#cw shadow people

[writeouswriter]

ID: A 4 panel digitally drawn horror comic depicting, in order: a shadowy figure pressed against a door's window at the end of a long hallway, a closeup of the figure staring directly ahead, a small child on the other end of the hall with a vaguely eerie silhouette behind them, and an extreme close up of a pair of terrified eyes reflecting back the figure in both of them. White hand-printed text in each panel reads: I had a nightmare twenty years ago... of something tall and shadowy, waiting for me at the end of the hall. And sometimes, I worry... I still haven't woken up. End ID]

[sarasade]

One of the most generally useful things to come out of Hbomberguy's plagiarism video and Todd in the Shadows' similar video on misinformation is how they bring transparency to the internet phenomenon of "I made up a guy to get mad at".

Seriously, I've seen people make up a lot of stupid shit on the internet over the years and it's often just a manipulative attempt to paint a group of marginalized people in a bad light.

That's the TL;DR version of this post. 

ANYWAY here is the long version

Those videos are mostly about James Somerton's plagiarism of other queer people's work. However I'd like to talk about that 20-30% of Somerton's original writing- and oh boy. It's mostly about complaining about White Straight Women and misgendering well-known trans creators such as Rebecca Sugar and calling Becky Albertalli a straight woman while it's pretty common knowledge that she was forced to out herself as bi because she received so much harassment over "being a cishet woman who appropriates LGBT+ stories".

One thing that irks me especially is how in his Killing Stalking and Gay Shipping videos Somerton brings up how straight women/ teen girl shippers exploit gay men for their personal sexual fantasies. This gets brought up several times in his videos.

Being all up and arms about Somerton being a "White Cis Gay Who Hates Women and Queer People tm" is not that useful because the kind of rhetoric he's using is extremely common in fandom and LGBT+ spaces on Tumblr, TikTok and Twitter. We really don't need to bring Somerton's identity to this since he is in no way an unique example.

It's hypocritical to make this about an individual person when I've seen A TON of posts, tweets and videos where queer people talk about these Sinister Straight Women who are supposedly out there fetishizing and exploiting queer men. It's pretty clear to me that this is just an excuse to shit on women and queer people for having any sexual interests. At worst these comments are spreading misinformation about BL, a form of media that has been excessively studied by both Asian feminists and Asian queer women.

This all sounds really familiar and I think it's good that people are calling it out as what it is: misogyny and transphobia. I'd also point out the potentially racist motives behind being this hypervigilant about Asian media.

People can absolutely be misogynist regardless of gender or orientation. I really don't know why we need to create some kind of made up enemy to get mad at. I actually think it's almost sinister how "anti-fujoshi" people call Slash shippers and fujoshi misogynists or claim that they have internalised misogyny while being dismissive about women's interests and creative pursuits under Japanese obscenity laws, China's censorship, book bans in American schools and various other disadvances that are part of being a queer and/or female creator.

I think we shouldn't be naive about the bad faith actors who want to turn queer people against each other. For example Fujoshi.info mentions anti-gender (TERF, GC etc) movement using this kind of rhetoric as well.

Anyway if you want to read more:

- about the false info around BL fandom fujoshi.info

-There is the scholar Thomas Baudinette who studies gay media in Japan. Here is a podcast with him and the scholar Khursten Santos

-James Welker is a BL scholar as well. Here is a podcast interview about the new international BL article collection he edited.

-I've already talked about this Youtube channel by KrisPNatz and his great Killing Stalking video that actually engages with the themes of the manhwa

- There is also HR Coleman's thesis DO NOT FEED THE FETISHIZERS: BOYS LOVE FANS RESISTANCE AND CHALLENGE OF PERCEIVED REPUTATION where she interviews 36 BL fans and actually breaks down why fetishization has become such a huge talking point in the fandom discourse. Spoilers, it's mostly about young queer people and women being worried that they will get judged and pathologized for their interest in anything sexual.

-Great podcast about Danmei and censorship with Liang Ge

[sonicexelle-junkary]

A little bit of rendering practice for future comics. Probably will use this cause I like it.

Anyways, please go read the Infested comic by @flightyalrighty because, yes, this is fanart for it. I absolutely adore the comic so far, so please go support them so they can continue making fantastic work.

[blaiddfailcam]

reblog to get midra'd

[canisalbus]

I think you've mentioned before that after Machete's passing, Vasco would eventually find another partner that he'd live out the rest of his days with. Do you think he'd tell them about Machete at some point? Or would he feel it's safer/easier to keep the stories and memories to himself? If he did tell his partner I'd also understand if he chose to leave out certain details, such as Machete's job, whether it be for general safety or a sense to protect Machete's privacy and reputation even though he's gone

I think the partner Vasco lives the rest of his days with is most likely his platonic wife Ludovica, the one he was already married to at the time he reunited with Machete in their early thirties. I can see him eventually starting to try to see other men again, and he might love them too, but the whole process of trying to open up to other people (after all those years and the way things ended) would be kind of lonely, frustrating and painful for the most part. Chances are none of his subsequent relationships would last very long. He'd probably grow closer to Ludovica and she would do her best to support him. I'm not sure how much of his 10+ years with Machete he'd be able to share with anyone to be honest.

[probablybadrpgideas]

An actual idea: Making "Animate Dead" Evil Again

Zombies and skeletons in D&D, for all they play to spooky images, aren't really horrific. They're a mismash of two different lores that can't really work together (like a lot of zombie fiction but that's a discussion for another day)- the mindless ravenous predators of modern zombie apocalypse and the tragic undead slaves of the original stories. But they lack either sides symbolic resonance. They're no apocalypse- they're disposable cannon fodder even a starting party can take down- but nor is there any indication that "animate dead" is an actual evil act beyond being kinda gross. This seems very harmless for both a nominal horror monster, and something intended to be a genuinely (indeed, mechanically) evil act.

It doesn't seem possible to make them a real threat without major changes, so the obvious solution to this is a simple fluff change. They're not mindless. They're compelled, they can't act of their own volition. But they're still in there.

They don't shamble. They visibly struggle against the motions their limbs make, as if they were puppets trying to resist their strings. They don't moan. They sob, and when they see the players they force out desperate apologies and pleas for help. They're not stupid. They're intentionally twisting orders and trying to destroy themselves to the best of their ability because they hate the necromancer and are taking what vengeance they can.

Maybe they can genuinely help, if the players will accept it. The "disposable minions" see a lot, and might mutter the necromancer's weaknesses or warnings about an upcoming ambush or whatever useful information they've seen while attacking. Failing that, they fight to lose. They're easy to beat not because they're weak, but because they're on your side. They intentionally move to hinder the necromancer and help the party as much as they're able to, they interpret all the villain's orders as unhelpfully as they can, they hiss encouragements and laugh hollowly when the players succeed.

The undead hordes are victims, not monsters. They're the people the players are trying to help, or at least avenge. And they're trying, as best as they can, to make it happen.

-Pencil.

[wickjump]

thinking.about!!! how :( cross sans.. :(( whump……… or at least hurt/comfort…… im frothing at the mouth i need more. he should be tortured i think

[graves-doodles]

Just gonna finally post this lil ol' thing, from long ago there was a really cool Twilight Princess AU that I got Invested in Unfortunately I never did finish it, but I figured this is enough to stoke some interest still and I felt bad holding it hostage just because it wasn't done

[vic-does-battlecats]

Lonely wanderer, never to truly be a sister

[jackdaniel69nice]

October is here! Halloween is soon upon us, prepare for horror!!

Dark Shadow and Setsuna (lizard girl from 1-b) decided to play a prank on their classmates. I redesigned her a bit to have a slightly more lizardy appearance (I also made her character a bit more chaotic, she is still a good leader though!). With how genetically similar reptiles and birds are, these two are like cousins XD

Hagakure: Wow that was so scary! Where did you get all the fake blood?

Dark Shadow (literally eating Setsuna’s liver): Fake???

[ahti-the-janitor]

Is this Alan Wake with the shadows in Herald of Darkness and the dark place in general??

[hauntingmiser]

Day 12 of monstertober!!!!

Anyways here's the clown counselor but he's a shadow!!!!! 😱😱😱😱

It was inspired by a Sprite edit that I will show right here ( it was back in March or something.....) :

Anyways this is a present for my friend

@deliscandystore

I hope you like it tho

[m0e-ru]

she had leftover paint from the last show, one minute, and a dream

[dove-da-birb]

Social Anxiety Thou Art a Bitch

Me; *vibing*

Social anxiety; Hey, you know what would be fun?

Me; *vibing stops*

Social anxiety; What if you start getting anxiety because your stuff is getting some traffic. Wouldn't that be fun?

Me; No, no it would NOT be fun. Please stop.

Social anxiety; Mmm, no <3

[smallestchurchinmartinaise]

[destiniesfic]

Can darkling's treatment of Alina in the first book be called "grooming". I've seen people say that he groomed "several young girls". Do you agree with that?

Oh boy.

Your question sounds sincerely meant, anon, so please forgive my eye roll GIF, but the people who bring this up are often being incredibly disingenuous. The term "grooming" in fandom spaces has basically lost all meaning from being so broadly applied in ship wars, which is deeply unfortunate because actual sexual grooming of children is a real problem! Trying to figure out whether a fake 500+ year-old man manipulating a 17-year-old girl in an ahistorical 1800s magic Russia AU qualifies as "grooming" is an impractical exercise! It's not a thing that happens!

But, okay. Do I agree that the Darkling "groomed several young girls?" I mean... kind of, yeah, I do? The Darkling manipulates literally everyone, aside from Baghra who's been around long enough to see through his bullshit. It's his primary personality trait. He manipulates Alina. He manipulates Genya. He manipulates Zoya. He even manipulates Elizaveta from beyond the grave, somehow. He works very hard to play on these women's insecurities and fears through careful interactions, to earn their trust and devotion so they'll do what he wants, no questions asked. He tells each of them that they're the world's specialest girl.

Does all that add up to grooming? Sure, definitionally. But when people use grooming as a "gotcha" they're usually talking about child sexual grooming, and the Darkling is grooming these young people for unquestioned loyalty, not sex. For most of them, this begins way, way earlier than Alina's story even shows. There's a reason the Grisha children are separated from their families for training at such a young age. It ensures that their loyalty is to each other and to "Ravka"—but really to the Darkling.

Genya is actually the closest that the Darkling comes to grooming these women in the way people really mean when they talk about grooming. If you haven't read her companion story, "The Tailor," you should. He abuses the trust he cultivates in Genya to pimp her out to the king when she is very much a child with no agency. But where I think people get confused with Alina and Zoya is that the sexual and romantic aspects of those relationships are the means, not the ends. He inspires desire in Alina and love in Zoya as a way of controlling them better. He is not grooming them for sex. Sex is part of the grooming, though.

Anyway, it all amounts to the same thing, which is "the Darkling is bad," because grooming children not for sex but to become members of your loyal child soldier army is also extremely bad. I just think that we can afford to be a little more nuanced about what we mean when we apply actual, real-life terms to a fake narrative. That's all!