#imo the hatred for it comes not from the thing itself but the fact that it calls attention to itself when done poorly

[hillerska-official]

I've recently been seeing a lot of hate for first person narration so I'm curious - feel free to explain further in the tags

[meatballsub-senpai]

Sol's death ruined me like actually. I never post original stuff on this blog but I have to ramble.

"because i lo-" just as osha chokes him. Like it's been there this entire time that he views osha like a daughter, even if the jedi code forbids him from admitting this. He says as much to jecki in episode one. Like throughout the show we saw these little moments where he disagrees with their ways and their coverups, just a little bit, but ultimately he never did anything. In some ways because he wanted to "protect" osha but in a lot of ways he believes and trusts the order entirely. Like this is the group he serves and he knows nothing outside of it and it's so. He's not in the right about these things, at all, but he fears what he doesn't understand, as do most. It's a battle for power in an order where you must limit your uncontrollable feelings. God I love complex characters.

The fact he finally admits all of this in a moment of desperation but ultimately it was too late. His silence and compliance led to his demise in the end and at the hands of the girl he thought of as his daughter. All these things he did because he thought he was protecting her, because he loved her, only caused her to hate him. His mistakes and wrongdoings and fear piled up and caused that special bond he formed with osha over the years to come crumbling down in seconds. it's so tragic and ough i need to walk into the ocean.

It's similar in some ways to the scene from tfa where ben kills han but imo this was more tragic. Kylo was already on the dark side in tfa so it just didn't have quite the same impact. Like, bffr we knew Kylo wad not gonna turn we have a whole trilogy ahead of us. Most of the tragedy came from seeing a beloved character die. And while his death at the hands of his son is tragic in itself, it's only tragic for Han. For Kylo, it primarily demonstrates how far gone to the dark side he is, because this is the first movie of three we haven't worked through all the kylo development yet.

But the acolyte scene HITS. Osha having the vision earlier that Mae will kill Sol, but we know Mae and Osha are the same person. It's not looking good from that point but there's room for doubt. Osha isn't going to turn that far, right? Then we see the twins fight, the change of costumes, Mae changing her desires from revenge to justice. It's not looking good. Osha immediately giving into her anger and hatred as soon as the truth comes out. That bond she had for 16 years means nothing to her anymore, she lets herself give in and she takes the life of her father figure just before he can finally tell her he loves her. Sol paid the price with his lies and now doesn't get to tell Osha the truth. He never went against code so he dies by it. They're just two flawed individuals whose actions cost their love.

Ily tragic family <3

[sugarsnappeases]

kara i need to know more about rodolhov plsss

fae my darling this is my favourite can of worms in my collection thank you so much for asking me to open it <33

okay so a bit of antonin backstory… for me he’s like ten/fifteen years older than rodolphus (who’s around bella’s age imo. born early 1950s) and he comes from a long line of russian pureblood aristocracy so his family lives in russia and he went to durmstrang. so when tom was on his little world tour, post borgin and burke’s hepzibah smith debacle, he meets antonin, like circa 1965.

and antonin obvs is big on the dark arts (which is cultivated at durmstrang) and i personally think he’s super into like spell-crafting and digging into Magic itself and the way it works (source: the unidentified purple spell he uses on hermione in the battle of the dept. of mysteries. i think he made it himself) and that would’ve appealed to tom who wants to know Everything Ever so they like keep in touch. and when tom is back in england and putting pieces into place for his war, i reckon he gives antonin the pitch and it works, so antonin is also one of the earlier death eaters, roughly around the same time as rodolphus…

now getting properly into it!! i think by dint of them both joining around the same time there’s just this immediate tension between them, immediate visceral hatred. like antonin thinks that rodolphus is an entitled, talentless wanker who’s only been allowed into the death eaters bc of his surname and his money. rodolphus thinks antonin is a stuck-up, pretentious arsehole who’s sticking his nose in places where they don’t belong (namely wizarding britain’s politics).

so everything they do starts just being in order to one up the other. they’re making snide comments about each other in all the death eater meetings. they’re fantasising about killing each other whenever they’re out on raids etc etc (and we’re gonna ignore the like. secrecy vibes of the first war and the fact that most of the death eaters wouldn’t have known who else was a de. to me ant and rodo both climb the ranks fairly quickly and in the inner circle there would’ve been less emphasis on the masked vibe bc basically everyone would know each other anyway)

in my little canon one-shot that i’ve been very slowly writing since like. october. the catalyst that turns their enemies into enemies who fuck is voldemort sending them on like an extended mission just the two of them. and they’re trying to make each other look bad the entire time, maybe trying to kill each other a little (‘i can say you just died on the mission, you’re replaceable sweetheart, the dark lord won’t mind’) and eventually, inevitably, the tension reaches a boiling point and they just have to fuck it out

it’s very violent, and bloody and obvs a complete secret, and in many ways for rodo it serves as another little outlet for his anger, and all his suppressed desire yk the vibe, and it’s about the power dynamics and who’s winning their game, and antonin has this whole thing about bella (‘does your crazy wife fuck you like this, roddy?’ <- calling him roddy bc that’s what bella calls him, always mocking) and rodolphus always punches him when he insults her, and it’s all very sadomasochistic and it drives me insane they’re my boyysss. my actual boys. they’re like my main mlm ship i think and i’ve been keeping them in my heart for so long, it feels so good to let them be free

[emblemxeno]

What I don't like about Corrin's naivete is that it isn't treated as a flaw they need to overcome, it's treated as admirable.

Ehhh, I don't agree, mostly because I don't consider their naivete as something that's treated as a strength. Rather, it's their trust.

Naivete itself encompasses multiple aspects, and it's mostly due to inexperience leading to lack of pragmatic judgement, wisdom, and of course, trust and belief in people when it's unearned.

But for me, Corrin's naivete is developed into something that seems similar in theory but is different in practice. The war between Nohr and Hoshido is itself inherently unreasonable and fought based on nothing but routine, culture even. The two kingdoms have always been at odds, sometimes with more dire instances than others. And the excuse is that "that's just the way the world is, Nohrians are this, Hoshidans are that, it's reality, you gotta deal with it."

Corrin, however, being inexperienced and locked away from the world, is raised away from the inherent and unreasonable hatred-a sort of side effect of Xander's and Camilla's selfish desire to shield them from the Nohrian court in order to ensure a sibling who wouldn't stab them in the back-and because of that, they see the war for how unreasonable it is and reject it immediately. In spite of the fact that they were prepared for being a part of the war effort alongside the Nohr sibs, they firmly say no to something that doesn't make sense. It's naivete in the sense that "they just don't know how the world works and it'll come back to bite them" but again, since the war between the kingdoms is unreasonable, well, why not reject it? Why is rejecting it a bad thing?

Corrin's naivete develops into "experienced but authentic" imo. They're exposed to how the world works and how people navigate it, but still remain true to the idea that there's little sense behind the war. They're shaken by Zola's betrayal in BR, but are still encouraged to place trust in people because that's being true to themselves and it's why people follow their orders in the first place. It's the same case with the Anthony situation in Rev, using actions and words in tandem to convince people that Nohr isn't evil in CQ, and in general with showcasing how authenticism may have drawbacks, such as having unflapple belief in the good of people getting taken advantage of, but in the same vein, it means as a person Corrin is trustworthy. After all, why blame the person for being too trusting, instead of the people who misuse that trust for selfish and evil deeds?

In short, I don't think Fates story treats being naive is admirable, otherwise that whole point is defeated when Corrin is let out the tower and assigned a mission for the first time. Rather, it treats remaining true to their ideals and unflinching when met with 'harsh reality' as something admirable and respected, especially by their siblings who no longer have to accept that said 'harsh reality' is the only way things are gonna be.

[timefadesaway]

i’ve just woken up so i can’t be bothered to word this properly AND I’m not even a techie but tbh a lot of the hatred of AI is like. a bit pearl-clutchy or screaming at a film of a train coming towards you or whatever. there is obviously a lot to be said in regard to implementing it within creative industries and in terms of using it to just avoid paying artists but just like robotics it is something that should have great utility if used ‘meaningfully’. like the idea that automation should be used to make lives easier and to remove a large portion of labour from society without impacting wellbeing/way of life. to make people have more time of their own rather than time at work. obviously not going to happen in the current economic system but there is nothing inherently wrong with AI it’s just about utility… and of course we should be using it to replace or support menial, difficult or dangerous jobs not creativity and entertainment and art etc etc. although honestly in some ways the same thing goes for AI art in general (when you look at it as a tool). models have bad data scraping methods and things but i don’t think all AI art is bad just bc of the fact that it’s made by AI. it just asked some questions. because what is art? like if someone programmed a robot to create an original piece of art without that kind of theft then we could call them the artist really even if it was the robot that did it. the robot itself is the art. same goes for AI imo but it’s extremely reliant on the ethics. there are not as many divisions between tech/science and art as you think. again obviously current usage of AI on the forefront of things is not good. but i don’t think it’s the end of the world we just have to utilise it differently. like are we kind of scapegoating it for just the problems of automation under capitalism

[destinyc1020]

Does people know they can have an opinion in a movie without bashing Austin Elvis work like listen I never watched his biopic and I’m not a fan of Austin at all but I’m stan Twitter and some people be hating on Austin since the biopic why are you mad and I’m sure stan Twitter gonna drag Austin to lift up Jacob lol

Lol....Well, we kinda knew the comparisons were coming. They asked Austin about JE's upcoming Priscilla movie during red carpet events as well, so it seems the media was just foaming at the mouth to get some type of sound bites lol. 😅 They were going to be compared to regardless because they both play the same character in two separate films that were debuted only just a year apart.

As far as the Austin hate....

Chiiiiiile.... I don't know. Anyone who meets him and works with him always says he's the sweetest most down to earth person you'll ever meet. 🤷🏾‍♀️ At this point, all of the hatred seems irrational imo. The only thing I can think of is that maybe some fandoms feel threatened by him or something lol. 😅 They're prob like: "Where'd this dude come from?" LOL

But Austin actually played the long game. He wasn't supposed to "make it" I guess. Maybe that makes some folks mad. He didn't grow up with money or come from a wealthy family (not by any means), he's not a nepobaby, he didn't have "connections", he was stuck in TV for over a decade, and he's been on his grind for almost 20 years so it's not like he even got "instant" fame. He's the underdog imo.

But like I keep saying, actors are GOING to get hate, that's just a fact of life of being in the public eye unfortunately. 🤷🏾‍♀️ You can't change it, you can't force people to feel a certain way. All your faves can do is just do their work and let their work speak for itself. All fans can do is just IGNORE the haters and focus on their fave. If you stay on Twitter, you will be miserable. 🥴

The "hate" is usually just a silly group-think phase that will eventually go away in time....

[durtystars]

i know the show (and george himself) claimed that george was the opposite side of ross but honestly i never saw it. and the more i thought about george's S1 portrayal (the only one i can bear) the more i realized that, sorry folks, he and francis are far more "two sides of the same coin" of a duo than he and ross.

now let me cook. look at both men from the outside. they're weak personality wise (or, to avoid like i'm bashing francis, weakER than ross), have huge daddy issues and because of that are deeply insecure (george out of rejecting his father's love out of shame, francis' from constantly belittled out of his father's favoritism for ross), are constantly trying to show they are strong enough to stand on their own (and failing); heck they even surrounded themselves with "stronger" people to convince themselves of their attempts at strength (francis with george, george with his fake friends group that went in a puff of smoke for no reason).

so where does the contrasts lie? where's the "two sides of the same coin" at? a simple fact: one has the love of ross. you see the more i think of it, francis had more of a chance to become george if it wasn't for his family (but in this case, we'll just say ross). say that ross wasn't his cousin but, seen from afar, unable to be grasped like george's POV. i really think that he would be jealous over his father's favoritism to the point of viewing him as george does: having a hatred and enamoring for him at the same time.

the very idea of them being "friends" at all is such a deeply interesting thing to think about. because if you ask me it was a long time coming. they're just too similar for something not to happen. and as i said the only thing that really prevented francis from becoming "bad" (or george) was that he ross (or in this case, he is synonymous with love now) and george didn't. so what happens if you take ross out of the question? exaaactly. it also makes me think of ross questioning liz on francis and george's "friendship" after he came back. it genuinely surprised him. and of course he would be, since he and francis were inseparable all their lives. it's also interesting to see the dynamic of francis and george by itself as well? the fact that george drew francis away from ross (love) and into his own world of darkness and self pity. and that the only way francis could stand up to him is if he gained security and self worth (i should also add here that, interestingly, the both considered suicide. and while the one became stronger from it, the other became weaker. i would argue that the one who became stronger only had the ability to because he had love, while the other doesn't even know what it is).

for my last comparison i would love to touch on george's seduction of francis, because it is truly so riveting to me. in his preying on francis, george is already coming from a weak mindset. he doesn't know love (in my opinion, he's incapable of it but i believe he can come close to it if pushed that way) and as such has no real interest in francis. and he knows that (1 as an outsider (2 the fact he's not ross will never get his attention, so instead he puts on a facade of a stronger man that will attract him. any normal person would see right through george and know he's faking it, but the vulnerable and equally weak francis falls for it (inevitably imo). notice how verity was never friends with george? nor charles. and liz always had an arms length relationship with him. no, the only person who was ever close with him was francis. and so in this relationship, we see two weak men feeding off of each other's insecurities, insignificant self worth and fathered rejection. francis falls for george's imitation of strength, which in of itself is starkingly weak that he cannot find a shred of himself that is good to use on francis, so he just does what he always does in life, taking parts of actual strong people and applying to it himself in a way of survival, almost. the only way such a deeply messed up could work on anyone is if they were as weak or even weaker than him. thus in comes francis, who happens to be connected to the man he's obsessed about. he must have thought he was blessed from above.

as for george and ross, what can i say? besides that they were rivals (mostly on george's end anyway) both lived in cornwall, i guess? i have tried to make a connection on the yin/yang affect and nothing much came to mind which made me believe the push for it was contrived. i could write even more about francis and george, however, but i'll stop here.

[omegawizardposting]

You being a native just makes it more powerful to me. Not wanting to essentially give in to what most of them want is something that is valid imo, but when it comes to the rhetoric in the states while it is technically safer moving its still giving the facists what they want, more control. More of a chance to start the actual violence they are promising; it seems impossible to judge anyone for their choices in how they handle this to me. What's happening is terrifying and all that can be done is fight as hard as possible or run and seek help in any way. Just like, I also use the f-slur pretty loosely because that's the culture I live and kind of grew up with. Q* is a word that is present at almost any lgbt event. Stuff like that. As stupid as it may sound with the way I've been wording things that honestly seems like a valid reason to be against the idea of moving states, a culture where its reclaimed is inherently going to be uncomfortable to you especially because even a lot of people that reclaim it have trauma with it, and having to deal with that isn't necessarily the better option. I also haven't been on tumblr for a while btw, I followed you before when I used to use this app and I had to refollow you because tumblr deleted my inactive account. Just some attempt to add context on the prospective? I'm also high. Just sort of like what's going on in the states is terrifying to me and I can't blame anyone I'm pretty sure for whatever they choose, and it just feels like a more exetreme version of people getting pissed at you for not wanting to be called q* especially after telling that person that you aren't okay with it when the cultural difference is undeniable. The fact that this is a concern and there are places where it isn't along with how far right the overturn window is normalizes the hatred that brews this, and refusing to fight back won't solve anything because facists are not and will never be reasonable but also running for your life because their coming for you and you refuse to die and let them take you because they show that they will stop at nothing to do it. It's not something to fight about and I may have smoked too much sage n sour

Don't worry, nonnie, I get what you're saying. The culture shock would definitely be a major obstacle to overcome. I've said before that I've never once been called a fag or a tranny (well, until I became semi-popular in the tumblr anti-SJW community), but I've heard queer used as a slur my entire life. Living someplace like, for example, Portland would probably make my head explode.

That's all stuff I could work past with time and effort. The real reason I refuse to leave is as you said. I don't want to let fascists take my home from me. I don't want to lie down and accept that some places will always be unsafe for me and mine. I don't want to go to my grave having done nothing for my people.

I want to fight! I want to change my home, not abandon it! I want to make the world a better place! I want everyone, everywhere, to be able to live where they want, without having to worry about their safety!

My ancestors were forced from their homes! I won't be forced from mine! I won't let history repeat itself!

[shannonpurdyjones]

*plucks lyre to build dramatic tension*

So there's three main essays that have shaped Beowulf's cultural context in my mind, particularly as pertains to the poem's monsters (nothing obscure, they all appear in the Norton Critical Edition of Seamus Heaney's verse translation):

First and most importantly, Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics by JRR Tolkien.

The Interlace Structure of Beowulf by John Leyerle

The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother by Jane Chance

While they all explore different questions in the interpretation of Beowulf, the common thread I've taken from these essays addresses what critics have often viewed as the poem's shortcomings, namely its odd structure, lack of historical context for the modern reader, use of digressions (which several of these authors argue--imo correctly-- are not in fact random digressions but intentional references that mirror things yet to come in the present tense action of the poem), etc.

Tolkien asserts that Beowulf should be judged on its merits as a poem in the context of the time period and artistic movement in which it was written, rather than by the modern standards of backward-looking historians and literary critics. Within that context, both Tolkien and Chance make compelling arguments that the monsters are not simply flights of fantasy or out of place elements that weaken the poem-as-historical-document, but rather allegories intentionally constructed by the poet to mirror the fatal flaws of Germanic hall culture.

Grendel, with his petty jealousy and hatred of the joy of Hrothgar's retainers at Heorot, is an allegory for the dangers of a selfish retainer corrupted by his own greed who turns his back on the contract of loyalty to his Lord and the bonds of brotherhood to his fellow retainers and serves instead his own interests.

Grendel's mother, in turn, is a inversion of the traditional role of women as peacekeepers, both in terms of being physically married off to rivals in hopes of bringing peace between tribes, and in their role as cup bearer smoothing over tensions between men in hall. Women at this time were meant to be foils prioritizing the good of the group to men's tendency toward individualism, pride, and violence, seen repeatedly in the Beowulf poet showing us the women in the various historical illusions trying in vain to keep peace between their disparate kin. Grendel's mother is a perversion of these traditional gender roles; she has no husband to seek vengeance for her son and so attacks Heorot herself, taking on the "masculine" role of revenge-seeking retainer over the "feminine" role of peaceweaver and upending the usual balance of an already precarious society.

Finally, the dragon can be viewed as an allegory for both a selfish king who does not share his wealth, and the doom brought down on a people when a leader (Beowulf) chooses personal fame and glory (slaying the dragon) over the security of the group (leaving the Geats leaderless at the mercy of their rivals when he dies.)

Without going on any longer than I already have, I agree with these three author's various assertions that Beowulf should be taken as a poem written for an audience that would have been familiar with the interwoven timeline structure and poetic conventions that seem alien to us now. He was not a weak or sloppy storyteller, as has been suggested by some critics. Rather, because he could rely on his audience to understand the conventions of the form when the poem was written, the poet intentionally interweaves seemingly unrelated historical stories with the action sequences of Beowulf and the monsters to show the fatal contradiction inherent medieval Germanic culture: a society that in reality depends on cooperation and serving the common good in order to survive, but that celebrates above all else the fantastical deeds/cult of personality of the individual (making for itself male leaders who act rashly without thought of the consequences for those around them).

(Note: I am not a Beowulf or medieval scholar in the formal sense of either term, but merely an historical fiction writer who fell down the novel research rabbit hole of Northern Europe in the early medieval period. I have a lot of really smart friends with Masters degrees who could give much better analysis, I'm sure, but in lieu of that I highly recommend giving those three essays a read if this is a topic you're interested in.)

Grendel & his Mother 🌿🐠🐍🐺😈👻🍃🍂🌊🦴✨🌙⛰🌌

thoughts?

If this is asking about a show or new piece of media called Grendel and His Mother or featuring them as characters, I'm sorry to say I'm woefully bad at consuming new media while it is in any way relevant in the zeitgeist.

They're both bangers as allegories for the fatal flaws inherent in late iron age Germanic society tho

[aemiron-main]

mike’s conan poster and his gayness

tinfoil hat time

staring directly at the Conan the Barbarian poster in mike’s room with the context that Conan’s story might have undertones regarding “repressed homosexuality” and the fact that the poster is right next to a lamp (Will, who is associated with lamps but is also framed as mike’s light throughout s4)

with conan, the idea of repressed homosexuality seems to be tied to imagery about beefy mens’ bodies. so beefy dudes = repressed homosexuality. well. what’s right near the conan poster in mike’s room? a beefy dragon poster. which is also next to the ‘one way’ sign into the closet. 

also I haven’t seen the Conan movie (the above quote refers to the book) but apparently there’s a gay character in Conan and conan kills him and then puts on the gay guy’s clothes?? Just like how Mike is putting on clothes in this scene.  Putting on the hellfire shirt specifically (and I have a Lot to say in my gay Mike analysis about the links between hellfire and queerness), Mike, like Conan, putting on the clothes of a gay man that he killed/thinks he killed (the part of himself that likes dnd and hellfire is also the gay part, mike trying to ‘kill himself’/kill that part of himself as a gay guy like not actually kill himself but instead kill that part of himself by being in the closet and repressing it and trying to act ‘normal’ esp since imo in s4/the end of s3 he’s had some realizations about being gay).  Also worth noting that apparently the gay guy in Conan is literally part of an evil cult (hellfire parallel much??) Idk if this makes sense but like. mike is both Conan and the gay guy, trying to be Conan and kill that part of himself and put on the gay guy’s clothes (clothes that are associated with hellfire which is associated with queerness and seemingly parallels the evil cult in Conan) but in reality, he’s also the gay guy who got killed. Forced conformity is killing the kids: mike is trying to kill that gay part of himself because he has to conform/be ‘normal’.  But if mike is putting on the clothes of a gay guy that he metaphorically killed/is repressing (the hellfire clothes), then why is he still involved in hellfire and excited about it?  Because just like how conan puts on the clothes of the gay guy after killing him, Mike puts on the gay clothes/hellfire as a sign of having ‘killed’ that part of himself, the gay part of himself, but still embraces the clothes/hellfire just like how conan killed the gay man but still wears the gay dude’s clothes. Mike is able to embrace hellfire (to an extent) because he has realized that he will never BE ‘normal’. He’s trying to ACT normal in some regards (see: lenora), but his realization that he will never BE ‘normal’ has given him some degree of freedom to embrace nerdy/weird things like hellfire, but he’s still not quite at the stage of embracing his sexuality, just like how even though Mike is into hellfire, hellfire itself becomes villainized and seen as a cult, which pushes Mike into a position of needing to decide whether he’s still going to align with hellfire (come out as gay regardless of the hatred he may receive) or if he’s going to act as if he was never involved (stay in the closet and continue to try and ‘act’ normal). The only issue with that is that mike doesn’t ACTUALLY have that choice: people like jason’s gang already know he’s involved with hellfire, even if he doesn’t know that they know. (ie, people are already starting to realize that mike is gay/queer/suspecting it because of how hellfire works as an allegory for queerness/gay mike specifically and the satanic panic vs the aids crisis, especially since in the hospital in s4, mike is positioned right in front of a ‘donate blood’ poster in max’s hospital room but then moves away from it towards will- gay men being unable to donate blood due to the rhetoric surrounding aids crisis, mike physically moves away from the poster towards will (towards gayness) because he can’t donate blood as a gay man in the 80s). He also can’t continue to ‘act’ normal because it’s absolutely fucking failed for him and makes him seem MORE abornal (see: airport scene, rink o mania, mike’s monologue, especially the fact that the monologue failed, forced conformity is killing the kids).  I’m going to talk about this in my gay mike analysis, but Mike is beginning to experience external homophobia in the way that Will typically has that Mike hasnt- as Mike comes to terms with being gay and that he can’t change it, he also becomes more aware of the homophobic rhetoric around him. (the aids crisis rhetoric, villainizing of the hellfire club, him talking about ‘bullshit media propaganda’ etc). 

[druidposting]

I think its interesting Imogen’s comment about “maybe Ludinus has a point”, because, like, he *would* if they were in our world. You actually hear Ludinus points all the time - why should gods be made to dictate our every move? Why cant i forge my own destiny? Why am i supposed to believe in something that wont even deign to show itself before me, asking for faith with nothing tangible in return? And all of them are extremely valid, in a world with no objective proof of gods existing, these points stand quite strong as arguments on their own against the existence of Gods in the first place.

The problem is that in Exandria, there is objective, undeniable proof of the Gods. Its written in the scars on their world. They used to walk amongst their creations, and there remains tangible proof of that time. Hell, Vox Machina MET some of them, face to face! And with this proof comes harrowing stories, of the prime deities waging disastrous war with ontologically evil gods of equal strength and cunning (which we know based on the exquisite characterization Brennan gave to Asmodeus in EXU, you cant tell me that fucker wasn’t immutably evil after seeing that show). I dont think theres any just argument anyone could make that would allow for the dissolution of the Divine Gate, when the direct consequence is unleashing genuine, pure malice and hatred on the world. Even if maybe the Prime Deities pull too many strings, or if fate really is a thing and you cant control your destiny - it all kind of pales in comparison to the real, genuine threat of untold misery and destruction (not to mention that no one knows what this ancient being-from-before-time Predathos is *actually* gonna do once unleashed. MF could have a whole feast on the prime deities and then just dip, or he could devour the whole world, or he could become the new Sole God of Exandria, we literally Dont Know, nor do we have any way of knowing or trusting anything he might say).

Ludinus does not have a point. Not because Orym’s husband and father were killed by agents of Predathos. Not because The gods are fickle and sealed themselves away from Exandrians. But because given the fact we *know* the gods are real, It’s only a good argument for rejecting the *existence* of gods, not for ridding ones that have already been proven to exist. Because if theres ANY chance that releasing Predathos onto Exandria would result in deletion of the Prime Deities and not the Betrayer Gods, or that Predathos might remain to wreak havoc on the world, that is a world where death would be better than living to see what happens. In a world where there exist beings who function at a completely different cognitive and power level than mortals, where you are as complex to them as a 1 dimensional point in space is to us, any version of that world where the objectively more benevolent beings dont hold the power is one where you wont even have the *potential* to be an individual with a life worth living.

More than anything, the rejection of Ludinus’ point is about the precautionary principal, imo.

[think-queer]

“this is my first time ever doing an ask thingy so hear with me if this is awfully written or such jwhsjws

this may sound like a weird question and maybe this fall more in "we need to talk about these people" more than an actual question in itself but i need to understand  just how  usual it is for queer activist who are trans / n-b to also be transphobic / n-b phobic?

for bit of context though, i used to be friends / mutuals on twt with  people who were all trans / n-b (though there were also others who weren't and had the same attitude) to some extent and noticed that a lot of their opinion on our issues were... highly transphobic. by that i mean they'd say they "hate" afab n-b who still call themselves women or that have links to womanhood or dress fem because "what could they even be dysphoric about" and just saying a lot of "fuck non binary people" and one of them which striked me hard said he was glad he realized he was trans binary and not non binary because "ew" which 💀 yeah i don't even have the words for that.

i remember seeing so many "takes" of theirs with lots of underlying transphobia (and ig in a way misogyny due to the fact it's always targeted to anyone afab?) and all linked to their hate towards non binary afab (most of these people also are afab which is even more worrying imo)

and the worst is that these are  opinions shared by a lot of other people with a pretty "big" voice and following in the lgbt activism online  (this was on the french side of it but i have seen so many people with these type of opinions and harmful rhetoric across the community)

i'm just wondering if anyone has had this experience and how the hell did we come from sharing our experiences and fighting for our rights and identity to be recognized,,,, to hating on and blaming  people literally just living their life and being comfortable with themselves for being "the reason" we're not taken seriously.“ -Anonymous user

I think that a lot of, if not most, trans and non-binary have some level of internalized transphobia and enbyphobia/exorsexism just from living in a transphobic/enbyphobic/exorsexist society.

The specific hatred of non-binary people who were AFAB is something that I’ve been seeing a lot recently which I have found very concerning. The specific hatred of non-binary people who were AFAB and still have some connection to womanhood and/or femininity seems to have it’s roots in transmedicalism, it sounds basically identical to the way people would describe “transtrenders” when that was the big concern.

Something that I’ve also seen a lot of is accusations the non-binary people who were AFAB weaponize their femininity the same way cis women do. I find this very worrying because it typically ends up lumping non-binary people who were AFAB along with cis women and treating those two groups as the same. I imagine this is something that does happen at times, but it’s not something that I’ve ever seen personally. I also find it concerning that people are reducing it to a problem with AGAB, when in my experience it’s really not. The weaponization of femininity isn’t something that I only see coming from people who were AFAB, it’s something I see coming specifically from white people who are perceived as women or feminine. My experience might be affected by being from the USA, where we have a history with white womanhood being used as a weapon, so people from other cultures may see it very differently. But when people reduce it to just an “AFAB thing” it feels like an attempt to take a real issue and twisting it to attack non-binary people who don’t sufficiently perform hatred of their AGAB.

Unfortunately it feels like this is just the newest target of exclusionists and infighting. When I first joined tumblr it was asexuals who were the target, for awhile it was non-binary people as a whole... It seems like there’s always some group getting targeted in many online queer spaces. It’s really depressing to see, especially when it starts to feel like a neverending cycle. If it’s any consolation I don’t see it very often in offline queer spaces (although I have had to stay away from most of those spaces for a couple years due to health issues) In online spaces I think that there are a lot of people who find some comfort in hurting other vulnerable people, it makes them feel like they have some sort of power and control. It’s really horrible, but when I’ve been part of a targeted group I have found some comfort in trying to keep in mind that these are just people who are looking for any acceptable target. It’s really not about you, or any non-binary person who was AFAB, it’s just about finding someone socially acceptable to hurt. And you will be able to find people and groups that aren’t like that, usually the bullies are just the loudest.

I’m not sure I really made any sense here to be honest, and I’d welcome anyone with a different perspective to add on here.

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[yourfavisirredeemable]

souyo angst - post-true ending

y’all the souyo tag has been more active than I’ve seen it in a long time (I think cause of the PC release) which makes me happier than I can measure. I’ve loved persona 4 ever since 8th grade and souyo really is my favorite ship of all time. in celebration, here’s a bunch of angst headcanons I’ve been holding onto for 5 years, specifically related to the izanami battle/true ending. (they’re actually not necessarily souyo-specific, but since I ship souyo they kinda have that overall vibe)

- do y’all really think yu narukami is just gonna come away from that battle with izanami/being trapped in a time loop illusion for an untold period of time and NOT bring any trauma with him? cause I don’t

- specifically, he can’t get rid of a horrible, nagging thought that follows him even after the IT celebrates their victory - what if this is all still part of izanami’s illusion? izanami could have just nested an illusion inside of an illusion, and that way, she can defeat him without him even knowing it

- which would mean, of course, that his friends are all still dead and he’s just living it up with a bunch of illusions. his friends sacrificed themselves for him, while he gets to live out his summer days in peace surrounded by a perfect simulation.

- that thought is terrifying to him, and it only grows over time. there’s the horror of nothing being real and his friends being dead, compounded with the guilt of having abandoned them and the helplessness of never being able to know the truth. he has the cold realization one night that he’ll never again know for certain that the world he’s living in is the real one.

- but he tries to keep it to himself and act like he normally does. after all, if he can’t ever know for sure, why worry about it? this world is probably the real one - his friends seem normal, time keeps flowing like it usually does, and even the velvet room seems the same as it was before

- as hard as he tries, his doubts and fears are really impacting his mental health, which eventually affects the way he acts. it’s subtle, but the others eventually notice it - yosuke does first, since he knows yu the best.

- he notices that whenever there’s a silence, yu will stare off into space with a strained and even slightly fearful expression. he’s worried, but he just tries to be there for his partner like normal, figuring he’ll talk to him if he needs someone to rely on

- rise notices the dark circles under his eyes and asks about them, to which yu nonchalantly responds that his part time work keeps him a little busy. chie notices that he doesn’t seem to have as much fun when they work out or watch movies, and yukiko notices the way he starts withdrawing from conversations until he’s standing at the edge of the group, even quieter than normal.

- teddie and kanji don’t notice anything on their own, but eventually those who have started to get worried bring it up with the rest of the group. naoto, of course, has noticed everything, but nothing in yu’s behavior has indicated it’s anything worse than blues about leaving inaba or stress from work

- yu, for his part, realizes that his friends probably know something’s up, but every day he feels less and less motivated to tell them what’s actually wrong. after all, what would he even say - I’m afraid all of you are illusions, and my real friends are already dead? 

- plus, there’s the fact that saying his fears out loud would somehow make them feel more real. so instead, he tries to ignore them, and only spirals more

- he starts feeling really scared when he finds himself having the occasional violent thought toward his own friends - if the real yosuke’s dead, why should this illusion get to live? how dare an illusion pretend to be his best friend?

(more specific headcanons/fic ideas under the cut)

- imo, the possibilities for this headcanon are endless. you can take your hurt/comfort as far as you want it to go (personally, I love projecting my mental illness onto fictional characters so full depression/anxiety is definitely on the table), and the timeframe means any fics could be set either before or after he leaves inaba

- personally, I think it could be interesting if he returns to the TV world, perhaps to look for answers or just to blow off some steam, and finds out his shadow’s gotten loose again. which would ofc mean that now he’s trapped in the TV world with no persona, a shadow that for sure wants to kill him, and a dungeon of his own forming around him

- (btw, I know the TV world changes after the fight with izanami, but I think since it still exists and the IT still has personas, they can still have shadows as well)

- this would be an interesting way for the IT to find out what’s really been happening. they would notice yu missing and eventually check the TV world, whereupon they would find an entire dungeon and see yu’s shadow for the first time.

- the dungeon, I think, would have a lot of different elements - recurring rooms from dojima’s house to represent the time loop he was trapped in, an origami version of inaba to represent how everything seems fake, etc.

- as for his shadow, since I love to go full angst, I think it would be absolutely vicious. it represents the nagging belief that everything’s fake, his hatred toward himself for “abandoning” his friends and living a happy lie, and his hatred toward the IT for being illusions meant to replace his dead friends

- as a result, it would try to kill yu almost immediately after manifesting and attack the IT on sight. this would be particularly devastating for yosuke - he only found out that saki hated him (x to doubt, I’m still not convinced she actually didn’t like him but that’s another post) through her shadow, so being immediately attacked by yu’s shadow would be heartbreaking

- yu’s shadow wouldn’t feel any need to explain itself to an illusion, so it would just silently and violently attack him with a look of pure hatred. which would be a confirmation of his worst fear, that yu secretly doesn’t think of him as a partner or an equal, and in fact doesn’t even think of him as a friend.

- but of course he would soldier on, determined to save yu even in light of his “true” feelings. the rest of the IT would also bring up the fact that they don’t know the full story yet, and there could be a reasonable explanation for why yu’s shadow is so violent

- since I love to make my favorite characters suffer, I also like to headcanon that eventually yu would let his shadow kill him. or at least almost kill him, since the IT busts down the door before it’s too late, but at that point he’s unconscious and in no shape to accept or reject his shadow

- (he didn’t accept it before even though he knew he should because he didn’t want to accept his violent urges toward himself and especially toward his friends)

- so basically the IT just has to grab yu and run. I was thinking this headcanon through and my brain was like ‘why not throw in some extra souyo angst,’ so a barely conscious yu might pull a reverse uno card on yosuke and sacrifice himself to protect him, unwilling to let his friend sacrifice himself again

- which would ofc make things even worse for yosuke. aside from the obvious, there’s the confusion arising from the fact that yu’s shadow tried to kill him, but yu himself was willing to sacrifice his life for him

- either way, I think yu would be barely alive by the time they make it out of the TV world. from there it’s just a matter of him recuperating enough to go back in and accept his shadow, which is complicated by the fact that essentially being split in half across two dimensions is definitely not healthy.

- there’s plenty of angst in the recovery process, but this post is already super long and I wanna get into some of my other thoughts

- just a quick aside, I think as a perhaps less angsty headcanon yu might just be extra averse to yosuke sacrificing himself after they win against izanami, especially in the animated version where I think only yosuke sacrifices himself instead of all of their friends

- so the next time yosuke tries to sacrifice himself for yu he’d get an earful, maybe even accompanied by a breakdown where yosuke realizes how badly he scared his partner during the fight with izanami

- anyway, I also have a fun night in the woods-type idea relating to this - after yu leaves inaba, nothing seems real to him to the point that it actively breaks down his mental health

- it’s only when he returns to inaba or is with someone from inaba that the world doesn’t just look like a grayscale mesh of unsubstantial shapes

- which could lead to something interesting if yosuke (or your yu narukami pairing of choice) comes to visit him at his college dorm and finds it an absolute mess or barely decorated at all with a depressed yu inside, or if yu drops out of college entirely to return to inaba, baffling his friends and family because he was at a really good college and had a great future ahead of him, or if he returns to inaba and is terrified to find that sometimes it’s in grayscale too, or-

- the point is I’ve thought a lot about this and I love both persona 4 and night in the woods so I think it’s fun

- there’s also plenty of potential for yu to just break down and tell his friends what’s wrong in the real world before he leaves inaba, which could make for a great hurt/comfort oneshot

- all in all, I think yu would have definitely been traumatized by living in a time loop for who knows how long and there’s a lot of potential there. (don’t ask me about what I think would happen if margaret hadn’t gotten him out of the time loop cause that’s an even longer even darker post. or maybe do ask me)

anyway, I know the souyo fandom probably still isn’t exactly popping off but I hope anyone who finds this post enjoys it!

[mariaiscrafting]

You know, what think I like when you are critical of a content creator is that you know how to separate a fact from especulation, unlike a blog out there that took especulation as facts.

Example, that night when we were critical of Karl, or any instance you have discussed about him, a lot of anons were saying that he gave them clout chaser vibes to them, and despite your opinion, you expressed that those were only especulation and not the truth, and to keep that in mind. That's good critical thinking.

But this blog had some similar anons, saying that he only is friends with the Feral Boys gro clout- In fact, they said the Feral Boys were only in it to benefit from clout and money. And they took it as a truth. I know you instance on them is neutral, but come one, they are friends. All of them. Karl isn't friends with them for clout. Like today Karl was playing golf with salad gang plus Sapnap and George at first and then Quackity and Dream joined bc they had spared time and it all devolved into typical chaos (Poor Corpse and Tina and Brook, had to endure those children lol/lh /j). Like, the stream wasn't planned with the 5/5 yet they joined, missing Karl and just having fun.

Idk, I guess that blog's superiority (They were a SBI focused blog) just irritated me. It's as if they were putting both groups at each other as if those streamers aren't friends or close. They were singing prayers of one while shunning the other based from especulation. Criticissism is fine, in fact recommended to be critical of your interests, but taking rumors as facts to base your crit is yikes. It's as if I wanted to crit SBI and base it only of "Philza hanging only with people younger than him is kinda weird ngl.." or "Sbi doesn't care about Tommy cuz he joined late" like that dumb Tumblr post did or some fuckers in Twitter imply.

The main reason I take so much care to separate speculation from evidence-backed theories and confirmed truths is because I feel like that separation is what distinguishes us from mcyttwt the most. One of the main reasons for mcyttwt's toxicity, imo - for its relentless cancelling of everyone, for its bandwagon campaigns - is that people oftentimes criticize and defend based on their personal feelings rather than rationale or evidence.

For example, I complain a lot about Dream stans on here, but you know the reason I didn't stop watching Dream directly after the cheating scandal broke loose, even though I thought he cheated? Because of mcytblr Dream stans. Mcytblr Dream stans engaged with me in discussion, both publicly and in DMs, about the cheating scandal, and even those who eventually came to the conclusion that Dream didn't cheat accepted the facts and statistics they were given and kept a healthy skepticism throughout the process. On Twitter, Dream stans were defending him before he even made a video following up to the mods' initial accusations because they felt that Dream wasn't the kind of guy to lie or cheat. They were replying to screenshots of statistical analyses from subreddits and to articles from mathematicians and staticians with extremely reactionary responses because of that feeling, which they believed in so adamantly, they had accepted it as fact. The thing is, to believe that Dream didn't cheat in the face of all the statistical and rhetorical evidence to the contrary is, in itself, speculative. Usually we think of speculation as a baseless theory that something is a positive truth- that is to say, that something did happen. But speculation also applies to those theories of someone not having done something, when the opposite has been nearly proven to be true.

For this same reason, I chose not to ignore the anti-technotwt threads with screenshots of Techno's old tweets in them. For me to have simply ignored these screenshots and continued supposing that Techno never expressed bigoted beliefs and/or currently doesn't would have been speculative on my part, and to boot, blatantly wrong, given the evidence to the contrary.

People in this fandom, and in all RPF/RPF-adjacent fandoms need to understand that almost everything they believe about the CCs they watch is speculative, at least to some extent, because of the nature of the content they make. Even if someone, in your opinion, displays evidence of some aspect of their personality - whether that be some form of bigoted, sweet, rude, clout-chasing, or anything else - because of the extremely one-sided nature of sharing one's life through a screen, that theory of ours will almost alwyas only ever be speculation, not a solid conclusion that can be drawn. We will never know these people's true intentions behind something shared to us via the Internet.

That vagueness leads to virtually every viewer creating a different theory in our heads about the CCs we watch, and we can't treat those theories as facts, especially not when sharing them with the rest of a fandom. I'm not a very big blog, but I consider even over 50 followers to be way too many people to spread a theory too, without at least clarifying that what I'm posting is speculation. If I have evidence, I like to list it or, if I can, provide sources; but otherwise, I take care to qualify most things with phrases or disclaimers that will clue followers into the speculative nature of whatever it is I'm saying. This is because theories and "feelings" can blaze through a fandom like wildfire, especially somewhere like Twitter, where so many things are word-of-mouth or based on summary due to character limitation.

You know why mcyttwt was cancelling Andi? Only a handful of original Tweeters under the cancel Andi hashtags actually knew what clips or tweets to criticize her for, or tried to elaborate on that criticism. But because every other mcyttwt user was getting bombarded by their mutuals hate-posting about Andi on their TLs, the "negative feeling" towards Andi grew and grew, even if most people didn't even know what they were supposed to feel negative about, exactly. Our judgement works on a quick trigger on the Internet because of the amount of information we're receiving, and so, even a single bad word against someone you don't have too strong of an opinion on can fundamentally alter your perception of them, usually subconsciously. If the first thing you see about Andi, who you've only seen on a couple LOH's or a couple Punz streams before then, is a tweet along the lines of, "disappointed in Andi for her homophobia and joking about suicide," despite you having no context, you will most likely be pushed to the negative side of her. Thus begins the cycle of hatred, building up and up, leading to you searching for more and more criticism about Andi, whether speculative or not, until you solidly and genuinely believe she is a Horrible Person. It all starts with the vaguest fucking feeling, because that's all speculation has to go off of, and it snowballs into a fucking wildfire across an entire fandom. I'm not about to be another person to let feelings snowball and spread like that.

Now, I don't know what exact blog you're referring to, but as an adamant SBI enthusiast, let me flip the argument many SBI stans have for their speculation upon the genuity of Karl's friendship with the Feral Bois, onto SBI. What do we have to go off of for the genuity of SBI's friendship, anyways? Our perceived brother dynamic between Tommy and Wilbur could very well just be Tommy capitalizing on Wilbur's brand and continuing the charade until now because it's been profitable. Maybe Techno only continues to associate with SBI because he knows how much his fanbase likes headcanon'ing about SBI, so he puts up with streams with them so he can continue to feed his fanbase with dynamics he knows they're obsessed with. Maybe Phil would rather play MC with people his age, and actually dislikes that he's friends with a teenager, but sticks around because he profitted so much off of Dream SMP and SBI-related content. And what could any SBI stan have to argue with me on any of these theories? Just because SBI laughs around each other and seems fond of each other doesn't mean they're actually like that behind the cameras. They so seldomly stream or make videos together anymore, anyways, so maybe they've grown tired of keeping up the dynamic.

Everything I said could be interpreted as utter bullshit, and that's because it fucking is. I don't actually know what Techno wants to do with his life, or how Wilbur and Tommy actually feel about each other, or who Phil wants to fucking befriend. The same goes for Feral Boys. There's nothing wrong with stating your theories or speculation, but to treat them as fact or not at least qualify such posts with the fact that this is all based on your bias and opinion, and no substantive evidence, is irresponsible. Just because you feel like one or more of the Feral Boys is "clout-chasing" doesn't mean you have the right to tout that feeling as truth. I feel a lot of things about a lot of CCs, both negative and positive, but no matter how strong my feelings, unless they have substantive evidence backing them up, I have no right to treat them as facts with my followers.

[ufonaut]

i talk a lot about alan’s anger and the multiple breakdowns hes suffered over the years as well as the fact that he’s a very unique character for dc comics in terms of a reader being able to very easily trace the progress of his career but one of my favourite things about him is that the uncontainable rage of his sentinel era (his best imo) is just as easily understood as the culmination of a sudden onslaught of trauma that can be similarly traced

after his return from limbo with the rest of the jsa in 1992 (which is traumatic in itself, six years in real time translated to about a hundred in ragnarok), alan died at the hands of solomon grundy

(glcq 1993 #4)

and just when he thought he’d finally found peace, the starheart refused to let him die. this is also notably, in hindsight, the moment alan’s control over his powers slips and the starheart takes over his body in the process of bringing him back to life

(glcq 1993 #4)

in the same issue, once he comes back, he kills grundy for what he thinks is once and for all. the following night, the starheart makes him young again

(glcq 1993 #5)

and proceeds to force him to fight criminals whose deaths he’d been personally responsible for. in the previous issue, alan realises its his anger/hatred that’d been powering the ring, here its precisely that which grows significantly

(glcq 1993 #5)

zero hour immediately follows and alan witnesses the deaths of more than half his friends at the hands of extant

(zero hour: crisis in time 1994 #3)

it’s the very same friends that the starheart reanimates the day alan officially takes on the sentinel name

(”those are strong words, alan, coming from such a weak man” showcase ‘95 #1)

and alan is forced to quite literally cremate them

(showcase ‘95 #1)

soon after, alan is trapped in a nightmare where he sees himself institutionalized just as a (dead) dr mcnider is about to give him a lobotomy 

(ggw 1994 #31)

genuine consequences of trauma are so rare in comics that i think it’s genuinely stunning that we not only get to see alan get gradually worse but that his outbursts and anger as sentinel make absolute complete sense, as does his eventual unwilling alignment as a champion of chaos in the book of fate. i think there should genuinely be no doubt that sentinel is alan at his most compelling

(fate 1994 #5)

(fate 1994 #12)

(the book of fate 1997 #2)