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reel-fear · 2 months

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Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

#batim #batdr #bendy and the ink machine #bendy and the dark revival #seriously though we cannot let this slide #ramblez #please please keep talking about this and why its not okay #Ive already had people saying to not be too mean or disrespectful to mike over this and to put bluntly #if mike is gonna be this blatently disrespectful to his fans he deserves whatever he fucking gets #this is such a horrible situation Im just glad I got the chance to speak positively in this essay #I mean not about bendy but I got to gush about how cool it is that transformers has a nonbinary character in it so that was fun #this is what Bendy could have and refuses to... Oh well more motive to make Showtime ig #but seriously what is the point of supporting these indie devs if theyre gonna be just as horrible abt this shit #as their corporate competitors #at several points bendy just feels like every other horror game out there but worse #its so so so frustrating

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local-limebug · 3 months

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jason todd has so many underrated canon love interests. essence, isabel, artemis, and rose are all characters i love with him. like those are good ships. why is everyone ignoring them?

#look. i have Opinions on this matter.#i know that fandoms have incurable mlm fetishization disease which is why jayroy is so much more popular than these ships #and i like jayroy but. come on. jayrose solos.#but fr like 😭 ik we all hate whatever he had going on with babs and kori because what the fuck (i hate dc writers)#but jay/essence was a good ship!! it would have added more focus onto who jason is outside of being a vigilante but still being a warrior #because its p much canon that he has magical affinities that dc pretty much ignores now #and isabel! jay/isabel was such a good ship too for showing the more civilian view of the red hood and who jason was as a civilian #jayrose is my personal fav solely because they're one of the few duos we've seen as good friends and i just love their interactions #and rose has that anti-hero (?) potential right. i think jayrose is a good ship for who jason would be as a vigilante outside gotham #ik i'm focusing on jason more than the love interests when i talk about why these ships are so interesting but rn that's just because i'm #trying to figure out why these ships are so ignored among jason fans in favour of ships like jayroy or jaykori or jaybabs or batc*st #because imo these have so much more potential than those ones :/#i forgot to speak on jaytemis. i love jaytemis because i think jason deserves a woman that can yeet his 6 foot brick wall body with ease-#but more than that it really would have been a very fun idea to explore the amazonians' moralities and politics more #because jay and artemis were supposed to parallel bruce and diana. i just think there was again potential there for jason to break off from #the batfamily #yk?#limebug's original posts #jason todd #rose wilson #artemis of bana mighdall #isabel ardila #essence #sorry to any jayroy shippers that might see this even tho i didnt individually tag jayroy. i'm one of you i promise i'm a multishipper #if anyone wants to discuss this my dms and askbox are OPEN

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capisback · 10 months

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I know it’s haha funny to laugh at dutch and call it discount english or what-have-you, but I stopped finding it funny a long, long time ago. There’s so much active distaste for a language that has every right to exist and be found beautiful, but it’s hated by people who don’t speak it and native speakers who do. Why would you call any language lesser than? Any language better than another? There’s so much beauty to be found in each language, so many different ways of life and seeing the world, so many different words and sayings and ways to love that you can’t find in another. Dutch is no different, and it deserves to be appreciated, not driven into the ground and disregarded as a worn piece of clothing that’s served its purpose

#you don't even learn proper dutch in school anymore #listen I just #I'm so sad about this #I used to have this mindset of: english is better than dutch #why even learn dutch?#before I realized what an awful mindset this was #and I learned to appreciate my language and now I can see how much magic flows through it #how lyrical the sentences are #I've come to see how many sayings we have and how unique they are and how fun they are to use #Dutch deserves some appreciation #it deserves to have at least its native speakers' respect or love or at the very least fondness #I love dutch with all my heart and I wish I knew it better #I wish there was more literature and more media in it too #cap talks #dutch #dutchblr #flemish

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britneyshakespeare · 9 months

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can you imagine being a little twee simon and garfunkel fan in the late 60s and then buying your new vinyl at the record store and hearing mrs. robinson for the first time in your own home. i would’ve fallen over backwards

#i don't know if i've ever mentioned this--and i dont even remember why this is the case--but mrs. robinson was one of the first songs #that i ever knew in this lifetime. like. when youre a little tiny baby and youre barely aware what music is #and you know the words to the chorus of at most like 15 songs. mrs. robinson was one of those songs and i dont remember why or how #probably my father? he's also the reason that i knew the beatles when i was that young too #he also played a lot of bob marley and elvis. we used to have little dance parties in the living room after watching shrek every night #where he'd play his music. but i cant think mrs. robinson was one of those songs? its NOT a dance song #(i can try though. you cant stop me)#text post #simon and garfunkel #but yes this also does mean allstar by smash mouth was also one of those first primordial songs on my consciousness #mrs. robinson really though is such a beautiful and clever song im never gonna be over it #simon and garfunkel is one of those few bands where their most famous song arguably deserves that status in their discography #altho that did get a little different after i watched the graduate as a teenager lol #but the song. didn't slap any less naturally. it just had a new association #also fun fact i don't know at what age i learned that mrs. robinson was by simon and garfunkel #at least until i was like 10 i thought it was by the beatles?

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gojosattoru · 2 years

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★ ADEPTUS XIAO | THE ANEMO YAKSHA ★

Birthday gift for my most adorable and amazing cutie Kay @kyaa-a ❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )

Extra:

#genshin impact #genshinet #genshinedit #dailygaming #genshinimpactedit #xiao #gamingedit #gigraphics #alledits #userkarura #userrack #userchas #usersenka #heya kay my sweetheart!! here's my lil gift for you honey!!#i hope you like it ; U ; i tried to bring the best of your husband heheh ^^#hope you had a wonderful bday too and had lots of fun honey!! you deserve all the good things of this world kay you're such a kind and sweet #soul!! it's been so awesome to be chatting with you on our genshin server with everyone and i cheresh every momemt everyday there!!#it's been a blast honey thank you once again for invinting me!! thank you for being so awesome funny and sweet!#thank you for being my friend! thank you for everything kay!! i love you so so much! i'm always sending you my love to your way ^^ hehe #take care of yourself and stay safe!! may we have more fun together and scream for our amazing genshin game and boys hehe <33333 #you're amazing never forget that!! <3333 *hugs you real tight*

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c-kiddo · 10 months

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thing is , taliesin jaffes cr characters all so cunt because they would all definitely spit up blood but all for their own unique different reasons and vibes. but babygirl ur mouth is full of blood

#like we got being possessed by a demon. id spit up blood if i had a demon made of revenge and grief in me #we got getting murdered and ur chest being ripped open #we got too much hallucinogenic and perhaps a little poisonous flowers . whaddever. just girly things #and then jus straight up getting in fights for fun #they are so slay #kiddo say #post from tha drafts #i feel like . if theories abt cad kind ODing on the flowers r true and thats how he saw god (the somnovum that he mistook for god maybe?)#then he definitely had a throwing up rot and bile and blood moment. to me. for the drama.#hes so surrounded by decay i think he deserves to have an angsty moment of decaying himself too .

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her-midas-touch · 5 months

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byler doubt is kind of a bitch sometimes but then I remember how will and mike’s relationship was constantly set apart and highlighted specifically in a different way than with the rest of the party. Like this is so obvious with how soft season 2 byler is, mike being the one paying the closest attention to him, noticing when he was too quiet, being there for him and so protective of him. The crazy together moment. And the swingset memory being the best thing he ever did, hello?

Like, the moments we got with the rest of the boys are definitely not as intimate.

Their relationship is slow buildup but it’s actually such a constant focus throughout the seasons. Like especially with how their relationship is treated with the s3 fight. I mean, weirdest thing here would be why they would put a byler fight in an episode right after the m*leven fight in such a way that it draws attention to how differently the relationships are handled. M*leven, like a joke, something they’re both pretty unconcerned about and byler getting a whole ass dramatic rain fight and mike “you can’t leave now it’s raining” wheeler biking all the way over to apologize.

It’s also funnier if you think about it from what I remember it was lucas who gave mike a lot of advice and stuff post break-up and about making it up to el and hence actually giving him a nudge in that direction while with will it was his own conscious decision to make sure he was alright.

Not to mention how el mentions to max that she doesn’t even know what she likes yet pleaseee— that girl’s whole character arc is discovering herself as a person, building familial and platonic relationships—she wasn’t ready for a romantic relationship, much less after she had been in a lab most of her life and didn’t have a proper sense of romance relationships yet either. Their relationship in s3 is the one that holds the party back—like, lumax was there too but there definitely wasn’t an unhealthy codependence.

El found comfort in mike as he was one of the first people to give her that sense of security and safety. She found a lot of comfort in the idea of mike, the idea of a relationship and feeling secure and all the love that came with it rather then mike as a person himself. And that’s pretty obvious with how mike can’t exactly be himself around el, like spending all of s3 trying to be mature, “not kids anymore”, apparently outgrowing dnd just for him to immediately get back into it with renewed fervor in s4??

And with the m*leven love conflict being paralleled with byler patching things up lmaoo though they both took different turns; one with mike not being able to reassure el whereas with will he was all “iTs hAwKiNs iTs nOt tHe sAmE wIthOuT yOu” and specifying that the rest of their friends were great but not him likee.

And to top things off being in love with mike is such an important part of Will’s character arc, I mean, why go through all the buildup, parallels, subtext and using the painting as will’s means to push mike away yet notably having el still lose despite mike’s monologue, that too not giving them a scene where it’s shown that everything was resolved between them even though they’re a main couple if byler isn’t endgame? In fact that would leave a lot unexplained and also give will a super queerphobic and unsatisfactory storyline.

Like you have a whole separate gay stoner road-trip subplot with byler in s4 while el’s character growth almost recurrently takes place when she’s apart from mike—do I even need to elaborate? So many thoughts but anyway, that’s it for now

#byler #rants and rambles #just way too many thoughts and no one to share with irl so #and tbh it hasn’t been very fun lately with everything going on :((#but like byler is precious to me and I just want it to be fun again like its such a shame how fucked up things are rn I’m soo torn 😭#but at the very least we deserve positive queer storylines and romantic arcs that aren’t doomed to tragedy so #whatever happiness the ship itself brings you don’t let anyone take it away #the characters themselves will always have a special place #will byers #mike wheeler

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liccy · 8 months

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*points at you* ITS YOU!! liccy! OK I thought I recognized you on rykia too but I kept forgetting to derail myself and investigate haha sorry remember me? I was known as Kuya before I can't remember what nicknames I gave yall from TE in the past OTL anyway its good to see you ♪ヽ(´▽｀)/

So, Near B-day Twin... does this answer your question? XD

#answered asks #OC's #RP OC's #Kuya!#Each of them were so fun to RP with ya!#I wanna do one for Anna now!#she deserves to suffer in Nostalgia hell too!#As if I'd forget any of you!#We may have been absolutely cringe #but we had fun

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hollowsart · 6 months

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I want to see Older/Senior Citizen Woman variant of Black Cat giving Teenager Spider-Man the slip and teasing him but also being sort of a mentor in a way to him. giving him stealth advice and advice on how to do some cool sick tricks in self defense and fighting.

(while she also steals things along the way… he knows and tries to tell her to put it back and stop stealing, but she just laughs it off, pats his head, tells him he's a good boy and to keep it up for the bigger threats)

#ghostie mumbles #black cat #felicia hardy #don't touch me I need this so bad. give me cool older woman Black Cat. also don't be freaking weird about this please.#WE NEED MORE COOL OLDER WOMEN WHO KICK BUTT IN OUR VARIOUS MEDIA!!!!#LIKE FOR REAL. I WANNA SEE OLDER WOMEN KICK BUTT AND LOOK COOL.#also fun fact: they don't even have to kick butt physically. just look at madame web. she is confined to her chair and yet she's still cool #she deserves better as a character and has so much potential too to be a really cool character beyond what she has been.#anyways plz think about old lady black cat who has been doing this cat burglar thing for decades and is still going strong

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rabble-dabble · 7 months

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and by the way i fucking deserved better. you came back with your hand held out and asked me to love you again like i was a fool, like you knew i wanted you to do but you forgot friendship is a two way street and i loved you deeper than you loved yourself. i heard myself in your words and i knew the answer before you asked the question because i spent a year grieving and a year growing and another two years healing and three more years forgetting and you sent me a message asking me to forgive you as if i already hadn't done so. you asked to try again and i almost became the fool that did it because once upon a time we were best friends then we weren't and i cried at night wishing you'd come crawling back to say those words to me again. and i thought of all the ways i could tear you apart with my teeth before carefully mending you back together with my sparkly glue and my shaky sowing needle.

but in reality i knew if i let you in again that i could forgive you but i'd never be able to forgive myself. i'd be looking into the past and spitting into the face of the kid who gave up everything he felt about you to become me and i needed to let you go like the sand between my cupped hands. the ocean cleans away the grit and leaves seashells in them. its a reminder that there are still things to find and cherish. i deserve to love the world and you will not be a part of it. i am not sorry for that.

#text post #rabble poem #friendship #vent #the audacity of ex best friends to message you like 'hayyyyy'#begone bitche #and also imagine my face when i find out my message to her was in the echo of the vent letter i wrote in a vent book #i could forgive her but i'd never forgive myself <- fav line btw. no i am not being normal about it #also yeah i blocked her ass she was like 'i miss youuuuuu i miss our friendshiiiip'#girl. 6 years too late what. we homoerotically broke up /queer platonically in MIDDLE SCHOOL move ON #me as i say the most fucked up writing possible. listen i deserve it i was normal about it for like a MONTH #imagine my surprise when i open my facebook messanger at work and i see her name like i almost threw away the whole damn phone #she said she couldnt stop thinking about me tho like LMAO i live rent free in ur head?? have fun with that bye <3

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