#i feel this is like discourse within discourse

[burst-of-iridescent]

well since i can already tell that we’re all going to be subjected to the same old tired mai & mai.ko discourse for the foreseeable future, let’s get it clear right now that the atla comics have never been, and will never be acceptable mediums of character development, and here’s why:

1. the comics are given the benefit of hindsight, which impairs organic character growth.

it’s become extremely clear over the last few years that many of the comics are made as, or include, direct responses to criticisms of the original show — especially when it comes to katara, mai, and the canon pairings. aang didn’t ask katara for consent? look, he’s checking if he can kiss her! mai doesn’t care about fire nation imperialism? here, she’s an anti fascist! iroh was a creep to june? don’t worry, here he is apologising!

many of the things the characters do or say in the comics feel unnatural because they are not written as characters, but as mouthpieces for the creators to address fandom complaints from the original show.

“but that’s good, right? they’re trying to make it better!” i mean… sure? it still doesn’t change the fact that it’s damage control, and that no matter what stories span the middle, the arcs of these characters still begin and end with avatar: the last airbender, and the legend of korra, both of which are fixed and immutable. the comics cannot retroactively fix the issues of either show, because they’ve already been defined as the goalposts of the characters’ lives, and there is no way to undo that.

it’s like if you eat a meal that isn’t to your satisfaction, and maybe the chief makes you another dish, which is all well and good — but it doesn’t fix the fact that the original meal still sucked! sometimes, accepting criticism means accepting that there’s no way to go back and fix it but to do better next time, with the next story you wish to tell.

if the legend of korra didn’t exist, and the arcs of the characters were left open after atla, then maybe there would be for the room for the comics to function as character development if not for the fact that…

2. the comics are intended for a very different audience than the show.

it’s obvious that the audience for the original show vastly outnumbers the audience for the comics, likely by thousands, if not millions. this isn’t the mcu, where the installation of any atla property is vital to understanding the next, and so on. you can skip the comics and miss nothing whatsoever (and honestly your life would be far improved by doing so).

those who read the comics are likely only the real diehard fans of the show — and the creators know this, which is why we have the whole issue of point one above. but this difference in audience matters, because it reflects the significance of the story being told, and how important it is for the audience to know it. this is why, if the characters’ development and storylines in the comics truly, genuinely mattered, it would have been in the show already.

i’m not saying that the gaang wouldn’t have continued to grow and change post-atla, but generally stories exist as closed circuits, self-contained within themselves. when you end atla, you’re meant to believe that those arcs are finished. that’s the whole reason the comics deal mostly with fun silly adventures, or with quick, temporary conflicts instead of grand, overarching narratives, because they are not truly meant to function as a continuation of the story of atla, or its characters.

(if you ask me frankly, they’re meant to be nostalgia cash grabs, but that’s neither here nor there.)

creator intention matters with the atla comics (or any atla property, in fact), because creator intention was the subject of criticism for the original show in the first place. why must we rely on the comics or the cookbook or avatar legends to tell us that katara did things with her life outside of aang? why do we need to turn to something released nearly two decades after atla to find any evidence that mai denounced the fire nation’s imperialist indoctrination, when she’s romantically involved with one of the show’s most important characters? why are these stories relegated to a medium with far less reach, far too late?

the answer is that the writers didn’t find those stories to be originally worth telling, and that is the real problem fans have been pointing out since 2008.

so, tldr:

[utilitycaster]

I have a post from about four years ago getting notes again, and when you go back to look at an old post on your phone it takes you back to that era of your posting, and there really is something to be said about how the discussions I was having at the time re: Critical Role were like, involved ones about the nature of different character arcs within Campaign 2 and how they integrated into the story. Like I said this in the tags but on some level it's wild to consider I branched out into an entirely new medium to me because I felt sufficiently starved of a longform heroic fantasy work with a variety of character arcs that achieved this in the present; and that the nature of C3 discourse feels like "have you considered that the people who almost broke magic and set off a war are, perhaps, the villains."

[epickiya722]

Hi, I just wanted to say your blog has gotten me through all the my hero academia discourse from the epilogue leaks that have came, out I just find it so frustrating Remembering when chapter 430 came out the leaks taken out of context again. Seeing people hate on midoriya is frustrating to me as a midoriya lover and a bakudeku shipper. Being in fandom is so tiring will definitely be taking a break from my hero academia until Dec 4 when the volume officially comes out.

First, you're welcome!! ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )

Second, you should take your break!

I'm with you on how frustrating how this fandom can be. I am, too, a Midoriya fan (you already know I'm about to say he's my #1 tied with Miruko) and being a multishipper, I have came to like BakuDeku.

I'll tell you, seeing how everyone is reacting, I frankly find myself highly annoyed.

I don't discriminate, so I'm annoyed with just about everyone right now.

From saying this is canon and this is ruined and whatever else isn't helping anything.

It seemed almost no one learned.

The full chapter isn't out yet and people want to start ship wars.

BakuDeku's now coming for Horikoshi's throat are doing exactly what others have been saying for years, you are really proving what antis and others have been trying to call you folks! They've been calling the shippers "toxic" and now with the leaks out, BakuDeku are acting out. I thought you were better than this! Don't be attacking people, hello? Let alone the fucking mangaka???!!!

You can ship BakuDeku! Don't feed the haters what they want! DO BETTER!!

Oh, the other ship shouldn't celebrate so soon either. "Horikoshi has been hinting IzuOcha since the beginning. BakuDeku's were delusional into thinking their ship would be canon."

Show me you're an ass without telling me. Case and point.

First, can we drop that word, "delusional"? I hate it.

Second, I don't know if anyone is really paying attention, but the most Horikoshi has done with IzuOcha was make it feel one-sided. Izuku barely shown anything towards Ochako except being flustered around her like once or twice because she's a girl. Just like he has done with other girls.

BakuDeku shippers weren't delusional to ship them because look at the manga, just look. They even have a volume cover that looks to be a reference to Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy!!

What I hated about Ochako having a crush wasn't that she had a crush. It's Izuku, why wouldn't she like him? What I hated was the fandom chose to only recognize her for that. Whether you hated or loved Ochako, it feels like injustice to her to think only her crush on Izuku was important and then assume from barely fucking nothing that after eight years, he wants to date her because his possibly drunk ass looked at her and thought "I want to make her my wife, she's so pretty".

Sorry but it's a played out trope.

And after reading his previous works, Horikoshi making the main boy and girl canon don't even seem like his forte. It just don't feel right.

Now, them dating isn't bad and I know some people think "it will ruin Ochako's development" but again... how we know that with very little information?

And Izuku, my favorite green bean... this fandom really doesn't get you. I have unfollowed and blocked so many people within just year alone because of these bad takes about him.

"Bakugou should take that suit back". Bakugou isn't the only one who contributed to that suit. Yeah, he gave the most donation but saying that just makes him sound controlling. Don't do that. Don't make him sound like someone who would deprive someone of something just to control their actions. Bakugou fans, come on now.

After all the years of Bakugou being hated? Don't do that to him. I mean, I'm already disappointed in some of you, but come on.

Izuku ain't do nothing wrong that we know of! Cool your jets, first!

We don't have no full translation. We don't have all the pictures. The leaks gave to little to darn near nothing.

We don't know everything, but apparently it doesn't matter to anybody, does it, friend? (I meant the friend part affectionately!)

Again, I'm annoyed at just about everyone right now about this. Nothing is canon until everything is out on the table and every little detail is seen.

People were acting like 430 was such a terrible ending even before the whole chapter came out and now seeing them go "I guess that chapter wasn't so bad" is so funny to me. Oh, now it doesn't?

[cosmics-beings]

I personally think that TFP made people care MORE about the abuse Starscream went through. I "blame" it for people not shipping Megatron and Starscream as much or going after megastar shippers because of the abuse. I think some shows make it funny, but Prime def didn't because people can't ship megatron and starscream without people mentioning the abuse. or at least fans don't make fun of it

I agree to an extent, my personal opinion tho is that prime did make it funny. Because it's used in mostly humorous undertones in tfp or at the very least, written in ways where it's made to seem that starscream 'deserves' it? like it is never actually tied to his trauma or how he acts, and the other characters just don't give him grace/nuance. i do agree tho that i think tfp has changed how some fans view starscreams' abuse, and even if it isn't a ton, i think it's enough to actually start conversation. because as many people as i've seen take it seriously, i've also seen people mock him for it, because i personally do not think tfp does a great job at handling his abuse. especially with how he interacts with other characters and how he is never seen as a victim. the way tfp has him, ESPECIALLY in predcaons rising he imo is seen as worse than megatron and the other cons.

now, moving on to megastar. i'm gonna state this - i get why people don't like megatstar and im not gonna fault anyone for not liking it. like, i ship it (it is my transformers otp- and i will not stop shipping it!) but i do realize why people don't like it. but i guess for me, i ship it in a way that addresses a lot of the abuse and makes it comfortable for me to ship it because clearly, on this blog, it's obvious i hate the abuse starscream goes through. that said yeah i dont mind if people, especially starscream fans don't ship it. and i don't really engage with a lot of megastar content because personally, i don't like how there is a lot of abuse in the ship. this also isn't me saying my view is better or right compared to others, i just don't like engaging with the vast majority of megastar content because a lot of it is heavily abusive.

my issue is when 1.) those people are very hateful to the shippers nad harass them and 2.) don't like megatstar on the basis of it being abusive and then go and ship other equally abusive ships.

i like megaop, but when i see people turn their nose to megatstar but ship megaop, that's strange to me, because how megaop is presented it is also toxic and abusive in many canons - on both ends. TFP is a very great example of it- if the orion pax episode was not enough, the fact that megatstar in tfp, but in multiple contuinities will purposely hurt people optimus loves just because he knows impacts him, are abusers tactics. abusers will hurt people they know their partners love. never mind the fact that there is physical abuse on both ends, even if they are fighting.

and there is still, again, depending on the contiuinity, a power imbalance. megatron was a slave in some versions to start off with, and confided a lot in optimus about wanting liberation and freedom. optimus listened and learned under him and then betrayed him at the very end, becoming a prime and taking the position and liberty that megatron needed. that immediately put optimus at a place of privilege and power over megatron, and put him in the same level/caste of people who enslaved him. and more than often optimus never actually realizes this. it may not seem like abuse to a lot of others but the dynamics of slavery/privileged person to me, are kind of uncomfortable. and never mind the fact that they both try to kill each other, they both beat each other, they both hurt those close to one another. they do terrible things to each other. maybe the idea is that 'they can fight back against each other fairly, so it's not abuse' or their friends, to lovers, to enemies dynamic is too strong for people to call it abusive. but i mean yeah that's my issue.

if you're not gonna ship megastar because of the abuse, that's fine. but maybe leave megastar shippers alone i guess, stay out of the tags, and if you ship other abusive ships but preach about how problematic megastar is im looking at you sideways!

[mxtxfanatic]

Ngl, I’m actually pretty uncomfortable reading my old posts defending the goodness of the common people and their right to defend themselves—as persecuted groups or as individuals—from hierarchical tyranny, given how easily in this current irl moment a not-insignificant amount of people have fallen into supporting an active genocide, because I cannot separate this from how much pushback I got (and still sometimes get) for being consistent in my politics

[butwhatifidothis]

Things that the Completely Innocent Edelstan Server have done that warrants absolutely no self-reflection:

Calling a woman "nominally bi" for liking mlm ships over wlw ones in one specific fandom:

Calling someone a pedo and alt-right:

Calling an open asexual woman a homophobic Christian who hates lesbians:

Saying literally anyone who "shows disrespect" towards Dorothea, a fictional woman who isn't real, must hate women:

Imagining "AU's" of horrific real-life events for a gotcha for fandom arguments, while accusing "Mooners" of being Holocaust deniers:

Calling a (hypothetical) black woman wrong for preferring Dimitri over Edelgard, because Dimitri is "representative of deities worshipped by white supremacists" - I say hypothetical black woman because the woman in question isn't black. Also blatantly admitting to trying to stalk someone to find out their race and gender:

Insisting that a female user is actually some other male redditor pretending to be a woman:

Accusing a user of being an incestual necrophiliac:

Saying that Rhea fans overlook her being a groomer:

Casually joking about killing a real, breathing woman:

And remember, if anyone tries to say that maybe the server should back off and stop doing stuff like this?

The server has done nothing wrong. Everyone else started everything. So there is no reason for them to be civil towards the people they have spread such rancid accusations about, for months, if not years. Revealing what they've been saying in their discord about people is wrong, because everything they've said in the discord was fair to say - they shouldn't know what's said about them. And what was said about them wasn't why they responded to the discord; it's all because they hate Edelgard, and no other reason.

Like I said before: completely hinged behavior, nothing to see here i promise

[rioblitzle]

i guess im not too involved in the zelda fandom cause seeing a post about rabid totk defenders is wild to me. from my perspective people were singing that game's praises for 2 months total before it fell to the "popular game bad actually" criticism wave and i don't think i've seen anyone say positive things about totk since then lmfao

[ihopethatyoureasleep]

wait yall actually believe that either one of the winchester siblings had a harder/worse childhood than the other and that they weren't both abused and neglected in different ways

[welcometoteyvat]

been half typing up too many complaining posts lately I need to actually finish a fic and then i'll have something with actual substance to post

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks

YA contemporary + a little sff

follows a boy who suddenly finds himself able to teleport when he walks through doors, often against his will

and has to figure that out while dealing with a new crush, the end of high school and the queer club, and figuring out whether he definitely wants to train to be an ASL interpreter like his father

[tokencisgirl]

i'm not sure if i really want more online friends outside of the people already inside my circle atp honestly because tldr; Discourse

[rollercoasterwords]

reading the first edition of whipping girl (2007) and getting to the last ch where serano talks abt her current observations on queer activism and then makes predictions abt what the future might look like

well she certainly was right wasn't she!!!

[pyrobassist]

every time i open any random non-radfem blog i immediately stumble upon dozens of posts about girl dick and het "queer" sex and kinks and cock and balls-

[selfship-nyx]

So many anti rq proselfship blogs :(( why is there such a chasm of people I can’t follow within the somewhat limited community of people it’s safe for me to follow as a proshipper

[supercantaloupe]

if a jew writes or creates something about Current Events specifically through the lens of judaism (particularly religious judaism, not simply cultural judaism) i think that's within their right even if i disagree with what they've written/created. but it makes me really uncomfortable watching it get spread around by goyim

[peachypizzicato]

people who call the masc LIs bisexual but categorize nadia and portia as lesbians how does it feel to miss the entire point and also be like. wildly exclusionary