#gender rebel
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Postcards of female and male impersonators from the early 20th century
Oh wow, we just discovered this image collection on JSTOR: Cornell University's Postcards of female and male impersonators and cross-dressing in Europe and the United States, 1900-1930, 1955. Open and free to everyone!
Pictured here is the awesome Betti Kuhn, described in this 1910 photo as an "award-winning female singing comedian." Looking damn cool with that monocle, we might add.
#trans#transgender#trans pride#trans history#transvestism#cross dressing#gender rebel#research#jstor#postcards#vintage photography
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vimeo
Does anyone have it complete?
#gender rebel#genderqueer history#queerstory#theirstory#theystory#themstory#trans#transgender#gender queer#documentary#lgbtq documentaries#Vimeo
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hi the mechanisms fandom have this gif i made while ignoring a problem.
#peony says shit#the mechanisms#the mechanisms at gender rebels#gunpowder tim#the toy soldier#nastya rasputina#ashes o'reilly#ivy alexandria#yeah i taught myself how to edit gifs for this#also ignore the weird smudges up the top#photoshop didn't really like the spot heal tool on multiple frames lol#i was trying to get a thumb out of the frame
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The anti-colonial power of Jim! What a gift to have a non-binary Latine rebel.
#ofmd#our flag means death#jim jimenez#jim#no for real#it speaks volumes a latine person#those decended from indigenous americans#gets to rebel against the colonial gender binary#vico i adore you#Jim my beloved#my art
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the two jedi genders are green and blue. luke skywalker, ezra bridger, and kai brightstar are trans green. ahsoka tano is trans blue. mace windu and lys solay are nonbinary. the sith don’t have genders. no further questions.
#your gender will make a fine addition to my collection#star wars#luke skywalker#kai brightstar#ahsoka#ashoka tano#lys solay#mace windu#ezra bridger#the clone wars#star wars rebels#young jedi adventures
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Happy Father's Day!
To all the space daddies of the galaxy 🩵💫
Seriously, Star Wars can't keep getting away with this trope.
#they make me so weak#i can't#shout out to my favorite gender: star wars dads#ugghhh#do I want to BE them??#do I want to be WITH them??#or do I want them to ADOPT me???#an endless struggle#happy father's day#father's day#feel free to add on!#because i couldn't lmao#tbb#sw rebels#the mandalorian#tcw#star wars#the acolyte#hunter bad batch#kanan jarrus#din djarin#plo koon#obi wan kenobi#master sol#bail organa#galen erso#jango fett#cut lawquane
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who do you think would deal better with being isekai'd into omegaverse, marc or vale? alternatively which is more compelling
most beautiful ask. in the world. so funny. ummmm i think. vale is maybe more compelling because his issues with it would be. perhaps unsolvable and endlessly complex. guy who is a lil weird about gender, not terribly into the concept of marriage, and is pretty fundamentally adverse to being. shall we say emotionally legible/vulnerable. exposed. and omegaverse as a genre is all about exposure. its all. giving into the base instincts of your body and those same instincts giving you away to the object of your affections. its going into heat and the person youre in love with is the only one available to help you through it. its scenting someone and that being a crystal ball of their emotions and bodily state ESPECIALLY ie how much they want you specifically. its needing someone so bad you are literally insensate. its getting bonded 5ever and ever irrevocably, OFTEN in the heat of an instinctual moment without the relationship negotiation that happens irl. a genre centered around a betrayal of the body/heart to the mind, in many ways
now imagine you didnt actually grow UP in an omegaverse so you have no toolbox to DEAL with all that. sensory input off the SHITS. and. like suddenly and without WARNING now vale can feel in his CHEST exactly how distressed marc marquez is about every one of their interactions. and how much he wants his ass. like truly every part of his hind brain is like jesus christtttttt i should be inside him right tf now im a terrible alpha. and then the higher part of his brain is like what the fuck. what the fuck. i am not responsible for marc, what the fuck. and oh hey theres a bump on my penis i need to ask people about this right the hell now. thats vale. so i see this as a somewhat fraught comedy of sex errors where his ADHD ass is treading horny water trying to learn alpha manners and also. much more complexly. not fall into all of the traditional alpha expectations/roles. that little trap of gender. because at heart vale is a little trickster who loves to buck expectations!!! and maybe his journey here is realizing that he can just be himself comma sex freak. and that leaning into those "alpha" traits doesnt mean he is conforming lmao he can still have his own unique version of his family. learning the norms of a society and what makes sense to him and what still doesnt. sorting through the weeds of it. and that being vulnerable rules sometimes. and that marc loves him. because that last one is kind of hard to ignore now... again because of that emotional and physical vulnerability that comes with the genre... honestly him knowing all of that about marc without having to actually TALK about it may solve some of their problems tbh. like why work through all that verbally when you can sniff them and then fuck them. kind of the omegaverse fantasy in quite a few ways
marc. jeez louise. i think would HATE it more. at first. control freak 9000. maybe has to miss races for heats. suppressants arent legal. experiencing weird omega sexism if we want to go that route OR. my favorite. has been lying to the press about his status since he presented. tiniest 15 yr old youve ever seen: im an alpha ! :3 uh sure bud. sure. i bet. SO actually maybe he falls into a world where hes just been white-knuckling it for the last billion years during race weekends and most of the paddock kind of KNOW (scent blockers only go so far...) but are lowkey afraid to call him on it dlkjdfljldsfd... similar to vale in this scenario, he sort of has to learn how to omega— and when his heat hits during summer break and his ass start leaking in the middle of the spanish equivalent of walmart, he finds a psycho little ziploc bag of sweaty vale shirts under his bed and he genuinely is like girl what the hellllllllllll.... wiggin out. and his next heat he turns up to race with truly NO practice managing it all, so its way more obvious than normal and the farce is growing thinner and vale literally pulls him aside to be like hey are you GOOD ? but in that valentino not that i care about your ass kind of unspeakably divorced way and marc is like woag. bc a pheromone truck just ran him over. eyes glassy face flushed sweaty as hell mouth a little open.... and he opens his mouth to make an excuse and nothing comes... and then obviously they fuck like its the end of the WORLD
and like i DO think marc pulls out of it more cleanly than vale overall, bc something in HIS lizard brain would be deeply soothed by like. excelling at being an omega. getting an A + in being a bottom. doing that for vale, specifically in the context of pushing his body to the absolute LIMIT to do it.... hes locked in. its go time. and then theres the insane possibility of vale putting his mouth on his neck and them getting basically soulbonded forever where they have to have crazy sex every few months ? hes like ummmm okay. i could get used to this for a while lmao
#huge thanks to dante who worked some of this out with meeeeee#motogp#callie speaks#asks#rosquez#marc is also a noted smell diva. so i think he would really hate/enjoy all that...#meanwhile in another universe vale sniffing arounfd the paddock like. what smells like sexy gasoline. is anyone getting that ? just me ?#and uccio is sitting there like. you KNOW thats marc what the hell#vale as always much harder to solve in a given scenario. dont even know if it makes sense or i agree with it...#like its the new gendered expectation of a REALLY traditional family structure and i mean his family structure NOW isnt really that untrad#but i think coming into NEW gender/societal expectations would be weird ! especially concering the underpinnings of classic abo stories#and a lot of stories are about rebelling against those and i think it could work with vale ! is all im trying to say. badly.#idk send me some asks maybe im working through it
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Hey how do you think the Toy Soldier felt when Tim took over Jonny's singing roles the first time he was absent for a show after Tim joined?
That was the whole reason it was taken in by the crew, as long as could perform that role, it had a place among the Mechanisms. Even when the others showed open disdain for it or it acted a bit too much like a real person on accident, it could rest assured that they wouldn't get rid of it because they needed the Angel's voice. Even when they threw it out an airlock or left it someplace, it could still feel comfortable in returning on its own because it could see that, if it did not, the crew would have an open position with no readily available way of filing it.
Do you think it was happy to have another member of its great game of pretend? Only for a few years later, maybe a few decades later, to be told it no longer has its one purpose among the crew, perhaps the only purpose it considered itself to have at all. And it's told this like it's something that should make it happy.
It was once again in a situation where the people it cared for replaced it with someone who was real.
Do you think it entered a jealous rage? That it was so consumed by anger that it forgot Tim would just wake up again. And with a breathing corpse beneath its bloodstained hands it realized it had come across a problem it couldn't solve by violence for the first time? A problem it perceived as being spurred by the fact of it being a toy, but couldn't be fixed by it being a soldier.
A position it had held for unknowable millennia, torn away in an instant by someone it had fought alongside and maybe even advocated for the mechanization of. All the promises of its necessity to the crew and their reliance on it gone the second Tim grabs the mic and starts introducing them.
#Rewatched gender rebels for the 4548349759492th time and am having Thoughts#We all know the Toy Soldier knows what love feels like because of the Angel#but do you think that in that moment it learned what hate was?#the toy soldier#gunpowder tim#the mechanisms
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Some Stuff I Should Probably Address.
Alright, For most of you lot who knows what fandoms I write for, this shouldn't come off as surprising to you:
But yes, this is about the Demand to Recasting Certain Voice Actors, Natlan's Characters Being Whitewashed, and my personal thoughts about these matters. They will be under the "Keep Reading" cut if you wish.
TL;DR If You Want to Avoid This, But Want Updates About My Blog: I am closing requests for Genshin and HSR for the time being. I will still be open to discuss HSR and Genshin, but not controversy. I'm sorry.
People Waiting For "Barren Lands, Final Wishes" Letters:
They're on their way, I promise! Unfortunately I haven't been able to make time for them as much as I wanted to, but they Will be out soon!
Now back to more Serious Matters.
⌨︎ Warnings: The Follow Will Contain Mentions of Sexual Abuse, Abuse, and Whitewashing. If I Missed a Warning, or Wrote the Wrong Warning, Please Notify Me Immediately!
Alright, first off: The Voice Actors of Sunday and Moze.
I frankly am not the kind of person who indulges in drama, nor do I like reading/watching them in my free time, but it can't be overlooked at this point. Griffin Puatu and Chris Niosi are quite the controversy recently.
For those who don't know, here's a (probably oversimplified—apologies, on that part) basic idea of what's happening:
Chris Niosi has been accused with sexual and emotional abuse by his ex-partners, as well as friends.
Now, the real big problem, however, is that Hoyoverse, the company who owns the HSR character by the name of "Moze" has decided to hire Niosi to become his EN Voice Actor, which is sparking a lot of disapproval, for Hoyoverse is being blamed for not checking his background/history well enough.
(For More Information About Him: Click This For an Article About the Matter.)
Now, I don't have much to say about Griffin Puatu, who is the current EN Voice Actor of Sunday, but judging from screenshots and tumblr posts I have seen by the Reddit post he wrote, many people are not liking him as well because Puatu is standing up for Niosi.
Now, my Personal Thoughts on the matter, and, as much as I hate getting into drama (apologies, these personal thoughts will be a rant):
Just why? I'm unsure who was at TRUE fault of hiring Niosi, and I don't have full context of WHY Puatu is backing up Niosi when people say he hasn't changed, but seriously, why?
As much as I really hate to say this, but honestly, with this amount of controversy around a game people download to have fun and enjoy, all of it is pretty much ruined for me at the moment. I'm fed up with this—Again, I'm not sure whose fault it was, but they seriously need to be CAREFUL.
I also don't believe that Niosi should have gotten the role of Moze (HSR), but at the same time, who the hell decided it was a good idea to get/give him the role? As I live under a rock, I didn't know who Niosi was. At the time of Moze's drip-marketing, I really thought it'd be cool—for the first time in a while, I actually felt excited for a character rather than the plot of a game. After hearing all this, and taking time thinking about it, I really just don't want to touch HSR content anymore at the moment. It's annoying, because HSR has really good content—it has the potential to be great.
I seriously just can't wrap my head around who hired this guy. I'm not going into Puatu specifically because I don't know much about what he wrote, and (again) I don't like getting into drama. My apologies on that part, but honestly? I'm just done.
Alright, Second off: Natlan Characters—Skin.
I'm pretty sure most people are aware of THIS controversy, but to simplify: Natlan Characters are too pale and it's inaccurate.
Geographically, it makes no sense. They're in warmer temperatures, they should be more tanned. On top of that, their skin tone DOES NOT MATCH their cultures, or where they're taken inspiration from. Hoyoverse are being boycotted (from what I heard) for whitewashing and neglecting to represent the people of said-cultures/said-traditions.
My Personal Thoughts?
COME ON, HOYOVERSE. Do better! It was one thing to drop Natlan Teasers about the characters, but seriously? Please, try a little harder! Genshin Impact has GOOD POTENTIAL—EVERYONE SEES THAT! But you can't make them tanned? Why?
This was the first thing that has been bugging me BEFORE the entire Moze EN VA bullcrap. Come on, Hoyoverse, do better. You are losing respect out here. I am so disappointed, and even that is an understatement! You are losing your respect and recognition as a worthy company brand! What is going on in their building???? Hello???
Someone better fix this skin tone problem soon. I am so fed up with this. As much as I love the characters they just drip-marketed, it's also quite unfair: Take Liyue, for example. Their culture and their people are represented accurately, as far as anime can go.
Natlan? Yikes, suddenly they aren't able to create that same amount of accuracy potential. Why though? What's stopping them? Why are they not doing what is ethically right?
Everyone's waiting for a proper answer, myself included.
Alright, With that all being said—the final Part: What's Happening to the Ghost Rebel's Blog?
Well, for starters: I need a break. I am not only disappointed, but mentally drained. I am so done with all of this, and I need an utter breather. I usually go on Tumblr to cool down or read some nice, wholesome writing posts I find on some fandoms I like. Now, however, I am in dire need of staying away from Tumblr.
I'll be on a little bit of hiatus from writing so much—but not for now, as I currently have an event going on.
However: I am no longer taking any HSR and/or Genshin requests until these issues are either resolved or fixed. That is my stance, and I hope you can respect it.
Yes, this will mean my blog will decrease in activity. However, I am still open to Genshin/HSR discussions—so long as they are not about drama/controversy. I think I'm drained from all of this.
To everyone who read to the very end of this post: Thank you for reading to the end, and I apologize if you were also trying to avoid witnessing these kinds of controversies. However, some things can't be overlooked.
Hope y'all are doing safe/good. Have a good day/night.
#Ghost Rebel's Will#genshin sagau#genshin impact sagau#self aware genshin#genshin self aware#sagau x reader#sagau#sagau genshin#yandere sagau#genshin cult au#sagau brainrot#platonic genshin x reader#genshin impact x reader#yandere genshin x reader#genshin x gender neutral reader#genshin x reader#genshin x you#genshin x y/n#hsr x reader#hsr x you#hsr x y/n#hsr x gender neutral reader#honkai x reader#honkai star rail x reader#star rail x reader#star rail x you#star rail x y/n#hoyoverse#mihoyo#hoyolab
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Thinking about all of Nastya's lil smiles in the live performances.....
#the mechanisms#nastya rasputina#once again#if nastya rasputina has no fans im fucking dead because im in awe of how amazing she is#ESPECIALLY IN THE GENDER REBELS GIG#her lil smiles make me smile so much
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Look, I know I already have ideas for the next part of Knight!Ghost & Life!Ghost, but let me tell you this idea that's completely unrelated to Ghost; John Price with a punk partner.
Anyone who sees him thinks his partner is well-tempted, wears muted or lowkey clothes. Someone who conforms to the ideas of society.
But John was drawn to you because you're the exact opposite what people expect his partner to be.
You have several tattoos and piercings, most tattoos having sociopolitical messages. Your clothes are sometimes vibrant, but always loud even when it's an all-black outfit. Your hair is dyed something different and vibrant almost every single time John sees you.
And you're definitely not a punk that's only in for the aesthetic. You're a rebel through and through. You go to so many protests outside corporate buildings, stop construction of many beloved parks. You've gone to jail several times for protesting, and John has bailed you out every single time.
Despite how angry you may seem, John sees the softer side of you. He knows you're just passionate about things you care about. He's seen you relax and smile while cuddled up on his couch with him. He's seen how tender you are when you're volunteering at a local pet shelter and so gently holding any animal, even snakes.
So whenever one of the 141 asks John about you, he's so quick to ramble and gush about how kind you are. How you're passionate about your beliefs. How much he loves you.
And when he one days says that you made it onto the front page of a local newspaper, they think it's because you won something like a cooking competition. Something that he should be proud of you, but not something that they think is truly out there and crazy.
Only for him to show said newspaper and point at the picture of you chaining yourself to a very old tree in a park that was about to be built upon while the headline reads "Local Activist Goes to Prison for Disrupting Construction".
#john price#captain john price#captain price#john price x male reader#john price x gender neutral reader#john price x reader#john price x female reader#captain john price x male reader#captain john price x gender neutral reader#captain john price x reader#captain john price x female reader#captain price x male reader#captain price x gender neutral reader#captain price x reader#captain price x female reader#price x male reader#price x gender neutral reader#price x reader#price x female reader#call of duty#cod#cod mw2#cod mwii#call of duty modern warfare 2#I know punks are anti-war & anti-military but it's not like Price completely complies with orders from on high#the man is a rebel too but he's just better at hiding it#:)
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i fucking love darth maul, easily one of my favorite genders
#maul#darth maul#star wars#star wars prequels#the phantom menace#star wars fans#maul opress#gender#star wars the prequel trilogy#the clone wars#star wars rebels
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Yes! The ways the mechs and mcyt handle narrative have always been so similar to me but I've never been able to put it onto words. Would Love to hear what you have to say on the topic (after you have had a good sleep)
HI, it's time for me to get insane. Thank you for sending this ask cause now I have an excuse to maintag the post, lol. Also, I'm going to be using the term MCYT interchangeably with MCRP (Minecraft roleplay) for my own sanity. You'll know what I mean from context clues, I think.
So, hi, anyone who doesn't know about The Mechanisms. This post is going to be about some meta analysis tools that popped up in the Mechs fandom when it exploded in popularity back in 2020-2021. Due to the nature of both the Mechs and MCYT (which I'll get into in a moment), these concepts are generally very helpful for meta analysis of MCYT as well, and I think you guys would love them.
First of all, what was The Mechanisms?
The Mechanisms, originally known as Dr. Carmilla and The Mechanisms, was a band that formed in the late 2000s. It had a rotating cast of members, though most of the stuff you can easily find from them (such as their albums) was made when they had 8-9 consistent members. The Mechanisms officially released seven albums and one single before the band broke up in early 2020. The reason this band is similar at all to MCYT comes from a few things- the characters the band played, the stories the band told, and the archival aspect/age.
Because the Mechs were not a regular band, it was also a storytelling experience. Each Mechs album tells it's own self contained story (except for the Tales to be Told albums, which feature songs with their own stories that don't tie into the album at large). But furthermore, each Mechanism is a character. All the members of the band had characters they played, acting as a band of immortal space pirates moving through the galaxy on their ship, The Aurora.
The similarity to MCYT here is, of course, the characters. It's not always as simple to tell the difference between MCYT characters and actors as it was with The Mechanisms, seeing as (a lot of) MCYT doesn't start with the acting/roleplaying intention that the Mechs started with. But nonetheless, they share the understanding that even though this isn't a play or a TV show or whatever scripted medium, and that even though these characters (sometimes) share similar/the same names as their creators, they are, ultimately, characters the creators are putting on in order to tell a story. Whether that story is something more connected to the base characters (less roleplay heavy servers, Mechs backstory beats) or a story where the characters themselves are filling a role to tell a new story (more roleplay heavy servers, Mechs filling in for characters on the albums to tell their stories), there is always a story to be told.
There is also, as I said, the archival aspect. Archiving is massively important to both The Mechanisms and MCYT. It's definitely a lot harder with the Mechs than with most MCYT stuff, since the Mechs are a whole lot nicher, but that is not to say it's easy for either group. Archiving is vital to keeping both fanbases, and both sets of characters, alive, and there is only so much archiving you can rely on the creators of either to do. Those of you who take this task on are genuinely so awesome and I love you.
Alongside the archiving aspect (and as such, the lost media aspect), there's also the age of the Mechanisms, and (similarly to MCYT), the large number of people involved in the project, which results in lost and oftentimes conflicting canon beats. Mechs lore was not a strict, planned out thing. Large swaths of it were made up on the fly or forgotten down the line and rewritten or just made to work because the story needed it. As such, a lot of Mechanisms meta analysis had to reckon with the fact that the story was often telling you two or three or more things that could not be true at once nonetheless were, or was telling you something with the assumption that you knew something else, but that something else is now impossible to track down. So, sometimes, you just had to pick and choose, or try to reconstruct that lost knowledge. Similarly, varying POVs and gaps in time or gaps in story result in a similar concept for MCYT analysis- sometimes it doesn't really work if you take every piece of lore into account, so you just can't, even though every piece of lore is equally canon; or sometimes, a specific source is lost and you have to trust the memory of people who saw or were involved in the source instead.
Now, what is narratomancy? And how is it relevant to meta analysis of MCYT?
Narratomancy is the name for a few concepts of meta analysis that popped up when the Mechs fandom exploded in 2020-2021. The term was coined by @lucky-sevens (who, unlike anyone else I bring up in this post, I feel comfortable tagging because they're inactive, lol, so this won't clog their notifs), but the credit for various concepts under the umbrella of narratomancy can go to a ton of people. Personally, I'm going to be heavily referencing one post in particular by @/gunpowderedtim when it comes to the four main pillars of narratomancy, and how they are relevant here. (BTW I know OP of that post has shifted at least a bit to the MCYT fandom as well, so if you see this and would like me to tag you properly, please let me know!)
(EDIT: I was informed in the replies that lucky-sevens did not, in fact, coin this phrase, but they can't remember who specifically did. Alas another Mechs thing lost to time.)
Narratomancy refers to the general concept of the narrative as a thing within the Mechs universe. The narrative, a story that wants to be told, is an (at least semi) sentient creature that is bending the universe to its will in order to be told. This living narrative helps to explain and work through some of the problems or plot holes in the narrative, and understanding this helps a lot for meta analysis, or even just understanding the story. As stated above, I'm going to be breaking down four main pillars that the post above identified, and how they may be relevant to MCYT meta analysis. Not all of them are going to work- these were concepts made up for The Mechanisms, after all, and for all their similarities, it's not a perfect 1 to 1. Let's get into it!
Pillar 1: Universal Story
This is a pillar that has one really important and relevant concept, but I do have to bend a bit of it in order to make it work. Namely, what we're calling "the universe" here. But it's still quite important. You'll see.
As mentioned up top, The Mechanisms were originally called Dr. Carmilla and The Mechanisms. Dr. Carmilla (both the character and the creator) eventually left the Mechs to do her own thing, tell her own story, but the story of the universe at large is still hers. She's still got her name in the title, she's still the one who created the original lore, so to the universe, she's still the main character. She might not be the main character of any given story, even any given story she participates in, but it's all her universe in the end. As such, both her stories and the stories of The Mechanisms are canon, but they might not be strictly canon to each other. Because ultimately, The Mechanisms were the universe's vessel for telling stories, and sometimes the stories they told made for a weird concoction of conflicting canon, so you just had to accept that these conflicting canon beats were both canon, but which one was canon depended entirely on which story you were looking at, which one was trying to be told, who that story specifically was about (this is a concept that'll come up again later).
The reason this is a bit less relevant to MCYT in that, if a roleplay server is being well run, you (hopefully) won't have a main character in this way. And even if you do, that main character is not always going to be the creator of the server/universe, ala Carmilla. But again, it's not irrelevant, because I think this can be applied when you're looking at individual POVs of any given event or server.
Every character is the main character of their own POV, even if they might not be the main character of any given story beat or event. They have their own lore and story to tell in that POV, and when you sit down to watch their POV that is the story you'll get. It just so happens that said story might have things that are canon to it that are not canon to other POVs, that cannot be canon to other POVs, and you as the fan have to reckon with that. Sometimes these things might be small or not something that's gonna really throw you, like the conflicting Magic Mountain lore in this season of Hermitcraft. Other times, these might be really big things, like Martyn's Watcher lore in the Life Series.
But either way, while the idea that there is a Universal Story that has a clear main character doesn't really apply to servers, it certainly ties in to the idea of POVs. And furthermore, the "all of these stories are canon, but not strictly canon to each other" idea that comes along with Universal Story is a really vital thing to keep in mind when it comes to MCYT.
Pillar 2: Casting Call (Narrative Role Filling)
There are two main parts to Casting Call. The first is that The Mechanisms have a role in the stories they tell, even the stories that are not their own, like the album ones. These roles are often trope heavy, or based on pre-existing characters that the Mechanisms themselves have similarities too. The second is that the Mechanisms slot into these roles not necessarily because they want to, but because they have to in order to make the story work. Because the narrative wants them to help the story along to the ending.
This is definitely more relevant in roleplay heavy servers, but it still comes up on just about every server out there. While for the Mechanisms, the divide is between "the character I am" vs. "the character I am playing so the story gets told", the divide for MCYT tends to be a bit more "the person I am" vs. "the character I am playing so the story gets told". This divide (and people's inability to understand it) is the reason why MCYTs so often have to give the "Remember, we're all friends in real life and anything that the others weren't comfortable with wouldn't be in the videos" disclaimer. Everyone involved in this story is playing a character to move the story along, and that character may be totally removed from their real life person (such as Scott playing Xornoth in ESMP s1) or pretty similar to their real life person, but dialed up so they can tell a story, get a reaction (I don't know any of these people in real life, so I can't confidently pin someone down for this, but you get what I'm talking about).
Regardless, there is a story to be told, even if that story isn't thought out in advance, and that requires people playing the villain or the damsel in distress or the knight in shining armor sometimes in order to get it done. And, tying back into Universal Story, who is playing which of these roles can change as the canon of each POV changes (such as in Third Life, where who is filling the "villain" role depends entirely on which POV you're watching).
Pillar 3: Story Echoes
Story Echoes are a very Mechanisms based concept, because unlike everything else here, they are explicitly canon. This concept refers to the fact that The Mechanisms' stories "echo" throughout the universe, or repeat over and over again. It's in different places and different times, but these stories are out there, over and over again.
This one can apply to MCYT, but I have to admit, it's a stretch and a half. Ultimately, the way this applies here is in the fact that there's no such thing as an original story. Every story borrows from or is inspired by or is similar to another story out there. It's the nature of story telling. The first example for MCYT that comes to mind is fan Life Series, stories that take the mechanics of the Life Series but put them somewhere else, somewhen else, with someone else. However, Story Echoes are explicitly the same story repeating over and over again, which isn't really the case with this example. As I said, it's a stretch, but I didn't want to skip over this pillar entirely.
Pillar 4: Narrative Imperative
And the final pillar, Narrative Imperative, also referred to as Narrative Flow. Despite this one also being explicitly canon to The Mechanisms, it is also very relevant to MCYT, and in my opinion, the most important concept on this list for MCYT meta.
Narrative Imperative is explicitly canon in the Mechs universe when it comes to how The Mechanisms heal from injuries or death. As discussed in this post from the official Mechanisms tumblr, that healing factor functions at "whatever speed the story wants it to". This concept of "sometimes stuff just happens because it must for the story, even if it doesn't make sense or actively contradicts previously established canon" has been brought up before when we were discussing Universal Story, in respect to lore, to roleplay based story beats, for both groups. Here, it's more discussing a fact of the universe at large, a fact of how the Mechanisms function. And while the general concept of Narrative Imperative can be applied to literally any conflicting lore thing in any MCYT server or story (it's flexible in that way), I think it works best when talking about how game mechanics tie into the story.
What does death mean for this character? What does death mean for this character when on this specific server? What does death mean for this character on this specific server in this specific moment? What does logging off mean for this character, on this server, in this moment? What does voice mod or discord calls or chat mean to this character? What do skin changes mean? What does the Player Heads mod mean? What does sleep mean?
There are a million mechanics you can ask these questions about, and you can get a million different answers to each of them. Death can and does mean wildly different things on different servers (see: a Hardcore series like Naked and Afraid versus Hermitcraft). But it can also mean wildly different things on the same server to the same character at different points in time (see: the concept of "canon lives" on DSMP). Death, and numerous other game mechanics, mean whatever the hell the story (and the universe and creators involved) wants them to mean. You just have to take it in stride, the rules aren't clear because if they were, there wouldn't be enough freedom to tell a story.
Even on servers where it seems like the rules are clear, like the Life Series or other death games, death doesn't always mean what the rules say it does. Take glitch deaths, for example, like Loony's (almost) glitched death in season 1 of Deceit SMP. He glitched into a wall and should have died, but Legundo was allowed to cheat (use creative) to save him, or, had he died, been allowed to use cheats to bring him back, for fairness' sake. But this doesn't only apply to glitches- take one of Scar's off camera deaths in Third Life. I don't have the source for when Martyn talked about this on hand, but Martyn has mentioned that Scar technically died earlier in Third Life, when Martyn just snapped one day when Scar provoked him, killing Scar in a short, boring fight. There was nothing technically illegal or unfair about that kill, like with a glitched death, but when all was said and done, everyone agreed it just sort of... felt bad. That it didn't feel like a good story. So, the death was overturned, and the server went on as usual. The rules may have been clear here, but sometimes rules get in the way of a good story, so they're disregarded, simple as that.
MCYT stories are not being told in spite of their medium but in harmony with them. And as such, that means that sometimes, the narrative rules above all, and narrative imperative says that this mechanic is going to work like this, at least for now, at least for me. It might not ever work like that again, for me or for anyone else on the server, but it works like that in this moment, so you take it as is.
So, yeah, there's my essay! My final thoughts: Go listen to The Mechanisms. Go listen to Maki Yamazaki (Dr. Carmilla). I hope you enjoy these four concepts and keep them in mind when you are analyzing or playing the space of MCRP, because I think they are really helpful things to keep in mind. Have a good one.
#im gonna be tagging all the servers i mention by name but like i said this can apply to just about any server#hermitcraft#third life smp#life series#dsmp#empires smp#deceit smp#analysis post#been a while since i got to use that tag#this similarity is also why i think so many mechs fans have moved onto mcyt#the appeal is there! its SO there!#please give this post some love guys i listened to two whole mechs albums while writing it#because i really wanted to make this clear so it took me 100 years#(the length of UDAD TTBTV1 and the gender rebels show)#im not gonna put the mechs tag on this though. i dont think i should#theres already enough tma crossposting in there i dont need to bog them down further#long post#IM SO SORRY I FORGOT TO PUT THAT TAG ON THIS
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transition goals: Gunpowder Tim
#hes just so gender#i mean just look at him#(been watching the gender rebels concert on loop#can you tell?)#gunpowder tim#the mechanisms
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Not a man, not a woman, but a secret third thing (a spunky fifteen year old gremlin boy from an action-adventure series with no parents and anger issues).
#SOME OF US (i'm absolutely gonna name names) are my favorite characters ever#ezra bridger#edward elric#eli shane#i'll add more as i remember#star wars rebels#fma#slugterra#they're all so gender and so mmmngfnd#i kin them
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I wish Joost weren’t suffering, in part because this era of Joost was made for me specifically
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