#this is such a wide topic

[svsssfanonarchive]

Exposing SVSSS Fanon: 25/∞

VIOLENCE AS COURTSHIP IS A PART OF DEMON CULTURE

Rating: CANON

A nearly universal trope, especially in Moshang fics, is the fact that courtship is performed through violence in demon culture, and that the misunderstandings between the pair are because of cultural differences. The fact that demons mistreat the targets of their affection is canon, however, it is important for fans to note that this sort of characterization and worldbuilding is rooted in racial and ethnic stereotypes.

This is one of the most-requested topics I've ever written on this blog, and I took a long time to think about how best to approach the subject in a way that both keeps to the intention of this blog (referencing canon & providing quotes) as well as raising awareness to the very real problematic aspects of what is a well-loved and often-used trope in fanon that I don't think most western fans are aware of.

First, the canon analysis:

“If you hold unique feelings for a certain person, how can you make them understand your intentions?” Luo Binghe asked. Obviously, no one dared to tear down Luo Binghe’s facade and expose him directly, but this question was really very…unsuited to the demonic approach. After a long moment, not a single person had answered. In fact, the answer was so simple that any normal human could have given it to you. If you liked someone, you should just tell them. Unfortunately, there was not a single “normal” person on the scene—and aside from Shang Qinghua, there also were no “humans” either. Mobei-Jun thought about it. With the paths his mind was given to take, there was no telling how he had interpreted “unique” feelings. “Beat them up three times a day?” (7 Seas, Ch. 26)

Most of the fandom remembers this passage, and some may think that this is where the interpretation of violence as courtship comes from-- however, that is not the case. This passage might actually not refer to courtship at all-- while that is one possible interpretation, Mobei-jun could also be interpreting "unique feelings" to mean something different than "romantic feelings," since Luo Binghe didn't specify romance directly.

The "violent demonic courtship" idea actually originates much earlier in the novel, just after the invasion of Qiong Ding Peak:

In truth, Shen Qingqiu didn’t intend to tease; he thought himself very straightforward. The one who’d tampered with Luo Binghe’s dream realm was Sha Hualing. Though she did have some harmful intentions, her underlying motive was obvious. Naturally, she was driven by a young girl’s secret yearning for love. Otherwise, she would have directed her aggressions toward others, not specifically Luo Binghe. Demons were compelled to viciously bully the person they liked. Only if the object of their affections failed to die would the demon accept them. If their target died, that meant they were useless and not worth nursing any lingering affections for. (7 Seas, Ch. 3)

This, in fact, has somewhat more serious connotations than the way I have often seen it interpreted in fanworks-- it is not merely beating up a potential partner, but pushing them to their limits, nearly driving them to death, and it is certainly implied that it is not uncommon for the object of a demon's affections to actually die.

Now that the canonical basis of the idea has been established, let us move on to the second, and arguably more important part of this post: the racism.

I would like to add a disclaimer here-- I am going to discuss this in hopes of raising more awareness in the fandom, but I am not North/West/Central Asian myself, so I will only mention things in brief and somewhat generally-- if anyone who belongs to the affected cultures would like to make corrections, or more detailed explanations, or any other additions to this post on this topic, I greatly welcome that, as I feel it is an important issue that should be addressed.

In Chinese fiction, particularly fantasy genres like xianxia/xuanhuan/xiuzhen, but also in historical and wuxia fiction, there is a pervasive, prevalent tendency for authors to use racial and ethnic stereotypes against Central, Northern, and Western Asian cultures such as Mongolian & Arab cultures in their worldbuilding regarding the North, while stereotypes against Southeast Asian cultures are used in worldbuilding regarding the South. These stereotypes are most typically applied to villains and villainous groups, and are so widespread as to be ubiquitous within the genre. MXTX has used these tropes before-- notably with the Banyue people in TGCF, with adaptations of both TGCF and MDZS including design stereotypes, such as CQL's portrayal of the Qinghe Nie (combining their tendency toward violence and 'unnatural' cultivation method, with design traits typically associated with Northern/Central Asian cultures).

It is worth noting, though, that most authors do not intentionally use these traits as racist stereotypes in their worldbuilding, especially when regarding a non-human species-- in the same way that western fantasy authors use goblin and orc characters and tropes without realizing or acknowledging their racist origins and connotiations, these stereotypes have simply become genre tropes without that direct connection to their origins. Nonetheless, it is still worth noting-- and worth trying not to fall into the trap of leaning into stereotypical traits in fanworks' character portrayals.

Stereotypes include but are not limited to barbaric and brutish cultural traits, association with animals/having animal features, dark or corrupt magical/spiritual practices, certain types of braided hairstyles & other fashion choices, and originating from the far north or south.

Some of the prejudice and stereotyping of Northern Asian cultures likely originates from the fact that in the past, China was invaded and subjugated by peoples from the north (under Mongolian rule during the Yuan dynasty, and under Manchurian rule during the Qing dynasty) as well as having many conflicts with these peoples throughout history. In fact, the Qing dynasty only ended in the early 1900s, so some of this oppression is still in recent memory-- nonetheless, people belonging to ethnic minorities in China are still affected by this negative stereotyping today, so regardless of the origin, racism is still racism and should be addressed, and China today is a majority Han Chinese nation-- even if Han Chinese are considered a minority and affected by systemic racism in other places in the world.

Additionally, many tropes specifically applied to the southern demons, but also used for demon culture as a whole, are tied to stereotypical portrayals of Southeast Asian culture, which is rooted in a long history of Imperial China's invasion and oppression.

All of those stereotypes listed above apply to SVSSS' demon culture. Even in Mobei-jun's name-- 漠北 meaning "northern desert," which is the real-world name for a region in the north of the Gobi desert in Mongolia.

Therefore, it is important to remember that though violence-as-courtship in demon culture is canonical within SVSSS' setting, it nonetheless originates from harmful racial and ethnic stereotypes. It would be a good idea for fans to keep this in mind when creating their fanworks, and to treat the topic with sensitivity-- but I will leave any direct suggestions on how to handle this to those who are actually part of the affected groups.

--

(thanks to @flidgetjerome for additional notes regarding SEAsian stereotyping and author intent!)

Also, to be absolutely clear: I am not saying that svsss’ demons are specifically coded as any real ethnic group— it’s only that in many ways the portrayal is similar to the common portrayal of various ethnic groups in cmedia. I don’t believe they are specifically meant to parallel a real life group, unlike for example TGCF’s Banyue— but it’s worth questioning why these traits, why these characters.

[glassblossomsthunderstorm]

"Honestly, I don't really care why she lost. I care why he won."

- Desi Lydic

[welcome-to-green-hills]

https://x.com/thecartoonbase/status/1841998883351650384?s=46&t=UdNtgFl-8YuvLicwWoYN0Q

Hello?! This is crazy!

Mmm-hmm… and people on Twitter claimed that this should would be forgotten. There’s no way anyone could forget Sonic Prime.

Hell yeah, Hon! Prime’s winning!

[bloggingboutburgers]

i hope that i'm not making any terrible cultural assumptions here, but i'm curious about your experiences as aro/ace in france in particular. the states are often very culturally conservative but especially when it comes to sex in particular. i don't know if it's just an incorrect cultural assumption on our part but the french are stereotyped as being a lot more open and in your face (?) about sex. is that true? does it make it harder for you to deal with people pushing the expectation of sex on you?

OK, so, I'm not sure I can 100% answer this one accurately because... Well, I've never properly LIVED in the States, only visited for a while each time, so I don't have a proper point of reference.

What I WILL say though is that most of our modern culture comes from us from the US. Movies, series, musicals, songs, social media conversations and stuff... And those ABSOLUTELY push the expectation of sex on people regardless of how conservative the States probably are on a daily basis.

I think it's like... The way I experience it, it kinda feels like the large majority of people regardless of the country or culture ARE kinda obsessed with sex anyway, so it's more about how overtly it's admitted in society or not. French people WILL definitely bring up sex in random conversations including at work or with people they've just literally met from the first time. (Depends on personality of course but... Yeah.) But I dunno. Maybe people in the US do that too. In terms of what I see in the exported culture though? The omnipresence of sex is definitely still felt. Heck, look at fandoms that are for a big part comprised of US people and how quickly they'll gravitate to shipping and sexual shipping or thirsting for a character too. That's definitely not just a thing I've observed in France.

The main difference I see is that most conversations of this type seem to start in the US and my country tends to "behind" in lots of ways, so it's definitely harder to talk about how you're an asexual in France still, at least I'd assume. Here we're still at the point where the odd mainstream media will write an article introducing asexuality as a revolutionary concept in a "can you believe this exists?" and "🫴🦋 is this a new trend?" kinda way. It's... A bit embarrassing, though it's way better than nothing at this point, progress is progress.

PS: The obsession with romance kinda seems to be everywhere in both cultures, so that at least doesn't make much of a difference. Except that I guess France being stereotyped as "the country of love" (read: ROMANTIC love ONLY) doesn't really help at all but meh.

[amygdalae]

Coworker bar trivia 2nite. I don't know shit abt any of the topics I'm just there to drink beer and be so cute

[slavhew]

Be nice

late addition. existentialism

[eldstunga]

Hi! I really love your art! The lines are so bold but the colours so natural that it feels distinct but grounded?? I'm obsessed with the shapes in your work

I was wondering if you had any advice for drawing bodies? Whenever I try it either my proportions are off or an arm ends up looking like a calf or something.

First of all, thank you <3 That's so nice and I think "lines bold, colours natural" is some truly aspirational words to say about my art, I'll strive to be what you say I am <3 I do not, unfortunately, have any great tips on drawing bodies - it's a very wide topic and fundamentally just really bloody hard. I fail horribly 9 times out of 10. How to approach it I think varies a lot with like...HOW you are struggling, and who you are as a person. For proportions and anatomy there are definitely books to look at, and some rules of thumb that can help you - anything from "the shoulders are about 2.5-3 heads wide" through "feet are the same length as the forearm", "elbows are in line with the navel and the navel is two sternums down" etc etc. For me, realising just how big the ribcage actually is and learning how to use that as a unit of measure was a big event (the torso is about two ribcages long). Look at references, Draw over low opacity references and try to look for patterns that help YOU. Like... "Hm, do the shoulders line up with something useful?"

Having a good ref model to double check things helps too. The pen is pointing to about the bottom of the ribcage. But there's also stuff like maybe you're getting too hung up on construction and then it might help more to try to draw from references by ONLY blocking in a silhouette first. This helps me sometimes still:

Or you could be like me, struggle with all of the above and then some - like how to make poses look natural and/or dynamic? Weight distribution is a whole other topic.. gah, it never ends, but it's fun to learn.

Lastly, this took me way too long to realise and I think it should be said: Do not fret too much about STUDYING. The unfair thing is that the better you are at something, the better you will be at actually learning from doing studies and exercises or reading books. We accept this with many other disciplines and sports but rarely art. Mileage is king, and mileage is best gained from having fun and enjoying what you do. If you find studies suffering and frustrating you're probably better off just drawing what you enjoy and fuck it if it isn't "pushing your boundaries" or whatever. Eventually you'll get to the point where studies start to give more than they take, and then you're home free. I'm not gonna recommend a billion resources you likely won't enjoy but here are some things I genuinely found helpful lately: * a physical anatomy model, they're pricy and not necessary but being able to just look at it every now and then, turn it over etc helps. * The "Morpho" series of books, they do not teach anatomy, but they are very useful quick reference books and much more easily digested than most anatomy material. Just try to find a real anatomy book to read once your appetite is up as well.

The zig-zag/Lightning bolt method for arms and legs, fuckin' thing revolutionised how I sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCkmB030GpQ

Gottfried Bammes "The Complete guide to Anatomy for Artists and Illustrators" This thing is insane, it's from the 50's and like 600 pages long. You could absolutely kill someone with it, but a lot of the pages are more philosophical or art history you can skip and despite its age and fear factor this dude writes in a witty, clever and just wonderful way that I've seen nowhere else. Fantastic photos. By far, FAR the best anatomy book I've ever seen. It's not a book I'd recommend for someone starting out, I would not have been able to digest it like four years ago, but once you get to a certain point it's amazing.

That's a lot, uhhh, feel free to ask me for more specific tips this was a bit of a rant. Hope some of it was useful!

[starsetven]

Charalz. On the brain. But whats this? Link is also on the brain..... AND WHATS THIS?!?!?! VIC! ON! THE! BRAIN!!!!! I CAN'T STOP THEM!!! THEY ARE TOO POWERFUL!!!!

Just for fun, here’s some more info on each of them!

Under the cut cause it got long

Vic

Vic has messy handwriting because of how hard he grips his pencil when writing.

Vic is a straight edge. He doesn’t smoke or drink. If he did, he’d get inebriated very easily.

He enjoys dancing, although he isn’t really good at it.

His neighbors love him! He enjoys chatting with the local residents after his nightly run.

Vic likes to feed the stray dogs. Sometimes he successfully gets them into foster programs!

Vic is an incredibly emotional person. So much so that his audience have made compilations of him crying on stream.

He doesn’t enjoy sweet foods because they hurt his stomach. He has a sensitive g.i track, so he gets sick a lot. :(

Whenever Vic gets sick he acts unbothered. He doesn’t want anyone taking care of him, instead he defaults to taking care of others.

Vic is a very social person! As long as someone doesn’t show interest in you, he’s genuinely happy to be around them.

Link

Link knows three languages! English, polish, and French

Though he aspires to learn many more <3

Has a moderate fear of the ocean (Thalassophobia)

He has a gym membership he never uses. He never has the time, anyways.

Link does creative writing in what little free time he has. He writes a lot of sappy poems regarding his aspirations for the future with you <3

Is really bad at video games . Like seriously bad. :(

He doesn’t really enjoy coffee. It’s too bitter for his palate.

He keeps in contact with old med school friends!

Link has an ever growing collection of rare first edition books within his home that cost up to a small fortune. (Around 100k at least)

He hosts book club every week on Saturday! Some of your coworkers joined recently :)

Link is used to being the mediator, so he’s incredibly capable of handling certain rowdy clients accountable.

Link’s dream is to one day operate a mobile library, he aspires to bring some of his books from his personal collection to the local community. 

Has a knack for growing poisonous plants

Link knows every single one of your coworkers on a personal level- As well as their sensitive security information.

Charles

Has a personal culinary staff to cater to his picky palate. He will not eat certain foods, like asparagus, peas, and onions.

So he eats lavish meals prepared by culinary experts he hired from around the globe instead :) ✨

Drives a motorcycle he calls Harley

Charles has a full team of body guards within his manor, he has at least two with him at all times.

Is one of the reasons behind the inner cities crime

He enjoys sitting in local cafes during his free time, it’s how he scopes out his latest victims! :)

Really likes characters like Negan from twd. It’s where he gets in clothing inspiration. Charles is a walking red flag, really.

He owns all of Johnny cash on vinyl -because of the fallout series. Has a secret vault boy collection

Really likes old western movies- so sometimes he daydreams about riding horseback instead of driving Harley

Unlike his brother, he’s actually pretty good at video games! Some of his other favorites are RDR, GTA, Subnautica, and spirit fairer.

He stole Nala from an illegal tiger cub petting ring.

Is incredibly sentimental and sensitive. But due to his crushing toxic masculinity, he downplays his own feelings to avoid being seen as soft by his local community.

Man secretly craves attention. He wants nothing more than a tight hug, and reassurance every once in a while.

[ffc1cb]

i’ve always found it peculiar how during meeting the chargers cutscene the game just assumes your character automatically understands what krem is talking about when he mentions binding (though, granted, it’s all very unsubtle). like, this is a roleplaying game. what if i want to play a character who just doesn’t get it

[westywallowing]

it has always baffled me that ASL isn't taught as a second language in American schooling. or as a requirement for certain jobs that work with, well, people. the HLAA says that around 48 million Americans have hearing loss!! 1 in 5 teenagers!! 1 in 3 people over the age of 60!!! it's crazy to me that sign isn't more widely taught and used considering that you probably DO or WILL know someone who has hearing loss at some point in their life

[mushroominaforest]

Hello! Your banner says that if you ask about mushrooms, you can talk about them for hours, let's check. 1) What is your favorite mushroom and why? 2) What effects of mushrooms on both animals and people do you know? 3) From question 2, which effect do you like the most in terms of effectiveness? 4) What do you think of the cordyceps mushroom? 5) What is your favorite dish based on mushrooms or a dish where mushrooms are an additive?

!!WARNING!! I am not a mycologist or fungi expert! I'm just a girl who has been hyperfixated on mycology for three years and counting lmfao. My information comes mostly from books written by mycologists and expert foragers, but take this all with a grain of salt lol. I do not know everything, and there's a chance I'm straight-up wrong about some of this! I don't think I am, I would never intentionally spread incorrect information, but be careful just in case! anyways, mandatory warning out of the way, on to the potentially-partially-misinformed-but-I-don't-think-it-is infodump!!!

1)

Okay, I think this is the seventh time I’ve answered the question about my favourite mushroom 😭, I’ll answer again instead of just linking it this time lol.

I have a few favourites for a few different reasons!

The violet court/webcap (more than the viscid violet court, but I do love that one too lol) is one of my favourites purely because it is a beautiful rich purple to black colour- it’s really pretty! I also like the bluefoot bonnet, and the newly discovered Mycena subcyanocephala mushroom and the Stropharia caerulea mushrooms are also beautiful. Bioluminescent fungi are absolutely mesmerizing in the dark too! I couldn’t pick my favourite beautiful mushroom lol.

For sentimental reasons, the mica cap mushroom was the first one that I ever spore-printed, the prince mushroom was the first one I ever foraged and ate, and the king oyster was the first one I ever grew myself!

2)

…okay, I know a lot. I mostly just know of their effects on humans though, so apologies. I’ll rant about one particular poisonous example to start, the destroying angel! It’s a particularly brutal one, because the symptoms often won’t show up for hours or even days after you ate the mushroom, and a lot of times at that point it’s already too late. It also has a brief period where you think or feel like you’re getting better, before it comes back in full swing to kill you. Typical symptoms of a messed up stomach, along with kidney and/or liver failure. It’s brutal, and it’s very common for patients who are hospitalized by it to die, because by the time they feel bad enough to go to the hospital, the poison is well in their systems. It’s closely related to the death cap, and together they are known as the deadly duo. Another interesting one is the Alcohol Inky, Inky cap or Tippler’s bane mushroom! It’s edible- unless you have alcohol in your system. Even the tiniest bit before or after eating this mushroom (with a four-day buffer) will set off poisonous reactions! Hence the name “Tippler’s bane” lol. On a more positive note, there’s tons of medical mushrooms! Turkey tail has been used to strengthen the immune system of cancer patients. The agarikon has been used to strengthen lungs, treat asthma and help with coughs! Of course, a famous example of a medical fungi is the penicillin vaccine that saved polio patients, but I don’t know too much about that so I’ll try to avoid spreading false information lol. It is amazing though! Even psilocybe- magic mushrooms- have been used to treat PTSD, OCD, depression etc. (CLINICALLY of course, don’t do drugs kids lmao). Hallucinogenic mushrooms are a whole other story about their effects on humans and other animals, and I admit I’m not that knowledgeable about that side of the foraging appeal lol. LSD is kinda wack, to put it bluntly. You kinda have to do shrooms to properly understand the effects lmfao- You gotta be one with the mushroom, man.

3)

Personally, I haven’t experienced any of these effects myself. I have yet to poison myself, I tend to turn to Tylenol instead of fungi when I’m sick and I haven’t done shrooms lmao. I think that the poisonous mushrooms are very cool and effective, there are so many different ways that fungi can try to kill a human, and it’s very fascinating how they each go about it! The death cap in particular is a very effective killer, so props to it.

4)

ah, cordyceps. The inspiration for The Last of Us, one of the finest irl body horror parasites, an equally disturbing and fascinating fungi!

I think cordyceps is a very incredible fungi, although I’d probably have a different opinion if I was a particularly unlucky bug who got infected with it. For those of you who don’t know what cordyceps is, it’s a brutal parasitic fungi responsible for the horrors known as zombie ants. A mycelium system grows inside the ant and fucks up its head, in the simplest of terms. The ant suddenly has a very strong urge to climb, and so it does, typically to the underside highest leaf it can get to. From there, it locks it’s mandibles to the leaf and stays there until it dies (this can take a few days, which must really suck for the ant). The mycelium makes itself known, attaching to the leaf and making the ant appear white and fuzzy, and then a mushroom pops out of its body and spreads its spores far and wide to go commit more atrocities in the cordyceps family name.

cordyceps isn’t the only fungi that’s parasitic on insects, although it is perhaps the best known. Some fungi in this parasite branch are even parasitic on other fungi, while some are the boogeymen haunting the dreams of larvae, caterpillars, spiders and more. Luckily none go after humans, so we’re safe for now! Insects are simply smaller and easier to take over, and aren’t filled with as much blood, complicated organs, immune system defences and body heat. Fungi could probably figure out a way to do this to us, but it’s simply more convenient for them to not. There are tons of fungi that are parasitic to humans though, they just don’t turn us into zombies!

5)

This Morel soup I had at a mycology convention once. It was so fire lmao.

[ilovedthestars]

why are all the queer stories romance (unless they're about the 1 token ace person)

[mokeonn]

The most annoying phenomena on this website is grown adults refusing to educate themselves, despite the abundant recourses at their disposal, because their heads are still stuck in highschool.

[natsmagi]

adding onto my last rant from a while ago a little bit, it is fascinating how many people in this fandom completely miss the point of tsumugis character and misconstrue what hes actually about which, ironically, is just what eichi did. and its done in such a similar fashion too, such as making assumptions about his motives, his family relationship, and missing the point in why he chooses to look the way he does. and, time and time again, eichi has been proven to be WRONG about tsumugi. he misunderstood him deeply, and now its eichi whos stuck mourning the past while tsumugi has long since moved on, not the other way around, as tsumugi is on the path of getting his happy ending. and i dont get why people keep trying to take this positivity from him

(s. element epilogue 2)

[itsbasil]

"what if tumblr was more like reddit" what if I shot beams at you

[bleaksqueak]

:3

Elias: its pride month. You know what that means.

Audric: what- what do you mean? Do I make rainbow fire?? Become a gay reaper? Beans, explain!

Elias: lol

-----

Elias: butterswitchs, its pride month. You what that means!

Maia: huh??? What???? Do I make gay potions??

Elias: hahaha ha!

Dunno if pride month exists in the Veil but eh.

To be entirely fair, I do think Maia makes gay little potions whenever possible. Lovingly hand crafted! Though it's funny, Audric was initially planned to have a same sex love interest during older iterations of planning, but the character he was being set up with never ended up working out... largely because a different character rode in on a tractor and snatched him up like a damsel (distress not required). He *is* canonically bi though. So he can be a bi reaper. A breaper if you will.