#and there will continue to be more of those bc some content just doesn't fit in the main story but needs to exit

[squish--squash]

WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE SCAR FOR MCYTBLR SEXYMAN

I've seen people mention they want propaganda, SO I'LL GIVE THEM PROPAGANDA!

First point is this entire slideshow I made: https://www.tumblr.com/squish--squash/708473005838417920/ it mentions a good few points and I don't just wanna repeat what I've already said, so I HIGHLY suggest reading that first, bc this post is almost a continuation of it

So... why should you vote scar as the mcytblr sexyman, other than the aforementioned points? Well, I can give you many reasons!

(quick preface: aside from point 1, I'm talking about the characters, not the content creators! this will make sense of why I'm saying this on point 4...)

Scar hasn't campaigned he's in the finals. There is a chance scar will win the entire thing. AND HE HAS NOT CAMPAIGNED, OR EVEN MENTIONED IT. hell, there might be a chance he has no clue it's going on! I truly respect joe hills and their campaigning but c'mon. c'mon, you HAVE to give the tumblr sexyman crown to the guy who doesn't have a clue about the competition, it's just so fitting! AND HILARIOUS

Round 3 Round 3 was trench warfare for many contestants, scar included! we went up against TECHNOBLADE, and WON! Do y'all really wanna see the guy WHO DEFEATED TECHNOBLADE to wind up in SECOND PLACE? I know I wouldn't!

Joe Hills is too fucking cool to be a tumblr sexyman Look, if this tournament has taught me one thing, it's that joe hills is one of the coolest and most interesting people I've heard of. He's too cool, in fact. I know I prefaced this in my earlier post, but I wanted to break it down further here. Tumblr sexymen over the years have shared a vast difference of traits, but have ended up having a few qualities that are checked out by all of them. One of these traits? Being at least moderately pathetic. It's part of why they're tumblr sexymen in the first place; the people of tumblr love their blorbos to be at least a little pathetic! joe hills tho? I'm sorry but I can look in a thesaurus for antonyms of "pathetic" and it would be pictures of joe hills- JOE HILLS IS THE OPPOSITE OF PATHETIC, SHE IS SIMPLY TOO COOL

ships ahoy! smth that I've noticed in most, if not all tumblr sexymen, is that they're often shipped with either themselves and/or other people. Now, I don't know exactly how many people scar is shipped with, but I have seen him shipped with the following on this website: grian, cub, bdubs, ren, mumbo, himself (mayor!scar x captain angry eyes, on more than one occasion!!), and even during the polls I saw multiple people on my dash draw ship art of scar and schlatt during their battle. That is 7 alone, and I know there's possibility of there being a couple more out there.

villainous roles tumblr sexymen are well-known to be either canon villains or having morals that are quite gray. And scar has many villainous and/or morally gray roles. Here, I'll list some of them out! mayor!scar (lead of HEP, a villain to the mycelium resistance); captain angry eyes (villain to the hippies); wizard!scar (morally gray- he sells "magical crystals" to others that's just stained glass with 0 magical properties); hotguy & royal court!hotguy (morally gray- hotguy has shot both "villains" and regular people, and scar on the royal court was downright murderous, looking for anyone to kill for any reason, including the king)

smooth talker scar's a conman at heart (which can tie in with my previous point, actually). he's the type of guy that could talk me out of my own home and I wouldn't even be mad about it! I literally watched this man scam people out of their ARMOUR in third life. There's a reason he was able to sell those "magic crystals". And while this isn't a trait you see in all your tumblr sexymen, I think it's a trait that makes scar one of the best candidates for being mcytblr's sexyman

competent, but not too competent this ties into something I mentioned in point 3. the people of tumblr love their blorbos and sexymen to be at least a little pathetic. They also love for them to be threading the line of being both competent and incompetent. Like, these characters can draft up magnificent plans, but those plans are gonna end up failing so bad in due time because of some obvious detail they were missing. and scar is literally that character. He is 100% that guy who would land the sickest mlg-water bucket and then kill himself accidentally to something ridiculous about a minute and a half later.

you're not immune to the good times YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE. YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE. YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO THE GOOD TIMES. VOTE SCAR! VOTE SCAR! VOTE SCAR!

thank you for coming to my TED talk. now, hopefully you know what to do now (vote for scar)

#goodtimeswithscar #gtws #gtwscar #mcytblr sexymen poll #mcytblr sexyman poll #also mentioning again just in case someone did not read that linked post: #I made a post back in SEPTEMBER 2022 saying scar would be the mcyt tumblr sexyman. let apollo make my prediction come true

[wetcatspellcaster]

Hello my darling!

8 & 15 for pieces and an honest lie pls 💜 your choice on whether to write one for each or just one and one

Thank you for the question, lovely!

8. What inspired the title for this fic? Is that how you usually choose titles?

An Honest Lie - I wanted something that sounded like it fit stylistically with 'A Bleeding Heart', and this was the one that sounded best in my brain. I think I had something like 'A Broken Mask' as another possibility, or 'Heart on Your Sleeve' as another way to reformat the convention? But both of those felt pretentious or vague, so I ended up with the one I liked best!

Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth - I have a lot of reasons for this one. Obviously, it's a song from the latest Hozier album, because that is what Hozier albums are for: fic titles. I started with a working title which was a line from 'Eat Your Young', which I think is peak-Ascendency core tbh. but as I realised how much the fic would be based in Rosalie's perspective and the implications of her 'tragic timeline', and how that would effect the themes/tone of the story, I realised that 'Unknown' was a far better fit, as it was more about loneliness and messy divorce feelings, not to mention the morality underlying the love throughout.

I went with Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth bc. teeth. vampires. (also it's a lyric referencing a heart, which is some nice continuity with the series overall)

Other lines that were relevant to the content of the fic but didn't make good titles:

'You know the distance never made a difference to me I swam a lake of fire, I'd have walked across the floor of any sea'

(this refers to the separation, travelling the hells, and Rose living on an isolated island)

'Funny how true colours shine in darkness and in secrecy [...] Where you were held frozen like an angel to me'

(this links to Cania and the 'truth' hiding in the House of Peace)

'It ain't the being alone [...] it's more the being unknown'

(both Rosalie and the Ascendent have been alone and isolated, both of them feel alienated from their true selves and wonder if romance will fix it. they miss the one person they felt understood them.)

Do you know, I could break beneath the weight Of the goodness, love, I still carry for you That I'd walk so far just to take The injury of finally knowing you

(I really did this to my silly little wizard. I really did this. Anyway, how we feeling about Act 3?)

15. Was there anything you had to research for this fic? Do you usually do a lot of research?

An Honest Lie - lol nope. I just played the game man.

Pieces Still Stuck in Your Teeth - I guess a little? There have been multiple times when I've used D&D lore or spells as story prompts. There have also been times when I've had to research a spell deeper than usual to make plot work (True Polymorph, for instance, also did you know that Mage Hand doesn't take concentration? that fucked up a large part of Act 3 for me lmaooooo).

I also. read. so much smut. 😌😌😌😌😌

But generally, I don't really tend to research! Fic is something I write for fun, and I don't tend to find research fun as it's also my job. Deep dives on D&D lore don't really count in my brain, that's just more of the hyperfixation fuel.

behind the scenes fic asks!

#asks #mutuals #ask games #wip: pieces still stuck in your teeth #wip: an honest lie #behind the scenes

[thespacejamber]

literally cannot stop thinking about how @monkeyspawgames made a tiktok about people decrying exclusively designing ttrpg in d&d, only to turn around and exclusively create content for pbta. (click that link, it takes you to the video! also follow her.)

it was a direct hit bc i've been secretly designing a game in pbta for the last few months, but kept hitting walls for some reason with making the narrative i'd like the game to tell fit within the confines of the system. it just never got resolved in a way that made sense. in my little pea brain, i just accepted pbta as the "opposite" way of telling stories compared to d&d, which is much more dependent on dice rolls, mechanics, and structure to power the roleplaying. i've spent more time trying to hack and fit pbta to my game through pure stubbornness without realizing that there'd be something else out there that could fit better.

i just got caught in the false dichotomy of d&d vs pbta (not to mention vs d100 vs fate vs vs vs vs vs vs).

noora was fucking right. pbta isn't the end-all-be-all in designing games with unique narrative structure that allows a lot more freeform manipulation of the story. and for a game that's meant to be about a group -- maybe literally a band -- of folks telling the stories of wild nights and dizzying bouts of inspiration to a rapt audience, something that is still more likely to punish failure through dice rolls just doesn't...feel right. there's still a hierarchy between players and gm that i didn't think empowered players to bring their best selves to the game.

however, belonging outside belonging -- my favorite gmless system -- does, in fact, tick all of those boxes. it erases those lines of hierarchy, of punishing players, of making my story fit its structure. and suddenly everything about this game felt like it came out of obscurity, back into the light.

ultimately, what did this teach me as someone who's still finding their voice in game development?

roleplaying and storytelling exists on a spectrum. some stories need far more structure to move along and find resolution, some require no structure at all outside of gentle nudges.

you shouldn't have to argue relentlessly with the system that you've decided to work with just to force something to stay propped up with bandaids and tape. it's okay to realize when you're far into a project that you need to scrap a lot in order to restructure it to make a better project.

it's not worth your sanity to continue to force your mind, your stories into preset little boxes. it stifles your story -- and yourself.

#ttrpg #ttrpgs #ttrpg design #ttrpg dev #belonging outside belonging #powered by the apocalypse #pbta #game dev #game development #indie game #indie games #storytelling #amber rambles

[scover-va]

The fandom-determined The Hex Sexyman (among other things)

The google form has been open for, what, a month ish now? So I'm documenting the results now. Hoorah. Edit bc I forgot to add a read more and this is fairly long

Sexyman Results

Am I surprised by this one? No, absolutely not.

First place goes to Irving! I am in no way whatsoever surprised, I'm very aware of the grip that guy has on this fandom, so hey, kudos to him. Proud of him, or whatever. His prize here gets to be art. Kinda. If any of you have been following a recent trend here on good ol' Tumblr then I'm sure you know what to expect here.

Second place goes to both Lazarus and Vallamir, which I'm once again not surprised about in the least. I wouldn't exactly give mr wet paper towel of a man the title of sexyman, but hey, the guy probably has the highest or the second highest kill count of the main characters. So, he gets that. Vallamir doesn't surprise me, though. I mean all this in the nicest way possible btw

And then finally, third place goes to both Bryce and Lionel! Which! Both of those surprised me! Especially Lionel. But hey, glad to know y'all like him or whatever.

If enough people ask I'll add the written explanations for everyone's picks. I'm gonna wait til people say it's okay, just in case

Sexywoman Results

This one obviously had much slimmer pickings compared to the guys, and I would be lying if I said I was surprised by the results.

Sado gets first place, which was expected, she IS on the Sexypedia Wiki AND fits the criteria much better than a lot of other options. I mean. Colour palette, being evil, being chaotic, clown, suit, blah blah blah. She fits the bill perfectly, and I'm sure she'd be flattered. Or she'd kinkshame you guys. I don't know.

Rebecha got second place! Also not surprised! I'm, like, 99% convinced at least half of the fandom played the game post-Inscryption just for Rebecha content, so her coming up right behind Sado is NOT a surprise to me. She's fucking earned it though. Her reward is some goddamn sleep, because holy FUCK.

And then third place goes to Chandrelle, which to be fair, she's the only remaining reoccurring female character with a design. So, her getting third doesn't surprise me, especially since she's up against Sado and Rebecha.

And also shout out to my girlfriend, who voted every single female character. Without her, Catarina, Town Girl, Trish, and The Kraken would be forgotten about. Which, fair. Catarina appears the most out of the four by a whopping, what, 5 or so times? Maybe 6 or 7. Actually now that I'm thinking about it she does kinda pop up a considerable amount. Huh. Anyways,

Dilf Responses

And surprising no one at all with who got the most votes for this,

Rust! Who's winning by a whopping 60%! Good on him, he's earned it, despite technically not having a kid anymo-

And while Reggie getting a couple votes doesn't surprise me, VERY surprised to see the gay dads both get a vote each. By different people, too! But they've been through a lot, they've earned it.

Genderless Swag Results

A simpler one than above, but the canon nonbinary/agender character vs the one who's commonly hc'ed to be nonbinary.

I'm not really surprised. I mean, Steambot Willy's never acknowledged by the fans meanwhile FPP obviously is, so hey! I'm just happy to see Steambot Willy managed to score two votes. Good on them <3

Babygirl Results

Now. Usually, this is where I'd insert an image, and continue on talking about it. But. For some reason, the short answer question results are formatted like. This.

So. I'll just list them

Lazarus: 6 votes

Lionel: 1 vote

Rust: 1 vote

I'm not surprised Lazarus is #1 babygirl, I mean LOOK AT HIM. Like one person said, he's a pathetic wet cat of a man. Absolute sopping wet piece of paper towel. He is THE malewife AND babygirl. No one's doing it like him. AND he scored second on the Sexyman section. Shout out to him fr, I'm so proud of him

Twink Results

Wizarro: 3 votes (Deserved. I mean, look at him)

Moji: 2 votes (Personality wise? Yeah I can see it)

Junior: 1 vote (Like father like son, ig?)

Rust: 1 (Fair. His dietary options in the Wastes couldn't have been the best)

Irving on account of people don't know what a twink is: 1 vote (God, yeah,,,Granted skinny dudes always get beef'd so ig it's a 2 way street. If the fandom was popular, Irving would DEFINITELY be woobified, though)

Reggie: 1 vote (Yeah fair he can't exercise and his diet probably consists mostly of fucking root beer. What the fuck, Reggie)

Closing Statement Or Whatever Idfk

And THAT, everyone, is the results. Obviously Lazarus got 10 votes on malewife, he was the only option because really, who's a better option than him? So he doesn't get his own section on that, but yeah! Again, I'll post the typed up explanations if people want me to, up to you guys! But that's about it for now. Expect some celebratory art for Irving soon

#the hex #the hex game #scov.txt #im never doing this again /j #im not tagging everyone. thats too much #daniel mullins games #this has been a scientific experiment brought to yall by urs truly. im gonna go collapse now #the hex sexyman results #tagged in case anyone wants to find them in the future #including myself in case i edit this

[dvrthncx]

OK - so after much thought I decided to completely rearrange the monstrosity that is my canon fic universe & instead of putting all the stories into one giantesque work I deleted that and separated it into a series of 4 works.

They are still meant to be read in tandem more or less (though they can stand alone now as well), so I will be writing them all at the same time, but I figured my idiots deserved not to get lost in each other so much.

SO my fics are now as follows ---

Seeking Vengeance - Tahrimi & Nevar’ija Rogue Empire - Haddij, Magdae, & Ait’nelis The Champion’s Tragedy - Shakiru Vanity & Deceit - Marttirs & Melwas

As part of this reworking, I have only published the very first chapter of each text, because I now have to do some editing to everything else that had previously been published. 

I also think I’ll add a shorter 5th work to the list at some point dedicated to Rijalu because while she’s not part of the main cast of 8, she’s a very important supporting character in all these fics to the point where I consider her part of the main cast. 

#writing #my writing #revision #i of course left all the one-shots alone #and there will continue to be more of those bc some content just doesn't fit in the main story but needs to exit #seeking vengeance #rogue empire #the champion's tragedy #rimi #nev #haddij #magdae #nel #shak #marttirs #mel #rijalu #vanity & deceit

[perpetually-profoundly-confused]

This is gonna get really rambly so forgive me in advance.

Okay so you know how I'm always up for finding ways for the Owl House to get more content/attention because Disney barely does anything so I was looking at animated shows like Steven Universe and seeing how that got both a movie and a limited series, same thing with Adventure Time getting a miniseries. Hilda also got a movie that serves as a continuation from its second season finale. But that's Cartoon Network and Netflix, we're talking about Disney. In recent years, Phineas and Ferb got a film on Disney+ (with there maybe being another one) and Big City Greens announced getting a film. I wondered why that's the case (and if Owl House can manage the same) and it's probably bc those shows are more episodic/less serialized. So I guess this is my roundabout way of asking would it be possible for the Owl House to even manage to get a movie or miniseries on Disney+ if I keep bothering them about it, and what could it be about.

But if that route isn't possible, then we could try for a graphic novel! Which I'm more for actually. I mean Gravity Falls was able to continue on with that Lost Legends book and a copy of Journal 3. Just recently it was announced we were getting Marcy's journal, so they'll be more Amphibia stuff to wait for even after it ends. I was looking up the publishers of these books and they're Disney Press and TOKYOPOP and considering that TOKYOPOP (and Dark Horse Comics) was one of the publishers that Matt Braly tweeted about last year to ask them for stuff and it looks like that persistence paid off, I know who I'll be contacting a lot more. Or maybe I should bring it up to crew first if they're on the lookout for one since they would hold a lot more credibility than me. This was basically my whole thought process on it.

NO STOP I LOVE THIS. I frankly find the graphic novel thing/some sort of comic to be the most likely- and something that I'd be most for. It'd fit the style of the show the most, and would require the least amount of work- doing some sort of movie or special like PnF would take extra years of work and honestly might not even be That Good (I said it). Not only that, but with a graphic series, there's still room to expand upon it and add more- while with a movie you have a very limited run.

What I'm picturing for the graphic novel is to essentially visualize the original plan for season 3-- this time, without any corporate management looking down their shoulders. Though I'm not sure if Disney would let them do that, or how fully fleshed out their plans even were before they got the news. But I suppose if that doesn't happen (which it probably won't anyways), a Lost Legend, anthology- type structure would work best as you suggested.

#there's also more stylization opportunity with graphic novels like how gf commissioned Kiki kit and it looks super cool #but the pnf movie looks more restrained and budgeted in terms of animation (which I'm sure is in part due to covid but nevertheless) #asks #ask #ask box #i'm very invested in your progress in this endeavor #toh #theory anon

[viria]

hey viria! I was wondering if you had any tips on improving lineart? bc when I sketch the drawing looks good and all, but when I do lineart it turns stiff and doesn't look natural ;-; plus, I can't make a long, continuous line (when I do it just doesn't fit with the sketch) I end up having to make many small lines one next to another. This makes the drawing look unclean and the process is really long and frustating... do you have any tips on how to fix these issues? thank youuu!!

Hi! I feel like this transition from sketch to lineart is such a common problem! I have it too, to a certain extent, though not as bad as it was before, but it’s still there.

To avoid stiffness and to leave the natural flow of the sketch, I think it’s very very important to determine what lines do make it dynamic and expressive. What you like the most about it. Let’s take expressions for example! You drew someone happy, and on the sketch it looks great, and you can FEEL this happiness radiating and you love the way the sketch turned out. But once you start transitioning to the lineart, it loses the certain something. I guess it happens mostly because when it comes to lineart, people feel the need to make it as clean as possible, which excludes some of the motion of the sketch. As to say, when you drew a sketch it has all those crincles of the smiling eyes, and the lines looked a bit messy and expressive, the smile was a bit lopsided and some lines are harsher than the others. Once you lineart it the line variety your sketch had often disappears, and that’s one of the resons it gets more stiff. When I lineart, I always make sure to actually lineart the lines of the eyes the way they are, I zoom in heavily and follow the width of the line my sketch had! So instead of new perfect lines I make new but still a tad messy, if only a bit cleaner and more readable.

When you draw the body, don’t be afraid to either lineart or simply leave some of the lines that made it expressive. If you sketched the leg and it wasn’t really perfect but it was expressive, don’t be afraid to leave those lines that formed it. You will still put colour underneath and all those lines won’t be as noticeable, but they will be there and the lineart won’t be as stiff! That’s one of the reasons why I always leave some bits of the sketch left under my lineart in my final work. I erase the sketch, but not fully. I often leave a lot of lines on the face, and on the hands and legs.

Basically, whenever you make a lineart (on the layer above your sketch), there’s a simple way to figure out what you need for it to still have a certain something. Click the sketch layer underneath on and off. Whatever places irk your eye and feel WORSE with the clean lineart - leave at least some bits of the sketch underneath.

So, if in short, follow the width of the sketch lines in your lineart, and leave some bits of sketch underneath. You can also then merge the layers of sketch and lineart together and play with the depth of the lines. You can simply (very lightly) erase some of those that are further away from viewer, and overline the lines that are closer. That’s optional, but I feel like erasing some very lightly help to make your lineart a bit more interesting!

Now, as for the lines problem. I am also someone who actually mostly uses a lot of small strokes instead of the long fluid strokes, but I feel like for me it works? It doesn’t look too streaky. You can fake the lines by being very precise with your continuous strokes just so it looks quite clean, or just… train your wrist to make long fluid lines.

I use those on the hair, and often on the clothing, whenever I can’t get away with using my strokes. If you do digital, and you do this fluid line but it isn’t in the place you want - undo it and do again, and again if it’s necessary. One of those lines will be good enough for you to be content to leave it there. I can undo so many of the lines over and over again until I am satisfied;;But really - there is only practising to get better with it. The wrist should be trained and there’s no other way to it unfortunately. Keep practising and you’ll keep getting more and more content with your linework! 

Also the trick for drawing long lines (especially if you need them quite straight), don’t move your wrist alone, sometimes it’s necessary to move your arm. And you can put a pen to the paper, and then look at the point you need your line to end. And move your pen without looking at it, only at the point you want your line to add! I feel like it works so well so often, it was a trick one of our uni teachers mentioned and i was like WHOOAA

Pheh, I feel like that’s all i have in mind! I hope it helps

#viriasanon #faq

[transfemlogan]

👀 you definitely made sense! and i agree with the points you made, too. i was definitely having trouble articulating my point bc it was hard to properly explain what i meant, and still is honestly lol.

i definitely didn't mean to flatten lying. you're so, so right that it can be useful and good, and protective in certain situations, and that it's much more complicated than i had talked about in my last ask.

and hard agree about criticizing how our societies are set up. bc like,,,usamerican society is built on racism and ableism. and we definitely need to question and change that. i think all societies around the world have things about them that definitely need to be criticized and questioned, and changed for the better. so basically Big Agree!!

i think you pinpointed some of what i was trying to say tho. i think thomas was definitely having trouble writing exactly what he wanted to get across, and ended up muddying the message in the way he ended up writing it. it feels like he leaned in way too hard on janus's lying aspect and so the writing took a hit for it.

-

you have chosen...

1) my concerns for the writer's room bc of specific segments in the five year anniversary episode

i know we're prolly a little past this but cw for alcoholism mentions

there are two specific segments: a) the stuff about wine and b) the end segment, when asking to categorize who's who in the "family" (these two overlap a little)

a) wine/drinking

logan, specifically, seems to have become more obsessed with drinking wine. just remembered in the asides, wtit, logan also drinks wine in that episode, too. but anyway, in the fifth anniversary, every time we see logan, he's holding some kind of glass with wine in it. the joke being that his receptacle gets larger and larger every time they cut back to him.

and near the end, they mention how logan's the wine mom and janus is the wine aunt. and it makes me worry about really worry about the state of the writer's room bc iirc, the team said and promised that the fans having a say in future episodes didn't mean they were going to write episodes, but even the small influences fans have can have a huge impact

and my first example is the wine thing because casual alcoholism is such a cultural norm these days (esp so in usamerica and the uk)

logan's wine glasses, wine moms, wine aunts, social drinking, the normalization of drinking wine at 10 in the morning, the normalization of drinking a whole wine bottle in a day, casual mentions of drinking a six pack of beer a night, every night

that's not funny. that's alcoholism. it's not quirky. it's concerning, but it's often treated as a joke, as seen by many things, including in some of the most recent sanders sides content thomas has released.

b) who's who in their family (this might be where we differ, but i could be wrong lol. it could be also just be my wording, i'm reading over this and thinking,,,there might be better words for this but i honestly can't think of them)

trying to fit all the characters into a heteronormative family. it kinda really feels like something only a fan would suggest

like i know it's obviously supposed to be treated like a joke, and logan comments about gender stereotypes, but it doesn't really do anything for me. it's just ironic lampshading, which is not the same as satire. they weren't satirizing the heteronormative family dynamics, they're reinforcing them, even if they pointed it out. simply pointing something out, and then continuing to do it in a serious fashion, is not satire or criticism

the problem i have with it is: why do found families (in a sense, i know it gets complicated bc they're parts of thomas lol) even need heteronormative family labels? can't it be enough that you have found people you would consider family? does everyone in your found family need a label? can they not just be? why is there this obsession with fitting in to such stereotypical family labels? isn’t the whole point of found family, esp for those in marginalized communities, to move away from the heteronormative family that shuns and abuses anyone who deviates from the able-bodied, nt, cishet, white societal norms?

that's not to say if you'd like those labels, to not do it of course. and i can understand where that desire comes from.

the way thomas did it in the fifth anniversary felt off to me. again, both the wine and the labels just felt like something a fan would suggest bc they like the idea or the way it sounds. and it really muddies what's canon and what's fanon. i also feel like it really muddies the fact that these are all aspects of him. but i won't go into that too much, bc i don't want to impinge on harmless fandom fun, and i'm also not a system, so i won't be able to say anything meaningful about that, in that respect.

[was a little distracted, been a long day, so i hope this all makes sense]

-

anyway, thanks for letting me write these essays in your inbox ^_^ i appreciate being able to have someone to discuss these criticisms with! it's been a lot of fun and very cathartic lol

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG 2 ANSWER IVE BEEN LOW ON SPOONS LATELY </33

Also I WAS right abt our opinions being the same <3

The entire thing w/ Logan drinking wine makes me so uncomfortable. Alcoholism is such a serious topic. I have alcoholic family members and I have friends with alcoholic family members; watching it being treated like a joke just... leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Knowing how alcoholism can affect families, I don't understand why anyone would joke about that.

I also don't even know how you woule come back from that, if Thomas recognised how wrird and bad it was that he was including this in his series. The concept of him just... dropping it all of a sudden and acting as if it never happened doesn't make me happy, but the concept of him trying to tall about alcoholism in his show doesn't make me happy, either! I hold the same feelings in regards to Roman being lowkey ableist towards Logan in the jam ad ("mr. Infodumper"). I have to live with the fact Roman is canonically ableist!

I have to live with the fact that Logan is canonically an alcoholic and it's being treated as a joke.

I do agree with your points about the entire family thing! As soon as it was brought up in the video, I cringed.

Agree with all your points about the concept of found family and heteronormative terms to describe those families; isn't it enough that they just are a family? What purpose does it serve to make them fit into specific roles?

I do, also, want to bring up the concept of applying heteronormative terms to queer relationships. Of course, Thomas is a gay man, which I feel like makes my opinion as a gay man about what he is doing to his gay characters not that... important? I'm unsure how to explain. I know gay people aren't a monolith, but it feels weird to me to criticise another gay person about how they're writing their gay characters.

(I am still going to bring it up.)

Queer people are constantly asked "who's the man and whos the woman in the relationship?" The only reason some fans wanted to include the mom/dad joke is so they can have canonical shipping content, I will die on this hill. But because I know that's why fans wanted it, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

This fandom already has a big issue with fetishising gay men, watching it be shoved into a video made me incredibly uncomfortable.

I don't want to see Patton call himself the dad and call Logan the mom. Because its only there for shipping purposes. Heteronormative

NOW. Again, mixed feelings on their opinion because 1) (again) Thomas is a gay man. It's his series. It's his characters. But 2) I do like when queer people use different gendered terms than their birth gender. I like when queer people do not fit heteronormative roles and are actively queer.

I am a trans man. If I was a parent, I'd prefer the label "mom" over "dad". I much prefer when people call me handsome when I am doing "feminine" things like wearing makeup or skirts. Which is why I'm like... on one hand, YES! Janus preferring the term 'Aunt' over 'Uncle'? Heart eyes! Logan being the 'Mom' instead of another 'Dad'? Sign me up. Fem terms for the sides forever.

But on the other, it's hard to be excited over it when ... I know it was fans who wanted it. I know it was only for shipping purposes (no offense to logicality fans, I feel like I'm being mean to yo guys throughout all this). I know that it's just applying labels to something that does not need labels.

And of course, literally everything you said.

I don't mind heavily fandom centric media. 1 of my biggest SpIns as of right now is Blaseball, a horror baseball simulation. The entirety of that game is community and fandom driven; characters are only given a name and stats, fans make their design and personality and literally everything about them. The creators of the game have expressed that all fandom ideas about a character is canon due to the concept of alternate realities in the game. I could keep talking, but then I'd just be autistic-ly infodumping about Blaseball.

In short, there is nothing wrong with the mixing of fanon and canon, but Blaseball started off that way. That is a really big part of Blaseball. You get to do whatever you want with these characters, regardless of if you are in the fandom or not! You don't need to know anything about how the fandom treats a character in order to like a character and have your own headcanons about it.

Sanders Sides is a community driven series, but that's just because Thomas doesn't upload frequently! And this community is highkey dying out because Thomas doesn't upload when he should and because of how negative people are becoming and because no one in this fucking fandom knows how to support artists and writers!!

I WAS going to explain WAYY more and elaborate but as I started writing I lost less and less spoons and now brain fog is getting to me. But I am hoping you can just... figure out what I am trying to say.

I am also not a system, but you are right. I think that's a topic much more reserves for people with DID or OSDD to talk about, but Thomas talks sooo much about how it's not DID or having alters and then lowkey completely goes against that. (Of course, the subject about Sanders Sides and whether or not it is ableist towards systems has lots and lots of mixed opinions. I have system friends who like(d) Sanders Sides and don't view it as ableist and I know of systems who do view it as ableist, and etc etc.)

And, of course, I am glad writing these little essays was fun & good. I love criticising things w/ people & hearing other people's opinions ^_^

#i would love to hear more from people who are not critical of thomas but. #i am being blocked by all of them /hyp & sometimes they r mean :( #ask #long post