#very very harmful consequences

[cursed-princess-club]

my apologies if this is out of place on your blog- it's one of the few CPC blogs I know- but am I the only one who feels weird about the whitewashing Frederick's character is going through in fandom right now? like demonizing the CPC (a place literally made of the oppressed) in favor the white, cis, het, oh-so-innocent-and-pure boy? and making it seem like he was completely in the right to be racist to Gwen (unintentional racism is still racism!) and that everything he did was 100% justified and explained.

Again, sorry if I sound like an SJW (can't believe I'm using that term in 2024) but this just really rubs me the wrong way.

NOOOOO I get where you're coming from, you're valid in feeling that way. (also it's totally okay to send me asks! i enjoy talking about cpc :D and i'll do my best to answer them!)

white boy favoritism is definitely a Thing in fandom and. yowch. generally we've seen characters ignorant towards how people on the braided island look where even the cpc thought that gwen was cursed at first (shoutout to molly for being normal about leelathae!). if i remember correctly leelathae's implied that she's human which makes me wonder about the lore... plus I don't really know how defined witches are with their stances in Hashtag Society but i feel like there's probably a social stigma or something there too... are all of them "evil"? are they born witches? do they all have similar traits? Who knows.... and yeahh the braided island inhabitants are a fictional race, but also the coding! the other pastel kids resemble their white father more, and they're technically mixed, while gwen is visibly more like her mother. like being more visibly indigenous or latina but if you were gwen in cpc. which makes me think yk

by definition the cpc is a disabled support group!!. (club my beloved) personally i also like to add queer in there too heh... and also majority of them being women! so they are meant to be representative of the oppressed,, Even if they're all rich princesses. (but i think that's just more because of the setting lol, since they're treated/treat each other like... well... normal people... so i feel like them being rich isn't a point trying to be made. slightly off topic but this is something ive thought of haha) I DO understand what you mean tho and why it rubs you the wrong way. frederick a flawed character that shouldn't be put on a pedestal. same with the others, they're flawed! and i like em. i like frederick! they all grow and change and i like watching their progress! (it does really suck how ignorant the people in universe are though about other races... may be a worldbuilding thing again. i wonder about the other fantasy races in cpc! how different are the wizards and witches seen? and fantasy racism is a whole other topic i don't know if i can bring justice to in a discussion gadiufnhdam)there's a lot that can be argued about how they function and the name and how they treated frederick and tori's argument too but i digress </3 (i'm open to opinions though!) i gotta think more about the worldbuilding and stuff kek

OVERALL!! frederick isn't perfect, the club isn't perfect, but i don't think any of them should be demonized for it because to me that's the whole point!! that nobody's perfect! lol lmao xd welcome to the club yk. imperfect people are just people n stuff

[shorthaltsjester]

maybe this is just because it feels like a metaphor for how tlovm uses vex in general (and i could write an essay about it and have and will again) but something that i both understand tlovm choosing to do and deeply hate as a choice they made is vex no longer being the one to break thordak’s crystal even though vax was still the one to kill him. especially since the show was very explicit about thordak being responsible for killing the twins’ mother and also set it up as a sort of avenging of percy, it felt tonally weird to literally just have vex hanging out in the background for both the crystal breaking and him being killed. it’s fine (deeply upset voice) i understand that adjustments to pike’s vestige made this make sense for the plot but. glad to have vex continue to be a witness in tlovm moments that in the campaign her agency in were delicious character moments. it’s fine.

[a-dragons-journal]

Okay, I'm not being nice about this one: are you guys seriously putting "callouts" in my inbox for misunderstanding/misusing terminology now? Is that what we're doing? What makes you think this is a productive or appropriate way of handling this?

Sit the fuck down and think about your actions for a minute, genuinely. What do you think is going to come of this? What happens when you make a "callout" for someone? They get ostracized at best and harassed and sent death threats and suicide bait at worst. How the actual fuck does that help with a problem of them possibly knowingly misrepresenting but probably literally just misunderstanding a word??? What is your goal here???? You know what actually helps with this problem? Spreading correct information via unrelated posts, or maybe, I don't know, talking to the person, politely, and explaining where they seem to have misunderstood something. And if they're truly insistent on being willfully ignorant, then just, leave them alone. Misusing a word is not a crime worthy of being hurt, harassed, or socially ostracized over. Callouts are almost never worth the damage they do to the person being called out, and it is only when someone is an active danger to other people on a community level.

Go take a fucking walk. Make a post about the correct definitions of words that isn't @/ing and preferably isn't even vaguing someone. Eat a fruit and maybe you'll feel better. Good gods. Sorry I'm being mean about this one, but I don't play around with callouts and other things that get people harassed to the point of suicide.

[dailykugisaki]

Day 331 | id in alt

Kugisaki looking for curse bindings on people my beloved.

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence

[pikmininaplane]

I hope Green team actually dies. I hope Blue team logs on tomorrow, all happy at the thought of getting their friends back, of being able to add some of them to the team, only to realise they're not there and they won't come. I hope Red team realises Soulfire's actions have led to the actual death of their friends, family, husband. I hope this tears Blue team apart, I hope team Bolas calls them out, hates them for murdering their friends. I hope they get so so so much worse <3

[akito-shinonome-daily]

Akito Headcanon #3

akito gets similar bursts of extreme anger to ena. ena lashes out at others, often physically when she angry. since akito would be on the receiving end of these attacks, he decided he wouldn’t attack others like ena.

in order to keep from hurting others, akito bottles up his anger until he gets a chance to run off on his own to vent. because the urge to attack something is still there, akito channels it into something physical.

on good days, this just comes out in the form of exercising. he uses his morning runs to get out any frustration that’s building up so he doesn’t have the urge to take it out on others later.

on bad days, or when his emotions get too strong too quickly, he tries to find something to hit without breaking it. sometimes this means he hurts his hands. when he was having a tough time on vivid street in junior high, he’d duck into an alley and punch the walls. he has some scarring on his knuckles due to this.

it’s also why he punched toya during their fight in the main story. he regrets it a lot and it weighs on him heavily, because he never wanted to attack someone like ena did to him, much less toya, his partner and best friend. he just hasnt learned the skills to keep his cool yet.

[figofswords]

anyone have advice for how to make my cat either a) meaner or b) fear god

[yellowymellon]

You know it would be funny if the actual villain of penacony is the dream master, so far he seems slightly oppressive and questionable, like he ordered the head security of dewlight pavilion to "kill" his family for treason, he doesn't truly care for "death" : it's like he's frantically trying to stop the watchmaker instead of dealing with the current threat, and I at least believe that Gallagher is taking revenge for the watchmaker, that is if he isn't the watchmaker himself.

From his character story - "...Gallagher is my most genuine lie. Sometimes, I can't even distinguish between him and myself."

It also talks Abt his past and how he was fighting for freedom, basically old penacony when he was a prisoner, dreaming of creating a land of ideals. I recently thought Abt how penacony might not be what the watchmaker envisioned so he got displeased with the family, since they're not free from wickedness and evilness . Would be super interesting if Sunday learns the unfiltered truth and gets free from the family teachings (brainwashing) I'm sure as a head he has enough authority to make his own research and reach his own judgement but that's the power of manipulation from early childhood lol. Oti alfalfa did say the watchmaker wasn't a bad person, so would be funny if eventually Sunday teams up with Gallagher LOL

[trans-leek-cookie]

its past midnight and time to yap about Mouthwashing. Anyway obviously we don't see the Specific Events only how the characters react but with Anya... Okay I'm going to talk about the Sexual Assault not with Specific Details but that's what the post is about so

Anyways she reads to me as very like... trying to downplay the severity to herself. Like thinking through it (not having the exact quotes but) I feel like it'd be an unfortunately natural reaction- if you were stuck with 4 guys and the guy with the second highest position on the ship assaulted you depending on the situation. I feel like its not hard to imagine you'd try and reframe it as Less Bad to cope because let me be honest if I had to confront the implications of that, mainly the fact he could do it again and I wouldn't have any real way of dealing with it without complicating things even further bc he doesn't just have a close relationship with the guy with the Most Power on the ship, he also is in charge of keeping Me and The Other People On The Ship Safe, i would be in deep denial just to not lose my god damn mind like thats so fucking scary. And then the implication you tried to talk to the captain and even if he wasn't cruel he didn't Understand the Severity of what you were suggesting is like. Besides feeling afraid it could genuinely really fuck with my own perception bc like "if this guy who I trust says he's not a bad person maybe I'm just overreacting?" is. Again unfortunately understandable.

And again I'll say that Anya fully breaks down when the news breaks that pony express is fucked and like. 1. I think that's related to her own finances (and also. Literally just realized the way an abortion could interact badly with "no savings" like I Just Processed that fact. Like I knew "oh if she couldn't abort having to support a child wouldn't just be traumatic but also fucking nightmarish finance wise" but even having an abortion could make things so much harder.) 2. Jimmy LASHES OUT at Curly OPENLY. again based on my interpretation of Mildly In Denial To Cope this would. Like. Really fuck with that because it goes from "I trust the captain and I don't want to be afraid of my crewmate for a year" to "oh he is willing to verbally abuse the captain, who is his friend" and realizing I wasn't overreacting.

I also wanna point to the dead pixel conversation and obv it's symbolic but idk if it's meant as "there's a dead pixel that Anya noticed and she's using the topic to like test the waters" or if it's "anya is literally just trying to figure out Curly's thought process" which isn't like super important but like. Focusing on the way she starts the conversation by saying that she "Likes the illusion the screen has". (I don't remember the exact words sorry) But that's really interesting to me bc obviously you can read into Curly not seeing the dead pixel and instead focusing on the bigger picture (and how the dead pixel "doesn't ruin the illusion") but I think it's really interesting that Anya starts by talking Positively about the screen even though the dead pixel is there (and she can't stop thinking about it)

Like thinking through implications option 1: she's talking about the screen and uses the dead pixel to get a feel for how Curly responds to her bringing up issues

2: she's being entirely metaphorical and still trying to sort of self soothe- seeking external validation that the dead pixel Isn't Actually That Big A Deal (and therefore she's just overthinking)

3: idk how to phrase this exactly but ppl have talked Abt the way she talks to Jimmy, how it indicates a sort of "Fawn" response where she tries to keep him calm with compliments and stuff, and her talking about "enjoying the illusion" is her trying to do something similar with Curly- essentially starting the metaphor by downplaying the issue

Anyway. I don't know if I have a full conclusion but another thing is I think ppl need to acknowledge that while Curly fucked up and harmed Anya (mainly thru inaction). He's not uniquely shitty. Most people will be in a situation where they act similarly, and that DOES NOT JUSTIFY HIS ACTIONS. I AM NOT SAYING CURLY IS ANY BETTER. I am saying that you need to be able to recognize your capacity for harm thru inaction and understand that like. He's not uniquely terrible he's just Normal Levels Of Unhelpful, which in a situation like Anya's is Dangerous

Like. Basically you can say "fuck jimmy fuck curly" all you want but you need to be able to understand that everyone including yourself has the same capacity for harm

[thought-42]

A thing I keep coming back to when thinking about Calamity is how, in another story, Zerxus and Laerryn would have been heros. Like we talk about villain-coding our characters but in some cases that can be so dependant on what the in-story environment is and also what genre they exist in. Zerxus, especially-- I feel like in young adult fiction and nineties/2000s sci-fi movies, the whole point of the narreative was demonstrating that large systems/institutions cannot be trusted, especially those that provide you with one narrative that you're meant to adopt as your history and is meant to inform your entire belief system. If Zerxus had done exactly what he'd done in a dystopian novel/movie, listened to someone who society told him was bad, didn't fully trust him but gave him an opportunity? He'd be the change agent that revealed the dark truths of his society and we'd all be cheering for him. Laerryn I would not call a hero in a different context, but I also have a hard time reading her as a villain even within the canon (but I'm biased). What I will say, is do we all remember that Star Trek (or similar space opera show of your choice) episode where the secret project that somebody was working on saved the day? Or countless pieces of media where acting instantly and thoughtlessly to save someone you care about is romanticized? Yeah. Anyway, disclaimers, this is purely my own reading of the text, I'm probably wrong, I am not in any way saying that what they did didn't have horrific consequences. I am just saying that if we scooped up at least half of the Calamity gang and plunked them down in a different genre and they took the same actions, they'd be the good guys without question.

[johnny-depplyloveyou]

I know there are many bad takes about Gale on this site, but the worst takes I’ve seen on another social media site in another language are much more abhorrent than anything here tbh, the recent one I’ve seen even gets some popularity among his “fans”... They were basically saying it’s Mystra who made him the humble man he is now, without her influence on him he would be as egotistical as in his god ending, and more than a hundred of reblogs are all thanking Mystra for “training her lapdog so well” for them🤢

Did we even play the same game? Isn’t his god ending a direct result of Mystra making him think he will never be enough as he is, and he can only find his self-worth through gaining more power? Didn’t Tara say he’s not himself anymore and she would no longer be his companion in his god ending, she knew him long before Mystra made him her chosen, he was powerful enough before his relationship with Mystra, if he’s anything like god!Gale at the time wouldn’t Tara just leave him? I’d imagine he would have been more confident and had a more stable self-image if Mystra had never contacted him, therefore he didn’t even need the Gale of Waterdeep persona. He would always have been Gale Dekarios in that timeline. And people glorifying Mystra’s grooming and abuse towards him and unironically calling him “her lapdog” is just... I have no words. But what do you expect from an online space that’s infested with terfs and radfems? They just won’t recognize or acknowledge any abuse from women towards men...

[pekoeboo]

crying because i'm thinking about the Nuance involved with my characters and their backstories and the complexities of good intentions vs selfish behavior causing harm to others and i CANT EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS via art or writing. HOW are people supposed to know how complex and deep these characters are if i dont draw or write it out tho!!!!!! ugh

[townofcadence]

48. Is there anyone that they would willingly kill?

Not So Nice OC Asks

"I would rather find an alternate solution when I can....but there have been cases, yes. Sometimes letting someone keep doing what they are just means they'll make more victims."

[some-stars]

also, all posts about voting aside, i think i'm at a point where i'm ready to talk to my activist friend about how i can help a lot more without being on the front lines because. it's just. i think this is the worst thing i've ever seen in my life.

[spaceratprodigy]

one of my favorite things abt how faith reacts to max in fallbrook arc is her being directly faced with her own hypocrisy