#is automatically bad evil and unreasonable

[venice-1987]

I feel like Ezran would get a lot more grace within the show and the fandom both if they actually leaned into the fact that this is a terrified and angry 12 year old stressed out about how he is going to protect his kingdom that he is simultaneously grieving. Emphasis on terrified.

He could advocate for peace easily from a peaceful throne. That is being tested, and we did get quiet moments between king Ezran and Queen Aanya talking about ruling, but I think he could have also benefitted from quiet moments between kid Ezran and his adult support system (Soren and Corvus).

I also think this would have made the Harrow Bird reveal a bit more impactful. There are two facets to Ezran: him as a king, and him as a kid, which conflict so heavily. Him being tested like this and realizing that Soren was right in saying he was too young for this, and that there is a solution.

[gender-euphowrya]

saying that as someone who once stood for it but the way the phrase "not all men" has been demonized has done irreparable damage to feminism

[soulsxng]

If my oc's were misinterpreted by fanon, pt 3:

Alsina

These next two are ladies (or present as ladies, in Alsi's case, since sexes are different for the vasyrus), so of course they would end up getting shoved aside for the boys. Or viewed just for sex.

I feel like she would get minimized to both the big booby goth and the wine aunt stereotypes.

People would just treat her as an accessory to Sivel. Because she did plan to overthrow him when she first came back, people would also probably speculate that she's using him/biding her time before she stabs him in the back.

I think people would take her habit of going as far as she has to in order to accomplish her goals, and her being unashamed to speak or act against things that she feels are wrong would get her pegged as being overly emotional. Or a bitch that takes things too seriously.

Nirbhi

Again, she's a lady so she'd automatically be pushed aside for the boys, for the most part. Or just viewed for sex. I could see that being especially bad with Nir.

Portrayed mostly as a ditzy airhead that lets her attendants take care of everything for her. Probably also a good bit of spoiled and selfish princess in there too, because of course.

I can see a lot of people either forgetting that she was a goddess for most of her life, or making her out to be some horrible woman that abandoned her followers without warning. All because she wanted to shirk her responsibilities and go have fun, instead!

She's a healer-type, so obviously that means she can't defend herself and is very weak. Needs protection, either in the "oh noes uwu, she needs a big, strong man to keep her safe" way, or the "ugh, she's so annoying, she can't do anything" way. I hate both, and so would she.

Pythius

People would absolutely only see him for the act he puts on with everyone. Arrogant, flirtatious and indulgent, vain and hotheaded. No depth here, no sirree! Might kind of sum up to a hot, but almost comic relief-y character in some ways.

He was never married, noooo, he's a playboy, he probably just knocked her up, he was never actually in love with her! And he probably neglected his sons, too! Actually no, I'm sorry. I mean he probably neglected Satan's sons--

People would also probably try to paint him as a drunken lecher, too. But in a "sexy way", for the most part.

Lazy, leaves all of his work to his siblings. But he still argues with all of them constantly, because there's gotta be one sibling in the bunch that causes a bunch of fights and drama!

I say all of this, but despite it all, I still feel like people would still somehow love him, and make all kinds of excuses for him.

Shilo

Always dozing off somewhere random, lazy, pretty emotionless and mysterious. People would treat his eels as snakes. This makes them sad :c

Cares a lot about nature and the state of the realms, so I can see a lot of people making him out to be really primitive and dumb. Or making him out to be the type that will jump down a person's throat for even considering the use of a plastic straw. Either way, I can also see it being treated as some haha funny joke.

Able to do mind/body control = he's instantly irredeemably evil.

Again with the "he's misunderstood, nothing he did as the Tyrant of Ennirem was wrong!" vs "he's evil and did that because he's evil and bad, and he didn't change or learn anything at all from what happened back then" battles.

Sivel

I can see a lot of blatant casual racism toward Sivel, unfortunately. Toward all of the Vasyrus, if I'm being honest. Because in a lot of places, they're painted as "the bad guys" in the Brinnelan war, with no acknowledgement to what led up to and caused any of that in the first place. And since Sivel is the king, he'd probably face the brunt of it.

He'd be viewed as cold and ruthless, power-hungry, unreasonable...all kinds of things, I'm sure. No wonder his wife left him!

Speaking of his wife, he probably forced her to marry him. Among other things.

On the more lighthearted side, I could see people dialing his nerdiness up to 11. Also his shut-in tendencies that pop up when he's really into something he's working on, or studying.

Serious all the time. Cannot take a joke. Doesn't tease, and is never playful. Sarcasm goes way over his head. I can see this being construed in both a sillier, kind of oblivious sort of light, and in a more negative sort of light, depending on what part of the fandom you ask.

Another "If you like this character, you condone everything bad that he's ever done, and you're just as problematic as him" victim.

[lizziestudieshistory]

I have most of my free lessons on Mondays (I actually hate it, I'm stuck in the staffroom for hours on end...) Anyway, I took the opportunity to finish Witches: James I and the English Witch-Hunts by Tracy Borman. The only good thing I can possibly say about this is that Borman had a core thesis and went for it. However, it resulted in an atrocious book, some key complaints:

It's only interested in presenting a black and white "evil men" and "powerless female victims" narrative. It only serves to strip the women accused of the little agency they had and dampen the echoes of their voices we've managed to pick up. These women are famously poor, social outcasts and it's hard enough to find out ANYTHING about them without reducing them to "innocent and powerless victims of privileged evil men".

When James is discussed at all, Borman is only interested in character assassination. If this is the only time you've met James VI/I then please, I'm begging you, read something else! James is not a "nice" person by modern standards, but he's not the man presented here. There is a reason he's my second favourite monarch (although I do have notoriously bad taste in monarchs *cough* Charles I *cough*)

This is riddled with unfounded, unsubstantiated claims and speculations. Borman does not have enough research or source material to support most of the "information" presented about the Belvoir witch trial, midlands court cases, the Duke of Buckingham, or English witch-hunts. Considering there IS a ridiculous amount of research on English witches I'm baffled by the limited bibliography and references.

She presents continental European sources to support claims about English witch-hunts. You just can't use Jean Bodin as a source for ENGLISH intellectual thoughts and legal proceedings. His work would have been read over here by the elite, but English and French writing about witches is very different and there are much better sources to consult for how ENGLAND thought about and hunted witches.

Hunting witches does not automatically make someone a sexual predator!!! Just because a profession can attract sadistic people with horrible motives does not mean that EVERYONE in that profession is a monster. I get the impulse, I really do. The witch-hunts are a tragic abuse of power that resulted in the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people, most commonly poor women. But this is a completely different world to our own and it is NOT unreasonable for these people to sincerely believe in witches and the supernatural! Yes, there was serious doubt in the existence of witchcraft in this period. But is is entirely sensible for someone in this cultural and religious context to believe in witches and want to serve God by hunting them. THIS DOES NOT MAKE IT MORAL OR JUSTIFIED! I repeat, I am not defending witch-hunts. However, I am saying it is contextually rational and understandable! And to reduce the witch-hunts to acts motivated by a desire to enact sexual violence on women makes my blood boil.

It's full of unfocused tangents that do nothing except bog down an already convoluted book. For example, why am I reading about Buckingham's sex life? I love the Duke of Buckingham as much as the next person, but it's not exactly relevant to English witch-hunting?

An under appreciation of Daemonologie? That book is WILD! It's also the most relevant text you could reference for James I's views on witches? Why only mention it once or twice?

Just as a petty note, this did have better referencing than some other books I've read this year... However, reference your work! Over referencing is better than under referencing! Okay?

So, what I've learnt is...I can't read popular history! Great.

[thegreatimpersonator]

Thank you so much for being okay with it, I know how draining this topic can be. I recently saw a post that said "you shouldn't stop being friends with someone just because they did something wrong but actually tell them that they were being wrong because that's just how they're gonna realise it" and I really think that fits with me and taylor. I know she's not my friend but she has had this force in my life for so many years that I basically see her as my friend. That might sound parasocial but I really am not parasocial. I'm not one of the people who are obsessed with her you know speculating on every aspect of her life and thinking you know her so well. What I mean when I say I see her as a friend is that I say stuff like "I love her". Now with the whole stuff that happened this year (m*tty) I wasn't proud of her, I was pretty mad and disappointed. But then there was this "I'm sure she doesn't mean it that way! I'm sure she isn't a bad person! She has done bad decisions but she isn't evil just because she was near that guy doesn't mean she is okay with everything he represents" and I know these thoughts don't justify what she did. But now again I always ask myself if she really did such a bad crime? I know she did something problematic but does that automatically mean she hates pocs, muslims, jews, lgbtq etc people? And I always think the answer to that question is no because she for sure is immature and a white feminist but a people hater? I wouldn't say that. And this is where I don't know what to feel about her because I don't want to hate her or unstan her for that one month nonsense and I probably won't but these thoughts always come up in my head. It's mostly because of the fact that she had such a big impact on my life and she's known for being one of the kindest celebrities so it'd beweird to think that that was always a lie. And now back to the quote I mentioned up there. I really think it represents my "relationship" with taylor cause sure she's not a real friend she doesn't know me and I don't know her but in this case if we say she'd be my friend I shouldn't just stop being friends with her which means unstanning her but actually tell her she's being wrong for her to be better next time. And I know holding her accountable doesn't make a difference in her life unless it's just the minority who does it but at least I have a great feeling that I'm able to hold people accountable that I really like. Look I'm 20 years old and without sounding parasocial I really do lover taylor. I wish she'd understand she did something wrong and apologise for it but at the same time if almlsy no one tells her that she's not gonna find that out. I know she's a grown adult who should be able to see what's right and wrong but I have such a weak spot for her that I would just be worried for her no matter what she did. For example this whole overexposure of her life right now. I know she knows what she's doing but I just can't stop myself from being worried for her because I don't want her to get hurt in any sense.

I could talk about this forever but I will stop here otherwise you're going to freak out. But I just want to know if I'm being unreasonable or if my worries are justified

I completely understand what you mean. I think that whole situation with M*tty really was the breaking point for a lot of people, a lot of people finally saw her as the performative person she can be. Her getting on a stage and calling herself an ally all while dating someone who says slurs and spews hate speech was truly insane to me and a lot of others.

I agree with what you said about how her having whatever that moment was with him doesn’t mean she meant any direct harm to those groups, it’s not even comparable to what he does, but it is still inexcusable and hurtful. And that’s where the complex and conflicting feelings come in.

If you love something you want it to grow and better itself, whether it’s people or whatever else, we have no idea who Taylor truly is as a person, but we love what we believe the concept of Taylor is and we care. I dont think it’s a dangerous thing to be that level of parasocial, she’s told us for over a decade that she cares about us and we’ve done things as a collective that show we care about her. It’s not strange at all to want to her to better herself in these aspects of being a better person.

I think it all comes down to being a responsible, mature consumer of media and fandom. No one is going to be perfect and spotless in the eyes of everyone, but particularly celebrities bring it to a very problematic level. Celebrities are public figures and their actions have such stronger affects than the average person, plus whatever they present publicly is what they are okay with being in their life, so Taylor showed she was okay with that man’s terrible behavior. I think to remember that and acknowledge that she is very much a white feminist who does not stand up for others and can be very hypocritical at times is a really healthy mindset to have, acknowledge she definitely has her flaws and not see her as a perfect god, not give her the benefit of the doubt when that just means turning a blind eye to her harmful actions and making up excuses for her. No human being is immune to criticism.

As long as you can acknowledge all of her flaws and not be one of those fans who defends her at every turn and ignored the red flags she has constantly waved in the air then it’s perfectly fine to remain a fan. It’s still completely reasonable to have empathy for her and be worried about her well being or what might happen in the future due to this insane over exposure that’s happening. You don't wanna see someone who might have helped you through so many rough times go through one themselves. It’s complicated and that’s perfectly fine, one day you can love her and others she can do some things to piss you off, there can be mixed emotions.

[kiwibubbles5]

I hope you don't mind if a Socially Anxious Individual expands some on #3?? :)

Booping is awesome. And all of Tumblr's other interaction buttons range from a little bit to a LOT scarier..

My social anxiety is loads better online vs in person, but it's still there. The prospect of getting to know someone new is still terrifying. (Fair warning, I'm very aware that everything I'm about to discuss worrying about is unrealistic and unreasonable. ✨a n x i e t y✨)

The comment button is scary - I don't know what to say, what if I look stupid or sound mean?

The reblog button is extra scary. I don't like to rb stuff without proper tags for my organization system, and on low energy days, proper tagging can take a lot more effort than you'd think. I also don't want to make anyone feel bad if I rb their post without any comments/compliments/etc in the tags, because what if they come to my blog and see other posts that I have commented on in the tags, and they get sad because they think I didn't deem their art or writing or whatever it is worthy of saying anything about. But, again, figuring out what to say can be really hard and scary.

The like button is scary - likes don't spread the post around or boost it or really do anything, so I really really don't want to press 'like' on anything without reblogging it. So many posts highly encourage reblogging over liking stuff, and for good reason!

But y'all. I have over three hundred and fifty drafts saved right now. Because when I see a post I enjoy - art, writing, even just a relatable or funny thing - if I don't have the energy or time to fight back the social anxiety and reblog it, I save it to tag and post later. I don't leave a like, I don't know how long it'll be till I can get back to posting the reblog. I wanna be a little more social. I want so badly to show people appreciation and give them a lil happiness. But I'm so introverted and anxious.

Boops were a way to connect with somebody without any of the above fears. April 1st was the most active/social I have been on here since... (checks notes) A LONG ASS TIME alright, idk.

A boop says so many things without having to piece together the words to say them. A boop says, "Hi." It says, "We are sharing in this silly little thing together, and that is beautiful." It says "I see you," and "You're a part of this community," and "I care enough about you, random stranger, to send you a cute lil boop or two. To join you in the spirit of something fun." It says "You showed up on my dash! 😄" or "I know that you follow me I appreciate you!" or "Hi moot ily!"

But a boop also feels safe. There's nothing I can phrase wrong or fuck up about a boop. (I mean, I suppose besides spamming someone with too many boops who doesn't want that, but I tried to be super careful to not do that at all, just looked for the posts welcoming spam boops. Oh and I also only sent evil boops to people I knew a bit better, just in case. Okay so clearly even this was not entirely worry-free but it was SO MUCH LESS SCARY.) It just felt so much easier to navigate than all the other, more complex socializing options. Boop. 🐾 Boop back. 🐾 It made me happy to give boops, it made me happy to get return ones. It was. Really fun. (And, to anyone who didn't have a good booping experience - maybe you didn't get lots of boops or return boops - I'm really sorry, I promise I would have booped you if I could. You matter to this community, too 💖🐾💖boop)

The other thing I liked about boops was that they don't necessarily invite nor require any response outside of booping. (And there even comes a point when a booping chain needs to end, so it doesn't feel super anxious to not boop back every single received boop.) A boop could lead to further interaction of some kind, and that's great!! But it doesn't create an automatic expectation of further interaction. I didn't feel pressured to follow people or connect more, or to have a conversation through comments or reblogs/tags - all stuff that I often don't have energy for.

(Fair warning again, no, this level of social anxiety is not healthy, I am trying to work on it guys listen 😅 The boop system certainly isn't a replacement for all the other, deeper ways to connect on Tumblr and I want to get to a point where I'm not so scared someday. But the booping system is really good for low energy days and/or high anxiety levels.)

So, yeah. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but this is why I personally loved the boop buttons and would love for booping to become a permanent function.

((P.S. Oh, I suppose I forgot to mention the ask button. Yeah the ask button is more intimidating and terrifying than any monstrous eldritch entity I could ever come across 😅))

petition for tumblr to make the boop feature permanent. reasons:-

so i can shower my affection on mooties and followers without any limits

validates my sense of appreciation and does not make me feel unwanted

every introverts' dream who loves a blog but is scared to talk with them

feels like an actual physical boop

online love language

[algerian-lady]

Kamal Daoud, a NeoHarka.

(long text)

I was scrolling on the Algeria tag the other day and found ppl mentioning and praising Kamal Daoud for a prestigious literature award he received in France, and let me tell you that us Algerians are always proud of our ppl and celebrate them before anyone else, okay? But I have seen no Algerian praise Kamal Daoud ever, on the contrary ever since his novel went out, I've only heard criticism towards him (which is even why I know of him to start with)

So let me get it clear, I know it may seem from an outside perspective as an Algerian empowered by being recognized in France with a prestigious award. But if you know anything about France and it's attitude towards Algeria and Algerians (immigrants and Diaspora), then this award takes a whole different proportion.

For anyone who doesn't know, Algeria had been colonized by France for 132 years, Algeria fought 8 hard years (and many more before that) to finally get back it's freedom, no less than 1. 5 million were martyred. France never quite digested the loss of Algeria, not only it was the one that got away but Algeria's efforts were able to liberate most of Africa and it had worked ever since then to fight foreign interference and néocolonialisme, this all made it targeted by French hate.

I'm not joking when I say that France took a comically villainous antagonist role in the contemporary history of Algeria and post independent Algeria had wanted nothing but to cut any links they had with France because of the neocolonialist tendencies and toxic behavior, France on the other hand wants nothing but to control us and get whatever they want from us for free. Whenever Algeria tries to cut links however, France exerces pressure on the country to force us to submit. One example is the early years when Boumediene was drawing away, France started literally lynching Algerians to get our attention. Yes, it's that bad.

France is a neocoloniser, I can't stress this enough, all the things they have done since the 60's to harm our country make their intentions pretty clear and straight forward. They oppress Algerians and mistreat our Diaspora, yet their media is obsessed with Algeria and keep blasting shit about it 24/7, if anyone talks shit about Algeria or plans to induce harm to the country or people, they must be sure that France will back them up and support them, on the other hand, the country vehemently fight off any justice that is to be given to Algeria.

With all of this in mind, why would France reward the efforts of an Algerian citizen and even give him its nationality, in a time where there's a prominent anti-Algerian feeling in France and when other Algerians (as talented may they be) struggle sm to get the nationality when they try to obtain it?

I think that everybody has the right to talk shit about their own country and openly criticize it, okay? As long as it's constructive criticism and not destructive payed agent shit, Kamal Daoud had that right and exerced it in Algeria, but suddenly he turned French and Algeria became some kind of an evil country he needed to purge and expose for all of the wrong reasons. This man goes to French tvs saying that "Algeria separate us, and France unite us", he spent all his life in Algeria, a country who suffered from French neocolonialism.

Still, I think he's free to do as he pleases, be as French as he wants but still we all know here why he was chosen to be French, why anyone who is eager to speak garbage about Algeria is automatically protected by French law and given a platform and the nationality. To apply their neoharkism at its fullest. French media say that Algeria is being unreasonable, because the new government (and hey I'm not saying it's perfect) but it tries to "give Algeria back it's dignity" by making other countries respect its sovereignty and treat us as equals, this doesn't please France that used to benefit from the past decade of corruption and they aren't allowed to take advantage of us anymore so this is when media comes in handy and they just love them a polémico.

Kamal Daoud is a controversial character today in Algeria for good reasons, he is someone who was praising the decade of civil war in Algeria (where more than 45k ppl died) because it was enjoyable for him (when other journalists were targeted and killed by pseudo-islamists supported by France, an otherwise Islamophobic country), then the man goes on to write about the black decade. As if that wasn't bad enough, the man who claimed his story was fictional, was actually not at all.

Kamal Daoud's award winning novel Houris is actually the story of a real life terrorist victim Saada, who was seeing Kamal Daoud's wife, a psychiatrist, and told her story as a patient, she did not consent for it to be published in any way or shape or form. She found out second hand that he had written about her, from acquaintances who figured it was her from the strikingly resembling details. This woman is now gonna take legal actions against the author as she should and said she'll write her autobiography because his biography was ill- intentioned and offensive. What does French media has to say? It warns against defamatory compaign against its protégée, I swear they are laughable.

Not only is Kamal Daoud offensive to Algerians with his declarations, we figured out right away that he was chosen for political reasons (being a French agent, jokingly a NeoHarka), but he had also personally hurt individuals like Saada, and is accused for the plagiat of his first novel by another Algerian author.

Tbh we have great authors, these never rarely get rewarded, the only ones who do aren't even well liked. I hope justice is given, but please next time before you go and think that France has done something positive for Algerians, think twice.

[lifewithnpd]

Narcissistic Personality Disorder; a summary

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a cluster b personality disorder characterised by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration and attention, hypersensitivity to criticism and a dimished ability to empathise with others.

The DSM-5 describes people with NPD as having at least five of the following nine criteria:

A grandiose sense of self-importance

Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

Requiring excessive admiration

A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)

Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)

Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others)

Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them

Showing arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder)

NPD develops either in youth or early adulthood, and the symptoms are pervasive and rigidly persistent over time. While some people may show signs of narcissistic behaviour, this does not guarantee that they qualify for a diagnosis of NPD. It is only if these qualities cause "significant impairment" and are "inflexible, maladaptive and persisting" that a diagnosis of NPD could be considered.

Associated Features: People with NPD tend to exaggerate their accomplishments and skills for admiration or praise. They have a sense of personal superiority, and this may cause them to look down on others.

Furthermore, people with NPD are more likely than others to respond with anger when presented with rejection or perceived criticism. People with NPD are vulnerable to feelings of shame and worthlessness over minor incidents in daily life, and imagined insults.

Causes of NPD While there is no proven specific causes for NPD, there are a combination of risk factors from biological, socio-environmental and psychological factors, including genetics, neurobiology, trauma, abuse and parenting styles.

Some key terms Narcissistic Supply- a type of admiration, interpersonal support or sustenance drawn by an individual with NPD from people around them. Sometimes referred to as an attention supply.

Idealisation and Devaluation- people with cluster b personality disorders often see the world in terms of everything being either strictly good or strictly bad. Idealisation is seeing someone as perfect and wonderful, whereas devaluation is seeing someone as evil and inferior. This is not controllable by the narcissist or person with the cluster b pd, and often comes from 'splitting', which is when someone does something to trigger the person with the pd's fears of either criticism, abandonment or rejection.

Some words on the term 'narc abuse' and why perpetrating this idea is harmful The term 'narc abuse', or 'narcissistic abuse' is harmful and ableist. You wouldn't call abuse by someone who happened to be autistic, 'autistic abuse'. People with NPD cannot help their diagnosis. While there are people with NPD who can be abusive, this is true of anyone in the population. Lack of empathy does not make someone a bad person. A sense of self-importance and hypersensitivity does not make someone a bad person. Stop demonising people for something they ultimately cannot control.

DO NOT. AND I REPEAT. DO NOT. DIAGNOSE ANYONE BASED ON THIS POST. PEOPLE SHOULD NOT ARMCHAIR DIAGNOSE OTHERS AS HAVING SERIOUS PERSONALITY DISORDERS. IF YOU'RE SERIOUSLY WORRIED ABOUT SOMEONE, CONSULT A PSYCHIATRIST.

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this post give a person with npd some supply by leaving a comment, liking or reblogging!

Have a great day everyone! xoxo halo

[sawyer-is-eepy]

yeah, this. I was abused by a narcissist, I lived through that "narc abuse" shit. and yeah, it fucking sucked!!!! and that person is a POS and everytime they get brought up I get unreasonably upset. I have trauma surrounding it, it's triggering. but you know what? I still support narcissists. it's not their fault their brain works the way it does. and yeah, abusers of the abuse I went through typically are narcissists. and yeah, it's helpful to have a way to describe that abuse. but anyone is capable of that abuse!! there's no such thing as depressed abuse, even though depression can cause people to abuse. narcissists aren't all automatically abusers and treating them like they are is... so ableist. yeah, narcissists who abuse are assholes. but helping narcissists find things like a good support system and therapy and help and love, whatever they need to be a better person, is so so vital. even if narcissists WERE all abusers, abusers can recover, and would-be abusers can learn to not be like that before something happens. they are not all inherently bad.

OP's point still stands, though. just because we should help narcissists who have abused doesn't mean we should enable them, or that narcissists are automatically exempt from like, not being dicks. just like with my ADHD- yes, my brain makes it PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for me to be as functional as someone w out ADHD would. I CAN'T be on top of things that way, I CAN'T focus that way, I CAN'T exist that way, basically. but that doesn't give me a pass to just forget important things or dates, or give up on school. instead, I find ways to do those things that work for me. I set reminders that I know I will see and I double check everything. I doodle in class to help me focus and talk to my teachers or classmates about notes I missed. I still make an effort to learn habits that will help me achieve the same thing in the long run. I find ways to work WITH my brain that benefit me and the rest of society, and I find ways to help them understand that I am learning.

I sympathize w those w NPD because I know what it's like to constantly be told it's an excuse when you tell people "oh, I'm sorry I have [x] disorder." but you can't let that anger consume you otherwise it'll become true. if you know you need to get better but haven't taken the steps, I hope you can soon and I'll be rooting for you!! take little steps. for those currently on the path, I'm proud of you. deep going, you're doing well. for those who've mostly got it but still slip up sometimes, it's alright. mistakes happen. don't linger on it but don't brush it off. mistakes are bound to occur but it doesn't make you horrible. I'm proud that you even made the move!!

every single person who has NPD that struggles with it deserves the same things people without it who struggle with similar issues do. they've got an extra step to the path of learning to be that everyone else. an extra layer to unpeel. this doesn't mean they're entitled to be a douchebag always and forever, nor does it mean you have to facilitate that yourself. but it can and should happen.

point is, those with stigmatized disorders are still here. they're not like some carnivorous plant that will automatically stop begging for blood if you just ignore their pleas. it'll only get worse, and eventually, the plant will eat YOU! and yes I just made a little shop of horrors analogy, shut up it works. if you just keep poking and prodding the beast and expecting it to just take it, the beast is only gonna get more violent. the lucky thing about this scenario though is that those with NPD AREN'T these big evil monsters. sure, they can be. you might even be alright to say that they often are! but I'd argue a large portion of WHY they're such "beasts" is because society has constantly rejected them and provided them no help. given them a puzzle without the pieces and gotten upset when they ask for help.

ppl w/ NPD are neurodivergent, thus they have it harder than the average NT person. we respect them. we give them support and help them manage the world because they have to learn it differently than we do. t

there is a way.

PSA: No one is obligated to treat you kindly if you've already decided you're somehow above the effort of doing the same because of your alleged disorders/past traumas. If someone venting about their experience with a particular style of abuse strikes a nerve and feels personal to you, that actually says a LOT about you. Cuz people who walk around the pool are not the ones who get bent out of shape when the lifeguard yells at someone to stop running.

[furiousgoldfish]

So much of abuse has to do with faking a narrative around it, there's this automatic impulse abusers have, to portray the victim as worthless, ungrateful, spoiled, lazy, faking, selfish, unreasonable, evil, crazy, unredeemable, unlovable, deserving of pain, wanting abuse. They do it until the narrative is so strong, the victim believes it too. So why do they need to do it?

It's not enough for them to psychologically, mentally, and sometimes physically torture another human being, they also need to exist in a world where they have an absolute right to do that; not only a right, but obligation. This world doesn't exist. But they know how to manufacture it for themselves, and it's enough to pull in one isolated victim, convince them that this alternate world where the victim is crazy and abominable and utterly deserving of pain exists, and they can keep abusing this human being and feel good about themselves. This is their goal, a victim available for all of their abusive needs, who accepts and validates their right to destroy and mutilate the victim's well being, mental health, confidence and happiness.

Victims standing up against this fictional narrative and asserting they're human and it's not okay to damage and hurt them, is one of the biggest threats to abusers. Notice how the worst threats, the biggest outbursts of rage and violence and denial happens immediately after their fake narrative is challenged? "It's not what happpened, I did it for your own good, you're lucky it's not worse, I could have done xyz to you but I didn't, you don't know what abuse is, you're whiny insane brat and you will pay for this!!!!" They fly off of the handle so badly, so you wouldn't dare to challenge their fake world they insist is real.

Because, if you're not in their fake world, groomed to keep their secrets, convinced you deserve it, they might not to get to abuse you anymore. They might have to take accountability for lying to you all of this time, for treating you less than human. And other people might find out. Other people who would immediately see it thru the real world lenses, and see them rightfully as a monster who used all of their power to groom, manipulate, and hurt someone innocent, powerless, who didn't deserve it, and couldn't fight back. Their victim would eventually be able to see it too. That scares them. Not being able to force their own narrative over their victims point of view scares them. They cannot handle anything but their fake little world in which torturing weaker and more vulnerable individuals is justified and acceptable. They're cowards to live in reality.

So why is it so easy for abusers to manufacture all these lies? Because they often are the one who explains the world to their victims, and they twist it at all angles. They grasp as the past, pretending they had it worse, regardless of how good or bad they actually had it, they grasp at media, taking any other example of abuse as normal and threatening it, gloriifying how good it is, they grasp at other abusers for validation, they grasp the victim-blaming culture for reassurance, they grasp other family members to defend them via playing the victim, they grasp at stereotypes that help them pretend to be victimized by the world, they grasp at their victim's compassion to draw forgiveness and understanding they never deserved.

They don't compare themselves to any good and healthy families. They pretend this doesn't exist. They don't mention the parts of their own, and collective past where things were good, where they had been loved, taken care of, privileged even. They pretend this doesn't exist either. They don't acknowledge anyone who is kind and fair to those vulnerable and depending on them. They act disgusted at the mere thought and villanize it immediately. They don't admit that things done to them were wrong, if they get to do it to you now because of it. They don't acknowledge that you too, deserve reassurance, forgiveness, understanding, compassion, freedom, love. In their world, only they get to be human, and the entire world exists to enable this for them.

They don't get to decide this. And they don't get to decide they own you. They don't get to narrate your life, or say who you are. They're out of bounds every time they try to fake your narrative. You get to have a narrative. You get to speak what it is like to be in their sick sadistic world without human rights, without love, or freedom. You didn't put yourself in that world; they created it to hurt you with it. Your experiences in it are not defined by what they think happened. Their narrative is like a burning house ready to collapse in its ashes. It crumbles with a smallest push. Because they're not stupid. They know they're lying. They're scared of you seeing the truth. They're threatened by your faith in your own experiences. They're scared of you seeing yourself as human, because it means that they're not.

The next time an abuser accuses you of 'not living in the real world', know that one of you isn't, but it's not you. They should project that shit elsewhere.

[anarchy-and-piglins]

Btw /genq are you a c!dream apologist?

This was a really weird question to get like dsjdhhghfjq what have I possibly posted to give you that impression?? I don’t feel like I post about Dream all that much (unless I’m writing meta about Techno and Dream’s relationship). ANYWAY:

Short answer: no

Long answer: I hate the term apologist with a burning passion and do not trust people who use it unironically because thinking any character could be held to a standard where all their actions are automatically apologized because you like them is super sus. Everybody does good and bad things.

(Using the term jokingly is another matter. I will jokingly claim I’m an emduo apologist because it’s funny and because I love Phil and Techno an unreasonable amount, they’re allowed some war crimes as a treat uwu When it comes to serious meta though, I know they both have flaws and have done things that are Wrong)

I miiiight consider myself a c!Dream sympathizer only in some regards. I’m pretty open about my views on the prison and my belief how no crime justifies violation of basic human rights. What happened in there was just generally fucked up, period. I’m also not a big fan of portraying c!Dream as doing bad things ‘for the lols’ or because he’s ‘just evil’, though that has less to do with my own feelings about his character and more about how this is something directly contradicted both by the lore and the meta. c!Dream has very strong internal motivations for why he commits the atrocities he does, which have convinced him they’re for the nebulous ‘Greater Good’. And that’s what makes him an interesting villain, so I don’t like to see that reduced to ‘c!Dream evil abuser because evil’.

Though the greatest bottom line is I don’t really care too much for c!Dream either way beyond his interactions with Techno because I’m biased lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[padawanlost]

Its ironic. People say that the views and opinions of people like you (and me), i.e defending Anakin and being critical of the Jedi without actually hating them are the norm. The same people talk about "holding him accountable" for his actions is if it were a new and radical idea: but when you suggest any other character is responsible for THIER actions, they become angry and saying that you "think the Jedi deserved to be killed". Apparently he;s the ONLY character who is to be deemed responsible for his actions. Anway, such people claim they are presenting uncommon opinions and going against the mainstream.

Yet they get thousands of notes within days, and we're lucky if we get 300. That alone says that they're not the minority and thier views are the norm.

That’s because (self)victimization sells. Saying people are “ruining your fandom experience” is much more interesting than saying ‘I don’t agree with these opinions’.

As for what you said about ‘jedi hate’, we don’t even have to get into fandom territory to understand how unreasonable the arguments are. We just have to look at the Dave Filoni and how the fandom perception of him and his work have changed in recent years.

When The Clone Wars premiered he was hailed as the savior of star wars, the guy who could do no wrong. There were petitions for him to take over SW.  But now he’s evil because he confirmed in recent interviews what he already had said years before and what his show was pretty blatantly about: the Jedi Order was flawed. Not evil, not bad, not deserving of cruel and untimely that….just…flawed.

Yet, this was more than some fans could handle so now he’s a Jedi Hater too. Anyway, I’ve been a PT fan for almost 20 years now I’ve never seen anyone say the Jedi were evil and/or deserving of genocide. but, yeah, if you list to a certain group of tumblr fans, anyone who points anything remotely negative, even a small detail, about a the jedi order they automatically becomes jedi haters who want the jedi dead.

When you thrive on that mentally – all or nothing (the jedi were PERFECT or EVIL) – I guess it does seem like everyone else is against you.

[butwhatifidothis]

I also think that part of the reason why the church gets so much hate is because of how much general distrust there is in organized religion in real life. Like I went into Three Houses trying to keep an open mind and during White Clouds I really couldn't see what was so heinously wrong with the church even during the Lonato thing that made the institution so much worse than what Edelgard was inciting. I could be totally wrong but I was under the impression that Rhea didn't squash the insurrection because they were a part of the Western Church but because they were actively rebelling and, on top of that, Lonato was bringing civilians into the conflict. That, along with the fact that Rhea knows for an absolute fact that the goddess existed and that she herself is old as dirt (trauma included) makes her decisions make a lot of sense.

I'm playing through AM with my friend who's never played before and they IMMEDIATELY said they distrusted the church because Jeralt doesn't like Rhea (for understandable reasons but my friend also ignored his very sus behavior of not explaining literally anything to Byleth) and because organized religions must be inherently bad.

It’s something that’s heavily related to a player’s inability to separate the reality of their specific circumstances with those of the fiction they’re consuming. They implant their experiences onto things that are only somewhat related and then extrapolate “facts” about the fiction that are, many times, actively shut down and/or disproven by that fictions lore or story or plot.

And, like, it’s normal to relate fictional things to your personal stories if you see connections to them. I’d wager a good amount of people find some aspect of a character they like/love that sticks out to them specifically because of a similarity they share of some kind, whether big or small. I know of people who’s fave superhero is The Flash because The Flash is fast and they ran track and hey, that’s cool, a superhero who’s ability is running really fuckin’ fast and I wanna be really fuckin’ fast. To use myself as an example, I can relate to the struggles Claude specifically has with race because many of the things he says correlate very well to my personal experiences with race. So, going by that line of logic, the opposite is clearly going to happen as well; there are many villains, or characters of either or neither allegiance towards good and evil, who have traits that personally affect someone in a negative way.

But here’s the thing about that... Claude and I have similar experiences with race. He’s still a prince, and I’m still someone who’s never seen above the poverty line in terms of income. He’s never had to live off a box of Whoppers he happened to find under his bed for three days to hold off until the food stamps come in because there’s just no food and no money to get any food. And on the flip side, I’ve never had people try to kill me just cuz I’m mixed. I’ve never felt the pressure of having to lead thousands of people to safety or have them die, directly due to my inability to lead them well enough. We still have extremely different lives and I can acknowledge those differences when looking into his character, regardless of whatever connection I may have with him otherwise, and that’s where these people fail in terms of critically consuming 3H as a piece of media.

These people - understandably, to an extent - look at Rhea, this devout religious woman who heads a major religious institution, and they automatically connect the language she uses as a devout religious person to the negative experiences they personally had with religion... without acknowledging the differences between the two. They see Rhea and they don’t see a bisexual who surrounds herself with and gives shelter to former criminals, foreigners, and people in need of a home while asking for little in return - they see their local pastor, or some other religious leader/person, who’ve done them wrong, and thus Rhea hates gay people, she hates POC, she’s a zealot and unreasonable and she’s this terrible person with no redeeming qualities. And this isn’t me arm-chair psychology-ing these people - they poke fun at themselves about how much they let their personal experiences cloud their judgement of the game and its characters with bingo cards for liking Edelgard having “raised with religion” be one of the slots and things like that. 

And really, why else would “religious institution led by white-presenting race of people” be automatically turned into “racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and violent to any who aren’t their religion” when 1) one of the main characters - the one calling Rhea racist - himself eventually says that racial diversity fits well and snug in the Seiros faith, 2) not only is the leader and founder of the religion a bisexual woman, but no one says anything about having their love be confined to one specific gender anywhere, with heavily coded LGBT relationships like Shamir+Catherine and Dorothea+Petra being just as LGBT coded in SS - where Rhea can potentially come back as archbishop - as anywhere else - hell, when one of the most devout followers of Rhea clearly is romantically interested in her and faces no repercussions or consequences for openly being so despite being female herself, and 3) the Church only ever uses violence when either called from the outside for help or forced to when outside forces try to attack them? Why are we hearing all of these awful things about the Church when it sometimes is never even implied? 

It’s in large part due to religion being such a sensitive part of people’s lives that they are unable to disconnect their personal experiences with religion with the fictional religion the media they’re interacting with provides them. Rhea, as a devout religious leader, especially with how genuinely morally gray she is, was never going to land well over here in the west, double especially to an audience of people that very clearly are already inclined to ignore pieces of the game’s story, lore, plot, and character interactions to fit their own preferred version of what’s happening. Triple fuckin’ wombo-combo especially since the game itself fails to do Rhea any favors until the literal last second of two out of four routes and only shove in her directly admitting she was wrong in her actions in the hardest support chain to build up in the entire game, and even then only at the last part of it. Poor girly didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell

[nissakii]

Significance of “Madness” in anime

We’ve already established in other posts about significant emotions and concepts in anime or specific media before. The Significance of losing or the one of visuals and metaphors in Haikyuu!! are some of those I would love to mention here, but today we shall delve into a broader topic that goes more along the lines of Makii’s thrilling post about Danganronpa and the Significance of Despair.

Today, our topic of interest is madness.

To ease your mind, in this post we will be talking about the representation of insanity and madness in some anime characters and how that reflects on the story and ourselves as an audience.To make one thing clear, a lot of the times we see overexaggerated versions of unstable characteristics in anime that aren’t realistic.

This is in no way a discussion about actual mental illnesses and not a professional approach to analysing them to our real life standards, but maybe a start to an interesting discussion about how we portray and handle what one may colloquially call “craziness”.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start!

Artists, and no matter for example if they write or draw, use their platforms to deliver messages in cryptic ways. As humans, we have the innate ability to look at something and consume the facts through entertainment which makes us crave new media to follow and analyse.

We love to question things instead of just taking them as they are, and that is why most writers out there will play around with the perception of their audience.

You may be familiar with the common question that ghosts through your head as you enjoy the latest episode of your favorite anime.

Why did he do that? Is she a traitor? What makes them think that way?

Although one might always do it consciously, we most definitely analyse whatever media we consume and decide for ourselves if it is important enough to keep in mind for future reference.

What the writer or founder of the anime ultimately wants from the reader is a reaction.

No matter what they intend to do with it, if they enjoy the viewer getting excited or traumatised is not of importance, but a reaction is evidently one of the goals. 

And as strong emotions always evoke an even stronger reaction, anime characters are often very idealized and have ideologies that make them want to do one particular thing.

Be it save the world or destroy it, we focus and look at these characters and root for them if they give us a reason to do so. 

Both sides of good and bad can have deeply rooted admiration drawn out of us, and it sometimes doesn’t even matter because the more interesting part is the lovely grey area in between. 

We need a balance of good and bad to enjoy both.

Empathy makes us viewers want to relate to the characters, and if the author gives us the possibility to learn why someone does something, it gets harder and harder to dislike them. That’s why tragic backstories and flashbacks are such an overused tool in anime, because with the extreme behaviour some characters show they also need equal amounts of redemption.

We attach ourselves emotionally to characters depending on our personal tastes as well.

If someone likes and relates to a strong and independent protagonist who would drop anything for the sake of justice, you will find a lot of resembling characters in shounen for example.

On the other hand, if a darker or more obsessive character manages to take over a special place in a viewer’s heart, putting them on a pedestal gets more and more interesting, because you’re not supposed to.

Contrary to that, characters with insane or dark personality traits are often very popular, again tracing this back to human instinct of emphasising with wronged characters and curiously inspecting the fully deranged ones.

As this isn't something that should be put into vague concepts, we’re instead going to look at examples of characters and entities that are seen as ‘mad’ and how they’re interpreted.

It’s not just about villains being unreasonably immoral in this post, as we look into what madness entails and how it's shown, we also have some examples of corruption to look at.

So of course there are the typical evil-thinking evil-doing villains out there. 

Some of them have an actual backstory to make them more realistic and believable, some others are just pure evil. While they are often called mad for their actions to achieve their goal, the reason why they are put into that light is the stark contrast between the protagonist and the villain.

If the protagonist loves to save people and always has a smile on his face, of course he will differ from his counterpart when he finds out that his methods are a bit more vicious.

The protagonist perceives the villain as insane most of the time, but what does the viewer think?

We seek to look not only at characters that are enjoyable to watch, but also try to find similarities between us and them or draw lines in their behavior to understand them better. As mentioned before, empathy plays a huge role here as well, since whatever happens in anime doesn't have actual repercussions, we can forgive characters more easily. 

For example when they are taken by Insanity as a side effect rather than being insane due to trauma, we often get an 'ally turned traitor' trope through hypnosis or brainwashing, which is just as interesting to look at. 

If a person did something horrible under the influence of something they had no control over, are they still to blame? 

Does Insanity only involve a separate entity that comes from evil, or are we also looking at the gradual descent into darkness when life just isn't the same anymore? 

Insane and with no fear: Soul Eater

A great example of how insanity plays with characters be they good or bad is Soul Eater. 

With a premise that one needs a sound mind and body to inhibit a sound soul, we obviously know that people close to becoming Kishin-eggs will have a rotten soul drenched in bad deeds, but what about the good guys? 

In this instance we have a lot of different types of madness and insanity that touches multiple characters at different times, and by far the most drastic would be the black blood. 

The black blood being a synthesized weapon form of blood that can change form and harden into shape, is a weapon made by Medusa and introduced for the first time with Crona. He was melded together with Ragnarök as a weapon and used the black blood in his proficient fighting style. 

Soul Eater as well as Maka and other characters later come into contact with the black blood, and the consequence of the immense strength that comes with it is debilitating madness. 

As explained in the anime, the madness makes one deny the soul of oneself and others and takes away your fear. Now with no fear present, the person exhibits extremely erratic behavior and is not scared to hurt others or themselves.

This is an insanity that shows how essential a person's fear is, shown by Maka in one of the latest episodes when she fights Asura. The fact that she learned how to accept her own fear and realise that humans need it to survive is why insanity in Soul Eater is merely a concept to differentiate between what is human and what is Kishin. 

A Kishin kills and murders with no fear of anything. 

A human protects and masters one's own fear. 

The power hungry insanity: Hunter x Hunter

In Hunter x Hunter we have a lot of characters that don't exactly fit the norm of human action. 

With people like Chrollo, Illumi and even Chimera Ants there is enough crazy to go around. 

Still, the character we shall delve into to look at a different kind of instability is none other than Hisoka Morow.

Yes, in comparison to black blood madness Hisoka is an actual human being with no known influence outside of his own intellect. The contrary to another weapon or entity making someone insane is being shown in this anime.

Hisoka is just insane. 

We have no means to see if there is anything that might have caused Hisoka to be the way that he is, but what we do know is that his character is almost too nonchalant for his own good. 

His goal is to accumulate power and fight others that he seems worthy, as that is what attracts him. No person is spared if he believes he found a worthy opponent he will make that clear to them and pursue them passionately. 

We could rule that the clown is just eccentric, but with the given information from the anime he definitely had some sort of mental difference next to his peers. Harming himself holds no problem to him, and his behavior is deeply rooted only to suit himself. He has no self-preservation except for when he needs to accomplish something, and he even enters the spiders just to get close to Chrollo. 

Now we see a single person carry themselves throughout a story only to achieve one thing: a good fight. 

After having looked at these two examples of insanity in anime, let's look at how that insanity can be portrayed visually. 

A famous way to show someone's psychosis is the “Kubrick stare”. A directorial technique that got named after the director Stanley Kubrick who used a forward tilt of the head with eyes locked onto the camera to show the actors of his movies at their peak of madness. It became a very popular stylistic device and is used still very often in modern movies.

The character is supposed to look menacing, evil-plotting and absolutely unhinged.

Such devices, if used often enough, automatically invoke the message to the viewer.

If you’ve seen the Kubrick stare once in a psychotic character, you will definitely associate it with the same derangement again.

In anime we have a similar thing, and you might be aware of this already.

Familiar with the ‘eye angle just before a character goes insane’ meme?

It’s a running gag that shows multiple characters such as Asura from Soul Eater, Pain from Naruto, Light from Deathnote and Jason from Tokyo Ghoul in a frame where you can only see their eyes and it somehow looks extremely grotesque as if they were looking into different directions with their eyes.

As much as it is a joke, it is a perfect example of something extremely similar to the Kubrick stare used in anime culture. It goes so far that if any anime watcher would see a new character look like in a frame, one would assume they were about to go crazy.

Even Oikawa Tooru from Haikyuu!! was shown with a Kubrick stare in the last moments of the second Seijoh vs. Karasuno game, when his desire to win overtook him with incredible force.

Without loss there naturally can’t be any wins, and without sadness there will be no joy in laughter.

We need the different depictions of what one might call madness, to fill our stories with nuance that relies on our reality.

Be it an unknown entity, hunger for power, lack of fear or the good old fashioned thrive for world domination.

Madness is just another part of what we call life, and to be honest in healthy doses and for effect why not enjoy it in anime?

Now, do you guys know any other characters or concepts in anime that would be worth mentioning? I would love to see them in the comments! 

Until then, stay sane!

-Nissa

[delimeful]

sheer atrocity (4)

warnings: captivity, mild arguing

-

After a brief break to eat and drink, Virgil was on the move. Again.

Considering dusk was quickly approaching and they’d been traveling or intimidating abusive dads for pretty much the entire day, Roman felt the pace they were setting was a little unreasonable.

He wasn’t the one walking it, sure, but he couldn’t help but wonder. Was this guy always so antsy, or was this a special occasion?

And while he was asking himself questions that he wouldn’t get any answers to, how long was the cast duration of this enchantment?

(More specifically, how much longer was he going to be small enough for beetles to look like dogs?

How much longer before Virgil decided what to do with him for real?)

He hadn’t seen the giant stop to recast, which meant that he’d been burning through a continuous enchantment for hours on end. Signs pointed to his magic reserves being massive. Chilling.  

Roman thumped a foot against the side of the jar that rested against Virgil’s side. “Are we wandering around the woods during twilight for any particular reason, or are you just lost and too embarrassed to admit it? Too used to seeing the trees from a loftier position, perhaps?”

Virgil glanced down at him, as though just recalling he was there. Offended, Roman made a mental note to make more of his internal diatribes to external diatribes. The only thing worse than being a prisoner with an uncertain future was being an ignored prisoner with an uncertain future.

“Go back to being quiet, I forgot you were annoying for a second.”

“Absolutely not,” Roman huffed, kicking his feet against the glass repeatedly for emphasis. “The moment we see another human I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs.”

“Oh, because that worked so well for you before,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes.

Roman shifted positions, trying to ease a cramp in his leg. “Haven’t you heard? Third time’s the charm, and personally, I have no shortage of charm.”

There was a short pause, and then Virgil ground to a stop, taking a deep breath.

Instantly, Roman stiffened, eyes locked on the face above him. He’d forgotten himself, making jabs as though they weren’t enemies, as though he hadn’t been trapped, threatened, and used by this monster. It was too easy to pretend, when Virgil did things that were almost decent.

Sure enough, Virgil grabbed the top of the jar and lifted it from his pocket to be eye level. Roman shoved his arms out to keep himself stable, avoiding looking at the long drop below him.

“As useful as your bullheadedness was before, I don’t actually want you to scare the daylights out of the person I’m looking for this time.”

“Yes, well, I don’t want to be the size of a newborn chick, so it looks like we’re both dealing with  struggles in life,” Roman snapped back, because he’d never known when to keep his mouth shut.

Virgil narrowed his eyes. “I could just muffle your jar, you know. I’m magic; I can do that.”

He could? Roman was sort of surprised he hadn’t done so already.

“But,” he continued with a sigh, “I think this one will probably be easier with your help. I’m not great at putting people at ease.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Roman snorted, and then jerked as the rest of the sentence sunk in. “Wait, hang on. ‘Put people at ease’? There is no way I’m helping you with any nefarious plots!”

“It’s not nefarious!” Virgil shifted his weight, glancing around impatiently. “And it’s time sensitive. Either help me or don’t, I don’t care.”

It couldn’t be that simple, but Roman wasn’t about to pass up a chance to see something other than the interior of a pocket. “Fine, but if I see you doing something evil, I’m not going to stand idly by!” And then, petulantly. “Also, I want out of the jar.”

“As long as you actually use your brain instead of your biases to judge me,” Virgil snarked back, but obligingly pried off the lid and tipped the jar on its side. Rather than pull or tip Roman out, he held his hand to the lip of the opening and waited.

It was almost more nerve wracking to climb into a giant hand willingly, but Roman managed it. The jar was whisked away, and Roman lifted to neck level. He stared blankly.

“Going to get off anytime soon?” Virgil asked, a hint of irritation in his voice.  

“What am I getting on? Your collar bones?” Roman replied incredulously. “Wouldn’t a shoulder be better?”

The hand under him shifted slightly, angling him towards the folds of the cloak where it met the hood. “The fabric has better grip here. You’ll fall off my shoulder if we’re attacked.”

Attacked by who? “Paranoid much?” Roman dallied for a moment longer, but the idea of falling really was an unappealing one, so he climbed up and managed to find a seat amongst the bunched up cloth.

As soon as he was settled, Virgil set off again, and Roman clung tightly, staring out at this strange new perspective of the forest. Weird, but definitely better than the jar.

They moved along in relative silence, Virgil surprisingly light on his feet for a giant. The sun had just begun to sink below the horizon when he finally jerked to a halt.

Roman opened his mouth to complain at the sudden stop, but Virgil’s head was tilted, as though carefully listening. After a moment, he turned to a nearby patch of shrubbery.

“Hey,” he called, voice lacking it’s usual edge. “I can hear you over there.”

There was a long pause, and Roman blinked as the shrubbery began to tremble slightly. There was actually someone in there?

“Easy,” Virgil said, lowering himself into a squat. “I’m not going to hurt you. I can help you find the way out of these woods, if you’d like.”  

After a moment, a small hand pushed part of the bush aside, peering out cautiously at them. Roman’s heart twisted at the kid’s face, smudged with dirt and tear streaks. They couldn’t have been more than eight.

Virgil shifted, and Roman felt a chill go through him, remembering who, or rather what he was with. He couldn’t let the giant lure the kid into whatever scheme he was planning.

“There you go,” Virgil coaxed, offering a hand to help the kid stand up. “It must have been scary, stuck out in the woods alone. You did good to stay in one spot.”

Roman bit down on the automatic urge to call out a warning, listening to the way Virgil carefully encouraged the kid to stand up and brush the twigs from their hair. This was important. He had to consider the situation from all angles before making a move.

If Virgil really wanted to abduct a random kid in the woods, he didn’t need to convince them of anything. He’d dealt with a trained slayer as though he was a minor annoyance, a kid wasn’t exactly a challenge. So why was he going to all this trouble?

Roman thought about the soft edges of Virgil’s expression when he gave Patton his coat back. Maybe… it wasn’t a ruse?

“I’m Virgil,” the giant in question said, shaking Roman from his thoughts. “And this is Roman. We’re travelling together.”

Roman startled, not expecting to be introduced. “Uh, salutations!”

The kid stared with wide eyes. “You’re so small!” they blurted, before covering their mouth hurriedly.

Virgil cut in before Roman could correct him. “He’s a pixie. Likes to cause problems on purpose.”

Roman huffed “I do not! Don’t let him fool you, I am a delight.”

The kid giggled, and Virgil’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Roman wished he could see his expression.

From there it was second nature to keep up a stream of chatter with the kid about everything from their favorite food (honey on bread) to their stance on frogs (cute but you shouldn’t kiss them). It grew darker and darker as they walked, and after the kid had almost tripped over stray roots thrice in rapid succession, Virgil had crouched and lifted them onto his back with ease.

Before long, the kid was snoring lightly, face smushed against his hood, and there was a surprisingly comfortable silence in the air between them.

Virgil broke it first. “Thanks for not freaking out. I didn't know you had it in you.”

Roman crossed his arms, ignoring how close he’d come to freaking out. “This doesn’t mean I trust you or anything. We’re still enemies, you’re just. Not as bad as you could’ve been.”

“Yipee,” Virgil deadpanned, shrugging his shoulder under Roman slightly to jostle him. Roman jabbed his elbow in the general direction of Virgil’s neck in retaliation. “Very gracious of you.”

“I certainly won’t be as gracious the next time you pass me off as a pixie,” Roman muttered, prompting a low, half-air laugh from Virgil. He realized belatedly that he’d assumed there would be a next time, and hadn’t been corrected. He wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or not.

What was it about this giant that made Roman feel at ease to speak his mind, even in such a precarious position?

Virgil slowed as they came up on the town again, crouching to gently nudge the kid awake and set  them on their own two feet again. “You’re home, kiddo.”

“Don’t go traipsing around in the forest again, y’hear?” Roman added sternly. “Not everything in those woods are as nice as us.”

The kid nodded solemnly, and then grumbled sleepily as Virgil ruffled their hair and pushed them towards the paved path into town.

Once the kid reached the town's edge, they turned around to peek over their shoulder. The two of them were already well out of sight, waiting until the kid had been safely whisked into the arms of their parents before departing.

Roman waited with bated breath, but despite their deal being over, Virgil seemed to have no intent of removing him from his newfound perch. He sunk deeper into the fabric as they continued to trek on.

For now, he could let himself enjoy this tentative peace.

[anahitas7567]

I thought the discourse had mostly died down, but I actually think the people who were involved that I followed left tumblr, so I’m gonna go ahead and post this(Also, these are my personal opinions about trends I have seen.  I can’t speak for what other people believe and/or things I’m not aware of)That being said, tw for mentions of racism, rape/sexual assault, abuse, historical propaganda and genocide(The Crusades)

Now, dark!Joe fic is not racist, and dark!Joe fic where he’s abusing Nicky in some way isn’t inherently racist either, but there are tropes under this category that are, without questions, racist and are a result of years of historical propaganda that have been normalized.  I talked about them yesterday, but I’m going to be more specific now.

Joe abusing/raping/selling Nicky to other Muslim men as punishment for the Crusades is racist for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it’s stereotypical.  Not only is it stereotypical, there are people in real life who believe Muslim people win wars by invading a country, killing all the men and raping the women so they get pregnant with Muslim children.  This is an opinion I have actually heard.  That should be enough right there, but this trope also takes Nicky who, in canon, went to Jerusalem to commit genocide against a group of people he hated, and makes him a victim to the group of people he wronged.  It takes Joe, a literal victim of genocide, and makes him the one who is morally corrupt here.  Making Joe 'unreasonably’ angry and violent while dismissing Nicky’s actual actions is racist in this situation

Before I start with my next point; there is actual historical propaganda, starting around the Crusades, about Muslim men raiding Christian monasteries/cities and raping, capturing and killing the men, women, and children in these places.  Making jokes about this, either coming from Joe or being said about him, in fics is directly recreating propaganda that has been used for centuries(and is still being shown in media) to vilify and other real cultures and people.

In addition to that, the amount of Evil King/Sultan/Warlord Joe invading Nicky’s home and taking him as a sex slave or making him part of a harem does the exact same thing as making those jokes, but with far more weight to them because people have been writing, fictional and ‘factual’, books depicting  Muslim men as savage, lustful and and sexually cruel.

I suggest this if you want to read more about the history of these things; https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42393299.pdf

Also, an addendum, writing these things does not automatically make you racist or purposefully malicious; they are common parts of mainstream media and have been part of out society for, as I said, literally hundreds of years.  These things are harmful though, historically and now, and are a sign of a social bias, which you cannot control but you should be made aware of

I am not kinkshaming anyone, nor am I angry because someone wrote something I ‘didn’t like’.  Top/Bottom discourse has nothing to do with this.  I realize that anything with these themes were likely not created with the intent to do harm, but I also think intent doesn’t matter.  Harmful racial and cultural stereotypes are unintentionally spread all the time, because people aren’t aware of their cultural biases and the harm they can cause.  Having biases does not make you a bad person, everyone has them, but these are real, historical facts and events that have caused real harm which should not be talked around, or dismissed.