#honestly I only get anons when it comes to problematic things and then people call me negative

[bulbabutt]

Thank you for being a bastion of sanity amidst the growing "but proshippers! But incest! But RPF!" purity culture's nonsense.

I'm so tired of being afraid to admit that I've even read a fanfic/fancomic because that same person might have a DIFFERENT ACCOUNT where they indulge in a problematic ship. And therefore they are "bad" and by association, I could be labeled "bad" for having looked at something completely unrelated and tossed on a block list.

It's asinine. Yet I'm too afraid to even get off anon because I know I don't have the mental fortitude to survive a potential online witch hunt.

So thank you, I wish you all the strength to keep screaming the words I cannot.

honestly youre not the first person to send me an anon about this, i just tend to feel just as afraid of responding to them as much as you are afraid of coming off anon. i think because while ill post things in vague context, it becomes another thing when someone says it out loud, yknow? but i appreciate it, knowing im not just screaming into a void where no one likes what i have to say.

i think what i will say is im not the only one who THINKS like i do, but i am just dumb enough to be loud and annoying about it. its kind of a thing where i'd never say anything specific because like... some people are so vicious and will demand blood if they get a whiff if i mention anything vaguely. the fact i have to be afraid to say 'people dont mind' for their own safety is crazy, huh?

i think that thing youre saying about being worried by association from association was the same first time i had this thought. i was reading something so good so deep something that effected me so deeply from how well it was talking about the realistic effects of incestuous abuse, and then i went to see what else the author had written and i was like. oh. theres just regular incest in here too. and that was kind of a moment of hm.. perhaps i need to think more about what really matters here. the fact i can engage with what i want and just say 'oh i see what else you do, thats not for me so i will just not engage with that'

so it hurts worse when theres the idea of someone engaging with art they like that has nothing 'weird' going on, then suddenly getting hit with screaming that that artist has a side account theyre not advertising where they make weird art that they are keeping FULLY separate from the account in question. like i do not see how that helps anybody in that situation.

then theres the generalization of it. the idea that maybe all you did was draw like. 19 yr old versions of two 15 yr olds kissing, and suddenly that gets you put on a list of people who will draw literal children in sexual situations, gets you put in that same boat without question. that shit is so cruel to me, that these things all get painted with the same brush. equally as bad, equally as deserving of being ostracized. or the idea that you get put on that list for not caring about if strangers ship things on the internet, makes you just as bad as someone who makes it. i really just hate this entire culture.

idk im... old school i guess? back in my day youd watch a shitty cartoon that had over 20 characters in it so you could smash them together in whatever ship suited you. crack ships were the bread and butter of me and my friends, shit that made no sense but in your own head. the idea of being anti... shipping at all is so... thats very weird. shipping as a thing is very much what fandom was ever made for in the first place? like. im not kidding, learn your history if you dont know that (middle age women shipping kirk and spock)

back when i was a kid i watched this tv show called kim possible, and i was a kid who didnt know shit about themselves seeing a pretty villain lady for the first time who called the main character who was a girl princess. i didnt know what to make of that, i didnt know the age difference between them i was a dumbass child, they were both drawn the same way! then im like 12 years old on the internet, i see theres a ship of the teenage girl and this like 30 yr old villain woman. do you think my 12 year old self saw the problematic nature and thought deeply about the morals of said ship? no. i was like 'holy shit i wish i was the teenage girl dating shego. why do i like this? oh god im a lesbian'

again. i was a child. what are you gonna do, go back in time and arrest my 12 year old ass for looking at pg rated fanart of women kissing on the internet? we didnt HAVE real representation yet! there was no korrasami, no rupphire, no bubbline, no lumity! shipping was the only place you could see stuff that was gay! and it being GAY would get you in more trouble than it having an age gap!

the fact is people WOULD cancel me now for that, wouldnt you?! thats where we're at. that IS a problematic ship, id be put on a blocklist in todays internet for being a child who crushed on villains. i didnt make it, i didnt create for it, i just looked at it and that would get you in trouble now!!! thats crazy.

i know thats a random tangent to go off on, but like..... hhhhh i dont know man. sometimes it seems like people want the internet to pass by broadcasting standards and practices and thats!!! bad!!! let people experiment with their weird shit as they figure themselves out, its so fucking normal. youre not a bad person for looking at things on the internet, youre not a bad person for engaging with things, youre not a bad person for being horny online! especially if you make your own fucking space for it?? a space easily blacklistable, with trigger warnings and EVERYTHING... we didnt have those when i was a kid, so some things are better, but culture is just worse.

i dunno. i just think i would not have thrived in this environment as a teenager. im glad im old and know better, but i worry about the lessons kids are learning from this. to feel ashamed, to bottle shit up, its not good for you. be kind to yourself, be kind to others. we're all working through shit in our own ways.

sorry for another long annoying post

[heyftinally]

re: fact checking / believing media.

You handled that anon better than I would have. I got angry on your behalf. I’m sick of Swifties defending Taylor for very obvious flaws / problematic behaviour she exhibits.

Swifties also believe what they read. A lot of media outlets wrote articles to benefit Taylor. That anon was bitching cause you were discussing one that didn’t support Taylor.

Also Swifties not only believe the media when it comes to Taylor but they also actively believe the rumours THEY MAKE UP THEMSELVES. No one reported Joe cheated on Taylor, it was a fan theory that they believed into reality. And when it comes out she cheated on him they hype her up and then still attack Joe. I’ve seen antis get hate for pointing out Taylor has a drinking problem (with concern not hate) which Swifties venomously deny she does. But that hate comes from the same Swifties who create the narrative she had to drink to escape Joe. Like they can’t even keep their story straight.

People telling antis to stop believing everything they read and stop speculating when it’s the EXACT behaviour her fans exhibit is laughable. Her fans are actually worse cause they make up false stories to the point they all believe them. “She’s pregnant” is only coming from her fans. They are inherently more problematic towards Taylor. This woman they apparently adore.

Honestly I’m not even convinced they’re fans of her anymore with how they behave. It’s just habit to defend her. Or FOMO.

This. All of this. If I had a dollar for every time a swiftie made up facts about something - Taylor's behavior, history, quotes, anything really - I'd have enough money to go to, like, two Taylor Swift concerts (y'know, because her overpriced tickets are like 20k a pop in some cases)

In all seriousness, though, youre100% right that her fans make shit up constantly and then believe their own theories as fact. All the times I've ACTUALLY called out Taylor, I've used facts. Let's use my Fortnight Ableism callous as an example - you can go find sources for everything I wrote in that post. It's not hard. "Abuse in mental asylums" will turn you up countless results on google. The pictures of her house are from an article *about her house*. I ran that post by my disabled friend to get their stamp of approval on my statements, too, because it's THEIR history I was speaking about, so I asked them to approve it. And they did.

I also fact check things like, say, my election news. Or crimes that happened (just today I fact checked something that happened near where I live, and what I'd heard had been false).

I don't post every random thing I fact check. I also don't post citations for everything that I *do* fact check, because this isn't a college essay and I'm not obligated to prove my research to a bunch of internet strangers.

But as usual, swifties love to throw baseless accusations around just to feel like they did something. Honestly, it was kind of funny to metaphorically curb stomp their accusation. Like, I'll post my own receipts, I don't care. Funny how the proof shows they can't read, though lol.

Now this isn't an invitation for swifties to come harass me - y'all can kindly fuck off. But it would be nice if they would at least pretend to have self awareness before they try to come at me.

[synthizedarchive]

i'm not going to put this on the @solarisdog account as me and @scratchizm have already flooded the blog with our story enough. it's not about me, it's about other people that have suffered and come forward in order to share their awful experiences. but i'm just writing this anyway. maybe someone is checking my account. maybe it's just for me to vent.

it's clear that will never get an apology for what has happened to me. not for what matters. i don't care that i had racism, i don't care that i was accused of content theft and lore stealing, i don't care about having ''problematic faceclaims'. i care about what would actually be classed as a fucking crime. being labelled a stalker, abuser, and groomer. that i will be always be labelled the stalker and obsessed, which it's actually the reversal. that my partners will be forever labelled as ''DID real'' rather than actual tangible human-contact reality.

the amount of PTSD and trauma i have from them is unreal, and i wish i could put this into proper words of how this has affected me since 2021 ( i believe ). my partners can attest to the way my mental state was affected but only I know the feelings that have churned in my gut for all these years.

i'm the ''obsessed'' that comes from me seeing their blog two-three years ago in my FYP, and wanting to reconnect. that i'm so fucking traumatized by rejection sensitivity and ADHD problems or whatever ( and knowing even back then of the ghosting they do without any care or empathy ) , that i sent an anon saying i missed them. before we got into a extremely close friendship - but they say was a relationship. messenging solaris was the worst thing i have ever done in my entire life and i don't say that lightly. trying to reconnect and just be a fucking friend to someone whose content and lore i enjoyed?? the worst regret of my life.

i'm sitting here crying again over a person who is ten years younger than me. how sad and pathetic am i, honestly. solaris will never understand the feeling of what it is truly like to be stalked, obsessed over, manipulated, abused bc this is MY experience. not theirs. they are the stalker and obsessed, not me.

what is it about me that made me such an easy target to this planned level of orchestrated abuse? i just don't understand. it breaks me.

only a handful of people on this site, i can assume, will truly know what it feels like to have your every movement monitored. your every blog - that not even cheezbot has the chance to like posts on yet - thrown out to the wolves within seconds of making it. personal blogs attacked. even when i try to heal my trauma by creating a villain in my story called 'the stalker' ( which lasted all of 5 minutes before it made me feel sick again ), which was actually my wife's idea, i'm labelled as insane. this situation HAS made me lose my mind, on so many levels.

and i'll never get an apology for that. and it really hurts. other people get apologies so easy. whether they accept it or not is up to them. but where is my closure? maybe i'm selfish. but i know what i 100% am - and that is fucking broken by this whole experience.

myself, my loved ones, my friends, they know the truth but for me that will never be enough to actually having your abuser admit fault. no matter how much i tell the truth of my story, it will forever be twisted whilst i have this voice. and while it is a relief to have that voice be heard by others that have experienced similar issues, i will forever be tainted by a disgusting, vicious, abusive brush. all because i cared about someone. all because i wanted to be their friend. all because i said hell no to a relationship. i'm just so regretful to have ever met them, and i'm sure a lot of other people feel the same. hindsight is an amazing thing. if i had knew, i would have never even said hello to them.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

A couple of replies with fandom stuff, then a couple of twst replies.

irregardlessly-tish asked:

A friend message me "YOU FOLLOW THE LEVI X GRISHA PERSON" and I had no clue what they were talking about but then they showed me the two pictures you drew of Levi and Grisha lol. It made me laugh a lot. Then I helped them found the uncensor version of one of the drawings in your pixiv since the link to twitter seem to be broken (I'm a great friend I know/j). I guess you could say they are big fans of your rarepair work!

LEVI X GRISHA PERSON AAAHH 😭 It’s always so funny to learn how people are referring to us; I was the Zevi artist, the Shroudcest artist… For some reason, being a Guriri (wow Grisha’s and Levi’s shipname is cute, I completely forgot about it) artist feels like such a high honour lol Especially because I had no idea there was someone out there invested in this ship. Your friend’s taste is excellent. A huge thank you to them for enjoying our stuff, and a huge thank you to you for helping to find the uncensored version. You really are a great friend hehe.

It’s honestly a shame that even the pixiv version is still censored (albeit not cropped like the tumblr version), because you can’t really post uncensored stuff there… So now only a few people who had saved our snk smut back when it was posted on our now-deleted twitter have it :(

(it’s a bit embarrassing looking back at those sketches and seeing all the mistakes though, yikes)

Anonymous asked:

I want to shake antis by the shoulders and scream at them all the time cause I see them being sooo unhealthy with themselves, and I've BEEN there I know what they are doing and I know it is just going to get them hurt with the same train wreck I got myself in!!

It's the whole problem with black and white thinking where you go "people treat incest shippers like satan himself, so I cannot accidentally enjoy it or I would be evil incarnate too, and adopted/step is the same thing, so I cannot accidentally like that, and found family is basically the same as adopted, so I have to avoid that, and character A called character B his bro one time, so..." that thinking pattern does not have a stopping point!!!!!! It is so unhealthy!!!!!!!!

And then people realize they can't stop themselves from enjoying unhealthy ships, and instead of separating fiction from reality, they just excuse everything abusive about the ship like it is fine and normal behavior because they cannot accept themselves enjoying something that is remotely problematic. It is so much more likely to get people hurt than just enjoying the porn of some fake brothers fucking 😭

Anon! First of all, sorry for replying late; we received your ask about a week ago but I didn’t have enough time to properly address it. Second of all, thank you for talking about it and sharing your experience.

It’s just like you said; people really don’t want to get ridiculed or hated, especially younger people, therefore, they are afraid of liking stuff that is even slightly problematic. And for some of them, if they don’t want their so-called friends to suspect them loving problematic stuff, they’ll act even more aggressive than they should to overcompensate. I feel like when it comes to antis who talk about us specifically, the most vocal and persistent ones are those whose friends called them out for following my accounts or liking my drawings. And this is honestly both sad and pathetic at the same time; I cannot imagine how bad of a headspace this might be. I don’t pity them though lol

We always talk about it, but still: this is a game you can’t win because the rules are always changing. The only thing that never changes is that there is no nuance, once the crowd decide that the ship is bad, it’s bad. Starting out with the basics, age gaps and incest are bad, right? Right. But what if the characters aren’t canonically related but could be interpreted as brothers? Then it’s still bad, right? But what if they aren’t at all brotherly, but one of them expressed that they want to do bad things to the other? Sounds bad, right? And thus, the only type of dynamic that exists is a romanticised version of a perfect gay couple: they are equal in every way, they love each other, they are SUCH DORKS together who fit perfectly to any “redraw this as your ship” meme that’s the hottest thing these days, they don’t have arguments, they don’t have misunderstanding and rough moments. Their personalities, everything that made their relationship unique or interesting completely disappears and smoothes out, and after that it’s not even a ship, it’s just a nice blend that is perfect for consumption because it doesn’t irritate your teeth, your throat, or your stomach. It’s tasteless, it’s boring, it’s nothing, and it’s not about the characters, it’s about deciding which two characters are unproblematic enough to be transformed into blorbos, and if they have some problematic elements in-canon, it’s okay, we’ll just erase those because being unproblematic doesn’t really matter. What matters is to act in a way that doesn’t go against what the rest of them are doing, because otherwise you’re making people uncomfortable, and if they are uncomfortable with you, they feel morally correct for attacking you.

It’s never about characters. It’s always about control, about cliques, about bullying and making everyone afraid to have an actual opinion. It’s about instilling in people’s mind that attacking strangers on the internet makes you a cool person because you are simultaneously a rebel for being so ballsy and brave, and a saint for having moral standards so high that you can’t stomach bad things even if they are fictional.

Sometimes people just have different ships and that’s okay. Sometimes people don’t have any ships and don’t understand the shipping culture, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is to feel entitled to this control over the way others consume media and interact with it.

Because it makes the fandom experience boring at best and unbearable at worst.

Sorry, I digress lol What I wanted to say is that you are right, it messes with people’s brains. And it is much more unhealthy than fantasising about the things that are 100% fictional (which is, by the way, a huge part of their appeal).

Anonymous asked:

just wanted to say I love your content a lot, it's a breath of fresh air from all the anti content present in the fandom

You are very welcome, Anon! And thank you so much for your support <3 It means a lot to hear that our stuff is refreshing to you.

Anonymous asked:

Is Lilia sneezing on people on purpose, or is it a sneeze button for him?

(this is related to this post)

We’ll never know, Anon, it’s one of Lilia’s many mysteries…

Maybe it started out as a joke, but then he really began to sneeze on people every time his nose gets booped lol

Anonymous asked:

Where can I see the art for the new Shaftlands event?

I don’t think all of them are fully out yet, but people are pretty active on twitter, so simply looking up characters’ names is probably going to work!

Anonymous asked:

…Quick, someone bully Idia into sending nudes.

And be quick about it because Idia could also quickly change his mind and hack the recipient’s phone to delete the pictures!!

[nanamiscocksleeve]

Hey Ray, how are you? I've read about your flu recently. I'm very sorry and I hope you get better soon. Have a fast recovery, ok?

Regarding confessions, I have nothing much to say. I think other anons already mentioned lots of valid points. Sure- porn fics are obv exaggerated, characters get mischaracterized and ships get pushed down out throats all the time but hey, that's just an average fandom experience, right?

So I'm trying to ignore/filter all the negativity and allow only good, quality content on my dash. Unfortunately, the content is few and not many appreciate writers and artists here on Tumblr. So it's for the best if they'd just change platforms and try their luck somewhere else that offers more positive interaction/involvement. I miss Tumblr reblog culture and nice feedback on dif stories/art. Nothing is the same anymore...

Regarding mischaracterization- it's not a problem to headcanon things, in fact, to each their own. But it's a problem when people openly accept headcanon as canon and unapologetically fight others over inaccurate opinions. It's so beyond me. And the funniest thing- it's mostly minors. Can we get rid of the minors in for-them-inappropriate fandom spaces pls? Tumblr staff where you at?

I noticed that fans of less popular characters are more fun. I'm not that big into Choso you see, but his fans made the whole fandom experience so much more enjoyable. And I don't think that Mahito fans are weird if you compare Toji smut fics (I'm not calling out people but I'm calling out people). Sukuna fans I'm looking at you too...

I'm forever grateful for Nanami, Higuruma, Kusakabe and Shiu quartet. Gege, thank you for feeding us while it lasted. The fics are divine and I understand why Shoko didn't see the appeal in stsg, like girl I get you.

I'll come out and say it- stsg is overrated. And jjk girls deserve more content that isn't ship-oriented.

I think Gege needs to make up his mind because Yuta and Yuji can't exist as two mains at once. Everyone is taking away Yuji's spotlight, but they're dying and dying until nobody's left except Yuji... I don't know how jjk will end.

I miss Yuki and Todo's dynamic and all the funny stuff, I wish jjk was a comedy fr... Gege is writing an idol manga after this one so I can't wait for the things he has in store for us!

Hello! Thank you for your concern about my cold. Honestly, with all of you wishing me to get better, I'm recovering a little faster! 💜💜💜

I agree with mischaracterization, but imo, unless a mangaka explicitly states something, then a fictional character is always subject to having HC's being formed about them depending on the writer. What gets problematic though, is when fans of a writer start looking at those HC's as an actual canon, and now they're picking fights/sending hate to other creators who have different opinions.

Fans of less popular characters tend to be more chill from what I've seen. They just want to talk about their faves and have a good time, and are less bothered with what could be canon or not. They have their HC's and are open to hearing different ones too.

I feel like JJK gave us this genre of 'tired men in suits' which is very appealing, even to us older girlies who are in the same age range as these men.

Stsg being overrated...imo I don't feel that way. I think they had great potential as a couple and I'm filled with sadness at the thought that they didn't catch Suguru's spiral when it happened. I can see them with heterosexual partners too, but I love the concept of Stsg.

The JJK women definitely need content not surrounding ships or smut. Something more action-related or just let her shine in her own right in a fic.

IDK what'll happen going forward...The story is supposed to center on Yuji but it feels like he's constantly being pushed aside. I hope things resolve soon but it looks like Sukuna might win after all this. I'm just sad thinking about it.

I miss the slice of life feel to the story as well but what can ya do...Gege is the mangaka, so he'll do what he wants. But if he brings back Nanami I ain't complaining lol.

Thank you for your confession!

[samwise9]

Hi, this is probably a very late response, not much of a question. I have stumbled upon your account and read through the whole "drifting away from Lucemond pairing" thing.

That's honestly very relatable. I used to like them a lot at the beginning, read through almost every fanfic, even yours too (they are great & you are one of the greatest Lucemond fanfic writers out there).

Honestly, it's kinda difficult for me to find out why it has become so hard to like the pairing (at least for me) because in the beginning, it was just so great, y'know, like magic. The Golden Era is probably in the beginning.

But you formulated so well, especially about the fandom discourse thing. I started falling off around the time one of the Lucemond fanfic I followed ended.

Afterwards, it's just constantly trying to catch up then failing. The last straw is probably when the discourse/drama about bottom/feminine/omega Luke being anti-tr4ns (which I don't get), and people start being a puritan about their preferred Lucemond Dynamics (top/bottom thing). It's all so silly, like they are the same ship with only slightly different dynamics, why bother hating on other people who doesn't have the same preference as theirs when they can just not interact.

The oversaturation & internal shipwars become tiring real fast. Even if a lot of content is supposed to be a good thing, for some reason it becomes one of the factors.

One of the silliest things I have ever come across on reading fic under that ship tag is when upon reading a supposedly "good fic" (that one of the readers start cross promoting it under other people's fic), the author opens the story by going on a rant how they don't like ABO, while writing & integrating ABO into their fic & making it a central theme. The author also calls ABO trope problematic (why do they even write a fanfic about it when they don't like the trope and call it "gross" then?)

When some people call the author out on it, they just go on this long paragraphic arguments in the comment section. It ends up being entertaining, but somehow tiring, too. I end up clicking out after reading the war in the comments.

You probably have read it. It's popular despite the author starting their fic with that hate note to the ABO trope.

Anyway, I just want to say I fully agree with you that some people are so toxic that their discourse ended up making others uncomfortable despite it being such a good pairing. Thank you for clearing it up. Now, I have a guess why I ended up falling off the pairing.

Also, I want to ask, do you think content oversaturation contributes to people leaving a ship ? Because I am on the fence about this too, on one side, contents keep a fandom alive, but on the other, it makes me dislike a ship despite liking it beforehand (could be because of other reasons, I just haven't discover it I guess).

I want to ask you a lot more, your opinions are really interesting. Thank you for engaging in QnA (ignore those people who are just trying to argue with you by submitting anon, I read them, and they come across as somewhat trying to rile you up).

It's fine if you don't answer this, I just want to send it because I do like going through your account, reading your responses, and see the discussion why & how you don't follow this certain pairing anymore (it is rarely discussed, so discovering your answers are interesting).

Sorry if some terms are unfamiliar/hard to understand, English isn't my first language.

God i am so sorry for how long it has taken me to get to your ask. No excuse, I have just been exceptionally lazy over the past few months and I cannot promise that this won't happen again however I am trying to avoid doing my real life job so here I am. Also your English is perfect so dont worry. It is better than mine and it is my first language 👍. I have a feeling that for as long as your ask was, my answer will be equally as long.

I am with you re. the internal ship wars. Let people read what they want to read and write what they want to write and it's all golden. I cannot stand people who try to dictate and police what others do be it in fan art, in a fic or, on a few memorable occasions, what people post on the Lucemond tumblr hash-tag.

Ahh yeah I do vaguely remember coming across an abo fic where the author was open on how they thought the trope was problematic which I found quite funny but it is a trope that is extremely popular in the fandom and, at the time, I thought that it wasn't that surprising that authors who haven't previously written the trope would expand into it, especially when hits/kudos began to dwindle across the whole fandom. However I mind reading an ask answer on here ages ago about how popular abo is in Lucemond and a really good point made was that abo is just a really good way of removing obstacles you have plot wise when you have a same sex ship, especially in a universe such as HoTD and GoT where canon is so detailed and lore heavy. That may be why writers who don't agree with the underlying tropes still utilise abo as it means you are not having to spend chapter or chaper trying to untangle a way to make the story work in a canon setting.  I do think there is a way to do abo without the problematic aspect some people have with it but I suppose its all down to how much of the trope you take issue with. It's something I have done in the past (both use it as a easy plot device and remove the aspects of the trope that I dont particularly jive with as a reader) and will probably do more of going forward.

In terms of oversaturation and people leaving the ship I dont think it was/is an issue with Lucemond as such. I just think Lucemond was always a ship which, with the benefit of hindsight, was destined for a relatively short shelf-life just by its very nature - at the end of the day the ship involves one person who is canonically dead in a show that is only on its first season with some very popular characters who are either still to make their debut or ones who will take more of a center stage in the following seasons. From being in a number of fandoms the truly popular ships which are able to continue to retain the levels of fan interaction that they had at the beginning were able to do so because the two characters in a ship continously interacted in a show/film (even if it is only a few scenes every now and then) which galvanised shippers to create more content. Lucemond simply doesn't have that as one character is dragon food. The discourse, IMO, just hastened the rate in which people left.

I think the downside to how quickly the ship exploded did contribute to is making people stuck in their ways somewhat. People have their preferences on what they want Aemond and Luke to act like and who they are and it makes it difficult for creators who want to go out of the box to get a foothold - the result of that is that they just go to different fandoms where they don't get shit for having one character bottom and the other topping or get thousands of notifications because yet another argument has broken out in a comments section but things will likely pick up once the new season hits.

[natsmagi]

proship anon again. I'm sorry if I got a bit heated. I'm very thankful that you are a kind enough human being to say that even despite being vehemently against those types of content, you still don't condone the harassment of people who create it. honestly I'm really glad to hear it.

I think myself and lot of other proshippers who do engage with these things in a completely online space tend to feel like we are constantly in danger because of the current social media client. I personally was "called out" as a pedophile when I was only 17, literally just because I said it wasn't okay to harass people who make dark/problematic content. so like. I'm sure you can sort of see where I'm coming from.

I guess the way I see it is that at the end of the day if an actual, literal pedophile can get their fill of that kind of thing in a way that is entirely fictional and in no way harms real life children, I would prefer that they have that as a substitute to the horrible alternative. I can't claim to understand how that sort of person's mind works but like. idk. I am aware of how insane this sounds I hope you understand what I'm trying to get at here.

anyway I don't want to get into it more, it's tiring for me to talk about, too. I'm really sorry I came at you like that, I'm just kind of like. frustrated that my friends and I who I know would never hurt anyone are getting lumped in with criminals and abusers. it sucks. I don't think there's one entirely right answer. I just wish the whole thing was handled with nuance, and very much to your credit, you do handle the situation with nuance, so thank you.

again, I apologize for bringing this upsetting topic back into your inbox again. I won't send any more messages about it. I hope you have a really nice day <3

oh its totally fine!! thank you for your kind words!!

and yes, i can understand where youre coming from. its a bit unfortunate that this whole debate is handled in such a black and white fashion when theres so many factors at play. like we've been over, people who actively engage on the side of "antis" tend to be teens. often times they know that something is wrong, and as theyre getting older they feel like they need to take more action /against/ what they think is wrong. i sincerely believe alot of it is out of good intent, and that they think theyre doing the right thing, but when youre 14 youre not very likely to have much grasp on the whole picture. you just see something bad and want to put a stop to it. the drive is admirable, but the execution can unfortunately become inhumane

i dont have a solution for any of this. i dont know what the best approach is. but thats why i at least wish to give people room to speak and to genuinely listen to whats on their mind (at least when it comes to fandom discourse and not like. unfiltered bigotry). i feel like genuinely talking things over and explaining ones side is the least we can do if we wish to remain civil and empathetic to one another, because at the end of the day my main principle is just not wanting people to get hurt. thats my core desire

we may disagree, but i hope you have a good day too! and stay safe out there!!

[jewpacabruhs]

????? new ep was lowkey sexist. they pulled a huge double standard with how they treated meghan, calling her stupid/dumb, not even treating her as a person but more an accessory of the prince…and then the prince got a redemption arc. come on like that was pretty nasty no…and this is coming from someone who loves kyle focused eps. first ep of the season wasnt too bad tho. lets hope for more of that

[wrote this reply up right after i got this but posting 2 weeks later cuz i was meaning to proof read and post but i got busy)

i get ur perspective but honestly ive never thought to view south park thru a sexism lense or to try to condemn them for it. its satire of female and male celebrities is equally scathing, the men are depicted as similarly vapid and irritating. i don't think sp's history of mocking women is particularly targeted and nasty. as i said in my other post (which you sent me an additional anon about so i kno u read it), sp is about exaggerating things, not always accurately, to make a point. and sometimes that means portraying capable and normal women as, what, mid-00s MTV-type party girls? and sure, that's one of the many features of sp that's technically 'problematic', and the reason so many ppl have 'sp fans dni' on their blogs - but we're here, aren't we, watching this bastard show and trying to juggle watching it critically and enjoying the stupidity?

i dunno, im neutral towards meghan & harry, if anything i respect them, but i very rarely have actual firm opinions on the shit matt & trey choose to make fun of, and this was a situation where it was just their usual shitting all over their celebs of choice who i personally have very little opinion on, and i thought that what they were trying to say in the episode was good. sp's only ever been abt making an individual or group represent something, and then using it all as a way to bitch about a genre of prevalent stupidity. that's what this ep did. was it at the expense of a woc? yeah, and usually that'd be immediately condemnable, but matt and trey have pretty firmly made it clear they're in the "we can find stupidity ANYWHERE" libertarian boat. i have enough respect for them as satire-oriented comedy writers to believe that they're sufficiently capable of lacking bias or prejudice in who they mock, for the most part at least, and that's why i can't condemn them for it specifically. though i know that's very subjective, as im aware that lots of people don't think satire is clever and it's just thinly veiled bigotry. but i'd assume the majority of sp fans who actually care about the satirical plots would be attuned to where matt & trey are coming from.

im disliking the way im seeing south park fans on tumblr perceive episodes lately. people forget that it's a satirical show, and it goes so thoroughly over their heads. but ig thats what happens when smth develops a tumblr-type fanbase, and in this case it's at the expense of critical readings of a sometimes rather insightful show. but i digress. i rlly did think the first ep was terrible. this one at least had smth to say.

(update, as of 3/3: the most recent ep came out the other day and it was a tad boring but very much, again, fairly well-done satire. i didnt even check how ppl reacted to it tho, im not rlly caring lately tbh)

[hellsbellschime]

I know the cast of Jersey Shore isn't perfect . Everyone knows they're all problematic, crazy, dysfunctional, and have fucked up plenty of times. But even then, so much of the hate I see is so unnecessary, especially towards the girls. Snooki and Deena have been vocal about being tired of the staged drama, and want the format of the show to change. They want the cast day to day lives to be documented more, to show them more with their families and business ventures, to show them being more of their real selves, etc. But the producers aren't having it. And that would honestly be much better than what we get. So, that just makes all the hate the girls get even more disheartening.

I honestly feel like if Angelina had never been brought back, the whole dynamic of the show would be completely different and Jenni, Snooki, and Deena wouldn't get so much hate. People loved them and enjoyed them back in the OG show. Now, ever since Angelina came back, it's like the girls have to walk on eggshells, can't enjoy themselves anymore, are forced to limit their comments on social media, and are constantly vilified and made out to be "mean girls" and bullies.

And even Sam, she's only been back a few episodes and people have already flip flopped on her too, after years of begging for her to come back, because she called Angelina out on her BS.

Cont. the first Jersey Shore anon, I don't even get why people are making such a big deal out of the girls not being able to attend Lauren's store opening. Jenni, Snooki, and Deena had things they needed to do with their kids, Sam had something going on with her store. People really think the girls were just making excuses and didn't want to go or that they could've changed their plans, when they had valid reasons. It's not as if they left Lauren up in the air, they communicated with her that they weren't gonna be able to make it. Lauren wasn't even upset about it, she understood. So, Angelina making the event about the other girls not being there ... I just can't. And then having the nerve to say that the other girls "could've just switched their plans." Like what? Deena literally said it took her a year to get dentist appointments scheduled for her kids, so those can't be switched. Like who would actually cancel appointments just to attend a store opening? At this point, I wish the Jersey Shore sub Reddit would just get shut down completely. The mods see all this hate and bullying go on, stuff that goes against their rules, and they don't even do anything about it gets reported to them. I am seriously done with the sub. As much as I'm tired of the drama on the show, at least I'll be able to enjoy it more peacefully staying off the sub.

I am a few episodes behind and you're not making me want to catch up, LOL. I find it so bizarre that viewers, especially who care enough to go to the sub, still buy into all of the obvious bullshit though, like this is all clearly pre-planned drama that they're making up to have a storyline beyond "these partiers grew up to be pretty much normal people."

[tonydaddingham]

hi there! i'm so sorry to bother you, and apologize for how obnoxious this probably sounds, but i am genuinely curious: do you actually like crowley as a character and his relationship with aziraphale? from reading a number of your posts, it seems like there isn't a single thing you find redeemable about crowley and it seems like there's isn't any merit you can find to his love for and relationship to aziraphale. i'm just wondering if i'm reading that wrong, which i totally could be. this of course isn't to say characters can't be toxic and we can't still like them, but some of these points really confuse me because it just seems like you're purposely injecting toxicity into each and every single aspect of his relationship and his character which just sometimes seems reductive and removing any nuance or complexity from him/his relationship to aziraphale. or you liken him to his abuser (aka heaven) in how he treats aziraphale. i just don't understand, especially when you analyze aziraphale in a completely different fashion, even in instances where he directly treats crowley as heaven does in how he refers to him/demons/hell.

hi anon!!!✨ oh gosh no, not bothering me at all, and it's a completely valid question!

i utterly adore crowley! please - and anyone else reading that is asking the same question - don't think i don't! i think not only is he a really fantastic character and utterly likeable, but he's so complex and intricately written... i honestly and completely love him!!!💕

but what you (general) have to understand is that i see these characters - aziraphale too - as just that. very, very complex characters with hundreds of complimentary and opposing facets, and are equally questionable as they are lovable. i find their relationship as romantic and poetic as i do (sometimes) toxic and reductive. they might be supernatural beings, but the story is also (to me) an examination on human condition, and being human is messy!!!

what i suspect - and i mean this kindly - is that you might be reading only a handful of posts/ask responses that deliberately look at crowley specifically in a critical light. and i think it possibly stands out because actually, i personally don't think a lot of people do view crowley critically. perhaps that's a bias in my part - in fact, definitely is! but unfortunately i think the fandom is relatively one-sided in this respect. talking about asks specifically, i dont really get a lot regarding aziraphale (although id love to, if that would give me an opportunity to parse out where aziraphale is equally questionable!) so im not as vocal in my critique of him. but it's not because i think crowley is the only one of the duo with flaws and that displays problematic behaviour.

furthermore, please remember that you are only seeing snapshots of individual aspects where i critique crowley; what i mean by that is that there isn't a single instance (unless i did a mighty multi-thousand word dissertation!) where i could talk about all of my observations of crowley's character. if i did, i promise you there would be a hefty amount of good things about crowley that i could discuss.

i will also say that whilst i appreciate how it must come across, i don't purposely inject anything anywhere - i don't do it out of any nastiness or vindictiveness. i consider myself a relatively experienced adult, with a good degree of objective emotional maturity, that has had quite a bit of practice in examining human behaviour (job) and analysing different patterns and characteristics (also job). if i call out toxicity, it's because i see toxicity. if i call out horrible or hurtful behaviour, it's because i see horrible or hurtful behaviour. that doesn't mean i hate any character (if anything, it endears me to them more because - gasp! - they're not perfect and actually very relatable!). it also does not mean that i expect anyone to agree with me, not at all, but i deserve - same as anyone - to offer an interpretation that whilst may not be agreeable, is objectively just as valid.

my analysis (or critique, whichever) is my own opinion, interpretation, and perspective. it is not necessarily right or wrong, and whilst i may joke about it, i don't think i have ever categorically stated or alluded to the fact that i must be right, and every other interpretation is wrong. if everyone had the same opinion and saw crowley - and aziraphale for that matter - as completely flawless, or at least we all interpreted them in the same way... well, it'd be utterly boring, right?

all i aim to do is offer an alternative perspective on these characters and their relationship, maybe something that others might not have considered. the general reaction to them and their relationship is positive, and maybe offering a different take on that, for some people, might be interesting. if they're not interested, or disagree, all they have to do is scroll on, or challenge me the way you have - respectfully and eloquently! discussion and conflicting interpretation is good; it offers different perspectives and experiences, and maybe offers some the opportunity to step back from loving a character (as they should, they're so lovable!), and instead look at them objectively, and ask questions. personally, i don't think there's anything wrong with that✨

[cbrownjc]

Twitter discourse update:

Anne Rice is being called a racist now for having a main character as a plantation owner.

Have these people read even a single novel? I'm beginning to hate this fandom rn

George RR Martin has so much problematic stuff in his books,Stephen King too,I don't see people attacking them. Colleen Hoover romanticizes DV and her books are always sold out.

I'm sorry if this comes off as insensitive but I'd like to know your thoughts. I don't think Anne did it with malicious intention.

Hey Anon,

Honestly, I don't feel comfortable declaring what Anne may or may not have been personally. I mean, I don't think she made Louis a plantation owner out of some malicious intent, but that's only because of how Louis is presented in that book. But she did have her own racial ignorances as well I'd say.

Louis' position of being a slave owner isn't romanticized in the book, at least in my reading of it. He is very much of his time with all the racism that comes with that. (And book-Louis IS racist, that is very clear, IMO.) And that all becomes analogous when he is turned into a vampire, a supernatural creature that prays on the innocent.

IMO it's more book fans who tend to romanticize book-Louis than the actual text does when it comes to this and him being a slave owner and the racism he both exhibits and is a part of sustaining. (Some of the language used to describe book-Louis by some fans screams Southern Plantation "lost cause" romanticization mythology in the vein of Gone with the Wind.)

And I understand people who just do not feel like reading about a character like that and dismiss any type of sympathy for him. Especially when it comes to talking like that about him, that comes from some book fans.

Again, I don't feel I can declare one way or another whether Anne Rice herself was racist. Like, I only heard things here on Tumblr about the whole Paula Dean thing and her, so I don't know all the details of that. All I will say is that she had some ignorance about race and racial issues/history/imagery and her own inherent biases within that. But she also didn't strike me as someone completely unwilling to learn. I could be wrong about that, as that was my reading of her back in the late-90s and early 2000s, at least.

I mean, the fact that she wrote Akasha, who was an Egyptian Queen, as white shows that ignorance. However, Aaliyah's casting as Akasha was one of the only things Rice praised about the Queen of the Damned movie, specifically noting how, with Aaliyah's casting, many black fans of the books feel included in her world.

And I personally remember, around the late-90s or so, when she used to have a newsletter and actually talked about black fans asking her if she could include more black vampires and how she honestly didn't feel she had the knowledge or skill as a writer to really explore that topic of what might be a difference for a black person becoming a vampire than a white person.

And, again, just personally? I prefer it when a white writer can acknowledge that kind of ignorance they have and not try and write something that might (usually) just end up being offensive in the long run.

There are also book readers who are more knowledgeable than me that have legitimate issues with how she handled the few Southeast Asian characters in the VC, particularly the body-swapping plot with David Talbot and the body he got in the end.

Oh, and I can tell you outright both George R. R. Martin and Stephen King have been harshly criticized for some of the handling of race, and other things, in their stories. Though, again, this usually comes more from people who've only watched the adaptations of their books than have read the books in question, from what I've seen. Legitimately so when it comes to the difference between the ASOIAF books and the Game of Thrones tv show and how the show handled a lot of that stuff. (Don’t get me started, I still have . . . feelings.) (I've never read Colleen Hoover's work, so I can't comment on that.)

Anyway, I guess I'm saying yes, Anne Rice did have her racial ignorance, but that's what they were - ignorance. Not something done maliciously or with that intent, but things that still had some consequences because of her ignorance.

[shewhotellsstories]

i really dont wanna annoy you but you post about racism in fandom sometimes so i thought you'd be the right person to ask. i hope this doesnt come off as expecting u to be my teacher. yesterday someone said they didnt trust white zk shippers and i thought it was mean but then people started sending the them all these nasty messages and i started to worry maybe op was right. honestly a lot of this stuff is pretty new for me. i think our fandom is inclusive & unlike the rest of the atla fandom we actually like katara. but i'm trying to learn.

why would it be a problem that a lot of zk fics have katara looking after zuko? i always just felt like he needed it more bc he was abused and kataras better at dealing with feelings and she's good at taking care of people. is fire lady katara still ok? is there racism in our fandom? there are a lot of woc zks and i've seen them get hate for it. but the messages op got were pretty bad too. i know i'm asking a lot of questions i just hate the thinking that we might be as bad as the z*kka stans have been saying all year.

This is gonna get long so I’m just gonna jump right in. When I listened to fansplaining’s episode on fandom racism one of the guests said white fans who can acknowledge that fandom racism exists tend to frame it as “just a few bad apples” and get caught up in worrying about not looking like a “bad apple” instead of making fandoms spaces that aren’t hostile for BIPOC. Jag offs hiding behind anon to tell women of color who ship zutara that we have a creepy fetish for imperialism and colonialism suck, but your biggest concern really shouldn’t be the optics or if you can claim superiority over zukka stans.

Yeah the “katara’s a homophobe” nonsense didn’t come from our end of the fandom, but it feels naive at best or dishonest at worst to act like the zutara fandom is uniquely immune to fandom racism. A creator I follow made the excellent point that allyship conditional upon if a poc talks "nicely" about racism is still white supremacy. I believe poc need to be allowed to vent and be salty or angry without being tone-policed. I definitely have my days where I’m like “ugh white people,” or "why must white fans be like this," so I get where the OP was coming from. Ironically the folks that sent them anon hate proved their point. You can always count on hit dogs to hollar.

Fandom is only escapist for some people. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum so you’ll find racism in fandom because there’s racism in the world. Navigating that gets exhausting. There are certain things I enjoy, but for the sake of my sanity I'll only talk about it with friends in real life or only follow fans of color. Before I follow white fans I need to see first that they’re not the kind of person who inspires posts about fandom racism. A good friend of mine loves Star Wars, Kpop, and gaming but after years of attempts at calling in she decided that she’d only interact with woc in those spaces. Again, you get tired.

ATLA wasn’t on my radar until last year so I definitely haven’t read every zutara fic out there but I have noticed a lot of fics do tend to have Katara being the one comforting and supporting Zuko. It’s not inherently wrong of course, it’s just in the grand scheme of things in fiction woc are often cast as eternal caretakers and confidants in fiction:

“How characters of color are portrayed in fanworks, especially fanfiction, is worse than the actual films. They are portrayed as supportive, almost invisible understudies. Any characteristics which they possess in the [MCU] films are stripped and given to other white characters. It is not only erasure. It’s a theft of identity.

Characters of color are positioned within storylines to support the main, white characters. Even within the slash biracial pairings, the character of color is underdeveloped and in a position of servitude within the relationship.”

TheNavyLanguage, Fansplaining

As the quote above points out this honestly happens in a lot of fandoms. I’ve read fanfic for books, movies, tv shows, and comics and I can’t help but notice that in fics the writers often have the non-white character or-- if neither character is white--the darker skinned character being the care-taker, the bodyguard, or the person who is performing all the emotional labor. It’s not inherently wrong to have a character of color have a nurturing personality, you just have to remember that since Black and brown folks have been saddled with narrative after narrative where we exist to serve leaning into dynamics where the non-white or darker skinned character is providing all the emotional support and getting very little in return has some unfortunate implications.

It’s not better if instead of being defined as the avatar’s girl, Katara’s the fire lord’s girl. Part of the appeal of zutara for me is the idea that Katara could lay down some of her burdens and get some much needed support. I always imagine she’d have some major issues after the war.

"i always just felt like he needed it more bc he was abused and kataras better at dealing with feelings and she's good at taking care of people."

I’m going to push back against that statement. Yes, Katara didn't grow up in an abusive household but she has pain and trauma of her own. In fact I’d argue that her believing it’s her job to take care of everyone is rooted in her trauma. Katara needs support and care just as much as anyone else does.

Having read a lot of fics revolving around abuse victims in different fandoms I’ve observed that if fans feel a character’s trauma wasn’t properly addressed in canon, they’ll give them a lot of TLC in fics. But again, reducing the non-white or darker-skinned character to a glorified therapist has some implications.

I feel like the Fire Lady Katara headcanon's been talked to death so long-story short, it’s not inherently racist but it can problematic if it's not clear that Katara is Katara of the Water Tribe wherever she lives. Fics and art where her crown has a crescent moon, she wears blue, or Zuko wears blue when she's in red are the executions I'm fondest of.

When in doubt just listen when poc talk about uncomfortable trends in the fandom. Give fansplaining’s episodes on fandom racism a listen here, here, and here. And very loosely quoting my favorite professor just remember that if a marginalized person says they’re distrustful of a group of people or institution it usually happens after a lot of bad experiences. Don’t center your own comfort and hurt feelings.

“If we truly believe in fandom’s progressive credentials, then perhaps it is necessary for us to listen to critiques that make us uncomfortable rather than those that keep arguing that the status quo is perfectly acceptable—even as there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Perhaps then we will be able to come at these, yes, these very complex and nuanced discussions with the type of openness and good faith that is required for them to succeed, rather than approaching them with hostility.”

-Rukmini Pande, Fansplaining

[exovapor]

I'm OBSESSED with your writing. Can you try.. Maybe, Donnie being a filthy boy being an 'stalker-ish' of his long time crush? Be checks their FB for new posts, saves every picture of them he finds? He doesn't mean to be a creep, feels guilty, but just doesn't know how to ask for more than friendship?

Good afternoon Anon. Here is my short story in relation to your ask.

I wasn't sure where you wanted me to take this, so I had to do a bit of guessing on my part. I hope this something like you were wanting.

I will admit that this ask was a bit of a struggle for me, not knowing a clear direction to take it outcome made me a little unsure of my writing and guessing abilities LOL. However, I will admit to crying along with the characters in this story more than once.

Thanks again for the ask and the initial compliment. I hope to continue to earn your favor in future posts.

· Stalker [noun]: 1a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention. 2a person who hunts game stealthily.

· Donnie stared at the definition on his one of his monitor screens while his various other screens were busy flashing receipts of files downloaded, text trail streams from your phone, notices of any social media post/update/like/heart/emoji, a GPS line grid of your routes today (overlayed over the routes you’d taken previously), and data search hits of anything and everything that pertained to you.

· At this point, the boy had literally every picture you had ever posted, anywhere, of yourself. In fact, he had all the pictures that other people posted of you in them. He had even gone through the effort of designing a face recognition program that picks you out of the background of total strangers’ pictures and, yeah, he had those in a file too.

· He has special file folders that compile things that you like, things you don’t like, things that make you happy, things that make you sad. He is your own personal Pinterest and you didn’t even know it… and maybe that is the part that keeps bothering him so much.

· He sits staring at that word and definition and chewing his bottom lip. True, he knows the word and the meaning, but he needed to LOOK at it, analyze it, mull it over in his guilt ridden brain.

· He just KNEW the word Stalker couldn’t apply to him.

· After all, he isn’t harassing or persecuting you, you don’t know! So, it isn’t necessarily ‘unwanted attention’. It is just…unknown attention.

· Stealthily, hmmmm, did that part apply to him? Well, He isn’t EXACTLY being stealthy.

· If you knew about technology like him, then you would probably see his programs running on your devices and be alerted to his activities. AND, if you shared his love and view of technology, then you would probably be more understanding of his activities and not consider them stealthy…just data mining. In fact, you might applaud him.

· ‘Ok, that was taking it a bit too far’, Donnie thinks to himself and he feels a band tighten and squeeze around his infatuated heart.

· He is almost certain that you would be shocked to learn of his extra curricular activities and how they revolve around every aspect of you.

· Regardless of how he tried to spin the truth and wiggle out of the definition of stalker, Donnie still felt guilty for invading your privacy. However, he honestly couldn’t help himself…at least not anymore.

· He has fought the urge, the nagging thoughts and the burning need, to know more about you for what seemed like an eternity.

· Listen to him, he is starting to sound dramatic like Mikey! What is his turning into? He is losing his rational edge!

· To be accurate, it hasn’t been an eternity. In fact, he has known you 1 year, 36 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds to be exact. However, you started occupying space in his mind 2 minutes into meeting you and your claim over his mind has grown exponentially over time.

· You were quiet and reserved during that first meeting, so there wasn’t much to go on. It started as a simple visual interest with a thought of ‘Oh. She’s pretty’.

· However, then you started talking and that changed everything.

· You opened up more and more each time you hung out with their little group, revealing layers and layers of interests and personality. You were fascinating…and that’s when his thoughts about you really started to snowball and spiral out of control.

· You went from being a simple pretty face to being a walking embodiment of everything he seriously ever dreamed of having in a mate.

· Early on, there were three sticking points that really made Donnie’s feelings problematic. 1. He was a nearly seven foot tall walking talking turtle and you weren’t. 2. You had a boyfriend that you were deeply in love with and adored. 3. Donnie was too insecure about #1 and how you felt about inter-species dating to let you know that you had started to OWN his heart.

· Now, thanks to his surveillance, there were only two sticking points….#1 and #3.

· He still remembers the feelings of that day, 44 days ago, when the blip of information popped up on this screen alerting him to the fact that your boyfriend was starting to stray.

· Donnie had severely conflicting feelings bombard him at once and it was overwhelming.

· The initial knee jerk reaction was elation, one of the problems blocking him from you may soon be null.

· However, the feeling of elation only lasted for a second or two before the intense anger and sadness set in. Donnie was honestly shocked at the depth of his anger, he didn’t even know he had that level of malice in him. Had he been in physical proximity to your boyfriend at that moment in time, Donnie isn’t sure that he wouldn’t have hurt your guy…or worse.

· How COULD this guy do this? WHY would he? He HAD YOU! What the heck was this guy thinking? Not only did he have you, but you thought the world of him. When you spoke about him you would smile so genuinely, your eyes would shine and gaze off into a bright imagined future. Donnie was always so jealous to watch it happen, he wondered what it would be like to be THAT GUY. And here the idiot was throwing it all away and meeting up with another girl!

· WHAT THE…(yes, this called for a curse) HELL…IS WRONG WITH HUMAN MEN?

· As the anger set root in his heart, the sadness engulfed Donnie like an all-consuming wave. He realized he was going to have to share this information with you, somehow, and that he was going to have to watch as it destroyed you.

· At first, Donnie had a plan to try and save you both from that fate. True, it would hurt him more to save your relationship, but he would rather be the one facing the pain and not you.

· He TRIED to circumvent the situation. He sent anonymous messages to your boyfriend stating that he knew about the infidelity and that he would tell you if needed. However, it didn’t seem like your boyfriend cared because he sent messages back stating Donnie could, basically, go fuck himself.

· Life had cruel sense of irony, thought Donnie, that is exactly what I do since this moron has the woman that I love.

· So, after trying for nearly two weeks to stop what was happening behind your back, Donnie had no choice but to let you in on the secret.

· Donnie couldn’t come right out and tell you that he caught your boyfriend cheating by hijacking your data streams and the data streams of those around you. So, Donnie intercepted some texts between your boyfriend and his mistress and he then sent you a text, under the guise of your boyfriend, telling you to meet him at a specified restaurant for a date.

· It had been a gut wrenching night for Donnie. He remembered watching it all play out on camera feeds from around the restaurant and street outside. He watched you dressed up in your pretty dress get out of your cab in front of the restaurant. You had such a lovely smile on your face, you must have thought you were in for a romantic evening.

· He watched as you walked inside and how the hostess got flustered and confused by a 2nd girl showing up for your boyfriend’s seated-for-two table.

· Donnie stopped breathing as your eyes found the new couple holding hands and giving each other sweet kisses across the table. Hands and lips that were supposed to be yours were touching some stranger.

· Donnie watched your smile and eyes die…the light of your inner sun go out…

· …and it killed him.

· He’s not sure who was crying the hardest, you standing there in that restaurant witnessing the scene or him back at the lair watching your world crush around you on his monitor.

· It had taken a while for you both to recover from that night.

· His brothers noticed his melancholy mood for a couple of weeks but Donnie wouldn’t tell them what was bothering him. And you stayed in your bed, refusing to face the world, for nearly as long.

· Eventually, the group began to notice your silence and absence, so April stopped by your apartment to check on you. She was the one to pull you out of bed, get you to shower and eat. She visited everyday and made sure you had someone to vent to and a shoulder to cry on.

· Donnie was glad that April could be there for you when he couldn’t. He didn’t think it was appropriate for him, a male, to be your confidant at that time. Especially since he felt so much guilt over having to be the one to expose you to that pain.

· No, he didn’t CAUSE the pain, but he did have to make you face it and he didn’t like not being able to protect you from it. You were such a rare, precious creature and watching you in pain felt like he was suffocating slowly.

· There were some points during those first few weeks that he questioned if he did the right thing, but logic told him it would have eventually come to pass with or without his involvement. It was better to rip the bandage of quickly and let you start to heal than it was to let you linger and drag out the inevitable.

· Donnie did secretly check on you every single night during patrol. And, of course, his surveillance feeds were always running. He watched from a distance as his beautiful phoenix burn down to ashes and, eventually, started to rise again.

· Now, it’s been over 3 months and you’ve begun to be more like your old self. Donnie can tell there is a silent sadness there, but you are able to laugh and smile with the group during your get togethers. And each time you two are left alone, his mind nags at him about those last two sticking points.

· Would you be at all interested in him? And HOW does he go about telling you that you have become the center of his world?

· Still staring at the monitor and the Stalker definition, Donnie sighs and rubs the bridge of his snout to release of the pressure now pushing against the inside of his head. The memories of what has happened, the emotions of what was and what is, it was all starting to be too much.

· “Bro, what’s all this?”, Mikey says standing behind Donnie’s chair, talking around a mouth full of pizza.

· “NOTHING!”, says Donnie, voice breaking from the stress of being caught. A startled Donnie quickly taps some keys on his keyboard and the screens revert back to the standard lair camera feeds.

· Mikey may look or even come off as naïve at times, but he’s no fool, he can sense that his older brother is trying to hide something. “Dude, seriously, what was that? I’ve been standing back here reading the screens. I saw Y/N’s name and that looked like her phone number on that other file…, you know the file that looks like texts messages. And why is there a plotted map of the area around her apartment, her work, and to the lair? What’s up?”, Mikey said giving a disapproving look at being thought a pushover.

· “Just standard surveillance, Mikey, nothing to worry about.”, Donnie says trying to placate Mikey’s curiosity. Donnie hates lying, especially to Mikey, but he’s feeling so guilty about being such a…(inward sigh)…stalking creep that admitting the truth is hard to do.

· Mikey stands there staring at Donnie and, as he does, Donnie begins to fidget with his computer chair armrests.

· Mikey stuffs the remnants of the pizza slice into his mouth and does his best Leo impersonation by crosses his arms and staring down at Donnie as sternly as his jolly face can achieve, “Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. You’ve been weird for months. We’ve let it go for the most part but now you are hiding things from me…from ME, dude! You and I, we’re like peanut butter and jelly, we’re ice cream and chocolate fudge, we young dudes have got to stick together. Trust me, bro, I’ve got you!”.

· Donnie stared at the floor, too ashamed to meet Mikey’s eyes any longer. He gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly started to speak, “Sorry Mike, I…I honestly don’t know what’s come over me lately. I’m doing things I never thought I would do, I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t know if I can stop doing it either. I feel…lost.”.

· Mike relaxed his leader stance and leaned against one of Donnie’s lab tables, “Bro, I can tell you’ve been carrying some heavy stuff lately. You need to let it out.”

· Donnie felt the heat rise up through his body like he was suddenly being consumed by a fire and he ripped his glasses off his face and drew them down on the desk in frustration, “Mikey, I’m in love with Y/N. I have been for a while. I have been…”, Donnie hangs his head in shame, “…tracking all her digital foot prints and watching her. In fact, I’m the reason she found out that asshole boyfriend of her's cheated.”

· Mikey’s mouth drops open at Donnie’s demeanor and use of the word ‘asshole’, “Whoa, dude, why didn’t you say something earlier?”.

· Donnie can feel a stinging at the corners of his eyes, this was so embarrassing, so frustrating, so…..so many things at a once. He didn’t have a response for Mikey, all he could do was shake his head.

· Still with his head hung down and staring at the floor, Donnie starts to hear Mikey chuckle. Donnie looks up to see Mikey’s eyes on him and for some reason they are full of merriment at his painful dilemma. Donnie stares at his, normally, very considerate brother in astonishment, this isn’t like Mikey at all!

· “Mikey, I’m more than serious here, now is not the time to make fun of me. What is so funny?”, Donnie asks exasperatedly.

· Mikey shakes his bald head and claps his brother on the shoulder with his green hand, “Bro, she thinks you’re cute.”.

· “W-What?!”, Donnie stammers out.

· Mikey, still chuckling, says, “Yeah, dude, that’s why I asked WHY you didn’t say something about liking her sooner, she’s always thought you were cute. She and I talk about it all the time.”.

· Donnie just stares at his jolly brother in silence. His mind is too blown to form a sentence.

· Mikey turns to leave stating, “And by the way, dude, stop watching her like that…that’s just creepy.”.

@turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @kokokatsworld @nittleboo @the-second-circle-of-shell

[viscountessevie]

A funny bit, but I was on youtube watching one of those list videos, and one about famous romcoms, talked about My best friend's wedding and one producer said they had to come back and film a different end, because in the original, Julia's character got the guy and the focus group was pissed because everyone felt bad for Cameron's, their idea didn't work on screen, so they saw the mistake and changed the end, they could go on like Bridgerton, not even acknowledge the mistake but then again there are creators interested in making things people will enjoy and bring more $ others are way to worry about their own ego with the check already on their bank

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Thanks for this ask anon! Super cool info on an old movie I like and I'm always here for dragging the Bridgerton Production 😂😂

Okay firstly: let's talk about the Best Friend's Wedding of it all because holy shit what!!! I may be in the minority but I would have lovedd that ending. I was always rooting for Julia Roberts to be happy even though I thought Dermot's character was a shithead for leading her on (however cluelessly) and they didn't really seemed to have chemistry which is why it was so surprising when Julia and Dermot had INSANE chemistry in interviews. Like I once watched one of their interviews in recent years and had to check if they were actually married to one another. Their friendship is what soulmates are made of tbh.

Honestly, I thought both girls could do better than Dermot's character 💀💀 Rupert Everett was the only valid man in that movie.

My dragging of My Best Friend's Wedding aside, I like that they did take into account of the test audiences' response to some extent (cos it doesn't always work tbh and you just gotta stick to your vision) and realised they could do better and did just that.

As for Bridgerton, D R A G them anon. They refused to listen to us about how problematic the SA scene was and instead CVD doubled down on it saying it was a monent of empowerment for Daphne 🤢. Of course this season, they COMPLETELY butchered one of the most beloved book of the series (don't get me started on butchering my culture but that's for another post) and made Penalty girlboss some more and ruin her so-called best friend's life. Like I love drama but this isn't Big Brother or Gossip Girl, it's a romance show I don't know why they moved away from that. It's fucking annoying. If I wanted drama, I'd tune into my reality shows.

I will give them *some* props for certain changes - the new Bee scene, new accident scene (though I hated the motivation of it for the Sharmas - like you're going to finally notice and forgive her after she almost dies???) and Kathony choosing each other before marriage (though fuck buddies married Kathony sex montage I'll always miss your potential for the show 😭😭)

Other than that, it was ALL Jimone carrying this season because aside from their scenes and storyline, the whole season was a fucking mess. It was not cohesive at all and because of the Featherflops, it felt like I was watching two different shows. Literally who approved this season to drop in the state it was in?? Did no one on the Executive Producing Team and Higher Ups at Netflix take a SINGLE writing/storytelling class???

But yeah this season's writing and CVD acting like he is God's gift to humanity for writing, just proved this show isn't really worth my time. So they can take other people's time and money next season and keep putting out the shit they're putting out. Some people will clearly eat it up. I'll be here watching Lockwood & Co. supporting Ruby instead (may pirate S3 but I'm undecided).

[anicepieceofash]

Over the last couple of days Sam has more stuff on his twitter than C. Hers is all her charity. Everyone is so quick to pounce and judge them both. I don't get it at all.

Anon, I don’t follow Sam on social media so I don’t see what he post or doesn’t post. I only see/hear about things on here and if I deem anything important I check it out for myself. But for the sake of answering this I did go look. His OL content is basically the same as Cait’s. Rt’s of articles and a few gifs the show’s account put out. The only difference is that there is also a ton of Barbour and MPC stuff on there and no other sign of OL on the page itself, but that’s also just this week. Where was he during promo week?  I’m not even going to get into his IG. My criticism is based on what I’ve seen in interviews and events over the last year. And before I get hate about this I don’t begrudge anyone any success. They should take whatever opportunities come their way, but they shouldn’t forget  what made those opportunities possible. 

Cait was in NYC/Toronto promoting the show for almost 2 weeks and posting on SM. I know this is her job and she did it. She was pretty damn good at it and I was pleased and excited because of how enthusiastic she was. This was huge for me because I was pretty down about this season after the mess that was Season 2. She made me excited again. This is why I don’t mind her not being on 24/7 now. She pops up when she has to and I just hope that this continues during filming because it would help a lot with fandom moral during the hiatus. A lot argue that she didn’t do this in the past, which might be true to an extent, but when she has been called to work/promote the woman always brings it.To be honest I really think someone got in her ear and told her what she needed to do after the picture fiasco in SA. There has been a marked changed in her SM presence since then and I for one am happy about that. They owe us nothing, but a little interaction is a great bonus especially when they’re all always asking for money from their fans. She has her joint charity event here next week and she hasn’t mentioned it. Neither has Sam for that matter. Her twitter is OL and her charity, but when you click on her page the first thing you see is Outlander right in your face.I can’t say the same for Sam. If I was a newcomer I wouldn’t have a clue what Sam did. I would guess MPC and Barbour were his main jobs. OL was off Sam’s radar before promo even began. The biggest slap in the face to fans was SDCC. It seemed like they wanted him to take the reigns on that and his mind was elsewhere or he had a different agenda that didn’t quite pan out. I don’t know what his deal was in NY but I’m not buying the exhausted or spoilers excuse. Whatever this new image he’s trying to peddle is it’s not cute.The problem here is people can’t discuss anything without having people jumping down their throat about it. I and many others have noticed a change in Sam and there’s nothing wrong with speaking about it. I still love the show, love Jamie and want to discuss those things, but this is also a space to express your own opinion and if people don’t like it they can move on.

[jechristine]

I don’t know what to make of the discussion regarding Dom because I honestly don’t pay much attention to TZ’s family unless they’re somehow connected. But despite the questionable (maybe even problematic) things about Dom… he and Nikki seems to have done brilliant raising their four sons. I think we can all agree that Tom’s personality and humbleness is among his many favorable traits, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say he was raised right. Someone can be a wonderful person, but a terrible parent. Just the same, someone can be a wonderful parent but a not-so-wonderful person. I don’t want to label Dom anything as a person because I know so very little about him, but Tom says his father is a wonderful father, so I will believe him at that, at least. Because at the end of the day, the only people who can really judge Dom as a parent are his children. This goes for all parents. I think as a society, we are just too quick to put down or cancel someone based on selective content. I mean, isn’t that how antis drag Tom himself? They pick something they don’t like and, for them, that’s the only thing that defines him going forward.

From yesterday—

Tom seems like a very nice person, which is part of the reason we’re all here! Agreed. And I also agree with this part:

Someone can be a terrible person, and a wonderful parent. Just the same, someone can be a wonderful parent, but a not-so-wonderful person.

But I will say that I think as children we are about the worst people to judge our parents bc we are psychologically conditioned to want/need their love & affection and to view any fault in our relationship as a fault in ourselves. Speaking for myself, I wasn’t really able to get a proper perspective on my parents until Id been living away from their home for a while, met them again through my husband’s eyes, and talked about them (and the ways I replicate and grapple with their unstated values) in therapy.

That’s what I meant when I said I don’t conclude anything from Tom’s words.

And that’s not even to mention that there would be no reason for Tom to publicize his daddy issues or complaints about Dom (or Nikki for that matter). Tom says great things about Mark Wahlberg, too, a man who went to jail for hate crimes and has never really made public amends even now that he’s rich, mature, and sober.

As far as I can tell, no one’s talking about “cancelling” Dom Holland or even calling him a bad person. We’ve just been pointing about some annoying and questionable things about him, is all. Dom puts his own thoughts about parenting and other things out there to get us interested in his self-published books, so 🤷‍♀️

And this is not necessarily directed at you, Anon, but I’m a little ambivalent about praising people’s parents for staying married and being present. I know what people mean, but it’s really not necessarily good for all couples to stay married, and it can be worse for kids if they’re in a household with two people who hate each other (ESPECIALLY if one is abusive). And while presentness is good, praising it is also kind of a slight at single or working parents who do love their kids just as much and often do just as well raising them. Idk when I see people talking how good of a family Tom comes from it seems like that praise is always tied to “married, present” parents, and I’m not saying that those things are bad or anything, but I do always want to remind the universe that kind, successful people come from all different upbringings and home lives.