#but seeing people post the most abysmal takes on anon

[fruit-kick]

ngl i hate it when u bring up how fucked up the show and fandom treats jermy and ppl respond w/ "he makes out w/ his dog" like idk how to tell you that jermy is not A Real Guy who made out w/ his dog the same way Dolph was not a kid who happened to look like hitler.

like both of those things are deliberate choices made by the writers to justify shitty, bigoted choices in the story and i need all of you to stop falling for it when people bring up the fact that it was fucked up.

also, other hot take that i think should be cold: people doing fucked up things does not justify bigotry. if the writers put in a trans caricature, misgendered them every step of the way, and then threw in a "they kiss dogs" ya'll would know thats bullshit. (or at least i hope you do) so put in the same fucking energy.

[salmalin]

I Wanna Talk About "Comments"

IMG ID: Yknow go figure you’d abandon this for a popular fandom… goes to show you just write for attention and instant gratification. May as well just delete this. It’s clogging up space. To do all this and walk away for mainstream games is so typical for people like you who claim to be in it for the art. You’re in it for the ratio, you’re in it for your massive ego, so just delete it.

I've been getting a few comments like this lately, and this one is honestly the least biting, but I've been seeing enough of them that I've decided to post this.

I've already deleted this "Named" Anon Comment off the fic, and I'm not going to reply to them, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about this mentality, and why comments like this make no sense.

Basically: They're angry that I'm taking a break from this fic from a small fandom—a fic they've never interacted with—while I'm also writing another story for another fandom that happens to be bigger. This bigger fandom fic has (despite being in first-person with a non-linear storytelling style, famously hated formats) gained a bit of attention. Which is fine. That happens.

So let's talk about why this comment sucks, and why it fails at every level to be any form of criticism, constructive or otherwise.

"abandon this for a popular fandom" Everyone can see that this fic is marked as incomplete. Whoever this is, they chose to click on an incomplete fic that hasn't been updated in eight months—only eight months. A drop in the bucket, really, and the time I went between chapter 5 and chapter 6 was over a year. This is on them. They do not get to put this on the writer. At any point they could have stopped. At any point, they could have closed the fic. They knew this from the get-go. They did not. This was their decision, and they're trying to blame me for their despair. They made it through 245k before they reached this point, and I know because they commented on the last chapter specifically.

"you just write for attention and instant gratification" "Instant"? I don't think this person knows how writing works. Like, on a fundamental level. This story started getting posted in 2020, with my most recent update this year (2023), and they think writing and posting something is looking for "instant gratification". Bold to assume this is "instant". (Bold to assume we have any control over it at all.)

"May as well delete this. It's clogging up space." AO3 is only limited by its server size, and my fic is a drop in the bucket. It is not taking up much in the way of space. Besides, just because something is unfinished does not mean it doesn't belong on AO3. That's why you're allowed to upload chapter by chapter. That is a critical function of the website. It's also an archive, which means it's designed to hold information, finished or unfinished. Again, shame on the reader.

"You're in it for the ratio; you're in it for your massive ego." These are not only assumptions, but if this person is really so opposed to the idea of people doing things for attention, they should ignore children when they need food, only read published novels that are obviously written in a desperate grab for money, and never go on AO3 ever again. If writers didn't want attention, they wouldn't post online for free because they'd just keep it to themselves. And if commenters didn't want attention, they wouldn't comment. (But then would we even have a fandom, if no one's talking to anyone else?) Is this the attention they wanted? Probably. I've found that people like this seem to thrive on the misery they inflict on others.

If y'all care to know why this person was so abysmally wrong in this specific context: (if not, just skip to the end of the list.)

This fic that they're complaining I left for a bigger fandom? I actually left that bigger fandom for this fic. That "bigger fandom" was the first video game I was ever obsessed with. It was 1997, and I wasn't even allowed to touch the console. My brother destroyed the final disc in a fit of rage. I've never even beaten the final boss. It has been 26 years, and for a solid 15 of them I was desperately trying to figure out what I wanted to write for the pairing that changed my life. This fic that they're complaining about me "abandoning" Fires of War for has been rolling around in my brain for longer than the media for Fires of War has even existed. In fact, when you search my username here on tumblr, an ask I sent another user laying this out is essentially the first thing you see. (At least, right now.) In fact, my current user pic is from Fires of War. I did not change it because there's no need to.

Fires of War is actually still in progress, and they would have known this if they read the other comments on the same chapter they complained on. I originally took a break from FoW due to stress, and because no matter what I tried, the next chapter just wasn't working. After a break, I realized why—the outline was broken and needed to be adjusted. Meanwhile, the other fic I'm working on to relieve that stress is much, much easier to write. In my eyes, it's much lower quality, as well. It requires fewer stages of editing. The words flow easily because they're much closer to my speaking voice. I'm not constantly researching cultures I know little about for fact checking and world building and (I shit you not) intercontinental politics. (I once researched the GDP, climate, and economy of Spain in 1986 for several hours and proceeded to have a three hour debate with my editor about a plot point. Yes. Three hours.) Oh, and I don't have to write anything in Iambic Fucking Pentameter. (Yes, that's a thing in Fires of War. They are complaining that I "abandoned" a story that has bits of dialog in god-forsaken Iambic Pentameter. Even at my peak, I wrote 8k in two weeks. But with my current "popular" fic, I can whip out 14k in one. That's how much easier it is.)

I want to turn those "ratio" stats off. I've mentioned this to people a few times, actually—I wish there was a way to turn all stats off on the Archive. They actually give me anxiety. I don't want to know how many comments are on my fic, or kudos are on a little obscure piece. I think that information should only be accessible to the writer, like Tumblr follow counts.

Literally talk to me for three seconds and you will be sick of how into the art of it I am. Holy shit, I cannot shut up. I will include required reading. I will rant about the details I put in for plotlines ten chapters out. I will give you a crash course in tone, word choice, and counting verbs. And yes, I count verbs! Holy fuck I am autistic as hell and this is my special interest. I love writing so much. It's my favorite thing in the world. Please stop my I CAN'T STOP I LOVE WRITING SO MUCH GOD IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ME FUCKING SANE. So you can imagine how misguided I think someone is when they say I'm not into the art of it. It just exposes them as someone who doesn't know what art is.

I'm a hermit who doesn't really go online much aside from using Discord as a free texting app because for some reason every texting app I've gotten has been broken. I legit do not like attention. I talk to like four people a day outside of work. I don't even like it when people complement me too much. Even if I went above and beyond, just one sentence is more than enough and move on, please. It's good to know my actions have had positive consequences, because that's crucial for my brain processing said consequences so I can continue said action in the future because I know I didn't do something wrong, but repeated praise makes me uncomfortable. It took me a long time to understand this about myself. This seems antithetical at first, but I do like the comments that break down the themes, execution, etc. in my fics. If they're breaking things down, moving to point to point about parts they enjoyed, there are giving me critical feedback. They tell me what thy enjoyed, and what was picked up. It's extremely useful feedback to know what they enjoyed, and what stood out to them. It helps me write better stories on the future, and hones how I get my point across. Besides, what is art that doesn't spark innovation and thought? It is forgotten.

The strongest hate is born of love—misguided though it may be—and this person has made that clear. Obviously they care about this fandom or they never would have commented like this. But if they knew more about people and less about what they want everyone to give them, maybe the spaces around them would be safer for the people in their lives—or the people they brush against online.

Comments like this often make people not want to write their fic.

Thankfully, I'm actually am in it for the art, so they might be going out of their way to make the lives of everyone around them miserable, but they haven't achieved their goal here.

However, there are a lot of writers who critically need feedback; who need this positive reinforcement. It's also why it's so important to tell writers why you enjoy their work. Even if it's something small like "I like your word choice" or "I really liked this line" or "I can't wait to find out how they resolve this"—that's feedback more valuable than we can really quantify.

"I like your word choice."—The way you pay attention to the words you use is working with the tone.

"I really like this line."—The way this line is formatted is very memorable and hits better than the others. It may be good to pay attention to it to find out why.

"I can't wait to find out how they resolve this."—You have gotten a good grade in suspense, a thing that is possible and reasonable to achieve (or however that meme goes).

I am constantly learning. I am constantly growing and changing as a person and a writer, and other people are critical to this. Sitting in a room and shouting will not make you better at making jokes, and shoving your writing in a corner never to see the light of day will never give you the tools to communicate with other people.

Sometimes I feel like people like this *points to the top of the page* don't want to learn that lesson, because of the painful reckoning with their actions it will entail.

If this is you, or you have done something similar, I recommend going through, finding your old comments, and deleting them yourself, or even apologizing if you can. Clean up your own mess, so people like me don't have to do it for you. This is a public space. Act like it.

[cringefaecompilation]

Hey last anon back again…

I thought the whole essay was really well thought out and presented for sure! All the points you made hit home so I’m just going to expand on a few here for you:

There has always been that trend in fandoms to prop white male characters up on a pedestal and it’s never more apparent than when you compare a given fanbase’s reaction to a non-white man.

Because unfortunately the abysmal treatment of Marisha, Laura, and Ashley has become par for the course and having such a polarized reception to Bor’dor/Utkarsh especially was very stark for me. And were Dorian not the group’s “special little guy” to come in and bolster them after FCG’s death who knows what the reaction would have been.

The main cast are putting forth the effort to integrate a guest into the weekly table and making multiple demonstrative points to show that he is as much a part of Bells Hells as the rest of them. The least we can do as a fanbase is to engage with Dorian as his own person. And give Robbie the autonomy he deserves to make his story what he wants it to be.

oh boy, yeah. i saw the stark shift in fandom trend from "bor'dor, this man of color, is most comparable to a cute little puppy that follows around the rest of the white cast and doesn't bring too much attention to himself!" turn around to "he's an irredeemable demon! the evilest monster to ever walk upon the face of exandria and they should've desecrated his body after killing him!" instantly. shit was terrifying.

aaaaaaand since you brought it up i can add the bit i only alluded to in my post!

i mentioned the noble savage trope and how in some part it can contribute to men and boys of color being hypersexualized by white fans. and dorian, being the resident "hot boi" is usually only milled down to being... that. or people only talking about him when they're talking about him having sex with orym. or getting into arguments about how he should instead have sex with ashton. or dariax. because, of course, the only thing that matters is the romantic/sexual feelings of the white guy and getting their dick/pussy wet and not dorian's feelings.

now, robbie daymond cracking jokes about how hot dorian is and him wearing "slutty clothes" is different than that. again, he has the autonomy and he can damn well please talk about how hot his character is! his narrative telephone episode was about him playing a character who's sole personality trait was being sexy while the rest of his family was ugly! the same goes for the rest of the critical role cast who know him and only take the joke as far as robbie's comfortable with.

finding dorian attractive is not the problem. seeing him as only an object for a white character's (or a white audience's) sexual gratification is.

[saltymcsaltything]

I know I am conditioned by trauma to see red flags everywhere and assume the worst of anyone I don't know and trust because experience has shown that it's the safer default, so it's very hard not to see malice and contempt in the behavior and words of @photomatt

But I am trying to turn that off enough to appeal to reason, because in reflecting on his most recent posts in particular, I think it's possible, however much my instincts scream otherwise, that he's just ignorant of what the trans community experiences and actually can't understand why we see his words and actions as harmful and transphobic.

This entire debacle keeps making me think of the double empathy problem - he cannot possibly understand the truly vile hate and abuse we are exposed to on this site or the lengths even small blogs have to go to in order to curate our experience into something that feels remotely safe. Many of us have been physically and sexually assaulted because of our gender and we are at risk of being murdered. TERFs on this site *gleefully celebrate the deaths of trans people including children* and actively target people with a history of self harm and suicidal ideation. That is the context of trans lives that has him painting us as toxic for mocking him and his overreaction to 'threats' that most of us wouldn't even bat an eye at. I don't doubt that anons and DMs have been sent to him that are far worse than the hammer car thing, but he's still only seeing a tiny sliver of the hate levelled against trans people. Maybe if he considers how what he is experiencing happens every day ending with Y for any trans blogger with a sizeable following and that Tumblr's track record for taking action against that is beyond abysmal, he might snap out of this pattern of centering himself over the user's who have been pushed past their breaking point by the years of failure in addressing biased moderation and complete lack of visible action against hate speech. If he does, maybe there's an opportunity to actually see something positive come from this.

@photomatt, I am going to attempt to put aside my visceral aversion to so much of what you've said and done over the last few days and try to get you to understand *why* you've faced the backlash you have, because it is clear you do not really understand our experiences and cannot empathize with them. And please don't claim that you do, your actions and tone towards us say otherwise and it's insulting to watch you claim allyship when you have contributed to the harm we endure on a daily basis. You need to sit with th knowledge that you have hurt us because of your ignorance, reflect, and start actually listening to us. Stop centering yourself and work to see what your actions, words, and the past and present failures of Tumblr as an organization have done to the trans community. Keep in mind that you admitted to having a contract moderator that was actively targeting us and colluding with others to do the same, and understand that the harm done by that didn't disappear when they were dealt with - if anything disclosing that ripped open gaping wounds, and your actions since have poured salt in them.

I doubt this is worth the effort at this point since you seem to have fully entrenched your defensiveness and your framing of a community in the current political climate that is constantly under threat of actual, life threatening physical violence for the crime of existing as "toxic", but if you have even an ounce of humility and genuine desire to support us, I hope you'll consider taking a step back and reflecting on your recent behavior from the perspective of users who have seen communities they have painstakingly built on Tumblr where we had a modicum of safety repeatedly decimated by disastrous policies and practices, and who have for years been actively targeted by bigots who want to see us erased from existence and openly brag about their attacks. Put yourself in the shoes not of a CEO but someone who's existence is under theat on multiple levels on a daily basis, and then read the way that you, the most powerful person on the platform talks about a member of the community who was the target of a malicious campaign of harassment, mass reporting, hate speech, vile accusations and death threats. Try to see what we see - especially the avoidance of the biggest issue for the community, which is the harassment campaign that TERFs are gloating about in the notes of your posts.

Behavior is communication, and your behavior feels *abusive* given your position of power in the context of what we face on a daily basis. Users desperate for a scrap of hope that the common threats that we are faced with on this platform might be dealt with in a meaningful way saw the most powerful person on the platform focusing solely on the "violations" of a single user who was being brigaded by one of the most vitriolic and toxic groups on the platform. Not addressing the harassment being visited on her spoke volumes - it told us you *do not care* about the harm that is done to us on a daily basis by bad actors, but you absolutely care about whats directed at you and @staff. While I sympathize with line level employees who are caught in the cross fire of the backlash you incited with your ignorance and callous disregard for a community that is routinely traumatized, I don't have much empathy to spare for those in leadership who have a level of power and privilege no ordinary user on this platform comes close to having, especially after witnessing how quickly you will wield that power to protect *your* in-group and yourself from a *sliver* of the abuse the trans community endures on a daily basis. It was sickening witnessing how quickly blogs mocking you were banned when people who have done *far worse* to us for years have been able to do so with impunity under your watch when all it would take us for you to look at a single report of the hate and abuse we report and wield the same ban hammer against people who should have been held accountable *years* ago. Knowing you would do for you and yours but not for us is utterly depressing.

And it's not only the trans community dealing with hate speech, death threats and harassment, but in this instance that was who your behavior was harming when you showed what you were capable of doing to protect your people when the issue you repeatedly failed to address but clearly could have was the *massive* flood of hate that the trans community repeatedly reports but sees scant evidence of any response. If there *is* meaningful action in the background, the lack of transparency makes it meaningless because from our perspective there isn't anything being dive to address mass coordinated harassment campaigns that *should* be easy to mask since so much of it is copy/paste anon hate spammed in asks. You claim standard policy is to not comment on moderation decisions but then decided to make an exception in this instance to, from our perspective, shit on a victim of a targeted smear campaign and make claims about their behavior that did not match the evidence you made available, while invoking law enforcement action against someone who is at increased risk of police violence and then doubling down on how much *you and your people* were being hurt when criticized for failing to address the entire situation and for centering your own feelings over an entire community who's suffering on your platform you fail to acknowledge.

Make an exception and tell us what you've actually done to address transphobic harassment. Not doing so when you made an exception to talk about the victim of one of their campaigns is a bad look and is part of why you are being accused of upholding and enabling systemic transphobia. Sticking to your policy of silence for transphobes but making an exception to talk about a banned trans user looks pretty biased,and given the well documented track record of Tumblr when it comes to bias against the LGBTQIA+ community, it's a really bad look. As CEO you should be sufficiently cognizant of the history of these issues and the ongoing problems with moderation to recognize how easy it is for users which have been conditioned to expect the worst to see this as biased. You desperately need to gain some perspective before putting your keystrokes out there on these issues

Your behavior has hurt vulnerable people. It has made people feel unsafe. You're angry about being called a transphobe, but your actions have harmed the trans community and your inaction in addressing those targeting us looks like tacit approval of their behavior. If you cannot clearly and unequivocally commit to take action against the transphobic harassment we face from malicious users on the platform, then your inaction creates and upholds systemic transphobia. Your intentions and principles are immaterial when the impact is harmful. If that hurts you so much to be called out for upholding and enabling transphobia, *do something about it*

I don't think you can be reached at this point and I am not even sure that assuming your intentions are not deliberately malicious is even reasonable, but I would sure like to be proven wrong for once.

But I won't hold my breath. Long before this situation I had blocked you for your ableist behavior regarding forced animations. Suggesting that disabled users could simply pay for premium features in order to have a safe user experience was a stunningly insensitive take. That comment belied your ignorance of the potentially fatal effects of visually triggered seizure disorders and the widespread prevalence and debilitating symptoms of other visually triggered conditions like vertigo and migraine. Your embrace of the prevailing societal opinion that actually, making disabled people pay more to exist at every possible opportunity is just good business was disheartening and caused me to write you off as a fake ally. All you have done recently is provide further evidence that my suspicions were well founded, and at this point if you don't wake up and start actually working to address your failures instead of becoming defensive and painting people you have hurt as toxic, you won't have any users left on this site but the transphobes you are protecting, inadvertently or otherwise. I guarantee other communities are watching you closely and spotting the sane red flags that the disability and trans communities have. You have a lot of work to do to repair the damage you've inflicted and to start actually fixing the problems that have plagued this site for years. None of us are going to want to support this site financially ever again if you continue to behave like this, so your threats to abandon Tumblr are toothless because people are already leaving. You have a chance to salvage this situation if you are actually willing to do the work, and then maybe you can actually monetize things on here in a way that doesn't alienate the user base so that people are actually happy to support the platform.

If you actually believe in the principles you posted, actively work to uphold them *here* take action to protect and support the trans community instead of stepping on a landmine you easily could have avoided by seeking perspective before responding. Prove that you are actually doing something about Nazis and transphobes - give us an option to report transphobic hate speech specifically and release metrics - reports submitted and actions taken. Hell, release metrics on all of the reports - some of those mass reporting campaigns should be pretty easy to spot.

Please actually give a shit about users. You have a great deal of power and you have welded it against vulnerable people. However justified you may feel in doing so, you're still contributing to harm, and you should rethink the way you respond because it makes you appear vindictive and capricious.

[hungharrington]

Regarding your ducks, maybe there are a few points you can clarify for me. 

You know that we write porn, right? So when you say support, you realize that these fics aren’t paying anyone's bills? Do you think readers are going from blog to blog seeing how many pro-Palestine posts people make before choosing which fic to masturbate to?

If a reader doesn’t want to interact with a certain author. That’s okay. They’ll both be fine. They still aren’t owed any information. No authors on here have pinned a checklist of every social and political belief they hold, and it would be ridiculous to expect that. 

Most of the actors have stayed silent on their opinions including Joe Keery, but you’re still writing about them. How do you condemn other blogs for remaining neutral but think that’s fine? If you feel so strongly maybe you should stop being the one with one foot on each side of the road. It’s almost as if you recognize that a TV show isn’t going to sway the outcome of this horrible war. It’s almost like this is an excuse to have a beef with someone you have a problem with.

there is no telling another person how they run their blog or how they should be an activist - all those things change wildly from person to person and imposing a 'standard' does not take into account the range of things people may be dealing with.

I know you are only twenty-two, but that’s old enough to understand the hypocrisy in saying that you wouldn’t impose a standard for activism but then go right on to outline your expectations. Why are you comparing yourself to her? You keep saying this is the internet you are allowed to assume and judge, but do you think that’s good? That should be the standard.

Lastly, you point out that Emmy has been harassed in the past, but can’t fathom why she’d be on the defensive with the tone you chose to use. Baffled was the word, right? Think about it. Maybe you should sit with the question. I bet you could come up with an answer. I believe in you, buddy. 

I think you should take a turn being a grown-up, and when anons come in your ask box to complain about someone you have blocked, ignore them and move on with your day.  

I know it’s going to be tempting to come back with a whole slew of what-about-isms and to hand wave this all away, saying that I’m just another one of Emmy’s fans. But actually, I’m just a fan of having a few days without all this drama that is clearly rooted in the Autumn stuff that should have died off a long time ago. 

it’s not about how many posts someone has reblogged regarding palestine, if any at all. that would be imposing a standard. it’s about, if someone asks your stance to check that you’re not a zionist, understanding that they have every right to assume you are a zionist if you choose not to answer.

true, no one is owed information. refusing to talk about this in the slightest manner, however, even just to clarify that you don’t support the genocide of an entire people, i, personally, believe makes you an asshole.

edit to add on: further more, i do believe people are entitled to know if they are following and supporting a zionist.

i cannot talk to joe keery and co about their views on palestine, like i can on here.

“It’s almost as if you recognize that a TV show isn’t going to sway the outcome of this horrible war.” one. it’s a genocide, not a war. two. this is an abysmally shitty way to view the situation and it attempts to removes any responsibility that you have as someone in a position of privilege (you know, to have the time to be engaging with fanfiction). if everyone thought this way, would any awareness be raised at all? would zionist’s experience zero consequences?

my ‘expectations’ are shared by many to be the bare minimum, considering we all come from a place of privilege to be online, having time to read and write fics at all and we partake in a fandom that gives many zionist’s platforms.

i was baffled that she couldn’t see it as a reasonable ask and instead took it as mindless hate.

the autumn drama was first brought by up by emmy herself, where she made another snide comment six months after the situation. i came on too heated, i can admit that, and it took away from my argument but ultimately my point stands: that autumn situation came about through speculation and i speculated back. i want her to leave autumn’s name alone once and for all.

[olderthannetfic]

reading level anon here. thank you so much for that detailed explanation, i really appreciate it! and if you have a spare moment and willingness in the future, i'd love to hear more about your opinion on whether languages are hard and how they're classified. i didn't consider english as a particularly difficult language either before i've started seeing those posts about reading levels and how english is so quirky and basically three languages in a trenchcoat which always pisses me off, 'cause sure, english is quirky and interesting, but not any more than all the other languages. i would actually love to see people trying to learn and struggle with hungarian (my native language) for a change, i'd be so ready to answer any questions and muse about homonyms and other linguistic features, turkish loanwords, puns, etc, and just help out with learning any way i can, but that obviously will never happen because very very few people want to learn hungarian. i am also an english major because i never think important life decisions through. anyway, sorry for being bitter in your inbox and once again thank you for taking my question seriously and answering it so thoroughly.

--

Ooh, Hungarian!

Having known friends who did try, your language actually is a gigantic pain in the ass. Hahaha. Hungarian, Basque, and Navajo would be my picks for languages people I know actually attempt and then go "Oh no!" about.

I'm sure there are plenty of other Native North American languages that would stump people just as badly, but nobody I know attempts any of those.

Obviously, language "difficulty" is inherently relative. Spanish is dead easy if you're a native English speaker with a big vocabulary and good verbal skills. Japanese is tricky. But I wouldn't say Japanese is really that hard in an objective sense. It's simply more distant from English than Spanish is.

(For reference, I'm fluent-ish but out of practice and never very colloquial in Spanish, can read a little Japanese, and have studied but am garbage at Mandarin, Russian, German, and French. Uh, plus some Old English and various other things. Korean, here I come!)

--

So are any languages inherently "hard"?

I'd say yes. I'd break it down by aspects of languages, and some things make them hard to learn at the super beginner phase while others are a pain even once you know a lot, but some genuinely are harder than others. It's not just about distance from one's native language.

Languages face pressure to be easy to produce, e.g. easy pronunciations, regular conjugations, limited vocabulary, simple writing systems. They also face pressure to be easy to understand, e.g. words that sound extremely distinct from each other, lots of words with specific meanings, unambiguous written forms.

In certain ways, reading Japanese is actually pretty easy. Characters are a nuisance to learn, but once you know them, they remove a lot of ambiguity from writing. They can also be used for puns, including visual puns. In Japanese specifically, they're often used for shit like all those proper nouns in One Piece that have furigana giving some ambiguous English loan word name as the pronunciation but kanji that make it more obvious what the proper noun is referring to.

ノースブルー with 北の海 for example. Even if you speak English, "North Blue" isn't that clear. 海 makes it clear it's the name of an ocean.

Characters also have a lot of internal logic (radicals, standard stroke directions). They're taught abysmally by most Japanese texts for English speakers that I've seen, but bad teaching isn't the same as the thing itself being hard.

I also think people often focus too much on the writing system, whether it's English's spelling... uh... quirks or Japanese' use of multiple systems together. In a practical sense, you have to know the dominant written form in order to study most languages easily, but the core of a language is speech, so I think classifying them as hard/not hard just based on writing is dumb.

What factors should we evaluate hardness by?

My main criteria are:

complexity

predictability

commonness of a feature compared to other languages

I wouldn't look at something being a language isolate in and of itself, but a language isolate may have features that are pretty uncommon in world languages, and that is something I'd look at.

To pick a really obvious example, the middle voice is uncommon. Most languages have active voice and passive voice. Other voices aren't that common. Though, wow, according to wikipedia:

Some languages have even more grammatical voices. For example, Classical Mongolian features five voices: active, passive, causative, reciprocal, and cooperative.

What the shit, Classical Mongolian? What is all of that???

I'm told Basque is full of the ergative and it confuses the shit out of learners.

Mandarin tones scare native English speakers because Tones Scary, but it only has the 5, and they sound decently different. As tonal languages go, that's really not that bad.

Grammatical gender isn't predictable from the nature of the thing (a table or whatever), but in many languages like Spanish, you can guess from what letter the word ends in. A language where you can't guess would be harder.

I don't really count quality of learning materials as part of the language's native difficulty, but that's obviously a factor too. English has a wealth of instructional materials for people coming from basically every language. A lot of Native languages of the Americas have learning materials in English or in Spanish or not at all, so you'd need to know one of those languages and/or travel to where the few native speakers are to learn.

Is English difficult?

English is not three languages in a trench coat, really. People say that because they're thinking about vocab and know fuckall about how languages work. Here's how I'd evaluate English:

Grammar: easy - weaksauce Germanic grammar with all the case-marking stripped out and some word order stuff solidified as a consequence; no grammatical gender; plenty of irregular verbs, but they tend to go in sets that have the same pattern; conjugations aren't that complex; we don't indicate politeness or formality with grammar

Pronunciation: easy to moderate - English has a medium size sound inventory compared to world languages. Many of its sounds are extremely common ones. The few that are less common you can get away with mispronouncing without being totally unintelligible. Still, th (θ and ð), r, ʒ, and possibly our ch and sh sounds are a problem for lots of learners. We have a lot of words that differ only by a similar vowel sound, and our vowels shift around between dialects, so that can be slightly tricky for listening comprehension.

Writing system: moderate - Our spelling isn't random, but chunks of it operate on one set of historical rules while other chunks of it operate on others. There is logic: it just doesn't apply to every word the same way. OTOH, the lack of phonetic spelling is helpful for distinguishing homophones while reading.

Vocabulary: moderate to hard - English has a fuckton of words. Just so many. There's no standard for judging what counts as an individual word, but however you slice it, English has more than our Germanic neighbors or the Romance languages we ripped off much of our vocab from. We also love our acronyms, which all sound the same because they are acronyms. (A thing one of my old language teachers bitched about from her English learning days.) Politeness and formality are often conveyed with word choice in ways that are hard to pin down. It's more of a sum total effect thing than one with precise rules. OTOH, most normal people use a very small inventory of words in speech, so you could get by with a much more basic set of vocab to start with.

Dialects: easy - English has no official standard and a number of countries where it's the official or de facto language, but they're all highly mutually intelligible and grammar works the same. (Well, okay, maybe less so if you're looking at the extremes of Caribbean creoles, but still...) The differences tend to be minor spelling changes and a handful of basic vocabulary items that mean something hilariously different. There is very little gap between written and spoken English compared to many languages with written forms. Writing is just speaking plus some extra vocabulary and a little more formality.

Speed of evolution: bad, v. bad, red alert - Every language has slang and evolves, but English seems to be especially speedy and gung ho about this, probably because we don't have much of a standard and we're so colloquial. We love coining new words, and anything that sounds like an affix gets shoved on all of the things. (And unlike an agglutinating language, this isn't something that's going to be clearly explained in a textbook.) English is neologism hell, especially if you're hanging out with nerds on tumblr.

--

Personally, I'd put English at the upper end of easy, edging into moderate. The hard bit is memorizing our eighty bajillion words, and that's easier than if the hard part is the basic grammar. Our spelling sucks, but most native speakers can't spell worth a damn either, so even moderate gains in that area make a learner able to get by with spellcheck.

And procedurally, we're pretty easy because we produce the full range of media, so you can easily find a book for 5-year-olds or 10-year-olds or 15-year-olds to practice on. Avoiding English on the internet would be a lot harder than finding some, and there are zillions of resources out there for learners.

For hard, I'd pick languages with shittons of case-marking or with way more than three grammatical genders. Procedurally, I'd pick languages from the Americas because genocide and forcible suppression of native languages have led to many of them having few native speakers, few closely related living languages, and not much media in them. Some don't have any written standard at all.

I don't know a ton about Hungarian, but from what I do know, I'd put it at the upper end of moderate or the lower end of hard for your pain-in-the-ass case system. Ugh, case. My nemesis!

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hello Lost. I am sad: my fanfics do not receive comments and I am losing the will to write eruri. I know we write for ourselves and that is beautiful, but at the same time, it is nice to know what people think and if they are enjoying our fanfics. I do not want to ask people to leave more comments, it is their choice, but I wish I could find a way to encourage readers. I do not care if it is one comment or hundreds, just one opinion coming from someone’s heart will be enough to me. Do you have some kind of advice, please? Thank you,

Hello Anon, I’m so sorry you’re sad, but I do understand.  No matter how often I encourage people to write for themselves and to be proud of their own creativity, there’s no denying that it is disappointing when you pour your heart and soul into a piece of writing and it gets no reaction.  I feel that way myself sometimes, when I post a piece that I’m particularly fond of and it just gets crickets. It’s impossible not to feel a little despondent. 

Sadly you’re not the only one who's experiencing this.  I’ve seen several surveys about fandom engagement and it seems that comments are drying up right across the board. There are many reasons for this, but most of them boil down to the changing nature of fandom platforms and communities.  Twitter is a particularly bad platform for fandom engagement; it’s hard to build and sustain a community on such a public platform, it’s so fast moving that content disappears quickly and there’s a high probability that people will never see it, it’s hard to re-surface content after the timeline has moved on, and the click through rate is abysmal.  Also because AO3 is an archive, rather than a social media platform, it was never designed to sustain community on the platform.  Quite the opposite in fact, there was always an assumption that fandom communities would exist elsewhere, and that AO3 would archive the content created by those communities. 

There has also been increasing commodification of fandom creativity.  Some fans seem to approach fanfic with the same expectations as published fiction, without taking into account that all fanfiction is a voluntary labour of love, rather than the result of a commercial contractual agreement between author and publisher. This sometimes leads to a mismatch in expectations between readers and writers; writers hope for comments and feedback, while readers expect regular updates, and more often than not everyone ends up a little disappointed. 

There’s no easy way to solve these problems so it’s really important to remember that lack of engagement is absolutely no reflection on the quality of your writing.  I can’t stress this too often. 

There are things you can do though! One of which is to find your own fandom community.  In my experience fandom is *always* best experienced with a small group of like-minded weirdos who share your specific niche headcanons about your favourite characters.  Discord is a good space for small fandom communities, if you can gather together a small group of fandom friends, you can set up your own server with people who hopefully will be only too happy to comment on your writing.  There’s also an Eruri writing discord which I’ve heard great things about.  It sounds like a really creative and supportive space.  @RookSacrifice over on twitter is one of the mods and has passed on an invitation to the server for you. If you DM me, I’ll give it to you.  Also don’t ever be afraid to ask for feedback!  Try reaching out directly to other writers and readers.  If you hook up with another writer, you can even offer to exchange comments on your work.  Something else I’ve suggested in the past is getting involved in ship weeks and challenges.  That can be a great way to encourage fans to engage with your writing.  Though tbh there are so many ship weeks running these days that I have no idea what sort of engagement they get. Still worth a try though! 

I hope this helps Anon, please don’t feel too despondent. Eruri is such a fabulous ship with so much nuance to explore in Erwin and Levi’s characters and relationship, it would be such a shame if you stopped writing.  And please do DM me so I can pass on that Discord link.

[tobi-smp]

Anonymous asked: Feel like seeing some splendid bait takes today? [Link to a post that’s been censored] [End transcription]

I’m gonna be honest with you anon, as much as I’m definitely known for not shying away from discourse I don’t particularly like engaging with pure “bait” takes, especially to this degree.

the point of engaging with meta or discourse or what have you is to engage with the Ideas being presented. either because there’s a conversation that’s worth happening opened up by the original post, or because the ideas presented are worth correcting.

the former doesn’t really need explaining (having genuine discussions about lore is something that some people consider, you know, Fun), but the latter is only worthwhile in a few instances.

1: when a Good point is being made in a bad way. whether that just be down to unfortunate/incomplete wording, a lack of evidence, or something is structurally wrong with the thought process but the conclusion is still (in my opinion) Correct. critiquing ideas that you genuinely believe in is just as if not more important than debating ideas that you don’t. 

2: when the argument being presented is a perfectly reasonable one that happens to be based on either a major misconception or multiple smaller ones, where pointing out and addressing these misconceptions can push the conversation forward and change perspectives.

3: when an argument happens to present a really Common misconception or misunderstanding in a way that makes addressing it an outlet for a much broader discussion, which ties into the former point as well ! though it’s less a discussion with the op and more a discussion with the fandom as a whole in this case.

4: when a truly “bad” argument is worded in a convincing or reasonable enough way that it’s digestible to an audience that either doesn’t have the perspective to see what’s wrong with it or doesn’t have the words to dissect Why think something is wrong.

“bad” here is, of course, subjective. but in this case it either comes down to the fundamental ideas behind the argument being based in misconceptions (if not lies), or the ideas behind them being genuinely offensive in a real world context (whether that be bigotry or just plain insensitivity).

this is worth debating in a serious context because of the people watching. you’re not always going to be able to change the op’s mind in this instance and going into a discussion expecting that you can is going to lead to disappointment and frustration. but digging into it in depth is Worth While because of those people who Didn’t have the perspective or who Didn’t have the words. it gives them the tools to see whatever it is that’s been falsely presented as reasonable or true for what it is, and should be able to help them spot it again in the future.

in the grand scheme of things this is obviously more important in the context of like, Political Discourse, but this is a story that covers a lot of difficult themes. and while how someone engages with a story isn’t going to be a complete one to one to how they engage with real people (Most Of The Time.), it’s Also true that what people say in this context can be indicative of their understanding of these real world concepts and having serious discussions about those ideas in a relatively low stakes environment can help build a better foundation For exploring those ideas in a more serious context. it’s also true that real people who are affected by these real concepts are going to be in contact with both this story and the ways that we talk about it.

5: when a truly abysmal take comes from what should be a reputable source. the reasoning Behind engaging are different depending on how familiar with the person you are. if this is a friend then obviously having a conversation with them about it is just a part of Being friends with somebody. but if it’s someone that you just share a space with, even if you have respect for them, then that obviously changes things.

engaging with a bad take in this context is going to be down to the same motivations as the previous one. the fact that the source is reputable means that more people are going to be able to overlook or smooth over the bad aspects of the argument Because they’re friends with this person or trust this person’s opinion. it can also be something that’s worth discussing if it puts different ideas that this person has spread in a new light that can change how they’re taken.

but still, this is one that you need to be more careful with, even if not including it would be dishonest. engaging with an unproductive conversation because of personal emotional stakes, particularly those that aren’t really substantial, is just going to be a frustrating experience for everyone involved. that doesn’t mean that there aren’t instances where it’s worth engaging with that conversation (whether that be directly or indirectly), but you need a level of Awareness and a way to temper your own reactions.

but a poorly worded take that’s built from the ground up on bad ideas and misconceptions that Isn’t from a reputable source and is actively confrontational enough to push away a more neutral observer has exactly no qualities that are worth engaging with. there Isn’t an idea that’s worth engaging with, it’s the implications that it has about the person who wrote it and the people who believe it that’s notable. and while that can lead to a conversation to be had about the fandom at large (how it treats certain concepts like mental illness as a whole, for example), it’s not worth it to engage with it Directly. all that does is serve to expose more people to it, Maybe with the catharsis of seeing someone you think is wrong be corrected.

but that catharsis only exists in a vacuum. the people who genuinely believe in an overtly nasty take aren’t going to back down or change their minds, and nobody who Can be reached was at risk of being convinced by them to begin with.

it’s something that you gawk at, it’s not an idea to seriously engage with.

that said, I’ve censored the link for exactly that reason, I don’t want to send my followers over to a bad take to get annoyed by and I don’t want to be bothered by the people who Do genuinely believe in it.

that said, here’s a warning that there’s a truly Abysmal c!tommy take in the tommyinnit tag. a real dream apologist manifesto 2, except this time plastered over your dashboard instead of secluded to a google doc that got deleted the second it blew up. so stay safe out there kids

[random-mha-thoughts]

Culture Clash (Bakugou x Reader)

Pairing: Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Anon asked: "OH MY GOODNESS I FREAKING LOVE YOUR WRITING.💜🧡❤️💚 I have a request!! Would it be possible if you did a scenario with Bakugou x Female Reader where the Reader is a transfer student and comes from a country where is normal to kiss people in the cheek to say hello and kisses Bakugou but then she is told of the culture difference in Japan, then she is embarrassed but Bakugou is even more. HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!"

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 1,565

Tags:  @yuki-osaki @liviitehe @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog @bunnythepipsqueak

a/n: Thanks for the request anon dear! I hope I did it justice and it makes you feel good inside. 😊

Very quick and breezy Bakugou fluff.  Honestly, my Bakugou list seems to be catching up to Todoroki (meanwhile poor Shinsou’s list is abysmal T.T But my next post will be an angst post for him, which is still a win), you guys just really love requesting for Boom Boom Boy, don’t you?

As I said on my last ask, after the Shinsou post, I’ll take a break before answering the next 2 requests I got, because I have a few of my own original ideas that I’d like to write, so look forward to them~

"You must be nervous to start school so far away from home," Yaoyorozu touches my hand gently.  "I do hope you find yourself at home here at our school and here in Japan."

"Oh, it shouldn't be a problem at all!" I beam at her.  "I'd say I'm a friendly person, I can talk to people easily."

Transferring schools in the middle of high school is daunting for most people, but I have no problem with it.  One of the admins from UA were attending a conference in my country and put a recommendation for me to transfer schools at the start of the second year.  Yaoyorozu, as second in charge in class, was assigned to be my buddy to ease me into the rest of the class.  We've been talking since I was overseas and I was overjoyed to meet her in person.

"Are you nervous about staying in the dorms?" she asks me.

"Not at all!  I've always wanted to try going to school and staying away from home.  Do you guys get along well together?"

"We all have our own friend groups, but we spent time with each other as a class a fair amount of time as well."  She eyes my suitcase rolling behind me.  "Did you already receive your uniform?"

"Yup, they sent it over!  The rest of my stuff for the year should be coming in another shipment from my parents."

Finally, the dorm building I will call home for the next two years looms in front of me and I can't keep the dumb smile off my face.  While Yaoyorozu's talking about my sleeping arrangements, a boy swagger towards us from the opposite direction wearing just a black tank top and dark joggers.  My eyes glance over his toned physique before studying his face, a slight scowl even at rest, crimson eyes staring at the ground in thought.

"Oh, (Y/n)-san," Yaoyorozu calls him out of his thoughts.  "This is Bakugou-san, one of our classmates."

The boy looks down at me and I smile, leaning up to place a kiss on both of his cheeks instinctively.  "Pleasure to meet you, Bakugou!"

His resting bitch face freezes and he stiffens.  "Y-Yeah, same.  See you in class."  With that, he walks off quicker than his former pace.

I cock an eyebrow.  "He seems like a tough guy, but quite strange.  Is he nice?" I turn back to face Yaoyorozu.

Her face has turned a rosy tint of pink.  "I-I wouldn't say that.  He's a bit rough at the edges, but he's gotten a lot better since last year, I admit."

She seems a little uncomfortable, did I do something?  I roll my luggage up the stairs.  "I can't wait to meet the rest of the class!"  The door opens with a flourish, and I meet the eyes of about half the class.  Some of the girls were reading magazines on the couch and the boys were playing cards or games at the table.

The blond boy with a black streak in his hair and a small, purple haired boy immediately stand up.  "Who're you?" they boy ask a little too eagarly.

I wave at the group, excitement bubbling in me at the site of my new classmates.  "Hi everyone!  I'm (Full Name), the transfer student!  Please take care of me!"

"Oh, yes, we heard you were arriving today," another boy walks up to me, adjusting his glasses and extending his hand to me rigidly.  "Welcome to Class 2-A!"

I shake his hand, leaning forward to greet him, "Nice to meet-"

"Um, (Y/n)-san," Yaoyorozu's hand pulls my shoulder slightly.  "I hope I'm not rude in asking, but is there a particular reason you do that?"

She still a bit perturbed since we met Bakugou outside.  "Do what?"  I don't think she means to be impolite, but I'm still confused.

The girl hesitates as if she can't bring herself to say it.  "Kiss people on the cheek.  Is it a custom of some sort?"

My body relaxes. I thought there was something terribly wrong.  "Oh, that's how we greet people in my country.  It's something I appreciate about my culture, it shows how friendly we are!"

"Yes, I see that."  She rubs her hands up her arms.  "It might seem to be a problem here though, I'm sorry to say."

I blink.  "I did it when I greeted you and there was no problem though?"  The fog of perplexity returns to me.  I know there are rules in other countries different to my own, but surely I haven't done something unforgivable?

"Yes, but," her eyes dart around and her face flushes more, "It's not exactly custom for members of the opposite sex to interact with each other like that even if they're friends, let alone if you've just met them.  That's more reserved for um...public displays of affection."

It suddenly dawns on me the weight of what I've just done, especially to Bakugou.  "Oh.  I...see."

"Your face is all red now, (Y/n)-chan, ribbit," one of the girls with long, dark green hair chirps from the couch.

The bright blond haired boy's eyebrows furrow in concentration.  "Hey, you guys didn't happen to run into Bakugou, did you?"

"We did," Yaoyorozu answers while I'm frozen in place, heat still blooming across my cheeks.

The two boys and another one with short, black hair and large elbows burst into uncontrollable laughter.  "We were wondering why his face was so red when he got back from practice!  You must've kissed him, right?"

Oh no, I did.  The panic continues spreading up my body.

"She totally did!" the black-haired boy guffaws and the other two follow suit.

"Bakugou was that flustered by a little cheek kiss!"

"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS LAUGHING AT?!"

The first exposure to his screaming makes me jolt before I feel a debilitating mix of embarrassment and guilt, I don't even have the courage to look him in the eyes.  "Hey, you wanna lead me to my room?  I'll go unpack and settle in," I reach for Yaoyorozu, trying to compose myself back to normal.

"Of course, let's go up this way."

I'm grateful for her judgement of avoiding the chaos about to ensue.  The laughter from the boys and the teasing coupled with Bakugou's defensive screams still follow us while we're in the elevator.  What have I done.

.

On the first day of classes the next day, I try to avoid Bakugou as much as possible.  I know his angry, violent type well.  He dislikes me for embarrassing him in front of his friends and giving them fodder to make fun of him for.  If he decides to confront me, I know I'll crumble into a mess of apologies.

Which is exactly what happens when we both happen to see each other in the halls during lunch.  There's no avoiding him as we were the only two people there; I turn around and suddenly he's there, staring down at me with those piercing eyes.  I don't have it in me to fake my bubbly small talk and slip my way out, I have to own up to it.

"I'm sorry I made you embarrassed like that, it wasn't my intention, it was all out of instinct.  Please forgive me, don't be mad!"  The words fly out of my mouth and I scrunch my eyes shut for fear of what he might say next, steeling myself for his angry yells.

They never come, instead there's just an exhale in the form of a thoughtful "Hm."  I slowly wrench open my eyes, only to see him quirking an eyebrow down at me curiously.

"You don't need to be sorry about it, it's fine."  Evaluating my still-cautious figure, he leans back a little to relax.  "Yeah, I was taken off guard by the kiss, I admit, but my friends are also idiots, I can easily just bust them up a bit and they'll leave me alone."

I breathe a sigh of relief.  "I see."  The last thing I want is to be that cliched transfer student who gets bullied and becomes the outsider.

Bakugou swipes his tongue over his lip quickly.  "That was...pretty ballsy of you to do, actually.  I think it's cute.  It's a shame our cultures clash like that."

I'm taken off guard by his sudden change in aura, the cockiness that twitches the corner of his lip up compliments his rugged, boyish charm, especially with his unbuttoned and untucked uniform.  His eyes glance over me teasingly before he walks past me.  "Y-Yeah, it's a shame," I finally conjure up words to say, even if they're a lame response.

His body turns back halfway.  "In a way, I'm glad I was the only guy who you got to do it to," he smirks at me.

That kind of sign is interpreted the same way regardless of the culture, so I decide to return it, gathering up the same energy.  "I wouldn't mind doing it again, just for you since you're okay with it."

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," he chuckles low before facing forward and leaving.  "See you in class."

I watch his receding back, leaning against the wall behind me to steady myself as the excitement grows weightlessly within me.  The smile on my face refuses to be brought down.  I guess there are some things that are just universal.

[warsofasoiaf]

Uh. I checked the character count, and this is going to end up long. My friend sent me something, and while I'm sure it's wrong, I don't know enough about medieval battles to dispute it. Can you help? Part one of many

He held storms end against a siege. From what information there is he seems to have done this well. I don’t know if he employed a scorched earth strategy before the siege began (if he didn’t then a rescind my compliment). The siege showed little in terms of tactical or strategic prowess on the part of Stannis but his will power was commendable and eating last was (part 1)

The siege showed little in terms of tactical or strategic prowess on the part of Stannis but his will power was commendable and eating last was a good morale booster (though he likely didn’t do this for the moral). Still, if the Tyrells had decided to storm the castle he would have lost. The battle shows more incompetence on the part of Mace than prowess on the part of Stannis (part 2)

He captured Dragonstone. There is very little mentioned about the specifics of the engagement. It is highly unlikely that there was a contested landing as the defenders lacked the numbers and morale for such a move and there is very little precedent for a contested landing in the historical time period that ASoIaF is based on. He likely arrived at the castle to find an open gate. Part 3

The best mark on Stannis’s record, and the only truly impressive thing he’s done was his destruction of the Ironborn fleet. He managed to split his fleet in two and flank the Ironborn without them knowing. Though this is still impressive it must be mentioned that Stannis likely had a great advantage due to technological superior ships (the ships described in the books are absurdly large and in an age where gaming and boarding was the main instrument of naval warfare that is a great advantage).

During the war of the five kings Stannis refuses to ally himself to anyone. This is a great black mark agains his record. And shows either an abysmal understanding of basic strategy or an incredibly diluted ego. Stannis’s choice to march on Storms end similarly shows either incompetence or delusion, only saved by an entirely unpredictable magical trump card on the part of Melisandre. Combined with the luck of the Stormlander lords agreeing to side with Stannis.

His attack of Kings Landing similarly shows a lack of understanding of basic strategy. This time he seemingly fails to scout ahead before initiating a contested river crossing. Failure to do this is an incredible oversight that cost him the battle. Part five sorry forgot the last one

After Stannis’s previous blunders lead to the annihilation of most of his army he gambles and sails north to try and win over the Northern lords. This is probably his first truly good idea in the war of the five kings. With Robb dead and the Lannister involvement in what seems to be one of the greatest war crimes in Westerosi history the Northern lords are ripe for realignment. Part 6

He crushes a numerical superior Wildling army though his force is made up of mounted knights and the Wildlings too don’t seem to utilize scouts. I would chalk this up to apparent wildling incompetence. Stannis then determines to march on the dread fort. Which is rightly pointed out by Jon Snow to be a stupid idea. Stannis then receives advice that determines his next moves. Part eight

Sorry, had to wait to submit more. Stannis then determines to march on the dread fort. Which is rightly pointed out by Jon Snow to be a stupid idea. Stannis then receives advice that determines his next moves. Stannis also seemingly wins the battle on the ice. His strategy seems to be fairly sound though he likely will receive no small amount of help from the Manderlys. Part nine

Part 10: Ultimately Stannis does not deserve his reputation. He isn’t completely incompetent. But He does not stand up the the likes of Tywin Lannister, Randyl Tarly, or Robb Stark In skill. Most of his victories are largely attributable to events that he had no control over and could not have forseen, from Melisandre’s magic to Jon’s council.

I wouldn’t worry. Whoever wrote that doesn’t really understand warfare either.

Defending against the Siege of Storm’s End was a remarkable feat of leadership. Stannis is young, and this is likely his first real test of major leadership. That he is able to handle it with only one instance of defection is no small accomplishment. A general needs to have this sense of leadership, in order to inspire his men and to get them to follow his orders. This is something we see time and again with Stannis; his troops truly do feel inspired by him, and are not simply fearing punishment for non-compliance. His men cross the burning bridge of ships during the Battle of the Blackwater, they follow him to the very edge of the world (bit of dramatic hyperbole here, but the Wall is remote and he would need to unite his men after the disastrous defeat). 

Capturing Dragonstone. I fail to see your friend’s point. Naval landings are difficult in premodern times. Stannis had to organize a fleet and land, and he had built ships to take on the Targaryen fleet. Again, that’s another part of leadership, particularly since medieval naval combat frequently had ships that would be commissioned for a purpose and then mothballed.

What we see of the Battle of Fair Isle shows instead Stannis using the terrain features and the advantages of his equipment to his full advantage. This is something I often see with amateur military analysts is this idea that good equipment is used as an excuse to dismiss battlefield accomplishment in favor of a preferred conclusion. In real battle, this isn’t the case, it’s a chaotic mess and tools and techniques still have to be used appropriately.

Now I agree that the early moves that Stannis makes in the War of the Five Kings does show that he needs his character development to grow into a better king. The need to secure alliances, and the way his poor interpersonal skills don’t make much headway with Catelyn despite her being tailor-made to support Stannis (save for that pesky Northern independence thing) do show that his problems front and center. 

I’ll be frank, your friend’s interpretation of Storm’s End suggests that he or she did no analysis the battle. I’ve seen a bunch of folks argue that on the r/asoiaf subreddit before. The facts of the matter are that Stannis forces Renly to move and nearly exhaust himself. He prepares his position and ground, he takes key advantage of Renly’s mistakes, and overall shows himself capable of winning the fight. Melisandre is often dismissed by people in our own world, but we have to remember that Planetos is a world where magic actually does stuff. I’d agree that a general in our own time who prepares for a magic bolt of lightning or something to strike down an enemy general is an idiot, but Planetos operates by different rules, and we have to make at least some sort of concession to that.

Now, we do see Stannis making a lot of mistakes in the battle, but we also see Imry Florent making most of the mistakes against tactical sense. Part of that is on Stannis, he is the senior commander, but part of that is also the problems of incompetent feudal leaders. Imry is an idiot, and he only got that position by nepotism. 

Dismissing the wildlings losses as failure to employ scouts simply doesn’t match the text. We don’t hear about the wildlings not employing scouts, what we hear instead is that Stannis joined with the Eastwatch rangers and set out. We also see that the wildlings do employ some of their forces well, particularly their mammoths, which requires Stannis to secure a breakthrough against one of the other wildling contingents to flank the mammoths and bring them down, which is good tactical maneuver to eliminate an enemy advantage.

Stannis relying on Jon for counsel being marked as a disadvantage is a completely foolish argument. Securing local intelligence to better plan and execute a military campaign is one of intelligence’s primary purposes! That’s one of the most prevalent reasons to secure friendly local sources, so that you can adequately plan with better knowledge. Stannis makes a plan, finds local sourcing which gives him better intelligence, so he changes it. That being held against him is just a bad argument, start to finish.

I noticed your friend completely omitted the capture of Deepwood Motte, and I’m guessing because it really tears a hole in their arguments. Stannis using classic military deception techniques, camouflage to hide his troops, and captures Asha as she’s trying to evacuate, all of which showcase Stannis’s intelligence and effectiveness within the military sphere.

The Battle of the Ice we see Stannis again making preparations to take advantage of local conditions. While we don’t see what it is, because we’re still waiting on the book, all of the chapters that we see of him in the fifth novel regarding this show him preparing, show him leading his men. 

Holding up Tywin Lannister as an example of a military genius is laughable, since Tywin gets beaten pillar to post by Robb Stark. His efforts to win the War of the Five Kings completely doom his house, since he violates every social taboo and engenders significant resentment to his family while doing so. I think it is possible to criticize Stannis’s mistakes in the Blackwater, without needing to minimize the actual accomplishments.

Thanks for the question, Anon. Here’s hoping you can correct your friend’s bad arguments.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[superfanficnatural]

Fact, not Fiction

Well it’s been long enough and I’ve decided to just write this all out so everyone doesn’t have to read a series of reblogs and that they can have all the information in one place. Without further adieu *cracks knuckles* let’s get started.

So this entire story between Beka (Impala-dreamer​) and Vanessa (flamencodiva) is being told one sided, so I’m here to tell the other side and yeah.

Vanessa had unfollowed Beka, not blocked, unfollowed because she didn’t appreciate the way that she did things and who she is as a person. Beka had messaged her asking why and the entire thing was born. 

“I blocked you because you ruined my night, by writing me a 90 page essay on why I’m terrible and called me a Narcissist who only cares about people who kiss my ass.” Now, I want all of you to pay attention to how Beka so expertly framed her message to make her out to be the victim. Vanessa had unfollowed her, not publicly said anything, not messaged her anything because she wanted to keep from conflict and not make it a spectacle. Then, Beka makes a post that includes the above quotation making Vanessa out to be the villain. Beka had asked exactly why Vanessa unfollowed her and she told her why, she didn’t sugarcoat it because if she did, then that would be unfair to Beka. Beka then proceeds to post about it in order to make herself out to be the victim, once again claiming, “You are a very mean, heartless person, and you think the world revolves around you and it does not. Not everyone has to like you.” I had initially made a reblog of that very post including this quote and I had responded with -

 “Please allow me to bring to light a situation that had occurred about a month or two ago. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but you had posted something that required follower interaction and after only a single hour, you had ran to the pond discord server and began complaining about how no one looks at your account and your followers don’t like you. From then on, you had gotten a lot of support from a lot of the writers in the pond. I did not want to say this because of privacy, but the fact that you have given zero privacy to Vanessa with this post, I’ve also decided to shed light on something as well.”

This was one of the many situations and events that Beka had complained about her followers. Unfortunately, I have nothing but my own word along with others that have been subjected to or have witnessed events like these. Constantly, I have found Beka complaining about how one of her fic’s flopped, how her followers don’t interact with her, and how she doesn’t like the drama from Tumblr. I think we can all agree with not liking the drama on Tumblr, but when you yourself are creating that drama, it makes it nothing less than hypocrisy. Throughout the entire post of Beka’s response she never explained anything and only told her side of the story - meaning that she is playing the victim. She expertly weaved her web of deceit and left things out on purpose to gain the support of the public so she can have all of the attention. Another thing both myself and MANY other people agree on is that Beka loves attention, constantly posting about things that make people feel bad and send her messages of encouragement even though the very things she’s complaining about, she has started. Allow me to provide some examples.

The fact that she included her almost getting into “two accidents” already makes everyone feel bad for her, getting roped into her web. The repetition of her saying that she’s the “bad guy” implants into everyone's head that she’s pleading. What else screams out “Guys come support me because everyone is making me out to be the bad guy.” Maybe you really are the bad guy, ever thought about that? The “she” that she is referring to is Vanessa and I don’t think I can find a single example of her “terrorism” ever. Oh do you mean when she “terrorizes” other writers by reblogging their stuff with encouraging messages? Is she “terrorizing” her friends when she tags them in a funny gif set? If so wow, she really does terrorize people, you’re right! 

This really made me laugh out loud.

Let me start off by reminding all of you that Vanessa is also considered a “big blog” so you going after her for doing everything you have listed here is wrong, but when you do it, you’re allowed to complain about it? Let me also direct your attention over to the hashtag, “I’m out” The sheer amount of times I have witnessed Beka hashtag something with “I’m out” is abysmal. It’s another technique she uses to get people to message her going “oh no please don’t leave!” And what makes me know that for a fact is that every single time she says that she’s “out” I see her responding to asks from people sending encouraging messages. I’m really fed up about it and I just want to share it with all of you who might not be aware of all of these things so you don’t blindly follow and defend her. I used to follow her myself, but when I realized all of these things, I separated myself from that negativity and attention seeking. 

The second I had made my initial reblog, Beka had blocked me even though I had said nothing negative and only shed light on something. That shows that she’s trying to cover it up so her image doesn’t get tarnaged. Does this not show how desperate she is to play victim? In this entire little post, she didn’t address a single thing that anyone had responded with and instead found more things to complain about, once again leaving things out to keep her status as the victim. 

Now, some people might take what I’m about to say as insensitive but I’m really only stating the facts because I am not appeased by Beka’s self victimization. 

#fine if you want me dead, ...who said that they wanted you dead? I apologize but I don’t remember a single person saying that. This is yet ANOTHER way she is trying to get people to go “Oh no! Don’t think like that! Don’t listen to the haters!” It really baffles me how good she is at playing the victim but also at how ridiculous her antics are.

Another thing I want to add in is a post that Beka had made however many months ago talking about how the “SPN Family” was becoming negative and toxic. 

Now to be honest, I think that we can all agree with this at least somewhat and I was actually proud of Beka for writing and posting this. That is, until she made it ALL about herself again.

The second that post was posted, many people tried to spread positivity and love to a lot of others by tagging all of their friends and saying that they are grateful for them and that they love them. Beka then posted the picture above. That’s when I knew she really hadn’t changed at all. She’s proving herself that she just wanted attention in that post by saying “Beka who?” Meaning that she wanted everyone to go to either her DM’s, the comment section, or her asks to send words of encouragement as ALWAYS. 

The reason this is so long is because if I simply claimed that Beka was an attention seeker, it wouldn’t make sense to have no evidence or even just a single piece of evidence. So I’ve provided many, and trust me, there are more.

This entire thing is simply to educate everyone who is either involved or is curious in the current situation, even though it seems like a diss, it’s really me just exposing Beka with facts, not fiction. 

Since Beka deleted my reblog off of her page, I’ll just paste what I said here.

This entire situation really disheartens me.

Let me start off with the fact that Vanessa (flamencodiva) has DELETED her account because of this.

The fact that you came after her for wanting to be Tumblr famous is really wrong and allow me to explain why it is. Vanessa is a close friend of mine and I talk to her almost every single day. She is THE most selfless person I have ever met and is always trying to make others happy even if it makes her sad. She constantly reblogs everyone’s writing to encourage new and upcoming writers, and writers who have been around for a while to spread POSITIVITY. She has never once complained about notes, likes, or follows so I genuinely want to know why you felt the need to say she wants to be Tumblr famous. The only reason she went on anon for that message is because you blocked her so she had no other way of contacting you about why you had blocked her. 

She had privately messaged you to keep this between the two of you but you decided to turn it public, which doesn’t make her the victim, it makes YOU the victim. Right now, everyone who have seen this post knows YOUR side of the story but not hers. Yes, she comes across aggressive, but that’s only if you give her a good reason because you had upset either her or one of her friends which she cherishes. 

“You are a very mean, heartless person, and you think the world revolves around you and it does not. Not everyone has to like you”

Please allow me to bring to light a situation that had occurred about a month or two ago. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but you had posted something that required follower interaction and after only a single hour, you had ran to the pond discord server and began complaining about how no one looks at your account and your followers don’t like you. From then on, you had gotten a lot of support from a lot of the writers in the pond. 

I did not want to say this because of privacy, but the fact that you have given zero privacy to Vanessa with this post, I’ve also decided to shed light on something as well.

Her deleting her account ABSOLUTELY discredits your argument of her wanting to be famous because now she has no account, no followers, no fics, nothing.

I’m not writing all of this to create more conflict, only to further educate a lot of the people reblogging this and supporting Beka and being extremely negative to Vanessa right now. I personally have unfollowed you for personal reasons but I have not blocked you because I do not deem it necessary and I do not encourage negativity. This post really just oozes negativity and self victimization so I had decided to throw in my ten cents. You can come after me for this or not it’s really up to you but I did not write this with the intent to attack or diss, only to educate. Have a nice day everyone ❤

[focusfixated]

just saw you posted a Merlin gif set, and can I just say (to someone who might understand) how abysmally horribly BAD this show mostly was? don't get me wrong, I loved it (the gayest of gay love stories and hot dudes in chainmail regularly getting out of said chainmail? yes please!!), and nobody insults Colin Morgan in my presence and lives to tell the tale, but oh my god, but I am still a bit ashamed of myself.

abysmal! yes, of course! it was the most abysmal! but for some reason as a uni student 12 years ago i was about 93% less discerning about the content i consumed and still bright-eyed and unschooled in the inevitable disappointment that comes from a series not delivering on its potential.

i mean, it’s a family-friendly show, so there’s a certain amount of slapstick silliness and campy, vampy acting, it’s got a limited budget so the cgi is hit and miss, and it never seemed to get off the ground story-wise in terms of what the heck it was trying to do with the athurian legends, and on a smaller scale, what it was trying to do with the main secret-magic, secret master-wizard storyline. so yeah. objectively! pretty bad! and i certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anyone because i think it’s only enjoyable if you got tricked and trapped into watching from the beginning and then kind of stockholm syndromed your way into loving these characters. 

so like, i don’t disagree. but i also feel like the only valid criticism is from people who suffered through the whole thing and also understand the feeling of shame and disappointment. so you, anon, you get it, and i accept your feelings as valid. you were there, man. 

however! the thing that keeps dragging me back to reblogging gifsets of this ridiculous show is a) kate mcgrath, in general, her entire presence, and b) the fact that underneath the gaping chasm of frustration that came from the ongoing storyline of arthur never seeing how great merlin actually was, there is colin morgan acting his motherfucking socks off with such soft, queer-coded vulnerability that it makes your own interpretation of every one of his scenes soar with all the greatest tropes of forbidden longing, and this is the kind of shit i am here for. 

also - and i’ve said this in the tags of a gifset recently - for every fandom where one half of the gay or queer-coded pairing dies, at least this one ended with the two of them clinging to each other in a scene of mutual heartbreak. at least it ended with them in each other’s arms. 

and look. even if the show itself was kind of terrible, the fanfiction is extremely good, and what am i here for if not to read multi-chapter epics taking the shadow outlines of characters with potential and bringing them to new and satisfying heights?

[fortheheavenssake]

MM Anon 5

Dec 1

MM ANON, I’m watching series 1 of the crown, BRILLIANTLY WRITTEN AND EDITED. The filming is so accurate and attention to detail. I remember Norman Hartnell designing the Queens wardrobe for the commonwealth tour. My mother was a dress-maker so I watched everything she watched. Methinks the Queen had something to do with this because it’s so accurate. Reason, she’s 92 ‘ what a visual legacy. I can imagine her throwing a ashtray at Philip, and HIS secret dalliances. EPIC!!

—————-

Dec 1

MM ANON ……… the king in waiting ……… “Mmmmm , not many diversions left”……… in need of some TLC. ……… financial scrutiny ……… financial mutiny !!! ………… “ Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining!!!!!!”………… “Catherine ‘ it’s HM” ……… “ Catherine, I want your discretion”………… “ it would be my privilege ma’am”……… “ That’s a tough one, old thing” ……… “she can do it!! “…… “makes you proud old thing, he looks the part” ……… “backseat ,a Philip?” ………… “ dot The Is…………”

—————-

Dec 2

MM ANON … “when we are born, we cry , that we are come”…… “your RH. that’s why you didn’t go” ……… “Four” ……… ahhhhhrrr , I hate mornings!! ……… “give a dog a bone …” ………… “ yes , we’re all watching it! It’s very addictive “ ……… “ How the f***did they know that!!!”………… “ I told them Philip!!” ……… “bloody snoops” …… At the last count sir , all was Ticketyboo.

—————

Dec 3

MM ANON ……… “Darling’ please pass the Wrinkle cream” ………”she’s on this blog I read”💜……… “ we’ve been invited to the Boxing Day shoot” …… WoW ‘ that’s a beautiful photo Kate …… “he’s to young ‘ good grief William!!”…… ‘This cobra has no fangs ……… “The service, maybe bring C&G.” ……… “ The spring diary ma’am’ was thinking they could do The America’s and Canada” ……… “ the Children too”…… ��what say you Philip?” …… “indubitable , old thing” …… “ Settled!!”……” Sidney’ more refreshments”

——————

Dec 4

MM ANON ……… lovers not-on or emerald??…… Alexander McQueen green machine??……… Clean sweep!!!……………Trump wants his ball back…… Banquetiquette ……… “ One has to watch the hot mike Donald!!”……… Meanwhile’ crying in a corner……” a clash of Wills”……… “come on old thing,tell me all the gossip”………” Sydney ‘ gin and Du……” ��� Ones a tad exhausted “…… “ you looked stunning Catherine “……… “yes ‘ I saw your killer 👀side eye “…… 👑👑💕💕And so to bed Zebedee!!……… “ Lottie ‘turn your pad off!!”…George’ sleep!!

——————

Dec 5

MM ANON …… “ no, not the service”……… Strip and rip…… IRSt in peace……” I think you’ll find it best ma’am”…… “ exactly ‘ peace and quiet”…… Distant thunder ……… “On Her Majesty’s secret service”…… No!! Not the whole enchilada………… The dossier, almost complete!!…… “Yes!! It certainly is personal”……… “she lived by the sor-did…… “gather thee rosebuds …………”…… “ not a word,old boy”. ……… “ Mmmm, unfortunate name for a club”……… “a sticky wicket,what!

————-

Dec 6

MM ANON … BREAKING NEWS ……… ‘ PGs WRINKLE CREAM FAILED MEGHAN-MARKLE AFTER EXHAUSTING APPLICATIONS. 😱😱😱😱 . Beautician suggests plastic surgery, no hope on skin care ……… laser treatment doesn’t cure problem. 🤣🤣🤣

————

Dec 6

MM ANON …… megbots in crisis …… megs spotted on ISS…… megs searchers internet for archificial upgrade …… megs still breastfeeding …… frogcott staff witness meg and Harry in screaming row 😱……… meg accused of bugging KP……… meg and archbishop in risqué photo shoot …… Archbishop denies clergy gossip …… meg ,VF interview ‘ I hate my chicken legs ‘…… Harry in GQ interview, I want a divorce ‘…… GQ, shock ‘horror, Harry’s OK’…… meg pens, ‘confessions of my yachting years’. … $20 million advance.

Thank you MM Anon😊❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

MM ANON, todays post is a light hearted look at the relationship between M&H. ……… to all who interprets, my sincere apologies. 🤣🤣🤣 KEEP CALM AND MEGXIT.

———-

Dec 6

MM ANON 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻Prayers for victims of shooting at navy base in Florida. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 God grant the serenity to accept the things you cannot change. God bless the families involved. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

————

Dec 6

MM ANON …… Muffin the mule…… looby loo & Andy pandy …… 95 , time!!…… “no’ not chaz”’……… “ I’m Meghan Markle and I indorse this massage” ……” An American Christmas card”…… betrayal in B&W……… “ it’s HMTQ your talking about!!!”…… “ tell her to PO ‘ it’s the Boxing Day shoot”……… 🎼I’m dreaming of a right Christmas 🎼…… a shortie but goody.

————

Dec 6

MM ANON …💜💜💜💜💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜DEAR SKIPPY, WE HAVE EARTH ANGELS IN OUR HUMBLE MIST. GIANTS OF FORTITUDE, GODS OF DIVINITY AND LOVERS OF QUIET HUMILITY , TO ALL WHO WALK THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED WE ARE BLESSED BY YOUR AURA OF PROTECTION AND LOVE.

————

Dec 7

MM ANON …… subpoenaed to swim uphill…… “withdrawal with notoriety”……… “pony!! “ she has no fear Catherine”……… “wherever did she get this wilfulness ?…… YOU!!!!…… “Philip will help me write it!!”……… “caution ma’am”……… “no colourful language”…… “ are you pensive LG”…… “frighteningly apprehensive ma’am”…… “I trust my subjects”………”one communicates with Netflix” ………”OMG😱😱”……”The Diana Years”……” it’s confidential LG!!”

—————-

Dec 8

MM ANON …… not an engaging situation …… my LITTLE pony……… WOC-less……… We’re just mild about Harry …… a charitable laundromat ……… expenses,expenses ………”it’s a Multi million business, trim it”…… hangers OFF!!……… ‘‘twas the night before Christmas”……… a conservative Royalist ……… 12th night ……… morning sic -ness……… “ say goodnight Gracie.

————-

Dec 9

MM ANON ……… Re-Hab-itual behaviour ……” Gone In sixty seconds”…… ( six weeks?) ……… no sight, sound or visual,no optics???? …… old photos, photo shops and disinformation!!……… “ there OK, ma’am!!”…… “ones duty is, keep muddying the waters”…… The Peoples Princess, WHAT!!! ……… “capitalise on it ma’am”…… “AMERICA”…… “are you a gambling man LG?”……… “ only on absolutes”…… Charlotte’s wish-list Web 🤣🐴🦄🎼💕……… “what’s that racket basil”… “It’s Brahms, Brahms 4th racket”🤣🤣🤣🤣

————

Dec 9

MM ANON, Dearest skippy, your blog is a cutting-edge example of investigative information and in depth research by your helpers. This community YOU have created is visited by world tabloids , broadsheets and cable TV. Some even associate royalty and the establishment. How many times “ RIGHT HERE,RIGHT NOW!!” has the SKIPPY 20. been spot on. EPIC POSTING,EPIC INVESTIGATIVE DIGGING. ‘JUST EPIC!! BRAVA SKIPPY.

—————

Dec 10

MM ANON, Soooooo, Nutmeg … The merchandisers whore, has been reprimanded after 2 years of pimping out anything she wears for financial gain …… NO OTHER MEMBER OF THE FIRM DOES THIS, the salacious saleswhore and professional grifter has soiled the monarchy enough!! “ listening H !!! ‘ the public see right through this obnoxious interloper, the gathering of unhappy people are testimony to this couples blatant disregard of royal prerogative. This nonentity must go. ⚖️⚖️⚖️⚖️Justice must prevail.

————-

Dec 10

MM ANON …… Predictions Guaranteed …… W&K increases commitment …… 🎼”no other love have i”🎼……… mummy serves a Christmas ace……4-0-tee-love…… advantage HMTQ …… nutmeg, FAULT!! …… DOUBLE FAULT!!…… Game, Set and scratch🤣🤣🤣…… “ these are actors,as I foretold you “………” thar’s gold in them thar Hills”………… 🎼”HOLLYWOOOOOOOD”🎼……… “An exit strategy LG.”……🎄 seasonal Sandringham🎄…… “I WANT A POOOOOOOOONY” ,please.🎅🎅😘😘😘………… “ ask your father!!……… ask your mother!! ……… ask Gan Gan. !!😂😂😂

————

Dec 10

MM ANON, The first with the most news breaking!!!! The DOC is with child. PG said back in Nov. did I give a clue????? Can’t remember what yesterday’s riddle was 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m a mess of jumbled messages,and perhaps a little nuts. RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW. speculation of course.

————

MM ANON! ……… TRIBUTE TO TRUTH!! 💜💜💜💜 SALUTATIONS PG. TO SKIPPY AND THE BLOG COMMUNITY OF DEDICATED CONTRIBUTORS AND HELPERS. FOR HMTQ AND GBHMTQAOGC. TO THE curious who visit skippy, royal family,establishment and aristocracy. Thank you for your support. even the intellectually challenged misguided sugars who visit the bloggers blog. SALUTATIONS ALL. the truth will out. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

————/

Dec 10

MM ANON , re-Full work mode. Don’t loose track of the fact that this full on grifting colonial carpetbagger has Sunshine Sucks!! It’s a desperate juggernaut of spin , lies and everything in between. That’s why they call it “pubic relations.” ……… just think ‘ sex lies and video tapes. So PLEEEEEEZ. take this bull$h!t with a pinch of salt. Nutmeg lives and dies swimming in PR turds. It’s the nature of that particular beast. It’s simple physics, shit floats to the surface. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

————-

Dec 10

MM ANON …… Dear anon, a big juicy revaluation?????? Well dear friend,I give what ,and all information I’m given by my esteemed sources. Those sources are well under the establishment radar. Total anonymity,TOTAL!!! The wonderful information is sometimes current,sometimes elaborate and embellished sometimes “spot on!!!” So’ I’ll continue to inform and enlighten as is my want and skippy’s indulgence. GBHMTQAOGC

————

Dec 10

MM ANON. , dear hearts , The loneliness of the long distance grifter, the isolation and contempt of the family “ she never had” and desertion of former associates in crime are deserting her in proverbial droves. The lifetime gravy boat she contemplated has listed ,and is rapidly sinking beneath the sea of turds she created for her self centred indulgence. This is our observation and her reality. NB. There is video evidence of her “ habits” from the , “ good old snorting days”. Allegedly!! 🤣🤣🤣

————

Dec 10

MM ANON, Trolls have one positive point, they validate the existence of those they resent , they justify that resentment by insults and jibes infantile name calling and illiterate smears. Trolls are degenerate operatives of fallen social climbers,those sad creatures of the ones who once tolerated them but now have nothing left but contempt. Nutmeg is such a creature, an abysmal product of her own greed and failed dreams. How the might have ,have fallen. 🤣🤣🤣

—————

Dec 11

MM ANON, The anomaly that reportedly exists called archificial is a mystery of unfathomable proportions. The vision of it at the Tutu audience is somewhat baffling, nutmegs obvious unease and awkward stance when trying to hold the poor child,who reaches for… somebody it knows. The whole situation has never been experienced within a minor Royal situation. Nutmeg & Harry are causing ripples 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣’ will the Christmas card explain more?????? Curiosity awaits!!!!

————

Dec 11

MM ANON ………🎼 jingle smells, jingle smells 🎼……… 🎼” I’m dreaming of a POC Christmas”🎼…… “ no Christmas chemicals or alcohol in re-hab”……… “ on a whiter note”…… “ come on Lottie ‘ aunties found a little pony” …… “ So !!! You caved darling.”…… “well ‘ it’s Christmas!!”……… “not turkey ‘ Dover sole!!”… “ but it’s tradition Philip”……“ f**** tradition !!”…… “I’ll inform Sydney”…… “are you going to announce it old thing?”…… ANOTHER COUNTRY … “He’s a brilliant speech writer” …… “you’ll bloody need it

——————-

Dec 11

MM ANON, 🎼she wore blueeeeeeeee velvet 🎼 and the lovers knot,and HMTQ In emeralds

Ok you all! These are hints she gave us….now let’s match to the riddles…..and of note…..she kept talking about the Emeralds….we presumed Kate……she never said Kate…..❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

—————

Dec 12

MM ANON ………emeralds should do the trick …… they certainly did…… W&K the lovers knot ………💍 a ring (Rock) of ages…… No Sin-ders you WON’T go to the ball😂😂……… 🎼”re-hab’ I said ,know know know!!!”🎼…… “ we ALL KNOW nutmeg!!”…… “GOD’ she’s in all the papers Philip”…… “ I see, she’s beautiful old thing”…… “she shines Philip”……… Wanta Konta and Kate🎾🎾…… Boris the spider…… “ doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government get in !!”…… sneezing ponytails 🐴🐴

————

Dec 12

MM ANON, …… Princess Margaret’s Limerick at President Lyndon Johnson’s dinner party ‘ I quote … “ there was a young lady from Dallas, … Who used dynamite as a phallus,… blowing her tits to bits , Her vagina to China ,and her @sehole to Buckingham Palace. …… forgive the colourful language, but it is funny. 😂😂😂😂😂

————-

Dec 12

MM ANON , We all remember Fergie and the toe sucking/ pool screwing photos so for her to aligned herself with nutmeg is probably a “ girl’s of a feather “ both are ageing slappers , and who in God’s dear sweet world takes Sarah bloody Ferguson seriously , really REALLY !!! She’s always been an embarrassment to the firm , hated by PP and PC/Camilla PA. so it’s all a smoking mirrors BS-fest. And her association with Epstein, ……… give me a break!!!!!

—————

Dec 12 - Election Day, UK

MM ANON, …… Princess Margaret’s Limerick at President Lyndon Johnson’s dinner party ‘ I quote … “ there was a young lady from Dallas, … Who used dynamite as a phallus,… blowing her tits to bits , Her vagina to China ,and her @sehole to Buckingham Palace. …… forgive the colourful language, but it is funny. 😂😂😂😂😂

————-

Dec 12

MM ANON, WELL ‘WELL ‘WELL …… nutmeg is apoplectic in re-hab after this mornings papers are FULL of photos of The fragrant Kate and HMTQ in Vlad & lovers knot tiaras. Her sugars are like Lemmings jumping of off Beachy Head 😂😂🤣🤣 and Fergie facedump is identifying with the old slapper because they both caught shagging by the poolside. 😂😂😂. EPIC

————

Dec 13

MM ANON …… Cor’ bin a long night!!…… “ Darling ‘ it’s an allagee-gee” ……” majori-ty and crumpets ma’am”…… “ “That’s all ,I’m orf to Sandringham”……… George&Kate set and match…”that’s it Lottie ‘ walk on !!”…… “ I did it auntie Zara”…… “ Ducks in a row then Netty?”……… “Nurse!! What’s the bleeding time”?…… A little procedure!!…… “ the lids screwed down ma’am”……… “ones writing ones screech”…… “he’s coming Philip!!” …… “backlash old thing?”………… “it’s a Norwegian Blue Philip 😂😂”

—————-

Dec 13

MM ANON, WELL ‘WELL ‘WELL …… nutmeg is apoplectic in re-hab after this mornings papers are FULL of photos of The fragrant Kate and HMTQ in Vlad & lovers knot tiaras. Her sugars are like Lemmings jumping of off Beachy Head 😂😂🤣🤣 and Fergie facedump is identifying with the old slapper because they both caught shagging by the poolside. 😂😂😂. EPIC

————

Dec 13

MM ANON, NEVER A LONELY CHRISTMAS 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄Dear hearts , never will the soul that is Skippy abandon you this Christmas ,or her community of spiritual warriors, there love is endless, this is the land of earths angels 👼 and animal amazements. Join the fellowship of friends and hugs. God bless you all ,thank you Dearest skippy, no lonely soul this Christmas. 💜💜💜❤️❤️❤️💚💚💚

—————-/

Dec 14

MM ANON ……… Blueeeeeeee velvet …… pop pop Poppins ……… she met Mary ………” Mmmmmm , a bit sneeeeezy”……… “ we’ll go and get something really silly for her” …… it’s not a phone, it’s a MPC…… “ it’s all very Cloak & dagger”…… “ Catherine, I’m deadly serious!!”……… “meals on bloody wheels!! piss orf”……… Shut down everything!! ………… “A new broom,old thing”…………… “ well, ones not amused “………… “I’ll inform Sydney”……… From Cromer!!……… “Cromer???”

————-

Dec 15

MM ANON, sidebar’ thank you skippy,my favourite colour ROYAL BLUE / INDIGO mix. or blue velvet ‘ a joy. as you inform all the community in a couple of weeks we won’t remember anything else. I have a question dear heart ❣,are you broadcasting over Christmas 🎄 ? My Christmas is spent with a few friends of likeminded opinions. Belgravia is alive and festive. We shall wander into Chelsea to people watch and mull the wine and mince the tarts. Looking forward to wishing all a healthy Christmas 🎄.

——————-

Dec 15

MM ANON ………… 🎼” give a little, take a little”🎼…… “Mary, Mary, quite …………”……FBI , (under the stones)……… “ very succinct old thing”…… “ blunt’ Philip!”……… “its a beautiful yacht ma’am” ………… “ I fear 20, more than 19” ………TO THE VICTOR……”………… a little late dear friend ……… WHITEHALL NOW!! …… only one came ……… IF , dear boy IF”……… “ you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off”

——————

Dec 16

ANON, OMG’ something every royal father and mother dread…… “ can’t we take them back to our house, it’s HUGE!!” ( homeless inquiry’s by G&C. ) it’s like “ what’s electrickery” …… or “ why is the sky blue?”… so , Catherine’s response, “ I’ll ask Gan, Gan darling, maybe they’ll find a safe space for them ……… “ I know mummy, they could all live in Gan gans house” 😒😒😒😒 side eyes to William, William changes subject to pony’s and tennis.

——————-

Dec 16

MM ANON, Sooooo’ Nutmeg And himself won’t be At Wednesday’s Turkey nosh at BP ,Mmmmm , no surprise there Ma’am. The insolent obnoxious self indulgent hoe and her now husband see’s it fitting to snub the invitation. Truth be known everyone is waving flags that she’s staying with her Calipornia besties , if they exist?? The anomaly in this puzzle, no comment from himself?? WHY? One would expect one to” come clean” and stop the speculation, strangely strange!!! On the fence? What’s happening?

—————-

Dec 16

MM ANON, praises, salutations, respect, recognition, I stand in awe of the interpretations that anons gracefully post when sifting through the mine field of riddles. It’s an almost psychic melt of another’s thinking 💭 🤔 THANK YOU DEAR ANONS , AND MAY YOU CONTINUE INTO 2020 WITH TENACIOUS DILIGENCE AND APTITUDE. 💜💚❤️

————-/

Dec 17

MM ANON , There used to be British comedy called Kevin and Perry…… two obnoxious teenagers, Kevin always used the argument “ it’s soooooo unfair!!” , this reminds me of that self pitying tw** nutmeg crying over perception of her importance!!! HOW CAN SOMEONE WHO IS IRRELEVANT BE IMPORTANT ???? THEIR PR IS IN OVERDRIVE DESPERATELY SEEKING EXPOSURE AND DEAR K&W IS KNOCKING THEM BACK EVERY DAY. nutmeg hiding in a cubicle screaming and kicking “ it’s sooo unfair” 🤣🤣🤣

—————

Dec 17

MM ANON , Methinks anon may be on the right track. Nutmegs Christmas card will be something that flips the bird at the establishment. Giving the middle finger to the royal family and her critics, bet whatever it is it won’t be subtle. The vacuous tart is resentful and insecure so she’ll be out to insult and justify her existence , although we all know it’s irrelevant, expect the unexpected. Tutu, B&W , archificial playing football, tits and bums , expect anything and everything

—————

Dec 17

MM ANON, A very Mary Christmas,has knocked the irrelevant one from the tabloids and broadsheets. W&K are right,left and centre of ALL stories today. What seems to be obvious is that William and Kate come across as relatable and normal, unlike the portentous and phoney nutmegs. Forgive my observation ,himself looks like he’s shot himself in both feet, all the stroking,touching claw holding, is sickening to observe. You could have fooled me he’s not with her. BUT!!! we’ll see at Sandringham.

—————-

Dec 17

MM ANON …… The Christmas Royal choreography ……… Homeless hope……… “not just for Christmas”…… quiet compassions ……… Brits rage at nutmeg……… “ it’s Harry Jim,But not as we knew him”……… “ what’s the answer Spock?”……… EST…… “ eat your vegetables!!”……… “ but mummy, that’s sooooo unfair” ……… “no veg, no pony!!”……… “well from a PR standpoint, it’s an annual thing now”………… “ front and centre ma’am”……… “quite agree!!” ……… “Philip ??” ……… “people identify old thing”……… “ The Sandringham songbirds”

—————

Dec 18

MM ANON, Today The HMTQ will retire to the warming confines Of Sandringham. Reunited with PP and relaxing evenings in front of a real log fire 🔥. Sydney will be on call to deliver copious amounts of ones favourite tipple. Writing her speech and watching back episodes of Downton Abbey. Occasionally taking trips around the vast estate in the royal Land Rover. A relaxing few days before the tribe descend on them for the festivities 🥳. CHRISTMAS CARDS PLEASE !!!!

—————-

Dec 18

MM ANON …… we are in the age of fast transport. Depending on what mode of royal conveyance Sandringham is one hour from London. ( to anon stuck in the 18th century). A cool Yule to all anons 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

————-

Dec 18

MM ANON ……… 🎼tis’ the season’ ……… 🎼……… “Tighter than ones ducks @ss under water ma’am”…… “indubitably LG, send the letters!!”……… “ Netty has it stitched!!”……… I think they were spotted on Elba……… someone saw them in Calvi ……… “Hmmmm, the historical significance doesn’t escape me”……… “ what say you Philip?”……” who gives a sh**, fancy a drinky?

—————

Dec 18

Anonymous asked:

MM ANON, The dynamic trio’ GC&L , these three children are about to embark on their life adventure, and yes’ I can see them taking over the world, first George, moulded by and coached by his father he will be diplomatic and educated in high tech and security of the family ,think oxford illuminati crossed with Bond. He will grow into a handsome man , followed and pursued by bright well educated beautiful women. He’ll be guided by his parents on who is a suitable girl friend, there will be many.

skippyv20 answered:

Oh yes indeed! Thank you😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

skippyv20

MM ANON / Part 2, Charlotte, Now this young woman to be will become the conflict within herself, opinionated and self willed she will be a laser focused neutral beauty of formidable character, mindful of her station she will develop compassion and empathy with her loving public, this will be a PRINCESS OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE, much loved in all circles of society, willing to get down and dirty and attend diplomatic banquets on the same day. Versatile perfection and stunning looks, 👀. Look out!!

MM ANON. Part 3/ Louis, this young man to be will find himself in a singular activity, I can see him as an explorer of his chosen passion. Space will become very important in 2040. and this young man could well be a pioneer in his chosen field. There may be a conflict and he will be part of that environment. No fear this soldier of fortune, And Again a handsome man followed by swooning beautiful young ladies. He will be advised once again to choose wisely. Speculation of course.

Sounds so wonderful! Thank you😊❤️❤️❤️❤️

—————-

Dec 19

MM ANON …… Kate’s Christmas present to nutmeg …… Wrinkle cream!!😱😱…… new year getaway W&K……The Firm views pre-recorded QS. ……… A Royal decade, the 20,20s. …… “ up a gear ma’am”…… “ Keep calm and ostracise LG”…… 🎬it’s a wonderful life 🎬…… “ FROZEN mummy!!!”………”STAR WARS daddy!!”……… OMG ‘ it’s her Christmas card ……… “ we never received one” …… “ bloody lucky you!! “…… 🎼bye bye miss American pie🎼……… Kate’s tabloid cull…… “ what’s your 20?”

—————

Dec 19

MM ANON, THE CAMBRIDGE CHRISTMAS CARD. The M/ Cycle is a Triumph engine in a Rickman-Mettisse frame/ sidecar. Circa, 1955 ish’ The Duke being an ardent Biker, (photos of him sitting on a Norton Brietling at the IOM last year.) I’m sure he still goes on “race days at Brands Hatch”. Fast and safe ,all of this is testimony to a visionary CCard to show the world a relaxed and tight family unit. Unportentous and normal. It could be any family in any decade. 

—————

Dec 19

MM ANON, Spending two thirds of your life with your legs open is a consequence of ones occupation, nutmegs stance has been an open book (legs) since we first saw her trundle into KP gardens. At every photographic opportunity she has her legs apart it’s a habit of the life she chose. ‘S’pose life transactions that include money in your hand ,smile on ones face and legs apart can only suggest what your occupation was ?? Yachting takes its toll, only speculation 🤣🤣🤣.

—————-

Dec 20

MM ANON. BREAKING NEWS/ PP TAKEN TO KING EDWARD VII HOSPITAL IN LONDON THIS MORNING. OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS🙏🏻

—————

Dec 20

MM ANON ………an unwelcome intrusion ……… “ and it was all going so well” …… “ sweeping the the whole bloody house!! “…… fun and games ……… C&G play charades …… Def-Con 4……… “150 million expected ma’am”…… “ my little Pony”…… mini scrambler,🏍Wow!!…… “grouse for the grown-ups”…… “dial it back ma’am?”……” what happens in Sandringham, stays in Sandringham”…… “Charles, see to the RPOs”…… “ night before Christmas,and all round the house “………… Great Expectations

—————-

Dec 21

MM ANON ……… “ it’s a tad cautionary ma’am”……… visiting hours only!!! ……… “ no bloody fuss, piss off” ……… “ and SYDNEY!! no drinks !!!”……… she’s here until January …… Diplomatic immunity…… one way in, one way out!!……… Full cover’ face recognition and sleeper van. ……… “ 🎼the kids are alright!!👀🎼”……… “ to start with’ it’s a 50cc Yam.”……… “ a pony has more torque” ……… “stop worrying Catherine!!”…… “It’s His Decision”……… “ I’ll meet, just say when!! “.

—————

Dec 22

MM ANON ……… George in the mix. …… a royal blackout …… pensive at the Forth Bridge …… “ Royal Bostic sir”…… “ unity ma’am!!”……… Done and Dusted ……… No Card???……… Christmas IG word salad and virtue massage …… …… rapidly dissolving PR……… “ when in doubt use mental health” ……… “we need a distraction ma’am”……… it’s a win, win !!……… “that’s a silly jumper William”

—————-

Dec 24

MM ANON …… yesterday’s riddle?? ……… Christmas Eve prayer’s …… 2.09 pm in England …… not on my watch. ………… Father Christmas 🎄 comes to Sandringham …… nutmegs not here 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳…… Mike incognito ……… Lost in Space ………” Yes , but dress them warm”. ……… A long wait for the faithful …… everyone is vetted and counted. …… it begins for little royals……” Andrew!!!”…… “Bloody hell’ I’m here you know!!” ……… “Ahhhh, Lobster 🦞 Bisque!!” ……… “Overtired!!”

—————-

Dec 25

MM ANON …… Security , at church service is stitched up like a kipper. RPO is unobtrusive but very present. Notice HMTQ never left alone, always surrounded. GBHMTQAOGC

—————-

Dec 25

MM ANON …… Lottie kills it with pink flamingo … 🥳🥳absent madam🥳…absentee ginger …… K&W now it’s a new monarchy!! …… happy Christmas to all our readers …… UK migrant terrorist alert …… PA on silent running …… skippy breaking news about Lottie on Christmas walk way back……… right here, right now!! ……… DM follows skippy …… dogs behind.

—————

Dec 25

It’s the time lag. ……… MM ANON ……… to all on the bloggers blog!! 9.26 am. At time of post. A Very special day to all , Christmas, pets , those flying, those being cuddled. Happy Christmas 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 skippy Family, 💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻LK🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜to all 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜

Thank you dear MM Anon! Merry Christmas💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

——————

Dec 25

MM ANON 💜💜💜 HAPPINESS TO ALL THIS CHRISTMAS 🎄 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

————-

Dec 26

MM ANON ……… Morning paper!! ……… OMG………… she’s a superstar ………… “ your the one who wanted this” ………… “we’ve started a monster”……… 🎼I’m alumberjackandimOK🎼………… don’t go and tell them……… just friends!! ……… 🎼Substitute 🎼……… tumblr is a crap site……… you’ll miss me ……… stop listening to the static. ………… we need the space

————/

Dec 27

MM ANON …… Right here,Right now!! …………… lots of faithful followers ……… Skippy for news going into New year ……… sales of wrinkle cream skyrockets ……… Vancouver, Smancouver ………… DISINFORMATION …… “ May the force be with you “……… “ Lies, she tells, grifter she is!!”…… hiking,shmiking ……… Archificial in-samination…… happy new lies ……… PR incredulous …… Canada turns its back!!……… “ not another bloody photo!!”…… “ stupid bloody card!,”……… “ another Snifter old thing?”

—————-

Dec 28

MM ANON ……… illusions of grandeur ………not in my Restaurant ……… Canada snubbing you. …… Britain will boo you……… LA New Years …… go to Alaska!!! ……… C&G new found fame ……… W&K , curb there enthusiasm ……… mid-wife’s helper……………United monarchy ………New Years at the Middletons. ……… “who said it.” … “he used to be more accommodating” ………… an empty £4,000,000 joke……… “ he’s not impressed” ………… “ that ship has sailed

—————-

Dec 28

MM ANON … Many thanks for your input in 2019. Wishing you a happy new year. ❤️❤️❤️

————-

Dec 29

MM ANON, …… Thank you for all you diligently working on the riddles. 💜💜💜❤️❤️❤️ You are the real stars of MM ANON, you are the ones the skippetts look forward to reading. You’re there ( make it easy) day. To understand the riddles and give us the answers is a selfless action of altruism. Thank you all , especially PG and LK 💜💜💜❤️❤️❤️ God bless you all and a happy new year.

————-

Dec 29

MM ANON …… I have a minor task……… Due Diligence ……… 🎼And here you go again 🎼……… “ They will encounter a heavy work load”…………”it’s not impossible”………… The one thing we can’t take for granted ……… SNAKES and ladders ……… “she only comes out at night” ………… A challenging time ahead …… not their best decision ………… They have all the answers ……… The return will be difficult, if they return??………… make or break!!

—————-

Dec 30

ANON , On New Year’s Eve Eve , we give thanks for the tribulations of 2019 because without them we couldn’t face 2020. We know what to expect, more two faced lies , action and disinformation via their PR. So expect more of the same and more of us with skippy’s help and the help of anons can plough through the coming year. Mutual support and tenacity demands our continuous vigilance. Joyous new year. 

————

Dec 31

MM ANON …… “ happy new year to all our readers”…… 20.20. predictions ……… MM implosion ………Keep it quite!!………G&C in the viralsphere …… K&W keep it real ……… C&C relax duties ……… The best of the best……… 🎼if your sweet heart sends a letter 🎼………🎼 keep on runnin 🎼………… lack of vision ……… “ she’s blind as a BAT”……… Times Squared…… “ ring out the old, welcome the new”

—————-

[migleefulmoments]

“she had to know she was making a sacrifice and all that comes with it. Not the same as a rape victim. gross comparison” I’m the one who initially made this analogy and it’s not what I meant AT ALL. I don’t mean the emotional pain is similar, some online bullying vs. sexual assault aren’t even on the same wavelength. I mean THEIR comments are similar. They blame her the same way people tell women they deserved unwanted attention because of what they were doing/wearing. Way to twist my words.

Like I can’t tell if they genuinely believe all of that or if they’re just that oblivious and/or dense. I was comparing them to victim blamers. That’s what they do.

**********************************

Your point was clear-Nonnie was either obtuse or purposefully trolling to stir things up. I will add that most of their followers are teens. The point might have been lost on them. 

Let’s start by with your original ask and my response:  

Anonymous Asked: “M put herself in the spotlight “dating” D. If she didn’t want that attention, she would have stayed in the background” this has the same energy as “you chose to wear that, you deserved to be catcalled”. Mia STAYS in the background for the most part. Posing on a red carpet gives us no insight into who she is. They literally seek her out on her friends socials. And they met well before his career took off so no, she probably didn’t expect it to turn into this

Me: Their attitude- that Mia deserves to be attacked and criticized because she fell in love with a man who then became famous and whom they have a crush on makes my skin crawl. It is like the “wear a short skirt and you deserve being raped”. It’s also how they justify their abysmal behavior. They went on to argue that Mia deserves criticism but Abby isn’t dating a famous man so she didn’t deserve the “awful attack”.  They like to bring up the Fame is Other People (X) interview Mia gave in 2016 where she says she never imagined herself with someone famous. They still ridicule her for not leaving Darren the minute he started getting famous.  It’s so fucked up.  

Now their conversation today

Anonymous asked: They're comparing people saying M chose to forgo privacy when she "fell in love" with D to people getting accused of deserving rape for wearing short skirts. Uhhh...NOT THE SAME THING but ok. I personally don't condone hating on anyone (I never publicly disparage M for example, despite my private thoughts) but by tying her life to a public figure, whether for love or not, she had to know she was making a sacrifice and all that comes with it. Not the same as a rape victim. Gross comparison.

cassie1022 answered: Nonnie, I’m not even surprised they went there. They’re vile, just like their kween. I don’t hide my feelings about M and I’m not going to, she absolutely knew what she was getting when she signed on to be D’s beard. She WANTS the attention, and as she’s a narcissist, she doesn’t care if it’s positive or negative attention.

Personally, I’ve decided I don’t care enough to look at their blogs anymore and when I get their mean as hell Anons, I’m blocking. They claim we’re obsessed with their blogs when they literally dissect every post we make. Someone’s obsessed. It’s not us.

notes-from-nowhere answered: Hold on. Why are we talking about M as if the notoriety had fallen on her head all of a sudden? It’s not because of D if she is known by others besides her parents. It’s because she pushes herself in front of him every chance she gets. She take away from him every merit often by making things looks like they come from her brain (Hedwig first for example) and she jumps on the red carpets even before he does. She shares her whole life through social media. D’s accounts, her friends’s accounts, enablers’s accounts. Her fake accounts. She tags in her posts every celebrity that crosses her path. Her only job in life seems to be open (and never close) social media accounts.

What are these people even talking about? Now we reached the point of denying even what she does so she can fits better their theories?

This is hilarious. I swear.

leka-1998 answered: Poor girl, forced to do all this.

I don’t even want to waste time thinking about how ridiculous it is that this behavior isn’t surprising.

flowersintheattic254 answered: I’m appalled at the comparison. God her fans are hypocrites. She wants notoriety via any means fair or foul and then screams victim if it’s questioned.

It’s the same argument that she is above criticism because she’s woman and therefore isn’t accountable for her actions.

Let’s remember V day. Nobody told her to get high with B in the PR house and post those pics. You reap what you sow. People smell fakeness and she reaks of it.

***************************

One thing I learned very quickly when answering anons is that due diligence pays off. Responding to an anon’s summary of what someone else said can backfire if they misrepresent what was said. If the anon reports something untoward was said- whether by design or by mistake- and I spent 2 paragraphs berating that statement that was never said then I am the fool. Taking 5 minutes to read the post myself has paid off many times and every time I have taken something I know nothing about at face value- it’s bitten me in the ass. Had any of the ccers bothered to actually read the post they would have realized that Nonnie misrepresented the point. They still would have written something angry and pretended to be so “shocked” by how “vile” we are but at least they would have had a shot at not being the fool.  

--------------------- My comments in Italics; they are in regular font 

Cassie:  

Nonnie, I’m not even surprised they went there. They’re vile, just like their kween. Nobody has ever said anything on my blog that could be construed as Mia is our kween. I don’t really understand the value of bringing up things nobody said as part of one’s argument. It’s proof of how desperate they are to be right and how easily they bend the truth to fit their needs. They wouldn’t know how to be authentic and honest if their lives depended on it.  

I don’t hide my feelings about M and I’m not going to, she absolutely knew what she was getting when she signed on to be D’s beard. She WANTS the attention, and as she’s a narcissist, she doesn’t care if it’s positive or negative attention. It’s hilarious that Nonnie claimed she doesn’t disparage Mia publically as part of their argument as to why they are better than us but Cassie being the charmer that she is, responds with “I don’t hide my feelings about M and I’m not going to”.  I could argue that Cassie knew what she signed on for when she started her crisscolfer blog-she even shares her cc beliefs on her Twitter!  

She WANTS the attention, and as she’s a narcissist, she doesn’t care if it’s positive or negative attention I find it so odd that Cassie is diagnosing Mia with mental illness yet just yesterday she was raging that Metaloma and I diagnose Abby. Hypocrite much? It is mind-boggling that she believes Mia is a narcissist but can’t see that Abby actually is. I bet the Abby-less Crisscolfer fandom will find Mia isn’t nearly as narcissistic and evil without Abby to write the storyline and talk about her nonstop. 

Personally, I’ve decided I don’t care enough to look at their blogs anymore and when I get their mean as hell Anons, I’m blocking. They claim we’re obsessed with their blogs when they literally dissect every post we make. Someone’s obsessed. It’s not us. Not reading my blog was a critical mistake because she would have realized that Nonnie was misconstruing the comment. Did someone claim they are obsessed with our blogs- I certainly didn’t- or is this another one of those claims that never happened?   

---------------------

Notes:

Hold on. Why are we talking about M as if the notoriety had fallen on her head all of a sudden? Nobody is talking as if notoriety had fallen on her head all of the sudden. Notes would have really benefited from reading the original post because neither Notes or I have a clue what post she is responding to.  

It’s not because of D if she is known by others besides her parents. It’s because she pushes herself in front of him every chance she gets. She take away from him every merit often by making things looks like they come from her brain (Hedwig first for example) and she jumps on the red carpets even before he does. I love the trope that she jumps in front of him on every red carpet because it proves how willing they are to outright lie to get their message across. She literally stands with Darren in front of the photographers for a couple of seconds at the end of Darren’s allowed period. Darren poses for dozens of photos and we see 2 or 3 pics of Mia and Darren-that is hardly jumping on the carpet before he does. As for taking away every merit- omg give it up. This is one of the dumbest tropes the fandom hangs on to. Mia WAS Hedwig before Darren was -the Halloween picture is around somewhere. Mia didn’t make the statement her friend did. We know the ccers don’t understand friendships but when they get pissed about the Hedwig comment they should refer to this post (X) where they declared “Just like I 100% stand with @ajw720,” and “I support @ajw720, I don’t believe Mi@rren is real and you cannot silence us!!!!”. Friends say things about other friends to connect with that person and show support. They weren’t trying to diss Darren. They never intended rabid Darren fans to even SEE the post-it was intended for their friends and nobody else.   

She shares her whole life through social media. THIS IS my FAVORITE comment of all. WTF? Where does Mia share her whole life through social media? Cuz I’d love to see it! The fact is, you are lying...you’re just outright lying. Mia shares nothing via social media. She stopped her Twitter when she quit playing music and she has a private IG account.  

D’s accounts, her friends’s accounts, enablers’s accounts. Her fake accounts. She tags in her posts every celebrity that crosses her path. Her only job in life seems to be open (and never close) social media accounts. Darren’s accounts? If Mia had control of Darren’s accounts, Mia would be plastered all over it but in reality, neither Darren nor Mia is active on public social media and they certainly aren’t sharing their lives. Nobody uses their friends’ accounts to plaster themselves. God, this trope is so stupid. Enabler’s accounts? Who the hell are her enablers? Where are these enabler posts just full of Mia’s every move? Her “fake accounts” is the best one though. Here we have some random person trolling the cc fandom and they Eat. It. Up. FetusMiarren hasn’t posted since August 11. Who the hell closes social media accounts? The reality is that Abby spent all day every day talking about MIa. The only person promoting Mia full time was Abby. The reason Notes believes that all these accounts are Mia sharing her whole life is because Abby stalked those accounts and then talked about each post for days. 

What are these people even talking about? Now we reached the point of denying even what she does so she can fits better their theories? I ask you the same question “What the hell are you talking about?” If you had actually taken the time to read the original post instead of working yourself up to a red-faced, foot-stomping rant, you would know what I was talking about and avoided this ridiculous, off-topic rant-fest. 

This is hilarious. I swear. Back at ya! 

--------------------- 

Flowers: 

I really love Flower’s response:  I’m appalled at the comparison. God her fans are hypocrites-I’m not sure how we are hypocrites because of a valid comparison.  

She wants notoriety via any means fair or foul and then screams victim if it’s questioned. Mia didn’t make the comparison- I did. Mia doesn’t know me, she didn’t dictate I made the comparison by “any means foul or fair”  

It’s the same argument that she is above criticism because she’s woman and therefore isn’t accountable for her actions. Wait...who in the hell made the argument that she isn’t responsible for her actions because she’s a woman? I’ve seen a lot of fake arguments like this in the last 3 days. Again, I don’t really understand the value of bringing up things nobody ever said as part of one’s argument. It certainly doesn’t lend credibility. 

Let’s remember V day. Nobody told her to get high with B in the PR house and post those pics. You reap what you sow. People smell fakeness and she reaks of it. Aaaaannnndddd she wraps up her comment with one of the fandom’s favorite gaslight moments- Valentine’s day with Ben.  

[spiftynifty]

Hey there! I’m the same anon that sent that confusion ask to jojo. I saw your reply and Read your post about LGBT in kids shows and how (at the time) it seemed probable for a m|m canon. I wanted to ask what your thoughts are now? I personally think it seems most likely that Keith will end in a het. Relationship (despite it seeming a little rushed and lm and jds saying they wouldn’t) Keith ending with no one when such a strong relationship with shiro was built up just doesn’t seem likely either..

To be honest, I was worried about Kacxa at first too. Many, many other hetero romances have started with less than that and seeing underdeveloped relationships just happen because “he was a boy, she was a girl, can I make it any more obvious” is something we are extremely accustomed to. Heck the show kind of plays right into this with Hunk/Shay.

But Keith is different, he is a far more developed and story-focused character than Hunk is, and thus if he’s to be given a romantic partner then it needs to match that flow and level of development. One of the “rules” that we often get in media is that “romance is a higher level on the relationship chart than friendship”. And at this point, and even after 13 more episodes, there’s just no context this show could offer me where I could honestly believe that Keith could regard Acxa with a similar level of affection to how he regards Shiro, let alone higher. This was the biggest reason I stopped worrying; to be blunt, Kacxa doesn’t make sense on a narrative or character level. Keith aside, Acxa deserves to have a story told that doesn’t involve her following dudes around.

Also, revisiting the show I’m quite convinced that Keith is canonically in love with Shiro, that his feelings for him were intended to be read as so many of us do. There’s a reason so many people in and outside the fandom have written about their relationship with optimism and curiosity about where the show is taking it. It’s there, even for those who have never been looking for it. I know a lot of straight guys who have picked up on it despite never realizing Korrasami was a thing. 

But we definitely do a lot of speculating here in the Sheith fandom and I’ve seen some pretty elaborate meta for scenes that didn’t particularly resonate as shippy for me. So stepping back, shipping goggles off, speaking as a viewer and as someone who works in animation, there are really… 3.5 sequences that give me pause, that are so heavily coded and so… interestingly storyboarded and animated that I find it increasingly impossible to believe the showrunners and directors never intended for their relationship to be read romantically. They are:

Because there is something inherently romantic about the slow zoom on their smiles before the slow drift of them towards each other, the castle forgotten

Because this is blatantly highlighting how beautiful Shiro is and Keith staring at him in awe before he closes his eyes for the last time, resigned to their joint fate

Because I have run all the permutations and scenarios in my mind and there is literally no reason for Keith to stop mid lean, with his eye direction shifting lower than Shiro’s eyeline. It would have been faster and way less work to show him just hugging him without the pause.

And then this is the 0.5:

Because while the canon tempers this moment with “you’re my brother”, I am beyond convinced that that line was added because the scene was too romantically coded without it. And if you don’t believe me, check out this edit someone made of what the scene sounds like without the brother line. It’s incredible. 

But will we SEE canon Sheith? that’s… a little more complicated. 

My post ages ago about LGBT in cartoons was pretty optimistic but where I failed was considering the differences in studios. Some companies are a lot more chill about LGBT content in their shows. But they also aren’t the Big Two: Disney and Dreamworks, whose records of LGBT characters are utterly abysmal. Here are the two they had prior to July 2018: LeFou from live action Beauty and the Beast, and Gobber from HTTYD2 in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line that was ad-libbed by the actor and left in. Arguments could also be made for the Sheriffs in Gravity Falls (that had to be Dumbledore’d after the fact by the show creator who alluded to there being a fight over it).

NOT great, especially when you consider Disney is not just Disney: none, NONE of the 19 Marvel movies feature an LGBT character, nor do ANY of the Star Wars movies. It’s utterly inexcusable. Shareholders in these companies make things more complicated because they help dictate the direction a company will take and if a large portion of their major shareholders are say, more conservative, we’re going to notice that there is one area on the diversity checklist that is repeatedly getting passed over. The bigger the company, the more complicated the relationship is with shareholders. That’s why it’s difficult to compare Korra’s achievement, through Nickelodeon, to the potential of an LGBT relationship on Dreamworks. We should absolutely hold them to the same standards regardless of company size but we can’t expect to get an endgame LGBT relationship just because Korra did, or because of the giant 20-gayteen celebration going on for two wlw ships at Cartoon Network.

But we also got THIS on Voltron.  

And it’s a start. I think it outlines pretty clearly where the limits are for Dreamworks at this time, especially since many casual viewers seemed to miss the romantic implications of Zethrid/Ezor, and a more alarming number somehow walked away from Adam/Shiro’s fight completely unaware they were a couple. Which honestly, was certainly Dreamworks’ goal. Keep it vague enough to fool the shareholders, but implicative enough to pat themselves on the back for their achievement. Even though it only exists because JDS and LM fought tooth and nail for it. But at the end of the day, we still have Shiro, Shiro our canonically gay rep, and that’s so huge. I don’t think people realize how huge that is, and I wish his coming out party hadn’t been so marred by toxic antis and even non-antis who decided to take a really big moment in cartoon history and make it all about themselves and their own pain over the “more” that they didn’t get. 

It’s incredible that we are getting LGBT in cartoons finally, properly. 2018 celebrated three massive historical achievement in kid’s animation: A strong, muscular, leader hero was revealed to be gay and have had a boyfriends, and two wlw couples kissed–one of them got married, onscreen. 

This is HUGE. Prior to 2018 the biggest LGBT cartoon moment we had was Korra and Asami four years ago. 

It was like for four years everyone fought and fought and fought and 2018 was the breaking point and we got this glorious explosion of LGBT romance as a result. Audience reception to these couples has been immensely supportive, which is something the companies are definitely noting if it’s translating into dollar signs. It’s something that makes me much more optimistic for the future of cartoons in years to come. 

But I’m just going to come out and say it: the road to mlm is just a little bit harder. There are a ton of reasons for this but I��d say the biggest two boil down to: classic, gendered homophobia (the white conservative straight dudes with money supporting the studios have an easier time with the idea of two women making out, cuz that’s “hot” than two men, cuz that’s “weird”), and also because it is easier for people to accept that two overly-touchy women are “just good friends” than it is for them to accept that two male characters doing the same thing are. Guys Don’t Get Affectionate With Each Other, after all, because that’s not the Masculine Way. Or something. Tons of people watched the end of Korra and assumed they were just friends. Replace those characters with Shiro and Keith and it raises eyebrows. 

So where does that leave Shiro and Keith? It’s really hard to say and at this point it’s anyone’s guess. I truly believe Sheith was intentionally coded as romantic, but getting the green light is another matter entirely. In addition to the DW shareholders, JDS/LM have to deal with the Voltron ones and since that would include conservative-minded folk along with some Japanese shareholders and Japan has complicated rules about LGBT content… it’s a hot mess. Realistically speaking if you were hoping to see Shiro and Keith kiss onscreen, it’s time to come to terms with the fact that there is a 0.0002% likelihood of it happening. I think the best outcome we can expect at this point is that they both end up single, with bonus points if they’re still alive and on the same planet by the series’ end. I firmly believe that this IS something the showrunners are and have fought for and will continue to fight for until the last retakes are done and the show has been approved and shipped off to Netflix for distribution. 

My tinhat theory is that there is one, single scene/shot, that is blatantly canon, that JDS/LM and KR animated on the sly, and have at the ready that they are totally prepared to replace another more platonic scene with– should DW give the go ahead. But I doubt that go-ahead will ever come. At the end of the day the shareholders are the rulemakers and unless they’re convinced it’s worth the financial gain, Sheith is forever bound to be the “will they won’t they” friends we have seen for the last 7 seasons. And I don’t think that potential financial gain of the kids’ animation world’s first mlm couple is big enough to convince them. But god do I ever hope I’m wrong. 

[confessionsofalionholic]

Hi, COAL admins. I don’t want people to be posting on my blog, at all. Ever. That’s why my stuff is Anon.

So, as far as NIP…..

Should be apologizing to me. Especially after those lies.

I have done nothing but protect Rat Clan. From thieves, from people only there for drama… and others.

Let’s go through what Nip said…

(A bird just flew into my window?)

“

hey guys, it’s nip here, ya know, the “thief”. Yes, the thief.

ashri isn’t part of that, for obvious reasons. (I’m not sure why, I let you be admin for longer than you should have been. ALL you did was sit around, ask permission to take GB & without waiting, take it, you made CSS & maybe accepted 4 or 5 member requests and came out with the theme song…) 

i’m gonna come clean here; i didn’t steal because ‘i wanted that stuff!!!’ (All the stuff you stole, Land put in, which is why she was upset. I had her talk to you…)

it’s because i’ve seen so much bad shit on ashri (you’re not even in the discord, so you wouldn’t know if any of it is true or just framed [which most of it is, trust me.], that i decided i was sick of her abysmal rules (?) and the harmful things that she had said to many clan members in the discord [when? LOL this is a blatant lie]. i wanted to leave the clan to avoid getting bashed for being part of it (AND STEAL?). that backfired. i didn’t mean to steal 10gb worth of items [sure ya did]; i hadn’t counted the gb count when i took everything i did. of course, the sb and gb were on my terms.

This is where it gets interesting… 

a dear friend i was talking to told me to stick with items, but i was low on funds and required the 5gb for my FAPA  as i have 40+ lions in my pride and, what, 100 sb+0 gb? the 3k i planned to use to help me alot, while the 5gb i used immediately on FAPA because it was a pain to go through all my lions every day. (Who cares, you could have asked)

i took the css i made too, because i worked hard on that and was going to leave anyway. (Ok cool)

when ashri came on, i had her blocked out of fear i was going to get a pure yell at. i was heading to sleep when i opened my phone about 11:00 pm to see messages from the friend i mentioned earlier, a screenshot. i checked to see ashri had come back on.

I have never "pure yelled” at someone. I didn’t understand it, and an admin told me what happened I was like, well shit. That’s all. I tried to message you friendly, AS YOU COULD SEE in previous posts, hoping you’d come to your senses. You had me blocked, which then put me into a little bit of frustration. I then asked another admin to 3rd-party.

a few quotes directly from ashri, from a screenshot: ‘just don’t trust nip lmao’ 'my messages are not harmful to anyone’

Yeah, don’t trust Nip, they were supposed to keep this clan running, as an admin, but never did anything to support it and didn’t just leave like a mature person would, they stole alot of items, set the clan hoard grab to 10, took their CSS, took GB, and SB, and blocked the admins.

i was scared. scared i’d get in trouble. scared i was going to get a ban, or to get questioned, or harassed by rat clan members [which didn’t happen, luckily] Yeah, because that wasn’t my goal. Yeah. I’m going to call you out because you’re a fucking thief. That’s it though.

THIS IS INTERESTING a member came to question me. they asked, 'why did you take that stuff?’ i explained to them, and they understood. added me on discord and told me that land [an admin of the clan] was upset. of course, i was like 'oh no’ because i didn’t mean for this to affect the entire clan. i unblocked land [as i had, thinking she’d have a go at me] and profusely apologised, in which i will have shown at the bottom, and offered to put everything back. (After Land bribed you basically)

land told me the things she wanted back, which were the lambs, rmas, sb+gb, zebra heart [which i had used] and a few decors which the members wanted. along with some brawl apps [i only took 2 of each]. they allowed me to keep 1ksb and 2gb [but of course i used the gb], so i asked if i could give the zebra heart + 3gb back in the morning as it was 12 at this point. she allowed it luckily. (I did.)

Ok, coming clean. everything Land told you was me. I was the one who let you keep some of the GB, some of the SB, and some of the items. That was me. If you don’t believe me that’s up to you, you can ask Land. I told Land, if he’s willing to give it back, then here’s a list of what I’d like to be returned. Tell him he can keep some of the GB/SB, I don’t want to cause that many problems, but I want most of it back. 

Yeah Nip. You’re banned from Rat Clan. And the discord. Don’t come crawling back because you believed the lies about me. The only thing I see wrong that I’ve done is “whine about hoard” in chat, when we have thieves / target people, and the thing I said about suicide.

I never targetted anyone from this clan, or abused my powers, or accused players of things they didn’t do. My clan messages were supportive to all so long as they’re not just there to frame me.

Currently re-doing all of rat-clan, CSS, summary, hoard, everything. Damn nip, if you would have joined the Discord you wouldn’t have believed anything people here said. Oh, but people post the one or two things I say that are wrong, and deem me unprofessional, a bad person, a bitch, an asshole, etc.

I know people are targetting me & that is making them target rat clan which I’m fixing right now.

Target me all you want, just leave my clan out of it. I’m keeping it that way. You guys think I care, I really don’t. I enjoy replying and proving peoples’ lies wrong, but you know, im not going to screenshot the 100 nice things I’ve said to make up for the one wrong thing I’ve said.

Everyone claiming I banned them, apparently Land banned one, I banned one for admitting they’re just there for screenshots, and I kicked two for “”'roasting’“” me. AKA just being unfriendly and negative in the community.

i’m extremely sorry for all of this. i’m extremely sorry for taking the things you admins and clan members worked hard to get and put in the hoard. i didn’t mean for this to become so big, nor to harm the rat clan. after all, i helped create it and build it up.

i hope you can forgive me.“

No, you’re banned. :)

COAL, I don’t know what you guys mean by "blog”. Again, I do not want people crawling onto my personal blog. But yes, I would appreciate if they started getting filtered out and there was less.

This is a blog. The account that you used to submit this on is a blog. The Ashri drama is getting irritating and we can’t be used as a middle man for you to complain to other people about their submissions. Either make a new blog, make yours private or stop submitting.