#but tldr engage with media in any way you want!

[lunarsights]

Heyyy Sun! It’s good to see you on my TL again :)

I was wondering if you can do a reading of the members of ATEEZ, what are their thoughts on dating and /or marrying a foreigner who is a POC if they were not Korean or East Asian? Thank you - 🐚

𝘼𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙯 𝙤𝙣 𝘽𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙍𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨

Hongjoong

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Let Me Clear my Throat [Old School Reunion Remix ‘96]” by DJ Kool

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Coins, Two of Wands (Rx), King of Coins (Rx), Four of Coins, Seven of Wands

Final Answer: Page of Wands, Nine of Coins, The Hanged Man

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

hongjoong seems a little hesitant to be romantically involved with a foreigner. this could be in relation to not knowing enough or even this question being too broad; there could be certain ethnic or racial groups he’s had more experience around, so he feels more comfortable, but it’s like he knows there’s a wide “array” of people, so it almost doesn’t make sense to make a blanket statement. most of the foreigners he might’ve had the opportunity of being romantic with might’ve been fans or aware of his career, so there’s a worry of running into people only into him for that aspect that could be making him hesitant also. he could be closed off from engaging with foreigners romantically as a result; “one bad apple spoils the bunch” in this idea, but seven of wands is present showing that if someone was persistent enough “and had/has the right intentions”, then he’d likely be open. he is genuinely interested in connecting with foreigners though! it seems he’d want to be with someone who has something going for themselves though, so he wouldn’t have to worry about being used. 

TLDR; solid maybe

Seongwha

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Be Gone Thot!” by Lil Mayo

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Page of Swords, The Hermit, Four of Cups, The Empress (Rx)

Final Answer: The World (Rx), Knight of Wands (Rx), Four of Coins, Eight of Cups

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

despite the shufflemancy song and the way all the cards seem, seonghwa could actually be interested in the idea of being romantic with a foreigner. it could be the type of things where in his head he’s curious, but he’s apprehensive to actually do it in real life for a multitude of reasons. he could get very caught up in all the ways things could go wrong? like the media could find out and how would he deal with that? how would a nda even work? how would the relationship even work? would they “learn to speak” korean? he seems to be blocking his actual want to interact with foreigners romantically because of these worries. therefore, his answer right now is that he wouldn’t be romantically involved with a foreigner. he could feel he’ll be more stressed and frustrated with all the trials of dealing with the relationship and therefore it would be better to stay away from being interested altogether. 

TLDR; technically is interested, but thinks a lot about the logistical side and therefore would not

Yunho

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Creep” by TLC

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Page of Wands (Rx), The Star, Wheel of Fortune, Three of Cups, The World

Final Answer: The Sun

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

yunho could be a little naïve when it comes to interacting with foreigners romantically (or even in general “sometimes”). he seems interested and hopeful though with the star being present! he could have an idea along the lines of “i don’t know a ton about that, but i’m interested/curious”. he could see things going either way in being easy or hard to deal with. he might be more open to the idea if he was introduced to a foreigner via his friends or family or a gathering; he’d like the chance to interact naturally before trying to flirt or things like that. overall, it seems he has this idea that love can come “from anywhere at any time”. 

TLDR; strong yes

Yeosang

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Monkey Wrench” by the Foo Fighters

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Eight of Swords, Strength, Ten of Swords (Rx), Ace of Wands, Eight of Coins

Final Answer: Ace of Cups, Four of Cups, The Empress

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

at one point in time yeosang might’ve been worried about being romantic with foreigners. this could’ve been out of feeling like they were too different, but it seems more likely it was out of feeling like he himself was too different. it’s not like he necessarily had the idea that he would be “the problem”, but he might’ve been self conscious about showing up in the relationship – maybe in relation to not being culturally sensitive enough, being worried about adapting to someone else’s culture, and things aligned with that. now, he seems to have done away with those thoughts, and he’s a lot more confident. he might believe it’s “inevitable” to interact with people who are different from him, so there’s no reason to bar them from dating him. he also seems to acknowledge he would still need to work on being “sensitive��� and “aware”, but it’s something he’s willing to do (if needed). 

TLDR; yes

San

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“the light is coming” by Ariana Grande (feat. Nicki Minaj)

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Ace of Wands, Nine of Coins, The Hierophant (Rx), The Sun, Two of Swords (Rx)

Final Answer: Justice, Ten of Wands (Rx), The Moon (Rx)

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

san could view being romantic with foreigners as a new way to interact with people. he could be in a period of life where he’s in contact with foreigners more than ever (and maybe finding interest in them as result), so he could see his attraction as result of this contact. with the hierophant in reverse he’s definitely open to breaking traditions and doing his own thing although he does “appreciate them”. he could more so be focused on being happy in his life, so suffering or missing out on a wanted love because of tradition may not be his thing; he might be more afraid of not experiencing true joy than the fear of possible ostracization. his focus is on his own personal happiness, and if a foreigner is part of that, then “that’s fine”. 

TLDR; strong yes

Mingi

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Return of the Mack” by Mack Morrison

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

The Empress, The Devil, Eight of Swords (Rx), Nine of Swords, Three of Coins (Rx), Three of Wands

Final Answer: Nine of Wands (Rx), Nine of Cups, The Emperor 

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

he kinda delves into ideal type, but mingi could be into people he can make strong connections with. the idea of “soul ties” and “soul tying” comes to mind. at one point in time he could’ve felt restricted when it came to who he was attracted to or who he “could show attraction to”, but he’s let go of these restrictions despite continued concerns. he might’ve had romantic attractions to foreigners before/for a long time, but viewed them as unrealistic to pursue (or people told him it was unrealistic or “silly” for him to do). now, it seems he’s able to do so freely, and he’s “happy about that”.  despite this, there is still an air of things being unknown? maybe the ideas people pushed on him have stronger foundations than he thought they did? like people around him have been pessimistic for so long that on an unconscious level he’s taken those whispers more into account than he think he has. 

TLDR; maybe; he wants to be able to say yes, but is still reckoning with what people have told him

Wooyoung

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“There Goes My Baby” by Charlie Wilson

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Swords (Rx), King of Swords, The Star, Ace of Wands, Knight of Wands, Six of Coins (Rx)

Final Answer: Wheel of Fortune, The Magician

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

wooyoung could be the type of person who at the end of the day has to “be honest with [himself]”. he really values honesty and being courageous and outspoken about who he is, so this kind of gives the energy that the way he portrays himself is the way he is.”it’s obvious, no?” comes to mind. he could find it engaging to talk with foreigners in general, and he’s definitely an intentional flirt with the knight of wands present. he might be hesitant to fully engage for some reason. it could be similar to hongjoong’s situation in that people try to take advantage of his status, but it feels like something else also. there could’ve been a situation where he tried to “go all in” in some way with a foreigner and ended up getting his feelings hurt, so he could be a little hesitant to settle down with one, but this feels like a temporary feeling. 

TLDR; likely yes

Jongho

𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲:

“Story of Us” by Tinashe

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

Five of Swords, King of Swords, Three of Cups, Page of Swords, Death (Rx), Seven of Wands

Final Answer: Wheel of Fortune, Knight of Cups

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠:

jongho could feel as if being romantic with foreigners goes against the life he might have dreamed up for himself. he could enjoy the company of foreigners especially in regards to talking with them and learning more about things through them, but his interest could mainly stop there. he might’ve even tried to seek out foreigners he might be attracted to (maybe in that they have similar features or personality types to people he’s usually attracted to who are korean), but he doesn’t necessarily feel compelled to specifically seek out foreigners. this could be a situation where if he came across someone he's interested in he may think about it a little more, but currently he’s not really attracted to foreigners romantically. 

TLDR; maybe, but likely no as he just doesn’t find himself romantically attracted to them

[nartml]

Celebrity blockout 2024

After the tone deaf met gala, a lot of people are starting a movement where we block and unfollow all celebrities and influencers on social media.

These celebrities become irrelevant without our following and blocking prevents them from gaining any ad revenue from us.

This is the start of the awakening process where celebrities are exposed and class consciousness arises. Celebrity worship and the gap between the rich and the poor is being brought to light.

Kim Kardashian has already lost 3 million followers on insta. It's working.

TLDR:

1. Block all celebrities and influencers on social media, including their products and companies. (Taylor Swift, the Kardashians, Haley Baylee, Bill Gates, JLo)

To go even further: 2. Block all news & media sites that promote celebrities like SNL, Vogue, TMZ, Enews, etc.

3. Block major corporations like Amazon and especially the fast food corporations that profit off of making us sick. No more Taco Bell or Chick-fil-A ads. We can't let them advertise to us anymore. Enough is enough.

4. Find ways to support your local businesses (like farmer's markets) and promote platforms that are doing good for people. Start a garden this summer, boycott processed food and corrupt food brands like Kelloggs. Find ways to be more self-sufficient.

If you have any more ideas to add about how we can continue making change please comment them! This just the start

YES! All of this is crucial, but I want to put emphasis on blocking.

It's so important. I've been saying this since Andrew Tate.

It didn't matter if he meant what he was saying, it didn't matter if it was all real or a persona, your attention served his pockets.

Stop giving these ridiculous people your attention when it's so clearly what they want.

Your attention is how they profit. It's the new currency.

Your attention means views means likes means reposts means engagement means money.

Even when you comment to criticize, even when you share a video to discuss their problematic behaviour with friends, you're boosting them.

Influencers and celebrities need people's eyes on their platforms, this is how they make their cash and how they ensure that their presence reaches new audiences with every minute.

Your very gaze drawn to them through the screen is what allows them to remain so comfortable in their position that they're tone deaf.

Block them.

[alastorss]

Hi all,

I want to preface this whole thing by saying I have NO problem with nsfw blogs, creators, and readers interacting with me. I love your brilliant brains and am happy that you've found a comfortable platform for you! ^.^ Everyone is welcome to interact with me, talk to me, and read/reblog any of my things (as long as you are not a literal child). THAT BEING SAID:

I'd just like to come on here and please, please, please ask that you do not reblog any of my posts with writings of / links to Alastor smut.

A few of you may know that this happened to one of my posts recently, as you might have seen it on your dash or in the tags :') the problem with this is that every subsequent interaction with the nsfw also goes into my notifications (which I normally wouldn't mind at all, but as I said before, I'm not comfortable with engaging with or being associated with Alastor nsfw). Absolutely no hate to the creator who did this, obviously, I just really don't want to see Alastor porn in my notifs as more and more people reblog it and comment about it.

It may seem childish or petty to some people, but the reason I don't actively seek out or interact with Alastor smut is because, in some ways, I see myself represented in an ace character. I feel like it's never really talked about enough in media. And again, it is 10000% okay for others to read and write smut for him. I do not care. But it's a little different when my notifs are suddenly engaged with something I'm not comfortable seeing or actively interacting with.

I have since blocked the blog, and I believe they may have done the same to me. That is within my right and theirs to do so. It is not because I dislike them, or think that this is worthy of petty Tumblr drama, or anything of the sort. I'd like to clear that up now. Tumblr and your online platform should be curated FOR YOU. It's a safe space where you can express and be expressed in any way you want and I think that's great. Some things are just not my cup of tea and that's fine. If I don't want to see it, I can block anyone, just as much as anyone can block me if they don't like me or the things I write. There's nothing else to read into. Simple as that.

I hope you all understand where I'm coming from. Again, no need to track down the post or the creator if you haven't seen it on your dash. I don't want to incite a witch hunt or even want an apology since there's nothing to apologize for with an honest to goodness mistake. They probably just didn't know I wasn't comfortable with Alastor nsfw and just wanted to share their work (which I'm sure is wonderfully written btw). I'm taking down the post related to this and it's someone who I have not openly interacted with before on this blog. So please be kind ^.^ I just want to use this opportunity to bring this up in case I haven't before.

I feel like I shouldn't have to explain myself since everyone here has been so warmly welcoming and respectful to my rules. But I wanted to just throw it out there in case anyone wasn't sure if they could interact with me or not.

Tldr; if you are an nsfw blog or creator, I would love to interact as long as topics BETWEEN US about Alastor specifically stay sfw! I really really really do not mind nsfw content that is created, even for Alastor. Please don't feel like you can never post it or I'll never talk to you.

BUT I draw a line at using my content to promote smut and other nsfw, since it makes me uncomfortable to see it in my notifications.

[deathdetermineslife]

are you okay with people who have no shipcourse stance interacting?

heres a long, convoluted answer to this. tldr; preferably, no, please do not interact

the way i see it, a lot of people that have the "neutral" stance are just... not bothered by people shipping things like incest and pedophilia. now, I don't care what people do on the internet. i cannot stop you, and nothing I say will make you want to change any opinion you may or may not have. that being said, though, I don't feel comfortable with proshipping. therefore I consider myself an anti (though, I don't like calling myself """antiproship""" I don't think I'm anti-anything in this regard, I think I'm in the majority of people on earth that think this kind of behavior is concerning.)

i personally dont like calling it shipcourse, its not "discourse", its morality. morally, I dislike being around/interacting with people that don't have a stance on that sort of thing. in every discussion I have had with professionals, incest and pedophilia and abuse are illegal for a reason. its not healthy for anyone. and that's not me being a "puritan", thats just a fact. and people have different morals, and thats fine, but I have my own lines and boundaries I draw, and this is where that boundary stands.

that being said, also, that doesnt mean I don't support dark media. i think it depends on how you enjoy it. if you seek out dark media that has something like abuse in it, and enjoy it for its story, there's nothing wrong with that. we've shared stories of death and murder and abuse for centuries in society. but you don't like it for the abuse, you like it for the entertainment value. so by no means am I some sort of puritan. romanticization of abuse and enjoying stories for their usage of abusive plot devices is something completely different in my eyes.

and to reiterate, i dont care what other people do on the internet. I'm an adult with a job and a family I help take care of. but it also bothers me knowing there are people out there engaging in communities where these unhealthy things are normalized. and I, personally, am uncomfortable interacting with individuals that are not bothered by this. maybe this is because I have a family and young children in my family and also have been a victim myself, and perhaps that makes me bias in some way. however, even if these things are fictional, I think it speaks a lot to the kind of individual one is if you enjoy specifically content centered around incestuous ships or ships between adults and children. not dark media itself.

i appreciate anyone who took the time to read my long rambling, and I also appreciate anyone that is following my dni, as that is the respectful and normal thing to do. apologies for any typos </3

[sladewatkins]

matt mullenweg & the wordpress "drama"

hey listen,

i don't like wading into heated discussions. i usually try to say something before it blows up, or after. but considering i use wordpress and tumblr, both of which are currently under the control of matt mullenweg, i do feel like speaking on it is a big deal. however, it's also quite literally my job to be impartial. so, you're not going to get many opinions here. i apologize if that's not your thing -- but i have a really big point here that you might not necessarily expect, so please bear with me!

alright. obviously @photomatt has been pissing a lot of people off online. that's a fact. so, i want to focus on a couple key things i've been seeing online and try and bring this down to a simpler level.

yes, the WordPress Foundation granted Automattic a non-revocable license that covers the commercial side of its trademarks. Automattic explained this in a recent blog post. we'll see how folks respond to that, but the basic TLDR is this: Automattic holds commercial rights, Foundation holds the trademarks and non-commercial rights, so there's technically two owners. that might still be confusing--but that's what was said. don't shoot the messenger.

yes, it does appear that matt may have a conflict-of-interest by sitting on the board at the Foundation, being the CEO of Automattic (who was granted non-revocable commercial rights, which we talked about earlier), and fully owning WordPress.org personally. that last one is perhaps particularly egregious to many online, but could also be a legacy thing that just hasn't been dealt with.

what do i think he should do? i don't know. once again, i want to be crystal clear that i'm staying neutral on the issues at hand. we'll stick to facts here on this blog. i don't know anyone at Automattic otherwise i'd sit down with Matt myself and try and clear this up for the rest of the internet. for now, i'll settle for a Tumblr post:

until everything resolves, we frankly do not have all of the information to make an educated determination. thus, we cannot jump to conclusions. to do so is dangerous and leads to misinformation spreading like a wildfire across the internet. let's avoid that, hey?

and finally, to close: i don't want to be that guy but... PLEASE remember when it comes to something you're passionate about, constructive criticism is always the correct path. attack IDEAS, not people. mental health is a very important thing to remember when engaging with social media in general. i'm not asking you to drop your feelings, i'm asking you to consider other people's feelings when you go to write in that text box. let's be more considerate with how we use our words. i know what it's like to be on the receiving end of what seems like endless hate... NOBODY deserves that.

okay. i really need to sleep and then pack a bunch of boxes. (long story, might share it later.) if anything else happens with the WP stuff, send it my way so i don't miss it...or just drop me an email and say hi. doesn't matter, you can hit me at slade@sladewatkins.com as always.

hope this helped some of y'all. i tried to be as impartial as possible and not inject any feelings into this. good night, folks.

[meikuree]

FINALLY someone who didn't 100% love BES. I did enjoy some of it but I lean on the "disliked it on the whole" side and it's been so weird seeing everyone praise it to high heavens. I take it that you enjoyed it more than I did (I did not like a lot of the 3D visuals, unfortunately, so the visuals don't really redeem it for me), but I'd love to see some balanced takes from you anyway <3

anon, you're in good company! honestly i've been baffled by the blandly, one-note positive reception to this (30% of my grief has to do with BES's base story, and 70% has to do with uncritical fannish responses), because... to be uncharitable... I have some big problems with its construction. feel free to come off anon and kvetch in my DMs if you want, I'll probably share your sentiments. sorry for how long i've taken to answer this!

to be fair the show does some things right and I think its achievements/innovations in art style and animation are to be lauded; I'm not going to speak over that when I'm not an expert on animation or media theory, but it's a bad sign when praise about any media amounts to "well, it looks pretty" or hinges so heavily on its aesthetics. to be extremely clear this doesn't fully apply to BES, because it does have deft character work, compelling characters, and some impressive cinematic instantiation/inhabitation with its attention to setting and detail -- i was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of deets like yaki-ire etc etc. -- but even on its purported selling points of japanese historicity and nuanced narratives about race, sexuality, gender, revenge, etc. I think it fails. it has glaring blindspots.

tldr: BES suffers from some (white) american/french narratorial sensibilities that kneecap the full potential of its story

or: BES pinged as an insufferably american and/or ahistorical rendition of its japanese building-blocks to me in some ways

it's probably just a case of misaimed audiences, and This Show Not Being For Me, but I've been baffled by:

how seamlessly some scenes around sex work and brothels and eroticism in this show slide in with orientalist tropes about japan being the Weird Sex and Kinky country despite the japanese-american creator at its helm, who's also spoken out against tropes like that -- until a buddy gave some context that those undertones seem to have been inspired by bande dessinées (french comics) with not-unsimilar tropes that may have been transplanted carelessly into BES by the studio

and this is what I mean by 'american/french' sensibilities -- I don't mean american/french in the most skin-deep representational sense, as in the studio that made it is an american-french one or whatever, as 'representation' is too often conceived on tumblr to be limited to, but on the deeper epistemological level of its worldview, frameworks of sexuality/race, and the cultural terrain it's working off or conversing with. BES includes storylines/arcs/even mawkish dialogue far more reminiscent of those in american cartoons. which is not an issue except of one of taste, but fannish responses holding it up as a groundbreaking commentary on race are orbiting a different universe imo

more egregiously it sustains overtones of that american favourite about the grand, Super Existential! Super Inevitable! and intrinsic clash of Cultures and Civilisations with a big C (a highly discredited idea in critical academic circles now, thankfully, no thanks to samuel p. huntington)

I almost wish the show had maintained a greater separation from IRL analogues or just invented a fresh fantasy universe because why set it in edo-era japan if you're not going to engage with the sociocultural norms, or narratorial traditions of that era

see: literary genres around jitsuroku (revenge narratives), how revenge would have been treated as a tool of sociocultural legitimisation then, the apparent forgettance of the entire history of nanban trade and the fact that japan as a geographical entity was not technically ethnically homogeneous, or only homogeneous from a hegemonic pov, given the existence of the ainu, the kingdom of ryukyu, and northern communities of hokkaido although tbf japan's borders probably didn't include them

i was hoping for an internal critique of or just more nuance about the 'japan = ethnically homogenous' narrative in the show and was more disappointed as it went on -- imo it's a narrative often most stridently parroted by the japanese government for nation-building interests and by others to avoid interrogations of the actual complexity of striations, divisions, etc in japan e.g. with burakumin (lower-'caste'* peoples)

* note: caste is an imperfect and not fully accurate descriptor

a significant part of my ire is reserved for the handling of 'whiteness' in this show although it's mostly hand-wringing over the complexity of intended audiences in this show, which might not be fair to blame on the creators; yes, whiteness is foreign and Other and bad, but what about the material and historical precursors that gave rise to that Otherness in the first place, where are they?; and look! whiteness is demonised; but the cartoon's being released in the USA and europe. it's certainly true that japan is institutionally hostile to foreigners and xenophobic, kudos for depicting the politics of that, but BES's american audiences mean i'm ambivalent about its in-universe premise that what is in fact an oft-fetishised trait in mixed race children (blue eyes) is bad (and the show's aesthetics don't support it; mizu's eyes are portrayed in the most beautiful way possible even though she's diagetically meant to be hideous and monstrous)

[reddesires]

So I just wrote several paragraphs of text, and my phone deleted it before I could send 🙃. I don't think I can write all of it again since it's late and I'm very tired, but the most important thing that I wanted you to know is that I'm sad that you feel like you're losing motivation for writing. I haven't read all of your pota works yet but I'm very impressed with what I've read so far. It's honestly amazing and very versatile. I'm not one of the anons who's asked for any works yet, but I hope more reach out to you to at least say thanks. Although I've heard anon asks don't receive notifications when answered, so maybe that's one reason they haven't reached out.

tldr of my long, boring media analysis:

I don't think it's that people don't care about your work. I think it's an unfortunate combination of factors that make engagement kind of slow (pota being somewhat niche on this platform), and discouragement of openly engaging (people being caught in the cross hairs of negativity recently). Not to mention people who just feel iffy about engaging too much on social media (like myself).

Since Kingdom is coming out on digital soon, hopefully more people build or rediscover interest in the series, and find their way here. And hopefully more people read and interact with your wonderful work!💜

(I might elaborate on some of my original thoughts I had to say later when I have more energy 😅)

Thank you for your support. It truly means a lot. I can not express how much it means to me, and I love everyone who's reached out showing their support.

I was just feeling a bit down and lacking motivation since I mainly just receive requests, and I was just wishing I had more interaction since I really do like to interact with you guys, speaking to you all truly make my day.

I totally understand POTA being niche. It's why I started writing fics so others are encouraged to open up on being a part of the Fandom like I was.

There's people who have reached out to me, and it truly made me so happy, and it motivated me, so now I have Caesar and Blue Eyes works ready to be posted!

All likes, comments, and reblogs are truly appreciated. Whatever anyone is comfortable with doing is totally fine with me.

Thank you again, and I can't wait to hear more from you! ❤️

[packedandstrapped]

i’m starting to think that i may be a pillow princess but i worry about saying that i am one bc i’m still a virgin. plus i feel like people will look at me differently (negatively). but when i imagine what i’d want my sex life to be like i don’t know if i’d enjoy reciprocating touch & i’m slowly learning that there aren’t parts of sex that i should just “get through” for the sake of my partner :/ so i dunno

Oh darling, first I apologize for my delayed response to your message because this is such an important one.

I wish I could go back and tell a younger version of myself that I didn’t have to just “get through” parts of sex with any partner. I wish I had known back then that there’s sex I could have been having that wouldn’t make me feel wildly anxious and nervous about reciprocated touch . I wish I had encountered even one partner that had been honest with me about their boundaries so I could relax and just do what made us both feel good. I wish someone would have introduced me to the concepts of stone identities and stone sex without the only reference being the butt of a joke.

It took way too long for me to find and name the sex that makes me feel whole and safe and like I’m truly engaging in a way I want and need. Consider yourself to be a few steps ahead in reflecting on your own desires so early.

It sounds like already know and see these parts of yourself in pillow princesses, stone femmes, or stone bottoms. 👏 Let us celebrate you 👏 because the world absolutely needs more of y’all. Stone butches and stone tops will be looking for you. They’re looking for the freedom you offer in being with you without the nerves of having to “get through” parts of sex they don’t want. They’re looking for the comfort of mutual boundaries. They’re looking to engage in the rituals and interactions that come with stone4stone sex. They’re looking to spoil, pamper, and adore you and your body.

Lesbians on social media (Reddit for sure and maybe TikTok too) love to publicly tear down folks like us because they don’t understand it and they want us to know they don’t approve of these boundaries we’ve set. There’s so much chatter about fluidity and while that’s important, it doesn’t change the fact that stone sex has been around for decades and is undeniably part of our culture. Don’t let the negative comments get to you because they don’t get it and they don’t have to.

TLDR; a stone butch or a stone top is going to love having you as a partner and fuck (not literally) everyone else

[thisnameisnotspokenfor]

I want to start by saying I LOVE your fanfic and the amount of lore you’ve built around everything, it’s just such an interesting world to experience and you’ve done an amazing job building it. Genuinely in my top three fanfics I’ve read across any fandoms I’ve been in!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This discusses educational discussion of women’s undergarments in the context of fashion history, just in case you aren’t comfortable with it!

In chapter 29 I noticed one line that bugged me a little, so apologies for the LONG explanation here about corsets— if you already know about their actual history and not the hollywood misrepresentation of them feel free to ignore this, I just thought this could help in the future with the ball chapter especially!

““Ha,” she grinned, pulling herself upwards before she turned back to the star. “You think this is outlandish? You should see what some ladies are capable of doing while wearing a corset!”

“A corset?” he repeated.

“Yeah, it’s like a cosmetic thing that came straight outta hell, because no one down there wanted it, so now we on earth have to deal with it. “”

To start- corsets as a whole shouldn’t be demonized as much as they are in popular media since they were quite literally just the old version of bra’s— just like how there are uncomfortable ones and comfortable ones today, there were back then. I’m less here about historical accuracy but realism, because working class women wore corsets daily and they were an essential part of the everyday clothing they wore!

More accurately in this time period it would be called ‘a pair of bodies’ (later on shortened to bodice) and should have been comfortable unless poorly made and tailored. An uncomfortable corset means one of two things, it was poorly tailored like I mentioned before or the corset has been tight laced. Tight lacing only became popular in the early 1800’s and would be the beginning of corset demonization. Doctors would claim organs were being moved and fertility was being damaged (‘studies’ have been made but also debunked) hence the quickly descending popularity of them and the invention of the bra!

To put it into perspective, modern day translation would go like this:

“Ha,” she grinned, pulling herself upwards before she turned back to the star. “You think this is outlandish? You should see what some ladies are capable of doing while wearing a bra!”

(Which by the way, that’s so real, I hate mine so much)

I feel like it’s completely in character for your Asha to have a gripe with corsets, which is why I wasn’t sure if this wasn’t an intentional choice or not. Asha definitely seems like the type to strictly wear working corsets and avoid tight lacing ones like the plague.

Quick personal suggestion, since I noticed asha’s victory dress being very-ballgown like, It’s likely she’d opt for a corset of her own design similar to an Edwardian corset, which created an hourglass design not by cinching in the waist to extremes but adding volume at the hips (hip pads) instead. Ideally, an everyday corset should feel like a tight hug, not a torture machine.

Fun fact: It wasn’t uncommon for men to wear corsets as well! They were good for hiding ‘beer bellies’.

If you prefer visual learning, here’s a really engaging video that goes over the basic myths: https://youtu.be/LWYG5sQp0-E?si=LugoryF2eR_Dja83

Highly encourage you to look further into it because fashion history is so interesting and deeply reflects the political standings of each era.

Tldr: Just like modern bra’s have restricting pushup bras and comfy grandma bra’s corsets had comfy ones and tight lace ones. Asha likely would be wearing a corset too :D

It’s just a personal thing I’m very passionate about, and although im not a fashion historian I hope I gave you a general idea of what corsets are actually like if you didn’t know already 🙏

Seriously looking forward to the future chapters, this fic is a literal piece of art <3

First of all- thank you! I appreciate it!

Also, I did not know that much about corsets, (nor did I know that men actually wore them to hide 'beer bellies' that's too funny) so this was a learning experience to me! I never knew that they were actually comfortable- ((I'll be sure to look into it more!))

Admittedly, I do fine the fashion aspect to be a bit challenging because it's trying to balance the whole- medieval time period fashion vs the star fashion that you see in Asha's victory dress- along with some other things, but I will definitely go back and edit that line in chapter 29 when finished!

[70s-show-diary]

I had a thought about your tags in the post about Hyde's gift giving but didn't have the writer brain-space to turn it into a longer character analysis post. However, without having any of the BTS details like script notes or writers testimonies, I have to disagree that Hyde being a thoughtful gift-giver would be an accidental character note. He highly values being noticed and provided for, coming from a background where he was overlooked, left, and made to fend for himself. Trying to avoid my very personal bias for the character himself, I also just feel that from the effort made to paint him as the Pigpen-type character from the start of the show, it's something they would have planned to add in- having him be unusually perceptive and/or emotionally mature as an unexpected juxtaposition to his neglected rough-and-tumble persona Not to assert that anything beyond the first season of T7S was planned out in such a mastermind way, but I just have to disagree that Hyde's gift giving is an accidental thing that fell into his character instead of deeply reflecting many things that are core to why he's the character we have

Hi! I’m so glad you shared your thoughts with me! I love talking about this kind of stuff.

I can understand why my tags from this post that you are referring to may make it seem like I don’t think any of Hyde’s complex characterization was intentional by the show runners/writers of T7S. I tend to use the tags not only for organizational purposes, but for ‘throw away’ comments as well - the kind of things I wouldn’t want to ‘permanently’ include in the body of the post for the very reason that the comment is usually a bit tangential to the main purpose of the post. But tags are not the greatest place to fully-flesh out a character analysis, which can maybe cause some confusion.

And so that is why I appreciate you sending this ask because it gives me a chance to clarify the actual meaning behind that tag here in this post:

First - putting my own personal bias for the character aside as well, I completely agree with you that Hyde’s perceptiveness and emotional maturity absolutely juxtaposes nicely with his neglected rough-and-tumble persona (I love these words for describing Hyde btw; it’s so spot on). It makes for a well-rounded, complex, and engaging character, as opposed to the two-dimensional stereotyped ‘burnout’ he is on the surface.

I’m not saying that I think that some of these aspects of Hyde’s character/persona was not intentional by the minds behind the character (show-runners, writers, etc.), but I just tend to believe that it’s the fans of the show, particularly those of us involved in fandom and fanfic, that are primarily responsible for fleshing out these more nuanced aspects of Hyde’s character and persona. Not to be overtly cynical, but I think that there are minds here in the T7S fandom that have given significantly more objective thought and consideration to Hyde’s character than the show runners did.

But like you said, without having been in the writer’s room, there’s really no way to know exactly how much of Hyde’s complex characterization was intentional. I could very easily be wrong. If Hyde’s personal and thoughtful gift-giving was planned out and intentional, then kudos to the the show runners/writers because Steven Hyde is hands down one of the most interesting and complex characters I’ve encountered in media, especially considering that T7S is a sitcom.

And I have to give the writers/show runners some credit - after all, That ‘70s Show is my favorite TV show. But my passion for the show has been made considerably more enjoyable and enriching by the minds in the fandom.

TLDR; I’m of the mind that the show runners/writers planted the seeds, but it was the fandom that nurtured and grew those seeds into a garden that continues to flourish 25 years later.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[junco-baby]

A long time ago, I followed this girl on twt. She showed up in my feed because of the algorithm/other people I followed interacting with her. I decided to follow her because of an experience she was going through that I was curious to learn about and because in general she seemed to tweet about some of my interests.

I followed her for awhile (just for context, I never interacted with her, only viewed/read her tweets), and she posted a lot. A lot. She was always in my feed. She'd post her hot takes, she'd engage in drama, she'd post about hardships in her life, all of it. Any thought she had, I think she turned into a tweet. I started to notice that there was a lot of negativity in her posting. Which is all fine, she's free to do whatever she wants with her online presence.

But I was still choosing to follow her. Her posts made me feel weird. I pretty quickly realized I didn't really like her/her attitude, but I still felt compelled to follow. She made her suffering very interesting, and even if I didn't like the way she posted, I wanted to see more of it. I could feel the negativity affecting me, yet I wanted more. "It's entertaining," I told myself, "my timeline will be quieter without her constant posts. I want to see what's going to happen with [xyz]." It also didn't help that she had very cute cats that I liked seeing pictures of lol.

At one point I realized I was essentially hate-following her. She'd post about whatever her latest woes were and I'd read it and form opinions on her drama, not very nice ones. But she put it out to the world, and it was entertaining to judge her. I convinced myself that even though these thoughts made me feel icky, it was just a bit of entertainment.

I wish I could remember the final straw, but I don't. One day even the cat pics just weren't worth the toxic nature of her posts, of how I felt as I was constantly seeing them. I unfollowed her.

It was actually fascinating how much of a difference it made. That negativity was gone and that "entertainment" wasn't even missed. I almost didn't realize how much she had sucked me in, how icky I had been feeling from her posts, until she was just gone from my tl. I felt so much better with her gone.

Tldr; curate your spaces. Unfollow or block people when you want to, and don't let social media trick your brain into thinking that seeing stuff that makes you feel icky is good drama/entertainment. It's actually just icky.

[oblivionbladetd]

The Unfortunate Implications of Pokemadhouse: The Big One.

Tldr: Lily's negligence leaves G the offender in multiple Rape Allegories. By extention, making a story about loving and forgiving a rapist.

I know for a lot of people that's already put a pit in your soul and got your guts doing flips, so if you want the proof in the year old moldy pudding, follow me under the cut.

Her insistence on calling it the "Mating Bond" really is the biggest, sturdiest nail in this particular coffin, for even for those lovey-dovey birds that do this forever mated dies without the other thing, it's still mostly a sex and survival thing. Which alone puts G in this weird place without diving deeper, It puts a connotation that G would fuck a child to not die. Which in a "gun to your head do this or something awful happens" sense? I mean, uneasy forgiveness, if any... but let's not unpack that quite yet because.

Lily was asleep... because if anything really enhances ignoring the age of consent, it's just dodging consent almost entirely. For G engages this mating bond by entering Lily's dreams and getting the consent while Lily isn't in the right state of mind. So allegorical statutory and date rape! I want to cry... how do you get this bad at blindness to your own implications? BUT HOLD ON BECAUSE IT STILL GETS WORSE!

Bonnie. As said before, she was made through sabotaged extinction prevention measures without Lily's knowledge prior to her popping into existence. At this is all I have to say is that it sure is fortunate that Lily just already had the funds to take care of a child allocated, and that Bonnie was created as a lol random but not annoying model child with zero downsides, AND is perfectly healthy despite being a Dumpster fire of genetic mixing between 2 species. Cause if that wasn't the case, then Bonnie being an allegorical rape baby would be really weird! Seriously though what the fuck, Lily?

Mix it all together with the rest of Madhouse, and we get a story where, despite numerous occasions of crossing lines both past and present, a rapist is forgiven and declared the spiritual sister of her victim! If I need to elaborate on why that's fucked dare I say it might be too late for you. To make it all worse is that Lily stands accused of having molested and raped her very own sister, Courtney. So if you believe Courtney at all, you need only shift your focus on G being the real self insert, it becomes twisted wish fulfillment, wishing that the Sister she assaulted would forgive her and become part of her life as a sister again. What makes this more insidious is that she knows that she's been breaching too far, having deleted and hastily replaced the original violate arc. Given how her real life writes a lot of the plot that isn't wordplay gags, I would be willing to take away the benefit of the doubt with it being anything other than wish fulfillment, but in the basic courtesy that I have to afford lest I become the thing I hate I will hold back from saying in a definitive way that Lily is thristy for incest.

What I will say is that the fact that this implication exists at all, in a work made by a Critic that has DAYS of content ripping into poor implications like what I have detailed today, is a legendarily bad look AT BEST. I do not expect the works of critics to be good, mind you, but that does not excuse the sheer blind incompetence on display. The absolute most charitable takeaway is that Lily has never suffered hearing herself speak or had the burden of a second thought weighing on her mind. Because if these implications are out of incompetence rather than purposeful inclusions, it speaks abyssally low of Lily's media literacy, and if it is intentional, then it's malicious if not stupid with the allegations surrounding her at time of writing.

[orviposition]

Do you think KDJ x HSY has gotten more popular in the fandom?

yes and no.

lemme explain

yes because firstly, as we know, orv fandom is constantly growing on all sorts of social media. the more the fandom grows the more posts will pop up and engagement will be had

secondly, orv is a meta heavy novel. and hsy, equally so, a meta heavy character. being one of the main three characters means that she has close relationships with the majority of the orv cast (sure kdj yjh and ysa are closer but you get the point) in fact I'd go so far and say that out of all 3 of yhk hsy is the most balanced when it comes to her relationships and i can make the argument that kdj is not too close with lsh and yma, or yjh is not close with ysa, jhw (outside of 0th turn) and lgy (<- altho hes more than willing to throw hands with him lmao)

now circling back to doksoo, whether in a platonic sense or a romantic sense, they are one of the key duos in orv so orv fans are bound to talk about them in whatever sense that we like them as.

now no, bcs as i said orv fandom is growing, doksoo shippers are growing in numbers, but so are shippers of other ships. i dont want to sound vague, but it also depends what your criteria to determine a ship's popularity is? likes on a fanart on twitter? notes on a post on tumblr? doksoo winning a poll on orv subreddit? the number of fics on ao3??

bbnim's sangsoo (not tagged) art reached 100k likes on twitter. another artist's joongdok (also not tagged) art reached 130k likes. does that mean that every single person that has interacted with these fanarts has been a shipper? no, it doesn't. someone can vaguely describe a doksoo trope on a tumblr post and go viral. does this mean that every single one that liked and reblogged that post is a doksoo shipper? also no. reddit is a different landmine altogether. m/f ships have always thrived there, until you consider that their shippers are dudebros who very much do not create any type of fan content.

now, while not the absolute factor, I'd say that the most reliable indicator is the number of fics (on different platforms such as ao3, wattpad, threadfics on twitter, mini fics on tumblr. and so on) and just wow theyre pitiful over there

tldr, these past few months that ive been active in the fandom I've noticed that doksoo shippers genuinely don't seem to grasp the general rules of the shipping side of the fandom(s) they lack imagination and delusion which you need if you want others to engage with your ship and fan content(they also spend way too much time trying hard to disprove joongdok moments but anw)

[literalite]

hi joseph! what are your thoughts on penacony arc? started it just yesterday and i'm not vibing with it 😭 afaik this is a pretty common feeling towards the beginning and especially 2.2 chapter but i've also seen people defending them. it's always intersting to see your opinion about any media in general, you have some insights i never really thought about. good luck on whoever you choose to pull!

omg hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii im so glad u appreciate my takes about these sillyyy gacha games rubs hands together lets get into it.. ive finished the whole story at this point but so sorry if i end up spoiling ill try break it up patch by patch

tldr; i think penacony is def a plot that gets more refined the further u go on, which i think makes sense because of how large and expansive the cast is to begin with they also throw like a fuckton of different plot points at u so theres a few different veins of thought u can chase in various directions. theyre going for more of a mystery and more morally ambiguous cast than the other planets/locations we've been to so far so i think its more a side effect of the genre so to speak. there's more room for error here and i admit i got tripped up at times esp in the beginning. i actually really liked 2.2 but it might be because my personal favourite penacony character got a lotttt of screentime, my fav patches have been 2.1 and 2.2 because at least in my opinion thats when the plot sort of tightened and wrapped up so it was less just stuff all over the place left to mislead us. this latest patch's story (2.3) is probably my least favourite but im still like sorting out why exactly. overall i think penacony might have had the best plot so far

2.0 - if one dreams at midnight aka black swan, sparkle and misha, and the introduction of penacony in general

the opening of this event/world was REALLY good i loved having acheron walk us through the hotel. probably one of the more engaging new gameplay tutorial processes i've been through and it raised so many questions (who is she/who is she to us/whats with the red text/WHAT IS GOING ON) that from someone who was admittedly not entirely sold on the whole dream hotel concept i was pretty easily hooked. admittedly i think the sort of concepts they were laying out for us in this new world are a lot more abstract than what we've previously encountered so i know a few of my friends ending up getting kind of tired of all the philosophical exposition and started just fast tracking their way thru the dialogue... which is a shame! yes theres a LOT of it and not all of it feels relevant in the moment but as someone who sat thru and read it all i think it was pretty solid. maybe they just need to get a bit better at being succinct

DGFghj the cutscenes and the characterisation in this patch were really beautiful moving stuff because i swear to u going in i didnt give a fuck about like. most of the cast like my only thought going in was oh i want sundays gender. but what i REALLY enjoy about penacony is that it felt like all the characters served a purpose in the story and there wasnt any characters just shoehorned in for the sake of more units to sell. does that make sense? for example in the xianzhou luofu i love that cast i swear but if you really look at them you could probably axe at least five of them from the roster and the main story would have remained exactly the same. like they appeared in the plot but they felt palpably unnecessary. whereas at least right now with all the playable characters that first appeared in penacony all played vital roles in progressing the story. i think for the amount of characters and how interesting they all are thats pretty solid storytelling, even if it amounts to just a lot of exposition at times. i liked the various clashing ideologies and paths it made for way more substantial narrative than any of the other locations so far

2.1 - into the yawning chasm aka the aventurine story ft. acheron

i think this patch had the strongest emotional story running through it, but i could be biased because i LOVE aventurine. to be clear i really didnt care about aventurine prior to playing through this story quest

im serious btw like i actually could not care less about him. it was solely the story quest that made me do one of my biggest 180s on him so far, and i know i'm not alone in this sentiment. i was actually really surprised they were spending sooo much time in his pov and mindset i think it was a decently bold move considering that we literally fight him by the patch's end- imagine if we'd spent half of belobog in cocolia's shoes for example. IT PAID OFF- i genuinely think the slightly less enthusiastic response to 2.2 is in part due to how fucking surprisingly amazing 2.1 was. i think acheron's presence in this one for me could have done with more but she has a stronger overall place in the narrative over the course of all of the penacony story quests that it somewhat balances out. the trailblazing crew took one hell of a step back for this patch but everyone was fine with that and i hope it encourages the writers and the devs to be okay with our like "main protagonists" being less of the pov characters. its interesting when you get to see other's lives, if anything for a gacha game it should honestly be encouraged? but anyways yeah this one was my fave patch on just the story alone

2.2 - then wake to weep aka robin and boothill's patch, as well as wrapping up the main plot of penacony AKA the sunday patch. to me.

i do think this one's story is a little weaker than the first two and especially in comparison to 2.1... but nevertheless i really loved it still mostly because i'd been waiting for sunday to unveil his true colours this entire time. the english va for sunday? fucking incredible it was the amount of just barely leased emotion holding on by the barest thread of control you could detect in pretty much every line he said that really hooked me onto the character. i think this update's plot is a little messy in terms of like pacing- at some points it dragged on and on others it felt way too fast but i adored the false ending and the whole twist of it all. some aspects of the story were admittedly really repetitive for some reason? a lot of the dialogue felt a little too overexposited- as much as i love the express crew when they're altogether they really just like yapping on about the same thing on repeat... i don't think the whole talent show thing was necessary LMFAO going into sunday's history lesson/mind palace construct would've been more than enough.

alllllso i get why boothill was here for this but at the same time of all the characters he feels the most... redundant? this sentiment is mostly influenced by the next patch because i really thought we were going to like actually go somewhere with his set up with aventurine but that kind of just.. didn't happen. like hes more necessary to this story than say, qingque or i guess bailu were for the xianzhou luofu but regardless his presence in this while amusing kind of lacked the oomph that all the other characters have had

this patch's cutscenes were definitely the best of all the ones we've seen so far, in my opinion, basically only rivaled by the aventurine vs acheron fight. all of sunday's scenes were chef kiss to the highest degree the way the line "through harmony, we obtain order" lives in my mind literally rent free. honestly i just like watching this whole thing

its fantastic. SUNDAY is our best villain so far hands fucking down i really liked the whole social contract aspect of his methodology. as much as people mischaracterise him sighhhh just the betrayal of his own sister in a bid to fulfill her dream, albeit misguidedly, is just so lovely and tragic i just. HRGHHH fucking phenomenal work. i know people got taken aback because sunday spent 2.1 being so focused on robin's murder, and i agree his turn straight back to his originally laid plans was more abrupt that i would have personally liked, but i still really enjoyed the whole thing fghjk. i am so biased because ive loved sunday from literally the moment his little chibi invited us to penacony at the end of the 1.6 stream (??) so every aspect of it was amazing to meeee. this patch had a slower build up to its climax than the others but its still my second favourite wuagh

2.3 - farewell, penacony aka firefly and jade's patch

im sorry this one is probably my least favourite ;-; they gave us really high expectations (the whole aventurine vs/with boothill ending, jade's introduction to penacony, etc etc) and i knowww this was always meant to be the last chapter of the penacony story so i shouldn't have expected them to unfold whole other untouched plot points at this stage but.... after all the high stakes of the rest of the story this ending while in some aspects kind of satisfying, fell short. for now! i expect them to bring the whole ipc scheming plotting thing back, they seem like a faction that will encounter a reckoning closer to the endgame of the story as opposed to being wrapped up right now. on an emotional level and specifically for the trailblazer and firefly's relationship, this was a fine patch! it was really cute... i just think that with how much emphasis we got on the pov of the other characters i really wish we'd spent time more with the rest of them. i guess i expected the ipc to bare their fangs a bit more here, but it still felt like it wrapped itself up cleaner than i would've preferred. sfdgfghjhkjk sue me i like chaos i want action i want them to fiiight... i guess it'll just be a matter of time though. not on this world, but maybe someplace elsewhere. we can only hope! in this regard i actually preferred the xianzhou ending, with tingyuns funerary service... it had more of a true weight to it than the goodbye the astral express gave the dead trailblazers and gallagher. they shouldve gotten a cutscene idkkkk

my brain is steaming so im gonna curb it here but basically in order of my fave to least fave the penacony patches go as follows:

2.1 -> 2.2 -> 2.0 -> 2.3

as someone who's only played genshin and hsr from hoyoverse i think this is a really good sign as to increasing complexity and depth to their characters and plotlines. the penacony narrative works because as self contained as it is it also presents us with a lot of questions and differing viewpoints that i daresay most of the other worlds both from genshin and hsr have so far been pretty much completely lacking. this really felt like a big beautiful puzzle getting assembled before our eyes and while the pieces didnt all seamlessly fit its just so much better than i am used to from this company im excited for the next worlds to come :D

[3rddimension]

If they ever decided to get engaged, don't you think that would probably be the straw that broke the camel's back, in a good way?

For me, I just don't see a world in which they get engaged and still manage to keep it under wraps. I know, that the easy way of doing this is just not posting about it, but again why all the extra work?

It is such a momentous milestone in people's lives and I would bet money that they would want to share that information with friends and family, ala Kimmy and Shane. Again, they could just tell their friends and family about it privately, but why keep hiding it?

Privacy to one side for a second, it just feels redundant, ya know? It reminds me of the twitch streams from back in the day. When we would subtlety pick up on glances or little convos they would have. I understand toxic behavior from the outside, but the idea of being engaged and having to hide it seems like a real headache compared to the hassle of what they already have to do.

Think back to when they played Bread and Fred on stream, Courtney answered the chat's question about traveling to Europe. Seemed easy enough, but to me it felt like they wanted to share more than that.

Ultimately it could be done as mentioned before by not announcing it, but consider all the talk surrounding the ring Courtney wears periodically already. If this becomes a reality, I find it hard to believe that they would decide to not wear their engagement ring in videos or in social media posts, just so their isn't any questioning.

Sorry about the enormous post. TLDR👇

Without stepping on anyone's toes here, I can certainly say that we want them to do whatever makes them happy. So, knowing that if they are content, emotionally fulfilled, and in love most importantly, then why should they have to care what some random internet troll thinks? At a certain point you just gotta be laissez-faire about it all and live your life without any restrictions.

❤✌

I think all of this will be happening but on their own term and time. Based on what Courtney said in their vlog that everything that they are posting is intentional. So I can see that it will happen eventually.

[girlhorse]

it is unfortunate how good a lot of puppy mills/byb are at masquerading as reputable breeders. and that is not to say that they are at all similar to how reputable breeders present themselves - they really aren't! In fact, a lot of the times byb have really well designed websites, have set up a Google business account so they can get reviews, are great at communicating with clients and marketing, and in general have a very prominent social media presence. meanwhile, i really cannot tell you how common it is for reputable dog breeders to have websites with several broken links that look like they were designed in the 90s, straight up don't advertise their litters, don't have a social media presence, and have shitty communication or marketing skills. I'm certainly not saying either way is better, but that you have to..not read a book by its cover. lf that makes sense. Research is much much more than looking for google reviews or reading whatever the breeder has written on their website about how good their dogs are.

in general i think people have the idea of what a good business looks like, and judge breeders based on that criteria instead of really trying to understand what the mark of a good breeder is. part of it is, of course, that people want to do the minimal research possible, so google reviews and the like will make that process a lot easier for people. If you get a dog from a breeder with 4.9 stars, you're going to feel like you're getting a good dog. Others still are very much swayed simply by marketing tactics, including a pleasing web design. I think it's easy to hide shadiness behind a nicely presented website. Reputable dog breeders are often just people who are really passionate about dogs but also people who may not have incredible business sense or marketing abilities, or may not even care to market themselves or advertise at all, since many are so well known inside of the dog fancy that they dont *need* more puppy buyers.

on the other hand i think in some ways the dog fancy can be a bit inaccessible, and sometimes downright hostile to newbies. this isnt the case for every person in the fancy, i think a lot of people are very welcoming and like to teach people about their dogs, and their passion, but tbh it can be a little exclusive sometimes. I do also think in a sense the US public might harbor some negative feelings about the dog fancy because of its characterization as snobbish and be unwilling to engage with it (ie - thinking they dont need or want a "show dog", not thinking titling means anything, thinking purebred puppies cost too much etc)

tldr. a dog breeder with a nice modern looking website with vaguely "health tested" dogs and raving reviews is almost never a sign of a good breeder. Not saying any of these are red flags in themself but they are certainly not what anyone should be basing their dog buying decision on!