#i get it!!! queerness has a direct link to suffering !! it’s so important to talk about it

[cowboysmp3]

it’s so hard being crazy into fantasy books but 1. point blank refusing to read cishet romance 2. aged out of YA like 4 years ago 3. obscenely picky about the writing style

[tealottie]

Look, I usually don't publicly campaign on Tumblr for these polls, but this is the last one and I have to speak my piece of mind.

AstroBOYD is a wonderful episode; it highlights the central theme of the show, adds depths to team science characters, has wonderful rep among us neurodiverse, and has gorgeous animation. My heart goes out to AstroBOYD - that episode could be a movie in its own right.

But that last point is why I'm not voting for it. What Ever Happened to Della Duck is inherently linked to all three seasons of DuckTales 2017. That episode MADE DT17 the series it is today - it gave us something unique to make this duckverse media stand out amongst all the others - it gave us HER. It gave us DELLA DUCK.

So why is Della Duck so important? I'll briefly touch on three main points here, points being; she brings representation to the table, she is a phenomenal mother character, and she is what makes or breaks this series (spoiler alert: she made it)!

1) Representation

Della is a queer, disabled, mentally ill mother, and none of it was forced! All of these points felt like they happened authentically! (And not to mention that she is the twin sister of Disney's second biggest mascot)??? Of course, the Della being sapphic announcement wasn't until way after the series, but it still says something that we were all thinking it from the beginning anyways. But I want to talk about the disabled rep more; Della crashlanded on the moon before HDL were hatched - a crash in which she lost her leg and was isolated for a whole decade. This was shown ON SCREEN. Her leg crushed under the ship? That was on screen! But that incident and the following trauma she suffers in What Ever Happened to Della Duck is SO important to show in kids shows!

This allows kids to see that shit happens - sometimes bad things happen in life, and sometimes they stick with you for the rest of your life (like Della needing a prosthetic), but kids also need to understand that trauma does not have to define you. Every single scene in the episode showcases Della's determination to get back to her family - every single screwup just leads to more determination. Even with her prosthetic, she doesn't let that get her down or hold her back! Instead, she uses it in battle or during adventures - she finds ways to adapt instead of letting her past define her.

Della is also allowed to be vulnerable, though. We see in Moonvasion that she's terrified of losing her family again BECAUSE she has PTSD! And kids/viewers also need to understand that that vulnerability is okay. Letting yourself feel things is okay. Della always looks ahead toward the future, but that doesn't mean she has to be happy all the time - she's allowed to feel because she's human. I won't claim that the PTSD rep is perfect, but it was still a step in the right direction for portrayal of mental health in kids shows!

2) Motherhood

Focusing back on What Ever Happened to Della in specific; this episode sets up one of the best mother figures in modern cartoons, in my opinion! Della is a mom, but that is not ALL she is. She is driven by her motherhood and her connection to her family, but her titles as a woman are not ALL she is - she's not just HDL's mom, Scrooge's niece, Donald's sister - she is Della Duck.

Think of cartoon moms that you know; typically they are always so wise and levelheaded and nurturing and mature - and not to say that Della ISN'T mature, but she sure as hell ain't a paragon of wisdom that's for sure. She is a messy person; she lets her anger control her at times, she acts on impulse, she thinks she knows better than she really does - but all of this is what MAKES her writing SO good. She is so flawed! She hopped into a rocket when her boys were still eggs because she is reckless! And that recklessness leads to consequences that she has to face.

Moms can make mistakes too, guys! And something that's so important about this episode is that Della brings a sense of humanity to childrens' mothers everywhere. When I was a kid, my mom was the smartest person in the world to me - I truly thought she could do anything - that she was invincible! But she's a person just like me and I never got to see that side of her growing up. Della brings to perspective the fact that our moms are 3-dimensional people. Della doesn't have the answer to everything and even she needed help despite being a mom! The episode shows a very human side that hopefully kids watching are able to extend to their own parental figures in their lives.

And not only does Della bring that sense of personal humanity, she also brings to the table that being a mother is not her whole personality. She is a mom, yes, and she shows those characteristics - but before Della was a mom, she's a pilot, she's an explorer, she's an adventurer, she's a PERSON. She isn't girly by any means - she likes to keep her appearance tomboyish and is more rowdy than her brother is! She has a kickass robot leg and rebuilt a rocketship all on her own! She is allowed to be herself in writing and we know this was effective because we all see her as Della - a strong, standalone character who can carry a whole episode on her own while having it be her debut. We don't see her as JUST a mother.

3) The Episode

What Ever Happened to Della Duck is a masterpiece in itself. I wouldn't claim that it could be a movie like AstroBOYD or Duck Knight, but that's exactly why we should be voting for it! This episode is so heavily tied in to all three seasons that without it - the show would not be the same.

The writers took a big risk with this episode. It is Della's official debut - a character who had relatively been lost to time - and the episode is ALL about her. There's no opening theme song, and there are no other characters besides Penumbra and Lunaris at the end. This episode is unapologetically Della. This was a huge risk because all the knowledge we had on her character was from season one, which even then was entirely based on Scrooge's perception of her (which is amazing writing might I add), and not only that, but this was a REBOOT. There was also huge risk in knowing that they may lose a lot of their 1987 faithful audience by pushing on with Della's storyline. But they did it. And God did it pay off!

When I think of DT17, I think of this episode because it stands out in such a phenomenal way. The episode tells you everything you need to know about Della Duck within a span of 20-ish minutes. I'll be honest! I wasn't sure about Della when I started watching the series - I was worried that she was going to be a "girls can do anything" character that wasn't strong enough in writing to keep up with the rest of the already established cast, but OH MY GOD did she prove me so wrong (see points 1 and 2). And not only was I proven wrong, I was swayed within this SINGLE episode to have her as my favorite character. The writers took a risk, and that risk was bold as hell for Disney.

Not to mention the writing of the series as a whole with this episode being its glue, but the writing within the episode is amazing as well (again, see points 1 and 2). The composition of the scenes are all so beautiful, and the emotional scenes can make anyone's heart ache. And the homage the music pays to the NES game is so heartwarming - taking a classic soundtrack staple and turning it into Della's motif for the series was brilliant! This episode also ties in her origin story from the Dutch comics in a brilliant and creative way! You can just feel the heart that they poured into this episode that streches across the whole series.

Della Duck is the heart and soul of DT17. She is what made this show. And, again, I will pay my respects to AstroBOYD - but as i stated earlier, having a movie-quality episode is not what we're voting for here. If AstroBOYD never happened, not much would have changed. If Della's debut never happened, then what would that mean for the series as a whole? Della haunted the narrative in season 1, became the narrative in season 2, and became the heart of season 3. You simply cannot have DuckTales without Della Duck.

So with all that being said, I hope people will spread their love to Della. Obviously, if she loses then she still wins in my heart! In the end, this is for fun! Nobody is obligated to vote from an objective standpoint, and if people have their reasons to vote AstroBOYD, then I have no agency to police what they do. I just hope that my stance will be heard and seen and respected! <3

ROUND #6 [FINAL]

[scripttorture]

What would you expect from the public, including minors, when torturing someone in public is done, especially when it's a public spectacle and people actually come to watch. Is liking to watch torture a thing in this case? My story is a medieval/steampunk fantasy by the way.

Well Anon, this does still happen today. It happens in the country I grew up in and consider my home. So… my first suggestion is to throw out the implication that this is a weird historical thing the world doesn’t have to deal with any more. Because it is still very real. And if you get any kind of success with your story there’s a good chance some of your readers will have experience with this.

 It’s also significantly more complicated then ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ so let’s unpack this a bit.

 I’ve never actually seen anyone maimed or executed. But as a kid of around 9-10 I knew kids my age who had. We used it as a sort of… pissing contest basically. Kids would brag about it to show how hard they were, in the same way we’d stuff chilis into our mouths and see who could last longest.

 It’s one of those bizarre kinds of ritualised self-harm that you end up performing in order to cope with awful things.

 Because witnessing this kind of stuff is harmful, to adults and children. It can leave people traumatised and displaying some of the symptoms I write about here.

 But, however old the characters, if they grew up somewhere where this is the norm then I absolutely guarantee they understand showing opposition is dangerous. They know their responses to these displays of brutality and power are used as a proxy for their loyalty and worthiness by the state.

 And boy if you are in any way outside the norm, if you are queer or the ‘wrong’ ethnic group or faith, then the pressure to conform here is so much more intense.

 I lived in Saudi, my home town is Dhahran. My parents are from opposite ends of Europe and they tried to raise me Christian. I still spent a lot of my teenage years unpacking stuff I’d absorbed about public executions, amputations, whippings etc.

 From the kids I knew growing up (anecdotal evidence no matter how empassioned) I’d say the ‘normal’ responses to witnessing this kind of state violence are varied. Kids would get nightmares, start showing signs of mild anxiety disorders or depression. They’d become moody, angry and generally unhappy. Which they’d sometimes take out on other people.

 But I can’t remember anyone ever explicitly linking it to what they witnessed. They’d try to hide this stuff. Some of them would double down on justifications for state violence (seemed pretty common.) They would, above all, deny there was a problem.

 Because admitting to mental illness made you ‘weak’ and admitting to doubts about state violence made you a ‘traitor’. Which is a pretty risky thing to label yourself (even by implication) when you live in a state that publicly mutilates and murders people. (Note the author’s bias as a committed pacifist may be showing.)

 As you may have noticed Anon, I still carry a significant amount of anger on this particular subject. This bottled vitriole is not directed at you or your story idea but at the states and politicians who make sure this brutality continues. It’s about the fact that I can remember a nine year old girl matter of factly talking about beheading at a birthday party.

 Stepping back from the personal side of things for a moment we know from studies of PTSD and trauma survivors generally that witnessing violence can lead to lasting psychological symptoms. Including PTSD.

 PTSD specifically is more likely when an individual is directly effected (ie physically hurt). But repeated exposure to traumatic events, including witnessing violence, makes the manifestation of long term symptoms more likely.

 So a character that has seen dozens of these attacks is more likely to develop a long term mental health problem then a character who has seen only one. Regardless of age.

 We can’t predict which individual symptoms an individual witness will develop or indeed when a witness might develop them. We just don’t know enough about how these things happen yet.

 Having said that, the possible symptoms for witnesses are pretty much identical to the possible symptoms for torture survivors (link above.) I’d advise against using chronic pain for witnesses unless you have a clear idea of an underlying cause; it seems (anecdotally) to be more common in people who directly experienced violence.

 If you decide to use insomnia there’s a masterpost on sleep deprivation here.

 For mental health problems like depression, anxiety etc remember there are physical symptoms as well as symptoms related to mood. Characters who are trying to deny they have a mental health problem might focus overly on physical symptoms. Depression can cause nausea, vomiting and tiredness/lack of energy which might be mistaken for disease. Anxiety can cause chest pain and shakes.

 Circling back let’s talk about some of the phrasing in this question for a moment. Because ‘choose to watch’ misunderstands the way states use these public displays of violence.

 Attendance and witnessing of public executions and torture is often enforced. Sometimes overtly and sometimes more tacitly. Because the point of these displays is to hammer home the power of the state. That doesn’t work if people can easily choose not to go.

 Here’s an example of what that overt and tacit enforcement looked like back home.

 Tacit enforcement came from the timing and placement of executions and amputations. They took place on weekends, when almost everyone was off work. They were carried out in major towns and cities, where the population density was higher. The venue was typically on a main thoroughfare close to important sites. Which ensured a high volume of people would be in the area when the execution took place, whether there was due to be an execution or not.

 So picture the town or city this is taking place in, in your story. When are the public holidays? Where are the markets? Where are the most popular religious venues? At what time will the most people be in these areas?

 All of that will tell you where an execution or public torture is likely to take place. Because if you set this shit up in eye sight of the place most people buy food, at the time when the most people are out, you get witnesses.

 Whether they want to be witnesses or not.

 Overt enforcement, on the low end of the scale, means having officials among the crowd pushing people towards the scaffold. At home this seemed to be targetted towards children and people who were judged as ‘other’. Different races to the majority, people who might have been read as a different religion, people who might have been read as queer etc.

 This is because the message is ‘This could be you.’

 I know practices in other countries have sometimes gone beyond this. Police or armed officials will sometimes go out and gather a crowd of witnesses by just… approaching people on the street and demanding they attend.

 This approach requires quite a bit of man power and is not practical or necessary in every setting. In most cases setting things up in the right place and time is enough to ensure a large number of witnesses.

 What I’m trying to illustrate here is that a lot of people will see this stuff without having made a conscious choice to do so.

 And making a conscious choice to see it… well it does say something about the character but not in the way you’re thinking.

 Because these displays are all about the power of the state. Witnessing them, responding to them is performance and it’s a performance of state loyalty. You can’t expect someone to give their true opinion on public displays of violence when criticism or voicing ‘dislike’ could lead to them being targets of violence.

 Basically if you’ve got characters going to see this stuff regularly then it’s worth asking why they feel the need to display their loyalty in this way. Sometimes it’s because they really really believe in the state. But often… they’re compensating for something.

 Wrapping up I think it’s important to note there’s often a difference between what people say about this stuff versus what they actually feel. And that’s because these things are explicitly political and explicitly about the power a state has over it’s subjects.

 The way individuals respond to these things in public and what they say about them in public effects how they are treated. Sometimes it comes with obvious legal sanctions. Even if it doesn’t… these displays are entirely about reminding people the state can kill them.

 And it doesn’t actually discourage crime or civil disobedience but it does create a climate of fear and hostility which permeates daily life.

 Think about why the state is insecure about their power. Think about how your characters live with that background radiation and whether it feeds into cultural ideas around things like martyrdom or nobility of suffering.

 Remember that there is a difference between public and private life. Existing in these kinds of brutal states often means having quite a sharp distinction between them. This can create very strong bonds to those the characters trust. It can also create a big difference between private and public personas.

 If you’re writing a world where public torture and executions are happening there’s more going on then just individual character’s reactions. You are saying something about the world, the ruling class and the politics of the area.

 Take the time make sure you know what you want to say.

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[lightwoodsmagic]

I’m worried about Liam and his album and I didn’t know where to go but you always seem rational. I feel awful because there’s only a few songs I like and the album isn’t getting good reviews but Liam DESERVES good things, and then everything with ‘both ways’ happened. I’m so sad for him, but do you think he’ll be okay? I don’t want him to be cancelled, but the song was such a bad choice? His image in the eyes of the public seems ruined. Please tell me what you think :(

Hi anon, 

Thank you for thinking of me, and for thinking that I’m rational. I know this has been sitting in my inbox for the better part of a day, but in order to be rational and approach this properly, I had to take some time to let myself play out all of my emotions. 

I’m here now! And I think I’m ready. This post is long though, so I’ve popped it under the cut. 

Before I start properly, there’s a few things I want to say first. 

- I love Liam, an absolutely ridiculous amount. Liam’s music isn’t the usual genre I would listen to, but I will always support him and his music, and his fashion, and everything else he does. 

- I am incredibly proud of him for finally being able to release his album.

- As anyone who follows me knows, I strongly believe Liam is queer, and closeted, and in a relationship with Zayn. Here’s a masterpost I made about it earlier this year.

- I’m realistic. Some things below may not be what people agree with, or wanna hear, but you asked for my opinion.

Okay. Here we go. I’ve divided it into sections to address your ask properly. I’m also aware that this is pretty late in terms of fandom, and I haven’t been on Tumblr, so people have no doubt said many of the things I’m about to say. 

LP1

First thing: don’t feel bad for only liking a couple of songs on Liam’s new album. Everyone’s music taste is different and it is completely possible to love and support someone even if you don’t absolutely love their music. It does not make you a fake fan, or mean that you love Liam less, or anything like that. Please don’t worry about that. It’s okay not to love the album. Completely okay. 

Also, YES. Liam does deserve good things, always.

You’re right; it hasn’t been getting great reviews, but even though I really enjoyed the album despite my musical preferences, some people are frustrated, and not just reviewers. People are frustrated that a third of it is collabs, that half of it is songs we’ve heard before (that weren’t just released as a lead up to the album), and that Liam seemed to hardly write on it. We’ve known for a while that something’s been up with Liam’s album, especially when last year he said he had a full album ready to go, and then suddenly it was like it was scrapped, and he had to start again. 

We also know that Liam is a brilliant writer; he wrote so much for One Direction. So many people completely disregard this because Liam once said that he was more about the melodies, and Louis more the lyrics. Under no circumstances does that mean he does not, and did not, write great lyrics, or just good songs in general. That kind of thinking is also what leads to a lot of Liam’s erasure from Home, which is something I also touched on in the masterpost I linked above. It’s something that frustrates me a lot, when people forget about his writing ability. It doesn’t help though when he didn’t, or maybe wasn’t allowed to, write more on his own debut album. 

Overall, in terms of his album in general, I’m exceptionally proud that it’s been released, and sad for him that it’s not getting great reviews. Reviews don’t always matter, though! The support for the album from other sources has been really brilliant, and I’m sure he was feeling the love (and still is, despite recent stuff that I’ll touch on now).

Both Ways

No matter how you look at the situation, no matter who you are or what you think of Liam, it is baffling to me that this song went through numerous people to be released, especially knowing that a large part of Liam’s fan base consists of young, queer women from his days in the band. 

It should never have been a surprise that the reception was bad; the people who are upset about it are allowed to be upset, and their feelings are valid. In a world where bisexual and pansexual people are constantly fetishised, it’s a kick in the face for some people. I’m pan, and while personally I wasn’t overly offended by the song, I did cringe at a couple of bits, and I have no right to tell other people how they should or shouldn’t feel. 

To me, there’s a couple of options as to what happened here:

- It was genuinely just a gross misjudgement on everyone’s behalf. People make mistakes. I hate cancel culture. At the moment, if this is the case and they all genuinely didn’t think it would be this bad, I’m not sure if Liam addressing it would be a good thing, or if it’d just make things worse. If he apologises, it’s going to seem disingenuous to a large number of people, but if he doesn’t, it’s like he doesn’t care at all about the people that’ve been hurt. It’s not a good place to be in. 

- It was a purposeful song put into his album by his team to push his narrative. Liam’s in a shit spot at the moment. A very large majority of the media attention leading up to his album used negative promo, like his ‘relationship’ with M*ya and the fight at the bar during Thanksgiving. Aside from very recently, Liam’s team have been a nightmare, and it’s frustrating when people can’t see that he’s in a situation just as bad as some of the other men. Would I be surprised if this explanation is the correct one? Abso-fucking-lutely not. I’ll touch on it a bit more in the next bit though. 

No matter what, the song was not a good decision, and was not going to go down well. Alllll of this leads onto…

How it affects Liam’s image

I’m separating this into three parts to explain it the way I think I need to; the part of the fandom who believes he’s queer and closeted, the part of the fandom who don’t, and the general public.

The part of the fandom that believe Liam is queer and closeted

Liam’s image hasn’t changed here. This whole thing has made this section of the fandom angry, frustrated, and sad. At a time when everyone should be able to just relax and enjoy Liam’s new album, we’re bombarded from all over the internet with people trying to cancel him. Angry because Liam is being absolutely attacked, especially at a time when he’s just spoken about how fragile his mental health is, and because there’s quite a few hypocrites around at the moment. Frustrated because there’s nothing that can really be done at this point, and when it comes to Liam, people never seem to care as much as they should. Sad because we love him so much and he deserves such good things, and people never seem to care enough to recognise that.

It’s also frustrating that people can’t, or refuse to, realise that Liam is just as closeted, has had just as much PR bullshit including at the moment, and suffered through forced interview after forced interview, and been made to say a million things. It’s also important to note that if Harry can have a stunt song, and Louis can have a stunt song, Liam can also have a song (even if not directly stunt related) added to his album to push through his current narrative. They’re different situations, different songs, and different explanations, but they all have the same running cause. Just something to think about. 

The part of the fandom that don’t think that

Fuck me, I never realised how massive a chunk of this fandom there is that does not give a shit about Liam James Payne. Can’t relate, but okay. In terms of his image here, it kinda depends; for some people, they’re not fussed enough to pay attention, but that can mean that they’ll just believe he’s an arsehole here because they can’t be fucked to look into it. People don’t have to be invested in all five of them, of course they don’t, but it might be a big negative here. 

For other people, the ones that seem to hate him for some reason, this adds so much more fuel to the fire. There’s a lot of people currently calling him out for homophobic things he said about Harry, which I’ve spoken about before but can’t find my own damn post but the masterpost I tagged at the start of this mentions it a tiny bit. When this swirled up again recently in the last month or so, which interesting timing, the media ran a TONNE of articles about how Liam had been talking shit about Harry. Harry liked the very next tweet Liam posted, even though it had nothing to do with him or the situation, and Harry wasn’t just on a liking spree. It seemed very much like a ‘hey, don’t worry, we’re all okay, don’t believe this shit’. This section of the fandom is exceptionally unlikely to change their mind about him unfortunately. 

I spoke about this very recently, but the fact that people can’t see Liam’s situation for what it is, and can see the others, is beyond frustrating because the patterns are INCREDIBLY similar, and there’s very similar situations. 

Also, Liam and Louis’ friendship is 100% legit. They’re very close. If there’s anyone out there who loves Louis and thinks he’s closeted, but hates Liam, do you really think Louis would love Liam so much if this was really who he was? Someone who doesn’t care about the community that Louis is obviously so fiercely proud of, and someone who talks legitimate shit about Louis’ partner? Of course he wouldn’t, because Liam is also closeted and stuck in a shit situation and made to say things in interviews to stir up One Direction drama for the media. Speaking of the media though…

The general public

When I woke up this morning and Mar told me about the hashtag that was trending on Twitter, I was instantly so emotional, for a lot of reasons. As I said before, I hate cancel culture in the easy way it exists. People are allowed to make a mistake, or slip up, or make a wrong move; everyone is human. It’s how they respond to it that should change things. 

There’s a couple of problems here, though.

- Liam can’t really respond to it in the way he needs to. Like I said before, I don’t know whether it’d be better or worse for him to talk about it. The only genuine way he could is to come clean about everything, and he can’t fucking very well do that, can he? So the apology will just be a lie, and people probably won’t believe it anyway. 

- People are more willing to forgive someone if it’s one mistake, but Liam’s team have fucked with his image so much that to the general public, it’s not one mistake. We know they’re not real, but if we step back from the fandom and try to look at it through the eyes of someone who knows not very much about him and only knows what the media pushes, it’s a slightly horrifying image. 

When I speak to my friends about Liam, people often think he’s arrogant, conceited, and your standard ‘gym bro’. The GP may remember the times he was made to say homophobic things, and if they don’t remember, they’re reminded in every new article. They see him as the young guy who dated a woman in her mid 30’s and got her pregnant, and who hardly sees his ‘son’ and therefore is a deadbeat ‘dad’. They see him now as the man in his mid 20’s who’s ‘dating’ a teenager, and the articles I’ve seen today all mention her, some mentioning the debate about her age and others trying to say the song is about her even though it was being written about three years ago. They see him as a man who has fights outside bars, and are told it was because of his underage ‘girlfriend’. They see him as an artist who sings about getting wasted, sex, and being rich. 

I know I’m setting a bleak image, anon, and I’m sorry, I am. I don’t believe a single word of the above obviously, and NO ONE should, but it’s the reality of the situation for the GP, and it shouldn’t be pushed to the back as if we should only blame other sections of the fandom for his image, or that this isn’t, realistically, how it looks for Liam right now. 

We know Liam as the kind, sweet, caring, protective, talented, queer man that’s been there for us through his music and his words, who’s been there for the boys the entire time since the band started, who’s suffered through addiction and mental health problems to come out the other side stronger than ever. 

They don’t know that, anon, and I don’t know what Liam will do to come back from this massive of a social media hit. There’s numerous articles slamming him, the hashtag trended for almost a whole day in Australia at least, and for some of the GP, it’s the final thing in a long list of bullshit that Liam’s supposedly done. Each article mentions all of the above things again too, and Apple Music even mentions Ch*yl and B*ar directly by name. 

I’m hoping for his sake that in a few days, this will all blow over, and it’ll be handled the way it needs to be handled. The problem is that I don’t know what the right way to handle it is. 

I think he’ll be okay. I believe he’ll be okay, I do, but I think in terms of the GP, he has a way to go. I want the very best for Liam, always, and I will always continue to love and support him. Everyone else should too, because right now, he needs it from us more than ever.

[oswald-privileges]

Could you talk about The Magnus Archives to a potential new listener? What do you like about it? What drew you in?

I HOPE YOU’RE STILL INTERESTED IN THE ANSWER BC HEY I’M GIVING IT TO YOU NOW

short version! The Magnus Archives is a horror anthology podcast with an incredibly refreshing stance on horror, an overarching metanarrative, and Chill Queerness. Also just. Such a good range of scary things. Such a good range 

You can listen to the trailers on the podbay here http://podbay.fm/show/1095138637

Long version!

I picked this up on someone else’s horror recommendation, and I’m pretty easy when it comes to horror or weird anthologies- I’ll give everything a go once! But I DID fall in love with tma for some very specific reasons, so I’ll expand on them here.

Refreshing Stance on Horror

What I mean by this is that the short stories that make up the show and the overarching metanarrative have a consistently unique take on horror tropes, styles, and traditions. It revels in those that work; the stories usually have lightly sketched first person narrators, placing the main focus on the events and horror of the story itself; the Magnus Institute in whose archives the show is set is a classic “spooky organisation that documents and collects weird stuff”; the topics or horror-creations it chooses to explore are incredibly wide ranging, so there’s a monster or a transformation or a situation for everyone. While the show is definitely aware that you’re there to be spooked, it’s also like a celebration of the best parts of the horror genre. It’s a show that has fun. 

And when it comes to the tropes that don’t work well, or the parts of the genre that are tired or straight up facilitate all the horrible “isms” of criticism? They’re cut or adapted if they’re useful, or outright excised if they’re not. 

An example of the former: There’s an in-universe explanation as to why the people giving these statements to the Institute are so loquacious and well-spoken. It’s also a spoiler, which kind of indicates how neat a trick it is and how well integrated it is into the lore of the show

An example of the latter: The writer has explicitly stated in a Q&A episode that they have zero interest in writing sex as horror. Perspective characters will occasionally have sex with someone, but that will just be part of their lives or the situation they find themselves in. A good example of this is the episode Squirm- the statement giver visits a club, and brings home a companion-

“I mean, we had sex. There’s not much more to say about that, really. The important thing is what happened afterwards.”

The situation itself is not the horror, nor is it there to sell the story to the listener. The normality of it is what produces the discord, the familiar/common setting of bringing someone home for a night juxtaposed with the suspense and culmination of the actual horror story.

Overarching Metanarrative

The Magnus Archives is kind of a story about stories. The individual statements are linked by their narrator, The Archivist, and a slowly expanding cast of his co-workers, investigative team, people trying to kill him, and terrifying monsters. Most of the characters fall into at least two of these categories. As the stories that get read slowly reveal more and more, the characters responses change, their arcs progress, and conflicts develop and are resolved in a truly suspenseful fashion.

Several other podcasts try to do the same thing- I’m thinking particularly of TANIS and The Black Tapes- but in my own opinion, fall very far short of the kind of depth of character and sense of cohesive progression that The Magnus Archives creates. I feel as though that might be because with other podcasts, the unravelling of the mystery is very linear- one clue progresses to the next and the next with little deviation or space for reflection. The Magnus Archives keeps character arcs linear and focused, but allows the mystery to come to light in an organic, non-linear way. It feels as though you are solving things alongside (or sometimes before) the characters, as opposed to just following the breadcrumb trail. 

The Magnus Archives has also managed something I’ve never seen another podcast do so well- it maintains the “this is being recorded” conceit almost flawlessly. Most podcasts that aren’t pretending to be Real Life radio shows tend to outgrow that concept eventually, as excuses for the recordings become more and more tenuous, and are eventually quietly dropped (Wolf 359 does basically exactly this). But The Magnus Archives preempts this, with multiple different in-universe reasons for the recordings. Again, most of them are spoilery, but also sufficiently spooky. The general feeling is that there’s something listening in on everything that’s going on, and it’s not just the audience. 

Chill Queerness

A shorter, more simple point here, but this show is just. So relaxed about diversity, and not in the vaguely irresponsible way that can happen when the topic just Isn’t Addressed. Someone’s sexuality or race or disability is never made a topic of horror. I’m of the opinion that those things should never be left out of horror altogether; Get Out, and certain episodes of I Am In Eskew are examples of how those things can work together without being either suffering porn or punching down. But The Magnus Archives doesn’t bring that kind of horror, and it’s honestly deeply reassuring in some ways. The variation is there- the narrator is asexual, statement givers mention husbands or wives or partners, mental illness or gender issues, physical disability or just physical variation- but it’s never used against them, and it’s never used to scare. 

Such a good range of scary things. just so much cool horrible nasty things are you kidding me

Horrible anglerfish things that dangle empty people-shape lures at you. Walking masses of disease and worms. The entire concept of entropy. Doors that open into corridors that only turn right forever and ever and ever. Spiders!!!!! Living shadow dark things. The man who met The War. Caves that want to keep you down in the dirt forever. Endless sky in all directions. Books that Can And Will do so much worse than kill you. 

there’s something here for everyone and it’s such a good time

[ladyloveandjustice]

Reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its characters

I did a breakdown of how Attack on Titan failed the potential of its premise due to its commitment to being edgy fascist garbage, but I also want to talk about how it failed a bunch of characters who were brimming with potential.

(This is gonna be messy and loooong, because I have a lot of feelings. Someone on the last post noted my “rhetoric blows” and I will freely admit I’m not really trying for coherent “rhetoric” here, I’m just venting my frustration so I can get it all out of me and move on).

Yes, it wasn’t solely the premise that drew me and so many others to Attack on Titan and its potential. There were a lot of unique and exciting elements with the way this shonen manga handled its characters.

I said before that Isayama never cared about his characters, but that was a bit of a exaggeration. I think he did start out caring about some of them...it’s just he quickly got bored with them and started treating them solely as tools to serve the “plot” and the screwed message he wanted to impart.

Isayama does have one strength as a character writer- he excels at  showing characters who are messy, flawed and selfish but nevertheless sympathetic. Nobody in Attack on Titan is a classic unselfish “pure” hero, they are all deeply flawed. Isayama’s characters were compelling in the beginning because of that. He allowed his characters to exhibit cowardice, he allowed them to fail spectacularly, and that made Attack on Titan stand out. Despire the melodrama of their situations, actions and personalities, there’s a rawness to (most of) his characters that fits the horror of the setting.

Even the protag Eren, who a lot of people dislike or find easily the most boring character (honestly I found Levi the most boring though), has this ugliness to him that makes him distinct from the billion other teen boy protags in shonen. He is genuinely unstable and honestly a bit disturbing, as this collection of weird murderfaces he makes shows (behold my post popular aot post, ah memories).His obsession with killing Titans was unsettling, it was the classic determination of a shonen hero through a screwed up horror lens, this kid ain’t all right.

Historia especially resonated me because she was TRYING to be that classic pure heroine- but she was selfish like everyone else deep down. She just wanted to be SEEN as an pure-hearted martyr who sacrificed for others, when really all she was doing was giving into her suicidal urges. It was criticism of the very concept of the “immaculate woman”, and that’s pretty cool. So was the fact she was seen through by Ymir, someone who embraces selfishness in all other aspects of her life but is ultimately selfless when it comes to her love for Historia...that’s some good shit. It’s fantastic as a character concept, and Ymir and Historia’s initial character writing and backstory will stick with me because it was genuinely good in all its melodrama. 

Historia and Ymir were nuanced queer characters whose relationships were fleshed out well. I do believe Isayama put care into crafting their initial arcs and developing them.

But then we run into a problem. A problem that eventually we run into with every character in AOT. Isayama stops caring about them. After their initial big arcs or moments in the spotlight or backstory reveals, he just doesn’t know what to do with these characters anymore. So they completely disapppear from the manga or fade into the background only to matter again when he decides to kill them off for some cheap shock moment. Either that, or they just exist to further the narrative of how the military is cool and we have to exterminate all our enemies and blablabla.

 Because he ultimately cares about that narrative far, far more than he does giving these characters the full stories that resonate, make sense and are effectively paced. He's completely willing to undo all the character work he did previously if it means he can be edgy or impress his ideals on the reader.

That’s why Ymir and Historia have this dramatic parting that gets the audience pumped to see what happens to both of them and when they’ll reunite...only for Ymir to just completely disappear from the narrative, then be killed offscreen without even really re-entering the story again. That’s why Historia has this whole big arc about reclaiming her agency, resisting her abusive family and learning to live for herself...only to be intimidated into becoming Queen even though she’s not super into it, because she needs to serve the military and NOT live for herself after all, I guess? And oh, now she’s numbly accepted her duty to endlessly make babies for the sake of the nation! Turns out her real purpose is to be something for the other characters to be sad about. 

Isayama got bored with Historia’s arc and Ymir’s arc and their relationship. He may have fun coming up with characters backstories and the big dramatic moments, but once those are over? He doesn’t care enough to do the work to conclude their stories. He gets distracted by his next plot point, his next action scene. The characters are toys he discards or breaks for the sake of either some edgy ‘anyone can die!’ moment or to push forward whatever new stupid plot point he’s thought up for his fascist narrative. (Links to evidence of Isayama’s views in this post).

Even in the (dumb) sense of “oohhh doesn’t this impress life’s cruelty upon us”, Ymir’s death is a failure. When she’s been gone from the narrative so long, to have it suddenly be like “oh, she died” just makes for a reader feeling confused and cheated, not devastated. It becomes painfully clear she’s an afterthought to the author, a loose end that needed to be cut. Same with Sasha’s recent death, I saw no sign she’d been anything but background in the narrative for a long. looong time before she was killed off.

 Heck, look not further than Annie, who has now been trapped in crystal for what, 800 chapters? It’s been YEARS, both in universe and out. It’s honestly FUNNY at this point that she’s still fuckin’ in there, literally just frozen until Isayama can decide what he wants to do with her.. I hope the manga ends with everyone dead and then 1000 years later Annie emerges like “hey guys I’m back!” Then a meteor hits her or something. The intrigue surrounding her fizzled out a long time ago, yet Isayama still expects the reader to care whenever that hunk of rock shows up?

Let’s bring it around back to Eren. There were a lot of interesting directions he could have actually gone as a character, had he been forced to actually, y’know, deal with the fact he was channeling his grief in an unhealthy way or his worldview had ultimately been challenged at all. But Isayama actually agrees with Eren for the most part, he does think enemies should be exterminated without fail and genocide is cool and stuff. So Eren’s development throughout 800 chapters was just to ultimately get more and more obsessed with killing enemies, to the point where he doesn’t even enjoy seeing the ocean for long before deciding that was more important. Only his targets are definitely people now, and he doesn’t care about children or civilian casualties anymore, and yeah he’s screwed up, but doesn’t he have a point???? You can almost hear Isayama say this.

 Eren exemplifies how Isayama approaches character development. He allows his characters to get more ruthless, more calculating, more fucked up, more comfortable with killing and torture as time goes on, but they can’t develop in a positive way ever- if they start going in that direction, it’s time for them to either die or regress. Nobody’s allowed to find any sort of lasting happiness, nobody’s allowed to become softer or kinder. “Cowards” (like Armin or Sasha) can become “brave”, but they’ll eventually lose most of their softness and empathy too. But that will be excused at every turn, because that’s apparently the price, the sacrifice of being a soldier. It’s “necessary” and it’s something Isayama very obviously admires. “Bravery” trumps compassion, soldiers must be ruthless to win and in the end, any growth is meaningless.

To be clear, a lot of negative character development isn’t a bad thing and “anyone can die” narratives aren’t either (though both are very tricky to pull off without losing audience investment- if you know it’s all just gonna be suffering, why keep reading?). But even when your story has those elements, you, as an author, have to have some respect and perspective in regards to your characters and Isayama has neither. He AGREES that his characters terrible actions (like torture) are necessary, because he thinks what Japanese soldiers did to Korean civilians was A-OK too...so it all just comes off as sickening.

And in a story, even if you’re trying to impress that death is random and arbitrary, that your story’s world is dangerous for everyone, those deaths should still mean something to you. the author. Otherwise the reader can’t feel their impact. It shouldn’t be easy to kill off a character. It shouldn’t be simply because you’re bored, or don’t know what to do with them- yet Isayama has openly admitted what he does. A character ceasing to matter, and then dying, has no impact. A character must matter up until the moment they cease for their death to matter.

( And lbr, if “anyone” could really die in AOT, the four main characters wouldn’t have gotten a million miracle reprieves by now).

It’s not surprising it ended up this way, though. It’s not surprising a man who has no sympathy or compassion for victims of war crimes has no sympathy or compassion for his characters and slowly drains them of their humanity as the story goes on. His love of war and domination is more important to him than human beings, and that comes through in his narrative, where characterization takes a backseat to his love of depicting war and violence, of impressing its necessity on the reader.

The characters of Attack on Titan deserve better than to be embedded in this cynical, cheap, fascist narrative. Fortunately, there are a ton of stories out there, and you can find similar characters with authors who actually care about them and aren’t openly fascist. For instance, while thinking about Historia’s arc and how good it started out, I remembered that one of my favorite narratives has a very similar main character. If you like Historia and wish she had a better narrative, I encourage you to check out the anime or light novels for The Twelve Kingdoms.

Similar to Historia, Youko is raised in an oppressive environment and constructs this entire personality around the idea of being an ideal good girl who lives for others, even though deep down she didn’t really care much for the people she was pleasing. When she’s stranded in an unfamiliar world, she slowly finds who she really is- and she’s pretty hardcore. She comes into a royal position of power too, but needless to say, it’s handled much better than Historia’s arc in AOT. 

True, she’s not explicitly queer, but there’s no explicit love interest either (the anime does add a “crush”, but he disappears pretty quickly and she gets over him amazingly fast), and ton of strong female relationships in the story too, that don’t end with one party dying and the other becoming a baby machine. And it’s written by a woman who’s never openly supported war crimes, so. 

So yeah, there are so many better options than Attack on Titan, and so many better ways these character concepts can be used. If you’re as disappointed as I am, it’s important to remember that. These character were failed, but characters like them can still be given the narratives they deserve.

Here’s the final part of this series:

The final reflection on Attack on Titan: How the narrative failed its potential in regard to gender and queer themes.

[joie-university-rp]

Dear SILAS HART,

It is with great pleasure we invite you admission to Joie University! Welcome to the Thunderclap family!

-

Congratulations, MOE! Please be sure to check the New Members’ Checklist and send in your character’s account within 24 hours from now. We cannot wait to see all that you will bring to this roleplay! We love you already!

OOC INFORMATION:

Name/Alias; pronouns: Moe; she/her

Age, Timezone: 22 (birthday!!) EST

Activity, short explanation: Just, like… always here.

Ships: Silas/Chemistry, Silas/No Chemistry (for plot)

Anti-Ships: N/A

Triggers: RFP

Preferred photo for Character’s ID (please give a link): I make the IDs. I’ll find one.

Anything else: Heyyyyy, Daisy.

IC INFORMATION:

Full Name (First, Middle, Last): Silas David Hart

FC: Samuel Larsen

Age/Year at University (Freshman [1st Year], Sophomore, Junior, Senior, or Graduate Student): 22, 1st year grad student

Birth date (MONTH DAY, YEAR): Sept. 25th, 1999

Hometown (please be sure to check the hometowns listed for characters your muse is related to!): Twinsburg, OH

Gender/Pronouns: Male; he/him

Sexuality: Queer

Major(s): Make-Up Design (Focus: SPX make up)

Minor(s) [optional]: Computer and Information Sciences

Housing request (remember, only the president of a Greek Organization is required to live at a Greek House to be in it!): AXi House, Suite 3

Extracurriculars (Click here for the list. Be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, secretary, etc.] If something isn’t listed, please put it here and we will add it to the masterlist!): Drama techies, Robotics club, Archery, LGBTQ+ Association

Greek Life Affiliation [optional] (Please be sure to specify any executive board positions [i.e. president, pledge educator, etc.] or if your character is not yet a member, but plans to rush): AXi

CHARACTER PROFILE:

[At least] 3 Headcanons for your character:

TW: Character injury

Silas was born in Twinsburg, Ohio a few minutes after his identical twin brother, Joe. The two spent all of their developmental years in Twinsburg, but Silas had known since around middle school that he eventually wanted to go out and see what the world had for him.

Silas and Joe’s parents were both highly religious, but they were also recognizing of the need to allow their sons to find their own paths in life. Although they did encourage the two to study Catholicism, they never pushed it once the two were old enough to start making their own decisions. As a result, Silas is someone in the middle when it comes to religious belief and the importance (or lackthereof) of there being a God. It varies day by day.

Silas is someone who has always held himself in high regard. He has always been happy to acknowledge the fact that he is traditionally attractive, and although he does his best not to be too smug about it–he does still recognize the importance of humility, after all–he’s also more than aware of the advantages that being attractive can give him.

Silas has always had an obsession with how things look and how things work. As he grew older, he began flipping cars–rebuilding and redesigning them from scratch.

Silas can play the guitar and carry a tune, but music isn’t really much of a priority to him.

Although Silas is far from shy, he never felt much desire to be in the spotlight. Instead, he found pleasure in watching a performance and knowing that he was one of the reasons why things worked and looked as good as they did. This led to his role as a techie in middle school and high school theatre, and eventually led to him realizing that he wanted to pursue a career in special effects make up and possibly stage design.

Tired of small towns, Silas got his undergrad degree in make-up design at NYU and was a frequenter of many of the bars that Kurt Hummel bartended at; they found themselves talking quite a bit.

Towards the end of Silas’ senior year at NYU, his mother suffered a fall while their father was at work that resulted in her breaking her hip. It was an injury that Mrs. Hart was able to almost fully recover from, but it also re-highlighted the importance of family in Silas’ mind. Not wanting to experience something like that happening again, Silas packed back up and found somewhere much closer to home where he could continue his education so that he could take the 30 minute drive home whenever necessary.

STUDENT CENSUS SURVEY:

(Please answer the following questions IN CHARACTER. Responses can be as long or short as you see fit!)

What made you want to attend Joie University? “It was really just a situation where multiple paths intersected and pointed in the same direction: I wanted to continue to schooling, I wanted to be close to Joe and my parents, I was getting sick of the “hustle and bustle” of the big city… Maybe it’s more of the universe wanting me here than me wanting me here.”

What are at least 3 positive or neutral and at least 3 negative traits that you believe you possess? “I’d consider myself pretty laid back–as laid back as someone who’d actually bother acknowledging that they’re laid back would be, I guess. I’m definitely frugal–not cheap, but frugal–and… you know, all the more basic things everyone says like ‘creative’. As far as negative? I definitely enjoy my alone time when I get in a certain headspace. I could see that being negative. I’m also not the easiest person to get along with if someone just… keeps messing up the same thing over and over. I fucking hate that shit. As far as a third one? I don’t know… I’m not the most on-time person that even existed. That’s definitely one.”

Which of your traits do you value most? “Personally? Well… creative, actually. Had I read ahead to the future questions, I wouldn’t’ve shit on it so bad.”

How can that trait benefit the University (or its student body) as a whole? “Creativity’s just generally a good thing to have. It’s how things evolve and change. Society marches on and all that.”

What do you hope to gain from your experience at JU? “…A graduate degree?”

What is a quote or song lyric that describes you? “If I’d had done for the money I’d have been a fucking lawyer” -Make The Money, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

[songsforfelurian]

Hi! Recently. I have been questioning my sexual orientation as until now I thought I was hetero. I always thought that you knew from an early age what your sexual preference was.I am a 19 years old female. I have never been in relationship and find it hard to make friends due to my panic disorder. I don’t really feel attraction to appearance, its more so because of common interests. Relationships and romance seem a mystery to me, never mind thinking on whether I could be with a girl. Any advice?

Hi! I’m so happy youreached out! I’ve found that I have no idea how to address questions like thisbriefly, so if you’re interested in some of my thoughts on labels and sexualpreference, read on!

Plenty of peopledefinitely DON’T know their sexual preference from an early age! And don’t letthe prevalence of labels and titles on blogs and websites fool you. I thinkpeople often assign themselves a label before they know for sure, or beforethey’re really ready – for understandable reasons. Sexual preference is complicated,and it can be soothing and reassuring to hunt for language to help defineourselves. Labels can help us feel like our thoughts and feelings arelegitimate, and like we belong to a community – the community of people whoalso use our label. I understand and support the impulse to sift through LBGTQ+language and literature to see if something clicks. You can find a resource forthat here.

There are many problems with becoming too label-focused,though.  One major issue is that sexualpreference can be fluid, or more difficult to define than a label mightsuggest. My own sexuality has fluctuated pretty significantly throughout mylifetime, and I try not to get too attached to any particular label because ofthis. As if mainstream culture wasn’t already trying to stuff us all intoneatly labeled and divided boxes, now people are trying to do this to each otherin LGBTQ+ spaces! And this can make us feel like we have to do it to ourselves,too – catalogue our every thought and impulse, hunting for patterns until wefind some word or title that can define who we are.

This leads me to another huge problem with labels: the mostwidely known and accepted terms – gay, lesbian, and bisexual – have a rigidconnotation that many find unsettling. I’ve always been envious of people whojust KNOW they fit into one of these categories. Not to minimize the strugglesand suffering of these community members – of course I’m sensitive to that –but that’s not what this post is about. It’s about the gray area, the feeling ofuncertainty, and the importance of feeling loved and accepted and validatedeven if you don’t fit into a neat, convenient box. People shouldn’t have tomeet certain ‘queerness criteria’ to feel valued and supported, and that’s mybiggest issue with labels in general. Goodness knows how many straight-identifyingpeople out there actually fall somewhere on the queer spectrum, but don’t knowit, or choose to ignore it, because the language we use can be rigid anddivisive and doesn’t lend itself to growth and change over time.

Now to address some of your other concerns:

I think it’s very common for people to feel unsure of HOWexactly they’re attracted to others. TONS of people fall somewhere on that demisexualspectrum – they need to feel some kind of emotional connection to a partner inorder to be sexually or romantically attracted. It’s totally normal, but I alsocaution people, too – if you haven’t had a lot of experience with sex andrelationships, it can be easy to feel that you might not actually be interestedin potential partners’ physicality or genitalia, and this might not always betrue! Bodies can be scary! It can take time and experience with other actualhuman beings to determine our true feelings, and there’s nothing wrong withexperimenting safely to try to figure it out, before rushing to slap a label onyourself. I do believe that people can have a strong sense of their own sexualpreference, even with zero sexual experience – but I also think the vastmajority learn by doing.

My biggest advice is to reach out, like you did by sendingthis ask! You mentioned you suffer from a panic disorder, and I can empathize somewhat– I’ve had many panic episodes throughout my life – but I believe it’s possiblefor you to make some connections with people that could really help you. Sendmore asks to blogs, and maybe work your way up to sending a direct message.Most people LOVE getting asks and DMs from people who have legitimate questionsor are just looking for friendly support.

If you’re worried about linking your main blog to these asksor conversations, make a totally anonymous account! I know it can be intimidatingto start conversations with strangers, so sometimes it can help to make anaccount specifically for that purpose, to lower the stakes for yourself. Thinkof it like an experiment, and try to detach yourself from the account – it’sfake anyway, so if something doesn’t go the way you’d like, you can just deleteit and move on! But I do suggest that you find a way to talk to other peopleabout their own experiences, and work up to identifying some safe people thatyou can spend some time with in real life, to learn more about your ownpreferences and identity.

Tumblr is a good starting point since you’re already here,but I know it doesn’t always feel like the safest place. I haven’t actuallyutilized these resources myself, but after some searching they seem decent:

https://www.glbthotline.org/

This website has both phone and online chat features specificallyfor LGBTQ+ support.

https://lgbtchat.net/

This looks more like chatroom or message-board style.

Lastly, you can always send ME a message! I wrote this postbased on your ask, but I know it may be completely useless to you, since I knowso little about you and your situation. Conversation is always a better route.I’d be more than happy to talk and see if I can be more helpful or reassuring.If you decide not to reach out further, I’ll be wishing you luck. Remember,there’s no rush. Take your time, talk with safe people, and accumulateexperiences as best you can. Do what feels good. And remember that you DO havesupport!

[kayawagner]

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

If you are active on Twitter you might have noticed that people have recently begun using the hashtag #DnDGate while posting about literally “gates in D&D” or how what their gateway into D&D was. But if you dig a little deeper you might notice that the origins of the hashtag are a bit more sinister.

The whole thing was started by a guy posting under the Twitter handle @KasimirUrbanski. He’s also known as RPGPundit, but his real name is John Tarnowski. He runs the TheRPGSite forums and has released a couple of OSR roleplaying games. He’s known for the term Swine he uses to call everyone who plays modern indie games. If you have played Fate, Apocalypse World, or even a World of Darkness game, you might be Swine in Tarnowski’s eyes.

He was in the middle of a minor internet scandal a couple of years back, when Wizards of the Coast hired him and Zak S. aka Zak Smith aka Zak Sabbath as consultants for D&D 5th Edition. Both were notorious for being internet bullies, but at least Zak is respected – even by his critics – for his works. Personally I have no idea what an impact they had on the final product, but some people claim that its was basically a marketing ploy by WotC. Nevertheless people were outraged that WotC hired these two, and a lot of accusations were thrown around.

Recently Tarnowski formed an idea on Twitter about a GamerGate-like movement in the tabletop RPG hobby called #DnDGate. So what was the perceived scandal he wanted to fight against? That’s actually not that clear. One of his claims is that WotC and/or their employees are acting as gatekeepers. He is outraged because Mike Mearls “fired” people from the community on Twitter, after people were objecting to the hiring of a women. He rants about Social Justice Warriors, who are –  in his mind – trying to force white males out of the hobby and replacing them by minorities.

Let’s make one thing clear: WotC is doing nothing wrong. D&D is their brand. They want it to appeal to everyone. D&D is more popular than ever, and slowly even the mainstream seems to have a more positive view on it. As a D&D player you don’t have to hide in the closet anymore. But instead of celebrating this, people like the RPGPundit want to keep the hobby closed. They feel threatened by the idea that D&D could be not only for white males, but everyone (perhaps it’s because they fear that people might call them out on their behavior). They act as if any piece of sexist artwork removed from a D&D book causes them physical pain. They feel threatened by every depiction of queer, trans, or genderfluid person in their fantasy games. The world is changing, and so are the games we play.

So why do we even talk about all this? Because GamerGate-like movements cause real harm. Even if you accept that it was all about “ethics in game journalism”, you can’t deny that many people used it as an excuse to harass, threaten, and attack people. This is no laughing matter. Online harassment can be extremely harmful to the victims. It’s not uncommon that people harassed online suffer from anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Even if GamerGate started with good intentions, it still caused massive harm. Do we really want this in our hobby? I don’t think so.

The other aspect is that the more you look into it, the more obvious it is, that Tarnowski is not entirely honest when it comes to his motives. His rants against SJWs and WotC are always linked to the promotion of his own games. In his videos he never shows his face, but always the cover of his product. He knows that all publicity is good publicity and all this attention whether its positive or negative might actually result in sales. In a way, this post might actually help him reach this goal, but I still think it’s important to inform my readers about this whole kerfuffle.

I also think that he’s mad at WotC because he felt his input on 5th edition was ignored or because he was hoping on getting hired full-time which of course didn’t happen. While he lashes out at companies like Evil Hat regularly, too, his main beef seems to be which WotC. That’s why he tried to establish #DnDGate and not #RPGGate for example. Overall I think he tries to become the head honcho of the whole OSR, or at least he wants to be perceived as such. I have my doubts that this will happen any time soon, and I am glad that the majority of the RPG community is not willing to put up with his shenanigans.

The RPG community has over the last decades become more welcoming, more open, more diverse. Sure, there’s still a long way to go, but we’re at least starting to go into the right direction. I really don’t want bad actors like Mr. Tarnowski to turn back the clock.

Related posts:

My Two Cents on #Gamergate

Make Games Not War!

My rant on WotC’s new Character Builder

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kayawagner]

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

If you are active on Twitter you might have noticed that people have recently begun using the hashtag #DnDGate while posting about literally “gates in D&D” or how what their gateway into D&D was. But if you dig a little deeper you might notice that the origins of the hashtag are a bit more sinister.

The whole thing was started by a guy posting under the Twitter handle @KasimirUrbanski. He’s also known as RPGPundit, but his real name is John Tarnowski. He runs the TheRPGSite forums and has released a couple of OSR roleplaying games. He’s known for the term Swine he uses to call everyone who plays modern indie games. If you have played Fate, Apocalypse World, or even a World of Darkness game, you might be Swine in Tarnowski’s eyes.

He was in the middle of a minor internet scandal a couple of years back, when Wizards of the Coast hired him and Zak S. aka Zak Smith aka Zak Sabbath as consultants for D&D 5th Edition. Both were notorious for being internet bullies, but at least Zak is respected – even by his critics – for his works. Personally I have no idea what an impact they had on the final product, but some people claim that its was basically a marketing ploy by WotC. Nevertheless people were outraged that WotC hired these two, and a lot of accusations were thrown around.

Recently Tarnowski formed an idea on Twitter about a GamerGate-like movement in the tabletop RPG hobby called #DnDGate. So what was the perceived scandal he wanted to fight against? That’s actually not that clear. One of his claims is that WotC and/or their employees are acting as gatekeepers. He is outraged because Mike Mearls “fired” people from the community on Twitter, after people were objecting to the hiring of a women. He rants about Social Justice Warriors, who are –  in his mind – trying to force white males out of the hobby and replacing them by minorities.

Let’s make one thing clear: WotC is doing nothing wrong. D&D is their brand. They want it to appeal to everyone. D&D is more popular than ever, and slowly even the mainstream seems to have a more positive view on it. As a D&D player you don’t have to hide in the closet anymore. But instead of celebrating this, people like the RPGPundit want to keep the hobby closed. They feel threatened by the idea that D&D could be not only for white males, but everyone (perhaps it’s because they fear that people might call them out on their behavior). They act as if any piece of sexist artwork removed from a D&D book causes them physical pain. They feel threatened by every depiction of queer, trans, or genderfluid person in their fantasy games. The world is changing, and so are the games we play.

So why do we even talk about all this? Because GamerGate-like movements cause real harm. Even if you accept that it was all about “ethics in game journalism”, you can’t deny that many people used it as an excuse to harass, threaten, and attack people. This is no laughing matter. Online harassment can be extremely harmful to the victims. It’s not uncommon that people harassed online suffer from anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Even if GamerGate started with good intentions, it still caused massive harm. Do we really want this in our hobby? I don’t think so.

The other aspect is that the more you look into it, the more obvious it is, that Tarnowski is not entirely honest when it comes to his motives. His rants against SJWs and WotC are always linked to the promotion of his own games. In his videos he never shows his face, but always the cover of his product. He knows that all publicity is good publicity and all this attention whether its positive or negative might actually result in sales. In a way, this post might actually help him reach this goal, but I still think it’s important to inform my readers about this whole kerfuffle.

I also think that he’s mad at WotC because he felt his input on 5th edition was ignored or because he was hoping on getting hired full-time which of course didn’t happen. While he lashes out at companies like Evil Hat regularly, too, his main beef seems to be which WotC. That’s why he tried to establish #DnDGate and not #RPGGate for example. Overall I think he tries to become the head honcho of the whole OSR, or at least he wants to be perceived as such. I have my doubts that this will happen any time soon, and I am glad that the majority of the RPG community is not willing to put up with his shenanigans.

The RPG community has over the last decades become more welcoming, more open, more diverse. Sure, there’s still a long way to go, but we’re at least starting to go into the right direction. I really don’t want bad actors like Mr. Tarnowski to turn back the clock.

Related posts:

My Two Cents on #Gamergate

Make Games Not War!

My rant on WotC’s new Character Builder

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

[kayawagner]

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

If you are active on Twitter you might have noticed that people have recently begun using the hashtag #DnDGate while posting about literally “gates in D&D” or how what their gateway into D&D was. But if you dig a little deeper you might notice that the origins of the hashtag are a bit more sinister.

The whole thing was started by a guy posting under the Twitter handle @KasimirUrbanski. He’s also known as RPGPundit, but his real name is John Tarnowski. He runs the TheRPGSite forums and has released a couple of OSR roleplaying games. He’s known for the term Swine he uses to call everyone who plays modern indie games. If you have played Fate, Apocalypse World, or even a World of Darkness game, you might be Swine in Tarnowski’s eyes.

He was in the middle of a minor internet scandal a couple of years back, when Wizards of the Coast hired him and Zak S. aka Zak Smith aka Zak Sabbath as consultants for D&D 5th Edition. Both were notorious for being internet bullies, but at least Zak is respected – even by his critics – for his works. Personally I have no idea what an impact they had on the final product, but some people claim that its was basically a marketing ploy by WotC. Nevertheless people were outraged that WotC hired these two, and a lot of accusations were thrown around.

Recently Tarnowski formed an idea on Twitter about a GamerGate-like movement in the tabletop RPG hobby called #DnDGate. So what was the perceived scandal he wanted to fight against? That’s actually not that clear. One of his claims is that WotC and/or their employees are acting as gatekeepers. He is outraged because Mike Mearls “fired” people from the community on Twitter, after people were objecting to the hiring of a women. He rants about Social Justice Warriors, who are –  in his mind – trying to force white males out of the hobby and replacing them by minorities.

Let’s make one thing clear: WotC is doing nothing wrong. D&D is their brand. They want it to appeal to everyone. D&D is more popular than ever, and slowly even the mainstream seems to have a more positive view on it. As a D&D player you don’t have to hide in the closet anymore. But instead of celebrating this, people like the RPGPundit want to keep the hobby closed. They feel threatened by the idea that D&D could be not only for white males, but everyone (perhaps it’s because they fear that people might call them out on their behavior). They act as if any piece of sexist artwork removed from a D&D book causes them physical pain. They feel threatened by every depiction of queer, trans, or genderfluid person in their fantasy games. The world is changing, and so are the games we play.

So why do we even talk about all this? Because GamerGate-like movements cause real harm. Even if you accept that it was all about “ethics in game journalism”, you can’t deny that many people used it as an excuse to harass, threaten, and attack people. This is no laughing matter. Online harassment can be extremely harmful to the victims. It’s not uncommon that people harassed online suffer from anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Even if GamerGate started with good intentions, it still caused massive harm. Do we really want this in our hobby? I don’t think so.

The other aspect is that the more you look into it, the more obvious it is, that Tarnowski is not entirely honest when it comes to his motives. His rants against SJWs and WotC are always linked to the promotion of his own games. In his videos he never shows his face, but always the cover of his product. He knows that all publicity is good publicity and all this attention whether its positive or negative might actually result in sales. In a way, this post might actually help him reach this goal, but I still think it’s important to inform my readers about this whole kerfuffle.

I also think that he’s mad at WotC because he felt his input on 5th edition was ignored or because he was hoping on getting hired full-time which of course didn’t happen. While he lashes out at companies like Evil Hat regularly, too, his main beef seems to be which WotC. That’s why he tried to establish #DnDGate and not #RPGGate for example. Overall I think he tries to become the head honcho of the whole OSR, or at least he wants to be perceived as such. I have my doubts that this will happen any time soon, and I am glad that the majority of the RPG community is not willing to put up with his shenanigans.

The RPG community has over the last decades become more welcoming, more open, more diverse. Sure, there’s still a long way to go, but we’re at least starting to go into the right direction. I really don’t want bad actors like Mr. Tarnowski to turn back the clock.

Related posts:

My Two Cents on #Gamergate

Make Games Not War!

My rant on WotC’s new Character Builder

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com