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harpersplay · 3 years ago

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Genuine non-troll white woman here - you wrote "So I already knew that Good Girls was a white feminism phantasmagoria...But, jesus fucking christ, y'all are just showing your true colours lately. The way you talk about a MOC in relation to a white woman is disgusting." Not asking you to call out specific people or posts or start any kind of flame war but what would be a general example of what you are talking about? I follow a good chunk of people and I'm not seeing this maybe b/c I'm not following the same people, maybe out of willful blindness, maybe I'm not recognizing it - again, b/c of ignorance, etc. Just trying to understand what you mean - and not do it obviously, if I am doing it.

I apologise for taking a longish time to answer this. Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to get into it. Anyway, I'd first like to say that this is all my opinion. What bothers me might not bother someone else. BIPOC are not a monolith. Even subsections aren't. Not all Mexican trans men are a monolith. Neither are all Japanese lesbians. You get the idea. And that's not even including people like Ben Carson or Caitlyn Jenner—people who support and work for policies that actively harm the marginalised group of which they are a part. Secondly, I know this isn't your intention, but asking POC to tell you what is ok to do and what is not is a slippery slope to "my [blank] friend said this was ok." Finally, the fandom is quite small so it is pretty hard to give general examples. I don't know if it's more trouble to quote specific posts or not, because some will think it is about them anyway. Anything I'm going to mention I've seen on Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit and/or Twitter. But there are definitely popular Tumblr blogs that all push the same narrative. Oh, and one last thing, I haven't seen any of what I'm referring to from people I follow.

Ok, let's go. For a very long time, mainly WOC have pointed out the racial problems within the show and the extremely dismissive attitude about those problems from mainly white women. And while these same women have written thousands (even tens of thousands) or words about Beth (it's always Beth) and her struggles and the amazingness of such a complex female character (ymmv), they brush aside commentary about racism as either nitpicking, not understanding the show is about the 3 women (tell that to all the white men with fleshed-out storylines), or misogyny. The last is especially hostile because they are often talking over Black women and misogynoir is a very real fucking thing that couples the fun of being hated for being a woman with the delight of good old-fashioned racism. They espouse the idea that people having a problem with Beth are all covert & overt misogynists. But talk out the other side of their mouths that they can't possibly be racist even when they support racism in the show or ignore concerns brought up by fans of colour. And that is just the absolute height of hypocrisy. Because by the former they acknowledge that people in a marginalised group (women) can still be anti- that group (a phenomenon with which I agree). But in the latter, suddenly they don't understand that concept.

Specific to the post you are responding to, fans that purport to like Brio write about the relationship in ways that reveal how much of their enjoyment comes from Rio being inferior to Beth. It's all about what he can do for her, how he acts against his best interests for her, how he literally denies himself sexual pleasure for her. Those are all meant to show how in love he is with her. But the show never bothers to tell us why. And, no, this is not because the show is so deep. Other romantic relationships they have scenes that are explicit about the characters' feelings. But Rio, after being shot, after being betrayed, after being mocked, is just so in love with Beth....because. (MYSTERIOUS!) And the Beth stans are more than fine with this because they think everyone should be as obsessed with Beth as they are. But it's bad storytelling. And, in this particular case, it gets into very dicey racist tropes. A white women treating her Latino lover like an afterthought is not the same as a white women treating her white lover like an afterthought. It just isn't. And if some of these fans are as smart as they pretend to be, they know that. They just don't care. Much like the showrunners.

There was so much talk defending the drawn-out Boland marriage because why can't we understand how hard it is for Beth—who is, at various times, claimed to be emotionally abused by Dean or staying with him because it is safe and comfortable—and we don't appreciate how difficult it is for her (I may be one of the few divorced people talking about this show on Tumblr, so this has always made me laugh). Yet there was nothing but glee when Rio flipped on his brousin (who was written as both abusive and safe) for Beth. Where was the empathy for Rio and how hard it was for him? Especially because, unlike Beth, he didn't even have one parent? Hadn't the Beth stans used her very tragical history™️ to explain away her every shitty act? idk, not having any parents and going to jail (as a minor?) and being betrayed by your family seems pretty tragic. But I didn't see them all of a sudden excusing Rio's bad behaviour. Because, feminism or something?

What about Beth's feelings? Last season she spent trying to have him killed. This season she spent looking annoyed by him. Throughout both she talked down to him in a specific white woman way that every BIPOC has experienced, even if some of them are cool with it. There were multiple opportunites for Beth to talk about her feelings with Ruby and/or Annie, but the writers made the deliberate choice to always make it about sex (and god, the immature way they had these three grown women talk was fucking obnoxious). She spent the last 2 seasons also wanting him out of her life to the point that a majority of her actions in S4 were motivated by getting to Nevada with her husband and kids. Beth doesn't care about Rio but Rio needs to put Beth above everything because he's just so in love like he's never been before (which is blatant Marcus & Rhea erasure). And anyone who doesn't think Beth would have just as happily been sitting on that bench plotting how to "run the city" (hahahahaha!) with Nick if the situation worked out differently hasn't been paying attention.

So, what do we have? A white woman who is constantly excused (by the loudest portion of the fandom) for all her ill treatment to her Black BFF & her Black husband, her Asian coworker, her Latina "friend," and Rio (among others) because her life is hard and who is not required to even be nice to her supposed "endgame". And a MOC who is expected to accept being treated poorly by the white woman because he loves her.

And, a last thing, this attitude grossly crossed over into talk about real people when the fans—who self-righteously claimed to be above anon sources or talking about the actors—latched on to the narrative and enjoyed blaming the MOC actor for the cancellation of the show, even dragging his insignificant (in terms of influence) Black wife into it. All while conveniently ignoring that the creator/showrunner is a white woman. The star & producer is a white woman. The people making the decisions at NBCU & Netflix were white women. All white women with so much more power than the Latino actor.

Shit, did I answer your question? I know this is a lot. But I could honestly make mulitple posts on each issue I touched on here. Basically, white people ain't slick, be they content creators or fans. We see how & what y'all talk about. We see that Rio not having a last name is not a big deal to you and we know why that is. So we're fucking tired. And we're over a show that had so much potential crapping all over their POC characters to prop up a white woman. And we're repulsed by the white women in the fandom who use their tears to seem oppressed and who toss around the word misogynist because POC dare call a Karen a Karen.

#nbc good girls #good girls nbc #racism in the text #racism in fandom #fragile whiteness #white feminism #what fandom chooses to talk about #and what it chooses to ignore #anon asks

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chaoslynx · 3 years ago

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hey, I'd like your input on a certain question I have pertaining to a hypothetical alternate ending of banana fish (the one where ash survives his stab wound). if you're not sure how to answer, that's completely fine, but I've seen so many people in the fandom claim so many different things about what would have happened if he survived, and I'm searching for a solid opinion.

I think the majority of the fandom can collectively agree that ash didn't need to die in order to heal from his trauma. I've see a lot of idiots say that even if ash lived, he would never heal or escape his past trauma, and so dying was the best outcome for his circumstances, which I'm sure the majority of us with more than 1 active braincell knows that's utter dog shit, and that survivors can heal no matter how big of a wound they may need treated.

however, I've seen people say that dying was his best option, NOT because he wouldn't have healed from his trauma, but because he wouldn't have the chance to heal considering the fact that he'd always be hunted down by his enemies. I've also seen people claim that even if he moved countries, he'd always be in constant danger because people would never stop looking for him. that he, as well as eiji, would have to live in fear and would never find peace due to the enemies ash has made during his lifetime.

I'm not sure what to think of this. I believe he'd be able to fake his death, borrow a new identity, and fake a passport to get on that damn plane headed to Japan. some have said that he wouldn't be able to due to his criminal record and so he'd never be allowed on a plane, which I also believe is dog shit. if that blond can scam millions of dollars out of and buy a condo right across from his #1 enemy without being caught, he can fucking travel. it's absurd how part of the fandom STILL underestimates his abilities, considering that he's shown time and time again of how capable and intelligent he truly is.

If you're able to answer, I'd like your opinion. we've established that survivors are able to heal no matter how big the baggage, but do you think he'd get the chance to heal, or would he always be on the run? would he forever be preoccupied with running from his enemies, or do you think his enemies would die trying to find him? I personally think that since his #1 enemy, D*no, is charred to a crisp, that he'd be somewhat safe from the rest. I don't think they'd even find him in an entirely different country in an entirely different continent.

but what do I know, honestly? maybe Yoshida confirmed that even if he did survive, he'd still be on the run until he died. I know she's said that murderers didn't deserve happy endings (bullshit, considering the circumstances that ash was in), but I'm not sure if she's clarified whether he would be on the run if he did hypothetically live. what do you think? no pressure :)

First of all, I'm a big fan of ignoring things Yoshida said.

I'm glad we agree that trauma survivors can heal! Also a big fan of that. Not gonna discuss that more here since we're already on the same page 💖

Before I get into whether or not Ash could ever escape from his enemies, I'd like to establish something about myself and my beliefs. I, personally, think that living is always going to be the better option. I am not going to be taking this question as a "could Ash have escaped his enemies, or is it good that he died?" That's not the problem here. The question I'll respond to below is "could Ash have escaped his enemies, or would he have always been on the run?"

This is an important distinction, because the first question implies that some lives just aren't worth living. I think your intentions here were good, so please don't take this as an attack on you in any way! But I'm not a fan of "living in fear [or living any other way] is worse than death" for a number of reasons. For one thing, dying is permanent. Once you die, there's never a chance of it getting better. It's literally a permanent solution to what often has the potential to be a temporary problem.

Also, any sort of "death is better" logic is a very slippery slope to be walking. If death is better than living in fear, is it also better than living with a permanent disability? With a chronic illness? At what point is it bad but still worth living through? Will Ash, on some level, always be living in fear due to what's likely post-traumatic stress disorder? Healing is obviously possible, but healing means learning how to cope better with a history of trauma, not getting rid of it.

So we're essentially asking the same question that we've already established the answer to: Is it better to live than to die? And, uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.

So anyway, moving onto the question I believe you were intending to ask: Would Ash have been able to escape his enemies?

Yeah. He would have.

For one thing, most of the people who actually gave a shit were already dead. Sure, the Corsican Foundation still existed, but most of them probably didn't think much of Ash besides him being Dino's favorite. There were those who saw Ash's mind in action during that month he spent with Dino during canon, but without Dino there, they have no reason to want Ash dead. Same with the ones who wanted Ash dead before the National Health Institute arc, if they weren't already dead themselves by the end of canon (like Kippard).

If Ash weren't going after them, I don't see why any of them would go after Ash.

Yut-Lung arguably had more enemies than Ash did by the end of canon, which was even Blanca's excuse for agreeing to work for him, but I don't see anyone arguing that Yue should have died. (I believe that he was canonically killed by one of his enemies at some point after Garden of Light, but does that mean that those 7+ years of freedom that he lived were pointless just because they came to an end?)

As far as traveling, yeah, Ash absolutely would have been able to fake an identity if he needed to. Like you said, he's done worse, and it's not like he doesn't have the connections for it. Although ...

I don't know if I've ever fully explained it in a fic or on here, but here's how I usually write post-canon.

Ash and Eiji stay in NYC. We know that moving back to the States and staying there is possible for Eiji, because ... it's what he does in canon after Ash's death. It's mentioned in GoL that Eiji moved back before he even healed completely from his gunshot wound, and that he got his Permanent Resident Card five years later.

As far as Ash, as much as a fucking pain in the ass it would be for him, I usually write him as actually testifying in court against ... fucking everyone. He gets help with this from Max, of course, and also from Jessica (who leaked Max's investigation, including the evidence they obtained from Frog, to the media in episode 23). In return for his testimony, he's granted total witness immunity for his crimes. ((Keep in mind that I know nothing about legal processes and how this would actually work in real life, but for fanfiction purposes that's how I choose to write it.))

So basically: Fuck Yoshida. Fuck death. Live your best life. YOLO.

#banana fish #ash lynx #cw death mention #long post #answers #anon

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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago

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Godddddd I'm so upset that I dislike yen this much, doing main quests in skellige and Freyas ppl were doing stuff and she again disrespected other cultures with Geraly being against, "I may be inhumanly beautiful" I know she's meant to be confident but wowww. She's not confident and worried for Ciri she just comes off arrogant and selfish and vain. Like, fuck.

The ultimate mood, anon. My Witcher fandom life would be so much easier if I enjoyed Yen ... but I just do not lol. Remember how I mentioned that things were going to get even worse than her stealing and using a potentially dangerous artifact? Yeeeaah. She also resurrects Ciri's friend to torture him for information, all while destroying another sacred garden to get the power to do it! It's not even a "She's so evil and I love it 😏" situation for me because the game tries so hard to convince us that she's still The Best. Geralt's sexy soulmate, Ciri's adoring mother, the baddest bitch around who gets things done and does it with an effortless confidence... all while ignoring how horrific her actions and attitude are. Oh sure, other characters speak ill of her at times, but considering how much Geralt is written to adore her, no matter what you choose, that's all undermined. I love morally gray/evil characters, but I've never enjoyed them when the text refuses to appropriately acknowledge that side of them. Nothing is more frustrating to me than a story that frames disliking a character as the unambiguously wrong thing to do, especially when the text is piling up reasons to dislike them and, as a result, ignoring or shrugging them off their actions as not that bad. Yen is a rather extreme example of that for me. Despite her attitude, her choices, and other characters outright going, "Why do you like her?" the story as a whole works under the assumption that it's correct to like her anyway because Geralt loves her. And he loves her for... reasons.

They do meet before the wish, but only just. Major "The Last Wish" spoilers in this paragraph, so feel free to skip. Basically, Geralt and Dandelion run into trouble with a djinn, he goes to Yen for help since she's a sorceress (first time meeting her), he instantly falls for her because she's gorgeous and such (there's an elf there who is also madly in love with Yen. Men just... fall for her, instinctually), she heals Dandelion, Geralt agrees to pay her, but Yen has already decided on the payment she wants. She takes control of Geralt's mind and forces him to attack the town to seek revenge on those who have insulted her, resulting in him waking up in prison awaiting execution for "his" crimes. Meanwhile, Yen has gone after the djinn for herself because power/trying to regain her ability to have a kid. Geralt escapes, finds her failing to master the djinn (an attempt which btw has endangered the whole town) and despite what she's done to him, Geralt tries to get Yen to escape with him. She refuses, set on capturing the djinn even though it's obvious she can't. So as a last resort he uses the final wish to bind their fates together, saving Yen from the djinn in the process. Aaaaaand then they have sex.

So yeah, their rocky relationship is one of the main reasons why I can't enjoy Yen. For some their tumultuous history is evidence of realism, for me it's evidence that they're not actually very compatible and they're only together because a) that's the fantasy trope: protagonist men get together with the hot sorceress and b) because the magic is literally ensuring that they can't escape one another. I mean, canonically their fates are tied together by magic and canonically they spend about 20 years swinging between passionate love and fearsome fights... but there's supposedly no connection between these two things? No chance at all that they keep coming together because magic is drawing them rather than because they actually want/should be together? I wrote a meta a while back about the short story where they meet, which includes a present day scene where Geralt is criticized by another character — Nenneke — for running out on Yen. Thing is, he tries to explain that he left because she was "too possessive" and this is... flat out ignored. By both Nenneke and the fandom. There's a strong trend of ignoring Geralt's words in favor of a pro-Yen interpretation of events. He says he left because she was too possessive and she treated him like ____ — he's not allowed to finish the sentence and say what she treated him like because Nenneke interrupts him, saying she doesn't care about his version of events. Major yikes imo! She turns a claim of being possessive into Geralt not being man enough to stick around. The fandom likewise turns this into a case of Geralt getting cold feet and running out because he's a bastard who hates commitment. Likewise, Nenneke and the fandom claim Geralt is trying to get Yen money as a way of appeasing his guilt for leaving, he claims he's doing it simply because he still cares for her — even if he doesn't want to be with her — and knows she needs it. Geralt's words are frequently dismissed, in the same way others characters' opinions of Yen are dismissed. Any mark against her is treated as either a lie, or a convoluted claim that they don't really know her... never mind that an understanding of why she may act this way doesn't excuse the behavior itself. (Plus, the whole "Yen had a horrible upbringing, so of course she struggles being kind" perspective always fell flat to me when so many, including witchers, had horrendous upbringings too. The whole point is this world is a mess and most everyone suffers). It's supposedly true love, yet if someone came up to me and went, "I magically tied my fate to this woman to keep her from getting herself killed and we've spent the last couple decades having what many would term a rocky relationship, to put it kindly. I left once because she was too controlling. She once cheated on me. I likewise hooked up with others during our frequent breakups. A mutual friend used magic to get me to have sex with her — also while my lover and I were broken up — and though I view it as a dumb decision I'm happy to forgive her for, my lover is ready to commit murder because again: possessive. A lot of the time we're only a family because of our daughter. I once thought she'd horrifically betrayed us both. She didn't, but it says something that I was so ready to believe it, huh? Hmm? Permanently separated? Of course not! I love her. We're destined to be together after all :)" I'd be like, "Uh... you sure about that, dude?"

Not that Geralt doesn't make his fair share of mistakes in the relationship — he absolutely does — but I don't think it helps his case that he's immature in other ways and, frankly, that he's a very strong, badass witcher. It's easy to turn the hints we get about their relationship into a simplistic "emotionally naive man can't give the poor woman the commitment she wants" situation. Given Geralt's status as the badass fighter of the tale, it's likewise easy to dismiss his admissions of her being "possessive" and his general discomfort. He's the man. He's the witcher. If he's making any claims about how Yen isn't treating him well, they must be excuses, or exaggerations, because real men, especially physically powerful men, would do something about that — a something that's not sneaking out in the middle of the night. A lot of people read Geralt leaving as the ultimate proof that he's an immature bastard who doesn't deserve her. I read him leaving and think, "What were you trying to get away from? What was going on that made you think you could only leave by sneaking out without a word?" To me, that doesn't read as someone who felt safe, comfortable, and respected enough to do anything but slip away and try to wash his hands of things. And I'm not just pulling this "Geralt is at least somewhat afraid of Yen and isn't comfortable establishing boundaries with her" reading out of my ass. When Yen wants Geralt to kill the golden dragon for her and he refuses, saying he doesn't care anymore, his thoughts are:

He expected the worst: a cascade of flames, flashes of lightning, blows raining down on his face, insults and curses. There was nothing. He saw, with astonishment, only the subtle trembling of her lips. Yennefer turned around slowly. Geralt regretted his words.

And everyone is like, "See! Yen has improved so much. Geralt nearly made her cry, but she's supposed to be the bad guy here?" Meanwhile, I'm going, "Uh... anyone want to unpack why he expects fire, lightning, insults, curses, and blows to his face for telling her no? Why he's astonished that she wouldn't use her magic against him? Anyone think that Yen refraining from attacking Geralt when he refuses to murder on her command is a pretty low bar? No? Just me?"

Geralt and Yen's relationship makes me uncomfortable and a great deal of that discomfort derives from how much of the Witcher fandom shrugs off the fictional warning signs. I mean, I post primarily about RWBY. We watched a man in that show try to sneak away with his kids when his villainous wife planned to use them for a eugenics plan... and the fandom still blames him for that, refusing to admit that he was in an abusive relationship. Because that doesn't happen to men, right? I'm not saying it's the same for Geralt and Yen, simply because they are written to be soulmates. An abusive relationship was, quite obviously, never the authorial intent. However, I am saying that the a "This isn't a healthy relationship" reading is there, it exists as an interpretation, and both the story and fandom's tendency to dismiss it is something that hasn't helped me enjoy Yen's status as an otherwise well written, complex character. Their equality supposedly stems in part because they're both so flawed, yet each time I see a list of Geralt's supposedly equal faults they're... lacking imo. "Geralt bound himself to Yen without her consent." Yeah, to save her from dying from the djinn she was trying to enslave, after she refused to leave, while her actions threatened a whole town. "Geralt ran off without a word." Mmm hmm, anyone care about why? And my personal favorite is a scene you may not have gotten to yet (or may not get depending on your choices), but suffice to say, Yen is supposedly justified in physically attacking Geralt if he dares to challenge her in any way. That's the main takeaway across the fandom: If Yen is pissed off, you must have done something to deserve it which, in the relationship deliberately written to be "stormy," is something that sets all the alarm bells in my head off. Honestly, it kinda makes my skin crawl to go, "Geralt didn't deserve that" and get responses back of, "Yeah he did because he [insert basic human action here]." The Witcher world is hard and cruel, absolutely, but that doesn't mean I personally enjoy seeing an equally messed up relationship presented as something that's enviable in its flaws. "That's actually true love because the magically bound man who often expresses discomfort with his lover, written by a male author with a very iffy perspective on women, says it's true love." Crazy theory here, but... maybe it's not?

Idk, lots of rambling on my end tonight! For me, Geralt/Yen reads as something rather tragic which, in a canon that unironically upholds the relationship, and in a Yen-adoring fandom, doesn't make enjoying her character any easier. I keep coming back to Witcher 3, the comics, the show, even the books going, "Maybe I'll like her this time?" but nope, still trying lol.

#witcher #mymetas

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jonthethinker · 4 years ago

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Does the Cerberus Assembly need to be reformed, or destroyed? And can it really be either?

Let’s start with an opinion we can all agree on; Trent Ikithon sucks. He’s clearly a very bad person, and our collective hatred of him is one of the rare things this fandom seems to actually agree on. What he’s done to his “disciples” is horrifying, and his general ideology is monstrous and abhorrent, although not surprising considering the role he plays in the Empire. We can, on this, agree that the world would be a better place if he was removed from power, correct?

Now this is where I start explaining my probably very divisive opinion.

A lot of people would say that all it takes to make the Cerberus Assembly better would be to replace the members like Ikithon with Good People. Maybe Caleb Widogast, for instance. If you simply put someone with a stronger moral character into that position, then its output in turn will also be Good.

This, whether knowingly or not, implies that institutions, even those like the Cerberus Assembly, are by their nature at the very least morally neutral. That all it takes to make an institution like the Assembly be Good is have Good People run it. You do that, and with time, all is well.

But what if institutions did have a moral character? what if the responsibilities and powers given to a body like the Assembly and its requisite components are not Good or even neutral, but instead very, very bad? And what if the incentives the people deciding who stands on the Assembly, namely the members of the Assembly themselves, are actually antithetical to any ideas of a substantially reformed Assembly in the first place?

Let’s think for a minute about Trent and his job. We are all horrified by his methods of creating his Volstruckers. But as much as it bothers me, what bothers me more, personally, is what they are for. While we tend to view them as arcane assassins, what they really are is a wholly unaccountable means of performing all of the Assembly’s, and by extension the Empire’s, dirty deeds not meant for public notice. And seeing as they fall under the sole purview of the Archmage of Civil Influence, this is largely going to translate to “managing dissidence and discontent” in the polite language a body like the Assembly would use to describe its work.

What this means is that its job, and the job of Trent’s office as a whole, is to keep the wrong ideas from getting too popular and the people from getting too loud about the awfulness of their everyday lives, and inside a broader system like the Empire, this is usually going to be dealt with by means of coercion and outright violence. While it’s easy to feel sorry for the incredibly abused and tormented people under Trent’s power, like Caleb and Astrid and Eadwolf, I feel like I’m one of the few in the fandom who has really considered the true extent of terror being unleashed on so many whose faces we’ll never know.

Peasant farmers’ organizing for lower taxes on their grain sales. Laborers gathering to raise hell over the low wages they receive from mandatory state projects. Citizens concerned about the unchecked brutality of the Crown’s Guard. Religious worshipers worried the Empire is straying from the path set by their gods. The mentally ill and other people who simply don’t comfortably fit into the grand scheme of things. Races of folks seen as outsiders suspected of conflicting allegiances. How many people like this have vanished in the night, either to be imprisoned or tortured or killed, or I guess in many cases, all three? How much suffering has been caused, hidden away from any measure of accountability?

And this brings me to my next point; While Trent is truly awful, his title, and the role he plays, are also awful, and I think you don’t get into a position like that in the first place without being someone like Trent. I say this because we’ve gotten to meet a handful of people on the Assembly outside of Trent, and they’ve all generally had the same things to say about him; he gives them the creeps and they don’t like him personally, but he has his uses. I interpret this to mean he performs the responsibilities of his office well enough, and while his methods and general demeanor may be off-putting, it isn’t worth causing a fuss about so long as the work gets done. If they simply ignore what he’s doing, they get the benefits of a suppressed polity with very little of the personal hangups of what it requires to make that happen.

So let’s say, for some reason, Trent dies or is imprisoned and disgraced, and Caleb assumes his role. Caleb has experienced a remarkable amount of personal growth, although not without his own stumbles and set-backs like any victim of severe trauma such as he. He is, in my humble opinion, a Good Man. I know if given the power of this office, he’d be motivated to end the traumatizing of children, and killing of parents, and perhaps even the wholesale disbanding of the Scourgers itself. He’d maybe seek to alleviate the suffering of those his office is meant to contain instead of inflicting more pain upon them. And wouldn’t that be nice?

But when you’ve got this entrenched elite like the Empire does, those sorts of efforts are not going to go unnoticed, and in many cases, are going to cause one hell of a backlash among the powerful, who more often than not believe in their heart of hearts that those lowly commoners deserve their lot in life, and to spare the lash is to spoil the child, and soon you’ll have a bunch of peasants thinking they can go so far as to ask for actual power, actual control over the direction of their lives, and for any empire, but especially this one, how do you imagine that’s going to fly?

I’m reminded of an anecdote out of Brazilian politics. Former President Lula da Silva is one of the the most popular Brazilian political figures of all time, and managed to massively alleviate poverty in Brazil while also working with Brazil’s entrenched elite to make sure not to piss off the wealthiest of the wealthy. But the comfortably upper middle class, or “petite bourgeoisie” as Marx would call them, were disgusted that all these poor people were suddenly climbing the ladder. According to some folks, they complained “The airports are starting to look like bus stations,” because for the first time, working class people in Brazil could actually afford to fly. This discontent among the comfortable led to a chain events ending in the false arrest and imprisonment of Lula and the rise of their current terrifying president Jair Bolsonaro. I learned from this, and other tales like it, to never underestimate how angry some people will become when their special status ain’t so special anymore.

This is to say, that while Caleb is an undoubtedly brilliant man, without the potential intervention of DM magic, I don’t see someone with his lack of political savvy either holding power long or holding onto his convictions long enough to do anything meaningful, if someone like him is considered for the job in the first place. AND even if he does accomplish all those wonderful things through this office and survives until he’s old and gray, he will eventually die. And judging solely on the general quality of character among the wizards we’ve met thus far, I’m not so optimistic about his potential replacement.

This example does spill out my major beef with the whole “Good Person in power” idea of reform. Good People either can’t live up to their values and actually wield power, or the clock itself defeats them and everything they ever stood for. This is also my problem with governmental models overly dependent on norms, as all it takes is someone willing to just completely ignore them,and for the people in power around them to have no incentive to stop them, for things to completely go off the rails. This is why reforms generally don’t last unless they universally redistribute power itself, from the top to the bottom, and even this is going to come with its own backlashes, and it generally doesn’t happen from polite attempts at reform by well meaning leaders, at least not all on their own, but through the sheer force of mass movements or outright revolutions.

And its not just Trent’s office that has this problem. It’s every single seat on the Assembly. His is just a particularly egregious example. Vess DeRogna didn’t get her job by being polite, of that much I’m sure. She’s clever, devious, and patient, not to mention her skill set and interests directly line her up for the role as Archmage of Antiquity. I don’t really think her sole interest is making sure nobody gets hurt by all these artifacts lying around, and neither do I imagine the Empire itself has any intention of keeping her discoveries behind lock and key; they pretty clearly want them mass produced where they can and immediately wielded against their enemies, both foreign and domestic.

And I’ve hinted at this earlier, but if you think Trent is a unique monster in the halls of Dwendalian mages, I’m going to have to disagree. I’m certain there are more than a few wizards in service of the Assembly and the Empire, who if not already believing similarly to Trent, could easily be convinced of his convictions, and ready to use his power themselves in an eerily identical manner. People like Trent aren’t as rare as we’d like them to be, and they’re all ready to grab power just as soon as they can.

So it would seem I come firmly on the “burn it all down” side of things. If only I believed it were that simple.

You see, I see the Cerberus Assembly as an institution that exists, in its entirety, for the cementing of power of the Dwendalian Elite and the progression of its interests. It protects them from threats both from inside and out, it teaches their children magic, it helps negotiate its trade, it aids in putting food on its table, and makes sure its armed for bear with the deadliest of magic only the Age of Arcanum and ancient elves could provide. It’s very reason for existence is to uphold the way of life for those on top. Even if it competes idly for who sits at the head of the table, it very much is invested in maintaining the structure of that table.

So if it were sundered and destroyed as an institution, what is to stop its functions from simply being absorbed by the broader Empire? What’s to stop the Empire from simply recreating the Volstrucker program under a different name? What’s stopping them from hiring its wizards to perform their original tasks, just under the sole discretion of the king? So I’d wager the problem isn’t the Assembly, but the very distribution of power required to maintain an Empire like Dwendal’s in the first place. The assembly is an immoral institution upholding a much larger, equally immoral institution. And you can’t truly solve the problem without tearing the whole damn thing down.

Do I think this campaign is going to be one in which our lovely players start a revolution? Hell no. I expect Trent at least to die or be deposed, and with the aid of some DM magic, things will get a little better. But Matt has given enough consideration to the political forces present in his world building, that I wanted to treat his world as if it were subject solely to the forces and motivations our own is. Just to see how things could turn out without a generally kind god like Matthew Mercer at the helm.

Plus I just really love trying to understand how fantasy political structures would really work. It’s usually a lot less depressing than real political structures, at least in so far as there are no real consequences for their abject failures. But I’ve rambled long enough. Thank you to the poor souls who read this ramble. You’re truly wonderful.

#critical role #cr spoilers #Caleb Widogast #Trent Ikithon #Cerberus Assembly #Dwendalian Empire #long post #this has been the thing consuming my mind while working sixty to seventy hours a week #so I hope the three people who are bored enough to read it enjoy the results of my hyper-fixation

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crossroadsfossil · 4 years ago

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aaaaaa on the topic of your quirk-related illnesses post: do you have any headcanons about disability in bnha’s setting (quirk-related or otherwise)? and i guess by extension: should quirklessness be classified as a disability?

Fuck it- world building prompts. Send a fandom and a prompt. ILLNESS CONTINUATION

So, before we get into BNHA and Disability, I will note that I have next to no knowledge of how disability is view/treated legally or socially in Japan, which is the view we’re given. All I know is what I’ve gleaned from pop culture and one pair of youtubers (Simon and Martina). I’m making an assumption that Japan and the USA have similar ideas regarding disability, and those ‘ideas’ are, at best, lacking in empathy and sympathy and mostly lip service.

Additionally, I will be using the term ‘disabled’ as it’s laid out by the ADA, as that’s what I’m most familiar with. Disability is defined as “a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity.”

NOW, as for BNHA universe-

I think having a disability in this universe would be like being disabled in reality. It would suck. If you’re very lucky, you have a support network that can assist you. If you’re moderately lucky, the government pays lip service to assist you. In all cases, I’m pretty convinced that society sees the disabled as either something they did to themselves, or an inconvenience or something to be pitied at best and hated at worst.

I think the potential in the BNHA universe to become partially or completely disabled is much, much higher. There’s statistically a higher chance of being disabled through violent means- Hero or villain inflicted injuries. I think quirk lashback would increase the likelihood of becoming disabled.

Fuck, we’ve seen how the BNHA universe treats the disabled, and it’s not good. One of the characters with the largest presence who is also disabled is Jin Bubaigawara and, well. He was killed. He fell into villainy. He had no. Goddamn. Support. And that is common in the real world so I doubt it’s any less common in this one.

There are others who are visually disabled. There’s Ectoplasm, who’s missing his legs. There’s Ingenium, who’s paralyzed. There’s FUCKING ALL MIGHT. I don’t know how well Etoplasm and Ingenium are treated. I don’t know how All Might is treated, but from what I remember of the whole post-skinny might reveal, it’s not great either.

All Might does what a lot of people with disabilities do, myself included. He hides it. Clearly, there is a stigma attached to being crippled. There is a stigma to being less than 100%. There is a Stigma for not being ‘plus ultra’ enough.

I wish I had some fun headcanons for disabilities in the BNHA universe. I wish I could whip up some delightful headcanons about how it’s better than it is in the real world, how there are funny, quirky things like I could with the illness post and having the Pepper Up Cough. I wish my headcanons about this could be fun and more headcanons and less applying what I know and have experienced to this universe. I wish I could. But I can’t.

I think being disabled in BNHA is just as bad, if not worse than in the real world. We’ve seen the cruelty related to quirks. We’ve seen the apathy of the general public. We’ve seen a lot of that society and not a lot of it is good.

Here is my headcanon: I think if you are perceived as being less than healthy, you are seen as weak. A victim at best and a deserving villain at worst. I think the support for disabled people is nonexistent, no matter how minor or severe the disability. I think it’s the same vultures, different liver kind of situation with BNHA as it is with RL.

I think there are more people with disabilities than there are in RL. I think more people hide having a disability too. I think getting a doctor to diagnose a disability would be harder than it is in RL, and gods knows that’s hard enough. I think discrimination based on disability would be more prevalent.

I think there were be types of quirks that would almost guarantee a future disability. I think it’s brought up in a lot of fic discussing Present Mic and Bakugou and Jirou- their deafness or the deafness of those around them. I think it’d affect characters like Midnight- who would probably end up with a chronic lung issue unless her body is adapted to breathing it in all the time. I think Aizawa is going to have eye issues eventually, probably even going blind at some point. I think Nedzu, being a rat in a human world, would be considered disabled simply because the world is not built for him. I think Cementoss would have mobility issues as he ages. Fatgum and Momo probably will have issues regarding how fast they burn fat/nutrients. It’ll probably manifest in their hearts.

I think a lot of people end up with a disability brought on by their quirk. The human body is an amazing thing, but it has limits and I don’t think those limits play well with time- or another way to say this, I think people are more likely to burn out faster than we are. I think it’s going to be more like an animalistic ‘live hard, die young’ sort of thing.

I also think it’ll be entirely glossed over by the populace at large. People are very good at ignoring things, and a growing number of disabilities would probably fall under ‘things to absolutely ignore’.

I could ramble more, but I want to get to the next part of your question:

Should quirklessness be classified as a disability

I read that and, hoo boy, it triggered an immediate bout of snarling until I could analyze why it pissed me off.

Let’s return to the definition I gave at the beginning of my answer. A disability is anything that interferes with a person’s ability to do one major activity. In canon, what do we know of being without a quirk?

It’s said that 20% of the world is without a quirk. Is this accurate? Is this reflective of each new generation? We’re not given information on this. I’ve read plenty of fic that have explored the validity of these given statements, pointing out that they don’t seem to agree with what we’re shown in canon. I’ve read fic where it’s stating this is gross oversimplification, or a skewing of the actual data, which I’m a bit of a fan of being numbers like that are never accurate. One in five people have no quirk? Really? Then why was there no other quirkless kids in Izuku’s school? Does affluence play a factor in this? We’re just... not given a lot of detail, and the details we are given are not pretty.

The details are this: being quirkless has hindered Izuku Midoriya socially, and, if we want to extrapolate from there, it has probably hindered him educationally and professionally as well. Melissa Sheild has been hindered by being quirkless. Not to the same extent as Izuku, but she is, according to the wiki, ‘ she used to be seen with pity for being Quirkless’. To me, this sounds like people have... hm. how to say... ‘tried to protect her’ for her ‘weakness’.

Basically, looking at these two individuals, it sounds like society takes away their agency, and if that doesn’t ‘hinder one major aspect of an individuals life’ then I don’t know what does.

ALso, look at those who BECAME quirkless. Does it hinder them? Are Mirio and Ragdoll hindered? Yes.

So, following the rules I set out, yes, being quirkless does count as a disability. Legally, would it count here? I don’t know. If someone fought for it, then I can see some countries classifying it as such. It’s certainly treated as a disability in canon. There is a stigma to being quirkless.

Do I personally want being quirkless to be a disability?

No. But I am hella biased because I AM disabled. I see Melissa out there living and doing things I would love to do. That I would love to do. Notice I didn’t include Izuku. That’s because I see him having some comorbidities, which, kind of annihilates my knee-jerk reaction, doesn’t it? If he wasn’t quirkless, he probably wouldn’t have the comorbidities. Since he does and they also impair his functioning, then... I think it can be logic’d that he does have a disability. Multple, perhaps.

Again, my logic may not be super solid there, but... According to the rules set out via ADA and medical professionals, yes. In that new society, it would be a disability.

I hate it, but in that universe, the baseline for ‘100% normal’ has shifted, just as it’s shifted over the past hundred, three hundred, thousand, six thousand years. That line is always shifting as humanity grows and changes. Hopefully, that baseline begins to include empathy and sympathy and compassion into it.

#BNHA Worldbuilding Ask #BNHA #Worldbuilding asks #tldr: ANGRY AMY RANTING #chidorinnnnn #Mailbox #I have no idea where I was going with this #not funny headcanons #or funny in a horrifying way #just horrifying and depressed realization i think

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raptured-night · 5 years ago

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Hi! I’m part of the lgbtq+ community and Severus is my favorite HP character and I was wondering (if you have the time and feel obliged) if you could please give me a few examples of how he’s queer? It’s been a few years since I reread the books, and def before I came out, so I’m a little in the dark here lol Thanks!!

First of all, I just wanted to apologize for how long it has taken me to properly respond to your ask. I’ve been dealing with some ongoing health issues that have turned me into something of a moody writer. I’ll get random spurts of energy and inspiration and then hit a wall of absolute writer’s block assisted by a major case of executive dysfunction every single time I try to respond to the multiple asks languishing in my inbox. Fortunately, I found myself involved in a discussion just today that addressed your ask so perfectly that I wanted to share it with you. In the very least, that discussion has also managed to shake off my writer’s block temporarily so that I have found myself in the right head-space to finally be able to give this lovely ask the thought and attention that I feel it deserves.

Although, in regards to the Snape discourse I linked above, I feel that I should warn you in advance that the discussion was prompted by an anti-Snape poster who made a rather ill-thought meme (I know there are many in the Snapedom who would rather just avoid seeing anti-Snape content altogether, so I try to warn when I link people to debates and discussions prompted by anti-posts) but the thoughtful responses that the anti-Snape poster unintentionally generated from members of the Snapedom (particularly by @deathdaydungeon whose critical analyses of Snape and, on occasions, other Harry Potter characters is always so wonderfully nuanced, thought-provoking, and well-considered), are truly excellent and worth reading, in my opinion. Also, as I fall more loosely under the “a” (I’m grey-ace/demisexual) of the lgbtqa+ flag and community I would prefer to start any discussions about Snape as a queer character or as a character with queer coding by highlighting the perspectives of people in the Snapedom who are actually queer before sharing any thoughts of my own.

In addition, I also wanted to share a few other posts where Snape’s queer coding has been discussed by members of the Snapedom in the past (and likely with far more eloquence than I could manage in this response of my own).

Source

Along with an excellent article in Vice by Diana Tourjée, in which a case for Snape being trans is convincingly argued.

Importantly, you’ll notice that while some of these discussions do argue the possibility of Snape being a queer or trans character others may only discuss the way that Snape’s character is queer coded. That is because there is a distinct but subtle difference between: “This character could be queer/lgbtq+” and: “This character has queer/lgbtq+ coding” one which is briefly touched on in the first discussion that I linked you to. However, I would like to elaborate a bit here just what I mean when I refer to Snape as a character with queer coding. As while Rowling has never explicitly stated that she intended to write Snape as lgbtq+ (although there is one interview given by Rowling which could be interpreted as either an unintentional result of trying to symbolically explain Snape’s draw to the dark arts or a vague nod to Snape’s possible bisexuality: "Well, that is Snape's tragedy. ... He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily's aversion; he was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought she would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater.”) regardless of her intent when she drew upon the existing body of Western literary traditions and tropes for writing antagonists and villains in order to use them as a red-herring for Snape’s character, she also embued his character with some very specific, coded subtext. This is where Death of the Author can be an invaluable tool for literary critics, particularly in branches of literary criticism like queer theory.

Ultimately, even if Rowling did not intend to write Snape as explicitly queer/lgbtq+ the literary tradition she drew upon in order to present him as a foil for Harry Potter and have her readers question whether he was an ally or a villain has led to Snape being queer coded. Specifically, many of the characteristics of Snape’s character design do fall under the trope known as the “queering of the villain.” Particularly, as @deathdaydungeon, @professormcguire, and other members of the Snapedom have illustrated, Snape’s character not only subverts gender roles (e.g. his Patronus presents as female versus male, Snape symbolically assumes the role of “the mother” in the place of both Lily and later Narcissa when he agrees to protect Harry and Draco, his subject of choice is potions and poisons which are traditionally associated more with women and “witches,” while he seemingly rejects in his first introduction the more phallic practice of “foolish wand-waving,” and indeed Snape is characterized as a defensive-fighter versus offensive, in Arthurian mythology he fulfills the role of Lady of the Lake in the way he chooses to deliver the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, Hermione refers to his hand-writing as “kind of girly,” his association with spiders and spinners also carries feminine symbology, etc.) but is often criticized or humiliated for his seeming lack of masculinity (e.g. Petunia mocking his shirt as looking like “a woman’s blouse,” which incidentally was also slang in the U.K. similar to “dandy” to accuse men of being effeminate, the Marauders refer to Snape as “Snivellus” which suggests Snape is either less masculine because he cries or the insult is a mockery of what could pass for a stereotypical/coded Jewish feature, his nose, Remus Lupin quite literally instructs Neville on how to “force” a Boggart!Snape, who incidentally is very literally stepping out of a closet-like wardrobe, into the clothing of an older woman and I quoted force because that is the exact phrase he uses, James and Sirius flipping Snape upside down to expose him again presents as humiliation in the form of emasculation made worse by the arrival and defense of Lily Evans, etc.).

Overall, the “queering of the villain” is an old trope in literature (although it became more deliberate and prevalent in media during the 1950s-60s); however, in modernity, we still can find it proliferating in many of the Disney villains (e.g. Jafar, Scar, Ursula, etc.), in popular anime and children’s cartoons (e.g. HiM from Powerpuff Girls, James from Pokemon, Frieza, Zarbon, the Ginyu Force, Perfect Cell, basically a good majority of villains from DBZ, Nagato from Fushigi Yuugi, Pegasus from Yu Gi Oh, etc.), and even in modern television series and book adaptations, such as the popular BBC’s Sherlock in the character of Moriarty. Indeed, this article does an excellent job in detailing some of the problematic history of queer coded villains. Although, the most simple summary is that: “Queer-coding is a term used to say that characters were given traits/behaviors to suggest they are not heterosexual/cisgender, without the character being outright confirmed to have a queer identity” (emphasis mine). Notably, TV Tropes also identifies this trope under the classification of the “Sissy Villain” but in queer theory and among queer writers in fandom and academia “queering of the villain” is the common term. This brings me back to Snape and his own queer coding; mainly, because Rowling drew upon Western traditions for presenting a character as a suspected villain she not only wrote Snape as queer (and racially/ethnically) coded but in revealing to the reader that Snape was not, in fact, the villain Harry and the readers were encouraged to believe he was by the narrator she incorporated a long history of problematic traits/tropes into a single character and then proceeded to subvert them by subverting reader-expectation in a way that makes the character of Severus Snape truly fascinating.

We can certainly debate the authorial intent vs. authorial impact where Snape’s character is concerned. Particularly as we could make a case that the polarizing nature of Snape may well be partly the result of many readers struggling against Rowling subverting literary tropes that are so firmly rooted in our Western storytelling traditions that they cannot entirely abandon the idea that this character who all but had the book thrown at him in terms of all the coding that went into establishing him as a likely villain (e.g. similar to Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Snape is also coded to be associated with darkness/black colors and to represent danger and volatile/unstable moods, while his class status further characterizes him as an outsider or “foreign other,” and not unlike all those villains of our childhood Disney films which affirmed a more black-and-white philosophy of moral abolutism, such as Scar or Jafar, the ambiguity of Snape’s sexuality coupled with his repeated emasculation signals to the reader that this man should be “evil” and maybe even “predatory,” ergo all the “incel” and friendzone/MRA discourse despite nothing in canon truly supporting those arguments; it seems it may merely be Snape’s “queerness” that signals to some readers that he was predatory or even that “If Harry had been a girl” there would be some kind of danger) is not actually our villain after all.

Indeed, the very act of having Snape die (ignoring, for the moment, any potential issues of “Bury Your Gays” in a queer analysis of his death) pleading with Harry to “look at him” as he symbolically seems to weep (the man whom Harry’s hyper-masculine father once bullied and mocked as “Snivellus”) memories for Harry to view (this time with his permission) carries some symbolic weight for any queer theory analysis. Snape, formerly portrayed as unfathomable and “secretive,” dies while pleading to be seen by the son of both his first and closest friend and his school-hood bully (a son that Snape also formerly could never see beyond his projection of James) sharing with Harry insight into who he was via his personal memories. For Harry to later go on to declare Snape “the bravest man he ever knew” carries additional weight, as a queer theory analysis makes it possible for us to interpret that as Harry finally recognizing Snape, not as the “queer coded villain” he and the reader expected but rather as the brave queer coded man who was forced to live a double-life in which “no one would ever know the best of him” and who, in his final moments at least, was finally able to be seen as the complex human-being Rowling always intended him to be.

Rowling humanizing Snape for Harry and the reader and encouraging us to view Snape with empathy opened up the queer coding that she wrote into his character (intentionally or otherwise) in such a way that makes him both a potentially subversive and inspiring character for the lgbtq+ community. Essentially, Snape opens the door for the possibility of reclaiming a tradition of queer coding specific to villains and demonstrating the way those assumptions about queer identity can be subverted. Which is why I was not at all surprised that I was so easily able to find a body of existing discourse surrounding Snape as a queer coded or even as a potentially queer character within the Harry Potter fandom. At least within the Snapedom, there are many lgbtq+ fans of his character that already celebrate the idea of a queer, bi, gay, trans, ace/aro, or queer coded Snape (in fact, as a grey-ace I personally enjoy interpreting Snape through that lens from time-to-time).

Thank you for your ask @pinkyhatespink and once again I apologize for the amount of time it’s taken me to reply. However, I hope that you’ll find this response answered your question and, if not, that some of the articles and posts from other pro-Snape bloggers I linked you to will be able to do so more effectively. Also, as a final note, although many of the scholarly references and books on queer coding and queering of the villain I would have liked to have sourced are typically behind paywalls, I thought I would list the names of just a few here that I personally enjoyed reading in the past and that may be of further interest should you be able to find access to them.

Fathallah, Judith. “Moriarty’s Ghost: Or the Queer Disruption of the BBC’s Sherlock.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 5, 2014, p. 490-500.

Huber, Sandra. “Villains, Ghosts, and Roses, or How to Speak With The Dead.” Open Cultural Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, p. 15-25.

Mailer, Norman. “The Homosexual Villain.” 1955. Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays, edited by Sipiora Phillip, Random House, 2013, pp. 14–20.

Solis, Nicole Eschen. "Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater." Queer Studies in Media & Pop Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, 2016, p. 115+.

Tuhkanen, Mikko. “The Essentialist Villain.” Jan. 2019, SBN13: 978-1-4384-6966-9

#severus snape #pro snape #snape discourse #snape meta #snapedom #snape community #queer theory

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the-truest-sentence-i-know · 4 years ago

Text

Manhattan, 1997

Fandom: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Summary: The Chronicoms jump to the 90s to try and kill a young Daisy Johnson (aka Mary Sue Poots) and Daisy and Daniel have to protect her. One-shot.

Word Count: 2.3k

ao3 ||| ff.net ||| wattpad ||| quotev

The Zeffer settled after the jump and everyone looked around, as they always did, as though something would indicate the year.

“Geographically,” Jemma said, looking at the monitor. “We are in New York, in Manhattan.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Daisy said. “We’re probably getting closer to our time.”

“Mind if I join you?” Daniel asked. “I’d like to get a little acclimated before we get to your time.”

“Sure,” Daisy said, ignoring the knowing look from Jemma. “It’ll be good to have another pair of eyes.”

The Zeffer was landed on top of an office building – cloaked of course – when they stepped out.

“Skyline look different?” Daisy asked, walking over to the door.

“A bit.”

She quaked open the padlock and they started down the stairs.

Stepping out into the street below, Daisy looked around and then breathed out a slow breath. Oh.

“Do you know when exactly we are?” Daniel asked.

She nodded. “Late 90s. And if the Chronicoms are here, then I’m pretty sure I know who they’re after. Come on.”

In a few minutes, they stood in front of a plain building on a street corner.

“St. Agnes Orphanage,” Daniel read. “They’re going after a kid?”

“In the future, she’ll be… kinda important to SHIELD.” Daisy smiled a little.

Daniel looked at her curiously. “Who exactly –?”

But Daisy was already stepping forward and knocking on the door.

A kindly middle-aged nun that Daisy recognized as Sister Harriet opened the door. “Please, come in,” she said. She led them through the entry hall. “How can I help you today?”

“My husband and I –” Daisy quickly looped her arm through Daniel’s. “– were looking into adoption and were hoping to get some more information the topic.”

Sister Harriet smiled. “Wonderful.” She opened a door to an office. “Please sit down. Mother Superior will be with you in a moment.”

Daisy glanced around the entrance hall before stepping into the office with Daniel, memories flooding back. She had not been back here since she left at age eighteen. They sat down on the hard, wooden chairs and were quiet for a minute.

“So, who exactly are we making sure survives here?” Daniel asked.

Daisy hesitated. “Mary Sure Poots. She grew up here, and as an adult was… and asset to SHIELD.” It would probably be best if she told Daniel the full truth, but she had not known him long. It was a bit early for the whole tragic backstory.

The door opened and Mother Superior entered. Automatically, Daisy rose to her feet, Daniel following her lead. She was a strict woman, with a kind heart. In retrospect, Daisy supposed she was a bit like May, which was a whole can of beans she didn’t have time to unpack right now.

“Please, sit down,” Mother Superior said after she had sat down. “And tell me what I can help you with.”

So Daniel and Daisy Watson introduced themselves, and heard all about the adoption process. Daisy glanced at the calendar in the corner. October 1997. She tried to remember if she had been at the orphanage at that time, or if she had been with a foster family.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “May I use your bathroom?”

“Of course,” Mother Superior said. “It’s the first door on your right.”

“I’ll be right back, honey.” Daisy looked at Daniel pointedly and he nodded.

Out in the hallway, Daisy quickly crept up the stairs, avoiding all the creaky steps. It was quiet upstairs, since everyone was at school or in the playroom and she slipped unseen into her old room.

Four sets of bunkbeds stood in a row and Daisy hurried to the far one. Stuck to the wall were pictures of horses, cut out from magazines. She smiled. In 1997, aged nine, she had been at the height of her horse phase. The three horse figurines were missing from the bedside table and her drawers were empty.

Mary Sue Poots was at a foster family, and she was pretty sure she knew which one. Satisfied, Daisy slipped back downstairs and into the office.

“… Dumas’ main point is that revenge is not satisfying,” Daniel was saying. “I don’t think it romanticizes revenge at all.”

“While I do agree that, in the end, Dantes realizes that avenging the wrongs don’t to him will not make him happy,” Mother Superior said. “The majority of the novel does revel a bit in his schemes.”

“I seem to be interrupting a lively literature discussion,” Daisy said as she sat down, smiling.

“What are your thoughts on revenge in The Count of Monte Cristo, Mrs. Watson?” Mother Superior asked.

“I’m afraid English was never my best subject, Mother Superior,” Daisy said with a smile.

“Shall we get going them?” Daniel asked.

Daisy nodded. “Thank you so much for all your help,” she said to Mother Superior.

“I’m always glad to,” she said, then looked at her curiously. “Have we met before?”

“I don’t think so,” Daisy said quickly, standing up.

Outside on the street, Daniel looked at her expectantly. “So?”

“She’s at school,” Daisy said, leading them down the street. “And I guess we’ll just have to tail her until the Chronicoms show up.”

Daniel watched Daisy as they walked down the street. Although they had only just met, he was pretty sure she was not telling him something. Or perhaps that was exactly why she was not telling him

“So, this isn’t your time either,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“So what is your time then?” he asked. “What year?”

“2020.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Y2K didn’t mess up the computers like everyone thought.”

“What?”

“It was this conspiracy theory that – Nevermind.” They stopped in front of an elementary school. “Here we are.”

“How do you know where the Mary Sue Poots went to school as a child?” Daniel looked at her.

Daisy thought about constructing a very elaborate lie where she was kind of a big fan of Mary Sue Poots and so knew everything about her. But, looking at Daniel’s face, it didn’t look like he would believe her.

It was not like she was ashamed of her history, she had just hoped that she would have a bit of a normal impression on Daniel. Why exactly? – There was definitely no time to get into that right now.

What the hell.

“Okay, cards on the table,” she said. “Mary Sue Poots is me, or… was me.”

“Oh.” He didn’t seem to have expected that.

“I grew up in the foster system after… a tone of messed up stuff. SHIELD gave me a fake name because of the aforementioned messed up stuff.”

“I see.”

“So, yeah, in October 1997, I was with the Brodys.” She looked over at the chaotic playground, searching the groups of kids until she saw a small girl in a blue shirt with a horse on it and red streaks in her hair.

Daniel followed her gaze. “So, which one’s you?”

Daisy cringed a little. “You see the one with the ill-advised red streaks by the swings?”

“The one who looks like she wants to punch the blond boy?”

“Jeremy,” Daisy remembered. “Ugh, he was terrible.”

Daniel chuckled. “I can see the resemblance.”

Daisy smiled. “Well, we can’t just lurk around here like creeps, so we’d better find a spot to –”

“There?” Daniel asked, pointing at a café down the street.

“Yeah, perfect. We’ll be able to see anyone who goes to the school.”

He looked at her. “I do know how to plan a stake-out, you know.”

“Are you telling me you guys had binoculars back in the dark ages?” Daisy asked sarcastically as they walked down the street.

“We even had cameras.”

“Holy shit, high-tech.”

Sitting at a terrace table, Daniel turned to Daisy before the waitress came to them. “Coffee is still a thing, right?”

“Yeah, but we called a caffeine energizer, and cream is cow juice,” Daisy deadpanned.

Daniel looked at her quizzically.

“The nineties were a weird time,” Daisy shrugged.

Needless to say, the waitress gave them an odd look, but understood their order. Daisy struggled to smother her smile as she walked away.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. “In my defence, I only thought you were serious because the 70s were very odd.”

Daisy snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a thing in the 70s.” She looked down at her clothes. “Oof, I must look super out of place.”

Daniel shrugged. “I think you look nice.”

Daisy smiled to herself. “Thanks. I did quite like the 70s fashion.”

An hour or so later, school was let out and they quickly paid for the coffee before ambling down the street, far behind the little girl with red streaks in her hair. Soon they saw another figure take interest in her as well.

“Nine o’clock,” Daisy murmured.

“Navy suit, yeah, I see him.” Daniel looked behind them casually. “Another on our six.”

“I don’t think they’ve recognized us yet,” Daisy said.

They stopped at a light and the Chronicom in the navy suit began to cross toward them. “They wouldn’t just kill her in broad daylight, would they?” Daniel whispered.

“Crime in New York in the 90s was high,” Daisy whispered back, watching the Chronicom out of the corner of her eye. “They might use that to their advantage.”

The light changed and Daisy stumbled to the side, knocking into one of the Chronicoms. “Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry.” She leaned against him harder, glancing to see that Mary Sue had started across the street, oblivious to everything behind her. “These damn heels.” She tried not to look directly at him, but he had recognized her.

“You!” the Chronicom said.

The other Chronicom had caught up with them and Daniel looked like he was getting ready for a fight.

“I’ve got this,” Daisy said, shoving the Chronicom in to traffic as hard as she could, quaking at his feet to make him loose his balance in the path of a large truck. “Make sure she gets home safe.”

He hesitated for only a moment before turning to cross the street.

Another Chronicom had approached for the night as the other Chronicom attacked Daisy. She blocked his first punch, but he still got her hard in the jaw. He reached for his gun, but she quaked it to pieces.

They were out in the middle of the sidewalk and someone was going to report the fight soon – the last thing Daisy needed was to get arrested. But she couldn’t risk a glance back to see if Daniel was out of sight yet.

The other Chronicom had joined the fight and Daisy was having a hard time fighting them both off. Making a split-second division, sprinted off in a different direction, hoping she could lead them away. Fortunately, the began to follow her. Daisy grinned, sprinting down the street, remembering her time at St. Agnes – she knew this part of the city like the back of her hand. She ducked into alleys and through parking garages and abandoned buildings.

Not that she had been chased often as a child – but children could be cruel, especially to foster kids. She saw a car wash coming up on her left, the door starting to close on a car. She had managed to time this right once before – she could do it again.

She just managed to slide under the door as it closed, shutting the Chronicoms out. Immediately, she was drenched in water and she quickly scrambled to the side, feeling the wall for the door that she knew was there. She had worked at this car wash and gas station as a teenager. She just hoped Daniel and Mary Sue had gotten back to the Brodys alright.

Daisy was still soaking wet when she found Daniel in the shrubs outside the Brody’s house. She crouched in the bushes beside him. “Everything go alright?”

He nodded. “Nothing suspicious – What happened to you?”

“Tight escape – led them on a fun little chase.”

Daniel smiled and they both looked toward the house. From their vantage point, they could see into the living room where Mrs. Brody was decorating cookies with Mary Sue; it was a messy and sugary affair.

“Halloween cookies,” Daisy said. “The Brodys loved Halloween.”

“They seem like a nice family,” Daniel said, looking over at her with a gentle look on his face.

Daisy smiled softly. “They were.”

Suddenly, the radio buzzed. “Daisy?” Jemma said. “We’re going to jump in half an hour. You two need to get back here.”

“On our way,” Daisy said.

“Did everything go alright? Why were they where?”

“They were going after a nine-year-old me, but we saved her – or me, whatever.”

A pause. “Are you alright, Daisy?”

“Yeah. We’ll be right there.”

As they walked back, Danial was quiet, until he finally asked. “You didn’t end up staying with the Brodys, did you?”

Daisy shook her head. “They sent me back – probably like a week from now – saying I wasn’t a good fit.”

He looked at her sadly. It wasn’t a pitying sadness thought, thank God – Daisy didn’t think she could handle a pitying look.

“But it’s alright,” she said. “SHIELD had arranged for me to be moved around often to keep me safe. And when I left St. Agnes, I went by Skye, became a hacker – which is how I got on SHIELD’s radar.” She shrugged. “And that’s where I found my family.”

Daniel nodded and didn’t say anything more. And though Daisy thought she would feel more vulnerable telling Daniel her whole background, she actually felt alright about it. She stole a glanced at him and wondered if there was more to Jemma’s knowing looks than she had admitted to herself.

Maybe when this was all over, she could figure all that out.

It was too bad they couldn’t stay longer in the 90s – she would have loved to see him in a classic 90s windbreaker or some cargo pants.

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thedeviousdo · 4 years ago

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You're not a hugger so I won't hug back but... high five?

I'm so sorry to hear you had such personal information revealed an were treated so badly and bullied for it. You didn't deserve it and I hope things are better for you now.

Exactly, if he wanted us to know, he would have said something years ago. If it gets as obvious as he mentioned (bloated face) he could have said something about it when he was going through it but he didn't because it was personal and private.

Fans really need to learn their place. No matter how much fans love an idol or believe they know the idol, they are just fans and there is and always will be things we don't deserve to know of the idol.

I understand we're going through things in the world that we've never been through before. Our nerves are shot and we're feeling out of sorts. I get that the enlistment separation is making people super sensitive and nervous, but none of that is any excuse to treat anyone poorly, especially not people we claim to love, or to act entitled to people or information we don't deserve to know.

Of course. It's not the whole fandom, but it's sad that the ones who act like this are the loudest ones.

I agree with you. On everything, but especially the last bit.

Now a high five I can do!! And, I'm in a better place now than I was when that happened to me and more accepting of my illness as well. Thank you for your kindness.

Well said anon, truly well said. There is a line that is getting blurrier by the day with some fans and the guys (all idols/celebs really). The majority that are being respectful, we need to start speaking out to those that are toeing that line or just ignored that it's there. Not everyone that said things about this or other things are doing it from a bad place and may not fully get what their actions really are. It's alright to bring it to their attention, help them learn, see it as a learning experience. Sometimes that's all it takes, help see the error and grow from it. Hopefully we will start really working together and being kinder and that we will drown out the unwarranted hate that's been happening.

#im going to throw on some exo music #laugh at the happiness it brings me #and i hope you and everyone else does to #we can make this day better #all the love anon

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kaypeace21 · 5 years ago

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why is there so much denial of Will being gay?? Like, nothing Will has done has shown him to be anytging but possibly gay. Like, nobody thinks he'z gay because he's a nerd that doesn't have a girlfriend!! We think he's gay because of all the fucking subtext!!!!

There are a few reasons for this, and they’re all (for the most part) rooted in homophobia. 1) There are those who (may or may not) notice the subtext, but ignore it with the excuse of “he’s too young; stop sexualizing him!”. All while shipping lumax, and mileven. Whether they want to admit it or not, this is homophobic! They view (subconscious or otherwise) being queer as inherently sexual, dirty, and adult. And that only straight relationships can be pure and innocent and based on compatible personalities. Straight kids can have innocent crushes (but in their eyes) queer kids can’t- they may not even exist, to them.

2) There are some mileven shippers (who whether they want to admit it) hate Will, because the possibility he has powers or is gay- threatens their precious het ship. Because a lot of them don’t see El as her own person (just a part of their ship) or a vessel for being a badass with powers. They don’t appreciate her for the nuanced character she is. They either get angry at the idea of Will being gay or having powers, or are only happy with him being queer if he’s sad and in an unrequited one-sided love/ or is single forever. Or they’ll say “why don’t you just ship him with someone else… like Dustin?” Ignoring the fact Dustin hasn’t been queer coded like Mike (or had romantically coded scenes with Will), or that people ship byler for Will and Mike, not cause it’s simply m/m. I mean, can you imagine byler shippers saying ‘Just ship El with Dustin, it’s a guy and girl… it’s practically the same thing”? No, of course not! It shows their bias- and how they feel privileged and entitled to their straight ship even though there are millions of similar ships in media to choose from- unlike queer ships which are far and few in between. However, we’re supposed to be the ones who pick another option- and are told our ships are ‘all the same’. Whether they are aware of this bias, they consider queer ships a joke, and all the same.

3) Those who relate to Will and his struggles, hate the idea of relating to a queer character. There is a reason why shows like ‘Will &Grace’ in the 90s were popular, but even today the second a character who people assumed was straight is revealed as lgbt+ viewers get angry! It’s because they feel ‘tricked’ into liking, relating and empathizing with a character that they would otherwise have immediately put in a ‘box’ and distanced themselves from . Whether they are aware of it or not, they would immediately attribute stereotypes to them and never try to empathize with them, because ‘they’re gay, and ‘how can I relate to that’? They don’t want to relate to them (because subconscious or otherwise) they think being gay is bad or just too foreign.They don’t see queer people as full-fledged people. They’re just gay- nothing more.

Which is why when they angrily say “he’s just afraid to grow up, HE’S NOT GAY!” They are essentially saying a gay, abused kid, who has ptsd, and was violated by the MF (and was also hinted m**ested by Lonnie too) can’t be afraid to grow up, since he lost his childhood. Only straight people have these type of human-fears and characterizations!

Forget the fact, that Will also wouldn’t want to grow up- because than he’d have to acknowledge his sexuality (at a time where all you heard about gay men was they were evil , mentally ill, going to hell and dying of aids as a punishment by god). Not to mention Will’s ptsd and the fact he lost 2 years of his childhood on top of that.He even says “I’m not … going to fall in love” (not convincingly) , right after the movie date with Mike.

4) They’re so used to straight media, and everyone being presumed straight and having media catered to them (the straight audience)- That they’ll ignore or miss every hint there is a queer character.

So what are the hints of Will being gay (or at least- some other lgbt identity.

Called many homophobic slurs since s1 ( specifically ”queer, fag, fairy, and gay”) by his dad and bullies. Jonathan in s1 tells Will to “not like things just because people tell you you’re supposed to, especially not him” ( ‘him’ referring to their dad). Is positioned behind a rainbow apple poster in the av room (ref. to Alan Turning the gay creator of computers), dances with a girl with a rainbow hair-clip, has rainbow bandaids, has his mom says she’s ”so proud” (lgbt+ pride ref) of the rainbow ship he drew . When Will disparages himself as a “freak”, Jonathan asks Will, who would you rather be friends with- David Bowie (who was openly bi since the 70s) or Kenny Rogers? Will says Bowie, and Jonathan agrees saying “see, it’s no contest”. In the pitch to netflix the Duffers described Will as having “sexual identity issues”. In the leaked s2 snowball script it says “he’s not looking at the cute girl- but Mike.”

All of s2 directly paralleled ‘romantic s1 mileven scenes’ to ‘supposedly platonic byler scenes’. No joke, they had identical scenes, with almost identical framing and dialogue, but it’s all dismissed as friendship (even though the scenes are identical).Byler was also paralleled to Jancy, Stancy, Jopper, bob/joyce and others. . You can headcannon Will as whatever you want, but like it or not- Will is queer and m/m! We could debate his exact queer sexual identity , but Will was never written and will never be written to be ‘straight’! Stay mad!

If Will was Wilma, the majority of the fandom would be byler shippers. Think about it! Mike having byler scenes that are identical to s1 mileven scenes, and then additional unique byler scenes. Mike staying by Wilma’s side 24 hours a day for several days (not even changing clothes), carrying her out of the hospital, grabbing her hand (with a zoom in shot),constantly asking her if she’s okay at least 5-7 times, putting his arm around her twice, being the only one who could tell something was off with her (and it wasn’t her normal type of quiet). Calling and running all the way to her house and banging on the door to check on her, desperate. Proclaiming “i’m the only one who cares about Wilma!” Watching her sleep cause he’s so worried, that shed scene reminiscing about how they first met in perfect detail, saying “I asked, I asked if you wanted to be my friend. You said yes, you said yes. It was the best thing I’ve ever done. (like a marriage proposal)” The “crazy together” scene. Them being close since they were 5 vs the girl he knew for a week (but is somehow in love with?). If the witness said about El in s1 , “ same height… it could be the Byers girl”, instead of ‘boy’ (pointing out the resemblance). Mike getting into fights and getting upset (almost crying) about the bullies insulting Wilma. Mike having a whole binder of her drawings and caressing one of the drawings, after he thinks she died. Being the only one of her friends to stay awake at the hospital, waiting for her to wake up- so he can see her and hug her first. Almost everyone would be team byler if Will was a girl- they probably would of started shipping it the second Wilma stared at him and was the only one who didn’t lie to him, in the first ep! Another parallel to El!

And again think about s3 if Will was a girl.They paralleled the (comedic) mileven breakup vs (the sad/serious) byler breakup. Then Mike just complained and burped on the couch vs apologizing to Willma multiple times/even going into a storm to apologize a 2nd time (and to ‘talk’). Willma having a breakdown over the fight vs El laughing and high five-ing Max after.The shed vs the pool shed scene- “best thing I’ve ever done” vs “you’re the most important thing in the world to me”, “blank makes you crazy’ (as El stares confused) vs “crazy together’ (where Wilma says ‘yeah, crazy together). Mike going on ‘movie dates with Willma all the time’ right after making out with El. The last mileven kiss where Mike has his eyes open the whole time, doesn’t kiss back, and says he doesn’t remember saying “I love her” to El (and doesn’t say ‘I love you’ back). Right after having a talk with Wilma about playing games when she comes back (the crux of their fight). Mike getting excited that he’ll be able to visit El and Wilma on Thanksgiving and them visiting him on Christmas (those are holidays where family usually introduces their S.O.) Having the last scene of Mike, be him looking back at Wilma’s house, and have that whole monologue in that scene be about “feelings changing”, and then he goes to hug his mom like the s1 byler scene where he thought Wilma was dead. And that’s not even all the scenes- and every time byler won by a landslide. If Will was a girl, it would be obvious writing on the wall, that Mike would eventually choose Wilma over El by the end of the series.

But since they are 2 boys, we’re delusional, because queer kids don’t exist … apparently.

#byler #byeler #will byers

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the9thbestchojin · 4 years ago

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Hello again I'm the 9th best chojin and since childhood I've been an absolutely massive fan of Pokémon ever since I watched Ash Ketchum journey across the land I also wanted to go on a Pokémon journey and one birth day my dad brought me into a GameStop and there it was on the Gameboy shelf a green game with a badass dragon the cover Pokémon emerald was my first game and since then I've played every gen but I've spent enough time on the intro so let me tell you about my favorite Pokémon from every gen

Gen 1 Slowbro

So out of every mon from the original 151 why Slowbro why not charizard or nidoking well its simple I like his dopey smile...yep that's it sure alot of cool Pokémon exist but a good cute boi every now and then is all I need plus he has that cool ass shellder tail sure it doesn't really look like a shellder but if you squint step back 3 feet tilt your head and ignore the fact that the shellder on its tail was its own Pokémon seprate from shellder till it got cut part way through development and gamefreak were to lazy to redesign so its a shellder now it then yea it looks just like a shellder plus its got some damn good stats and the coveted psychic type that dominated gen 1 that make it worth the wait till the second to last gym in my opinion

Gen 2 Crobat

with the creation of gen 2 there was a bunch of evolutions and pre-evolutions for gen 1 added to the game and while some of these were done to add new types to old Pokémon like syther into scissor and onyix into steelix other Pokémon wee given new evos to make them better crobat is one of these Pokémon golbat isn't terrible but crobat is a whole other beast with a much better speed stat there isn't a hell of a lot out speeding him plus getting one is super easy even with zubats lowered encounter rate in gen 2 its not terribly hard to get one then you just gotta get him up to level 22 and then use the power of friendship to evolve him into crobat friendship evos are annoying most of the time but for crobat its worth it know some of you are probably wondering why crobat? he,s only pseudo gen 2 mon why not a pokemon introduced in gen 2 and id agree with you if only they let you use more then half the Johto dex before the post game

Gen 3 Sceptile

Now if you have the memory capacity to remember the intro then you know emerald was my first game and yes this is a case of this was my first Pokémon so I have an emotional attachment to it and every time I play trough Hoenn I always pick treecko even recently when I decided to play through oras again soft reset for an entire day so I could play through the game with a shiny treecko it may not be the best Pokémon ever but I still love it and no matter how many times I play through Hoenn ill always pick treecko

Gen 4 Froslass

when new giving new evos to old Pokémon your kinda putting every new pokemon at a disadvantage since this a new thing for a Pokémon their already familiar unless you fuck up really hard and make lickylicky but thankfully gamefreak didn't fuck up giving my second favorite Hoenn mon a female exclusive evolution giving it 2 immunities in exchange for a new ghost type weakness by giving it the ghost typing and giving it a cool design based off a geisha and yuki onna makes this one mon that I don't mind waiting till the 7th badge to get

Gen 5 Darmanitan

This one was kinda hard tbh because despite the fandom consensus the unova dex has some bangers haxsaurus samurott braviary but out of the sizable chunk of Unova mons I like there's only one who can be my favorite and that has to be darmanitan he’s so cool having the origin of a Pokémon designer going to an end of year party and seeing a daruma doll burning in a fire and saying *imma a make a fucking Pokémon outta that* AND IT FUCKING WORKED! this bastard does two things be fast and hit shit and it does that like a fucking G also it has a zen mode and that's ok coulda been done better AND THEN IT WAS because with regional variants being a thing now they made darmanitan British and an ice type and made him hit shit harder because his zen mode doesn't make him a special attacker but all things considered I prefer original recipe Unovan darmanitan because I like its design more yep simple as that tho I cant like Galarian darmanitan does have a funky afro

Gen 6 Greninja

If you know my thoughts gen 6 you know its not positive but I cant deny its got a decent pokedex and whos the best Pokémon of this dex? its a cool frog ninja based off Jiraiya from the romance of the 3 kingdoms or if you're uncultured Naruto but unlike Naruto greninja doesn't run after some emo for 500 plus episodes but he does get a pseudo mega in the anime later the games and its a cool form imo he’s fast he’s strong got cool design with a cool origin and I don't need much else

Gen 7 Minior

Now let me start with this I'm perfectly ok with minior not being a pre-evo for solrock and lunatone just because two Pokémon have the design origin doesn't mean they should be related maybe a tangential relation from pokedex entries but I don't think they should be part of the same line now with that out of the way let me tell you why minior is great first off its meteor form looks so cool it looks like a Pokémon that would be used by the goron from the legend of Zelda it its meteor form isnt al it has since its gimmick is that once it hits half health it *casts off* and takes off its shell and two things about this form 1 look at his lil face cute mans 2 look at his speed and attack boost dangerous mans all that plus its colour gimmick making it so I can get it in orange and how can I not love it

Gen 8 Perrserker

so here we are the most recent gen and I can say without a word of doubt gen 8 has one the most solid pokedexs in years I love most Pokémon and sorta just tolerate others but out of all these Pokémon I love perrserker the most ever since I ran into it as a Galarian meowth I was kinda shocked it looked like some thing that would shit in your shoes and take pride in it I had to catch it and after evolving it it keeps that same energy but now slightly taller perrserker is a great mon with a great hidden ability steely spirit which I lovingly call communist steel worker making it onto most of my galar teams what can I say I love this 3 foot tall Viking gremlin and altho gen 8 is still relatively new I can confidently say perrserker will say my favorite

so that's it my favorite Pokémon of every generation I've loved Pokémon for the grand majority of my life and I hope to love it in the future and cant wait to see what Pokémon from gen 9 will join the ranks of my favorites in a few years time and with that thank you for reading and I hope to see you again in the future

#pokemon

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shadow-djinni · 5 years ago

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Generalizations in Fandom

Or, some idiot on my dash made an underinformed comment about shipping trends and now I have to go prove them wrong.

I’m a day late with my griping, but much better-researched for it, which means this post (under the cut) is going to be even longer now. Apologies in advance. If you’d like to read my exceedingly long-winded griping, hit the readmore button.

A quick preface–and some background–to my complaining, which will be important going forward. Though I’m by no means a fandom old, nor am I claiming that status, I’ve been in and around fandom for over eight years now, and have been an active content creator for seven and a half. In that timeframe, I’ve been in and out of a wide range of fandoms, all with different fannish climates and behaviors, so I like to think I have a fair bit of experience in these spaces.

So, yesterday, a blog I had been following–which, up until this point, had expressed views on fandom I generally agreed with–made a post complaining about the proliferation of slash fic in fandom. I’m not going to link the post or @ the blogger in question, mostly because I have no intentions of picking a fight with said blogger or with their fans, as I understand they have a relatively large following, but the post was something to the effect of “fandoms always lionize overwhelmingly white noncanon m/m ships at the expense of women and POC”. Now, at a glance, that looks…correct, right? At least considering the fandoms you usually see on Tumblr. But that statement looks…really off to me, given my own lived experience, and the longer I looked the more off it looked, and the more complaints I had with it.

The first problem with this statement, and others like it: there is no such thing as a pan-fandom issue. Statements like these posit that all fandoms, regardless of the source material, always have or develop the issue the poster sees and wishes to discuss. It’s a good way to get attention, but it lacks the nuance to really support itself under scrutiny. The truth of the matter is that the source material a fandom draws for has influence over the sort of fans who are drawn to it and the material they have to work with, which therefore effects the trends in tropes and shipping the fandom in question develops–and while broad similarities may be drawn across multiple fandoms with similar elements to them, no two fandoms develop alike, an effect which is compounded by differences in age, genre, and location of origin of the source material.

For a personal example, I’ve been active in four fandoms I would consider strongly influential in terms of my taste in fiction and my writing ability and style. Without getting overly specific, those fandoms are:

a video game franchise begun in the 80s, which has seen new installments released every 5-10 years

a magical girl manga (and later anime) produced in the early ‘00s, which has not seen new canon since

a popular and ongoing live action American movie series, which began release within the last decade

and, for good or ill, Voltron (an animated cartoon released in summer ‘16, which ran through December ‘18 with an utter shitstorm of a fandom)

If we believe statements such as the one above, one would expect that all four of those fandoms would have exactly the same inter-fandom issues, namely the sidelining of women and characters of color in favor of the white slash pairing of the day–but, having been in these fandoms, that’s true for exactly one of them. I’d give you all three guesses, but let’s face it, the answer is obvious.

It’s the live action American movie series.

In fact, the initial statement is fairly accurate when assessing that work, and other live action American movie series and television shows, and there’s a number of reasons why. American live action media often gives disproportionate representation to white men, particularly when it comes to lead roles, while consigning women and POC to supporting roles. As such, the (white, male) leads garner more development than the support roles, which makes the leads easier and more appealing for fic writers and shippers to work with. Media with black leads, or other leads of color, also often have smaller fandoms overall, and as such don’t make the big, obvious waves large-scale fandoms like…say, Harry Potter or the MCU make on Tumblr.

Canonical (female) love interests are also often sidelined by live action media fandoms, for a number of reasons–namely, in canon they are often granted less screentime, less depth, and less subjectivity than their male castmates, and are frequently treated as objects by the camera. This makes it harder to empathize with them, especially given fandom is majority women who may be rendered too uncomfortable to work with the characters–there’s a good deal of baked-in misogyny that would need to be untangled from the character herself, and in most cases only the most committed of fans are actually going to sit down to do the work.

Now, mind you, these do not apply to all fandoms. Voltron had some of the same problems with sidelining canonical love interests–but Voltron’s fandom flagships gag were between a half-human character of indeterminate ethnicity and two men of color, one of whom is canonically queer. The magical girl manga fandom I mentioned above, ironically enough, has issues with sidelining a subtextually canonical f/f ship in favor of splitting the pair to put them in het ships. And the video game fandom used to have issues with slash shippers in what was a majority het fandom, and still has lingering issues with slash depending on which corners of fandom you frequent.

And yet, if I were to say “fandom has a problem with ignoring canonical queer subtext” or “fandom has a problem with inordinate aggression towards slash ships”, can you imagine the sort of ridicule I would face? Most people discussing social issues in fannish contexts would look at me as though I’d sprouted a second head, when those issues are in fact present and in need of discussion–just not in the large, obvious fandoms in the Tumblrsphere, which seem to be the only fandoms these people consider deserving of discussion.

My second point can be summed up in a single sentence: it is not the responsibility of fandom to correct the issues present in the source canon.

No canon is perfect. Creators are human, and flawed, and they will inevitably fuck up no matter how well they generally handle things. And while those fuckups do impact the way the fandom creates (see my first point), fandom does not have a duty to fix those fuckups. Fandom is not, and should not be, an activist space–it’s a creative space foremost, and it’s full of people with all sorts of baggage they pack in with them. It’s unfair, and arguably cruel, to force people to engage with aspects of canon they find squicky, or even triggering, to ‘correct’ flaws in canon that your “activism” takes issue with. (note: the link in the paragraph preceding this is mostly talking about shipping activism and while it makes some points about slash I disagree with, it makes plenty of good points about other sorts of fannish activism and the way fans who take their activism too far impact other fans and people unfamiliar with the source media)

And, additionally: unless you’re paying them, fan creators don’t owe you content. Yes, even if they primarily create for that dreaded noncanon m/m ship and you’d rather they make content for your favored f/f ship. Yes, even if your favored ship is actually canon, because there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shipping noncanon ships rather than canon ones–if I kept that mentality I wouldn’t create at all. If you want content, you have to make it yourself, or commission it.

And, my final point: if you don’t enjoy things certain fandoms are doing, learn to use your blacklist and filters.

If, like the op of the post I’m complaining about, you’re tired of the proliferation of slash ships you have ideological disagreements with, blacklist them and the fandoms that produce them! If there are particular common aus in a fandom you hate, figure out the tags and filter those! Particular ‘hot takes’ you’re sick of seeing? Seas of endless shitposts that make you roll your eyes? One particular writer who does a ship you otherwise enjoy in a notably squicky way? Blacklist, filter, and block.

Because I guarantee you, no matter how many angry posts you make about people making content you personally dislike, you won’t make anyone stop producing it.

And you might even piss some of them off.

Now if you’ll all excuse me, I have a non-canon slash fic to work on.

#fannish salt #salt #this is absolutely not something i usually do and i don't intend to repeat the performance #but i was so pissed off yesterday i was literally seeing red #like!!! gods!!!!!!#just because mainstream live action american media franchises dominate tumblr #that doesnt mean issues those fandoms have are applicable to every other fandom everywhere!!!#and if you insist they are youre a fucking idiot and i wont apologise for saying it #like its beyond reductive to pretend theyre universally applicable #and frankly by assuming that worldview you miss a lot of issues actually present in the media in question #like the structural issues in vlds narrative that thoroughly borked their second and third arcs #and caused the surface issues that so much of the fandom fusses about rather than looking a little deeper for the common threads #but thats another post for another day

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sapphicambitions · 6 years ago

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So I emailed the SYFY Feedback account. This is what I said. I’ll let y’all know if they respond.

To Whom it May Concern,

I'm writing concerning the Magicians finale which aired last night, April 17th. While the finale may have been beautifully acted and filmed, there are many real concerns that the fans have that were brought on by this episode. Many of us fear that these concerns are going to be overlooked or written off by the network, furthering the betrayal. I'm not sure who reads these feedback emails, but if it is at all possible to get it passed along to the right people, it would make a huge difference.

The death of Quentin Coldwater was unnecessary and cruel. This is a character that has clinical depression and has been hospitalized multiple times for suicide attempts. One of Quentin's major character arcs is that he is in a better place now than he was before he discovered magic, and that he had to do that for himself. For fans facing their own mental illness and struggles, he was a beacon of light and a chance to see themselves on screen. Quentin was not special. His discipline was minor mendings. He was not a high king in his blood, he was barely the hero of the story. But he was the hero of his own story. And for fans, this was important. That even though they might not be "special" they could still live to fight another day. That they could find the courage to keep fighting. So many fans identified with Quentin. He was their reminder that if he could keep fighting and living, so could they. This is extremely important to people who are suicidal. It is not something to take lightly, as literal lives are at stake.

There is a problem in the action adventure / science fiction genre with using the heroic self sacrifice as an excuse for suicidal tendencies. It is a harmful trope, but when you place that trope on a character who is clinically depressed and suicidal, it is devastating. And Quentin Coldwater's suicide has devastated the fandom. If you were to go onto tumblr.com and go through the Magicians tags, you would see that the episode was incredibly triggering for the fans with mental illnesses. Because our hero who kept living to fight another day killed himself. The episode poorly addressed this when Quentin and Penny 40 were discussing this in the Underworld, and there was no specific conclusion. Suicide is never heroic in any context. Portraying suicide as heroic is dangerous.

Further, there was no reason for Quentin to die. In an interview with Sera Gamble, she discusses the choice in a way that is grotesque. She calls it an artistic choice and a "full complete circle of Quentin's storyline." Do you have any idea how harmful that is for suicidal viewers? To tell them that the only end of their story has to be their death? To tell them that their efforts of saving themselves are pointless? Quentin's death was tragedy for the sake of being tragic and shock value. This is damaging to fans who saw Quentin as a way to keep fighting.

Additionally, the idea that Quentin's death was heroic or okay because all of his friends were able to love him and be okay, so that Quentin could find peace in death? That is the most catastrophic idea to come from this finale. John McNamara said in the same interview that he didn't want to write pro-suicide television but that is EXACTLY what they did. If they cannot understand why telling suicidal people that they will be able to find peace in death is dangerous and damaging, I can't begin to tell them how to care about people. Quentin's death was cruel and thoughtless. There's more that Sera and John say in the article but honestly I cannot stomach any more of it. Here's a link to the article I've mentioned:https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/the-magicians-finale-death.html The death of Quentin is not just important because of Quentin's mental illness, but because of Quentin's queerness. It cannot be denied anymore that Quentin Coldwater is queer. Following 3x05 and 4x05 especially, but from the word of the actor himself. Jason Ralph stated at comic con this past year that Quentin's queerness is the only thing he's not anxious about, and spent the entire con calling Q & Eliot soulmates and lifetime loves. The marketing department for the Magicians has released fan videos and egged on the queer viewers, encouraging them to watch for the representation. Quentin's entire motivation this entire season has been to get back to Eliot. And then in the last three episodes this build up was completely discarded.

Quentin and Alice get back together after both of them moving on with their own story lines and the fans agree that it doesn't make sense. The reunion of Qualice feels like it was essentially set up so that the writers had an excuse to not acknowledge Queliot in the finale. Because they didn't. Quentin has spent the entire season trying to save Eliot and then we don't get to see him reunite with Eliot. Even if one were to ignore anything Queliot, they have been best friends for the last four seasons and narratively it doesn't make sense. The fans feel as though it was a purely homophobic move and are hurt. The build up and then casting aside of a queer narrative is hurtful to queer audiences.

Queer audiences get such little scraps from shows as it is that the Magicians was a breath of fresh air and the chance to see our stories played out on screen. The chance for them to receive an equal narrative weight and taken seriously. Because the show, in the end, didn't follow through with Queliot, the queer fans feel baited. Queer baiting is a gross tactic to gain viewers and many queer fans are devastated for their trust to be betrayed in such a way. And this was a betrayal to queer audiences. Make no mistake, many queer fans will not be returning to see the show's fifth season.

Frankly, the Magicians has never had great queer representation. Eliot Waugh is really the only confirmed queer character and his storyline falls right into the unhappy gay man trope. In the first season, he has to kill off his fake boyfriend. In the second season, he's married off to a woman and essentially forbidden from sleeping with men. In the third season, we have A Life in the Day, which is then not acknowledged again for an entire season. Every other "queer rep" is literally a joke or not followed through. The amount of homophobia that runs through the show is a disappointment to fans who have identified with the queer characters. Sera Gamble and the other Magicians writers have made it perfectly clear how they feel about queer people and their storylines. This has been noted by the fans.

Further, the confirmation of Quentin's queerness and then his execution falls right into the Bury Your Gays trope. It falls right into the Hays Code and the idea that in order for queer people to exist on screen, there has to be negative consequences for being gay. Is this the kind of network SYFY wants to run? One that refuses to allow members of the LGBTQ community to be happy or to simply exist? Because by backing the choices the Magicians have made concerning their queer characters, that is what they have done. A large portion of the fantasy audience is queer people and yet we are continuously excluded from narrative, or included only to be killed off.

This is also dangerous for viewers. According to the Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/#sm.0001fud2yh6a9ctju2r22bg7t0dyo) queer youth are five times as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual youth. It is practically an epidemic in the community, the taking of their lives because they aren't given space to exist in the world. And yet the Magicians just allowed their queer main character to kill himself. This has devastated the viewers who identified with Quentin for his mental illnesses but also his queerness.

Sea Gamble and her team of writers can say that "not even the white man is safe" and claim that Quentin's death is "ground breaking" but this is not the case when the character is suicidal and queer. A mentally ill queer person killing themself isn't ground breaking, it's a devastating reality that too many face and capitalizing on that trauma for the sake of shock value is disgusting and frankly, unforgivable. No matter what the writer's intentions might have been are irrelevant, this is the message they have sent out to their audiences.

The fans have real concerns about this and if their concerns are going to be acknowledged at all. There's a fear that we will be written off as complaining about shipping or not getting our way, when in reality it runs so much deeper. The Magicians writers broke the trust and spirits of their audiences, and the betrayal will effect ratings and viewer numbers. Is the network going to acknowledge these concerns and the damage done to their audiences? This is a much bigger deal than just some upset fans. This was a catastrophic blow and a slap to the face to an already marginalized audience.

Please understand that even though there is anger in my tone and in my heart, this is also coming from a place of love. The Magicians has deeply affected my life and changed me as a person, which is why this betrayal hurts so deeply. Many other fans feel the same way, and many of us are not returning to the fifth season. I cannot speak for the entire fan base, but some recognition and acknowledgement or damage control (and even an apology) would make the world of a difference for an entire fandom that was just stabbed in the back and shaken to their core. Ignoring this problem will only cause a drop in ratings and numbers and be a blow to the network itself.

Thank you for taking the time to read these concerns.

#lesbianlaynie #the magicians #queliot #quentin coldwater #eliot waugh #tm cast #the magicians finale #the magicians spoilers #it's not my best argumentative essay but its something #long post #suicide tw #tw suicide

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kfs1001 · 5 years ago

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Early this week @pikachu-cc made a post under the title --- STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN EVEN IF IT MEANS STANDING ALONE --- I wholeheartedly agree. Like @pikachu-cc, I have been silent, making the occasional comments only when something hits me as truly important. As I have stated many times before, there is ‘hate’ directed at our fandom and there is ‘hate’ expressed by our fandom. Both sides have their agendas, but is it the agenda of the entire fandom --- I say no.

I have read the comments of the other side and I have seen how they respond to comments made by our side --- honestly both sides can be nasty. We pretend we are victims and innocent. Well we are not. ‘Hate’ is ‘hate’ and we throw it as much as they do. The sooner we admit this, the sooner we can be more productive.

When I joined this community, I thought it was to support two men in their struggle for equality in an industry ripe with homophobia. In the beginning I drank the CC Kool Aid and then I started to see things I did not like. I questioned behind the scenes and was told to ignore the ‘hate’. These comments perplexed me because I saw the ‘hate’ expressed about a certain woman and few men and the team. The words were nasty. The words were not needed. These words did nothing to support two men.

Mouths ago I posted that I do not ‘hate’ this woman, these men or the team. I was shocked by the responses from CCer’s declaring their undying ‘hate’ for this woman, these men and a team. The ‘hate’ turned me off. The ‘hate’ made me want to leave. The ‘hate’ did not do what I believed the CC community was about. “Hate’ feeds ‘hate’. It blinds you and focuses negativity. It ruins things. I stood back and questioned my place in the community. Then I saw there are others who think as I do. They see the ‘hate’ from within and do not necessarily like it.

@pikachu-cc asked the question --- I wonder how many people have been turned off from this side of the fandom because “the 5” have done this to them. Or how many stay silent because they don’t want to get skewered for having their OWN thoughts and opinions, and not only what “the 5” would have you believe is the end all be all truth? I wonder how many people have been turned off from this side of the fandom because “the 5” have done this to them.

To answer, I believe many. I learned from working for government and subject to life long non-disclosure (condition of employment) when to choose your battles and when to back off. “Hate’, (inequality, the lack of human rights and dignity) in any form is a hill to die on. I have posted about the ‘hate’ in the CC world before and I noted there are consequences to apposing what some might consider the opinion of the many. Well, I have come to think it is the opinion of the vocal few. In my opinion, the majority have chosen to guard their thoughts and words until they find themselves on that hill.

To those who read these blogs who do not know what do to. To those who read these blogs because they disagree with CC statements. Please remember the comments of a few do not represent the desires of all. There are many of us who believe in D and C, but ‘hate’ is not the means for us to get our point across. The woman, the men and the team are a consequence of a homophobic industry who care more about money and image than human rights. They have sway on these two men, but they are not these two men.

Our world is far from perfect. ‘Haters’ are everywhere from the very pinnacle of national political power to those who walk down the street. They --- we --- are products of our beliefs, our upbringing and the many circumstances of their lives. When it comes down to it, ‘hate’ is a product of fear of change --- change of thought --- change of belief --- change of acceptance. Acceptance is scary and in turn breeds yet more hate unless we come to terms with what is inside us. We need to accept we --- as individuals and as human being --- each have ‘hate’ in us. We need to accept we may give into this ‘hate’. However, do we let ‘hate’ control our lives? Do we accept this part of us and then say --- “No, I will not allow ‘hate’ to dictate my emotions." Years, ago, I said no. We can all say no.

I am not saying, those who express their ‘hate’ do not have a wealth of knowledge. I can admire these people for their knowledge and for the care and calm I have seen them reply to difficult asks. All I am saying is we need to be cognizant of what we say and how we say it. We are playing a public relations game and what we say and do reflects on the believers of D and C as a loving couple caught in undesirable circumstances. The woman, these men and the team or people paid by them or their supporters, troll our blogs. Like politics, the words we use will be used against us. If you want to be negative, at least be careful about how you do it.

For myself, and perhaps others, it is the manner in which opinions are expressed which counts. Saying that someone should ‘burn in hell’ does nothing but fan the flames of ‘hate’ and, or myself, crosses a line. For good or ill, words are powerful. They cut. They hurt. They breed discontentment and anger. They can also create caring, joy and love. It is how we use them that is important. We have to remember these people are human with emotions and insecurities just like us.

I have to ask myself --- do D and C read our blogs. I believe yes. Now, what do they think when they see our words trashing a woman, these men and a team --- oh god, what will come of this. Believe me, this woman, these men and a team, may have something to say about what we say. We have seen evidence of reprisals for our comments and when inconsistencies are pointed out.

Again, be cautious of how you say something. It is your right to express yourself, but it is the right of others to respond. As I have said before, negative comments do not help D or C, in fact they hinder. ‘Hate’ is not support --- LOVE is.

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leta-the-strange · 6 years ago

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My troubled relationship with the FB community.

Okay, here goes. As ridiculous as it sounds (because in reality, it is ridiculous) I have taken a rather lengthy break from my writing – both here, on A03 and Fanfiction.net for my health. I have a few significant health problems and for as long as I can remember, writing is one of the few escapes I have – one of my true joys. Now, I’m by no means one of the ‘greats’ in any of the fandoms I’ve written in. I’m always in awe of the talent of some of the writers that I have been lucky enough to read and although I’m not at their level, I’ve been so excited to have the opportunity to have these platforms to share the stories I’ve poured my heart into and so mindblown and grateful to have people not only read them but take the time to leave feedback or thanks.

My love for Leta Lestrange began way back in the very first film when we knew very little about her. But I was starry-eyed from the get-go. A woman of colour main character? She quickly turned into my new inspiration and I was lucky enough to be one of the first Leta Lestrange-centred writers and blogs and meet some other great creatives and like-minded fans in the then tiny Leta loving community. I started developing my first multi-chapter story and (as daunting as it was considering the incredible talent in the stories I had read) started uploading the first chapters to share. A few people started reading my stories and left encouragement, advice and comments that absolutely made my day and I would feel so driven and inspired to keeping going and looked forward to spending my evenings putting together new chapters. My heart would skip each time I got an email saying that someone had left a comment, a review, kudos or notes.

I was quite naïve in not knowing much about ‘ship’ and ‘fandom wars’ and when I found out that was a…thing, I did my best to stick to safe, neutral content, staying out of the confrontational tags, not engaging in the fandom too much – only to share things I created or liked (what all this is supposed to be about). Unfortunately, no matter how well I did that foreign, poisonous part of the fandom I was naïve enough to believe I could easily avoid by minding my business found its way into my life and quickly consumed something I loved.

PLEASE understand that this post isn’t about the characters. This is about real people. As a young girl of colour, yes there have absolutely been moments where I feel sick at some of the racist undertones in a large majority of the fandom’s depiction of Leta – I am happy to put my feelings on this in a more eloquent fashion in a separate post but again, the purpose of my first post back is about real people.

There are people in this fandom, quite a lot of people actually who all belong to one particular community, who not only are lucky enough to have the free time to create and share the things they love on the internet but also apparently have enough spare time to actively go seeking out posts, stories, works, etc that are centred on fictional characters and relationships that they don’t like (to put it lightly) for the sole purpose of abusing, bullying and degrading the creators to the delight of their followers that have little more than mic-drop gifs, ‘oh snap’s, and ‘#preach’ to contribute.

This behaviour is disgusting, appalling, unacceptable and harmful.

And of course, not ALL people from this particular, I don’t know the word…’shipping group’ do this (so many are kind, talented and supportive) but enough have that I feel like even if I eventually came to like this pairing, I would never, ever feel safe engaging in that community myself.

I have characters I like, characters I love, ones that I am impartial to and ones I don’t like much. That’s the great thing about fictional characters. However, I have never felt the urge (or had the time or energy) to obsessively track the tags of ships and characters that I don’t like to leave hateful comments designed to make the creators feel unsafe and unwanted in a community in which they are just as entitled to be involved in than anyone else.

This obsessive, abusive behaviour destroyed my love for writing. One of the few things that drew me out of depression when I was unable to physically do much else activity-wise gave me intense anxiety and as much as I still received beautiful comments, I panicked when I received notification that someone had messaged me.

My story has been called disgusting, dumb, awful, gross etc. I have been called deluded (apparently for not following a canon ship), a crazy dumb bitch, illiterate – just off the top of my head. I found a thread last year that encouraged people to upload new Fantastic Beasts content to A03 asap to get my story off the first page when I would upload a new chapter. I was torn to shreds on both fanfiction websites after the second film came out and told that I hadn’t seen the movies (I had started my story well before the second film so I had to fill in the gaps which were quite a few). It seemed so pathetic and laughable at the start, I would just make sure I could monitor my reviews and would delete or not answer the abuse I received.

Eventually though, it become too overwhelming and I found it too difficult to continue – my inspiration was gone and I was emotionally drained. A few times I actually became pale, shaky and vomited from the relentlessness of it. I tried to claw back the thrill and love writing gave me by practicing getting back on the saddle by doing prompts on Tumblr while I was in hospital battling one of my illnesses. I thought it might be nice to take requests from people – a gentle re-entry into my beloved hobby and reconnecting with other fans. I did a piece on Theseus and Leta that I had overwhelming support for. I actually cried when more than a couple people left beautiful messages in regard to my Theseus dying/Leta surviving prompt. A few people left me Newt/Leta related prompts. I got around to completing a first kiss request that earned me an anon informing me that my writing was trash, made them gag in their mouth and I should seriously reconsider inflicting my unwanted pieces on a fandom that doesn’t want them and to keep my shit out of the tag.

I have seen blogs disappear from it and stories, posts and artwork removed. I was scrolling through Instagram and someone (quite notorious for this behaviour across all platforms) simply comment ‘ew #newtinaforever’ on a beautiful Leta fanvid that would have taken such a long time to put together. Surprisingly, the comments I got that were simply ‘ew’, ‘gross’, etc were more hurtful than the torrents of abuse sometimes.

Just a few days ago, someone posted something absolutely non-confrontational and innocent about them personally liking Newt/Leta because they found it cute which of course opened the floodgates for abuse and I read a comment relating to people who don’t personally ship the ‘canon’ ship (this sounds so ridiculous now that I’m typing it) as deluded and needed to check into a mental ward. This is quite personal but I am someone who has an illness that is accompanied by psychotic symptoms and I have spent periods of time in a psychiatric hospital (and will likely need to during my lifetime) for my own wellbeing. I felt physically nauseous by this. I feel anxious now disclosing this as I know this will give more ammunition to the people who have not yet been blocked by me and enjoy taunting me but I want people to understand the weight of their childish, uneducated, ignorant outbursts.

Because of my experience, PLEASE understand that when I say ‘unhinged’ I am not meaning it as a slur, it is coming from a place of serious concern. I think there are people in this fandom that are becoming quite dangerously confused between reality and fantasy. These characters ARE NOT REAL. If I can get through years of one my favourite characters being constantly hated on, written by fans as an abuser, rapist, you name it while far more ‘bad/problematic’ (white) females are adored and shipped with various characters quite harmoniously, and not resort to commenting, abusing or harassing people than you can get through your fave not being someone else’s fave. If your favourite pairing is canon, why are you so insecure about people liking other pairings? In Harry Potter, the most popular fan-favourite ships are non-canon and don’t cause any harm.

If someone writes on THEIR OWN BLOG that they personally don’t follow a certain ship, or they find a character bland or boring, or don’t agree with a casting, or don’t see chemistry between certain actors or like a pairing that differs from your own, JUST KEEP SCROLLING (and certainly don’t go on a witch-hunt by tracking down posts, blogs and stories you know you won’t like).

These are not real people. There is absolutely 0 reasons to be offended by someone saying that they find a certain character or pairing bland (which I haven’t done before). Of course you can disagree but if you are enraged, or offended, or feel inclined to personally attack or threaten A REAL PERSON over their preferences in something make-believe, than please, I implore you for your own mental wellbeing, to seriously assess if this level of emotional attachment to made-up characters is healthy.

I am planning on getting back into my story in time. I would love to get through the prompts and (nice) messages in my inbox now that I’m feeling a little more secure mentally and physically. I do thank all the beautiful people who have taken the time to request things, leave notes and such – I’m only back for them and feel confident that I can work through the toxicity and superiority complexes in this fandom with their support. I will do my best from now on to call out and check people when I see them mistreating others and to have more respect for myself and my work and not tolerate this any longer. I may respond and share some of the less pleasant messages I’ve received if I believe my responses can be helpful to others but there are some that require no response or audience.

I feel very content in the knowledge that I can see a story, visual, video, etc, involving a fandom, character or pairing that I don’t necessarily like and still appreciate the time and effort the person put in and find enjoyment in it too. If you still feel incapable of controlling yourself around people who are not a carbon copy of yourself, please just save yourself the distress by just blocking me instead of wasting valuable time and energy finding new ways to abuse me. I am not a harmful person, I am not an abusive person. I encourage you in your journey to hopefully become the same and if you need to remove yourself from temptation than I applaud that decision no matter how much I cannot personally relate.

To anyone who has read my stories or sent me prompts, thank your for your patience and encouragement. I look forward to being able to get back into a community I have found such joy in.

#fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald #leta lestrange #newt scamander #cant get much worse #so i may as well dump this 'shit' in your tag too #prompt

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