#cw fantasy genocide

[gatheringbones]

[“A deep psychosis inherent in US settler colonialism is revealed in settler self-indigenization.

The phenomenon is not the same as the practice of “playing Indian,” which historian Philip Deloria brilliantly dissected, from the Boston Tea Party Indians to hobbyists dressing up like Indians to New Age Indians. Settler self-indigenization’s genealogy can be traced to the period of the mid-1820s to 1840s, what historians call the Age of Jacksonian Democracy, marked by, among other phenomenon, the blossoming of US American literature.

The giants of the era are well known to every US high schooler who has had to suffer through American Lit classes—Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Longfellow, Hawthorne, and dozens of others. Among them was James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851), who conjured the United States’ origin story in his Leatherstocking Tales, made up of five novels featuring the hero Natty Bumppo, also called variously, depending on his age, Leatherstocking, Pathfinder, Deer-slayer, Hawkeye. Together the novels narrate the mythical forging of the new country from the 1754–1763 French and Indian War to independence to the settlement of the plains by migrants traveling by wagon train from Tennessee. At the end of the saga, Bumppo dies a very old man on the edge of the Rocky Mountains as he gazes east. But it is The Last of the Mohicans, subtitled A Narrative of 1757, that relates the self-indigenization myth that has endured. The Last of the Mohicans was a best-selling book throughout the nineteenth century and has been in print continuously since, along with a half dozen Hollywood movies, the first in 1911, plus several television series made in the US, Canada, and Britain. The most recent Hollywood production was a blockbuster that appeared in 1992, the Columbus Quincentenary.

Cooper conjured the birth of something new and wondrous, literally, the US American race, a new people born of the merger of the best of both worlds, the Native and the European, not a biological merger but something more ephemeral involving the disappearance of the Indian. Cooper has Chingachgook, the last of the “noble” and “pure” Natives, die off as nature would have it, handing the continent over to Hawkeye, the indigenized settler and Chingachgook’s adopted son. The publication arc of the Leatherstocking Tales parallels the Jackson presidency. For those who consumed the books in that period and throughout the nineteenth century—generations of young white men mainly—the novels became perceived fact, not fiction, and the basis for the coalescence of US American settler nationalism, the settler ideology that justified the fiscal-military state.”]

roxanne dunbar-ortiz, from not a nation of immigrants: settler colonialism, white supremacy, and a history of erasure and exclusion, 2021

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

me: hermes is a painfully accurate example of how some ways of defending yourself against certain kinds of insidious emotional abuse, gaslighting, ableism, and therapy speak can warp you into a person whose learned helplessness and lack of perspective can result in doing really shitty things, and who passes that abuse along in different forms (hi meteion) + lashes out in disproportionate ways + can be deeply hypocritical.

me: as a disabled person in a society where our systemic mass murder via pressure into government-sanctioned suicide is on the rise, the ancients' society is beyond fucking upsetting to me. i have zero sympathy for anything to do with them pre-apocalypse except for the effects of living in that system.

me: that said, they are a good opportunity to remind oneself that there are children in that burning building; that a society being fucked does not mean they deserve to be wiped out; and that that does not mitigate the harm they do, nor mean that its victims are not allowed to be angry or resist it, including the victims inside it.

me, booboo the fool: oh, this youtube essay about hermes looks interesting--

[starmeadowsystem]

I've had a game idea bouncing in my head for a while but i don't have the skills to make it and probably won't for the foreseeable future, so instead I want to make it a collaborative comment-driven roleplaying project.

Content Warnings include, but will not be limited to: fascism, genocide, intense violence, fear-based imagery, (possible?) sexual content, major character death, torture, and strong language.

The story is an adult dark fantasy horror where you play as a mysterious winged rabbit in the nation of Veldant, a country currently in the process of exterminating its rabbit population. Your task will be to survive, take care of your kin, and (by extension, hopefully) stop the genocide against your kind. Along your journey you will encounter horrors and mysteries alike, as well as a bunch of survivors who you can form ties with.

You will run, you will fight, and maybe, just maybe, you will be able to thrive.

So what does everyone think of this? It'll probably still be a little while before I figure out everything, so this may take a short while.

-Stella

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for publishing a novel that might be in poor taste?

submitted 01/08/2023

cw: genocide

i have been working on my debut novel for the better part of three years. im in the long haul to finish it within the next couple of months and i hope to be ready to publish it later this year.

the caveat is that despite being a fictional high fantasy novel, its main character is from a culture that was eradicted (almost) by the ruling class.

the main characters history is based off of my own experiences as well as stories of what my family and ancestors went through.

im worried it will be received poorly and make me look like an asshole clout chaser trying to capitalize on real-life suffering. im especially concerned since genocide has been a main topic in the publics collective consciousness for the past several months (as it should be)

would i be the asshole for going through with the publication anyway?

What are these acronyms?

[reviewsthatburn]

THE WITCH KING by Martha Wells is excellent and I had a great time reading it. The worldbuilding is nuanced and well-developed, with factions and history in a way that implies much more going on, but not getting bogged down in little details that don’t matter to this particular story. It deals with colonization and empire from the perspective of a quasi-immortal character (Kai) who has not been around forever, but has been around long enough that things which are part of his culture and history are now details that would fascinate only historians. The narrative shifts between two time periods in his life. This means that some events are mentioned before they were actually shown, but it was generally in a way that made the whole thing easier to follow. The two timelines are connected, as the main characters are trying to figure out whether the plan they were working on when they were betrayed is still salvageable. 

Full Review at Link

[eerna]

How is the hate watching going? Love your rants 😭

Dhshshsh thank youuu~~

I finished the show, but I was so weak from how dumb the ending was that I forgot to blog about it. God. God what is this show. I will sum up my opinions here.

This isn't an adaptation, it's a totally different alt history with a fantasy twist story. There isn't a single plot point that happens the same way in both the book and the show, including the actual historical guidelines. I don't even think I noticed any book quotes (aside from a few remixed ones, like Jane inventing the "you come here often?" line). Idk why they didn't just call it something else, it's not like MLJ has a big fandom they could mooch off of.

I already whined about this but I need to re-establish it. All the changes made were to make the story into tiktok romantasy brainrot. The book was already super sweet and silly with the horniness appropriate for a YA romance, but these guys went full "booktok authors advertising their romantasy works" with it. It has tropes just for the sake of tropes a la Bridgerton, where it doesn't take its time to relish in any bc it has to sprint to the next one to check the box. How you mess up an arranged marriage plotline is beyond me, I think that Jane and Guildford called each other "wife" and "husband" like??? Twice???? Bc they were too busy holding each other at knife point or looking at each other's showering butts or whatever. They didn't even TRY to include the shared curse, apparently that was too boring and vanilla for them once they wrote in that Ethians keep their clothes on when transforming.

The plot is simply wack. The pacing is off because they stretched the first half of the story across 8 eps 50 minutes each, so a lot of the time everyone is pointlessly meandering waiting for the next plot point/reveal so everyone can move on. And this usually happens in the form of sex scenes. It is actually hilarious how many plot relevant sex scenes there are, at LEAST one per ep, where characters are discussing the plot and/or convincing each other to reveal their secrets. Do the writers know there are other situations that allow characters to talk to each other??? Even Jane and Guildford have sex and she goes "So about your dead mother"

The writers keep forgetring previously established stuff. Edward and Henry can imprison/execute anyone without trial, but Jane has to "find evidence" that these guys are trying to kill her. It is established Ethians absorb their clothes and any items they are holding into their animal form, but then Guildford is running around with a shackle around his neck claiming it will break his spine if he turns into a horse while it is on him, BUT THEN later he gets out of thick ropes that couldn't be cut by turning into a horse??????? Did they forget their own rules of magic??????

The dialogue isn't as bad as something you'd see on CW, but it still isn't good. I hate it when you can tell a show is trying to be edgy by constantly swearing and saying and doing shocking things, it feels unnatural and dumb. Mary in particular is the worst case of this, I don't think she has a single character trait there that isn't there for humor edgyness. She keeps licking and chewing random things, doesn't bathe, keeps getting turned on when her father and brother are mentioned, and has meltdowns like a spoiled child (at one point this is a plot point, as in "Jane gets her to get upset in public so she loses her political credibility", but there are 0 consequences and Mary keeps acting like a child in front of the entire court and NO ONE does anything and she is STILL QUEEN when credits roll on ep 8). This is the MAIN VILLAIN why is ANYONE afraid of her is beyond me. Also the cursing, murderous, racist, genocidal 10-year-old was so annoying and I kept imaging her parents and all of the writers getting sent to the salt mines for putting that little actress through that.

The lead actors are stuck in this mess. Jane and Guildford had good chemistry, in a "these actors clearly know what they are doing even if no one else in the production does" way. It went a step further and Jane had strange charged chemistry with others too, to the point where I was like "... Did she ever smash Susannah???" and "Are we adding Archer into the mix????". Lady Frances and Lord Dudley also made me think "I wish you were in a better show".

Around the midpoint of the show when I realized Jane is not yet gonna be deposed I was like "Oh no, are they splitting it into two seasons???" But then Edward finished up his portion of the story to join the finale and Archer joined Jane so I was like "Oh, they are just changing the culmination to happen during the execution". But THEN the show ends with a cliffhanger and a promise to dethrone Mary. S2 will look even less like the book, but maybe that's a blessing.

The soundtrack sounded so cheap and digital. Amazon do not lie to me and say you couldn't get an orchestra to record it. The tracks were on loop you literally needed like a few days tops to record it.

All in all. This show sucks man I am so annoyed at it

[nartml]

Your misogyny is showing. Get your shit together

(First and last time I'll ever bother with such a rude ask, but I'll use this oh so sugary sweet statement to get some things out the way )

CW: Rant ahead, not Sakura or Hinata friendly, if you disagree and won't be nice about sharing your opinions fucking DNI, this isn't for you.

My misogyny 💀

Because I don't like Sakura and Hinata, I assume? Why is it always misogyny's fault with y'all?

Respectfully, I don't really care about Sakura and Hinata. I'm mostly indifferent to them, but they're fun to criticize, considering there's so many flaws to talk about.

Maybe I was harsh with my words when respectively bashing them, but what I said still objectively stands. Sometimes, not liking a female character has less to do with misogyny and more to do with the fact that they're really, really not that good.

But alas, I sincerely apologize for my just so disgustingly misogynistic words (in case you don't get it, I'm being 100% sarcastic)

In a bit less harsh, more analytical manner, allow me to rephrase:

Sakura is someone who doesn't fit in the Shinobi world. She's too delusional about her romantic fantasies regarding Sasuke to be able to properly advance in such a harsh environment. And Hinata, with or without her infatuation with Naruto, is an incapable kunoichi. She's far too timid and hesitant to be a warrior.

Now, those are not necessarily bad things. Not having what it takes to be a Shinobi can easily be considered positive; be it because you're a hopeless romantic and that hinders your ability to maximize your potential or because you just don't have the spine or endurance necessary to be a badass ninja. Those aren't reasons to violently hate on someone. Specifically about Sakura and Hinata, those aren't even the reasons why so many people dislike them.

Or at least I hope not. I'd understand the point of your ask better if I had said anything derogatory about their appearance, for example. Those types of haters are annoying, and I manage to turn into both Sakura and Hinata's biggest defenders the moment someone says shit that degrades Sakura for her chest or some other bs, and/or fetishizes Hinata in any way. Rest assured, I'm anything but misogynistic.

But oh shit, it's time we realized that Sakura's "feelings" for Sasuke were simply a shallow school girl crush. And that would've been okay, understandable, maybe even a little cute, if it weren't for the way she constantly pushed herself onto him, consistently referred to him as hers in her head, saw him as a trophy, a blank canvas to project her fantasies onto. She was disrespectful, and her confessions were sickening.

Because how dare you compare your loneliness to that of a genocide survivor? How could you make your supposed love's pain all about you? How could you be so ready to abandon your friends, family, life, and future just to follow him to someone who you know would cause him harm, when you so clearly don't even know or understand him? How could you try to minimize everything he went through, try to diminish all he's suffered in the name of "laughing and having fun like the good old times"? "What about me, Sasuke? I'll be in so much pain if you leave. Please, if there's even a small part of you that cares about me, stay". "I can't get close to you, I can't exchange blows with you, I can only whine and beg, it's pretty pathetic. There's nothing I can do for you".

These are all things she's said and/or done paraphrased. There's so much more I don't care to recall. And they're all very annoying.

Her sole motivation was Sasuke; he's the reason she talks about how she'll get stronger to catch up to him and Naruto, about how she wants to "save" him, or "protect" him, about how she wants to be able to "fight for herself next time".

But she never managed to really do any of it, because it was all so surface level. Her aspirations for life began and ended with Sasuke, a guy she ultimately doesn't know a single thing about. That's objectively pathetic.

I don't like her because of the way she treats Sasuke, because of the way she views him, because of the way she's so pretentious about her "undying love" for him.

I don't like anti-sasusakus who come at it from a "Sakura deserves better" perspective, because she got exactly what she asked for; now she even gets to parade around wearing that Uchiha crest like the trophy it is to her, while having done nothing to earn it!!!

But.

But.

Honestly? They're not exactly wrong. Maybe she doesn't deserve better. But her character would, at least if Kishimoto even wanted to write that story.

What do I mean by that? I mean that Sakura, as a main character, does not benefit from her feelings for Sasuke. It's not that Sasuke isn't good for her, it's that her "feelings" for him aren't.

I'll use Naruto as a comparison. His feelings for Sasuke [No, I don't care how you interpret their relationship. If you want, they can be platonic feelings or familial feelings (you'd be wrong but who am I to judge), or romantic feelings] actually serve as his basis for self improvement.

Usually, in media, love is something that drives characters to be better.

Naruto's love for Sasuke is his greatest strength.

Naruto kept getting stronger, with Sasuke as his motivator. Naruto kept trying to understand him, to see things from his perspective, never held any sort of idealistic "Sasuke would never do that" train of thought.

Naruto got to better understand the injustice of the system through Sasuke and his love for him. Naruto initially fought to bring him back to Konoha, not because he wanted to play house with him, or because he wanted Sasuke to cater to Konoha's every whim, but because in Naruto's mind, Konoha is home and it's safe, away from Orochimaru's dirty hands.

But then once he finally understood Sasuke better, once they fought and he carried Sasuke's burdensome hatred with him, he let him go. He let him travel, leave Konoha, without ever asking for him to stay, because he gets it (Unlike Sakura, who still didn't get it, and did the exact opposite)

In Sakura's case, however, her "feelings" for Sasuke hold her back. Though that's a bit of conundrum, seeing as any sort of achievements she's made are directly linked back to her crush. Like I said before, he's her motive. No, it's specifically the shallowness of her love, the half-heartedness in her convictions to improve that holds her back. Her "feelings" aren't as genuine as she –or any of you– likes to think they are, and that keeps her from growing, from seeing clearly (i.e: in the long run, they hold her back)

They're proof of her superficiality. She's too caught up in romanticizing the absolute shit out of Sasuke, too caught up in using him to live out her fairytale dreams, too caught up in asking others to bring him back to her, or whatever. She's too caught up in whether Sasuke looks at her or worries about her to fight properly. And I mean "fight" both literally and metaphorically here.

So yeah, her "feelings" for him aren't good for her. It would've been a much better character arc, in my opinion, something that could be actually empowering that would give her depth, if she had ended up with Lee instead.

Because Lee is the exact opposite of Sasuke, in the sense that he's ugly in Sakura's eyes (I'll state here that I don't think Lee is ugly, bushy brows and all, he's very pretty to me), and so to end up with him, well. That would require Sakura to see past physical appearance.

Sakura tends to be very judgemental of other people's looks, and the way she treats them is often correlated to how beautiful she finds them.

But falling for Lee would've been a great way for her to move past the cover and read the book. Something which could then translate to her being less insensitive and judgy from then on.

[Sakura fans love to point out that she might say rude stuff, but then she regrets it, so it's okay! To that I say, it hardly matters that you regret something you say and promise that you'll be better, if you're just going to repeat the process the next day]

That said, she didn't even have to end up with anyone. She could've remained single, after realizing how wrong she was about Sasuke. She could've stopped pining after him, and gotten herself a goal that is bigger than just ending up with him.

But that's not who she is. That's actually, an entirely different character. That's not how Kishimoto wrote her, and criticizing him because of that is stupid. He knew what and why he was doing it, and the narrative some of you adopt, the one that goes "no, I'm better than so-and-so, this character should've been that way instead", is exhausting.

Sakura fans never represent her how she canonically is. Truly, 100%, the way she's depicted in the show. They nitpick which parts of her they like, and ignore the rest. You guys love the version of her that isn't shallow, that understands Sasuke, that is assertive, that is 3-dimensional; a person whose hard work actually comes to mean something, who is much more genuine about her love for Sasuke, who is by all means an independent badass. The Sakura who is selfless and understanding and a go-getter badass. And that's okay, I guess. But at least admit it.

It's always an outsider commenting on how "she's better than Tsunade" because they saw her punch one time, or "her feelings for you have matured" (something cancelled out entirely by Sakura later). It's always "I've caught up to them" after something that amounts to nothing significant. We're told she's great. We've yet to see it for ourselves, outside of those five? Six maybe? Eight is my being generous. Truly iconic scenes that she has in the entirety of the manga.

I stand by my closing line on her post.

She's foolish, and too caught up in her own romantic, fantasy world to substantially thrive in a reality as cold-blooded as the one she was born in.

And that's all she'll ever be.

As for my girl Hinata. I absolutely stand by everything I said on that post. Not taking a single word back. Maybe Sakura has a few redeeming qualities; like I said, you could explore her character outside of her crush on Sasuke and make a true badass out of her. (While still acknowledging the fact that that's not who Kishimoto wrote her to be)

But Hinata? There's no character to explore. Period. She's nice. Sweet. Kind, maybe? Sweet. Did I mention nice? I should probably not forget to say that she's sweet. Let's not omit that she's privileged and doesn't care one bit that her family is a-okay with slavery!! OH, and she can cook well. She also has those big boobs. And all her symbolism with Naruto was ripped off sns, coincidentally.

She's very passively likable, and the definition of forgettable. Like it or not.

____________________________________________

As for me, I should make it clear here and now that I am no misogynist. I like to think of myself as a very passionate intersectional feminist, who gives credit where it's due.

These two ladies? They don't deserve the aforementioned credit.

Have a great day 💞

[scumashling]

Welcome newcomers! You can call me Ash (they/she).

About this account

•i made this account after realizing I've been into whump for years without knowing it and discovering that I'm not alone in finding comfort in fiction about characters being put through emotional and or physical hell. I've often struggled with intense shame related to my interest in whump, especially as it's tied to my own trauma, so learning about this community has felt like a huge weight off my chest.

•fan of: defiant whumpee, intimate whumper, Lady whump, living weapon, non con body modification, drugged Whumpee, revenge whump, dehumanization, fantasy whump,Bastard whumpee, religious whump, Whumpee turned Whumper, Bad Caretaker and nsfwhump,

•I'm fairly new to tumblr and am still trying to get a feel for how things work around here, both in terms of the people and the site itself, so I apologize in advance for any possible future faux pas. I'm also a novice writer and still building my confidence in it, but I do I intend to post some of my own fiction, art, and memes.

•I'm in too many fandoms to count but currently you can expect stuff related to Chainsaw Man, Berserk, Slay the Princess, The Boys, and Delicious in Dungeon

•DNIs: I don't intend for this to be an overtly political account, and i'm not into policing people's behavior so giving a list of opinions/positions I find morally objectionable and demanding you keep away from my account if you hold them isn't my style. If I think something you posted is wack then I will simply unfollow or block you, because I am an adult who knows and enforces their own boundaries. That being said, I am a leftist (socially, economically, foreign policy wise) and related themes are more then likely to show up in my fiction, so if you have a problem with that my account probably isn't for you. The one exception to the DNI is Zionists (including "progressive" two staters) in which case, fuck Israel, fuck genocide, fuck you for supporting it, you're a N@zi, Long Live a Free Palestine 🇵🇸

•WARNING: there will be non con stuff posted on this account, as well as general content related to abuse, kink, trauma and addiction, as well as the occasional gore post. I will use appropriate tags/cws but if that is not something you can handle, or just not something you're into hearing about, please take care of yourself and disengage. I use fiction to cope with my own history and truly do not want anyone else to be harmed by it

•I do not consider myself proship or antiship and as far as I'm concerned yall both have some weird people on your side. Basically as long as you aren't being creepy or harassing anyone, have common sense around media literacy/ engaging with fiction as fiction, but don't use the fact that it's fiction to avoid thinking about real world implications/themes, you are welcome on my page.

some facts about me:

•im a nonbinary femme lesbian who's currently studying fine arts.

•I'm mixed (Asian and white)

•I'm a 23 years old

•I was diagnosed with autism at age 18. Some of my special interests include manga, horror, feminist theory, animation, media analysis, mycology, vampires and cooking.

•i adore poetry, my favorites are Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath, Ozymandias by Percy Shelley, and She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo (specifically the canto Drowning Horses)

•I have been drawing for 7 years

[gatheringbones]

[“The site of the fair in South Chicago was nicknamed the “White City” for the massive and glistening white fake-marble buildings constructed specifically for the fair, not meant to be permanent, but rather templates for how a future city should appear, grandiose and imposing, as well as symbolizing the triumph of capitalism. On the carnivalesque midway of the White City was the Ferris wheel, which was invented for the occasion. Not far away, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner delivered his thesis, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” to the American Historical Association, which had convened its annual meeting at the exposition. Nearby, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West performed.

Without mentioning the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, Turner chose the year 1890 as the demarcation of the end of the frontier, warning that the seemingly endless moving frontier of white settlement that had formed US wealth, character, and culture had closed, and the future was not clear without the frontier escape valve for the teeming landless masses. Buffalo Bill had the answer: fantasy, reenactment, premiering the soon-to-be-born western movies.

Self-identified Christian socialist and ordained Baptist minister Francis Bellamy wrote a pledge of allegiance to the US flag in 1892, which was a presidential election year in addition to being the quadricentenary of Columbus. Both presidential candidates, Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland, urged the use of the new pledge as a way of honoring Columbus. Bellamy’s stated goal for the pledge was to advance patriotism by flying the flag in every school in the country along with mandatory reciting of the pledge. Bellamy led the way in organizing teachers to use a packaged Columbus Day educational kit he assembled. In an amazing feat, on October 21, 1892, Bellamy and his volunteers were able to involve twelve million schoolchildren around the country, including a hundred thousand Chicago schoolchildren, to simultaneously salute the flag and recite the pledge of allegiance.”]

roxanne dunbar-ortiz, from not a nation of immigrants: settler colonialism, white supremacy, and a history of erasure and exclusion, 2021

[jewishvitya]

CW - talking about antisemitic depictions and about the house elves and the depiction of slavery in the books.

I'm having a frustrating day with a lot of physical pain, so I'm not the best at judging currently if I should be posting all of these thoughts. It's a response to multiple arguments by rude anons that I blocked (not for being rude, for being transphobic), but the arguments themselves stay on my mind and I just. Need this out. Ignore this, it will be all over the place, I'm basically venting. Hoping it'll be the last bit of HP criticism I post.

I'll tag it for you to block, as usual.

I've been asked what I expect of Rowling, since my criticism of the goblins included the books. She already wrote the books, they're printed and they're out there. She can't just change them, criticism does nothing because she has no path to correct her mistake.

First of all, with her transphobia - as far as I'm concerned she has blood on her hands at this point. The way she emboldens transphobia endangers lives and erodes queer rights. Anyone who contributes to the current push against trans people is complicit in trans genocide - and she made herself a symbol of that movement. Even if she did a 180 on her issues with Jewish stereotypes, she wouldn't redeem herself.

But she isn't the only one who wrote a story and then realized that her story has deep issues. What does it look like, if an author doesn't want to perpetuate those?

From what I know of Tolkien (and I know nothing LOTR or anything, just heard this from other Jewish creators who discussed this issue, treat this paragraph like I'm repeating a rumor) - Tolkien did stumble on an antisemitic depiction while writing his dwarves. Then he course-corrected by creating a more complex and nuanced picture of the society in his future works. Basically, he leaned into the idea of his dwarves as a Jewish allegory and made it a better and more respectful allegory. They have wonderful cultural details, like having foreign-language names used outside of their community - and names in their own native language that they call each other. Half of my family comes from France, and my mom was born there. She had a Hebrew name and a legal French name. That's extremely common among Jews in some areas of the world.

This response is what I would have expected if an author cares about being respectful of Jewish people. Acknowledge the issue, and try to do better.

But what if the issue was brought to your attention after you completely finished your story? In that case: "Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was writing an antisemitic narrative with my depiction of this fantasy race." Support the voices criticizing your work, and apologize. Let it be an example of tropes to avoid, and encourage others to be careful of the same pitfalls.

What you don't do, is act horrified and say "Oh, how could you, I never intended to make the goblins an antisemitic allegory! Surely if I don't mean it, it can't be hurtful!"

Also, if you truly care, you don't then abuse the memory of the holocaust when you write spin-offs of your original story, including its imagery to support a bigoted villain's argument.

Marginalized people understand that not everyone knows what we do. The stereotypes and the harmful ideas that weaved themselves into popular culture are about us. We know that it's invisible to people who aren't the target, and as a result aren't forced to learn these things. To many people, it's just a trope they're used to seeing. Like villains have hooked noses - it's practically a shorthand for an evil character.

All the stories we tell are based in some measure on stories we heard. Narratives and tropes feed off each other between different pieces of media. It's easy to pull together a harmful narrative without realizing, when the tropes that make it up usually go together, and are so common they're everywhere. So we know a person who means no harm can create something really hurtful, without knowing it.

That's why we criticize media: we want you to see and be aware.

In addition to this, I've been accused multiple times of ignoring the fact that these books discuss bigotry and condemn it. I'm not ignoring it, I know they do - or they try to. But Rowling wrote a story against racism without understanding it and without interrogating it in herself. She only knew to condemn it when it's rude and violent and outright hateful. Not the foundations of it.

So, sure, say she didn't mean to write something harmful. What does she do when she learns she did? Nothing. And not just about the issue of the goblins - about everything. I detailed the problems with her depiction of lycanthropy, but she did the same thing with the house elves.

There's lore about creatures called brownies. They'll perform chores for you, but they'd rather not be seen while they do. If you try to pay them, they'll get offended. If you give them clothes, they'll leave. This is a very partial description, but you can see the inspiration here.

And then she turned them into a slave race. They're bound to their enslavers, possessing powerful magic but using it in their service, forced to punish themselves for disobedience and endure extreme abuse. Kreacher actively wishes to have his head put on display when he's too old and weak to be of use.

To show the reader the horrors of freedom for an elf, JKR turned poor Winky into a depressed drunk with no purpose in her life. Winky's story is horrifying.

Only Dobby takes care of Winky for that whole year. She never recovers during it. Then she's made to witness the interrogation of Barty Crouch Jr., which upsets her and causes her distress. As a result, she hears about Crouch's death through a toneless forced confession - and the interrogation continues around her. That same day, she watches the last member of the household she loved have his soul taken by a dementor, and then she's left alone with the body while Dumbledore argues with Fudge. Only after, he sends Madam Pomfrey to do what she can for Winky, and take her to the kitchens where Dobby will take care of her again.

And Rowling wrote all of this. Did she think this is an example that even compliant house elves suffer and get neglected, even by the sympathetic wizards? Was this a lesson that even those who don't seek freedom suffer and lack agency in this system?

No. Rowling turned it into a cautionary tale against freeing slaves. Unless they're "weird" like Dobby.

Maybe she didn't try to be racist, but this fits disturbingly well with the arguments against ending slavery in reality. That enslaved people will turn into aimless drunks. That they need to be enslaved to have purpose. That those who want freedom have something wrong with them.

And I know this was criticized. What was the response to the criticism? Nothing direct as far as I know, but after all of this - there was an article published on Pottermore to argue that Winky's story is a warning against freeing the elves. It was taken down fortunately, but after this article the arguments against freedom are no longer the opinion of characters within the world - it's a message given to us by real people.

She doubles down. Every time. People keep yelling that she had nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy, she's not responsible for the way it builds on her original canon. Well, she seems to approve of it. It continues painting the same line with the same brush - just bolder.

She doesn't care about the racism, she doesn't care about antisemitism - she just wanted to use the nazis as her easy villains. She doesn't have the imagination for any other kind.

[inkcurlsandknives]

Hello, I am very excited for your book. However, since I have some things I Can't Read™, I wanted to ask if there will be some way to learn about potential triggers beforehand. I usually use does the dog die /the warnings section on story graph, but that only works if people already filled them in and I'd love to get your book as soon as it's released.

So, my question is, will there be a list of trigger /content warnings somewhere prior to release?

Thank you in advance and I hope you're having a nice day!

Hi, and thank you so much for this ask! Saints of Storm and Sorrow deals with some heavy topics in what I hope is a thoughtful and impactful but non-gratuitous way. I actually originally sent all my queries and full requests to Agents and Editors with a list of Content Warnings. The ARCs also have content warnings printed inside. However I don't believe the first printings plan to have CWs so I've been meaning to get a list of the CWs up on my website. I'll also go ahead and share it here. I actually have never been on Story Graph but I need to fix that and get more familiar. Manuscript Content Warnings: On page portrayal of colonization which includes sexism, racism and homophobia as well as emotional abuse. On page violence/murder, natural disasters, abortion, self-harm, torture, consensual sex. Mention of/off page: child abuse/pedophilia, genocide, suicide.

Happy to answer any additional questions about Saints, and thank you for your interest in my story! If Saints will have to be a pass I completely understand. Maybe you can check out some of my other short works. Another filipino fantasy focused one would be Dying Rivers and Broken Hearts a witchy 2nd chance sapphic romantasy about saving the Bakunawa/Laho of Manila Bay, (TW blood/blood magic, off page death, animal sacrifice) and in June I have a short coming out in the Of Stardust Anthology with a Sapphic retelling of the Dugong Wife.

[amothshunger]

Finally putting my dislike of The Poppy War, Yellowface, and R. F. Kuang into words

This has been a long time coming, and I'm finally in a space where I'm able to articulate why I didn't like Yellowface or The Poppy War and why some of the hype and praise around R. F. Kuang felt a little mismatched or incomplete to me (also I could just be a bitter hater, idk).

In short, I found both books intellectually lazy. Kuang is clearly capable of bringing minimally explored topics to traditional publishing in a way that gets a lot of buzz, but I don't find them explored with the depth and consideration I personally would like. To me, they are incurious, didactic yet devoid of nuance or effort to follow-through; and I think there's some disconnect between what Kuang believes her role and responsibilities are as an artist, and what I believe.

cw: mention of rape, genocide

Being in bookish spaces, I was vaguely aware of R. F. Kuang and the buzz around The Poppy War trilogy. Military fantasy isn't really my thing, so I didn't read it, although my partner read and hated it (and I'll explain why in a bit). Then Yellowface came along, and there was even more hype and buzz for that. The New York Times had a whole profile on, so much press, so much excitement around a young woman of color with such a prestigious education background (this comes back around, remember this!) that made me suspicious - it felt like people were fetishizing her proximity to academia and success rather than praising the merits of her work.

Yes, she studied at elite universities, she's accomplished so much so young, but what is it about her art that uniquely speaks to you? I wasn't finding this answer in the conversation, which may have just been the bubble I was in.

(Also I completed my bachelor's degree at a world-renowned / elite university; so I may not be a PhD candidate, but I'm somewhat familiar with these spaces and have a lot of gripes about the pointed absence of class and elitism when discussing these credentials.)

The buzz around Yellowface was that it was radical, scathing, holding a mirror up to publishing in regards to how it deals with race and opportunity. What was it saying exactly by holding up this mirror? What questions did it ask? What were the takeaways? No one would say.

So I picked up Yellowface myself. As a queer Black person from a poor background in publishing, at first I found it entertaining, but ultimately I walked away disappointed. And annoyed. It felt very... one note.

And the more I thought about it, the more I hated it.

Yellowface is told from the perspective of June Hayward, a white fiction author in the United States (somewhere on the east coast, Boston, perhaps? or NYC? I don't remember). Her debut novel didn't flop exactly, but she keeps brushing paths with Chinese-American fiction author Athena Liu who had a different experience that spikes envy. When Athena dies suddenly, June steals Athena's manuscript and passes it off as her own (under a more racially ambiguous name) and finally finds success.

About a subtle as a brick to the face.

From the jump, Athena Liu is young, beautiful, well-educated, from a upper-middle class background, friendly, and talented. Everyone loves her, and her debut is super popular, best-selling, and critically-acclaimed. She gets big advances from her publisher and even has a profile piece in the New York Times. (Sound familiar?)

And June froths at the mouth, hating her for absolutely no reason. There wasn't very much depth to her character, or Athena's, for that matter, which was a little bit disappointing. It's possible to write a dislikeable character with some complexity, but I didn't find much of it in June. She was from a working class background and therefore she was envious of Athena's financial stability and success, easy peasy. Did we get much exploration into what it means to be working class in elite circles? Not really, just a statement that it exists. Does June ever engage with other working class white people? No. Does June ever point her criticism at monied white people? No. Do other working class white people ever try to befriend June or even exist in this book? No. (This is very funny if you look at the foundation of writing MFA programs in the United States - there is definitely a strong class element, but let's just move along here.)

All in all, this read like a wealthy person assuming they understand what it means to be marginalized by class, without the nuance. Again, I've been in elite spaces as a poor person, homeless and couch surfing and hungry while applying for grants and translating legal documents for my Capstone. This didn't match my experience, and it didn't reflect any working class whites I knew or crossed paths with.

Yes, June has a racism problem, but what else? This book is very critical of the unexamined racism that June embodies, believing herself to be good and just and moral, but what about class? What does this say about publishing and class, exactly? What are the cultural differences that poor and working class people experience and must learn to navigate when they enter publishing that puts them at a disadvantage, compared to counterparts of the same race?

Yellowface doesn't really care about class. It briefly acknowledges but doesn't explore it, which begs the question why Kuang even put it in there. Why not just make June also upper-middle class, like Athena, on equal footing except for race, since class isn't important to the story you want to tell?

The longer I thought about it, the more Yellowface, to me, felt pedantic and also disrespectful to readers. Who is the audience, and why do you expect so little of them that they can't handle multiple topics or themes at once? Racism is the focus, hammered over our heads over and over and over again, needing us to stay focused on the big picture here, don't get distracted by the intersections of class or elitism. Is it because we can't handle it or because the author doesn't want to do it? Because the author is incapable or because she doesn't find it important or relevant?

I frankly doesn't see how it isn't relevant, how a story like this doesn't warrant more discussion on classism and elitism, but that's just me. Maybe the audience isn't people of color at all, but white people, and that's why the ham-fisted June is rewarded for her racism kinda sorta (except I found that it loses this point some times in an effort to be funny) didn't work for me. Perhaps it was just the execution that led to this, because it's so locked into June's head that maybe June doesn't care about these interwoven threads, June is the one who's intellectual incurious, but well, the author chose to write from June's limited perspective. This was a craft choice.

But here's the other thing: as a chronically online hater, June sometimes liked to read critical reviews of Athena's work. Apparently, Athena was criticized by Asian readers of mining their tragedies and histories for her fictional work, for money and accolades.

And this made my ears perk up because this was the exact criticism both my partner and a Chinese friend had of The Poppy War.

After reading Yellowface, I actually went to GoodReads to look at reviews of The Poppy War and what do you know: There were quite a few Chinese and Taiwanese readers who found Kuang's handling of the Sino-Japanese War, particularly genocide in Nanjing, and depictions of Taiwan to be offensively shallow.

Whether consciously or not, Kuang took critics of her actual debut and depicted them targeting her self-insert as either racist or bitter haters trying to pull her down, crabs in a barrel-style. (For a better analysis of race, class, hierarchy in the Asian community, and elitism in publishing, I liked this video by Cindy, who actually got referenced in Yellowface as one of these bitter, jealous haters despite never talking about Kuang before.)

This made me finally pick up The Poppy War. It follows Rin, a dark-skinned orphan girl in a rural area who tests into an elite military school for a chance at upward mobility, right before a war breaks out.

I understood what it was going for immediately: Rin is fixated on pursuing power, because that is her gateway to autonomy and freedom, things rarely if ever afforded to girls of her station. She studies to get into the school, only to learn that she needs more power just to stay, only to learn that she needs even more power to survive the outbreak of war.

Unfortunately, the worldbuilding was a major problem for me. See, I studied some Chinese history, so the lack of effort felt a little appalling and, again, offensive. There were a lot of things about Nikan's history and the depiction of Mugen, that felt lifted straight from a history book. It wasn't 1:1, but the fantasy in this military fantasy was very light, to say the least. A lot of names of real historical and mythological figures sprinkled through. Rin becomes a shamaness, but many of the deities in the Pantheon are real local deities. Some of the military maneuvers of Nikan were actions of the real Chinese army against Japanese invasion. The war crimes of Mugen were the real war crimes of Japan, beat for beat. Literally, if you scroll the Wikipedia page of Japan's crimes against humanity in Nanjing, it feels like copy and paste - the same crimes in the same amount of detail. (Curiously, when my partner read The Poppy War in 2021, he noticed a section in the book that had been copy and pasted from an excerpt of a history book on Nanjing, and Kuang confirms in the author's note that she took from these books "without having to" change much.)

The thing is: there are still survivors of this genocide. This happened in living memory. And while the book doesn't glorify the Mugen Empire and its emperor (whose name looks very Japanese), it doesn't really center the victims either. (N. K. Jemisin gives a great talk in her Masterclass about the responsibility of an author when making fantasy of things that impact living communities, including ones that the author belongs to.) Rin is a witness to the brutality, but the narrative has also given her so much distance from them all that she isn't like them and doesn't see herself in them - the narrative makes her other. She witnesses the torture of others, but she herself isn't physically brutalized. Now, I don't think Rin needed to be tortured on page as motivation, but she eventually snaps and uses her power in a drastic way after a man dies; it wasn't the piles of dead bodies including of children that made her snap, nor the graphic recount of systematic rape of her female colleague. It was the death of a man she liked - so what was the narrative point of all the rest? Why did we read wholesale copies of these real, brutal things if only to use as decorative window dressing?

I'm not Chinese, so here is a review from a Chinese reader about the depiction of these crimes against humanity and the wholesale lifting of worldbuilding. Instead, I'm going to talk more about the responsibility of the artist and circle back to that intellectually incurious thing, the whole point of this long ass essay.

In the author's note, Kuang said that she wanted to raise awareness about the Japanese invasion of China during WWII which isn't well known. To the West (white people). Which means that this book wasn't written for Chinese people, whether in China or the diaspora. To this, I ask: if you were just going to take shortcuts on worldbuilding and copy real historical accounts, why didn't you just write a non-fiction book? If you wanted fiction as a vehicle for empathy with a Chinese witness of genocide, why not historical fiction?

Why fantasy?

If you want Westerners (white people) to empathize with victims of a genocide, if you want to educate them, then why would you make this a fantasy, thereby making readers absorb the contents of the book through a fantastical lens, when there were in fact real victims, some of whom are alive today?

And the other thing about fantastical depictions of real-world events is that Rin turns out to come from a tiny island south of fictional!China, that "belongs to" fictional!China. This island is depicted as inhabited by dark-skinned savages, barbarians, little more than violent beasts that can't hardly think for themselves, all addicted to drugs. Does this sound familiar to anybody else? Can you imagine why this depiction might be a little bit problematic, considering the rest of the book is already lifted wholesale from reality? Considering current, real life sentiments about the sovereignty of a little island south of China that is viewed as belonging to China, full of darker skinned people with their folk religions deserving of subjugation?

And I understand why fantasy races exist, but if you're going to depict a fantasy race based on real people, you need to be cognizant of stereotypes that impact those real people. Even if you yourself are a person of color, you are not immune from reproducing ethnic supremacist notions in your work.

Despite Rin learning that she is from this island, that those are her "people," she doesn't want to learn about them (thereby giving us readers a well-rounded view of these Racialized Others). She's not interested in connecting with them, culturally or linguistically. She doesn't contradict the dehumanizing way that others around her talk about them, either vocally or in her own thoughts. Rin exploits her proximity to them the same way that fictional!China exploited them and doesn't think twice about it. The narrative gives no room for the complexity or nuance of being a genocide survivor, or an internally colonized person, facing down another genocide. It's all action, all violence, all the time. Interiority and introspection? Never heard of her.

Rin has loyalty to Nikan that isn't explained or questioned; it is simply taken as fact that she will die for Nikan. No nuance or exploration to her patriotism at all. She is loyal to the nation complicit in the genocide of her people; she has faced racist/colorist abuse by her compatriots for years, so why isn't the emotional impact of this discovery in the context of patriotism explored more?! It's just "This happened. Oh. Moving on!" And while she is technically a genocide survivor facing another genocide, she doesn't have any memories of the first. She has no attachment to Speer other than her being otherized her entire life but not knowing why. I think this story could've been more impactful if Rin did know she was Speerlie from the beginning, and her search for empowerment through the Phoenix could've been an intentional reconnect with her heritage and lost people instead of a coincidence. Or have her not be Speerlie at all and explore appropriating indigenous myths for power!

Because the reality of reading this, even though I'm not Chinese, as an internally colonized person, I already understand dehumanization. I understand escalating violence of an occupying force. I understand reconnecting to the motherland as a diasporic person.

This really reads as Genocide for Dummies. Genocide for White People Who Don't Know History or What It Means to Be Colonized or Oppressed. It is talking at me, not in conversation with me.

Fiction, to me, is a tool for exploration, and I didn't find any topics deeply explored in The Poppy War. There was no question being asked of me in the narrative, so there was nothing for me as a reader to answer. The only thing expected of me as a reader was to empathize with the protagonist, but the narrative robbed her of so much complexity and nuance that she never felt like a fully realized person. Rin felt like a cardboard cut-out with identities taped onto her; she was one-note, just like June Hayward was one-note. A vehicle for whatever information the author wanted to dump onto the page, to be steered here and there as the narrative sees fit.

Also, describing the destruction of fantasy!Japan as "a cloud in the shape of a mushroom"? So fucking lazy. Readers deserve more effort and care and consideration than this.

I want more. Yes, you're young and formally educated, but what else? You can research, but what else? What are you trying to say? What are you trying to explore? It's giving... the bare minimum for a passing grade and expecting us to just be content because it exists, not because it has anything to add to the conversation. It's giving... I spend a lot of time with people outside of my community so that I can feel more educated/better about this topic than those around me, rather than engaging with my community to further our collective progress and richness.

I wanted richness, and I got surface-level, lacking interrogation and self-awareness, but if your metric and aspiration is to the class of Whiteness, girl I guess.

[fruitzbat]

happy mollymauk week, everyone! as it's threeleaf day, I thought I'd use this time to spread the word about my fan novel trilogy to any enthusiasts who might not be aware.

The series is called “Devil & The Details”, but it’s more commonly referred to as “Devilverse” for short. The first two books are complete, and the third is currently being serialized.

Linked beneath the cut, we have an epic about Kingsley getting into new trouble on the seas, his captaincy of the Mollymauk, and ultimate rise to the throne of Darktow. While both Molly and Lucien make appearances — along with some other members of the Nein — the story is chiefly about Kingsley and his efforts to forge a unique path for himself. Since this is also a story where all three make an appearance, this trilogy potentially carries the dubious honor of being the longest threeleaf fic on ao3.

The goal of the series was to explore some of the things referenced by Taliesin about the ideas he wanted to explore with both Molly and Kingsley's existences, such as the notion of "soullessness" in mermaids and the philosophical concept of the tabula rasa. The overarching story is also about healing from different kinds of trauma, grief, breaking cycles of abuse, myths and realities of "the pirate's life" and "the resistance" as a concept, accountability, and how T4T love transcends petty things like death and fate. Think Black Sails meets Baldur's Gate with a Candide rising.

CW for: canon-typical violence and gay sex,* gore, mild body horror, frank discussions and depictions of slavery and genocide, cannibalism, suicide (especially in book III), and mentions (but not depictions) of sexual assault.

*There are also two short stories in the series that trend more towards the NSFW/PWP side and are about King and his love interest in the novels; their promo post can be found...

UPDATE: post deleted, flagged by tumblr censors since it's about two trans people in love, lmao.

The novels are written in what could be loosely described as historical fiction style, with other heavy influences taken from 90s anime and camp fantasy. They follow a standard fantasy trilogy setup, with the first book being more plotty, the second more character-driven, and the third currently shaping up to be a mix of the two.

BOOK I: Crowned Teeth (or, An Offering Revoked) [complete, 130,670 words]

We find Kingsley in dire straits after being betrayed by his crew and sold into slavery in the Hespet Archipelago. Breaking out with nothing to his name except a pair of enchanted pistols and a ragtag handful of other escapees, Kingsley vows to see himself avenged upon the leadership of the Tempest Fang.

BOOK II: Wine-Dark Sea [complete, 161,010 words]

With the Fang defeated and Kingsley trying to make things right in their absence, Fjord and Jester accept a quest to uncover a lost relic near the island of Glintshore. With the archdemon Maxima and the Abyssal Plane's intrigue unfolding in the wings, the three of them discover that there is more than what meets the eye.

BOOK III: Home to Roost [in progress, projected 300,000 words]

At long last, Kingsley and the other ex-Revelry members that make up the Diamond-eaters are sailing on Darktow. The long awaited showdown with the Plank King looms, and the archdemon Samiel plots to take the throne from Graz'zt. To his great misfortune, Captain Tealeaf catches the eye of both of them. To protect his new friends and ensure his path to the throne, Kingsley has to call on unexpected allies.

This is very much a labor of love on my end; King, specifically, is very important to me for many reasons. In case we never got the opportunity to explore his life and times on-stream, it was imperative to me that he get at least one story to call all his own.

If you want a proper pirate epic to tuck into, this is it!

[dicesmasher]

American Extraplanars

CW: A European slagging off America

I've been thinking about accents. They're a great way to convey cultural differences across different parts of my world, and I draw from real world accents to signify the cultural background of characters when I'm playing and DMing.

In my world, most of the countries thus far established are heavily based on real ones. Graddeland is England, and Rama is France, Ralskyov is Russia, Hjelvord is Sweden, et cetera. But I ran into a slight problem of what to do with the USA.

See, a North America analogue exists in my world, but it's inhabited primarily by the Crelkowaa, analagous to the (diverse, continent-spanning cultures) of Native Americans. My 'Europeans' haven't invaded and made them a minority, for reasons I'm still working on, but the idea of Native American analogues being major players in my world is something I'm really keen on.

Of course, giving the Crelkowaa American accents would be immensely disrespectful to their real inspirations. But American accents also represent a wealth of opportunity and personality. Then it hit me - why not give American accents to fiends, or celestials, or both?

Especially with celestials, since in my world I like to think of celestials as ill-informed arrogant busybodies that like to police the world according to whatever god is commanding them, and may see themselves as its saviours, but they often make things worse with collateral damage or unintended consequences (or for some gods, entirely intended and selfish consequences), and most mortals would really rather they fucked off. A cheeky thematic link between 'divine intervention' and American foreign policy? That would be fun!

It could work well with fiends too. I especially like the idea of portraying devils like overly friendly east-coast fast-talking salesmen, trying to convince you that whatever they're offering is worth your soul. Think Alastor from Hazbin Hotel.

I also recognise that the American accent is derivative of what the English accent was at the time America was being colonised, but I absolutely refuse to ruin the analogue of my own country by making them talk like Americans!

Besides, I think most of the pressure I felt to give Americans somewhere to be in my world really just comes from the overwhelming dominance of American media and their superpowered role in the current geopolitical ecosystem. In the grand scheme of things, the USA is still a very young country, established by a genocidal invasion from another continent, with very little cultural identity of its own, and certainly none that's very old. I don't think it provides much to inspire fantasy worldbuilding, at least by my own methods and vision.

The continent of North America, though? Incredible landscapes! iconic wildlife! And from a European perspective, riddled with mystery and discovery. This combined with native cultures creates a gold mine of inspiration for monsters and magic. Paradoxically, while the USA doesn't make for particularly good fantasy, the continent of North America does, and its potential is largely wasted.

[piercedpressure]

what is broken earth is it a book << needs book recs

broken earth is a trilogy of sci-fi fantasy books written by nk jemisin. the series is a favorite of mine!! the order goes: fifth season -> the obelisk gate -> stone sky

this is the synopsis of the first book as written on the authors website: "Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries."

its an extremely beautifully written series with incredible worldbuilding but PLEASE please please heed the cws going into it because it also deals with very heavy topics, thankfully handled well:

racism

colonialism

child death

child abuse, through the perspective of a child more often than not, sometimes through the perspective of the abuser

mentions of csa and pedophilia

genocide (especially the third book)

if you need more specifics like chapters and pages, id be more than happy to send them over to you!

[gcldfanged]

🔥🔥🔥

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion [I'm tagging as 'vent cw' and 'salty opinion cw' for those who want to blacklist]

I am getting real tired of all the virtue signaling and moral superiority in regards to content. I hate to be That Guy™ but back when I was writing on forums and on LiveJournal, we asked each other if our partners were okay with certain content we weren't sure of. We have a tagging system now, we have carrds and rule pages to explain what we don't want to roleplay and/or read. Tag and Blacklist, it takes five seconds (maybe less). Throwing a hissy fit and vagueing about people is stupid and does nothing to help the issue. I'm not even talking about kinks, specifically. I have received and my friends has gotten hate for roleplaying villains. Villains who may be bigots, fantasy racist, almost or did succeed in genocide- Writing about bad shit doesn't equal endorsement or excusing crimes or fetishizing/romanticizing abuse. What really blew my mind was some white roleplayer trying to explain to me what colonization and imperialism are (aside from the fact that I'M KOREAN, I do pay attention to and examine world history). I wasn't even saying 'wow i sure do love fascism and stuff!', I was writing an in-character drabble from the PERSPECTIVE of someone who believes in the oppressive political system ruling his fantasy country. The nation the character is from isn't even REAL, I don't know what else to really say. I swear people care more about oppression but ONLY when it applies to fictional characters- from what I've seen.

I'm gray-ace, I get being asexual in the RPC (or just plain not interested in writing smut) can be challenging sometimes when people expect smut to be included with the shipping package, but oh my GOD- you guys can act like such children about smut that's not even directed at you. See above: Tag it. Blacklist it. BOOM.

If you take it upon yourself to say your portrayal of a canon is the only 'correct' one and try to educate others about 'how to play the character the right way', please get a life. Did the content creators die and hand you the rights?