#she looks too sexualised otherwise

[livelaughlovesubs]

SPOILER FOR NEW HSR CHARACTER

I think Rappa would have looked cuter with baggy jeans

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Charlie Walker - Sinner in the store

warning : heavy smutish, no sex, use of Y/n, minors don't read, kissing, some biting, handjob male reciving and a sexy nun outfit

Summary : It's Halloween and this special night is nothing without the right costume and some excitment mixed with the fantasies of Charlie of his girlfriend in an unholly outfit.

masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~

Halloween was coming up and the group of friends at Woodsbooro High had planned something special besides the usual movie marathon. Something special that would surpass the annual Stabathon for all of them. A horror show with its own scary cabinet of the extra class put together to give the younger ones who were also taking part a huge scare.

They had specially converted the farm with all the rental mannequins, spider webs, axes and lots of fake blood. Everything was perfectly prepared and everyone was mighty proud of themselves, rewarding themselves with a beer before the troupe set off in the direction of the city centre.

Not always paying attention to the road due to the fun and alcohol. But it didn't matter, the evening had already begun and the pumpkins were already glowing everywhere. The only thing missing for them were the good old bad Halloween costumes.

Of course the extra sexualised version, otherwise it wouldn't be any fun. ,,So who wants to be the slut cat?" asked Kirby and held up a tight leather outfit with matching collar and small golden bell.

A comment came from Robbie but when Kirby held the outfit out to him he quickly fled to find his own outfit. ,,Y/n what about you?" the blonde asked and held the outfit out to the girl of the same age, the other eyeing the fabric carefully. ,,No thanks...I had something more along the lines of chastisement in mind" she replied and gave Charlie a meaningful look who was standing next to her.

The brown-haired man seemed to have already fixed his bright eyes on something other than the cat outfit. Kirby seemed to understand and shrugged her shoulders before grabbing Jill and disappearing into the rows with her.

Y/n also grabbed Charlie's hand tighter before pulling him behind her. She saw his blue eyes flit from one outfit to the other, embarrassed yet taken. The slight blush on his cheeks made her smile. Just cute she thought before arriving with Charlie in front of the wall of partner costumes.

She let go of his hand and began to look through the costumes, one dirtier and more erotic than the other. Whether it was the princess and her knight, the queen and the king, the cowboy and the barmaid.

Or simply the policeman and the criminal. Costumes they had all seen before, they wanted something at least half new. ,,Sweetie say the policeman or the teacher?" she asked, holding up the two costumes.

Expecting an answer, a line or a joke, maybe just a look, instead he had taken a few steps away from her. He seemed to be looking through the racks and his eyes were fixed on one outfit.

He seemed to have forgotten everything around him and when she saw his fingers tangled in his shirt she knew that a visit to this shop was an excellent idea. Hanging the outfits back, she quietly walked over to hers, stood behind him and slowly let her hands wander over his body. Feeling her pull him out of his thoughts he flinched and looked over his shoulder.

As her fingers moved from his neck over his torso to his hands. ,,What? Are you all right?" he murmured, confused and curious, as if he had missed an important conversation, but at the same time trying to hide the fact that he was perhaps pulling his shirt over his middle a little too revealingly. ,,How outrageous in public," she whispered to him and giggled as he lowered his gaze to the floor.

He knew she had, had seen him when he had used his fantasy to imagine her in one of the outfits. Following his gaze before he looked down, she smirked audibly.

She let go of him and grabbed the outfit he seemed to want to see on her. ,,Shall I put it on?" she asked, seeing the brief nod before she walked towards the relatively large changing room. She could hear him following her, nervous about what was to come.

But when she pulled the curtain closed and heard a puzzled noise from him, she said hastily, ,,Don't worry, your heart will be ready in a minute," before just putting the costume on. She would buy it anyway so she might as well put it on now. Getting out of her jeans and t-shirt, she briefly looked at her body in the mirror.

Seeing the bright blue eye peeking through the slit, she took a small look at her naked body before he hastily jerked away from the slit as she winked at him. ,,I see you Charlie" she murmured and continued to pull on the costume which clung perfectly to her body, revealing every contour, curve and nuance.

Not to mention the low cut on her bust and the top that only just peaked over her backside. ,,Come in, my sinner," she announced and saw the curtain open as Charlie stood in front of her. He was almost pressing himself against her because of the limited space. But Charlie didn't seem to mind when he saw her in the nun's outfit.

The dark veil on her hair, the short tight dress with the white corset which only made her breasts stand out even more. She was his holy woman just as he had imagined only better. ,,My-my heart...I am your-you are beautiful" he mumbled and fiddled with the velvet of his shirt nervously but obviously taken with her.

Trying not to hide the red on his cheeks, he lowered his gaze reverently. But she tilted her head slightly and continued to penetrate his field, listening to him whimper with pleasure as her upper width bumped against him.

She seemed to enclose him in her sanctity. ,,What a filthy sinner you are spying on me what?" she asked seeing his slight nod and the hastily muttered ,,Yes" before she ran her hand over his cheek. She felt him put his cheek in her hand, wanting more from her after she had irritated him on and off throughout the day. He had been so patient for her, pulling back with every kiss and being such a good boy.

Moving away from him as much as she could, she sat down on the small chair that was supposed to be for the clothes and smiled contentedly as he knelt down in front of her, stifling a groan. His long curly brown hair in the light gave him an almost angelic look.

Beautiful. ,,Say, do you confess your sin? That you are full of lust and lascivious?" she asked quietly in the little homemade beige chair, knowing that someone could come in at any time. They could catch them doing what they were doing, but one look at his middle let her know that it seemed to be exactly what he wanted.

Moving closer to her he nodded willingly confessing everything the words just kept flowing from his lips as he kissed his way up her legs making her beauty clear with each successive kiss.

While her fingers ran through his dark curls, tugging lightly and praising him, knowing that he would walk out of this shop with an orgasm and a collar with a bell. ,,Such a good submissive for your mistress," she quipped, knowing that doing such an unholy act in a church would probably turn her on even more. ,,Just shameful and you would do anything," she continued, only seeing the brief nod before she pulled him up to her by the hair.

His hands clung to her hips, lightly squeezing, wanting to touch more of her, wanting more, just wanting more. But the pain she gave him was enough to make him groan.

While she moved the tip of her shot to his middle, squeezing lightly and watching him lean his head against her torso. ,,Please-please don't," she murmured over and over, his hips moving slightly to get more of the arousal. He wanted more from her. Her finger tucked under his chin, forcing him to look up at her, but all he saw was his goddess.

His goddess who could treat him as she pleased. Instead, it was divine for him alone to know that he was loved, that he was needed. That they had each other, that she gave him attention. Before she pulled him into a deep kiss, heard his sigh of relief and he pressed further against her.

Before she pulled him back by the hair a throaty moan of thanks came from him the redness on his cheeks darkened as she kissed her way down his neck leaving a bite. The bites of the possessed None, the bites of Satan. The bites of her love.

With each passing moment, his excitement grew as he wanted more and more, and the indistinctly fledgling words just spilled from his lips. At one point he almost cried out of frustration. ,,Look at you," she said and rose from her chair to stand behind him before she pulled him up slightly by the shoulders and he wanted to press himself against her again.

But she reached around him and grabbed his jaw forcing him to look at himself in the mirror while her other hand went to the bulge in his trousers. She reached into his trousers and ran her hand over his boxer shorts while she continued to stroke his cock.

His hips thrust towards her and he rested his head on her shoulder as he continued to look at himself in the mirror. ,,Such a good boy," she whispered to him, hearing the whimpering before she continued to push him to his limits as the first tears slowly began to form in his bright blue eyes and only unintelligible words came from his lips.

She felt the twitching of his cock in his underwear and knew that he was getting closer to his climax. ,,Y/n, Charlie! We're about to go buy some more booze!" they both heard the voice of Kirby who seemed to have finished with the others.

She had noticed how Charlie had flinched, afraid they might come in. That their friends discovered what they were doing. ,,Not so scared sweetie...tonight I promise you are all mine" she whispered and placed a soft kiss on his cheek as she slowly turned away from him. Running her fingers through the dark curls one last time, she heard a dejected sigh.

Before he let out a ,,I'll take care of you, I promise" and gave her a sincere look before she went out of the changing room and chose a white lie for Charlie, which took him a little longer to get his clothes right. But they both knew that all their sins had not yet been confessed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@icarus-star , @shady-the-simp , @roryculkinsgf , @spookyorchid , @paranormalfool , @thatsthewrongwallcraig , @angelsanarchy , @milaeth , @madamemaximoff06 , @ria-coolgirl , @cc-luvr

[dreamerwitches]

I have mixed feelings on the witches, I'm gonna go through them all.

Renata and Ren: It just doesn't feel like the minor bits match up. There's too many bits that are just slightly too different. Like the screen shape and the bone colour and style. Am I being nitpicky? It just doesn't feel like the witch and doppel are linked. Or that they wanted to make this design for the witch and didn't really care that it didn't look like her doppel. I suppose I like how the witch is more organised than the doppel cause my gripe with it is that it feels a little like the parts don't mesh well. Like, what is going on with that pink bit it does not work. On its own, the witch is good. Fine, pretty, but a little bland and simple. As a design taking from the doppel, I think it kinda fails. Too much was changed.

Cyan and Hinano: Ehhhhhhhhhh I think they just made her worse?? Like, there's so little changed cause the doppel is so witch-like anyway but the changes they did do make her look worse XT the bright tubes are ugly and I dont understand the moth-ear-thing additions. Also the skirt is worse too lol. I miss the gas mask though I understand if that was added for Hinano but you can keep it on the witch c'mon! It's just like they removed all the best parts...

Don Rocinante and Sasara: Ehhhhhhhh here we go again. It looks stupid. C'mon she looks so stupid. Not in an uncanny, scary way, she looks so dumb. I included the doppel attack where she does get legs and that was silly but not as much as this one. Otherwise so little is changed mehhhhh. I liked the doppel so you kinda ruined her for me, thanksssss

Shalimar and Emiri: This is one I'm on the fence on. Design on its own, I really like. She's spooky and weird and the colours are great. I have to main issues. 1) does a 13 year old need such a sexual feeling witch and 2) does she link to her doppel well. The thing with curvaceous or sexualised witches is ones like Roberta I know are okay cause she was in her 30s when she became a witch. You could say some like Candeloro are sexualised cause she's got the booba and stick thin waist, it's kinda hard to deal with... I'm also finding it hard to judge cause I don't know if it suits Emiri, I don't know her character very well. So we'll just move on. If I drew it I would make her less adult-looking My other thought when looking at her beside her doppel was 'if this doppel came from this witch I would hate the fact it uses so little of the witch'. So switching it around, im a little mad they used so little of the doppel. It's like they had the idea for the body and wanted to use it and were like 'oh yeah! the doppel!' so stuck it on as a tail... Also the flower things on the doppel arent in the witch at all ughh. If she was just a new witch on her own id love her...

Vayu and Shizuku: Wow! One I actually finally like now! I think she looks super beautiful, the additions work! But she's not perfect... Just like Emiri and Shalimar, I don't see the doppel working if the witch came first. Why is her handbag now the head? It feels like the teapot(?) head on the witch came out of nowhere. But it's nowhere near as bad as Shalimar. She might be my favourite. I've always been 50/50 on Vayu and she improves that score.

Aodamo and Natsuki: This one's a bit boring... it just feels like they stuck on some additions and called it a day. I think if she was stood up straight I'd like her more... Love the teeth on the horn thing. Skirt is fine. Legs look awkward. Sad they removed her puffy sleeves, doesn't make sense as why the doppel would add that aspect.

Overall, it is a little annoying how clearly some of these are just super easy asset copies of the doppels with no effort put in... I think that's fine for say, Vayu as I think the doppel incorporation makes sense. She's a four legged beast so Shizuku is now riding her. But ones like Don Rocinante, Cyan and Aodamo seem like 5 minute attempts. I'm disappointed. Happy to see witches though, I'm only critical because I care about witches being good

[olderthannetfic]

A few days back I started seeing fan stuff about that "amazing digital circus" show in my periphery and I had a gut feeling that it was gonna become one of those shows that seem to attract toxic folks like moth to flame. I can't pinpoint what quality makes it so. But I had enough self-awareness to admit that that came from a very fandom jaded part of me so I didn't look further into it.

Queue today. I'm scrolling through ig and watch this reel by a 3d artist modelling a character from that show. The artist had that semi realistic stylised anime style. Cool, looks great! I bet the comments think so too!

Where do I begin.

Some where upset and said that "this isn't what the character looks like" apparently because they cannot comprehend that a 3d artist like that one would adapt the cartoonish appearance to their own style. Why would they bother recreating the exact same model anyway? Should artists recreate the art style of the og work now?

Some where asking the artist (and other commenters) to be "normal" about the character. You see the stylisation involved thicker thighs. Not too sexy in my personal opinion but some were making jokes about the "dumpy" (as is common as soon a someone's behind is remotely curvy online). Of course how dare you crack sexual jokes about the 3d clown lady. But also interesting choice of words ("""""be normal""""").

In response to the supposed sexualisation and "the character is short and thus childlike" (nevermind that the og art style is, again, cartoon, where even adults have big heads and tiny bodies sometimes) some where responding that the character is 25 so she wouldn't have the body of a kid. More discourse of the "what's the difference between a flat tiny woman and a preteen" sort.

There was more inscrutable complaining over the 3d model that I hope I didn't comprehend because I don't have an "everything is sus and problematic online and fan artists are all degenerates until proven otherwise" predisposition.

This type of comments do occur semi frequently in every fandom, nothing new, but this is the first time that I've seen such a quantity of them. Like it was every other comment and only a handful were appreciating the artist's work.

I feel we are going to hear more from that fandom in the future.

--

It's animated and brightly colored. The wikipedia article says something about "dealing with their own personal traumas". That's enough to know the fandom will turn to shit instantly.

[m--rtyr]

I agree so much with the fact that the fandom focuses way too much on the age gap problem with Aarmau and not the other issues.

I am going to be completely honest. Their age gap issue in high school bothers me, but in MyStreet, when the reunite years later after having little contact, I don't give a shit. They are adults now with developed brains (based on the fact that in America a lot of the activities they do, you gotta be at least 21+) probably mid to late 20's. 4 years apart when one is 25 and the other is 29 is rather normal.

There are other issues than their age gap, that at the end of the day, doesn't matter when it comes to their relationship as adults.

Cw, age gaps, discussing Aphmau’s infantilisation in the context of Aarmau , Aarmau neg,

I come from the stance of. The age gap does matter, because the things that make the age gap wrong continue in the ship even after they become adults, I just think focusing solely on the age gap and not the other issues is just ignoring the other issues exist.

Like I think it’s the least of the ship’s problems, at the end of the day, there’s a lot for/against it and there will always be people going ‘lol it’s not that big of a deal’… but it’s a pretty damning piece of evidence when you bring up how the relationship is otherwise written.

Because saying that Aph is written like a child and some of the lines between her and Aaron are uncomfortable because they really emphasise a kind of maturity gap is definitely a valid criticism. It’s a weird thing they did. But you can probably just argue that they had a preteen fan base and Jess has always been known for her childish humour.

But when you bring up that Childishness and that emphasis on a difference in maturity alongside the fact that they canonically got together when he was a senior and she was a freshman… it begins to get sketchy.

Because now it’s definitely not just ‘oh the age thing was based off of their own ages!’ Or ‘oh that’s just their humour!!’ Because there’s a growing pattern. You can’t look at the 15/18 thing and then the jokes they make about Aarmau in the mini games and go ‘oh haha there’s no association here!!’

I can name an exact joke they have made about Aarmau that is… gross, and technically ‘not canon’ because its in a minigame, but these are the kinds of perspectives they have of the ship after a certain point and it… just gets uncomfortable. I won’t state the joke until I find the video, because I don’t want to make claims and not have the receipts.

But really the point is, the apology didn’t do enough apologising about the real issue. And people don’t focus on the real issues either. The highschool age gap was bad but what about every joke afterwards that played into it, even after the age gap was technically not bad anymore. The growing infantilisation of Aphmau, the growing sexualisation of her at the same time… it just became very bizarre, and uncomfortable for me even back when Starlight was first airing. And I don’t see it addressed enough. It even seeped into other series (Rebirth) and it makes me yuck out.

I need to rewatch MyS and some minigames before I have any exact examples but… yikers dude

[alex-turners-world]

It's so sad when you have nothing to offer other than your body. // I definitely think this is the reason she seems to be naked all the time in his company. It’s like she’s over-sexualising herself because she doesn’t think she’d be interesting enough otherwise. She’s not got any education, no interests of her own beyond the surface level “look I’m into pretentious cinema and French music just like you!” but when it comes down to it she doesn’t actually feel confident conversing about that stuff because it’s all for show. (I think Alex is definitely similarly shallow too, for what it’s worth). It’s hard to feign an interest when you don’t really care. I also do think the other side of it is her very childish showing off that she and Alex are in fact intimate and all of us should be very jealous! Like all the times when she’ll post a picture of her beach towel with her bikini top on it, it just feels somewhat deliberate. It’s very r/ihavesex

Of course she wouldn't be interesting enough without it. I don't even find her interesting when she's naked. But again, I'm not a shallow sexist man, right?

As for her bragging that she had sex with Alex, well, do I have to say anything other than it's cringe and stupid? Also,don't forget that she's sooooooooooooo private. So private that she posted messy bedsheets implying that they had just fucked, took pictures without a bikini top, once again implying that they fuck. Obviously telling people in the comments that Alex has a ✨beautiful dick✨. It screams frustration. It's like she's overcompensating. Maybe they don't even have sex lol (or they don't satisfy each other)cause when a person tends to talk a lot about something it's usually not true, you know what I mean?

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

this is kinda weird, but with stuff like Skibidi Toilet (a web animation that's really popular among the kids these days, about toilets with heads in a war against people with technology for heads), where do characters like TV-woman (woman with TV for a head) and Speaker-woman fit into the headless-woman art? On one hand, they are headless women when viewed in isolation, but on the other hand, everyone else in the Skibidi Toilet world, that isn't one of the evil heads-in-a-toilet, also have their heads replaced with technology. (e.g. Camera-men are men with cameras for heads.) Is it different when headless women are in animation because now they are actual characters with thoughts and actions they can take, instead of a passive static object? On another note, I've always found blocking/changing the head of a character as a way to make them anonymous or deidentifying them into an everyperson, or like with Skibidi Toilet does, a method of making someone seem otherworldly. Like she can see you, but you can't see her face and you don't get to know her. But looking through your headless woman tag, gee, seeing all the butchered and sexualised women together like that makes it feel so creepy. I have to confess, I am a former fan of object-head women because I liked the fact that they seemed mysterious and you didn't know what these strange women might be thinking. But now it's like that same factor, that you don't know what thoughts they might be having, if they're even capable of thinking at all, that's putting me off! Also, do you think the Onceler in the original depiction by Doctor Seuss or in the 1971 TV special gets to (mostly, because his eyes are seen once through his boarded up windows, but otherwise his head and face are always hidden) count as a headless man? I don't know where I'm going with this, but the 2012 Onceler that got popular on tumblr was given an actual face, and an explosion in popularity too. i think people started identifying with him even more, despite being given a face instead of being a faceless everyman.

… I’m not gonna lie anon, I don’t really understand what any of this means, but thank you so much for sending it in! I’ll pop it into the tag for other women to consider and respond to xx

[fyrerainy]

hihihii !!

i completely forgot to ask.. but do you have designs for your tdl fic? :3

and how have you been !!

hands youa cookie :D

hiii ghosteii!! :3c

School just started again for me, so I'm very tired, but otherwise alright. Thanks for asking! How are you? :D

AGRESSIVLEY NOMS THE COOKIE

I don't actually have designs for TDL, and the reasons are as follows: Most of the characters would look exactly the same, I cannot draw full-bodies without them looking like someone took a shit on my canvas, and I'm too lazy :D

BUT

I do have a couple of silly little funky ideas. Here are some pointers for drawing the TDL sillies.

Spoilers for TDL so far :3

CHICA

chonkey. fat lady. if you draw her slim like in canon I will skin you alive please and thank you ^o^ my chica is a chonkey girl

slight discolouration/cracks around her beak. her beak is also noticeably shinier and newer-looking than the rest of her, as she got it replaced.

EYE BAGS. TIRED LADY

ROXY

She looks the same idk what to tell ya

Bandage 'round the eyes so it's not too unsightly

Frebby, Monty, Cassie, sun n moon

hur hur hur hur hur hur hur hur hur hur

All exactly the same. I have no ideas what can I tell you.

Greggy boi

Greyish skin. Not so much it's like WTF IF WRONG WITH YOU but more like, the longer you look at him the stranger he looks

Skin lightens around nose/eyes/mouth

EYE BAGSSSSSSSSSSSSS

one of his eyes turns [REDACTED] when [REDACTED]

Vanessa

None of that sexualised shit!!!! you hear me!!!!!!

Also chonkey lady.

EYE BAGSSSSSSS MY BELOVED

messy messy hair. low ponytail. stripes of these colours:

Vanny (who will come up)

none of that sexualised shit!!!!!! none!!!!!!

the fursuit is not skin-tight!!!!! her boobs and thighs and body is not framed in a smexy way!!!!!

she's wearing a fursuit!! she's extra chonkey!!!!!!

CHONKEY LADY!!!!! NO SEXUALISING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ILL FIND YOU!!!!!!!!

giggling and kicking my feet. ofc feel free to styilise them and/or ignore all this /gen! It was really fun hehehehehe

but seriously if you sexualise vanny i will end you

[lyteofgod]

lol love how when people think of pastors/priests, they think of exorcisms for some reason? Performing exorcism is actually really unusual, the only times I've ever heard of it was in weird cases of a child showing too much interest in Satanism or having a bad tantrum that their family calls a Priest (I don't agree with this, especially if the kid doesn't know the Priest and they aren't looking to actually communicate with them), but that's also really unusual and uncommon! One time I actually heard of a real exorcism, and this is the only time, was when a Pastor I knew had met this women who was a witch and really believed she was under demonic possession, and the Pastor prayed over her for the demon to leave her alone.

Otherwise, exorcism isn't practiced at all. "Demons" rarely, rarely, ever take on their 'true' forms in front of people. It's literally unheard of and only shown in mythology. Demons are present in mental illness most of the time, that's literally what 'demonic possession' is. So, Priests/Pastors aren't actually holding up crosses and saying 'Back away, Satan!' lol they're usually found visiting retirement homes and counting heads.

Also stop sexualising clergymen, please. You might need an exorcism.... I AM JUDGING YOU!!

[comicsart3]

Barb Wire, otherwise known as Barbara Kopetski, is a skilled bounty hunter working in an alternate or future reality, depending which canon you follow. She operates in the American city of Steel Harbor, which has been overrun by outlandish criminal gangs and makes her living taking down the most outrageous offenders on behalf of the beleaguered city authorities. As the USA collapses into civil war, Barb begins works closely with a more ethical criminal group called the Wolf Gang, administering her own rough justice, more as a semi-criminal vigilante than a legitimate bounty hunter and often finds herself on the wrong side of the corrupt police. She is also aided by an ethereal female entity known as The Ghost, who will often pull Barb’s fat from the fire and help her track down her quarries, although her motivations are not always clear. Barb Wire is a genuinely interesting character, being an intriguing mix of Huntress, Batgirl and Catwoman along with any number of hard female characters from the 2000 AD franchise. It is a shame she has, to date, not continued in print, but she perhaps she is considered too overtly sexualised or even fetishistic for these judgemental times. In the panel above, Barb, having made a capture, is in a typically unsatisfactory conversation with Ghost, characteristic of their ambiguous relationship.

Barb first appeared in Comics’ Greatest World: Steel Harbor in 1993, published by Dark Horse Comics and was the creation of Chris Warner. She graduated to her own title in 1994 which ran for nine issues, followed by a mini series in 1996. That was the year that the Barb Wire movie came out, starring Pamela Anderson. Although the film captures the feel of the disintegrating world that is Steel Harbor and Anderson absolutely looks the part, it does not reflect the depth or subtle politics of the comic, majoring instead in the character’s “kick ass” qualities rather than exploring the personality of Barb herself. There was also a 2015 comics reboot which sadly only lasted eight issues.

With thanks to Mats Karlsson for the panel and to Wikipedia for some of the factual detail.

[eviltothecore13]

Jill having pictures in her room doesnt mean shes bi. Learn about women instead of sexulizing them for your fantasies. Pervert

...OK, no, it doesn't *mean* she's bi, that's a headcanon. A headcanon shared by several bi women I'm friends with, but a headcanon.

My question for you is: why is headcanoning a woman as bi inherently some kind of perverted sexualisation? Would you say the same if I'd said I saw a woman as a lesbian (Alcina, for instance), or as straight (Excella Gionne, for instance)? Is it also perverted sexualisation to headcanon a man as bi (I headcanon MOST characters as bi by default because there's a fair amount of evidence that most people aren't 100% straight or 100% gay IRL, but the most obvious example in my fic and on this blog is that I ship Albert Wesker/William Birkin)?

I've seen Claire fans (many of whom are women) talk about certain scenes in the RE2 remake saying things like "she's totally checking Leon out in this scene". Have you sent them similar messages because they, too, are suggesting that something a female character does might be an indication that she's attracted to someone? Or do you only have a problem with someone suggesting a female character is attracted to women?

Talking about a character's orientation and who they might be attracted to is not uncommon here on Tumblr. I mean, we are pretty much all some kind of LGBTQA+ here and naturally tend to look for representation. As there isn't that much definitively canon rep in RE but most of the characters are fairly open to interpretation in that regard, headcanoning them tends to be pretty popular (I must say, you're the first person on here I've ever seen object to this headcanon) and isn't usually seen as all that sexual (I really don't have very strong sexual feelings about Jill? This isn't an insult to her, she's definitely objectively good-looking, and a great character who I like, but she's not the one I sexually fantasise about, that would be Wesker).

As for learning about women, well, I can't claim to know everything about the experience of being a woman, but I know enough women to know that many/most women--those who aren't ace--are attracted to people sometimes. "He's hot", "she's hot", "they're both hot", aren't uncommon phrases to hear. I know at least one woman who has posters of shirtless Wesker and various other characters up in her house. I don't think it would be realistic to pretend, in fic or otherwise, that women are delicate flowers who faint at the thought of sex, instead of human beings who usually experience sexual attraction just like other human beings.

[phantom-witch]

Phantom's Finished: Persona 5 Royal

Where do I even begin? It's taken 20 days at least to even start writing this. This is one of the most impactful games I've ever played. I've seen the impact on games as a whole this game has made, and this released the same year as BREATH OF THE WILD. The way games have used 2D stylisation especially as part of a limitation has been super inspired since this. This game is a masterpiece despite all its flaws and I'm okay to say that!! I'll split this up into many sections so this will be very long, you have been warned...

Context & Importance:

Before getting into the game itself, I wish to go into the significance of this. I was a closeted Trans girl who had heard of this game from the 2017 game awards, I then looked into it and became obsessed, I watched a whole playthrough of the og Persona 5. I wanted Joker in smash AND GOT THAT! But it took forever for me to have the opportunity to play it on switch. I almost gave up hope until last year in July it happened.

This was basically my most anticipated game of all time, of which had given me comfort alongisde playing Xenoblade 2 and Pyra helping me realise I was a girl. So these two games have very close and personal connections to me. Not only that, my partner and friends got to hear the majority of my reactions to this game whilst I projected a trans girl headcanon onto my beloved Ren Amamiya! (she/her will be the pronouns I use here) That's why this has been so hard to start, how important this is... it's overwhelming!

Final note, I'm not going to shy away from spoilers on both Persona 5 and the Royal content at any point, as it would be hard to discuss a lot otherwise, so SHOO if you don't want that!

Story:

I will be going over my favourite and least favourite parts and then Royals segment on its own!

The Amazing:

Where do I begin? This game has so many amazing moments! The entire build up to Sae's palace, Joker's awakening, Akechi's justice?? That last one I'll save for Akechi's section but gosh this game has so many moments! A favourite is how Futabas palace is really a gamechanger with both Futaba herself but the mystery around everything to do with her mum and how that effects Sojiro and even carries over into his second half of his confidant.

Then there's the whole build-up to Shido and the super close connection he has to Ren, after ruining her life. You feel the personal importance so powerfully as the game has built up connections to him and the main crew so well! Which in my opinion overpowers the obvious "save Japan" element of it in the best way. Once you send the calling card too, you get the coolest reveal ever with a takeover of Japan's network revealing Joker to be alive and it is SUCH a satisfying feeling!

Even the calmer moments of this game are beautiful. Whether it's a lovely dance with Kasumi at the festival, or Maruki's sessions, or the lovely time at the beach! Even in Hawaii when Ann and Ryuji have a lovely bonding moment with you. Simple moments like that make this game the beautiful experience it is...

The Awful:

Before I get into my three main things, I want to cover some minor things.

Firstly I believe that Ann gets way too sexualised throughout the story sadly, especially by Morgana. Furthermore, it feels the balance of the cast is sometimes a little off. Ryuji and Ann suffer this a bit but Yusuke is the worst for this and reduced to a bit of a joke sadly in terms of story. There's also a lot of gender stereotypes pushed for no reason on the cast at times that feels out of place for the rebellious message this game tells.

However, 3 things in this game bug me the most. First off is honestly just... Morgana. I'll get into him a bit later but he is such a hypocrite that when he finally gets negative talk back to him he immediately bails and it causes the games design and structure to awkwardly change focus and takes away partly from Haru's introduction! The one character that didn't need less screentime. Then there's how Ryuji gets treated especially in the out of place beat up scene after Shido's palace. He is literally disabelled despite managing to run so it comes across extrememly abelist having the girls smack him so hard like that. Bad vibes after an incredible moment. Finally, Yaldabaoth. I don't hate this at all for it's moment to moment experience, but my main issue is for a finale it really doesn't connect to our party like the Shido and it doesn't feel like the finale for the characters, moreso the world they're in.

Speaking of...

Royal:

The moment I started this part of the game, the eeriness was immediate... everything was wrong, completely incorrect. Morgana was a human, Makoto, Haru and Futaba had their parents still alive whilst Ann still had Shiho. And then Akechi arrives, fully aware of everything going on. With Kasumi's support after some sweet moments with her, they enter the palace they had encountered during Okumura's arc and the atmosphere is potent. Maruki shows a wish to help the world be better for everyone by creating a reality fit for them. But it's all artifical, fake, a lack of choice. Due to this pursuit, Kasumi is forced to learn of her true identity of Sumire, as her sister who is actually Kasumi is dead. Learning of the dancing sisters and how Sumire felt so low of herself and behind Kasumi, we also learn Sumire was saved from a car by Kasumi, causing a massive trauma and survivors guilt in her. Maruki altered her reality to make her think of herself as Kasumi.

This is how far Maruki is gone, to the point Akechi was even brought back to life due to the bond he and Ren share. The reason this is so much better than Yaldabaoth is because it's about every party member choosing freedom over a fake happiness. As what is living if you don't get to choose for yourself? This whole game happened due to this groups choices and will. Allowing Maruki's reality goes against everything they've gone through and being ignorant again. This new semester allows us to see more of Akechi shine, Sumire become her true self, Ren show her resolve and the phantom thieves stick to their truth. Whilst having an antagonist that is deeply connected to the main group. I'll go into Maruki himself later but wow, this third semester concludes the themes of the games perfectly with an ending that had me going "no, don't go..." because i grew in love with this group of teens so much. An amazing story with a lot of lovely moments and some hiccups.

Characters:

Here I'll be going over the party members, villains and any other's of note! To start with...

Ren Amamiya (Rin Rivamiya for my playthrough):

Never have I seen a protagonist designed with minimal lines to be so well characterised! She is such a lovable dork and I love her so much. Constantly trying to be cool and IS cool as a Phantom Thief, constantly expressing herself through the prompt options beautifully.

As stated, I projected onto her a lot whilst also seeing her as her own character as a trans girl who helped me a lot with my gender identity when I originally discovered Persona 5 in 2018. Ren makes this games personality and charm all by herself whilst everything around her compliments the charm she brings. I admit that I headcanon a lot but overall she is handled very well still! However, there are some questionable lines sometimes given this is adult men trying to write a teen boy poorly. But, this is a given with Persona sadly, and I'm willing to look past this for my own enjoyment.

With an amazing dynamic with most characters and beautiful climax to her ideals with every phase of the true final boss of Maruki... what a beautiful character I found such huge comfort in and glad how popular she now is.

Her Persona, "Arsene", is a beautiful representation of her will, strength and rebellious spirit. Arsene represents Joker's energy and the pallet and visual design of Persona 5 as a whole perfectly

Ryuji Sakamoto:

I already covered the poor moment for Ryuji earlier, but I feel this game doesn't take him seriously at all and that is such a shame. Morgana belittles him and that is never taken seriously, having his self-esteem constantly put down by another party member and sometimes treated as a joke despite having some lovely moments!

That isn't his fault though, and instead the short comings of the writers. This boy is loud, passionate and has one of the biggest hearts ever! If he makes a mistake, he tries to learn from it. A brilliant example is how after Okumura's palace he realises how he lost his resolve and sincerity for a while, too focused on the fame over helping those in need. Once he realises, he talks a lot about this mistake and genuinely grows massively from it.

We get to see how he looks out for others often in both the main story and his Confidant, alongside how he manages to get by with his injury and supporting his mom. I feel they balance his involvement out pretty well throughout the whole game.

Ann Takamaki:

Ann has to be the girl that gets treated the worst by this game, and that's such a shame! Funny how I'm formatting the images as I feel one of the biggest issues is how they designed her Phantom Thief outfit. It's super sexy which is exactly what Ann isn't comfortable in, to the point she expresses discomfort! That sucks and I think the design is actually quite poor and even fails at the catwomen inspiration.

Sadly she also gets quite dumbed down as the game progresses and her role is extremely non-existent for a while with a few high moments. This infuriates me as it is one of the rarer moments of hypocrisy this game goes for with a character that could have been much more empowering for young women.

Despite all this, I still adore the positivity and vibe she brings to the group, she absolutely is the one to lift people's spirits whilst being the very extroverted one in the group to help support those more reserved or introverted and especially has a lovely dynamic with the other girls and Ryuji, helping them all to express themselves wonderfully with a Confidant that slips a little as I wish it went over her growing stronger for Shiho and helping her to recover but instead is about an infuriating model. I love Ann but it's so weird how much problems this games has for me with how she is handled, which is very comparable to Rise who is another Lovers arcana in Persona 4.

Morgana:

*sigh* This is the can of worms character. Persona has a tendency to take their talking mascot designs and write them in the weirdest ways possible. Teddy in P4 was unnecessarily creepy and with Morgana they went, what if it wasn't as bad... but still a thing. Especially when it comes to Ann it really infuriates me how infatuated this cat is with this teenage girl and constantly calls her "Lady Ann" in a very flirtatious way. It sucks!

The thing is, he has moments of a good character shining through with his dynamic with Ren, and in the end of the base game with how he is a metaphor for people's hopes genuinely got me emotional! To the point it makes me so wish he was written differently.

Then there's... the Okumura Arc. Morgana loses his mind with the group because of his own insecurities and gets mad at a single time Ryuji belittles him. Which, would be understandable if Morgana hadn't been doing this to Ryuji for literally the entire game. He is one of the most hypocritical JRPG party members I've ever seen as someone whose favourite genre is this JRPG's. Plus he takes away from Haru's introduction in that arc which is such a shame as despite that Morgana and Haru have a lovely dynamic!

Yusuke Kitagawa:

Yusuke very much reminds me a lot of myself in many ways. He is extremely autistic coded with how his mindset is very unique and has an wonderful art focus. Even his Confidant is a wonderful showcase of him rediscovering his love for art beyond the Madarame Arc.

Speaking of, he is so heavily focused on in that arc and it is so beautiful how that arc handles him! Going over how he was manipulated and abused without even realising and how he learns and accepts this fact, whilst finding reconciliation with his late mother and the art she made to represent her love for him. It is very wonderful seeing his recovery from everything he went through and learning to recover.

However, as the game progresses, his involvment slowly dwindles more and more to the point he is more the comedic relief character and I heavily dislike that. I like the comedic moments but I wish he got more serious moments in the main story as I feel there's multiple missed opportunities with him. That being said, Yusuke grows a lovely dynamic with Futaba in such a lovely way that contrasts each other wonderfully! It made me smile whenever they interacted.

Makoto Niijima:

If I had originally played the original release of Persona 5 and not started with Royal, Makoto would have been my favourite character. Originally I didn't really understand the hype around her, but she has now become one of my favourites right next to Ren and two others I'll get to soon.

Makoto is really inspiring to me, she is very intelligent whilst still having sincere flaws or shortcomings (for example her social anxiety and struggle to connect with others). Her Confidant is about her overcoming some of these flaws as a genuine way to help her newly made friend whilst trying to feel more in touch with her peers. Not only that, she is an active member consistently playing a role in the story whilst having a nice contrast with her sister Sae Niijima whilst complimenting her too. In fact when the Sae Arc happens she gains an even more active role again which is awesome! My only criticism is that she seems to be portrayed strong and I feel they could have leaned into that with her building up her muscles past the game as her being strong in the real world would've been amazing (and I would've crushed hard over that in Strikers given she's a young adult now)

none of this has even gone into when she's introduced! Which smartly ties to everything that happened with her father to do with crime lords and how people around her that are old adults pressuring her instead of doing the work themselves to the point she snaps completely after the Phantom Thieves help her out and she decides to join for her own truth. Accompanied by an amazing Persona design with some very unique animations! She is very much a highlight of the original game for sure.

Futaba Sakura:

Whilst I clicked more with Makoto, I believe Futaba is the best written party member of the base game by a mile. She is full of personality that shines so bright, funny and they know how to be serious with her character beautifully.

Futaba has one of my favourite palaces in the game because like Sae and Maruki, it isn't an inherently evil person and more someone struggling a lot with their mindset on reality. Futaba's arc heavily focuses on this and how she copes with the survivors guilt towards her late mother, Wakaba. We learn how much adult's victimised her as the reason Wakaba was driven to her death to the point it caused genuine hallucinations. This isn't the kind of trauma that can heal after her treasure is stolen instantly. Sure, it's a huge help to her recovery but we see how after they take a lot of time with her as a group to help her be more comfortable and allowing herself to manage more overtime

This carries over into her Confidant where her sister (yes I said sister as that is very much the INTENDED dynamic don't be weird) Ren helps her to further her recovery, by supporting Futaba's checklist. This is the one Confidant I'm really upset I didn't finish as I adored her! Her dynamic with the group is funny, has amazing battle lines and has amazing use story wise which is shown off and contextualised super well! She is probably right behind Makoto for my favourites and any Persona game without her genuinely feels it is missing something.

Haru Okumura:

This is one of the characters heavily effected by the extra time in Royal. I've already covered how Morgana completely overshadows a good chunk of her introduction compared to how every other party member prior gets proper spotlight. But the reason it's so bad here is because she's the last standard party member in the base game so gets even less time than already due to Morgana overshadowing her arc.

However, not all is lost! As what is there is amazing, alongside a wonderful character design and lovely performance by Xanthe (love all her work). We get to see how she accepts and stands up to her father for her beliefs and how her family legacy is important to her over being rich. She is very sweet but deadly as she shows a more brutal side under that sweet tone. It's used for both endearing/comedic moments as well as a way for her to be more powerful in moments.

Her Confidant is fantastic as it goes through both the grief of her father dying in one of the rawest moments of the game but also her having to run the company he left despite only being 18. For the grief, she didn't even get to hear her father apologise for everything he'd done. Every other chapter allows for reconciliation except for this one and it hits so heavily. Haru has to continue on with that whilst learning to manage to support a company and it makes her one of the strongest characters mentally in this game. Furthermore, she learns and gains her goal for her future to go back to her family roots with her own personal homemade café and is able to be supported about that. I adore what we do get and how she's able to shine in Royal a lot better!

Goro Akechi:

Goro

Akechi...

One of the best characters of this game. He gets a lot in Royal but let us start with the base game content for him. Akechi is one of those twist villains that the twist isn't that he's a villain, but instead the how and the why. I find that is always more interesting when that is the focus on a mystery over "who?" He is established pretty early on as an opposing force to the Phantom Thieves ideals, of which builds him up throughout the game as a striving Detective that's also investigating the Phantom Thieves.

However, one Royal I can't save for later is his entirely new Confidant. It establishes his rival dynamic with Ren so well in a very positive way compared to how it develops later on to be more of a serious rivalry in the latter of the game. He almost lures the group in perfectly if it wasn't for a single slip up of him overhearing Morgana speak, to which it causes the best comeback and moment in the whole game. Akechi's jealousy shows so strongly whilst he wants an opportunity to get to his father to get his revenge. It gets to the point he is so determined to prove himself to Ren and the Phantom Thieves, only to see his true self with how aggressive and insane he is. Akechi's true self is amazing to see as we get an amazing design with amazing Persona and one of the best boss fights in the game. Combine this with a beautiful performance of how desperate he is to prove himself, to the point he is killed by himself, leaving Ren devastated. Akechi shines in vanilla and the new Confidant establishes his relationship with Joker adds so much to Akechi's build up to his highest moments, like when he kills Joker (technically) all in the name of his own Justice. Already a top 5 character here alone!

And then there's the entire new third semester in Royal. Suddenly appearing as not dead taking Ren's place to turn himself in. As mentioned, Akechi is brought back to life by Maruki through his new reality. Akechi being a smart detective is able to put the pieces together and learn this himself. One thing about Akechi that I really enjoyed is how he always sticks to his own beliefs, to the point he would rather stay dead over be brought back to life just to live some reality he never earnt. Stopping Maruki with Ren, fully aware of what will happen to him as we see him fully shine as a party member fully unhinged. No niceties, no compassion, just a fully blunt ready to get the job done man without having a façade to the world. Robbie Daymond does a fantastic job with him, as we hear such conviction to every line he delivers as Akechi is consistently firm about his beliefs. That's the brutal reality, Akechi was always meant to die and he knows it. Ren was the one that couldn't accept this as we see Akechi fighting for free will and the justice he chooses.

A character that was amazing goes to being one of the best in this game, literally in the top 3 of this game easily with how amazingly handled he is.

Kasumi & Sumire Yoshizawa:

Let's get the main thing out of the way, she is my favourite character of this game! I adore her and how she develops over the course of this game, especially as the main new character to this version of the game!

She's introduced in the prologue as someone you know in Sae's Palace, meaning you get a tease that she will be able to go through palaces by that point of the game. From a time perspective, the actual first time you meet is middle of Kamoshida's Arc where during a trip to school you see an act of kindness from her rudely interrupted by a man. She is clearly shocked but doesn't wish to cause a scene, establishing her kind yet non-confrontational as Ren tries to help her. It's not until Madarame Arc onwards she is more prominent role with interactions with Ren, most notably when they properly meet and introduce themselves to each other on a school activity. It even kicks off their Confidant alongside more interactions over the main story!

Her Confidant is only 5 levels long and it goes into her feeling a level of control with her body as she's growing and changing, whilst supporting her family and dead sister, Sumire. It's a lovely and super endearing Confidant where Ren feels equal in terms of the support given in return where her feelings are also considered and I love that! Kasumi really cares for Ren and vice versa which creates such a strong dynamic between these two that is very balanced. We then learn that Akechi and her know of each other and we have an interaction with Ren and those two where she proposes a wonderful opinion about how she really respects what the Phantom Thieves do but also believes people need to help themselves too as that won't last for society if people stop trying to change themselves. It shows a very open minded angle to her and how she's extremely intelligent by having a more nuanced answer for a serious topic in the world of these characters and I really like that, it considers how some might need that help whilst others are over-relying on it.

We get so many lovely moments, ranging from a beautiful dance with Ren smoothly dancing, to her saying Aloha in Hawaii with a cute gesture. We even discover this unknown palace with her, of which she learns of the Metaverse and Persona users. Even awakening to her Persona after showing such will power to fight for herself instead of relying too much on Ren, like she said about the Phantom Thieves! However, that's all we really see for the most part, outside of further lovely moments the game gives us. They intentionally make the awakening feel cool and yet, overall off and different in comparison to the other Party member's awakenings (more on that in a bit). I find a lot of queer-coded elements within Kasumi, in how her struggles of her own bodies feels akin to puberty, especially with a teenage trans girl and I felt very close to that alongside her charisma, self-doubt and struggles. I was like, "yeah I kin Kasumi so much I love her! She's just like me!"

Ah... oh Riley of 2022 how unprepared you were you innocent girl...

Cut to the new Third Semester to Royal, as the whole reality shift happens. The only suspicious people are Ren, Akechi & Kasumi going into the palace where she awakened to her Persona. The further in, the more suspicious I and the trio got that something was up with her, as manifestations of her memories start to show up with weird inconsistencies. Even seeing her get called by her memory as Sumire? Overtime they end up meeting the host of this palace, Dr. Maruki, only to reveal that Kasumi really is dead. The girl with us has been her younger sister all along, Sumire.

Sumire was Kasumi's younger sister, always feeling in her older sisters shadow and struggled to keep a smile on herself or even see her own worth. Because of this, there was an accident where Sumire stormed off after not being able to cope anymore with how low she feels. Kasumi rushes after she tries to call out for Sumire about an approaching car. Too lost in her head, she doesn't hear Kasumi as she is pushed away by Kasumi, saving her but crashing into her older sister. Sumire blames herself for all of this, she feels so low about her self and worth that not only does this all happen but she has such survivors-guilt too. Getting to the point she see's herself as Kasumi partly due to Maruki's influence. Upon remembering this she goes into a downward spiral of guilt and denial, begging to be Kasumi still as the Phantom Thieves (+Akechi) fight her Persona and then herself, rescuing her and escaping the palace as best they can. Recovering and sleeping from mental and physical exhaustion, Sumire wakes up at Leblanc whilst deeply apologising to them all for her actions, whilst thinking hard about how to move on with her life back as Sumire. With support of Ren and the thieves, she is determined to live for her sister since she would have wanted that, unlocking the second half of her Confidant finally.

Sumire is shown to be much shyer, keeping to herself and over-apologising much more compared to when she thought of herself as Kasumi. Exploring how as a dancer and gymnast she finds her own style instead of trying to copy what people liked about Kasumi, with a lovely tutor who is stern yet supportive of her growing. This Confidant highlights how living for someone else isn't really living, you need to live for yourself and I really like this for Sumire. The clear depression and anxiety she has due to how she's been made to feel by society and herself really hits close to home and I relate very hard to her journey, especially when I was her age. Grief and guilt have plagued her for ages, and the death of her sister was only a year ago. Her Confidant ends beautifully with her talking about how much Ren's support has meant to her, with her confessing to Ren as the trans lesbian flirts awkwardly back (love you Ren) at her new partner! Only for Sumire to finally perform her own dance instead of a copy of her older sister. Her tutor even notices this, commending her and being absolutely proud. Traits seen when she was presenting as Kasumi can still be seen as her own personality traits when she's more confident, and how they're easily brought out from additional support due to how little confidence she has. Speaking of "presenting as Kasumi", it's very trans-coded with how one experiences their own self-acceptance of their gender identity. It's easy to say "I wish I was cisgender" instead of embracing the you here and learning to support yourself on your journey.

I only have three criticisms of Sumire's handling. Firstly, I find her reclaiming the ponytail hairstyle for herself as a memory of her sister to be poorly contextualised in the game and feels extremely abrupt compared to everything else with her writing. It feels like they didn't want to commit to her new design in the endgame moments and reversed the design near the end. Secondly, I never got to experience her Showtime due to how easy to miss as the only one you don't get naturally through story. This sucks as it was the one I was looking forward to the most! Finally there is me being so selfish, I wanted her as a party member sooner. I love how she becomes apart of the group naturally but I love her so much I wish I got to use her outside of the last Palace in the whole game.

That being said, I think the length of this segment is a testament to how Sumire is my favourite character in this game, if not one of my all time favourite characters. They did a fantastic job with how they naturally integrated her to the plot of the game, with a beautiful job and range from Laura Post alongside the animators at P Animation Studio, perfectly representing the theme of will power and overcoming hurdles in your life with precise execution.

Sumire Yoshizawa, thank you for bringing me such joy and tears to my eyes 💙

The Villains & Antagonists:

If there's one thing Persona 5 doesn’t lack, it’s antagonists and villains! Every arc has one and they vary in quality, so let’s go over the more simple villains from the first half of the game…

By simplistic, I mean that they are easy to explain and define in how they are portrayed. For example, Kamoshida who starts the game off beautifully with an utterly detestable character praying on minors abusing a power of authority that very much happens in real life. He kicks this game off strongly with a simple yet powerful force for our first Palace. My only issue is Atlus’ hypocrisy with how underage girls in their games, including this one, are treated. Ann especially is treated with sexualisation, which is awful given she was the main victim of Kamoshida. That’s less a criticism of him and more the writers when handling other things in comparison. Next is Madarame, who has a really good aesthetic and boss design. His design for him and Palace are stunning, which is where my huge praise ends. I love this chapter a lot, but Madarame doesn’t have much to him than “the one that stole the Sayuri” as there isn’t much else to him? I can’t separate him from Yusuke whatsoever and it feels like there’s nothing else to him. That being said, he’s still enjoyable, just doesn’t come close to Kamoshida. Kaneshiro has to be the most “this isn’t about him” moments in a game, as it really isn’t. You don’t see him for long at all and yet I like that choice due to him being a crime lord. I find it akin to how Dr. Seuss in “The Lorax” book doesn’t show the face of “The Onceler”, AKA the metaphor of capitalism as to not humanise them. Here I felt similar intent behind Kaneshiro, however he is still an extremely simple villain. His arc is more for Makoto’s character than it is for him, whilst properly establishing the threat of another Persona user. A fun boss and fun palace still give him a leg up though! Lastly is Shadow Wakaba, who is a weird one given the villain here isn’t the Palace holder. Instead it’s Futaba’s visualisation of her mother after so many adults tormented her for Wakaba’s death. Of course this girl would become distorted in how she perceives her mother due to this! Not much else to say since a good chunk of it is covered in Futaba’s part.

Then we get to the nuanced villains, those with more depth either in motivation, or how they connect to the grander story. First up is Okumura, who is a bit of a tricky one to discuss without going into game design and barely linked story content within the same arc. Morgana’s whole fallout not only affects Haru but Okumura as well, giving a bitter feeling throughout that arc whilst allowing less time to develop. That being said, Okumura is a character who clearly started off with good intentions and lost his way and I really enjoy that about him. He is detestable and yet we understand why Haru loves the father she once knew. Only making it more tragic when he is eventually killed and not given the chance to reconcile with his daughter as a changed man. I would love him if not for the association with the worst boss in the whole game, if not any RPG I’ve played. Strong base, weak executions around it with some bad association around it. Next, here comes our first antagonist that isn’t a villain: Sae Nijima. Sister to Makoto, she is actively after the Phantom Thieves to the point of such desperation that it makes her lose sight of her own justice. She’s gone through a lot with Makoto, losing both parents and having to raise Makoto at a pretty young age and trying to get by in the prosecutor department as a woman proves to be difficult due to gender norms in society. This has a heavy impact on her mental health as she is pushed by higher ups, of which are secretly using her, to the point she resorts to scummy and unjust methods. A character so desperate to catch a group of thieves to the point of seeing herself as a protagonist of this story, falling into the trap of those controlling everything. However, she isn’t the true antagonist of this arc and instead built up as the reason the Phantom Thieves survive. Ideals challenged and thinking about her own justice and faith once more. Akechi I’ve gone over but his father, Shido, actually has a little to say. Whilst being nuanced, it’s different to Sae for me, in that the depth comes from around him and not from him. To elaborate, he is overall a very simplistic villain in that very enjoyable way that’s almost theatrical, but is also behind all the wrongdoings the characters have experienced. Ren got put under probation due to him, Makoto had to see her sister go through hell and back because of him, Futaba and Sojiro lost Wakaba due to him, and Haru lost her father. Even Akechi, someone working for him, was so heavily affected all his life to the point of madness and how his true self is revealed to be. Shido feels personal, a fight the Phantom Thieves have been so prepared to finally face and save the world from him. However, they allow a level of selfishness, by also having motivation on avenging everyone’s pain, especially Ren’s. I love Shido because of this huge personal connection with a powerful presence, making for an exceptional villain. 

Along come the last two, Yaldabaoth and Maruki. Yaldabaoth is the final boss of the original release of Persona 5, and I have to be honest, despite the really cool set piece and moment I don’t care much for this and as the final boss think it is extremely weak as it barely ties to our main party with the exception of Ren sort of. Cool boss gameplay wise, super weak story wise. With that brief mention out the way, it’s on to Dr. Maruki from the Persona 5 Royal content of the game. Like I said at the beginning of this review, Maruki is the complete opposite here, as Maruki actively connects to our main cast consistently throughout the game. This is especially the case with Ren as she helps Maruki learn to research the heart of the mind, eventually bonding overtime as his paper gets completed. He also acts as a councillor that the students talk to, therefore allowing us to see the main cast talk about what they’re going through and struggling with. Maruki has such sweet goals, to help the world be a place where pain shouldn’t have to be felt anymore. He had gone through so much himself and seen so many people affected by reality that his will became so strong to the point he was able to alter reality. Therefore, his goal became to change the whole of reality to help people for the better… but the game brings to question if that really is a good thing? And the Phantom Thieves oppose this as free will is more important. I loved this as it ties the overall themes and motifs of the game with rebellion, freedom and individuality. Despite that, Maruki’s intentions come from such a pure heart of a man wanting to help, to the point of trying to be reality’s therapist. Ending with an amazing 3-stage boss sequence and amazing voice acting from the late Billy Kametz (rest in peace and lots of love Billy) and concluding the game masterfully and becoming one of my new all-time favourite antagonists. 

Others of Note: 

Here are the noteworthy thoughts on side characters go! Sojiro is probably my favourite confidant in this game, as he plays such a pivotal role to the found family of Ren with how the injustice she goes through is shown a shift of mentality. He grows to care a lot and show his softer caring side with Futaba and Ren, even their friends by supporting their cares and needs. Furthermore, he grows to regain his sense of justice and it’s such an amazing character growth! On the flip side there’s Mishima, who sucks due to the very incel characterisation he gets that makes him unbearable alongside his constant attempt to insert himself as your friend. It was annoying and I could not stand him. Takemi and Hifumi on the other hand each have a really well done support that I enjoyed a lot. Without going into loads of detail they both go into hardships these women face in their respective industries and it does an amazing job going into the kind of people that wish to hurt them. Yoshida was a fun one despite me struggling to listen to politics so directly (can you blame me as a trans woman in 2023?) but he clearly cared a lot. Kawakami sucks, there's no explaining it. It's gross and hypocritical, moving on. Justine and Caroline/Lavenza are a delight throughout comedically and thematically. The only thing I’ll mention is how forgettable the others felt either due to their intro or their overall support. 

Gameplay:

This is a game after all! However, this game has two very contrasting sides to it, so let's get into both

Social Life: 

Persona as a series likes to have two sides to itself, one of them being the social side. This sees Ren experiencing activities you can do throughout the game in a limited time. This can range from hanging out with other characters, studying, working at a part time job and so much more. The best part about this is how it has a consistent loop for rewarding each other for how they help your journey. Furthermore, they beautifully help with the “Thief Life” I’ll go into more detail soon. But you can get health items, weapons and gear and even abilities in the social side of the game that help for the thieves side! Limiting the time really makes you think about how to approach your stats and activities in what you need (i.e. money, social stats, abilities). Royal adds to this by having additional requirements to unlock the third semester. Speaking of, that allows for some final confidant interactions you wouldn’t get otherwise! Surprisingly enjoyable for what’s the most down time of the game compared to…

Thief Life:

The more typical RPG side of the game, but don’t let that make you think it’s traditional. This is what in my opinion is the peak modernisation of turn-based RPGs, as it enhances and adds to the turn-based formula to such an extreme that it may be my favourite turn-based combat of any game. There’s your basic attack, your gun with limited ammo per fight, guard, item and then Persona. Persona is the most in depth option out of all of them, of which where that character uses their will and inner self to cast magic attacks, physical or gun attacks and even buffs and heal. These all use your Spirit Points, with the exception of physical attacks using Health Points, and each element can have their own effectiveness depending on the enemy you’re fighting. If you expose their weakness, the game awards you with another turn in which you can act again or pass to a teammate and give them a stat buff. This allows for a learning of knowledge in the game and a chain of attacks that reward your knowledge. If every enemy is knocked down, you can do an All Out Attack for high damage and even quickly finishing a fight. This helps a lot with this games pacing for me as you can really quickly finish fights if you know what you’re doing and the game helps nudge a little to help you with that. 

With a decently varied party you can choose between different playstyles that each play into different roles. Ren has multiple Personas too! Allowing for her to customise her options throughout the game through the fusion or interrogate system. This is where you either fuse personas together to make a new one with some attacks from the previous two or bargain with a shadow you knocked down to recruit them as a persona in your selection. Shin Megami Tensei, Persona’s older brother series, has had this for a while and it really works with how they added it within the unique elements of Persona and especially Persona 5 Royal. 

Last but not least is the dungeons, aka Palaces. A Palace is a world with its own unique setting and aesthetic based on the boss of the place in the Metaverse, and that current arcs focused antagonists at that point in the story. These dungeons are all blooming with fun aesthetics, set pieces and level design that all vary in quality. Maruki, Sae and Shido had especially fantastic palaces with Okumura hitting more of a low point even gameplay wise. In Royal specifically, they added these 3 part collectibles called Will Seeds. Exploring rewards you for looking through every nook and cranny of a palace with these and getting all 3 in each palace grants you a huge reward. Bosses are overall good and play to the game's gameplay strengths mostly. Okumura again being the worst case for this whilst others range from pretty neat to some of my favourite fights in gaming. Royal’s final boss uses every mechanic beautifully as it is required to manage it, which Okumura’s boss tries to do but in a way that is much more draining and limits options too much. Instead there is many different approaches that beautifully use every system you’ve learnt the last 100 or so hours and can learn and manage in the way you have learnt to manage. With that there’s one last thing to mention, Mementos. This is a large palace that is a randomly generated dungeon that you can get deeper in throughout the story, sound fun and replayable right? Sadly, the layouts are so simple and repetitive that I found this to be pretty boring and would only do it when I needed to shut my brain off. I get Persona has always hand randomly generated dungeons but to me it’s clearly not working when the layout is so flat and repetitive without much to even do outside fighting.

Art: 

Art is important to any medium, and it couldn't be any more true for this game too. There's a reason this game has stood out so much...

Music: 

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear this, but Persona 5 Royal has absolutely amazing music. Its use of Synthesiser as the main instrument adds such a smooth yet eerily unique approach to any part of the OST it touches, alongside the piano, violin, jazz instruments and so much more. Shoji Meguro perfectly encapsulates the phantom thieves and how they feel at every turn. Busy daytime? ‘Tokyo Daylight’ constant change of notes represents the mass amount of different people you’re passing by in central Tokyo each day. ‘Is it Boring’ accompanies anytime you’re in school with a long repetition of bars whilst also moments of tensity to show the mundane yet unfocused side of life you have to manage whilst being a thief. However, this OST wouldn’t have the strong identity it is known to have if it isn’t for the singer of any track with lyrics: Lyn Inaizumi. She sings every track with such power and yet grace and confidence that it is a match made in heaven for the themes of this game. The songs show her vocal range beautifully with the slow, tranquil ‘Beneath the Mask’ or the intense, determined ‘Life Will Change’. Persona 5 Royal’s OST is so cohesive and yet so varied that it never loses itself and that is beautiful. My favourite OST of all time.

Art Direction:

As already stated, the Palaces have beautiful varied aesthetics that keep most of them visually interesting. This applies to Tokyo as well, with the advertisements of the subway popping out at you left right and centre, or the town centre bustling with lights. Whilst not perfect, I would say it does what it sets out to do within the budget Persona 5 originally had amazingly and uses these limitations to its advantage. Speaking of, the menus and UI of this game show that in full force. Everything has a red, black and white colour scheme with minor colours accenting from time to time. The use of silhouetting and sharp poses whenever you select a menu option to cleanly transition is eye candy alongside the distorted look of where you’re selected on clearly catching your eye within the stylised font. Even in battles this applies, as the options you have look to come off the character themselves, even with a silhouette of them layered behind their model for additional flare. Additionally, the UI is made clear where every button is as the options are displayed like a controller layout perfectly. Ingenious! Finally there’s All-Out Attacks, which have a barrage of attacks in a cartoonish but powerful manner of black on red visuals. If this kills the enemy, the character that triggered it will come in to do a custom animation into a key pose, where it snaps to artwork of the pose perfectly in time. You are rewarded for playing with visual flare and it does all this within its own limitations perfectly. Innovating on what the industry hasn’t tried to this extreme yet due to a limitation of their team.

Character Design:

The majority of significant characters in this game have a massive variety to them. Even with the main party they come with two main designs. With their school uniforms, each of them have very intentional subtle touches that make them instantly recognisable. Ann’s hoodie, Ryuji’s T-Shirt, Haru’s jumper all show different traits and key elements alongside other key features like hairstyle, hair colour, expressions and much more. With their thief design, we get to see a lot of their personality shine even further. Ren gets to present as cool in an unapologetic way and she comes with a traditional mask worn in the 1900s. Makoto shows her powerful side and even the surprising strength she has, even if I wish she was a little more toned in her design. Yusuke and his traditional art fits the traditional Samurai, Futaba fitting with a more Sci-Fi tech outfit, Sumire having elements of dancer gear whilst also a clear conflict within her own outfit, reflecting off of Ren partly as we learn that’s her coping mechanism. There’s one that isn’t so good though, Ann. She sadly is given a very Catwoman-esque skintight suit, which she herself is uncomfortable in and is sexualised in too. My main issue is how this goes completely against her arc and the message of the general arc of the first game. Owning one's sexuality does not mean being sexualised and should’ve gone for another angle, like her fashionista or model side.

Morgana in both forms is very strong character design, going for a black and white approach akin to mascot characters of the rubberhose era with yellow and blue to make the collar/bandana and eyes stand out as contrasting colours. Every social link design does really well with variety of age, body types and features. From Sojiro’s curved beard to Yoshida’s broader body type. My only criticism is actually body types, despite just praising them, as that tends to apply more to the men than the women and older features aren’t used much if at all to make them more appealing. I want older looking women in games! 

Finally, the Antagonists and their shadow designs. Each represents their main theme perfectly, from Kamoshida’s almost naked body to Kaneshiro’s bug look like a fly to a light as he is to money. Sae has a perfect villainess look to her especially within the context of the palace being a bank as Shido and Maruki both represent very different forms of discomfort especially in their designs (specifically third semester Maruki) with how their uniform is perfectly kept clean and without fault, Shido even having tinted lenses to show his tainted lens on the world. Whilst not perfect, I think the character design is extremely strong despite it and I look forward to seeing how this evolves in the series

Conclusion:

Persona 5 Royal is an extremely important game, to me, others and this industry as a whole. It pushed the boundaries of thematic intent through how even its UI and music so heavily emphasise the themes of this game. Persona games have always used it’s main colour to represent it’s theme (i.e. Persona 3 for blue to represent life and death) but this entry takes that to such an extreme and we are still seeing the repercussions of that today. Breath of the Wild influenced open design in the industry and how mechanically fine tuned and creative it can be, and I feel Persona 5 did this for the art, character design and music and stories of this industry. This is not a perfect game, no game will ever be and sadly a lot of bigoted people worked on this game which affected some qualities like the sexualisation. But I will never let that ruin what this game does so beautifully right as it is an important magnum opus of turn-based RPGs that fine tunes every issue the genre has had prior whilst fine tuning its own series mechanics to a stunning peak. Bias plagued this review and I’m well aware of this, but art analysis can’t be truly objective and this art stole my heart

[unsettlingcreature]

I'm going to be sensible and NOT post like 100 mod recs BUT here's some of my favourites sorted by vague categories.

Conversations:

Dialogue Interface Reshaped - changes the dialogue interface, works really nice with IACC :)

Improved Alternate Conversation Camera - look i spend a lot of time on making my character look how i want them to. i want to see them. This mod flips between you and the speaker, depending on whether they are currently in dialogue or if it is time for you to respond.

Quality of Life:

Genuinely Intelligent Soul Trap - let's souls be merged in soul gems until they reach max capacity, basically. I can't play an enchanter/soul trapper without this anymore.

Replace Nirnroot with Wind Chimes - sorry but nirnroot drives me INSANE and this is so much more pleasant to my ears

Convenient Soul Cairn - what do you mean you don't want to traipse through a repetitive landscape with barely anything in it for the hundredth time? /s

Gear:

Signature Equipment - using your equipment slowly tempers it, I never use tempering in-game and I get attached to gear so it works well for me

Simple Wearable Lanterns - lanterns that you can wear on your belt! I find a lot of caves/dungeons are too dark/hard to see in so this helps without having to constantly cast Candelight. they also look cute!

Followers:

ok i'm limiting how many i do for this category because otherwise i WILL just put like thirty mods here

Gore - What I love most about Gore is how he reacts to the world as a result of his personal history. There's a moment during the Mirmulnir fight that blew me away the first time I heard it. I love him. He is like a brother to me.

Xelzaz - Telvanni argonian! his voice is so soothing. I like Xelzaz because while he is very much supportive of you (making you meals, potions, etc) he will 100% judge you for what he considers stupid reasons. I love his cynical ass. please roast the companions more it is so funny to me.

Secunda - it's so nice having a sweet princess to adventure with who isn't sexualised to hell and back. She's sweet, funny and I'm really interested to see where she goes in future! The small hint we've gotten about her backstory through the recently commissioned art of her has me very much 👀

Khash - argonian child my beloved. She's sweet but still ready to kick ass. I think she adds a much-needed relationship dynamic - many follower mods have adults (especially younger ones) as their focus and the vanilla children leave much to be desired, leaving Khash as very uniquely herself.

Quest mods:

Sirenroot - Sirenroot is one of those mods that I'm very much torn on. It is beautiful. I loved that the things you say matter. BUT I will say that navigation was a nightmare and I hate timed puzzles. I would definitely recommend playing this at least once to most people.

Warden of the Coast - ok i haven't actually finished this mod BUT what I've played so far has been enjoyable. I LOVE how your approval with companions is so linked - good luck pleasing everyone! I wouldn't recommend doing this immediately upon starting the game however - I got decimated. Repeatedly.

Misc:

Idrinth's Dream Framework - ok this is just a framework (so you need other mods to utilise it) but since I play with needs and have to sleep often, this adds a nice little bit of detail, especially during downtime!

Wounds - bREAK YOUR BONES, GET INJURED, SPEND TIME RECOVERING. I will be honest, this can get ROUGH if you're not wearing heavy armour and end up on the front lines. but I like excuses to take breaks from adventuring.

Legacy of the Dragonborn - big museum to put unique weapons and artifacts in. yes its a big mod no its not perfect but i LOVE collecting things. also the safehouse and outfit system from LoTD are great. I want more stuff like that. especially the outfit system please please please please

I'm reinstalling skyrim (meaning I'm also modding the hell out of it :p). What are everyone's favorite mods?

[viscountessevie]

Regé Speaks Out on IG

Took me a couple of day but we finally made it! I hope I did him justice and  that you all enjoy reading this. Anyone who’s perpetrated the harm and hate mentioned below to him, I hope you read this all the way through and reevaluate. 

I honestly still can’t believe he posted this. I think this is the closest he’ll come to say anything against past productions in his career. 

Obviously, it may not be pointed only at The Bee Show but rather an overview stance he's taking against his whole career experience thus far as Mimi has said similarly here too but still it’s a pretty big step to come forward. 

Honestly, I’ve been waiting for a statement like this since S2 dropped or even when he left. I’m so so happy he’s gotten to a safe place where he feels like he can say this now without big repercussions. Then again he also kept it vague enough that no one particular production can say “Hey no slandering us” but still sends a clear message to those who have conducted themselves awfully on set and also by not protecting their cast of colour. 

I can’t speak to the previous productions he was a part of pre-Bridgerton but we’ve seen how superficial the Bton team has been this season especially and now that they have their white couple, they have already started promotion - they haven’t even finished filming yet. Now let’s take a look at the ‘fans’ who ‘loved’ his Duke so much that they ended up turning on him: 

[I was so relieved I couldn’t really find much on his farewell post on the Bton acoount but his own farewell post though? Hohoho - they came in even more hot after S2] 

NO MrsM77 YOUR mother is ashamed of you for leaving such a hateful comment. 

Hey privatelyinmybusiness maybe TIME TO GET OUT of HIS business also say that to all the huge movies he’s booked lately!

Danielle really thinks she’s all that huh that she’s personally offended that he didn’t say goodbye,,,ma’am I don’t know how to say this but you’re commenting on his goodbye post. 

Of course, are we all surprised that all these accounts (except the first one) don’t have posts? Of course, they are trolls who have nothing better to do. 

As always I asked my friends for their thoughts too so here are some quotes from them stating their opinions! Thanks for bouncing this off me guys @hptriviachamp , B who will be anon for now til she lets me know otherwise ​ @kateandanthonyaremyparents​ 

As Eef pointed out:

I think it's because ppl really loved him. And being in this shitty world as it is felt personal offended when he left. The love turned into a feeling of betrayal and that gives them some unreasonable validation to call him out?? 

I mean.. it's not normal, but the bridgerton fandom isn't normal [If I had to sum up my whole experience with this fandom its this,,,I’ve been writing this essay - a whole essay over someone’s IG story and not to miminise it their treatment in their work place - for a couple of days now. That’s a little insane]

I can't relate at all.. whyyyyy turn on him? I mean, good for him to have chosen his own path. He isn't obligated and the fact that all these ppl think they have a claim on him because they loved the duke is beyond me

To add on to this, I just find it so vile that it was most likely the same group of women who got #NotMyDuke trending when his casting as Simon was first announced but then latched onto him in S1 when they could project onto Daphne and sexualised him to the point of grossly objectifying and fetishising him. Then finally turn against him when he ‘dares’ to leave the show because he got other opportunities. If they loved him so much, wouldn’t they want better for him? They really showed themselves this way. They only like him for what he - well more likely his body - can provide for them. It’s honestly disgusting. Let him be happy for fuck’s sake. Which is why I’m elated he’s booked, busy and can actually say this. 

Here’s my friends for their takes on his statement: 

Trivia: 

There's also a vehemence to it, which tells me he's speaking from personal experience and he said "we went through" it so... def prior experiences. I imagine Bridgerton is among them. It definitely is him saying something about bton without saying something good on him though. yeah he doesn’t seem like one to make statements like this so something must’ve built up for him to speak out.

B’s POV

It just says a lot about a show that profits on being "diverse" probably has behind the scenes problems and they don't even think or protect their poc cast. And coming from a company started by a WOC too!? Shame on them

I was initially going to sum up all the anons I got in one post but the topic got way off track. I’ll be acknowledging and owning up to that in a second part but this is the main post and Regé & his treatment are the main focus. I do not want to dismiss or diminish his experience with production. Anyways, here are two that call out production and the cast as a whole and mention Regé (and by extension Simone as the other POC lead) deserve better. 

First anon pretty much said it all - I don’t expect shit from the same Production that gave us those horrible lines - so I don’t have much to add on that front for this post but will be expanding on the cast’s side in Part 2. 

Second anon: I mean I covered this before but IG likes aren’t reflective of anything but yeah ultimately there’s bigger and better things out there for them - hell we are already seeing it with Regé who got The Gray Man and signed on for the D&D movie. I’m sure he (and Simone) will be just fine!!

To sum up, Regé should have been treated better by the fans and production, he definitely should have been protected and I hope he’s living his best life right now! 

Part 2: What The Cast Should Have Done  [EDIT: Post is now up and link is live!] 

[richardsondavis]

This post will NOT cover everything that took place in GamerGate. That simply isn't possible here. GamerGate wasn't one drama, it was many small and large events that unfolded and built upon each other over a period of years, and took place in every part of the internet at once. My aim here is to lay out the key figures, and give a general understanding of what happened and why. There are resources linked throughout the post which can expand on events I mentioned, but there are many more that I left out.

Come with me as we explore the dark corridors of the internet that gave birth to the modern alt-right. I'm going to try and keep this gaming related, because this isn't a political discussion board, but references to greater political movements are unavoidable.

Be warned, this post contains basically every ism and phobia that you could possible imagine. Tread with care.

Also, when I refer to 'gamers' with a lowercase G, I just mean normal gamers as a whole. When I say 'Gamers', I mean Gamergate supporters.

Anita Sarkeesian - Sexism in Gaming

This shitstorm began in 2013, though its roots trace back far earlier, and while it would come to suck in thousands of pundits, politicians and thinkers from around the world, it began with one woman: Anita Sarkeesian.

Anita is a Canadian-American media critic. She started her Youtube Channel Feminist Frequency in 2009, analysing portrayals of women in pop culture. In 2011 she worked with feminist magazine Bitch to create a series of videos titled 'Tropes vs Women', which examined the damaging cliches and stereotypes against women in film and tv. It did pretty well, but she was still a small voice in a small circle. The natural next step was to talk about games, and that's what she did in 2012. 'Tropes vs Women in Video Games' criticised the sexualisation of women in games, the way they are treated as helpless damsels in distress, or given to the player as a reward. As Sarkeesian herself points out in her first episode:

"It's both possible and necessary to simultaneously enjoy media, while also being critical of its problematic or pernicious aspects'.

The videos were pretty even handed, and never really took the 'rabid angry feminist' tone that people have come to portray. I recommend taking a look. Anita was clearly not much of a 'gamer' herself, but she saw the positives that could be drawn from them.

In order to fund the project, Anita created a Kickstarter - which was all the rage back then. The kickstarter drew attention from every corner. Some of it was positive - she asked for $6000, but ended up with almost 7000 backers and $160,000 pledged. However a lot of it was bad.

Keep in mind that this all took place at a very critical moment in the feminist movement. Tumblr and Twitter were at their height, and a lot of positive momentum was being made. The video game industry was gradually becoming more inclusive too. Games at the time were - to much controversy - including more POC, women, and LGBT characters. But at the same time, a push began against this. A lot of men were feeling alienated by the rapid change, and this negative stance on feminism tended to look past the majority (who were pretty reasonable) and focus only on the minority of feminists who were explicitly anti-male. And in time, the progressive community would make the same mistake with gamers. But for now, it was these anti-feminists who saw the premise of Sarkeesian's videos as a threat toward 'their territory' - the male oriented video game industry. Anita became the poster child for everything these men hated. There was a coordinated effort on 4chan to destroy her Kickstarter, to DDOS the site, to report her twitter accounts, and otherwise eliminate her. It got pretty nasty. At the time it was a bit of a shocker just how nasty it got, but little did we know it was just the start.

A number of articles started to surface on various sites documenting the bizarre outrage, and that only lent it more momentum. Kotaku, Polygon, and other more left-leaning gaming news sites headed the exposure.

Anita received enormous harassment on social media, including vast numbers of rape and death threats, and she was doxxed multiple times (a practice in which a person's home address is posted online). Her wikipedia articles were vandalised with racial and sexual slurs, and she was sent drawings of herself being raped. A video game was created, 'Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian', in which players cover a photo of her in blood by clicking on it. Critics who disparaged the 'game' received death threats themselves. The creator of the game, Gregory Alan Elliot, was taken to court. The case had significant implications for online freedom of speech in Canada. She was accused of being Jewish, and received enormous amounts of antisemitism dubbing her Jewkeesian, until it came to light that her heritage was actually Armenian - and the harassment switched to an Armenian theme without skipping a beat.

Anita capitalised on her infamy, and used it to speak out on sexual harassment at TEDxWomen, as well as several universities. She was scheduled to speak at the 2014 Game Developer's Choice Awards, and would receive an accolade herself, but an anonymous bomb threat was called in to try and get the event cancelled. It really is hard to overstate the sheer level of vitriol this woman had thrown at her. But she would not be the only one.

"I don't get to publicly express sadness or rage or exhaustion or anxiety or depression, I can't say that sometimes the harassment really gets to me, or conversely that the harassment has become so normal that sometimes I don't feel anything at all. I don't get to express feelings of fear or how tiring it is to be constantly vigilant of my physical or digital surroundings. How I don't go to certain events because I don't feel safe. Or how I sit in the more secluded areas of coffee shops and restaurants so the least amount of people can recognise me."

Zoe Quinn - Ethics in Journalism

Zoe Quinn is an American video game developer and writer. In 2013, she released the game 'Depression Quest', a text-based game in which the player roleplays as themselves and is taken through a number of scenarios relating to depression. The game was based on her own experiences, and was received positively by critics. It's a raw and heartfelt project, and I really recommend it. However, there was a contingent who insisted that Depression Quest couldn't really be called a game, and it's true that it blurred the lines between a book, a visual novel, and a game.

This began a broad - and still ongoing - conversation within the gaming community. What is a game? People tried to come up with a clear cut definition, but there was always something that fell outside it. Does it need a failure state? That rules out Animal Crossing, which is definitely a game. Does it need an end point? That rules out Tetris. Does it need violence? Does it need characters? Does it need interactivity? Does it need choice? Does it need goals? Does it need visuals or sound? It's easy to look at most games and say 'yes, that's a game'. It's easy to look at a book or film and say it isn't. But when projects approach the line, things get a bit confusing. There are those who looked at Depression Quest and saw a book with extra steps, and there are those who insisted it was a game, but with all the extraneous stuff taken away. This is a massive philosophical debate, but we're here for drama, so let's move on. All you need to know is - it got great reviews, and some players were unhappy.

Zoe was added to the list of persona non grata. She received her own wave of death and rape threats, but rather than backing away, she documented them and spoke out about them to the media. This earned her even more hatred, which steadily grew more and more intense, to the point where she fled her home out of fear for her own safety.

But it wasn't until August 2014 that 'GamerGate' as we know it would officially begin. And it started at the hands of a relative unknown name, even now. Zoe's former boyfriend Eron Gjoni published a long and sprawling blog post about their relationship in which he levelled a number of accusations against her, the most inflammatory of which was that she had been given positive coverage (of Depression Quest, among other things) by a Kotaku journalist with whom she was sexually involved. This was a false accusation. It later came out that this journalist, Nathan Grayson, had barely ever mentioned Quinn or her work, and when he did, they hadn't been together. But never let the truth get in the way of a good story. The letter included copies of chat logs, text messages, and emails, and for all the world appeared to be legit.

The Gamers in question accused Zoe of exchanging sexual favours for positive press and professional advancement in what they called the 'Quinnspiracy'. Of course, Zoe Quinn stood to gain nothing from the praise Depression Quest received. Contrary to the claims that she was using her status as a woman to gain money... the game was free. And always had been. But this spawned one 'debate' which would go on to define GamerGate - that of ethics in game journalism. Video game press came under enormous scrutiny, especially the left-leaning Kotaku. The idea was that if a pundit/reviewer/critic was left leaning, their views could not be relied upon, because according to GamerGate, they were biased. Large lists were created to map out the various 'SJW Journalists', which boiled down to a blacklist of public figures who spoke out against GamerGate.

But for Zoe, it just meant abuse.

A lot of this began on 4chan - because of course it did - and users leapt at the chance to renew their attacks on Zoe Quinn and Depression Quest. Adam Baldwin (yes that one) coined the term GamerGate on Twitter, and his followers sent it trending. GamerGate gradually developed into a movement which would viciously attack anyone it saw as a target, and had its base in 4chan and Reddit.

Within four months of the blog post, Quinn's record of threats had exceeded a thousand. Around that time she is quoted as saying:

"I used to go to game events and feel like I was going home [...] Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?".

I would go into detail on the exact content of these threats but frankly, I don't want to. All you need to know is that they contain the worst possible things that some very creative people could come up with. Quinn's Tumblr, Dropbox and Skype accounts were hacked, and she once again fled to live with friends. Everyone even tangentially connected to her got showered with hatred. It was a full on witch hunt.

In a BBC interview, Zoe summed up her experience.

"To me, GamerGate will always be glorified revenge porn by my angry ex. Before it had a name, it was nothing but trying to get me to kill myself, trying to hurt me, going after my family. GamerGate will always be that to me. There was no mention of ethics in journalism at all, besides making the same accusation everybody makes toward any successful women, that clearly she got to where she is because she had sex with someone".

EDIT: There was a section here in which I covered the Alec Holowka scandal in 2019, but commenters pointed out that it isn't really relevant to GamerGate, and I agree with them, so I removed it.

Brianna Wu - Taking Action

Wu is an American video game developer and the founder of Giant Spacekat, a small game studio. In October 2014, she began monitoring 8chan (think 4chan's even worse cousin), and began tweeting about GamerGate, ridiculing them for:

"...fighting an apocalyptic future where women are 8 percent of programmers and not 3 percent".

In the process, she placed herself in the sights of the mob. Anonymous details about her, including her address, were leaked on 8chan, and of course she got the standard death and rape threats, and had to flee her home. If this seems like it's becoming a pattern, that's because it is. The pattern would repeat itself over and over going forward. A minor figure speaks out about something, right wingers try to shut them up with abuse, they use that abuse to increase their platform (thereby becoming a minor left wing celebrity), they become an even bigger target, and they soon end up plastered across the internet.

But to the fury of many Gamers everywhere, none of these women were backing down. In February 2015, Wu declared:

"By attacking me so viciously, they're helping give me the visibility to usher in the very game industry they're terrified about".

Wu created a legal defence fund for women targeted by GamerGate, offered cash for information leading to the prosecution of its worst members, and became heavily involved with the FBI. She exclusively attended events with a security detail. As of today, she and her husband continue to live under aliases.

In 2017, the FBI closed their investigation and declined to prosecute any of the men who sent threats (even though two had confessed). Wu went to the media, campaigning for dedicated FBI agents who understand and monitor the dark corners of the internet like 8chan.

While Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn would become the three horsewomen of the GamerGate apocalypse, they were not alone. Other women who became major targets include Jenni Goodchild, Liana Kerzner, Devi Ever, Leigh Alexander, Felicia Day, and more. It simply isn't possible to cover every single victim of this movement.

At the time, most people who played video games had no idea this was even going on. And often it was getting swept up in generalisations that turned regular gamers into Gamers. There were those who felt like they were being unfairly portrayed as sexist/racist/whatever else, and responded indignantly. This became heavily involved with the #notallmen and #yesallmen movements (and then #notallgamers). But sometimes those generalisations were right. There was a lot of anger going around in general.

Vivian James - Politics in Gaming

Of course, to the 4channer, the ideal woman doesn't exist. She has to be created. And so Vivian was born. Vivian James (chosen because it sounds like Video Games) was created as a mascot for GamerGaters on 4chan, and her portrayal tells us a lot about what Gamers wanted women to be. She was an anthropomorphized avatar of the /v/ (Vidya) community on 4chan, created in response to a totally separate Zoe Quinn controversy surrounding game jams (events in which developers race to make weird and wacky games). She was used in propaganda as a champion of ‘free speech’.

You see, one of the many debates (and we must use this term loosely) that GamerGate created was that of 'politics' in gaming. Representation was increasing of LGBT people, POC and women in games, and some players insisted that these inclusions were politically motivated. They claimed that games as a medium were not meant to be 'political', and forcing 'politics' into the games was a negative thing. They wanted a return to the 'non-political' status quo - and it just so happened that the status quo was white straight American men (usually with guns). Because they themselves were mostly white straight American men, it never struck them as political for a game to feature a white straight American man, it was simply normal. The default. And any deviation from this was labelled as 'political'.

Of course, any intelligent person can see through this to its deeper meaning - these players didn't want gays, women, and non white characters in their games because they were prejudiced. All media is political in some way. Even games which try not to be political.

This is what GamerGate boils down to - a war over the status quo. One side pushing for change, the other pushing to stop that change.

Vivian never mentioned her gender, her ideas or her politics when she played a game - you could play against her and mistake her for a guy. Rather than disrupt the status quo by existing, she allowed it to absorb her. And that's what Gamers wanted from all minorities - they were welcome as long as they didn't disrupt games as a haven where everything is catered to the default player, a white straight American man. Vivian was a 'real gamer' because she embraced the default. Anyone who rejected that default was a fake gamer, whose love of games was a lie, and whose real purpose was sabotage.

This links in pretty heavily to the #NotYourShield movement, basically a platform for women, POC and LGBT Gamers who supported GamerGate and saw its opponents as exploiting them as a shield to deflect criticism. Ironically, GamerGate used these people as evidence that they were not prejudiced at all, in a very 'I'm not racist, my best friend is black' kind of way.

Penning the Playbook

GamerGate had found an effective way of tearing down its targets, and its playbook would come to include strategies like gaslighting, dogpiling, sea lioning, gish galloping, and dogwhistling - and would inform the strategies of the alt right. By creating a state of fear, where people are too scared to even speak against GamerGate, they were able to silence opposition. And unlike its opposition, who were very real and public figures, GamerGate was decentralised and anonymous, akin to a swarm with no individual leader or face, and which therefore was incredibly hard to defeat. This was never a two way street. Of course, GamerGate had its open and public supporters. Let's go through a few of these colourful characters now!

Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad)

Sargon is your standard basement dweller youtuber, the kind of guy who DESTROYS libs with FACTS and REASON. He gained a lot of traction from GamerGate, and he explains why here. You can kind of imagine him as a more extreme Ben Shapiro.

Richard Spencer

Another Nazi. Richard Spencer was a big supporter of GamerGate. You can look into himself if you like but frankly I don't want to do the research into him because that means I have to watch and read shit he has said. His main claim to fame is being the man who coined the term 'Alt Right'

John Bain (Totalbiscuit)

Totalbiscuit was a popular game critic who died of bowel cancer in 2018. He is widely credited with being the man who legitimised GamerGate. It should be pointed out that Bain was never a white supremacist or abuser or anything like that - and he is often wrongly characterised as being more extreme than he really is. He was conservative, aggressive and thin skinned, but he wasn't evil. To him, GamerGate was always about ethics in journalism, what defines a game, and politics in gaming. He had been an ethical crusader long before GamerGate, and so none of this is truly surprising. He was either incredibly naive or just wilfully ignored the fact that these online movements were just fronts. It is somewhat ironic how much he had in common with James Stephanie Sterling (once known as Jim Sterling before transitioning), another British pro-consumer activist and long-time collaborator, who was always on the total opposite end of the GamerGate spectrum. Indeed, most of John's closest associates were anti-GamerGate.

I met TB once at a convention and he seemed nice enough.

Milo Yiannopoulos

During his time working at Breitbart, Milo was an outspoken supporter of GamerGate. His big thing was that he was a gay right-winger, and he used his homosexuality to deflect criticism for his views. He has since been banned from basically every site possible. Like many others, he seemed somewhat right leaning at first, but gradually unveiled himself as a full on nazi.

Steven Jay Williams (Boogue2988)

Boogie is a youtuber who came to fame through the persona of 'Francis', in which he would put on a funny voice and rage about minor things. But gradually he became more popular just for being himself, and his own views. When GamerGate first emerged, Boogie tried to stay moderate, but his views got more and more extreme as time went on. In 2017, Boogie had a gastric bypass surgery, which made him lose weight. But after that, he revealed himself to be quite a nasty person.

Christina Hoff Sommers

Sommers is an author and philosopher of ethics, and a resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. She is probably the most 'legit' of GamerGate's supporters, and has carved out a niche in making right wing talking points palatable to the average person, before they move on to the more extreme online figures.

EDIT: Steve Bannon

As a commenter pointed out to me, I've left out someone important. While Steve Bannon himself was not very strongly linked to GamerGate, he was the founder of the heavily right wing site Breitbart, which gave a platform to Milo Yiannopoulos and many others. Bannon would go on to play a pivotal role in the Trump presidency.

Sexism in Gaming Studios

While this is far removed from GamerGate, it's a case of 'the birds coming home to roost'. The movements that GamerGate helped to start have returned and taken many large game developers by storm in recent years. I thought I would go over some of them.

Part 1: The Fellowship of the Rats

The first big publisher to go under the magnifying glass was Ubisoft. In mid 2020 they came under fire for sexual harassment allegations.

Last month the company, one of the world’s largest video game publishers with a portfolio including Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, launched a probe after allegations of sexual misconduct were shared online. Serge Hascoet, chief creative officer and the company’s second-in-command, has resigned, as has the human resources director, Cecile Cornet, and the managing director of the Canadian branch, Yannis Mallat, Ubisoft said on Sunday.

MANY of Ubisoft's executives were forced to stand down.

This video goes into a lot of detail on exactly how much of this abuse was covered up at Ubisoft.

Unfortunately a year later, Ubisoft had made minimal changes. Luckily for them, the spotlight would soon be stolen away.

Part 2: The Two Lawsuits

This particular controversy concerns Activision Blizzard. After a two year investigation, the company was found to have extreme harassment against women and minorities, and has discrimination baked into its terms and conditions of employment. Everything from compensation, assignment, promotion and termination is affected by gender. The entire company is governed by a 'Frat Boy Culture'. California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against them..

At first, Blizzard's president Allen Brack claimed no knowledge of this. But then numerous former and current Blizzard employees spoke up to support the accusations. They insisted that almost nothing was being done within the company to fix it. On 26 June, more than 800 employees (eventually as many as 2000) signed an open letter too their leadership demanding that Blizzard recognise the seriousness and show compassion for victims. When that didn't work, employees held a meeting and on 28 July, organised the Activision Blizzard Walk Out For Equality. Turnout exceeded two hundred.

Renowned scumbag Bobby Kotick released a statement describing Blizzard's earlier statement as 'tone deaf' and promised 'swift action'.

An article by Kotaku went into more detail on the infamous 'Cosby Suite', and revealed that Ghostcrawler (one a high-up on World of Warcraft) was on the list of guests.

Numerous developers left the company, either in protest or due to allegations against them. More and more horrible stories began to emerge, far worse than the original lawsuit had uncovered. Sponsors pulled out, investors filed a class action lawsuit toward the company, and Brack stepped down.

You can read more about it here

Hilariously, Blizzard also completely neutered any remotely sexual or flirtatious lines, emotes and jokes out of WoW.

Part 3: The Return of the Gamers

Since then, numerous other companies have been accused of similar problems. Paradox Interactive, SCUF, Insomniac Games, Bethesda. In fact, it might be easier to list the gaming companies that haven't had any allegations.

It turns out that the people who worked in these companies were often just as nasty as the fans.

Luckily, the reaction has been a far cry from GamerGate. On that, at least, we seem to have made some progress. And I suppose that's something to be optimistic about.

A Troubled Legacy

So what is the legacy of GamerGate? It never really 'concluded' or 'finished'. But if we zoom out on our scope a little, we see that it was just a tributary which flowed into the greater river of the alt-right. And from that river would spill forth Donald Trump, Pizzagate, Qanon, the Manosphere, and Incels. GamerGate was arguably just a microcosm of a much greater societal movement, not its cause, but it was the moment that young online conservatives began to push back against progressivism, and collectively organise. It was the moment where their techniques for censorship, propaganda and recruitment would be rewritten for the internet era. And it was the moment when thousands of online fascists looked around and realised their views weren't that rare after all.

The positive effects have been there too, however. The push back against Gamergate has definitely helped us recognise the dark corners of the internet, and also led to widespread changes in the industry. But the consequences of GamerGate have not yet fully shown themselves.

It's hard to say where it will all lead.

[whoreshijima]

Why do you write for mainly chubby people?? Skinny people deserve Love too ☹️

Bruh I am a chubby person— of course I’m going to write for chubby people

I’m a chubby person representing chubby people. Most of my works actually aren’t body specific; no specific body types or identifiers. But when I DO write for chubby people— stop complaining because…

Ive had enough of constantly seeing skinny people represented in the media as the ‘ideal’ beauty— fat people deserve love and sex and relationships too. We’re no less deserving just because we’ve got extra skin and fat on our bones. We’re still people, we’re humans with emotions and feelings and constantly seeing skinny people in the media hurts and really pushes you down.

I’m going to write for chubby people because otherwise— who will? Who else other than chubby fanfic writers etc will let people know that we can be sexy too. I’m not going to be able to look at chubby porn without it being fetishised and overly sexualised.

I love being able to subtly write chubby people without it being as obvious as a man grabbing a fat woman’s rolls and saying “mmmm yeah— I love your fat baby” instead I can write how the fat spills between an anime mans fingers as he fucks into her with lust and need NOT because she’s fat, But because she’s a human being with needs and a personality

In no way am I saying that skinny people don’t deserve love— EVERYONE deserves love, they do, everyone is beautiful and deserves to be fucked until they cry but please don’t come onto my blog saying stuff like this