#but the blorbos will want what the blorbos will want

[tangents-within-tangents]

Like fr to everyone in the notes talking about headcanons/AUs/"having fun" in the notes: the word you are looking for is REinterpretation. Not to go webster or anything but

-Interpret: explain the meaning of information, words, or actions. (explain, expound, clarify)

-Misinterpret: interpret something or someone wrongly. (misunderstand, misconstrue, mistake)

-Reinterpret: interpret something in a new or different light.

It seems in fandom spaces the word interpretation is often used at times when what they actually mean is reinterpretation (or sometimes just reaction or impression, ex: your opinion of a character is subjective and valid, but that's not the same as an interpretation).

If your "interpretation" is completely divorced from or contradicts the text, it's not an interpretation anymore. It's a reinterpretation. A reimagining. And yeah you can totally have your fun, go off! Just don't act like it IS an interpretation. Because valid interpretations come with supporting evidence, which is the whole point of the og post.

I think this bit from OP's other reblog describes it best:

this is one way it gets messy that fandom is a space for both media analysis and transformative works even though those two things don’t always co-exist comfortably or necessarily serve each other.

This is the crux. Both happen in fandom because both are a form of engaging with a work that you appreciate. But one literally relies upon analyzing what IS presented in the text, and the other upon reinventing and transforming that text (and headcanon sometimes straddles this line in between). So the important thing is recognizing the distinctions and not mixing them up. And it goes both ways:

-“He would never act that way” we know, it’s an intentional recharacterization bc we're exploring something different right now

-“But he's just a poor meow meow” not relevant right now because we're analyzing how the writing actually portrayed him

Textual evidence doesn't matter when we're just having fun and making incorrect quote memes, and headcanons don't matter when we're analyzing thematic content. The distinction helps us to have more productive conversations. And crossing the streams can sometimes take us to harmful or frustrating extremes.

To borrow an example from Rowan Ellis: You relate to a Taylor Swift song and feel seen in your queer identity? That's great, no one can stop you from experiencing the song that way even if Taylor didn't intend it. But if you turn that around and say this is proof that Taylor herself must be secretly queer, or worse that she's somehow queerbaiting? Please stop!

Another example: Someone once pulled the "we're just having fun, you can scroll past" card on me when they were straight up bashing the writing for not going the way they wanted. Please, have your fun, I won't stop you. Write a fix-it au where your blorbo comes back to life. Vive la fanfic! But when you say "the writers should have done [random specific thing] if they wanted me to believe he was truly dead" whilst blatantly misinterpreting the thing the writers did do to confirm it so it can fit into your theories/denial? That's not 'just having fun' anymore, that's flawed/unfair criticism and I'mma push back on it. (I didn't actually, just for the record)

Headcanons by definition are not canon, and I think you'll find most people are totally fine with you having whatever headcanons you want, so long as you don't start claiming that they are canon or that your way is the only way. That's where people have a problem.

But even headcanons that don't contradict canon, that could fit into ambiguous gaps where canon did not confirm or deny the possibility either way, are still headcanons. They aren't presented in the text itself and therefore not useful to analysis and criticism.

And I think this is where the distinction can feel blurry at times. Because some headcanoning is based on evidence from the source material. So some may think it's the same as media analysis, but I'd call it extrapolation rather than interpretation. It uses canon evidence in more of a imaginative/conspiracy theory/inspiration to bounce off type of way. Especially since fanon is often about filling in gaps.

Fanon focuses on the story, and treats it almost as if it and the characters are living. But media analysis relies upon treating it as media. On recognizing it was written by a person who made choices and used literary devices and elements intentionally to convey meaning (even if we can debate on what that meaning is).

Subtext is not just whatever you want to project onto a story. Subtext is an actual literary device. Meaning that is intentionally implied by the author because you shouldn't spell everything out and it's important to let the readers participate. It's what the characters aren't saying but the author is.

Unreliable narrator is also a literary device, that is intentionally crafted and indicated throughout the whole text. It's the author saying something through the character saying the opposite. It's not an excuse to ignore whatever you want to ignore of what the narrator says.

Characters aren't people and they don't actually make any choices. Everything they do, everything they are, was written and crafted by the author.

(In short, when I analyze character arcs or critique writing choices, I'd love for the discussion I get to point out things I may have overlooked or misinterpreted. Not for it to just shove in a bunch of irrelevant headcanons, character personifications, and Watsonian explanations that have nothing to do with my arguments.)

Fanon is very open-world concept (and open multiverse lol), but analysis is about looking at what the author did give you, what they chose to include or not and what it is meant to show us.

Writing is about crafting an iceberg that implies a keel under the water. Therefore analysis is about studying the iceberg to try to interpret that keel. And fanon is about exploring the whole ocean. And transformative work is about idk cutting off chunks and making ice sculptures.

All of them are very cool and fun in their own right but I think we can see how they can definitely clash and get in each other's way.

Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”

[questions-about-blorbos]

This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

[skribbledarker]

Back on my bs with another Zosan brainworm…. post Skypiea feels

—

Sanji, after having his “I needed a light” moment and getting shocked head-on by Enel, gains big lichtenberg scars that never fade. They’re darker than his usual skin tone, spiraling down the back of his neck, the entire expanse of his back, then curling around his shoulders and hips.

he hates them. Sanji thinks they make him look diseased, or like Frankenstein, sort of.. He doesn’t think scars are bad or ugly, no. It’s just the way they look on him.

He goes to so many lengths to hide them from the rest of the crew; he takes showers after everyone else is asleep, and his short-sleeved shirts get pushed to the back of the closet.

Chopper’s the only one who’s seen them. well, until Zoro. Somewhere in between when they didn’t like each other and when they suddenly did, the swordsman catches Sanji late at night in the bathroom, shirtless and twisting around himself to look at his back in the mirror.

Somehow, they end up on the floor, Sanji sitting cross-legged on the tile, hunched over with red tipped ears as Zoro sits behind him, taking his time tracing the patterns over Sanj’s skin.

“Do they hurt?” Zoro asks, grazing a calloused thumb over the back of Sanji’s neck.

“Sometimes. they sting when it gets cold.”

Zoro doesn’t say anything for a long time. Sanji feels like a bug under a microscope, just sitting there, being inspected like this. He finds himself zoning out— he doesn’t want to be here right now. This is embarassing.

“I like them.”

“Huh?”

And then Zoro’s hands are smoothing over Sanji’s shoulders, warm and careful like he’s handling a blade. “What, you don’t? It looks badass.”

no, they really don’t. “No. It looks…stupid.” Ugly, is what Sanji wants to say, but he doesn’t. The word suddenly seems a little too crass for whatever’s going on right now.

“Do mine, then?” Zoro counters, and that’s different. Zoro wears his like a collection, each mark a record of battles he’s won and lost and a testament to the shit he’s survived. Sanji hasn’t ever been blemished like that, barring the faint lines on the bridge of his nose still barely visible after eleven years. The scars just look out of place on him. Like they aren’t supposed to be there.

“No, no.” Sanji shakes his head. “Yours are— are badass.”

Zoro pauses again. “They look like vines.”

“Oh, so i’m sprouting greenery like you, now?”

That gets an exasperated huff out of Zoro, and Sanji can feel breath fanning over the back of his neck. “Stop, ‘m serious.”

It’s frightening, kind of, being laid bare under the watchful eye of someone else like this. Sanji can’t even see Zoro (well, besides his hands), but it’s almost like he can— the weight of his gaze falls heavy on Sanji’s back.

“Of course you are.”

A chill slides up Sanji’s spine when Zoro’s hands slide down to his waist, thumbing at the spots where the scars encroach onto his stomach. “ ‘s Pretty.”

Sanji’s throat suddenly feels dry, because the admission of pretty feels less like a descriptor of the lightning bolts spiraling down his back and more about him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Never thought I’d hear you call something ‘pretty,’ you brute.”

“Maybe you needed to.”

Maybe you needed to. Fuck, Maybe Sanji did.

—

gughhhh this was supposed to be a little drabble but got out of hand so fucking quickly??1!1?1?

anyways i want to shoot both of them dead lololololol

i also love projecting my self-image issues onto Sanji…. my blorbo AHHH

[utilitycaster]

edit: thanks @wardensantoineandevka for sending me the post I reference below but couldn't find at the time, it's this one and I will also be reblogging it separately because you should all read it.

while I'm thinking about Downfall I really have been thinking extensively about the ongoing discussion of fandoms and particularly centering/prioritizing white queerness and more generally one's own experiences (and I cannot find one of the best posts about it, which is not by me) because, as I've said before, but notably about Circle of Needle and Thread and Downfall, Brennan is somehow known as The Communist DM and also at every opportunity his messages of class-based oppression get pushed aside by fandoms. In D20, the message frequently gets flattened into Capitalism Is The BBEG (to the point that D20 has somewhat depressingly caved to it) but in doing so generally erases the human element - the discussion becomes dominated by the terminally online anticapitalist types who really do want to treat capitalism as the BBEG that, once killed, everything will be fixed, rather than part of a complex system to be dismantled in a manner that preserves the most human lives. In Candela Obscura: Circle of Needle and Thread, Sean's story explicitly about losing everything to the wealthy and powerful was shoved aside by fans cranky that his character wasn't made explicitly queer and in love with Marion. In Downfall, Aeor's exploitation was acknowledged by fans but its imperialism conveniently forgotten in order to focus on those powerful within the system who hated the gods, not the poor of the city nor those on the surface, without protection, being used as nothing more than a source of cheap labor.

And the thing is: I obviously do not think that the world is lacking in empathy nor opportunity for straight cis white men, but the fact that people cannot take Brennan and his experiences as someone of a lower class - the most tame palatable version of that too, as in addition to being a straight cis white man he is educated, a native English speaker, sober, and housed his entire life - without needing to twist it into something closer to their (often middle-class) experiences or existing worldview is depressing and telling, and it has not improved. This was an issue with Campaign 2 (the post I cannot find touched on how Fjord and Veth's stories were cast aside or only engaged with using heavy headcanoning to make them more like the viewer because they were not explicitly textually queer, despite being explicitly racialized and about class) and it's gone metastatic in Campaign 3, and it really needs to stop.

I am hoping, still, that Campaign 3 serves as the endpoint of this sort of selfishness, and its fans will have some sort of realization (or, more likely if less good for the world, will leave this fandom to terrorize another) but I will say if this continues in C4 I will personally be calling it out in the moment - no more vagueing, if you say you're nauseated by someone bringing up their personal experiences with colonialism that happen conflict with your feelings about your blorbos you're getting nailed to the wall by name then and there and what happens to you is your business.

[ariaste]

From Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār to Agender in Antagonish, begrudging greetings.

What business is it of theirs? Either they shut the fuck up and say what you want them to say, or you shrug and set their house on fire. This does not have to be very complicated. People have been saying things about me for my entire life, but do you see me giving a shit? Fuck no. I know who I am, and I know fourteen different places to stab someone to make sure they die very slowly so they’ve got time to think about their choices. Your bloody parents can go around insisting the sky is green if they want to—why not? Let ‘em look like idiots, if they’re so committed to looking like idiots, but the sky’s still not gonna be godsdamned green, is it? Not going to just TURN GREEN because some moron said it loud and often enough. You really going to waste your time wringing your hands about what some sky-blind idiot who can't understand basic facts thinks? Personally, I wouldn’t. I’d just start chopping off fingers, setting houses on fire, swearing an oath of vengeance, keelhauling them, etc.

I tell you what—you get a big enough knife and a reputation for being the most dangerous person in the room, and then the only thing people call you is “captain”.

Worst wishes and never speak to me again, Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār

***

(Are you a fan of my books? Do you have a burning question and you’ve always wanted to ask a fictional character for advice? Send in your question via the “Dear Blorbo” Advice Column submission form! :) All questions welcome.)

[st6rly]

─── 𝓚𝐈𝐒𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝓣𝐄𝐋𝐋 ( 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝓟𝐑𝐈𝐕 )

𑁤 　 ever wonder what it would be like if your f/o had a private twt? how they'd react during the crushing stage? or how they'd act after your first date? this mutuals-only valentine's day event is all about finding out! please read and follow all the instructions below before sending in an ask <33

reminder : this is a mutuals only event! please send your asks off of anon or specify what blog you would like to have tagged in the final product. new mutuals are always welcome, however!

⟢ 𝓙𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝓐𝐒𝐊 𝓒𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃, 𝓢𝐓𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃 　 what to send !

your selfship + selfship name — can be from either genshin or hsr

where you had your first date & what is was like! send as many headcanons as you wish ( the more you send, the more personalized the result + the easier for me it is to work with! )

the general dynamics of your selfship and what you associate with your ship

go ham! ramble as much as you want about your brain blorbo!

optional: 3 - 5 songs that remind you of your selfship

if you have a selfship post made, please feel free to link that in your ask too!

⟢ 𝓑𝐎𝐖 𝓤𝐏, 𝓐𝐈𝐌, 𝓕𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝓐𝐖𝐀𝐘 　 what you'll receive !

you will be tagged in a post containing:

a mini smau about your f/os crushing stage and what they spam after the first date on their priv twt!

a small handful of songs i think fit the relationship vibes

possible bonus content should the brain worms get to me

SLOTS FILLED: 　 6/6

— to avoid burnout, im limiting the amount of requests for this event to be pretty small. however! more slots will open up as i go on depending on the interest shown for this ^^ please note that my pace is typically pretty slow, and my aim to have these all done ideally before the end of february at the latest. this is also counts as a little birthday event since it's 02/02 ^^

sincerely, your local black cat <3

[sreppub]

I’m not a batlantern mega fan but I do appreciate a dynamic that puts Clark in the cuck chair <3

Idk what it is bc I love Clark and Superbat. Idk it's like when people whump their blorbos except I just want to frustrate them sexually

[fenmere]

the primary purpose of a poll is to make people angry. the secondary purpose is to receive faulty information. after that? it’s all about clicking a button.

[parsley-draws-art]

I give up. I can’t figure out how to get the screen recording onto here. You get the too-saturated phone recording again. It’s fine, this is fine.

This is what the colors are MEANT to look like. Just. Get on desktop at click back and forth between them.

Made this last night because Henry and Robert remind me of At The Cemetery so much. (Like I said on my other side blog)

I think this would take place in some sort of modern AU (I put them in the outfits Sage gave them in that one non page about what holiday drinks the characters like) where they never met at college and Henry dies somehow before he can make the potion that makes Hyde. They meet one day when Lanyon is on his way home from somewhere and he passes Jekyll’s gravestone. I made the ghostly stuff green because in the song, the POV character doesn’t want the person to know she’s a ghost. So the ghostly stuff represents Hyde. I suppose that Lanyon also can’t see the ghostly wisps. Jekyll looks human to him. Since Lanyon can obviously see the name “Henry Jekyll” written on the gravestone, Jekyll has to come up with a pseudonym. So he tells Lanyon he’s called “Edward Hyde.”

Now, I want to stress that this IS the person that we would think of as Hyde saying this. They haven’t been split yet. They never will be. From our perspective, it’s technically not a lie. But he doesn’t know that.

It probably ends up with Lanyon finding out that Henry is dead and that the place they met was his gravestone. And Jekyll finding out that he can haunt Lanyon and leave the Cemetery that way.

Why have I done this? Why have I made a whole Au complete with concept art so that the blorbos can live through the plot of a song that reminded me of them a little bit? Why am I like this?

[missescalientee]

NEW BLORBO LOCATED! how did niccolo's parent come together and seperated and what was niccolo childhood like?

Let me introduce them as we begin!

His parents are Gryffin Ash and Cecile Sonata

Funnily enough despite her disdain for most other genres it was her who had initiated their "relationship"

They weren't together really, just had the one night of "fun" that eventually ended up with both of them becoming parents.

It was Gryffin who convinced Cecile to be involved in Niccolos life when she wanted nothing to do with him

Gryffin adored Niccolo from the moment he hatched and had a lot of fun being a father, it only started to go downhill when Cecile started putting up roadblocks.

You can see why she would (not that she was right to) Niccolo favored his father so and she did not want him to be a rock ruffian when he grew up, but she also couldn't stand that he was half rock which led to a lot of issues between them.

When Niccolo was about 5 he was already taller than she was:

So it basically went waaaay downhill after he started getting older. Gryffin slowly pulled away, and then Cecile was just generally cold

[sotwk]

How I have been officially infected with Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers brainrot:

I'm about to complete and post my second Bucky one-shot in four days. In case you didn't know, that is record-breaking fic writing speed for me.

Within those same 4 days, I gained 7 new followers that are all Bucky/Sebastian blogs. Hello, New Friends!

Last night, after I slept off a low-grade fever, I woke up with two new fully-fleshed ideas for Steve x Reader one-shots.

I'm listening to Love Song playlists these days, and I swear every other song I hear sparks another Bucky or Steve romance idea. Like, what even is this?!

It's not like this MCU obsession is unprecedented; before returning to Tolkien, I did Marvel roleplay for a solid 10 years. My total creative output would have been hundreds of thousands of words written, just not in fic format.

What does that mean for this blog and my writing?

Let's be absolutely clear that this is still and will remain a Tolkien-centric blog! I'm just running with the inspiration and writing energy I'm getting from these two blorbos. I haven't made any real progress on my Tolkien fics for many weeks, and I just need to write. I'm sure you all get it. :)

I'm sure the brainrot will calm down and I will make it back to Tolkien "regular programming".

My MCU Masterlist is going to grow, and I would really appreciate it if any of my Mutuals who are in the MCU fandom could show the fics a little love. (and thank you to those who already have!)

If I can somehow convert some Mutuals into loving these two characters, that would just be the BEST ACHIEVEMENT!

PS. I've been wanting to get a Corkcicle coffee mug for a while now, and THIS design happened to be on sale, so I snagged it! If that's not a Sign, I don't know what is.

[dukeofdelirium]

A Certain Slant of Light

Chapter Three: time

pairing: L x Light

word count: 7,529

hi again besties! it's been a couple months, I know! unfortunately, I work a lot as ya'll probably already know, so my updating is really unpredictable. anyways, I worked on this chapter and finally finished it today, can I get an amen? I love these blorbos so much, they're all so weird and funny to me. I'm still getting a feel for writing them, so don't judge me too harshly, lol. I'm trying my best!! I want this fic to be the best it can be :) so I hope ya'll enjoy this next installment. if you do, I'd love if you left a comment and/or kudos and told me what you think!

I also really want to thank all of you that have left comments prior. I was NOT expecting the support I was shown and everyone was so nice, and it meant a lot to me as a new fic author for this specific fandom! I won't keep you guys any longer. enjoy my silly fanfic! until next time <333 ✨🩵✨🩵✨

[brightshaw-shipper]

Does the Bright family exist in your headcanon, and if so, how are they all doing?

Please please please let TJ have a good day I beg.

Yes, they do exist! Here are my headcanons:

TJ Bright:

Got a dose of SCP-500 and is now back to full health

Went to Deer College, majored in anomalous medicine

Went to Alexylva University, got a doctorate in anomalous medicine (he is now Dr. Bright)

Works in the medical wing of the Foundation now

Very cozy all the time (wears long sleeves, long pants, gloves, and a hoodie)

Likes painting Warhammer 40k minis

Is good with a gun

Is aroace

Attended the blorbos' wedding

Doing pretty well

Mikell Bright:

Is O5-6

Has a charming Southern accent

Cannot sit still and suits are a sensory overload for him (but when he does wear a suit, it's a white one, with a white cowboy hat)

Doesn't really get sarcasm

Can control plants (because I'm not letting a member of the Bright family get off with being non-anomalous)

Because of the above, he can often be seen with flowers in his hair

Attended the blorbos' wedding (Thompson and Black were sitting a few seats away, disguised as random guests)

Really needs glasses but doesn't know it

Is gay

Doing okay

Sarah Bright (SCP-321):

Loved her stuffed bear

Would occasionally stack blocks as high as she could, then knock them over and giggle

Favorite handler was Dr. Sarah Rilkes, who treated her more like a person than the other handlers (she couldn't fully grasp the concept of this, but she knew Dr. Rilkes was nicer than the others)

Did not like toy balls; they're hard to grab

Drew all the time: on paper and the walls of her chamber

Hated bath time with a passion

Just fell asleep one night and didn't wake up (her heart gave out)

Had a formal funeral: even Mikell cleared enough time in his packed schedule to be there

Doing well (in the afterlife)

Claire Lumineux:

Reads books and watches TV for the plot, not the suspense (she already knows what's going to happen, let's just see how)

Lives in Three Portlands, spending most of her time at the Wanderer's Library

Gives dating advice to her fellow Hand members: "nope, he's trouble", "I mean, sure, if you want to get shipped off to the Jailors in a crate", stuff like that

Crosses the street on her phone; she already knows if a car's coming or not

Attended the blorbos' wedding under supervision

Paints her nails iridescent green

Is a lesbian

Doing great

Adam Bright:

Never hit his kids, but got pretty close

Alt-right; would have supported Trump

Went out to the local bar a lot, didn't come home until after the kids were in bed

Didn't treat Evelyn as an equal (this was the Sixties and Seventies, but STILL)

Usually seen wearing a baseball cap

Wanted to have a son who did sports; when Mikell went off to college, that role passed to Jack, who got his arm broken by that bully Mitch Peters, leading to the next bullet point

Used the window of opportunity created by Jack's broken arm and Mikell's being at college to bring TJ to the Foundation and have him contained

Did not attend the blorbos' wedding, due to being dead (assassinated bc he wanted to get Sarah out of containment) (Mikell was the passing vote on the assassination plot)

Was straight and proud of it

Didn't let anyone find out what his anomalous property was

Slept around a lot

Doing badly (also in the afterlife)

Evelyn Bright:

Great cook, could probably cook the most difficult dishes without a problem

Does needlepoint, usually those embroidery circles

Knits with such speed people think she's using thaumaturgy (she's not)

Is a Type Blue

Wouldn't be caught dead wearing a skirt; we live in a time where women can wear pants and she is going to wear pants

Once knitted an entire cloak for a fellow Hand member because everybody forgot their birthday

Lives in Three Portlands

Attended the blorbos' wedding under supervision

Is bisexual; has a girlfriend but they haven't gotten serious yet

Sends all her children cards on their birthdays

Doing pretty well

Thanks for the ask! Hope this answers your question! -Thaumiel

[chiisana-sukima]

Saw that you also wanted to be asked this and I’d love to here your thoughts too. Exact same ask: What’s your thoughts on the idea of Soulless Sam losing his inhibitions and so giving into his darkest desires, and sexually assaulting Dean (which is how the vampire turning scene is read). I often see this tied to the idea that because of the incestuous deal and Azazel’s blood, Sam’s tainted and has this inherent darkness, specifically playing around the idea Sam’s sexuality is dark and perverse, and he harbours these feelings towards Dean and desires to assault him but feels shame and guilt for it. But as Soulless Sam he doesn’t. This reading always felt a little weird and uncomfortable to me but I couldn’t put into words why

In terms of the canonicity component, I have nothing to add to what @aliusfrater said. In isolation, I do think it's fair to read that look in Live Free or Twihard as at least metaphorically sexual, but it's one camera shot with no dialogue doing an awful lot of work in 327 hours of television.

This reading always felt a little weird and uncomfortable to me but I couldn’t put into words why

This is the part I wanted to write about. It feels weird and uncomfortable because it's an especially volatile subcategory of rape fantasy presented using the structure and language of an academic argument.

I feel like I should disclaimer that rape fantasies are fine and normal (and among my personal faves) and that stories are meant to serve people, not vice versa, so I'm not complaining about either the content of these headcanons or their lack of support in the canon version of spn per se. What's frustrating is the way the meta format mixes together assertions of fact about the source material, assertions of fact about rl, and shit an OP made up out of thin air because they thought it was hot, and turns it all into an indiscriminate fact-y sounding stew.

No, actually. No he isn't and no it wouldn't.

Another part of the uncomfortable feeling, at least for me, is the way fandom does intimacy backwards. First we put our blorbos in Situations, then we talk about our favorite Situations and why we love them, then we talk about politics, and then if we really, really like each other, we might discuss the weather. And it's all done in public, often without direct communication.

Usually I love that for us, but sometimes it causes problems we don't have great protocols for solving. I feel super-uncomfortable scrolling past 'It makes a tragic kind of sense that a csa survivor would grow up to be a rapist' without adding 'speak for your own damn self', and I think that's entirely fair of me.

Butttt, I can also guess that an OP who looked at Sam having smoking hot consensual sex and thought 'looks like rape to me' probably has a reason. Maybe the reason is poor sex ed. Probably not.

(Another part of the problem: that 'probably not' was a lie for politeness' sake. I went to the OP's dash and I know they have a reason other than poor sex ed. But I'm not supposed to say that, or especially have guessed it beforehand, despite the fact that such experiences are incredibly common and isolating, and despite the fact that knowing that information makes the OP's error more sympathetic. Because we're supposed to be ashamed that we were victimized, and never speak of it again. So if I could be assed to follow social norms, we would now have two survivors of sexual violence arguing about sexual violence--though only indirectly with each other--and both pretending their only investment was detached academic concern for the sanctity of the canon of a stupid 2000s era ghost-hunting melodrama. Which we both probably like in large part for the exact reason we're not supposed to admit to. Nobody wins that fight but patriarchy).

And you know, ig the thing that's most murky, and therefore most uncomfortable of all for me personally, is how I feel about the fact that this is so obviously a Dean girl (gn) take about Sam. Idek why that's so clear or why I care. I actually really enjoy "soulless Sam, freed of his guilt and inhibitions, does evil sexual things to Dean" fics. One of my all-time favorite fics (Flying Weight by flesh) is in this genre and is even about the vampire bite in Twihard. And I can't always tell, nor do I ever even care, whether they're written by Sam fans or Dean fans. But the chances of a Sam girlie conceptualizing it all this specific way, with the Evil Desires from the csa/demon blood and the predatory (consensual) sex and all, and then writing it all down as a meta, idk man, it would just never happen. And I'm kinda icked out that a meta that posits Sam as a csa survivor also so clearly uses him as a cardboard prop.

And on the one hand, yeah, they're all barbie dolls and everything, so who cares. But on the other, I hope if I wanted to write a meta, for example, about Dean correctively raping Sam in the panic room as part of the demon blood cure, I would build a more careful frame around it. One where it was clear what aspects I thought were consistent with canon, what aspects I thought were plausible in a semi-analogous rl situation, and what ones I just thought were hot.

I was really mad at the OP of the post I took that screenshot up there from when I read the meta and I'm glad I managed to slow down enough to be way less of a douche about it than I initially wanted to be. Maybe this is still too much of a douche, idk. Anyway, ty nonny for giving me the opportunity to process it all.

[utilitycaster]

1. My biggest isssue (as a POC) is when is a character POC or otherized? Do we use IRL or in world? Beau is Human, brown woman. At no point in C2 is the fact that she is brown comes up other than discriptions. Her humaness is what matters especially in the COB. She is treated the same aa Caleb. Fjord, Nott and Molly havs far more in text displays of racism towards them. Ppl dismiss jester as being "white" but insist dorian is poc. When in world they are the same colour.

2. And teiflings would be more discriminated against. I know robbie is poc and dorian is blue but hes a genasi. In the world of exandria i view him and ashton as the same race. So i see these weird arguments online and its always a cross steam trying to use both in world races and irl to prove a point. Since i am examining the world of exandria i use the races displayed there and no attention to what the people look like irl. Also it avoids unintentional sterotyping down the road

3. An example ppl drawing drow and ashton with black racial features (my own) and then someone else complaing that the fandom made the asshole and the would be villian into black men. This fanon has unintended consequences once the story is fully fleshed out. Saying Orym is non white (despite Liams art direction) is bad because people to this day are mad Marisha made beau dark. It cant be both way. This way ppl can headcanon stuff so they dont have 2 go looking for other ips for representation.

----

So this is a really good point and I am, as said, an ethnic/religious minority but not a racial one and so this is how I tend to interpret this stuff in fantasy works, especially ones that have multiple species (humans, elves, etc) as it's not limited to Critical Role (ie, happens in Dragon Age too), which I think is what you're saying here but feel free to let me know if I'm wrong:

There's "is this character treated, in-world, as racialized" (which is often more contextual in a lot of fictional works in a way it is not IRL due to patterns of colonialism in our world, which is a long conversation I'm probably not equipped to articulate well, but just as an example, Fjord is racialized as a half-orc on the Menagerie Coast, but half-orcs in Yios, for example would have a very different experience). In other words, do people within the work of fiction discriminate against them on the basis of race? Anyway, as you said, Fjord, Molly, Jester, and Veth in her goblin form are treated as The Other; Fjord (and Molly, though his memory is only a few years long) grew up with this experience whereas Jester and Veth grew up, for different reasons, sheltered from or unaffected by that discrimination. Beau didn't experience racism in-world, nor did Veth in her halfling form, despite both of them being visibly nonwhite. For a Dragon Age example, Bellara, Davrin, and Antoine grew up with racism as elves, but Neve did not (and indeed comments on using her privilege as a human mage among human mages) despite being visibly nonwhite (and despite Antoine being white).

There's then "is this character treated out of world as racialized", or in other words, do fans treat them as nonwhite. This is also complicated, and this is something I can speak to as Jewish people who are not also POC experience 'conditional whiteness', ie, when right-wing people want to hate Jews we are the nonwhite infiltrator and when left-wing (and often themselves white) people want to hate them they are the white oppressor. So racist fans will hate characters who are nonwhite (like Beau) and fans trying to prove their blorbo cannot be criticized on the basis of oppression. In this case, Beau and Veth are nonwhite; Fjord and Jester often vary depending on what argument the person wants to make; Molly, as opposed to Jester, is almost NEVER drawn with nonwhite features (which frankly says a LOT of unflattering things about the white queer centering, now that I think about it); etc.

And then there's "is the actor/creator racialized in real life," ie, Robbie, Aabria, Anjali, Utkarsh, Aimee, Christian, Mica, Khary, etc are all POC and the main cast are not. Most of their characters are nonwhite, but few are racialized - Shakaste, Deanna, Bor'Dor, Opal, Deni$e, and Reani do not experience racism within this setting. Genasi (as played by Anjali, Robbie, and Taliesin) are a complicated case of being tokenized/model minority within the Empire, and the Silken Squall being inspired by native culture but their role within the world only slightly touched upon such that it's hard to draw a definitive conclusion.

And, since I referenced it in the tags elsewhere, for an NPC case: Essek is racialized by the people of the Empire (as a drow) along with the rest of the Dynasty; he is not racialized within the Dynasty and is indeed in a privileged position there; and whether or not he's treated as nonwhite by the fandom depends on whether someone wants to hate on him or defend him on the basis of identity. He is an NPC, and Matt's white, but in theory could be controlled by a nonwhite GM such as Aabria, or a nonwhite player in the way that Robbie played Cerkonos.

Anyway: completely agree that a lot of people do this in the end so that they don't have to seek out like, Desiquest or Rivals of Waterdeep or Into the Motherlands or other APs run by actual real nonwhite people either because of parasocial connections to the cast, the fact that CR has a larger fandom and they want the attention, or the fact that often they are here for white queer characters and bring in nonwhite characters (and headcanons of white characters) as some kind of armor against criticism.

I think in terms of character interpretation you do need to consider both in-world (Fjord is textually treated as the racial other to the point of self-harming to fit in; you cannot treat him as The Racial Majority in the world without being noncanonical) and out-of-world (irl people are racist towards Beau) but yeah a lot of people really want to have it both ways.

This happens a lot with queerness too - one of the big backlashes I experienced during this campaign is when I pointed out that Exandria is not, in fact, a setting with systemic homophobia and Imogen's experience of being othered in Gelvaan is an extremely bad metaphor for queerness given that she can read people's minds and almost killed two people, but it is true that people irl may be homophobic towards Imogen as a character. But again, you need to be consistent in those arguments - if you are talking about in-world racism or homophobia, you cannot bring up Imogen or Beau, who do not experience these things. If you are talking about fandom racism, you can bring up Beau. And if your issue is racism and representation in the real world, you can and should push back on (for example) people being racist towards Utkarsh for daring to exist and not know every rule of D&D when Emily Axford is onscreen but also we are watching a show of 8 white people when there are other actual plays with a more diverse cast. And yeah, fanon isn't canon and if the character is only nonwhite in your mind, it is not racist of people to disagree or to not vibe with them and it's also worth checking, if you are headcanoning someone with an identity you do not personally have, to see if you're falling into harmful stereotypes. Why are you headcanoning Orym, a character who doesn't experience in-world discrimination, played by a white man, as nonwhite, instead of seeking out works with textually nonwhite or racialized characters? And why are you incapable of accepting that sometimes you'll like a character who is not on every single axis of oppression and it's like, fine, provided you work against oppression in your real world life? If your faves are always white or always men (or, frankly, always demographically like you) then maybe take a look at yourself and who you are capable of relating to, but if you have a mixture of diverse favorite characters it's fine if not every one of them checks every single box.

[tiredassmage]

your honor, i'm afraid i've done it again 😔