#same boring conversation

[ladymazzy]

I am not shocked or surprised by any new announcement/action by the tories - and yet...

It's just one thing after another

Painting over cartoon murals intended to put newly arrived asylum seeking children at ease (because something something 'child safety stop the boats!)

Proudly declaring that they're going to 'clamp down' on degrees that don't immediately lead to high income employment (because the so-called 'poor value' of degrees has got nothing to do with the imposition of tuition fees, anti-intellectualism, and an exploitative labour market. Nope. In fact, culture and learning is bad and erudition should be the sole preserve of posh bastards who vote tory)

Continued determination to make it mandatory that teachers inform parents if a child is questioning their gender, requiring parental consent before validating trans kids' names and identities (because parents are absolutely never abusive, and what's safeguarding anyway?)

Getting some culture war dickhead to be the new Ofsted leader (because zero-tolerance has proved itself to be the most successful way to ensure no children are ever left behind in education)

Squeezing as many vulnerable asylum seekers as (im)possible on to a barge carefully positioned on the outskirts of an underesourced, tory represented community with relatively high levels of deprivation (because it's super generous, won't rile the locals leading to further demonisation of an already vulnerable group of people)

Offering up a stingy pay rise for public sector workers which will be covered by increasing visa and nhs fees for migrants (gosh we are so lucky there are no immigrants working in the public sector - especially in the nhs!)

Not to mention every few days a tory gets published in a right wing rag spouting some cruel, dogwhistle laden nonsense demonising marginalised communities, and acting like they haven't inacted policies which have - quite literally - killed people, and left many more impoverished

And in the midst of all this, there are still centrists bleating on about 'reaching across the aisle' and befriending tories. How, pray, can you maintain a healthy friendship with someone who would - at best - second guess you if you told them you'd been subjected to racist police harassment, or been rendered stateless because the racist hostile environment policy rejected your claim of citizenship, or that your trans kid was spiralling because they weren't getting adequate support, or your aunt was stuck in Khartoum because she's the wrong kind of refugee

It's not that being 'progressive' immediately makes you a great person; we're human and just as prone to being insufferable dickheads as anyone else (not to mention, despite alleged political views, prone to all the bigotries...), but happily aligning yourself with such consistent cruelty and dimness kind of makes you a dubious character does it not

[chamerionwrites]

One of the more fascinating examples of fandom’s faves-based morality I’ve personally encountered recently was the number of people in the Mon Mothma tag who were absolutely BURNING with righteous fury at her 13-year-old daughter in Andor, when the worst things we have actually seen said character do are (1) be kind of a little shit to her mom (again, she’s thirteen) and (2) fall victim to a space tradwife cult. You know, because she’s thirteen. And has a pretty self-evidently lonely and unpleasant home life. And lives directly in the rotten beating ideological heart of space fascism.

The number of people vocally wishing punishment on a fictional tween was WILD. I unfollowed that tag after ~48 hours lol

[nanihirunkits]

Do you want to do it this way? What do you mean? That you would quit school. Yeah, I'm serious. I won't go back to school. You’ll never see me again. Are you trying to annoy me?

HIGH SCHOOL FRENEMY | EP8

[moeblob]

The Ice Deity and the Fire Deities

While very much male, the ice deity has been dubbed "Princess" by Ohime and Ohiwe since they love to give lil nicknames to their fellow deities. The two overheard mortals talking and using the phrase "ice queen" for the first time and were like "wait can you elaborate" and when hearing what it meant, they realized their ice deity buddy bro is nowhere NEAR that cold. So he can be the ice princess rather than queen. (he just accepts his fate from them and no other deity uses that nickname. it's just the fire duo)

[eightspringdays]

not to be that person, but it's so funny to me that for lesbians it has to be like this super cool ship, no problematic, not too boring but not too flashy, not too vanilla but not too sexual either, and maybe if it fills all those boxes, THEN it can be good

and these are the same people who would ship two poles if they had dicks. that's all im saying

[statementlou]

https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share

did he or did he not lose fans then?

I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:

There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.

Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)

NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.

[taamlok]

taash tag is like: 5 multi-paragraph hate posts in a row, 3 posts about another character that were tagged taash for no reason, another 5 hate posts, screenshot with 7 notes, lucanis x reader fanfic, more hate posts

[kinokoshoujoart]

the coolest kids in forgotten valley!!☆

(…it seems there may have been a stretch of time where rock and lumina were the only kids in forgotten valley…🥲)

poseref

[shalom-iamcominghome]

This isn't, like, the biggest deal, but I do find it funny when people are almost... surprised or shocked that converts unironically believe in judaism and also unironically align themselves with jewishness. It's just something I've seen a small handful of times and it's like... of course I (and others!) unironically believe in this stuff. I'm not putting in this work because I don't have enough going on in my life

[wildsaltair]

Ranting in the tags isn’t enough so I’m going to say one more time that just because Maximus isn’t morally gray doesn’t mean he isn’t complex

[fromtheseventhhell]

I ignore about 95% of the conversations surrounding Arya having killed people because, outside of Arya stans, people refuse to include the context of the very violent circumstances she experiences + her trauma which influences her actions. She wasn't destined to be a killer and her being forced on the run, having to survive during a war (at times on her own), having to witness countless people being tortured and murdered, being enslaved as a prisoner of war, having to witness the deaths of her family, etc. are all hugely important factors. Not to mention the times when her life is literally on the line and she has to make tough decisions to ensure her survival. The only time her trauma is acknowledged is when people are using it to prove she's "too far gone", otherwise it's essays on how she hasn't suffered that much. It's so boring how people ignore well-developed characters just to reduce them to one or two aspects of their story. And this treatment is only for certain characters; let someone mention Sansa being part of the plot to poison Sweetrobin and all of a sudden, people can understand being forced to make questionable decisions under difficult circumstances.

[sylhorn]

I’m kind of baffled about the state of dawntrail discussions having two parties in regards to Living Memory, one being “shutting it down is amoral” and the other being “it’s moral and not at all like what Emet-Selch wanted to do with us”. It’s like a lot of people refuse to engage with the narrative from any other perspective other than their own when the game essentially hits you over the head with the message.

Yes, the existence of Living Memory is unsutainable and amoral and, frankly, pointless – you can make the very valid argument that the people there were just AI chatbots trained on the memories of a given individual, leeching off of the souls of others, their existence demanding the genocide of the entire universe in the end. I agree, in our eyes, Living Memory is an affront to life, sure!

Nobody seems to talk about that this is the exact same perspective Emet-Selch had about us, or when mentioned, people say that it isn’t the same. It is? He very explicitly tells us that the people living on the shards today are pale imitations to what he considered to be life, and thus shutting it down and trying to undo his mistake IS the solution (he is very much like Solas from DA in this regard), because in his eyes there’s nothing to lose but everything to gain. Emet-Selch saw us in the same light we see the people of Living Memory, and the game is painfully unsubtle in drawing this parallel. Even with the differences (we are not recreated memories but actual souls being reborn from the aetherial sea, etc-etc), the game WANTS you to make this connection between Emet and what we do. It is quite literally the point!

Yes, Living Memory has to be shut down because its biggest drawback is that it’s unsustainable and would continue to destroy what we deem to be lives. It is also arguably an affront to what we consider life and its natural end (directly opposing the message of Endwalker). The Endless aren’t even too hung up about this shutdown, bar Sphene. Shutting down Living Memory is necessary.

But you can’t say it was morally good and unquestionable if you can’t give Emet’s views the same grace. In the end, both his plans (and the Ascians at large, frankly) and Living Memory had to be stopped because that means survival for us, but to divorce the two narratives to maintain the WoL and co.’s moral superiority is disingenuous and does the story a disservice.

[mrthology]

Now that the servers have been gone for a while, why didn't you and @ashilrak allow discourse and discussion of the negative aspects of the books? You could have kept it in its own channel for those who didn't want to see it. There are endless errors in the books regarding mythology and more that should be discussed, even if you don't like it. Criticism is a valid part of fandom, and you both prevented that in large servers as bigger authors.

ashilrak has their anon off, but this is for them as well.

Great question, here you go!!!

[dawntheduckrb]

Interest poll:

If I made some kind of discord for people on here, would anyone be interested in using it?

Was thinking that a group chat would be really fun, since quick communication is a lot easier than having to make a whole post every time you wanna talk. Apparently tumblr had group chats at one point, but took it away for... some? reason? So this seems like the next best option, if there's any interest :>

[daisywords]

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[compacflt]

wip wednesday: made a HUGE amount of progress this week (for context—purple is unfinished & yellow is finished; last week all of them were purple) … i am in the home stretch here