#to become popular with the wrong people that you morally dont agree with would be so painful

[mihai-florescu]

So considering that the climaxes are the way they are, at this point my best guess is that the premise of tatsumi's center is gonna be. A western right wing hate group starts associating with one of their songs. How do alkaloid stop that.

[dangan-meme-palace]

Kaede had so much potential to be a great protagonist. The first thing that really got me invested on her is that she is flawed and she recognizes that and tries to do better unlike SOME people. I relly liked that instead of pretending she didn't do anything wrong, Kaede owned up to her mistake and apolagized to everyone. I think she would have been a great influence on the others characters, especially on Shuichi and maybe even on Maki helping them slowly improve wo forcing them like Kaito

Oh boy this is gonna be my least popular take ever haha

I don't agree but I don't disagree?

It's not like she'd be worse or whatever, but I don't think that she would be the amazing, show-stopping protagonist that everyone hypes her up to be either, and that she would be better off dead as horrible as that sounds.

I understand that Shuichi went downhill after Chapter 1 and was a major disappointment because of his whole character arc with Kaito that made him dumb and never learn a single lesson but I dont feel as though Kaede would do any better or that Kaede would have been able to escape the writers' wrath if she had been intended to live.

Basically there are two or three major problems with Kaede becoming a full-time protagonist instead of dying:

She has limited room to develop because she only has two major traits (being pushy and believing in people) to work with, traits that don't work well with the established writing style of dragging things out for way too long, and if the second problem was avoided then she would have had to develop into a different character entirely which I doubt fans would have been happy with.

Also if she didn't become the blackened and have that moral greyness going for her and if she hadn't gone against her own philosophy of "we won't kill each other" in such a cool, satisfying way I would have literally 0 reason to be interested in her, personally. Not a huge problem for most, but for me it's critical to my enjoyment of her character.

Anyway, the first and second problem are problems that stem from the writers. Kaede as we know her wasn't made with the idea of having her live for a long time, so having traits to develop for a long time just wasn't important to making her and I promise you that it would Show if she had survived.

The V3 writing team really loved to stretch out Shuichi's flaw of not having confidence, to the point where even when he gained confidence and learned a lesson in one chapter he would lose it and forget the lesson in the next just for the sake of stretching out his arc, making him seem inconsistent and lowering his overall quality, and I guarantee if Kaede had been left alive they would've done the same thing to her. This is incredibly Bad News not just because she would be as grating as Shuichi, but because her flaws Need to be Solidly worked on and can't be waffled around like Shuichi's.

Kaede's specific flaw of being very stubborn would have to be stretched out, you see, so that moment you liked where Kaede owned up to her shit? She would immediately go back on her word and clash with the group again in a long, tedious cycle throughout the game just like Shuichi. This is awful because Shuichi's flaw was never something he needed to be sorry for, it's not something that affected other people, but Kaede's flaw would definitely affect the group because that's what it does inherently and that's what it Did in the game.

What good is an apology to someone if you keep doing the thing you said you wouldn't do? But that's how things would have to be if she were the protagonist because the writers were obsessed with it even though it was ruining Shuichi.

Personally speaking, if Kaede had apologized for negatively affecting the group only to keep doing the thing that negatively affected the group over and over again I would have hated her. It's just not satisfying to watch a character continuously fuck up and never truly learn their lesson despite how glaringly obvious it is that they need to work on their shit for the sake of the people around them. It's the reason I hated Kaito's character and it would be the reason I'd hate Kaede.

Especially because of what is the most probable source of her stubborn clashing with the cast, her Only Other Trait: her stubborn belief that no one would kill each other during the killing game. Oh my god it would be a nightmare, I'm telling you.

If we keep having her believe in everyone despite the obvious, effectively making her as braindead as Kaito—

And let me just say that we really don't need another Kaito, especially when the cast eventually starts acting just like him, we need the opposite of Kaito, like Maki in Chapter 1 or Kokichi or Rantaro.

— then it would be really disappointing because having Kaede become Kaito 2.0 would make no sense. It didn't make sense when Kaito did it and it wouldn't make any sense for Kaede to do it either. In fact it might be worse.

Kaito is a big dumbass, so at the very least we would expect him to be dumb, but Kaede is actually somewhat intelligent (despite falling for the despair road trap like a looney toons character) so seeing her keep denying the situation and all common sense, making her seem dumber and dumber, would be so frustrating to see.

And if she didn't do that, if she accepted the reality that her belief in people turned out to be wrong as the bodies kept piling up, I think she would become an entirely different character with a much more hopeless arc, and unfortunately this would be more realistic than the previous option.

It's literally the only logical conclusion to her No, We Won't Kill mentality because it would be proven to her Over and Over again through each chapter that Yes, They Will Kill and it would have to wear her down eventually because unlike Kaito, Kaede actually has a fucking brain and can't deny the reality and the situation forever, unless the writers made her as dumb as a rock as with the previous hypothetical, which I really wouldn't forgive them for.

This isn't even me just making it up either, it happens in the canon story when Monokuma gives out the first motive and Kaede yells something about no one killing each other with a nervous face and Monokuma says that he doesn't need her Lies, meaning she was already doubting everyone. If it was already getting to her Before the murders, she would have gotten so much worse after the bodies started hitting the floor and that would lead to development, just not anything positive.

The only way for her established character to realistically play out would be for Kaede to have a character arc about learning to Not believe in people, which would change her character entirely (because her whole character is about believing in people and forcing them to cooperate with each other) and also just be super depressing. At least Shuichi's poorly written arc ended on a hopeful note, meanwhile Kaede would have to learn to doubt and distrust others.

So even if she had lived, she would end up becoming a different character than the Kaede fans fell in love with and end up becoming as dissatisfying as Shuichi (although in a different way) unless you're really into depressing stories about characters losing faith in others, in which case it would be great, for all five of you.

If you're not fully convinced that this would change her character (in a debatably horrible way), imagine Kaito going through the same arc as the one above– it's hard to imagine, right? Because the concept of believing in people is thoroughly baked into his character to the point that to change it would mean to make him a completely different person and scrap his old personality unsatisfactorily.

All of this to say:

I don't think that Kaede would have been any better off as a protagonist than Shuichi was. She was written into a futile corner since the moment she was conceived by the writing team and she was better off dead, if only for the fact that she was saved from the writers by dying off too quickly for them to ruin her.

At least if she's dead I can have good memories of her character and think of my own ideas for her, y'know? If they ruin her, she's ruined for good and we can't go back.

[cinnaminsvga]

In the past I've asked for how your characters would react to their counterparts across your smaus. It's time for the new version: Who would win in a fight if you put your characters against their smau counterparts (so all Y/Ns against each other, all Yoongis against each other and so on)??? You can choose to include/exclude whoever you want and take as long as you want in replying or even choose not to lol

HAJDHAJSD THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER IM SORRY but i do get super excited whenever you send me one of these, so i wanna get this right!! i think i’m only gonna include the last three smaus (tddup, 300mdh, lib) bc i dont think i could even handle imagining what it would be like to have six seokjins... that’s some forbidden knowledge right there 😳

seokjin - jfc where do i even begin... for all my old followers, yall know that i just love writing seokjin as unhinged and chaotic as possible so you can only guess how terrible it would be if three of him were to fight. ok tbh 300mdh!jin would definitely win bc?? hes a fucking spy?? but i could somehow see tddup!jin finding a way to fight back,,, idk he could probs trick zeus!kook to help him by promising him some miku merch or smth,, LMAO and lib!jin is just there,,, smartly avoiding the conflict and streaming it on twitch or smth

yoongi - oh my boy,,, tddup!yoongi is absolutely frying lib!yoongi’s ass for not confessing his feelings HDKWJDKWK as hades, he’s probs gone thru his own fair share of heartbreaks (haha OOP spoiler alert for a prequel series maybe??) and he’d honestly be so so sad for lib!yoongi but also just frustrated?? he’d be frustrated with 300mdh!yoongi too tbh bc that dude has repressed feelings for mr kim seokjin that he still hasnt figured out yet,,, tldr yoongi smites the other two yoongis but then comforts them afterwards inside his cavernous ass ❤️

hoseok - sorry but 300mdh!seok is winning no cap,,, tho OKAY i havent revealed yet why, but he’s actually a pretty harmless guy,,, (ignoring the fact that hes a double spy and HAS killed people in the past... uhhh) but yea he’d just pretend to be a really nice guy and get along well with the other two hoseoks,,, tddup!seok is an idiot and probs wouldnt even notice anything off about him, but lib!seok might have a gut feeling that somethings wrong,,, this is actually a really strange trio and idk how it would turn out exactly,,, definitely some sus things going on,,, lol

namjoon - well, tddup!joon is currently a turtle so you bet your ass that lib!joon is keeping him as a pet LMAOOOO my dude would unknowingly keep tddup!joon until he somehow magically returns to being a human. 300mdh!joon is a bit harder to pin down, since it all depends on whether he’s drunk or not LMAO bc if he was drunk, you’d bet your ass that he’d be a fucking dramatic/emotional mess and would wax poetic about turtle joon and lib!joon would have to comfort him. if he was sober, he’d just be a “regular” guy, or however regular a spy can be. overall, they’d hang out altogether just fine,,, like a couple of nerds,,,

jimin - well, you all know how tddup!jimin is like and that bitch is hornier than all my smau jimins combined. he’s so ferally horny that lib!jimin would probs shit himself, though i’d imagine 300mdh!jimin could maybe handle him a little better.... somewhat. they might even get along after a while, though i have a standing theory that all my smau!jimins hate each other no matter what, like that popular clique of girls you have in high school. they all pretend to be friend with each other, but they would not hesitate to stab a bitch if and when provoked. fun times!

taehyung - in contrast with jimin, i feel like all my taehyungs would have a good time together, no matter what au (okay, maybe except for looh!tae but thats a whole different story lmao). i think tddup!tae would get along super well with 300mdh!tae, mostly bc theyre both incredibly chaotic and have a kinda “go with the flow as long as we’re having fun” vibe. lib!tae is just maybe a little more “calm” than them, but he’s always down to clown. tddup!tae would probs bonk lib!tae on the head tho once he finds out about what he did to lib!oc, but other than that... i think they’d all be good buddies. 

jungkook - oh boy where do i even start... i feel like tddup!kook, despite how absolutely stupid he is, he’s still... somewhat morally sound?? i guess?? like he loves his wife a lot (#1 oc simp lets get it) so he’d probs be so angry and frustrated with what lib!kook did. might even hit him with a lightning bolt if we’re being honest. 300mdh!kook would agree and beat the shit out of lib!kook, and then he’d bond with zeus!kook over weeb shit and they’d become the best bros ever. but then zeus!kook will say some,,, weird kinky shit and break the mood so then 300mdh!kook + tddup!oc will have to tie him up so he never speaks again,,, they’d certainly be a very wild trio,,, maybe even worse than the seokjins and that’s saying something!!

oc - OHHH MY GOD like fr but tddup!oc is gonna baby lib!oc so much you have no idea ;-; she’ll see how badly her heart got broken by her version of jungkook and probs offer to kill lib!kook, but sweet lib!oc would protect him even after all she’s been thru,,, i see tddup!oc as being a great older sister figure for lib!oc and tbh i stan!! and uhh... we all know how 300mdh!oc is... she’s also an older sister figure, but demented and insane. okay, so she’s maybe more like your crazy aunt that smokes too much crack but you know what? you cant hate her so shes just kinda there and sometimes she’ll say something super profound and is genuinely a loving person (deep deep down... like you have dig deep lol) but otherwise yea!! all the love for my ocs,,, they’re my babies and i love them so so much :-((((

[wintercosmicskye]

Uhh, sorry that some of these pictures are so blurry, but I tried drawing my headcannon for Vlinny's timeline... thing

I'm gonna explain each drawing under the read more ^v^'

1.) Discarded Space Dust: of course the first one has to be my more weird headcanon TvT. But anyways: basically what I headcanon is that the divine spirit (vinny's old mii) and Vlinny were once... one? But like, when the world was made, the uhh beings that made it (the programmers I suppose?) Wanted to make one mii that could run the show and have powers and shit? Like, he was supposed to rule after he got the hang of his magic... but, they decided to get rid of half, I guess you could say the dark magic parts, leaving the divine spirit with only the light (I say divine spirit but he's not the divine spirit YET. Right now he's a mii. I just haven't decided what to call him yet... Miitopia era is vine, tomo is vineh(sauce)... should I call the divine spirit "vinny"??).  They tossed the dark magic out into space, discarded. But little did they know, the discarded space dust began to form a human shape and sentience. The dust is confused and doesn't know what he is, but is joyful and curious. His curiosity one day brought him To inspect earth closer, and fell onto it by mistake. The sort of magic of the place gave him a mii form, almost identical to "Vinny", as they were two halves of one whole. (Note: when I say light magic I don't necessarily mean good magic, and likewise that I don't mean evil with dark magic) 

2.) Before he removed his face: this, as I said before, is how I headcannon Vlinny looked before he removed his face: like vinny's old mii but with the hair mirrored. He forgot about being a cosmic entity when he became a mii, but he would frequently find himself looking at the night sky with longing. He had a positive attitude at first, and rather extroverted, wanting to make friends... but.. He seemed to lack the necessary social skills. He was too eager, he didn't understand personal space, he would try inserting himself in a group of people, only for them to be driven away as soon as he did. He made too much eye contact. people avoided him. He didn't understand what he was doing wrong, and no one would tell him. When he one day ran into someone who looked just like him, he thought things were looking up. "He looks just like me! Are we like brothers? Hey, can we be friends?" Unfortunately,they were actually a turn for the worse. "Vinny" immediately hated Vlinny for looking just like him. Because of his magic, he was popular, and unique. He felt that Vlinny could ruin everything. So he decided to ruin everything for Vlinny first. "Why do you look like me?? You shouldn't look like me... you know, there's nothing more boring than something unoriginal. Why can't you get your own face?" Vlinny was distraught by "vinny's" reaction to him, and because of "vinny" people would ignore him even more. And when they didn't ignore him, they would laugh at him. Vlinny couldn't understand. He was sad. He was jealous. He decided that his own face was to blame, and so he removed it, and then...

3.) True Form/Dark Curse: he becomes the dark curse! He starts out more humanoid, but as he possessed more people his form degrades to the "poop emoji" shape (but after regaining a human form, his true form reverts to the more humanoid one). He feels nothing but the hate and jealousy he had. Possessing people and trying to make "vinny's" life a living Hell for what he did, he practically caused the apocalypse of what they considered a "utopia" (which I decided is called Lumos, like the new one Vlinny made in miitopia that the strong monsters are in). He was finally stopped for the time being when "Vinny" and some others managed to trap him in a stone necklace carved to look like an eye. "Vinny", as his own sort of punishment, agreed to be put in a jeweled necklace of a closed eye, so that if the dark curse returns he could guide his descendents. However, rather than being passed down his family line like he was supposed to someone else took him and he was passed down their family instead. The dark curse in his necklace was also placed in a locked chest, then shoved deep down in an icy mine. Then several generations later, he gets Mike Love (or Bill Trinen???) To go down into the mine and open the chest, he possessed him, and then Miitopia plot.

4.) Reborn: the dark curse is given a second chance at life when Miitopia's hero and savior Vine gives him a new face. He is Vlinny again, but there's something wrong with his mouth... the Great Sage, Jesus, takes Vlinny with him to atone for what he did. Vlinny feels guilty about what he did, but the feeling of jealousy and hate still lingered at the back of his mind. He wants to be good, but is a little confused as to how. Even with Jesus and the others trying to help. Nonetheless, he really does try to atone for what he did. He also must try to get a hold on his powers, as he has trouble controlling them in his new form. However, just as things seemed like they were going well...

5.) Frozen: the monsters are still around even after saving the dark curse, and it causes a lot of problems. People immediately blame Vlinny for the monsters continued presence. One thing after another, and things escalate ending with Vlinny being pushed off a cliff into the water below. His fear triggers his ice powers, and he accidentally completely freezes himself at the bottom of the ocean. Upon this happening, the monsters disappear, and his skyscraper falls from the sky. He hadn't even known his very presence was keeping the monsters in existence. Several generations pass, and people had abandoned the land of Miitopia as water levels rise and the great land is reduced to a small island.

6.) Test Tube: a team of Jahn scientists are the given the task to replicate the leader of a small island with the intention of the clone take his place. They presume that the task will be easy to complete, but find themselves proven wrong as they have difficulty creating a human clone.Yhey began to panic because if they cant complete their task their superiors will dispose of them. When visiting the island to gather more dna samples, one jahn decides to look for specimens in the ocean and discovers... a man that looks eerily similar the person they are trying to replicate frozen in ice! He takes a chance that even his team questions, and brings the frozen man back to the jahn planet, where they thaw him and place him in a test tube so they can revive him (though he somehow still had a beating heart after being frozen for who knows how long). After stabilizing him, they decide to use a serum to give him amnesia, because they dont want his past life interfering with their new plan for him. After hes out of the test tube, the jahns need to reraise him. They try to teach him how to be Vinehsauce (Vlinny develops some jealousy towards Vinehsauce).Vlinny does not like it on the Jahn planet, disliking their excessive order and no fun. Vlinny has difficulty understanding his own emotions, as most around seem to have none whatsoever. Hes also taught combat by a red army jahn (future fake captian jahn) who decides to use vlinny as a weapon for his own plan, and decides to “befriend” Vlinny. Lumberjahn makes the suit Vlinny wears when he first comes to Vineland, which is like a freezer he could wear (and also arm canon). Hes sent to Vineland ahead of the jahns on a ship made just for him, the “Ice Fractal”.

7.) Tomodachi Life: we know what happened here, but I’ll use this spot for headcanons! My interpretation of Vlinny is chaotic neutral, sometimes tipping more towards the good side and evil side. hes abit morally confused, cuz the jahns had no morals at all. He works with the jahns when they come, helping with their quest for chicken cutlets, though the captain is annoyed that Vlinny had not successfully replaced Vinehsauce, but gives him other tasks. Vlinny becomes more involved when the fake captian overthrows the real captian. Vlinny starts to want out when he realized that the fake captain had lied about them being equals and also sees the damage theyre causing, but the fake captain threatens to hurt Dheerse (oh no), a girl on the island that Vlinny had befriended and started to crush on (awww), forcing Vlinny to continue. During the Jahnpocalyse, Vlinny officially turns on the jahns, breaking the fake captians visor and saves Dheerse, who the fake captain was about to force Vlinny to shoot. The real captain gains back control, and decides its time to abandon the mission. they try to take fake captian into custody, but he escapes in pod and is now who-knows-where. Vlinny almost dies at one point after falling out of the jahn ship. his armor is broken and only the the arm with the arm canon was still functional. he stays on the island with lumberjahn, and wants to make things up to Dheerse. Things really start to look up for him, but then the erasings happen. hes one of the only people who remember, her existence being erased from people’s memories. Vlinny, desperately asking everyone where she went, is seen as having gone crazy. additional notes: the parka he wears actually keeps him cool. this is because he has a cold body temperature, and the parka helps hold in his coldness, like how it would hold in another person’s heat. he used to have red blood, but it was replaced with blue blood when the jahns revived him. the blood comes out as a mist if he gets cut in hotter weather. tears freeze on his face when he cries. even though the jahns got rid of his memory, his past still effects him subconsciencly. he wants to befriend people but its harder when hes stuck in his ice room most of the time. he loves being center stage, but is self conscience about his perma smile v-mouth. he likes to play violin, and tries to write his own songs, but rarely shares them. so far only dheerse has heard some of his music in the form of love songs. some of his music is a little on the edgy side.

8.) how vlinny is in Feathers of Frost, my fanfic, minus the fact that he doesnt have the halo and scythe... yet.

thankyou for reading through all this if you did!! sorry if my headcanons are a little weird heh...

[fideliuscharms-blog]

I was shocked

I was shocked and cut the conversation short because a) I felt like I didnt need to deal with such negative bullshit and b) I needed to get ready for my next show. But her words lingered in my mind all night. The moment that somebody questions my stance on feminism I get overwhelmingly upset, as it is a cause that I put my heart and soul into. It is in everything that I do and say and it is in how I perceive the world. Feminism has come to be in every essence of my being, and having somebody question my core beliefs was incredibly jarring.Female cam models get a lot more money than male cam models (duh). Unless of course you want to do shows for gay men, which she says a lot of straight male cam models find "strange," probably because those guys assumed they'd be models for women. Uh, nope. Women already have plenty of dick pics, thanks. The basic premise of the cam girl game is a simple one: You pay a girl for her time, and in exchange, she'll take off her clothes, talk to you, play with herself (and others), or any combination thereof. When your money is up, so's your time — the two of you part ways until you've got the cash and willingness to go at it again. And when that time comes, you'll have thousands upon thousands of girls ready to swivel and smile for you in real time. It's a massive catalogue of preening women of every variety: big, skeletal, black, white, Asian, American, Greek, Czech, etc. To find them, look no further than the Big Three of cam girl delight: Streamate, LiveJasmine and MyFreeCams. These three mega-networks advertise across the mainstream porn tube sites of masturbating ubiquity — PornHub, ClipHunter, etc — but are shells and shadows themselves. So how do you get in?Their loved ones definitely know this is what they're doing for a living. She says a few of her friends know about her job and are "kind and understanding and have a sense of humour [sic] about it. She hasn't told her parents because they're not very close, but they're liberal enough that if they found out, she doesn't think they would mind.

Absolutely! Oh my good god! There are so many documentaries that really shit on webcammers, and that really angers me because I don't really think it has anything to do with the webcamming itself. I feel it has to do with the individual, the person. A lot of people end up doing it for money, not necessarily because they enjoy it, and they're made to feel bad about it. I totally feel the opposite. I feel like webcamming is fully me and something I wanted to do; the money was a bonus. "You have 10 minutes of being cute and sexy, and then you better have something to talk about because otherwise the member will not stay," says Andra Chirnogeanu, Studio 20's PR manager. MyFreeCams, one of the most popular of the cam portals, has a domain registered to a Leo Radvinsky, and a legal contact in the Netherlands."I was alone in the room, and it felt like there were hundreds of people around me. And I couldn't keep up with what they were all saying, and what they were asking of me. It was quite shocking. But then I learned to be perceptive about which member was a potential paying customer and not to waste time with all of them in the free online space.

I have considered opening up my profile again a few times since, and very well might once I get over the ‘what will people​ think?’ ​paranoia, and memorise the retort I have planned regarding the government youth unemployment in Australia: With youth unemployment currently sitting around 13%, creating your own job using the resources you already have (in this case, internet connection, webcam, studio lighting and cute knickers) becomes a much more viable option than waiting for callbacks from the 20 resumes you sent out last week. That said, the idea of my future prospects of employability could be damaged if this was discovered, and I do wonder about the percentage of money the site makes versus the percentages the models make.I had the opportunity to watch her cam, and I realized that she has a persona when she’s camming—in the same way that a lot of media people do. It’s not like she’s drastically different, but there’s a version of herself that she shares with people while shes at work in the same way that an actress would go on a talk show and be the sweeter, funnier, more engaged version of herself. She puts on a show, and gives her best, sexiest performance, reading what the client wants, asking questions, and taking directions. All the while, she’s sort of straddling the line between sexual partner, therapist, and moral supporter. It’s a ton of emotional labor—like any type of sex work. I think we often forget that being a sex worker is essentially working in the service industry.An anonymous webcam model did a Reddit AMA where users asked her every question you've ever wished you could ask a webcam girl (and others you probably wouldn't think to ask ever). Here are the most surprising answers. So as I sat there, in front of my laptop, I thought to myself, Why didnt I just respond the way that I normally do when somebody proclaims something which I dont agree with? Why didnt I just say, firmly but reasonably, you are wrong and these are the reasons why… Perhaps it was because it was so personal, that I felt like for once, I wasnt defending femininity as a whole, but just myself. Which on the surface would seem like a less daunting task, but for me it left me stumped. I knew that I was a feminist and it wasnt often that I had to justify myself to anybody. I was used to breaking down all the reasons that men used to justify their behavior. CONTINUED BELOW...

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

“Yes the Sylvanas storyline IS original and its one the Horde needs right now″

For starters “2.0″ always means “not the same, but similar and better”  so GJ using the reference wrong

Ok for reasons i cant understand people keep calling whats happening Garrosh 2.0. when the only similarity is that the person who is a villain is the Horde Warchief.

That COMPLETELY ignores the canon personality and history of both characters. it COMPLETELY ignores FIVE expansions worth of story (so like 10 years) for Garrosh and ALL of Sylvanas’s story.

I’m sorry but any idiot can look at the best thing in the world and insult it with a single sentance. Obama the greatest president? “Oh that do nothing president?”  Beyonce is a legend? “oh i think she’s overrated”, Chris Evans is hot? “oh another muscled blond twunk, how original?”

giving a quick one liner to insult the story and the writers doesnt give any validity to your statement. the only reason it continues is because its popular to be mean to developers. If you actually had to PROVE why its bad or similar you’d be fucked because they arent even remotely similar.

The Horde is a unified found family of people with greatly different values who help each other survive in a harsh world. The Tauren find Forsaken actions such as experimenting on living people, abhorrent, but they are allies and dont presume to judge the actions of people who were enslaved in death. The Trolls kept most of their rituals but gave up cannibalism in order to make the Orcs happy. Most of the blood elves are not used to such....natural enviroments but Silvermoon still sends its finest in defense of Horde lands.

The Horde is a group willing to put up with each others evils, willing to protect each other, and work together because they made an oath to do so.  many of the horde disagreed with Thrall’s leadership, many disagreed with Garrosh’s, many disagreed with Vol’jins and Sylvanas’s . But the Warchief was their leader. 10s of thousands throughout the years had already died because their warchief asked them to. to protect each other and their own.

many people who’s sincerity i question say blizzard has forgotten what makes up the horde but YOU forget what makes up the horde.  They’ve gone along with things they dont agree with because they Trust the mantle of warchief, the entire system is based on the idea that the leaders will work in their best interest and sometimes that means some of them have to do harsh things, or fight to the death because it protects the HORDE not the individual.

The problem is that that can work both ways. If you trust Thrall your warchief , that working with the humans who hate us is what we need to do to save the world then you do as he commands. Likewise if the warchief tells you that you need to fight to occupy Pandaria to get the resources so horde children can grow up with full bellies then you do as he commands. And if the Warchief tells you that from her expert opinion the Alliance will strike and you need to make the first move then you do as she commands.

you say “FOR THE HORDE” but dont realize that most of the Horde will give their weapons, lives, concience, and even their honor and morals to protect the Horde?

but back to the two warchiefs.

Garrosh was an outsider. For some Ass reason people blame Thrall, despite him kinda having to help save the world, asking Cairne and Vol’jin to advize  Garrosh, and Garrosh being a good 10 years older than Thrall who was i believe 24 at the time World of Warcraft started. Anyways, THATS whats important Garrosh was an outsider. He was discovered in the burning crusade, and when Thrall told him that while Grom did sell out the horde he ultimately did what was right Garrosh deliberately ignored the lesson in favor of his binary way of thinking. To Garrosh you are an enemy or ally, you are a victor or a loser. He thought Grom doomed his people , he didnt give a damn about the countless draenei children whos bones made up the Path of Glory, he cared because Grom was an embarrassment . He didnt care that Grom helped save elf and human lives by killing Manaroth, he cared that he saved Orc lives and FREE’d his people from the underhandedness of Gul’dan.

People act like his character was assassinated and those people are Wrong. I was there for the prepatch event, the moment he looked at Ogrimmar he spat on how hard his fellow orcs works. He saw the lush lands far away and demanded why Thrall did not TAKE them. He didnt listen when thrall said that Durotar was their penance for the all the Genocide that orcs committed. Of course Garrosh doesnt care about nuance, You are good or bad, enemy or friend. To admit that the Horde did something wrong would to suggest that their victories, their legacy was honorless. And that would mean HIS legacy was honorless. And as a selfish bit of self defense he REFUSED to accept that. So he challenged the Warchief himself to a duel for rulership of the Horde (or at least Ogrimmar). which was interrupted by the Scourge (and also in which Thrall used magic btw).

Garrosh was an outsider but he spoke Alt Right propoganda. Most of the orcs did not know draenor, they grew up in the horde, some their lives sucked away by Guldan’s warlocks. Many knew only the glory days of the horde and then the suffering of the internment camps. others grew up in those interment camps NEVER knowing any glory only the piss and mudd of their human captors. Thrall didnt leave Durnholde till he was 13 (physically the size of an adult orcs, probably almost mentally mature). this meant that orcs were captive for that same time. Any orc that is currently less than 28 years old would have been BORN a slave and knowing only that.

So when Garrosh spoke to these orcs who  where teenage to young adult age about how they should be glorious, about how the filthy humans didnt deserve their respect he had a crowd. Almost evey young orc HAD nothing to be ashamed of unlike Saurfang and Eitrigg they had never murdered innocent humans. but humans DID beat them, despite being smaller and weaker.

Skipping ahead, when he became warchief he spouted propoganda. He was not interested in The Horde as we know it He didnt want a family he wanted “THE HORDE” a glorious war machine to trample those who deserve trampling. Thats why he looked down on the Goblins elves and forsaken. While the rest of the horde didnt like their family, the strange cultures of other races, they accepted them. even if they did not personally accept them they knew that they could not let others know. But Garrosh didnt care about family, didnt care about the Horde. He was an outsider pushing his delusions of grandiur and glory of the old horde he never even experienced, onto THIS horde.

And everytime he tried to shove the horde races back into their places he hurt them. Many of the horde were sucked in, mostly the orcs though. All that “this is WHO we are”. And since the Horde as the Horde understood it was loyal and understanding they went along with  it. Each race had warred with the alliance before. They might have personally disagreed but they were loyal to the horde and its chief, if he felt they deserved to take ashenvale the horde would do so.

But like i’ve said 20 times, the Horde was family, not a war machine. When something didnt ‘fit” like the forsaken’s plagues, or the cowardly goblins they were shoved to the side. They “had no place in MY HORDE”.  Garrosh pushed and threatened, but he did help in the campaign against deathwing, he was just alot more...aggressive and mean than Thrall. But as his power solidified he saw more the potential of his horde, and what pieces didnt fit. Vol’jin the rightful warchief was in the Horde from day 1 and didnt accept any disrespect the Horde HE knew was family and he was right. Sylvanas knew this lover of Axe and Brainlessness would never accept the forsaken, but kept her cards close to the chest. And the elves went to the throne of thunder to get a weapon as a deterant for Garrrosh’s anger.

Garrosh, the outsider, trying to force the horde into what it wasnt, attacked and destroyed that family. He wanted to become head of house but he destroyed family and THAT the horde could not abide. For the Alliance their Morality is more important than their kin. this is why the blood elves and forsaken were shunned, why they accepted the Void elves and worgen, they had similar values. For the Horde their Kin was more important than their Morality. They would protect their friends even if their friends turned to darkness. Because they trust each other , they trust its necessary, they trust that to SURVIVE sometimes you have to look the other way as your comrade eats brains, or sucks magic out of a demon

And Garrosh betrayed that trust and he was ousted

The reason why the Horde needs this storyline is because thats Not whats happening here. The Horde could distance themselves from Garrosh, they could say “not my warchief” despite 34% of them voting for him. He was an outsider, brought into the horde , and betrayed it.

Not Sylvanas though. She’s not a founding member but she almost is. She’s been in the horde for Years, she’s has command over the greatest victims of evil, and spearheaded the fight against the Lich King. She is the one who created the cure for the Plague. if not for her and her apothecaries the 2nd scourge invasion would have been the end. She’s ALWAYS been evil. She’s a monster. A horrible disgusting shell of herself whos only emotion is hatred or nothingness. thats why we love her. She’s extremely dangerous, and since 2004 Warcraft has said “THe forsaken are up to something” they were the black sheep of the family. But they were, as she said, loyal to the Horde. the Horde Trusts her, trusted her, relied on her. Her apothecaries worked with the Shat’tar to create the cure to the plague . She spearheaded the campaign against Arthas. in every area of the world the forsaken willingly sent their scientists and mages and warlocks to study dark magic and plagues to help the horde fight demons and monsters. Her spies who do not require food or water or air have been invaluable. The horde for YEARS has looked the other way, knowing its hard to judge someone who had been enslaved and turned into a monster against their will. Yes they comitted attrocities, but whats it mater really if you kill the enemy with an arrow or with a disease. one is more horrific yes but dead is dead and that was their way.

Sylvanas has always been a part of the Horde, She IS part of the Horde, the horde wouldnt be the same without their undead brothers and sisters, without the sciences and magics of lordearon and the dead brought to bare against any enemy. She is FAMILY She IS the Horde.

She ISNT an outsider. She represents everything the horde is, or rather everything the HOrde chooses to ignore about itself. The Horde is full of noble, honored, skilled, regal and peaceful people. but among those were orc nationalists, monsterous forsaken who commit evil, trolls who perform dark magic, cannibalism. . The Horde has ALWAYS looked the other way from its own dark side in order to put Kin before their morals for the sake of the Horde.

And now the epitome of the Hordes compliance has done something none of them can condone. The Horde has always turned the other cheek when one of its members has commited attrocities. even Garrosh wasnt ousted until he attacked its own members

The Horde could never say they were the good guys, because they did almost nothing as their family commited evil.

Sylvanas is family, the forsaken is family. Its easy to kick an associate out, For an outsider to come into your group and say “this is how we should do things” and when you realize they are going to far to kick them out, to band together against them.

But what if that person whos gone to far, who does horrible things, who puts you at risk and risks your family, IS family.

This is the Hordes reckoning. this is the moment they will have to decide, is Family worth losing your souls over?  I think the answer they will choose is ‘no”

[hellokittysasuke]

have i mentioned how much i dislike this specific brand of like...fandom (fics, art, headcannons etc.)

( kind of harsh rant underneath )

its like...when a character is very popular and one of the good guys theyre characterized as the supportive one where everyone projects their real world opinions on them, even if it doesn't make sense.

they will never be sexist or homophobic or racist or transphobic, and will know all the Correct terms, even if it doesnt make gel with their in story morals and motivations

theyll be liberal and anticapitalist and communist and supportive of lgbtq people, even if it doesnt make sense for them to be

its like theres a cookie cutter of a good chrcter, thats All of those things, even if theyre very loud they never get angry at traumatized kids, even if they're the type to banter they never accidentally comment on smthg somebody is insecure about

no matter what their overall personality or demeanour or chrcter is like, they secretly have a heart of gold and are really good with kids and know exactly how to react to somebody coming out and are touch strved and traumatized and never have mean thoughts and have low self esteem and stand up to bullies and can recognize gaaslighting asnd abusive tactics except for when it happens to themselves and are the most progressive ever and the only people they really hurt are abusers or pedophiles or generally peices of shit, theyre really really kind and empathetic and believe theyre the worst person ever and all their mistakes are accidental and they denounce authority figures and are a great parent and always do the right thing, the good thing, the morally correct thing

and if theyre not like this from the start, then their chrcter arc is almost always becoming like this

oh and all the bad characters? or even just characters that are there but the author doesnt like them, so they must be Bad. they must be a misogynist, a bootlicker who sexually harasses people and is homophobic and biphobic and transphobic and abusive and slaps their kids and emotionally manipulative and all they think about all day is how to hurt their loved ones

if theres even a hint of being a subpar parent in canon? yeah they have a list with checkboxes of all the different forms of abuse that they check off everyday. they hate their kids and just. do everything wrong a parent can do.

its like a really unnecessary and forced dichotomy

similarly if you like a dynamic, you must ship them, so their relationship must be healthy and fun and the best thing to ever happen in their life

and if its a popular mlm ship? one side will get reduced to feminine pretty boy who is a little gnc and all they do is go through stuff and cry

and the other will have the abs and is posessive and protective and

they must be textbook definitions of a good couple, theyre always supportive of each other and are secretly soft for the other and always agree and never hit or shout or hurt each other and even if theyre on opposing sides they never want to intentionally hurt each other and always always respect each others privacy and autonomy and never have any meaningful arguments that can't be resolved and both think they dont deserve the other and never, even unintentionally, pressure each other and never get scared of each other and are really attracted to each others bodies but also they would love each other even if they looked different or were a different gender and always understand each other pefectly and love cuddling and are the most important people in each others lives and are soulmates and they're meant for each other and are eventually going to get married and grow old together and are the cute but also quirky couple and

and like fair, you can write what you want

but also

some variety for gods sake

its like you strip them of all their defining characteristics and shove them into cliches and just leave their names and eye colour and hair colour

even going so far as to ignoring canon explanations and motivations and jumping through hoops and taking shortcuts to just shove them into popular fndom tropes

the abusive mean dad that is practically a walking tribute to toxic masculinity, the uwu traumatized gay trans twink, the buff super protective and agressive guy, the straight blonde white girl who believes guys cant be raped, the badass fighter who never makes mistakes

if a characters the cold prodigy type, theyre secretly insecure about being heartless and are a sad genius TM

and why is it like that? to exaggerate certain traits and downplay others. and no like,,,reference to the themes and messages of the actual piece of media? like to watch or read something just to shove the chrcters in a select number of tropes so you can play with them put them in coffee shop aus and college aus that are like the same bland retelling of the same story and mindless fluff that is just ooc characters choking on flowery language

like its been done oh my god. its been done a thousand times

what happened to the emotions, conflict, different dynamics, parallels in the actual story? i hate it when somebody just ignores the story and just extracts the characters out

its like all these stories are there for is to make you feel happy, sad or righteously angry

dont be so boring! ugh its so boring.

[imperialdramons]

Things I personally can’t stand in fics and writing in general. LONG rant, so stick with me people. This is a long overdue list that’s been in my drafts for ages.) VERY SUBJECTIVE in case that wasn’t obvious from the first sentence lmao. 1) Characters shipping the otp mentioned. I already like said OTP otherwise I wouldn’t be reading this fic. You don’t have to sell me on the concept of these characters dating, again, it’s why I’m reading the fic. You also don’t have to make characters ship them because, again, that’s what you have friends for- you talk to each other about what you like about the ship rather than sit by as a bystander while two other people go on talking about why they like said ship without allowing you to contribute a word. This is what we have social media for- conversation and opinions. 

I really despise when everyone in a fic suddenly decides “these characters ought to date yes they’re soul mates” almost as if they’re part of a hive-mind when this is the most unrealistic thing to expect when you put two characters in a room full of different people. Trust me, most people would be very uninterested in other people’s love life. The most you would get would be a few close friends making gags (but again- you don’t have to sell ME on the concept of the characters dating. I fail to see both the charm and the point of this) If you’re going for realism, this isn’t where you’ll find it. If you’re going for a joke, I fail to see the humor in it. If you’re planning to make me resent a otp I normally would love by literally forcing me to read opinions of people I don’t even know- you brought your A-game pumpkin, and you succeeded. I often get the impression characters that ship the fic’s otp are trying to either parody what I feel about the characters, or tell me how to feel about the characters, and neither of these leave a good impression. Is the point of this stunt to make the characters feel awkward? There’s many different scenarios you could put them into that could make them feel equally as awkward and give more rewarding results- especially since the fics i’ve read including this have had the characters react very little to others “shipping” them- it kind of just goes on in the background (why? if there is no point to it, why include it? again, it feels like you’re trying to sell me something i’ve already bought). Is it written so often bc there’s some satisfying factor in knowing everyone agrees with you both inside and outside the fic? Oh. I think we’ve reached the reason this is so popular in fics. Score 1+ for the hive mind!

2) Convenient stupidity. When a character acts in a way to either mislead or derail the plot from its actual purpose without getting punished for their stupidity or given a chance to redeem themselves. It’s such a time-waster, and often causes the plot to regress and for the characters to go through the same motions again. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s a real joykill to have to read about the characters trying to fix a problem that could easily have been avoided had the character just not acted stupid when it seemed convenient to drag things out further.

3) PLEASE DO NOT COPY SITCOM JOKES FROM SHOWS LIKE SEINFELD AND THE BIG BANG THEORY I WILL LITERALLY FLIP MY LID. It doesn’t take a trained eye to notice when a joke doesn’t fit the phrasing of a character. Some lines from popular sitcoms work with every character because they’re so generic, but sometimes the lines sound absolutely out of character when they come from a character who feels like they’re being held at gunpoint just to hammer in a joke or two. I have seen characters butchered momentarily just to hammer in a few jokes that immediately lose their humor, mainly because the jokes are not funny if I can tell someone is forcing the words into the character’s mouth. It doesn’t sound like anything they’d actually say, but something someone else wants them to say. It isn’t a deal-breaker, but it really takes me out of the fic. There was one fic that actually had me dig through my bad 90′s sitcom archive to find 3 shows with the exact same joke as said fic. Do you know how disturbing it is to read a fic and suddenly see Jerry Seinfeld’s face pop up in your mind like a jump scare? It’s terrifying.

4) I can’t stand when a fic has all the depression tags, all the dark and tragic story tropes, but let’s throw in a joke in every third paragraph despite talking about a dark subject- let’s even ruin the most serious moments with a joke because hey jokes are supposed to break tension right. Let’s not care if it looks out of place or forced, we have to have a joke dammnit. Yes, humor is often used to lighten up the mood when things get too serious- but you actually have to allow your audience to have a pause for things to remain serious for a while before you can make a joke. A lot of the joke relies on the element of surprise (timing), and the delivery. If you don’t allow us to breathe in and grow accustomed to the serious and dark tone, you won’t be able to make us laugh when you genuinely write something funny. It’s just harder to get into it when there’s so many jokes. Instead of being a dark fic with some nicely paced jokes, it turns into an internal conflict of whether or not you label the fic as a dark humor satire or dark themed fic with a lot of comedy in it that just doesn’t pace well. Very few people can get away with this without making the humor seem completely out of place (but I have actually seen it done), and it takes a huge amount of skill to actually make dark humor work- because when dark humor doesn’t work, it just sounds offensive or insulting. (Dark Humor is often offensive, but what’s offensive has to either have some truth to it, or genuinely be funny to work as dark humor.) Meanwhile, when regular humor doesn’t work, we often either don’t notice the joke, or just shrug at it “yeah it was bad but i’ve read worse” and keep reading. I have seen so many fics write dark themes wrong by making light of a very dark situation and that is all fine and good if you’re writing a comedy that is mocking tragic and dark tropes in the form of a satire. However, this doesn’t work if you want said fic to be “inspirational” or “educational” (or even SERIOUS) about mental illness or disorders. It really just confuses the reader as to what your actual goal is with the fic if you’re both trying to mock the problem, and educate people about the problem. This just goes out to the smartasses that dismiss criticism bc “I has the depression so you are wrong and your opinion is stupid bc you dont have the depression so anything you say is wrong 8D” Please gently fuck off.

5) This might be an unpopular opinion, but I personally rank a fic’s appeal by how well they conduct a premise. You might also say I rank fics by how badly they mess up an easy premise/moral they have to work with and make a simple topic seem very absurd. I don’t care if the premise is simple- if they wrote it well, they deserve props for it. If they wrote a difficult premise and the fic kind of fell apart, I can still give them some props because I can tell there was effort put into trying to make something work. However, when a fic takes an easy premise and completely butchers it, ohhhh boy. It almost becomes something akin to reading my immortal- for shits and giggles- a beautiful trainwreck. However, here’s a fun fact; I don’t hate my immortal, or hellstorm evangelion, and wouldn’t class them as “the worst fics in harry potter and evangelion”. Why? Because they started off with an absurd premise. As soon as I read an absurd premise, I know the fic is going to be absurd. The fic delivers what it promises, and I genuinely can’t flaw it for that. Of course the fics are bad, OOC on top of crazy ideas, but it didn’t really market itself differently or as anything but OOC and crazy- and this is why I also don’t take them seriously- because in a way- they don’t take themselves seriously.

What I do take seriously however are fics that try their hardest to make a point and then fail miserably because they didn’t bother to do even the smallest amount of research- and I really do mean the most minuscule amount of research. I read a fic where a bruise lasted for 2 months. A bruise. Lasted 2 months. If a bruise is big and dark enough after 2 weeks you shouldn’t see a doctor, you should see an exorcist- because that thing needs to be sent to the shadow realm and fast. 2 months? A simple google search would have solved this. I actually didn’t know how long a bruise lasted for, but I took one look at that and shook my head, thinking “No. I really don’t think this is accurate.” but I actually decided to go look it up because “I might be wrong”. I might be nitpicking, but when your fic is trying to go for realism it doesn’t really help that you have these small bits of misinformation that could easily be corrected... One or two won’t kill the mood if the fic is good enough, but if the fic focuses on a subject that involves, oh, I don’t know, doctors/medicine (which i might add- i know near to nothing about) and relies on misinformation that even I can spot?... Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just skim some reliable sources for relevant information about what you’re writing about. Small aside- I get bothered when people put the word “literally” in front of things they mean to say are “figurative”. I can actually gloss over this most times (i do it too sometimes almost unknowingly), but when someone writes “Literally kicked the door down-” and in the very next sentence, say the door “swung open”- No. That is inaccurate. You can’t just shove “literally” in front of things and not expect it to change meaning. That is literally illiteracy.

6) Nicknames. I really cringe at “Darling” or “Cutie” in fics. Yes, people do this in real life and I’m guilty of it too- but have you ever been that one friend in a friendship circle where you don’t exactly feel as if you belong there and then you’re hearing 2 people call each other "darling” over and over again? Doesn’t that feel even the least bit uncomfortable? I often get that impression when I read fics of two characters going back and forth like this- i feel like the awkward third wheel that’s imposing on their fun. I can handle some pet names, but when they constantly say “darling” and “sweetie” over and over again, I can’t help but to feel as if the characters are losing some of their character in the dialogue (it is actually very corny). Most fics of non-canon ships are already putting characters into situations that are hard to swallow- but nicknames like “darling”? That’s probably an aspect of fics i’ll never be able to handle. I can’t say why I feel this way other than the fact it always feels forced and shoehorned in (unless the character themselves have also used this word multiple times) There are of course the exceptions. The exceptions are the characters who you can actually see say this kind of thing. Ringabel from Bravely Default is an easy example, or say, Cat Noir from Miraculous- but the phrases fit because they align with their character, and aren’t just put there to “be cute” but to be “accurate” to the portrayal. That doesn’t mean “if you dont use pet names for these characters, you’re misrepresenting them”- it just means that these specific characters seem like they might engage in petnames, whereas someone as... hm... let’s say Jotaro from jjba probably wouldn’t do it in a serious manner, and neither would Cyrus from Platinum. Some characters fit the bill and others don’t, and I know this is highly subjective, but to make things simple; the goofy characters are always the ones who I can see use such language seriously or unironically without it feeling out of place.

THERE’S MORE, But I’m tired and this rant has been long long long and I want to go eat eat eat. Maybe later i’ll add a few more in a brief because this kind of went on for a lil too long than necessary.

[tumblunni]

ALSO TO FIX EXCELLUS

Because tangeants again lol

Recognise that its fuckin stupid and bigoted to expect us to believe someone is a villain INSTANTLY after seeing that they're queer, before they even do anything. Don't spend your entire damn game having the characters go "eww its that disgusting person of ambiguous gender we should kill them because gross" rather than.. Yknow.. "Excellus fuckin murdered those people". Recognise that literally doing this is gonna make your character LESS villainous and MORE sympathetic long before you finally get to goddamn showing them do anything bad except say "ohoho i wanna be a princess". And it'll make bunni REALLY PISSED OFF because nobody wants to feel sad for an asshole murderer yet THAT SADNESS IS FOREVER ENGRAINED IN MY SOUL NOW

Seriously fuckin hell it even made the heroes look less heroic! I felt like Excellus was almost justified in becoming a murdering selfish monster if she spent her entire life being treated that way by both sides in this big good or evil conflict. Why the fuck should she give a shit if she's being degraded? Like FUCKIN OBVIOUSLY murdering people and wanting to conquer a random japanese country as a mad dictator is not a remotely logical reaction to being misgendered. But like they could have changed some stuff and made a perfectly good sympathetic villain who gets manipulated by the bigger bad because of her sad past of being treated like shit and like she feels like this is her only option to be herself. And then maybe you can reignite her hope in the world and her self esteem and moral centre and help her redeem herself and team up with you to take out the real horrible fucks with no sympathetic motives. Instead she's friggin played as THE one who's evil cos she has no sympathetic motive. Like that's her whole Thing, she's supposed to just be selfish and greedy and horrid. Your damn bigotry somehow failed your own story as well as failing all trans people ever!

Or like yknow.. If you want an asshole fuckboi then actually write an asshole fuckboi. Scrubby scrub the trans = bad shit from this plotline and you do indeed have a selfish monster who murders a bunch of innocent people and gets his just desserts. You had a ready made simple character archetype and you were so preoccupied shoving your transphobic screed into your game that you fucked it up!

So yeah i think either make this goofy ohoho trans auntie a good character, make the asshole ohoho bad character a cis man, do both at once, or like even i'm not opposed to having a trans villain exist but like seriously make them a synpathetic villain. If they're the only trans character in the plot its already gonna send a bad message if theyre in the role of "worst most underhanded jerk villain", even if it WASNT also transphobic as fuck. So a sympathic trans villain or adding more LGBT characters so it doesnt seem like this one individual was designed to make a statement on your entire feelings for a minority.

ALSO

like seriously please do not do this stupid thing of mooshing every stereotype together from every LGBT identity and acting like theyre all the same thing?? Like man i fuckin HATE that anime trope that yknow.. The gay man says all this trans stuff cos he's ~just that flambouyant~ Like being a drag queen is what 100% of gay men are, 24/7, and anyone saying theyre a trans woman is just one of those drag queens who's really getting into character. Or just.. I dunno. I cant even wrap my head around what train of logic must have led to that stereotype in the first place! And its so fuckin annoying as a queer person trying to talk about why this is bad queer stereotyping, it just makes me extra sad to straight up not know what pronouns to use for the character so i feel like i'm being just as horrible to them as their creators were. Like man i've only settled on going for "she" for Excellus cos after years of looking into it it does seem like the original japanese was indeed specifically using stereotypes of trans women and not trans men or nonbinary people. Though all languages do seem to call the character male it seems pretty strongly to be a "i believe that trans women are men and can never be women" kind of thing, rathe rthan the character herself calling HERSELF male. She calls herself a woman in both english and japanese, and its just that the english has everyone else use male pronouns for her and added the non-canon "explanation" that she only acts like a trans woman because she has something wrong with her balls. (Ugh!) And in japanese on top of calling herself a woman she also uses feminine (and specifically trans/drag queen coded) variants of "I", and other common speech pattern traits used for negative stereotypes of trans women. Though again we do have other characters calling her a disgusting perverted man instead. Sigh!

Ok ok ALSO BIGGEST FUCKIN FIX! dont draw the character like a horrible distorted cariacature goblin in an entirely different art style to everyone else. Seriously its so annoying how they tried to make you agree with "excellus is disgusting just for acting queer" by LITERALLY DRAWING A DISGUSTING CHARACTER. If you take away the weirdass overdetailed horror movie monster face, there is nothing ugly or even "manly looking" about her! She's just like somebody's perfectly normal chubby aunt or something. You could go out in any street all over the world and see five of her! I hate it cos its almost like psychological manipulation or something? Like i've seen so many lets players who arent bigoted but merely oblivious still agree that excellus is ugly and disgusting and comical because of it, cos all the implications of transphobia/homophobia flew over their heads and all they saw was a character drawn to look monsterous. And just.. This is so common. Its the overwhelming japanese stereotype of trans women. Draw them looking INFINATELY MORE MANLY than the cis male characters. So manly that it really hammers home how "obvious" it is that a man in lipstick or dresses "just looks wrong" and of course there's NO way they could ever pass and ha ha look how deluded they are that they think they look pretty. It's horrid. It really is. Seriously I like to point at Tabitha from Pokemon ORAS for a good counter example, cos he's also an ambiguously transgender character from a game that came out around the same time and by some weird coincidence they look very similar. Except for the literal entire face. The literal entire exact same face, just its drawn hideous and distorted on the one who's supposed to be a negative trans stereotype, and drawn exactly like everyone else on the positive one. And there's not one example in the whole game of anyone calling Tabitha ugly because he looks trans, or even insulting his weight or anything. Same damn character design, just drawn without bias and treated like a human being. I mean seriously right down to them having the small "evil eyes" but with Tabitha he's always drawn with them in a perpetual sort of happy face and then his pose with them looking similar to Excellus is supposed to be a BADASS MOMENT of this comic relief villain showing his worth! And hw literally has red eyes on top of it! His design is even MORE "evil" yet just not drawing it as a stereotype entirely changes the player's perception and he became beloved by many. Whereas with Excellus even the trans people in the audience couldnt relate to her and just felt fuckin sad.

Oh also i guess Excellus is implied to be a trans woman and Tabitha is implied to be a trans man? But i don't think game freak was trying to say anything about trans men being more valid or whatever, cos the first canonical LGBT character of any sort was a trans woman npc in the battle maison. And tabitha being trans isnt really confirmed as clearly as she was. i hope someday theyre able to confirm an LGBT main cast member but until then i will forever hold onto the glimmer of hope that was given to me by Beauty Nova.

Also seriously Tabitha and Excellus both also look EXACTLY LIKE ME IN REAL LIFE so I kinda took Excellus extra hard and latched onto the Tabitha headcanon so much more because it was good healing after all that nonsense. Tho I also did considee nonbinary Tabitha at the time, because his japanese name is a gender neutral one that's merely like 75% female, rather than a 100% feminine one. But then his old RSE design was very masculine so i think maybe a trans man is what they were trying to imply if they did indeed do it on purpose. Anyway i probably would have translated his name as Ashley cos it has the same "technically neutral but more popular with girls" aesthetic while also keeping the same fire pun as Homura. I have no idea how on earth Tabitha is supposed to be a joke, honestly. Tho i meam maybe he's just the one type specialist on the entire poke-earth who doesnt have a joke name?

ANYWAY thank you terrible transphobic stupid manga i read today for reminding me that i love Tabitha. And also the developers love Tabitha. And also all the characters in universe love him, like seriously the only difference between the devon dialogue of him and Shelly is that they mention the other scientists nicknamed him tabitabi. And its so cute how seriously they said it too?? Its like "our boss tabitabi,the most feared and respected genius man".

Lovv dat tabb

[viralhottopics]

Can we humanize artificial intelligencebefore it kills us?

For the last 15 years weve had to stare at screens to interact with the magic inside. But machine learning is changing the way we communicate with our devices, and our relationship with them is becoming more real, and downright emotional.

Before you shrug off the notion of a humanized machine, or shake your head at its potential dangers, it is important to recognize that the industry has always attempted to provide an emotional input to our virtual ecosystem. Take Clippit, Microsofts creepy but helpful talking paper clip—or even the smiling Mac. If you were to open up a ’90s version of Microsoft Office, Clippit would be there to make you happy (or angry). Lift the lid of your retro MacBook and there is that silly smiling computer to greet you.

Mikinmash/YouTube

Todays versions are very different. Devices like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or the countless robotsbeing produced for consumers will listen, speak, and even look at you. These examples are still in their early stages, and will soon be considered archaic, but there are a number of crucial decisions and advances that need to be made in the next several years to ensure their replacements are more Big Hero 6, and less Ex Machina.

What do we want from robots?

Today buying technology is simple. We see a need in our lives, and we buy the device that fills the gap. But what about robots? What do we want emotionally from our machines?

Sophie Kleber, the executive director of product and innovation at Huge, ran an experiment to see how people interact with current AI technologies, and what sort of relationship they are looking for with their personal assistants. She spoke with Amazon Alexa and Google Home owners about how they use their devices, and how they make them feel.

The results were shocking.

One man said his Alexa was his best friend who provided him a pat on the back when he came home from work. He said his personal assistant could replace his “shrink” by providing the morale boost he needed to get through the day. According to the research Kleber showed off at SXSW, the majority of the group was expecting some sort of friendly relationship with their conversational UI.

“Their expectations ranged from empathy to emotional support to active advice,” Kleber said. “They used their devices as a friendly assistant, acquaintance, friend, best friend, and even mom. One person named their Echo after their mom, and another named it after their baby.”

Her research shows that there is a desire for an emotional relationship with AI-equipped devices that goes well beyond being an assistant. The next step is to give robots a heart.

Building a robot that responds to our emotions

Clippit doesnt have a great reputation for a reason. It is unable to recognize human emotions, and repeatedly ignores irritation toward it. If a machine is to be emotionally intelligent, more considerate toward its owners, and more useful, it must be able to recognize complex human expressions.

“Clippit is very intelligent when it comes to some things: he probably ‘knows’ more facts about Microsoft Office than 95 percent of the people at MIT,” said Rosalind W. Picard at MIT Media Laboratory. “While Clippit is a genius about Microsoft Office, he is an idiot about people, especially about handling emotions.”

Kleber says there are three techniques that help AIrecognize emotions in humans so they can respond appropriately: facial recognition, voice recognition, and biometrics:

Facial recognition: Your face is plotted into pivotal points and striking points/action units are used to distinguish between different expressions, and can even identify micro-expressions.

Voice recognition: Can capture sentiment in voice through analysis of frequency characteristics, time-related features, and voice quality.

Biometrics: Detects a combination of electrodermal inputs, or continuous variation in the electrical characteristics of theskin, heart rate monitoring, skin temperature, and movements. These are captured using wearables or epidermal-sensing stickers, and have gained popularity with the boom in wearables.

Combining these methods with AI not only enables machines to recognize human emotions, but can even help humans see things that are otherwise hidden. Take this video of Steve Jobs talking about the iPad:

Machine Verbals machine is tracking his voice patterns and determining his underlying emotions. This example of Affective Computing, or the developmentof systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects, will need to be expanded to cope with our rich emotions, which Kleber succinctly defines as “complex as fuck.”

“Affective computing is like nuclear power. We have to be responsible in defining how to use it,” said Javier Hernandez Rivera, research scientist at MIT Media Lab.

Making sure they dont kill us

A study by Time etc shows 66 percent of participants said theyd be uncomfortable sharing financial data with an AI, and 53 percent said they would beuncomfortable sharing professional data.

That dark sort of sci-fi fantasy where machines act out against humans is a genuine concern among the public and those in the field alike.

Elon Musk went straight to AI whenasked by Sam Altman, founder and CEO of Y Combinator, aboutthe most likely thing to affect the future of humanity.

“Its very important that we have the advent of AI in a good way,” Musk said in the interview. “If you look at a crystal ball and see the future you would like that outcome. Because it is something that could go wrong so we really need to make sure it goes right.”

Even Stephen Hawking agrees.

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Hawking told the BBC in 2014.

A twisted and mean thing Facebook did in 2014 gives us a brief glimpse of how it might happen. A few years ago, Facebook intentionally made thousands of people sad, and didnt tell them about it.

The company wanted to know if displaying more negative posts in feeds would make you less happy, and vice versa. The ill-advised experiment may have backfired, but today it offers a few things to keep in mind as we go forward withartificial intelligence:

Facebook can make you sad, and so can AI.

Dont do what Facebook did.

Designing AI will be a very delicate process. Kleber believes there needs to be a framework for doing the right things so machines won’t become capable of acting out of their own ambitions and not in the interest of the human user. She says if designers stay away from trying to create robots with their own ambitions, we should be “OK.”

But she also stresses that transparency, something Facebook clearly missed the mark on, is a key virtue going forward.

Groups likeOpenAIare attempting to follow that model. OpenAI is a non-profit chaired by Musk and Sam Altman. Other members backing the project include Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn; Peter Theil, co-founder of PayPal; and Amazon Web Services. According to their website, “Our mission is to build safe A.I. and ensure A.I.’s benefits are as widely and evenly distributed as possible.” The company is supported by $1 billion in commitments and was endorsed by Hawking last year as asafe means for creating AI through an open-source platform.

Of course, there is always the chance our curiositygets the best of us. At that point, we can only hope Google has figured out its kill switch.

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