#i dont think this is an anti post i am far from being an anti towards zutara

[seasideoranges]

Your honest thoughts on Zutara for the ship asks?

OH!!

well before I begin here's a really cool relaxing video I very much enjoy

anyways

i apologize in advance if my thoughts on the ship seem very much all over the place lol.

on one hand, i understand the appeal! i have some friends/moots that share beautiful zutara fanart/fics that i very much enjoy! it's a ship that i very much understand it's significance and impact it's had on not just this fandom, but throughout other online spaces and just shipping as a whole.

on the other hand, while i understand the appeal, it kind of shocks me how ride and die people are with the ship, specifically with how massive the ship war is, and the nasty behavior that comes with it.

it's important to note that when the show first began airing, i was only 3, and i was around 7 or 8 when the show ended. i didnt really get into it because of how young i was, besides watching snippets of s2 and 3 on nick and random amvs i stumbled upon as a kid haha.

i had my first real watch of the show about 2 years ago, and while i wasn't extremely knowledgeable on the fandom, i did hear about the infamous shipping wars in the fandom, like whispers in the wind, and how zutara should've been endgame. going in with this knowledge, let me tell you how shocked i was with the lack of canon material in the show regarding zutara. like, i had people tell me there was a legitimate love triangle happening! people still believe that!

dont take this the wrong way! im not saying you have to have a ship be canon, or for it to have a ton of canon material in order to ship it, i love rarepairs and crackships, shipping is suppose to be fun! i know zk gets hate because it isnt a canon ship and i think that's very, very silly. this is more so a response to the "zk shouldve been end game it was robbed from us etc etc", because i'm sorry, but i didn't see this at all while watching the show. it was very clear to me what was suppose to be endgame.

i do understand that it was a different culture back when the show was airing, in the sense that there was tons of marketing material teasing zutara, thus people were upset with the writers when it didn't happen, but it makes me wonder if this is truly the fault of the atla crew, or the fault of the marketing department, and nickelodeon seeing how popular shipping was and asking it's marketing department to hone in on this to draw in numbers. most of the time the people behind a show don't get a say in how the marketing works y'know? ANYWAYS! Back to the actual ship! I don't like when people water down katara and zukos characters for the ship. I don't like the treatment aang receives from more hardcore fans, painting him to be some awful, no good, horrible partner of katara and friend of zuko. zuko and katara are ride and die for aang, if there was an aang fanclub, they're the ones who started it and they're fighting every week over who gets to be president lmao. i really dont like when this treatment gets extended to sokka and toph, treating them like bumbling idiots that katara is stuck with until zuko comes in to save the day because he's 'oh so mature, much more mature then those other 3 fools, and the only one who gets katara' which just. isn't true.

I like when people don't water their characters down and really focus on how chaotic they'd be, or the fact that they're still just teenagers! I like when people don't throw away Aang, and even in a zk universe aang is still close friends with them and their number one supporter. i like when they don't throw away kataras relationship with sokka or toph, and they're still just as important in her life.

final thoughts

it's fine! im not crazy over it but i understand the appeal. shoutout to my zutara moots, love the stuff you create, don't ever stop! besides sharing some zk art, you probably wont see zutara art coming from me, im much more focused on pushing my 'platonic shit talking wine drinking zuko and katara besties' agenda bahaha.

[grimoirguestbook]

Book of Bill Website Codes

(Organized by category with notes)

Here's my list of inputs that work on the website :)

Hopefully the read more works like I think it does and I don't accidentally spoil anybody

That being said by clicking read more you will see All of the codes I have found so far

Please be mindful and try not to spoil anybody else with this information. So please be careful if reblogging

I got everything I have collected/found on here, it's a bit messy right now but After I take a small break I'll reorganize and add notes but for now everything's on here, please so check out the posts linked in the log as once I lost all leads I looked to their post for other inputs :)

Also feel free to put any you know of that Aren't on here in the replies I'm sure there's some missing

I will be updating as I find more so check back in if you can! :)

Thank you!

They'll be categorized by

Neat Tv text- Nothing special the tv just gets some text to it

Tab pages-brings you to another tab/website

Audio/video- Audio/video clip plays

Readables- A picture will pop up on screen that you can read

Printables- You can print them :D!

Other- Hard to categorize

Note:

If an * is next to a name that means that you can get different results for the same prompt

(Any personal notes will be in parenthesis)

-> An arrow means that the Passwords are found in the previous page

ex- Page with code that translates to "dork"-> Dork

Slashes/mean/that/any/of/the/prompts/listed/will/take/you/to/the/same/page

Blue text with an underline is a link! Haha! would you look at that! it works!

Will Keep this updated as I find more and will Note the logs at the end of this post

?????

For the mason page anagrams I know WHO they are I just don't know WHAT to do with them, i know it says cryptogram codex at the bottom i think i have to do something with the anagram results but I'm unsure what that is. Stanford Pines Stanlie Pines Gideon Charles Gleeful Preston Northwest Pacifica Elisa Northwest

Notes to Dipper Prompt: (Unsure why- Maybe going to Blind eye page and blurring it but changes from dipper being told to stare at the sun to "I THINK ITS WORKING! STARE HARDER! HARDER!" and the page looking burnt I Think it has to do with how many input codes you enter, It now says "you've almost solved it" and is even more burnt than before, it is now full black)

Neat Tv text-

Pines

Blendin

*Triangle

Axolotl

Ducktective

Book of Bill

TJ Eckleburg (Great Gatsby)

Nothing

Something

*Ciphertology

Deer Teeth

Scalene

Scrimbles

No

Fortnite/skibidi/ohio/rizz/crypto/elon/gyatt/Doge

Life

Death

Portal

Question

Answer

Euclid

*Well Well Well Being

Reality

The Universe

Journal 1

Journal 2

Journal 3

Theyll see/They'll all see/I see

Filbrick

Disney/Disneyland/Mickey Mouse

CIA/FBI/NSA

333 Sundapple Lane Cozy Creek IL 60714-94611

Season 3

Season 2

Season 1

Caryn

Euclydia

Skeleton

Who are you

Burnside

Family matters

When will I die

Multilevel mark/caesaratbashvigenere

Scientology

Easter egg

Sevral times

oh yes they both

Am i Blanchin

Bye gold

Youre insane

History

Hologram

Scalene

Euclid

Titans Blood -> Owl Trowel

Text Chain (You get questions who's answer is another password)

Riddle->Yes -> Mountain Dont -> Lyre Liar -> Harolds Ramblings -> Union Made -> 29121239168518 -> Grebley Hemberdreck -> Rat -> 3466554 -> Tinsel Snake -> Torture Mentally -> Xgqrthx -> 333 sundapple lane cozy creek IL 60714-94611-> MutliLevel mark->emmaline butternubbins->Dispense my treat

What i thought it was (with answer sources):

Riddle->Yes -> Mountain Dont -> Lyre Liar -> Harolds Ramblings -> Union Made -> 29121239168518 -> Grebley Hemberdreck -> Rat -> 3466554 -> Tinsel Snake -> Torture Mentally -> Xgqrthx -> Titans Blood -> Owl Trowel

Answers found in TBOB- Don't Know, NA, Mcguckets dream page, Medieval page, Anti-Cipher Section- tonic page, Anti Cipher Section- Newspaper, Top Secret page, Textbook page- Skin, Dark Ages Page, Anti Cipher Section-Epilogue, A winter break- footprints page, Book of Bill Cover options page, Never trust a wizard page, Have you dreamed this fellow ad (references informercial in show)

Tab pages-

Abuelita

Dippy Fresh

Alex Hirsch/Alex/Hirsch

*Stan/Stanley (his outfit in ebay searches plus a READABLE with SICK music mind you-Check readable section for more info)

Grunkle Stan

*Gideon (second option unlocked after fully "mableizing" the room)

Waddles

Mcgucket/ Old man McGucket/Fiddleford

Bill/Cipher/LLIB/LLIBREHPIC

Bill Cipher/Rehpic

Zyler (Goes to same place as Craz)

Craz (Goes to same place as Zyler)

Toby Determined

Gravity Falls

Mystery Shack

Not a phase

Blanchin

Peak

Cray Cray

Fixinit1

Meow

Fuck alex/Fuck you alex

Globnar

Monster

Audio/video-

Babba/Discogirl

*Gideon (unlocked after fully "mabelizing" the room)

Tad Strange

Pinata (DEFINATELY WORTH WATCHING)

Vallis Cineris (Found on wall when lightning strikes)

Hey Nerd

Weird (Love him)

Spookemups/Spooky/Scary

That's just a/Theory/Gametheory/Matpat (<3)

One Eyed King-> Naitsuaf (Morse Code) ( early years page)

Forget the past

Im still on your mind

Dorito/Nacho

Just fit in

Rubberhose

Love/Boyfriend

Hectoring

Conspiracy

God/Frillium/Help me

Burned inside

Kook

Kubrick

Small/audio log/music (nothing showed up at first, turned off tv and strange audio played, needs to be reversed)

L is real 2401 (soos my boy)

Readables-

Mason (Dippers real name)

*Dipper (personal notes in ???- keep opening the card to get different results)

Pacifica-> PlatinumPaz

Ford/Standford/Sixer

Wendy

Robbie (def worth a look IMO)

Soos-> Pinata

Cursed (Translated from candle in background)

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Blind Eye->Theyll see (Will blur if clicked on, cannot un-blur, may change dipper?)

Weirdmageddon

Lies

Sorry

Booberry (Decoded from popsicle stick)

Even his lies are lies (Front paper)

Tantrum ( code on Bills Mugshot page)

Suck it Merlin

Shave your Grandma (leads to dippy fresh page)

Baby Bill/baby/lalalalala/daddy/mommy

Owl Trowel

Hotxolotl->Seven eyes-> r34lity

Love ya bro

Fuck/Shit/Fuckyou/bitch/slut/sex

Baaaa-> Black Sheep

naitsuaf (click are you ready-> Sign "pleasure doing business with you -candle light turns blue- OR be a coward (losing sound effect plays)

oroborous-> Frillium

Glass sand beach

math/trigonometry/

horror/creepypasta

destruction is a form of creation

unreality

you can't kill an idea

virus

Occurremusiterum

*Stan (click multiple times to get-once there click "how he beat me several times)

Card

Theraprism

Dionarap->stod eht tcennoc

Printables-

Tyrone/Clone/Paperjam

Curse Wittebane (translates runes on page about witches)

Paper is just book skin ( BE WARNED: automatically downloads a photoshop file and crashses the cite)

Irregular (has code on it)

Divorce/breakup

Other-

Mabel (You get fun stickers and a popping sound :) )

*Giffany ( You put her name in multiple times and it forcibly downloads pictures of her and a text document to your computer, scared me a little Not gonna lie here)

Kings of New Jersey (downloads "secret code" font)

cryptogram codex (downloads cryptogram fonts)

dispense my treat-> Kook (downloads a bunch of cool wallpapers)

Log:

One hour after posting: Added 17 new words

Found by me: Booberry, Mountain Dont, Xgqrthx, titans blood, lyre liar, haralds ramblings, union made

Accidentally found by looking at a post: Sorry

Gifted by replier (Thank you!): MATPAT, yes, no, Fortnite, life, death, portal, question, answer

30 minutes after last update: 9 Words added

Found by me: Theraprism, 29121239168518, Grebley Hemberdreck, Rat, 3466554, Tinsel Snake, Torture Mentally, Fordtramarine, Gun (shocked that worked It was a joke- "bill cipher has A GUN")

Like THREEEEEEE ish hours later?

Found by me: one eyed king, well well well being, shave your grandma, paper is just book skin, even his lies are lies, forget the past, irregular, euclid, tantrum, suck it merlin

Like 12 hours later

Found by me: Reality, Baby Bill, Reality, The universe, Giffany (why is it two Fs, Blarg) They'll see, I'm still on your mind, Journal 1, Journal 2, Journal 3

Gifted to me by a replier (Thank you!): Owl Trowel

Idk- Later

Found by me: hotxolotl, lova ya bro, kings of new jersey, fuck, just fit in

Found on twitter(JasonRitter): Dorito, Blanchin'

Gifted to me by Replier(Thank you!): Gideon's option knowledge

Even MORE later:

Me: Seven eyes, r34ality, filbrick, disney, skibidy, rizz, ohio, love, cia, fbi, rubberhose, 333 sundapple lane cozy creek il 60714-94611, bahhhh, black sheep, naitsuaf, oroborous,theyll see, theyll all see Frillium, occuremusiterum (some of these i gave myself because i was really close but just missed a small detail/spelling)

Taken from here and Here Because I got stumped: Season 3, Season2 , Season 1, Glass shard beach, caryn, Euclydia, Peak, Theory, Cray Cray, Help me, mickey mouse, hectoring, divorce, breakup, skeleton, math, history, monster, gyatt, who are you, fixinit1, conspiracy, riddle, cryptogram codex, horror, creepypasta, trigonometry, god, boyfriend,baby, lalalalala, scary, trigonometry,just blendin, morality, burnside, family matters, when will i die, elon, multilevel mark, goodnight sally,paper jam, tourist trap,the duchess approves,shape, scientology, meow, nacho, crypto,sevral times,easter egg, oh yes they both, daddy, mommy, burned inside, destruction is a form of creation, i see, unreality, you can't kill an idea, am i blanchin, fuck alex, fuck you alex, fuck you, shit, bye gold, nsa, globnar,disneyland,kook, kuibrick,virus,that's just a, you're insane

Next day

Found online: Dionarap, stod eht tcennoc, dispense my treat

[doodle-do-wop]

Rayni (open discussion post)

as some of you may have heard/seen I am Rayni Aria's biggest goddamn hater

I can't stand her ass

I recently read/listened through Stellarlune for the first time and I hated her the moment I met her. Yes I know the ending of Legacy, I know how it all flows

But I Still can't stand her

Why? Because she is a literal blob of nothingness on the page

Spoilers for Stellarlune

Rayni Aria is a character who was once the Neverseen member Glimmer (dumbass name btw) who, allegedly was involved with none of the Neverseen's major plots so far; The Kidnapping of Sophie and Dex, their torture, jumping Sophie, Keefe, and Silveny in Exile, Mt Everest, the gnomes etc etc etc

Allegedly she's had zero part in any of that because they just stick her in a corner and even when Gisela was overthrown she still didn't do diddly squat, she just read medical books. Sure. Okay

Her life previous to joining terrorists willingly was she was just a normal girl with a normal life until people started to whisper speculations about her parents' relationship not being all of what it says on the tin. Her parents are found guilty of messing with the match system to be together and avoid a Bad Match status and are made an example of by banishment But Rayni isn't banished with them as instead her parents leave her with a note and are never heard from again Rayni drops out of Foxfire and lives in a rented room in Mysterium until Gisela finds her and tell her to quit her unemployment and join her emo band Cool, alright. Mid and extremely questionable loyalties. So you'll just go with whoever reaches out their hand first. Good to know

Beyond her frankly uninteresting backstory Rayni's personality is the exact same cookie cutter cardboard cutout mean girl leave no coughed insults unspoke persona that is so old and over used I think Shannon might've actually managed to resuscitate this dead horse. Rayni whines and bitches about how 'no one will trust her' but does absolutely nothing to win herself any favors. Instead she seems more than chipper to keep digging at her own grave so why dont we just drop this whole pointless scene and let her keep on going at it She's boring. She's bland. She's lame. And don't get me started on the weird cat lamp thing I don't know if Shannon was going for 'oh look she likes cats' or 'boo hoo she's so broken and jaded an this lamp is the one thing that lights up her dark dark soul'.

Rayni is weird, her vibes are just so off and so lack luster. Her depth is so shallow I couldn't even soak up a puddle of it with a napkin.

What's the point of bring in a bad guy now good guy/anti hero if all they do is snark in the corner, pet a cat statue, watch the protagonist do jack diddly squat and be like "oh yeah, you're a leader now" girl what??? That entire scene where Rayni unmasks herself was so boring if I cut out the only other emotion I felt while listening which was annoyance. I listened and live reacted to it on discord with some friends as my witness and what even was that scene? Tam is supposedly the one holding the talking stick in the group I guess just because he and Rayni are just such good buds so obviously he should take point (cause no one thinks he's brainwashed) and the entire time Rayni bicthes and moans about how no one trusts her (girl you're wearing a stinky, smelly, raggedy terrorist hood. You couldn't ask to trade it for a less stinky less terrorist embroidered one?) and while yeah people poke holes at her and take small jabs Rayni really seems gung ho with tossing playground responses with 14-16 year olds at her grown ass age. She's one year younger than Wyile and while young adults in their 19/20s arent mature at all it is CRAZY to me that she bitches about no one trusting her and then turns and calls Fitz Sophie's "telepath back-up" I believe the correct quote is "You're basically Sophie's telepath backup" and this is said to Fitz and that was just the most absurd thing I've ever fucking heard spoken by Gisela's fucking lapdog. Fitz is done so dirty in this book and Rayni basically calls Fitz a "backup" like he's a damn battery or some waterboy Sophie only needs to use like an object. The worst part isn't that its the bad guy's lapdog with questionable loyalties that says this. Its the fact that no one stood up for Fitz. No one said anything. And Sophie fucking laughed. She laughed at that. And Fitz is the only one to blame for their fucked up cognate bond, sure. (Biana, FITZ'S FUCKING SISTER also says and does nothing because Biana is just a little poster Shannon sticks on the wall this whole book)

And not to mention that whole bit with Rayni constantly comparing her and Stina as if they're different faces on the same coin. Like you can't sit there in your terrorist onesie and look someone in the face and be like "Yeah your life is gonna be just like mine. Just you wait. It's coming for you. And then, yeah, you'll be just like me. Huff Huff" and then get mad when she doesn't like you in the slightest. Like yeah, I just love sitting in the same room as someone who tells me my life has a timer on my happy days because we're totes twinsies. Shannon should've let Stina punch Rayni because if this snarky little bug really wanted some damn allies wouldn't she want Stina on her side? You know, the most outspoken nay sayer in all of the Lost Cities? If you're gonna bring up your little Gisela Mini-Me act get good Circus-Circus.

If I wanna like Rayni I need more depth than Miss Hardknock Life over here who gets her kicks out of throwing tantrums when people dont trust her while she wears a terrorist hood and gets her kicks out of replying to every petty response.

If I could, I'd rewrite that whole scene because I genuinely love big groups in books and it would be fun to see a diverse group personality wise instead of the same 'bad bitch' boring outline. I can't believe Rayni's 'tough' personality is a facade because she's not just tough to trust. She's tough to want in any way shape or form She's not Heather Chandler, She's not even Heather Duke, she could never even dream of being Regina Georgie. She's so 2D she flies away with a tiny sigh. The whole book could've honestly been the exact same without Rayni around. Erase her and simply have Trix reach out on his own or something and you still have the Esilyum plot intact. Rayni was just there to make a page count for nothing of any great importance.

That's just what I think of Rayni. She annoys, bores, and pisses me off. She's like the physical embodiment of an Instagram comment section. If yall want, please tell me what you think about her because I genuinely want to know what makes her even the slightest bit interesting to any of you. I like headcanons and I can be convince to take a lot of them. Will my opinion on canon Rayni change? Who knows man

[mythicalgeek]

Addressing how Persephone is sexualized in Lore Olympus.

Soooo... here's the thing, I LOVE Lore Olympus. I love the art style, the magic, how it mixes greek mythology with the modernday and it's reimagine of the character's, that it's not afraid to deel with sierous issue and I relate with Persephone on a very personal level. I found the webtoon at a time when I really needed an escape from things happing in my life and Lore Olympus was there comfort and inspire me.

I have a lot of love for this webtoon, however... there's some problems I had with how Persephone was sexualized in the first season. There were moment's where she was viewed in a fetishized male gaze that was ... not great 😖 (case and point 👇)

This portrayal unfortunately falls under the sexy baby trope and I found this very strange and out of place in a story that is suppose to a feminine retelling of greek mythology.

Now I dont mind that Persephone is sexualized since she is of age and it's a part of her character arc. Her story is about gaining agency after being sheltered her whole life and understanding her sexuality is a part of that. Her reclaiming of her trauma and sexuality is one of the reasons way a lot of people enjoy the webtoon and can relate with this verson of Persephone.

So why is she portrayed under the male gaze in a way that does not support the core of her character? It's especially worse when we are seeing Persephone through Hades eye's, witch doesn't help since the age gap is a controversial topic in the fandom and a lot people think that LO is pedophilia, and these moment's didint help the romance or Hades as a character.

And that sucks because as far a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth goes, I acually like how most of there relationship is handled and the age gap dose not bother me as mush, mostly because I think that Hades is somewhat emotional stunted do to his trauma and that him and Persephone are at the same level intellectually, and a lot of there relationship is quite healthy albeit some what codependent. It definitely is not perfect and I do wish that the romance could have been handle defiantly at times, mostly with the framing and the language that they use in some scenes.

I've seen some people compare Lore Olympus to Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray and even though there are some similarities ( both having a young woman discovering her sexuality and a immortal or rich boyfriend/ husband), but the core difference is that Hades is not abusive or possessive twords Persephone and treats her with respect.

Lucky with season 2 and 3 the gross male gaze moment's where mostly removed and we saw more of the female gaze, (not just because we got more shirtless Hades 🤭) but because of how Persephone is portrayed sexually. (case and point 👇)

Persephone isn't fetishized like she is in season 1 instead she's shown as powerful and has agentsy over her own boby, the focus is more on the intimacy, connection and longing between her and Hades and when we do see Persephone trough Hades eye's she's viewed with tenderness and seen as a beautiful desirable women and not a sexy baby. Also it should be notice that after the ten year banishment Persephone is thirty year's old when she and Hades gets married and have sex for the first time.

This some what redeemed Lore Olympus for me and even though the webtoon it far from perfect there is nothing wrong enjoying and finding value in this story as long we view it with our brain's turnd on.

Just to be clear this not a anti Lore Olympus post, I am simply addressing one of the problematic aspects of the webtoon because I feel like we should acknowledge it's flaws while enjoying the story and characters.

[atla-confessions]

"I'm an old dinosaur. When majority of fans are in this zukka-hype I will still complain about jetko. It was the main gay ship when I joined the fandom and gosh, I still think they had too little interaction, like, just two episodes; Zuko was almost indifferent and Jet tried to claim him a firebender and give him to Dai Li. Such love. Such passion. Ew."

HI, jetko defender here that unfortunately had to see this on the jetko tag. i am very passionate about this topic

1) it's literally okay not to see the vision for a ship

2) connection is about quality over quantity, just because you've known someone for years doesn't automatically make for a good relationship. and on the other side you could meet someone and only have know them for a couple of hours and it is the most electrifying connection of your life

3) their 7 minutes of screen time together has inspired countless beautifully written fics and fanart. so while you don't see the vision, there are clearly people that do

4) "Zuko was almost indifferent" the beauty of analysis is the challenge to look deeper

"and Jet tried to claim him a fire bender and give him to the Dai Li" Zuko is a firebender, and the argument of "Jet was going to do a bad thing" … dont even get me started on this… If we're going to talk about bad things and poor choices, later, Zuko is going to attempt to assassinate the only hope of the world. (and then later becomes friends with him because this is a show about forgiveness.)

The point is, when they meet, they are both two traumatized, angry teenagers that have made awful awful choices. And might I add the only two teenage boys in ATLA that would truly understand each other for being horribly hot-headed, single minded, driven people that both went WAYY too far trying to reach their goals-- as a result they've made decisions that have hurt the people they love, decisions that keep both of them up at night.

Jetko on the ferry, the famous scene, are two horribly wounded and traumatized boys trying to be friends with each other.

And Jet wanting to turn in fire benders to the Dai Li stems from his trauma that firebenders will off him on site just like they did to his family.

5) the ew comment? homophobia?

(also im pretty sure the original post was meant to be tagged as "anti jetko" instead of "jetko")

X

[mappingthesky]

Jesus Christ, I didn't realise how big the whole PJ thing is rn... I kinda avoided twitter the last couple days cause I knew people would be heated but good lord I didn't realise how big of a situation it got I don't agree with Pj and I honestly don't know much about the situation as a whole, but some people are doing FAR too much

hi all - i know i’m late, but i cannot in good conscience keep posting without addressing the controversy! i’m gonna use this ask to respond to recent events, no pressure to read if you’re overwhelmed by this drama. i don’t wanna argue with anyone either, so i would appreciate kindness <3 read on if you wish, or don’t!

here is how i feel: it was a bad, careless take and i don’t agree with what she said. while i don’t think it came from a malicious place, esp if she was reacting to the experiences of people she knows irl, the fact is that it was uninformed, had some harmful implications, and ultimately hurt the feelings of people who really love her. she initially said she was open for discourse, and im hoping she took that seriously/ that this proves to be a learning experience for her in more ways than one - so far, i dont think we’ve seen enough evidence of that. i know she’s made certain apologies, and to a degree i do appreciate her sensitivities towards her fans (bc bitch i have been Stressed about this), but it wasn’t it for me. im gonna echo the words of others on here and say it would be nice to see her take responsibility for saying a careless thing that had some harmful implications. a simple, sincere apology would go a long way. there’s going to be plenty of people who wont accept said apology, but i know i would appreciate seeing it.

we all know i love her. i love the interactions she has with the lesbian community in particular, and the jump to calling her anti lesbian, etc is, in my opinion, a pretty huge one (esp because she never mentioned lesbians directly & i think she, y’know, possesses a soul). a good chunk of the backlash feels out of proportion & has been coming from people who just don’t like her to begin with - i think the rehashing of debunked abuser claims is particularly unnecessary - that being said, there are very fair criticisms being made & people in her corner who have been let down. period. as a lesbian and a huge fan of both artists, it stung me to see how this has been handled, and i know im not the only one :( i personally would like to see her take some responsibility- just admit to saying something dumb, prove that you learned something from this, and move forward. i know she hates real moments boots, but cmon babe. it feels like the least she could do. i am disappointed that it hasn’t happened yet, a little disheartened to think that it may not happen ever, and really hoping she proves me wrong.

im hoping we land somewhere better. this has had me feeling conflicted & anxious for the past few days and i dont think im the only one. it breaks my heart to see friends/ fellow creators stepping back bc of her actions (as they should, i just hate that it came to this). im a bit confused with how to proceed, but hoping we can find a way 🤍 sending my love to anyone who has felt similarly stressed out by this, we will see this through together!!

[evilsystemm]

hey!!! first of all u seem cool 👏💪😎 and secondly i was reading ur pinned post (and obv if this is weird or makes u uncomfortable or is a stupid question pls just like. delete it and i'm sorry cause i swear i mean no harm) and i'm just wondering what u mean when u said that ur anti comshippers but respectful and sympathetic towards underage comshippers? i don't know much about comshipping bc i'm not one (so i tend to stay away from any discussion or discourse) but do underage comshippers have different beliefs/rules than over-age or smth like that? i tried looking it up but i just got smth about economics :') . pls dont take this as anything negative i'm just genuinely a lil confused if there's some rule/definition that i'm missing? anyway hope u have a nice day ☀️!

TW for any and all things that would fall under comshipping.

No worries at all, im glad you asked. As an overall statement, I am firmly against comshipping and proshipping. I think its very dangerous and that engaging in sexual/romantic ideas that are illegal and unethical bleeds into a person's psychological state and influences how they think, feel and act outside of the activity of comshipping (this is proven to be true in relation to pornography), affecting real life people. I don't consider this to include headcanons of these situations that are NOT romanticised or sexualised, because I think that can be an informative portrayal of abuse/assault etc.

The reason I mention underage comshippers is because a large portion of them do it because of something that may have happened to them (exposure to inappropriate content too early, sexual assault etc.) and it acts as a form of coping/reenactment. Not dissimilar to how children who have been abused will often act out the abuse through toys and drawings or on other children. Traumatic events like that damage the psyche majorly, and you *will* see symptoms that aren't morally correct, comshipping being one of them.

I dont think this makes it okay, and I still stay far away from comshipping at all because it's incredibly distressing for a lot of members in the system, but ultimately I think the best course of action for people under the age of 18 is understanding and support where it can be given.

Very few people who engage in this (including adults) mean harm, and I think its mostly a matter of them simply not believing or understanding how dangerous the practice can be. But I do hold more scrutiny to adults, because they are more capable of the logical reasoning to come to the conclusion that it's dangerous for them and others. Children generally aren't.

So no, underage comshippers don't have different rules, but I hold them to be more vulnerable individuals and I don't think outright criticism is an effective approach at helping them. That being said, I don't agree with comshipping in any capacity.

Thank you for taking the time to ask and clear up confusion!! and also thanks for saying I seem cool <3

[anomymoussoapbar]

I'm proship/profiction because I understand that the content somebody creates or is interested in isn't a perfect reflection of how they are irl.

I trust that other proshippers understand how to separate fiction and reality.

I'm anti-censorship; I won't make any exceptions because we've seen in history that once you start making exceptions, it can lead to queer media also being demonized and banned (the best I can think off the top of my head is the trans institute that existed in nazi Germany, which had so many amazing trans resources, getting destroyed by nazis).

I believe people should be able to use art as an outlet for anything. Not every single thing in life needs to be censored, and people do often use art to process feelings and experiences.

I'm against harassing people for their art. Not only does harassing some internet stranger sound like a waste of time, it's bullying too. I don't want to be a bully.

I believe in "don't like, don't look, don't interact" (my own variation of don't like don't read). I have tools to block people and hide content I don't want to see. I'm going to use them. I am responsible for curating my own online experience.

I've seen people online who use proshipping as a coping mechanism. I don't understand how that's possible, but that doesn't really matter so long as those people are safe. I wouldn't deny a victim their coping mechanism unless it endangered their life because that's against my beliefs and I'm not a therapist, so that wouldn't even be my place to speak. I've noticed antis don't like these kinds of victims because they don't fit into the antis' perfect boxes of how they think victims should be, so they often harass and bully and claim victims need therapy/need better therapists. I find this ridiculous because in my and many other's experiences, therapy is inherently proship/profiction and antis ignore this/claim it's not true (idk how you can do that if you're not a psychologist but they're too far gone to argue with). And they don't even offer to pay for the therapy, lol.

Thank you for making this blog and being curious, you're amazing. Sorry that this is kinda long lol

Hello!!! :*)

Thank you so so so much for your views.

I find it interesting how you listed it and specifically how you explained "don't like don't look don't interact" [I really like how you phrased it :*)] which I myself see me doing a lot.

When I read through your explanation, I began getting vaguely reminded of those internet safety PSAs they would make kids watch when you are younger, of curating your own safe environment.

How to report bullying, and to not harass others online as well being points that made me think of those internet safety PSAs LOL

Something I find myself thinking about is on how a lot of what fiction can affect reality is a concern long ago that was likely brought by concerns by parents who were against video games saying it promoted violence.

I also find the idea of fictionally dark themes interesting, as I have realized I. Do often indulge in dark medias. In an oddly comforting way.

I really don't like how people harass proshippers, or anyone in general. And from what I have been gathering, not all proshippers indulge in dark thematics. Perhaps the majority, but the proshipping idea is simply respecting even if you dont share it.

Also, when you mentioned people not being exactly how they write or the creations they make, I realized how a lot of mainstream medias follow this. The creator of most Studio ghibli movies is COMPLETELY different from the peppy and cute movies he makes and the creator of popular horror Manga Junji ito makes a lot of horror visuals and grotesque stories however is just a sweet guy in real life.

I know I bring it up a lot in my posts, but a lot of why media can be triggering for me and sickening is when I see what reminds me of my own traumatic experiences [S/A /COCSA and grooming.] And how no matter how much I filter, it will always end up appearing.

As it makes me physically sick, revolted, and sadly reminds me of what I've so deeply buried.

However, I am ONE side of the S/A survivor victim experience and spectrum. The other is people who find comfort in exploring their feelings and it helps them understand on what happened to them.

And I love art. I express myself through art. I used to draw what happened to me and draw out how I felt with characters. But it would make me feel so much worse. As I am and was at the mental point of connecting so hard to the fictional reality which I built to be so much better than I was in.

I don't really know why I'm saying all of this, I guess I just want to lead to the fact that every survivor has their way of coping, and mine isn't the same as everyone else's. And I am still learning to accept that and educate myself on it. Because I do. I really do want to understand and take away my own personal stigmas.

I have so much more I would love to add but I feel I have been rambling for too long LOL

Oh my goodness I'm so sorry for ranting but anyways, thank you so much for the ask and informing me in this much detail. You are so so loved and appreciated. 💞🌸

[gutsfics]

can you give specific examples of what happened to help people understand what happened

this is non-extensive, just the ones i think are the most egregious of what shes done and said

i'm not sure how much of this is stuff she's deleted, as these are all from screenshots i already had on hand, but i would like to say that deleting a post doesn't necessarily mean you no longer agree with what was said in it, especially if you double down on what was said when you're called out for it. which she has done Plenty of times

and for the record, this is not something i enjoy doing. part of the reason this took me a few days to post is because this is stressing me the fuck out and ive been trying to spend as little brainpower on this as possible

First point: queerphobia in the form of homophobic jokes, sharing panphobic rhetoric, and talking for transgender people on a topic she (as far as i am aware) has no

the pelicansexual "joke" was told at the expense of Ethan and Tobias during the "Ethan Bisexuality Canonity" argument she & i got into in June (which btw i would like to apologize for starting that up, i was frustrated w pb's coddling of the cishet part of the fandom & i was having difficulty phrasing it bc of how upset i was w it. i did not mean to attack the fandom specifically but intent doesn't cover for outcome)

the pelicansexual joke was a since-deleted tag on one of her posts which went something along the lines of "my Ethan and Tobias are now pelicansexuals, which means they have to break up with [her characters] as they are not pelicans". i dont have a screenshot of this unfortunately, but i do have a screenshot of her response to an anon calling her out on it.

in case you don't understand why her "joke" was homophobic, before gay marriage was legalized in the US in 2015, a common anti-homosexuality talking point was "homosexuality being legalized is a slippery slope to bestiality being legalized". while it is good she deleted her "joke", its frankly worrying to me that when called out on it she doubled down on how she was joking when she said it, instead of listening and learning. her bisexuality and queer activism do not mean that she is incapable of saying and doing homophobic things.

the panphobic rhetoric & her talking for transgender people are, if i remember correctly, both part of the same incident wherein she reblogged something panphobic and then, when called out for it, said something that something that most trans people consider transphobic isn't actually transphobic at all

screenshot 1: bisexuality and pansexuality are two very similar sexualities, with the main difference between the two coming down to personal preference for what term you feel like best. while bisexuality does mean "sexual attraction to two or more genders", some people prefer a term that focuses on the "or more" part. neither sexuality excludes transgender people. pitting queer people against each other because theyre not the "right" kind of queer does nothing but damage the queer community as a whole

screenshot 2: agreeing to delete the post, but doubling down on what she said and refusing to listen to anon simply because they're anonymous

screenshot 3: the highlighted part is what we're focusing on here. "We don't consider cis gay men who only date the same to be anti-trans". hi, I'm a trans gay man. Yes We Fucking Do. i don't understand why she thinks she has the authority to speak on this. what "we" is she referring to here?

Second point: lack of respect or understanding of boundaries in fandom spaces, including both blocks and simply not wanting to interact with someone

i'll be honest, i'm a bit unsure if the above paragraph is the right way of describing what i mean, but she has a bit of a history of being.... openly weird about people who have blocked her for "no reason", and not only that has stated she thinks that not wanting to take place in an event run by someone you are uncomfortable with is childish

i believe the first one is about my friend Jay, who has her blocked for similar reasons that i do. while it is perfectly fine for her to assume whatever she wants about the reasoning for a block, her phrasing of "all i ever did was be supportive" in a public post about it allows her to victimize herself over a boundary being placed. speaking of Jay, Elsa has, knowing full well that she's been blocked by xim on the "peonyblossom" blog- which, again, is a boundary that has been placed- decided to message xim on the choicespride blog xe runs

the second one is specifically about a tumblr user who i do not know personally and do not wish to drag them into this as they have left the open heart fandom. she was sent an anon about this user blocking her which, yeah, is really weird and suspicious. but this isn't about that, this is about her response to learning she's been blocked. she refers to herself as this users "biggest fan" and says that it "isn't normal" to block your biggest fan. once again she is victimizing herself over a boundary someone else has placed, only this time she has done it in a post talking about a person with their username in it. when you have a blog as big as hers, people are bound to go after someone in the name of defending the person they feel was slighted

& here's her essentially calling people childish bc they might not want to interact with someone who causes them harm. iirc this was either about certain event blogs in the fandom not disclosing who's running them bc they know full well that some people might not be comfortable interacting with them (hiding ur identity will not help with that) or about people choosing not to participate because they know that the person running the event is someone they don't want to interact with. this ones just bizarre to me. no one has to interact with anyone ever, and calling them childish for it is, frankly, childish

Third point: her callout post for Jeremy and her non-apology

to get it out of the way: i'm friends with Jeremy. i'll try to keep this as unbiased as possible, but i am deeply deeply upset and frustrated with everything thats happened to rain. also, just so yall know, Jeremy gave me permission to talk about this. i'm not just dredging up old drama for drama's sake here.

first- the callout post

the thing that started this was a post to the playchoicesconfessions blog where an anonymous user said- and i'm copy/pasting it here- "Ethan said he and Tobias were like brothers. Weird how many people in the fandom want to get with their brothers.’" essentially, this anonymous user accused people who ship Ethias as being into irl incest which..... we will not be getting into all the ways thats problematic here.

(as an aside, Elsa did at some point reblog and then delete this post, but her commentary was focused squarely on "ship and let ship" which is a sentiment i agree with but she completely ignored the blatant homophobia in this post. here's a version someone reblogged from her in case you're curious as to what she said)

Jeremy reblogged this confession post and added "i genuinely hope this person and others who think like this eat a fucking bullet holy shit" specifically in reference to the anon insinuating incest. in turn, anons on rain's blog assumed rai was referring to people who don't ship Ethais and sent rain nasty messages, which rai would respond to and get more anons who saw the latest response and again assume rai was talking about not shipping a ship they ship and not the actual genuine fucking homophobia from the original confession post.

one of these anons sent screenshots of rain's posts to Elsa, without the context, and told her rai was talking about her. rai was not. not until the post where rai (rightfully, ihmo) called both Elsa and another blogger (this one who also got a similar ask about being blocked by the user i mentioned earlier but who decided to put it in the open heart tags instead of keep it on their blog the way Elsa did. that's the only props i'll give to her in regards of that- yes it was shitty she posted it in the first place but at least she didn't tag it) for complaining about and villainizing someone who blocked them.

tldr version is- Jeremy was venting about anons that were being homophobic to rain, another anon sent screenshots of those posts to Elsa without the context who who rai was talking about and said they were about her, and Elsa, without bothering to verify in any way, decided the best course of action would be to publicly call rai out, painting rain as a bully who has been targeting her specifically and once again victimizing herself. on her blog with a bunch of followers. many of whom also chose not to verify, and instead just heaped more hatred onto Jeremy's blog.

this went on until September, when they talked to each other at first with a third party go-between, and eventually person-to-person. Jeremy explained the context of the vent posts, Elsa explained that she was getting the screenshots with no context from an anon and admitted she should have verified them herself instead of going full nuclear, and they both agreed to apologize publicly

all good, end of story, right?

no.

while in Jeremy's post, rai took accountability for their side of what happened in this awful game of telephone and apologized for rains part in the whole thing. if you want to read it, here is a version of it.

Elsa, on the other hand.... well she apologized, but to be honest I'm not quite sure what for.

she says there's been misunderstandings on both parts led on by one or more anonymous sources (no arguments here), says she understands that the posts that were sent to her were not actually about her (okay good) and says that its a tough world and that she's deleted her posts.

okay.... but that doesn't specify what she did at all to need the apology. which was publicly call out Jeremy on her blog with.... well, i'm not sure how many followers she has, but i do know that she's got the most well known blog in the choices fandom. by publicly calling out Jeremy in the way that she did, she (whether intentional or not) set her followers out to attack rains blog. she did not apologize for this. asking people to stop sending hate to rains blog is not the same as taking accountability for sending those people to rains blog in the first place

so. yeah.

again, non-extensive list, but i dont wanna mention things she's done without having screenshots or links to show proof that she did it, and i dont feel like finding more of her bullshit bc this just. really fucking stressed me out.

also this isn't me saying "shes a terrible person forever and i hate her and nobody should like her ever" this is me saying "hey, shes done/said some hurtful things in the past and it sure would be cool if she acknowledged any of it" but i think coolsville sucks or whatever.

also also most importantly: its possible for queer people to say and do things that are queerphobic. being queer yourself does not give you a shield from people calling you out for that. neither does real life activism. its great that she's done real life activism! but pointing back to things you've done in the past, or for a different group of people than the one youre in does not exempt you from the harm youre causing today, to the people you're interacting with.

i dont have a proper ending to this

thanks for reading i guess

[mithliya]

Sorry to use your inbox to vent but I am just SO frustrated with being accused of antisemitism any time I post ANYTHING about palestine. Like I really don't feel like it is, obviously, but when it just happens every single time I dont know what to think, because how do I know? I'm not jewish, maybe I'm just stupid and uneducated because they all seem to know more than me, but I also just don't feel like I need to have that in-depth of knowledge about judaism and israel to be able to say what's happening right now is bad??

And I've been told that, as an american, I've been raised with antisemitic ideals so I can't look at israel without that even if I don't think I am, and I just. Really don't understand that!! Like obviously antisemitism is a real thing but am I being stupid for just not feeling like I was?? Like literally the only thing I every learned about jewish people was hanukah exists and they were targeted in the holocaust, I just don't see how I was apparently raised to hate israel. It just makes me feel a little crazy lately...

honestly i cannot tell you if you did or said anything antisemitic bc i have not seen what u have done or said but, that said, there has been this weird push to label any criticism of israel as antisemitic and to frame it as an attack on jewish people as a group. its bizarre, because its also framing israel's violations of humanitarianism and international law as if its somehow innate to jewish people. as if its a Jewish Trait to kill tens of thousands of civilians and starve them and displace millions and expell millions from their lands and take their land and their homes and and and... and honestly this insinuation that opposing these things is to hate jewish people is what actually feels antisemitic to me. this constant equating of israel with jewish people as a whole, this framing of israel as defining jewish people is something both antisemitic anti-zionists would do AND zionists are doing and its bizarre, and frankly comes across as far more antisemitic than advocating for treating civilians humanely and advocating against committing a genocide on palestinians could ever be.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Pocky game with the knd villains

I am going insane with these repeating prompt group posts I'm sorry everypony

Characters: father, spankulot, stickybeard, knightbrace, cuppa joe, toiletnator, mr fizz

Notes: reader is GN, bonus hcs of who's favorite flavor is what, admin has only tried the og and cookies n cream though <\3

CWs: none

FATHER

this man has never heard of a pocky or the game so youre going to need to brief him on whats going on

open to playing the game with you! probably only thinks its just the one flavor but i think if he were opened up to all of them... i think he would still be a fan of the original flavor!

too hot... he kind of melts the chocolate after a minute.. :( it leads to both of you needing to go faster before theres a mess on your hands

likes the concept doesnt like the reality given the above... :(

hes also a little competitive so hes likely going to make it a goal to beat you to the middle- briefly forgets that the game tends to end with a kiss

not that that hes complaining, though

SPANKULOT

loves when you put two sticks in your mouth and pretend theyre fangs, he thinks its really cute!! especially if you try to mimic his accent and general speaking habits!

i can see him being a fan of the original flavor!

very slow eater, you might beat him to the middle before hes even halfway done with his side of the stick

hes just not that fast of an eater is all!

but with some encouragement he might be able to make himself go faster! definitely the one whos more likely to get flustered from the game

hes confident enough, but there is some obvious shake as he meets you... hes buzzing with excitement is all!

KNIGHTBRACE

not at all interested in the game once you explain what a pocky stick is :(

the only one who actually turns you down because of his whole anti candy thing

i mean he literally participates in a dangerous and intense scavenger hunt game JUST to destroy some cupcakes, and the only sugary thing we know he folds for is taffy

turns you down and most likely makes a comment on how bad the treat is for your teeth

no favorite flavor, either, for obvious reasons

CUPPA JOE

loooooooves the original but i can see him being a fan of the almond one! maybe matcha as well! can see him dunking the sticks into coffee! sounds good in theory... might try that next time i get some pocky..

doesnt know about the game but hes on board the second you explain what it is and what to expect

knowing him he might just go straight to kissing the second the pocky is in your mouths.. too bad the stick hitting the back of your throats is far from a pleasant feeling...

it... might be better to split the box with him and give him some regular kisses- hes a little too hyped up on caffeine to not just... go bonkers

STICKYBEARD

oh he definitely knows what pocky are as well as the game, hes been in the sugar business for a while hes seen some people make games with treats before... doesnt have a favorite flavor by the way, he thinks theyre all solid!

down with playing the game with you, if youre both already together or aware of each others feelings hes going to be teasing you and making side comments about the whole thing

as long as you dont pay much mind to his beard tickling your face, the game goes smoothly!

i dont think he would steal your half of the stick or demolish his side, the man can practice self control! besides, theres more sticks in the box! no need to rush things!

TOILETNATOR

ooooooooooh the second you offer to play the game with him hes all over it! when? how many rounds? right here right now? its actually really sweet with how excited he is!

looks like a banana flavor enjoyer but i can see him also liking the strawberry!

gets a little too excited so the round doesnt last that long

but i can also see him freezing in the moment because wooooooow he cant believe this is really happening!

if he could hed have a bunch of hearts popping in the air around him after you meet in the middle

basically begs to do it again and he gets super excited when you bring some pocky home

MR FIZZ

doesnt know about the game but he knows about the treat! has tried some of them! he looks like a cookies n creme enjoyer but i can also see him being a fan of the almond!

slow and steady, hes competitive but hes not going to slam the stick down his throat just to win or to get the kiss

its not his first choice for a cute couples game but hes not going to shoot you down

thinks its amusing that you get flustered from the game, if you do

especially since youre the one who brought it up in the first place

generally a positive interaction, as an aside unrelated to the prompt/post i can definitely see him sharing a drink with you- same cup two straws kind of deal

[chalkeater]

Do you know why frisk is that color in game? Because i dont. Putting them next to chara really emphasises the...yellow-ness in a way i never fully realized before.

I will never truly know why Toby made Frisk (and Kris because they share the same color code) this way. Everything I say will only be hypotheses and possibilities.

Firstly, it's not something he ever addressed as far as I am aware. So I feel like it's something he ignores, sweeps under the rug, or is genuinely not aware about (somehow), assuming that people have tried to bring this up with him..?

If I were to speculate, though, I am guessing that (especially because Toby Fox is western/American) it is a few things: the most likely reason is because of the normalization of western cartoons being yellow, especially because of the Simpsons (The Simpsons were made yellow to be eye-catching). So he probably wanted Frisk to be eye-catching. He may have messed around with orange too, but settled for yellow.

I don't find this completely excusable, because of the fact that Frisk is paired with what a lot of people has interpreted as "squinted eyes" or "closed eyes", so it encourages people/fans to draw content of Frisk as yellow-skinned with squinted/closed eyes. That's why there was a strong movement for fan-artists before, to draw the humans as without yellow skin, because it seems like Toby Fox won't be acknowledging this any time soon.

A lot of why this is so frustrating is because while one can argue about Frisk being pixels all day, their pixels will not stop people from making fan art of Frisk with realistic styles and proportions, even if they are cartoon-y, with all these features combined. It's hard to watch.

The second possible reason is to be racially ambiguous, but because Toby Fox never claimed any of this, it's only speculation. I personally think that he might not have even thought that far ahead since UnderTale was meant to be a simple game for him.

Either way, here's a Tumblr post on why racial ambiguity doesn't help anyone even if it's well-intentioned.

The first paragraph of the linked post hurts because the argument being presented to us in the past few days have been "A lot of people HC Frisk as White" which is exactly the point of this frustrating thing, but that is no longer relevant to your question.

Thank you for asking!

Previous post where I put Frisk and Chara's sprite next to each other for reference/context. In this linked post, I put a couple of references for yellow face, yellow peril, and general anti-asian racism. Also that one Dr. Seuss book where he drew a racist caricature of Chinese people.

[assaultmystic]

hey i was just wondering if you could expand on the anti-family takes you were discussing in the post below or just put it in layman’s terms?

https://www.tumblr.com/assaultmystic/724108118872752128/it-doesnt-matter-who-you-are-the-family-is-the

i don’t like completely disagree with them but it does seem confusing and i was hoping that you could help me understand

i just figured it’d be a good idea to ask, but if you can’t or don’t want to, i totally get it !

- have a nice day!

hey, thanks for asking, i sure can. when i say that the family is “reified” by media, what i am saying is that it is taken as a kind of given, and is not raised as a possible element for criticism. it is present - it may even be that action or conflict plays out within the family, but the idea that families structure the kinds of violence done within them is not a live possibility.

when this is done, the family (or whatever is being reified) is delivered as a fact of the world to the viewer. it cements the target (here the family) as being beyond question, by re-presenting it without querying it. the critical space is closed off and the viewer is encouraged to just take it that this is “how things are”. this is a way that ideology is transmitted, by representation of what is a facet of this mode of social organisation, a historical contingency, as a timeless fact - not so much unquestioned, as suggesting that the possibility of question doesnt even arise.

for the other part, when i am talking about how revenge fantasies implicitly wish violence on the family - think about the taken films. obviously they are far from the only example, but they are archetypal. liam neeson gets in a big tizzy because his daughter is kidnapped, and this is presented to the viewer as a self-evident justification for unlimited retaliation (heres that reification). he can bring everything to bear and there’s nothing that is considered below the belt, because that is his daughter. this film is a pretty straightforward power fantasy in this way. because it is presumed you’d do anything for your family (there it is again) it serves to make it a means by which someone becomes superhuman.

what makes it compelling as a fantasy is the liberatory power of having nothing to lose, of being totally motivated. to make it concrete: we can see someone identifying with this fantasy so they can imagine dropping the job they took to support their family, the arguments with their spouse, the worries about bills, the worry their child is growing away from them etc. (the drudgery of familial life under capitalism i referred to) and instead imagine themselves committing to the family in a single devotional act, that “incidentally” shows off how badass they are when their back’s against the wall, and is a lot of fun. but all this is was always predicated on violence being done to the people in the family. so far as the identification with this fantasy is at all coherent, it is a tacit endorsement of that violence.

i could say a lot here besides about the family as an absolutely crucial nexus of reproduction of the social order. it is fundamental for enforcing private property, discipline, and policing of sexuality. reifying the family is crucial to the project of capital. hence why it is so important to that project that people identify with it. dont.

[infoglitch]

So like, I'm a writer right. And I feel like trying to cover topics that I feel are important (ranging from philosophical such as "why would God give humans free will." To the subject of this topic). And I am posting this because I want to talk to trans people, not the community, the people.

And I am doing so that way I don't accidentally say something that could be taken the wrong way. So my question is.

What do you think is the difference between wanting to transition because you don't feel uncomfortable the way you are VS being told to change because you aren't what people may want.

Let me explain. So I plan on writing my own digimon story and it has a small (like micro-scopic) dash of queerness one being a gay pairing amongst the protagonists (that I pray to god I dont fuck up on) and another topic of transitioning with another character. Whose Story is about gender, And being forced to believe they were born wrong.

Now the reason why I say that is because this character who is born female is treated like shit by her parents because she wasn't born a boy. She's forced to believe she will never be accepted by her parents unless she's a boy. so she starts out in a pretty bad spot mentally and she begins to consider eventually transitioning.

Now this is where I ask for advice, because I want the message to be "you should not change for others. You should change for yourself". Not "transitioning bad, cis gender good"

because quite frankly while I may be whiter than my pfp, a christan, and as straight as a line I want to be able to put a good foot forward. To stop this idea that America is full of pieces of shit and that every single person who isn't part of the oppressed is a monster that deserves to be burned at the stake. (This sounds absolutely ridiculous but I have seen some real daft buffoons who demonize people who are you know, cis white people. Not all of us are pieces of shit I swear).

But that's getting into politics and quite frankly I am far too anti-right and anti-left to discuss politics without popping a fucking blood vessel.

Back to the meat and potatoes, since I am terrified of accidentally conveying the wrong message I need y'all MF'S takes.

Where do you draw the line between people who want to transition and people are told to transition.

Apologies this is unintelligible as SHIT. But I feel like asking.

Now off I go into my man-cave like the Boogeyman I am.

[roodles03]

I'm just gonna say this because I am SO done with seeing this shit.

As a trans, enby, demisexual lesbian, I am fucking sick of seeing people hate on huntlow because its "straight"

Like that is such a dumb fucking reason to hate on a perfectly healthy ship. Who cares if its queer or not? It's still a wonderful written ship. And it might not even be straight!

Like I said I'm literally queer myself and I far prefer huntlow over the two cannon queer ships. I don't prefer huntlow because its not queer, and I dont prefer lumity or raeda because they are queer. By that logic every queer person would have to prefer every queer ship in existence over a straight ship, even if the queer ship's rep is done poorly or is straight up offensive. That logic just makes no fucking sense. I've seen people call huntlow shippers queerphobic for preferring huntlow over the cannon queer ships. NEWS FLASH: MANY HUNTLOW SHIPPERS ARE QUEER THEMSELVES. (Including me!)

I prefer huntlow over Lumity and Raeda simply because I think its written the best out of the 3 and simply because Hunter and Willow are my favorite two characters in the show. I just don't care about Eda, Raine, Luz, or Amity NEARLY as much as Hunter and Willow. I'm not saying I don't like these characters or lumity or raeda, I'm just indifferent about them. I fully acknowledge just how well written and important these ships are to queer rep and queer history, and there is literally nothing wrong with them. These ships and characters just don't do it for me the same way Huntlow does. You can just not care about a ship and not have to morally justify your reasoning. I don't care about Lumity or Raeda, yet do you see me trying to aruge those ships are morally wrong? No. You don't. There is literally nothing morally wrong with them. Same thing applies to huntlow. There is literally nothing morally wrong with Huntlow, yet I constantly see people pull shit out of their ass to try and morally justify their reasoning to hate huntlow.

News Flash: You can hate something and not have to morally justify why.

Plus, Huntlow is still amazing rep. It's not queer rep, sure, but we already got two MONUMENTAL queer ships in TOH that have literally made history. Huntlow has a different kind of rep, as it's the best plus sized ship rep I've ever seen. How many times does a boy described as sickly and scrawny fall in love with a plus-sized girl? And how many times does that happen where the plus-sized character doesn't try and diet or gets a "makeover" and loses weight so their love interest will love them more? This kind of rep is so unheard of and it is INCREDIBLY important, especially in a kid's show. I have heard countless stories of plus sized young kids (and adults!) talking about how much this kind of rep means to them. I heard from a person who was told that they would never find love because of their weight, find extreme comfort with huntlow's plus sized rep. This ship could literally save lives with this kind of rep. (Could prevent people from failing into eating disorders, or could help people recover). This rep is SO important for plus-sized people.

Also people who say huntlow gets more attention then Lumity or raeda, I seriously DO NOT know what rock you're living under. Lumity and Raeda are pretty much universally accepted in the fandom as the top 2 ships, while Huntlow has pretty much remained controversial from the very beginning. Sure, now the majority of the fandom supports huntlow, but back in the ASIAS days it was fucking brutal. (I literally almost quit shipping it because of the blacklash on my first huntlow post). And even now, despite it being a minority, there is still a good chunk of people in the fandom who are huntlow antis. Huntlow is NOT getting more attention then Radea or Lumity just because its straight. If anything, Radea and Lumity are MUCH more popular in the fandom then huntlow. Like are you fucking kidding me with this???

Plus we don't even know if this is truly straight! For all we know Hunter or Willow could be bi, pan, omni. It could just be a straight passing relationship, and people aren't less queer for being in straight passing relationships!

So yeah. Go find a legitimate reason to hate on a ship.

[acourtofthought]

I’m not sure if it’s ok for me to ask you this but I really like your posts and the way you interpret. Disclaimer: I am not antielain but I get confused with her sometimes. If anything I say comes off harsh I apologize and plz kno I didn’t mean that way. Just heads up this will be long

I guess I sometimes think ppl expect almost too much from elain. Part of it is because we don’t know much of her character/personality. Like ppl expect that she’ll do a complete 180 and prove us all wrong. I do think she will prove us wrong but not like that I guess? Not so drastic? I’m thinking similar to how Nesta grew in her book where it wasn’t a complete flip of her personality but it was a build up on it. I personally think that’s the whole point of these books it’s to learn to give love to ourselves (via the characters) rather than change ourselves or personalities”for the good of others”

So I think ppl associate bubbly chatty extremely giving bighearted personality to elain bc of how she was as human, before her life changed completely. But I don’t even see her as that back then? Basically there is a “type” I see assigned to her by fans and for me it’s just not quite there.

There is so much anti-elain content out there so I understand wanting to contradict that and disprove the haters. And I don’t mean to bash anyone, but I guess envisioning her in one “appropriate” way by fans is strange. I hear too many what ifs about her and ppl getting upset at those who don’t agree with the what ifs of her personality/character (those “what ifs” are treated like gospel)

Additionally- I saw a post of yours mention that elain might be disturbed about feyre’s pregnancy and how she might be upset with herself for not being acquainted with her powers to foresee it and I honestly love that. it’s an exciting addition to look forward to about elain, but couldn’t sjm have mentioned that in nesta’s book? Like a scene where the three sisters talk about it or something?? This is what I mean about seeing a lot of expectations for elain’s character. Dont get me wrong I love this idea and I theres a good chance e it’s true, but I have to see it be shown for her character and so far I’ve been given nothing. Also why didn’t anyone tell Elain that the childbirth could harm feyre?? Maybe she could’ve done something! That could add to Elain’s character right! Even if Elain isn’t involved with ic stuff that’s her sister. I mean, Elain was smiling at her sis by the end (could be hiding her pain of sisters almost-death maybe?). Do we really have to wait for Elain’s book to know that she was disturbed by the events of feyre’s childbirth?

An anti-elain thing I see is that she’s not very bright. I don’t agree with this. I’m thinking if she was always aware what was going on bw nesta and feyre could she have done nothing? Especially since nesta has said she would do anything for Elain’s happiness. What of feyre’s happiness u know?

Elain never hurt others like Nesta did but when it’s pointed out how kind she is, I do believe it, but I can’t help but wonder if she showed that kindness to her sister Feyre. Like Feyre is so quick to say that about Elain, and Elain did own up to her mistakes, but it’s hard not to imagine how Feyre must have felt as a kid. feyre is so sure of Elain’s love for her I’m just wondering where that surety comes from because as a reader there’s a bit of a disconnect to what makes feyre feel that way. Could it be feyre’s guilt of them turning fae? And then elain never blaming her sis for it? I think maybe a little of it is that feyre understands elain. Do you think elain is a dreamer im the sense that she wishes good things for all people? Elain did had a chance at happiness due to her family’s love for her, maybe id like to see more of it reflected for her family? Do something big for them? I know she shows them affection constantly, and i love that I think it’s so sweet, but it still doesn’t tell me enough about her. As of now, Elain to me comes off as someone who puts herself first (not selfish but just knows her worth, not self destructive like nesta ), which will be exciting to see from the classic self-sacrificial type of fantasy mc, she is someone who maybe isn’t always quite aware of what she needs to do but she was the will and desire for it, and lastly, though she focuses on her well being she is still aware of the feelings and concerns of those around her.

I guess I see that elain has some flaws and I’m okay with it. She’s probably hard on herself like Nesta is to herself. And I think she’ll probably still have a few hiccups along the way in her book which is always exciting in a book. I don’t tell myself that she’s this perfect, sweet, summerflower child who’s never done anything wrong. I think she is currently lost snd For now, could be changed later)I think that maybe this is the first or one of the few times where elain isn’t the one fully happy while others around her are l so it’s a new thing for her to understand, navigate, and find the happiness within herself and around her (she’s already doing some of that). Maybe she always found the happiness around her from things being good but now needs to find it within? Also she is now finding the part of herself she’s always maybe wanted to. Or now needs to be due to now being fae.

And why would it be wrong if she’s imperfect? What is this obsession with her being perfect knows it all who doesn’t owe anyone anything? Since the fandom likes to talk about these characters like they’re real- elain would most certainly not think of herself that way.

Maybe I’m not seeing it all clearly of her character? Sometimes it is hard for me to keep her character and personality separate I admit. I know she loves her family, I know she’s concerned about a lot that’s going on, but we only get like 1 instance of her showing anything and that’s it. So when the characters just keep saying this and that about Elain’s traits, but Elain is shown having that trait or quality once im ?? Where you at girl?

Ultimately I tell myself that it doesn’t matter how a character begins but rather how and what they grow into. I think being turned fae has forced her to do a lot of growing up (I don’t mean this in a bad way at all. As a reader, I think it’s v interesting)I’m willing to bet if sjm had done more planning from the start i would feel entirely different. I think im at a confusing spot with her character, but at a 100% hopeful&optimistic for her story kind of spot.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and If you don’t answer I completely understand. Frankly, I don’t want to add to any anti-elain discourse ( or even anti- nesta I love her) My intention wasn’t at all to bash Elain’s character. I am absolutely not an anti but if anything comes off sounding anti I apologize. I’m looking for some discussion and understanding of her honestly. I think the most important knowledge I’ve gained from your blog is that elain shouldn’t and can’t be compared to the other female characters of this series especially her sisters. I mean, none of the characters should even be compared, but yeah expecting her to be exactly the way her sisters are is not the way to go about understanding her character. I love your posts about elain and I very much like Elain thanks to you. I’m lowkey obsessed with elucien bc of you. and your posts are what got me interested in her character since you pay attention to her in such a healthy way.

Nothing you said came off harsh at all and I was excited to receive your message!

This is going to be long and rambling so I apologize in advance.

I absolutely agree that some seem to expect too much from Elain, both right now and later, especially when SJM has given us quite a bit of growth from her already and she's not going to become a completely different person.

She started off the series kind but fine with allowing herself to be taken care of. She still had thoughtful moments though, she used her "allowance" from Feyre to buy Feyre paints and to buy her father a new chisel rather than using it all on herself.

But by the end of ACOTAR, she started taking care of Feyre, planning the ball to honor her return, finding her a dress, preparing a horse and a satchel for her.

In ACOMAF, we see her apologize for failing Feyre, we see her willing to risk her engagement by letting Feyre use their manor to meet with the human queens.

In ACOWAR, after she had lost everything, she only spent weeks (maybe 2 months) sitting silently in her room in a depressed state. Then she started learning how to bake (and now helps cook for the IC) and thought of a way to help the humans, by having them head to Graysen's estate. Then she was cruelly rejected by Graysen, was kidnapped a second time but still helped save Briar and Az, then saved Cassian and Nesta (as well as many others) when she stabbed the king but then saw her fathers murdered body.

Though she mourned those things in ACOFAS, she still did not regress. She continued taking care of Feyre and Rhys's garden, began helping those in Velaris with their gardens, continued cooking for the IC. Then in SF we see her stand up to Nesta, see her offer to search for the Trove, see her go to the Hewn Cith with the others despite Feyre offering to let her stay home and despite the fact that it's cruelty bothers her.

I honestly don't know how anyone could expect anything else out of her before her own book and even after her own book, she's not going to morph into someone unrecognizable. She's not going to become a bloodthirsty, dagger wielding spy who thrives on going after the enemy and plotting their demise.

I see some claim she needs to get fed up with the others holding her back, where she'll head off on her own or seek out Lucien to help her. But where in Elain's personality has she ever shown to be rash? Where has she ever shown to be that angry with her sisters that she's going to go behind their backs to prove something? It's exactly like you said, Nesta's arc made sense for Nesta because that was within Nesta's personality.

If Elain has a problem, she addresses it with the person (as we saw in her argument with Nesta) and moves on. She was laughing by the end of SF when Nesta said "fuck you". She nearly watched Feyre and her nephew die in front of her. At the end of SF, Elain and Feyre were beaming at Nesta while Elain held Nyx in her arms.

Where in that is anyone getting the "I'm mad and I'm going to prove them all wrong!" vibe from Elain?

I have a feeling Elain's setup will be that of Rhys coming to Elain for help with something in Spring or the continent and that will kickstart her book. She's already told us that "she's part of the court and will do what is necessary" so all that we need to have happen is Rhys finally asking her to get her hands dirty. Her setup doesn't need to look like Nesta's did.

I do think we're going to see a different version of Elain when she's around her people (Lucien, Vassa, Helion, Jurian, the LoA), but to me that's kind of a given based on SJMs pattern of the FMC coming into her own once she's with her found family. So I do think we'll get more of the outgoing, life of the party version of Elain that we saw in ACOTAR, at least the Elain once she was overseeing their new manor and at the ball.

To your point about Elain feeling guilty, I don't think, if Elain were taking the events of Feyre's pregnancy onto herself, SJM would necessarily tell us that in SF. For one thing, Elain doesn't often share her deepest sorrows and regrets with her sisters. We know she's mourning her father because we're told how often she visited his grave but it's not because she sat down and had a deep heart to heart with Nesta or Feyre over it. Just like we had to wait for SF to see Nesta's complicated emotions over her fathers death, I think we'll have to wait for Elain's book to get inside her head and understand how she's processing everything that has been happening. For another, the end of SF was meant to wrap up Nesta's arc. We were meant to walk away with that HEA vibe for her character, not necessarily focusing on anyone else. I think SJM subtly hinted that we're about to have Elain's story when she closed out the book with the rose carving, when Nesta lets go this symbol of Elain and releases it into the world as a "permanent marker of beauty and good" but I don't think she wanted us majorly focusing on anyone else outside of Nesta and her journey.

For anyone calling Elain dumb, I think ACOFAS and SF prove how intelligent and aware Elain is. After Elain talks of traditions, Feyre notes her wisdom. In SF, Cassian notes how Elain had seen everything about Nesta and understood.

SJM has confirmed that Elain is a quiet dreamer, that she has a different strength than Feyre or Nesta, and that she expresses love openly in a way that Nesta always struggled with so I don't think we can deny those aspects of her personality, I'm not sure why people keep trying to claim her story can only happen if she spirals down the way Nesta did or until she gets angry at their treatment of her. I think it's more important to respect that because Elain is so different from her sisters, the start of her book might look different than what some expect and maybe she's going to simply internalize her frustrations then talk it out with them in her book. If she's even harboring resentment. I mean, SJM already had Elain call Nesta out for treating her like a child, she joined the others in the Hewn City as "part of the court", and she was laughing when Nesta swore at her and nearly lost both Nesta and Feyre at the end of the book so maybe Elain isn't really worried about resenting her sisters right now, maybe she's just glad they're all safe and alive.

I do think Feyre and Nesta see certain aspects of Elain's personality but as all sisters do, I think sometimes they are blinded by other aspects. I also think they at times see her in a way that makes them feel better about things. Like Nesta assuming Elain was fine and settled at the start of SF only for Elain to remind them that she's struggling too. However, I do think Elain isn't truly Elain around them either, that she hides some of who she is. Like Rhys said, she may have been worried about disappointing them.

And yes, Elain has flaws (as they all do). It's funny that some will claim she's one dimensional while complaining about her flaws in the next breath. If she's canonically kind, loving and makes them all laugh at times while also being flawed....then how can she be one dimensional? I think it's because some are expecting her character to look like that of Feyre or Nesta's characters and the other badass female warriors in the series (or her other series). And that's a very narrow minded view, to only think someone is interesting if they look like every other single warrior heroine that SJM has written.

And despite her flaws, she has never lashed out at the other characters and I don't think she's given enough credit for that. She was afraid of the fae yet willingly opened up her home to them, has treated Feyre's found family with kindness from the start, made sure Feyre had a special cake for her birthday and has never blamed Feyre for what happened to her, held Feyre when Feyre was breaking down after Elain's kidnapping (so yes, I do think she has shown Feyre kindness ever since Feyre returned to the human lands in book 1).

Like you said, it's not that she's so much selfish as in "I do what I want regardless of how it affects others" so much as 1) she is more of an optimist and it's not easy for an optimist to understand a pessimists pov because optimists are constantly trying to focus on what's good and 2) she does seem to have a sense of her own worth and isn't going to beat herself down the way Nesta did, at least not to the extreme level did. She can still struggle with things while not self sabotaging. It's the same with Az and Lucien. Both Az and Lucien struggle with self worth and trauma but only one of the two is constantly trying to risk his life in foolish ways, arguing against orders, fixating on things he has no control over (i.e. Mor / mating bonds), brooding, distancing himself from the group. The other, despite his sadness, tries his best to focus on what he can control and I think that's Elain to a tee (T?).

And Elain has been open about the things she wants but she's never forced others to do them for her. For example, Nesta asked Elain whether she wanted to head to Prythian in book 2 or stay and Elain said she had to stay. Because she was engaged. So logically, it makes sense that she would. But never did she insist that Nesta had to stay with her, Nesta chose to stay. Elain should be allowed to make her own choices without someone calling her selfish.

I think she definitely could be labeled as selfish in the first two chapters of ACOTAR but I don't think we can say the same by the end of that first book. Some will claim Elain was selfish for bringing up their father to Nesta when, if she were observant as is claimed, she should have seen Nesta didn't want to talk about him, but.....Elain should be able to talk to her sister about their father because Elain lost him too. The trauma of their fathers death did not soley belong to Nesta (especially considering Elain actually loved him meaning she lost someone she was extremely close with) and while Nesta had a right to say she didn't want to talk about him, Elain is not wrong for attempting to bring him up in the first place.

And your comment:

"Ultimately I tell myself that it doesn’t matter how a character begins but rather how and what they grow into"

is hitting the nail on the head. Elain was meant to start in one place then grow from there but she's not going to grow into her full self until she's with the right people in the right place. I think the reason Elain's personality doesn't jump out to many is because she's not in the right place with the right people, just like Feyre wasn't fully herself in Spring and only came into who she was meant to be once she was in the NC. And maybe the reason there was more room for SJM to show us Nesta's personality was because as soon as Nesta ended up in the NC, she was with the right people in the right place. Her struggle came from letting go of her own self hatred but it was clear that she was free to be herself, even act out, because she belonged.

If Elain was super sassy, bubbly and outgoing in the Night Court then the entire narrative that SJM has built for her falls apart. She's got her full personality on mute because she's still waiting to find her own path with her own people and it's only then that her sisters will finally see her for all that she is too.

That's what I wish some in the fandom would understand about Elain. That they really shouldn't villain-ize a character for at times seeming odd and out of place, where she's in the background and not involved in the way the others because SJM has been hinting at her having to leave the NC before she can become true FMC energy. She's not going to have that energy before her book though even when she does, she's still going to be recognizable. She's still going to be loving and kind, she's still going to make friends easily, she's still going to want sunshine and nature. I think anyone trying to keep her in the NC tries to reason away the fact that they'd be sucking out a major part of her personality by claiming "Velaris has sunshine too! She can just avoid the Hewn City!" That's like saying someone can get the same sunshine in Alaska as they can the Bahamas.

But until it's time for her full arc, SJM has to keep Elain in a bit of a holding pattern since she's been driving home the narrative that she doesn't fit in where she's at. Elain isn't boring or worthless, she's just waiting for a reason to leave the NC and do her thing (again, something that won't happen until her book) and her individual journey can not be compared to Nesta's because no matter how much she fought it, Nesta always belonged in the NC and it was made clear to readers from the start.