#it’s so silly. hashtag me hashtag expecting

[officialvillain]

kind of obsessed with this ford roleplay account on twitter

[nyx-the-alien]

First of all….who hates women?

[mymelodyisme]

Lay down with me all night...I'll make sure your all warm~

(Am I flirting good? LOL)

😭 well you have me smiling like a doofus and I am VERY embarrassed. You guys are funny I wasn’t expecting anyone to take me seriously!! Actually you have me thinking about I suppose my latest fixation 👹 but I’ll spare you those thoughts.

[starburstminibot]

Hey, anon who asked bout the "how things were before Breakcheck was born"

First of all: I read the tags, don't ever apologise for info dumping, I love the dump and will eat it all. I am thoroughly enjoying this au and would love to read/see more of it

Secondly: It's quite alright for not doing art, as much as I do enjoy your art very much and love to see how you draw these characters, I also very much enjoy reading about it

Thridly: You are so right, the writers dont know shit and you get it alot mlre, and i LOVE how you are writing the issues between the 'Cons and 'Bots. Like there is sooo much they just, didn't explain. Megs being the one to become good and the other cons are left to be the bad guys??? PUH-LEASE

And even if they were to no longer be the bad guys, there is SO MUCH to their relationship that is skimmed over, like, c'mon

Anyhow, eating up your au OP. Breakcheck is best boy and I love seeing this goober and his story on my feed, writen or drawn out

Do not give me permission to yap bc i will not stop and you will regret it I promise /lh

IM SO FERAL??!>{£|! OUGHH IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT SO MUCJ BC IM GOING INSANE THINKING ABOUT IT

Also… I’m going to give possibly a hot take and it’s that Earthspark genuinely pisses me off sometimes. Because how dare they introduce such an interesting concept of a post-war setting with a redeemed Megatron and complex Decepticon/Autobot relationships and expect me to care about the Terrans.

I still like the Terrans, i think they are so silly goofy, and I like the idea of new characters to explore. But THE BACKGROUND PLOT IS SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING TO ME. The human alliance that turned out to be anti-cybertron??? Mandroid literally killing bots and experimenting on them?? grimlock getting mind controlled and having ptsd??? The rest of the Decepticons fighting for power and seething in rage of their leader’s betrayal??? Megatron trying to navigate his new life while being repentful of his past actions while also not crumbling under the guilt of his mistakes??? The fact that they are stranded on an alien planet and can’t go home?????? STARCREAM’S ABUSE GETTING RECOGNIZED????

they keep introducing these really interesting plots and then abandoning them for the sake of the Terrans getting more screentime.

I think these things would be easier to juggle if there weren’t so many of them tbh. I would rather just have Twitch and Thrash be these new Cybertronians that can guide the viewer through these complex plots because like us, they weren’t around for the war. They have a fresh untainted perspective on life.

(Dont get me wrong, I love Hashtag, JB, and Nightshade, but sometimes it feels like there isn’t enough screentime to flesh them all out and they end up getting characterized to one singular trait) (if all of them are around, I would rather them have their own focus show without the background plots of Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, ect.)

Also they are REALLY trying to hit the family theme over our heads. They keep saying “family this family that” but deadass they talk about being a healthy family more than they actually act like it. Show me how much they love each other instead of putting it in every other line of dialogue.

Ok that is all, I didn’t mean to go on such a rant LMAO. I still like Earthspark, just sometimes it feels like they are trying to be two different shows and they are stuffing more into the plot than they have time to flesh out. (Breakdown, Starscream, and pretty much all the Decepticons deserved better)

[blue-boxes-magic-and-tea]

today we start reading part two of lockwood and co’s the screaming staircase!!!

to celebrate here are some noteworthy moments from part one! [beware of spoilers!!]

there is a lot of incredible world building in this first part, but one of the bits i keep thinking of is how much these kids not only think about death, but are quite literally surrounded by it. they are constantly being informed by death around them. this is heavy emotionally intense labor that we’re expecting out of these kids

lockwood is a Silly, and he loves teasing lucy this is incredibly important information to me thank you for sharing this jonathan stroud

again with the world building, kind of crazy how pervasive the problem is that you see preventative measures in everything. we had a fun discussion about this in the discord too

okay lucy tell me how you really feel - but also the way his warmth for her is described (even when she is incredibly clueless) is so sweet to see. like talk about a crazy quote

this is an incredible closing scene like HELLOOOOO??? i’m obsessed with the dramatics like this would’ve had me HOOKED as a kid!!

these are just some of the moments that really stood out to me while reading (i had several more too but just to not make this post a million years long ya know) - i’d love to hear other ppls top moments from part one. but also YAY PART TWO HERE WE COMEEEE!!

-

i’m reading Lockwood and Co as part of a book club. this week we read part two of The Screaming Staircase! you can join the discord here, or post on tumblr w/ the hashtag lockwood library to join in!

[justmenoworries]

Transformers EarthSpark Season 2 Spoilers

If I had to describe S2A in one word, it would be: Disappointing.

Others have said this before me, but if you were a fan of S1 this most definitely isn't the show for you anymore.

S2A is so far inferior to S1 in every conceivable way. The animation, the characters, the story, it all just feels so half-assed. Every single interesting concept S1 introduced, S2A either mangled beyond belief or flat-out erased from existence.

The few new interesting things that do come up in S2A don't last long and/or are underdeveloped.

Tensions between humans and Cybertronians? Never mentioned. All the racism died with Mandroid and GHOST, I guess.

The Terrans' connection to Quintus Prime? Pfft, you're still on that? It's all about the Quintessons now, keep up nerd!

Starscream's development and start on the road to recovery from trauma? Gone. He's back to being the villain now for no reason whatsoever. He murders two actual children. What, did you think we were still doing that silly nuance thing from S1? Lol, sucks to be you.

The ongoing theme about the Transformer War not being as black and white as history would have people believe? Ummm, ackshually, the Decepticons are inherently evil and irredeemable. The Autobots are saints and have never done anything wrong or questionable, ever. Ignore the prison complex from last season that performed unethical experiments on prisoners of war. Y'know that same one that the Autobots knew about and supplied with Decepticon prisoners.

Spitfire and Aftermath are interesting in theory, but S2A doesn't really do anything with them besides making them the generic Evil Twin characters to Twitch and Jawbreaker respectively. And then Starscream murders them for his evil masterplan, which feels like a colossal waste.

I've been saying since S1 that it would be interesting to have a Terran actually choose the Decepticons over both the Autobots and the Maltos. It would've been a neat way to explore the family dynamic the 'Cons have compared to the Maltos and maybe show that just because a family is different from yours, maybe not as physically affectionate or as instantly harmonious, doesn't mean it's worse. We had a good start with Aftermath and Breakdown but that never really goes anywhere before Starscream does a Fuck Them Kids.

The Decepticons are just evil again now. Great. I guess we're completely throwing the "history isn't black-and-white" thing out of the window, huh? That whole thing where it was implied the Decepticons were rising up against an unjust system a la Aligned continuity and IDW? We kind of had a very significant confrontation between Megatron and Shockwave about that in that one episode that even explicitly referenced IDW? Or how about the whole "This is not freedom" plot line about how mayyybe throwing every Decepticon in the slammer forever might be, just might be, bad? We had a whole episode about that? Soundwave was in it?

Nah, 'Cons are unambiguously evil. Always. Especially that no-good Starscream. "What Dwells Within" and "The Last Hope, Part 2" might as well have never happened, because Starscream sure as hell doesn't act like they did. He barely even interacts with Hashtag. "Come on, did you expect Starscream to be a good guy now?" No bitch, I expected believable character development. I find it hard to believe that the same Starscream who saved Hashtag from the Cybertronian equivalent of a vampire, at risk to his own life, and then told her to take care of herself as a good-bye would just suddenly go back to the same moustache-twirling evilness we'd be expecting from G1 Starscream. You expect me to buy that this guy is the same Starscream as the one who showed up with the entire cavalry to save the world in the S1 finale?? Why go through the trouble of giving Starscream an entire episode going into his trauma and abuse and learning to be better if this is all it amounts to in the end??? At least show us how it happened? What made Starscream suddenly completely regress like that??? I don't know and the way it's going I don't think EarthSpark is all that interested in explaining it.

The Maltos remain a criminally underdeveloped hive mind. And no, I don't consider adding even more powers to their arsenal character development. Robbie and Mo still don't have any friends outside of their siblings and this season did nothing to change my mind on the cybersleeve connection being borderline creepy and making the characters co-dependent. "The Butterfly Effect" basically showed us all the reasons why having your siblings in your head 24/7 with no way to turn it off would actually suck. Cybersynching is so obviously combining with a new coat of paint and it's not even used or utilized that much in this batch.

We did not need the Quintessons in this season. At all. They added nothing except implying that Quintus Prime is shady af. Which, we been knew? The whole of "Prime Time" is literally Quintus torturing a little girl for being upset her big brother is sick and probably dying. If you wanted to explore Quintus through one of his creations seeing him in a much less benevolent light, well, how do I put this? There were two whole new characters added this season you could've done this with. Aftermath and Spitfire not being in the "We Love Quintus Prime" club together with the rest of the Terrans would make sense, since they're far more rebellious and anti-authoritarian. That would've given them something interesting to do besides being minor nuisances to the Delightful Maltos from Down the Lane.

I've heard that EarthSpark isn't doing well both in ratings and in toy sales and after that first batch I can see why.

The show is not all bad, but legit none of these characters are developed enough or distinct enough that I could see a kid wanting a toy of them. And that goes double for older fans.

The writers messed up big time and I honestly don't know if I'm gonna stay and see if they fix it in S2B.

[yeah-alright-brill]

Chris Skelton tribute Zine

!CALLING ALL CHRIS SKELTON FANS!

For many, next Valentine's day will be a day for celebrating love and relationships and all things romantic... however for those of us in the know, the 14th of February means something quite different...

Next Valentine's Day, 2025, will mark 50 years since one Christopher Daniel Skelton was killed in the line of duty in 1975, and sent to purgatory to work for Gene Hunt. To mark this special occasion, I'd had it in mind to put together some sort of tribute to a character who's come to be important to me, and other fans of LoM/A2A too.

I'd love to put together a zine dedicated to Chris. I'm opening it up for fandom collaboration because I'm super inspired by fan-projects of the past, including the Ashes to Ashes commemorative fanzine '9;06' from back in the day, and I think it could be really fun, and I've seen so much cool creativity in this fandom!

Submissions could include fanart, fanfic, comics, poetry, non-fiction writing or still-image edits! I'd like this project to be super accessible, and as a very lo-fi digital-only free publication, no submission is too small, and you can submit as many things as you'd like. It's about celebrating a fictional character and what he means to each of us, however we want! go serious, go silly, and have fun! the result would be a downloadable PDF, with copy also published to Ao3.

The submission deadline is the 1st February, giving me (and anyone else who wanted to be involved with editing) two weeks to compile and finalise the Zine for a release date of the 14th February 2025: that's exactly two months from now, (1st December) hence the announcement today. Compared to big for-sale zines that's not very long, but as I said I want this to be a casual, accessible project.

I'd be putting together my own tribute regardless, but I wanted to open it up for community collaboration because I think it could be really fun, and from what I've seen, I recon there's others here with an appreciation for Chris and and a creative flare.

For any and all ideas, discussion and submissions, use the hashtag #chris skelton zine. If you fancy, @ me too, as obviously I'd love to hear it. This is my first time ever organising something like this, so I'm not entirely sure what to expect. If this sounds cool, please also consider reblogging to spread the word as far as possible. :)

[afniel]

You know, I'm going to admit up front that I thought neo/xenogenders were kind of silly, because everyone starts somewhere and that's where I started. I didn't really get it. Like, how do all these various things correlate to gender? I couldn't imagine and it definitely didn't apply to me. I never said anything rude to anyone about it because that's dick behavior and I don't need to understand something to behave respectfully about it, but I definitely privately had opinions on it that weren't tremendously generous.

But recently I was staring into my computer, which has a very slick black and white case and glass and RGB lighting. And then also I was looking at cool IRL robots and cool fictional ones. And I was thinking, "Damn tho, hashtag gender goals, I wish I could look like that in some capacity and it sure is a nice feeling when friends refer to my shit in computer terms."

And then I thought, "Me, you fucking idiot, that's a xenogender you are identifying so much with. You are literally sitting here thinking, in all seriousness, 'yeah honestly my gender is like 10% computer and/or robot,' and you are not putting two and two together worth a damn. Congratulations on your new concept of your gender and also that you finally learned to count to four, but you clearly need to go recalibrate an opinion here."

So that sure is a fucking thing. The point being, sometimes you just be sitting there and realize that you do get it, it totally does apply to you, and maybe you can learn a new thing about yourself when you least expect it.

(Also I don't think I'm going to be able to replace my meats with RGB lights anytime soon but I can dream.)

[smahell]

the new otaku fm series: my expectations and jubilations

first of all

OH MY FUCKING GOD YESSS THANK YOU THANK YOU DEVS FOR LISTENING TO US OH MY FUCKING GOD

MY FUCKASS RANT WASN'T FOR NOTHING YESSS

i couldn't give less of a SHIT that you have to listen to those goddamn audios I don't CARE im not giving solmare money but I AM GOING TO LISTEN TO THIS 🔥🔥🔥🔥

otaku fm is what genuinely got me interested in the series.. finding it made me genuinely motivated to play and learn more about the behind the scenes work of voice acting. putting a light on the talent behind a series is a great way to get people on the bandwagon. kudos, solmare.

i'm going to very much assume that it's going to be formatted similarly to the two previous season, 45 mins long and posted monthly, with Kada and another voice actor in each episode in the order that the asmr comes out. so I'm going to also assume that the first episode will be with Yamashita Kazuya (the VA of Lucifer) .

i shall wait patiently for the sumi-san episode because I would love to see kada completely bounce off the walls trying to get everything under control..

im hoping they bring back the twitter/facebook messages through the hashtags because i have a feeling there are so many fans that'd love to send them messages (me <3), as well as bringing back a toast in hells kitchen. again it was so nice just seeing the vas chat about their lives and it makes them feel like they're more than just voice actors for a silly little game, but real fucking peoe who put their passion and effort into voice acting, even if i think the fandom casts them aside a lot.

again im SUPER excited for this new season, with hopefully new events, new information about the game, and much more! for live updates on the new otaku fm season, keep a look out for new information on the official obey me twitter :D

[worldclueless]

Much to discuss after the weekend it seems. Buckle up cause this is a long one.

After the Brazil GP, a lot of swirling thoughts I’ve been feeling for the past few months made themselves apparent. 

First things first: Formula 1 and by extensions some of its fans, are incredibly tolerant to concerning behavior. 

The concerning behavior of bigotry (specifically racism) continues to permeate the sport like a moldy sock. Putting up some hashtags and PR statements do very little to address the issue. 

Through press conferences that have grown to become a soapbox that he could speak unchallenged through (cause for some reason journalists prefer not to really do their job nowadays), Max has positioned himself to be some sort of persecuted figure (???). 

The latest boogeyman is the British bias that Max and RedBull harp on about and how they favour most (a very important distinction as POCs receive no such grace) British drivers. 

He’s able to go on and on and on about how persecuted he is by the British media without an ounce of irony or perspective. What’s worse, he’s enabled by RB and its fans, again, without an ounce of irony or perspective. 

The way in which he is treated with kids gloves at times is truly stunning. His comments about ‘having the wrong passport in the paddock’ were distasteful. Point blank. Just utterly distasteful to have those words uttered by a white Dutch man with a Belgian passport. And for some reason, his fans do their very best to be extremely dense as to why it was so distasteful. 

And then he throws a hissy fit for his right to say swear words. I think it’s personally dumb to police drivers over silly things like this, but the way in which Max is more passionate about swear words than, let’s say, kneeling with a fellow driver over police brutality…I don’t know, the reaction is different. 

In contrast, the head of the FIA was willing to ban Lewis for 6 races after a joke about being black. I have to emphasize (because it’s so fucking insane) the head of the FIA, Jean Todt, considered banning Lewis for SIX (!!!!) races because he joked about being black (and it was a popular Ali G joke mind you). 

Like, do you seriously think being able to say a swear word is the sword to die by and make yourself a martyr over? Do you think me, with my black, melanated self gives a fuck if you can say ‘fuck’? 

Furthermore, when I think of the way some fans speak about Lewis, it’s also the specific wording that is always used when they speak about Lewis. Lewis has grown so much (as if you were talking about a wayward child and not a 39 year old man) or Lewis is such a class act (always setting him to a higher standard and expecting him to take the high road) or Never liked Lewis before but I really am starting to now (strangely is always said after he is charitable to others who spew venom in his face).  

RB and its fans, have absolutely no leg to stand on about being persecuted when their environment can tolerate racism. Additionally, they continue to host and tolerate the presence of Nelson Piquet who was blatantly racist to Lewis. Max was able to fix his mouth after his Brazil win to make himself the victim of discrimination by the British press again, and then go celebrate with his Bolsonaro-supporter girlfriend and her racist father without an ounce of pushback from any of the journalists. Like, do I need to spell out the dynamics at play here? 

When teams are hosts to figures like Trump and Rogan, are we really surprised that racist and discriminatory actions amongst fans is able to happen when the messaging is clear: we can tolerate this. 

And unfortunately, it’s true. Fans can tolerate it cause to put it bluntly: y’all do not give a fuck. 

The journalists continuously fail to critique the ways in which this racist sentiment is able to insidiously thrive within the F1 environment. 

That’s why I’m just so skeptical of messaging that is pushed by new fans that ‘F1 is for the girlies.’ Which girlies exactly? Certainly not for me. 

This makes me think of Kenzo Craigie. I was delighted to see him and Lewis interacting and going for a hot lap. I loved seeing Kenzo so excited about meeting someone that looked like him and was so successful in his field. It was such a powerful moment. But it left me with a pit of anxiety in my stomach. That’s because Kenzo seemed like such a bright-eyed and eager boy.

When I saw the BBC interviews of Lewis as a child, I never actually saw a happy young boy. There was always deep sadness I detected in his voice when he spoke of his experiences as a young black racer. Recently, after Lewis spoke about suffering from depression that stemmed from the racist abuse he suffered as well as the high expectations placed on him, this confirmed my suspicions. 

Kenzo, in contrast, through my limited viewings of his interviews, seems relatively happier in his demeanor. And this is what I fear. I fear the way in which F1, its fans and the FIA will stomp out the light in his eyes. I don’t want to see this happy young black boy have his joyful spirit stomped on by an unrelenting organization. What’s worse, his Britishness will not shield him from any of the British bias (lol) that fans screech about. 

Bigotry will always thrive if there isn’t continuous action to address the problem, and I have zero faith in the FIA stepping up to meaningfully take action. 

Anyway, I think I’ll only stick around so long as Lewis is around cause I don’t think there’s much for me here as a young black woman. This sport would never love me back.

[thegorgonist]

this is maybe a silly question. how do you go about getting represented by an agency as an illustrator? i dont expect you to have the one true definite answer of course. but i was curious of your artist career journey!

Not a silly question! And you're right, I don't have the one true definitive answer, but I do have some insight! The honest answer is--you look up agencies, read their submissions policies, and contact them! Find someone looking to rep what you're looking to have repped, send some nice emails, and wait. There are a lot of rejections in publishing/illustration, and you'll probably face some here. It's terrible but not personal, it's just a lot of people trying to find the right match! Some people participate in portfolio days, submissions events, and hashtags like #kidlitpostcard day on twitter and get "discovered" that way. My own personal answer is weirder. I was supposed to be doing that, but I was also building a career making art prints/merch and selling directly at comic/anime conventions--and that put me in front of some agents. I also went to SCBWI (society for children's book writers and illustrators) conferences and paid for seminars/participated in portfolio shows that got my work directly in front of editors and agents. The conventions were actually where things happened for me. In the same year (I think? Around 2015-2016) I was tapped for a panel at ECCC called Hire That Woman! And I was the only illustrator, so I met some awesome comics writers. I hit it of great with one of them and we ended up developing a book together and pitching it--and my dream publisher picked it up! I also met an agent at ECCC who was interested in repping for picture books AND graphic novels at a time few kidlit agents were comfy with comics. I signed with her, and we've been working together ever since! I owe so much to Mairghread Scott (who wrote The City on the Other Side, my debut gn) for dragging me out of obscurity and getting my work in front of a publisher--who did have my on their radar but that was the clincher. My story is a combo of luck and making my own luck--I was making comics, indie picture books, tons of illustration, and children's book portfolios constantly, so I was prepared with manuscripts and ideas when someone did tap me. But the truth is, I am not a confident person and have crushing insecurities that I try not to let escape onto the internet, so I was too scared to send emails to agencies for years. When my current agent approached me, it was pretty much the exact month I'd promised myself to start doing it. I'm terrible at asking for advice and approaching people who have more experience than me (eldest sibling syndrome) so I try to make up for that by being helpful when someone reaches out to me!

[vani11a-ice]

So, any unpopular opinions about Star Wars Legends that you have? I'm perfectly willing to listen.

Lmao hi, I didn’t expect to see you here! I really liked your Mara Jade criticism/analysis, and I saw your thoughts about my silly little hashtags—off topic to the ask but yes I definitely agree it’s too late to do anything with Mara Jade now given her story already concluded in Legends/EU verse, not to mention Disney now own the rights so that couldn’t even happen. If she were rewritten however she definitely could be far greater of a character.

As for your kind ask, when it comes to Star Wars EU there’s a lot to unpack because there’s so much content, but I guess I can give an overall opinion to make it more concise (But brace yourself, I will be yapping quite a bit anyways on here lol).

I generally love Legends. I grew up mainly with the central Lucas canon many years before Disney acquired the franchise: obviously the movies and 2008 clone wars series, and then some small EU content such as video games and some children’s comics/books before I even knew what the EU was. Because of this, I think it’s easy for me and many others to look back on the old stuff and be nostalgic for it.

But now that I’m older and gotten back into Star Wars (after losing interest in it for a while due to the sequels), I now have a better grasp of Legends content as well as a lot of lore I didn’t know as a kid—mainly books about what happens post ROTJ—and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality highly fluctuates. On the one hand you get some amazing stuff like the Old Republic era, some of the Clone wars comics, old Battlefield games, the Darth Plagueis novel, the Prequel novelisations, Thrawn, Clone Wars 2003 and ofc many more. On the other hand, you get some pretty ridiculous stuff too, like Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the Force Unleashed (Ironically, I actually really like this game for the nostalgia, its gameplay, Galen himself, story potential and the memes but many events of the game itself do not realistically make sense lol) and many books post ROTJ (mind you haven’t read all of them, way too many lol) that kind of have plot points I’m not too happy with and I could go on forever about (and some others I probably haven’t thought of).

My main point is, many legends fans will always advocate that the solution to Disney’s less than stellar Star Wars works recently is doing adaptations of existing legends material. And whilst I do think that there is a lot of lore you can pluck from legends and reuse/rewrite for their potential (I mean Disney already does that with characters like Thrawn), I never would want a 1-1 recreation. First of all, Legends started before the prequels so a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense now anyways (Hot take, but post-prequel-movies legends has always been better overall in terms of quality. For this reason, Old Republic/Prequel era was handled better overall than New Republic era). Additionally, Legends just isn’t as consistent or good overall as people would like to believe. It’s a large universe with several different writers, there’s bound to be mistakes/bad works riddled throughout here and there.

I also don’t think there’s enough people that talk about (especially) the older legends materials’ problematic elements as well. I’m not always a huge fan of how certain writers treat female and even other minority/non-human characters in Legends. I’m sure you’re familiar with this with people like Mara Jade. One of my other personal main gripes just to list another example is Leia. I’ve always hated how sidelined she is because she was always my personal favourite as a child, and the writers throughout the continuity could not make up their mind on whether she should be a Jedi or not to the point where her skills largely varied between writers until they finally decided to make it official when she’s much much older. Even by then she’s already overshadowed by her children/brother. George Lucas himself didn’t always write her or other female characters in the best way either, but I always thought an EU continuity would be the perfect place to give her the attention she deserves, instead all we got was an inconsistent arc, especially after the Thrawn trilogy. Disney could have turned this around but unfortunately the exact same thing happened where they couldn’t make up their mind on whether she was a Jedi or not (and gave her the shittiest excuse for quitting—how ironic that both Legends and Disney write in immediate motherhood and marriage as a sexist obstacle rather than actually letting her character grow before/during these events).

Fanatic Legends fans will, however, unfortunately rarely agree or at least try to understand criticism of their favourite universe, and, in my view, this is no better than Disney Adults who vehemently reject criticism of some of the worst recent Star Wars media that’s been released.

To conclude this long ass rant, I just think Star Wars EU whether that be Legends or Disney could do with rewriting/organisation here and there. But that’s highly unlikely, so a more realistic solution is just to pick and choose the media you enjoy from both universes (or make up your own!) and just accept it as your own personal canon. That’s what gives me peace and mind anyways :)

[whispsofwind]

WHEN WILL THE DISNEY CINDERELLA SLANDER END

It's just - such a silly pet peeve of mind, I know I know it's an animated Disney Princess from a movie that's so old MY PARENTS were not born yet. I just - I really love her ok, and all criticism I've seen directed at the movie and her character just misses the point entirely.

Like, no she didn't just sit there "waiting to be saved". She didn't EXPECT to be saved at all. We are talking about a young girl who was a victim of severe emotional and financial abuse since childhood, and possibly physical abuse as well. The movie doesn't specify her age when her father dies but she looks about 8 to 10 years old to me? And she is supposedly 19 in the movie, which means at least 9 years of abuse. She's a victim trying to keep her head out of the water and maybe get one precious magical night of fun. She has no job, no education past childhood, no money, how in the world was she supposed to leave?

(And also she doesn't SIT ON HER ASS WAITING, SHE IS SASSY AND KIND AND WHEN SHE GET TRAPPED IN THE TOWER SHE SCREAMS AND GRABS THE DOOR AND SHE IS TRYING IT'S JUST A SITUATION SO MUCH BIGGER THAN HER OK AND SHE WORKD HER ASS OFF FOR THAT PARTY OK).

And the newest piece of criticism I just read "it doesn't show her looking for a support system which is how most victims of abuse can get help" therefore bad.

This infuriates me because the funny thing is, the 1950's Disney movie is actually VERY careful about not showing Cinderella going out of the house except for the ball. Outside of that one night, she is always inside the property. Sometimes she goes out into the garden, and that's IT. The only person she interacts with outside of the family is the castle messanger and it's very brief. It's not a stretch to suppose that that's normal for her: groceries could be delivered directly to her doorsteps without the need of much interaction. What was she supposed to do, grab a random person she doesn't know and ask for help when she has been conditioned by years of abuse to not speak up?

And EVEN THEN, she does build a support system with her animal friends, who are instrumental to her getting out of the abusive situation: they finish her dress to help her get to the ball and then THEY BRING HER THE KEY WHICH ALLOWS HER TO GET OUT OF THE TOWER AND THEREFORE OUT OF THE ABUSIVE SITUATION SHE WAS TRAPPED IN. WHAT ELSE COULD YOU ASK FROM A FRIEND WHO DOESN'T HAVE MONEY OR A HOME EITHER.

Anyway hashtag justice for 1950 Cinderella she did the best she could and she doesn't deserve the victim blaming she gets

(And also Ever After remains the best live action Cinderella the scene where Danielle begs, BEGS her stepmother to tell her that she loved Danielle, even once, even just a little bit, is perfection and heartbreaking)

[nothing0fnothing]

Sometimes I feel like I'm smacking my head into a brick wall with these people. Like someone will ask me about narcissism and I'll explain that it's not a mental disorder and treating mentally ill people like they're abusers in training is disgusting and wrong, but really this is an abuse survivor and trauma support blog and it's really not the place to be getting in depth information about anything outside of that.

Then I'll get told that some people don't like the term narcissistic abuse so why am I using it as a tag on my posts? So I explain that I'm not calling it narcissistic abuse for no reason, that experts and specialists and survivors and former perpetrators and therapists and councellors and support workers all use this term pretty unanimously. That it is the name for what I experienced, I didn't make it up.

Then I get accused of making up an entirely defunct type of abuse to make myself feel special or to separate myself from other abuse survivors, and it hurts. So I explain that its a seperate method of abuse that is defined seperately for a reason. That it has its own name for a reason and that reason is it doesn't mean the same thing as physical abuse or mental abuse or gaslighting. That it wouldn't be written about and discussed in literature under this name if it was no different from any other type of abuse.

So then I generally get accused of perpetrating ableism and it's a horrible accusation so I run into the beginning of the discussion again but in a bit more detail than I'd generally prefer and I'm talking about diagnositic criterias and language etymology and psychiatrists who died a hundred fucking years ago.

Then I'll talk about survivors and victims, because they're who this blog is about, and how every source that discusses what they're going through is a lifeline of support. That information is a resource and inaccurately discussing this issue prevents those in need of those resources from finding them when they're needed. I do this because I feel like I have to justify my blogs existence and its 70 follower platform, and why I feel I should be allowed a space to discuss the thing that matters deeply to me on the app where 30,000 word Eddie Munson x the fucking alien from American Dad smut would get a space tomorrow, and we would all read it, don't even lie to me.

And then almost every time somebody with a self diagnosed personality disorder and a bunch of quirky posts about how silly and goofy they are to be a self identified narcissist will jump onto my post and tell me that actually I'm harming them personally by doing all this because for some reason they are the primary victim of the abuse I experienced when I was twelve. For some reason whenever I say "narcissistic abuser" they feel I'm describing them personally, that I'm in the NPD tags because I'm out to hurt specifically people with this disorder and they go on to finger wag at me and tut in my comments and ask me how dare I continue to have this discussion when the "community I'm hurting" has asked me nicely to stop?

Just.. fuck off.

My blog clearly isn't for you, it's for people who have actual problems. Not problems that only exist on the tumblr app. Not problems they intentionally insert themselves into so they can lay down and cry loudly claiming they're a victim. Real life problems they're trying to work through. So excuse me if I won't pander to your expectation of how I should discuss my own lived experiences. Excuse me if I won't validate your victim narrative when you're literally claiming you're being abused by hashtags used by traumatised people trying to exist in the supportive community they've built. Yanno, the supportive communities you frequently seek out just to tell us how angry or triggered or frightened you are by us existing publicly?

Maybe I'll just start telling people asking me this same. fucking. question; who won't even bother to scroll through my page to see if maybe the blog that fucking dominates the 'narcissism is not NPD' tag maybe has an answer to their question about NPD and abuse, by the way; who literally pretend to be here to educate themselves to bait me into replying so they know they have my full attention when they call me a fucking scumbag ableist abuser with maximum impact, that Google is free. Maybe it's your job to educate yourself, not the job of the blog whose whole shtick is 8 paragraph essays of pure trauma dumping 3 times a day, to go to Google for you then spend 40 minutes presenting the information in a way that's educational and supportive for my audience while also being pallettable and uncritical of you in hopes you don't do a full 180° into calling me a dumb cunt for being educated on an issue you don't like.

While it's my responsibility to not spread misinformation, that doesn't mean I'm obligated to consistently hand holding every curious anime pfp or ignorant SJW wannabe through the publicly available Internet like I'm Aladdin taking you on a magic carpet ride of my own trauma.

Fuck.

[ghelullu]

First thing first, the drawing you uploaded today has got to be one of my fav by you, like easy top 3. you've really outdone yourself

And also I'm curious to hear your thoughts abt the new chapter

Thank you so much!!!

I personally liked it; it was literally exactly what I expected - I said to a friend this morning, that it'll be silly and the door will be jammed/locked. You can imagine the noise I made when watching it... Hashtag Apollo's dodgeball

I didn't expect him to reveal Papa V this soon considering how it worked in the past - he didn't with Papa III, he didn't with the Cardinal. He likes to edge the audience, so he'll tease a bit more! Which, imho, was fun back then and still is now (and even after already having been here for 2 Papa changes, it's still JUST as exciting as the first time (maybe even more because I love Copia so much I guess??)).

I also got very excited at the music in the beginning! Those synths!! I assume that'll be part of the album. I'm hoping for a heavier album this time, but I wouldn't say no to some kick ass synths in there! (If it's a mix of a heavier album AND some hot synths, I'll pass away). Musically I fully trust Mr. Ghosts brain though, he hasn't ever disappointed me there :)

The bit with the walkie talkie was so silly, so simple and so effective; Copia was incredibly expressive despite this mask (I'll gently complain about how not-so-good the chapter mask is until the end of time), I love the silly bean; I know many will love the return of the claws!

Really, can't wait to see what he cooked here for us with the story, with Papa V specifically, the costumes, the themes, the M U S I C. (feels like many people kind of forget that this is a Band/music project/whatever you want to call it when it is structured the way it is!) first and foremost)

I didn't really have the time to process everything today bc of EVERYTHING happening (both in Ghost with Tour etc, and life, work, Dragon Age!) today, but I can't wait for more story, more Papa(s), more music!

Did you like it? Any wild (or tame) predictions? More/less synths please?

[ck-17088]

OPINION: Why I think Transformers Earthspark will be remembered as one of the best Transformers shows of all time.

Long story short, Earthspark spoilers. Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

I'm delighted to say that Earthspark has again exceeded my expectations. Honestly, when the show was first announced, I expected it to be a TV show meant to pander to young children. It would either be silly or forgettable.

Nope.

The show has blown all expectations out of the water through its bold story-telling and animation. The characters all feel realistic- they have strengths and flaws, which are most apparent when they face difficult situations. Another strength is that this show is not afraid to tackle issues (war, moral issues- "how far are we willing to go for the sake of peace?", discrimination, etc) that have become a part of our society in the present and past several years.

In the new 8 episodes dropped, the central theme appears to be identity. Mainly about finding your identity (ex: finding an alt-mode), making up parts of your identity (ex: finding the right alt-mode that matches each character), and integrating new experiences into your identity (ex: Megatron's decision to gain an Earth-based alt-mode to earn the Autobots' trust)- those sort of topics. These are all important and wonderful topics to discuss and share in a show. However, what surprised me the most was that the writers were not afraid to show the ugly sides of identity-related topics.

The 17th and 18th episodes- "Home Part I" and "Home Part II"- subtly tackle racism and xenophobia. Robbie, Twitch, and Hashtag are visiting Robbie's friend in a skateboard park. While having fun, they stumble upon an anti-transformers graffiti- "Transformers go home". Twitch and Hashtags are shocked and upset over this. Twitch says "This just isn't okay" because they were born on Earth and have lived there for their entire existence. However, Robbie's friend insists that their existence on Earth isn't "okay" since "Invading the Earth wasn't okay either". He's essentially telling them that they exist because of the war, which was unwanted, so therefore, their existence "isn't okay".

That scene honestly emotionally destroyed me. Before I explain why let me say a few things.

I am Korean American. The experiences/feelings I will later talk about are my own and do not fully represent the Korean American and/or East Asian communities. Our community's experiences are varied; thus, one person’s is not enough to sum them all of them.

Throughout my life, especially in the past couple of years- during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had all of these things happen to me:

- I have been called hateful slurs.

- People have made the slanted eyes gesture to me numerous times.

- A few people have greeted me with "ni hao". (This is offensive because they automatically assume I'm from China because I'm Asian. It supports the idea that AAPI communities are one monolith. Hint: They're not.)

- Many people have asked me if I eat dog meat… (I don't. Never have.)

- Too many times, I have been told to "go back home". (I don't even remember the exact number. That's an indicator of how many times it's happened)

- In college, I have had many academic and career advisors ask if I'm a foreign student. It doesn't appear be an offensive question, but if I were Caucasian, no one would have thought to ask me if I was a foreigner. But no, I am Asian, so there is a huge chance that I might not be American.

The fact that I am Asian, or Korean American, an ethnicity (Korean) not found in the Americas, is enough of an excuse to question my identity and my entire life - who I am, where I'm from, and my own habits. To many, it is an excellent excuse to ensure I feel like an outsider in my own home.

The "Transformers go home" scene destroyed me because it reminds me of the pain that comes from the fact that there will always be people who believe I do not belong in my own country- no matter how many experiences I have had and how ingrained they are in me.

These characters are experiencing that same pain, too, even when they shouldn't be. The insistence from Robbie's friend that their experiences aren't enough to explain their belonging to Earth because they are physically Cybertronian- or transformers- is especially heartbreaking.

However, Robbie stands up for his family and breaks ties with his friend. He refuses to accept the blatant discrimination his siblings are facing and leaves instead. This is significant because while the writers show the ugly side of human society, they also show how to combat it- by refusing to stand by and accept it.

This scene is likely why Earthspark will become and will be remembered as one of the best Transformers shows ever.

It's not just the animation or the stories/plots. It is the show's willingness to tackle issues that are difficult to discuss in real life.

In a world where Anti- Asian, Anti- Latino, Anti- LGBTQIA sentiments and (basically) any hate toward minority groups are on the rise, Earthspark is not afraid to go head-on with these issues. They are willing to show scenes to demonstrate the harm these ideas and beliefs can cause, as well as solutions on how to fight them.

The show embraces the beautiful sides of humanity- friendship, family, love, and hope- but is also not afraid to fight the ugly parts of it too.

Written by: CK17088