#like i’m not a fan of the ableism shit but like the fact that just bc they were married hephaestus felt entitled to his wife and her body

[vacantgodling]

rotating ares and aphrodite in my head as you do

[heyftinally]

re: fact checking / believing media.

You handled that anon better than I would have. I got angry on your behalf. I’m sick of Swifties defending Taylor for very obvious flaws / problematic behaviour she exhibits.

Swifties also believe what they read. A lot of media outlets wrote articles to benefit Taylor. That anon was bitching cause you were discussing one that didn’t support Taylor.

Also Swifties not only believe the media when it comes to Taylor but they also actively believe the rumours THEY MAKE UP THEMSELVES. No one reported Joe cheated on Taylor, it was a fan theory that they believed into reality. And when it comes out she cheated on him they hype her up and then still attack Joe. I’ve seen antis get hate for pointing out Taylor has a drinking problem (with concern not hate) which Swifties venomously deny she does. But that hate comes from the same Swifties who create the narrative she had to drink to escape Joe. Like they can’t even keep their story straight.

People telling antis to stop believing everything they read and stop speculating when it’s the EXACT behaviour her fans exhibit is laughable. Her fans are actually worse cause they make up false stories to the point they all believe them. “She’s pregnant” is only coming from her fans. They are inherently more problematic towards Taylor. This woman they apparently adore.

Honestly I’m not even convinced they’re fans of her anymore with how they behave. It’s just habit to defend her. Or FOMO.

This. All of this. If I had a dollar for every time a swiftie made up facts about something - Taylor's behavior, history, quotes, anything really - I'd have enough money to go to, like, two Taylor Swift concerts (y'know, because her overpriced tickets are like 20k a pop in some cases)

In all seriousness, though, youre100% right that her fans make shit up constantly and then believe their own theories as fact. All the times I've ACTUALLY called out Taylor, I've used facts. Let's use my Fortnight Ableism callous as an example - you can go find sources for everything I wrote in that post. It's not hard. "Abuse in mental asylums" will turn you up countless results on google. The pictures of her house are from an article *about her house*. I ran that post by my disabled friend to get their stamp of approval on my statements, too, because it's THEIR history I was speaking about, so I asked them to approve it. And they did.

I also fact check things like, say, my election news. Or crimes that happened (just today I fact checked something that happened near where I live, and what I'd heard had been false).

I don't post every random thing I fact check. I also don't post citations for everything that I *do* fact check, because this isn't a college essay and I'm not obligated to prove my research to a bunch of internet strangers.

But as usual, swifties love to throw baseless accusations around just to feel like they did something. Honestly, it was kind of funny to metaphorically curb stomp their accusation. Like, I'll post my own receipts, I don't care. Funny how the proof shows they can't read, though lol.

Now this isn't an invitation for swifties to come harass me - y'all can kindly fuck off. But it would be nice if they would at least pretend to have self awareness before they try to come at me.

[sphnyspinspin]

[ INTRODUCTION ]

>> Be mindful that this will be forever under construction and continuously updated <<

Sup!! Welcome to my blog!! I mostly go by Sphny.This is my Transformers fan blog! I usually just draw, write, review, and reblog about stuff that I like.

Some I, admittedly, like more than others when it comes to this franchise’s wide array of options. These are just the ones that take up larger capacities of my headspace 24/7/365. Hell, this isn’t even all of them.

| Transformers: ONE — AHHHHH THIS MOVIE CHANGED MY LIFE FUNDAMENTALLY—I will never be the same because this movie is such a masterpiece the art, the animation, the writing—OMG THE WRITING—I’m so happy that I was able to see it while in the fandom.

| Transformers: Rescue Bots — Good God, this show was like the very first layer of my TF hyper fixation—not my biggest fixation just my first.

| Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy — THIS SHOW is my biggest fixation it’s so cute and wholesome and clever and fun it is such a good show I love the characters so much.

| Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015) — Hear me out, this show is actually kinda funny in a non-ironic way I promise, and the designs aren’t half bad.

| Transformers: Prime — Amazingly alien, and I say that with the upmost adoration I can muster, because OMG I seriously regret not appreciating the art and character designs in this show (I hate noses on transformers now).

| Transformers: Cyberverse/Transformers Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures — PLEASE—this show is AWESOME, I praise it for the characters, the story, the character designs, the animation, the EVERYTHING (this is where I personally think Soundrod first originated).

| Transformers: Earthspark — This show, oh my god, I have a love-dread relationship with it; it has so much care-free positivity, an adorable group of characters, nice designs with world-building being amazing so far, but I know for a fact it will destroy me sooner or later (P.S. it already has).

| Transformers: Animated — This show SHOULD be more popular, and it’s the main reason I have my artstyle today (and please don’t bully me but when I found out my fave characters dies I stopped watching….. like immediately………. I didn’t even finish season one.

| Transformers: Botbots — This show… Where do I begin… Oh right, literally the TF fandom parody—like I know for a fact that 85% of the characters’ personalities are inspired by random TF tumblr posts, you can’t deny that.

| Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye — I have read zero TF MTMTE comics and I never plan to, because I would actually die from dehydration after crying so much; but the fandom makes me laugh and I like the art.

| Transformers: Lost Light — I have only read three issues of this series—#23, #25, and #27, because they were the only ones available to me (and fyi for in-between comics I just read the TFWikis).

| Transformers: Last Bot Standing — HOLY SHIT—This made me so… so very sad, and at the same time I was ABSOLUTELY INSPIRED, the premise was amazing and the characters were awesome (oh and uh, I didn’t read the actual comics I just read the TFWikis… again).

| Transformers: IDW (2005/2019) — Okay, okay, I might’ve read a few IDW comics but trust me when I say this—I LOVE reading about IDW’s take on Transformers, I’m forever in awe of its storytelling and fandom.

[ ABOUT BLOG ]

#sphny arts (𖦹w𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for all of my original art

#sphny reblogs (𖦹Q𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for any and all reblogs

#sphny speaks (𖦹<𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for small IRL commentary

#sphny answers (𖦹0 𖦹)•*°⊹ is my main tag for when I answer any asks from my ask box

[ DNI ]

Do Not Interact with me, or this blog if you’re an advocate for: Homophobia, Transphobia, TERFs, Sexism, Racism, Proshipping, or Ableism etc.

[ ASK BOX ]

Asks about my art, writings, WIPs, and reviews are very appreciated, I’m honestly not the best at answering them right away, but they’re still appreciated nonetheless.

Requests for art or writing aren’t usually what I like to receive in my Ask Box casually, so in the nicest way possible I will reject any Requests I get from Asks, unless I make it very apparent that I’m opening/seeking Requests.

[ SIDE BLOGS ]

@transformers-bold-bright-brisk is my Transformers-Fan-Continuity blog that I’ve been using for my AU side project(s): Transformers: Roll Call Rescue Recruits and Transformers: Reach Out To Reassemble.

[ SOCIAL MEDIA ]

BLUESKY @sphnyspinspin.bsky.social — I’m loving the vibes here in general 10/10 would recommend to chat in.

CARA @sphnyspinspin — I haven’t used this in a bit, but I like it so far.

TIKTOK @sphnyn23 — I literally only have three TikToks uploaded and they are cringe, please don’t bully me.

INSTAGRAM @sphnyspinspin — I deleted EVERYTHING on here, and I’ve mostly been using it to “interact” with other artists whose main platform is instagram.

[gearlic-personal]

My Borderlands Movie (2024) review

Right before the movie ended, I thought “is this how the movie ends?” and “no surely not, we’re only like 45 minutes in”, and then the movie ended. So little happened in the movie I couldn’t fathom the fact I absorbed nearly 2 hours of a film. And I say “absorbed” because my attention did not waver for a second, I was so hooked on how awful the writing was I just had to hear it to believe it. I feel the characters were written for a voice acted video game, not live action— it created an awkwardness when the tone of a video game is poorly translated to a performance that is acted out, especially when the actors themselves are notttt feeling the role at all. You know it’s bad when you can hear the actor cringing at their own lines. I’m gonna bring up the Fallout show because I feel they did a fantastic job at translating the quirky humor of the game into the live acted show: going into the show I felt the same hesitation as this movie, and it didn’t help when I noticed how 1-to-1 they make the set look to the game, the same goofy vault posters and outfits (albeit MUCH better designed and fitting for a screen, and not a cheap Amazon cosplay version they attempted in the Borderlands movie). What broke me out of the awkwardness of a goofy-video-game-to-live-action translation was the moment the lead used a Stimpak to heal herself, same as the game (AKA jabbing herself with a needle and instantly healing). It was funny, jarring, and more moments like this helped set the tone of the world WHILE STILL UTILIZING WELL-WRITTEN CHARACTERS AND PLOT to help us attach ourselves to the environment and take silly seriously. The Borderlands movie had no anchoring tone of the film unlike the Fallout show, despite being fairly similar in gamplay and environment in their games. Where the writers may have struggled is just how much of the humor of the Borderlands games…. may not have made it to 2024. The script holds onto a lot of the wrong jokes made in the original games (one’s where I’d suck air into my teeth and wince when returning to these games), and character dynamics that were annoying (such as the joke of a character being the annoying punching bag that everyone hates bc he’s annoying……………. hi claptrap ily). This is also why I believe they fed the BL games scripts to AI and had it poop generalized garbage 2010 gamer-talk for the movie. The application of humor in the Borderlands games WORKED though, even if they are dated they still hold up (except the ableism and fatphobia those did not . like why. hello) because of how unified the world and characters are. UNIFIED! The BL movie writing felt so clunky, and it’s not only because they obviously did not pay attention when dubbing voice lines that don’t make sense in the conversation (Claptrap: “is this your home?” Lilith: “I grew up here.” yes girl thats what a home is. Also I’m so sure Jack Black did another line intended that said “Do you recognize this place” or some shit that makes more sense. Anyway. This happened a lot. Especially Kriegs lines which were just pulled from the games i s2g). The writing felt clunky because not one damn soul working on that movie was 100%. On the list of soulless movies with no one working on it connecting deeply with the source material at all, this is right up there with Wonka. And I’m not saying you gotta be Tiny Tina #1 mega-fan but oh my god it was so hard to watch Ariana Greenblatt act out a character that was only ever explained to her once by a guy who had Tiny Tina explained to him by another guy who read off her fandom wiki page summary. Except thats what every single character in this movie felt like. Everyone but Marcus??? for whatever fucking reason, he read the assignment he took Cornell notes. too bad he had 15 minutes of screen time. I’m actually glad they didn’t include my all-time favorite character Mordecai for fear of how they’d butcher his character too. Sorry Brick and Mordecai the writers could not fathom your gay love for each other the way I would have. Put me in that writing room.

Script-doctoring is a lost cause for this movie. she doesn’t need a facelift she needs a multi-organ transplant. With just how rich the world is why did they not just go the Tell-Tale BL route and put their own OCs on Pandora.. instead they cherry-picked elements from all the games to combine into… a twisted version of the OG plot? Not even a new adventure for these characters, no, they take the existing plot of how they met and decided to butcher Tiny Tina’s story so she can be a main character? The only way they could have fixed this in the writing room was in the very beginning if someone said “no” to this idea (also I’m pretty sure Tiny Tina wasn’t even born yet bc her story is tied to Handsome Jack and Hyperion not Atlas… also RIP to not getting a Handsome Jack plot he wouldve been so fun on screen and probably have been a good unifier for the tone I talked about before… I would never let him in the hands of those writers though).

Oh my god I could also go on and on about how nasty the environments were UGHHHHH so fucking awful, no creativity not an ounce. The patchwork architecture in the games is so meticulous and clever, even if they just payed attention to the silhouettes in the movie they don’t have to go crazy with the designs but at least give us SOMETHING!! Caustic Caverns too…. oh my god. Probably my favorite map in all the games. It’s the most unique map, its got so much breathing room, it looks like it goes on forever but still makes you feel claustrophobic (as intended). The dynamic man-made structures made to look natural with decay as they blend seamlessly into the natural structures.. the unique enemies and dangers of the map. This is the only(?) map mentioned by name in the movie, I was preparing for what I’d see. And they gave me nothing. The characters walk into a sewer cellar with glowing green sewage, walk around it, then fight a bunch of psychos in the… sewer cellar. its. its a sewer cellar. thats it. then they continue walking through the normal sewer cellar. the only comparison is the green acid and the name. Anyway that made me most sad of all, there was so much they could have done.

Ultimately this was gonna be an inevitable flop coming out anytime after BL3 womp womp. Nothing could have saved the franchise after the circumstances surrounding that game (recasting key voice actors to avoid raising wages, almost completely new writing team that was not great, Epic games paying for exclusive platform for like a year?? idk ppl were mad abt that). Great gameplay though.

Rating: 3/10

Giving it 3 stars for thinking of trying something new with the characters..? Also the fight scenes were pretty solid ngl, one thing I like about playing the BL games is how satisfying the fighting is, the sound design adds so much weight that makes it more fun than other FPS games and I think the movie replicated that well.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

the thing with the bigotry in homestuck is that a lot of it is genuinely just. something that was Everywhere in online culture. obviously this isn’t an excuse, it’s fucked up and a massive flaw and awful. i am not defending it why the fuck would i it’s an extremely obvious flaw that often sours the experience even if you can put up with it and can be completely exclusionary if you can’t (and that’s a fair and reasonable thing not to put up with, just because things were more normal at certain points in history doesn’t make them any less hurtful to read) and it’s unfortunately still prevelant in a lot of spheres surrounding the comic. but like… you will find extremely similar things in a lot of media at the time. it wasn’t okay then and it certainly isn’t now, but it’s there, and it’s in… most media, honestly. minecraft has some extremely obvious and prevalent antisemitic caricatures in it, yet it’d be ridiculous to claim everyone who plays minecraft is antisemitic, and that’s a game that’s still being updated. the developers could fix the racism but instead they only add more. and that’s just one example of many in how omnipresent bigotry is in media. it’s important to acknowledge that. but it’s also impossible to avoid. if you decreed every piece of bigoted material out there evil, you would not be able to partake in any media.

and this is not to partake in whataboutism in regards to it. if you, personally, think homestuck crosses a line, that’s fine and i totally understand it. but what is not okay is the fact I’ve seen this used as an excuse for bigotry Against people who do not, or people who’ve worked on the project. andrew hussie has done some pretty awful shit, but that does not excuse transphobia directed their way. there’s some extremely fucked shit in the webcomic but that does not excuse perpetuating the same racism, homophobia, ableism, whatever, against fans. those are not tools to use against those you disagree with, especially not for people who are just, like, fans of something. if they were knowingly and intentionally giving andrew hussie money with the full intent of them doing harm, that’d be a bad thing (though still not worthy of slurs please stop fucking doing that) but like, not only is that not the type of bad andrew hussie is doing and therefore like, no ones causing harm by reading their work unless they don’t have critical thinking and internalise the bigotry in it (which happens, but again, basically everything has Some form of bigotry in it) how the fuck is reading a Free Webcomic that to my knowledge can only be read in a custom fan made open source application with zero ads going to do that. people liking Problematique Stuff isn’t an issue bc it’s gross and icky, it’s the harm that can be caused. both by giving money to awful people and Lacking the Critical Thinking to realise what is Bad.

and if you’ve read this far, you know this is, truly, not about homestuck. i chose homestuck bc i Have seen that sort of idea that it’s okay to be bigoted towards the Bad People go around with it recently, but it’s an unfortunately popular idea on tumblr that makes me think that some of y’all just want excuses to call people slurs in a derogatory way and will label everything as problematic to do so. it’s happened with steven universe, and, hell, it fucking happened with the concept of minecraft youtube- not even because of the racism In The Game, but because, like, three recent mcyters turned out to be shitty people and therefore people started finding it acceptable to call anyone who’s ever watched a minecraft video ever slurs, which is especially fucked up when one of them was abusing another minecraft youtuber. i saw her catching flak for playing the same game her abuser did like. what the fuck. and I’m sure there’s more. please stop trying to find media it’s okay to call people slurs over for goodness sake. just block people.

[atlaslovesedm]

welp…

[SPOILERS FOR III 14 UNDER CUT]

you know that video GD colon put out about how bad generation retro is? what you’re about to read is about on the same league as that.

of all the object show episodes i’ve watched, III 14 was the first that i walked away from thinking “wow! that was shit!” it had so many of the same pitfalls as the previous III episodes did, but somehow even worse (incredible feat, i must say). but i’ll only cover my three biggest problems. starting with…

springy. not unlike how toppinbot describes noisette, springy is beyond annoying. their voice makes my toes curl, and i die a little on the inside whenever they’re on screen. they also apparently had a “haha im evil” twist, which i saw coming a mile away, even without my glasses on. also, they look like a garten of banban/poppy playtime character, just thought i’d point that out.

melodrama. the latter half of the episode was just melodrama. and i mean JUST melodrama. nothing else besides characters just going boohoo woe is me ówò ;-; and half of it is relating to conflicts and arcs in II2 that have already concluded. it honestly just feels like the guys at animationepic only shoehorned so many II2 references into III so they can go “see? we haven’t forgotten about II2!!” as if they haven’t been DISREGARDING established lore from that season, implying it isn’t canon anymore, coupled with the fact that III only is the way it is because AE decided that II2 was “getting too dawk and scawy ;-; uwu…..” like oh yeah THAT business decision wasn’t at all made for marketing reasons. /s

and of course, i’m saving the best/worst for last.

cabby and bot. both of these characters are known for being handled TERRIBLY. for cabby, she’s mentally disabled (my first guess was some form of memory loss, but i honestly don’t feel like double-checking) but is constantly mistreated by writers and characters for her aid, being the files. and for bot, they had a trans-allegory arc stemming from not wanting to just be bow, but the whole reason they exist at all is because AE wanted bow in III, and their personality is basically just bow’s with some sliders moved ever so slightly. (the cabby problem is more relevant here, but you get the idea) and in III 14, the two were paired up for the challenge. just the two of them, they could make it if they tried, BUT THE WRITERS DIDN’T!! instead they figured out some voodoo magic buffoonery that helped them pull off the unthinkable! because during a scene where cabby requests that bot tells her a little about themself to write down in their file, BOT STARTS MAKING UP RIDICULOUS LIES. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, ANIMATIONEPIC, CUT IT OUT WITH THE ABLEISM, WILL YA?! and during disability pride month of all times, too. what were you THINKING?!

so yeah. a fan-favorite character just tried to sabotage a mentally disabled woman’s aid for shits and giggles.

TL;DR, III 14 sucked ass. the entire 27-or-so-minute runtime was used for nothing but melodrama, cabby mistreatment, character assassination, and mascot horror cliches. (boooo springy booooooo booooo get off the stage boooo fuzz the cat did it better)

that’s just my opinion, though. feel free to share how you felt. i’m gonna go watch TPOT 6.

[10piecechickenmcnugget]

Headcanon anon here and I was just reading through the blog and I started to feel bad.

Like legitimately bad.

I am a full blown Inniter. And I am a HUGE c!Tommy fan.

Is Cc!Tommy “a freak who likes to Roleplay mental disorders he doesn’t have”? Am I ablest? I have autism but internalized ableism is a thing.

oh that sucks i’m really sorry :( i found it funny cause i don’t give a shit about her opinions but i completely understand how her posts can be like that

it is very much not ableist to be a c!tommy enjoyer i promise and from my perspective at least i don’t see anything wrong with cc!tommy wanting to do the exile arc for his character or any of the ccs “roleplaying disorders they don’t have.” like obviously cc!bbh has never been possessed by some weird ass egg but that doesn’t make the entire egg arc morally wrong, and obviously that’s different from actual child abuse but you get the idea. a lot of the dsmp characters went through incredibly real mental health experiences that they most likely have never experienced irl but it’s fiction. it’s a fictional roleplay series it’s not real they put their characters in situations. cc!aimsey is not a real life disabled cane user but that doesn’t mean c!aimsey being one is ableist, in fact it makes me really happy as a disabled person to get that representation. cc!wilbur obviously did not commit suicide but that doesn’t mean his characters mental health spiral and suicide was a bad thing for him to do. they’re literally just putting their minecraft ocs in situations, that’s the entire point of fiction and fictional characters. there’s plenty of stories in various forms of media about certain experiences that have been made by people who did not go through those experiences but (provided it’s handled respectfully) it’s still good and fine representation and fine to make.

this got really long but yeah, you’re not ableist for being an inniter c! or cc!, and as a matter of fact that person is very blatantly ableist in multiple posts and just overall an asshole

[ship-ghxxx]

was reading some interesting meta-y MDZS posts and it got me thinking

this is not especially coherent y’all just unedited word vomit rambles abt shit that gets me annoyed. not looking for a debate! discussion is fine though.

i really wish fandom could acknowledge and have good discussions about how our own experiences influence how we view characters and also stop trying to justify characters actions just because they like them (but this one requires people to not be puritans and actually develop their own morality so god knows that won’t happen)

like, you don’t have to support everything ur favorite character does! that’s actually not an especially healthy way to approach things!!! you can like characters that do fucked up shit!!! embrace it!

for example:

i love YZY as a character. i also despise JFM. this has a lot to do with my personal experiences. however, i do not excuse YZY’s treatment of WWX. me liking her and me acknowledging that she did horrible things are not mutually exclusive.

i also have some deep gripes about JGY in this vein - and don’t take this as me attacking his fans, bc i’m sure most are normal, i’ve just seen some shitty ones - i enjoy JGY as a character! he’s not a favorite persay, but he’s immensely interesting and i will certainly read JGY-centric fics if they’re intriguing. however, as a disabled person, the whole issue with JRS hits me in the wrong way - and some people, in their quest to validate everything their fav does, accepting the premise that he did actually orchestrate JRS’s death, veer EXCEEDINGLY CLOSE to eugenics and ableism trying to defend or downplay those actions in a way that is very much Not Okay. like, IDK how to tell you that murdering your child because he might be disabled is morally bad, but the fact that i have to explain that to you in the first place makes me want to jettison the both of us into the sun.

i don’t know where i’m going with this - just, why is it that people will throw all morals out of the window and justify anything bc it’s their blorbo??? why does your blorbo have to be morally justified??? your blorbo isn’t real, they can be evil. i promise. liking a fake fucked up lil dude is infinitely less concerning than throwing your morals out the window for a fictional character.

[alonelywaterbottle]

I like Hawkeye, a lot, I picked my name after him. He’s my favorite boy and his fuckin plot line should be that he’s just a little too arrogant to give up the title, and that he cares about Kate enough to share it. Plus how his depression, lack of self confidence, internalized ableism, and workoholicism makes his relationships fail, and the work he does to get through that.

(Tw for some ableism, sexism and suicide)

His wife and kids are literally not even characters. They have no likes or dislikes other than standard shit and it makes me so angry that I want to hunt down the Director, who made that choice. When I found out that he was gonna be more featured in the second avengers, I was so excited. I had read every single comic that I could find on Hawkeye, I got a MarvelUnlimited subscription, and then I was so deeply disappointed that I read, probably thousands of pages of fanfiction where they had him portrayed accurately, and not having Kate or doing what they did with her by making her that much younger than him fucks up parts of the plots of the comics and disregards her character a little bit and it’s very frustrating. And then they completely remove his brother (a third of what makes him an interesting character by the way) and his disability, and the fact that he knows sign, and the fact that he is divorced, and they kill his best friend.… i’m sorry the hawkeye that I know would never ever let Natasha think so low of herself as to let her kill herself to make up for a crime that she has already made up for in thousands of ways. Especially because she was brainwashed. Why does Bucky get forgiveness that she doesn’t? She’s too logical to just do that, but they’ve been messing with her character in all the ways that they messed with his (plus added misogyny just for fun) since the second avengers. I disavow the fucking marvel franchise.

TLDR fuck marvel, You literally don’t have to answer this. I just saw that you agreed and I wanted to go on a tangent.

I welcome your tangent so much. You are so right and these types of decisions from Marvel are exactly why I lost so much interest in watching their stuff.

It’s like they just wanted to use them to make the other Avengers jealous since he had this American Dream that not even Captain America had. And then using these wife and kids to only then not give them any sort of character really disrespects his character, there were so many other things they could’ve done to fill that role in the story.

Instead of making him accurate and the Clint Barton that the fans know, they turned him into what seems to be the average straight cis able bodied man’s self insert. There are so many jokes about Hawkeye being forgettable because the directors made him that way.

It’s incredibly clear that none of the directors respect the character cause clearly what they really wanted was an agent who could shoot a bow and nothing else just so they could use him to fill a power fantasy

It’s extra disappointing considering how well they handled Tony Starks ptsd, it’s like they stopped caring about their content

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

No I’m sorry this is BS.

I had a damn good idea of the kind of person Neil Gaiman was long before I knew Good Omens even EXISTED. I read the book before the show came out, joined the fandom in the same utterly feral way I tend to join fandoms, and didn’t put Neil on a pedestal because I fucking knew better. Holy SHIT did I see it coming. And guess what? I’ll be the first person to advocate separating the art from the artist, making it the fandom’s own, etc.

BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN DOING THAT THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME.

But even aside from that…. listen I get that other ppl who Knew(tm) are frustrated, but the amount of sheer rage, degradation, mockery, condescension, blame and straight-up ableism and su*c*de baiting I’ve seen directed at Neil’s more naïve fans is literally making me sick. At some point around 2015, I ran into some of Neil’s work that forced me to reckon with what he (and Colleen Doran) was really like. Without any massive scandal airing, I had all the time in the world to process this and proceed with my fandom accordingly.

the people you’re speaking about in these posts are not getting that luxury, and yet you are choosing to ignore that fact, assume the absolute worst of multiple entire fandoms, and be immediately, unimaginably and personally cruel to everyone involved.

I’m more ashamed to share a fandom with you than I am with the people who are posting dumb/cringey/just plain rotten takes as they process this. You’ve had time. They haven’t. Do better.

just cringe, scroll away, and trust that most of them will get over themselves soon enough.

I did.

You did. They will.

"you can still enjoy his work" "don't throw away your cds and books, the shows are still good" "he's still a great writer" "you can just pirate it" we are not escaping the torment nexus

The reason you bitches "never saw this coming 🥺🥺" is that you refuse to create a world where you experience any amount of discomfort. We told you!!! So many times!! We told you he was a piece of shit!!!

You will live forever in a world of pillows and quirky white men who spoonfeed you misogyny and pedophilia and you'll bite the hands of anyone attempting to pull you from it. You're the prison and the prison is your inability to grow or change as a person.

[lady-griffin]

I’m honestly a bit amazed with Rowling.

In the sense that people have said that her “trolls” need to stop bringing up the “trans issue thing” when it comes to everything Rowling does and how that’s unfair of them, and that one “opinion” of hers doesn’t capture everything about her or what she’s all about.

But yet, Rowling is the one who brings it up every time she can.

According to this Rolling Stone article, in her most recent book, The Ink Black Heart -

She has a character who is a popular YouTube creator whose fans have turn against her and have accused her of racism, ableism, and the dreaded so-called transphobia. The creator is doxxed, subjected to rape and death threats, all for ‘just having an opinion.’

According to this article, they think this book clearly has a specific aim against Social Justice Warrior and it even suggests the character was a victim of a masterfully plotted, politically fueled hate campaign unfairly against her.

I just…

if you don’t want people to focus on the whole “trans thing,” why do you keep bringing it up? Why do you keeping doing shit like this?

I’m not saying, if she never talks about it ever again, people are just going to forget about it (though honestly a lot probably would).

But Rowling seems to be incapable of not talking about it. Of not being enraged by her fans for “turning against her.” Of not being upset about no longer being seen as a progressive woman and beloved author who fights against the tyranny of others. Of not feeling like she’s the victim of all this.

And don’t get me wrong -- being doxxed, receiving rape and death threats is no joke. That is awful. That isn’t okay. That isn’t. Don’t fucking do it.

I just; even when someone is being hateful or bad, and you believe the “deserve it” - In my own personal view, that’s a slippering slope. Yes, things don’t just equate each other and there is nuance and differences in certain areas of life (most of it); but also you’re creating the argument that sometimes it’s okay for this kind of behavior, which might feel ridiculous, but it doesn’t take that many steps of “therefore it’s never a bad thing” or “well, I hate this person and their views, so it’s okay when I do it, but bad when someone does it to someone I think doesn’t deserve it.

Maybe people just don’t deserve to be doxxed, or be sent death or rape threats.

And I don’t know.

Look, I’ll admit it’s hard for me to be sympathetic at the supreme court or Marjorie Taylor-Green for getting doxxed, but I just…

Maybe it’s not about what kind of people that are and what kind of person I want to be or think a good person is.

Just because someone is a bad person doesn’t mean something bad happening to them is justice. I don’t know fucking know. I have mixed feeling about some of this shit, because I don’t think you get to impact real people and their lives with actual laws and public presses and your huge platforms – but then call foul, of your own personal and “real” life being negatively impacted.

But also,  don’t send people death or rape threats. What the fuck. Don’t do that. Please don’t do that.

Why do I have to even say this. Please don’t fucking do it. 

However, not to undercut myself and that last point – which I cannot stress enough is very important and should be yielded to --

Classifying all of this as you being hated and attacked for just having a different opinion…lessens what you’re doing or your own hateful views. Which makes sense, in the fact that you don’t view your own views as hateful or wrong.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t.

But it doesn’t look great for Rowling that, that’s the same argument the alt-right and racist, antisemitic, and overall hateful and prejudiced people make all the time – when there are consequences for their actions.

It’s the idea of -

“How dare people judge me for having the simple harmless opinion that certain people are simply lesser than and therefore don’t deserve the same rights as myself or others. How dare YOU make me seem like a hateful person, when I express my hateful views. You’re the intolerant, hateful person for not tolerating my intolerant hatred of a group that is subjected to large amounts of violence and harm.”

-

Also, and this is really the thing that just leaves me totally flabbergasted. I don’t think I would gone into this nonsensical rant, if not for this.

Apparently, Rowling is claiming that this is not at all, in any shape or form, in response to her own experience nor meant to be seen like that.

Because she wrote and finished the book long before certain things happened online.

She even says she told her husband, that she was worried people were going to see this as a response to what happened to her, even though it absolutely, totally isn’t. Not even slightly.

So, clearly, we know she’s telling the truth - because she’s now currently saying she was a bit worried that, people would get the wrong idea, months and months ago. She just said it privately to her own husband and did nothing to change the plot of her book - despite the fact that I find it hard to believe that the big, famous author JK Rowling wouldn’t have the power to do so. 

And it’s like really? Really Rowling?

I mean come on.

Sure, sometimes in life things happen in a way where it looks bad or that two things that are legit unrelated looked to be connected or caused by one another. And that’s simply not the case.

Sometimes, it is all just a bad coincidence or awkward timing; but I can’t believe that’s the case here.

I just can’t.

I mean come on, Rowling.

I mean seriously…

How stupid do you think people are?

I just…

I don’t understand the logic behind that. 

A part of me feels or questions how someone could write a character like that and then say it has nothing to do with what they’ve gone through, despite it literally being more or less your own story, but framed with how view the situations and tweaked so the self-insert character is made to be the clear victim. 

I can’t help but think, maybe that means she isn’t lying. Because surely, she wouldn’t think people are that stupid. Surely not.

But, honestly nowadays people do lie nonstop about things we know to be lies.

They can just claim it’s “fake news” or haters being haters and their fans and defenders will stand by them. Because it’s not about what they say or are doing, it’s about defending them (and to be fair, for some, it’s also just about attacking).

I mean -

A couple who are currently defending themselves against being called racist or having racist views, had a press conference where they stated they are absolutely not racist and would never be racist, and have never held such beliefs and to call them racist, is the other person, trying to obscure the real issue at hand or whatever.

But in that exact same press conference, the wife admitted to having a secret, racist twitter account. But that doesn’t mean she’s racist or anything, because all she wanted to do was explore the freedom of being someone she’s not.

She’s totally not racist person, she just wanted to be able to be a racist person online, but that doesn’t mean she has ever held racist views....

(my head hurts)

Blake Masters in Arizona is claiming he’s never had strong, hateful views on abortion and you can check his website if you want to. As though his campaign didn’t change it. As though there aren’t interviews or recordings of him saying all that hateful awful shit.

--

In the end

I think Rowling wants attention, the publicity, and for the people who still defend her, to have something else to defend her on.

Or maybe, just maybe, no one would have cared about her new book, if not for this controversy, that is just oh so inconvenient for her.

I mean truly it’s so inconvenient that there are now a bunch of articles about her new book. I mean, I now know she has a new book out and even the name of it, despite not knowing that two days ago. And look, now you do to because of this post.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s also because a lot of these books haven’t been all that well-received or reviewed. 

There has been a lot of good things said about them. But also, when it was actually not known she was the author of the books, for those first few months (I might be wrong about that) - only 1500 copies were sold.

Which I don’t know if that’s good or bad for a brand-new spanking author who is coming out with their debut novel/series; but I do know that’s bad for someone like JK Rowling, even if she’s not going by her own name.

And isn’t it so interesting and such a true shame, that an anonymous tip let it out that she was the author.

That, Times arts editor Richard Brook, who decided to investigate this mysterious author, because he just had to know who they were really were and whether or not it was JK Rowling or not, apparently, he himself said 

‘Nobody who was in the Army and now works in civilian security could write a book as good as this,’”

Isn’t that such a great review for a book series you’ve never heard of, that doesn’t sound like a review or a promotion. Just an honest to god opinion.

And look maybe he did really say or think that - and if he wasn’t part of this whole thing (I don’t know if he was and I’m too lazy to look it up), let’s be real he wanted to investigate because it was JK Rowling who was said to be the author. Not because the book series was so amazing, he just had to know who it was.

Because her name has clout. Because her name is a brand at this point. 

That even when she says she didn’t want these books of hers to be part of that brand, that brand also gives her a lot of benefit of the doubt and high-praiseful reviews. 

And look, I loved the Harry Potter books growing up. I adored this series, for so many years. I reread the fourth book so many goddamn times, my parents had to take it away from me so I would do my actual homework. 

And look JK Rowling built that brand up, with no name recognition beforehand. 

So, I’m not going to say she’s not a good author or I don’t think she’s not capable of writing good stories. 

But, also - maybe she thought she would get that same recognition for her writing alone with her name unattached to it and when it didn’t happen, or in the short time she thought it would, she let it spill she was the author. 

And look this is all coming from a Vox article I just read from 2018 (x).

They themselves admit they didn’t like JK Rowling’s first adventures into mature, adult writing. But they felt the same passion and love for this new series as they did feel for Harry Potter from Rowling.

Which doesn’t really tell me if the series is good or not. But I don’t think this person in 2018, hated the series like they did for first mature-adult book she had out in 2015; but I also don’t know if they truly think the series is that amazing on its own.

And this again, is all back in 2018. 

All of this stuff really started to happen or honestly blew up in 2020.

2020 is when she started to get a lot of criticisms for these new books.

Part of it, probably was because some people feel like it’s okay to critique the great JK Rowling and they won’t receive backlash for doing such a thing, or some people never liked her so they were more than happy to jump on the train that is finally (from their POV) starting after they’ve waited for years for others to catch on, and some just want to hate her to hate her. 

And some probably didn’t like the series, because they didn’t like it or think it was good.

--

Maybe, just maybe because this book hasn’t been well reviewed and because people are rolling their eyes at this self-insert character and it’s part of their bad reviews –

JK Rowling wants to be able to say her haters are making it look like she wrote a bad book, because they don’t agree with her on this minor issue and how it’s unfair, she’s being judged nonstop for this one-opinion.

And it’s just oh so unfair that people keep bringing this whole “trans issue,” even when it has nothing to do with the current subject at hand – like her most recent book, where she literally has a self-insert character (or one that absolutely looks like that), who is unfairly and brutally murdered after they’ve gone through a massive hate campaign where they were accused of racist, ableist, and transphobic views.

I just...

I don’t even know what to tag this and I’m too tired to review or grammar check this.

--

Basically, I think JK Rowling has put herself in a corner, where she can’t get out of it. Or at least not without seriously reflecting on her own actions and facing the reality of the situation and her own hateful view.

Because the tactic of not talking about this stuff didn’t help (which she did for like a hot second) And I have to imagine she did feel trapped and cornered, so she dug in her heels and started to fight back. She didn’t like being called bigoted so she fought against that, because that’s easier than actually wondering or even admitting you have bigoted views.

I think it would be hard for someone who has been so widely adored and praised like she has - to genuinely adjust to such a large backlash. 

I do think JK Rowling believe she is standing up for women’s rights. The real ones, not those men pretending to be women (as she would say)

And is surprised to find, that people find that to be insulting or not the current way people feel about it. Because what was once progressive 20 years ago, isn’t considered progressive nowadays. 

For instance, saying gay people should be allowed to marry the person they love, even if they are of the same gender or sex - isn’t the radical position anymore. It’s really the normal one.

And that’s good. Right? I feel like that’s good.

We want, what once were thought to be radical opinions, such bold and progressive ideas, and to look back and be like...why the fuck was that radical? Why was this ever an issue? 

And yes, there can be a problem with not knowing your history. 

The best example because of how recent it is in the grand scheme things of things and shows how quickly people forget. Is that we shouldn’t be mad at The Legend of Korra for ending way it did and try to say it was only putting the airs of being progressive without being progressive. And instead keep in mind, that was progressive. That was amazing for so many people.

That’s how bad things were. Two female characters and their relationship being only confirmed by what feels like nothing by today’s standards - was radical and amazing for so many people, because they’ve never seen that on screen before. They never felt seen before.

And because of that, other shows were able to build on top of that more and more.

Basically...

I think JK Rowling has reacted in a very reactionary way and just keeps digging a hole for herself. 

I don’t think this is easy thing to do; but I always imagined if I did ever publish any of my stories and they became as big as hers. And then people pointed out problems, I hope that I will be able to be like - I thought of the problems I was aware of at the time and I’m glad you found fault in ways I never considered before. I hope you can still appreciate my work, but when you write your own story - do better than me.

Take what you saw as a problem and address it and make it so it doesn’t exist for the next great series. 

I don’t think that’s an easy thing to do, especially if you feel like you’re being unfairly attacked (not saying she was or wasn’t), but I can see why she would feel like that. 

I don’t know. 

Will and Grace can feel very reductive nowadays, but it was such a big and radical thing at the time. Showing gay people as people. As main characters. Yes, there are a lot of jokes with Jack and how he acts, but also - him being gay, is and isn’t the joke. 

Because Will being gay or being attracted to men, is no more the joke then when Grace is attracted to a guy and wants to date one.

The creator of the show has talked about how one of the ways they got the show to be aired and so well-liked, was because, despite Will being gay, there was a desire for many, for him and Grace to end up together.

the man basically straight-baited people before queer-baiting became a popular term. Kudos to him.

But that’s what he had to do, to get a tv show where they had the radical opinion that gay people were people, and worthy of being the main character and not the butt of the joke or the story for the straight person to learn about themselves.

At the end of the day, it’s basic human nature to want to protect yourself. See yourself as the hero or victim, never the villain.

I think it’s an admirable skill to be able look at oneself and seriously ask - am I in the wrong? Am I the one with the hateful view?

And look, I don’t think people ever think of themselves as the one who has the hateful or wrong view even when they know it is a hateful thing.

In a weird and very fucked up way and I shouldn’t write this, kudos (But not actually) to the people who are openly hateful instead of pretending they’re not. I guess?

Am I praising outright bigoted people, for just being honest about being bigoted?

Is that where this post landed. That can’t be right.

Don’t be bigoted.

You’re not a good person because you’re honest about being a hateful person; but at the very fucking least (and I’m scrapping the bottom of the barrel here, for like an ounce of gunk that can be seen as a good thing) at the very fucking least - you are self-aware enough to be open about that.

Why am do I keep praising people for being openly bigoted and not lying about it?

Why is that where I keep ending up.

I have a headache, I’ve barely eaten today, I’ve spent 5 hours actually getting real writing done and this was supposed to be a quick rant and I’m tired. 

I seriously have lost my point. I’m not going to edit this or read it through.

I just… I don’t fucking know.

If you’ve read up this point, why? jesus christ why? I’m writing this am aware of what a mess this is at the moment I’m writing it. 

My point is.

It’s not easy for anyone to admit when they’re wrong. Especially not to such a huge public audience and to be fair, to JK Rowling even if she had seriously admitted she was wrong and reflected on her actions - I don’t doubt that some people wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t have been enough for them.

However, just because some may have reacted like that, is not an excuse. 

I think what JK Rowling is doing is very human, but that doesn’t mean it’s good in the slightest. basically, she’s digging in her heels and refusing to admit she’s wrong and the more she fights this, that harder it will be for her to admit she was wrong and the less likely she ever will.

The more we commit and fight back, the harder it is to stop and breathe and actually think let alone finally admit, we were the asshole, or the villain.

So, she’s going with it at this point. I don’t know how much of that is a choice, as in how much she’s aware that’s even what she’s doing. But the amount of disconnect she would have to have to apparently write the character that exists in her new novel which I have not read so I can’t say how much of a self-insert it really is and not what she’s done, is honestly frightening.

Look people can make mistakes and people can unfairly pile onto someone - look at how with think of Monica Lewinsky today.

I just...

It’s not easy to look at yourself and admit your wrong, but if being a good person was just about doing the easy thing of not doing bad or hurtful things, we would all be good people.

And JK Rowling isn’t even doing that. She isn’t even doing the bare minimum of not being an asshole.

I don’t know I’m disappointed. All my feelings for her, I feel disappointed in the end. I want to scream and shout, because I know JK Rowling is capable of looking at something and saying this isn’t right and we need to and can do fucking better.

But she refuses to do that anymore, because well - I don’t know, maybe just a certain amount of wealth, fame and praise fucks with your brain. You’re still you and you still think you’re a good person, and you thought yourself a good person when you were doing good things and so what has changed.

Have you changed?

Are you no longer a good person, or is the world wrong?

Sure, I wish she never had certain views in the first place.

But I honestly wish, she had stopped and thought - maybe I’m the one in the wrong. Maybe what I once thought of being radical or progressive things, aren’t anymore and while I shouldn’t get hated for having what were once considered radical or very progressive views for the time – or that I wasn’t even aware of problems being problems, because they were talked about in the sphere I existed in –

the fact that I still think that’s where the bar is, instead of realizing that’s become the norm - is a reflection on myself and how I need to grow and change. 

Okay I’m going to cry, this was supposed to be a page and it’s …a million.

And I have such a headache and this was suppose to be like an obnoxiously long paragraph not this.

[transkholins]

re: that last reblog, there is a broader discussion to be had about the disco elysium “fandom” as a whole just woobifying the shit out of the source material. defanging it until it’s no longer recognizable.

because, like it or not, the game has some pretty clear things to say about the world the characters occupy, AND, by proxy, our real actual world that we live in. we can wax poetic all day about how disco elysium is a game about communism and revolution, about being a better person and creating a better world, and it is about those things, but a lot of how it does what it does is by showing you the most cruel and heartless and miserable people imaginable.

like, there is a pretty clear message in the game about how cops are terrible people who have dedicated their lives to downright fucking evil institutions that preserve the status quo and brutalize the most vulnerable people in their communities. like, one of the more glaring examples is that you as the player can threaten to shoot a child -- it’s not even a failed check, you can just do that. you play as a bastard cop who spends much of his time with other bastard cops. you as the player have to sit with that. sit with the fact that being a cop impacts your character and all of the relationships he has with the people around him. sit with the fact that not going back to being a cop is a “bad” ending.

but one thing i see in a lot of spaces is a complete unwillingness to engage with the hard parts of the game, the uncomfortable parts of the game, the ugly parts of the game. and, to an extent, i get it. it is hard and uncomfortable and ugly. i don’t like talking about it or acknowledging it, because, like many people, i’d rather we lived in a world where everything was good and happy all the time. but we live in a complex world with everpresent issues. and it’s necessary to think about these things and take them into account, because if you don’t, then what we get is apologia (for cops, for racism, for misogyny, for ableism, et cetera) at best.

this is more a personal and artistic gripe than anything, but the most interesting fanworks i’ve ever seen (not just for disco elysium) are the ones that actively engage with the text and what it’s trying to say -- the ones that don’t shy away from depth and complexity for the sake of making something comfortable and appetizing. 

i’m not saying that every fic or fanart has to come with a five-part disclaimer about how these characters suck. i’m not saying that fans should only produce gritty thinkpieces about how the characters suck. i am certainly not saying that we should only engage with works that are beyond reproach. what i am saying is that the characters are terrible, the systems that they’re part of are terrible, the game makes that super fucking clear, and ignoring that does a disservice to everyone.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

//CW: swearing, ableism and sanism, long post

I am once again shaking the writers by their shirt collars and demanding they stop attempting to portray mental illnesses in their books well-known for unrealistic (for cats or humans), ableist, shitty portrayals of disabilities.

If they’re not actually going to attempt to portray it realistically, in a educational, non-stereotypical, non-flanderized manner, they should not try at all. You already have a series that treats their “physically disabled” (I use that term loosely bc it’s hard to distinguish mental vs physical disability when mental is physical in the brain) like anywhere from average to completely useless, pathetic individuals who live short, sorry lives and are better off dead, apparently. Reminder there’s real fucking people who read these books. I was and still am by no means okay with the misogyny, racism, and again, ableism that already exists in this series, but as a mentally ill person, any more sanism will tip me over the edge.

Mapleshade is every “driven mad with grief to the point of hallucinating and wanting to murder” stereotype there is, even after they debunked her being schizophrenic (because that is the no. 1 schizophrenia stereotype); Bluestar’s depression and supposed dementia (bc she acts nothing like a person or cat with the condition would behave and seems like the term as been used to more so describe her senile state) seem like as an excuse or a pretence of her becoming ableist and abusive to Brightpaw, neglectful of her entire Clan, and her sudden mistrust of everyone despite the fact she is the only significant character to be driven mad after a betrayal and not only was she not that close to Tigerclaw in the first place, but should not have been so surprised by the outcome (I’m not saying you can’t suddenly shutdown and mistrust people after a trauma, or that Bluestar’s life was anything but traumatic, but this is way overblown and has someone with actual serious distrust bc of trauma and shit, I very much don’t appreciate it); Moth Flight’s ADHD is the reason she is exiled by her own mother and this condition is rarely if at all otherwise addressed, validated, or given help for, and feels mostly like something put in after the fact without much knowledge or concern for what ADHD is; Palebird is portrayed as an apathetic, scornful mother to Tallstar throughout his life, not only completely bare bones of what Postpartum depression is, but heavily stereotyped and demonised; and Sparkpelt is going down a similar route.

Additionally, Alderheart being anxiety disorder coded, with him with him being portrayed as an incompetent warrior bc of his anxiety, being looked down on by his Clanmates, and even showed aside by his own disappointed father bc he thinks poorly of his own son, is really uncool. And the rumours are true for Bramblestar, he also behaves little to nothing like someone would dementia would, and, to be at least, feels like the Erins scrambling for reasons to defend or cover up his previous shitty actions. I know that sounds like a stretch but at this point, with all the shit the writers have done and said so far, is it that far of a stretch? They tried to silence their own fans after the Frecklewish incident after all.

If they start going down this route like it feels they are, I’m gonna get pretty pissed off. They aren’t even attempting genuine representation or trying to make up for their previous, massive fuck-ups when portraying other disabilities in the past. There is no reason for them to do this. I genuinely think should just cut it out from here on out and never look back to “representation” ever again, unless Harper Collins if gonna let them make a cat officially gay, i.e. (officially and intentionally) queer code a character, particularly one that isn’t a cis MLM that actually plays a part in the plot (sorry to anyone who thought Mousefur was “canonically” asexual or that one woman calling another “beautiful” counts as intentional or explicit coding, bc bi Leafpool is more than likely an accident and I don’t even think they noticed afterwards).

I still fully believe aroace mousefur is canon even if that isn’t the words the Erins would use themselves (I doubt they actually know what aromantic or asexual mean) - she is said to have never had any kind interest in taking a mate after all

But yeah the Erins need to do much better. They’re going to keep queer characters out of the books as long as it keeps China and Russia happy, and judging by just how recently they’ve been explicitly ableist *cough* what sandstorm said about Briarlight in Squirrelflight’s Hope *cough* I doubt their ableism is going to change much soon. Although I do have hope for Sparkpelt’s arc, but given the Erins’ track record I feel like my hope may be misplaced.

[silverechosandblankmasks]

So iv been seeing quite a bit of claims of c!Dream sympathizers claiming hating/not liking c!Dream or hell, just pointing out his actions, is ableism, and just a general bring of of people talking about his supposed neurodiversity/mental illness, and just general stuff about him, and also c!Wilbur and c!Quackity, and well I wanted to bring some things up for people and analyze the characters a bit! 

First things first; Mental illness doesn't excuse the fact they abused and/or hurt people. If your in a mental breakdown and you lash out (either verbally or physically) you still have to apologies for those you hurt, even if its understandable why you lashed out or broke down.

Wilbur spiraled becuase of the world and actions of people around him, and his own bad mental health and yeah, he’s not fully at fault but it doesn't excuse the fact he hurt people, and nobody has to forgive him or accept his apologies. I feel sorry for him because he’s shown he not only regrets it, but doesn't know how to go about making amends and even then he’s still struggling with mental health. And despite all that when characters or even people this fandom have, or if they do in the future, refuse to forgive him? I totally support that 100% because of what he did or is doing. Understanding his struggle and he needs help doesn't equal support or forgiveness.

Quackity as well! His actions can be explained with what he went through as, but it doesn't excuse the fact he’s manipulating and abusing people, regardless of who they are. Granted I'm more sympathetic to the poor souls he dragged into Las Nevadas in his bid for power then Dream, but he’s still torturing the dude and that's highly fucked up. He also is suffering from mental health and past abuse, but again doesn't excuse his actions towards others.

Dream, who has shown no real canon reason for his actions other then a reach for control and getting upset when he didn't get it, has also done 10x worse then what Wilbur did, did it multiple times, and has never showed remorse other when he was trying to save himself from being murdered or hurt, and after he was ‘safe’, continued to taunt those around him. If he has some sort of mental illness or disability, which again we have no proof of btw, it doesn't excuse the fact he literally abused and manipulated most people on the server, including some of his closest friends as well as Tommy mainly, with no remorse.

The difference is we see Wilbur struggle with his choices and his spiraling, and him trying to make amends and fix things, but with Dream? Dream hasn't showed any sign of remorse outside of when he was trying to manipulate people or get them to stop hurting him. Maybe he has some sort of inward struggle like Wilbur did, who knows! But we haven't seen it so trying to speculate on something that we literally haven't seen is impossible.

Do I think he deserves to be locked up in Pandora's vault? Yes, but that's becuase he’s not a real person and as a fan that's hard to gauge. In universe its pretty inhumane of other characters but also remember, after everything he’s done, its not hard to believe that nobody on that god forsaken server wants to help him! After all, he built that to throw someone else into, so can you tell me that him being put there and suffering at his own hands isn’t a bit deserved? Plus we all know the moment he got put in there, it was merely a matter of when he’d get out again lets be real.

Now, do I think he deserved to be tortured? Not really, as I think Pandora’s vault is enough tbh, but its also more about why and who is doing it tbh, rather then the torture itself. Can anyone really be surprised nobody wants to help him after all he did? None of the people in universe are professionals and he’s hurt most of them, so obvi their biased. Plus, not everybody knows what's going on!

So TLDR; Dream, Quackity, and Wilbur are excellent cases of people who have done things for many reasons, some more explained then others, but whatever their reasons are, and excusing their actions becuase of mental illness or neurodivergence doesn't excuse the people they hurt as well. Also we have no actual evidence on why Dream did what he did, let alone supposed neurodivergent or mental illness claims when there’s no proof and even then it wouldn't excuse him.

Get out of here with your ‘your being ableist UwU’ or ‘bla bla bla c!Dream isnt as bad bla he was just trying to make it better before tommy came along’ shit when it comes to c!Dream, he tortured and abused someone until they wanted to die, and they fact it was an already traumatized minor makes it even worse, if that's somehow possible. Nothing excuses that! Not even if you didn't like Tommy, nothing excuses what Dream did!!! He was also trying to find a way to have total control over everybody else on the server too by manipulating them, if you have forgot that. That's also manipulative and controlling, ie abusive, behavior. 

[seatostars]

I’m just gonna say it. Philly Twitter is a toxic dumpster fire and what I have learned in the last year is that Nolan Patrick lives rent free in the heads of every straight white man from Philadelphia. I’m not saying that dude doesn’t have flaws (see: disgusting opinions about sexual assault!) but like...accusing him of trying to tear down the Flyers via accusations of years of medical abuse because he sucks at hockey and they traded him? Bit of a stretch.

And OH MY GOD the Philly press are the worst of the lot. Honestly, I already couldn’t stand basically all of them - excepting Jamey and Charlie - but this shit is Extra. These men - and a few women running podcasts alongside those men! - need to get over the fact that a player hated them so much that he refused to give them any good sound bites for their blogs, and grow the fuck up. Like first of all, why are you wasting energy hating a kid? And secondly, he’s not even THERE anymore! MOVE. ON.

Then there’s the MISOGYNY. Oh, man says that he had a head injury and was illegally prescribed highly addictive opioids by his team while they his team brushed the whole thing under the rug and blamed him by saying it was a childhood migraine disorder and then is fucking trashed by said team and the entire press for a season before begging to be traded away and seemingly doing much better with another team? What a “pussy”. What a “whiny bitch”. What a “teenaged girl”. Jesus christ.

But don’t forget the ableism and complete disregard for people struggling with mental health. Not only was Patrick’s TBI “just headaches” and his struggle to recover and come back to the league an apparently personal failure of someone who is just “injury prone” and therefore somehow useless ... Oh, no! Let’s just fucking throw Robin Lehner under the bus and accuse him of lying by explaining away his behaviour as a manic episode or attention-seeking or a drug binge or an alcoholic rant. Let’s just ignore his own admitted history of opioid addiction - AS A RESULT OF LITERALLY THE VERY THING HE’S CALLING OUT - except for in the ways it benefits us: to call him a druggie that shouldn’t be allowed in the league! “Oh, poor Vegas. They’ll regret trading Flower now!” Disgusting disgusting disgusting.

I honestly don’t understand fanbases who double down on defending GIANT CORPORATIONS in the face of MOUNTAINS OF EVIDENCE over the very young adults they steal away and lock into ridiculous contracts that literally have them basically selling their bodies away to a profit-driven business that doesn’t give a single fuck about them as people.

Arizona.

Chicago.

Montreal.

Philadelphia.

[Insert next team here.]

Get these old money-grubbing men with their toxic masculinity out of the fucking league and protect the next generations of kids that end up on their rosters.

Wayne Simmonds was right. In the face of *gestures expansively* ALL. THIS. BULLSHIT. who would want their kid playing hockey?

ETA: I have struck out the part about NP being given drugs as it has been confirmed that journalist was basically lying for clicks and clout. However, the rest still stands. We DO have mountains of evidence of abuse and shady behaviour by these teams, even without Lehner saying anything. He could be lying through his teeth about everything and all the other examples would still continue to exist, as would the toxic mentality of the fan bases.

[i-did]

Do you know when the racism and ableism accusations against Nora started? Because back when I was active in 2016/2017 and don't think they were a thing, or were very low-key. Was it something she said or are people just basing it off the things she wrote in the books?

From what I remember, the first time I heard the blanket statement of “Nora is racist/fetishizes gay men” blanket statement was early fall 2019 (which is so ironic for the fandom to say on so many levels lmao). There wasn’t a catalyst or anything, just she went offline 2016 and no new content was coming out and the aftg fandom is such an echo chamber that… an accidental smear campaign happened.

 Before then, I would see occasional “Nora used ableist slur” which… is funny (not that ableism isn’t serious) to me people care more about that than Seth saying the f-slur. IMO this is because with Seth, it clearly shows the character thinking it and not the author who is writing about what will be an end game mlm relationship. 

But anyways! Long story short, it's the fact that she’s an ace/aro woman who wrote a mlm book, and based off of the events in canon. There is no “Nora called me/someone else a slur” it’s “Nora wrote a book where slur(s) are used” and “the Moriyama’s are Japanese.”

Below I put my own opinion on these claims and go into more detail:

CW for discussions of: racism, ableism, mlm fetishization

Fetishization: (and mentions of sexism at the end)

To one question in the EC about her inspo for aftg she jokingly responded how she wanted to write about gay athletes. On other parts of your blog you could see she was a hockey fan and an overall sports fan (anime or otherwise) but I've seen this statement taken out of context and framed as “she's one of those BOYXBOY” shippers. Considering how… well-developed both Andrew and Neil’s relationship is, and it takes them until like the 3rd book and there is a whole complex ass plot going on around, you can see how that's just. Not really true. And considering the fandom is like… 85% women (queer women but still women) and I've gotten into a discussion with someone who is a woman and called Nora a fetishizer and was ignoring my opinions as a mlm, and I really just wanted to say “well what does that make you?” it's a very ironic high horse. She didn’t write 3 all 3 books to put Neil in lingerie pwp or crop-top fem-fatal fashion show, fandom did. 

Also, I talked to an ace/aro friend about this, and she talked to me about how AFTG spoke to her very much so as an ace/aro story. Neil is demisexual, Nora didn’t know of the word at the time of reading it, but she did get an anon asking if Neil was demi after, and she said “had to look it up, and yep, but he doesn't really think about it” (paraphrased). Obviously it would have been cool if andreil were canonly written as wlw by Nora instead, (which would have increased the amount of wlw rep and demi rep) but tbh I don’t think tumblr would have cared about it nearly as much and everyone would just call Neil a cold bitch–like people do with Nora’s other published book with a main character who's a woman. Plus they're her OC’s, not mine. 

The fact is that 50% of all LGBT+ rep in literature is mlm, mostly white mlm, and not written by mlm. I’m not going to hold her to a higher standard than everyone else, she already broke a shit ton of barriers in topics she discusses that otherwise get ignored. I’m grateful to these books for existing even if it's a mlm story written by a woman. I still will prioritize reading mlm written by mlm–and vice versa with wlw– in the way I prioritize reading stories about POC written by POC. But credit where credit is due, this is a very good story, and a very good demi story. 

Ableism:

To me, AFTG is a story about ableism and how we perceive some trauma survivors more worthy than others. Neil and the foxes using ableist language shows how people actually talk. Neil thinks shitty things about Andrew, like the others do too, and thinks he's “psycho”. The story ultimately deconstructs this idea and these perceptions of people. Wymack, someone who says the r-slur (which is still not known by the general population as a slur even in 2021 much less the early 2000s when the book was beginning to be written and what the timeline is based off of) is a character who understands Andrew better than most of the others do, and gives him the most sympathy and understanding despite using words like the m-slur and r-slur. Using these words isn't good, but it is how people talk, and this character talks. Wymack is a playful “name caller” especially when he’s mad, the foxes think Andrew is “crazy” and incapable of humanity and love because of it. They call his meds “antipsychotics” as an assumption and insult in a derogatory way, when really antipsychotics are a very helpful drug for some people who need them. Even Neil thinks these things about Andrew until he learns to care about him. All the foxes are hypocritical to am extent, as people in real life tend to be. Nora herself doesn’t use these or tweet them or something, her characters do to show aspects of their personality and opinions and how they change over time.

Racism:

As for the racism, I've seen people talk about how racial minorities being antagonists is inherently bad, which I think lacks nuance but overall isn't a harmful statement or belief. However, Nora herself said she wrote in the yakuza instead of another gang or mob because she was inspired for AFTG by sports anime, (which often queer-bait for a variety of reasons). I haven’t seen a textual analysis acknowledging the racist undertones surrounding the Moriyama’s as the few characters of color who are also major antagonists, but instead just “Nora is racist”. Wymack having shitty flame tribal tattoo’s is just… a huge 90’s thing and a part of his character design. Her having a character with bad taste in tattoo trends doesn’t mean she's racist. There is the whole how Nicky is handled thing, but that's a whole thing on it’s own. The fandom… really will write Nicky being all “ai ai muy spicy, jaja imma hit on my white–not annoying like me–boyfriend in Spanish. With my booty hole out and open for him ofc.” and as a Mexican mlm I’m like … damn alright. 

I think there is merit to the fact that she writes white as the default* and unless otherwise stated a POC a character was written with the intent to be white is another valid criticism, as well as the fact that the cast is largely white, but everything Nora is accused of I've seen the fandom do worse. That goes to the debate of, is actively writing stereotypes for POC more harmful than no representation at all? And personally I prefer the lack of established race line that lets me ignore Nora’s canon intent of characters to be white and come up with my own HC’s over the fandoms depictions of “zen monk Renee with dark past” “black best friend Matt who got over drugs but is a puppy dog” “ex stripper black Dan who dates Matt” vague tokenism. I HC many of the upperclassmen as POC and do my best to actively give thought behind it and have their own arcs that also avoids the fandom colorism spectrum of “darkest characters we HC go to the back and fandom favorites are in the front and are the lightest.” 

*I however won't criticize her harsher or more than… everyone else who still largely does this in fanfiction regarding AFTG as well as literature in general. This isn't a Nora thing, it's a societal thing, and considering the books came out in like 2014 I'm not gonna hold her to a higher standard than the rest of the world. She's just someone who wrote her personal OC’s and self-published expecting no following. I don’t know her race and I’m not gonna hold her to a higher standard than everyone else just because. 

The criticisms I've seen have always been… ironic IMO, and clearly I have a lot of thoughts on it. I think most people say those things about Nora because they heard them, and it's the woke thing to say and do and don’t critically analyze their actions or anything, but just accept them.