#and people also hate men who aren't uwu enough for them

[tonberrykins]

Hey, I get I've been raving about Astarion a lot but, like, are there ACTUALLY people out here who hate Gale and are calling him an incel? Is this a thing? Thank God I apparently curate well bc holy fucking shit I would be having heart palpitations DAILY out of SHEER ANGER.

So, like, we're always going to make fun of our faves and whatnot bc lbr "bro, you were banging Mystra and fucked up that bad?" THOUGH TO BE FAIR, if you're a wizard it isn't that hard to bang Mystra. It's kind of her thing. P sure her banging Elminster as many times as she has is the main reason he's still kicking and out being the Faerûnian Gandalf that he is in-game. Mystra's bodycount aside (especially since that has ZERO bearing on ANYTHING least of all her portfolio and purpose), like, Gale is a very intelligent man. He is also what we would consider as an objectively good person. Save the kids, help the tieflings, be kind and compassionate to those the average "good" aligned folks would consider "worthy" and yeah. He is literally the Alistair Theirin of BG3 if you Fusion Danced him together with Awakening Anders.

That being said, he is also very deeply flawed in that he KNOWS he is brilliant and in that brilliance, knowing his own talent, he thinks he knows better than even his own goddess BUT-! But, but, but, he is mortal, is young enough and in an age to not be able to wrack up the accomplishments of, say, Elminster whom he clearly knows on a fairly personal level so, like anyone who knows they are capable of doing great things, he feels INFERIOR bc he hasn't, in his mind, PROVEN that he is as great as he knows he is. And that's the hubris of mortality.

Objectively, LOGICALLY, he knows that he's more than proven himself capable. Mystra wouldn't have started a relationship with him otherwise, and she never asked him to prove himself. It was his own desperation to prove that he was worthy of her and thinking he knew EVERYTHING that lead to his terrible situation. Is he very clinical and logical about it? Yes. Is he squirrelly about it in the beginning? Very much, yes. Hell, I would be. No one wants to be friends with a literal ticking time bomb and the man is VERY lonely. Hell, that's the name of the game baybee! Baldur's Gate 3: These Bitches Need a Hug; YES EVEN LAE'ZEL, I WILL FIGHT Y'ALL!

Back to Gale, your friendship with him is something he very much treasures and when he starts all his finger wiggling and magic talk he's like any nerd sharing the thing he is most passionate about. He is also the first to admit he fucked up. HOWEVER, that does not (imo) warrant him needing to sacrifice himself all for Mystra's forgiveness, and even Elminster isn't on board with that. And, like, when he talks about Mystra it's never in an accusatory manner towards her. He clearly still loves her, likely always will, but that never negates his love for the PC who chooses to romance him. He is also very much prone to falling into the same pitfall of hubris that got him before and very clearly needs guidance that, yes, Mystra clearly did neglect in giving him. But he never outright blames her, at least he's not in my playthroughs thus far even after having spoken with her in the temple. He's just a sad, lonely nerd and that does not automatically make him an incel; y'all just don't know how to read, listen, or understand nuance. Apparently.

tl;dr

Gale deserves as much love as Astarion but bc he isn't evil "babygirl" material that's "fixable" he's just called an incel when he can be a very genuine friend, but what are those nowadays I guess?

#bg3 #gale of waterdeep #this was a rant #unhinged and freeflowing #bc I'm mad lol #it's like Gale is suffering the same shit as Lae'zel #bitches hate a brusque and blunt woman who won't immediately like them #and people also hate men who aren't uwu enough for them #which is another problem altogether but I digress #though honestly Gale and Shadowheart seem to have more similar points for comparison #on the just absolutely random hatred they get #granted Shadowheart and Lae'zel get it more bc how dare the tiddies not like me IMMEDIATELY #anyway these are all my weird children #my freakish found family #and I love them all very much

[the-delta-quadrant]

robyn holdaway (the person who played layla in sex education) made a tiktok about how most of the transantagonistic hate comments they get are calling them a girl to infantilise them, only rarely and in specific circumstances do they call them a woman to frame them as a groomer. they talked about how trans men & afab nonbinary people tend to be infantilised.

then i realised that this never actually happened to me.

like, i've seen this happen to specific people time and time again. i've seen enough general statements about "poor girls destroying their lives" and needing to be saved. i've seen it so much that i've internalised it. after all, i'm the thing they're talking about.

but looking back on my 7 years of being out, i don't really remember ever getting infantilised like that. pretty much all i ever got was comments calling me a groomer.

and i think it's in large (hehe) part because i'm fat.

it's way harder for them to infantilise someone who is physically big, possibly bigger than them. also the way fatness is often hypergendered, people tend to automatically assign a certain level of inherent masculinity to me. UwU smol enby or even UwU softboi isn't something that is afforded to fat people, and to other groups too.

a lot of whether you fall into the "child" or "groomer" category seems to just come down to appearance. people who have taken testosterone and are at the point where they are seen as men don't tend to get infantilised. they get framed as dangerous groomers. i've seen more than enough trans men, transmascs & nonbinary people talk about this.

and apparently this can also happen if you haven't medically transitioned and just happen to be fat, because we are also stereotyped as creepy and dangerous. it wouldn't surprise me if this happened to a lot of PoC too, as they're stereotyped as dangerous too, but i can't personally speak to that experience.

all it took is to be fat for me to just skip "child" and level up straight to "groomer".

looking back even further, i was never infantilised for gender transgression, even when i was thinner. even when i thought i was cis or wasn't as openly nonbinary, people would frame me as dangerous. people at my school would call me a common german slur that basically translates to "fighting lesbian".

and if you wanna go all the way back, even as a child when i was pretty gender conforming i was never treated like a child either due to many traumatic experiences. also apparently when you're a very tall child people just ignore your age or something.

but yeah. the whole "trans men and afab nonbinary people only ever get infantilised" isn't actually true for a lot of us.

they infantilise people that they perceive as any kind of feminine. they grab onto that "femininity" and try to "save" them. they think if there's even a slither of femininity left in someone, they're not lost to the "trans cult" yet. this is why they love going after people who had top surgery but aren't on T.

but many of us are perceived as inherently masculine, as the people doing the grooming rather than the kids being groomed, as the worst traitors of womanhood.

antitransmasculinity hits different when you're not thin.

#trans #transgender #nonbinary #antitransmasculinity #maverique #exorsexism #fatantagonism #anti transmasculinity #transandromisia

[lovely-english-rose]

14, 19, 28, 30, 36 & 38 for the FE asks

oooh lots of questions! i'll put them under a cut to spare everyone's dashboards from how long this will probably get lol

14. Something you really don't like about this series?

Hm.. Less about the series I guess, and more of the general treatment of female characters- The oversexualization of them particularly. I get having fanservice, but alot of what the games do is just 😬 We respect women in this house, they deserve better- AND if we're gonna fanservice WHERE is the equality? Sexualize the men too. Also, having thousands year old characters looking 12....

19. Favorite (canon) pairing?

Obviously (m)Corrin and Niles- Of course they are canon, IS hasn't come out and said they're not, so who's to say they aren't 👀 it's my playthrough and i get to decide the canon ships! and who am I, if not the walking talking kamu//zero propaganda machine? I mean that's why I'm drawing them all the time lol. I genuinely hope they get an alt together in feh the way Chrom and Robin did earlier this year.

In terms of pairs that are 100% canon in game, I do adore Louise and Pent! What sweethearts!

Also big fan of ~heavily implied~ Eliwood and Ninian uwu

28. Because this fandom doesn't see enough discourse [citation needed], post a spicy hot take here🔥🔥

oh geez I gotta come up with another spicy hot take- lets see. ah- avatar characters are in fact their own characters, none of them are "self inserts" despite having customization options, because they all have their own distinct personalities. also, while you can have a preference for one version over the other, ultimately male and female versions are the same, because they're literally the same character so it's pretty dumb to hate one version while holding up the other one over the same traits- (ex. i have seen people hate m!corrin for being "too emotional" while in the same breath adored f!corrin for being "a strong and emotional protagonist" they're... they are the same character. and people do this with all the avatar units smh)

30. Since horse abuse is currently popular on Tumblr, beat up a dead horse with your take on an oversaturated topic🐴

*leans into mic* Edelgard, while in fact being a very strong and interesting female character, is still the villain of 3h. And that's okay, you are allowed to enjoy villain characters, free yourselves from needing to justify everything your fave does and just enjoy baddies. Liking villains doesn't make you a bad person. Also her being bi does not excuse or justify anything she does?? Rhea is also a bisexual lead in the same game so. Ya know. Also potentially Byleth as well depending on player choices-

36. Share a funny FE-related story, either ingame or not!

I think I've told this one already, so sorry if you're seeing it again- But this is a favorite moment of mine. One (1) time I didn't marry Niles in a Conquest playthrough, for the sake of finally seeing Nina right? So I had Niles go after her, iirc he was closest, and she says something like "you'll never catch me daddy! >:(" and Niles, hitting a fucking crit, "you can't hide from me!" and oneshot poor Nina- I sat there like

thankfully you can recruit her by defeating her, but MAN what a moment. I was shocked then, but I find it very funny looking back.

38. Freebie! Talk about whatever you want 🐉⚔

Outside of Smash, FE was introduced to me by some friends. And the series has introduced me to so many more so, I'm really happy for that! As rough as the community can get, I'm glad for all the people the series has connected me with. And the games themselves have brought me so much joy. Also, love seeing the shining creativity in the community, in art, fic, cosplay, analysis, etc. 😊

Fire Emblem Series Ask Game!

#thanks for the ask! c:

[rhaenyra-first-of-her-name]

Hello!! Popped by to request your insight on the constant “Sansa Antis are Misogynists uwu” tirades lol. Isn’t it extremely hypocritical of them to be accusing others of misogyny when it is them who hate on characters, especially dany & arya for actions which would’ve been lauded to the moon and back if the two were not girls and instead had been, say, a Daeron and an Artos? Talking about soft power and all that jazz lmao as if they can comprehend on what soft power *actually* means. It’s always “oh those two are loved and they’d be nothing without her dragons/fancy sword” and I’m here being all…..Mate??? Did they not teach you how to…..read???? Really, i find it quite baffling and i really wish to know your thoughts on this.

P.S boy your metas are just *chef’s kiss*

Nonnie, aren't you a sweetheart? You just made my day, thank you.

It's the height of hypocrisy, nonnie.

At this point, I can't complain about it enough.

This is same part of the fandom that came up with theories of Mad Queen!Dany, Dark!Dany, Dany burns the Water Gardens/KL, Pol!Jon (for a rape victim nonetheless 🤮), Dany dies in childbirth (but of course, of a daughter who doesn't get to inherit the crown 😑), Psycho!Arya, Murder Baby!Arya, Bodyguard!Arya for QitN Sansa, Arya dies on and wargs to Nymeria and serves Sansa, etc.

Need I say more? Feminist, my ass.

Not only this but they judge all the women on how much they can conform to the patriarchal idea of feminity, how fertile a woman is (🤮) and obviously hyperfocusing on the romantic arcs but only the 'good' women deserve those, not women like Dany or Arya.

They don't even spare the minor female characters- Margaery, Meera, etc.

This is just plain old sexism and misogyny. There's no doubt about it.

With the rate how this fandom woobify the male characters (Jaime Lannister, Sandor Clegane, Stannis Baratheon, etc); I will bet my entire inheritance that this fandom would kiss the ground Dany and Arya walked if they were men instead. Although their girlhood is a part of their arcs, credit for where it's due.

Nonnie, this side of fandom is famous for using words above their reading level and not even googling them. Soft power is just a new clutch for them.

Just saw a post the other day that a good Queen shouldn't interact with her people, criticising Arya. These people don't know what they're talking about.

If anyone could provide me book quoted of these soft power of Sansa, that would be great but till then, I haven't seen much in the department. Just like I haven't seen Sansa antis being as bad as Dany antis despite what many Stansas say.

The dragon and sword comment is obviously due to the lack of basic reading comprehension, unwillingness to engage with a text in a faithful manner just bcoz their fav isn't the main character, plain old jealousy and projection.

They know Sansa have nothing important (especially in their eyes) going on for her so the only solution they have is to diminish the achievements of other character.

If Sansa can't have it, they feel no one else should. Only Sansa deserves to be the greatest.

They're such an insecure bunch of people. They need to constantly bring down others to uplift their favs.

I also do question what where they doing in school if they can't grasp basic reading comprehension, Nonnie.

It makes more sense for it to be wilful ignorance and denial. The lack of self awareness is definitely astonishing.

#asoiaf #asoiaf fandom #fandom wank #anti sansa stans #daenerys targaryen #arya stark #in defense of daenerys targaryen and arya stark #pro women who don't conform to patriarchal ideas of feminity #sexism in the fandom #asks #anon #Ash got mail #ash rambles

[mavrustheunskooled]

Why is Bare: A Pop Opera not as super popular as Dear Evan Hansen or Be More Chill? The fandom loves LGBT rep (which Bare has) and the songs are amazing and I think B:APO is actually superior to both of those. Thoughts? I mean the musical fandom tends to try to find LGBT characters even when they aren't stated, so why do you think Bare is not as popular?

this is a very interesting question and I am hopefully going to do it justice by analyzing Fandom, Musical Writing, and Many Other Things I’m Super Passionate About

the short: many factors and a lot of luck

the unnecessarily long: 

(opening disclaimer: I love dear evan hansen and be more chill, and I’m not upset that they’re popular musicals because I feel that they’re popular for a reason. anything that sounds like an insult in the following response isn’t such because I truly enjoy both of those musicals a lot) 

(another disclaimer: spoilers for bare, DEH, and BMC, also mentions of homophobia) 

on paper, bare seems like the exact sort of musical that would be popular. bare the musical (cursed as it is) has a cast of super popular actors like Barrett Wilbert Weed, Gerard Canonico, Taylor Trensch, Alice Lee, Alex Wyse, a high quality bootleg exists of the 2013 LA cast, it’s got LGBT+ rep, complex women characters… and yet it’s got a tiny fan base. Why? 

first let’s look at why dear evan hansen and be more chill are popular. I’m more well versed in bmc, so let’s look at its history (disclaimer: I’m estimating dates but this is roughly the timeline) 

the original bmc run was in 2015 I believe. they recorded a soundtrack, everything was fine, and they closed. in 2017, people began discovering the soundtrack in hoards. specifically, they were discovering one song: Michael in the bathroom. that’s even how I learned about the show- I heard that song and had to look up the rest of the soundtrack. and in February of 2019, they’ll start previews on broadway because the fandom was revived 

why this song? I think a ton of fame comes from talent, yes, but also from luck. I think bmc was lucky that Michael in the bathroom, a great song, was discovered as the great song that it is. I also think the fame came because that song is super relatable. as someone with pretty bad anxiety, that song really touched me because I’ve definitely spent parties hiding in the bathroom and avoiding everyone and wishing I was dead because I’m so overwhelmed with anxiety. it’s relatable, so people flocked to it. 

this made me pause to think “what is bare’s hook song” my first thought was a quiet night at home if we want a song in the same vein as MITB, but that song isn’t as hype as MITB (and fandoms don’t care about fem characters as much as it cares about masc characters). my next thought was are you there because I think it’s a bop and a relatable “pls someone help” kind of song, but I don’t know which song everyone could relate to as much as everyone could relate to MITB 

and speaking of relatable content- that’s where the DEH connection comes in. dear evan hansen is similarly relatable, although it takes that to an extreme given what Evan does as a result of his anxiety. Michael and Evan are relatable characters, even if you don’t condone everything they do (and if you condone everything Evan does, we have much to talk about)

but doesn’t bare have relatable characters?? absolutely !! there’s Peter, a closeted gay kid who wants to come out, and Jason, someone who acts tough but is secretly very insecure, and Nadia, with her body image issues, and Ivy, who people won’t take seriously because they’ve decided they already know her, and so many other complex characters. so why are they left behind? 

let’s look at bare’s history: 

bare was originally written in the 90s (I want to say 1999, but I could be wrong) the performance most people consider the quintessential bare performance was in 2004 with Michael Arden, John Hill, Jenna Leigh Green, etc. 

if you compare this to DEH and BMC, the first issue is clear. DEH was hugely popular around 2016. BMC began to grow in popularity in 2017. these are very, very new shows. 20 years doesn’t sound like a lot, but in our current age where time seems to pass so quickly which each new fad, bare seems like an older musical, and a lot of people aren’t the biggest fan of older musicals. and they don’t have to be !! but it’s a personal preference of some people that could affect how they view bare as a potential musical to be a fan of 

in terms of the music of bare, it’s definitely catchy, but it’s not like a pop song. (again, no shade at DEH and BMC because those aren’t jukebox musicals or anything). bare is simply not as easy to listen to as DEH and BMC are in my opinion (and it’s not the most complicated thing ever either, but holy cow its lyrics are smart and I have to throw that in here) 

now let’s look at reasons why people may not want to watch bare. while it is great that it has canon gay characters, compelling women characters, and is very cleverly written it also has issues that can be turn-offs to people. this includes: 

-bury your gays

-gay-guy-cheats-on-boyfriend-with-girl trope 

-gay-guy-gets-outed trope 

-and potentially other homophobic tropes

I’m not shaming bare for perpetuating these tropes because it was written 20 years ago, and lgbt+ people are allowed to enjoy media in spite of its perpetuation of negative tropes, but for some people these things are enough to turn them away. and I don’t blame them! I watched bare the musical before I watched bare a pop opera, and when Jason I died I closed out of YouTube without finishing the show because I was so Sick of bury your gays. 

I am aware that there are reasons Jason died at the end of bare (they’re making a statement about how homophobia kills, particularly how homophobic religious people can have an awful affect on young religious gay people), but there comes a time when “reasons for a gay character to die” is just too much. sometimes, you just want the gay character to live, and I completely respect that notion because I felt the exact same way when I watched bare the musical. I remember when I first watched bare the musical I wrote a thread about how as a Romeo and Juliet adaptation, bare follows some things closely (like death at the end) while avoiding other extremes (Romeo running off to another country) and I thus felt the death was unnecessary. if someone else feels similarly about being sick of gay characters dying, they have every right to not want to watch bare 

that’s enough on why someone might not want to watch bare. let’s get back to bare vs DEH and BMC 

I also think a big aspect of fandoms is shipping. the fetishization of MLM (and consequently ignoring fem characters completely, along with focusing solely on white men for their shipping and ignoring men of color) is a huge problem in fandoms that I could talk about forever, but for the sake of this response, I’ll keep it a bit shorter 

DEH and BMC profit heavily off of shipping in terms of gaining popularity. people love Evan x Connor (and other ships but that’s the main one I see), and people love Jeremy x Michael (and others). so why then do people not care about bare, a show with a canon relationship between 2 basic white men, which is their ultimate goal? 

I think people like the idea of these mlm ships more than canon content. if there’s canon, it’s harder for them to make a variety of ships because it feels like everything else has to rotate around the canon without touching it (which is where the bare fandom gets Matt x Lucas because they’re the closest they have to 2 basic men- I can write my criticism of them another time though) 

I’ve also seen posts saying that things with canon lgbt+ characters sometimes have smaller fandoms because there is no need for lgbt+ theorizing- it’s right there, and if you want lgbt+ content, watch the thing. I don’t necessarily agree with this for myself (I’ll reblog every pilgrim’s hands gifset I see) but I can definitely see how other people might think this way 

failing to hype up stuff with lgbt+ characters can have a negative impact. BMC is the prime example of how a show can be revived by its passionate fan base. if people aren’t talking about bare, it’s not going to spread like other shows do 

this is kind of all over the place but anyway- I want to talk about characters more. one thing DEH and BMC have are great, complex characters that are very easy to boil down to a fandom’s favorite stereotypes. I am absolutely not saying DEH and BMC have simple characters because I think all of them have layers; however, fandoms do love to go “this is precious cinnamon roll who can do no wrong and this is evil awful terrible irredeemable person” and it’s a bit difficult to do that with bare. 

you can say Peter is your perfect son, but he does try to force Jason out before he’s ready. you can say Ivy is the evil seductress trying to tear apart your gay babies, but I will physically fight you. there aren’t any black-and-white good or bad bare characters (except Father Flynn- hate him), which doesn’t fit in line with the way fandoms function. sweeping generalizations about the current state of society based on the internet are exhausting and bad, but we do live in an age where everything must either be perfect or evil, and you can’t do that with bare. no one “did nothing wrong uwu” and that’s what fandoms Want 

(note: they will excuse wrong actions, such as everything wrong Connor Murphy has ever done, if the character is played by a mildly attractive guy they want to ship with another mildly attractive guy) 

another point that I don’t have fully fleshed out thoughts on enough to devote too much time to is the integration of parents into the shows. in both DEH and BMC, the parents get redemption arcs. in bare, Claire does say she love Peter at the end, but she’s much less of a sympathetic character than Mr. Heere or Heidi (that’s her name right- Evan’s mom) or the Murphys. when I was younger, I wasn’t allowed to watch anything that painted parents, or adults in general, in a negative light, but maybe that’s not a universal experience 

this is getting way too long and it probably has more thought put into it than what was necessary, so I’ll try to close this quickly 

I think, first off, that DEH and BMC completely deserve the hype that they have received. they’ve got compelling stories, interesting characters, and fantastic soundtracks. I also think that luck factors heavily into them getting what they deserve. there are plenty of great shows, like bare and the boy who danced on air and spies are forever and probably more that I’m not thinking of, that have great music and characters and story that, out of sheer chance, don’t get the chance they should have been given. there is no bulleted list someone can follow and at the end they’ll be on broadway with an armful of tonys; is the luck of the draw, and bare has not been afforded that chance 

I’ll end with some reasons why anyone who happened to read this but might not be a bare fan should listen to or watch bare: 

- it is an amazingly clever show; every time I watch it or listen to it, I realize another moment of foreshadowing or a line I originally brushed off was actually very significant or there’s another recurring motif/theme in the music 

- it’s full of bops (go listen to you and I or are you there or portrait of a girl) 

- canon gay characters in a canon gay relationship 

- 3 dimensional fem characters that actively criticize stereotypes 

- it’s about a religious gay boy who grapples with his religion and his sexuality and how those two things can coexist 

- it is Very Very Good

in conclusion: bare is very good and deserves attention xx

#this is all over the place but I tried #idk if this is what you wanted but it's what you got ldkfjdlsjfk #I Love analyzing stuff like this- this is my dream ask ldkfjlskf #ask #bluejaye91 #bare a pop opera #dear evan hansen #be more chill #it's after 5 tags that stuff doesn't show up in main tags right? #bc I'm tagging for myself and not for everyone but who knows if everyone will see it anyway ldkjfdlf #rambles