#who we all know is a dangerous person??

[thebiggestmenace]

What are your thoughts on Abby?

Absolutely no judgement wether you like/dislike her, I feel like this is a controversial question within the fandom lol

hi, anon, I have many a thought and this is definitely a controversial question in the fandom lmao

I think she grows on you. when I first watched a gameplay, I absolutely hated her, I hated the fact that you had to play as her and that her part might be longer (it felt like it at the time, but I'm not sure if it is actually longer) than Ellie's. but after watching it for the third time, I do not despise her anymore. I get why she did what she did, but I do not love her.

again, I get why she did the golfing, but really? it was 4 years, Abby. surely, you noticed that you'd just be passing your own grief onto someone else? and shooting him in the leg? really? I imagine that was because Abby knew it wouldn't have been an easy fight if he wasn't injured, but still. he helped you, man. once Ellie got there and Abby had to hear the cries and the screams from her, did she not realize that Joel was a father figure to her? that she would just be pushing her own giref onto her? and 4 years, really? I know I already mentioned that, but seriously. she had to have realized at some point that killing Joel wouldn't help her.

however, they did make Abby similar to Joel, so it isn't a strong hatred at all. her willing to risk everything for Yara and Lev, then doing everything in her power to protect Lev. Joel did the same for Ellie, and look where that got him. I don't know how to properly articulate this, anon, but I do get why she did it, I just don't like it.

and that isn't solely for the fact of the golfing. it's also - it didn't need to be that brutal. at all. it didn't need to happen in front of Ellie. Abby wasn't there for Jerry's death, and Jerry's death was pretty clean cut. there was no pain. just a shot to the head. Joel's?? first you shoot him in the leg, then drag him down to a basement and beat the shit out of him with a golf club? and not stopping when his daughter comes in? it didn't need to go like that.

and the theater?? yes, Ellie didn't need to kill every single one of Abby's friends, but tbh Ellie lost everyone that meant something to her, so Abby taking Joel was most likely just the final straw for her. Ellie wasn't in the right state of mind for that whole trip, and yes, she was in the wrong, but that isn't to say that Abby's in the right. I know Abby didn't know this, but Ellie did not know Mel was pregnant, Abby was told point blank that Dina was, and she still tried to kill her. I am forever grateful that Lev got her to stop, cause man, I would not have survived that. but it's just a constant cycle of grief. Joel kills Jerry, Abby kills Joel, Ellie kills Abby's friends, Abby kills one of Ellie's and tries for more.

and then the epilogue???? this has many variables to it, in my opionon. yes, Abby did leave Ellie after the theater, so Ellie going after her was her own choice and so she could've deserved what happened. but I don't think it was really Ellie's choice in going. this is why we don't like game Tommy, by the way. Ellie wanted to go after Abby before she showed up at the theater, Tommy wanted to take Dina and everyone back to Jackson, so they did. and then once Ellie is living as best a life as she can, all things considered, Tommy shows up and yells at her to go back after Abby because "'I'll make her pay.' That's what you said once we got back to Jackson." and Ellie does go after her, because this grief is just. so heavy in her, she feels she has to.

but her going to Santa Barbara means that she was able to save Abby and Lev. so she did, and then she fought her. I'm torn for the fight because Abby kept telling Ellie to just let them leave, and they'll forget everything and they won't have to see each other again. but also Abby bit off her fucking fingers, so. her biting off the fingers has always gotten me. I know Abby doesn't know about Ellie's life outside all this fighting, but that was her one connection to Joel. and now. it's gone. but Ellie was able to realize that killing Abby wouldn't do anything. it wouldn't bring Joel back. it wouldn't make any of this better. if anything, it'll make it worse and also pass it onto Lev.

so yes, this is how I feel about Abby. I do not hate her, but she is not a favourite. she's very neutral to me currently, but everytime I rewatch the game, I hate her less, so with this fourth rewatch, my opinions may change again. but this is how I currently feel

[uncanny-tranny]

So, so many queer people, I've noticed, can put themselves in precarious situations wherein they feel accepted by people and the queer person would do anything for those who accept them, even if it is harmful to them, even if it is scary. It feels like you are indebted to those who accept you because you know that isn't the case for every person you meet. To so many queer people, they are afraid to upset others who accept them (or "accept" them) because they are so scared of rejection. This is completely human and completely normal. But that doesn't mean you deserve to be taken advantage of. You deserve to be treated as an equal because you inherently are an equal - to everybody.

Please know that the people who truly, truly respect and care for you will understand when you can't do everything. They will still respect you, because you are a human being. Saying "no" is neutral at worst. You deserve to honour yourself, too.

[arom-antix]

Hey, just wanted to reach out to say that I found you pointing out and calling this person was really great and you shouldn't have apologized. It was incredibly true what you said, and to be honest it seems out of touch with the reality of a great deal of the japanese fandom, the nuances and their culture. Also, it was as you pointed out, extreme and may I say rude. I want to mention too that the way it was written, as if entitled of the knowledge and the 'explanation' made it all worse in context of the 'fucked up'. The original poster always gets away by using the 'well-written academic'' statement of their 'metas' as an excuse to do or say and make everyone else agree and if not, uses victim narrative and discourses exactly selecting wording for people to agree on it or feel bad.

I don't know if they tagging you in the way they did made you reblog and apologizing/backing up, but no one thought bad about you pointing it out. On the contrary, a lot of people had been bullied and discriminated by this person when they called them out/disagreed going onto lenghts of sending their friends to harass people, and the other persons can't even defend themselves because they are effectively blocked. To quite a few people in the fandom has been done, even accusing them as 'acephobes' (when they're not) or even Nazis by spreading lies. So yeah, I just wanted to say that. I think you were right to call them out publicly.

Thank you very much for this ask. To be completely honest I agree with everything you said here and don't actually feel bad about pointing anything out. I mainly apologised because I didn't want any potentially poor phrasing from my side to cause unnecessary hostility and because I myself have gripes with this person's behaviour but didn't want to cause a scene.

My honest opinion is that they have a serious issue with taking accountability for their own mistakes and highly overestimate their own intellect. If you're reading this, @thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai, sorry if I seem harsh, but it's true. I saw your post lamenting how you're the only academic meta writer / fan in the fandom and I didn't interact then because I honestly do not care enough to start that drama but with the information Blonndiec has just given me, I think it's necessary that someone calls you out.

You're not an academic. You're not beyond the mental capabilities of other fans. You're actually incredibly childish in your metas and analyses and I am not kidding when I say that I was halfheartedly writing essays more academic than every analysis I've seen from you when I was barely a teenager. I don't know how old you are and I frankly don't care. You're not as clever as you think you are.

Also, don't think I didn't notice that you didn't reblog my correction (link here to my correction and here to their "response" for those who didn't see that exchange) of your post so that you could control what your followers saw of the exchange. You're the opposite of an academic. You control information to tailor the narrative, you don't cite your sources properly if at all, you don't format your posts in anything close to how an academic analysis would be, you make unbased claims, you reference posts and canon material without in any way indicating where that information is from, you reference your own (equally unacademic) metas and your conclusions from them without indicating what post it's from or that it's your own theory this new one is based on and instead present it as a common fact, and I could go on and on and on. Your posts are also riddled with logical fallacies and you talk in absolutes and opinions when there's no canon basis to claim such things. I'm sorry, but that's not academic in the slightest.

To be clear, you don't have to be an academic to post on the Internet. You don't have to be anything at all. You could up front be a genuine idiot with no remorse and that's fine. But when you claim to be an academic and also put down the rest of the fandom for not being on your level, you have to be able to back that up. It'd still make you sound like a prick but at least your arrogance would have a basis. It currently does not.

I haven't personally seen the discussions that Blonndiec is referencing and I'm not going to claim anything definitive (because that would be unacademic of me, take notes) but if what they're saying is true and did happen as described, which I have empirical, if anecdotal, evidence to believe could very well be (a friend of mine has personally been blocked by you after they criticised you without actually mentioning your name which I of course can't prove is the reason for the block but the timing is awfully convenient), you should know that you should be ashamed of yourself.

If there's context missing, feel free to enlighten me and call out any incorrect accusations. You have every right to defend yourself. However, I encourage you to cite your sources since you're such an academic. If you don't, then it's just your word against Blonndiec and anyone else who might comment's word and that doesn't prove anything. Don't misunderstand, acephobia and nazi rhetoric should absolutely be called out but only if it's actually happening. False accusations can ruin lives. I hope you know that.

I'm not a fan of calling people out publicly and, again, thank you for this ask, Blonndiec. But considering many of the issues I've personally seen and those I've been informed of by second hand sources were posted publically, I don't really feel bad about calling this out. I could do a full breakdown of just the insulting "academic" comments alone and how there's no academia to be found in said academic metas and, Samurai, if you give me reason to, I will show exactly what I mean point by point (and academically just to give you an example of even low level academia).

If you respond to this, do it in a reblog. That's what a real academic would do. If I'm wrong and you can prove it, you'd have no reason to not show my post in your rebuttal. If I'm right, you'd have every reason to be upfront about your mistakes and how you intend to rectify them. There's nothing wrong with being wrong but there's a lot wrong with refusing to admit to it in a way that lets others peer review you (academic thing, look it up) and come to their own conclusions about the situation. That's what you did when you just @'ed me instead of reblogging my response. A true academic wouldn't hide a peer review. You'd know that if you were one.

I swing in many academic spaces and yet that doesn't make me any kind of expert and I don't claim to be one because I'm not. But since you want to be one so badly, reblog this with a response and show us all how smart you are. I'm dying to know what your academic take on this is.

[dykedvonte]

I think it’s so ironic that the Pony Express escapes a lot if not all blame in discussion. I can’t even say I am excused from it but it’s just how hard people circle back to the characters alone without considering the environment they were made to be in.

Why would they design a ship where only two of the rooms lock? Not the bathroom? Not the sleeping quarters? We assume that all the companies in the universe are this shallow and careless to their workers but we explicitly know the Pony Express in extra vile. They are fed processed slop pack they can’t even really cook and the ration of those pack is meager at best. They hired and made people with a plethora of conflicting demeanors and beliefs work together on a mission where cohesion is important if not an outright necessity and punish them for not being happy about it. There’s no social protocols, not chain of command other than Captain’s word/choice and the only way to enforce that is with a literal firearm. They don’t allow them to celebrate freely and even took away leisure activities that would make them less stir crazy. They are only allowed a few hours of sleep despite their being no other real responsibilities or work on the ship, no matter the position or its importance. With any crew, with any level of synergy, this was a powder keg waiting for a spark.

I’m not saying characters that made mistakes didn’t make huge ones, but I think part of the horror is that at least for some (this is targeting Jimathan) those mistakes are partly made by a force of the hand. There’s a running theme of lack of choice and being forced into something and the very nature of how The Pony Express expected them to function plays a big part.

[thedreadvampy]

sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'

[sweaters-and-vertigo]

i have a teeny, tiny superiority complex because i didn’t watch the atla live action.

[akkivee]

there is a chance that whatever goes down in the chuuoku track coming out in a few weeks will hint at whatever happens in the 3rd drb movie, but i think it would be kinda crazy and kinda fun lol if we got to vote in the movies to see possible story routes by declaring a different division the champs, and then we get cd sales for the songs in the movie or whatever, and that’s where we decide which story path will actually be canon, and making this interview answer feel true lol

[imminent-danger-came]

YOU think MK is a selfless forgiving good boi mc. I think he's self-centered, but that doesn't devalue the good deeds that happen as a result. We are not the same

[harmoniouseclipse]

Me and my freaking ship charts for my freaky mind

[waywardsalt]

with my phantom hourglass replay, there are two things i noticed;

a possible theme you could glean from the game is action vs inaction, and i think it's especially prevalent before you even leave mercay the first time, with oshus frequently urging link to not go after the ghost ship, then to just wait until the broken bridge is fixed, and seems reluctant at every turn while link and ciela are more than eager to go and do something about this problem, and the people of mercay in general talking about things and their problems but never seeming to act on their fears or desires, as well as the mention that due to the ghost ship, very very few people are still sailing around, while linebeck is one of the only people we see in the game actively going after the ghost ship and still sailing around. i might make a longer post just talking more about the action vs inaction in phantom hourglass but i just noticed it a bit and thought it was a bit of an interesting sort of theme you could find in the game.

linebeck moves so fucking much. i think he moves more than any npc in the rest of the game. not just in his intro cutscene where he is very animated, just in how much he moves when just standing in his little idle post, it's damn near distracting when the camera is focused on him, he moves a lot. i don't think i've really acknowledged how much he moves, and it really gives the impression that he's antsy or eager to get going, both of which fit him pretty well with how he acts.

[spotsupstuff]

here's a neat vid, go watch it if you haven't yet

there's Some things that i don't completely agree with personally, like attributing the Third sin to Materialism rather than Connection (i'd argue that the Ancients had no big issue with being materialistic, considering their golden attires and such- and that going with Connection overall better addresses both the core of Materialism and relationships overall) and then attributing the word Dynasty specifically to asian cultures but that's more history/word definition beef more than anything djgklsjlcgjkd

oh how i'd love to have a debate with this guy about Ancients...

[selfship-nyx]

I don’t have a lot of energy for discourse but um. If you follow me and you genuinely seriously agree with what @/prxship has said about paraphiles and how they’ve treated another selfshipper because of it, I really don’t want you here, that mindset is unsafe and appalling to me

[autumnsxxangel]

I love that Kang and Sailom's friends are ready to square up any time, all the time. Like no context. If Kang or Sailom even vaguely frown, it's on sight. Do they know against who? No. Do they know about what? As if, with their singular brain cell. Doesn't matter. No questions asked, ever. Violence is the only answer

[todayisafridaynight]

I’m fairly new to the fandom, but I do have a question if you can answer it! Why do people ship Daigo with Aoki / Masato? I tried looking to see if they’ve interacted before, but couldn’t find anything! Sorry for asking I’m just </3 dumb AND I LOVE YOUR ART OF THEM!!! Nerd looking ahhhhhh

hi ! welcome to the community i hope you're having a lovely time so far and ty for enjoyin my stuff :) no need for apologies it's a very fair question to have :]

i cant speak for everyone (all. ten people into masadai anyway) but Personally To Me i just think the idea of them together is very funny. thats quite literally it im afraid..

[some-pers0n]

i never watched arcane cos of the transmisogynistic joke in like episode 1 is it any good after that

There's a transmisogynistic joke in there? Damn that stinks. Anywho, I'd say Arcane is pretty good all around. It's really quite fun and has excellent animation and style as well as an interesting story with fun and dynamic characters. Personally I'm going on a bit of a hater arc unfortunately due to me not really being too pleased with the second season, but overall I think it's worth your time.

[lord-squiggletits]

It's not that what you like in fiction = what you approve of IRL or that consuming media = a meaningful form of activism, but I do think that to an extent, the way people analyze and talk about media can be revealing about what their personal beliefs are. And tbh the way some people in fandom talk about certain social issues I pray that they're never in a position of social influence or power over other ppl bc yeesh