ruins the entire thing. the way he just if this strikes you as islamophobic, or samirah as a hurtful, uhm no explanation i just disagree 😽. the way you wrote her is a hurtful stereotype sorry you can’t see it.

oops, you did. too bad you don’t want to do anything about it.

why do you think people are painting you in a negative light, so many of your characters are written on hurtful and negative stereotypes. people aren’t painting it that way, you need to calm down w your ego and listen. dang i’m sorry your best is giving half-assed excuses and not actually doing anything. i’m even more sorry people are mad that a highly privileged author that has a lot of influence is done talking about his racist depictions of minorities in his books. 

dang must be lucky to take a break from the social media, imagine what all the minorities you wrote about have to go with everyday weather they are on social media or not. people aren’t bullying you this is valid criticism you refuse to listen to.

fuck you

obviously these are my opinions do not judge every muslim based on what i’ve said come to me if you have a problem with it

anyways support jewish, muslim, black, brown, asian, hispanic, indigenous, lgbtq+, disabled, and other minority authors and creators.

[eroticcannibal]

Yeah criticizing regulation is criticizing the restrictions placed that are harmful and meant to be harmful. Like someone said before, there's been a long history of minorities being forced into public schools to have the minority literally beaten out of them and public schools have been used as a tool of genocide. Plus, it's expensive, ND, disabled, lgbtq+, and students of color have higher rates of being targeted by their peers and staff, a lot of public schools are focused on testing rather than education, there's massive gaps in the education like home ec, mechanics, art, music, and sex education constantly being stripped away, the unreasonable hours, the rigid schedules, the across the board punishments with no consideration for the individual (unless they're white and/or rich :) ), and the constant monitoring and lack of privacy.

I mean hell, in middle school, when everyone is at different stages if development and kids are literally the worst at bullying others for it, we had mandatory swimming. You could only get out of it twice for a menstrual cycle (that was after a conservative mom threw a fit at them expecting her kid to use tampons because it has "bad connotations" but also, middle schoolers are tiny and even expecting adults to use specific products is wrong).

Anyway, there was a rule and you could get detention if you changed in the bathroom stalls instead of in the locker rooms. It also wasn't as if the lockers and bathroom werent connected. They were, and there were four or five stalls. Their excuse was "it would take too long" if people used them to change but like....

no, it didn't, and because swimming periods were two hours, they also gave "free play" time at the end which was 20 minutes and let people go change, and gave another 15 minutes when class was officially over. They could have had the rule that if you wanted to change in the stalls, go before free play is over, or provided curtained areas, etc. and the teachers supervising didn't go into the locker room until after class. It was just about conformity and being controlling. -castiebee

Yep, all of this.

I think a lot of people are just so used to the idea that children MUST go to school or else *vague badness* that they cannot see how harmful it is to people. They just think that's the way things are.

[cuomophobe]

I wasn't saying dworkin was this perfect radfem, I was saying that she's someone a lot of you value, because of her accessibility, that you mentioned, and that even she didn't agree with you. Dworkin is one of the best known radfems, that's what I meant. Now that that's out of the way....

1. The overwhelming majority of trans people would completely agree with you that biological sex exists, they just don't think that your biological sex necessarily matches your gender. It's interesting you've brought up what I assume is you referring to trans women identifying as female. I don't think you understand that oppression is not necessarily a fixed axis. I was pretty much born mentally ill, but the people who became mentally ill later in life, are not impostors that I have to pretend are as disabled as me. Similarly, I am just as disabled as a paraplegic, just in a different way, as my disability is internal, and largely invisible. I'm gonna level with you here, bc I have some experience with this. I've been an out bisexual since I was 8 years old, and I have had friends who treat my sexuality as a fad, and some of them have later claimed to be bi themselves. Its always left me with a bad taste in my mouth, similar to your thing about trans women, heterosexuals adopting and appropriating my lived experience, but it is not my place, or anyone's, to bully and harrass those people. They could well be gay.

2. Prejudice against trans people would be the simple definition, but tbh my issue lies with the harrassment and bullying culture of tumblr radfems. I'm a turkish Muslim, and as previously stated, a bisexual, and my wonderful aunt is the only person in my family who knows this, other than my parents (I live in the UK, so I can be out here, but I have to shove myself into the closet in turkey). My aunt is a old, Conservative, anatolian lady. She wholeheartedly believes that marriage is between one man and one woman. But my aunt is also a decent person, and while I'll never be able to unindoctrinate her, she loves me, the same as she always has, and takes a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to lgbt stuff. I'm not saying it's great, and in a better world, we would all be allies of lgbts, but you can disagree with something, and not be a dick about it. Even blogging has consequences. Would you say the people on 4chan are "just on an image board"?.

3. I know my friends, you don't. They wouldn't do that, for starters. In the unlikely event they did, I would say something, because that's the kind of person I am, and chances are, we would come to some kind of agreement, because my friendships are built on mutual respect. I'm still not sold on punching nazis, because I believe in effective antifacism, and to me, that involves helping people come to see that bigotry is as damaging to you, as it is to your targets. Terfs seem to genuinely live in fear of men and trans people, and as someone who did used to have a huge fear of one specific group, I can tell you right now, you're making yourself ill that way. You will never get your all female utopia, and even if you did, as I've said before, weird, foreign, disabled girls like me will be your punching bag.

To answer your thing about lesbian erasure, I actually do agree that it's an issue, and that libfems have largely forgotten about it. Terfs do have some legitimate grievances, buried under a mountain of blatant transphobia. The overwhelming majority of trans people don't have any interest in harassing lesbians though, just as the overwhelming majority of women don't abuse disabled people (I was severely abused by abled women for being a disabled turkish girl as a child, hence the comparison).

4. Nobody wants you to pretend that sex doesn't exist. Feminism can and does include all women, including intersex and trans women, because yes, there is such a thing as biological sex, but their also the social class of gender, not to mention hormonal sex, chromosomes, and all that jazz.

We literally just want you to stop being bullies. What is radical about being a bully?? And to marginalized people at that. Your anger would be better directed at the right wingers and pro lifers who a lot of you are in bed with. The tories, or the republicans, or the akp, or whoever your closest analogue are, do not care about your rights, and by conning you into hating trans people, they have made their jobs a billion times easier. Divide and conquer.

I'm happy that you're a happy lesbian, dating women, and presenting as you wish to, fr. A lot of us want sexism and gender roles destroyed too. What we don't appreciate, is bigoted vitriol. We don't appreciate desperate attempts to divide a culturally entwined people (the lgbt community). We (as in survivors of abuse perpetrated by women) don't appreciate your refusal to accept our lived experiences. Stop pretending we don't accept sex as a reality.

this is still one of the scariest things ive seen on tumblr. the level of manipulability here is astounding. there is NO independent thought going on

[alianoralacanta]

hi (this is no hate, just wanting to educate you) I saw your comment about not liking the word 'idiot' because its ableist ?

calling some one an idiot is not meant as an ableist comment. an ableist by definition is 'discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities and/or people who are perceived to be disabled' while calling someone an 'idiot' is an 'insult towards anyone perceived as incompetent at doing something'.

I'm not making any assumptions about your life or yourself in particular, but my brother suffers from mental retardation hence I would get offended or say people are making ableist comments when saying the 'r slur'. but calling someone an 'idiot' or 'stupid' is not ableist comment so please don't spread false info or make false claims because it is not productive use of advocacy for the disabled community.

but still if you feel I am in the wrong feel free to correct m, cheers ❤️

Trigger warning: discussion of ableist insults follows, along with material some people threatened with deprivation of liberty may find distressing. "Idiot" is ableist regardless of the intent of the speaker. Not everyone has the privilege of having only been called it as a phatic insult. Some of us have had the entire course of our lives (up to and including whether we were likely to be alive to have this conversation) changed depending on whether someone else thought we looked intelligent or otherwise. And the speaker didn't always know that was how their words were being treated. * - Phatic: a word used that isn't carrying any of the literal intent of the sentence, but is there for structural reasons. In the case we're discussing, the sentence really meant "I think that was wrong and the other driver shouldn't have done it", and the insult (which could have been any insult, and did not have to be that specific type) existed to carry the emotional heft of the sentence, rather than any meaning. With no insult at all, the emotional structure of the sentence would have collapsed - but any insult could have worked as structure). For anyone who did not guess from the previous paragraphs, one of the people whose lives was changed by the presence or absence of such labelling was me. I was allowed to go to mainstream school because I happened to have certain signifiers that made some observers think that I was "not stupid". Some doctors noted those comments and interpreted what they saw of me in that light (it was actually written on my case notes). Some other people with the same extent of disability as me had the signs of their intelligence missed, got comments that they were "stupid" or words to that effect, got sent to over-restrictive environments and... ...let's say not all of them would have survived to their mid-30s like I have. Nor did those environments teach the interoception I needed to survive that far myself. There are a number of words that are used in similar situations as "stupid". Some of them - the three used to grade that general category by Binet in 1911 (of which "idiot" is one, and the other two are "imbecile" and "moron" - ordered from lowest IQ to highest) and the alternate general category name (the "r-slur" are recognised by doctors as synonymous. I discovered this in secondary school, where people started calling me all these things, the powers-that-be started believing them, and I ended up threatened with restrictive environments again. Despite having among the highest marks in the school, having friends and managing about as well as a chronically-bullied student could expect. "Idiot" as an insult got used to attempt to put me on that life-endangering course, and none of the people who had spoken it had intended - or understood - that type of danger. Not even the ones who actually meant the insult as more than a phatic concept. (That these things happen in 2021 is less surprising to those who know that the original use of such terms in the 1910s was to judge which children shouldn't receive any education at all. Or that in the 1920s and 1930s, it was used to decide which children should be sterilised or murdered. The danger only ended when I was 17, had to get an official IQ test (descendent of those super-high-stakes tests) to enter an athletic competition (long story) and got a three-figure number. At that point, the authorities legally couldn't treat me as someone with low IQ, however many people called me names. But at times, it came close to nobody ever producing that paperwork, and me simply being treated in a life-threatening way due to suspected low IQ. It made me consider how people in those situations were endangered because people thought it was OK to use insults aimed at low IQ, and how utterly unsuited the test was to finding out anyone's intelligence regarding anything in particular. Thus, I know "idiot" is an ableist comment regardless of the speaker's intent through long and bitter experience. You might not see how using it in a racing context might cause any

problems, but drivers' careers have already been damaged, and occasionally destroyed, on less powerful beliefs. Maybe no driver will ever find themselves in a psych ward or secure school due to a rival throwing an insult, but planting insults associated with such places into people's minds carries risk to them, too. (Also to those of us who get such insults thrown at them, because it encourages others to do the same - and most people aren't as protected from the consequences of such ideas as racing drivers). Anon, I hope you have learned something from this. Your brother needs you to protect him from those people using intelligence-based insults of all varieties, not just the ones society has deemed fashionable to ban. Foosplaining a member of the disability community (one who's been the target of such insults with intent and not mere phatic to boot) is not the answer - making a more positive environment, to help everyone have a good life regardless of IQ.

[stardev94]

Miitopia Boss Idea

I just had this very strange idea for a post game boss. I've noticed that the Fiend enemies from that game don't have a boss variant. Allow me to be the first to introduce one in the form of the "Party Member" Fiend. The "Party Member" Fiend is a post-game boss that is unlocked once the Tower of Despair is unlocked. As its name implies, it is a Fiend-type enemy with the face of one of your party members, with said party member's eyes being red like the Fiends it is based on. It has 13,666 HP and awards 666 G and 40000 EXP when defeated. The boss's appearance is indicated by a cutscene where one of your party member's faces suddenly gets stolen and flies off to a random area.

The "Party Member" Fiend is meant to be a very difficult boss. When the battle starts, it has the following moves:

Attack - Slashes one party member with its scythe.

Magic - A weak magic attack that targets one party member.

Call for Help - Calls two other monsters to fight alongside it. It will use this move again if its allies are defeated.

Tempt - Attempts to lower a party member's guard.

One More Time! (auto) - Allows it to move twice per turn.

The possible monsters the "Party Member" Fiend can summon are:

Blue Minotaur

Banshee Brainbox

Clever Imp

Dark Griffin

Purple Woof-o'-the-Wisp

Deadly Demon

Elite Goblin

Healing Cloud

Hobgoblin Bully

Doom Shield

Doom Sword

Giant UFO

Blue Lizardman

Angry Queen

Black Harpy

Wild Running Nose

Ham Sandwich

Black Snurp

Rich Snurp

Very Rare Snurp

Delicious Snurp

The first monster pair the "Party Member" Fiend summons will always be a Doom Sword and a Doom Shield.

When at 75% health, it gains these attacks:

Magic All - Attacks the whole party with dark magic, similar to the Imp's Wicked Pitchforks skill. Bypasses Shield Sprinkles.

Curse - Inflicts a status effect on one party member. The status effects can be Nightmare, Terror, Aging, Cranky, Cry, Stone, or Excite.

Diminish All - Greatly diminishes the entire party's attack and defense stats for three turns.

Life Drain - Steals a party member's HP and makes it its own, similar to the Imp's Energy Drain skill.

When at 50% health, it begins using these attacks:

Deadly Magic - Similar to the Fiend's instant kill attack, doing exactly 999 damage to a party member. Unlike the Fiend's version, this version bypasses Shield Sprinkles.

Barrier - Projects a magic barrier around itself, blocking all damage for two turns. While the barrier is up, the "Party Member" Fiend will slowly regenerate health.

Disable All - Disables all party members' skills for the current turn and the turn after it.

Dark Vortex - Summons a massive vortex, reducing the entire party's HP to 1.

When on the verge of defeat, the "Party Member" Fiend will use a new skill known as Dark Explosion. First, the Fiend will gather a huge amount of dark magic. The party will have to quickly finish it off on the two turns it is doing this, because on the third turn, the "Party Member" Fiend will unleash a massive explosion that instantly kills the entire party, ending the fight in a loss.

After defeating the "Party Member" Fiend for the first time, it can be refought as often as the player wants.

[onthevirgeofdestruction]

Dreaming While I Wake

Sanders Sides Foster Care AU - Roman-centric Angst & Hurt/Comfort & Abuse Recovery

Roman tries to be upbeat and hopeful despite all the shit that’s happened to him. And a lot of shit has. Luckily, his new foster home is with two literal rays of sunshine (and a sarcastic asshole).

Words: 3,998 Warnings: Bad Teachers, Scorn of Peers, Violence Against Golems and Soldiers, Weapons, Negative Self-Talk, Negative Self Image, Playful Threats Characters: Roman, Thomas, Virgil Universe: Dreaming While I Wake Genre: Vibing™ too hard

Chapter 23

chapter 1 for new readers - ffn mirror

   Roman sighed and leaned back on the bleachers. It was dodgeball day, it seemed. He wasn’t the biggest fan of being hit by something unexpectedly, so not having to participate was relieving. Roman didn’t want to do homework or read a book to pass the time, like they allowed him to, because it would make him look like a major nerd to a ton of dudes with testosterone pumping and that was just bullying central. 

   He couldn’t use his phone during school hours, though. He’d just do it anyway if the gym instructor wasn’t watching. She wasn’t a fan of the doctor’s note at all and continued shooting glances at him. As if he would mysteriously heal or something equally miraculous. They weren’t all mean glances. Mostly just annoyed. He got the same from most of the other people in his class. He’d probably also be jealous of sitting out on dodgeball, too, if he wasn’t already.

   The gym teacher seemed miffed about the fact that the physician’s note was open-ended since Roman had to be cleared for exercise by a doctor. It was the same for any broken bone, but without a cast, people had trouble believing it seemed. This wasn’t Roman’s first rodeo with broken bones or anything. She was vexed she’d have to print up packets to serve as make-up classwork. Roman wasn’t aware you learned anything in gym class other than suffering, so that was new. 

   He wished he had the packets to work on already. She wasn’t doing anything other than lying back and ignoring a bunch of teen boys pummeling each other with dodgeballs, so it’s not like she couldn’t go into her office and print them up. Maybe she was attempting to make Roman stew in frustration for not taking part. If she was, she was succeeding fantastically. Roman was jittery and pissed off and generally in a terrible mood.

   Fighting slouching in bleachers was surprisingly difficult. He just craved to lie down and take a nap, but the classmates would hate him more if he did. So Roman persevered and watched from the bleachers, catching himself slouching when the soreness in his side got worse. He positioned himself up high enough up that he was out of the danger zone of dodgeballs, but that meant the people against the wall could see him clearly. 

   He received bitter looks from people who were out and sitting on the sidelines on the gymnasium floor. He didn’t understand the ire since they were relaxing, too. Roman would personally rather take a dodgeball to the chest than a steel toe boot, but life just didn’t work out like that. He tried to elevate his feet while he watched. He wouldn’t get much of a chance to raise them throughout today, and they hurt. It was still better than staying home again. At least they were finally well enough that he could walk.

   It was Roman’s bitter luck that Nolan was in his PE class and kept shooting him glares. This period was taking him forever. Nolan seemed to get progressively more annoyed at him for whatever reason. Roman sighed and decided not to look back. He didn’t prefer to accidentally start some kind of glare war. Roman’s left foot tapped nervously as he stared at the gym ceiling, waiting for the minutes to pass.

   When he noticed himself fidgeting, he was supposed to wear the gloves, but there was no way he was ostracising himself even further by doing that. He didn’t care that he technically agreed to a compromise over it not wearing them in school. He stood out like rainbow tulip in a dead lawn with gloves and a T-shirt. They weren’t as obvious with his jacket, but his jacket was white and the brown leather just contrasted it. Roman just couldn’t find a way to make it work. He had shoved the gloves deep in his backpack instead.

   He checked the massive wall clock in the gym as he carded his fingers through his shaggy hair. Roman had a bit of time to pass until history class. He had just sort of stewed in anger for most of the period, but his brain must have finally ranted out what it wanted to say for Roman to be capable of thinking about something else. He knew better than to challenge the times his head was obsessed with something by now. It was just easier to wait it out. Just another 10ish minutes of chilling on the bleachers to go. He was so bored it hurt, like a painful pressure gripping his brain and trying to open it up.

   Roman lolled his head back to the ceiling and forced his mind to drift instead of fighting it. Something fun. Something cool. Fighting off an army atop a dragon. A spectacular sword. The dragon’s flames were acid green and melted everything instantly. Roman leaned back on his hands on the next row up of bleachers. 

   He was fighting the magically animated golems of an evil tyrant. He fired a crossbow to protect the dragon as it decimated the golems below. The great iridescent black dragon was trying to charge up a blast when Roman was nearly thrown off of it by flying machinations that expelled ice beams from their torsos. He was able to catch on to the tail and pull himself back up, deflecting ice beams with his sword. The dragon charged up its power in time thanks to Roman’s defense, and the machinations melted into puddles far below.

   The dragon shot Roman a look, and Roman understood in an instant. The mighty winged beast flew close to the earth, and Roman tumbled expertly off the dragon. Roman and his trusty sword ploughed through the golem army, swinging wildly and protecting himself with well-timed blows and using the enemies as his shields. Roman approached the castle by foot as the dragon cleared out further golems around him. The army was dwindling, and they were successful.

   Roman turned his eyes to the looming castle ahead. He had to stop this madness. Roman reached out and the dragon’s great claws swooped down and grasped Roman’s arm and lifted him from the field of decimated golem parts. The dragon flew Roman over the moat and past the raised drawbridge, but ballista prevented the dragon from going any further in. Roman was jettisoned towards the outer castle wall to get him closer to his target. He rolled as he landed on between the crenelations, skidding to a stop to stand and fight the soldiers. 

   Humans were arming the ballistae and defending the doors, and Roman couldn’t bring himself to kill, so he sheathed his blade and instead relied on his legs to do the talking. Roman leaped about and kicked soldiers off the machinery, knocking them out in a few precise hits to disable them. The guards at the door brandished blades at Roman, but he reached for his crossbow and fired a well-placed shot at each, pinning the soldiers by their clothes to give Roman just enough time to breach the doors.

   The guards inside weren’t so easy, though. Roman had to take out his trusty sword once more to defend himself. He knew the evil sorcerer’s magic compelled them to fight, and they didn’t deserve death for the mistakes of another. Roman did his best to take the higher ground and send soldiers toppling down the stairs in the tower. He hoped he hadn’t harmed them too severely, but perhaps once this was all over healers could come help mend those Roman had to battle off.

   Roman ascended the stairs into an upper corridor. Massive banners billowed in the wind that blustered through the hall. The magic was stronger here. Roman had to resist the powerful effects that caused his head to swim in the aura alone. Things would be worse in the inner chambers. His boots clicked loudly against the cold stone floors as he dashed down the hallway. This area was suspiciously empty of soldiers and the smell was strange. It felt almost electrically charged. Roman ran into a dead end. This couldn’t be the wrong way, could it?

   He examined the hall further as he turned around. The walls were adorned with massive tapestries and sconces fitted with gems. The waste of the kingdom’s resources alone was ample reason to dethrone this monster. But his use of the forbidden magics propelled Roman forward to do what had to be done before the entire kingdom fell to ruin from the sinister arts infecting the lands.

   Banners and tapestries littered this hall, but a strangely blank wall between two sconces caught Roman’s attention as he passed. Roman wasn’t practiced, but he felt what he was looking for. He reached deep within himself and forced out the raw power within. With unrefined powers, he could do nothing skilled, but he could break a barrier. The illusion shattered and a strident cracking sound shook the hallway. One minor success wasn’t enough to celebrate, though. Roman was here for one reason alone. He scaled the stairs that were obscured by the now broken barrier two at a time as he pushed deeper into the belly of the beast.

   The staircase narrowed and Roman sprinted with all of his being to escape the shrinking passage, staying ahead of the walls cinching shut behind him. This dark sorcery could try to deflect him, but Roman was quicker. He raced up the stairs and cleared into a new chamber just as it was becoming too narrow to traverse. Roman stumbled in, his bearings shaken by the sheer intensity of the tainted aura encasing the chamber. This would be his most challenging battle yet.

   He straightened his back and locked eyes with the dark sorcerer upon his despicable throne. The entire room shook with the sorcerer’s booming, sinister laugh. Roman drew his blade and stood his ground. He wouldn’t show weakness now. Now that the final battle was here, he had to stay strong. He couldn’t afford an ounce of fear as he slowly approached the villain’s throne as the ominous wind howled all around them. Then the bell rang and Roman tumbled back on his bench from the shock. Shit.

   Roman grabbed his backpack and left as fast as he could safely stand down the bleacher stairs. The students down on the wood gymnasium floor weren’t familiar, however. And even the wrong age group. Son of a bitch, did he miss lunch? Stupid ridiculously short lunch periods! He was late for class. Goddammit, he didn’t even get to defeat the evil sorcerer!

   He wasn’t surprised nobody told him or anything, but he couldn’t exactly be a speed demon on his healing feet. Roman knew if he stepped the wrong way he’d get stuck at home a few days again and he wasn’t risking it. He also didn’t need detention for running. Roman went as hastily as he could manage to his history class. 

   He’d rather be back in the castle than history, but he could never get a daydream back once he lost it. That meant that particular kingdom was doomed to fall to the taint of the forbidden magic under the rule of a tyrant. He was at least lucky he ended up daydreaming instead of sitting there and being bored for the whole period.

   Roman pushed the classroom door open as quietly as he could achieve, but a classroom’s worth of eyes landed on him as he arrived. He flinched at all the unwanted attention and headed for his seat.

   “Detention, Mr. Reinhart,” The teacher drolled as Roman slid into his desk. Son of a bitch. Roman was fated to detention either way. He had so much homework though, it wouldn’t make a difference if he started it in after-school detention or if he did it at home. Roman may as well do it today, just to have it out of the way. 

   The teacher’s voice droned on as Roman got out the things listed on the board and struggled to follow the lecture. It felt like the words went right into gibberish land when he attempted to focus on them, so Roman had to find the careful balance between focused and distracted without slipping into another daydream every class. It was annoying as hell.

   He tapped his fingers on his thigh and started doodling stars in the margins of his notes. Other than clearly jumping in the middle of a lecture, he could start to try to pinpoint things that sounded important to take notes on. People, years, locations, quick event summaries, and concepts that were generally interesting. Teachers liked to use kinds of things those on tests. Missing part of the lecture was nothing new for Roman, anyway. His notes were always a scattered mess out of context, but if he managed to label an overarching category, he could usually understand them.

   Roman was sketching a bobcat jumping between the stars when the bell finally rang again. He traded his homework for a detention slip at the teacher’s desk and left the classroom in a huff. That dragon with the awesome super hot flames would totally eat that teacher for breakfast. He wished to know more about those tapestries, too. He had lots more notes to fail to take and pages of homework to turn in, though, even if he could get a daydream back.

   If Patton didn’t help him on Sunday Roman didn’t think he could have possibly done all the homework he had gotten over the 3 days he was out. It was like the school was trying to kill students with mountains of paper. How many trees did academia kill every year, anyway? Probably a horrific number he shouldn’t look up and depress himself further with. He couldn’t stop thinking about that daydream. Those golems made such a cool noise when they died, damnit. He’d probably give up and attempt to bring the daydream back next class.

—

   Roman sighed with relief when his eyes met with the couch as he arrived at the house that afternoon. His feet were sore as shit and he wanted to put them up more than anything. Stupid fresh skin, not hardened to the brutal reality of life yet. He felt it every time the skin on his foot bent. 

   He slid his backpack under the coffee table so no one would trip over it and kicked off his shoes to lay back on the couch. Bed might be better, but couch . Sure, he seemed like he lived there lately, but right now home was wonderful. Roman buried his face under a throw pillow and sighed with relief as blood shifted out of his feet and he was no longer opposing gravity to keep a straight spine. Good posture was hard.

   “Roman?” Thomas asked, and it sounded like he came into the living room from his office. “Oh, there you are. I was wondering where you were. You didn’t answer your texts,” He said, sounding concerned. Whoops. He felt a little bad for worrying Thomas.

   “Sorry, after school detention,” Roman said plainly, flipping his hand. “Hadn’t taken my phone off silent yet,” He explained from behind the cushion.

   “Detention? For what?” Thomas asked curiously.

   “I was late to history,” Roman responded blithely as he flopped his arm loosely off the couch.

   “Because you couldn’t move quickly enough? Those heartless-” Thomas sounded surprisingly pissed. He’d seen Thomas being irate before, but this was new and a little scary, if he was honest with himself. He knew it wasn’t about him , but all angry adults made him want to run. He needed to cut Thomas off.

   “I was late because I was an idiot and spaced out waiting for gym to be over, not because I couldn’t get there on time in the stupid 8 minutes they give you,” Roman interjected quickly. Thomas settled down fast, thank god, and just looked concerned again. He was used to ‘concerned’ from Thomas. That was fine. Roman settled down again, sinking the tension from his muscles back into the couch. He was hungry and thirsty but didn’t feel like getting up. He didn’t even feel like getting up to play games. Though he had at least another hour of homework and shouldn’t play anyway, or he’d forget to do it.

   “Were you-” Thomas started and Roman had a feeling he knew where this was going.

   “I was fine. I was just daydreaming and didn’t hear the first bell go off,” Roman cut him off to explain.

   “How did you not hear ?” Thomas asked, bordering on disbelief and befuddlement.

   “Daydreaming, remember?” Roman reminded him, unsure why Thomas was confused. Had he never gotten caught up in a daydream before? It happened to Roman every few days, it seemed.

   “And nobody told you?” Thomas asked, furrowing his eyebrows. What kind of school did Thomas go to where people looked out for you? Geez.

   “I’m lucky I didn’t get pelted with a dodgeball. It’s fine. The detention is already done, and I did some homework in it,” Roman shrugged lazily. “Detention isn’t much of a punishment when you have nothing better to do. There was a stoner in there just doing zen finger crochet for the whole hour. It was amazing. I think I learned how to do it just by watching him. I’ve only ever used a hook,” Roman said, still feeling very impressed by how he didn’t stop or do literally anything else. Roman’s gesturing knocked the throw partially off his face and he didn’t bother to move it back.

   “I… suppose that’s a good way to look at it. Is there something we can get so you can have more fun at home?” Thomas proposed, sounding awkward. Roman had no idea what he could feel awkward about, though, and he certainly wasn’t giving Thomas any money-spending ideas.

   “And make detention suck worse for the next time I mess up?” Roman lilted airily and let out a single dark laugh.

   “ Roman ,” Thomas responded firmly, crossing his arms and furrowing his brows. He had a surprisingly intense gaze for a dumb joke.

   “What? It was a joke,” Roman replied dryly with a small huff.

   “I don’t appreciate that you made the assumption that you’ll inevitably mess up,” Thomas sounded upset and shook his head lightly, looking pointedly at Roman.

   “Well, it’s the one constant in my universe, so why not embrace it?” Roman sighed and flipped his hand dismissively close to the floor, feeling too lazy to move more than that.

   “ Roman ,” Thomas chided. Roman rolled his eyes that were partially skewed by the pillow.

   “Fine, whatever. I don’t need anything. I’m sorry, that was in poor taste or something,” Roman conceded. He was too tired to argue.

   “Why are you shaking? I didn’t scare you, did I?” Thomas asked quickly in a concerned tone. Roman furrowed his eyebrows and threw off the throw pillow to look at his hand.

   “Oh, huh,” Roman commented blithely, watching his hand slightly tremble. “No, you didn’t startle me. I’m okay, I’m just fu-frickin’ tired. That happens often, I don’t know why. I assume it’s my crap sleep,” Roman explained and his hand sagged back down.

   “Good catch, kid,” Thomas chuckled weakly. “I’ll make you some tea, maybe that will help?” Thomas said, not sounding sure but hopeful nonetheless.

   “You don’t need to do anything for me, like I said it just kind of… happens,” Roman shrugged and laid his arm over his eyes.

   “I’ll make myself some tea, too,” Thomas said lightly and headed to the kitchen. Roman huffed, but he wouldn’t mind some tea. He could make it himself without bothering Thomas, but if Thomas was already doing it for himself, then maybe that wasn’t a big deal and he could let it go.

   Something was unsettling about laying his arm over his eyes, so he returned it to limp noodle status and stared at the ceiling instead. He wondered how Remus was doing. He also wondered what Virgil was doing holed up in his room again. Virgil had that laptop. Maybe he did something on that all day. Being allowed to use the TV here was awesome, but Roman got the draw of hiding in your room with the door closed. The living room was open and a central part of the residence. Lying around in the living room for nearly a week made him much more comfortable here, though. Thomas and Patton were worrywarts, but they were… nice. Being out here was okay sometimes. He didn’t want to push it, or anything.

   Thomas came back out into the living room and slid a mug of tea on the side table near where Roman was laying and he sat down nearby with his mug, holding it in his hands and looking like he was sniffing it. Roman caught a whiff of the tea while he passed, and it smelled like vanilla and spices, which smelled relaxing.

   “I feel like playing something kind of silly. Do you want to join me?” Thomas looked over to Roman with a small smile.

   “Um, yeah, sure,” Roman nodded and slowly shifted himself to sit up on the couch again, putting his feet up and sitting sideways. “I’ll go lay in your office, or something, you don’t have to stay out here to watch me,” Roman offered nervously. He had fun playing with Thomas last time, and Thomas knew when to stop so Roman wouldn’t end up playing forever on accident and forget his homework.

   “No, I hit a roadblock with writing. I need to take a break before I fry my brain. We cook stuff together in this game, it’s kind of fast-paced but it should be fun,” Thomas responded brightly, getting up to grab the controllers. “The game is kind of hard with just two, so inviting Virgil might help. Will you text him?” Thomas asked, slipping out another controller from the charging station. He passed off a joycon to Roman with a smile. Roman nodded and invited Virgil to play with them.

   “Do you think he wants to?” Roman asked carefully.

   “It never hurts to ask. It’s nice to feel included even if he’s busy with something,” Thomas said, settling down on the couch again. That was a nice thought, but Roman didn’t like it when people shot him down when he invited them to things. Roman watched his phone uneasily while he waited for a response. Virgil normally texted back quickly. Virgil sent back a thumbs up and came down the stairs a moment later.

   ‘I will kick your ass,’ Virgil signed with a smug smile, backing up into the couch and climbing up to the top. Thomas tossed him a joy-con and smiled brightly.

   “Okay, one sec,” Thomas said and straightened his hair while the game loaded. “Cool. Pick your characters here. Make sure they look different enough you don’t get confused. Patton had that problem,” Thomas chuckled. Virgil picked a vampire, Roman chose a dragon, and Thomas picked a unicorn. Roman was amused they all chose supernatural avatars. Virgil stared at the loading screen in confusion for a moment where it showed the map.

   ‘Wait, co-op?’ Virgil fingerspelled and narrowed his eyes at Roman. Roman held up his hands and shrugged.

   “What’s wrong, Virgil?” Thomas asked, noticing Virgil’s glower.

   “I suppose I should have specified this wasn’t a versus game,” Roman replied, glancing between Virgil and Thomas and chewed his lip.

   “It’s fun, just give it a shot. A few levels and we can switch to a fighting game if you don’t like it,” Thomas offered. Virgil considered it for a second and nodded in agreement, turning toward the TV and looking intense. Roman liked that compromise, as well. He hadn’t played a fighting game in a long time and couldn’t wait to show Virgil he’d need a lot more than determination to beat him.

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