#and this can coexist with the fact that other people have been harmed by the treatments to which they were subjected

[saintsenara]

the wizarding world really just does not care about anything huh? i mean. what would have happened if tom had been institutionalized due to his magic?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i need to actually get around to writing the big meta i have on the idea - which i know a few people have asked me about - that hogwarts applies some level of selection [that is, that - despite what lupin says in deathly hallows - it doesn't teach the majority of magical children in britain, whether they're born to magical or muggle families] when it comes to who it admits, and that muggleborn potential pupils who fall short of its criteria never get the letter-delivery meeting that we see the canonical tom riddle receive.

which would mean that, had tom been committed to a psychiatric hospital as a child, i think the wizarding world would have quietly struck his name off the list for potential admittance to hogwarts and continued on untroubled.

which is obviously grim.

although i think it's worth saying that, while there is a lot about 1930s psychiatric care which was legitimately inhumane - and the sort of one flew over the cuckoo's nest-style dystopian vibe, which makes the idea of poor wee tom being stuck in a hospital seem so terrifying, isn't entirely inaccurate - there's also, as odd as it sounds, a chance that he might have been genuinely helped by the psychiatric treatment of the time period.

we picture the psychiatric treatment of the early twentieth century as straitjackets and padded cells and lobotomies - violent and dehumanising procedures with no clinical benefit - because [as is often the case today in the way mental illness is spoken about both clinically and culturally] the medical community tended to regard anything accompanied by psychosis [schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and so on] as intensive, untreatable and unmanageable [and to - therefore - institutionalise patients with these symptoms permanently].

but at the same time, mental illness which wasn't accompanied by [long-term] psychosis [depression, anxiety disorders, addiction, ptsd and so on] was increasingly seen not only as treatable, but as curable - and clinicians' aims were for patients to be treated temporarily either in the community or in modern hospitals which looked very different from the padded-cell asylums which were holdovers of the victorian/edwardian era, and to live independently after their course of treatment was done.

this was largely due to the prevalence of "shell-shock" and "soldiers' neuroses" - which we would nowadays understand as types of post-traumatic stress disorder - among men who had served in the first world war. these men - often from "respectable" backgrounds, with no history of mental illness in their families - were a very different demographic of patient than either the destitute "lunatic" or the hysterical woman of the victorian and edwardian imagination. they were also needed back in the trenches - but with their symptoms under control enough that they weren't considered dangerous to their fellow soldiers.

and treatments for shell-shock were - as a result - considerably more humane than the contemporary treatment of psychosis. emphasis was put on holistic treatments - especially the chance for men who had been shivering in the trenches to get a period of real rest - and on talking.

[british army officers were ordered - for example - to attempt to reduce shell-shock cases by encouraging their men to process their experiences of the war in individual and group settings.]

after the end of the war, the treatment of long-term shell-shock combined with the growing interest in "analysis" - which, while the image i'm sure many of us have of it is of sigmund freud suggesting the patient wanted to fuck his own mother, actually looked rather a lot like the various branches of psychotherapy do today - into courses of treatment for conditions like depression, anxiety, and ptsd [especially those caused by childhood trauma] which aren't actually terrible...

the way the young tom riddle speaks about magic in canon absolutely sounds like psychosis to someone who doesn't know he's a wizard - and so, yes, there is a very high chance that he would have been institutionalised to be stuck in restraints for the rest of his life.

but it's also the case that, since he was a child when mrs cole was trying to have him "looked at" by doctors, this increasing disciplinary focus on the psychological motivations for behaviour - especially in childhood; child psychology and the causes of juvenile delinquency were things the psychiatric community was increasingly interested in during the 1930s - might, instead, have had his belief that he could do magic put down to a fantasy which he had invented on account of his numerous [and treatable] neuroses.

and while it's not the case that he's making up being a wizard... it very much is the case that he's neurosis-central. you've never seen a more unbalanced ego.

and that actually being prompted to confront his childhood trauma [especially his grief over his mother's death] - even when the strange, freudian flavour any psychotherapy would undoubtedly have had is taken into account - would probably have done rather more to actually help him than hogwarts' "ignoring children's emotional needs is fine" approach...

#asks answered #asenora meta #tom riddle #lord voldemort #on medicine #the tl;dr of this is that there's a huge amount of presentism in the way the history of medicine is talked about #people have always been treated and they have always been helped by that treatment #and this can coexist with the fact that other people have been harmed by the treatments to which they were subjected

[bonyassfish]

I do think that you should mostly still listen to BDS as far as companies to boycott go, because companies like Re/Max and AXA directly profit from the occupation. The movement in general also has widespread support among Palestinians which should not be ignored. Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions are effective non-violent methods of ending colonial violence.

However, I find what BDS in general defines as “normalization” to be flighty at best and harmful at worst. BDS actively dismissing joint Israeli-Palestinian peace activist groups like OneVoice and Standing Together serves what purpose exactly?

The arguments I’ve seen against these groups range from “they support a two state solution” to “they don’t acknowledge the reality of the power imbalance between Israel and Palestine”. The first argument is true at times, but a lot of people are looking at solutions based on a more practical view rather than what is ideal or even fair. Personally, I’m in support of a single binational secular state with equality for all citizens and proportional representation in government, but that’s just me. I understand why so many people see the two state solution as more viable, though.

As for the second accusation, I don’t think it’s true. I do think that these groups are willing to acknowledge the violence done by Hamas, for example, and the losses suffered by Israelis, which maybe is what makes people annoyed. But it’s not a zero sum game. It’s a fact that innocent civilians have been kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. It’s also a fact that the IDF is an occupying colonial force with extensive and sophisticated weaponry and a large budget, while Hamas is a comparatively small militia.

The other argument I see is that these groups are too naive, that they don’t see reality. But I think it’s the opposite; I don’t think anyone who’s actually lived through this violence can be seen as naive. I think it’s a genuine recognition that this cannot last forever, that neither Jews nor Palestinians will leave, and therefore the only thing to do is to figure out a way to coexist peacefully.

It would be one thing if BDS said “we are ideologically opposed to these groups and choose not to actively support them”. But they and their supporters have made them out to be like covert liberal Zionists who are trying to trick activists. It’s absurd, these groups are pretty transparent and open about their goals and ideology.

I’m not saying you have to support Standing Together, or even agree with them. But to dismiss them completely is foolish and, in my opinion, counterproductive.

#standing together #bds

[halfagone]

So Here's the Thing About the Fenton Parents...

I have written more than one post about the Fenton parents now. You might have seen them, you might not have. These are the two posts if you're curious: meta post and the original ask that inspired the meta.

From these posts, I've learned that this topic can be very divisive in the fandom. There are those that prefer them depicted as good parents, others as bad, some search for a more mild depiction of the Fentons' poor parenting, so on and so forth. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you want a certain depiction or trope, please read those and be respectful to those who don't. It's as simple as that.

However, there is something that I realized we don't talk enough about as a fandom. I'll admit, I've done the same:

How can we depict the Fentons as good parents when they cannot adhere to basic safety standards?

It's easy to excuse this as quirky, eccentric behavior. This is a cartoon show after all, we shouldn't take it that seriously. Except... Danny Phantom, the show, has also showcased how their lacking safety measures has hurt and injured the people around them. More than once.

Vlad was first with the proto-portal in college. Arguably, their children have been struggling with their parents' carelessness long before the portal was ever finished: their food is constantly ecto-contaminated, coming back to life to traumatize their young kids, as we see in "The Fright Before Christmas". And then, of course, we have the Accident. Danny is turned half-ghost, and the rest is history.

Only... now these two have ecto-powered weapons that they use to hunt ghosts, caring very little when their hunts intrude on or injure their children, like the multiple occasions they have turned their weapons to Jazz, who is neither half-ghost or anything ghost-adjacent in canon.

There have been multiple scenes where the Fentons blatantly choose to ignore safety standards. The meta post I linked earlier shows a couple of such examples. But you might be wondering, what does this have anything to do with their parenting style? Well...

If they were good parents, their children's safety would be top of mind.

The Fentons cannot be wishy-washy with their basic lab procedures and also be good parents. These two facts cannot coexist, especially so when their lab headquarters is in their home, where curious children can walk in at any time, unsupervised. Should kids be walking into a lab with dangerous chemicals around? No, but it is their responsibility as parents to make sure their kids don't roam about.

It is their responsibility to teach their children this basic safety procedure, and adhere to it themselves, because it is meant to protect them and everyone around them. This cannot be a "do as I say, not as I do" situation. Their failure to be responsible can both directly and indirectly harm others, as we see from canon, where Danny becomes a halfa in a second portal accident.

Strictly speaking, if Danny had good parents, he would not have become a halfa in the first place. If the Fentons were good parents, they would have been there, in that lab, with Danny, Sam, and Tucker, supervising their visit. Danny would have never been allowed into the portal which- at that time- had been dysfunctional. Furthermore, even if Danny had been allowed in the portal, it should have been unplugged in adherence to safety code. Therefore, even if Danny did trip and hit, say, a misplaced "On" button inside, it wouldn't have turned on because it should not have been powered up to begin with.

More than once, safety measures could have been implemented to prevent a lab accident, yet nothing ever came out of it.

Furthermore, neither Fenton parent make an effort to reach out to Vlad after his own accident. Of course, we could extrapolate and say that the Fentons tried but were barred entry. However, that is more wishful thinking and personal headcanons than based on concrete canon evidence. What does this indicate about the Fentons?

Simply put, they are not good people. Of course, there are many characters in media that are depicted as villains but show compassion and care for their children. The Fentons are not one of them. They say they love their children, but very few times do they show it outside fighting off ghosts- which they would have done regardless if their children were there or not. They do not have respect for personal boundaries, public or private property, or public safety.

There are more than a few examples of this, but here is a very obvious one: the portal itself.

The Fentons believe that ghosts are nothing more than scum; they believe ghosts are malicious entities that would destroy the world given the chance. And yet they thought it was a good idea to create a portal to a world full of so-called malicious entities with little to no preparation whatsoever.

Oh sure, they have their weapons, but as we can see these two cannot be everywhere at once. Not even Danny, with superpowers, can be everywhere at once. The Fentons do not build a door for the portal until episode 13 of the series. 13 episodes. By this time, there have already been multiple ghost attacks, some of which spanned city-wide.

Incompetence is not an excuse. In fact, that incompetence should outright disbar them from keeping their children.

At the end of the day, whether you believe the Fentons really do love their children beyond their prejudice, they have repeatedly shown that they cannot be trusted to care for their children. This begs the question:

Is it still possible for the Fentons to be good parents?

Technically speaking, yes. Everyone is capable of change. The Fentons are more than capable of learning from their mistakes, although evidence indicates that they likely wouldn't, seeing how there were two portal accidents.

But yes, they can learn from the past and become better parents in the future. Jazz and Danny would likely have to be removed from the home until they update and comply with safety regulations, and they may even lose their business license because of their failure to adhere, but it is still possible.

However, the Fentons were not always good parents. Even if they were to learn and grow as people, it cannot be ignored that once upon a time, they had been responsible for a lot of damage: material, physical, mental, and emotional. This can come with consequences, including prison time and losing custody of their children.

Of course, we could choose to ignore all of this. We as a fandom do that for many aspects of canon, the Fenton parents could just be another one. You could argue that canon declares the Fenton parents are good.

But here's another thing:

The Fentons redeem themselves as parents when they accept Danny after a reveal. They are not automatically good ones.

Hopefully this will be the last meta on the Fenton parents from me. I understand people want Danny's parents to be good, and they certainly can be, but I am tired of people ignoring the very real neglect and abuse both their kids suffered. You do not have to have the Fentons dissect Danny to make them abusive. You do not have to have the Fentons work day and night to make them negligent.

Abuse and neglect cover a variety of cases. That includes kids like this too.

Thank you for reading.

#danny phantom #dpxdc #long post #meta analysis #character analysis #show analysis #with yours truly :D

[cupcraft]

To clarify and not derail.

"There may be more victims. A victim speaking out is difficult and not always safe..victims may not realize they are victims until others speak out" are all statements that can coexist "people who enable abusers by not speaking out/continuing to support the abuser or downplay their actions do in fact create a culture of harm".

I say this because for my experiences of abuse. People who were complicit in both via silence when i was abused or enabled the abuse/kept it in very private only verbal conversations so as to not hold anyone accountable (administration/high up people) did in fact harm me. It is important that silence be about those that have been called to foe voice by victims who contributed to this environment and misogyny while also respecting the first quote about victims.

#tw abuse #i cant focus in class guys

[utilitycaster]

fascinating how some people are acting like Liliana’s one of the vulnerable teenagers the RV has recruited and not a powerful, presumably level 20 general who’s committed horrific atrocities in the name of predathos. it’s like saying alex jones is a victim of qanon instead one of the primary peddlers of it. I get having sympathy, especially for for the troubled young mother 25+ years ago, but genuinely. what is going on here?

Hey anon,

Something I've noticed in fandom, not exclusive to this campaign, though perhaps heightened, is that a lot of people really struggle with the concept that victimhood does not absolve you of wrongdoing. It provides context; but it doesn't take away what happened to others as the result of one's actions, even those actions were taken under extenuating circumstances.

Caleb Widogast is perhaps one of the most stellar examples of this in Critical Role. There were many extenuating circumstances. He was an abused and manipulated teenager. His parents are dead by his hand. These are both true statements. Part of what makes Caleb so compelling is that he is, on an intellectual level, well aware that he was pushed into this in many ways both psychological and magical, and that he was a child. He also acknowledges - truthfully - that it was still him putting the pieces together of "my parents are traitors, and so I should do as I'm told here." The story is about him finding a way to move forward and live his life, but the victims - his parents - cannot forgive him, and the campaign indeed ends with a very clear message that what is done cannot be undone.

But not everyone liked Caleb's story. Some felt he should have been less forgiving of others and killed the entire Cerberus Assembly for letting it happen. Some felt he was unforgivable even by himself for his actions. And some disagreed with him - including in-world - and argued he bore no responsibility, and, notably, Caleb consistently pushed back.

I don't think Liliana is quite at the level of Alex Jones (who is, in my opinion, pretty much wholly unsympathetic; I've read through some articles regarding the Sandy Hook defamation trials and this guy just wants to sell supplements and will do anything to do so). But yes, she is comparable to someone actively pushing dangerous conspiracy theories and bringing others in. That is, again, the thing about cults. Even if you're not at the top, if you're recruiting others, or, in the case of cults that do harm to those other than just members - which the Vanguard undeniably does - participating in harmful external actions, then you are perpetrating violence. You are also a victim. These can coexist, but victimhood does not negate the harm done. Liliana is sympathetic. She is also actively making the lives of many people worse.

Now, some of the problem is that there are people who think releasing Predathos is not, in fact, bad, and so to them Liliana is not complicit in a sufficient level of harm. I'm not really interested in wasting my time on them; that line of thinking is pretty fundamentally at an impasse with mine and as discussed previously I find it rests entirely on incoherent and presumptive arguments linked only by broken metaphors and rank hypocrisy. But moving on, I think some of the other people arguing in defense of Liliana not just as a sympathetic character (which, again, she is) but as someone blameless and deserving of endless patience are perhaps struggling to separate "it is not helpful to endlessly flagellate yourself over past wrongdoings if you have truly made a turn for the better" with "some people will not forgive you, ever, because you have undeniably harmed them, and you are not owed anything from them." You have to live with yourself; of course you should grant yourself patience. Those hurt by you do not need to do so. If someone is brainwashed by a cult and they kill someone, the relatives of the murder victim might forever hold this against the murderer despite the brainwashing, and I, personally, do not believe this is wrong of them. I don't believe it's "inspirational" to forgive someone who hurt you sufficiently badly except in the sense that it would be put in the "inspirational" section of an airport bookstore that really means "extremely Evangelical Protestant in outlook." I don't think you should hurt them back once they've stopped doing harm, but you might never want to speak to them or interact with them again and I think you are valid in that choice. I certainly believe that any forgiveness can only come after a sustained pattern of change.

In short: I think people want a very Good or Evil narrative about Liliana when the answer is "she's a victim and she's also victimizing others, and it's valid for those harmed by her or by those she works with closely to say "I am deeply sorry you fell into Ludinus's clutches but the devastation you are leaving in your wake isn't something I can ignore or, at this point, forgive." As Ashton says, the fact that Liliana is deep in a cult doesn't negate the fact that there's a very real chance that same cult will kill her daughter - indeed, they came within a hair's breadth of doing so - and that that hasn't stopped her.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag

[bloobluebloo]

So, I have been speaking a lot about the idea of legends being an effective use of propaganda. In fact, legends having plot holes is very effective in furthering the message a legend is trying to promote. After all, what we want to do is cut out the parts that would cause anyone to question the core values of the legend in question. I always found it very interesting that all of Hyrule's problems are attributed to Ganondorf. Sure, there are other villains that appear in the series, but in general, Ganondorf is set up as The Greatest Evil, Hyrule's Satan if you will. Anything that is considered genuinely evil, that deserves to be killed and cut out from Hyrule, is either a creation of Ganondorf or associated to Ganondorf. I also found it interesting that we never really learn anything about Ganondorf unless it's through subtext. Wind Waker Ganondorf made such an impact because we learned something about him, how he was feeling, directly from his mouth. The other iterations of him, however, we can only infer what may have driven him to become the way he is. Even then nothing is explicitly confirmed even though the evidence seems rather damning. Ganondorf is set up to be ghoulishly evil. There is nothing you need to know about him save that he hungers for power and will destroy Hyrule if left unchecked. The narrative encourages the idea that light and darkness must coexist, that one derives power from the existence of the other, but it resists you the entire way when trying to see Ganondorf as anything other than an inhumane monster. If we look at TotK as an example, given it is the most recent entry, you the player are encouraged to see gods such as the Horned God in a more graceful light, and through Kotlin the player learns to appreciate monsters as living beings with their own special qualities that are worth appreciating. You are even permitted to mingle with the Yiga, to see what their day to day workings are when they are not directly confronting you. Ganondorf is not offered this sort of grace, however, even though he is a man. You can argue all you want about Ganondorf being "hatred incarnate" but when he is in the shell of a man, he will also behave like one. Zelda is supposed to be Hylia incarnate right, yet she is permitted to exhibit human traits but for some reason Ganondorf is not allowed to. Anyways, the point I'm trying to get at is this: I think that Ganondorf is painted the way he is because he did something that no one else successfully did; he resisted Hyrule. I think Ganondorf has been the only one outside of the favored people of Hyrule to not only brazenly mount an attack on Hyrule, resisting annexation, but successfully damage the country and its image as monarchy appointed by divine right that can be visited by no harm. However, given that the Gerudo did submit, it is clear that Ganondorf was eventually defeated so what to do now? How to erase this blemish on the pristine image of Hyrule? Paint the man who resisted as irredeemably evil that's what. Show, to subsequent generations, that those who fight against Hyrule's light will be shrouded in darkness and will be horrifically imprisoned or killed by a shining blade wielded by a beloved hero. Recount that you will be left alone, outside of the gods' favor. Just submit and everything will be fine.

#I am still on my demon king support kool aid folks #ganonthots

[tommykinard6]

I don't mean to pile onto your bad day but I've been seeing a lot of creators on tiktok complain/compare the bucktommy and henren tags/fic count on ao3 because there's almost more bucktommy fics then there are henren fics. The number one claim is always that bucktommy writers are racist because we don't write for henren. But like, that's not correct at all? People can write fanfiction for whatever they want to. If they want to see more henren stuff then they can write it on their own.

We can coexist without fighting each other. I'm just tired of people screaming about how bucktommy is anti this or anti that, when we're just vibing by ourselves and don't want the drama but the drama finds us anyway because Sucky People are loud and get heard the most.

You’re good, anon. It actually gave me something to think about during work.

As a quick disclaimer, before we begin, I’m not a POC. I am not speaking for anyone in the Black community and am not attempting to speak over them. My following thoughts are as a queer woman-ish who is also a writer.

I think it must be noted that Hen and Karen have been overlooked since day one. The fact that Buck coming out made it the “gay firefighter show” when we’ve had a beautiful canonical lesbian couple since the very beginning? Is only proof. Is this proof of racism in the fandom? Maybe. Quite possibly. I would argue that it comes from a misogynistic point as well.

If you look in any fandom, regardless of the color of their skin, any wlw ship is horribly overlooked. I’ve done some tag searching on ao3. Straight and mlm ships battle for dominance while there are canonical and fanonical wlw ships that have a drastic difference in numbers. This isn’t a good thing. But it’s an experience that spans fandoms.

I find it sad that BuckTommy has almost more fics, with only two episodes under their belt, than Henren with 7 seasons. However, this isn’t a reason to hate on BuckTommy. The ship didn’t do anything wrong. Comparison is the thief of joy and it’s also rage bait. I think that some creators simply are using anything they can to hate on BuckTommy. Which that makes it sadder, that they aren’t concerned about Henren other than pushing their own agenda.

This isn’t to say all creators who are speaking about this are doing this, but I guarantee some are.

Now, let me speak as a writer.

As someone with 62 published fics on ao3, I write almost exclusively mlm ships. This isn’t because I hate women. And as a queer woman-ish, don’t even start about homophobia. But for some reason, I find it so much easier to write men than I do to write women. This is true for straight and wlw ships and also just in general. I love Henren, but I don’t have the faintest idea about how to write them.

It’s hard enough to write as it is and I’m already writing on ships that are easy for me. I try to write women and it just hasn’t come out right. I want to challenge myself, branch out, and maybe I’ll write for Henren to do that. But I say all this to point out that for some people like me, writing some ships and demographics of ships are just a little more difficult.

That leads me into something else.

I, as a white person, worry about accidentally writing non-white characters wrong. And this was reinforced not too long ago when we had that whole thing on ao3 with deliberate racism in 9-1-1 fics. If anyone has resources or advice for writing non-white characters, I would love to hear that! The last thing I want to do is cause any harm.

I feel like I’ve spoken a lot about me, but that’s because I can’t really speak for anyone else. I can only speak from my experience.

We already have a ship war between BuckTommy and Buddie. We don’t need to pit more people against each other. I think we can love BuckTommy while agreeing that Henren needs to be seen and appreciated and treated equally.

End note to say: I tried to speak as delicately and as sensitively as I could, but if anything came out wrong, please feel free to point it out (kindly). Again, I speak for no one but my very little section of the world. I’m interested to hear what people of other backgrounds have to add!

#911 abc #911 show #9-1-1 #tommy kinard #bucktommy #evan buckley #lou ferrigno jr #911 season 7 #tk6 answers #oliver stark #henren #henrietta wilson #hen wilson #karen wilson

[mswyrr]

Things like prolonged abuse can give people very uneven social and emotional development. They can be very responsible and "mature for your age" in some areas and also very stunted and immature in others.

This can also happen for, say, LGBT people who were closeted during pivotal periods of development too, where dating and discovering themselves happens later and there can be a development gap for a time. And grief around never getting to be a kid when they were a kid can be a thing for people once they try to connect with the things they had to cut off because they weren't safe to feel them. I went through some of that myself, from various sources, so I have a lot of empathy for that and how absurd/frustrating it can be.

(And a lot of hope - it doesn't, as far as I've seen and experienced, take someone very long to "catch up" after a while of fumbling around like an idiot)

Anyway - sometimes I see people reading Carmy's "accidental fuckboi" behavior in terms of how a grown man who's been dating since he was a teen would be thinking/feeling, if he behaved like that. But, for me, I interpret that differently because of the “first” situation and the developmental stuff. IMO, he's basically being a feckless/inexperienced teenager dating for the first time here, because in this area of his life he is still developmentally a dumb feckless teenager (and one who is trying and failing "not to be shitty" without much of a clue what that looks like).

Doesn't make the harm less real, but the intent I think is shaped deeply by the fact that, for the first time in his life, he feels safe enough (because of how much responsibility Sydney and Nat are taking on and that is absolutely not fair to them!!) to try to enjoy things. And he thinks maybe he can even make that work with being responsible somehow, but... utterly clueless about how.

There's the caveat that he didn't go out and choose to start dating at this pivotal moment for the business - dating found him and there's complexities around how much he wanted it to find him right here and now and how much he feels obligated to be what his family/friends/Claire wants him to be. I think he'd have been able to turn down anyone who wasn't as deeply tied to his family as Claire, and I'm not ignoring his agency in the situation, but they chose to bring someone in who he'd find it incredibly difficult to balance pleasing/doing what he's expected to do by while balancing everything else for a reason.

The "executive function" stuff where he's staring at the calls coming in and unable to answer either of them is key for me, in terms of this being someone who just isn't functioning well rn at all and is coming to a real crisis point and trying to ignore that/salve that any way he can think of. Masking really hard and deep in denial and trying to keep a lot of plates spinning without being very intentional about any of it.

It leads to sucky behavior and he's responsible for that--and the other characters can and should hold him responsible for that, but especially for actually addressing the core gravity warping untreated mental illness that's motivating a lot of this frantic rushing around and being a prick-- but I don't personally see much of it as a crime of intent. Intent requires a level of insight and experience that he doesn't have in the area of dating specifically lol

That balance of someone being responsible for their actions but also, for various reasons, in a place that mitigates and shapes what they're able to do--based on the tools they have--is an interesting part of the story that gets touched on again and again through various characters. It's interesting and it can coexist with the people around someone having the right to protect their own peace and boundaries.

#carmen berzatto #sydcarmy #the bear meta #the bear #my meta #who among us was a model of perfect #insight and understanding #with the very first person they ever dated? #long post #i couldn't possibly hate or vilify claire - i am thankful to her #for being his first girlfriend #so sydney doesn't have to be and deal with that fumbling around bs! #lol #the writers chose to make claire his first ever girlfriend #for a reason #they chose to talk about #being emotionally/socially stunted due to abuse #and chose to have it be claire #in a normal life #claire would have been his high school girlfriend #but -- this is not a normal life #'you can never go back / and the answer is no' #'and wishing for it only makes it bleed' as tom waits put it

[rawliverandgoronspice]

The more time goes on, the more I think we (= westerners, especially white westerners) are just so fucking bad at guilt. I feel like guilt is among the most pernicious and dangerous emotions out there --not because guilt is literally deadly in isolation, it is an excruciating emotion but it will not kill you in itself, but because we have been trained to associate guilt with worthlessness (I partially blame christian values, the idea of impurity and sin --not to downplay, of course, the danger of a community judging you or being expelled from that community on the basis of being considered a danger to its other members due to the thing you've done that has been generating this guilt), and so we must, absolutely must, protect ourselves from simply feeling that guilt and processing its cold indifference washing over us, and we must do so through any means necessary. This can involve defensiveness, denial or reject of that guilt altogether so we are mentally protected from having to reevaluate ourselves and our place in the world, or can involve wallowing in and using it to self-harm --focusing on the pain and on self-hate rather than on what the guilt is telling us about ourselves and our heritage; blinding ourselves to it still in a twisted way.

I think it's also complicated to know how to manage guilt in a world where we're generally (as a whole) deeply powerless. It feels unfair to be called out about not doing enough when you know that pulling even mediocre heroics on your own will most definitively do almost nothing, hurt you, and be buried in a way that might be extremely unhelpul --not to mention, that it would actually hurt you in a very real and final way and lead to entirely thankless results, even if it was the morally correct thing to do. I do not want to pretend that it's not, very often, the results that awaits even serious and well-practiced activism --or even mild activism, major shoutout to everybody who got maimed or arrested or even killed on zero basis simply because they happened to be at or even near a protest, when they were not brutally attacked for no reason even outside of activism because an officer was racist or sexist or queerphobic or simply bored that day. There are genuinely good reasons to be scared.

So we feel guilt because of this fear, because of our isolation from any serious movement and the fact that we privilege our comfort over letting action taking over whatever else we have going on, and because fear and comfort knowingly keep us into inaction --or action that doesn't feel like enough, or that we feel doesn't achieve much of anything (which I think is never true: even giving someone a glimpse of hope for a second because we made an effort towards them is always always worth it in my opinion, it's not nothing and it's not a cop-out --of course it's not enough and we collectively need to find ways to do more, but it's not nothing and it should never discourage people from taking action --but I digress). But I think we start making a mistake when we point at this very real powerlessness as a shield from the guilt. Both can coexist. Both have to coexist. It isn't fair that some people are being forced to be courageous when we can afford to remain cowards. It is not even a moral judgement that condemn our souls forever, weakness is human and lack of individual reach against an overwhelmingly powerful and removed system even more so; it is a simple fact that we *have* to acknowledge if we want to take a clear look at the actual situation instead of camouflaging it behind self-justifying walls to give ourselves temporarily relief from that awful feeling. And I'm not saying it's not a constant effort, to keep those instincts of self-preservation at bay, or that some people don't have really good reasons that they cannot act more than through social media or miniscule donations or by talking about it around them, or being powerless to even do that without putting themselves into real and concrete danger --or that letting guilt in will be pleasant or even healing. It won't be. But it's also not the point.

Yeah, I get that it's hard to truly reckon with the fact that almost everything that made us (= westerners, especially white ones) is soaked with blood, imperialism, white supremacy, sexism, queerphobia, and a whole sweve of truly rancid ideologies that we cannot afford to passively accept as our lot. We were not given a choice in that legacy, and we don't have a ton of leverage over reorienting our haunted civilizations into something that isn't a horrible nightmare; but it is a fight that is happening right the fuck now.

I genuinely think guilt is a feeling we are not taught to handle in a healthy way; and because we have essentialist, pseudo-religious and punitive justice concepts terminally untangled with that feeling, guilt governs our politics and our private lives in the most rabid and unchecked way imaginable. But guilt will not kill us, unless we allow it to, and it will help literally nobody if it does. Guilt isn't evil in its soul-crushing pain as much as it is informative. Guilt is unbearable, unfliching clarity. But fever boils us alive because there is an infection that needs to be destroyed.

#thoughts #personal #not zelda #palestine #free palestine #guilt #cw self harm #(not graphic and really in passing) #sorry it's quite different than usual and it's a lot and I don't know if I'll agree with everything in five seconds #but I feel like we don't talk enough about the impact of guilt on our lives and psyches (and politics) #I am not great at guilt either (tho tbh I don't know many people who are) #but I'm trying to get better at simply... shutting up and Feeling It #I'm sure there's a way to face guilt that isn't destructive or self-pitying or generally useless #but I am.... I am so pessimistic about the future #not in a: let's all give up and cry but in a: we must fucking brace ourselves and look after one another #and put our foot in the sand right now because everything is unnacceptable and we need to acknowledge it much harder #if we let it fester it will only get uglier and uglier #and it doesn't mean we won't win or that hope isn't an absolutely essential component to it all #I am ultimately optimistic that there is an After to capitalism and imperialism and that brand of self-centered preservation and brutality #and this general oozing of toxic and unprocessed guilt #But #let's say that we'll all have to lead our own fights against it at some point #and I think that time should be right now #tl;dr imo there's no hope for justice and genuine resistance without facing guilt and resisting the urge to deny or fret against its ache #which doesn't have to equate with allowing guilt to rule us and use it as a tool of self-torment #anywayyyyy #saw a LOT of very weird reactions to the gaza genocide in my personal circles #some that really disappointed me even though they came from people I know to be better than this #so #yeah

[heliads]

Male reader x Scott where the reader confronts Scott on his savior complex and asks him why he keeps throwing himself in danger to protect everyone

scott mccall you will always be my favorite

masterlist

It is nighttime in Beacon Hills, and once again, you are about to die. This is the sort of surprised realization that should have left you long ago, same with the self preservation instinct that seems to have been burned out of everybody else after one too many trials of fire. Beacon Hills will always be dark, deadly, and full of too many people and monsters who wish you harm. 

In your defense, this sort of thing used to scare you a lot more than it does now. Death is made of scared children, bloodthirsty adults, all the creatures and humans who wish you harm. It is also something you see on a daily basis. Both facts can coexist, and they do, better even than the supernaturals and men in your own hometown.

You are lost in the woods and someone is chasing you. It is not a nightmare, even if this story seems too familiar to be anything but a vision from your own head. Your nightmares stopped being mere twisted fantasies the moment one of your closest friends, Scott McCall, told you that he was bitten by something strange in the woods many years ago. Everything since then has been all too dreadful a reality.

Twigs are snapping under your feet as you sprint towards your best guess at the end of the trees. The Beacon Hills Preserve has a way of guiding you back to it time and time again. Perhaps that’s because of the Nemeton lurking somewhere in the dense underbrush, using its supernatural strength to cause all problems to be rooted here along with it. Perhaps it’s just because the woods have far fewer chances for its victims to escape. Either way, you’re here, and so is your would-be killer.

This time, you’re not being pursued by a supernatural but a regular person, just like you. Lydia Martin predicted that there would be an important gathering of the hunters some time soon, that Gerard Argent would whip everyone up into a frothing frenzy just like he always does and set them loose on whatever werewolf or banshee or chimera was in their way. Someone would have to go and get some intel, and, seeing as you’re one of the few regular people in your friend group, you volunteered to do it.

It’s not like this was anything new. These sorts of opportunities tend to crop up every month or two, providing you with a fresh chance to risk your neck. You never enjoy the ever increasing likelihood that you’re not going to make it out alive, but what has to be done must be done. Your reluctance is important to guide your conscience, but it cannot control you, no matter how strong a voice it can have.

That cannot be said for every member of your pack. Scott himself is the one who’s most out of control in that aspect. Scott, the bravest man you’ve ever had the privilege of meeting, the one who would lay it all on the line to protect a stranger. Scott, whose need to save the day will get him killed sooner rather than later. Scott, who knows that and jumps wholeheartedly into danger anyway.

In the end, that’s the main reason why you agreed to go spy on the hunter encampment:  you knew that Scott would try to do the same thing if you didn’t. Despite the fact that a werewolf encroaching on so many hunters would basically be suicide, as there would be enough wolfsbane and other traps that they would smell him coming away even without supernatural senses, Scott would do it in a heartbeat if he thought going would protect his friends.

He had half a mind to do it anyway, you only just managed to talk him out of it. Lydia announced her latest vision at the weekly pack meeting, casually bringing it up as she reached for one of the cookies Melissa McCall had left out as an apology that so many members of her generation were trying to kill you. In between powdered sugar bites, your resident banshee told you how you were all going to die if you didn’t figure out what was going on.

Lydia may have grown accustomed to her visions, but the rest of you were less accepting of that fact. Lydia doesn’t want you all dead, of course, she fights just as hard as the rest of you to stop that fate, but Lydia sees your deaths all the time. You’ll only see it once, and then you won’t see anything at all.

So Scott had volunteered to run the espionage trip. Of course he did; it was the latest chance for him to show off his heroism and save the day. Scott doesn’t do it for a purposeful ego trip, he’s too damn good for that, but that didn’t stop your hackles from rising any more than if he’d done it intentionally.

“No,” you’d argued, “that’s a terrible idea and you know it. The hunters are used to spotting wolves. They’ll kill you before you can even hear them say hello.”

Scott had folded his arms across his chest. “Do you have a better idea?” He’d asked, unable to keep a small touch of resentment from his voice.

“I do,” you’d answered calmly, “I’ll go.”

That had upset Scott even more than being robbed of a chance to protect his friends. You’re human, after all, unable to heal yourself or fight like a supernatural, like Scott. Despite his best arguments, though, the rest of your friends saw your side of the argument more clearly, and Scott eventually had his complaints drift off into empty silence, curling up the ceiling like too many coils of smoke.

He’d apologized to you after. He always knows the right time to say the right things. You have a habit of lingering in the McCall kitchen after pack meetings, waiting for everyone else to go so you and Scott can have a secret debrief without anyone watching. The pack is made up of your best friends, your family, but Scott is something more than that. Neither of you are willing to call it what it is, so you let the comfortable stillness of dropping used glasses in the dishwasher and cleaning up someone else’s mess do the talking for you.

“I trust you,” Scott had said as he swept unused napkins off of the table, “you know that, right? This isn’t about that. I know you can do this.”

“I know,” you’d replied, “you don’t have to fight every fight, Scott. Let us do some of the fighting too.”

“I don’t want you to fight,” he’d mused, “I can take more punches, remember?”

You’d rolled your eyes fondly as he pretended to settle into a boxing stance. “How could I forget? You’re out challenging the hunters almost every other day.”

Scott grimaces slightly, hand drifting unconsciously to a spot on his side that must have gotten injured the other day. His ailments may heal themselves within moments, but that doesn’t stop the memory of the pain from lingering.

“That just means I need to stay in practice. I don’t want you getting hurt, Y/N.”

You know better than to say that you won’t get hurt, that’s impossible. Instead, you smile, and let the dim half-light of Scott’s kitchen wash over you in waves of buzzing fixtures and the lingering scent of vanilla extract. “I’ll try my hardest.”

Trying, that’s what you do best. Not succeeding. If you had truly succeeded with your goal of avoiding injury, you wouldn’t be sprinting through the forest as fast as you can, cursing your legs for feeling like they’re going to give out at any second. Lydia’s vision had been true, there was a hunter conference, but she failed to see the exact setup of the event.

Another group of hunters had come as you were settling into a lookout position. They’d wanted to know why some kid was hanging around the premises, which had caught the attention of Gerard Argent. He’d recognized you instantly as one of Scott’s friends and sounded the alarm. Now you’re being pursued by a good many hunters, all freshly armed and full of righteous anti-supernatural propaganda. You’re not a supernatural yourself, but you’re allied with them, and that makes you as good as dead to the bloodthirsty crowd currently chasing you.

They’re closing the gap, too. You’d gotten a decent head start, but against these sorts of numbers, there’s only so much you can do. Unable to keep up the energy any longer, you duck behind a tree, gasping for air through exhausted lungs. It’s pitch black outside, and although your eyes have been adjusting for some time now, you can still barely make out anything beyond a few feet of trees. The dense branches above block out any hopeful tendrils of light that would have otherwise made it down from the stars.

The sound of crashing approaches as the hunters gain on you. You need to start running again, but your chest is heaving so hard you think your ribs might shatter. Just as you’re about to force yourself to get going, though, you hear something else. Something different from what you’d been hearing all this time. Something that sounds like a scream.

You pause a moment, wavering on lifted feet, then the scream comes again. It sounds like it’s from someone else, a different victim than before. The screams start to multiply in number, faster and stronger and drawing ever closer. You hear the hunters calling out to fall back, and only once the running starts to turn in the opposite direction do you dare look out from behind your make-do shelter.

Instead of many silhouettes coming towards you now, there’s only one. You don’t have it in you to be afraid, however; you know this boy, you know him better than anyone.

“Scott,” you breathe.

It’s him. Of course it is. As if Scott would ever pass up the chance to be a hero. As if he would ever be able to live with himself if something happened to you.

You walk over to him, ready to do who knows what, probably chastise him for coming out here or make fun of the hunters, but all words fail you when Scott stumbles once, twice, then collapses on the ground.

You’re next to him in an instant, kneeling on the packed forest floor, heedless of the pinecones and twigs digging into your legs.

“Scott. Scott?” Your voice sounds more desperate the longer Scott takes to respond.

He does so at last, indulging in a painful groan that ends with him coughing up some blood. You still can’t see all that well, so you fumble for your phone and hurry to turn on the flashlight. Scott winces at the sudden onset of light, raising a hand to block his eyes, but you’ve already seen far more damage than you’d like. Scott is covered in cuts, scrapes, arrow wounds, every possible ailment that could befall him.

You curse and douse the light. Scott must be able to sense your horror, because he chuckles quietly in the gloom. “I take it I look just as good as always?”

You shake your head slowly, chilled. “You can’t keep doing this. You can’t.”

“Of course I can,” Scott says weakly.

“No,” you argue, “you’re going to end up dead, and for what? So you could show the hunters up one more time? It’s not worth it. I don’t know why you keep feeling the need to save us all every single day, but it’s killing you. What could possibly make it worth it?”

“You,” Scott whispers through broken and bloody lips, “that’s why. You were hurt. I needed to stop it.”

It makes you sick to your stomach to think that Scott is bleeding out because of you. “That’s not a good enough reason.”

“It is to me,” he says, “always has been.”

You know why. He does too. The two of you have always been rather good at dancing around your feelings, and you’ll do so now. Maybe this is the closest you’ll ever come to a confession, maybe you’ll manage something a little better once you’re certain that Scott is going to pull through. Either way, you take his hand and hold it until he squeezes back. It doesn’t take long. He’s always been a little too eager to please you. That means something, too.

“Just come home with me,” you choke out, “you owe me that much.”

Scott chuckles. “Was saving your life not enough?”

“Not if you’re not here to live it with me,” you declare.

That makes him pause. You get the feeling that Scott had accepted his fate already, that so long as you got out, to hell with him, but you aren’t going to let that happen. It’s both of you or none of you, and so you tell him yourself.

This, at last, is enough to make Scott try again. He sits up slowly, stands with your help. It isn’t easy, getting both of you out of the woods and into civilization. Scott leans on you the whole way back, and stays by your side the whole night, his head tucked against your shoulder. It wasn’t entirely due to injury, however. Scott has always been a fast healer.

teen wolf tag list: @thatfangirl42, @rogueanschel, @lovesanimals0000, @rafecameronswhore, @bellabadacadabra, @watchreadfangirlrepeat, @23victoria

#scott mccall #scott mccall imagines #scott mccall x reader #scott mccall oneshot #teen wolf #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf x reader #teen wolf oneshot #teen wolf scott #teen wolf scott imagines #teen wolf scott x reader #teen wolf scott oneshot

[thegirlking]

The reality of leaving a toxic family and why I’ll always sympathize with Bruno’s decision.

Just finished my third rewatch of Encanto (mostly because I hadn’t watched it with Bulgarian dub but anyway), and it reminded me once again why I relate to Bruno’s character so much.

Because I have very real, personal experience with distancing myself from a dysfunctional family and a toxic parent in particular, so his situation hits a little too close to home.

So, here’s a few thoughts on Bruno’s situation and why it actually mirrors plenty of real people’s experience (including mine).

Let’s get one thing out first: the movie itself does not really frame his decision as leaving a toxic family situation, but rather as a kind of sacrifice he had to do to protect Mirabel from the prophecy – but that’s a very surface reading of it. In reality, no child should need any “protection” from their literal family and there’s something very wrong with that family if that’s the case. The fact Bruno felt he couldn’t trust his own mother with the prophecy, the fact he was certain everyone will assume the worst of it and feared the consequences it could have for Mirabel, is a massive red flag that he was in some kind of toxic situation.

And no, I don’t mean that he was openly mistreated by anyone – let me elaborate.

Love, toxicity and more – are you “abused enough” to justify making such an extreme decision?

In general, there is still a lot of stigma about leaving your family – the intensity of that stigma greatly varies by culture, of course. But there’s a certain idea of what’s an acceptable situation that requires cutting contact, usually when we talk about pretty extreme cases of abuse (and even then some people can be unsympathetic about it).

When we talk about a purely dysfunctional family, rather than a flat out abusive one, things get a lot more complicated. You could very well feel you don’t have it “bad enough”. You might convince yourself that you are being too sensitive for being hurt, that you are being selfish for wanting to leave. They are your family and they love you after all. Right?

Unfortunately, love and toxic behavior are not something mutually exclusive. That’s something people in general still struggle to understand and it’s a very harmful misconception. It’s very common excuse people make for their behavior, especially in case of familial relationships, that they can’t possibly be toxic to someone if they love them. It’s also something that prevents people from recognizing that they are in a toxic situation.

In Bruno’s case, even though we don’t have a full detailed context and backstory about his life before leaving, I tend to assume he wasn’t viciously abused by his mother or flat out mistreated by anyone else. See, I’m not one of those people who demonize Alma or the Madrigal family in general – of course they aren’t some kind of monsters and they love each other despite everything, I’m sure they actually loved Bruno. But as I said, love can coexist with toxicity. 

Ultimately, my point is - the fact Bruno was loved and not flat out abused by his family also doesn’t mean the situation can’t be toxic and harmful to his mental health. There are very serious red flags (both within the actual movie canon and additional information from the creators) that his situation was indeed bad. It’s clear he had already been isolating himself from the family for a while, that things were like that for years and nothing ever improved. This kind of environment is definitely unhealthy enough to cause someone to walk away.

Leaving isn’t easy and it isn’t pretty – people are going to be hurt

Now, let’s address one common argument about why what Bruno did was wrong – he left suddenly without any explanation, without as much as a note, and that was a seriously hurtful thing to do, especially for his sisters.  

I don’t disagree with this sentiment at all. Of course, the way he handled things was far from ideal and the family is also allowed to be hurt by it. And still, I don’t exactly condemn him for it. What he did may not be the "right" way to handle things, but it’s very realistic.

Leaving a dysfunctional family isn’t some kind of a wholesome affair where they pat you on the back and throw you a farewell party. A lot of people will prefer to cut off contact over time without properly talking things out, usually because they fear the backlash, don’t want to see the hurt reactions, and don’t want to hear the harsh words that would inevitably be exchanged. Having a direct confrontation with a toxic family about cutting ties with them can become very rough and even escalate a toxic situation into something far worse.

Going back to Encanto - curiously, we have an actual proof that things could have gotten very ugly if Bruno tried to confront Alma before leaving – you know that cut scene from the early development of the movie? The one called “Chores”, where we get to hear about the tense exchange Alma had with Bruno (named Oscar back then) before he left and what they said to each other? Sure, this exchange is very far from canon, but it does show what could have potentially went down.

Furthermore – does the hurt you cause by leaving erase the hurt caused to you?

Continuing from my last point. The family was undoubtedly hurt by Bruno’s decision to leave. That would still have been the case even if he handled things better.

Of course, when there’s still love present in the family, despite the toxicity, the family is not going to want you gone and would be naturally hurt by such a decision.

That’s exactly why it’s so difficult to make the decision - because you don’t want to hurt those people you actually still love. That’s why when you actually make the decision you might feel enormous guilt and shame about it. You might feel selfish, cruel and ungrateful. You might begin to question your own reality and your whole past experience. And you can definitely see that guilt in Bruno too, especially during his reunion with the family in the end – his nervous body language and rush to apologize (without expecting the same in return) speaks volumes and is frankly a little sad to watch.

The family's hurt is valid and justified, I'm not denying it - that also doesn't mean Bruno was somehow the bad guy who selfishly and heartlessly abandoned them. And it certainly doean't mean the hurt he caused them erases his own hurt and trauma. While such extreme criticism of his actions is thankfully uncommon, I do see some discussions that go into such direction and it rubs me the wrong way, because it feeds into the stigma about walking away from your family and it's just insensitive and potentially hurtful to real people's experience and trauma.

So, in conclusion, here’s the very harsh truth. Sometimes you need to prioritize yourself and your own well-being. Life is not a Disney movie after all and sometimes toxic relationships can’t be properly repaired, not even with your own parents. And the fact you are going to hurt someone by leaving does not mean the hurt they caused you (intentionally or not) no longer matters.

#bruno madrigal #encanto #encanto meta #encanto thoughts #my meta #long post #/abuse mention #I don't know if people are still interested in Encanto discourse in 2023 #but I just feel strongly about all of this

[brujitaadinbo]

I am happy and a little nervous to start here. English is not something I master, so please let's go slowly. If you don't understand something, you can ask before anything.

I have a lot to say and I hope to gather more friends than anything else. I am open to dialogue but I repeat, insulting is not an argument and you leave. I have seen how Duo Din and Bo katan have coexisted during these seasons; I never expected that this interaction would deepen from the fact of giving each other the opportunity to open up and get to know each other.

I don't deny that at first I didn't see something between them; because I was more distracted by the action of the series and the euphoria. But my opinion completely changed in the season 3 finale.

When I saw how Grogu protected his father and in that process, I included Bo (and I'm not saying that he saw her as a mother but he saw the need to protect her, feeling her closer and part of him) So I change my perspective to this season.

I had to rewatch the series several times, hahaha I'm not lying and it makes me laugh but I did it. Then I started to see those little details between Din and Bo katan. Certain parallels and how hatred came to be appreciated. Since there were signs of flirting, he added verbal and body language, non-verbal language, approaches and even the dialogues, the music. A way to pair them, but not as a cliché couple, as they always portray us. With that cliché romance that always repeats itself; no no

Here they were giving things a process, this type of relationship in which both come wounded, with doubts, with traumas, something that must be slow because if not, it won't end up cooking. And living in a world like the one we live in, where survival is substantial, it is very likely that you empathize with them, understand them and understand how they have done what they have done and how they walk hand in hand.

I do not want to come to talk for the sake of talking and I will try to take all the visible and documented elements to show that indeed; There was no romance as such in this season between them, but there were romantic overtones, there was subtle interaction of this type between them, so much so that Grogu realized that something in Bo was changing. Being sensitive in those aspects, come on, that cannot be hidden from the child.

I have also seen how because of all this, toxic fandom and harmful people have given themselves the right to criticize, mock and attack. I understand it's Star Wars, without generalizing, don't expect many to understand or be mature or allow themselves to question or see beyond their own very personal visions and tastes.

But as I say; Your tastes are clouding the panorama or denying a palpable reality just because something is not to your liking and attacking it. More than sad, it's pathetic. Although anything can happen in The Mandalorian and no one can deny it, if we talk about possibilities, then I tell you, the possibility of something healthy developing is there!!! among them like so many ships from other SW content and clearly those little messages have been there for a reason.

"You don't talk about what you don't know" I love that Din said that. Because if you do not take the time to objectively question this union, to see the content again, you will continue in that ignorance of the elements, which is not just me (because it is not just my opinion, I base it on other aspects) Many others

I would like SW to understand that it is not just a bias of the population or of a certain country that has fans or fandoms about its content. We must give priority to everyone, this is a global phenomenon, seen in many places. And although the program has a family focus, nothing is an obstacle for them to show that no matter what it is, who it is, feelings and emotions are also valid and allow us to surround ourselves with positive people, becoming someone better for those who little by little have entered our hearts. No matter how badass, how Mandalorian, or where you want to be from. No matter the conflict or situation you are going through. Star Wars is based on human emotions and love is not left out of this.

are proving it and they only come to silence them.

#the mandalorian #bo katan x din #dinbo #this is the way #bokadin

[lightandfellowship]

The conflict was planned. Sort of.

A theory I've had bouncing around in my head for a while that I haven't talked about yet: what if Darkness intentionally had Baldr and Hoder turn on each other in front of Xehanort as a means of providing visible proof for the "them vs. us" narrative that it pushes on Xehanort shortly thereafter?

Not to say that I think Darkness orchestrated that whole thing, I think the underlying tension in Baldr and Hoder's sibling relationship is genuine, I just think it was betting on/hoping that the siblings would fail to negotiate as part of it's plan to manipulate Xehanort. It may have even manipulated Baldr's emotions so that he was more paranoid of his sister than he otherwise would've been, if you consider what Odin says here:

In fact, when Hoder drops her Keyblade and reaches out to Baldr (something I'll talk about in more depth in a future post) and Baldr begins to reach out to her as well, Darkness quickly consumes Baldr, prevents them from making contact, and then says this (seemingly to Baldr) right before trying to attack Hoder again:

It's possible that the siblings would have actually stopped fighting right then and there if Darkness hadn't intervened (because it wants them to fight for the sake of its plan, obviously).

Like, for whatever reason Darkness wants Xehanort to go down his path of villainy (it may have something to do with the contents of the Book), and convincing Xehanort of the "them vs. us" thing is crucial to that. And Xehanort naturally is the type of person who won't believe something unless you provide substantial evidence first, so Baldr and Hoder, a brother of darkness and a sister of light, trying to kill each other right in front of him was the perfect piece of evidence for "proving" that light and darkness can not and will never coexist under these conditions. There is something fundamentally wrong with the universe in its current unbalanced state, a conflict that is carved into the DNA of this world, and the only way to fix it? Throw it all away and start from the beginning with Kingdom Hearts, of course. Or at least that's what Darkness is trying to convince Xehanort of, I think.

I think Darkness and the MoM are also trying to make Xehanort think that love is false/useless/actually harmful. Because if two siblings who love each other can still end up at each other's throats, all just because of the conflict between light and darkness, then clearly light and darkness are doomed to be locked in a terrible, endless battle that not even love can put a stop to, right? Love isn't enough, claims Darkness. Love is really just a false light, claims the MoM. Abandon the idea that love is a force powerful enough to save people--it didn't save your friends, now did it? It didn't prevent a brother and sister from trying to kill each other, did it? Become detached and cynical and ruthless instead, they cry. It's the only way to end the cycle, Xehanort!

#khdr #kingdom hearts dark road #kingdom hearts #kh baldr #kh hoder #xehanort #rambling about dim path #ch tag: bal #ch tag: hod #ch tag: xeh #khdr spoilers

[the-crimson]

Ok ive read many takes on both sides and gathered my thoughts on the whole Dream vs Quackity war in reguards to his tweet.

Dream should not have made this tweet. The entire way he presented the tweet was intentionally written to stir up drama and anger within his fans. Adding a “don’t harass anyone uwu” at the end does nothing to placate the anger he deliberately stirred within his fans. He created this tweet to elicit a negative response from the fan base to force Quackity to respond. It’s immature and irresponsible considering how massive both of their fan bases are.

80% of his tweet was personal information that has zero purpose being in this tweet other than to stir emotion and rage. He cold have literally just said:

 “I’ve been trying to talk to Quackity about our SMPs so that they can coexist and be unique from each other but he hasn’t responded. I don’t want there to be any conflict between our two servers or fan bases and the sooner we work this out the better.”

And even then, he would still be using social pressure to get Quackity to respond - which is not how the situation should be handled - but it gets the exact same message across without all the emotional manipulation.

Quackity’s silence in regards to the USMP and the lack of leadership he’s shown with the QSMP is also making the situation worse. This drama has been building for literal weeks and Quackity has not addressed it or taken steps to prevent it.

First, his refusal to acknowledge the USMP at all caused his fans to lash out at Dream for being a copycat (i don’t have an opinion whether or not this is true, i don’t have enough information, but their reaction was completely inappropriate regardless) which caused a huge schism in the fandom over literally something that could have been prevented with a single tweet or retweet.

Then, Quackity does the bare minimum of removing a racist mod but doesn’t hold any of the cc’s accountable for how they interacted with the mod and doesn’t address the fact that the mod caused harm within his community. Many fans rally behind this silence and deny that the mod was racist at all which alienated even more people in the fandom. Quackity needed to address these fans and the growing toxicity within his fan base as the leader of this fandom he created but he didn’t

And now we are brought to the current storm. Dream fans and some neutral parties are whipped up by his intentionally pathos heavy tweet and pitted against fans who have blind loyalty to Quackity. Unstoppable force vs immovable object. And all the neutral parties in the middle being drowned in the drama.

This is an entirely avoidable situation and both Quackity and Dream played a part in making it worse. Both fandoms need to seriously go outside and touch some grass. Dram stans and Quackity stans are equally toxic and terrible and yall need a serious reality check.

You don’t know Quackity or Dream. They are not your friends. You are literal pawns in their personal conflict. Wake up.

#qsmp #dreamwastaken #quackity #negative #discorse #stans are the literal worst #they are so blindly devoted #on BOTH sides #Dream is just a dude #Quackity is just a dude #they both have an immense amount of power #that neitehr of them know how what to do with #i dont think most people understand how complicated having that kind of power is #silence means just as much as words #everything you say or dont say has in impact when your audience is literally millions of people #and neitehr dream nor quackity seem to understand that #or care

[katyspersonal]

If I had a nickel for every time a person that quite seriously helped with public slandering and humiliating me for fake ass reasons, supported drastically ableist stance on me and took the side of my stalker (that also I remind you bullied other fans for headcanons) then got upset and "insulted" at the fact that I vented about how much they hurt me and my friends, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but what the actual fuck.

Like... Maybe consider not spyoning on a blog of a person that "makes you uncomfy"? You will be happier if you don't check up on things and people you hate, seriously. And if you do, why you act so shocked that I express my pain and disapproval of your actions and mindset, the very same that hurt me and my friends? In fact, why DOES it hurt you to learn what I think and feel after your words and actions? Why do you CARE about feelings and opinion of a person you despise and disrespect so much that you deemed them worthy of all this, and even their friends deserve to be hurt by association? Like... NOW you consider my feelings? Of course I fucking disapprove of backstabbing me and my friends after over month of pretending to forgive me. Of course I fucking disapprove admission that you are willing to help slandering and humiliating a person that you were not even scared and hurt by. I wrongly assumed that if you hated me that much, I must have actually done something wrong, but now I know I still didn't because you admitted that you were willing to harm someone and even shun their friends without even as much as hard feelings, because they are a "heretic"?

Is what hurts that I had very high opinion on you and then flipped on a dime when something drastic came out? But isn't it the same way for you? Didn't you both like my blog and thought I was cool and then one day it was over? I think it is safe to assume that unfortunately it can work like that. And everything can be fixed and worked into neutrality and 'cold peace' coexistence, but you don't want that. You'd rather keep getting upset and self-isolate from everyone that likes my company, or isolate them from me, so this hole just keeps growing and growing and all good things that could have been keep falling into it. Or you really expect me to leave just because of all this? When I was a kid and a teen and a bit of a young adult, I've dealed with bullying to the point of having literal stones thrown into me, and never once I avoided the places where it was happening. Because it made no logical sense that some jerks could decide who belongs or not belongs in a place that is for everyone. I tried to enjoy my time anyway. I was not, listening and enduring all that, but I tried. Sometimes I'd get really bad for me and I'd snap and fight back, and I remember they were scared when I did because anger of cornered rat is a terrifying thing you know? One time it got especially bad with one of them and I snatched the bat from her hands and smacked HER over the face, worse than she hurt me but I've had enough. Then finally adults bothered to get involved, and what I received from the bullies was "but why didn't she just leave this area? :(" Why the question is "why won't you go away?" instead of "why I feel entitled to bully out a person that didn't even do anything bad to me but just makes me uncomfy with not being like us?"

In the end, I walked a full circle. Some autists just have a power of bringing out the worst in people with how much they don't understand unspoken social cues, cultural rifts, even the language and semantics often times. I have a friend with similar problem, he had a bad luck of using combination of words that make people go blind from rage without meaning to, and you find out he actually made a perfect logical sense after talking to him for context and reasoning. I thought it was a curse, but it is a blessing. I decided I will never fix what is "wrong" with me, if it really helped to separate fakers from real ones in such a short time. Without it, I'd be friends with traitors, cowards, bullies, fools, conformists and stalkers. And the worst part, I would not ever learn it.

Yet again: you are NOT harmed by me venting in MY blog about how I was hurt by your words and actions. If you two were okay with slander and public humiliation of someone and their friends, sure you must be okay with someone venting about actual harm. Or else you have double standards. You are not supposed to care about what I think about you either, you are supposed to crawl into your Discord groups to share screenshots of my posts and mock me there for "being so butthurt" like your kind of people always does. And if you do not want me to hold grudges, you've had enough chances to neutralize me. I was not having you blocked for a good reason. But you chose to keep throwing stones. Too bad for you, I've been trained for this shit, when your spoiled soft asses cry harm and trauma over a single slightly negative experience. Heck, over even reading something you don't like!

Here is a thing: I do not namedrop you. I only namedropped two people when it was relevant, and only because they made themselves public first so I didn't "out" them. And if some people read "he reblogged posts bullying me 50 times too often and was too eager to hate on me, like to the point it was scary" and instantly think of you, then consider what reputation you have. Why? Why? Why you'd throw me (and. my. FRIENDS.) to the wolves and then get angry that I react? Tell me why! It is your problem that you are willing to harm people willy-nilly without considering their feelings or bothering to actually learn whether they deserve stalking and bullying and their friends getting collateral damage, and in the end you don't even have the honor to be genuinely mad and scared as your motivation for it. It is """not personal""". So getting unhealthy obsession with helping slandering me was "not personal"? So acting oh-so-supportive towards my friend who got to talk about her identity and then instantly dropping her upon learning she was interacting with me, after previously having been thankful to her for being one of the first to support YOU, was "not personal"? And the worst thing, I believe it. This is just your Tiktok generation of cruel, overly-judgemental people. You did not get to learn about real life and real relationship and real complexities, and you never will. And I was such a fool doubting myself thinking that you were scared of me.

So tell me why. Tell me why NOW you care what I think of you? Why you care that I vent in MY blog, without namedropping? Why you care what I say and feel if I am nothing but a name of "heretic" to block and pass along for you, a person you don't know and don't think has feelings and nuance worthy of considering before mistreating? Why do you CARE about my opinion? Is this because I effects your self-image? But I am just a stupid bigot in your eyes, so how can my opinion have any power or credibility for you? Are you scared that people will find out? But I do not namedrop! Are you upset that "I don't know you" to say such things? But you do not know ME, and yet that didn't stop you from accepting and helping to spread extremely hateful and uncharitable headcanons about my personality, beliefs and motives your friends crafted, so clearly you are okay with "saying things"? Why? TELL ME WHY! Tell me how it is supposed to hurt you, because it does NOT! The worst I can do is to yell at you and run away crying, and I didn't even do THAT!

Unless I just did, because yet again you decided to sneak around and check my blog. Dude, you hate acknowledging my existence to you point of abandoning mutuals that answer my asks, so why would you check my blog? Just don't do that? Just not check it? There were 4 coincidences about your art that made me think that you were snooping on my content, I am helpful with the lore I know, and took some stuff for inspiration, and one time was passively-aggressive about how I drew a certain female character. But I've got a relief that no, they were all coincidences, and you were not stalking me. So now I have to worry about it again? So I should give into my paranoia, because there was a reason in the end?

Just go away, okay? Just go away. The alter that grew from guilt and pain, and admiration, that you've triggered, is dead, anyhow. It was painful and felt like getting the whole entirety erased and written again, but it's done, so you don't have to worry about it either. Just not sneak on a person you dislike, because, again, me venting without namedropping won't effect you, nor you should care what "just another heretic" thinks. I am not a human for people like you, after all your drama-hungry kind does, and stop pretending that I am. My friends aren't either, they are just "traitors" that refuse to cooperate for your group, and I hate every single conformist bastard that blocked them by association. Not you, them. I won't have a gaslighting of "it is not us vs them!!!!" when actions speak louder than words, and all effected people know what they did.

So far I do not have an incentive to stop digging myself deeper into a hole of "wronged intellectual" self-image, which is a bold claim for someone with quite large intellectual disability as myself, I know. But none of this makes any sense, and doubting that maybe I just don't get something about people availed me nothing. I do get it, society IS just as bad as it seems, deny it or not.

#/vent #I am sorry if I've lost the train of thought I just started shaking from crying while writing #and then it just was kinda gone #I need a drink /srs #yes I know it is not healthy coping mechanism but I am tired #I can't escape the loop of 'why the fuck are you VOCAL about the pain and harm we caused you?' #I just wish I was not born into a world that stands on this #it is not just here its always been this way. and I mean ALWAYS. #humans dont change #I tried to blame culture I try to blame time and generation but no. humans are JUST like this. #there is no reason or story.

[emophilzablr]

Here she is, BPD analysis.

— Disclaimer: I am not a professional, I did study psychology for most of my life and my credentials to this is simply the fact that I am BPD as well. I also want to highlight that these symptoms can also be AUTISM! And that maybe that is even more relatable to him, though, you can have both, because they really tend to coexist

Here are the symptoms of BPD, and either if he shows them or not, or if its believed he does. Remembering you don't need to have all of them, you need to fit the criteria, of some specific ones, that differentiate BPD from disorders like Bipolar and depression, and they all overlap with Autism which causes a confusion in diagnosis.

• Fear of rejection and abandonment: He keeps count of every time he was rejected, his biggest struggle in life was with the fact that Amelia rejected him, replaced him, and abandoned him, he has been in the loop of this trauma for years, it never leaves him, because that's his biggest fear coming true. His fear of boringness or of being mediocre is also in this, he wants to overcompensate so people don't reject or leave him again. Also, this symptom comes with a pattern that is very very common in this symptom, leaving first, losing interest after the chase, people with BPD leave first to not get abandoned.

• Intense and unstable relationships: We know that his romantic relationships are always like this, incredibly intense at first and then it dies out or they leave or he leaves, and they tend to be unstable while it was happening, especially with Amelia, it was incredibly unstable and toxic for both.

• 8/80 relationships, going from intense love to nothing or to hatred: It seems like most of them have this, a big start, and a terrible ending, either it going to nothing or strong resentment (Amelia's case) It also has a part of this not talked, that after this hatred passes, BPD people tend to come back, and, blame themselves which well, next symptom.

• Villain complex: Most BPD people experience this, seeing themselves as absolute horrible monsters, most of his songs make him the villain, he really highlights like hey i'm a horrible person, and this is very, very common. I think funnily enough, C!Wilbur is a perfect demonstration of this part of him, it's a self insert of the Villain he makes himself to be.

• Constant changes in personality: We have seen this, even as a streamer, in a place he was never truly himself, he's always changing completely who he is, even though it's a character. I also feel that the fact that he has so many characters that are all clearly self inserts is a way to express this self image issue he has, going on a limb here but you get it. He also seems to struggle with his appearance and self image and tends to become a sponge when with others.

• Impulsive behavior: So this is many factors, getting from the internet straight up “Impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success by suddenly quitting a good job or ending a positive relationship” He does a bunch of those, he did have a problem with abusing alcohol, most of us believe he did that with coke as well, we know that he impulsively drops all his responsibilities and doesn't keep up his promises, that he's constantly moving, constantly dropping and then coming back to it, that he can be super excited for something and then suddenly not be anymore, he's always ruining his relationships even though some of them are good just because he found something more exciting. He has binge eaten too but I don't know if that is something he always does.

• Self harm/Suicidal tendencies: He shows few of these, some of his songs imply that he was in a mental state that this could happen, what we know is that he did punch a window, accidentally he says, but we don't know, I think his form of self harm is self sabotage.

• Paranoia: This is something that is not spoken much about BPD but I think even his hypochondria could be a symptom since BPD is very prone to paranoia, and his is based on his health, he thinks he's dying literally all the time, that he's sick and that he has something, this is pure paranoid behavior.

• Mood swings: We don't know if he has many, we do know he has Bipolar signs in this, expressing more stages of depression and mania, but he also has constant anxiety problems, which can all be part of this symptom in specific.

• Emptiness: Another one that is incredibly necessary, and we know this is his main affliction most times, he feels apathetic all the fucking time, it's his favorite word in music, he shows this idea that he's incapable of loving too that is part of this emptiness, he thinks he doesn't feel anything because there's nothing inside him type of thing.

• Anger: This is inconclusive, it is to believe that when he was younger he was a very angry person, we don't know if that's still there, but, we know it was a problem at some point.

#emophilza nation #critblr #charlie speaks #charlie psychoanalysis #bpd #the infamous bpd analysis #he might be autistic tho #he is not npd btw yall are crazy