#that you entirely conflate the two groups

[ardentperfidy]

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[weirdmageddon]

i posted this on twitter also but it’s still eating at me. i’m so fucking embarrassed to be jewish rn. i dont want to be associated with this ongoing bullshit from israel. why do we need our own state. theyre just making every jew across the globe look bad in general even though many of us are conflicted about zionism and the legitimacy of israel as a state

people have hated jews throughout history for no fuckin reason but now israel exists but now its like. GIVING people reasons to hate us as a group. note that i DON’T conflate zionism with jewishness, but a lot of people in the world don’t know the difference because theyre uninformed and been dripfed cultural antisemitic tropes their whole life and that’s the scary part is them falsely putting two and two together. like what the fuck israel stop youre just putting fuel on the fire for people around the world to hate an entire group of historically persecuted people if youre being this shitty with your insane colonialism and apartheid like……I Want No Fuckin Part Of This. you’re spelling our own doom. you cant just swoop in and go “mine now” and then oppress the people you took land from under a regime without my blood boiling at the injustice no matter WHO you are. even if my lineage is tied to you. so when news outlets support israel it doesn’t feel like they have the best interest of jews as a people in mind. it’s in the interest of a zionist ethnostate and whatever that christian zionism belief is about the jewish people returning to the holy land as prerequisite for the second coming of jesus. its not like they care about us as a dispersed ethnocultural group, it’s all for that religious narrative that a bunch of people in the US are backing.

saying you want all jews to die is antisemitic. beating someone up because they’re jewish and no other reason without knowing their views is antisemitic. criticizing human rights violations perpetrated by israel and the belief that one group deserves more rights another is not antisemitic. and the fact that israel has the ability to pull that antisemitism card in response to criticisms of the violations they commit because their state is the “jewish homeland” drives me fucking insane. take fucking accountability for your actions. and yes, there do exist full-on anti-jewish groups in the middle east that go beyond hatred of israel’s policies and existence as a state and i’m tired of people pretending there aren’t in fear of appearing to seem like they support the state of israel. on the other side of things many people overestimate this by fearmongering and saying EVERY arab is out to get jews worldwide, telling people like me “they want YOU dead”. this is not the belief every person in the middle east and it really rubs me the wrong way that people group millions of individuals into all-encompassing lumps like this. many people there do understand nuance of this political situation.

even if i have that “right of return” by israeli law or whatever, i don’t feel obliged to it; it does not register as fair. why do i have a “right of return” when i’ve never even been there in the first place while palestinians who have homes there can’t return to them? what’s the basis for that? substituting objective reality with an imaginary reality? i don’t think like that. i can hypothetically come and go whenever i please but palestinians are severely limited in mobility? what makes me more entitled to that land than the people who lived there for centuries? nothing that comes from natural law thats for sure. it’s all artificial and inflated.

but at the same time i also dont want to be the target of antisemitism and caught in the fray just for being ethnically jewish. once people start calling for the genocide of entire groups we’ve got issues (and you better believe this absolutely applies to the palestinian victims in gaza too), because people who dissent to the violence perpetrated by the loudest are caught in there with the people who are perpetrating the violence. lack of nuance. people conflating israel and its zionist apartheid policies with jewish ethnicity and culture worldwide. other people conflating being terrorist anti-jew with muslims worldwide (like that 6-year old palestinian-american boy that was just stabbed to death in chicago). scary times man. but as a jew i can’t just opt out of this if it’s how i was born as. i don’t have control over that. but i can control what i think and what my beliefs are

[hiiragi7]

Purple and Yellow-Colored Transness - An Intersex Trans View of Transition

It is strongly my opinion that an intersex lens is fundamentally necessary to understand transness, as much as race, disability, class, & culture is.

Yet, much of the time, when intersex is applied to transness it is used as a fetishization - and use without consent of the used is abuse. (Audre Lorde, Uses of the Erotic)

Our perisex trans siblings so often use us as a tool for pornography, as an object to shove insecurities and pain and desire onto, as a temporary escape from dysphoria and thought, as an imagined excuse to supposedly avoid oppression. Afterwards, we are discarded, much like an object that has fulfilled its purpose.

Intersex people do not exist for the purpose of abuse, incestual or otherwise. Intersex is power, intersex is love, intersex is experience.

As a group so deeply harmed and betrayed by our perisex trans siblings, it is no wonder why so many of us reject any lens which suggests there is intersexuality to be found in transness - I doubt that many of us have ever seen what it may look like outside of as an abuse of our bodies, our identities.

And yet, I cannot help but feel that there is an inherent intersexness to be found in transness. Rather than rejecting this, erasing this, I feel it is absolutely necessary to embrace without conflating or fetishizing this. This is not to say, however, that we are one in the same; in fact, within our differences is where I find a lot of our power lies. It is our ability to share experiences without using one another which is vital.

I struggle with this feeling, knowing so much more work must be done, knowing it cannot be fully expressed yet.

When my trans sibling is excited over newly developing traits we now both share, I would love to partake in that joy not only as trans joy but a joy of intersex traits as well. When sex characteristics I have been shamed for my entire life for having naturally becomes something which another person not only seeks out but actively falls in love with as it happens, is this truly only trans love? Is it not also an intersex love?

And yet, at the same time, I find myself choosing my words carefully; I fear they will be stolen from me, used as a weapon against myself and my community. We are still made so fetishized, so invisible, so abused, even amongst siblings. Because of this, I fear the answer to my question is that we are not yet at a point where trans love is an intersex love, but rather what I am seeing is a trans love of traits detached from any intersexuality at all. Even in cases where our bodies may look so similar, you don't see all of me - You only know me as trans, never intersex. You only know my variant sex characteristics as something possible through transition or pornography, and have erased any mention of me in them.

I see my trans self reflected in my intersex self, and my intersex self reflected in my trans self. My body no longer produces its own hormones; I get mine from a clinic that provides gender affirming care for trans people, the same place where just two days ago I had to spend time educating a nurse who learned the word intersex for the first time that day because of me. The surgeries which I both have gotten and will get in the future are both as trans as they are intersex. The letters from my doctors to appease insurance say I am transitioning and that this is a requirement for treatment of gender dysphoria, some of my medical papers say I am intersex and seeking a urethral reconstruction. Both of these hold truth to them.

There are intersex people and trans people who share scars in the exact same places, from procedures which were similar, but were done for different reasons. One grieves where the other celebrates. One tells a story of their identity being stolen from them, one tells a story of finally being able to be themselves. In some cases, both of these are the same people at different points in time in their life.

[theduvetpirate]

Yeah I get that for sure, the game doesn’t offer you a choice but I also see a lot of people conflating his upset with hate and I just really don’t think that he hates Shepard at all?

Idk it’s personal to each person I guess but from my pov the first thing he does is hug Shepard and then reacts quite rationally to his closest person being dead for 2years no contact suddenly appearing with a terrorist group and being like “hey kaidan how’ve you been? 😀”

I would be angry too if I’d been traumatised by leaving the person I love behind on her orders to then receive no word from her (again, defo not the players fault but that is the way it’s written) but it wouldn’t mean that I hate them Id just need time to process this new info again, which is what he’s done by Me3, and then I think it’s actually LESS realistic to have that person just accept in 3 mins at first glance that Shepard in front of them actually is their Shepard and not some experiment by Cerberus in the first place after spending the entire previous time together pretty much taking apart Cerberus bases and experiments…

Idk, I can understand some of the points Espesh when it comes to the writing and the player’s lack of ability to change the story choices with the virmire survivor -defo frustrating- but a LOT of the kaidan hate I’ve seen seems to just boil down to “I don’t like that he didn’t immediately drop everything for Shepard/I don’t like that he had an angry reaction to Shepard/he cheated with a doctor” when to me it’s clear he’s spent two years trying to move past what was probably hella traumatising, starting to make progress and she’s just appears out of nowhere with a whole new team

And then he sends the email and Idk I personally loved it!! From Me1 Kaidan is shown as a character to be emotionally mature and worked through his demons, so to me if anything his outburst on Horizon is because he cares about Shepard so much his control slips, and then with the email I just thought ok fair enough!! he reacted angrily after his base was attacked and in shock that Shepard is actually truly alive as any person might but then recognised that he was maybe wrong to react that way in the moment, apologises first then lets her know he went on one date at the request of his friends which he specifically says was not serious, and tells her he needs time but essentially leaves the door open, again reiterating that he doesn’t trust Cerberus and to be careful, so idk how that comes across as hating shep when to me it read more like an apology for a shock response..

This was a looooooong ramble hahahaha but yeah I basically understand 100% why you feel that way, cos the forced choice of joining Cerberus defo doesn’t lend to then having people angry at you in game, but I just think it’s so strange that 98% of the fan base hates him and so few people seem to be able to cut some slack for Kaidan given the entire context/circumstances that the conversation goes down

I am prepared to be hated but I really think Garrus is a bit overrated?????? I went into this game being like damn Garrus is clearly the one to be with cos of how popular he is and don’t get me wrong I LOVE that turian so much he’s a bestie fr but I had actually 0 interest in romancing him at all???

Prepared for double the hate but yall overhate Kaidan as well lmao he does not deserve the hate he gets I love him !?? his romance for fem shep was completely fine and destroyed me at the end of 3 even with horizon (this is a whole separate thing but some of you willingly decide to not see he has some very valid points on horizon), and I love Thane too so I’m excited to see his romance now on my second play through but damn…

[meimi-haneoka]

Clear Card Trivia 4 ~ The most ancient Magicians of Europe, the Magic Association and their role in Clear Card

Welcome back to my corner focused on eviscerating all the thematics, hidden messages, trivia, aspects of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card!!

We're at the 4th "episode" of this series (you can find the previous ones under the #clear card trivia hashtag) and this time around the tone of the thematic will change a little bit. We get into a darker corner. Yes, because when it was time to decide for the next thematic I would delve into, I felt it was finally time to address everything concerning The Magic Association and Akiho's clan, the so-called Most Ancient Magicians of Europe.

I've been feeling the need to delve into these two "entities" appearing in Clear Card for long time and for several reasons. One of those is that there are still so many people out there who tend to conflate the two and confuse "who did what". It's time we dot the i's and cross the t's on who's who. And rest assured I made sure to mention every single thing we know (and don't know) about them. For this reason, the post is a bit long, but I wanted to make it as comprehensive as possible.

Moreover, these two groups of people hide a very deep and important role inside Clear Card's story. Despite representing the darkest, most horrible part of this arc (I'd daresay if we have to find a villain in CCS at all costs, we have quite found them), I can see and appreciate a lot the social commentary CLAMP made through them.

If you're curious to know what this social commentary is and read in one place everything we know about these magicians, just follow me under the cut!

The Magic Association of England

Let's start with them. The first mention we have of the "Magic Association of England" (in Japanese イギリスの魔法協会 or they've been called 魔術師協会 - Magicians association - too ) is in volume 4, chapter 15, when Eriol over the phone reveals their existence to Syaoran, and even correctly speculates that Yuna D. Kaito might be one of their members.

Basically, the Magic Association of England is a congregation of powerful magicians (not necessarily related by blood) who associate together for their mutual personal benefit. Their headquarters are, of course, in England.

They are recognizable in the story by their long black robe with purple lining and a headpiece that covers their heads and faces entirely, shaped vaguely like the head of a dragon.

It seems like they are organized according to a hierarchy, for two reasons: some of them wear an additional layer of clothing on their shoulders, as a way to indicate a "higher rank" of magicians (they're probably the oldest ones, or the ones who run the entire thing), but they also assign "titles" to their magicians basing on their level of magic - Kaito is basically the strongest (while not being part of the higher hierarchy, because he doesn't wear the additional piece of clothing) and he's been assigned the title of "D". That's what the "D" in his (fake) name means, nothing else. We can assume there are magicians of rank C, B and A too, in this Association. They even seem to have a collective magic circle, as we can see in more than one scene, but more clearly in chapter 79:

As Eriol implies very early in chapter 15 (and as we will have plenty of opportunities to see with our own eyes), their activities are shady at best and criminal at worst (that's why Eriol replies to an unaware Syaoran "Your clan probably hasn't mentioned them to you yet, because of the plenty bad rumors about them").

It also seems like they constantly try to recruit new members and actively look for powerful magicians to add to their ranks. Like they did with little Kaito, reaching him at the unknown location he was living in (beware, this is often a point of confusion but the men with the caucasian-like headpieces we see in the flashback are not part of the Magic Association. It is just a "circle of people" where little Kaito lived for a period after being separated by his parents.)

Not only that, but in order to achieve their main goal, they also seem to form "alliances" with other influential parties. This is apparently done for the common goal of broadening the Association, their authority and influence in the magic world, as stated by little Kaito himself in volume 13, chapter 60. Although, little Kaito also says that they won't think twice in betraying those alliances when they see fit, and it seems to be customary because the boy says that it's certain to happen.

And "alliance" is the type of relationship that connects them to the next subjects of this post.

The Most Ancient Magicians of Europe

The "Most Ancient Magicians of Europe" (in Japanese 欧州最古の魔術師達) get introduced for the first time in volume 6, chapter 25. Yet, the very first mention of a "clan" Akiho belonged to appears as early as volume 5, chapter 21, when Akiho explains to Kaito she recognized the robe passed down in her clan in the vision she had unwittingly shared with Sakura.

Their ceremonial outfit is composed by a white robe with a light blue cloak hemmed in yellow, just like the removable headpiece covering entirely one's face when pulled up. They also have a collective magic circle identifying the magicians part of the Clan:

As opposed to the Magic Association, this clan is a big family of magicians, all related by blood. They do not seem to have a common last name they go by, like the Li Clan does for example. This gives an inkling about their very broad reach. Although the ones closest to Akiho seem to have their headquarters in England just like the Association, the name suggests that their scope and/or presence might be spanning all over Europe. The family is so big that Lilie basically married one of her distant relatives, part of the same clan.

In this regard, I have to make a very important clarification about a translation mistake in the ENG localization that affects concretely the plot. This mistake made it to the printed volumes.

As you can see here, the ENG translation basically makes a Clan member state that they have the same blood as Clow Reed. We all know that Clow Reed was born from an English father and a Chinese mother and since in this scene the Clan is talking about their rivalry with the Li clan, it is almost automatic to assume that they are the Reed Family.

This is a very egregious translation mistake, as the correct translation is the version that the scanlation group RhapsodyInBlue uploaded back in the day:

A "They are of Clow Reed lineage" (as the Li's indeed are) turned into "For the blood of Clow Reed", giving birth to quite a big misunderstanding.

This clan has never been officially confirmed to have any blood ties with Clow Reed.

Any indication in that sense is pure speculation and fan theories. I know "it's the official English translation that says so!" but unfortunately this is not the first and definitely not even the last translation mistake that affects severely the understanding of the plot.

The only thing we know for certain about the Most Ancient Magicians in Europe (I'll call them "Squid Clan" going forward, cause this is a common nickname I've been using forever in fandom) is that they hold a grudge against Clow for unknown reasons (they wouldn't be the first ones) and consequently they are constantly competing with the Li Clan (blood relatives of Clow) for who is more powerful and influential between their Clans. Although we don't know if it's mutual, this rivalry is nothing recent, as it was already there when Akiho and Syaoran were born, and it's certainly part of the cause that pushed the Squid Clan to turn Akiho into an artifact (to compete with Syaoran of the Li Clan). Syaoran is very well aware of who they are, as he's the one recognizing the robe in Sakura's dream in volume 10, chapter 46.

Another thing that I wish to point out is that, although fandom spaces sometimes call this Clan as "Shinomoto Clan" or even arbitrarily call Lilie as "Lilie Shinomoto", none of this has been hinted at or even confirmed in canon. In fact, the sticker with a phrase from Lilie that is being given out at the CLAMP Exhibition held in this period in Tokyo, indicates her name as just "Lilie", not "Lilie Shinomoto", while all the other characters are fully featured with their first and last name. As it's been revealed in chapter 80, Akiho uses an alias in everyday's life, following a common practice in magic clans. So it's very likely that the entire name "Akiho Shinomoto" is an alias and "Shinomoto" got nothing to do with the Clan Akiho was born in at all.

When they were still alive, Akiho's mother and father were the most powerful magicians in that Clan, with dreamseer Lilie being the top magician. And as we can hear from her own words, the Squid Clan's collective goal is to put their hands on the magic of the entire world and on any means to operate it. That is particularly evident in the purpose for which they have turned Akiho into an artifact. It is also what seemingly steers their interest when it comes to marrying off their members: feelings and happiness of the parties concerned are of no importance, all that matters is how profitable that union will be for the Clan in terms of power. That's why they were thrilled to know Lilie and her husband decided to marry, but then considered it a failure and said they should've never let them meet when they lost their life in an accident and all they left to the Clan was a magicless little Akiho.

Kaito and the Magic Association

Next, let's review how both of these groups affected the other characters.

The Magic Association approached little Kaito in the community he was living in (unknown location) when he was very little, asking him "to help them out". They had certainly sensed his astounding powers for someone so young and saw an opportunity to make their Association grow. Little Kaito didn't particularly want to help them out (or do something for someone else, for that matter), but due to his already problematic growth process and emerging child depression (from what we can see in the flashback, he was seemingly feared and kept at arm's length by the people of that community, so he was already growing up in solitude - I wouldn't exclude they were the ones calling the Association to have him taken away), he didn't even feel strongly against the idea, so he just decided to accept.

What followed were years where Kaito kept growing up in solitude despite being surrounded by so many adults, fending for himself, feeding on anything that was edible enough (Lilie will find him eating a Calorie Mate for lunch), without a shred of love, care or emotional education, simply used as a tool and exploited for his strong magic powers. The boy had the opportunity to train and develop his powers even further, quickly becoming unrivalled in magic battles.

Along the story, Eriol (in a short chapter) came into possession of secret documents about Kaito's life in the Association (the sheets bring the Association mark) and he said that they included his "spectacular war records". What exactly he meant with that term isn't clear, but it's legit to assume that the Association might had young Kaito fight against other magicians (we don't know the extent of the violence of those fights).

Kaito's impressive performances in magic earned him the title of "D" in the Magic Association, the highest title that can be bestowed on a magician in their environment, and he was allowed to attend the Association's meetings with the higher members of the council. During a "character exposition" moment, Eriol reveals that the request that the Association made to Kaito the most was to use time magic for their benefit. This, well knowing the effects that time magic has on the caster. They had a young boy performing that dangerous magic, shaving off his own life span, while they continued undisturbed and unaffected.

Note that in all the flashbacks we saw of Kaito in the Association, we never saw him taking initiatives in their activities, but just merely following passively the orders he received. From his bored behavior we can see in volume 7 chapter 31, he wasn't particularly keen in attending their meetings either. Even the abomination the Association did on Akiho, he never took any part in it, he was merely informed at "fait accompli" (this might be harder to get for how they translated this in the ENG version, but in the flashback in Japanese the Association talks in past tense, as something that had already happened).

From all the hints and scenes we can see of young Kaito in the Association, up to the conversation he had with Lilie and the multiple warnings he gave her about their intentions, my idea is that Kaito wasn't aligning with their wicked morals and felt uncomfortable among them, that's why he strived to be kept alone as much as possible, but being the only adults he could cling to, and with an already crippled self-esteem, he didn't even have enough will to leave that place forever.

Until Akiho came into the picture, that is.

When both Kaito and Akiho were two little children, the Squid Clan requested to the Association to have their most powerful magician to "check up" little Akiho at a distance for any trace of magic power in her body.

This is the incident that basically started everything: Kaito said with honesty that the girl had no powers, "just like a blank book", with the hope that her Clan would expel her and let her live a normal life. Sadly, some years later, that same comment had been taken literally by Akiho's blood relatives and gave birth to a very sick plan for Akiho's purpose in the Clan.

Despite seeking his assistance due to his massive magic powers, the Association was at the same time very wary of Kaito. His unbothered and disinterested behavior might also be the reason why the Association and the Squid Clan didn't trust him and decided to engrave the "Seal of D" on him when he offered himself to escort Akiho in her travels around the world, unknowingly seeking for magic to write on her body (I'll talk about this whole matter in the next paragraph).

The "Seal of D" is a magic of "confinement" that works only on magicians with a title of "D". It's easy to imagine why this thing exists in the first place: magicians with such enormous magic powers are convenient but also pose a threat to the authority of the Association, especially considering how there's no sense of comradery and loyalty in this group of people, and they're ready to betray anyone at any moment. The "Seal of D" works as some kind of "trap" that is triggered by the undesired behavior of the magician (in this case, they had programmed it as "should the magician tamper with the magic artifact in any way, activate the Seal of D on him"). Young Kaito had no qualms in accepting to let them engrave it on himself, because at that time he already had a rampant self-loathing and probably the guilt of what he realized he had caused was already wrecking his mental state. They even had the nerve to ask him "Do you understand what it entails?", as if shaking the responsibility off themselves. Of course he didn't know. He didn't have a complete idea of what he would have to sacrifice, at that time.

Following Kaito's refusal to return Akiho to their abusers (roughly around 1 year prior the events of Clear Card), they excommunicated him officially from the Magic Association and started persecuting both of them. In volume 7, chapter 33, we saw one of those attempts at attacking them to take Akiho back, promptly repelled by Kaito in secret to not let Akiho notice anything. It is easy to guess there had been other attempts in the past. This is also very likely the reason why for Kaito it was absolutely vital to live in Eriol's ex-mansion once they arrived in Japan, as the house was naturally a perfect place to store and protect magic artifacts.

When Kaito exchanged the artifact implanted in Akiho's body with his own pocket watch, the Seal of D and everything that happened afterwards was triggered automatically, sealing Kaito away in a hidden dimension where time was destroyed, stripping him of his humanity and caging him in the form of a dragon, unable to talk, to move or use his magic. Any attempt to free him would trigger an endless stream of magic attacks, like Sakura and Syaoran had the displeasure to realize later.

One peculiar thing that I'd like to remark and that contributes to emphasize even more how despicable those magicians were, is that when Eriol started investigating to understand who Yuna D. Kaito was, with the help of the Li Clan he found out that the "official version" of why Kaito was excommunicated from the Association was that he had "lost" an important taboo artifact that shouldn't have been removed from its premises for no reason. Furthermore, rumors over rumors said he didn't "lose it", he actually ran away with it. All of this is of course a lie spread to make Kaito look like a delinquent who stole the magic artifact (Akiho), when in fact they were the ones willingly sending Akiho away. It is very likely they were the ones spreading this misinformation to both make Kaito look like a criminal but also to not lose face in front of the magic world.

Kaito's permanence in the Magic Association worsened exponentially an already precarious situation with his upbringing, exacerbating his low self-esteem, denying him a childhood where he could know the warmth and comfort of love, exploiting his magic powers at his own expense, while not meeting any resistance from him, reacting to this abuse with a concerning "apathy" as self-defense, for something he could not comprehend entirely yet, and so he could not effectively consent to it. It is a kind of "silent abuse", where they didn't use violence on him (at least not for what it was shown and not till he was still living with them), but still wrecked him on the inside in ways that are not visible to the eye, and it will probably take years and years to heal. Akiho alludes to those scars in volume 6, chapter 29, when she confides to Sakura her fear that Kaito might be suffering in silence from scars "invisible to the eye".

Because of this, his relationship with other people and the way he goes about things might appear particularly troublesome and hard to understand. He definitely doesn't react to things as someone with a healthy upbringing. His abuse and exploitation has been explicitly mentioned by Mokona sensei in a Twitter Space, so even if it's pretty evident once you carefully read the chapters of his backstory, it's confirmed even on the author side.

Akiho and the Most Ancient Magicians of Europe

Cosmos, whom we've known as "Akiho Shinomoto" in the story, was born into the clan of the Most Ancient Magicians of Europe as a result of the love and union between Lilie and her husband, both part of the same clan and respectively first and second strongest magicians in that family. It is immediately horrifying the realization, along the story, that Akiho's abusers are people of her own family, tied to her by blood.

But let's proceed in order.

As soon as the accident that killed Lilie and her husband happened, the Clan took care of their only surviving daughter.

Ever since the first panels of Akiho's backstory, the Clan members are shown having great expectations about what kind of magic she would develop, as everyone else in that family had done till that moment. When they heard about Lilie and her beloved's engagement, they were already fantasizing about what incredible powers their offspring would have. That's all they ever cared about. At the "ripe old age" of about 1-2 years, the baby girl was expected to show some signs of magic as soon as she started walking, but she had none. It is roughly in this period that they had Yuna D. Kaito, from the Magic Association, evaluate her at a distance. Even though the boy declared she had no trace of powers, they seemingly decided to wait and see.

But by the time the girl turned 6/7, when she was old enough to read books, still no fragment of magic appeared in her. That was, for the clan, something unacceptable. And the beginning of Akiho's tribulations.

It was in this moment that they started to compare her to Syaoran, of the Li Clan in Hong Kong, and the concern with her non-existent powers began to look more and more like an obsession. They actually started seeing her as a stain on their Clan's pride. Suddenly, the focus was all on how they could surpass the other rival Clan, and Akiho was isolated, left in the grip of loneliness. A magicless member of the family was a member who didn't even deserve being talked to. An interrogatory, at most. They didn't really care if the little girl wanted to socialize, if she wanted to play, if she was the only young person in that Clan, missing her parents who died so early on. All the questions Akiho stubbornly made them about her parents were sistematically ignored, save for one little detail that she was able to snatch from them, probably out of exhaustion: that both her parents loved mint chocolate. It was an apparently insignificant detail, which for Akiho became everything she knew about her parents, and the only "proof" she had of her connection to them. She was also denied any picture of mom and dad, probably deeming her unworthy of them.

In the short story n. 2, Akiho tells Kaito that her Clan denied her even plushies. Even if she asked for some, they would tell her "if you've got time to play, then you've got time to read". In this sense, it is a miracle that Momo managed to stay, via the guise of a plushie, by Akiho's side throughout her childhood.

The girl grew up, and the situation stayed the same, or rather, it worsened. The members of the Clan became more and more cruel, calling her “worthless”, “useless” in her face, in one scene they even doubted she could really be the daughter of her powerful parents. They kept making all kinds of attempts and experiments to see if she would develop any powers. As Akiho herself told Kaito in volume 13, chapter 60, she remembered how they'd repeat countless times how unfortunate it was that Lilie, a dreamseer, wasn't able to foresee her own demise, and that if all they would leave behind was such a worthless, magicless child, then they should've never let the magician and her husband meet. Basically, declaring in front of Akiho that it would have been better if she had never been born at all.

This was the moment where they completely went out of their mind and remembered Kaito's comment on her: if she was "like a blank book", they would make sure to turn her into one.

With the collaboration of the Magic Association, they executed a magic ritual to turn a human being into a magic artifact, engraving a magic tool inside Akiho's body (the infamous book that we will see in its entirety in volume 16, chapter 79. Note, this is DIFFERENT from the white Book of Time guarded by Momo that Akiho carries with her everywhere). We never saw entirely the scene of the crime, but the few flashbacks CLAMP depicted are horrifying enough: Akiho floated over an altar, seemingly tied to it by a chain made of pearls around her ankle. She was completely surrounded by members of the Clan and the Association, and we could even spot both the Clan's and Association's magic circles hovering over and under her. In a particular scene, we saw Sakura in Akiho's place, and she seemed to be suffering. Probably what Akiho herself went through during the real thing. After the successful completion of the procedure, it seems the magicians burned the book they took this taboo ritual from, as a way to have the exclusitivity of the artifact for themselves.

The ritual didn't come without a price though, even for those who executed it. The magicians discussed the toll that such a taboo ritual would take on them, but since their greed was stronger than anything else, they still considered it worth the loss. When the Association's higher members informed Kaito of the successful experiment (and bragged about how magnificent it was), they also mentioned the price they had to pay: several members of both the Clan and the Association lost some magic spells and rituals forever.

It is to be noted that Akiho doesn't seem to have any recollection of this ritual and what happened during it, nor she's ever aware that she carries a magic artifact in herself, so it's pretty much legit to assume they've put her to sleep throughout it. Or....the trauma caused her some memory loss.

Either way, from that moment onwards, Akiho was just considered "an artifact" created and owned by both the Clan and the Magic Association, for their own consumption. The plan was to make little Akiho travel the world to hoard all the magic she could absorb from several grimoires, as that was less risky (in their sick mind) than bringing all the grimoires to her. And in chapter 80, we saw the amount of grimoires that Akiho had unwittingly engraved on herself along the years.

As if this wasn’t horrifying enough, the spell hoarding all the grimoires progressively tried to crush her soul and conscience, until it would get destroyed completely. So when the artifact reached its limit, it would've been the death of Akiho as a human being. Only a shell of her would remain. And judging by what was said by Kaito in volume 8, chapter 35, they actually hoped for her to lose her consciousness completely, so they could make use of her more easily.

As we all know, that's when Kaito decided to step up and change the course of his and Akiho's lives forever, offering himself to accompany her in the travel they planned for her.

Just like in Kaito's case, rehashing Akiho’s past in the Clan is important to understand her personality and behavior fully. CLAMP, in the Clear Card manga, have portrayed the story of her past in a very peculiar way: it starts as any other fairytale, with light tones and cute designs. But as the story progresses, and the horror ensues, the tone of the tale changes, and so the drawing style too. It becomes serious, darker and “realistic” (as opposed to the initial cutesy style). What started as a possible generic fairytale, turned into a real nightmare.

Mokona sensei described Akiho as having "nerves of steel" in a Clamp Space, and that certainly helped the girl surviving her childhood in her Clan. Yet, certain things will simply wreck you up inside, willing or not. And in the flashback of volume 6, chapter 25, we could see Akiho struggling to comfort herself with the fantasy stories she would read to keep herself company. Despite wanting to enjoy them and smile, tears of loneliness still cut through her eyes. The mental abuse the Clan inflicted on Akiho showed its effects throughout the manga, with various moments where the girl's optimistic and cheerful nature would crack at the memory of what she had to endure while she lived with her relatives. Her apologetic behavior, constantly seeking for validation, is another symptom of that trauma. All of this, ignoring that her abuse didn't stop at mere verbal one. Because what they engraved into her with that ritual crosses any boundary and trespasses into physical abuse too. This is truly the most horrific part of Clear Card and it's no surprise that's been received by the fandom with criticism and concern while the serialization was going on.

Yet, I think the fact CLAMP wanted to introduce and depict the abuse these two magic groups perpetrated *in Cardcaptor Sakura*, of all stories, totally makes sense and in the next paragraph I will hopefully explain why.

How Sakura Was Affected By Them

Now that we have eviscerated both the Magic Association and the Squids Clan in every possible aspect, it's time to look at what CLAMP tried to depict through their presence in the story and what kind of role they have in the journey of self-understanding and growth for the main character Sakura Kinomoto. None of this is possible without taking in consideration all that I've explained above. ☝️

Truthfully, the Association + the Clan touched and affected (or we should say wrecked) Kaito and Akiho the most, directing their dangerous attentions towards Sakura only a couple of times. But they were very important for her growth too, since they represented the first "taste" of what awaits her as one of the most powerful magicians out there, and they led her to make the most important decision she's ever made till that moment.

After all, Eriol said it loud and clear. Powerful magicians are naturally drawn to Sakura, since she is a powerful magician herself. And Sakura was meant to meet all the magicians she encountered throughout her story.

The first point of "contact" with these two groups of criminals happened in volume 6, chapter 27, in the infamous scene of Fujitaka's library. The strong energy present in that place (capable to protect Clow Reed's book and the guardians) triggered the artifact inside Akiho, opening it (almost) completely. It was heartbreaking to watch Akiho push Sakura away with the last crumble of consciousness left in her, seemingly to protect her, before the Clan and the Association took control of her body through the artifact and started commenting on Sakura's powers. Several members of the two groups, both male and female voices, took turns in talking through Akiho, almost as if they possessed her. A scene that, if they'll decide to keep it in the anime adaptation, will be creepy at horror movie levels. Of course this is another one of those details that was completely lost in the English translation, as they didn't keep the difference in fonts that you can see in the Japanese one, hence you don't understand that it's not Akiho speaking, but most importantly there are several people speaking through her. I think what's most disturbing of this depiction is how it conveys perfectly how much they consider Akiho a property. A property they can exploit and literally manipulate and make use of as they please.

As soon as the Clan and the Association realized who Sakura was (till that moment she was very likely shielded by that protective spell that Eriol and Kaho applied on the girl, the same that Momo and Kaito had to see through to find her), they immediately tried to absorb her power into Akiho. That, as I've pointed out earlier on, would've instantly meant the death of Akiho's soul, as her "capacity" was almost full by the time she reached Tomoeda. This attempt will be foiled by Kaito through time rewind at his own expense, but the criminals will try again in volume 7, chapter 34, when Sakura used her magic in stopped time. This triggered Akiho's artifact again, and this time they successfully managed to trap Sakura into the big book that emerged beneath Akiho's feet (the same scene we saw afterwards in chapter 70, once the artifact passed to Kaito). Once she was inside the book implanted in Akiho, thanks to her intuitive powers Sakura was able to see a flashback of the moment when Akiho was turned into a magic artifact, living it (and suffering it) from Akiho's point of view. Even this attempt to absorb Sakura's power was foiled by Kaito once again, with a time rewind.

In chapter 46 Syaoran mentioned the existence of the Clan to Sakura after seeing their robe in her dream. Other than that, Sakura won't come in direct contact with them again till the end of the story (the attacks at the fake moon were triggered automatically and they didn't have a direct intervention from the Squids/Association), but I'm pretty sure that once she regained all the memories of the un-rewritten world (including the memories erased by the time-rewinds, as we can see in some scenes featured in the "film strips"), she had already pretty much connected all the dots, hence why she proposed to Kaito and Akiho to erase their existence from the memories "of those people".

At the moment of the climax in chapter 78/79, Sakura finds herself in a situation where she starts to grasp that behind Akiho, the real Akiho, and this guy she doesn't remember but who's Akiho's most important person, there are people who want to hurt them. She doesn't know much, just what Akiho told her in bits and pieces throughout the story, but that's already enough for her to come to a very important conclusion (and decision).

The conclusion that in front of straight-up cruelty, she can't compromise, she can't keep being the good little girl who tries to be everybody's friend. Cruelty is inexcusable in Sakura's eyes, as it should be. All the more if the ones being hurt are people who are important to her.

Sakura finally learns with her very own eyes that in this world there isn't only the love, protection and comfort she grew up in, but there's wickedness and evil too. That such cruelty isn't a "far away thing" but it can actually hurt people very, very close to her. Of course, CLAMP calibrated on the target audience the depictions of such cruelty and Sakura's involvement with it, never crossing certain lines. The culmination of this realization is Sakura's decision to erase the existence of her friends from their abusers' memories, saying "What I'm about to do is probably not right, but I can't be on everyone's side". I thought that was one of the most powerful, most empowering messages that CLAMP hammered in our brains with Clear Card's finale. Our Sakura isn't a perfect, spotless angel. Within reason, she will stain her moral record a little bit, if it's necessary to protect the people important to her.

And here it's the right moment to introduce the symbology of the Magic Association and the Clan in this story. This is strictly connected to why Sakura made that decision, and why CLAMP decided to not have Sakura confronting the magicians directly.

A Message of Hope Through Social Commentary

Long time ago I had a very interesting discussion with a Japanese CCS fan on Twitter. This fan was wondering why the two groups seemed so important, like the source of all the problems behind this arc, yet they kept being depicted with their cloaks and headpieces pulled up, effectively hiding their identities from the readers' eyes. And the fan had found a very valid reason for it.

One of Ohkawa's private Twitter Spaces pretty much confirmed it for me, later on. Back then the topic was "prejudice" and chatting away, she ended up discussing a bit about CCS and particularly about Kaito's behavior in the chapters that were being serialized at the time. Her message between the lines was clearly "I know you think of him in a certain way right now, but don't let your better judgement be consumed by prejudice. When this story will be over, try to reconsider his behavior". The whole Space was centered on her effort in everyday's life to not let prejudice rule her decisions and assessment of situations.

With Clear Card's story over, I can finally attest that it truly was a story where CLAMP constantly tested our prejudices, time and time again. Not only with Kaito, but with Syaoran and other characters too. And the Japanese fan I was mentioning above explained that in their idea, the reason why CLAMP kept the Squids and Association's faces hidden the whole time was to prevent us from applying a prejudice over them too.

Their appearances don't matter. They can become distracting. This story isn't about them. It doesn't matter what skin color they have, if they're tall or short, if their hair is blonde or dark. We barely know they are located in England, we don't even have a name to call them with. Inside this story, all we need to know about them and focus on are their intentions and actions. Their actions are what define them and what we should be judging them for.

And that's when I realized the "no faces" approach also allowed for CLAMP to turn these two groups of people into a symbolic representation of abusive systems. Thanks to the fact that they're faceless, the readers can literally see in them whatever they can relate to basing on their own experiences: abusive families, exploitative working environments, but also modern society on a larger scale. Never doubt for one moment that CLAMP aren't still doing social commentary in their latest works, even after all these years.

Particularly, in this story Akiho's family is "just" a magic clan, but on a metaphorical level they are the representation of abusive families that burden children with expectations that destroy them psychologically. Think about how strong this metaphor is: "the spell that's been activated on Akiho by her clan will suffocate her soul until it gets destroyed completely, making her easier to manipulate" which is like saying "the family loads the children with lots of expectations, so much that they end up losing their identity, becoming 'puppets' of their family members". Some time ago I've read of a disabled Japanese fan who saw themselves in Akiho's character. Her lack of powers and the way she was treated by her family reminded the fan of their own disability, and what they had to endure everyday due to society's expectations and ableism. They were grateful to CLAMP for introducing a character like Akiho, with a story like hers, and that Sakura and all the Tomoeda kids accepted her and loved her for who she was.

In this way, it becomes clear that the Squids and the Association are representative of systems and concepts that are just too big for a little child to fight against on their own. And that's indeed what happened in this story to Sakura (and Akiho) too. Those magicians are ruthless, organized in big groups and magically very strong. There's no way an eventual fight would've been on equal footing for her, no matter how strong she is. She's just a 13 years old girl, she shouldn't be taking on herself the burden to go against such an overwhelming danger.

Just like in real life, darkness will always accompany light and evil will always exist alongside good. It's unrealistic and unfair to expect that a child could be facing evil all on their own. Even if they are supported by other dear people, it's just impossible and utopian to hope to eliminate evil from existence like Sakura would've eliminated the Squids and the Association in an eventual magic fight. Sakura is the heroine of the story, yes, but she isn't magically nor mentally equipped for such a thing. CLAMP didn't want to lie to us and to their youngest readers. Some battles might be just too overwhelming to fight, and if there's ONE thing they hammered like crazy in this arc is that, no matter what you do, even if you're protecting someone you love, you always have to remember to keep yourself safe at the same time. Reckless heroism doesn't really benefit anyone. That was valid for Syaoran, for Kaito and for Sakura too, in the end.

That's why CLAMP, through Sakura's choice, decided to not let her have a direct confrontation with those two groups of criminals. Besides, let's be honest. There's no way she could've made them convincingly "change their mind" and pressured them to turn suddenly into good people with just a couple of idealistic phrases. It would've honestly looked like a joke and an insult to all the readers who had to endure abuses in their own lives. Oh, how nice, Sakura turned the Big Bad Evils into good people! ...Sure, but what about the pain, neglect and suffering that were inflicted on those who were just little children? Erased by wiping those people's slates clean?

Honestly, the only viable way that wouldn't have insulted the reader's intelligence would've been a straight-up violent fight, and that would've been not only jarring to see in CCS, where violence is certainly not how you solve problems, but also probably resulted in Sakura's death. Which of course, no one wanted to see.

So what do we do when we find ourselves in front of an evil too big to confront, too big to fight on our own? We just give up? We just succumb?

Nope. That's indeed why CLAMP have Sakura deciding to erase the memories as an ultimate, well calculated attempt to free Akiho and Kaito from the grasp of their abusers and at the same time stop the attacks that were threatening to kill all of them. Instead of focusing the resolution of the problem on the abusers, engaging in a fight with them that would've probably worsened the situation, she decided to prioritize the people she loves and ensure their safety first and foremost. I believe CLAMP never wanted to make it all about Sakura vs. Evil Magicians in the finale. That's not the kind of story they wanted to tell. I believe their constant focus and concern in the finale was the marginalized, abused party and how Sakura could help them out from her "privileged" position of a girl blessed with love and protection from all sides. How she could make use of her gifts (both her magic power but also her safety network of people she loves and who love her in return) to do good. Real, effective good.

So, summarizing all the above: by not showing any of the Squids/Association's faces or names, CLAMP successfully conveyed the idea that in the climax Sakura didn't judge and repelled individuals, but rather, the systems they were representing. Sakura didn't oppose "Mark, blue eyes and dark hair" "Elizabeth, green eyes and blonde hair" but actually their systems AND their actions, the atrocities they committed. And what I appreciated is that she didn't need for Akiho to tell her every single thing about her past in order to make her decision, because that's something for Akiho to disclose IF and WHEN she'll feel ready to. She just needed to hear and concretely see that her friends were being literally hunted, and let herself be guided by her affection for Akiho. Sakura did all of this prioritizing her abused friends, the oppressed minority (here it comes out again the topic of minorities so dear and precious to the CCS franchise) while ALSO protecting herself, by not engaging in any dangerous fight with those horrible people.

CLAMP's message for all those children (and even adults) who are suffering for situations that are just too big to defeat on their own, is to first and foremost figure out how to break away from the abusive environment. Run away (like Kaito did), cut ties (like Sakura helped to do), find help so that the poison can't reach you and bring you down again. You have to look for help first and foremost, but also find in yourself the will to be helped.

Akiho and Kaito received help from Sakura, but they also wanted to be helped by her (that's the part where Sakura asked them for their consent on the memory-erasing spell not one, but THREE times). And that's pivotal. The two things are interconnected and salvation isn't possible if you don't genuinely find in yourself the will to be saved.

Once you can break away from the source of abuse, you can start again. You can take control of your life once again, lick your wounds, heal, move on and find happiness again. That's the concept of "we won't go back, we'll go on" that echoed loud and clear in Sakura's words during the finale.

I think the wish that inspired CLAMP while they were writing Clear Card's story is that any of their readers who are stuck in suffering can hopefully find their own support system.

Though the "Clans" or "Magic Associations" will keep existing out there, we don't have to face them alone. Our loved ones can help us getting out of that toxic environment and never look back.

[ultimatefartwizard]

NOT FUCKING AGAIN! THE MUSICAL ( TF EARTHSPARK MESSAGES AND MANDROID'S GENOCIDAL HORRORS EDITION)

Holy shit I am losing my mind... @monocle-teacup you better read this <3 (dead serious though cuz wtf)

Also of course as always, spoilers ahead this time for season 2 of earthspark so dont want it? skedaddle (s2 isnt worth caring about though, trust me)

Also again nobody go witchhunting or harassing anyone, this is discussion of media and someones poor takes on some clear themes in a show.

Okay you're using THE TERRIBLE WRITING OF S2 TO PROVE YOUR LITTLE HORRIBLE SLIMY GENOCIDAL GREASEMAN IN THE RIGHT???? WHY ARE YOU VOUCHING FOR HIM. WHY DO YOU SAY HIS IDEAS ARE RIGHT AUUUUGH-

How you continue to have terrible takes astounds me 💀 You can't be serious man how are you this like,,, braindead? And ignoring all of what S1 is trying to teach even before S2 came out? oh wait.

You choose your attraction of a gross ass man over LITERAL IN YOUR FACE PLOTPOINTS BECAUSE YOU'D RATHER MEATRIDE YOUR BABYGIRL MANDROID OVER EVERYTHING THE SHOW HAS BUILT UP. Not like you probably ever cared to connect any of the dots.

Oh, to help you do that, I have a previous post I made where I pinged you! You should read it before you read anymore, it'll help with what I'm about to preface here. Please READ IT.

Okay, time to dig into literally EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SEEM TO LET GO OF THIS MAN AND HIS OBVIOUS LACK OF HUMANITY IN HIM AND CONTINUE TO SEE SOMETHING THATS NOT THERE. I will start off by saying the quality of the writing for season 2 and season 2's entire disregard for season 1 don't discredit season 1, no matter what nonsense there is. I hate season 2 for all its going for thus far and its just genuinely a waste of my braincells to try watching it again. There are also things not specifically related to mandroid but are also pet peeves that show your lack of attention to detail.

How. Did you miss this. Humans have been living with bots for 30 to 40 years at this point they don't bat an eye at them because THEY THINK THEY'RE JUST SOME BOTS CASUALLY WALKING AROUND. They don't give a fuck about the terrans; only a select few know they are even earth-born bots. Transformers have been living amongst humans casually don't you think they wouldn't give two fucks and know not to gawk at random robots walking around like they just started existing?

You saw the Philadelphia episode (I hope? because you act like you haven't) or really any episode they are just chilling and walking around, you didn't notice nobody gave a damn? What about Optimus, Elita 1, and other bots? Would you randomly gawk at a group of sapient beings walking amongst you who've been there for a lifetime?

No.

They had to hide FROM GHOST not FROM THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE. Ghost would have tried to capture them and imprison them by deeming them a threat for merely existing, not humans as a whole. The fact you miss this entire detail is incredibly sad.

Okay now onto Mandroid stuff because you never stop meatriding him MY GOD

Huh, maybe you need to USE YOUR BRAIN and realize he was not protecting earth. He -thought- he was, because he perceived them as vermin who need to be wiped out and a threat to humanity. Like I said before in my last post DECEPTCONS DO NOT EQUAL ALL OF TRANSFORMERS OH MY GOD. Plus with this season its clear there can't be the same writers on this team. They have sacrificed the story for toymaking opportunities DON'T YOU THINK MAYBE HE'S NOT RIGHT JUST BECAUSE S2 SOMEHOW SAYS THE -CONS IN SPECIFIC (NOT ALL BOTS MY FUCKING GOD)- ARE TO NOT BE TRUSTED AND ARE DANGEROUS? USE YOUR CRANIUM THAT EVOLUTION HAS GIVEN YOU. Mandroid conflated every single transformer with a twisted ideal in his head born out of hate, not from a true sense of danger nor did he separate cons and autobots or unaligned bots in his head from the conglomerate "evil" he thinks they are.

As above so below, you're DEFENDING HIS TERRIBLE GENOCIDAL BEHAVIOR BY BEING LIKE "HE MIGHT HAVE DONE BAD STUFF BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY HE WAS JUST PROTECTING EARTH" over a giant guardian robot who's being mind controlled and had no intention to do this or will of her own. Why are you so adamant on convincing yourself he was a good or commendable man? Where is your basic comprehension of anything in this show at all. HE TRIED TO COMMIT GENOCIDE ON A WHOLE RACE OF BEINGS WHO HAD BEEN COEXISTING ON EARTH FOR YEARS. It's not something you can go 'erm acshually-" on.

He literally killed EVERYONE who was a transformer; even if their death wasn't permanent they still died because he saw them all as a disease needing to be eradicated.

He has no sense of humanity, only hate in his heart and the need to destroy. How do you think he was protecting earth when he had succeeded at murdering an entire population off the face of the earth even if it's only for about 5-10 minutes? HOW ARE YOU THIS BLIND TO MEATRIDE HIM THIS HARD.

I honestly doubt they knew about her, let alone understood the glyphs everywhere. They were just mapping ancient tunnels and figuring it out; Croft also probably forbid anyone from entering due to the DWELLERS, not Terratronus; she was well off course and well protected/hidden by dirt and freaky alien monsters. Even if they somehow DID know, GHOST probably just utilized Terratronus to justify imprisoning dozens of transformers; whether they were cons, neutral, or autobots that didn't want to be part of a government mass incarceration and control program. Mandroid probably didn't give a shit at the moment because he was busy trying to squash literal children like bugs. Shut up about this stupid attempt at the executives making money off of random plot bullshit and toymaking opportunities.

AS STATED IN MY LAST POST: YOU ARE CONFLATING DECEPTICONS WITH ALL TRANSFORMERS, AS MANDROID DID. ONE GROUP DOES NOT EQUAL ALL OF THEM, AND DOES NOT MAKE TRANSFORMERS AS A WHOLE DANGEROUS IF THERE ARE INDIVIDUALS WHO CAUSE TROUBLE. MANDROID SAW ALL TRANSFORMERS AS A THREAT EVEN IF THEY HAD BEEN LIVING WITH HUMANS PEACEFULLY FOR DECADES. YOU ARE HERE SIMPLY REITTERATING A STUPID AND NULL POINT THATS PROVEN WRONG AGAIN AND AGAIN IN S1. His reasoning behind his actions are "we need to get rid of these filthy dangerous vermin who are invading our precious planet." Also the chaos terrans being born evil is a horrible plotpoint and groups being born evil is terrible writing, just like the entirtey of Season 2 because these new writers on the team understand nothing about the show as is. (Yes, most of the writers in s2 never worked on s1)

This one. this one enraged me. This is the most recent post I'd seen about mandroid as of writing (june 8th) and you have SERIOUS AUDACITY to say this. HE KILLED ALL OF THE MALTO BOTS AND TRIED TO KILL ROBBY AND MO; WHAT MAKES YOUR FUCKING MANDROID LOVING SHRUNKEN AND POCKED BRAIN THINK THAT HE WOULD TEAM UP WITH THEM LIKE SOME BUDDY BUDDY ADVENTURE? HE ATTEMPTED AND COMMITTED GENOCIDE, UNETHICAL EXPERIMENTATION, CHILD MURDER, AND MORE.... HE WOULDN'T MAKE JUST """""SMARTASS COMMENTS""" HE'D STRAIGHT UP HATECRIME ALL OF THEM.

I'm not gonna be nice with this last one. You are incredibly media illiterate if not just lacking basic cognition to think he of all people would willingly team up with people he wanted to kill off during season 1. You watched the finale of season 1 and GATHERED NOTHING FROM IT. You, in all your 34 years of life, somehow have not obtained a single gram of "maybe I shouldn't vouch for and defend a person who's xenophobic and wants to commit genocide" despite enjoying writing and HISTORY. HOW ARE YOU ONE TO ENJOY HISTORY YET MAKE NO CONNECTIONS TO ATTROCITIES COMMITTED BY PEOPLE TO WHAT MANDROID IS DOING AND HOW THEY ARE WRONG AND ENTIRLEY UNFORGIVABLE. At this point I believe you to be willfully ignorant to pass off your crush on this man as okay and convince yourself he is right somehow; even going as far as to utilize this new season as an excuse for him.

Your audacity to think he is anything other than a pathetic horrible man with terrible and morally bankrupt goals and actions somehow will be nice to groups of people he hates astounds me to no end. The show gives you all you need to connect the dots and you haven't. I'm aware i'm likely talking to a brick wall because you're likely willingly ignorant to excuse yourself or will never read this but I will call out this nonsense regardless. It comes off as extremely weird and bordering on you just believing in the ideologies he spouts.

I will say this again to make it clear; Mandroid is a stand-in for people who believe in racist and xenophobic ideas, and will stop at nothing to destroy them. The transformers are an allegory for refugee immigrants, and the terrans are first gen decedents. You continuing to believe his lies and defending him just borderlines on you upholding racist ideals. (That might sound deranged af of a claim but considering the context... yeah)

TLDR for lazy people: This fool pinged in this post is claiming a character who ATTEMPTED TO COMMIT GENOCIDE as being in the right somehow with his ideals/actions and not a total morally bankrupt person. Meatriding getting in the way of logic.

-No cheers to you, Wizard and Cupid

[timdrakemybeloved]

rant time:

people LOVE sirius black, and they don’t even know it. they want their faves to be sirius black so fucking bad, but their faves just aren’t, so what do they do? they give all of sirius’ complex, sometimes bad, sometimes good, extremely iconic and well known character traits to their faves, and make sirius one dimensional. meanwhile canon is right there proving them wrong, and their faves are a knock off sirius black, and canon sirius just does it better 🤷🏾‍♀️. they hate him so bad bc their faves could never.

like they make barty crouch jr and that evan rosier dude impulsive and sometimes cruel copy pastes of sirius in “slytherin skittle” fanon, even though we have like two seconds of canon from rosier and everything we know about barty is from insane circumstances. we know nothing about rosier, and we only know that barty is good at dada, kind of a competent teacher, insane and devoted to the dark lord. the entire time we know barty, he’s literally pretending to be someone else. and he’s succeeding, so much so that dumbledore, who knew moody for forever didn’t realize.

they makes regulus a heroic champion for disenfranchised groups even though he literally does not give a fuck. he didn’t care until his house elf was harmed. and they make sirius a bad guy for not rescuing regulus like hello?? sirius rescued himself. it was not his responsibility to rescue regulus. if regulus wanted to be rescued so damn bad, maybe he should have done it himself. they make regulus a scapegoat in the black family as if he wasn’t the perfect son who believed in their bigoted beliefs and swore as a death eater willingly… like if you want a rebel, someone who was disowned for their beliefs SIRIUS IS RIGHT THERE. and andromeda now that i think about it.

they make sirius short and dramatic and twinky and one dimensional and dumb so remus can be a tall genius who pulls people left and right. meanwhile, sirius got all o’s while putting in zero effort his entire time at school, he’s tall and charming and he’s an extremely complex character. oh and REMUS IS SHOWN READING A BOOK ONE TIME. how does that make him a genius. sirius is in fact one of the least one dimensional characters in the entire series, one of the few people with a nuanced view on dark and light, good and bad, death eater and non death eater, slytherin and non slytherin. and he teaches harry that, he tells him how the world isn’t divided into good people and death eaters, he tells him how everyone has good and bad in them and the only thing that matters is your actions. i firmly believe that if sirius found out about harry almost sorting slytherin, he would not have been phased.

they make sirius conflate harry with james, when that’s literally not true. he lashed out when harry wouldn’t agree to meet in gof, because harry cared more about sirius’ safety than sirius did, because sirius needed to help harry. and the “nice one, james” isn’t even canon to me, or canon in the books. but his priority, always, is harry’s safety and happiness. just because molly weasley wants to hide information from harry, that he’ll later find out anyway in horrible ways from people who use it against him, doesn’t mean sirius is a bad parent. just because molly thinks hiding information from harry will signal to voldemort that harry is a child and shouldn’t be attacked, doesn’t mean sirius is a bad parent.

sirius is actually the best parent for harry, because he understands that whatever harry wants, harry will be a target. harry needs information to keep him safe. i mean, see what happens when people don’t tell harry that the dark lord wants something in the department of mysteries and would try and trick him there! sirius is VERY vocal about harry not being reckless, and harry listens to him! when he send a note not to be reckless, harry thinks snidely about sirius’ hypocrisy and then does exactly what sirius asks, like a normal teenager. this is the balance needed to be an effective parent to a child like harry potter. and you know who DOES conflate harry and james, even though they’re two very different people with very different pasts? SNAPE.

and what is it with people giving harry a third parent, and it’s like…. regulus, who they erase lily for. they erase james too bc in what world would james go for a death eater? he has SUCH rigid beliefs, to the point of harming people for being death eaters in school. or it’s remus, who doesn’t give a fuck about harry, and doesn’t even remotely have a relationship with him. he gives up chances to be in harry’s life constantly, and he’s not at all reliable or a constant figure in harry’s life. or it’s fucking snape, who verbally abused harry for the entire series… like do y’all really think the dark lord was monitering snape and crucio-ing him if he sees signs of snape being a neutral teacher? snape’s actions towards harry (and neville actually) are reprehensible and entirely his responsibility, not some act to satisfy voldemort.

and sirius is right there!! harry trusts him, harry loves him, harry VIEWS HIM AS A PARENT, and those factors literally aren’t there for any other adult in the series. sirius was there for harry the second he could be, and he reached out over and over to make sure harry knew he could come to him, and you know what? harry did come to him. when harry had a dream of voldemort and his scar was hurting, when harry was entered into the triwizard tournament, sirius did so much for harry and never complained because he loved him and he was devoted to harry.

and sirius has a fuck ton of flaws too! he has ptsd and anger issues, he lashes out at harry when he wants harry to meet (because he values harry’s safety far over his own, while harry doesn’t), he hurts people intentionally, he hates kreacher (not because he’s a house elf, but because of his actions, and sirius’s trauma), he can be reckless, he doesn’t give a shit about legality, like he’s a flawed dude. but some things he’s not are an unmitigated asshole to children, a bigot, or an irresponsible parent.

[hanktalkin]

Obviously a lot of this is the fault of fans and fan interpretation, but blame for DA2 can be placed squarely at the feet of the developers, one of which coined the phrase "playersexual" in the first place.

They’re Not “Playersexual”, You’re Just Biphobic

(I was going to save this until September 23 because I thought that would be an appropriate date, but the Ask I got included in this essay just put me over the edge. So, here it is now. Buckle up.)

Bisexuality/Pansexuality is the attraction to people regardless of gender. About 4% of the USA alone (over 13.6 million people) openly identify as bisexual, according to Gallup’s latest polling. But unfortunately, bi/pan identities are so scary to some folks that they need to make up terms to avoid calling their favourite characters such. Thus, the term “playersexual” was born: a term to describe a game character who is attracted to the player character... regardless of gender.

If that sounds like it’s just a circuitous way of describing a bi/pan character, it’s because it is.

I first heard of the term “playersexual” almost a decade ago, from a Dragon Age fan complaining that Dorian was gay and thus it was “unfair” that she couldn’t romance him as female character. This fan said they wished BioWare would go back to Dragon Age II’s model of everyone being “playersexual” for “equality”.

Now, if you’ve actually played DA:2 and you’re not a bigot, you’re probably rolling your eyes just as hard as I did when I first read such a ridiculous statement. Well, prepare for this next one:

“When you make a male Hawke, Anders and Fenris are gay and Merrill is straight. Opposite is true if you make a female Hawke.”

These people are so afraid of bisexuality that they cannot even fathom its existence. They can believe in dragons and magic, but they cannot believe that a character is simply bi/pan. I find this especially hilarious for Anders, considering he had a canonical boyfriend, as confirmed both in-game and in The World of Thedas: Vol. 2 book.

I truly thought we were past this nonsense in 2023. I really, truly thought that. But then Baldur’s Gate 3 was released in full, and suddenly these same fuckers came out of the woodwork to bend over backwards avoiding calling these characters anything except bi/pan.

Note how in the above Ask, the anonymous questioner actually doubles down on avoiding addressing these two characters in particular as bi/pan!

“Playersexual” doesn’t even truly work for the characters of Baldur’s Gate 3 regardless, because the definition is oriented around attraction to the player character… which these characters are not exclusively attracted to. Here are some examples that prove otherwise:

If neither Lae’zel nor Astarion/Gale/Wyll are in a romance with the PC, Lae’zel will say she plans on propositioning one of the men for sex at the night of the tiefling party. She also flirts with Karlach in party banter.

Shadowheart expresses interest in Karlach, (“I like her. She looks like she could throw me over her shoulder and carry me to safety, should the need arise”) as well as Halsin if he leaves the party, (“he may have been misguided, but I liked looking at him.”)

Astarion flirts with nearly everyone in the party, but to just pick two examples: he mentions Wyll is the type of princely figure he used to dream about marrying, and says to Shadowheart “such a grim name for such a beautiful flower”.

Gale used to date Mystra. He also debatably flirts with Astarion by offering him some blood, after Cazador’s battle.

Wyll flirts with Lae’zel in party banter, and also refers to Halsin as a “delight” and “hunk”.

Karlach seems to have a little crush on Jaheira by the way she reacts to meeting her. She also says of Halsin, “everyone in this camp wants to climb that oak”.

Please keep in mind these are just a few examples I’ve picked out from screening through the dialogue, and there’s even more that prove the attraction to different genders these characters have is not related solely to the player. It’s just part of their identities.

In the Ask sent to me above, the anonymous questioner said they “cannot see Karlach as anything except lesbian and Astarion as gay.” This is just as bad as saying they are “playersexual” in my opinion, because yet again it’s erasing their bisexuality/pansexuality. Worse yet, it’s doing it because of the way the characters act. You cannot measure queerness based on actions and appearances being in line or not with queer stereotypes—it’s not a scale! And bi/pan folks are just as queer as lesbian and gay men, by virtue of simply being bi/pan!

All in all, I think this entire “playersexual” debate boils down to the fact that some people still refuse to see bi/pan identities as anything but “discount straight”. And that’s why people are rightfully angry when folks try to further this myth by pretending bi/pan characters don’t actually exist.

[talisidekick]

I wanna talk about how transmen are sexualized.

Transmen aren't Femboys.

Transmen aren't Sissys.

Transmen aren't for your sexual pleasure.

Transmen are biological women who have dysphoria.

You cannot change sex, you can change gender presentation and how your gender is perceived.

-Sincerely A transguy tired of being sexualized and misinformation

When people go out of their way to say "all trans men are" or act like all trans mascs are a specific thing only, like a femboy, or a sissy, it's transphobic because it's debasing people to a kink and not recognizing that these can be aspects of a person, but not their entire personality. When someone treats a kink like the default for a type of person, it's offensive. Gay men got reasonably upset when people kept expecting and depicting them to be effeminate because it was rightfully offensive as fuck. We shouldn't be debasing people to sexual roles and stereotypical presentations grounded in bigotry. In your examples, that's transandrophobia. Beyond this, I will disagree with everything except your sign off.

Transgender men are not 'biological women'. They're men. Medically, commonly assigned female at birth (afab). I say "commonly" because intersex transgender men exist and the term 'afab' isn't all inclusive of the biological reality we're dealing with. The term "women" is a social term, not a medical one, that relates a person to experiences of womanhood and defines them as a woman by proxy. This is incorrect. Transgender men are men, period. If you're talking biology, use biology terms. Social terms belong in social contexts. Conflating the two aids no one and instead walks right into the rhetoric fascists like the so called "radfems" and "gender criticals" use to associate sex with gender as falsely inseparable terms.

Also, no again to "you cannot change sex". That is a falsity in the reality of modern science. We can make functional penises for transgender men, this is widely documented, and modern science has procedures that would allow an individual to no longer be accurately medically classified as "female" and even "male". One such procedure is called SRS or Sex Reassignment Surgery, sometimes referred to under a broader category of Gender Confirming Surgery or GCS that covers the creation or removal of primary and secondary sex characteristics. Now before we get on the "what do I mean by functional" train, I'm deliberately not including sperm production or egg production in this statement because if that's your argument that it's not 'functional' unless it can be used to reproduce, you're an asshole that just said sterile men aren't men, and post-menopausal women aren't women, and fuck you. Men and women aren't defined by their ability to reproduce. That's bioessentialist bullshit that can fuck right off, this ain't the fucking 1960's.

I'm being highly specific here because I want to be very clear that the terms we use have impact, they're meant to be used in certain contexts and conflating terms with eachother doesn't help us make the points that we're trying to here.

The real meat of this though is that these sexualizations as femboys and sissy's being default used on trans masculine people in general is deliberately denying transgender men and mascs their masculinity. If a transgender man or masc chooses to express themself in such a way, that's their choice. But it's a choice an individual is making, not a collective. It doesn't matter what a transgender man or masc looks like, it matters how they want to be treated, and denying them that treatment to force them into a sexual role they don't agree with is a big fucking baaaaaaaaaaad move. We talk about sexual liberation in being 2SLGBTQIA+, and defining ourselves our way, but doing this to trans mascs is just reflavouring homophobia to attack a different group. Fucking stop it. Let trans mascs and transgender men be masculine. Stop default coding them as feminine.

[alacants]

HELLO………. thinking about your tennis omegaverse posts on this fine evening. i find your opinions on this Objectively Correct (our opinions are the same 😚) and reallyyyy want to hesr more of your thoughts on this au if you so desire 🤲

HELLO ANON gosh clearly you are an opinion haver of taste and distinction. :') 

i posted a wideish cast and idk if there's anyone that you're most interested in hearing about so. going to cover some broad ground here.

(eta that was a lie this ended up exactly where you would expect it to end up, at length. this is me warning you.)

for obvious reasons what is speaking to me most at the moment is NOVANDY. two betas who just want to help each other but for various reasons are unable to do so. no i want to be the one to support you!! something a little tragicomic about it, which is suited to novandy. 

meanwhile cultural commentary about sporting success is about what you think it would be. (disproportionate number of alphas at the top of the top, betas perform best in team sports etc.) which ALSO means that from day one novak has been like. pretty sure i was meant to be an alpha. im gonna make it happen.

andy: (long sigh) ok. sure, novak.  novak: you don't believe me. but im gonna. :)

beta → alpha novak is fun because the trans themes are there whether you want them to be or not. "oh ha ha some fun jokes at the expense of his new-age health bullshit" and then suddenly you're face down in a river of discourse about whether novak is Really an alpha now and if he is is it cheating and if he's not is he faking it. (ymmv, understandably, on how enjoyable it is to read about this.)

this is obviously the meatiest and most interesting part of this universe so equally obviously i have devoted most of my thoughts and opinions to the juankiferru of it all. (i warned you!!!)

start at DAVIS CUP 2000. building off thoughts about alex/juanki in the tags here but obVIOUSLY the dc 00 final is all about, like, celebratory locker room shenanigans with botticelli angel 20 year old omega radiating the glow of victory. possibly a group event.* possibly just alex corretja high on winning and pheromones. what's important is that the upshot is:

juanki: and now this is my ALPHA and he's going to MATE me and– alex corretja: ok back to my string of beautiful model girlfriends :) you can totally call me any time you want a hand tho luv you hermano <3

*this is the point at which i realized i've been conflating omegaverse with the bear/monette iskryne series, or more accurately with the fanfiction i've read in this au setting. well. i guess this has some fusion elements now just go with it and NO i am NOT spinning out an entirely separate au in my head–

meanwhile nadarrero… nadarrero are the way they are because in the year of our lord 2004 with juanki dropping from peak to rock bottom (which. plenty of discourse about that in the context of secondary gender lmfao) and struggling with health and confidence, he not only loses his singles spot but his replacement 18 year rafa nadal is acting all SOLICITOUS and trying to CODDLE him because he's a fragile omega after all!!! i'll carry that for you. do you need to sit down. is it heat onset fatigue. don't strain yourself. he's trying to be NICE he's just. a dumb kid who needs to unlearn some things. many fun experiences in his very near future.

come to think of it… i think in this universe the first swipe of bad luck is not chicken pox and is in fact related to secondary gender somehow. heat gone wrong, medication reaction, chronic onset fatigue, something. still, ultimately, just shitty, shitty luck. but the kind of shitty luck that generates Discourse. 🙃

anyway so that's why juanki wants rafa dead. that and also the likelihood that at least one dc tie included further locker room shenanigans.

the outcome of all of the above is that juanki is Not going to make any of those mistakes again and doubles down on going it alone. he has suppressants and blockers and he's just fine thanks!!! and when he's not fine he's got a friend, a beta friend thank you very much, who's super helpful and has never treated him differently because of his secondary gender and really genuinely believes he's going to crack the top ten again. what unanticipated side effects could possibly result from letting someone into every crevice of your life and relying on them during your most emotionally vulnerable moments. who. could. have. predicted. this.

meanwhile david ferrer was raised right and reads widely and has had it impressed upon him at length that you do Not assume anything about what an omega can or can't do and wants or doesn't want. you listen to what they say and take them at their word! i mean cmon juan carlos was WORLD NUMBER ONE and ROLAND GARROS CHAMPION so like… secondary gender is the least relevant thing going on here. he's SO talented and special and modest and helpful and kind and he deserves to be respected and appreciated and loved and [cut for unimaginable length]

as it happens what this particular omega says he wants is a helping hand when he's injured yet again/wiped out with side effects from heat medication/tired of alphas talking shit. ferru can totally do that. i can bring you things. i can make you a calm space. i can keep people off your back. Whatever You Want. because doing services and being reliable feels good and doing services and being reliable for juan carlos feels e s p e c i a l l y good. this dynamic does not have a lot to do with omegaverse specifically. 

what this particular omega has NOT said he wants… i have already talked about this a little bit here but we all have our unexamined blind spots and juanki's is that despite his very legitimate grievances about secondary gender in sport when it comes to secondary gender in his personal life what he is deep in his heart of hearts hoping is that his special person will just suddenly out of the blue start manifesting alpha traits and mate him and knot him and fuck him into next week hurray happy ending. :)

(juan carlos he might not be able to do the first two things but he will absolutely do the last IF YOU ASK HIM TO in fact he would be VERY HAPPY to do so since what is that if not another act of service. 🙃)

(hey you know who did NOT have any compunctions about asking for things from their friend best beta ferru. feliciano lopez london 2012 lol rest in pieces juanki.)

anyway so here we are at like. auckland 09.* uh-oh somebody's fucked up their suppressants. heat oncoming??? a weak version maybe. juanki's as prepared as he can be. he's got himself a little makeshift nest. and then... he invites ferru to take a look at it. in what would be an unmistakable invitation if ferru were in fact an alpha. but since HE'S NOT:

ferru: wow that looks really nice i hope you'll be comfortable :) i'll be right outside if you need anything ok? juanki: juanki: juanki: i guess this means i've been REJECTED, AGAIN, and he doesn't LOVE me and (cut to undetermined # of years of the goriest pining you can imagine.)

*what happened irl at auckland 09 (i think it was 09… 08??) was that they both got super sick lmao. as to why someone with such a careful history of controlling their heat medication would fuck up now, after ten years on tour… what a fascinating question.

undetermined bc this pathetic misunderstanding is so pathetic that it could easily be resolved at any point. but also 1) many real life events (dc 2009, london 2012, valencia 2012, ferrufest 2019) that could be entertainingly seasoned and 2) i kind of enjoy the thought of deus ex machina ALEX CORRETJA showing up at some exho, basically this event, and referencing Good Times At The Davis Cup (including the two years he captained lmao you better believe that juanki's farewell tie in oviedo was colorful) like hahaha is that what we're doing again?? havin some fun??? :DDD

ferru: oh… is this an alpha/omega thing... ok well have fun and be safe... :) ← that smile took Effort alex: whoa whoa where are you going bro you're not gonna LEAVE our friend HANGING are you?? juanki: it's fine. let's not make this uncomfortable for anyone. ferru: haha... i mean... i'm not uncomfortable... i know it's different for you that's all... i respect that. you guys do what you need, i'll get out of the way. :) alex (who is no fool): ????? bro the last time we did this he was ASKING FOR YOU???? ferru: ferru: ferru: (bluescreen)

like i said. pathetic-pathetic misunderstanding, yall are all in your FORTIES. cue excruciating conversation along the lines of juanki like, but if you wanted me then why didn't you take me :( and ferru like, i mean… you never said you… wanted me to?????

and then all of juan carlos' dreams come true at the age of thirty- or forty-something. congrats i guess.

…christ i am so sorry. it's the disease i have. uh ok other very brief classic armada notes: f.verdasco is also an alpha and he and rafa have had more than one pissy little territory scuffle, all of which fernando lost. feli lopez is, of course, an omega. and he's having a great time thanks.

anon if you were here for the kids i'm so fucking sorry that was 1600 words and zero were about them. carlos trying with the power of his mind to waft tempting omega pheromones across half of europe remains incredibly funny to me. also i posted like three separate jannik takes and i still haven't settled on one! they all seem the most reasonable to me while i'm thinking about them. if this is what you were looking for feel free to provide more direction and i will share whatever thoughts i have. instead of. whatever the hell this was.

[utilitycaster]

Re: villain stans, I really do think you're conflating two groups of people and I feel the need to point it out because the art of haterism deserves pinpoint precision. The thing is that I would consider myself, broadly speaking, a villain stan and I also can't stand the people you're complaining about in that post because I think they've missed the point entirely. They've ruined the entire villain-loving ecosystem. I can't even facetiously say "they've never done anything wrong, ever, in their entire life" about characters that may as well be called Murders McWarCrimes, and whose death or comeuppance I am eagerly awaiting alongside everyone else in the fandom, because some of these idiots actually mean it when they say things like that -- and usually about some of the blandest, most disappointing villains I've seen in a long time. It's like passionately defending the storytelling equivalent of a slightly offensive shade of beige.

Look, some of us see the "time to boo and hiss" signs the narrative is putting up, but I'm not looking to experience every story like it's a children's pantomime. Maybe sometimes I want a wrestling match instead. I know the heel is going to lose. That's their job. It's what they're for. But if imagining that they might win is outside the realm of possibility... well, it's probably not a very good story. The stakes are not compelling. There's a reason that I would describe, say, c1 Briarwoods as delicious and c3 Delilah as overstaying her welcome. A good antagonist is a vital part of the story ecosystem and I enjoy seeing that role played well.

But I don't get to relish in characters being terrible people who do terrible things anymore, because now villain fandom is always overrun by people who read one Wikipedia article on moral relativism and want to have debates about what if Murder McWarCrimes is good actually? No! No, they are not! And if they were, that would be stupid and boring!

And so I reach across the metaphorical aisle to you that we may share in one of the hater's greatest delights: the knowledge that no one likes those idiots, and everyone wishes they would just shut up, even the people they think are on their side.

Hey anon,

I will admit usually when I get a long ask telling me I am conflating things I roll my eyes and wait for someone to say "i am feeling uncomfortable when we are not about me" but, the truth is, I very much was, and you are correct to the point that I think we are fully in agreement.

To be clear: I am pro people enjoying themselves in, as you say, the wrestling fan enjoying the heel way! I agree - a good story needs a villain who feels like a genuine threat. I can appreciate a villain for what they are and enjoy them very much as a character! I am personally unlikely in most cases to root for them but people who look at the story, analyze it, and say "this will be a fun guy to care about, even though I know the victory's probably going to the heroes, and I will be normal and not terribly resentful" are entirely valid and my post is not about them (except to say carry on as you were). It sounds like you're in this latter category and so: carry on as you were, you guys are great.

But I am definitely conflating two flavors of annoying villain stan:

the first is, as you very eloquently put it, the Person Who Read One Wikipedia Article About Moral Relativism and ooooooh what if Mr. Murder McWarcrimes was sufficiently sad about bad things in his life such that the murder and war crimes are correct actually.

The second is the person who does understand that they are looking at a villain who is a bad person but seems actively confused that like, a largely hopeful or heroic narrative will probably not end with Mr. Murder McWarcrimes stabbing everyone to death and then evil laughing against a red lightning-filled sky and seems mad that people are like "actually I like Kit the Heroic Hero". Actual Play D&D is not a place where you'll find these people because a TPK is technically possible regardless of the existing themes! But like...for example, I have to imagine theatergoers in 1983 who weren't idiots did not walk into Return of the Jedi like "oh man I think Darth Vader's gonna win the whole thing and he'll blow up everyone and institute more Space Fascism over the nuked out husk of Endor." Like, as you say, the villain needs to have some bite to be worth my time, but deep in my heart, there are stories where I know that victory is assured by the nature of the plot and it's much more about how it will be assured and what sacrifices will be made, and so it's weird when someone seems to be existing in a denial that that's the story and is like NO Mr. Murder McWarCrimes is NOT going to get a comeuppance and everyone is going to DIE at his hand.

[guardsbian]

The full "Contact Us" message I wrote to FR staff (regarding the initial phrasing of "Lolita-inspired fashion" can be found under the cut. In the end I think most of my concerns were heard and addressed, considering the contents of the revised rules.

My message was resolved with a "thank you" message and a link about an hour and a half after the revision was released. Even though everyone who submitted feedback likely received the same message, I do, at this time, genuinely believe that my feedback was read and understood by staff. (So, thank you, if any happen to catch this post!)

Drakessis

May 16, 2024, 19:35 PDT

I am concerned about the use of "Lolita-inspired fashion" as a catch-all term for subject matter it does not represent. As it stands, the term's usage implies that dressing a child-analogue in the equivalent of Victorian doll's clothing or Hello Kitty-inspired accessories would imply "that the hatchling is an adult in a child's body." The underlying concern, of course, being that ill-intentioned users may use this implication to sexualize the subject. However, this is not a fair representation of what Lolita fashion actually implies, and feeds into misconceptions which individuals within the subculture are constantly attempting to combat.

At its simplest, Lolita fashion is a subculture influenced by Victorian and Rococo stylings— two eras which FR regards as lore-compliant. The fashion puts an emphasis on cuteness, such as the type illustrated by Sanrio characters and the whimsical worlds of works like Alice in Wonderland. The subculture's purpose for many is the same counter-cultural self-expression seen in the Goth subcultures, Steampunk subcultures, Scene subcultures, and many more (many of which the community of FR often embraces). There is very little to set Lolita fashion apart from the existing, accepted aesthetics showcased on Flight Rising; which is what makes the specification of the subculture as something inappropriate all the more unexpected and discouraging.

The rule creates the impression that an adult engaging with any fashion, items, or interests more commonly associated with children is inherently sexual, which— given the teenager-friendly rating of the site versus its adult playerbase— I am sure FR does not intend to do. In that case, however, what differentiates the Japanese "Lolita" subculture from the American "kidcore" or "pastelcore" subcultures? Both cases have their potential for misuse (by those who would attempt to skirt the rules regardless of what is written), but only one is explicitly prohibited in these guidelines.

(It's not difficult for one to, perhaps, interpret this disparity as the fetishization or alienation of East Asian individuals and subcultures. Which, granted, may be in response to existing behavior within the community— however, justifying this attitude via the written guidelines only hurts those victimized, being given less opportunity to speak up about a community-wide issue without being labeled as "discussing moderation.")

Even if no changes are made in the process of moderation, then at least a change in language should be made. People who participate in the Lolita subculture already face a constant stigma labeling their fashion choices as being "sexual" or accusing them of romanticizing Nabokov's work. There are existing topics/"styles" which would undoubtedly, without exception, sexualize young characters and exceed Flight Rising's rating, and their conflation with safe for work subcultures does nothing but harm those who are mislabeled as accessories to or derivatives of these groups.

The crux of my message is that Lolita fashion is NOT the same as the "loli/lolicon" genres which sexualize children, much in the way that kid/pastelcore fashion is NOT the same as "DDLG" or associated fetishes. I am sympathetic to the fact that Flight Rising would likely rather not call out these topics by name, but instead referring to an ENTIRELY unrelated subculture is not the way to sidestep the issue. In the end, it will only alienate well-intentioned players.

Thank you for reading my feedback. I hope it can contribute something of use to this discussion.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740136068340482048/the-funniest-dni-i-ever-encountered-in-all-my-12?source=share

As a House Martell stan, it's been interesting to watch the evolution of that particular corner of the ASOIAF fandom over the years. For a while, because they were less present on the show (and their actual focus on the show was pretty bungled), they were mostly the favorites of superfans who'd read the books and therefore were deeply devoted to the whole ASOIAF universe, and given how much that means memorizing various types of Targaryen incest over the years, were almost never antis. A lot of people were also drawn to that they were the ~sexy, liberated house, as well as there being a fair number of POC who identified with some of the few non-white people in those books who were actually fully-realized characters (in the books, not so much in the show). IME it was usually people who were also shipping a lot of the other popular "problematic" ships in the fandom like Jaime/Cersei and Sansa/Petyr Baelish.

Then, at some point - particularly after the show ended and the fandom shrunk a lot - it got infected with a bunch of people writing long essays about how Daenerys and the entire Targaryen family were inherently "white supremacist" (previously, it had been more common for POC and other fans who focused on anti-racism to stan Daenerys, and point out that what the final season did with her was some white bullshit that tried to conflate killing oppressors like slavers with killing poor downtrodden people) and there ended up being a fandom fight between those people who saw the Targaryens as the more racist house or the Starks, but they all stanned Martells but in a very shallow sort of way just because they were the POC house. It's also worth nothing that Dorne has equal primogeniture - women can inherit, and in the books it's Doran's eldest daughter, Arianne, who is his heir, even though he has two younger sons - and it also is more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and bastards and general "sex outside of marriage" than most of the rest of Westeros, so it attracts a lot of people who are into them for that reason. I mean, I like them for that reason among others, but of course that's going to be a magnet to people who want to prove that they're extra special progressive for stanning them over like, the Lannisters.

Also, probably worth noting, the people in the second group were generally younger. Book-centric fans generally tend to be older IME in ASOIAF fandom. I feel like whenever a fandom is younger, there's more likely to be more anti behavior.

Anyway it was very weird to get back into ASOIAF when I read Fire and Blood and then when House of the Dragon started airing, and feeling like "my corner" of the fandom had become completely unrecognizable in my absence.

Also, I suspect it's probably drawing in some people who just really like Pedro Pascal. (It was better when it was drawing in the Alexander Siddig stans from DS9 fandom, snerk. Although even that fandom has had an obnoxious influx of younger purity-policing virtue-signalling types discovering it these days, writing stupid discourse about how Garak/Garashir is problematic and people should instead ship characters who don't like each other that much and don't interact much one-on-one because the combinations of them are more progressive or something.... sigh! Anyway, probably not helped by the fact that Game of Thrones completely wasted him, even though his character was one of the best ones in the books and a big one that drew me into loving House Martell. He would've been great as book!Doran, but alas....)

I'm also going to say that as others have pointed out, I'll always be mystified by the fact that ASOIAF even HAS antis. If you're that opposed to incest, age-disparate relationships, violence, etc. anything controversial, how can you stan the actual canon of that show? Or the books, which arguably have even more rape and incest and ephebephilia going on. It just seems like you'd have to have a very adversarial relationship with canon to a point that I just don't understand why you don't pick another fandom. Of course, it's probably really just that antis are hypocrites.

--

Hypocrites, yes. But also drawn to material that they're not comfortable being drawn to. The younger they are, the more the cognitive dissonance makes them act out.

I don't condone it, but I do understand it.

[terrence-silver]

Give us some basic headcanons about Jack Blaylock, please? Anything that comes to mind? Why he's the way he is? What turns the gears inside his head? He's such a fascinating, mysterious character but there's so little content about him to enjoy.

---

Okay, random thoughts on Jack Blaylock and how he ticks:

Believes in reincarnation, fated soulmates and karma.

Is an US-expatriate born on Japanese soil who’s never actually been in America, yet maintains this weirdly idealized, fiercely patriotic image of it, all while for all intents and purposes, man’s technically infinitely more Japanese than American. 

Traveled all across Asia for, erhm, jobs, but he’s never actually been ‘home’.

As a result of this, he also romanticizes tradition and ‘the way things are meant to be / the way people are originally meant to live’ precisely because he was born and raised between two worlds and two very distinctive cultures, neither here, nor there, wanting to find his own place under the sun and go back to a simpler time when ‘everything made sense’.

He’s a hitman because he’s immensely talented at it and if he causes carnage and breaks laws with a general disregard for human life (winding up in jail and the newspaper at least once from what we’ve seen, going as far as changing his name...at least once too) he probably feels he at least isn’t doing all of this at ‘home’ and that half of the time whenever he assassinates some whistleblower, gangster, nosey investigative journalist or corrupt politician, he’s actually doing America a favor by ‘offing her enemies’ from afar and blaming it on someone else is need be, pshhh.

As such, man’s convinced he’s in a weird way…doing a necessary deed.

Jack might feel it’s infinitely better to arrange the termination of some politician promoting unfavorable international policies than have entire countries duke out disputes that came about from one rotten apple at a later date through actual warfare, sanctions, serious repercussions and millions of people dying, losing their jobs, ending up displaced and suffering the casualties when it’s just easier to simply off one dude and lop his head off, for example. He feels his profession is dirty, uncomfortable, taboo, not something everyone can stomach doing, but very much needed. People like him are not liked. People like him are on the margins of society. In the shadows, always hiding behind other professions and made-up identities, precisely the way he himself does. They don't get happy endings. They’re very much a requirement, though. Have been all throughout history. Where there’s civilization, there’s people who kill professionally. There's always been some Jack Blaylock out there one way or another. Or some Timothy Calloway.

And he will kill anyone and everyone in the most gruesome ways possible if the job demands it (exacerbated by his bigotry for certain groups, which, ironically, include the Japanese) --- and he can really make it into a scene if he wants to --- but in his own words, the one possible hard no he has is other Americans and mainly the women precisely because he has this ingrained patriotism and longing for a home he’s never actually experienced. Man has his own (hypocritical) preferences and biases he conflates with honor. A code of sorts.

Ultimately, Jack's oddly romantic and idealistic, yet somehow simultaneously fiercely realistic and even cynical. There's something bizarrely spiritual about him, I'd even dare say. He believes a better world is possible --- if not now, then in another life, cycles and cycles from now, and in the meantime, someone, namely people like him have to get their hands seriously dirty to make all of that possible for themselves and everyone else. So happens that sometimes a better world starts by unloading a round of bullets into someone standing in the way of it all.

It's preferable if you enjoy doing it along the way. If you're good at it.

He's both.

[doberbutts]

not the prev anon but re: "Israel has a right to exist" not being a Zionist statement and saying otherwise us antisemitic. - that's a bad faith reading because we're not talking about Israelis, we're talking about the state of Israel. The settler colonial state Israel doesn't have a right to exist. That doesn't mean that people have to leave, it just means that Palestinians need to have a say in how to use their land again and expelled families need to be able to return to where their homes once were. That in itself is not an antisemitic point of view unless you conflate the state of Israel with Jewish people, against the wishes of antizionist Jews everywhere.

I wish I could say it was a bad faith reading but I have unfortunately literally seen people uncritically posting that Israel as a state should be dissolved and as part of it all Israelis should be sent back where they came from because they're all settlers and not a single one of them can consider themselves indigenous to the land. I'm not making that up. I'm not reading ill intent into anything. It's not a strawman. I've genuinely seen people saying this.

That's ethnic cleansing too. And anyone protesting this gets called a Zionist and a colonizer and a settler- often by Americans who are not indigenous and are living stolen land themselves. Though, recently, I even saw an indigenous person saying exactly this, and like... did you see the asks I was sent immediately after saying "I don't like that people are saying go back where you came from" because that anon absolutely did directly state that they are of the opinion that as part of the dissolution of the Israeli state and land back, Israelis should be expelled from the area en mass whether they want to leave or not.

So there are, absolutely, people conflating the two. And people are calling for genocide to answer for genocide.

Also, as said before, it becomes very difficult to say who the land "belongs to" (idk this might be the Native in me but land does not belong to anyone, how self-centered to think that the Earth can be divided into pieces by humans who have been here only a short time compared to its whole lifespan, but w/e that's a point for a different day) when both Arabic Israelis and Arabic Palestinians are indigenous to the land. Do they not get a say? They also trace their roots to that area. They are indigenous too- so how can giving "their land" to the other indigenous group be considered "land back"?

It's not like in the US, where most of the colonial efforts are being driven by people who never originated here in the first place. It's way more complicated than that.

Do I think "the state of Israel" has the right to exist? Personally I think that the entire area needs a serious policy re-write and constitution put in place to equalize rights between Israelis and Palestinians and ensure that it stays equal, a ceasefire needs to happen, the genocide of the Palestinians needs to stop, and a peaceful solution with both Israelis and Palestinians living together in harmony needs to be reached. People need to be able to move back into their homes, people need to be able to be free of displacement and constant fear, and without relying on segregation because we all know how "separate but equal" turns out. Would that dissolve the state of Israel? I mean, as it currently stands, probably by definition yes.

Do I think "Israel" itself has the right to exist? The word "Israel" has existed since about 13th century BC. The word "Palestine" has existed since about 5th century BC. Those are the earliest known mentions of these names and not even within those borders (Israel's document was found in Egypt, Palestine's in Greece) so who knows how long the area itself was calling itself one thing or the other or who the scholars of the time talked to to get that name in the first place. The exact borders of these have shifted since then and exactly who controls those borders have largely traded hands back and forth for literal millennia, which is why I'm saying it's way more complicated than that and that both of these people have a claim to the land that stretches back thousands of years. I think it's a little haughty of me to say that something that's existed for the past roughly 3000 years doesn't have the right to exist.

[damnfandomproblems]

Looking back through the whole string of pedophile posts and I just want to agree with this person.

(Start)

Anon is forgetting that most people are proship but just don't advertise it, since the other word for proship is just "anti censorship and harassment". Even people outside of fandom have that mindset. As for the MAP thing, are there are pockets of tumblr, twitter, etc where people openly claim to be MAPs? Yeah, I've seen it and it's a doozy. But... (But!)

1) Not all MAP spaces are proship spaces. 2) I wager most of the people claiming to be MAPs are not actually MAPs, but simply people doing it for attention. 3) I've never seen people encouraging purported pedophiles to act on their compulsions/desires. Most blogs seem to be pro recovery, pro help, anti contact. And the blogs that *are* pro contact (not like I've seen more than one or two) get torn apart, for obvious reasons.

4) Running into a few niche clusters of pedophile / MAP individuals and swearing off an entire group because of this indicates you may not be looking at the full picture, and you are forgetting that the overwhelming majority of proship and other people are not actually like that. It's an exercise in perspective.

At the end of the day... Generalizing with "proshippers don't do anything about pedos in their community", when the people you see "not doing anything" are as niche as those who actually claim to be MAPs (because most proship people I know simply avoid them or block them), is dishonest. You're talking about a small, small minority which - okay, you may have seen frequently on this website or others, fair enough...

But this minority just seems much larger than it actually is. Just because those people tend to be very, very vocal about everything, it doesn't mean there's a big problem. Because again, there are questionable groups like this in virtually every other space. But that's all I have to say.

(End)

Because that's exactly what I was thinking when I read that ask! People who openly label themselves "proship" are a microscopic part of fandom. People who label themselves "MAP" or whatever are an even smaller piece of that. They're vocal minorities, so they end up making themselves look like a way more common, substantial part of fandom than they are. I think a lot of us have seen NIMBYs and other protests and things in our neighborhoods. People who make a bit stink with complaints, and they seem to take over the newspaper, neighborhoods with flyers, and whatever, but then we slowly realize they're just a tiny, tiny segment of the population. They just use their voices to be loud and look like they're more common.

But I'm seeing quite a few asks, comments, whatever, where people are falling directly into that trap. They are seeing the outspoken MAP groups and assuming they're much bigger than they are, and then, in true fallacious fashion, conflating that, and the acceptance, with the proship community (again, whether people call themselves that, or don't even know what the word is but still fight against censorship) as a whole.

And that's when you become an anti, and no matter how you slice it, that's not a good thing.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.