#it doesn't need to be kill vs anti kill

[reflectionspace]

Let's talk about this.

“It’s Just a Game” Isn’t a Shield from Critique—Especially in a Series Like Dragon Age

The idea that Veilguard should be immune to political critique because it’s a “video game” is historically inaccurate—and intellectually lazy. The Dragon Age series has always used fantasy to explore sociopolitical dynamics: Chantry control, class divides between mages and templars, Qunari imperialism, elven diaspora, Tevinter slavery, and more. So when Veilguard invites players into a world supposedly about revolution, anti-slavery, and queer identity, it should be expected to have something meaningful to say about power.

And if it doesn’t? That’s a legitimate—and necessary—critique.

More to the point: many games, even those from large publishers, handle sociopolitics more carefully than Veilguard does.

Cyberpunk 2077 gives us a protagonist who becomes a living legend and can kill Adam Smasher—but is still structurally powerless in the face of corpo systems. Even the elites are trapped by the machine.

Cyberpunk 2077 really deserves its own post, because hot damn, it's the Schwartzwald cake of embedded sociopolitics and careful writing with intention, amidst a sea of cupcakes.

No, seriously. Cyberpunk 2077 is so good. Writing-wise, it was good on release - all it really needed was technical polish.

Skyrim, for all its fantasy tropes, embeds debates about religious freedom, colonization, and nationalism—conversations so compelling that people still argue Stormcloaks vs. Empire over a decade later.

The Witcher 3 examines war, poverty, racial violence, pogroms, and political manipulation. Geralt is “neutral,” but the world is not, and the player is always brushing up against the consequences of that.

Dishonored is about restoring monarchy—but it’s also about class, state violence, surveillance, political power, and systemic rot. Even its mechanics reflect power: the more violence you unleash as Corvo, Emily, or Daud, the more chaos the world spirals into. And in Death of the Outsider, Billie Lurk—the least privileged of them all—breaks the system without causing Chaos, because she lacks the same embedded power.

Deathloop continues that thread by parodying elite escapism. The AEON techbros and scientists, ahem, "Visionaries", try to create a sealed world of permanent consequence-free comfort, looping the same day endlessly so they never have to face history. Sound familiar?

In contrast, Veilguard offers a post-apocalyptic world where the party still has book clubs and picnics, coffee beans are miraculously stocked, and revolutionary, world-ending struggles are background noise to the main cast’s personal growth arcs.

And finally, let’s talk about Baldur’s Gate 3.

It’s not even trying to be a political manifesto. Its setting is rooted in high-fantasy adventuring, not grounded political struggle. The actual politics of Faerûn are often laughably simple—good guys, bad cults, ancient gods, mind flayers.

And yet, despite (mostly) sidelining overt sociopolitical commentary in favor of focusing on trauma and cycles of abuse, BG3 still manages to say more about power, identity, and morality than Veilguard does.

Why? Because it invests deeply in character writing, layered interpersonal conflict, and meaningful player choice. Its companions have rich internal contradictions, complex loyalties, and personal histories that don’t always align with tidy messaging. It doesn’t flatten queerness or trauma into checkbox representation. It lets you screw up. It lets people be angry. And where socioplitical questions come up, it shows that the writers have thought about it.

And crucially, it respects the player’s ability to make difficult, morally complicated decisions—including decisions that affect systems, people, and outcomes. Including evil decisions. It doesn't accidentally sprinkle misogyny all over itself. It's not perfect (where's that Gortash kiss Larian, where's more Wyll content), but compared to Veilguard, it's chef's kiss.

Baldur’s Gate 3 succeeds where Veilguard fails not because it’s more radical or politically correct—but because it’s better written. It doesn’t posture. It just tells a story worth engaging with, with intention and awareness.

No one’s saying Veilguard needed to be Disco Elysium—but it positioned itself as a political, inclusive, transformative game, and in doing so, invited political analysis. That’s not “whining,” and it’s not clicktivism. It’s critical literacy. It’s what thoughtful fans do.

[softringing]

There's always been a question that bugs me about sampo. Obviously, there are several, but this one specifically, has to do with his ideologies involving elation.

If sampo cares about people so much and desires to make everyone happy, why did he not take direct action in those 8 years he remained in belebog?

We all know sparkle said sampo has a line that he won't cross, and that line is very clearly not hurting people, well at least the ones who have already been hurt enough.

We see this from sampo's actions in the underworld vs overworld. For some reason, even tho sampo is a scammer and values money, he has never attempted to scam underworlders. In Hook's companion mission, hook's father had a rare mining item that was stolen by an npc named Skipper(?) I believe.

While Skipper was trying to sell this item to sampo, sampo kept insisting that he was selling it at such a low price. His direct words were "Are you sure you want to sell this at this price to me?"

And he kept hesitating until hook and tb found skipper and took the item back. We can see cleary that sampo means no harm to those who are weak but when he's in the overworld, he's known for scamming ppl like Chavez from Anti-Blue Scam Society without much remorse.

From all this, it's clear sampo has never done something to hurt anyone seriously, and to add to this, shields is the name for the belebog currency. Yet, in sampo's idle, we see him holding a different currency.

This pretty much implies that to sampo, belebogian currency would be useless. Although we know he's a scammer, we don't really know why he cares about money so much other than this text we got in game from him

Sampo seems personally tired of doing this :( but says that he has to to feed few mouths which we can take as him trying to help the ppl in the underworld with the money he 'earns'.

So, here we return to my initial question, why didn't sampo directly help ppl of belebog with their disaster if he has so much power?

He is hiding from a certain someone-- as mentioned by @/samposillies, in sampo's LC, the exact same currency he's holding is shown & his eidolon

(money model from @/kittykattz)

If u look really closely into his LC, you can see not only that it's from a POV of a sniper, but also another assasin behind sampo, holding a gun and wearing a foreign attire to belebog. The description also matches that someone's obviously trying to kill him, as told by the sniper himself.

At first, I assumed it was the ipc but their outfits lean towards red rather than plain black. Plus, although it looks like sampo isn't in belebog, there are two posters in the lc on the brick background and you can find these coffee posters in belebog at the location "Backwater pass".

But the thing is, sampo uses the non-belebogian currency (assumed to be Kalevalan currency) to convince the sniper to talk to him.

The lc's name is Eye of the Prey-- and although it's from sniper's POV, Sampo is clearly the Hunter, while the sniper is the prey.

This led me to think that someone from Kalevala is perhaps trying to kill sampo while he was in belebog, which is strange bc the world believed Jarilo-IV did not exist before the astral express saved them. Meaning that whoever is trying to kill sampo probably always knew about his whereabouts hence sampo decided to keep a low profile and decided to help underworlders in such a silent approach.

Not to mention, the currency sampo's holding doesn't have the usual hsr language on it (pointed out by @/samposillies)

(maybe it needs horizontal flipping ill check it later)

Therefore, we can assume sampo didn't help belebogians directly by bringing an end to the stelleron bc he's being chased by someone. and even tho sampo appears non-chalant or calm about it in his lc, maybe he just doesn't want that person to come and specifically show up in belebog.

We don't know why that person's trying to kill sampo but there are lots of reasons, just like the fact that sampo is LITERALLY the 'device' from Kalevala as referenced in his event. He CAN legit create ancient relics,

he laughs it off as a typo BUT HE CAN CLEARLY MAKE THESE RELICS!! GEPARD ALSO MENTIONS IN HIS LINES ABT HIM THAT HE SELLS A NUMBER OF ANCIENT RELICS!!

"ancient" MEANS OLDDD, like really old!! How can a normal person make such things?? Not to mention sampo can make his bombs and is immune to their poison and a MEMORY bubble (in autheirum wars), which had the description of being "abnormal or unusual"!! Only memokeepers can make memory bubbles, and herta has several of them in her space station. So he either stole one or knows how to make one himself!! Sampo also made those items in his pop-up shop event with some materials the tb brought so there's no doubt he's the object that's supposed to 'bring wealth'.

Or could it be that sampo is like Giovanni? He prefers natural endings rather than artificial ones? he's still a masked fool no matter how different his aesthetics are after all... LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU ALL THINK!!

Edit: Here's the flipped image of his money but I still can't read what it's supposed to mean and tried to google translate in Finnish but didn't. Work

[problematic-yuri-poll]

Problematic Femslash Ship Tournament - FINAL

Despaircest - Junko Enoshima x Mukuro Ikusaba (Danganronpa Series) VS. DB - D-ne x B-ko (Shuuen no Shiori)

As the main bracket winner, if Despaircest wins this poll, it is automatically declared the champion. As the losers' bracket winner, if DB wins this poll, it must defeat Despaircest one last time in a second poll to be declared the champion.

Info and propaganda under cut! This will not be spoiler-free.

Problematic elements for Despaircest:

twincest, abuse, murder, toxicity, codependency

Problematic elements for DB:

yandere, toxic, dependency, murder

--

Propaganda for Despaircest:

MUKURO HAS A CANON CRUSH ON JUNKO. SHES ALWAYS FUCKING BLUSHING AROUND HER AND SHIT. THEYRE SO GAY. JUNKO LITERALLY SAYS SHE KILLED MUKURO BECAUSE IT WAS THE MOST DESPAIR SHE COULD EVER FEEL. SHE FUCKING LOVED HER TOO!!!!! - Twincest for the win! Junko also constantly abuses/tries to kill Mukuro and Mukuro is totally Into it! Plus Junko literally ends up killing Mukuro so yknow doomed yuri. They are so toxic and codependent and when Junko DOES end up killing Mukuro, she gets off to it, and says she wishes she were Mukuro!!! - They're THE incest sisters - Despaircest is soooo dear to me bc I shipped this shit even AS an anti man. Being obsessed w Junko is so entwined w Mukuro’s whole character that you cannot simply IGNORE the incest. Like man I don’t usually like twincest but these two. They are awful. - despaircest propaganda that was too big for the post:

Propaganda for DB:

d-ne is a lesbian who lacks any sense of identity for herself and struggles to get close to anyone. she falls deeply in love with b-ko, who she deems to be perfect. when she finds out b-ko's "perfect" act is just a mask she puts on, she just falls for her even more. she doesn't care about anyone other than b-ko or what anyone but b-ko thinks of her. she puts b-ko on a pedestal and devalues herself, believing she could never be on b-ko's level. when the group finds the "bookmark of demise" and strange deaths begin occurring, b-ko gets scared and d-ne wants her to be scared so she can be the one to comfort her. d-ne then steals b-ko's first kiss! when the "demise game" starts, d-ne is given the monkey's paw which allows her to wish for anything, but at the cost of taking that thing away from someone else. she immediately starts making wishes that would allow her to "become more like b-ko". when she wishes to have eyes like b-ko's, a random girl who had earlier pointed out that her eyes match b-ko's gets in an accident where her eyes get taken away and magically transferred to d-ne, and d-ne just laughs and blushes over this. d-ne goes to visit b-ko, who won't open her door because she's so scared over the demise game, and when d-ne finally gets in, she hears b-ko calling out to a-ya (another character) for help. in a fit of delusion, d-ne decides the b-ko in front of her, who called a-ya's name, "isn't b-ko" and murders her, in the end, deciding to fully become and replace b-ko, believing she's "protecting b-ko" by doing this. then d-ne wishes for all her misfortune to disappear, which works, but since she's b-ko now, she dies at the hands of b-ko's doppelganger (the misfortune that b-ko had been dealing with during the demise game). honestly we need more girls like d-ne in the world

[petitprincess1]

Hey, I'm really sorry for asking this, but do you and how do you deal with any guilt for liking Hazbin Hotel? I think the controversies and antis have got to me because I can't watch it or any content without thinking about those.

I love the songs (both the show's and PARANOID DJ's because they're bangers) but I also can't help but think "am I a terrible person with bad taste for liking this?"

Parts of this show also just make me happy, especially Angel Dust. He became such a comfort to me after I went through a similar situation. Not as extreme, but it messed me up. And Alastor is just the best character to ever be created. He sings and dances and kills and eats people, what more could you want in a man? But yeah, I just want to enjoy the silly demon show without feeling gross afterward and I don't know how to shake that feeling off.

First of all, I don't have any guilt watching anything I enjoy.

Second of all, neither should you. And this is the problem with antis and "critics". No one should EVER be made to feel bad about liking anything. Hell, I'll even extend that thought to those who like Velma. I'll never understand it, but I can't hate you for liking something.

I know Vivzie is tied to a lot of controversies, but so what? More than half of them have been debunked or shown to have changed as she grew older. Even if you still feel iffy, Hazbin is more than just Vivzie. There's an entire crew attached to this show and they should not suffer bc of one person.

I mean, you've most likely played a game or watched a movie that has had a problematic person connected to it. Yeah, that person is scummy, but you can still enjoy the content that has them featured or they created bc...that doesn't define you as a person. What you like in fiction does not translate to real life.

It's different when it comes to someone like Onision, who's content is nothing but his life and about him. I'd be more disgusted if you liked him vs you liking Hopper from A Bug's life, despite him being played by Kevin Spacey. Awful person, but Hopper is disconnected from Spacey other than voice. Or liking a song by a problematic artist. You like the song, not the person.

Once again, YOU SHOULD NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING SOMETHING! NO ONE SHOULD EVER FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING MEDIA THAT'S MEANT TO BE ENJOYED! VIVZIE MADE THE SHOW BUT SHE IS NOT THE SHOW!

Anyone who dares to feel self-righteous over a cartoon needs to get that tree branch out of their ass.

[butterflydm]

WoT 3x02 Deep Dive (book spoilers addition)

Any and all thoughts that strayed into book spoilers territory will be found here. Spoilers through A Memory of Light, just to be safe.

The funniest possible thing that show could do is simply never clarify whether or not Moiraine and Elayne are related. We'll probably know soon enough whether or not they plan to, because either we'll hear about Tigraine's son that she left behind to go into the Aiel Waste or we won't and if they don't hint about Galad then, there doesn't seem much of a point to do it in the future, since Rand's story never actually crosses Galad's, and he left Tar Valon before the princes arrived.

In the books, I believe that the House Trakand symbol is a silver keystone, which I don't see any evidence of in the throne room, but perhaps Andor's symbol overrides that. I don't know how royalty works, lol.

The Houses that we see here are all Houses that are staunchly anti-Trakand once we get to our on-page Succession War in the books, I believe, and the show did such a good job showing how Morgase's short-terms gains with her ruthlessness here may lead to a much harder fight for her daughter to claim the throne, as no matter what Elayne says, her rivals have reason to believe that their lives are forfeit because they put their names in first (and since Elayne is not around when the Succession Crisis begins, they might well believe that they've been trapped and locked in once she shows up).

For the people who are uncertain about Morgase's characterization -- it's heavily implied that Thom killed Taringail (Galad's dad) for Morgase (it might even be said outright; I don't recall at the moment). She was not against a spot of assassination when she believed it necessary. I do wonder if maybe Elayne is going to learn some unsavory things about her mother when she meets Thom later this season (I believe there is the tiniest clip of them together in the trailer at the end of ep1). Genuinely, I think anyone who would put in their name for a throne and fight a war for it... is probably capable of the sorts of things that Morgase does in the cold open of this episode.

I am also seeing the vision of... okay, Trakand politics are cutthroat and so are Seanchan politics (politics in general...) but one thing that might end up being a huge difference is how Elayne is protected and sheltered and adored as the heir who has had no need to prove herself worthy of the title (until she herself decides she needs to earn it) vs the Imperial family fighting it out and killing each other off. Elayne has no rivals inside her own family. She's had nothing but love and protection from her family, sometimes so much love and protection that it stifles and smothers her. So that might end up being a huge point of contrast between Elayne & Tuon, if we're able to catch a glimpse into the Court of the Nine Moons and the family dynamics of the Imperial Blood.

Everyone else has already noted the variations in the two brothers' uniforms, I'm sure, but -- Gawyn has on red trousers (and he chooses Elaida/the Red Ajah) while Galad has on white trousers (and he chooses the Whitecloaks). Very neat bit of visual foreshadowing that would mean absolutely nothing to people who don't already have an idea about their potential future paths.

So! Gawyn is still First Prince of the Sword and Galad is 'of House Trakand' but listed as 'Galad Damodred' in the credits. That's all pretty interesting. Again, the funniest thing would just be to never clarify any of these family relationships, but I am definitely curious about what choice the show will make.

Bets on whether or not Morgase is gonna survive? I think she's going to die, for a few different reasons.

her subplot meanders around mostly to give us insight into plotlines that we can just do a cold open about in the show

her subplot begins to feel like pointless trauma after pointless trauma at a certain point

it just feels silly for under 20 year old Elayne to stay the Queen once we all know that her mom is still alive

it will make it less silly that Gawyn holds his mother's death against Rand if Morgase is actually dead

Elayne standing up to Morgase here to forge her own path feels like a strong note for their relationship to end on

So, yeah, I feel like she will probably bite it in the show.

Galad's mild disparagement of the Aes Sedai here makes me feel like he's already been reading the Children of the Light sourcebook, but another possibility is that this is something being influenced by Rahvin, who likely is trying to subtly encourage discord between Andor and the White Tower.

"There's almost nothing we can do for afflictions of the mind."

Set-up for Nynaeve's future arc! She's gonna be the one to figure it out! I really like her trying to help Mat with his mind as foreshadowing for her cracking how to heal the Dark One's madness on male channelers' minds. That's really elegantly done.

I do wonder how much the show is going to dive into the potential parallels between Rand's past life haunting him and all of Mat's past lives haunting him. They deliberately changed Mat's storyline to make it more closely match Rand's, making it his own memories instead of the lives of random soldiers/generals. The most obvious reason to make their situations even more similar is so that Rand has someone to talk to about his Lews Therin situation, because we don't have the benefit of an interior monologue, the way that the books do.

Obviously, the earliest we would possibly explore that would be season four, but that's the most obvious reason I can think of to make this specific change in the way that Mat's memories work. Mat's storyline at the end of s2 didn't need for him to be an actual Hero of the Horn for it to work. That was a choice that the show made. It was a gorgeous choice; that scene makes me cry, but when they've made changes like that to the lore in the past, it's paid off narratively. Will this be the same?

In the books, Egwene and Aviendha had developed a fairly close friendship by this point and were calling each other near-sisters during their time together in the Waste, which definitely hasn't happened in the show yet. There really wasn't space for it in the earlier episodes but I hope that we do see them becoming friends as they go through some Wise One training together. Hopefully Egwene won't be too separated out as 'dreamwalker only'. Egwene has been separated from all her friends this season (just as Rand has) and her relationship with Rand is... yeah.

So she could really use a friend.

Aviendha taking a moment to stare at Rand before she complains about him not being Aiel enough: classic Aviendha.

"those who call themselves Aiel" I just realized that the prophecy contains an epic burn against the Aiel because of them breaking the Way of the Leaf. These people who dare to call themselves Aiel even though they don't follow the old ways of peace! Never noticed that before, though I'm pretty sure this prophecy is straight from the books.

So... the show wanting to explore this idea of Rand going mad and killing his lover might be part of why Rand & Egwene's relationship has been drawn out past the point when they broke things off for the last time in the books. That's perhaps not a theme you want to touch on during his actual endgame relationships; it's something you want him to be able to deal with first, so that he can go into those relationships maybe with more control over himself emotionally. I do wonder if this is building up to showing us Ilyena's death, but I'm unsure if we'll get that this season. The promo has implied that we'll get to see Ishamael, because he was on the glass columns promo poster, and we know we'll get at least one Age of Legends flashback in the columns of Rhuidean (with Mierin). Will Ishamael be there or will we get a second AoL flashback in 3x08, as has been tradition so far?

Anyway, Alanna obviously isn't a Darkfriend, but I am curious both about how quickly she got to the Two Rivers and why she's there. It gets confirmed for us in 3x03 that Maksim doesn't know why they're there either, so it's a proper in-show mystery right now.

So, Elaida's timeline... not sure I have it on lock-down yet, and how it interacts with Siuan's. Did Elaida try to become Amyrlin while she was already working as Morgase's advisor? Siuan didn't have any drive to try to become Amyrlin Seat until after she and Moiraine received the prophecy about Rand, and it looks like Elayne is only a year or so younger than Rand (Rand was born "twenty years ago" in s1, Elayne was born "twenty years ago" in s3), so did Siuan go straight for the Amyrlin Seat as quickly as possible after the Aiel War? Since she and Moiraine were already established Blue Sisters in the show at that point, it's plausible. If that's the case, then Elaida may have bounced to Andor directly after losing the Seat to Siuan.

Verin... "warns" Siuan here about Elaida being "well-liked" which... does not actually seem to be the case when we see Elaida trying to get in good with the rest of the Red Ajah. Is this Verin following an instruction from Lanfear? We know that she does still need to act as Black Ajah in order to preserve her cover with them. And she was the one who appears to have scooped up Min from Cairhien and brought her back to the White Tower.

No forcefemmed Min here, which I was really glad about. Stuffing Min into a dress and forcing her to be high femme and ditzy was not a super-fun note for me in the books. If we do get Rand-Min in the future (depending on if we get renewals and potentially on how long the show runs in total, since if they only get 5 or 6 seasons, they may just do avirandlayne and not try to introduce a fourth person into the mix), I think we can pretty sure that she won't do all the weird "Men Like This Stuff" changes to her appearance and behavior that she does in the books to try to entice Rand.

If Verin is reporting to Lanfear, then Lanfear also knows about all the viewings that Min has been seeing about fighting and death inside the White Tower.

Siuan mentioning Nynaeve as a potential weakness for Liandrin. I have been pondering the idea of Liandrin perhaps dying in the fight against Moghedien, to save Nynaeve's life. This might be a hint towards that.

So... is Fain currently leading the Trollocs, or is it 'Lord Luc' who is doing that? I could glance at imdb to find out when Padan Fain's actor is appearing in the show, but I will refrain, lol.

The Bair/Amys merging situation and the confusion around it is definitely interesting and a little bit odd. I wonder why they couldn't just change Bair's name to Amys after they realized they couldn't have both. Was it a legal issue with the contract that the actress had signed? Because this is absolutely just straight-up Amys wearing a nametag that says "Bair".

Ah, Matrim Cauthon. I have strong feelings about the way this name was used in the last few books. Namely, one of the biggest tells of a for-sure Brandon Sanderson scene was someone using "Matrim" who'd never used it before. I suspect because Sanderson felt like it was a more "fantasy appropriate" name than just Mat. In the Jordan books, it gets used very sparingly and is fairly effective to show either formality or annoyance (towards Mat), but in the Sanderson books, everyone and their fish uses "Matrim" and it kinda loses its power.

This scene with Siuan definitely makes me feel like if the show decides to take it that direction, having Siuan be there with Mat to save Moiraine would be really awesome.

The scene between Morgase and Elayne reminds me of one of the beats that we get much later in the books, after the two of them reunite, with Morgase admiring how Elayne handled a political situation. Another reason that I suspect Rahvin might really kill her in this one (or, a horrifying thought that just occurred to me, Compel Galad to do it and that's the reason that Galad ends up running off to the Whitecloaks? We have the precedent of Andoran families killing their own Head of House, here in this cold open)

Tigraine name drop! Very soon before we're about to learn more about Tigraine in Rhuidean! Very exciting! I do note no mention of Galad being Tigraine's son here, where it might have been natural for it to be mentioned.

I do like the show explicitly connecting Tigraine's disappearance with Morgase's ascendance -- while Tigraine being told to go to the Waste was primarily for Rand's birth, Elayne does end up being pretty important to the events of the Pattern as well, and is a key figure in the Last Battle in her role of Queen of Andor/Cairhien (though maybe just Andor in the show).

[kuvlarstuff]

Internet Drama and Real Life

Hello Tumblr, I never thought I'd have to make this sort of post before but lets get into it. First off: I'm very much neutral on the subject of the whole Proship or Anti-proship debacle. I'm not chronically online as most people are because I'm just not a big tumblr user. Second off: I've interacted with people who are on both sides of the debate. I'm friends with people who are on both sides of the debate. Does this change anything about me? No not really. Does this mean that I support proshippers? No. Does this mean that I support anti-proshippers? No. Does this mean that I just want to have fun with the people I interact with online and be friends with them? Yes. Somehow, within the last day or so, people within the whole UTMV fandom have gone from the simple mentality of "block and move on" to "doxxing and killing". Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, what the fuck.

Reminder: This is petty internet drama. It's nothing to dox people over. If you truly believe that someone for having a different view point on the world needs to be violently hanged and killed, then you need to step back and look at the situation and what you're saying.

Doxxing someone, while not inherently illegal, is very immoral on various social media platforms. Multiple people on both sides of the debate, whether you're an "anti" or a "proship", don't want their personal information released online. Why would you do that? What's your end game there? By posting someone's private information with the intent to harass and make their life miserable, they can actually file a civil lawsuit against you. It's very, very easy to file a civil suit against someone else. There's also the various other legal ramifications such as violations of personal privacy, harassment, and if you're actually wanting to follow through on those threats of violence, cyberstalking. -----

Also before you come at me and say "oh, you're neutral, you support proshitters", that doesn't make you look like the good guy man. I'm neutral because I'm just a guy that wants to play minecraft and I want to talk with my friends. jesus christ. EDIT: While you're here, I recommend taking a look at this post:

Pro vs Anti-shipping opinions from someone who is Neutral…and will get canceled on both sides anyway

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

"can it be, that you actually CARE about those creatures!? you are just as crazy as they are!"

and yeah, he sure does care. so let me present you, batman n' his 'creatures' aka you become forever responsible for what (who) you’ve tamed.

...

(i remember watching the lock-up ep as a child, and rooting for bruce to save the rogues. i always was a villain-lover type of kid, n' those 3 were one of my fav characters in the whole show, so naturally, i wanted them to be saved. but that aside, it also simply felt idk, ‘right’ for bruce to intervene? at that age, i didn’t fully understand the complexity behind the topic, but it was one of those episodes that stuck with me for years. it’s actually pretty mature for a kid’s show to show smth like that.

i honestly wish, that the ep was fully focused on inmates and/or bruce investigating the abuse vs how it went into bolton kidnapping gordon n’ other folks. but hey, what we got was nice too!  there is something very lovely about the hero protecting their villains from anti-heros/villain-slayers. it’s a thankless job, clearly. but they still put themselves in harm's way, bc they don't approve of the abuse/murder. even if it’s their enemies. *or in some cases* esp if it’s their enemies.

now about the art...

idk, if the first one *the meme itself* was already done for lock-up ep or not. i mean, probably? maybe? either way, if it was done before, now there is another version for it.

n' ah. the second one is kinda just happen'. i was thinking about batman hanging out with every villain, who was in that ep. and how different it would have been, if it was actually about idk, batman, his rogues n' bolton trying to kill/capture them all or smth like that, rather than how it went in canon. anyhow, batman still wins in the end *naturally* and tries bring them all back into arkham, which is.....yeah, it prob will be difficult. mostly bc no one wants to go back lol. harley wants to see her trash man the joker, jon want to gas the city, wesker *actually* wouldn't have minded to go back, but the scareface wanna do crimes. n' bolton doesn't think, that he did anything wrong, so clearly he doesn't wanna be locked up *hehe, get it* with crazies as one of them. so basically, batman's battle for justice slowly turns into pokemon hunt.

in other words, bruce will have a long night ahead of him, with crane yelling into his ear the whole time. f in chat for our man bruce. he really needs it.)

[venus-is-thinking]

DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 16: Initial Thoughts

Sorry for missing episode 15 :(

That being said, oh my god, Chapter 2 is actually complete! This is so exciting! I'm really hyped to talk about this episode and give my not-live summary of my live reactions!

SPOILER WARNING FOR DRDT THROUGH THE END OF CH 2!!!

CW: Murder, sacrifice, suicide

The Reactions

12-1, this time. I'm still personally partial to the extra vote on Teruko last Trial being Arei (being petty about her "I'm voting for you no matter what" thing), so I would assume Ace is the Teruko vote. If so, I do think it's interesting that he voted Teruko as opposed to, like, Nico. Then again, it might be that it's just more convenient for DRDTdev to consistently put the extra vote on Teruko, lol.

Notably, the dead people have "N/A," not 0. We probably could tell this because of Xander last time, but I didn't check. I wonder if this implies we won't ever need to vote for someone dead (ex. a mastermind who "died" earlier in the killing game).

I'm free... I can read whatever Eden says as genuine...

Take THAT, Whit time loop theorists /j

I do think it's funny/kinda telling? that Whit is only saying this after the trial is over. Like, I feel like the normal time to go "oh my god we're having another trial" is, like... when you find the body? So, it's interesting that his reaction is so delayed.

So, I don't know if this was an intentional parallel, but...

These feel similar to me. I really like the Ace/Arei parallels, where they're both chronically hated people, but Arei apologizes and tries to change whereas Ace lets the fear and paranoia consume him until there's no turning back. Ace only says this after he's already been found guilty of murder; Arei says this before promising to change her ways to the victim of her bullying.

Teruko out here hopping on that self-blame train.

It's so funny how different Hu's standards are when talking about Ace's murder vs. Nico's attempted murder. Like... Hu this is what everyone was telling you like an hour ago. What.

It's really interesting that we're highlighting this line. I wonder if this is part of a theme that we're going to explore further, maybe tied into the "all murderers have to be punished" thing. Or maybe Eden isn't actually accurate here, but doesn't know it; has Ace killed someone in the past?

Fun trick you can do here!

When we first met Teruko a week ago, she was the same person, certainly, but she was also different. She was happier, and she trusted people more.

There are so many good character parallels in DRDT. The Ace/Teruko one was really interesting in this post-trial.

Ooh, new flavor of J anti-murder! This seems to be broadening it to also being critical of the killing game, which would go against my weird hypothetical "J is anti-murderer but also the mastermind" read.

It's interesting, with how this is Ace's logic. It makes total sense for his character, though. I think it's easy for us, the viewers, to forget the fact that the characters probably don't have the precedent of "every blackened ever always loses." When Ace is running the odds, he thinks his survival odds were better as a killer than as a participant in the killing game. And y'know, considering how close he came to dying as Nico's victim, that's kinda fair.

I desperately want to know what Levi was going to say here.

I really like the fact that Ace DID care about Levi. That he intrinsically cares about him, but he knows factually that he isn't supposed to like or trust someone in a killing game. That once he killed Arei, he had to resolve to kill everyone in the killing game, even Levi.

The only way Ace knew to prevent himself from caring was to stay mad, I guess. Kinda unfortunate though, considering that I do think Levi wanted to patch things up with him genuinely.

Meanwhile, Levi, who doesn't understand emotions, is just like "man what the fuck. That makes no sense."

What a pair. I'm sad we're not going to get to see their dynamic anymore :(

In other words, I'm back on the Levi survivor train baby! My biggest problem with it before was that I thought Ace was gonna survive and I didn't think Ace and Levi were both gonna survive, so now we're locking tf in!

This is fun! I always wonder why more people don't try stuff like this. Like... shoot your shot. You're gonna die otherwise, soooo...

Great animation as always

I think it's really funny that Teruko is so fucking mad that she bullies Ace into action. Like, that's so fitting for both of them.

I love using this David expression here. He's just like, "was it that easy? Why was I trying to throw the trial then???"

aaaaAAAAAAAA--

What the fuck!! XF-Ture mention!!!!!!!!

I like the spooky vibe MonoTV has for this post-trial, but I do hope we get our normal silly lil guy back next chapter. I like the MonoTV personality we see all the time. I'm gonna miss it if it just died like that :(

I am also squinting so hard at everyone's reactions through "who is the mastermind" goggles. Maybe I'll analyze them in a different post sometime.

Fascinating purpose. Not "to create despair." Not "to run the killing game until only one participant survives." To kill everyone.

Does this include whichever mastermind?

Why does whoever programmed MonoTV want to kill all of these people? Are they being punished for something?

This countdown sequence fucked me up. The tensions and emotions are so high. Even as someone who was confident that Teruko, at least, wasn't going to die no matter what, I was so on edge. I got really scared that Eden was going to take the hit for Teruko, though, and that's what I was reading into when I wasn't sure Eden would make it to Chapter 3.

This speech, more than any other one Teruko has made or any actions she's taken or endured, really made me feel for Teruko. The fact that she can so casually talk about truly traumatic and horrific things happening to her, while smiling, truly shows how much she's grown used to it. Like, girl. You don't deserve this. What.

The character work on Teruko especially this episode is just fantastic. No words.

This panel stressed me out so bad because it was really just a question of WHO took the bullet for Teruko. Like, if she's thinking this, someone clearly did.

My bets were on either Eden, Charles, or Ace.

Levi, though, was such a surprise to see. Like, in a good way. It means so much.

First of all, it's a callback to the end of the prologue. Levi attacks MonoTV, and when MonoTV tries to kill him in response, Teruko's danger sense alerts her. It's only through Teruko warning Levi to move that Levi dodged the main attack, resulting in only an arm injury rather than death. Now, Levi returns her favor, preventing her from dying from attacking MonoTV.

Second, it puts Ace into the position we see of having to confront the possibility of Levi's death. I got the distinct sense that they wanted Ace to be able to do something heroic on his way out, to prove all the haters wrong (which is why I thought it was possible he'd take the hit for Teruko instead of Levi). By putting Levi, pretty clearly the person he cares most about, into harm's way, it makes Ace take action. It means that he HAS to confront the fact that he cares Levi, and that he has to die.

And, thirdly... I am so fascinated to learn why Levi did this. Was it as simple as a transactional, "you saved me from execution before?" Is it "I thought saving someone would make me a good person?" Does Levi actually feel some remorse for Teruko in this moment, causing him to take action?

No matter what his reasoning, I can't wait to hear from him. I strongly suspect Levi won't actually die from this (at the very least, I hope not, because I really want to hear more from him), but even if he does, hopefully we'll still get some more insight in a bonus episode or a flashback or something.

I'm trying to figure out what triggered Whit here.

This is immediately following "The elevator won't open," but it also definitely can just correlate to "[person] will die if they don't receive immediate medical treatment." I have to assume that something here is reminding Whit of his mom...?

With the weird "Whit knows a lot about hanging" earlier, I got the impression that Whit's mom probably hung herself. From this, I would probably theorize that Whit found her while she was still alive, but not quickly enough to save her. Yikes.

Anyways, I think that means everyone has some kind of despair sprite now! That's fun!

o7

I'm sure many have pointed this out, but do we think he's counting himself here (Arei + Ace + Levi = 3), or do we think he feels responsible for someone else's death in his past (probably Taylor)? I'd lean towards the second one.

Y'know, before I thought Arturo was just pressed about the surgeon thing because people were unfairly hating on him. This, at least, I think implies something relating to Felicity.

Arturo doesn't have any experience saving lives. He left, and Felicity died. He can't save lives; he's only responsible for Felicity's ending. I think that's how he sees it.

On a side note, I think there's a very definite possibility that Chapter 3 cold opens on Arturo saving Levi's life??? Like, how Chapter 2 started with Eden POV, I think Chapter 3 could start with Arturo taking his shot at healing Levi, eventually resulting in Levi stabilizing. I'm not sure who would be there with him. Possibly Hu, since she was leading the "let's get Levi to the infirmary" effort...?

I love executions like this. Accirax has said before that the best executions are what make their recipient feel the most despair, and that's definitely what they did with Ace here. Put the talent aside; fear is what Ace fears the most.

Uhhhh. I'm pulling an Accirax. Part 2 in reblog!

[germiyahu]

"If you describe a horrific and detailed act of racism committed by an IDF soldier or a Kahanist or other anti Arab extremist (say Baruch Goldstein's massacre), you'll find that a huge majority of Jews condemn him, his philosophy, his actions, denounce him and consider him a poor practitioner of Judaism"

No they don't, that's the whole fucking point.

Whenever IDF soldiers kill Palestinians the only reaction from Israelis you would get is them bringing up how military service is mandatory in Israel so you can't be mad at the soldier, how this is an extremely complex two-sided "conflict" where both sides are equally wrong and equally victims, how everything is the fault of the entire government of Hamas and Bibi (but just Bibi, they will never hold anyone else in the government accountable) and gaslighting people into believing that this is an isolated incident that doesn't normally happen and that the Israeli committing the crime will actually face any type of justice.

And this assuming that they would even acknowledge a crime has been committed instead of calling it "blood libel" and using what happens as a segue to talk about anti-semitism even more.

So you clearly don't know any Jews because Baruch Goldstein is one of the least controversial figures in Jewish history to condemn. Like, he probably has defenders in Israel but they're definitely a pretty small minority, and you'd be very hard pressed to find any diaspora Jews who approve of his crimes.

And aside from that, because yes people do defend the IDF when they are presented with similarly horrific sounding stories... but look what happens, most of these stories turn out to be exaggerated or completely false to begin with! This isn't about starry-eyed Jewish supremacy vs Muslims just doing an oopsie and they had good reasons for it, this is about truth. That's the key element. It's a little ridiculous to whine that Jews won't full throatedly condemn bombing a hospital and killing 500 people when that turned out to be a lie!

Baruch Goldstein was a terrorist, he factually provably committed horrific crimes. Osama Bin Laden was also a terrorist, he factually provably orchestrated horrific crimes. If you ask the average Jew to defend the former, they'd be equally as uncomfortable as if you asked the average Muslim to defend the latter. There are always going to be braindead terrorism fanboys in both groups, duh. I'm talking about the average person.

And here you are, deciding that no, the average Jew is a savage devotee to terrorism and genocide, just like every other Jew Hater online. It's becoming a bit stale. See that last part in particular, this is about a deep envious rage you feel that Jewish people "get away" with doing/thinking/saying "The Bad Thing" and you feel a need to bring them down a peg. You frame a very real thing (like blood libel is not trivial and Jewish people do not actually talk about it frivolously), as a privilege, a cheat code. You're jealous because you probably belong to a demographic that can't "milk" it's own historic oppression and tragedy, so you feel that Jews shouldn't "get" to.

But this is the real world, where exaggerating the alleged crimes of Jews is demonstrably linked with an increase in antisemitic rhetoric (check), harassment of Jews and Jewish institutions (check), and even violence (they just thwarted a planned terrorist attack in Brooklyn, very much the last roadblock to a liberated Palestine).

Anyway my point was that if you zoom out to more and more abstract concepts, a greater percentage of both Jewish and Muslim populations will probably support them. And I think it's telling that "a Jewish state founded on war and large violent population transfers" has a higher moral burden on it than "a Muslim state founded on war and large violent population transfers."

Ask a Muslim if they support "Pakistan exists" and how many would disagree? Realistically? But you dare act disgusted and shocked that a similar number and percentage of Jews support "Israel exists"? My entire question is why "This is a country that has done bad things and it exists amid ethnic conflict" is even on par with "this niche cult within a giant religion (literally they admitted to it) did a massacre on civilians."

If that's the moral equivalence then we're done here. I'm not playing games like that.

[bibibbon]

Hi, another idea. Delaware made a post talking about how Mina was anti gadget on the sport festival (she faced Aoayama who was wearing one, note how he doesn't anymore after that... maybe he does and I'm mistake) it was an Answer for an ask.

But it was noted how she think less of Aoayama and how no one in UA seems to care for Aoayama as a student till the big reveal.

It makes me think if Izu had a gadget...people would.hate on him. Many fics love make BK ruining his gadgets and I can see it but Mina went straight to the gadget (one may say that was a clever move on her part but it felt as if she was bullying him) so...I think if Izu was to use gadget ...he would be even more an odder duck.

I say this bc in my TTau. I want to have Izumi to wear gadgets to prevent her bones to shatter and we see A1 being shitty friends, ofc. Karma is coming to them.

Izumi sees how UA has no care in teaching how to use quirks and many heroes are content in use the basic. Mirio learned how to control his quirk alone (nighteye gets no credit here as he didn't lift a finger) and wonders what's the point in being a hero? Why do we need a hero anyway?

Hi @mikeellee 👋

I don't think mina is anti-gadget or she isn't anti-gadget on purpose, that is.

What I mean by this is that mina aimed for yuuga's belt because she thought it was the easiest way to take him out. Now, this is only fair as it definitely was the quickest way to win that fight as the problem with yuuga is that he is DEPENDENT on that support item and therefore he can't do much without it.

You can argue that her aiming for his support device is unfair, but that argument falls flat when the whole premise festival is to do whatever to win as long as it's not outright killing your opponent. The argument then falls flat again when you put this in a real-life villain vs. hero type of situation where people will do whatever, however cruel or nasty it may be, to win.

The thing is, yuuga still does wear his support item, but it blends in well with his hero costume, which is the only time he actually uses his quirk. The support item sticks out like a sore thumb when yuuga is in his sports kit, so maybe that's why you got confused.

I don't ever remember seeing mina stating or thinking that yuuga is less than her or anyone else because of his use of a support item.

Also, I think the lack of focus or care for yuuga before the traitor arc was both intentional and somewhat of a writing issue. Horikoshi deeply neglected the traitor plot surrounding yuuga, and because of that, we don't get much of yuuga or foreshadowing to his character arc. I also like to think that yuuga probably had a strong internal conflict within him due to the role he had to play and how he could never be who he wants to be due to the connections he has with AFO. Due to feelings of guilt and not wanting to cause harm by staying ignorant, yuuga probably tried and failed to distance himself from class 1A.

The argument kinda ends up falling apart when you do realise that in Canon izuku does have a gadget. Remeber the support item that Melissa made for his arm, yep izuku has that and he constantly wears it with his hero outfit and we don't see much comments on that.

All mights point to izuku was to not rely on support items which he has a point when it comes to that but does end up coming off as harmful advice if you take into account how All Might is as a character.

Again, I think it depends on the type of gadget that izuki would use for people to exploit it. Something such as his arm bands are okay because he can function without them, and honestly, the arm bands aren't easy to reach at all, not without izuku punching or hitting someone.

The TTAU sounds like a great way to tackle some of the issues that the narrative has. I do think that you should introduce a nuanced conversation when it comes to support equipment. Leading izumi to such a conclusion is also interesting because heroes are supposed to help, and hero schools are supposed to help you improve and strengthen your quirk, but ua does it with almost no direct support given to the students.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/772763169277034496/so-we-all-know-that-the-underage-sex-tag-is

The only fic I've ever used this for that wasn't rated E was one in which a character 1. had flashbacks to being raped when he was 13 to 16, during which he heavily dissociated/canonically thinks in a very scrambled, disoriented way 2. discussed it with his therapist and 3. slowly tried to navigate his feelings about having killed his rapist. The idea that I didn't need to check the box saying "Underage Sex" intrigues me, here, because... well, that feels like a thing that the readers should know about? And you can't just click "Rape/Non-Con" because that describes multiple characters in the cast and doesn't sufficiently let readers know whose experience we're going to be discussing, here. Only one character has had this happen to him as a kid, however, so checking that box made total sense to me as the author.

I guess I'm confused as to why your fic has to either be rated E or not use the "Underage Sex" label? Because if we're going to have this guy sit down with a therapist and go over how he hid the evidence, why he didn't come forward, how that was when he learned to switch off his feelings, etc., it's no longer in "Implied/Referenced Underage Sex" territory. The underage sex isn't 'referenced', it's the subject of entire chapters. Yes, the flashbacks to the physical event itself are rendered in that canonical scrambled way, but it's not as if the underage sex is something that's not integral to the plot.

Is the argument that unless the whole thing is on-screen in explicit detail, you can't use that warning? I can't really see the logic, here. Yeah, it's annoying when someone uses the warning for someone getting horny. That doesn't mean it doesn't apply to things that aren't rated E. It's rated M because it's a therapy fic and it's heavy, but it's not E, because there's no lengthy depiction of sex. Am I supposed to up it to E because any mention of underage sex automatically ups the rating?

That... feels kind of like what an anti would say, honestly. You know, that whole idea of sex as a topic being so taboo that if it's going to be discussed, it's gotta be rated E, lest the wee minors encounter it and get scarred for life or something. Even though M is already a rating higher than Teen, so it's not exactly being thrust out in front of kids, it's gotta get upped to E if we're addressing this topic at length?

IDK, maybe there's a nuance I'm missing here? Maybe it's a USAmerican vs. other rating systems thing. But personally, I'm of the opinion you can have underage sex in a story without it being E rated inherently. The idea every fic with that tag that's not E is mistagged seems very bad-faith. It feels like something you tell yourself so you can get more upset about the numbers than is really called for.

--

The 'underage sex' warning is for Australians with dumb laws.

It's so people don't accidentally read content that will get them slapped with legal consequences.

[honeycreammilkshake]

Reading your anons and your answers I think the problem with those fans is that they only accept a character if it's involved with satoru.

Like, apparently you are not allowed to like Sukuna anymore nor like both yuji and sukuna, but you were only allowed to like AND analyze Sukuna when he was fighting Satoru loool

I'm sorry but Sukuna is more than that, sukuna doesn't need THAT fight to be a character in his own, Sukuna also kept analyzing and having cool moments with other characters, just because your favorite character was dead doesn't mean other things stopped existing. This is one of those cases where fans keep thinking the manga is about some secondary character

hi, anon. thank you so much for this ask. i'm going to follow this up by making an unnecessarily long and ranty post nobody's going to bother to read, but i felt the overwhelming need to go in-depth for this anyways. apologies for the length of this.

to start off, i'm going to point out something that will probably get me a lot of hate or at least criticism from gojo fanatics, but i think it should be said for all those out there who keep twisting jkk to fit their own problematic concept of morals.

so we all know sukuna is the big bad of jjk. he's the main antagonist, the evil cannibal monster, a god of chaos and apathy and murder. i'm not here to argue against this, though. it's been clear from the beginning sukuna is a true villain in all of his actions and beliefs. however, we really need to look at the contexts behind how he became such a monster and consider if he's actually the most "evil" sorcerer/curse in the jujutsu world or not.

i'm going to address the underlying problem with the pro-gojo/anti-sukuna fans who twist the story to suit their own views first.

so gojo was born with a tremendous amount of power, so much that he's been branded the strongest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern age. he literally shifted the flow of cursed energy and from the start was set apart from others. it's truly terrifying how much power he has...

so it's a good thing he's a real sweet and caring guy, right?

if only.

gojo is irredeemably self-absorbed, unhealthily egotistical, obsessed with his own abilities, demeaning and insulting to others, brutal to his students and dismissive of their safety, and more than willing to commit mass murder.

when fighting with jogo, for example, he doesn't seem bothered at all by the massacre of innocent people during their battle, and is even willing to sacrifice bystanders all in the name of winning.

he's displayed this same kind of general apathy for the lives of others in his past as well.

in his past arc, it was geto who saved gojo from becoming an actual villain and instead managed to set gojo on the path of becoming the slightly less evil antihero he is today. however, after riko's death, the experience turned both of them on each other as they settled on opposite sides of "good vs evil."

without geto there to guide him, though, gojo would have easily lost his way and turned evil .... so where was a person like that for sukuna?

the jujutsu world is extremely heartless and obsessed with strength. the jujutsu higher-ups were willing to kill yuuji - an innocent teenager who just happened to become dangerously involved with the world of curses and the host of sukuna - as well as risk the health and safety of countless others, sorcerers and normal people alike. the whole jujutsu world is full of corruption and cold, cruel people.

but this is just in the modern world - during the golden age of jujutsu, in the heian era, conditions were even harsher and crueler than they are now. during this time, existence for regular people in japan was demanding, quality of life was very low, and so many died of sickness and starvation. the amount of curses that arose from all this suffering was immense and required the extreme powers of sorcerers to balance it out.

this is the context of sukuna's birth. he came into this world as a child of a starving mother and he himself would have starved if he didn't consume his twin in the womb.

during his conversation with kashimo, who asks if sukuna was born with that much power or if he gained it throughout his life, sukuna himself seems to not know. all he can say is... he was an unwanted wretch.

societal demands and religious fights back then would have led to an overwhelming stigma and dehumanization of anything that people feared or didn't understand... which probably means that sukuna, who was able to be born from the act of eating his own unborn twin, was seen as monstrous from the day of his birth on. and if he was indeed born with such strength and a body merged with that of his twin's, or at least the compacity to become that, he was also most likely villainized for his nature as well.

where gojo was more embraced and highly coveted by the jujutsu world, the world sukuna was born into most likely shunned him and led him to adapt the kind of mindset he has now.

sukuna sees strength as the only means of survival, rising above the cruelty shown to him to become the cruelest himself. this philosophy, which a lot of people at this time believed in - especially in the jujutsu world - shows us that sukuna probably saw his own really option to endure was to become a monster. those at the top are above all the weak feelings and suffering of the ones beneath, after all, or so he believes.

and it seems like so many of the strongest sorcerers still believe in that concept as well. both yorozu and gojo thought they could reach sukuna by challenging him, but in the end... only yuuji ever connected with the king of curses.

(yes i will fit sukuita in here... even if you don't ship them romantically, it's an undeniable fact that their relationship is much more complex than it seems and that yuuji does in fact care for the very monster he's supposed to destroy.)

when sukuna's dying in chapter 268, yuuji makes it clear that he's willing to serve the kind of caring, understanding role in sukuna's life that was most likely never given to him.

instead of dehumanizing sukuna, yuuji actually accepts that sukuna turned out to be the monster he is and says it was all a matter of chance how they became like this.

this a level of empathy, intimacy, and compassion that someone like gojo (and pretty much the vast majority of jjk characters) could never show. sukuna himself seems at a loss for words for this unbelievably caring treatment from yuuji - he's even surprised enough to use the brat's full name.

and i dislike that fans are starting to twist this interaction between them to make it fit their own views of sukuna and gojo.

look, i like gojo objectively. he's a fine enough character and serves an important role in jjk. i'm not against him or his fans, and i certainly don't want to hurt or make light of other people's feelings towards him. however, i do want to point something out that some fans should really know better. so many antis are against us sukuita shippers and/or sukuna fans and their main argument, over and over again, is how evil and monstrous sukuna is and that gojo is obviously better in every way. they claim that because gojo is on the side of good, it means sukuna is the worst in terms of morals (when villains like kenjaku are arguably just as terrible if not more so but dismissed so easily) we are delusional or wrong for sympathizing with sukuna.

so i would like to say to these people... please stop using these pallid, baseless arguments against us sukuna lovers because they're just so inaccurate and keep misunderstanding the whole story. it's more than okay to have your own headcanons and depictions of a fictional character, whether they're sukuna or gojo or any of the others - but do not force that depiction on others and do not force your interpretation of the source material on us just to appease your own opinions.

please be more respectful to others, please keep your own dislikes to yourself instead of lashing out at other fans you could instead just avoid, and please stop being so mean to gege. whether or not he makes gojo return should not be a reason to spread such hate about him. it's disrespectful towards both him and all writers who work so hard to make the content you treat so harshly.

thank you.

[problematic-yuri-poll]

Problematic Femslash Ship Tournament - SEMIFINAL

Despaircest - Junko Enoshima x Mukuro Ikusaba (Danganronpa Series) VS. DB - D-ne x B-ko (Shuuen no Shiori)

Info and propaganda under cut! This will not be spoiler-free.

Problematic elements for Despaircest:

twincest, abuse, murder, toxicity, codependency

Problematic elements for DB:

yandere, toxic, dependency, murder

--

Propaganda for Despaircest:

MUKURO HAS A CANON CRUSH ON JUNKO. SHES ALWAYS FUCKING BLUSHING AROUND HER AND SHIT. THEYRE SO GAY. JUNKO LITERALLY SAYS SHE KILLED MUKURO BECAUSE IT WAS THE MOST DESPAIR SHE COULD EVER FEEL. SHE FUCKING LOVED HER TOO!!!!! - Twincest for the win! Junko also constantly abuses/tries to kill Mukuro and Mukuro is totally Into it! Plus Junko literally ends up killing Mukuro so yknow doomed yuri. They are so toxic and codependent and when Junko DOES end up killing Mukuro, she gets off to it, and says she wishes she were Mukuro!!! - They're THE incest sisters - Despaircest is soooo dear to me bc I shipped this shit even AS an anti man. Being obsessed w Junko is so entwined w Mukuro’s whole character that you cannot simply IGNORE the incest. Like man I don’t usually like twincest but these two. They are awful. - despaircest propaganda that was too big for the post:

Propaganda for DB:

d-ne is a lesbian who lacks any sense of identity for herself and struggles to get close to anyone. she falls deeply in love with b-ko, who she deems to be perfect. when she finds out b-ko's "perfect" act is just a mask she puts on, she just falls for her even more. she doesn't care about anyone other than b-ko or what anyone but b-ko thinks of her. she puts b-ko on a pedestal and devalues herself, believing she could never be on b-ko's level. when the group finds the "bookmark of demise" and strange deaths begin occurring, b-ko gets scared and d-ne wants her to be scared so she can be the one to comfort her. d-ne then steals b-ko's first kiss! when the "demise game" starts, d-ne is given the monkey's paw which allows her to wish for anything, but at the cost of taking that thing away from someone else. she immediately starts making wishes that would allow her to "become more like b-ko". when she wishes to have eyes like b-ko's, a random girl who had earlier pointed out that her eyes match b-ko's gets in an accident where her eyes get taken away and magically transferred to d-ne, and d-ne just laughs and blushes over this. d-ne goes to visit b-ko, who won't open her door because she's so scared over the demise game, and when d-ne finally gets in, she hears b-ko calling out to a-ya (another character) for help. in a fit of delusion, d-ne decides the b-ko in front of her, who called a-ya's name, "isn't b-ko" and murders her, in the end, deciding to fully become and replace b-ko, believing she's "protecting b-ko" by doing this. then d-ne wishes for all her misfortune to disappear, which works, but since she's b-ko now, she dies at the hands of b-ko's doppelganger (the misfortune that b-ko had been dealing with during the demise game). honestly we need more girls like d-ne in the world

[asphaltasphodel]

(Please read all if you do read it, I promise I'm making a point<3)

No, Sabrina Carpenter did not set feminism back with her album cover. Just because it made you uncomfortable, doesn't mean what she did was wrong, you just didn't understand it. Really you didn't.

The cover has her on the ground on her knees in a sort of "dog" position with a man gripping the ends of her hair. The album title is called "Man's Best Friend". What is man's best friend? A dog. It is known that a man calling a woman a bitch is an act of misogyny. What is another definition of bitch? A female dog. Notice how the man is barely in the photo. The man is not the focus of the cover. It can also represent how it doesn't matter who the man is, all men can be misogynists; your brother, your boyfriend, your male friend, some random man on the street, a male politician, even your father. So Sabrina on her knees is the "bitch", her hair could be considered the leash, and the man is...well...a man. It is on-the-nose. It's supposed to be.

"It's not even satire!"

The definition of satire is "the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues." (note: humor is not always used to make light of situations, ex: political cartoons, the response to OceanGate and the jokes about 9/11) South Park is a great example of how satire can be on-the-nose and not be advocating for the problems it depicts. Another example is the TV series "Kevin Can F* Himself", it's a take on the hot-wife and idiot husband tropes often depicted in sitcoms. The show has two juxtaposing POVs:

The husband's POV: the classic bright light scene and a laugh track to accompany whenever he does an "oopsy" or makes a jab at his "nagging" wife. The husband is the focal point of most, if not all, of these scenes.

The wife's POV: the reality, the bright lights replaced with a dimmer filter, there is no laugh track and there is no husband. The husband is only part of this scene at the end when his "lights" finally come crashing down when the wife finally leaves him.

What does this have to do with Sabrina Carpenter? Well, from what we have heard from the upcoming album with her song "Manchild" and the accompanying music video, she doesn't necessarily show men in the best light. The entire song is just her calling them dumb. The term man-child is literally used to called men immature and insult them(rightfully so). The video shows men in ridiculous situations and not being what she needs(being useless) and wasting her time. This isn't her first time making fun of men either. She has literally killed a man with an elevator in the music video for "Feather"! Anyway... back to the point, she is no stranger to juxtaposition. She has a sweet aesthetic which is typical to a 50s aesthetic but contrasts that with ridiculing men and being independent from them. We'll see when the album actually comes out but why would she switch it up know?

"It's overly sexual!"

Do you not remember her Juno poses? I don't even listen to her music all that much and I have seen them. I don't know what you were expecting. There could be something to say about how artists these days feel like they have to be more erotic in their art, but I think that is less an individual issue and more a collective response to the more conservative political climate we are in currently(in the USA specifically). Personally, I don't think the cover is all that sexual anyway. Yes, I can see the k!nk aspect that some people are arguing for, but it feels like more of a background interpretation than the one Sabrina is intending for you to see. I do want to talk about pro-k!nk vs anti-k!nk at some point, but that will have to wait for another post.

"She is romanticizing 50s adverts that promote DV!"

I agree that she is referencing those adverts and that is the point! Referencing something harmful does not equal romanticizing it.

"But the Lolita references!"

The album cover itself was not a reference to Lolita. The magazine shoot she did with W Mag is a what you are talking about, which I could see as well and is an honest criticism. It was only one(1) photo out of many others that did not reference that. She did come out and respond saying she had not scene the movie. I don't blame her, it is not as popular of a movie as you may think. I haven't seen the movie in full and it was only a few scenes. The movie was a horrendous adaptation of the book and went against Nabokov's wishes. I believe her when she said she has/had not seen the movie. Maybe she's lying, maybe she's not. It has nothing to do with the album cover though.

"But the lyrics she sang!"

The lyrics you are talking about are when she was in Mexico on tour “I’m full grown, but I look like a niña / Come put something big in my casita / Mexico, I think you are bonita”. And honestly, fair enough. It's weird. She did not think that through. I don't know how much effort she puts into her outros. But again, it has nothing to do with the album cover.

Finishing thoughts:

There are things to hold Sabrina accountable for, but they don't have anything to do with the album cover, which was the initial complaint. Maybe I thought a little to deep on somethings and maybe you don't think she is smart enough to make intelligent references. This conversation is not black and white. Most things aren't. I understand not wanting to support people who don't hold the same values and beliefs as you, but this has turned into a witch hunt against primarily women(Sabrina Carpenter, Sydney Sweeney, Chappell Roan, Gracie Abrams, etc). You can be uncomfortable with things but that does not mean it is morally wrong. You have to step and realize that because you have a strong emotions, you are coming at it from a biased perspective. Which is not an inherently wrong thing to do, it just means you have to not jump to conclusions and actually sit with those feelings away from the internets input. And yes, your initial emotions can be right, but the immediate jump to "she's horrible" and "she hates women", is not the way to go. We live in a time where we all exist in an echo chamber of our own making, we only hear our own opinions repeated back to us and it has rotted out critical thinking skills. Please reads more books(support your local libraries!) and engage critically with the media you consume. Please remember that there are about 8 billion people on Earth and most of them don't want to watch the world burn and are simply human.

<3Thank You for Reading! I am open to discussion!<3

[enkays-den]

YEAH it's been rough ever since cub decided exile wasn't enough punishment. there have been times I've had to pause watching and remind myself that at the heart of it all it's a bunch of theatre kid friends playing a really intense game of cops and robbers and that, if nothing else, the poe vs no poe stuff seems to be pretty good for boosting the numbers of hermits like jevin and cleo and joe who aren't in the spotlight as much.

(...also might be occasionally going back and watching the clip of skizz talking about that time he threw a burning pallet at a cop. for enrichment, lmao.)

I haven't really watched hermitcraft before this season so I don't know how their plotlines work but it seems to have been majorly ramping up lately, so maybe it'll be resolved soon? my personal hope for the endgame is that skizz and poe skizz duke it out somehow and poe skizz gets booted from his body exorcism style /hj I keep thinking about the phrasing of skizz saying that as regular, non-poe skizz, he's "allowed" to be happy to see cleo when they got home from exile...

anyway, tl;dr, I super feel you on the discomfort with the storyline at the moment, so fingers crossed things settle down soon! love your posts and hope you have a great day!

THIS IS ALL METAFICTION, NOT A STATEMENT ON THE HERMITS AS CONTENT CREATORS OR STORYTELLERS

yeah, i think that the anti-poe movement hasn't been unified at all, no fault to them, but the POE rn just seems like a very Brick Wall concept in terms of narrative, especially with cub at the helm. The oppressive, conformist government department is just wayyyyyy too easy of a villian to play, and the first step to confronting a force like that is you need the numbers and the motivation, and right now it's mainly been scattered mild defiance. I will have more concrete thoughts once we have a few episodes with skizz in exile and grian and scar in the mainland, as well as having two powerhouses like Joel and False exiled.

With Cub permanently in Exile, just killing him doesn't solve the problem, because he just comes back. He doesn't care if he blows up or the things he builds are destroyed, he's the perfect apathetic villian. Combined with the fact that he has lackeys to drop him supplies whenever he needs it, Cub is just this pit for the exiles to throw their time and resources into until they tire out or give up, and just slink away into the wilderness and not give in to the POE's demands.

I know Joe is trying to connect the two spawn points, and honestly i think he could ally with doc if he presents it as a way to get out of the conflict he's been "dragged into".

I think that contacting "Upper Management" might be the way to go here, because it's basically a way to nerf the POE somewhat. The idea is that the POE are somehow the authority and power here, but who gave them that right? The right to move spawn 30 million blocks away and start sending the hermits to permanent time out? (ignoring the meta for a moment). Another boss. The only thing that validates the POE's power is the POE itself, and once they lose that identity, it just exposes that it's all a bloodthirsty power play.

I love Skizz, but i think slowly 'losing' his friends is the perfect price to pay for mindlessly doing what is told of him. The mans isn't even involved in the discussion of exiling, he just sees the aftermath and says "those brutes need to be punished" without knowing what was even done. He didn't even get told that Ren and Cleo trapped the basement, he just assumes they're an enemy because he's told so. Skizz didn't show compassion or care for his fellow Hermits or give them the benefit of the doubt when told to go on a headhunt, why should he be given that luxury in return?

He's the most likely to go "hold on a sec" when FINALLY directly witnessing Cub's relentless campaign against those exiled, because skizz is a softie that likes his friends, but it will be hard to tell who's at the helm now that Poe skizz lost his sexy sexy accent.

but yeah ACAB. Legal does not inherently mean good; illegal does not mean immoral; laws are a manmade way to enforce compliance with the threat of violence as a consequence, and not inherent rules about how people should act. Catch me in a Joe Hills stream for the next while.

[shoot-i-messed-up]

Hi! I’ve read some of your fics and love how you write the characters. I’m new to Dc and want to know more about superman before the movie comes out. If it’s not too much trouble, could you give me some comic recs and a brief summary of his personality?

Hiiiii!!!! I’m so glad u like my characterization, that’s like my number one priority when writing fics!

A lot of different people have a lot of different ways they interpret Superman, but my general take is this: he's neither the mild-mannered reporter nor Superman the Man of Steel deep down but a secret third thing. he's Just A Guy but he also represents the best of humanity. he's both incredibly human but also feels alienated (literally) because of his heritage but also his heritage is how he protects his new home. at his core, he's an immigrant story and an anti-fascist story. he was created by two sons of Jewish immigrants like, right before WW2 started. he's in love with Lois Lane, who not only may be the only person who can match his freak but is in fact freakier and he loves her for that. he doesn't kill because he believes in second chances. just underneath that mild-mannered exterior is a hell of a lot of dorky charm, and under that is a brilliant mind, and under all that is a steely determination to believe in the best of everyone and to fight for a better tomorrow.

I can tell u more abt Superman but I do want to give a disclaimer that out of all the Superman media (movies, television, animated series, etc.), I’m probably the least qualified to talk on his comics specifically, but if u want to learn more about him specifically before the Superman movie (which I’m SO so excited for!!), then we have a really good starting point with the official Superman box set, which recommends All-Star Superman (2006), Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986), Kingdom Come (1996), and Superman For All Seasons (1998).

I haven’t personally read All-Star Superman and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow because the former has an animated movie adaptation (which was solid!) and the latter of which I just haven’t gotten around to yet.

Kingdom Come, however, I have read, and I think it’s maybe one of the best comic books ever, it’s a fucking literary masterpiece. BUT I would also hesitate to recommend that because it’s super complex and relies a lot on the assumption that readers know who most of the characters are from prior knowledge, which might be difficult for newer fans. However, it is, again, one of my favorite comic books EVER hands down, and I read it when I was fairly new to DC too, and it permanently changed my brain chemistry. So. Highly recommend but also, be warned! The basic premise is that decades into the future, Superman comes back into the public eye after exiling himself becasue he felt like Earth needed a new type of superhero that he couldn't be, and then he and Batman get into an ideological battle trying to win over both the OG superheroes and a bunch of "next gen" characters while also simultaneously fighting the Mankind Liberation Front. Super duper awesome.

I've also read Superman for All Seasons, and it was pretty great for characterization and showing what I think is a very classic, back to basics version of the Superman lore, it didn't make an impression on me as some other Superman comics. It's basically set up so that four characters who are really imporant to the Superman mythos (specifically: Pa Kent, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, and Lana Lang) all give their perspectives on Superman through narration.

Okay that wasn’t terribly helpful so I’m gonna move on to my actual recommendations:

MUSTS:

Superman vs. The Elite (2012) // Action Comics #775 "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" - I'm honestly a bit shocked that this isn't included in the box set because I personally feel like it's a super influential Superman story on par with WHTHMOT, but I feel like the movie adaptation is much, much better (Superman vs. the Elite) than the original comic. I hear a lot of speculation that the Superman movie is also going to take inspiration from this story because it's basically Superman going up (both physically and ideologically) against a team of dark, gritty superheroes who kill, a parody of all those edgy teams from the 2000s before they even existed. Very very much recommend the movie!! It's maybe the best Superman movie ever imo.

Superman Smashes The Klan (2019) - I'm a little less surprised that this isn't in the box set because this is very much A Specific Take on Superman. This book has THE most compelling plot and immigrant allegories because Superman gets continuously paralleled and contrasted against a Chinese family moving into a 1950s Metropolis. And yes, he gets to punch the KKK, going back to his roots as both a fundamentally immigrant story and an anti-fascist story.

ALSO REALLY GOOD:

Superman: American Alien (2016) - I treat this shit like a Bible tbh. If you like my characterization, you'll probably also like American Alien's. It's sort of an origin story, sort of not, in the sense that each issue is sort of a "snapshot" of a point of Clark's life, beginning from when he was a child and when he starts to actually become the Man of Steel.

Supeman: Birthright (2003) - I really really enjoyed this comic. Really compelling drama between Clark and both sets of his parents, the biological Kryptonians (Jor-El and Lara) and the adoptive humans (Ma and Pa Kent). Basically an origin story of young Clark struggling with both his Kryptonian heritage and him wanting to make it as a journalist.

Superman: Red & Blue (2021) - this is basically more of an anthology of little short scenes of writers tackling different aspects on Superman with wildly varying tones and art styles and universes. There are stories in here that imo are more compelling than others but some are really REALLY compelling (the one where Superman was tortured by a Soviet Union dude and after the Cold War goes to interview him as Clark Kent comes to mind). More of a mixed bag than an actual plot, which is why it's lower on the list here.

DC: The New Frontier (2004) - this is more of an ensemble cast, even more so than Kingdom Come, than Superman-centric, but I still think it's pretty good reading for the Superman movie since I've heard some speculation that phase 1 of the gunnverse might take some inspiration from this story. And it's a very enjoyable read!! The movie is also pretty good, but in this case I think the comic > the movie (though the movie's pretty good too)

OTHER MEDIA:

Superman: The Animated Series (1996) - one of the most influential DC animated series, probably right under Batman TAS.

Superman: The Man of Tomorrow (2020) - probably one of my favorite origin stories for Clark, even if AFAIK it's a direct acaptation of any one origin story from the comics. Very good allegories + commentary on immigration and xenophobia.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993) - okay this one I just personally really like so that's why I'm putting it here. This live action television show has my personal favorite versions of Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and their combined chemistry of Clois. I somewhat hesitate to put it on here because this show does a little less of the straight up "comic book"-y stuff, and it's a less "accurate" adaptation than others perhaps, but I still think it's absolutely true to the "spirits" of the characters, and if u like my characterization. well. this is another piece of Superman media I take a lot of inspiration from. (wow that was a lot of quotations)

@/jesncin's various Superman fancomics - I will never shut up about how these r extremely good takes on Superman, Asian Lois, and the immigrant allegory. These are fancomics, but I think DC should hire them immediately.

aaand yeah!! if anybody else has recommendations, feel free to sound off in the notes, but these r mine <3