#this is more of a twitter discourse than a here discourse but here I am

[villainanders]

“People referring to Lavellan as Lavellan in Solavellan posts implies that all Lavellans are Solasmancers” is so stupid I’m sorryyyy when people just call Hawke Hawke without any qualifiers in fenhawke posts that doesn’t imply all Hawkes are Fenris romancers

[bread-wizards]

I actually think Dorian and Orym should fight more.

Remember when their slowly building tension over and entire episode (full of passive aggressive remarks and blame throwing) led to threats? And how after, Orym thanked Dorian for handing over the crown sadly because he knew Dorian would be mad at him? And Dorian couldn't even look at him because he was legitimately hurt, thinking Orym was disappointed in him for doing what he thought was right? That was peak.

The fact they went from that to their current closeness and trust is the best part of their entire dynamic. Their relationship was hard fought and still will be. They will fight for it because they respect and care for one another deeply, and their disagreements don't change that, only improve it.

[asparkinhereyes]

i don’t even go here, but the argument that emma frost is not sexualized because of how she dresses is not the gotcha that most people think it is

[spikedfearn]

I'm going to address this one time and one time only because there's discourse happening on Twitter and I wanna get ahead of it in case it leaks over here.

Yes—I am incredibly aware that Sir Jimmy Crystal, at least appearance-wise, is drawing visual inspiration from British TV host and DJ Jimmy Savile. Yes—I’m also incredibly aware that Jimmy Savile was a monster, a serial predator who committed horrific sex crimes that were covered up for decades. That is not up for debate, nor is it something I take lightly.

However, Jimmy Crystal is a fictional character in a fictional post-apocalyptic world. He is not Savile. He’s not a one-to-one representation. He exists in a timeline where the apocalypse hit in 2001—more than a full decade before Savile’s crimes came to light publicly. So in the context of the 28 Days Later universe, Jimmy Crystal, who was only a child when the world fell apart, would’ve just seen a flashy, eccentric TV personality in sparkly tracksuits and bottle-blond hair, not a predator. He wouldn’t have lived to see or even know what Savile really was. None of them would have.

The creators leaning into that visual aesthetic doesn’t erase the fact that Jimmy Crystal is a fictional cult leader in a post-apocalyptic dystopia—someone deliberately written to be unsettling, charismatic, magnetic, and terrifying. He’s not supposed to be comfortable. That tension is the point. He’s also played by Jack O’Connell, an actor with a long history of playing messy, complicated, morally gray characters who exude intensity—and frankly, some of us find that hot. The danger, the unhinged charisma, the power trip—it’s fiction. And fiction is where people explore fucked up dynamics and uncomfortable archetypes in a safe, creative way.

Being attracted to Sir Jimmy Crystal doesn’t mean I excuse or romanticize what Jimmy Savile did. It means I understand the difference between fiction and reality. It means I can acknowledge where an aesthetic comes from without confusing it for what it represents in real life.

If it’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine. But calling people weird or gross for responding to a fictional character's design and energy—especially in a genre that thrives on horror, moral discomfort, and dystopian themes—isn’t the gotcha you think it is.

[the-real-couchrat]

Post ending / rescue AU / recovering Curly is everything to me, so I’m making a list of other people’s posts that feature him. (The links will connect to a reblog of them in case anything ever happens to the original post)

If anyone ever see’s posts like these ones, PLEASE tag me in a reblog!! All posts are welcome, not just art!

Please note that I don’t decide what to add to this list based on shipping, opinions on the metaphors in the game, the accuracy of burn scars, the morality of Curly, or anything else that causes discourse in the fandom. I just add any posts that I come across that include Curly recovering from his injuries in any way. Prosthetics, wheelchair, wig, crutches, It just needs to have him in better shape than when he first got injured.

No NSFW

(Also this post is edited to add new ones when I find them)

Rehabilitated Curly

Party with no Jimmy

Stand around in medbay party (Idk if this counts, but he has prosthetics so I'm saying it does)

Happy abortion!

Post-ending speculation (text)

20 years later (I AM NOT WORTHY TO LOOK UPON THIS WITH MY MERE MORTAL EYES)

ANYA’S GRADUATION DAY

Post ending

Rescue/Recovery AU

My own post! (text)

Aftermath Curly

Good ending

Best way to approach captain’s disability?

A little sketch

They care

“I wouldn’t want to frighten her”

Anya doesn’t quite overdose

They’re safe

Guys rate my fanart

WWI face prosthetics

Less fucked up Curly AU

Fix-it type AU

Silly recovering time

Curly got some gifts for his b-day

Imagine Curly survived (twitter)

Curly with a service dog

I’m not a dog and you’re not a mare

Drawing the dentalcare crew (does this count?)

The quality will not be questioned

Fix-it AU

Want to make Curly some cool new mechanical hands so he can strangle Jimmy

One can dream

He’s got a wig now

Happy ending where they all survive (devianart)

It hurt my heart (twitter)

God forbid I get sick (translated?)

This might be controversial but… (text)

Let’s get you out of the house!

Cyberpunk AU

Cartoons with breakfast

Old-school surgeries (text)

Post-ending fic prompt (text)

Post-rescue AU curlyana

Post-rescue curlyana part two

Why is this goddamn white boy so hard to draw?

Captain stop infodumping the baby

Maybe never forgive

Draw Captain Curly having a prosthetic limb

Curly from Mouthwashing (good ending)

This is how I imagine Curly post OP

whats the worse fate, whatd be better for the tulpar crew

Wip

🐈

Mouthwashing AU (Reddit)

Curly if he survives (Reddit)

My own art

I’ll give him smoochies, prosthetics, and skin grafts

Art dump time✨

Hoppin on da trendin train

The crew built curly a mechanical hand

How to give Captain Curly a voice (idk if this technically counts, but it’s a disability aid so I will)

Doodle of the Tulpar crew post-rescue!

New hyperfixation just dropped

Hi Tumblr. Funny seeing you here

Another rehabilitated Curly

Who up washing they mouth rn

Don’t use the dog buttons (text)

Haunted part one and two

Prosthetics

AU were someone saves them

Mouthwashing doodles

A New Ladder-Reader x Curly (I’ll add the original art videos when I can) (also I didnt read it. if someone did read it, please let me know if it’s SFW)

I know he always have his headphones on

More rehabilitated Curly✨

You guys like this right

Anya, what’s it like working as a medic on a spaceship?

This is how we can still get the good ending

“I’m sorry Anya”

More cringe mouthwashing art be upon thee

Curly’s happy (and recovering) ending

Writing an AU of mouthwashing where the crew survives

Most people seem to be giving him prosthetics…

Doing a bit of study

2

Ladonb Kokosa (TikTok account, LOTS of great videos )

Giving the mouthwashing characters what they deserve (TikTok)

Zest for life

How I think the Tulpar crew would make YT videos

Some recovered Curly art

Edit: I am no longer seeking out these posts, and new ones will only be added if I’m tagged or such

[anotheroceanid]

hello I am here to ask for anything you wish to ramble about for the athenide au!

perhaps something about how Perse's image would be seen in the modern age by mortals? would there be discourse about her on twitter and tumblr and tiktok?

anyway anything you want to talk about is fine, its one of my favourite aus (I am considering writing a fic based off it but im still planning it)

Ofc!

Okay, lemme think…

So, there’s one thing I’ve been thinking about Athenide that is how, bcs she was a widely liked goddess, she was always written in the best possible light, which also meant that she came out way softer than she actually is.

Not in a way that she is mean, but a lot of Perse’s sass got lost once the Homeric period was over, and she became way less vicious in later tellings, and this probably influenced a lot in modern representations and way more infantilised.

Then, the baby Athenide we were talking about. I can see it being something that started in very late classical era. So while the more ancient writings would have her with way more agency and personality, the earlier ones would de-age her a little.

Yk how Persephone got flanderised in pop culture as this naive girl, or how Hera is always the token evil stepmother, etc? I think Athenide would suffer of it, specially because I can see her Roman portrayal way more “tamed” than her Greek version, and some Rome versions of myths end up becoming way more popular to modern audiences (Medusa’s, Persephone’s, Hercules instead of Heracles sort of thing).

So much of the discourse would resolve around babyfying Athenide, at least with the wider audience who aren’t that obsessed with myths. Like, die hard mythology nerds would stick with the Homeric versions, but at the same time having the goddess of Loyalty not being that opinionated and independent would serve a political pipeline and I can see why that would be the most popular depiction in big media.

Idk if that makes sense, but that’s it. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[aeyumicore]

EXPOSING MY IMPERSONATOR/HARASSER: @/IZUWUS.

edit: final update to this situation here

edit 2 (9/22): her new blog is @/clitfilms with an alias of naya. be wary interacting with her.

edit 3 (9/26): She has switched accounts and aliases/personas MANY times in the past. She was previously miguelism/startitties as ‘Stella’ (lots of issues associated with this one). 

edit: people have also come forward to let me know that she was 'albaedo' and 'reinaphoria' (two deleted blogs that were used to also harass other writers)

She had an account that she deleted recently, in light of the discourse that came about from me exposing her as my harasser, that was called “@/movedtoizuwus.” I don’t know what it was called before she named it that. 

She then moved to maimochies/izuwus as Mai/Lise/Lili.

She used minimimies, exposingaeyumicore, aeyumiicore, and aeyumicores to harass me.

And now she is on clitfilms as Naya.

Her past accounts have had a LOT of drama and harassment associated with them. Go search it up for yourself on Tumblr. A lot of it is EERILY similar to what happened to me, in terms of how she spoke, the anons she sent, etc.

Other creators have reached out to me with similar experiences being harassed by blogs LINKED TO izuwus & startitties, and believe she has MANY other active blogs as well as deactivated blogs (reinaphoria) that are linked to harassment. I will not name drop those as I cannot say with the same degree of certainty that these are 100% her (like I know startitties and clitfilms to be) but I implore everyone to be careful who they interact with.

--

I have decided to move forward with exposing the person I know to be behind the @/exposingaeyumicore + @/aeyumicores (these two are the same account, just renamed), @/aeyumiicore, and @/minimimies accounts.

That person is another large, probably larger than myself, writer in this space. That person is @/izuwus.

The reason I have decided to expose: Izuwus has still not left me alone, since she took down the impersonator blog last Thursday (evidence in doc confirming the blog was self-deleted and not deleted by Tumblr). Yesterday, she stalked my Twitter, saw a tweet I made with an idea I had for a Sylus fic, and proceeded to steal the idea as her own, posting it onto her main. That was my breaking point. (More details and screenshot evidence in the document below).

I have spoken to the Tumblr Abuse Support Staff and they have confirmed that I can post this, and it would not be considered harassment as I am defending myself from the harassment I endured for the last almost 2 weeks.

I do not feel safe on my platforms. I will always be paranoid that Izuwus is stalking me. She will never stop. I have given her MANY opportunities to leave me alone. I have given them opportunities to confess privately. You will see all of those in my document, as well as even on my blog I have warned them publicly to leave me alone.

CLICK FOR LINK: EVIDENCE THAT IZUWUS IS EXPOSINGAEYUMICORE, AEYUMICORES, AEYUMIICORE, AND MINIMIMIES.

Please be warned, this document is 55 pages (and counting should I need to add more evidence). It contains heavy mentions of cyber bullying, harassment, and impersonation. The document contains video screen recordings and lots of screenshot evidence. That is why it is so long. I will try not to edit the document, but should more evidence arise, I will be adding it.

Note, I am not asking you to harass Izuwus, to unfollow, or to spread the word. I could not care less if this person loses or gains followers from this. If you decide to continue following them, I honestly don't mind, I won't hold any animosity towards you. We can still be friends, mutuals, etc. I just want to get my truth out, before she continues to twist the narrative in her favor.

As a note, I have literally almost never spoken to this writer prior to the events of August 17, where @/exposingaeyumicore was released. I am aware Izuwus has told some people that she and I are close (again I have proof). This could not be further from the truth. She literally had me soft blocked prior to this happening on August 17, and then hard blocked me with no warning after I responded to her in our DMs that I did think her new layout was identical to mine.

I also have never had any issues with any readers, writers, anyone on Tumblr prior to this debacle. Not in my asks, not in my messages, not publicly. I absolutely did not start this. She started this, and brought it to Tumblr. So I am letting the people of Tumblr make their own decisions.

I will not be mass-messaging this post to anyone. I will not be commenting this post to any of her posts. I will not be going down her list of followers and sending it to them. I will post it here, and my Twitter, and that's it.

I am posting this on my main blog, and not making a burner, because I have nothing to hide. Should Izuwus refute this, or continue to make ANY claims about me, I will not be responding. It is very clear that nothing she says can be trusted, and I have provided ample legitimate proof (using HER OWN screenshots + taking screen recordings).

Especially after the @/exposingaeyumicore post, I have proven my innocence time and again. I have nothing to hide. No reason to lie.

If any other harassment targeting me happens (impersonation, vile claims, photoshopped screenshots), or any other creators in this space for that matter, I think we know who it is.

I apologize if I am not able to respond to all comments, messages, or asks. I am so exhausted.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you decide to read the entire document, thank you again. Please stay safe online everyone. You could mind your own business and still be targeted. Be careful what info you share about yourself. Just be a good person.

[epsiphi]

so i saw THIS image online courtesy of twitter user @/offpridbird and it inspired me to look into the criteria for each of these disorders, and how they might fit him, so…

welcome to

My Analysis On Whether or Not Goro Akechi Has a Cluster B Personality Disorder (According to the DSM-V)

(this is a long post that took up TWELVE pages in my notebook so the nitty gritty is under the cut. tl;dr, there’s evidence in favor of all these)

now you might ask: what are your qualifications? to that i say: i’m a psychology student* who also happens to be a big fan of goro akechi. which is to say that i am not an expert; i just really like this fictional guy. my analysis is also based on my personal understanding of his character. so, you know, don’t flay me alive if i get a part of his character wrong. or do.

*high school

in case you don’t know what a cluster b personality disorder is: it’s a subset of personality disorders characterized by “dramatic, emotional, or erratic” behavior. it includes:

antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)

borderline personality disorder (BPD)

narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

histrionic personality disorder (HPD).

this post covers ASPD, BPD, and NPD, because those are the disorders i’ve seen most ascribed to akechi. i might cover HPD some other time.

(also yes i seriously perused a copy of the dsm-v for this)

Borderline Personality Disorder

1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment: we’re looking at mr. “I was extremely particular about my life…my grades…my public image…so someone would want me around!” over here. it’s made pretty clear that akechi’s perfect persona wasn’t something he just started doing when he became famous; it started after his mother died, once he was being “passed around from foster home to foster home”. he tried to be perfect so they would want him. it’s clear that none of them did.

2. A pattern of unstable and intense relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation: the only real relationships akechi has are with joker (no canon name discourse here) and shido. it goes without saying that neither of these relationships are very normal; on akechi’s part, both are characterized by his obsessions and love-hate feelings. akechi does also kind of have an idealizing issue with joker (putting him on a pedestal—which is admittedly something most characters do, but i feel like akechi is not any more normal about joker than anyone else)

3. Identity disturbance (markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self): i feel like this guy cycles between “i was cut from the cloth of god” and “i am the scum of the earth”. in thirdsem, he does not seem to have much of a self beneath his detective prince persona (by which i mean he’s very…blank? just look at his default portrait. very blunt and to the point)

4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g. spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating): none of these apply in canon. he does seem to have issues with food (forgetting to eat, apparently eating little, not caring about the taste of what he eats vs. the appearance of it, he runs a food blog but it appears to be mostly for show). choosing to become a hitman for a comically evil politician who is also your father at age 15 would qualify for self-damaging, but might also fall under…

5. Recurrent suicidal behavior/gestures/threats, or self-mutilating behaviors: his revenge plan is so bad it’s borderline suicidal—not in the sense that he actively planned to kill himself afterwards or anything, but in the sense of he spent so long fantasizing about getting revenge that he literally never stopped to think about the day after. not envisioning a meaningful future is also suicidal.

6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood: this confused the hell out of me at first. it essentially means rapid, intense mood shifts. i’m…not sure, actually. (i guess you could count the insane difference between his self in battle vs himself out of battle in thirdsem as this, but i’m not the guy who can answer that).

7. Chronic feelings of emptiness: remember that thieves den conversation where yusuke mentions how difficult keeping up an act for a long stretch of time is (in reference to the pts pretending not to know the truth about akechi in sae’s palace) and akechi responds with “Is that so? Well, you stop feeling things once you get used to it”? because i do. (note the use of a word as general as things) (also veering into hc: i’ve seen people say akechi’s sin, had his palace not been cut, likely would’ve been acedia, which is…indifference. emptiness.)

8. Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger: have you seen the engine room. i think it’s always there, it’s just that he’s good at controlling it 98% of the time.

9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms: kind of on the fence about this one—leaning towards yes. i think this sort of applies to the interrogation room? he moves through a lot of it vaguely shocked + a few subsequent tv interviews. in the one soonest after 11/20–the “same strategy used in romance” interview—he has an oddly flat affect, which is funny given the context of how he’s being lauded as hero. like…he can’t even pretend to be happier. in the interview that occurs during the infiltration of shido’s palace (“none of these people know i was an undesirable child”) he mentions how the news of joker’s suicide was dizzying—obviously he’s lying about WHY it was dizzying, but he still appears to mean it.

Total criteria fulfilled: 7/9. (Criterion 1, 2, 3, either 4 or 5 could be considered fulfilled but not both at once, 7, 8, 9)

for clarification: any suicidal behavior under criterion 5 cannot be counted in criterion 4. so if you consider “becoming a hitman for his scraped-off-the-boot-of-the-devil father at 15” as self-damaging but not suicidal, then criterion 4 is fulfilled. if you consider it suicidal behavior, then criterion 5 is fulfilled.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

1. Has a grandiose sense of self-importance: not sure how to describe this one other than “you know it bitch”

2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love: in my notebook i literally just wrote “yeah” for this. because i don’t have any articulated reason for this belief, i won’t count it as fulfilled criteria. but know i believe it

3. Believes that they are “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or associate with, other special or high status people: by his own admission (confidant rank 2), akechi does not have friends—or as he says, “people i’d actively choose to see in my free time”. it’s not for lack of people who’d want to be his friend; this is in june, people are raving about him. so he probably has a million connections and people who’d love to hang out with him, but he doesn’t want to hang out with a bunch of nobodies. his trait in the artbook is that he gets distracted in conversation, which is a very light way of saying that he doesn’t pay attention to people because they’re boring and not worth the time. joker falls under “other special people”. also, on “believes they’re special”: there’s something to be said about how akechi awakens to his persona 2 years before canon, and how he was totally on his own. like, as far as he knew, he was the only person with these powers—the only person without a shadow, and as such, the only person without distorted desires. so naturally he would consider himself special. (ignoring that he literally kind of is)

4. Requires excessive admiration: guy who has spent whole life internalizing that he is inherently unlovable and worthless becomes a celebrity and puts up a perfect front because he needs people to love him; more at 9. (dsm-v also states: “Their self-esteem is invariably very fragile. They may be preoccupied with how well they are doing and how favorably they are regarded by others”. obviously. hello, 8/28)

5. Has a sense of entitlement (i.e. unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment): great time to bring up Relative Deprivation Theory—the belief that someone will feel deprived of or entitled to something in comparison to another. in akechi’s case: deprivation of acceptance/love in comparison to joker and entitlement to the same (“How does someone like you have things I don’t?!”). it’s interesting that he uses his fame as a reason why he deserves what joker has, when it’s why he doesn’t (fame is not love).

6. Is interpersonally exploitative (i.e. takes advantage of others to achieve their own ends): the core of his charm is manipulation and inherent dishonesty, so i kind of feel this is a given.

7. Lacks empathy (is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others): there’s Word of God that akechi is just like, “whatever” to anyone who isn’t joker, as in he doesn’t particularly care about anyone else on a deeper level (not a ship thing; just an observation). also does not seem to care about most of the people he kills or who get hurt as a result of his actions (i.e. psychotic breakdowns).

8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of them: i mean…do i really have to say anything about this.

9. Shows arrogant or haughty behaviors: do i really have to say anything about this (2). it’s kind of everywhere in the third semester. if you want more evidence: look at his thieves den conversations (crazy)

Total criteria fulfilled: 8/9. (All criterion but 2)

i think goro akechi might be the most covert narcissist in fiction.

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

this one’s a little different than the others.

A. A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (3) or more of the following:

1a. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest: i’m no lawyer but i think murder is grounds for arrest.

2a. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure: this guy lies as easily as he breathes. inevitably he’s lying all the time, considering no one is bringing up the fact that he’s a magic assassin until november 20th.

3a. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead: well, no, akechi is the type to overplan ahead. i do think he’s kind of impulsive, by virtue of the fact that he’s more emotional than logical.

4a. Irritability or aggressiveness: he hides both of these pretty well for the majority of the game but once third semester starts? irritability is off the charts. aggressiveness is usually confined to battle (despite many many many fan interpretations that would say otherwise)

5a. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others: murder and psychotic breakdowns that wreak havoc on public safety sure does suggest a disregard for others’ safety. choosing to become a hitman for someone you know is evil as a teenager also implies a certain disregard for self-safety.

6a. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or financial obligations: nope.

7a. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another: as i mentioned under NPD criterion 7–absolutely. emphasis on rationalizing (“My targets were all doing the same damn thing in this eat or be eaten world. All I did was remove their evil from society. How is that any different from the Phantom Thieves?”)

B. The individual is at least 18 years of age: well, yeah. he’s just barely 18 when you formally meet him on june 9th.

C. There is evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15 years: unfortunately akechi is not real, so we don’t have this information. i highly doubt it, though (specifically i doubt there would be evidence, if we believe he was already putting up the perfect front before he was famous).

D. The occurrence of antisocial behavior is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder: no (but uh. bipolar disorder is another topic for another day)

Criteria A fulfilled: 5/7. (Criterion 1, 2, 4, 5, 7). Criterion B and D are also fulfilled.

SO! conclusions:

the possibility of akechi having any one of these disorders is plausible

the real common enemy are the people who try and say akechi has no longstanding trauma/psychological issues. clearly, he’s got…something.

goro akechi is the cluster b final boss

[mgu-h]

Feeling so hopeless after this race. I sat through oscar winning 3 races in a row and its only race no. 6 I can’t take it anymore. Exactly whats the point of having superior pace when other drivers are happy and willing to push you into a wall and your own boss doesnt care to support you? All the while the lando discourse has reached generational levels of toxic. It’s damned if you do, damned if you definitely don’t. How are you handling this?

I'm really sorry to hear that F1 has got you down!! 🫂 I'm feeling pretty okay about things actually, optimistic even, and I know that's not the vibe of the fandom right now, but it's based on what I've seen of Lando's performance and the quality of the car. It's early May, and the last race of the year is in December, that's how many points are left on the table. There's eight race weekends before summer break, we're not even halfway there, and Lando's only improving. He won the sprint and got P2, qualified ahead of Oscar, which all means he had a very encouraging weekend after Jeddah. It could have been better, sure, definitely, but I don't dwell in the realm of coulda-shoulda-woulda, you know? I take the results and move on.

You have to remember that last year Max went into Imola 33 points clear of Checo, and 60 points clear of Lando, and the season still almost slipped away from him. Yes, Oscar has won four races, but Lando has only won one, and yet he is only 16 points behind, less than one DNF from Oscar away from getting ahead, because his results have been so consistently strong. Three P2s, a P3, and the only time he was off the podium it was a P4. Qualifying for races is 3-3, neck and neck. He is clearly happier with his control of the car, and is very close to putting together those essential Q3 laps. If he'd not lost pole to Max, I think he would have won Miami by a mile, but he did lose pole, and that hurt his race. His pace was tremendous, and he got P2, the ultimate damage limitation.

If you're curious, here are my way to stay sane and enjoy F1 as a Lando fan: I do not check the tags on here, I turned off 'based on your likes', I've blocked a lot of antis, I've filtered names of blogs that I don't want to block but have harsh or upsetting takes. I mostly follow people who post pictures of Lando or fanfic about him. I am not on twitter, not on tiktok, not on instagram. I check F1 news at most once a day, and on sites I trust to be pretty factual and neutral, not opinion based, often AP. I basically do everything I can to focus on Lando himself. Right now I'm watching a half an hour long interview with him, and enjoying it so much. He's a smart, nice, earnest, and talented guy. I don't ever think about Oscar on purpose, don't worry about team PR, don't think about rumors. The media say a lot and it means very little.

I want Lando to win the WDC this year more than anything, of course I do. I'd be really sad for him for him to miss out on this golden opportunity, and even more sad if his teammate, a driver that I am at best neutral toward, wins it. BUT. Zoom out. I think Lando is going to be in the sport for a long time, I hardly think he's at risk of leaving it. He's a multiple race winner, who took his team to the WCC last year, and is consistently on the podium this year. If this ends up not being his year, I'm still going to enjoy watching him on track, as I know he's going to keep putting in good drives. It won't be the end of my world, or his world, if he has to try again in 2026. I believe he can do it, he's in prime position to go on a run of his own, and Oscar has had ups and downs in his momentum as well. We have to wait and see, and I'm a patient person.

I understand why people are upset with McLaren's leadership and PR. I do see what signals they are taking and extrapolating toward catastrophe, but I would be genuinely, deeply surprised if the things people are saying are really true. McLaren simply does not have deep enough pockets to both buy out Lando's expensive, long-term contract, AND pay for the most expensive driver in the sport to join, that's even if Max is interested. Lando is hardly performing like DR in terms of lack of points, the team is getting 1-2s and leading the championship by far. There's simply no reason for them to spend that much money. It's so unlikely I would be genuinely astonished at how irrational it would be if it happened. I think Lando needs to win a couple races, take back some momentum, and everyone will forget that this was even a thing to speculate about.

It will be ok 🫂

[beneathashadytree]

Hey guys! I think you all know me by now, and have a good idea about my character. I’m extremely patient and I usually have no qualms controlling my temper, nor do I make it a habit of complaining on here, because I usually keep things impersonal to avoid issues surfacing. But this isn’t the first time this has happened, and unless I address it, it won’t be the last.

This is a warning to not involve me in serious Tumblr discourse, and ESPECIALLY to not harass me in my ask box. I have far bigger issues in my life, and this is extremely tone-deaf.

Imagine being exhausted from a fucking 12 hour shift, wrist-deep in people’s mouths, completely unpaid and still a million miles below the global poverty line, then coming home to a sick parent and an abusive one, only to see hateful shit in your ask box, waiting on your every move. I haven’t had one day of rest in 3 weeks or more, and had COVID prior to that. I don’t need the added stress.

I am a WRITING account. I am trying to earn money to pay my university tuition and aid my father through said WRITING, and I don’t even make much of a fuss, despite the fact that almost every fucking week someone on here or Twitter steals my SMAUs, and copies the texts or the niche ideas almost word for word.

So if I haven’t spoken up about that then, what makes you think I’ll talk about your fandom discourse you’ve been repeatedly sending me Anon messages about?

Please respect that I am a human being with bigger issues than this crap. I’m not 15 anymore, so I will not be allowing people to overstep their boundaries.

[drdemonprince]

The article regarding about annoying queer people sparked a by now long forgotten memory.

When I went to my first pride I snuck out secretly and thus was there after the parade. Most people were already some form of drunk or high(didn't know that at the time, I was 15 and naive beyond hope)

That was also the first time I saw puppies ever. In retrospect I must have stared and seemed like one of those annoying "no kink at pride" puriteens. They probably just wanted to allow themselves a small joke but what happened in praxis was, that a grown, white man in only puppy mask and boxers crawled up to me, stood up, started sniffing my breasts and when I started panicking and running away he run after me and everyone else watched and laughed. I think I screamed for help or cryed to please leave me be and was ignored but I can't remember much past the fear.

To them it was probably a small joke but to me it set me back for years. I didn't go to pride in that city ever again and took years to move past "no kink at pride" opinions, an opinion I didn't even have before that.

I felt incredibly isolated and wearing a small rainbow bracelet and cutting my hair took so much bravery. And it earned a lot of backlash too?

So often I see coloured hair and pins as this cutesy cringe thing of no consequence, but for me it resulted in hours upon of arguments and insults. It was worth it, because it helped me built my own identity apart from my families bigotry, but it sure wasn't fun or cutesy. Ultimately it led me to becoming brave enough to actually discover who I am and start making connections with the wider queer community.

Thankfully I had no social media accounts or I would have had some truly stupid arguments.

What I'm saying is, yes young queers can be annoying and it can be tiring to deal with them but being an asshole and vilifying them isn't the solution.

Making fun of teenagers doesn't make yourself more valid and doesn't give you the status of being an old experienced queer.

I'm saying teenagers here but the fun thing about queer people is that we can discover ourselves at any point in time. So it's less teenagers and more people newly discovering themselves as queer.

I get how annoying they can be very well now, doing voluntary work at pride does that.

Do many of those we consider annoying queers hold some harmful opinions? Yeah sure. (The amount of white queers, teens or adults, not dealing with systemic oppression beyond their own is staggering and they more than deserve to be called out. Just to be very clear, when I talk about annoying behaviour I do NOT mean microagressions or discrimination in any way)

But annoying behaviour is not synonymous to that and maybe we should all just start being less mean in public spaces? I get how satisfying it can be to get a hit tweet via a bitchy twitter reply now, but quite honestly I am more ashamed of that now than when I was running around in hoodies and short hair being painfully naive.

Because then I wasn't being mean to anyone. I had some stupid takes sure but no outlet. On twitter I was making fun of people to validate my own queer-ness. (Personally I think I was covering up for the fact that I was afraid the queer people I worked so hard to be part of wouldn't consider me one of their own. So I worked hard to show how I'm not one of "those queers".)

Either way, thanks for reading all this and thank you for sharing the article because it is something I strongly agree with. Just let people be annoying without making fun of them for it. It doesn't need to be a big deal.

Thank you for this wonderful, vulnerable, honest message about your slow path to self-acceptance in the face of a lot of barriers, anon. I'm glad that despite everything you've found your way.

Yeah, I think queer people have many reasons to feel terrified at the rising "no kink at pride" discourse, but sometimes when we lash out at puriteens we sound a bit like the childfree people who say that they hate kids?? Like, we're blaming literal children for an ideology of protecting "The Family" that has been foisted upon us.

I'm guilty of it. I was HAUNTED by the social pressure to get married and pregnant and raise a bunch of kids. It caused me massive dysphoria and didn't jibe with my queer identity. But I rebelled against it for far too long by saying that I hated kids.

It was not the kids' fault! It was the ideological specter of The Family as an institution that isolates and attacks all nonconformity and 'deviant' sexuality! Me being an asshole to children was not gonna set me free, kids were even more disinfranchised than I was!! I don't think I was ever overtly cruel to children, just kind of aloof and freaked out by them, but I definitely *did* say some numbskulled shit to my friends with kids a few times. Completely missing how disempowered mothers (and it was usually mothers) are in society BECAUSE of these same forces .

And I think something similar is going on here. Queer people are tired of having "Family Friendliness" shoved down our throats by corporations and conservatives, and so then we lash out... at young queer people. it's fine to have 18+ areas and events; It's very, very important to me that spaces like Furfest have them. But that's not the same thing as claiming young people have no space in our community as a whole. And I do think we need to erode the barriers between the adult and child worlds in a whole lot of ways, and reorient our attitudes toward nudity, sexuality, roleplaying, etc in public life. but that also doesn't mean a pup should run you out of a pride parade actually fucking sexually harassing you.

It feels great to be able to talk about this stuff! Thanks for your message.

[goomyloid]

i am so sorry about all of the discourse i’m seeing on twitter about kriselle 😭 all of it was so dumb to me and you deserve so much better. just wanted to throw a nice message your way and say that your brain is absolutely Massive and your kriselle arts and thoughts make me feel so mentally ill in the best way possible, they are so juicy to think about and rotate around like a microwave. you retweeted my kriselle fanart and i screamed over being recognized by the CEO of this ship it is forever an honor… anyways i hope ur day is swagful

;___; i teared up reading this... thank you so so much for your support, it really means a lot..!!! i think everyone should catch the kriselle illness forever but i may be biased here

ive never been ceo of a ship before...LOL i was discussing that with some friends yesterday... surely there are others more ill out there than me right. right. guys? (actually all the most ill krisellers find each other and we actively make each other worse)

regardless i hope no more dumb discourse like what happened on twitter the past few days happens again... i know it made some more people rise to kriselle's defense but im also afraid it might have turned more people off to it because they got tired of hearing about it lol... i want to say it all turned out as a net postiive but it feels like a net negative in my heart help

but anyway all krisellers get behind me Big goomyloid will protect you

[jeonscatalyst]

I noticed that jkkrs on tumblr seem to be more than tkkrs on tumblr. Our posts usually get hundreds of likes too while tkkrs’s only manage a few dozens. Why do you think that is even though tkkrs dominate other platforms like twitter, instagram, TikTok and YouTube?

That’s a great question anon and just like you, I did notice that too.

My answer may seem a little biased since I am a joker but it is what I really believe based on everything I’ve seen after being in this fandom for so many years.

Jikookers love to discuss and have long deep conversations about Jikook and ships in general which helps them understand things better. Taekookers love screenshots, especially those they can take out of context to either create moments for their ship or drag Jikook (the ship and Jimin). Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and instagram aren’t social media platforms that allow long, deep creative discourse with enough context to help people understand things better so they thrive by posting edits and screenshots taken out of context and they get thousands of likes more than jikookers while many tkkrs don’t seem to be very interested in actually going deep into conversation about ships because they already believe what they believe and don’t want anything to change that.

You see anon, Jikook spaces used to be more healthy and peaceful than they have become in the last couple of years and I feel like Jikookers actually had a good basis to start shipping Jikook unlike other shippers who mostly start shipping because of aesthetics or just cute edited moments of the ships. I think out of all BTS ships, Jikookers were one of the very first ones who brought discussions about ships to tumblr and many Jikookers loved having those conversations here while other shippers preferred Twitter, YouTube and the rest for more fast paced and less detailed discussions.

If you notice, it is quite hard for a jokers to beat the cult in an argument on Twitter and when I say beat them I don’t mean by being right or wrong but instead in the term of likes and interactions. A tkkr could post a very obviously fake or twisted edit or screenshot and they would get over a dozen thousand likes. A tkkrs could post an out of context screenshot to drag Jikook and they get thousands of likes and replies but it’s rarely the same for a joker on X but on tumblr when we have our little conversations with enough context, we get tons of interactions than the cult because many more jkkrs actually love to discuss about Jikook and not just rely on edits or out of context screenshots.

The tkk blogs I’ve seen on tumblr are in my opinion some of the nicest tkkrs I’ve ever come across and this is saying a lot because I don’t even think they are that nice. I just think they are nicer than what I am used to seeing on other apps and they could be a little less delusional even though they are still very very delusional and just like their brothers and sisters on X and the other platforms, are so good at taking things out of context. A good example of how they take things out of context or twist things to fit their narratives is that article from Bang PD from The New Yorker. I was so shocked that not a single one of them actually got the context right. All of them interpreted what Bang PD said about the group members taking trips to be about Jikook just because we just watched AYS recently even though he was actually specifically referring to Katseye, plus BTS as a group and other groups under Hybe/ Bighit have been on multiple group trips throughout their years as idols yet they decided to make it about Jikook since that was a way they could feel better about AYS since apparently they didn’t like what they saw in the show. Just like the blind leading the blind with not a single person to direct them to the right path.

To put everything in short, tumblr is favored by fans who enjoy deep, creative engagement, while Twitter and the others attracts those who thrive on fast-paced, real-time interactions. This alone should pretty much explain how most jkkrs are and how most tkkrs are.

Hope this answered your question anon💜.

[robintism]

shinonome ena: npd or bpd?

A while ago there was discourse (albeit, on twitter, where else would discourse be) about Ena’s cluster B coding. About whether she was NPD or BPD-coded and “what’s wrong with letting people headcanon whatever they want?” The thing is that you CAN headcanon whatever you want, but coding is something interwoven with the canon narrative that serves a purpose for the character. 

If we want to argue about coding, we must first look into what sets NPD and BPD apart.

NPD and BPD are both Cluster B personality disorder, characterised by unpredictable, dramatic, or intensely emotional responses to things. Outwardly, many of NPD and BPD traits and behaviours are similar. Their respective episodes can look like one another’s and many mistake one for the other. These two disorders are also incredibly gendered in the sense that NPD women are notoriously misdiagnosed as BPD, and the reverse being true for BPD men. Women and female characters who display Cluster B behaviour are more often than not, diagnosed with BPD without being given much thought or consideration.

This is the core of the issue with Ena. Many are quick to point out the Cluster B likeness of her behaviours, but are unable to properly pinpoint the intention behind it, which would become the crux to solve the question. 

MORE UNDER THE CUT

Ena’s motivations & fears

At the start of the Nightcord story, we can see that Ena is jealous of Mafuyu’s innate talents, and even angrier at her for saying that she has nothing, when she has everything that Ena has ever wanted. Ena struggles with empathy here (which I will touch upon more later) but the key to her character is very explicitly shown here – Envy. She is envious of what Mafuyu has that she can never be able to attain, because talent is something you’re born with. At this point in the story, she already wants to disappear because of her perceived lack of her skill, and her belief that she will never be enough for her father, and herself. So seeing Mafuyu, who has everything she’s ever wanted (on a surface level anyways) also want to disappear, angered her to no end. 

In case I wasn’t clear enough, Ena’s motivations are linked to her simultaneous superiority and inferiority complex, her ego. She wants to be better than everyone else, and can be critical of others, but any criticism of her is a blow to her ego. In a way, Mafuyu’s depression is like a blow to herself because “If I were you, I would never be as miserable as I am now.” Not only is she unable to empathise with Mafuyu here, she’s suffered a blow to her ego. Her and Mafuyu are uncanny mirrors of each other here–Mafuyu has the talent, Ena has the will but both are miserable in their respective standings because they lack what the other has.

On This Blank Canvas I Paint is, in my opinion, one of the best Ena focus events because it dives deep into her insecurities and issues, even if it doesn’t offer an immediate and complete resolution. This event shows us the first of her many hurdles, and how she dealt with it in the process. It also shows us her very first “crash”.

At first when she was at the top of the Art Class and getting praised, she was happy and confident. Then came the conversation with Papanome, where her entire worldview and confidence was shattered. She was shaken and her next composition was a complete bust, it was as if a switch had been flipped. 

Ena’s father is a bad father, and he shouldn’t have said all that in such a manner, but for the sake of this analysis let’s take a deeper dive into his words. Papanome, as a seasoned artist, has experienced the industry much more than Ena has. He KNOWS the reality behind the industry, and knew his daughter well enough to understand that if she kept going with that kind of mindset, she would’ve crumbled. And she did. 

The next time she went to class, she was criticised by her teacher, and he even points out her core motivation “If praise is all you seek” because all this time, she’s only ever been praised for her artworks. It was her primary motivation in this field, to the point that she grew complacent and stagnated without realising that her peers have evolved well beyond her. 

That realisation shatters her again, when she realises that everyone else has improved but her. Her sense of self-worth begins to deteriorate and she spirals, she even disassociates to the end of class and quits impulsively because she couldn’t take it anymore.

Basically, it struck her ego and she has a narcissistic crash. Narcissistic crash happens when a person with NPD becomes unable to uphold their grandiose, confident image due to a perceived fatal blow to their ego or reputation. This leads to a breakdown which manifests as angry outbursts, depression, withdrawal from others, irritable or defensive behaviour, and verbal or physical aggression. My understanding is that, internally the pwNPD feels a loss of self along with perceived rejection and abandonment. (Side note: I was doing some research thinking this was a splitting episode but it’s actually a narc crash, you learn new things everyday). This describes Ena’s crash and other outbursts really well. She tends to be very defensive and actually did withdraw from others, she even dropped out of her art class without warning after this incident. This is because her ego has classified the art class and her teacher as a threat to her image and self-esteem, so she needs to withdraw from it.

Again, this is the crux of BPD vs NPD. The key to BPD is the persistent fear of abandonment, while NPD has to do with the ego. None of Ena’s (coded) cluster B behaviour stems from a fear of being abandoned, or being unable to define herself. It stems from her need for grandiosity and her need to be important, successful and better.

Ena’s right to exist

Ena validates herself through the amount of praise (and therefore, also criticism) she receives. When her artwork was first criticised in her flashback in On This Blank Canvas I Paint, she loses motivation, her grip on herself and her sense of self-worth. When her artwork doesn’t gain traction on her social media, she posts selfies, which admittedly get a lot more views and compliments. While she is disheartened by her artworks not getting as much attention, because she does actually love art and drawing, she is able to in a sense, replenish her narc supply by posting pictures of herself. 

The Primary Narcissistic Supply is attention, in both its public forms (fame, notoriety, infamy, celebrity) and its private, interpersonal forms (adoration, adulation, applause, fear, repulsion). Any kind of attention, both negative and positive, contributes to the narc supply. Here, Ena taps on her own face card to boost her narc supply because she knows she will gain attention through it. She validates herself in these forms and lives vicariously through her followers’ eyes. 

This isn’t to say that there is anything inherently disordered or even wrong about wanting attention, especially attention online, but this combined with her other traits combines to form a bigger, narcissistic picture.

While BPD sufferers also have issues with their self-worth and identity, and may use similar methods to have a better grip on themselves, it manifests slightly differently. Borderlines are more likely to shape themselves into what others want, in order to avoid abandonment. Whereas narcissists are more likely to show off the more palatable parts of themselves while hiding their perceived weaknesses, so everyone will only see their inflated self. In a sense, both “manipulate” how others view them in order to feed into their personality disorders but in different ways and for wholly different reasons.

Narcissus flowers 

Also, Ena has a lot of association with narcissus flowers. In her 3rd anniversary redesign, there are narcissus flowers on the pattern of her dress. In her card, I Don’t Want To Give Up, she wears a flower crown made of these flowers, and they are also spotted on the pattern of her dress. One of her outfits from a card where she is explicitly shown to be painting, a card that represents the exploration of her character (since it’s a colourful festival card), is called “Narcissus Salopette''. 

Other than their obvious correlation to narcissism and by extension, NPD, these flowers represent Ena’s self-obsession and her need to overcome it to achieve something great for herself.

One of the official art also has this. 

Rin, in the Empty Sekai, is a direct manifestation of Ena’s feelings. Here they mirror each other, and Ena is shown as a reflection of Rin in the pond, much like the infamous Narcissus myth where he drowns to his death after falling into the pond from admiring himself too much. The myth of Narcissus warns us of self-obsession, to the point of neglecting the world and the people around us. We destroy ourselves in the pursuit of ourselves because we can’t see beyond it.

Ultimately, this isn’t to say that you can’t headcanon her to have BPD or relate to her if you don’t have NPD, but ignoring her very blatant narcissism coding is just really, really weird when 1) NPD is severely stigmatised 2) NPD women go under the radar by professionals and casual armchair diagnosers in favour of BPD.

[henrysglock]

Okay. So. I said in my tags that I'd have more to say about all this, and mainly what I'm going to talk about is personal. Picture me writing this all out as fast as I can on my lunch break 😭

The past 8-ish months in this fandom have been a complete and utter hellscape. It's one thing to make niche theories and have them end up unpopular. It's another to have people quite literally send out libelous messages about you in hopes of a) convincing new fans that you're a bad person, and b) scaring new fans into that they're bad people if they interact with you.

And I mean...I knew Elliot and his friends were saying messed up stuff about me. I've known that since September of last year. I was trying to ignore it and not let it dictate my fandom experience. Because like what the hell, they’re pixels on a screen. It sucks, but it’s ultimately just the internet. Anyway. The false, exaggerated claims of rape apologism and pedophilia being presented as fact while having no proof behind them are nothing new. That's been going on for a long time, now, and I do have proof of that.

For example, the author of this anon:

Did fully come and apologize/explain that they were lied to on that very topic when the situation in September happened:

I did tell this person that I don't make a habit of posting DMs publicly because generally speaking I find it to be a breach of trust, but the situation has gone so far that I want to make that all public. I did, however, promise not to name them publicly. I won't tell you who said any of that, even if you ask.

But yeah, all that is nothing new.

What I didn't know until my conversations with @final-boy-creel is how invested this group was in making me out to be an awful person. I had no idea that anyone in that friend group was creating wholly falsified screenshots of me saying heinous transphobic things.

Final-boy-creel laid all that out, but I did want to a) post those faked images here for my own records, and b) expand on the situation in my own words.

First off...that's not my discord, nor is that Em's discord. Second off, like final-boy-creel said in his post: the fucked up time stamp at the bottom of the second image. (Among many other details that mark the pictures as fake, such as: changing text sizes, display names not being bolded, display names not being aligned with the time stamps, weirdly stretched profile pictures, the use of "tory" when I'm very open about being a USAmerican, numerous typos, and entirely altered typing styles (for example, I always edit my typos, I use the reply function all the time, and I'm a punctuation fan, including but not limited to: em dashes, semicolons, colons, and ellipses). Like...did whoever made these even try to make them believable??)

Second, as final-boy-creel said, I'm a neopronoun user myself. I had he/void in my bio for years, even back before I used tumblr and only had twitter. I mean, my neopronouns are even still in my discord notes:

And yes, I did remove them from public view to avoid any possible harassment from fans coming from sites like instagram, reddit, and tiktok, where neopronouns are a huge source of discourse and bullying.

So to say that *I* bully people for using neos? Absolutely insane.

Furthermore, I would never tell someone they "aren't trans enough" and that they're "making the community look bad". If you know me, then you've seen how much I post about queerness and letting people label themselves however they like forever. I'm a huge supporter of "weird" and "cringe" transness. Hell, I use the umbrella term queer for myself because I don't feel like a particular label fits me.

That upsets me more than anything else, because so much of who I am and the background I come from as a trans person centers around radical acceptance. I myself was told I wasn't trans enough when I was younger, and that shaped who I am today. Practicing radical acceptance was the only way to dig myself out of the "what if people think I'm not trans enough?" hole that was prventing me from actually living my life the way I want to.

So it really hurts me, that people think I'm some kind of transmedicalist fake-claiming scum! I'm not like that, I never have been, and it's really upsetting, knowing a decent amount of Henry fans (who all probably have me blocked by now, unfortunately, so it's not like I get a chance to explain anything) are going around thinking that's the kind of person I am. Making that kind of stuff up about me is just plain mean, especially when it's paired with telling people that I'm toxic and mean.

I can have my snippy moments when anons get a little too rude, but I like to think I'm not a mean person. And I guess I always assume that other people are the same way. Maybe that just makes me naïve.

But honestly, I just wanted to put out an apology to anyone who’s been intimidated by that group or made to feel like they’re in the goddamn panopticon here based on drama they weren’t even involved in, all under the guise of “warning” them about me. I’m so sorry that the shitstorm sucked you all into it, too. I’m so sorry your fandom experience has been made that stressful, and I’m sorry people are trying to control the opinions you form about others. It’s really, really disturbing—and really patronizing—behavior.

[rooolt]

Tell me about your actual play random shipping culture toughts

Self conscious that maybe none of this is that profound or interesting so I am putting it under the cut bc also it’s long

Okay so I got into actual play through like d20 and naddpod and I would argue those fandoms do not have large shipping cultures at all. Like they exist certainly, but they’re not fervent and a large portion of fandom tends to focus on other stuff. I’ve especially noticed the lack of pcxpc shipping, again not to say it doesn’t happen, but not to the degree that it could be happening ya know (though tbh the three player set up of Naddpod is the major hindrance of this which I could talk abt separately) but like on ao3 genfic is far and away the most common type of d20 fanfiction written and Naddpod has a truly depressing dearth of fanfiction. This meant that when I first got into actual play fandoms i kinda accepted that was how they rolled (ha) and kinda went with it. Sure there were figaydas here and beverlins there but those were pcxnpc and which is different, and sure Naddpod bahumia straightbait of all time but like there’s other things to focus on.

then, I got into dndads. Dndads has a massive shipping culture to the point that within each season there is every combination of ship imaginable, especially pcxpc, except for the always very prevalent npcxnpc shipping, and the one, very notable, pcxnpc ship of season two. And this was like culture shock to me, because I was like “you don’t do this for actual play” but I couldn’t deny that the characters were quite literally frequently making out with each other on the reg. They even canonize a pcxpc ship at the end of s2. (mainly cause it’s funny but I still won)

and ultimately what I think it comes down to is player knowledge of fandom. All d20 seasons are filmed before they are released and have no fan influence within each self contained season, thus they cannot be influenced by fans and the seasons are as they are (this is why all d20 discourse exhausts me bc they can’t hear you the season was filmed six months ago). Not to say there aren’t d20 seasons with pc romance, but they’re far more rare and def do not happen in intrepid heroes seasons. (The only pc relationship I’ve ever wanted in an intrepid heroes season was Sid and Barry but that was axmurph marriage energy more than anything.) similarly, NADDPod crew does not use twitter, barely checks Reddit and I don’t think they know what tumblr is (maybe Caldwell) that coupled with the fact that the naddpod fandom isn’t that huge/loud and you’re not gonna get players playing anything up for fan service sakes. Even if there are fan ships in naddpod, they are not engaged with by the players whatsoever, and if they are it’s a joke they think is funny independent of what the audience has been saying.

dndads on the other hand literally have a patreon discord where the cast frequently engages with fans, including live listen and reactions to the episodes that the cast participate in. This coupled with the fact that they shoot maybe biweekly or monthly, means that they have So. Much. Fan service. And this is not a criticism, but some things you can tell they do bc they know fans like it. Hermie would not have become reoccurring if fans didn’t like him. Normal would not have been canonically interested in him if fans did not push that constantly. This isn’t even touching s1 stuff. They made gothcleats go canon and then Matthew Arnold posted a screenshot of a tumblr post someone made abt the ship on discord and said “that was for this person”. I even see this now that I’m watching witchlight, it’s very clear they know what fans like and they play into that. Again, I’m not knocking it, it is just a vastly different approach than other actual plays

and like ultimately why is this dichotomy interesting to me? I think originally what was interesting about actual play shipping to me was that with pcxpc romance especially, it can get kinda awkward if there’s a fuzzy line between the player and character. Dnd players are so much more involved in their characters than a regular actor, and ultimately in some situations that feels obviously palpable with shipping. It’s a lot of why you see the dndads cast going “it’s weird to ship Jodie and Glenn” because in that situation the line between character and player is too fine, but then you also get taz in which they’re all related and play out canon romance anyways. It’s fuzzy and weird for each show and can often stray somewhat slightly into conversations like rpf and parasociality (WHICH I AM NOT GETTING INTO!!!!!!!) which is why the different cultures developed by each fandom are so fascinating to me.