#but not when it would actually negatively affect her

[cannoli-reader]

She did not actually save any of them from Trollocs. She saved other people in the village, but Rand made it from his isolated farmhouse home, to the safety of the village, while transporting a wounded man, with zero help from anyone. And there is no evidence that his wounds after the bubble of evil were life-threatening. If they were, her deciding to pick that moment to demand he contribute by embracing the Source, was criminally irresponsible. That this is the first Healing incident where she decides to experiment with a new technique, which means her Healing was largely cosmetic and not emergency work.

In The Shadow Rising, more than any other point in the series, Moiraine is basically trying gaslight and neg Rand, to make him think he is ignorant and incompetent and his decisions are all wrong, in order to make him dependent on her. Her goal in Rand's bed chamber is not saving his life, but making Rand feel inept and that he needs her. Because her contribution to the overall mission to this point, while important, is greatly exaggerated, and Rand is starting to figure that out. Even the "he almost died" line in the next chapter is part of her attempts to make the Wondergirls believe he needs her, so they will listen to her for his sake, and add their two cents to her arguments. He almost died because of the bubble of evil, which he handled himself, but Moiriane frames it among his shortcomings to make it seem like her initial impression on arriving in his room, that it was self-inflicted harm through his own ignorance.

Moiraine might have impressed on Rand the importance of leaving home, and served as a useful tour guide to get them to Baerlon and beyond, but she also took them into Shadar Logoth, gave them way too little information, and was already starting to alienate them with her arrogance. After Shadar Logoth backfired in entirely predictable ways, they survived on their own again, with the help of Elyas and Thom. In rescuing Perrin & Egwene from the Whitecloaks, Moiraine was the distraction, while Nynaeve & Lan did the important work. And the wolves were cooperating, so they'd have had a distraction without Moiriane. On reuniting in Caemlyn, Moiraine again resumed her guide function, but again, once at the Eye of the World, when important stuff started going on, she didn't affect the outcome very much. It was all Someshta and Rand.

She then alienated Rand further by holding him at arm's length right when he was most amenable to guidance, because her first loyalty was to the White Tower, and it was Siuan's call on when & how to handle the revelation that he is the Dragon Reborn. She was shrewd enough to realize that they had to take a more laisez-faire approach with Rand at first, at least until he was introduced to the world as the Dragon Reborn and then their institutional power would shackle him, but that means everything in tGH was Rand's doing, not hers. Then, in tDR, her excuses and prevarications meant to curtail Rand's agency implode and he takes off on his own, and makes his way to Tear successfully.

It's also important to note that while she killed Bel'al, it was Rand ditching her that made is possible. Bel'al was clearly aware of her presence in Tear, but because Rand was out of pocket, he could not afford to leave Callandor alone to deal with Moiraine himself. Instead, he had to subcontract that job to the Black Ajah, who, with typical Aes Sedai arrogance, assumed no one would dare enter her rooms before her, and Faile sprung the trap instead, leaving Bel'al free to deal with Rand, or so he believed. If she had come to Tear with Rand, Bel'al could have struck with the initiative, to remove Rand's companions and take him to the Heart of the Stone to draw Callandor. And then, of course, Rand saves Moiraine from Ba'alzamon.

In Tear, despite her own presentation of events, Moiraine is not in the right. Joyia's point about Moiraine's ignorance of the meaning of the Prophecies is well-taken, and Elayne is the PoV character for her lecture to the girls for a reason - because she has the political training to see the flaws in Moiraine's rationalizations, as opposed to Nynaeve, whose intuition is a great bullshit detector, but not exactly a precision instrument, or Egwene, who laps it up whole.

Moiraine's intention is to crudely force an interpretation of the Prophecies to basically do what seems like the obvious conventional wisdom course of action in Rand's situation - accrue more power by conquest, in this case, of Illian. Two nations who are sufficiently evenly matched that neither has managed to get an upper hand in a thousand years of butting heads, going into a war of conquest is an extremely dicey proposition, especially given how self-serving and unreliable the Tairen leadership is, and that they'd be going up against a master of defensive warfare, and a man more knowledgeable and experienced at channeling than anyone in the Tower, let alone Rand. She is counting on Callandor to make up the difference, and does not have enough respect for Rand to trust what he can sense about the flaws in the Sword That Is Not A Sword.

Most damning, she completely writes off the Aiel, because she doesn't understand them and cannot get a handle on them. One of the most widely known Prophecies of the Dragon is discovered to refer to the Aiel, but this does not cause her to reassess her knowledge of the Prophecies and what Rand needs to do one bit. She goes on to actively discourage Rand from pursuing, and then exercising the authority of the Car'a'carn, because it is power she and more importantly, the White Tower, cannot control or withhold from Rand.

A more conspiracy-minded person might wonder if the predictably disastrous outcome of a war against Illian, with both countries depleted by the fighting, and the country in ruins from Rand nuking Sammael with Callandor, isn't a feature, rather than a bug of her plan, because it would cement Rand's image to the rest of the world as a figure of fear, whom they would need the Aes Sedai to protect them from, and also make him reliant on the Tower's resources and influence, rather than his own overwhelming military power, to get the other nations behind him. For sure, she does not want Rand to have overwhelming military power, vis a vis the Aiel, because the Tower's more subtle strings of influence tend to be ignored when it is a choice between their tugging and imminent military conquest.

Moiraine (and Siuan) is the face of the Establishment, which is what Rand has to break away from, because the influence of the Establishment is what has human civilization circling the drain at the end of the Age. Moiraine and Siuan are taking the exact wrong approach to dealing with the approach of Tarmon Gaidon, which relies on the extant power structure and lines of command and control. The Pattern does not care about institutions, borders or agreements between authority figures. It cares about all of humanity pulling together. Where the institutions and alliances can make that happen, great (which is the role the Wondergirls play in the metaphysical struggle). Where they get in the way, the Pattern has loosed three ta'veren on the world to burn it down.

Moiriane helps, like everyone does, but Rand is not nearly that dependent on any single person. He is the champion of humanity, and every human being who does their own part contributes just as much to his victory as Moiraine did. By the logic of "Moiraine saved Rand's life (if she did), therefore, she deserves credit for all he accomplishes" the al'Thors deserve far more, because they saved his life first, from the imminent death by exposure to which he was subjected at birth, thanks to the circumstances set up by his Tower-trained, Aes Sedai-influenced, ji'e'toh-embracing, royal-born & palace-raised bio-mother. All the institutions of the Establishment left him naked and alone in the snow, and a family looking for someone to love saved him and raised him to be a man who can save the world.

Can we please acknowledge how many lives Moiraine has saved?

1: Rand al’Thor. Trollocs would have eaten him in Edmond’s Field. She later Healed him in the Stone of Tear after a bubble of evil. 2: Matrim Cauthon. See Rand al’Thor. 3: Perrin Aybara. See Rand al’Thor and Matrim Cauthon. 4: Egwene al’Vere. See former three. In addition, Egwene was born with the spark. Only one out of four women survive. 5: By saving Rand al’Thor, Moiraine saved the entire world.

Moiraine saved the world, but all the credit goes to Rand.

Moiraine.

[funhouse-mirror-barbie]

in an interview a while back, vivzie compared stella to beatrice horseman from bojack horseman. if you haven't seen it, beatrice's childhood AND adult life were awful but at the exact same time it's also very clear that nothing about it justified how she treated her son bojack - much like how bojack's own abusive childhood didn't justify the way he treated people. it just explained it.

we'll have to wait and see if viv can actually pull this off (signs point to 'no' atm tbh) but stella being written with this particular comparison explicitly in mind is giving me a little hope she'll at least try.

Hey, Anon! Thanks for the ask!

I’m really glad you brought this up because I had actually been planning a post comparing Beatrice and Stella because I find it kind of fascinating that the writers say Stella is similar to Beatrice Horseman. Because so far they’re really, really, really not.

In fact, the way Stella and Beatrice are introduced and developed as characters are inverses of each other. (Explanation below)

Beatrice is introduced to us as being unambiguously the one in the wrong—she’s so ridiculously abusive towards Bojack, her own son, that it sometime crosses over into pure black comedy. Bojack is clearly the wronged party here, as he was a literal child. He depended on Beatrice for everything and was met with abuse.

Even when Beatrice’s abuse becomes so over-the-top that it’s almost comedic, the audience still understands she’s in the wrong. We understand even though it’s played for black comedy, Bojack was clearly very negatively affected by the abuse, and that her treatment of him was horrific.

During the flashbacks to Bojack’s childhood in earlier episodes, the audience has no further details or information as to why Beatrice would act this way, (not that there’s any excuse regardless) so it seems like there’s not a lot of depth to Beatrice because of this. Season 1 Beatrice Horseman is a very flat character.

But after season 1, the writers of Bojack Horseman continue to develop Beatrice. In the beginning of season 2, we learn that Beatrice is aware of her abuse and how it affected Bojack and, in her own messed up way, tries to apologize to him. She acknowledges that she is a deeply flawed person, and acknowledges her own part in Bojack’s terrible upbringing.

We learn that she regrets the way she acted, that she thinks of herself as being broken, and she sadly admits that Bojack inherited this broken-ness from her.

NONE of this makes the abuse okay for course, but we’re given more insight into her as a person. As Bojack Horseman progresses, the audience is continually given more and more information about Beatrice that explains her in depth. We learn why she acted the way she did, how she coped (and failed to cope) with the intense trauma from her childhood, and how everything that happened to her affected her behavior and outlook on life, and how that in-turn affected Bojack.

The writers develop her from being a flat character to one with depth, one that feels like a real person.

In contrast, the VERY first thing we learn about Stella, before we know anything about her personality, or how she usually talks, or what her relationships are like, is that Stolas cheated on her. She is literally introduced to us as someone who has just been wronged, and presumably, hurt by her husband’s cheating on her.

I don’t think it’s unfair to assume that audiences immediately understand why Stella acts the way she does around Stolas in season 1. Being cheated on sucks. It’s a breech of trust, and extremely hurtful.

Unlike Beatrice, Stella is introduced to us as the wronged party.

Again, that doesn’t mean her actions are warranted or should be excused, but it’s very easy to understand why she is acting the way she is.

Due to this, while Stella still starts as a relatively flat character to b/c we don’t know much about her (other than how she acts directly after being cheated on) she has a lot of potential. The writers could have gone in lots of different directions in her character development.

So naturally, in the first episode of season 2 of Helluva Boss, we learn that Stella strangled puppies as a young child, was always mean to Stolas all the time even before he cheated on her, loves “tormenting” Stolas, and is physically abusive. We learn that since she was a young child she’s always been terrible and evil.

Any potential for some further depth to be added to Stella at the beginning of season 2 is fucking steamrolled by this writing decision.

Since S2E1, The Circus, Stella has been written consistently as being mean, rude, vindictive, and stupid. The audience has been given no further information on her, other than that she has brother who is smarter and than her, and that we should hate her for standing in the way of Stolas and Blitzø’s relationship.

Due to all of this, I have absolutely no idea how HB’s writers could possibly develop Stella to be even 1/8th as nuanced or “real” as Beatrice.

At this point, I think it’s too little too late for Stella’s backstory. Why would I care about her upbringing now? What important bit of information could the writers possibly give us about her past that would make her behavior understandable, or develop her character further??

I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE. But I can’t think of anything they could do to build upon Stella’s character after they already cemented her so firmly as a one-dimensional villain.

So. To summarize (TLDR)

Beatrice Horseman started out flat, and was developed over time until she felt like a fully realized person.

Stella started out flat, but with the potential to be developed into a more nuanced character.

Instead of being developed more gradually, like Beatrice, starting in season 2, Stella was written to be as evil as possible in all her appearances.

Due to this, the writers have made it incredibly difficult to go back and give Stella a backstory that will matter or explain her behavior in any meaningful way.

[sunderwight]

Thinking about an Arcane canon divergence AU where Viktor was actually sitting closer to Mel when Jinx's rocket hit.

Mel says that she wasn't really conscious of protecting herself & Jayce, and while that could mean that the magic just chose to protect Jayce too because of their relationship and her affection for him, I'm going to assume that since she must've also physically lunged in his direction that it was more that her self-protection had an area of effect that she was subconsciously able to extend towards him.

But with the two of them sitting further away, she doesn't make it. She gets far enough to semi-unintentionally shield Viktor instead, but Jayce gets blasted into the rubble, just like Viktor was in canon.

And this fucks Viktor up ENTIRELY.

He was prepared to die to destroy the hexcore, or at least he told himself that. He had been preparing for the eventuality of his own death for some time.

But Jayce dying? Suddenly? Violently? Right in front of Viktor? Just like Sky did, barely a blink ago, and perhaps even more shockingly given that they weren't even in the potentially-dangerous environment of the lab?

No. Nope. New plan -- when the medics tell Viktor there's nothing more they can do, then the hexcore is going to save Jayce. Viktor will make it save Jayce. Even if he has to shove Jayce into some kind of stasis pod modeled after Orianna's while he figures out the nuts and bolts. He tries not to think about becoming just like his old teacher. Mostly fails. Does it anyway. There's no one to really stop him, after all. Jayce's mother is also clinging to whatever hope can be found, the council is in tatters, Cassandra is dead and Caitlyn is thoroughly distracted, and Mel also has bigger fish to fry than whatever Viktor might be doing with Jayce's basically-dead body.

It takes Viktor longer to figure out how to fix Jayce than it took him to just come out of the cocoon himself in cannon. After all, he's mostly tailored his experiments to his own body, and also, he's got to deal with his own health problems at the same time. This eventually drives him back to Singed, to experiments with shimmer, and Vander, making test subjects out of the shimmer addicts desperate enough to do anything for another hit, using Vander to heal himself so that he can heal Jayce, and grappling with the immorality of it all. He always told himself that he wanted to help the people. But in the grim light of tragedy, all he really wants now is his partner back.

Eventually he does get Jayce into his very own Goopy Carbonite Block.

After that, though, I'm at a bit of a loss. What would the hexcore do to Jayce? I don't think he'd go the same route as Viktor, but obviously the arcane would have an (almost certainly negative) effect on him, and the hexcore itself seems to very much want to replicate and absorb everyone into it. Or are whatever "aims" it might have necessarily rooted in actual person interpreting them? Were the hexcore and the hallucinatory Sky only like that because things were essentially being filtered through Viktor? Would the hexcore's own aims change with its host? Or would it basically be the same but have more difficulties in getting Jayce to cooperate?

Much to consider for that part.

[laugtherhyena]

I need to have ibis taken away from me so that i stop expanding Ayame's family tree-

Quite literally the most random thing ever, at one point earlier this week i remembered this throwaway from Asoot's puppetmaster arc at the scene where Akane goes to spend the night at Ayame's house;

This was, obviously, done because back then none of us had any ideas let alone designs and character traits for Ayame's family, hence the need for an excuse to why they're not present.

Cut to present year where i went and made characters for her parents and thought back to this line like "Hey i should make that", since i wrote Bashira as a single child that means this is an aunt from Ippei's side of the family; Mai Hatano!

And hey i was actually nice this time around so she's actually alive post-tragedy :] so here's some general info on her:

-She's 9 years younger than Ippei, the parents were going through a rocky part of their relationship and the mom thought maybe having another kid could save their marriage but it really only made everything worse and the husband left around the time Mai was turning 2 years old.

-The deal is that the father as some kind of businessman that was having an affair with a coworker and would excuse him coming up late or not even back home by saying he was piled up with work and blaming the wife or being “insensitive about his efforts”, but she knew he was bullshitting and could tell he had someone else. So again, she thought maybe if they had another kid that would fix things but it only led to somewhat constantly arguing for over an year until he left with his lover and cut contact with the rest of the family.

-This ties into why later in life Ippei choose financial stability over following his music career, the family struggled quite a bit over the years with just the mom and two kids, they had to move a few times and Ippei even got his job as a waiter during his mid to late teens to help out with money. I guess this also ties into why he and Bashira planned so much to have Ayame, i think his parents married pretty young and inexperienced so he wanted to avoid that and have a normal family.

-On Mai’s side she felt like she was at fault for “ruining her parent's marriage” for a good chunk of her childhood and early adolescence. She's over that as an adult, though it did lead to her avoiding serious relationships with anyone though most of her life. At most she's had some flings/one night stands, but never a proper boyfriend or anything official.

-On top of that Mai is generally pretty bad at dealing with emotions, both of other people and her own. She has no idea how to comfort anyone or help when they're in some emotional turmoil or need someone to vent to, so oftentimes she is kinda just changes the subject or gives a pretty standard response of like “Damn that sucks” before doing so and proceeds to ignore the issue as in sorta of a “forget about it” way. (As you can probably guess, she's not the one to show her hurt to others for a similar reason. When she received the news that her brother and his family had died she didn't express much of a reaction at all at the foundation and only cried when she was back home because she did genuinely care for them, though her odd reaction gave the impression to some coworkers that this wasn't the case.)

-She is a very stubborn person so she doesn't talk to people about this problem of hers, much less seek help when it comes to it because the fact that she can't truly help the people she cares for when they need emotional support really hurts her so she'd rather ignore and forget than deal with her lack of abilities in the area. 

-Stubbornness and ignorance are notably her most negative traits (“I was never taught and I will not learn” sorta thing). This extends to circumstances other than her loved ones emotional needs because a lot of the time she will be dismissive or ignorant about certain things solely because they don't affect her directly nor anyone she cares for.

-That being said, she is very outwardly nice and shows care to others. Very chatty and outgoing, pretty much the opposite of her brother and niece since she can talk to people very easily. She's on good terms with pretty much everyone from Tsurugi's division and talks quite frequently to other foundation workers as well. Though she is rather blunt and says whatever comes to her mind at any given moment.

-Before the tragedy she worked as a personal bodyguard in Towa city, this busy and sometimes dangerous lifestyle led to her distancing herself from her brother a lot as they grew older. It wasn't anything intentional, just life bringing them in separate ways so while she did love her brother and his family a lot they didn't see each other super often, it was mostly during holidays, funerals or events like some of Ayame’s competitions or similar situations. This became one of her biggest regrets late in life as she wishes she could have spent more time with them.

-She broke her arm pretty badly when a client was getting ambushed and was set to stay out of business until recovered. Once she was dispatched from the hospital Ippei and Bashira came to drive her home and help her settle back, alongside doing some catching-up. That was the last time they saw each other.

-When the tragedy broke out she became stranded in Towa city because of all the chaos and the Warriors of hope hunting down the adults. Her arm was still broken then, but Mai is a rather reckless person and went around fighting despairs and rescuing other citizens in spite of her injury, which led to her injured arm getting broken and slashed in many other places which then led her developing a nasty infection that she just kept fighting on her own for months until she and a group of adults managed to leave the city.

-She was brought to a hospital pretty much immediately after by the group's leader and by that point she pretty much couldn't feel or move her hand anymore and the whole area around her arm gave her immense pain. When she started getting treated the staff tried to contact any family member which led to them contacting the Kisaragi foundation and upon informing them that she was in their care Rei requested that Mai should be moved to the foundation’s hospital facility, which was where she stayed for the majority of her recovery.

-There wasn't much Hikaru or any of the medical scaff could do to save her injured arm so she had to have it amputated to avoid further spread of infection, but at this point Mai couldn't even think much about the fact and just told them to do whatever it takes to make the pain stop. On top of losing her arm, she also became prone to infections out of how bad hers was.

-It was when she was recovering from surgery that Tsurugi came to speak to her, he apologized for the foundation taking so long to rescue her, alongside informing her how the place functions and most importantly letting Mai know that her brother and his family had died. It was only after he left that the weight of this information and everything Mai had gone settled in and, for the first time ever since the tragedy started, she cried.

-The thing is that unlike her brother, an overthinker who thinks ahead and carefully plans everything in life, Mai tends to throw herself into things head on just hoping that it will all work out in the end and while she's going through things she doesn't stop to think much about the details until it's over. So it was only as she was recovering in the hospital that she thought about everything she had gone through, everything she had lost, and for once tried to think of what her next course of action should be while going through these feelings.

-That being said, she never fell into a depression or took the loss as hard as someone like Keisuke did because that's just not the kind of person Mai is. Somewhat similar to her ignorant demeanor, her way of dealing with grief is mainly by occupying her mind with other things, like going places she enjoys or focusing on training and work. The last one being the reason she joined Tsurugi's division pretty much immediately after being dispatched from the medbay.

-Mai’s an action woman! She has a lot of energy and loves getting into fights, especially if it is to protect others, so it's no surprise she joined his division and not Rei’s or Teruya's. But when it comes to Tsurugi's ideals Mai is by no means a follower, she thinks he's insane, way too radical, but so far his black and white mortality hasn't affected her or anyone she cares for directly so she turns a blind eye to it, this is the guy who pays her after all. (This does change post Sdra2, especially after Keisuke almost shoots Midori)

-She was assigned to be in charge of the new members basic physical combat and self defense training, especially for those like Ryutaro and Keisuke who had no experience in this line of work before. This is part of how she ended up becoming a close friend of theirs, though Mai tends to treat Ryutaro (and Midori by extension) more like younger siblings rather than coworkers.

-The foundation provides her a prosthetic for use only during missions (by Tsurugi's orders). Mai doesn't mind that since she doesn't actually like having the prosthetic on, it feels more like a trouble to put on and use than it's worth, she much prefers not having one at all.

-On a similar vein, Mai isn't a fan of the work uniform, she finds it way too stuffy and clunky so she only puts it on right before going on a mission, alongside the prosthetic arm. Tsurugi doesn't take that well, as he sees it as Mai not taking work as seriously as she should, but she is one of his best soldiers so he refrains from picking up on her.

-Onto some more miscellaneous information. Mai’s apartment is rather disorganized and messy, but for her it’s fine because she knows where everything is, even if it's not in the right place per say. Bashira used to jokingly pick up on her over it.

-She’s also a pretty bad cook, can only really pull off simple meals which is why she's a huge fan of takeout and fast food in general.

-Back in Ippei's late teens/early 20s she was the one to keep pushing him to take initiative and ask out Bashira, though that help absolutely came alongside teasing her brother for being so shy.

-They were really close then, Ippei would even pick her up from school everyday n all. This strong care stayed strong over the years even after they started seeing each other less and less after moving out of their childhood home, and even less after their mother passed away from old age sometime around the late 2000s.

-She never spent much time with Ayame but oftentimes when she would feel self conscious about her lack of femininity her parents would mention how she's just like her aunt on that aspect

-Mai has her brother's collection of music vinyls at her place, she's not the biggest fan of classical music, but listening to it reminds her of him.

[saesyndrome]

explanation under the cut

I will preface this by saying that a few things act as complicating factors to this interpretation, not to discredit it, but in muddying the waters where things aren't super clear-cut. The biggest example is that throughout mockingjay Katniss is suffering from the long-term effects of having two severe concussions back-to-back, so her impulse control, ability to focus, etc. are affected negatively. So while I'll use some examples from mj, I'll have other examples to supplement them.

Here's a little infographic of audhd symptoms for reference. This is the best one I found in a cursory search, especially since most of them are like. Venn diagrams of adhd and autism which are less than helpful and not actually all that accurate to audhd:

So a lot of Katniss's actions are colored by impulsivity: holding out the berries, shooting an electrified arrow into the arena forcefield, killing Coin--none of which she does with the intention of affecting the status quo and even resenting the outcome of the choices. There are also impulsive actions like pushing Peeta into the vase because of a perceived sleight despite Peeta's confession only benefiting her, taking the earpiece out when Haymitch's direction doesn't seem sufficient. Generally, autism is characterized by a strict adherence to routine, which Katniss also obviously has, but she time and time again makes impulsive decisions with no regard for how they may change that routine in the long run. Even on a smaller scale, she does things like propose that she and Gale run away together, believing that she's thought it through because she's given the bare minimum consideration to his family, but in reality she hasn't considered how Gale might respond to inviting Peeta (nor does she even think of the possibility of Peeta wanting to bring his family). Even things like deciding to move into a compartment with Johanna are done without any forethought whatsoever.

Katniss routinely avoids anything that's troubling her rather than deal with it, so she's forced into a corner at the last minute and responds without thinking. We see this in situations like how she opts to just pretend as if Peeta doesn't exist as much as she can at the beginning of catching fire because their last interaction was unpleasant, when she pretends as if nothing worth talking about happened with Gale despite it fundamentally affecting their relationship forever, deciding just to not bother writing final goodbye letters to her loved ones, when she refuses to write a speech for District 11 only to blurt one out off the cuff, etc.

I also find that her frustration and emotional dysregulation is largely based on how others interact with her rather than being based primarily on external/inanimate factors that would contribute to overstimulation (although that isn't to say that she doesn't experience overstimulation at all). For example, we have her interactions with Haymitch wherein he acts like she's stupid or lesser, which is the instigating factor for her outburst in the first book where she starts throwing plates against the wall, we have her interactions with Finnick, Chaff, and Johanna that cause her to freeze Peeta out because she feels as if she's being made fun of and Peeta's in on the joke so to speak, we have her breaking pencils in District 13 when people act like she's stupid for not immediately considering Peeta to be a traitor and starts to become irate when she can't put the pencils back in the box.

Finally, with the disinterest/trouble paying attention, this requires a little more reading between the lines, especially when referring to disinterest in contrast to her own hobbies (not being interested in fashion, not making any attempt to try and develop another hobby besides hunting, etc.). She also doesn't seem to have the attention span to make any notes about the previous games, especially not in the comprehensive way that Peeta does, and her mind and attention wanders as Peeta does the illustrations for her father's edible plant book. In general, Katniss's narration skims over anything she doesn't deem important, but there are instances where information will be referenced as if it's been a prior topic of conversation that she admits she's forgotten. The biggest instance of this is in catching fire when Haymitch brings her and Peeta up into the dome of the district 11 justice building to reveal to Peeta that Katniss was threatened by Snow, and Peeta says that he's got friends and family that will be just as affected by their combined actions as Katniss's. I mention this particular scene because the only friend of Peeta's that's ever named in Delly, whom Katniss also knows and is implied to not be a current friend of Peeta's (no one in his family is named either). There's also the implication, because she doesn't relay them at all, that she doesn't pay much attention to the stories that Peeta shares with her during the course of the first games, in the same fashion she doesn't pay much attention to what her prep team talks about while working on her appearance.

Finally, after her first games and while stuck in district 13, Katniss seems to struggle a lot with being understimulated. At least a portion of the time (a handful of times during the course of catching fire), she seems to go into the woods just to end up coming home virtually empty-handed (or at least comparatively so) because she ends up just staring into the distance. She says she ends up spending a lot of time with Madge because they both have an excess of free time and have trouble finding anything to do. And when in district 13, she holes up in behind laundry machines and in supply closets for hours at a time, partially because there's a lack of anything worth her interest until she's able to get permission to go hunting.

Anyway once again there are complicating factors like I could also postulate on Katniss having ocd and bpd but uhhhh yeah sorry theres not direct textual evidence . let me know if you do in fact want page numbers and excerpts I was just trying to keep this from being too too long and I didn't want to give page numbers from the paperback books just for it to be impossible to find on an ebook or whatever. Hopefully this is cohesive enough to actually make an argument for the interpretation lol.

Oh also also I already referenced it but I do think Peeta has a decent control over when and how long her focuses for (doing illustrations for the plant book, taking notes on the previous games, etc), and he doesn't seem to struggle with impulsivity the same way Katniss does, generally having more of a grasp of the consequences of his words and actions before he says/does them. which is why I don't personally think he has adhd. shruggies.

"katniss and peeta are autistic/adhd" WRONG! katniss has BOTH peeta has NEITHER. if you disagree i require textual evidence as to why because i will be providing textual evidence in my defense.

[wonder-worker]

Wild how we know that Elizabeth Woodville was officially appointed to royal councils in her own right during her husband’s reign and fortified the Tower of London in preparation of a siege while 8-months pregnant and had forces gathering at Westminster “in the queen’s name” in 1483 – only for NONE of these things to be even included, let alone explored, in the vast majority of scholarship and historical novels involving her.

[jitteryjive]

i need to remake my cup bros ref… both cup and human designs… it’s been almost a year(?) and i’ve developed the headcanons and i would like to share with the class!!! (i wrote thirty tags. Please help me)

[pikonv5]

my job wants me gone so bad , like 1 month in and they have already brought out their no effort in communication and gaslighting full force, and telling me much of the work I am doing is wrong and accusing me of not doing the basic things like stocking, that I try so hard and am sure to keep up with being the only person working at a time? like if they are going to do this at least do it while i am on the clock..

[maxdibert]

We don't know what he was allowed to do at home and what he wasn't allowed to do. We only know that his parents argued a lot and that his father didn't like much. What we also know is that he knew more spells as a first-grader than other seventh-grader - why do you think? His mum was a witch, she was the one who made sure he could go to Hogwarts. The rest is pure speculation. I know many believe that Sev has become "evil" since J.K.R. posted the "Tobias was violent" argument online. I don't believe anything an author says about their work after they've published it. If it had been important enough to know that Sev was beaten up by his father to explain Sev's "evilness", then it would have been in the first published work about his character, because that's where it would have made sense. But since J.K.R. didn't include it in her works, it was either not the case that he experienced violence at home or it was commonplace (like punishment at Hogwarts), so it was logical and affected everyone including Lily, but was irrelevant to the character explanation. For me, it was always much more exciting to know that Sev didn't have an ideal home (who does?), but one to return to in the summer and not run away like Sirius. Nevertheless, Sev has become "evil". Why? There are deeper, more complex reasons than "...and by the way, he was beaten by his father."

First of all, I never said that Severus became a bad person because of his situation at home. In fact, I don’t believe that having a terrible home situation makes you a bad person, nor do I think that being attached to someone is synonymous with being a bad person. If we stick strictly to what is shown in the books, we know that Tobias was indeed a violent person. Whether that violence extended to physical abuse isn’t explicitly shown, but it is strongly implied that the relationship between his parents was quite dysfunctional. Add to that the fact that he lived in Spinner’s End. Petunia refers to Severus as "the Snape boy from Spinner’s End" in a rather derogatory way, and combined with the description of his street and environment in the sixth book, we can infer that, within an industrial town like Cokeworth, Spinner’s End must have been a pretty rough area. On top of that, when he meets Lily as a child, he’s clearly wearing his mother’s old clothes, so it doesn’t take much insight to conclude that he came from a very poor and unstable background. With that alone, he already has all the odds stacked against him to develop serious attachment issues.

And again, having attachment issues doesn’t make someone a bad person. It’s actually quite common among people raised in dysfunctional environments, especially those who develop anxious or disorganized attachment styles.

I don't believe that Lily had that. Her sister was jealous ... why? If the Evans were a functional and stable family as you point out, jealousy would not be there - it would have been understanding and respecting.

Lily seemed to have all the attention from her parents and was the golden child. If anyone suffered in that dynamic, it must have been Petunia, as we can infer from the resentment and comments she makes about her sister. It seems likely that her parents focused all their attention on Lily because she was a witch. Regardless, it’s more than obvious that Severus was poorer than they were and came from a more troubled environment. For that reason alone, he might have interpreted that Lily had something he didn’t. And I’ll stress again that none of this implies a negative judgment of Severus or his behavior.

I can't believe this - first I don't see Sev as an emotional deprived person, second he has other people in his life, he hangs out with as Lily points out in his memories.

Well, on that point, I actually disagree quite a bit. I do see him as someone who was quite emotionally deprived during his childhood. It seems that Lily was his only friend during that time, at least from what we know, and cognitively, our attachment styles are solidified during our early years and become more apparent in adolescence. Supposedly, he hung out with other Slytherins, but where were those friends of his when he was being bullied? The only one we ever see standing up for him is Lily—just her. We could speculate all we want about Mulciber or others defending him at some point, but if we stick to canon (as you pointed out regarding Tobias), all we know is that, flaws and all, Lily was the one who defended him. None of his supposed housemates are shown to do so.

I don't get what you mean, where did Lily "hinted that the bullying he endured wasn’t such a big deal"?

When Lily essentially insinuates that at least the bullying from the Marauders didn’t involve the Dark Arts, or when she says he should be grateful that James Potter saved his life, or when she dismisses his speculations about the Marauders by suggesting he’s obsessively fixated—that’s not something you’d say to a true friend about the people who constantly torment them.

So, because you work with such people makes you see Sev like such a person? Do you have evidence in the booktext that Sev as a schoolboy had severe emotional traumas or serious mental health disorders?

I never said he had mental health issues. However, he does have quite a bit of trauma—that’s undeniable. I mean, why deny the obvious fact that the guy has trauma? He literally comes from extreme poverty and endured bullying throughout his adolescence. How can you deny that? WTF.

I don't think, he was in love with Lily in any way. She was his childhood friend, s.o. like home, s.o. who grounded him, s.o. he felt loyal towards her and he could protect her. His very protective nature is often forgotten. Only since the films has Severus been explicitly portrayed as a lover. In the last book, first Voldemort and then Harry think Sev is a lover - the latter without giving the reader any reason as to how he came to this conclusion. I suspect that because of his past, his age and because he was in love himself, Harry could only see love as a reason to sacrifice himself for someone else, even though he had previously sacrificed himself for all the Hogwarts fighters - possibly unconsciously.

Well, I’m sorry, but without being a fan of Snily as a romantic pairing, I think we have to acknowledge that there’s a subtext clearly suggesting he was in love with her—whether it’s because we’re seeing it from Harry’s perspective or because Rowling herself confirmed it. That we might interpret it differently and many of us have concluded it was purely platonic or that there was maybe minimal adolescent attraction is another matter, but if you cling so strongly to the canon, you should stick to all of it. Because while this idea is more explicit in the movies, it’s present in the books too—let’s not play dumb at this point.

In any case, I don’t understand how your view that it was purely platonic is incompatible with my view that it was also purely platonic but rooted in the fact that Lily was clearly his attachment figure. If that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to have tried so fervently to maintain their friendship, delusionally ignoring the fact that it was deteriorating almost irreparably.

Do you think Snape had romantic feelings for Lily? What do you think about how main part of fandom associates his story only with his «undying love»?

I’m somewhere in the middle between those who think it was romantic and those who think it was platonic. I believe it was both, because the two can easily get confused.

To put it in context, I work with people who not only had terrifying childhoods and youths but, in general, pretty horrible lives. On top of that, most of these people have severe mental disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or similar issues where severe emotional deprivation has been a major conflict in their social and emotional development. That said, one of the things I’ve learned (because my boss is amazing and pays for training courses for the whole team so we can better understand the people we work with) is that people with severe emotional deprivation tend to choose, throughout their lives, one or more individuals as their “attachment figures.” Usually, it’s just one person, though this can change over the years since these relationships often fall apart. This attachment figure isn’t necessarily someone they have a romantic or sexual relationship with, but rather someone they unconsciously choose as the object of their affection. All their emotions are directed at this person: all their attention is on them, and they are willing to do anything for them. They always talk to them, are always attentive to what’s happening to them, always worry about how they’re doing, always share everything with them, and always count on them.

But because this attachment is completely excessive and unregulated (since these people don’t know how to regulate themselves due to not having been taught, nor are they capable of forming healthy emotional bonds because of terrible role models and deep emotional wounds), it also works negatively. In other words, if you are someone’s attachment figure and suddenly stop responding to their messages, they will demand an explanation. If you hang out with other people, they will demand an explanation. If you make plans without them, they will demand an explanation. Being the attachment figure is a substitute for the emotional role model that wasn’t provided in childhood, like parents, so you’ll face tantrums like those of children feeling they’re not the center of their parents’ world. To these people, you are the center of their world, and unconsciously (because these kinds of attachments are entirely irrational—it’s super important to understand that this isn’t something they do on purpose), they want to be the center of yours. When they realize they’re not, they explode. They don’t know how to handle it because their insecurity and fear of loss and abandonment are so overwhelming that they feel they’re about to lose their attachment figure. Since they can’t control their emotions, their response is always incredibly anxious and aggressive.

With that in mind, I think that for Severus, Lily was his attachment figure. I believe that during his childhood, he saw her as his first equal (a witch), someone he could share things with that he wasn’t allowed to at home, someone with a functional and stable family, someone who treated him kindly and was good to him. I think that, because of this, she unconsciously became his emotional reference point. I think he was entirely dependent on her attention, as many people with emotional deprivation are with their attachment figures. I also think that, because this happened during his adolescence, and because she was a girl, was beautiful, and was loved by everyone, he probably confused it with love, a crush, or something like that. Let’s remember that Severus had no idea what healthy or functional romantic relationships were because the only example he had was his parents’ relationship, which was probably a complete disaster. In fact, that’s why I think he never questioned many of Lily’s attitudes toward the bullying he suffered—because in his home, the normalization of violence was justified, and contempt between partners was the norm. So, when she hinted that the bullying he endured wasn’t such a big deal, it probably seemed normal to him compared to how his parents treated each other.

In my opinion, it was both platonic and romantic, but not romantic in a deep sense—more of a deviation from the concept influenced by adolescent sexual awakening and the fact that she was the closest thing to someone he cared for. But primarily, I think Lily was his attachment figure from childhood. And as often happens in these situations, the attachment figure doesn’t feel nearly as strongly or intensely in return. It’s not reciprocal—not because the attachment figure is bad or inconsiderate, but because this is something that only develops when there are severe emotional deprivations, which Lily didn’t have. Honestly, this theory fits much better with the idea that feeling even slightly responsible for her death was something that paralyzed him for the rest of his life. It wasn’t just about being responsible for someone he might have felt romantic feelings for, but also for someone who was like a sister or even a mother to him. For people like this, the attachment figure is all those things—they are everything. And it also explains why, when begging for her life, he didn’t consider anyone else—because, in reality, no one else mattered to him. For people with attachment needs, only their attachment figures matter. This can be complex to understand for those without severe emotional traumas or serious mental health disorders, but it’s quite normal if you regularly interact with people like this.

So maybe during his adolescence, he thought he was in love, because such an intense feeling toward someone of the opposite gender is always culturally justified as romantic love under the heteronorm. And he was probably sexually attracted to her, which is super logical and normal because, well, teenagers, hormones, and all that. But if we get to the root of the matter, I don’t think it was that kind of love. I think it was actually a more platonic feeling, one of pure emotional and affective dependence on her.

[13eyond13]

.

[gooenthusiast]

This is probably also why so many booktok/bookstagram-famous books are (imo as an avid „actual“ reader) shitty? As in ‚books written by 13 year olds on Wattpad make more sense and are written better‘-shitty.

I‘m not going bash people for liking to read or fantasise about toxic relationships, you do you. I don‘t like it, so I don‘t read it.

But I have no idea how people could stick around for an entire book of objectively bad & inconsistent writing and like it, without doing this parapgraph skipping/ only reading dialogue thing (aka not actually reading).

Do they know that reading is not mandatory? Nobody is forcing them to read?

[sillysiluriforme]

i gotta ask somethin' about the butterfly powers here, how does this affect the future when other people like Nino n Chloe get their miraculouses? like it seems sorta like Hawkmoth can actually know their location or at least have a vague understanding of who they are or like, know who's who considering that he can detect negative emotions and I doubt that the average Parisian regularly feels like they are fighting for their lives? would ladybug feel more careful to whomst she gives the miraculous?

oh yeah true someone should tell her !

[wonderjanga]

Marvel Physically Can’t not Smile

This is related to my Barely Human Marvel post from a while ago. In that post, Marvel is basically a being that looks human, acts like a human, but isn’t a human. (Of course, Billy is human, but his Captain Marvel form is basically a doll with flesh. I don’t think I even made him able to bleed) But, in this one, Marvel’s face is literally curved into a smile all the time because Billy’s last memories of his dad all consist of him smiling.

Imagine, Black Adam is beating his face in. He’s hitting the Champion as hard as he can, and they’re literally inside of a crater that was made from Teth hitting him so hard. He’s on top of Marvel and just hitting and hitting him over and over again, and during it all, he’s still smiling. The champions nose is bleeding, and one of his eyes is bloodshot. And yet, during all the punches he’s enduring he’s still smiling. He would be lying if he said it didn’t irritate him.

Then, there was Marvel’s first run in with the Joker. The clown had come after him after Billy met him while in Gotham.

//flashback//

Marvel: “Thanks, Batman. I don’t know how bad it would’ve been if that Joker guy got his hands on the Dream Stone.”

Batman: “Hn.” (Translation: Believe me when I say I know. Now shoo.)

Marvel: “Okay, okay. I’ll get out of your hair.” *hovers off the ground and is about to leave when he does a double take* “Is that a mecha?”

Joker: *inside of giant robot Joker, looking down at them*

Batman: *sighs* “Yes. It’s a mecha.” *pulls out grappling hook and makes his way up there*

Marvel: “Huh.” *watches him go before flying away to the rock*

//flashback end//

The Joker now has a bunch of people held hostage in a little cage that’ll be filled with Joker Venom. As of yet, the Clown Prince of Crime is having a bit of a hard time deciding whether he likes or hates the fact that Marvel is still smiling in the face of many people screaming and begging for help. He decides he likes it though when Marvel tells him that he’s simply smiling because his face was made that way. Now, the reason he likes it is because he finds that hilarious because of his random ahh Joker reasons. He even burst out into laughter when Marvel told him that. He laughed harder when he found out Marvel took care of the problem by inhaling all the gas from their canisters so it couldn’t be expelled anywhere. Though, he was a little bummed to find out the gas doesn’t affect Marvel.

Speaking of the Joker, we gotta talk about Batman. At first, he thought that the whole smiling thing was just apart of his character as Captain Marvel. Then, when he met Marvel he realized it wasn’t like a role he was playing, no, he actually smiles and is positive all the time. Then, he realized, oh wait, never mind, his face is just like that. His personality on the other hand was actually sunshine and rainbows though. After about half a year of knowing the Captain though, Bruce thinks he has a pretty good read on him.

Normal big smile (normally showing teeth) = happy go lucky normal Marvel.

Normal small smile (sometimes not showing not as many teeth) = only comes out when he’s tired but seeing as Marvel, and Bruce quotes, “can’t get tired” it’s extremely rare.

Small closed smile = could be still happy, could be upset, could be annoyed. Bruce has seen it’s more associated with negative emotions though.

Wobblyish smile = definitely upset in some sort of way. It looks like he’s trying to frown but he can’t. Bruce suspects that he could frown at some point but can’t anymore for whatever reasons.

Then, there’s the time Mary nearly died and he pulled her aside to scold her. The JL decided to spy just in case anything got physical. They were then greeted to Marvel yelling. Like actually yelling. They’d never seen Cap yell. And not only that, but he was crying. While smiling. And he has one of those little wobbly smiles too. So everyone knows he’s actually really upset at this. Mary yelled back saying how he wasn’t her father and how he shouldn’t act like it. He told her he wasn’t trying to be her father. In response, he was told to stop acting like it. This caused the man to sigh and soon after the two left.

The other JL members with kids were sympathetic, but the next day Marvel was back to being himself. (Mary and him made up afterwords)

[retroaria]

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 boyfriend nagi.ᐟᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

⊹ ࣪ ˖ another set of bf headcanons finally !! ⊹ ࣪ ˖

warnings: this is post Blue Lock, not a high school!au

BLUE LOCK M.LIST | enjoy 🌵 - aria

pre-boyfriend!nagi who spends weeks, months even, questioning what exactly it is he feels for you because he just can’t wrap his head around it. doesn’t know why his heart throbs when you say his name, why his hands get sweaty when you sit close to him, why he feels the need to lie about certain things to make himself look better, why he feels the constant urge to just fall into your arms and lay there forever.

pre-boyfriend!nagi who goes to Reo for advice on the matter only to be called an idiot and have his own feelings explained to him at his big age

pre-boyfriend!nagi who now can associate those feelings with wanting a relationship with you, it’s all he thinks about. he yearns for you so bad. wants to have you in his arms, nap with you, teach you how to play games, let you cook for him (and feed him lol), introduce you to choki, show you all his cool soccer moves. it makes him really sad that he can’t just have you already, and it’s gonna be a hassle to ask you out.

pre-boyfriend!nagi who isn’t ready to ask you out but still wants to share his affections with you. He’s very touchy, always hugging you, leaning on your shoulder, brushing strands of hair out of your face so he can see your eyes. Asks you to hang out with him almost every day, even if he knows you’re gonna be busy, he still has to ask just in case you can.

pre-boyfriend!nagi who realizes that holding his feelings in is way more of a hassle than confessing so he does exactly that. He’s very straightforward about it. “Hey, I’ve liked you for a while now. Wanna go on a date?”. If you say yes he’d probably just kiss you on the spot. He hasn’t even taken you on the first date yet but in his head you guys are already dating.

pre-boyfriend!nagi who takes you to an arcade on the first date, beats you at every game, but then wins you a bunch of claw machine stuffies to make up for it.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

boyfriend!nagi who asks you to come live with him early on the relationship. He has such a straightforward mindset that he can’t wrap his head around how you guys are together but not “together”, as in together all the time (if that makes sense). He has to learn the concept of personal space in a relationship and eventually even after you guys start living together understands why he can’t cling to you every second of every day. He’ll still try sometimes and gets sad when you go off to do your own thing but gets over it once he’s preoccupied watching matches or playing games.

boyfriend!nagi who gets jealous very easily, but not in the stereotypical sense. He doesn’t get mad or aggressive when he’s jealous but he’s totally the type to deadpan you with “do you not love me anymore?” If he sees you giving anyone else more attention than him. This feeling he gets isn’t just towards guys or even people your age, it’s anyone. “Why were you talking to that old woman at the store for so long? I was right there.” “Nagi, she was ringing us up, she’s a cashier, it’s her job.” He actually has very little reaction to other guys flirting with you because he simply thinks that’s a stupid thing for them to do and is confident you’ll reject them.

boyfriend!nagi who lets you dress him up, style his hair, do his makeup for fun, would honestly let you give him a tattoo if you really wanted to. His mind doesn’t have negative preconceived notions about many things, and he thinks it’s adorable watching you have fun with him. Really likes when you do his hair just so he can feel your hands on his scalp. Same with doing his makeup, thinks both activities are relaxing and hassle free bonding moments for you two. All he has to do is sit there and look pretty.

boyfriend!nagi who mentions you unconsciously all the time. Along with football and video games, you’re a focal point of his life and you’ve become integrated in almost everything he does or thinks about. So much so that when responding to questions and such, he’ll say “we” more often than ”I”. “Nagi, did you get a chance to watch that match last week?” / “Yeah we watched it the other night.” / “There’s this new manga that just came out I think you’d be into it Nagi.” / “Oh alright, we’ll definitely check it out.”

boyfriend!nagi who drops the love bomb very early on because if he had feelings for you strong enough to even notice or care about, he’s confident it has to be love. He has different variations of “I love you”, the most commonly used ones are groggy and drawn out, “love youuuu~” or “Mhmm, love.” It’s a pet name and a confession all in one, verbal shortcuts make life easier (nagi logic 101). When he really wants you to hear it, he’ll say “I love you” in full but repeatedly. Either while he’s burying his face in the crook of your neck or following you around the house begging you to forgive him for sleeping all day instead of the chores you asked him to do.

boyfriend!nagi who wants to put more and more effort into himself and his lifestyle now that he has you. He wants to be the best he can be, give you everything you want and need, show his love for you in a million different ways. It’s so bad that he sometimes cries to himself thinking about all the ways he might mess up the relationship, he doesn’t know what he would do if you left him, he’d just feel so empty. :((

boyfriend!nagi who clings to you at every moment that he can, his heart stings at the feeling you leaving his grasp even if it’s just for a moment.

boyfriend!nagi who is absolutely whipped and unafraid to admit it. He’s so open and honest about his feelings with you because it’s a pain to not be able to tell you things. Is constantly reminding you how much he thinks about you and yearns for you. So much love with this boy <3

[catgirl-kaiju]

something worth pointing out in the case of Tumblr CEO @photomatt 's statement regarding predstrogen is the very clear side stepping of the conversation being had. the ask he chose to respond to as part of his statement was asking about tumblr's transmisogyny problem, and what he is commenting on is tumblr's transphobia problem.

transmisogyny is certainly related to transphobia, but the two are not the same. i've seen plenty of trans folks who are guilty of transmisogyny and have even been harassed by such individuals on this very website. he repeatedly refers to transphobia and accusations of tumblr staff being transphobes throughout the statement, but never once brings up transmisogyny. perhaps he is unfamiliar with the term, but he could look it up and read up on it before responding to a question directly asking about it. he is very clearly not doing his due diligence in addressing these concerns.

he mentions tumblr having "LGBT+ including trans people on staff," but this is not especially helpful in assessing tumblr's transmisogyny problem. based on this we don't know how many trans people, whether or not there any transfem or TMA folks (who might understand the nature of transmisogyny better than TME people) on staff, what positions these queer people hold in the company, or whether or not any of tumblr's queer employees are on the moderation team. and it's understandable why some of these specifics are left out; you don't want to put any staff members in danger of being doxxed or harassed, especially if they're vulnerable marginalized people. however, it seems to me a gross oversight to not mention if there are any trans folks working on the moderation team.

i think it's also a huge misstep to focus on predstrogen so singularly when the conversation about her account being nuked is part of a larger conversation about transmisogyny. what this reveals, too, is transmisogyny playing an active role in the decision to ban her for life. one of the aspects of transmisogyny is viewing transfem folks as especially and uniquely dangerous. i'd like @photomatt to ask himself if he would have taken "threats" like the one cited as seriously if they came from a cis person or a TME trans person. really reflect on that, Matt. i also put "threat" in scare quotes here because, frankly, it's pretty clear that said comment is a cartoonish and outlandish example of violence used to demonstrate that the intent to harm is not literal. i do this all the time both on here and in real life. telling a friend i'm going to "maul them to death" over a minor annoyance is a comedic way of expressing frustration in a way that communicates it's not actually a big deal. saying something like "i want them to explode after falling down the stairs when trying to evade a falling piano full of knives" about a public figure or someone who is negatively affecting your life works as a way of demonstrating the intensity of your feelings while not veering into territory where it sounds like you're literally planning an assassination attempt. if you're reading this, Matt, i hope you can begin to understand the difference between something like:

and a real actual harassment, like:

y'know, all actual comments and posts i've received on this website, and reported with detailed explanations for why i'm reporting them but never heard back from the moderation team about the situation. i have no idea if anything was ever done about any of these people sending me bigoted violent messages because no one ever does follow-up. the only time i've ever received follow-up on a report was when i reported an account for promoting self-harm in the form of anorexia. that's it. one time in the over a decade i've been on this website.

how does all of this sit with you, Matt?

[parkersgnome]

⭐️Mima Rants⭐️

I remember coming across slideshow on tik tok this about a year ago, and even *I* (as someone who used to be grossed out by proshipping) thought was ridiculous…

This is the title of the slideshow.

Just a heads up guys, just like our favorite ships, None of these stories are real.

And if they were based on actual events, wouldn’t it make more sense to make a video about that instead of making up shit that never happened?

But, Let’s go through each of these as if they were real stories, shall we?

First one

“Caleb uses the internet to deal with his trauma”, Alright, I’m gonna stop you right there.

Isn’t “Staying off the internet is beneficial for your mental health” something we learned in, idk, fucking grade school? Cyber safety PSAs in middle school? Something that dozens of people have screeched from the top of their lungs since social media was invented?

Who the heck told him that being on the internet was going to help with his trauma and improve his mental health???

His feelings are valid, I get that. He has every right to be disturbed by Sage’s writings and fantasies. However, it seems that Sage isn't encouraging these actions in real life and keeps them strictly within fiction. As long as it’s in text or art, Sage has every right to express his fantasies.

Anyways, Caleb should seek a better therapist who can teach him better coping mechanisms like going out for walks, yoga, baking, or some other fourth thing instead of browsing social media where there’s a good chance he can run into something that makes him uncomfortable.

Next one…

“Jackie is 10-”

Yeah no no no no no no.. no… NO.

10-years-old. That’s, like, what? 4th grade? Shouldn’t Jackie be watching cartoons, playing with toys, or better yet, playing outside? Why did her parents give her internet access? Why aren’t they monitoring what their elementary schooled daughter is watching online?

If Charlie was going out of her way to promote this to minors then I would say she’s in the wrong, but this story never implies whether her content was specifically targeted to and/or letting minors come on to her account.

I've never seen proshippers create accounts specifically targeting children. If Charlie makes it clear her content isn't for kids, then it's not her fault if some random little girl she doesn’t know ends up consuming it.

If Jackie started to think this was normal, then it is her parent’s fault for neglecting her online safety and allowing her to access adult-targeted content at an age when media literacy is at an all time low.

The last one

“dEGenErates LiKE hiM 🤓” 💀💀

Once again, unless you can present to me a REAL LIFE incest/pedophilia case where proshipping was involved, this is not a valid argument that fiction affects reality.

Alas, we're treating these stories as if they were real. If Trey feels compelled to SA his sister after seeing writings or drawings of problematic ships, this suggests he’s likely an untreated mentally ill individual, especially since he can't differentiate fiction from reality.

What? If Trey played GTA V and started shooting and robbing a bank because he wanted to be like Trevor Phillips, should we consider banning violent video games?

As proshippers, we do not endorse real-life criminals and genuinely terrible people. The essence of proshipping is that all negative or degenerate actions should be confined to fiction. Understand?

End of discussion.

Anyway, as ridiculous as that slideshow was, please refrain from harassing or bothering the artist who made it. They have the same freedom of speech we do, and stooping to harassment and bullying wouldn't make us any better than antis who promote such behavior.