#i definitely would never ever intentionally be ableist

[royalstormpsych]

you didnt apologize for the incredibly ableist assumption that DID OSDD people are just jealous of endos

my bad, i was distracted this morning when i answered some of the notes on this post and i had to go before i could address everything

i was definitely overgeneralizing, and i didnt mean to be ableist, nor imply that theyre just jealous or all only want to be miserable all the time - some of that was poor wording and some of it was genuinely just being an idiot and im genuinely sorry for that and will work to be better for the future

my post was based on my own personal experiences with the plural community (or DID/OSDD community or system community or whatever else anyone may want to call it, someone informed me that not everyone is okay with calling it the plural community which i didnt know!) and many systems that i have met, but i blindly assumed that this was community-wide based on what i encountered in my bubble, which was a mistake on my part. likely what is the case is i was correct for some few individuals in social circles i've found myself in, and assumed that it was correct for the majority, which is clearly not the case

thank you everyone for holding me accountable and letting me know whats up, some people have added their experiences and told me what is actually the case for some people and corrected my mistake which is genuinely appreciated - i am here to learn and i'm sorry for being disrespectful. however for my own sake i will block people who were rude or hostile to me, while still taking into account the points they made. just because they were right and i was wrong does not mean i have to tolerate being spoken to in a way im not comfortable with, but i will still acknowledge that they were right i was wrong

i wont discuss my own personal experiences with trauma or systemhood/having DID/OSDD, nor will i disclose now whether i am a system or not, but please know that i am very deeply personally familiar with these topics and have much experience. this doesnt mean i cant make stupid mistakes like that, im just addressing that some people may think/have thought that im some rando who heard about DID/OSDD yesterday and doesnt know that people are traumatized

yall can lmk if you want me to delete the post, but for now i will leave it up so that i or anyone else can reference the replies to it in the future because some people make very good points

[actual-changeling]

On unhealthy relationship dynamics

A little while ago, I stumbled across a post discussing Aziraphale's character on a meta level, and without knowing the content, I was completely unprepared when one single sentence pushed me from 'uncomfortable but doable' into 'triggered and panicking'. The post itself was triggering from start to finish, but that phrase stood out to me.

Why am I telling you this?

After calming down and thinking about it for a few hours, I realised what exactly my brain had reacted to—victim blaming rhetoric repackaged to fit Aziraphale and Crowley's situation. Victim blaming is, to provide a short summary, the act of putting blame for mistreatment on the victim instead of the perpetrator. It's a concept often used in r/pe discussions, but it can be applied to any abusive or non-abusive situation as long as a power imbalance is created, meaning you have at least one person harming another in whatever shape or form.

If you broaden the definition, you can apply it to more situations, including—and this is where we reach the actual topic—their relationship and the Final Fifteen (F15).

That is exactly what some people have been doing—putting all the blame on Crowley and absolving Aziraphale of any and all responsibility as if it were his fault that Aziraphale broke his heart

Before anyone runs to the comments, let me clarify what I assume will be the FAQ.

no, I do not think Aziraphale is abusive

I do not think that their relationship is abusive either

no, I do not hate Aziraphale

yes, I know what I am talking about

everything I will talk about is largely based on what we as the audience actually see and know, combined with interpretations of the intentional subtext Neil wrote into the show.

I have been actively in this fandom since the second season was released, and I have seen a lot of (hopefully accidental) ableist & generally insensitive takes. These are the ones I see the most and what I personally consider to be important topics of discussion, but the same logic I will be applying to these can be applied to many, many more situations.

Since my meta posts get very long very quickly, I will be posting them in parts and always linking back to the others, plus this one as the masterpost.

Part 1—Nice Is A Four Letter Word

The basic pattern is this:

Aziraphale refers to Crowley with a 'nice' term -> Crowley gets upset and tells him to stop -> Aziraphale hears him but continues anyway.

There are reasons behind Crowley's rejection, and I will go into detail, but I want to make one thing very clear: It does not matter why Crowley asked him to stop. He set a boundary, and Aziraphale repeatedly and intentionally overstepped it; this causes understandable anger and frustration.

Crowley does not owe Aziraphale an explanation, just like you would not owe someone an explanation when you don't want to be called x-term. Mutual respect requires the acceptance of personal boundaries like that, and by breaking them over and over again, Aziraphale tells Crowley that his own wants are more important than Crowley's needs.

In the 1827 Edinburgh flashback, we see the consequences of Crowley doing good/being called good (which are usually connected, meaning if they notice someone is calling Crowley good, he most likely did something to cause that) firsthand, and so does Aziraphale. He gets dragged down to hell and tortured for up to thirty years.

Even before that, Crowley expresses numerous times how hell punishes good deeds, and they are 'always listening' in on him. You would assume that Aziraphale would stop to keep him safe—and yet he doesn't because he cannot accept the reality of Crowley's situation and refuses to listen to him.

On top of that, Aziraphale only ever "praises" Crowley when he does something he personally sees as praiseworthy, aka something good/kind/nice/angelic/etc. but never when it is something that CROWLEY would like to be praised for, or at the very least acknowledged. We see it in season 2 over and over and over again: Aziraphale cares for no one's thoughts or plans except his own and has no interest in even hearing Crowley out.

Aziraphale calling him nice is not a sweet little gesture, it is an intentional overstepping of a boundary Crowley has been trying to enforce for centuries, and it reinforces the dichotomy of good angels/bad demons, with angelic existence being the ultimate goal. At the very least, it's disrespectful towards Crowley, and at worst, it is actively keeping Crowley in a trauma response, tugging on his leash whenever he tries to explain reality to Aziraphale.

To have a healthy relationship, Aziraphale needs to stop.

part 2 - part 3

[thescrappyraccoon]

A few months ago, I had a run-in with an online chronic illness content creator (say that 10x fast! 😂). Their video was entirely inaccessible to anyone with visual or some neurological issues (especially those of us with migraines or seizures), and I very politely let them know.

In the past, I’ve been on the receiving end of that, and I appreciated the feedback, edited my post, and changed how I posted moving forward. In fact, since learning how online content can be inaccessible to many, I have intentionally followed creators who share helpful tips about increasing accessibility across platforms. Because **everyone deserves equitable access.** Sadly, this person’s response was extremely ableist.

Ableism is “a set of beliefs or practices that devalue and discriminate against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities, and often rests on the assumption that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ in one form or the other” (Definition source: Center for Disability Rights).

Ableism reinforces messages like:

•Your needs are too much, or you’re just being difficult, lazy, etc.

•You aren’t welcome here. This space isn’t for you.

•If you’re still disabled or can’t access this resource, something is wrong with you that you aren’t working hard enough to fix.

But in addition to harming disabled folx, ableism harms *everyone.* If content is inaccessible to some people, guess who’s voice isn’t being heard in the commentary? It is a way of systematically silencing and exiling members of our community. That doesn’t mean it is always *intentionally silencing, but the impact is the same.

When people don’t have the opportunity to hear the voices of people groups who differ from them (for example, if neurotypicals never hear about the lived experiences of neurodivergent folx, if able-bodied people never see folx in wheelchairs, using assistive devices, etc, if white ppl never hear the experiences of people of color, etc) it’s easy to forget that those people groups exist, or take into account their differing experiences and needs, and especially their suffering. Content that is accessible to those with the most hurdles benefits *everyone.*

Disabled folx may be stuck at home for a variety of reasons. Often, online access may be the only access a person has. So let’s make it accessible to everyone. (And if my content or comments are ever inaccessible to you, please message me and I will make every effort to rectify the situation!)

If you see content online, ask yourself:

1. Who can and cannot access this content?

2. If someone can’t access the content, what does that mean for them? For the community as a whole?

3. Whose voices aren’t being heard bc of this inaccessibility?

Image descriptions:

All images have a cream colored square on top of a blue background. The bottom left of the slides have a watercolor paint splash and the blog name “the scrappy raccoon.”

Image 1: title slide with the words “Ableism in Accessibility”

Image 2: slide title is “Ableism”; below is the definition of the word of ableism (written in the caption above)

Image 3: screenshot of my original comment on the post in question which says “idk if anyone has mentioned this but it’s rally [sic] difficult for some of us with visual issues to read captions set over a short, quickly moving video. I would love to read the caption but it’s not accessible to me” followed my a sad emoji face.

Image 4: A screenshot of two of the creator’s responses which read “In fact, I’ve been disabled myself. Much worse than you currently” And “I don’t make content for people to stay sick. This is not a ‘chronic illness warrior’ page. I make content for people who want to heal and are doing so.”

Image 5: A screenshot of one of the creator’s responses to me which reads “As you don’t *have* to watch this one (if it’s a ‘hassle’ to click on it to read the caption- which I don’t see how it is). At the end of the day, this is my page too and I make decisions as to what type of content to make. Which (as it is now) will benefit the most people in fact and more will see it, as explained. But if I wanted to make content for the whole world and not want insta to promote it, I would make it so that it’s suitable precisely for that funding and only those people. Which would be fine too.

Image 6: A screenshot of the rest of the creators content which reads “because it’s my page. Clicking on a video to read is hardly not accessible. And again, even if it was…then that’s the kind of content *I* chose to have on my page. Have a great day!”

Image 7: Quote slide says “Inaccessibility isn’t a “hassle.” It is discrimination. And to refer to it as such is demeaning to those with accessibility needs.

Image 8: Slide title says “Questions to ask about online content:” The numbered list reads:

1. Who can and cannot access this content?

2. If someone can’t access the content, what does that mean for them? For the community as a whole?

3. Whose voices aren’t being heard bc of this inaccessibility?

Image 9: Quote on slide reads, “Making content and spaces accessible for those with the most hurdles to accessibility benefits everyone.”

[ava-of-shenanigans]

What are your thoughts on the new Renfield x Dracula rendition 2023? I for one was so enthralled that I want to start reading the book. I have Dracula on my shelf, is that all there is to it?

I have not seen Renfield 2023 so I don’t think I’m really qualified to give an opinion on it. From what I have seen/heard of it though, it seems like their Renfield is a lot more based on Renfield from the 1931 movie, where he was played by Dwight Frye than he is on original book Renfield. The most obvious and superficial difference would probably be that 2023 Renfield is a pretty young man, like Dwight Frye Renfield, while OG book Renfield is 59 year old man. Renfield having a lot more of an obvious relationship with Dracula and acting directly as an assistant to him is also something that I think comes more from the 1931 movie. Renfield is the best character in the original book (fight me /light-hearted) but doesn’t show up a lot of in it, so if you’re reading it just for the relationship between him and Dracula you’ll probably get pretty bored. Renfield in the original book is also a character who has a lot of things that are hinted at or implied about him, but most of them are never really explained. That does make him a very fun character to speculate on or make headcanons about, but since the book has several parts where the characters will just take a moment to sit down and straight up explain what all the vampire lore that’s been implied so far is, it does feel like a cop out that none of the things that were hinted about Renfield are ever addressed afterwards.

Also, since Renfield 2023 is a horror comedy about a guy overcoming his abuser, I should probably bring this up about the original book if you want to read it, but it’s kind of a hard thing for me to know how to explain, so sorry if anything I say is unclear: Uh, basically, by writing a mentally ill character who he did not see any need to treat with respect and viewed as subhuman, deeply bigoted author Bram Stoker managed to stumble ass backwards into writing the most realistic and honest portrayal of psychiatric abuse that I’ll probably ever be able to find in any piece of media ever?

In the original book, Renfield basically has psychosis (delusions/hallucinations) and is being held in an asylum and abused by a doctor who is one of the most central main characters characters of the novel. Bram Stoker didn’t feel any obligation to make Renfield appealing or relatable to the contemporary ableist Victorian audience, and in most of his scenes it feels like we’re intended to him find his mental illness either creepy or funny. Sometimes it also feels like we’re supposed to find him pitiable, but it’s mainly either creepy or funny. However, Bram Stoker, seemingly by complete accident, managed to make Renfield behave in ways that are very realistic to how someone going through that abuse would actually act. It’s hard to really explain, it feels like Stoker was envisioning Renfield as this ableist caricature of mental illness, but then didn’t think through the implications of a lot of the stuff he wrote, and unintentionally made him complex and incredibly realistic. Reading about OG book Renfield switching between doing things that are really gross or embarrassing because he’s in a state where he has very little grasp on reality or control over himself, to trying to maintain his dignity in his more lucid states only for his abuser to force him back into humiliating himself, to doing gross, humiliating, or bad things intentionally because it’s the only way to feel like he has any power in or any way to potentially escape a situation where someone who sees him as subhuman has complete control over him, and the way his story ends is… the most raw and painfully honest depiction of what it feels like to be in that situation that I will probably ever be able to find anywhere. And it was made by an author who was definitely not aware that he was doing that, in a story that doesn’t even really acknowledge it.

Also, in my opinion, Renfield has a lot of moments that are actually funny and not just in a “mocking someone for displaying mental illness” way. 95% of the characters in Dracula are restrained, polite Victorians who never complain about anything ever and refuse to communicate properly because of it. But Renfield is just so blunt, and rude, and openly sarcastic whenever he has the chance to be, and the people he is talking to always deserve it, which is amazing.

So, yeah, OG book Renfield is one of my favourite characters of all time, he’s the best character in the original book , he manages to be both very fun and iconic while also being deeply tragic at the same time, which is great, but if what I’ve incoherently rambled about in this post doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, the 1931 movie is probably a better bet for you.

[fierceawakening]

@bibliodiscotheque

Pulling this out of your post because I think it’s true.

“My serious suspicion is that the people espousing “it’s always a choice to harm people” are far enough down the leftist pipeline that they can comprehend that people with intellectual disability and mental illness are overrepresented in incarceration statistics, and that incarceration is bad. But their issue isn’t entirely with incarceration as a concept, but with the fact that perceived “good people” are being undeservedly incarcerated. And there isn’t a way to neatly fit “there are good people who, no matter how much you love them and support them and inform them ‘your behavior harms people,’ WILL NEVER be able to actually comprehend what you’re saying, or alter their behavior accordingly” into their politics. So their response to this is “How dare you claim they aren’t able! That’s ableist! ALL intellectually disabled and mentally ill people CAN just choose not to harm people! And if they don’t choose not to harm people, they’re BAD PEOPLE!” 

Definitely seems to me that there are people you can inform but who won’t hear you. Like… if I thought my mom was treating me poorly on purpose it would be easier to take. I could completely write her off. I could tell myself she’s choosing to be mean and just be done with the whole thing. Who wants to be friends with a bully?

The reason I struggle to do that is she honestly doesn’t seem to me like she’s intentionally running roughshod over other people’s feelings (most often mine, but I think she does it to at least some others too), but rather that she’s in a weirdly intense amount of psychic pain and has serious trouble seeing outside it. She doesn’t respond rationally to compromise because, it seems like, all she can see is “but that will still hurt,” rather than “life hurts, it just does, that’s a given, now let’s distribute the weight.”

So for me, “she’s in pain but she needs to be willing to try meds and therapy” isn’t ableist. It’s me calling it like I see it. I don’t think anything will EVER improve until something enables her to see past the fog of her pain.

I’m not saying this to be vicious or to set up a hierarchy with neurotypicals at the top. In saying this because I’ve been alive for 44 years, and by now I can probably accurately distinguish a pattern.

Hell many of y’all thought you could from like ten posts!

[ablednt]

what do u mean by not everyone in a system has a disociative disorder?/gen

Okay so there's two different interpretations here.

If you happen to belong to the side of the community that things to be a system you need trauma (which I Very Much do not belong to, as it ignores system history entirely)

There's the fact that healthy multiplicity exists and not everyone in therapy chooses final fusion. However eventually if therapy works how its supposed to they'll heal from their trauma and stop dissociating and not experience distress. By this definition they no longer fit the diagnosis criteria for any dissociative disorders.

The Rings system talks about this on their Twitter and says they look forward to the day they can put nondisordered system in their bio. Reducing systems to their diagnoses is not only inaccurate due to cases like this but is also very ableist and limiting.

As for what I believe is the correct interpretation though, there's a lot of different ways to be a system in the first place and having a disorder is only one experience.

Some people may have been born plural without ever having experienced trauma before hand. Some people become plural intentionally or to cope well into adulthood. (We've willed headmates into existence quite a bit and can attest to its accuracy)

Some people develop alters and headmates due to other disorders such as schizophrenia, maladaptive daydreaming disorder, autism, BPD, etc.

There's a number of cultures that have always celebrated and experienced plurality in its many forms and this is even documented in the dsm5 and excluded from the dx criteria. (I.e "if its part of their culture and not causing them distress and dissociation then it's not a dissociative disorder")

There's systems who have trauma that caused their system but who never dissociated.

Tl:dr - There's as many ways to be plural as there is plural brains in this world. No one's brain is the same as another body's so why would there only be one way to be multiple?

[nitroish]

here to scream into ur ask box because i must dump my incredibly self indulgent hcs somewhere. anyway four is a system [similar to did/osdd-1] and legend experiences psychosis and they're peak solidarity. legends not sure if it's caused directly by koholint [i imagine that, with how big a part of the world magic is, there'd be categories for conditions caused by magic factors, mental or physical] or if it was something that was always sorta developing and his brain just decided to latch onto that experience because hey, why the fuck not throw in some flashbacks along with the delusions + hallucinations?? that sounds fun /s! four's...pretty sure it was the sword. what else would it be? people aren't just...yknow, multiple people, right? so it just has to be the sword magic and that's why they're the way they are. yeah. totally. of course. they're just gonna ignore the fact that they really don't feel like anything changed about them and it feels like splitting less broke them apart and more just let them see each other for who they really were and have been all this time. [also note, they can't use the sword at will, there's magical sword bs about it needing to be a genuine important situation in order to "call on its strength" or some shit, and unfortunately it does not count "i want to hug my headmates" as an important situation]

legend was the first out of the group to find out about yknow, four being four. they were really hesitant to tell any of the others [each of them to different extents and for different reasons], mainly because they've had...experiences with people who were not-too-accepting of them, including straight up being told that they belong in an insane asylum [which is a thing you should never tell someone ever]. they chose to tell legend after he'd mentioned and talked about some things [less personal ones because he is not great about personal vulnerability], just sort of mentioning concepts and correcting anyone who made ableist comments [intentionally or not]. he even mentioned that one of his friends is part of a system, which is mainly what made them go "okay yeah, he seems cool and apparently knows terms that seem applicable to us" and eventually led to them telling him [it was vio who did so, as he's the best when it comes to explaining and communicating things. the others are good too, don't get him wrong, but red gets nervous easily, blue is too impulsive, and green is both of those, so he felt the most fitting]. legend was [unsurprisingly] very cool and accepting about the whole thing, promising to not tell the others until the four of them were ready and asking about how he should refer to them. and hylia, the weight that was lifted from their shoulders knowing that there was someone who they could genuinely be themselves around was unlike any relief any of them had felt before.

the group generally saw four as quiet, reserved, but definitely wise and kind. a mysterious teen with a generally calm and collected demeanor. but it became clear how much of a lie that was once they were able to actually express themselves. the amount of chaos that was hidden under the need to seem like a singlet was honestly impressive. they'd often find excuses to hang out alone, and the way he could see the ruse physically drop was...both nice and sad. he was glad they felt comfortable around him, and he was glad to be able to know the real them, as individuals, but at the same time it broke his heart because there was a reason the act was there in the first place, and he hated that they felt the need for that. they eventually mention the way people had acted towards them and legend begins planning a murder.

[maybe im projecting my experiences as part of a system onto four and then making legend (a comfort character who i look up to) be very supportive and proud of them while doing his best to offer comfort because he's dealt with very difficult and stigmatized issues too. what of it.] [also this mostly talked about four but i have thoughts on legend (and even more on four i have a lot of thoughts) also but for now im tired hh]

ANON YOU JUST SENT ME AN ESSAY LENGTH ASK ABOUT FOUR BEING A SYSTEM AND GOOD BYE ITS SO GOOD?? ANON DO TELL MORE??? I ADORE THAT SHIT. god. thats so fucking good. holy shit. i love four so much ESP four as a system. i fucking love all of this and you deserve the best anon, project all u damn want thats EXACTLY what i do with legend most of the time SJGHDF

i hope you rested or are resting well anon <3 i fucking was GIDDY reading this last night but was also very tired and didnt know how to respond cos it was so long but genuinely all of this is really fucking good

[cc-tinslebee]

Hey, Happy Autism Acceptance Month! What a wonderful month to be reminded that we should listen to autistic voices, not support Autism Speaks, and reject old-fashion terminology!

Anyway, I figured that now is as important time as ever to discuss something that’s been on my mind for quite some time, and is something that means a lot to me currently. And that’s this line right here (gif by, I believe, @coldasyou):

“Could.” That in particular has stuck with me ever since I actually understood that Eli Moskowitz is autistic. Why is it “I could be on the spectrum” and not “I am?”

Obviously it’s prevalent enough that Eli knows off the top of his head that he could be autistic. And we know that despite clearly masking as “Hawk,” he still displays autistic traits. (Which, oddly enough, kudos to Jacob Bertand for the acting? His problematic history is definitely something that shouldn’t be swept under the rug, don’t get me wrong. But I’m honestly surprised that for someone who’s allegedly used the R slur, he’s playing an autistic character not stereotypically…? And his performance is good enough that people can and have analysed the mannerisms of Eli Moskowitz as real autistic traits…?)

On top of this overarching question, a few more arise. What doctor hypothesised that he could be autistic? How long has he known? Obviously I have no way of answering these questions, but they still seem like important ones to consider.

Back to the main focus of this post, I think it’s safe to say that Eli never officially got diagnosed as autistic.

As Demetri said when they were introduced, Eli is “a man of few words.” Now granted my experiences aren’t universal, but as someone who relatively does the same thing, usually when I talk to people I don’t know well, I articulate my next words carefully. Eli intentionally says that he could be on the spectrum. Now, maybe Eli says this to try to prevent this 80s macho man from being ableist to him, but I doubt that admitting to being undoubtedly autistic would change Johnny and the other students’ reactions.

Also, the healthcare in the States? To be blunt: it fucking sucks. Obviously AFAB people have a much harder time getting correctly diagnosed because mental healthcare is based on a male lense. But also? It’s expensive as hell, especially an autism diagnosis and especially if you have an insurance that doesn’t cover things across the board. Now, granted, Eli’s family could be well off, we don’t really know for sure. We know he somehow got a motorcycle, was able to get his hair professionally dyed and cut on multiple occasions, and has a tattoo guy. That stuff must cost a small fortune, so it’s not unrealistic to assume his family is well off.

I don’t know honestly. The “could” just resonates with me. Eli’s, like, sixteen, right? At least in season three? It just kills me to think that there’s a realistic chance that he’s gone sixteen years without a diagnosis, without resources. Eli’s mom seems nice and all, but she kind of reminds me of my own, in the respect that she doesn’t understand neurodivergent experiences because of her age.

It’s probably safe to say that Demetri knows about Eli being autistic. I mean, Demetri’s far from a sensitive person, so I think it’s safe to say that Eli probably consulted him, and Demetri did his research in order to be a better friend to Eli (rather than adapting over time). But even then, Demetri’s only one person. Apart from their almost year-long fight, we don’t know how long they’ve been together and how much of that time either of them knew.

Is most of this projection? Yeah, probably. I’m currently in the position where I think I might be autistic after so many years of thinking the opposite. And it really sucks and takes a toll on you when you can’t get an official diagnosis. So I am genuinely sorry if this is all incoherent ramblings.

[akari-hope]

I’m autistic, & I saw a post from another autistic person earlier, talking abt HP, that said, “hyperfixations aren’t fucking random. If you find yourself continually drawn to racist shit, you srsly need to sit & examine why that is. Stop using your disability to justify your being drawn to racist shit.” hyperfixations can definitely be random tho? And acting like we can choose what we hyperfixate on is ableist? also, not defending hp at all, but acting like ppl were drawn to it BECAUSE of its

2/2 racist elements seems both in bad faith and intentionally dismissive of the larger themes. (Still not advocating for supporting it though.) And I’ve never seen anyone use their autism to justify racism, that would be insane.

hyperfixations can often follow a pattern in the sense of "i like x genre so i'm more likely to latch onto things of that genre" but...the idea that we have control over the particular thing we hyperfixate on is just false. something can be seemingly perfect for you but not something you hyperfixate on, and something can come out of nowhere and become a hyperfixation. for example, i love fantasy as a genre, so a lot of my hyperfixations ARE fantasy. but that doesn't mean i latch onto every piece of fantasy media out there. and that doesn't mean i might not latch onto something in a different genre.

not to keep saying the same thing all the time, but the concept of "everything is problematic in some way" is extremely true and important to understand. i struggle to think of an example where said problematic elements were the draw for most people. hp has many problems in its text: racism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, i could go on. but to act like any of these things were the initial draw for most people is dishonest at best. it's not like people looked at how joanne wrote lycanthropy and went "oh fuck yeah, thank god this series has a homophobic analogy". no one looked at cho chang and said "phew, i was worried no one was gonna make a racist stereotype of a character". like that's just not how people think. some people will see these things and go "hm. fucking yikes." and others will simply not notice (which we could unpack, but in short while i can't blame people for being ignorant it is still a responsibility to think critically about the media you consume).

and i'm not saying any of this to defend hp or joanne. i'm saying this to argue in good faith instead of with half-baked "gotchas". something can have issues without said issues consuming the whole of the work. bc ultimately, is hp about racism, do the racist elements take up the entirety of the books, is it in the core themes and plot points? not really. it's dishonest to say that the entire work is racist and that was the draw. we CAN say "if you continually refuse to acknowledge and unpack racist elements when you encounter them, you seriously need to sit down and examine why that is." now we've gone from an all or nothing mentality to a nuanced one.

quick aside, i have seen autistic people say racist things or not understand why something was racist out of a place of pure ignorance, but i haven't personally met any who have used being autistic as an excuse to act racist. most i've ever seen is them using it as an explanation for why they didn't initially understand, alongside a promise to do better. i'm sure the people who use it as an excuse do exist, but i haven't personally known any.

[sixties-doctor-who-stan]

Tomb of the Cybermen is Trash

So a story I’m NOT a fan of is Tomb of the Cybermen. Like… why is this considered at all good? I know it’s reputation isn’t as high as it was before it was actually found, but it’s still considered pretty good.

Like, I get it. It’s Troughton’s first surviving story, and I even made my partner watch it on the basis of ‘it’s a surviving Troughton story!’ which I did NOT do for Talons of Weng Chiang* since Tom Baker has plenty of surviving stories (all of them).

*Which I will not be writing a blog about, because that would mean I would have to watch it again.

Before I trash this story though, here’s the good parts:

The first scene is a nice quick introduction to the show, a good thing to do after five years since many of the children watching by that point would have likely been too young in 1963. Plus Jamie and Victoria’s faces when the Doctor tells them how old he is are really funny.

The Doctor and Jamie have some really funny moments! The three that stood out the most were the hand holding part, the ‘complete metal breakdown’ part and the ‘remind me to give you lessons in tying knots’ those were very funny

Honestly, this episode has one of my favourite scenes from Doctor Who ever. (Which was literally added last minute because the episode was under running, which says it all really). The lovely conversation between the Doctor and Victoria where he talks about his family. It’s so sweet and lovely and hey! It’s on YouTube! So you can just watch that and nothing else from the episode!

The bad parts:

The limited sets feel really obvious in this story. They go to and from the same three sets throughout the entire story! It gets very repetitive very fast

Hopper is really annoying, and not just his terrible accent but his rather brazen misogyny towards Victoria. Not very endearing, and he’s a good guy!

So the Cybermen emerge from their tombs, cool! Then… they go back into their tombs to ‘recharge’. There sure is a lot of padding for a four parter isn’t there?

Also, the Doctor is literally responsible for almost all the deaths in this story. The only reason that the tomb is opened and subsequently the power is restored is because of the Doctor. Klieg wouldn’t have worked it out on his own! And the Doctor knew that Klieg was up to no good! He could have just waited for them all to leave and then opened up the tomb. This would be an interesting point to consider, but it’s never dwelled up at all!

The Cybermen are pretty dull here, but they’re pretty dull in all of the stories they’re in (except for the Tenth Planet) so whatever.

Now for the ugly (i.e. the racism):

The ‘bad people’ are the two vaguely not white and clearly foreign characters and the mostly mute big black man. Ugh…

So Klieg is a brilliant logician but not as good as the Doctor! (A common thing in Doctor Who, but seems more iffy when you consider the other racism in the story). And he’s the one who is most convinced that he can ally with the Cybermen, getting people killed. Oh that bad foreigner!

Not sure why, but Kaftan came across as rather creepy/sinister. Particularly towards the pretty young white girl Victoria. She does drug Victoria at one point!

The person who played Klieg was Cyprian and seemed to have had quite dark skin but I think Kaftan was in brownface, since other photos of the actress who played her show that her skin was lighter. So… yay.

(Unfortunately, this is very common in 1960s Doctor Who)

Last, but definitely not least. Toberman.

I suppose I should give the story the teensiest bit of credit that he’s played by a black actor, and not someone in blackface?

Except no, that’s the literal bare minimum and he is written as every lazy, racist stereotype there is.

He’s very big and strong, and Troughton plays on that physicality intentionally

The Doctor plays on his pride to get him to open the doors (which, the reason he can open them is he does one at a time which doesn’t occur to the Doctor or Jamie!)

(Both Toberman and Klieg are very easily manipulated by the Doctor, moreso than the others)

‘Oh but the reason he’s mostly mute is because he was originally deaf’, that just makes him a racist and ableist character!

The Doctor has to verbally tell the black man about his humanity

He is cyber converted, so great. The black man is literally dehumanised, I sure hope this never happens again(!)

He is completely loyal and deferential to his non-black mistress, which… yeah…

He dies saving everyone else, in a pretty horrid way. He’s electrocuted!

When he dies, everyone is pretty indifferent about it.

No, this sort of stuff was not ‘acceptable for the time’. Racism has and will never be acceptable. End of.

So yeah, basically these are my issues with the worst Troughton story (yes, I dislike it far more than the Krotons or the Dominators).

[seraphic-sapphic-safehaven]

Alright, everyone.

So I've been thinking about this for a few hours now... Unfortunately, I am gonna have to take a break. After I last replied to the person who was repeatedly harassing me today, I didn't get the chance to block them immediately because I wasn't near my laptop at the time and wasn't able to block them through messages because of their DM settings. So... they chose to continue to harass me via DMs this time and then blocked me. That said, I want to mention that I just read their bio and saw they're 16, so please do not go harass them. Don't harass people in general, but really don't harass minors.

And then unblocked me a few seconds after to message me again. So I asked them to stop and blocked them.

And then a minute later, they messaged me from another blog, which I blocked out because I don't know if it's their main/private blog and don't wanna give it away (I didn't block out the first URL because.. well, you already know it from their replies to my post earlier). And seconds after messaging me, they blocked me again.

And then they vagued me on their blog. They called me stupid earlier, which I said was ableist, but they're still defending that it's not. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read/heard, loads of people consider it to be ableist, and it's pretty easy to understand why they do. And then they claimed that I'm ableist because I "intentionally" made them have a panic attack?? Which... no??? Hell no. Why would I ever? That's honestly such a horrible thing to say about someone... I have panic attacks, quite often. I know how bad they are; it feels like you're dying, going numb/tingly, going crazy, suffocating/choking, having a heart attack, and/or a bunch of other awful, uncomfortable shit. I would never in my life intentionally make someone go into a panic attack, like...??? I don't understand this either because they gave no indication earlier that I was making them anxious or anything. All they said before my final reply was, "I don’t want to argue with you any longer." Like, I'm really sorry that they had a panic attack because I know they're horrible! But I won't let myself get blamed for that and definitely won't accept being told I did it on purpose, especially when they never told me to stop nor told me I was making them anxious.

So yeah... I'm done for right now. This exhausted me after an already exhausting day. And while I understand that this person is upset and probably has other stuff going on, there was no excuse for this. No matter how old you are, no matter what you have going on in your life, no matter how depressed or anxious you are, etc., there's no reason to lash out this way nor to continue to harass anyone this way. Please, y'all, do not be like this. It's harmful, both physically and mentally, to everyone involved.

Anyway, I'm sorry for taking a break. I think it'll be a week at the least. And as I've said before, just because I'm not posting doesn't mean you can't send me asks or DMs. If you need someone to talk to, want to vent, need advice, have questions abour anything, or need help in another way, don't hesitate to message me! I'm always here to help. I love you all! See you later 💕

~ Remi

[secretlyatargaryen]

@leavingwestcovina it really convinces me that you are asking me for an explanation in good faith when you block me, but here’s my reply anyway.

Girl, you do know that idiot is an ableist slur or is your defense of ableism selective? 👀

“No YOU” is not a great argument, and policing people’s words in order to do a “gotcha” is itself pretty fucking ableist. We’re talking about a word that has a specific connotation for this specific character, and there is a difference.

I’ve already admitted that fans have used ableist slurs against Tyrion before, but this is not the context. If you want to argue that intentionality is irrelevant, please be my guest, but if you’re arguing that they’re intentionally calling him a monster because of their ableism, your projecting meaning simply to be argumentative.

Yes, I am saying that the context is irrelevent. I already told you not to use that word and the context NOW is that you are continuing to spout this bullshit at me, which DOES speak to bad intention.

Be more specific…do not use it in reference to marginalized groups. Many people on the show are called monsters all of the time. Would people calling Cersei be an example of sexism, now??? You may have a point, but you’re poorly explaining it.

I don’t actually owe you an explanation. But since you seem to truly not understand, no, calling Cersei a monster is not sexist. Using the word “monster” about Tyrion is ableist because it is a word that has specifically been used to demonize him because of his disability and justify abusing him. Calling Cersei “cunt” or “bitch” is sexist because it’s a word that links her sex with her morality or worth as a person. Calling Tyrion “monster” when it is a word that has been used to dehumanize him from birth is ableist, regardless of whether you are trying to criticize Tyrion’s actions or morality.

I’ve seen you purposely misunderstand the point with three different people, which includes myself. I literally said that I do not care that Tyrion killed his father, my original point, which is also in the post, is that Dany gets judged for being unflinching as her abuser is killed, yet Tyrion receives no blowback nor is he called a bad person. It’s about the hypocrisy between Dany and Tyrion when it comes to morality and isn’t centered around his height. You’re making it about height doesn’t mean it is about that. Who said “poor Tywin???” If Dany not reacting to her abuser brothers death is a seed that shows her madness, then what does Tyrion killing his abusive father and taunting him say?

You’re making a point that doesn’t need to be made and preaching to the choir, in order to defend other people’s ableism. Have I ever, EVER said that Dany was wrong for killing her abuser? I’ve made quite the opposite argument, actually, many times. This is a point that does not need to be made, and it definitely doesn’t need to be thrown at me to defend other people’s ableism.

Tyrion DOES receive blowback and is called a bad person for killing Tywin. Just in the past few days he has received a lot of it, but I’ve been in this fandom for years and he’s ALWAYS gotten that shit, just like Dany has. Just because YOU haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

I’ve also talked quite a bit about how I hate the “madness” narrative and what the show has done to Dany. I don’t know what you are trying to accomplish here by trying to argue at me that I should be blaming Tyrion instead, other than spreading around more victim blaming, ableist, nasty bullshit. If you see a pile of shit, do you think “oh, I think I will roll in this so that everyone I meet can experience this pile of shit!” What’s the point here? This makes YOU look hypocritical because right now, in this thread, I am not the one being a hypocrite. YOU ARE.

And just because YOU don’t think it’s about his height doesn’t mean that it isn’t. That is what you are failing to understand, and what I have tried to explain to you. For Tyrion, everything is about his height because that is his reality, and because other people have made it about his height. You do not get to decide what is and isn’t “about that” and that is a highly offensive thing to say, to any marginalized person. For me, personally, this discussion is about my disability because that is my lived reality. You do not get to tell me that it’s not. You do not get to tell me that I’m making it up or overreacting, things that many, MANY bigots say when trying to invalidate sexism, racism, or any ism.

Perhaps you need to stop speaking with your inability to see beyond your own poor points. I made a contrast between Dany and Tyrion to highlight the hypocrisy between two ABUSE victims and how the fans and series paints their reactions to their abusers deaths. You’re adding a lot of meaning where there is none to make a shitty argument. My argument isn’t that Tyrion is wrong for killing his abuser or taunting him, it’s: if Dany is “mad” for not giving a shit that her abuser died, then so is Tyrion. If Tyrion is seen as right for what he did, then so is Dany. You cannot condemn one and validate the other.

When did I condemn Dany? I made the original post saying how stupid it was that Tyrion tried to argue that her killing slaves was a condemnation. Y’all reacted by trying to condemn Tyrion. “You cannot condemn one and then validate the other.” You’re right, and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. You should take your own advice.

I personally haven’t called him a monster

But you defended people who did. You hopped on this post to tell me that I was actually making up ableism.

but in the many points I’ve listed, I’ve mentioned the other shit he did that has nothing to do with advice. Are you overlooking him killing Shae, which is an act of misogyny and he killed a sex worker as well. Yikes. You think that’s justifiable? What about him using wildfire? What about him finding out about Jon’s true parentage and telling Varys, which he should’ve known better than to do? What about him using his power to free Jaime? What about because of him telling Varys Jon’s true parentage, it mostly resulted in Rhaegal and Missandei getting killed? His bad advice led to not only terrible loses for Dany, it undermined her position. Then, to make matters worse, he paints everything Dany did in the worst light and convinced her lover to kill her. The problem for you isn’t that Tyrion is being called to task for his own shitty behavior, the problem is is that you don’t want anyone to. I do believe you feel passionately about the monster word, but you conveniently ignore everything else to push the idea that hies only getting criticized for being short. It’s a bad faith argument.

I didn’t excuse anything he did that he should be blamed for. I didn’t address them because that literally does not matter in this argument. Calling him a monster would still be disgusting and ableist regardless of what Tyrion did wrong. Because you’re specifically using a word that is not about his morality, it’s about his dwarfism. The word does not exist in a vacuum and you cannot divorce it from how it is used to justify dehumanizing and abusing him by characters in the story. You just can’t, and that would be true regardless of what he does.

I told people not to use that word and you came at me telling me I was making up ableism. THAT is a bad faith argument. Your trying to accuse me of “hypocrisy” and blame Tyrion for trying to save innocents is a bad faith argument. I literally never blamed Dany for anything. The show wrote her as becoming an evil tyrant in the last minute and that was stupid and shitty and offensive, but now YOU are trying to flip the narrative to blame a character who did something entirely heroic and THAT is a bad faith argument. And then you tried really hard to tell me that it’s unfair of me to tell you not to call a disabled character a monster and that I’m making up ableism, which makes your argument seem EXTREMELY in bad faith.

Criticize the narrative all you want, but don’t tell me that Tyrion is to blame for “bad advice” or for trying to save innocents and DEFINITELY do not tell me that I’m making up ableism or that I’m not allowed to be angry about people using ableist slurs and that ableism doesn’t exist because you haven’t seen it.

[pride-vns-blog]

LGBTQ VN Week: Day One! (6/18)

Welcome to the first day of my LGBTQ visual novel recommendation week, in honor of Pride Month 2018! Every day from today (June 18th) to Sunday (June 24th), I’ll be talking about four visual novels with LGBTQ themes, characters, and/or creators that have stood out to me and explaining a little bit about why I like them! I also reached out to a handful of those VNs’ developers and talked with them about their work, so you’ll be seeing a casual interview tagged onto the end of every post, too. ✨

To kick things off today, I’m highlighting four visual novels that are practically bursting at the seams with personality, all in their own ways — Saturn’s WORST DATING SIM, Obscurasoft’s Coming Out On Top, Brianna Lei’s Butterfly Soup, and Madeleine’s Inverness Nights! 

Hit the jump to read about watching Animal Planet with punks, beta-testing hookup apps, Mario fire alarms, and why it is that so many visual novels seem to use character archetypes.

One note before we get started! This list isn't meant to be reflective of "the objectively best LGBTQ visual novels" or anything like that, which I want to be ultra-clear about upfront. It's not a list of all the ones I've ever played, either. There are plenty of visual novels with LGBTQ characters/themes that have been recommended to me frequently — while I was working on this list and over the past couple years — that didn't make it onto this list because I couldn't afford to buy them, or because they just weren't for me when I did buy them, or because of a million other reasons.

To give an example of this in action: I barely have any originally-Japanese language visual novels on here, because the number of M/M ones that get translated is already so low and already nearly 100% commercial, and I'm way more inclined to pay for M/M than anything else. (Reason: I'm gay and I like looking at hot guys.) For the purposes of this list specifically, I've also cut out a fair few BL-marketed VNs — from both Western and Eastern developers — that skirt around the issue of whether or not the protagonist is gay/bi/etc awkwardly.

I also tried to limit myself to one VN per team, picking the ones I thought were best representative of their output and leaving space to mention other works of theirs that I'd liked, with the aim of keeping this list from being totally dominated by studios who'd put out a lot over a long period of time. And then personal taste for other genre and content details comes into play, so it cuts out even more from what's left! In the originally-Japanese BL category alone, that left me with a single nominee, which was... Well, you'll see!

Basically, I went over a lot of different options to settle onto a list that's ultimately only supposed to be things that I, personally, would recommend! And I don't want to recommend things I didn't enjoy, one way or another. Nobody wants to sit through multiple paragraphs of a slog where I'm trying to talk about a game I didn't actually like (or, in plenty of cases, a game I couldn't afford) without acknowledging that I didn't like it. To be totally honest, that sounds like it would suck to try and write.

So if your favorite LGBTQ visual novels aren't on here, but you want to give people an excuse to play them, I'd love to read anyone else's personal recommendation lists! I'm not a journalist or a reviewer and this isn't anything close to a formalized games review blog that I'm planning to update ever again; I'm just a VN dev who felt like sitting down and making a list of other LGBTQ VNs I liked one day, so I went and I did it. And I felt like giving those other devs a platform if I was going to talk about their work, so I took my own Patreon earnings to pay for as many as I could, then I went and did some interviews, too.

Thanks for sitting through (or skimming, as the case may be) that wall of text! Without further ado, let's talk WORST DATING SIM!

WORST DATING SIM (SATURN)

Itchio Tagline: “MRGRGR.” Genre(s): Slice of life, shitpost. Release Date: January 22nd, 2018. Content Warnings: Brief depiction of blood; violence.

Out of all the visual novels I’ll be covering over the next week, WORST DATING SIM is the only one I haven’t seen nearly all the content for, and not for a lack of trying! Saturn’s debut visual novel, a challenging conversational simulator where a punk named Etsuji decides to follow you home and hang out with you purely because he can, features a grand total of 69 ways you can get a GAME OVER. By and large, these endings come at the hands of your newfound friend (?), who’s got a temper and a sensitive streak a mile wide. If Etsuji doesn’t like what you’re saying, he’ll knock your lights out, and you’ll get booted back to the title screen.

The way WORST DATING SIM doubles down on this challenge is by intentionally removing Ren’Py’s default save feature — if you piss Etsuji off, you’re back at square one, period. You have to either somehow retain the information yourself or turn to someone else’s successful run for help, because it’s deliberately designed to be done in a single playthrough without reloading. Even a fair few jokes in the script, like “I’m sure in several alternate universes he’s punched my lights out, but so far I’m safe,” are dropped in to acknowledge the fact that beating WORST DATING SIM is more akin to powering through a run of Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. (But don’t worry, the Skip Text function is still there to help you out!)

As someone who does turn to guides frequently to find out what I’m missing on my third or fourth playthroughs of visual novels, I assumed from the start that at some point that I’d want to find a walkthrough in order to see any real endings. But the sheer charm of Etsuji’s responses and, to be completely frank, how much fun I was having just trying to scale Etsuji’s emotional mountain meant that I never really hit that point while playing. WORST DATING SIM’s distinct personality struck exactly the right chord in my brain that made me want to keep playing by myself, tunneling away at it persistently, and it made the ending(s!) feel all that much more rewarding.

WORST DATING SIM is available now for free on Itchio, and you can follow Saturn on his Itch.io or Twitter (NSFW) for updates on more potential WDS content or his other upcoming visual novels.

COMING OUT ON TOP (OBSCURASOFT)

Itchio Tagline: “The erotic comedy gay dating game that'll make [you] laugh, cry, and get a little boned up! Hot dudes included.” Genre(s): Comedy, romance. Release Date: December 10th, 2014. Content Warnings: Nudity; mentions of homophobia; sexual content; seriously there’s a lot of sex in this.

If you’ve played M/M dating sims in the English language sphere any time in the last five years, you’ve probably heard of Obscurasoft’s Coming Out On Top — drawing more from the Western tradition of porn by and for gay men than anything else, it tells the story of newly-out college senior Mark Matthews and his run-ins with hot guy after hot guy (after hot guy, after... you get the picture). With the help of his roommate Penny, he also takes on the hookup app scene and delves into a sea of bonus dates funded by Kickstarter backers, which were released steadily from January 2015 to December 2016.

Coming Out On Top’s steady stream of humor never goes so far as to be totally derailing from its focus on sexuality and Mark’s genuinely sincere approach to relationships, casual or otherwise; Obscurasoft manages to infuse the numerous sex scenes with enough awkwardness, humor, and personality that actually playing through them back-to-back feels less like a string of pinups and more like scenes Mark is actively involved in or growing from. As a character, especially one whose archetype has gotten a lot of mileage in gay porn since the dawn of mankind, it’d be narratively easy to let Mark remain a generally undefined slate for players to project themselves onto.

And while there is a degree of personalization, especially when it comes to how blatantly horned-up some of the dialogue is compared to other options the player can choose, Coming Out On Top is still very distinctly Mark’s story. His specific insecurities from years of being closeted don’t vanish as soon as he comes out, and hookups don’t always work out for him the way they might in ten minute long “first time” AVs. His grades still matter, and his friends still exist, and he’s still got his own sense of priorities the player can disregard (at their own fish-related peril) or see through on the slow climb to the end of his senior year.

Coming Out On Top is available now for $14.99 on Itch.io, and Obscurasoft’s website; to get early updates about what they’re working on next, you can follow their News & Updates blog or their Twitter.

BUTTERFLY SOUP (BRIANNA LEI)

Itchio Tagline: “Gay girls playing baseball and falling in love.” Genre(s): Comedy, slice of life. Release Date: September 16th, 2017. Content Warnings: Parental abuse; violence; racist language; homophobic language; ableist abuse and slurs.

The strength of Butterfly Soup’s personality, from beginning to end, is founded in its four point-of-view characters — kindhearted Diya, reckless Min, sharp Noelle, and carefree (?) Akarsha. As a group of ninth grade friends with different priorities and different reasons for joining their shared baseball team, which are as obvious as the hugely-varied color schemes of each girl’s clothes, they play off of one another easily. Lei uses her fair share of actual memes, but never ones that feel like the speaking character — usually Akarsha — wouldn’t say them, which holds true to the rest of Lei’s dialogue writing. It feels distinctly ninth grade without ever being mocking or trivializing the way everything is so extremely important all the time when you’re a ninth grader.

Part of that strength definitely comes from Lei’s willingness to lean on each character’s archetype and unpack it at the same time; Diya’s physical strength and sheer skill, combined with her reluctance to talk to strangers, could have easily seen her shoehorned into a much more detached character than she’s written as. Instead, she’s thoughtful, expressive, and deeply concerned with the people she cares about, even if she can’t always necessarily communicate that to them very well through her ever-present anxiety. Exactly how their own differences manifest and each of the three other girls’ reasons for being that way are slightly trending into spoiler territory, but I think Diya’s fellow main characters also each have their own similarly-smart tweaks on familiar archetypes that make their joke-filled banter all that much more personalized and memorable.

Although there’s a lot to love about the positive, hilarious moments in the protagonists’ everyday lives, one of the things that I think worked just as well narratively were the scenes that required all those content warnings up there. They're very much going to be a YMMV situation for different players, especially with my own caveat that my relationship to dysfunctional families is coming from white Irish ex-Catholicism rather than those two specific Asian cultures’ values — trying not to give any spoilers about which characters I’m referring to, here! — but in-text, they’re never situations without any future, because we can see that future where the group has each other, and they always have room in the moment to be angry, or upset, or hurt without the narrative itself punishing them for failing to be perfect. Instead, they get to play baseball and fall in love and set off fire alarms, and they do pretty okay.

Butterfly Soup is available now for free, and you can follow Brianna Lei on Itch.io, Twitter, or Tumblr to learn more about her upcoming work.

INVERNESS NIGHTS (MADELEINE)

Itchio Tagline: “Every relationship ends.” Genre(s): Historical fantasy, drama. Release Date: June 30th, 2017. Content Warnings: See Itch.io page.

There are a lot of things about Inverness Nights that worked for me in a way I don’t know that they would have in another visual novel — in particular, Tristram’s character is difficult in ways that pretty directly pertain to some of the content warnings linked above, and I was personally interested in seeing the text unpack that bit by bit. The eventual turn the story takes further on in your playtime, to try and phrase that in a way that isn’t super spoilery, was something I personally didn’t mind taking a little longer to get to.

Curious to hear what its developer Madeleine had to say about the story, their thoughts on character design, and what they’re up to next, I reached out to them for an interview!

IVAN: Thanks for having me, Madeleine! To get this conversation started, how would you sum up Inverness Nights to everyone reading this?

MADELEINE: Inverness Nights is a game about queer isolation and the importance of queer community outside of romantic relationships. Set in 18th c Scotland you play as Tristram Rose, an immortal gay man who has just broken up with his mortal boyfriend, and decide how he’ll cope with the loss as someone unable to tell the world around him that he’s magical and queer.

Sounds spot-on! And definitely a great summary of all the things that made it super appealing — to me, at least, haha. Before anything else, I want to note that it's been just about a year since you released Inverness Nights! Congratulations! How's the experience been, and what particular highlights or lowlights over the past year stand out to you?

It was good actually releasing a game, I enjoyed that part a lot! Aside from that, I really appreciated a couple of thoughtful reviews it got where people connected with it as a game where being queer is difficult, but not bleak. I think that because AAA games love tragic gay stories indie games can sometimes feel they need to be ultra-positive to balance that in the other direction, which is cool, but as someone who likes stories that’re more in-the-middle it was a gap I wanted to fill. There was a good reaction to that, albeit a quiet reaction. It’s a very ‘first game, niche game’ complaint but the lowlight would probably be that not many people played it — however, there are a lot of understandable reasons why it worked out that way so I’m not too hurt overall.

Haha, getting something finished and released is definitely a great feeling; I'm personally really glad you stepped in to fill that niche, as someone who likes things that are honest about their characters' pain without feeling exploitative or endlessly hopeless! In the fantastic (but spoiler-filled) Medium postmortem you wrote on your process, you say that "an important part of marketing visual novels is selling your characters"; the postmortem goes into that in fairly great detail, especially as it pertains to ensemble casts, but would you care to expand upon that observation in the scope of the visual novel genre (and how you're keeping it in mind for future projects) a little bit here?

People make fun of visual novels sometimes for their reliance on archetypes — you know, look up the average dating sim and you can probably tell in an instant who the bad boy is, who the smart girl is, so on — but when you’re selling a character driven game to people, you can’t give away the cast’s backstories and quirks up front or there’s nothing to play for, so you’ve got to find some sort of shorthand to suggest what an audience wants will be there, and that usually comes back to telling them which archetypes you’ve got. When I started Inverness Nights I kind of laughed at that reliance on archetypes and tried to do something different but I learnt the hard way why it’s important. At the moment I’m finishing a game called Catacomb Prince with my didn’t-quite-finish-it-for-a-jam group Skeleteam, and when our character artist Roxy was doing the designs I gave her very broad notes on who the cast were so they’d be more archetypical. Consequently we have a very recognisable cool girl/frat boy/petite NB slate of romance options that people’ve connected with waaay more easily and way faster than anyone did with the IN cast, which I think speaks to why it’s a sound approach.

I definitely agree in the importance of finding a good balance with archetypes; I've had people who've instantly bonded when I invoked "shy genius" or "lovestruck best friend", which ironically has given me a bit more of that freedom in telling their stories more uniquely! Could you shed a little light on what Catacomb Prince is, without too many spoilers, and what your storytelling influences for a visual novel like that have been?

Catacomb Prince is a Gothic comedy; you are Prince Vitali, trashy heir to a fantasy Renaissance kingdom, and you have woken up dead five years after a raging party. Your parents still expect you to inherit the throne despite your new skeletal appearance, but your kingdom’s laws require the King to be married. Find love, find your killer — or die again trying.

It’s mostly inspired by Animamundi: Dark Alchemist, which is an old kitschy BL VN about a guy named Georik taking up alchemy to make a new body for his decapitated (still living) sister while hiding his hobby from his friends. Animamundi has some very gloomy stuff happening but it’s so over-the-top about it that it loops around to being a very funny game, and I wanted more experiences like that in the world, so here we are. There’re also some aspects of other goofy Gothic stories in there, like Hammer Horror movies and EC Comics, though the romance aspect of it means it’s not all rib-ticklers all the time. We took care to make the love interests more than just fodder for jokes and/or horror. They’re complete, kissable people, with flesh and everything.

I am not doing a good job of easing up on the skeleton jokes but please believe me on that last point.

Glad to hear the love interests have skin! Not super fussed about that, personally, but I'm sure some players would have logistical concerns about things like skeleton-on-skeleton kissing. (I'd like to go on the record and say I'm pro-skeleton and extremely pro-skeleton puns, so I'm waiting with bated breath to get to play as your not-breathing protagonist.) Other than what we'll be seeing in Catacomb Prince, what kind of genres and themes are you interested in exploring more of in the future?

After Catacomb Prince I’m going to work on finishing an IF game I started last year called Captain Dracula, about being the last survivor on a submarine after your Captain reveals he’s Dracula. That’s also a comedy. I spent three years making Inverness Nights so taking a breather to make funny games for a while seemed like a good plan, and I’m really into classic horror, so I’ve gravitated in that direction with it. I’ve also got a regular no-pictures no-choices fantasy novel I’m several drafts through at the moment which I’ll hopefully be releasing later this year. Once those’re off my plate, I’m keen to try making either an 80 Days-style narrative travel game or a Clock Tower-style point-and-click horror for a change of pace. I want to do something that’s more about exploring a place; I do academic stuff as well as indie development and all my academic work has been on how we explore places in games, so it feels weird that I haven’t made anything that utilises my research.

It sounds like you've got a lot coming up! I'm looking forward to seeing how you can combine your academic studies with your fiction work, which already have such strong settings of place from the get-go. And last but not least, what LGBTQ visual novels from other developers would you like to recommend?

It's IF rather than a VN but I love Heart of the House by Nissa Campbell, which is a Gothic game about an exorcist trying to remove an evil presence from a Victorian manor house, and maybe also wooing some of its residents. It’s very atmospheric and you can be NB, two things I like a lot. With caveats I’m also really keen on Animamundi (like I mentioned earlier — fun, funny MLM but warning for violent horror elements and sexual abuse), and The House in Fata Morgana (a dark romance about a trans man trying to rescue his girlfriend from a cursed manor, there’s an extensive content warning list on its website). Lastly, on the lighter side, Butterfly Soup and The Duenkhy are both good VNs about queer people making friends :) probably play them when you need to smile after all the grimmer suggestions I’ve made.

Awesome — and thanks again for your time, Madeleine! It was a pleasure.

Inverness Nights is available now for $12 USD, and you can follow Madeleine on Twitter or Itch.io to keep up with all the skeleton romances and Dracula adventures they're setting their sights on next!

Thanks to everyone who read this far! Keep an eye on the Twitter thread or this blog for tomorrow’s post, where I’ll be talking about four more visual novels that I think do some crafty things with their creative design!

[singtheskyandfightlikehell]

hi, saw this post (/post/180449156038/that-anon-you-reblogged-didnt-seem-to-imply) late so feel free to ignore this if you don't want to bring it up again on your blog but as an autistic person, calling ed weak and in need of help and protection is literally just as ableist and offensive as when it's done to oswald. not trying to start an argument, just suggesting you maybe try to reword some things next time you talk about this topic?? when people infantilize ed it makes me feel weak and dumb.

I am going to answer this because it’s something that deserves to be talked about. I try my best as a person and as a writer, but I’m not infallible either. It’s very possible that sometimes I go too far with how I portray my characters. That being said, here’s my stance on this issue:

I am also autistic, and as someone who is not male nor a minor (bc I know a lot of autism research has been focused specifically on boys) and who only really learned about autism as more than just a word starting last year, I’m still very much figuring out who I am in this context. I was always just “weird” or “different” or “quiet” and now it’s like the whole world looks different because suddenly things make so much more sense, but at the same time it’s like I have to rediscover everything because of how many assumptions I made based around “just being weird”. And that also means I project a lot onto characters, because it’s a lot easier to make sense of a world that you have complete control over, like a fictional one.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts on this subject, I am fairly weak, physically. So perhaps a part of me does amplify that trait in Ed because it’s familiar to me. However, it’s very possible that I have worded some of this poorly. I am always trying to improve myself, but I can’t guarantee I’ll always get it right. I also didn’t intend to imply he was weak in anything other than sheer physical strength. In mental abilities, force of will, and as I mentioned, pain tolerance, Ed is an incredibly strong character.

There’s also another factor, which I suppose I probably could have mentioned. I do headcanon Ed as autistic, but he also definitely has some other things going on. I wouldn’t classify autism as a mental illness/disorder (I’m actually sort of writing a paper about this for my final paper in a class), but he does have some form of mental illness in terms of his split personality thing. Perhaps I do baby Ed, and I suppose I never really talk about why, so it could easily be assumed that it’s because of the autistic traits. To me, the reason I like to write about Ed being helped is this:

Oswald is a sympathetic villain. He is clearly a villain, and his actions and decisions are fully his own, but at the same time there’s something undeniably likeable about him. People want to root for him, even if he is intentionally ruthless.

Ed, on the other hand, is a tragic villain. What I mean by that is he falls under the category of villain who “didn’t have to”. If only something had gone differently. If only someone had noticed his pain earlier. If only he’d had a friend. No matter what, Oswald probably would have still been the person he is. Ed, on the other hand, didn’t have to become a villain. Had Essen or Lee or Jim or someone noticed what he was going through in season one, gotten him a good therapist, and made an effort to be kind to him, there is absolutely no reason why he ever would have turned to crime. I definitely have something of a soft spot for this sort of villain, and I probably do baby them a lot, because they are usually in a lot of emotional pain (and sometimes physical as well) and I just wish someone would have done something for them.

Tl;dr (bc I’m a terribly wordy person): I’m sorry if any of my portrayals have come across as offensive, but tbh they’re often just me projecting myself onto characters. I do believe Ed is physically weak, but not so in other areas. However, I might exaggerate this in my portrayals of him bc of the projecting. Also, I probably do baby Ed, but the reason I do is that he’s the sort of character who - in other circumstances - wouldn’t have become a villain, while Oswald’s villain traits are a core part of his personality.

[kitsunebellproductions]

Thoughts on Voltron Season 7

SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY! Things that annoyed/angered/saddened/frustrated me: *Kuron still being treated as though he was nothing more than some evil monster and convenient spare parts for Shiro. I am still nauseated by the whole thing. This poor precious baby boy deserved so much better. *Shiro’s hair -I mean come on, his fringe was pure white before but now it’s grey? What, did the whole process leach colour from the rest of his hair yet restore some to his fringe?! I will just assume it’s meant to be white but they felt this particular shade of white/grey worked best aesthetically with his outfits etc. *Too little Shiro for too many episodes. *Too much Keef. (Sorry, fandom has completely ruined this character for me, he’s not a bad character but I am repulsed by his mere name thanks to the toxicity in this fandom. I wish I could go back to the beginning of watching Voltron when he was just another decent character that I felt neither yay nor nay about, but it is what it is.) *That weird game show -if it was some magical space mage mumbo jumbo thingy that just transported their consciousness, why wasn’t Shiro there? And the whole ‘comedy family’ shtick with the Galra... I mean, it was a bit funny but... mostly weird tbh. The funniest parts were the commercials. *Way too little background/interaction with Shiro and Adam. *Also Adam’s design -like, why do you make an entirely new character that looks a lot like a mix of two other characters who are father and son (Matt and Sam)? You could have done literally anything to his design but you went safe and way too familiar? I mean holy moly did you see Kinkade? Fuck yeah what a gorgeous design, that is exactly what my hopeful heart pictured for Shiro’s boyfriend but nope. Give us generic floppy-hair glasses boy with a generic medium brown palette, it’s so fresh and new and interesting. Not. *Adam FUCKING DYING before Shiro even got back to Earth. You could have at least let the poor boy have a reunion with someone waiting for him on Earth before burying some more gays, but no. He must suffer. *Shiro getting like three seconds to mourn Adam. 

*Speaking of burying your gays... (not to mention a delightful dash of the ‘evil lesbians’ trope): Ezor and Zethrid. Yayy on their relationship, nay on them being presumably killed off (I mean killing 3 out of 4 queer characters while keeping the straight characters safe is not a good way to show how queer friendly your show is. And no the ‘we had to show how dark and dangerous war is’ excuse doesn’t work when the only characters you kill are the queer ones. There were plenty of characters back on Earth we’d have felt just as deeply about -or more even- considering we’ve heard about the other paladins’ families back on Earth but we’d never heard of Adam until now. Just imagine if Veronica had died -that would have been intensely emotional and really had gone to show all that you wanted about the dangers of war -especially as I don’t doubt for a second that Lance would have gotten an entire episode at least to mourn her while Shiro got like three seconds. Because Shiro is apparently not allowed to mourn). *And isn’t it funny how the most alien-looking Galra women are the evil ones, while the ‘good’ ones look more or less like lavender-skinned human women (and are also very pretty, petite and with slender, ‘sexy’ bodies.) Like, seriously... *Not to mention how creepy it is that Keef’s Galra mom and the other ‘good’ Galra woman (Acxa, who for whatever reason the show tried to force some out-of-the-blue yucky heteromance together with Keef) look disturbingly much alike (and they look to be the same age too more or less. So sick and tired of the ‘hot young-looking mom’ trope in media but especially animated shows. And especially when the kids end up banging girls looking to be more or less the same age as their mom). *Shiro not reacting when Ezor and Zethrid went for Pidge -he’s consistently been shown to be very protective and self-sacrificing, yet here he barely bats an eye. I get it was a scene framed to lift Lance, but it felt extremely ooc for Shiro to not at least try to help. *Ezor and Zethrid’s relationship being honestly way more explicitly stated than Shiro and Adam’s (which was the relationship hailed as the big lgbtq+ rep for this season). No, they definitely didn’t need to get back together for Shiro to still be considered lgbtq+ rep -you don’t need a partner to be lgbtq+! But when you wave a specific relationship around as a big banner of glorious lgbtq+ rep to come and then barely even hint at it in the show... well... not so much of a rep then, is it? *Not showing Shiro in that worldwide message of ‘these are our beloved brave heroes from Earth’. Like, this boy was kidnapped by aliens, spent a year being tortured, brainwashed, cloned, dismembered, pretty much violated in every concievable way, then immediately after escaping (with a shitload of PTSD in the baggage) he was sent back out into space and chosen to lead some war against seemingly impossible odds, a war that really wasn’t his war to fight, a war he still fought bravely and selflessly despite his physical and mental issues, a war he died in, but meh I guess he wasn’t worthy of mention. (And I don’t know why Keef wasn’t mentioned either, but maybe being half Galra makes you too much alien to be considered part of the world you were born and grew up in *heavy sarcasm*). *Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion and his role as the Black Paladin being pretty much erased/retconned -it’s like Keef gets to sit his ass comfortably down in the seat Shiro shed blood sweat and tears for and struggled so hard for, easily just gliding along on what Shiro has paved the road for but without acknowledging the huge role Shiro had in it all. Shiro was the one who brought out the wings for Keef in the end of the last season because Keef was unable to do it himself, because Keef had never bonded with her the way Shiro did -Shiro and the Black Lion found and saved each other in so many ways, and the Black Lion loved Shiro so much she saved his ‘essence’ inside herself, yet now we’re supposed to just accept that Shiro is old news and no longer worthy of being considered part of the ‘mighty Paladins of Voltron’. Myeah, did not like the feeling I got of this saturating this entire season. Keef can still be a big hero -or even your new main character- without grinding Shiro down into the dirt on the way. *That arm... it’s so big and clumsy-looking it makes him look weirdly lopsided. The comically large arm works for Sendak, considering his ‘evil sadist who loves crushing people with his alien prosthetic’ shtick, but for Shiro it just looks too big to be practical. If it was intentionally meant to imply that Allura just grabbed a prosthetic modelled after someone bigger than Shiro and remade it, and that’s why it’s so big on Shiro, that’s fine. But it feels impractical for anything other than fighting evil alien generals. *Shiro not getting to fulfil his arc as the abused victim and underdog by overcoming and defeating the evils pushing him down, but instead being forced to take the backset to a character forced into a leadership role for what seems like nothing more than a desperate clinging to nostalgia. It is mindboggling that everything Shiro has worked so incredibly hard for, everything he’s struggled and fought for is being taken from him and he’s supposed to be satisfied with a consolation prize. Yeah, Shiro going full Magical Girl Princess was amazing but he didn’t even get to deliver the final blow in any fight -not even his personal fight with Sendak- because apparently Shiro is not allowed any victories at all. *The whole sense of Shiro being punished for choosing his life’s dream over becoming the obedient house wife of his ex -he had only a short few years left to fulfil his dreams, and yet he’s painted as the bad guy for ‘abandoning’ his boyfriend (who was the one that left Shiro, actually). Yes, Adam had the right to choose to not want to separate for so long -during what was likely the last few years Shiro had enough mobility to do all the fun things couples dream of doing together- he had the right to say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t put my life on hold, and I wasn’t really prepared to go straight to caring for someone with a debilitating disease without a few more years of fun in between, I want to break up’. That still doesn’t make Shiro’s choice to follow his dreams any less valid than Adam’s choice to not wait for him. I bet Adam had an exciting bucket list waiting to start ticking off as a consolation when Shiro was denied the role of pilot for the Kerberos mission -I doubt he’d expected Shiro to actually be allowed to go and that probably seriously stumped him- but it’s incredibly cruel and selfish (and ableist) to expect a person to sacrifice their last few years of being able to fulfil their dreams just so their able-bodied partner can fulfil their small dreams and wishes of things they want to do for the last few of that person’s fully mobile years. And yet everything about Shiro’s arc paints a very very grim and ableist story of ‘you chose your own dreams over bending to your partner’s will, now let us show you what a horrible decision that was by torturing you relentlessly throughout the rest of this series without ever letting up. You will never be allowed happiness again because this is your punishment.’ I agree with other people that the way Shiro’s been treated throughout this series -constantly tormented without ever getting a single break or getting a real chance to fight and overcome his demons- seems way too much like torture porn. *The feeling that Shiro’s Magical Girl Moment was only there to blind us to the fact that him being probably the only one able to transform the Atlas means he’ll be conveniently grounded next season, forced to stay on Earth to ‘protect his home’ while the rest of them get to go off being the ‘amazing Defenders of the Universe’, leaving both Shiro and his legacy behind, unsung. I hope I’m wrong, but I get an overwhelming feeling that Shiro is being pushed into the background because they never intended for him to be the hero of the series but by the time they realised that’s exactly what they’d created with him it was too late to take it back, so now they’re trying their hardest to push him back into some mentor/backseat role in a sneaky enough way that they hope people won’t notice because they’ll be dazzled by the shine of his ‘new role’. ... Things that made me happy/excited/pleased: *The animation level. I mean holy mamacita Shiro is so beautiful he glows in like every single frame. *HUNK. Love this big gentle boy and love that he got to show more of who he is and what he has to give this season. *Seeing the families we’ve heard so much of. Seeing them reunited. Seeing flashbacks to happier times with the families. *Pidge finally getting her entire family back together. *The designs of all the alien/Earth tech. Gorgeous. *The design of some of the new characters <3 *So many new Galra characters with faces and personalities even if we only saw them for a few seconds. *All the ‘Earth preparing for alien invasion’ scenes/episodes. *Finally getting to know more about Iverson and who he is as a person. *Sam and Colleen. *Shiro being the new Princess of the new Castle ship. *Shiro fucking transcending being the Princess and transforming the entire Castle ship Atlas into a new Voltron type battle robot. *The Atlas being this beefy paladin type knight on top but t h i c c femme legs on tippy toes/high heels on the bottom. 10/10 what a beauty. *White Lion Shiro... I mean, I’m certainly not the only one thinking it, right? *Just Shiro. Wow. What a strong, beautiful, good person who cares about everybody else above himself. Someone give this poor traumatised boy hero a fucking vacation with the softest bed surrounded by therapy animals. Perfect cinnamonroll too pure for this world. *Shiro fighting Sendak hand-to-hand on top of a fucking space ship free-falling (read: CRASHING) to Earth instead of trying to escape I mean this boy *Keef fucking anime-slicing Sendak in twaine for daring to try to hurt the person he loves like a brother (bloodless and nice for the young’uns of course, but still). *Hunk carrying Shiro. *@ anyone claiming Lance ‘never gets screentime or development’ -fuck you. Look at this brave, strong boy who started out as a self-centered antagonistic jerk yet has grown into such a good and mature person. I may loathe the Lance I see portrayed in the fandom, but in the show he’s still such a good character. *Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man <3 *The mice and Kosmo the space wolf for MVP *Kaltenecker, most chill character in the entire universe. *Shiro’s prosthetic not being attached -at first I was like ‘noooo’, but then I realised... fuck yeah this is exactly what people in fandom need to stop erasing disabled characters. It is way too common for people in fandoms to claim that a person having any kind of high-tech or magical prosthetic that makes their disability less visible (For example Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist) isn’t actually disabled at all ‘because it’s like they have normal limbs’. Having a prosthetic arm that has a big void between itself and the shoulder attachment makes it impossible to ignore the fact that Shiro is missing a whole arm. (And maybe, just maybe, people will finally stop with the shitty ‘he’s got a full sleeve of tattoos instead of a missing arm in this AU fanfic because erasing disabilities is super cool’ trope.) *The entire Shiro/Atlas transformation scene -ugh so beautiful <3 ... Phew, that got long! (=A=;;) I’ve probably forgotten a lot of things -but it’s been a few days since I watched it so it isn’t as fresh in my mind as I’d have liked, however I don’t have the time to rewatch it right now to refresh my memory so it’ll have to do. These are just my personal thoughts -things I found negative might be things someone else found positive, and things I found positive might be things someone else found negative. This isn’t meant to be a debate or attack -just a way for me to put my thoughts down and remember them for the future. And one last thing -please remember to be kind to each other -and don’t go attacking cast or crew -most of them have no real say in what happens on the show anyway, and harrassing and threatening castmembers to the point where they’re scared to even show up at cons is not the way to make the higher-ups listen to your complaints -however legitimate they might be. Now I guess we’ll just have to brace ourselves for season 8...

[auresalia]

You know what’s fun? Getting slandered. (Part 1)

I like sticking up for the people who I call my friends, and when I see people straight up LYING about who they are and what they do I don’t stand for it. So gather ‘round everyone, because we’re going to go literally STATEMENT BY STATEMENT so you can tell who these people are.

The start of it all was this post here:

Like I said, I’m going statement by statement and we’re going to address it all individually.

>condoned pedophilic ships

This discord server have never once condoned pedophilic ships. In fact, the only time they’re brought up is so we talk about how creepy it is people make it. In fact, if Laiphya (people who shit talk others don’t deserve anonymity) actually read the conversation, they would have seen that the only reason we were talking about said ship was due to the fact that the poster was using OTHER PEOPLE’S OCs to make incest/pedophilic content and that IS NOT OKAY. We literally brought it up so we could bring it to the person who made the OC in the first place.

>I’m pretty sure the owner is a TERF.

We’ve banned TERFs long before this person even made it to the server, specifically because of their behavior, so I fail to see the logic in this claim. But I’ll give them a pass for not knowing since they weren’t there at the time.

>[talk about leaving, makes a PSA to avoid the server] Strange. You write like you’re implying that’s why you left, but the reason you left was because you were blocked from the NSFW channel because you revealed you were underage. And to be quite frank, the server grew tired of your grandstanding, which is something I’ll cover in detail because having someone claim to speak on my behalf pisses me off, and you did it quite a bit.

A recap of Laiphya and their behavior on the discord server.

Things seemed to go well for the most part, however Laiphya (or as they were known on the server, Zuko) was known to cause arguments.

• While talking about translating works, one of the server members asked me if the term “yaoi” was offensive. They asked me specifically because I do translations in my spare time and have a few friends who live in Tokyo with whom I talk regularly. Laiphya proceeded to claim that it was as bad as racial slurs and homophobic by nature. Unfortunately I was not awake to comment at the time, but other users noted that it doesn’t seem to carry the same severity as racial slurs, and said that “I don‘t see it ever used in a similar context that someone would say the word [n-word].” Laiphya began saying that this was an egregious use of the word, and that only PoC are allowed to use the word as a reclamation effort. Irony strikes as said user pointed out that they were, in fact, a PoC. As the argument began to look heated, the mods step in and enforce one of the server’s rules “Conversations that begin to turn hostile are immediately shut down to avoid bullying and harassment.”

• A second argument breaks out within the next few days, as I and another translator begin expressing our disdain for people using rare translations to enforce headcannons. The example I brought up was a tumblr user (whom I don’t remember and name isn’t really relevant because they didn’t shit talk my friends) who used the section of the manga where All Might says “[referring to Sir Nighteye] We went separate ways” and instead claimed that, by using a really uncommon translation, he was actually saying “We broke up” and that All Might and Sir Nighteye being a pair was confirmed by Horikoshi. Laiphya agrees with us, then segues into showing us that by using a century and a half old definition on Kirishima’s profile and says that it is proof that Horikoshi envisions Kiri to be gay. Both of us point out that we just said that it was ridiculous to assume that, given that Japanese is a very contextual language and there is no context for us to assume that we should be using a term that has fallen out of the modern Japanese lexicon. We ended up butting heads for some time, bringing up that Hori has been very clear so far as to who is and isn’t LGBT in the manga and that this feels like someone trying to enforce their headcannons on others. It turns into a fully fledged argument, and once again, the mods step in to diffuse the situation. Laiphya claims that this is suppression of expressing LGBT conversations, and that the mods who are trying to stop the argument are just “treating gay people like abominations,” despite the fact that both the mod who called the argument over and I are both gay. In fact, every time someone said the phrase “this conversation is turning ugly,” which was clearly referencing the tone of the argument, Laiphya would intentionally misconstrue it as saying “LGBT people are ugly” despite the fact that the people saying it were part of the community that this user was trying to ‘defend.’

• A third argument breaks out the following day, albeit a much shorter one. Someone in the server brings up a list of sexual minorities and explains them, and as the topic of asexuality comes up I point out that many asexual people don’t like to be considered as having a sexuality for the same reason many atheists don’t like to be considered as having a religion. Laiphya tells me that no asexual people would claim as such, and “as a member of the LGBT+ community they know this as fact.” I quickly point out that I have been a member of the community for over a decade and that many of the asexual people I met have expressed frustration over what I am talking about. I proceed to say that you cannot use your position as an LGBT+ member as an excuse to make blanket statements because LGBT+ as a whole is a wide diaspora of different people with different opinions. Just like before, the mods step in and say that if we can’t keep the conversation civil, it will end. Laiphya once again claims that their efforts to defend others are being suppressed, and begins fighting with the mods. The mods are not about to break their own rules and as such begin deleting Laiphya’s protests. The mods repeatedly told Laiphya that if there was a problem that they should DM them so they can discuss it, however Laiphya insisted on trying to stage a public argument despite the fact that I and those participating had long since stopped trying to comment on the matter.

Now, the final event itself was their exit from the server. You see, our policy on NSFW content was clear and concise. We banned NSFW content from anywhere but the channel “NSFW_discussion” which was clearly marked as a mature channel, and we trusted that minors on the channel would be responsible enough to stay out, considering that there’s no way to accurately determine the age of the user. If they admitted they were under 18 years old, they would be given a role that would prevent them from viewing the channel until they were of age, no exceptions. Because of their protests as they left, the policy was immediately changed to one where all users by default are unable to view mature content until they confirm with the mods that they are 18 years or older.  A second user (whom we will speak about in part two because they decided to join in) was prohibited from viewing the mature channel because they admitted that they were underage. They proceeded to call all of us homophobic and transphobic (we will get to this in part two) and accused us of promoting pedophilia despite the fact that we have only brought it up in a negative light and specifically because they were using other people’s creations. After some time, Laiphya left us this lovely message:

It’s nice to know that someone who is concerned with the feelings of others and would defend oppressed minorities would use the arguably sexist insult “insensitive bitch,” then use ableist speech to insult someone. Now, I’m done picking on poor old Laiphya all by themselves, because it seems more people are jumping on the bandwagon of someone who literally tries to shut people who are part of the communities they believe they are defending down. 

I’m going to start writing down Part 2. In the meantime, @laiphya, if you have any problem with what I said, feel free to reblog this post and make your remarks.