#negativity under the cut

[shiitb4lls]

oooo boy.

with everything that happened this week my cravings have been at an all time high. idk what it is about being home but it's only made them worse. also my parents have ... a ton of booze in the house. fingers crossed I'm strong enough to not give into my cravings. please wish me luck buddies. I'm nine weeks sober as of yesterday and I'm hoping not to have a lapse.

[rosietherivendell]

Honestly I don't even care if b*ddie happens anymore and frankly I kind of hope it never happens out of plain old spite

[9-444]

The seven Tiers of Being

[marcmorrigan]

Released to [REDACTED]. SPK 02-04-10 6:45 PM

also released:

3 - One (1) sealed bag s/c cigarettes & lighter which were found in right exterior vest pocket of unnamed male accomplice.

4 - One (1) sealed bag s/c polaroid photo which was found in left interior vest pocket of unnamed male accomplice.

Note: victim posthumously identified as one Mail Jeevas, DOB 02/01/1990 (aged 19yrs at time of death). Request that Gevanni update documentation accordingly. - N

always thinking about the polaroids matt and mello didnt get to take + the amount of clean up and paperwork near and the SPK probably had to do after they seized all the kira case files from 'L'... also like. do you think near had to identify matts body. who else was there that couldve done it. anyway whatever teehee <3

+ 'clean'(er) version without all the scratches and stuff:

[mouthymercx0x0]

Trying not to be negative today but my thoughts are a little waning that way. I've been trying to break into the RP scene for a while now and I just don't feel like I've really done anything. Like I don't know I guess I wish I was a part of a community or something. Once upon a time I tried to break into the hazbin scene but couldn't seem to do it. I don't know why it bothers me so much. I guess I just want to be accepted by my peers other writers. I don't know it always feels like my ideas aren't that great or no one's really interested in what I'm trying to do

[marley-manson]

Do you have any petpeaves regarding the M*A*S*H fandom?

lol sure i'll take the opportunity provided to express a few, ty for the ask!

Overall Mash fandom is pretty awesome imo, and I actually don't have many compared to a lot of fandoms I've been in, and the ones I do have tend to apply to most fandoms anyway lol, they're staples of fandom in general.

-- The biggest one is probably the common take that Hawkeye is insecure, self-loathing, emotionally repressed, thinks he doesn't deserve love, yadda yadda yadda. This isn't really Mash specific because the bad-self-esteem-ray hits every bottom in fandom at some point lol, but it's extra grating in Mash fandom for me because to me it feels more blatantly OOC than most versions of this.

Now to be fair to fandom there are a few scattered lines throughout the series you can take out of context to justify this take, and one bad episode that provably contradicts the rest of the show (Who Knew), but I feel like you have to stretch like a gymnast to justify it and ignore 99% of the rest of the show and Hawkeye's behaviour.

And it's boring and flattens Hawkeye to a caricature of someone else imho.

-- Generally, and again this applies to all fandoms lbr, I dislike the way a lot of people need to jump to accusations of bigotry to justify their personal preferences. One example I've seen a couple of times that's absolutely bizarre to me is the take that if Klinger gets dicked down and/or feminized in fic it's because of racist fetishization. That's Maxwell Q. Klinger, the dude who wears dresses throughout most of the show and canonically grows to genuinely enjoy it. And even if he was 100% masculine, that's what a lot of fandom does to every single dude they love ever lol, all it means is that Klinger has a fanbase, which is a good thing. imo attitudes like these help contribute to non-white characters getting less fanworks about them, and while I don't think it's prevalent enough in Mash fandom to have a negative effect, I've seen it destroy other ships featuring characters of colour.

Another example is the classic bad take that if you don't ship women in het or interpret a heterosexual relationship as doomed/not romantic/etc, it's because of misogyny lol. It's not hugely common in Mash fandom but I've seen it occasionally from BJ/Peg shippers and the very occasional Margaret enthusiast.

Oh and another example is that depicting Hawkeye as effeminate is homophobia. Again, this is Hawkeye, the dude who proudly calls himself unmanly in various ways every episode and makes 50 jokes about wanting to get fucked in the ass. Frankly it's a bigger stretch to me to assume he wouldn't easily and happily adopt actual effeminate body language/phrasing and tone if he's, say, at the bar and wants to pull a top. Or maybe even just if there are no straight people around, yk? Why not? The take that writing unmasculine men is offensive is a fandom classic and usually strikes me itself as homophobic, gender essentialist, and basically just someone's masc4masc kink masquerading as an issue.

Like to be clear there is certainly bigotry in the Mash fandom, as in every fandom, and it's worth discussing, and sometimes depending on context it can even apply in the above cases (eg if a fic about Klinger getting dicked down earnestly described him as idk exotic or something, or if people who 'feminize' male characters take it to silly extremes and start writing meta about how these men are woman-coded/victims of misogyny lol) but this ain't it chief, this is people repackaging their own pet peeves in social justice language to win perceived arguments, and it's a bad vibe.

-- This one IS fairly Mash specific lol, and to be clear it's 100% harmless and just something that makes me roll my eyes sometimes because I'm not into it myself and it strips away the things I do like about the ship: the way a lot of Hawk/BJ fans headcanon BJ as much more supportive and sensitive to Hawkeye than he actually is, by taking various things he does and assuming he does them for Hawkeye, like he's constantly aware of Hawkeye's unexpressed needs and catering to them.

Yk, he wears pink shirts for Hawkeye! He grew the moustache for Hawkeye (never mind that Hawkeye hates it)! He stole Hawkeye's joke to give Hawkeye enrichment because Hawkeye loves... being upset I guess. Joker Is Wild? All for Hawkeye because Hawkeye loves being paranoid and alienating people. (The reasoning I've actually seen is that Hawkeye loves having an excuse to throw a tantrum lol). He totally comforts Hawkeye when Hawkeye is upset, they just never show it. He is devoted to Hawkeye, he'd do anything for him, ignore the episodes where he calls him crazy and ditches him while he's facing adversity. He's Hawkeye's emotional support!

I've seen it in serious meta and casual headcanons and fic where BJ just falls into role of tender, emotionally intelligent emotional support like it's an assumed part of their dynamic despite not only never seeing that in canon, but Hawkeye actually pointing out multiple times that BJ is not very supportive.

It's also a misreading of Hawkeye who is actually the emotional support of their friendship, rather than vice versa, and tends to go hand in hand with my first pet peeve: Hawkeye as an emotionally insecure, repressed mess lol. BJ goes to him when he needs a shoulder to cry on, something consistent to the point of it being a way to manipulate Hawkeye in Picture This. Not vice versa. Hawkeye goes to Margaret or Mulcahy or Sidney. The only example I can think of where BJ provides emotional support (by which I mean listening to Hawkeye's emotional concerns and offering supportive input) to Hawkeye is the end of Comrades in Arms, and it's like the bare minimum of fulfilling the typical best friend on tv role.

(I like that BJ doesn't fulfill that role tbh! It's more interesting that way, it makes their dynamic feel more unique and intriguing.)

-- Also people who think Mash got more progressive in the later seasons. I think it demonstrates a shallow understanding of the political implications of the show. Getting rid of the character with a slur for a nickname doesn't automatically equal less racist, it's just an easy thing to point to that doesn't require much critical thought. And the growing feminist concerns go hand in hand with depicting republicans, patriots, and racist imperialistic military commanders as good people.

And to be fair I sympathize with this take, I've seen it everywhere from fandom to grumbling republicans complaining about mash getting preachier to professionally written retrospectives and academic analysis lol, so it's not like I hold fandom to higher standards. The ways Mash grows more regressive are more insidious, and the problems in the early seasons are much more obvious and in your face than in the later seasons. And there will always be some debate on whether eg rampant womanizing is worse than pro-imperialism messages, though I know what side I fall on there.

But imo it still sucks that it's such a popular opinion.

-- The emphasis on found family, especially in a 'the war brought them together' sense. Any hint of gratitude that the war let them meet people they love in fic, or whatever. This is something I can't completely blame on fandom because the show itself veered uncomfortably close to this a few times too in the later years, but yeah I'm not a fan. To me the most important aspect of Mash is the fact that they all hate it there, the war is worse than hell, they're virtually prisoners trapped in a nightmare, and any of the draftees would absolutely trade those relationships for an end to the war or just a ticket home. Their friendships are less a silver lining and more a painkiller that just barely takes the edge off. I think this vibe is clearer in the first half of the show, but that's yet another reason the first half is better and more progressive politically lol. And it doesn't disappear in the latter half either, just gets a bit more muddied.

-- This kind of goes hand in hand with the above points, but I feel like it's more of an older Mash fandom issue that I encounter when archive diving moreso than a thing currently (though I do occasionally still see it these days): fans who actively like the military stuff lol. I've read fic where dog tags are kinked on/romanticized, fic that depicts draft-dodging as bad, etc. These days it's more stuff in line with the worst parts of canon, like taking Potter at face value as a Good authority figure who deserves respect because of his military experience, but yeah. Don't like that.

-- Okay that's all I got off the top of my head. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to whine lol

[countlessrealities]

[OOC] I had this thought buzzing around my brain all week, so I'm putting it down in hope that it'll leave me alone 🙄 The important part is the one ABOVE the cut, you can ignore the stuff under it.

Small reminder that if, at any point, you decide that you're no longer interested in interacting with me, you can freely do so! Absolutely NO hard feelings.

I just ask you to softblock or block me, so if we have threads I'll know not to answer to any thread / interaction we have ongoing.

I really wanted to put that out there bc I've been feeling very off around here lately. Being tired all the time surely doesn't help me being objective, but it's not something I can help.

I feel like I made the mistake of wearing myself too thin in the last couple of months. I followed a lot of new people because they are amazing RPers and I really want to write with them, but...I also have an extremely demanding job that takes up most of my time and energy, both mental and physical. Perks of working int he health system, you're constantly on the verge of a burnout if you do your job properly.

Many of the people I follow like quick replies and constant interactions, which are things that I can almost never provide. Plus, there are a lot of other folks who write my same muses and it's starting to make me feel self-conscious because they are better with replies consistency and their portrayals are probably better than my own too =.="

Anyway, long story short, I feel like I'm the lame, unnecessary mutual and writing partner for plenty of people and my paranoia tells me that they are keeping me around out of politeness / bc they don't want to cause drama. If that's the case, I wish they didn't and just softblock me. I don't want to be a bother on anyone's dash.

[meyerlansky]

i really wish the worst year of my life on a personal level was not happening while i also have to be on Good Behavior for a new job with the threat of unemployment looming VERY near

[hetchiew]

hows u

Not great… going through a flare up :(

Plus I’m super stressed (about school and some conflict going on with my friends), which definitely isn’t helping

also…

We’re also coming up on (this Wednesday) the 7th anniversary of my first suicide attempt. Yes, you read that right—just 4 days after I turned 13 I tried to end my life. So I’m giving myself some time to mourn for child me during these next few days. He was so depressed and hopeless, I just want to hold him and tell him that we’re gonna be okay.🥺💔

[yooniesim]

Oh really? You sympathize with me, do you? Isn't this you mocking me the minute you found out I was mourning my dad? Comparing my loss to you being evicted? Or were you genuinely sympathizing with my grief and battle then too?

Stay off my blog and never mention me again you disgusting freak. How dare you stalk my blog to read my posts about my trauma and grief and pretend to sympathize with me when you've been harassing me since my father's body was barely cold. You would know about attacking a stranger online you piece of shit. Making this disgusting post pretending to sympathize with me while passive aggressively insulting me about my "displaced grief". All because I banned your freak ass from my server because I don't cosign your Japanese child fetish. You can't even stop yourself from trying to use my pain to make yourself look better after deleting all your posts mocking me and calling me names. I tried to ignore you even though you attacked me first and wouldn't leave me alone, despite you lying and saying I did something to you first, the internet is forever and proof doesn't lie. I'm not fooled by you and I will not let anyone forget what you've done. To me and to others here. You wanna be attacked, you wanna be victimized, well you fucking will be. Eat my entire asshole.

[deathbycoldopen]

I finished the first season of the live action ATLA, and I have to say my reaction is… mixed.

I went into it determined to have an open mind, and there was definitely a good chunk that I enjoyed! For one thing, I love what they did with both Suki and Yue, taking advantage of the longer episode lengths to give them both lives and motivations beyond just “pretty girl that Sokka crushes on” (Suki obviously gets more depth in the og show during seasons 2 & 3, but Yue has always struck me as a rather one-dimensional character).

The best (if traumatizing) choice was to actually show the Fire Nation attack on the airbenders. Doing so gave a real emotional heft to Aang being displaced a hundred years with the weight of failing to prevent a past genocide, and the pressure of having to stop another without any idea how. Not only that, but it did a great job of indicating, right at the start of the show, that this was an adaptation indenting to transform what was fundamentally a kids’ show with complex themes into an adult series with the ability to really expand on that depth and complexity.

…and then it didn’t.

Oh, the show pokes at the repercussions of Iroh having waged a long and deadly siege agains Ba Sing Se, and it does a decent job at deepening the fuckery that is Zuko’s backstory. But so much of the more ambiguous or complex parts of the original have been flattened in this adaptation—and not in ways that can be explained by the compressed narrative. Instead, it feels like the sanitized story and characters are a direct result of a purity culture that demands all things black and white, never shades of gray.

Let’s look at Zuko, the villain-turned-hero with an iconic but bumpy redemption arc in the original series. Part of what makes Zuko’s story so goddamn compelling in the original is that he begins as a true villain, who does some horrible things and is led astray more often than not by his explosive temper; and yet his horrifying backstory and desperation for a loving family that never actually existed compel us to view him with some sympathy, even as he acts against our protagonists.

Yet in the adaptation, Zuko is consistently painted in a softer, kinder light than he was in the original. He has no hand in burning down the village on Kyoshi Island; he hears Aang out and even seems to consider Aang’s offer of friendship rather than immediately lashing out after the Blue Spirit reveal; he is notably more respectful to Iroh and loses his temper much less frequently and violently.

Even the change of Zuko fighting back against Ozai in the agni kai can be construed as him recognizing that Ozai is the bad guy, especially when it means that in order for his exile to make sense he has to defy his father again after he’s already been burned.

This is a pattern that is repeated with nearly all of the characters with any degree of ambiguity. Pakku is depicted as kind of a decent person who’s just being held back by his deference to tradition, rather than being pretty much an asshole regardless of whether he’s following tradition or not. Hahn is a nice guy who is in love with Yue but accepts her decision not to marry him, instead of a dick that sees her as a trophy and is more than happy to marry her despite her disinterest.

Sokka is a huge victim of this flattening of flaws. His early-show misogyny is entirely absent, making his stumbling with Suki a little odd and ungrounded, and his dismissal of Katara’s skills even more so. The narrative doesn’t allow him to be anywhere close to as boneheaded and stubborn as he is in the original—this version of Sokka would never angrily slash through the swamp despite the warning signs, or blatantly lie to Won Shi Ton and then even more blatantly steal from him.

Sokka isn’t even allowed the most understandable tactical mistake from the original show: using the air ship in the fight at the Northern Air Temple, and inadvertently delivering the Fire Nation’s greatest asset. That honor is given to a generalized “spies” that are distanced even from Sai himself.

If the heroes aren’t allowed to have flaws, the villains are even worse off, without anything that might make them sympathetic. Jet, who in the original sits in a similar in-between place as Zuko, is pushed firmly on the side of villain over the course of his two-episode arc. Instead of Jet fighting dirty against Fire Nation colonists who are nevertheless civilians, he bombs buildings in Omashu; it’s easier to denounce him when he’s hurting Earth Kingdom civilians with his tactics, rather than people who may or may not be complicit in the war. He’s even labeled a terrorist, an easy buzzword for a largely usamerican audience to point to and say “ah yes, that’s a bad guy.”

The main villains— Ozai, Zhao, and even the brief scene of Sozin— are ironically even more cartoonishly evil than in the animated show. Ozai and Sozin both declare their evil plans— out loud, with villainous aplomb— to use one major military movement as a distraction for another, even bigger movement. (Sozin’s plan at least made sense, in that the distraction was “leaked” intelligence rather than an actual deployment of troops. How the hell did Ozai have enough troops and a decent supply line to attack both the Northern Water Tribe and Omashu at the same time? And it’s not like the distraction actually served any purpose, since it’s explicitly stated several times that the separate nations don’t send aid to each other anymore.)

Ozai’s treatment of Zuko is even more abusive than in the original, especially with the aforementioned change where Zuko actually does fight back as ordered. His choice to burn Zuko and then later banish him then must be explained by Zuko showing compassion, a much more typically “evil” motivation than the more complex (though no less abusive) notion of Zuko dishonoring himself.

Zhao gets an even worse character lobotomy, which is impressive given that his original character is pretty unabashedly villainous. But rather than a devious, powerful, and ambitious commander looming over everything Zuko or Team Avatar does, this version of Zhao is cartoonishly incompetent. (It doesn’t help that the only thing I’ve seen Ken Leung in is Person of Interest, where he plays a similarly buffoonish character constantly in need of rescue. When held up against Jason Isaacs’ mesmerizing but intimidating voice in the original, there’s no comparison.)

Zhao is no longer a respected military leader but a backwoods commander who barely passed the exam to become an officer; his rise through the ranks isn’t due to military successes or a commanding presence but because Azula finds him easy to manipulate; cutting Jeong Jeong means that we don’t see Aang get the better of Zhao by playing on his temper and lack of control; even discovering the secret of the moon and ocean spirits seems more like blundering luck than actual determination and intelligence. You can’t take Zhao seriously as a threat in this adaptation, even when he’s killing the moon spirit and destroying the balance of the world— he’s a nuisance at best, with Azula as the real looming danger.

Disliking Zhao’s character changes might just come down to a matter of taste, of course. I’m always going to be more interested in intelligent, competent characters, whether they are heroes or villains. But it forms part of this pattern of flattening characters and plots and arcs, and brings me back to the fundamental question that kept hitting me over the head while watching the series.

Why?

Why make an adaptation? This is a question that comes up whenever an adaptation of anything is made: what does the adaptation bring to the table that the original did not? Often the answer to this question is money, but there’s usually an attempt to point to a different answer, if only to distract from the greed.

Sometimes the answer is simple— a translation, for example, is an adaptation made to reach a wider audience. Sometimes the answer is more complicated— changing Lord of the Rings from books to movies, as another example, took advantage of the music, acting, and visuals to pack more emotional punch than the books did.

I would argue, as I began to at the start of this post, that the benefit of adapting ATLA from an animated kids show to a live action series is the bucking of those “kids show” limitations. ATLA deals with a lot of serious, heavy topics that don’t get fully explored because they are too complicated and intense to be greenlit in a network show aimed at 10 year olds. In addition, ATLA (and particularly Legend of Korra after it) faced an uphill battle to portray some more sticky topics such as queerness, in part due to the time period when they were produced.

A live action show produced by Netflix seems to bypass all those hurdles, allowing for a darker and more socially progressive show than what the original was able to accomplish. But despite showing onscreen the destruction of the Air Nomads, the adaptation of ATLA seems more sanitized than the original, playing to the lowest common denominator in a way that the original never did, despite the latter being a kids show and the former ostensibly being for adults.

I came away from the new series with a bad taste in my mouth, even with some things that I really enjoyed, and I think this is the crux of why. The adaptation didn’t update the original; it stripped it of anything that might be deemed problematic and replaced it with a black and white worldview that is, in fact, antithetical to the themes of the original show.

After all, the creators seem to have reasoned, who would root for Zuko’s redemption if he actually needed redemption in the first place?

[1pcii]

'Rona redraw

(click for better quality)

Extra: no filters, original sketch, and two alt versions for fun ^-^

also the original screenshot

[jesusbutbetterrr]

ok so next time we decide to play an ask game and go on anon and throw out some backhanded insults only to cover it up with compliments, let's take a second to step back and think about how that's not the best idea considering the fact that some people tend to over react to things even if it's not the serious and in the past.

You do not know the mental state of the people you say stuff to, and how easily that can mess with their mood. I honestly have no ill intentions saying this, but to be met with the term "so boring", even if it was just a first impression, isn't really the best. Yes I might just be over sensitive about it, that doesn't change the fact that it didn't sit well with me.

As someone who isn't a fan of indirect call outs and stuff, because they feel petty to me, I would like to be clear I'm not trying to be petty here. But for the love of everything, maybe let's not throw out negative stuff, even if it was unintentional, and then throw in positive stuff like it's not a big deal.

And considering the fact that I've probably gotten a more sugar coated version of what other people have been told by anons today, I also don't like seeing my friends get called bitches or cunts or anything else for that matter. Not saying that this was all said by the same person, but like just consider this a message to the people or whatever. Yes, these were all just first impressions of them, but maybe we shouldn't have shared that.

So yea

[rampagingsnowstoat]

Throws these down and runs for the hills

[the-cryptographer]

post about me hoping i've reached da4 nirvana

I'm going to sound batshit insane, but I was so immensely anxious about Fenris or Merrill showing up in Veilguard (Fenris especially due to the character's popularity and the comic that placed him in Tevinter concurrently with the game) and being forced to engage my least favourite plot tumor in the franchise (basically everything in Trespasser) that now that the game's been out almost a week and I know for sure they don't show up and have heard that there are no DLC campaigns planned for this game... I was not expecting to feel this much blissful apathy. It was the thing I was dreading about the game most, but now that the dread is gone I'm realising it was also the only thing that kept me invested. I felt if my faves showed up, I would at least have to play the game in order to effectively commentate on their appearances. But now that I know they're not there... what is there to make me play this game? From everyone's reports, the complicated cultural tensions and large scale political conflicting needs - the only thing that really made DAO and DA2 exceptional in a steam catalog of far better games on a technical level - are out of the picture. I don't care what happens to Varric or Solas or the Trespasser plot. I like Isabela, but I also know the sort of cameos she makes in games that are not about her - she's an easy character to include just because she is so aggressively independent and apolitical. I like Morrigan too, but not enough to feel I need to follow up on a plot with Flemeth that I know is increasingly moving away from what I liked about their dynamic in Origins.

Idk, maybe I'll go back to feeling wretched about all this in a week or something, but for the first time in a while I've just felt totally at peace with the fact that this game exists and it doesn't have to matter to me that it does.

[dimension20stuff]

Bitching and moaning under the cut

I really loved a lot of what happened in that episode. Putting aside my complaints about some beloved headcanons becoming canon contradictory (I know that's not really a big deal), Baron now canonically using he/they is just. So disappointing to me.

When Cassandra was she/her in ep one I was bummed, but then they switched to she/they and i was like oh, ok, maybe it's a plot point about reflecting Kristen and Kristen's arc with herself, ok yeah that's cool.

But now Baron, another canonically they/them character is now he/they. And I would LOVE if new characters were introed with multiple pronoun sets, or if established NPCs like Zayn or Tracker or whatever started using he/they or she/they. I would love if we were ADDING rep for neutral & gendered pronoun users, but this just feels like TAKING rep from characters that previously only used gender neutral pronouns....

And I KNOW they aren't major characters and only appeared for a bit but it just feels shitty to me. Like if Garthy's card suddenly had he/they I feel like people would be upset?

And people have mentioned that Baron was called by a number of pronouns in SY but i think that was a product of not stating the pronouns to the players in game. When the players in The Seven he/him'ed Baron Brennan corrected them. Garthy had a similar problem where players slipped up often but no one ever questions their pronouns or says "Garthy uses he and they".

And maybe I just missed it, but has ANYONE used gender neutral language for Cassandra since like the beginning of ep 1? It feels like the gendered pronouns were added just to make things easier, rather than because of actual change in the character.

I'm a multi pronoun user myself, like normally I would like the rep. But the fact that we are taking away characters that use they/them and not adding ANY new ones as far as I can tell (barring like the Thistlesprings but I don't think that's a very good faith argument) just stings. I'd rather the players accidentally use the wrong pronouns every once and a while than try to make it so if they do slip up it's ok because that's an acceptable pronoun for the character now.