#this is abt a dream they had that's about all the context i can provide

[akuma-tenshi]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

@sunset-of-the-void needs to be kept out of the club at all costs. his ass should NOT be in the club get him outta there

[crowhunterzz]

i know it’s been said on here plenty of times but i genuinely get so upset when i see people continuously perpetuate the whole “Gehrman’s a creep and the Doll is a sex object theory” when there’s an actually direct in-game evidence showing that none of that is true. and yk what despite the posts abt this that already exist i am, in fact, gonna make one of my own.

Okay so first off, The Voiceline. You know the one.

Yeah this line got interpreted by a portion of the fandom as weird, especially because of the tone it’s said in. However, there are two pieces of context that immediately show what he meant by this.

The first, is that you DO use the Doll. She provides a service for you by taking your blood echoes and turning them into your strength (the level up system).

Aside from this, the ability to talk to her, and the option of giving her an item, there is nothing else you can do with her, and nothing else the game even implies you can do with her. She does not even have any truly “romantic” dialogue. She mentions that she loves you, but that she does because she was created to do so.

She loves all the hunters because her purpose is to care for them, and in her words, embolden their sickly spirits.

The second piece of context is in Gehrman’s dialogue just before he says the line about the Doll.

He is telling you that anything you find in the workshop is a tool you can use to strengthen yourself and make the hunt easier. He is referring to the Doll as a tool, because she is one of the few the workshop has not lost. He’s not sexualizing her, he’s talking about her like she is a tool, and something to be used, not seen as a person.

Is it a good thing? No, but considering he resents her for not being what he created her to be (or by another interpretation, coming to life when he never intended her to), it’s not unreasonable to assume that over time he would just categorize her as a thing instead of a person.

The second piece of evidence towards this god awful theory is the Doll’s white blood. Honestly I cannot believe people genuinely take this as being semen, because not only is there a canon reason for creatures to have pale blood, but also it’s just disgusting.

You need a minimum of one insight to see the Doll during the game, she was given life by the Moon Presence following Gehrman’s placement in the Hunter’s Dream, and she bleeds pale blood. She’s kin. (Yes I am aware the game does not consider her kin in regards to whether or not she can be dealt damage based gems that alter your attacks vs kin, but you’re not supposed to be fighting her anyway, and it’s not like you need a bonus to kill her in the first place).

And finally, to address the other big point, the item descriptions that appear on Maria’s Hunter Garb and the Doll’s Set.

I would like to address first, the obvious, that Maria’s garb says directly she was “unaware of his curious mania” (however you interpret that), but the point is she was unaware, he clearly in life, never made advances on her (which is something I’ve seen a few people state is ‘implied’???).

The second, and this one is a bit in the subtext, is that the Doll seems to not have any idea that Gehrman ever had any positive feelings towards her at all, she expresses a love for the hunter in a way that reflects someone who was never shown love in any capacity (likely due to the circumstances surrounding her achieving sentience), so its reasonable to assume as well that she was entirely unaware of the ‘curious mania’ as well.

Additionally I would point out that while referencing Gehrman’s mania once more, the Doll’s description also directly states that she was once loved and cared for, something that changed after she gained sentience. She likely served as a memorial for Maria, considering there is no canon evidence Maria herself actually has a grave.

The grave that provides the Old Hunter Bone may be hers, but the item description refers to the hunter it came from as “he.” This could be due to it being placed there prior to the decision to give Maria the quickening skill in her boss fight, or it could be that Maria did not have a proper grave for whatever reason, and thus the Doll was needed, which could then relate the obsession to an obsession with Gehrman keeping a memory of her, as there is nothing else he seems to have of her.

Everything here aside I would like to also point out that the Doll is quite literally, a doll. There is nothing that would even suggest she would be capable of any sort of sexual relationship.

Especially because even before the Dream, the Doll did have a specific purpose. She seems to be modeled after Victorian mourning dolls, which were items used to help families/loved ones process grief, typically of children, by having something to remind them of the deceased that did not itself look deceased. If you consider the grave in the Abandoned Old Workshop to be Maria’s and know that that’s also where the Doll is in the waking world, then that’s probably what she’s for. Or as stated before, the grave may NOT be hers, and the Doll itself IS her grave.

Another thing I didn’t point out but will, for a moment get into, is the Doll’s clothing being feminized. A lot of people take this as Gehrman being a misogynist and sexualizing her in a more feminine way as if he himself was not training Maria (and likely other women) to be hunters during his life. He encouraged the less feminine life she lived as a hunter!

That point always confuses me, especially knowing that one of the last things Maria likely said to Gehrman was what she said after the massacre at the Fishing Hamlet where she threw away her weapon and renounced the hunt, choosing to retire (and potentially become a caretaker for the Church’s patients, judging by her role in the Hunter’s Nightmare). Like OF COURSE he dressed her like that, she expressed that she no longer wanted to be a hunter so he made her the opposite. The only reason she is dressed the way she is in the Hunter’s Nightmare is because that is how Kos is depicting her, not because it’s her conscious choice.

The point of this is, Gehrman is one of my all time favorite characters alongside Maria and the Doll, and while yes, I am well aware he isn’t perfect, it’s still frustrating to see him get so mischaracterized by a fandom who insists they love lore so much, and care about the tiny details. You can dislike Gehrman or think he does shitty things and that’s fine, but creating a story where he’s a creep just to prove you care about Maria and the Doll is weird. And it’s weirdER that people argue IN FAVOR of the theory as if it MUST be true, because honestly why would anyone even want it to be???

This post also was specifically done without consideration for whatever type of relationship Gehrman and Maria had according to canon or any interpretations. Essentially I’m not necessarily saying any of this has anything to do with whether or not you ship them, I personally don’t, but I know some people do, and I feel like on either side you can still be critical of this Doll theory, as it is entirely baseless.

(In case anyone is interested, the images and references used for this were from the Bloodborne wiki, specifically this one.)

[batsplat]

you might have already talked abt this but I’m interested if you have any thoughts on the similarities & differences in Casey & Valentino’s early childhoods and families……I don’t know much abt Casey’s upbringing & the little I know about Valentino’s all makes me go “huh ok I kinda get it now” lol. Idk like I found out Jorge’s whole deal w his dad and I was like “OH OK you make perfect sense to me now” but I’m not there yet w the other two, yk?

so okay,, I do have an ask from forever back about marc and valentino's childhoods that I got extremely stuck at answering, and also an ask about jorge's father that I haven't even touched because like. sometimes you just do not feel up for that lol. and well it's just an area where I do generally try and be quite careful in how I discuss it... BUT this is casey stoner hot take round™ so I will give a reasonably succinct answer to this and not overthink it too much. basically: yeah, I do have thoughts, because casey's childhood does undeniably do a lot of the work in the 'oh okay that makes sense now' department. a lot of his career narrative, his struggles, his disillusionment with the sport... and yes, the way the valentino rivalry unfolded - a lot of it can be traced back quite a long way, to grievances he's been carrying around with him for years and years. I talked in this post about that podcast interview casey did this year, which included... well, a bit of a reckoning. talking as openly as he ever has about how being a rider wasn't ever really his dream - it's something that was decided for him. and that's our starting point... casey's eternally ambivalent relationship with being a rider, one that feels so violently different from valentino's

the big, big contrast between casey and valentino's respective journeys is pretty simple to sum up: it's the joy. valentino was having fun. casey wasn't. now, look - valentino as a child very obviously did not have perfect autonomy in making the choice to be a rider. it's always going to be more complicated than that; his father did obviously push him in that direction. but at the end of the day, it's not too controversial to say that valentino always enjoyed riding and always had fun racing. it's a joy he carried with him on his way to becoming a rider, one that remained a part of his competitive dna throughout his professional career. it's a joy that kept him racing for as long as he did. a childlike joy, in a way - valentino's lack of 'adult' seriousness, how it's been remarked upon that this brutal sport has never quite managed to wear him down. his peter pan persona, how he's the boy who won't ever grow up. and, y'know... valentino had the chance to actually be a kid. he got to have something vaguely resembling a proper childhood. makes sense, right - if you want to be a kid forever, it helps to have been one in the first place

there's a quote of his from 2009 I posted recently:

which, in the context of that interview - this question refers back to an earlier exchange about how casey wasn't a 'romantic' rider (still think that's an objectively pretty funny thing to say about your rival but that's neither here nor there). and, well, valentino's correct! sports has become considerably more professionalised over time. children are less and less likely to be able to afford any sort of life outside of it. which isn't just about reducing passion, right - it's also about not really giving these kids the chance to properly grow up, to become more rounded human beings who don't have to be the perfect little athlete 100% of the time. it's also a correct diagnosis of casey specifically, who certainly could never afford to see racing as a game. I'd recommend reading this autobiography excerpt, where casey tells you exactly that: racing wasn't about having fun for casey. he'd moved to the uk with his parents at fourteen years of age, at which point he essentially became his family's sole provider. his family depended on him not failing - and every opportunity threatened to be his last, his racing future and financial situation always desperately precarious. he was constantly fearful all of his family's sacrifices might have been for nothing. it's immense pressure to put any teenager under, regardless of how much you want to convince them that it's their dream rather than your own. if casey wasn't already an overly self-critical perfectionist before those years, he certainly was by the time he made it to motogp. he couldn't afford to be anything less than perfect. remember: the shape his anxiety took was by making him curl up in his motorhome, terrified of letting everyone down. wonder where that came from

is it any surprise, then, that while valentino feels like kids today take racing too seriously, casey thinks they don't take it seriously enough?

The system has changed: when you put too much pressure on a 20-year-old, he can react by closing up and becoming serious and sad. // Nowadays I see too many kids coming through behaving too relaxed, and too happy with what they have achieved already. I don’t want them to be miserable but they have to understand what’s at stake.

doesn't this make you want to scream. a little

and, look, there are similarities between valentino and casey in ways that will be true of many child prodigy athletes. valentino has spoken about how his father would not do anything with him that didn't involve motorcycle racing, casey likewise has more recently in that podcast said he doesn't think he was allowed to pursue any other interest. we can talk plenty about how the parents of athletes like to use their children to fulfil their own dreams - how their child's athletic performance seems to become the only aspect of their child they have any interest in. how so much of that parental relationship becomes distorted by the ceaseless quest to achieve results. it's there in both of their stories... and obviously they are hardly unique in that respect. there's perhaps a little bit of a divide - to what extent kids are aware of this dynamic and are uncomfortable with it, especially publicly. both casey and valentino are united in being somewhat openly critical of their parents without being completely estranged from them. casey got his parents to move back to australia when he was arguing with his father too frequently as a young rider; valentino has seemingly kept his father at a bit of a distance for years. they've never cut themselves off entirely - but there's a certain undeniable wariness there. a lack of conviction that their parents acted as parents should that they've been willing to hint at publicly, here and there

Our communication is mostly about motorbikes. He wasn't a good father, I mean... When I was with him, playing always meant riding motorbikes for him. // To be honest, I don’t know if I was allowed to have any other attraction to be honest. I think it was, you know, you’re going to be a bike rider from when I was a very very young age - and I’m not the only one to think that.

still, it does come back to the joy of it all. casey justifies his belief that racing isn't fun by talking about how he'd always known how high the stakes were... whereas for valentino, fun is an integral part of the experience. it's what he's there for. and beyond the racing itself, valentino always found his life as a rider considerably more joyous than casey did. which leads us to the other difference between the pair of them: casey's loneliness. valentino has spoken frequently about the importance of his childhood friend group, about having them travel with him and ground him and be there with him throughout - people who knew him before he became the valentino rossi, people he feels that he can fully rely on. he grew up as part of a community and has a strong sense of identification with not just his country but also his town... he's got deep ties to his place of origin and the people who live there, built up over a lot of time, and he draws a lot of strength from that. by contrast, casey grew up moving around a fair bit, unhappy at school and the victim of bullying - his only real friends, he says, were from the dirt track, since they were the only people he 'had anything in common with'. even those friendships don't feel particularly substantial, especially given how often he frames his childhood racing experiences around the hostility of his competitors (and especially their parents) in response to his peerless talent. his parents eventually home schooled him, inevitably further isolating him. then, as a teenager, he moved to the uk where he knew nobody, before moving to spain where he didn't even speak the language. he continued to have a strong sense of connection to australia, fuelled at least in part by homesickness - but it's also a connection to a country he hadn't lived in since age fourteen, a sense of belonging that's fundamentally less stable, less comforting. one that exists primarily in contrasting himself to all the europeans he surrounds with, as a way of making sense of his feelings of cultural alienation - which in truth are sometimes just plain alienation. the paddock cannot function as a home for casey either, and he is unwilling or unable to form substantial connections in that environment. in 2009, ten odd years after moving away from australia, he said his only friend in the paddock was his wife

and yes, it plays into that rivalry - inevitably so. casey and valentino are both somewhat alien to each other, fundamentally unknowable... and it does come back to how at odds they were in their approaches, in how they motivated themselves. casey finds the europeans and their flamboyant celebrations baffling. valentino cannot relate to casey's lack of romantic affection for the sport. casey is there to do a job. valentino is there to put on a show. casey does not think racing should be about having fun. valentino believe the fun is non-negotiable. casey loves almost nothing about being a rider, whereas valentino loves almost all of it

another thing. when I was writing this post about the similarities between casey and valentino, one aspect I talked about was how they can both be.... uh. suspicious characters, shall we say. paranoid, some might call them. conspiratorial, even. now, again, to some extent they do share this with a lot of other athletes, it's kind of part of the game. but, y'know, they do take it quite far - and there's quite a pleasing parallel between the pair of them where they've both come up with a conspiracy theory about one of valentino's lost titles. which leads us to quite a nice distinction between these two theories. not to brag, but I kinda feel I nailed one of the most important elements of their dynamic:

now, look. I deliberately did not do this,, but obviously if you really wanted to, you can do some pop psychology on valentino's approach to interpersonal attachment and relate that back to his relationship with his parents. I am not interested in doing that for various reasons, most of which the cia would not get out of me, but I'm aware it's an approach you can take. in any case, I do still think you can make quite a straightforward case for this distinction: one of them believes the world is fundamentally out to get them, one of them doesn't. one of them is waiting for the system to fuck them over, the other is wary of individuals who have gotten a little too close. both of them at times are exceedingly ready to read malice into the words and actions of those around them - and both of them can react rather dramatically to such a provocation. the shape their suspicion takes is a little bit different and a little bit the same... but it's central to understanding both of them, in a way that does set them apart from their competitors. they're the two aliens who are the most likely to read an agenda into anything and everything. they're the ones who are most likely to take note of slights, to accumulate grievances. the most likely to not forget when they have been wronged - and to take great pleasure in getting back at whoever has done them ill

in the end, it all comes back to just what an excellent foil for casey you have in valentino. in all the ways casey defines himself against valentino, in all the ways valentino challenges casey, in all the ways casey's issues with the sport are inextricably interwoven with the character of valentino rossi. casey hates so much of the sport in ways that are tied so closely to valentino; he hates a system that invariably would like nothing more than to see valentino succeed. but valentino also represents what casey cannot be - not just an entertainer, but someone completely at ease with their life as a rider. someone who finds joy in that life, who did not step away from it until he absolutely had to. valentino is there long before casey arrives and he is there long after casey leaves. valentino is an idol, an enemy, a mystery. more so than any other rider, valentino embodies an emotion that casey believed he simply could not afford to feel. valentino is the sport's joy - and casey was never there to have fun

[masked-puppetmaster]

hey, i saw you asked a while ago why dream & techno apologists are apologists for those characters (and you liked a bunch of my posts concerning that, actually) i was wondering if you still have any more questions - and also i wanted to ask if you wanted to talk a bit about c!tommy and what makes you like him so much? like is it just the emotional attachment to him? is it the trauma? anything specific about the way in which he is written? i've always watched his pov & i'm very curious! / - red

yo yo yo hey! I think I understand it a bit more now, for the dream & techo apologists, I think I’m still a bit confused when it comes to technoblade. I see a lot about people only using him as a weapon/ him not being able to trust people / no one sticking up for him and I’m not sure where it comes from? In all fairness, I only know him as the guy who executed Tubbo / spawned withers but im assuming that’s in large part because I came into the story so late (iirc I didn’t really get into the dsmp until around doomsday, and I got most information of past events just by like. osmosis or reading wikis) so I might simply just not have enough information on techno to get it. Like, he executed Tubbo under a lot of pressure iirc but that doesn’t take away from the fact he did execute him? or things with the withers, I know technoblade doesn’t like the government and I’d go as far as to say he has a point, but was it really necessary to destroy lmanburg (iirc, multiple times). I know he was mad, but I feel like he shouldn’t have taken in that far, like from what I see and understand it’s like yes he had his points but he hurt people and doesn’t seem to care that he hurt anybody, just kinda stands there assuming he’s right about everything and not rlly looking at the situation from anyone else’s perspective. That being said like I said I came into the story really late and so my arguments might be able to be chalked up to just a lack of proper context, and even if I’m kinda annoyed at Technoblade’s behavior I still like him as a character & when techno does stream I enjoy the content so I’m not like a technoblade hater or anything I just don’t see why people can be apologists for him bcos from my pov he’s just kind of hurt people and not taken any personal responsibility for it (I mean this as in acknowledging to himself he was ever in the wrong; ex. The whole Tommy / techno betrayal situation which I think was a p complicated matter to be fair he just keeps saying over and over how Tommy betrayed him and it doesn’t seem to me like he’s even bothering to look at the situation from Tommy’s pov or rlly reflect on his own actions at all)

I just rlly like Tommy! I think at least some part of it can be chalked up to Tommy being the first streamer I watched in the dsmp and one of the ones I watch the most from (half the time I’m watching the dsmp it’s a Tommy stream) so there’s just gonna be some inherent bias towards him there like there is with literally any of these streamers. As you put it, it is kinda the trauma, haha. trauma and emotional attachment lol. I think part of it is I relate to him a lot, and I can see where he’s coming from on a lot of things, and I also just like the way his character is written. Smthn abt him that people have pointed out is that his trauma isn’t pretty and romanticized it’s ugly and yk he acts out and all that, which I appreciate. I can see where he’s coming from on a lot of things or at least understand why he thinks the way he does. I like seeing him learn and grow I like seeing his arcs both personally with himself and with other people. He’s an interesting and complex character and he’s been through a lot and I think it’s just super interesting to see how what he’s gone though affects his mental state and his actions as a character, like just from like a mental analysis standpoint there’s a lot to talk about which I think is pretty cool. this isn’t to say that he’s never fucked up or done anything wrong, because he has, but to be fair so has everyone else on this server I don’t think there’s a single member of the server who’s done nothing wrong (except maybe like. Charlie. Charlie my beloved). He’s made his mistakes but every good character fucks up that’s what makes them a good character is their flaws and so with the ways that he’s messed up and the ways he’s hurt people I’m an apologist because I can see why he acts that way, where the feelings and actions are coming from and I can forgive him for it because I understand the why. Also I just think the punishments he’s received for his actions are rlly unfair, easy ex with exile he did something many people on the server have already done at one point or another and was exiled and mentally broken down over it and rlly it’s just been like one thing after another and even if he’s made mistakes he gets way more harshly punished than I think was fair. I’ve seen people talk about how annoying and selfish his character is and when I read the posts (not all of them, there’s a nice chunk of people who are civil about it) it just seems like they’re not rlly thinking abt his character and his experiences. I’ll see people explain his signs of trauma and say it’s annoying because it’s not soft crying trauma it’s messy acting out trauma which it’s just like you do not understand this at all, do you? Or with the discs, I’ll be honest with you here. I will defend Tommy’s attachment to these stupid little music discs till the day I die. Why can’t he have his discs? They’re his , they’re not even that valuable outside of the fact that they’re his, why can’t he have things? why isn’t he aloud to have items he’s attached to without someone taking them for the sole reason of he likes them. And all I see is people saying he is selfish and cares about the discs more than people, which is literally disproven in the rp. Ranboo flat out says he’s not selfish, when Tommy takes the blame for George’s house (also keeping in mind here tommy and ranboo barely knew each other at the time, and if Tommy was actually selfish he could’ve very easily dragged Ranboo down with him) and when it comes to the discs he’s given up the discs multiple times in favor of helping other people (he gave them up for lmanburg, and then for Tubbo I think twice actually) and the one time he told someone the discs were worth more than they were, that was the moment yeah made him realize he didn’t like who he was becoming and he immediately backtracked and allowed the disc to be handed over. TL;DR he’s not selfish he’s just got a lot of strong attachments and his attachments are both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. And he’s a kid, he’s been though a lot of things, he’s got a lot of trauma he’s dealing

with and it’s not always pretty but he gets better, he has his arcs and he gets better and learns from some of his actions, and I think looking at him and his yk. Timeline and character development and arcs and his whole like mental deal and just general character choices are super interesting and I find it fun, as someone who enjoys character analysis, and all in all I love him I relate to him in some ways and some of it also might just be emotional attachment and bias towards him as Tommy being one of my comfort streamers

& it’s fully possible someone could have just as much of an argument for c!techno, my deal w looking at c!tommy making mistakes and c!techno making mistakes and being able to be an apologist for Tommy and not for techno is more about me understanding tommy’s character better and understand the reasoning and the why behind the things he says and does, vs. techno who i dont really get and i can’t be an apologist for him if I don’t understand anything hes doing or why he’s doing it and then seeing him over and over dismiss other peoples perspectives and never rlly reflecting on himself (not to say Tommy couldn’t use at least a little of that himself- I am Looking over at his relationship w Jack Manifold lol) can be kinda frustrating but as I said earlier that might just be me not knowing all the proper context

I could probably write more about Tommy especially when it comes to the whole technoblade vs Tommy thing but this post is already way longer than you probably ever wanted to read so I’ll stop now I’m sorry I’m just hyperfixated haha and yk if anyone wants to like add arguments or points or if you or someone rlly likes technoblade or dream or whoever and wants to talk to me about that go ahead I encourage that like I rlly enjoy having those conversations w ppl provided theyre civil abt it bc like we’ve all said a million times over before eveyone in the dsmp is an unreliable narrator and you’re just going to automatically have a bias towards a character if you watch their POV most and all that so. Yk I am a tommy apologist but I watch his streams most and I’m also just emotionally attached so anything I can say has to be taken w a grain of salt bcos I’m biased towards his character

[reapyboy]

just some thoughts about the recent stuff and the vs community that i need to put somewhere before I explode haha (TLDR at the end)

(If you decide to read this, I would assume that ur caught up to everything that’s happened with this whole thing that happened in the first few days of April with VS_Experiences on Twitter (which no longer exists i think). If not, do your own research pls. I do apologize for not providing any screenshots, videos, or twitter threads, but the proof definitely out there, and you’ll have to take my word) 

Speaking abt the vinesauce community in light of current events, the whole fiasco has definitely damaged my view of the community and some people’s responses reek of parasocial relationship. We truly have no idea if the accusations were true or false, but please stop acting like everything has been debunked. Whenever self projection and parasocial relationships were brought up on stream, the chat would always laugh at them and think they’re dumb (like with Dream), but it seems that thay suffer from one too.

He’s said several times to not put him on a pedestal and what were people doing? Still putting him on a pedestal when the accusations first came out. So many people saying stuff like “ive watched Vinny for years and he always puts a smile on my face! he would never do this he’s just a funny italian speen man!!!” or “he doesn’t seem like the kind of dude who would do that he’s kinda awkward and hates relationships!!” Look. Saying this kind of stuff is what prevents people from speaking out against someone with a big fanbase.

I have made several arts on the booru for Vinny and he is literally my favorite streamer. I tuned in for as many streams as I could in the past several years. As much as he has made me laugh throughout the years, I don’t know him. 99.9% of viewers do not know this man off stream, and never will, no matter how long you’ve been watching his streams. Most of us will never be one of his closest friends who knows the inner mechanisms of his mind. As much as he may talk about his interests and life experiences on stream, and as much as you can observe his mannerisms and personality, there is no way you could know absolutely everything about Vinny off stream. He wants to live privately, after all. But here’s the thing, even if one of us were friends with the guy, friends are allowed to keep secrets. Some friends do not share every single detail of their lives and interactions. My best friend that I’ve had since Kindergarten doesn’t know that I crashed my first car within a month of getting my license!

When it comes to the evidence, so many people were saying “that’s not the same icon! he would never type like this!!1!1” in the emails when it was proven that Yahoo emails just switch email icons to letters by default when receiving email from other online mail services. Plus, we also don’t know how he speaks if he flirts with women? He could totally be awkward like that.

As for psyops and targeted attacks by GPM or 4Chan, I don’t buy that they pre planned this “””attack”””. These theories of a 4Chan psyop were based off of like three? out of context screenshots that were most likely jokes. I also don’t believe it was an attack by GeePM based on the sole fact that he liked and retweeted the allegations when they were first posted, and on the fact that he got kicked outta the Vinesauce team. My thoughts are that the accusers came to him privately and asked him to boost the post because he was an ex-member, letting those in both his and the VS community know. But what do I know?

I, like a few others, thought that there could been some merit to some other info floating around, including several clips of someone’s screen that seemed to have legit email exchanges. It was immediately dismissed and invalidated by fans, accusing them of faking anything they posted. There was only so much proof that they could’ve shown, and I choose to believe the people that spoke out.

I personally think that this wasn’t a SUPER serious set of allegations, like if it’s true, he hasn’t done anything illegal to our knowledge, at most he was just a horny motherfucker. But I think more people should’ve stayed neutral on them until a statement was given, because the amount of denying and coping that i’ve seen is gross. Vinny is an adult and he can fuck if he wants. I do think that bothering your fans for sex is weird as fuck (but that’s just me), but they did consent to meet up with him and stuff. This post isn’t my qualms about Vinny’s supposed actions, it’s about the community’s response to said accusations. Some of you guys didn’t take them seriously at all, and I think it says a lot.

TL;DR: Based on my research and the extra evidence that I’ve seen, I believe the allegations, and I don’t think it was a planned “cancellation”. If they are true, it’s not horrid, but still weird (in my opinion) to pm fans for sexual reasons. Whether the allegations are true or completely false, the community’s reactions were disgusting and some Vinesauce fans don’t realize that they suffer a bad parasocial relationship w/ Vinny.

[blue-shaded]

people have been talking abt dream on here recently n i watch some of the other people in the dream smp so, a comprehensive list to things (to my knowledge) that he’s done/why people don’t support it and also some context for some of it

cw // mentions of possible pedophilia, mentions of the r-slur

1. the poll stuff is exactly as the other anons have said. many of the other dream smp creators also encouraged their fans to vote for that mob. kind of annoying but. that’s just the way it is, it’s like urging your fans to vote for a friend in an awards show, it’s natural to promote stuff you like/support to your fans

2. the thing w being shipped with his friends (some of whom are minors)! this one is in a way true, though not in the way that other anons have said. the context behind this one is that ninja was making suggestive/sexual comments with tommyinnit, who’s a 16 year old that’s a part of the dream smp, and dream laughed and encouraged the jokes. tommy makes a lot of sexual jokes about random things and though i don’t like ninja, he was going along with the bit, however i do think it started going too far as tommy then sent a panic word to wilbur soot, who’s one of the other members of the dream smp, which was a code word they’d made with one another for if they were ever uncomfortable and needed to be helped. a lot of people were confused as to whether this was part of the bit or not because tommy included these jokes in his youtube video, which many assumed that he wouldn’t do if it did make him uncomfortable and also once wilbur showed up, tommy waved him off saying never mind. regardless, after wilbur was called in, ninja backed off with the jokes. apart from this incident, tubbo, another minor on the dream smp, has said that he doesn’t liked being sexualized, and dream supported him on it. the other possibility is that the anons may have been referring to how dream has said he’s fine with being shipped with the dream team? in which case, this isn’t him saying he’s okay with being shipped with minors, the dream team consists of dream, sapnap, and george, all of whom are adults and have said they’re okay with it :) aside from this, people have a screenshot of dream saying “16 is legal in the uk” and have used that as proof of pedophilia, but if you watch the stream, you can hear that someone asks on the discord call what the age of consent is in the uk, and (i actually don’t know why he wasn’t speaking), this stream was a while ago, but everyone on the call answered with the same answer, that the age of consent was 16, and dream just answered it in chat

3. another thing is that dream has heavily defended the usage of the r-slur by neurotypicals in the past (i say past, but this was quite recent, around january of this year) saying that the word is offensive but the usage of it doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person. he hasn’t commented on this, but he himself is neurodivergent because he has adhd, so many people have mixed feelings about this situation because of that. he has apologized for his words multiple times since (reminder that if you’re not neurodivergent, it’s not your apology to accept though)

4. many people were upset with him for using the word lynching during a minecraft championship game. he says something about how people are cheating and they should be lynched, and though he meant it in a joking manner, many people were still (rightfully) upset about it due to the word’s history, and he has since apologized for it (reminder that if you’re not in the black community, it’s not your apology to accept though)

5. many people have come after dream for creating a parasocial relationship with fans, citing evidence such as how he says he loves them, encourages them to watch his and his friends streams, etc. i personally don’t agree with this one? stan culture was around long before dream and it’s going to be around for long after. it’s unfair to judge him for saying that he loves his fans or for encouraging his fans to watch his streams because at the end of the day, he is a content creator, streams are a part of that livelihood, and i feel like many creators and celebrities in the past and currently say that they love their fans and don’t typically get backlash for it?

6. the merch prices. his merch was incredibly overpriced, and though he’s apologized, it’s still,,, eh. people are very understandably still really mad about this one

7. his role in the smp! this is one that a lot of people (especially who aren’t really into the smp) misunderstand. watching the lives, it’s very easy to think that dream’s just an ass to those around him (for example, the clips going around where he’s just yelling at tommyinnit over minecraft discs). for those who aren’t aware, the dream smp is roleplay based and they are simply playing out a script most times :)

8. his similarity to c*y. nothing much else to say about this one. not really fair to judge someone just based off the fact that their faceless. corpse faced similar backlash because so many people are now wary of faceless youtubers due to that situation. you can be wary but in my opinion, i don’t think it’s fair to judge them

9. the behavior of his fans. this one i think is truly unfair to call him out for. dream team twitter and dream team tiktok do truly get out of control, but when it’s a real issue and it gets brought up to him, he has called it out in the past (for example, many dream fans started shitting on and hating on addison rae just because he interacted with her on twitter and she was receiving many hate comments for it, and when someone sent the screenshots to him, he called the behavior disgusting and embarrassing). twitter stans like to get the most random things trending but,, it is what it is, he has a big fanbase, most of whom are very young n think it’s funny to do things like spam keyboard smashes, and i don’t really think that’s something to berate your audience over.

that’s it from what i know, i’m sure i missed some stuff and for that i apologize. i personally don’t watch his content because it’s not my style, but he does frequently appear on the lives of other minecraft youtubers so this stuff pops up on my timeline quite a bit. i am,,, so sorry for such a long ask but i just wanted to provide people with context since a lot of people seemed confused so that they had full context when forming their opinions. if i’m incorrect on any of this, i hope that the other anons correct me as i want to be educated and informed. i’m in no way accepting any of his apologies for the stuff he’s said in the past because i’m not black nor neurodivergent so it’s not my apology to accept, i just wanted to say that he has addressed and apologized for the incidents. hope you all have a very good day and i’m sorry if any of this came off as rude or snappy.

I think I’ll add this to my masterlist too. Can you add more sources tho?

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Hi! Im new to the lotura fandom and im in season 5 rn but I’ve lowkey been spoiled abt how the series treats the ship in season 6-8 and im a little worried about continuing further :,)

Hi, obi-sweets! Ahh, welcome to the Lotura fandom and to the larger Voltron fandom as well! Lotura fandom is a fun little creative spot where most of us reject canon and play with transformative concepts, lol. So no matter what canon does, fanon (for any ship, really) can be a fun and engaging space. And Lotura fandom has lots of very talented writers and artists and community organizers to run things like ship weeks and fanzines. So I hope you enjoy your stay!

Season 5 was probably my favorite season overall—it got me into reading lotura fics, while season 6 got me into writing lotura to explore what could have been, lol. About watching s6-s8: VLD had problems with handling hard topics well before s5, and probably deserved at least a TV-PG rating from the start, even based on the show’s stated target audience. But I think s6-s8 just got so unnecessarily weird/nihilistic that people couldn’t forgive its ongoing problems anymore and felt betrayed by its TV-Y7-FV rating. And yeah, the later seasons definitely sink the lotura ship. I can understand your hesitance about watching further.

I think the good news for you is that if you choose to watch further, you’re already informed of what happens? If you go into these seasons knowing what to expect in terms of plot and tonal changes, that helps to offset upsetting emotion and may help you find things that you can also still enjoy. For example, there are various scenes I actually liked in season 6. And as a fan of several other characters and ships in the franchise, I even liked certain scenes in s7 and s8. So, depending on your other fandom interests, you might still find things that engage you in the later seasons or provide you with content to explore in a transformative, fanon context.

Also, if you choose to watch: The more emotional distance you can have with this show in general, the better. I even know some people who enjoyed the show all the way through. But if you in any way personally identify with Lotor or Allura such that you cannot separate yourself or your hopes/dreams out from them, I would be cautious on watching past Season 6, Episode 3: Monsters & Mana.

Ultimately, there’s zero pressure to continue watching VLD if you feel it’s in your best interest to quit at season 5 or even at s6, ep3. The show has really beautiful animation and great voice acting, but it’s not the end-all-be-all of life. You don’t have to watch the whole show to be a fan of Voltron or Lotura or anything else in the franchise. Your mental and emotional health is worth way more than seeing some animated drawings play out a shoddy version of All Quiet on the Western Front (not that I think the dev team intentionally borrowed from that book—there’s just a lot of depressing thematic parallels that reminded me of it, lol, which are echoed in other more higher rated space operas/mecha stories too).

No matter what you decide, lotura fandom will be here, and there is lots of really cool and uplifting fanon to dive into. Fanon is usually better than canon, anyway, and the good thing about a bad ending is that there’s a million ways to transform it. Thanks again for your note, and I hope this response helps in your decision!

[genesisrose74]

whats this stuff abt dream cheating on his speedrun im so confused

Aight so here’s a basic rundown:

So Dream has had some issues with the speedrun board of mods and stuff who validate runs before, even to the point where he decided to stop streaming speedruns on his Twitch because people throwing shade onto his runs was becoming frustrating.

Apparently today one of the main mods for that board uploaded an analysis of one of his submitted runs done before he stopped speedrunning live. It would have been a 16th place run at the time on the official board of it got approved, so not an overly huge placement.

Apparently the dude was working on this analysis for like two months. It provided some stats that he believed were indicative of some sort of mod that allowed Dream to cheat with certain mob drops, like blaze rods and ender pearl trades. He stated that it was incredibly unlikely these statistics aligned with even the 99th percentile possibility of things and compared some other runners’ probabilities to his own.

Dream made a tweet about it, clearly upset with the way that his 16th place run was being invalidated after two months of it going under suspicion. There’s been an ongoing trend where Dream’s name gets used in a lot of videos for clicks, so he felt as if that was a similar situation here. Mr. Beast, Karl, I believe TapL, and some others commented saying that the situation was definitely fishy and not fair to the work Dream puts in to complete his runs. Enter conflicting arguments in the below comments. You know how it is

Personally I don’t want to make any sort of accusation on either side, although I do agree with Dream here that the timing and everything of the analysis publication is a little...odd. Right before MCC and the Streamys, where Dream’s name would be circling already?? Holding onto the analysis and then posting - I believe without the input of the rest of the speedrunning board people - right now is a bit convenient, but idk. And for a 16th place run? Why would he go through the trouble of trying to find ways around the system if it’s not even a top 10 placement lol? He’s a member of the analysis team tho, so I mean it’s his job to look over stuff which I understand. It was just weird timing.

Should Dream have brought up the specific channel name of the guy who did the vid analysis in his tweet?? Mm, probably not. But then again, he’s had similar situations where people have outright accused him even when he’s been trying different seeds for hours on stream, so I can understand the frustration and I don’t think he meant to send like a hoarde of people over there to just ridicule the analysis.

Don’t worry too much about it tho cause to me it seems pretty minimal of a situation!! Dream still has an official 5th place run spot as well, and it looks as if there’s gonna be a discussion about it (apparently some of the other board mods are kinda thinking about leaving or smth) and a formal response from the blobby man himself, so honestly I think it’ll turn out fine. With all the times I’ve watched Dream’s speedrun streams and stuff, I really do trust that he’s being truthful here, yet then again the analysis creator has a right to counter as it’s kinda his job.

Ta-daa, that was a lot to type lmao — hope this helps with context!!

[pechebeche]

I hate to reopen closed wounds but would you mind telling us what happened with the d20 stuff? I understand it was something about ppl not liking the fact that u made nsfw content (which honestly doesn’t sound like a big deal to me) but learning that that you were harassed off the fandom makes me go ??? I am very confused it’s literally not that deep why did they do this

I know I’m like a year(?) late to all of this but I’m really upset I honestly hope you’re in a better place and know that I love you and support you and they’re shitty people who don’t deserve anything and trust that they WILL have karma at their throats when they least expect it.

Wish I was online at the time, I can only send love and prayers your way :( <33

I've been sitting on this ask for a week or so now, trying to decide how - and whether or not i even should - answer it.

thinking too much abt my harassment inevitably causes me to spiral. what remains from that time is impossible for me to look at without going off the deep. it doesnt really feel fair to expect people to believe me without evidence when thats...why i was harassed in the first place.

but also, and maybe more importantly. i have seen firsthand that it does not take much for people on the internet to decide you are subhuman and deserve to be treated as such. i would never, ever wish for anyone to be treated the way i was, including the people who treated me that way. as difficult as it is for me to remind myself some days, many of the people who harassed me probably genuinely thought they were in the right and doing a moral duty, and just didn't fully grasp that there was a person on the other side of the screen.

if i have any sort of audience that i dont absolutely know and trust, i dont think i can, in good conscience, name some of the people who mistreated me, and some of the ways in which they mistreated me, in a public sphere. i just can't. i don't trust the internet enough.

(if i sound morally righteous abt this, its because i absolutely am. i am extending more respect and kindness to the people who hurt me in this moment than they ever extended to me. i am bitter and miserable about the fact that after everything they did to me, it is still my responsibility to be the bigger person. i'm never going to get closure. i am going to have to take some of the things they said and did to my grave. i'm allowed to be angry about it.)

what i WILL say is that, in interest of objectivity, when the callout post was originally made about me, it was not just about my nsfw content, but about racism. i've outlined these allegations here. (there is one allegation i left out here because it was on twitter instead, and because it took what i said so far out of context that i remember looking at it and having a full moment where i thought i was straight up dreaming and would wake up because i couldnt believe anyone was twisting my words that hard and not getting called out on it.)

i will also say that i'm sure the original callout post is still up and that, helpfully, it included links on the wayback archive to posts i had made which either were inconsistent with or directly contradicted the call out! (im never gonna get over the note about how i had never apologized that linked directly to an apology) if you’re willing to search it up, it may provide greater insight both into my bias, since obviously i naturally see my own side of the story, and into theirs.

i have never argued that my insensitivity was justified, and i dont want anyone to twist my words to pretend i am. what i am saying is that it was unfair and cruel to turn my unawareness into a public spectacle to be mocked. my actions may have been exaggerated or made up, but the core of it is that even if i had been that terrible, there was no excuse for turning what could & should have been a learning experience that i could improve from into an excuse to, put simply, bully someone out of a space. not once was i approached with these issues or had them explained to me privately before i was publicly denounced as unforgivable and refusing to learn. neither the poster nor any of my endless harassers, nor any of my friends who reblogged the post without bothering to tell me about it, didnt even link me in the post itself; i had to SEARCH IT UP. they were not interested in teaching me or my followers. they were interested in isolating me and forcing me out of their fandom by any means necessary, including my death. that is not an acceptable way to treat people who have not committed Actual, Physical Crimes. that is not the type of activism we as a society should encourage.

i hope that one day i will be able to give a more complete picture. but it isn't today. i'm sorry i couldn't be of more help.

[intearsaboutrobots]

15 QUESTIONS, 15 MUTUALS

thanks @paladinical for the tag!

Are you named after someone?:

i didn’t name me after anyone, altho for a while i went by/considered going by jules, which was after my Boy dr. julian bashir (That One Episode in season 5 #confirmed that hes a) perfect b) autistic and c) trans I Don’t Make The Rules)

When was the last time you cried?:

uhh gosh i’m not sure.. maybe after my break-up, thats certainly the hardest i’ve ever cried. so like almost 2 months ago (for 2 straight days rip... Shit Was Rough)

Do you have kids?:

only my ocs/favs, my perfect idiot children

Do you use sarcasm a lot?:

yeah? i think partially bc im good at being deadpan so its easier to communicate if my words are also sarcastic if that makes sense, and also bc Talking Directly Abt Stressful/Painful Things Is For Nerds

What’s the first thing you notice about people?:

h uh i guess it depends on the context... this sounds mean but it might be “how good are you doing the thing we’re doing right now,” so at work its like cool how good are you at Being At Work, or in social situations its like how good are you performing Being In A Social Interaction. 

and to hopefully make it clear that my social circles are not a weird meritocracy i would like to clarify that a) its bc i’m also doing this internally all the time always and b) it’s not like a value judgement i dont think ppl are Bad bc theyre not good at this thing, sometimes i’m also bad at the thing and we can bond over that, it’s just a thing i notice

What’s your eye color?:

hazel

Scary movies or happy endings?:

All. i lov a good spooky flick but if it ends bad then That Scary Things Out There And Could Kill Me. probably happy endings wins here bc i honestly want that on everything, provided its an Honest happy ending. like you gotta do the work to earn the catharsis and the happiness, and depending on the story? sometimes thats a l ot of work. enemies-to-friends-to-lovers is a long fuckin trip and its gotta b a rocky road, but the catharsis and the reward is the thing i like there

(exception: i lov me a good fated tragedy. see: hamlet and also every mechanisms album ever, but thats a different thing of like, there being a narrative symmetry and the ending still feels like a closed loop)

Any special talents?:

uhhh i got stuff i’m good at but idk that it’s Special?

i own at crazy 8′s thats a fact

Where were you born?:

the pacific northwest baybee!!!! got evergreens in my bones 

What are your hobbies?:

chat rp lmao, i lov some hcs that just Get Away from you

also knitting, crochet also of late, sewing a little, writing occasionally,

 ...............data analysis, which is the nerdiest fuckin thing but i like analysing and interpreting information and then figuring out what the colours on this line graph should b to best communicate that

Do you have any pets?:

naw

How tall are you?:

5′7″, which is stATISTICALLY ABOVE AVERAGE i hav wIKIPEDIAED IT

What sports do you play/have played?:

lol i briefly played both softball and volleyball as a youth. neither stuck

Favorite subject at school?:

physics!! and math and chemistry after that. i also liked english and french a lot

in university i added to that list: linguistics (3 credits short of a minor!!) and latin

Dream job?:

LIBRARIAN (PLS THE LIBRARY IF UR READING THIS HIRE ME I’VE APPLIED LIKE 4 TIMES)

for real tho this is the thing i picked when i was 16 and u had to pick what u’d do after high school. my original plan was:

graduate

go to librarian school

work in big room,, full of book

and then i found out that a library degree was a graduate degree so you needed a different one first, but that there wasn’t a rule abt what it was, so 16-year-old me was like cool ok so, i dont wanna write essays - the sciences. within that i like chem and physics the best, and the physics teacher is more fun so that i guess for 4 years

and despite this being a wild and barely considered plan i’m still into it??? physics is dope, dont wanna do it as a job but it’s fascinating and i’m glad i hav a degree in it, and i still wanna b a librarian even if the reasons hav shifted towards libraries as a place where theres no price tag on resources. it seems like a job where i can help ppl, use my customer service skills that i lov, and also ofc Big Room,, Full of Book

this was very fun!! and i’m tagging @possessed-radios @kalgalen @serendipitouscontaminant @wunderwirker @magictavern @notquiteaghost and oh gosh i can’t think of 15 ppl but pls feel free to tag urself if u wanna do this

[cherrykyeoms]

Soulmate!Johnny

Genre : fluff, non-idol!au, soulmate au where everyone has a flower tattoo on their wrist which is plain (has no colour) and when you hold your soulmates hand you wld feel a tingling feeling on ur wrist and ur flower tattoo will get its colour, school years mentioned is based off the education system in UK-Singapore context because idk how the US system works (even after 14 years of breathing)

Group/Member : NCT, Johnny

A/N : and SOOOO this soulmate thing was smth i dreamt of last night im still shooketh by the dream skfkdkfk also in this fic the reader and Johnny are the same age yea :) also sorry if its hella shitty,,, its my first soulmate!au but i’ll try to produce better works if you want more soulmate!aus :”)

————————•

okay but can we just imagine johnny with a flower tatt yes thank you i just died

okay lets begin gogo

okay so when you were younger you never really cared about when you’d find your soulmate

because you knew that it wld naturally come to you

but as you grew you realised that your soulmate could possibly be on the opposite end of the earth and you actually had to at least try to find him

anyways abt yourself - you enjoyed arts and shit and wanted to major in fashion design

and so came the age of sixteen, after taking your major exam you decided that you would study fashion designing overseas since you thought that going overseas would open up more opportunities

and also just so that you could have a better chance at finding your soulmate

so initially you went to LA and studied there for two years

on you third year of college your school provided you with places to go for an internship

there were many great places honestly - France, Malaysia, Italy, S. Korea and a few others

you decided that you’d go to S. Korea cuz you thought that their fashion styles were unique and different as of western styles and you wanted to understand fashion as a global thing (does this actually make sense dkfkdkfksk)

i think i repeated this too many times but its just so that you cld find ur soulmate yeet

so fast forward you’re in SK and alr halfway thru your major project which was assigned specially for amateurs- to create a clothing line for Seoul Fashion Week

so you were working with this fresh university graduate guy and you had to admit, his ideas were hella impressive

it was unique in a way that traditional clothes were incorporated into modern clothings

your ideas weren’t bad as well, he thought that your skills were really impressive for someone in college

so the both of you decided to work on a two-piece line up which incorporated the hanbok in all of your pieces in some way

fast forward again to seven months later and D-day comes

you finally met all the other designers properly and greeted them one by one

you felt a little intimidated by meeting the other amateur designers honestly

they all seemed so good and actually had some experience beforehand so you were worried about how you seemed like to them

your partner, whom you now treated just like your own older brother, ended up with having to bribe you to a treat to starbucks just so that you wld stop belittling yourself and enjoy the night

idek if those kinda things are able to bribe you but im a broke kid so 🙃

djfjd and before you realised it the runway show had ended and it was time for a break

you then saw a new figure there and he seemed much friendlier than the others ard

apparently he had came later as he had to attend an important family event

the tall figure then noticed you starring at him for a while and walked towards you to greet you

“Hello miss, i am Johnny Seo! I’m one of the designers of (design name), it’s a pleasure to meet you :)”

okay let the smiley face be i cld only think of his smile as he says that stop me im soft

you were taken aback for a split second cuz wow,,, such a fine man had come to greet you,,, and he’s really friendly

“oh-ah yes, I’m __________ and im an intern attached to (partner’s name) for (design name)! It’s a pleasure to meet you too!”

as you said that you extended you arm for a handshake

lmao the past few months had made you forget your objective of trying to travel - to find your soulmate

anyways

Johnny then extended his arm as well to shake yours and when your hands met, it happened

you felt a little prickle on your wrists and your eyes widened you looked down to see that the roses and daffodils on them had finally gotten their colour after, after nineteen years

Johnny, with the same realisation, then took your other hand in his

“The pleasure to meet you is mine, soulmate.”

he said that with much tenderness in his eyes and smile before pulling you into a tight hug

you held onto him and sniffed on the scent of his cologne which instantly brought you to comfort after the stresses of the event

after letting go the both of you starred and smiled at each other in silence

it wasn’t an awkward silence but it was a comforting one

okay so you had just met your soulmate at an important event

oh and your partner crued happy tears while filming the both of you in your moment cuz :”)

and from this event, you could infer that your soulmate had similar interests with you

that makes life just 28482848283828383 times better

cuz now you have each other to consult for fashion advice

johnny’s fashion evaluation every damned week

im sorry i just had to

and lets be real

you wldnt have wanted to end with anyone else :”)

okay sorry for this shitty ending

but i wont rlly go on about how he wld be like

cuz i have a bf!Johnny ;)

but thats an idol bf!johnny so if you want a non-idol one yall can request :))

thank you for reading

sorry for much delays,,, i love all of you 💖