#not the first fandom ive been in where woobifiers try to police the whole fandom despite the source having dark themes

[cult-of-the-rizz]

My bestie is so eloquent and big brained ily bestie!! I think I'm gonna come off a little more bitchy, idc tho because goddamn. It needs to be said.

On a more serious note, it is real weird to see lamb fanon interpretations make them a beneficent leader of a compound that's all peace love and kindness, because in reality all places like that are exercises in control and cult tactics. The game is called CULT of the lamb ffs. It's fine to make soft content/aus/whatever but I have also seen the same people chastise creators with mildly dark themes (i.e. Just referencing cult traits) likeeeeeeeee ???

There's isn't a way in game to make the cult good, anyway. There isn't. You are playing a cult leader, your followers are all indoctrinated and victims of your cult. Period. Literally your followers can't do anything except their jobs and rely on the lamb for basic asks, like in what world is that supposed to be healthy? You can't spin that into "lamb is a savior and a kind leader" they are a manipulator. That's it.

Again like, lamb oc owners, au havers, you don't need to write a justification essay about your ocs being bad but good enough to make up for it. Just be mindful of the way you use or ignore these more serious topics. Also, policing those with darker themes in their work into silence is not helpful because NOT speaking about cults is how they continue to exist.

The devs are also not bad people for making the game, because they didn't try to woobify it. Nothing is sugar coated. This is like warhammer 40k levels of "slay the heretics" but with goofy little animals instead of space marines. A competent level of media literacy is required (like with warhammer 40k) to properly understand the nuance of the narrative.

You can enjoy darker media with complex themes and that does not make you a bad person. It doesn't make the creators evil people. Only when you try to strip it of its complexity to make it comforting does fanon become a problem. Fans can use dark themes in their work, they can use the same themes as in the source material or inject new ones to create a complex narrative and that's FINE. Especially with cotl, a literal CULT SIM.

I've been in a very vunerable part of my life, and funny enough , this has caused a light paranoid resurgence in my fear of being indoctornated into a cult , somehow , someday. I'm not making this post to talk about personal fears but , in combination with cotl popping off on tumblr recently, i think it's good for everyone active in a fandom space to take a step back and actually briefly educate themselves on the true horrors of what we mainstream define as a "cult" and sometimes critically examine how fandom interprets(or misnterprets) canon depictions of cult hierarchies in game. No one has to post a clear cut, professional layed out timeline to properly potray how awful their lamb/ocs are. This is also not an indirect attack to anyone who has ever drawn fluff/shipping content (stories are multifacated and dynamic and including "soft" character interactions doesn't mean the significance of story's message is watered down/romanticized. Quite the opposite , variety makes for a more impactful story). It also no one's responsibilty to create graphic horror content . Regardless , if you are going to be using canon material to tell you own story , i think it's important for all of us to remind ourselves that , at the end of the day, this is a cult we are speaking of- a higly totalitarian group that strips people off their humanity and dignity for the personal advantage of one person/group of people. Cotl as a game is kind of light hearted with a few gap horror elements presented through a satyrical lense so by extension i don't expect people to fully delve into hardcore, realistic potrayals of cult life. I do think though it is important to keep in mind while making headcanons , ficlets,all kinds of transformative content,etc ,if you are going to attempt to delve deeper into worldbuilding , to make sure of potraying , at least partially, that a lot of fucked up things go down in Cult of the lamb, even if you're lamb isn't as evil as they could be in the game. Sermons , strick dress codes, rituals , dancing circles , re-education- all of those things are actual tactics used by real cults/high control groups to indoctornate and take advantage of people. The devs specifically researched about real cults and their workings for inspiration for the game. Under those circumstances the lamb and the bishops will always be inherently abusive people.

[angstandhappiness]

True enough

I've been in a very vunerable part of my life, and funny enough , this has caused a light paranoid resurgence in my fear of being indoctornated into a cult , somehow , someday. I'm not making this post to talk about personal fears but , in combination with cotl popping off on tumblr recently, i think it's good for everyone active in a fandom space to take a step back and actually briefly educate themselves on the true horrors of what we mainstream define as a "cult" and sometimes critically examine how fandom interprets(or misnterprets) canon depictions of cult hierarchies in game. No one has to post a clear cut, professional layed out timeline to properly potray how awful their lamb/ocs are. This is also not an indirect attack to anyone who has ever drawn fluff/shipping content (stories are multifacated and dynamic and including "soft" character interactions doesn't mean the significance of story's message is watered down/romanticized. Quite the opposite , variety makes for a more impactful story). It also no one's responsibilty to create graphic horror content . Regardless , if you are going to be using canon material to tell you own story , i think it's important for all of us to remind ourselves that , at the end of the day, this is a cult we are speaking of- a higly totalitarian group that strips people off their humanity and dignity for the personal advantage of one person/group of people. Cotl as a game is kind of light hearted with a few gap horror elements presented through a satyrical lense so by extension i don't expect people to fully delve into hardcore, realistic potrayals of cult life. I do think though it is important to keep in mind while making headcanons , ficlets,all kinds of transformative content,etc ,if you are going to attempt to delve deeper into worldbuilding , to make sure of potraying , at least partially, that a lot of fucked up things go down in Cult of the lamb, even if you're lamb isn't as evil as they could be in the game. Sermons , strick dress codes, rituals , dancing circles , re-education- all of those things are actual tactics used by real cults/high control groups to indoctornate and take advantage of people. The devs specifically researched about real cults and their workings for inspiration for the game. Under those circumstances the lamb and the bishops will always be inherently abusive people.