#seeing characters differently says more about how we're all bringing different things to media

[ramshacklefey]

For the love of all that is good, can more people please understand the following about media representation?

No single story can represent the full diversity of humanity. Yes, we need more stories about more kinds of people. But a single story can only make so many points at once. There are, in fact, a finite number of characters that can be in a single story. And narrowing it down further,

No single story can fully represent the diversity within a single group. See again: finite numbers of characters and limited number of points a single story can be making. Yes, creators should be careful not to treat a single character as a mouthpiece for an entire demographic. Yes, the more characters from a particular demographic there are in a story, the less likely this is to happen. But also,

You as a reader/viewer need to try to avoid treating individual characters as mouthpieces for entire demographics. This is a problem for everyone, because we are all very used to the idea that there is such a thing as a "default human." If a character is "default human," then we (paradoxically) assume that a) they are a unique individual who doesn't represent the entire category of "default humans" AND b) whatever the story is saying about them, it is saying about all humans everywhere. When a character isn't a "default human," we all tend to assume that they are a representation of only people who are not default in the same way as them. While we need and want more characters who don't fit the "default human" category, we as readers and viewers also need to fight the tendency in ourselves to treat those characters as "default [insert category here]."

Looking at wider trends is more about publishers and distributors than individual storytellers/readers/viewers. If you start a sentence with, "No one wants to tell stories about ..." or "No one from Group A ever wants to hear stories about..." I am going to slap you with a raw fish. Because yes. They do. Yes they fucking do. Not everyone, no. But plenty of them. But individual creators are hamstrung by what publishers and studios are gonna put their money behind. And publishers and studios are generally gonna put their money behind whatever they think the most popular stories will be. Which, because of the previous point, they assume is going to be stories about "default humans."

America especially is in a shitty fucking place when it comes to how many people get to make decisions about which stories get funding. C'mon. We know this. The number of mainstream publishing houses can be counted on one hand. The number of mainstream film studios can (maybe) be counted on two. Despite the wailing of certain groups, these studios and publishers are not, in fact, particularly "woke." And the bigger the budget for a project, the less likely they are to take a risk on a story that doesn't fit their image of what a popular story will be. (Which is why you'll find a lot more diversity of characters in novels than in film. Publishing a novel costs a fraction of the budget of even relatively low-budget films.)

Representation is only a zero-sum game if you only care about stories that become massively popular/are put out by the biggest studios and publishers. Yeah, the Big Guys are only gonna put out a handful of stories every year. So maybe it's true in that corner that every character from Group A means one less character from Group B. But in spite of the absolutely shitty situation we're in with production companies, there is a fuckton of stuff out there that has nothing to do with them. Webnovels, indie comics, small publishing houses, self-publishers, local theater, podcasts, ttrpgs put out by small groups, fan fic! It's out there! You can find it if you want it! It fucking sucks that it's harder to find, it really does. But you can go outside the mainstream and find it. Which brings me to my next point:

The effects of an individual publishing their work online are radically different from those of a major studio or internationally famous author. Look. No matter how popular Online Cool Person is, their audience is fucking tiny. Take two steps outside of whatever circle they're popular in and no one's even heard of them. They may be telling the most beautiful and heart-wrenching story you've ever heard, but in the grand scheme of society? They aren't much different from you and your buddies at the table playing an rpg. For better or for worse. If they fail to tell stories about anyone but "default humans," or they try to include more people and utterly fail... just. Stop reading their work. They aren't affecting public opinion. Which is why:

Not everyone has the same level of obligation when it comes to providing good representation. Everyone does have an obligation to not be a fucking bigot with the way they write characters, but y'know, they have the obligation to not be a fucking bigot in general. But when it comes to the potential harms/benefits of particular stories, there are multiple orders of magnitude between Online Cool Person or even Officially Published Person, and Neil Popular or Jo Ann Megabitch. And lastly:

It's good to find stories about people different from you but people don't have a moral obligation to do so and trying to guilt them into doing so isn't going to get you anywhere.

[jupitermoontarot24]

👀 You vs Ex? 🍒

Hi everyone happy holidays!!

❄️ Im hosting tarotmas over on my patreon where im uploading everyday till christmas check it out! we are on day 2 ❄️

1-4

Pile 1

Hello hi pile one. welcome to your reading. okay I heard that you are a walking sex symbol. you are sex, even if you don't view yourself like this maybe you wouldn't use these words to describe yourself but maybe you should. it seems like that's what this person and everyone else are thinking. yeah I think it's the way your lips look, the shape, the words that you use to speak. even the things you say on social media, it's very sexy and alluring. it's like this is a guaranteed good time is what I heard lol. yes sex world it's like you're going to leave satisfied in some type of way how could you not? Okay I don't even think this reading was supposed to be this sexual but when I asked my guides for pictures they gave me all sex pictures so I guess that's what we're doing. Okay I don't think people know what position you play in the bedroom and that makes you even sexier. Like whats up?, are you a bottom, are you a dominatrix, are you a submissive or do you channel all of them? I feel like people believe that you channel all of those things so it's like whatever you need pile one has it. yeah that's why it's sex world, because you have everything, people see you as a triple quadruple  threat  walking. Okay not to be slut shaming but their ex was a hoe. and I mean that in the traditional sense of like they fished for people and because of that they had a lot of bodies or just they've been through a lot of people. it seems like you are more an upper echelon person. like you don't have to fish you just sit and wait,  you are the trophy so it's like they're going to come to you regardless that you would never have to fish for that. you actually give your time and attention to one specific person that you like the most so it's a lot more meaningful than somebody who purposely tries to bring people in and go fishing for them. so it's like their ex probably brought in a lot of people that weren't good people or it was shallow connections because they went fishing for it and when you go fishing for something you really only can go based off of looks. you pick who you want whereas their EX was a lion so they kind of just ate whatever was near them and they chased it at that. yeah because the exe is coming up as the king of winds so they definitely were promiscuous. you could be aiming for a person people don't even know of. like does this person even exist people just don't know with you. so your relationships could be very private because people could think one thing and it's not that people don't know where you're aiming they might think that you're aiming in a Direction but they don't know what direction or what you're aiming at. well this person had to pointers so it's like they were aiming everywhere at the same time all the time. yeah it's nothing about being caught there's nothing special about being caught by their EX. checkout the rest on patreon where

IM DOING TAROTMAS 🎄 ON MY PATREON WHERE I UPLOAD EVERYDAY TILL CHRISTMAS

COME TRY ME OUT FOR 25 DAYS---> PRESS HERE ❄️

Pile 2 🍒

Okay so you and their ex could look really different. I don't know maybe this person doesn't have a type or you are just so beautiful that they want you regardless. but in this situation you are the main star and the ex is a feature like they're a background character. They're just there for moral support is what I heard LOL. Okay yeah the X is not even important it's just that they're there because in TV shows there's usually a X or there's background characters that's all they are. I'm not sure if that's how your person feels or if it's just true. Yeah so it's like the x is there but at the end of the day your person is focused on you. yes like you know that character that random policeman that might stop the main character in a high speed chase. The policeman might think they're important ? They are hot shot but nobody cares fr that's not a part of the plot at all. your person's the main character in their story but you're really the main character because you're the person that they're trying to get with that the audience has fell in love with. The hot girl. the character that already has an audience so it's like the main character is playing the co-star in your TV show because they're trying to get with you and they're trying to get you to pay attention to them. Like scott pilgram. Yes this person is trying to roll a dice they're trying to put their money in to see if they will get with you. You are so sexy you look like a little kitty cat, a doll like you are so sexy. but yeah you're the main character.  the ex is a background character. It doesn't matter how hard, how good looking the ex is nothing they could do that would bring them any more attention than to you.  your person what you do any day they can't stop looking at you they feel like you're their soulmate they love you everybody else is dead to them for the most part. if you ask your person they would say they don't have any exes they don't even matter if they do this person only think about you they future but you didn't care about no ex. check out the rest on patreon where

IM DOING TAROTMAS 🎄 ON MY PATREON WHERE I UPLOAD EVERYDAY TILL CHRISTMAS

COME TRY ME OUT FOR 25 DAYS---> PRESS HERE ❄️

Pile 3 🐝

Okay hiya.

 so you're a lot more thoughtful than their ex. you can move slower you could just be more mindful in the things that you do, you say and how you paint a picture. Yeah even in the picture that you chose is an outline of a body on a skyline. so it's like you could leave clues you could be more mysterious with your seduction. it's like you have to find me so its a riddle, it's a maze, it's sexy it's slow and  sensual. Oh I can tell your person is cute by the way they think about you. but it seems like you just appreciate Beauty in itself so  it's not just them specifically that you like but it's all that are that type. your person is a man they just like beautiful woman/ men the person is a woman you like beautiful men/women. so your person likes feeling a part of that because they're like pile threes enjoys Beauty so I must be beautiful and they have good taste so I must be very beautiful. they must think highly of me if they chosen for me to be their Muse or something that they think about/ the consider beautiful. This person felt like their ex was the black cat in the relationship. Yeah  your person could have been the golden retriever in this relationship and didn't want to be like maybe they're usually black cat. and that's not to say that you aren't the black cat because I feel like you are but maybe they just wanted it to be balanced. so if this is a woman they rather it be two black cats. but if your person was with a man maybe they felt like the roles were reversed. so even if this was a man that could have felt like their ex was too masculine and it made them feel like the black cat. take it how it resonates. checkout out the rest on patreon where

IM DOING TAROTMAS 🎄 ON MY PATREON WHERE I UPLOAD EVERYDAY TILL CHRISTMAS

COME TRY ME OUT FOR 25 DAYS---> PRESS HERE ❄️

Pile 4 💌

Okay so this ex could portray themselves as something that they're not. almost like a wolf in sheep's clothing is what I'm hearing. You hold your person hostage. it's like your person cannot Escape you they cannot get away from you. when they drink they think of you when they dream they think of you it's almost like that's a situation. this person could visit you on purpose so maybe they think about you on purpose, they get drunk just to think about you. they want to have fantasies about you. Okay so this person wants to give you all their money,  they like to work hard to provide for you. they want to have a family with you, they want to start a new chapter a new life with you. They are the type that they would give you their whole paycheck and let you spend it on what you want to, I mean other than house stuff of course. like they will give you the rest they would pay the bills and give you what's left. they're so thankful of you and you could keep a really nice house,  your house is clean, you have good Decor taste so it's like they wouldn't need anything so they would just give you money. they're really healthy with you as well as like you add life points to them. like they are very healthy. maybe you make this person want to be their best self even health-wise. sounds like whatever this person was doing before they left that in the past like even if they used to drink heavy stuff maybe now they just drink wine yeah they care about the health a lot more with you. this could be your twin flame. yes like you guys are the exact same person in different bodies that's how this person feels. it's like all their exes even their friends don't matter when it comes to you. like they rather build a whole lifestyle around you then to talk to anybody else. Okay so they're X was a hot girl and not a good way. this is somebody who would keep a rotation of people and act  single even if they weren't. so like your person might have been their favorite person or they actually were in a committed relationship but either way this  X always had another option laying around. they could have had a lot of options laying around because they pretended to be single even though they could have been actually planning to have a future with your person. checkout the rest on patreon where

IM DOING TAROTMAS 🎄 ON MY PATREON WHERE I UPLOAD EVERYDAY TILL CHRISTMAS

COME TRY ME OUT FOR 25 DAYS---> PRESS HERE ❄️

[ilikekidsshows]

I remember years ago when Ladybug the episode airing, there's so many people called Tom and Sabine as a bad parents... for whatever reason, and I was one that keep saying they're a good parents. Now though... it make me wondering if they are really as good as I thought they were if Marinette turned out to be this bad.

I saw some people say the reason why Marinette turned to be this spoiled is because she has one child syndrome, but Adrien is one too and ironically he become a better person than Marinette ever be. And the only one child who become spoiled is Chloé and Felix whose parents is also way too doting that they let the kid do whatever.

Today I found out the term "Helicopter parenting" A helicopter parent (also called a cosseting parent or simply a cosseter) is a term for a parent who is overattentive and overly fearful of a child's experiences and problems, particularly outside the home and at educational institutions. And I feels like its something that Tom would do, especially in Weredad episode. He doesn't want Marinette to feel sad so he will create a situation where she won't be sad, emotion need to be fixed or prevented, which... Track with what Marinette's tend to do.

I know I shouldn't put pshycological aspect into a cartoon, let alone a toddler show, but it just fit. 😅

---

The thing about discussing psychology when it comes to media isn't really about who the media is for, I think. The issue, as I see it, comes from using stereotypes of different conditions to classify characters in a negative way, regardless of what genre a piece of media belongs to. It's kinda how you would go about actually writing a story with these same themes: don't forget there are real people who deal with these things who won't appreciate being demonized or dehumanized, so treat the topic with compassion.

However, sometimes it can be useful for your self discovery to discuss whether or not a character fits similar categories as you yourself do. It can be a fun topic to discuss when it's done in a compassionate way. Sometimes small details just fit together way too well to not bring it up. Sometimes it can be good to be aware that the writers might be codifying their characters a certain way and what kinds of attitudes that codifying enforces.

Those people calling Marinette's problems "only child syndrome" when we can see her parents and their parenting techniques are definitely barking up the wrong tree. Only children aren't naturally spoiled, they might not be spoiled at all. But helicopter parents are common these days. A lot of modern parents are afraid of screwing up because we're more aware than ever of how parents can traumatize their kids, and that makes them easily veer into overprotective territory. I do agree with you that helicopter/cosseting parenting seems to be a far more fitting descriptor for what’s going on with Marinette.

Miraculous does often genuinely hit the nail on the head on what some types of parenting do to kids, which makes it so absolutely bonkers when they claim that it's not on purpose. It’s more likely that some of it was on purpose, but the writers then changed their minds about what they wanted to say about parenting. Like, Chloé’s issues get built up as being the result of being spoiled and neglected by her father and mother respectively, but then season five claims Chloé‘s just an evil hellspawn who was born that way.

The thing about Adrien is that his disposition also makes sense with his upbringing. His only friend growing up was Chloé, the epitome of a spoiled brat lashing out because she doesn’t get actual care from her parents, and sometimes Félix, another emotionally unskilled kid lashing out at others because he doesn’t have friends. Add to this Adrien’s emotionally immature father, who goes on a year-long magical rampage where he purposefully tramples on everyone else’s emotions in a misguided attempt to get his wife back with no consideration towards the son he also loves and who's actually still alive. Gabriel also doesn’t want to shield Adrien from disappointments, he often causes them and seems to have that attitude that it’s character-building.

But yeah, it makes sense that Adrien is emotionally astute, since his own emotional well-being relied on him developing the skills to work around the social bombs he grew up around. And then the series decided that, actually, Adrien being so attentive, often even to his own detriment, is a good thing because Marinette can benefit from it. Suddenly Gabriel’s behavior was claimed to not be abusive or emotionally damaging to Adrien at all and Félix is a caring cousin and a good guy. Considering there are still some throw-away lines in the post-retool episodes about how harmful Adrien’s fawning is to himself, it really seems like either there’s been a change in course or the writers disagreed on what the takeaway over Adrien’s family situation was supposed to be.

As for Marinette, ‘Weredad’ does, just as you pointed out, confirm Tom as an incredibly overprotective parent. I’ve also previously made a post about how Marinette exhibits a lot of signs of being an overly coddled child, which is the same thing as a child with cosseting/helicopter parents. Marinette can’t handle stress, because her parents don’t expect things from her, not wanting to pressure her. The one time her parents asked her to do anything for them in the show was handing off a cake to a customer in ‘Timebreaker’. The rest of the time Marinette seems to almost be a free-range child, with no mention of bedtimes or her parents expecting her to have her homework done. Marinette’s studies barely get mentioned, which is really weird for a middle school teen hero show where the characters spend a lot of time in school and classes. But Marinette’s parents are apparently completely unaware of what Marinette does with her day or what happens at school, outside of the letter/email they received in ‘Simon Says’ about Marinette’s repeated absences. Nobody keeps track of or expects anything from Marinette on a more casual level, so when things actually rely on her performance, she buckles under the pressure.

Marinette also can’t handle setbacks, because her parents refuse to voice out her failures and weaknesses so that she could accept them. In ‘Animaestro’, where Marinette starts badmouthing herself, her parents, instead of dealing with this self-deprecating attitude directly, insist she’s definitely not a klutz and totally gets to be a server. They also completely sideline her reason for wanting to be at the event because of this, which they know is to see Adrien. The instant Marinette’s lip starts wobbling, her parents will lie to make her feel better instead of discussing the situation with her. Basically, they treat her like she’s a toddler incapable of understanding that they have a responsibility to their client to not bring an untrained child to work as a server at a public media event with a lot of celebrities.

This lack of dealing with Marinette’s self-esteem problems is also related to Marinette’s past as a victim of Chloé’s bullying. Marinette’s parents are very unengaged with Marinette’s role as a victim; even when she gets expelled on what they think (rightly so) are false accusations, they leave things to the authorities and just tell Marinette she can work at the bakery. To a child, that preparation for the worst-case-scenario feels like the parents aren’t on her side at all. Of course, we don’t know if the parents are aware of the past bullying Marinette faced; even in ‘Origins’ they merely encouraged her to go to school and bring everyone pastries. In general, Marinette’s parents seem to know very little about her friend group (they think Sabrina is a close friend of Marinette’s in ‘Darkblade’) and social standing in addition to her daily activities, which lends credence to me deeming her a free-range child.

Marinette also can’t handle rejection, because her parents never deny her anything except for a single episode, ‘Simon Says’, where they told her she couldn’t go out with her friends until she stopped skipping class. They were incredibly gentle about this grounding too, and held each other's hands afterwards, like this was an incredibly difficult task they’d just completed, gently telling their teenaged daughter she had to stop skipping class for a week before she could be allowed out whenever she wanted again. Basically, it takes extreme circumstances for Marinette’s parents to give her any boundaries, and they clearly don’t like doing it, which explains perfectly why she has no boundaries when it comes to pursuing her attraction to Adrien.

The problem with all of this is that this should be a good ground for Marinette to grow from. This is a valuable topic to discuss. As I said earlier in the post, overprotective helicopter parents who are afraid that every single disappointment or setback will traumatize their child for life are a thing. As such, this is an important thing to teach to families and especially to kids who wouldn't understand what's going on in their lives unless someone brought it up. But this isn't what the show does, because the head of the showrunners is the most overprotective parent of them all for his fictional creation, so of course he isn't going to criticize himself.

[someverygaymoth]

"Politics" and Trans-coding

Disclaimer: Please excuse me, as a person, for bringing "politics" into everything. Please excuse creators like artists, writers, and animators for bringing "politics" like queer people, and trans people, and people of different races, ethnicities, and cultures, into media.

Oh, did I say "politics?" Shit, I meant personhood. Did I say "excuse me?" I meant, we're not sorry.

All artists, be it music, writing, drawing, painting, animation, or anything else, have one thing in common; Creativity. Creativity is the basis of personhood. Why do we create anything, after all, if not to communicate? If not to be understood and known and heard? We tell these stories to echo our own.

Cross being trans-coded is much needed passive representation for groups of people experiencing their personhood to the fullest. Anyone saying that this trans-coding is "forced" or "unlike the character" or "stupid" or stuff like that like that? They're blowing on a republican dogwhistle like it's a harmonica and should be blocked or ignored. If you don't want to see representation where it clearly is, that's probably a problem with how you think (or do not think) about groups that need to be represented.

Now. Not everyone is the enemy. Remember that not everyone in this fandom is an adult with a fully developed mind. Remember that kids do and say dumb things because they don't know everything.

But also understand that American Republicans view Personhood as political, and a lot of people are in danger right now. If you are american, do you research on Agenda 47 (Trump's outline of his plans for presidency. He wrote up a whole manifesto and put it in video form for people to watch. Watch it. And understand.) And do research on project 2025 in case it DOES come to fruition. You have to familiarize yourself with as many outcomes as possible, before they happen, so that you can recognize them and fight them early on if you see the warning signs.

To speak out against something as important as transcoding in a fandom built off of our lord and savior Toby Fox' masterpiece, Undertale; the epic game featuring more queer relationships, love, and hope than the majority of us knew POSSIBLE back in 2015... that's crazy. Like be so for real. Transphobia is not welcome here. Not on my blog, and not in this fandom.

Separate post from my original reblog because I know y'all be skipping the long reblogs. See this. See this and know you are safe here. Know I am a queer, physically disabled American, and I will not let bullshit Republican rhetoric onto my blog. EVER. That shit is blocked on sight, I recommend y'all do the same. Don't trouble yourself with nasty folks like them. They're just trees who think siding with the axe might save them its blade.

[bloggingboutburgers]

i hope that i'm not making any terrible cultural assumptions here, but i'm curious about your experiences as aro/ace in france in particular. the states are often very culturally conservative but especially when it comes to sex in particular. i don't know if it's just an incorrect cultural assumption on our part but the french are stereotyped as being a lot more open and in your face (?) about sex. is that true? does it make it harder for you to deal with people pushing the expectation of sex on you?

OK, so, I'm not sure I can 100% answer this one accurately because... Well, I've never properly LIVED in the States, only visited for a while each time, so I don't have a proper point of reference.

What I WILL say though is that most of our modern culture comes from us from the US. Movies, series, musicals, songs, social media conversations and stuff... And those ABSOLUTELY push the expectation of sex on people regardless of how conservative the States probably are on a daily basis.

I think it's like... The way I experience it, it kinda feels like the large majority of people regardless of the country or culture ARE kinda obsessed with sex anyway, so it's more about how overtly it's admitted in society or not. French people WILL definitely bring up sex in random conversations including at work or with people they've just literally met from the first time. (Depends on personality of course but... Yeah.) But I dunno. Maybe people in the US do that too. In terms of what I see in the exported culture though? The omnipresence of sex is definitely still felt. Heck, look at fandoms that are for a big part comprised of US people and how quickly they'll gravitate to shipping and sexual shipping or thirsting for a character too. That's definitely not just a thing I've observed in France.

The main difference I see is that most conversations of this type seem to start in the US and my country tends to "behind" in lots of ways, so it's definitely harder to talk about how you're an asexual in France still, at least I'd assume. Here we're still at the point where the odd mainstream media will write an article introducing asexuality as a revolutionary concept in a "can you believe this exists?" and "🫴🦋 is this a new trend?" kinda way. It's... A bit embarrassing, though it's way better than nothing at this point, progress is progress.

PS: The obsession with romance kinda seems to be everywhere in both cultures, so that at least doesn't make much of a difference. Except that I guess France being stereotyped as "the country of love" (read: ROMANTIC love ONLY) doesn't really help at all but meh.

[herejusttosufferalong]

"This made me think about the press tour strategy, which was certainly planned since the beginning, way before January, I would imagine."

Sorry, this might also be long...I don't necessarily disagree completely here, but I do have a rebuttal. Yes, ShondaLand and Netflix knew what they had with Nic and Luke. However, the people who are in with them daily and see their dynamic are not the ones designing the promotional tour. Yes, they might have designed a press tour around a friends to lovers plot, but that doesn't mean they were purposefully exploiting any romantic feelings between them. There have been plenty of costars who don't get along who have had to go promote together and fake it. That's just part of the job. Studios expect them to put in the work, but they don't expect them to (fake) fall in love over the course of the tour. Nic and Luke were given talking points for the press tour. We can see that all the way back in summer 2023 when Nic first brings up the broken furniture. So the repetitive questions everyone complained about as well as saying Nic and Luke were unhinged cause they couldn't stop talking about their intimacy scenes, those were because of the marketing/PR team. HOW Nic and Luke responded was their own. That's why we saw their answers changing and the different levels of comfort between the two of them.

As far as Luke and Nic's behavior, I genuinely don't understand how people say they were purposefully playing up their connection. If anything, I think they interacted on a more surface level than they typically would. To me it has always been clear that Luke was super uncomfortable talking about anything personal. Anytime he was asked something about himself or his relationship with Nic he always brought it back to the show and his character. Seriously, go back and watch their interviews. It drove me crazy haha. This is one of the reasons people have been so frustrated with him. He very rarely shares actual personal details or feelings about Nic. She is willing to share more than him, but even still you know there is a lot more that isn't being said. She has a few key traits of his she'll hit on each time. Neither of them are being disingenuous, just different degrees of guarded. What frustrates people and makes them think they've been played are the times when their guard is dropped or they forget they're being filmed/watched and we see more than they're wanting to share peak out. We aren't owed their actual relationship, but we've seen glimpses of it and it's magical so we're all obsessed. We want to dissect and either put it on a pedestal or rip it down because we can't stand living in this uncomfortable grey space of not actually knowing anything.

Now to my biggest issue, Nic would NEVER exploit her family for show numbers. She doesn't even follow them on social media to keep them protected. You'll notice none of them were in any of the official materials put out. What we got were cell phone videos from fans inside the theater. Nic saw her mom for the first time in months in that theater. They didn't meet up prior. Her hugging her mom was genuine. Her excitement about introducing Luke was genuine. People took a sweet moment and made it weird. Marketing didn't orchestrate that. It's this type of narrative that makes celebrities stop sharing their private lives at all. If this was a marketing ploy, there would have been cameras at that dinner. We would all LOVE to see Nic's brother in law try to get Luke drunk. The teeny bit of footage we got from fan cell phone videos in that theater showed her sister in law, brother and best friend all emotional and loving the moments between Nic and her mom and Luke and her mom. Can't we appreciate and accept this was a real moment of connection? Or are we just too jaded?

Not everything with actors is fake. Not everything that happens while they happen to be on a press tour is PR. Some things are calculated, but it's not as disgusting as people are wanting to make it out to be.

another great perspective

thank you for sharing 💜

[room-of-lies]

safamapiley dump ples. for the soul

THANK YOU FOR ENABLING ME, YOU WILL REGRET IT!

what I'm about to ramble about is majorly based on me and my friends' interpretations, theories and headcanons of these characters and how I imagine they're hypothetical relationship would pan out under the conditions we're presented with in-game! To put it shortly—I don't rly care about canon accuracy or if any of the relationship potential would be somehow ruined by the new chapter coming out, I'm having fun :3

With that little disclaimer outta the way, HI.

Why do I see potential in safamapiley as a polycule?

Well let's start with the fact Maple is a character who's narrative largely revolves around love. The love program is the only thing keeping her from killing Hiyori who well. didn't exactly treat her Well.. Alongside this, Emiri is another character with an implied tragic love life! In ch 3 dialog it's revealed she previously had a fiancé who went mad (I could go on all day about my thoughts on this specific thing and how I imagine their relationship went down but that's a tangent for another day) so it's safe to say either through death or divorce, he is no longer in her life as now she is dedicated to asunaro. Where things differ slightly is with Michiru, while not directly related to something involving relationships, was implied to be easy to convince to join asunaro, essentially having nothing to lose and everything to gain. Implied to be lonely, easy to convince to join something as shady as asunaro.. with those outlooks on life, you have 3 lonely, fucked up women who could all make each other sooooo much worse <3

It's stated that Hiyori considers Emiri to be scary, this line of thinking kinda made me wonder what she might have done to give him this opinion but I like to think she just sorta. hates him honestly! and with this, Maple essentially being doomed to love someone who would never love her back would honestly make Emiri pity her, perhaps even resent Hiyori for his treatment of her since. as someone who was once in love and lost it, seeing someones heart toyed with in this way is rage inducing AND . This is a weaker point but in the sillier media like the anthology comics shes shown to act uncharacteristically sweet to someone like shin… who ppl often draw parallels to maple :3

This brings us to the even more tragic side of things, in particular: Michiru’s involvement in creating technology and her associations with the ais such as rio (and ai-ceiver) with this association, it’s not too far of a stretch to think perhaps she helped in part to create or maintain Maple! Therefore knowingly allowing something she considered living continue to suffer under an unrequited love she had no choice in feeling… and while Michiru can be cruel, we see in the memory machine game end she’ll gladly allow someone to sacrifice their sound mind for her—she IS remorseful! So. Queue her being a bystander, this beautiful killing machine deluded with something she can never have all for the sake of HER company’s game… all in the name of keeping hiyori alive. I love yuri that hurts what can I say <3

A similar sentiment could be drawn to Emiri, though her associations with technology are more focused on the puzzles, executions and death traps (if we consider the silly 4KOMA) and her association with the ais is less of a factor… the most we can see about her thoughts on whether the ais are alive would be how she commands the wrigglers around like they’re her henchmen or attack dogs ehehe…

All this is to say:

there is a genuine argument to be made that both michiru and emiri would be sympathetic to maple, maple might even be appreciated company in asunaro because she’s not a floormaster like them, not a researcher—something almost not associated with asunaros dealings, merely a cog unknowingly turning… on the flip side of this, I think Michiru and emiri would have a much more antagonistic dynamic if you take the fact they were brought into the company under much different circumstances.. that’s not to say they can’t be good company for one another. Emiri would initially see michiru as an easy target, only to possibly unearth her more twisted nature under her emotional guise… as well as Michiru recognising the desperation within Emiri as someone possibly Wanting To Forget Something Terrible That May Have Happened With her Fiancé <3 it’s normal to possibly want to experiment on another woman, only leaving her happy memories, no? I mean, she has nothing left to lose. Much like Michiru herself ^^ two sides of a horrible little coin!

As for scenarios involving all three I particularly enjoy:

Maple still in love program in pre-canon, not understanding the joy she feels when talking with the other two but still trying to get close to them (the guys of asunaro are sooo boring when it comes to what she’s interested in talking abt… at least the women will indulge her and not run off like hiyori). Michiru stewing in guilt every time she talks to maple, wanting to find some way around the love program, while trying to not have a nervous breakdown over emiris incessant teasing and Emiri resigning herself to her fate to never being able to truly get close to Maple, so she may as well enjoy their company (not without a little discomfort at Any mention of His name) as well as teasing Michiru as unlike maple, she Is able to understand her emotions as well as just loving to watch her squirm and possibly lift that miserable little mask of hers to show how truly deranged she is <3

A post canon scenario where Maple gets repaired, slowly having to heal while mourning love that was never within her control while Michiru and Emiri sort of feel conflicted as to how to approach being romantic with her considering how much hiyori effected her... also it takes a while to repair her body so she's monitor-bound for a good while. Emiri is more open to trying to give maple a better example of a relationship (out of spite almost. lmao) but considering she is the way she is.. her attempts are a bit clumsy and sometimes do more bad than good.. while Michiru is more focused on giving Maple the chance to explore outside the facility once her body is repaired, though she worries over her experiencing how harsh the outside world can be (ironic because she literally lived in the DEATH game facility but u get my point) and also emiri and michiru are butting heads over this the entire time while picking up the pieces of what remains of asunaro. this may or may not be the silly little post-game au I've been cooking in my brain for a while now. dw abt it

I feel bad for having gone on so long so I'll cut it here, apawlogies for yapping so much i'm not. normal <3 thank you again for allowing me to be insane for a bit :D

[tearwolfe]

I'll borrow a warrior cats book from the library and see how it is before buying a book.. shivers in fear, i did not know that..

yeah for sure do not buy them. there's also a bunch of free PDFs online you can read!! or check them out through libby or whatever online library service your local library uses if you don't mind reading from your phone.

gonna use this chance to highlight issues with warriors under the cut!! because i've spent so much time being with this series i have a lot of thoughts. i want to let you know i am not trying to cancel warriors or anything, there's just a lot of issues and i like talking about it.

CW: misogyny, pedophilia, ablism, racism

Okay, we're going to start with the more annoying aspects. First of all, Warriors is written by a ton of different people. They have the main writers outline the plot, and there's a bunch of other people that fill in all the empty space. Kind of an interesting way to do it, but that's why Warriors is able to publish several books a year. Erin Hunter is just a penname for a group.

INCONSISTENCIES

Why do I bring this up, what's the issue? The inconsistencies, dude. There's so many. Character appearances change between books. Dovewing's eye color changes frequently, for example, to the point where there was an internet war about how she would be represented on the Warriors Wiki. Another example is Mapleshade, a cat that's been prevalent as a villain since Crookedstar's Promise. In that book, she's referred to as a ginger-and-white she-cat, but after that she's been described as a calico (er, tortishelle-and-white, because Erin Hunter is somehow allergic to the word calico). Appearances aren't the only inconsistency. Character personalities are a big issue. After the first arc especially, characters will lose what charm they had in their personalities. Suddenly Spottedleaf is in love with Fireheart/star after she dies, suddenly Yellowfang is unwelcoming towards cats who find themselves breaking the Warrior Code (despite being a codebreaker herself and having compassion toward other cats while she was alive). The authors also seem to have trouble keeping track of characters. On one page Sandstorm leaves camp to go on patrol, and a paragraph later she is seen STILL in camp, talking to someone, despite having been written to leave camp. It's a very bizarre series to read. (Other inconsistencies include miswriting names [Ravepaw incident], using the wrong pronouns, and entirely confusing cats between each other). Heavystep also died a few times because the Erins forgot that he died.

MISOGYNY

Outside of poor writing, we're hit with misogyny. Main female characters, in POV, are written at least a little bit better than any of the other she-cats. However, as soon as the next arc starts and she's put out of the limelight, the authors have to give her a mate, give her kits, and make her a mother. There is only ONE POV she-cat I can think of that didn't die and never had kits. Twigbranch is literally the only one. This isn't a dig at being a mother at all, however whenever the Erins DO make a former main character a mother, that's the only trait they give them. Rarely do these she-cats continue to carry the personalities they were given initially.

It's not even a secret that the fandom dislikes when every she-cat is boiled down to being just a babymaker. The Erins literally killed off a she-cat because the fans didn't like the fact that her only personality trait was mom. Yes, this actually did happen.

There's lots of victim-blaming misogyny with whatever is going on between Squirrelflight and Bramblestar and between Leafpool and StarClan. Bramblestar will literally say the worst things to Squirrelflight and the narrative makes it seem like he's in the right. It's not wrong to display unhealthy relationships in media, but if you're writing a KID'S SERIES, it's extremely irresponsible to constantly write the victim as being wrong. This applies to how StarClan blames Leafpool for everything that's happened to her, despite the fact that Crowfeather was also a part of the equation.

Don't even get me started about Spottedleaf's Heart. In summary, Spottedleaf was groomed by Thisteclaw from when she was a kit (and he was a Warrior), and the narrative only makes Thistleclaw a bad guy because he was training in the Dark Forest, not because he is a predator.

ABLEISM

It's absolutely crazy how ableist this series is. In arc one, we have Brightpaw, an apprentice who gets mauled by dogs, and as Bluestar watched, as what she thought was going to be her death bed, she decided to give her her warrior name- a name that she would be stuck with in StarClan. She chose "Lostface." Brightpaw would eventually recover, loosing one of her eyes in the attack, and would live with being called Lostface until Firestar was able to rename her (to Brightheart). The whole renaming thing feels gross enough, but Brightheart is probably the best case scenario of ableism in Warriors, as she was allowed to function as a regular Warrior in the clan. Cinderpelt wasn't so lucky. She was a Warrior apprentice who got hit by a car, mangling her leg. She was then forced to become a Medicine Cat because she "couldn't hunt or fight" (despite the fact that real world cats are able to function completely normally while missing a limb). Longtail lost his vision in a fight with rabbits and he was retired early to the elder's den, despite wanting to be a Warrior. Jayfeather was blind, so he was made a Medicine Cat despite wanting to be a Warrior. Briarlight was paralyzed, so she was put in the Medicine Cat den most of the time despite wanting to be a Warrior. This is a very common theme in the series. Any cat who isn't fully able-bodied is often made to be a Medicine Cat or an Elder, even if that's not what they want. Literally every single Medicine Cat in ThunderClan since Spottedleaf through to Alderheart never wanted to be a Medicine Cat.

Being a Medicine Cat isn't supposed to be a bad role, but the way Warriors uses it as a cop-out to make disabled cats have a more "plot interesting" role without allowing them to be a Warrior is really weird.

ANTI-INDIGENOUS WRITING

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, however, many Indigenous readers have brought up a lot of issues the series has in terms of being culturally insensitive to native tribes. There's a well-written document that explains this in full detail.

IT'S KIND OF JUST BAD?

The writing isn't good. This goes back to the multi-writer issue. These people can't keep track of their characters or plot, so a lot of things just sort of fall flat. The best plotlines can be found in some of the novellas and graphic novels, and then I think it's because they're mostly written by one person.

How come StarClan can be so vague to living cats, but when we get POV in StarClan, they just act like normal cats? How come Ashfur randomly was super powerful in the Dark Forest/StarClan, while every other cat wasn't? There's just a lot of unexplained stuff, it's very weird.

Warriors is a very interesting series because it's pretty bad yet the fandom is huge. I definitely recommend watching Warriors Multi-Animator-Projects, reading fancomics, and fix-it fanfics instead of actually reading the books. The fans are so, so talented, it's crazy how a never-ending series of children's cat books has created such an insane fanbase.

[milky-rozen]

Hello 🤗, I’ve kind been following your project for months now and I have to say I’m glad people are still acknowledging Egyptian Mythology. I know it doesn’t really have all the drama and pizzaz I suppose Greek or Roman mythos does which is why people like it more, however I find your work refreshing because it seems like you actually care about Egyptian Mythos. I’ve been obsessed with it for years and I’ve even done my own research over the years myself and could never fully understood why people didn’t care for it as much. Even after watching Hollywood Blockbuster films like “Gods of Egypt” the movie frustrated me in so many ways but the biggest one being that it felt like a knockoff of Clash of the Titans. So I’m done with my little rant but I was curious on what sparked your interest in making this project? How often are you taking creative liberties with your story? Also how do you come up with such creative designs for your characters will also keeping the historical consistency of Ancient Egypt?

P.S. Hope this all made sense 😀

Heya!

So, first of all, thank you so much for your kind words, they really made my day!

Second of all, let me reply to all of your questions in order so I don't forget anything lol

Ok so, as for what sparked my interest in making this project, It all started with me playing a mythology-themed video game called Dislyte. I've always been into Egyptian Mythology since I can remember, but when I was a kid, things were a bit different from now and I didn't have access to the Internet as I have now as my father would set up a limited screen time for me and my sister on the computer, and also at that time, I just didn't know how to research things properly lol. So, nostalgia led me to explore new and old media about Egyptian mythology and do some proper academic research to get to know the main and minor myths better. During this "research phase" I discovered the Korean manhwa Ennead, which inspired me and my character designs a lot. Afterwards, as I realized how little material exists about this mythology in particular, I decided to create something myself that could help fill that gap, something that could bring people together and spark their interest so that I could have someone to talk to about Egyptian Mythology lmaooo. But also, I always wanted to work on an original comic series and so I thought that this could have been the best time to start! And so, House of the Sun was born!

Now, talking about artistic liberty, it really depends on the comic we're talking about. In Thoth's Library, I try to be as accurate as possible to the actual myths, only taking some artistic liberty when I need to link some facts that would otherwise sound a bit random and incohesive to the narration, adding some motivations and sub-plots to link all the stories together while trying to stay true to the original sources. Although, this might change in some future arcs. In Young Horus, although some connections are accurate, I decided to fill all the gaps I could with an original coming-of-age story for Horus the Younger to create something new and have fun with it, so the majority of the things happening in the comic are purely fictional. Of course, I always make sure to put a disclaimer for that in every episode just in case ahahah

As for the inspiration behind the character designs, I wanted to create something very personal and somewhat accurate in terms of clothing and overall presentation without including those classic elements we all know, like the animal heads or masks we often see in other media. I was especially inspired by something I noticed in Ancient Egyptian art, like the fact that some gods like Ra have both a human and animal form, and so I was like, you know what? I'm leaving the animal iconography to other contexts, I'm going full human this time lmao. Well, kind of, since I still wanted to include some animal traits that are very iconic to Egyptian art, like the tails (often used in classic Egyptian iconography to depict power and royalty), the ears and sometimes the paws too because, why not? 😂

Man, this was a very long reply lol I tried to be as brief as possible but I'm not good at it honestly ahah soooo, thanks for sticking with me so far! 😂 and, oh! Before I forget , Happy New Year!

[ameliapples]

I see people on other platforms talking about cohost going down and I generally see the same few complaints being trotted out over and over as the reasons why it failed and was doomed to fail from the start. "It kept logging me out", "there was no app", "my timeline was always dead", "I got so little engagement", "I had to wait how long before I could post??". It's the stuff people have complained about with the platform forever, and while I think these complaints are generally a bit silly, they do arrive at what's probably the real reason we're all mourning the impending death of eggbug without realizing it.

A big part of what made cohost so different from other social media platforms is that it was the only platform where you had to actually want to be there. Every other platform is basically designed to hold you at gunpoint and force your attention and engagement 24/7. The gun in this situation being mostly fomo - everything is happening so rapidly, there's so much to keep track of, what if you miss something? what if it's something really big and you don't tweet about it within the first 5 minutes of it happening? what if you miss the next Main Character? there's a new one every day and they're forgotten as quickly as they arrive, but a month from now someone's gonna bring it up as a joke and you won't get it and you'll look lame and cringe! you don't want to look Lame and also Cringe, do you?

cohost never felt that way. If you were there, it was because you genuinely wanted to be. The site was designed to ensure that, even. You had to wait about a week after you made an account to ensure you weren't a spam bot before you could post at all. Once you could post, there was no algorithm. None. Nothing was fed into your feed that wasn't directly posted to a tag you follow or a person you follow. If you wanted to see something outside of that, you'd have to do the legwork browsing tags yourself. For budgetary reasons, there was never an app, so you had to either learn to set up a shortcut icon on your phone or else open it manually in a browser. It also logged you out every 30 days as a privacy and security measure. You had to want to jump through all these hoops to use cohost.

And what did you get for doing the effort? Peace. A social media environment that didn't feel like you were constantly stood in the center of Time Square with all the noise and marquees and heckling voices focused directly at you at all times. It didn't try to be a news site, or an advertising platform. No algorithm meant you only got what you actively chose to see, and nothing more. You could say in your head "lemme check cohost real quick", and you could be up-to-date on your timeline in under 5 minutes. It was a place you would willingly go to check in on friends or look at cool art or play around with html like it was 2004 again, not get sucked into for hours doom scrolling. Because there was no algorithm, no push for engagement, no numbers that publicly went up, no one was competing for attention or clout. No one I ever met on cohost was immediately antagonistic, or rude, or trying to dunk someone. People were chill, FRIENDLY even, in a way I have never seen on twitter or tumblr even back in "the good ol days". The adversarial, cliquey, petty nonsense we all expect from social media was almost entirely absent. It was peaceful, quiet. It was the only social media platform I've used to not give me anxiety, or a migraine.

So of course it fell apart. We live in a world where things require money to simply exist, and cohost was designed basically not to make any by virtue of having virtues. It refused to advertise, sell user data in any way, open a weird shop where you can put microscopic pngs next to your name, or force people's worst impulses in order to keep them on the site for as long as possible. It ran off merch purchases and cohost plus, which was meant to give you premium features but never got the chance to do much more than upping your file size limit on uploads. It was essentially a $5 a month donation. It wasn't enough, clearly.

So now it's going, but I don't really think saying it "failed" is right. If anything, it's made it clear what a failure the rest of the social media ecosystem is. Usually when a platform is dying, or looks to be dying (in the case of twitter, or tumblr post 2018), people immediately make plans to jump ship to a new one. But upon hearing that cohost was shutting down, my reaction, as well as that of a pretty large portion of the user base, was that we'd rather spend time on other things. Cohost was so different an atmosphere it seems to have had a healing property on people who used it. It wasn't perfect, moderation was spotty at times due to the limited staff, people had their blind spots and biases they sometimes struggled to work through. But it was better than what we've grown to expect. It made you realize how tiring the rest of the internet has become, and that you don't need to deal with it. You can better spend that time, doing things you enjoy with people you enjoy. Maybe even outside, if you can muster it. You might even meet some cool people out there, wearing cool patches, eulogizing a cool little website, with a funny lil bug shaped like an egg.

[phati-sari]

Hello.

I know you don't get paid to do this, but you also have no right to give wrong information to people.

I feel blog like this should run because of love for the show but you guys make it look like we are dumb & you all are intelligent(who haven't saw it during the time of airing still acts like know everything about what happened off screen). But I agree, you all have more knowledge about creativity.

Truth hurts, right ? When you have nothing to say, just say "go away man". How easy, right ?

I know Barun-biased fans are like this only. Doesn't leave single opportunity to give credit to him. Then, only for namesake, will say that Sanaya is an underrated actress.

You were so right when you said people can't see their own contradictions. The one who here saying I am toxic, is the one have a fanfiction, many scenes of which, resembles your fanfiction( But that would be called inspiration😏). And I don't understand, how stating facts looks to her, like I said you own Barun Sobti or the rights to the character. But it's okay. People like me, dumb & toxic, won't able to understand it.

And It applies to you also. I shouldn't have expected an honest answer from an IPKKND 3 fan like you, who found parallel scenes in rangrasiya but maybe didn't find any resemblance between IPKKND season 1 & season 3 (that's why have a separate blog), about IPKKND. My fault. Anyway, keep doing what you are doing. Whatever it is, in the end it's a person's choice what to believe.

And sorry,I disturb your PEACE OF MIND by stating FACTS.

PEACE OUT.✌🏻

Hello!

I am exhausted. I don't know what to say to you. You are clearly very upset and I am sorry for the role I played in that. I have never called you dumb or toxic, but you seem to be finding meaning in my words that I didn't intend, and this indicates that I should have worked harder to be clearer. We are clearly having a horrible misunderstanding around intent and tone.

I still genuinely think that we are saying the same thing, we're just applying different timeframes to it and perhaps we are not using the same words. But even if we have a difference in opinion, that's understandable. Everyone brings their own lives and analysis and biases to analysis -- I reckon it is impossible to be truely objective when enjoying a piece of media. I didn't approach any of your messages with the intent of trying to change your views. You are welcome to your views and thoughts, I genuinely am not bothered, and I apologise for coming across as forceful.

I also didn't think I was giving out incorrect information, I was telling the original anon what the creative team was thinking at the time of airing and why the kidnapping track is the way it is. In most of my responses, I have noted that their efforts seem unnecessary -- there was nothing to worry about. But I am sorry that I've made you feel unheard.

Attacking my likes and dislikes because they don't match yours is unfair. I do see similarities between the two iterations of IPK. I have gifsets here and here about it. My analysis on @rowdyprofessor addresses the absurdity, the abusiveness, the absolutely shambles that IPKKND3 was. I didn't make another blog to hide my interest. I made it because it's cleaner (for me) to have side blogs for other shows. I created side-blogs for most shows I watched until I decided to house it all under @ferociouspompom. I keep the IPKKND3 blog because it has the saat soch posts.

You seem to have already made your mind up about me, perhaps even before our first interaction. Something about the way you reference Barun-biased blogs makes me wonder whether our interactions were designed as a test -- one that I failed quite spectacularly. I'm sorry that I disappointed you. I did agree with you in some parts:

I am not disagreeing with you. In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious that Khushi and Irani’s portrayal of Khushi played a bigger role in the show’s success than 4Lions or StarPlus thought and the kidnapping track would have stood up fine without the extra elements.

I don't think I'm smarter than anyone else. I don't think my way of thinking is the only way of thinking. But I do think that if someone comes into my space and asks for my opinion, it implies they respect my opinion. And I believe that respect should flow regardless of whether I agree or disagree with the askers point of view. I'm not telling anyone to change their views, and all I ask is that people afford me the same courtesy. Plus, some over a decade since the show aired, it's just unlikely that anyone, you or me or anyone else , is going to change their views.

I'm very sorry. You seem worked up over this and I can only apologise for the role I have played in how you feel. It was not my intent to hurt you. I still don't really understand what's going on because I feel I did agree with you on several points, but I understand that we're having some breakdown in communication that is only getting worse when I try to interact with you.

So, for the sake of both your peace and mine, this will be the last message I respond to.

[kutputli]

I really need to stop thinking about that gay vampire show. I've been reading around it the past few days. People's tumblr posts, media essays, interviews with actors and creators...

I stand by my conviction that this is a show that will break your heart if you are a person of colour, because it is a show fundamentally made by white people. My distrust of white people writing PoC comes from a very informed study of media made in the past three decades, and the mistakes that I have seen in the past are being repeated here. Not all the same ones, and not necessarily in the same magnitude as other shows, but beyond the gradation of mistakes, there is a fundamental quality to media made by people of colour, where race informs everything. When white people address race, it is only in certain specifics. Everything that is not specifically labelled as 'race-related' gets treated as neutral (which is to say, it gets treated with a white-default view.)

And that's what this show has been doing and is continuing to do. You can see the specific places where they concientously address race relations, and then you can see all the places where their eye slides off of what the characters are embodying.

And I've done this dance before of book vs movie, and treating the film as fanfic of the book. It's a valid way to approach an adaptation, and I can see a lot of people enjoying bringing the book knowledge to guesses about the show's interpretations and motivations of characters.

But when you change a character's race, you fundamentally change a character. And trying to impose a connection between a white book character and a Black or Brown TV character becomes an exercise in minimising identity. I am not interested in how to squish the impulses and emotions that a South Asian Armand is performing into the box defined by a white Armand.

And what white showmakers repeatedly do is pander to a white gaze--this colourblind casting idea where it doesn't matter what race the actor is because we're here for the character.

I don't watch shows like that. I am here BECAUSE Louis is Black. I am here BECAUSE Claudia is Black. I am here BECAUSE Armand is Brown. Yes, of course they are beloved to me because they are not white. Yes of course, I dislike Lestat more because he is white. This is obvious, this is what any person who has faced racism will bring to a racially diverse piece of media.

If they had genuinely wanted to make a show about problematic mutually abusive vampires where race was not a factor defining their relationships, then they should have made Lestat also not white. (And that would have been easily achievable - they could have taken inspiration from Joseph Bologne.)

I don't have time to write the essay pointing out all the small detailed ways that the show has failed on race, because I just want to express my frustration at the large one. The one where the people in charge are talking about a different version of the characters than the ones I saw on the screen, because of the fundamental incompatibility in how they view race as a factor in shaping a person, and how I do.

I'd like to be able to speculate on things with other fans, to get into Armand especially, to talk about Louis's future and past, but I can't. Because the truth of the characters as I see them isn't what the powers that be define as the truth, and so that makes me a liar.

And so once again whiteness defines those who are not white as the deviant gaze.

[archivalofsins]

So, let's talk. This is going to be a serious discussion about hyper-sexualization and hypo-sexualization.

TL;DR- Sexualizing characters is an issue but not simply because sexualization is occcuring. Everyone has different needs, interests, and ways they interact with the media they enjoy. All of which are worthy of respect. However, other's need their right to not be exposed to things that cause them discomfort respected to. So, it's always best to properly tag things with consideration towards those we share this space with. It's important that when doing what you want you spare consideration to those you can.

Now, Gunsli why would you be bringing up this? Well remember this post. In this post I said this,

While a factually sound statement it seems to have been misinterpreted. So, let us elaborate on it real quick.

It is important that everyone tag things properly with respect and consideration toward other fans.

People interact with sexuality and the concept of being sexualized in different ways. What may not seem like much to one person will more than likely be too much for another. This is where-

Hypo-sexualization and Hyper-sexualization come into play.

Source (CW: MENITIONS OF SECUAL ABUSE): X

Sexualization is a topic that is heavily rooted in individual perspective. Not only when it comes to real life people but fictional characters as well. What one person may find pleasing to read or see art of involving a certain character another person may dislike. However, the conversation I was personally having about Mikoto was never about whether or not he should be sexualized.

That's irrelevant. People should continue to do what they please in a way that is considerate of the other people in the community around them. Literally it is that easy.

But isn't sexualizing him when he has such a disorder bad?

Not sexualizing him solely based on the idea that he has a disorder is bad as well. People with dissociative disorders can and sometimes do want to be sexualized. If Mikoto was a real person then forcefully sexualizing him would be an issue. However, he is not.

Well, since we know the characters can hear what we're saying I'm uncomfortable with it.

I'm right there with anyone who is feeling that way. It's incredibly embarrassing to think that some of the views we've all seen now and again can or have been heard by Mikoto for the amount of time that it has been. For people who have experienced forced sexualization this can be a wildly upsetting thought and they have every right to be upset about it and display that upset.

However, no one has the right to tell others how they should enjoy things. Regardless of how much it causes them discomfort. In the same vein no one else has the right to continually expose people to something they have said they dislike. This is why personally I think tagging things appropriately is the best way to do things moving forward. We can't control how people talk about Mikoto on other platforms.

However, we can control if we respect and show consideration for the people within the fandom on the platform we are on. Regardless of how they enjoy a character or don't enjoy them. Regardless of if our opinions may vary. I don't think anyone here wants to have their actions cause anyone real life harm.

Yes, the sexualization of Mikoto's character can be upsetting considering one's lived experiences. However, derivative works are a way for many people to explore aspects of their own sexuality safetly and that aspect of fandom should be respected as well. Representation matters and as I stated in the previous post Dissociative Identiy Disorder is not a monoloith.

What one person finds unhealthy to be displayed in this instance may not be unhealthy to others. There are people that have Dissociative Identity Disorder that will, can, and should find the sexualization of Mikoto's character comforting. Simply because it displays that someone with the disorder can be desired in that way.

Then there will be others like me who dislike it. Because at times it can feel as though Mikoto canonically having Dissociative Identiy Disorder isn't being fully explored and it's just there to check off a switch kink.

“A switch is someone who demonstrates both characteristics and is comfortable with both submissive and dominant roles,” X

Which no one is really being slick about but like you don't need to do this with the one character that has Dissociative Identity Disorder literally anyone can be a switch.

Yet again I must stress him being sexualized was not my issue. The way he was being sexualized was. Something I failed to fully elaborate on in my previous point. So, I will now do so here.

My issue was the fact that the way Mikoto is sexualized veers into slut shaming. Something that many are very reluctant to say can happen to males, but it does.

The comments I've seen made about Mikoto are simply disgusting to me because they've literally mostly been,

"He knew what he was doing being shirtless in his video that many times"

Me: You mean changing his clothes in the comfort of his own home? You mean taking a shower and bath in the comfort of his own home?

Regardless of how someone presents themselves and where they are not responsible for someone else finding them attractive or interpreting them sexually. I wouldn't be okay with this being said about a male or female character. Simply because no one is responsible for what a person finds sexually attractive or not.

When I said what I said it wasn't meant to be from the lens of stop sexualizing this character you grossy gross's oh no my pure eyes have been sullied by your heathen ways.

No, it was literally making a very offhanded comment about something that had been bugging me since MeMe released actually since before Milgram was even a thing. The hyper-sexualization of men and the retraumatization of males who have experienced sexual violence through fetishization.

This was never about what people in the fandom should and shouldn't do. It was about interacting with the concept that males have sexual trauma too. That is ignored and heavily overlooked by society. Along with the fact that if Mikoto was Yuno most of this shit wouldn't be being said and provably so,

Yuno dressing like this was mostly described as empowering, liberating, her owning her sexuality.

I have to stress Mikoto was implied to be thrist trapping for taking a shower and bath in his own fucking home last trial. Yet Yuno is here in full lingerie, and I didn't even see one thing talking poorly about her to the extent THIS MAN HAS BEEN FOR WEARING WHAT HE IS IN THIS THUMBNAIL.

Naw, you got me fucked up.

It was never about the fact that sexualization exists. Because that's always going to exist. It was about how that is disproportionately displayed. Men are just as worthy to their own sexual autonomy and the respect of that as women are.

That will always be my line with this.

Forced sexualization is bad whether it's happening to a man or woman. The characters should not be being discussed as though they are real people but the behavior that the fandom demonstrates publicly should be regarded with the consideration of real people. Because how one conducts themselves in the real world can and will impact real people.

[castlebyersafterdark]

'its quite concerning'

is it? or are you making it so?

if mike doesnt have scenes with el, it'll be a disservice to the show. i want closure, connection for them.

'talks of...' FROM WHOOOOO i mean. the same old rumour mill, snore. gullible just isnt something i wanna be. even if true... i mean, pics or it didnt happen doesnt even apply here cos like vinny said, we have no context. so nothing actually matters until we see the show.

moral of the story is: everyone needs to learn how to wait.

oh but also, mike finding will after losing el? could be classic, could be beautiful. its a common love story. only milevens are poisoning that notion to make it seem like will was second. if you wanna be literal about it, will already IS second. but we know that that doesnt matter, because.... context.

y'all are looking so bored. couldnt be me, we've got our imaginations. so much more interesting than leaks. maybe create, write, anything else than spiral into false concern

I think a problem I'm finding in the Byler fandom is that people feel in order for Byler to succeed as a possibility - El must disappear from the plot completely. And hey, this is coming from an El neutral fan. I don't love her, but I don't hate her. My gripe is: 1) She gets too much screen time and I'd like to have seen other characters get more and her less 2) her scenes often feel a bit repetitive and dragged out and 3) her relationship with Mike needs to change (and I believe it will in season 5). She's an important character and her story is important to the show. Her and Will have a connection, her and Mike have a connection. We are working towards those true connections. Her family. And a friend. El can and will and should have meaningful moments with Mike. Closure. Discovering that their love isn't what they tried for, what they thought it should be. Mike does love El. The point is "but not like that." Hasn't that been our whole point this entire time?

Mike and El having scenes together does not concern me. They should be having scenes together. And if these theories are true and El is gone somehow - set opinion aside - Mike should be grieving. That's an important person gone, that's a friend lost. Does not mean anything against Byler's legitimacy. Mike and El could break up in the first episode and the rest of the season is Mike and Will together on their journey and then the whole cast comes together at the end. The El factor does not have to determined by romance.

And there's something really beautiful, you're right, about working for and fighting towards and discovering yourself and making a change. Second love is a valid love. Understanding different types of love. I think there's a lot of passion and devotion to this pairing - I'm there, too!! But it would be so boring if it was easy. Mike and El break up and immediately Will and him get together, yay. All for what? That's not great entertainment. I want them to overcome and struggle and learn and it to feel cathartic and real when they get together.

The easy path does not need televised.

"Talks of"... I really have a lot of patience and I truly mean this as a way to deliver some kindness: stop focusing so much on what people in certain online spaces are "saying." We're all different flavors of fans. I'm too based in reality and logic and common sense to devote much time to things that frankly, are being perpetuated by people on an app and fandom corner I don't respect for many many reasons. Love yourselves!! Focus on what's real in this fandom. The internet is very dangerous in that it makes you want to believe everything you read. Becoming gullible to readily available information is part of the addiction of social media. No!! Many have worded it better than I have. Anyway, twitter is not a place of truth or happiness. Focus on the things that are interesting and fun and bring joy. That's alllllllllll I have to say.

[cryscendo]

i was gonna reply to your comment on my post but i thought id bring the discourse straight to your inbox instead alskfjdslk its not like we're telling teenagers to go out and discover some weird kinks of their own right this second lmao but they absolutely have to learn to be comfortable with the fact that people are going to be into kinky shit they think is weird and thats its not in fact a moral issue and also none of their business lol

like when i was a kid everything was so fucking raunchy and im not saying it was better but everything has to be so fucking sanitized now and thats not good either. when i was a kid online in the 00s people would literally link you to shock porn videos as a joke and that was just an accepted norm. nowadays there are so many ways to tailor your online experience to you and people are just ignoring all these block and filter functions and look at shit they know they dont like and bitch about it when they had every opportunity not to see it

and it goes back to the fucking rocky horror discourse like god forbid youre trying to portray a queer character in a way thats anything other than the most palatable beige blank slate that ever was. god forbid a queer character acts or dresses or looks or behaves in a queer way aksfjsld they want everything to be so fucking boring and palatable to 1) encapsulate every single queer experience on earth in a single piece of media and 2) be tolerable to straight people because theyre under the illusion that there is any acceptable way for a queer person to be to a bigot other than dead. both are a useless endeavor and they need to quit wasting energy on caring about either

like god fandom just feels so bleak nowadays and i know part of it is bc of how fast things move and no one can hold longterm interest in stuff anymore but a huge part of it is how flat out prudish people are all of a sudden

let ships be problematic let queer characters be weird let sex be kinky lmao let fandom by fun again my godddd

sorry for the rant aklsfjkdshfdk i apparently had a lot to say but hey i love you thanks for complaining with me xxxxx

omg i’m so sorry i meant to respond to this earlier than now!!! i saw it originally when i was waking up for work and thought “ooooh she’s making some banger points i’ll respond to that on my break” and then i just… forgot. so here i am now better late than never 🥰

i’ve always had a bit of a problem with the incessant need to sanitize fandom. i’m not saying ppl can’t curate their fandom experience to appeal to their interests, because obviously, they absolutely can. HOWEVER i do think it has become much more policed than it once was.

i think kink, and understanding its place on a fundamental level (especially within queer spaces), is something that takes maturity to fully understand. like with the rocky horror thing, the use of sexuality and kink is inherently different than what a young person of today might perceive it as. it doesn’t particularly surprise me that people are so sensitive to it, because they simply don’t understand their roots — they’ve formed this concept of queerness that pleases them, and therefore find other demonstrations of queerness to be antiquated or “back-pedalling” (even though we both know it isn’t). i think it’s dumb and immature to try to dictate “right and wrong” ways to be queer, but i’m also not all that shocked that it’s happening.

all this to say, queer characters don’t have to fit into the boxes that we deem as “appropriate”. just like how real queer people don’t owe an explanation for who they are, these queer characters don’t HAVE to reflect every queer person that engages with their media.

personally for me, kink is a MASSIVE component of the queer experience. so because of that, i like my favourite bitches to be kinky but that’s just me 😌

absolutely feel free to rant anytime your opinions are literally always correct to me <3

[cookinguptales]

Excited to see that you watched vampterview! You always have such fun and interesting commentary on stuff. No pressure of course but I'd look forward to any Sarah takes you might have on it 👀

Who knows? Maybe! I'm about to go on a three-week road trip, but we'll see how much time I have!

I'm still digesting a bit, I'll admit, and I really don't know what's already been discussed to death in the fandom. Personally, my academic interests were always really focused on stories, how we tell them, how we internalize them, and how we can't help but put ourselves, our experiences, and our biases into our retellings of them. To be loved is to be changed when memories of us live in the hearts of others, y'know?

So... I'd say that I was really interested in the ways they played with unreliable narrators in the series. How the concept of the sanctity of primary sources was really dismantled. Because they were all primary sources and they were all telling completely different stories! Whether it was due to misremembering, bias, or literal mind control, even the written sources simply could not be trusted.

I remember there was this really formative experience for me was when I was 16 years old and taking summer classes at UChicago. I was studying Egyptology there, which meant I was spending a lot of time at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the OI) studying and translating the artifacts there.

I don't remember all the details (though I guess I could probably pin down the particulars if I combed through their collections) but I remember seeing two ancient accounts of the same war written by both sides -- and both accounts claimed victory. And, y'know, whether each side had a different definition of victory or whether someone was just straight-up lying... I mean. It brings up the idea of an unreliable narrator on a massive historical scale.

Sometimes, particularly with older historical events, we're only going to have scattered archaeological fragments that we can piece together. Sometimes we have to do a lot of guessing and detective work to come to any conclusion at all. And historically, we have prioritized written accounts over all other forms of evidence. But, y'know... people lie. Or they misremember. Or they misconstrue. Reconstructing history not just through first-person accounts but by looking at other evidence and questioning those accounts is crucial. And even then, we'll probably never find any objective "truth," if objective truth even exists in a situation like that.

So... like, an unreliable narrator is nothing new in media. But framing it through Daniel, who is a nonfiction writer trying to make sense of all of these different testimonies to construct an actual historical narrative... That made it really interesting to me. It wasn't just all of these different vampires stating their truths. It was Daniel trying to sort through all of the misdirection to find out what actually happened. And the show makes it clear that, while he gets close, he'll probably never know all the details for sure. It simply isn't possible.

So IWTV, to me, was a really interesting look at the impossibility of constructing an objective historical narrative, especially when speaking about very old events with few sources. You have mentally ill vampires who are several decades removed from the events in question, you have contemporaneous (but very biased) journal entries, you have newspaper clippings written by journalists who had very little information, you have artifacts that may (or may not!) confirm certain testimonies...

idk. I guess while I do have thoughts about the characters and their motivations, I was more interested in the way that things were framed and presented in the show. I thought that was really neat.