#but on a more serious note if I see the discourse on the internet going against Daniel for this incident

[rickybaby]

‘F**K THAT GUY’ - RICCIARDO FURIOUS WITH STROLL’S CRASH REACTION

[balrogballs]

hello, i'm balrogballs, who has regretted this username since the second i chose it. i post mostly LotR/Silm content ✨

I write, illustrate, and shitpost — under the cut is a list of some of my work, and a little bit more about me.

about me: i'm 27, mostly based in the UK atm but grew up and schooled overseas. i'm also a novelist irl (literary-ecological fiction), currently working on book 2.

as my day job, i work as a humanitarian advocate and travel quite frequently - so i have extended times on here and extended times off here. if I haven't responded to a message/tag for a few days, it's probably because i have no internet access and the blog is running off a queue.

pronouns: she/her

fandoms: LotR, The Silmarillion. I haven't seen RoP yet but I do enjoy seeing stuff from it on my dashboard! I enjoy a ton of other stuff too, such as obscure German detective novels, and weird conservation projects.

what you can expect to find here: the blog is called balrogballs, not balrogbrains, so just a note that i really don’t take myself very seriously and you’re probably not going to find much Serious Fandom Discourse. i do have my moments however!

generally though, the gulf between my writing and my personality has been described as “like meeting mr bean and finding out he wrote the iliad”, so take that as you will! re: 18+ content, i repeat, the blog is called balrogballs not balrogbaby, and i essentially use the word DILF like a punctuation mark, so again do with that as you will.

interactions: feel free to open a chat or send me an ask, check out my asks tag as well!

writing: here's my AO3 account. i write almost exclusively for lotr/silm ✨

here's some fics I'm proud of:

the sword tree: Maedhros and Celebrìan 'teaming up' to open a rewilding sanctuary in Valinor to help traumatised ring war returnees. environmentalism, pacifism, and hope in the face of helplessness.

cast in stone: a fic about memory gaps, found family, and holes in the archive. imagine that "who tells your story" line from hamilton except it's 35k words long and starring Maglor, Maedhros, Elrond, Estel and Legolas.

i enjoy exploring decolonial/ecological themes in my writing but i try not to be insufferable and most of my works have some degree of absurdism/humour. i also have a oneshots series called Elrond Peredhel and his Feral Children, a fun romp tackling parenthood in LotR, in which every child of Rivendell is fucking unhinged because their dad is a card-carrying weird little freak ✨🌞

art:

you can find my art tag here! I mostly do graphic novel style "illustrations", because I don't know how to draw anything else 🌞

I saw your work posted on ____, was that you?

Absolutely not — I use no social media aside from this and AO3 (technically I have an "official" account, but that's managed by a publicist and has no elves). I've had a couple of stories reposted onto Wattpad/FFN before — that is not me, so please ping me a link if you come across anything I've written that's not either on here or on AO3 as TimelessUtterances.

(If you came from the “i had to explain to my publishers why i wrote fanfiction about elrond giving lindir the battering ram treatment before they greenlit my first novel” post, no the goddamn fic isn’t still up). However, I do often get questions re writing/publishing from people who read said post, and I’m always very happy to answer these or hook you up with lists of resources, so feel free to ask anything on that front!

[vhaerath]

semi-organised thoughts on the new smiling friends episode

I guess this episode is kinda controversial in the general Internet sphere. I haven't really looked into the stuff that people like or dislike about it, but my friends and I had opinions on it because we watched it together and I figure I'll just get this out of the way in case the discourse becomes poisoned.

Let's start with the stuff I liked about this episode! I really love the general commitment to the bit of 'dramatic slow zoom on a character to let you know we're being SERIOUS and DRAMATIC' which is obviously ripped right off of Family Guy except Zach and Michael are taking the piss. It's always pretty funny when it comes up.

As usual, the character animation is always very expressive while being simple. I love the little snippet at the end where Charlie and Pim sort of elbow each other in a 'haha, you scamp, you got me' way. It's charming. This is what Smiling Friends always does well despite its commitment to terminal irony-poisoning; even if the character moments are meant to set up a joke, they do feel very genuine and provide a sense of pathos. Do you think Charlie and Pim ever explored each other's bodies?

Those are the two standout "likes" about this episode, sadly. I exhaled air at some of the one-off jokes, but it feels like this episode's humour was kind of weaksauce in that it couldn't decide to commit to sudden, shocking sincerity or really pile on the 'we're not taking this seriously and that's why you love it, fuck you'.

I guess the reason the humour feels like it can't commit is the nature of the subject. The writing of the episode is uncertain as to who it wants to condemn the most, and while the jokes are very on-the-nose (you can tell exactly who's a stand-in for who), they have just enough edge sanded off that it feels kind of feeble when they're made. Take, for example, President Jimble going to a press conference and inadvertently praising a bloodthirsty dictator slaughtering an entire ethnic group. This is obviously a dig at Joe Biden being Benjamin Netanyahu's strongest soldier, but the bloodthirsty dictator is a little cartoon character who looks like nobody in particular (or at least, he doesn't really look like Netanyahu to me). There's a brief cutaway to a bunch of little gnome people being brutally slaughtered by war machines, but the vague Bavarian aesthetic of these gnome people is distinctly the opposite of anything Palestinian, so much so I have a feeling it was deliberate.

To bring up Family Guy again, part of the reason some of Family Guy's old bits still hold up today is that they will tell you exactly who they're talking about, caricatures and all. They want you to know who they're mocking, no pussyfooting about it! I think Zach and Michael try to avoid this specificity in their writing because Family Guy jumped the shark a long time ago (and watching OneyPlays episodes where Zach features makes it pretty obvious he thinks so) and they're deliberately trying to shy away from "Family Guy"-ism. This is also why people like Smiling Friends, because it's not just another played-out adult cartoon.

Ironically I think some of this episode's humour was pretty Family Guy-ish, particularly the gross-out humour around the whole Jimble shitting his pants thing. My friend noted that while he doesn't mind the occasional bit of gross-out humour, seeing it live-action makes it feel a little grimier and more uncomfortable. You could argue it's the point, and maybe it is, but it personally wasn't my thing. YMMV!

I think because of the general wishy-washiness of the humour, the "CNN worm cabal", as my friends and I called it, comes off less like taking the piss and more like an actual anti-Semitic dogwhistle. Having the little worm cabal randomly show up and offer to indoctrinate Charlie is funny and almost feels a bit like Futurama, but having that immediately transition to "the worms control the media" made me raise my eyebrows.

The reason I think it's a piss-take that landed kinda awkwardly is because Lisa Tomar (the wife of Joshua Tomar, Known Jewish Guy and voice actor) is the director of the episode. I'm not sure if she's actually Jewish herself, but since Joshua Tomar has played older Glep saying "Christianity is actually real, and every other religion is wrong" as the other punchline of "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back", I feel like the attitude expressed here is not serious.

Overall: ehhhhh? Not the strongest episode. I really fucking hate the "satire requires clarity of purpose" meme, but it feels like the jokes and the overall punchline of the episode did require a little more clarity to land correctly.

[freyanistics]

Welcome to the Black Cat lounge 🐈‍⬛

A bit about me:

Hello my name is Elliot but I much prefer to go by Black Cat. I’m a 24 year old black butch lesbian who stays in their corner of the internet. I go by any pronouns so don’t be afraid to use any on me. I live in the US and work in the early mornings and basically have the rest of the day off. I also have three cat babies (Barbie, Broomstick, and Kirby). I have ADHD so I tend to be a bit scatterbrained at times and don’t always focus on one thing.

Media I’m into (stars meaning I’m super hyperfixated on):

⭐️Marvel

⭐️Spiderman

⭐️ATSV/ITSV

Undertale/Deltarune

Resident evil village

⭐️Fnaf

⭐️Smiling friends

⭐️Castlevania

⭐️Minecraft

Nintendo

⭐️Lumpytouch Waldo series

⭐️Welcome Home

⭐️Gargoyles (Disney animated series)

Sonic

⭐️Homicipher

Mouthwashing

•Will add more periodically

YouTubers I watch:

Berleezy

CoryxKenshin

Markiplier

Lenarr Young/Lenarrio

DashieGames

Britani

Jacksepticeye

Dawko

RicoTheGiant

Harriyana Hook

Before you follow:

Before you hit the follow button I’d like to put out a few things. This page is 18+, I don’t feel comfortable with minors following or interacting with me. I don’t post or reblog heavy nsfw content but I do tend to say or share things that are suggestive in nature. On top of that I want to have an adult safe space where I don’t have to be careful about what I say just in case. So sorry if you’re under 18 please don’t follow me until you’re a legal adult (and if you do you’re going to get blocked).

On top of that I tend to swear a lot so if that makes you uncomfortable then don’t follow me.

I am not interested in nor will participate in any fandom discourse/drama. It’s the same thing that rears its head up every two months or so and it’s repetitive. I don’t care to see or hear about it. I have my own opinions and I welcome other’s so long as they are respectful. We can agree to disagree.

I do tend to talk about serious topics that’s going on in the world, specifically race and politics. If you don’t like seeing that then my page isn’t for you. The world and its people are suffering and we can’t stay in the dark anymore.

My beliefs:

I am fully ACAB. I do not like or trust the police no matter how “nice” they may be. As a black person living in the US I am constantly nervous about being around the cops, especially if they’re white. Rest in peace Sonya Massey, say her name.

I am pro Palestine 🇵🇸. Fuck isnotreal and anyone who supports a genocide and an ethnic cleansing.

I am also pro Congo 🇨🇩, pro Sudan 🇸🇩, pro Yemen 🇾🇪, pro Hawaii 🌺. Free them all.

I am pro choice. Abortion rights is human rights and no one should get to choose but myself.

Sex work is real work. The porn industry is shady asf and takes advantage of its workers.

Trans rights are human rights 🏳️‍⚧️

Black women are the goat. Will always give flowers to my queens 🖤🤎

Black Lives Matter ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽

Health care should be provided to everyone and should be easily accessible.

Homeless people are human fucking beings. Treat them with respect and kindness and leave them the fuck alone.

Fuck AI art. It’s not real art it’s stealing from other artists who actually put work into it.

DNI (Do Not Interact):

Do not engage with me if you’re into the following

Zionist

Proship

Pro life

Racist

Xenophobic

Zoophilia

Fatphobia

Homophobia

Transphobia

Erasure/fetishizing lesbians

Trump supporters

End notes:

I want to end it off with saying at the end of the day this is my page and I’ll handle it however I want it. If you don’t like that or don’t like me for any reason, block me. I don’t need any negativity thrown my way. I don’t mind talking to people and interacting with others who share the same interests as me. My ask box is always open! My page is also a safespace for black people, queer or not. As a black writer any fics I make with a main character or Y/N will always be depicted black since there’s few fics that have us in it. If you want to see my fully feral and nsfw drabbles or thoughts you can follow me on @bearlybella-but-sluttier (although I need to revamp that blog)

[phosphoruskim]

25. Topic that brings the most rancid discourse

9 and 10 - Worst part of fanon, worst part of canon

3 - Worst take youve seen. I dont need a screenshot, thats probably mean.

14 - What do you see in fanfic all the time?

22 - Fave part of canon that people ignore?

17 - what do you want to see more of

25. Topic that brings the most Rancid Discourse:

Honestly I'm not sure if it's 'topic' so much as like. Proximity. Which is a really heart wrenching thing to type.

(MASSIVE HEADER, I'VE BEEN IN FANDOMS BESIDES SHE RA, THIS DOESN'T APPLY TO THE MANY COOL SHE RA SERVERS I'M IN)

The most fun discord servers I've been in have had lots of different kinds of people. Really fun friendly types who were welcoming sure, but also snarky people or shy ones or others who were a little neurotic and rarely talked (me).

That leads to lots of different conversations and lots of different ideas which I think is a lot of fun for a fandom to have. But in retrospect it feels a little like there was this. Seemingly inevitable march towards division. Like small cracks keep forming as every one branches out. The internet as a whole has become pretty... discourse filled.

that doesn't exactly answer the question since the real Most Rancid Topic is like, problematicness or something. But I think division between friends in fandom hurts the most. I've started to come to the opinion that having a discord server in a fandom is like, a garden, and if you want an excellent community it probably takes some great amount of conscious effort and planning, but I'm not an expert in that

9 & 10. Worst Part of Fanon:

This isn't the 'worst' or anything but something I love about the show is how messy every one's feelings are. Glimmer and Catra practically kiss on screen (in my heart). Adora crushes on like half the girls she sees, Perfuma and Bow go on a date, Entrapta says 'its a date!' super casually. Catra blushes at scorpia etc etc

It's really fun to see the whole cast getting criss crossed in modern au's, but a lot of fanon just has them all destined for their endgame pairings from the start and I'd love to see some genuine glitra or glimmadora or scortrapta that's more than just the initial plot for something else.

Worst Part of Canon:

The worst part of canon is probably either like... Scorpia getting almost no resolution or Glimmer's season 4 plot line pretty much stopping dead in its tracks.

My real curveball opinion is that Spinerella and Netossa got WAY too much screentime in season 5!

They were pretty much entirely absent the first 4 seasons (even when glimmer was suddenly struggling with being queen.) So it was really surprising. Now, I of course loved their scenes. Extremely cute and gay, I absolutely see why they were included. But I feel there was so much to do and so little time setting up an entire arc that didn't necessarily have to be there.

14. What do I see in fanfic all the time:

(just a quick note that I've read lots of fics from really cool people I know on discord or have never met! She Ra fandom has GREAT fanfic. This isn't targeted at any one and if you're seeing this it's not about your fic!!)

TENSION AND BUILD UP FALLS APART CONSTANTLY!! for me I'm a fight scene writer and I think everyone can benefit from giving these serious attempts. When you write 3000 words of straight combat, you're forced to learn the push and pull and management of the stakes. The characters can't just yell loudly and keep going higher and higher, you need dips and crests and variety

Most fanfics don't have fight scenes (in this fandom anyways), but many have scenarios with the *pacing* of a fight scene. I consider arguments, sex, and reveals to be types of fights. They're great, but using only dialogue or straightforward descriptions will get cumbersome very quickly.

Fights teach you to pace out steps, descriptive variety, build up, all sorts of things!

Unfortunately a lot of she ra fics don't have a 'fight scene' (read: [big] argument, sex, or reveals) until late in the story. I think this causes a lot of authors to fumble their build up, moving too quickly and not lingering for dramatic effect. That's why it's important to practice 'fight scenes' so that you'll be ready for the climactic finish!

22. Fave Part of Canon that people Ignore?

CHIPPED CATRA CHIPPED CATRA CHIPPED CATRA

she rewrote my entire brain and is my discord icon and I think about her constantly but there's like a few dozen fics that have chipped catra which is heart b

17. What do you want to see more of?

mostly just wild totally out there ideas. In the course of writing this I imagined a Speed Dating AU where it's the entire cast dating each other and then being like 'hey you're cool can we-' 'TIME ALRIGHT EVERY ONE SHUFFLE' 'wAIT I WASNT FINISHED YET'.

I also want to see more of myself writing. The last several months have been nails on chalkboard!!

AND TIME.

I strayed a little bit from the questions and didnt add all the detail I wanted to but it's super late for me lmao so calling it there. Thanks for the ask and also Tipsy I will get to your other ask (the tops/bottoms headcanons one >:3c) tomorrow

[orange-orchard-system]

I keep getting asks about discourse even though I have said many times before that this not a place where I like to hold discourse. I don't plan to change that, but since people can't leave it alone, I'll give a rundown on some of our general Discourse Perspectives and Rules™ so I can just tap the sign if anyone else comes into our inbox or something screaming at us over any other/more discourse in the future.

I don't take call-outs or other accusations seriously unless they have reasonable proof for everything. This means that: the proof must not be easily disputable; it must not be offensive or harmful due to a misunderstanding, finding its way out of the audience it was intended for, or simple mistake due to perspective at the time it was made/said; it must not be something taken out of context. I also don't consider minor mistakes or a simple difference in opinion on minor issues something that justifies a giant call-out or cancelation, especially in cases where they can just be taken up with the op privately (or even just on a reblog chain); the call-out itself must be an appropriate reaction to any offense. Calling for a full "cancelation" of someone over a single post the op didn't mean to hurt anyone with (just as an example) is not what we'd consider appropriate.

On a related note, no, "this person has done XYZ which is bad but I'm not gonna elaborate on the how or why" is not enough for us to give a shit about whatever discourse you're yapping about. Either elaborate with sources, direct quotes, and an explanation, or leave us alone.

If we ever do speak about a call-out, us asking questions and questioning what we may see as weak points doesn't mean we're "defending" whoever the call-out is about. It just means I want clarification and/or think the call-out is being a little unfair, not that I think criticism of the person in question is necessarily unwarranted. My opinions on call-outs and my opinions on who those call-outs are about are two separate things. I can say I think something is taken out of context while agreeing that it wasn't very good in context (as just one example).

This is because call-outs and discourse – however normal they've become in modern internet times – can still be very serious things. I will engage with serious things like this with a critical eye, because I don't want to come to a rash decision that could hurt people. I consider myself decent at textual analysis, and I'm going to implement my skills at that to whatever call-outs or "why are you supporting X" messages I happen across. If I end up dismissing something based on the conclusion I draw, that does not necessarily mean I think the accused did nothing wrong, but rather that what was brought before me to accuse them does not hold up.

Just because we reblog from or talk to someone doesn't mean we agree with them on every discourse opinion they may have. In fact, we may disagree with and criticize their views, perhaps even openly – we've done it before.

Trying to explain our thoughts on every little discourse point is not worth the time or effort to us. If you can't find our public opinion on something, assume we either have a private opinion and have thought it over amongst ourselves, or don't feel we know enough to say something on it or form an Official Opinion™ (assuming we know anything at all). Discourse is not one of our hobbies, and we don't intend to make it one.

On a related note, stop assuming that everyone on the internet is fully and wholly informed on every single discourse argument going on at all times. I have a life outside of Tumblr and try not to make myself miserably overwhelmed by all the horrible things in the world; you cannot possibly expect me to understand what the hell you're talking about if you come onto my blog and start randomly accusing people of just generally being horrible with no context or explanation. I am not omniscient, I am just someone blogging on the internet.

Might add onto this in the future if we feel the need to, but I think this establishes most of our bases. Part of me can't believe this is necessary, but it's Tumblr, so better safe than sorry when it comes to discourse. Especially considering people have already tried to start shit with us many times in the past. Good to have a sign to tap for when it inevitably happens again.

[maaruin]

Ask game #3- star wars

"screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr"

Joke answer: It is likely that I have seen GIFs of the scene in which Luke tried to kill Ben Solo/Kylo Ren in his sleep on tumblr, which makes it a take on Luke's character that I have seen on tumblr in is probably worse than anything else I have seen on here. (I have seen even worse takes in other parts of the internet though...) Serious answer: I will note that often even the very extreme Star Wars takes have a logic to them I can respect. I can largely understand the Jedi haters and the Jedi apologists. I can sympathize with Reylos and anti-Reylos. Even though they all often make points I disagree with and sometimes get frustrated or angry with.

If would suspect I saw the worst take in discourse about the Sequels, and my memories about that are rather hazy. So I might be conflating different takes when I state what I consider the worst take to be: That killing Han specifically was Kylo Ren's unforgivable deed. Declaring anything in Star Wars as unforgivable/unredeemable is already something I think goes against the spirit of Star Wars, but I can see arguments in favor of that. But killing Han was far from the worst thing Kylo Ren did and the reason I suspect why someone would say that is that they have more attachment to Han than to the civilians Kylo Ren had executed at the beginning of the movie. (However, even with this take I am open to hearing the argument that patricide is always worse than killing strangers - or, hell, if you go full ethical subjectivism on me I might even see the point that the bad things characters do in stories are always crimes against the reader... wait, looks like I just came up with a take more weird than I thought possible. Maybe I should elaborate that take in a post so I can say that the worst Star Wars take I have seen on tumblr is on my own blog.)

[relicsongmel]

Introduction

Welcome! My name is Mel and this is my place to shout into the void about things I'm way too obsessed with. I'm in my 20s, female, pan(demi)romantic asexual and also autistic/ADHD as hell. I post about a variety of things but here are the fandoms you're most likely to see (in no particular order):

Pokemon/Pokeani

Ace Attorney

Bleach

Inuyasha

Animal Crossing

Stardew Valley

Love Nikki

Undertale

Other things to know about me:

Personal posts will be tagged as [#mel's musings].

I have two tags [#little songbird] and [#forest for the tree] for my OCs Sylvia and Denise, respectively. They're my two pseudo self-inserts reflecting different aspects of my personality that I can throw into whatever fictional universe I'm hyperfixating on in the moment for my own enjoyment. If you're curious I have overviews for each of them in this post—I'm somewhat selective about sharing plot details for the various AUs I have but if you have questions about the characters themselves I'm more than happy to answer them! I love my girls <3

In addition to the fandoms listed above I am also EXTREMELY autistic about music—I have a background in piano/classical singing and have been in choirs all my life since 4th grade. I have been bestowed with the blessed (and sometimes cursed) combination of absolute pitch as well as pitch-color synesthesia. The former is the ability to identify pitches without a reference note and the latter is a phenomenon where my brain associates certain musical keys with certain colors, temperatures and scenery among other things. It is a HUGE special interest of mine—ask me questions about it and I will literally love you until the end of time I'm serious. Even if it's as simple as sending me a song and asking what color it is or asking me for thoughts on video game OSTs because I have a LOT

A follow-up to the above point: I love all things music theory and analysis and whatnot but in my excitement I have a tendency to get a bit TOO technical sometimes. I will do my best to make things as accessible as possible in my personal posts or when answering questions directed towards me (unless you specify it's not needed) but if that's not your niche any posts of this nature will be tagged as [#music nerd shit].

BE WARY OF FOLLOWING IF:

You are weird about multishipping. I like many ships for many different reasons and there's a lot of overlap between characters (just as an example: for Ace Attorney I am primarily a Narumitsu/Wrightworth shipper but I also enjoy Krisnix, Feenris, Gumworth and Langworth and I will make posts about all of them). All ship posts are tagged as such but it's something to be mindful of

You dislike long tag ramblings. I tend to do that a lot, so if that's not something you can just Ignore than this blog may not be the place for you (side note: if my tags on a post ever don't make sense there's a decent chance I'm just having a conversation with one of my mutuals through tags because some of them Do That. Deal with it)

You are overly invested in pro/anti discourse. I have things that squick me out just like anyone else but if I see something I don't like I just block and move on. It is not my job to police the behavior of random strangers on the internet and I don't need any of you weirdos trying to convince me it is please for the love of god go outside

KEEP YOUR TERF/RADFEM BULLSHIT, EXCLUSIONISM OR BIGOTRY OF ANY KIND THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME. IF I SEE ANY OF THAT SHIT I WILL BLOCK ON SIGHT

If you follow me and need anything specific tagged (whether it be for spoilers or other reasons), shoot me a message and I'm more than happy to oblige.

My askbox is always open if you'd like to talk about anything at all whether it be fandom shit, music nerd shit or otherwise. If you'd prefer me to answer privately please specify as such when writing your ask.

I do not condone the use of generative AI or reuploading art without express permission from the original artist. If I accidentally reblog AI/stolen art please send me a message letting me know so I can delete it accordingly.

If we are mutuals and you'd like to get to know me more, feel free to message and ask for my Discord! I'm not a part of any servers at the moment because that sort of thing intimidates me, but I do enjoy talking to my friends there and you could be one of them. If you'd like. But you need to make that clear to me first so hmu if you're interested <3

And that's about it, really! Enjoy your time here and I hope something nice happens to you today <333

[eirian-houpe]

Monday Mmmm

Fair warning: This post is not all sweetness and light - though I wish it were different - I'm going to be calling out a few folks; and a specific fandom (and branch thereof). I'm saddened by it all to be honest, but... I've given it well over 24 hours and I still feel just the same as I did when the antecedent occurred, and so, I feel like I have the right to speak my mind.

The TL;DR version of this post is here: If you're going to be hyper-precious about responses and/or reblogs to and of your posts on a site that was created for discussion and sharing, you might want to reconsider your participation on Tumblr and get the fuck out of dodge!

If I was 'rude', as was asserted by the person throwing shade in the poorly disguised guise of objection and subsequently supported by many of their followers, then I will apologize for troubling myself to provide them with an example of the very content of which they were lamenting a lack. I made a very tongue-in-cheek comment after providing the example about "shameless self promotion" - “...just a quip... not serious,” (Espenson).  But the sheer ageist venom that followed... nope. Unacceptable.

If you want to know where I'm coming from, it's under the cut.

The Tolkien fandom on the internet - and Tumblr especially - has become beset by younger members of fandom who are - sadly - prejudiced, pretentious and privileged. I've got news for you.: to demand respect while giving none yourself is the height of hypocrisy, and to call older Tumblr users, "mummies," and claiming that you're having "trouble with the breathing mummies with too much treasure" (Melkors-Defence-Attorney et al). THAT, my friends, is disrespect of the highest order.

I can't help but wonder what kind of "trouble" you, as a younger member of the fandom, could possibly be having with your elders, (and note, I said 'elders' and not 'betters' because, hell, nobody's perfect, and even elders make mistakes).

To turn around and try to school someone at least twice your age on proper internet (and/or Tumblr) etiquette? Please - someone hold my beer - I've got more news for you, Snowflakes, we were there when the internet was little more than a twinkle in your daddies' eyes, and we were the ones that spent our blood, sweat and many, many tears to create the tenants of online etiquette which you now wield as a club with which to beat us.

See, here's the thing: a Tumblr reblog is like a single point in a multiverse.  It's like IDIC ("IDIC”). One person with ten followers reblogs, and say three of those followers also reblog, and their followers do likewise and so on and all of a sudden you have an extremely diverse discussion in which ANYONE can participate. So if you don't like something someone posts in their reblog of something you're a part of, don't read it. Someone else further down the chain might, and it might lead to an interesting discussion among an extended group of people, of which you don't have to be a part.  Where the threat in that?  Or if this is not about feeling threatened, then why make such a fuss?

I also can't help but wonder, as you post such 'scholarly' discourses on your blog posts (without citing references, I might add), how many of you have actually sat down to read multiple versions and revisions of the same source material in order to truly analyze Tolkien's intent for any given passage before being programmed with the 'received' interpretation in the form of the many indices and commentaries provided by Christopher Tolkien on his father's work. How many of you have read, let alone studied the many volumes of The History of Middle Earth (Tolkien), and who among you, writing Elvish fiction would know LaCE (Tolkien 207) if it leaped up and bit your arse? From the discourse I've read among the posts, not many, I'd wager, and those that have simply... what? Discard it as 'inconvenient'?

Is this harsh? Yes, probably, but at this point my lines have been well and truly crossed, and my rope is frayed, and beyond the edge. If you're going to stick around on Tumblr and participate in interesting and meaningful discussions with other users, then please, grow the fuck up!

----

Espenson, Jane. “Skin Deep.” Once Upon A Time, season 1, episode 12, ABC/Disney, 12 Feb. 2012. 

“IDIC.” Memory Alpha, Fandom TV Community, 27 Mar. 2022, https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/IDIC#References.

Melkors-Defense-Attorney, et al. “Untitled.” I Make Tolkien Roll in His Grave on Tumblr, Tumblr, 3 May 2023, https://www.tumblr.com/melkors-defense-attorney/716333000833515520/my-last-post-wasnt-an-invitation-to-promote-your?source=share.

Tolkien, Christopher, and Tolkien J R R. The History of Middle-Earth. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.

Tolkien, J R R. “Laws and Customs Among the Eldar.” The History of Middle Earth, edited by Christopher Tolkien, vol. 3, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, NY, 2020, pp. 207–253.

[theravenkin]

the foxes and social media pt. 2:

so most college sports teams, if they have social media like tiktok, post edits of really good plays, some boring game day hype stuff, etc; some of the teams that get less publicity have some more relaxed, easy going content. now in my head, exy is culturally equivalent to college football--so exy teams usually have pretty tame social media, countdowns to big games and clips of nice plays.

but the thing i find hilarious about the foxes is that there are only two staff members, wymack and abby. most high school teams have at least three or four coaches, big college sports like football will have a lot more, and teams which receive a lot of publicity will have PR people and social media coordinators. but the foxes? nah. guess who their PR/social media coordinator is? nicky hemmick, everyone.

nicky (and dan, since they already make a bunch of tiktoks together) make a team account (and somehow it gets verified eventually??? who is in charge here)

they aren't too careful about what they post--there are already plenty of rumors and criticism surrounding them, so who cares? what could be worse than neil on press duty? wymack also doesn't really give a fuck--when they ask him for permission he just wants them to stop talking to him asap so he's like yeah whatever sure (without knowing what the consequences of this might be)

the first tiktok on the account is a "full house"- style introduction of all the foxes, many of them looking beyond irritated and uncomfortable--but nicky and dan make sure they get everyone's consent to post it; they won't post anything without the consent of the people that are in it. somehow, everyone says yes--none of them really care, and/or don't think anybody will see it.

it blows up. the foxes' fanbase is way bigger than they think it is, especially after their victory against the ravens and all the publicity around neil's past. everyone on campus who has tiktok sees it. it makes its way to exy fan accounts on instagram and twitter. nicky and dan are kinda scared, because agh we put andrew minyard all over the internet will he murder us?? but they're also super excited because people care???? people like them that much????

unfortunately, the debut post causes a bit of a stir in the ever-present exy/palmetto state discourse. people start up the criticism and the rumors and the hate. so in response, the second tiktok on the team account is dan and nicky strutting around the locker room lip syncing "rumors" by lizzo and cardi b with some flawless transitions, it looks so professional. they address some of the rumors (some of them true) that have plagued the foxes for years: dan was a stripper? yep. kevin day has never been skiing? you bet. this video gets them featured in the Palmetto State student-run news/gossip accounts, and then it's featured on certain exy blogs--it of course causes more of a stir than the last one.

one of the hate comments on the second video says something homophobic in response to nicky's flamboyance in the videos. he responds to the comments with a video he and dan convinced matt to star in:

nicky: nah, all of us foxes are straight, super straight, no gay shit. right matt?

matt: yeah, bro, super hetero.

*intense eye contact*

*pretend to lean in for a kiss*

(also, side note: i have another hc nicky's flirting is completely returned by matt because he knows it's not serious, that he would never come between matt and dan, and they all think it's hilarious)

the exy dude bros are Not Happy--so everything is going according to plan

that video's comments are filled with an equal amount of both raging homophobia and wild support from fans who are queer or allies. by now, the other foxes are having fun with this account, too.

to be continued, this already got WAY too long but trust me there's more (lmk if y'all even want more, this took me way too long to put in coherent words 😭)

[thegalleonsnest]

I have been in this fandom since the start of 2021 and I've been around the block. I did not grow up the same way as most people when it comes to the internet and joined this fandom as an adult. I don't even think this is considered an unpopular opinion or not, but I've kept to my corner of the internet and kept to my circles, but if there's one thing that's constant that I always see without fail, is how serious people take shipping and discourse around it.

And I do want people to know, this is coming from the perspective of a 25 year old man. I know this is not everyone and only a small number, and from what I can gather, this mainly pertains to teenagers/young adults (with a few outliers), but it eventually grows to become this weird moral stance people feel the need to end up taking with shipping; and with particular characters too that really becomes a confusing, and just weird argument to surround yourself with. And for some, it's the determining factor for whether or not to judge someone of who's worthy of their presence or labeling them as weird and uncomfortable when literally all the characters are adults.

And let me preface this with, yes, I understand very SPECIFIC ones that some people ship might as well be considered crackships or borderline weird given the contexts of each character's relationship that I'm not a personal fan of, and potential age gap between adults, but I'm not gonna give people the stink eye and play moral high grounds with others for doing that stuff on their own time. Let alone police people about what's an acceptable ship or not. It ain't for everyone, but it's something that happens anyway.

I also know that there are people out there that are very protective of particular canon couples and judge the hell out of people for doing anything different, whether making them poly, or changing their sexuality to make another ship work that isn't an oc. I do wanna clarify, I feel very neutral about this particular subject. And on one hand, I completely understand in the sense of maintaining that proper representation in a character's sexuality, cause that's what makes them who they are and means a lot for those being repped. And on the other, I see people trying to be diligent of that fact even while expanding and exploring ships with those couples, they more often than not don't want to destroy that existing relationship but make it open with others. And in the end, becomes a fight within the community to determine the fate of BugsnaxFan97356 for wanting to share their thoughts/art on X couple being poly with X character. (And I want to clarify, this is different than straight up just destroying a character's entire sexuality/relationship for the sake of shipping them with a particular character. That shit sucks and is basically character assassination and destroying the representation we had)

Intent is what's important here, and I truly believe that most of the time, people are literally doing it just for fun and don't usually have malicious intent. (especially when the main demographic here is teenagers and young adults)

(Side note: I did talk to friends about this to get a second opinion about this particular subject, and brought up a fair point, like some people don't like the idea of making a gay monogamy couple go poly just to date a different gender. That is also completely understandable, but again, for me personally, it does boil down to the intent behind it.)

Like people are fighting over the very nuances of character relationships, ships, and everything in between and making it an argument and debate on where you stand morally. Cause if you ship a character, and it's not an oc, with one that someone considers not good, weird, or crackship material that very small groups like, they made it clear they want nothing to do with you and consider you a "weird," "uncomfortable," or straight up a "bad" person instead of just talking like mature people.

And if for any reason someone thinks I'm singling people out, I'm not. I have legitimately seen this happen throughout my time here in the fandom, and with people I personally knew. Entire relationships were ruined/destroyed because people took shipping so seriously, they treated it as gospel and the determining factor to maintain their existing relationships if they even mention liking something they didn't. It's not a healthy mentality, because in the grand scheme of things, shipping opinions like these will not matter because most people will not think the same way you do or treat it as seriously as you do. We will move on with our lives because the shipping state of your favorite blorbos will not affect whether or not you get irl business done in 5 years. And if you are using fictional shipping as a moral scale to determine your relationship with real people, you're gonna have a hard reality check when you realize most people don't give a shit cause they got a job to be at in the morning.

bugsnax fandom what’s a opinion that will get you like this

[owen-not-carvour]

to preface this,, 2 things: 1) i wrote the first half of this Before the talia discourse. i have since Edited a lot of it bc i don’t want to be misconstrued But i still wanted to say the stuff i wanted to say originally as well. 2) i have written this over the course of a month and a half so. some of the stuff i mentioned might not be as prominent/has since been resolved, etc. or just might not make a whole lot of sense in general,,, that being said:

my thoughts on talia are.. whatever This is ig:

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. i genuinely can’t decide how i want to think abt talia..

on one hand it’d be great if she was Real bc awww mischa!! like even if she wasnt exactly what he thought she was just the way he Cares for her is so incredible… but on the other hand. it is so fucking funny to think abt her just being noel In Some Way (but also lowkey sad. we will get to that. Very Long Post ahead..)

what’s got me Once Again thinking abt this is that one part of talia where mischa says the thing abt wanting to (slight paraphrasing i think) “take all the pain from your soul and transform it into functional joy” which,, 1) is super fucking sweet omfg like he truly loves her so much !! and 2) also rlly shows the Depth of mischa and talias relationship! (well. ofc it does. they Were engaged after all) but fr. it means that even though they were never an In Person relationship,, mischa genuinely loved cared so much for her despite that and never Truly knowing her and just. i love that he is a character that gets to just. Love so deeply and gets a chance to Show that yknow.

i’m so glad they made talia more than just a running joke abt mischa’s Internet Girlfriend™️ yknow. like that’s still funny and all but it’s cool to see his character completely change from this version of himself that everyone else sees him as (which i mean. isn’t entirely wrong. he Is very angry,, but that’s not all there is to him ofc. 2 emotions remember..) to his true self,, which they All do.. but i think mischa definitely has the most Deviation in his yknow. and overall it’s just such a cool way to show that.

but Anyway what i mean is that it also must mean talia and mischa really like. Talked to each other!! ofc he could just be talking in the general sense (wedding vows are like that ig) but at the same time,, it also makes it seem like talias rlly going through something yknow (which is Also is an interesting noel point.. more on that Below though) and just!! mischa Genuinely cares and loves her and just AHHHHHH!! i want what they have (aside from him being dead ofc)

anyway back to noel…

before i say Anything else, here’s my actual opinion on the noel catfish theory: i think it’s funny, yes, but only as a Concept bc it’s just So outlandish. ofc there are hella holes in it, but that’s also why i think of it as more of a joke rather than being truly serious. mischa and noel are both such strong characters and i Know what the catfish theory Does to noel. it really does ruin him. bc like. yeah.. yikes.

also i think it’s important to note what my reasoning behind noel being talia is in my mind (see below).. bc Yeah the further you go with it the rockier it gets,, especially once you get to the actual Romantic parts of talia (the song) and the aftermath… which is why it’s better as a Concept and nothing more bc i LOVE how deeply mischa loves talia, as mentioned, and i don’t want to lose that.. also bc i think that if noel Were talia he wouldn’t do it like That.. so i think This and the usual line of Catfish Noel should be 2 separate things.. (god i hope that made sense)

because really. i think calling my interpretation of talia-noel a catfish isn’t correct. bc catfish means there are Negative Intentions yknow. i think talia-noel would mostly be like… a barrier of sorts. between noel and mischa. and this is why it works better as a Concept than placed into the actual show!!

like noel seems like he Could be the type to make a whole fake profile in an odd attempt to just get closer to a guy he’s interested in (i don’t even necessarily mean romantically either. legit just like wanting to be friends w him or something works too) Without actually interacting with mischa yknow (bc that way noel doesn’t have to deal w him Actually reacting to him as himself, if that makes sense... especially since they’d still have to see each other in choir yknow) but like.. he’s still mostly acting like himself though,, just under the Name talia.. this was raised from the Mostly Positive feedback left on mischa’s videos. that just feels like something noel would do.. but even so. i feel like he Would just talk to mischa basically as himself but.. just while calling himself talia.. so like,, later on,, they’ve gotten rlly close (obviously) so like. noel has a shitty day he can just vent to mischa As Talia abt it,, you get what i mean..

so like in this way of thinking abt it i guess it’s actually close to Completely different bc i’m practically taking out all the romantic aspect of it?? pretty much the only thing that’s the same is. talia as a name i think..

anyway,, the best way of thinking abt noel as talia in Any sense is the Code Name Talia thing bc YESSSSS that erases any problems in it and it’s just. overall Better. whoever made that i Love you :)

now the Last thing i’m gonna talk about: why noel interrupts karnak when he offers to show mischa what Could’ve been between him and talia. just for the record yknow.

it’s NOT a selfish decision That’s For Sure!!!

that’s just the type of person noel is. he feels SO deeply for people and just Genuinely doesn’t want to see mischa heartbroken, no matter the outcome. (bc like. it Could go either way. a) mischa finds out he Doesn’t end up w talia and is fucked up abt that for Obvious reasons or b) he finds out he Would’ve ended up w her and is upset abt being Dead and unable to fulfill that— and noel just doesn’t want to see him distraught abt it either way bc he Cares)

tldr: i don’t like the catfish noel theory for what it is bc i like how Good mischa’s relationship w talia is and portrays his true self and also bc how noel stopping him from hearing the Outcome of what could’ve been portrays how much he actually cares abt the choir really well. but i Do like to think of noel getting closer to mischa as talia in a non catfish/non romantic sense, either through code name talia or noel basically still being Himself and talking to mischa, just under the Name talia bc mischa would be more likely to accept him if he were Talia rather than noel yknow (think of it Kinda like monique in a way-just more like a front for noel than a whole other Character though)

[dontbipanicjonsa]

Did Kit suddenly lose his ability to heart-eye or is Pol!Jon actually a thing.

I'm late to the fandom but I just finished S7 and I'm having thoughts.

I'm a reader of the books, and I hadn't watched the show till now because... I suck at watching shows with hour long episodes and more than three seasons.

What made me decide to watch it was the Pol!Jon discourse I found on the Internet.

I know enough about the show to understand how unlikely and out of character this theory would seem to show watchers. At the same time, I fully believe that book!Jon would be fully capable of something like this. But also, even though I do ship Jonsa in the books, I can't deny that Jonerys is.....a big deal. Everyone expects it to happen. It's a highly anticipated pairing and....I just couldn't honestly believe Pol!Jon because it is just so against the general expectation.

So I decided to watch the show. And now I've finished season 7 and I am astounded.

Let me preface this by saying that I went into S7 already disliking Jonerys (sue me) but I still fully expected to have some serious doubts about the validity of Jonsa. I fully expected to be at least somewhat convinced of Jonerys. Even hating the idea of Jon and Danaerys together, I still expected more.

There are a number of things I would like to note here.

First, Jonerys is a romance that is told, not shown. Davos talks about Jon watching Dany's "good heart" (hehe) to tell us Jon is attracted to Dany. But then Jon immediately dismisses it- and not in a way that looks like he's deflecting. He's not only dismissing it, he's dismissive of it. His mind is not in the conversation, it is beyond the Wall.

Similarly, Tyrion says (not in those words), "yeah right, and Jon only looks at you longingly coz he wants a military alliance with you". Not sure what I'm supposed to think about that....? First, Jon doesn't look at Dany longingly at all???? Not once. Second, is this line supposed to suggest that Jon is looking at her longingly for a reason that is not desperately wanting a military alliance....? Because we already know that that's exactly what he does want. Wtf do I make of this statement?????

There are other examples, but the point remains. People keep talking about Jon and Dany being into each other, and that is what is supposed to convince us that they are into each other (well yea Dany is) but Jon gives no indication of looking at her longingly, of falling in love with her, of being intrigued by her even. He's a brick wall.

Alright, I'll concede one (1) scene where I saw legitimate attraction on his face for a second- that is the cave scene. Even there tho, it's hard to tell if he's just watching her reaction carefully or if he wants to bang her.

On the other hand, Dany shows that she is into him. Even so, when I say she's into him, I mean she's attracted to him and intrigued by him. I cannot believe she loves him.

Next, I think it's interesting that in the episode before (or was it the same episode?) Jon bends the knee, we have a number of people (Tormund, Beric) talk about stuff like- kings not bending the knee leading to people dying, knowing what's important (the fight against the dead), being the shield that guards the realm of men blah blah I don't remember the exact words. Then he sees the WW and the Army of the Dead (again) and sees a dragon die. And then, the first opportunity he gets, he bends the knee. I want to point out here that the scenes really emphasise on Jon's thinking face after every conversation he has during their little gay party beyond the Wall. They focus on the look on his face again while he's watching the Army. Multiple times. And there's clearly something going on in his head, gears are turning.

One other scene that struck me is the scene where Jon and Dany are saying goodbye to each other (the Eastwatch episode). In the same episode (if I remember correctly) Jon calls them strangers, and then the goodbye scene comes and Dany says to Jon's little morbid joke, "I've grown used to him". Him being Jon. Two things to note here-

One, Jon considers them strangers but Dany has gotten "used to him". Maybe it's nothing, or maybe it's an indication of how the two of them are absolutely not on the same page (about anything).

Second, Jon's face after she says that. It shuts down. Like a door slamming. And then he says that "wish you good fortune in the wars to come" line, which has ZERO romance, or longing, but a whole lot of bad precedent (does that make sense?). Ouch. The thought that occured to me here is that Dany is being somewhat obvious about her feelings, and maybe, just maybe Jon has picked up on it. And that is why he reacts the way he does.

I wasn't sure so I compared the scene with the Jonsa forehead kiss scene in S6, and Jon's expressions after that kiss.

My logic was this- I assume that either Jon has become aware of Dany's feelings in the Eastwatch goodbye scene, or his own feelings for her. One of these assumptions is true. Which one?

If Jon has feelings for Sansa, then his confusion/awareness/discomfort regarding that are seen in that forehead kiss scene. So if Jon has become aware of his feelings for Dany, let's see how these two scenes compare?

My dudes. There is no comparison. Go watch it.

I watched both scenes with sound off, and the difference is insane. Jon looks at Sansa's lips. There's a moment's pause that's full of tension, and then his face shuts in a way, but it's a bit confused, a bit thoughtful.

Jon does not look at Dany's lips. He does not look confused, or thoughtful. This is not a romance.

Side observation- speaking of showing and telling, it's funny how we're shown Jon looking at Sansa's wolf bits, and told that Jon looks at Dany's good heart. Yes I'm talking about boobs but wolf bits and good heart is funnier. We literally see Jon look at the wolf bits twice, talk about it himself, in a completely unnecessary conversation...as opposed to being entirely dismissive of the good heart, even when someone else brings it up.

Back to the main point, one last thing I'd like to talk about is the scene where Jon actually bends the knee (not really). First, there are still no heart-eyes. Definitely not from Jon. Second, it's funny how Jon uses the exact hand-grabbing move that Sansa used on him last season, when she was trying to convince him to do something he didn't particularly wanna do (like he's now trying to do with Dany). This means that

1) he learnt that move from Sansa. He knows how effective it is XD

2) if the Jonerys hand-grab is romance, it stands to reason that the Jonsa hand-grab is romance too. I mean both the grabs are suspiciously similar.

Then, even after Dany "promises" that she'll help the North fight the WW, Jon still bends the knee. I felt both an odd sense of urgency coming from him, and an understandable hesitation. Or maybe that's just me.

Now suddenly, he becomes complimentary of her. But there's something weird about his compliments. They are completely generic. "They'll see you for what you are" and in the later episode, "you're not like the others". Wtf does that MEAN ??

Here's the thing...Jon could have paid Dany a way more specific, genuine sounding compliment after bending the knee (complete with heart eyes). I mean she did just fly over the Wall to rescue him and his men. He could have said more, something meaningful, but he didn't. He bent the knee like a house on fire (that doesn't make sense but you get what I mean I hope) and paid generic compliments. Then he pretended to sleep until she left and then sighed very loudly.

??? Romance??? WHERE????

Then the dragon pit. Heart-eyes still missing.

Then the sex scene. What do I say? Lol.

No really. There are no heart eyes even during the sex scene. Honestly, idk what that face was. Not in love for sure.

Another side note- Arya and Sansa have talks while standing in the same place where the forehead kiss scene happened (wtf do you call that place again, the bridge.??) But no heart eyes. No lingering looks. There is no incestuous gay love between them, I can say for sure. All it does is prop up the odd incestuous vibes of the Jon Sansa scene in that same place.

ANOTHER side note- goddamn but does Sansa talk about Jon a lot.

Edit: I'm sure most of this stuff has already been discussed in other metas. My purpose here is only to put down my first thoughts after watching the season.

[shihalyfie]

Hi :) If it's not too much trouble, could you please share your take on why they'd continue the Adventure brand after tri. was such a flop? (and a tangent: what does "dark history" even mean?). We got Kizuna, the reboot, and a 02 movie. Logically, it doesn't really make sense they'd keep investing in it.

This is a thorny topic, and I'd like to reiterate that although I've ended up making more posts related to this series and the discourse surrounding it recently (probably because it's even more on the mind now that another movie is on the horizon and a lot of people are apprehensive for various reasons), I do not want this blog to be making a brand out of being critical of this series. I’m writing this here and in public because I figured that there is a certain degree I need to clarify what I mean about audience reception/climate and how it might impact current or future works, and I’m admittedly also more than a little upset that I occasionally see Western fanbase criticisms of the series getting dismissed by people claiming that the only people mad about it are dramamongering or ignorant Westerners (which could not be further from the truth). However, this is mainly to address this and to answer your question, and is not intended to try and change anyone's existing opinion or impression of the series as much as it's me trying to explain (from my own personal reading of the situation) what practically went down with critical reception in real life; no more, no less.

The short summary of the matter is:

The series was a moderate financial success (albeit with some caveats; see the long version for details) and definitely outstripped a lot of prior attempts to revive the franchise;

However, the overall Japanese fanbase-side critical backlash from tri. was extremely and viciously negative to the point where even acknowledging the series too much could easily result in controversy;

Kizuna’s production and the PR surrounding it very obviously have this in mind with a lot of apparent “damage control” elements.

The long version is below.

Note that while I try to be diligent about citing my sources so people understand that I’m not just making things up wholesale, I’m deliberately refraining from linking certain things here this time, both because some of the things mentioned have some pretty crude things written there -- it’s not something I feel comfortable directing people to regardless of what language it’s in -- and because I don’t want to recklessly link things on social media and cause anyone to go after or harass the people involved. For the links that have been provided, please still be warned that some of them don’t really link to particularly pleasant things.

I am not writing the following information to suggest that anyone should agree or disagree with the sentiments being described. I know people tend to take "a lot of people like/hate this" as a signal of implication "it is correct to like/hate this" when it's not (and I especially dislike the idea of implying that Japanese fanbase opinions are the only correct ones). There's a reason I focus on "critical reception being this way" (because it influences marketing decisions and future direction) rather than how much this should impact one's personal feelings; this is coming from myself as someone who is shamelessly proud of liking many things that had bad critical reception, were financial failures, or are disliked by many. As I point out near the end, the situation also does seem to be changing for the better in more recent years as well.

Also, to be clear, I'm a single person who's observing everything best I can from my end, I have no affiliations with staff nor do I claim to, and as much as I'm capable of reading Japanese and thus reading a lot of people's impressions, I'm ultimately still another “outsider” looking in. These are my impressions from my observation of fan communal spaces, following artists and reading comments on social media and art posting websites, and results from social media searches. In the end, I know as much as anyone else about what happened, so this is just my two cents based on all of my personal observations.

A fanbase is a fanbase regardless of what part of the world you're from. There are people who love it and are shameless about saying so. There are people who have mixed feelings or at least aren't on extreme ends of the spectrum (as always, the loudest ones are always the most visible, but it's not always easy to claim they're the predominant percentage of the fanbase). That happens everywhere, and I still find that on every end I've seen. However, if I'm talking about my impressions and everything I’ve encountered, I will say that the overall Japanese reaction to tri. comes off as significantly more violently negative on average than the Western one, which is unusual because often it's the other way around. (I personally feel less so because the opinions are that fundamentally different and more so because we're honestly kind of loud and in-your-face people; otherwise, humans are mostly the same everywhere, and more often than not people feel roughly the same about everything if they’re given the same information to work with.)

This is not something I can say lightly, and thus would not say if I didn’t really get this impression, but...we're talking "casually looking up movie reviews for Kizuna have an overwhelming amount of people casually citing any acknowledgment of tri. elements as a negative element", or the fact that even communal wikis for "general" fandoms like Pixiv and Aniwota don't tend to hold back in being vicious about it (as of this writing, Pixiv's wiki refuses to consider it in the same timeline as Adventure, accusing it of being "a series that claims to be a sequel set three years after 02 but is in fact something different"). Again, there are people who openly enjoy it and actively advocate for it (and Pixiv even warns people to not lord over others about it condescendingly because of the fact that such people do exist), and this is also more of a reflection of “the hardcore fanbase on the Internet” and not necessarily the mainstream (after all, there are quite a few other Digimon works where the critical reception varies very heavily between the two). Nevertheless, the take-home is that the reputation is overall negative among the Internet fanbase to the point that this is the kind of sentiment you run into without trying all that hard.

I think, generally speaking, if we're just talking about why a lot of people resent the series, the reasons aren't that different from those on the Western side. However, that issue of "dark history" (黒歴史): there's a certain degree of demand from the more violently negative side of the fanbase that's, in a sense, asking official to treat it as a disgrace and never acknowledge it ever again, hence why Kizuna doing so much as borrowing things from it rather than rejecting it outright is still sometimes treated like it’s committing a sin. So it's somewhat close in spirit to a retcon movement, which is unusual because no other Digimon series gets this (not even 02; that was definitely a thing on the Western end, but while I'm sure there are people who hate it that much on their end too, I've never really seen it gain enough momentum for anyone to take it seriously). If anyone ever tells you that Japanese fanbases are nice to everything, either they don't know Japanese, are being willfully ignorant, or are lying to you, because there is such thing as drama in those areas, and in my experience, I've seen things get really nasty when things are sufficiently pushed over the edge, and if a fanbase wants to have drama, it will have drama. This happens to be one of those times.

(If you think this is extreme, please know that I also think so too, so I hope you really understand that me describing this sentiment does not mean I am personally endorsing it. Also, let me reiterate that the loudest section of the fanbase is not necessarily the predominant one; after all, as someone who’s been watching reactions to 02 over the years, I myself can attest that its hatedom has historically made it sound more despised than it actually is in practice.)

My impression is that the primary core sentiment behind why the series so much as existing and being validated is considered such an offense (rather than, say, just saying "wow, that writing was bad" and moving on) is heavily tied to the release circumstances the series came out in during 2015-2018, and the idea that "this series disrespected Adventure, and also disrespected the fanbase.” (I mean, really, regardless of what part of the world you’re from, sequels and adaptations tend to be held to a higher bar of expectation than standalone works, because they’re expected to do them justice.) A list of complaints I’ve come across a lot while reading through the above:

The Japanese fanbase is pretty good at recordkeeping when it comes to Adventure universe lore, partially because they got a lot of extra materials that weren’t localized, but also partially because adherence to it seems to generally be more Serious Business to them than it is elsewhere. For instance, “according to Adventure episode 45, ‘the one who wishes for stability’ (Homeostasis) only started choosing children in 1995, and therefore there can be no Chosen Children before 1995” is taken with such gravity that this, not anything to do with evolutions or timeline issues, is the main reason Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity was disputed in that arena (because Wallace implies that he met his partners before 1995). It’s a huge reason the question of Kizuna also potentially not complying to lore came to the forefront, because tri. so flagrantly contradicts it so much that this issue became very high on the evaluation checklist. In practice, Kizuna actually goes against Adventure/02 very little, so the reason tri. in particular comes under fire for this is that it does it so blatantly there were theories as early as Part 1 that this series must take place in a parallel universe or something, and as soon as it became clear it didn’t, the resulting sentiment was “wow, you seriously thought nobody would notice?” (thus “disrespecting the audience”).

A lot of the characterization incongruity is extremely obvious when you’re following only the Japanese version, partially because it didn’t have certain localization-induced characterization changes (you are significantly less likely to notice a disparity with Mimi if you’re working off the American English dub where they actually did make her likely to step on others’ toes and be condescending, whereas in Japanese the disparity is jarring and hard to miss) and partially due to some things lost in translation (Mimi improperly using rough language on elders is much easier to spot as incongruity if you’re familiar with the language). Because it’s so difficult to miss, and honestly feels like a lot of strange writing decisions you’d make only if you really had no concept of what on earth happened in the original series, it only contributes to the idea that they were handling Adventure carelessly and disrespectfully without paying attention to what the series was even about (that, or worse, they didn’t care).

02 is generally well-liked there! It’s controversial no matter where you go, but as I said earlier, there was no way a retcon movement would have ever been taken seriously, and the predominant sentiment is that, even if you’re not a huge fan of it, its place in canon (even the epilogue) should be respected. So not only flagrantly going against 02-introduced lore but also doing that to a certain quartet is seen as malicious, and you don’t have as much of the converse discourse celebrating murdering the 02 quartet (yeah, that’s a thing that happened here) or accusing people with complaints of “just being salty because they like 02″ as nearly as much of a factor; I did see it happen, or at least dismissals akin to “well it’s Adventure targeted anyway,” but they were much less frequent. The issue with the 02 quartet is usually the first major one brought up, and there’s a lot of complaints even among those who don’t care for 02 as much that the way they went about it was inhumane and hypocritical, especially when killing Imperialdramon is fine but killing Meicoomon is a sin. Also, again, “you seriously think nobody will see a problem with how this doesn’t make sense?”

I think even those who are fans of the series generally agree with this, but part of the reason the actual real-life time this series went on is an important factor is that the PR campaign for this series was godawful. Nine months of clicking on an egg on a website pretending like audience participation meant something when in actuality it was blatantly obvious it was just a smokescreen to reveal info whenever they were ready? This resulted in a chain effect where even more innocuous/defensible things were viewed in a suspicious or negative light (for instance, "the scam of selling the fake Kaiser's goggles knowing Ken fans would buy it only to reveal that it's not him anyway"), and a bunch of progressively out-of-touch-with-the-fanbase statements and poor choices led to more sentiment “yeah, you’re just insulting the fanbase at this point,” and a general erosion of trust in official overall.

On top of that, the choice of release format to have it spread out as six movies over three years seems to have exacerbated the backlash to get much worse than it would have been otherwise, especially since one of the major grievances with the series is that how it basically strung people along, building up more and more unanswered questions before it became apparent it was never going to answer them anyway. So when you’re getting that frustrated feeling over three whole years, it feels like three years of prolonged torture, and it becomes much harder to forgive for the fallout than if you’d just marathoned the entire thing at once.

For those who are really into the Digimon (i.e. species) lore and null canon, while I’m not particularly well-versed in that side of the fanbase, it seems tri. fell afoul of them too for having inaccurately portrayed (at one point, mislabeled) special attacks and poorly done battle choreography, along with the treatment of Digimon in general (infantilized Digimon characterization, general lack of Digimon characters in general, very flippant treatment of the Digital World in Parts 3-5). If you say you’re going to “reboot” the Digital World and not address the entire can of worms that comes with basically damaging an entire civilization of Digimon, as you can imagine, a lot of people who actually really care about that are going to be pissed, and the emerging sentiment is “you’re billing this as a Digimon work, but you don’t even care about the monsters that make up this franchise.”

The director does not have a very positive reputation among those who know his work (beyond just Digimon), and in general there was a lot of suspicion around the fact they decided to get a guy whose career has primarily been built on harem and fanservice anime to direct a sequel to a children’s series. Add to that a ton of increasingly unnerving statements about how he intended to make the series “mature” in comparison to its predecessor (basically, an implication that Adventure and 02 were happy happy joy series where nothing bad ever happened) and descriptions of Adventure that implied a very, very poor grasp of anything that happened in it: inaccurate descriptions of their characters, poor awareness of 02′s place in the narrative, outright saying in Febri that he saw the Digimon as like perpetual kindergartners even after evolving, and generally such a flippant attitude that it drove home the idea that the director of an Adventure sequel had no respect for Adventure, made this series just to maliciously dunk on it for supposedly being immature, and has such a poor grasp of what it even was that it’s possible he may not have seen it in the first place (or if he did, clearly skimmed it to the extent he understood it poorly to pretty disturbing levels). As of this writing, Aniwota Wiki directly cites him as a major reason for the backlash.

In general, consensus seems to be that the most positively received aspect of the series (story-wise) was Part 3 (mostly its ending, but some are more amenable to the Takeru and Patamon drama), and the worst vitriol goes towards Parts 2 (for the blatantly contradictory portrayal of Mimi and Jou and the hypocritical killing of Imperialdramon) and 4 (basically the “point of no return” where even more optimistic people started getting really turned off). This is also what I suspect is behind the numbers on the infamous DigiPoll (although the percentage difference is admittedly low enough to fall within margin of error). However, there was suspicion about the series even from Part 1, with one prominent fanartist openly stating that it felt more like meeting a ton of new people than it did reuniting with anyone they knew.

So with all of that on the table: how did this affect official? The thing is that when I say “violently negative”, I mean that also entailed spamming official with said violently negative social media comments. While this is speculation, I am fairly certain that official must have realized how bad this was getting as early as between Parts 4 and 5, because that’s where a lot of really suspicious things started happening behind the scenes; while I imagine the anime series itself was now too far in to really do anything about it, one of the most visible producers suddenly vanished from the producer lineup and was replaced by Kinoshita Yousuke, who ended up being the only member of tri. staff shared with Kizuna (and, in general, the fact that not a single member of staff otherwise was retained kind of says a lot). Once the series ended in 2018 and the franchise slowly moved into Kizuna-related things, you might notice that tri.-branded merch production almost entirely screeched to a halt and official has been very touchy about acknowledging it too deeply; it’s not that they don’t, but it’s kind of an awfully low amount for what you’d think would be warranted for a series that’s supposed to be a full entry in the big-name Adventure brand.

The reason is, simply, that if they do acknowledge it too much, people will get pissed at them. That’s presumably why the tri. stage play (made during that interim period between Parts 4 and 5 and even branded with the title itself) and Kizuna are really hesitant to be too aggressive about tri. references; it’s not necessarily that official wants to blot it out of history like the most extreme opinions would like them to, but even being too enthusiastic about affirming it will also get them backlash, especially if the things they affirm are contradictory to Adventure or 02. And considering even the small references they did put in still got them criticism for “affirming” tri. too much, you can easily see that the backlash would have been much harder if they’d attempted more than that; staying as close as possible to Adventure and 02 and trying to deal with tri. elements only when they’re comparatively inoffensive was pretty much the “safe” thing to do in this scenario (especially since fully denying tri. would most certainly upset the people who did like the series, and if you have to ask me, I personally think this would have been a pretty crude thing to have done right after the series had just finished). Even interviews taken after the fact often involve quickly disclaiming involvement with the series, or, if they have to bring up something about it, discussing the less controversial aspects like the art (while the character designs were still controversial, it’s at least at the point where some fanartists will still be willing to make use of them even if they dislike the series, albeit often with prominent disclaimers) or the more well-received parts of Part 3; Kizuna was very conspicuously marketed as a standalone movie, even if it shared the point of “the Adventure kids, but older” that tri. had.

(Incidentally, the tri. stage play has generally been met with a good reputation and was received well even among people who were upset with the anime, so it was well-understood that they had no relation. In fact, said stage play is probably even better received than Kizuna, although that’s not too surprising given the controversial territory Kizuna goes into, making the stage play feel very play-it-safe in comparison.)

So, if we’re going to talk about Kizuna in particular: tri. was, to some degree, a moderate financial success, in the sense that it made quite a bit of money and did a lot to raise awareness of the Digimon brand still continuing...however, if you actually look at the sales figures for tri., they go down every movie; part of it was probably because of the progressively higher “hurdle” to get into a series midway, but consider that Gundam Unicorn (a movie series which tri.’s format was often compared to) had its sales go up per movie thanks to word of mouth and hype. So while tri. does seem to have gotten enough money to help sustain the franchise at first, the trade-off was an extremely livid fanbase that had shattered faith in the brand and in official, and so while continuing the Adventure brand might still be profitable, there was no way they were going to get away with continuing to do this lest everything eventually crash and burn.

Hence, if you look at the way Kizuna was produced and advertised, you can see a lot of it is blatantly geared at addressing a lot of the woes aimed at tri.: instead of the staff that had virtually no affiliation with Toei, the main members of staff announced were either from the original series (Seki and Yamatoya) or openly childhood fans, the 02 quartet was made into a huge advertising point as a dramatic DigiFes reveal (and character profies that tie into the 02 epilogue careers prominently part of the advertising from day one), and they even seemed to acknowledge the burnout on the original Adventure group by advertising it so heavily as “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends”, so you can see that there’s a huge sentiment of “damage control” with it. How successful that was...is debatable, since opinions have been all over the board; quite a few people were naturally so livid at what happened with tri. that Kizuna was just opening more of the wound, but there were also people who liked it much better and were willing to acknowledge it (with varying levels of enthusiasm, some simply saying “it was thankfully okay,” and some outright loving it), and there was a general sentiment even among those who disliked both that they at least understood what Kizuna was going for and that it didn’t feel as inherently disrespectful. (Of course, there are people who loved tri. and hated Kizuna, and there are people who loved both, too.)

Moreover, Kizuna actually has a slightly different target audience from tri.; there’s a pretty big difference between an OVA and a theatrical movie, and, quite simply, Kizuna was made under the assumption that a lot of people watching it may not have even seen tri. in the first place. An average of 11% of the country watched Adventure and 02, but the number of people who watched tri. is much smaller, in part due to the fact that its “theater” screenings were only very limited screenings compared to Kizuna being shown in theaters in Japan and worldwide, and in part due to the fact that watching six parts over three years is a pretty huge commitment for someone who may barely remember Digimon as anything beyond a show they watched as a kid, and may be liable to just fall off partway through because they simply just forgot. (Which also probably wasn’t helped by the infamously negative reputation, something that definitely wouldn’t encourage someone already on the fence.) And that’s yet another reason Kizuna couldn’t make too many concrete tri. references; being a theatrical movie, it needs to have as wide appeal as possible, and couldn’t risk locking out an audience that had a very high likelihood of not having seen it, much less to the end -- it may have somewhat been informed by tri.’s moderate financial success and precedent, but it ultimately was made for the original Adventure and 02 audience more than anything else.

I would say that, generally, while Kizuna is “controversial” for sure, reception towards the movie seems to be more positive than negative, it won over a large chunk of people who were burned out by tri., and it clearly seems to have been received well enough that it’s still being cashed in on a year after its release. The sheer existence of the upcoming 02-based movie is also probably a sign of Kizuna’s financial and critical success; Kinoshita confirmed at DigiFes 2020 that nothing was in production at the time, and stated shortly after the movie’s announcement that work on it had just started. So the decision to make it seems to have been made after eyeing Kizuna’s reception, and, moreover, the movie was initially advertised from the get-go with Kizuna’s director and writer (Taguchi and Yamatoya), meaning those two have curried enough goodwill from the fanbase that this can be used to promote the movie. (If not, you would think that having and advertising Seki would be the bigger priority.) While this is my own sentiment, I am personally doubtful official would have even considered 02 something remotely profitable enough on its own to cash in on if it weren’t for this entire sequence of events of 02′s snubbing in tri. revealing how much of a fanbase it had (especially with the sheer degree of “suspicious overcompensation” Kizuna had with its copious use of the 02 quartet and it tagging a remix of the first 02 ED on the Hanareteitemo single, followed by the drama CD and character songs), followed by Kizuna having success in advertising with them so heavily. Given all of the events between 2015 and now, it’s a bit ironic to see that 02 has now become basically the last resort to be able to continue anything in the original Adventure universe without getting too many people upset at them about it.

The bright side coming out of all of this is that, while it’s still a bit early to tell, now that we’re three years out from tri. finishing up and with Kizuna in the game, it seems there’s a possibility for things improving around tri.’s reception as well. Since a lot of the worst heated points of backlash against it have a very “you had to have been there” element (related to the PR, release schedule, and staff comments), those coming in “late” don’t have as much reason to be as pissed at it; I’ve seen at least one case of a fanartist getting back into the franchise because of Kizuna hype, watching tri. to catch up, casually criticizing it on Twitter, and moving on with their life, presumably because marathoning the whole thing being generally aware of what’ll happen in it and knowing Kizuna is coming after anyway gives you a lot less reason to be angry to the point of holding an outright grudge. Basically, even if you don’t like it, it’s much easier to actually go “yeah, didn’t like that,” not worry too much about it, and move on. Likewise, I personally get the impression that official has been starting to get a little more confident about digging up elements related to it. Unfortunately, a fairly recent tweet promoting the series getting put on streaming services still got quite a few angry comments implying that they should be deleting the scourge from the Internet instead, so there’s still a long way to go, but hopefully the following years will see things improve further...

In regards to the reboot, I -- and I think a lot of people will agree with me -- have a bit of a hard time reading what exact audience it’s trying to appeal to; we have a few hints from official that they want parents to watch it with their children, and that it may have been a necessary ploy in order to secure their original timeslot. So basically, the Adventure branding gets parents who grew up with the original series to be interested in it and to show it to their kids, and convinces Fuji TV that it might be profitable. But as most people have figured by now, the series has a completely different philosophy and writing style -- I mean, the interview itself functionally admits it’s here to be more action-oriented and to have its own identity -- and the target audience is more the kids than anything else. As for the Internet fanbase of veterans, most people have been critical of its character writing and pacing, but other than a few stragglers who are still really pissed, it hasn’t attracted all that much vitriol, probably because in the end it’s an alternate universe, it doesn’t have any obligation to adhere to anything from the original even if it uses the branding, and it’s clearly still doing its job of being a kids’ show for kids who never saw the original series nor 02, so an attempt to call it “disrespectful” to the original doesn’t have much to stand on. A good number of people who are bored of it decided it wasn’t interesting to them and dropped it without incident, while other people are generally just enjoying it for being fun, and the huge amount of Digimon franchise fanservice with underrepresented Digimon and high fidelity to null canon lore is really pleasing the side of the fanbase that’s into that (I mean, Digimon World Golemon is really deep in), so at the very least, there’s not a lot to be super-upset about.

[vesvosmozhno]

YEAH and I'm not trying to hate on anyone or start arguments honestly, just trying to explain my perspective. Like even if I see it as transphobia I'm not saying anyone should be attacked or harassed, and frankly I do not care to try and change anyone's minds if they ARE transphobic, it's literally not my job. But I always like to assume people just don't realize how it comes off so if I can drop a little tidbit like "hey that's why x seems transphobic" then I will, but I have no intention of going back and forth for hours trying to say "hey stop being transphobic"

Also if you have a clip or something of Seonghwa actually addressing this then I'll happily archive the post, because I don't want to do something that makes him uncomfortable, but it was made under the pretense that he hadn't said anything on it and I feel like I stalk Ateez content pretty well?

The simplest way I can explain it is that I feel like no one should have assumed I was being serious, or you know could have sent me an ask like "hey Seonghwa said he's uncomfortable with this" instead of posting it on twt without even bothering to remove my username (because we all know how the internet is)

Anyway the whole thing comes down to several things that have little to do with Seonghwa or Ateez and more to do with general online culture

I still feel like at the end of the day it has literally 20 notes and people could easily just block me or ignore it, and if they really cared about Seonghwa take the time to message me about it instead of starting discourse just to start discourse. That's why I say this has nothing to do with what Seonghwa is comfortable with and more to do with people just wanting to be immature and hateful

Um hi? You're on Twitter by the way if you weren't aware 😭

LMAOO that's genuinely so funny to me.

[gryphsdeadbones]

Half-Life and its media are rated M and the following applies:

(cw for: nsfw discussion)

1. Don’t fucking send nsfw shit to minors. What is WRONG with you. If you are an adult you don’t bring that shit up with minors. Don’t fucking go into their inbox and whine about nsfw discourse. WHY are you personally interacting with kids in that way, it’s shady as fuck??? You can discuss that stuff with other adults, don’t involve minors- even if you feel the need to correct them it’s just. Really not a good idea. 

If you really can’t avoid a discussion, keep your distance.

Minors, for your safety, only trust whoever you feel is an okay adult. Even then, don’t hesitate to cut off contact if an adult ever feels very very suspicious and unsafe. You can softblock/hardblock as needed on the internet and it’s understandable and gets the message across. 

2. Don’t fucking send nsfw shit to adults who didn’t ask. Why the fuck are you sending nsfw shit to wayne and co. This is like nsfw etiquette 101, if you DO discuss serious nsfw in a sfw space, you always make sure the others are okay with it and its tagged as such/in the appropriate space. 

The huge problem with the discourse in the first place is that some chucklefuck thought it was funny to send it to creators. 

The crew do crack nsfw jokes but like. They know each other. The twitch chat’s aware of their brand of humor. But some stranger showing up with straight up nsfw jokes/content unprompted? That’s not okay, even if outwardly they seemed fine with it.

It’s pretty much unwanted harassment- like if you were joking around with your close circle of friends at a bar and a total fucking stranger shows up and tells you nsfw jokes. Jokes that they made porn of your oc, unprompted. What the fuck.

3. Don’t fucking harass nsfw artists either, holy fucking shit. If you’re not familiar with nsfw spaces, it is not your place to tell what artists can or cant draw. Any nsfw artist with basic common sense fucking knows to:

- NOT put it in the main tags of a media

- tag warnings when needed

- mark their own account as nsfw

- block and avoid problematic shit

If you think every single nsfw artist is into gross illegal shit you are out of your mind and extremely wrong. Regardless, if you’re not into nsfw content, then it’s not for you. Simple as that- you block/avoid as needed and they will do the same- both sides win!

I’ve witnessed nsfw artists getting death threats- the characters in their art being unrelated adults and consensual. Holy fuck just leave them the goddamn fuck alone. You’d think ‘oh but they’re adults, they can handle it’ hello these guys are real people. Their feelings are more important than dumb internet discourse. If you’re concerned for your safety, the block button is free of charge. Use it.

The real, actual, mutual enemy is the people who make extremely vile abuse fetishization shit- even then, just block and don’t engage AT ALL for your own safety. It’s that easy.

Literally every Half-Life character is an adult and not related to each other (aside from the obvious).

I hate to break it to you, but HLVR:AI has a good chunk of nsfw dialogue and is taking place in an M-rated game. 

It’s legitimately concerning sometimes that there are a lot of minors who like HLVR:AI. All the characters are ADULTS and they say dumb adult shit sometimes.

It’s okay to enjoy it, I’m not saying ‘minors shouldn’t be watching this’. It’s very important to set boundaries. And it’s equally important not to go looking for content you don’t want to see. 

It is your own responsibility to curate and filter your own feed. Ao3, Twitter and Tumblr have their own filtering system: actually use it to your advantage. 

Also a note: people tend to miss dni lists and carrds, so using filters are much more helpful for you and others.

Don’t go crying into anyone’s inboxes and make them do the work for you- unless there’s, for some goddamn reason, explicit nsfw in the main tags. Even then, those are like a small number of people who are easy to block and ignore. Simple as that. Use your brain.

You can reblog this. Except for p*do/inc*st/n*ncon creators, I’d rather you don’t interact.

If you’re going to send anon asks about this, be fucking respectful and mature about it. Anon hate and harassment goes directly into the garbage and permanently blocks ip.