#this might be biased because i'm putting it on tumblr but whatever

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

please answer this is for research

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About the Bakugou Problem

I've been enjoying the Bakugou slander here on Tumblr, but I haven't come across anyone that gets to the root of the problem with Bakugou's character yet. I think it goes further than him having anger issues, being annoying, or even how violent and abusive he is. Why I think Bakugou is a bad character is due to the effect he has on the plot, world-building, and the rest of the characters. There's a lot of layers here, so I'd like to take the time to talk as in-detail as I can while typing on mobile.

*Note: I'll be following the anime as it's easier for me to follow and pick specific examples. Manga readers if you have anything to add I'd love to hear it, even if it's against what I've listed here*

*Note: Bakugou fans you're more than welcome to read, though I warn you might not like what you see. I tried to keep this as constructive as I could without letting my own biases seep in (whether I succeeded is up for debate) so that everyone could read it whether you like Bakugou or not. I'm fine with criticism towards my points, I only ask that you remain respectful. I won't engage with anyone who disrespects me or other users*

1. Consequences

This is a big one among Bakugou critics, so I think it's a pretty good place to start. Bakugou has almost never faced actual consequences to his actions (there's a difference between something bad that happens to happen to him and the world around him not accepting his behavior). There are two instances that I can think of that there was a direct ramification to something Bakugou has done. The first was during the Deku vs Kacchan fight where Bakugou does get suspended for four days while Izuku gets suspended for three days. The other is when he and Todoroki fail the provisional licensing exam. However, there's a problem with these two instances I mentioned.

With the D vs K fight, Bakugou was the one who goaded Izuku out of the dorms and instigated a fight. Izuku was trying to get him to go back to the dorms so they could settle their "issue" under adult supervision. He was trying to do the responsible thing. For Izuku to only receive a day less of punishment seems unfair. Though, you could make the case that he should have ignored Bakugou, it's still very clear that one was way more at fault than the other and there was barely a difference in their punishment.

The provisional licensing exam actually did well with failing Bakugou. It was almost a great lesson; that he can't say and do whatever he wants and expect the world to roll over for him. Unfortunately, it's undermined by Todoroki failing as well. Yes, Todoroki failed because of Inasa. But a) Inasa attacked him first which should have resulted in disqualification (what was Todoroki supposed to do, not fight back when he was being assaulted?) and b) Inasa's entire character seems shoehorned into the story. He doesn't really add anything to Todoroki's character as most of his problems with Todoroki were already resolved back in season 2. He also contributes nothing to the overall story. Shindou, for example, has a hand in testing 1A and forces them to work together congruently. Inasa seems like he was put in the story simply to make Todoroki fail. Why does Todoroki have to fail? Because Bakugou does.

It seems like Horikoshi always softens the blow for Bakugou in a way, if he's dealt any blow at all. By not allowing Bakugou to face consequences on his own, he might as well not be facing them at all.

Why are consequences so important? Because Bakugou's privilege is a problem.

I don't think I've seen anyone address this. The root of Bakugou's behavior comes from the fact that he was allowed to do all those terrible things because the world around him was tolerant of it. Teachers turned a blind eyes when he bullied Izuku because he had a great quirk and Izuku was quirkless. He's allowed to do and say whatever he wants because he has a great quirk. While people seem to be harder on Izuku because of either having no quirk or not being able to fully control his quirk. This is a huge part of the story that was set up in the beginning, but was almost never addressed despite being persistent throughout. And it's the most present with Aizawa.

Bakugou attempts to attack a fellow student the first day of class? Simply restrained, no repercussions. Bakugou uses excessive force against a classmate despite his teacher telling him to stop? Nothing more than a few not-so-nice words. Bakugou assaults his partner and refuses to cooperate? No words at all.

Now look at Izuku. Doesn't have full control of his quirk? His teacher attempts to humiliate and expel him in front of his classmates on the first day of class. Saves a classmate in an admittedly risky rescue mission? Said teacher proclaims he lost his trust and labels him a problem child (despite the orchestrator of said mission- Kirishima- being in the same room and not getting spoken to at all).

(I don't know if Aizawa's projecting, but pandering to the kid with the strong quirk while simultaneously disliking All Might isn't a great look.)

Even before UA, Bakugou is praised by the heroes for his strong quirk against the sludge villain despite the fact that his quirk made everything worse while Izuku is scolded even though they were the ones who did nothing while he did what he could to save someone.

"All men aren't created equal." That's one of Izuku's very first lines and a central point of the story. It's something you expect it to address multiple times, especially in regards to Izuku and Bakugou. But Bakugou being spared from consequences every single time he does something terrible means that the statement is validated, but the problem still persists and is never rectified or solved. Even if you think Bakugou "changed," that doesn't make his privilege go away.

2. Plot Compensation

The story goes out of its way to make Bakugou seem like a better person than he is.

My first example is the Sports Festival, specifically his fight with Uraraka. In this fight, Bakugou is met with booing from the audience for not going easy on her. And right off the bat, this is weird. Because not only have we never seen this attitude toward women heroes before or after this, the show is trying to tell us something when Aizawa tears the crowd down. Almost as if saying, "The crowd is dumb and wrong and if you think like the crowd, you're dumb and wrong." Aizawa claims that Bakugou is treating Uraraka like a real opponent by not going easy on her.

...is he though?

Because we never see Bakugou stand still in a fight like he does with her. Bakugou's fighting style relies a lot on mobility. During his fight with Tokoyami, who he knew he had an advantage over because of the light from his quirk, he isn't standing still. During his fight with Todoroki he isn't standing still. He only does this with Uraraka. Because this isn't Bakugou showing respect, it's him still looking down on her. He doesn't see her as a serious opponent, just an obstacle in his way.

And I know this sounds like a bold claim. But if you recall, Bakugou immediately confronts Izuku after the fight and accuses him of giving Uraraka the idea she used during their match. He assumes it was a ploy from Izuku, implying that he didn't think Uraraka capable of coming up with a plan with the potential to work against him. This isn't respect for an opponent.

(Note: the only thing in Bakugou's favor is it's probably not because she's a girl. He just naturally looks down on everyone who doesn't immediately stand out to him with a show of power like Todoroki)

Then we have the revered scene with the League or Villains.

This scene is praised because it "subverts expectations." That the violent, angry kid doesn't want to be a villain. He wants to be a noble hero. Aizawa- again- silences claims against Bakugou, citing that he wants to win and he knows he can't do that if he's a villain.

My thing is, however, the League targeting him in the first place. Why would they do this? Bakugou clearly has a heroic quirk. He scored first on the entrance exam. If they did any research at all beforehand, they would know that Bakugou was at the top of his class before UA and is in the top five currently. And they'd know he has wealthy parents.

(You would think Dabi especially would draw parallels to Endeavor and would be aware that Bakugou's ambition and heroic quirk don't make him similar to the League who have been discriminated against, shunned, and abused for most of their lives. Even with his behavior at the Sports Festival, Endeavor isn't the noble and kind type like All Might and most other heroes. So I'm not sure why Bakugou's behavior immediately screamed villain potential)

Nothing about him suggests he's had a hard life like most of the League. Nothing about him suggests he'd want to leave his comfortable life and secured future to become a villain.

This scene sets up Bakugou's redemption, right? It leads us to the Deku vs Kacchan fight and All Might's advice is what makes him take on his "save to win" mentality.

But not only does this seem like a convenient plot device, it decidedly ignores the uglier part of Bakugou's decision.

Bakugou rejected the LOV because he saw them as losers. But what if they hadn't been losers? What if they had been doing as well as they were at the end of season 5? Merging and becoming the MLA front, organized teams, wealthy, successfully recruiting members right under the heroes' noses.

Maybe Bakugou wouldn't have outright joined them. But at this point before shifting his perspective, his answer might have been very different.

But the story goes out of its way to hammer in Bakugou's scarce good traits to take your focus away from his overwhelming bad ones.

3. Bakugou's Character Shift "Development"

The way Horikoshi wrote Bakugou in the beginning is very different to how he is portrayed later in the show. No, I don't mean his development. I mean the major shift in his character between seasons 1/2 and season 3/4.

Bakugou in the beginning of the show is cruel, meanspirited, and violent. And he's still all of those things throughout the show. The one difference is that it's played for laughs in later seasons.

Bakugou's actions and words in seasons 1 and 2 are portrayed a lot more serious than in later seasons. He's an antagonistic force, one that Izuku has to strive to overcome not just to be a good hero, but for himself as Bakugou has been one of the most prominent obstacles in his strive to become a hero.

Look at his behavior during the battle trials. It's something serious, something that has even All Might worried. Bakugou knew he could have very well killed Midoriya and didn't care. It's brutal and almost hard to watch because at this point in the show Midoriya is weak and tiny (visually, we know he's never really been weak) compared to Bakugou and can really only outsmart him to win.

We never see Bakugou display anything close to this level of violence in later seasons. Not in the Sports Festival or 1A vs 1B or D vs K or the licensing exam or even against literal villains. Season 1 went out of its way to show Bakugou's cruel behavior even using it as something Izuku has to learn how to overcome even if he has to risk everything.

By season 3, the perspective has changed. Bakugou name calling people, belittling people, yelling, and his acts of violence are now exaggerated for comedy. None of his actions are taken as seriously as they were before, despite some being almost or just as bad.

(It's worth mentioning that this was also around the time Bakugou began to get popular among fans)

A great example of this is in season 5 when he throws his headpiece at Izuku and makes him bleed. His casual act of his aggression towards his lifelong victim is present to make the audience laugh, despite the fact that Izuku was bleeding and the 1A boys are (rightfully) horrified.

(I'd like to add that there was no real reason to do this. Nothing he was saying would have exposed OFA and even if it had, he was done talking by the time Bakugou threw it)

If Bakugou had really changed at this point, this would have never happened in the first place. I can't call this changing or development, I call this his actions shifting into comedic relief and away from the serious connotations they previously held. By taking that away, it allows Bakugou to continue to do the same things he has all his life while under the guise of development. It undermines what's supposed to be his redemption arc.

4. Other Characters

Bakugou isn't the only one who gets a character shift. It's approximately the moment that Bakugou begins to get more attention that the other characters lose the substance they had at the beginning of the show.

The ones hit most notably by this are obviously Uraraka and Iida. They were Izuku's first friends, his original trio. More than that, they are set up as interesting characters with their own arcs and paths for becoming great heroes.

Even though I did have my complaints about her fight with Bakugou in the Sports Festival, it does turn Uraraka onto improving past her goal of becoming a rescue hero. She wants to become better in other aspects of being a hero so that she can succeed and keep up with her stronger classmates. She proved herself capable of this during her fight with Bakugou and it was the catalyst of her character development.

Iida was not only resolving himself with caring for Midoriya as a friend as well as being his rival and wanting to surpass him. There's also this darker side to him that no one expects from goody two shoes, straight-laced Iida that had so much potential for exploration.

Both of them are tossed to the side in favor of Bakugou. I would even go as far as to say that after season 2, they're almost irrelevant until season 6 and even then they're limited (before season 6 Uraraka's only character trait is that she ignores he feelings for Midoriya to become a better hero, which came out of nowhere and does nothing for her character). And they barley ever get moments with Izuku during time despite being his first friends.

Todoroki is a similar yet very different case. At the beginning of the show, he was intense and has strong feelings. (An interesting parallel is that if Iida was his friend becoming his rival, Todoroki was his rival becoming his friend and both relationships speak to Izuku as a character) Even if he didn't express them, we as the audience knew they were there. But as times passes he becomes flat and dull. Even though he's supposed to be part of the new trio, he's barley present (the dynamic between the three of them is uninteresting all around as it's basically Bakugou yelling at Izuku with Todoroki in the background. They never have any deep or heartfelt moments nor do they have good chemistry) and barely gets any one-on-one interaction with Izuku despite them being very good friends.

(I can't blame this all on Bakugou as the show also shifts from focusing to Todoroki to focusing on his own abuser which is part of the issue with his lack of character, but Bakugou's character does contribute to this problem of making the abusers more sympathetic than the victims)

Most if not the rest of 1A fade into the background after this, save for a few who have notable moments sprinkled in throughout the show. You can take this as a Bakugou prevalence problem, or it can be seen as Horikoshi just not knowing how to balance characters.

However, the character that suffers the most because of this is Izuku himself.

I don't think it's a bad thing that Izuku admires or looks up to Bakugou. I don't think it's a problem that he doesn't see anything wrong with Bakugou's behavior against him. Izuku grew up in an environment where that was normalized. That he's worthless because of his lack of quirk and Bakugou deserves to be on top because of his great quirk. Of course he internalized that, even though he knows that a quirk doesn't determine someone's worth. He was never given the tools or the means to beat that mindset.

What I despise is the fact that everyone around him enables it.

As I stated above, Aizawa is definitely the worst when it comes to this. Not only shoving Bakugou and Izuku together and making it Izuku's job to get Bakugou to cooperate, but hardly if ever condemning Bakugou when he lashes out against Izuku. Even without their history, what Bakugou does is wrong and should be treated as such.

Unfortunately and even though I love All Might, he's also guilty of this. It's true that he might not know the full extent of their toxic relationship, but All Might sees Bakugou instigate a fight with Izuku and decides it's okay to tell Bakugou about One For All. Bakugou did nothing to earn this honor: he hasn't shown Izuku support and hasn't been a reliable ally he could depend on. But even disregarding that, Bakugou had just been captured by villains who work for All For One. He was the last person on Earth who should have been entrusted with this secret.

The adults in Izuku's life enable and reward Bakugou's bad behavior and urge them into forming a relationship and partnership that frankly shouldn't exist (and only does to make Bakugou a better person and hero, it does nothing for Izuku). It's to the point where almost Izuku's entire character revolves around his relationship with Bakugou and how he improves because of it and how he helps Bakugou improve. And he further projects this when he "subtly" implies that Todoroki should forgive Endeavor, which feels like a justification towards the audience of his own feelings towards Bakugou.

5. Accountability

I mentioned consequences as my first point. But what many who want this miss, it goes hand-in-hand with accountability.

Unlike consequences, Bakugou more or less does take accountability in the form of his apology. But the apology was lackluster for a couple of reasons. The main thing is that it feels like a list of excuses rather than simply owning up to the fact that he was shitty and there's really no good reason for it. But simply explaining why you hurt the person you hurt isn't giving them the apology they deserve. It's making it about you.

Another thing, though, is that the apology is very scarce. It skips over the worst of Bakugou's actions. Nothing he said was anything 1A didn't already know. They don't know about the s*icide baiting which is one of the worst things he's done to Izuku (and that's only what we saw, who knows what Bakugou's been saying for years?). It also ignores everything he did in UA, which was a very big part of the problem. He treated Izuku poorly months prior to the apology and that shouldn't be ignored.

As far as accountability goes this apology isn't that great. But it's something. No, what's worse is that the other characters don't hold Bakugou accountable.

The other characters more often than not turn a blind eye to Bakugou's behavior. We've already covered Aizawa, but the rest of 1A is guilty of this too. No one says anything about the Battle Trials. Hardly anyone condemns Bakugou when he attacks or insults Izuku. Sometimes they'll chime in like Uraraka or Kirishima, but other than that no one outright tells him off. This is out of character for Iida in particular because he's such a stickler about rules and courtesy for others (he literally told off a six year old when he punched Izuku and tried to stop Mineta from perving on the girls, why wouldn't he do the same when it comes to Bakugou?). It's almost like the characters are blind to Bakugou's behavior.

What's weirder is that Mina and Kirishima- who were both stated to hate bullying- are friends with him. Why would the show go out of its way to tell us this only to saddle them into the "BakuSquad?" It doesn't make sense.

It's hypocritical that everyone in 1A is so tolerant of Bakugou but get annoyed with others; like Monoma for example. Or even Mineta because as much as I dislike him he's constantly being called out by 1A. It means that they know certain behavior is wrong and/or shouldn't be entertained, so we know they aren't completely unaware. But the fact that they largely ignore Bakugou's behavior and condemn Monoma's is so weird. You can't excuse one and not the other.

Conclusion

There's certainly more than this to my dislike of Bakugou. But I think I've mostly covered his negative impact on the story. Doing a deep dive into his awful personality is something I wouldn't wish on anyway. Many others have done that anyway, so I'm content to leave it out. But I hope you liked my little breakdown!

[jimpagne]

the worst thing v gets is being called a leech and attention seeker which is what tkkers had been calling jm FOR YEARS. while disliking v because of shippers is petty it’s incredibly interesting how many jikookers had been defending v in the last few weeks while it’s complete silence within tkkers, youll never catch any of them defend jm

That's because a lot of Jikookers don't need to falsify reality in order to represent a certain agenda. Jikookers can be the bigger person if they need to be.

As someone who is truthfully OT7, I don't sit here hoping that hate trains form around someone that I see to be a "threat" to my ship. If I'm being completely honest, I think trying to consume Are You Sure?! from purely a shipping point of view is entirely counterproductive and not a good way to enjoy content. I think it's fun to gush over certain moments, but if you're only parked outside Disney+ or whatever streaming you're allegedly pirating it from just to see your ship in action... you're opening yourself to form biases and bitter feelings toward things that might not be directly encompassed within your ship's boundaries.

This is why I made a call out post whenever certain jikookers resorted to bullying Taehyung whenever they saw that he was going to be a guest on the show. Though I already hear people coming, saying "Oh, but taekookers are bullying Jimin to hell and back, so why can't we?"

Well maybe you shouldn't because it shows that you have the representative IQ of a toad. So let me get this straight, people who are NOT Taehyung bully Jimin... your first course of action is to... bully Taehyung? I think reciprocal hate is incredibly stupid and unwarranted. If I'm going to shit on the behavior of taekookers, guess who I'm gonna take it out on? That's right, I'm going to take it out on taekookers -- not Kim Taehyung.

Taehyung is currently serving in the military, so I doubt he's logging onto Twitter or Tumblr or whatever to say nasty things about his BEST FRIEND. I think people tend to forget that Jimin and Taehyung are tied at the hip and have an entire song where they wax poetry about how much they care about one another...

Anyways.

A lot of Taekookers live in another facet of reality, so in order to make half of their agenda true, Jungkook has to dislike Jimin, the company has to be forcing their fanservice, Jungkook's mother had to have been sent a script beforehand to ask about Jimin, Taehyung was lying about only seeing the trip details a few days before departure, Jungkook was holding Taehyung's waist in this screenshot (but don't look at the footage where it shows otherwise!), Jungkook only acts "cold" (if being humorously bratty is considered cold) toward him in certain scenes because the producers want Jikook to appear more real, HYBE has some joint contract with the South Korean military to put Jimin and Jungkook together in order to hide the real gay couple that is Taekook--

The more you dive into their rhetoric, the less it makes sense. Taekookers also argue with LITERAL KOREAN PEOPLE about translations in the show. Also it's super funny to see them shift from the narrative that she show is scripted to suddenly saying -- no, it's not scripted, to then saying this part is scripted, to then saying, no the whole thing is scripted again, to then saying, actually at this time stamp they went off the script and--

Fucking crazy.

I think what I noticed the most about a lot of taekooker's rhetoric is that in order for something to be true, they need to create a lie or insult the intelligence of both Taehyung and Jungkook.

So you're telling me that two grown men have to lie about who they're with and what they're doing in order to make your ship real? You're telling me that Jungkook and Taehyung are not intelligent enough to negotiate their contracts or what type of "fanservice" they have to engage with on the regular? You're telling me that Jungkook lied about who he saw on his birthday in order to protect Taehyung? You're telling me that after ten years of being in the same group, Jungkook is actually uncomfortable with Jimin but still decided to get a matching tattoo with him and all the other members? You're telling me that the homophobic country of South Korea is willing to hide a gay couple by endorsing a manufactured gay couple? In the military? Where gay people are famously treated well?

That's sarcasm, for anyone who might lack reading comprehension.

Taekookers are the literal embodiment of that one post where the person is like "source(s): trust me bro" because half of what they spit out makes no fucking sense and is actually insulting to Taehyung and Jungkook. Like y'all constantly insult their intelligence and their free will and make it seem like they're trapped behind bars and don't have enough money or power to negotiate what THEY want. I've even seen certain taekookers become Jungkook antis after Are You Sure?! came out because they think he's being mean to or bullying Taehyung.

God, the lights are on but nobody is home.

[solar-wing]

I'm So Annoyed

Guys, I might have to find another platform other than Patreon, because they are now proving themselves to be just as restrictive and censoring as Tumblr.

I woke up to a notification saying Karma got hidden due to it “glorifying” sexual assault, rape, and coerced consent. Like did I not, DID I NOT, literally put that in the warnings when I posted it that said this work has themes of Non/Dubious Consent? And to say I'm glorifying it…

In what world is me writing a fictional scene where non-con/dubious consent events take place the equivalent of worshiping and praising rape and sexual assault? Like it's really baffling to me because when I say—when I say…there is stuff I've read and seen on Tumblr, Wattpad, PATREON, etc. that is just as—if not, 10x worse than what I wrote. And the number one common factor amongst a majority of them is that they’re female-centric characters and/or readers. Let's wake that tea up.

So it's okay when these other authors write Consenusl-Non-Consensual, Non-Consensual, Dubious Consent, etc. with mainly female readers or female characters. But, when I as a male author write about it with male characters/readers, all of a sudden, it's a problem?!?!

I'm so sick of having to deal with this. These platforms are so clearly biased against gay romance/erotica stories between males, because half of the stuff they flag us for, they’re consistently letting stories with female-centric characters get away with the exact same thing. And that's an issue in of itself because why is it more okay to write fiction about a female experiencing CNC, Non/Dubious Consent, but not a male?

sounds a bit misogynistic to me...but hey. What do I know? I'm a man who just wants to write his freaky-deeky stories and live, laugh, love.

Whatever, Karma is on Wattpad for anyone who still wants to read it. And if you guys have any recommendations for other platforms like Patreon that won't actively censor me, please let me know. I can't even repost the story on my Patreon for my paid subscribers because now every time I try, Patreon suddenly is experiencing this error that I’ve never had before posting it. But only if I try to repost the story itself. I posted an update about what happened with the story, and despite getting one error message at first, it still went through with no problem.

So, it looks like Patreon is now actively monitoring my account, making sure I don't repost the story they suddenly deem as a glorification of sexual violence but won't give the same energy to the thousands of other stories on their platforms that are the exact same as mine, the only difference being the sex/gender of whoever the main characters are.

[minnaci]

sorry i know i am not a hellaverse blog but i just watched full moon and i felt so strongly about it that i got out of bed, opened my laptop, and logged into the tumblr website for the first time in months because i knew i would want a full keyboard for this.

disclaimers: i enjoy the show and especially this episode! i like all of the characters, including stolas. what i say is colored by my own experiences and perspectives (ie, i am biased and this is my opinion)

tldr; i find it hard to like stolas in full moon. i also find it hard to empathize with stolas, if i'm being honest, and especially when it comes to his relationship with blitz. warning for full moon spoilers and discussions of racism-adjacent classism.

within the hellaverse exists clear social and economic stratification between "royalty" and "imps", with stolas being the former and blitz being the latter. much like in real life, these social identities inform everything about these characters and the way they interact with the world and each other.

stolas, to put it bluntly, is rich, and blitz is not. stolas lives in a lavish palace with imps as servants. he is not shown to interact with other imps outside of this master-servant relationship. hell, even when they were children, blitz was quite literally purchased for stolas. blitz's first impression of stolas was being sold to him, while stolas was none the wiser.

this is not necessarily stolas's fault. he was sheltered as a child, and even as he grew into an adult, he remained sheltered, seemingly ignorant to the very real class divide between him and his newest paramour. from the very beginning of their reunion, blitz uses his body to provide a service to stolas in exchange for his livelihood, and stolas accepts it because that's the way stolas is used to interacting with imps. stolas continues to "hire" blitz, both as a bodyguard and as a sex worker, and while he understands that this relationship is transactional, he doesn't really see anything wrong with it until the shitshow at ozzie's.

there is no awareness of how uncomfortable this might be for blitz. there is no empathy for how blitz might react. stolas treats blitz as an object, a plaything, a living, breathing sex toy (at one point, stolas calls blitz his "impish plaything". can it get any more clear?). as long as stolas owns the grimoire, and blitz needs the grimoire to survive, stolas can leverage that for whatever he wants from blitz. it's coerced consent. it's been coerced consent from the beginning. there is no acknowledgement that stolas holds the only key to blitz's livelihood. not until ozzie's.

only after blitz says, to stolas's face, that their relationship is completely transactional, does stolas finally begin to scratch the surface of how large their difference in perspective is. where stolas has been playing at a fantasy of being in love, blitzo has been doing what he needs to do to survive. to keep his family afloat.

and full moon. god, full moon. one commenter on youtube described it as an "ambush", and i am inclined to agree.

blitz was prepared to do what he's had to do. sex for survival. he bought out nearly the entire lust district for it, because even then he could sense that something had changed, and that he'd need to really impress stolas for things to continue as they were-- for blitz to be abel to continue to make ends meet. what blitz had no way of knowing, though, was that stolas was re-writing the rules of the metaphorical game they were playing. sure, stolas gives blitz the asmodean crystal, thereby "freeing" blitz from stolas's service, but in the same breath, stolas lays down a new set of expectations. stolas is no longer willing to accept sex as a service. stolas now wants love.

it would be a lot for anyone to take in. imagine you enter your boss's office for your performance review. you think this boss is hot. you maybe have a big crush on this boss. but they tell you that you're being fired, effective today. but they're giving you a foot in the door at a different company because they care about you. also by the way they fell in love with you, which is why they fired you. honestly? i'd probably react pretty poorly to that.

and for blitz, who has gone his whole life being told, implicitly and explicitly, that he is unworthy of love and care, both as a product of his personal experiences and as a product of his socioeconomic class, that's a whole fuckton of shit to take in. it feels almost logical for blitz to treat it like a joke or some sort of performance, because what other explanation is there? stolas is royalty. and blitz... blitz is just blitz. blitz, whose parents cared more about fizzarolli than him. blitz, whose father sold him to some rich asshole. blitz, who, in his perspective, knows better than anyone else that his greatest assets are what he can provide for other people: sex, assassinations, and more sex. blitz, who, in his mind, has ruined every relationship he's ever touched, from his parents, to his friendship with fizzarolli, to his fathering of loona, to his disastrous fling with verosika.

blitz, who was given all of thirty seconds to process that stolas really does "care for him deeply" before stolas dismissed him and shoved blitz out of his life for good because blitz didn't respond (read: perform) to his satisfaction.

i am not saying that blitz is perfect or blameless, because hell knows he's not. he took advantage of stolas's naivete in a plethora of ways. he's a literal murderer. he does treat the people around him poorly. he has hurt stolas, and fizzarolli, and moxxie and millie and even loona. blitz is brash, rude, and emotionally stunted. but much of this can be at least in part attributed to his childhood and the scarcity mindset with which he was raised. when every interaction you have is transactional, even the ones you have with your parents, it takes a lot longer than the 30 seconds that stolas allowed blitz to process that someone genuinely cares about you in a way that is not contingent on you doing things for them or otherwise being useful to them.

all that to say, i feel for stolas, but feel for blitz more. i think this episode did a really great job of like... really digging into the crux of the problem in the stolitz relationship, which is their fundamentally different perspectives and life experiences, even if the finer points about class and socioeconomic status weren't explicitly discussed.

[stoopid-turtle]

On the Acceptance of Unsteady Ground

Throughout this whole dive into turtle world, I've been very conscious of just how LITTLE access to information I have. I'm relying so heavily on English translations and platforms, and most of these are from turtles, so I'm fully aware I'm getting a biased perspective.

I've tried to read stuff from solos or even just neutral third-parties. The neutral parties don't have much depth of information, though, and I found solos heavy on accusations and declarations but light on actual...evidence. And they sometimes use some really nasty rhetoric against the idea that gg and dd might be gay.

Don't get me wrong, turtles get weird too. There's plenty of clearly false rumors, deceptively edited videos, silly stretches of logic, weird ideas of what how people in a relationship would act, etc. But there's at least enough English-speaking turtles that I can find some who are giving open and, as far as I can tell, accurate information (honestly, I find tumblr turtledom better at that then other platforms). I haven't really found a similar pocket of solo fans.

I'm also aware that there's always going to be a limit on how much I can know. I don't speak the language, so I'm always relying on translators. I have limited access to Weibo (even putting aside the language barrier, I'm in text confirmation limbo in actually getting an account), and I have little familiarity with the culture. I don't get a lot of the jokes or references, and stuff may strike me, an English-speaking American, differently than it would someone in China.

Add on top of that the fact that I'm trying to find out purposely obscured information about two celebrities, and, yeah, I'm fully aware that I'm on unsteady ground here. I can do my best, but I'm never going to know anything for certain.

But I've become okay with that.

It took a while. The dissatisfaction with the unknown (and unknowable) is what drove a lot of my early fixation and subsequent fall into the turtle pit. But now, especially after laying out my thoughts, I've reached a zen place with it. I'm 100% certain ggdd were together during filming/promo, and I'm 95% certain they're still together (I had this at 85% originally, but then the whole dd being sick and gg changing his schedule thing happened and I'm just...welp, guess I'm in this confidence interval, then).

Just having that certainty means I can enjoy updates from them without anguishing about "proof" or uncertainty. Oh, gg took the day off on dd's birthday? That's really sweet! I'm not gonna fuss about if it's coincidence ENOUGH to convince me, because I'm already convinced. It's a good place to be.

I typically don't care about celebrities. In fact, I've long been bewildered by celebrity culture here in the US, and I've often been actively annoyed when people assume/expect me to have opinions on things celebrities do. I'm the nerd who doesn't get why the actors get all the attention when the writer or director would be much more interesting.

So the fact that I've gone all fangirlish over two celebrities is bizarre to me, and I appreciate the irony. Well done, me. I attribute some of it to just being able to watch the bts and see their early interactions play out like a story. I find stories compelling, and both gg and dd are charismatic, attractive and have great chemistry. Whatever disdain I have for celebs, I do love a romance.

In my foray into the ggdd world, though, I've also had to learn more about c-ent, and y'all. It's nuts. Like, US entertainment is nuts too, but c-ent ratchets it up to 11. I've been in fandom a long time, and I thought I'd seen some weird stuff, but it's got nothing on c-ent. Just wrapping my head around the culture these guys are in took a lot of learning.

But I appreciate being able to dive into this culture and this country, because I knew very little about China beyond the antagonistic politics. It's been refreshing to get a view on life on the ground in China to humanize the folks there and get a clearer picture of the country.

I started this thing bc I had been spending so much time on Youtube watching clips, and I had thoughts and opinions and nowhere to put them. I already had a tumblr that I use to lurk on some fandoms and I had started following turtles too. I figured tumblr would be a decent place to splurge out my thoughts, so I set up a throwaway account to do so.

I get the vibe that a lot of new turtles come to bjyx through the same route I took? They watch The Untamed on Netflix. They get curious about the show and start watching some clips on YT. Next thing you know, they have 3 playlists full of purported "proof of love" and they need a whiteboard to connect everything together and their wife thinks they've gone completely bonkers supports them in all their oddities.

Like, I was really confused by turtles at first. I was just trying to watch bts videos on YouTube and I didn't know what bjyx meant, but the videos with the label were weird and had strange disclaimers that they were "only for turtles" and I had no clue what that even meant.

My confusion continued as I tried to read more. The fake story disclaimer convention is hella confusing as an outsider, and my first impression was that turtles were kinda crazy. The videos I saw gave overviews of candies without context, and some of them explicitly said they were proof of Yizhan love while still having that fake story disclaimer. Basically, it was a big confusing environment, and it's why I resisted buying into bjyx so hard for so long. It all seemed delulu.

But in reading more, I guess part of that is the point? Recognizing that gg and dd are in a vulnerable position should their relationship ever come out, having so much noise to muddy the waters makes a twisted, clownish sense. I don't know who came up with that convention or if it just kinda happened (is it a normal thing in c-ent? I don't know enough about celebrity fandoms), but hats off, I guess.

With the supertopic recently hitting 4 million active fans, there's something heartening about such a depth of support for the guys. I'm not naive enough to think all 4 million (plus international fans) are allies to LGBT folk in general, but it surely means something to ggdd to have that sort of support for their relationship. Honestly, it means something to me, as a random gay chick on the other side of the world, to see a gay couple get that kinda of support behind them.

I started watching the bts because I was afraid there'd be a lot of cynical homophobia on the set or some evidence of all the male cast being icked out by the whole thing. Instead, I got gg, who was so passionate about WWX being gay. I love that everybody knew they were telling a love story with as explicitly as they could get away with. I love that the guys wanted more Wangxian scenes and that the cast and crew made "everyday is everyday" jokes in a non-mocking way. I'm glad that the whole shoot seemed like such a positive environment for the cast and crew to being themselves and tell a type of story that they may not be able to be involved with ever again.

So, yes, this is my zen turtle place. When I set up a soapbox for myself, I didn't think too much about the fact that people would respond, but I'm so grateful to have had a chance to talk to some other turtles! Everybody is lovely and thank you for sharing my enthusiasm.

Like I said in the beginning, I don't have the time to keep super-active in the long-term. I had intended to write up my thoughts and poof away. But I do also plan to keep up with gg and dd and turtles, so instead I'm just gonna leave off with the potential for further posts down the line.

I'm not gonna be incredibly active, so please don't expect frequent updates or interactions from me. But if I have more Yizhan thoughts I'll pop up again with a post (I mean, I do have lots more thoughts, but nothing energizing enough to write about), or I'll leave a comment somewhere if I have something I simply must say. I'm also open to responding to asks about the timeline or anything else. And if I ever do stumble across anything groundbreaking with regards to the timeline, I'll probably add that in, because I'm particular about things being complete.

So thanks for being so welcoming! It's been a joy to clown around and make up completely fictional stories with everybody here. 🤡🐢🙇🏼

[atoriv-art]

asks

putting these above the readmore because otherwise i will be speaking into the void

fave. grouping these together to say: i do read fanfic on occasion but it's usually filtered through a friend of mine who reads far more than i do! ie, she reads stuff and sends me what she likes

however she did say that i could tell people to link me things so she can read through them. so feel free to link me whatever in the replies/asks/idk. no promises i will be the one reading it LMAO but we have very similar tastes in characters/pairings and also the types of fics we like 👍

i actually gravitate towards gen fics which are a dying breed lol but you can link whatever you want <3

--

anyway. under the cut: misc asks, sasuneji 💕, also a tiny hyuga ramble

this is so late LMAO sorry, its all in my old blog @atoriv-moved ! haven't deleted any of it so if anything happened it's tumblr's fault. i miss kingdom hearts i need luxu to be in things again so i can go crazy :/

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thank you so much!!! 😭😭 it always makes me happy to hear the emotional weight of my work comes through! it's what i'm always trying to improve to make the little scenes in my head real :)

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thank you!!!! i never know what to say to these but they always make me smile 8)

--

thank you so much!! honestly noses still give me trouble sometimes but as someone who is particular about trying to properly translate 3D shapes, especially of the face, in my rendering it's probably one of the most important landmarks :P and i think you can enhance a design sooo much with them, despite my struggles they're one of my favorite things to draw now!

i totally encourage you to start drawing again if you want to! but i'm biased of course hehe

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cute i never know how to answer these... maybe a little boring but i'm of the opinion sasuke is the clingier one in the rs :)

he's a very loving person but because of both his personality and collection of issues he struggles to fully articulate his thoughts in a manner that doesn't come off as rude or detached, but imo sasuke esp once he's out of his spiral would hate to have his love go unexpressed. so i think him having trouble with words and making up for it with flopping onto the people he loves like a large dog is sooooo cute, and i always think about how clingy he was as a baby.. he is made for latching onto people and wiggling them with a 😐 face

neji on the other hand is Weird About Intimacy since he's trained himself to be self-sufficient, and is hyperaware of how other people might perceive him due to him having to calibrate himself around his family. neji is very principled and especially when he's older won't let his anxieties keep him from doing something he believes in, but it gets a little more complicated when it comes to his personal relationships because for 90% of his life he had no hope of fostering those. so he ends up in a weird middle ground where he Does allow himself to express some of those feelings, but not fully, and often in a very self-conscious manner. his default answer to vulnerability is fluffing up like a cat because that's what's he's trained himself to do lol

so with these two in particular i think it'd combo into a lot of "flopping onto you like a weighed blanket because you're upset and i don't know what to say but i want to be here for you" situations, especially with sasuke doing it to neji because neji struggles with verbally articulating when he needs comfort like that. i think it works wonders for them because sometimes words get really messy when you have their combination of issues... it doesn't mean they can't talk through their problems of course, it just means that if something can be solved by the cat loaf maneuver it will be :)

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not reading too much into it at all, i love it! i like how much people talk about my kabuto hahaha i really want to draw him more often, i think he's a way more interesting character than he's given credit for (and this is coming from someone who really didn't like him at first :P), and his hairstyle change is one of the most obvious ways to explore that visually imo!

tysm for this, i really enjoyed reading it!

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i do! i wish more was done with her because i'm really fascinated by the implications of how she's presented, and how she could've shown that being the favorite child of someone like hiashi isn't necessarily a good thing! i always thought she seems like she's a little dissociated from life outside of the clan, which is really fun to work with (and definitely sucks for her because the clan is Not good lol)

i haven't gotten through the arduous task of watching all naruto filler (lmao) but one of my favorites is the one about hanabi and her relationship with hinata, especially the first half, episode 389 i think? i'm really obsessed with the way that episode shows what day-to-day life was like for the kids and the way the hyuga structure themselves, and how it creates distance between them. i'm pretty sure it implies hanabi (pre-plot) didn't know who neji is, for example? which i get isn't canon but i looove that thought. and on a less deep note hanabi is one of the few characters who gets a design i actually like in boruto! i think she looks soooooo cute

since i spend a lot of time thinking about them i actually am fond of all of the hyuga to some capacity, hiashi definitely in a "wow this guy sucks so much it's impressive" way but still lol i think his relationship with his brother and how it informs how he regards neji is very fascinating, or at least the directions it could have taken (if kishi cared at all.) are!

see my problem is that i wish naruto was about weird families and their issues (i am also obsessed with the suna family <3), but it is a shonen anime made for normal audiences

[nearsbday]

hello - this event is a wonderful idea, everything is so neatly organized, and i love the tumblr theme too! i would like to ask - am i mistaken in thinking an event like this pretty much consists of doing all this (wonderful) organization of the blog, the rules, the prompts - just leaving it all there for people to see, and then reblogging everyone's fanworks? (and of course, doing a great job at answering everyone's questions!) i've always been intimidated by how much work fandom events look to be, but it's occurred to me recently that a prompt-based, free-to-opt-in event like this doesn't involve all the job of putting out surveys and collecting their results, organizing teams of people, following up with unfulfilled submissions, etc. so i'm kind of hopeful i might be able to organize a similar event one day. you guys are doing it amazingly, it's no small job, but i was genuinely wondering because it also feels pretty achievable :) but of course that might be me being a bit naive. is there any other work behind the scenes? i'm honestly just curious to know how much work it takes either way! i've seen other people do a surprising amount of work for events like this - getting people to make countdown art, tons of surveys, interest checks, etc. did you guys also do something like that? do you think it is or is not strictly necessary for a prompt-based event? thank you so much in advance for replying, good luck with the event, and i hope it's a blast! (and i'm so sorry for being too long winded! i always get caught up in trying to clarify!)

HI! thank you for the question, and no worries about long-windedness. i'll do my best to answer your question. we did not do any surveys, because we had ideas for prompts already and wanted to use those! we also didn't really worry too much about doing a big interest check. i don't have a good explanation for that other than "personally knew enough people who were nominally interested to feel pretty good about it" lmao. if the event were more niche -- for example, if this were an event for a small ship, or a less popular character -- i think it would have been prudent / useful to do an interest check and to poll people for when they're available, but since Near is fairly popular (though arguably under-appreciated. in my totally non-biased opinion.) and his birthday is on a set date, interest wasn't too much of a concern, and the dates weren't too hard to land on, either.

so far, the graphics have been the largest amount of work, as well as thinking of how to organize and run things-- stuff like determining when to release prompts, how often / how to do promotion for the event, when to post reminders / countdowns, rules, submission guidelines, determining a tagging system for submissions once the event starts (we will be tagging with prompt, day, fan work format {fic vs art vs playlist etc}, whether or not it's sfw, username of the person submitting, and honestly probs at least one more thing i'm just forgetting rn)... so on and so forth. i have a lot of fun making graphics for fanfics and such, so i took charge of creating those, and what we have so far pretty easily took around... 14-16 hours? this is including things that aren't posted yet, like the graphics we have for each day of the event. i still have a few more graphics to make as well for things like the countdown :-)

it's hard for me to say how much work the rest will be, since it hasn't happened yet-- and since i imagine it'll depend on how much participation we get!! -- but, if you'd like to talk more about the set-up for an event like this, or if you'd like to hear what i think after the event is finished / listen to whatever lessons we end up learning from running our first event, feel free to reach out to me at @blondiest or @neallo <3 [i won't speak definitively for my co-runner, but i imagine she'd be happy to weigh in as well!]

[olderthannetfic]

I hope you are not bored with the BL talks, but I found out a bit that it seems the eastern perception and western perception on BL felt different, but not in a way that most people talked about. I find it a bit odd that more mlm on the US like BL than any other place. I dunno, I used to find it odd cause I relate BL as something more feminine oriented (not saying it dictates someone gender roles, but target audience is a thing). I wonder if it relates to US gender roles and lgbt culture, then stuff like censorship because US seems to go harder on LGBT censorship. At the same time, I realized that it should not be weird if cis gay men in some places read BL more or relate to BL more, considering how it is one of the easiest "gay content" you can find on the internet. Though, just like most of the people who talks about BL and on tumblr, I'm not a gay men, my views might be bullshit and biased.

--

The US has more censorship? What the fuck are you smoking?

The US is bad at putting queer characters in action blockbusters, but it isn't particularly censored. There have been gay bookstores going back decades. There have been film festivals. We queer people have it good in the US compared to many countries, including a lot of the ones with BL industries.

BL isn't a genre in the sense that it doesn't have specific mandatory genre elements that define it, but it certainly has strong aesthetic trends when compared to gei komi or gay art films by dudes or whatever. It makes sense that people would often prefer one or the other.

My guess is that the readership split is like it is most places: dudes who really like the tropes from "women's" media will gravitate to BL. Many a dude has said that if you want a romance novel, you find a female author. Dudes who aren't looking for that vibe will gravitate to media made by men with an intended target audience of men.

I've seen the stats that Viz in the US is finding that a sizeable chunk of the buyers of BL titles in English are dudes. If I had to guess why, I'd say it's because the US is more prone to assuming that all m/m content is for mlm, and the places one can buy such content aren't like "THIS IS THE GIRLS' SECTION!!!" A guy doesn't have to walk into a store or section aimed at women where women will side-eye him and be uncomfortable to see him there in order to buy BL.

Because the general public in the US has no clue about BL, a guy won't be seen as any more or less effeminate for consuming this particular m/m media vs. other m/m media. (Though a bigot might think he's unmanly for liking men in general.)

The default US view is to accuse women of "stealing" while actually trying to steal BL from us, which is a huge cultural difference from a lot of places with bigger BL industries. I'm sure that has an effect.

But frankly, if a lot of US mlm are buying BL openly, it's probably just because it's relatively easy to openly be a gay man in the US, so they don't care if people know they're buying girly m/m books. Maybe being out in Taiwan is okay, but Japan? China?! Things are improving rapidly in some countries, but that doesn't make them great.

I dunno, man, are we comparing the spending habits of out mlm to other out mlm, or are we comparing the proportion of people who admit what they're reading? Which specific countries are we comparing? There are a lot of factors to consider here.

[oleworm]

@bacchanalium that's Americans not seeing foreign people as human beings. That's why they always put people to the impossible standard. Like when they tell refugees who fled extremist violence. "Co co co go back to your country where you can be killed and fix it. I am so smart!". And when people do oppose extremism by supporting education and human rightds, they are still called slurs, accused of being "not real" or "as bad as", ignored or further insulted

It's like people who come from the situations like the one in Afghanistan are doomed if they do, doomed if they don't speak about their experience or seek better life. They have impossible expectations on them to not only fit Western sensitivities, but Western imagination of them.

Hope that it's OK to reply like this, if not tell me and I'll delete it!

I don't think it's only people from the United States, though a lot of them are from there, but also those who spend too much time on social media and watch people get piled on for having a slightly different opinion than a bully.

I remember that we had a conversation once about how you could go on Reddit and find that the top comments were indistinguishable from each other, even on threads about different topics. That is, you wouldn't be able to identify any of those users because of their ideas or speech patterns because users tended to upvote those that had references they recognised or ways of writing that they identified with. And that's talking about people who use it to share a positive feeling I would imagine--you approve of the thing, you belong to the group of those who approve of the thing. On Tumblr and Twitter I've seen a more aggressive way to promote sameness, where if you don't follow the script it means that you disagree and that's bad, and then people allow themselves to talk to you in a way that would be considered very offensive if they did it in person. Some people are very hurt by this! It's also creepy because it gets to the point where you literally wouldn't be able to tell any of these users apart.

I refuse to believe that any one nationality is full of idiots. If I could talk to a regular person about the problems that people face in different parts of the world, I am sure they would understand that it's not nice to live through all of that and that no one should be punished for suffering in a way that does not fit your mental schematic of the world. It might take a moment to explain the situation but I think most people would get it.

But with a lot of what you see online, it's like they're just repeating what their cooler friend told them. They also want to be cool, so they repeat it to someone else without understanding it. It might not make any sense but they'll sure as hell say it. After all, it takes a few seconds to type. It reminds me of when I was twelve and pretended to be more familiar with certain bands that the other kids were listening to, but now they use the same dynamic to talk about what opinions are evil and racist.

It could be that we're bombarded with the real-time thoughts of twenty-one year-olds that are specifically fluent in English, with all of their cultural biases and the issues a lot of people have at that age, and because of how social media works, this is what ends up being pushed--the half-baked thoughts of the average teenager or very young adult--not the most mature, well-read, or most empathetic person in that age group, but the most average. Whatever that means. I know that at that age I was saying very messed up things. Definitely not ideas that I would like to be amplified in any way.

You see some adults acting that way, but I don't know if it's adults acting more like teenagers nowadays, more eager to impress and with a lower frustration threshold, or if it's because when I was a kid adults weren't losing their temper in front of me and when they did it was so rare that I considered it the sign of a person being very mentally unwell. I'm not a scientist, I really don't know. People definitely have always had thoughtless opinions but now you see it all the time and it continues affecting what others think and say long after the fact. I can't say I like that.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

(sent through here in case you don’t answer notes. replies? idk, i’m new to tumblr. feel free to disregard if you do reply to those.)

Are you willing to engage in a convo/elaborate on disliking Taehyung? I can see that you already have somewhere, but I’m new here so I can’t find that. All that I have gleaned is that his actions have bothered you somehow? To be honest, I would like to critique one of your posts by saying that I think you saying “I don’t have the energy for him, I’m trying to be nice” is, like, harmful? Rude? Maybe a bit weird? Yes, I am Taehyung-biased, but I would still be saying this if you said that to Jimin or Minho or, idk, Harry Styles. I just think it’s an unnecessarily mean and even threatening thing to say to someone without being a bit more upfront about your reasoning. I think it would be helpful to link those old posts you made, though I get that that’s not possible for every ask. Anyway, I guess I’ve become the Taehyung-likers in your inbox (or whatever this thing is called) that you don’t have energy for lol, but I genuinely would like to know your reasoning. Thanks for all the other posts, too, your queer Bangtan analyses are very cool and awesome.

Hey @raspberrytaegi

I saw you sent this same message in the comments. I decided to answer here because it's easier to write. This was during my break, so now I finally decided to actually answer your questions.

In a way, I understand where you're coming from, specifically because it appears that you only recently opened up your blog and you somehow stumbled on to mine and you happened to see me dismissing something that was Tae-related. Now, there was a context to that. Some of it is obvious from my blog, other stuff was more personal in a way. This is not me justifying myself because as you will see in what I will explain down the line, I don't think it's necessary for me to do so.

Me saying I don't have the energy for him was right before I went on a break and put the blog on hold. My initial plan was to wait until right before Christmas, but I just had had enough of anything BTS and the 90 percent of asks that were piling up in my inbox. If I came across as rude in that ask, I was just the same in the other ones I responded during those days because I simply didn't have the patience anymore for nonsense. So, there was that.

For anyone who has been following me for a while, they sort of know what my stance is in regards to Tae and I've never been shy about it. I can't link all my posts about him because it would take too much work and time that I do not have. I also wish my tagging system would be more consistent, but if you are interested, you can check the "tae", "taehyung" "V" tags on my blog and you could probably find some more. And what you will find is that indeed, I'm not a fan of him. But I also don't subscribe to this idiotic mentality of what this fandom would call anti, hater or whatever else label is out there. Which means, I don't have a hate boner for him. I may be biased and that influences the way I perceive him, but I'm also not going to drag him for the sake of it. I had anons saying his friendship with the Wooga squad is fake and just for the show they made which was something that I did not agree. I sort of live posted during the Grammy awards last year and 80 percent of my posts was me enjoying Tae doing his thing. His first trip to Paris was on my radar as well and in a good way. I also talked about the "dating scandal" back in September and how the fans are being shitty towards the entire thing (in way more words anyway. If that is of interest to you, I tagged it under the ship name).

At the same time, I'm not a fan of his behavior. I think he can be shady some times and this is something that would get me stoned on twitter. He can come across as rude and spoiled and that's something that personally doesn't work for me. I also don't expect everyone to agree. Some things that I don't like might be the same reason why others are his fans. They like how Tae is more serious and quiet, I see it as unwilligness to be professional (in some group video messages and even Run BTS episodes. Everyone can have a difficult day and not be in the mood at all, but it's a job where they play games. That's it. And it's not a one time occurence. If it was that case, I probably wouldn't have noticed).

I don't understand his tendency to lie. Especially when there's intention (or it comes across as that). This is a behavior that is seen by his fans as Tae just being himself, he's cool like that. Fine. But not to me. He posts a fake tattoo just because, he says he's having a collab for a Christmas song but that didn't happen and it came out of the blue, and so on.

I don't hate the guy, I just don't vibe with him at all and he's the type of person that I can't be a fan of. That's it. It's not a crime. And I'm also not going to judge you for coming to my inbox and wanting to understand why I think that way because you're Tae biased. I get it. I also don't get some of the opinions written about Jimin and Jungkook so I understand your position.

I also don't mind the passive agressiveness in your ask about me not having the energy for a Tae-biased fan. I "judge" my anons mostly on how they choose to express themselves and the willingness to understand different point of views, not based on who they stan. If someone is at least mostly reasonable (which you were), we can have a conversation.

Lastly, I saw that you liked some of my other posts, thank you! Seeing that you didn't immediately sent me a hate post and being able to see beyond an dismissive answer to an ask I answered played a big part in me being open now in having this conversation.

[fantasyescapes17]

OH MY GOD your regency au is FANTASTIC. I'm not usually a big fan of regency trope media (but it kept popping up all over my tumblr) so i was a bit hesistant to read the series (like i would be with any other fic) but I'm so glad i did because this series has bumped itself up to being one of my absolute favs as soon as i read part 1 of seungcheols installment. like im not sure what exactly is it, whether it's the way you capture even the smallest nuances of each of the members personalities and incorporated them into this au (eg jeonghans sly nature but he's secretly kind and helpful and would put himself on the line just for his loved ones to be happy) or maybe the immaculate writing bc i genuinely felt as though i was thrown (?) into a regency era bridgerton-esque fic with the svt boys or idk man JUST EVERYTHING. after indulging myself in seungcheols installment, i got so hooked, i binged the entire series until i Just finished reading mingyus parts (maybe im a bit biased but his section might have been my favourite so far). i love love love the way you incorporated the other stories so seamlessly into each other and the way you can see whether it be a foreshadowing of another members story from one pov (hello mingyu breaking down in the jeon estate) and even the sneaks of how the other couples stories continue from other installments, similarly to how bridgerton does it. whatever it is, it's extremely clever and fantastic and i just want more and more and to continue reading and rereading and thinking about the members in their suits and playing cards and smoking cigars and dancing in a magnificent room. anddd i also loved each unique readers pov, some of the mcs being shy and timid, the other being a feminist confident icon (wonwoos mc i love you) and the inbetween, it made each story so unique and enjoyable and i could just read about this au forever (but Only from you). also your ability to use certain vocabulary and grammar so similarly to what would be used in actual regency literature and media is so astonishing bc it added soo much to the stories and i feel like i can go on and on about this series (but i will not). i thought liking the chapters couldn't be nearly enough to show my love for this series so this is what i can present partially in hopes of showing you just how much i enjoyed this series (and somehow already miss it? ex-rake mingyu pls come back)

Oh my god first THANK YOU for taking the time to send me this amazing and touching ask, I read it a couple of times and it honestly made me so happy that you took the time to read and enjoyed the series despite not being a fan of the regency trope! Thank you so much!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm also flattered that you think the vocabulary and grammar is similar to regency style! I'm pretty sure it's not, English is not my first language (although I did my schooling in English so I'm not self-taught) but it means so much that you felt it was close enough to be believable!

THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[mixelation]

Would it be possible to genetically code a baby to be identical to an irl person? Like in vitro gene fuckery to make a not-clone.

I am not 100% sure what this is asking, because to me "genetically code a baby to be identical to an irl person" implies.... a clone. Like, being 100% genetically identical to someone is a clone by definition.

Short answer for "real life science": cloning technology has come a long way since Dolly the sheep and genetic engineering in general is treated as an INCREDIBLY casual act by scientists working with model organisms, but genetic engineering of human genomes has a lot fo red tape around it and therefore a long way to go logistically. See: the CRISPR baby scandal (I'm not actually up to date on this, but thank you for the reminder that I want to be). This might be biased by my personal interests, but most of the chatter I've heard about full-organism cloning is related to conservation-- for example this cloned black-footed ferret.

My personal opinion on the direction of human cloning (based on observation of Western politics, interactions with biomedical research that's more on the "petri dish" side, and discussions with students of bioethics) is that I highly doubt we'll ever get to the point of making full-on clones (at least within the lives of anyone on tumblr), less due to technological restrictions, and more because of ethical complications. I do see a future where a person is able to order "clones" of specific types of tissues or even full organs for medical purposes. But I also want to emphasize that most of the basis on my opinion on this specific topic isn't, like, worth much more weight than the average reasonably informed person.

For more "wild fictional science" takes....

Yeah, I think fiction with even a vaguely near-future setting could have human cloning. Note than human cloning has this really annoying thing going on where the patterns of gene expression during development are like.... really wild. For example: genetic imprinting is an ongoing "problem." So I think near-future "steal person's hair, churn out clone" is probably out, but "I commissioned a clone of myself, donating whatever cells the lab needed" is in.

If you mean "could I gene edit my own embryo to look like Justin Bieber and musically talented, even if it's not a real genetic clone of him," then. Hmm. I think our understanding of the human genotype-to-phenotype pipeline is good enough that you could give your local mad scientist a list of traits and they'd be able to go, "okay, I will put in blonde hair here..." Buuuuut here are the problems I would anticipate (besides being thrown in jail if caught):

Doing more than one gene edit at a time results in like. Problems? Idk, my ex-lab did some CRIPSR and we were phenomenally bad at it (and also, I never designed anything myself, just injected CRISPR juices; please do not ask follow up questions LMAO). It was a lot of "try on like thirty embryos, let them get to adulthood and only five survive because we jammed a needle full of chemicals into a single-cell embryo, oh fuck it only worked in one," which is both ethically and logistically iffy with humans. So I think with current technology, this would be. Stupidly risky to try the hundreds of edits you'd need for a Bieber clone. But I can see minor gene editing and screening of human embryos as a vaguely near-future advancement. TBH I think "full genetic clone of Justin Bieber" is probably easier than "tweak someone else's genome until they look like him."

I don't think our understanding of genotype --> phenotype is like.... as nuanced as people pretend it is. I think you could reasonably predict some things, but I don't think you'd get a lot of.... idk, detail? From our current understanding of genetics, and for humans specifically, I think some traits are so complex in terms of the interaction between environment, genetics, epigenetics, culture, and just, like, personality, that you wouldn't even replicate all of them with a perfect genetic clone.

But also, if this is a wild scifi fake scenario.... sure? I think environmental factors would prevent you from getting an exact clone, but you could get something...... close.

[cannibalise-the-citrus-fruits]

1: yes

2: p sure my dad

3: yeah

4: not particularly, although that might just be bc I don't tend to put myself in situations that would dredge things like that up

5: single

6: something painless

7: ribs 🤤🤤🤤🤤

8: not right now, but I used to do marching band

9: no

10: depends

11: I like a lot of people. none romantically tho, which I think is what this question is asking

12: no

13: not on a personal level, no

14: not anyone in particular, but I do wish I remembered to reach out and talk to people more

15: two cats, and a few fish. I will admit to caring about the cats more than the fish

16: introspective

17: no

18: yeah. recently learned I am far more afraid of smaller spiders than larger spiders when there was like a three or four inch spider just sitting near the art cubbies in class a few weeks ago. didn't freak me out nearly as much as a one inch spider would have

19: depends. to see different historical eras, absolutely I would, but if we're talking more personal, make your life better by making a different decision? I'd have to think about it way more

20: snogged? what are you, british? N/A

21: video games, reading fanfiction, hopefully gonna visit my grandpa

22: idk, ask me again when I'm not 18

23: no, but I've been considering getting my ears pierced

24: Math. I fucking love math

25: didn't I already answer this one? question 14? if the two are meant differently I don't know what the difference is

26: no particular foods, just ate me some tasty ribs

27: not romantically to my knowledge, but this feels like a bit of an ambiguous question

28: no

29: N/A

30: these questions feel very hetero/amatonormative and that's starting to get on my nerves

31: I certainly hope so, my parents are sitting in the same room rn. if my parents didn't love me I would be very sad

32: lime green

33: I don't think I do, no

34: I don't remember. maybe I should start a dream journal. that could be fun

35: honestly, it's been so long I have no idea

36: I don't think I do, no

37: the processes of those two things are not comporable enough to say which is easier in my opinion

38: LMAO no. If I had to pick, I'd probably say 2021, but I also wasn't especially affected by the start of the pandemic

39: see, this is what I was talking about back in question 30. N/A

40: no

numbers 41-50 are missing

51: the homemade pizza recipe my family makes. it's really good

52: I believe everything happens for multiple reasons. I ate ribs today because someone suggested it when my family and I were making a meal plan for this week. the ribs were kinda mid because we made double the amount we usually do and weren't as familiar with the recipe in large quantities. I'm writing this list because I feel like it. in terms of like, higher purpose reasons? no

53: I won a game of civ 6

54: depends on ur definition. having sex with someone outside an established relationship? as long as everyone is okay with it, do whatever. doing that but one party is unaware/not okay with it? no

55: I am not qualified to answer this question because this is a subjective quality and I am biased in favor of myself.

56: I think like one. maybe two. this was also back in elementary school

57: bestie what does that even mean. there are so many ways this can be interpreted.

58: depends on the time of day. cloudy/light rain during the day, clear at night (although rain isn't unwelcome overnight)

59: yeah

60: see answer 22

61: idk, it's never happened to me

62: more things than can be listed in a tumblr reblog, and many more that I haven't found

63: no, I'm pretty happy with the name my parents gave me

64: I'm pretty sure this is meant romantically, in which case, N/A and also go look at my answer for question 30 again

65: QUESTION THIRTY AGAIN MY GOD. anyways probably talk about it with them.

66: this is the third answer in a row that I'm gonna have to refer you back to question 30. I am going to be VERY GENEROUS and pretend that you just mean "friend you are romantically attracted to", in which case no, but only bc I'm not currently attracted to anyone. I was fully capable of this when I was down bad two years ago

67: I really wish I didn't have to cite question 30 again. and I wouldn't, if it weren't for the fact that, taken with the context of the other questions here, this question has connotations of "ooooooo someones got a cruuuuuuuush you should go talk to them and see if they're interested" instead of what would otherwise be interpreted as "when was the last time you had a conversation with someone with whom you do not share these particular traits". to answer the contextless question, like ten minutes ago I had a small chat with my mom.

68: a few days ago I brought up immortality in the car with my sibling and I think that was a pretty interesting conversation.

69: no

70: I think if it came down to it, no.

Having now gone through the entire list, I can confirm that these questions were, indeed, horrible. Not because they were especially introspective or personal, but because OP needs to learn how to ask better questions.

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

[coolblackmetal666]

I feel like this is a take that someone needs to make, so I guess it'll be me:

Buffy ruined the MCU by being the best version of Spider-Man.

Both media franchises are about (or starts out being about) a depressed teenager who tries to balance having a normal, healthy teenage life with their superheroics. Their depression mostly stems from feeling like the weight of the world is on their shoulders, because their powers give them responsibility.

Also, both characters seem to have some meta knowledge about the tropes of the genre that they're in. I mean, that was kind of the X factor that made Spider-Man so popular in the 60s to begin with, now? He's just a nerdy highschooler, just like you comic book reader! He'll make the exact same quips about super villain names and evil monologues that you would do if you were in this situation, average superhero comics fan!

(This is also, imo, why Deadpool is the worst version of Spider-Man. They take the meta jokiness, flanderize that characterization to bits and ignore everything that makes Spider-Man a well rounded character)

I won't go into why I think Buffy is the best version of Spider-Man. I have to admit I'm biased. I grew up reading Spider-Man comics, and as a trans woman, Buffy filled a certain escapist fantasy in my teens that those comics filled when I was a kid. It's a very comforting show for me, for many reasons, so I might not be the most impartial person to talk about this.

I will, however, go into how I think Buffy ruined the MCU. The writing style is very distinctive. It's smart and quippy while dealing with heavy themes. It's no wonder that this is the most academically studied tv show of all time due to its psychological richness. Its also no wonder that it was so completely embraced by nerd fandom at the time, due to part of its lineage coming from that space. You can probably see where this is going.

Yeah, the big problem with Buffy is that it made Joss Whedon king of the nerds. Joss (imo) is a total piece of shit who treats his coworkers terribly, but he's also, unfortunately, a really good writer when he puts his mind to it. The Body is considered by many to be the best episode of a TV series of all time for a good reason. It's written and directed by Joss Whedon.

But yeah, he got so much praise for the witty, quippy writing style that I basically think it went to his head a bit. It works really well when your main character is a snarky teen or young adult, but Joss Whedon started writing all of his characters that way.

Then he got tapped to write and direct The Avengers. The problem is, when every single character in your superhero world is Spider-Man, no one is.

So yeah, never really been a fan of the MCU or their approach to stuff, but I have friends who are and that's okay. It's all down to personal taste eventually (even though I think the MCUs iron grip on the cinema landscape has been devastating for film as an art form, but that's neither here nor there).

Anyways, that's hopefully the last long, unfocused, geeky rant I ever go on, at least on tumblr, because it makes me feel really annoying when I do that. So yeah.

Back to posting pretty pictures of trees or whatever.

[c0ulrophilia]

It's not great to assume someone's views based on the identities you also assume they have. Your reply to that person on the post about Tumblr advertising was so awful. Trans men are not evil, trans women are not saints, and looking at their blog gave me no indication of their identities at all. I saw two emojis that could mean a whole number of different labels. Unless you somehow dug through their blog and found proof, you heavily assumed their identities, experiences, and views due to your biased beliefs that trans men somehow all "oppress" trans women and femmes. You even have in your bio that "TMEs" can't interact with you because you have immediately assigned people you don't know a label and your idea of what their life experiences are like.

Your reply and your blog are the definition of pointless Tumblr discourse and queer infighting. Fellow trans people have commonalities with you regardless of how exactly they're trans. Believing you know everything about someone based on a label (a label you have almost undoubtedly assumed, I might add) is ridiculous. Please start having compassion for other people, especially people who are not in whatever groups you identify as. You cannot put people and their experiences in little rigid boxes. That isn't how the world works.

I sincerely hope that you'll become more compassionate for others, stop viewing yourself as the only person who "truly" suffers, stop defining your identity and your worth based on how much more oppressed you believe you are than some random person you don't know, and start to feel some happiness. Having so much anger and hatred that you lash out at someone for simply not being a clone of yourself cannot mean you have a happy life right now. The world is better when you don't see people with a different label than you as "the enemy." I mean this in a completely un-passive aggressive way when I say this, but I hope you will experience more happiness and kindness someday soon.

I could easily ignore this because I'm a nobody account but that wouldn't be funny enough for me.

I don't care.

I could not care less about how I might hurt the feelings of some guy, trans or not, because they're not the ones being mistreated by staff. People have pointed out the unfair treatment and outright bigotry of staff for months now, and I don't see anyone caring.

The specific asshole I felt like starting something with has written an entire series of posts about how "uwu staff deserves your money because this website is free and you're entitled" and deliberately ignored transfems begging anyone outside of our community to care, or the poc doing the same. But god forbid I hurt their feelings with the TME DNI I added to my bio.

And genuinely, shut the fuck up about infighting, y'all only say that shit to silence people when we start to realize that our "allies" don't actually care about us.