#this isn't aimed at anyone in particular btw

[kvtie-pie]

some of you need to chill with the horny posting or put it on a side blog maybe

[nocturnalnewsiestrash]

People are testing me with the amount of dislike of Crystal. Like I'm about to pull out my training from living in the Newsies fandom for years having to defend Kathrine because she dared to be a female character who Has Character Flaws. I can and will turn into a Crystal defender. Like I know this is just like, par for the course of fandom in general. But like god can we just like TRY to have some space for nuanced women characters? Especially Crystal?? She deserves it, we owe it to her to be extra extra aware of how we treat her. Because I personally believe she deserves the world and I'm ready to give it to her if no one else will

[rosetintedgunman]

OOC:

Thinking more about this piece while I get myself set up for a quickfire round of replies before bed and... I feel like I should make a little disclaimer:

Wilf LOVES everyone he's been able to befriend. They all mean the absolute world to him. He's still thrilled to find new people to make friends with! He has vague recollections of only being able to hold maybe three people as friends for most of his 'past life', so having MORE than three is a big deal!!

Essentially, if you think "aw man I wish I could let my muse be friends with that idiot", let them! He doesn't need to be a 'default' anything in your verse. I literally have a verse where he goes to another ego timeline, shrugs, says "guess I'm here too now :3" and calls himself Rose, so his existence shouldn't overlap the existence of whatever you might have established. Don't feel like he has to be the Wilford who was the William in your version of things, or he's the Wilford that's part of your particular band of egos. He doesn't have to be!

[fantasticalleigh]

this is most likely a hot take but

the constant freaking out any time AO3 is down is actually really annoying. i get that it's inconvenient and panic-inducing if it isn't from the site doing maintenance but the amount of people i see making this into their entire personality sure is something.

friends, make it a habit to download your favorites and WIPs if you read them. back them up. download calibre or some other similar program, or even upload them to your ereaders. it causes so much less stress for when the sites go down, i promise.

[centrally-unplanned]

I watched two documentaries recently that were very "2000's nerd culture" which I thought were very fun! In like a meta way as cultural commentary, of course, it is me after all. The first was Indie Game: The Movie, a 2012 documentary on the making Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez. It is a "creator-focused" documentary and in particular for the latter two games the film crew actually filmed them mid-production & release, which does make for some authentically heartfelt scenes.

So in a certain sense all eras of documentary will contain this, but the 2000's going into the 2010's was absolutely rife with a new wave of films, often supported by crowdsourcing funds like Indie Game was, primarily concerned with the self-legitimization of niche subcultures. By creating something cohesive, academic, and prestigious like a documentary, the film can codify the subculture as "real" and "worthy", and additionally lend credence to narratives about the subculture that have grown prevalent. And to be clear, this is not a criticism, even if there are parts that are - all meaning and identity is forged in similar ways. But for nerd culture in the 2000's, there was a particularly intense need for this process, because this was the era of nerdom going mainstream. That level of culture shift generated demand for all the above, which films like this aim to supply. There were lot of films of this type - we made a brony "documentary" propaganda film guys, nothing was exempt.

Indie Game is overwhelmingly the story of outsider artists bleeding and dying for their art, which will triumph above all odds. And it leans, heavily, into the bleed; at one point Phil Fish (creator of Fez), openly states he might commit suicide if his game fails. Much screen time is spent on personal sacrifice, financial poverty, the "doubters", etc. This is of course a classic tale for artists, but if I may be so bold that is something of an easy sell - emotionally, narratively - for someone writing the Great American Novel. It is maybe harder to sell if you are making this?

(Cover art by Bryan Lee O'Malley btw - very era appropriate!) How do we make "dude in hat solves puzzles" worth the Starving Artist life?

We do that by positioning these games not as games, but as paradigms. These games, by dint of being the independent vision of unitary creators, are making games that Big Gaming never could. New digital means of distribution are allowing artists to cut out the middleman of publishers, groups that corrupt the real vision of creators. And with no barriers to development, now anyone (maybe...even you?) can make games that can compete in the big leagues. Indie games through this lens are a different product than mainstream titles, and these creators are opening doors. And their suffering is going to be financially rewarded with success and money to boot! That is the narrative Indie Game is selling to its audience of gamers, to understand why the indie games they bought and loved are meaningful.

And to be clear, as much as I am about to deconstruct this, it isn't like totally false or anything. Starting in the late 2000's digital platforms like Steam, more accessible development tools like Unity (released in 2005), and so on did in fact make smaller games appealing to more niche markets more viable, and by virtue of their nicheness yeah they can do things big budget games maybe can't. These creators absolutely had passionate visions for their games, sacrifice for your passions is fine (not bashing that part here), hats off to them. Indie games in this era would absolutely "change gaming".

But not really in the ways this narrative wants them to, nor with the "meaning" people of the time expected it to have. For one, there is a conflict in this documentary of them wanting to highlight "bold new visions" and also wanting to highlight...popular indie games. This is Super Meat Boy, for example:

Yeah, never had a 2D platformer blob guy dodging traps before in gaming! "No see its retro" yeah retro to what, old games? Like those Nintendo made back in the 90's, which you explicitly mention in your documentary? You know, niche indie studio Nintendo? This isn't a bash, at all, at the game itself, but instead the idea that "AAA Studios would never"; they totally would, and always did. There has never been an era where the large gaming studios weren't also making creative games, but for this narrative they need to be propped up as static for it to make sense. And the actual niche indie stuff that big studios wouldn't touch don't sell well enough to justify being in this film!

And the idea of the "solo developer" is also, hm, let us say a bit sus. Not that these developers weren't solo or small teams, they were (though ofc a solo core creator will often have dozens of helpers on supporting roles that get sidelined in this "unitary vision" narrative); but that such a model is all that new? How big do you think development teams were in the 90's for so many classic games? The original Pokemon Red/Blue game had less than a dozen core developers (the total staff list, including American localizers, is ~30 people - Super Meat Boy meanwhile seems to have 16 for comparison). You wanna bring up the dev teams for PC-98 visual novels? They were made in an Akihabara cave with a box of pixel art scraps by like 6 people! You think those games didn't have "unitary creative visions"? Small gaming companies have always been a part of the ecosystem, getting niche titles funded & published using insane magic and pure luck. The "indie boom" is better seen as a change in the numerator.

Though what did change is that, by being self-published, development was approachable by outsiders in new ways. Though even then, this is a bit of a lie - Jonathan Blow of Braid was an industry veteran, and everyone here plays the "convention circuit" and networks with people like the PAX crew and Xbox representatives. But with the games being published by an individual over a studio, even a studio of a half dozen people, it is far easier for the audience to see the creators as "one of them". No office, no suits, just a man in his gamer den banging out his dream. That aesthetic is core to why this narrative was potent at the time, and why making a documentary to codify it was seen as compelling. It takes an already ascendant idea, polishes it, packages it as nonfiction, and then sells the idea back to the people who invented it. LIke so much media, to be clear! I always enjoy seeing it, it is the dialectic of culture in action.

I also find it very funny to see a documentary made in 2012 playing tropes that will become far more ~problematic~ just around the corner. Burnout and work-life balance - in a documentary where a developer, crying, discusses suicide if his game fails, to remind you - is pretty much never mentioned, and a successful game launch is absolutely presented as justifying endless crunch. You would never see that today. The only women in this documentary are wives and parents - which is very amusing, because the co-creator of the film is a woman! No one thinks gender is relevant to mention. Boy would that change in a few years.

Indie games today, of course, are just a segment of the gaming market. They are incredibly common now, so much so that most people lose money making them, people discuss oversaturation, big studio companies have "indie wings" to cover consumer preference ranges, etc. There is no magic in it anymore, it is just dev strategy. So yeah, very enjoyable as a representative time capsule in a strain of culture that is pretty much gone now! The Capital-R Romantic Era of indie gaming; what a time.

In the next post, we are going much more niche, so stay tuned for that. Or don't, I don't know you, and like this was a loooot of writing. Maybe i'll, idk work on that for the next one? ...I probably won't -_-

[crystallinestars]

"Bullying into submission" is unfortunately an excellent way to put it 😔 People really need to learn that while feeling the need to vent is more than okay (just look at how much I've complained so far lol), making posts / snide comments with the sole aim of creating Drama or Discourse or straight up jumping into someone's space to berate them for quietly enjoying themselves in a way you don't approve of is truly the best recipe if your goal in life is to be miserable 24/7, on top of being a huge dick move.

I was also thinking about what other anons have brought up (how they feel straight up alienated by popular hcs always being one 'extreme' or another with no in-between) and I feel like these discussions (including the ones on social constructs, loved your input about that btw) are all linked by a common factor: some people try to draw hard lines in the sand in order to neatly categorize stuff in easily identifiable boxes or tropes. Sometimes what we could call "the norm" seems so ingrained in people's minds that it does not even occur to them to try and question this status quo, and so a lot of nuance is either lost or not even explored to begin with. At least that's how I see it, I still need to think about this some more.

I'd say that these "hard lines" aren't only drawn between all we've mentioned, but between communities too. I'm going to say this kinda clumsily but like, why are we treating anyone who isn't "just gay / lesbian / straight" as if they were an enemy and/or a threat? Is it some kind of insecurity that can only be soothed by constant validation? Why is it that when someone dares to make something slightly different, we're bringing out the pitchforks?

This hostility (and just the fact that these discussions / this Discourse seems very cyclical) kind of reminds of a tweet I saw a while ago. I unearthed it for the occasion lol:

"People love to pretend it’s so weird that others get upset when you claim something they like is bad lol.

Slandering something that another person appreciates is akin to insulting/questioning their intelligence, especially when it comes to a piece of work."

The original post was about slandering works as a whole, but I think it can also apply to more specific aspects, like enjoying something in particular in a given work. Why are we pretending it's weird that people get upset when you keep telling them (explicitly or implicitly) that their fun is lame at best? I know people love to say "that's just how the internet is, Get Used To It" but honestly? It's such an empty excuse and it makes me want to bang my head on a wall, because why couldn't we just all keep our manners to begin with??

I feel like I'm answering everything in a weird order lol but about Welt, that's pretty much what I had heard about him! I've been thinking that I should at least look into Hi3 a bit, just to see the links between the games and Mihoyo's overall evolution 🤔 And I didn't know about that lore book! I don't even know if I'm surprised about this reaction but I do know that fandoms sometimes confuse the hell out of me because I've seen just as much Guizhong enjoyers as I've seen people shipping Zhongli with Childe??

I'm just going to say it bluntly: people should REALLY pick a struggle and/or another hill to die on, because having a meltdown for something like that is just embarrassing. It does prove your point about the shipping lenses tho, because I can't think about another reason why a LORE BOOK would have made them feel so threatened 💀 I had seen the tantrums about Dottore (apparently he's too evil??) and Raiden (she's not evil enough??) but this?? MAN.

Kind of makes me think that people are lowkey hypocritical with their need to have canon confirmations, because they love to brag about THEIR pairings but as soon as the possibility appears that the devs MIGHT offer some kind of confirmation on one they don't like, even if it's one as 'marginal', for lack of a better word, as this one, they break out in hives. And the Thoma and Ayaka situation is just another proof that 1) YOU SHOULD NEVER FULLY TRUST LEAKS and 2) the bar we talked about keeps getting lower in hell.

And YES! I also felt like there were a lot of things about Alhaitham that were there to tell the players that while it's true he comes off as odd, eccentric, blunt, etc., he's rather kind all things considered! He's letting Kaveh stay in his house even if they don't particularly get along, he sticks to his moral code, he recognized Dehya's capabilities, he helps Tighnari with Collei's education, and so on. He seems to be the type of person that won't go out of their way to be palatable to others, but he also never goes out of his way to hurt anyone? And what's more, if you're willing to hear him out and truly pay attention to what he says, you'll realize that he's actually quite helpful? In a way that he's giving advice and letting people come to their own conclusions? At least that's what I can think about off the top of my head, so it's kind of hysterical to me that he gets reduced to "That Asshole Feeble Scholar".

This ask is getting long again (and messy) but I still want to add that I've seen your discussions about Nilou, Candace and Kokomi with Kaveh and it might be biased and/or controversial of me to say this but honestly? I think people, no matter their identities, just don't like women / don't even acknowledge how much they dislike women. As you said, same-sex pairings (and i'd say BL pairings in particular) are that much more popular and I'm getting pretty sure that it's in part due to the fact people don't pay attention to the female characters because they might be assuming they'll be boring. I've seen so many people bashing Kokomi, especially her story quest, yet they praise characters like Itto to high heavens? I know that it's 'to each their own' but sometimes I do feel like people don't give some (female) characters much of a chance to begin with.

At least to me it's pretty funny to see the difference between how you and the others have talked about your ideas for ships, and how the fandom talk about haikaveh lmao.

Kavelou shippers: I think they could bring out the best in each other, they could bond over their shared love for the arts and share ideas for their respective fields of expertise!

Loud Haikaveh shippers: omg they're roommates lol, when do you think Alhaitham will impregnate his 'c a n o n' malewife?? Why are kavelou idiots such snowflakes, 'conflict' is essential to make a pairing worth it and we're allowed to enjoy some fictional toxicity

Also, a bit of a side note, but it hasn't escaped me that people love to say that "toxic pairings are valid" for their BL preferences, but Acheron and Black Swan get exactly 1 deadly dance video and suddenly it's the most disturbing thing they've ever seen??

Anyway, I've seen you mention at least twice that you're thinking about making either a different blog or creating a discord server for all these rants you receive, and I think it's a lovely idea! I'm pretty sure I have an account on discord that I haven't touched in years so it has probably been deleted by now 😭 If there's anyone else interested in it would be a great alternative for you to separate your writing from the rants :)

Once again, I hope you're having a wonderful day or evening!

🪻

There is a lot to unpack here, but I will try my best to respond to everything. I'm sorry in advance if I don't touch on every point.

Regarding your "hard lines" comments. It's true that people draw boundaries between what they find acceptable and not, and while this would ordinarily be a good thing, here it's more to do with controversial topics like race, sexuality, gender, etc... and I can't help but wonder if the reason for such behavior is due to politics.

Most of this behavior is present in the western and english-speaking parts of the internet where American politics reign supreme. From what I have heard and seen, the progressive side deems everything that is considered the majority (heterosexuality, white skin, male gender, etc) as the opposite of what they stand for, therefore it must be conservative, which is bad. There's a lot more at play here than just progressive vs conservative, but I am not well-versed in politics, so I won't speak on it too much. Plus, this is all just a theory. But as I've said before, the West loves to drag politics into every aspect of their lives, fandoms included.

The quote you found is actually spot-on. Acting surprised when you insult something people enjoy or relate to is surprised pikachu behavior. Though I suspect these people aren't actually surprised, but are just trolling the people they offended, and are gleeful they managed to get under the skin of those whose views they dislike.

I think the lore book tantrum is another example of people wanting their characters to be "shiny toys", as you put it. Having an indication for a NL relationship between playable characters is a no-no for gacha games. It offends a lot of groups of people. For example, those that want to pair Zhongli with Childe, or self-ship with him, and the same applies for the Guizhong side (even though we had no idea what she looked like at the time). For some reason, there's not as much negative reaction if the ship being teased is same-sex though. Might be because it offends less groups, but it's still a baffling phenomenon for me.

Which brings me to the point about female characters.

I agree with you that female characters get hated on. In the anime and manga spheres, have seen a lot of comments about female characters from various fandoms, and the main complain with them was that they are not as fleshed out as their male counterparts. Female characters lack complex writing and character development, and get reduced to plot devices or love interests for the MC. Even in media made by women for women featuring female protagonists, some of these protagonists are pushovers that rely on male characters to save them. There is a desire for women to be equal to men in media, but it's not common to see.

It doesn't help that in Genshin, the first three chapters had bad writing, especially for female characters. Though not all, majority were were one-note characters with not much complexity or plot behind their actions, unlike male characters. This has improved significantly since Sumeru's debut, but I doubt it's enough to change the minds of some people.

So to make my point; female characters get hate for being boring. I also feel like women are the ones who hate on female characters the most? I have seen both fujoshi and yumejoshi communities hate on female characters for being the love interest of their favorite male character and getting in the way of their ships.

I am hesitant to delve into the topic of why some fujoshi hate female characters since it's not something I completely understand. I did a bit of research into why they prefer BL over NL, and while the gripe about female characters being boring was a main factor, there was also a lot of misogyny. I'm sure there are some other reasons aside from these as to why women hate female characters, but this topic is too complex for me to navigate just yet.

I will defend Kokomi with my life 😤 She got a lot of hate even back in her beta, and her story quest came under fire, as well. I thought her story quest was decent, though maybe my judgement is clouded because I love her so much. Regardless, her character is awesome and I relate to her a lot, so Kokomi slander will not be tolerated 😤

Regarding the difference between haikaveh and other Kaveh ships, I can only think that one is a fetishization of a gay relationships, while the other is a genuine appreciation for the dynamic between characters.

I actually saw only positive comments under the Acheron and Black Swan dance video. Yeah, there were jokes it was toxic, but I didn't see anyone complain about it, though I believe you when you say some people found it problematic. BL gets a lot of special treatment, I would say. Everything that's deemed bad/boring in GL and NL pairings is often painted as being better/good if it's BL. I've only seen a couple of "omg toxic yaoi ❤️" posts, and while those were jokes, it's shocking how much people love to pair enemies together. I see a lot of depictions of abuse in BL, and the shippers love it, so I suppose it's not that surprising? I find it concerning, though.

Anyways, thank you for your well-wishes, and have a great day as well!

[fictionkinfessions]

I swear to everything unholy if I see one more being misinterprete DiMA's character I'm going to scream

beware, an extremely long winded rant about my lover and how I try and prove some beings wrong for him - of course, Far Harbor (Fallout 4) spoilers. Not aimed at anyone in particular just as a btw im just an angry Faraday who wants nothing more than to give clarity on DiMA and some of his, um, unsavory actions

-

clarifying now, I am not DiMA, I am Faraday, I was his caretaker, one of his co-founders, his lover if you will, who knew him for an extraordinarily long time, longer than anyone else (unless you count Nick which I don't since they were separated for so long) and better than anyone else. If someone has the right to talk about this aside from DiMA, it's me.

I may be it bit biased, but I'm going to try and put my biases aside for this.

I just spent an hour scrolling through DiMA's tag - why? Because I miss him dearly and want to see as much fanart and memes of him as possible. And I saw a few posts that just.. got his character completely wrong, well, maybe not completely but overall really just wrong.

Im not saying it's bad to hate DiMA, everyone is entitled to love or hate any character they wish, not my problem. What I am saying is that please don't mischaracterize my love without expecting some, um, backlash from me. Just a small bit.

One of the points was that he was a hypocritical, manipulative, and self centered which.. which just isn't true, like at all. Again, I'm a little biased, but whatever.

Lets start with manipulative first, shall we? He never manipulated a soul into coming to Far Harbor. That includes Kasumi. She contacted us, cough cough actually me first but that's beside the point - when her and DiMA talked, DiMA used the same questions he always asked. The same ones we see asked to SS. It wasn't to confuse or manipulate her, just questions to make one think. She was a confused girl who just wanted answers, so DiMA gave options, his opinions, told her that she could be a synth, but also has a good chance of NOT being one, told her that if she wanted to come to Acadia, she was welcome, that whether or not she was a synth it was up to her. No one could tell her she was or wasn't one. He says the same to SS. He merely asks questions meant to make you think, to wonder, to question. You are the only one to be able to come to a conclusion like that. He doesn't force anyone to come or stay, anyone is welcome as long as you welcome us. Acadia was a refuge, why would we trick people or synths into coming? What would be the point? We already had limited resources, why would we stretch them thinner by manipulating others into staying? It makes no sense.

Hypocritical? Maybe. A little. But there was a reason for it. We got to remember, he spent how long in the Institute? It was all he ever knew, their methods.. it was all he knew. DiMA was a prototype, meant to learn from experiences and through exploration, to learn and adapt with what he sees and learns - all he knew was the Institute when it came to what happened with captain Avery. DiMA saw the people of Far Harbor attacking our people, and so he did the only thing he knew would fix the problem. And it did. He holds immense guilt for it and only did it again to high confessor Tektus because, again, it was the only thing he knew would work - it worked once, had incredible results, it was horrible, he knew it was, but it was the only choice he thought he had. Was there better ways? Absolutely. This should not have been the first choice of solution. If he'd informed me of such a decision, I would have done anything to talk him out of it, I know Chase would have too - but he didn't, I never knew until I got a hold of DiMA's memories that the SS brings back. But TLDR, he did it because he genuinely didn't know better and did not see any other action and only did it because inaction was costing his people lives.

DiMA was actually not self centered, at least, not how I remembered him. He didn't like the spotlight too much, when praised on Acadia and his actions in making it, he tried to pass it off to me and when she joined, Chase as well. He wasn't the hugest fan of all the attention, and focused most of his energy on others. Everything he did was for others. For Acadia, for fellow synths. The amount of times I had to force him to think of himself for once as to not let him damage himself is uncountable.

What I'm getting at here, is that despite DiMA making some choices, some really bad choices, he meant well. He insisted on the fog condensers for Far Harbor so they wouldn't be consumed by the fog. He did his best to make peace with everyone, he tried so fucking hard for there not to be any bloodshed. I watched him try, try over and over and over again. His choices weren't the best, but it was all he knew. He was flawed, but he wasn't awful, he wasn't cruel, he wasn't sadistic, he wasn't mean. He was genuinely kind and gentle and truly wanted the best for his community and kind, he wanted peace for the island and tried so hard to achieve it. And I loved him for it. I still do.

I love you DiMA, and I will defend you until my dying breath.

~Faraday (Fallout 4: Far Harbor) #😈❤️

3

[mrsfrecklesmarauders]

Responding to this post:

No, love. Not every single character has to have a romantic partner to be interesting. It is okay for characters to end up alone. Or not have romantic experiences at all. No matter their sexuality. Aromantic and Asexual characters can exist and be a good representation of the queer community. Not only gay couples represent queer struggle.

---

Preach!

Also, I'd also like to give another facet of this idea: NOT EVERY ALLOROMANTIC/ALLOSEXUAL NEEDS TO BE IN A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP. People can be attracted to others but simply choose not to enter relationships because of a variety of reasons: 1) maybe they don't think they'd make a healthy partner and need to focus on their other non-romantic relationships first, 2) being in a romantic relationship isn't in their priorities/values (as opposed to career, family, etc), 3) literally any reason at all.

I hate how one of the only ways to convince a fandom not to ship a character with another is to make the character not attracted to the other's gender--- regardless of whether it's a hetero or homosexual relationship. (im not talking about casual shipping, that's fine with me. im talking about those who get irrationally angry when someone does not agree with their ship, even going as far as harassing the content creators because the ship won't happen).

Because it's possible to have a character whose personality/aspirations do not align with a future romantic relationship. And disregarding this is like disregarding their whole character??

I've seen some creators make their characters/OCs aroace purely to avoid them being shipped with another. (I HATE how that just sounded. Let me be clear that this is NOT criticism towards anyone under the aro and/or ace umbrella. Aromanticism/Asexuality is REAL and valid. This is criticism towards those who have made romantic relationships seem like "THE goal" one should aim for.)

Even making characters siblings or relatives to avoid shipping, even if being an only child/having a small family shaped who they were as a person.

this isn't me screaming at you btw this is me screaming in general. no aggression was intended with the all caps.

i hope this didn't come off as offensive. please let me know if it did.

---------- orchard

Hey! You are totally right with all your points. This is exactly what I am talking about.

Characters are given romantic arcs or stories just to make them interesting without the neccesity of them needing a partner in that particular story. No matter their sexuality. Like you said, people would choose not to be in a relationship for a various of reasons. And that is fine. What I've seen in stories or fanfics is that the character who ends up alone in the end, has a sad ending or is tragic thing to have ended alone. (The phrase: They would find their one eventually. But for now they are happy...)

Which shouldn't be true!

Also, just because a character or some characters don't have romances doesn't mean they fall under the aro / ace / aroace umbrella.

Again, characters that are headcanoned as Aromantic / Asexual or both are most of the time not interesting enough. They are not attractive enough. They are portraited as childish or cold, almost not human. These characters should be interesting enough.

If we are improving the type of queer rep was that the only arc of the gay character was that they were gay, we should improve that for aro/ace/aroace characters as well.

Another important thing you mention. It is annoying that characters are instantly shipped when they have a good relationship or chemistry, without the premise of there being anything romantic between them. I mean, people are allowed to ship whatever they want to ship (regardless if is Canon or not) but we have to practice to see friendships or platonic relationships as well. I don't want to make characters siblings, or for example make them one attracted to another gender, or clarify that they are not romantically involved for them to not be shipped. People tend to just ship whatever they can. Pair characters with characters just because.

I don't know, this is mainly amanormativity's fault. It ruins the way we prioritize relationships. (Thinking the romantic one is more important than others). Just like heteronormativity ruined homosexuality before.

Let's give friendships and queer platonic relationships the importance they deserve as well. Characters should be interesting despite their sexuality, if they get into a relationship or not, or they end up with someone or not.

And if two characters get along, they should not be instantly shipped or pretended to end together. They could have another type of relationship as well.

[lokidoki9]

If you see a dark dead dove fic that you don't vibe with, scroll on. Don't share it around talking shit about it saying it's bad just bc of the trigger warnings. That knocks a person's confidence. I've seen many fics I can't read, but I imagine they are one of the most well written pieces of work out there.

This isn't aimed at anyone in particular btw, it's just something I've seen an increase of in general, on here and AO3 (I'm in a lot of fandoms). Honestly, congrats on writing and posting a fic, that shit's difficult, so go off bestie, let's goooo!

[galdorcraeft]

Heya! I am curious- you have any other OCs in any other fandoms you want to share? Lilith is sweet so I was wondering!

Thanks!

Hello there!

first of all thanks for the question - and I am happy that you seem to like Lilith <3 Well, I have a few 😂 I won't give you all of them and if you wanna know something specific about the one or other just ask :) I am guessing the question mainly aims for their looks ^^

My very first and still very beloved ones were for Bioware games - Mass Effect and Dragon Age in particular. So meet Blue Shepard and Numin Lavellan ^^

I dearly love these characters and both series will be among my favourite of all time. The Normandy and Skyhold will forever mean HOME for me. I really am one of these epersons who also enjoyed ME Andromeda and I also have an OC there - but she simply isn't as dear to me as the two above (sme goes for DA 1 and 2)

I have quite a few Star Wars characters (in fact I have a legacy - generations constructed from the old republic until the new republic - I even have a Clone OC ^^) but since it would be too much for this post I give you Iego - one of the dearest OCs I have ever created, my little Sith monster of whom I am really proud of. A LOT. (to this point one might see that I have a thing for color coding. Iego is like Lilith an albino. Most of my chars are color coded white or black.... I simply cannot change my taste xD)

I love this Nautolan Bitch way too much - he has a freaking great playlist and he is the OC to whom I turn quite regularly to to be honest. For years now. He is pretty different from the rest of my squad and is pure fun to play with. The only one of my dorks who has a whole homepage btw. I have so much fun writing him - even quoting him. He also might have the greatest backstory in my opinion.

The newest additions to the flock are my Baldur's Gate chars - Ares Lucien Brouillard and Eloise Moisissure - him being an Oathbreaker Paladin worshipping Myrkul, her being a Druid of the Spore. I have a Necromancer thing in DnD without ever playing a true Necromancer and I am a sucker for Myrkul and mushrooms - so there we go. Do not get me started on the color coding again xD! By the way - Eloise was at first created with the thought of "what would Lilith play in Baldurs Gate" and I simply loved her way too much and she and Ares shared a story very quickly ^^

Last but not least - I am into MMORPGs for about nearly 20 years now, so I guess you can say my oldest OC by my side for all these years is my WoW character Phyrok:

The second MMORP in my life is TESO and here I have a Khajiit skooma dealer as main - and a sweet little Dark elf guy with the longest name in forever :P

There are more - as I guess we all have way too many of these beloved characters, but these are the ones dearest to me. I guess you might say they are family ;)

Thanks again for the interest and sorry for the long post xD If anyone wants to share their OCs as well (or you want) pls feel free (also to tag me so that I do not oversee it) <3 It is always a joy to see the OCS of others from the different fandoms <3 (or even the very same)

[kustas]

If you feel comfortable talking about it, could you please speak about your experience with the animation industry ? (Love your blog btw)

This is a rather vague question so if you have more precise ones don't hesitate!

I'm currently in my last year as a student in animation, aiming for a spot as a character animator in hand-drawn 2D. I've studied animation for three years but used to study concept art for video games. (and have minor experience in that industry, though mostly as a hobbyist) Over that time I've studied other animation things like storyboarding, character design and puppet animation too, very jack of all trades, but I don't want to work in those fields yet.

In my studies I got to meet with a lot of industry pros, mostly as teachers and some more briefly for masterclasses or in festivals. I've only attended three/four festivals so far, one big distant one and the other local ones, one of which I help staff with an organization I plan on teaching for too (they do a lot of that). I've not worked for an animation studio yet. My only laughable pro experiences were a VG internship and doing festival bumpers...

Since pay isn't high and it's an artistic industry nobody's here for the money in animation workers proper. Lots of nerds though the crowd is very diverse. In my country is is not an industry that is well known from the public - every one knows what cartoons are but little on how they're made. It sucks sometimes, in particular there's no big unions that can help you, but we are lucky to qualify for state aid for artists so you can make do between gigs without too much issues, and while you do work hard it's not like VG where it's hardly compatible with having a family...Also way more diverse than VG though the usual social bias against minorities also appear in work ofc...

The industry people I had the chance to meet where all lovely, little pretentiousness and a lot of childlike whimsy, although some are super hardcore hard workers which can be scary! But we are all passionate about the same things & animation as a craft is crazy diverse anyways so convo is always great upon meeting new people. You do sometimes run into a celeb and it's awkward for all sides so its best to treat anyone with the same respect level haha

I'm both excited and scared to find my first job </3

On the bright side I should finish my studies without carpal tunnel syndrome which I'll count as a W. Don't really know what to say more

[catboybiologist]

So.

You're wildly misinterpreting what's going on here, and also over exaggerating what they're saying here.

This is a wildly unfocused ramble btw, so please don't jump on me.

This video is essentially a "baby's first" video about HRT, predominantly aimed at cis people or prerealization trans people who don't have a good idea of the concept at all.

My frustration at T blockers without E isn't a frustration at particular people circulating sources, its a frustration with current medical guidance, which can often underserve trans people and the unique approaches to HRT. One of the ways that doctors prescribe things without deeper thought is blanket AA without E, and no thought as to why that might not be ideal for their particular patient, or monitoring of blood levels.

This video doesn't say that at all. I didn't watch a whole ton of it, but in fact, I don't think it says anything about blood T or E levels at all. Its not nearly that in depth of a video. And guess what? Some people will actually do just fine on a AA only. The only way to know for certain is to have clear communication with a provider or expert about your particular situation- which is exactly what the video encourages.

Presenting it as a standard option for everyone is a problem, but that is straight up not what the video is saying. In fact, they present it as an alternate option for people wanting to customize their HRT, instead of standardizing any one idea at all.

I genuinely could write an essay on HRT overthinking, myths, and the ways people pounce on stuff like this, but I already have way too many ideas beyond my time level. I don't wanna pounce on you- but maybe calm down. This is a wonderful video for what it does, and there's actually no misinformation in it. The way you stated it, I thought this would be some trans person making a video about HRT minutia openly pushing for a particular HRT regiment that always starts with AAs, and without E. That's not what this is at all.

If you're considering HRT (you or anyone reading this) Just remember: there's no way to do HRT so wrong that it kills you, or even impedes your results long term in a significant way. You can feel crappy along the way, which is the low T and low E problem, and you can have slower or faster progress, but the biggest thing is just to breathe.

and i forgot the link, its https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmRWHdJwtGw at 13:25

Gorcha, I asked about this in my ask response so if ire that part

Still, your first reaction to hearing something that you suspect is misinformation shouldn't be to "urgently" use me as some kind of gotcha

[clementinecrane]

people are just randomly reblogging things from way far back in my blog, like not years far back but like at least a few weeks, and I’m just wondering how they ended up there without scrolling back super far and going through multiple pages, and if they did I mean kudos to you, but also it’s a bit startling?

[eridianarchives]

yes, i am still pretty firmly against people changing the canonical non-straight orientations of characters. especially so with maya, considering that outside of YA lit, there is practically no aro or ace representation anywhere, let alone in a game. if you are all for preserving janey and athena as lesbians but are fine with people changing maya’s orientation, your views are logically inconsistent and in need of review.

[notafeeling]

We Need To Talk About Roman

(please read the post before you jump to conclusions. warnings for mentions of abuse - a warning is put before and after the mentions.)

Actually, we need to talk about the passive-aggressive posts that have the intent of “calling-out” those who dislike Roman. I understand where you’re coming from – he’s your favourite character and people are attacking him, which makes you angry/upset/uncomfortable, so in return, you make your own post about how people should forgive him/stop being so hostile. You want to protect Roman – or whichever character is receiving such treatment from the fandom. And I get that.

However.

There is a difference from merely pointing out that people attacking a certain character makes you uncomfortable… and demanding that they forgive and like this character.

First of all, please take note of how I specifically use the word ‘character’.  Google’s second definition of the word, and the one most relevant to this post, explains the word as ‘a person in a novel, play or film.’ Not real life.

Of course, there’s the argument that since

A)     Thomas plays this character and

B)      Roman represents a part of Thomas

…one shouldn’t dislike Roman, but when it really boils down to it, Roman is a fictional character at the end of the day.

Good old Wikipedia defines ‘fictional character’ as ‘a person in a narrative work of art (such as a novel, play, television series, or movie). The character can be completely fictional or based on a real-life person. (…) Character, mainly when played by an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves “the illusion of being a human person.” In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and ponder themes.’

If we take a look at his development in the Sanders Sides series, he is indeed a fictional character. He will not be affected by the fandom’s opinion of him. He does not actively interact with the fandom. He is not a role player who responds accordingly to how the audience perceives him – he is a fictional character in a web series. People are allowed to dislike or even hate fictional characters, much like they are allowed to love them. They are entitled to their opinion of a character, as long as it doesn’t hurt real-life people.

You may say Thomas might be hurt by this, as Roman is an exaggeration of certain traits he has. However, Thomas is an actor. He understands that and often, he purposefully depicts a side as the villain (see: Taking on ANXIETY with Lilly Singh!!). When creators make narratives like this one, there is supposed to be someone you dislike. There is supposed to be flaws in characters. So disliking a character means that they’ve done their job as a creator.

Adding onto this, Roman has his very own character development arc. This arc is the cause of a lot of dislike towards him. (Be warned, as this bit has mentions of abuse. Bold Italics will be put when it’s over.)

Next you might argue that he’s a better person now, or that he didn’t know better, and therefore he should be forgiven, especially since he’s trying his best.

One particularly thing about Prinxiety that has lowkey bugged me (and don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the ship) was the constant insults Roman threw Virgil’s way. As someone whose own parents belittle me and refuse to acknowledge any good attributes I might possess, this upset me. The way Roman treated Virgil wasn’t right. And then, when I made my opinion known, for people to tell me that Roman “didn’t mean it” and “truly loved him”… You can see where I’m going with this.

Putting that aside, I’m not saying the ship or Roman is inherently abusive, but please be aware of this when you make posts shading people who don’t approve of the character or ship. Abuse is more common than you think, and I’m not blaming anyone who has made a post like that, but just be educated and aware.

(Abuse-talk over.)

No one has to forgive Roman, but if it’s your personal choice to do so, then I respect that. Please respect other people’s choices too.

There are plenty of other things I could add onto this, but I don’t want it to be too long. To any anon who has ever sent an ask about my view of Roman that I couldn’t be bothered to respond to, I hope you read this and rethink your way of talking to people.

TL;DR Respect people’s personal views of a character as long as they aren’t hurting real-life people (and no, Roman doesn’t count as real-life).

[yeeterthek33per]

Love this take, but as far as I'm aware, at least colombia has always played rough. This only solidifies it, between the US matches against them back in 2022. They're very much instigators (despite the US' behaviour at the time). Even if a certain Katie McCabe is known for rough play, she's not stupid. She would've known and played accordingly that this was only a "friendly warm-up" match. I have a feeling it was colombia who instigated and Ireland might have fired back with it but in the end...

How hard do you have to tackle someone to what is most likely, and I'm just speculating here, break, or at least fracture their shin bone through a shin guard??

That is completely disgusting behaviour, and should've never happened, and this only makes me concerned for the other teams they're playing in the group stages, germany and korea in particular.

If this is how they behave against a team, they most likely won't even get to see minutes against. How are they gonna play against world ranked number two??

The same goes for against Korea, I don't think I've ever seen Korean Republic play dirty, but they are a fast-paced team, and how is Colombia going to combat that?

This was something that came to mind when the news came out this had happened.

Watching the Aus v Fra game, Gustafson suddenly decided to pull his stronger players starting from the 60th minute. This includes Sam Kerr, Alannah Kennedy, Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, and later Tameka Yallop, although that was due to injury more than this particular thing.

As obvious as the rough play was getting between the two teams, and there was too much tension going on for something not to happen, given by the fact there definitely should have been more cards (particularly for a certain french player that shoved their hand against Kennedy's throat, which should have been red carded, or even a few rough tackles from the australian side, I will admit, should've been yellow carded at bare minimum).

Gustafson knew the play was getting too rough and pulled his best players before someone got dangerously injured. This game marks 6 late minute injuries a week out from the wc. But the very suddeness of it happening, even during a soccer game, makes me think Gustafson was notified of the game being pulled at the 23rd minute due to major injury and rough play.

The fact that even he was now suddenly worried for how this game would end for his best players. (Evidently necessary by the tackle from Raso that ended up with Carpenter's lyon teammate Bacho being stretchered off the field in the 90th minute roughly.)

I think, after all of that, a lot of people are going to watching carefully to see how Colombia will react during the wc games after that shitshow.

(Btw this isn't aimed at anyone or arguing with anyone. This is just my take and needed to type this out before I exploded 😂)

Friendlies in Name Only: July 14, 2023

Before every World Cup, teams get together a few weeks in advance and play one or two matches to help prepare for the world cup. These games, known as “Friendlies”, don’t count towards any standings, but are meant to see how each team’s rosters work in a real game situation. Some teams play other world-cup bound countries, others don’t. 

There are interesting strategies in these games–do you choose an opponent that will challenge you, or choose an easy win to give your team confidence? Do you start your starters, or start the second string to protect your starters from injury? Do you try to mimic conditions by playing in the host country? Or do you play in your home country? As this is the last game before the World Cup, tensions are always high, and results are always interesting. But I want to lead off with a disclaimer–these games are high strategy and low risk, precisely planned for teams to test things out before the world cup. Any results, good or bad, are not predictors of how teams will do at the world cup. 

USA v Wales

Team USA played one game against Wales, a team that did not qualify for the world cup. This means that Wales could start their best players and play full-on, while the USWNT didn’t necessarily give their full effort. Wales is ranked significantly lower than the USA, so many people expected a blowout. However, Wales held the USA to 0-0 in the first half, sparking doubts about the USA’s offensive line. USA did pull out a 2-0 win with a brace of goals from Trinity Rodman late in the second half, after substitutions provided energy and creativity up front

The USA’s defense also looked shaky–The two starting centerbacks for team USA, Cook and Girma, are great in their own right, but neither has played in a World Cup before. Also, the starting goalkeeper was Casey Murphy, while from 2016 up until earlier this year it has been Alyssa Naeher. This could be an indication that Murphy will be the starting keeper for the World Cup, as teams like to use the same keeper every game to stay in a good rhythm.

Takeaway: USA isn’t in trouble if their offensive line isn’t clicking, they have players on the bench that can create different scoring opportunities to catch opponents off guard late in games.

Germany v. Zambia

This game was the stunner of this week, with #81 Zambia beating #2 ranked Germany, 3-2. I think that Zambia has an advantage that other teams don’t–no one sees them coming. While most other lower-ranked teams approach better teams in a bunker defense designed to keep the other team’s offense out, Zambia’s strategy seems to be throwing all of their weight forward, concentrating on getting the ball to their forwards, including Barbra Banda, who is sure to become a household name in the tournament.

Germany did seem like they were caught off-guard right away. They went two goals down, after their defense allowed some open shots they should have pressured. However, Germany showed their mettle with a very organized approach to come back from a two goal deficit. Zambia only eked out a win after chipping the German keeper in the final seconds of stoppage time–again, unexpected! 

Takeaway: Watch out for Zambia. I think Germany probably approached this game too lightly, but I also think that Zambia maybe showed their hand, which could work against them in the world cup. I’m not worried about Germany–this result just feels unlucky.

Australia v. France

Australia beat France in a 1-0 win yesterday, proving that they are a favorite to win the whole tournament, six days before their first game in Sydney. Both teams looked good and played fiercely, leading to injury concerns on both sides that hopefully don’t amount to anything serious. 

France dominated possession and had more shots than Australia, but without seeing the numbers it looked like Australia had more energy, and maybe even more passion, especially in front of a 50,000-strong crowd. Australia was able to uncover some holes left by France’s defensive med and centerbacks, but France’s backline should work well enough to get them through group stage, at the very least.

Takeaway: I think this says more about Australia than France, and made them look just a little more dangerous than they did before. 

Ireland v. Colombia

This match was played in Australie behind closed doors���but drew attention when the Irish Soccer Federation announced that the match was called off in the 23rd minute after dangerous play caused Irish midfielder Denise O’Sullivan to be sent to the hospital with a shin injury. Colombia also released a statement, saying that their team had played fairly and within the rules, but that they respected the Irish team’s decision to call off the match.

Takeaway: None, really, but I’m here for the DRAMA.