#now this i will bring up discourse on

[dove-da-birb]

"We’re being treated as expendable. We’re being treated as though our work means nothing, while everything we’ve ever made is stolen behind our backs by unfeeling machines fed by corporations who are more than willing to murder our creative pursuits if it means more cash in their pockets."

^^^ T H I S

My Own Notes;

The AI can only create because it stole the voice of an author; every author has their own distinctive voice.

The AI does not care; it's a program just throwing words together from countless other people. Authors, real people, put countless hours working on their writing, putting love into their writing.

Support your creative friends. Reblog their content. Interact with them.

hey selfship community. i’m hoping to make this brief, but there’s not much chance of that.

basically, i’m on my hands and knees begging you to stop using character AI. i understand if you feel enjoyment from it. ive used it too, i liked it, it helped me feel comforted when i needed the comfort. but with the news of googles updated privacy policy, and how peoples writings are being scraped from ao3, google docs, literally anywhere and everywhere to train AI, among dozens of other things…

…you’re kinda feeding the beast. like a lot. you’re giving it fuel. you’re adding to how it can mimic people’s real writing. you’re giving this technology a way to grow better and stronger off of other people’s work. i don’t think you’re a monster for ignorance, but i think with how serious shit is getting with AI and how it’s being trained off of peoples work - with no compensation or notice - it’s just, at this point, a blatant disregard for how writers and creators are being treated right now. 

we’re being treated as expendable. we’re being treated as though our work means nothing, while everything we’ve ever made is stolen behind our backs by unfeeling machines fed by corporations who are more than willing to murder our creative pursuits if it means more cash in their pockets. not to get dramatic about it, but that’s the fucking fact of the matter.

so, please. stop using character AI. chat AI. you’re helping train it. and doing so is going to have wide-reaching consequences.

[ingravinoveritas]

I know most folks have probably seen this already, but I really need to talk about how insane it is that David mentioned Michael as a possible Doctor on an episode of DW Confidential in 2007.

This was ten years before filming GO season 1, and there was absolutely no reason for David to be saying Michael's name. Julie and Jane did not bring Michael up in any capacity, nor was he specifically relevant to the conversation. Yet of all the names David could have said, out of all the countless UK actors in the business...he said "Michael Sheen."

There is this idea that soulmates are "loud." That it means seeing someone from across a crowded room as music swells dramatically in the background. But soulmates are also quiet. A soulmate can be someone you talk about when no one is listening. Someone you think about and who makes you blush for no real reason at all. Someone who lives in the back of your mind, vibrating at a steady hum that you don't even hear at first.

Until it gets louder.

Until they're suddenly a part of your life in a way you never expected.

Until you can't remember anymore what life was like without them.

From BYT in 2003 to this DW Confidential in 2007 to Good Omens in 2017 on into the present. Call it the invisible red string. Call it Fate. Whatever it is that's between them, I am and will forever be in awe at Michael always being on David's mind (and vice-versa), and how they finally found each other...

[gxtzeizm]

the fact that me, as a fan of both lando and oscar without any bias (maybe a bit on lando but not that much), is going to witness both "oscar fans, lando antis" and "lando fans, oscar antis" posts all in my one dash 🥲🥲

also the fact that atp i couldn't even bother enough with this same situation on both lewis and george. now it happens on lando and oscar as well which got me like....

[throughinktosecondpage]

WAKE UP BABE‼️‼️

THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT SOUNDTRACK JUST DROPPED‼️‼️

[new-revenant]

During patrol Nightwing found a handmade doll that resembled his hero persona, this wouldn't be so weird if it weren't for the fact that he finds dolls resembling the other members of the batfam's hero personas scattered in odd spots throughout Gotham and Bludhaven. The weirdest thing happens when one night he finds a doll of someone he doesn't recognize. It's a pale teen with white hair and bright green button eyes wearing what looks like a black and white hazmat suit. Nightwing picks it up and the doll immediately bursts into Lazarus green flames. Nightwing finally decided to tell the fam about the dolls not knowing that Phantom, who was sealed in a sarcophagus by treacherous observents several years prior, was now awake. The problem is that the sarcophagus is in the batcave as a trophy, needless to say everyone was surprised when the lid suddenly blew off and out stepped a teenager. Danny is a mix of anger and confusion because this definitely isn't Amity Park

You know. This is almost the exact plot of another, non-dp-related-AU I’ve seen. It’s @/ovegakart doll AU, it’s an AU of Linked Universe, which is itself a LoZ AU where a bunch of Links have come together across time because reasons I won’t get into. In the second ever LoZ game, Adventure of Link, there are these dolls that are scattered across the map. They give you an extra life. So, in ovegakart’s AU, the Link from the first game and AoL(it the same link)finds dolls of himself and the other Links while in his own time. Then, in a well, he finds a doll of a Link none of them have ever seen before. He picks it up and it bursts into flames. I checked, that’s what happened, here is a link to the page. Oh, and Nightwing not telling his family about the dolls until he gets Danny’s? The same thing happened in this AU, where AoL Link doesn’t tell the other Links about the dolls until he comes across the mysterious Link doll. That mystery Link is the First Hero btw, he’s from the Skyward Sword manga.

I would’ve liked it if you, I dunno, credited the idea? Or at least make it not so obvious by changing the doll into something else? Or make it so that Nightwing only finds a Danny doll? Maybe have it melt into ectoplasm even? I have a couple posts already about how I’m a LU fan on here, and if you’ve seen that before, then did you think I didn’t follow ovegakart, one of the biggest LU/LoZ creators? Listen, I’m not mad at you, I’m just confused at your thought process here. This AU idea wasn’t made for dpxdc, it doesn’t even make much sense for it. Yeah yeah, people can do whatever they want, whatever, but at least credit it my god. Or change it up to suit dpxdc more, or both.

How many other people have just taken AU ideas from others and pawned it off as their own, thinking that no one would find out since they’re from another fandom? It makes me feel gross. Please, just credit the idea. If I just posted this with some writing adding onto this, not knowing about this idea coming from another fandom and another person. I think I might need to close my asks for a bit, I don’t feel great, sorry.

[dykedvonte]

Mini rant below and in the tags, the only time I’ll talk about this and my personal take on it.

The way people talk about hypothetical male Anya on Twitter and the idea of how Mouthwashing would play out if the genders were swapped makes me remember how people still don’t take sexual assault and rape with male victims with the same gravity, especially when the perpetrator is female.

[qcellbit]

meta talk. i don't quite know how to word this properly, but adding french creators to the qsmp is the riskiest thing quackity studios could've done and it doesn't surprise me that the success to which it was executed was minimal.

adding portuguese speaking creators exclusively from brazil as the first batch outside of the initial english and spanish speakers was the perfect "soft expansion" for the server when you consider the reason for the project's conception - because quackity had experienced poor treatment from white americans as a bilingual latino creator and sought to unite his two communities in an empowering way, further expanding this very noble and personal idea to encapsulate all communities and all languages spanning across the entire world. inviting more latino creators who have likely had the same experiences and would be able to appreciate what the project is trying to achieve is a no-brainer.

it's an uncomfortable thing to touch on (which is why i've never, ever, seen it spoken about on this website), but minecraft projects and communities have always had massive problems with all forms of bigotry, but especially racism. white americans and white europeans have probably not felt the euphoria of seeing their culture celebrated in mainstream global entertainment projects as they already absolutely dominate the entertainment industry on a global scale. as someone who is visibly brown and living in europe, i've always got a lot of grief from classmates and co-workers in the form of ignorant jokes and flat out exclusion - it's an unfortunate cultural norm that bleeds into streaming due to the medium's casual and open nature, unnoticed or unchallenged by white viewers who don't want to have to confront a content creator's bigotry in fears of having to stop watching them. something that cannot be ignored by the people it's actually affecting. there is a reason dsmp and hermitcraft cosplay meet ups are dominated by pale skin.

i love the qsmp because its inclusion of latin american creators and quackity's selectiveness based on personal experience have largely (and i do mean largely, not entirely, but that's a discussion for another day) eliminated that problem.

the most prominent and succinct example i can think of is the photo of quackity's bedroom that was mocked countless times by his english speaking community and his bigoted english speaking friends when he streamed on the dsmp - when that photo was brought to the qsmp, forever, a fellow latino creator, was the first person to gently offer solidarity because he had come from the same impoverished latin american background. to me, and to a lot of minorities, that is what the qsmp is about. yeah, sharing languages in a minecraft server is novel, it's a fun way for americans who did poorly in high school to get back into learning spanish, but it stands for so much more when you're a racial minority. when your pleading in the dsmp fandom was drowned out and ignored for the entire duration of its run. when you're completely unrepresented in minecraft tournaments, and when known bigots are encouraged to participate in said tournaments to boost viewership because numbers are paramount. when you are finally seeing your culture appreciated rather than mocked on streams with tens of thousands of viewers all over the world as part of a massive project with a brilliant, engaging story.

it was obviously necessary to branch out of the americas at some point with what the project is attempting to achieve, but such a task is daunting when the next group you're inviting and their community probably do not have the capacity through personal experience to appreciate what the project stands for at its core in the same way the first batches do. can non americans all relate in discussions of the internet and entertainment industry being america and by extension english speaking centric? yeah, of course. but can white europeans relate when the only representation you have in said media revolves around harmful bigoted stereotypes? can there be a quiet solidarity between a white frenchman and a brown brazilian based on experiences with government, racial profiling, and online mockery? no. and in the landscape of livestreaming stupid jokes for entertainment alongside fast paced gameplay, these nuances are probably not going to be acknowledged.

in complete contrast to the solidarity exhibited between quackity and forever when discussing their poverty growing up in latin america, i have not forgotten and never will forget aypierre excusing his constant racist jokes aimed at the brazilians on his uniquely "french dark humour" that the brazilians, hurt by his comments, could "not understand." this is not an excusable cultural difference, but a symptom of white european privilege, and total ignorance towards what the project is meant to stand for. a smooth integration of all the world's cultures necessitates white european and white american introspection in a way that i haven't seen a lot of streamers capable of. admitting fault to such a degree and the ego of a large online personality do not often mesh well.

i'm always very irritated when people (especially english speakers) complain about them not "adding the germans" sooner despite us seeing applications for german speaking admins many months ago - because it would not be a task of simply throwing out server invites to content creators and cobbling together an animation of a submarine crashing into the island. you cannot downplay the ambition of this project and the mammoth task its trying to accomplish. people take for granted and forget that this is an unprecedented melding of cultures that would never otherwise interact and clash on the rare occasions they do. the french qsmp community being small and the french creators largely being outliers when it comes to the qsmp is not something born out of malice or purposeful exclusion, but simply a symptom of an unspoken lack of solidarity and inability to meaningfully relate based on everything from wildly varying privilege to global placement.

and don't get me wrong - i'm not excusing things like the times at which events are broadcast (i literally live in europe and have to stay up until sunrise to see most events, i think the admins do have to bite the bullet and begin structuring events around a new timezone that isn't the globally inconvenient unsustainable PST), or the exclusion of clips from french content creators at the presidential dinner, but i think attributing those admin choices to the brazilian community being unfairly favoured is downplaying what the qsmp as a project means for minorities, especially when the brazilian community receive the most scorn for infamously being the first to call out bigoted behaviour from qsmp content creators. yeah, it sucks that the french haven't slotted into the qsmp as well as the brazilians and aren't anywhere as numerous, but with all these unspoken contributing factors being taken into account, i can't be surprised.

i wish quackity and his team the best in smoothly integrating more languages and cultures in this amazing project in the future, but for the love of god please understand that the implications of this project and its impact are far larger than any streamer "drama" you might've witnessed in the past. and stop underplaying what this project is trying to achieve in an online landscape saturated in bigotry.

[purecommemasolitude]

There’ve been criticisms about Darry being too mean or too cruel in the musical, and I get where those people are coming from, but — and speaking as someone who hasn’t seen or listened to it but has listened to the soundtrack and follows the information account like the paper — I think this phenomenon stems from two things

First, on the side of the discussers, a lack of exposure to the musical as an actual piece of material instead of (occasionally very out of context) lines or screenshots. Obviously seeing the musical, even if one lived in New York, would be expensive as all get out, and even audios and boots are pretty hard to find for this show, but there are many details and contexts that change how lines on the page should be interpreted that simply cannot be gleaned through, well, lines on the page. As someone who has dabbled in acting & directing, and has spent time analyzing play texts in depth, delivery and direction can change everything. The entire sentiment of a line can be the opposite of what you’d expect if you took the line at face value, and unless that’s explicit in the stage directions, it can go unrealized if one is merely reading the script (which, as an aside, is exactly why I find analyzing play excerpts tricky — because without a performance or direction, scripts are often so ambiguous and versatile that they could go any way). And honestly, despite also being someone who unfortunately does not benefit from first hand knowledge of the musical, I feel like this is very evident in discussion of Darry in the show. For example, none of his lines in, say, Runs in the Family (Reprise) should be taken at face value, because if you’ve even listened to the song you can tell he’s completely spiralling and hitting a breaking point. This is a state that, historically, causes people to say things they’d never believe in real life. We’re not meant to believe Darry would ever walk out on his brothers, we’re meant to hear him talk about it and understand how deep of a breakdown he is having. As a less obvious example, from what people online have said, Darry spends the last twenty or so minutes of the musical in tears. Again, the things he says here aren’t necessarily the things he believes, or things that he’s expressing coolly or off-handedly because they line up 1:1 with his worldview, they’re things he says when he’s desperate and struggling and has no idea what the correct path is when his brother & responsibility has effectively been comatose since the deaths

Which brings me to my next point!

One of the most known things about the musical, even to people who aren’t very familiar with it, is that it goes more in-depth on Darry’s trials and tribulations, so to speak. He gets one solo at status quo, another (mostly) solo when he gets his breakdown, and a (mostly) duet in his own self-described darkest hour during Pony’s absence. All three of these songs go into detail about what his life is like and how much he’s been struggling, and even songs that aren’t about him emphasize this feature of his more than in the book: his description by Ponyboy in Tulsa ’67 & Great Expectations reminding the audience of his life’s path, his verse in GGAH making it clear that his life is a very different one with arguably more severe burdens compared to the other boys. Other than the three most important characters of the original narrative, he is now undoubtedly the most important and developed character — which makes sense in a musical format, because with the story of The Outsiders it would’ve been pretty much impossible to do a true ensemble cast other than the main three while doing any of them justice, especially if they’d kept Steve as a principle (rip king). But I digress. In my opinion, being clearer on Darry’s hardships actually gives the musical space to show him as saying crueller things, to have him make more mistakes and mess up worse. In the book, we’re clearly meant to sympathize with him by the end, but we only get Ponyboy’s infamously flawed and unreliable narration as the lense through which to view him. As such, if we went too hard into Darry messing up, while 3/4 of the book have Ponyboy going “yeah Darry’s a rock and doesn’t love me or anyone”, he ultimately would’ve come across a lot worse and a lot harder to “redeem” in the eyes of the reader (personally I never disliked him, but I’ve seen enough accounts of people who hated him on their first go at the story to know it is not an uncommon sentiment). He already slaps his brother and argues with him all the time; it would’ve been even more legwork to make him liked if he’d also been saying harsher things and making more mistakes. In the musical, however, we get that objective perspective that’s missing in the book. Ponyboy’s not narrating to us the lyrics of Throwing in the Towel, he’s not even present for the events of Throwing in the Towel! It’s a lot easier to understand and forgive mistakes if one is familiar with the psyche behind those mistakes, and the musical delivers that psyche to us at every turn. Because the audience understands Darry Curtis and how hard it is for him to hold on, the audience also has more understanding and forgiveness for when he’s spiralling. It’s also just a more specific proof of his plight — three songs with first-hand, emotionally explicit lyrics penetrate the uninvested understanding a lot easier than a second-party description of circumstances. Due to its nature and promotion of Darry’s importance, the musical simply gets more freedom to show an arguably more realistic version of him.

Also, I do believe that Darry in the musical is just that much closer to the edge than he is in the book, which is a valid character choice in an inherently emotional and transformative medium such as the musical adaptation 🤷🏻‍♀️

[cupidskissx]

I’ve seen a lot of commentary / comparisons to Lestappen and Larry over the past few months and as someone who never shipped them but saw first-hand how detrimental it was to Harry and Louis’ relationship it makes me feel genuinely sick. To the point I have had very serious thoughts about leaving the fandom to avoid the association.

Tumblr has always been such a safe space to obsess over your ship and find friends who share your same delusions. The beauty is, and always has been, the freedom to go feral over them — to exaggerate and fantasise in the shadows — all in the name of fun because we know deep down we don’t actually believe any of it.

The recent mainstream attention is becoming increasingly more concerning because things can get out of hand extremely quickly. When some fans move out of safe spaces, or start their shipping journey on sites like X or Instagram, their views on boundaries can easily warp. They are able to freely tag the people they are talking about, or worse, try to find more drastic ways to get their attention.

I’m not saying the entire fandom on those sites is toxic but it’s a lot easier for lines to be crossed in spaces the real people occupy as well.

It’s getting to the point where I’m not sure if we can go back, or if it’s too late and I’m going to have to watch a fandom I love be torn apart all over again…

[gender-luster]

i have a theory. but instead of sharing said theory, i shall simply present you with this shitty graph i made

[burst-of-iridescent]

alright, i'm done dealing with this bullshit.

i didn’t want to address this any further but since these people seem utterly obsessed with me & and have now gone on to harass my friends, i have had enough.

first things first, and i can't believe i even need to say this, but aang is a fictional character. he is not tibetan, because there is no tibet in the world of avatar: the last airbender. aang - and the air nomads in general - are the products of two white men's (and a predominantly white writing team's) interpretations of buddhism, hinduism and tibetan culture, interpretations that have themselves been criticized by actual tibetan people.

criticizing, mocking, or even making fun of aang does not make me racist towards tibetan people, just like criticizing zuko wouldn't make me racist towards japanese people, or criticizing toph wouldn't make me racist towards chinese people, because none of these characters are actual depictions of real life groups or cultures. they can't be, because those groups and cultures do not exist in the world of atla. (xiran jay zhao discusses this very topic, and the show's "representation" of asian and indigenous cultures, better than i can in their video essays, if anyone is interested in hearing more about atla from an east asian perspective.)

additionally, even if aang were somehow an actual tibetan monk, i cannot recall a single instance in which i said anything derogatory regarding his cultural practices or beliefs (which, again, stem from bryan konietzko and mike dimartino's understanding of tibetan monks). when i criticize aang (and once again i can't believe i need to say this), i am criticizing the writing of his character and the worldbuilding of his culture and people. not, you know, an actual person and their actual heritage.

i have no problem with aang being a pacifist, or a vegetarian, or shaving his head, or wearing robes. what i do have a problem with is his entire dilemma about killing being brought up in the last four episodes of the show, only to be resolved by a magic rock and a lion turtle instead of character growth and agency. what i do have a problem with is his treatment of katara, and his disrespect towards her cultural beliefs in favour of pushing his own on her. aang is entitled to believe in non-violence and the sanctity of all life; he is not entitled to make that choice for katara, as he tried to in the southern raiders. each of them has a right to their own beliefs, and neither should use their individual beliefs to impose upon the other, or dictate what they should do.

the really ironic thing about all of this is that i love aang. i have said over and over that i believe kat.aang could have worked, that i thought they were cute in book 1, that aang is a great protagonist who had potential for an amazing arc, if only it had been followed through on in book 3. my criticisms of aang's character come from my love for him, because he deserved better than the writers who turned him into their own self-insert fantasy.

so whoever you are that's been endlessly hounding my inbox, and now my close friends', calling me racist because of my opinions on a fictional character: for your own sake, just block me and go on with your life. your social justice crusade against a singular stranger on the internet isn't helping anyone, let alone actual tibetan people.

[frizzle-mcshizzle]

why are people complaining about the way the kotlc fandom is rn, if you don’t like what the general populace is posting then post your own stuff? if not let people have their fun without complaining!

[dez-wade]

If forever fans brushed off every action he does with “he’s just abit silly!!” A lot more people would say it isn’t an excuse, just saying..

LOL Forever's past actions of 5 months ago are repeatedly brought over and over by the most notorious "silly cubitos" stans.

What's funny is that the characters they like are so notorious for getting away with no consequences, have zero enemies or people actually disliking them because they're so "silly". Maybe because they're bored or it doesn't fit their agenda, they keep trying to victimize them to have an excuse to cry about something, to have a "villain" in their story for some reason. And usually that person is always Forever.

Seriously, the amount of Jaiden stans that thought recently that Forever would kidnap (?) and torture (?) her was bigger than you'd like to think.

Forever is also brought over as the villain in Foolish's story over and over again, when these two are super chill and friends with each other. You still have people twisting Forever's words about Leo's sign recently saying how he doesn't give a fuck about Foolish's feelings or Leo's.

God forbid if you tried to use the "silly" excuse for him.

[dream-sans-mogai]

This will probably get looks from performative and ultimately harmful non-transfems despite my being transfem but-

Some y'alls only interaction with feminist history and theories, radical feminism regardless of its intersectionality and really any feminism deeper and louder and meaner than blatant choice feminism like the barbie movie and whatever TF taylor swift thinks shes got going on is through your occasional and short interactions with terfs and it shows. You call vagina art terfy and it fucking isnt. Its feminist art. Your brainrot is making you a fucking mra. The fact y'all think talking about the man vs bear situation is about/started/ran by terfs (and encouraged some really questionable other transfems shitting on it despite it clearly just being about women's safety and yes all men, not transphobia.), everything from questioning wether certain groups belong in our community to thinking a word is a slur or having a lesbian icon (I have sources don't test me) or not to not liking a certain band has been called "terf rhetoric". I'm all for us Transmascs talking about how terfs affect us cause they absolutely do and their harm to the transmasc community can not be understated but like.... Y'all are not allowed to call Jack shit terf rhetoric anymore. Like nothing. You don't know what it means, you litterally call transmedicalism and sysmedicalism terf rhetoric. Do you mean exclusionist? Say exclusionist. Terfs are not the end all be all hate group. They have a very specific complex mindset that affects so many people in specific ways. Someone hating Neopronouns is not fucking terf rhetoric. It's nbphobia. Holy fuck. Learn what words mean.

(intersectional trans radfems exist, radical feminism isn't terfs and swerfs and historical radfems would laugh in their faces for their idiocy)

[thescaryhyperfem]

note: under a flag for boygirl lesbians

oh my goooooddd shut up

[nervousmonolith]