#my favorite space racist

[m0su]

Lae'zel Concept Art - Baldurs Gate 3

[foldingfittedsheets]

No one made any distinction to me when I was growing up when a word wasn’t English. Andale was just another way to be told “hurry up,” and I was certain other parents told their kids, “Watch your cabesa,” when getting into the car. I laughed myself sick the first time I saw Dragon Ball Z because a ladies name was Chi Chi and I only knew that meant boobs.

All my moms family was brown and I desperately wished I was too. I wanted beautiful black hair like my mom and dark skin that didn’t burn. I didn’t like when people asked my mother if she was my nanny when they saw us together. I didn’t like that people told me I looked like my dad. They just meant I was pale.

I’d proudly announce to people that I was Mexican and become furious when they gaped or disbelieved me. My dads side has no cultural roots. When questioned my dad shrugs and says, “English maybe? I dunno.” I just wanted to be Mexican growing up. Alas, I’m only a quarter descendant of an immigrant family who vehemently didn’t want to be Mexican.

My great grandmother announced that we were American now, not Mexican. She embraced American culture as much as possible, while never learning English. My nana was put into school and punished anytime she spoke Spanish. She got caught halfway between both languages. Forced to spend her childhood raising her younger siblings she never learned to cook tamales with her mother and her friends.

When she had her own children she didn’t teach them Spanish. She used it to gossip with her own friends about them on the phone and resisted teaching them more than to come running when she shouted “Araña!” to kill a spider for her.

Thus came my mom, with her brown skin and dark hair, adrift from her culture but treated as lesser by her adopted one. My great grandmother would rejoice to see me as her descendant, white, ignorant of Spanish, the perfect American she wanted her family to be.

When I was born my nana shouted, “What’s that red on her?” only to realize it was my hair. She delighted in her palest grandchild, telling me often I was her favorite.

I’m used to the disbelief now when I tell people I’m Mexican. I can laugh and show pictures of my mom. My friend from work joked to me that I’m always coming out of the closet, over and over, because both my minority statuses aren’t as visible as her black skin.

I was recently lamenting this to a white southern friend the same one I cast psychic damage on during a DnD day. “I wish I could feel more connected to my culture, but I’d be such a fraud pretending my life is the same as other Hispanic people.”

“Skin color doesn’t matter,” he announced blithely to the choked outrage of our Indian friend in the kitchen, “You’re just as Mexican!”

I regarded him in astonishment and said, “I think skin color matters a lot. I am Mexican, but I don’t have the same cultural roots or experiences of people who are perceived as Mexican. My family didn’t pass the cultural heritage down. I think a lot of immigrant kids feel this way but it’s different for me.”

He rambled about how I’m just as valid and I quietly disregarded his advice. I could try to reconnect with my roots, but I know I’d just be another white girl pushing into a POC space.

Instead I make tamales by myself, sweating over the steaming corn husks, and I snap at people who make racist jokes about my family to me, feeling safe because my skin is the same color as theirs.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Blair Imani made an excellent video that I really wanted to share with my white viewers, especially given the current climate. (Though, really, I could say everyone when it comes to antiblackness).

But yeah, we don't host these platforms just to hear ourselves talk 😅 It's not good enough anymore to go "oh, well, I know what's up so I'm Good" while you're passive in a space (fandom and outside), where The Problem is socially acceptable and in fact, encouraged. Especially when you have power in the space. Be willing to get uncomfortable. Be willing to speak up when your favorite creators are racist, or at least unfollow them and stop supporting their work. Have these conversations with your friends when they come up, even when they're going to be hard. Allyship requires action, and it's the- well, y'all know what I was bout to say. 👍🏾

[marzipanandminutiae]

would you have any reading suggestions to learn more about the earrings are evil era??? I've never heard of that aspect of fashion history and I am curious

Oh man, it was wild

you saw the first stirrings of it in the 1890s, when you started to get (mostly white and middle-to-upper-class) proto-feminists arguing that ear piercing was barbaric- keep an eye on the racist undertones there; they will come up again-and forcing women to suffer for fashion. I cannot emphasize enough that, until that point, ear piercing had been pretty much normal for this race/class/gender group. For centuries. You see criticism of the practice here and there, but nothing that really stuck.

The objections slowly increased until roughly the mid-1920s, when everything reached a tipping point and pierced ears became largely taboo for most white Americans and Brits of northern/western European descent. If that sounds HIGHLY specific, it is- communities from southern and sometimes eastern Europe retained cultural practices of ear piercing, to the point where it was often used as a point against them by mainstream society. It was also associated with Latino people, Black people, and the Romani, which. Yeah. I don't need to tell you how that went down.

It also developed associations with sexual immorality and/or backwards thinking. One newspaper letter I read came from a teen girl in the 1940s, wondering why she shouldn't pierce her ears if her very respectable grandmother had piercings. The response was something like "well, they did all sorts of things in the Bad Old Days that we shouldn't do now." True in many ways, or course, but...piercing your ears? That's the hill culture decided to die on as far as antiquated behavior that we should leave behind? Apparently yes.

Earrings themselves never went out of style, which led to the birth of clip-ons and screwbacks. Ironic that the "don't surfer for fashion" crowd was so eager to embrace screwing tiny vices onto your ears, but there we are. My own mother (born 1953) remembers her mother (born 1926) always taking off her screwback earrings immediately after getting home from a party, literally in the foyer of their house the second the door shut. There had been adaptations for unpierced ears before- Little Women, published in 1868, describes Meg March hanging earrings from a flesh-colored silk ribbon tied around the base of her ear -but they'd never caught on like this before.

However, the pendulum was soon to swing back. After just 40 years of Piercing Panic, in the 1960s, girls began piercing their ears again in droves. As piercing moved from the slumber party or summer camp back to the professional jewelers whose families had been early professional piercers in the 19th century- and to befuddled doctors who had no idea what they were doing yet still received piercing requests -cultural commentators had no idea what to make of it. Some decried the new trend while most took an air of bemused neutrality. My personal favorite article expressed surprise that "Space Age misses" were adopting these "Victorian traditions."

(In 1965, my grandmother took Mom to the anesthesiologist down the street who was offering to pierce his young daughter's friends gratis, and got it done. My grandfather had strongly disapproved of the idea, but in the end it took him a week to notice the new earrings.)

As to sources...honestly, I've just gone to Google Books, specified a time frame, and typed in "ear piercing," "pierced ears," "pierce ears," etc. Tons of primary sources at your fingertips, though I'm not always great about documenting or saving what I find. There's not much written about it formally, I've found- no books or scholarly studies. It may just be too close in history to attract much academic attention, though I find it fascinating.

This little blip where something that's been normal for most of western history suddenly became taboo for a hot second.

Also my ear piercings just turned 20 five days ago, commemorating the date that I was taken with much ceremony to Piercing Pagoda (and that horrible gun; it's a wonder I didn't get keloids) to get me out from underfoot while the Thanksgiving feast was being made. Grandma got hers pierced on the same day, at age 78. Happy Birthday, Marzi's ear piercings!

[tacitusk1llwhore]

Don’t cancel me for this, y’all, but I’ve seen a lot of politically charged posts about RDR (as I should; games about outlaws and the corruption of big and small government are and always will be inherently political), but one thing has really bothered and stuck out to me the most, especially in male-dominated spaces in the fandom. The idea that the Arthur Morgan in this day and age would be a raging MAGA conservative—I’ve gotten so, so many posts about it on my TikTok today, and this is finally me snapping. Here are a few arguments I’ve heard for this. “When he hears that the Democrats want to take his guns, he’d say hell no to that.” “He’s from 1899; you really think he would vote for a Black woman?” And my personal favorite: “Arthur says in-game he doesn’t engage in politics.” I’m not going to go through each of these and explain, in detail with evidence from the games themselves, why I think these are the dumbest takes I’ve ever heard in my life. In a space I hope is more open to this discussion, I hope you’ll join me.

1.) The gun control issue. I know, I know, this one seems pretty obvious; I mean, he’s a red-blooded American man and cowboy. How could anyone possibly think for a second he’d be for the party of gun control?? While this is true, you know what’s also true? The fact that he lost a child to gun violence. Now, of course we don't know exactly how Isaac and Eliza were killed, but judging from the time and efficiency, we can assume they were shot. Now let’s get away from assumptions. Arthur mourned the loss of his son, felt the agonizing, intense pain of losing a child, and said that it changed him forever, hardened his heart. Do we really for a second think that Arthur would listen to the story of Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, and countless others and say, “No, guns are more important.”? Absolutely fucking not. Not only has Arthur felt that loss, that pain, but he is deeply empathetic; hearing the testimonials of children in these buildings, families that lost their babies, would be more than enough for him to understand and push for common sense gun laws. The erasure of Arthur Morgan's trauma of losing his son and the erasure of his empathy for children and families is rampant in political spaces of the fandom; to simply assume that because Arthur is an outlaw, in modern times he would be this “don’t tread on me.” “Cares more about guns than kids” kind of guy is asinine to me. Even if he hadn’t felt that loss and that pain, there are multiple times in the game where he is given a deeper understanding of things he has never experienced; he becomes angry at that pain inflicted, takes the mission with Charles and the Bison, and hears about the vaccines being diverted from the reservations, and the Black doctor (I think he’s a doctor) you meet in Rhodes. Once he heard these stories, these testimonials, or saw the pain, the hardship, he was quick to step in and do something to make a change. He would not value weapons over the lives of people, as we can see from the game.

2.) This one is always fun to see because it assumes that Arthur is inherently racist. Now, I’m going to state one of my least favorite but still valid arguments: he has minority friends. This is very true; look at Charles, Lenny, Javier, and Tilly. Here is why it’s one of my least favorite arguments: you can have minority friends and still be racist, sexist, homophobic… Having friends doesn’t make you antiracist, so what makes Arthur antiracist? One camp interaction stands out to me the most in regards to this, the one with Tilly when they first move south. Tilly comes to Arthur in specific to talk about how nervous she is being so far south; she understands that the south is a dangerous place for dark-skinned people, especially the location they’re in. Arthur, while he tries to soothe her, pointlessly at first, claiming that it's a good place to run from the law, also understands this, almost immediately changing his tone and telling Tilly not once but twice that e personally will keep her safe, that she has his word that he personally will keep her safe; a man that has hate in his heart for POC would not do that, ever. Another interaction is one with Lenny, where Lenny points out that Arthur wouldn’t notice the difference in the more southern states because the worst they’ll do to him publicly is say that he is friends with POC (less soft than that, watch the clips of it on YouTube if you want the full dialogue), whereas for Lenny the worst that can happen to him publicly is a lynching (which he states all the way back in chapter one where he almost was lynched). Arthur is not ignorant of racism; he knows that it exists—I hate the whole “Arthur doesn’t know about racism.” Because he does, and saying he doesn’t is an insult to his intelligence and awareness of the world around him. He knows racism exists; he personally just cannot fathom it; he cannot picture himself perpetuating racism (again, see the scene in Rhodes with the Black man), which is where I think that confusion that people say he doesn’t understand it comes from—he isn’t confused by racism; he’s confused why that man assumes he’s racist, because in his head he simply can’t fathom being bigoted.

This one has two parts, so bear with me. This also assumes that Arthur is sexist; the argument I see for this is the one-off comment he makes to the working girl at the saloon, "I didn't know I was talkin' to a lady." Was this an ok statement? No. Does it make him a raging sexist? Also no. Let's look at his relationship with Sadie; he does not underestimate her because she's a woman; he trusts in her and her abilities with unwavering confidence, so much so that he entrusts the safety of John, Abigail, and Jack to her. Now let's look at the camp interactions, one of which Arthur states that he sees no difference between men and women (bi king) and that most are bad, but some are worth loving. A man who is a raging sexist would never say something like this; he would never equate men and women, but Arthur does see them as equals. I see a lot of people point out that Arthur is far more protective of the camp girls than most, but this isn't because he sees them as less than him; he just understands that a lot of them lack the ability to fully protect themselves (Love you, Tilly and Mary-Beth). He isn't quite as protective of the women that he knows with confdence can and will protect themselves with confidence, but even then he will stick up for them if needed. Arthur Morgan is a protector of women, which is so incredibly important today and back then.

3.) Here’s my favorite. Arthur doesn’t engage in politics. Looking at this in terms of the game, he absolutely does engage in politics; he has opinions on rights and the government; that is, in fact, political—he doesn’t vote, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make political statements or isn’t even unintentionally political. Now let’s look at this in the frame of today. Being non-political in 1899 and being non-political in 2025 are two wildly different things; politics has changed drastically in the last almost decade where thngs have circled back around to be voting for or against human rights, and from my evidence above, Arthur would be voting for those rights. In modern times it is almost impossible to be nonpolitical; I dare say it's impossible. Everything now has politics attached to it; that argument is their gotcha moment because they don't understand that, which is why they make the argument in the first place.

So, why does this matter? Arthur is a pixel outlaw in a fictional setting of 1899 America. I guess in the grand scheme of life it really doesn’t, but in fandom culture it absolutely does. Many people, including myself, come to fandom spaces to escape, to cope with things from their past or events of the day, to chat about characters, and to share theories and art, and so on. Imagine someone who lost a child, sibling, or friend to gun violence logging on for their daily dose of distraction only to see someone making points as to why a character who is comforting to so many people wouldn’t care about the death of their lost loved one, just guns. A POC or member of the LGBTQ community doing the same and seeing arguments as to why Arthur is homophobic or racist. Seeing something like that is in fact harmful; taking things and stretching them to fit your narrative despite the actual source material pointing in the opposite direction requires erasure and explaining your own personal biases publicly. Someone stating that Arthur is a racist is just them stating that they themselves are a racist or that they themselves care more about guns than lives—as we’ve seen, the public stating of controversial things or overall morally reprehensible ideals when gone unchecked spirals and spreads, and soon we have a space of people who will openly state bigoted things and push the people in the fandom here for reasons of a shared enjoyment for whatever reason or the people who use things to cope or as a distraction out of the space, effectively ruining it and potentially the outlook on the content of the game. Fandom spaces shouldn’t tolerate bigotry, and lots of Red Dead fans have been expressing bigotry lately, and these people have started to go completely unchecked. It bothers me; it always will, even if it is just a silly cowboy game.

[arionaleilani]

‘dont tag byler if its not byler’ ‘dont tag noah if its anti noah’ ‘if its not stranger things dont tag stranger things’ oh my god?? literally shut the fuck up.

i know that’s usually like a rule in fandom spaces, i’ve been in fandom spaces since i was 12, trust me i’m aware, but that shit applies to like. stupid ship discourse. “i don’t like this ship because it doesn’t fit with MY favorite ship so i’m going to complain about it in the tag for the ship i don’t like” <- that’s shitty

but this isn’t fucking fandom discourse. this is literally supporting the slaughter of an entire people. this is noah schnapp in a video with stickers saying zionism is sexy. this is shawn levy supporting israel and illegal occupation. this is SHOULD BE IN THE TAGS.

why? because these people should not be getting support! this show should not be getting support!

noah schnapp wants palestinians to die. let’s be very clear about that. let me say it again:

noah schnapp wants palestinians to die.

i hope st5 fails. i hope noah schnapp loses his job. i hope shawn levy never knows peace. i hope every single person on that show who supports israel never goes a day without being haunted by the thousands of dead kids they supported the slaughter of.

i hope the sets for stranger things burn down. i hope noah schnapp can never go a day without being called a piece of shit. a supporter of genocide. a racist.

because that is exactly what he is.

i hope these people’s names are forever tied to these beliefs. i hope stranger things goes down in history as that one show that those zionists were on. i hope noah schnapp can never google his name without being confronted with how much of a monster he is.

“but he’s young! he’s jewish! he’s scared!”

he’s NINETEEN with FULL ACCESS TO THE INTERNET and ACTIVELY ATTENDING COLLEGE.

he isn’t posting about JUDAISM he is LITERALLY PASSING OUT STICKERS SAYING ZIONISM IS SEXY

and he sure as FUCK does NOT seem scared in ANY of the posts he has made since sharing that shitty multi page statement on his instagram that HE DIDN’T EVEN WRITE!! HIS FUCKING FELLOW ZIONIST PIECE OF SHIT FRIEND WROTE IT AND HE POSTED IT!! if HE was scared maybe he’d use his own words to say so, but nope!! he’s just a massive fucking cunt scumbag just like every other zionist and every other person who is doing anything other than condemning the actions of israel and the people who support it

rot in hell, stranger things. and take noah with you.

[ironunderstands]

2.1 was so good holy shit (spoilers, obviously)

GOD THEY ATE AND IM SPECIFICALLY GONNA TALK ABOUT HOW WELL THEY WROTE RATIO IN THIS BECAUSE IM FOAMING AT THE GODDAMN MOUTH IT CHANGES HOW YOU VIEW EVERYTHING BUT IN A GOOD WAY.

so, let’s start from the beginning in 2.0 I want to walk you through my experience of it

ratio mean to aventurine, everyone gets mad. I feel weird about it, pre-2.1 I come to the conclusion that he got used as a plot device in that scene, since being racist contradicts his core motivations and the dialogue is awkward and has no real reason behind it, I chalk it up to bad writing but ultimately forgive it because 2.1 seems centered around Aventurine so they need setup for that

2.1 drops, my bsf plays the update throughout the night and we are losing our shit. He gets to the part where Ratio “betrays” Aventurine. I fucking lose it, I try to reconcile this with my preconceived notions of ratio, they don’t match up at all, his behavior that whole time doesn’t in the slightest. I am confused, I wonder if I have been wrong about him this whole time, if his whole speech on the Space Station and his character quests were some kind of fluke. I mean it could be in character? Knowledge of how a stellaron works could save millions if not billions of lives, invaluable information which Ratio would have trouble turning down because of its value. It still feels deeply wrong, Ratio isnt a backstabber, and he wouldn’t so easily bargain with Sunday over information he has no confirmation of (and could likely obtain in some other way).

The story continues, me and Haseeb (aforementioned best friend) are still pissed, I’m losing it because my favorite character just did something so unforgivable and out of character and I feel like a complete and utter idiot for interpreting a character to be a good person when they so clearly weren’t. Well, I (luckily) was so so so so so so so wrong about that, as it was all a setup, a plan devised by Aventurine to distract Sunday and forward their goals. I’ve never been happier, and suddenly every weird behavior, every “this doesn’t make sense” goes from “bad writing” to perhaps one of my favorite retroactive twists in fiction.

Ratio belittling Aventurine for his background doesn’t make any sense, I mean we literally saw the guy give a whole ass speech about how he believes all people deserve access to knowledge and that everyone is capable of being creative and having intellect, but that they just have to try for it, and if they are incapable of it, he DOCTOR Ratio is there to lend a helping hand. To cure the galaxy of stupidity, something which he views as not the lack of knowledge but rather the misuse and misinterpretation of it, how he depises the Genius Society because they mostly do not try and use their intellect from the betterment of other, and actively guide/encourage other scientists (and in Hertas case the researchers at the space station) to view knowledge as some sort of prize or commodity rather than tool. This notion is what causes Screwellum to acknowledge that Ratio is more like a medical doctor than a scholar. And this notion is something Sunday Isn’t Aware Of.

Sunday doesn’t know who Ratio really is, he may have heard of his various exploits, but Ratio has a reputation for arrogance, bluntness and insensitivity, something which Ratio plays up to the nines. The 2.0 scene with Aventurine goes from seemingly massively OOC for Ratio to him actively playing up his negative reputation to play into Sundays perceptions of the pair for their plan. Ratio->

a) makes it seem like Aventurine fucked up and he’s mad at him for losing the cornerstones, something which Sunday would see and go “hmm they don’t like each other

b) this “oh I can drive a wedge between them” notion gets worse (although in their case better) when Ratio brings up Aventurine’s (not entirely accurate) background. Sunday now thinks he has leverage over Aventurine and even more of a chance of getting Ratio to betray him. Ratio also makes it seem like he just learned this information by stating he “did his homework” and this supposed unfamiliarity with one another would give Sunday more confidence to try and drive a wedge between them

c) this makes it seem like the IPC are unaware of the Families constant surveillance, as it looks like they are having an important conversation in a private room, which would make Sunday think they are unaware of his eyes and ears everywhere

Now let me qualify this notion with more evidence because you could still try and argue that the deal Ratio and Aventurine struck was post 2.0 argument

Topaz (my glorious Queen). At the end of the 1.4 (or was it 1.5?) Belabog quest she has a conversation with Aventurine in which he requests for her help in Penacony, and we do not get a confirmation on if she said yes or not. Until 2.1, in which the the Topaz (and Jade) stone in in Aventurines possession, meaning she took him up on that offer prior to 2.0 because how else would he bring multiple cornerstones there, which we know there are many because Ratio says he lost the cornerstones, not just his own. Topaz would not give this item up easily or on a whim in between 2.0 and 2.1, meaning she would have to be let in on his plan prior, meaning the plan was formed prior. Since Ratio was also assigned to this mission keeping him in the dark would make negative sense and actively undermine their collaboration, something which he brings up in their fake argument

2. The Final Victory Lightcone. I originally thought this scene to be after their argument for complicated reasons, the most important of which being the minor snippet of conversation we see between Ratio and Aventurine during the first time we meet Acheron. Aventurine mentions 3 chips, Ratio doubts him, and the lightcone description starts with Aventurine questioning his doubt and firing three shots, a perfect correlation that made me place the order of events in that way. However, we get to see the snippet of conversation between Aventurine and Ratio in game, right before they meet Sunday, not prior to the lightcone events. However, they are still clearly connected for aforementioned reasons, just in a different manner, let me explain. Now we know the three chips reference not bullets but the three cornerstones, and Ratio openly expresses his doubt because the family is always watching (something which I will get into) and because a part of him does doubt this plan will go well. However, Aventurine prior reminds him of the events of the lightcone with the three chips. My interpretation is that Aventurine took that gamble in the lightcone to convince Ratio to go along with his crazy plan since if he can win a game of Russian Roulette with an unwavering smile on his face he an insane gamble means nothing to him (ratio doesn’t buy it because it’s ratio but the sheer audacity or you could say the “charming audacity” makes him go along with it). In my opinion this scene only makes sense pre-penacony, due to the timeline of events, which is why I believe it the reason for the events in it has to be Aventurine trying to convince Ratio to join in.

3) The family is always watching. During the 2.1 story quest it gets brought up several times in many different ways that it seems like the family has eyes on everything and everyone. Sunday’s fuckass bird is everywhere, and the man himself (minus being a goddamn biblically accurate angel) is covered in eye shaped shit and possesses close ties with the Harmony, which lends itself well to a character that knows things considering the Aeon itself is a conglomeration of many different perspectives. He fucking perception checks Aventurine, when the crew goes to look for info on firefly they learn the dream pools monitor people’s vitals and everything, even producing a dialogue option where the trailblazer states they feel like their every move is being watched. Topaz gets stalked by bloodhound members upon arrival, I could go on. TLDR Sunday knows almost everything that’s going on in Penacony, this is what leads him to believe the traitor is within the family, and his access to knowledge is something the IPC 100% knows about. I mean they have been presumably attempting to try and get it back for a while, and they would reasonably extensively try and learn everything about it. The Family notoriously hates negotiating with them so the IPC either learning and/or coming to the conclusion that the Family is watching their every move isn’t a ridiculous notion. If this conversation was genuine, if Ratio truly wanted to discuss this matter with Aventurine, why would he do it in a likely wiretapped, not very soundproof room where any passerby could hear Ratio loudly exclaim that Aventurine lost the very important cornerstones and that he is also one of the most despised groups in the galaxy because that would really do numbers for both their reputations. If you think about it, this not being staged is an incredibly stupid blunder on Ratio’s end (minus the deliberate OOCness) because of all the places Ratio could set up a very important meeting he does it in one of the worst places ever.

4) The dialogue in the scene. It’s awkward, it’s so awkward and the whole “also my family died I didn’t get an education” seemed so tacked on the first time I watched it. Knowing now, it seemed so tacked on because it was, Aventurine had to shove the info in there somewhere and their incredible conversational skills decided that was the best part in there. Ratio fucking leaving before Aventurine is even done talking goes from a “huh weird” to a “wow he is really playing up this arrogant scholar role”. And if Ratio is playing the arrogant scholar, Aventurine is playing the dumb, helpless, blonde to a T. Losing the cornerstones and acting nonchalant about it, letting Ratio insult him so callously and letting the insults slide, talking absolute nonsense at the end about random things that don’t matter, sadly lamenting into the distance that he’s alone again. Bro is playing it up and I live for it. They also and play up these personas in their little adventure prior to meeting Sunday, Aventurine asks stupid questions like wondering about the species of the bird that make up the statues and talking about how he wants to play in the sandpit and even insulting Sunday a bit, behavior that would make Sunday think him unprepared and unserious rather than cold and calculating. If Aventurine does that well, Ratio plays up his arrogant, uncaring scholar persona to the nines. He insults any and every decision or thing Aventurine does, loudly sighing of how happy he is to finally have some peace and quiet when Aventurine leaves his sight for 0.00008 milleseconds, pointing out his sarcasm, beefing with a random Pepeshi bodyguard no reason, pointing out his sarcasm, just the exaggerated way he talks in general, and suggesting he admit Aventurine into the Genius Society (even Ratio wouldn’t stoop so low as to suggest Aventurine was worthy of that).

Moreover, this is really, really tragic because I do think there are several moments of genuine banter and fun the two share “Ratio, you’re huge!” was not added to the script to enhance the plot guys. And obviously Aventurine knows most of Ratios behavior is acting, however he has such severe trust issues, and Ratio is so damn straightforward and blunt that he worries the man was serious about some of it which just breaks my heart. Soft Ratio please add it give me one conversation, the note at the end of 2.1 doesn’t count it’s too short.

Ultimately, knowing what I know now I can’t help but view the 2.0 conversation with Aventurine as being anything but staged, it simply makes no sense otherwise, and it happily obsolescent Ratio of his sins. This was a bit incoherent I honestly just wanted to rant (if you couldn’t tell haha) but I hope you enjoyed it regardless. I need sincere Ratio more then I need oxygen and I’m not afraid to say it.

[independent-variables]

Pulling this out of the tags of this post and making my own post because turns out I have More To Say:

As much as Lucas and his successors took from many real world cultures to mix-and-match their space cultures, it's really... disingenuous? not helpful? to analyze and discuss any space culture as a one-to-one with any real world culture. There are parallels. There are racist tropes. There is straight up appropriation! But saying the Mandos were meant to be space Maaori? 1) not the intent of any of their creators, and 2) ties any analysis of Mando culture to a discussion of Maaori culture. Which makes it a lot harder to just like. Discuss Mando culture, to say “hey this element of their culture is kinda fucked up” or “hey this element of their culture is really interesting and I want to expand on that with my own experiences and opinions via meta and/or fic.”

And it's like, ok. This equating and entwining of a space culture with a real culture is kinda the same thing as a fan projecting onto their particular favorite character and kinda erasing their canon characterization in favor of using them more or less as a self-insert. On it’s own there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. We are all, to some degree, writing about ourselves when we write anything: writing about what we believe, and what intrigues us, and what we love, which for many people includes their own culture. But this makes it really easy to take it personal when another fan dislikes something about the character. Or about the space culture, or whatever. This makes it really hard to have an actual discussion about intent vs. outcome, and the history of racism in SFF, and the particular space culture as it’s own thing.

And yeah, it is personal. Star Wars is straight up racist. Lucas used racist stereotypes of minority cultures as visual and narrative shorthand for a lot of his characters and cultures, and so did the creators who worked with him and came after him. It’s all there. But I think it’s important to make that distinction between “the depiction of this character/culture incorporates racist stereotypes of --- real world culture” and “this character/culture was intended to be the space equivalent of --- real world culture.” One allows the stereotypes and the way they were developed and have been used to be discussed separate from the actual culture.

I will always remember that one blog series about GRRM and his Dothraki worldbuilding, and some of the conclusions reached there encapsulate my feelings on this topic. What damned GRRM to criticism was not the holes in his worldbuilding, but his assertion that the Dothraki were based on/intended to stand in for specific historic peoples, because that assertion gave anybody actually familiar with those peoples free reign to tear his novels to shreds for the lack of research and respect. Incorporating elements of Maaori culture into Mando culture in the context of fic and meta and headcanons can be really interesting and meaningful. Analyzing Mando culture and its development with an eye for stereotypes of indigenous peoples can be educational and infuriating. Insisting these cultures are meant to be one-to-one and should be approached as such in analysis of canon and in fandom creation is low key racist, and also very limiting.

[thedissonantverses]

This is related to this post which is so on point it hurts. I wasn’t going to write this but yet another one of my mutuals had someone be super racist again directly to their asks so here we go.

I go super hard on the Veilguard positivity a lot not out of an urge to stan for BioWare but because parts of the fandom have gotten so unbelievably toxic I’m not even sure why they’re still playing the games. Legit if you’re actively in mourning about this franchise because of a, at worst, competent game you need to find something else to do. I have been told I don’t know how many times I just don’t like “critique” of Veilguard which is fecking hilarious and I should show you my dm’s. You’re not actually showing “love” for the DA franchise when you’re overly negative and reductionist.

We absolutely should be able to critique Veilguard and I do attempt to do this from time to time. But to be honest we can’t even discuss the actions of the antagonist in an honest way. It is actually laughable how far away from the source people have gone when analyzing this game and its characters. It might be my favorite game in the series but that in no way makes it perfect or flawless and I’m aware. Not gonna share the critiques here cause y’all can’t handle the base plot of the game without bullying other fans.

I keep seeing people complain about the lack of fan engagement and fanworks while directly being the reason artists and writers don’t want to be anywhere near the space. Again if you’re not commenting or reblogging or otherwise supporting other creators in the fandom you are the problem I’m talking about. If you’re being super vitriolic then yeah, no one wants to make stuff for you for free. They’re too afraid or exhausted and we are all culpable, myself included.

The media literacy problem, the bigotry, and the lack of engagement are all related issues and until the most vitriolic amongst us reckon with that nothing will get better. And yeah, if you’re going super hard against a game that stands this hard by its queer, disabled, and POC characters that’s a huge red flag. Unpack it. Offline. Away from the marginalized members of your fandom.

[daryl-dixon-daydreams]

"Are you asleep back there?"

The response at first was just the rustling of fabric as Daryl shifted in the back seat of the SUV the two of you were hiding from the storm in. The rain had slowed and was now just a soft pitter patter on the roof. "If I was, I wouldn't be anymore, would I?"

Your face appeared between the two front seats, peering back at him. "Right... Sorry. I just—I can't sleep."

Daryl sighed and sat up, stretching his tall frame as much as he could in the cramped space. "Yeah, me neither," he drawled.

"It's kind of funny, isn't it? Us being run partners now," you said.

Daryl rubbed a hand thoughtfully over his mouth and chin. "What d'ya mean by 'funny'?"

This drew a small laugh from you and you paused thoughtfully. "Um—I guess, just compared to how things used to be."

Daryl hummed a vague acknowledgement and stared down at his hands. He still always felt a bit sick at the memory of how things had been between the two of you, though he couldn't say he completely blamed you alone. He hadn't helped his own case much in the beginning.

There was a moment of silence that felt suddenly thick. You sounded a bit guilty when you spoke again, still leaning toward him with your chin resting on your hand on the seat. "I—I used to hate you, you know... Well, hate is probably too strong a word. Really dislike."

Daryl's blue eyes shot up to meet yours and you found them, to your own anxiety, unreadable. "Yeah. I know," he drawled.

"I thought you were pigheaded and brash and immature and insensitive—"

He laughed a little dryly. "Easy now, ya know I can't take compliments well."

You gave him a sympathetic look. "—and I wrongly assumed that the way Merle was, that you'd be too."

He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. "Ya mean a racist sonofabitch?"

"And sexist..." you explained apologetically. Daryl nodded knowingly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed so much."

"S'alrigh'. To be fair, back then I was pretty much angry, insensitive, and stubborn."

"We were practically kids," you said. "Anyway, do you know how I feel about you now?" you asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Darryl's eyes met yours again in the dim glow of the lantern hanging from the hanger hook above and he shook his head. "No. Not really."

You got that damn smile on your face then, the half-smile that still touched your eyes and sent them sparking. "Do you want to?"

Daryl's brow furrowed. "Is this some kinda trick question? Who the hell goes around just tellin' people what exactly they actually think 'bout 'em?"

You laughed and shrugged. "Me, I guess." You only paused for another moment. "Now? You're my favorite. Period."

Daryl gulped and thanked the universe that it was dark in there so you wouldn't see the red flush that he was sure accompanied the heat he felt in his ears and face, spilling out from his chest.

Prompt: "I used to hate you, you know." / "Yeah, I know." / "Do you know how I feel about you now?" / "No. Not really."

[jess-the-vampire]

You know it's stuff like this why I partly can't join the owl house fandom. The fandom seems to persnickety about liking certain charactersand headcanons, especially as someone who has dealt with similar shit before in my other fandoms. Granted there are other reasons I hate the fandom, but this is the worst one. It kinda soured the show for me, granted I never cared for it, but they just worsening it for me.

At times like these, i think it's important to remember posts like this

Bigger fandoms, will always end up looking worse by comparison, it's inevitable unfortunately.

For me, this is also unfortunately nothing new, anyone whose been with me since the start knows that.

It was a decade ago, in another fandom, that i was harassed and accused of being homophobic, because i shipped some characters together that wasn't the popular same sex ship.

I shipped plenty of other same sex ships, heck, i considered the characters in question to be bisexual. But that did not stop me from being publicly mocked, harassed, and put on block lists.

I was underage at the time, this was my first fandom experience, and it also soured that fandom for me, even the show itself.

People go into these things, thinking they're protecting people, or helping others.

And on the surface, i could see how one would think that.

But you're really not, people are not that simple, and neither are what they enjoy or are drawn to.

I was a teenager having fun in my own little space, with a ship i knew was noncanon, and it wouldn't of taken much research to find out i had no issue with the lgbt community at all, but no, it was "You are erasing us, you only ship this because you hate gay people, you're a horrible human being and yada yada yada-"

now, a decade later, it's "You are ignoring the poc cast because you're racist, you only like this character and are invested in him because you believe in what he believes in, you're a racist and sexist being for enjoying him and yada yada-"

Look, people do this because they want to protect people who have been screwed for centuries, it's perfectly understandable to worry that people who think belos is a cool character could like him for the wrong reasons. But people who genuinely think this way are a minority, and will be way more outspoken about those beliefs, is the solution here really to go up to anyone who likes something you don't and ruin them without evidence? To accuse them all of horrible beliefs?

this entire belief system removes the possibility of many MANY other reasons people enjoy media, and is straight up jumping to conclusions that if someone doesn't fundamentally agree with what you think, they MUST be a bad person. No critical thinking, no trying to understand others, just straight up assuming things.

Which btw, ironically, is actually acting WAY more like belos then anything the artists doing wittober were actually doing. Even the idea people are making art about his childhood and therefore sympathizing with him falls apart because there have been just as much art about his crimes so far.

Belos is a villain in a cartoon, people have latched onto villain characters since the dawn of time, it's nothing new. If you're going to keep this train of thought going....is disney just bad for their villian brand? are people also horrible for similar reasons if they have a favorite disney villian?

This entire thought process can be applied anywhere if you try hard enough.

Which is the kinda thing that allows actual human beings to be genuinely hurt here.

like are people going to be hurt more because people make aus with belos, or are they going to be hurt more because people who make said aus are accused or being racist people worth scrutinizing?

This thought process also doesn't take into the account of the fact that the people who like belos, might also be lgbt or poc, which....a lot of them are from my experience.

You can't both preach the show's message of accepting people who are different from you, and then also try and justify harassing people because they fandom differently then you. Unless the wittebane people are actively spouting out racist and sexist stuff, they're not doing anything wrong by engaging in the parts of the fandom that interest them.

Not everyone will be drawn to the show for the same reasons, you always gotta remember that, everyone has different favorite characters, different ships, and different things that make them happy.

Fandom is meant to be fun, people make aus because they're fun, they want to play with the media they like and do new things with it.

I strongly doubt everyone who has made an au staring hunter, or belos, or who thinks the wittebanes are interesting, sat down and said "Man, i like this show, but there are too much minorities in it, i hate minorities, i should make an au removing them or draw the wittebanes because they are white".

as a fan of these characters myself, i like them, but don't care too deeply about the blights, other white popular characters. I feel that should imply my investment in them has a lot more to do with other aspects then race.

in fact this makes me wonder if the person complaining in the tags would have the same argument about aus staring eda or amity in the same vain, even though hunter eda and amity are all lgbt, and two are disabled.

If you are doing stuff like this, either don't engage with stuff that doesn't interest you, because it's really weird to be this obsessed with a part of the fandom you don't care about.

or maybe, actually try to understand why people like it, rather then assume it's for the wrong reasons.

just my thoughts.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem#6020:

Im just going to assume everyone who screams "JUST MAKE UR OWN CHARACTERS!!!!!1!" at people who want to add poc to monochrome white casts are privileged white people at best and racist at worst. I'm sorry I have a favorite character I already like that happens to be white and can't invest the time nor energy to create a whole new ass character for the same world to fill the same space of my favorite char when I can just..........have my favorite character in a different shade. jesus fucking christ.

And I'm only talking about racebending WHITE characters, mind, as there are a disproportionate amount of them and it wouldn't hurt if a few were.... not white. For example: musical fandom. stage musical is a different medium to movies. remakes of movies, even if they modernize and upgrade and cast poc into white roles, are still gonna have the same cast when you watch them over and over whereas you can watch 5 different shows of a musical and not get the same show twice unless it's a recording. you're gonna have actors and actresses of many ethnicities playing the same characters. heather duke was played by a white actress in the movie, an asian actress in the off-broadway musical, and lately she's usually black in west end. is that an issue? she's still the same character so to speak, but are all those iterations of heather duke not valid because they're not white republican shannen doherty? (granted, musical heather duke is a strange case because she's the ONLY character whose race is consistently changing but i digress)

make your own character, if I wanted an oc or a self-insert I'd write original fiction no one would read.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 12/24/2024

pair of portentous tuesdayposts: this one is christmas eve and the next one is new year's eve

trying something new with the reading section, where i list off a bunch of books i bounced off and briefly explain why. let me know if this is interesting, or if it's more interesting when i finish a book i sort of enjoyed and really dissect what didn't work for me like with that annoying evil wizard book a couple weeks ago.

listening

the true champ of the past few weeks has been friends at the table's (an actual play podcast about critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends) horror/weird west season Sangfielle, and i know i have listened to about sixty hours of it bc i have played about sixty hours of stardew valley. i am currently on ep 49, one before the last finale episode, and it feels like it is wrapping up in a very rushed and weird way? maybe i will feel differently after listening to the six coda episodes wrapping up everyones' characters?

the song of the week is fleet foxes’ white winter hymnal, which is morbidly festive without being strictly christmas-y and is not salting the open emotional wound within my chest that is The Holiday Season. album released 2008. christ im old

-

reading

the concept of this gag award is EXTREMELY funny to me. i wish the EFF sent them a little physical trophy. perhaps a challenge coin.

bounced off a lot of stuff. the six larger books and the far top right are all from my absolute favorite thrift store with the worst vibes, who regularly has a 8/$1 media sale bc they actually want to be more of a kitchen goods and home decor thrift store and don't really want to constantly be overflowing with records no one buys. yet here they are.

i really do need to find a good indie used bookstore around here that will take books and give me back slightly more in store credit than in cash. bc i would like to fill some missing chunks of trilogies/fill out the star wars shelves a little more. but every time i have gone to half price books i have had an unpleasant time.

lumberjanes/bravest warrior/adventure time were not making me feel nostalgic and in fact made me quite sad instead (more in a memento mori way than in subject matter) so they're going to a friend's kid

glad i looked up Heartthrob (despite the really good premise of woman haunted by her heart donor) on my library's comic app bc the third one seems to mostly take place in a mental hospital which is really never a vibe i want

GRIFTER has art i don't love and a bland storyline about an ex-marine who is the saddest boy in the world and can also detect literal space aliens living among us. no thank you

tangle's game has a close-call near-sexual assault in the first chapter. no thank you! cool dystopic social credit score premise but no thanks!

gil's all fright diner is about the king of vampires and the duke of werewolves but they're hicks. the narrator hates that they're dumb hicks. did not jive with the authorial voice on this one

i bought Two Tickets to Tangiers in high school bc it looked cool and have only cracked it open now, almost fifteen years later. fifteen year old kay did not yet have the context clues from the cover that it would be a very racist travelogue

i need to stop trying agatha christie. i am never going to like agatha christie

-

watching

somehow i have seen the first tinker bell fairies movie three times this week bc that's all my bestie's toddlers want to watch. a really stupidly stacked cast??? how did all these people have free time in 2008???

-

playing

finished the community center in summer 2 of stardew valley (wildly popular and very intense farming sim) and would have finished it in winter 1 if not for the FUCKING pufferfish. i hate fishing minigames and i especially hate the fishing minigame in stardew so i am excited to leave it the fuck alone for a while.

my cauliflower got stupid mchugelarge?? i do not know why they did that. also a meteor fell on my farm and gave me a bunch of really valuable ore, just like real life meteors.

i do kind of regret picking the beach farm bc so much of my day is spent watering, but i am trying to lean harder into animal products and being more of a fun silly flower farm instead of the intense agriculture i find myself doing. i have the greenhouse, i have a small patch of sprinklerable land, i will simply make sure to buy some of every seed each season and if i really need something i will toss it in the greenhouse.

-

making

people are being very gracious about their mediocre colored pencil portraits. most of my gift budget this year was two flat rate boxes to my siblings. silly little pet portraits are very cost effective if you already have art supplies, nice paper, gumption, and very cheap small frames.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

. . . 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐲.

[ 𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄𝐒 & 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ] —

please read thoroughly before you follow/interact!!

✦ 𝐬𝐦𝐮𝐭-𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞

this is a smut-free blog!! the reason i say that instead of just sfw blog is because i occasionally rb suggestive content (whether it’s fanart or fics), and write + post dark content (mild gore, horror elements, yan stuff, pseudocest, generally twisted dynamics, etc). those works are always tagged with cw dark content (along w relevant warnings), but some of my general posts are also suggestive/dc-leaning and may not be tagged as well!!!

in other words:

i won’t write or rb full on smut, but that doesn’t mean all my content is sfw / that this is a sfw blog. pls mind the distinction!!

and with that being said — please don’t tag me in smut / heavy dc, or send me any nsfw asks!! suggestive stuff (jokes, tension, bare bodies, suguru’s tits, etc) is obviously fine, but i’d prefer to keep this blog free from anything toooo explicit </3 additionally, i’m uncomfy around pregnancy/childbirth/childrearing topics!!

✦ 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰?

minors are welcome to read and interact with my works (though please mind the warnings on my darker pieces), but i’d appreciate if you didn’t follow this blog!! like mentioned before, my general posts can be suggestive or a little messed up sometimes, and i just don’t like the idea of minors having to see that lmao. please do understand and respect this, it’s for my comfort and yours <3

in the same vein, bloggers who write/interact with smut and dark content are always welcome to follow & interact — just pls mind my own boundaries and understand that i might not be comfortable following back depending on how sensitive i am to the particular content you post, and how you tag it!! it’s never ever personal, just for the sake of curating my own safe space here :3

this seems like a good place to say that i thoroughly support blocking, softblocking & unfollowing for any reason at all!! if my content makes you uncomfortable, or if you find me annoying, or if i’m spamming your dash — or anything else — pleaseeee do whatever you want to do!! never feel pressured to follow me just because you like my writing, or because we’re mutuals, or for any other reason. i will literally never ever take it personally!!

✦ 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 / 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬

i don’t take requests, but you’re always more than welcome to drop by my inbox with brainrot or concepts <33 or for any other reason at all!! i don’t bite!!! (neither do the mice)(probably……..)

if you’d like to pick an emoji or title to go with your asks so you can find them more easily, feel free :> so far these are my anons:

🐑 , 🌙 , 🌖 , 🍰 , 🐟 , 🦐 , 🌺 , 🪷 , ❄️ , 🍓 , 🪄, 🐰 , 🎀 , 🧸🍪 , 🫧 , 🃏, 🌷, 🦈, 🥭, ☕️, 🪼, 🪅, 🫀, 🧠, 🙂‍↕️, 🌱, 🪐, 🐰🩺, sleepy anon, stsg anon and arinon!!

with that being said: please don’t send me hateful asks, whether they’re directed towards me or any other creators!! they’ll just end up deleted (and you’ll end up blocked). also also, please keep in mind that my brain is a big mess— sometimes i might answer your ask instantly, other times it could take me weeks. they’re constantly piling up, so please know it’s never just you!!! i’m always grateful for any tasty thoughts or kind words you send 🥹

✦ 𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬

many of my favorite characters are awful human beings <3 i’m a lover of all villains and that extends to characters like kenjaku and sukuna, but also ones like makima (csm) and mori (bsd)!! 

if that makes you uncomfortable, or if you think that equates to me condoning their actions / that liking them reflects my morality irl, then please block me!! i post about my blorbos regularly, and i’d hate to make anyone uncomfortable, but this is my little blog bubble at the end of the day. (+ i disagree w you)

✦ 𝐝𝐧𝐢

last, but not least; please do not interact if you are bigoted (racist, queerphobic, misogynistic, pro-israel, etc) + if you are anti-dark content and / or harass people over the fictional content they create or consume (under any circumstances)!!

(tyvm for reading all this 🙂‍↕️ i’m giving you a smooch!!!!!)

[butchvamp]

i'm working my way through the final companion quests and i finished Bellara's last night. i feel like my criticism of her story is the same, broader critique i've already discussed which is that she's never really given any time or space to reckon with the truth of the elven gods, she's never allowed any real sympathy or a crisis of faith or even just a genuine conversation about having to literally kill her gods that she's spent her entire life studying... this quest almost gets there, but it's once again... hindered by racism.

i would have loved this quest otherwise, in general Bellara is one of my favorite companions and her character is one of the strongest in the game. plus i like a good sibling dynamic, and i loved her scenes with Cyrian and even the final funeral procession. but the context they're in is frustrating. we don't need to teach Bellara the dangers of pursuing elven history, we already know, she already knew even before this, and now the game has completely demonized the Evanuris beyond a doubt and even blamed Bellara for it herself. we don't need Bellara to "learn her lesson." it's redundant and racist, especially the final choice!

this choice (Destroy the Archive or Preserve It) should NOT be up to Rook. this is when faction and companion approval could have come into play, but unfortunately the reputation system in this game is basically nonfunctional. if it did actually matter, then maybe if Rook has high reputation with the Veil Jumpers, Bellara could ask their opinion, but otherwise, why would she leave the fate of a priceless link to elven history up to Just Some Guy? especially if Rook isn't even elven!

Dalish culture is still valuable, it's worth respect and worth preserving regardless of the Evanuris. this confrontation with Anaris should have made her even more determined to do exactly that, to embrace and protect her culture and explore the truth of their history within the Archive, to share it with her people and keep them safe, rather than just blindly destroy it. this could have been her big emotional catharsis moment, with Rook there to encourage her but otherwise let her be the one to make her own choice and ultimately stop Anaris and save the Archive. maybe Cyrian does always die, but he's her link to the Archive that strengthens her resolve regardless. and depending on how Rook approached it (insisted that she would have to kill him versus encouraging her to try and get through to him) it could result in Bellara either opening up and sharing more about the Archive or hardening and closing herself and the Archive off completely. the funeral procession could change depending as well.

i don't know how the funeral procession changes currently, if you destroy the Archive, but if you save it, i do really appreciate those final scenes with her. we even get actual acknowledgment of the Exalted Marches and the reality of the current elves and their enslavement. Bellara finally gets to express herself and participate in her culture without having to feel guilty or apologize. i just wish she was given this respect beyond this single scene, and that she had more of a voice overall and could challenge both Harding and even Solas, and that the game didn't have to punish her before we got here.

[cosmic-walkers]

enough time has passed but something about the way nonblack and even some black people would cling on to louis and be very empathetic and understanding of his struggle as a black queer man, but in the same breath would be very cruel to black women in his narratives like claudia and his sister, and the black girls he pimped out, makes me realize how louis was a character that certain people clung on to to say that they cared about queer black people and our struggles, but because of that they felt they had an excuse to be misogynistic to black women. it's that whole 'louis is my favorite character, he is a black and queer man so even if i say unfair things about the black women in the show, I'm not racist because i like louis'. Keep in mind, Louis himself has a history of repeated violence against black women.

I saw this post on twitter, mostly being consumed by nonblack people and it shocked me the way that people completely reworte grace's character and her relationship with louis to make her seem worse than lestat. nevermind the fact that grace accepted louis and his sexuality and was kind to him, and the only reason she started turning on him was because he became distant and violent after being with lestat.

The need to call an actual black woman racist, when lestat is right there-- who is canonically racist and compared to a slave master is beyond me. but it makes me realize the hostility for black women in shipping spaces, and how a lot of nonblack, and yes, some black people liking louis gives them a certain shield to release that misogynoir because they know at large they won't be held accountable. Loustat is a big ship, the most popular, louis is the most liked character, of course when black women - the most hated people in fandom spaces - go after him it's a free for all.

Keep in mind, this is their mother's service, and both Louis, Claduia and Lestat were incredibly disrespectful. Keep in mind the time, when racism was also a huge issue. So bringing a man who IS racist to a somber BLACK family function like this...yeah... Grace has every right to be mad. Especially after all the chances given.

Op also brings up this scene. Again it's crazy to me how Grace, a Black woman who has also faced this type of racism if not WORSE is suddenly painted as a racist when Lestat himself is standing right there. Yes, back then it was (and still is) racist for white people to call men boys, but assuming that Grace is doing it because of racism, and not the fact that at this point after abandoning his family, Louis lives completely off of Lestat. This again, shows a divide, because why are you as a non-black person calling a Black woman racist and comparing her to a racist lawyer and not his actual racist white bf.

I also saw this response to that very tweet, and we see a person actually happy that louis is violent toward her.

like i mentioned before, louis has a history of violence toward black women. his sister, the girls he pimped and claduia. instead of seeing that as something to be called out about his character, people are extremely happy when he enacts violence toward black women. so yeah, food for thought.

and i also show this pic below. Louis kisses/touches her without her consent. she is afraid of him, he has been violent toward her. he threatens violence against, and he touches/kisses her without her consent to show her that he has the ability to hurt and harm her and no one can stop him if he wants to.

This doesn't stop with Grace.

Like it's clockwork. Louis is violent to Cluadia, and then throughout season 2 in France he is emotionally distant and abusive toward her. her whole existence is to cater to his needs and desires because he wanted her. their relationship started off as a form of exploitation, desire and abuse to please HIM and at the end of the day she suffered for it and he still gets to live, he finds lestat at the end, etc. but black women in his life literally suffer.

Lastly, I wanna say that it's clear louis is in an abusive relationship of some sorts, and I'd be open to talking about that if OP and a lot of other loustat shippers didn't make it seem like Grace is worse to Louis than lestat ever was.

update:

then we have gems like this <3.