#people are gullible

[saturnplaza]

Sometimes when I'm super bored I'll go onto the internet and convince random strangers that I'm apart of My Chemical Romance. It has worked -- so yeah some people out there believe I'm the drummer for My Chem.

[egophiliac]

LET THE BOY HAVE AN EDUCATION

officially at the point where we're starting to see where it's all headed and I am just going NYEEHEEHEE in delight at it all. ahhh...next week can't come soon enough...

[redvelvetwishtree]

[sanguine-pigeon]

saying it's "anti-arab racism" to call out gofundme scams is like saying it's antiblack to be skeptical of emails from the prince of nigeria asking you to wire money so you can collect vast fortunes.

[butchmartyr]

it’s fascinating how trans women on here are tokenized to signal people’s comraderie with trans (terfs dni in bio/trans women are loved here), while at the same time we’re also harshly ejected from communities and painted as predators for piecemeal grievances that are handwaved away when done by non trans women. you can say all kinds of nasty stuff about someone, and as long as she’s a trans woman, people will believe it! people love the ideal of a trans woman but haven’t worked on their biases enough to do anything but grow to despise actual trans women

[genericpuff]

What a lot of people don't understand about navigating the "real world" as a neurodivergent person is that we were told all the rules of society growing up that we naturally followed, only to find out later just how often neurotypical people are either breaking those rules or operating off completely unwritten ones to get themselves ahead and that somehow ND's are the "dumbasses" for not realizing that these unwritten rules and rule-breaking is the "norm" despite that norm going against all the rules and values that were drilled into us from birth that we were expected and predisposed to follow.

[tippenfunkaport]

That viral post that's going around about how people who write "book quality" mlm fic are too "normal" to publish and have real jobs so only "weird" people publish their "shitty" fanfic is so completely out of touch with reality and I am giving a massive side eye to everyone reblogging it.

Not only is it completely, easily verifiably untrue (you cannot enter any professional writing space without tripping over a dozen grizzled scifi writers who got their start by filing off the serial numbers and publishing their Star Trek fanfic even going back decades ago??? it's a whole thing?? plus how can you look at the mlm category on Amazon right now and say with a straight face that people aren't publishing shitty Spirk and Stucky fanfic??? Oh, honey...) it's also the perfect example of this kind of sneering elitism that true artists would never sully themselves by seeking profit, they do it only for the purity of the thing that always somehow leads back to, "no one should be paid to make art, actually."

The only reason you're seeing more published fanfic right now has nothing to do with the idealistic purity of your hypothetical government employee written smut of the past vs the debased scribbles of those awful straights of today and everything to do with the fact that a) self-publishing has created a voracious readership that wants a ton of content so it's become a viable, flexible income stream for many, especially disabled people b) anyone can publish now with self-publishing tools so there are less gatekeepers and c) lockdown got a lot of people into fandom and therefore writing who never tried it before.

And if you really think there's no "shitty" published mlm and no "book-quality" m/f writing out there that started as fanfic, then you are clearly not a reader so why are you even talking about this?

[silvermoon424]

I'm convinced I have the worst vibes detector of all time. I used to be a fan of Creepshow Art, iilluminaughtii, and James Somerton- all high-profile creators who got their careers tanked because they're bad people. Given the absolutely huge number of creators I subscribe to it's not surprising that this has happened multiple times, but still.

Then again, when I expressed this sentiment in the past and kicked myself for not being more aware of the red flags, someone told me that means I just want to see the good in people and am more willing to forgive faults than others are. I think that's spot-on tbh; I'm a very naive and forgiving person, which has often been taken advantage of. But it's just my nature, I can't help it.

This will inevitably happen to me again, but I'd rather not beat myself up over not constantly being attuned to every red flag people give off.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Thoughts about the supposed direction Rhaena's storyline is going in Hotd and the apparent Nettles erasure? Disappointing but... I can sort of see where they could take it? Idk... looking at grrm's posts in hindsight kinda makes me even more disappointed if he is as well (he just can't get his adaptations right atp but idk)

Well. Pre-ep7, we're still pending any Rhaena-Sheepstealer bonding, but I'm basically 😑🫠 about the rumors. (I dislike borrowing trouble, I'm not even sure how many of the rumors are true -- actually I'm pretty sure many of these supposed "leaks" are straight up lies -- and yet. Still *disgruntled meh* and *"we're all fine-everyone's fine here" dread*.) Rhaena is one of my more beloved F&B characters (it's the Sansa parallels, I can't help myself), and Nettles has been a super fave since TPATQ and TWOIAF. (Particularly TWOIAF, since the Burned Men fire-witch reveal; heck, I think my little dollmaker is still one of the few fanarts of Nettles in the mountains.)

I mean, sure, I understand that Rhaena's book storyline during the Dance, where she's offpage from basically the start of the war until nearly the end of it, socializing in the Vale and waiting for her egg to hatch, would be difficult to adapt in an action-oriented visuals-oriented television show. (Like Rhaenyra this season sure isn't just catatonically crying from Luke's death until Jace's.) And I'm glad Rhaena's getting more to do, and I'm glad it's directly addressing her feeling slighted and ignored by her family since she doesn't have a dragon. However...

I do not want Rhaena merged into one character with Nettles! I do not want Rhaena to have Sheepstealer and not her hope-for-the-future (doomed hope, and yet) baby dragon Morning, that hatched for her. Also note how pink Morning, worn as a fashion accessory, so suited Rhaena's coquette personality vs her sporty, adventurous twin sister... I mean, I've said before, I understand adaptations can be different, this still wouldn't make HOTD even close to a "loose adaptation".* But I do not want this adaptation to lose Rhaena's personality that I loved.

Or for that matter, to lose Nettles's character, and her importance to the themes and worldbuilding of ASOIAF. (See also.) And her importance to the plot -- but god knows, they're doing all sorts of things with Daemon and Rhaenyra on this show, toxic romance or what have you, who knows if once Daemon reaches his emotional breakthrough or whatever at Harrenhal this season, if they want to backslide him into a cheating plot in S3 while Daemon is again stuck in a castle for months.** Nevertheless, I'd be deeply disappointed to lose scenes like "as well as her dragon, the girl had taken to riding Daemon", or the last morning in Maidenpool scene... and um, you can't really fit Rhaena in there, or if you did, it would certainly put the lie to the ship denialists' "he just treated her like a father, platonically bathing naked together!" (Also the pretty blatant fake S3 leaks including one where Rhaenyra decides Rhaena has betrayed her... are pretty blatantly fake, sorry.)

And then there would be the frankly racist erasure of the one book black character. "Oh but the show made the Velaryons black, so it's not erasing, it's adding more!" No, sorry. (1) I was and am all for adding more racial diversity to the show and especially to Valyrians, but face it, when you take the book's secondary character Velaryons, two who get killed off early and are portrayed as lesser to the "true" Daemon/Rhaenyra marriage, and make them black, you've already done a lot of hinky damage there. (2) What, it's that hard to write three distinct black girls with very different personalities and one from an incredibly different background? I don't see Addam and Alyn getting merged. I don't see Aemond and Daeron getting merged. I don't see Hugh and Ulf getting merged. But I'm not really one to speak here, for this particular discussion I'd point you to @ride-thedragon and @venusintheblindspots-blog and @chrkrose, among others, they have many many posts on this subject in far greater detail and better argued than mine.

OK, so. I still have hope that Nettles -- even if not cast for this season (sorry y'all, that extra is an extra) -- may appear next season, and all this worry will turn out to be a tempest in a teapot. Per last report from the HOTD panel at SDCC, the rumor of Rhaena and Sheepstealer definitely doesn't happen in ep 7, though, yes, there's one episode after. And if it does happen... I'll be strongly disappointed. Deeply, deeply disappointed, and probably far more suspicious of future adaptational changes. But, for me at least, it's not a dealbreaker like GOT S5 was.*** I won't be happy at all about the storyline, but I would like to think the show will remain high quality re themes and character and all. Time will tell, though. Time will definitely tell.

As for GRRM, when his complaints seem to be "wild dragons shouldn't be in the Vale" and "the heraldry with four legs is wrong", well, I struggle to see that he's that disappointed in the adaptational changes. Believe me, I am well used to reading between the lines re GRRM and adaptations, something like the fact that he's not visiting the HOTD writers' room when he's in the UK is nothing. Catch me if at Worldcon or his Oxford lecture in August, GRRM again says that he could write a whole novel about Nettles, or if actually says something about non-Valyrian dragonriders, ok?

*I was just reading up on The Beast (2023) vs Henry James's “The Beast in the Jungle”. lol HOTD doesn't compare. Don't even think it, man.

**You know, this reminds me of how the Dance in F&B is not paced very well for individual characters, they keep going offscreen for months at a time. From shortly after Rhaenyra's crowning to the Fall of KL, Daemon just sits at Harrenhal and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands. From shortly after the Fall of KL until the Battle Above the Gods Eye, Daemon just... sits at Maidenpool and occasionally ventures out into the riverlands (with Nettles). Yeah, obviously a show would need to write more for him to do, he's a main character.

***Thank god HOTD isn't the sort of exploitative shitshow that GOT was. All y'all thinking it was a better adaptation because of your nostalgia goggles (and/or shitty memory) need to actually reread the books (especially AFFC/ADWD) and then submit yourself to the real-world misogynist and homophobic nonsense of S5-6 again, ugh.

[drawbauchery]

i feel like they definitely get along, but it took a while

[official-lucifers-child]

i love people headcanoning characters as autistic, until they only do that to the stupid characters or the childish characters or the “innocent” characters and then it’s like oh. uh. that’s not.

[captainjonnitkessler]

People will be like "yes parapsychology has been studied for hundreds of years and never once had a conclusive shred of evidence to support it. Yes it's been studied at very prestigious institutions and universities. And yes every single supposedly successful trial has turned out to be either a hoax, a mistake, or outright fraudulent. And yes every single positive result has completely vanished when more stringent methodology was used. And yes improvements in technology have only ever made supernatural claims easier to disprove. And yes even the most famous and confident of psychics mysteriously choke up every time they try to pass even a mildly hoax-proof test.

. . . but it's totally real and scientists are just too narrow-minded to accept that there's something beyond their worldview :/"

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Those of you who haven't watched BigB's Secret Life episode I am begging you to do so.

He lied the entire episode, about everything, for absolutely no reason. It was insane, and hilarious

[allgremlinart]

book 2 korra they could never make me hate you...

[mistyscenter]

Once upon a time I would have JOKED about the Our Life fandom having terrible critical thinking skills...now I know that some of you, did not in fact, attend a single lesson of an English class because tell me why you're more "disgusted" at the messages (who were PRIVATE JOKES BETWEEN FRIENDS) than the fact that someone's privacy was invented and then put on blast HOW FUCKING GULLIBLE DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO NOT SEE THIS IS CLEARLY AN HATE CAMPAIGN WHY ARE YOU FOCUSING ON THE MESSAGES AND NOT SOMEONE INVADING A PERSON'S PERSONAL SPACE ARE YOU THIS FUCKING DUMB OR SOMETHING??????????

Someone PRIVACY was invaded, and your focusing on what the screenshots were saying and tbh, it wasn't that bad??? You guys blew up this out of proportion And a Black Creator and their friends are left to pick up the mess YOU GUYS MADE because your fifis got hurt and destroyed the reputation of someone for a quick serotonin boost.

And to however leaked those screenshots, hope your fucking happy,hope this shit was fucking worth it, truly was this truly this worth it? You've damaged the fandom and for what? But sure guys, let's be mad at Black Creator for sounding mean instead of the person who caused the damage

[dario-el-estupido]

I hate KnY fans who go "fun fact -blatant misinformation/angsty head canon-" with a burning passion. I was pushed to my boiling point when I saw a comment saying that Mitsuri's parents became concerned after her death because she stopped writing back. No dumbass that is literally never said.