#that they dont want him to because they dont want to bother with him

[arcticmist0324]

There was definitely a huge wave of fannish music, specifically “wizard rock” (called wrock) in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2014, there was a MASSIVE shock to the community as many prominent creators were accused of a number of abusive behaviors (towards both other fans and creators). It was a mess. I discuss it a bit more in the tags.

Hank Green (who is someone who was involved in this space and has a reputation for being a stand-up human and not a creep) even made a video in response. It’s still up on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel. It’s titled “Sexual Abuse, Consent, and Culture.” He doesn’t delve into specifies, but it’s a good sense of the things being discussed at the time. (A lot of the creators who were accused were tied in with the Nerdfighter community).

Oh, and I remember this but I don’t think many other do, but there was also Hunger Games-themed music called Rockingjay. There was overlap with Wizard Rock (which might be a reason it didn’t really go anywhere because… well 2014 happened).

I'm meant to be writing so naturally my brain went into asking the real questions— why don't we have fandom music? We have all forms of expressive art, writing, drawing, editing. The more physical forms of art, sewing outfits, forging swords, acting, even audi narrating fics. So basically all art forms in order to further explore our blobros and yet— no music? Why is it? I am genuinely curious why songwriting and music-making is the one form of art that is not present in the daily fandom life? Yes there's music video edits, even people recreating music from shows on piano etc— but that's not what I mean, I mean honest to god making a real, proper, lyric and music and singing original song for your blobro. Why don't we have that?

[halitis]

I… need to know if you have more HalbarryOllie thoughts? Please and thank you!

HI OP. tysm for asking because i am actually Always filled with thoughts. they rotate in my mind like a microwave 24/7 :3

this is a mix of headcannons and observations, so i hope that's what you were looking for! sorry it's a billion long i got Invested...

hal and barry for some reason, love to carry each other. they will pick each other up just whenever, barry usually carrying hal in a bridal grasp or hal carrying barry either like a potato sack or creating s construct to carry him. ollie judges them heavily, what freaks. (the first and last time barry tries to carry ollie when it's not necessary, it ends with him taking a solid hit to the crotch. hal will not stop laughing.)

ollie and hal both have leftover habits and trauma from poverty. when one of them sees the other with negative food behaviour, or accidental hoarding they don't say anything because they know they behave the exact same way. another holdover they have, is the stubborn pride that you HAVE to do it yourself. a pipe bursts or something: cue hal and ollie covered in water, apartment flooded, water damage everywhere but Fuck if they aren't going to figure out how to do this! they are outraged when they realised barry called a plumber.

i don't think they will ever get married in anyway, gonna be honest. hal and his commitment issues go brrr and ollie i think just Doesn't like marriage (roy had to get this opinion from somewhere, see below). the only way i ever see them getting married, is because barry wants to (fucking midwesterner), but even then i don't think he actually would want it that badly. i think that paired with the fact that not all of 3 of them can be married, that they just dont bother. paper is not needed to make your love anymore real.

[continued beneath the read more]

ollie and barry at first, just get along for hal. like he is a child of divorce. i think they would start getting really close after a long mission. you know when you are just so bone tired you lose the will to fight? they are just lazing about, and someone says something that usually would start an argument and instead the other just laughs and it's history from there on. they still bicker and argue sure, but they both know it's playful.

another reason they might have to start getting along, is their kids! wally and roy are good friends and at the beginning, some of the only sidekicks. i think their initial dislike manifests in passive-agressive one upping each other. ollie buys the boys a full spread for dinner, barry takes them to europe to try authentic food. barry takes them out to a water park, ollie rents out a themepark for them. the boys probably encourage it, especially wally.

im not gonna start spewing roywally propaganda in this post, but just know that the parallels between them and ollie x barry have me in a deathgrip.

ollie is the Only cis person in this relationship. i hc barry as transmasc, and hal as either gnc or genderfluid. ollie's the diversity hire guys <3 (if you include dinah in this, she is also trans! its cannon dont @ me)

the first time there is ever a Proper Fight in the polycule, it's between hal and ollie. ollie's habit of calling people nazis and facists usually don't bother hal (he was in the army, he had to get over letting dumb insults bother him). but just at some point, he's having a Bad Day and he just loses it at ollie. logically he knows it's not targeted but calling the jewish guy a nazi just set him off. they are both too stubborn to break the silence after the fight, it takes barry dragging ollie like a misbehaving cat to hal's to apologise before they get over it. ollie is now very careful to censor himself like that around hal.

honestly if anyone wants me to expand on my thoughts on jewish hal, or transgender halbarryollie PLEASE ask. im a hairtrigger away at any given moment.

ollie and hal both LOVE boxing, they love going to matches and watching. at some point, they start trying to include barry and take him along to the fights. barry for the life of him Cannot enjoy this shit. somehow, at some point, they end up at a wwe match and they all become avid fans. date nights now include lazing on the couch with takeout and watching playbacks on tv.

barry runs so fucking hot, and ollie runs cold. leaving hal to fucking Despise sharing a bed with them. genuinely his worst nightmare. even the army was better than this. it is not uncommon to find hal on the floor asleep.

after hal's death, ollie doesn't cope with it very well. killing his bf fucks him up so greatly, he ends up really clinging to barry. barry also isn't handling well but he can't let himself fall apart, he needs to be there for ollie. they start living together basically full time, until one day barry's grief just builds up too much and he ends up saying something he regrets in the heat of an argument (probably something along the lines of blaming ollie for hal's death or he's only staying with ollie because of hal). ollie storms off and barry is just... Gutted. before they have time to reconcile, ollie dies. (if im getting my timelines wrong don't look at me, i will sob)

not a single one of these men have fashion taste. they all dress like the loser middle aged men they are. fucking fashion crimes against humanity! hal steals their clothes quite frequently, which is controversial considering he is the largest person out of the three of them and their shirts and stuff are definitely Too tight. (ollie and barry aren't complaining though, except for when they get their clothes back and they are so fucking stretched)

i love picturing them as cheerleaders. not like, in the actual getup, but just as them being the PROUDEST boyfriends. hal and barry bragging about how ollie is the best shot in the world (hes not but its fine :3), green arrow and lantern standing to the side on a mission and just watching flash adoringly because they know he doesn't need their help, ollie and barry smugly parading around hal like "yeah. this is my bf. hes so hot i know. he's so smart as well." none of them have any idea they are doing it though. they are gag worthy.

ollie's love language is gifts but not always monetary. more like making them food, taking them out places and stuff like that. its the thought and effort that goes into it, that's why does it. barry's is touch, this man LOVES hugs and draping himself over his bfs. hals is acts of service! he wants to help and just do whatever he can for them whenever possible. you could see that hal bases his selfworth off of how much he can do for others, which is so horrible and sad. so yknow. brainworms.

ollie's house accidentally becomes their usual meeting place, but only because he fucking HATES the zeta tubes. whenever he meets them anywhere, he will always whine about how they make him sick. barry does offer to pick him up, but it's a point of pride to him at this point, he can't just admit defeat to the zeta. barry and hal make a silent agreement to just meet him instead. (this was based off an actual comic panel, but i cannot for the Life of me remember which one).

none of them show up on time to dates. it actually becomes so incredibly common that when they miss them, no one takes offence anymore. cue one time where they all missed a date, and are sheepish around the others and keep trying to make it up to them. it takes 3 days before they realise that none of them were there.

and that's it for now! thanks for reading mwah maah

[sonknuxadow]

What do you think Knuckles Generations would look like

feels like a good time to bring back this image i made when sonic x shadow generations was first announced. we can make this real if we bother sega about it enough (joking)

i feel like a knuckles story set during generations might be hard to pull off considering knuckles was in sonics whitespace but then again so was rouge and she still played an important role in shadows story so i guess its not impossible . anyway i think the rest of this post got way too long so im gonna put it under a readmore actually

idk if this is a good idea at all but like. sonic and shadow each have their own sort of gimmick right . for sonic its the classic and modern thing and for shadow its the doom powers. and classic knuckles isnt in this game. so maybe his whole thing can be switching between more typical sonic gameplay and the treasure hunting gameplay from the adventure games..... idk ....

for stages. my personal picks would be angel island* for sonic 3&knuckles, red mountain for sonic adventure, aquatic mine or pumpkin hill for sonic adventure 2.. i dont really have a preference for which one but there should probably be a sonic heroes stage. and obviously ares island for sonic frontiers. and i feel like there should be a level from knuckles chaotix as well but idk what it should be because i dont really know anything about that game. sorry.

(*could be based specifically on angel island zone from sonic 3 or just be a general angel island based stage like how they did a space colony ark stage for shadow gens. also i tried to not repeat any stages from sxsg but i think re-using sky sanctuary could work here. like i dont have many story-related ideas for this but knuckles' story would have to start after sonic frees him so maybe it begins with him going into sky sanctuary which leads to him finding the knuckles specific whitespace)

as for other characters that would feature in the story . i know its not a strict rule that there cant be repeat characters but i also wouldnt want for there to be too many repeat characters anyway which kinda limits our options ……. i think tikal should be a white space character for sure. maybe pachacamac too i think he would be an interesting addition. sega would never do it but mighty would be a good choice too. actually maybe they wouldnt be too opposed to it in this context considering gens is a game where classic and modern characters interact. idk. im struggling to think of boss battles right now but i think rouge would be a fun rival battle since we already know she leaves her spot in sonics white space at some point. maybe she could try to see if the master emerald is still intact and if she can steal it while nobodys paying attention to it. i also would want a sonic rival battle soooo bad but idk how they'd work that in

[qoldenskies]

Something so sick and twisted about the way you turned Donnie’s bone-deep need for attention into something that only brings him terror. He hated being forgotten, it’s how that whole mess started, but by the end it was the only way he thought he could ever be free asdfghjkl and when he can’t even stand S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N or his dad looking at him? Just the mere act of being stared at being enough to make him shiver? Blowing up forever and ever

all of this, every sacrifice he made over the course of those three months, the accumulative weeks he spent rotting his life away working even before the curse, it was because he felt it was the only acceptable stipulation for him to receive love. it was such an easy thing to topple over because his own struggles with self-worth never made praise and attention permanent in his eyes, over and over again he felt like he had to keep earning it, to outdo himself, and then suddenly his struggles became the center of mockery, just another reason to call him delusional for ever expecting anything, especially anything of himself. so when this happens its so much easier for him to reframe his perspective of himself instead of realizing he's just being treated wrong, because in his eyes consistent failure would make this an inevitability. even before this he's already hid his vulnerability away behind what he had to give in order to protect himself, like his whole life he's done nothing but brace for a blow

and in the end the thing that frees him from the curse is that feeling that he deserves it, sunk all the way down to the marrow of his bones, and it's powerful enough for him to tear away from a piece of his soul that they don't even know about yet. this is before they learn about ninpo at all, and the first time any of them use it here is when donnie literally destroys his :(

he built his identity around exchange and now he's convinced there's nothing left to give that will satisfy them, and that he's never been worthy of receiving even from the beginning. that's something that's going to be so hard to undo, if it can be done at all

[kurczeno]

ok so first of all - i agree on everything except the minrathous thing. Sort of.

The choice IS bullshit, because by helping Treviso you help the Crows (which I think is something u missed - the fact that he is a GOOD crow, bcs crows are now good which is a fucking joke) but also they don’t have an army, one of a few things VG got right. So they need your help more.

but by missed i dont mean to criticize - for me its just another thing i hate about him. That they want us to like the first talon’s grandchild, as if the previous games didn’t paint a detailed enough picture of the Crows. good, he didnt have to go through what others did - i wonder why?

The lack of personality is hilarious. I swear, he mentions coffee in EVERY conversation and I think that Lucanis is actually a warning - he’s what happens if you let millenials write a game. Seriously, I like my man like I like my coffee - fucking dead. Also tbh every single Crow in the game (even tho I hate what they did with the guild) is more interesting.

Spite is even worse than the Crows - it absolutely shits on what being an abomination meant in the previous games (anders was floppy, but it was still interesting and consequential. Besides it made some sense, if we compare him to Wynne) and makes a demon behave like a fucking 10 year old? Well, at least he has more personality than Lucanis, but shit, go back, please. + as you said, it affects nothing. Spite is there to be a hot, little quirk, nothing more. Remember when we had mages loose their mind, because of a demon? Our assassin is above that, I guess.

And yes, the Neve romance is just so bad. I mean honestly, if it was more like Isa/Fenris I’d kinda like it, because that’d be about sex. But I can’t imagine her carrying a conversation with this man for too long.

(although as for fenris - he has too many outcomes and they didn’t want to bother with our choices. Also the game’s too bland for him - they didn’t even want to risk making Minrathous racist, so having someone as complicated as Fenris would be a no no. Plus they wouldn’t be able to write him)

(plus who’d look at any man when neve is right there. the only companion that matters. davrins cool tho)

And while we're at it, why is Lucanis even a thing?

He has no personality other than that he likes coffee. The only way to romance him is to blight Minrathous and give it to the Venatori.

He got hired to kill a God, and he misses TWICE. And the second time it costs us a companion.

He wasn't picked as a sacrifice option, because he is so replaceable. Nobody would notice if he wasn't there.

We could've had Fenris instead and he would've been a great fit.

Lucanis is bound to a demon, and they build it up as a big deal (because it has been a huge deal with other characters) but then it doesn't go anywhere. He tells you he's going to separate from or stay with Spite and that's that.

?????????

He's a bad fit for Neve. He's a terrible assassin. And if I were even remotely attracted to men Davrin is right there. He's got the jaw line. He's got the hair. He's got the griffon.

And you're all pining for that wet wash cloth instead.

[box-dwelling]

Baldurs gate 3 is very funny in that it brings together a group of people who under most circumstances would consider themselves a found family but just so happens to have populated the group with soley people who would be vehemently against calling it that

[mythalism]

why do mythal and solas shapeshift their own elvhen bodies into mythic animal forms while ghilan'nain and elgar'nan rely instead on a bound archdemon. ghilan'nain ill accept because shes basically a mythic creature herself with her tentacles. but why would elgar'nan not shapeshift into a dragon. does he not have the ability? why do mythal and fen'harel have the ability? were archdemons a status symbol of divine power that the evanuris started using after mythal's murder? it must be considering mythal does not have her own? is it a cultural thing where having a pet dragon was seen as more impressive than turning into one and thats why elgar'nan doesnt bother? what about that codex entry in trespasser about the elf being banished for "daring to take the form reserved for the gods"? even if elgar'nan found shapeshifting to be banal or inconvenient or proletariat (which doesnt make sense because again. mythal does it) why wouldn't he employ it as a last resort in the fight against rook and solas? rook and solas literally would have lost against another dragon. he could have literally won if he just shapeshifted. are you telling me he cant? why not? why cant the most powerful of the evanuris take the form of a dragon? why cant he become a dragon when his wife famously becomes a dragon every tuesday night? actually, why doesnt morrigan turn into a dragon to help fight elgar'nan? why does she only flap around as a fucking crow? what are the bounds of shapeshifting both magically and culturally for ancient elves??? why does veilguard think i wont ask these questions?

[ratatatastic]

maffhew who refuses to say runebergin torttu because he knows hes gonna butcher it so bad he might be kicked out of the country the second he tries and staunchly avoids that by going "the one dessert that barky is going to have to explain 😃"

sasha who gets faced with the most generic description of everything hes ever eaten in his life so far because of maffhew and going "???... oh you mean runebergin torttu!"

"he did good he liked the food and he likes the finland so far so its good" sasha says with so much pride now that all the anxiety has left his system that his husband teammate is enjoying his country and doesnt hate it

media availability | 10.29.24 (x)(x)

the smile of a man who knowlingly doomed his husband and said husband using all his brain power to context clues his way to whatever the fuck he just got asked that his brain is running hotter than a mid 2012 macbook air thats somehow still alive in the year of the lord 2024 but girl does she chug along shes louder than a fighter jet

[a-random-person-on-the-interent]

OHHH That's what you were refering too, yeah I tottaly see that now, really sorry about that/gen Okay so they're were three scientist that worked on it the main one Im talking about is called otto Hahn the other two one had to flee because jewish and the other was against it so much that he resgined and said he'd kill himself if hitler used his research for the atomic bombs. Otto Hahn even if he spoke highly of his jewish friends which might seem like Im disproving my own point but we'll get there. Unlike many other scientist who choose to leave germany or quit, he didn't, he stayed and helped the Nazis even if he was against them even if he took risks to save jewish family to me that doesnt matter he still willingly helped them he still helped the Nazis to me nothing can make up for the fact he willingly helped the Nazis try to build a nuke, he also knew about conentration camps and never protested he only did it when it affected him, he also denined what happened in Nazi germany. To me that makes him the worse kind of Nazi, He saw what was wrong he knew what he was doing was wrong but he didnt do anything, only when it affected him. And I am completely aware how the Nazi germany worked, the only reason I dont buy that he couldn't protest is that he did it before in Nazi germany when it directly affected him, he only ever truely cared when it affected him or people he was close too. I personally despise those kinds of people. Also as a quick side not he did try to deny that fact that Lise helped him post war and denied what happened in Nazi germany I think my stance is best convade through Lise's letter that was never sent

"In my thoughts I have written you very many letters in recent months, because it was clear to me that even people such as you did not understand the true situation. . .You all worked for Nazi Germany. And you tried to offer only a passive resistance. Certainly, to help buy off your conscience you helped a persecuted person here and there, but millions of innocent human beings were allowed to be murdered without any kind of protest being uttered. I must write this to you, because so much depends for both Germany and yourselves on your recognizing what you allowed to happen... I and many others believe that you must publish an open declaration that you are conscious that through your passivity you have incurred a joint responsibility for what happened... But many believe it is too late for that. They say that you first betrayed your friends, then the men and women who worked with you in that you let them stake their lives on a criminal war – and finally that you betrayed Germany itself, because even when the war was already quite hopeless, you did not once arm yourselves against the senseless destruction of Germany. This sounds irredeemable, yet, believe me, I write all this to you out of the most honorable friendship. What we have heard these days of the uncontained horrors in the concentration camps exceeds everything that one had feared. When I heard on the English radio a very factual report on Belsen and Buchenwald, I took to howling out loud. If you could have seen for yourself those who came here from the camps. You yourself may perhaps recall how when I was still in Germany (and today I know that it was not only stupid, but a great wrong that I had not immediately left) I often said to you: “As long as only we and not you have sleepless nights, things will not be better in Germany.’ But you had no sleepless night; you did not want to see; it was too uncomfortable. I beg you to believe me that all I write here is an attempt to help you all.”

source 2

Letter source

It's fine if you dont agree with me on him being a Nazi although I hope we can bother agree on Otto Hahn not being the best person.

Back to my point about the elves in this case it didnt matter who they gave the information to they still gave it to germany even after seeing what would happen

Shannon did not think it through when she said elves gave humans technology to build atomic bombs. Why? Because the Nazis... YES THE GOD DAMN NAZIS were the first people to start developing it. meaning the elves gave the Nazi's the tools to start developing it willingly

[ruporas]

lonely

[ID: A limited palette of green and pink, Vashwood comic. The first page serves as a prologue. The first panel shows Vash speaking to someone off screen while Wolfwood is lingering behind him. A black arrow is drawn pointing at him. In the second panel, Vash is buying donuts in the distance while Wolfwood is once again in view, lingering. and the black arrow is drawn pointing at him. In the third panel, Vash is leaving a cubicle and turning towards his right with a slightly peeved expression. He sees Wolfwood, leaning against the cubicle, waiting for him, and with the black arrow drawn, pointing at him, implicating the consistent hovering of Wolfwood’s presence during Vash’s everyday. At the bottom of the page, they’re drawn out of panel with Vash turning to Wolfwood and saying with an irritated expression, “You’re really following me everywhere, huh?” Wolfwood responds, “What, you got a problem?” Vash responds without hesitation, “Yeah, kinda...”

The second page starts with a new day. In the first panel, Vash is seen alone, weighing apples in his hands at a mart, with crowds passing behind him. In the second panel, he turns to his right and starts to say, “Hey, Wolfwood...” In the third panel, he’s startled from seeing a stranger, whom he’d accidentally called out to when he was expecting to see Wolfwood. He says, “Oh, you’re not him. Sorry!” In the fourth panel, the stranger walks off and Vash muses, “Right, he said he had something to do today...”

The third page begins with a close up of Vash's miffed expression, the continuation of Vash's thoughts, "Now that he's not here, this is just like how I used to be, but... It feels lonely somehow. Oh well, I'll see him again tonight, like always." In the second panel, it shows Vash walking through the marketplace crowd, alone. In the third panel, the door panel is a close up of the door opening with a peek of Vash's head. He says, "Wolfwood!" In the fourth panel, Vash is holding a bag of food with a bright smile and says, "Are you hungry? I got you something to eat today!"

The fourth page begins with a shot of the room, two beds being highlighted, one of them being made properly with the blanket draped over the bed and the other with the blanket folded and pillow sitting on top of it. There's no sign of Wolfwood. The second panel shows Vash with a disappointed look as he thinks, "He's still not here?" The third panel shows Vash putting the bag of food on the table. Stapled to the paper bag is the receipt with a written note "For Wolfwood." Vash's thoughts continue "He does like to stay out so, I guess there's no reason to worry..." The fourth panel shows Vash sitting his bed somberly with his thoughts continued, "It's not any of my business anyway..."

The fifth page starts with a close up his blank expression as he looks downwards, thinking, "Even if he left completely... That'd be understandable and better for him. I'll just travel alone again... like before... Huh?" The next panel shows Vash's composure break, tears welling up in his eyes suddenly, as he didn't expect to cry. He starts to sob, putting his hands to his face to quiet himself and wipe at his tears, as he says, "Ugh... Dammit... I miss h..." The last panel shows Vash leaning over into his hands, still crying, and in the back, the door swings wide open with a bam as Wolfwood walks through with the punisher swung behind him. He shouts, "SPIKEY! You in here?!"

The sixth page starts with Wolfwood confused, looking at Vash and Vash looks back, just as confused, with tears in his eyes and snot out of his nose. Wolfwood starts saying, "Ah? You..." No longer in panels, at the bottom of the page, Wolfwood takes the Punisher off of himself and starts to walk towards Vash, continuing with slight concern, "What's wrong with you? Did something happen?" Vash, hurriedly begins to wipe at his tears, denying immediately, "No! No, I'm fine! Nothing happened!"

The seventh page, Vash points towards the table, with a hand still wiping at his tears and he smiles as he says, "I uh got you food. On the table." Wolfwood looks towards to the table and responds, "Oh. I was getting hungry, thanks." He turns his head back to Vash immediately after with an uncertain expression, knowing the other wasn't responding to his concern, and says, "But, I know you're an idiot with this stuff, so I'm reminding you again. Don't brush it off if it's an issue, alright?"

The eight page, Vash's tears have dried and he looks to Wolfwood with a soft smile and responds, "Yeah. It's okay though..." A panel at the center shows a side view of Vash approaching Wolfwood. At the bottom of the page, with no panel, is a close up shot of Vash's hand, holding onto the edge of Wolfwood's jacket sleeve, as he says, "Because you're here now. Wolfwood."

The final page is a back shot of both of them standing next to each other, Wolfwood's head tilted slightly to the left, not fully believing Vash as he says, "That doesn't answer anything, Spikey." Vash responds, "There's no need to talk about it! You should enjoy your food. Let's have a drink too?" Wolfwood responds, "Tsk, tsk. Fine, yeah. I could use one." END ID]

[dumnslut]

[non-plutonian-druid]

[ID: three drawings of Five, out of uniform and with slightly longer hair than usual (implied to be post-s3).

In one, he is wearing a trench coat over a suit and sunglasses, and drinking a giant coffee.

In another he is seated at a table looking at a mint chocolate chip milkshake but not eating it. He has his head propped up in one hand and looks tired. He is wearing a blue long sleeved shirt under an oversized, lighter blue t shirt, and cargo shorts. He has a giant ring of keys clipped to one of his belt loops. His hands are wrapped in bandages.

In the last, he is wearing a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and is head down, arms sprawled on a table over several sheets of paper. He is surrounded by a stack of books and two cups of coffee. End ID.]

some light s4 speculation- probably five continues to be very tired but he gets to pick his own clothes about it! in drawing this i convinced myself that five should get to have a trench coat, and also that he should have a giant carabiner clip of keys - for all his siblings' living situations so he can break into their house at a moment's notice, and also steal their car.

[mewniemoon]

Any cotl fandom pet peeves?

OoOoooo a question, lets see!

I think my biggest one is people who baby Leshy too much, especially those who headcanon him as autistic and give him the "He's just a shy owo cinnamon roll baby!!" treatment. He's a god of chaos guys cmon ;0; why are you characterizing him like he's a twelve yr old soft boy??

Do whatever you want, if it makes ya happy im not gonna stop ya! But it is most certainly not my cup of tea, and as someone who gets infantilized a lot (for multiple reasons) it can feel a bit cringe seeing someone headcanon him as autistic and then portray him like that

[so-bitya]

Whitewashing in Anime - Soma ft. Usopp

Avoiding "Brown"

Here is an image of Soma comparing his skin tone from the first season of Black Butler and the current season airing now. As you can see, Soma's skin is noticeably lighter than it was in the past. I considered the lighting and took shade from his hand that looks relatively mid tone. However, that's not really a fair excuse if the anime continues to lighten Soma's face this way.

I also compared his skintone from the Book of Circus season which is relatively more recent, and chose images where he's clearly in good lighting. Soma is still noticeably lighter this time around.

Whitewashing is an incredibly common phenomenon that been happening a lot lately in anime, especially with reboots. A great example I can think of off the top of my head is One Piece where they lightened nearly everyone's skin color in the anime, despite some of the cast being characters of color?

(^^^this character is canonly black according to Oda, the mangaka.)

"Oh but Oda gives Usopp pale skin in all his color illustrations"

One, he should know better. Two, if Oda said Usopp would be African in real life, and chose a brown, Jamaican-american actor to play him, then yes, they have been ridiculously disrespectful in how they've been portraying the character's racial features so far.

In that sense, it's actually relief that anime studios in the past weren't afraid of giving their characters darker skin unlike mangakas who were terrified of even the lighest shade of brown.

For instance, I am happy that A-1 studios made Soma, Agni, and Mina, who are all the same race, slightly differ in skin tone. Mina's skin is cooler toned compared to Soma and Agni's warmer hues.

HOWEVER, and other fans pointed this out, Soma and Agni's skin leaned so far from being golden brown to straight yellow in many scenes, that they were walking around like they have jaundice which is so... Of course A-1 studios found some way to mess it up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Another thing, do you guys honestly think being accurate to Yana's art style is always the best thing to do in adaptions? Angela Blanc, the secret villain in the anime original first season, pretends to be an abused maid and gets whipped in her very first scene. And according to Yana's concept sketches, she was originally brown. I'm actually glad the anime whitewashed her in that instance.

I'd like to point out, Sebastian's skin tone has also changed in the new season, and he's noticeably tanner than his previous anime appearances and yana's illustrations. So why is this okay for the anime to make creative changes for sebastian's skin tone, but have to stay accurate for Soma? (whose dark skin been established in anime viewers' eyes for decades now).

To be fair, I did a comparison of the anime grayscaled and Soma in the manga during the Weston arc. I checked the values and while I will say that his skin is relatively in the same as the manga, only few degrees lighter, whitewashing isn't only about skintone.

Colourism in Features

We could argue whether its just different anime styles or the way Yana draws noses, but its not a great look for Soma's nose to be made noticeably sharper compared to his flatter/rounder nose in the manga/earlier seasons of the anime.

Talking about the Mandela effect and cognitive dissonance as well... there's also something about how manga readers seen Soma with brown skin and pure black hair years in the manga, only for the anime to lighten those features.

It doesn't help that Soma canonly has purple hair and yellow eyes (if anything, I do appreciate the more natural tones they gave Soma this season. No more highly saturated purple hair and yellow eyes!)

Yes, Kuroshitsuji is a fantasy story, and YES artists of color like to play with fantasy features with characters, me included! But my point is that black/brown representation in media is so little already, especially when character artists are also averse to drawing any defining racial features.

Yana has designed brown-skinned characters in the anime with straight white hair and light-colored eyes about three times now (ie. Agni, Angela, and Hannah). The only Indians with dark skin and hair are a bunch of homeless thugs that Soma and Agni stop from mugging Ciel, proving they're "one of the good ones", and Mina whose treatment in the manga/anime is abysmal.

Discussing Racism in Fandom

Alright, so over the past few days, I've seen some fans disappointed with Soma's skin tone change and I hope my post illustrates why they would be. But I've also seen some angry and frustrated reactions to those fans! And I want to ask, why?

Why is fans bringing up racism in anime considered "discourse" but reacting harshly towards those fans is not?

Why would fans expressing disappointment about whitewashing gets you more angry than the whitewashing itself?

Why is being disappointed that an anime lightened a character's skin tone, a character who both anime-only watchers and manga readers alike saw as dark-skinned, "stupid" to you?

How come the fandom gets a good laugh out of the usage of "fag" potentially canceling the anime, but talking about race is a "risk" to getting a new season?

And if you disagree with my points and believe the anime is only being accurate to Yana's work, why not just say "Soma's skintone is more accurate to Yana's color illustrations, but I understand the disappointment and shock," without being condescending towards us for being concerned in the first place?

I'd be pretty happy if the anime was just using intense lighting and that Soma is darker than he appears (in fact, if that happens I'll reblog the good news to this post!) Because this post isn't "discourse" to me, I'm discussing race regarding one of my favorite characters in the fandom. Discussions like these don't ruin the fandom, but actually help it become a more welcoming place for fans of color.

Whitewashing in Anime - Agni ft. Cithis

[heynhay]

My ass has been busy (butch allura anon) MY BAD. I would come off anon but I’m ashamed of my interests and I don’t want people I know irl seeing me like this. Just imagine I did a really good job just imagine that it’s good (drew it on a post it note at work)(not the bestest)(I did go to art school I promise). Actually if you promise not to put me on blast I will dm you the doodle

im gonna be honest with you man 97% of people in your normal life are nicer than you think and will not care if u draw gay shit online

[mellotronmkll]

GOD there is nothing more frustrating than being like oh Yay there's a guitar tutorial for this song I want to figure out how to play and watching it and it's just like completely inaccurate . Like nevermind then