#please no discourse on any of the tagged characters

[queersekai]

Queersekai Birthday Edit Event!

[PT: Queersekai birthday edit event! End PT]

Our birthday is in just a couple of weeks, and we were thinking of doing an edit event to celebrate with you guys! The prompts will be personal, but vague enough to allow you guys plenty of creative freedom, and you don't have to make icons--any kind of edit is allowed, even term coining.

The event will run for 15 days total (from Thursday, May 8th to Thursday, May 22nd, plus an extra week and a half of extension time before the drawing to ensure everyone has enough time), but you do not have to complete all the days to be in the raffle for prizes (more on the raffle at the end). The raffle will be drawn on Sunday, June 1st unless outside circumstances prevent it.

Details under the cut.

Rules:

[PT: Rules. End PT]

Please keep everything SFW. Additionally, please try to keep everything (with the exception of the crossover prompt) related to Project SEKAI (or Vocaloid/other vocal synths, I'll allow some freedom there). I would also prefer no radqueer terms (personal comfort).

You can make edits for just one of the prompts given per day, or you can combine them.

Since this is a pride icon blog, I do want the focus to be on some form of pride (orientation, gender, disability, neurodivergence, etc.). As I mentioned, they don't have to specifically be pride icons, but I do want to keep the pride theme.

Reclaimed slurs are more than welcome, just please tag them.

Please do not start discourse about anything. No syscourse, no identity discourse, no ship discourse, none of that.

Please tag all posts with #queersekaibday (and optionally, tag me in them).

Prompts:

[PT: Prompts. End PT]

Day 1 (May 8th): Pink | Blue | Purple

Day 2 (May 9th): Contradictory | Reclaimed | Projection

Day 3 (May 10th): Crossover | NPCs | Cover song

Day 4 (May 11th): Flowers/Flower meanings | Specific producer (your choice) | Commissioned song

Day 5 (May 12th): Movie (anything goes, but please remember to tag spoilers) | Angst | Joy

Day 6 (May 13th): April Fools (only one prompt, can choose from any of the four April Fools events)

Day 7 (May 14th): Unit swap (not April Fools) | What If? | NPCs become group members

Day 8 (May 15th): Birthday | Anniversary | Free day

Day 9 (May 16th): Invert | Leaders/Representatives | Favorite event

Day 10 (May 17th): Stars | Friendship | Leo/need

Day 11 (May 18th): Heaven | Hope | MORE MORE JUMP!

Day 12 (May 19th): Bright | Punk | Vivid BAD SQUAD

Day 13 (May 20th): Theater | Circus | Wonderlands x Showtime

Day 14 (May 21st): Darkness | Trauma | Nightcord at 25:00/25ji, Nightcord de.

Day 15 (May 22nd): Digital | Guidance | Virtual Singers

Raffle Details:

[PT: Raffle details. End PT]

The number of winners in the raffle will depend on how many people end up participating. If five or fewer people participate, there will be one winner. Additional winners will be added as the number of people increases--a final winner count will be determined on Saturday, May 31st.

Participating in one day grants an automatic entry into the raffle, with up to two additional entries for seven and fourteen days completed. Anyone who completes all fifteen days will get a pride icon set (9 icons of one character with their identity/identities of choice), but will not be entered in the raffle a fourth time.

The raffle prize(s) will be a PSD of the winner's (or winners') choice(s) made by me, plus two pride icon sets of their choice. I will reach out to winners via DMs after the announcement, as well as anyone who did not win but completed all fifteen days.

[sadhornydemons]

The Wedding Photo Background

This portrait always struck me,

Based on Stella's attire, we can assume it's a wedding photo. But the manner that Stolas is holding his grimoire makes it particularly odd (is the book acting as the witness?). Plus, I couldn't tell where they were posing, (I would assume it was a wedding hall, but it looks like a room in Stolas' mansion) based on the background until now:

It's their fucking bed.

They were married because they had to produce an heir. Then they posed them in front of the bed where they would have to conceive said heir and then took their wedding photo that would be displayed in the mansion walls. It kinda hints at early traditions that accompanied royal wedding nights, at least within the human world.

No wonder they look extra miserable, compared to photos where they attempted to look happy:

[somegurl8]

“People are writing this” “People are writing that” Actually let’s talk about what people AREN’T writing because we’re like 6 episodes into Judgement and I haven’t found a single fic for it on AO3. It’s been around since mid October and not a single fic. Why is there no love for Judgement

[basket-of-radiants]

Proposal for Re-working the Kholins’ Character Arcs - a semi-coherent “essay” by me (feat. @akpaley​, thank you for your contributions and for your attempts at editing.)

Hey guys. Different kind of post this time around, compared to my usual brand. It’s time for some fix-it fanfiction masquerading as literary critique. I won’t be using a readmore, I dunno, probably to punish anyone still following this blog or something. So! In this post I’m going to solve the all the issues of racial theming associated with the Kholin family.

I’m often very harsh on the Kholins for benefitting so much from exploitative power structures while doing little to help those below them. But then I’ve also criticized them for actually addressing these very problems in-universe. How can I be upset at them for their inaction and then also be annoyed when Jasnah ends slavery? The short answer to all of this is just that the ways these topics are addressed all feel very inauthentic. For example, in real life history it took over a century of protests, slave revolts, political campaigning, and civil wars to legally end slavery in Europe and America, and abolitionists were met with fierce opposition at every turn. A fictional world need not follow our same historical trajectory, but it still seems a little disingenuous for a monarch to just decide to end it within her first year of power because it doesn’t mesh with her philosophical framework. It’s more like trying to wrap up a subplot than actually address the topic.

Ultimately however, there’s only so far this line of criticism can ever take me because the Kholins are the protagonists and you can’t get rid of them without turning the whole story into something else entirely. And Sanderson shouldn’t have to, these are characters that he created and he’s allowed to tell a story about them. And I actually like a lot of their personalities and arcs and outlooks quite a lot. I do think it’s...unfortunate...to have used slavery and racism as disposable props in a story that ultimately turned out to be about a bunch of royals learning to be better people and saving the world along the way. So I guess what I’m interested in is if there’s a way to keep the premise, keep the characters, keep the general story beats, keep the themes of honor and personal growth, keep the basic structure of everything, and still handle those themes with grace. You know, could this be a compassionate story about addressing racism told from the point of view of nobility? Is such a thing possible?

Well, I’m going to try my best. And I’m going to be imperfect about it, obviously, so if you actually care enough to read all this shit, I welcome discussion and disagreement. 

Jasnah is the most obvious example to point to as being indicative of the problem, but I also think she has the easiest character fixes. She’s already been established as an outspoken dissident on many of her society’s deeply ingrained values. Just add to her atheism and feminism that she’s also always been an outspoken abolitionist. Give her ties to an ongoing reformist movement. Have her lecture Shallan about it in Way of Kings. Make that a reason she’s butted heads with her family so much. I do think it’s poor writing to have a ruler end slavery on a whim, but I won’t deny that having the right person in power can make a huge difference. It’s not as cathartic as having Kaladin lead a slave revolt (or as having Moash destroy society <3) but that doesn’t make it inherently bad so long as the topic itself is still treated with weight. Have her moralistic ideology be firmly pre-established so that when she has to explain why she’s abolishing slavery, her reasoning can be purely pragmatic. The reason she’s moving so fast is because this is a historical point of heightened change, and so her reforms are more likely to work, but if she waits too long and things settle back into a new status quo, she may have missed her window. Not to mention, when her nephew comes of age, her own legitimacy as a ruler might be challenged, so she needs to do as much as she can in what may be end up being a short reign. As a character, Jasnah has always been able to girlboss her way past political realities through sheer force of personality, and that’s great and all, but I think it heightens her character’s competence if she does have to deal with real backlash, not just to her but to her policies as well. The narrative doesn’t even need to linger on her opposition, but acknowledging it and acknowledging that she’s simply a member of a preexisting and ongoing movement would have done wonders to portray slavery as a real and prescient issue. Then again, this is a topic which people have fought and continue to fight wars over, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her to have receive major backlash either; perhaps when the Kholins hear in Words of Radiance that she was assassinated, the news could come as tragic but not entirely unexpected so as to imply that her opposition has attempted such in the past. All this is to say, I don’t think it’s at all wrong for Jasnah to do what she did. I also don’t think her entire stance on abolitionism should have come down to a comment where she tells her uncle she’s trying to rule according to ethically consistent values. The fact that slavery was insultingly easy to end not only delegitimizes is as a topic worthy of discussion, but also is a really scathing indictment of literally everyone else in the ruling class who didn’t even think to try.

Jasnah done, easy, Dalinar next.

Dalinar is probably the most complicated character for me to discuss and form coherent statements on. He’s just so rife with contradictions down to his core. That’s probably why I continue to like him so much, why he’s still my favorite, even though I still consider him to be a Bad Person over all. I think deep down I’ll always lean a bit too pacifistic ideologically to ever consider a warlord/general to be a good person, no matter how honorable he may be or how much growth he may undergo. Don’t get me wrong, I still do love his growth. Dalinar is characterized by his constant change and forward momentum, even moreso than the rest of the cast. So for discussing him, at what point can I point to him and say “this is Dalinar, this is who he is, this is what he believes and what he cares about”? Of course, during any point in his arc, you’re going to have to grapple with the fact that all of his lofty rhetoric about honor and striving for personal betterment is ultimately going to be pretty useless to all the people whose lives he’s meaninglessly thrown away across his military career. For me personally, when I talk about his character I like to take the end-of-oathbringer approach, where I acknowledge everything he did in the past as Blackthorn, I agree that it was pretty fucked up, and I forgive him and grant him a clean slate. All this to say that even if I’m judging him purely by his behavior as the current Dalinar within the present day continuity of the books, he’s still a massive hypocrite with horrific amounts of blood on his hands which he’s never even bothered to consider. I dunno, when I first read Way of Kings and I first got to meet this general who’s leading an army in a literal genocide campaign, I sort of figured he’d get some kind of “wait am I the bad guy” moment at some point in the future. And he did get a moment in Oathbringer where he has to fully confront his guilt over past actions, it was great, I really really loved it! But it was also all about actions he took before the series even started, so I guess wiping out the listeners wasn’t a sin he thought needed any atonement. I’m not going to get into the narrative’s treatment of singers and listeners on this post (for no other reason than because I have waaaaaaay too much to say there) but the point I’m getting at is that however good Dalinar’s growth is and whatever direction it takes, it’s always going to have poisonous roots to me. And his treatment of class/racial issues is no different. 

Fixing Dalinar is going to take a lot of what Dalinar does best: introspection. In Way of Kings, Dalinar dislikes how Sadeas treats his bridgemen because he believes it to be dishonorable, because he believes Sadeas is forcing others into a situation that he himself would never put himself into. He also has various sympathetic reflections here and there about how sad it is when soldiers die, and about how without the benefit of the Thrill, violence is actually kind of bad. You know how it goes. But I don’t think he ever put himself at risk to actually help or protect any of the people who are dying. Whether he wants to end the war or not, he still continues to participate in it. And he’s still willing to set aside the lives of literally everyone beneath him so he can pursue his dream of unity. The book ends with Kaladin and the rest of bridge four saving him and Adolin, and in gratitude, he purchases their freedom and gives them honored positions in his household. You know, because he’s so honorable. Everyone loves this scene, so I’m going to make it the catalyst for Dalinar’s new and improved character development. The problem with saying Kaladin helped Dalinar so Dalinar helped Kaladin is that when I’m being reductive and uncharitable (like I’m being right now), I can argue that their relationship basically started as a quid pro quo. This scene is meant to prove that Dalinar really is the most honorable person in Alethkar, just as Syl thought, only it doesn’t actually do that. See I don’t actually want Dalinar to start treating Kaladin as an equal. I want Dalinar to, in that moment, realize that Kaladin is better than him. That for all of his pontificating about honor, he would have never even considered risking his own life and the lives of his own family to rescue a bunch of bridgemen. I want him to see Kaladin’s honor, and rather than be validated in his beliefs, I want him to be thoroughly humbled. Let him spend all next book reflecting on all the lives of darkeyes he’s destroyed. Let it shame him, as Evi’s death shamed him. He already flirts with these lines of thought, and he already has an arc about confronting his past actions. Let the racial injustices he’s participated in be a part of that. Let him abandon his books and traditions instead look to Kaladin to learn what honor truly means. I don’t know how any of this would translate to his actions, because if we’re being honest his ideals are already quite incongruous with his actions, but the fact that he manages to have such strong theming regardless makes me think maybe that’s okay. I guess ultimately it would be enough for me if his character, as someone who symbolizes the ideals of a nation, was able to look at a darkeyes publicly be a follower rather than always trying to lead by his own personal example.

That’s Dalinar. Elhokar next?

I actually don’t think there’s too much wrong with Elhokar’s writing, especially in the first two books where a much greater emphasis on these themes were placed. He’s not a protagonist and we the audience aren’t supposed to endorse his actions. Most of what I’d change about his story is more about Kaladin and Moash than it is about him. I definitely don’t love that he can throw away the lives of his own people by the thousands in the genocide campaign that was the vengeance war, and then have the narrative just ignore all that in favor of him being sad about his own incompetence. If Elhokar is meant to be a sympathetic character, then when he calls himself a bad king, that’s what he should be thinking about, the number of lives he’s wasted over these years. I actually like him a lot more as a less sympathetic character, and I think I would have preferred if in oathbringer the narrative and the other characters would have stopped making so many excuses for him. Back to Kaladin and Moash, those are the two characters defined by their experiences as members of the downtrodden caste, so I personally sort of judge the problematic-ness of the whole story by how they get treated. Everyone loves to talk about how those two are foils. So. In order to strengthen Kaladin and Moash’s characters, either Elhokar needs to be as much of a monster as Amaram, or Amaram needs to be just as sympathetic and conflicted and having-of-a-toddler as Elhokar. Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely love the trope of finding at the end of a revenge quest that the person you hated has changed and grown. But I hate how this means that Moash’s hatred is wrong and unjustified, whereas Kaladin’s is validated at every turn. I don’t actually dislike Elhokar. I mean I think he’s a bad person, but I like a lot of characters who are bad people. I just think that if this story really wants to grapple with class and race (because it sure brings them up a lot for a story that doesn't want to talk about them), then Moash is a much more important character than him, with a lot more to add to that kind of discussion, which is why I think Elhokar’s characterization would have to come second to Moash’s development. (Obviously if this series were being reworked to be better on this topic, Moash would have to be written with a lot more compassion in general, but this post isn’t about him.)

Intermission time. Gavilar.

Gavilar is already perfect, 10/10, great character all around, what a guy, no notes, no wonder he’s so universally beloved among all of the fans, social justice icon.

Okay onto Navani.

I may not be the best person to talk about Navani. She has never been a favorite character of mine, and so compared to the others I haven’t thought as much about her values or the way she thinks or the narrative impacts of her actions. Someone who has more love for her would probably write better criticisms of her. (I’m going to reject any premise that falls along the lines of “Navani isn’t racist because she feels X,” but I’m not wholly confident in my analysis here, and I welcome any good faith critiques both of my own thinking and of her character when come at from other angles.) It’s hard to say where she should have grown from how she starts out viewing darkeyes because I don’t actually know how she starts out viewing darkeyes. I know I’m probably meant to assume she just treats everyone equally because she’s a Good Person on Team Good Guys, but it’s hard to just accept that she had all around good values when she married a warlord and was in love with his more violent brother. I dunno, was her “good guy” status meant to have always been an element of her character, or did she get it secondhand from her association with the new and improved Dalinar? With someone like Adolin, we got to see what shitty values he held at the start of Way of Kings (I’m talking about the Alethi warmongering, not his interest in fashion) but we also got to see how his father gradually won him over throughout the course of the book, and then later on we get to see him develop further on his own. For someone like Navani, I find it strange how she’s always so proactively supportive of Dalinar in everything, even when his own goals and values are in flux. I assume her character is just meant to be super ride or die when it comes to her family, and I do like that in a character, but that also means that she’s been wholly willing to support or at the very least excuse her family’s oppression and exploitation of darkeyes without comment. (See, Lirin is a much better parent than Navani, he would never have let his son start a whole genocidal vengeance war for fun and profit (I say this as if I’m joking but I’m kinda not.)) Some people have reminded me that she was pretty much shut out of the political process by Gavilar and Elhokar, and I agree with that, but I don’t really have any evidence that she would have cared much about darkeyes even if she had been more involved. In general it just seems like the whole topic doesn’t matter much to her. So what I would wish for the narrative would be to lean further into this. Draw attention to her cognitive dissonance and try and make the readers feel conflicted about her as a person. Highlight the fact that she’s willing to overlook the suffering that befalls other families if it means success for her own. I think one of my issues with her is that to me, this is a major (and interesting!) character flaw, but the books never seem to treat it as such. Honestly I think if this were intentional, I’d probably find her character really interesting, but from my reading of the text, I feel that I’m supposed to think of Navani as a generally decent person who’s by and large on the right side of things. The thing is, with the caste system playing such an integral role in their culture, I think she needs to have some sort of feelings about it, or else the fact that she doesn’t should be an issue to overcome. Otherwise she becomes another factor delegitimizing racial oppression as a real and important problem. If she’s a good guy and she doesn’t care about racism, then that’s saying you don’t have to be antiracist to be a good person in this world. 

Probably could have done that one better. I dunno. Leave me angry and hateful comments if I’m totally misrepresenting your favorite character. Moving on.

Adolin already has some great character development across the books. And he already has kind of engaged with this stuff in his story. Unfortunately, that’s less used in the “this person was racist but is becoming better sense” and more used in the sense of “Kaladin learns that #NotAllLighteyes are bad” which is pretty unfortunate for a number of reasons. Especially since, if he actually was going to prove he’s different from other lighteyes, out of all the Kholins I think Adolin is the best candidate for being a full on class traitor. I’m serious, looking back over the events of his plotlines, it would suit him shockingly well while disturbing the overall narrative shockingly little.

Adolin’s current plot is loosely as follows: in Way of Kings he likes all the things someone of his station is supposed to like, clothes, violence, dueling, warfare, swords, hangtime with the guys, all the good stuff. At the beginning of the book he doesn’t understand why old, stuck-up Dalinar can’t just let loose and be a relelntless war-monger like everyone else, but by the end of the book he’s come to understand a certain value to honor and thus has begun to become a better person himself. Words of Radiance has him lose his popularity, fall out of favor with all of his friends, grow disillusioned with his society, perform a prison sit-in in solidarity with Kaladin, and murder Sadeas. Most of this is done again, because of his father, and how Adolin now wants to help and support him and his ideals. In Oathbringer he mostly isn’t involved in courtly politics, being away on a mission for much of it, but he does make a pretty big move by rejecting the throne. In Rhythm of War we see the schism that’s formed between him and his father until he leaves on another long-distance mission. Summary over. In general I reject the idea that making the Kholins be individually less racist makes for a better, or more nuanced and compassionate discussion of the topic, but if anyone is primed for a “lighteyes learns racism is wrong” character arc, I think it’s Adolin. Imagine him following a bit less in Dalinar’s footsteps and a bit more in Jasnah’s. You almost don’t even have to change any story beats: in getting to know Kaladin, something clicks in Adolin where he realizes that if he wants to treat Kaladin as his equal, he has to treat all darkeyes as equals, and so he realizes to his horror that he and his entire caste of friends and family are all monsters for treating them the way they do. (Actually, there is one plotline in WoR I’d probably scrap, and that’s his slowburn bromance with Kaladin. I mean I get what Sanderson was going for with the ribbing and then eventual friendship, but Kaladin was an absolute stranger who risked his own life to save Adolin and his father from certain death, and so I feel there should probably have been a bit more overt respect upfront there.) In pushing for his newfound belief in equality, he ends up burning through all of his intracaste goodwill and political capital, causing all of his friends to drop him. When he kills Sadeas, it doesn’t have to be about protecting Dalinar or about personal revenge, it could also be that he’s gotten to know Bridge 4 and learned firsthand about the atrocities they’d gone through, and so there’s no way he’d allow such a pioneer of human rights violations to stay in power. In the following books, maybe he’s become so politically toxic due to challenging the very foundations of his own power, his own family has to send him away on missions so he can’t rock the boat too much at home. Maybe refusing the throne was more of a political statement than a personal one, because he’s come to understand that being a ruler means oppressing thousands of others. Maybe this is another form of hypocrisy he criticizes Dalinar for, how Dalinar might claim to value darkeyes but how he still retains power bought with thousands of their corpses. None of this has to modify actual events very much, it just affects the reasons for them. And it would also meaningfully show why he gets to be a “good lighteyes” if he actually engaged with his status and rejected it, knowing it comes at the expense of others.

Okay, enough about that. Renarin maybe?

I won’t say too much about Renarin here, because I’d probably just end up repeating a lot of the same criticisms of how he’s used as a “good lighteyes.” From a narrative standpoint, all those criticisms hold for him as well. You know, he wants to join Bridge Four, and future-villain Moash doesn’t like the idea because he doesn’t trust lighteyes, but Kaladin reassures him that Renarin is a good boy, so don’t worry about it, and everything works out fine in the end, proving that lighteyes are good people just like you and me. This isn’t a problem with him as a person or character, it’s just more of that general theme of “the caste system is fine so long as nice people are at the top” which I clearly think should be interrogated. Thus far, in contrast to the rest of his family, Renarin is very young and has had much less of a political presence, not to mention fewer POV chapters anyway, so I think delving too much deeper here will feel a bit hollow to me.

Does Shallan count as a Kholin? I’d like to talk about her super briefly.

Unpopular opinion, but I actually think Shallan is one of the better characters on the topic of race insofar as how she’s written, especially compared to the other Kholins. But wait, I hear you say, what about all of her dozens of instances of casual racism? Yes, that’s what I’m referring to. I like how Shallan demonstrates how ingrained these harmful ideologies are in their society. I like how every time she has a distasteful thought, we the audience are reminded that racism still exists and even good people will continue to promote it if they don’t view it critically. I like that Shallan is problematic, because their society has problems! At least with her it doesn’t feel like the story’s trying to sweep the fact under the rug. There are plenty of issues with her writing, plenty of jabs at Kaladin that probably shouldn’t have been treated as cute. She’s actually the main character whose racism and classism I see criticized the most. And I think that’s a good thing! My issue with the Kholins isn’t that I think they should all be less racist, my issue is that their positions are inherently oppressive, and it seems as though the narrative doesn’t think that matters so long as deep down they’re good people. When people critique Shallan in specific instances, I tend to see a fair amount of consensus and agreement there, but when I critique the Kholins people will argue with me by pointing out that Dalinar/Adolin/Navani/whoever actually treats darkeyes as equals, so my arguments are invalid. Purely my own anecdotal experience of course, but it tends to make me think that there’s something in Shallan’s writing that’s working right, something that isn’t working for the other lighteyed characters.

Now obviously with all of this, I’m not saying I want these books to have more racism in them. What I’m arguing is that if the books are going to explore the topic (which they do) then they should treat the topic with an appropriate amount of gravity rather than acting as if it can be solved by having aristocrats become nicer people.

If you’re still here with me, thank you for reading, I love you, I hope you enjoyed yourself through my descent further and further into rambly nonsense. If you just scrolled to the bottom, that’s fair enough, there won't be a tl;dr but you’re welcome for filling your dash with massive text blocks.

[sunbunnyyy]

i know i just got here, but seeing all of the laughably bad takes from both sides of the spectrum is convincing me that no, i don’t actually need to be on social media again.

[nyancreeperpony]

Hey Hazbin Tumblr can you do me a super small, eensie teensie favor and tag your Alastor Ship Discourse so I can block the tag and don't have to see it, thaaaanks :)

[tellmegoodbye]

I've had some time to collect my thoughts after a couple of days so here they are even though nobody asked.

I really loved the finale. It was devestating, no doubt, but I think this is their best one yet and I absolutely loved how they handled it. There was so much grieving in this episode, not just from Carlos, but from Owen and Judd as well. But despite everything they chose happiness and the wedding ending up being beautiful and bittersweet and joyful all at once.

There has been the question of deleted scenes but there's really only one we've seen so far that I would have loved to see in the episode. Other than that, I'm just glad we get to have them all as extras. I don't think the wedding needed them though.

Another thing I'd like to add is that yes, sometimes storylines can feel rushed in shows where you have a lot of characters and especially if there are clear favorites within a fandom. There was a lot going on, but that doesn't necessarily mean any one character's storyline is less valuable than another's. I guess I'm speaking as less of a fandom member and just more as an enjoyer of the show if that makes any sense. I love all of the characters in this show, and while I would be lying if I said I liked every single storyline, that doesn't mean I wish they didn't happen. In this case, however, I loved all of the storylines and I think they all made sense together given the theme of this episode. I personally don't think any of them shouldn't have been there in favor of getting more wedding content.

Honestly, my only regret is not getting off of tumblr as soon as the final bts stuff started coming out. I'm pretty bad when it comes to guessing things so if I hadn't been aware of the theories I literally would have had no idea and it would have hit me so much harder. It still got me pretty good though.

Again these are just my opinions so feel free to ignore everything I say if you didn't feel the same. I'm happy though, and I'm going to continue being incredibly annoying about this show. ♡

[wreckedhoney]

^^ "coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse"

not proshipper not anti but a secret third thing (person who has a career in the media and, through covering legislative politics, has watched "associating with problematic fiction or entertainment is an indicator of moral degeneracy" rapidly become a mainstream GOP position that they are encoding in legislation to target the queer community under the guise of protecting children, thus coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse — the extent and manner to which fiction affects reality is an issue that is immediately relevant to today's US politics, and to summarize my opinions on the matter in fandom terms would be to diminish the ways this debate is affecting america Right The Fuck Now. and i have stopped taking "this person is bad for shipping the wrong anime thing and being horny about it" in any sort of good faith ever since I saw it literally used as part of a GOP smear campaign against a transgender state legislator in an attempt to defend the right from backlash after they used their supermajority in the Montana house to prevent her from speaking on the floor. Anyway I think everyone on this site, especially Americans, could benefit from ceasing to think in proship v anti vocabulary and instead developing coherent political positions on the nature of fiction that do not directly align with current fascist political tactics)

[dollgxtz]

I’m seeing a lot of “People are so soft, of course Caleb drugged MC he’s a yandere.” discourse here and on twitter.

As a dark content writer, I wanted to add my two cents. So firstly, it genuinely pisses me off when I see statements like that. People are not soft for having boundaries and triggers. They are not soft for not wanting to be drugged in their fictional game? Like hello? A lot of people have irl traumas surrounding it too so it makes sense why they’re upset that it got sprung upon them in the main story.

Infold should’ve added a content warning. Full stop. It was very distasteful of them to spring this onto people. I’ve genuinely seen people in the lads community express how uncomfortable they felt or how they weren’t expecting it and got triggered.

It truly hurts my heart as someone who writes this kind of content, because the last thing I’d ever want to do is trigger someone with His Watchful Eye unexpectedly. That’s why it’s properly tagged and multiple warnings are given at the beginning so people know what they’re getting into. I tag every potential trigger and sometimes I still feel it’s not enough. That goes for any of my fics tbh.

Stuff like this really does give us who enjoy dark content a bad name. Like we have to realize we are the minority, majority of people do not enjoy that and it’s okay!! We shouldn’t be shamed for what we enjoy, but that doesn’t mean we should turn around and shame others for what they don’t enjoy.

“This must be y’all’s first otome game”

Please stop it with that statement too. There’s no prize for who’s the most desensitized 😭.

I’ve always encouraged freedom of expression with His Watchful Eye. I don’t get upset when people tell me they wish Yan!Sylus would die or they hate him and hope him and MC don’t end up together. I love Yan!Sylus. But does that mean I expect others to? Absolutely not!! That’s the beauty of fiction, everyone has different opinions on it!

All in all, let’s not shame people okay? People are vastly different in their opinions and thoughts, so let’s keep it respectful. Let’s not attack real people over fictional characters yall 🤍

Adding a pic of Sylus that I took below cause I literally can’t stop looking at it 😌

[signanothername]

Psa:

Please don’t tag my art as ship, or even say/imply that there is any romantic/sexual undertones to an art I made unless I explicitly stated it to be the case

If something is supposed to be a ship or actually have romantic or sexual undertones, I will be tagging it as such myself, or explicitly state it, otherwise, everything I make of any two or more characters is strictly platonic

Another psa: if you ship dream///mare, more power to you, I don’t care what you do on your own blog, fandom etiquette is a thing and I follow said etiquette, I curate my online experience and filter stuff out, but when you’re on my blog, don’t tag my own art as dream///mare, it makes me uncomfortable

Another psa: this doesn’t just apply to dream///mare, but any ship at all, don’t tag my art as ship unless I actually put the ship tag myself

Learn to let platonic things be platonic, unless the artists themselves state it’s ship, learn not to force your ships down their throats, take the art as it is

And a final psa: don’t use this post to start ship discourse, or discuss anything regarding ships, do me a favor, and reblog this silently if you wish to reblog it, let the breeze take this post down the confines of time as it collects dust

[returntosunder]

✨️INTRO POST✨️

Hi! This is my Alt account for my Undertale/Utmv Art! My main account is @artofeden

~BASIC BOUNDARIES~

Feel free to use my art for Pfps, headers, anything like that! My only request is to give proper credit

Reposts are ok as well, but just give proper credits please

Im very anti Ai, and i do not consent to use my art for that shit

Feel free to send art requests and asks, just know I'm not obligated to answer them (or I saw them late, for that I apologize)

Im also a very anxious person, so I probably won't answer dms often

This is gonna mostly be an SFW blog. i will NOT draw sexually explicit art.

However, i CAN draw gore/horror art. I will put the proper trigger warnings and a cut to those pieces, but just be aware

My bluesky!

◇Links◇

-My Ink and my Human Ink designs

-My Swap and Dream Designs

-DTIYS!!! Join whenever you want, there's no deadline and it's just for fun <3

♡Tags i use♡

#my art to see all my drawings and #sunders sketchbook for my traditional art!! There is also #sunders asks #sunders reblogs #sundersdtiys and #sunders ramble for when I just need to say something stupid :p

This blog is a bit Ink centric, but know i love other characters too! Feel free to request any character or Aus i should draw, especially cause I still am learning some new aus or trying to relearn other ones (feel free to info dump as well lol)

My favorites are Ink and Nightmare, but I also love Cross, Dust, Fresh, and Lust (note: I just like his design and not his original au)

And Aus i enjoy are Dancetale, Reapertale, and Dreamtale

Fandoms!!!

♡ means I'm currently actively obsessed with

♡ UT/DR/UTMV, ♡ Lego monkie kid, Cult of the lamb, ♡ Epic: The musical, ♡ Cookie run kingdom, ♡ Arcane, ♡ TADC, ♡ Murder drones, ♡ ENA, ♡ Welcome home, Hellaverse, Tmnt, ♡ Poppy playtime, Mouthwashing, Fnaf, Bnha, Sonic, And any game from Studio Investigrave

IMPORTANT

I can't control who follows me, and honestly, I'd rather be left out of any fandom ship discourse. however, I am deeply uncomfortable with proshippers, and I'd rather u not interact with my page.

I will not tolerate any weird asks, and I WILL block you if i feel like it. im only here to post art and look at art. I have tags and people blocked, so i dont see stuff i don't like.

I'm not confrontational, and I don't like drama, I wanna avoid it as much as possible.

I will update this occasionally. All that being said, have a wonderful day <3

[blkaroculture]

Controversial take but I think it’s such a disservice to the aro (also aspec at large but this aro focused) community that we focus on more representation rather dismantilin and healin deeply from amatonormativity as well as helpin others do the same. Cause that’s how you get discourse like “dont tag as ace!”, the “why do you headcannon (insert character) as aroace/ace when they’re just aro!” and the 100th “(insert aro identity) is valid!” post on my timeline. The current focus the community has right now feel so individualistic, focusin all on “see me! see me!” and not going into depth about the underlyin social concepts and structures hidden under our current world. It takes so much more than just “amatonormativity is when people thinks that romantic relationships are the most important!” girl this is aromanticism 101 we’s way past that now let’s move on please n ty

It’s also weird seeing this push for representation as an African American. My community is overrepresented to the max yet we is still one of the most discriminated against. Knowing how I’m treated despite being so represented makes me feel so weird seein any discourse here. Imma need yall to step back and ask yourself what is you actually fightin for? Fightin to be seen, or fightin to live life comfortably? I know nuance exist, but yall will this answer this at light speed and not even give the time of day for nuance to even form so imma ask again, do you want to be repped, or do you want to make your life easier?

If we never start dismantilin amatonormativity and actively help others in the aspec community do the same, whatever happens in fandom or on someone’s post at the end of the day mean nothin. And that’s on period.

[clarissasbakery]

🌸 WELCOME TO MY BLOG 🌸

my name is CLARÍSSA ; 21 ; she/her ; 🇲🇽🇧🇴 ; ENG/SPAN ; 🩷💜💙

carrd: https://clarissasbakery.carrd.co/

commission status: OPEN [here for info and pricing]

art trade status: OPEN only for mutuals!!

request status: OPEN

DNI; proships, terfs, other uglies stay away‼️

GENERAL THINGS 🐋

• please do not bring any petty drama or discourse near me. i couldn’t care less 🫶

• YOU ARE FREE TO TAKE INSPO FROM MY DESIGNS/STYLE!! i don’t really mind it!

• using my art as an icon/for edits/graphics is also FINE! just please give me credit!

• i use an ipad and apple pencil to draw! i use ibispaintX.

• my favorite characters are ii test tube, bfdi pin, bfdi golf ball, bfdi book, leafpool, rarity, td courtney, becky botsford, & cleo de nile to name a few

• the only object shows i’ve watched are: all of the BFDI seasons, II (all seasons now!), PPT2, BURNER, EEE, team room 125, and object overload. PLEASE keep this in mind when requesting stuff from me!

• tag for FAQ: #faq

• tag for art: #my art! #my artwork

• tag for q&a’s, general talking: #claríssa’s speakery, #ask response

• tag for fanart, stuff made for me: #for me

• @ask-fantublings : ask blog for my fantube family!!

please, PLEASE just treat me like a normal human being and be respectful! 🩷🫶

[the-real-couchrat]

Post ending / rescue AU / recovering Curly is everything to me, so I’m making a list of other people’s posts that feature him. (The links will connect to a reblog of them in case anything ever happens to the original post)

If anyone ever see’s posts like these ones, PLEASE tag me in a reblog!! All posts are welcome, not just art!

Please note that I don’t decide what to add to this list based on shipping, opinions on the metaphors in the game, the accuracy of burn scars, the morality of Curly, or anything else that causes discourse in the fandom. I just add any posts that I come across that include Curly recovering from his injuries in any way. Prosthetics, wheelchair, wig, crutches, It just needs to have him in better shape than when he first got injured.

No NSFW

(Also this post is edited to add new ones when I find them)

Rehabilitated Curly

Party with no Jimmy

Stand around in medbay party (Idk if this counts, but he has prosthetics so I'm saying it does)

Happy abortion!

Post-ending speculation (text)

20 years later (I AM NOT WORTHY TO LOOK UPON THIS WITH MY MERE MORTAL EYES)

ANYA’S GRADUATION DAY

Post ending

Rescue/Recovery AU

My own post! (text)

Aftermath Curly

Good ending

Best way to approach captain’s disability?

A little sketch

They care

“I wouldn’t want to frighten her”

Anya doesn’t quite overdose

They’re safe

Guys rate my fanart

WWI face prosthetics

Less fucked up Curly AU

Fix-it type AU

Silly recovering time

Curly got some gifts for his b-day

Imagine Curly survived (twitter)

Curly with a service dog

I’m not a dog and you’re not a mare

Drawing the dentalcare crew (does this count?)

The quality will not be questioned

Fix-it AU

Want to make Curly some cool new mechanical hands so he can strangle Jimmy

One can dream

He’s got a wig now

Happy ending where they all survive (devianart)

It hurt my heart (twitter)

God forbid I get sick (translated?)

This might be controversial but… (text)

Let’s get you out of the house!

Cyberpunk AU

Cartoons with breakfast

Old-school surgeries (text)

Post-ending fic prompt (text)

Post-rescue AU curlyana

Post-rescue curlyana part two

Why is this goddamn white boy so hard to draw?

Captain stop infodumping the baby

Maybe never forgive

Draw Captain Curly having a prosthetic limb

Curly from Mouthwashing (good ending)

This is how I imagine Curly post OP

whats the worse fate, whatd be better for the tulpar crew

Wip

🐈

Mouthwashing AU (Reddit)

Curly if he survives (Reddit)

My own art

I’ll give him smoochies, prosthetics, and skin grafts

Art dump time✨

Hoppin on da trendin train

The crew built curly a mechanical hand

How to give Captain Curly a voice (idk if this technically counts, but it’s a disability aid so I will)

Doodle of the Tulpar crew post-rescue!

New hyperfixation just dropped

Hi Tumblr. Funny seeing you here

Another rehabilitated Curly

Who up washing they mouth rn

Don’t use the dog buttons (text)

Haunted part one and two

Prosthetics

AU were someone saves them

Mouthwashing doodles

A New Ladder-Reader x Curly (I’ll add the original art videos when I can) (also I didnt read it. if someone did read it, please let me know if it’s SFW)

I know he always have his headphones on

More rehabilitated Curly✨

You guys like this right

Anya, what’s it like working as a medic on a spaceship?

This is how we can still get the good ending

“I’m sorry Anya”

More cringe mouthwashing art be upon thee

Curly’s happy (and recovering) ending

Writing an AU of mouthwashing where the crew survives

Most people seem to be giving him prosthetics…

Doing a bit of study

2

Ladonb Kokosa (TikTok account, LOTS of great videos )

Giving the mouthwashing characters what they deserve (TikTok)

Zest for life

How I think the Tulpar crew would make YT videos

Some recovered Curly art

Edit: I am no longer seeking out these posts, and new ones will only be added if I’m tagged or such

[rowarn]

welcome, 18+ space !

rowan, they/them, 20s — ♡

current interests — simon riley, kyle garrick

꒰ masterlist ꒱ ⁺ ꒰ wips+ scehdule ꒱ ⁺ ꒰ guidelines ꒱ ⁺ ꒰ ao3 ꒱

love and deepspace sideblog: @xayne

recently added — SURPRISE, SURPISE ! w/ soap

most popular — EXPERIENCE w/ könig

recommended by the author — PLEASE LOVE ME w/ghost

#lewd for more content !

more to know !

do not use feminine titles in reference to me; girl, sis, queen. instead use masculine like dude, bro, or king.

i write for afab, gender neutral reader. i use they/them for reader. no gendered terms for reader. specializing in civilian!reader only fics!

i do not answer asks from people who do not have an age indicator on their blog.

this blog owner supports (but does not write) the creation of dark or taboo content in fiction.

i do not take requests but i will sometimes respond to asks with blurbs or headcanons.

i do not believe that it is my job as a smut writer to be a beacon of safe or realistic sex. everything i write is rooted in fantasy and unrealistic.

why you may find yourself blocked: minor, you clogged the tags with nonsense, you complain abt writers/fandom portrayals of characters, you post a lot of discourse, loudly against dark content in fiction

do not repost, redistribute, translate, use for ai, or recommend any of my works on tiktok.

banner credit @/cafekitsune

[mcsm-confessions]

I just wanted to say this for people who may not know/are new to the fandom but please tag your Jesse x (Character) ships correctly.

Male Jesse x Lukas = Jesskas

Female Jesse x Lukas = Lukesse

Male Jesse x Petra = Jetra

Female Jesse x Petra = Jesstra

As far as I know no other Jesse ship name changes depending on gender.

Also please don't tag both variations of the name. It make it harder to filter properly. This doesn't just apply to Tumblr but to any site.

I had to scroll through like 15 posts because I was trying to find one variation and not the other. T-T

Also OP I just want to apologize preemptively if this ends up accidently causing discourse in you inbox somehow. <3

~~~