#i don't think i could possibly despise another human as strongly as i despise him

[khezuonhead]

stewing in the absolute and pure loathing i feel for my brother atm

[g0ldgauntlet]

I do not feel sympathy for Michaela Laws.

This is sort of a vent post (and likely the only post I'll ever make about Yansim since anything else I could say has probably been said by several other people), so feel free to scroll past this if you're not interested.

If you are, then proceed below. (Tw for grooming)

A few days ago, Michaela Laws resigned from her role as Ayano Aishi from Yandere Simulator after learning that its developer had groomed a minor. I want to first make clear that I am glad that she left, and she did the right thing by leaving. However, all I could keep thinking was one thing: Why did it take her this long?

So many people already knew about how horrible Alex Mahan (aka Yandere Dev) was. Surely someone must have told her-

Oh wait.

I found out that multiple people did, in fact, tell her about his past actions. Her response was to defend him, and then she doubled down on defending him when she was informed of the more current actions that Alex had committed at the time.

If you don't believe that's her, the post is still up on Tumblr via this reblog and here. Michaela knew about all of this as far back as 2017.

I find it most interesting that in these screenshots and posts, she referred to everyone who despised Alex as "anti-dev masses," and she ignored the things he said and did because she is, in her words, "an intellectual who can separate fiction from reality."

She even claimed that the people telling her that he treats women differently (which he does) are "sexist," even when said people told her that he very well could have hurt other people even if he was nice to just her.

The cherry on top of this is her unironic usage of the term "SJW," which tells me everything that I need to know about this. And you know what? Her saying in her resignation tweet that she still hopes that the game gets completed makes perfect sense to me now despite how out of place it feels compared to everything else. If she believes in separating fiction from reality, then she likely believed that she could still separate content from the creator.

In Alex's case, I strongly disagree with that notion, but what feels more contradictory is this other statement in the tweet:

I did not join to be a defender or arbiter of anyone's actions outside of the project.

However...That is literally what Michaela did. As I said, she defended Alex because of the "rumors" being spread about him.

She doesn't get to cry on Twitter about things turning out like this when she willingly claimed that Alex was only getting so much bad attention because "people don't like him."

She was the one who said "don't believe everything you hear." It was her who downplayed Alex's actions as "mistakes" or "accidents," and she claimed that he is "just a guy trying to make a game and be a game developer."

She doesn't get to backtrack now and pretend that she didn't knowingly defend Alex and stick by him for six more years after the making of that Tumblr post.

It took her six years and another minor after sisefs getting hurt for her to acknowledge what most people who knew about Yandere Simulator already knew about this man - That he is a terrible human being.

To be clear, I am not putting any blame on Michaela for what happened to the victims. I do not believe that she could have known about the current victim, or even the past one at the time of when the information came to light. Also, I do appreciate her giving support to all of the victims involved and correcting her previous statement since some (myself included) thought that she was perpetuating victim-blaming. However, that is as much benefit of the doubt that I could possibly give her. As for everything else? I cannot do that, and here's why:

It is my belief that she was well aware of what she was doing, and she either didn't see anything wrong with what Alex did or just didn't care until she finally realized how badly this all reflects on her now that Alex has been shown up-front once again to be an awful person (I also believe that this is connected to the backtracking in her resignation tweet as well).

Basically, my frustration comes from how far things had to get before she finally decided to denounce Alex and his actions.

She made her choice. Given that she previously claimed that she does not care about trying to look better and said that she would delete attempts to "sway" her about Alex, it seems clear that this was also the hill that she was willing to die on. Well, look where that got her. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how she didn't expect that a terrible person with a rightfully terrible reputation would end up doing something even more terrible, and that she was willing to ignore everything up until now. I don't understand how she didn't think that this would also negatively affect the game by association of the developer, but at this point, whatever happens to the game doesn't matter nearly as much as what Alex has done and likely will continue to do since it's been proven time and time again that he will never change as a person.

So no, I don't feel sympathy for Michaela Laws. I don't feel bad about her saying that she stuck with this game for almost ten years despite sticking up for Alex and sticking by him for six of those years. She did this to herself, and Yandere Simulator is probably something that she will be connected to for a long time since she is well-known as the voice of the game's main character. She could have left sooner, but chose not to and made it clear that she didn't want to until the truth had to be shoved right in front of her face.

So for that, Michaela only has herself to blame.

Edit:

I would like to add this Twitter thread that proves the point I was making here.

Michaela, three years after the Tumblr post I linked, straight up admits that she doesn't care about what Alex does, and she accuses a victim of Cryaotic (another groomer) of lying.

Even if Michaela apologized for the latter bit, it just goes to show that she was more than willing to ignore what people told her about Alex and still stand by him and the game.

This whole thing is a recurring trend with her. Had Alex not been exposed again, she probably would still be defending him even now.

She isn't sorry about being a part of the project at all.

And if she isn't sorry, then I don't feel sorry for her either.

[cptnjeanlucpicard]

Another message from Admiral J

Captain Picard,

I come bearing good news. The first good news is that the Ferengi no longer sells merchandise with your image on it. Apparently he got a short but strongly worded message from an anonymous source that caused him to reevaluate his business idea. When asked to elaborate the Fengi only replied with a smile and said, I quote, 'How does a famous human saying go? Possession makes ninth tenth of the law for a reason. And I was selling stuff about someone now very much taken.' You can imagine all of our confusion since you have yet to report any changed personal details. Well, peope who knew you more closely were not confused considering you are a rather private man. Still, if the 'anonymous source' is who I think it is than a short notice to Command migh, just might, have been appropriate.

What did end up causing confusion and surprise even to those in Starfleet headquarters who contact you more regularly was that your file got updated in regards to your marital status. Without any personal request or filled paperwork from your side. Now, you know that secret marriages and weddings are generally forbidden. Especially if said secret marriage is between a higher ranked member of Starfleet and a member of a species that is neither classified as hostile nor friendly.

Now, the second good news: At first there were discussions about a possible disciplinary action, but then I together with some of the other Admirals came to the conclusion that this was probably just a misunderstanding. No one likes to fill out the long, complicated and to be quite frank boring paper work that comes with marrying a member from a non-human species. Believe me, I spent an entire week just to fill out my paperwork after I married due to my partner being Klingon. And since your partner has the ability to just ... change around private files and our entire data base as they please (by the way, could you please tell your Q not do this) they must have simply done this as a way to spare you from paperwork that they know you don't like.

So, in the name of Command, Starfleet and the Federation as a whole I am honored to congratulate you on your marriage. You will find the usual wedding gifts materialize on your ship in a couple of days.

Personally, I was glad to read that you took my advice in being friendlier towards an entity I had previously thought of as rather dangerous and that it resulted in such a nice happy ending for you two.

Wishing you a long and happy marriage

Admiral J

*Picard nearly hits his head on the table several times out of frustration as he reads the message. He already despises the idea of people prying into his personal life, but Starfleet Command?? It's mortifying.*

*Despite this, Picard tries to type out a message that is as cordial as he can muster. If he is to deliver the illusion of a happy marriage, he must get into the role.*

Admiral J,

Good to hear from you again. I am glad to hear the ferengi is no longer selling merchandise of my face, although I will have to speak to Q over his methods of putting an end to such endeavours.

On the subject of Q meddling with the files--I will be sure to inform him that he is not to do something like that again. He is unfamiliar with the concept of marriage entirely, and I will try my best to ensure nothing of this sort happens again.

*Here, Picard is very tempted to put something along the lines of "and please just stop talking about my personal life forever, thanks" but he refrains.*

Don't hesitate to contact me again if you wish to talk.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard

*He supposes this is as good a message as any and sends it. Admiral J is nice enough, even if they do not understand the situation at all.*