#yeah honestly I feel like like ‘tag things as discourse’ one is more what I want seems more doable with tumblrs weird sorting

[deus-and-the-machina]

dunno if this is a hot take but I’ve been thinking for a bit. That like most of the time there tends to be an understanding that putting criticism or outright hate in a characters main tags is generally rude, but I kind of wish people would keep discourse in general out of a characters main tags. as in, even if that discourse is on that characters “side” as it were.

like, if I’m going into a tag, it’s not gonna be any less unpleasant to see a rant about how said character is great in comparison to x character who sucks, or to see a long rant about how the writers suck and did said character dirty. Honestly more than keeping it out of main tags I wish people would tag things as discourse or some variation of that more. Im just the kind of person who gets hung up and stews on things I really shouldn’t and it sucks to search up something you like only to see people complaining or arguing. That sort of thing.

[thecheshirerat]

On TAZ-

Wow that sounds like I’m about to summarize some sort of discourse but I promise I’m not. I guess I’ll say that I really like this show and I will keep listening even if my worst fears come to pass, so keep that in mind!

For reference, I started listening near the end of Amnesty.

I’ve noticed, with the past few arcs- really since Ethersea- the narratives have just… not been fulfilling their promises, so to speak. They’ve been placing a lot of guns that don’t go off. What I mean by that is, the characters are great. Excellent, really. Lady Godwin? HELL YES. Emerich Dreadway? Fuck yeah! And so on! And the settings and premises have been epic- the goofiness and also horrifying nature of Engrave, the mad and thrilling world of Steeplechase- these things are COOL AS FUCK.

and then the actual narratives keep flopping?

And honestly, I notice it most in the endings, because you can really tell when an ending doesn’t land. You feel the sense of disappointment. But with vs. Dracula, for example, I could kinda see leading up to it that the ending couldn’t really BE anything special, because they lowkey didn’t set themselves up for it.

They spent the campaign fucking around in Engrave, finding clues and solving problems and not really experiencing any particularly meaningful character arcs or growth or, idk, forming relationships? So there wasn’t much to pay off, I’m not gonna lie!

Of course it doesn’t feel quite as dissatisfying when you’re in the thick of it, because they’re funny and the stuff is cool and- oh hey! Lady Godwin’s been turned into a werehorse against her will?? that’s got some real potential for a LOT of allegories and exploration of some fun character development! And then it’s kinda played as a joke. And then they do that again and again.

And they actually said that that was a move they made intentionally, in the TTAZZ. I’m not quoting them perfectly here, this is from memory, but I do remember them mentioning that they wanted lighthearted comedy without the burden of real life story stuff. And I get that, honestly, but… it’s not the choice I would’ve made. I do think you can keep a lighthearted tone while also, idk, forming relationships and wholesomely engaging with some amount of emotion. And sometimes going way too deep is funny as a tone shift!

But I digress. One thing that’s also popped out to me is the almost complete lack of any kind of romantic storyline or even references. This becomes obvious if you’re in a fandom because everyone is always dying to ship SOMEONE, and you can tell when people are really getting desperate. I don’t blame them for not wanting to roleplay romance with their family, and I do think stories lacking romance are COOL and SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED!

However if you can’t find ANYBODY to ship together… that may mean you just don’t have character bonds. The growing popularity of the PC polycule is interesting to me; I wonder if it’s partially because

a) none of the pcs have significant relationships outside of their party and

b) even within the party, there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry between any given pair of characters…? I hope I’m making my point well here- the PCs all seem equally close and have more or less the same relationship to all of their compatriots with little distinction, meaning, essentially, no shipping fodder that doesn’t involve just all of ‘em.

Either way, it makes me wonder if I can blame the “Graduation has too many NPCs!” critique. They really stopped giving the parties tag-along main NPCs after graduation, with the exception of maybe.. Urchin? Kodira? Shlabethany? Poppy? and even they get relatively little “screen” time. Steeplechase has great NPCs, I love them to death, but none of the PCs seem to ever have one on one conversations with NPCs or each other that do not explicitly focus on the plot. And I think that’s part of why the characters feel so underdeveloped despite having spent a lot of time with them- because in this character-driven genre, we get very little insight into their feelings or motivations or even their rudimentary backstories.

I started watching Fantasy High recently and it made me realize a couple things about TAZ.

1) Recently, TAZ has sooo few core NPCs, and it’s weird that the characters aren’t doing more one-on-one purely character based scenes. And that makes it really tough to develop them.

2) TAZ is- and I should have realized this before- one of many good dnd podcasts. They’re probably looking for a niche they can master.

And it sounds like they’re trying to get back to that old “Here there be Gerblins!” energy. They’ve referenced it so many times in recent TTAZZes- they wanted to be job-focused, allowing story stuff to happen organically, so they tried a more open world vibe with Ethersea. They wanted to be less afraid to kill stuff, so they tried playing criminals (and were still afraid to kill stuff). They wanted to be silly and light on character, as they tackled with taz vs dracula. Now they’re trying to bring in the silly cartoon vibe with Abnimals. I think they’re trying to make that family-friendly, funny and goofy show their niche. Something other actual plays can’t be better at them at.

And honestly it kinda makes me sad, that they keep trying to go back to Balance while ignoring everything they learned during it. Because I loved Dust. Because I loved Amnesty. Because I loved Ethersea. I loved these past arcs! But they keep doing their brilliant characters dirty for some reason!!! And i don’t know why!!!!

You know that meme about people who ask questions in movies and then the person responds “Have you ever been to a movie before? You watch them and the information is revealed.” There have been so many times in TAZ recently where information has Not been revealed and if they keep doing it the audience will stop bothering to suspend their disbelief, because the trust just isn’t there.

What is Montrose’s deal? What on earth was Carmine Denton’s whole thing? Tell me more about Zoox’s feelings, about Devo’s past, about Amber’s future. Show me how Lady Godwin feels about the body horror that is her life- like, seriously! WHY DID WE HAVE TO COMPLETELY DISMISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO DISCUSS GENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN MUTT’S LIFE FOR A JOKE??

Do you remember in Steeplechase where the boys were getting medical attention or something- i don’t remember, but they were all in one room and only talking about The Plot. And Poppy literally banged on the door (speaking for both Justin and me, tbh) and was like “does anyone want to share any feeeeelings??” and they were like NOPE! and they moved on!!

like. cmon. you can’t just put a character like montrose out there and then leave them severely underdeveloped to the point that what would be interesting in proper context, with audience insight, becomes confusing and chaotic.

I just wish they would take their stories as seriously as we do.

It feels to me like they don’t believe in themselves, and it makes me sad. Maybe they didn’t get the response they wanted from Ethersea and so they’ve been trying to pivot, hoping to recapture whatever it was that earned them a loyal audience.

Again, I love them. They’re so funny and I’ll keep listening until the day they stop making this show, and when it happens I’ll cry.

But i KNOW they have more in them. Remember the “we’ll grow gills” monologue from Justin in the Prologues? Remember Travis’s SOLID acting with Devo? Or his awesome choice to give Lyndon/Beef a clearly delineated work/irl identity? His excellent narration and prose? Remember when Montrose described being lonely?! Remember all those moments where Shit Got Real and you cared??? The nanofather said some dope shit! dracula and victor and sweater dracula had such a wild dynamic! Clint’s acting in Dust 2- I can’t remember the characters name right now- was ASTOUNDING, I genuinely didn’t know he had that in him and it blew me away!

I’m not referencing Balance on purpose, both because the fandom is way to hung up on it and because I want to prove that you don’t even have to look at Balance, or even Post-Balance arcs, to see this kind of good cool stuff!

GAAAAAAAGHHHH!!! I want them to have fun. But also. We’re starving out here.

[velvetvexations]

I’m. So baffled by that one dude saying that trans men being able to pretend to be women is a privilege, because in his tags he says that it’s a thing specific to transmascs. Does he mean pretending to be cis as a means of safety is a transmasc specific thing?? Because uh, I’m… pretty sure that’s something that can be done regardless of a trans person’s gender? There are transfems and nonbinary people who can also pretend to be cis [whatever their agab was], too?

Its also not a privilege. Having to hide what you are out of fear isn’t a fucking privilege lmao

strangely people understand that when it's about trans women

just saw a post on my dash saying "'infighting' is a dogwhistle which frames transfems as aggressors". i really hope the tide is turning like you said, bc this shit is getting exhausting and im still seeing it from random people i follow who otherwise gave no indication that they drank the koolaid.

they make me out to be the aggressor all the time!

Nazi imagery anon here

These are the pics I was referring to.

As you can see it’s posted on the verified border security account and you can see two different nazi symbols on him :(

yeah it looks like standards for what they allow soldiers to adorn themselves with are low and the person taking and posting the pics aren't paying good enough attention because that guy also straight up has a naked anime bitch on his knife sheath

as I said this is an individual thing and they need to start knocking their heads together like the Three Stooges and sending them into trenches first

You know who saying that th**fab is actually a storied term that trans fems have been using to identify transmisogonists is fucking insane like girl that's such obvious lie give us nothing

they aren't even trying

It’s crazy how almost every other day on this site I see a new post with like 50k notes talking about how absolutely NOBODY deserves to be harassed, sent death threats or be put on blast yet once again I’m seeing people trying to justify the harassment of another transmasc teenager. Honestly people should just start openly admitting Tumblr is becoming increasingly hostile towards trans masculine individuals, I don’t see clownery on this level on any other platform-

Tumblr...is really bad.

I think the reason why this whole headcanons discourse bothers me so much is that is really is just fuelled by petty spite. Like all these characters are cisgender in canon. We make headcanons because it’s FUN to expand on characters in ways that reflect our different life experiences in whatever form that may take. Intentionally going after transmascs, especially young transmascs, for doing this with characters like they like and accusing them of all these different things genuinely does just feel like bigotry. Who cares if a head canon may not make the most amount of sense? It’s a cisgender fictional character we’re playing around with! Why does it have to be some grand act of activism to say blorbo number 3 is transmasc? We have much bigger fish to fry here.

exactly it's such dedication to not letting anyone else have anything

So sick of people acting like trans men are the same as cis men under the patriarchy and moreso im really sick of the "you're privileged to not be surrounded by men". Like, for lack of better phrasing, saying that about a group of people that is generally perceived as "failure women" pre transition (and sometimes during and post) is a little tone deaf. All about acknowledging how women and people perceived as women are harmed by misogyny until the ones perceived are men. Gender essentialism is ugly and tasteless and nonsensical. Please feel free to delete this im just rambling without a point

rambling is okay anon <3

„wow ur so privileged to not fear men”

i fear the fucking everyone asshole, i just realized that isnt everyone elses fault so i should still treat them with respect !!!!!

that woman called me a "self-hating doll" and I hate the second part a lot more than the first

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

do you have any opinions on the hazbin critical and vivziepop critical tags?

tw // mentions of sexual abuse and sucide

I have a personal beef with them. And not because I love Hazbin and Vivzie so much but for more presonal reasons so the following opinion won't be measured at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some legit criticisms out there. Like, the show could definitely do better with body diversity and giving us more varied sapphic relationships instead of just throwing a ton of male/male couples at us. And, yeah, Vivzie's response to some of the criticism has been... questionable. (I still cringe when I think about that one time she explained that Raphielle can ship ValAngel because they are sa survivor, but Raphielle explicitly admitted to not be one).

But then, there's stuff that's just... pulled out of nowhere. Like the whole thing about Valentino being a "fetish character." Come on, the world of villains is filled with queer, flamboyant baddies. What sets Valentino apart is how his abusive behavior is shown in the open, making us rethink our love for villains. If it weren't for Mascarade, people would worship this moth daddy gangster in a dress, much like they are with Vox now. It's hard to root for the bad guy when you see the fallout of their actions. Like, Loki committed war crimes and no one was outraged when he got his own TV series and dragged creators for supporting atrocities.

Constant Valentino/Angel Dust discourse actually leads to the more serious issues I have with this "community", more harmful than just "bad media literacy" like the way they handle the topic of sexual abuse and weaponize it, without ever listening to victims. There is this constant shitstorm about Angel being a "bad sa survivor rep," that the way he's written is insensitive because "he shouldn't be horny, he's sexually traumatized." Like, do these people not understand that making Angel unable to enjoy his sexuality the way he wants would essentially mean acknowledging that it's no longer his but belongs to his abuser now? Also, the argument I keep seeing that drives me BAT SHIT CRAZY aka "I can enjoy this media that is centered around murderer, you cannot enjoy the media that treats rapist as a nuanced character because rape is objectively worse than murder." WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU THAT? Reading this makes me feel so angry and sad and guilty because frankly, I was raped, and of course, it was horrible but still I'd choose it any time over being murdered. Because I have my life, I'm loved, and I love, I pursue my dreams, and I can still experience so many good things in my life. Painting sexual assault as this worse-than-death experience is not the feminist take they think it is and does not do victims any good.

Or accusations that Vivzie's support of fandom bullying led to someone taking their life. It's such a ridiculous and harmful claim. Honestly, this thing always makes me heated because suicide is not an easy decision, ask any person who ever faced it. It's not like "ah, this stranger told me to kms, I guess I gotta do it now." Of course, any kind of bullying and abuse adds to the suffering and can be the final trigger, but to me, it's just so disrespectful and harmful that someone could have experienced prolonged, intense suffering and all of this is omitted, their death labeled as a result of "fandom bullying" and weaponized in fandom drama. Also, it's simply cruel to put the blame for it on one, uninvolved person.

Also, it always annoys me when people hold small creators to immensely high standards while not doing the same with others. If we keep lynching and canceling every media that is not objectively morally pure, we won't be left with only perfect media. We will be left with media produced by white, privileged billionaires who might be real-life rapists, abusers, and thieves but are too powerful to be taken down by social media outrage. Hazbin's success is a major W for the underappreciated medium of animation (we saw what WB did to 90% of their animated shows), unpopular genres like musicals (Wonka creators were literally too ashamed to market it as one??), and unapologetic queer narratives that are not written for a heteronormative audience or centered around queer oppression (ofmd, the other medium I can think of in that realm has just been canceled). I can't stand people so desperate to put it down driven by their black-or-white sense of morality. Kant won't be patting your back for being the Moraliest Person because you bullied an indie creator and her fans.

Also everyone who feels the need to explain me hazbin critical agenda - save your breath. I'm very emotional about it and I frankly don't fucking care why you think you are right.

[tired-fandom-ndn]

I'm in a new fandom where the main tag tends to be filled with self-insert shipping and the most popular ship (which manages to be both super popular but is also considered problematic which feels almost unheard of these days lol). And people complain about these things in the tag but they never post anything they *want* to see? They could be posting gifs or meta analysis or headcanons or shitposts or screenshots but they don't. They expect other people to provide it for them. I think being a lurker in fandom is fine, but you can't then complain because the people not lurking are just doing fandom in a way you dislike??

[context]

Yeah. Honestly, I get it because I was just a silent lurker in fandoms for a long, long time (long time followers may remember that I didn't start really making my own posts and interacting with people until I got into TUA) and the only "content" I made was complaints and discourse posts.

I think a lot of people are in the same boat I was in, where they think that because they aren't an artist or a strong writer or something, then no one wants to hear what they have to say and they have nothing to offer to a fandom and that is so so so far from the truth. Even if all you're doing to create fandom content is making some tumblr posts or writing fics that took you 15 minutes, that's still something and if you keep doing that, then you're going to build up a nice little space for yourself with other people who like the same kind of stuff you do and like to hear what you have to say.

So like. Instead of making another post complaining about how the sort of content you like doesn't really exist, why not make a post about the thing you like? If you want more of a ship, make a post about that ship. If you want more of a certain trope, make a post using that trope. If all you ever do is put down what other people, then even the people who are into the same stuff you are aren't gonna want to be around you.

[perpetuallypottytraining]

(im the anon that said regression is not nsfw)

oh okay i get it kind of :thumbs_up:

do u talk abt potty training stuff on ur main age regression acc too or is it just this one? cuz if u do i might follow idk hehe

okay, I thiiiink these are the same person? Probably? Unclear. I'll answer both here, for clarity.

1 - No, I don't talk about potty training stuff on my main, not anymore. I moved those posts here a couple of years ago. The only content that's there are maybe some reblogs from other regressors.

2 - Okay, first of all, age regressors did NOT come up with those terms, nor do they have exclusive rights to use them. Those terms have been used by people for, like, ever. Parents calling their kids "little ones", family members calling out "littles, come over here!" to refer to any younger members, the obvious origins of "mom" and "dad" and their variants, and "caregivers" being tied to both people who care for babies, children, the elderly, and those with disabilities.

If anything, age players have more rights to the terms "littles" and "caregiver" in the context that we're using on this site. They're the ones who originated/popularized them. I know this because I was here, on this site, in 2016, when age regressors decided to split off from the sfw age play community, and there was legitimately tons of discourse about who had the "right" to those terms.

(who here remembers the chire and the other handful of communities that attempted to exclude anyone who liked the parental nicknames and the usage of the word "little" in their regression? I do. god, do I remember. this is the main reason that a lot of old regression blogs specify that they're "community free regression")

Second, I... don't? Tag anything here as ageplay? Everything here is just tagged with omo tags, then with assorted organizational tags - there is nothing here tagged with agere or ageplay - just posts that use the very vague term of "little" and the other term of "caregiver" within the post itself.

(which, I just feel the need to repeat, is a word that even normies use!! my own parents, aunts, and uncles call me and my cousins littles!!! Outside of that, "Littles" is a shared community term!! Littles and Caregivers, as we use them, originated from Dominant Daddy/Mommy and Little Boy/Little Girl - it's the gender neutral version!! Cg/L! Regressors are the ones who decided to keep it!! Because it's vague!! That's intentional!!)

But, yeah, you're allowed to feel your feelings, and, honestly, the fact that you're uncomfortable with the "playing grown-up" tag is something that I anticipated when I made that tag - that it might make people uncomfortable! But, I've been working on making my own boundaries and enforcing them, while not immediately catering to make other people comfortable at the detriment of my own comfort/space.

This is my blog. People didn't like when I put non-sexual omo on my agere blog because it helped me regress. That's okay, and even I became uncomfortable with it after a while, so! I made this blog! It's not my agere blog. It's my soft omo blog. It's nsfw and for adults only. And, only just recently, I decided to take advantage of those two facts and put some other nsfw posts here. I do not want to make yet another sideblog for the handful of "icky" posts I'd like to reblog, especially when this blog is already here.

A nice thing about Tumblr is that tags are now blockable, so if, for some reason, you wanted to follow me still, you'd still be able too view all my other posts while excluding that specific tag. Or you can block me, if you wanted to - you curate your own online experience, and I'll hold no ill will towards you for making sure that you're comfortable and safe.

As for saying thats someone can't be both an age regressor and an age player? Literally what are you talking out????? Huh???? Do you think that adults can't age regress and slip into the mindset of a child while also being capable of, while in adult headspace, in a consensual relationship, roleplay as a child for sexual gratification??? Those are two different things!!! Ageplay is roleplay, and as such, one is capable of adult things! Agere is someone slipping into the headspace of a child!! Healthy communication with one's partner makes it clear what's okay in one headspace and what's okay in the other!!!

I'm not even an ageplayer and even I know that it's possible to do both 😭😭😭 and I just read fanfiction and people's actual blogs!!

As for your sign off, um. Okay? I don't even interact with a.geredips posts and blogs.... even if they're very relevant to me and my regression! Not even with my main!! (I'm also very shy and timid and a bit scared to interact) And, on my main, if people who follow me start breaking people's DNI, I literally softblock or block them - if they can't follow people's boundaries, then they can't interact! I'm just one blog, and I doubt that if anyone wanted to demonize age regressors, they need any help from me - people who deliberately mistag are probably more than enough tbh.

Ageplay and age regression, like it or not, was cut from the same cloth - a cloth made out of a gradient from black to white, with shades of grey all in between. Like a baby blanket! Black/ageplay and ABDL on one side, white/agere on the other, with you and me and my friends and mutuals somewhere in the middle, all spread out across!

Plenty of adults don't think anyone should return to the comfort of childhood things, and look at the whole blanket with scorn and disgust. Cutting off more and more of the blanket, because you think that my grey isn't as palatable as your grey, is not going to change these people's minds. Both of us live in the grey zone, and I personally think that by accepting more of the grey, our baby blanket will be strong enough to handle anything - even and especially people who think our blanket should be torn to shreds.

[inkovert]

I've been thinking about starting some discourse within writeblr. I don't have any IRL author friends and so I rarely know how other authors view or feel about things unless I just happen upon it in a post on social media. I just think it'd be interesting getting a wider perspective on certain things from a variety of writers/authors from different backgrounds. I think there's so many debates within the writer/reader community that can easily be looked at as a black and white issue (very much so in this modern age when people tend to have knee jerk responses/reactions to things without appreciating the nuance to the issue) but it's actually far more complex than any one person could fathom. Most of the things I've wanted others to weigh in on I don't think are too controversial...some of them are just trivial things that have bugged me/I have opinions about and some are topics where I'm like I genuinely don't think there's a right answer or a solution to this issue.

So yeah. Would be cool to see if people would be interested in something like that. I haven't decided what it would look like - maybe a question/topic that I post weekly and people can reblog with their thoughts/opinions in the post or tags? Idk. I also know that once I put it out there I have no control over what gets said or what debates get started so I just worry about starting some unnecessary drama. That's honestly the complete opposite of the purpose of this, it's specifically to be open minded and hear different people's side of things and have a healthy discourse. So...we'll see

[problematic-alter-culture-is]

Hello, 📚💜 anon here because I saw the response someone made here and I wanted to add more to it, sorry if it sounds kinda ventish and you don't have to post it

The whole shipping discourse seems kinda dumb for me and I'm not some immature little one who goes harassing people because I've been harassed and I know it's a fucking mentally draining shit, I do kinda post not that horrible darkshipping in another platform but it's tagged with TW and before the story begin (yeah writing) I made a page just to make sure people KNOW what they're reading and honestly that's kinda all because the most horrible ones I don't feel comfortable sharing publicly, just for the people who REALLY want to hear me out and are ok with that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Darkship might be a bad coping mechanism, but in reality for me and other alter here that's just... The embodiment of darkship in some REAL SERIOUS SHIT WAY (seriously, I'm disgusted by them) it's the best we could do, we've tried a lot of alternatives you can find on the internet and they all shit for me, nothing works good and trying to leave it it's worse, with darkship I can calm myself, without it I might end up with flashbacks and returning to the more severe kind of SH I used to do because that's how my fucking brain works

I not only wish more people were similar to me in the sense of not harassing and exposing everyone to that type of content because I know that can be really triggering and stuff, but I'll also would like for people stop saying me bad shit for trying not to hurt myself or others in a way that don't really affects them, even if I don't do it in public people still attack me an call me horrible things

I personally have friends of mine who are anti darkshippers and KNOW I'm a darkshipper, but basic respect is in the mix so we don't get bothered by that, wish more people could be like this, understand that not because our stances and likes are different means you can harass, attack, exclude or judge without even knowing the person

That's all, thx

.

[yuripira4e]

ur points are fine but do you really have to put an obnoxious anon in the mgs tag talking shit abt one of the few games with gay male rep "made up yaoi" and claiming bb/eva is like a Real Canon pairing and not they fucked one bc eva was trying to get something from him and if you want to talk about women her feelings towards him were clearly a lot more complicated than it just being a ship. virtue signaling is also acting like you have to publicly blog about female characters to show that you care and respect them. also strangeboss WAS very popular, more so when the game came out for what its worth. if you really want to get into the nitty gritty im always pretty disappointed that ppl interpret their relationship as cute mutual attraction and ignore that strangelove has an obsession with the boss that likely makes her an unreliable narrator, which imo isnt a bad thing!! i legit think thats really interesting, zero and bb talk a lot about the boss and her will from the pov of soldiers but strangelove equally puts her on a pedestal imo. yeah thats not a good trope for a lesbian character but again! if you want to get nitty gritty. theres a really clear pattern in the mgs series where only villains are CANONICALLY bi/gay, but theres a lot of heavy handed queer coding among the "good guys"

I agree with you too. I’m sorry for putting discourse in the tag. 1. strange boss is a complex dynamic and as much as I love it it is ultimately from Strangelove’s pov. I think that’s just a reoccurring theme with the boss in general. I mean the entire game is centered around the misinterpretation of her will and everyone taking what they thought she meant from it and warping it to for their own perception. I do think strangeboss was mutual but Strangelove was definitely not healthily crushing on the boss either. I haven’t been in the fandom that long so I actually didn’t know the ship was that popular at one point but you have to admit it does get overshadowed as do a lot of female pairings (straight or queer) in the fanbase

2. I already said I don’t ship bb ships. I love Eva and I think her complex relationship with bb and other characters should absolutely be talked about and I enjoy their dynamic so that’s why I said I liked their relationship but not endgame

3. I do think the made up yaoi thing was kind of rude bc I don’t think it was made up at all (I should have said that on that but I don’t really feel like starting arguments or defending shit). I think the mlm representation in the game is honestly really groundbreaking even if it does adhere to a lot of stereotypes and unfortunately villainize it a lot. But it has multiple relationships and single characters in queer or queer coded mlm relationships that differ in age, ethnicity, dynamic, and backstory which is just insanely cool. From like canonically queer characters like volgin and vamp and I’m gonna say ocelot bc I think pw put him past queer coded and into fully implied queer territory to deep, healthy, interesting queer coded relationships like otasune and even liquidmantis I think it’s amazing and should not be minimized even if it could be improved or there are faults in the way other characters are treated because of it at times which is something every fanbase has. Even other ships that I don’t like have a lot of really interesting dynamics and feelings that are undeniably queer coded and I think we should just look at all of it and enjoy the queer media we’ve been given while being able to critique it and not turn on each other

[cola-losers]

Maybe it's because of the terrible summer I had, maybe it's because I'm dealing with loss but man

This blog doesn't feel fun anymore

It's a case of, I don't get that same enjoyment digging through the tag every day anymore

Not when I get to see the same type of posts, the same discourse, the same drama blah blah

Shipping Discourse

-TomTord bad

-Pauktryck killed my parents

-Shipping them at all is a crime

Then we have Crew Discourse

-Matt H said this, Christopher Bingham did that but it's always just like a he said she said kind of thing

-This crew member that is more like just a guy that draws some of the comics ships this one ship and it is SO bad (it's literally one of the popular ships)

Then we have merch discourse

-Edd figure overpriced and ugly (That's Yootooz, that's the style, that's like getting a POP figure but ^^ instead of ••) but instead of just saying you're not going to get it you have to turn it into some sort of moral thing?

-Edd Plush Ridiculous, ugly, and overpriced. I have literally only one makeship plushie but the whole appeal is that they actually are pretty good quality plushies and they're a one time deal. That's what you're paying for, once again you don't have to buy it just don't act like you have a moral high ground because you don't have enough money in your piggy bank for it

-An indie team (yes they are by definition indie) unsurprisingly wouldn't want you to get knock off merch from Temu/Amazon/Ebay. Now commission stuff that's a tricky field but but like, I feel like most people would agree commissioning someone is much better than getting a cheap knock off from a big company

Then we have headcanon discourse

I'm not even going to list the most common ones I just think it's dumb it's someone's head canons if you don't like it just don't follow the person?

And then of course we have multiple artists leaving Tumblr or just leaving the fandom just because, honestly yeah there is too much discourse I can't really blame them.

Anyways I'm not kicking the bucket on this blog it's still like a huge hyper fixation of mine but oh man, until they drop a new episode it's getting hard to keep excitement when there's so much negativity

Like if you truly do not like this show anymore or the crew has ruined it for you, go find something else. Keeping yourself in a negative space is not good for you mentally. Yes it hurts to say goodbye to comfort characters but if their canon hurts you this much, leave

[kissitbttr]

TJANK FUCKING GOD YOURE TALKING ABOUT THE R@PE SHIT IN THIS FANDOM. I'm actually in disbelief of how often it's being written. And I get the whole 'dont like, then scroll' and whatever, but when I open up my dash/tags and the first FIVE FUCKING FICS are r@pe fics???? And there's more every day, by the same, but also newer writers??? Wanna know what that is? Normalization. There's one blog on here that's so so so bad for it. And honestly, I get darker content, and I get the interest in rape from a psychological and conditional aspect, but that is when it's being taken seriously. These writers on here? Yeah, they're not fucking taking it seriously. If I see one more '💕🌷🎀' on a r@pe fic, I'm going to fucking lose it.

I can't imagine showing a survivor of SA one of these fics and telling them there is more like it. Like... How embarrassing. But the excuse is that the writers were SA'd and that this is the way they can work through their trauma. Personally, that literally does not add up to me. But! I'm not a psychologist so I can't dictate how someone works through their trauma. But, I can have an opinion on what they put on a public domain. And that's where the whole COD fandom issue lies. There is literally no healthy discourse. If you ask someone why they write about r@pe, they either block you, publicly slander you like you're the idiot for asking about a r@pe fic (???), or tell you to fuck off or something. Like... Why can't we just have a healthy discussion about it?? ESPECIALLY in a fandom with a pretty large female following. We SHOULD be talking about this not being hostile to each other, writers and readers alike.

Idk, sorry for the word dump. I spent four hours talking to a friend about this (who doesn't have Tumblr) and the general consensus was the same. I wish people could just think a little more critically. Just because you have a kink, or think somethings hot, doesn't always mean it's okay. And when you're consistently writing about it as a way to work through it, and posting it online, that just might be a sign that you should talk to a professional, cause there's nothing wrong with getting a second opinion.

took the fucking words outta my mouth babe. you are so RIGHT

tbh i never seen someone actively open about their trauma and say that they write the r*** fics as a way for them to cope. that’s definitely new to me. i mean, i’m no expert too and i can’t exactly say and tell them how to feel but yea that’s a little… bizarre. whether or not they’re using that as an excuse so they can write it i have nothing to say abt that. but if it’s a lie then they can go fuck themselves.

it’s not only this fandom i believe, right? there’s gotta be more and that’s the most fucked up thing about it. like i do not need to know you’re some mentally fucked individual who enjoys writing and reading about r*** content, u keep that shit to yourself. do not bring that bullshit here.

it’s pretty saddening to know that telling ppl to fuck off is their only response. which makes me realized that they are only good for one thing. how could you not have any ounce of decency in you to actually be aware of those things and realize that r*** is not okay and will never be okay?? I don’t care what’s the excuse or whatever reasons u want to bring to the table. if u don’t wanna talk about how r*** takes the joy out of a SA victim and leave a permanent scar in which they have to live with everyday, then there is no point in writing them at all.

and also, you know what saddens me more? the blogs that normally write them comes from women. because, man… you should’ve known better… you should’ve known that no woman on earth could ever live in peace knowing that one exact fear is the reason why we are so terrified of going out alone. why we are so terrified of men. why would you ever go out your way and change these beautiful characters to be some sort of evil spawn ?? weird ass bitches.

don’t be sorry for the word dump!! because i’m glad that some of you came into my inbox and expressed your thoughts about this particular bullshit.

they do need to get some help. and i mean this in the most nicest and disrespectful way possible tbh.

[rakassauce]

welcome, and howdy!!!

yo, I'm raka. an artist who adores the scene subculture, anime/cartoons, and the old internet. been a while since i did an intro, and I don't particularly enjoy my current one. so, i thought i'd fix that!

but before i get into it, lemme begin with some ground rules:

DNI if you are/support ANY of the following:

a proshipper/comshipper

a terf/truscum/transmed/transphobic in any way

anti-palestine (however, that doesn't give you the right to be an anti-semite, that shit ain't cool)

Are a pro-lifer, this is a pro-choice zone babie

anti-neopronouns

ableist

a MAP/YAP, get that pedo shit outta here

a neo-nazi/on some type of white supremecist shit

a zoophile

...they gone now? yeah? cool, let's rock n' roll. (quick heads up for flashing blinkies/images, and eyestrain. that's gonna be a constant on this blog.)

name: raka/alex/izzy

age: 17

DOB: 07/14/2007

pronouns: she/he/they

current hyperfixation: YU-GI-OH!!!!

favorite color: hot pink/red/neon green

favorite song: party like a millionaire - millionaires/i also like genres like rock, electronic, and pop

favorite games: sims (4 and 3), touhou project, legend of zelda

hobbies: scouring the internet, watching anime, drawing, spending time w/ my bf

favorite food: menudo!! my nanny (that's what I call my grandma ^^;) makes it for me occasionally and on my bday nearly every year

dislikes: assholes, unnecessary internet discourse, instagram comments, my horrible sleep schedule (help lol)

favorite movie(s): yugioh the movie: pyramid of light, bill and ted's excellent adventure, idle hands

likes: the night, old internet vibes, art, magical girls (SAILOR MOON), scene kid stuff

loves: my dad and my boyfriend!!!

rando facts: i'm half mexican :] i wanna learn more spanish to be in touch with my mom's side of the family. i've only ever finished one anime despite starting a few, and that would be Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. even though i'm on ep 27 of the 2003 version of FMA (it's on hold since it isn't my current fixation), i honestly prefer it. my favorite vocaloids are hatsune miku and kagamine rin and len)! now if we're talking utauloids: yokune ruko and kasane teto.

my tags:

#raka's sauce (my art)

#other people's awesome sauce (reblogged art)

#raka reblogs!

#raka's brain dump

#raka's cc finds!!

so, i'm raka. i've lurked around the internet for a little while now--since I was about five. restricted internet access? don't know her. i only started really participating in online communities when i was about 10, on quotev and amino (rip, it was a shitshow but i had a good time for the most part). at some point i just kinda...fell off of trying to find internet spaces? it didn't really feel fun anymore, y'know? i went back to lurking, looking at stuff i enjoyed/making things in silence.

well, fuck that. if i wanna have fun, i'm gonna make it fun. i love drawing, i always have!! i've been drawing since i was about five or six. it's always been an escape for me during REALLY rough times--it made me happy to draw my favorite characters, and even create my own! i love interacting with fandom spaces too, finding folks who are into the same stuff i am. connecting with strangers is fun, when you don't really know anybody irl who shares your exact interests!

i wanna make/reblog fandom art on here, and maybe make moots/friends. i also have OCs i love and adore that i'd like to share--with lore, of course.

i hope y'all have a wonderful day or night!!! take care of yourselves!!!

with all that said, blinkie/stamp dump time!!! a further insight of myself, if you will

sources for a few stamps:

Mel-Rosey on Deviantart

StarriiChan on Deviantart

kas7ia on Deviantart

blinkies.cafe for blinkies

YukiMiyasawa on Deviantart | another stamp from them

hissatsugirl on Deviantart

Papikari on Deviantart

Magica-28 on Deviantart

RaptureCyner on Deviantart

and feel free to hmu on other things such as:

discord - rakassauce

artfight

spacehey (i need to finish up my profile :/ sorry for mess)

instagram

[valyrfia]

https://www.tumblr.com/valyrfia/753339300734812160/guys-if-i-reblog-a-post-to-add-an

honestly going to sound bitchy when I say this, and while I don’t think OP should be getting hate for their takes, I also think it’s unrealistic to expect something that’s posting on a public forum to never break containment. Especially when their takes either make them sound like a hypocrite or like they honestly believe that any ships are happening IRL and not just a bit of fun within the fandom.

I personally don’t give a shit if someone finds my takes on Lestappen delusional, because let’s be real-it is. The same way all RPF is, no matter the ship. Because we don’t know these people. So I find it hard to judge others for their shipping because at the end of the day you’ve got to take a step back and realize this is all for fun, if we’re reading too much into an interaction, so what? If we’re pook-afing a grown man, what’s the hard? There’s a difference between RPF/shipping and the actual person going out to race every weekend. And personally, I’m more concerned with people that have trouble understanding and distinguishing between the two.

There is probably a less than 1% chance that Charles and Max are interested in each other in a romantic way, which is why all of my “theories” are simply for fun. And I can understand not wanting to interact with some of the more die hard fans, for any ship/fandom because they do tend to get a little too defensive of their favs. But I’m not okay with the suggestion that, Lestappen is somehow less morally okay than Carlando or Galex or whatever other ship because we’re Ken-afing a man. As if we any of the other ships are somehow more realistic.

Eh idk. I think we're all on tumblr to escape something and enjoy, and people have different boundaries to keep their peace that deserve to be respected. Just because someone criticises a certain ship and then requests that their opinion not be spread because they just don't have the mood nor the energy to discuss it doesn't make them a hypocrite, it just means they want to log on and enjoy what they enjoy without having to engage too critically with it. I don't think OP was saying that Lestappen is less morally okay (let's get one thing straight: all RPF is morally grey as hell but that's a different discussion), rather sharing their opinion of the ship as formed by their experiences–as I think they're entitled to do. OP didn't post it in any tags, and it only reached us because people sent it in.

Yeah I disagreed with their take, and expressed that and I stand by my points–but I have deleted and will delete my takes if it means sending discourse anons to a person who doesn't want it. I explicitly asked at the beginning of my reblog of thearchercore's original anon not to go send anons to OP because they set a boundary in their meta that they didn't want them, so it's just a bit annoying that then anons flood this person's inbox anyway and I get contacted and my username gets attached to all this disrespect and boundary breaking and I'm the one who has to apologise and I feel a little mortified. Just please respect people's boundaries, it makes everyone's lives much simpler.

[silvysartfulness]

1, 2, 12, 16 and 22 for the ask game! No particular fandom, up to you.

the character everyone gets wrong

Gonna say a toss-up between Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang here.Guess it depends on whether you mean in fic or just in The Discourse in general?

I see so so many bad takes on Xue Yang, especially people utterly glossing over his trauma, and... I'm happy for you guys, I guess, who've apparently never known trauma and what it does to a person? It's not a matter of Xue Yang deciding to be a murderous asshole because he broke a finger once. It's that his entire personality and the way his mind works were brutally shaped by severe abuse and trauma at a very young age. You don't have to like him or at all condone his actions, but have a little compassion, for fuck's sake.

As for Xiao Xingchen... I don't know which rubs me the wrong way the most, the "lol XXC can't do math" crowd claiming he's outright stupid, or the "lol XXC was raised by hippies" who utterly disregard his whole cultural context. Personally not at all a fan of mean (dom) Xiao Xingchen either, I just can't see it work with his canon personality, but to each their own, I guess. I won't read it, though.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

Hmmm. That's actually a tough one, because I hc Xue Yang (And Xiao Xingchen for that matter) as rather fluid switches without particular preference as long as things are sexy and feel good.

I guess you could argue that Xue Yang would be wary about who he'd let top him because of his rough and precarious childhood and how badly the world's hurt him, but then, the boy also has a self-destructive high-risk-behaviour streak a mile wide, so.

I guess the closest I can get is that I don't think Song Lan enjoys the idea of bottoming, partly because of his more ingrained ideas of masculinity and femininity and the power roles he feels are inherent in topping/bottoming, but more importantly because he already struggles with physical touch, and the idea of being held down, touched and "trapped" in any way during sex is a bit scary. Not to say he wouldn't come around to it, but it'd take a lot more mulling over - and gentle experimentation. 😏

I already answered 12, so moving on to 16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

Oh man, is this my cue to mutter about mean dom Xiao Xingchen again? Like, I get the appeal of exploring characters far outside their canon constraints, I really do, and if mean dom Xiao Xingchen tickles your metaphorical pickle, by all means, have fun! I just personal really dislike it. (I am super grateful to all writers out there who have started tagging for it, though! It makes it easier to avoid - and find, for those who are into it. Everyone wins!)

As for pairings, I just don't like SangCheng or XiCheng, they both feel very pair-the-spares to me, and are just... Mm. Not for me. Honestly, funnily enough, SongXiao goes here, too, 95% of the time. I pretty much only like these two as part of SXX - I don't know if it is because of many SongXiao shippers' way of treating Xue Yang like dirt, or just because the two characters on their own don't interest me much, but yeah. On the whole, I won't read fic for just SongXiao unless recommended by people I trust, and I'll only like/reblog art if it's very pretty and doesn't imply dead Xue Yang.

I also really don't like most modern au BDSM fic? So much of it reads like a wholesome manual - and I'm sure for people in that scene, it's really hot! It just doesn't do anything at all for me, except give me secondhand embarrassment. If sex is going to be a bit painful and having undertones of dominance and submission, i want it to be very, very real, borderline dangerous and not done for play or politely negotiated beforehand. Gimme the hot mess or nothing.

(Mandatory disclaimer that these are just my personal squicks and mehs, not passing any judgment on anyone who does like them! My Kink Is Not Your Kink And That's Okay, and ship and let ship. ✌)

I already answered 22, too, but... Hm. I'm sure I can think of more if I try...

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I think Xue Yang's and a-Qing's relationship is a lot more complicated than a lot of people seem to want to think! Especially for those who've only watched CQL, where a lot of the Yi City arc was either cut or angled to make it into more of a psychological thriller - but they were a family! All three of them, and in the text there is such clear evidence that they all really cared about each other! Even Xue Yang.

A-Qing stole his candy without fear, asked him "why were you like that when you were little??" when he told the first half of the story of his childhood trauma. When she claimed to have been bullied to the point of crying, he protectively told her how to defend herself and made her apple bunnies to cheer her up. Even after Xiao Xingchen's death (and he must have known by then that she was the one who sold him out) one of the things he did while cleaning the house was to make her bed, waiting for her to come back home.

Not least of all, Wang Haoxuan said in his in-character farewell note that Xue Yang would have protected a-Qing as long as their happy 'dream' in Yi City lasted.

They ended horribly, yes, causing each others' deaths, but there was a time where they cared deeply about each other and looked out for each other, and that still matters.

[yanderefairyangel]

Tbh I think some of the “No one’s talking about Engage anymore” claims boil down to people not looking outside their bubbles. I’m one of the few who loves both 3H and Engage so I look into both their communities a lot and I will say you see little talk of Engage in 3H circles unless to criticize it so if you only hang out in those circles of course you’ll get the “No one talks about Engage” impression. And while Engage does overall get less fan works every day than 3H, it still receives a lot more daily than the “Engage Fell Off” crowd would have you believe (they make it sound like its tags only get filled monthly). If you look at the accounts who make these claims, you’ll notice they primarily follow people who dislike or don’t care for Engage. I’ve seen dead fandoms and Engage isn’t one of them. So for some the answer to “Why is no one talking about Engage anymore?” is “because you only interact with people who don’t care for Engage”.

Hello anon ! I am glad you enjoyed both games !

And honestly I think you pretty much well explained the situation. As to whether ot not Engage receives more fancontent then 3H every day, I can't really tell since I don't try to compare the two but I agree Engage's fandom isn't a dead one at all, and if people searched for Engage related content, then they would see that for a game this short it does received more fancontent they believe it does.

What is actually weird about this is that... why does it matter whether or not Engage is being talked less then 3 H ? That's not really an indicator of it's quality.

Just to give an example, I am in 2 fandom : Vanitas no Carte and Fire emblem. Vanitas no carte is by miles better written then Engage or any Fire emblem game story and it receives little fan content. I just checked. It received like 2 fan content this day, while Engage already had 8 of them. What I am saying is that it doesn't matter if Engage isn't as popular as 3H because it's not an indicator of it's quality and if the people who keeps saying no one talked about it tried just for a second to look, they would actually see the fandom is still active. But of course if some people didn't like it, why would they want to talk about it ?

what's more is that everytime someone bring that topic up it turns into a Engage hating thing where people will trash on the story, the characters even the GAMEPLAY and GRAPHICS and FREAKING MUSIC to say "Yeah look 3H is better at those", just to remove the game of any redeeming quality... you think that's not going to make fans not want to look at Engage ? or not discourage fans ? It is, it will obviously depress fans to see people trashing a thing they love, so they'll move on to another plateform where they can see some Engage appreciation, which obviously to the people who stay in their own bubble will give them the impression those fans don't talk about Engage anymore when in reality they still do, just elsewhere.

Another argument I saw was that people return to play other FE games... which is the point ? Engage was suppose to encourage player to give a look to previous game or replay previous game... if anything you are proving Engage worked !! But let's not kid ourselves, 3H is much longer to complete then Engage and when I finished it, I never picked it up again and replayed Awakening instead. Like of course once you finished a game, you might not replay it right away let alone replay it at all. And it's not like everyone stop playing Engage.

BigKlingy replayed it recently and made comments on how it feels different to replay the game while already knowing the story, that's how you feel that there were some though put into the writing.

Anyway I would'nt think too much about that weird discourse because I don't even understand what they are trying to infer. I remember that in January -March there was so much Engage content I though no one was talking again about 3H and even saw some 3H fans complain about that ! It's really just a question of perspective at this point.

[jazzmckay]

more personal thoughts on last reblog that was too much to say in the tags

discourse-y post below the read more

i'm really grateful to see that post right now because honestly, i've been struggling lately with the shift that has happened where people celebrate the deaths of those who have done a lot of harm, and i was starting to feel swayed. i'm feeling more secure in my gut instinct now, which is that celebrating death, no matter how evil the person was, is just something ill never be able to do

some people are really, really evil, and their evil has negatively impacted millions of people. it is completely understandable to be angry about those people. i'm angry, too! i won't ever begrudge people for being angry and hateful at someone for the evil they've done

celebrating death, though? and i don't mean just... privately thinking the world is better off without that person, because that is often true, i mean like making a meme out of it and treating it like a party and being utterly disrespectful about the whole thing. doing that, to me, is treating the person like they had no personhood, and as that post said, making evil people some kind of non-human "other" is dangerous for a lot of reasons. it can be a slippery slope of whats "bad enough" that the death can be a joke. it could lead to bigots picking up the habit and celebrating when activists are assassinated. it can lead us to feeling like we could never be that evil, that those people are separate from us, that conflicts don't have nuance, that there is just "right" and "wrong" and obviously we're right, so we never have to examine our own beliefs or behaviour, right?

but if you find the celebration of evil people's death to be distasteful, you're told you're an apologist, that you're excusing their evil actions, that there's absolutely no harm done to a despicable person who used to hold all the power and is now dead. but to me there is harm done, not to the evil person, but cultural harm, in letting ourselves forget that we're all people, and we're all capable of evil, and we should be seriously acknowledging what leads to people becoming that way so that we can cultivate a better future

like, i get it, sometimes you just want to be happy about one less bigot or w/e in the world, you don't always want to be thinking about it Seriously, but idk. memeing about it doesn't seem the way, to me. i'd rather be respectful, not even to the evil person themselves, but to the harm they committed. i'd rather keep these things serious in my head so i never lose perspective, and remember it's important to constantly learn and grow and do better. i was starting to feel like maybe i was wrong after all, because even people i know decently and trust the opinions of were on the "celebrating the death of evil people is fun and good and doesnt matter" train but. yeah i just can't do that. there are absolutely people who will get a private "good fucking riddance" from me, but i'm never going to make it a fucking joke that a human person was capable of that evil