#razz rants

[raspberrysmoon]

someone invent a way of asking for approval and validation without wanting to eat ones own skin. quick

[dazzlerazz]

I wish people would stop telling me "it's so easy to drive a car" "you just haven't driven yet" "life would be easier with a car" BITCH WHY DO YOU THINK I DON'T DRIVE?? CUZ I THINK CARS ARE SCARY??? YEAH I DO ACTUALLY CUZ THEY ALMOST KILLED ME

[razzberrydazz]

Fellow misophonia folks what sounds and sensations send you into an instant blind seething internal rage, mine is specifically the sound of a bathroom door NOT closing, if I hear footsteps to that damn bathroom and said person does Not? Close the bathroom door? I am already ready to commit brutal pipe murder, close that fucking door you heathen degenerate I do not want the possibility of walking in on you or the smell of your shit wafting through the house because you can't close a fucking door. Oooooo it makes me so fucking mad and it always happens at fucking 3 am so whatever attempts at sleep were happening instantly leave me because my instant intense rage wakes me all the way back up.

[royalrazz37]

Disclaimer: I love this film. These are just my critics. I know someone else has already pointed these issues out and better than I ever could. Just wanted to get my thoughts out. Feel free to link their analysis

Post Disclaimer Disclaimer: A lot of these may be petty and have no real solution so I apologize preemptively.

Without further ado here is an aging millennial’s concerns with: The Lion King (1994)

Small nitpicks first

Incest

Usually lion prides have a single adult male that mates with all the females but in this case there are two, Mufasa and Scar, meaning, that at best Simba and Nala are first cousins and at worst siblings, getting married and having children.

On the flip side there is nothing more royal than keeping it all in the family.

Say his name

What is Scar’s real name? I know it can probably be found somewhere but i think it’s pretty messed up it’s never said in the movie. Also making someone’s physical feature their name is rude. Its like calling someone Hairy, Big Nose, or Six-Fingered Man.

Sexiest Lion

From what I remember learning about lions, the males with darker manes are seen as more attractive. So why is my man Scar not getting hole? I know its a kids movie but could we at least see a couple dark furred cubs running about? (I know about Kovu)

Choice of voice actors

Why are all the good characters voiced by white people? (Exceptions for James and Madge) and all the bad guys are POC? And its some extra ish when only the lackeys are POC. The big bad is white. Colored folk can’t even be their own boss.

And i know the remake “fixed” this but we’re not talking about the new woke Disney.

Now the real gripes

Monarchy and leadership

While the idea of a hereditary monarchy is bad enough the main plot strongly implies divine right is just and desirable.

Mufasa is supposed to be king and this is reflected by the kingdom being pristine and in balance.

Scar, who is not ordained by the sky daddies, takes the throne and all falls to ruin.

Then the “rightful king” returns, restoring prosperity to the land.

It gives credence to the idea that a higher power has to approve of a leader for things to go right. That those in power are there because that is how it’s supposed to be.

Look, little one. See what happens when you try to break the status quo? Bad things happen. Be happy with your lot in life.

If you try to rise above your station like Scar, well. You saw what happened. (I know Scar murdered fools but you get my drift)

“But Razz” I hear you say. “The reason things went bad is because Scar had the hyenas live in the pride lands and they ate everything. Those slobbering mangy stupid poachers!”

Aha! I say. You activated my trap card.

US History as a Metaphor

I think its safe to say that the hyenas are coded as POC. As such the idea of their integration into the pride lands being the catalyst for its blight is troubling.

It harkens back to the fear of the negro moving into cities during white flight. Hyenas/blacks move in and everything goes to shit.

Thats why we keep them in their elephant graveyards and shadow lands (the ghettos) so the blight doesn’t spread.

And if one of the hyenas do come into the pride lands we send our strong alpha Mufasa to beat and brutalize them.

Also the hyenas are painted as gluttons for wanting to eat. THEY WERE IN A LITERAL GRAVEYARD.

Of course they’re hungry. Of course they’d want to eat everything they could. They were forced to live that way.

Now lets draw a line.

Hyenas are always hungry because they live in a food desert and actual desert.

They live there because of enforced segregation by the lions.

Lions who then blame the the hyenas for being hungry and use that as justification to continue segregation and harsh policing of the hyenas movements.

Sounds familiar.

And the film’s solution to all this is a return to the status quo. Yuck.

Not to mention the sequel where there’s a reconciliation between the lionesses who supported Scar and the pridelanders because Kiara says “We’re the same”. I know I’m probably grasping a straws here but that moment felt like the Irish and Italians gaining whiteness.

Ok rant over.

[razzberrydazz]

Add psycho and psychotic and psychosis to the list of words people horribly misuse and mischaracterize on the internet. And schizo. Schizophrenia already is Sooooo mischaracterized.

And bipolar, it's not uwu quirky to say you're bipolar if you have a mood swing, it is its own condition with a host of its own specific problems.

Add onto that the uwu quirky infantilization of autism and ADHD where the serious life hindering symptoms are ignored or shamed to focus on the 'fun' and palatable parts.

Your toxic boyfriend isn't automatically a narcissist because he's an asshole, he's just abusive and toxic. Having a personality disorder does not inherently make someone a bad or abusive person. Most personality disorders develop due to trauma. Not every toxic conceited asshole you encounter is a narcissist. They're just conceited assholes.

OCD isn't just 'oh I need everything to be clean and symmetrical and I gotta turn this light on and off 5 times every time I enter this room', it has actually distressing intrusive thoughts that if you Don't do that specific action, something horrible may happen or you may do something horrible.

Impulsive thoughts are the ones where you wanna dye your hair or cut your bangs or make impulse purchases. Intrusive thoughts are INTRUSIVE. They are distressing. They can be extremely disturbing. Being plagued by thoughts that you are secretly a pedophile or that you will murder someone you love are intrusive thoughts, and they don't mean the person with those thoughts genuinely wants to do those things. People with intrusive thoughts do Not want to act on those thoughts and may even go out of their way to do preventative actions (such as avoiding kids and animals, washing their hands raw, hiding every sharp object in the house, making someone else give them their prescriptions, etc) to avoid possibly acting on their disturbing thoughts.

Gaslighting has been so overused now as the latest pop psych word fad that people won't take it seriously when used in seriousness. It's not conventional lying (which it's been misused a lot to just mean lying), it's a specific way to make someone question their reality and cast doubt into their mind. I knew a guy who thought gaslighting was like just lighthearted lying for a prank and used it as such and I had to tell him what it actually meant and he was horrified and apologized for using it in such a joking matter.

Delusions are Not Fun. Having hallucinations of any kind are Not Fun. Experiencing psychosis, panic attacks, meltdowns, sensory overstimulation, shutdowns, dissociation, etc are all very distressing. Dissociation is not Just 'zoning out' sometimes, it's Worse.

(I may joke about aspects of my own conditions because I feel I am able to do so from my experience, but I don't think it's in good taste for me to joke about conditions that I haven't experienced in a way that punches down.)

*mom voice* You can get these words back when you know what they mean

[razzithold]

The fuck is this 1999 tab shit Tumblr???

Nah bitch I'm prone to psychosis don't go around pretending it's a year it's not you bastards

I try to avoid unreality and dissociation shit because it will absolutely cause ME to dissociate.

Like I gotta take a break between playing a game involving driving a car and actually driving my car irl because if I jump straight from driving in like cyberpunk 2077 to driving my actual car I will be dissociating to the point of feeling like my actual car is a car in a video game. Fucking wild and uncomfortable.

[that-ari-blogger]

Go Now, Be At Peace (Hero)

One of my favourite things to see filmmakers play around with is time. As in, the information isn’t given to the audience linearly, and instead it is at the author’s beck and call.

This would seem easy, but the trick is making it work. Naturally, if you write a story and turn around in the final instalment and say “wait, I actually had a sister and a secret best friend this entire time”, it will feel like you have cheated. But if you can stick the landing, messing around with time is the juiciest writing technique out there. At least to me.

Case and point, the gimmicky emotional rollercoaster that is Hero.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

First up, yes, this episode is gimmicky as all heck, and that is exactly what I love about it.

I think we see a lot of criticism about how certain tropes are bad, but that really isn’t the case at all. If a story gets you invested enough, you can see it coming a mile off and it will still hit you like a truck.

There are even tropes that rely on you knowing what they are, with doomed heroes coming to mind most readily, but we’ll get there in a moment.

If we define a trope simply as a repeated literary element external to a story, then if that is by definition bad, symbolism doesn’t work in the same way.

Half of symbolism is external. This is Tumblr, that’s what colour theory is, you all know this. The red carpet represents happy thoughts and warmth and healing.

In this episode, for example, there is a ton of discussion about the Heart Of Etheria project, which is described thusly:

“It was supposed to be an energy source, capable of so much good. But that's not what they made.”

“How will destroying worlds bring peace?”

The Heart of Etheria project is a nuclear weapon. That’s what the symbolism is communicating here. The First Ones may not have been the antagonists in their war, but their ends did not justify the means, at least not in… hold on a sec. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

The symbolism here draws on the same ideas as Star Wars to create a feeling of unknowable terror. The first ones didn’t care about Etheria, they wanted to use it as a pawn in their own war.

The series dwells pretty heavily on the thematic idea of abuse being a cycle, and the Heart Of Etheria is a pretty potent symbol for that. In order to escape their own abuse, the first ones created something that would hurt others. In order to regain personhood, they took power from a planet.

They claimed the agency of someone else, leaving a vacuum in its place.

On the other hand, the series does have some heavy internal symbolism, that being through the dichotomy of magic and technology.

“I need the sword to control She-Ra's magic.”

“Ha! She-Ra was here long before your people arrived. You cannot control magic! Magic simply is.”

Technology, specifically that of the First Ones, but also from the Horde, is synonymous with control. Which puts magic in the role of freedom, specifically that of agency. Magic just is.

“Is”. The third-person singular present tense of “to be”.

Magic is the very concept of being. It is the freedom to do stuff. What stuff? Any stuff you want. Free from restraints and shackles, free from the will of others.

There are exceptions to this rule, and they are characters. Shadow Weaver, who uses magic to control, and Entrapta, the master technician who is unrestrainable. This gets watered down to their apprentices, with Glimmer and Bow respectively, and in the middle of this is Adora.

But the fact that these are exceptions to the rule kinda proves that there is a rule here.

And those exceptions are explained pretty handily, at least with Shadow Weaver and Glimmer. They are using dark magic, not in the way it wants to be used. They are forcing the magic to do what they want, and taking its agency from it, as well as using it to murk characters onscreen.

Bow, meanwhile, uses tech to coordinate, specifically in the sense of battlefield control. And Entrapta seeks only to understand, and knowledge is power. But she never tries to control anyone. Freedom is a big thing for Entrapta, and I honestly don’t have a reading of how she plays into this. I’ll let you know if this changes.

This is an in-text symbol that has meaning. Like an external one, it can be done well or poorly depending on the story, much like time nonlinearity.

Which brings me to my issue with writing this analysis:

For my coverage of the fourth season of She-Ra, I have been avoiding talking about Adora and Catra, because I will devote most of the final season to them. The problem here, is that Hero is set up around the parallels between Adora and her predecessor. The time nonlinearity serves to exacerbate those similarities, to the point where avoiding mentioning Adora even slightly is a detriment to the episode.

So, be aware that she is there, as I try to ignore her for the purposes of this post.

Anyway, the main character of this episode is Razz, and my question from about a season ago still stands here. Why is Razz in this story? How do I read the theming of an old lady who has lived thousands of years, and has met everyone under the sun? How do I read a character who is displaced in time? Why is that significant?

I have a thesis, and you’ll have to bear with me on this.

In my reading, Razz is Etheria. Maybe not literally, but on a story level, I think Razz and Etheria are one and the same. Razz saves and is saved by the previous She-Ra in a similar fashion to how Etheria teaches and is protected by her, and she befriends Adora in the same way. She gets temporally shunted because she sees the She-Ras as the same. To her, they are different and the same, and the order of events isn’t important.

Part of why I love this episode and its time travel shenaniganry is that it leverages that for emotion. There is a building dread in this episode, specifically through that pie.

Razz will never get to enjoy that pie with her friend, you know this from the start. So, when Mara walks through the door the first time, your heart sinks.

This episode is also about Mara, and I will get to the final scene in a minute, but first, introductions.

Mara starts the episode laughing. She closes it crying. This episode shows the breaking down of this character, and I cannot think of a better example.

This episode sets up Mara as incredibly intelligent. She pieces together the Heart of Etheria plan, but she also works out that Adora will need guidance, and that she can offer that via someone who would know. She knows that Razz will guide Adora to where she needs to be, and leaves messages.

She also acts as an audience surrogate for Razz to exposit themes to.

“It’s all right. No one here will hurt you.”

The theme here is pretty obvious. Things lash out when they are scared, and all you need to do to achieve peace is to be gentle. Mara, a person who is here to end a war, is trying to achieve that peace. But we have seen the cost of that.

I'm running out of space, so if you've seen How To Train Your Dragon, you know what this is. This is about trust with the other and coming together despite differences. This is about comradery with the planet itself. Mara needs to not rush at things, and instead wait, and be gentle. They will come to her.

I did a word search on the transcript of this episode for the word “peace”, and I found that it comes up thrice. When Mara and Light Hope argue, and here, when Mara calms down the animal.

“Go, be at peace.”

As a side note, the fighting styles of Mara and Adora are very different. Adora relies on strength and athleticism to win her battles. She can go toe to toe with Huntara and is the slower combatant when she fights Catra. But Mara flips around the battlefield like a gymnast or a dancer. The two come from different places, trained by opposite sides, it’s no wonder they fight differently.

When Light Hope presents her own worldview, or rather, that of her superiors, her wording is important.

“The Heart of Etheria has been activated. Your mission will be fulfilled. There will be peace throughout the galaxy. You will be a hero.”

Hero’s a funny word, ain’t it? It means someone you can look up to, and in war times, it is presented as loyalty and dedication to the cause. The ANZACs were heroes, for example.

Here, it is used as a trophy for Mara. She will be declared a hero, an empty title, just for doing what she is told.

But She-Ra doesn’t agree with this definition. In She-Ra, a hero saves people. In She-Ra, Mara is a hero because she disobeyed her orders to follow her better judgement and notably, she never gets called that in this episode.

Instead, she gets a monologue. She uses her last moments to give the next generation hope for the future and try to let them know of her mistakes. She sees the cycle of abuse, and she couldn’t break it, but she could leave tools for the next rotation to try and use.

Then Razz, the embodiment of the planet she saved, calls her brave, and leaves her a pie.

Mara is gone, Adora isn't looking at her predecessor, she's looking at an empty chair. She's looking at the absence of a person, the loss of a friend. She is looking at the legacy of someone she looks up to.

This episode doesn’t give you closure, because it’s not trying to. It is trying to make you feel empty. We meet Mara for just a moment, and then she is gone, and we know that, and yet we still get attached.

If that hologram hadn’t cut off exactly when it did, we would have seen Mara die. A millisecond later, and we would have watched it happen.

We watch an entire journey in this episode, everything we needed to know, and then it ends, with silence, as the credits role. The embodiment of the planet itself offers Mara a pie as a grave gift. She’s returning the favour. Go now be at peace.

"She said she would come back. She promised. We were going to make a pie. I've been waiting for so long."

I need to talk about the thing with promises, and specifically breaking them. In previous episodes, Adora promised Catra she would look out for her, and failed, and Mara made Razz a promise she knew she would never keep. Why?

The obvious reason is that unkept promises are a key source of dramatic irony, especially when you know the end point before it is said. In comedy, this is someone asking if a dress makes them look fat, and everyone in the room saying no. In a tragedy, it’s this.

The ticking in this shot of the countdown timer is such an incredible use of sound design. First up, time symbolism, of course. But it's also stressful You hear a timer getting quicker and you panic. When it is released, there is no explosion, just a dying friend.

Because, yes, this is a tragedy, remember? That’s why its cyclical, that’s why this episode exists.

"I try to remember but it gets all muddled up. Adora, Mara, it always ends the same. The present, the future..."

"Razz?"

"The past."

Everything in this series has happened before within its own continuity. The weapon, the loss of friends, the transformations, everything. This is a series about the cycle of abuse that always, always, leads to tragedy. It sets its current events up like one, and then shows you in vivid detail, just how that will end.

I said she ends the episode crying. But she does it with a smile. She looks her death in the eye and offers up hope and trust. Mara, the girl who laughed, the girl who cried, the girl who smiled.

The final scene looks like the two are talking in real time. The series cuts between Mara and Adora as they speak, taking care to be inconsistent with who is holographic. The parallels are baked into the setting, and they are being fought against.

I feel like whenever I talk about the story being cyclical, that I under stress how everything in it is about breaking those cycles. Magic and tech, agency and control. The cycle boxes you in, preventing your actions, controlling you. Breaking free is taking back that agency for yourself. The first ones tried to do this by trying to get someone to take their place, we will see if and how Adora and company will attempt the same or try something new.

Final Thoughts.

Genuinely, this post was the hardest to write of anything I have done. Not because I didn’t know what to say, but because rewatching this episode left me in an emotional wreck. I genuinely felt like the scene from Interstellar when the main character laughs and cries all at the same time.

For the record, I haven’t seen Interstellar, I just know the meme.

This post was emotionally exhausting, so I'm going to lie down now. Next week is Fractures, stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[razzek]

Just realized a big benefit to not being in Metalocalypse fandom proper anymore: I don't have to try and force myself to like Seth anymore! 8D No shade to his fans, I like Magnus so I get the appeal of unpopular or shitty characters. But god damn I hate Seth with every fiber of my being. Any time I have a fic bookmarked with him in it, you can bet it's because he's getting his ass handed to him or something else horrible is happening or he's an incidental figure in the story of a character I like. I hope the little fucker died in Army of the Doomstar but it was, like, two weeks after his wife left him and took their kid and he was miserable to the last second.

Although I do have to give props to the fandom treatment of Seth for one thing: in just about every trans Pickles fic I've ever read, Seth unquestioningly thinks of Pickles as his brother right away. It is his sole redeeming quality and it kind of shows a world I'd like to live in. A world where your shitty brother who ruined your life doesn't bat an eye when you're trans, suggesting that it's so normal as to be a non-issue. That's how things should be.

This post made with gratitude to the folks who gave Magnus a chance around me even when they didn't like him. I did my best to do that with Seth and still will around friends who do like him. But also this is my blog and I can shit talk the little bastard all I want. :D

[razzberrydazz]

It's classism and racism, pure and simple. Christian nationalist (fascist) lawmakers and lobbyists cut up the south for fun and use the ignorance of people to grow their voting base of hate. A lot of the prominent hate preachers happen to be in the south. Hateful people like Greg Locke, Pat Robertson, James Dobson (of course hate preachers and christian-based hate groups aren't exclusive to the south, they just happen to have a big foothold here). Called the Bible Belt for a reason. And of course, their follower base usually happens to be white and virulently homophobic and Zionist.

The lawmakers who predominantly maintain power in these places are fellow white christian nationalists. Gutting the states' healthcare, education systems, infrastructure, so their voting base stays poor and ignorant and hateful and suffering. And then they make a scapegoat to blame it on - other poor people, who happen to be immigrants or not white nor christian or cishet or a combination thereof.

I don't want to have to move out of the South to get an improved quality of life and sense of safety. I want to be able to have that QOL and sense of safety where I live now - where I have community and good food and culture! I want there to be environmental protections to preserve the diverse and beautiful places we have here. I want my community to be able to afford necessities and healthcare. I want the hateful lawmakers ousted and the paradigm shift to be accepting of queer people so that they can live without fear for their lives. I want a lot of things.

Lawmakers in Louisiana can hold the diverse melting pot of New Orleans hostage by withholding vital funds to improve healthcare and infrastructure, all because they're so anti-abortion they're willing to ruin lives over it. Southerners are suffering, and the rest of the country points and laughs as if they don't have the same problems.

We shouldn't laugh at other people's suffering.

like you really aren't allowed to say shit about southerners until you have firsthand seen how people live deep in the appalachian hollers because it is fucking tragic. the poverty and the food desert and the lack of resources in general is so bad. the drugs. yall dont understand

[citrine-elephant]

so would it be too much projection to headcanon leon having an insatiable thirst for anything blue razz flavored, or would the color of blue drink truly allure him so hard he can't resist?

[raspberrysmoon]

if i was a dog id be fixed rn. dogs dont get paralyzing knee pain that gets ignored they get taken to the vet.

[dazzlerazz]

I think parents of queer kids should stop commenting on their kid's new name or how much they love their deadname. My mom goes on and on about how much she loves mine and explained to me how she picked it and the events that lead to her picking it, no matter how many times I explain to her that is hurts me inside and it feels like she's trying to manipulate me into not being who I really am. Someone's name change does concern their immediate family but it's not *about* that immediate family, it's about the person changing their name

[dazzlerazz]

If I could spend the rest of my life without getting into another car, I would. It is not a moral failing to not know how to drive, nor is it shameful to take public transport (THAT'S WHAT IT'S THERE FOR). I don't drive because I almost died in the backseat of my father's car when we got hit by a drunk driver, and we got nothing out of it because the guy was broke and died on impact. We tried to sue the city because of something or other about the road, I can't remember what, I'll have to ask my mom, but they managed to weasel out of it. We went so far into the red we almost went homeless, we've been homeless before, and it was a brand new car that my grandma had just bought us because the family van had no air conditioning (still doesn't) and it was the middle of summer. We were on our way to the lake to cool off. We still do not have a car with air conditioning - we are still too broke to afford it because of the medical bills for all of us

The amount of times I have been told "you have to learn to drive" or "you say you won't get into a car NOW" or "your fear is irrational" is so stupid. My city is NOT walkable but I walk it anyway. I'm permanently disabled. I had to be helicoptered to the hospital, I have permanent scars and flesh missing from my body. I can't bend over, I can't walk long distances without a cane (cuz fuck me right), I have a seatbelt scar across my chest that has now faded but was ugly afterward. I had burns on my skin and it took years for hair to start growing back there. I almost lost my ability to see because I had glass in my eyes

I tell people all of this and they look so uncomfortable and drop the subject. I don't like to tell people in passing, because it's not necessarily their business, but this is almost always what happens because they don't accept "I just don't want to drive" as an answer, they just keep telling me I need a car or driving "isn't THAT bad"

Even without all this, it wouldn't be a failing if I didn't want to drive. It's not and will not ever be shameful to not want to drive or learn to drive. One should not be expected to learn how to operate heavy machinery to LIVE if they don't want to. Whether it be a phobia, a physical inability, or maybe they just don't fucking want to

I'm lucky to be alive. And I will never drive a car. Now, excuse me, I have to go find my bus pass

I wish the US had proper public transportation instead of forcing everyone to drive themselves everywhere when we damn well know that there are people here that either physically can't drive, have a phobia of driving, or are just terrible at driving. Either that or you spend $40 on an Uber everytime you want to go anywhere (God forbid someone living on minimum wage has to go to their job). Okay like, seriously. If you want everyone to drive everywhere no matter the risk of injury, death, or panic, at least maybe have driver's ed be a mandatory class students have to take in highschool (free of charge too)? Also, aren't vehicles hella expensive to buy and own?

Additionally, it should be common since to make the roads safer for pedestrians so that we don't have to fear death everytime we have to walk 30 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. Also, what the hell is up with our intersections? What the hell is up with our road conditions? What the hell?

[razzberrydazz]

Eyyy reminder, grooming and predation can happen to anyone at any age, it's not exclusively adults preying on minors, it can be adults preying on other adults, it can be a younger adult preying on an older adult (elder abuse anyone?), it can be a family member preying on another family member (both for incest abuse and financial abuse - families can fall apart over financial squabbles)! More rant under the cut - abuse of power happens everywhere in every group -

Grooming at its core is preparing someone so that you can take advantage of them and abuse your power over them. It's not necessarily sexual, but it often can be. Financial abuse can happen from grooming too. It's about power imbalance and abusing that power imbalance. It's about power and control and taking advantage of trust.

I've seen multiple examples of people going 'oh x was wrong to take advantage of y because her brain wasn't fully developed yet' it would still be wrong regardless of brain development to take advantage of another person like that!!!! Knowing you have power over someone, whether that be in age difference or familial hierarchy or financial disparity or because you're famous and they're a fan, and choosing to use your power to take advantage of them, is fucking wrong!!!

A coerced yes or lack of no is not true consent, whether it be for sex or for financial decisions. I've had a friend lose her car because her shitty coworker took advantage of her sleep deprived state to get her to agree to selling her car to them, then the shitty coworker took the car and never gave the payment and my friend couldn't do shit about it because technically she said yes to giving her car to the coworker. It was incredibly shitty. Sucked ass.

The abuse of power and harm it causes is the issue. Abuse of power can happen in any community, in any age group, and the best we can do is become aware of the signs of grooming and unhealthy power imbalances and know the red flags so that we ourselves can call it out, avoid it in our own relationships, and avoid becoming the perpetrators of it.

The BDSM/kink community for example is built off the concept of consent as a baseline of all interactions, and yet there are many predators who find their way into communities to take advantage of people's trust and naivety. It's part of why irl manifestations of that community can be very strict with their rules - you break consent once at a play party after having been told the rules by the DM? You're out. Blacklisted. Banned. Even if it may have been an honest mistake, these groups don't want to take that chance that it was on purpose.

CNC (Consensual Non-Consent) still has a baseline of consent, that participants can call out or signal to end the scene or roleplay, and if the other participants continue going past the 'drop everything and stop' signal agreed upon, that's still a breach of consent. Sure, the usual 'no' 'stop' may not be the words or actions to stop it in that case, but there is still a baseline that if called signals to stop and check in to make sure everyone's ok. It's an exercise of control in an agreed upon setting, and the participants should be aware of the risks. Risk Aware Consensual Kink (RACK) and all that.

Just because someone agreed to be in a hardline D/S relationship, does not mean that sub loses all agency. Doms can still be abusive. Subs can be abusive to their doms. People can be assholes and take advantage of each other.

TLDR is abuse happens regardless of age or community, it's best to be mindful of what abuse cycles can look like so that you don't slip into it either as the victim or the abuser.

[quitepossiblybamboozled]

i love my job i love my job i love my job i love my job i love—

[razzlee-meow]

i caved.

i didn't expect to be showing my art on here, but here we are. (i'm alr at drawing but it rlly depends on the day LOL)

but i wanted to wreck my madness combat oc. and i hope that my friends don't find this bc i've ranted about this oc quite a bit in the server i'm in HAHA

anyways, this is my oc Nike. not like the shoes, like Mike with a N.

he's a mercenary who found himself in an unfortunate accident involving lovable bastard #2 (Tricky) ... (loveable bastard #1 is Hank btw LOL) and ended up getting injured because of it.

not like he noticed; he can't feel pain.

but you know what he CAN FEEL??? *wiggles eyebrows.*

im actually bad at drawing tkl art, but i thought this was cute. i got lazy with his goggles, as you can obv see too LOLOL)

just pretend someone is getting him bc he deserves to be got. >:D he's often quite stone-faced and monotone so he needs to laugh some more.

anyways this is under the cut bc his face is quite... gruesome, even tho its not colored. lol just be careful friendos

please, do not let my irl friends find this-