#do you actually want to know /genq

[caswlw]

wait i’m out of the loop what happened with lamp theory

oh dude…

[decolonize-the-everything]

Are you actually going to vote for jasmine? Do you actually think they could win or are you hoping this gives way to more opportunities for third party in the future?

If you don't think they could win-- how does Trump winning help minorities or Palestine? /genq

This is the 100000th ask like this so don't take my tone personally but,

People in Palestine are experiencing a genocide. Black people in the USA are being systematically killed. The genocides of all native tribes in the USA are being carried out with blood quantum and attacks in our sovereignty. Queer and especially trans people are having their rights attacked and eroded. Book bans are happening. Bodily autonomy rights are under attack.

The idea that there are "lesser" evils is propaganda.

You're either commiting genocide or you're not. Your commiting hate crimes or you're not. You're oppressive or you're not.

"lesser" isn't fucking real.

Evil and fascism are here and passing legislation that's getting people killed and forcing them to flee as political refugees to other states and countries.

And what is Biden doing for any of us now? What are democrats not doing now that you think they'd magically be able to do after November? They already have the presidency. Kamala is literally in the WH.

Further, leftists were told 4 years ago y'all would push Biden left and organize behind a 3rd party if we did, that way the next election, we wouldn't have to vote for Biden.

And what did you instead when we tried to demand the stimulus checks or COVID vaccines or uplifted 3rd parties or criticized him and his party for anything while he was in office?

The time for y'all to organize under a Democrat has come and gone and it's not MY problem that you didn't do anything useful with that time.

We kept our end of the deal and Biden won.

"what if Trump wins"

If you don't want to find out then vote how leftists are telling you to.

Like what did liberals think would happen if liberals didn't? Like how did you think leftists would react to establishment liberals betraying them, really? Especially when it's been multiple elections in a row, now?

I don't know if Jasmine Sherman will win but I know I'm not voting for Kamala because a vote for her isn't a vote for anything except for the atrocities already happening to continue and enabling fascists.

Trick me once shame on me, trick me 4x imma start saying fuck you, get the fuck out of my face with your bullshit, ya feel me?

"how does Trump winning help"

It doesn't. So vote for Sherman. Don't like it? Then I guess more people shoulda considered that in the last 4 years instead of 3 months before the election ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[narcissism-positivity]

I've heard that someone can have NPD while also not being grandiose, and while having social anxiety. How does that work? /genq

Great question!

So, there are two main ways that narcissistic personality disorder can present. The first type that most people are familiar with is known as "grandiose" or "overt" narcissism. We feel very talented, more special than other people, flawless or perfect. The second type is known as "vulnerable" or "covert" narcissism. This feels the opposite way: like you're the worst person in the world, like you're unskilled at everything, like even if you are talented, no one will recognize it, or even like everything wrong with the world, every terrible issue is caused by you somehow actively choosing not to fix it. Like everyone is staring at you all the time and knows about all the awful things you (think) you've done.

Both forms of npd ultimately revolve around you and what you need to do, as they're actually not that different at all. People with npd tend to worry excessively about what other people think of them, and hold extremely high standards for themselves... So, no matter if you're covert or overt, npd often comes with social anxiety!

The alters in my system swing both ways, and this is pretty common (Revised Criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, @/kindnessoverperfection), even for singlets.

An alter like me (Adrian here~) is definitely rather grandiose, cuz' I know I'm a fancy bitch. But when I, say, try out a new painting style and I realize I'm not good at it yet, I'll crash, and suddenly I feel like I'm the worst person in the world. Absolute bottom of the trash pile. Some people are always covert, some always overt, but most narcs tend to slide between the two rather frequently.

If you want some medical literature on covert narcissism, here's an article from Medical News Today which isn't terrible, but please keep in mind it still suffers from being written from a highly biased neurotypical perspective, and conveys some frequent misconceptions (5 Things You Got Wrong About Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Everyday Feminism) about npd.

Hope this helps, lmk if you have any other questions!

~Fancy Bitch Adrian

[sysmedsaresexist]

As someone with OSDD (if I’m right) what’s the worst misinfo about DID that us endos discuss in our spaces? /genq

JCYDJFCYS I love this question, I want my mods to jump in, too, but I'm going to spice it up with the worst misinformation from both sides.

For me, Dude, the worst I've seen in endo circles... is that DID is the same thing as mediumship. This is going to seem like I'm vagueing one of two people, but it's not you two (you'll know who you are). There's actually someone from before them that gave me the worst taste for that discourse, and probably made me a lot more angry about it.

In anti circles, it's got to be that dissociation is solely trauma-based. It's the most fundamental misunderstanding that leaks into everything else

I think those are my two biggest peeves.

-

Mod Quill here to say FFFFFF I HATE MISINFO. Gosh it really is in all the communities, too.

In endogenic spaces, it’s hard for me to decide, but I think it’s the idea that the ToSD is ableist because “it supports final fusion” (which is its own can of worms, which I think Mod Robo might touch on, if my guess is correct). The ToSD doesn’t even fucking mention final fusion get off it. I hear about the ToSD being ableist constantly, and genuinely, it seems like just being medical at all in any way is considered ableist…

Meanwhile, anti-endos? Good lord. The worst misinfo I see is the gatekeeping of trauma. “You can’t develop DID from XYZ” — congrats! You’re a fakeclaimer who doesn’t understand how trauma works. I pray no newly discovered systems find you.

-

Mod Robo here! Oh gosh, what misinfo haven't I seen? I swear I've seen the wildest shit!

Some of the worst stuff from pro-endos was them claiming or implying that CDDs are just the "broken" versions of endogenic plurality. I've seen people claim that DID doesn't require trauma, that the DID diagnosis only exists to stigmatize endogenic plurals, and that CDD systems who use terms like "parts" or "alters" just want to dehumanize ourselves and others.

Around 2019, a pro-endo started spreading a rumor that MPD was renamed to DID in order to stigmatize plurals which is just so horribly incorrect. Multiple dissociative disorders were renamed at the same time to have the word 'dissociation' in them, and it was done by a team of researchers. The pro-endo used the previous DSM chairman's ableism to spread lies and drag innocent DID systems into discourse.

Like mod Quill said, there's been a ton of misinfo from pro-endos over ToSD (theory of structural dissociation). I've seen people claim that it's completely bunk because one of the researchers who worked on it (there were multiple) lost his medical license for abusing a patient. I've also seen pro-endos try to apply ToSD to endogenic plurality and conclude that ToSD must be bunk because it doesn't fit? It just makes no sense to me because the theory was created to explain trauma-related dissociation caused by disorders like PTSD and DID, etc... It has nothing to do with plurality.

I've also seen tooons of horrible shit from pro-endos AND anti-endos about final fusion and fused alters/systems. I've seen people say it's comparable to grooming or suicide, or that these systems are just secretly "pluralphobic" and trying to become singlets. Honestly, the hatred and misinfo I've seen people say about fused systems is some of the worst.

As for anti-endos, I've seen lots of bad misinfo too... One of the worst things is gatekeeping common CDD things based on trauma type. For example, saying that nonhuman alters are only possible in systems who experienced ritual abuse. Other common CDD things I've seen anti-endos say can only happen due to ritual abuse: gatekeeper alters, subsystems, polyfragmentation, alters with number names or color names, switching due to triggers, alters who feel loyal to their abusers, alters that other alters can front through, certain headspace stuff like checkered floor tiles, having a headspace in general, etc.

I could say more but my reply is already longer than both Dude's and Quill's combined. I'll just leave it off here!

-

Mod Signal: I like this ask a lot lol. It shows genuine curiosity and a desire to improve spaces. Misinfo collects like dirt around syscourse. We all have to sweep regularly to make sure that shit gets thrown out.

On the pro-endo side, the worst I've seen is endo systems attempting to lean into the fantasy model of CDDs to support their own plurality. That model has been debunked for quite a while, and it has hurt so many goddamn people. CDDs are trauma-based, we don't have to reverse scientific progress or fakeclaim some of the first cases of recorded CDDs to support endo systems.

On the anti-endo side, my least favorite bit of misinformation is the idea that the TOSD shows how different people's trauma ranks in the trauma Olympics. The idea that someone with polyfragmented DID must have had things worse than an OSDD 1B system who must have had things worse than someone with BPD, etc. The level of dissociation required for each label in the DSM relies on so many more factors than just "who had it worse". There are biological dispositions to dissociation to take into account, there's the reminder that what's traumatic to a child isn't always considered traumatic to an adult, there's attachment styles to take into play. There is so much more to the science than "I had it worse than you and I have the diagnosis to prove it".

--

Everyone is welcome to reblog and add their own. This could be a good learning opportunity for people to go, "wait, that's not true??"

[opashoo]

staring so kindly at your sluglang post,, as someone working on a language as well this looks fantastic (and is also. super organized compared to mine BHAHAH) Any tips for putting together a language? Like resources on how to go about it, or notes? /genq

You are staring kindly... (thank you)

As for tips... Wikipedia is actually one of my biggest, most useful tools, because I love to read articles about grammatical concepts, and they will usually have a varaiety of examples of use if you can figure out how to parse the academic language. There are some core ideas that pop up all over the place crosslinguistically, like case marking or converbs, and you can get a lot from learning how other languages might parse the same idea, both how they handle the idea grammatically and what kind of metaphorical language might be involved; like how in Scottish Gaelic, to say you have something, you say it's 'at' you, or how it doesn't have an exact equivalent of English's infinitive, or how Mongolian has so many word endings that convey meaning, and a bunch of them are literally endings stacked on top of other endings.

There's also really good conlang youtubers, like David Peterson, the one who made Dothraki and other pop media conlangs, Artifexian, Biblaridion. They have videos on both interesting grammatical concepts that don't exist in english AND how to integrate them into conlangs. Davide Peterson especially has interesting videos on things like sound changes, vowel harmony, phonological concepts that can really help shape your language and bring a degree of naturalism if that's what you're looking for.

Etymology can be extremely informative though, and really help you to understand exactly how creative people have gotten with language over the past thousands of years. Etymonline is a great website for that. Did you know that the word "next" was originally literally "nearest"? Or that that the suffix "be-" was originally "by", so words like "before" actually meant "by the fore", and very often these meanings are metaphorically extended to the way we use them today. It's great for helping to develop very important words that can be structural to your language, so that you're not just trying to raw make up a new word with no basis every time.

Aside from that, there's no single source I go to for making conlangs. Everything is on a case by case basis. Something that has been really helpful for me is constantly writing example sentences and finding things to write about, because similar to translating existing texts, it forces me to reckon with the way my conlang works, figure out how to convey certain ideas (or whether or not the language can convey the idea at all).

Usually I'll have a few languages that I keep in mind for inspiration for any given project and if I'm stumped or need an idea, I'll actually look up learning resources for those languages. My slugcat language has had me looking up a lot of "How to say..." in Korean, Arabic, Japanese Filipino, a little bit of Indonesian? Some Russian for verb stuff. Once I find resources, I spend a bit of time dissecting how it works in those languages and figure out how that can fit in the existing framework of my own project, or if it's something I'd even want in the project at all.

Once I have an idea, I'll just start iterating on it, usually on paper, basically brainstorming how the sentence structure and sounds might work until I find something that is both sonically satisfying and logically sound within the existing framework. If I'm feeling extra spicy, I might try to consider how the culture and priorities of the speakers might shape the development of the language. The important thing while doing this is, just like brainstorming, to be unafraid to keep throwing ideas onto the page no matter how unviable or nonsensical it may seem in your head. You NEED to experiment and find what doesn't work or else your brain will be too clogged to find out what does. Exercising your pen will help you get into the mindset of someone using the language (because you are), it'll help you form connections to other parts of the language you've already developed, and once you've developed enough, the language will almost start writing itself.

I've actually had some really interesting interactions happen my scuglang between the archaic system of suffixes, the position word system, and the triconsonantal root system, which actually gave rise to an entire system of metaphorical extension, letting speakers use phrases like "at a crossing of" or "at a leaving of" to mean across or away and also talk about concurrent events like "He talked while eating noodles" (He, at an eating of noodles, talked).

Anyway, I know I got kind of scattered but these are some of the big parts of how I approach conlanging! If I have questions or needs, I look to other languages, find learning resources, apply it, and then ask more questions. Spend time with your language and get familiar with it. There's the time I read "Ergativity" by Robert Dixon, but reading literal textbooks is not a requirement for conlanging. You just need to chip away at it and keep asking question.

Here's some photos of my own conlanging notes so you can see how serious I am when I say iterating and brainstorming are extremely helpful. You need to be throwing shit on the paper. I will handwrite three pages just to contradict myself on the next because those three pages were important for forming the final idea.

[pinkysberg]

why do you headcanon sadie and molly as lesbians? /genq, asking because im curious about your thoughts (and i personally disagree, but i bet you could win me over tbh)

well one bc im a lesbian and i love lesbians. two, bc i think it creates very relatable and compelling characters if they're lesbians for me lol. it's not so much that there's evidence bc there's not, it's just "itd be nice" and then i end up fleshing out the idea and liking it lol

where sadie's concerned, im very compelled by the concept of platonic love and lavender marriages. imagining sadie and jake as being both gay and married for safety makes her revenge feel very different but also not different at all - to me, anyway. she's had her best friend and partner taken, the life they'd built together is gone and now she's forced to confront life in a vulnerable, unfamiliar manner and seeks revenge for her best friend and for the life they'd built together. is the unfamiliar manner she's facing life in simply bc she's joining a band of outlaws and leaving what she knows, or bc she's a lesbian now confronting the frontier without the knowing cover of her best friend and life partner? i don't know! u decide, i know what i like to think about more.

molly reminds me of sm comphet stories I've heard, where women will fight so hard to be loved by a man, all the while they've confused that desire for actually loving him. i just find that more compelling on a personal level than molly actually wanting dutch bc she legitimately wants him. mind u, it also makes her story infinitely more upsetting but. it's not as though there's a non-upsetting alternative here so.

[wickjump]

Genq, uhh, do- do you have BPD (borderline personality disorder)?

???? no????? sorry this is a very funny ask to get. i kinda wanna know why i was given this one. i got bipolar disorder which is similar if you squint and have never looked at the dsm-5 before or stepped foot in a psychiatrists office. but not bpd no??? i laughed out of surprise of this one. anon i will pay you to elaborate on what your reasoning was for this ask (not actually but i really want to know)

not saying bpd is bad or whatever. it and other cluster b disorders are so stigmatized its insane. people with bpd ilysm youre so cool. its just very funny to get this ask out of the blue

[syscultureis]

sys culture is. being very confused about ocs!

(feel free to treat this sub as a question and read till the end if you'd like, answers are exactly what we're looking for)

to clarify we ourselves have had ocs since we were a kiddo. some were actually just straight up alters saying hi, some were not

the thing is, for us ocs are usually just alters that were uh... altered... we really have a way with words. anyway, some represent feelings and memories that are hidden deep within our headspace (so sonas of our alters we don't really know about) and some are sonas of freq fronters. some are in fact just newly split dudes that usually say they're introjects but idk what was first the source or them

the question is. how do singlets oc /genq

we're just really wondering cause inside of the oc community for the most part doesn't look singlet at all. people sorting their ocs by the place they live in? ok hold up headspace builder /hj the burning desire to give their ocs trauma... the livid living through them... the variety and amount of details like the op has lived a lot of different lives and they understand just so much experiences... are we allowed to assume most of the oc community is systems by default

this sub is mostly /silly and we're not trying to diagnose anyone whatsoever unless you're in a process of getting a diagnosis yourself and want to be seen. system or not, you're valid and your ocs are fricken awesome

that being said, we'd really like to hear about your experiences on that. you the reader yeah everyone who'd like to share. how do you feel and go about your ocs as a singlet, if you feel in the right mindspace to discuss it right now? how is your experience with ocs and the community as a system, do you also wonder about what we did? ty for anything you'd contribute

As a system who copes by making OCS, we absolutely get that lmao

OCS are fun, and definitely have been a way for us to express ourselves pre discovery (and post-discovery sometimes)

Sometimes we introject OCS, and sometimes they were just alters first, sometimes the line is fuzzy "were you using this OC to express your existence, or did you form after we made the OC?" "Uhhh idfk. Yes?"

We always get super in depth when making OCS tho, so much research goes into them all the time so we can better portray their lives as accurately as possible. I would assume most singlets do the same but honestly idk

[bunnis-monsters]

Not a request, just asking in general-

Do you/would you consider, writing for scp monsters? Or would that be too niche/specific for you? /genq

Hmm… maybe? Here I do more generic monster species instead of stuff like slenderman(not an SCP just an example) or shy guy. I’d consider that more fandom stuff I guess?

I don’t know if I’d be sexually interested or want to get into the lore. I did have an SCP special interest actually, but they’re very scary and I can’t read or watch videos too often because I’ll get paranoid.

So I guess it’s a maybe, depending on who you want me to write about. Some I’m genuinely scared of (shy guy, the old man, the fucking Christmas one that kidnaps kids and kills families)

But the undying reptile dude… I’d tap it.

No promises but if you gimme something interesting to work with maybe I’ll write it.

[bettertwin1]

hey uh genq... how do you tell the difference between romantic feelings and platonic love or does nobody know bc I panic whenever I feel lovey about my friends bc I can't tell and I don't want it to be romantic half the time

I actually cannot tell you this mostly just because of the way i'm wired /hj that being, I haven't personally fallen in love with anyone yet because I haven't been able to feel any spark or connection to anyone.

But spitballing here from dad's and Don's rants about romance and stuff, romance is like. butterflies, wanting and imagining spending your life by this person's side forever, being able to imagine yourself kissing this person and actually wanting to do it over again and again?

AND.

ACTUALLY THAT, Doesn't make sense to me, because I can imagine all those things with friends too (minus the kissing)?

I JUST SAID A WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING. UGH THIS IS SOOO HARD TO EXPLAIN CAUSE I LITERALLY DON'T. ENJOY ROMANCE THAT MUCH IN THE FIRST PLACE 😭😭😭

The key factor here though is that if you don't want it to be romantic then it more than likely isn't romantic? Sorry i'm not much help here hopefully someone actually has an answer for this buddy 💔

[cuppajj]

so, idk if this counts as a suggestion,

but maybe, BAAU can be like... a seperate thing from the awakened ancient thing? like... I dont know how to explain it but like, its not canon to the actual crk storyline, so maybe you can take some creative liberties? /nf /genq

I’ve been considering that as my plan B! If all else related fitting in neatly with the canon CRK timeline fails, im just gonna go nahh ima do my own thing and diverge it from the canon however I want

(I would count that as a suggestion but I’m cool with it! Ig what I mean by “im not welcoming suggestions” is that I’m less comfortable with being fed ideas when I didn’t ask, like they want to write the au for me? I like it when people help me think of them on my own but not when people present scenarios and stuff like “what if you did [xyz]/you should do [xyz]” . they aren’t presented as fun hypotheticals and are more like telling me what to do . like im the one writing the canon and i get inspired by others’ ideas/questions, not like… answering directly to them? But even still that’s very rare, and in the case of the cheese saga it’s bc i sought help from my friends. Hard to explain but I hope I made sense. If not sorry OTL. I still like it when people ask me about certain things and characters I haven’t talked about, but I don’t like it if people are like. Telling me how to write my au. :’DD

You know the kinds of people who feel entitled to influencing how/what creators write stories? Thats basically what im trying to avoid. Anyway anon this doesn’t pertain to you or the vast majority of my anons rn bc my inbox looks pretty based and I know yall are just curious. Im flattered by your curiosity!)

EDIT: i should also add that consistency is a big factor in this, im fine if its like a harmless instance but if a single person proceeds to keep making the same suggestion(s) like they’re forcing it, then i have an issue. BASICALLY. hypothetical ideas and questions are still encouraged just don’t expect me to make what i say of it canon (unless our interests happen to align already) . that is a rare chance

[marupunch]

Hello! May I please know what exactly are your thoughts on the craftsman and why you hate him so much? /genq

(I do agree with you but I want to know why so much hatred if you don't mind)

Don't worry and thank you for asking! Sorry this took so long but I wanted to deliver something complete and objective (I had to write this 3 times because the first one looked like a rant...)

Even though I don't like Craftsman, it's not like a "I hate the character" kind of hate, more like "I don't think he's a good person but I'll try to reflect that on my art instead of downright hating the whole character" kind of hate. There's actually some background on why I think like this so I'll try to be as objective as possible with my arguments to make my point clear.

Remember, this is just a personal opinion and it's okay if someone doesn't agree with me!

These are video game characters and we're all allowed to have different perspectives about them.

(...)

⚠️WARNING OF LOOOONG TEXT AND SPOILERS FOR ORIGAMI KING⚠️

It's important that we understand that Origami King is a game that relies a lot on Japanese culture to tell a story and that's why there's a lot of misunderstanding in the western part of the fandom about Olly and his character, motivations, etc. We must also understand that origami is a highly respected and important art form in Japan, therefore, its creation entails different guidelines rooted in the culture of this country.

Let's start with the most basic. According to the rules of this art, you are not supposed to write over origami. To be honest, you are not supposed to use any type of tool on origami other than the paper and your hands. I'm not saying that it is completely prohibited but this reduces the value of a work. See it as a form of "cheating."

Writing over origami gives an aspect of informality to your piece. And it greatly influenced how Olly perceived himself, since he took Craftsman's writing as something that reduced his value as origami and even ruined him, as a work of art.

In Japan, a very important aspect of society is how people perceive you, the image you give to those around you. Olly was supposed to be a king, immaculate and perfect, but he was tainted by the very creator of him. His image was ruined and his appearance became a symbol of shame.

Hence his fury towards his creator, which is more highlighted in the Japanese version of the game and is not hidden behind a joke of "All Toads are the same", as in the American version.

At the end of the game it is revealed to us that the message were words of encouragement and good wishes. But again, these are only visible once Olly is on the brink of death, as they were inaccessible in his normal state. They were good intentions, but they did a lot of damage, in the end.

It makes me wonder how the Origami craftsman, being someone who practiced this art every day, did not know such a basic rule. Or maybe he ignored it, but this also leads him to be a bit indifferent, since it doesn't seem like he had the implications of creating a life in general in mind, much less ruining an origami work.

Which also brings us to his motivations. In the game, Craftsman mentions, and I quote, "I don't get to celebrate my craft very often, so I might have gone a bit... overboard."

(Note: I'm the Spanish version, he says "Because people don't compliment my work very often." Yeah, that doesn't help my view of him.)

Although the general perception leaves us with a father-son relationship, Craftsman never refers to Olly as such, since from the beginning, he had created him as a craft, a way for people to praise his abilities, never having in mind a family or considering what responsibility it had to create a new life.

I think he never fully understood the concept of what it was to bring origami to life beyond them being talking dolls, a striking party trick, because also, seeing what Olly has done, he mentions to Olivia that he should never have used the Fold Of Life.

The reason she and Olly are alive in the first place. Even Olivia herself understands the implication of this comment, responding to her creator "Don't say that, I love being alive!".

It almost seems that for Craftsman, the Fold Of Life was just a creative choice about whether or not to put more detail into his creations. But for Olly and Olivia, that technique was their entire lives, literally. The choice of whether they existed or not.

Clearly until now there is a certain objectification on the part of Craftsman towards his creations, seeing them as just this instead of real children. And although there are vain attempts like the doodle on Olly or giving Olivia a weapon to defeat her brother, we can agree that they were not the most optimal tools to try to guide two children who he was supposed to protect. Not like his creations, but like his children. But so far everything is normal.

At least until the end.

Craftsman's first reaction upon seeing Olly's body is to appreciate the material with which he had made it. Yes, perhaps a bit of nostalgia in the creation of it, but ultimately it's a bit insensitive to mention that given that there is a life that has been taken, his son's life, again, showing the aforementioned objectification.

Even worse when, even if he's watching Olivia's expression, he congratulates her for "using the weapon he implemented in his design." At this point I'm trying to be objective, but this is a completely off-base comment. Not only does he not come close to comforting Olivia in a situation that is probably difficult for her, but he is too focused on what HE did to her that he barely does anything to support her beyond teaching her how to make a paper crane.

She just killed her own brother PLEASE just for once be a little emphatic

By the time the ending arrives, Mario seems much more affected by the loss of Olivia than Craftsman himself, who seems much happier for someone who should be mourning his creations.

I think that the scene in the Secret Ending is the closure of why I hate this character, because as I mentioned before, it dehumanized Olly and Olivia a little, treating them only as creations that served a purpose (making him gain recognition) only for them to end...

...being that. The key problem was never acknowledged, Olly and Olivia ended up being exactly what he wanted them to be.

As I mentioned before, this is my PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE about him. It's okay if people don't see him this way but the idea of Craftsman being this kinda insensitive and irresponsable parent makes a lot of sense to me. It just feels correct, specially after how Olly shows symptoms of trauma, like not wanting to see Craftsman's face again being the reason why he wants to get rid of all of the Toads, as mentioned on the Japanese version.

I'm not justifying Olly at all because I know he's wrong with a lot of things but the game tells you he's wrong. He gets his punishment and the whole character of Olly revolves around being a young, irrational king. On the other hand, the image the game gives you about Craftsman is a poor victim who didn't do anything wrong.

I think the worst part is that he never got a single punishment after this. Maybe being trapped in his basement but considering he was the one who started everything in first place, he doesn't seem guilty or even affected. I guess creating two gods, then having them both die in front of you it's just another day for Theofold.

TLDR; Craftsman is an irresponsable, insensitive and negligent father who traumatized Olly. Also a poop head. (?)

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

Catradora fan here but I wanted to ask if you think it would've ever been possible for catradora to be done well by the show? It's obviously not a perfect ship but I wanted to know if you thought it had any potential at any point as a viable ship or not? /genq

first off, props to you for being respectful and open to different opinions! it's the bare minimum but not a lot of c//a shippers do that, so i really appreciate it.

secondly, yes. i think the ship did have some potential and there were definitely ways to make it less toxic (and not incestuous) so let me just go through a few things i would change if i were to rewrite this ship:

1. catra and adora would not be raised by the same parent or portrayed with a sibling dynamic. instead they're just close friends, and shadow weaver would be either catra's or adora's adoptive parent. i personally think it would be interesting if shadow weaver was catra's adoptive mother, and hordak was adora's father figure.

going on a tangent here, there's a bunch of reasons why this would be a good choice. one, apparently in the 80s she-ra, hordak was like a father figure to adora, since he's the one who found her and brought her to the horde. the latter is also the case in the reboot so they really could have given us an interesting father-daughter dynamic with these characters.

two, it would create an actual connection between hordak and adora. in the show, we barely see them interact at all, despite them being enemies. it was always adora vs catra, and not adora vs the horde (and hordak). hordak doesn't even have to be abusive or toxic towards adora, in fact, it would help a lot with his redemption if he was actually a decent parent. teaching adora wrong morals, of course, but ultimately caring about her. it would also increase the emotional impact when adora leaves the horde, because she would be cutting ties with a person who genuinely loved her, despite being an evil warlord.

2. catra would show some restraint when fighting adora. the thing that most stuck out to me in spop was how remorseless catra was when fighting adora. it's not even that she's fighting to win or because she had to, she just liked seeing adora in pain. there's no coming back from that.

so i would write catra to be a little more compassionate and not hurt adora more than necessary. i would also add in parts where she's shown to care about adora, despite being on opposite sides. catra wouldn't brainwash adora and revel in seeing her go beserk, or try to gaslight her into staying, and for most part, she would try to avoid a fight with adora.

this would help the story stay true to the “i always loved you” dialogue, because it shows that catra cares about adora deeply, instead of telling us. what spop did was show us catra hurting adora over and over again with zero guilt or remorse, and then have other characters talk about how much catra loves adora or how perfect their chemistry is. not convincing in the slightest.

3. catra's redemption is more detailed and starts earlier, preferably in s4, after the portal incident and angella's death. this goes without saying because her redemption was the worst part of c//a. instead of having her do one good thing and slapping the good guy label onto her, i would show her actually facing consequences of her actions and trying to do better.

the characters wouldn't just gloss over catra's actions but would instead hold her accountable. and she would actually work on her toxicity instead of just saying “sorry i got angry, i'm working on it” and then proceeding to not work on it. i would only get them together after catra is at least 90% redeemed and in a healthier mindset to be in a relationship.

4. adora's arc would get more focus and a satisfying conclusion. in s5, adora's search for her origin and identity is abandoned in favor of c//a. this is so disappointing and just shows that the writers could not give two fucks about adora, the main character. so yeah, while c//a would still get its moments, i would not sacrifice adora's development or arc for it.

5. c//a would not be the “heart and soul” of the show. one of the many things i hated about s5 was how everything revolved around c//a.

glimmer and bow were reduced to the wingmen and paired spares, none of the other characters mattered, angella was completely forgotten, hordak didn't get enough screentime, and horde prime was a weak and badly written villain. all of this was because the creators focused too much on c//a (and even then, failed to make it romantic or appealing). so yeah, while i would still write c//a as a canon ship, i wouldn't sacrifice everything else just for this ship.

thank you for your ask, this is something i've wanted to talk about for a while now!

[wanderingcritter]

quick question, and i mean no hate or disrespect, but how can you not support/like transIDs when you use a transID (Transspecies)? /genq

Thanks for asking about this! I get that it can seem confusing or contradictory to some so Im happy to discuss it :)

For one, transspecies isn't transID, it's just.. a regular trans identity. The term transspecies has existed within the alterhuman community for literal decades, long before the creation of the "transID" community. It's a term that has quite literally been stolen and appropriated by a group of people who the majority of alterhumans dislike and want no part in. In terms of origin, function, and social implications, it is infinitely more comparable to being transgender (an identity i don't see ever being included in transID specific discussions) than it is to something like "transBPD".

Secondly, even if it was somehow transID (which again it's not), it still doesn't carry any of the same discriminatory mindset or just flat out impossibility of existence the way most transID do. Species identity and the idea of what it means to be "human" is almost entirely socially constructed, not completely dissimilar to gender. There are rules and de facto societal ideas about how someone must "be a human", which not everyone can neatly fit into. It is something experienced by all beings living within human society, and is therefore something that can be transitioned away from or out of. Whereas something like being autistic is not socially constructed and not something someone can simply transition into. While yes, there are certainly social implications, expectations, and roles placed upon autistic individuals, autism itself is not a social construct, it's an actual tangible neurological phenomenon, making it impossible to be "transautistic".

This ideology also promotes discriminatory beliefs against minority groups. It dismembers and fetishizes the lived experiences of entire cultures, communities, and individuals, lived experiences these "trans" individuals will literally never have. If you are not "cis autistic" you will never ever truly know what it is like to live as an autistic person, no matter how badly you want to. Same can be said for other transID identities. I understand that atypical dysphoria does exist (hell, I have some of my own), and I dont doubt that these are real emotions people have, but that doesn't make it okay to try and say you actually are those things and impose yourself upon groups of people you are not part of. I guess if someone has a harmless transID like "trans brown hair color" or smth then I don't really care all that much, but otherwise I have zero tolerance for people who believe they can forcibly integrate themselves into an entire culture just because they feel like it.

TLDR: Transspecies isn't TransID it's just regular trans, but even if it was I would still support it because it doesn't promote discriminatory and fetishistic ideas about certain groups of people.

[painonthebrain]

So are you a proshipper now? /genq

Honestly I’m sorry but I find this a loaded question because there was an anon just like you making the rounds a while ago — and also, according to its official definition proshipper is literally someone who is anti-censorship and anti harassment. Which I believe is a must to believe in if you are in the whump community.

I’ve honestly had this stance for a while. I’m very much against fictional media being erased and hidden for its content. You know, that Hayes Code type shit. It’s kinda evil to me.

Anyway I find the whole pro/anti discourse to be, well… extremely fraught with discourse. It’s not helpful or very nuanced. Like I said in my earlier post, if what I do makes you uncomfortable, you have every right to unfollow, block, do whatever you need to make your time on the internet here safe and comfortable!

I’m sorry but I can’t just offer you a box to check that tells you if you should avoid me or not.

Anyway, if this is regarding me posting about incest lately, let me make some stuff clear to u.

I know just how awful incest is in real life. It can ruin people. I know why. In fact, it’s that exact knowledge that can cause me to have intrusive, distressing thoughts about it in real life. I am extremely aware of how awful that and honestly, every other awful thing is.

I really think it’s weird how incest and pedophilia could be framed as worse than torture or brainwashing or manipulation or killing. All of it is abhorrent in real life. You can argue about what’s worse until you’re blue in the face but it doesn’t matter, it’s all disgusting and awful. And by that logic, therefore it must be awful in fiction.

What I create isn’t reflective of how I feel about incest in the slightest. Or really anything for that matter. Do I actually want people to be enslaved and turned into pets? Do I actually want people to become unwilling test subjects for unethical experimentation? Do I actually think torturing people is cute and fun? NO.

So, by proxy:

Do I actually think incest is good in real life? Do I actually want people to get into incestuous relationships? NO. FUCK NO. But damn it if I’m not allowed to explore the subject within fiction through all types of lenses!

This type of stuff is just for my own enjoyment! It’s just saying “Wow, what if this fucked up thing happened?” and going with it! We as humans process our thoughts and feelings through play and imagination and creation all the time and this is all the same for me. I like creating about incest and looking at fictional incest because of a myriad of things, including just how different it can be from reality. In fact, that discrepancy is part of the reason why incest through “rose tinted glasses” in a fictional light appeals to me.

Anyway that’s where I stand. I am just firmly of the belief that the human brain and the realm of fiction are two insanely complicated things and that we cannot boil the subject of fiction and creation and censorship like this down into two separate groups with deep, deep misunderstanding between many of their members.

[patrochillesvibes]

Hey so i remember coming across a post which says that TSOA's patroclus is not too different from the og illiad one. Is that true?/genq

First, I want my readers to go read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. When you’re done, come back to this post and read under the cut.

Great! Now having read over 350 pages of a pedophile who lusts after prepubescent girls and tries to explain how his love of them was pure and consensual, I’m assuming you now understand the concept of an unreliable narrator. If you don’t and believe Humbert Humbert at face value, consider killing yourself. The world doesn’t need anymore pedophile apologists.

For the rest of you still alive, keep reading.

Point 1

Patroclus is, at his core, an unreliable narrator.

How do we know this?

The ending scene is Thetis visiting Patroclus and asking him to share memories of her son, Achilles. Being a goddess, she cannot visit her son in the Underworld. She only has his memory to comfort her in his grief over his death. Patroclus, is one of the last people alive she can share memories with.

Thus, the actual book, The Song of Achilles itself, is Patroclus sharing his memories with Thetis.

Now, consider a loved one of yours who has passed away. Got a person in mind? Great. Now I want you to think about them. And also consider the last time you exchanged memories about them. Mostly good memories came to mind, right? Perhaps you skipped over their flaws or reworked them in your grieving mind as having been not so bad? Many cultures have superstitions and cultural/religious practices about being nice to the dead, so I’m not surprised that you only thought of good things.

(But honestly, a loved one doesn't need to be dead for people to wear rose colored glasses and miss red flags and excuse bad behavior etc. It's called bias, sweeties.)

My point? Patroclus told Thetis mainly good things about her son including even embellishing a little. It’s in our grieving nature to do this.

This is why you can’t trust Patroclus.

Patroclus, for a variety of speculative reasons that I don’t want to get into here, will tell you he is ugly, weak, stupid, and a poor soldier. He will tell you he was always respectful of women and didn’t believe in war. He will paint himself as innocent of war crimes. And he will do all of this looking you directly in the eye.

You cannot trust this self-image.

Patroclus has very little screen time in the Iliad itself. We get even less insight into his internal thoughts and motivations.

Because TSoA Patroclus is unreliable at best and we know very little about Iliad Patroclus, it is unfair to say there are exclusively two separate characters and incompatible. It is unfair and even ignorant (from lack of anything below a surface reading of the text) to say that TSoA Patroclus is “out of character.”

Point 2

I have a second point as to why I think TSoA Patroclus and Iliad Patroclus can be read as the same. The majority of Antis hate Patroclus because “MM made him a women.” Here’s a collage I made of quotes from some of the Antis.

Now, why on earth is Pataroclus considered a woman? Or in some cases a related degrading term, twink?

Let’s see...

He wants to be a doctor instead of a soldier.

He is anti-war.

He is soft and emotional about his love for Achilles, even deigning to cry.

All thing are more associated with female characters.

Why? Toxic Masculinity.

It is not masculine to cry. It is not masculine to deeply love your partner. It is not masculine to want to not fight in a war. It is not masculine to have low self-esteem and lack confidence. These things are all unnatural and abnormal for a MAN™ to feel, especially soldiers.

So when you read The Song of Achilles and your takeaway is “Patroclus is a twink” or "Patroclus is a woman/Achilles' wife/Achilles' bitch," you are reinforcing gender stereotypes and gender roles. Nice work 👍

I pity people who have this sexist take on men.

Side Comment

Many patrochilles fans see the main patrochilles works (The Iliad, TsoA, Hades Game) as interconnected. TSoA is the story of the life of Patroclus and Achilles before the war. The Iliad follows and specifically tells the tale of the 9th year of the war. Hades Game picks up after their deaths.

But at the end of the day, your Patroclus hc is whatever you want it to be. You also don't have to like any of the patrochilles media out there. I myself FUCKING LOATH The Iliad. But please don't bring your racist and toxic takes into your defense. If you don't like a thing, just say 'I don't like it' full stop and move on.