#reduce what representation is or means into 'what words get used where'

[altschmerzes]

like representation is a concept that is highly complicated and nuanced and people tend to boil down to an incredibly oversimplified and insufficient distillation of what it actually is - a vast network of intersecting and not really clearly defined aspects of how identity and experience is depicted and discussed in narrative media, and the creators behind that narrative media and what experiences and identities they bring to the table and how that affects what is written about etc - but also at some point in my damn life i would like to hear the word ‘aromantic’ on prime time television.

[chaos-and-sparkles]

All the outrage about "chai" as Pav's ship abbreviation was fucking stupid

Ok so. I may be late to this discourse but by gods am I going to put this out there anyway bc this shit has been FRUSTRATING me for a while okay.

USING 'CHAI' AS AN ABBREVIATION FOR PAVITR IN SHIP NAMES IS NOT FUCKING PROBLEMATIC OR STEROTYPING OR WHATEVER DUMB SHIT I'VE SEEN (mostly non-Indian)PEOPLE SCREAMING ABOUT OUT HERE ON MY DASH. GO TOUCH SOME GRASS, Y'ALL, FIND BETTER PROBLEMS IF YOU'RE SO PRESSED TO BE MAD ABT SOMETHING!!

I'm Indian and I am so so sick and tired of, from what I can tell, mostly white people getting mad about Pav's ship abbreviation being chai??

No no. Go on. Find me my fellow Indians spearheading the conversation about 'chai' being a problematic name. Show me where the droves of offended desis are. And I don't mean just a few Indians agreeing with the "chai is stereotypical" thing while non-Indians lead the conversation, I mean the Indians being the majority of the conversation. Since, you know, that's how it would and should be if it's actually such an offensive deal to Indians, right? We all have social media. It's not like we're waiting to be spoken for. Surely there should be at least as many, if not more, offended Indians about the chai thing as I've seen white people on here. I'll wait.

Obviously I don't speak for all Indian people, I'm just one person, but from what I've seen and what I can tell, there don't seem to be any actual Indian people getting offended or claiming his name being 'chai' is Bad and Evil and Offensive and Stereotyping?? All I see are non-Indian people getting so damn offended on our behalf???

I loved his ship name being chai. I loved the representation. I loved the desi tadka, I remember when I exited the theater after ATSV and scoured through my social media and saw "chaipunk" and "chaiflower" and everything with chai going around. I was so fucking elated to see an ethnic word being used in the tagosphere!! It made my Indian heart so happy to see an Indian character who is so so close to my heart be represented with an Indian cultural word.

But nooooooo apparently we can't have nice things, because people just had to white knight about it. Apparently it is harmful and stereotypical to be using chai as his ship name.

Clearly, we gotta change it to golden. Or something similarly English and white-sounding and you know, inoffensive.

So, because I want to nitpick all the arguments I've heard as to why using "chai" is bad, let's go point-by-point:

It's reductive, you're describing a character by just one thing - yes well noted, that's literally what ship names are for. They are shorthand for characters to remember them by, they're supposed to be memorable one-liners to go by for them. It doesn't "reduce their whole personality to one bit" or "define them" or whatever - by that logic, is Miles' entire personality "flower", or Hobie's entire personality "punk"?? Gwen's just a "ghost" then, huh?? The whole POINT of a ship abbreviation is to be short and memorable. And chai is a whole fucking lot more memorable than "golden" or "shine" or whatever - those alternatives aren't even based in canon?? They are just purely fanon interpretations. Meanwhile chai is actually based in canon and a really memorable line from it too. I've had friends who were so confused as to who the golden abbreviation is for and then asking me how it's related to Pav when they browsed through the tags, but whenever they heard "chaipunk" and stuff they got it without me having to explain shit. Also, y'all are reading the Indian reaction to the chai-tea thing very wrong if you think we are offended by chai being a memorable bit about him - we are literally the ones most hyped about the chai-tea thing? You have no idea how loud the Indian theaters cheered at that line and how many Indian-made edits have been circulating. Again, with the caveat that I speak for my experienced social circle and not every Indian to ever exist, WE LOVE THE CHAI THING. It is a really lovable and memorable bit to us - one that has endeared his character to so many of us so quickly! So I have no idea where the idea that we're offended by the chai-tea line being memorable came from, but y'all really need to go out and talk to some desis before speaking and getting mad for us.

It's stereotypical - Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't realize an Indian character named with an Indian ethnic word about an Indian cultural drink is stereotyping, now. Just say you felt called out by the chai tea bit or got tired of how much people were talking about it or didn't like having to learn and use an ethnic word and be done with it. Now, to be completely fair, this is the point in the argument that holds the most water. I have seen a lot of fanart and fanfic in the very early days of ATSV fan content, quite far down the tag at this point, that reduced Pav's entire personality to chai, just made him the tea guy, made him so chai obsessed it was quite OOC and annoying and yes it did feel pretty stereotypical. That kind of thing is extra obvious in some NSFW arts I've seen around, that really give me the ick because that is not necessary, that is actually just weird and smells a little like fetishizing. But long story short, yes, Pav's character did tend to be reduced to chai in the early fan content. But guess what. That kind of thing happens to every side character in beloved media until more creators get their hands on them, adopt them as their blorbos, and make more developed characters and content out of them!!! Every side character that has a memorable bit gets overused in that bit until more creators get on board to flesh them out! Or have we forgotten "AND PEGGY!", "Honor", "ONIONS!!" and other miscreants? Surely those are ALSO stereotyping then, right? Also. Even if Pav's early fan content with chai was veering towards overuse and maybe stereotyping. Let's assume that's right. HOW EXACTLY WOULD THE SHIP NAME CHANGE THAT, THEN? The ship name changing wouldn't have done diddly squat about that - he was already getting more developed character in fics and in art before people pushed for his ship name to be changed to something less ethnic sounding. I should know, I was one of the people writing him even then. The tag changing wasn't going to magically change the content. The fan creators did that.

It's unrelated to him, it's stereotypical specifically in that flavour - bitch what. Did we watch the same movie. This point in particular frustrates me so much, because I remember someone on here - I don't remember who - talking about how it makes sense to use "flower" for Miles because his favourite song is Sunflower but in that same sentence saying it's ridiculous to use "chai" for Pav. What logical hoops are you jumping to get to this conclusion, my sibling of the sea? If we can use "flower" for Miles - which was literally a song he sang once, maybe twice, in the first movie, never even saying it was his favourite but just showing us he liked it - then it makes just as much sense to use "chai" for Pavitr? Pav literally says he drinks chai every day with Maya Aunty, it's linked to his life and family, and he clearly liked and thought of it as important enough to put it in his intro speech. Also, as an Indian, in my experience at least chai is a very important and yet casual cultural thing for us, that a lot of us have a connection to in our everyday lives and it makes sense for him to have it too. It's not like people are just seeing the Indian character and automatically labelling him with chai - he talks about it, he likes chai, it's not out of nowhere. Also, if we're talking about how related the abbreviation is, HOW is "golden" related??? That is even more out of nowhere??? Everyone I've asked seems to have a different justification of why golden is used. From bc he's a golden boy to golden bc of his bangles or vibes - they're all speculative and based almost entirely in fanon. Like. Chai is so much more related.

Also. Using chai? IT'S NOT A BIG FUCKING DEAL. It's just a word. It is normal to me, to us Indians, as normal as using any other word in English, or Hindi, or our regional languages. I don't see why it's such a big deal that it needs to be changed to something English. It's literally just like if you made his abbreviation "tea" - except now you've taken the desiness out of it. Congratulations.

This isn't a cause I'm going to die mad about or anything. It's just been slowly annoying and eating away at me to see so many, again from what I can tell mostly non-Indian people, being mad about chai being his ship abbreviation. It feels like a bit of a gut punch to the part of me that was so happy to see this tiny part of myself and my language and culture represented in a character I love. As my friend once said, "chaipunk sounds like a cool punk movement I'd join. goldenpunk just sounds white."

The straw that finally broke the camel's back and got me posting about it is this realization that I had:

All the hue and cry to change Pavitr's ship name from "chai" to the more 'acceptable' "golden"? It reeks an awful lot of whitewashing.

People literally got so offended about an Indian character having an Indian ship abbrev that they clamoured till it got changed to something English. It leaves a very off taste in my mouth when I think about it like this.

So yeah.

[n7punk]

So I know in a lot of your fics Catra is red color blind and you’ve explained it in the fic notes but do you have a place where you’ve fully explained what she can and can’t see?

very bad question to ask me because i am not a Science Person, but my understanding is that our color vision is made up of three cones, red, green, and blue. the more cones you have (and also the more you study names for different shades, i wish i was kidding but Learning Words actually improves your vision), the more shades of color you perceive (generally). in humans you get red-green colorblindness as the most common type and blue-yellow (yes i know i didnt mention yellow cones. it's complicated) as the second one.

this varies wildly for animals. for instance, we used to think mantis shrimp saw colors we couldn't hope to distinguish because they have 12 color receptors and we have the aforementioned 3, but now we think they actually see less than we do and they just have so many different receptors because their cones suck. so like, while we may be able to see many shades of blue and green with one cone, they need a Light Blue cone, and a Dark Blue cone, and a Turquoise Cone.... etc etc. and again, this is just where we're at with shrimp right now! we actually have no clue what cats see - if it's reduced shades due to a generally lower number of cones (they definitely have at least this), red-green colorblindness like in humans, just red colorblindness (something speculated for both cats and dogs), or monochrome colorblindness. different studies and resources have come to different conclusions, so in the end i usually pick just red because it's pretty unique and she's a fantasy species.

all the colors we see happen by wavelengths of light entering our eye. If a color is picked up a ton by our red cones and a little bit by the blue, we would see that as purple, right? except sike, the wavelengths of light do not work like our usual understanding of colors and what cones purple belongs to is not red + blue. i watched a video on this and then decided i wasn't going to understand it and moved on with my basic understanding of color mixing for what she can and can't see, but that didn't stop one Very Annoying Reader from trying to correct me and completely missing the point even after i explained it to them that disability representation is not to mimic any one person's Exact Situation, but to instead represent their overall struggles. literally none of the experiences i give catra apply to humans but just because it's her tail that makes some chairs really painful for her rather than scoliosis, that doesn't make it any less relatable when she finds the world hostilely designed for her body.

lmao can you tell its a sticking point for me. anyway, i often (although not always in AUs, partially because of not wanting to deal with annoying commenters when it Does Not Matter for what i'm trying to convey) write catra to have either very few or no red cones in her vision, which gives her a visual experience that is unique to us and very difficult to simulate due to that wavelength thing being more complicated than just removing red from an image. I don't know what colors catra would really be able to see if a human did have her specific kind of colorblindness, but i do get more specific in this fic about what my general take was early on. Slowly i've shifted to lean more towards her just having generally reduced cones more densely clustered on missing red cones, which would mean she would see fewer shades of color in general but would be able to see all the base colors we do, even if the variation and strength she gets is weak, especially heavily in red (this is kind of what i'm working with for modern AUs. if i mention adora's red jacket, she can kind of see that, just not nearly like we do, and maroon just wouldn't exist for her). this is the type of colorblindness my mom has (cannot tell navy from maroon from black, but easily tells red from blue from black. she leans slightly more towards deutro in her weakness) and is one of the speculated color perceptions for cats.

so i guess to answer your question: it depends on which fic you're reading LMAO.

also, because i can't not mention this: those colorblind correcting glasses (enchroma, etc) are not real, do not give you the ability to perceive things you literally do not have the receptors to, and actually work by filtering out wavelengths of light to make the colors that you see more potent, but it doesn't change the actual colors there, it's just like applying a filter to photo on fucking instagram. it actually limits your color perception even further and you cannot "train" your eyes with them just like you cannot train a limb to grow back. its a scam, and at three figures for a pair of glasses, it really hurts people and their families when they fall for it.

[elviraaxen]

im new here, so im sorry if this is a question youve answered before but tumblr's search bar failed me in finding this to be previous answered but.. uhmmm

c... can we make ocs/personas for Felt World? or would you rather we not or we hold off until further in?? bc i would love to make a puppet give our cowboy a smooch before he is, i assume bc he is a fucking catch and a half, taken off the market in canon lol i assume he wont still be single by the end. im a tad bit too embarrassed to ever post such drawings, but i wanted to know in case i ever did become brave enough to make them public if such you would be welcome to be tagged in or if that would make you feel uncomfortable

and also, for that purpose: as someone with disabilities, im really curious how disabilities are translated into Felt World? obviously not all of them, that'd take forever. but i was curious if they use mobility aids just like ours or if they use ones we could not have (an example of what i mean could be like "seal-chairs" in "Witch Hat Atelier"? they are chairs with hooves that run and jump, as opposed to wheels). and i know you said music is really powerful in this world, in both singing and instruments, but i wanted to also ask how in a world with so much focus on sound are the deaf/hard of hearing accomadated? deaf/HoH people can still play instruments, obviously (the most famous example being Beethoven), but i meant other than that

(also, if i recall accurately you once said that "the puppets have to speak to be considered sentient beings"? i was wondering if in the future could that be amended to "have to be able to communicate"? because i assume nonverbal puppets would still exist, as well as puppets who just dont speak much (whether thats a facet of deafness or nonspeaking shutdown or just a quiet personality). or would that break Felt World's world-building's logic in some way? that's a genuine question. i wasnt sure how to word it in a way that would minimize the risk of one being put on their back-foot, but i tried my best, it really is a genuine question)

(also, because i never like to assume fluency in disability-knowledge: if you need a resource on media portrayals of disability at any point, i highly recommend the youtuber, Oakwyrm. they do a lot of really cool analysis videos on disability. i do apologize if i am overstepping, and you are already largely fluent in disabled portrayals in media and/or already aware of Oakwyrm's existence. i just like to shout at least one resource out because i know many people have no idea where to look to learn more about general disability representation advice and whatnot. you do not have to watch their videos if you do not want to ♡)

also a bit of a tangent, idk if this is just a "for now" aspect of Donna due to her adjusting or if this is a core pillar of her personality but... just, thank you for making a feminine character who cries a lot and is emotional with Big Feelings. ive always felt more connected to the Dorthy Gales, Cinderellas, Clarisse de Cagliostros kind of heroines who are a bit of a "damsel in distress" (tho i do think that term reduces a lot of their agency and bravery) and i feel a bit lonely that we dont see many emotional-vitality-driven heroines who need some help as much as badass heroines or sassy heroines, both of whom are fully capable of getting shit sone alone. makes my cry-baby disabled ass feel a little pathetic (im very physically weak because of my chronic health issues, and am the type of Autistic ADHDer who is very sensitive to getting big feelings), even tho i know those types of heroines are valid and needed. i resonate a lot with AJR's lyric about "But I'm weak. And what's wrong with that?" even though i know im taking it out of context

and im sure Donna will prove herself capable of being on her own and having her own agency, same as all the heroines ive listed, i dont assume she will be stagnant, but i just wanted to really thank you for making a character that i relate to. i dont get that often. it makes me feel a bit abnormal and strange, and i mean moreso than the "well youre neurodivergent and sickly" kind of abnormal that would be implied. like. Weird Kid sitting alone at lunch kind of strange. so its really cool to see Donna and feel less lonely, is what im saying. i wish there were more heroines like her for people like me nowadays, rather than the archetype being reduced to "archiac stereotypes" (which i both do and dont understand the logic of. it depends on context and the example given) and therefore shelving a type of heroine we dont see in a lot of contemporary media (in exchange for a heroine we didnt get to see often (if at all) in past media, the sassy and badass ones, i do get it, and im glad theyre being used more as they should have always been. there are a select few of both camps that feel like "women have to be as stereotypically masculine as possible to be worthy of being called 'a strong character'" when i think strong characters have less to do with personality and more to do with "do they direct the narrative's plot? do they have agency?". but i could be wrong about that and i am getting off-topic)

but yeah. just. overall: thank you for introducing Donna to be like she is. it means a lot to me to see a heroine like her in contemporary media. im really excited to see what youll do next ♡ but yeah, i know im babbling a lot here and you dont need to reply to this half, i just really wanted to stress my thanks and WHY you have my thanks ♡♡♡ i really appreciate having Donna sit at my metaphorical lunch-table with me, even if she has to go sit somewhere else later. its been really nice to be beside her

thank you ♡

ps. i wasnt sure how to format this Ask because i know some people like to have each section have their own Ask for compartmentalizing/tag-organization reasons, but others like it all to be together so they know its all from one person as opposed to the anxiety of "ahh why did i get so many Asks all at once, did i do something wrong, do people hate me-- oh. its fine. i went through that rollercoaster for nothing. dear lord, am i drained now". so i tend to rather assume the latter, just in case; but do feel free to screenshot and section these out into their own posts if you are the former, i wont mind if youd rather do that ♡ have a nice day!!

Oh my goodness what a long message!!! 0.0!!

I had to take a few hours to think about everything to make sure I answered everything. But I should start off by showing my gratitude for the amount of time and effort you put into formulating this! So thank you, this was a really cool ask to receive <3

As for OCs, absolutely you can! I've already had a few who've made theirs, and I have no rules at all when it comes to shipping or self inserts or anything, as long as everyone is being respectful towards each other ^^

As for the disability aspect, I have a few key points that I want to explore in regards to especially deafness and muteness (is it called that? muteness?), but that's further along the story and will be introduced later! Also how song vs instruments work in this world is a part of the lore itself that'll be explained further down the line too, so no need to worry about our fellow mute or deaf/hoh peeps!

I have of course thought about mobility aids and other disability accommodations (because they can be born with defect, illnesses, and be injured pretty much like us, their bodies are a bit more fantastical but there are still rules) but i must admit didn't think further other than to give them similar mobility aids that we use. But clearly it would make more sense to make something more fantastical! I'll give it a thought! That's probably gonna be a fun design exercise ^^

I'm not sure if I can answer the entire ask in a way that does it justice, it's quite frankly the coolest message I've gotten, I'm gonna try and not let it get to my head (lol),

but i'm so glad you and seemingly many others seem to like Donna and appreciate her specifically for being sensitive and reacting strongly. It shouldn't be but it's really daunting to write female leads because as we know people just don't like women in media generally, but I eventually just got over it because I realized I was starting to write a character that demanded the audience cared and respected, rather than showing a story that I had fun telling, in a world worth exploring.

And not to spoil but I've already decided I do not want Donna to go through an arc where she's forced to abandon her emotions or go through something physically traumatic in order to "become tough" to be respected, that's not only overdone but lame and harmful wish fulfillment. So no worries in that department!

But anyways, I don't think I can properly say how appreciative I am of this ask!!! It really warms my heart that you and other people are going out of your way to send me asks about my little story that I came up with on a whim!!! It's truly the best compliment as a creator.

<3

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Apunaja

Published: Mar 19, 2024

I just watched this clip of Don Lemon interviewing Elon Musk, where Lemon pushed back on Musk’s claims of DEI policies impacting the quality of medical care and insisted that there is no evidence that standards are being lowered in medical programs in the pursuit of diversity goals. It was infuriating to watch. The word ‘gaslighting’ repeatedly came to mind.

I don’t know if Lemon genuinely doesn’t know the facts about this issue, or if he is deliberately misrepresenting the inconvenient truth, but as anyone who has been paying attention to this issue can attest, it is indisputable that standards are indeed being lowered, in myriad professional and educational contexts, for the express purpose of increasing the racial diversity of that group’s membership. What makes it hard to believe that Lemon isn’t being disingenuous about this is that in so many of the cases where this is happening, the proponents of the policy openly state that the reason they are changing their standards are in order to increase representation of minorities. Of course, they don’t call it “lowering standards for diversity”. But when you get rid of a testing requirement, or lower the passing grade, or modify the entrance qualifications to deliberately allow lower performing black and Hispanic students entrance, you are by definition lowering standards for the sake of diversity and equity, no matter how you spin it.

It’s high time for the false claim that ‘promoting DEI doesn’t adversely impact standards’ to finally be put to rest. In the interview, Lemon said he looked forward to people providing evidence of the claim, so I’m going to attempt to do that here, to lay out unambiguous evidence of educational and professional standards being compromised for the sake of DEI. I’m going to first focus on the area of medicine, which is what Lemon was specifically talking about, and then I’ll get into many other arenas where we can see this happening.

In a 2022 City Journal article, the esteemed Heather Mac Donald describes a required medical exam being altered (both in its subject matter and its grading) to allow for more students to pass:

At the end of their second year of medical school, students take Step One of the USMLE, which measures knowledge of the body’s anatomical parts, their functioning, and their malfunctioning; topics include biochemistry, physiology, cell biology, pharmacology, and the cardiovascular system. High scores on Step One predict success in a residency; highly sought-after residency programs, such as neurosurgery and radiology, use Step One scores to help select applicants. Black students are not admitted into competitive residencies at the same rate as whites because their average Step One test scores are a standard deviation below those of whites. Step One has already been modified to try to shrink that gap; it now includes non-science components such as “communication and interpersonal skills.” But the standard deviation in scores has persisted. In the world of antiracism, that persistence means only one thing: the test is to blame. …The solution … was obvious: abolish Step One grades. Since January 2022, Step One has been graded on a pass-fail basis.

Further in the article, she explores how med school entrance standards have been adjusted to increase the number of minority students entering even though their grades were far lower:

In 2021, the average score for white applicants on the Medical College Admission Test was in the 71st percentile… The average score for black applicants was in the 35th percentile—a full standard deviation below the average white score. The MCATs have already been redesigned to try to reduce this gap; a quarter of the questions now focus on social issues and psychology. Yet the gap persists. So medical schools use wildly different standards for admitting black and white applicants. From 2013 to 2016, only 8% of white college seniors with below-average undergraduate GPAs and below-average MCAT scores were offered a seat in medical school; less than 6% of Asian college seniors with those qualifications were offered a seat, according to an analysis by economist Mark Perry. Medical schools regarded those below-average scores as all but disqualifying—except when presented by blacks and Hispanics. Over 56% of black college seniors with below-average undergraduate GPAs and below-average MCATs and 31% of Hispanic students with those scores were admitted, making a black student in that range more than seven times as likely as a similarly situated white college senior to be admitted to medical school and more than nine times as likely to be admitted as a similarly situated Asian senior.

Later on she recounts a further example of reducing standards to increase diversity at a top-tier institution:

The University of Pennsylvania medical school guarantees admission to black undergraduates who score a modest 1300 on the SAT (on a 1600-point scale), maintain a 3.6 GPA in college, and complete two summers of internship at the school. The school waives its MCAT requirement for these black students; UPenn’s non-preferred medical students score in the top one percent of all MCAT takers.

The article details many more examples of diversity efforts impacting the quality of the curriculum, admissions, faculty hiring, research funding, accreditation, publishing, and other aspects of the medical education arena. I strongly encourage you to read it in full here.

But where did all these changes stem from? A 2020 Quillette article reveals how these policies were a result of a long-running campaign to increase diversity:

…in 2009 the body that accredits medical schools, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), touched off a parity panic across the med school landscape by issuing stern new guidance on diversity. In order to remain accredited, declared LCME, medical schools “must” have policies and practices in place that “achieve appropriate diversity.” …In the wake of the LCME’s watershed edict, working groups were convened, budget line items were created, and high-profile hires were made to facilitate diversity boosting and community recruitment. A main stumbling block seemed to be minority candidates’ poor performance on gatekeeper exams like the MCATs.

Once the unstoppable force of diversity activism met the immovable object of disparate MCAT scores, activists focused their efforts on reducing the MCAT’s significance and incorporating tests that were not based on cognitively demanding subjects like actual medical knowledge in favor of things like emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication:

The primary selling point of SJTs was thus that they allowed schools to consider factors other than such blind metrics as a straightforward ranking of applicants’ college grades and MCAT performance. The MCATs themselves were revised in 2015 to give meaningful weight to areas of the social sciences.

The amazing thing about all this is how, if you just listen to their own words, these activists are totally open about how they need to lower the standards to increase minority representation. Here’s one such statement from an advocacy group admitting that expecting minority students to meet the same academic standards everyone else is held to holds back diversity:

…a huge obstacle to diversity is that most medical schools have the same criteria for all applicants. To get a medical student population that is representative of the general population requires more than simply accepting applicants of color who have the same grades and MCAT scores as White applicants…

Their solution? Lessen the importance of the MCAT in applications.

While on the topic of medical schools, consider this chart, highlighting the likelihood that students in different racial groups are granted entrance to medical schools, based on their grades. It echoes Mac Donald’s claims above, and indisputably reveals that a low performing student has a much higher chance of getting in when they’re black versus being any other race.

Another way of looking at that same data is in this chart:

This 2023 Newsweek op-ed unambiguously advocates for the MCAT to be abolished as an entrance requirement in order to increase diversity:

A panel representing the American Bar Association (ABA) recently voted to eliminate the LSAT as an admissions requirement for law schools. The main reason for doing this: to increase diversity in law schools. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) should follow the lead of the ABA for medical school admissions by removing the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) as a requirement.

Here’s a similar Washington Post piece proposing that the MCAT be changed to a pass/fail test. Why? In the author’s own words: “This is a crucial step if the medical profession is to diversify its physician ranks.”

There are further examples that could be provided, but I think this suffices to prove Elon’s claim. Copious examples of deliberate efforts to lower standards in medical education for the express purpose of increasing diversity. Mr. Lemon, do you find this evidence sufficient to acknowledge that Elon’s assertion was correct?

But it gets worse. As I said above, the problem of lowering educational and professional standards to increase diversity is not just an issue in the medical field. Campaigns pursuing this agenda are occurring all over society. Mr. Lemon, please bear with me a bit longer and allow me to provide further evidence of just how widespread this phenomenon actually is:

1. In Oregon, the state decided that students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate, citing harm to students of color. This a result of a law passed in 2021 which the governor’s office explained as follows:

…suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements while the state develops new graduation standards will benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”

2. In order to address "racial disparities" and "inequities" in grading, Portland Public Schools are trying "equitable grading practices" that bar teachers from assigning "zeros" to students who cheat or fail to turn in assignments.

3. In Minnesota, they’ve decided to stop giving F grades in order to “end systemic racism”.

4. In San Diego, because too many minority students were failing compared to white students, the school decided to address the problem not by improving the pedagogy but by… changing how they graded students. “The grading changes are part of a larger effort to combat racism,” they explained.

5. NJ chose to lower the minimum passing score on the state’s high school graduation test. Why? Among other reasons given was this appeal to diversity:

One board member who supported lowering the passing score suggested that it was “unfair” to “Black and Latino students” to require underperforming students to demonstrate a higher level of proficiency in reading and math before graduating.

6. In Arizona, a student dean felt that it would “promote equity” if he stopped grading students essays based on the quality of their writing. (This sounds similar to an effort by a student org that called for ‘Black Linguistic Justice’ and demanded that they not be graded by the standards of ordinary English, what they referred to as ‘white linguistic supremacy’. 🤷‍♂️)

7. Along similar lines, Rutgers decided to deemphasize traditional grammar ‘in solidarity with Black Lives Matter’.

8. It’s not just the US embracing this insanity. In the UK, instructors at Hull University were told to overlook students’ grammatical errors as part of an “inclusive marking policy”. And for a similar reason, the University of the Arts in London has told its staff to ‘actively accept spelling, grammar or other language mistakes that do not significantly impede communication’.

9. Please read this detailed article at The Free Press about the new California math initiative that sacrifices mathematical education for diversity goals. This new framework seems primarily motivated by concerns that too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities, which leads some to take calculus by their senior year of high school while a disproportionate number of black and Latino kids don't make it past basic algebra. So their solution is to prohibit any sorting until high school, keeping gifted kids in the same classrooms as their less mathematically inclined peers until at least grade nine.

10, Those same lowered math standards are being implemented in Cambridge, MA:

Udengaard is one of dozens of parents who recently have publicly voiced frustration with a years-old decision made by Cambridge to remove advanced math classes in grades six to eight. The district’s aim was to reduce disparities between low-income children of color, who weren’t often represented in such courses, and their more affluent peers.

11. In order to advance their DEI agenda, the creators of the bar exam are changing the famously difficult tests that lawyers have to pass before they are allowed to practice. How are they doing so? In their own words (emphasis added):

…we take seriously the need to work toward greater equity in all that we do as a testing organization, and we actively work to eliminate any aspects of our exams that could contribute to performance disparities among different groups.

A WSJ article investigating these changes reports:

Based on the diversity workshop at the NCBE conference, it means putting considerable emphasis on examinees’ race, sex, gender identity, nationality and other identity-based characteristics. The idea seems to be that any differences in group outcomes must be eliminated—even if the only way to achieve this goal is to water down the test. On top of all that, an American Civil Liberties Union representative provided conference attendees with a lecture on criminal-justice reform in which he argued that states should minimize or overlook would-be lawyers’ convictions for various criminal offenses in deciding whether to admit them to the bar.

12. Of course, the obvious question presents itself: why bother changing the bar exam to allow more people to pass it if you can just get rid of it entirely? And that’s exactly what some states are doing. Just a few days ago, the State of Washington decided to no longer require lawyers to pass the bar exam. Why? It was hampering diversity.

The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency.

13. The Washington State decision follows in the footsteps of Oregon, which stopped requiring the bar exam last year.

14. Taking the bar happens at the end of a law student’s journey. What about at the beginning, when they are taking the LSAT? No worries, diversity initiatives are lowering the bar there too! The American Bar Association voted in 2022 to stop requiring the LSAT for admission to law school. Why?

“In the grand scheme of things, folks of color perform less well on the LSAT than not, and for that reason, I think we are headed in the right direction,” Leo Martinez, an ABA council member and dean emeritus at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, said at the meeting.

15. In related legal arenas, Delaware chose to improve the diversity of its legal community by instituting a few changes of its own. Some of the changes, “which ultimately aim to also increase the number of Black and Latino judges”, include lowering the passing grade, halving the number of essays, and other competency requirements being relaxed.

16. Similar changes have happened in California, for the explicitly stated reason of increasing diversity:The California Supreme Court, which oversees the state bar, agreed to lower the passing score for the exam, a victory for law school deans who have long hoped the change would raise the number of Black and Latino people practicing law.

17. A 2015 NY Times headline: Study Cites Lower Standards in Law School Admissions. Why are they lowering standards? Answer: “…they need flexibility in selecting students to assure a diverse population of lawyers.”

18. Just like with med schools, law school acceptance rates are biased towards minorities. An analysis of admissions data data revealed that being from an under represented minority group (URM) boosted one’s chance of acceptance to a law school quite dramatically:

Almost every school we cover shows an increased chance of admission to URM applicants, with higher boosts for higher-tiered schools….As you can see in Table 1a, law schools typically give a 7% boost to URM applicants. In other words, a URM applicant who is exactly equal to a non-URM candidate, including all other factors we control for, is 7% more likely to be admitted to any law school than a non-URM equivalent. This number is a whopping 498% in the Top 14, 126% in the Top 25, and 52% in the Top 50 law schools.

Just as is happening in the legal and medical arenas, the practice of increasing minority numbers by eliminating entrance exams that ensure professional competency is happening in other professions too. Some examples of that:

19. In Washington, DC, officials considered getting rid of their social work exam over concerns that it failed too many people of color.

20. A required test for math teacher certification in Ontario showed significant racial disparities in the success rates of those taking it. As a result of the disparity a court ruled it unconstitutional and teachers were no longer required to take it. (The ruling has since been overturned.)

21. A similar case occurred in NY whereby prospective teachers had to take an Academic Literacy Skills Test. But because disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic applicants failed it, the test was eliminated.

22. In a similar lawsuit, NYC had to pay out $1.8 billion to former teachers who failed a certification test. Why? The test was deemed racially biased since a disproportionate number of the failures came from minority teachers.

23. In 2015 the FDNY was pressured to modify its certification requirements to increase gender diversity, and for the first time ever passed a woman who failed a physical test that until then all fire-fighter applicants needed to pass.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told a City Council hearing on the FDNY’s efforts to recruit women that he had changed FST requirements to lower obstacles.

24. A few months ago, a fascinating article appeared on this very platform exposing how the FAA deliberately lowered the testing requirements of flight controllers for the express purpose of increasing diversity. The consequences for the industry were, unsurprisingly, appalling:

A report on FAA hiring issues found that 70% of CTI administrators agreed that the changes in the process had led to a negative effect on the air traffic control infrastructure. One respondent stated their "numbers [had] been devastated," and the majority agreed that it would severely impact the health of their own programs.

25. Of course, a well-known area where standards have been lowered in the pursuit of DEI is in how colleges have stopped requiring applicants to have taken the SAT. I can’t begin to list all the colleges that have dropped the SAT entrance requirements in the name of equity (although many hid the decision behind the excuse of Covid), but according to this list, it’s over a thousand schools. A few prominent names that instituted the policy are Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and SUNY. (However, in recent months, a few of those institutions have reversed the policy and now require it again.)

26. Among all the many cases where destructive DEI policies are being implemented, possibly the most disturbing arena of all is when actually talented and capable students are purposefully denied opportunities that can help them excel. An example of this in action is the numerous school districts that have chosen to remove “Gifted and Honors” classes for the stated reason of increasing equity. Some examples:

Culver City, CA:

Troy, MI

Barrington, RI

New York and this too

Seattle, WA

Vancouver, Canada

27. If they’re not eliminating the Honors programs entirely, many schools are simply dropping the entrance requirements so that they are open to anyone, thereby diluting their very purpose. Some places this has already happened:

San Francisco

Boston, MA

Montgomery County, MD

New York City

Fairfax, VA

The result of these admission changes? Massive increases in students failing. For example:

…at the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, just 50% of seventh graders met or exceeded expectations in math, down from 85% as recently as 2019. Nor was the Boston Latin School, the crown jewel of the system, immune: Just 70% of seventh graders either met or exceeded expectations in math, down from 94% three years ago.

28. Even the military is affected by demands to lower standards to increase diversity (albeit gender diversity, not racial). The Army actually removed a physical test because not enough women were passing it:

On Monday, the Army ended its requirement that soldiers do at least one leg tuck — where they hang from a bar and pull their knees up near their shoulders — as part of the new physical fitness test, as it became clear that many troops, particularly women, were unable to do it.

29. Speaking of gender diversity, Oxford University decided that because not enough women were passing their math and computer science examinations, they would add more time to the exam to help them. (Apparently, it didn’t even help.)

30. Oxford also decided to let a History test be taken at home in order to increase the number of women passing.

31. And because too many men were getting top grades in a classics course over the women, Oxford also decided they had to overhaul the entire course in order to bridge the gender gap.

32. Across the globe in Australia, the University of Technology Sydney chose to boost their gender diversity by allowing female students to enter its engineering and construction courses with lower grades than the males.

33. Back in 2016, a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota actually published a paper suggesting that STEM courses be made more inclusive of women by making then “less competitive,” so maybe that’s where the above universities got their inspiration from?

34. The lowering of educational standards for the sake of diversity is happening in arts education too. Consider how auditions were scrapped at a Brooklyn performing arts school in favor of a lottery. Why? Diversity!

The Department of Education says standards like auditions — or test scores and grades at other schools — block access for underprivileged kids, and the new policy will diversify student bodies across the district.

The above examples are just a sampling of the many instances of the pernicious trend of DEI deliberately compromising the standards of performance to advance its agenda. Public figures and pundits like Don Lemon need to stop repeating this lie that there is no downside to promoting these policies. On the contrary, it’s imperative that everyone recognize how these Harrison Bergeron-like policies directly lead to a deterioration of our educational outcomes, an undermining of our scientific, technological and medical progress, a diminishing of our professional competencies, and a fraying of our societal cohesion.

It’s time for DEI to DIE.

==

Don 🍋 is astonishingly dumb.

[zielenna]

It is as if, on some level, Margaret grasps that she is a character in a novel, bound by its specific laws and customs (the requirements of the marriage plot, the classic romantic archetypes, the flattening effect of Rooney’s prose), and all these strike her as an alien imposition on her very being. Love, in this sense, is the lover’s name for the desire not to be fictional: It is a tunnel out of the novel that, being part of a novel, is always bound to collapse. Even the casual reader of Pride and Prejudice, for instance, knows that Elizabeth will fail to escape her circumstances, that she will get married precisely because she says she will not, and that she will fall in love with Darcy precisely because he is the “last man” she would ever choose. In accepting his proposal, she merely superimposes her vibrant inner life onto the dead world of convention, acting out of pure feeling while, as if by happy accident, making the most advantageous match in the entire book. This, I think, is what Lukács means when he writes that the novel’s characters are “compelled by irony.” In attempting to assert their freedom, they come face-to-face with their existence as characters; the senseless mass of conventions that looms overhead is ultimately the novel itself. It is no accident that Pride and Prejudice, however groundbreaking in its day, is now the comp of all comps in the romance industry, which is hell-bent on supplying readers with an abundance of mass-produced and utterly fungible Darcies.

...

In becoming “normal,” Marianne has been forced to give up the illusion of having transcended the tropes and archetypes that have, in truth, been quietly sustaining her all along — in a word, her literariness. The literary novel is, as it were, the missionary position of literature: In order to pass itself off as a representation of “real life,” it must deny the inherent conventionality common to all novels, whether “literary” or not. Compare genre fiction, where the same conventions may be used as selling points in marketing campaigns and openly consumed by fans.

[irithnova]

i understand what you intended to say with your post. i also think that the reason people are zeroing in on other aspects is that you literally began the post by saying "people would rather racebend" which is, like it or not, aimed at creators, not viewers. you didn't start off by talking about what gets popular, you started by talking about what people would rather create. sure you went on to say what people would rather reblog, but that's not the only thing you said in the process. so it really shouldn't be surprising that said creators, who are primarily fellow POC, took issue with it.

i do think that some of your words are getting muddled with someone else's post on the subject because that person absolutely was silencing fellow POC creators and saying that being POC didn't make it okay (and then put in the tags that they weren't an expert on the specific subject they were talking about as a means to silence). so i do think it is unfortunate that your words are getting muddled with that. but i still think you said a lot of things in your original post, and even more in your rebuttals, that are understandably making people upset.

you also invoked so many unrelated things in the process and resorted to hyperbole. literally who is making "latino russia?" making up exaggerations like this only belittles the thought put into interpretations that are primarily being made by POC and it reduces it to nonsensical pandering driven by white people. your comments are whitewashing POC creators, and then you had the nerve to tell a POC they were favoring the white gaze. you can say "i'm also POC" all day but it won't change the fact that you aren't taking intersectionality into account. no one cares what your "exceptions" are because some decisions are simply not yours to make.

we don't make this content to be your "competition" as you put it. we make it for ourselves. if other people happen to like it, then that's great. maybe it's because we are putting ourselves into the interpretations. i can only speak for myself, but i know i'm not as likely to reblog from a creator that's using hetalia characters as a form of representation if their knowledge of a culture or ethnicity is purely academic and not lived. the risk of unwittingly amplifying missteps is very high. the thing about tumblr being mainly an anglosphere site is that the POC creators are not necessarily going to relate to the characters that represent our distant ancestors as we are to relate to the characters where we see an opportunity to tell our own story. you cannot control what resonates with people, and you don't have to throw people under the bus because you feel like we are making "competition" difficult for you.

and stop invoking nazi germany as a rhetorical device. your words are unbelievably erasive of the racial hierarchy and widespread segregation that already existed for a thousand years in europe. nazi germany was bound to have picked up some ideas from elsewhere along the way but it was first and foremost "inspired" by its own bullshit. end of.

I understand your perspective but you completely lost me on a lot of your future responses.

My initial statement was framed in a way that aimed to emphasise trends and preferences within the hetalia community. Starting with "people would rather racebend" was an attention-grabbing way to introduce my topic rather than being an attack on creators and specifically poc creators.

Yes, I wanted the post to get attention. That's why I made a public post. What I didn't anticipate was people accusing me of targeting poc hetalians and making the post in bad faith. Which is why I had to clarify myself in reblogs that the intention of my OG post was not to police poc creators

By starting my post of talking about "yall would rather racebend" that did unintentionally include poc creators, which is why some poc creators who racebend did feel attacked or erased. I agree that the opening line could have been worded in a more careful way. 

2 other rebloggers brought up the topic of poc racebending nations. I then gave my opinion on racebending as a poc myself and then clarified that my original post was not about targeting poc specifically but was a criticism of how racebent white characters garner more attention than canonically non white characters.

While the statement was directed at creators, "people would rather racebend" the intention was to spark a conversation about creative choices and consumption of poc nations in hetalia and representation rather than to single out a specific group and tell them they are committing a sin for racebending (poc). If I wanted to do that I would have specified in my first post that I had an issue with specifically poc doing this and the reasons why. 

Even in the first paragraph. I end it with "y'all see how fucking stupid and racist you look right ?" Why would I be calling poc racist? My OG post was NOT aimed at singling out poc creators but was a broader criticism of creation and consumption as a whole and again, as you read further into my post

I explain why there is a trend of racebent characters being more popular than actual non white countries in the first place among the wider fandom and consumers rather than specifically talking about poc racebending and their decisions to do so or even talking about creators. 

"Literally, who making 'Latino Russia'?" this actually happened, which is why I brought it up, it was not hyperbole. The addition of "and China" to that point was also not supposed to be hyperbole and was not hyperbole because 1) I brought up an actual example 2) "and China" was to further my point of highlighting a trend of bending established characters, which can indeed spark discussion and engagement, even if it's not literally happening.  

"making up exaggerations like this only belittles the thought put into interpretations that are primarily being made by POC and it reduces it to nonsensical pandering driven by white people. your comments are whitewashing POC creators, and then you had the nerve to tell a POC they were favoring the white gaze." This entire argument is absolute drivel because it entirely relies on my Latino Russia point being make-believe which it wasn't. White washing POC creators? How did I do that? Because I said a point was favouring the white gaze? That is not what white washing is.

"you can say "i'm also POC" all day but it won't change the fact that you aren't taking intersectionality into account." The reason why I'm even having to clarify my racial status is because I have people literally questioning my race in posts about me, denying my race, and hate anons questioning or denying the fact that I am indeed, Asian. So yes. I will say "i'm also POC" all day. Also, telling a POC that they're "acting like a white person" simply because of a difference of opinion seems pretty un-intersectional and racist to me. Whiteness is a position of structural power. Not when another poc has an opinion you don't like. Not accusing you of doing that but that is the reasoning why I'm even having to clarify what my race is - not because I think my racial status is a get out of jail card.

You are accusing me of using identity politics in a way the conservatives think it works, which is "I'm a POC therefore I'm right!" which is not how constructive identity politics works at all. Again. I am clarifying my race because people are accusing me of faking it. Not because of what you've just written here.

"no one cares what your "exceptions" are because some decisions are simply not yours to make." You're talking about this?

I literally said it was not my decision to dictate to first nation peoples what nations they'd like to express themselves through and acknowledged that the US and Canada etc are special cases and I think people understand why that is.  I also never actually ever said I wanted to dictate or make decisions for ALL poc as a whole when it comes to bending hetalia characters. 

But yeah at this point you're trying to take my words out of context by attempting to make it seem like I was making exceptions specifically to overstep people's identities when it was the exact opposite. 

It's not my decision to make? I agree. I was expressing my opinions and preferences, not attempting to make decisions for the whole fandom.

I expressed in my reblog why I, even as a poc, do not like racebending as the topic of poc racebending was literally brought up by two different rebloggers and so I responded accordingly. I don't understand how that is me trying to make decisions for anyone?  By your logic, anyone who expresses why they like racebending hetalia characters to me in my reblogs/asks and in their own posts and uses justifications for it is also trying to make decisions?

I'm sorry but if I actually wanted to police or dictate poc creators racebending content, I would have gone after their posts, fill it with comments telling them that they're wrong, fill the tags with my distaste of racebending, send asks/messages telling them that they're wrong etc. I do not like racebending content personally so I don't interact with it. End of. 

I think me making (1) post (yes this was my first and only post that talked about racebending) on the subject of my distaste of racebending that didn't include any relevant oc/character tags nor did it include calling out anyone by name or even vaguing about them does not count as me trying to 1) Make decisions for poc creators 2) dictate poc creators. You have a very skewed view on what counts as trying to force the hand of poc creators by making decisions for them and someone making a one off post expressing their dislike of racebending, who's explanation for disliking it does not include wanting to silence poc creators.

I want to clarify that the reason why I am personally not a fan of race bending was not to dictate or undermine the creative freedom of POC creators. Instead, the focus was on maintaining the essence of nation anthropomorphism and staying true to the themes of personifying nations, which is what I personally believe.

Tell me where in this paragraph I was specifically targeting POC creators and trying to make decisions for them. "But a lot of race benders are poc so you criticising race bending is a criticism of poc creators" Okay. White people can and have racebent too so I was not aiming to target poc and their decisions specifically and this was obviously a broader criticism of racebending.

Me saying I do not like racebending because I believe it strays away from the theme of personifying nations is not conducive to me saying I want to make decisions for POC hetalians who want to racebend.

Also, where did I say "poc creators should not be allowed to racebend and it is my call to dictate this" Even in my further rebuttal, my issue with racebending is because I believe :

1) Race bent characters garner more attention than canonically non white characters 

2) I believe it is straying away from the theme of personifying nations 

Not

3) I want make sweeping decisions for all poc

"we don't make this content to be your "competition" as you put it"

I did not say that I had an issue with POC creators making race bent hetalia ocs because I believe that POC creators who do this are doing it specifically to compete with other OC makers.

I said racebent white characters are my competition and give an elaboration on why that is. Not "you guys make racebent white characters to be my competition."

Also, no, I can't control what resonates with people. I can't control people consuming racebent characters at a higher rate than actual non white characters and I never said I wanted to. I can be critical about it though and that's what I've done here. Me being critical of racebending does not equal me trying to dictate what poc hetalians do or to make decisions for them. 

Being publicly critical IS trying to persuade people and that's what I did and was aiming to do, but there is a difference between persuasion and trying to dictate people which is what you and others have accused me of doing. I want to ask why you (and others like you) saw my post as a personal attack and an attempt at dictation rather than a generalised post criticising the consumption of racebent white characters vs non white characters.

This last comment of yours I found really egregious.

"and stop invoking nazi germany as a rhetorical device. your words are unbelievably erasive of the racial hierarchy and widespread segregation that already existed for a thousand years in europe. nazi germany was bound to have picked up some ideas from elsewhere along the way but it was first and foremost "inspired" by its own bullshit. end of."

I invoked Nazi Germany as a "rhetorical device"? NAZI GERMANY WAS QUITE LITERALLY INSPIRED BY THE U.S AND HOW THEY'D TREAT THEIR MINORITIES. THIS IS ACTUAL HISTORY. Further, me saying that Nazi Germany was inspired by America is NOT me saying "America was the main inspiration for Nazi Germany and nothing else". 

I find it crazy how you accuse me of bringing up Nazi Germany as a cheap "gotcha!" when THIS is the point you're responding to:

Why I, as a Filipino, PERSONALLY, do not like POC Alfred depictions. Because of these reasons. I was not pulling Nazi Germany references out of my ass for the sake of it. 

I think what you're doing right now is actually overstepping by accusing me of bringing up Nazi Germany rhetoric as a way to shut people up, rather than it being a genuine explanation as to why I am personally uncomfortable with poc America depictions.

I find it insane that you think I'm bringing up Nazi Germany merely as a shock tactic when the reality is that America has hurt people - including my people, and yes, America was one of Nazi Germany's inspirations.

"From boyhood on, Hitler devoured the Westerns of the popular German novelist Karl May. In 1928, Hitler remarked, approvingly, that white settlers in America had “gunned down the millions of redskins to a few hundred thousand.” When he spoke of Lebensraum, the German drive for “living space” in Eastern Europe, he often had America in mind."

"Whitman methodically explores how the Nazis took inspiration from American racism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He notes that, in “Mein Kampf,” Hitler praises America as the one state that has made progress toward a primarily racial conception of citizenship, by “excluding certain races from naturalization.”

To everyone who thinks I just made that up Nazi Germany point up simply for the shock factor.

You clearly have no idea what America did to the Philippines so for you to cheapen down my reasoning for why I personally don't like poc America as a Filipino into just bringing up Nazi Germany rhetoric for the sake of it is. Vile. 

Sure, my OG post definitely could have been worded better. But me getting floods of hateful anons who are still accusing me of policing minorities and trying to silence poc creators when I've already clarified that this was not what I wanted to do 

AND getting people in my inbox accusing me of faking the fact I am Filipino AND the fact that there is now a post floating about implying that I'm white/ I don't have a right to be upset with poc Alfred depictions because I'm not brown (I'm literally Filipino) , therefore attempting to revoke my fucking identity I think is an extremely disproportionate reaction to my post. I've only gotten (2) constructive anons who did fundamentally disagree with me in the end but who were at least respectful. Literally all of the other anons I've received have been downright vitriolic, hateful and racist so forgive me for also being an asshole to the few I responded to.

[davekat-sucks]

imisshomestuck: Hold on, Anon. The team member here used the word "instinctively." The fuck does that mean? Pretending makes sense but the word instinctively implies it's in her nature to be British... a Harry Potter reference?

Nah, Miles there is comparing Calliope (a skeleton reptile anglophile who pretends to be British) to Jake (a skeleton-themed human who is just sort of instinctively British-adjacent). "Instinctively" perhaps is referring that Jake is "naturally inclined" to act British, maybe because of his love of movies or because it's just a dumb pun on his surname, English.

I guess that is Homestuck's whole deal that the characters "instinctivley" fit some category. Almost all of the trolls are stereotypical takes on different types of people you'd encounter online. I wish it just stuck with that. All this talk of racial coding is a headache. Damara being forced to dress the way she does doesn't automatically imply she is Japanese, Hussie then just forced her to speak broken google translate Japanese after as a joke. Hussie needed to learn the word "restraint."

Yeah, but that's exactly why they are stereotypical/one dimensional, you're supposed to be angry/annoyed with their behavior, they are trolls, internet trolls. Damara is a weeaboo, that's why she speaks in google translate japanese, to make fun of people that act like weeaboos online and don't know how to speak the language, just repeat some words they learned through watching anime. If the problem is why is only japanese broken google translate while the trolls speak fluent english, one can come up with multiple creative and interesting wordbuilding explanations as to why is that. Why do some aliens speak english while others some other language (besides the logical explanation that that is the author native tongue and the only one he knows), it's not worth fretting over or calling Damara a racist caricature. I've seen people say that cosplaying while not being japanese is offensive, and it's like, what the fuck. Are people not allowed to draw her either? Way to go fandom, now nobody even wants to depict Damara in fanworks, another win for "representation", policing fanart and cosplay...

As for why people get offended, it's never japanese people speaking against Damara, it's always americans with a savior complex. Why else does nobody says anything against Calliope doing the same but with english culture? The Speedy Gonzalez syndrome basically, where americans get offended on behalf of certain groups of people they think need "saving" and they don't realize or want to accept that mexicans fucking love Speedy. Do you see english speakers get offended when a manga depicts an american character speaking single sentence phrases in english? No, because they know the author maybe doesn't speak the language and it's just a joke. Do you see people insulting Toriyama because Piccolo the alien speaks japanese when his name is italian? No, because Piccolo is an alien, who the fuck cares.

And I wanna comment on Mr and Mr Davekat. They really aren't allowed to be their own characters. They are joined at the hip now.

Yeah I rolled my eyes out of my skull when I read that, if they called John and Roxy Mr and Ms Roxygen people would rightfully call that shit out as being corny as hell.

It is usually Americans that do something for minorities even if the minorities are okay with certain things. Why can't they leave us alone? Talk a bout hero complex. And not surprised that Dave and Karkat are only recognizable for just being a couple. It's about as said when Kanaya had been reduced to being Rose's wife/girlfriend. I feel so sorry to the actual Dave and Karkat fans that like them individually for their character, not who they fuck with.

[rwby-imagines-and-headcanons]

Clover/Marrow NSFW headcanons?

Hell yeah Ace Ops representation!

I wasn't sure whether you wanted separate headcanons or ship headcanons, so I decided to go with separate. If you want me to do Clover x Marrow headcanons just send me another ask and I'll do it!

----------

Clover and Marrow NSFW Headcanons

Clover Ebi

Clover is a playful lover through and through. He finds sex to be a lot of fun and happily enjoys every moment

His foreplay is quite sensual though. He loves to kiss your whole body, from top to bottom. Every part of you will be blessed by his lips. And when I say every part, I mean every part

He is also into small nibbles on your ears and collarbone, and if he gets into it he'll run his tongue across your skin. This man just love using his mouth, okay?

Likes to mix up your positions and isn't afraid to experiment if you have any ideas! But he admits, doggy style is a great default

Loves to tease you quite a bit. If you moan or are particularly loud, he loves to point it out and call attention to it

"Wow baby, I didn't know you liked it that much. I can feel you tightening around my cock, you sound so indecent. But be careful now, the others might hear us~"

Whenever you give him head, Clover gently rests his hand on your head, tangling his fingers in your hair, leading your momentum. It's not forceful, it's steady and comforting

Washes you with praise, making sure you know how good of a job you're doing. Uses a lot of pet names but defaults to "Babe" and "Baby"

Prefers to cum on your face or body, finishing inside doesn't do much for him. Seeing your lewd face covered in his seed is so hot to him

His luck somehow comes in handy, as he almost always climaxes at the perfect time

Likes to lay down after sex with your head on this chest, his arm around you. He is always down for post-sex cuddles where you just talk and laugh together

Marrow Amin

As the disciple Willam once said, "This Boy is a Bottom"

No but seriously, Marrow is pretty submissive in the bedroom. Being in a position who follows orders for a living, he likes someone that will take charge in bed. Something about being dominated makes him go nuts

Very into petplay, has a collection of collars and leashes. But he feels incredibly guilty about it. He is conflicted on whether this is enforcing Faunus sterotypes and negative societal issues. He knows he should probably be disgusted by the notion, but just the thought of how taboo it is turns him on so bad

At the start he can be a real brat. Disobeying, giving snarky complaints, he'll rudely question and turn down everything you want to do in bed. He obviously wants to get a rise out of you, and the longer you hold out the more annoyed he gets

When you eventually lose your cool and shut him up, the fun starts

Once you show you aren't taking his shit and just take what you want, Marrow just melts. Being thrown around and treated so roughly makes him feel so powerless, it's hot as fuck

You better push his face into the bed and force his arms behind him, and absolutely rail his ass

If you ask if or imply he is enjoying it he will try to deny it. But you can tell by the way his tail wags aggressively that it's a big fat lie

While at the start he is a bit more engaged, eventually he is just reduced to no words, just panting and howling in pleasure

After you both finish he just kinda lays there for awhile. His orgasms can get pretty intense so it will take a second for him to stop shaking

Marrow loves to lay in bed spooning with you. Despite being a sub, he doesn't mind being the big or little spoon. Just being in contact with you is enough for him

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[edwardsissyhandsthtdanceslikeabb]

my longsuffering meta on extremism in fandom

aka this reblog was too good not to make into its own post —

✧˚₊‧

(These comments were rebutting calls for censoring predatory / "pedo" fics, with detractors claiming all censorship, without exception, is authoritarian).

"Either you’re for it or you aren’t."

"...if you take it to its logical extreme."

"It’s that they want you backed into a rhetorical corner where you feel compelled to agree with them."

"Something being nasty is not a good reason to ban fiction about it."

my reblog:

im not sure if ppl are aware they're doing it, but they're employing very extreme, conformist, fearmongering language which inadvertently ends up reinforcing exactly what they're critiquing. im definitely not the biggest anti sympathizer around, but the stuff they're talking abt isn't just "nasty", that's a very disingenuous and reductive way of characterizing it, a good portion of it is illegal, and can and has been illegal without simultaneously/automatically targeting people's rights. and while illegal, a lot of it is trivialized, unaddressed, rampant, sewn into cultural norms, or having protections dismantled rn, these are not issues that are unanimously bad or completely safeguarded irl.

additionally, these ppl are not automatically asking for authorized/institutionally enforced censorship just bc they think some things should not be promoted, they're very clearly using words like "we" and "everyone" which alludes to fandom culture and etiquette, and relatedly, they're not necessarily saying that this restriction should extend to victims and educational media, conflating the two ends up weaponizing and tokenizing victims and portraying them as a monolith that all feel and cope the same way. now i'm NOT trying to say that this conversation does not include or has not been informed and spearheaded by survivors [even in this very thread] of a lot of the abuse mentioned, but i think hearing the input of those (also possibly survivors) you don't agree with and considering their feelings is imperative in letting everyone be heard and not enforcing authoritarian dominance you sanction. this doesn't mean you can't have your safe spaces or have to acquiesce to the demands of outsiders — policing the ways ppl explore and deal with their trauma is unhelpful, sanctimonious and pushes purity culture (esp when there's a double standard for victims of violent crime and the main issue here often being HOW ppl express entertainment/enjoyment), but i think understanding their concerns and the ways facets inherent to exploring problematic themes, though relegated to narratives, may bleed into real harm, problems or attitudes that escape the confines of that space or affect fandom as a whole, hurting ppl in tangible ways, and actually functioning as smth dangerous.

this becomes a bit tricky bc what's defined as "pedo" for example varies from person to person (fiction is a vehicle for narrative exploration, meaning characters can and have been reduced to functional constituents as opposed to representation, and consequently, irl contexts can be/are stripped. not everything is actually harmful, there are PLENTY situations where a dynamic that would inherently be predatory irl is just a dynamic and age or power imbalance doesn't factor bc its not real, so those aspects have been eliminated, in the source material or the fic. however if real markers of age or youth or maturity are applied to a character and major facets of their personhood are inextricable from their age, then yk, that aligns with promotion). plus "knowing" who is a victim or not can often undermine anonymity and make ppl feel doubted or pressured, but i think a very rudimentary and balanced way to get around this is to actually evaluate what the content is saying and encouraging those who its intended for to hold the author accountable if they end up platforming problematic matter in a way that romanticizes, undermines or promotes it. like i think its fairly easy to tell when someone is exploring a dynamic or theme, portraying a dynamic, using a theme as a narrative vehicle, delving into the theme's dubiousness or complexity to the characters or working through smth vs using something effectively as propaganda to excuse or cause irl harm to marginalized communities, and if that distinction becomes muddy i think its just as easy to engage the author instead of automatically deferring to either extreme of censorship or blind support.

language like "if taken to the extreme" is very revealing bc why do we have to do that? it also reveals that we're NOT there, and that intervention IS a spectrum, we CAN employ nuance ppl. yall's kneejerk should NOT be to reject balance or productivity or coherent arguments.

this shouldn't be a puritanical fight where each side levies their big moral argument as to why they're superior and ur a bad person if you don't support them (which is what implying that censoring works that promote, not depict but promote problematic themes is equivalent to erasing lgbtq or victims' rights. bc realize it or not, ppl are equivocating the two — and i get why, but we don't have to / it can be implemented in a way that doesn't).

we're all clearly doing this bc we care abt ppl, so let's maybe start doing that, yeah?

[sexy-lil-wizard-freak]

I got rid of HP.

I have been running my home ruleset for some folks, focusing more on travel this time. This ruleset was made within a philosophy of characters being translators for players. Essentially they are the method by which the player interacts with the world. Roleplay, tactics, etc all come second to that first goal of translation. One example of this is removing Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma from a D&D. Players don't need those translated since they can interact with the world with their personal "player stats" OR their own facsimile for those stats if they'd like to roleplay. Having said that, I got rid of HP.

If you think about it, removing HP doesn't exactly align with "characters as translators" or "player-centric characters". Afterall I am not attacking my players every time a goblin does. Weirdly enough I found the idea of HP and the legacy it has in the metatext of RPGs to be limiting, not that it didn't fit.

The game I was running was more focused on travel than your usual dungeon fare, and I think travel gets the short end of the stick from a systemic standpoint a lot of times. It either gets gamified to a point where the act of travel could be anything if you slapped a different coat of paint on it OR it is ignored and essentially only crops up when a random encounter happens in the crawl. Thus I decided to go a bit more simulationist for once, I just needed an impactful "dial to turn". HP is one of if not the most important dial, so I started there.

Stamina

Stamina is one part of the representation of a character's overall well-being. At its basest level, it represents your character's energy levels and how fatigued they are. Unlike HP it does not represent meat, and when a character runs out of it they do not necessarily die.

Determining starting Stamina.

At character creation, roll a number of D6 equal to the character's number of Traits. (We'll talk about Traits another time. For now, think of them something like Levels + Skills.) Do this again any time the character gains a new Trait. If the character's new Stamina total is less than or equal to their original value, add one to their original value and make that their new maximum Stamina.

Using Stamina.

A character must spend 1 Stamina to make any roll.

Any time a character moves from one hex to another they must spend 1 Stamina.

A character may spend 1 Stamina to gain +1 on a roll.

A character may reduce their maximum amount of Stamina by an item's Load to carry it.

Subtract damage dealt to a character from their Stamina.

Running out of Stamina.

If a character ever goes below 1 Stamina they pass out and gain a new Scar Trait.

Recovering Stamina

Eating recovers 1D6 Stamina + the Grade of the meal.

Sleeping recovers 1 Stamina plus the Grade of their resting situation (bedding, shelter, temperature, etc).

Magical means.

The above gives us a ton of flexibility in what we can use this very important mechanical dial for. We can track exertion, time, effort, exhaustion, hunger, etc. Technically we could call it HP and just treat it all like damage but sometimes renaming a metatextual pillar within a community can be more powerful than coming up with a wholly new mechanic.

Since I was focusing on Travel and making it a bit more simulationist, I decided I wanted to wear down characters, make choosing what you bring with you meaningful, and make upgrades to basic travel equipment impactful. Hence Stamina, Load (How much Stamina something costs to carry.), and Grade (How good this thing is at being that thing, eg the +2 in a "+2 Sword".).

Anywho, I got this schpeal out of my system and finally wrote something on here! I'll try to do it more. I have a longer post about "player-centric characters" in the drafts but I don't knkow if it will ever see the light of day. I'm having trouble putting it into words. Thanks for reading folks!

[adam-sadmon]

Palace Review: Kamoshida's Castle

Trigger Warning: Suicide, abuse and SA

Palace Ruler: Suguru Kamoshida: As the first Palace Ruler Kamoshida introduces a lot of the thematic and sociopolitical elements of Persona 5 with it's emphasis on the imbalances of power in society in all areas, and thus starting off with something small and innocuous like a school teacher is a good means of not only building up the threat level of each subsequent Palace Ruler but highlighting the corruption in even the smallest facets of society. Furthermore, being a teacher, there is a societal expectation of trust and guardianship associated with his position, one which he and many like him in the real world weaponise.

I think were I to put into words what I likr about this arc of the game is that it strikes possibly the closest to home. The Thieves at this point in time are the smallest and weakest they've ever been and are preyed upon by someone who abuses the system's apathy towards them under the guise of a role model for all those under him. Even his first appearance picking Ann up in the rain is purposefully deceptive in its framing; a goofy looking, jovial teacher offering Joker and Ann a ride to school, where could there be possibly be a harm in that?

Visuals: First of all the thematic image of a castle and it's King I think is a decent design ethos for Kamoshida as a Palace Ruler, it's especially eye catching in its use of cobblestone hallways and oppressive stone structures contrasted with the brilliant and regal reds of its carpets and curtains and, especially deeper into the dungeon, it's emphasis on gaudy and headache inducing golden furnishings, illustrative not only of the power imbalance between Kamoshida the King and his slaves (representing in reality a teacher and his students) but of the conceited nature of Kamoshida's list for power.

Being the Ruler of Lust Kamoshida's castle does a good job illustrating this thematically, a good example being with the headless statues of female students in their gym uniforms. Focusing solely on their torsos the statues as envisioned by Kamoshida's twisted psyche literally cut off the head, and thus the person, of the girls reducing them to their most objectified parts, literally dehumanising them into objects. This theme is furthered by the blending of medieval instruments of torture like the rack and the cross with their more modern adoption as they relate to BDSM. BDSM is a theme often present in regards to sexuality in Persona 5 as it represents sex and sexuality weaponised, in Kamoshida's case, as is the case with most abusers, sex and sexual assault isn't about the act itself but the exerting of dominance over it's victims. This idea actually gets flipped in a neat little way with the awakening of Ann's Carmen and it's leashed male slaves, a representation of Ann no longer feeling ostracised and letting herself be objectified for her looks but finding empowerment within her feminity.

This visual manifestation of lust is furthered by a lot of the lighting in his palace, those same dark stone walls and floors awash in unnaturally red and even purple torchlight like one would see in a sleazy 70's porno, which leads us to

Audio: On the note of sleazy 70's porno, the Castle's main theme 'King, Queen and Slaves' is styled exactly like one with a bluesy and laid back keyboard leading an equally mellow drum snare, all fairly minimalist as if the dialogue "Pizza guy here, this one's got extra sausage" is supposed to be read over it. It's a good reincorporation of stylistic aspects of P5's soundtrack as a whole (mainly the heavy use of that bluesy keyboard) with a subdued sinister edge, a perfect musical caricature of its Palace's ruler.

In terms of the Thieves' progression this arc is almost cheating with not 1, not 2 but 3 awakenings.

Narrative: As mentioned in the segment going over Kamoshida himself I particularly like this segment of the game due to its positing of the Thieves. While the scale of their struggle is small the stakes for them at least are almost as high as they'll ever be, with the rising tension of more and more volleyball students turning up with bruises until it reaches it's summet with Shiho's attempted suicide, easily some of the darkest and realistic writing P5 has ever approached.

Now, I'm not reviewing the awakening's but I will note that the blending of the accursed anime adaptation as well his little narrative import at that point hurt Joker's quite a bit, but Ryuji's and Ann's being game standouts for me, for both the extreme pain both physically and emotionally they endured up to this point at the hand's of Kamoshida as well as flourishes like Captain Kidd telling Ryuji to 'raise the flag of rebellion' or Ann destroying the false image Kamoshida and a lot of Japan's misogynistic society has of her.

Last of note and something a lot of people tend to forget that added a lot to their situation was that at one point the Thieves were not above the risk of killing Kamoshida when that risk was presented to them. It furthers the dire nature of their situation in this arc as well as the more grounded and serious mood the early half of P5 had.

Shadows: First of note, the solidified forms of the Shadows as they adhere to Kamoshida's will blends well with the Palace itself and their design itself is solid: Brawny, hunched knights with eerily soulless metal masks for faces, with the stronger variants wearing gold. It's a good look and I especially like during the first unintentional trip into the Castle how they portray their weight and true danger.

As for the selection of shadows within the Castle they're all fairly adherent to the theme of a medieval castle, mainly consisting of western inspired folkloric or mythological figures like Jack-O-Lanterns, Kelpies, Pixies, Mandrakes etc.

They falter slightly when it comes to their symbolic significance in regards to Kamoshida's Castle representing Lust, which is why I'll note the inclusion of Incubi and Succubi as welcome appearances, but besides VERY niche bits of IRL lore like the mandrake supposedly being an aphrodisiac that's about as far as it goes.

Gameplay: One thing to note that brings down this Palace specifically which admittedly is rather unavoidable is that, being the first Palace, there is a LOT of tutorialising, with not only long intervals of mechanical explanations but lore as well, such as what the metaverse, shadows, Palaces and Rulers are, which in the long run I can see as being necessary but regardless makes replaying the Castle a slog.

Beyond that the Castle itself is fairly easy, with light puzzle elements that go by in the span of a minute which is it's only main diversion from standard gameplay.

Boss- Suguru 'Asmodeus' Kamoshida

First of all I appreciate the allusion to the mythological demon prince of the same name, Asmodeus, not only a ruler but a representation of Lust. This naming scheme comes back for every subsequent boss and every time I get a nice "heh" upon recognising the comparison and it's implications.

As for design Asmodeus is easily in the upper strata of bosses in P5, aesthetically speaking. When stripped of his pomp Kamoshida is ugly, his body ill-proportioned and almost childlike as if to present him as an ego obsessed baby, a grotesquely long tongue lolling from his mouth rather phallicly. I especially like the severed human lower-torsos floating in his goblet of wine, Kamoshida metaphorically and literally feeding on the young in a bid for power.

Royale added in some small tweaks like the inclusion of a Shadow Mishima as a weak summon which added little more than further characterisation, but hey, that's what I'm here for.

Overall Rating: 8/10

[paperanddice]

The akhana is a truly strange creature, a cloud of grey mist filled with sparkling points of like almost like stars, formed roughly into the shape of an eye. A tail-like appendage of mist extends from the edge, and four blue-grey arms, each ending in a hand with three digits, are arranged around the outside of the cloud. Despite its appearance, its body is quite solid (and a little slimy).

The akhana is a strange extra planar being that judges and maintains a balance between birth and death. Each one travels constantly, watching for anything that it views as damaging this balance, and seeking to try and correct this damage. How it judges an imbalance is not clear to non-aeons, and the akhana is rarely interested or able to explain its process, instead just taking direct action. Sometimes this involves returning a creature to life, while others it will involve destroying a particular creature. On very rare occasions, a mortal spellcaster of some kind has summoned an akana and presented a case for why they believed a particular creature or event was damaging this balance. On even rarer occasions, they were able to convince the akhana to take the course of action they requested.

The akhana's method of communication is viciously difficult for mortals to comprehend. Rather than speak any language, or even telepathically convey words directly to other creatures, they simply project a single telepathic intent, usually a visual and audio representation of what the akhana expects. It may send an image of a crumbling city to indicate it expects a town's destruction, though there's no clarification of whether this is a warning of an event that may occur, or what the akhana intends to do itself. Attempting to question the akhana to clarify its meaning is usually ignored, or worse viewed as opposing the creature and a cause for attack.

There are other beings similar to the akhana out there, other such creatures that oversee universal dichotomies. Where exactly they come from, by what measure they hold the universe, and how they judge the balances they oversee are all questions that mortals have not yet uncovered answers to, but scholars aware of these esoteric and obscure creatures are attempting to discover them.

Originally from the Pathfinder Bestiary2. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

5th Edition

Akhana Medium celestial (aeon), true neutral Armor Class 17 (natural armor) Hit Points 195 (17d8 + 119) Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. Str 19 (+4) Dex 21 (+5) Con 24 (+7) Int 14 (+2) Wis 19 (+4) Cha 16 (+3) Saving Throws Con +11, Wis +8, Cha +7 Skills Arcana +6, Deception +7, Insight +8, Medicine +8, Perception +8, Religion +6 Damage Immunities cold, poison Damage Resistances fire, lightning Condition Immunities poisoned Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18 Languages envisaging 120 ft. Challenge 12 (8400 XP) Envisaging. The akana communicates through a form of telepathy, nearly incomprehensible to non-aeons. It sends psychic projections of a single concept with a combination of visual and aural stimulation, and expects the target to interpret the meaning it intended. This otherwise functions like telepathy. Extension Of All. The akhana has advantage on Arcana, Medicine, and Religion checks. It can also communicate telepathically with any aeon on the same plane as it, and can send empathetic messages to aeons on other planes of existence. Regeneration. The akhana regains 5 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point. Soul Siphoning. If the akhana is grappling a creature at the start of its turn, it can use a bonus action to touch that creature with its tail and attempt to siphon its life. The target must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) necrotic damage on a failure. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. If the target's hit point maximum is reduced to 0 by this effect, the target dies and if the akhana isn't holding a soul it can capture and hold the target's soul. The target can't be raised from the dead, and its body is preserved by a gentle repose spell as long as the akhana holds its soul. The akhana holds the soul until it uses an action to release it, the akhana is forced to release it by a wish spell or similar effect, or the akhana is killed. If the soul is released while the akhana is within 300 feet of the creature's body, the soul immediately returns to the body, returning it to life. The creature's hit point maximum is returned to normal, and the creature regains 1 hit point. The akhana can only hold one soul at a time. If a creature's saving throw is successful against this effect, the creature is immune to the akhana's Soul Siphoning for the next 24 hours. Actions Multiattack. The akhana makes three Claw attacks, or four Claw attacks if it is flying. It can choose to make two fewer attacks in order to cast one at will spell from its Spellcasting. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d4+5) slashing damage plus 7 (2d6) radiant or necrotic damage (akhana's choice). Instead of dealing damage, the akhana can grapple the target (escape DC 16). Spellcasting. The akhana casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components, and using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks): At will: cure wounds (as a 3rd level spell), gentle repose, inflict wounds, lesser restoration, sanctuary 3/day: greater restoration 1/day each: finger of death, raise dead

13th Age

The akhana is capable of casting the resurrection spell, though doing so destroys the akhana. As such, they rarely do it upon request. This can be sometimes to the player's benefit, and often not. The effect on the target is always determined by the number of times it has been returned to life.

Akhana  6th level caster [celestial]  Initiative: +10 Multi-Arm Clawing +11 vs. AC (2 attacks) - 9 damage. Duel Hit: If both attacks hit during the same turn, the akhana can make a soul siphoning attack during its next turn as a quick action. [Special Trigger] Soul Siphoning +11 vs. PD - 20 negative energy damage, and the target must start making last gasp saves. If the akhana is stunned or moved away from the creature and can’t return to it on its next turn, the creature doesn’t have to make a last gasp save that turn. On the fourth failed save, the akhana pulls the target’s soul free from its body, and the target dies. Its body is magically preserved and it can’t be returned to life as long as the akhana holds its soul, which it can do indefinitely. The soul is released if the akhana chooses to do so as an action, or if the akhana is killed. If the akhana is engaged with the creature’s body when the soul is released, the soul immediately returns to the body and restores the creature to life with 1 hit point. The akhana can’t use soul siphoning if it is holding onto a soul. Miss: The akhana can’t target that creature with soul siphoning for the rest of the battle. C: Manipulate Life and Death +11 vs. PD (one nearby creature) - 15 holy or negative energy damage (akhana’s choice), and one other nearby creature of the akhana’s choice takes 5 damage of the opposite type. Natural Even Hit: Instead of dealing damage to a second creature, the akhana or one nearby creature heals 3d6 hit points. Flight. Resist Cold 14+. AC 21 PD 17 MD 20 HP 92

[weekend-whip]

When the EMs use their powers, what does it feel like to them? Is there a physical/metaphysical sensation related to their element? Is it different for each one?

Okay! Before getting into that, here’s a bit of a little refresher, and further clarification: 

So, as previously discussed, an Elemental Master is seen as 1:1 with their Element. They are their Element, the Element is them, AND they are connected (very important key word for later in the story) at the soul. At the very center of both a Master and an Element’s being is the other, so to speak. What one feels, so does the other, and while both sides may have a will, the real difference between a Master and their Element is that a Master has awareness, hence why most of the time the Master is the one in primary control. 

Losing that awareness is what briefly occurs during an Outburst, and can be something permanent that happens in NRG Mode. This is why the pupils fade during Outbursts/NRG Mode—it’s a physical representation of the Master’s reduced awareness and the Element taking over.

(...ooh, and while we’re on the topic, this is once again why pupil color is also important: Black means no element connection whatsoever, whether being just your average human or an Non-Inheritor Descendant; White means potential elemental connection regardless of whether it’s Pre-Potential or Lost Potential; and Colored means attained elemental connection, which occurs Post-Potential...even if you as an Elemental Master “”forgot”” what your True Potential was.) 

Anywaaaay, with that in mind, physically using the Element is different depending on the state that Master is in when the Element is being called upon: 

When using their powers “normally” (i.e. after obtaining True Potential and using their powers/abilities), this is the Master controlling the Element (Master > Element). Subconsciously using abilities won’t really invoke any particular feeling (i.e. Zane’s visions, Nya talking to fish, Jesse surprising people/being surprised), but when an effort is made to connect with the Element within, that’s when the physical/metaphysical sensations kick in. Cole will feel more like a rock; heavier, sturdier, unstoppable. Jay will feel more like a bolt of lightning; wired, uncontainable, untouchable. It’s like...by going out of their way to connect with the Element, they manifest their own elemental traits more outwardly, I suppose. They get amplified too, in a way. 

When using their powers in NRG Mode, this is where Master and Element are ultimate sync (Master = Element). Master and Element work in perfect tandem; the Element doesn’t overpower/takeover the Master (...at first), and the Master doesn’t have to work as hard to call upon the Element. They are each other, they are one, and using powers feels as natural as breathing yet it’s so much more. Everything about yourself mirrored in the Element itself, to the point that it feels like a complete miracle and the most obvious thing at the same time...or, everything and nothing all at once (eye emoji).

For example, Zane in NRG can experience every sensation of Ice itself in an instant, which would be overwhelming to anyone else, but to him it’s like he’s truly living for the first time (ignoring any Nindroid aspects that could be at play, haha). There’s not the slightest bit of resistance or hesitation; you know exactly what the Element wants to do and how to achieve it, and you can command it with the ease of waving a hand. And, everything occurs just as you’d expect it would. 

(...okay, well, this one’s better to explain element by element buuuuut that’s what True Potential scenes are for. Otherwise I’d be here waxing element poetic all day and I ain’t got that time ;V. Basically in this state everything feels natural and like you’re in the element itself and the way things are “supposed” to be!) 

...but lingering in NRG Mode for too long opens the window for the Element to overtake the Master, and instead of the Master channeling the Element from their soul, the Element commandeers the Master from the soul (so, Master < Element). Inversely to the first method, instead of a Master amplifying aspects of an Element to themselves, the Element amplifies what a Master feels to enforce the Element’s will. 

...And the scary thing is that this in and of itself rarely feels bad. In the case of an Outburst (which is essentially Baby NRG Mode), being able to unleash your emotions as intensely and violently exactly as they feel, no matter what they are, exactly as the Element within you wants to...feels great! It’s cathartic. It’s what thee Master wants too, even if its deep, deep down. t’s why it’s so hard to stop it once you get stuck in it; it’s why it’s usually better to find a way to unleash it all rather than bottling it up. 

Everyone reaches a point where they just want to rage and scream and throw things and cackle insanely and wail to cry...but being an Elemental Master is hard when you start to feel like that, because the Element isn’t aware that you can’t just do those things...and the Master is more easily enticed to give in and act that way because of it, especially when they’re at a point of mental/emotional weakness. (Fire was meant to burn, and it wants to burn, so why shouldn’t it burn...would be the logic of Fire if it could think, for example)

...and in the case of NRG Mode, feeling so in tune with yourself and your Element is part of what makes it hard to pull all your awareness out of it afterwards, especially if you were to do it often, or in a great moment of desperation. Just like an Outburst, it’s all too easy to submit oneself to the Element because it feels right. But, instead of the Element temporarily leeching off of a Master like in an Outburst, this would be more like the Master surrendering themselves to the Element (or, in the case of someone actually mastering NRG, the Element surrenders to the Master instead). Specifics would also differ by Element as well. (...Nya be like SUBMERGE ME—)

And, finally, in the case of using powers before full True Potential (*cough* Lloyd *cough* Jesse), while one can feel the application of the element’s aspects just like any other Master, it’s not as natural yet. As without True Potential/full understanding of oneself, it can feel more like trying to use the powers of a stranger, rather than that of a friend you’ve known your whole life. (...due to Lloyd struggling with an identity crisis and Jesse being...Jesse, always struggling to feel comfortable in his owns skin. 

(...and both of them not being able to love themselves yet but that’s totally neither here nor there ahha ha h a h a )

But in all cases of Masters using their Element (or...Element using Master...), a sense of completeness is achieved, regardless of method or element. 

(sorry this got a bit off-track; I heard “metaphysical” and went wild) 

[crusherthedoctor]

8, 9, 10, 11, 12!

12 has already been answered, so that leaves the other four. :]

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Where would I even begin?

Mr. Principles being considered a faithful representation of Sonic's character?

Eggdad being praised because Eggman before that point was apparently one-dimensional?

Sonic and Shadow not crying waterfalls = Sonic and Shadow have no emotion?

The Freedom Fighters being touted as more useful or important than the game cast?

Criticising the Pontaff era for supposedly being too meta, while Frontiers gets a pass when it actually is overly meta?

The belief that wanting the characters to be reasonably accurate to (or at least be respectful to) their game selves is too demanding and toxic?

Frequently getting the details wrong in the games they claim to be a fan of?

Ian Flynn/Evan Stanley said it, therefore it must be true?

I could do this all day...

9. worst part of canon

Frontiers.

What a twist, right?

Yes, other games are obviously worse on an objective scale, like '06. This is not an anti-Pontaff extremist situation where I seriously try to claim that ___ as a game functions less than '06. But with all the other games I'm not so keen on, I can think of a redeeming quality. SA2 introduced Rouge, had some cool Eggman moments when isolated, and some nice aesthetics like the Pyramid Base and some A.R.K. levels. Unleashed had an iconic intro cutscene and gave us Eggmanland and the Egg Dragoon. The Storybooks portrayed Sonic himself well, with Secret Rings also having one of the few good non-Eggman villains. '06... has a lot of entertainment factor with how bad it is. Even the Boom games are at least easy to ignore, since they're part of the now-defunct Boom sub-franchise.

Frontiers is the only game I can think of where I struggle to come up with a single thing I like about it. Is my bitterness amplified by how dirty they did Eggman? Yeah, I'll hold my hands up and admit that, but by no means is that my only axe to grind. The way the rest of the cast were used, Super Sonic being overused to the point of losing all meaning and creating an uphill struggle for future games because Muh Dragon Ball Power Levels, the story itself and what it did to the Sonic lore, being completely sick and tired of Flynn's growing influence in the entire franchise, the game itself being extremely dull and having the overly desaturated environments and mostly indistinguishable enemy designs to go along with it... This is Sonic's return to glory? A game that desperately wants to not be a Sonic game marks the Year of Sonic? Give me a break.

It doesn't help that after all this time, I still rarely see anyone actually explain what makes the game or story good, instead preferring to belittle those who don't see what the big deal is, or using its popularity as an indication of quality. Kind of like the IDW standom. Funny, that.

10. worst part of fanon

...Also Frontiers.

Thanks for nothing, Sage.

Beyond that, there's the equally obvious ramifications of what IDW has done to the fandom. Namely, how Sonic, Shadow, Eggman, and other characters have been looked at with a warped lens by fans thanks to IDW's portrayal of them, and their efforts to justify their issues and/or pin the blame on SEGA.

Even IDW's own characters aren't safe from this; Flynn and Stanley's tug-of-war with Starline left lasting consequences, as did reducing Tangle and Whisper to be little more than obligatory lesbian rep (or a nightmare face dispenser in the case of Whisper). And tell me this, dear reader: with all the fanart of her that exists, when's the last time, or even the first time, you saw Surge be used in a fanfic, with an actual story? As her actual self (for better or worse)?

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

None, actually. But only because it does fuck all regardless, lol.

[pridepages]

Acts of Love: Teacher of the Year

I just finished Teacher of the Year by MA Wardell. I have thoughts...

Here there be spoilers!

Representation is a word that’s used so often I fear it’s almost lost meaning. We nod along and agree that it’s important to have in theory. But until you find that book that hits you where you live...the one that makes you feel it...Can you really understand?

I never thought I loved romance novels until I started reading queer ones. I never knew how much I needed one about a teacher until I read this one.

MA Wardell’s debut Teacher of the Year has been described as a love letter to educators, but there’s something so impersonal about that. Of course teachers should be respected and celebrated for what we do! It’s rewarding work, it’s fun work, but it’s also incredibly hard work. By the same token, I think it’s become all too easy for people to reduce ‘teacher’ to yet another label. We’re either great evil or pure as the driven. We’re either entitled or exploited.

How about this: We’re human.

It’s a concept that seems obvious on its face, but I assure you that we are expected not to be. We are expected to be Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect In Every Way.

The worst part? Who gets to define perfect? What parts of yourself will you be expected to cut away to fulfill those expectations? 

That’s what I love so much about Wardell’s narrator, Marvin Block. He’s not perfect. He’s an anxious mess with ADHD who doesn’t have his ducks in a row (“they typically dance at a rave”). But he’s got the one thing that counts: he loves his kids.

At the virtual launch, Wardell laughingly shared that he wondered if it was a good idea to “put teaching tips in the sexy book.” (For the record: my vote is a hard yes. Fellow teachers need all the help they can get!) But I think the only bit of wisdom we really need is this: “Teaching is an act of love.”

I live in what we in the United States call a Deep Red state. Where I live, the LGBTQ+ community is under attack. And the government is hiding it under the disingenuous plea to Think Of The Children.

Because, apparently, my very existence in the classroom is a threat to my students.

I wear my beaded rainbow bracelets and my rainbow gem necklace as a silent act of rebellion. But I also have to bite my tongue as two students in study hall debate whether or not Alexander the Great was gay (the answer as far as I’m concerned? Yes)---Why? Because if I were to say even something as innocuous as: “while we can’t even be sure how a historical person would label, there is some evidence that he had a male partner,” I could be fired. For discussing inappropriate material with a child.

I look around my school and I don’t see a single ally poster or rainbow flag. And I’m no fool. I know exactly what that means.

So I got used to the bifurcation. The French teacher can tell her students she got married this year, but I’d better shut up if I ever get a girlfriend. It hurts, but you know--you go sort of numb. You get used to it.

And why do you get used to it?

Because you love what you do. And more than that, you love your students.

But that kind of love shouldn’t demand this kind of sacrifice, the kind that hurts you so deeply it’s like chronic pain.

And that’s why Wardell’s book is so important. Marvin Block gets to have a happy beginning, middle, and end as a teacher. Everyone from admin to fellow teachers to his students knows he’s gay. And no one questions his fitness to work with children. Because a queer identity isn’t inherently, solely sexual.

That said, Wardell also said the quiet part out loud and proud: “Teachers have sex, too!” And Marvin gets to have it all. He lands the Hot Dad, awakens Hot Dad’s latent bisexuality, and has all kinds of steamy sex from the tender to the kinky. As he should! Being a teacher doesn’t make Marvin any less human. And humans should get to have joyful, uninhibited expressions of love and sexuality with other consenting humans!!

The funniest part of the whole thing is the reminder that being a teacher can--and often does--become a part of your identity as much as being queer. Like how Marvin guides Hot Dad--Olan--through sex “Like a competent teacher” who does “my best to cheer him on with the phrases ‘just like that’ and ‘a little slower.’” 

That’s really what makes this book so special: We get to see all the figurative and literal acts of love by one teacher. We see Marvin as a complete person. Imperfect? Maybe. But definitely whole.

By turns sweet, spicy, funny, and above all timely, Teacher of the Year should be required reading. School is in session, and Mr. Block is modeling the lesson.