#if someone thinks it's too whitewashed let me know I WILL DELETE IT

[nebularanger-art]

By the way in case you've been following me since my Clone High days and wondering what happened, this is the post.

Why don't I post about Clone High anymore? There's three reasons.

1. Devil May Cry. It's actually funny how you can pinpoint the exact moment I started to switch fandoms, and that was when I decided to make Clone High OCs based on the historical figures Dante and Virgil, but also based on the Devil May Cry characters Dante and Vergil, but specifically based on their reboot versions.

Anyways, yeah, DMC hijacked my mind and it's all I can think about. Same goes for Power Rangers, though to a lesser extent since I have yet to really integrate myself in the fandom itself. And hey, speaking of fandoms,

2. I'm not sugarcoating things: The Clone High fandom is garbage. The sheer amount of pedophile apologists in the community is genuinely concering, especially given how many of the fandom consists of minors. And no, I'm not giving them the luxury of calling them those self-coined terms they use to hide themselves under, I'm saying what they are because that's what they deserve; No amount of "it's just fiction" excuses posting about how "fun" it is to sexualize minors in a fandom FULL OF MINORS, KNOWING MINORS INTERACT WITH YOU.

On the contrary, or maybe as a result, a lot of fandom members have started witch hunts against others left and right for significantly smaller, bordering on nonexistent, issues. I could bring up how rings4casey is a hypocritical piece of shit who thinks harassment is okay as long as you're on "the good side"... oh wait, I already brought it up. Anyways, it didn't also help that around the same time, yet another Clone High Discord server controversy was happening that dealt with a similar topic; I wasn't in the server for it and I only heard secondhand accounts of it so don't ask me about what happened.

Edit: I'm also not gonna let it slide how racist this fandom can be lol. From redesigns that whitewash characters of color to straight up making nazi OCs, this place sucks for my Mexican/American and Jewish ass

The point is that this fandom was just a hostile environment to be in; You can be the shittiest person in the world and get away with it because everyone is busy punishing someone who went only slightly out of line. But to be honest, I think I dipped at a great time, because...

3. The show's dead. It got cancelled uncerimoniously after season 3 ended on a cliffhanger that'll never be resolved. I already lost hope on the show after season 2, and I didn't even bother to stay for season 3 and was only into the fan content, but now the show is dead and the fandom committed mass suicide.

TL;DR: Why should I churn out content for a series I don't like anymore, for a fandom whose five only remaining members are constantly going at each other's throats, and when I could just focus on the series and fandoms I do like making art for and participating in?

Wait, but what about my Clone High OCs and that rewrite project? I liked posting about that, will they just be abandoned now that I've deleted the sideblog made just for them?

HELL FUCKING NO THEY WON'T. I still love my OCs absolutely dearly, and I definitely have plans to revamp my Clone High "rewrite" into an actual proper series. Just don't expect it to be on tumblr because I kinda hated using tumblr to catalogue my OC stuff lol. Instead, check my dedicated Toyhouse folder for my Clone High OCs, and be on the lookout for an entire page to fill you in on the lore of their universe.

Also, I don't actually know if I still want them to be Clone High OCs. On one hand, I don't like the series anymore, but on the other, these characters being clones of historical figures is literally integral to their stories and the premise is just way too good to throw to the bin.

That's my final statement for the Clone High fandom; I still want Phil Lord dead in minceraft.

[finitefall]

you dont want to talk about things when you know its problematic. sorry but youre 30 and you just let ppl insult others for you? black stans all think aemond deserved it but you dont want to look bad so you let others do it for you.

I'm gonna answer very clearly to this, anon, both for you and anyone else thinking the same thing. I will not answer a second time, so take the time to read it, or don't, but if I get another message like this one, I'll delete it. So I suggest you do take the time to read it, and to understand it.

Point #1:

I do talk about things even when they're problematic, even when it comes to characters I love. But our definition of what's problematic is probably not the same, since for Greens stans I'm automatically someone who is problematic herself. I've never whitewashed my favorites characters or ships, and since you're talking about HOTD: I never said that because there's a right side, said side didn't do anything wrong. I even said Rhaenyra was a tyrant, because it's the truth and everyone who has read Fire & Blood knows what she's done during her reign. Just because she's one of my favorite ASOIAF characters doesn't mean I think she was a really nice person and a good queen. I guess that's why it bothers me when I see comparisons to Daenerys, even though they have parallels, because unlike Rhaenyra, Dany is a hero, not a tyrant.

Point #2:

Not all people who are team Blacks think Aemond deserved to lose an eye. Some people did say it, yes. Just like some people said that Luke deserved to die, or to have one eye removed too. But that doesn't mean all people who are team Greens think that, either, and I'm not gonna accuse every Alicent stan or everyone who loves Aemond to have been delighted to see Luke die. It's called common sense to realize that not all people, even those who agree on many things, do not share the same opinions and feelings on literally everything.

Point #3: I don't let anyone answer for me. I answered about a scene and doesn't feel the need to repeat myself or to talk about one scene to death. People who disagree with me are welcome to disagree, but there's no point in telling me again and again that I should have a different point of view. If we're not gonna agree, we're not gonna agree. Why should I argue with someone for I don't know how long about the same thing? So we can both end up losing our calm, be rude and insult each other? I'm not interested in doing this.

Point #4:

That being said, everyone has the right to comment my posts, add text and/or tags when reblogging them. I haven't seen someone saying something I don't agree with, but they also have the right to speak for themselves. If I don't agree with what someone is saying, I'm either letting it go because as I said, I'm done with this discussion about that scene, or if it's something I'm absolutely revolted by, I'll unfollow them (which didn't happen). So yes, you can assume that I agree with what's been said on the reblogs of my posts, even if I didn't confirm it.

Point #5:

Yes, I'm 30. And? If you look at most blogs around here, it's rare to find an age, or a name. I'm one of the people who say their name, their age, their nationality and their gender. I like that people who talk to me know how they can call me, know they can speak french if they want to, know they're not screwing up when they use she/her pronouns. I also added my age because I like people to know a little about me. Many people really want to be anonymous on tumblr, but it's not my case. The point is, you have absolutely no way of knowing the age of those other people you mention. They could be older than me for all we know. You seem to be under the impression that they're all children and I'm responsible for them, but I'm not their mother. This works the other way, too. When I reblog a post, what I say and how I tag it is my responsability.

Point #6:

This one is actually for my followers and those who reblogged my posts. I didn't read anything I do not agree with. It could have been the case, but unless I missed one (because I did read what you wrote), you can safely assume we're on the same page. You haven't done anything wrong, and it's not your fault if you're being compared to children or brainless people who just follow my unspoken order to go after others. You're being insulted too in this message, and it's not okay.

[floralovebot]

I often don't make things for poc because I'm scared of whitewashing them. Can you link to the tutorials that show how to go about this or could you explain it yourself? I'm always too scared of making things with poc in them and I don't want to whitewash anyone so advice would be amazing!

hi! i guess i could share the things i know about it but i do want to clarify that i’m not an expert at editing! so, if you want really indepth help, it would probably be best to ask someone else!

as for tutorials, these are the ones that have personally helped me! this one by @fadenet (specifically pale/pastel gifs including characters with dark skin), this one by @blueshelp (specifically about east asian and southeast asian celebs), and this one by @kispesan (specifically about edits). this is a post with a ton of resources for gif making, including things about coloring and other anti-whitewashing tutorials (highly recommend!).

when it comes to what i do, it really depends on what i’m making! i’ve made a couple of edits specifically about unwhitewashing characters of color which you can find here for examples, but overall what i do really depends on the kind of edit i’m working with.

i’d also like to quickly say that i use photoshop! while the basic coloring will cross into other programs, some of the tools/names might be different.

lets use an edit of the character aisha from winx club as an example! in season 8 of winx club, the characters aisha and flora (both having dark skin) were whitewashed. the following pictures are a screenshot from the series, showing the whitewashing, and the same sc but edited to reflect her original skin tone and hair color.

in this edit, i actually went in and recolored her skin using the brush tool (yes, it takes a hot minute to do, but you get faster the more you do it). the reason i do this for picture edits, is purely a personal preference. i like having the control of only editing the parts i want to edit and keeping the rest of the picture the same as before. personally, i don’t love using the selection tools so when i don’t need to,, well, i don’t.

if you have the time, patience, and ability to physically recolor still pictures, i’d definitely recommend it! it allows you to use the eyedropper tool on the original skin tone which makes for a much more accurate edit. taking advantage of the selection tools and paint bucket tool can make the process a lot quicker too!

now, lets use a different method, one that i personally use for things like videos and gifs (basically, anything moving)!

these gifs come from the same season as the above example and as you can see, aisha is heavily whitewashed in the first one. now, this is where coloring becomes your best friend!

so, you have your gif ready for coloring, maybe you used a psd/filter or you did your own thing, regardless, the person in the gif is whitewashed and you want to fix it. so, what do you do? (now, obviously this is just one example. there are many others ways to do this!). what i do, is almost exclusively use the hue/saturation and the color selection layers (i will occasionally use the brightness and curves layers depending on the scene)!

^^this little “guide” or whatever shows what you need to find for this tutorial.

the first thing you should do, is figure out which colors primarily make up the person’s skin tone. a good way to figure this out is by using a hue/saturation layer. click the hue/saturation, which will show a menu similar to the one in the picture, and go through each color and turn the saturation all the way down, so it says -100. don’t mess with the hue or lightness levels yet, just the saturation. this will show which colors make up the person’s skin tone! as an extreme example, if someone’s skin was green and you turned the saturation of greens all the way down, that person’s skin wouldn’t look green anymore, it’d look like someone put on a black and white filter specifically for the color green. just keep a close eye on what changes! now, this saturation change is just temporary! after you know which colors are in that person’s skin tone, you can just delete the hue/saturation layer. (you really only need to do this if you aren't used to coloring darker skin. once you get used to it, you likely won't need to, but it can still be a good reference point if you're lost on what to do)

so, after figuring out what colors you need to focus on, go to the selective colors layers, so you can edit just those colors! for our example here, aisha’s skin tone is mostly made up of reds and yellows while her hair is mostly reds and magentas. when i’m editing her skin tone and hair color, i only focus on those colors. in the selective color layer menu, you have four other colors to control; cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. although it would help, you don’t need to know everything about colors or color theory for this! just mess around with the colors sliders until you get something close to their original skin tone. you may need multiple layers of selective colors to get this right! don’t panic if it doesn’t happen right away, just keep going.

something i think is incredibly important during this step, is having a picture of that person/character open! that way you can actually go back and forth to see if what you’re doing is close. another tip, having another file open with a completely white background with a colored circle of that person’s base skin tone on it really helps. this way you can use the eyedropper and brush tools to see how close what you have in the edit is to the original (basically, use the eyedropper tool to select the skin tone in the edit and then use the brush tool to color it next to the circle of the original skin tone. this helps you see up close how similar they are!). here's an example!

the first example is from the gif and the second is from the still picture edit! you'll notice that the gif example doesn't match up exactly because in that specific scene aisha was directly in sunlight, making her skin slightly brighter than usual, while the photo i used for reference has normal lighting. remember to pay attention to things like lighting and shadows!

now, at this point you might be thinking, “this tutorial only shows what to do for animated characters and i make edits with real people :(”. don’t worry! the second method still works! here’s an example using a real person, kim taehyung from the group bts.

obviously, this isn’t perfect because i spent like. two minutes on it. so the skin is blotchy, the lips are too red, and the background changed. but the way i edited it is mostly the same as the gif example i used! the only difference being that i also used a color balance level to darken up the whole picture. however, besides that i did the exact same things as i did with the gifs of aisha above. if you're making edits with real people, then just do whatever you usually do to make sure it looks more realistic.

i hope all of this made sense? i’ve never done a tutorial before and basically all of what i’ve said has already been said! but here are some more tips for the road:

-when editing black people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing indigenous people/characters, don’t make their skin red

-when editing east asian and southeast asian people/characters, don’t make their skin yellow

-pay attention to lighting! if a scene has darker lighting, skin will look darker than it is!

-on the flip side, if a character is right in front of a very bright light, their skin will look lighter

-don’t avoid the colors red and yellow, especially for people with tan/darker skin. those colors are always essential. they won’t look bad in your pastel edit.

-don’t be afraid to ask for help! if you have mutuals who make edits you can try asking them. or even making a separate post asking for help from any followers that edit! basically, if you truly don’t know what to do, either look it up or ask for help.

-do not just post the whitewashed edit/gif/art with the excuse that it’s, “just the filter” or “just the psd”. take responsibility for what you’ve created.

-if you’re using a filter/psd and you really can’t figure out how to unwhitewash someone.. use a different filter! ik you might really like the one you picked, but that doesn’t excuse racism. there are lots of filters/psds out there that don’t whitewash. use one.

i’m gonna be honest, unwhitewashing is really easy as long as you know how to work whatever program you’re using. and even if you just started, it’s still pretty simple! if you’re scared of making edits with poc because of whitewashing, learn how to not whitewash.

anyway i hope this helps? let me know if something doesn't make sense or needs more explaining! but i'd really recommend looking at the tutorials i linked as they're more in-depth and offer a lot of insight!

[nikatyler]

𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 ✨

I wasn’t going to post this yet, in fact, at first I wanted to keep it a secret until these guys are born in the rebooted Raven Legacy, but I couldn’t resist. Thought you’d never see them again, huh?

Zoey and Isaac’s children. 2017//2021. I always say my sims style doesn’t change at all (also, hooray same face syndrome), but it has changed, even if just a little bit.

Anyway, let me introduce you to these guys again, tell you what’s the same and what has changed. And yes I have classes tomorrow, but I also drank too much coffee today so I won’t be able to fall asleep for a while, let’s do this.

𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒊𝒆 𝑳𝒚𝒏𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏

The main star, heir of gen 3 ✨

Fellow bi 👉😎👉

Walking stereotype but in a good way. We don’t do the harmful biphobic stereotypes here. (We did them accidentally without realizing we’re falling into a stereotype *cough* Ross dating a million people *cough* but we’re careful now. Why am I talking about myself in plural. But also the reason why Ross dated a million people didn’t come from the fact he’s bi at all, he was just a dick in high school. I didn’t connect those two things in my head.)

More piercings?? I kinda want to give her more piercings

And tattoos! She used to have some small ones, but I have since then deleted the files 🙃

Named after her grandma (Lynn) and great-grandma (Carrie)

She didn’t (and couldn’t) meet either of them...if you know, you know

Probably isn’t going to end up with Chris eventually, sorry Chris, you won’t even exist in the reboot

It’s not Carrie. It’s not Lynn. Use both her names or die. (Her words, not mine.)

Plays a violin. Terribly. On purpose. She’s actually really good though.

She was an entertainer originally but I think that when/if we get to her this time, I’ll try a newer career with her. Maybe I’ll want your input on that later.

She would be such great friends with Tyler. I’m so sad they couldn’t ever meet. She’d 100% be his favourite niece.

*takes notes to mayhaps make that possible in the reboot*

No, she won’t take off the hat

𝑨𝒏 𝑹𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏

They/he

Originally, four years ago, I wanted them to be a trans guy, but I chickened out of it in the last minute because I was worried someone would say he doesn’t look trans enough...I’m sorry about thinking that way. I have learned since then.

He’s using they/he in this version to kinda reflect both who I originally wanted them to be in the legacy and who they were, if that makes any sense.

(yes they’re the sim that was called Anastasia previously but they don’t use it anymore so forget it)

I don’t remember much about him from the original legacy. They liked pirates and worked for a charity shop or something like that? Their girlfriend was an adoptive daughter of Malcolm Landgraab and Caleb Vatore. (thanks MCCC, and yes Caleb really wants to be included in all my legacies in some way, it’s his only goal and purpose in life).

Really close with Carrie Lynn

I changed his skintone because no one in their family has it anymore. Elizabeth had it, but I changed it, so I changed An’s skin as well.

𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒚𝒂 𝑹𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏

Originally, for some reason the game made her thicker than her siblings, and I’m thankful for that because knowing 2017 me I’d be too much of a coward to make a plus sized sim myself.

With that being said, cc creators, could you please make your necklaces work on bigger sims?

I changed her traits but I already don’t remember what I gave her. One of them was from Eco Living.

I remember I originally said something like “she wants to be an architect but she hates maths”. So now she wants to be an architect and she actually doesn’t struggle with maths at all because that makes more sense.

Is she a genius? Are you a genius, Freya? 🤔

I can’t tell you much about her tbh. I have no memory of her left. I even memorized her face wrong whoops.

Hey look it’s midnight and also this post is becoming a trainwreck yay

It’s now 0.30 when I’m rereading this. Yay tomorrow will be fun, I wanna get up at 6am

𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏

Yes it’s Faye but I changed her name and most of her appearance

It’s like when they replaced Flora with Terra in the terrible Winx live action. Minus whitewashing.

I now realize it’s really a Terra situation minus whitewashing here (what’s there to whitewash, Faye was already white), because I also made Frances a bit chubbier. Like they did with Flora/Terra.

(speaking of which I actually adjusted the bodies of all four of them)

I actually made her bit more tan than she used to be! Originally, all four kids took after Isaac, who is rather pale compared to Zoey. I also gave her Zoey’s eyecolour.

I really like the name Frances tbh

She kinda reminds me of that one girl from Mean Girls. Forgot her name. But you know the one.

“Hello LGBTQ community”

Yeah Faye/Frances has always given me big lesbian vibes so...

Again, I was a coward in 2017

She likes pink, sweets, cats and she’s lazy and that’s all I remember about her

We started this post with me saying “let me reintroduce you to these characters” but like to do that I’d have to actually still know something about them

Okay, so...the moral of this post is: don’t make posts when you’ve had too much coffee so you feel effects of that BUT at the same time you’re pretty tired already.

No, jokes aside, I’m really excited to explore these guys again someday.

Now I have to go do my daily writing because I forgot about it and I can’t skip a day and then I swear I’ll go to bed. Note to self, don’t drink that much coffee tomorrow.

[biaswreckermagnet]

Fate: The Winx Saga - My Thoughts and Critique - Part 1: Characters

Be warned: The following post will be quite long as I have a lot to say. Please note that this is all my personal opinion and this is just the thoughts and critique of someone that has watched the original Winx Club several time and I have watched the new Winx Saga, and this is in no way a blind hatred based on only word of mouth and seeing half a trailer. Enjoy

I will be comparing this new series to the original 4Kids version, as this is the version I hold close to my heart and grew up watching. So if there are any plot differences I describe from the animation, it is probably due to the slight changes made in the Nick Dub, which some people will know best (example, in 4Kids dub, Aisha’s name is Layla, and Sparks is known as Domino in the Nick dub)

CHARACTERS

Well, I have a lot to say about the characters, just like anyone else. I’ll break down, the casting, compare the character to the animation, and their personality in the Netflix series.

Bloom

The actress chosen in my opinion was a good choice. The problem I have, is her personality.  They got the determination and hot-head traits right, of course. But in the animation, Bloom is warm, friendly and bubbly. Easy-going and popular among her peers. I don’t know if they were trying to appeal to the oh-so-angsty teenagers that don’t want to go outside and have few friends. The typical “I’m not like other girls” trope. Tropes are popular, and as someone who has written stories in the past, I have used that trope once, but usually it’s a trope I like when it’s to show the character’s beauty compared to others who may be catty and selfish; not so beautiful on the inside. Here, to me, Bloom is just unlikable. She may be angsty and a rebellious teen, blah blah blah, but she was so rude to people like her Earth mother, and inconsiderate of her own actions and how it could affect those around her. Even if Aisha told her “That is a bad idea, you’re going to regret it” she runs along and does it anyway, and then she gets into a bad situation which also affects everyone, Even if she helps clean up the mess, damage is still done.

In Fate, Bloom’s relationship with her parents is not amazing. Yes, she’s an angsty, rebellious teen who almost kills them because she lost control of her power, but I found this cold, rude relationship so unnecessary.  As a teen, sometimes it may seem like no one is listening nor can understand,  parents just seem nosy and overbearing, but communication is key. That’s what I find so many shows are missing now: communication.

Looking at Bloom’s relationship with her parents in the animation, it’s not only simpler for them to know from the start that she has powers, but it makes the communication between both parties better. This strong relationship Bloom and her parents have is always present, but we see the beauty of it in Season 1, episode 13, “Meant to Be” when Mike and Vanessa sit her down and talk to her about how they realised she had magic before that fateful meeting with Stella.

There is none of that warmth and love now. Bloom curses at her mother, gives her attitude and is overall just a brat.  Bloom may feel remorse towards herself for burning her mother, but then, why is the attitude towards her so ugly? I really don’t like it.

Aisha/Layla

Next is Aisha, who is the only character that was not whitewashed from the original. The only reason I think she wasn’t is because the creators of Winx Saga knew there would be a true uproar if they dared to replace her with someone non-black.

She is the general voice of reason in the group, and the babysitter of Bloom and company. She will support and be the shoulder for Bloom to lean on in a few cases, but generally she’s the only one calling Bloom out for being rash and insensible, but then she gets ignored or sneered at for it, despite rbeing the only one with awareness for consequences.

There isn’t much to compare to with her animated version except for her being athletic; made very obvious in episode one where she says “I swim twice a day, every day”. (Even though that is the only episode we see her following said routine.) Other than that, her backstory is not expanded upon like the animation, obviously due to the lack of screen time and actual length of the Netflix series, therefore for me, I didn’t really bond with her character like in the original.

Stella

The actress is pretty. Not too hard to cast a pretty blonde in a series. Moving on.

In the original Winx, I adore Stella. She’s bubbly, she’s fun, she’s bright. Literally the sunshine of the group. Yes, she has her snooty privileged princess moments, but she is a likable snooty, privileged princess. Why? She showed that she really does care for her friends. Stella can be self-centered and insecure, but she’s never afraid to say that she’s wrong when she realises her mistakes. This is shown several times, but right now I can speak of two instances: Season 1, Episode 8 “Spelled”. Technically, she was under a spell that made her moody and rude, but she still knew she had to set things right after upsetting Musa. Another memorable moment for me when she showed her caring side was during the girls’ stay at the no-magic resort in Season 2, episode 21 ““Trouble in Paradise”. She went after Aisha/ Layla to check if she was all right, they connected and Stella earned her Charmix. Overall, Stella in the animation has her flaws, but she is loved by all and she herself loves the people she’s close to.

However, Stella in Winx Saga, I detest. I was really disappointed with what they did to her character. Honestly, it would have made more sense if she was Diaspro (Sky’s ex-fiance from season 1 and 3) and not Stella. She’s  a snob, rude and dismissive of others’ feelings. They did try to toss a sympathy card at our faces later when they eplained the reason why Winx Saga Stella is so - her toxic, overbearing and abusive mother - but honestly, maybe it was because it happened so fast because of the limited time, butI was not feeling any sympathy towards her. I felt like I should have, but I couldn’t. I hope her character changes in Season 2, if I even bother watching it, because I was enormously disappointed with Stella’s new persona for this first season.  The Solaria ring was nice enough though.

Musa

Well, here we go. One of the infamous whitewashing cases.  To tell the truth, I'm not surprised but disappointed that it acueallyhappened. You mean to tell me they couldn't find any capable Asian actresses for Musa? Yes, small production and low budget, but still. If you are going to make a live action for a cast that is well loved, respected and recognised for the diversity, you should keep it. It just feels like they do it on purpose at this point.

 Winx Club Musa I like a lot. I love all the girls, but she's just so laid-back and cool, but she's not afraid to call someone out for being unfair or on their attitude (namely Stella most times). She cares for her friends and she cares for Riven. She's family oriented and she's so passionate about music.

 In Winx Saga, she's a mind fairy who used to be a dancer and listens to music with headphones to block out the emotions of people around her when she gets overwhelmed. Interesting new concept and it comes in handy for the new show material. I wouldn't say she was completely unlikable in the WS series but there wasn't anything much besides her ability and that she and Sam (Terra's brother) had somehting more than a fling going on. They were a nice couple. Good chemistry in kisses. I don't know why they decided to not make Riven her man - who knows what the plan is. Riven was not hers in the beginning of the animation either, but we saw a great bond form later on. Their relationship had problems unlike the other Winx couples, but they still are a fan favourite. Let's see how this new match goes I guess?

Flora/Terra

Terra We all know she's supposed to be Flora, no matter how they try to spin it. Before anyone says she's a different character so it's not whitewashing, I have seen a video on Youtube where a girl explains that in actuality, it was supposed to be Flora because there are (now deleted) clips of characters talking to Flora, not Terra. And the adresses portfolio said she was to play Flora. They seemed to change it to avoid heating up the hot water they had already landed themselves into.

Therefore, I will be comparing Terra and Flora. I was extremely disappointed when I saw the trailer and realised Flora was clearly not there. I am not usually one to care whether or not someone looks like me in a show, but I do relate to Flora. I may not always be one that likes to get close to nature honestly, but everything else about her I relate to. I love pink a lot, I am a mixed race person so her looks are what I identify with the most, and our personalities are quite similar. 

Terra, on the other hand, is obviously white. The love of plants is there and her sweet and gentle personality is there. Though, it doesn’t get much time to shine because whenever she speaks, she’s either cut off or ignored, unless she’s spouting information the others want to hear at the moment.  They did make her quite chatty, and at times even I was a bit annoyed, not because she was chatty, but because that trait just seemed to be a gateway for the scriptwriters to hit you with details about Alfea and its history, and information about fairies without making much effort. Terra didn’t have much screen time, but whenever she was on screen, she was always the butt of a joke and treated poorly. When the situation became dire, she did have some moments of strength, but then the other characters still treated her the same so it seems meaningless.

One main reason Terra stands out to the audience is the fact that she’s the only plus-sized character. I’m all for representation, but I don’t like where they went with Terra. She’s shown to be insecure about her body (shown when she avoids her roommates to change alone). Yes, she’s supposed to be a teen who has heard non-directed comments about weight by other characters, but why couldn’t they make her a confident plus-sized girl? I have plenty of friends that are plus-sized and confident about themselves, older or younger. In media, it’s rare enough to see a plus-sized person, but also one that has confidence. This show is directed to teens, and those who may look and feel the same as Terra won’t have a good example set for themselves to be more confident. If you’re going to include a certain figure in your story, yes, everyone has insecurities and all, but if you have the power to shine light and empower, do it right!

Sky

One reason why I bothered watching the show. Danny Griffin. The man playing Sky. Iin the original Winx, I did not really care for Sky as I’m not really into the long blonde hair, I prefer shorter hair. So I was quite pleased to see this casting as it fits more into my personal type.

Anyways, let’s continue.

I found that the casting was done well for Sky. A hot blonde warrior that can wield weapons well? They nailed it. However, that’s kind of where it ended for me. Due to the plot, his character was pretty much ruined for me. Winx Saga Sky was sadly unremarkable personality-wise. The story didn’t allow for much expansion for him besides having the hots for Bloom and the whole boo-hoo story about his father. There was something of a nice relationship with his mentor, but I’ll get to that later.

Danny Griffin’s performance was quite good. My only issue was one part of his first appearance where his first few lines. . .sounded like lines. Not so much the result of bad acting, but it just was another case of sounding like lines written for a script than natural conversation. But I only really saw that in the first episode, and since everyone would have been getting into character at that time I can let it pass. Otherwise, he performed well as an actor.

Riven

Winx Club Riven does not have the best first impression. According to Musa, he’s “a little rough around the edges, but that’s kind of his charm”. He’s a troubled, moody guy who falls for the wrong girl. He has a very competitive side, especially with Sky, who always manages to beat him in combat. He is indeed often arrogant of his abilities, but he proved himself to not be just all talk during his escape from imprisonment in Cloud Tower during Season 1, and even Sky admitted to being impressed with his knowledge of survival and strategies, even going so far as to say he always thought Riven was the “Red Fountain Slacker”. Animated Riven also has a sweet side that was displayed in season 2 when he comforted Musa during the girls’ first mission to Shadowhaunt, and much more so after they started dating. He expressed how much he cared for Musa in shy but blunt ways. Flawed, but a character that developed throughout the series.

Winx Saga completely threw that out of the window. Riven is now just a clown that does bad boy things. He’s clearly still being portrayed as the “edgy” character with troubles and insecurities, but the rest of the show is so aggressively dark and edgy that he really has no way to stand out anymore. I don’t know what they’re planning to do with his characterr later on, but I really dislike what they did to him. The only thing done right is his competitive nature towards Sky. Side note, this is also my personal preference, but I must add that I am not feeling the minimal facial hair. I’d prefer a clean shaven face. The little spikes just looks messy. But then, facial hair always looks messy to me. 

Faragonda

Faragonda. Or as she is known now, Farah Dowling. I’m not sure what to say for her. The actress did well, I can say that. The problem always lies with the characters themselves.

 Faragonda is a beloved headmistress that always has an eye out for her students, whether she watches them through her magic mirror in her office or just personally. She gives them enough guidance so they can grow on their own and helps them when she sees the need to. However, she is also strict when needed and will not condone disobedience; this was seen in season 1 when the Winx were punished for breaking into Cloud Tower to get Stella’s ring from the Trix. She is a brave, just and kind woman, well suited for a principal position.

Farah Dowling does not have much besides her position. She’s very secretive and those secrets seem to be there to cause drama when it could have ben avoided. It could be an irrational thought process that humans have, but I’d expect that from someone who hasn’t experienced much in life. The type of past Farah has, she should know better than to keep secrets if she knows it can put the whole school in danger. Her lack of disciplinary action was evident, whether it was the scene of a villain making their move or Bloom blatantly disobeying orders and making choices that moved the plot forward a bit. It was odd to see that even if she knew this person went dilly-dallying in her office or broke a rule, ut wasn’t met with discipline unless something really bad happened. Whereas, we all know that in a school setting, small rule breaking is also punished. I did like the part in the last episode when she and Bloom finally had a warm interaction, I found it very sweet and it was nice to finally have her interact with Bloom without having to expect some impending doom to arise in the next scene.

Beatrix

We did not get the stylish trio we know and love for Winx Saga, but I must say, I was not disappointed by Sadie Soverall. She portrayed the character really well.

She’s a blending of the famous Trix. She’s cunning and does not let anyone get in her way, much like Icy. Seductive like Darcy and I’d say she has Stormy’s malicious nature. (I mean the Trix are all malicious but Stormy generally could let her viciousness rule her judgement). As well as the fact that her power kind of looks like electric bolts, like Stormy’s.

A manipulator that was being manipulated. She’s icy cold, cunning and she knows who she should attach herself to in order to reach her goals. Just a sub-villain I say, but I enjoyed the character. Minus the odd little plots her character was mixed into, which I will discuss later.

Rosalind

A new character who so far seems like the puppet master of all the characters - both good and evil sides. A master manipulator and charismatic. Very enjoyable to watch despite her short screen time. She was the one person that actually had me excited to know what was going to happen next. Very well performed in my opinion.

Mike

The only time I saw this actor truly in character was in the last episode when he was wearing this blue shirt. He really looked like Mike. It may always be necessary to dress a character exactly like the original, but some things are just subtle and yet iconic. Imagine Shaggy from Scooby-Doo without his green shirt and brown pants combo. It wouldn’t feel like him. Otherwise he’s quite a basic looking man so not too hard to cast. I do think this actor really matched Mike though - looks wise, at least.

With Mike, there are less interactions with Bloom besides having very basic “How are you doing?”conversations. There’s a lame joke here and there but nothing really worth commenting over.here now The focus when it came to mentioning the parents in Winx Saga was mostly to Vanessa.

Vanessa

Vanessa in the original series is warm, loving and a good mother.  She and Bloom have a strong relationship and have great communication between them, and Bloom not only respects her but also goes to Vanessa when she needs advice and support. The ideal mother-daughter bond.

Date’s Vanessa is more. . .trying to be a good mother but not quite nailing it. As I mentioned during Bloom’s analysis, she’s met with hostility or downright rudeness if she even mentions going out and making friends to her daughter. There were a few moments when it could have been touching to see thieir interactions, but apart from the scene when Bloom was feeling homesick, it felt a bit rushed. Perhaps it was the acting, perhaps it was that the awkward interactions overruled the positive ones, but the Winx Saga relationship between Bloom and Vanessa didn’t feel as connected.

In conclusion, mot of the acting was well done. The issues I have were mostly due to the writing of the characters, not the ability of the actors.

Other minor characters will be analysed during the plot discussion.

[illusionlockarchive]

pazam: a mess, truly a mess

so i usually dont do these kind of posts, i guess you could say its a call out of some sort? but i never liked that word, i prefer rather to just compile sources on WHY people would believe that a certain person is not truly as nice and understanding as they seem. consider this more of a psa post, detailing on whats going on with pazam on the sfm community, why so many people are against them.

So, a while back, tumblr user jymble made a post on the main tag stating that pazam was transphobic. they linked back to this post, which contains screenshots of pazam in a group chat stating that they do not feel comfortable with the idea of trans people. now, this did happen 9 months ago, true. however, for the record, pazam is already an adult, 24 years old, so they should have some tact. and as further and more recent events will show, they actually havent changed that much at all, at least not as they claim.

the screenshots should be in the post, but here is a transcript

[Screenshot one]

Pazam:

What????? Why?????

I literally HAVE NOT been doing ANYTHING malicious to them

And if it did I apologized

Yes I do have discomfort about them but I keep it to myself

Why are you doing this????

[End screenshot one]

‘Them’ here refers to trans people in general. Notice the defensive and victimizing stance they almost immediately take upon being confronted about their feelings on trans people.

[Screenshot two]

elliott:

of COURSE you dont

sammaku:

Like specifically

Elliott hush

Pazam:

This whole concept of transness and changing your gender physically

I hate to say it again but it weirds me out and it makes me question my own gender which flings me into anxiety, depression, and obsession

sammaku:

Its fine to not understand but are you willing to learn about it

Pazam:

I don’t want to talk about this anymore

sammaku:

That depression anxiety and obsession just comes with gender issues

(the rest of the text is cut off)

[End Screenshot two]

notice once summaku asks them if they would at least be willing to learn about it, pazam immediately deflects it by saying they dont want to talk about it anymore.

[Screenshot three]

Pazam:

Seriously??? That’s all it takes????

Wow I’m a moron

I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused to you

@.aziraphale @.elliott @.sammaku

I just don’t get this stuff period

And I’ve gotten into trouble with this stuff before

I’ll probably never understand it for the rest of my life but I’ll try to be more tactful around y’all

Especially since you’re all young

And I’m like an adult

[End screenshot three]

While at first this would seem like they had finally learned their lesson and apologized, the things they add on after the @s become quickly worrying. Not only do they admit to ‘have gotten into trouble with this stuff before’, meaning they have probably shown their transphobia in other places and been called out, but they also stand firmly on the fact that they will never understand it or ‘get’ it.

And of course, as jymble points out, the implication that the people they were talking to were only acting like that because they were young.

A while after this post was made, Pazam had posted an apology, and went onto contact jymble asking for the post with the evidence of their transphobic to be taken down. The reason? They were afraid people would see it and think they were still transphobic and not give them a chance.

In this more recent post, you can see the conversation play out between Pazam and jymbles. Long story short, Pazam feels that it’s unfair that that post is still up after they apologized, and jymble of course said they would rather not take it down, people deserve to know what they did and take their own conclusions, even if that involves avoiding them. How does Pazam respond? By flat out deleting the apology post. I’d love to show the apology post to give you both sides of the story but I cannot anymore, because Pazam in a very bizarre move just deleted it because they got mad a trans blogger wouldn’t take down their post with proof.

Here’s the transcript of the screenshots:

[Begin Conversation]

rebloggidy (Pazam’s personal):

I’m by no means transphobia-free after learning what I’ve done but at least I know my actions and am making an effort to be a better person towards trans people.

rebloggidy:

Hi again. So I hate to be that person but would it be ok if you took down that post about the transphobia claims? I know it took me 9 months to apologize but if people only see your side of the story and not realize the post I saw they’ll take it out of context and still think I’m transphobic. Do you understand?

jymble:

... i already told you im not taking down the post.

[jymble sends a screenshot of her own message in a previous conversation, the screenshot reads as follows:

however, i dont think im taking the post down, nor am i entirely comfortable with you interacting with me either. people deserve to know how you acted with this stuff, until youre really and truly *better* with it instead of just trying, and i was a direct target of it]

jymble:

you oughright told me "im by no means transphobia-free", word for word sorry, but i told you before. im not taking the post down.

rebloggidy:

I remember that. But what I'm trying to say to you is that if people who read it out of context will immediately think I'm still transphobic without the other side of it (my comment)

And I don't want people to think that in the future

jymble:

if people make assumptions without looking at the entire situation, thats on them

i am not deleting the post and thats final. people have a right to know what youve done, and they have a right to be uncomfortable

rebloggidy:

I'm ready to take down my post because frankly, I'm sick and tired of having to justifiy something that I did 9 months ago, and that people grow and learn even not 100% during that time and I'm ready to move on.

I'm still into smile for me and feel free to make a blacklist of my name so anybody who rbs my work on your dash can have it hidden or something.

Take care.

[End conversation]

a lot to unpack here, but perhaps most notable is when jymble simply stands her ground and tells pazam she wont take down the post, pazam straight up decides, without being told to or anything, that they should take down their apology. later on, they made a post stating why they deleted the post, and saying they had ‘been forced to’.

I also would love to link it here, but as of now of writing this, like, not even an hour or so after I had seen that post, it got deleted. The only memory I have of it is a conversation I had with my boyfriend about Pazam, in which I copypasted a fragment from that post that read:

“ So for those wondering where the apology post went, I was forced to delete it. I wanted to archive it in some way so I could pull it up for reference, but there was no way I could. Also I didn’t really want to see it every time on my blog because quite honestly it’s upsetting to look at.”

There are some lies and twisting of truths here. Pazam wasn’t forced to delete it, they decided they should do it as a way to somehow get back at jymble. And the excuse that it was upsetting for them to look at is just inexcusable, what matters most, letting people know of what youve done and that youre sorry, or just never addressing the situation?

But, well, I’m just hoping you’ll take my word for it. As you see, Pazam has officially deleted ANY traces of acknowledging this situation on their blog.

This worries me. If Pazam is truly as concerned that they will be seen as transphobic as they claim, why are they deleting anything that could give them a chance of showing their own side of the story?

Now, that is the end, for now, of Pazam’s history with transphobia. However! It is not the end for some other very shady things.

Namely, Pazam has consistently whitewashed characters from Smile For Me, specially Kamal, and when called out on it, simply deletes the asks.

Want to know how I know this?

I sent them an ask myself. I had come across this picture of Boris and Kamal:

And I knew that this wasn’t right. I can understand using light colors and doing watercolor, but if they can make Boris’ hair brown and vivid enough, why not Kamal? He looks like another character completely, or like he’s deathly sick! 

So I sent them an anonymous ask, perhaps a bit exhasperated, true, and my wording could be better. It went something like: “i am begging you to draw kamal with darker skin”.

I waited, checked. But nothing came of it. They never answered it.

Pazam flat out ignored when they were told they had drawn a canonically brown man with skin way too light. Not even a lone text post saying ‘hey anon, i dont agree with you’ or ‘hey anon im sorry it wont happen again’. Nothing. No word, no opinion.

And with this situation going on with them evading responsibility, I can’t say I’m fully surprised.

And, yet another thing. People had expressed concern over the fact they had drawn their Flower Kid, who is 17, in very intimate and close positions with Dr. Habit. It included nuzzling faces, cuddling in bed together, wearing his coat...

And they did hear the claims this time. As of now, their Flower Kid is 24, according to them.

Except... They do not look 24. At. All.

this is a 12 year old. at best. short body, stubby legs, big head. those are all attributes of a very young character, usually children. like, legitimately, thats how childrens anatomy is in real life. the younger the person, the bigger their head is in proportion to their body.

We have already had an adult trying to justify drawing their flower kid who barely looked like an adult if at all in intimate situations with Habit. Let’s not let it slide by again.

And yes, I’m aware Pazam claims that those pictures were not supposed to be interpreted as romantic, ‘only platonic fluff’ and that they intend to keep it that way, but I have talked to my boyfriend who is a survivor and he said it very well could be a case of someone just trying to cover their tracks.

BUT, all that being said, maybe this one particular instance could be just us being wary. Still, it does not diminish all that they have done, specially ignoring the whitewashing claims.

What you are going to do with this information, I do not know. Maybe you don’t care and will keep reblogging their content. Maybe you’re disgusted by them. But I’m just here to give you the facts. Personally though, I’m not willing to give them much of a chance after the way they’ve behaved. They are 24 years old, three years older than me, and I think I could do a better job of handling a situation like this, frankly.

[nathanielsewells]

salima let me start off by saying that i did use the f slur. i should have held myself accountable a long time ago and apologised for it. it doesn't matter what my reasoning for it was, i used a deeply offensive slur that's used to hurt mlm. it was in extremely poor taste and not my place to use it since i can't reclaim it. salima you claim that you never used the f slur when you used it in a conversation with me before. after all of you started making vagues about me using the f slur i went to look into our old conversations to find out that you deleted your use of it. you can deny it all you want but it's the truth and you're equally as complicit as me.

about me making jokes about the idf, muslim oppression and palestine. my blog was always a space for resources to support palestine against their systemic oppression by israel. i was never fake woke in my support for palestine whether it was through donation links, petitions or simple posts opposing zionists. i never made jokes about the wrongful murder of innocent palestinians. all the posts where i talk about "posting about palestine" are in relation to this message from joc who condemned me for posting about palestine after i reblogged a PHOTO. i'd understand if i reblogged something offensive or added a personal addition but i reblogged a simple photo. it's ridiculous how i shouldn't talk about palestine as if your group hasn't freely posted about palestine on several occasions.

addressing the comment that i left on greedsgf post, it had nothing to do with the israeli palestinian conflict. although i mentioned the idf it was about a different matter. i allowed myself to make that idf joke to greedsgf at that time because i thought it was harmless and we made similar jokes to each other. i realise now that it doesn't matter what my relationship with the person was, the joke was in poor taste and i deeply regret using it.

i don't know if the accusations that i'm racist and islamophobic stem from the palestine thing or is it a separate matter? i strongly disagree with those accusations because i was never racist or islamophobic on this blog, in private or in any groupchat. when serafinedupont started getting all the racist and islamophobic anons a few months back i learned about it through a friend who showed me that messofakind believes that i called serafinedupont a racial slur on anon.

i never sent anon hate in my life and to think that i would go through all this effort to call serafinedupont a racist slur is sickening. in the past when i used to follow serafinedupont i always stood with her in solidarity when she was wrongly attacked by racists who mocked her religion and heritage. i don't care how much you dislike me i would never send those asks, maybe it's a joke to all of you that you laughed at it private but it's sick to make such accusations. you all seem to know my ip address so well that you could have tracked the anons to determine if it was me.

"hey oliwia if you're reading this stop being a racist and an islamophobe and stop stalking our blogs thank you very much x also please don't vote for duda"

i think the fact that all of you are calling me a racist is questionable too when you, tori and malak made whitewashed edits in the past. you can say that you apologised but that doesn't erase your racism in the past, same as my apology right now doesn't erase my mistakes.

as for the conversation from the tumblr groupchat, i don't have a screenshot for what i said because of its low quality but i can make jokes about hating jews because i'm jewish just like every single person can make self deprecating jokes about groups that they belong in.

although this wasn't mentioned in your post, mine, ashley's or kiara's involvement in the rocket scientist situation was never about antagonizing your group or solarbridge. we didn't milk or "dramatize" this entire discourse to come out as superior. all three of us stated at the beginning that it was wrong and sickening for rocket scientist to doxx solarbridge and we made it clear that rocket scientists triggering posts don't absolve her from the blame. ashley literally reached out to solarbridge to ensure that she's okay and not once did we paint solarbridge in a negative light, we just wanted to bring tori's and joc's insensitive jokes to light about rocket scientists' possible overdose. we brought attention to it solely because it was heartless to make fun of someone's mental health issues. as for "dramatizing" we made like two posts and answered five asks in total.

lastly, your group stated that they want us to acknowledge our mistakes and apologise. i regret my past actions a lot and i'm sorry for my usage of the f slur and the idf joke. however you keep thinking that you and your group did nothing wrong in all of this and have nothing to apologise for as if you haven't used the f slur and mentally ill desi hasn't used a slur and made jokes about neo nazi's which both of you haven't acknowledged and apologised for. if my behaviour was so disgusting and fucked up salima then why didn't you speak up on it? you used the f slur in my presence and allowed me to make jokes that made you uncomfortable which you never addressed with me. if you found mine and ashley's behaviour so disgusting why did you wait 3 months to bring this to light when all of this happened? you were just sitting on it until we did something to anger you.

[aerithagainstabusers]

The problem with Jaclyn Glenn’s video

So y’all have probably at least heard of Jaclyn’s video on Eugenia where she attacks Shane and people on the discord know my opinions on it, but I have to make a public post about this because I’m mad as fuck.

All this video did for me, was show Jaclyn’s selfishness. She forgave Greg for mocking her at her lowest point and was being friendly with him afterwards, despite him still harassing her. (Blaire got an apology around the same time - she forgave him and was civil with him during their livestream but she never befriended him). 

Also, as another anon pointed out? She was laughing and joking and being his buddy while he was still harassing her... all because he was mocking her ex. Yes, what Richie did to her is disgusting and she can laugh at jokes at his expense until the day she dies. But when it’s coming from a man who mocks your friend and is only doing it to get in the pants of my our other friend who is barely legal? Yeah, that’s pretty shitty. And it’s honestly why I stopped watching her. 

I thought maybe it was just one moment of weakness since it was involving Richie, which is a wound that probably still hasn’t healed so I let it slide, even though I didn’t want to watch her content anymore, but this video about Eugenia? It exposed her for what she is and that she doesn’t care about Eugenia.

She’s basically proved Greg right. Again.

By making that video, Jaclyn has put Eugenia at risk. 

Firstly, her being angry at Shane for making the video light-hearted missed the whole point of why Shane made the video. The video wasn’t HERE’S THE NITTY GRITTY  TEA ON EUGENIA. It was similar to what he did with Jeffree - he was asking her about her experiences and sharing however much she was comfortable with (Eugenia didn’t even say what her ED was because that was still too raw for her. I think that’s enough to show that she isn’t in the mindset to fully talk about this).

He didn’t push her into anything. Shane made sure that he didn’t say anything bad by talking to a therapist who specialises in EDs and also? Shane has one himself. While he doesn’t have the same one was Eugenia, he understands and he’s empathetic. It’s not a surprise that Eugenia would want to open up to him and have him help her with her return. 

By attacking and demanding that she share more, the stress could cause Eugenia to relapse. Eugenia is delicate right now. I’m not saying to baby her, but you need to be careful. And Jaclyn is currently riding a bull in a China shop while shooting a machine gun.

Also, Jaclyn bringing up Eugenia’s mother is the worst possible thing she could ever do. One thing about abuse victims? They don’t talk about the abuse. And you cannot publicly call out their abuser. Because all that does is give the abuser control. And before any white-knights go “BUT PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT EUGENIA’S MOTHER BEFORE WHY IS IT BAD IF JACLYN SAYS IT”, it’s bad because Jaclyn knows. Other people were just theorising before and were probably right. But Jaclyn knows. And her calling out Eugenia’s mother like this is giving her more control. And it could very easily lead to Eugenia’s mother clamping down on Eugenia and cutting her off, making a relapse incredibly likely. That’s why when people are staging interventions they make sure the abuser is away and that the victim is safe. Screaming about the abuse in a public forum is incredibly harmful and is literally putting the victim at risk.

Another point is Jaclyn forcing Eugenia to get help. One thing that we constantly heard in defence of Eugenia before this “we can’t force her to get help. She has to want it”, and thankfully, Eugenia did realise she needed help (which she admitted herself that she realised that she wasn’t healthy). But it could’ve gone disastrously.  If you force someone into recovery especially with something as tentative as ED? It can easily lead to resentment. Eugenia could’ve easily not complied with recovery and she could’ve shut people out because it feels like a betrayal and she feels like she can’t trust anyone.

Now, if Jaclyn did this out of genuine concern for Eugenia? That would be forgivable... but her video made it clear she and her bf and friend they only cared about how it hurt them. It wasn’t “Eugenia, I’m so scared for you. Please look after yourself” it was “this is hurting me.” It was all about Jaclyn, Jaclyn, Jaclyn. She monetised the videos. She’s deleting any kind of negative comment. People are calling her a hero and saying she saved Eugenia. She made a long video then quickly unlisted it and made a ‘better’ short video defending herself. 

Sound familiar?

She’s acting like Greg. If Greg wasn’t acting like he cares this is how he would act. 

And she’s made it clear that she’s just doing this for clout and ass pats for letting people say she saved Eugenia. She isn’t saying “don’t praise me, I did what I felt I had to do”. She even liked Blaire’s post saying she’s the reason Eugenia is alive.” 

She just wants to be seen as a hero, and she used this poor girl to do so. 

Jaclyn and her stans, she didn’t save Eugenia. Eugenia saved Eugenia. No one else. 

Eugenia didn’t even talk shit about her. When Eugenia talked about people who bullied her, no one thought it was about Jaclyn. Everyone assumed it was about Onision and others like him. Jaclyn didn’t even wait a day to make a video. Oh no. She couldn’t wait until Eugenia was used to being back in the spotlight. Instead, she started drama again when Eugenia, for the first time, was getting positive attention online. Drama that would just put a massive target on Eugenia’s back.

All because Jaclyn felt offended that Eugenia chose to trust in a man who has suffered an ED too and is known for helping people’s reputations by showing them in a kind light without whitewashing their mistakes. Jaclyn’s just mad she didn’t get to do The Return of Eugenia Cooney video since she felt entitled to it since she’s convinced she saved her.

Jaclyn Glenn is no different from Greg. And y’all can’t see it because she made some funny videos about him.

She’s fucking trash

[imjaebumaf]

Hi your gifs are amazing and as someone who wants to start making gifs, any advice how to color, bnw , sharps and smooths,add text to gifs?

{ warning: long }

this is the tutorial i used to learn how to make hd gifs (more useful links at the bottom of that post). i highly recommend you use it, it’s a lot for a beginner (i’d already known how to gif) so feel free to ask about any specifics!

sharpening & smoothing

so generic sharpening & smoothing is using smart sharpen+gaussian blur but if you want your gifs absolutely smooth and grainless, i highly recommend topaz denoise: how i downloaded it | my settings

it does take more time as it parses every frame which is why it’s so great but some don’t have the patience/good enough graphics card for it but it’s a game changer for sure

avisynth also slightly sharpens when it resizes but it’s not absolutely necessary to use unless you plan to gif live performances, in which case you’d need it to deinterlace .ts files so you can make 60fps gifs (the really nice flowy shit) instead of the usual 30fps

(avs/topaz are for pc, the mac equivalent is vapoursynth and comes with denoising and sharpening filters so you wouldn’t need topaz)

how i color

disclaimer: i learned to color by just putting on an adjustment layer, messing with the settings, and keeping it if i liked it and deleting it if not asjdflajsf i don’t have a great eye for color so what i think looks good probably looks super amateur to an experienced gifmaker alkfdjafdk BUT. these are the layers i always use:

first is curves (except on the rare occasion when the video’s too bright):

i drag the center a little to the left until it’s just shy of too bright. there’s lots more you can do with curves but this is all i know alsjflsakdf

next is levels:

i increase the leftmost box to bring the darks back down. basically what i want to achieve with curves & levels is brightening the lights while darkening or maintaining the darks

i didn’t use curves for this gif but you get the idea, the 1st half is the before and the 2nd half is the after:

next is color balance:

i adjust lighting here. it’s personal preference. i used to make my gifs cool toned but now i love warm tones and i also like giving skin that glow from within look so i do that here

next is selective color:

i use this layer to get rid of colors, change colors, tone down colors, etc. for a more cohesive look. for example, yellow’s one of my least favorite colors so i always try to get rid of or change it. do drastic changes or keep the original colors since again, it’s personal preference so do what you like

also, too many colors adds grain to your gifs so keep that in mind

***important: be sure not to remove all the yellow from their skin and not put it back somewhere else since it is a form of whitewashing

next is channel mixer:

i decrease all the channels’ respective color by 10 (so the red in the red channel, green in the green, blue in the blue). it tones everything down a bit. i used to like vibrant gifs but now i really love that muted look but i don’t know how gifmakers achieve it so this is my attempt haha

i don’t always use this layer, only if the gif looks better with it

finally is exposure: SO IMPORTANT!!!

maybe not anymore since the size limit was increased from 3mb to 8-ish but lowering the offset in this layer is a great way to lower the file size: tute here

there’s also cranking up vibrance for washed out videos, photo filter for major lighting corrections, brightness/contrast, and more that i use for special circumstances but the 6 above are the foundation of all my (basic af) colorings

black & white

oh jeez, i don’t know if what i do is ‘right’ but i just aim for higher contrast. my goal when giffing is always to make it feel as if they’re right in front of you

adding text

here’s a great tutorial, again let me know if you’re confused about anything. my settings, adjust font/font size/stroke width/drop shadow to your liking

[nonipsduck]

Hey fellas, I’m back again with our Indruck- oriented server, Eggnostic! I’m Alexander, and 1/3rd of the mod team, but more importantly, I’m here to say that we will be accepting members again for a short period of time! Details under the cut.

We’re friendly, chatty folks- if you’re not interested fast-paced convos we probably aren’t for you! We do our best to keep things fresh and active, but as a result of such, have found it necessary to implement several rules. I ask you read over them before you decide if this server is for you or not.

1) Be Cool

   1A) This includes respecting these creators. Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to their face, both in terms of subject and tone. The language you use conveys a different meaning (ie saying ‘griffin goofed that a little vs berating him) and that matters.

   1B) Going off of the above point, we have decided to ban hypothetical “maybe whys” regarding late episodes. While often well-meaning in giving them credit for not being perfect-content producing machines, it does not change the fact that theories are for characters, not real people.

   1C) We also have decided to ban anxiety-ridden “What-ifs” regarding on why episodes may be delayed: if it is causing you serious emotional distress, it belongs in vent (however if the conversation spirals into people spouting off what-ifs we will intervene).

2) c'mooooooon

   2A) We discourage hyper-analysis of TAZ as it is simply put, not built or meant for that and will not stand up to such analysis, which can be a big downer on a server about loving TAZ. There is no actual prohibition on such conversations… for the time being.

   2B) Our stance on art/fic shaming is as follows: If it falls under obama's second amendment, such as whitewashing tones or features, conflicts with LGBT/ND/POC canon or headcanons (bearing in mind lots of folks are projecting their own real-life struggles), or the content is so horrifically awful (:remyvore:), you're fine. Direct attacks on the arts style, quality, and general artistry will not be tolerated.

id like to make sure everyones actually reading these to some extent, so please tell me your favorite amnesty character n why when you ask to join!

   2C) Related to the aforementioned headcanons, there will be little tolerance for "but why"-ing POC,ND, and LGBT headcanons. It is also unnecessary to insert that you disagree with someone else's headcanon on such topics. Serious, genuine discussion is fine.

   2D) Minimum server age is 14, Maximum 25. Please do not invite anyone to the server without privately asking a moderator. Public requests will be ignored and/ or deleted.

   2E) We want to highlight everyone art fairly, so #art-and-stuff has a 5 minute (ish) cooldown between art posts. We just ask you wait five or so minutes before posting your art after someone else.

   2F) Please be conscientious in both vent channels. Obviously ‘mood’, ‘same’, ‘kin’ ‘f’, ect are entirely inappropriate and won't be tolerated, longer messages with the same message (‘yea i’ve been there sucks man, oh yeah me too, ect) are equally unwelcome. Overly dismissive, Overly aggressive, or condescending (in nature or tone) solutions are also not appropriate.(edited)

3) nice.

   3A) We love goofs and japes, and for this we have #really-wild-shit . For serious and horny NSFW discussion, we have exactly no channel because we don’t want it here. At all. Thanks.

4) We'd like to keep a deeply connected server, and in that case it does not make sense to have everything fall under the mods jurisdiction. If you find something to be in poor taste or in violation of OMA, simply respond with an :eye: emoji. If you need immediate action, or would like a mod to address a situation in any way, simply shoot us a ping.(edited)

5) Blacklist content. Not to be discussed or mentioned in any context. DM mod to add.

   - Drug Use

   - Alcohol

   - Self Harm

   - Suicidal Ideation + Threats

It is worth noting that these are rules for members already within the server, who have already established that they have many hc’s, theories, ect in common. While we cannot ask, much less enforce the following, know the following going in:

> Duck content is all presumed Trans unless stated otherwise… although if you feel the need to state otherwise you probably won’t enjoy the server anyways.

> George is the result of a 3+ hour debate over voice call and is the collective child of not only Indrid and Duck, but our server as a whole. He was and continues to be something we bond over. I’m not saying you gotta know all the lore (because good lord I dont even know it all) but realistically you’ll wanna at least enjoy the little raccoon king we’ve created.

> The rules are clear about NSFW content, but to elaborate on an area in particular: this server is Indruck and Barclane oriented. Chatter of other, conflicting ships isn’t… restricted, but folks are allowed to nip and tease ya. The exceptions only being age gap content (Duck/Pidge, Duck/Leo, Duck/Ned, basically anything around a 20+ age difference. ) and Anyone x Beacon content (he’s a sword with a mouth, and we know you aren’t thinking of him whispering sweet nothings).

> That being said we loooove a good goof. There are several running jokes and recurring topics that may make you uncomfortable, including but not limited to: vore, oviposition, piss, monster and robot fuckers, ect. They’re 110% ironic, but do occasionally spill out of the wild-shit channel for the sake of us being funny bastards.

if you’d like to join, reply to this post, do NOT dm me. im busy this week and it lets the other mods help out too.

We’ll be accepting 10 new folks, and its not super first come first serve. If you join and find that we aren’t for you, no worries: we do not have public exit messages. Thanks for reading!

[skamofcolor]

I know you probably don't do discourse, but even after all the backlash with the whitewashing of sana and erasing mahdi, skam italia now had the even counterpart say the n-word in one of the clips 😬😬😬

Oh boooooooooooy lol. 

My response became extremely long so I’m gonna put it under a Read More:

Okay, so I when I first heard this happened after the SkamIt clip dropped, I was thinking about doing a post on this here, but ultimately decided against it. I did post a bit about how ludicrous the situation was on my personal blog, though, lol. But since we’ve gotten an ask on it, and it’s been a few days so I’ve had time to collect my personal thoughts more, here’s a long post about the entire situation.

Context, for anyone who doesn’t know yet: In one of SkamIt’s latest clips (the og equivalent would be that scene in S3 where Isak and Even hang out, listen to rap, make food, smoke weed, etc. and then Isak discovers Even has a girlfriend) Italian!Even - Niccolò - says the n-word. 

I actually did watch this scene to get a full idea of it, so here’s how the framing of it happens: Martino (Italian!Isak) and Niccolò are talking about music. Niccolò is like, “one of my fave artists is Earl Sweatshirt, let’s put some of his music on.” So he gets up to do that, and then goes back to the couch. They’re both holding these weird puppets that Niccolò owns, and Niccolò is like, “let’s play fight with the puppets.” As the opening line of the song comes on, he says something like, “let’s go, my n*gga.”

So this caused a bit of a fandom blow-up. Where on one side, there’s folks who aren’t horrible are rightfully mad that this show had a white boy said the n-word. And then… there are stans who have been using every excuse under the sun to defend it, including: this is Italian culture, this word has a different meaning everywhere except for English speaking countries, Americans have no right to be mad because this isn’t for them, and it’s only a word, who cares. The showrunner also put out a… charming… defense to the whole thing, which although it’s since been deleted off of Instagram, a kind Tumblr user has translated. 

So this all being put out there, here are my personal thoughts on the matter: to be honest, I’m annoyed that Niccolò said it but that’s not my big issue. My big issue is that I hate the framing and consequent defense of it. Here’s what I mean by that:

1) Yes, white Europeans, the n-word, in all it’s forms, is a racial slur. No, it doesn’t fucking matter if it “means something different” in your country. And no - you can’t fucking say it.  

First of all, I’m gonna have to call bullshit on it “meaning something different.” 

A lot of the defense I’ve seen has been people claiming that it’s “U.S.-centric” to be mad that Niccolò said the n-word. And my response to that is… And So???? Lol?????

Look. The word comes from a U.S.-context. So you cannot have it both ways. You can’t talk about this word and claim in “means something different” in your country and then not want to talk about the ROOTS of it. If this word doesn’t come from your culture, then why are you so quick to defend it as part of your culture? 

Furthermore, Italy is not free of systemic antiblackness. When Italy (as well as every other country in the world) has a derogatory term for Black people, has a history of colonization in African nations, and has seen an increase of violence and murder of Black people in this year alone? Y’all can’t pretend like just because this word is in English that it’s meaningless in a country full of racism, xenophobia, and antiblackness. 

And if you’re trying to claim that Italian teenagers are using it willy nilly because they don’t know what it means… I just… I literally can’t believe that. I just can’t believe in this day and age that folks, even outside of the U.S., do not know what the word means or where it comes from. But what I do believe is that folks do know what it means, and yet don’t care. They appropriate it for themselves because everyone loves Black culture while simultaneously hating Black people. And that’s facts. 

In a globalized world where specifically Black American culture is commodified and distributed like candy, you’d have to be living under a rock to not understand the violence behind this word. And if you are living under a rock… you never would’ve heard it in the first place. 

(In case you are one of those living-under-a-rock people, there are a thousand and one articles on why it’s okay for Black people to say the n-word and why non-Black people shouldn’t. Here’s just one of those videos in case you didn’t know. The fact of the matter is, it’s not just a word. It’s violence. And regardless of if Black people wanna use it or not, that’s NOT up to anyone who’s not Black to decide.) 

2) We have to remember that this is a FICTIONAL television show. And that every single thing that the characters do/say was CREATED by an actual human.

Okay, but fine.

Let’s go with the defense that white teenagers all over Italy are using a racial slur casually cause no one knows the violent context behind the n-word and it’s all in good fun (Sounds fake, but okay). 

So Niccolò says it because that makes it realistic, and SkamIt is going for realism. Okay. Then the big issue of this isn’t that he said it; it’s the framing of it that it’s a-okay that he’s said it that’s my issue.

Because this all has to do with the SHOWRUNNERS, who are grown ass people, knowing the context and meaning of the n-word. Because as adults creating media for young people, I damn sure will be holding them responsible for what their characters say and do. And honestly? If non-Black teenagers in Italy are really running around saying the n-word with nary a care in the world, then it’s your duty as the adult to show why that’s wrong.

 Including someone doing/saying racist things isn’t inherently bad, because I agree. It is realistic. But never showing a resolution to it or calling it out within the framing of your show just lets your audience know that A) you don’t care about People of Color and/or B) you don’t think the oppression we face is a big deal. And both, when you’re making a show for young people, is dangerous. 

Because it perpetuates the idea that racism is okay or it’s not as bad, particularly when it’s done in a casual, “not intending to cause harm” kind of way. Racism isn’t always direct intentional malice; it can include anything that perpetuates the normalization of systemic oppression. Which was the big issue with how Julie portrayed Vilde’s racism all throughout og Skam but that’s another rant.  

It would be one thing if Niccolò said it and Martino recoiled a bit or was like “bro, wtf?” But he doesn’t do any of that. Niccolò says it and then the two play with their puppets. And that’s the thing - I personally feel, that as a showrunner, if you’re going to depict the normalization of racial slurs (which you inherently do, when you have someone casually saying the n-word) then it’s your DUTY to frame it as bad. Because it is bad. Regardless of how “realistic” it is, it’s still racist as fuck. Again, especially because of the rise in xenophobia, racism, and specifically antiblackness in Italy. 

But that brings us to Ludovico’s ridiculous statement, because it’s obvious that he doesn’t agree that using the n-word was at most racist as shit and at the very least, in bad taste. And his statement, altogether, shows a very basic lack of critical thinking and comprehension as to why what happened was not okay. 

3) Ludovico’s reasoning for having Niccolò say the n-word, quite frankly, is bullshit and the most cringey white person thing I have ever read in my life, ever. 

And I think by breaking down his… non-apology… this addresses a lot of the bullshit defenses that SkamIt’s stans have been throwing at folks, too. 

“What is happening? Niccolò listens to American rap. He listens to Earl Sweatshirt. A black rapper. People who are criticising me, do they even know who this artist is? How does he look like? Do they know his father was a  South African activist and politician? Do they know his lyrics and his thoughts? Do they know that in those lyrics he always talks about the black community’s condition? And when he does that, he uses that word, that word you’re all worrying about. Niccolò, who loves Earl, is singing one of his songs, like anyone would do with a song they like.

Oh, my God.

First of all, it’s… ironic for him to pull up Earl Sweatshirt’s lineage and his music in order to defend this white boy saying the n-word. Because not only was his father a Black South African activist who was raised during apartheid and then was exiled to the U.S., his mother is a Black law professor who specializes in critical race theory! This man… is really trying to say that someone who had these parents would celebrate a white boy… using a racial slur… let’s use some critical thinking… 

Second of all, and I can’t believe I have to say this, a Black person reclaiming the n-word and using it conversationally or in their music is not the same as a non-Black person using it. If you’re not part of a marginalized group, you do not have a say in the conversation over using slurs within that group. 

Earl deciding to use the n-word, particularly in order to talk about “the Black community’s condition,” has meaning. It has power, it’s reclaiming a tool of oppression. A white Italian - who a lot of people are claiming don’t know anything about the origins of the word and thus the plight of Black Americans - using it is, at best meaningless and at worse intentionally racist. Ludivico wrote Niccolò as a character who just loves Earl Sweatshirt so much. But he wrote him as a character that loves him just on the surface - just enough to think it’s okay to use this racial slur and to “understand” the message of violence against Black people but not enough to not use a derogatory word that is actual violence against his favorite artist. Sure. 

Third of all, to me, it really didn’t seem like Niccolò was singing along to anything. He literally just says the line and then stops talking as him and Martino do their puppet fight. But that might be another argument, one that… is quite pointless. Because it would have cost him (Ludivico writing him) nothing to not say that line. To skip the n-word, to play a different song, to do literally anything else in that context. But it was, apparently, so central to Italian culture and so important for Niccolò to use this word that it had to be included. Alright.  

Are we really trying to attack Skam Italia for something like this? Do you really think we’re racist or insensitive? After all we’re doing? After all the work we do every day so we can bring values and themes that - for now, in Italy - have always been touched in such a superficial way?

“After all we’re doing”

Ludivico, what exactly are you doing for Black people and other People of Color? 

Like… he really fixed his wretched fingers and typed this out as if he literally had not made the choice to A) cast a white Non-Muslim woman to play literally one of the most iconic Muslim WoC in media history B) erase one of the few Black characters because “he didn’t have a large role,” instead of, you know, CREATING a larger role, as is his right, as a SHOWRUNNER WITH CREATIVE POWER, and casting a host of white boys instead C) has probably whitewashed their version of the Balloon Squad as well. Because yah - I’ve seen enough GIFsets of the “Martino watching a video of Niccolò playing piano” to see that there’s a bunch of white boys in the background laughing and joking with him. And it’s true; you can’t tell someone’s ethnicity by how they look. But the evidence so far is pretty damning. 

This is all to say that this a show… that has consistently refused to work with People of Color across the board. Not only in hiring actors, but it’s obviously not hiring non-white crew members and refusing to engage with fans of color. His constant excuses about why PoC cannot be involved make zero sense. He acts as though these characters are sentient beings that he has no control over instead of fictionalized people, wherein he and the other showrunners have the power to cast whoever they want, make them say whatever they want, and make them do whatever they want. 

And it’s obvious that him and his stans are the ones who are interacting with this entire situation is a superficial way. People who are calling it out, from what I’ve seen, are saying hey, this isn’t cool. Maybe we should have a nuanced dialogue for why this white Italian shouldn’t be saying the n-word. While he and his stans are crying white tears and saying this is our culture! Shut up if you don’t understand it!

In Salvini’s Italy, do you think that the main problem is a boy who loves American rap and sings a song with a word that people don’t like? Amazing.

This sarcastic deflection, I think, is exactly part of the problem. No one is saying that this is the end all and be all of racism in Italy. But using a word that is inextricably linked to physical, emotional, and spiritual violence is a part of the problem. It’s not “just a word”; it’s dehumanization. And that dehumanization of white people using it against Black people is exactly what has lead to issues in “Salvini’s Italy.”

The lyrics from American rap songs are full of inappropriate words. Shouldn’t we use them? The characters can sing them, but should they stop before that word? 

That’s… no one is saying not to use Black music lmao. But literally exactly what people are asking for is to not have non-Black people saying the n-word. If you’re not Black DON’T SAY IT. Why is that so hard.

These attacks don’t hurt black people, because they are smart enough to be able to appreciate the fact that we’re giving space to a rapper who’s really good and pretty capable of talking about their condition. 

The absolute condescension of this, honestly, makes me think that he has never interacted with a Black person in his life. Ever. And I’m not even trying to be funny. 

Look. I’m not claiming to speak for all Black people, especially in a globalized world. Our diaspora is huge and complex due to our histories of enslavement, colonization, imperialism, and violence. I’m sure there are Black people who literally don’t care about white people singing/saying the n-word. I’m sure that the decontextualization of it makes a lot of folks think it’s no big deal. And that’s fine. But again - that’s an intracommunity issue.

To have this white Italian proclaim to speak for Black people - not only here but also in proclaiming to know what Earl Sweatshirt is and isn’t okay with - is another form of dehumanization. Because it’s a catch-22. If we’re “smart enough” to not be mad at this racial slur being used, then what does it mean for those of us who are mad? That we’re unintelligent? That we’re not focused enough on the “right issues”? Once again, the lack of critical thinking is astounding. As if folks can’t understand that this is a big deal along with other forms of violence that are being enacted. 

But having this white boy say the n-word has nothing to do with “giving space” to Earl Sweatshirt or his art. It honestly just feels like a self-insert fantasy. It feels like a moment wherein these white people, once again, feel like they have claim to Black culture and language without having to reap any of the repercussions of that culture. And now once they’ve been called out, they want to be defensive. They don’t actually care about our communities or struggle. Idk how many ways I can say it but a marginalized person speaking truth to power and reclaiming a word is not the same as an oppressor using our language. 

They hurt me. You don’t know how much.

Ahhhhhh, the icing on top of this shit cake. 

Because this is the real root if it, isn’t it? Ludivico doesn’t like that he’s been called out. He doesn’t like that people are angry and that they have something to say about his racism. He doesn’t know how to just take the L and admit that he’s done something that’s messed up and has hurt people. Because in his mind, this is a personal attack. 

This is… this is Vilde dropping out of the bus because everyone “hates her” after her obnoxiously racist and Islamophobic “Muslim gangster world” monologue. But the funny sad thing is, this is a grown man. This isn’t a fictionalized teenager who doesn’t know how to confront her own prejudice. This is the root of why I’m so annoyed; because once again, we have a white person centering their own feelings over the heart of the issue. 

I’m sure I have more to say, lmao, but I am getting tired. 

TLDR; IMO, Niccolò saying the n-word with no repercussions was bad and Ludivico’s obnoxious “explanation” only made it worse. 

- mod Jennifer

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Dadvid Appreciation Week

Also known as ‘Take Back The Dad and Cut Out the Bad’ Week. 

Because as someone who has been in this fandom since before the show even began, there has been one consistent annoyance in this fandom since, and I think you all know what it is.

I, much like many others in this fandom, are tired of Ma///x//vid. It’s disgusting, it’s obnoxious, and it’s a ton of other problems I don’t have the energy to list out. I’ve been tired of it since it first reared its ugly head last year during season one, so over a year ago, I helped to get the Dadvid AU train rolling here on Tumblr as an attempt to balance out the constant stream of Ma///xv//id on both here and on Ao3. 

And for a while it worked! There was so much Dadvid and so much less gross shipping! But not only has the ship resurfaced in full force, the shippers have latched onto the Dadvid AU, making it impossible to know if someone who likes the AU is secretly a gross shipper, therefore adding a ton of bad implications to that supposedly-innocent art of David and Max being a nice family. And I don’t know about all of you, but I’m tired of it. I’m tired, I’m bitter, and honestly? I’m super petty!

So I’m hosting Dadvid Appreciation Week. From October 22 to October 28 (Week before my birthday; fun fact!) we will celebrate Dadvid content in all its glory and the beautiful platonic father-son relationship between David and Max that we love so much! There will be a theme for each day, but heck, you don’t necessarily have to stick to it nor do you have to do every single day if you don’t have the energy or inspiration. Draw, write, even come up with headcanons or AUs, nearly any sort of content is welcome!

There are only a few rules for the week, centered around one big rule:

NO MAXVID SHIPPERS WILL BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS WEEK. PERIOD. NO EXCEPTIONS. 

Now, obviously, I cannot stop them if they decide to draw or create something. But keep in mind, I have a LONG blacklist/Tumblr Savior list, and I do my best to check and make sure artists don’t ship the ship before I reblog from them. So none of their art or content will be counted as part of the celebration week if I have anything to say about it. This is a week to take back Dadvid and make it a safe and comforting AU again, away from shipping and nastiness. And even if it doesn’t work, I’m willing to try. Because I love this AU to death, I’ve watched it grow and blossom over the past year, and it deserves better than to be supported by people who also want the two people in it to be in a romantic relationship.

“But hey, it’s a fictional ship!” Yeah, and I’m feeling REAL annoyed feelings towards people who support it. I’ve tried blocking and blacklisting, I’ve tried being polite, I’ve tried creating a space where people who don’t like the ship could express themselves safely, And the shippers have stuck their noses into places they were not wanted every single time. So now I have to print it in big, bold letters and make it completely 100% obvious.

Some other rules, less major than the big one, but still important:

Don’t harass Ma//x///v/id shippers during this week. Yes, they are gross and awful, I will not deny this. In fact, I would scream it from a rooftop with a megaphone if I could. But I’ve never been fond of telling them to go kill themselves or calling a group that is (let’s be real) mostly composed of teens pedophiles because...no, that’s not necessarily true. Gross? Yes? But pedophiles is a stretch. Now the ADULT shippers, there’s some debate there and also they’re MUCH more gross than the other shippers. But the kids and teens? No. I want this to be a week of fun for those of us who don’t ship it, and we shouldn’t let them spoil it for us. Don’t harass them, don’t interact with them, don’t even instigate a fight if they don’t listen and try to participate despite not being welcomed. Which brings me to my next point.

Don’t harass them...but don’t give them attention either. Trust me, the worst thing you can do to an artist is not give them attention at all. Cut them out, don’t reblog or like their stuff at all. Be careful who you reblog from. I myself am going to do my best NOT to reblog from shippers but if I slip up, please tell me and I will delete the post immediately.  Make it clear that this week is not for them, that this AU is not for them. Hell, you can keep it up after the week is done. In fact, it’s encouraged! Stop giving them attention period. I don’t care how nice their art style is, it’s worthless if they support a pedophilic ship. And we as a fandom should be more strict and critical of the art we reblog and from whom. Now, again that doesn’t mean lashing out and telling artists to kill themselves, but do make it clear that their choice to support a gross ship has consequences that carry over to the rest of their content.

Off the topic of them, NO NSFW ART. Kinda obvious but...you know. This is a nice week, let’s not make things gross. I mean, blood I can understand because Max is a scrappy kid, but let’s not take things to a nasty sexual place. Again, obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be said.

This might be a weird rule, but if you’re going to draw content for the week, Don’t Whitewash Max. You have full access to his different shades of his skin tone in screencaps, use them properly. In fact, here’s a whole masterpost of them in case you need them! Don’t make him look washed out and sickly and pale. This is another problem the fandom has and we might as well work on it this week, too. Don’t give him pale skin and don’t get rid of his beautiful curly hair. (Also whitewashing is a problem I’ve seen a TON of Ma///x///vid shippers have, where they make him look super pale, almost like some kind of anime character and make his hair straight and not poofy at all. To the point where it sometimes only BARELY looks like him. So there’s another excuse not to do it, other than it being really racist.) On top of it being a week of nice content with David and Max in a happy father-son relationship, it can be a week where we all work to improve our art skills for the better, too! Win-win!

Other than that, go wild! A list of each day’s theme will be posted sometime in the future before the actual appreciation week (and once I finish coming up with them).

Let’s take this AU back and made it fun and safe again. Or at least, let’s make some nice Dadvid content without gross, uncomfortable implications behind it.

[officially-that-guy]

@celestecallout

Aight. I’m going to be addressing this on my less used OOC blog because I have a bit of a policy of no drama on my main. But this is squarely aimed at you and your little shits for taking your grievances to this level.

You need to stop.

It’s 2021. You’re basically now a mob mentality at this point. You’re hammering an old friend of mine into literally trying to leave tumblr. Why are you deciding to continuously update your so called ‘callout board’ with updated bullshit when Celeste is trying to move on? So much of it is old now. Why keep up stuff from 6 months ago when it is not even relevant? Some of your garbage like whitewashing icons is so fucking nitpicky it’s not even funny.

You need to stop.

You clearly don’t see the trauma you’ve been leaving on her. Literally, I remember when I was friends with her back when it WAS a thing. She was second guessing her every move because you were watching her like a hawk... and you still do!

You need to stop.

The fact that you have gone and made a TUMBLR blog is only concerning me further into the level you are going to to demonise someone who may have made mistakes in the past, but is trying to own up and move on from them. What you are doing, however, sounds to me like her transgressions are unforgivable.

You need to stop.

‘Your privacy and safety is our priority’. Bullshit. For those submitting callouts and shit, maybe, but people like me? I’m taking a punt by publicly shaming you on here! I’m not safe. I don’t think you’re a nice person. I think you’re a cunt.

You need to fucking stop.

Now I did say ‘old friend’, but really Celeste and I aren’t friends anymore. I’m not going into the details as of why. All I can say is some of what she says I don’t entirely believe to be true. I tried to get a second chance, but I failed. Anxiety was partly the issue. I will not be getting into it with you or any of your cronies.

You need to fucking stop.

Regardless I don’t like how you are going on a huge witch hunt in this day and age for, what gain? She’s apologised TWICE. What do you want? Do you want her to LEAVE tumblr? Sure, I want certain people to leave tumblr too, but I have much bigger grievances with them than this. Let’s just say if it happened I’d re-interact with Celeste in a heartbeat, get back to all the shipping, nsfw what not stuff. And sure I may have some grievances but that’s to be kept private. I won’t be spilling shit.

You need to fucking stop.

I do not condone your behaviour, not to this extent. Stop updating your callout board and leave it the fuck alone. You simply want her to ‘do better’. What kind of fucking standard are you putting on this place? Put a magnifying class on everyone and ‘oh, they’ve done something offensive better call them out on it’!

You need to fucking stop.

You are not protecting the RP community. You are on a manhunt. This is inexcusable. I don’t tolerate a ‘ganging on’ mentality on one single individual. You are a literal piece of shit for taking it to the level you have and continuously harassing someone who does not deserve it.

Delete your fucking blog, maybe even delete all your blogs, because if you think this is okay, you’re not welcome on Tumblr anymore.

Don’t you dare try and find me because oh god I won’t be a happy camper. I don’t condone drama but I also don’t condone fuckwits like you. Your callout board and concerns MAY have been relevant last year, but come the fuck on, all you are doing now is giving poor Celeste a reminder of what she USED to do and others the wrong impression about who she is.

You are disgraceful, ignorant and uncaring to those who have wronged you.

I want YOU to take this as a learning opportunity. Sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up, let sleeping dogs lie. And don’t put words in my mouth either. Yeah, I don’t condone the things that she used to do, (Non-con, etc etc) but I don’t at all believe she does that sort of shit intentionally anymore.

I don’t believe your intentions. Educate my anus.

Consider this a warning. If I do find out who you are, if you continue to preach this shit, I’ll make sure everyone knows who you are, to avoid you at all costs.

I am generally a very, very nice, friendly person, but not towards people on a vendetta.

Take a good fucking look at yourself and plan your next move carefully.

I’ll be watching.

[survivorspy]

so this is probably idk an unpopular opinion or maybe it’s not, i dont really know because i dont pay much attention to popular and unpopular. I just do me. And I suppose that’s kind of what this is about. 

Alright so, could we perhaps STOP policing people? I don’t know how many posts I’ve seen on it today, but it’s one too many. It’s the “don’t follow X person, or if you follow X person don’t talk to me because they’re awful” posts. And I get that sometimes people can get really upset over someone’s opinion, or over something that they’re writing or over a million things, but I had no idea who any of those people mentioned were. I’d never seen their blogs, and I had no idea what drama or ‘legitimate argument’ occurred because it was over and done with or deleted by the time I checked, or someone mentioned it.

I get trying to warn people and wanting to have a ‘safe space; or some thing. But I’m sure just as I didn’t know what the hell was/is going on, there’s a ton of people in the same boat, and we’re all just getting secondhand information. And I didn’t even know who the person was that originated the policing post either, so I don’t know who the hell I’d be listening to anyway. I’m not talking about anyone in particular, because I sure as hell don’t remember who said what or who reblogged what or whatever, my point is just this: we need to resolve things better. We need to stop jumping to conclusions over disagreements.

I can’t tell you how many times I have literally seen drama unfold because of one small mistake or comment someone said, and then suddenly they have an anon message and they’re telling them incredibly vulgar way how they’re an awful piece of shit for their opinion or whatever it is they did. And that doesn’t help. That just makes that person less likely to listen, because you just immediately insulted them. I’m not talking about those people who literally come out and say nasty shit, I’m talking about, for example, someone who used a PSD which whitewashed an actor’s face, or someone who said something which came off as ‘problematic’ but in a way that could be easily misunderstand. Attacking someone doesn’t help. 

Any understanding, mature, rational person can open a discussion and say “Hey, hold on a minute, just to make this clear I’m not attacking you or anything, but what you said in x or that thing you did over here is really offensive because of x,x and x.” I’m sure if people were to just approach arguments or discussions that way, there’s more likely to be an understanding between people and we wouldn’t have to be saying things like “HEY THIS PERSON IS REALLY BAD”. Now I get it if you tried that and it didn’t work, but look--then you unfollow them and whoever else wants to unfollow them can do so as well, and if you want tell your friends, but there’s really no need to come out and spread it around across the entire community when I bet half of us don’t even know what the hell happened. 

Especially if it has to do with someone’s fictional character. Because half the time you guys talk about things and it makes me wonder if we should be writing anything at all. Why don’t we let everyone make their own decisions, have their own critical thinking instead of feeding into mob mentality?  

[the-desolated-quill]

Oh Finn - Quill’s Scribbles

Believe it or not, I really don’t want to keep talking about Iron Fist. I honestly don’t give two shits either way at the moment. I wasn’t all that interested when I first heard about the show and when I heard about all the criticism it was getting, I just went ‘oh that’s a shame’ and just carried on with my day.

In fact, to my own surprise, I’ve kind of been acting like the voice of reason, trying to tell everybody to step back and get some perspective. I’ve already ranted about how hypocritical the critics are for saying how racist Iron Fist is whilst still pledging their support for Doctor Strange, a movie that’s committed far more heinous acts in its production than Iron Fist has. And I can’t help but give a disapproving stare to those Tumblr users out there who are using the same stick they used to beat Doctor Strange with to beat Iron Fist even though the circumstances for both are drastically different.

Let’s just go over the facts again. Unlike Doctor Strange, Iron Fist hasn’t whitewashed any Asian characters, the writers are attempting to depict Asian culture and they have also expressed an awareness of the many problems with the source material and have vowed to fix it. While yes, it’s disappointing that they didn’t pick an Asian actor for the role, as I seem to have to keep reminding people again and again, they’re not in any way obliged to do so. Iron Fist is canonically white. They could racebend the character if they wanted to, (and to their credit they did audition Asian actors for the role, so they were clearly open minded to the possibility), but if they want to go with the white guy, that’s their prerogative. Now the pressure is on them to make sure the character and the show doesn’t fall into the same traps as the comics. 

The only crime Iron Fist has committed is that the writers thought they could have their cake and eat it too. They thought they had the skill and talent to make a show with a white Iron Fist that wasn’t racist and they apparently fucked it up. Would an Asian Iron Fist have solved all the problems? Not necessarily as some of the criticisms include rubbish fight scenes and a dull, plodding storyline. But other criticisms, such as the mighty whitey trope and the show’s lack of a unique identity, would have been addressed simply by racebending the lead.

That was my stance regarding the show. That could very well change if the show’s star, Finn Jones, doesn’t put a sock in it at some point over the next couple of days.

There are two ways to handle criticism. Quietly absorb everything that’s been said and consider bearing them in mind for future projects, or dismiss it all and angrily scream and shout into the void about how nobody can understand your genius. Finn Jones is very much in the latter. He’s been very vocal in his defence of the show, which is understandable to a certain extent. It’s never easy to hear criticism about something you’ve put a lot of hard work and effort into, especially when that criticism is overwhelmingly negative, but Finn Jones’ ‘defence’ displays an ignorant and borderline offensive attitude that I find quite appalling.

He started off with the usual trite defence (usually reserved as the DCEU’s go-to excuse) of that the show was made ‘for the fans.’ One teeny, tiny problem with that. The hardcore fans only represent a tiny portion of the viewership. It’s the casual viewers you have to pull in and if the show is as racially insensitive as some are suggesting, the casual viewers will twig it straight away. Also that’s a bit insulting to the fans, isn’t it? He’s basically implying that the fans should hold it to a lower standard than everyone else and should just be grateful for what they’ve got. David Ayer didn’t get away with that bullshit with Suicide Squad and we’re not falling for it now.

In an interview with the Metro UK, Finn Jones also said that the show wasn’t made for critics, saying that:

“…some of the reviews we saw were seeing the show through a very specific lens, and I think when the fans of the Marvel Netflix world and fans of the comic books view the show through the lens of just wanting to enjoy a superhero show, then they will really enjoy what they see”.

Okay first of all, what the fuck is he talking about? No show is made specifically for critics and of course they’re watching it through a particular lens. They’re critics. That’s what they do. They criticise. He’s basically angry because the critics have done what their job requires them to do. Second, that argument is total bullshit because if the problem is that the critics can’t sit back and enjoy a superhero show, how come they had no problem enjoying Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage? What’s so special about Iron Fist that the critics don’t seem to get it? In fact the main criticism of the show is that it’s not special at all. That it’s actually derivative of a lot of better superhero properties out there at the moment. Which seems more likely Finn Jones? That critics can’t seem to wrap their head around a TV show that’s apparently so dull and uninspired that it seems to have borrowed a lot of its ideas from TV Tropes, or that your show is total rubbish?

Then of course there’s been the much publicised Twitter debate between Finn Jones and creative director Asyiqin Haron from Geeks Of Colour. He said that representation was important and that Iron Fist is socially progressive and celebratory of different cultures whilst remaining true to the source material. Haron responded by saying that an Asian Iron Fist would have made an even greater impact, and asked whether Finn Jones was even aware of how problematic a white Iron Fist potentially is. He responded by saying that the show explores those problematic elements and, when pressed further, he did the sensible and mature thing of deleting his Twitter account. Cue an onslaught of online hate accusing Haron of bullying even though all she did was ask some very blunt and pointed questions. She did not resort to foul language or personal attacks and by questioning him actually revealed how ignorant and hypocritical his thoughts on diversity were.

Jones eventually returned to Twitter and released the following statement:

“There is a huge benefit to engage and help shape conversations on social media, especially when it comes to giving a voice to social matters. My original intention was to amplify a speech made by Riz Ahmed at the House of Commons. It was a very articulate and important speech on representation that I wholly agreed with. After posting I was inundated by people accusing me of not being allowed to share his voice based on an assumption that our show is going to play into the problems of racial inequality on screen.  I engaged politely, diplomatically and attempted to bridge the divide. I’m currently in the middle of filming and I need to stay focused on bringing to life this character without judgment, so I decided to remove myself from twitter for the time being.

I am very proud of the work everyone has done on this series and I’m excited for people to see how we’ve adapted the story. We have gone to great lengths to represent a diverse cast with an intelligent, socially progressive storyline. I hope people can watch the show before making judgments. In times, as divisive as these, we need to stay unified, compassionate and understanding in our differences.”

Yes. He just wanted to engage and help shape conversations on social media and was attempting to bridge the divide… only to then cut the conversation off entirely and thus strengthen the divide further because he couldn’t handle somebody questioning his progressive brilliance.

As the criticism continued, Jones started to become more and more vocal to the point where he even started to lose his cool. In an interview with Vulture, Jones claimed that people needed to ‘chill the fuck out’. How he doesn’t understand how people can be frustrated at something when they haven’t seen the product yet (ignoring the fact that the critics have already seen the product, hence the frustration), that Iron Fist is one of the most diverse shows he’s ever worked on and he doesn’t understand why it’s being picked on (again ignoring the fact that if he took the time to actually read the criticism instead of bitching like an infant, he’ll have realised that the critics have actually explained what the problems are on numerous occasions). When the interviewer attempted to move on from the subject, Jones said:

“C'mon, let’s get angry at the real fucking injustices in the world, yeah? The real problems in the world. Not just in television. There’s some real shit happening in the world right now that people need to get angry about. Let’s get angry about that. Not just a TV show that hasn’t even aired yet, you know?”

Ah that old chestnut. Look just because you don’t care about Asian representation in the media doesn’t mean we shouldn’t. For someone who claims to want to give voice to social matters, you certainly seem to spend a lot of time dismissing social matters the moment they’re voiced.

And just when you thought Finn Jones couldn’t sink any lower, in an interview with the RadioTimes, this happened:

“I’m playing a white American billionaire superhero, at a time when the white American billionaire archetype is public enemy number one, especially in the US. We filmed the show way before Trump’s election, and I think it’s very interesting to see how that perception, now that Trump’s in power, how it makes it very difficult to root for someone coming from white privilege, when that archetype is public enemy number one.”

Oh yeah. You’re reading this correctly. Apparently the reason why people don’t like Iron Fist is because of Donald Trump.

Well this is a first. I never thought I’d be defending Donald Trump. As tempting as it is, you can’t blame him for all your problems sweetheart. Aside from the fact that nobody has expressed similar thoughts in response to Batman or Iron Man or even Arrow, and that the cry for an Asian Iron Fist started long before President Drumpf was elected, nobody has said nor has ever said that the white billionaire or even white people in general are ‘public enemy number one’. People are just understandably frustrated because it’s 2017 and they’re still having to fight tooth and nail for representation in the media. Yes Iron Fist is canonically white, but this could have been an opportunity to dispense with the white billionaire archetype altogether and have our first mainstream Asian superhero. That’s an opportunity you’ve robbed them of Finn Jones and it’s something you seem to be medically incapable of wrapping your head around. Regardless of our individual views on Trump, if you’ve gotten so desperate to defend your show that you’re blaming the President of the United States, you need a fucking time out.

Finn Jones is clearly in a state of rather aggressive denial, pointing the finger at everyone but the people responsible for this shitshow, namely the filmmakers. See up until now, I was prepared to extend an olive branch to Iron Fist. They seemed to have honest intentions and all it would have taken to get people back on their side was a simple apology a few months down the line and a promise to take the criticism onboard and fix the issues for Season 2 (assuming Season 2 is even going to happen after all of this). Instead Finn Jones is let off the leash and his delusional ramblings are at serious risk of damaging the show further. I’ve noticed that Marvel and the showrunner have kept deathly quiet about all of this. What am I supposed to read into that? Is Finn Jones’ pathetic excuses just the opinions of one ignorant prick or are they indicative of the entire BTS crew?

The more vocal Finn Jones gets, the more ignorant he’s shown to be and the more it hurts the show he’s trying to defend. He’s basically digging his own grave and pulling Iron Fist down on top of him. People like myself who were prepared to show sympathy are now starting to get turned off because if the lead star is this fucking deluded and clueless about the issues surrounding this show, maybe what the critics are saying have some weight to them after all.

So for your own sake, as well as the sake of Iron Fist and the fans that you claim to respect, do us all a favour Finn Jones.

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

[ourimpavidheroine]

so are you saying you never want a comment that disagrees with you? sorry, not trying to be rude, just asking. I don't mean the other kind of comments like transphobic or whatever.

Well, I’m glad you don’t mean transphobic comments (or any others of that ilk) because no one needs to justify and/or explain deleting those. 

What it comes down to is the difference between critique and criticism. A fair amount of readers don’t know (or care, in some cases!) the difference between the two.

A critique is something that the writer (or artist, or whomever) could potentially find useful in improving their craft. 

A criticism is simply complaining about what you don’t like. There is no benefit at all to the creator in question.

So let me give an example:

CRITIQUE

Wait, I’m confused here. Is Wu in love with Qi or not? It’s not clear from that last chapter. 

Why is this helpful? Well, it tells me that the reader is not picking up what I am putting down, so to speak. Now, there could be several reasons for this. It might be that I have not played all of my cards yet - I may have something planned and I am deliberately writing a slow reveal. In which case, all is well! It might be, however, that I have something clear in my head but I am not getting it across to my readers as well as I think I am. In which case, this is very important information! This is good feedback! I can go back and look at my work with a critical eye and say, you know, the reader is right and I am being too vague here, so I need to address this with more clarity in the next chapter (or whatever). I have gotten these kinds of comments and I always publish them. I value them, very much. 

CRITICISM

I was really into this story until you introduced polyamory. It’s a terrible idea. I hate it.

What is the purpose of this remark? Will it help me to improve as a writer? No, it won’t. Will I change my story line because of it? Not even close. Is there anything that I, as a writer, can do with this remark? Absolutely not. But see, that’s the entire point of criticism. When people post comments like that it is all for themselves. There is no real exchange of ideas happening there; there is no response I can give as a writer to them that will be satisfactory. I am certainly not going to apologize because a reader doesn’t like what I have done with a story, be it characterization or plot. Why on earth would I apologize? I’m not sorry I wrote it that way. The reader is under absolutely no obligation to continue reading my story; they certainly haven’t paid for it. Only once has any of the readers leaving these kinds of comments been a reader that had left any kind of other feedback for me. In other words, people who make those kinds of comments have never bothered to engage with me before and are still not engaging with me. They just want to make a dramatic exit and have the last word. Why on earth should I indulge them in this? 

I’ve been active on the internet since 1992; I have watched the rise of the comment section trolls. They don’t actually care about whatever it is they are trolling, despite their strident claims to the contrary. They’re just there to fuck shit up. People who care about something want to enjoy engaging with other fans, not proving other fans wrong. That’s your litmus test, right there. Is this person trying to engage with me in mutual enjoyable discourse or are they there to prove me wrong? If it is the former, then go for it, even if it might get a little heated (because that happens sometimes). If it is the latter, then fuck ‘em.

As I said earlier, my own personal troll here doesn’t actually like my fic and has said that directly. They are reading it for no other reason than to make horrible comments on it. (And this only came about after months of not actually reading my fanfic but coming here on Tumblr and asking my “opinion” on ATLA and/or TLOK which was a transparent excuse to reblog my answers with really nasty commentary on them, attempting to somehow prove me wrong. It was only after I stopped biting on their Asks that they actually went and started reading my fanfic.) I’m not going to help them do that by leaving their comments up on my work; it’s abuse, plain and simple, and I do not feel under any obligation to help an abuser. Especially not my own. My troll has tried over and over again to tell me that I am wrong for deleting their comments, by the way. They absolutely want me to help them by being complicit in my own abuse. Which is, in fact, a textbook abuser’s move; hell, it’s number one on the list. And it’s just not going to happen.

I have watched a lot of young and/or fragile writers pour their hearts and souls into writing fanfic, only to walk away because a reader felt entitled to leave useless, unhelpful and sometimes even cruel criticism. That goes for young artists as well; I’ve seen the absolutely horrible bullying that goes on here on Tumblr. Sending Asks telling an artist to kill themselves! What the actual fuck! It’s why, quite frankly, I have gently dissuaded my daughter from getting a Tumblr account and posting her art here. Those kinds of comments would devastate her. There is a big difference between telling an artist, “Hey, you know, I see you whitewashed Korra there, and as a person of color I’d really like to tell you why that’s a hurtful thing to do us and oh here are some links that explain about it as well,” and telling them to kill themselves or die in a fire or never draw again. But see, that’s the thing. There is a real sense of entitlement that comes with leaving criticism that just blows my mind. To me, it reads as if the consumer of the art thinks that the creator actually owes them something, even if that something is forcing them to pay attention to the consumer by leaving unhelpful, rude and sometimes even abusive commentary. I strongly disagree with this. Creators are not obligated to their fans. Or as Neil Gaiman once famously put it, “[The Creator] is not your bitch.” 

It’s not that big a leap to go from leaving a comment telling a creator that you don’t like something to stalking someone online to making actual threats and/or doxxing them. The anonymity of the internet makes it very easy, in fact. Internet trolls that cross over the line from being an entitled asshole to engaging in actual illegal behavior had to start somewhere. And that start isn’t by reading half a chapter of fic and backing out to find something else they like better or just scrolling past art they don’t like, you know?

Every single time a writer leaves up garbage commentary on their work, they are giving their tacit approval of a reader’s belief that they are entitled to shit all over said work. 

It’s not the same when it comes to a professional writer, of course. For one thing, they are being paid for their work. For another, reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or on review sites aren’t about engaging the author in discourse about their work. Authors (unless they are Anne Rice or something, wooo-weee) are not responding to reviews. Reviews are all about readers getting their chance to let other readers know how they felt about the work. Dude, if I am going to be shelling out cold hard cash for a book then I’d like to read some nuanced reviews of it first, for sure. I ignore the stupid troll ones, of course. Most of those get downvoted anyhow because nobody likes a troll but a troll.

That being said…do we leave reviews on AO3 or Tumblr in order to tell other readers how we felt about a writer’s work? No. We do not. We leave comments, because we are engaging in fandom discourse with the writer, someone else who loves the fandom as much as we do. 

Reviews and comments are not the same thing, kids. There’s a reason why they are two separate words. There is a reason why AO3 and Tumblr (and fanfiction.net, etc.) very deliberately use the word comments and why Goodreads and Amazon and The National Book Review use the word review. Language matters.

In other words, comments ≠ reviews.

Fanfic is not the same as original published work. Fandom is made up of people who love their particular fandom; fanfic is written by writers that are creating transformative works out of love. (Not that we wouldn’t mind money or anything, but that’s not the end goal.) Two completely separate worlds. Sure, sometimes the lines get blurred - I myself once met a writer at a signing whom I admired and embarrassed the hell out of myself by fangirling all over him. (He was very gracious about it.) But he was there to do a signing, not chitterchat over Tumblr for hours over why it is Bolin can lavabend but not metalbend. Totally different scenario. There are quite a few published writers here on Tumblr who engage with their fans, but they are still not engaging with them over their book reviews, I can tell you that much.

And in any case, who the hell scrolls down on AO3 to read all of the comments before they read the fanfic anyhow? I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen, I’m just saying it’s not the general practice. Not even fanfic readers are using the comments section as a means of deciding whether or not they want to read a fic. People read the tags and the summaries and go by word of mouth when it comes to choosing a fanfic to read. Again - comments section, not a review section!

Some fandom creators can handle critique or criticism and some can’t. Some writers leave up all the shit commentary on their fics and that’s fine. It’s their choice and I’m all about choice! But for me, I’m not going to be any part of teaching a reader on AO3 that they are entitled to shit all over someone’s work just because they don’t understand what the hell the comments section is for. I surely am not going to allow them to think that it is okay to be an asshole in my comments section just because they think it is somehow their god-given right to be one. Freedom of speech does not mean I have to let you take a dump all over my front lawn, you feel me? Go crap all over your own space.

It may not hurt me, a crusty old bitch who could care less if some stranger off the internet is offended by polyamory. But it could hurt and discourage other fanfic writers and anyone who has followed me for any length of time knows how much of a Tumblr Mom I am. I want to encourage new creators. I want to support them as they feel their way about, as they try to improve their work. I try to give as much written support as I can in terms of commenting, reblogging, etc. But I also want them to understand that they are not under any obligation to deal with the haters. Comments are not meant to be reviews; they sure as hell are not meant to be criticism. Leaving up hate on my own work does not get that message across to either the haters or the creators who are having to deal with that hate, as far as I am concerned. And that’s why I won’t do it.