#op sorry to derail your post a bit

[supervor]

Want to learn about Ukraine and their people from actual Ukrainians? Have an hour a week to spend video chatting with a new friend? Sign up to be an ENGIN volunteer!

The program pairs English speaking volunteers with Ukrainians that want to improve their English skills. You do not need to speak any Ukrainian, and they provide training and session resources. I signed up in February and it has been such an amazing experience, the woman I was paired with as my student is someone I genuinely consider a friend now and I always look forward to talking to her.

I recently watched a YouTube video of a Ukrainian performance on “America’s Got Talent.” A friend sent me the link, promising it would amaze me – and it did. You can find the video by searching “Amazing holographic 4D cube show AGT.” However, when the show’s host, Howie Mandel, said, “America’s got love for the Ukraine,” I cringed. The phrase “the Ukraine” implies it’s a territory, not a sovereign country. It’s just Ukraine – the largest country in Europe, an important nation in its own right, and sadly, a place the world still knows too little about.

Ukraine is often branded as a place of corruption and gangsters, and Hollywood doesn’t help when it makes the villains Ukrainian. After living in Kyiv for years, I’ve experienced something very different. The country I know is filled with talented, hardworking, and warm people who possess an incredible sense of humor. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, too many people think Ukraine is nothing but a war zone.

I recently heard Mstyslav Chernov, the director of the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” say that Americans often ask, “Is there more to Ukraine than the war?” I’ve had similar frustrating conversations abroad, with people asking, “Is that war still going on?”

Before the pandemic, I hosted many foreigners visiting Kyiv, often to explore IT opportunities. Questions like “Is it safe there?” or “Do they have the internet?” were common. Even more surprising are comments from the Ukrainian diaspora. In Canada, home to the largest Ukrainian community outside of Ukraine, some people who left decades ago have no idea how their country has advanced. “They have shopping malls in Kyiv?” or “Do they have electric cars?”

Yes, Ukraine faces challenges, and many people live on modest salaries. But there is a growing middle class, and the big cities capture imaginations. Every guest I hosted in Kyiv was blown away.

One misconception that always made me giggle is when people ask, “What will we eat there?” The food scene in Kyiv is incredible. There’s been an explosion of amazing restaurants, and dining out here can compete with New York or London any day. Even during the war, new places are opening, and the food is phenomenal. If you want to have a laugh,  stand-up comedy clubs are popular – even in English. Where there’s laughter, there’s hope.

I had a friend from California visit twice, and when he returned to Los Angeles, people teased him, asking if he’d visited the land of Borat. He said Ukrainians are just like people in California – trying to build businesses, raise families, and live their lives. That’s the thing: Ukraine is not some backward nation that craves war.

Before the full-scale invasion, Kyiv was on track to become Europe’s next hotspot, and I’d have bet anything on that happening. This brutal war has set everything back. Ukraine is not about war. It’s about modernity, freedom, and new culture. It’s a country brimming with energy.

Ukraine has suffered from a poor reputation for as long as I can remember. I first discovered Kyiv nearly 17 years ago, and I’ve been saying ever since that Ukraine needs to work on its brand. Of course, now that we’re in the third year of the full-scale invasion, things are different. Air raid sirens can go off at any time, and it can be scary when Ukrainian air defenses shoot down drones and missiles. During those moments, you head to the bomb shelter. But life continues.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Ukraine is that everyone here is poor and miserable. Most people don’t have easy lives, and yes, poverty exists, but that’s true in many places. I’m originally from South Africa, where poverty exists on a different scale. In Ukraine, no one lives in shantytowns. When millions of Ukrainians fled across the borders, the European host nations were often surprised to see modern cars, fashionable clothes, and the latest smartphones. It’s a high-tech nation, and the level of online convenience here would surprise any foreigner.

There’s also a wave of innovation happening. Ukraine is poised to become a global leader in military drone technology. Artists are creating, entrepreneurs are developing cool tech, new restaurants are opening, and foreign investors are exploring opportunities. Ukraine is a miracle. Even as hypersonic missiles and kamikaze drones rain down across the country, many have decided to stay, continuing their lives, albeit in a very different way. The economy needs to keep running. Life needs to go on to keep the wheels turning.

Many passionate, dedicated people are working on projects to benefit and support Ukraine. Some have been involved long before the full-scale invasion, driven by a deep belief in the country and its people. Since 2018, I’ve been part of a team of artists — Ukrainian and international — creating a storytelling film project that captures life in modern Kyiv. “We Are Ukraine” is a story about extraordinary people in an extraordinary time — people who have chosen to continue to work, live, get married, have children, and laugh, against all odds. It’s not a war story, a story about death and demise. It’s a story about life, a love letter to Kyiv, which shows us what the world would miss out on if Kyiv would cease to exist.

Freedom, independence, and identity are the culmination of modern humanity, forged over centuries through struggle, creativity, and resilience. Everything else in civil society flows from these values. Russia’s war in Ukraine is a global wake-up call – a reminder that these values must be nurtured and protected. Ukrainians are showing that not only can they defend these values, but by continuing to live, laugh, and love, they are defying those who seek to destroy them.

[tikkunolamresistance]

so i wanted to say i understand your pov on that post even if i disagree with it, but running an account like this one means you do need to be careful who you reblog from. and that means that yes, you do need to make a bit of an effort.

you could be reblogging nazis, or people who actively support hamas if you don't check who you reblog before you platform them on an account like this. it takes a minute to check out an account before you just hit reblog.

it's understandable to not do it on a personal account, but this is a public one that was supposed to be a place without propaganda. platforming people who post propaganda because you happen to agree with one post they made is still platforming people who post propaganda. there are many nazi and pro hamas accounts who have circulating posts.

"i'm sorry this bothered you." i'm not bothered lmao. i'm disappointed in an account that was supposed to be a place that didn't do what the previous account did.

i wish you luck, i just don't agree with running an account like this one and not checking who you reblog.

i would like to go over the series of events that prompted you to say this to me.

i reblog a post that i agree with. you reblog to disagree, derail the post by mentioning israel and accusing op of terrorist sympathizing, then tag me to call me out for not checking that every blog i reblog a post from meets your expected standards for my blog. my blog.

i am someone that you have spoken to personally on here and discord and now you have the audacity to try and call me out publicly? what’s with that? if you are concerned with who i’m reblogging from this was not the appropriate way to go about it and i am embarrassed that i even have to address this with you.

i was going to message you privately but fuck it. you made this public.

my personal account is also public. this blog isn’t a news source, i’m not a teacher, nor do i have the responsibility to check every blog i reblog from. i am a stranger on the internet cultivating a blog of topics i think my followers would like to look at/engage with/be interested in in any capacity.

i’m not living my life with hyper vigilance for fucking tumblr. the fringe website. i already think too much about the person sitting next to me on the bus let alone every. single. account that i reblog from.

take this ‘holier than thou’ attitude away from me i am absolutely sick of it.

if anyone else has any issues with the people i reblog from, that is entirely a you issue. unfollow me like she did.

[eriisaam]

You can probably guess what inspired this, but what I'm about to discuss talks about a pet who passed away, bullying and harassment, and fandom discourse esque drama. If you're at all sensitive to any of these, it may be best to just skip this post entirely. Don't worry about it. The long and short of it is I'm just venting. Hope you have a good day.👍

---

You've all probably seen what happened with that cat poll between Jellie and Nefarious Anglerfish by now. Even if it's been a bit since, with it coming up again, I still can't shake off some lingering resentments of this being one of many examples of something I've seen and bottled up for a while now.

What the fuck happened to us? To fandom lately? What the fuck made enjoying things and letting other people enjoy things and liking or disliking certain things that turned into some kind of fucked up litmus test of whether or not someone is an appropriate target to just turn off all senses and be a complete asshole to them?

And over nonsense things like liking something someone else didn't like, or thought cringe, or thinks is overrated, or whatever. What the fuck happened to "cringe culture is dead"? And when did it evolve into "This person is ok to completely shit all over cuz they like Roblox/Minecraft/Undertale/Among Us/whateverthehell and that's cringe"?

No, dipshit, you're still an asshole whether they or you like those things or not.

Like, I'm sorry. I hate drumming up this issue when at this point the issue is long since done, the dust had settled, and that OP of that poll straight up fucked off.

But what gets me is how easily someone can "unperson" someone else - just shut off their brains, remove all empathy and common sense, and say the most horrendously cruel shit without a second thought - treating them like they don't have feelings and it doesn't matter if they do anyways, and over what?

Cuz they play Minecraft and you don't? They like something you think is stupid?? And you make fun of their loss of their cat for "milking the attention away" with their death and derailing attention from another cat in a fucking poll nobody's going to give a shit about by the end of the week??? Cuz the "cringey minecraft player"s cat died at a time too inconvenient for your poll?!

Fuck you. I said it before and I'll say it again: fuck you.

Back when I was way younger, what's now happening to Minecraft used to happen to a lot of things.

Back then? It was liking cartoons in general.

Then it was liking anime specifically on top of liking certain cartoons.

Then it was liking the "lame" (read: "girly") anime like Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket or Sailor Moon over the badass ones like Dragonball Z, Gundam or Cowboy Bebop. There were constant rotating fights of which anime was "cool" enough not to get shit on for liking it. (And there's still that shit even to this day, let's be real.)

Then it was liking Pokemon. Then it was liking Digimon. Then it was Yugioh, or Beyblade, or whatever. Then there's being a furry. Then it was being a brony or even tangibly liking My Little Pony. Then Undertale. Then Steven Universe, or She-Ra, or whatever the fuck else. Sometimes it's just the one thing. Other times it's an entire genre.

On and on and on the goalpost will keep changing when the old "cringey" thing stopped being an acceptable target, and there's a new thing people completely unload on without a second thought.

Like I said before. I used to be a pet owner. I've had, and lost, pets over my lifetime.

Back then I would've also been in that camp of "easily acceptable target cuz people who like pokemon/digimon/anime are losers who deserve it", and I've been on the receiving end of that shit all my life in and out of fandom circles back in the day.

When I lost my cat, it already devastated me. And I can't imagine the kind of way that pain would've magnified if I was still trying to cope with that, tried to find escapism just hanging out online or browsing or whatever, and someone took my loss to make fun of me about it cuz I was some cringey loser who liked pokemon, so they felt I deserved the kind of words that they wouldn't dream to say to the face of someone actually "worth respect".

Because how dare my cat die on a date that inconvenienced them and ruined their good mood. Some cat nobody gives a shit about, cuz she belonged to a pokemon fan, and we all know pokemon fans are huge no-life losers who never get anywhere in their lives, amirite?

It didn't have to be specifically Jellie, or even specifically about Scar.

In that moment, I saw me, when I was younger, going through that shit that's the same bullshit then as it is now, and where kid-me would've broke down and spiraled worse than I already had, adult-me wants to drop a fucking meteor on a bitch.

I said unkind things and lost my cool and I'm sorry you all had to witness that. By virtue of this post, I'm sorry you're still witnessing it now.

But I'm just so goddamn tired of seeing it, and that's not even the only time I've seen that shit happen, time and again over similarly petty bullshit. It's Minecraft now for whatever the goddamn fuck reason, but it could be anything next once Minecraft and those who play it stop being cool to bully. I've seen it in public with strangers in passing just as I've seen it thrown in the face in private at people I know. I've seen this shit thrown at friends just as much I've still had it thrown in my face time and again.

It never fucking ends.

Why is the message always "it's ok to say whatever the hell I want, as long as they like something that's cool now to shit on them over"?

When did we somehow stop caring about "If you're being a thoughtless asshole, I don't care if they like [insert acceptable cringe target here], you're still an asshole."?

[ibidflash]

I saw a post about the clashing of disability accommodations and I didn't want to derail it but it reminded me of something I've been thinking about recently (here's the op if you're interested)

Sometimes accommodating trans people is so incredibly nuanced it's easy to back yourself into a corner until you do nothing. That's not to say you shouldn't do it! Just that if you're looking for a perfect solution you're not going to find it.

Let's take a pretty low stakes example: pronouns in email signatures. This is something people generally appreciate as it normalises making pronouns explicit. If organisations required this a lot of people would love it! It means that bigots can't be pricks about pronouns bc sorry dude it's company policy. suck it up. It also means that it doesn't act as a neon sign screaming THIS PERSON'S TRANS! which is always nice.

On the other hand it also means that you can't know who's safe anymore. Pronouns in email signatures can often be a little nod saying "I'm not a massive transphobe" which is good to know. But if everyone's got that you've lost your signal. Equally some trans people (especially stealth people) don't want to share their pronouns. They don't want to out themselves but there's a difference between letting people assume wrong and actively telling them the wrong thing. There are loads of situations where I will happily let ppl assume I use she/her and won't correct them but if they asked I would feel uncomfortable telling them such and would want to say they/them (perhaps slightly skewed by "well if they're asking they can't be that bad" but the point remains)

This became a bit rambly...

TLDR: there's a lot of nuance to trying to make spaces safer for trans people that you've really got to take into consideration

[leajoyrambles]

Oh, excellent discussion-starting post! I do like to criticize my favorite media, but it usually takes me a minute to calm down about it before I can read others’ criticisms without having a knee-jerk “stop it!” reaction.

(talking about fandom etiquette under the cut)

There seems to be a trend of polarized thinking in a lot of fandom spaces, but the same could be said for much of modern society. I remember an article about modern linguistic trends that talked about hyperbole in English slang becoming increasingly common, and I think of that a lot when I see posts that say something just… really intense.

There seems to be this idea that a moderated approach (“this has xyz flaws, and it’s important to recognize that, regardless of its merits”) isn’t ‘extreme enough’ to get attention in some fandoms. That may even be true; the more extreme language does tend to grab people’s attention (and incite arguments, but I digress).

Oh! Also, people use buzzwords a lot. I kind of had to unlearn that once I realized I was picking it up. It grabs people’s attention, but it can read like a personal attack. Sometimes it is, in a way (hello, ad hominem fallacy!), so that’s always… interesting.

Tbh, I don’t always have a problem with ppl arguing in fandom spaces. I actually really enjoy reading the long-winded arguments, provided they don’t start making comparisons that are… let’s go with “disturbing and unnecessary.” Reading the CA:CW debates was a guilty pleasure of mine for some time, at least when no one said anything too awful.

That said, I definitely don’t enjoy it when something that wasn’t argumentative gets derailed with someone being ‘holier-than-thou’ and generally unpleasant. Argument is interesting when it was invited (or at least is met with interest). It’s just annoying when it’s rude. (I’m thinking of something specific in the dpxdc fandom, but I know it happens in a lot of fandom spaces.)

Anyway, I definitely agree that fandom is a great place to discuss what we wish had been done differently! Even if we disagree, a lot of it is personal preference! And if the writers did do something that just Didn’t Work for a character, then it’s fine for some people to prefer that retconned version, and it’s perfectly valid when the people who enjoyed the character before that are upset about it!

And, of course, when the media involves intense topics, it’s important for everyone to recognize and remember nuance. That seems to be… very easy for people to forget, unfortunately.

Tagging the fandoms I have in common with you!

I am genuinely curious about if people on here criticize their own favorites shows/movies/books? When I say criticism I don’t mean tear it to shreds but just kind of pick it apart and constructively criticize what is going on.

I personally do this for most of my favorite pieces of media because I don’t think anything is ever perfect and they could always be tweaked here and there to be made better.

Why do some people read fanfiction? Because they love a piece of media but they want certain plot points, storylines, characters, etc to be expanded on and/or changed to some degree so they find it in a fanfiction.

I also find that the pieces of media I do constructively criticize are often my favorite pieces of media. For me, I do it because I love it so much and I want to explore every avenue that could have been explored. I also often love a character so dearly that, especially if they aren’t done justice in some way, I won’t hesitate to point out ways they could have been done differently. This is done best in welcoming fandom spaces or with friends.

Unfortunately too many times I see people take someone using constructive criticism as them hating whatever piece of media they’re discussing and that is SO far from the truth. This doesn’t ever allow rich conversations in fandom spaces and instead it just results in hateful comments, and arguments in replies and it’s truly heartbreaking.

If I were to say “oh x is dog shit because a, b, and c didn’t/did happen” that’s not constructive criticism that’s just tearing something apart and hating on it. If I said “I really love x, but I think a’s storyline could be expanded on more in c, and b ways” that’s giving constructive criticism.

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Jimmy has no right to *that* hostile (ie downright homophobic). He already almost threw Thomas out onto the street without a reference; if anyone has a right to be scared it’s Thomas; he’s now aware everyone knows he’s gay and he knows at least one or two of those people(one of them being jimmy) would happily throw him under the bus given the chance. He’s literally never been so vulnerable and there’s no need for jimmy to rub it in

Hey Nonny you’re my first official fandom argument! Or you were when I first drafted this over a week ago lol. Since then I've waded into some drama bc I have poor impulse control. Well you're my first argumentative anon still! Do I get a prize, or do you? Have an, um apple of discord: 🍏And I will have one too: 🍏 (Intended tone: genuinely friendly, although if you are not already aware you should know that in fandom spaces messages like these are generally considered hostile acts. Most people don’t want to argue with strangers about why their faves suck, and especially not in response to tags they made about their overwhelmed shippy feelings. (Although I guess if hypothetically you’re the OP of the post I put the tags on and weren’t comfortable with them being on your post that’s admittedly a tough place to be in. Coming to me with your face on and asking me to remove my reblog or the tags because you’re not comfortable with them runs the risk of me being an asshole or taking something in your phrasing badly and starting a big fight. Uh, the chances of that seem rather remote so I’m gonna leave the tags where they are unless OP comes to me and says “I hadn’t wanted to say anything but actually -”.) Anyway I’m not gonna derail this into a long(er than it is) ramble on preferred ways to discuss disagreements in fandom but I might post something like that at a later date.)

God I use way too many parentheses. Apologies to any with a blacklist for Jimmy (do I still have any of those? not sure), obviously I don’t want to put this in the tags. I shall tag this and any further discourse on the subject with “the storyline that shall not be named”. Let’s get (finally) to it!

So, the first thing I wanna say is: yes, Jimmy makes homophobic comments and that’s bad, both because Thomas being gay is not the reason he assaulted Jimmy and because there’s hypothetically a chance someone who doesn’t already know might figure out Thomas’s sexuality based on Jimmy’s comment(s? There's the one before the rope tug and then I could have sworn there was one other one but I'm blanking on what it actually was.)However a) the moment I was commenting on wasn’t one of the homophobic comments and b) I find it important to distinguish between the specific manner of hostility (sometimes homophobic) and the level of hostility (nasty remarks and making a constant point of distancing himself) and the level is in fact 100% warranted. If you think nasty remarks and pointed distancing are more hostile than a person has a right to be towards the guy who sexually assaulted them, then we have a pretty profound disagreement.

As for your other point, regarding fear: Thomas and Jimmy both have very compelling reasons to be afraid of each other but I have to ask exactly what you think Jimmy is “rubbing in?” He initially tried to retaliate excessively against Thomas, backed down from that, and then discovered that instead of facing a reasonable consequence for assaulting him, such as being fired but with a reference that reflected the fact that this was one very bad mistake rather than a pattern*, Thomas was promoted to a position of direct authority over Jimmy. Although Jimmy was bribed into not making a fuss about this rather than, say, threatened, I think he has nonetheless been given a fairly clear message from his employers that they will back the senior coworker who assaulted him against any potential consequence he might try to bring. From Jimmy’s point of view, which is admittedly blinkered by fear and self interest, Thomas is the one in the secure, powerful position and Jimmy is the one extremely vulnerable.

I don't even just mean from his point of view like, ~emotionally. Genuine question: what would happen if Thomas started being overly touchy-feely again, or did worse than that, and Jimmy went to Mr. Carson or Mrs. Hughes or Lord Grantham to report it? I really don't know, and neither does Jimmy. Personally, I'm guessing that whether they believed him would probably depend significantly on things like Jimmy’s demeanor, and exactly what words he used, and basically whether he came across as a victim or as a brat trying to get someone in trouble. And which of those things a person seems like has no particular correlation to the facts of what they’re reporting - as we can see from what happened the first time! Like, Jimmy came off as spiteful and nasty and instead of being fired Thomas was promoted. That is actually what happened! The fact that Jimmy's motives were mixed doesn't change the fact of what Thomas did: Jimmy, when evaluating his safety, has access to one really strong datapoint and that’s that last time the majority of his superiors came down on Thomas’s side, either from the beginning or by the end.

Now, it’s true that he’s had a year to observe Thomas’s behavior and make an educated guess that Thomas really is sorry and won’t do it again. We can only speculate as to what extent he may have reached that conclusion and why he has or hasn’t. Some possible reasons why he might not have: trauma blinkers, homophobic and sexist beliefs, sufficiently bad at reading people to not know what clues to even look for, too self-centered to bother thinking about it in those terms... we don’t know. And perhaps he does know perfectly well that Thomas won't do anything like that again and any lingering fear is of cooties or of people mistaking him for gay and him being in the line of fire along with Thomas next time! You can read him that way if you want. You can say “wtf I see no fear of any kind”. It’s a flexible canon and none of these interpretations are actually contradicted by the text. Indeed I happily read other interpretations and when I babbled in those tags it was more "this is the interpretation I am thinking about right now" than intended to assert it as my One True Headcanon that I will not deviate from. But Jimmy definitely has reasons to be afraid, and of more than cooties.

Of course Thomas also has logical and emotional reasons to be afraid of what Jimmy might do, I'm certainly not denying that. (In fact, one of the things I find so compelling about these two is that they both have such strong reasons not to trust each other and they both reach out anyway.) It seems that Thomas’s belief in who Jimmy is as a person supersedes those reasons (“He wouldn’t be so unkind. Not on his own.”) but if Jimmy has a similar belief about who Thomas he keeps it hidden at least until the fair.

P.S. please reconsider the phrase “has the right to be scared” in every context but especially when discussing someone’s reaction to a situation that involved them being sexually assaulted. I offer you the alternative “logical reason to be scared” or "compelling reason" as perhaps capturing what I hope you meant. I think that’s a language choice that really does matter a fair bit.

[captlok]

Pacifism Isn’t A Character Trait

Or: MLK Day is Upon Us so Let Me Do You a Learn

Or: As An Aang Stan I Got a Bit Over-Zealous But Lemme Explain Why For A Hot Minute

Plus some History and Tumblr commentary that even non-ATLA fans can chew on

And by ‘hot minute’ I do mean this is going to be a long meta, so strap in.  For those of you who just might be tuning into this debacle, I, a person who has not used Tumblr, much at all, except for the last half year, ran into some trouble. 

If you wanna skip the whole TLDNR interpersonal stuffs and get straight to Why Aang is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, I will embolden the relevant parts, and italicize the crit of Korra, if you want that alongside.

I was excited that ATLA was seeing a resurgence due to the Netflix remake. I wasn’t even trying to apply any steep expectations for it. (learned not to do that the hard way with the last live action adaption, and to a much lesser extent, ATLOK, since it had good . . . elements, *ba dum tsshh*) 

So, these are a couple aspects of the issue: (1) Even on the internet, I am extremely introverted and until recently mostly came for content, not socializing. My main online interactions thus far have been in forums and artist-to-artist on DA. Tumblr is still very strange to me because it splits up its ‘threads’ so you can’t see all the replies if a certain pattern of users responds in their own space. I’m not even 100% sure it’s in chronological order, and replies are not nested next to each other so you can look in the comments and someone will be replying to something you can’t see in that window. And also since it is a bizarre hybrid of a blogging system, posts are somehow considered ‘owned by’ or an ‘extension of’ OP in a way forum threads are not. (2) ATLOK was good in a cinematic and musical way, to be sure. It also had some good concepts. I can go into it just appreciating it for the worldbuilding and be somewhat satisfied. But the execution was terrible. I was on AvatarSpirit.Net for years, and If I had maintained my presence on ASN to current day and had gotten around to downloading their archive now that the forum is dead, I would include some links to other peoples’ detailed analyses on just how flawed both the plotting and Korra’s frustratingly flat learning curve was especially in the first two seasons. But, that is a task for another day, and only if people are interested. 

No, what I’m addressing today, on the issue of Korra as a writing exercise, is how Mike and Bryan said specifically they wanted to make her ‘as opposite to Aang as possible’ and in so doing, muddied the central theme of the original ATLA series.

Now, again, I was mainly an art consumer for my first major round of ATLA fandom. Tumblr is an alien beast to me. But, after I write my first major Aang meta, talking about how amazing it is that he has the attitude he does, and how being content in the face of this overwhelming pain and suffering is an ONGOING PROCESS and an INTENTIONAL DECISION and not a simple PERSONALITY TRAIT, I start hearing that Aang gets a lot of hate from the fandom. Now this would be bad enough if it were merely people not liking his crowning moment of pacifism because they don’t understand the potential utility (I’ll elaborate on that in another post) or the ethics involved.

Aang is easily the most adult member of the Gaang. But he apparently gets hate for his few moments where he actually acts his age, a preteen, and maybe kisses a girl in a historical timeframe in which ‘consent’ discussions were probably nonexistent. Even in the present day, we are still practically drowned in movies that reinforce this kissing without asking trope. And even some female bodied people complain that asking kills the mood! But somehow he is responsible and reprehensible for this, even though the first time she kissed him back. I’m only going to get into the pacifism discussion today, but that was just another layer of annoyance bouncing around in the back of my head.  Other peoples’ crit of Korra that was stewing in my subconscious, plus this Aang bashing, which thankfully I had not directly read much of, made up the backdrop of gasoline for the match that set it off.  Even that seems a pretty melodramatic way to phrase what I actually said, which was: Aang, on the other hand, lost dozens of father figures and was being steamrolled by Ozai who was gloating about genocide TO HIS FACE, yet he still reigned in all that quote, ‘unbelievable rage and pain’ (The Southern Raiders). We Stan Aang, the Superior Avatar. No I did not f**king stutter. #AangSupremacy In another meta, someone complained that I was too defensive of Aang as a character and didn’t apply literary analysis enough, which I quickly rectified.

What set this off? Someone was kind of indirectly praising the line from Korra,  “When I get out of here, none of you will survive” To them it was emotionally resonant or whatever, and I have to point out that no, it was a martial artist not having control of their state of mind, as is the bedrock of the practice. It was never addressed by the narrative, which is a severe oversight.  I had a conversation with someone in the chats, making this distinction between Korra’s character traits and life philosophy. If she were to kill people while enraged and she was fine with that, that’s one thing. But if she regretted it, that’s a whole other kettle of fish. People argue that she comes from a warrior culture, unlike Aang.

Never mind that warrior monks are a thing. That’s what Shaolin monks are. You can be a pacifist and skilled at fighting. Those things are not mutually exclusive, which is the whole point of Bagua, Aang’s style.  And also, Katara’s style. 

That’s one reason I like Kataang so much- their congruent styles. Both of their real world martial arts are dedicated to pacifism, even though ATLA specifically doesn’t spell that out for Katara and her learning arc. 

There was a meta where someone briefly tried to argue that knowing “martial arts” is against pacifism. No. Quite the opposite. I’d argue that you are not a true pacifist unless you know exactly how to handle yourself if someone attacks you.  If you are not in a position to make conscious decisions about how much force to use, rather than merely operating on survival instincts, that is not pacifism. Or at least, not any energy or effort towards pacifism as a practical everyday tool.  I’ve made a few attempts to learn some tai chi and aikido, and it’s improved my physical and mental health, but some other things have gotten in the way. #lifegoals

I’m not going to tag the unfortunate soul whom I was replying to, because they’re probably tired of all this, but I’ll be sending them a PM to say that I’ve made this into a different post, because as I mentioned before, threads are somehow considered “owned” by OP, so it’s been pointed out to me that I should separate it.  I also said, I have basically ZERO respect for Korra uttering violent threats when the writers already minted a far more emotionally devastated and yet still resilient and centered character earlier in their franchise. People always try to excuse away people who genuinely like Aang more.  As if it’s just nostalgia or whatever. For me, no, it’s absolutely not. It is respect for a character who stands toe to toe with real people who are kind in the face of overwhelming injustice. (I have another meta on that). 

Both OP and people in the chats try to make excuses that she wasn’t raised as a pacifist, and that would be fine if they had addressed it with Tenzin and she had stated outright that she was rejecting pacifism and mind training. As it is, we are left with this nebulous affair where the lines between ideology and personality traits are blurred. 

We are told she “has trouble with spirituality” but what does that even mean? Does she have trouble with focus? Does she have trouble relating to the canonically real spirits? And pacifism specifically nor inner peace that it flows from is never even talked about as an extension of spirituality, which is canonically tied to airbending.

“Aang didn't have to deal once with the loss of his autonomy in atla” OP claims.

This was after I had noted that Aang was getting kicked around by Ozai and was most likely going to die.  Similarly, someone in the chat rejected the idea that a 12 year old trapped in a stone sphere that is heating up under a cyclone-sized blowtorch feels powerless. 

Sorry but that’s flat out ridiculous.

No one wants to admit that both of these people were faced with similar situations, and when push came to shove, one showed his LIFE PHILOSOPHY through conscious effort, and the other was abandoning the basis of martial arts, which is, no matter what the situation, keep thinking. Hold the panic at bay. Non-attachment would have served her well in this situation. Tenzin should have told her this. Before, or afterwards. It should have been addressed in the writing.  

People see this as “bashing” Korra, and oh well, can’t help that. If I think the writers didn’t follow through on their themes, that is my concern.  OP said I was “offended.” No, not really. 

I wasn’t offended by the post itself, or its commentary. Thought I made that pretty clear.

This is not dramatics. Let me be blunt.

As a ideological pacifist, and an actual practitioner of meditation, based on Buddhism, NOT just the fan of some show, I am for calling out writers who write one way from the survivor of genocide, and then stray from that ‘thoughtless aggression is immoral no matter HOW hurt I am’ to ‘let’s not address this character’s aggression in the narrative whatsoever.’ OP attempted to derail by accusing me of being racist or sexist against Korra. Also ridiculous. It honestly should have set me off more, but it didn’t. 

Meditation is about reigning in your emotions. Managing your anger when it gets out of hand, and digging down to the roots of it. Being responsible for your own behavoir. Acknowledging ownership of your own actions. Not blaming anything YOU DO on anyone else or any circumstances in your life. Like an adult, or should I say, an enlightened adult.

Or at the very least, that is the ideal ypu strive towards while being imperfect in the present.

. . .

Now.

I’m going to quote a passage in a Google Doc of mine, even though I’d really prefer if you asked to read the whole thing, with context.

“What do humans do when it is necessary to, or greed makes a nation want to recruit?

They go to the army to get trained, right?

Granted, having someone scream and get spittle on your face is, in the grand scheme of things, poor preparation for having bullets whiz past your chest and grenades shatter your ears. And, what do you do to prepare you for the pain of getting your leg blown off? Hopefully, nothing. Like taking a test where you only got half the study guide. But, it’s about the most ethical way to go about it, right?

Not everyone even sees action. So any more more extensive mental preparation for physical pain than that, and you’d have people definitely protesting.

Well, as it turns out, pacifistic protestors themselves, if they were in the right time and place, also very intentionally do this type of mind training. Except, when they did it, they actually did sit still and took turns roughly grabbing each other and throwing each other down and in some cases, even kicking and bruising each other.

Turns out, those pacifists are, in some ways, more hardcore than the army.

Why is this?

Because a pacifist’s aim, unlike a unit, who wants to gain the upper hand in a situation, is to grit their teeth and grind their way through all those survival instincts, and totally submit.

In this, they aim to get the sympathy of the public, who clearly sees they are not aggressive, or a danger, no matter how much the footage is manipulated or suppressed.

In this, they hope to appeal to their attacker’s better nature.

Make them stop and think, wait a second, are these people a threat like we’re told they are? I’m attacking someone who’s letting me beat them up. Or a bunch of people. All forming a line, and letting us peel them off. Or sitting, and bowing their heads. If I’m on the ‘right’ side of things, the law, why am I doing this?

It’s not like a bully, who’s just a kid.” They’re more self-aware.

And might I add the situation influences a pacifist’s actions too. There’s no reason to let a single or a few random attackers beat you up if you can evade or disable without permanent damage.

Pacifism is a dynamic set of responsive actions informed by values. Not a proscribed set or a checklist.

But in terms of organizing against state power, and recording wrongdoing, which unlike during the Civil Rights can happen from all angles from smart phones nowadays, these are the motivations.

“So, the pacifist knows this, and that’s why they go through all that trouble of training themselves to, not only submit, but not turn tail and run, either.”

See, a character trait is something like being a morning person, or ways of handing information, or a given set of emotions a character feels. Once you cross over into actions, you must make the distinction of whether an impulsive character agrees with their own uncontrolled actions, or is embarrassed or remorseful. Those are life philosophy. Now sure, one type of person or character may be more likely to subscribe to pacifism, but there is no gatekeeping on what you have to feel or how you look at things. You can be easygoing, or feel all the rage in the world, but as long as you at least attempt to have a handle on those desires and feelings to where they do not cross into actions, you are still doing the work of metacognition, which is what martial arts and its accompanying mind training are for.

It’s what we see Aang do.

He’s informed us, during the Southern Raiders, on how much rage and pain he feels.

Pain points, TRIGGERS, that were directly struck at when Ozai gloated over him.

He joins with all the past Avatars for several moments, and just like every other time he is in the Avatar State, he is enraged. He wants to exact revenge on the unrepentant grandson of a baby murderer.

We see it when he turns his head away, face still screwed up in anger.

For another example, I could cite my difficulties in being aware and reining in my tongue sometimes. I know the roots of these issues and I seek to let them go.

It’s just that process takes way longer than Guru Pathik would have us assume.

In fact, I would even say that Aang’s portrayal throughout the three seasons is not strictly a realistic representation of at least the sad side of grief. I addressed that a little when I talked about real life figures. But what it IS, is a metaphor that cuts very deep to the heart of pacifism. As I showed in that Doc . . . There is no limit of suffering a pacifist is willing to go through, internal or external, for the preservation of peace.

This was demonstrated during the Civil Rights, and with Gandhi and all his followers beforehand, inspiring them. The pacifists’ method of swaying hearts is probably the reason BLM exists in such numbers as it does today. Will the types of narratives that correspond with their full stories of the way they collectively planned and trained for and approached conflict make it into fantasy media? I’d say, probably not. For a host of reasons.

It could be hoped for, I guess.

But we DO have Aang.

As for myself, whether speaking sharply is an “action,” per se is up for debate- certainly it doesn’t seem to violate the non-aggression principle put forth by the vision of a “stateless society.”

For another example, let’s take my explanation at the beginning. I am examining how circumstances affected my actions, and now am attempting to fix it, if indeed it needs to be fixed. 

At least one person said that it not so much what I said, but how and when I said it. I don’t actually think I’ve said anything “wrong” per se. So I have to figure it out. 

[I’m considering splitting up this next part into a second post, as it only slightly relates to pacifism itself and is just kinda some more commentary on Tumblr itself- Tumblr discourse, as it were]

[I’ll put more brackets when I’m done in case you want to skip this part as well]

An interesting social difference between Tumblr and other places is this command you often get, “don’t chat/reblog/message me back.”

This is interesting for several reasons. For chats and reblogs, other people may be following the “conversation,” so it’s actually pretty rude and presumptuous to tell a person not to respond to whatever you said, because other people watching still may be interested in your take.

In a forum setting, if someone involved in a conversation doesn’t have anything left to say, usually they just don’t respond.

This method would work perfectly fine for Tumblr, but for some reason, maybe its super odd format, probably due to the “ownership”/“extension of self” I mentioned at the beginning of the essay, people don’t tend to do this.

Now, in comment sections, sometimes you’ll run across an amusing sort of “mutually assured destruction” where two people both say this to each other. You’d better stop responding. Omg just give up. Why are you still arguing. Etc.

But see, no matter where this behavoir pops up, and no matter who starts in on it, those who do this usually want to have the last say on the matter.

Instead of merely not replying, they want to assert verbal control over the conversation.

Tumblr, in its weirdness, is also sort of like a mutant comments section. You can post comment section threads as your own post.

Which is one reason why I’m puzzled when people say ‘don’t read the comment sections’ when Tumblr is so popular.

I’m an oddball in that I browse comment sections for fun.

Probably due to alexithymia, I didn’t really comprehend the emotional toll it takes on many people, so the warnings to “stay out of comment sections” read to me like “hey don’t eat that dessert.” After I’m done with the ‘meal’ of an article or art, I like to see what lots of different people have to say about it. The fluff. Anything vitriolic I either blip over, or extract anything useful, or if I judge the person is reasonable enough, I might engage.

Sometimes I mis-judge on how reasonable someone is, and I shrug and move on after being cussed out or whatever.

In this, I suppose I succeed much of the time in being a verbal pacifist.

[But let’s get back to the more serious stuff.]

We’re talking about what is done in life or death situations, here.

For myself, I may in the near future be working more with dangerously mentally ill people. I’ve had a little exposure to it through various means. Nurses are obligated not to retaliate against patients, and those who have, have been fired in some situations. Again oddly, this is not primarily what triggers my anxiety. Unfortunately enough, this requirement has also resulted in nurses getting seriously injured and violated. I hope to influence whether “no harm” techniques such as tai chi and aikido and arm locks may be allowed. The voluntary philosophy I was luckily already on board with is enforced by bureauacracy, directly relevant to my potential profession.

Were someone to get involved in a dangerous profession, such as a police officer, their moral duty would also be to own up to any spur of the moment anger or fear they acted on. 

It’s just that their bureaucracy acts differently, in excusing their actions.

Ideally, they would be taking steps far in advance, to avoid this often-cited fear of death reaction. As training pacifists like Aang do. 

And yes, army people are trained differently than police officers because the army, often, even when threatened, is supposed to avoid engagement or deploy deterrents that are non-lethal almost all costs, unless ordered otherwise. Whereas American police are given pretty much complete discretion and often not taught de-escalation techniques. Even police from other nations are better trained in that regard.

Enter the ironically named @avatarfandompolice whose account description should really speak for itself. Combative, dismissive, and their attention-hungry bread and butter is to find people they think it’s acceptable to ridicule.  They basically tried to say trauma was a valid excuse to take out your anger on other people, and in this situation, potentially kill. 

Now, does this hold up in the real world? Yeah, sometimes. Especially if some law breaker or law keeper has not been given the anger management tools, they perhaps could be excused, or better yet, rehabilitated.

But especially if anyone finds themselves in dangerous situations, or intends to put themselves in such, it falls to them to do this preparation.

As an aphant, I am at a bit of a disadvantage, compared to an average martial artist, being unable to visualize an attacker. But I still attempt it.

As the main “police officer” of the world- the coincidentally blue clad figurehead that is supposed to keep order, it is apparently fine for Korra to not do the work Aang did to keep level. To blow it off as too much trouble: clearing the First Chakra of fear. For herself or others. And its resultant anger. Had she had access to the Avatar State, the authority figure pretty much would have killed people.  This is what the “fandom police” and a certain chat goer ultimately support. Maybe they didn’t understand it that way, and since the second had blocked me, they will also never see this explanation. Unless I were to share it in Google Doc form I suppose.

So, I responded. “Remember kids, you are not responsible for your own behavior if you have the excuse that someone else did something bad to you.” A frighteningly common sentiment on this site.

When it’s low stakes like CAPSLOCKING or internet fights, that’s not such a big deal. But what happens if this attitude leaks into the real world? This isn’t even about Korra or Aang anymore, it’s about toxic mindsets. I didn’t know fans taking pro-Korra posts as anti-Aang was a common in the fandom. I’ll say again I’ve only just gotten really active on Tumblr like the past few months. This is about pacifism itself. MLK and his hardworking, training followers (yes some of them sixteen and POC and not super-powered like Korra) facing down firehoses and staging sit-ins long trained for would shake their heads at this defense of reactionism. 

Pacifism is not a Personality Trait.

It is deliberate actions and preparation taken over a period of time.

Then the “fandom police” tried more of this, and these two conversations ensued, the comments with another user resulting in the title and main thesis of this essay:

https://captlok.tumblr.com/post/638777472806273024/avatarfandompolice-response-to-my-independent

https://captlok.tumblr.com/post/638806142933467136/the-plight-was-not-what-i-was-getting-at-it-was

[genderfluidlucifer]

Response to being asked to give  an opinion on Connie’s calout by residentevil-4

(Tw: CSAM, rape fic, incest fic, predatory behavior, racism, ableism, kink mention, nsfw mentions. Minors should probably dni.)

“Connie and I know each other irl and went to school together for 3 years, although they now live in a different state and have cut contact with me. We went to a private therapy school in Manhattan as we're both disabled and were deemed unable to attend public school. Even though we were pretty close, Connie didn't like having photos taken of them, so I don't have any selfies of the two of us; however, these are from our sophomore and senior yearbooks which at least confirms that we were in the same year at school. People who have seen Connie's selfies should be able to confirm that that is what they look like. First and foremost, Connie is not TMA. They are intersex and the two of us have discussed intersex issues both in person and online, but they are still decidedly CAFAB.” Ok so first off, I want to address this part of the callout. To be honest...was it really necessary to literally doxx Connie ehre? Because this textbook definition of doxxing. Yes Connie’s done some shitty things but I freally don’t think that what they’ve done warrants this level of doxxing. Or...even better, any doxxing. This feels like a really unnecessary breach of privacy, revealing sensitive information on Connie’s childhood that they choose to confide in you with. I really don’t agree with this aspect of the callout as it feels very invasive and bordering on stalkerish.  Btw when I say bordering on stalkerish I’m not directly calling you a stalker Bonnie. Just so we’re clear. I am not defending Connie supposedly faking being TMA. Because faking being TMA is a very serious issue. HOWEVER since I don’t know Connie irl and to be quite frank it’s none of my business what the nature of their agab is. Were not close and I’m certainly not going to like lead Connie onto thinking we’re friends just to confirm this with them because that would be creepy. So to be honest I’m going to take this part of the callout with again of salt for now.

[ID: A cropped screenshot of a numbered list Connie posted to their blog hadrosaurs in response to an ask. 

“3. I’m TMA And that’s completely irrelevant. I’m not accusing them because of their gender I didn’t even know their gender when they said that to me saying that they said that because they fucking said that and the reaction to it was incredibly alarming. Don’t fucking say that stuff to people.]

I mean I”m not a trans woman so take this with a grain of salt if you want but...I don’t see how this is really proof of Connie being deliberately transmisogynistic? Yes Connie gives iffy retellings of mistakes they’ve made in the past. I’ve seen that on their blog before and I won’t pretend it doesn’t happen. BUT here they sound genuine enough and to be honest a growing issue I’ve seen with callouts as of late is. A person confirms they in fact did not do the thing they were called out for. And then the people who make the callout choose to see it as proof of incriminating behavior anyways. To be honest it’s a big problem and it’s also incredibly unfair to the person being called out. If you’re so determined at that point to see the person as bigoted no matter what they say then of course anything they say can be seen as proof. So I’m going to have to pass on this bit of evidence. “Connie responded: “Final note: I have spoken extensively with several trans women about using TMA to describe myself. I will not be getting into discourse about that on this blog again. All that leads to is people demanding my medical records and calling me slurs. If you wanna have a thoughtful conversation about it direct message me cause it’s not happening again here.” Again this really doesn’t seem all that self incriminating. Connie mentions here that they’ve talked to rl trans woman about whether or not they can be considered TMA. Connie really doesn’t have to disclose that personal information to people for any reason. Yes even when people are e including this ask response in a callout. And considering lots of people DO get invasive about Connie’s medical history ans general personal life over matters like this? I feel their reaction is pretty understandable here. “Connie has constantly compared “exclusionists” (or anyone, really) to TERFs, even when the people in question are not transmisogynistic, trans exclusionary radfems, or are even transmisogyny affected themselves.

“ Gonna have to disagree with this part of the callout too. Lots of ace inclus blogs, even some run by trans women , have proven that the ace exclus movement was started by swerfs/terfs. But the blog that has the most evidence for this is courteousmingler on tumblr. I suggest you check out that blog’s archiving of the history of ace exclus rhetoric before rushing to call me a transmisogynist for disagreeing with this part of the callout. I looked through all of the evidence for Connie being racist and tbh as a black ndn it all feels incredibly flimsy. It’d be one thing if Connie was using their experiences to derail and invalidate the discussions about how black people are oppressed But they weren’t doing that there at all. This part of the post feels incredibly biased. And like OP is looking for things to be mad about. Going to have to pass on this list of evidence. Also uh I seem to recall that residentevil04 got called out for some questionable behavior as well. “Both me (insepsy, hi) and ezrat have had really weird spikes in activity on our Statcounters, both on the same day. (Saturday, 4/17/21) For both of us, majority of the pages looked at by these visitors have been related to or about Connie, or have been posts that Connie would find "problematic" such as the f slur untagged or something related to "panphobia"/aphobia. I’m sorry but...none of the proof of cyberstalking holds any water. Visiting someone’s blogs and rbing posts to disagree with them is not cyberstalking. Keeping tabs on urls that an abusive person who has harassed are using so you can block them (in this case with kyoshi) and warn your mutuals is not stalking. As a victim of rl stalking it’s...really weird to call this legit stalking at all. Much less claim that you have damning proof of it being stalking when no such evidence exists in the callout. Besides after Connie and nonbinarydave called out one of kyoshi’s buddies for sending a death threat hate anon to nonbinarydave’s toddler st4lker partly admitted to doing it a few times. Then other mutuals in kyoshi’s toxic social circle clearly began joining in. Making side accounts where they tried to spin a false narrative of nonbinarydave’s daughter being one of their alters (ableist as hell.) And also trying to do it in such a way that they thought would trigger nonibnarydave’s psychosis (also ableist as hell.) If you’re going to drag Connie for their mistakes and never let them move on from those mistakes then it’s only fair to do that to people you agree with who also do toxic/bigoted things. ALso the fact that your wording here suggests that you think panphobia and aphobia aren’t real makes me doubt this claim even more. Exclus and their allies are notorious for mislabeling inclus disagreeing with them as stalking. “connie said that they would release that info at a later time and the minor began to argue with them that they had a responsibility regardless of their complicated relationship with age. in this argument connie for a time kept their age ambiguous and at one point told the minor (who confirmed in a later ask that they were severely traumatized by adults) that they obviously weren’t traumatized. connie quickly deleted this ask and any mentions of it and the next post they reblogged was about how wrong it was to try and quantify or discount others’ trauma. on my old blog i @ed them in the replies and asked if they had just done that. connie admitted to it and said it was fucked up but quickly blocked + deleted my comment. i can’t remember whether or not connie apologized to the minor, they may have? but yeah. i thought that was pretty weird.”] I do agree with some of the concern here that adults shouldn’t over expose minors in discourse. I’ve been contemplating this for awhile myself. And trying to figure out how to take better steps to avoid including minors who are triggered by discourse in discourse, especially. HOWEVER I have one little issue with this addition to the callout. If that is the case then exclus and their allies need to practice this as well. You cannot ignore the fact that the reason a lot of minors are getting involved in exclus discourse is due to adult exclus and their allies forcing minors to pick a side in the discourse. Y’all are not at all exempt from this problem. I still remember an ex mutual of mine trying to convince a minor to agree that aces can’t face corrective rape. And based on how aggressive it got with me when I tried to avoid giving an opinion on the matter, I can’t imagine that it would’ve reacted better to the minor refusing to give an opinion or to the minor outright disagreed. Refusing to put these standards on exclus and their allies is both hypocritical and quite frankly very transparent. The claims about them glorifying dark topics on AO3 through their fics also seems unfortunately legit. I mean those asks of shaming people who ask their viewers to not romanticize or glorify abusive relationships in their works is very damning. I’m very disappointed to see that Connie has taken being an inclus to the point of validating antis anti culture wholeheartedly. I can’t think of much more to add to my opinion on that part of the callout. As for the issue of Connie interacting with pro shippers in the past, I do know that this claim is legit. I’ve seen it before and so has Breeze. This was why for a brief time we decided to stop following their blogs. Because it was triggering to have pro shippers put on our dash. And sometimes we just don’t feel it’s worth it to always let people we’re platforming know they’re rbing triggering stuff. So sometimes we just quietly unfollow and choose to not interact until we’re sure they’re filtering what they do and don’t rb in some way. I definitely don’t agree with that behavior. And if they’re still doing that I”ll deplatform again. “The anon asks: “A weird question but do you know any other stimboard blogs with your follow criteria? (No radfems, racists, fandom antis, etc.) I was hoping to find more through your “similar blogs” but a lot have no anti-antis for their DNI or allow truscum/transmeds and exclus. :(“

The user responds: “I know of @turtle-pond-stims, @outofangband, and @kinaesthetics! 🍂🍄" “[ID: A cropped screenshot of an ask sent by Connie from their now-deactivated blog, butch-with-a-tortoise.

Connie says: “hey anon I have safe stim blogs. dm me if you want them. And radfems/bigots aren’t allowed to interact. For my own safety (because the community is honestly terrifying) I can’t publicly say on my blogs that I’m safe for proshippers/kinky people but I try to spread word how I can.”] [ID: Screenshot of a post by evilwriter37, which reads, “I’ve been seeing posts about fandom police leaving ao3, and it’s like: Good. We don’t want you here anyway. Go find your own fanfiction site.”

The post is tagged “#Fandom #AO3 #Antis #Purity Culture” and has 87 notes. It was posted on December 21st, 2020.

There is a reply from main-to-outofangband-andothers saying: “there are Silm antis on that site who are against Russigon (Maedhros and Fingon) not because they’re cousins but because they’re both male (coded)”] [ID: A screenshot of an anonymous (though signed off as being from outofangband) ask sent to evilwriter37, which says, “Melkor and Viggo solidarity is ‘Look there’s nothing wrong with keeping my enemy chained up in my personal chambers at all times so please just focus on the war efforts and I’ll focus on the boy* in my chambers’ -@outofbangand.

*boy used figuratively @ antis”

The user responds: “Pfft!!! Hahaha! You’re absolutely right! (And Viggo does refer to Hiccup in canon as ‘my boy’).”] I can’t really say anything to refute this. Because these are all posts of Connie outright stating that they disagree with antis. And not only sympathize with anti antis but are fully against antis. Looks like very damning evidence. Although ngl I’m not entirely against kinky blogs as a whole? Just so long as they truly stay in their lane with their kink content. And don’t force it on others in any way. Or shame people who are triggered by their kinks. It is true that being entirely against kinky blogs no matter what is dipping your toes into swerf rhetoric. Tbh I’m not going to look at the rest. This is pretty much all I need to make a decision on whether or not I”ll continue platforming Connie. Though I will try to get some more  perspective from people who I interact with as well. Because I feel better about making a more definitive decision after doing that. Also in general please don’t not try to get an opinion from me on how I feel about syscourse. A lot of the claims about Connie’s age weirdness and them using their alters as a shield feel like syscourse to me. Especially if this callout was written by one or several singlets. Singlets should never be trying to judge how legit someone’s system is ever. Even if their system friends encourage them to. You can call out a horrible person with a system without trying to insinuate that they’re lying about their alters in some way. Doing otherwise is ableist ESPECIALLY if you’re a singlet. Also in general the reason I stay out of discussions of judging how someone is handling their systems is because it’s syscourse and syscourse is triggering for my system and I. If this post was an attempt to get me to give an opinion  on the validity of Connie’s system I don’t appreciate it. And I would appreciate not being dragged into such matters again, thank you.

In general there’s like a few parts of this callout that feel legit. Which is unfortunately cluttered with obvious bias and obsessive hatred of Connie. I’m not here to stan or coddle Connie. I know they are not a perfect person. Especially since no human being in the world is perfect. But I feel the way this callout was created was very sloppy since a lot of the evidence was messy at best. And some points were very hypocritical as well as there being some no true scotsman moments from OP. In acting like exclus never do any of the thing that they tried to call out Connie for. Which is behavior that I am not a fan of. This is why people need to be more careful about callouts and like make roughdrafts and have a more unbiased person helping them if they don’t feel they can do it on their own. I’m even trying to make a resolve to do better at that myself. So it’s not like I’m unwilling to put my money where my mouth is. Anyways those are all my thoughts on this messy callout. And tbh I’m not going to get too much more heavily involved in this. Because I need to focus on more immediately serious rl stuff more often, like doing what I can to get out of the hellish landscape of a house I currently am stuck in.

[comicsandslushies]

So uh heres a link to the summery post if anyone else sees this and was also a fan of Thedarkid's lets plays

Never really believed anything the guy said about his personal life (except for the daughter thing cause who the fuck lies about that???) but really enjoyed his lps back in the day and sometimes go back to read them.

What the actual fuck

reading the article about Jake Adelstein and, wow this guy really loves lying

[pinksthetics]

Flag anon back, that might be true about problems between bisexuals and pansexuals (and I know that’s not limited to non binary people, but also binary trans people based on what my bi friends tell me and what my trans friends have been told), but that’s not stated at all in the post? And OP was very clear that they could make a post specific to bi issues in the notes, but this still happened anyway. To me this felt like a real “all lives matter” moment and if I was good at image editing I’d be slapping that prison stripe straight pride flag onto this because I basically get the same thing out of either. Feels like an issue important to me brought up on a post about people like me is now about infighting within the “B” umbrella without even saying the word pansexual? I’m sorry it’s just frustrating because I know this week someone will be telling me that I can’t be a lesbian if I’m attracted to non binary people, but hey did you know that bisexuality means you can pick two genders (that’s where the bi comes from!) and you can pick non binary and women! That is the plot to literal conversations that I have had with people. Totally fair that pansexuals don’t have a claim to non binary people, but OP was telling people in the notes to stop making it about bi people - bisexuals weren’t excluded to be mean, they were excluded because people tend to be far more close minded about “homosexuals” and who they can be attracted to. Again I’m sorry, I’m just tired of having my identity policed and I’m frustrated and partly taking it out on you. People keep telling me and my trans friends that “bisexuality is the only moral sexuality” and that “the only people who could love a trans person are bisexual” so there’s a lot of real life harmful messaging there 😔

ok putting ur next ask and my response under the read more bc this got rly long 

Flag anon again, okay I think I just needed to kind of yell that out into the empty void that is the internet. Sorry to have made you the victim of that dump, but I guess all of the things have been telling me and my repressed feelings have been swirling around for a while. Just to be clear I fully have nothing against bisexuals as people (the majority of my irl friends are bisexual and are thankfully super nice apart from the odd micro aggressive comment). It just rubbed me the wrong way that I get hateful messaging from some people in the bisexual (not pansexual) community specifically and I felt like the original post might be something that those bisexual people might see and maybe introspect on their attitudes, but with the addition I feel like all of that is lost in them fighting an invisible unnamed enemy. Either way, I guess I have some trauma and this post set me off a bit so I’m sorry again! I just hope people will remember the original point of the post above all else because there are a lot of posts I’ve seen about bisexual and pansexual issues related to non binary people, but there are far less for lesbians and gay men sadly 😔

ok i understand what you’re saying and i see that op doesnt want people to derail the discussion from talking specifically about gay and lesbian people but the original post did say “every sexuality” and i feel like at this point you’re talking about issues beyond just the point of this post. you’re completely valid as a lesbian for being attracted to trans and nonbinary people but it doesnt sit right with me that you have this much frustration towards bi people, whether you realize it or not. 

the addition to the post really did not have any harmful messages as far as i see it, so it seems like your frustration stems from things that other people have said to you. im sorry that people have disrespected and invalidated you. however, the bi community is not “fighting an invisible unnamed enemy.” bi people face just as much invalidation and i recommend you look into that and try to understand it. there really needs to be solidarity between the gay and bi communities because, while we each face our own issues, theres a lot of overlap. 

once again, i completely understand that the original post was specific to gay and lesbian people. its not uncommon for people to add to posts and take away focus from where it should be. if you look in the notes of any posts you’re bound to find some upsetting comments. the important thing is that you have the choice to just reblog the original or even make your own post. 

i really hope you can speak with your friends about how hurtful their comments can be if they are saying things that come off as micro aggressions. and i hope you can find peace in solidarity throughout the lgbt community because honestly its counterproductive to create issues between communities. we all need a space to talk about the problems we face and we should all be supporting each other through it 

[emperorsfoot]

This post is a reply to both @ben-10-setting-omnicrom​ and @abyssmaluser, because I did not want to derail their original post with a tangent. But, I still have responses I want to give on comments they made. 

This post is in response to this remark:

(( If you would like to see the comment in context, please click the link provided in the above paragraph. )) 

The part I specifically take issue with is the “she’ll never take Ben’s spot as Hero of Heroes (for obvious reason)”. First of all, the “obvious reasons” part was not necessary, otherwise why would it be put it in parentheses. Secondly, OP, no the reasons were not obvious, otherwise I would not have felt the need to ask for them. 

(( Which I did in the Replies section, BTW. Because I did not want to derail the thread. ))

And I got an answer from another user:

This user was not OP of the thread, but OP DM’d me later and basically stood by what @abyssmaluser said. 

So, okay, lets open up a discussion about these “obvious reasons”. 

1.) He’s got an absurd amount of recognition. Ben became universally famous at the age of 15 when he defeated the Highbreed, and famous world wide on Earth a little bit after than when Jimmy Jones leaked his identity to the media. He’s got hype. He’s an intergalactic celebrity. 

But that’s the thing, he’s a celebrity! He’s like the Taylor Swift of face. Only instead of singing, he gets himself involved in other planets’ problems. Yes, his name is well known and most of it is positive, but fame does not make one a good hero. And we have seen multiple times through out the series (from the OS, through AF/UA, all the way to Omniverse) that sometimes his attempts at heroism leave a place worse off than it was before. 

Ben is more hype than substance. 

Gwen, on the other hand is more substance than hype. She does not seek out fame and attention like Ben does. She helps people, and aliens, and things because she is genuinely a good person and wants to help. She does her research and looks into an issue before jumping headlong into the thick of the conflict. She is diplomatic. 

Ben is not diplomatic. 

2.) Ben has inspired other people to become heroes themselves. 

Canonically, this is true. 

We have met multiple characters that have heard of Ben and were inspired to become Plumbers or other versions of heroes and protect their people/loved ones/planet etc. in their own ways. 

We also see several of these characters, when meeting Ben face to face for the first time, realize “this is not the hero I thought he’s be”. 

Ben is an inspiration to others, there is not denying that. But being an inspiration in and of itself does not make one a “Hero of Heroes”. 

Gwen, Kevin, and Rook have all also inspired others. It is not something unique to only Ben. 

3.) “...has multiple species that I wouldn't be surprised if they worshipped him (the Petrosapiens and Highbreed).”

Technically, this one is just a sub-category of “being famous”, but I’ll give it to you anyway. 

It is 100% probable that the Highbreed started a religion around Ben. He did re-write the DNA of their entire species. He literally re-made them. Ben is their creator. It only makes sense he would be their god. Ben has also remade the whole universe, at least twice! Possibly more, I don’t remember. That would make Ben an actual god. 

But that actually makes him more dangerous, not heroic. Every season there have been multiple episodes of Ben misusing the power of the Omnitrix for his own personal gain, or even just entertainment because he was board. Ben has had to learn multiple times, across multiple age ranges that ultimate power is not a toy and should be handled responsibly. This is a lesson he had to learn when he was 10, again when he was 15, and yet again when he was 16. Because the lesson did not stick. We never got a Ben 10,000 show, but there is no doubt in my mind that if we had, there would have been another ‘ultimate power is not a toy’ episode when he would be 40! 

I’m sorry, but a man who has to keep re-learning the same crucially important lesson at every significant age of his life is not any more deserving of being “Hero of Heroes” than a woman who has applied to time to studying, thinks critically, is patient with others, does not jump to conclusions or rush into fights, and it just as powerful and capable as Ben. 

In conclusion-

Your reasons were not “obvious”. In the future, just say you like Ben better and you don’t WANT Gwen to take his title. Instead of going at it with this passive aggressive bullshit (for obvious reasons). 

(( As an aside, I would also like to add that OP was the one who brought up Gwen taking Ben’s title of “Hero of Heroes”. I gave Gwen her own title separate from Ben’s. 

If OP felt their  favorite was threatened by that, then maybe just say you hate women and move on. ))

[teeny-tiny-revenge]

I think Izzy's behaviour in that way is meant to be funny, but is for some reason overlooked because people take him seriously. But guys, it's a comedy. It blends so many genres it's sometimes a bit dizzying, but one of the comedy genres OFMD includes is a sort of workplace comedy? It's where Stede's "people positive management style" comes in, too. In a show about pirates. It's funny! It's meant to be funny! (It's also earnest, because treating people well will give you better results, but, you know, there's layers there.)

And Izzy? In the workplace comedy part, Izzy is the middle manager who thinks he's the boss. And that's funny! If you look at it through this lens, it's funny!

Izzy is Ed's First Mate. And on a smallish crew like we see on those pirate ships in the show, the First Mate is absolutely a middle manager.

Ed, as the Captain, makes the upper level management decisions, stuff like where the ship is going, whether or not to start a raid, where to sell off the loot they got, stuff like that.

Izzy's job as First Mate is to carry out Ed's orders and to delegate the work among the crew. The captain of a ship doesn't go around telling individual crew members which little tasks they should be doing. He's got a first mate for that. So technically it is Izzy's job to tell the crew what to do, he's just completely inefficient and an asshole about doing it, and - I think that's the fun part here - he complains about it! When he whines to Ed that he constantly has to manage his crew for him? Izzy, mate, that's your fucking job!

Izzy is the middle manager who isn't only a dick to his subordinates, but who complains about having to do his own work, and who doesn't even do it properly, too!

Outside of delegating tasks with the crew, he's supposed to carry out Ed's orders. And Ed's orders are, for example, "invite this guy to a meeting". That's not even a difficult task! But Izzy doesn't want to do it, he thinks Stede sucks and is a waste of his (and Ed's) time, so he ignores a direct order from his captain, and then lies to him about it when Ed asks if Stede understood who he was. Izzy holds up the "I'm so loyal to my captain!" flag along with the "I'm the only one doing my job right on this ship" flag, but none of that is true.

Lucius isn't lazy for not clearing the barnacles off the ship, he's Stede's scribe, that's not in his job description. Izzy knows what a scribe is, but he wants to demonstrate office dominance because he's a step above Lucius on the corporate pirate ship ladder. Izzy just likes to boss people around, and that's an arrangement that has so far worked out quite well because Ed doesn't seem to hold much interest in doing it. There are a few moments in the show where we see that he can very well command a crew, effortlessly, too, but Ed isn't interested in the everyday little tasks on the ship, which, fair, he's got a guy whose job that is. And that man is Izzy. Izzy who complains about having to do half of what his job is about and plainly ignores the "carry out the captain's orders" part when it doesn't suit him.

Yes, Izzy is also an antagonist in the romance part and the Ed growing as a character part of the plot, but I really think that his angry middle manager role is meant to be at least a little bit funny. A lot of us have worked with an Izzy type middle manager at some point, the guy who's been given a slightly higher position and who takes himself way too seriously and who takes it out on everyone else on the job. Izzy is a perfect caricature of that guy, and we see him flounder and fail with it. Lucius doesn't let him push him down, he tells him right to his face that Izzy isn't his boss. The ship seems to run just fine after Izzy leaves, Ed's "moods and whims" aren't a problem, absolutely nothing bad happens for lack of Izzy's management, it's his interference via Jack and the Navy that causes trouble.

Izzy as an antagonist is a narrative tool, but Izzy the middle manager who takes himself too seriously is a piece of comedy, and overlooking that does both the writing and Con's performance a disservice.

“izzy is dedicated and hardworking and hates when people are lazy slackers” is such a funny interpretation to me bc when have we ever seen izzy work hard at anything aside from trying to tell other people what to do

[connorssock]

For @danae-b who helped put the plot into the idea.

Love Is Not A Victory March

Growing up, Gavin was always in the shadow of his little brother, the genius, the one who would go places. Just because he wasn’t so academic, it didn’t mean he was a waste of space, if only his parents could see it that way too. But because he didn’t spend the evenings poring over books and electronics, he was deemed lesser, his hours of practice and training as a gymnast meant nothing to them.

For his 18th birthday, Gavin was given a backpack and shown the door. Elijah needed more room in the house to work on his androids and Gavin’s room was the only available space. So Gavin was kicked out, it didn’t matter what he wanted, his dreams of being at the next Olympics came crashing down. There was nowhere for him to go and after a few cold night spent under bridges and being solicited for all manner of things, Gavin signed up for the army.

As with most things he set his mind to, he was good at it. Ended up being a sniper on a special ops team. He had no regrets, though he did pick up a few bad habits. Smoking, a wicked temper and a knack for acting before thinking when he didn’t have a rifle in his hands. After ten years though, he bowed out, he wasn’t getting any younger and he had no desire to become a fatcat behind a table while playing with people’s lives.

Surprisingly enough, the DPD took him on as an officer and from there it was a matter of getting shit done to become a detective. If he kept on track, he’d be allowed to sit the Sergeant’s exam in a year or two.

Of course, like all plans, his was derailed by the android revolution. They were suddenly recognised as sentient beings who had rights and choices like everybody else. So in a way it made sense that they got to choose their careers and everything else too. Which was how Gavin was summoned into Fowler’s office and introduced to his new partner.

Although a deviant, RK900 acted nothing like a creation with freewill. He was stiff, formal and precised. Oddly enough, Gavin appreciated that. It wasn’t common knowledge that Gavin was ex-army, Fowler knew but not the division Gavin had served in or what his speciality was.

Perhaps it was fate’s way of being funny when it came to light that RK900 had been built to military specifications, unlike his predecessor. It made Gavin take stock of him and reassess his initial impressions. Something told him Fowler already knew and was silently patting him on the back for matching up the two outcasts of the DPD who just so happened to have a common history.

“You already knew I was in the army?” Gavin asked.

“It was in your file,” RK900 replied evenly.

“Bullshit. It’s not in the public file. You hacked my records?”

“I didn’t hack anything. Merely teased open a box that was tied up with string as strong as candyfloss. Your record is quite impressive, even to an android.”

That at least had Gavin barking out a laugh.

“You’re alright, even for an android.”

Somehow, knowing that RK900 knew of his past made it easier. They never mentioned it, never spoke about it but there was a quiet trust that evolved between them. Even others in the bullpen noted how Gavin was more prone to gently ribbing his partner with ridiculous nicknames rather than have a go at him. The name “Nines” even stuck and suddenly, RK900 was part of the team.

Given their line of work, it wasn’t all the unusual for things to go a little tits up. Most of the drug traffickers they’d been after were already cuffed and on the ground but one was still missing. They should have expected him to go dashing away from them, quickly disappearing down an alley. Connor was off after him like a shot but it was android against android. With upgrades freely available, Connor was not longer top of the line and he wasn’t catching up quick enough.

“Give me that,” Gavin growled and swiped a rifle from one of the snipers who had returned from her post. He shouldered it and the familiar calm settled through him as everything but the target ceased to exist. One breath, sight. Two breath, aim.

“Connor DOWN!” he roared on his third breath.

Obediently, Connor dropped and on his next breath Gavin fired. Thirium splattered the walls and the criminal went down. Silence reigned as people stared and fear and awe at Gavin.

“A bit rusty,” Nines piped up from the back of the crowd. He’d been one of the few unlucky to come to blows in the raid, took a few hard knocks but seemed to have bounced back from it.

“Says the dented tin can.”

Connor had grabbed the perp in the meantime and was dragging him back alone until everybody got their wits about them. Gavin slapped Nines on the arm, grinned and left him to it.

The problem with being an android was that admitting to not being perfect was difficult. It was made even worse when the mentality of “keep going” was gouged into coding to such a level that it was borderline painful to go against it. Nines sighed as he woke from stasis, his power levels were insufficient still.

Since the altercation with the drug gang, he’d been out of sorts. A lucky hit had landed on the back of his neck and it must have knocked something out of alignment. For the last four nights, he’d tried to charge but to no avail. To miss another night where he was away from Gavin’s warm embrace had his stress levels ratcheting up even more. There were only so many excuses he could use to avoid going home.

“Morning dipshit,” Gavin grinned at him from across his terminal. Nines smiled.

“What, no kiss?”

It had become something of a habit almost. Stolen kisses when nobody else was around to see. The days Nines didn’t go home with Gavin, invariably the man turned up early to work and dragged him somewhere secluded for a kiss. Weighing up his options, Nines shook his head.

“It’s a busier than average day. The risk is too great.” What he didn’t say was that his power reserves were dangerously low. Excessive movement would only drain him quicker. Even as things stood, he’d shut down all non-essential functions, performed the minimal amount of processing and worked on a single task at a time. He missed Gavin’s look of disappointment.

The day wore on and Nines was conscious of the fact that he was slow. Not even by his or android standards but by human ones.

“Wakey wakey!” Gavin kicked him under the desk. “If you’re going to be slacking off then at least be subtle about it. I’m having to do all the hard work here today.”

“Sorry Gavin,” Nines murmured and dragged his attention back to his task.

He didn’t expect a mug to land by his elbow and a waft of warm thirium hit his sensors.

“Maybe a bit of pick me up will get you back into the swing of things. Considering your lazy ass hasn’t been out of your chair all day,” Gavin stood by his elbow and sipped from his own mug of coffee.

Usually, Nines would have laughed it all off, appreciated the gesture and probably would have pressed a quick kiss to Gavin’s cheek. But he wasn’t operating at his usual levels, he was tired, his power reserves were close to empty and Gavin was chiding him for trying to reserve them. The illogical selfishness of it all made something in him snap.

Nines shoved out of his chair and loomed over Gavin. He grabbed the lapels of his jacket and shook him once with a sneer. Coffee splashed on his shoes and the shards of the dropped mug clattered in the sudden silence as people watched.

“Look here, Detective,” Nines snarled, “I have had it with your prodding. I am doing my best to fulfil objectives but your inane attempts at flirting and general unprofessional behaviour make it beyond difficult. So it is in your interest to buck up your ideas and be hard at work by the time I return.”

He had no idea where he was going to go but Nines needed an out. Gavin stood rigid when he let him go and Nines took a few steps away from him, intent on heading for the door. Only, warnings flashed across his HUD, he’d run out of power and critical functions were shutting down.

It felt like he was watching it from the outside, the way his step faltered, limbs went limp and crashed gracelessly to the ground. Nines didn’t know whether he was grateful or not to find that at least his optical sensors were still functioning when he was rolled onto his back. He almost wished they didn’t work when Gavin’s panicked face drifted into view and a hand patted his cheek. Nines could blink and move his eyes around but nothing more.

“We’ll get you home, get you fixed,” he could read Gavin’s lips saying. They were nice lips. And his thoughts were everywhere if that’s all he could think about.

The world shifted and his vision was suddenly the crook of a neck that was intimately familiar. Their trip back to Gavin’s home was a blur as Nines drifted from thought to thought but they always circled back to Gavin. His love, his dedication, his loyalty. All things that Nines admired about it. He’d never met anyone who cared as deeply as Gavin but fought so hard to show nothing of it.

He felt the charger plug into the port at the back of his neck but nothing happened. From where he lay, Nines had perfect view of Gavin realising things weren’t right, fiddling with things and trying again. Each new attempt deepened his frown and Nines was powerless to reassure him.

The last vestiges of his reserves were slipping away, shut down was imminent and Nines watched Gavin grab his phone. It was impossible to read his lips as he turned away, but his shoulders were hunched, whole body tight with pent up fear. Whatever conversation he’d had didn’t go according to plan judging by the way he threw his phone onto the nearest surface before sitting on the bed next to Nines.

He lifted Nines’ head, pulled him into his lap for comfort Nines didn’t need or feel. Fingers carded through his hair and Nines knew that Gavin was speaking. But he couldn’t spare the processing power to figure out what he said. Eventually, Nines closed his eyes, vaguely aware when he was moved and then more than one set of hands was ghosting over him.

Booting up was never a fun experience, Nines’s cheek twitched as he worked out the kinks in his coding to bring everything back online. The first thing he saw was another android who smiled at him with warmth.

“You gave us quite a scare there, Nines,” she smiled.

It would have been prudent to make conversation with her but she was shouldered out of the way by Gavin who stood toe to toe against him and peered up at Nines in the maintenance rig.

“You do that again and I’m going to rip your wires out to floss the gap between your ears.”

As far as threats went, it was quite a different to usual one. Nines tried to wriggle free of the rig but hands on his waist stopped him.

“You’re not getting out of there until I am satisfied you’re not going to shut down on me again.”

“Let him get to full charge and then you can bully him some more, but let the guy be for now,” a third voice joined in.

Peering over Gavin’s shoulder, Nines was a little taken aback at seeing Elijah Kamski. Though, truth be told, Nines should have expected it. He hadn’t been lying when he told Gavin he’d hacked his files, he knew everything about the man, including his family’s identity. Plus the few videos that still lingered from Gavin’s younger days when he competed in gymnastics. But that was a thought for another day.

Huffing, Gavin looked around and his eyes alighted on a plastic crate, no doubt used to haul the maintenance rig into their living room. He grabbed it and put it formly on the ground in front of Nines before standing on it triumphantly. They were eye level and their noses almost touched.

“Next time you’re injured, you let me know immediately, is that clear?” His tone carried vestiges of barked orders in the army and Nines could appreciate that.

“Crystal,” he replied.

“Good. Because I refuse to lose you.”

Gavin leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips, making Nines wish his hands were free to hold him.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

I was wondering Thoughts on Sakamoto and Kitagawa?

Under the cut cause it got a bit long

Ryuji: Really good in the first dungeon and CoOp. A bit of a loudmouth but has great values imo (kinda gets screwed in his CoOp, why is the MC letting him get beat up???? Why do his stupid teammates still feel the need to beat him up???Like what the hell????).

After that.....I get really sour (also I hate his anime adaptation, really fudged up his characterization in the 1st dungeon, he is NOT lecherous towards Anne or any girl during that dungeon, in fact he is downright HORRIFIED of everything in that dungeon). I really love his dedication to the MC (like as a friend he’s just such a great bro), but...well....I like how he was willing to almost get hit by a car to save Makoto (he was annoyed but considering the stupid stuff she was doing it was understandable).....and I’d say I liked how he was willing to help Anne with her “stalker” problem but....he just seemed like he almost didn’t want to be bothered in that scene despite her fears (and knowing what she just went through).....his carefree attitude in that scene left a bad taste in my mouth, esp when he even questions her after looking at Yusuke (who cares what he looks like, he’s been following her for like what? a week? of course only the MC knows this if you talk to her but like she has every right to be worried and he just is so ‘whatever’ with the situation, like he still has her back but his attitude felt like such a 180 slap in the fact just following the first dungeon, and nothing Anne did warranted that annoyance). 

He gets screwed by the writing a lot, like he’s the butt of a joke he doesn’t deserve, or gets beat up for no reason and that’s just.....bad. But he also does some not so great things with the girls, which makes it extra worse considering this is post-dungeon 1..... I like the guy but....I really do question some of Atlus’ writing with him. ;w; Ryuji’s writing deserved better

Yusuke: I hate him. Probably my 3rd most hated (Goro’s right behind him), probably cause, unlike Goro, Yusuke provides absolutely nothing with his skill. Plus I hate his super blunt attitude, just cause “he’s just blunt” doesn’t mean he can be an asshole. I especially hate it when he uses it with his friends. But back to Yusuke being useless (and tbh I actually kinda feel bad Atlus just....forgot about him it feels like). He’s one of the worst tiers in terms of gameplay (he might be better than Goro), and I mean not endgame gameplay (cause by that point everyone is OP and a team structure shouldn’t matter). He’s out damaged by Anne and Ryuji (or even Haru), he has no buff for Ice, Ice isn’t as common as Frei/Fire/Thunder, just cause he has a strength stat doesn’t cover Ryu’s power charge+swift strike/bad beat/other abilities (this is stuff that’s been tested by the gameplay meta scene I’m just the messenger). His agility boost isn’t nearly as good as a defense/attack boost or defense/attack debuff (because att/def is ALWAYS 50% increase/decrease, while the agility it’s only a 50% CHANCE of helping with crits....so it’s not even guaranteed). Plus Mona is a better crit player than Yusuke and he also has healing. Anne/Makoto synergize well with Makoto’s defense buff and Anne’s attack debuff, and Anne/Ryuji(or Haru) just deal more damage. 

That’s just gameplay, what about Yusuke’s actually artist skills? How does that help the PT (I know skill cards, but that’s gameplay, I mean story, and it’s not like they couldn’t do something else with the skill cards I mean P3P/4G didn’t have an artist and they did just fine)? That’s right, it doesn’t. The only time it helps is that one specific puzzle with telling which is the real Sayuri, which is just process of elimination and you have to fight if you get it wrong so it doesn’t matter. He did the thief logo? Well thanks I hate it, sure it’s stylish but Ryuji’s matched better with the cheesy PT genre more (and gdi what do you hate what makes the PT genre good Atlus? ;w; Ryuji’s logo is really the only thing PT in this game I swear). But despite how I feel about the design, it doesn’t do anything useful. Oh but the Shido ship thing right? His big moment? Yeah no still doesn’t do anything, actually he opens his big fat dumb mouth and says another assholery thing, and they get mad at us and fight iirc. His art didn’t stop us from having to fight the mini boss, he just prolonged us getting to that fight (actually on Anne and Haru got their letters from their mini bosses without having to fight them, I mean we were still forced to fight cause P5 sucks like that, but they are the only ones on the team who got their letters using their special skills aka femme fatal and business relations/financial back person (even tho she didn’t back them financially missed opportunity) whatever thing. basically that ‘shining moment’ of his isn’t so shining when he couldn’t even avoid a fight....and there’s really no reason to fight them....it leaves no impact! sorry I have an issue with that part of the dungeon).

I know some people will say he’s (one of) the “level headed” character of the group, but it wasn’t like Anne or Ryuji were going off the rails..... esp in dungeon 2 (I mean I do love how all of them worked together), and it’s not like Mona isn’t there. Tbh I think he could’ve been, I think if Makoto never came along he could’ve been that character, and I think he did a much better job esp since we actually were all utilizing our teammates in dungeon 2. But in the end that didn’t happen....and thus he doesn’t really provide that to the table. 

I also don’t like how he blackmailed the team. Well no, mostly the contents of his blackmail (btw I dislike all the characters who blackmailed the team inb4 someone says “what about” yes yes I dislike them too ok?) Like listen. MC/Ryu were not trespassing until he revoked his invitation to them (aka after he said to never come back there again and Ryuji said “nah we’re coming back” and Yusuke was about to call the police....Yusuke has every right under the law, at THAT moment those two boys were trespassing). The SECOND (ironically it look almost a second for him to switch too) he said he wouldn’t do it as long as Anne nude modeled for him....that’s when it blackmail/extortion and he lost the high ground (and while it led to the funniest scene in the game, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that Atlus has him 1) stalk Anne and then 2) rope her into his blackmail to get her to nude model for him after the events of dungeon 1). And I know, “Yusuke didn’t know about their record” blah blah, who cares? No one wants the police called on them to begin with. (sorry just a weird counter argument I’ve seen and that annoys me)

I also hate his CoOp, I know what they were going for at the end but like....he had the perfect deal.... “I don’t want to have my work be tainted by money but I need money to live.” and then the deal is like “we’ll give you money regardless, we just want you to live so you can make art but really no pressure it’s all in good faith” and it’s like/????? so perfect???? And he says no????? The boy is gonna starve to death I’m not joking (also I really hate those jokes, more than the Protein and meat ones from P3/4....they are worse imo). I also just don’t care about his relationship with Madarame, it might be because I blame Yusuke for derailing Madarame as a villain. I found Madarame more interesting when it was just about his ideology and exploiting people, but as soon as he was like “I let your mom die Yusuke” it felt like it became all about that and....yeah....

And ok, I know I just shit all over Yusuke for like 5 paragraphs (btw this is just my opinion/personal thoughts on the guy, I’m not the word of god and you can still like him, I’m just being honest with how I feel), but tbh...the game did him dirty too. Gameplay wise, screentime wise. Just everything. I’m sorry Yusuke fans the game did you and your boy dirty. Yusuke deserved better. 

[funnysnake2019]

@abhumanaex0 said:

(also op I think I derailed your post, I'm sorry... @funnysnake2019 we can perhaps take this conversation elsewhere if you wish?)

You coming onto me?

I'm not...entirely sure what you mean by

“The possible mistake of using analytic methods in a clearly phenomenological discussion”

I'm being abstruse about how analysing your feelings using mathematical langauge is a mistake because they're not meant to be described in that way, in my humble opinion.

But from my guess, yes, I was trying to figure how this might come about or why it would make sense (both conceptually and, like, developmentally/evolutionary), and acknowledge that I do not know the process, which is probably what was actually sought.

So I did mean more like, "brains came up with this feature of rewarding the fact of following the strategy" rather than "you, personally, decided to induce desires". That said, I believe it is possible, and I have previously done so.

Overall, I’m pretty sure it’s just referring to the lack of motivation for things, rather than simply having them as ends. Saying it’s a desire for the motivation to bring about your ends is the right way to look at it, maybe.

I've assumed you're mapping "being motivated towards X" to "wanting X more"?

I'm not sure how this is different from "having this desire is strategically useful to getting more of your wants met overall, and is therefore itself desirable" which is the tl;dr of what I said*.

It's just a difference in language, like fluxion v. derivative. That said, when you use the word 'strategy' you have to import the notion of strategy. In this case it doesn't matter much, because you already have an agent that has 'higher order' desires, because it can want to want.

Wanting to want X because of X doesn't make much sense though. So why do you want to be motivated towards X?

I disagree with the first sentence, but it might be a language problem. I think it makes sense to want to do (at least one of) the steps required to bring about the end you seek. But the more I think about it, the more sense it makes to consider this "strategically" useful more than anything else. This is where the analytical style becomes a bit problematic, though. The simple fact that some end X is desired implies nothing directly about the steps required to bring X about. The fact that I desire an apple implies nothing about me needing to buy them, which itself says nothing about putting on my coat, grabbing my keys, etc.

That might be a little abstruse, still, but the idea of 'motivation' is difficult to define as anything other than a higher-order desire. Simply put, a motivation might be the desire for any intermediate point in between where I am and the end I desire (this assumes a certain 'geometric' view of goal-seeking behaviour, which I think is not wholly unreasonable).

That means we can unify our views thus: "wanting to want (to do) something" is an expression of the strategic value of desiring intermediate ends.

Anyway, I'm curious how this version of motivation would work if you don't believe desires can be manipulated? Or can you change degree, it's just that starting at 0 is a problem?

It's not that I don't believe they can be manipulated, I just have a tough time wrapping my head around the notion of 'going outside yourself' to induce motivation in yourself. There's always a part of me that believes this is only possible if the prerequisites are met, and not something that can come about through sheer force of 'will'.

(I admit I did overcomplicate things a bit by reading stuff into "wanting to want things" that isn't there.)

That's the fun part!

[miseriathome]

I feel bad for inadvertently using the OP of the last post as a platform, so I’m making a new post to comment on this subject. [Previous chain]

@clickclick4

i really like this “you as an individual are not morally bad for your power-wielding identity, and here’s how you can wield it to help others” idea, that’s important.

I do have one question about that concept, though, related to the “white savior” thing. I know that as a white person, it’s important to use my white privilege to combat racism wherever i see it, but I’m currently having trouble looking at both of these ideas at the same time, which to me suggests cognitive dissonance. My question is basically, how do I use my privilege to help others without doing the bad stuff that a white savior does? (sorry for the clumsy phrasing here, im gonna start another paragraph to clarify what i mean by white savior stuff)

From what I understand, the white savior thing is when white people decide that nonwhite people need to be saved from themselves, or interfere in their intercommunity conflicts, and then put themselves on a pedestal as their morally superior savior. and it’s bad for obvious reasons, and also because it involves the white person glorifying their own culture & community despite its flaws and structures of oppression (a phrase i just made up, so please ignore any connotations it might already have, cus i dont know them) in favor of imposing its flawed and oppressive values on a society with its own different flaws and oppression structures. (that mayve been a sentence fragment? but please bear with me) basically the white society points at nonwhiteness as the reason for the nonwhite society’s flaws and structures of oppression, instead of recognising that it’s because of the way humans are. like a sorta people-who-live-in-glass-houses thing.

i do sorta see how it’s different, but im still not sure how to keep from putting myself on a morally superior pedestal when i wield my power to help others. basically im having trouble figuring out what method of thinking i should use to look at it. i dunno.

im gonna go ahead and tag you, but please dont feel obligated to read through all this and do the emotional labour of answering if it’s not something you personally want to do.  @miseriathome

Sorry for the late reply--this has been sitting in my drafts for a few days.

Identity has no inherent moral value, but actions do.

A post about allyship is on my to-do list, but it is sort of difficult to draw lines with regards to where an ally should stop before stepping over their bounds. Obviously the idea of the people who are conditionally accepted to engage with Western society (ie PoC) being the root of Western’s society’s flaws is racist and just generally terrible.

I would say that people with social power have to break down what they are trying to accomplish when they “help” other groups. Boosting voices and engaging with others’ stories to better understand their experiences is good. Seeking to “fix” problems one doesn’t share is bad. So no “this could be better if you did X” but yes “I’m going to commit myself to education and I’m going to deflect a much harmful stuff as I can from the vulnerable class.”

With regards to that last bit, what I mean is that if somebody asks for a definition of a simple term in the context of a complicated and nuanced discussion, you can do some light education so that the actual speakers don’t have to derail to constantly respond to the outsiders looking in on them if their ultimate goal is intra- or intercommunal conversation. Likewise, if a point has been reiterated multiple times, it’s up to allies to boost it in the face of nay-sayers who would otherwise sap activists’ spoons with constant slander and negativity. As a real-world example, white activists at protests should shield black protesters from the police, but make no moves to speak to journalists on their behalf. But even individuals in the same activist group will have different opinions about how far is too far--especially if you’re boosting one side of a very split conversation. So at a certain point, you should be ready for criticism no matter what--just be receptive. The essential question that allies should always ask themselves is “where am I coming from when I engage?”

I hope that helps. I tried to keep it on the short side because I didn’t want to get too far into a rabbit hole of social commentary over advice.