#not a problem with osp personally but like- so many of their fans do stuff like ship Guanyin with people and call the Jade Emperor an idiot

[a-student-out-of-time]

First off, given what happened with Mod Freeze, I don’t blame you for worrying about the Hiyokers coming after you. But it also made me realise that a lot of ask blogs, including ours, really like to subject Hiyoko to horrible fates. Never out of hatred, but it’s an interesting coincidence that she either dies, gets suicidal depression, or otherwise.

Secondly, one of the most difficult parts about these blogs I find is filtering out what counts as character hate, and what is said for the sake of the story. I know I normally don’t talk about my blog when I send asks here, but with Survivor specifically, I remember a few years back when there was one particular anon who really hated Kaede, called her out on every minor thing and verbally abused her regardless of whether what she did was good or bad, and then started rounding on me for pairing her with Shuichi. Which sucked ass.

But it’s different when that stuff is directed towards a character like Tsumugi or Kuripa for instance. Tsumugi gets hate asks ALL the time, but of COURSE she does; she’s a VILLAIN. And as for Kuripa, it’s always a What The Hell Hero situation with him. So even if some asks can be harsh, they are warranted.

So it’s hard to maintain your standards when it comes to these things. I don’t know if this is specifically an issue that I struggle with, but it’s important to filter out the generally abusive askers so they don’t bother you later down the line and you can deal with them swiftly.

//Yeah, you really need to curate what asks you get because that can lead to you helping to foster a particular type of audience. You let people do wild things, they'll be more inclined to do so because that's now accepted.

//Red from OSP put this well when she said that, by showcasing insecurity in your work and choosing to undercut the emotional beats in your story with humor because you worry people will mock you, you actually alienate people who were actually invested and draw in those who are comfortable mocking you. You've made it clear that you are unwilling to take what you're making seriously and thus the audience is told they shouldn't take it seriously either.

//Conversely, you have this problem with extreme investment among some fans who will relate very strongly to a character or a work who will be very sensitive to criticism. This has very little, relatively-speaking, to do with what you have to say and is instead a knee-jerk reaction because they interpret criticism of a thing they like as a criticism of themselves as well.

//This is patently ridiculous because meaningful criticism doesn't come from a place of hate but a genuine desire to see something improve, and by reacting negatively to any perceived criticism, you only prove harsh criticism justified. Some go so far as to interpret it all as a concentrated hate campaign by those jealous of how great this character, work or person actually is.

//These people are absolutely delusional and so toxic that it's really not worth engaging with them.

//I personally made the mistake of not curating asks early on, and it created a pretty toxic environment at times. Like, people have given me credit for having so many chill anons, but that's because I block all the really nasty ones ^^;

//There was a time actual fascists were trying to sneak number messages and slogans into their asks, and I had to learn to notice those. It became very obvious when I deleted one, an anon asked where it went, I explained that I understood what it meant, and then they went off on a paranoid racist tirade.

//Fascists are really the biggest, most fragile special snowflakes out there, and they won't even pretend to be chill when you prod them : P

//The bottom line is that, as a blog-runner, you have to be conscientious of the environment you want to create for yourself and your followers, and I wanted one where people could feel safe to express their opinions without fear of retaliation, and where hate and character-bashing are unwelcome. And sometimes it really is better to just ignore asks from truly toxic people and pretend they don't exist, otherwise they'll try and get you to recognize them.

[antidotefortheawkward-art]

Hey there! In regards to your post about white people adapting JTTW, how do you feel about Overly Sarcastic Productions' JTTW Videos?

Oh man I have a lot to say about this so I’m putting it under a cut, but 

TLDR: OSP’s stuff is mostly harmless and I don’t think they’re being actively malicious or anything but like- they’re white and there is a loaded history behind white people using the stories from POC’s cultures, especially when the story seems to be made more “digestible” from an outside lens. Sometimes it feels like they don’t research enough, or even put in enough effort sometimes, and it sort of sucks to see when they’re profitting off it. It’s fine if you enjoy their adaptation and I’m not attacking OSP or anything, but I want people to recognize the experience they’re in for is a Chinese story through a white lens. 

Also, tbh, just support Chinese people telling Chinese stories when you can. I know there’s no Chinese-made easily digestible mythology channel when you can watch JTTW right now, but that’s just a general rule of thumb. Support creators of color, please.

OSP’s stuff is mostly harmless and I don’t think they’re being actively malicious or anything but like- they’re white. As a POC, I’m never going to feel completely okay with white people adapting the stories of my culture without consulting some people from said culture. There’s a long history of POC’s religions being brushed off as “myth” and “fairytale” and although OSP don’t do that, the history of white people doing that is still there and thus as a POC, I’m not 100% comfortable with white people profitting off my culture’s stories. I think it’s great to introduce JTTW to more people, but honestly, I sort of wish they left that space to the people this story is important to. (Also, I get that their channel style is very light-hearted and humorous, and JTTW is only getting the same treatment as their other adaptations, but look-  a white person poking fun at POC’s gods is going to feel off no matter what.)

Also, the fact that they ended up using the Arthur Waley names really rubs me the wrong way. You’re gonna call them by their correct names for a while and then default to what’s “easier” for you? Literally, there’s no reason for them to use the whitewashed 4kids names and given their platform, they’re influencing a lot of people’s first interactions with JTTW so I just really hate that decision. I’d honestly sit through them mispronouncing the actual names because that’d mean they tried. And if I’m being completely honest, it doesn’t sit right with me that white people profitting off JTTW (both in terms of video monetization and channel merch), don’t put in the effort to learn how to say names correctly.

I also really dislike it when people take what OSP say as gospel because there’s a lot they get wrong in a lot of little ways. (OSP saying they’re “nothing if not faithful to the source material” in the first ep is quite a bold statement from some gweilo ngl)  I’m not really sure where they got “Sanzang is the main character” from, but most Chinese sources I know of don’t really say that? So? Hrm. Also small stuff like “studying the Dao! [shows drawing of Buddhist monks and not Daoist priests],” “I don’t know why they call him Sandy [if you google translate the first character, his surname is sand],” “the name Zhu Wuneng [shows characters for ‘Zhu Bajie”],’ “[makes the artistic choice to paint the Jade Emperor entirely green including his hat and therefore branding him a cuckold as per Chinese culture and THAT IS QUITE DISRESPECTFUL NGL]”, “[calls Taishang Laojun “Lao Tzu”]” make me feel like they’re not putting enough effort in doing their research? Like, yes, JTTW is a long story but stuff like mixing up Daoism and Buddhism and using the wrong characters for a name is stuff that’s really easily avoided. 

And smaller detail but I don’t think they really get just how ubiquitous JTTW is in Chinese culture so I personally don’t find it as enjoyable an adaptation. Like, JTTW is an important story, but also it doesn’t occupy the space of a holy book where very few people actually go read it, and it doesn’t occupy the space of classical novels like Shakespearean literature where very few people actually go read it. As arguably the most approachable book out of the Four Great Classical Novels, JTTW is very common knowledge in people’s minds cuz everyone grows up hearing the story (some people even have it as summer reading). There are a few title chapters that people can instantly recognize, there are a few villains that people can grow up naming, and most people have a specific set of imagery that associate with each character. Stuff like this is humorously apparent when you do stuff like compare the English dub of Monkie Kid to the original Mandarin and discover just how much more added exposition there is. Small details in OSP’s adaptation, like Red Boy’s character design being a fully grown man instead of a baby, just bring you out of the story and remind you you’re not getting the full experience. It makes me feel like they just didn’t know Red Boy is traditionally a child with a huadian, whereas if I saw a Chinese adaptation with a fully grown Red Boy, I’d assume they were making a conscious choice to change it up. 

Honestly a lot of their adaptation just feels very.... made digestible for non-Chinese audience, and not in a particularly faithful way? Like yeah you can make a story more easily accessible to people not originally from a culture, but don’t strip away parts of the culture, you can explain the parts of the culture and that’ll be infinitely more productive.

I understand a lot of people became interested in JTTW because of OSP’s work and I think that’s great! It’s cool to see JTTW gain more recognition in the western world! This isn’t an attack on OSP’s work and you’re totally able to enjoy watching it. I just want people to recognize OSP’s version of JTTW is a Chinese story told through a white lens.

And while i’m here, I just wanna say- tbh, just try to give the same support to Chinese people telling Chinese stories. I know there’s no Chinese-made easily digestible mythology channel when you can watch JTTW right now, but that’s just a general rule of thumb. Support creators of color, please.

[stressed-bird]

LMK Soulmate AU, (at the moment still shadowpeach centric)

Rewatching Overly Sarcastic Productions’ Journey To The West Part 1 because I will never be able to survive reading the actual non-summarized text to figure out what the heck I’m doing with this au and the monkies—since I am nothing if not thorough and determined

...to detail where their relationship began and how it implodes and gruesomely ends

(Nothing is set in stone, I am not above scrapping whole concepts until I get it right, assume everything as non-canon until it’s canon /lh)

What we’ve got is:

Basic world building, soulmates exist and many types of bonds exist—from pain-sharing to telepathy to even the mundane like soul-markings

(Little known knowledge of soulmates in-world being that these bonds can be suppressed or ignored into non-existence—if you wanted to live and exist without a soulmate, it’s your funeral my guy)

Meaning it’s very easy for some to find their other half, others meanwhile have the vaguely trail to follow and very few of those others have the determination to see it through to the end... or at least, that’s how it was during the times of rampant demons long before a certain monkey began to protect humans and ward the demons away from them

Shadowpeach’s specific bond is emotion-sharing

(because as much as I am a fan of angst and the painful possibility of Sun Wukong feeling how it feels to die and looking down to see the body of Macaque and that he killed him... have you seen how many fights this monkie gets into? I’m not mean enough to put Macaque through that)

No, they share something arguably more personal and hurtful. Feeling and knowing exactly what the other feels... up until they don’t—no, can’t, by way of others’ interferences with the demon monkies

Where shadowpeach first met face to face, it was on Mountain of Heart and Mind in the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars (yes im still watching the osp video as i write this)—the place where SWK first became immortal via his teacher-not-teacher and we do not address why Macaque is under the tutelage of this very illegal class from the immortal sage, it’s non-important (for you to know now anyways)

All that needs to be known is that the two monkey demons are now in close proximity and apparently the illegal immortality class lasts like 10 years so—needless to say after about 3,650 days the monkies are not dumb enough to not have realized at this point their emotion-sharing bond

Sun Wukong is more overtly thrilled and over the moon than Macaque about this but it’s not a problem, swk now can tell everything that he’s feeling is what Macaque is feeling and the other is nothing if not also glad at this development—there is no worry...

They fight demons, take riches, become heroes in their own rights, Mac gets kidnapped back to Flower Fruit Mountain and helps in militarizing the monkey population, normal stuff- happy monkey stuff even, all done side by side

Except there’s a lot of worries. Since as we know, Wukong is going to fight heaven eventually by way of his actions and Macaque is going to have a lot of feelings about that and the celestial war it’ll bring to FFM

Feelings that SWK does nip at the bud of as much as he can when he can, attempts to calm and reassure his fretful mate that everything will work out alright and that if anything else...

Macaque will never be alone and always have him as long as their bond remains

[antiloreolympus]

8 Anti LO Asks

1. the thing is like even the poets we draw from get critiqued too. a lot of people thought hesiod was an evangelist with an agenda to push, homer (if they existed) was often lampooned for contradicting lines and spending too much time making lists than developing the story, aeschylus and euripides were both seen as biased and cynical and were often mocked, along with many more, and yet LO fans think their kiwi tumblr fave is somehow above all of them and shouldn't be critiqued? Get over yourselves

2. the problem with the 'make your own story" argument is that, assuming you try to retell hxp at least, youll have LO fans attacking you for "stealing" from rachel, who in turn never promotes or supports other retellings unless it adheres to her worldview (such as OSP). say what you will on punderworld or ficlets, but they always prop up lesser known creators with their platforms, meanwhile rachel when tasked with helping others (like Lets Play) she made it about herself. that speaks volumes.

3. a lot of LO fans think antis are just randomly haters but that's not true. Most of us were once devoted fans who couldn't ignore all the issues anymore and who still remember when it had promise and effort put into it, not the rushed husk it is now. It isnt just blindly hating it, it's being annoyed & disappointed of what could have been and how much the comic has declined and how the fans refuse to acknowledge its faults. How would we know how badly its gone down if we weren't fans once?

4. idk man i wouldnt tell people who dislike lo to make their own comics because those end up being way better. reylos did the same thing to disney over how badly they hated the last star wars movie and now their fanfics are becoming NYT bestsellers. just saying.

5. Maybe I'm dating myself here but one of the funniest parts of fandom used to be the most devoted fans calling out the bad stuff in what we liked and discussing it, because it was fan to pick it apart and clown on it. IDK why now LO fans and people like them are so convinced they can only mindlessly praise with no dissent and all critique is invalid. It's basic critical thinking skills that one can like something and still acknowledge the flaws. It's a bad look to admit you can't do so IMHO.

6. lo fans really need to get off this high horse that lo is perfect and therefore can never be criticized. even the best pieces of work ever have actual things to critique within them, and lo is not somehow better than all of them  to not be critiqued as well. its an ever growing list of issues lo keeps adding up because of who is behind. sorry, rachel, if you want sole credit for the writing and art, you have to own all the critiques too, and the fans needs to accept it. 

7. sorry, LO fans, but we are allowed to critique a work that gets so much privleges that even other webtoon creators dont get (seriously, the majority stull have to live off commission work while working on a full time comic) meanwhile rachel gets away with bad writing, cliffhangers that aren’t resolved for years, worsening art, and her bad and entitled attitude all while the company constantly promotes her while the majority of their catalog doesn’t, she has a full team rushing work for her while she at best does sketches and the occasional banner art, and gets her a bunch of media deals that the rest won’t ever get even a scrap of, all while already being a well off, privileged white woman who cries to her thousands of fans when her ego is bruised because more and more people are noticing her shitty politics and morals put into her work and are rightfully calling it out. at the very least you’d think someone in such a high rank at one of the worlds biggest media houses would actually put in the effort to make the best product she can and respect the people and culture she’s making bank off of, but she’s not and frankly does not seem like she ever will. She quite literally said it’s HER story and she’s allowed to do what she wants with it, and has spoken over Greeks time and time again that their input doesn’t matter over her personal feelings and thoughts. you don’t see other people in her position who also made bank (such as Rick Riordan or Madeline Miller) treat Greece and it’s people so awfully as her, her fans, and her product do, yet she gets all the excuses in the world while the above mentioned and others work on their mistakes and try to always put their best products out there, all while respecting Greece and it’s stories and even giving platforms to the underrepresented, meanwhile Rachel herself can’t even keep colors in line or keep designs on model while her writing gets more and more nonsensical, with her status only going to enrich herself and her ego while the rest are clinging to survive. God willing, maybe another mythology webtoon will be picked up to give her some competition and actually force her to put in the work for the rewards she earned off the backs of others, and that can’t happen soon enough.

8. NGL, kinda funny that LO Stan defends it by claiming people who dislike it are just “hacks like the woman behind 50 shades” like … uh … you know LO is ripped off from 50 shades, right? Like quite literally, it’s almost point for point exactly the same as 50 shades, down to the CEO with mommy issues and BDSM mixed with weird obsessions over a college girl’s virginity and a jealous ex who is into it versus the pure MC. Rachel is literally the hack ripping off 50 shades that that stan is claiming antis are. Wild stuff.

Anyway both the 50 shades woman and Rachel owe Stephanie Meyers a lot of money Bc they both in turn just ripped off Twilight anyway lol

Based on this post:

https://alatismeni-theitsa.tumblr.com/post/663420719494053888/why-not-write-a-take-of-your-own-on-the-myths