#I'm not trying to be the no-fanon police or anything | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zykamiliah · 2 months

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Hey, sorry to bother you, but I've been seeing something in the fandom that kind of confuses me, so I'm leaving this ask to my favorite svsss blogs.

I've been trying to get more into Shen Jiu's character, as he is pretty interesting and arguably a fan favorite, and I've noticed that, so far of the fanfics I've read, he is more often than not depicted as a good teacher. A harsh one, but still good? Or not terrible?

One that likes teaching, is involved with his students, taking the little of what we've seen of Shen Yuan's teaching methods and just, giving them a twist, "improving" them even sometimes.

Often it ends up being a show of how Shen Yuan was clumsy, not that good of a teacher (or of a Shen Qingqiu) and I'm... Kind of confused by this trend? Like, is it rooted in canon? Obviously this is still more interesting to read than the "SJ is just a tsundere that never did anything wrong ever" thing, but it feels kind of similar.

I cannot imagine a character as genuinely bitter and angry as Shen Jiu enjoying being a teacher, having a nurturing bone in his body or even being hands on in the teaching of his disciples, several of which he literally bullied out of his peak. But maybe it's just me and I'm wrong?

Was Shen Jiu a good teacher?

I guess I'm just curious of where it comes from. I like Shen Yuan's character, and it often feels like people take Shen Jiu's to show how bad at everything SY is, even if it isn't consistent with SJ's character and often lack nuances, in my opinion.

(Or even if the story claims loving SY while also stripping him away of everything that makes him interesting other than his obliviousness, but that's a whole other thing.)

Sorry again, and I also apologize for the long ask, I'd just figured you or someone that follows you might have an answer.

(Also, I get that fandoms gotta fandom, and I'm not saying people shouldn't write it or anything, I may be a strickler for canon but I'm not the police. Write what you want. I just wonder where it comes from, as I figure that knowing its origins might help me in the future, but I promise I'm not trying to start discourse or anything, so I hope I've made my point clear enough without offending anyone.)

hello!! :DD

well sj being ooc in fics is a common thing by now. people tend to portray him softer than he's in canon, to the point it sometimes turns his whole character upside down. in extreme cases, you'll be dealing with a bitter, more tsundere version of sy with sj's backstory, which is secretly what many people want IMO lol often this people also perceive sy as an incompetent dumb nerd that only knows about monster lore and has no other skills or abilities aside from that-- essentially, they fall for the unreliable narrator's trap of believing every lie he tells about himself.

it's never outright stated, but sj didn't like children, so is fair to assume he didn't like teaching or caring for them either. taking into account qing jing peak's toxic atmosphere pre sy's transmigration, AND the fact that sj was paranoid about being overthrown since he hadn't developed a golden core even after becoming a peak lord and taking lbh in, I don't think he'd be interested in teaching anyone anything. in a lot of cultivation novels, disciples are just given manuals and left to self-study them (like he let lbh use the fake manual, expecting lbh would die from using it. haha. such a good teacher!). this could be the case. aside from that, I don't personally think sj would want to provide any kid guidance. and that's not mentioning how he allowed and enabled bullying, targeted talented disciples, and overall was more worried about his own cultivation and survival and reputation than other things or people.

so where this fanon sj comes from? I'm not sure, really, but I think some people just want a version of him that's palatable AND defensible, like my friend furby says, a declawed sj that's just a poor misunderstood meowmeow who deep inside is secretly good and nice. it's a thing that people who struggle with liking "villainous" or "morally bad" characters do: twisting the narrative around to justify this character's actions. It doesn't help that he's SO complicated, and people who have very black-and-white thinking struggle to place him in either side of the spectrum-- it's the problem mxtx outlined through sqh and sqq's voices

ch.14 house arrest

ch.19 shen jiu

really, the fandom has just proved mxtx's point xD

anyway, there's a lot of misconceptions about sj. there are some pretty wild theories around. some fans also treat his abuse as The Worst Abuse in comparison to the Child Abuse he did, because of the (unconfirmed) hints that sj was sexually assaulted by qiu jianluo, as if SA is the worst kind of abuse and child abuse falls back on the tier-list ¯_(ツ)_/¯ because obviously anything that involves sex in inherently worse, apparently

in other cases, people are simply more familiar with the fanon version of the characters, and that's who they portray in their writing. after all, many people read the novel once and then go on to read dozen of fics; it's normal the fanon sticks more on the brain than canon (not judging! it happens to me as well lol) and those fanon versions are more popular because, as i said, this version of sj is more morally palatable (and bland and less fun ┐(︶▽︶)┌)

thank you for the ask!! :DDDD ❤️❤️❤️ i love receiving asks~

#svsss #svsss meta #shen jiu #original shen qingqiu #zykamiliah-svsss #ask zy

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tic-toc-clock77 · 8 months

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Hello sillies. Pull up a chair cuz I'm gonna tell u about my Creepypasta shit, here goes!

It's pretty based on IEPFB (I eat Pasta for breakfast)

General things

-a lot of the pastas live together and Slender houses them

-Zalgo and Slender both hate each other but don't interact much

-After Sally showed up, Slenderman used his cryptic magic to not allow his workers to age bodily

-Slenderman assigns his workers a list of victims

The Slenderman

-He's not outwardly manipulative and he's also not abusive

-If anything, he'll just keep tabs on his workers using magic but he stays out of their business as long as they follow the rules

-Slenderman makes his workers kill people so he can eat them

-As long as Slender has people to eat, his powers stay in tact

-In return for killing, Slender houses and feeds the workers

Kate the Chaser

-Kate was the first Pasta to begin living with Slenderman

-Nowadays she prefers to stay outside and due to her keen sense of danger, she acts as 'the guard-dog'

-If anyone is in danger of being caught by police, Slender sends her out to search for them

Jeff the Killer

-Jeff started living with the Slenderman when he was 13 but stopped Bodily aging at 19

-Jeff is kind of a dickbag

-Jeff and Ben are extremely close friends which are often put on murder missions together

-Jeff adopted Smile Dog and he's a dog person

-Jeff fully believes that Liu is dead

Homicidal Liu

-In fact, not dead.

-while in the hospital he had killed his nurse for insulting Jeff

-Liu has a strange amnesia where he can't remember that Jeff tried to kill him

-Liu's goal is to find Jeff but he is often driven by homicidal motives due to Sully's influence

-Liu believes that Sully is lying about Jeff trying to kill him

-Quit aging bodily at 17

Eyeless Jack

-He was originally a follower of Zalgo who ran away

-Jeff found him at Slenderman's request

-EJ is pretty chill, he prefers to just relax

-Much like Hoodie, he doesn't like speaking too much

-Quit aging bodily at 22

Sally Williams

-Stopped aging bodily at 8-10 (because she's dead)

-she has beef with Toby cuz he hates ghosts

-Shes sweet and kind but will kill a bitch

-She has paranormal powers and is great at killing but not intelligent enough to be a proxy

-She loves pranking and especially pranking Jeff

-her favourite colour is pink

BEN drowned

-Stopped aging at 12 (because he's dead)

-He makes people commit sucide when he kills on his own

-With Jeff, however, he shocks people enough to get them not scream when Jeff kills them

-BEN prefers to spend his time off the job, playing video games with Jeff or others

-BEN talks shit to Sally because they get along

Ticci Toby

-Stopped aging at 18

-He's a decent blend of his canon and fanon self

-He does love waffles but he's not crazy about them

-Annoying Tim is his favourite pastime

-Aside from annoying Tim, he spends time with Natalie quite a lot

-Despite the fact that Toby and Natalie are dating, the only legitimate dates they go on is murder dates (they can't exactly go anywhere if they're wanted serial killers)

Clockwork/Natalie

-stopped aging at 18

-She sees Jeff as a substitute for her former older brother because they bicker like siblings

-Sometimes she plays video games with BEN

-Toby once stole a giraffe plushie for her from a store that was reminiscent of her old plush, Gaffy

-She draws a lot still but mostly her or Toby's victims are the subjects

-She prefers not to clean murder scenes

Masky/Tim

-stopped aging bodily at 25

-Has beef with Toby cuz Slenderman replaced him with Toby

-Best friends with Brian/Hoodie

-Doesnt talk to people other than Brian usually

Hoodie/Brian

-stopped aging at 25

-very quiet

-best friends with Tim

-Has a habit of stalking the victims slender gives him during the day before killing them at night

Lemme know what characters I should do next! (I only do classic creepypastas!)

#clockwork creepypasta #creepypasta #ticci toby #tobias rogers #toby rogers #natalie ouellette #tim wright #brian thomas #sally williams #BEN drowned #eyeless jack #slenderman #creepypasa fandom #creepypasta hc #creepypasta jeff the killer #creepypasta liu

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tasmanianstripes · 4 months

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You know what's my second biggest gripe with the latest "fanon is bad, anything that's not canon-compliant is flawed" trend, right behind the fact that it's just rebranded cringe culture?

It just completely shits all over hobbyist and beginner writers. Good characterisation in writing is a skill. A skill that people can be bad at. God knows, it always takes me a while to get a canon character right, I admit I am not the greatest at it or media literacy or reading comprehension - though I try I'm sometimes not the greatest and I still have things to learn. And I hate that we basically went from "hobbyists don't need to improve their skills if they don't want to" to shaming people who aren't good at certain skills.

I hate that fandom as a whole went from "people can enjoy things and do whatever they want as long as if doesn't hurt anybody" right back to shaming and policing people for not having fun the "right" way.

"He would not fucking say that", sorry for being blunt but who gives a shit? Why should you care if somebody rewrites a character for an AU? Why does it bother you if somebody has a version of a character that's nothing like their canon self? How does that affect you in any way?

And it's fine if you don't like fanon, if you prefer canon, we all have different interests and likes and that's fine - but don't pretend like you're better for it.

Block tags, unfollow people, block them if you must. Learn how to control your online experience instead of coming into somebody's inbox, DMs or commenting on their art/fanfics and making your preferences their problem.

#thylacines can talk #and 'why dont you just make an oc?' is not a valid rebuttal either #1) unless that oc is going to replace the character in the story you're either going to have to rewrite their story which can suck the fun #our of it or create an entire new setting and different ocs for them which is extremely time consuming #2) not everybody is into replacing a canon character with an oc #3) maybe they just don't want to?

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robotpussy · 10 months

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never surprised when white communists side with the powers that be and continue to serve the white bourgeois when it comes to being racist they are not revolutionaries because they refuse to be anti colonist, anti chauvinist and anti racist. they are communists by and through academia, just like many white leftists they will never put anything on the line to be revolutionaries because it requires they give up everything their whiteness affords them (their privileges).

it is like how so many white communists try to obscure the racial aspect of imperialism, they will never admit that the truth and only way is to dismantle euro-colonial hegemony, of which is synonymous with capitalism and is the foundation of imperialist capitalism. i'm going off track now so i will not continue. but im not surprised the french communist party is literally siding with the police right now and are condemning "violence against property" and seen as people like fanon could not have any more patience with french communists very quickly i can safely assume they haven't been shit for a very a long time!

#ummmmm yea

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aeternallis · 5 months

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i know it was a personal post, but can i ask if you'd be able to give an example of a fanon idea that needs more examining? i'm in the kpts fandom, but it's not something i've ever thought about with particular headcanons...

//looks at this ask like it’s a damn behemoth, especially considering I just spoke with a friend about this.

I’m gonna preface this answer with a disclaimer and say that I’m not here to act as fandom police, nor am I well-versed in Thai culture. I’m not Thai, I’m Filipino. The two cultures are very distinct and different, but there are shared cultural norms, since Thailand and the Philippines are considered part of the SE Asia region.

Play in the fandom as what makes you happy, my dear anon. I’m not here to ruin your fun, I’m just here in my own little sandbox to play with these blorbos with a few select people I’ve come to know as friends.

Having said that, let’s begin with a fanon idea that I'm gonna dissect for you.

There’s a particular fanon idea that Porsche would have been enthusiastically open to having the sex talk with Chay, since Porsche himself is a proud whore (affectionate).

And the sentiments behind that headcanon—for what it’s worth—is nice. I’m definitely for the idea that sex education needs to be more readily available, so that the masses are properly armed with the tools and knowledge they need to live a healthy, sexual life, in whatever form that may be.

Be that as it may, there are a couple of factors that that fanon idea is most likely not taking into account.

And again, just to be clear: I'm not against the idea that Chay knows a lot about sex. What I have issues with is the framing of how he would come to know about sex, his sexual identity, etc. and the cultural context that would surround that situation.

1.) Does the HC take into account that, like most if not all Asian countries, Thailand is a high-context culture? In other words, not just the words being spoken, but body language, tone, gestures, social position, etc.—all these things factor in to what would be a sensitive conversation like the sex talk and is mutually understood between both parties, most times; it’s not something that’s easily translatable, yknow? Due to this, you could ask yourself: Porsche is a sexy slut, but would he deal with Chay as a sibling who casually sleeps around (as an equal), or as an older brother and parent who knows he has the responsibility of keeping Chay happy, safe, fed, and clothed (as one in a position of higher authority)?

2.) Does the HC take into account that, like most Asian countries, talking about sex openly in Thailand is still considered somewhat taboo? Be that as it may, culture is never static. It’s a bit better now with the availability of the internet and the younger generation’s more open mindedness, but it’s still nowhere near as the west’s general social fabric that contains within it something akin to ‘the talk’ for the parents once their kids are of age to talk about that sort of thing. The topic of sex tends to be more easily spoken of and discussed with amongst equal peers, so in which case, I can actually see Chay being more comfortable talking about sex with his friends (Ohm, and even Kim), rather than Porsche.

3) Finally, does the HC take into account that one of SE Asia’s shared cultural norms is the general collective’s mutual goal of trying to maintain social harmony? That to speak openly of sex, to talk about it “enthusiastically” to the point that comedic examples like the cucumber are used, would be seen more as disruptive than anything else? In my opinion, if Porsche were to even talk about sex with Chay, he’d be more likely to point Chay towards books as sources of reliable information, rather than give a crude visual aid. Lol

From my own experience anon, it's much easier to disregard the cultural context of a show like KPTS, because it has the optics of a western tv show: the business suits, the fancy cars, the high rise-buildings. Compared that to a show like The Untamed or a movie like ManSuang, where fans are much more aware to be mindful of the cultural context, because it's set in a historical setting (although in The Untamed, it's more fantasy than anything).

The HC we talked about is harmless enough, yes. But having said that, you now have to ask yourself: is it appropriate and acceptable to disregard the cultural context of KPTS, just because it has the optics of a western tv show?

And frankly, that's something you need to figure out and find the answer for yourself.

So, there you have it. Am I stopping people from having fun with HCs such as the one I talked about? Hell no; fly free, little bird. Do whatever makes you happy in this fandom, and I will do the same.

Is the HC I talked about something I can enjoy as an enjoyer of KPTS and would interact with? Hell no, because said HC is also ignorant in a lot of different ways, and I like playing with my blorbos as accurate as they are in the original show, and in the cultural context I understand the show in.

And this take on Porsche’s character, plus the cultural context I have as an Asian, is not something that matches up at all.

#kinnporsche #meta #porsche kittisawasd #porchay kittisawasd #anon asks #kpts meta

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aprofessionalwithoutstandards · 9 months

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What does this say about the author anon, no you're exactly right! As an English major I'm basically going to collage for this kind of media analysis, and i took a class that was specifically about reading for intersectionality in texts, and every book we'd read in that class we would go through and say 'what was the author trying to say with this detail, what does that say about the author' then go through and look for other potential readings (the example that comes to mind is a queer reading of passing by Nella Larson, which isn't About queer attraction it's about being a white passing black woman in the 1920s, but there is absolutely a Sapphic reading to be had there) and it really opened my eyes to how... silly so much fandom stuff is lol

If you focus solely on any one of those schools of analysis (in a fandom sense specifically here), you get the 'death of the author fanon rulzz!!' people and the idea that ships should be canon or bust, which.. I mean I'm not the fandom police or anything what do I care but it's not how I want to interact with things I like you know?

I dont really have a point with this, I just like rambling about literary analysis :p uhhh medic tf2 boobs there now we're back on track

YEAH! I have not and have no plans to go to college to study English, but I have taken multiple AP English courses and just in general like, read a lot and have parents who read a lot and when u do literary analysis, you approach it from different angles! Lately I've been watching Breaking Bad, which is a very big boy smart show with lots of themes and symbols and etc that really invites academic analysis, and I have done analysis of the masculinity theme, I understand what it means for the "canon" of the text, and I STILL have a trans Jesse read that I think holds up to the content and themes of the text, even if it's not "canon" (for anyone curious I think both transmasculine and transfeminine Jesse hold equal amounts of water, the trans experience can be a lot more shared than u think!). Uhhh lemme bring it back to tf2 to justify this being on this blog: I also don't think u should just "fuck canon", everyone knows I bemoan "soft boy Medic" and "evil grimdark sicko Medic" and etc characterization, but I also don't think that the fine print of "canon" should be treated as the end-all be-all! I don't care if Medic tf2 isn't "canonically" gay or trans or Jewish or autistic or rawdogging Heavy every night or what, I don't even care if he doesn't "canonically" have fat titties! I've academically analyzed tf2 and decided that "Medic tf2 has fat titties" is a VALID academic read based on what is presented to me by the text and I encourage you all to do the same. Art "belongs" to the audience just as much as it does to the creator! Have fun!

#ask #anon #this is soooo fun i love this. i'm such a cool smart boy everyone give me attention #thank u for taking me seriously anon btw soooo many people brush off these conversations #'it's not that deep' 'that's not what the author intended so shut up' etc etc. snore

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beyond-far-horizons · 6 months

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Welcome to my blog!

Just a reminder to new users/followers: if you want to follow me - great! I hope you enjoy my wonderful, slightly incoherent blog.

However you'll need to have a proper Tumblr account- aka one with a customised icon, actively used etc. If not, you look like a bot and I (and many others on here) will block you. Doesn't have to be awesomely curated or anything, just not empty, left with the tumblr triangle/square icon or 'follow for more' etc.

Also I don't always follow back - no reflection on you, it's just my dash gets very cluttered & I'm only sporadically here.

Each to their own, but I also won't follow if the blog is explicit/coarse, very political (esp right-wing), gory, features a lot of horror, features lots of slash shipping (I'm pro LGTBQ+ but slash isn't my shipping focus & I tend to prefer the canon friendships that slash fans turn romantic/sexual), has a lot of purity policing (call-out culture/shipping wars etc) and doesn't tag properly so I can filter. I recommend minors don't interact, esp on the rare occasion posts are explicit.

As said in bio above, I'm a big Heroine x Villain/anti-hero shipper. As a rule how I see this is:

It's fiction not real life - I understand people's mileage may vary (i.e if you've had bad experiences in RL & the pairing/dynamics hits too close to home), which is why I tag/use content warnings so people can filter/ block. I try & be respectful, however please don't interact if you want to shame or police my or my friends' shipping/fanworks.

My heroines/protags are always aged up in my headcanons/fanfic if they aren't of age already.

I'm a big fan of feisty heroines with agency & am as focused on the philosophical discussions/development as I am the romantic/sexual tension.

My explorations in fandom/fiction do not reflect my relationships in real life - this should be obvious, but sometimes in fandom ya gotta say it ;).

I'd much rather you block me than try and argue shipping, fanon, or canon/fanfic plot points with me. Having lived through Tumblr 2013/14 and anime shipping wars, it's simply not worth it. Live and let live etc.

I also like hero x heroine ships & I'm a multishipper - chances are I may also ship your NOTP so use that filter option, it's a lifesaver.

I love that UST & I might occasionally post explicit fanfic, but generally this blog is SFW. I'm also not a fan of porny style language.

If all that hasn't freaked you out, welcome and enjoy the blog - it's mainly nature pics anyway lol.

#personal #I've meant to do a proper one of these for ages incl masterlist but I never have time #just keep seeing new followers do this & I don't want to block if you are a friendly #but genuinely there are so many bots & quite creepy ppl so one has to beware #also I keep anon off a lot of the time as trauma response from 2013/14 tumblr & fandumb #please no antis or notp shippers here #you do do but don't come here asking me for explanations etc - no time for that

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ultward · 3 months

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Since you've been asked about your fic's take on vampirism, what's your take on werewolves in your fic universe? (I know you already talked about them in your vampire ask... But I wanna know more lore. So go as in-depth as you want!)

Also what was up with Leah's weird mood swings in that one scene with Bella? Did that have anything to do with her werewolf genes awakening?

since i've been slacking on my asks i actually have another anon asking this exact same question lol

to answer your 2nd question first, yes! that was nothing new or transformative, i was just emulating the jacob scene from canon to signal that the same thing was happening. that being said, stephenie's weird "werewolf temper" thing is pretty racist, and it's not something i wanted to use in the long run. rather, i just see that initial transformation process as being a sort of "second puberty", and there are probably some hormonal things going on that make people moody (it would be interesting to explore this in other ways, like getting really sad instead of angry. i may retroactively say that seth's werewolf puberty was a little depressing for him? it would make sense)

my werewolf lore is never fully explained in the fic because it's overly complicated and honestly may never be relevant to the story i'm telling. i would have to write an awkward exposition dump, so it's just been left unsaid

my goal was to get rid of the racist elements and also just to have the shifters make more sense in the broader context of the supernatural world. here are the main points:

as it is in canon, there are 2 types of "werewolves" - the children of the moon, and the wolf shifters

my shifters are an offshoot of the original children of the moon

i have not bothered to come up with origins for the vampires or werewolves (i think this sort of ruins the magic of it all), but they've just always been around as long as humans have existed

both vampirism and lycanthropy function sort of like a "disease", though it's pretty inherently magical and not at all scientific. the 2 conditions are naturally at odds with each other

my children of the moon are the same as canon lore - they are big wolfmen with little to no control over their actions that shift during a full moon

at some point during human evolution, people decided that lycanthropy was actually useful because it gave them a defense against vampires (as twilight vampires are nigh invincible killing machines). some early humans tried to "train" children of the moon to work like attack/guard dogs and began intentionally infecting people with lycanthropy to try and produce defenders for their villages

through "experimentation", this form of lycanthropy eventually turned into a genetic trait, and over time it became the wolf shifter form we know today, where people can turn into giant wolves at will and have complete control over themselves

so wolf shifting is still a genetic trait, BUT it is not exclusive to the quileute people - ANYONE in the entire world can be a shifter if they have the family history. as a result, there are actually several existing packs around the globe that operate in a similar manner, defending their territories from vampires

BUT it can't be passed from person to person through any other means, as the "disease" aspect of it was lost. it's entirely genetic, and anyone who inherits the gene can have it triggered and become a shifter. some people might live their entire lives as carriers and never become a wolf because they never had extended, close contact with vampires

meanwhile, the children of the moon still exist in a very limited capacity, as i stuck with canon on them - caius did have a rough encounter with a werewolf that caused him to have them hunted to near extinction. there are a few out there, but they don't spread like they used to and they're heavily policed by the volturi

i haven't decided if this is "canon" to my fanon or not, but i did toy around with the idea of there being some sort of werewolf artifact that acts as a beacon for the children of the moon, and the volturi have it locked up to prevent a werewolf epidemic or something lmao

and that's werewolves! they work the same way they do in canon, but their origins are totally different AND there are way more of them in the world! i think it's just way more interesting if there are more wolf shifters out there, as it gives the volturi something else to worry about lol

#fanon #addiction fic #j talks #ask #anon

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lemonhemlock · 1 year

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I guess it’s more I didn’t see the need to preemptively talk negatively about a very unconfirmed casting decision. I agree she’s younger than what I’d like to see for Alys, but I don not think that was the issue when these same groups of fans fancast JBF and Phoebe Tonkin. Idk if Helaemonds are talking about this, there was more noise on that side about the cheese casting. Iirc there was some pushback about the content of Emily’s audition (which is obviously only an audition and not the final script) and some comments about her appearance, the same as people do to this actress. I just don’t see the point when these fans are the ones saying how fans of other Aemond ships will come after whoever is cast as Alys

well, idk, i would be weary as a general rule to associate any kind of negative talk with this expectation of real life flaming or attacking the actress on social media. i mean, everyone is allowed their likes and dislikes in media, surely? not liking certain actors and preferring others is not a crime and shouldn't be policed either. i'm sure everyone has actors they just don't like for whatever reason, including silly stuff like not liking their mannerisms or how they enunciate the letter T.

idk, i just don't want us to get into that ridiculous space in which people are not allowed to dislike anything about alys' portrayal on screen, it would veer too much into black-mirror zone. like people are looking for any pretext, no matter how flimsy, to flame helaemonds some more. as in - this user happens to not vibe with the actress they chose? definitely must mean they're a crazy hater who's gonna make her life miserable by engaging in online harassment. that shouldn't be people's first reaction or assumption, is what i'm trying to say

this is not to justify people who develop weird fixations because show!alys doesn't live up to the fanon version they already built in their heads. it's simply to point out that the conversation Q: "would you like to see X in the role of alys?"; A: "no" is pretty middle-of-the-road and normal and completely different from (as a recent example) that situation with the blonde girl (grace?) from stranger things.

i confess this is the first time i've seen this lady in my life and i did not have the time to perform a market research on helaemond nation to determine the vibes on her, as i've had a long day at work today + champions league night. so idk how they reacted to her. so far on tumblr i've seen absolutely nothing. as far as emily is concerned, i've had anons inform me at the time that some people were really not happy with her, but they identified those users as alysmonds. the reason given to me was that she was too OLD (a 38 yo woman, mind you). what i wanted to say and, perhaps should have clarified, is that i personally haven't seen with my own two eyes anything bad on any potential alys actress from the few (maybe 5?) helaemond accounts i sometimes check on twitter. we are a micronation anyway so if there are nasty helaemonds out there, i do not encourage that, but i do have to ask how many users are we talking about anyway for this to be a real problem? since there's few of us already. i rarely see helaemond content on my own timeline even though i've advertised myself like crazy, i still can't seem to find many citizens to follow. let alone crazy helaemond rants going off the rails

also, like, i feel that i have to point out that i have no idea re: the shipping preferences of the accounts you showed me, i inferred they were helaemonds from how you approached the topic

Anonymous asked: I feel bad, I don’t mean to be arguing in your ask! Please feel free to delete if inclined. Sometimes the vibes get to me 😭 But no excuse.

i assume this is from the same anon, so my answer is don't worry about it. people rant to me about all kinds of stuff like you wouldn't believe :))

also we beat chelsea 2-0 so all's well when it ends well 😃

#ask #anon #shipping wars #just so i can keep track don't get it twisted #anti alysmond #riverdragon

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pageofheartdj · 3 years

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I'd like to apologize for all the other "Luz and Hunter are siblings" people. I honestly just love the sibling dynamic and I love to write it with characters who aren't but act like it, and I see Luz and Hunter that way. That being said, it doesn't bug me that people ship it and I'm actually really pissed that other Lumity shippers are so hostile about it. Also, it's basically biphobic to Luz. Just because she's gonna end up with a girl doesn't in any way erase her attraction towards boys.

You don't need apologize for someone else's shitty behaviour)

I know there are people who actually think of Luz and Hunter as siblings and enjoy thinking about them like that. I do too.(not when it's too overwhelming though. I like chocolate but I am gonna puke if all I eat is chocolate and any other meal are taken away from me, replacing with more chocolate)

But now it feels like a lot of people don't actually think that and use 'but they are sIbLiNgS'(They aren't related, they didn't grow up together, none of them are adopted in each other's family, they JUST met and bickering dynamics aren't exclusively for siblings) as a way to shame others and make them stop shippering completely harmless ship just because they personally don't like it.

All the reasons are so basic and not even legit. Luz having a canon crush? Canon never influenced people's ships otherwise all the gay ships would have been non-existant. Lunter erasing Lumity? A fandom ship has absolutely no power like that. Only media itself can erase anything, not the fans. Age gap? There are a LOT of canon(and fanon) ships with the same gap and the same age(or younger): Steven/Connie, Zuko/Katara, Aang/Katara.

So yeah, people who don't like the ship can't just not like it, they try to push it away from the fandom as if they own this place.

Sorry I ranted again XD You are totally cool and it's really nice to know there are nice and polite people who don't try to police other's tastes. We all have our own fun in this playground even when someone else's sand castle looks different from other's. Don't go ruin their work and their fun.

#the owl house #toh #lunter #luz noceda #hunter

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leagueofidiots · 3 years

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I'm trying to write a league centric fic, but I can't figure out Spinner. My beta says I make him sound really flat, and I figured you'd be a good person to ask. No pressure.

If I go on for way too long I'm very sorry

All of these are just my thoughts on the character and what I keep in mind while writing him, feel free to do whatever you want

The first thing about writing Spinner is that you gotta remember what 90% of the fandom thinks about him. Most of the time, he's limited to A.) liking Stain, B.) yelling at the team for disagreeing with him, and C.) his quirk. Obviously that doesn't come out of nowhere, Shu's definitely a fan of Stain and his beliefs, and his quirk does currently lead most of his characterization, the yelling thing happens way more in fics than it needs to. Spinner's only really yelled twice, once when Dabi called him a lizard, and again when he felt that Shigaraki wasn't allowing the team to follow their goals. Both pretty reasonable things, seeing as he was either being called a slur or feeling like his decision to fuck his criminal record over were going to waste, but a lot of fanon versions will have him snap at basically anything.

The trickier part is pinning down his personality and his goals and motivations, cuz Hori doesn't make it too easy if you're not looking for it. A large part of the appeal behind Spinner is that (from what we know of) he doesn't have anything most people would call "extrordinary trauma". Some league members were groomed, kidnapped, raised up to be weapons and cast aside, all that jazz. Shu grew up around conservative people that bullied him for his quirk. The league was his first involvement in crime, we can't assume that his parents weren't lovely people, it was "just" a shit ton of quirkism.

Even if it's not flashy enough for a lot of the fandom to care about, Shu's self conciousness about himself and internalized quirkism is basically what drives him. Until the MLA arc, we know nothing about Spinner except that he follows Stain, he even tries to dress like the guy. If you're taking Smash into account (technically not canon but it's fun), he goes even further to wish he could be Stain himself.

When he tells the league about his backstory, he says that he feels empty, later on he says he has nothing he loves, nothing he wants to do.

As to his goals, it's obvious enough that he wants to follow Stain. His first actual attempt at an attack is throwing a knife at Magne to stop her from attacking Izuku, when taking Overhaul's arms he questions if Stain would approve of attacking police, he asks people even in his first fight if they follow Stain's principles, he talks about Stain literally all the time.

And while that's enough to write Spinner early on with the league, he's changed a lot since then. Again, before the MLA arc, all he really talked about was Stain. While narrating in the early chapters of the arc, we don't really see him paying a lot of attention to his fellow team members. But every time Tomura talks, we see him pay more and more attention to his leader until it all sort of comes to a point when he defeats Redestro. And while not with any of the rest of the league, sorry to drop that panel again, but he mentions Toga's goals alongside his own. He really thinks of them as a team now that he feels he can relate to someone.

Yet again in the war arc, we see more of Spinner. After the several months of Tomura being in the tank, it's shown that Shu understands his team even better now, going so far as to extend to Machia. Not only does he reach out to Himiko when he knows she's in a rough patch before anyone else, he figures out how to help Machia and get Tomura awake even after not speaking to the guy for months on end. The guy remembered a conversation from literal months ago in a very intense moment where he needs to think fast.

Spinner's goals, as far as we know, still line up with Stain's, but he's a lot more dedicated to the league now. He grew up a very lonely person, between being ostracized and isolating himself, so these are probably the first people (except maybe outside of his family) that have ever accepted him, or that he's ever felt a real connection to. And he's definitely a follower, either hanging close to Stain's or Shigaraki's ideals at all times, but it doesn't make him stupid. He's loyal as hell, and sometimes he says stupid things, and he's easily flustered, and he's extremely passionate. The man does what he feels he has to do.

If you need more, I'm very willing to write more, I cut out things to make it shorter so,,, yeah just ask, I could talk about him all day. And do.

#spinner #manga spoilers #analysis

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arrtemisia · 3 years

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Hey so... If you could redo cannon Makoto what would you do? How would she change? I'm curious cause out of the main cast she was the only one that I just couldn't get a solid interest in (aside from Ann but that's just cause the idea of her being a fashion model confuses me more than anything I think)

God. So much stuff.

There's a couple big things about her that bug me, and none of them really change at all in her canon vs fanon portrayal, which means it's hard for me to enjoy her even in fanworks. In my opinion, I think her biggest flaw is that she's simply miscast, and her character would have worked much better as a confidant instead of a thief, which would've given her a place of her own to shine and avoid the weird dissonance between different aspects of her character (and this was actually their original plan, so Hifumi would have taken her place which. She would've fit in much better imo bc she's actually suffered under another's will like every single one of the others and she's an actual strategist instead of just """smart,""' but that's a topic for another post), but since we're talking about how I'd personally fix Makoto in the role she currently fills, I'm going to list some of the issues I take with her and potential solutions.

First of all, just to get it out of the way, she needs an actual reason to be here. She doesn't have one, full stop.

The big thing tying the thieves together is that they're all victims of abuse and oppression who rebel against their tormentors and want to prevent anyone else from suffering like they did. I'm not saying Makoto has never struggled, because she has, but it's really, really not the same type of struggle.

This leads to weird moments where everything about Makoto's personality and characterization, such as being a stickler for the rules, idolizing the police, etc mean that she has no in-character reason to stick with the thieves after kaneshiro is dealt with and should maybe even be opposing the thieves' way of doing things, but the plot drags her along anyway because the game really wants her to be a party member. And really, what's up with her awakening? She gets threatened once and then bang-boom-kapow she has a persona? It's weak.

Also before anyone says "well all those things about her personality change when she awakens and she sheds her good girl personality and yada yada," no she doesn't, actually, and I'm getting there I promise

The easiest solution here is also the most drastic. Swap when Makoto and Akechi join. This kills two birds with one stone; Makoto gets an actual reason to awaken through Sae, and Akechi's betrayal hits harder because he's pretending to be with you for longer (although admittedly this is much less needed on Akechi's part ever since royal).

Not only does this give Makoto a much stronger reason to awaken and join in the first place (Sae starts twisting into something horrible and Makoto wants to help both stop and save her), but it also gives her an internally consistent reason to stick around. Before, unlike the others (who all at least have "I want to stop others from feeling like I did," or in Futaba's case, "I wanna find the ppl who killed my mom."), once Kaneshiro is done with, Makoto has no real big personal reason to stick around other than "I'm a thief now and the plot says so ig." Now, of COURSE she'd want to go after Shido because he's the one that was manipulating her sister, and after that of COURSE she'd want to help take down mr divine sippy cup in order to get Shido tried and jailed.

However, if we're not going to shuffle around the order of party members bc that'd nuke the canon plot a little, then we need to rework the entire Kaneshiro arc and/or Makoto's backstory and values as a whole. Yeah this is why the first solution was the easy one.

I'm going to go in-depth about how I feel Makoto's personality and values should be reworked later I'M GETTING THERE, so I'll talk about that then. As for reworking Kaneshiro, I... don't have a whole lot of ideas. The palace itself is fine, it has one of the coolest atmospheres in the game (c'mon, there's got to be a fun bank heist in a game like this), but Makoto's connection with him is very weak. Maybe have it be that he was extorting her for years in secret and she never said anything? Maybe have him be the one that ordered the hit on her father? I'm not sure what would be strong enough to match to the other palace leaders, without feeling forced. I'll have to come up with more ideas for this one.

The second big issue I have with her is less of one specific thing and more of a collection of smaller problems that all come from the same source. She waltzes in, takes over, and starts acting like she's the boss of things. She then names herself the "strategist" and yet only ever states the obvious and, to use a word I hate, mansplains things to you that you already learned two palaces ago. She's constantly condescending and passive agressive to the other team members, especially Ann and Ryuji, berates everyone for not being as naturally book smart as her when all the other characters are smart in their own ways and just not good at academia, all the while everyone around her, even characters that normally wouldn't take that (ryuji, ann) or are too prideful to admit to anyone bring better (mona), are constantly like "You're so cool, Makoto!"

It's a classic case of show don't tell, and rhe game is obsessed with telling you that Makoto is "smart" and "cool." Once she joins the team, all the characters that were originally shown to be smart in their own ways are never allowed to say anything meaningful ever again bc Makoto is the "smart" one. She never does anything particularly different compared to the other party members, but the game is constantly insisting she's special.

I'm very hesitant to call her a mary sue, because I don't think she is one, and also I disagree with the use of that term at all as these days it's just meant to devalue powerful characters that happen to be girls, but I definitely think she's emblematic of a common writing flaw that can lead to mary sues. The problem with making a character the "smart" one as a personality trait instead of something that just comes naturally is that you have to dumb down everyone else's characterization to make them look smarter or cooler by comparison. It means that the character you're trying to prop up bends everyone else around them, making them act in ways they normally wouldn't in order to make the one character you're trying to look cool seem better by comparison.

This has an easy solution: cut that shit out. Have her slowly find her place on the team naturally instead of forcing her way in as a pseudo-leader. Don't give every single "well, duh" line to her, and cut the scenes where she stands around explaining obvious things you already know in a condescending manner so she looks smarter. Let the other characters actually act like themselves when they're in the same room as her instead of bending around her to prop her up. Have her treat those characters with respect in turn, bc for all intents and purposes when it comes to thief stuff they are her senpai, instead of just having her act like she's better than them, or boss them around, or be passive agressive about the fact that their grades are bad. Show that other characters are smart in other ways instead of acting like Makoto's book smarts are the end-all be-all. And for fuck's sake, stop acting like "smart" and "punches stuff real good" are personality traits, which leads me into my last big point.

Makoto and Queen don't really feel like the same character. Okay, so to explain this, let's walk through her awakening again.

Makoto is a good girl who's a stickler for the rules, sucks up to authority, idolizes the police, is obsessed with her grades and academic performance, and looks down on others who don't do the same. A couple people call her useless and then she gets threatened by a mob boss, after which she decides to live her life for herself and completely shed her good girl lifestyle and rebel against everyone pressuring her.

That is, except for the teensy tiny detail where she doesn't.

Nothing significant about her personality changes all post her awakening and joining the thieves, aside from the part where she sucks up to authority maybe a little less. She's still uptight, her grades (and the grades of those on her team) are still her top priority, she still idolizes the law and those enforcing it.

Y'see, persona has a bit of a common problem with saying one thing about a character, be it making a reveal or saying they're gonna change in some big way, but not fully committing to it. You can see it most in p4 (party members saying they're gonna quit/stop/do whatever and then backtracking in the last two ranks of their social link), but it's rarely so severe that it completely ruins their personality and character arc as a whole. Makoto, I feel, is the main exception.

The writers want Makoto to become this tough, rebellious biker queen who oozes badassery in every move and will never follow anyone's wishes for her ever again, but they also want to keep her old personality of the uptight naive rule-following law-abiding academic. So, instead of altering one to better fit the other, they try to do both... badly.

Instead of integrating the two parts of her personality, it just feels like she swaps between them whenever the plot calls for it which is really, really jarring. She'll be stuttering about following the rules and getting to know her generation one second, and then the next she'll be yelling about mowing down shadows with her motorcyle the next. It feels like Queen and Makoto are two separate uninteresting half-characters, with only a couple personality traits each, instead of one whole well-rounded character.

Either rework Makoto's thief aesthetic to better suit her personality as a whole and give her something other than "I'm totally not a good girl anymore" to make her compelling, or actually commit to Makoto shedding her past life everyone around her had forced on her and change her personality. Have her grades start to slip, have her talk back to Sae, change the way she dresses so it's rougher and less perfect, hell, maybe even have her quit student council. Just, anything to make her more well-rounded as a character.

I have some other nitpicks with her here and there, like the fact that her confidant is actually just Eiko's confidant and doesn't give Makoto herself any development, or the way the game keeps trying to set her up as Joker's waifu or whatever, but those are just that; nitpicks. The three big things I mentioned earlier - her not having a compelling personal reason to be a part of the thieves, the way the writers shove her into the spotlight by putting down everyone around her, and the fact that her characterization is just one badass half and one smart half that don't mesh and have little else in between - are the problems I feel are what's actually holding her character back.

Again, I do think that all of this stems from the fact that she's miscast, but it's too late to fix that now. While I personally really dislike Makoto, I do kind of understand her appeal for others when she's written well, and she's a totally valid character to like. I just wish she was portrayed better.

(Also, if anyone wants to reblog this, feel free I ask that you please don't put this in Makoto's main character tag. I know how much it sucks to get a bunch of negativity in a character's main tags as I am an Edelgard fe3h fan)

#mod answers stuff #long post #really really long post #defiant-firefly #yeah so i know u were probably wanting just. a quick sum up #but i might have just. written an essay. whoops #sorry lol #there's just so much abt her that drives me up the wall

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skinks · 4 years

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Re: fanon Eddie being a bitch, I'm British and insults as a love language is a big part of all my friendships, but a lot of fic Eddie's have me like '😳 your boy needs to calm down'. Eddie in Ch2 is the Eddie that forgot all the best parts of himself and that he can be soft AND tough and one doesn't cancel out the other. I also think Eddie is so afraid of his sexuality that he polices all his behaviour for things that could be seen as "feminine" like being affectionate/touchy/romantic but Eddie

(2) that survives Derry 2.0 (King can fight me) and comes to terms with his trauma and comes out would be less afraid of himself and would be the same brave, loving, enthusiastic person he was as a kid. Anyway, that was a rant BUT Eddie is my favourite Loser and has been since I read the book a long time ago when I was too young to be reading the coke-fuelled nonsense of a weird old man. But I love ithots Eddie, and thank you for being part of team Eddie K is a good friend not a bitch 👍

I mean, I’m British too but I think being jocular/insulting with your friends is pretty universal, right? You know your friends’ insecurities and limits and what’s okay to joke about, and they know yours in return, friendship is about having people it’s safe to needle and know that neither of you really mean anything cruel or underhanded about it. Because they’re also the people who can make you feel best about yourself for those same reasons! Eddie bantering with Richie is great, I love it, but it’s also nice to read that he actually finds Richie appealing/funny instead of just an inconvenience.

I totally agree with you though. Chapter 2 Eddie is an Eddie who’s so browbeaten by life/lingering childhood abuse/unhappy marriage/repression, but as you know, the key difference is that book!Eddie is ALSO those things and still chooses over and over to be selfless. Like - even when he’s DYING he’s still trying to comfort Richie and achieves such a state of calm and acceptance of himself, he sees himself as “pure” and clean at last, and I’ll never stop being mad that they stripped him of everything that would have closed his arc like that and instead had his very, very last word be “mother.” Like what a fucking insult

And that is WHYYYY I also agree with you that an Eddie who lives, an Eddie who enters a relationship with Richie and eventually overcomes his repression would not be an Eddie who continues to act so angry. His hypochondria/anger (in the movies) are a result of him sublimating the major issues about his fundamental self into a response he can control, so if he starts to accept who he is, why would he still be so “bitchy”? How freaked out would he be to realise he’s treating Richie with the same ott hysteria that Sonia treated Eddie himself? He finally has the freedom/support to be who he is, not the play-acted version of a Stoic Straight Man in a successful hetero marriage. PLUS his canon empathetic/affectionate nature means he’s a good fit for Richie who’s in such need for someone to be enthusiastic and understanding when it comes to his more abrasive qualities that make him close himself off from others.

fhfhjfhjdjfb sorry as usual I’m incapable of being concise about this, but this is just my personal view on it. Thank you for liking how I wrote Eddie though, it means a lot 😭

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scripttorture · 5 years

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Part 1. I'm a fanfic writer. I'd like to ask about the repeated exposure of cops witnessing torture, seeing injuries after torture, interviewing victims of torture, as well as also being victims of torture themselves. In reality, when cops do witness torture, see injuries after torture or interview victims of tortue, it is never the huge amount that fiction puts them in. Cops never ever have much of the excitement of anything in fiction. They do not solve murders every week, they do not see horr

Part 2. horribly gruesome stuff every week, they do not shoot someone every week (in fact the majority of cops haven’t shot someone their entire career), they don’t get criminals personally targeting after them or their family year after year, and most importantly they do not keep investigating or go after criminals alone when they are physically or psychically drained especially when told to take a medical leave. Obviously fiction puts these cops into situations that never happens in real lifePart 3. life even if the individual incidents of torture are actually done realistically. Would’t it stand to reason that the psyche of these cops in these fictions are actually less like actual cops and slightly more in the territory of veterans who may have PTSD and other issues. Is that correct? Then it also stands to reason that real life psychological evaluation and medical leave rules also will not work for fiction. What do you say? (end)

I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking but I’ll do my best.

The first thing I say is: it depends where you live. In the Western world being a cop is not a particularly dangerous profession and you’re right most people do not witness a lot of violence over their career.

However this is not the case every where. Police are targetted for violence in some areas, especially during times of war or occupation. When they are serving areas that have a large influx of refugees then the chances are police will be dealing with a lot of torture survivors. When police are attempting to operate in areas that are suffering from protracted violence conflicts then yes, they’ll be witnessing torture just like everyone else.

Whether assumptions like these are true depends on where you’re talking about. From what you’ve said you’re probably not talking about Kashmir, any of the northern Nigerian states that still suffer under Boko Haram or Syria.

But please don’t forget that these places exist. There are places where most police officers will have witnessed torture and places where large numbers of them will be torturers.

All the things that you’ve said ‘never’ happen- well I’m sorry but they do. Probably not where you live but that doesn’t mean they don’t happen.

I’m going to go into the rest of this assuming we’re talking about a stable, rich, country where torture is not routine.

Witnessing torture is traumatising and if someone witnesses torture repeatedly they’re likely to develop long term psychological problems. That doesn’t necessarily mean PTSD although PTSD is possible.

There’s some research to suggest that PTSD is more likely if someone was physically harmed. So it’s likely that a higher proportion of torture survivors have PTSD then witnesses.

Some of the other common symptoms of torture can have a physical cause. Chronic pain can be a result of injury for instance. It can also have a psychological cause or a mixture of physical and psychological causes.

But generally? The symptoms of torture are the same for survivors, witnesses and torturers. There does seem to be a difference in the degree to which people in these groups effected. That difference is likely down to exposure: a witness might only see someone being tortured once, a torturer would see it every day.

Because of that I usually suggest different numbers of symptoms for witnesses, survivors and torturers.

Symptoms aren’t predictable though. No one can say for sure which individual will develop which symptoms.

I always suggest writers take a look at the list of common symptoms here and then decide what’s best for their story.

I try to think about whether I can use symptoms to add to the plot, create interesting challenges for the characters or show the readers more about the characters.

I don’t know enough about war veterans in particular to say whether they look similar to people traumatised by torture. Broadly speaking trauma symptoms are the same no matter the trauma, but that doesn’t mean there are no differences at all.

A common trait I’ve noticed in people who come from places where torture was routine (regardless of whether they experienced or witnessed torture) is an inability to trust the police. I would not expect war veterans to have the same response.

In real life cops who witness torture repeatedly or are tortured themselves are traumatised. They develop some of the common symptoms seen in people who are exposed to torture.

And generally speaking, yes this is not portrayed well in a lot of popular crime shows on the TV.

That can be because the show doesn’t treat a torturous practice as torture (ie it doesn’t realistically show the effects or assumes a practice is harmless). It can also be because a lot of writers don’t realise that witnessing traumatic events can be traumatising.

I say ‘can be’ because it isn’t always. But the more traumatic events someone witnesses the more likely they are to develop symptoms.

I think these problems are often tied up with broader tropes in the genre; ideas about toughness, masculinity and self reliance. There’s a marked tendency in crime fiction to show catching criminals as the result of a heroic individual rather than the result of teams working together.

I don’t think the idea of tough, masculine, self reliant heroes is inevitably bad. I also don’t think there’s necessarily a problem with this fantasy idea of one brilliant individual doing something extraordinary.

The problem comes when that extraordinary individual is presented as the normal reality.

And a separate problem comes from linking a completely impossible idea of ‘resilience’ to male gender identity.

Torture is traumatising. Being completely unaffected by torture isn’t something anyone can achieve by becoming ‘tougher’ or ‘more manly’. The only way to be completely unaffected is to not have a human nervous system.

I do worry about the effect these kinds of heroes have on boys and young men. Because they set a standard for ‘toughness’ that it is absolutely impossible to reach.

Which I think brings us to the last question: whether cops who have witnessed or experienced torture would be placed on leave.

Again, this depends on the setting of the story. In the Western world, yes absolutely. They’d be removed from active duty and (hopefully) put in counselling.

But in countries where more people are likely to have experienced or witnessed torture? No, probably not.

It’s difficult to get an accurate idea of what happens in places that are falling apart. This is my impression, based on survivor accounts, interviews with torturers and the notes Fanon made after the Franco-Algerian war.

In the worst areas police who repeatedly witness or survive torture are not dismissed or put on leave because there is no one to replace them. They struggle on until their health problems become severe enough that they can’t keep going. They have a mental breakdown. They may end up hospitalised but more often they end up losing their job and staying at home dependant on their family for support as they’re unable (at least for a while) to hold down a job.

They are, bluntly, chewed up by the system.

For examples I’d suggest looking up what’s currently happening in Syria or parts of Mexico that are suffering from extreme gang violence.

In areas where police are dealing with a lot of torture survivors but do not witness or experience torture themselves it’s- a little different but the end result is often similar in that they leave their jobs.

The stress and workload take a heavy toll on individuals. There’s a higher rate of people quitting or burning out while on the job.

Anecdotally a lot of people report a sense of failure that they ‘couldn’t cope’. Depression seems to be common and a lot of people also report having difficulty relating to their friends and family afterwards.

These people don’t always have trauma symptoms. Their symptoms are instead caused by a huge amount of workplace stress, inadequate support and- well people being pressured to achieve things that just aren’t possible with the resources they’re given.

For examples I’d suggest looking up people working in refugee camps in Turkey and Bangladesh. You might also find useful information by looking up the police groups that tackle the worst forms of child abuse.

Underlying all of these questions seems to be the notion that it’s alright for fiction to continue using these unrealistic tropes.

That’s an idea I strongly disagree with.

I think that if we’re choosing to portray torture in our fiction then we have an obligation to do it justice.

Because we are telling someone else’s story and it’s a story that is usually twisted into something unrecognisable. It is profoundly unfair to use someone else’s experience in a way dismisses their pain.

This is made worse by the fact public understanding of torture is incredibly poor.

When we choose to show torture as harmless we add to the voices of real people claiming that it is harmless. We tacitly support them by teaching others that torture can be harmless.

And these lies lead to more people being tortured in reality. With the ‘justification’ that it isn’t really that bad. Despite the body count.

We can have individualistic tough-guy heroes without suggesting torture is harmless.

We can write cops seeing, hearing about and surviving torture in ways that are compassionate to real survivors.

We can write stories that show we care. I believe we must.

To paraphrase Diana Wynne Jones, fiction is a place wherein we can trial solutions to real world problems. It allows us to explore the real issues we face in a safer way.

When we misrepresent torture we are failing to honestly confront one of the worst crimes committed in the world today.

I believe this is at best cowardice and at worst malice towards the vulnerable.

If we do not try to improve even our imagined worlds how can we hope to improve our reality?

Availableon Wordpress.

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#Anonymous #writing advice #tw torture #tw child abuse #tw terrorism #tw police brutality #effects of torture on witnesses #effects of torture #writing victims #writing witnesses #mental health #crime fiction #torture apologia #toxic masculinity #trauma #war crimes

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coshayphinelove · 4 years

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ok absolutely NOT trying to start #discourse or anything here I'm just genuinely curious, you said in some tags that you're a Delphine fan but you're not associated with Delphine fans. could you elaborate on that? I've seen so many conflicting takes on Delphine in this fandom and it's left me so confused and it's like I have no idea what to think of her anymore, but you're one of my fave OB blogs and I trust you to think characters through so I just wanted to hear your opinion. thank you! :)

so here’s the thing. i’ve been here since the season 1 hiatus. not on this blog but in the fandom. around season 2 there was a huge split in the fandom in the interpretation of Delphine. and what basically happened is two conflicting fanon versions of Delphine. those two versions are:

HBIC Delphine who is basically always right, bitchy, tough as nails, kind of scary unless she’s around Cosima. but she’s right. always.

the other version is UWU puppy never did anything wrong precious baby. who is also right

this usually throws cosima under the bus as a petulant, infantilized version of another wonderfully complex character. but that’s a different post

that is my observed history and very boiled down summary of other peoples’ interpretations.

now i will probably be the last person to police anyone’s fandom experience. my philosphy is that it’s all fiction and as long as no real life people are actually being intentionally harmed, then go all out. fandom and fan fic are sandboxes meant to be played in. i would rather someone explore a problematic topic in fandom than they go and make their own thing and it becomes really popular with a really shitty message.

but i wholeheartedly do not agree with either version.

my interpretation of Delphine is that she is this deliciously, morally grey character. she does bad things for good results. she does bad things with good intentions. she does good things with bad intentions. she does things and they go horribly off track. she’s both in control of things and wildly out of her league. she’d rather lose the only person she’s been shown to love (and love her) than her lose resources and die. she’s ride or die in the most ways as possible.

as a writer i love to sink my teeth into that. i celebrate that greyness. it is so much fun to pull the plethora of emotions out of that and play with them. it’s my favorite thing to pull out her trauma and her emotions, that directly correlate and contradict, with the peoples’ around her. it’s my other favorite thing to show her realizing that she needs to cool it down, be consistent, listen, learn, and grow. beautifully flawed Delphine is my favorite thing.

so that’s the first thing.

then a while ago there were like.. 5 people. maybe 6. who disagreed with that. who were all about policing other peoples’ fandom experience and were super into black/white, morally pure or absolute scum of the earth thinking. unfortunately, they were Delphine Stans™ (and maybe i’m old, but calling yourself a stalker fan is… so very weird to me). anyway. they were very loud, they were very mean, and about half of them turned out to be farts (terfs). i had a shay davydov celebration week. literally in the rules it said no ship bashing. but they decided that that was delphine hate. so they started harassing me and my friends. and then basically everything after that that any of us did they were shitty about.

and of course there were people who agreed with them but weren’t as loud. and so basically if i see anything Delphine Stan™ in someone’s bio i am very wary.

obviously none of this matters now bc p much everybody is gone. i’m just here, alone. with my rare pair hyperfixation that will literally never go away.

also i think i said “you’re not affiliated with me” which is

i think this is the joke i was trying to make.

also this message is from at least 6 months ago, so this has long passed.

#anonymous #blog stuff #fandom wank #thinky thoughts

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