#i'm arguing with ppl on reddit

[goldsleeps]

tlt is too complicated. it's not possible for anybody, even if they're very smart, to read and understand it without having at least one flawed opinion about an interpretation of existing themes or a prediction for what's going to happen next. tamsyn i want alecto the ninth to be simple and straightforward and have the themes and messaging very clearly spelled out, mmkay?

[jules-makes-stuff]

Been seeing ppl on reddit argue about magic in fantasy for a while and I don't want to lose 3 hours bickering over there but I have *thoughts*

By now hard and soft systems are pretty well known but people ague againt hard systems because it "takes away the, well, MAGIC of magic". I think people aren't considering tone and the overall goals of a work and are conflating personal taste with truth again.

In my mind it really depends on the above though. Say you are Hoffman writing The Golden Pot. You want your work to be dreamlike, ethereal, like a half remembered song. Everything operates on dream/fairytale logic and emotion is reality. You should absolutelt NOT explain magic. It should be a strange force adhering only to narrative and emotional forces.

If you are writing a magical realism piece, like One Hundred Years of Solitude, the magic again is there to emphasize the absurdity of reality people at the time faced. Explaining anything takes that away. Same with horror or something like Metamorphosis. You don't know why this is happening and that means you cannot stop it or it doesn't matter how it happened, only the consequences.

Then there are more classical fantasy stories like Lord of the Rings. Magic is something ancient and grand and mysterious.... and none of the hobbits have it besides stray magic items. That is what people miss, I believe, when using this example. Gandalf isn't our pov character. Most characters there do not have magic or only have limited magic w very specific limitations, tools essentially. So we can follow along and anticipate how these will be used. There is big, scary, unknown magic, but it is usually something used by the opponents or characters that come in and out of the narrative. And I think that's a good balance! Its fine that we dont know the science of magic, because we understand enough when we need to, we can make predictions and there is enough wiggle room for something like Gandalf the White to happen. A looot of fantasy had followed this setup: the mc has only a few well defined spells and magic items, the world has more deep magic.

But, I personally do like harder magic, if the mc is supposed to be a wizard (or the equivalent). I would call most battle shonen hard magic (I think this is where ppl might want to kill me) becauss in a good battle shonen we know what everyone can do and we can plan along with the characters and predict how the fight will go. When a problem is solved in an interesting way we can go "I should have seen that comming!"

In BAD versions people yell really loud and whoever yells loudest about friendship (once we wasted enough screentime to call the third act done) wins. And this here is my problem. Because I have seen stories where characters do the same with magic and it breaks my immersion. When magic used by the mc can suddenly do anything and everything what is the point? I'm no longer following a story w interesting twists and turns, Im waiting for the author to say "ok thats enough we can push the win button now". And listen, obviously its a made up story, none of this is real or matters, but its the authors job to keep the illusion alive that it isnt.

This is different from creating a mcguffin that can do anything once and having a quest about it, there getting the item is the challenge, not using it.

And a system being hard doesnt mean we need to know the science behind it, just that we need to know what it can do and the limits. In avatar they can manipulate the elements w martial arts. Period. Why? How? The spirits said so. Most ppl fuck up hard magic imo by starting to write a thesis about magical physics or overcomplicating it instead of taking 1 simple idea and exploring all the cool things that it can do. Witch Hat feels super magical and yet all there is to magic is drawing magic circles and we actively learn how to draw them in the series and the way the characters problem solve w magic and their try-fail cycles are super fun!

The point of this ramble is that I need structure that fits the narrative goals of the work. If we're doing a dream like narrative throw away explanations. If Im a wizard playing mind chess w other wizards you better tell me what chess pieces we have.

[zombie-bait]

Omg i just realized I have something tiny to add to the whole James Somerton debacle. I'm currently watching the hbombguy vid (as you do when procrastinating assignments) and I remembered something that stood out to me in James' old videos.

So I used to be a fan of his stuff. I am also a fan of Hannibal and IWTV. He made a video covering both so naturally I was very hyped. It was called 'The Gay Appeal of Toxic Love.' The vid itself was fine (I don't remember having any super strong opinions of it besides being excited to hear ppl mention Interview cuz I had recently become obsessed) but one thing did stand out to me. In the IWTV section he mentions Nicki and, naturally, his death:

"After becoming a vampire, Nicky becomes nearly catatonic, and eventually slips away from Lestat entirely. And after centuries of dealing with depression and severe mental illness, Nicky kills himself."

(sourced from this transcript: https://github.com/TerraJRiley/James_Somerton_Transcripts/blob/main/Transcripts/The%20Gay%20Appeal%20of%20Toxic%20Love.txt)

To anyone who's read TVL, I don't think I need to explain that Nicki had not, in fact, been around for centuries. "Nicki had lived to be 30" has been rattling around in my head since I first read it.

And like, obviously I don't expect every youtube essayist to read several long-ish novels to have a full grasp of the series' deep lore, especially when the focus was largely on IWTV and Loustat rather than the entire Vampire Chronicles. Still, it makes you wonder a bit about the quality of the research being done here. You can find the proper info in like, 5 seconds by just going on the fan wiki so I'm not sure what his sources were. And that's the issue at hand, isn't it?

At the time I felt a tiny bit smug recognizing the error but in light of everything that's been revealed, it's kind of telling. I'm not saying this part was plagiarized (I haven't found anything but others on reddit have found issues with different sections of the same video) but rereading the transcript it comes off as someone who clearly doesn't know much about Interview.... It feels like he's reading through a loose summary of plot points rather than analyzing a piece of media that actually means anything to him. It's very much Interview for people who don't know Interview which, one could argue is fair. Especially beyond book one, VC is a niche series and a lot of elements that are important to certain characters or plot lines cannot be summarized quickly for an audience unfamiliar with it. A good writer, who's done a lot of research about the specific topic they have chosen to make a video on, would be able to balance this. There is a LOT to analyze about queerness in VC and its a shame to see one of the more popular queer media channels half-assing it just to churn out videos heavily made up of other people's work. In retrospect he had several videos like that, where he would discuss things like manga/manhua communities while clearly having little knowledge on the nuance of those subjects. He was an outsider who presented himself with a strange amount of authority.

This was content created with the sole intention of propping up queer stories and history, yet it's built off stolen work from queer authors and doesn't actually care that much about exploring the communities it features. Vids like the IWTV one weren't really fact checked because it's only people like me who would might give a shit or even notice anything is off in the first place. There's a bit of a similar vibe in some of his other vids where he undermines the experiences of queer women because he clearly has not taken the time to learn about the nuances of representing queer women in media. These are things that irritated me when I first started to notice them but I put those concerns in the back of my mind because I cared about the topics he was covering and was excited to see these discussions becoming more mainstream.

The revelations of this evening have been disappointing to say the least.

(also for the record I know he made other more recent vids about IWTV but I haven't seen those and even if his account was still up I don't think I would lol

BUT

I did look at the transcript for his 'Vampires and the Gays Who Love Them' video (found from the same link I included above) and this quote about the IWTV AMC show is sending me: "Daniel has never grappled with the complexities of being gay"

Shoutout to straight, uncomplicated icon Daniel Molloy. Devil's Minion was a mass hallucination, spread the word)

[atopvisenyashill]

Bro the ppl you stan are so at odds with the other, your level of starkcels are always alicent-sansa stans, which is a shame bc if they open their eyes they'll see the sansa-rhaenyra-catelyn parallels 😔🥀

Messing with my stats fr 😒 (no hate btw, I'm also a sansa-rhaenyra stan)

it GENUINELY causes me pain, and like i get it, the fandom beefs go crazyyyy and i blame both d&d and the shitty way we teach literature analysis in high school for it getting as bad as it has. one of my xwitter moots got into asoiaf thru hotd bc she saw “lesbian undertones & dragons” and got curious & she said the other day never has she been in a fandom as genuinely evil, she was NOT prepared & i would say that’s just xwitter but we’ve ALL seen crazy behavior on every platform & also i can fully acknowledge that i, like many others, have gotten pettier & more quickly annoyed over the years ajsjdj. but my GOD i really do choose the toughest battles for no goddamn reason 😭🤧.

it’s pretty much like a two way split in fandom the way i see it, and i’m speaking in just the most broad, wankified strokes imaginable but -

targnation aka tb/dany(/arya) people who will genuinely honest to god argue that nettles is valyrian & daemon’s daughter bc only valyrians can ride dragons & really disingenuously misunderstand every point you make about how few good options a lot of the people on tg had.

the starkcels, infamous for being staunch jonsa shippers and/or sansa qitn truthers/stans, & they are all hardcore tg-but-usually-specifically-alicent stans. these people never stop BITCHING and NITPICKING, with the worst of it very much directed at being disingenuous about rhaenyra & baela’s motivations, in a very *dakota johnson voice* ellen you know that’s not true, sort of way.

(there’s other radioactive flavors, we don’t need to get into the aegon ii/king jon-or-stannis types on reddit, for instance).

and the problem here is that i call that second group my home bc it is a break off from the Main Branch which is very hostile to jonsa & associated theories, and therefore a lot of the most intensely starkcel people (such as me 😁) congregate there

(which, bizarrely to me, the Main Branch consists of largely tg/dany stans IF they watch the show seriously, if they don’t watch the show well that’s just main branch & it takes a second longer rant to explain that one but all of these groups are very hostile to starkcels & tbf starkcels are incredibly hostile to them aksjd). i Do believe i get the worst of both worlds as i try to exist in multiple subfandoms, altho i’m sure people at other intersections in fandom will disagree (they’re wrong i have it worse).

and this is a fandom just WILDLY HOSTILE to comparisons. u even think the words “sansa & ned are a little similar” and u get tomatoes thrown at you and that’s just her FATHER. i saw a minor meltdown on two different websites bc someone called margaery “the little queen” when “well that’s DAENAERA’S TITLE” brother no character owns a phrase or archetypes, and george’s style is basically just writing the same 12 archetypes that he really enjoys and doing them slightly to the left each time and as someone who loves doing that (there’s so many things to say!!! so many ways it can go if you just tweak one thing!!!!!) this series is crack to me, but if u dare compare two characters that have a different group of stans, even if those characters dead ass have the exact same life on paper, they try to execute you in the town square. so we just ignore the sansa-rhaenyra and rhaenyra-catelyn parallelism even tho it’s very obvious to me, bc it is apparently an insult to george himself to compare two characters he wrote 🤧

anyways sansa-rhaenyra stans of the world unite, there are dozens of us. dozens i tell you!!!!

[theflameisgonee]

was thinking about romances yesterday as one does and particularly mourning the fact that i've not been able to find any good poly ones lately - the ku girlies are particularly monogamous - so i was pondering that

i ALSO started thinking about that phenomenon of reddit posts, i'm sure you've seen them, where the husband wants to open the marriage and the wife is incredibly reluctant in agreeing, but then she's the one who ends up going on tons of dates and maybe getting a boyfriend and being happy, and the husband is now upset bc he hasn't had any dates and she's happy and now he wants to close the marriage again

anyway i combined these two thoughts and tried to think of how to make the concept with a happily ever after and less heteronormative and i arrived at this which has been delighting me:

character A convinces character B to open their marriage. there's is absolutely more nuance and discussion and communication and boundaries established in the course of this than the reddit post situations like the whole act 1 of the romance okay.

also, not in like. a regurgitating therapy speak way. that drives me nuts sometimes. it should be stumbling and confusing and probably uncomfortable at times!! we gotta create tension to get to the hea!!

act 2 we see both our mains!! going on dates!! and like a mix of good and bad for both of them!! but also we start building on this idea that character B is actually having a good time with this but character A is probably not. and can't figure out why bc what they ARE enjoying is seeing their spouse have a good time dating

aside for a particular scene im rly loving envisioning is the two of them debriefing post dates and having a genuinely silly fun time talking to each other about it

the break bad i think is character A going on a date with someone who by all accounts should be great for them, and it's a good date, but they just. don't. want to. and they like this person and have a fun time but there's no romantic spark - idk details

the important thing is like. character A realization that oh my god this whole time all they really wanted. was to have more friends to hang out with.

(i do think it would be particularly funny if character A was a man and ended up accidentally on a "date" with a lesbian and had to unpack why he was so relieved that it was actually a friend hangout the whole time)

i think we can get one (1) dash of intentional miscommunication where character A doesn't want to tell character B that actually they don't want to date other people but they do want character B to keep dating other ppl bc it makes them happy to see them happy etc

also fun if character B at this point has a steady additional partner and character A genuinely likes them and wants to be friends with them so bad

they do talk about it tho and it's like. the weirdest not-fight fight that eventually just breaks down into nothing bc they're both arguing the same side just saying it differently and then they realize what's going on and just. have to laugh.

anyway the happily ever after is that like. character A gets more friends and a better understanding of themselves and character B gets another partner or partners and everyone is rly happy together the end

think this is also born out of all the poly romances i read being closed triangle relationships and like cool yeah good i love that but also i would love to see some lopsided poly where everyone is happy and thriving!!

[namgyunation]

Anon from before - haha you're welcome for more excuses to type. Thank you for respondinga! I honestly thought the same as you, but so many people on ig threads and reddit ones have been arguing this specific thing with me like "he was high so he must have thought it was min-su not nam-gyu". And fair enough about being high given what happened to gyeong-su, but the reason I don't buy that -apart from the fact that Him ditching nam-gyu after he was initially hesitant to give him pills he thought would hurt him doesn't make sense to me - is the way nam-gyu then very insincerely says "I told him you'd survive" like bruh did no such thing 💀 which sort of sets that up as a lie. then we have the "I'm sorry boyyyy! open the dooorrrr!" thing which again, insincere af before he's like I'M SO FUCKIN' ANGRY MAN111!!

And yeah I dont know if you watched the show in English/another language or in Korean with the subtitles but in the Korean version my subtitles said "thanks to you I bonded with nam-su here" when he's telling off mg coin in the beginning. Which seemed like a very genuine statement when he said because he didn't need to say it for any reason at that point, nam-gyu was already supporting him, he wasn't scared of him like min-su etc.

(adding onto this post with the other ask you sent me) +

Same anon also omg that photoset you reblogged where rjw says thanos looked down on him, yeah I think thanos sort of does that with everyone but the thing is, the others didn't care? Se-mi didnt care, gyeong-su is starstruck and not eeally noticing, min-su is scared. But nam-gyu cares. nam gyu's resentment combined with how he wants thanos to respect him and see him as his equal etc lowkey reminds me of like when you're seeing a guy and you want more/have feelings but they don't/are a fuckboy, is what I compared it to (a situation both me and a friend of mine who also saw it, have been in). I could honestly see that applying both for platonic (like gretchen and Regina in mean girls?) Or for more (he really did give the vibe that he was into thanos as more than a friend to me) but tldr; YES that is exactly how I interpreted them and I'm sorry I'm spamming you I'm just excited to find 1 other person outside of my friends group that has the same takes as me.

oh really?? i'm surprised ppl are fr arguing about that. i might be biased but idk. i thought it was pretty clear he was joking. he was already picking nam-gyu without a second thought throughout the whole game. it was never a question to thanos if nam-gyu was going to be paired up with him in all the previous rounds. it was always thanos and nam-gyu going, "ok, who's coming with us?" like when they made min-su and se-mi rock paper scissors to determine who they'd take. they didn't have to ask each other if they were going to be together!

i mean, it's fair to say that since he was high, the possibility of him fr thinking he was with min-su could be there. but ehhhh idk. min-su went along with what thanos said out of fear and because he had no idea how to say no or stand up for himself, while nam-gyu enthusiastically followed him around and backed him up on everything, stroking his ego perfectly lol. min-su barely actually talks or makes the effort to talk with thanos (or nam-gyu). for someone who thinks so highly of himself, i feel like the choice for which of them to "save" and maintain the strongest alliance with would be clear for thanos, even when under the influence. also i saw someone comment this, but i think it’s funny to imagine that thanos also favored nam-gyu over min-su in that moment because nam-gyu returned his weird ass head shake thing LMAO

and yeah the whole 'bullying min-su in the bathroom' scene. no hesitation from thanos to try and intimidate min-su and shove him back on the toilet, all the exaggerated sweetness from earlier gone. and then ofc nam-gyu's pathetic ass is there again to back him up like thanos knew he would LOL

thanos knew that choosing nam-gyu over min-su would be more beneficial to him because of the fact that he happily follows whatever thanos wants, while min-su's growing increasingly rattled and is obviously taking more and more convincing to keep voting the way he wants him to.

and yes i watched it in kr! i agree with what you said. because of how thanos's personality is, i wouldn't be surprised if he played it up a bit / exaggerated how deeply he and nam-gyu "bonded" especially with how he added "because.. we shared the same pain 😿😿</3", but either way i do see it as a genuine statement. probably also said it to intimidate mg coin more and make it clear to him that (at least) two of the dudes he was now stuck in this confined space with did notttt fuck with him at all and were likely going to give him a really hard time

and then to respond to the second part of your ask—

i agree! and i'd say that top basically confirmed that in his netflix interview.

"before facing off against the front man, thanos probably thinks he's the boss there. after getting beat up... he probably confidently considers himself second in hierarchy."

thanos looks down on everyone no matter what. his ego is huge. the difference between him and nam-gyu (who i'd say also has a gigantic ego), is that thanos can actually somewhat back it up through his unwavering confidence and status. also, unlike nam-gyu, thanos's ego is pretty hard to bruise. he just seems so sure of himself, despite being cringey and a complete moron (said with love)

the others don't gaf fr! gyeong-su doesn't give a shit, clearly, he's just happy to be there and is pleased enough by the simple fact that thanos is letting him follow him around. se-mi thinks thanos is an idiot. she seems sure of herself, too, so why the hell would she care about what he thinks, of all people. and yeah, min-su is too terrified to care about how thanos views him lmao. he just doesn't want to die.

and then nam-gyu.... clearly has a lot of deep set issues and things that had to have happened to him in order for him to have grown up into the way he is: extremely sensitive and susceptible to the criticism/opinions of others, insecure, etc.

also i can totally see what you're saying with the whole fuckboy thing. nam-gyu always seems like he's trying to subtlely inch closer to thanos and advance their weird parasocial 'friendship' into something more genuine. nam-gyu likes the idea of being closer to a celebrity, someone who's 'cool', maybe he likes his music too idk, but either way the thought of being close to someone like thanos is tantalizing to him.

while i personally prefer to see the two of them in more of a 'bros' way, where nam-gyu is pathetically trying to get closer to thanos for the clout of being friends with someone with status whom he's a fan of, i also can see the appeal of seeing it in a more 'shippy' context. it could go either way, and i feel that's where personal interpretation and headcanons come in.

also just a random comment, but nam-gyu's behavior reminds me a lot of the whole 'group leader' meme (2 examples linked lol) that went around, obviously with thanos being the 'group leader' and nam-gyu being the fucking loser constantly trying to impress him, and i just think that's funny as fuck, which i think is partly why i prefer to see them in a more platonic sense lmao.

despite nam-gyu's efforts, i really don't think their relationship advances much. there's some level of mutual trust there, like 'you have my back, i got yours', but beyond that, i wouldn't say i could see either of them genuinely opening up to the other or anything. nam-gyu repressed all his animosity towards thanos that slowly built up over the duration of the series. it's so hard for him to be honest and upfront about his feelings, clearly. thanos never saw nam-gyu as an equal, nor did he ever really respect him lmao. though in an au where they survived the games and actually talked to each other when they're NOT under the influence or desperately trying not to die, i could totally see them being actual friends.

i'd honestly argue that thanos didn't care nearly as much about nam-gyu as people try to make it seem (at least in the canon moments in the show that we see up until thanos's death). definitely don't see him caring about nam-gyu in a head over heels romantic sense, nor in a 'omg bestie bae forever and ever; we're so soul-bonded and you get me in every single way kyaaaaaa i luv uuuuuuu let's get noodles and drinks after the games mwah mwah <3'

NOT saying that i think he completely didn't care about him. he did care, but i personally view thanos's 'care' for nam-gyu being as simple and surface-level as "oh this guy hates the same dude as me, and he does what i want. that's my bro now. he's chill enough, and also won't stop fucking bothering me, so i'll give him the drugs." and then he shows concern over nam-gyu's arm in like a "damn, alright...!" way. he also shows concern in the basic sense that he doesn't want nam-gyu to die, which isn't that special. he was really rattled over what happened to mina in the first game. i don't think he consciously wanted anyone to die (except maybe mg coin LOL).

"i always thought thanos had the intelligence of a goldfish." - top

yeah, that guy is NOT forming any deep thoughts!

anyways. that was a fucking lot i'm sorry LOL

and omfgggg pls do NAWT apologize for spamming me LMAO; i encourage it. i'm insane about squid game (and nam-gyu) right now so i really do like hearing other people's thoughts about the characters!!! i'm legit hanging out with tumbleweeds in the desert rn

also a big part of the reason i make those posts anyways is bc it makes me feel so happy and also sane when other people say they have the same takes as me, especially since most of the fan content i see usually contradicts how i personally view these guys LOL so props to your friend group <333

[vmpkai]

hold up lemme just. . .

the rev. set & co with social media!

aight there we go

hamilton

twitter

he will spend several hours arguing with a person trying to prove em wrong ( *cough cough* thomas *cough cough* )

he probably sends like 20 threads per answer too cuz we all know he exceeds the character limit every single time

has gotten suspended several times for some of his insults

during his presidency, he @ trump to call him out on his shit ( like he should )

has been blocked by a shitton of politicians who can't be bothered with his shit

people love him for his hot takes abt the government

king of twitter drama

laurens

pinterest

has two accounts: one for art, one for memes

has a shitton of boards

nobody - not even hammy boy - is allowed to see them

his memes are literally the most brainrot shit ever ( mood )

occasionally posts his art but uses it for inspiration for the most part

most of his unhinged comments rest here

has a fucking gay gay homo gay board ( he's just like me fr )

laffayette

instagram

has so many selfies on there

yk he is popular asf cuz he's so handsome

has roped the others into taking some with him

his posts are either runway model level of quality or the most shittiest of shitpost

he gets a shitton of down HORRENDOUS thirst comments and he is absolutely proud of that ( and trust me they are absolutely foul i'm talking the shit you see ppl say abt jjk characters and laf will encourage tf out of it )

mulligan

tumblr

just prefers it to everywhere else ( as he should )

runs the biggest fashion blog in all of new york ( as he fucken SHOULD )

loves posting his designs on there

and the crowd goes fucking wild for his designs

ofc his mates are gonna be in the comments hyping him up

they're also his models

defo has a personal account where he is just an absolute gremlin ( average tumblr user )

angelica

twitch ( hear me out )

extremely popular pro gamer

absolutely dunks on everyone she plays against

mainly plays cod and fortnite

people show up for her skills and her roasts cuz we all know she fucking cooks all the misogynistic dorks on there ( it's giving feminist packgod, aight? )

eliza

youtube

has a cooking channel

absolutely adores her audience

has defo fallen asleep several times watching those iceberg videos on the most randomest of topics

the recommended page does not match the face whatsoever ( she doesn't open youtube around others because of it )

even though she denies it constantly, she watches commentary channels on drama she's interested in

and peggy

tiktok

she got millions of followers

mainly posts funny skits with her sisters

her fyp are diabolical, disgraceful, discombobulating, shameful ( she just like me fr /j )

only communicates in tiktoks + she will send you shit in the middle of the night

madison

tumblr

he prefers the controlled chaos of it to anywhere else

posts about his favorite books

has a sizeable audience on there

refuses to tell anyone ( *cough cough* thomas *cough cough* ) about his blog

jefferson

twitter

sole purpose is to wind up hamilton every chance he gets

also loves the drama on there

bros the type of person to have thousands of followers and then either follows nobody, or like up to 5 people total

it boosts his ever growing ego

burr

reddit

yk he frequents r/vent to complain about hamilton

also loves sifting through r/aita ( he has most definitely posted some stuff in there too )

he's in such a random group of subreddits

questions his humanity every day whenever he paroozes that godforsaken site

he was a mod for a subreddit but he got kicked for being too much of a fence sitter ( hamilton found out and did NOT let that slide lmfao )

washington

facebook

he's a facebook dad absolutely

has fallen for the conspiracy theory traps a few times

his posts are just all dad things

he does NOT know how to use emojis at fucking all and it's glorious

king george

instagram

flexes his money, wealth and all that jazz

also lives for the tea on there ( he will literally sit in the comments spamming tea emojis whenever a fight was to break out lmfao )

goes on live just to annoy everyone around him ( usually works )

posts on his story like 20 times a day

his ego is the size of england thanks to that site

tried to start beef after laf turned down a collab and temporarily caused world war 3 between the fanbases

[velvetvexations]

cool, off-topic rant time

so aro/ace shipping in fandom mega increased cause of alastor from hazbin. i have my own issues with how vivziepop treated his orientation, but whatever. so my issue is not that he's shipped. whatever, ship and let ship. my issue is that SO MANY ppl were using the aro/acespec folks as like excuses. as in, "oh hes actually grayrose/demirose/ect so i can ship him" like??? one, you are shipping him in a allo way, two, just change his orientation in the damn fic/artwork ffs.

I dont think arguing ppl should never ship aspecs is helpful at all. its a fandom, ppl are going to ship. we should be focusing on the ppl who are using aspec identities as an excuse. there was a post talking about this that got put on reddit, and a ton of ppl were being aphobic.

it sucks cause everyone else sees the argument as 'aspecs are saying you can never ship them ever' and just refuse to see the argument of 'ppl are using aspec identities as an excuse to ship, and are using that aspec identity as essentially an allo one' or the dreaded 'it was their one true love and that makes this ship speecial'.

this whole thing has just increased tension between non partnering aspecs and partnering aspecs. also ive seen a lot of loveless and loving(?) aspecs stuff. then again, ive kinda distanced myself from aspec tumblr so. what do i know

i dont think ive explained my point well, but im tired so here it is

it really sucks that just having ace rep has caused issues, I'm sorry anon

[aaaaamorphous-entity]

You when you see something representative of a larger problem in politics: damn it's just like those bitches who refuse to jork it to incest

Wow this is laughably Reddit-toned. Anyways I doubt you're the kind of person to engage in good faith, but I'm going to piggy back off your ask to clarify for anyone who might listen:

I assume you mean my tags on this post, which. First of all, I am the exact person those brain-rotted 'anti-woke' people would despise in a game. I'm queer in a variety of flavors, so I'm not someone detached from the 'larger problem in politics' that you're implying I'm not aware of or concerned with.

Secondly, claiming being pro-ship is just 'people who jork it to incest' is entirely reductive, untrue, and flat. It's boiling people you disagree with down to one morally objectionable tagline so you can quickly and easily categorize them as 'those bad people we can shun'.

I wonder where we've seen that move before. (Conservatives. It's how conservatives talk about queer people.)

Pro-ship is more primarily anti-censorship. It's 'live and let live', or 'your kink is not my kink/your ship is not my ship', and so on. And I know some are immediately jumping to argue that shipping incest or writing kids in sexual situations and so on is morally reprehensible and indefensible.

This is a conversation that can be had, and has been had by many people in much more eloquent ways than me. But that is not the conversation of this post.

The conversation of this post is the implication that likening antis to conservative queerphobic rhetoric is nonsensical, when, as I just pointed out a couple paragraphs ago, they use the same playbook.

They start with something that most people can nod to. "Incest is bad", for example*. Then they move the goalposts. Skipping a few steps for brevity, it goes from "Incest is bad (fandom)" to "Problematic ships are bad" or irl, "incest is bad" to "the gays are incestuous and thus, bad".

Noting that a 'problematic ship' might not even include incest, but someone might spin it with a tone of outrage that it's ~incest adjacent~ enough to be 'bad' (I'm looking at you, ppl who clutch their pearls about HS Jane/Jake). And of course with the irl example, it always starts with 'X morally objectionable thing is bad. This group of people we're biased against Tootaally does X morally objectionable thing, trust us, so THEY'RE all bad too'.

(*although fictional incest frankly harms no one and this also ties into the conservative talking points of 'if you read about something morally objectionable, you'll think it's okay in real life'. Which, if you're that easy to sway into doing deplorable acts, it really is not the fiction that's the problem.)

All of this to say: When I said that antis have the same tone as the anti-woke brainrotted people who make lists about 'woke' games that you can't touch because it contains ~woke~ (or in anti language, ~problematic~) content, I meant it.

Y'all sound the exact same, except one crowd is overt and the other hides behind much more pretty language and obfuscated talking points.

Because antis don't just go 'I don't like ppl who write incest' and shit, they start going "if you write unhealthy relationships between people of any age, you're a bad person", and then "if you write kink, you're a pervert and a bad person", and then "you shouldn't write anything with queer people", and then it's "we shouldn't allow any of this on our platforms", and then LiveJournal gets Thanos-snapped and guess what? All of the content on those sites, whether you consider it 'good' or 'bad', vanishes and everybody loses.

It all circles back around to puritanical policing of other people, because so often anti spaces will escalate from what sounds reasonable (even though again: writing fucked up things in fiction is NOT actually harmful to anyone in the real world), towards more and more controlling and harmful narratives that feel justified when you're immersed in it.

And then you end up in a queer person's inbox implying they aren't aware of how bad anti-queer conservative politics are 🙃

[golbrocklovely]

This may be an odd question,but is the Sam Pepper prank fake? I ask mostly cos it's being brought up a lot by the sceptics to prove Sam is acting in the Conjuring videos and I was of the opinion that it was not completely fake and some parts of it were real (namely the rooftop stuff) cos I never believed Sam to be that good of an actor. I was of the thinking that they said that it was fake to get the heat off Colby, but am I mistaken with this thinking since everyone keeps saying I'm wrong and that it is evidence that Sam was acting at the Conjuring House?

according to snc, the prank was fake and both of them were in on it. i forget what video i saw of sam talking about it, but he explained it like "if i wasn't in on it, how would they have gotten me to the roof of that apartment building without anyone seeing me? you don't think i would have been screaming and kicking the entire time getting up there?" which honestly…. valid lol

but i'll be so totally honest with you, anyone trying to use that as proof of snc lying now is really dumb in my eyes. that's like saying bc i lied when i was kid that now i'm also still lying. like… that's not how any of this works.

it would also be like using their vines of following fat ppl to prove that they're assholes. even tho in that instance, the ppl they followed were also in on the prank bc they asked them a head of time if they could follow them and then make a big stink about it.

if ppl want to argue that sam was lying and that was his real genuine reaction just to get the heat off of colby, it's possible. but i think ppl have to remember the main reason they did that prank in the first place was bc they were desperate and hungry and wanted attention. the very early years of snc were spent like that bc they WANTED to gain an audience. and they did gain one, and they hoped that those that stuck around got to actually know them for who they were and not just their attempts at fame or attention.

snc have no reason to lie at this point in their careers. there is no reason for them to go above and beyond for this past series when it was gonna be major regardless of cody and satori. and look, i don't believe cody and satori fully, but i also don't think they are fully lying either. i just can't explain how they do it. and tbh idc to either. and any "proof" that has been given as proof of them lying isn't proof. unless you catch them physically lying, like popping their joints and shit, then everything is hearsay and assumptions. and ppl just need to give it a rest at this point.

if you don't believe, then don't. this isn't a life or death situation. snc didn't hold a gun to your head and tell you to believe. they just showed their experience and said "if you can debunk it, please do" and everyone's attempts have just been too fucking much and extremely hateful. believe what you want, and let others do the same.

and side note, i fucking HATE the ppl that are trying to use "snc's fandom is too young to understand" or whatever as an argument. first off, that's very dismissive and also not completely true. of course there are young ppl in this fandom, i know that. but there are plenty that are older too, most of which i interact with all the time. and the only reason anyone is saying this fandom is young is bc it's easier to toss aside the general opinion of "i believe snc" or "i believe cody and satori". just bc someone is young doesn't mean their opinion is invalid, especially when it goes against your own. and let's be fucking honest here, the older ppl that are literally berating the young fans on reddit (and not on twitter where they are pulling these opinions)…. yall don't care about the kids. you just want to feel validated and cool so it's easier to argue with teens than it is to debate ppl your actual geriatric age.

grow up, and move on.

(this is not directed at you anon, jsyk)

[demonsfate]

canon questionare meme: #5, 6, 7, 8

canon questionnaire // accepting . . .

5. What’s the best thing about the fandom?

Uhhhh... hard one to answer 'cos I don't really engage in the fandom often lol. I think on my main blog, I follow only one (1) other Tekken blog. I guess I really like the fan content - especially the cosmetic mods for Tek8, and the fanart. Good stuff! Though, I guess I will say that the fandom peeps that follow me are also very awesome. I used to argue with a lotta ppl on the sub reddit, but the ppl here are understanding and epic. The Jin Support Club ✊

6. What’s the worst thing about the fandom?

A lot lol. I guess the worst thing is just ... the way a lotta fans criticize Jin. I swear, a lotta my arguments on Reddit was just concerning Jin's character because people either don't understand him (SO MANY were saying he "cared for nobody" prior Tek8's release) or they just bring up Tekken 6. What is so frustrating about the latter is that say, let's look at another fandom - as bad as ppl wanna say the Star Wars fandom is, they understand when a character's actions are uncharacteristic and when to reject this. Like almost the ENTIRE FANDOM can agree that Luke was written terribly out of character in The Last Jedi, and they can agree that the dude trying to redeem his father wouldn't try to kill his nephew because of "bad dreams". Hardly anybody argues about that or tries to insist on Luke being a Bad Jedi because of his actions in Last Jedi. In fact, most people still fondly look at Luke because they think of the first three movies he was in. YET, with the Tekken fandom... the fandom is just INCAPABLE of doing this and it's really weird. It's almost as if they see these characters as real lol. Like whereas the majority of Star Wars fans won't bring up Last Jedi when discussing Luke's character, the majority of the Tekken fandom WILL bring up Tekken 6 when discussing Jin's. Like you can't even fondly talk about Jin without sb saying "BUT THE WAR! ☝️🤓" Like even when you DO point out it's bad writing, they'll say "well he still did it! we can't ignore it! 😊" Maybe not entirely but... you can still acknowledge the writing goes against Jin's character, and it's something his character wouldn't have done if he remained in character with competent writers / no director meddling.

7. What’s the best thing about the canon you are writing?

Hmm... is this pertaining to Jin only, or the lore as a whole? Idk really how to answer this because I've already discussed how much I love Jin and why I love him. I'd say I found the devil gene concept extremely interesting, more interesting than the other "evil" curses fighting games do. Buuuut... the devil genes been totally whacked up by retcons, I'm not sure if I can say that either. The prob is, Tekken canon is so frickin LOOSE, it's hard to even pick a favorite thing about it haha. Like I say somethin and it's like "ooh... that's no longer canon..." Even when I talk about Jin's portrayal, it's like "ooh... yeah... but that was ruined momentarily..." Other than what I said when talking about why I started writing Jin, I dunno how to answer this one!! Maybe I'll go back to this when I come up with somethin'... I feel kinda awkward now. xD But LIKE, I love the Tekken story. But I already stated how I like the cast, why I love Jin, the game's fun. And... yeah!

8. What’s the worst thing about the canon you are writing?

The inconsistencies. Like I understand some retcons, especially if they're really needed. But like... Tekken does retcons EVERY game it seems, and then they're just... stuff that didn't need to be retconned in the first place. I've already went into great detail about how sloppy and confusing the devil gene lore is. But like here's another example - this is a minor and UNNECESSARY retcon. It was Lee who fixed up Alisa and gave her her freedom or whatever. But in her TK8 bio, it says it was Dr. B / her father...? What? Like I get that they maybe wanted Alisa to bond more with her father / creator. But like... couldn't they do that in another way? People say this is minor, but the problem is when the game is filled with many retcons - then when ppl are trying to learn about the lore, ppl are gonna get several different answers. "Lee fixed Alisa" "No it was Dr. B." See? That's just frustrating. Same with how the Tek Wiki still calls Devil Kazuya Devil Jin's "other half", even though I strongly feel that's been retconned long ago. The lore is confusing as hell with all these constant changes.

[transmisogyny-explained]

I'm kind of frustrated by the discourse lately and thought you could relate possibly? Like, yea trans men and masc ppl face intersections of oppositional sexism and misogyny: for instance when ppl know my boyfriend is trans, they'll talk over him the way they'll talk over me (binary trans girl) or sexually harass him for his perceived lack of bottom surgery, etc. As well as like, act like he's "destroying his beautiful body" or whatever. But like... the conversation on here is soo focused on perceived lateral aggression. Like I can see where it's coming from if they're addressing specific stuff, like what went down w/ trans timelines on reddit w/ the sexual harassment, but there's so much bad faith shit shit being spewed it really undermines the whole "transandrophobia" thing. It's rlly frustrating, like I've been able to have rlly good convo irl w/ dudes about the way they benefit from patriarchy and how conditional that is along w/ the oppositional sexism and misogyny they experience being perceived as "men who were/ secretly are women". but on here the conversation is so stilted, even calling the oppositional sexism experienced by both trans fems and trans mascs as misandry, Which is honestly kind of insulting. Like, I want them to have their own word but talking to trans men who've read and understood whipping girl and guys on here is like having a soctratic seminar w/ an adult vs. Arguing w/ teen mras. I don't think this conversation is going to die, but it rlly needs to be redirected by trans men and trans mascs who can acknowledge transmisogyny in these conversations, and not try to undermine it in their theory. Honestly, trans men are getting killed at higher rates in recent years, albeit still not nearly as frequently as trans fems; mainly men of color. There's way more to talk about than perceived slights from other trans people. Like how invisibility causes the erasure of these deaths, for one. Tldr; wish online discourse didn't poison the well on ppl talking about discrimination against trans men and mascs in light of the way aggression against these groups are worsening as more attention is being paid to their existence, wish these transandrophobia types could talk about it in constructive ways without resorting to transmisogyny

.

[papirouge]

You know, this is pretty silly, but I'm kinda starting to dislike the term "PoC", mostly because its used so often when it doesnt make sense. Like I still recognize its usefullness sometimes, but many times I'll see phrases like "POC are usually considered dangerous and threatening". Like I'm sorry, but in what world are asians considered scary or dangerous, or light skinned hispanics and native americans? It's literally only black and brown people that are seen this way. I dont know why so many people like to group every single non-white together when our experiences are often very different. "POC tend to be more disadvantaged at any level of education and perform worse." Again. asians literally kick white people asses when it comes to academics and success, literally what the fuck are you talking about??? Just say blacks and hispanics, like its only a few words more."

That's why I'm pro black women. Not pro Black (Black men can choke and BLM was a pro Black MAN movement) and not pro POC. Asians are infamously anti Black and I'll never forget how glad they were to feast on the anti BLM/the 13% Black menace resentment to push their anti asian hate thing. There was a reddit threat with a asian man saying Black people had the blood of the asian women who got killed by that WHITE psychopath..... His reaction is everything you need to know about how Asians will always suck up whiteness to dunk on Blacks.

And yeah, I roll my eyes soooo bad whenever I see Asians pull out the bEing a MoDel MinOritY is HaRd.....hmmmm, shut up? 🙃 they have the same lack of self awareness has those millionaires complainzd about being stuck in their 1500 square mansion during quarantine..... Just shut up, already.

And despite their struggle of being the model minority, Asians never peep a word when the Whites are using them to diss Blacks and argue that the problem is that they're just stupid and need to integrate moar (of course they forget that Asian vs Black immigration story are entirely different, their racial stigma is not comparable (east asians are still PALE and phenotypically very closer to whiteness than Blacks and that definitely plays a role). So deep down, they LOVE being the model minority and stick up FOR THEMSELVES when the Whites don't on other POC. They just pretend being sad about it to sound relatable to other non White communities and rebuke the "Asians are white supremacy cucks" narrative.

That being said, I'm the first to point out how the Black community needs to get its shit together. Of course, rap culture got created by the CIA to destroy the African American community, this whole ghetto, baby mama, glorifying illiteracy shit got shoved to Black Americans.. None of those things are organic to Blackness, otherwise it would still be as much of a thing in Africa, when that's not the case (African immigrants do better in the USA than ADOS, that's for a reason) but there's still need to be accountability. I'm sick of some Blacks acting like Blacks dealing drugs and shooting each other were victims. They are predator and need to be treated as such. Candace Owens is insane but she's very right on that aspect. Black men are the main source of Black femicide yet those men expect us to mule for them against White supremacy..... Black women need to burn the cape and look out for THEMSELVES. Black men are emasculated bum and will always use their women as human shield than hold themselves accountable (they always blame their shortcomings on White supremacy, yet lust after the White man's women...the same women birthing their oPpResSor lmao). This realization made me snap out of that BLM shit (not that I was really into this anyway but I thought it was still a positive thing that more ppl grew aware of police brutality) and made me pro Black women. Other communities can choke big time.

And don't get me started on Latinos. Those people will clown gringos to sound cool but weren't they the one clowning France soccer NT and how full of Blacks it was so they possibly couldn't be french? Weren't Argentinian soccer fans bragged about their White passing team and how their country wasn't "like a Netflix movie"? lmao Those idiots have the tragic mulato curse written all over their butt. They milk their latin-ness at convenience but will ultimately always stick to the Whites like the brainwashed colonizer crossbreed spawn that they are. They are raging colorists for a reason.... That's why I only trust & claim Black looking latinos à la Dominican Republic or Brazil - the others are White idc lmao White Latinos are demented and I'm absolutely not surprised they were so cool to welcome nazi. Absolute demonic breed... Their lizard lineage can't seat at the POC table. We humans out here.

[vega-burning]

I'm not gonna argue with ppl on reddit I AM NOT IT'S NOT WORTH IT

[careful-wish]

putting this under read more bc I gotta vent and hate reddit

went to get coffee with my rehab friend after group today and had a catch up after a few months of not seeing each other. We always related as creatives and addicts but clashed on religion and queer stuff (he's supportive but is highly religious, think he takes it too seriously)

anyway he brought up my friend who died over new years. that friend had actually relapsed weeks before, and had been in contact with heaps of ppl including this guy who he argued a lot about religion over.

I was the only one never called, despite me asking about him every week, getting a mutual friend to give him my number, and trying to find out where he was.

I don't understand. Did he die mad at me? He was the one who said every week for months that I was a good friend and he highly valued our friendship only to never hear from him despite my best efforts and he died before I could ever see him again.

I feel so confused, and angry, and devastated all over again. Why did he keep this from me? Why did he keep in touch with ppl he wasn't as close with? Was he just messing about the whole time?

These are questions I will never get answers to. I'm not sure this is something I will ever be able to let go.

[alleyskywalker]

Not just Loustats; DM stans do this too. frankly - not hate on Armand* but re: headcanoning Loumand as inherently and uniquely bad, unhealthy and loveless. (*Sometimes, they'll hate on Louis instead but this is less common, granted.) This very much seems like the two largest (and arguably endgame) ships in the fandom being ridiculously defensive and standoffish about a ship that's quite unlikely to get back together again in the show. On Reddit they're especially awful - saw a thread of someone being like "aw I'm sad no one seems to like Loumand" and they got a swarm of condescending comments like "it's cause they're terrible" and "just try to like Lestat and look forward to a better relationship for Armand in DM!1!" better relationship my ass. But it's funny because if Loumand was so clearly bad and meaningless…why do they feel soooo threatened by it when it's not ever going to be endgame? lmao.

Honestly, Loumand (on the show) is the kind of ship where I think there's enough room for interpretation that a lot can depend on how someone decides to interpret their interactions and the individual choices. If you want to believe that Armand does nothing but manipulate and that he's just doing this out of loneliness and is terrible, if you think that Louis has only ever loved Lestat and can only ever love Lestat (because of course that's how ppl function - only one true love allowed!) or that Armand must pine only for Daniel or Lestat (no matter what changes the show made), if you think that they can barely stand each other in Dubai because they argue sometimes and aren't always trying to get into each other's pants, then that's going to lead to a very different interpretation than if you're someone (like me) who sees genuine love, care and partnership there, despite the significant baggage they carry around. But people choose the former interpretation because it suits their ships.

How did that "loumand has horrible sex" even start? did they ever say it or people just assumed?