#im not usually this negative in my reviews

[famewolf]

I'm gonna be a little quiet on here until after I start playing Dragon Age. I don't want to be spoiled and the urge to click on posts that have DA tags blacklisted is mounting. And just like with Inquisition, I want to go in totally blind.

[kfairy88]

Mini rant. (This has no spoilers for Thunderbolts btw but just what early reviewers say)

Am I the only one who is lowkey upset that early reviews for thunderbolts is hyping up the movie up saying it’s “perfect” and “the best mcu project since endgame” While Cap BNW recieved nothing but hate :(

Don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited for Thunderbolts, I love my baby girl Bucky and Yelena and just everyone and their chaoticness! However I’m just more upset at the fact that basically all the early reviews for Cap BNW were negative. After I watched the movie I loved it, I told my roommate that I might be a little biased because I ADORE Sam and said I loved the movie, it was really fun. And he said “Im not biased and I’d give it a solid 8/10 because a 10 would mean it was perfect”. And he’s a comic book NERD (I mean this in the nicest way possible :)) like I enjoy comics too but he knows like EVERYTHING and he usually critiques stuff so I was impressed that BNW was an 8 to him. So yeah, I’m not sure if I’m like the only one who feels like this but BNW recieved way too much hate and it’s just upsetting. Again I want to clarify I mean no hate to thunderbolts, im just upset at the fact that they’re recieving more love/care than Sam did in BNW. That’s all!

[coriphallus]

DA: The Veilguard Spoiler review pt1 - Blood Magic

alright let's do this. let's write an in-depth review of veilguard. this will be long and this will be negative and i might eventually say some good things but everything i say will be undermined with a 'BUT'.

its now been around a week since i finished the game and had some time to parse my thoughts and this is why i didnt enjoy the game; NOT why you shouldnt.

so dragon age has a very special place in my heart and i am %100 the kind that has DAO as their favourite game. i have played these games religiously, and let me prefix this by saying i was not hyped for this game, i wont lie and say i wanted bw to succeed or i hoped the game would be good etc etc. if i liked the game, it would be a surprise. alas.

so theres multiple reasons for that, but the canary in the mine for me had been the announcement on blood magic, and yeah i was not shocked after DAI but i was still disappointed. so lets start with blood magic:

Blood Magic

DA lore has changed alot over time, and just like the media it took inspiration from (ASOIAF) i was under the impression that it used unreliable narrators deliberately, just as theyve poked fun at the concept with bethanys tits. it made sense then that the people telling these stories didnt know much about blood magic therefore they couldnt explain it fully but we've known some things for certain, from the text. blood magic uses blood as its source of power instead of lyrium (blood=life force), what constitutes as blood magic is open to interpretation (i.e phylacteries), multiple groups outside of the 'civilised society' such as chasind are not so staunchly against it, knowledge on it can be passed down from a mentor and that mentor usually happens to be a spirit. it can be used to enact control over people in a literal sense and thats considered by the narrative of all DA games to be more reprehensible than burning someone alive.

now i will derail this but i swear im going somewhere with it. i grew up in a country with majority white people, some blond, most with exposed hair who lived in big cities with cobblestone roads and snowy winters and starbuckses, and who would consider themselves westerners. some religious practices i know less about than most christians know about their holidays.

where my grandma lived was at the bottom of a high slope, and once a year when we went to visit her id see a thick trail of blood trickle down from the waterway to pool on her street, and at that dinner the family (and neighbours, sometimes) would bring a myriad of dishes and we'd feast. i would see butchers shops clean their curbs with buckets of water, mopping red tinted liquid down a drain. when i grew older and we were visiting my mothers village i watched the men subdue and kill a cow that we were going to eat that night. i watched them skin it and separate the meat from its bones, explaining what parts of an animal is used for which dishes because it was their craft and a young girl showed interest. as people we always live with the knowledge that our lives depend on death, whether it be a plant or an animal. existence is not moral and clean, and death is messy. getting blood stains out of a fabric once a month is the lived reality of more than half the human population.

i was not raised religious, nobody in my close family were, i didn't feel any sort of way when those men started to pray around the cow but i knew why they did it, even if it was performative for some, for the rest they had to show respect. the cow was meant to represent somebody you cared about, offering it in their stead symbolically. it needed to be respected, it needed to be butchered without pain. save from one serving of meat, as was tradition, were donated to the food banks.

now im sure some of you are thinking 'no matter how you slice it, its still a brutal act. made more brutal by the audience deriving some form of moral superiority' and yes, i used to think that too, because what is a religious practice for them is a show to me. but it is the norm where i grew up, and in the end a cow is dead regardless because we need to eat. and some people who needed to eat more than us got to eat too.

somewhere in germany news break out that some immigrants were practicing unethical and unsanitary butcherings, you see the footage of men in kufi and puffy pants and women covered completely in black sheets get ushered out by police. they shout some things in a foreign language, speaking the name of their foreign god. they show a censored room covered in blood and gore.

so i have to ask now, when you play veilguard and see venatori torturing and exploding a halla into a puff of red smoke which image does it bring to mind, what do you think of when you hear 'ritual sacrifice'? you may not have noticed this parallel but your brain sure did, as it has been noticing for your entire life and counting, the same reason you cringe at the barbarity of people consuming raw flesh, painting their foreheads with blood, killing animals you would pet. its alien, its gross, its wrong.

i cant play this game and take it seriously with its mask yanked off, gloating about its lack of nuance every step of the way. when you hit people red stuff comes out, red stuff bad. killing bad. murder bad. that it extends more sympathy to a fantasy deer than it ever allows for living breathing people of its universe, faceless and primitive.

in other DA games there were people over there somewhere who enslaved others, built their entire civilization on the ruins of gods they cannot comprehend, practiced bloody sacrifices and rituals that doomed the world for their own power, and even in their homeland they are nothing but canon fodder to be murdered and gawked at. their traditions, religion, entire culture is less than a set dressing, because whatever grosses you out are the bad apples, because the good ones cant be anything else and still derive sympathy from the audience.

and its true, you need to be an exceptional writer to make that work, especially if you dont have any real life experience to pull from. you need to stain your hands a little, and be prepared to be called dirty.

but i see it, i see those news reports everywhere i look in the game, i see the streets being cleaned and scrubbed so the tourists wouldnt call them backwards people, unclean, less than.

ive never played a game so repulsed by and is uninterested in its own universe than DAV, in every line of dialogue i can feel it trembling in fear. my companions tell me i dont need to watch a deer getting butchered, i can look away and proceed to electrocute hundreds of masked men some of whom are talking about comically evil things like patricide.

this has always been a point of contention in the medium of video games as the most prominent way to engage with the world has been through violence, and for me the DA franchise has always managed to tackle this by allowing its main character to be messy. yes, hawke cleaves thru countless faceless raiders but theyre also an illegal immigrant trying to get by with nothing to offer to the world than their violence. warden is deliberately recruited for that same violence, the only purpose of their existence is to fight as theyre made to shed everything else from their old life. and still, still you play these characters as they are allowed to grow, heal, carve out a little space for themselves where they can laugh and joke with their peers. it is juxtaposed to that darkness in their lives that makes those moments precious.

'what is good?' the games asked, and they answered 'doesn't matter, the world can be a better place with them in it'

veilguard asks 'what is good?' and answers 'you are.'

it doesnt matter whether blood magic is bad lore-wise (and that discussion is irrelevant to this decision made by the devs), because it needs to be narratively. like tabloid news the entire premise of the story is built on it. it needs to be inaccessible to and shunned by your party and rook because they need to be 'good' and in contrast, your enemies need to be 'bad'

and like dominoes it retroactively reframes the moral stance of every game in the franchise.

so, yes, i just laughed when i saw that announcement. i didnt know what else to do. but hang on to your knickers because it gets so much worse...

[millionmaggots]

did/osdd/posdd/etc havers, can i mayhaps get ur opinion on something please?

i havent rlly been posting abt it bc the plural/system space online is HELLA SCARY with all the fakeclaiming n discourse n shit, but im realizing i proooobably have some kind of dissociative shit going on 😭

- can't remember the first 10 years of my life with any detail, then it gets a little clearer until age 15 or so when i can remember pretty well / maybe normally (idk what normal really is tho)

- i lose hours at a time

- i don't have distinct people in my head except for this one lady who's basically the ceo of violent / upsetting intrusive thoughts (i don't think i experience switching)

- but i do have a very disorganized train of thought, with a lot of different things going on at once / overlapping (i also have adhd tho)

- ive heard voices (that don't sound like me) on and off since i was like 8 or 9

- ^ i got tested for schizophrenia and i do not have it

- my parents get annoyed with me bc apparently i take / move their stuff, but i often have no memory of doing it, and little/no reason to have done it, despite evidence that i did. i usually just say that although i have no memory of doing it, i guess i did and im sorry. this one happens probably at least weekly and causes me a lot of distress bc it's scary being told that i did something i don't remember / wouldn't do

- people (esp my parents) sometimes tell me im acting off / different, and it's really confusing, bc as i see it, im always acting like myself

- i have a history of acute dissociation / depersonalization, especially when i was working a rlly stressful job

- i have an absolute dogshit short term / working memory

- i space out and fail to process things ALL THE TIME, especially auditory information. i need about 20% of everything said to me repeated.

- i get inexplicable feelings of dread from things i have no (conscious) emotional connection to

- i have cptsd symptoms and at least 2 distinct triggers associated with bad experiences ive had

- accidentally called myself a 'we' when talking to my psych? i remember everything about the appointment except the context around why i would've made that mistake

- like i said, i have adhd, and my adderall helps me focus, but doesn't do anything for my general inattentiveness / spacing out / forgetfulness

- my childhood was like. fine? in terms of like parents/housing/money/friends/etc, but i grew up not knowing my gender identity or that im disabled, and i had a severe undiagnosed anxiety disorder dismissed by adults as me being "shy" and "sensitive" so there was a constant ever present feeling that i was just inherently a bit off / wrong / broken

- nothing bad was directly done to me when i was little (as far as i know?) but i was, in hindsight, emotionally abused by my principal and homeroom teacher all throughout middle school (severe depression and anxiety, i was told to "stop being so negative" or i would be put in a different classroom without any of my friends <- the people who helped me and made me feel at least a little bit safe)

tl;dr: if anybody w osdd/did, etc, took the time to read all this, i would REEEEALLY appreciate u guys giving all this a sniff test 😭 not asking 4 a diagnosis obvs just kinda a peer review

i have a psych appointment abt this in about a month but in the meantime i would love to hear from systems who know abt this kind of thing. what do u guys think is up?

(PLEASE don't drag syscourse over here bc i know it'll just make everything im dealing with worse and more confusing /gen /srs)

[nonsensechemicals]

why do u like cookie9 and buglivia so much /genq im so curious

i’m actually curious too because i have no idea why i would do this to myself, my brain just completely and utterly and hopelessly LATCHED onto them when there’s barely any content on them compared to the rest of the characters in TSPUD, they very easily elicit negative reactions from most (not all!) of the fandom, they— OKAY i’m getting too ahead of myself

BUT. it basically started (and i’m surprised that i even remember) when i first really got into TSP. i played TSP and TSPUD, went “Hey, who the hell does this person think they are!” at Cookie9, made some art, joined the Crowsx3 discord server to post it. i tend to to be a bit mischievous so i changed my nickname on there to “Cookie9”, for two reasons: to make people go “oh, no, it’s Cookie9.” and because i did actually go by “Cookie” as a nickname in the past.

for the same reason, i decided to make a little design for Cookie9. spice things up a bit from the usual Stanley and Narrator in the art channel. people liked it, things were fine. i drew them again a couple times, left it at that.

at that point they were just some person with a cookie for a head and a skirt. i didn’t think much about it. i didn’t even characterize them beyond “i hate the narrator and i’m a cyberbully haha”, which was… pretty wrong? or boring, at least. to me.

a few months later i actually decided to put a face behind the mask. thought he was a bit cute, so i delved a bit more on my headcanons for him. i began to draw buglivia in there with him too, his roommate, i’d decided. (both of their designs changed a lot since then too. sniles)

around this time i began to talk about Cookie9 a LOT on my old account, for some reason, i’d constantly talk about how they weren’t some “big evil villain” like the fandom thought they were, to the point i actually got a bunch of people talking about them as well. i also started a sideblog to roleplay as them which actually got a bunch of asks. things were still fine, relatively, i was just a Cookie9 fan. but things hadn’t gotten too bad.

then the end of 2023 hit and i deleted all my socials for personal reasons. but. the Cookie9 Enjoyment went on. i made a new discord account to post more Cookie9 stuff on discord, i remember, not too much, though. stuff was still fine.

then, around…august of 2024 hit. i was on some new medication and was like, severely depressed. i don’t really think i talked to anyone, i might’ve made a few posts on twitter, but, THIS. this is when things started getting bad. in a good way. Cookie9 and buglivia were basically my lifeline for a while because around the same time i couldn’t really talk to people at all, so my only source of actual “enrichment” was imagining them in situations. i actually decided to leave my room for a reason other than going to the bathroom once, because i really REALLY needed to go to my computer and make them in Sims 4. which i was able to do for a few hours but still all i really wanted to do was lay in bed forever so i went back but that was an IMPROVEMENT, and it was thanks to them.

anyway, a bit afterwards, the iOS release for Ultra Deluxe came out, and i also had those meds changed out because i was seriously not functioning, and both prompted me to actually start interacting with people again. i made some new awesome friends, remade the rest of my accounts… and i can’t remember when i actually began talking about the reviewers online again. i’ve improved on my characterizations of them, too, at least since 2023, which helped with talking about them more as well.

but like, whenever i actually did begin posting about Cookie9 and buglivia again, it was . uh. different. because while before i used to be The Cookie9 Guy due to my long-ish posts about how they’re Just Some Guy, now i’m known as The Cookie9 Guy because… uh. i can’t explain it any better than if you looked up “Cookie9” on tumblr and searched by latest. it’s awful. it’s great.

i’ve grown very very very attached to them. i don’t wanna be cliché but the fact they were the reason i hung on for a while due to Incorrect Meds helped a LOT with said attachment. love those guys. my first sentence here was wrong, i know why now. thank you reviewers forever. now go look at my design of them so niceys friendlies

[cconfusedkat]

Hey so what’s your drawing process?

GET OUT MY HOU---

I have never been asked this b4! :-O Im drawing at the moment so it wouldnt hurt to explain how i do my refs for example heehoo

First i shallablamkdabdomdb I Think. I brainstorm. Im like. How does this character behave and act towards their everyday surroundings. 🤔🤨.... and then im like BAM I GOT YOU NOW!!!!! Sooo for the ram , for example- shes around 17 and is like ,, Shes very messy yet energetic ,, a god of war at her age makes her very energetic and outgoing since she has all this power (and well i guess it doesnt help she has adhd but-) so i was thinking about her pose as something rlly silly and dynamic

As i got used to drawing poses it was actually smth i learned from a couple of my moots- one of my moots got a similiar ask like this nd i took it with a big bag of rice and RAN ,,, Its all about me wanting to make dynamic poses- im not the best at fluid bests For Now but IM GETTING THERE ,

But yes sorry; thinking about my poses, sketch it twice, begin linearting- but after i finish lineart, i create different layers of coloring because my brain (ocd) tells me things and if i dont do This Thag Way I Will Be Killed On Spot With A Nuclear Ray From The Sky

I do lineart first, draw the face over on another layer, do hair color first, then body color under the hair color,, after im finished with that i then go HEEERRRM. NOW. Does it deserve a little razzle dazzling? A little speckle spackle? Do i want to render it? Do i want to change the lineart color to highlight the characters main color scheme? Yap yap yap my process isnt ALWAYS like this but its usually that way-

For allure though i can use a good example for this- when drawing allure—if i want to line their hair with the darker beige—i create two more layers and then draw over their hActually this doesnt make any sense I MEAN. WELL. I COULD PROBABLY JUST SHOW THE TIMELAPSE. Oh yeah I overuse the undo and redo button as well as using a FUCK ton of references from pinterest

But heres what my canvas looks like atm :-] if i want to make size comparisons i lower the opacity of the finished art and sketch over that with how tall or small the character is- aaliyah here is the shortest and smallest so to make sure i did her height and body size right i use the transform tool to slide her across the grid and go "is she smaller than i made her ??? Is she TALLER than i made her?? Did i manage to do her body weight correctly???" Etc etc

,,

Okay maybe nothing i said made actual senseMAYBE ILL TALK ABOUT MY OTHER EXAMPLES...? Im Digging

For something like this i actually kept th sketch BWAHAHA- i didnt really feel like tracing over it again (at least more or so properly-) so i shrugged, went Fuck It, then made my sketch the lineart layer. I put the flat color beneath it afterwards, put Alpha Lock on so i can shade, and bada bing Bada Boom ,, background comes after everything else (BAD HABIT) (COMPOSITION AND PERSPECTIVE R HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY WHERE MY CHARACTER STANDS-)

Uhh what elseOhYeah if its a standalone sheet for me or a friend- i draw the two poses that come to mind first, write down all the information i was provided (eithet myself or a friend), and then draw anything else i want to next to the poses if theres space left,, this is my brothers lamb and so i went back nd forth asking doll if what was okay and what wasnt okay to add-

ABSOLUTELY YAPFESTING . SORRY. I HOPE SOME OF THAT MADE SENSE. I know this wasnt an advice ask but if people ever needed advice from me i usually fuck it up cuz my Very Own process confuses me sometimes-

I usually either take 1 hour or 2 days to finish something (yes im That chronically online and insane to draw for 48 hours straight without sleeping)

That or if i hate something i go insane (negatively) over it and refuse to ask for peer review (at least sometimes-) so im like Okay Fuck This Wip. This Doesnt Exist Anymore

[livingdeadgirl-333]

♡About Me♡

✮my name is olivia but usually go by liv or livy ✮i play both acoustic and electric guitar aswell as bass guitar ✮i am constantly confused by what aesthetic i want to present as ✮im a minor so keep that in mind

♡I Love♡

✮lip gloss ✮cherries ✮staying in bed ✮bows ✮lace ✮vanilla coke ✮doing my makeup ✮thrift shopping ✮the walking dead ✮unreleased songs on soundcloud

♡Favourite Movies♡

✮the outsiders ✮stand by me ✮the virgin suicides ✮i believe in unicorns ✮girl interupted ✮silence of the lambs ✮the maze runner trilogy ✮bufallo '66 ✮vaelrie and her week of wonders

♡favourite musical artists♡

✮hole ✮type o negative ✮nirvana ✮Air ✮kate bush ✮rob zombie ✮lana del rey ✮ayesha erotica ✮black sabbath ✮fleetwood mac

♡icons♡

✮trisha paytas ✮lana del rey ✮courtney love ✮carl grimes ✮mary lisbon ✮sofia copola ✮stevie nicks

♡favourite books♡

✮the body ✮the outsiders ✮dracula ✮war of the worlds ✮the virgin suicides ✮the maze runner series

DNI

dont interact if racist or an old ass man or an nsfw account (again, im a minor)

♡DM me if you want to be mutuals˙ᵕ˙

♡follow my pinterest:

https://pin.it/4Waj5XiEv

♡follow my Letterboxd:

♡follow my BandCamp:

https://bandcamp.com/living-dead-girl111

[thesungod]

their theme is so inconsistent like at the beginning it feels clear, being who you are and accepting each other’s darkness, but the way its done is 😬 and then it switches up to being literally budget toa saying “well everything can change yk??? don’t stay in the darkness” but in a horrible fashion and they’re acting like this is what they’ve been trying to tell me in the past 400 pages when it ISNT dont LIE to ME

i don’t think EITHER of them was reading the book as they write they were just mashing words together bc im watching a book promo for it rn and rick’s saying that will likes nico bc he likes nicos ““darkness”” and how intrigues him and mark’s saying neither of nico or will wants to change that core part of the other. which explains away him in BOO trying to tell nico that nobody disliked him—being that will was projecting his own feelings about nico onto others—and also relates will to apollo even more with their need to reach out to outcasts and love them. but then they didn’t write that they literally wrote that will doesn’t like it and he wants to fix it. thats my STEP SON and they did that to him.

rick did not want to write this book at all, and mark probably projected their nico stanisms onto the other characters without justifying the stanisms. you can really tell when rick has a passion for writing something and when he could not care less. the subtle toa promo in one of the gorgyra scenes and apollo’s updated glossary—he wants you to read toa so bad he could not gaf about this book. and yet apollo is never mentioned positively like give him back to me.

speaking of mark i think this is just a consistent issue they have when writing. i read reviews of one of their books (anger is a gift) and some were very negative about the way the narrative made the protagonist the most righteous person ever and completely revolved around them. ifl that issue bleeds into this book as well.

i saw people (including the writers) say this book is darker than a lot of rick’s other books and i really need them to shut the fuck up; THO literally had kids tied up in crucifixes to be burned at the stake 😭

ok sorry for the ramble i see the letters tsats together and i go on a rampage

you absolutely ate this up!!

also laughing at you calling it “budget toa” because that’s exactly what i said to a friend about this book once. i felt almost offended over the authors trying to fit the “everyone can change!!” narrative last minute and make Nico the symbol of re-invention after five whole books of ToA. i was very “how dare you stand where he stood” about it which is childish but alas.

i’ve also mentioned several times how will and nico’s conflict in the book was not intriguing to read about because it was inconsistent. not to mention that according to the timeline they’ve been together for a year!!! an entire year!!! and the book still has Will acting #shocked that Nico, idk, likes darkness.

the Mary-Suing of Nico literally the worst thing to ever happen to me. i’m usually all for my faves winning, but that’s after they’ve been through the mortifying ordeal of losing, yk. and i get that Nico has been through a lot but the book was basically a 400-pages-long ass kissing and i couldn’t do it.

i couldn’t even feel particularly moved or vindicated by Bob pledging loyalty to him in the end because it wasn’t cathartic at all. i was like we get it dude lol

same with his “friendship” with Piper tbh. not everyone needs to like Nico😭 i would have totally loved it if the book had shown a friendship progress organically through their grief for Jason or common interests (even if just briefly narrated through a recollection!! i’m not saying we needed chapters of flashbacks or Piper as a third main), but Nico does not mention her once ever. they didn’t even like each other in HoO!! then at the end of the book he calls her and he is all like “of course she wouldn’t be angry at me for not calling after Jason died <3 she understands that grief is complicated <3”

my king Piper isn’t angry at you for not calling because she dgaf about you. why would she. who are you to her

another thing I’ll never get over re: Nico and Will’s relationship is how, per the book, Nico encouraged Will to come out and was the first one of the two to do so, when every. single. thing written about them in the Hidden Oracle suggests the opposite.

why the fuck is Nico so reticent and embarrassed about admitting to be Will’s boyfriend in the first book of ToA if it’s Nico who came out first? IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CAMP might I add?

because i get that coming out to someone doesn’t necessarily mean being comfortable coming out to everyone, but Nico announced his crush IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CAMP. and asked Will out. and Will wasn’t out at the time. so whyyyy is their dynamic on THO literally the opposite of this? with Will pushing Nico to be more open about their relationship while Nico plays coy? because Apollo is Will’s father? idk, maybe i guess😭

but it’s pretty obvious the change in the dynamic was established later on and that the impression we were supposed to have while reading THO is that Will was the one more comfortable and in tune with his sexuality. like, come on.

[veliseraptor]

Hello ! I've read a lot of the posts you shared or wrote about horror, especially in reaction to "pearl-clutching" discourse against the whole genre.

It was very though provoking (thanks!) but I was wondering if/how you draw the distinction between that and, well, honest and "legitimate" bad review / negative analysis of some individual stories who happen to be horror ?

Oh, for sure. Of course there's legitimate criticisms to be made about individual horror works, or even about horror as a genre on the whole. I'm never going to claim that there isn't. While I do feel like there's a place for the "let people have fun" school of thought around media criticism, I don't think it should be a blanket smothering of all criticism - mostly, as with so many things, it is worth considering your time, place, and audience. For your own sake as well, I find.

I do think that sometimes the language of "criticizing" or "being critical" has become a handy mask for people to say whatever they want in some of the same (though less pernicious) way that people use "I'm just asking questions" to shut down discussion of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Again, #notallcriticism, much of it is good and beneficial and keeps things fresh (and me thinking), even the criticism I ultimately might end up disagreeing with. And at the same time, I do see the tendency popping up sometimes to use the idea of "legitimate criticism" as a way to shield a person from disagreement (the somewhat infamous "think critically about x" translating to "and you'll agree with me" comes to mind.)

As far as the how, well, it's certainly a little your mileage may vary - what I might read as an unfair review of a book I liked, for instance, someone else might read as a well-deserved ripping to shreds of a mediocre work, and it's certainly possible for neither of us to be "right" about which it is. Some of this - maybe even a lot of it - is a matter of perspective.

I guess I would think of two things that shape my perception of how someone is talking about a work or a genre, in general and in particular with horror:

1. Is the writer familiar with the genre? Do they have at least a passing familiarity with the conventions, tropes, and other narrative tics that tend to crop up? If not, are the criticisms they are making marked by that lack of knowledge (ime some of the discourse about the A Song of Ice and Fire falls victim to this, sometimes). I'm not saying that criticism is invalid coming from someone without genre knowledge, but I am saying that I'm more inclined to be skeptical of criticism that comes from someone who clearly dislikes the specific genre they're discussing, because it sometimes feels like a willful lack of curiosity and unwillingness to engage with a text/genre on its own terms.

> Addendum to this: is the writer familiar with the genre as it stands recently? Horror now looks rather different than horror fifty years ago, just for instance.

2. Is the argument or point they're making actually coherent? Is the analysis solid and grounded in at least some kind of evidence or source? (Is the author using screenshots of tweets in lieu of actually writing about the phenomenon they're discussing?) I can't always but I'd say I can usually at least recognize, even if I disagree, when someone is actually taking what they're engaging with seriously and when they're not (in terms of the work put in to convince me what they're saying is true, relevant, and important), and if they're not taking it seriously then why should I?

And one more, I guess, which feels obvious but sometimes on the internet isn't, because people love to have opinions (I get it! so do I!):

3. Has the writer actually read (or watched/played/whatever) what they're talking about? This ties in a little with point one but is slightly divergent, because someone can to an extent be familiar with a genre without having read it. But someone talking authoritatively about the problems with something they haven't actually had direct contact with, based purely on a set of cultural osmosis and related assumptions, is frustratingly common, and people will assume that they know what they're talking about from that alone and are qualified to make a sweeping judgment from that position. And I'm just not going to take criticism made from that perspective very seriously.

That's how I'd draw my lines, anyway. I don't claim to be an authority, certainly; I'm a gal on the internet with a big mouth and a lot of opinions. I think the important things here though are a. I certainly don't think that there's no such thing as legitimate criticism (in the negative sense) of horror works or horror as a genre, and b. I have particular standards for how I judge that criticism based on content and context.

I guess it's also worth noting, with this particular example, that the other question is "how much does this feel like it aligns with the present moral panic around dark or disturbing content in fiction?" and if the answer is "a lot" then I'm significantly more likely to dismiss it.

[redrosydiaz]

okay i don't usually make posts like this but im honestly so fucking inscenced on my behalf but also on the behalf of a whole lot of other writers too.

i decided to take a peek at the bookmarks on my latest two fics bc ive seen some people leave some really awesome comments there before and it's always nice to see, but as im scrolling through them i come across these two:

let me just say. i'm blown away by the blatant assholery here!!!

first of all — BOOKMARKS ARE PUBLIC!!!! THE AUTHORS CAN SEE WHAT YOU ARE SAYING AND WE D O.

second of all — the au-fucking-dacity to comment you're fucking tired of challengers fic on a challengers fic???? no one fuckin asked you to read it??? no one fuckin forced you to??? if you're so tired of it then fucking stop reading it??? absolutely no fucking need to say that shit on someone's fic. fuck that.

third of all — WHYYYYY the fuck are you bookmarking fics you don't like????? who the fuck does that. bookmarks are meant for things you LIKE things you want to revisit things you don't want to lose bc you loved it so much!!!!! you don't fucking SAVE the stuff that you didn't vibe with???? the fuck???

and so, after seeing this i clicked on this person's profile to see who tf they are and 1. not only do they have absolutely zero fics of their own posted but 2. they also have like 1k+ other bookmarks, A LOT OF WHICH are fuckass negative ass nasty ass reviews and critiques. like???? look at some of this other shit:

and there was another one that said "what was that lmfao too much smut barely any plot and way too ooc" (except i didn't snag a screenshot of that one before it must have gotten deleted).

but like what the actual fuck. how much of a raging ASSHOLE do you have to be to go around leaving these rude ass comments in the bookmarks of someone's fic — fic that they poured a lot of their time and heart and passion into, all for free mind you!!!!!

if you do this, fuck you. and fuck this person too.

[commander-gloryforge]

okay bit of a ramble incoming but. me and writing, we havent had the best relationship lately, mostly because ive been dealing with imposter syndrome a lot, and writer spaces dont seem to be as welcome as they used to be to me. but for the past months ive been trying to get into a more healthy mindset about writing. its just difficult because many of the author communities im apart of dont seem to agree with said mindset.

so. heres a thing that happened. theres this book series, a ya romantasy, that kind of went viral on booktube/booktok for being mostly shitty. i've watched a couple of reviews of it, most of them negative, can generally agree with most criticisms of the book, and it is, in my mind, ticked off as a "bad book". dont be like that author, dont do what she does, dont write like this, everyone will hate your book.

me and my father were sitting in the garden, next to eachother, me writing and him listening to an audiobook. he tells me about how good it is and how much he likes it. theres dragons, its so cool, its such an interesting world, he's at book two now and cant wait for the third one to be released. to my surprise, its the exact book that booktubers everywhere talk shit about. now ive seen people on the internet that liked the book, but theyre just some guys on the web and i dont know them and their opinion doesnt mean much. but my dad? i know him. i know his tastes. and he likes it.

and i think that made me realise something. i still dont like that book, but someone, a person whose taste and opinions i (usually) value, does. he doesnt care about the plot holes that others see, he doesnt know about the discourse surrounding certain tropes, he likes it because its fantasy, and theres dragons, and theres magic, the fact that theres a disabled protagonist is cool to him, and THERES DRAGONS! and so many other people also like it. for whatever reason.

its a "bad book", apparently, thats what most people call it, but to some its a good book. and if someone just constantly keeps finding issues with a book, then it wasnt for them in the first place wasnt it? critiques and negative reviews and rants are still valid and, i'd say, needed. but in the end, they dont matter much. the book isnt offensive or "problematic" or anything but it really is just kinda bad and people still like it and it really is fine.

my writing is gonna be bad to someone. my writing style is convoluted and kind of silly and just. bad. okay. and there are people that still like it. that doesnt mean i dont want to improve and get better as a writer, i do. for the people that like my stuff, for myself, i will get better, but like. its fine. im fine. someone will like what i write. there will be bad parts of my writing that some people will hate, and some will ignore, and thats the fact for every book and every kind of art.

ill be fine. ill just keep writing and things will be fine.

[morgenlich]

i've been having some thoughts about the way ppl use reddit as like, a last bastion of reliable product reviews recently, because i generally do agree that it's better than like, company websites, usually. but that's kind of a low bar.

first, i should point out a lot of people on reddit suspect that many positive product reviews are written by bots or undisclosed pr. i think this sometimes veers into paranoia, but it's....definitely a number higher than zero, of accounts that fit one or both of these categories. it's especially been a topic of conversation in light of the situation with blake lively, and i've seen people throw around quotes about companies taking advantage of the fact that people trust reddit reviews to plant the bot/undisclosed pr/advertising accounts....i cannot speak to the veracity of this. but i do know there are some accounts, if you look at their comment history, it's......suspicious in this regard. this goes both for positive pr for a company, and campaigns done to make rival companies look bad.

however i think even the real people reviews are...eh....should be viewed with a degree of skepticism, and you should probably make note of the context of them before taking them too much to heart.

broadly speaking, ime, brand-focused subreddits fall into three categories: a place for employees to kvetch amongst themselves (r/target, even if the sub rules technically say otherwise); fanclubs of people who really don't like to hear anything negative about the brand (r/mooncat has...gotten better over the past year but still generally fits in this i think); and a place for customers and former fans to get together and complain about how the company/products aren't as good as they used to be (r/glossier). obviously this is an oversimplification (thinking only of subreddits i hang out in, r/simplynailogical and r/ios both i think are a fifty-fifty mix of the latter two categories which. is fun. lmao) but i still think is broadly true

obviously the subs that will only accept the most glowing and positive of reviews aren't trustworthy, but i don't think the other two are either. both of these other types of communities, whether on reddit or otherwise, are fed largely by people complaining. now, complaining in moderation is fine, healthy for you even. but when you base (intentionally or not) a whole community on it, suddenly everything becomes a source of complaint. the negative posts are the ones that get the most attention, and suddenly everyone who ever had a negative experience will add to the conversation, and it's very easy for this to snowball into more drastic stories and complaints. people who think a product is good, actually, or even just fine can get downvoted to oblivion and accused of being pr or bootlickers (another issue i have with my first point lol)

there's also a lot to be said for reviews of things in general, which is that people are often way more likely to go out of their way to complain about something they think was bad than they are to praise something that's good, especially online and especially on a site like reddit that doesn't really like influencers or wannabe influencers, overall

this isn't to say don't ever trust reddit reviews or anything, but don't, like, blindly trust them. don't hold reddit up as some paragon of honesty in an otherwise bot-filled internet because there are bots and influencers on there too, they're just very unlikely to disclose that fact (which is honestly more insidious than people who are upfront about it!). skim through the rest of the subreddit, see if it's just overwhelming negativity to the point of just being a circlejerk (whether it's a cj sub or not!). you can check people's comment history if something seems off to you, and you can (and should!) look at multiple places for reviews of things, especially expensive things like tech or cars.

[gemsofthegalaxy]

i absolutely will not name names but im rereading a fic i remember really really enjoying the first time around but now im lowkey kinda astounded by the main character's lack of agency in so much of the story. someone else posted a really interesting review of a different fic, (i stumbled across it, i dont generally read reviews of fics hosted off site and im kinda neutral-to-negative about the existence of them, but in this case...) it talked about how there was a trend of this particular character being "stripped" down, her canonical competency removed in part to facilitate the romantic narrative, as well as the overall plot. in the review they were like, "well, usually i dont like the propensity of fic to do this, but in this case it was just done so superbly its hard to fault it even if its a tactic i am generally critical of". and since that was pointed out to me, im noticing it more in other fics where like.

ugh

i GET it. i get it when youre writing a fic and you know intimately what its like to be highly competent or an overachiever (or told, growing up, that you were those things) but now you're struggling so you kinda wanna put your blorbo through that. and dont we always talk about putting blorbos into situations and how fun it is, the more psychologically taxing and devastating the better? but. most blorbos are men, generally. like. in general fandom trends male characters get fixated on. and yeah, maybe they're a little woobified but it CAN (not always, but can) come across, um, differently when we're putting women characters into situations that also sorta downplay their canonical competence and smarts and agency and baby-birdify them a little. like its still fun, but it feels different, has this slightly sinister or weird undertone. kind of like how a man can be a manchild and that narrative is funny and it can be deep, but it can also be shallow, but when it's a woman who has failed to launch there's this complexity about, it invites a depth because you have to ask but isnt she supposed to be mature? arent girls more mature than boys, weren't they taught to be, we need to examine this and why she's like this etc etc. the fact of the matter is its hard to look at the same tropes transplanted onto women characters and not view them a little differently (which is one of the reasons why i think people like to stick to the cishetman protags, it does reduce the inherent sort of complexity that other identities not only invite but sometimes force you to consider. i say this as neutrally as i can because i think its incredibly understandable we have this tendency, it goes way beyond individual taste and inclination)

anyway. the kicker is like, i literally started writing my own fic a few years back that had these same themes of this same woman going Through ItTM and being a mess and making poor decisions so again, I GET IT. i totally understand the temptation to woobyify a grown woman the way i might a man, but i still cant help but feel a bit more skeezy about it now that im a more mature woman myself. i do like lots of different types of characters, i can be okay with women who are passive or stereotypical, but having a character that is ... not... those things but shaping a narrative that makes her into that gets a teeny TIiiiinyyyyyyyyyyyyy side eye from me. or maybe its just not what im interested in at this very given moment and in a year or so ill brush it off and eat it up again. lol

[theinyshlobster]

my name's yours, what's alaska?: a memoir by alaska thunderfuck [review]

read from august 30th - september 1st

review:

tone spoilers only!

how fitting for miss alaska’s memoir to be my 69th read of 2024. and i didn’t expect to enjoy it so much.

usually im not a raving fan of memoirs but genuinely this is a must-read, especially if you’re a fan of drag race.

i think the best part of this memoir was easily the parts following alaska & sharon’s relationship. 

now i hate to focus a review of a memoir based on the relationships within, but much like in the dream house, the abuse *is* central to the memoir. most drag race fans are aware that sharon is not a great person, but this really goes into sharon’s depravity. from the reasons why she auditioned for drag race to her manipulative tendencies, to me this book really gives credence to any allegation laid against sharon. if you’re still a sharon fan after reading this book….. CHOP. alaska’s quote “Sharon owned me” really summarises their entire relationship in one word.

however, as much as this memoir follows sharon, alaska is the star of the show. her witty writing style combined with her focusing on the nitty-gritty of her life was very intriguing to follow. i’m thankful in a way that alaska didn’t spend endless chapters following s5 & as2 because we all know those stories. what we didn’t know is how alaska came to rise in pittsburgh, how she met sharon, her downward spiral into a life of drugs & alcohol, and where alaska is post-as2. ive only read one drag race queen’s memoir prior to this, so (no shade to lawrence chaney) i wasn’t expecting a magnum opus - i was expecting an entertaining story, and nothing more. what i didn’t expect was an incredibly harrowing story that goes in depth about the black hole of negativity that is sharon needles.

i will say the only thing holding this memoir back is its length. for how much alaska has done in her life so far compared to the length of this book, it felt like everything breezed past too fast. i wish we spent more time on alaska herself rather than sharon, although i know sharon was an integral part of alaska’s drag career. 

but hey at least now when i listen to ‘the T’ i know the backstory to all the lyrics!

[cerenemuxse]

So i finally watched BWBA (Season 24)

My very useless review of BWBA Season 24

Please make your own opinions. Don't be like me (way before this) and base yours off of everyone's else. That's why I put useless, because it is if you hadn't made your own.

Surprisingly, this season was in plain sight, as well as other T&F seasons.

Emily's Best Friend

I hated it. I still hate. Sorry, but the 2-12 interaction could not save it. I still love that moment though. To me, Emily is OOC.

Thomas' Fuzzy Friend

Wholesome filler episode with a ref to Thomas the Babysitter, which is one of my all-time favorites. I love it.

The Great Little Engine Show

Eh- i like the mention of the model engines. Don't have anything against it but it doesn't stick out. .3.

Thomas and the Forest Engines

I like it. :D I like the storyline about why certain engines are allocated to certain places.

Emily to the Rescue

Peak Emily moment. I love it but why did it take so long for her to get her number??? 😭 Oh, well. I still love it.

I love that bring out her caring aspect. It's like her intro episode. (I finally watched it and MAN, i wish I got that Emily growing up 😭 she just came off as a bossy big sister /neg)

Shankar's Makeover

Shankar's like me. /srs I like this episode for addressing situations like this. Stage fright, not wanting attention, and being someone who keeps to themself. Nice episode.

Nia and the Unfriendly Elephant

The references are nice. I love Nia's love for animals and her assignment to the park. Before, her job wasn't permanent. Also, Belle is here. I love her. I love them. I like it. :]

Until I watch all of Nia's episodes, I won't be commenting on how she supposedly repeats learning things from Kenya all the damn time.

However, I do have a problem with the argument being made. It feels like it dimisses that different cultures interact like this most of the time, bringing up the ways they handle certain situations. From my expierence, i hear where these differences come from all the time, even if I know the person well enough.

I just don't see the problem with Nia bringing up how things different are between her old home and Sodor. It feels relatable, despite the fact that I'm Hispanic (Mexican), and it makes sense.

James the Super Engine

I ADORE THIS EPISODE. I've talked about it before but in short, I love how James is portrayed. Could've EASILY written him as a hero who gave up and didn't bother checking up on Rebecca when she yelled for help. But no, they went the right way. James IS caring but considering the environment he's had to work in for so many years, you can see why he doesn't show it. But here, HE DOES.

And when he realizes that Rebecca is in trouble? Its his normal voice, whereas before, it was his superhero voice.

My honest reaction whenever i watch it:

Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day

Eh- I think the lesson is pretty good about getting those good things by thinking positively and working towards them instead of letting luck be the decision maker.

Ace's Brave Jump

I dont care.

Nia's Bright Idea

W Nia for being resourceful and bringing things together. I like it.

Cleo's First Snow

I like it.

Sonny's Second Chance

I like it.

Thomas and the Inventor's Workshop

I dont care for Ruth but I like it. Its decent.

The Inventor's Bridge

That bridge is going to fall over but there's probably physics that I don't understand that makes it make sense. At the end though, i could care less.

Yong Bao and the Tiger

I've seen it before.

I initially didn't like it due to the dynamics of the story. Like why is a massive engine like Yong Bao shunting in the yard?

However, i like it more now. I can dismiss the dynamic.

Gordon and Rebecca, Coming Through!

I've talked about it before. Its confusing, especially with its placement. Would've worked better as the episode following 'Confusion Without Delay".

Despite this, i like their dynamic.

Gordon's behavior is tiresome. I usually ignore it but i've seen enough of CGI TTTE that im getting sick and tired out of it. I've heard that his character growth was forgotten but i havent seen enough to have a say.

Kenji on the Rails

Mixed feelings on this one because Hiro's leaving. :( Stop writing off my favorite characters.

In my second, I noticed Hiro's "konnichiwa" and got thrown off completely. Odd how they're JUST now bringing out Hiro's first language. I don't remember seeing this brought out before BWBA.

Not really a review because of that. I'm sour about it.

Cleo the Road Engine

Ah, the intro episode. I thought it was in season 23. Its just Thomas and Bertie rewritten but Cleo is avoiding her jobs. No, it somehow didn't destroy my liking to her.

Thomas' Animal Friends

I think its cute but Thomas would've straight up ignored Gordon.

Overall impression: Not as shitty as its made to be. It has its good moments and bad moments.

I'm so glad that I wasn't bombarded with fantasy sequences with this one. Those are just plain ridiculous, for the most part. In some episodes, it fits like James the Super Engine and Thomas' Animal Friends. The one in Emily's Best Friend made me cringe but I enjoyed it because its Edward and Emily.

Listen, I'm desperate for 2-12 content, man, and I've been ignoring model era for a good while because I just dont want to.

Uh, that's it.

[ninjawitdaddyissues]

todays video/unpopular opinion/rant

(its fairly negative so like, skip if u dont wanna hear negativity 🫰)

todays vid just left an icky taste in my mouth. to be fair i watched it bleary eyed at 7am and haven't watched since but like idk the thinly veiled ad really irked me. i usually enjoy (and eyeroll) at their silliness doing full video ads. but like idk the whimsy wasnt there for me.

it wasn't til steevie did some digging that it clicked. this company is mad shady. data stealing (im aware judt about everything is these days), scraping the internet of bad reviews (as much as possible, steevie still found plenty - with some digging) and not to mention one of the prizes being a amazon vouchers? idk i think it hits worse than past ads bc shady company + 'prizes' that phannies will absolutely go for means that this shit ass company will actually make a dime on their backs. on their audiences backs. like its your classic 'free to play' but ofc people will spend money.

just not the vibes man, im just disappointed at the failure to do research into something they have promoted. big ick. i know advertising is a necessary evil in their job (and in existing on the internet these days) but like maybe collab with a company that isn't so shite?

i love these silly lil dudes but like come on, do better plz 💚