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balkanradfem · 6 months ago

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So I've found Alyssa Grenfell on youtube. She shares her experience of leaving mormonism, and the inner workings of the religion. I had very little ideas about what mormonism is, only that it's a high-control religion, very difficult to leave, and has people knocking on doors trying to get converts. I've been interested to find out more, and I ended up watching almost all of her content, and some of the information I've got from it opened my eyes on other feminist topics, and I believe is relevant to the current discourse!

So if you, like me, don't know how mormonism works, it started when a guy decided that he too could be a part of the bible; he wrote a bible part two: mormon, and proclaimed himself a prophet. Then he started a religion based on his writings, decided it was more important than the bible itself because he 'translated it from gold tablets god gave him', and started gaining followers by convincing people he's the prophet. Once he had managed to get a following, he soon started to sexually exploit the wives and daughters of these followers, to the point where he had 20-40 wives and had married 14yo children. Families allowed it to happen because he would promise them to be royalty in the afterlife. He eventually got into a lot of trouble for stealing and raping children so he was killed by an angry mob, but the religion continued.

The religion is same as christianity except more rules (no coffee, no alcohol, no smoking), eternal worship of the predator who wrote it, followers are pressured to follow the rules exactly, and, the vital part, the followers have to give 10% of their income to the church. They developed a culture where once every young mormon kid comes of age, they have to go on a 'mission', which means they're removed from their home, and have to spend 2 years (1,5 for women) living in a foreign area, knocking on doors, sharing the gospel, trying to convert people. The conversion rate is extremely low, but at that point kids have invested so much time, effort, energy and passion for the religion, they become devoted to it and start to feel alienated in the world that rejects their religion. And even with the low conversion rate, every new convert means another continuous source of income for the church. So it's very profitable to send out young adults to make these sales. The kids are told that if they don't complete their missions, they will not be able to marry, and marriage is presented as their only life purpose.

So how rich is the church at this point? 230 billion dollars. I've been shocked to hear this because I had no idea. Alyssa explained that the mormon church is as rich as Pepsi, they have more money than Disney and McDonalds. So you might be wondering, like I did, well what are they doing with all that money? I've been left to wonder this for a while, until I watched the video called 'Why are so many influencers mormon?', which explained it. I didn't even realize a lot of influencers were mormon. But, this video showed me something both disturbing, and eye opening.

Before I go into that, I have to point out how patriarchal and misogynistic this religion is. Women are not given any options except marriage, and it's presented as the only righteous way to live. They're groomed for marriage from a very young age, encouraged to start writing letters to their future husbands at the age of 9. They're taught cooking, sewing and childcare, and to coddle any males in the family. It's taken for granted that m*n won't respect women, to the point where male children are allowed to harass grown women and their families will not intervene or consider it a problem. Chastity and purity are promoted to the level where members of the religion are expected to wear special underwear at all times, which hides their entire torso, shoulders, and legs down to their knees, and their clothing is expected to cover this up completely. They're rejected by the religion if they dare to have sex before marriage, or drink alcohol or coffee, or in some cases, tea. The church has a history of allowing and promoting polygamy, in the sense that a male was allowed to have as many wives as he wanted; they've since stopped this, but refused to break up the existing marriages. They're also promoting anti gay and racist propaganda, which Alyssa observed in school where she'd been teaching; a gay kid almost ended his life due to extreme homophobia.

I know all of this is somewhat common in all areas of society, all religions, and all cultures, but in mormonism it seems to be written into the core of it.

So now, why are so many influencers mormon? I didn't even know they were. The influencers themselves are not promoting the fact that they're mormon, nor does it come up in viral discussions. Ballerina farm is mormon. Tradwives are mormon. Whataboutaub, Rachel Parcel, brooklynandbailey, tanner_mann, thebucketlistfamily, Taylor Frankie Paul, Sarah Beeston, Ruby Franke, these are all mormon. Most of the Utah-based influencers are mormon, and there's a bigger amount of successful and popular influencers from Utah, than from LA or NY.

For me it immediately explained why this viral content is like that. Why we're having such influx of highly patriarchal, anti-feminist, very dangerous and sexist content, put in front of the eyes of young women. Why it's being promoted as an ideal way of life. How are these women able to share this life as if they truly believed it was good and ideal. How could they think it's harmless? If they're using the internet to the extent that they're creating content, how would they not be exposed to any feminism at all? And they wouldn't because it's against their religion to engage with content like that, or with people talking about it. Because being raised in a high-control religion, they would truly believe their lives are the ideal. They would be presented with it as their only option, the only way of life possible for a woman.

It's heartbreaking because I can now understand why it was so easy to push Ballerina Farm to give up her entire life ambition to get married and carry children for a male she didn't even want to go out with, the pressure from the religion to do so would be immense, she would have been raised to see this as the only option, everything else in her life would be considered pointless. She wouldn't have an actual choice, she'd be groomed for this from the moment she was born. Mormons don't advertise 'looking for your soulmate', they only instruct women to marry a mormon male who completed his mission and make it work.

So how does the immensely rich mormon church play into this? I couldn't see it until Alyssa explained in a very detailed way how youtube content advertising works. I didn't know about this either, but here's the overview:

How much you get paid on youtube, instagram, tik-tok, or other online content platform, depends on what type of content it is, based on how much advertisers are willing to pay to put adverts on it. For instance, you get paid much more for finance content, because banks will pay premium prices to be advertised in a finance-related video. If you're making content on cooking, you get paid way less, because it's not such a lucrative field. If you're making content on christianity, you get similarly low price as for cooking, christian church is not that rich. But, if you're making content as a mormon, that's showcasing some aspect of a mormon life, even if you don't specifically say you're mormon, the price goes way up, to the point where it's as lucrative as finance. The mormon church is making sure that the mormon influencers are being paid premium prices for their content, because people who get massively interested in the influencers, eventually find out that it's the mormon life being advertised, and some of them consider taking on mormonism. Which gives church more converts, which means the church will earn more money. The content we're watching is one huge advert sponspored by mormon church, and we don't even know it.

Alyssa figured this out because her content falls under the keyword 'mormon', and her comments warned her that the church is advertising on her videos, even when she's making mormon-critical content. She then realized that she too was being paid a premium price for her views, just because they're mormon themed. She went on to discover that even just being an influencer in Utah will fetch a premium price, because most of mormons are based in Utah. For more detailed and comprehensive explanation on this, watch her video!

Advertising is not the only way the mormon church is spending their money, they've also built a shopping mall, and are basically spending their money by investing and gambling and everything any corporation does with their profits. It's making me mad, and also makes the members of the church mad when they discover where 10% of their income goes, because they're told it's being used for charity and community service, and not advertisments and building malls.

For me this solves a mystery of how is it possible, in this day and age to have such influx of tradwives and influencers of 'traditional life', they're being sponsored by an organization making a profit off of it, making sure that anyone making this content is so well paid, they're able to live off of it, and keep creating more of it, and in the process of doing that, groom young women into their lifestyle.

Learning more about religions, specifically high-control religions, makes me realize just how much of it is happening all around us, but invisible, not naming what it is. It's similar to MLM's, the people inside are constantly trying to lure more people in, to make profit for those on the top, while the organization keeps changing names and hides their business structure in order to save their reputation. People can get influenced by it, and sucked in, without even knowing about it. Somehow most MLM's are also in Utah.

Mormon church also asked to no longer be called that, in order to stop being associated with the words like 'cult', which people have identified it as. Now they're working under more secretive names, and hidden business practices, so we wouldn't even know what we're being influenced by, and why is the content in front of us what it is.

#mormonism #religion critical #patriarchal religion #cults #tradwives #feminism #radical feminism #mormon church #insane how i had no idea all this was going on

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saintsenara · 10 months ago

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Riddle’s extremely fearful and aggressive reaction to Dumbledore when he thinks he’s a doctor (and the fact that he assumes this at all and believes he is being lied to) has some pretty dark implications (which of course no one follows up on). Do you have thoughts?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and yes - this has occurred to me too... which means that my thoughts come with a trigger warning for the sexual abuse of a child, and are under the cut.

the relevant scene in canon is, of course, this:

“I am Professor Dumbledore.” “Professor?” repeated Riddle. He looked wary. “Is that like doctor? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?” He was pointing at the door through which Mrs. Cole had just left. “No, no,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “I don’t believe you,” said Riddle. “She wants me looked at, doesn’t she? Tell the truth!” He spoke the last three words with a ringing force that was almost shocking. It was a command, and it sounded as though he had given it many times before. His eyes had widened and he was glaring at Dumbledore, who made no response except to continue smiling pleasantly. After a few seconds Riddle stopped glaring, though he looked, if anything, warier still. “Who are you?” “I have told you. My name is Professor Dumbledore and I work at a school called Hogwarts. I have come to offer you a place at my school - your new school, if you would like to come.” Riddle’s reaction to this was most surprising. He leapt from the bed and backed away from Dumbledore, looking furious. “You can’t kid me! The asylum, that’s where you’re from, isn’t it? ‘Professor,’ yes, of course - well, I’m not going, see? That old cat’s the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they’ll tell you!”

the surface-level reading of this scene - which is clearly what the text wants us to go for - is that riddle thinks he's about to be institutionalised for being "mad" - and, specifically, that he thinks that what dumbledore has been told is his "madness" is actually his magic.

[he is also clearly meant to be read as panicking a little bit that he's fucked around torturing his fellow children and is now about to find out...]

that riddle accepts he's a wizard so easily - and that he is so reassured by dumbledore agreeing that he's not mad - is something the text wants us to read as sinister. him immediately describing himself as "special" is set up as a precursor to the adult voldemort's delusions of grandeur - which the entire arc of the series, ending in his death as an ordinary man, is designed to undermine.

but i've always disliked this reading. the eleven-year-old riddle - a magical child raised around non-magical people - is objectively correct to describe his powers as "special" [in that they make him identifiably different from the crowd] within the context in which he lives. the word choice is nowhere near as deep as dumbledore decides - he's clearly known since he was very young that he's a wizard, but he didn't have the precise language to describe this fundamental part of himself until dumbledore offered it; prior to that, "special" is a perfectly reasonable alternative term.

and, in always knowing that he's a wizard, he also knows that he doesn't have a mental illness - but he must also know that this is something it's near impossible for him to prove.

in the real world, if i spoke to a patient who told me:

“I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to.”

then i would be correct to describe them as experiencing psychosis. and i might - depending on their other symptoms - have reasonable cause to admit them [voluntarily or not] for psychiatric treatment.

riddle is - of course - demonstrably not psychotic. but it's not unreasonable that mrs cole would assume he is - the world she lives in, as a muggle [even if she's a religious one], is one in which people do not possess the ability to move objects or control animals with their minds, and if one of her charges is convinced that he can, then she's justified in seeking medical intervention.

[that psychiatric treatment in the 1930s can be described without exaggeration as inhumane is another matter...]

which is to say, i think we can easily suppose that mrs cole has - prior to dumbledore's arrival - succeeded in having riddle "looked at", and that the idea that he's mentally ill and should be committed to an asylum has been mentioned before. i think most of us would be instinctively [and angrily] wary of doctors if this happened to us, regardless of how nice the doctors in question were.

and maybe that's all there is to it.

and maybe it isn't...

in the doylist text, the eleven-year-old riddle's personality is the way it is because he's the villain of the series. where harry is preternaturally capable, even as a child, of all the things the series defines as admirable - above all, enduring difficulty without complaint - riddle is preternaturally incapable of them. he's meant to come across as unambiguously sinister - and the fact that the text repeatedly emphasises that he has control over his unpleasant traits invites us to view him as someone who is acting with full agency. that he lives in an orphanage is a trope which the text uses, like a campy horror film might, predominately to underscore how creepy he is - and the text, in keeping with its general lack of interest in states and their institutions, never really prompts us to interrogate the impact of his childhood upon the course his life takes.

[this is despite the fact that voldemort's reliving of the night he killed the potters in deathly hallows is an incredibly accurate depiction of ptsd...]

but it's also the case that the eleven-year-old riddle's behaviour and personality fits a pattern we might expect to see in a child who is being abused, sexually or otherwise:

he's aggressive, he has a hair-trigger temper, and he becomes distressed even by behaviour - such as dumbledore speaking mildly and calmly - which would not ordinarily be expected to provoke such a reaction.

his broader emotional state is fractious. his mood changes sharply, he seems to feel emotions very profoundly, he struggles to control his emotional response to things, he's extremely easily irritated, he's attention-seeking - and he particularly seeks negative attention, and he's very highly-strung. his admission in deathly hallows that he feels calm before he kills - or before he otherwise eradicates a threat or a problem - comes with the flip-side that he's someone who appears, when things aren't going well or he finds himself in a situation which he can't control, to become quite anxious. which is a trauma response.

he's extremely isolated. the text presents the fact that he has no friends as a deliberate choice - "lord voldemort has never had a friend, nor do i believe that he has ever wanted one" - and his relationship with everyone else he ever meets, including his fellow orphans, is defined by the text as exclusively involving him controlling, manipulating, and punishing them. or: he is always the more powerful person in the pairing. but this need for control can be read as self-protective just as easily as it can be read as sinister. there are hints in canon that riddle is not just some malevolent force in the orphanage preying on mild-mannered innocents. for example, billy stubbs, the owner of the rabbit he kills, is targeted by riddle as revenge: “Billy Stubbs’s rabbit... well, Tom said he didn’t do it and I don’t see how he could have done, but even so, it didn’t hang itself from the rafters, did it? [...] But I’m jiggered if I know how he got up there to do it. All I know is he and Billy had argued the day before." on the rare occasions billy turns up in fics, he's usually - i find - written very like neville - sweet and guileless and a bit pathetic. but the alternative reading - especially when we take into account that riddle attacks the rabbit rather than billy himself - is that billy is someone he would be afraid to physically confront. indeed, it's striking that voldemort - at all stages of his life - is described as being quite physically fragile. not only is he very thin, but he's always cold and his heartbeat is described several times in canon as irregular. i think this is supposed to be a comment on the physical changes he undergoes the more horcruxes he makes - although the idea that the soul would affect the heart doesn't actually align with how the series understands the soul to relate to the body - but it can also be interpreted perfectly legitimately as something he was experiencing prior to splitting his soul. i am committed to the headcanon that riddle was quite a sickly child - and that this is one of the things which drives his fear of death - and i'm also committed to the idea that his obsession with magic is because the enormity of his magical power makes up for his physical lack. he can defeat - and humiliate and frighten and remove the threat of - billy or dennis [or even an adult man?] with magic. without it, if they were to physically overpower him, then he wouldn't be able to throw them off.

he is extremely nervous about being alone in a room with dumbledore - someone he doesn't know, and who he assumes is connected to a profession [and, maybe, who knows any other doctors he's been previously made to see...] of which he is frightened.

he doesn't trust or confide in anyone - which, as a child, means particularly that he doesn't trust or confide in adults in positions of responsibility. he's clearly uneasy with the idea of finding himself in the subordinate position in an adult-child relationship when dumbledore offers to take him shopping for school supplies - potentially because he's worried that dumbledore will try and dictate or restrict what he's allowed to buy unless he behaves in a certain way... and i am always very struck that dumbledore says in half-blood prince: "He was very guarded with me; he felt, I am sure, that in the thrill of discovering his true identity he had told me a little too much. He was careful never to reveal as much again." this is presented in the text as evidence that dumbledore is the only person of whom voldemort is afraid - by which the text means that voldemort acknowledges that dumbledore knows that an ordinary man, mortal and unimpressive, lurks behind the mask of unassailable power he has created for himself; and which the text thinks is a good thing. but we can also read it as a self-protective act on riddle's part. in his excitement, he offers dumbledore information [that he is known to be a liar, that he is in trouble a lot, that mrs cole dislikes him and is disinclined to believe anything he says] which would give dumbledore - or anyone in a similar position of power and presumed respectability - cover to abuse him, safe in the knowledge that he would be unlikely to be believed if he reported it.

he doesn't appear to feel safe in the orphanage and he's frequently absent from it - by his own admission, he spends a huge amount of time wandering around london on his own, which may even involve him staying away for several days at a time. nobody appears to notice or care about this.

he's very independent - which the text again presents as evidence of his deliberate self-isolation and rejection of the bonds of love and friendship - and his independence is unusual for a child his age [i.e. that he is capable of doing all his own shopping for school].

his knowledge of violence - i.e. how he designs the trip to the cave to be maximally psychologically devastating for dennis and amy and devoid of repercussions for himself - is also more advanced and methodical than would be expected in a child of his age. again, the text uses this to emphasise how inextricable the child-voldemort is from his adult self - and also, to some extent, to underscore the intellectual brilliance [his magic is also more advanced than is normal for a child] which his narrative archetype [the exceptional villain who is defeated by the everyman hero] requires. but we can also read it as evidence of his own victimisation. a common sign that a child is being sexually abused is that they display a knowledge of sexual behaviour which is more advanced than is reasonable for a child of their age - for example, knowing in detail how a sex act is performed, or fluently using sexual slang which they have no chance of knowing either from age-appropriate settings like school-based sex education or conversations with a parent or trusted adult, or from the sort of enthusiastic hoarding of rude words and phrases all children enjoy as they grow up. riddle's precise, clinical knowledge of how to manipulate, frighten, torture, and control can be seen as something similar. if he can - at eleven or younger - methodically break down another child until they're "never quite right" again, then this is because he's learned how to from someone.

he keeps secrets. and he also goes out of his way to extract them. his grooming of ginny in chamber of secrets - he manipulates her into confiding things she wants to keep to herself, promises he won't tell anyone, and then uses the threat that he will to get her to do his bidding - is an absolutely textbook example of how abusers use the idea of secrecy to control their victims. it doesn't make his abuse of ginny any less inexcusable if we assume he learns this from being on the other side of things.

dumbledore understands his little cache of objects as trophies he's taken from victims - and the text takes the view that dumbledore is correct in this assessment. that hoarding trophies is something widely associated with serial killers means that this is yet another thing which underlines how creepy - and how like his adult self - the child-voldemort is. but it's also the case that the adult - and teenage - voldemort places a lot of emphasis on gift-giving as part of his control over other people. the two most obvious examples in canon are wormtail being given his shiny hand as a reward for helping voldemort get his body back, and slughorn being buttered up with crystallised pineapple before voldemort asks him about horcruxes. the text thinks this is sinister - and one of the reasons it does this is because gift-giving is a grooming tactic. the text also clearly thinks this isn't behaviour voldemort has learned from the other side. and yet a common sign that a child is being abused is if they have possessions it doesn't make sense for them to own [i.e. a child from a low-income background who is suddenly decked in designer clothes] and which they can't or won't explain how they came by. riddle's cache isn't luxurious - although he's so poor that a yoyo or a mouth organ probably is a luxury to him - but there's also nothing in canon which precludes the objects being presents, rather than stolen goods. if the spell dumbledore uses to make the box rattle is caused by a statement which is both relatively ambiguous and dependent on dumbledore's subjective personal morality - is there anything in this room he's acquired through nefarious means? - then the spell would still work as it does in canon if riddle was an abuse victim given the objects as "rewards". dumbledore's tendency to locate right and wrong in the individual and dumbledore's belief that good people should steadfastly endure misery means he can be written entirely canon-coherently as someone who would think a victim who appeared to collude in their own abuse - such as a victim who "offered" a sexual act because their abuser promised them something if they did - was behaving consensually, manipulatively, and nefariously. and it's worth noting that when riddle doesn't know what dumbledore has done to make the box rattle, he is "unnerved". when he realises dumbledore thinks he's stolen the objects - and that he has no interest in forcing him to admit this aloud - he is "unabashed". perhaps because he's just received proof that an experience he doesn't want to talk about is still secret...

on the other hand, the objects could indeed be stolen - because petty criminality and anti-social behaviour, especially in pre-teen children, is also a sign of abuse.

he can be extremely obsequious - when dumbledore tells him to watch how he speaks he becomes "unrecognisably polite", he ruthlessly flatters slughorn, and he is cringingly deferential to hepzibah smith. the text understands this as evidence that his apparent charm is only superficial - another trait associated in the popular imagination with serial killers [and it's striking that so much about the young voldemort - handsome, charming, seemingly quiet and polite, true evil lurking underneath the mask - is exactly like the pop-culture persona which has been created for ted bundy...]. voldemort himself agrees that his charm is performative in chamber of secrets: “If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted." but his obsequiousness is also a fawn response - a way of minimising a threat by attempting to please the person issuing it. he becomes "unrecognisably polite" - after all - in response to this: Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. “If, as I take it, you are accepting your place at Hogwarts - ” “Of course I am!” “Then you will address me as ‘Professor’ or ‘sir.’ ” Riddle’s expression hardened for the most fleeting moment before he said, in an unrecognisably polite voice, “I’m sorry, sir. I meant - please, Professor, could you show me - ?” riddle could reasonably interpret what dumbledore says here as a threat to prevent him attending hogwarts - even though dumbledore evidently doesn't mean it in this way - and he switches to being fawning because this is something he really doesn't want to happen...

do i think that any of this is what the text was actually going for? no. and nor do i think that reading riddle as a victim of abuse excuses the violence which the adult voldemort goes on to perpetuate.

but i think it is a reading of his characterisation which is both canon-plausible and interesting - a strange, sickly child with a reputation for cruelty and dishonesty being abused by the respectable doctor who is constantly called in to treat his coughs and wheezes, who buys him little presents and charms him into telling him secrets, who then [to paraphrase the teenage voldemort] feeds him a few secrets of his own, safe in the knowledge that nobody will ever believe him if he tries to get help.

and i also think this a reading which is sincerely important.

a significant contributor to the prevalence of child abuse - no matter what exact form this abuse takes - is that we are culturally conditioned to imagine that both the abuser and the victim will look and behave in a certain way if the abuse is "real".

and this means, all too often, that we take child abuse more seriously when the victim is "sympathetic" - when they're from a stable home, and their family are respectable, and they do well in school, and they're polite and sweet, and they look innocent, and they behave perfectly appropriately for their age, and nobody would ever dare to say that they come across as older than they are, and they're white, and they don't have a history of lying, and they don't have a history of attention-seeking, and they don't have a criminal record, and they're not abusive themselves, and there's absolutely no way of suggesting that they colluded in their abuse, and the perpetrator was someone who looks like a child abuser.

someone who is creepy, low-status, ugly, unpopular. someone who everyone can tell is socially abnormal, someone who nobody would ever intentionally permit to be around their children. not someone who is charming, well-respected, attractive, rich, popular, trustworthy. not someone who has a loving family and a happy home. not someone we might be friends with.

but many perpetrators of child abuse are these second group of people. and many victims of child abuse are "unsympathetic", when their social positions and reputations are compared to their abusers' own.

they lie. they steal. they're attention-seeking. they're vindictive. they have trouble distinguishing between imagination and reality. they're violent. they're bullies. they hurt animals. they abuse other children. they take drugs. they're mentally-ill. they come from broken homes. they're in the care of the state. they're dirty. they're poor. they're odd. they're behind at school and badly-behaved in the classroom. they do things which allow their abuse to be dismissed as something they brought upon themselves - they speak or dress in certain ways, they pose provocatively in pictures and post them on the internet, they are known to be sexually active outside of the context of their abuse, they lie about being over the age of consent, they engage in sexual behaviour with an adult abuser in a way which appears [even though it isn't, and there's never a circumstance in which it will be] to be consensual or for their own personal gain, they are flattered by the attention they receive from someone who is important or attractive grooming them, they have complicated - and not always wholly negative - feelings towards their abusers.

and they are still - unequivocally - victims, and what happens to them is still - unequivocally - abuse.

tom riddle is an unsympathetic victim - not only of any potential abuse, but also of the horrors of his life which are explicit on the canon page: that he is raised in an orphanage; that he is grieving; that he knows nothing about his family; that he is thought to be mad.

the absence of any institutional response to his childhood experiences - dumbledore, by his own admission, discloses nothing about riddle to his fellow teachers - is a flaw repeated again and again in the worldbuilding of the harry potter series.

hogwarts - and the wizarding [and muggle] state more broadly - doesn't intervene in any case of neglect or abuse, from harry to snape to voldemort's own parents. the series' individualistic morality means that we aren't supposed to interrogate these collective failings. and the series' black-and-white view of good and evil - and its general belief that violence is fine if the person it happens to "deserves" it - means that it has no interest in examining the ways that poverty, isolation, and neglect are risk factors; that straightforwardly unpleasant people can still be victims; that victims can go on to become perpetrators without their victimhood ceasing to matter; and that the abuse of children usually takes place not in silence and secrecy, concealed in ways which make it fine for adults not to notice it and not to intervene, but in plain sight.

this is knowledge it never hurts to refresh. thinking about lord voldemort's childhood might be an usual way of doing so... but it is an effective one nonetheless...

#asks answered #asenora meta #tom riddle #lord voldemort #if wizards had the concept of safeguarding it would be a game changer...

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mayakern · 2 months ago

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If you don't mind sharing, what happened to vanetta's ex Edmund and his new saintess gf?

oh boy, so, a LOT has happened here so BUCKLE UP.

(and here’s a picture of vanetta for context for the maybe 2 other ppl who will read this huge post, which i have tried to summarize)

TLDR: after vanetta “died” and was yeeted into time travel, edmund died and charlotte saved the world. but edmund got brought back… and he came back wrong.

but the full story is so much weirder than that:

the core conceit of this game is that we are time (and place) hopping every time the party levels up, and mostly this is pretty normal—someone who’s from an ancient time visits a future date and finds out their country no longer exists, someone from the future goes to an earlier time and is shocked by the severely lacking technology, etc etc

except for vanetta, who is not from the past or future. she is from a book series. and she has JUST discovered this.

our most recent time hop has taken us to a dystopian capitalist future that takes place in a big mall in outer space (think a combination of tron, zenon: girl of the 21st century, wall-e and other similar media), where our wizard comes from.

and as soon as we materialize there, vanetta is recognized as a “really high quality and authentic cosplayer” of, well. herself. the book series she is from (the briar path) is popular on a level that basically combines twilight, harry potter and the bible all in one. it is fantastically popular, but also pretty old, and also is continually getting remakes and re-releases and right now they are currently making a manga adaptation of it. and it has a very active fanbase that writes a lot of fan fiction. this is, somehow, incredibly plot relevant.

an npc shows vanetta the comic, which currently i think covers 2 of the books in the series, and it shows her being depicted as basically your typical shallow, unsympathetic villainess character. and it depicts her death: the moment when, on the ramparts of the palace she was meant to preside over, she is faced with an angry mob seeking her death on one side and the crown prince (edmund, her former fiance) and charlotte (the saintess, his new woman, who in the fiction of the book was isekai’d into the world of the briar path) on the other side. vanetta climbs onto the rampart and makes a big impassioned speech (aka a villain monologue) about how pathetic and horrible they all are and when charlotte makes a swipe at her, vanetta chooses to let it unbalance her, forcing charlotte to live on with the guilt of her death.

only, the real vanetta doesn’t die. she gets yeeted out of time and space with three other time travelers. and our story continues

anyway, back to present day, the manga adaptation has just reached the part of the series where edmund dies—something vanetta did not know about. but just because he died in the book doesn’t mean he died in real life.

see, edmund had some pretty devoted fans. and one of them, who thought edmund was robbed by the narrative, got into some ancient, evil magics and combining this with the immense power of FAN FICTION, he tried to bring edmund out of the novel and into real life, and in the process ended up fusing with him and also with a force called The Hunger, a roiling miasma of despair that was the ultimate evil in the novels.

and so they all fused together and became a new thing. a god. in fact, our yuan-ti paladin’s snake god. who uhh subjugates and eats all non-snake people. the creation of this god also uhh was a huge cataclysm that basically started the earth apocalypse that lead to everyone ending up in the sky.

vanetta has JUST managed to secure annotated copies of the entire series that include academic commentaries and notes on historical context and the first chance she gets she is reading them so hopefully i’ll get more info soon lol

#ask #dnd #oc #vanetta

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hughesysgirl28 · 2 months ago

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Request? No

Pairings: Nico Hischier x fem!reader

Summary: a girl has been starting a rumor that she’s dating Nico Hischier. Except, she isn’t. You are but it’s a secret so nobody else knows but you two and close friends. Getting tired of the girl and her rumor you decide to reveal your relationship during one of your concerts.

A/n: I’ve lowkey been obsessed with Karma by Taylor Swift lately so I thought of this!

Requests are closed!

Warnings: use of y/n, minor cursing

Karma

Sitting in the apartment you shared with your boyfriend Nico you sighed. You had a day off and were spending it with Nico before the last concert of the American leg of your tour at the Prudential Center tomorrow but low and behold the same girl who was saying she was dating Nico last week was still saying it and the worst part was a lot of people believed her. She had made some weird photoshopped pictures that actually looked real unless you knew who the hockey player was actually dating. Yourself.

“Liebe, don’t worry about it.” Nico mumbles to you pulling you to lean against his chest on the couch you both resided on currently. “But, Neeks, it’s getting worse now.” You sighed yet again while scrolling through the girls instagram.

“Maybe we should reveal our relationship then.” Nico says pressing a light kiss to your shoulder.

“Are you okay with that?” You ask now turning your head to look at him. “If it eases your mind and gets this girl to stop then yes.” He reassures you.

You think about it for a second then nod. “I have an idea. At my concert tomorrow, you’ll see.” You tell him after thinking of an idea. You’d reveal your relationship with your song Karma.

“Now let’s just enjoy our day together Y/n.” Nico says to you grabbing the remote and turning on the tv to your shared favorite show. You gave him a big smile putting your phone away as you both watched it while cuddling on the couch.

It was the next day. It was also about time for you to go out on stage. You paced around back stage doing breathing exercises.

Nico had came back a little bit earlier wishing you good luck hugging and giving you a short kiss. After that he had gone to where he and some of his teammates and their girlfriends/wives would be sitting.

Your chosen outfit for the night was a type of white dress with long white sleeves that had bows on the end. You also had a white bow in your hair. Your stage manager then came to you and said it was time to start the show. You nodded grabbing your mic and walked out there onto the stage.

“Hey Prudential!” You exclaim to the crowd with a big smile waving out to your fans. They all screamed happily as you came out on stage and talked.

“I hope you guys have a good time tonight cause I plan to make it an epic one! The first song is one of my personal favorites Karma!” You said into your mic. This was the song. You’d reveal yours and Nico’s relationship with the first one. The entire world would know before tomorrow.

“You’re talking shit for the hell of it. Addicted to betrayal, but you’re relevant.” You sang dancing around the stage with your dancers. You loved your job. Getting to sing and entertain people. This song you had actually written about Nico. You never told him it was but you had a feeling he knew.

“Sweet like justice, karma is a queen. Karma takes all my friends to the summit.” You sing then look to where Nico would be and grin.

“Karma is the captain of the Devils coming straight home to me.” You sing point to where Nico was. The camera had fanned over there to him showing him on the screen for a quick second as everyone screamed louder at the reveal.

You sway your hips in a dance as you continue the song. “Nico’s a relaxing thought. Aren’t you envious that for you he’s not?” You sing with a wicked grin looking to the middle camera as it points to you.

Soon the song was over and you continued the concert. Everyone enjoyed it from what you could tell considering all of the joyous screaming.

After, backstage, Nico came to you hugging and spinning you around with a grin his dimples showing. “That’s my girl!” He exclaims. “Always, Nico.” You say as he puts you down but still hugging you.

Your arms were wrapped around his neck. You both kissed a quick but meaningful kiss before you went and changed into regular clothes so you could go out with the rest of his team and their girlfriends/wives for the night.

#hockey #hockey men #nhl hockey #new jersey devils #newjerseydevils #hockey imagine #nico hischier #nicohischier #nico hischier x reader #nico hischier x y/n #nhl imagine #hockey fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #nico hischier imagine

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snowblack-charcoalwhite · 6 months ago

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Something something the concept of granting meaning and importance to an object/phenomenon/person by giving them a name

It is especially relevant in the world like the one ASOIAF is set in, where the name serves as an extremely important defining factor for many characters (mostly a family name but also their given one). And boy, did HotD writers lean into this - in their own way.

I am not the first one to point out that Jaehaera's name hasn't been mentioned in the show at all - not once. But guess who got to have one?

Sure, everyone absolutely needs to remember a girl who was raped by the prince (who is now the king) and who, except for that fact - which serves the purpose of vilifying said prince (and, in some way, by association, the entire TG) - had zero relevance to the plot. And so we have Dyana - because this absolutely unbiased show can't have anyone forget that the Greens' candidate for the throne has some deplorable proclivities. She even got some extra screen time in season 2: once again, absolutely unnecessary except for reminding the audience of her existence - and of Aegon's sins.

But who cares about the only remaining child of the king; the girl who came within a hair's breadth from death and then lost her twin brother; the one true joy left to her mother? Why would she even need a name?

Jaehaera's fate in the show is uncertain (the writers didn't do away with her at the very least) - but for now she is not even a tool of the story but merely a dead weight that just had to be there for Blood and Cheese to have someone to choose from. And then she was simply conveniently (nearly) forgotten becoming just "Helaena's daughter" - no name, no face, no emotional attachment from the audience. I just wonder if the writers' unwilingness to actually involve Jaehaera in the story (or just let the viewers properly see her) comes from them being equally unwilling to make the audience remember her brother whose death and its consequences they are so eager to sweep under the rug in order to minimize the PR damage done to the Blacks.

P.S. Speaking about the importance of names - they need to be not only revealed but also remembered. Jaehaerys didn't end up nameless - but how many times was he actually called by his name in the show? Right off the bat I can remember only one such case: Aegon asking Helaena where he was in episode 1. And while I believe this was not the only time (I am terribly sorry but right now I can't make myself rewatch any part of season 2, not even for science - so feel free to point out the rest), I have a distinct feeling that he still was far more often referred to as "boy", "child", "son", "heir to the throne" and whatnot. Once again: no name, no memory - which IMO is exactly what the writers were going for.

#house of the dragon #hotd #hotd critical #team green #pro team green #jaehaera targaryen #jaehaerys targaryen #prince jaehaerys

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roach-works · 8 months ago

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furiosa's hair

okay after a few days to chew on it i think here's what made me so deeply, resentfully uncomfortable about furiosa's long hair: it was a normative signifier. it broke the fourth wall, it broke the immersion, it broke the world she actually inhabited, in order to signal to US IN THE AUDIENCE that our culture's concept of womanhood was normal, correct, and relevant.

like, furiosa kept exiting these explicitly female positions-- she was taken from the green place, she rejected her position as dementus's daughter, and she escaped the immortan's harem. but again and again her long hair didn't mark the passage of time so much as it marked her AS A WOMAN, as a woman recognizable to us, as a girl, as a cisgender, heterosexual woman just trying to survive the expected cruelty's of man's world. it was meant to keep categorizing her as female in a way we all understand. long hair = girl, despite how dementus and the immortan also maintain long hair. unlike the men, though, her hair wasn't meant to be a symbol of power or freedom or even savagery, just that she was still a woman.

and i think that really bothers me because there was this whole time where, to survive, she became a boy, she lived as a boy, she didn't talk so no one would hear her voice, and whether or not she was masquerading as male or genuinely fluidly taking on a new gender in that life stage, she still somehow for some reason cultivated long and flowing hair, so at a dramatic moment we the viewers get the confirmation that yes she's certainly a beautiful woman, not a boy. she has a gender and it's our kind of gender! the normal kind! just your regular tough but beautiful woman's gender situation!

it bugs me. the furiosa of fury road, with her shaved head and powerfully confrontational violence, occupies a deliberately obscure gender space. she's got female pronouns but is macho as hell, she moves and acts and commands as a part of this intensely patriarchal structure, she's the exception that proves the immortan's rule, she embodies a ton of contradictions without explanation or apology.

a long haired furiosa feels like that apology. here's a furiosa that's younger, prettier, more reassuring, less confusing. here's a gender situation you can recognize: here's what women are and here's what men are! you already know this one!

here's a woman who takes power and commits violence without asking us any questions about how artificial, contextual, and permeable the laws of gender actually are. she's pretty even as she kills men, because she's not a man, because women aren't men, because women are beautiful. because women are for looking at and liking what you see. because what's the point of a woman you don't want to see?

it just bugs me.

#CAVEAT: STILL A GOOD STORY I ENJOYED #but boyyyy howdy 'surprise! this weedy little boy was a PRETTY GIRL ALL ALONG' reveals suck shit when you're transmasc #and it felt particularly inapt for FURIOSA OF ALL PEOPLE

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dedalvs · 1 year ago

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Hey! I'm David Peterson, and a few years ago, I wrote a book called Create Your Own Secret Language. It's a book that introduces middle grade readers to codes, ciphers, and elementary language creation. The age range is like 10-14, but skews a little bit older, as the work gets pretty complicated pretty quick. I think 12-13 is the best age range.

Anyway, I decided to look at the Amazon page for it a bit ago, and it's rated fairly well (4.5 at the moment), but there are some 1 star reviews, and I'm always curious about those. Usually they're way off, or thought the book was going to be something different (e.g. "This book doesn't teach you a thing about computer coding!"), but every so often there's some truth in there. (Oh, one not 1 star but lower rated review said they gave it to their 2nd grader, but they found it too complicated. I appreciate a review like that, because I am not at all surprised—I think it is too complicated for a 2nd grader—and I think a review like that is much more effective than a simple 10+ age range on the book.) The first 1 star rating I came to, though, was this:

Now calling a completely mild description of a teenage girl who has a crush on another girl controversial is something I take exception to, but I don't want to pile on this person. Instead I wanted to share how this section came to be in the book.

The book is essentially divided into four parts. The first three parts deal with different ciphers or codes that become more complicated, while the last part describes elementary language creation. The first three sections are each built around a message that the reader can decode, but with language creation, the possibilities are too numerous and too complicated, so there isn't an example to decode, or anything. It would've been too difficult.

For what the messages to decode are about, though, I could do, potentially, anything, so at first I thought to tie them into a world of anthropomorphic animals (an ongoing series of battles between cats and mice), with messages that are being intercepted and decoded. My editor rejected that. Then I redid it so that each section had an individual story that had to do with some famous work of literature. My editor rejected that as well. He explained that it needed to be something that was relevant to kids of the target age range. I was kind of at a loss, for a bit, but then I thought of a story of kids sending secret messages about their uncle who eats too many onions. I shared that, my editor loved it, and I was like, all right. I can do this.

The tough part for me in coming up with mini-stories to plan these coded messages around was coming up with a reason for them to be secret. That's the whole point of a code/cipher: A message you want to be sure no one else but the intended recipient can read in case the message is intercepted. With the first one, two kids are poking gentle fun at a family member, so they want to be sure no one else can read what they're writing. For the last one, a boy is confessing to a diary, because he feels bad that he allowed his cat to escape, but no one knows he did it (he does find the cat again). For the other, I was trying to think of plausible message-sending scenarios for a preteen/teen, and I thought of how we used to write notes in, honestly, 4th and 5th grade, but I aged it up a bit, and decided to have a story about a girl writing a note to her friend because she has a crush on another girl, and wants her friend's opinion/help.

Here's where the point of sharing this comes in. As I had originally written it, the girl's note to her friend was not just telling her friend about her crush, it was also a coming out note, and she was concerned what her parents would react poorly.

Anyway, I sent that off with the rest of my draft, and I got a bunch of comments back on the whole draft (as expected), but my editor also commented on that story, in particular. Specifically, he noted that not every LGBTQ+ story has to be a coming out story, the part about potential friction between her and her parents because of it was a little heavy for the book, and, in general, not every coming out story has to be traumatic.

That was all he said, but I immediately recognized the, in hindsight, obvious truth of all three points, and I was completely embarrassed. I changed it immediately, so that the story beats are that it's a crush, she's not sure if it'll be reciprocated, and she's also very busy with school and band and feels like this will be adding even more busy-ness to her daily life as a student/teen. Then I apologized for making such a blunder. My editor was very good about it—after all, that's what drafts and editors are for—and that was a relief, but I'm still embarrassed that I didn't think of it first.

But, of course, this is not my lived experience, not being a member of the LGBTQ+ community. This is the very reason why you have sensitivity readers—to provide a vantage point you're blind to. In this case, I was very fortunate to have an editor who was thinking ahead, and I'm very grateful that he was there to catch it. That editor, by the way, is Justin Krasner.

One reason I wanted to share this, though, is that while it always is a bit of a difficult thing to speak up, because there might be a negative reaction, sometimes there is no pushback at all. Indeed, sometimes the one being called out is grateful, because we all have blindspots due to our own lived experiences. You can't live every life. For that reason, your own experience will end up being valuable to someone at some point in time for no other reason than that you lived it and they didn't. And, by the by, this is also true for the present, because the lives we've lived cause us to see what's going on right before our eyes in different lights.

Anyway, this is a story that wouldn't have come out otherwise, so I wanted to be sure to let everyone know that Justin Krasner ensured that my book was a better book. An editor's job is often silent and thankless, so on Thanksgiving, I wanted to say thank you, Justin. <3

#conlang #language #code #codes #cipher #ciphers #thanksgiving #thank you

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spotlightlowlife · 2 months ago

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glutton for diminishment

and bonus lust for lies

Queen Bee has lost what little credibility she had at this point.

I'll start off by first calling out both Ozzie and Bee

Since that can easily be done together, they were pretty much the same character in mastermind but looking back on all we have got on these two, they're two sides of the same coin in general.

The last episode gave us some scenes with the sins we have met, we didn't get to hear from anyone new but Satan, it was his court but the alleged true boss was missing. Ozzie and Bee sat together and proved their allegiance and support of the defence, but not really.

They had fight in them to bicker with Mammon, much more than they had to speak up for IMP, even though they both initially spoke up in shallow defense of Blitzø and only Blitzø.

The fact that they were both quick to move on to an argument with their peer and quickly find entertainment in this spat dispite an execution going on that would not only go against their 'hangs out with the little guy image but upset their partners, also the little guys.

This indifference could easily show that those at the bottom of society truly mean nothing to them, they don't care, they may like the odd personality or two who is cute and looks up to them but so. This would actually make sense, they are leaders of the rings of hell, more than a business boss but world leaders and the residents of hell are customers who live and work to provide for them and act accordingly in their territory

no exceptions

but this won't be the case because they are 'nice' and being 'nice' they can't be ignorant or dismissive and if so l it's someone else's fault. So nice are they that they must love their mortal partners who were born the equivalent of yesterday to them.

Both Fizz and Tex had moments of insecurity and discomfort at the power imbalance of their relationships and where they stand

with Tex looking concerned at Bee's behaviour and what she could do to Loona who he kindly invited

and Fizz's lack of confidence turning out to be down to his fame being what lead him to Ozzie and without his brand where would thet be? Good question.

Both these characters got off to a good start, they spoke their agenda and were bothered by those who got in their way, Moxxie changed the tone and Ozzie had every right to eject him and Millie and Bee had every right to be bothered by a guest who was rude to her in her home, if the push to have them seem nice was relaxed, then these work as great powermoves rather than empty threat and their 'humblness' at having a club that's 'that place I wanted to go to' says a lowly imp and that party that anyone can get in, could be a manipulation to get lowest of classes comfortable which will equal profit. Makes sense. So far one character is safe to be doing this.

Now you see the parallels of these two and their matching situations, yet more can and has been done with Ozzie. Bee may be yet another female who needs a man for relevance.

The female curse

Mammon is better at Bee's sin than Bee. Greed and gluttony should mesh together well, gluttony is a major part of consumerism and that's a fact anyone can understand. But we can't have that because one is nice and the other isn't, even though this doesn't prevent Ozzie and Mammon working together.

Bee falls under the umbrella of outclassed females.

In breif

•Loona lives like a teenager and she's is spoilt by Blitzø who was good enough to adopt her, he also employs her, she knows transformation magic but how is unknown, we don't see her study, we don't see her taking phone calls, she is friendless and her interactions with IMP regress the episode after improvement

• Millie is given nothing to talk about, needs Moxxie and his perseved helplessness to show us her competence and now Blitzø is her bestie after one episode and credited for her life being what it is

• Barbie, edited out of her shared backstories with Fizz and her male lead character twin

• Verosika, a sucessful catch who got off lucky by getting robbed and abandoned by Blitzø reduced to bitter, petty and desperate ex

• Stella was the woman scored who's family and lifestyle just got wrecked, now just abusive wife, now doesn't even handle her own shit that's her brothers job

• Bel and Lev, they should be important characters yet they were introduced in silence, no speaking roles the whole episode yet the bird goatis guy talks

• dead mothers (or assumed so but it makes no difference) who didn't even get to speak in flashbacks, both major parts of their son's tragic background

I don't buy that it's a coincidence that the Bee is not shown enjoying being gluttonous in her own right AND happens to be in shape only for Mammon to be both gluttonous and fat upon debut. Yes, I'm sure there are merchandise reasons at play here yes misdeeds that should be Ozzie's have been ridiculously pushed onto Mammon too in order to have a bad guy, further proving Bee to be watered down Ozzie.

Crap vibes

The common defensive that Bee was disgusted by Mammon's gluttony because 'she picks up on good vibes' or 'table manners'

both are hopeless excuses because what's not good vibes about someone looking forward to their lunch break and enthusiastically eating a meal? Bee was the one encouraging her guests to eat, drink and enjoy a supersize, she wasn't watching how speedy and tidy they were in consuming and she is all for the depraved.

Another thing, she was quick to intimidate and threaten Loona and want to see the back of Blitzø, both for ruining the vibe, yet we didn't see people rushing to leave and there was nothing to tell us that 'good vibes' were something she imposed with subtle threat or they were just some young hipster standards and satire of PC.

We really could have seen Bee upkeep her flaky attitude by allowing Blitzø to get depraved as long as he was consuming (a lot like Mammon not intetupting Fizz's burn song because attention equal money) and it be Loona further proved right that this girl is a phoney and have her moment of looking for Blitzø without being prompted by an unlikely and irrelevant source. But no, Loona's rude anyway so her opinion on Bee doesn't matter, makes sense that she's jealous, there's enough reason to be.

Bee's shallow attitude and dismissal of what she doesn't want to roll with could easily be used for her own villainy, the power of toxic positivity, but no, she's reactive and what she enforces is unclear, yet again, what could be her thing has been done better.

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss critique #helluva boss beelzebub #helluva boss ozzie #missed opportunity #helluva boss criticism

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velvetvexations · 14 days ago

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Please correct me If I'm wrong, but didn't Playdough's whole beef with Bechdel trying to reframe her as a TERF start originally because escentially she wanted to prove that HOMESTUCK is somehow more deep and influencial and important queer media than DTWOF?? It was a poll thing and people where getting mad that homestuck was beating dtwof (this is the homestuck website like cmon) so Playdough started there the discourse of Bechdel being a terf to discredit her work

I have no idea if homestuck is actually that queer in it's content, but this incident made me realize something very common about pretentious cult-like groups like TRF and Tankies.

They want to find the way to parrot that their interests are somehow morally superior and more correct than other's; forcemem can not be just a kink it's actually a culturally significant political practice and forcemasc is just a transmisogynist bastard copy, transfem headcanons can not be just normal fandom shit for enjoyment they are the more correct and intelectual reading an analysis of any character that doesn't adhere to strict tradicional cis gender roles and transmascs headcanons are anti intelectual media illiterate misogyny, homestuck can't be just a popular old webcomic you still like despite It's flaws (like srly It has a shit ton of racism and ableism, it was created on the era of the internet 4chan was more culturally relevant than ever in memes mostly so of course) no It's not a pillar of queerness in fiction and media and the comics created by a literal feminists trans ally buch need to somehow be morally inferior because they're both compiting in a Tumblr poll

AHAHAHAHAHAHA SHE'S STILL DOING IT TOO

I'm sorry, but imagine having this much of a grudge over your fave losing a poll lmao lmao lmao lmao this is so funny oh my God.

But it's especially hilarious because all of what she wrote about June is complete nonsense that was never part of the text. Now let's look at what she had to say about transmasc headcanons:

Welcome to projection playground, ma'am! She's literally using the idea of "legitimate analysis" just to prop up her own headcanon. This is so gutbustingly hilarious. Does she even think it's possible transmascs could have headcanons based in 'legitimate analysis'? Considering the fact that she seems to vehemently insist literally every transmasc headcanon ever is actually transfem, probably not, right? Because she doesn't understand masculinity is revolutionary and transgressive for people who weren't assigned it? Because she's a self-centered moron?

But wait, there's more!

She's so consumer-brained and she doesn't even know it.

I love that her whole personality is structured around being the world's most obnoxious Homestuck fan who uses academic language to build a comfort blanket to soothe her insecurities and lash out at others because it's gender validating if she gets to lash out at trans men the way cis women are allowed to with cis men. Except I've never seen a cis woman do it this ineptly, or so blatantly the product of issues they desperately need to work out.

Anyway, back to Bechdel...

I know I've been ranting about this subject in a general, undirected way all morning, but I'm going to tell you that this is a problem with Plaidos, specifically, which she passes on to her audience:

They don't know what TERFs are.

A TERF has defined political views. There is a lot going on with them. You cannot take one belief or action in particular, such as Bechdel softly supporting some sex-segregated spaces, and call her a TERF when she's praxis in much bigger, material ways. It's not just about Homestuck with Plaidos, or TERFs in general. It's also about the fact that Bechdel ever did anything that had anything to do with the idea that some people are more wymynly than them, which they take personal offense to that overshadows, oh, I don't know, loud and consistent advocacy for children having access to HRT? Any real transfeminist would recognize that matters infinitely more. But with these people, that's not the issue. They don't care about anything but how badly it hurt them to hypothetically not be welcome to a shitty music festival, and Bechdel having went - even if she criticized it's policies - is basically the same as having flaunted her gender assignment to intentionally make them dysphoric.

But Bechdel supports minors getting HRT. She supports them being in women's bathrooms. A lot of TERFs have identical conversations about her.

So what makes her a TERF? Because she went to a party you weren't invited to?

Do you understand how pathetic this makes you look?

It's gross and TERF-y to say trans women as a category are jealous of people AFAB on some level but when you prioritize like this where being let into the club is the one big all-consuming deal over things like Bechdel repeatedly going to bat for minors having HRT, and they obsessively treat trans men the way they do...

Like, listen. TRFs. My friends. You're women. I promise you you're Trve Wymyn. Please get over not having been AFAB. Come to peace with it and accept that people who got what you want are on your side and are happy to support you in being recognized as a woman in spite of what was on your birth certificate. Get over it.

Just get over it.

And also get over your transfem headcanons not being any more textually supported than transmasc headcanons, losers. You're so obviously the ones addicted to seeing yourself reflected in every piece of media you consume if you have to write essays about how it's bad literary analysis to not believe in your strings-on-a-thumbtack-board shit and run down anyone else having headcanons related to their identity. You're not doing literary analysis, you're playing pretend with cartoons for children and getting upset when you see other people having their own fun without you.

One last thing:

EXTREMELY holy shit racist. Do you see what I mean? How TRFs care so much about slights to their Trve Wymynhood over all else that they say shit like this? Like yeah Michfest was basically the KKK, you're right, unimaginably stupid White woman. Remember when Lisa Vogel hung all those trans women to warn us not to vote?

#trans radical feminism #transandro phobia #racism #discourse #plai dos #cw hate crimes

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anim-ttrpgs · 2 months ago

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I heard y'all got elf kissing rules

Well, we’ve got elves in the form of the Fairy Monster Trait, and technically we have the tiniest little mechanic for determining if a curse placed by a fairy or witch can break a curse. That’s a pretty rare occurrence though. For kissing rules that are more likely to come up, a Comfort Skill check or Seduce Skill check could also involve a little kiss.

And I’m gonna use this as a jumping off point to talk about how Skill checks work in Eureka, something i know that @vixensdungeon will appreciate, hahaha.

There’s some exceptions, such as sometimes with Skills in the Knowledge category, but for the most part, if a character is going to do something in Eureka, they just do it, and it that thing they’re trying to do is something that would be difficult to accomplish, that’s when the most relevant Skill is rolled. The habit of doing it the other way around is one of those things from the D&D5e Oral Tradition that you have to unlearn to play Eureka right.

It still isn’t an absolute rule, though, and this is addressed in the rulebook too. Sometimes when we play Eureka, we play it a bit more by ear. For instance, one of my characters, Yvette Preux, has almost all really bad negatives in her Skills for the Interpersonal category. If I know that a Charm, Comfort, Manipulate, etc. roll is probably coming up, sometimes I’ll go ahead and roll the dice first, then determine how out-of-pocket what she says is based on how badly the dice roll went. Other times, she’ll just start talking and Interpersonal Skill checks just come as they come.

So anyway if a kiss is just a kiss, there’s probably no roll, but if a kiss is intended to cheer up a character and restore some of their Composure, then there would be a Comfort Skill check along with it. If a kiss is intended to get the recipient to come home with the character or otherwise leverage sexual attraction, then there would be a Seduce Skill check. (This reminds me of a time in a Eureka adventure where Yvette and Benedetta were trying to get this meathead guy, who was also a high-ranking member of an organization they were investigating, to take them home from a bar so they could search his house. A Seduce roll wasn’t necessary because everyone around the table agreed that there’s no world in which this guy would pass up two beautiful women trying to go home with him, no matter how weak their game. We rolled the dice anyway just because it was funny and of course they both would have failed if it had actually counted.)

If a kiss is meant to wake someone from an eternal slumber or turn a frog back into a human, that’s not a regular Skill check it’s just a 1D6 roll with modifiers added based on a few factors.

Ironically, Yvette would probably have the best possible chance to break a curse this way because she’s a woman of actual historical noble birth, and she has a lot of love in her cold, unbeating heart.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

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frozenjokes · 7 months ago

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long list of mcyt ships and my dumbass opinions this post was getting too long and I have so much more to say

skizzpulse: needed to write about this because I don’t ship them at all but something is deeply weird about them in a way that is neither platonic or romantic. They have transcended human definitions of Relationship to me. No they’re not a QPR either. They’re weirder. Whatever you’re thinking they’re weirder. Do not separate. Attached at the hip.

etho: etho is in a realm of his own where I simply can not ship him. he’s not doing the romance. he’s not doing the qpr. he’s not doing shit. And it’s not because he can’t pull bitches; he is swagless and a loser in a way that brings ALL the boys to the yard (as opposed to Grian who is similar except he can’t pull anyone), he’s simply getting weird with it. He walks right past any sort of relationship into something deeper; resident sopping wet animal. aro/ace also but this isn’t nearly as relevant as the autism

cubscar/convex: favorite hermitcraft ship and it is not even close. It is NOT EVEN CLOSE. in the way scarian are both covered in lighter fluid and holding matches, convex are also doing that except it’s become a game of who can set the other on fire without being lit up themselves, and they’re both having the times of their lives (ends with both of them on fire every time without fail and it’s usually scar’s fault). they’re insane about it. the vex shit???? insane. their minds are beautiful and deeply wrong. I think they should kill each other.

solidaritimes: I will never forgive Scott smajor for separating scar and Jimmy in secret life he has no idea what he took from me. In a world where Jimmy is often the butt of the joke (by his own volition, I understand) the sheriff deputy thing was fucking beautiful. Sunshine and rainbows, love and support and adoration and everything good and healthy. A massive breath of fresh air and easily my favorite part of the hermitpires crossover. They mean everything to me. I’ve never seen such losers be so in love. Failgirl power.

redscape: another banger. These guys are GOOFY and I think Scar hits a magical combination of being Completely Exasperating vs Setting Off Mumbo’s Bullshit Radar which makes them bounce off each other in a lot of fun ways. They are versatile as a couple between banter and shenanigans and dedication, it’s a pairing I generally think of as very healthy and fun and if you also like all of these things don’t read my Boatem Ghosts AU because I make redscape awful and Mumbo pays the full price! Whoops! I love to think about them falling fast if I am writing them as romantically/sexually inclined characters, where Scar is frustrating but at the same time charming and silly in a way that draws Mumbo in. Mumbo on the other hand challenges Scar and chips away at his facade in ways he finds exciting. I like a Scar that wants to prove himself to Mumbo, win him over, where Mumbo is just lightly exasperated about the whole thing.

cleo/cub: probably the only pair on this list that I think are friends normal style. I just really adore normal style friends cleo and cub feuding about their museums so I had to tell you. I need to write them as friends more often. I love thinking about cub helping cleo fix up her stitches as well as other maintenance on their body. guys who nudity doesn’t matter to they’re both just chilling with their shirts off. special platonic dynamic to me.

ranchers: I don’t care about ranchers

moonrot: I don’t normally ship cleo and pearl in most of the smps or whatever. However. The specific dynamic they have in my boatem ghosts au makes me a little insane I really like them together. Pearl is a little bit deranged in her Wanting Revenge On Scar but ougghg that pirate scar’s hanging out with… she’s so cool… and then Cleo brings them to the ghost island and Pearl thinks she’s even cooler cleo is So Awesome ougghggh and then she gets worried because Scar is a Ultra Murderer TM so she’s quite protective over Cleo and doesn’t like Scar being around them AT ALL but her ass is dead so she’s not doing shit about it. The pining once Scar is out of the picture is Out Of Control. I should write a one shot about this.

ethubs: I think this is the only ship I can honestly say has ever been too weird for me. I think they’re deranged in a way that makes my skin crawl. I am deeply afraid of them. They’ve never kicked it normal style in their lives. I look at them and I don’t know what I’m seeing. It scares me. I respect this ship deeply and leave freshly slaughtered sacrifices at an altar once a week in a hope that will be enough for ethubs to leave me alone.

#hermitshipping #skizzpulse #ethoslab #cubscar #convex #solidaritimes #redscape #zombiecleo #cubfan135 #tagging at random here #ranchers duo #moonrot #ethubs #goodtimeswithscar

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eclipseberrycake · 19 days ago

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With the Words of a Love Song (MBC X Healer! Reader)

AN: Aright, aright, I see what you're laying down, I see it. How are y'all feeling after the last MBC fic anyway? the engagement I got on it was CRAZYYY and I adored it sm

This will Not follow the storyline my main MBC story does, so if you all begin missing Blu, fret not she is still around, just not in this universe <3

☁ Now, these guys with a healer partner? That's a dynamic for sure.

☁ Probably better for Sprout's poor heart lmao

☁ Astro is by far the most protected toon on each run if this is the case. With not only Sprout and Cosmo playing favorites, you probably play favorites as well, which it's Astro. Who wouldn't.

☁ Since Cosmo and Sprout bond over baking, I imagine you and Astro bond over late nights. Like, c'mon, imagine it's late at night and while Astro is making sure the other two are sound asleep with only the best of dreams, he's laying with you as you hum some soft tune.

☁ Speaking off, the second they hear your voice, they're all over lullabies. Especially since nightmares from their times as twisteds still haunt their memories. Having you and Astro there make falling asleep easier than it was even pre-breakout.

☁ It quickly becomes a favorite part of the night time routine.

☁ Honestly, that's probably what kickstarts the entire relationship in this universe. Cosmo gets hit/heals someone/ another reason here and you're closer than Sprout was, quickly healing him with a small little rhythm.

☁ Already Sprout's got his eye on you for that as Cosmo is adamant on thanking you with your favorite dessert- he doesn't know what else to do because he's never been healed by anyone outside of Sprout or his cousin. Of course, where those two roam in my world, Astro isn't far to follow.

☁ He probably meets you on a late night walk where you're humming to yourself, maybe snuggling with Coal.

☁ Anyway, I've established previously that these three fall hard and fall fast, and are full of so much love to give. They spend endless hours trying to give you all the confidence you deserve, even if you fail to see it.

☁ They respect your wishes on limiting the use of your ability on the field, leaving most healing to Cosmo or Sprout. The only exception being if one of them needs it. In which case, you and one of them will hide in a secluded area so you can very quickly use your ability before moving once more.

☁And maybe when Astro specifically asks. As much as he loves the treats (And this is my personal headcanon) he has trouble eating and running at the same time, which is necessary when the bakers heal him, so having you sit him down for a moment of reprieve is much preferred for him.

☁ By the way. I never mentioned this in my previous MBC stuff because it wasn't really relevant, but the worst person to heal, by far is Sprout. In the other verse, he has to constantly be open to being healed because Disractor! Reader is The Worst (tm), and he needs to be alive to heal them, but with Healer! Reader?

☁ Out the window. I said you all were gremlins, this entire polycule is gremlins, and I meant it. Sprout included. He is the worst to get to sit down, and accept any form of heal if it meant taking a bandage or med kit from someone else (Like you, Cosmo or Astro). But with your ability he's a little more receptive to being healed which is good for your heart and Cosmo's poor nerves.

☁ It's not very often you have to use your ability, but of course, accidents do happen.

☁ Especially with the floors as unpredictable as always.

☁ They knew it would be a blackout the second they stepped out as the sound of the generators sputtering was too loud to ignore. Astro was quick to find you, as he gave off enough light to guide both your way and his own, while Sprout and Cosmo watched Pebble run off, calling the attention of whatever twisted he found.

☁ "You two stay with each other." Sprout practically ordered, looking back at you and Astro. "Me and Cosmo will be following Pebble. Keep track of which direction you go in."

☁ "Of course, thank you dad." Vee piped in behind him with a teasing cackle, even as the berry turned around to glare at her.

☁ "Come now, let's move. It's no fair to Pebble if he's suffering for our dallying." Rodger quickly cut in, walking forward to a nearby machine.

☁ "We'll stick together." You quickly amended, giving Sprout a soft smile before you and Astro were both walking off, sticking close to the walls for a worst case scenario.

☁ The run quickly turned into just that as every minute that passed there seemed to be the sound of someone getting hit. Blackouts were always hard, especially the further up you got, as you never knew how many Twisteds there were. You were convinced the onl y reason you and Astro stayed safe was because of Vee's ability, highlighting any twisteds wandering near the two of you.

☁ Well that and Astro's stealth which worked wonderfully as he kept you behind him, just in case.

☁ By the time the last machine was finished, you and Astro were hiding behind some crates near the elevator, quickly slipping in when it opened while eagerly awaiting the others. One by one, they trickled in, looking worse for wear. Beaten and bruised, stained in their own ichor, but healed. Not that you had any doubt in your healers afterall.

☁ Cosmo was the first one back, wincing, but standing. This was the last floor anyway. You'd take him to med bay right away.

☁ He still smiled when he saw you and Astro though, welcoming the kisses bestowed upon him with a tired wag in his curled tail (No one mentioned I gave Cosmo a tail. Y'all. COSMO TAIL CMON).

☁ Sprout was next, joining the little huddle before you could even register he was there, burrowing right in the middle. He was fine as well, teasing Astro that he could've used the Stamina boost, but could tell the celestial was busy. The only response he got was a cheeky little shrug.

☁ The only toon left was Pebble, who announced his presence with a happy little bark, only for it to turn into a sharp yelp as he turned the corner and a Twisted Coal appeared out of seemingly nowhere, sinking her teeth into his side. She let go if only to snarl at Pebble, it gave the poor pup the opportunity to run into the elevator.

☁ There was a flurry of commotion as all eyes turned to Sprout and Cosmo, but Cosmo didn't have the means to heal Pebble without risking his own life and Sprout was fresh out of tapes after healing Rodger.

☁ And while you didn't like it, you knew what you'd have to do.

☁ Gently shuffling in between Sprout and Vee, who cradled Pebble between them, you swallowed whatever was choking you, extending your hands to gently lay on Pebble's side.

☁ Sprout's eyes were immediately on you, torn between protecting your comfort and healing Pebble, but you ignored his concerned looks. You nearly buckled before a hand on your shoulder had you glancing up, Astro giving you a soft smile as Cosmo immediately sat beside you, laying on your shoulder.

☁ With a deep breath, you sang the same verse you always did, feeling your ability thrum in your veins as you channeled the energy into the wound.

☁ It closed seamlessly and before they knew it, Pebble was back to his happy, tail-wagging, circle running self, giving you a cold lick in thanks along with another yip.

☁ Feeling drained from the action, you tired pat the rock as the elevator begins to return to the lobby.

☁ "Wow, I didn't know you could do that." Vee mentions in the silence, a grin on her face as she pets Pebble, who had darted over to her. "Neat trick."

☁ "That's my partner." Sprout beams, pride practically radiating off of him as you chuckle, leaning onto Cosmo. The cake roll presses a kiss to your temple as you do so, rubbing your shoulder as he watches Sprout and Vee quickly get into a playful argument.

☁ Astro is still behind you, even if he has the same, cocky, prideful look on his face that Sprout did.

☁ You're sure there are consequences that'll come from this, but as you doze just slightly against Cosmo's shoulder, you can't really find it in yourself to care.

☁ As you finally give yourself to the urge to fall asleep, you catch Astro's eye, and a sudden realization hit you.

☁ Astro, you sneaky son of a bitch.

Small AN:

This is the OG Request:

Hi again! All of the asks you do are AMAZING! Thank you again for doing my asks! So, here’s another one for you to look at in your free time!

A moonberrycake (what a shocker) x reader. The reader can heal people, but only when they sing. Reader is the most confident in their singing so they never use their ability, but on one run, they accidentally use it to treat another toons damages.

Hope this doesn’t seem cringe and you enjoy it! (Btw, can I be 💜 anon if you do those types of things?)

And yes! You absolutely can be! I do do those types of things!

#astro dandys world #astro x reader #cosmo doesn't have a last name #cosmo x reader #dandy's world astro novalite x reader #astro novalite #dandy's world cosmo #dandy's world x reader #dandys world sprout #dandy's world cosmo x reader #dandy's world sprout seedly #sprout seedly x reader #sprout seedly #sprout x re ader #astro novalite x reader #moonberrycake x reader #moonberrycake

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thecatundertheladder · 4 months ago

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First off thank you so much for the answer it was a great read. My second question has to do with my biggest gripe with show, that is wu keeping secrets. He never learns his lesson with it from Moro to asphera and the one I hate the most,Kai and nya’s parents. He was Kai’s fathers best friend and he never tells them anything about their parents except fact that they were elemental masters. That secret helped with whole Chen thing and I’m honestly surprised that the two weren’t furious that he didn’t tell them anything. So does he or garmadon tell them anything, and if not how does fsm and garmadon react to that?

You 🤝 me

Fixing plot holes with this au

So Wu not telling people things is a thing that happens a lot in the show, and obviously the reason is that Ninjago didn't plan ahead with their seasons until Dragons Rising. But I believe that the in-universe reasons are a) he didn't these things were important or relevent (I mean the Aspheera incident happened when he was a child so 🤷‍♀️) and b) he's paranoid about over sharing which leads to under sharing.

The whole Morro incident didn't happen in this universe (see: this post) so we don't need to justify that (thank god).

So if we take all that into account it leaves two main issues. Wu not telling them about their parents and not training Nya as a water ninja from the start. So let's get into that.

In this au, the reason Wu didn't tell Nya about her powers is because Lloyd was born too late (this is also the reason tomorrow's tea happened, it was the universe course correcting). He was supposed to be born well before the venom kicked in fully, so he would be a teenager roughly the same age as his guardians when fighting the Overlord. Instead, he was born not long before the venom kicked in and Garmadon was banished to the Underworld.

This meant that by the time the four ninja were beginning their training, they were quickly running out of time. In an effort to insure the four ninja of the prophecy plus the green ninja got enough training Wu deliberately didn’t tell Nya that she had water powers so he would’t have to spend time teaching her instead of the others. Especially since he doesn’t know much about water as an element, since he, garmadon and FSM couldn’t use it. So he also wanted to wait for Nyad before he started anything beyond basic training with Nya.

But by the time the prophecy was over Nya had already made herself as Samurai X and Wu felt bad about potentially destroying it by telling her. It wasn’t until the Preeminent tried to take over Ninjago that Wu finally got the confidence up to tell her.

Garmadon does not approve of Wu’s decision to not tell Nya about her powers at all. He thinks the longer he leaves it the worse it will be when she finally does get told - and she does have to be told, the ocean does not like to be restrained. But he leaves it since Nya is primarily under Wu’s care. FSM agrees with Wu initial decision to not tell her in order to spend as much time training the the other five

And now the previous elemental masters, which I will admit, was harder to work out, but I love a good opportunity for world building and plot hole fixing! In season four Garmadon says the reason that the ninja didn't know about the other EMs was because they were made to feel special. I assume this decision was to motivate them when facing the Ultimate Evil^tm. However, that doesn't really explain why Wu and Garmadon didn't tell them post-defeating the Ultimate Evil^tm.

Wu told all all four og ninja that their powers came from the First Spinjitzu Master, and the thing is in canon, he's technically not lying, he's just missing out the part where they got passed down through generations of elemental masters. In this au, he really isn't lying. The FSM boosted the fours powers so they could protect Lloyd better - some of their powers are directly from them. But moving on...

Ray was Wu's best friend, so when he went missing and Wu didn't have his powers to track him down, he was devasted. I think in part Wu's decision to not tell Kai and Nya about their parents was because he was grieving them still, and grief makes people do strange things. Obviously this is a mistake, as, like you said, it leads to Kai nearly being manipulated by Chen.

Wu not telling Cole about Lily was in a mis-guided attempt to help him salvage his relationship with his father. He had originally assumed that Lou had told Cole but when it became apparent that he hadn't, Wu left it - he didn't want to damage Lou and Cole's relationship further by revealing something that Lou had kept secret.

For Jay and Libber, Wu was aware that Jay didn't know he was adopted, and it was this that partly influenced his decision to not tell any of the ninja about their parents as it would lead to some uncomfortable revelations with Jay.

For Zane and the previous elemental master of ice, it falls into the catagory of simply not relevent. Zane does not have any relation to him, though he does learn about him when the Ninja eventually get sat down and told everything about the previous generation.

And of course Wu (in this au at least) has a problem of forgetting to tell people things. He was under the impression that the ninja all knew about his and Garmadon's heritage and that they also knew the FSM was alive, but of course they didn't.

Garmadon does not like that Wu kept all this a secret, but as I mentioned before he doesn't want to over step his boundaries and tell them. And he also has the problem of forgetting to tell people things - it's hereditary. FSM also does not like that Wu and Garmadon elect to not tell the ninja about the other and previous EMs. They believe that the elemental masters of each generation should be at the very least aquaintances with each other (they're a little biased, the first EMs are as good as family to FSM). But the thing is, between seasons 3 and 5, FSM pays very little attention to Ninjago. They were planning to find Maya and Ray for Wu, Kai, and Nya post Final Battle, but well, they forgot. Immortals - especially FSM - can have very bad time management skills.

Hopefully this covers everything and makes sense but if not just let me know. And feel free to keeps the asks coming because they're very fun to answer!

#this au is very quickly turning into a fix it au but oh well #fsm lives au #fsm ninjago #ninjago fsm #first spinjitzu master #ninjago garmadon #ninjago wu #sensei wu #sensei garmadon #nya ninjago #kai ninjago

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