#we're all traumatized in this fandom aren't we?

[rainybeetles]

I say this with love but

Holy shit

I dont have a lot of fears beetlejuice fic writers

They scare me

*Cough cough* @rosiebeetle

[ariaste]

Apparently there was some lil drama in Good Omens fandom again about people being deeply nervous and scared of the end of Season 3, and I wrote this in the replies of one of the asks that Neil Gaiman answered, but I feel like it is deserving of being crossposted into its own post (in a slightly expanded form) so folks actually see it.

cmere, good omens fandom, we're having an intervention. a Come To Jesus talk, if you will.

First of all, I'm literally begging the fandom to:

learn what personal boundaries are, especially around parasocial relationships with strangers. (Suggestion: When sending asks to authors you like, use "polite work email" etiquette, not "joking with a friend" etiquette. The latter comes off REAL weird sometimes, and sometimes outright mean/rude/bullying).

take a couple deep fucking breaths

embrace the philosophy of The Author's Intent Only HAS To Matter To The Author, It Does Not Have To Matter To YOU. If you do not like the author's intent, you can say "hmmmm no thanks" and write some fanfic. That's what it's for.

Friends, Romans, countrymen..... Stop trying to make Neil Gaiman responsible for your happiness. For one thing, that is an absolutely unfair and cruel burden to put on a stranger who doesn't know you. Neil is only responsible for Neil's happiness. You're responsible for your own happiness. In fact, do not rely on ANY external source to guarantee your happiness, not even very nice people like Neil, not even your significant other, not even your family members. Yes, those people might be able to help you with your happiness, but they cannot guarantee it. Expecting a third party to guarantee your happiness is how corporations exploit you, and it is the source of all media trauma. Take agency over your own joy! Don't give away your power! Plan to DIY your personal ideal ending!

Neil is not telepathic, Neil cannot know all your hopes and dreams and wishes, nor SHOULD he be expected to know them, nor does he have space to know them. He is busy with things like his own and Terry's hopes and dreams and wishes. Their hopes/dreams/wishes are just as valid and important as yours, aren't they? Yes, they are. So calm down. caaaaaaaallllllm dowwwwwn.

Yes, I love the show very much too, but at the end of the day it is just a story. And the great thing about stories is that you are empowered to retell them in a different way. It is not real, so if you end up unsatisfied by S3, then blithely impose your own reality and build your own joy. It's not like it's the End Of The World or anything (lil fandom joke there for you)

And look, if you read this and you're feeling Mad and Upset or Frustrated about it, that is a symptom that you are maybe feeling a little stung in your Media Trauma parts. I am sorry that other stories have let you down in the past, and I really sympathize that you are feeling scared about the fate of this story that really matters to you. You've invested a lot of love into it! I really understand the fear! You don't want to be hurt again, and that's super understandable and normal.

But bestie, literally the only way for you to find a story that's exactly perfect for you and that won't hurt you at all is for you to write it yourself. I know that sucks to hear, but it is the truth. If you keep pinning a hope of perfection on other people's stories, you will keep getting traumatized by the media you consume. Love other people's stories for what they ARE, not for the stories that you WANTED them to be -- the same way that we love people, you know? You have to let a person be their own person; you can't force them to be someone else. That's fucked up, so if you notice that you keep trying to do that, maybe go to therapy so you can be that Someone-Else person for yourself (or, if you can't afford therapy, read some self-help books from the library or find some good channels on Youtube who make content that might help with that (I really like JulienHimself)).

If you need a story to be something big and important for you, if you are seeking catharsis and healing from a story that matters to you and you're really scared that you won't get it, then open a Word document and start typing. You can do it. You're a human being, and you evolved to tell stories. Literally it's a species specialization. You got this. It's gonna be okay, because you're going to seize the means of production and MAKE it okay. Yes? Yes.

Good Omens S3 will be what it will be. It will be what Neil wants it to be and what Terry would have wanted it to be. Period. That IS actually the highest achievement and the most noble and admirable accomplishment that we can hope for. And hey, maybe what they want overlaps with what you want, and that will be wonderful! But that will be merely a happy coincidence. The only person who can TRULY center your wants is YOU. So stop trying to trap Neil into doing it, please, because he's busy and it's not his job, AND because your wants do matter and you deserve to have someone who can give your wants their 100% full attention (aka you. that's you. only you can do that. Not even your best friends in the world can do it. Not even your mom can do it, at least not if you're old enough to know how to read.)

It's gonna be okay. Really. Really, it is. No, stop typing the snarky melodramatic reply. This is not the time for jokes; I'm being serious. It's going to be okay. Neil Gaiman can only break your heart exactly as much as you allow him to do so. That's how art works. You have to consent in order to be affected by it, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. You're going to be okay. I promise. As long as you choose to claim your own agency and your own empowerment as an individual, then all will be well and all manner of things will be well.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Alright, so there's been a lot of chatter about some of the most common racist takes in the fandom lately, and I know most people aren't engaging in good faith but I'm gonna spell some things out anyway. Here's a handy-dandy White Fan's Intro to Racist Fanon 101

Why is it racist to depict Ed as uncontrollably violent?

Because he's not actually depicted that way in the show. OFMD goes out of its way to depict Ed's relationship with violence as complex and intensely traumatic for him. Because he has so many hangups around violence, Ed is one of the least violent characters in a show full of violent characters. He is always shown giving people many chances before they're able to push him into reacting with violence.

Even if you think you're just doing a character study on a guy who is really very complex and nuanced, please take the time to consider if you're assigning more weight to Ed's violent actions than those of other characters or assuming he's worse than he actually is (for example, Ed never physically hurt the crew during his kraken spiral, just Izzy. His crime was being a shitty boss, not going on mindlessly violent rampages).

What do other common fanon depictions of Ed that are racist look like?

The biggest ones are depicting Ed as untidy/messy, as illiterate, and as needing a white man (most often Izzy) to clean up after him. I hope I shouldn't have to spell out why these are racist, but please keep an eye out for them in the fanon you consume so you can be critical of how you respond when they pop up.

Are you saying that all Izzy fans are racist?

Liking a character is morally neutral. Insisting that the viewpoint of an antagonistic character is the lens through which the show should be understood, though, especially when that antagonistic character's whole deal in the first season of the show was trying to control the behavior of the brown lead so he could gain power for himself, however...

Just please consider - why do you find Izzy's tears more deserving of sympathy and compassion than Ed's?

But my hot take/fic/meta doesn't say anything about Ed's skin color!

It doesn't have to. Most of the racist takes/fic/meta out there don't mention Ed's skin color explicitly. Racism doesn't just look like saying "this character is a brown man so he's bad." Everyone who grows up in a racist society (that's everyone on the planet, btw, you included) has biases to unlearn, and those biases impact how you interact with the world around you, including with the media you consume.

The thing is, OFMD isn't a subtle show. It's very consistent with telling us who Ed is, how he responds to situations, and why he behaves the way he does. If you find it easier to throw all that aside in favor of believing what a white antagonistic character tells you about him, then you should really take a bit to examine that.

And here's the most important thing to keep in mind:

This is not about you.

Trust me, it has to be pretty damn bad for fans of color to call out racism in fandom. Every time we do, we know we're gonna harrassment and just some truly awful shit in our inboxes. But you, random white fan who Did A Racism? No one is out to get you. No one thinks you're an awful person for including a racist trope in your stuff, we just wish you'd examine it so we can make this fandom a better place for everyone.

I have had amazing discussions with white fans who saw my posts on fandom racism and wanted a sensitivity read or a check so they could fix an instance where they uncritically included a racist trope. But most people who make similar mistakes will just double down and insist they didn't do anything wrong, and that makes fandom a worse place for all of us.

Fans of color deserve to feel safe and included in this fandom, and we're just tired of feeling like we have to beg to get some circles to see poc as people. You can do your part by being critical of these tropes and your reactions to them when they pop up.

[fuzziemutt]

On the views of Rio in relation to Miguel within fandom

There's something I'm commonly seeing that has been worrying me which is the depictions of Rio "latina mom-ing" Miguel.

This includes Rio:

- slapping him

- coming at him with "the chancla"

- "dressing him down" verbally or yelling

- humiliating him

- straight up just... Beating him up

And I'm bringing this up because guys... This shit be low-key racist. I know racism towards latines has already been a problem (Yes. I am gesturing to the everything that is how Miguel is treated within the fandom), but I personally wanted to bring up this issue as well as I'm unsure if others have talked about it- and we all know how suck ass searching anything on this site is.

Anyways, I won't lie. I don't know how many latines are making these jokes, but it being so prevalent being her "main" interactions makes me feel even if it started as a latine joke, it sure as hell didn't stay that way.

But the depiction of Latina women as fierce, aggressive and (yes it is) straight up physically abusive (in general words) is a major fucking Problem. Latinas are often depicted in media as these "feisty exotic women" who takes no shit. Perpetuating that with Rio does not feel as #girl power as you guys might think. It feels like a step back in treating latinas not as these power houses but as... Y'know... People who aren't depicted as aggressors 24/7....

But also I really hate this cutesy look at what is a serious issue within latine communities. It's always "ha ha funny" seeing a Latina mom beating someone's ass but guys. That is still physical abuse. That is a serious issue and discussion that is held within the latine community. And seeing it so casually assigned to Rio kind of makes me feel sick.

And this isn't even tacking on that you're having a Latina beating/acting aggressive towards a canonical child abuse survivor (yes. Miguel is a child abuse survivor.) Which adds a whole new layer of how shitty this actually is.

Because I hate how people are boiling Rio down to just being an aggressor towards Miguel to "put him in his place". That's discrediting her character so badly.

Yes, latinas can be strong. Yes, latinas can be angry. Yes, latinas can get aggressive.

These are things people are and do because people are complex.

But I really need the fandom to stop for a second and really think about how they saw Rio, witnessed her give her heart on the screen, - a mom who's trying so hard to break these cycles of yelling and humiliation with kindness and understanding (even being a foil to Jeff's strong headed approach on purpose) -

took her and said "she would perpetuate a real cycle of abuse towards a fellow latino because he's the 'bad one'" and laughed.

I know you guys are depicting her like this as a means to defend Miles, but maybe not like this. Her character doesn't deserve being so bastardized like this for your stolen joke.

(which this whole "need" to defend him in the first place points right back to the racism towards Miguel if we're honest. I have complex thoughts on Miguel's interactions with Miles especially involving the end train scene but boiling a traumatized Latino man down to just being an "aggressive threat" that needs to be "put in place" as I've mentioned above is racist as hell too.)

You guys can reblog this, but don't fucking guilt trip people into reblogging this okay? I'm not giving you brownie points for that shit.

[matan4il]

911 ep 707 first watch reactions

Oh man, I'm actually not sure I have that much to say about this ep.

The entire plot with Mara and her brother Tyson was very sweet, very nice, and way too convenient. One day, shows are going to stop using the phrase, "There must be something you can do!" like it's some secret magic phrase, that makes this sentiment into a reality, AND turns the person addressed into someone willing to risk everything, in order to do that one thing they can do, which is usually something they're very much not supposed to... That said, Denny was sweet, Mara was lovely, her with Tyson was very endearing, and Henren continued to rule.

The storyline with Maddie was nicely handled, both her trauma, and the way Chim helped her use it to figure out the case and help save everyone from the stalker. My little Madney heart absolutely loved it. And Maddie's distress over a baby involved felt very real and understandable, when she's a mom herself now.

But then in a sense, it was clear this has no long term repercussions, other than bringing Brad into contact with Bobby. With his burn scars, and what we know about the fire that Bobby caused in the past, we can guess where this is headed. I trust that 911 will delve into this coming clash with the same humaneness with which it tackles most storylines.

But I'll be honest, I don't really like where Eddie's headed. I know Shannon scarred him deeply, but he was able to let go of her, and allow her to walk away from him twice while she was alive. It's weird if it's now being implied that the reason why he was never able to move on to another serious r/s is that he was stuck on her. The way she died was traumatic and painful, and it made sense that, even accepting that they as a couple were over, he had a hard time dealing with her death, but Eddie seemingly moved on in s4 at the latest. It feels a bit like they don't really know what to do with him, and how to move him on, so they keep going in circles with his character. Kinda like they were with Buck in s6. None of what we saw in that season helped Buck get to some major breakthroughs that we've seen in this one, so this current storyline with Eddie might end in the same way.

I'm not saying it doesn't have the potential to move him forward, and I'm sure it will be presented as if it has whether it actually does or doesn't (kinda like how 618 presented Buck and Natalia as a move forward, even though it very obviously was not), but right now, I'm not enjoying it. I also... even with this idea of having Eddie run into a Shannon look-a-like, I feel they could have gone in a lot of different ways, and the one where he goes on a date with her while having a serious gf he's essentially cheating on, it just doesn't feel great, or true to Eddie's values. Which can be the point, right? That sometimes we're so shaken up, we do stuff that's uncharacteristic. If that's where they'll take it, then it's working, 'coz right now, everything about this feels a little off. Let's hope they do something actually constructive with this, and give Eddie real progress (rather than just give Tim an opportunity to re-use an actress he already said he really likes).

Small mandatory Buddifer moment was really lovely, even if far from what my shipper heart would want. Then again, I honestly feel it's so funny that Buck is dating Tommy, while being married to Eddie, his actual baby daddy. If there aren't a lot of fics shipping all three men already, then IDK fandom.

Thank you for reading! If you’re looking for more, you can find my s7 reactions tag here, and more of my Buddie meta and content in my pinned post. xoxox

[all-pacas]

Can you talk more about the whole "Chase and 13 as siblings" deal? I've seen it everywhere,but they seemed more like ordinary friends to me. Neither of them gave me the "found family" vibes.

To be clear, it's totally fanon. They are not found family in canon, they aren't even super good friends. I'm pretty sure it comes from the common perception in fandom that they're House's favorites/the ones who view him and/or are viewed by him as his children. Which I guess makes them siblings? (I don't even think, technically speaking, that's true — House doesn't think of either of them as his kids tbh.) I am a huge enjoyer of it, though, so I can only give my reasoning; the short version is I think they have a lot of potential in this direction.

So first of all, the two of them are like. Lowkey so alike. Like the venn diagram of them is sort of just a circle. They both had traumatic family histories involving mothers who died young and who they resented/'hated.' They're both intensely private people, 13 going ahead and making that a meme but Chase just as good at it as she is. They both have histories on the show of sleeping around and engaging in reckless behaviors as a reaction to depression/trauma; they do both have close relationships with House, I think it's overstated a little in fandom but it's also true; House and 13 are obviously very close but Chase has a whole pair of S8 episodes highlighting the same; he's also the fellow House has known the longest, who stayed the longest. They're both perceptive and bright and have similar senses of humor.

As you said, they are friends. They enjoy one another's company, we see they have fun hanging out. 13 alludes to going drinking with Chase sometimes in Last Temptation. After Hours proves that Chase knows where 13 lives, that she can call him past midnight and he'll show up no questions asked. Despite both being super private and secretive, they know one another's darkest secrets: Chase is the only person besides House 13 has told about killing her brother and going to prison. 13 is the only person besides Cameron Chase has told about Dibala. (House and Foreman figured that one out on their own. Also, last time he told someone it ended his marriage, so it's kind of Insane he tells 13. Like. Wow.) 13 went a year not telling anyone her name, Chase wouldn't even confirm he was catholic when House guessed it, and yet these two tell one another things. Even in Private Lives, before they really knew one another, Chase and 13 were having serious heart-to-hearts about the divorce and whether or not Chase was pretty; these just… aren't conversations he, at least, has with other people.

Also, let's be frank. The show was setting them up to fuck. I think some of this is meant to be ship tease, in all honesty. Chase outright propositions her. One of their earliest bonding episodes is Private Lives, which has a sort of flirty bit at the end and is all about their failed romances. But thankfully — because we all know how much the show sucks at romance — it never happened. So what we're left with is two characters who are weirdly close, have a weird amount of heart to heart moments and bonding (like… compare Foreman and Chase, who have known one another forever but never have these sort of sincere 'moments'), and are incredibly similar. And who also are often framed specifically as 'House's children,' if not as as unit: Chase is the prodigal son, 13 calls herself the prodigal daughter. 'siblings' make sense. People also don't really like to ship them, myself included, although tbh they make a good amount of sense on paper. Maybe because of the built in messiness (she's Foreman's ex, technically; she leaves the show for long stretches; the show sucks at romance), maybe because people love found family, maybe because folks definitely prefer to lean into 13 dating women. And because people don't want to think of them as romantic options for one another, how do you define a relationship between a pair of very attractive people without letting that be a factor? Make them siblings!

For what it's worth, I don't actually think they're siblings, or that they think of one another as that. I think they're good friends. But they're also so alike, and open up to one another in pretty unique ways (especially for Chase), and get along well. In a weird way, I think the fact that they probably were attracted to one another and could have slept together but didn't makes them closer in my eyes: they both sleep around at the first chance, so that they didn't (by chance or choice) means they got to build an entirely different relationship. They're both lonely, they've both outlived family, they're both lowkey sort of depressed. And the idea that they could have a family in one another (Chase, for one, admits in S8 he pretty badly would like one) just really appeals to me. (With the added tragedy, of course, that it could only last a decade or so) I think they're good for one another, in that they have a "no questions asked" friendship, they know one another's worst secrets, and those secrets run parallel enough that they get it. And so even though they aren't siblings… I kinda want them to be, you know? :)

[bibibbon]

if we're talking personality disorders (of the cluster b variety). obvi its not 1=1 but its far more likely and reasonable to say toga has bpd (with izuku or ochako being her "favorite person") than aspd. also when people call villains (or characters they don't like (← seen this one more than the first tbh)) "unsympathetic psychopaths", it really feels like they know nothing about aspd, personality disorders, and how they form. It also just feels kind of ableist towards real people with aspd? idk maybe i'm seeing things that's aren't there

These people know that aspd (and other personality disorders) form due to outside factors right? obvi there's the genetic factors but that just increases the possibility. these outside factors typically tends to be factors that is in some way traumatic for the person in question like emotional/mental abuse or neglect (*gestures to dabi*)

if anything, based off of that alone, toga being a "psychopath" just makes her more sympathetic in my eyes and people around her even more unsympathetic than they already are and I doubt anyone calling her a "psychopath" without aspd in mind wants that

.

.

.

this is also how i feel about people needless throwing around the word "narcissistic"* when it comes describing bakugo. (saying this as someone isn't a fan of him). bakugo with npd** could make him a more interesting if written correctly*** tbh and could probably be backed up in canon but in turn it would force people to seriously think and question if he actually had a good childhood and good parents… which from what i've seen alot of anti-bakugo people (including the ones that call him a "narcissistic") believe he has

*i'm sure there's bakugo stans out there call him "narcissistic" without npd in mind but atm i've only seen bakugo antis do that

**same with aspd

***without portraying bakugo as an ableist stereotype and/or excusing his actions

.

sorry abt the rant i'm just tired of the demonization surrounding personality disorders

You're definitely correct anon in saying that people tend to use words they either don't know the full meaning of or just mental health issues to demonise characters they don't like and this is a problem within all fandoms I have interacted with not only MHA.

When people use the words "psychopath" or "narcissist" it's rare to see them using it in the right context as most of the time it's used to demonise a character. For example take atla I have seen plenty of people label azula a psychopath but they do that to demonise and dehumanise her not to actually say that she is mentally ill. The same thing is done with characters like toga, Dabi, shigaraki and more!

Now I know that you're mainly quoting of the ask that @sapphic-agent sent me and actually she has made it clear that she doesn't view toga as psychopath and actually brought light to the issue of people dehumanising and purposefully misinterpreting the leauge. Now I don't know much about aspd in general but from what I have seen toga does seem to have some symptoms of aspd but it also makes sense to speculate that she may have BPD (none of this is cannonically confirmed but they would make for some interesting headcanons). Also like you mentioned it would be incredibly interesting to explore how toga got to such a mental state in the first place as mental health issues can happen to a variety of reasons for example or could be an environmental or social issue as we see that toga wasn't given the right support at home and was taught to simply build a mask and burry her urges deep down until it all broke and she broke, toga associated blood and cannibalism with love and self expression from early on. Also, it could be a biological factor since toga was born with a strong fascination for blood.

Overall, toga and her mental state is heavily influenced from all of those factors and it would be interesting if she was cannoncially diagnosed and had that be explored in depth.

However, mha does already have a character who is heavily implied to be mentally ill which is twice. Twice is heavily implied within the show to suffer from DID (dissociative identity disorder) and I think the way horikoshi presents this is really interesting it's to the point that it's incredibly integral to twice's character whether that be his name or what his quirk is.

We see exactly how his mental state worsens in his backstory and how he has reached his breaking point multiple times. Twice is also presented as the most redeemable of the leauge and we see that even with that the system doesn't care for him as twice mercilessly kills him even though he had a high and good chance of being saved and redeemed.

I do wish that hori spent a bit more time delving deeper into twice and developing him before killing him off while also making his death have a long lasting impact between characters (specifically the league)

I think what's interesting is that hori doesn't demonise jin for his mental issues but addresses them in a serious manner and a lot of the scenes where we do see him struggling we are able to feel a lot of sympathy for him.

This ends up being the exact opposite of what people usually do by demonising mental health and using it to dehumanise characters. Horikoshi uses it to humanise his characters whether that be twice who struggles with DID or tamaki who struggles with social anxiety. These issues are brought to light and aren't a one time thing but it's something that's integral to their character.

Now, moving onto my final comment : yep it's bakugo!

I admit that I have seen many bakugo antis and critiques label bakugo as a narcissist. I also believe that they don't inherently speak of the mental disorder when labeling him in such a way but use the word in exchange of other terms for bakugo like self 'absorbed' or 'selfish' or 'only cares for himself' etc.

Now, I agree this is bad and shouldn't be done. I do however want to offer my own view on this subject (iam also a big bakugo critic/anti) I personally don't think that bakugo suffers from Narcissistic personality disorder and I don't think that mitsuki is abusive towards her son.

I think that the scene with mitsuki hitting bakugo was played in a comedic light. This is the only scene we see mitsuki act aggressive towards bakugo in the whole manga while in the other scene she expresses concern over her son (for example katsuki doesn't like rain etc). I think @delawaredetroit post surrounding this has the best explanation

I also want to add the fact that bakugo feels comfortable enough to sit next his mother. He is right in between his parents (he could of sat away from her closer to his father if he wanted to but he didnt). Bakugo also feels comfortable enough to express himself in such a manner whether that be him calling his mother "hag" or also shouting at her when he is equally pissed off.

I do think that because the manga had already made it clear that abuse was a theme that was in the story and gave us an example of abuse (the todoroki family) that many did raise their heads at this scene and may of been concerned that this is abuse when it's not but its hard to spot since it's being presented in such a weird manner.

You do have a point bakugo's behaviour comes from somewhere and that's not talked about enough. I personally think that horikoshi didn't explore how society influenced bakugo's behaviour and his raging quirkless discrimation (maybe it's because hori didn't want to paint bakugo in such a bad light so he didn't make him prejudiced against the quirkless and didn't explore the theme of quirkless discirmation that he implemented into the story). There is also the superiority and inferiority complexes that bakugo seems to have that could be a result of a mixture of factors (biological, social and environmental) Now his brash behaviour could come biologically from his mother and it turned worse due to his environment where he was built up to be this guy who had everything so he should be happy as he fits into the status quo.

Tldr: mental health shouldn't be used as an excuse but it also shouldn't be used to demonise characters either.

[69consellationsinatrenchcoat]

✨Welcome to 69 Constellations* in a Trenchcoat✨

*alters (our increasingly misnamed system blog, we don't have 69 alters.)

Welcome to CC's little corner of the internet. We go by Constellation, or the Consellation Collective.

We have medically recognised dissociative identity disorder (DID), diagnosed PTSD, autism, ADHD, and a variety of chronic illnesses… we're a bit of a medical problem.

We tend to post a mix of things we enjoy and informative content.

A lot of our posts are posted from queue, so you may be speaking with a different alter than who is currently making posts and we aren't online all the time :)

Things we post a lot about: DID, OSDD & other CDDs, mental health, psychology, disability, neurodiversity, LGBTQ+, books, fanfic, heartstopper, zelda, minecraft, pjo, musicals, kaos, disney, pixar, music, cats, philosophy, enneagram & mbti, poetry, art, dnd, hermitcraft, fourth wing, warrior cats, arcane.... um, #totally missing some things, but that's okay

.°˖✧ Meet the Team ✧˖°.

Amber they/she (🔥)

Kaden, they/he (🐚

Kyle, he/him (💜)

Lillia, she/her (🪻)

Wild, they/she/he (🗡️)

Eddie, they/he (🌻)

Ash, they/them (🌿)

Following some concerns around privacy, we have removed all alter intros, apologies.

Some of us don't post here and/or don't want info up. They may post at their leisure, but will usually sign off in the tags with "posted by [emoji]"

Poster lists will remain incomplete, and alters go by pseudonyms for privacy.

.°˖✧ System Info ✧˖°.

We go by Constellation and use they/them pronouns. We're bodily an adult, bi, polyam (though we just say queer), and as far as we're aware, an INFJ 1w2 125 overall.

We post in British English, usually fkgkjgfkjk. Pls, stop saying we're spelling things wrong just because we spell colour with a 'U'.

We're studying to become a psychologist… which… is fun when you have experience with a lot of the things they talk about lol

.°˖✧ Syscourse ✧˖°.

If discussing system origins, we prefer to have measured and respectful discussions, or to avoid it all together.

We recognise that experiences with multiplicity and plurality vary drastically, and that spiritual multiplicity exists and is recognised in the DSM-V-TR, as are DID and OSDD.

Multiplicity is a controversial topic within psychological communities and that there are varying opinions on the existence of non-trauma sourced multiples.

We avoid the 'fandom' attitude to DID as we believe that we should not be watering system experience to the belief that it's fun to have alters, as it invalidates negative experiences. However, there is joy in this disorder.

As with every community, certain things shared in multiplicity spaces are completely false, and we disagree with on a fundamental level. For example, system hopping does not exist (alters, created by one mind cannot magically appear in another's mind unless that system has split an introject [factive] based upon that alter), selling alters is wrong, impossible and immoral, etc

To have DID, individuals must reach certain diagnostic criteria, including showing amnesia between personality states. Some clinicians argue that for a diagnosis of DID to be valid, one must also reach diagnostic criteria for PSTD, meaning you can't have DID without traumatic experiences - however, that does not mean plurality doesn't exist outside DID.

We want to see some solid research into all plural experiences (including those who report non traumagenic origins) but unfortunately there aren't many people doing the research.

There's enough evidence to suggest that plural experiences do exist outside of trauma and that suggests that something is psychologically 'unusual' with those who report plurality outside of trauma.

Traumagenic plurality and various non-traumagenic plural experiences are two different things, however there is overlap. Creating separate language for traumagenic multiples, and endogenic multiples is something we believe may help to create clearer divisions within the communitie; limiting confusion between when a systems is speaking about traumagenic experience, or endogenic experience.

A vast majority of young teens who identify as endogenic or plural without trauma are misinterpreting experiences as a teen by placing labels on things that may perpetuate harmful beliefs. We don't wish to dismiss anyone's experiences by stating that teens cannot be systems (they absolutely can be), however, certain parts of the online system communities, especially system related discords, can be harmful to developing brains and developing personalities.

That being said, we are a diagnosed DID system, and the majority of our posting will be about our experiences with DID, and we will, mostly, interact with trauma based posting. :)

TLDR: our syscourse stance is complicated and each alter in our system has different opinions on it — but basically we believe that endogenic systems do experience multiplicity, just in a different way to disorders like DID, OSDD and P-DID.

Remember, your brain doesn't finish the majority of its development until you're in your mid-twenties!

°˖✧ Tagging system ✧˖°.

#Posted by [emoji/name]: posted by that alter

#CC original post: an original post by someone in the system

#CC original poetry: original poems by us

#CC favs: favourite posts

#constellation collective theming

#CC important posts

this is all pretty self-explanatory

.°˖✧ Please don't follow if.. ✧˖°.

You are here with the intent to be homophobic, transphobic, queerphobic, sexist, etc. Please don't be an ass.

You're a neo-nazi. Just no. Fuck off.

If you are "transautistic" or support transautism (autistic trans people are welcome, I am referring to the bullshit that is transitioning from allistic to autistic; I am not wasting my breath explaining why that is impossible). Trans ID aren't welcome either.

You are under the age of 16. This blog occasionally contains sexual content (no visuals), experiences and triggering content, and we want to keep you safe. We aren't entirely happy with minors interacting but, 17+ is fine.

Do not interact with any of our content if you post screenshots to r/systemscringe. Yes, sometimes people do shit for attention, but mocking them publicly is not okay. Go away, you are not welcome here.

Our DMs are open :)

/// blinkie & flash warning ///

blinkies made using blinkies cafe

plain text: [medically recognised DID system], [this system is neurodivergent], [I ended up trans, don't ask how], [ambulatory wheelchair user], [disabled DID system], [due to personal reasons, this user is bisexual], [caution: stubborn fuck], [psychology degree loading..] [we like stars lol] [AuDHD], [chronically ill, chronically tired], [f*ck this shit], [healing takes time], [ironically we can't deal with blinkies due to flash sensitivity]

[smile, you're beautiful]

[xerith-42]

Stop blaming characters for bad writers

Seriously, stop fucking doing this. While this is a post that could certainly be applicable to MANY fandoms, I'm mainly directing this whole rant at my target audience which is mentally ill minecraft obsessed freaks.

If a character is written badly, gets badly fumbled by the creator, or has the ball dropped in regards to their arc in some way, a lot of people will blame the character, as if they're a real conscious person making these decisions. When they aren't. They're a block man literally being controlled by two people who just aren't very good writers and one or both of them are incredibly sexist, kind of racist, ableist, and just bad writers in general.

Yeah, Laurance does some pretty shitty things through out Season 2 of MCD, actively crossing lines he wouldn't have previously crossed. We as fans can cope by saying something something calling, or just saying Laurance is a bad abusive person, but the reality is that the writers wanted to force the series to fit a specific vision and as a result were willing to do anything to get the series to that point. In order to make Aaron the most favorable suitor for Aphmau, her previous suitors need to be out of the picture, or clearly inferior options.

Garroth suffered the out of the picture, being mostly absent outside of a few cutscenes here and there until episode 81 of season 2, but episode 81 is the culmination of the writers goals to make Aarmau happen. By the time Garroth has returned to the series, the damage has already been done. He's not getting the life he wants. And Laurance is written out of the picture as well, but only after being shown to be inferior because Jesson were pushing an agenda.

Laurance didn't deteriorate as a person due to neglect of his physical and mental well being after a severely traumatic experience. He deteriorated as a character because the writers stopped giving as much of a shit about him and instead were using the series as self indulgent fanfiction of alternate versions of themselves. That's not Laurance's fault.

And this applies to any character who was completely fumbled in MyStreet due to this similar focus on wish fulfillment from the writers. Jess has stated that the relationship between Aphmau and Aaron in Phoenix Drop High is reflective of her relationship with Jason, we all know this. This means that any characters who come off as total fucking creeps in that series (namely Gene), are not actually acting on the whims of their own autonomy or desires as characters. They are acting in service of telling a predetermined story that they are retroactively being added into for author fulfillment.

In this regard I fully support fandom cope and say that you should rewrite your little guys to your hearts content. But if you're going to criticize these characters for their actions, don't criticize them. They didn't do anything wrong. All characters are just puppets in service of the story or themes a writer is trying to push. If a character acts in an objectively terrible way, especially a way that isn't in line with their previous characterizations, that is a failing of the writers, not the character.

And I feel like largely a lot of us can and frequently do this. We're actively criticizing Jesson for being terrible low-key bigoted writers all the god damn time, it's like half of the content here. But when we get into character discourse I feel like some people cling onto bad actions of the canon too closely and I've seen more than a few posts presume some pretty terrible interpretations of characters based on these actions. Obviously Laurance is a character I and a lot of others are fixated on so a lot of discourse revolves around him, and it was seeing some... interesting takes on him that prompted me to start writing this post.

But this happens to everyone. Quite personally based on the character I was shown in MyStreet, it feels really weird that Garroth would make an insensitive comment about his brother's weight. Yeah siblings poke fun at each other and often cross lines, but if that was something Zane was seriously insecure about (which it seems like he might be) then it does make Garroth come off as a really insensitive brother, which just doesn't gel with how hard he tries to bond with Zane despite their tense relationship. And I don't think Garroth should be criticized for making those comments.

Whoever wrote those lines (Jess and/or Jason) should be criticized for writing a scene where a character is mocked by their older sibling over a physical insecurity even if said sibling would not normally do that. It's not Travis' fault that Jesson never decided to give him more of a character beyond "funny pervy guy" that's not funny in every anime they've watched until Season 5 of MyStreet. It's unfair to try and say Travis should be scrutinized for his borderline sexual harassment of some characters when it's not his fault that happened, he was written by writers who don't think this sort of behavior isn't all that bad if they make it out for comedy and punch him in the face.

And god dammit it's not Laurance's fault that his jealousy became the most prevalent emotion he felt. Laurance has always been a character to give into his vices and yet fight against them at the same time, it's what makes him compelling. If they were going to pull on those vices in order to make him a less appealing love interest, he never had a chance to really be his own character after a certain point. Because at a certain point in Season 2, Jesson stopped caring about the character they had been writing for over a hundred episodes at that point. They just wanted to canonize their self insert ship and were willing to do anything to get it.

Laurance isn't an abusive angry person who would have killed Aphmau if they got together. He's a flawed character being handled by incredibly flawed writers who are prone to making some of the worst decisions you have ever seen a creator make in regards to their character writing. He was caught in the crossfire of the adoration he received from a very dedicated fanbase, and the creator who would rather pretend he and his previous arc didn't exist for the sake of her fun. It's not Laurance's fault his arc was stilted, jerked around, and ultimately ended with him completely face planting. And yet still reliably dragging his bloodied body up at just the slightest glimmer of hope (Void Paradox).

It's deeply poetic and tragic that I can describe his character in universe and in the meta-textual sense that way, but we should never blame Laurance, or Aaron, or any other characters for things being like this.

They didn't write the show. Jess and Jason did.

[lunar1an]

thinking a lot about wildbow's early works (worm, pact) and his more recent moralistic works (ward, pale) and the sheer difference in narrative empathy

in worm and pact you have characters who do fucked up things but it feels like a lot of effort is put into understanding the people behind them and where they're coming from. rachel's dogs maul people but there's a whole Arc of taylor learning to vibe with her and befriend her and of rachel getting what she needs (a place alone with her dogs where she can let other people in at her own pace) and growing as a person. all from the angle of 'this is genuinely good for rachel and helpful'. we want her to succeed because we care about her.

in pact we see how sandra duchamp grew up, how she's just as much a victim of her family as she is someone who perpetuates that harm, and while she's an antagonist the story doesn't spoonfeed it to us--we're allowed to see her human and sympathetic moments and we're allowed to feel bad for her while also wanting her stopped.

it felt. i don't know. like the story in general respected these characters, respected the reader's ability to empathize with those characters while also knowing Murder Bad or whatever.

but then the major worm fandom interpretations shifted. you had reddit and other popular sources going on about how taylor was actually horrible and an unreliable narrator, and how the undersiders were actually ~super fucked up and evil criminals~. pact and twig were spared this for the most part by virtue of being less popular with those crowds.

and i'm not sure if the morality discourse got baked into wildbow's brain by osmosis or if he felt like he wouldn't be appeasing his fandom if he didn't address it or what.

but by ward suddenly that narrative empathy, for the most part, is missing. it becomes conditional -- the protagonist and others do not extend empathy towards others until they Properly Recognize What They've Done Wrong. any improvement, any attempt to do better isn't legitimate unless the Bad Deeds are addressed and atoned for by whatever inconsistent standards the narrative adheres to. what matters isn't riley being in a healthier place and making connections--ward thinks that we should be rooting for riley because she recognizes she messed up and is constantly making up for the atrocities she committed.

i think it's kind of reached its peak in post arc 13 pale though. every time empathy is extended it's near-always accompanied by a patronizing little reminder of "mmmm, well you did Bad Things too".

you aren't allowed to just say "well damn i sympathize with charles", for example, because the narrative constantly reminds you that actually he is Still Doing Bad and therefore you aren't allowed to feel for him. it doesn't help that the story continually one-ups itself on thinking of ways to make charles over the top evil either.

but either way it's just. bleak. in a story purportedly about community building it's shockingly uncaring. you can't just sympathize with a morally grey character or take them As They Are without the story casting judgment and constantly reminding you of their verdict. it's just exhausting and makes any positive message the story tries to send feel hollow

OBLIGATORY NOTE: this essay does not mean "actually all fallen and e88 and etc should be empathized with". what it does mean is that in a moralistic work it becomes telling when ex-nazi rune gets her own interlude and a bunch of pagetime to show how she's 'doing better' while that same courtesy isn't extended to many villains who are traumatized and might have, say, legitimate reasons to not want to be arrested or feel like they have no other option, or legitimate reason to not support the heroes, but oh. they do Crimes so actually none of that matters as long as they're still Doing Crimes.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/730572795212398592/what-is-up-with-all-the-trans-men-on-this-hellsite?source=share

As a trans man, I might have some insight into this one. I'm a lot older than the standard uwu sparkle anti, but I was in my mid twenties for the first wave of weirdness about trans boys on Tumblr about a decade ago, so I was just too old for it then, and I saw a lot of guys my age and a little younger get swept up in it.

OTNF rightly points out that young trans men are a particularily vulnerable demographic. This is part of it, but we're also a demographic that doesn't sit comfortably with our identites (gender identities or otherwise) and are told by everyone (on every side) that we are Doing It Wrong, that our existence harms others, and that we must be this specific way to be good people.

I'm sure you've seen the "trans men are better than real cis men" rhetoric. It's meant to be inclusive and to reassure us that we're not bad people just because of our gender, but it also denies us our entire gender identity.

So basically, you've got a bunch of young guys, most of whom were socialised like girls and learned to never be too assertive, many of whom are straight up suffering from dysphoria and stress, being told by people both within and outside of their communities that the are Wrong and Bad and Harmful just for existing. It makes sense that a lot of them would would find a movement based on moral posturing that will accept them if they perform correctly and will use their real name and pronouns. That's what Antis are; they say "use this vocabulary, send hate mail to that person, put these terms in your DNI, don't be caught reading that story", and, unlike other groups that police people's tastes and performance that hard, they're not overtly hostile to trans identities. So you can spout the right rhetoric, use the right tumblr icon, and they will actually accept you (on the surface, for a time, but we're talking about young and desperate people who aren't looking at the long game).

Helping them harass those badwrong horrible NOTP shippers or aces or middle aged women or some random artist who got caught drawing the wrong age gap or whoever is the fashionable target will prove that you aren't a horrible monster for being a man, you're moral and upright and correct.

And yes a lot of it is internalised misandry (that word has a lot of dumb baggage, but how else can I describe a boy who hates himself for being a boy?), or self-loathing born of dysphoria and just plain having to live in a world that's hostile to trans people.

Being an anti is a way out. It's a way to manufacture acceptence. And they're too young and too hurt to realise that that acceptance is as temporary and hostile as the people who accept them only if they pretend to be girls; the antis will turn on them the moment they start acting a little too manly or if they're caught liking the wrong ship.

(I've seen something similar happen to young cis queer guys and trans girls, too, but it isn't as pronounced since being raised as a boy means you probably already learned that standing up for yourself is ok sometimes)

--

I'm sure it also doesn't help that tumblr is absolutely full of BL/slash fandom. There's certainly plenty of gender diversity in these spaces, but it's inescapable that the majority of participants are women. So for a young, insecure guy trying to assert that he is a guy, it's easy to fall prey to "Waaaah, I need to reclaim my hobby for me!" gatekeepy nonsense.

Sure, it's going to be turned on nbs even harder than on cis women and will be used to misgender other trans men in the end and misogyny isn't cool anyway, but that's not what your average traumatized young fool is thinking when they first join up. They're thinking "I hurt."

TBH, though, probably the largest component is that all of us—all of us—have a mental image of a default human for a given context. It's rarely a trans man. And so anything a trans man does stands out and is A Thing Trans Men Do.

This is true even if you are trans. It is true even if you are not a transphobic dickhead. Unlearning the 'why girls are bad at math' xkcd strip is extraordinarily hard because recognizing patterns and having mental defaults is just how human brains work.

There are shittons of cis women who become antis, but they're just not notable in the same way.

Are trans men more vulnerable to becoming antis? It's possible, and the reasons you outlined above are likely why. I think it's an interesting question to discuss if we are specifically discussing why the trans men who do become antis do so.

But we don't actually have any hard facts to support that they are more prone to it than anybody else. My guess would be that vulnerable people are more likely to become antis, so any cis woman with a strong source of vulnerability like a shittastic home life is similarly vulnerable to a young trans man with no support network, but who knows.

Maybe only 5% of trans men on tumblr are antis and 50% of cis women. Maybe it's 90% of trans men and 20% of cis women. Maybe it's 1% and 1% and they're just all very loud.

We have no data. We just don't know.

And we will never be able to trust our own brains on this until trans vs. cis is such a nonissue that we don't even notice it.

[ask-tssb]

(@ Marie) Nobody in the fandom really gives you the respect you deserve. you're a living breathing person who's flawed like everyone else, but people treat you like the scum of the earth. so, I've thought of some questions to ask you: 1. what are your thoughts on the new peeps (Myu, Atty, and especially Topaz) 2. you and Sandy seem really close! how did you meet? 3. would you like some hot chocolate and a weighted blanket? 4. do you want to talk about what happened? that was a traumatic event.

Marie: Oh, crap yeah!! Hot chocolate and a heavy thing!

[She slurps it for a long time before even remembering you asked her questions.]

Yeah! You're right!! I'm so tough and everyone should respect me. Those legendaries are so stupid. Everyone keeps going, "meh, meh, meh, they're really rare and strong pokemon! They're so special, meeeeeh!" As if. If they were so tough, they wouldn't suck. The baby one thinks she's really strong, but babies aren't strong. She's dumb. Me and Sandy always knew each other, also. We met 'cuz our parents are friends, and we're best friends. She's younger than me, but I don't remember meeting her, she was basically just always there. Also!!! No!!!!!!! The thing that happened yesterday doesn't matter literally at all. Everyone's sad all the time about it, but they're just wasting their dumb time. So stupid. I'm over it already.

[weirdestcornelius]

Hello again, it's Faerie Anon back to send another long and needlessly in-depth anon comment because writing may too many words about petty bullshit that doesn't matter in the slightest is my curse. Today we're going to be talking about ~Narrative Consistency~ (or inconsistency as I will be talking about here), or as I will call it, the Character Rules. A smaller example of Narrative Inconsistency is Piñata being called the "Birthday Boy" when anthries on Spinch do not know what "birth" is, and Hatchday Hound would have worked better in my opinion.

Now, the Character Rules, as I will describe them, are certain meta rules that apply to each character both in and outside of the narrative. They apply to how the character is allowed to be treated, what they can be called, and even what you can do with them outside of the comic. Certain characters have stricter rules, while others may have rules that are the complete opposite of others. A lot of my examples will be from Cometcare, but I will also go over main-series characters as well.

Let's take Cuddles, the most obvious example. Because he is the series "big bad" and a representation of all of kit's trauma, there are little to no things you can do with him. No shipping, no projecting, you're not even allowed to like him. These are Cuddle's Rules. Other characters who do similar things to him, however (Doom, Puppy, Sunshine) are seen as those who can do nothing wrong and woobified by both the creator and the audience. These are inconsistent Rules.

Next, we have Ally and Howie. Not only are these two given WAY less consequences in Cometcare and would probably be allowed to get away with murder, because they are so personal to Kittycorn, they also have some Rules applied to them. You can't kin them, use pictures of them (even fanart!) as icons, you can't even call yourself their names. These characters are able to do virtually whatever they want while other characters are actually punished for the same shit. These are inconsistent Rules. 

Then there's Sly, who's allowed to be the fandom punching bag. Could you imagine someone making fun of Cream for her eating disorder, or Eve for being traumatized by Sly ignoring her? Not at all! And yet, Sly's symptoms of severe depression are allowed to be made fun of because Kittycorn has decided that it is something that the fandom is allowed to do. These are inconsistent Rules.

Oh, but certainly such a queer-comic would be respectful of everyone's identities, right? Well, no. Jay and Orange, who at one point solely used "they/them", were retconned to be "he/they" because "everyone already uses he/him for them anyways". And yet, anyone who uses "he" for Uni when she uses any pronouns, or politely headcanons Sly as using he/him pronouns without trying to make fen a cis man (either keeping them as transfem or having other headcanons, like intersex), everyone loses their goddamn minds. This, DESPITE the fact that Sly was made transfem because of fucking fan headcanons, but all of the sudden those aren't ALLOWED now. Okay. Alright then. These are inconsistent Rules. 

There is SO MUCH MORE I could go over. Uni being praised for her sexuality while Levi is demonized for it. Doom "no one is allowed to complain about him ever again" and Hemera "there's still time for the traitor to die". You can make fun of Barry for being schizophrenic but Don't You Dare Make Fun Of Uni or Carrie or some other fan favorite. Every character has different standards that apply to them and if you don't keep track of the main blog ever second of every day you are going to get flayed alive for a mistake! These! Are! Inconsistent! Fucking! Character! Rules!

Now, NONE of this would be a big issue if it wasn't for Kittycorn herself. Narrative Inconsistency in a personal passion project is. Okay. Whatever. It's not MY project so it doesn't matter to me. But with how sensitive and parasocialKittycorn can be with bun's audience, something as honest a mistake as accidentally using the wrong icon can lead to a mob mentality in which everyone attacks this user to defend Kittycorn. You can't even post off-anon on a critical blog without getting death threats, heaven help you if you accidentally make Kittycorn upset for something you had no idea about!

TL;DR: Narrative inconsistency sucks and so does the unusual treatment of characters, but Kittycorn's reaction to it sucks harder.

I rest my case. Thank you.

--Faerie Anon

I'm gonna be honest, I never understood how Cuddles was meant to be the big bad.

He seems rude at most. The worst thing we've seen him do is torture Barry in v1, but Doom, Funfetti, and Puppy also did that with Puppy and Funfetti seeming to ENJOY it. Doom too. Since then he hasn't done anything but be a minor inconvenience to the patients. Like I said in a previous post, the whole thing with him bullying Uni was made out to be a big deal "omg you guys you'll never guess what the bastard did this time!!! It's gonna make your mind EXPLODE!!!!" And it turned out to be him calling Uni's puppets stupid. Like c'mon now, if Barry had been the one saying that people would've done some shit like calling it barruni content. Barry called Uni all sorts of names and yet since it was HIM it was okay. I have very strong feelings about v4 if you couldn't tell.

But the rules for him are also so stupid. If you're making RULES for how people can interact with your content, you are NOT ready to release your content to an audience. Sure, this started as a "comfort oc webcomic", but it's making money now. These are still ocs to kc, but to us they're just characters. It isn't a small personal project anymore even if kit wants to pretend it is, buns has a team working on the comic and everything! More importantly, the comic is supposed to eventually be PRINTED and SOLD. Kc cannot be expecting that the fandom won't grow if it gets printed, because it will. I'm not sure how squeak is even planning on enforcing these rules; what are you gonna do, give a free pamphlet with every comic filled to the brim on the do's and don'ts of the fandom?

The thing with Sly. . .oh it bothers me so fucking much. This fandom apparently wouldn't even dream of making fun of Uni for her autism or Carrie for her eating disorder, but because Sly has depression it's suddenly fine. Oh boy, it's not like depression isn't already constantly made fun of and demonized! The fandom is so so welcoming to those with depression! You make a single joke about Uni and the white knights start flooding your inbox, but Eve and Kc can constantly make fun of Sly without any repercussions. I'm someone who has struggled with hygiene issues for a long time. I do not like Kc because of this. I like sparklecare, but I am very far from liking Kc as a person.

I still remember people getting heated over an anon on a critic blog using Howial as their signoff. "You can't use that name! That's Kc's fursonas ship!!!" I wonder how these people will act when someone who goes by Howie or Ally enters the fandom without knowing about cometcare! I'm sure they'll be so nice and understanding and definitely not bully said person into changing their online name!

It's so annoying to me when Kc has gets upset at someone in the fandom over small trivial things. Come on now, this is a fandom, not a small friend group that's sharing a comic together. People are going to do stuff you may not like. People are going to use your characters in ways you probably won't like. Kc already cut off twitter because of this, so it wouldn't be that hard to just I don't know, IGNORE THE POST instead of making multiple posts on the main blog and trauma dumping on a bunch of teenagers before watching them go white knight for you in the inboxes of the "bad" people. If interacting with parts of the fandom stress Kc out this much then squeak should just ignore those parts of the fandom. I don't like certain parts of the fandoms I'm in, but I ignore the posts and scroll on after sometimes blocking the tag if they have one. It's not that hard. After this amount of time it's on Kc for not blocking the sparklecrit tags.

And before people go calling me insensitive, I've gone through plenty of trauma myself, but that does NOT give me an excuse to make fun of others with different mental issues than me and it sure as hell doesn't give me an excuse to purposefully cause people to get sent death threats and all sorts of other nasty stuff. You can tell me that this isn't what Kc means to do, but people have come to the ZCP to ask them to call off the white knights before and I have never found a post from Kc saying not to do this. It's not that hard to tell your fans off for doing disgusting stuff like that. This fandom is all for mental disability/disorder advocacy and lgbtqia+ positivity until someone does something they don't like, then it's okay to shame them for their mental issues/disorders and violently misgender them all because they did something as terrible as *gasp* having a Howie pfp!!!! Or maybe even doing the ultimate crime of not agreeing with something in the comic! Or DARING to make a post on how their disability that Kc DOES NOT have could be better represented!

[sage-nebula]

It's been hours and I still don't feel at all bad about being mean earlier, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I am done being even remotely diplomatic about double standards applied to female characters anymore, in any fandom, but in this case specifically the Sonic fandom since that's what this is specifically about. Ever since Lanolin became an actual character with spoken lines people have "theorized" about her being "secretly a villain" because she had a lack of visible emoting, because she was very formal in her speech, because she wasn't peppy and friendly when Vector or others visited the Restoration. Then people really blew their gaskets because she defended (what seemed to her to be) an innocent and defenseless fourteen-year-old against a super-powered fourteen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old trained guerilla fighter harassing him. And now people are especially upset because she was mean to Sonic, Amy, and Tails by telling them to get off the road before they got run over by the people still participating in the high speed race.

That's really what it comes down to. Ever since Lanolin was introduced, because she wasn't a peppy, kind, all-smiles female character who wasn't friendly toward fan-favorite male characters, who was even (shock, gasp, horror) rude or mean toward them, who had the sheer audacity to defend herself, she's the fucking devil who needs to get her act together, be humbled, and apologize.

And honestly, after decades of dealing with this kind of sexism, I'm honestly just done with it.

Oh sure, no one will admit that's what it is. They'll dislocate their arms reaching for any reason to justify it. "We're not sexist, we just think it's okay when Shadow is an asshole with no reason at all, but not okay when Lanolin is mean even when she's right because, uh, he's an antihero and Lanolin's a good guy and good guys shouldn't be mean!!" even though Shadow hasn't been shown doing anything morally questionable in actual years, making him an "antihero" in name only, and even if he had, we all know that's bullshit anyway because no one pays attention to labels like that and actually thinks, "Hm, is this character allowed to be mean? Are they allowed to be rude? What is their current literary role designation at Sega?" No, instead it's subconscious gender bias that the most female characters are allowed to be is sassy, and if they go any farther than that at all, ESPECIALLY toward a male character that people enjoy, then they're a bitch that needs to be reminded of their place.

"But Surge!" people will cry. "Surge is mean and people like her!" To which I say, bullshit! The number of people who want Shadow (it's always fucking Shadow) to assault Surge or "tell her what REAL trauma is" is honestly disgusting. There are so many people who want Surge to get her ass beat by other male Sonic rivals, especially Shadow, so she can be "put in her place" because, again, she's a girl and girls aren't "allowed" to be like that, don't you know that? Only boys can be aggressive and mean and have their trauma and angst be sympathetic and interesting.

Of course, I know a lot of this is subconscious bias. Gender roles are baked so deeply into our society that we're raised into them since birth. Literally, many of our parents start dressing us in gendered clothing from the moment that we're born and the gender socialization starts as we grow. But that doesn't mean that I have to tolerate it kindly or that I can't be sick to fucking death of seeing it applied even to fictional characters, especially since it's goddamn fucking boring to have all the female characters in a series just be friendly and helpful and kind, especially when the male characters DO get to be traumatized and mean and rude. If Lanolin was a male character, she'd be one of the most popular IDW original characters. I guarantee you she'd be shipped with so many other characters. But because she's a female character, she's a huge bitch who needs to learn her lesson because otherwise she's annoying and a bitch and probably secretly a villain despite her bio in the artbook literally saying that she has a hard time showing it but she really does want what's best for everyone.

For the record, no, I don't care at all that she's mean sometimes. I think it makes her standout among the female cast especially (especially the female cast on the heroic side since the closest we get to mean there is Rouge, and Rouge isn't even mean, she's just selfish). In fact I think that she should especially be mean to Sonic and, confession time, I was actually bothered by how friendly she was to him when they met up at the beginning of the Urban Warfare arc, because the fact that he got away with THIS bullshit he pulled on her during the Metal Virus arc isn't okay with me:

Sonic really sat his infected ass on the back of Lanolin's chair and then had the goddamn nerve, the sheer AUDACITY, to not remember who she was when Jewel called him into the meeting that cemented the forming of the Neo Diamond Cutters. Lanolin was present and active during all of the Metal Virus missions; she made it all the way to Angel Island without being infected, was one of the very few to do so, Sonic chose to sit on the back of her chair while being infected, and then fucking FORGOT WHO SHE WAS, and yet SHE'S the one who gets lambasted because she was harsh when telling him to get his pedestrian ass off the fucking road before he got fucking run over???

Fuck that. She should be meaner to Sonic specifically. The IDW writers might have forgotten this bullshit that was pulled during the Metal Virus when they had Lanolin's introduction at the beginning of Urban Warfare, but I sure didn't, considering I had been tracking her traumatic incidents from the very beginning. Like there was no reason for him to do this and yet there he is, and then he forgot. But you know who didn't? Lanolin. Or even if she consciously did, well, she's severely traumatized and the body keeps score.

But I digress.

The point is, this fandom has a huge issue with double standards when it comes to reception of male characters versus female characters. And it's not just this fandom, it's all fandoms, but considering I made an untagged post about how I didn't want to deal with the obscene amount of Lanolin hate I knew was going to occur after this issue, only for a clown to find it anyway and proceed to annoy me for a good long while despite me telling them repeatedly that they were the exact type of doofus the post was about, I'm just so beyond done and I had to vent and get it off my chest. I hope Lanolin stays mean. I hope she never apologizes, because she doesn't need to apologize. I hope in the upcoming civil war arc that I feel like is going to happen (though I have my own clown makeup ready for if it doesn't) that the end result is that she splits off from the Restoration with her own faction and they function as a third party mercenary group similar to the original Diamond Cutters, because she doesn't need to kowtow to Sonic's or the Restoration's ideals. And neither does Whisper, for that matter, and if the civil war arc does happen I'm positive that Whisper is going to be on Lanolin's side. (Tangle, however, won't be. Divorce arc real and I'm here for it tbh, much as I love whispangle.)

Anyway. That's off my chest now. I'm going to go play Stardew Valley.

[ineffable-human]

Season 2 Hot Take - We're Being Manipulated

Yes I know this is going to sound like a conspiracy theory, but is it really a conspiracy if its true? So, as someone who spent the last four years obsessing almost entirely about Gabriel's character and arc (do not get me started on him in S2) and not much else, I feel like I have a different approach to Aziraphale and his actions. I mean, I'm sorry but I just don't buy the fact that Aziraphale is so deeply traumatized that he would return to heaven just like that. I just don't.

Like, c'mon, season 1 Aziraphale, the utter bastard who straight up lied to God's (metaphorical) face, who got gut punched by some 'bad angels', who was sentenced to death, who tried to talk to God for help and got the run around, merged with season 2 Azirpahale who saw that heaven would just let kids die and not understand why it's bad (also please don't get me started on his 'you really were truly awuful' line, I cannot), who learned the that line between right and wrong is blured and that sometimes graverobbing can be good, who found out he could do magic the real, human way, would not just be like fuck yeah heaven is the good guys let's gooooo. I just don't buy it. And I want to trust that the writing in season 2 was purposeful and for a reason, because I want to trust that Neil Gaiman knows what he's doing (weird plot-device of the miracle block aside of course because idk how that could possibly be explained properly). And one of my friends pointed out to me that season 2 was/felt very influenced by the fandom. So what makes the most sense? That Neil Gaiman would just write some really weird and off-character stuff to match what the people want? Or that he would use the fandom's expectations to influence how they react to a situation and event in order to hide what's actually going on? I mean, look at all the information we're missing.

We don't know what Aziraphale's relationship was like with heaven between seasons (and I'm thinking he had to have some kind of relationship for the Bookshop to still be considered an protected embassy. Because let's face it, vindictive lil heaven isn't gonna keep a triator safe for no good reason).

We don't know the full conversation between Aziraphale and the Metatron (and the fact that Aziraphale's response after the whole Crowley as an angel thing is blocked off is the most interesting tidbit of all. We never actually find out what Aziraphale said, and we know he hadn't given Metatron a real answer before he went to talk to Crowley {yet the Metatron walks in after as if Aziraphale already said yes})

We don't know how and why it was so easy for Gabriel to sneak off after the trial. (Like, I know all the other angels are clueless, but the Metatron has clearly shown himself to have a strategic mind and, let's be honest, he would have seen something like that coming).

There's so much we don't know about, that's being hidden and held back, and we don't question it too much because it's easier to just fill in the blanks with our four years of headcanons and ideas.

And all the posts that Neil Gaiman interact with just further these ideas! I mean, let's face it, he's not gonna like this one because it's too close to the TRUTH (and also because he's busy and there's like a million posts a day but MAINLY BECAUSE OF THE TRUTH)

Aziraphale is a smart character, who knows that heaven is toxic. He's strong and stubborn, and I truely don't believe he's going to just slide right back into that abusive relationship without a Plan. Aziraphale doesn't want to go back to heaven because he knows they aren't really the good guys, but that's the argument he uses because that's the only one he knows how to use. It's his default setting. (and the Metatron is most definitely probably listening in on them so Aziraphale clearly can't say what he actually wants to say, which only contributes to their horrible communication skills).

Aziraphale doesn't need to learn that heaven is in bad shape. He already knows that. But what he didn't know was that he could fix it. He's spent 6,000 years seeing all the cracks in the foundation and not having the power to do anything about it. That's his whole arch in season 1; taking control and doing what he can to fix the wrongs he sees.

But even now the idea that he actually has the power or influence to make the changes he knows are needed is a foreign concept. And the Metatron offering him the job is kind of like Crowley offering him the food. Azirpahale didn't know he could want to actually change things. That he could be the one to put in a suggestion box. He's not going back to learn the hard truth, he's going back to change the hard truth before others have to suffer a similar fate.

Our ideas and expectations were shattered, but that's only because we were coming at it with those expectations. We let them cloud the real story and distract us from the TRUTH.

This whole entire season was a magic act of the highest form using fan-service and shotty writing (dear god please let it be on purpose) as smoke and mirrors. and we're falling for it.

(And while we're on the topic, may I just slip in as an added bonus, Crowley has only himself to blame for Aziraphale thinking him becoming an angel would be a good thing, because how can he expect to go around calling Aziraphale angel all the time and looking at him the way he does and NOT expect Aziraphale to just assume that Crowley thinks being an angel is the best thing since sliced bread????)

[ca-suffit]

i'm also worried that they will have nikki be just awful (i haven't read the books), there was that glimpse of racism with armand, maybe they make him abusive and cruel as hell while continuing to have lestat be "good" like we saw with the finale, no matter what lestat has done (or will do) the writers will never treat him the way they treat other characters who do evil shit, he is their main white guy, he simply must be, overall, "good" or at least everything bad gets ignored, because they need their white saviout and for loustat to be "good" (ie not toxic). with the loustat reunion in the finale, the whole thank you/i forgive you shit, it feels like the show wants loustat to be as wholesome as can be and what better way to show nikki as pure evil, so fans can go "see!! lestat is and always has been the innocent victim"

I don't think they're going to make Nicki an outright villain. I also don't think *the show* is gonna frame Lestat as being solely "good" but the fandom will always do it. The show has outright said that nobody is "good" or "bad" here in the first place. Just bcuz Loustat might be the relationship focus of the full story doesn't mean it's supposed to be without issue. They still have *so* many issues they haven't even touched yet.

Lestat has also canonically acknowledged that the drop was fucked. Ppl are ignoring that that's happened but it did. 2x8 did feel rushed in ways and overly trying to sell Loustat, but they're still not *together* at the end there. It's a step towards something but not a full healing. They have a long way to go still and we're about to see a lot worse from Lestat in some ways otherwise.

The books were always trying to sell this idea that didn't come across v well to me about Lestat being good or evil. She didn't give him enough consequences as the books went for any reason why he'd feel so much guilt about his "evilness." The show has done a better job of that so far and I trust they will still continue, especially given how AMC tends to tell rly good stories about complicated male characters. They p openly embrace all kinds of fucked up shit and don't try to excuse it at all.

Nickistat only works if it's a tragedy and it's only a tragedy if they're both kind of fucked. Lestat's actions directly make Nicki worse in some ways so Lestat *has* to do those things. Again, the fandom will excuse it all the way and coddle that fucker to death but I don't think the show will.

A lot of what this fandom struggles to understand is what a character's internal motivations are compared to what other characters are seeing from this person *externally.* Like, sure, Lestat can force Claudia to watch Charlie burn bcuz he knows the pain of loss, but do u think Claudia gives a shit about his trauma then? Even if she knew about it? U think she gives a shit when *she's* being the one traumatized now? But then ppl wanted to give her shit for how she presses on Nicki to Lestat during their chess game, like that was somehow *worse* than what he'd done already to her (and why she learned to act like this in the first place!). The antiblack motivations for judging that as harshly as it was too, this fandom can go fuck itself.

Also Nicki's racist comment towards Armand is just...some typical white ppl shit tbh. A lot of the fandom's issues in the first place are that white audiences aren't used to seeing white ppl like this, but this is how white ppl exist to everyone else who isn't white every day. Lestat's ignorance to racial issues is also a typical white thing. U see most of the fandom ignoring it too bcuz most ppl's understanding of what racism is comes from intentional slurs only and nothing else. A lot of racist shit isn't done intentionally or even consciously. We're all raised in a racist world, we absorb it and repeat a lot without question, across all races. Ppl have to get over seeing that as a "good" or "bad" thing itself too. It just is. A lot of things are inherently racist on purpose and we recycle those things all over bcuz that's the design. Although everything Lestat did in S1 was worse than Nicki's single slur moment, yet ppl are choosing to believe that's all a lie instead of taking time to look at it and learn from it about maybe their own racial biases.