#choosing to assume i have a fanbase

[catgirlweed]

the next chapter of junestuck is coming along at a snails pace but it is coming... heres some unused stuff from it :3

[steviesbicrisis]

Thinking about YouTuber Steve who’s gaining a lot of popularity with his weekly vlogs. The routine is very similar: he goes to work, hangs out with friends, acts silly for the camera, cooks for his roommate, watches movies with his roommate, goes out with his roommate.

His roommate is there a lot.

His new growing fanbase doesn’t take long to divide into factions regarding Steve’s dating life and sexuality; There are ships, OTPs, people who want him single so they can date him, and a surprisingly small portion which questions his heterosexuality, which gets always shut up by the following compelling arguments:

“stop assuming he’s gay.”

“Steve doesn’t look gay. He’s just a guy, a former jock, who loves to cook and hangs out with friends. A friend more than the others, but it’s his roommate so it makes sense, right?”

“And yes, they do cuddle while watching movies, but who doesn’t love a cuddle? You don’t have to be gay for that.”

“Sure, they hold hands when they go out but the city is crowded and they might lose each other.”

“Since when two male friends can’t be close without assuming that they’re gay?”

“Have you ever seen them kiss in ten minutes of weekly vlog? No, so drop your gay agenda already.”

And Steve Harrington, who started the whole vlog thing in the first place because he wanted to update his friends who live miles away and still doesn’t know how he got this much heteronormative bullcrap in his comments, has had enough.

One day, Steve Just-A-Guy Harrington, wakes up and chooses violence.

He replies to a tiktok comment that says “stop assuming he’s gay” with another video.

It begins with Steve glaring at the camera “oh yes please, stop assuming I’m gay.”

Then there’s a quick motion and Steve is pulling a curly haired guy into frame: Eddie, his roommate/platonic friend/totally not his boyfriend of 5+ years.

Eddie yawns, looking sleepily at the camera “are you vlogging?”

“I’m proving a point” Steve replies, then kisses him. They almost get lost into it, but Steve is a man on a mission, so he pulls back and turns to the camera.

“This is Eddie, my boyfriend. Not a friend who’s a boy, you delusional homophobes, we are together, a couple, in a relationship. We haven’t been just friends for over 5 years. We live together, he isn’t just a roommate.

And even if he was just my roommate, do you think I would live with this” he squeezes Eddie’s cheeks between his fingers and zooms in to show his face up close. Eddie blinks a couple of times, but let’s Steve do whatever he wants.

“Do you seriously think that I would live with this 24/7 and stay straight? Like, are you insane?” He gives Eddie a quick smack on the lips, leaving him blushing and more confused than ever.

Usually, it’s Eddie the one getting almost feral over Steve, not the other way around.

He doesn’t complain.

“So yeah, stop assuming I’m gay. Because I’m bi, you homophobic little shits.”

The video ends with Eddie pulling Steve for more than a quick peck on the lips, and Steve throwing the phone on their couch, face down.

Somehow, under Steve’s video, there’s still someone that comments “I mean, this doesn’t mean anything. It’s just bros helping bros, right?”

Steve is too busy making out with his “bro” to read it.

[jenscx]

[11] DAYLIGHT — d-day

you stared unblinking at the webcam, your stream displaying the waiting animation sakura had created for you a couple years back. the moment karina accepted your friend request on discord, you started the stream.

“hello everyone,” you smile, “today’s stream is slightly special and i’ll explain in just a minute when our mystery guest joins.”

your mouse hovers over the call button as the chat floods with comments about the ‘mystery guest’. by now, everyone had sort of figured out who the mystery guest was. could it really be counted as a mystery?

karina finally joins the call and your party in overwatch.

“hello?”

the chat goes crazy. you inwardly grimace. there’s a wave of donations and tips coming in. you didn’t know of karina’s popularity until that moment.

“we have karina joining us today,” you cringe at your cheerful tone. you can only imagine karina making fun of you later. she replies, “hi everyone, i’m karina.”

seeing as your viewers had calmed down significantly, you start to explain, “so i’m sure some of you guys are wondering why we hosted this stream. well, karina and i matched in a game and became acquainted with one another after.” you leave out the part about how karina was the cause of your account being banned.

“acquainted? didn’t you say we weren’t friends?” karina teased. you already feel a headache coming.

you try to smile, knowing that most likely, she’s also watching your stream and reactions.

“let’s just play!”

karina lets out a boisterous laugh as you quickly start a 1v1 match.

“are there any rules?” you read from the chat, “nope, but respawn is not on and we can change heroes.”

your mouse flashes across the screen, and you see karina being locked in already. knowing her, the youtuber probably picked genji to prove you wrong. a chuckle escapes your lips and you pick symmetra. the game starts.

“i’m excited,” karina remarks.

“excited to lose?”

she merely laughs. the doors finally open and you’ve never been so focused in your life. the mere prospect of having yu karina do anything you want is already egging you on. you weren’t aware of her fanbase, but you were now. with the help of kim minju of course.

“are you hiding?” you ask incredously after scouring the map for a few minutes but with no karina in sight.

“of course not, stupid.” her silky yet raspy voice reverberates in your headphones. you can’t help your cheeks heating up.

a moment passes, and you hear quick footsteps behind you. your mouse swiftly turns. she isn’t there anymore.

“you’re so annoying,” you mutter. you can hear karina’s smirk in her voice when she replies, “you like me that way.”

“i don’t like you in any way.”

“yeah?” before you even get to answer, genji jumps out of nowhere and gets a couple hits on you. you instantly snap into action, symmetra placing down her sentry turrets, combating karina’s swift movements.

‘are they flirting or arguing with each other?’

‘this is very homoerotic.’

you ignore your chat.

her health depletes slightly before she manages to escape again. you grin, already knowing that her pride wouldn’t allow her to switch to another hero. and she was so predictable that you chose a hero that counters genji.

“stop hiding and running away, it’s defeating the purpose of a 1v1,” you say.

“only if you tell me nicely, darling.” the red in your cheeks return and your chat goes berserk.

you click your tongue, irritation at yourself boiling. you were so easily flustered.

“don’t call me that!”

the blurry image of karina smirking only sends another wave of heat to your face.

“whatever you say, darling.” you roll your eyes.

“okay, stop hiding. let’s settle this for real.” at that moment, karina chooses to strike. genji apparates out of nowhere again and deals massive amounts of damage. when you use your primary fire, karina can’t deflect it. you’re left with barely a quarter of full health. you assume karina has roughly the same.

“baby, just let me win.”

you don’t even hesitate to stop firing. karina giggles as she throws one last shuriken at you. symmetra groans and the screen goes into darkness. your chat pings continuously.

defeat, in large and bold letters, shows up on your screen. your jaw drops. you only gaze at the monitor in awe. in awe of how easy you were. just a simple command from karina and you were basically turned into a lapdog. how does someone so insufferable have such a effect on you?

“what. the. hell.”

‘choi yena gifted 5 subs; park yn, don’t tell me you just lost because you’re a simp?’ the robotic voice says. you continue gaping at the screen. the humiliation of your loss only eats you up, and there’s an overwhelming urge to just end the stream without saying goodbye. in your headphones, you hear karina laughing heartily. the chat is still being flooded with comments, mostly making fun of you. not only had you lost, you lost in front of 20k people watching your devastating defeat.

“uhm,” you mumble, “so, see you guys next time.”

“thanks for the game, yn! don’t forget about our bet,” karina laughs gleefully.

your entire face turns red at this point. with clumsy hands, you end the stream, vowing to never play overwatch ever again.

masterlist | next

TAGLIST ! @flolio @imahallucination11 @wallfl9wer @edamboon @seullovesme @twicesserafim @klvarchives @rinapomu @pandafuriosa60 @jisooftme @cwpiqwon @yoontoonwhs @limbforalimb @xen248 @r4cjh @dni-unavailable @yukianism @i3lia @ryujinsdimple @httpisaoki @haerinsloverr @masuowo @multiliker @edenzeepy @1luvkarina @yeetaberry127

[emonewtype]

So I've been doing some thinking on the rumors of a TotA remaster and how it would work out with a pattern I've noticed: even now with Graces remaster announced, every tales game to get a remaster for modern consoles and steam had, at some point, a downloadable PS3 version, and I assume that these PS3 versions are what the modern versions are further modifications of. An Abyss remaster would be the first time that method would be impossible, leading to two possibilities:

1) They go all the way back and painstakingly force the nearly 20 year old PS2 version to play nice in HD and on modern hardware, in a massive W for old games preservation and providing hope that we may one day get Destiny Directors Cut

Or, the option that I can't stop thinking about:

2) Unlike the previous remasters, they instead choose to go for a full remake in modern Tales style, in the vein of what we've seen Capcom do with their Resident Evil, with script details changed, gameplay completely reworked, and likely an all new voice cast for the english dub.

If they do go with that second option, then as with all full remakes these days, the fanbase will probably debate which is the better version, and I find it hilarious that this fanbase, of all of them, will all have to ask the questions:

Do you love the Original, or the Replica? Can you find room in your heart for both? How much of a difference is there between them, really? Are those differences important? Does that importance come from something inherent in what was changed, or does it come from your personal relationship with it? Does the existence of the Original make it okay to judge the Replica at a higher standard than normal? Does the existence of the Replica make it okay that the Original will be forgotten?

I'm starting to feel for Natalia, and how she was so fond of Asch.

[a-bright-comet]

Jade Shadows Thoughts

(NOTICE: I have edited this post after a few days and many lovely replies and tags giving me more insight and opinions, overall my view of this quest has gotten a lot more positive, thank you all <3) okaaayyyy I am utterly rattled rn lmao also made the mistake of looking at tumblr after doing the quest and as expected it seems to be a 50/50 of hating or loving it. so here are my personal thoughts, I am a little scared but talk seems to be civil thankfully. I can definitely agree on the sentiment that this quest needed more time, cause let's be honest the people hating this quest wouldn't be jumping to the things they're jumping to if Jade herself got more screen-time before the big drop, warframe's style has always been vague and never 100% straight-forward and I think that unfortunately hurt it a bit this time, as what they didn't show came off wrong to many people and while I sorta see why I disagree on some parts. I also feel like the quest kinda got a bit *too* hyped both by DE and the fanbase's theories, way too short, it deserved and needed to be a bit longer for it's special narrative. Jade kinda got a weird spot, both being the main focus alongside Stalker but also hardly explored. But let's be honest, most of the negativity is caused by this outside-circumstance alone. Now, what I absolutely disagree with is people insisting that DE was trying to say "bodily autonomy bad" or that Stalker didn't care about her and only the child, thing is I thought it was pretty fucking clear that she *wanted* the child in what little was shown and she was going to die no matter the outcome (thanks to the orokin to absolutely no one's surprise) and Stalker in his guilt for all she's done for him wanted to make sure that he at least kept this one promise to Her, cause She wanted it. she still had bodily autonomy in the fact She wanted this, she wanted the child no matter what. and she wanted stalker to protect her and the kid. And he did, like a true loving partner. DE has a long track record of being very autonomy-positive. A point they make time and time again is that ripping it away is *bad* and horrifying, the quest is a bittersweet tragedy, not a horror. Honestly there would be 0 issue if DE had given us a Jade-only quest before this one, I personally would've preferred it as well, she's cool as hell she deserves it. who knows maybe DE will see all of this and make prequel quests? we can only hope. I do not want to assume the worst of anyone or anything cause that's a miserable existence. Look I personally enjoyed the quest and get the feeling whoever wrote it did it out of some personal experience or sorrow, that's at least the vibe I got. It's a tragedy, but her choice was seen till the end, many women choose to still have a child despite knowing they won't make it, many also don't, that's why choice is important. and she did, she chose her child that she was having while likely forcibly infested and turned into a warframe. (also remember there are women on the team who likely looked at this.) there are some other iffy parts of the quest, (really should've been the drifter instead of the operator if they were gonna do that, but that's personal discomfort.) but overall I enjoyed it and open to explore the implications of a born-warframe-child and Stalker healing as they both grow together. These are my thoughts, and I can understand why people like or dislike this quest, but I think it's fine and just ended up in a very unfortunate spot due to outside circumstances beyond it's control. (sorry if any of this comes off as aggressive it is not my intention despite how riled I am by some folk online, I disagree with you but I do not hate you, I don't even know you.)

Her choice, His promise, Their light.

Thank you for reading my first ever text post about something I care about, not sure I'll be doing this again any time soon out of anxiety lol (Edit: and thanks to everyone responding to this post wonderfully, ya'll are great and have lessened my anxiety and have made me appreciate this quest more <3)

[cancerian-woman]

it really made no sense to me that hope was such a powerful witch and didn't have a witch mother. I am very interested in hearing about how your hope and bonnie similarities thoughts as well`

I can’t find my old posts right now or I’d tag them lol.

That’s why the “first-born-Mikaelson” trait was created to explain Hope’s witch side. In TVD Esther’s “powerful” moment consisted of leeching off the Bennett’s as a bloodline and praising their hard work. The entire reason Esther was brought back was because of Bonnie/Abby. The tailsmen that gets passed around initially belonged Ayana. I cannot stress this enough if Esther had 7 kids and only 2 were witches the gene was not the strong. I know it’s many debates on if the Mikaelsons were untapped witches but that wasn’t confirmed to my knowledge.

I assume they didn’t want Phoebe playing a witch again after TSC ended. Instead, we have Hayley saying multiple times she did not know what to do about Hope’s growing powers. Klaus was already a hybrid with an unexplored werewolf side. Sure, he used it to enforce power but we’re shown he didn’t hate it.

Hope is book description Bonnie without the curly hair. White, short, powerful and has red hair. Legacies has a running gag about Hope being the tiny tribrid. Coincidentally Danielle & Kat are the same height. I just thought this one was funny.

Both fall under characters that were born into the supernatural world. While we see Hope’s birth and a confirmation she was a witch(later tribrid). We don’t get an explanation of why Bonnie started practicing later in life when the witch-gene is prominent in all Bennett women. Throughout tvd as we meet other witches they knew during infancy or early-childhood.

Bonnie fights forcibly to use her powers to save everyone else even at the expense of herself. In Legacies Alaric’s reasonings for wanting Hope at the boarding school was expecting her to be the protector to his daughters. Both Bonnie and Hope hold the responsibility of wanting to save everyone and feel devastated when by the possibility of not saving everyone.

I’ll give you an example outside these parallels: Bonnie letting her friends pass through her knowing it was killing her as the anchor for their survival. Hope choosing to die and become the tribrid so the malivore could stop killing people. Bonnie stopping hellfire from destroying Mystic Falls. Hope taking in the hallow from her relatives saved NOLA even though it was killing her. It’s more than that but I’d be listing things all day by that point. Those two women are sacrificial as they are strong women. Look at this here.

It’s a reason why people choose to compare Hope to Bonnie more than her own relatives or her mother. This isn’t a jab to Hayley but the plots focused too much on Hope’s witch-side. People find joy in trying to humble Bonnie as a witch. As I said here the fanbase wouldn’t have been as accepting if Hope’s mom was of color or even if Hope was biracial.

But if she was I’d nominate Bailey Bass in a heartbeat

[wonderlandsakura]

I have a Zosan fic inspired by a post I think I saw on Tumblr, but it being Tumblr, I can't find it to reblog it, but I'm gonna post it anyway (just a heads up, it's kinda long)

Sanji Accidentally Reveals Who His Partner Is During A Livestream! (NOT CLICKBAIT)

“Welcome back to Cooking with Sanji, this time we’re Live! Thank you my mellorines for being such sweet, loyal and gorgeous fans and taking time out of your busy schedules to attend my livestream today!” Sanji crowed, making finger hearts at the camera.

He was in the location of all his videos and livestreams, his kitchen, which straddled the line between cluttered and cosy and straight out of a magazine, with its industrial grade appliances and overfull cabinets and refrigerator covered in random memorabilia, such as postcards, polaroids and for some reason, an absurd amount of fish related pictures, magnets and posters.

“Today we’ll be cooking my partner’s favorite, Onigiri!” Sanji continued, going on to list the ingredients while chatting with the stream and answering any questions that pop up and highlighted by his mods.

Sanji’s partner was an elusive mystery his fanbase (and that of the Straw Hat Pirates, the group of content creators he was part of) had long wondered about.

It was no secret the man was married, the man in question having made comments mentioning his partner more than once and flaunted his wedding ring on occasion when it was brought up, though he didn’t often wear it on his hand when he was cooking, choosing to wear it on a chain around his neck.

They knew the man lived with his partner, as he often made mention of them while filming and streaming through snarky comments that would nevertheless dissolve into lovestruck looks and loud confirmations of his love whenever one of the audience (usually a newer fan) wondered why Sanji stayed despite his complaints.

Many of his fan base assumed that the person in question was female, what with Sanji’s womanizing tendencies, believing it to be one of the female straw hats or their associates, though this was quickly disproven as they came out or started dating other people.

However, some fans still held onto this conviction, many of them shipping Sanji with his female friends, or with Pudding, a baker that Sanji had collabed with before, who had then insisted she was Sanji’s partner, despite not having a ring or being mentioned by the Straw Hats, who had confirmed they had long met Sanji's partner, before that moment.

Sanji had long since spoken out to disprove these rumors about their relationship, but still, some of his crazier fans insisted on shipping the two, along with many of Pudding's hardcore fans.

Most of Sanji's fan base however, couldn't care less about when or if he would ever reveal who the person was, or even their gender, respecting his right to his privacy.

They were more than fed on the scraps they were given, after all, as the look Sanji would have on his face and the way he gushed over his partner spoke volumes about his love for them.

At some point, Sanji’s dad, Red_Leg_Zeff, pops up on the stream’s chat and starts scolding Sanji through his comments, urged on and enabled by his mods and audience, who cheer him on and highlight his comments for Sanji to read, much to his chagrin. He complains loudly about how his old man needs to stop worrying and get off his stream and isn’t he supposed to be getting ready to open up his restaurant, the Baratie?

The stream adores the interaction, though some of the newer viewers need to be reassured that this is just the way the father-son cooking duo interact, and that they truly adore each other.

It was just the way Sanji showed love, whether to his adoptive father, his friends, or when he spoke about his partner.

Eventually the stream settles down and Zeff leaves to work, as Sanji continues to deftly shape onigiri balls as he chats with his audience.

The stream runs longer than usual, thanks to Zeff’s appearance, but it is just about to end when they hear a door opening off screen.

Sanji however doesn’t seem to notice, wrapped up in excitedly explaining what the All Blue he mentions in his bio on all his social media is to a new fan. This distraction would be his undoing.

From out of frame, a very familiar man to those who were fans of the Straw Hat Pirates as a whole appeared, sending those that noticed him into a tizzy.

It was the half naked, sweaty form of one Roronoa Zoro, the group’s resident sports addict, or as he was better known in the words of Sanji himself, ‘Directionally Challenged Mossbrain’, who often got lost and ended up being dragged back to the group by Sanji. He was also known to most as Sanji's rival.

The two were known for their spats, spitting insults and jabs at each other at the slightest slight or provocation, the arguments often devolving into brawls with kicks and hits thrown by Sanji and Zoro respectively. So it was a surprise to see the man so casually ambling about the house that was known to be shared by Sanji and his partner.

This surprise and interest continued as the man, who seemed to have just finished one of his morning workouts, walked up to Sanji as he used the towel around his neck to wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

The chat waited with bated breath for something to happen, for Sanji to snap and shout at him or something to break the tension created by the man's appearance.

And break it did, as the man bent his head down towards Sanji and tilted his face towards him, kissing him right on the lips, cutting off the man's words with the action.

The chat started screaming, filling with comments that rushed by quicker than the eye could catch. More viewers started appearing as people called their fellow fans in to see the shocking moment, the mods struggling to tame the hoards.

All this went unnoticed by the two lovers as Sanji melted into the kiss, seeming to forget where he was for a moment.

Finally they broke apart, a look of lovestruck bliss on Sanji's flushed face as he stared into his lover's eyes.

Only for him to redden furiously and start to bluster, flustered as he realized what just happened.

He started screaming, as a fans had foreseen, hitting Zoro as he shooed him away, the man calmly avoiding the hits as he scooped up an onigiri and moved away. Only to double back, calling Sanji's name, making him shout.

“What do you want, Marimo!”

At which his head was cradled and another kiss was bestowed on to his forehead, causing his squawking to redouble in its intensity and resulting in Zoro leaving his haloed kitchen chased by whatever objects were in reach that Sanji could throw.

Sanji finally calmed down at his disappearance, breathing heavily as he stared after the other man.

Finally he turned back to the screen.

A bright, furious blush creeped slowly across his face as he realized who exactly, had just seen the chaotic interaction.

He lunged forward, over the countertop and the stream ended abruptly, sending the viewers back into the waiting room, where they tittered to each other about what they had seen.

It was a moment that would not soon be forgotten, against Sanji's best wishes, and it was the most talked about, dramatic and chaotic coming out of any content creator.

Though despite its suddenness, all Zoro and Sanji's fans would agree that it was utterly, irrevocably, them.

-

We've come to the end, thank you for reading :) you might want to take a moment to rest your eyes before moving on

[sonamytrash]

People may relate to and find comfort in a character for a plethora of reasons that they don't necessarily feel comfortable sharing.

Just because you perceive their fondness for a character as shallow is your own opinion. I've seen so much negativity directed at Levi fans and self shippers recently, which is a real shame when for some of us the tag is a safe little space for us to enjoy our fics and headcanons. I see a lot of content I don't like or agree with related to characters I'm a fan of, but I just leave people well alone to enjoy what they enjoy. I don't know, maybe that comes with age and maturity.

People (commonly anons) may assume self shippers only like a character like Levi as an example because we see him as a sex object. Which is entirely false for so many reasons and not true for many of us. I couldn't tell you how much money and time I've invested into the AOT franchise over the past 14 years. I've also never seen so much love and appreciation for a character as I have within the Levi fanbase and particularly from self shippers.

Just because I (or someone) may write 18+ content doesn't mean that's all they associate with a character. Personally, I just enjoy writing it, and I want to create something for others to enjoy and visualise. It's statistically proven that women, for example, may find reading more stimulating compared to visual p×rnography. I started writing for myself as a creative outlet and was thrilled to see people enjoying it. Even if Levi or any character is just an object for someone to sexualise, who cares? He's fictional.

On a personal note, I had a very lonely and abusive childhood. For the longest time, many fandoms and characters have been a source of comfort and escape for me. I very quickly relate to many characters who have experienced hardship and pain. But I've been fortunate enough to come through the other end and build a life for myself. It just so happens that my writing strengths are of a more mature content. But it doesn't take away from my love and appreciation of complex characters. You can't assume you know everything about a person based on this small segment of their lives on a blog or social media platform. Judging people who self ship, especially some of us more placid ones that people want to attack, belittle and slut shame is just getting a bit stale.

Enjoy your characters and your ships, and heck, keep coming at us with your false assumptions because it isn't going to stop us, and you're only making yourselves look petty, cruel, and immature. You don't know a single thing about why people choose the characters that they do to enjoy.

And to all of the self shippers, keep posting your fantastic content. Your fics, your bots, your artwork. Keep enjoying what makes you happy. There's so many more of us who want to be supportive and create safe spaces and communities than there are negative individuals.

[ssruis]

Wrt the people talking about the new set as fan service: my initial reaction was also “oh cute” & moving on, but after carefully reading the full arguments of the people who found it distasteful, I agree with their points. I’d normally link or post screenshots of the points made, but since the Prsk fanbase apparently is jumping people over this on twt I don’t feel comfortable doing that. To summarize and add some of my own explanation:

> everything in gacha games is fan service, which doesn’t have to necessarily mean it’s sexual - ode for the pure of heart featuring rui/touya (popular with female audience) looking very princely was fan service. The white day knight/fantasy theming is fan service (popular & well loved aesthetic). Fantasia squad was fan service for the players who like the male characters, etc etc.

> I don’t feel like arguing about all of the cards, so I’ll just point out what bothers me about the most egregious example (Rin’s card)

When considering art, you have to consider the deliberate choices the artist made, and what messages they are trying to get across with the atmosphere they have created.

Why choose the maid aesthetic? Why make these cards a player pov? Why choose framing that (using the grid composition, contrast and lighting from the window, the way lines direct the eye) makes the points of interest and emphasis Rin’s face *and* butt? Why choose that pose, with Rin looking over her shoulder, with a surprised expression and prominent blush? Why is the posing reminiscent of art of vintage pin up girls (or any other similar art movement)?

It’s male gaze. The answer is male gaze.

The male gaze is often just associated with overt sexualization, but that’s an overly simplified definition. The male gaze can also be portraying women in positions of servitude (most often within the home), emphasizing body curves (even through clothes), voyeuristic povs, emphasizing cuteness/demure-ness/shyness, etc. It’s about the (assumed male) viewer having power over the female subject.

Rin is cleaning, the light from the window heavily highlights her butt, the framing of window itself specifically draws the eye from her head to her back to her butt using contrasting colors/light/point of interest, the parallel lines in the piece direct your eyes down her body (Japanese audience, reading image from right to left). If the emphasis was on the action she is doing, rather than her body, the light source and brightest colors would be on the other side of the image, the duster would be brighter, as would the objects/set pieces she’s interacting with.*

Sexualization/male gaze isn’t restricted to the very obvious “woman sexy posing in a bikini” image, and having that viewpoint will only serve to limit the ways you understand art and artist intention. It’s similar to taking “all art is political” to mean “all art is either republican or democrat” and responding “well that’s stupid and you’re stupid.” You’re missing the point.

I’m a little disappointed the knee jerk reaction here seems to be “you’re wrong and you’re actually a freak who sexualizes minors for pointing this out” here, especially because the point of calling this out is to say that it’s distasteful to do a card like this for a character who is, despite not having a canon age, pretty much portrayed as younger than the main cast (making her 15 or younger).

Nobody is saying “this set sucks you can’t like it if you like it you’re problematic and project sekai should be cancelled forever”, it’s just something to keep in mind. You don’t have to agree with the argument, but acting like anyone pointing this out is insane isn’t fair or justified.

> also just as a side note: maid cafés have a pretty long history of sexualization, with the emphasis/appeal of having power over the workers and them being your servant while dressed cute. I don’t entirely think this set was going for a maid café look, but I do think it’s something to be mindful of.

> *it’s a little hard to articulate/explain this, and my knowledge on how much the average person knows about stuff like this is skewed due to my own education in art/art history/design/etc. If you find this confusing, I’m willing to explain more in detail and specifically point out what I’m talking about.

> I have a different post on the taisho/daisho romance elements, which is an entirely different discussion, so I’m not bringing that up here.

[genericpuff]

You know what do you think of hanza cancelling her own comic that is the guy upstairs? Like for me,I really really hope she's okay. And I know blacklightjack(he make a video about this) and the line he says about artists need to grow a thicker skin is just. I'm sorry like,look I get what he's saying but hanza have to cancel the comic because of toxic shippers. Sure,you can just ignore them and pretend they don't exist but they will still still still annoy you and h*rass you to the point you can't take it anymore and have to cancel the comic because of the whole goddamn toxic fanbase.

(as a Malaysian myself,I need to say this,I really hope hanza is alright. And in my language saya harap dia dapat bantuan Dan menjaga kesihatan sendiri)

So...

sigh I feel like this isn't the answer or essay you expected but I hope you're open to at least hearing it out all the same.

I do not think Hanza handled the situation in a way that benefitted her as a creator or her audience of people who genuinely love her work.

I DO think she was justified to be pissed off with the people harassing her. Those people suck ass and they're the definition of "this is why we can't have nice things."

But like... the notion of "you need to grow thicker skin" is true in being a creator who puts their work out into the world for an audience. Hear me out, this does NOT mean "creators aren't allowed to have feelings". But it does mean that you have to find peace with the fact that there are gonna be weirdos and assholes who take shit too far within your community. You don't necessarily deserve that. But you can't give those people power over you by going scorched earth in the way that Hanza did, because who does it really benefit? Hanza is now out a job and she's soiled her own reputation with her audience by basically going "FINE, because of these few people who were shit, NO ONE gets to have a good time!" And that's just... not a productive or healthy way to deal with these issues because it's just doing what those trolls and shitheads likely wanted. They wanted a reaction out of her, and she delivered it to them on a silver platter.

Like, I think of the dumbasses complaining about Hanza "taking advantage of the dark romance community" (she didn't, she just made a horror thriller comic that they felt entitled to see romance in) and guess what? Now those dumbasses have power over here because she ended the comic and in their heads, I'm sure they're thinking "good riddance". By choosing to not only end her comic, but spoil it entirely for her fans who were there in good faith, Hanza gave power to the people who weren't even a part of her target audience to begin with.

I do think it's ironic if people assume I'd automatically boo the "grow thicker skin" mantra because like, y'all... many of my complaints here are literally about people like Rachel who behave badly with their audience and desperately needed to grow thicker skin. In a lot of ways she's not even reacting to direct harassers, she's reacting to people simply discussing her comic in their own spaces which aren't mean for her. If she spoiled the ending of LO for her fans and ended the comic prematurely, I would feel awful, but... it still would have been her decision at the end of the day that she'd have to stand by and take responsibility for.

I think, at best, if I were to give her any unsolicited advice, she should have just put the comic on hiatus, taken a break, focused on her mental health and given herself enough distance to ask herself if she wanted to continue TGU. Maybe it still would have ended the same way, but at least she would have given herself the time and space to heal and rationalize her choices.

Instead, by choosing the nuclear option of spoiling the series for her readers and axing the comic - just to backpedal and go back to "no no it's just an indefinite hiatus!" - she gave up her power to the people who were harassing her. She reacted in a way that gave them power over her, not herself over them.

And I say this as someone who's currently on an indefinite hiatus with their main project, which I still have not spoiled for the 5 readers I have, despite the fact that I have zero clue when I'll return or if I'll even be able to. Whether or not Cyra and co. break out of the Reaper Society is now a 2 year old question.

I say this all as someone who has been harassed and is still harassed for doing what I wanna do. My first ever webcomic website when I was like 17 used to get emails and comments from shitty classmates and other local yokels who knew of me and wanted to pick fights over a teenager's dumb lil' gag comics. I kept making those comics anyways for myself and for the people who did like reading them, until I was ready to drop the comic on my own terms and move onto my next project, which would be Reaper. Reaper also got a lot of nonsense complaints and harassment. As did my fanfiction projects, as did my digital art, as did everything that I've ever put out into the world through the Internet, because the Internet just sucks for everyone always and then you die 🤣

And now, 10+ years later, I get the occasional "you're a shitty talentless person who isn't gonna amount to anything and yaddayaddayadda" which, to be fair, is a reaction from the folks who are unhappy with my intentions to make a Lore Olympus rewrite comic!

But I'm not going to give them power over me by stopping. I have a story I want to tell and if I stopped telling that story due to the shitty things they had to say and do, then I would be punishing myself and punishing my audience for the actions of a few bad apples. I do not deserve to have those abusive actions targeted at me (though they surely do and that's on them) and I do not have to put up with it, but I genuinely would not be able to live with myself if I gave them power over me by reacting in such an explosive way that my bloody remains land on everyone around me, including the people who were supportive and loved my work along the way.

That said, I also don't know to what extent Hanza was harassed. I've seen people claim she was doxxed, but have yet to see any evidence of that. I have seen people claim she got death threats, but Hanza hasn't shown anything to back that up. I'm going to assume the best of her that the harassment must have gotten pretty fucking bad for her to want to quit, and again, that is justified, and I cannot in any way use my experiences as a way to diminish hers. Maybe she just flat out isn't interested in making TGU anymore which... I can definitely say I relate to that, too.

There's this sort of mindfulness technique in stress and emotional management where you have to recognize that other people's actions are NOT your responsibility, but your REACTION is, because your reaction is what you can control and have power over.

Rachel Smythe finished LO in spite of what wackjobs like me said (and still say) about her and she has power in that perseverance, power that wackjobs like me cannot and *should* not try to take away from her.

mongie decided Webtoons was not suited for her work and vision and decided to put the comic on hiatus until she could get her distribution rights back and continue Let's Play on another platform. She has power in that decision and integrity, power that Webtoons cannot take away from her.

Whether or not you like my work, whatever opinion you have of it that you're entitled to, I have power in knowing that I started a project that I now love dearly and can take pride in, and has brought closure to people like me who were left disappointed by LO. I have power in that stubbornness and refusal to let other people determine what I'm capable of.

Even if you remove the external influence of the audience from the picture, we all have power as creators that we need to harness and take ownership in.

By going nuclear and spoiling her comic for her audience and ending it entirely, Hanza may have gotten the short term satisfaction of turning the school bus around to go back home, but she still disrespected herself and robbed herself of her own power as a creator which will ultimately stick with her far more than it will the harassers who will inevitably move on to some other target and forget she even existed. And that's a decision that she has to live with.

The harassers got under Hanza's skin and gave her more than enough reason to feel frustrated. But they did not choose to spoil and end the comic. She did. And she is ultimately the only one who will have to live with the consequences of that.

I do hope she's okay and that she's getting the time and space she needs to heal from this. If this truly is the outcome that she feels gives her the most power and the ends justified the means for her, I hope she found strength in it, regardless of the opinions of people like myself that ultimately should not matter to her. I hope the people harassing her get what's coming for them whether it be actually getting called out or just the universe delivering karmic retribution on them. I hope Hanza can find joy and peace again either in TGU or whatever project she pursues next. But most importantly, I hope she finds the confidence and power she needs to stick to her guns and create what she wants to create, unapologetically.

"Growing thicker skin" doesn't mean we as creators have to be comfortable with abuse - it just means we need to do ourselves the honor and favor of making decisions that give ourselves power rather than giving it away to the abusers who do not have to live our lives at the end of it all.

And that is my very big bag of cents on that.

[demonqueenart]

hi! first of all, i'm so sorry you're feeling the way that you are. you've helped open my eyes to things i admittedly didn't know (dan's comment at wad, for example) or didn't notice. i'm glad you're receiving at least some support from other phans! i don't know if this helps at all (and it's not me trying to excuse dan), but i wanted to add some context to his "third-world country" reference. as an american, i can tell you that we grew up learning "this"third world" as the proper term. most of my colleagues, friends, family members, etc. STILL use it casually to refer to developing nations/the global south - we were literally taught to use it in school. of course it has since become obsolete, as the wording is incredibly offensive. i know about this because of my time in academia, but this awareness hasn't at all spread to the general population (especially in dan's/my generation of millennials and older). as smart as i do think dan is, i wonder if that's also the case in england. he has the responsibility to educate and inform himself and he needs to acknowledge that he's hurt and alienated a large proportion of his fanbase, so i still hope he'll do that soon.

as for the tour, one of my my best friends is mexican (and lives in mexico) and she was really disappointed during ii when they had to cancel the announced mexico dates. they had assumed the dates would work out, but - if i remember correctly - were presented with a lot of visa/permissions issues. they tried to make it work but it didn't, and they waited much too long to tell anyone. my guess is that they wanted to avoid a similar disappointment this time and not give anyone false hope, nor accidentally say anything negative about those countries as they explain their reasoning (which, of course, just comes off worse - ignoring is never the issue).

other artists have had similar issues with asian and middle eastern countries as well, as there is increased censorship and visa requirements. i've spent four years of my life in asian countries (and a few months in south america) and know that there are phans there who'd love to see them, but it might not be feasible.

ultimately, however, dan and phil owe everyone transparency and need to acknowledge if they're having difficulties with bookings in other countries and why. they usually go back and add dates later, so fingers crossed that they're trying to work out some dates in latam and may yet still add them.

It’s the lack of transparency that is the issue here. How am I supposed to trust them when they won’t tell me anything in the first place? And if they expect me to assume for the best, I don’t think I can do that. Not with all the time they tried to bury their mistakes when people have been hurt as if it’s nothing. I’m sorry but if they’re choosing to look good in the public eye before choosing us, then I don’t think I can trust them anymore. And it’s not that they’ll look bad when they’re talking about this stuff, but the fact they have never once talked about it ever really makes it feel like they want to keep this shut. And that hurts a lot.

Thank you for your perspective tho. I think it helps seeing where they can possibly come from.

Auto-message: This ask’s purpose is to acknowledge dnp’s past/present exclusivity, not to cancel them! But to embrace mistakes that they’ve made so that 1. we won’t exclude people in need in this community, and 2. we can normalize bringing up exclusivity so that improvement can happen. Hopefully this will one day help dnp realize that this is a safe space for them to talk about their mistakes, so that this space can become safe for people of all kinds too <3

*If you don’t understand what is happening, scroll through my blog for context. And I’ll be taking time to answer my asks, so don’t think I’m ignoring youuu*

[solarwynd]

No US entry for Jin even with 4 covers combined. Army is so cooked. I'm going to assume they are on a break until the group comes back but I don't even know at this point.

Anyways, this is proof that even while enlisted, Jimin's solo fanbase is extremely hardworking and loyal. We could have gone to rest too, but we actually care about his music and we supported him and got amazing results even in these conditions. Feel proud all of you!

I don't know if armys have simply unstanned, moved on to other groups or they are waiting for the OT7 comeback but it's really messed up. They really don't care about what the members put out unless it's something that satisfies their ot7 fantasy. The solo projects won't stop after 2025, are they going to stop supporting whenever that happens? Are they even here for the music or just their ego? JK will have full company support, promo and gaslighting to back him up, but the other members? It's kind of a gloomy scenario. This is exactly why a strong solo fanbase is a MUST. And I'm actually sure all the members lowkey wish they had one outside of army.

Putting my pettiness aside to be serious, but I genuinely thought he’d get it. Even if it was near the bottom of the chart. So the fact that he didn’t even with quadruple the initial one cover streams, they had to be extremely low to begin with. Even the global streams being less than what he debuted with is crazy to me.

Im choosing to believe armys just went on hiatus because BTS is and that they’ll pop back up come 2026. And there are those who have “unstanned” and went to other groups and just became multis who still haven’t really given up on BTS. So I think they’ll be fine.

But seeing a tweet by the infamous taesoothes this morning just casually mentioning Jin solos alongside armys though, again lets me know that they’ll allow the hyung line to have solo stans for this exact same reason. They need all the help they can get because whatever armys are doing consistently has never been enough for them.

[ariainstars]

Heartstopper - When Sexuality is Set in Stone

I admit I like Heartstopper, although I guess it’s not for my age group. It’s a bit too ideal a world, with everybody being good friends, problems being solved easily, no financial distress, and young people living in a strong support system. All in all, it’s a smooth ride.

But something struck me as odd, while I was watching Season 3.

Remember the scene when Imogen tells Nick that she never liked a boy “that way” and that she only had boyfriends because she wanted to look like a cool girl?

Now of course everybody is assuming she’s a lesbian, or at least that she’s finally questioning her “heteronormative” behaviour.

On the other side we have Isaac, who has come out as asexual and aromantic. Nick, who realizes he’s bisexual. Charlie, who came out as gay before he met him. There’s non-binary Darcy. Lesbian Tara. Elle, who transitioned years earlier. Tao is heterosexual (I guess), in any case his love interest is trans.

Average heterosexual characters hardly appear, and when they do they are usually shown off as narrow-minded and difficult to deal with like Charlie’s parents. I get it that queer young people want to feel represented on screen; but to ignore them the way it was until a few years ago was as unrealistic as it is now, IMHO, to portray societies where no one falls in love with the opposite sex any more.

The absurdity is that while “heteronormative” is frowned upon, the characters are just as certain that their choice is set in stone.

It’s repeatedly said and shown that one must find out about one’s sexual orientation and desires instead of submitting to what society expects. So, heterosexuality is out, because it - allegedly - presupposes that everybody is either male or female, everybody wants love and sex, and everybody must only feel attracted to members of the opposite sex, which is seen as restrictive and biased.

Really.

The show’s characters are all around 16 years old and by now the protagonists have all come out and “found themselves”. Some of them already did before the show even started, which means at age 14 or 15. They are firmly convinced of what their respective attitude towards gender and sexuality is, and having come out, this basically means they’re convinced that this is what they are and will be for the rest of their lives.

Same for their relationships. At 16, who is in love in this show is shown as being so happy that you can’t imagine them being with anyone else for the rest of their lives.

If Nick and Charlie will always be together, Nick will never have sex with a female, but apparently, he will be "bisexual" all his life. Isaac has never been in love at age 16 and so he takes it for granted that he is not capable of romantic or erotic feelings. Elle transitioned years earlier, before her body was even fully developed. But everybody is already convinced that this is who they are and always will be.

Excuse me, it doesn't make sense. I know from experience that at 16 your love life and your identity are still pretty much a mess. I realize that this is a piece of media, but it is beloved by a large fanbase who now will naively believe that this portrayal of young people nowadays is realistic.

In former times, there seemed to be only one way to be. Now you’re expected to come out as some thing or another by the time you’re 16. A boy or a girl can’t simply not have met the right person yet or have other priorities in life: they’re either asexual or struggling with heteronormativity. Or who knows what else.

And this is not restrictive? Come on. 😊 Apparently, being queer is just as normative as being straight.

Except everybody chooses the corset they want to be in by themselves.

[putschki1969]

Hello Puts, from time to time I like to check your blog and see how you're doing :)) I came back to tumblr when I saw the news! Hope life is treating you well, and I want to thank you for being such a stable presence in our fanbase! I've been a fan of our girls for a long time, but never had friends to share my love about them with. These last few years have been lonely, so your blog is a blessing. Just wanted to let you know :) And since I'm at it, your dream setlist for their '25 concert?

Hello there lovely anon!

You are very welcome❤️ I'm really glad my blog is a source of comfort for you. I'm not a particularly social person but I do enjoy sharing my love for Kalafina with fellow fans.

Ohhh! What an interesting question. It's so hard to choose. We don't know yet what kind of live it will be so it's hard to come up with a full setlist. Depending on the atmosphere and the arrangements, the options might be quite different. In the original Nikkan Sports article about the reunion live, there is a quote from Satoshi Takebe about wanting to make this a "premium live". "Premium" could of course refer to a lot of things but I'm kinda hopeful that it means we are getting a somewhat fancy production to properly celebrate this long-awaited comeback. I'd be very happy if they did acoustic arrangements with a bunch of musicians (preferably the FBM + Konno Strings).

Assuming we are getting around 20-25 songs (most likely is 22. I'm obviously hoping for more but let's not get ahead of ourselves XD), here's my dream setlist featuring a few ballads and - coming as a surprise to no one - even more ballads〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

Kimi ga Hikari ni Kaete Iku

ARIA

seventh heaven

Natsu no Ringo

Ongaku

Gloria

Utsukushisa

red moon

storia

Hikari no Senritsu

sapphire

Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa

symphonia

sandpiper

snow falling

Yane no Mukou ni

Hikari Furu

Consolation

Door

Tsuioku

Koibito no Mukashigatari no Yuugure no

Hokage

Tombo

Encore: into the world

Encore: sprinter acoustic version

※This is my personal opinion only. I'm well aware that my preferences do not align with a majority of fandom. This setlist caters specifically to me and probably no one else :P ※I just went through the releases in chronological order. This is definitely not how they would structure a proper concert setlist. ※Lirica, Kotonoha and Kiichigo no Shigemi ni should be on this list as well but I was running out of space. ※5, 9, 10, 24 and 25 are typically not among my all-time faves but there's so much love and history behind each of those songs that it would feel wrong to not have them included. Would be willing to sacrifice two or three though to reduce the number. ※I know, many of the big fan favourites are missing but I'm just not really into them all that much. ※No Magia because all the recent cover versions have kinda made me feel very meh about the song.

Everyone, feel free to share your own dream setlist!

[momentomori24]

I don't believe liking immoral and downright evil characters says anything about you as a person, but I think acting like this definitely does.

"The HH fanbase will defend Valentinoto the moon and back" this and "Val is praised by a majority of the fandom" that, except said majority of the fandom fucking HATES that moth and fans have been harassed, had their art scribbled on to "fix" it, repeatedly called "rapist apologists" and "abuse romanticisers", get questioned or accused about condoning him irl, received graphic death/rape threats and are in general mistreated by the fandom. A Val cosplayer was mistreated and had a gun pulled on them IN REAL LIFE not even a year ago. Even the VA got repeatedly asked or assumed to be like the character he plays because "why else would he want to voice a rapist??" and told they deserve for choosing that role (fucking WILD btw). People that like Valentino as a character are the minority of the fandom, and even there NO ONE defends him. We all realise he's a disgusting individual whose actions shouldn't be defended in any capacity. What kinda bullshit lie is that?

I'm also in the Mouthwashing fandom, and it too has a bunch of issues. Infantilising Curly and minimising his actions, making Swansea to be better than he actually is and ignoring that he knew of the SA, people still debating or not realising that Jimmy raped Anya in the first place, shipping Jimmy and Curly (which isn't even a bad thing or a real problem but this person would see it that way), ect. But sure, conveniently don't bring that up. Anything for the Hazbin Hotel hate, right 💀

These next comments especially piss me off (nevermind how they're talking about an abuse survivor which is gross already). This might be a hot take and I don't care if that's the case, but I think people refusing to call Jimmy by name and excluding him from the cast is not show of a "good" fandom, actually. Jimmy has a lot more to him besides being a rapist. Rape culture, toxic masculinity, capitalistic exploitation, misogyny, male dominance-- there's sooo much more to explore and discuss about his character besides him being a rapist. And he's an incredibly disturbing character in a fucking horror game. If you can only refer to him by some stupid nickname (which takes away the seriousness of his character imo), ignore the significance of his role and themes in the story and the rest of his character and reduce him to a single trait that's BAD. That's not a good thing, and in fact, probably makes you worse than the people that do like his character because they can at least separate fiction and reality and not scrap well written disturbing characters for the sake of "comfort" or moral standing (again, in a horror game of all things). People shouldn't feel bad for liking Jimmy because he's a very good character, and ignoring that completely and acting like there aren't people who could like him... kinda sucks?

Moving over, Valentino is not and has NEVER been portrayed in a positive light in the show. I can't wrap my head around people that genuinely think that. Whenever I hear people say that the arguments I always see are "he shouldn't be attractive" and "he's just a cartoon villain" and "he acts silly and quirky even tho he's a rapist" among other things, and I don't think these people realise they're spouting eugenics bullshit and demonstrating that they don't know anything about his character simultaneously. No, Valentino isn't a "positive" portrayal of a rapist because he's attractive (way to tie morality to appearance btw). No, Valentino isn't a positive portrayal of a rapist because he acts goofy and funny and silly. Those traits are intentional and important to his character. Val is the Overlord of lust and depravity, hell's most famous pimp. His beauty is how he lures in unsuspecting sinners, and his personality is how he gains their trust and gets them to sell their souls for him to exploit (notice how Angel signed his soul away willingly). He's supposed to be appealing. He's supposed to be charming. He's entire persona is meant to be disarming. If he were like Jimmy or just a one-note unlikeable guy, his position in the show and his relationships with the characters wouldn't make sense, so he isn't. That doesn't make him a more positive portrayal or anything, it just means he's more fleshed out and written more complex than you want him to be. He's a very real depiction of an abuser, of their two-faced nature and how being attractive and charming to others doesn't make you less of an abusive monster to someone else. For context, I have been abused by someone extremely similar to Val, so his depiction feels very real to me and it's extremely tiring seeing a bunch of assholes who have probably not even seen the show or have been abused act like he's "romanticised" or "unrealistic" or "bad" simply because he was written by Vivziepop (who's ALSO an SA survivor like what is wrong with you 💀).

This is a broader point and not entirely related to this specific case, but we don't give people shit like this over people liking murderers and serial killers-- acting like all a sudden liking a rapist character says something negative about their writing or about the people that like them is INCREDIBLY stupid. People don't talk like this about Alastor and Vox-- who are both VERY despicable people. Both of them are also abusers among other horrible things, but they're not (or at least Alastor isn't) rapists so they're "not as bad". This is a sentiment I see all the time in both the fandom and hatedom whenever Valentino discourse comes back up, and this line of logic that rapists are a unique evil that can't be liked as characters in fiction but murderers and cannibals and serial killers are totally Ok is so dangerous and backwards. Liking evil characters says nothing about you as a person aside from the fact that you're a freak in the fun way. Liking evil characters but then going after others who do as well because you consider their character "too evil" and watering down the crimes of yours to justify liking them says a lot about you tho. Saying that the characters you like says something negative you in general does too.

We seriously need to stop bringing morality into fiction and saying that "normal" people wouldn't like certain immoral characters. We need to stop ostracising people for their "problematic" ships, proudly brag about ostracising them and justify it by calling them "weirdos". We need to stop saying villains are "badly written" because they're not written how YOU want them to be written, regardless of whether or not that opinion is valid (which in this case it isn't). We need to stop putting fandoms in some weird competition with each other about how characters are written and spit on people who actually enjoy them, are comforted by them or felt seen by them (gestures at the whole Angel dust situation barely a week ago). And honestly we need to stop giving attention to people like this, who spread a false narrative and kick others down for being fans of a media they don't like or know squat about for whatever reason. Who spread lies about the media or fandom in question in way that's blatantly in bad faith.

This crappy post is sitting a 17k while I'm typing this. The way people can just say ANYTHING about Hazbin Hotel and its fandom-- doesn't matter if it's valid or true or if they watched the show or know anything about the fandom at all, it just has to be negative-- and others will eat it up no questions asked needs to be studied at this point. We saw that in the months the show first aired. We saw that with the Angel Dust video. We're seeing this again here. I don't think we should be harassing anybody over fiction and in general (and needless to say don't harass any of these people) but calling out bad actors who pull shit like this more often and making it uncool to shittalk Hazbin Hotel and its fandom (and any fandom from unapologetically dark media where the people deal with enough bullshit already) for no reason and in bad faith is a change I'd be down with. Like, wash your mouth of its name and disappear into the shadow realm, goddamnit.

[itsm3m00n]

so i started reading Marionetta on Webtoon (very good btw) but one of my main issues is Julia and how the fanbase excuses her extreme bigotry and obsessive friendship.

they constantly bring up "oh she died for Kamille!" not intentionally! both Kamille and Julia have gone through hell in their own ways. Kamille is not responsible for Julia's death and she should not be grateful for Julia dying on her own accord.

both Kamille and Julia are extremely flawed. Kamille has certainly been a bad friend. she forgot Julias birthday, and spent less time with her. However, there were so many people willing to help Julia through her tough times, but she instead decided to be racist and horrible to them all.

the majority of the fanbase is completely overlooking this, probably because Kamille isn't the protagonist. Webtoon has had a lot of instances where the female Protagonist has been deeply flawed, but can do no wrong in the fandoms eyes because "everyone has problems" but then they go and hate on the secondary female character for having a life.

Julia has had extreme trauma, from dying and from having to kill Tonny. But there have been so many people trying to help, and instead she chooses to obsess over her friend who's only dream was to not be forced into an arranged marriage. Kamille is her own person and her life should not have to revolve around Julia's.

when Julia arrives at the circus, she immediately tries to drag her away and escape, without listening to a word Kamille says. it takes Kamille literally pushing her out a window for Julia to actually listen to her, and even then she doesnt respect her friends wishes. for nearly the entire comic Julia keeps trying to get Kamille out of the Circus, despite Kamille expressing multiple times that she is happy there and doesnt want to go back to her terrible home.

Now to address the Rainah and Sahed situation. They are big factors in both characters stories. Kamille's slightly obsessive crush on Rainah is one of her flaws, bacause she is allowed to be in love, however she completely abandons her friend for it.

On Julia's part, however, she is being severely manipulated by Sahed (i could write a novel on why that ship is extremely toxic). this is not her fault. Sahed is incredibly hot. however, when Kamille tells Julia about how she's in love with Rainah, Julia doesn't let her finish and immediately assumes Kamille is in love with Sahed.

Julia then goes on to completely destroy Kamille's and Rainah's friendship and doesn't apologize for it. Good job Julia. I might also add for those who don't already know, Kamille is a queer woman of color. now you may understand why the fanbase hates her so much. of course, no one says this out loud, they instead constantly blame Kamille for Julias bad descisions and say that Kamille is a terrible friend.

at the base of their problems is the fact that they don't communicate. Julia never expresses her concerns and never tells Kamille about what she's going throuh, instead she bottles it up and then explodes, blaming Kamille. Kamille doesnt tell julia about her issues and why she ran away.

Both Kamille and Julia are extremely flawed and they are both bad friends. My point is, Kamille should not under any circumstances be hated more than Julia for being a bad friend when Julia was Racist, Bigoted, and refused to be nice to literally anybody.