#but its when people start harassing others for following what the canon implies is a big no no

[rairai-raven]

In light of recent events

#okay but for real tho #personally i don't mind headcanons about characters being lgbt #but its when people start harassing others for following what the canon implies is a big no no #ill probably use they/she for shiver so yeah #again have fun with headcanons but respect others who follows the canon #splatoon #splatoon 3 #shiver #splat 3 hype #update:apparently the guy who told the press that shiver isn't nonbinary #is involved in locations where queer characteristics are erased #kinda skumy ngl #however if it does come up that shiver is nonbinary still do not harass anyone who uses she/her for shiver #instead just calmly explain to them that its more canon to call shiver by they/them and move on #tldr: don't be an ass #my art

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

It's the underdog/victim complex. They think they're being oppressed/harassed/attacked by everyone else for liking their fave when no one really cares. Plus purity culture sorta screwed the fandom perceptions where now you apparently can't like a character or be a fan of them if they do bad/problematic things. This isn't just a FE thing either, there was an article that basically said that people can enjoy villains for being villains and requested everyone to not woobify or justify their actions. Guess what happened? People got salty over it and started attacking the article. And yeah it's not just a bunch of teenagers sadly, there are people in their 30s doing this kind of nonsense behavior and it's really sad and pathetic. And fwiw I'm not implying nor intending that people 30 or above can't be in fandoms or anything like that, it's just..you expect them to know or be better than to act like they're half their age with this nonsense.

Yeah, that's so wild to me when they do exactly that - attack others for their faves (especially Dimitri). Like yeah, I hate their fave but I don't go out of my way to attack them for liking her.

Purity culture really, REALLY pisses me off. Not only do people who like EdeIgard erase her wrongdoings, but they only like the version of her they created and not her canon self (i.e. the self that did wrong, but they can't handle the concept of that and their waifu has to be perfect and have her hands clean). Following that, they get aggressive toward Dimitri and his fans for liking him because uwu he did so many bad things. Like, yes, we are aware of that and he actively addresses that fact on a regular basis. He doesn't hide behind "uwu I did it for Fodlan", he doesn't make excuses, and his fans accept his faults for what they are. For some reason the stans seem to think we're just like them and that we erase any faults of our fave and pretend he's a perfect, clean handed individual.

I remember hearing or seeing once in this old Tumblr RP group that they banned Miklan from even being selected as a written character. Like bruh, if you're gonna write roleplays, don't you... want conflict? When I write I find it boring when there's no conflict whatsoever. Even in my dmcl writing, there's still a sort of internal conflict, like Dimitri having doubts about himself and thinking he's not worth being with someone he loves. No matter what I write, I prefer to have some sort of conflict because it helps to strengthen the positive result.

It's funny, too, because these are always the same people who like Hopes Claude more but yet don't think doing anything wrong is okay. They defend his actions instead like with their waifu because it's okay to invade a country and murder its people!

Reminds me of the stan that showed up in my inbox once trying to defend Claude, saying "what innocents did Claude even kill, he only killed soldiers" as if to say soldiers automatically lose all their innocence and rights as human beings for signing up to defend their country. That anon should probably stop and think about what they said and how that applies to real life, because they basically told me my sister deserves to die because she used to serve in the military. Oh no, how dare she be a soldier! She's no longer innocent and it's okay if she dies! Forget the fact that she has three children at home who are very young and need their mother! Forget that her parents and sisters are still alive and would grieve for her! She's a soldier, so it's fine if she dies!

That anon needs a real good look in the mirror and a smack in the face by reality. These people say a whole lot of shit to defend their fictional pixelated waifu without considering how that reflects on them in real life and the fact that what they say does have a reflection on their real life values. Anyone who tells me it would've been okay if my sister died simply because she was in the military is trash and I wish on them what they would wish on her.

I heard about that article! It's pathetic. There is literally nothing wrong with enjoying media and concepts. I have a section I decided to put at the end of this ask explaining how I feel about particular antagonists (Ashnard, Zelgius, Sephiran and Miklan), but since it's a biiiit off course here I wanted to avoid it splitting up my more direct reply to this ask.

Yeah, I know it's not only teenagers and that's also pathetic. While I wouldn't say I just forgive teenagers for being like that (they're old enough and there's no excuse imo, as I mentioned before), it's a lot more understandable that they might be like that and just eventually grow out of it. The fact there are people my age or older acting like angry babies who had their binky taken away is honestly so ridiculous that the term "pathetic" is not even strong enough to explain how ridiculous it is. They act like they're a little kid who had their favorite sticker stolen by some random kid in their class. These are people who should be looking for or having a job, being at least somewhat damn mature online and being a reasonable, mature person.

I was hoping "karens" would die out with the older generations (let's face it, a good chunk of today's karens are bored, angry old/older people with nothing to do and are just miserable people), but evidently we're never getting rid of that lot! It's okay to invade a country and murder its people, just like it's okay to harass and bully people off of social media, didn't you know?! 🙄🙄🙄 Really, how did some of these people get like this? And no, I'm not asking for their uwu backstories to redeem them LOL.

Some of these people are so insufferable that it's disgusting.

Regarding the villain discussion:

It's like I always say and you're about to hear it again: I love Ashnard as a villain because he's a villain, and he's a villain who fully embraces his actions and behavior. He doesn't think he's morally just. He's fighting for the world he believes in. He believes the strong should be on top and should rule the weak. However, he's extremely fair about that viewpoint and if he's defeated by someone because they were stronger than him, that is fair to him and he accepts his defeat. Since he believes the strong should be on top, he believes he should be on top... until someone comes along who can slay him, in which he believes they do deserve to be on top. If he's bested, he no longer deserves to be on top. He's a fantastic villain who never makes excuses and doesn't go back on what he says he believes. There's no "the strong should be on top but only as long as I'm the strongest and will be ruling". Plain and simple, the strongest should be on top whether it's him or not, and he's not, I guess you could say, "fake" about it.

Then you have Hopes Miklan who turns out to be a better person than people gave him credit for. He's someone I always had headcanons about based on Dimitri's take on him being disowned. I felt that he could've been a better person if pointed in the right direction and being told and shown that he was capable as a person even without a crest and that having a crest doesn't dictate whether he's useful or not. Dimitri put him in charge of a massively important, and arguably the most important, area of defense in the entire country. He proved he believed that Miklan had the strength to handle that and proved that he believed if Miklan had a better life and situation in front of him that he wouldn't resort to banditry. The thing is, he was right. Miklan not only started becoming a better person, but he even gets a line where he basically says he liked helping the people in a place that got destroyed in the war. He liked helping them rebuild.

Both of those are fantastic stories and characters. One of them had a redemption arc while nobody ever let any bullshit slide. He wasn't allowed to slip up or get away with any tiny "mistakes". It was literally do or die, but being forced into that situation did genuinely make him a better person. Even if he had to be forced to help them, it's not like he didn't come out on the other side and be better for it. Being forced to do those things didn't mean it just stayed that way and that he was hateful and angry that entire time.

Then one of them is just... a villain. A perfectly written villain who lived and died as a villain. Nobody made excuses for him and he didn't make excuses for himself. There's a reason I don't like Zelgius, and it's not that I think his character itself is terribly written, but it's the forced redemption that he didn't earn that makes me not enjoy his final arc. In contrast, what does Sephiran get? No redemption allowed from Ike until he gets up and proves he's willing to redeem himself. Zelgius could've easily been a character made to earn his redemption, such as being a playable character and having supports to flesh out his new arc, or even just being a story only character who protects and saves the main characters (besides Just Micaiah tee em) and maybe even guides them safely to the Tower of Guidance (no pun intended). Instead he just gets to say he admired his teacher and had a sad backstory so suddenly... nobody is mad anymore. Certainly not Tibarn, who had like 50+ percent of his nation wiped out, that being any able bodied man who could fight besides the ones who were lucky enough to be with Tibarn's fighting force at the time all that happened. 🙄

#DCB Ask

[encoeurs]

#ENCOEURS — an independent, private Akira Kurusu of Persona 5 post-Strikers, selective with Royal as contracted by mythe

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First and foremost: 

THIS BLOG DOES NOT SHIP/CONDONE/TOLERATE AKESHU IN ANY FORM.

      I also don’t tolerate any apologist attitudes about Akechi’s actions in the game– if you like him as a villain, that’s fine (I do too), but I frankly can’t stand it when people insist that what he did is excusable by any measure or like he’s just a ‘poor baby’ who deserves redemption because his situation ‘wasn’t his fault’. 

      Now, for the rest—

— General

      This blog is highly PRIVATE & MUTUALS-ONLY, meaning I reserve the right to follow back at my discretion and that I will only interact with those who I am mutuals with. Pestering me about this is unlikely to change my decision, so please respect it. If I follow you, I do so in the hopes of interacting, however, you needn’t feel obligated to follow back if you are not interested in writing with me. However, if you do not have a rules/about page easily accessible, it is highly unlikely that I will follow you, whether you're RPing a canon character or OC.         I am highly unlikely to follow blogs that are too heavily ‘canon divergent’ as most of those tend to become simply OCs with a canon character’s face and that’s not what I’m following canonmates for.         If we’re mutuals and we haven’t interacted ICly within a month of us following each other, I’ll likely unfollow. I really don’t have any desire to follow people just to have them on my dash rather than actually interacting with them and I certainly don’t feel like being just a tick on someone’s follow milestones or whatever. Not that the follow isn’t appreciated, but I would really rather interact with my mutuals than simply admire them from afar.         Starting threads from asks is welcomed so long as it's discussed with me beforehand. I do welcome messages for plotting, as I work a bit better with an idea of what the end goal of a thread is. Of course, that's not always necessary, but it helps me to formulate my replies.         Otherwise, the standard rules apply– no god/info modding, no harassing for replies, no bringing unnecessary drama to my dash. Vaguing or constant failure to handle conflicts with others maturely will result in an immediate unfollow. Constantly bringing drama/callouts to the dash will result in a block. I'm old, I don't got time for that.  

— Mature Content

       Persona 5 is a game that deals with a lot of dark themes. Things such as emotional & physical abuse, sexual assault and alcoholism are among the many things the game involves in its story. As such, they will likely come up on this blog whether in passing or as discussion between characters. Of course being who he is, Akira would never do much as consider any of these actions, but he will not hesitate to be a listening ear for those who need it. If these topics bother you to even see in passing, though they will be tagged to the best of my ability, you have to be mindful of your own comfort level. I’m not here to do so for you.        Now, in terms of nsfw, my Akira is 18, but such things are hardly at the fore of his mind. Even so, the subject may come up even in conversation or in the form of musings/reblogs, and if ships happen there may also be such content implied. If this at all bothers you, then you’re free to not follow.          As the mun is 25+, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll interact with anyone under 21, both for my comfort and theirs. 

— Friendships/Relationships

      As far as shipping, that’s not really my intent with Akira, but like with most things, I prefer to ship chemistry over anything else. I absolutely will not ship Akira with Akechi, or with any of the adult confidants. Any ‘friendship’ with Akechi will be under the assumption that the thread is taking place before the events immediately following the completion of Sae’s palace.        Otherwise, I don’t mind plotting friendships, but please understand that close relationships outside of the Phantom Thieves may take time to develop.        I am exclusives with enjuste’s Akechi, so please respect this.  

— Confidants

      All confidants are default rank 8 minimum when Akira mentions them to others, though we can adjust that as necessary for interactions. If anyone would like to play out a social link differently than it was handled in canon, that’s fine too! Really, it’s whatever makes my writing partners happy.

–and that’s it! Thank you for reading this far if you have! I don’t have any passwords or anything, but feel free to hit the inbox if you’re so inclined! 

#( dni. )

[seekfirst-community]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2022. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.net

Meditation: What can mustard seeds and leaven teach us about the kingdom of God? The tiny mustard seed literally grew to be a tree which attracted numerous birds because they loved the little black mustard seed it produced. God's kingdom works in a similar fashion. It starts from the smallest beginnings in the hearts of men and women who are receptive to God's word. And it works unseen and causes a transformation from within.

Hidden power of transforming seeds and leaven

Leaven is another powerful agent of change. A lump of dough left to itself remains just what it is, a lump of dough. But when the leaven is added to it a transformation takes place which produces rich and wholesome bread when heated - the staple of life for humans.

God's word has power to transforms us

The kingdom of God produces a transformation in those who receive the new life which Jesus Christ offers. When we yield our lives to Jesus Christ and allow his word to take root in our heart, we are transformed and made holy by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Paul the Apostle says, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Do you believe in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit?

"Heavenly Father, fill me with your Holy Spirit and transform me into the Christ-like holiness you desire. Increase my zeal for your kingdom and instill in me a holy desire to live for your greater glory."

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2022.

the death of death

“Death is at work in us, but life in you.” —2 Corinthians 4:12

Our culture of death will eventually be true to its name and die out. (We pray that this death of the culture of death will occur as soon as possible so that fewer people will be traumatized.) Death as a work of the evil one will be destroyed by another kind of death — a loving death to self in the pattern of Jesus’ death on the cross (see Phil 3:10). The writer of Song of Songs proclaims: “Stern as death is love, relentless as the nether world is devotion” (Sg 8:6). In fact, Jesus’ crucified love is more stern than death. Jesus’ death on the cross resulted in the ultimate and total victory of risen life over death.

Consequently, in love let us fall “to the earth” and die so as to produce “much fruit” (Jn 12:24). “Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed. While we live we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed” (2 Cor 4:10-11). We have been baptized into Jesus’ death so as to share in His Resurrection (Rm 6:3, 5).

A friend of mine has a saying: “You’re not done dying till you’re dead.” Die to self in Christ and in love.

Prayer:  Father, teach me how to die in love. St. James, pray for the death of the culture of death.

Promise:  “Such is the case with the Son of Man Who has come, not to be served by others, but to serve, to give His own life as a ransom for the many.” —Mt 20:28

Praise:  “During that period, King Herod started to harass some of the members of the church. He beheaded James the brother of John” (Acts 12:1-2). Holy Spirit, thank You for gracing St. James with faithfulness and fortitude.

Reference:  

Rescript:  "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for the publication One Bread, One Body covering the time period from June 1, 2022 through July 31, 2022. Reverend Steve J. Angi, Chancellor, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio November 18, 2021"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[shihalyfie]

Hi :) If it's not too much trouble, could you please share your take on why they'd continue the Adventure brand after tri. was such a flop? (and a tangent: what does "dark history" even mean?). We got Kizuna, the reboot, and a 02 movie. Logically, it doesn't really make sense they'd keep investing in it.

This is a thorny topic, and I'd like to reiterate that although I've ended up making more posts related to this series and the discourse surrounding it recently (probably because it's even more on the mind now that another movie is on the horizon and a lot of people are apprehensive for various reasons), I do not want this blog to be making a brand out of being critical of this series. I’m writing this here and in public because I figured that there is a certain degree I need to clarify what I mean about audience reception/climate and how it might impact current or future works, and I’m admittedly also more than a little upset that I occasionally see Western fanbase criticisms of the series getting dismissed by people claiming that the only people mad about it are dramamongering or ignorant Westerners (which could not be further from the truth). However, this is mainly to address this and to answer your question, and is not intended to try and change anyone's existing opinion or impression of the series as much as it's me trying to explain (from my own personal reading of the situation) what practically went down with critical reception in real life; no more, no less.

The short summary of the matter is:

The series was a moderate financial success (albeit with some caveats; see the long version for details) and definitely outstripped a lot of prior attempts to revive the franchise;

However, the overall Japanese fanbase-side critical backlash from tri. was extremely and viciously negative to the point where even acknowledging the series too much could easily result in controversy;

Kizuna’s production and the PR surrounding it very obviously have this in mind with a lot of apparent “damage control” elements.

The long version is below.

Note that while I try to be diligent about citing my sources so people understand that I’m not just making things up wholesale, I’m deliberately refraining from linking certain things here this time, both because some of the things mentioned have some pretty crude things written there -- it’s not something I feel comfortable directing people to regardless of what language it’s in -- and because I don’t want to recklessly link things on social media and cause anyone to go after or harass the people involved. For the links that have been provided, please still be warned that some of them don’t really link to particularly pleasant things.

I am not writing the following information to suggest that anyone should agree or disagree with the sentiments being described. I know people tend to take "a lot of people like/hate this" as a signal of implication "it is correct to like/hate this" when it's not (and I especially dislike the idea of implying that Japanese fanbase opinions are the only correct ones). There's a reason I focus on "critical reception being this way" (because it influences marketing decisions and future direction) rather than how much this should impact one's personal feelings; this is coming from myself as someone who is shamelessly proud of liking many things that had bad critical reception, were financial failures, or are disliked by many. As I point out near the end, the situation also does seem to be changing for the better in more recent years as well.

Also, to be clear, I'm a single person who's observing everything best I can from my end, I have no affiliations with staff nor do I claim to, and as much as I'm capable of reading Japanese and thus reading a lot of people's impressions, I'm ultimately still another “outsider” looking in. These are my impressions from my observation of fan communal spaces, following artists and reading comments on social media and art posting websites, and results from social media searches. In the end, I know as much as anyone else about what happened, so this is just my two cents based on all of my personal observations.

A fanbase is a fanbase regardless of what part of the world you're from. There are people who love it and are shameless about saying so. There are people who have mixed feelings or at least aren't on extreme ends of the spectrum (as always, the loudest ones are always the most visible, but it's not always easy to claim they're the predominant percentage of the fanbase). That happens everywhere, and I still find that on every end I've seen. However, if I'm talking about my impressions and everything I’ve encountered, I will say that the overall Japanese reaction to tri. comes off as significantly more violently negative on average than the Western one, which is unusual because often it's the other way around. (I personally feel less so because the opinions are that fundamentally different and more so because we're honestly kind of loud and in-your-face people; otherwise, humans are mostly the same everywhere, and more often than not people feel roughly the same about everything if they’re given the same information to work with.)

This is not something I can say lightly, and thus would not say if I didn’t really get this impression, but...we're talking "casually looking up movie reviews for Kizuna have an overwhelming amount of people casually citing any acknowledgment of tri. elements as a negative element", or the fact that even communal wikis for "general" fandoms like Pixiv and Aniwota don't tend to hold back in being vicious about it (as of this writing, Pixiv's wiki refuses to consider it in the same timeline as Adventure, accusing it of being "a series that claims to be a sequel set three years after 02 but is in fact something different"). Again, there are people who openly enjoy it and actively advocate for it (and Pixiv even warns people to not lord over others about it condescendingly because of the fact that such people do exist), and this is also more of a reflection of “the hardcore fanbase on the Internet” and not necessarily the mainstream (after all, there are quite a few other Digimon works where the critical reception varies very heavily between the two). Nevertheless, the take-home is that the reputation is overall negative among the Internet fanbase to the point that this is the kind of sentiment you run into without trying all that hard.

I think, generally speaking, if we're just talking about why a lot of people resent the series, the reasons aren't that different from those on the Western side. However, that issue of "dark history" (黒歴史): there's a certain degree of demand from the more violently negative side of the fanbase that's, in a sense, asking official to treat it as a disgrace and never acknowledge it ever again, hence why Kizuna doing so much as borrowing things from it rather than rejecting it outright is still sometimes treated like it’s committing a sin. So it's somewhat close in spirit to a retcon movement, which is unusual because no other Digimon series gets this (not even 02; that was definitely a thing on the Western end, but while I'm sure there are people who hate it that much on their end too, I've never really seen it gain enough momentum for anyone to take it seriously). If anyone ever tells you that Japanese fanbases are nice to everything, either they don't know Japanese, are being willfully ignorant, or are lying to you, because there is such thing as drama in those areas, and in my experience, I've seen things get really nasty when things are sufficiently pushed over the edge, and if a fanbase wants to have drama, it will have drama. This happens to be one of those times.

(If you think this is extreme, please know that I also think so too, so I hope you really understand that me describing this sentiment does not mean I am personally endorsing it. Also, let me reiterate that the loudest section of the fanbase is not necessarily the predominant one; after all, as someone who’s been watching reactions to 02 over the years, I myself can attest that its hatedom has historically made it sound more despised than it actually is in practice.)

My impression is that the primary core sentiment behind why the series so much as existing and being validated is considered such an offense (rather than, say, just saying "wow, that writing was bad" and moving on) is heavily tied to the release circumstances the series came out in during 2015-2018, and the idea that "this series disrespected Adventure, and also disrespected the fanbase.” (I mean, really, regardless of what part of the world you’re from, sequels and adaptations tend to be held to a higher bar of expectation than standalone works, because they’re expected to do them justice.) A list of complaints I’ve come across a lot while reading through the above:

The Japanese fanbase is pretty good at recordkeeping when it comes to Adventure universe lore, partially because they got a lot of extra materials that weren’t localized, but also partially because adherence to it seems to generally be more Serious Business to them than it is elsewhere. For instance, “according to Adventure episode 45, ‘the one who wishes for stability’ (Homeostasis) only started choosing children in 1995, and therefore there can be no Chosen Children before 1995” is taken with such gravity that this, not anything to do with evolutions or timeline issues, is the main reason Hurricane Touchdown’s canonicity was disputed in that arena (because Wallace implies that he met his partners before 1995). It’s a huge reason the question of Kizuna also potentially not complying to lore came to the forefront, because tri. so flagrantly contradicts it so much that this issue became very high on the evaluation checklist. In practice, Kizuna actually goes against Adventure/02 very little, so the reason tri. in particular comes under fire for this is that it does it so blatantly there were theories as early as Part 1 that this series must take place in a parallel universe or something, and as soon as it became clear it didn’t, the resulting sentiment was “wow, you seriously thought nobody would notice?” (thus “disrespecting the audience”).

A lot of the characterization incongruity is extremely obvious when you’re following only the Japanese version, partially because it didn’t have certain localization-induced characterization changes (you are significantly less likely to notice a disparity with Mimi if you’re working off the American English dub where they actually did make her likely to step on others’ toes and be condescending, whereas in Japanese the disparity is jarring and hard to miss) and partially due to some things lost in translation (Mimi improperly using rough language on elders is much easier to spot as incongruity if you’re familiar with the language). Because it’s so difficult to miss, and honestly feels like a lot of strange writing decisions you’d make only if you really had no concept of what on earth happened in the original series, it only contributes to the idea that they were handling Adventure carelessly and disrespectfully without paying attention to what the series was even about (that, or worse, they didn’t care).

02 is generally well-liked there! It’s controversial no matter where you go, but as I said earlier, there was no way a retcon movement would have ever been taken seriously, and the predominant sentiment is that, even if you’re not a huge fan of it, its place in canon (even the epilogue) should be respected. So not only flagrantly going against 02-introduced lore but also doing that to a certain quartet is seen as malicious, and you don’t have as much of the converse discourse celebrating murdering the 02 quartet (yeah, that’s a thing that happened here) or accusing people with complaints of “just being salty because they like 02″ as nearly as much of a factor; I did see it happen, or at least dismissals akin to “well it’s Adventure targeted anyway,” but they were much less frequent. The issue with the 02 quartet is usually the first major one brought up, and there’s a lot of complaints even among those who don’t care for 02 as much that the way they went about it was inhumane and hypocritical, especially when killing Imperialdramon is fine but killing Meicoomon is a sin. Also, again, “you seriously think nobody will see a problem with how this doesn’t make sense?”

I think even those who are fans of the series generally agree with this, but part of the reason the actual real-life time this series went on is an important factor is that the PR campaign for this series was godawful. Nine months of clicking on an egg on a website pretending like audience participation meant something when in actuality it was blatantly obvious it was just a smokescreen to reveal info whenever they were ready? This resulted in a chain effect where even more innocuous/defensible things were viewed in a suspicious or negative light (for instance, "the scam of selling the fake Kaiser's goggles knowing Ken fans would buy it only to reveal that it's not him anyway"), and a bunch of progressively out-of-touch-with-the-fanbase statements and poor choices led to more sentiment “yeah, you’re just insulting the fanbase at this point,” and a general erosion of trust in official overall.

On top of that, the choice of release format to have it spread out as six movies over three years seems to have exacerbated the backlash to get much worse than it would have been otherwise, especially since one of the major grievances with the series is that how it basically strung people along, building up more and more unanswered questions before it became apparent it was never going to answer them anyway. So when you’re getting that frustrated feeling over three whole years, it feels like three years of prolonged torture, and it becomes much harder to forgive for the fallout than if you’d just marathoned the entire thing at once.

For those who are really into the Digimon (i.e. species) lore and null canon, while I’m not particularly well-versed in that side of the fanbase, it seems tri. fell afoul of them too for having inaccurately portrayed (at one point, mislabeled) special attacks and poorly done battle choreography, along with the treatment of Digimon in general (infantilized Digimon characterization, general lack of Digimon characters in general, very flippant treatment of the Digital World in Parts 3-5). If you say you’re going to “reboot” the Digital World and not address the entire can of worms that comes with basically damaging an entire civilization of Digimon, as you can imagine, a lot of people who actually really care about that are going to be pissed, and the emerging sentiment is “you’re billing this as a Digimon work, but you don’t even care about the monsters that make up this franchise.”

The director does not have a very positive reputation among those who know his work (beyond just Digimon), and in general there was a lot of suspicion around the fact they decided to get a guy whose career has primarily been built on harem and fanservice anime to direct a sequel to a children’s series. Add to that a ton of increasingly unnerving statements about how he intended to make the series “mature” in comparison to its predecessor (basically, an implication that Adventure and 02 were happy happy joy series where nothing bad ever happened) and descriptions of Adventure that implied a very, very poor grasp of anything that happened in it: inaccurate descriptions of their characters, poor awareness of 02′s place in the narrative, outright saying in Febri that he saw the Digimon as like perpetual kindergartners even after evolving, and generally such a flippant attitude that it drove home the idea that the director of an Adventure sequel had no respect for Adventure, made this series just to maliciously dunk on it for supposedly being immature, and has such a poor grasp of what it even was that it’s possible he may not have seen it in the first place (or if he did, clearly skimmed it to the extent he understood it poorly to pretty disturbing levels). As of this writing, Aniwota Wiki directly cites him as a major reason for the backlash.

In general, consensus seems to be that the most positively received aspect of the series (story-wise) was Part 3 (mostly its ending, but some are more amenable to the Takeru and Patamon drama), and the worst vitriol goes towards Parts 2 (for the blatantly contradictory portrayal of Mimi and Jou and the hypocritical killing of Imperialdramon) and 4 (basically the “point of no return” where even more optimistic people started getting really turned off). This is also what I suspect is behind the numbers on the infamous DigiPoll (although the percentage difference is admittedly low enough to fall within margin of error). However, there was suspicion about the series even from Part 1, with one prominent fanartist openly stating that it felt more like meeting a ton of new people than it did reuniting with anyone they knew.

So with all of that on the table: how did this affect official? The thing is that when I say “violently negative”, I mean that also entailed spamming official with said violently negative social media comments. While this is speculation, I am fairly certain that official must have realized how bad this was getting as early as between Parts 4 and 5, because that’s where a lot of really suspicious things started happening behind the scenes; while I imagine the anime series itself was now too far in to really do anything about it, one of the most visible producers suddenly vanished from the producer lineup and was replaced by Kinoshita Yousuke, who ended up being the only member of tri. staff shared with Kizuna (and, in general, the fact that not a single member of staff otherwise was retained kind of says a lot). Once the series ended in 2018 and the franchise slowly moved into Kizuna-related things, you might notice that tri.-branded merch production almost entirely screeched to a halt and official has been very touchy about acknowledging it too deeply; it’s not that they don’t, but it’s kind of an awfully low amount for what you’d think would be warranted for a series that’s supposed to be a full entry in the big-name Adventure brand.

The reason is, simply, that if they do acknowledge it too much, people will get pissed at them. That’s presumably why the tri. stage play (made during that interim period between Parts 4 and 5 and even branded with the title itself) and Kizuna are really hesitant to be too aggressive about tri. references; it’s not necessarily that official wants to blot it out of history like the most extreme opinions would like them to, but even being too enthusiastic about affirming it will also get them backlash, especially if the things they affirm are contradictory to Adventure or 02. And considering even the small references they did put in still got them criticism for “affirming” tri. too much, you can easily see that the backlash would have been much harder if they’d attempted more than that; staying as close as possible to Adventure and 02 and trying to deal with tri. elements only when they’re comparatively inoffensive was pretty much the “safe” thing to do in this scenario (especially since fully denying tri. would most certainly upset the people who did like the series, and if you have to ask me, I personally think this would have been a pretty crude thing to have done right after the series had just finished). Even interviews taken after the fact often involve quickly disclaiming involvement with the series, or, if they have to bring up something about it, discussing the less controversial aspects like the art (while the character designs were still controversial, it’s at least at the point where some fanartists will still be willing to make use of them even if they dislike the series, albeit often with prominent disclaimers) or the more well-received parts of Part 3; Kizuna was very conspicuously marketed as a standalone movie, even if it shared the point of “the Adventure kids, but older” that tri. had.

(Incidentally, the tri. stage play has generally been met with a good reputation and was received well even among people who were upset with the anime, so it was well-understood that they had no relation. In fact, said stage play is probably even better received than Kizuna, although that’s not too surprising given the controversial territory Kizuna goes into, making the stage play feel very play-it-safe in comparison.)

So, if we’re going to talk about Kizuna in particular: tri. was, to some degree, a moderate financial success, in the sense that it made quite a bit of money and did a lot to raise awareness of the Digimon brand still continuing...however, if you actually look at the sales figures for tri., they go down every movie; part of it was probably because of the progressively higher “hurdle” to get into a series midway, but consider that Gundam Unicorn (a movie series which tri.’s format was often compared to) had its sales go up per movie thanks to word of mouth and hype. So while tri. does seem to have gotten enough money to help sustain the franchise at first, the trade-off was an extremely livid fanbase that had shattered faith in the brand and in official, and so while continuing the Adventure brand might still be profitable, there was no way they were going to get away with continuing to do this lest everything eventually crash and burn.

Hence, if you look at the way Kizuna was produced and advertised, you can see a lot of it is blatantly geared at addressing a lot of the woes aimed at tri.: instead of the staff that had virtually no affiliation with Toei, the main members of staff announced were either from the original series (Seki and Yamatoya) or openly childhood fans, the 02 quartet was made into a huge advertising point as a dramatic DigiFes reveal (and character profies that tie into the 02 epilogue careers prominently part of the advertising from day one), and they even seemed to acknowledge the burnout on the original Adventure group by advertising it so heavily as “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends”, so you can see that there’s a huge sentiment of “damage control” with it. How successful that was...is debatable, since opinions have been all over the board; quite a few people were naturally so livid at what happened with tri. that Kizuna was just opening more of the wound, but there were also people who liked it much better and were willing to acknowledge it (with varying levels of enthusiasm, some simply saying “it was thankfully okay,” and some outright loving it), and there was a general sentiment even among those who disliked both that they at least understood what Kizuna was going for and that it didn’t feel as inherently disrespectful. (Of course, there are people who loved tri. and hated Kizuna, and there are people who loved both, too.)

Moreover, Kizuna actually has a slightly different target audience from tri.; there’s a pretty big difference between an OVA and a theatrical movie, and, quite simply, Kizuna was made under the assumption that a lot of people watching it may not have even seen tri. in the first place. An average of 11% of the country watched Adventure and 02, but the number of people who watched tri. is much smaller, in part due to the fact that its “theater” screenings were only very limited screenings compared to Kizuna being shown in theaters in Japan and worldwide, and in part due to the fact that watching six parts over three years is a pretty huge commitment for someone who may barely remember Digimon as anything beyond a show they watched as a kid, and may be liable to just fall off partway through because they simply just forgot. (Which also probably wasn’t helped by the infamously negative reputation, something that definitely wouldn’t encourage someone already on the fence.) And that’s yet another reason Kizuna couldn’t make too many concrete tri. references; being a theatrical movie, it needs to have as wide appeal as possible, and couldn’t risk locking out an audience that had a very high likelihood of not having seen it, much less to the end -- it may have somewhat been informed by tri.’s moderate financial success and precedent, but it ultimately was made for the original Adventure and 02 audience more than anything else.

I would say that, generally, while Kizuna is “controversial” for sure, reception towards the movie seems to be more positive than negative, it won over a large chunk of people who were burned out by tri., and it clearly seems to have been received well enough that it’s still being cashed in on a year after its release. The sheer existence of the upcoming 02-based movie is also probably a sign of Kizuna’s financial and critical success; Kinoshita confirmed at DigiFes 2020 that nothing was in production at the time, and stated shortly after the movie’s announcement that work on it had just started. So the decision to make it seems to have been made after eyeing Kizuna’s reception, and, moreover, the movie was initially advertised from the get-go with Kizuna’s director and writer (Taguchi and Yamatoya), meaning those two have curried enough goodwill from the fanbase that this can be used to promote the movie. (If not, you would think that having and advertising Seki would be the bigger priority.) While this is my own sentiment, I am personally doubtful official would have even considered 02 something remotely profitable enough on its own to cash in on if it weren’t for this entire sequence of events of 02′s snubbing in tri. revealing how much of a fanbase it had (especially with the sheer degree of “suspicious overcompensation” Kizuna had with its copious use of the 02 quartet and it tagging a remix of the first 02 ED on the Hanareteitemo single, followed by the drama CD and character songs), followed by Kizuna having success in advertising with them so heavily. Given all of the events between 2015 and now, it’s a bit ironic to see that 02 has now become basically the last resort to be able to continue anything in the original Adventure universe without getting too many people upset at them about it.

The bright side coming out of all of this is that, while it’s still a bit early to tell, now that we’re three years out from tri. finishing up and with Kizuna in the game, it seems there’s a possibility for things improving around tri.’s reception as well. Since a lot of the worst heated points of backlash against it have a very “you had to have been there” element (related to the PR, release schedule, and staff comments), those coming in “late” don’t have as much reason to be as pissed at it; I’ve seen at least one case of a fanartist getting back into the franchise because of Kizuna hype, watching tri. to catch up, casually criticizing it on Twitter, and moving on with their life, presumably because marathoning the whole thing being generally aware of what’ll happen in it and knowing Kizuna is coming after anyway gives you a lot less reason to be angry to the point of holding an outright grudge. Basically, even if you don’t like it, it’s much easier to actually go “yeah, didn’t like that,” not worry too much about it, and move on. Likewise, I personally get the impression that official has been starting to get a little more confident about digging up elements related to it. Unfortunately, a fairly recent tweet promoting the series getting put on streaming services still got quite a few angry comments implying that they should be deleting the scourge from the Internet instead, so there’s still a long way to go, but hopefully the following years will see things improve further...

In regards to the reboot, I -- and I think a lot of people will agree with me -- have a bit of a hard time reading what exact audience it’s trying to appeal to; we have a few hints from official that they want parents to watch it with their children, and that it may have been a necessary ploy in order to secure their original timeslot. So basically, the Adventure branding gets parents who grew up with the original series to be interested in it and to show it to their kids, and convinces Fuji TV that it might be profitable. But as most people have figured by now, the series has a completely different philosophy and writing style -- I mean, the interview itself functionally admits it’s here to be more action-oriented and to have its own identity -- and the target audience is more the kids than anything else. As for the Internet fanbase of veterans, most people have been critical of its character writing and pacing, but other than a few stragglers who are still really pissed, it hasn’t attracted all that much vitriol, probably because in the end it’s an alternate universe, it doesn’t have any obligation to adhere to anything from the original even if it uses the branding, and it’s clearly still doing its job of being a kids’ show for kids who never saw the original series nor 02, so an attempt to call it “disrespectful” to the original doesn’t have much to stand on. A good number of people who are bored of it decided it wasn’t interesting to them and dropped it without incident, while other people are generally just enjoying it for being fun, and the huge amount of Digimon franchise fanservice with underrepresented Digimon and high fidelity to null canon lore is really pleasing the side of the fanbase that’s into that (I mean, Digimon World Golemon is really deep in), so at the very least, there’s not a lot to be super-upset about.

#tri negativity #shiha's ask box #springcrafter

[analyzen]

Italian Fandom Meta | Most Popular Types of Pairings on EFP vs. AO3

EFP (2001–, Fanlore) is the most popular writing archive in Italy, and it hosts both fanfic and original fiction. Under the cut you’ll find a breakdown of the most popular types of pairings on EFP in comparison to the most popular types of pairings in the Italian section of AO3.

The Italian version of this analysis can be found here.

TL;DR:

53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted

49% of the registered users on EFP have deleted their accounts

M/F works amount to 60% of the whole website

EFP’s three most popular fandoms (Harry Potter, One Direction, Original Fiction – Romantic) all have a majority of M/F works

On AO3, most Italian works are M/M (56%)

F/F doesn’t have much content on either site (4-5%)

Methodology

I’ve followed @olderthannetfic’s methodology from this earlier Fanfiction.net analysis. Basically, I picked a sample size of 666 chapters and organized them in four categories (M/M, M/F, F/F, Not tagged; more on this later).

Why I chose chapters instead of stories

On EFP you don’t have specific links for every single story. Instead, every chapter you post gets a unique id, which can be seen in the link itself. For example, at the time of writing this the last updated chapter on EFP was this one:

viewstory.php?sid=3974099

Which means that this was the 3'974'009th chapter ever posted on EFP.

Ids follow the usual numerical order, so if a link reads id=3, then there have to be id=1 and id=2, and the next link will have id=4.

So I’ve used a randomizer to select ~1200 unique ids to analyse.

Weren’t 666 chapters enough?

I started out with 700 chapters, but half of them weren’t working. That’s because 53% of all the chapters ever posted on EFP have been deleted from the website.

Thanks to the link of the last updated chapter, we know that almost 4 millions chapters have been posted on the EFP. But EFP's homepage shows different stats:

Registered users: 602395, 205974 of which are authors Last registered user: [blacked out] Total of stories: 517083 Total of chapters: 1869573 chapters Total of reviews: 6222695 Online users: 17 logged in and 53 visitors

While we should have almost 4 million chapters, the stats show ~2 million chapters. Why? Because the stats only show the stories, chapters and users that are still on the website, and they don’t show the stories, chapters and users that have been deleted.

(Sorry, I forgot to translate this one. It reads: Total of chapters posted on EFP between 2001 and today. Orange: deleted chapters. Blue: chapters that are still online.)

Thanks to the stats on the homepage we also have a link to the last registered user. User ids follow the same numerical order as chapter ids, so once again we know that 49% of the users ever registered on EFP have deleted their accounts. That's a lot of deleted accounts.

Categorization

After selecting 666 (accessible) chapters, I organized them into 4 categories:

M/M: contains all stories tagged as “yaoi”, shounen ai” and “slash”

M/F: contains all stories tagged as “het”

F/F: contains all stories tagged as “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash”

Not tagged: which contains a) poetry, b) stories tagged as “no pairing”, and c) untagged het stories.

As for the untagged het stories, there are two issues:

Many M/F fics simply aren’t tagged

Many gen fics include untagged M/F ships

If the description made it clear that the story included a heterosexual relationship, I added the story under the M/F tag. Otherwise I left it under not tagged.

Also, on EFP “yaoi”, “shounen ai” and “slash”, and “yuri”, “shoujo ai” and “femslash” actually mean different things.

This screenshot here is from the posting page on EFP. It reads:

Pairings * You must select at least one tag from the list, and you can choose up to three tags. Het: for heterosexual relationships Shonen-ai: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Shojo-ai: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories with no sex scenes Yaoi: for male/male relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Yuri: for female/female relationships with anime/game characters; stories containing sex scenes Slash: for male/male relationships from TV shows/movies/books FemSlash: for female/female relationships from TV shows/movies/books

The thing is. People either respect the rules and use different tags for different kinds of stories, or they use these tags interchangeably to maximise the chance to appear in other users' searches. Which means that you’ll find RPF tagged with “shoujo ai”, and Attack on Titan fics tagged as “slash”. (More info on this later.)

Findings

On EFP, the majority of the stories are M/F.

To confirm this, I checked some specific fandoms:

Some notes:

Because EFP doesn't have metatags like AO3, what I did was: 1) go to a specific fandom, 2) filter through every single tag, and 3) jot down the number of pages per search. Every page contains up to 15 stories, so for example searching for het in Original Fiction – Romantic gives you 846 pages, which amounts to around ~12690 stories.

The tag in red, “Nessuna”, means “no pairing”. It is used for gen fics but also for untagged M/F fics. This is especially true in some fandoms, ie. Original Fiction – Romantic, and Harry Potter.

EFP’s filtering system sucks. You can only filter through stories with specific relationship tags, but you can’t filter out relationships tag. So what you see in the graph is how often a tag is used... which brings us to some issues. For example, Harry Potter is the biggest fandom on EFP, so much that Harry Potter stories amount to 11% (!) of the whole website. But in the graph it looks like the One Direction fandom has more stories—wrong. Actually, One Direction has many stories tagged as both slash and het, while Harry Potter stories tend to be either one or the other.

EFP’s filtering system sucks, part 2. Because “shounen ai”, “yaoi” and “slash” are often used at the same time, you can't really smash together all three of the tags to get a total amount of stories. I'd say that around 50% of the stories tagged as shounen ai and yaoi probably overlap, but there is no easy way to find out because, again, EFP’s filtering system sucks. The same goes for “shoujo ai”, “yuri” and “femslash”.

Fandoms with a majority of M/M stories

While there are some fandoms with more M/M stories (ie. Death Note, Hetalia, Glee, Sherlock, Supernatural, Teen Wolf), these fandoms are simply extremely small in comparison to other bigger fandoms full of M/F fics. Which obviously skews the numbers in favor of M/F fics.

What about femslash?

EFP suffers from the same lack of femslash as AO3 as a whole. In the fandoms I've analysed, only two have a big enough number of F/F. The fandoms are Glee (which has more F/F stories than M/F stories) and Grey's Anatomy (which has as much F/F as M/F stories, with little M/M).

Original Fiction

I thought it might be interesting to explore the original sections too, especially because Original Fiction – Romantic is the third biggest fandom on EFP after Harry Potter and One Direction. These Big 3 all have a disproportionate amount of M/F stories.

By logic, this would mean the the majority of the userbase on EFP prefers M/F stories. But then, aren't fans always complaining about “too much slash”? If “Any Two Guys” were enough to find slash appealing, wouldn't it be easier to simply write original M/M?

I think that looking at original stories might help us understand why people might prefer slash over het in some fandoms. For example, the amount of M/F stories in Original Fiction – Romantic implies that, when authors have to chance to choose what types of stories to create from scratch, they might prefer M/F stories.

This would support the theory that many people might prefer slash because of the lack of (well written/primary) canonical female characters + how well M/M relationships, both platonic and romantic, are written in canon texts in comparison to M/F or F/F relationships.

Obviously, we have to keep in mind that not all fanfic writers write original fiction and viceversa, so I'm not trying to find a universal explanation here. Also because not every website has a majority of M/F stories.

Which brings us to...

AO3 vs. EFP

As per today 20/04/21, the Italian section of AO3 contains “only” 24777 stories, divided between many different fandoms. To make a comparison, the Italian stories on AO3 amount to 5% of all the stories available on EFP. To make another comparison, the whole Naruto fandom on EFP has 20129 stories in total.

EFP has also been active for 20 years, while the boom of Italian fics on AO3 only started around 2018. We can't really make a 1:1 comparison between the two archives, but we can still try to understand the preferences of their users.

M/M and M/F stories on EFP vs. AO3

EFP: 60% M/F, 25% M/M

AO3: 56% M/M, 23% M/F

The percentages are almost swapped.

This might be because of the archives themselves. EFP has always been the general website for any Italian fandom (and actually at first it mostly hosted M/F content), while AO3 has always had a big M/M userbase. I'm basing this statement on this AO3 analysis from 2013, in comparison to this FFN analysis from 2018 which showed a majority of M/F fanworks, and finally this AO3 vs. FFN vs. Wattpad analysis from 2019, which showed that AO3 has always been the outlier for its majority of M/M content.

Then again, M/M stories on EFP have always been subject to the “usual” type of borderline-to-direct harassment that M/M fans are used to, which is something that still happens to this day especially in certain writing groups on Facebook, where the Italian writing community is pretty active. It wouldn't be weird for slashers to move to AO3, where they know they'll find more like-minded people and less headaches. (Also, the Italian section of AO3 has a lot of M/M RPF that's banned on EFP.)

The “Multi” tag on EFP

The only thing that barely resembles a multi tag on EFP is threesome, which for some reason is often used as a synonym for love triangle. So from the tags it isn't easy to understand if a fic includes an actual threesome (as in, a sex scene), a polyamorous relationship, or a simple love triangle.

This doesn't mean that there aren't poly stories on EFP—it simply means that they're impossible to find using the search system.

And that's all, I think!

#italian fandom meta #efp analysis #ao3 analysis #fandom meta

[transmascjfk]

i'm,, trans and hc chihiro to be a male..

i'm sorry, but i don't quite understand how that's transphobic. could you please explain how chihiro is transmisogynistic? (sorry if i come off as rude - that's not my intention and i genuinely just don't understand, though i would like to!!)

What is transmisoginy?

"Transmisogyny is a distinct category of transphobia in that transmisogyny mainly focuses on trans women and other transgender individuals who demonstrate femininity, whereas transphobia is a more general term, covering a broader spectrum of prejudice and discrimination towards transsexual and transgender individuals. Julia Serano states in Whipping Girl that "when the majority of jokes made at the expense of trans people center on 'men wearing dresses' or 'men who want their penises cut off' that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny. When the majority of violence and sexual assaults committed against trans people is directed at trans women, that is not transphobia – it is transmisogyny." "

Chihiro is written to mock trans women, to say that in reality trans women are secretly men, she is a man who is weak and uses being trans as a way to escape her problems, this is a thing that is also said to trans men a lot, that theyre just trying to avoid the hard parts of being a woman by becoming a man. Even if the writters intended it to be like that or not (which they probably did because transphobia is a big thing that happens a lot, obviously) it's still transmisogynistic. Thats that on that

This is a pretty common transphobic trope actually, the "Turns out this one character was actually from the opposite sex??!!", theres more examples of this in other games outside Danganronpa.

But also her experience is pretty different from other examples, her experiences are way too similar with trans womens experiences.

This is mostly for the cis people who call her a crossdresser and refuse to change their mind, on it, sit down.

Written by a trans man.

Don't tell me whats transphobic and what it's not transphobic if you're cis. Just sit down and read.

Tw: transphobia, transmisoginy, death mentions and blood in the pictures.

The game implies a lot of stuff with her dialogue, it doesn't straight up says "I don't want to be a woman anymore, I'm a man" like everyone claims it does.

[ Alt text 1:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I'm going to get stronger...and accept who I am... ]

[ Alt text 2:

Chihiro Fujisaki: Strong enough so that when someone says "even thought you're a boy" I'll be okay. I'll get better! ]

[ Alt text 3:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I wrapped myself in lies. I'm weak. I want to destroy that version of me forever! ]

[ Alt text 4:

Chihiro Fujisaki: ... I want to change. ]

[ Alt text 5:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I have to change. I don't want to be weak anymore ]

She goes to Mondo not because hes masculine, but because she admires him and his strength. She never once says it's because shes a man or because Mondo is a man.

[ Alt text 1:

Chihiro Fujisaki: Maybe talking to Mondo about it will help give me some courage... ]

[ Alt text 2:

Chihiro Fujisaki: I admire... your strength... ]

These dialogues can be read in two ways, the first one being the one the game tries the hardest to put in your head thats shes a man, all of this guessed by other people btw not what she herself says. Which is really transphobic, because she was written as a trans woman and then theyre like "uh no actually hes a man, because he was born as one but hes a coward so he started to dress as a woman to hide from his problems. Because thats what people do right? People who dress as their oppossite gender are so pathetic, specially men amiright? Ahaha"

Reading it in this way really weird, you're doing a lot of mental gymnastics because you would literally call her a trans woman with all of this if the rest of the trial, that consists of cis people assuming shes a man, didn't happen. And sadly you're following transphobic ideas by this. Because the canon is transphobic and transmysoginistic.

And the other way is just read what she says, that she just wants to be stronger and stop lying to everyone, basically about being cis, because shes not, shes amab (assigned male at birth) and thats probably what she said to Mondo, but most people when a trans person who already passes or is in their transition comes out many people tend to think "oh so youre your gender assigned at birth and not the one you claim to be?", because they don't get what being trans is and they think only "biological gender" is a thing. Basically, misgendering and invalidating the trans person.

I can guess all of this just because of how vague they decided to make her dialogue, not even showing how she tells Mondo about being amab.

What did she said to Mondo? "I'm trans"? "I'm a man"? "I was born a man"? We dont know, because they didn't show it and she died right afterwards and then everyone was like "Chihiro was secretly a man" to solve the case and thats it. A lot of people in the discourse get their information from Monokuma who isn't either Chihiro or even Mondo. Monokuma knows many things but he can't read minds to know if she was really trans or not, only she could say it but she died so she couldn't explain if shes trans or not.

[ Alt text:

A youtube comment by Gail Frisbee, posted 4 days ago, this comment was edited by the autor. The comment says:

"It's honestly increible to me when people try to argue that a scene in which a female-presenting character gets their genitals groped and then is posthumously referred to as a male from that point on can't be transphobic just because that character calls themselves a boy in some other side content later. It's on about the same level of intellectual honesty as claiming that Quiet from MGS5 isn't really fanservice because she totally breaths throught her skin you guys.

As it turns out, if you really dig down deep into the lore, Chihiro is a fictional character and the same people who wrote the genital investigation scene also wrote the lines that character says in the game as well. It's a shocking twist, I know." ]

Her fears of being outed and people founding out her secret (being trans) or being transphobic is used as a gross big twist. A trans woman being used as a mockery of trans people? Great totally normal (/sarcasm)

Read this post made by a trans woman. I'll be using this only part but it's still a great read.

[ Alt text:

So. There is a lot to unpack here, but I want to start with something that specifically hurts me as a trans woman, and that's how the game flippantly uses real world horrors trans people face as shocking reveals and twists. You can go down the list for "worst nightmares" of trans people incluiding:

Threatening to be outed against your wishes

Outing yourself to a trusted friend and being met with rejection, or worse, violence

Having your body and privacy examined and invaded

Having your deadname used and being misgendered after death, when you can't correct them ]

Now, let's go to her backstory for a bit. I will be using the wiki for this. (Which sadly uses he/him for her 💔)

" When Chihiro was a child, he became the subject of harassment and bullying. He was always told to "be a man" and that he was "so weak despite being a boy", and because of that, Chihiro slowly but surely began to develop a "weakness complex". In order to escape the bullying, Chihiro began to dress as a girl so that people wouldn't bully him as a weak boy. "

This doesn't sound like a normal crossdresser, this sounds like a trans woman who was bullied for being different when she was younger, like many trans people, and then she decided to transition because she's a woman, she wanted to be more feminine and stop being seen as a person shes not. Specially after so many people tell her to basically man up when she doesn't want that, because shes not a man.

Have you ever heard of the classic stories of "since I was little i knew i was different, i was a boy who liked playing with dolls and was more feminine than the rest" or "i used to be a tomboy when i was little, i had mostly male friends, i liked playing with car toys and was more masculine than other kids" coming from trans people? This just sounds as these types of stories to me.

People also like to say that alter ego uses he/him pronouns and says shes a boy. Many trans people can misgender themselves for personal reasons too guys, she could've been trying to misgender herself because she didn't felt like she wasn't enough to be a real woman, this happens a lot to trans people. If people constantly tell you that you're not actually transgender or you just feel like you're faking it then you might actually believe it, thats were most "detransitioners" come from. And thats basically what they made her, a detransitioner.

Some of you might also don't get how shes trans because you think she doesn't perfect or exact trans stereotypes. Trans experiences can be similar on the feeling of not fitting in, dysphoria, etc. But trans experiences, stories, transitions and complete lifes can be very different, because we all (including cis people) live different lifes, experience, process and cope with things differently. So i can understand why you might not get her being trans coded at first, don't worry. But try instead of just not caring because you don't get it at the first try, to see what trans people say.

This whole discourse its mostly cis people talking over trans people about their own experiences (incluiding the dead trans coded characters experience) saying if theyre valid or not and denying stuff not wanting to learn anything, completely refusing to it because "In canon hes a boy" ok then in canon shes written in a transphobic way too but most of you don't care about that. You would rather call her a crossdresser than try to acknowledge how obviously trans coded she is and how thats used as transphobia.

The way most cis people act in this discourse is very transphobic to me to be honest, if you think you're a good ally but act like this then you should get more educated on the topic as a whole and about trans people too.

-the trans Chihiro flag to finish this up, she has a bit boobie! good for her! good for her.

#chihiro discourse #discourse #transphobia #transphobia cw #transphobia tw #chihiro fujisaki #if i forgot about something please tell me!! #trigger happy havoc

[citrus-rhyme]

I've been wanting to write about Vaggie, and I believe it has been long overdue.

So here it is, a bunch of words to convey my love for Vaggie and how I imagine Vaggie came to be, thanks to the creator and the fandom.

Disclaimer: Themes of violence, abuse, death, suicide

Now that’s out of the way, here are my ideas(none of this is Canon):

• Vaggie’s real name is something like ”Evangeline”, which means ”good” or ”good news”. She thinks it’s too long and too pristine for her. She never liked it then and she doesn't like it now, that’s why she let’s people call her by her stripper name.

• She wasn’t raised in a well-off family but they make it work somehow. They knew about her “jobs” though they silently don’t support her decisions. Only God knows how much Vaggie cared for them, and how much she tried to help make ends meet. She had to learn how to be independent at a young age and she took every job opportunity she can get, even the ones that made her uncomfortable.

• Basing on her appearance(and some lost info in the fandom), she died young. Maybe she died when she was in Senior high or in College? assuming she has education. She was a smart girl nonetheless, could have gotten a good future in Business if her life didn't go downhill.

• Vaggie tends to get into fights because of her upfront attitude, she created a lot of enemies. She had a few people that she considered friends but she still got backstabbed. That’s why she’s wary of the people she meets now.

• Back when she was alive, she hasn't fully grasped with her sexuality yet. Relationships always ends up in a bad break up with her, she’ll just say it’s over when ever and leave the other clueless of what they did wrong. Vaggie feels bad after it though, thinking that it’s her fault that nothing goes right and hurting her exes.

• Vaggie tried to stay away from relationships for awhile, but then this girl comes along. A preppy girl named ”Abigail” who goes in the same university as Vaggie, who likes to sing and dance, and was your typical girl next door. The type that Vaggie’s group would avoid, but holy shit was she smitten with her.

• Vaggie has never met a girl so sweet, so genuinely kind and cool, that she felt she had a connection with. Never have Vaggie smiled so wide and be open to someone besides Abigail. She silenced her inner demons.

It was like they were meant to be...

• In some point of their friendship, Vaggie got the courage to confess to her. It was the second nerve-wracking thing she did in her life. The scene that day was something like in a rom-com flick, where the main stumbles over their words of love and just edging the audience to reach the movie’s resolution where the main gets their happy ending.

• But life is not like a movie. Of course, Abigail rejected her, she has a boyfriend and Vaggie knew about him but she thought Abigail felt the same way enough to break up with him. Vaggie expected that their friendship was over and that Abigail wouldn't want to see her again, she was prepared for the worst but when she felt a hand holding hers and looked up to see the sad smile from the girl who rejected her. Vaggie didn’t shed a tear that day. Instead, she continued to stay by her side.

• Everything should have been okay from this point on, but misfortune just seems to stick on Vaggie like a gum. Abigail��s circle of friends didn’t like Vaggie from the first encounter, so when they found out about Vaggie’s move on Miss popular, they weren’t pleased. Vaggie got harassed by them(they even had the audacity to harass Vaggie’s family)when Abigail wasn't around.

When Abigail finally caught them in the act, she was furious and stopped seeing them.Abigail’s past cliques then started to bad mouthing her and spreading false rumors about her throughout the school. Abigail didn’t mind, she knew what they were all wrong but it did took a toll on her along with Vaggie.

On the other hand, Abigail’s boyfriend started to believe about the rumors that she and Vaggie are actually secretly dating behind his back. He confronted Abigail many times about it, saying things that she should stop being friends with Vaggie and that she’s a “bad influence” to the point that they fought about it until Abigail decidedly to break up with her partner for being “close minded”.

Days near their school graduation, Vaggie discovered a grim news about her beloved friend. Abigail was reportedly found dead in her house due to strangulation that was implied it was suicide. Vaggie was devastated about her death, thinking that it was because of her that pushed Abigail to her limit.

That night, Vaggie got herself so fucked up to numb the pain she was feeling. She was walking down alleyways thumbling and ugly sobbing.

Unaware of the presence that was following her through the darkness, until it grabbed her from the back and strangled her. Panic flooded through her veins but she didn’t fight back at first until she saw the figure above her was. It was Abigail’s boyfriend. Realization hit her and Anger took over her delirious body, she flipped him over and started punching the life out of him. Her hits only staggered when the male reached out a broken bottle that was sitting in the alley then shoved it to her left eye.

When the boy was about to escape, Vaggie dragged him back by his ankles and brought out a cutter from her pockets that she always carried and stabbed him repeatedly as she screams in frustration.

As her victim’s body grew limp, he said his last words to her; ” It's your fault that she’s gone”.

Next thing that Vaggie remembers, is that she was standing near the ledges of an overpass, watching the sunrise from the corner of the city and basking in the glow of its warmth before waking up in hell. Alone.

#hazbin hotel #vaggie #oc #headcanon #im nor sure if its considered that #so maybe #ficlet? #can you tell how i didnt #grammar check this #part 1

[purplesurveys]

747

Have you ever worn those Drunk Goggles? Uh no. I’ve never heard of those either. Which decade before the 90s had the best makeup trends? I’ve never really paid attention to makeup. I do love how actresses looked like in the 40s and 50s though, if that counts. Can you agree to disagree, or usually get upset over conflicting views? I only get upset if someone’s views implies impinging on basic human rights, like saying that women can’t get abortions or if drug addicts deserve to die. Otherwise you do you dude. Does it bug you when long socks are constantly falling down? Yeaaah I had a pair of loose socks in high school that would constantly fall down whenever I walked and I hated them. I always forgot to stop wearing them completely. Rodeos -- entertaining, or cruel? I can honestly tell you that I don’t know what goes on in one of them. I’m not even sure if rodeo refers to a sport, a physical area, or an event.

Why can't politicians debate politely? Because most of them aren’t even supposed to be fucking politicians, if you’re also from where I live. Who is the best female rocker? Why? Joan Jett, partly because she’s one of the very few female rockstars I know but also because I know she’s the best one out of all the ones I know of. I love her work both for The Runaways and the Blackhearts. Can you even taste a difference between Cheez Its and Cheez Nips? I’ve only had Cheez Its. What about between Pepsi and Coke or Sprite and 7Up? No, all soda tastes nasty to me. Do you care what kind of toilet paper you use? Not really. What color of roses do you find the prettiest? Gonna go the basic route and say red. It just feels the most romantic. Which celebrity has the cutest butt? I don’t go looking at their butts and thinking which one is the cutest D: Do you still have any decent arcades nearby? Yeah we have an arcade chain called Timezone and all of the ones I’ve been to are really fun and entertaining. Gab and I will sometimes go to one after school for some stress relief. After a holiday, do you go to the store to get candy on sale? No. That doesn’t happen here and eh, I don’t really like candy. Did Marilyn Monroe look better before or after cosmetic surgery? I didn’t even know she had surgery, but I’ve always thought she was attractive. Bullfighters who get gored kind of had it coming, right? Yes. I’ve never really felt bad for them even if I see them being tossed around like fucking paper. Don’t they agitate the bulls on purpose? I get stressed out just thinking about it. If you make surveys, do you care what people rate them? Have you ever accidentally found porn when looking for something else? Maybe once or twice in the past, but it was unremarkable enough for me not to remember them until today lol. Ever run into those 'celebrity lookalike porn' blogs? No? If you're not religious, is the Bible basically just an old collection of short stories? Not all are short stories. Some are psalms, songs, prophecies, etc. But they are short stories, psalms, songs, and prophecies that I don’t believe in. Do you think religious leaders just like to manipulate people? Yes. At least the ones I come across do. The amazing priest from today’s mass livestream was bitching in his homily about why liquor stores continue to be open but masses couldn’t be held. Uh genius, maybe it’s because masses are public gatherings, and because you never see a hundred people at a time gathered in a liquor store? Couldn’t resist an eyeroll when I heard it. Why do so many fans with OTP's insist that their ship is real? Oh my god OTP, I haven’t heard that term since 2013... sometimes they just like the idea of their ship being together forever and ever and it makes them happy so whatever, let them fangirl/boy. This was me with AJPunk many years ago hahaha; we were just lucky enough to witness them become canon in real life. Even when the writers (or real people that they ship) tell them it isn't? ^ Same reason. Some people are happy from simply fantasizing their OTPs. It should be ok as long as it doesn’t strain the relationship between the shipped people, which is exactly what happened to Louis and Harry of 1D lol. Do you draw fanart of anything? No. Do annoying city kids ever loiter outside your library and harass people? No? That’s so specific lmao. Do you like to hang out at your local library? We don’t have local libraries because our government has never prioritized public spaces such as those, and parks. We only have malls. On that subject, do you like the smell of books? New ones, yeah. I can’t stand the smell of much older books. What's on your Reading List, so-to-speak, right now? Read any great non-fiction books lately? No. But thanks for reminding me I downloaded a bunch of wrestling autobiographies last year that I completely forgot about until this moment. Maybe I’ll start on one of those one of these days. What do you like on your burger? Caramelized onions, special sauces, brioche buns, sometimes jalapeños, sometimes bacon. What do you NOT like on your burger? Tomatoes and lettuce. Do you like 'loose meat' sandwiches? I’ve never heard of those. Have you ever heard of the restaurant Maid Rite? Never have. What is the best thing to put in a grilled cheese (other than cheese)? I don’t really have grilled cheese sandwiches. Homemade tomato soup, or just out of a can? Hate tomato soup. Favorite thing to see in museums? Artifacts. I love all museums, but I enjoy and appreciate history museums more than any other kind. Have you ever seen an unwrapped mummy in person? I haven’t. What things have people shamed you for? Liking wrestling, mostly. I was also shamed for my name and the way I looked (I had really short hair) as a kid, which is why I struggled to like my name until I got to college which was the first time people didn’t make a fuss about my name and even told me how much they like it. Do you always reply to private messages? (On any website) Not all. If I don’t recognize who sent it, I wouldn’t bother to reply. What device do you seem to always be buying batteries for? We don’t really go out to buy batteries anymore. Most of our gadgets are rechargeable. What's worse -- snow, or all the mud after it melts? Can’t relate. Are there any 'adult stores' in your area? I don’t think so. If there are, they’re hidden enough that I don’t know about them. Have you been inside of them/shopped there before? Yeah we went to one in Metrowalk. It was fun but I mostly felt uncomfortable hahaha. Do you watch The Masked Singer? Any theories? No. Favorite Alfred Hitchcock film? Haven’t watched any. I tried watching Vertigo once but if I remember correctly, I stopped because my copy didn’t have subtitles and I couldn’t follow the plot lol. Do you like Funko Pop figurines? Sure. I’m much less enthusiastic about them now for sure, but back in high school I used to want to start collecting them so bad. If so, do you have any? Which ones would you like to have? No but I’ve bought one as a gift once. I got Gabie the Funko figurine of Dana Scully from The X-Files for Christmas 2015. Which ones do you think they should make (but haven't yet)? I dunno if they’ve made ones for them but the cast of Queer Eye should definitely get their own.

#survey #surveys

[tlbodine]

Summer time, Summertime madness (1980s slasher edition)

Since I worked on that longwinded post a few days ago about slashers, I was itching to work through a few of them in our film series. The 1980s was jam-packed with slashers, some good, most utterly derivative. Last night we watched two of them, both with a summer camp theme. 

Forewarning: Both of these movies have twist endings, and I’m going to talk about them, so SPOILERS AHEAD. 

Friday the 13th (1980), directed by Sean S. Cunningham, launched one of the largest and best-known horror franchises in history. Surely you’re familiar with Jason Voorhees, the silent hockey-mask-wearing, machete-wielding killer? 

Well, good, because he’s not in this movie. 

In this initial installment, you never see the killer in action, so as not to give away the big reveal. Instead, all of the murders are done in POV shots (or sometimes happen off-screen so we can find the grisly body afterward). Decried at the time for its violence, the film plays now as being quite reserved, with really only a couple of impressively gory shots. 

If somehow you’re not familiar with the plotline yet, the story revolves around Camp Crystal Lake, a summer camp that is reopening after being shut down for a long time due to a string of misfortunes -- a drowning, a double-homicide, a series of fires, etc. Ostensibly hired to get the camp ready for business, a group of teenage camp counselors take the opportunity to instead have sex, play strip poker, goof around, and make questionable wardrobe decisions. They’re separated out and killed one by one by the mysterious unseen killer, until the killer’s identity is revealed....

....and it’s a WOMAN! GASP! 

The killer is none other than Jason’s mother! 

Wait who’s Jason? The person whose death was only extremely vaguely alluded to in an earlier line of dialogue and who we’ve received zero foreshadowing about to give this twist any weight or relevance! OH YEAH. 

Ahem. Anyway. We discover that the mother is the killer because, um, she holds a deep grudge against the camp for her son’s death. He drowned, you see, while camp counselors who should be watching him were busy fornicating, and now she has promised vengeance on....camp counselors? 

Well, sure, that’s an origin story. 

The thing that makes Friday the 13th memorable is the ending sequence. Our heroine, a “final girl” who survived the night by avoiding the dangers of sex, struggles for a long time against Mrs. Voorhees, finally decapitating her and escaping exhausted on a canoe out on the eponymous Crystal lake. She awakens just in time for the police to show up....but then SURPRISE! The decaying, undead visage of Jason himself leaps from the water, grabbing her and dragging her down! 

We cut then to her waking up in a hospital. It was all a dream! OR was it! DUN DUN DUN. 

The ending perfectly sets up the franchise, allowing for the hand-off of the supernatural killer reins. It’s also hugely and obviously derivative (or an homage, however you want to look at it) of the ending of Carrie. 

Although it had certainly been teased in other films, Friday the 13th was really the movie to explicitly spell out the sex = death formula that became so associated with the teen slashers of the 1980s. It also doubled down on some other established tropes, really becoming a seminal text in the horror canon.  

But it’s really not a particularly great film, and it’s become more underwhelming each time I’ve viewed it. 

Sleepaway Camp (1983) is an utterly baffling cipher of a film. It is the sole film directed by Robert Hiltzick, who made it shortly after leaving film school. He later sold the rights, allowing others to make sequels that he had little to do with, and became an attorney, years later being quite surprised at the success of the film, which was never commercially viable but which gained a substantial cult following. 

The storyline is pretty straightforward. In the beginning, we see a family killed in a boating accident; eight years later, the surviving child -- raised now with her cousin -- is being shipped off to a summer camp. The girl, Angela, is shy and quiet, and misfortune seems to follow her as camp counselors and fellow campers alike tease, threaten, and sexually harass her. 

But lucky for her, the people who torment her start dying in innovatively gruesome ways. But is shy little Angela the killer? or is her cousin murdering to protect her?

Well, as it turns out....kind of neither? Because Angela is indeed the killer, but she’s not Angela. She’s actually Peter -- her brother. We learn through a flashback that when Peter’s father and sister die, he’s taken in by his aunt, who -- deciding she already has a son, and would rather have a girl instead -- forces him to take on a female identity. 

The final scene is the big reveal, a deeply unsettling journey into the uncanny valley as Angela’s face, wide-eyed and gaping-mouthed with a primal scream, is superimposed onto a body far too adult, muscular, and clearly male, naked phallus and all. 

It’s such an incredibly unnerving image, viscerally evocative, that it pretty much single-handedly secured the film its famous cult status. 

But also...what? 

The film is baffling, artistic in ways that may be purely accidental. The kill sequences are innovative and deeply disturbing in part because of the camera’s restraint: Much of the murder and mayhem happens in silhouette or is merely implied, leaving the details to your imagination. In one case especially involving a curling iron, that implication is toe-curlingly horrific. Were the most effective aspects of the film engineered with skill? Or merely a happy accident, a side effect of a poor budget? It’s honestly hard to say. 

The film is also....overtly rife with homoerotic subtext. Male counselors walk around in daisy dukes and croptops or mesh shirts. Female bodies are almost never objectified -- even in the shower death scene! -- but we have ample male nudity including a dozen or so bare male asses. Angela/Peter’s father is revealed to have been gay, and no context is given to that revelation to tell us what it means to the narrative. 

Is Sleepaway Camp a homophobic, transphobic, shallow tale predicated on the “shock value” of discovering that a girl is actually a boy? Or is it an empowering revenge fantasy about the dangers of being forced to comply with an identity not your own? Is the movie trying to say something with its imagery, or is it just throwing out a bunch of evocative-but-empty ciphers to get a reaction?

It’s fascinating and baffling, a puzzle that kind of demands to be solved but is impossible to solve. I feel like I’m going to be trying to process this one for a long time. 

#horror movies #horror by the decade #horror through the decades #1980s #friday the 13th #sleepaway camp #slashers #slasher movies #horror #spoilers

[celticheartedfangirl]

My OUAT Rewatch -- S6E10 -- Wish You Were Here

Link to Rewatch Review and Ranking archive

This episode was glorious.  GLORIOUS.  I mean yeah, there are nits to pick at and I’ll certainly do that, but this was basically a Swan Queen fanfic come to life with Princess Emma and her “Prince” -- er -- Queen -- and the CS fans went totally apeshit and it was BEAUTIFUL.

BEAUTIFUL.

No game show today -- Emma’s supposed to look like that, and she even slams herself for it.  Like I said . . . . . GLORIOUS.  And Emma wants Regina to have the “key to her kingdom.” ACTUAL LINE on the show.  Bless.  

It took them TEN episodes this season to get to an episode that didn’t make me bored or stabby or just say “well this isn’t THAT bad” -- I mean the ratings are below 1.0 at this point due to 9 episodes of utter bullshit, but at least we see the light at the end of the tunnel?  Sort of?

Also this guy.  Come on in, the only thing being dragged in here are the writers, the CS fans, and the utter stupidity of the logic of the Wish Realm . . . . . which we will have MORE fun with in S7!

Okay, first of all -- let’s link this BEAUTIFUL post paralleling Sleeping Beauty and her prince to Emma and Regina . . . . 

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/180498595422/frankie-blue-sq-sleeping-beauty-prince-phillip

So before the nitpicking starts, lets discuss the things I enjoyed:

1.  Swan Queen OBVIOUSLY

2.  Rumbelle FINAL-FUCKING-LY having a conversation and not being a pile of OOC bullshit.  I still have nits to pick at that -- but they’re tiny nits and being starved for content after being fucked over by the writers for THREE YEARS now I’ll take what I can get.  Which is sad but it is what it is.  So the content wins over the nits to pick.  For now.

3.  Okay, I enjoyed much of the Wish Realm.  I mean -- I have nits there too and those I WILL pick at, but most of that will be in S7.  But at THIS POINT -- it was about 85% fun, 15% bullshit.  See below for bullshit.  

So that I enjoyed.  It was truly the first episode of this season that I consider to be, overall, actually GOOD.  Good writers should not have their first quality episode in their SIXTH SEASON to be halfway into said season, but these are not good writers so is anyone really surprised?  Also, I pointed out after EPISODE FOUR that the writers had already switched gears by killing off one of their touted S6 villains so I’m presuming, aside from Aladdin and Jasmine, that the rest of the Land of Untold Stories will REAMAIN untold because the writers have the attention span of a gnat and suck at follow through.  Am I correct?

(Oh lord I’m SO GLAD A&E never got their hack hands on THAT.  Can you even imagine?)

So aside from Agrabah stuff, say bye to the Untold Stories.  Perhaps you will be found on A&E’s AMAZING STORIES that is currently hiding on Apple+TV with zero accolades or attention.  Which is really what they deserve.  

One more nit to pick at the writers -- can you please -- PLEASE stop with the rape stuff?  Look . . . . we all know that you have some sort of fetish for female rapists, you already have two of them in canon and you’ll be adding a third in S7.  STOP.  Its gross.  Its never addressed the way it should be.  So the Evil Queen making rape suggestions to Aladdin, and the only response from him is “ew” and its played at FUNNY?

I mean if this were the first time the show had ever done anything like this, MAYBE it could have come off as a comedic moment.  MAYBE.  But in S6, after a long history of rapey shit?  Nope.  

Okay . . . . . onto the CS fan stuff . . . . now this IS funny, and it may take a while . . . . . 

I think by now, anyone reading these reviews, present or future, if you’ve gotten this far, you GET that I’m not a Hook fan or a CS fan.  But I’m not really sure if you understand just HOW BAD it was while this show was originally airing.  And since we’ve now hit THE episode where the CS fandom lost their collective shit in the most ridiculous way possible, I think this is a good point to explain -- especially for those who weren’t there during the original run -- what was up with this.

See, the CS fans, once S4 started, got collectively more annoying with every episode.  And it wasn’t just the general fans -- although they WERE bad -- they had a handful of ringleaders that were just flat out AWFUL people that would hijack the posts of fans of Rumbelle or Swan Queen or Swanfire and just tear into them for no reason.  And if they couldn’t hijack because they were blocked, they’d screen cap and proceed to harass on their own blogs.  This was a DAILY occurrence. DAILY.  For THREE YEARS.  Also, many of us are very certain that the IMDB boards got shut down -- ALL OF THEM -- because of an especially rabid CS fan that went there for no purpose other than trolling, and there was no option to block on IMDB like on Tumblr.   

Also, the CS fans had the support of the media.  Every media outlet was up CS’s ass by S4, deserved or not.  It was VERY difficult to find any outlet that said positive things about Rumbelle or Swan Queen, and when we did it was cause for a tear-filled celebration of joy and relief.  And this RARELY happened.

Also, there was one particular reporter for Entertainment Tonight, Leanne Aguilera, who was so far up CS and A&E’s ass that she probably qualified as a legitimate hemorrhoid.  She liberally blocked Rumbelle and Swan Queen fans on Twitter and wanted NOTHING to do with us.  So when she’d “ask for questions” on Twitter for interviews, of fucking COURSE they were all going to be CS questions, because EVERYONE ELSE was blocked by her!  

Lastly, ABC’s official social media everything was CS this and CS that.  They promoted the shit out of them, non-stop, and did so without apology.  And Adam, one of the head show runners, mostly ignored fans of Rumbelle and Swan Queen on Twitter, but he’d HAPPILY engage with the CS fans.  DAILY.  

Also, we non-CS fans were told -- repeatedly -- to shut up or stop watching if we didn’t like what we were seeing.  They heaped praise upon praise to Adam and the writers and thought that we were the most horrible people on the planet for even DARING to challenge their brilliant skills.  

So knowing all of THAT . . . . after this episode . . . . which was basically a Swan Queen love letter . . . . . the CS fans LOST THEIR SHIT.  Here are some of the glorious results of that . . . . . . . 

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154091883637/omg-that-episode-swan-queen-af-tribute-to

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154061253177/c-fans-being-obtuse-as-fuck-on-twitter-this

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154088222312/and-the-hits-just-keep-on-coming

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154075793467/honest-question-are-the-disgruntled-c-fans

Please make it a point to check out the replies in that last one because some of them are BEAUTIFUL, and also there is a flat out HIJACK of that post that pefectly illustrates all of the bullshit that I just laid out for you here.  Eh, I’ll make it easy for you -- here’s the hijack -- with comments:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154118960442/honest-question-are-the-disgruntled-c-fans

Okay . . . . the wish realm . . . . here are the 15% of things that I call bullshit on:

So Neal/Baelfire is dead in EVERY REALM.  Whee.  We get it.  But also . . . . if he was IN this realm, then why would Rumple need to be searching for him via dark curse?  Makes no sense.

Speaking of Rumple -- in S2 he said he was NOT trapped and could have escaped any time he wanted to, he just didn’t want to.  So WTF?

Why is Henry still named HENRY?  

Why is the Wish Robin Hood YOUNG -- he should be the same age as Snow and Charming. 

Now I know that A&E had some bullshit explanation, which some people bought, but going into S7 -- it’s just stupid.  STUPID.  

Finally, I made a post after this episode -- which TANKED in the ratings, BTW -- that I’d like to share:

https://celticheartedfangirl.tumblr.com/post/154082059462/so-the-ratings-tanked-last-night-for-ouat

I stand by that post.  And frankly, I think I was RIGHT about the rest of S6.  And everything else.  

Points tally:

40 points to start

5 points for Swan Queen

3 points for the implied Swanfire

1 point for in character Belle -- I personally don’t feel she’s THERE yet, but A for effort

5 points for in character Rumple

5 points deducted for Hook

Despite the nits to pick, I can’t deduct anything more and I’ll give this one the 25 bonus because it’s really pulled the show out of its slump.

Total points:  74

Follow #celtichearted OUAT ranking tag for more to come!

#celtichearted ouat ranking #wish you were here #anti hook #anti cs #anti cs fans #anti ouat writers

[land-of-brains-and-chocolate]

god it WILL NOT stop bothering me until i talk about it. the way we got here. it’s not just about the book anymore, not at all, and it’s certainly never been about “shipping”, at this point it’s how helpless the tactics of the guy make me feel.

step one: refer to people who have read previous venom books and noticed the trend throughout the nineties to portray eddie and the symbiote as a man and an agender alien in an ambiguously or not-so-ambiguously romantic relationship, which was picked up on and completely unambiguously canonised in the very last run, consistently refer to these people as “shippers”, lovingly condescend to them, do not ever treat “the ship” as existing beyond their imagination

[I LOVE THAT YOU GUYS EXIST]

result: make people forget that this is a complete misrepresentation and he has received no criticism whatsoever for “not making a ship canon” because that is not what he did, he decanonised it and then denied doing so and painted everyone it ever meant something to as essentially deluded - and, considering that that’s all they are, he’s being awfully kind and accommodating, isn’t he?

evaluation: a reason to harass him? no! really kind of manipulative? yes!

step two: actively seek out these no-good shippers on tumblr! tell them that you’re watching them! read their detailed posts in which they express their grievances about your comic book to their friends and misrepresent their points on your twitter so your bajillion followers can affirm that Those People are categorically wrong about everything!

[EDDIE IS CODEPENDENT]

people are mad at him because he said eddie was codependent! not because he’s reframing the extremely rare story of a troubled queer relationship that was ultimately still a redemptive force in these characters’ lives as an unhealthy compulsion that corrupts, hm, what a fresh and unfamiliar take, no reason why this would strike a nerve - and, recently, of course, as something inherently abusive, every bit of hope and change for the better vile and fake.

literally just start vaguing about people’s personal tumblr blogs on your professional twitter account with the little, little blue checkmark and everything, use that to make passive-aggressive references to people’s posts! why not!

[LOVE EACH OTHER]

people talk about how they like a symbiote and its host getting along (and they did, that very night, talk quite a lot about ngozi)? that is so dumb and lame.

[EVERYTHING IS AWESOME]

people get sick of edgy shock factor writing that throws one dark theme after another at them without treating any of them with the consideration they deserve? people expect some moments of levity in a venom book?

they’re asking for stories with no conflict where nothing bad ever happens! but it’s okay, he knows better, he knows you just don’t know what you want! it’s not like endless sadness is just as likely to be dreadfully boring or unintentionally hilarious as endless happiness!

result: o w n e d god he sure is shutting down every point no one has ever made

evaluation: a reason to harass him? no! really kind of manipulative? yes!

step three: literally get so mad at people on tumblr talking about your comic that you not only boil their opinions down to THE SHIIIIP but literally say that their opinions don’t matter because they literally would never say it “to your face” literally because it’s “easy to be brave on tumblr”

literally

say these words

[IT’S EASY TO BE BRAVE ON TUMBLR]

call people chicken shits for NOT talking to you directly! and then! BLOCK everybody who talks to you directly! or quote retweet them so your followers can descend like vultures! actually acknowledge that it takes bravery to interact with you if you’re in the Tumblr Demographic, you know, one of Those People, and frame yourself as in the right for it???

am i losing my mind???

[SIX PEOPLE ON TUMBLR]

get so mad at people on tumblr talking about your comic that you not only claim they’re the only people ever to talk badly of it but imply that you’re one step away from namedropping the specific perpetrators. that’s not ominous at all!

it’s an age-old question: how many times does one of marvel’s top writers with legions of fans have to imply his antagonistic awareness of your specific existence before you’re on a first name basis? and also paranoid?

result: stir shit. be a shit stirrer. faint when your shit stirring does in fact stir shit. you can’t go “you would never” and be surprised when people do, you... can’t...

evaluation: a reason to harass him? no! really kind of manipulative? yes!

step four: whip out your ally card... to whip the people you’re supposed to be allied to with it. try to use your knowledge of queer issues to shut down actual queer people.

[I DON’T THINK IT’S APPROPRIATE TO ASSUME GENDER]

either that, or straight-up make a “did you just assume my gender” joke. i can’t find the original tweet anymore, so it’s possible it was that and he deleted it because it was too blatant, lol.

result: MAYBE YOU GUYS WERE THE PROBLEMATIC ONES ALL ALONG

evaluation: a reason to harass him? no! really kind of manipulative? yes!

step five: remember that interview where he outright stated that he just wants to, just to be the definite venom run? just to put the biggest dent in canon he can? just to break everybody’s toys and emerge victorious as the one person with the valid take on venom?

yeah, those things become more noticeable in the actual book, over time, and acceptance of that is, uh, not universal? not everybody’s up for him spending several issues in a row on e s t a b l i s h i n g  d o m i n a n c e by having eddie sit around as other characters tell him that a ton of stuff other writers from michelinie to thompson to costa to kaminski to slott to jenkins have done actually sucked and was wrong and fake and never happened? through retcons that make no sense, like, factually don’t fit?

people don’t like you walking back character and relationship development to further your end goal of recasting the symbiote as the personification of addiction and abuse instead of itself a survivor of extreme abuse who has been constantly denied personhood in a way that is frighteningly resonant and who has been going through a genuine redemption arc for years now?

people don’t like you acting like eddie never had a reason for being who he is before and you had to make one up? one that doesn’t fit the character at all, which you didn’t realise because you apparently thought the character had no characterisation before you came along?

you can imagine how these things might spark nerd rage?

and you can probably imagine who this nerd rage was blamed on, yeah?

these criticisms inherently require knowledge of venom canon, because they’re largely about disrespect for it, these criticisms are not related to shipping of any kind - but of course the only thing people could possibly be mad about is the "ship", the only ones making a fuss are those “shippers”, those casuals, Those People who only care about One Thing and don’t understand the real gritty reality of the, god you get it i’m making fun

[I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT]

you’re the only one, don. it’s true.

and i know, i know for a fact, that he’s been aware of criticism from other groups all along, that he was, for example, witness to this livestream that spends like a solid hour a month mercilessly dragging him through the dirt, and you know what the extent of his response was?

thanks for checking the book out.

that’s it. that’s all. this guy hasn’t gotten any less loud about criticising him, either. wishing for his book’s cancellation and retconning. but nothing more. he gets to keep to himself. he is #valid.

people have been taking the piss out of him on youtube, on reddit. only tumblr ever earned his ire. only tumblr gets namedropped at convention panels.

and now, now more than ever? you better believe your regular run-of-the-mill nerds, straight, male, utterly uninterested in the icky stuff, everything, are mad. almost everyone who’s truly tits deep in venom lore is mad.

and so he’s said he’s received threats. and i’m sure he has. i’ve received threats. you’ve received threats. it’s never okay. it sure as shit never helps to send them.

he’s gotten a lot of fucking inappropriate personal vitriol! lots of it actually “ship”-related! i’m categorically against contacting the guy for any reason!

but who is to blame? who do people accept as being to blame? who do news outlets report on as being to blame? when, i presume, not every single one of them actually went “i’m doing this specifically because i’m a (thunder clap) shipper”? when large-scale retcons are literally always met with nerd rage? when a shipper-less fandom probably still would’ve had threats?

[THIS IS INSANE]

[IT’S THE SHIPPERS]

result: if all criticism = “shippers”, and “shippers” = harassment, then everyone who has no actual idea of what’s going on but who doesn’t like “shippers” is automatically on his side and nobody who isn’t a “shipper” wants to risk the association by criticising him.

get this stuff out to his followers, to news outlets, to people completely uninvolved and contextless, and watch the bile run over everywhere because lots of people are ready to accept this narrative in comic book spaces.

have people in the replies and comments eagerly discussing how this is more proof that c+o+m+i+c+s+gate was right and they’re the only reasonable ones. how disgusting and crazy "shippers” are. how donny should keep doing his best to trigger the gays. there’s no pushback against these ideas.

and i’m so fucking stuck between wanting to defend the man, wring my hands and apologise on behalf of the other These People, because i don’t see anything justifiable in their actions, and in being... just... just so frustrated... with everything... with throwing everyone out to the dogs... and claiming that he doesn’t mean to... when he has this whole history of belittling "shippers” specifically... of making sure their public image is that of people who just don’t know what they’re talking about and are in no way worth empathising with... of only drawing attention to the aggressive ones and blocking the reasonable ones

when he literally only stands to benefit from doing all this. 

this is massive amounts of free positive pr.

this makes him essentially immune to criticism of any kind.

evaluation: a reason to harass him? no! really kind of manipulative? yes! 

i forgot! somewhere along the line, he did do something very good and disavowed association with co/mics/ga/te!

[C0M1C5G8]

why the fuck am i censoring? tumblr search stopped working decades ago.

anyway, it should come as no particular surprise why these people assumed he would side with them. not that any high profile writer who values his standing would, really. are there any? maybe there are, i’m not up to date on this drama.

i just think it’s funny - genuinely not his fault, but hilarious - that this was apparently enough to inspire a “boycott”? and it was a fart in the wind?

which is the least surprising thing ever because there is actually nothing whatsoever to hold these people’s ire to be found in venom? excluding aliens, there has been one real and present character who isn’t a white guy in 11 issues? it is actively less queer than it was before? donny has never caved to the essjaywoo pressure in any way, shape or form? what were they... thinking? it’s almost like these people are dumb?

all they've done is ensure that, without it actually doing anything, venom gets the commendation for being A Comic The Gators Don't Like?

anyway.

what do we do moving forward? i don’t know. nothing. not harassing anyone. keep being salty on tumblr. do not engage him. i think i’m more about stalling the chain reaction he’s caused than the man himself. if you’re not a “shipper”, of course, keep posting your criticism, maybe stand up for “shippers” who are being dogpiled over genuine criticism, don’t let people say This Is All Proof Of How You Can’t Have Queer Content Because Queers Are Crazy.

and be nice to mike costa.

#i feel a lot better actually #it sure took a lot of words to achieve that

[hamliet]

Mao Dao Zu Shi’s Monster

Call it war, call it threat You can bet they all will follow For in times like this, they'll do just as I say

We don’t like what we don’t understand; in fact it scares us...

“Mob Song,” Beauty and the Beast

I finally finished watching Mao Dao Zu Shi, and I read as much as is translated right now and know the gist of what happens but someone please lend me those last three chapters sob sob sob. This meta will have spoilers from the novel, apologies. I thought about making two versions but that seemed a bit too much, and the entire story is so perfectly structured thematically that I just had to talk about all of it. As a warning, this meta will discuss the canon-depicted homophobia a bit. And sorry but I ramble a bit here :(

In my review of the anime, I said this:

For a series that starts off with our heroes fighting ghouls and quickly includes battles with zombies, tortoise dinosaurs, etc., it soon becomes apparent that the real monsters the characters are fighting aren’t the dead nor are they the unknown like the tortoise. They’re the characters themselves. Mao Dao Zu Shi offers a pretty resounding rebuke of society and its tendency to drive people to monstrous deeds, and does this in a number of fascinating ways. The characters’ flaws are almost always two-sided coins in that their flaws are also their strengths, but with the right (or really, wrong) circumstances, they can destroy the best parts of them and turn them into monsters. 

And hooray, these ideas continue to be explored in the novel, and as the story approaches its climax, it becomes pretty blunt as well. Jin Ling’s arc kind of encapsulates all of these ideas, as in the end he’s left realizing he cannot hate any of the people he spent years blaming for his parents’ deaths, and realizes that that doesn’t mean it’s his fault. The series doesn’t point to him and say “look how wrong you were!” but rather “it’s hard, isn’t it?” Because Jin Ling’s hatred was not created in a vacuum; instead, it stems from the messages society gives him: its tendency to label people as villains, its messages of toxic masculinity and homophobia, all of which are constrained in an overall lack of empathy.

Jin Ling’s realization includes the overall basic themes that shit happens in life that you don’t deserve, because the world is messed up, and people who do things that hurt you have also had things done to them that they didn’t deserve, and had no choice in. It picks apart the circumstances--be they birth, parents, culture, pressure, trauma--that go into driving people to make the choices that they make, whether they justify these choices to themselves or whether they don’t even try. And by doing so, as a story, Mao Dao Zu Shi encourages empathy as a way to move forward, to redeem yourself, to forgive or to at the very least take a step. I mean, empathy is literally the name of a technique that saves them all in Yi City.

Wei WuXian, our villainous main character in need of redemption, has his tragic fall depicted in the first season of the anime. As a child Wei WuXian grew up on the streets, and even after being taken in by Jiang FengMian and his family (thanks to Jiang FengMian being, it is implied, in love with Wei WuXian’s mother), he simply doesn’t fit into society after having been left to tumble through the streets like trash for a year. He’s constantly thinking outside the box, and he channels his pain into extreme cheeriness, but it’s all a mask. He doesn’t behave, doesn’t listen to rules, speaks out when he should keep his mouth shut. Sometimes this is good, because the rules are arbitrary; sometimes, it’s really bad, because the rules are designed to protect.

This nuanced dichotomy is explored really well in his relationship with Lan WangJi, in that the 3000 rules of the Cloud Recesses are pretty restrictive, and Lan WangJi needed to break out of his legalistic life. However, when he turns to the dark arts and takes revenge on Wen Chao (the Wens represent the privileged in society--at first, that is), Lan WangJi is horrified by the very traits of freedom and not caring about society’s rules that helped him fall in love with him, because he can see that Wei WuXian is walking a very dangerous path (and a cruel one in that particular moment as well). His invitation to come back to the Cloud Recesses with him was meant to help Wei WuXian, but why would he trust society in that moment?

Society told the Wens it was fine to destroy his entire clan and family, hurt his brother, and so he went outside of it to find revenge and to stop the Wens. He’s told that because he broke the rules and insulted the Wens, he brought about the destruction of his family (hence, it’s his problem to fix). He’d only come to expect punishment and condemnation from the Lan clan, and Lan WangJi’s inability to be honest about his feelings no doubt led to his mistrust, as he bluntly tells Lan WangJi he won’t let him punish him anymore.

Lan Wangji, in contrast to Wei WuXian, Wen Chao, and Jiang Cheng, has to repress himself. His sect encourages stoicism and while that leads him to good choices in some ways, his inability to express his feelings to Wei WuXian before it’s too late leads to disaster. Wei WuXian truly didn’t believe he cared at all for him, because Lan WangJi had to keep it to himself. But when Wei WuXian returns, he goes against society for his sake. As Wei WuXian notes:

But what he hadn’t expected was that when everyone feared him and flattered him, Lan WangJi scolded him right in his face; when everyone spurned him and loathed him, Lan WangJi stood by his side.

The beautiful thing about their love in addition to all the ways they care about each other and encourage each other to grow is that it also works perfectly thematically: it contradicts societal expectations by being between two men, and no matter their status in society, it encourages/challenges WangJi to stand against it, instead of going along with his society like he has in every other aspect of his life. His brother, after all, tells Wei WuXian that WangJi’s “only mistake was you.”

Society then fears and flatters Wei WuXian, until he loses control, and then they despise him, because society always needs a villain. What they hate isn’t so much what Wei WuXian did, but the idea of him. They hate him and attribute things he never did to his name (though he did quite a lot), simply because society is like that, without stopping to consider the nuance or hypocrisy of what they need.

And Lan WangJi is continually challenged to go against society for the person he loves. The scenes at the Demon Cave exemplify this, where a mob of people show up demanding Wei WuXian’s blood even though he just saved all of their children, and Lan WangJi refuses to back down, and in the end Wei WuXian winds up saving all of their lives. But society doesn’t think, doesn’t empathize, doesn’t consider what the prices actually are. They go along with a crowd to feel like they belong, a mob mentality, really (which is a psychological phenomenon):

Society’s desire for a villain and lack of critical thinking is exemplified in the Wens. The Wens are respected among the sects at first, feared even. Wen Chao in particular exemplifies toxic masculinity as well. He abuses his powers, sexually with harassing MianMian, and in other ways as well, in that he uses the lives of other sects’ cultivators as shields, as he’s called out for, when they go into the turtle’s cave. The cave is rather a metaphor for the entire story: the Wens drag everyone into the cave under the illusion of using them as victims/shields to protect their power, but the Wens lose their power when JiaoJiao (a poor mistress, showing how society is arbitrary and can’t stick to its own rules because people are more than robots) demands they sacrifice MianMian (MianMian)) to lure out an ancient monster (lies in society). Lan WangJi stands up to them to protect her, Wei WuXian saves her from being scarred, and then it’s Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian who work together to kill the monster (their love as the thematic core of dismantling society).

But after Wen Chao’s story doesn’t end there. After he exacts his revenge on Wei WuXian, Wei WuXian destroys him in a cruel way leading to society thinking it’s okay to punish all Wens. Lan Wangji expresses discomfort with the way in which Wen Chao is tortured, but Jiang Cheng insists he deserves it. However, when all Wens are pretty much considered pariahs, Wei WuXian, who has not let go of all his empathy despite the dark path he’s walking, stands up to Jiang Cheng for their sake. He understands that people like Wen Ning and Wen Qing are not bound by their blood, and that they are good people. But society doesn’t care. Their names are enough.

The thing about Jiang Cheng is that as much as he professes to despise Wei WuXian... he’s not any different. He claims to be unable to forgive Wei WuXian for the deaths of his parents (not Wei WuXian’s fault) and the death of their sister (okay that one’s his fault), but doesn’t really pay attention to the feelings of those around him, resulting in him becoming more or less a tool for society. His sister sacrificed herself, pushing Wei WuXian out of the way, for the very person he hates, and despite the supposed nature of his grudge, he isn’t very nice to her only child, his nephew Jin Ling. The boy actually runs away from him several times--essentially, Jiang Cheng acts similarly to the father whose issues are at the root of Jiang Cheng’s issues: like he just doesn’t like him, when really, Jiang Cheng loves Jin Ling and he loves Wei WuXian.

Because what’s at the root of Jiang Cheng’s issues is that he has a massive inferiority complex. He embodies toxic masculinity, believing he has to do everything himself, refusing to accept help, refusing to accept responsibility because he doesn’t want to be weak, all because he wants to prove himself to a long-dead father. He wants to prove himself to society, and so goes to extreme lengths to exterminate any trace of Wei WuXian, capturing and torturing the ones he believes might house Wei WuXian’s soul. It’s all about appearances of strength and righteousness for Jiang Cheng, and the focus on this transforms him into someone uncomfortably similar to Wen Chao in some ways, someone who uses the power given to him as the heir of his sect to hurt others rather than to protect, even if it’s in the name of protecting.

The whole reason Jiang Cheng has this inferiority complex comes down to the societal aspects of toxic masculinity, sexism, and the like as well. There’s a contrast between the grace and respect society and the initial framing of the story offers Jiang FengMian, in contrast to his wife. He’s not a good father or husband, unable to pretend he didn’t love Wei WuXian’s mother instead, and while he’s kind to Wei WuXian, he doesn’t show his son the same affection. And his neglect breeds resentment both in Yi ZiYuan, his wife, and in Jiang Cheng, which spills over onto Wei WuXian. Yi ZiYuan’s lot in life is pretty sad, though she has no right to take it out on Wei WuXian (which she does), but as the story develops, we start to see that this idea is wrong, and the story builds empathy for Yi ZiYuan to the point where she easily became a favorite character of mine.

Yi ZiYuan’s cruelty was a result of jealousy and inexcusable, but when push comes to shove, she does love Wei WuXuan, and tries to save his life the only way society allows her to: by being cruel. When JiaoJiao demands punishment for the cave incident, Yi ZiYuan whips Wei WuXian to the point where Jiang Cheng is screaming in horror, but we soon realizes she only did it to get JiaoJiao to back off. But society doesn’t back down: JiaoJiao isn’t satisfied, and JiaoJiao demands Wei WuXian’s right hand. Yi ZiYuan refuses, sacrificing her life and the lives of her entire clan for Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, and Wei WuXian.

The entire structure of the story is about undoing a tragedy, a tragedy the world basically brought on them, but you can’t erase what happened so much as you can do your best to set things right. This stems from MZDS’s basic premise that society creates monsters and tragedies, but you do not have to be one yourself if you empathize. And part of the ways in which the characters step outside of the tragic set up is through going against society: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji acknowledge their love, Wen Ning tells Jiang Cheng the truth about his golden core, etc.

It’s fitting that the story begins with Mo XuanYu’s suicide. He is a bastard child, scorned by society for being gay and for hitting on a respected cultivator. However, as we find out, the respected cultivator was actually no more respectable--Jin GuangYao was Mo XuanYu’s own brother, and had incestuously married his own sister after getting her pregnant before the wedding, then murdered their son. Society spat on Mo XuanYu for his crimes, offering a poor bastard, the son of a whore and a respected man with nowhere to go, drove him to suicide, and it worshipped his brother without realizing the extent of his crimes.  It’s arbitrary and not interested in truth, but in scapegoats. But in expressing his pain through a way that ends his life, his story is told, and the truth comes out, and some members of society get a little less homophobic.

It’s also fitting that it ends with the courage of a prostitute whose face has been horrifically scarred. Sisi’s story sparks the motion that will tumble down all the lies in the sect, and even clear Wei WuXian’s name.

The final battle occurs in a temple, a temple built over the ashes of a brothel where Jin GuangYao grew up. The message isn’t subtle: society created him as an outcast, and him fitting in was simply fake and he knew it, but he felt like he had no options. And it took another outcast, someone with no power at all, to help topple him. And even when he dies, the reader can’t help but see how he became what he was, and it’s difficult to hate him.

The kids--Jin Ling, despite his professed homophobia at the beginning, Lin Sizhui, and Lin Jingyi, and the other more minor characters--are much more supportive of Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian’s relationship, noted to express excited shock over Lan WangJi giving Wei WuXian his hair ribbon (as a symbol of love), give them their privacy on the boat, etc. Jin Ling, too, moves from professed discuss over Mo XuanYu’s affection for men along with his hatred of Wen Ning and Wei WuXian, to respect and admiration for Wei WuXian, care for Wen Ning after Wen Ning saves his life, and respect and even support of Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian’s relationship. (You could say an anti became a shipper :P) Jin Ling’s growing understanding of empathy enables him to open up to his peers, and to open up his mind to a progressing world. 

At the beginning, his inability to fit in leads to his own misery; as he develops, he begins to form true connections, not cheap societal connections, and begins to develop. This combined with a revelation that Jiang Cheng does care more than he lets on and Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian professing their love in a temple while being held hostage with his older brother watching via shouting the line “I really wanted to sleep with you!” which is the most socially inappropriate and awesome love confession ever and then running off to get married. And Jin Ling shows us his development by crying, something repeatedly noted as shameful for an adult man (which tends to be the case IRL too), and crying freely even though he’s scolded for it, because it’s the only way he can express what he feels and he’s going to express it.

Snapshotted translations taken from Exiled Rebels Scans; further translations from @chiaki_homura on instagram!

#mao dao zu shi #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #wen chao #yi ziyuan #jiang fengmian #jin ling #wen ning #wen qing #mdzs spoilers #mdzs meta

[renardtrickster]

How was Voltron ruined?

This message is kind of spooking me because I was working on a draft that talked about that, but I’ll still answer it here, prescient anon.

Voltron was ruined because it was the birthing grounds of what would be the modern��“Anti Community”. The “Anti-Anti Community” had a hand in it as well, but it was primarily the former. And I know that those are stupid names, but when it’s the widely accepted vernacular. Anytime I say “Anti”, substitute it with “Anti-Shipper” and “Anti-Anti” with “Anti-Anti-Shipper” (shoulda been “Pro-Shipper” but once again, nobody on Tumblr can pick smart names).

Also necessary disclaimer, while I ascribe certain attributes to each side of the Shipping Discourse, I’m not trying to paint with a broad brush. While I had one friend that liked Sheith and another that liked Klance and neither turned out to be terrible, so now I’m speaking in broad terms.

Basically when Voltron was happening, there were two massively popular ships going at it. “Sheith” was Shiro and Keith, “Klance” was Keith and Lance. I don’t know why or when, but they started duking it out, and became the proto-movements I listed above. Keith signaled the Anti Community, and they opposed the Sheith ship. Pro-Klance attempted to denounce the Sheith ship by spinning a narrative that it was like, pedophilia or something because Shiro was older than the other paladins (they only said he was the oldest of the main cast, please note this trend for later). Erstwhile, Pro-Sheith shippers just wanted to watch their cute guys in peace, and opposed the stark buttmad ravers. In essence, Pro-Klance set the grounds for the Anti Movement, and Pro-Sheith set the grounds for the Anti-Anti Movement.

While this may seem like a case of “good but misguided” versus “good”, it was anything but. The Keith side, as I said before, had an agenda and it wasn’t actually protecting kids from pedophilic ships. Anyone with eyes could see that it was primarily “I want my yaoi guys to kiss and not yours” with a coat of lead paint on it. The rest is history and frantic tumblr posts. The infamous FICTION IS REALITY ask where some anti-Sheith dude tried to say that pedophilia in fiction promotes actual real-life pedophilia (and some other stuff but that photo is blurry and I can’t read it), nevermind the fact that Sheith being pedophilia is a completely fabricated statement because all they had to go on was “Sheith’s the oldest” (and implying that Lance was older than Keith which had never been said). The mass waves of Sheith shippers being harassed, sent gore, and in some cases SENT CP which is fucking abhorrent (and hypocritical since their opposers claimed to hate pedophilia, really causes 🤔). The one Klancer who somehow got leaks of the show and threatened to release them if Klance wasn’t made canon (an incident wherein nobody put on airs of fighting justice anymore). And the supplementary book came out, confirming Shiro at 25, Keith at 18, Lance at 17, meaning Klance was the underage ship all along, cue everyone screaming NOT CANON and looking for contradictions, even though Klancers would not have listened to any proof had Keith and Lance’s ages been swapped. I also heard something about Klance SS Uniform fanart on twitter but I blacked out when someone told me that because I can only handle so much.

Keep in mind that Sheith wasn’t just squeaky ducks either. I remember that one posts where a Sheith shipper made a Down With Cis Bus-tier story about some kid yelling at them in a Wal-Mart for shipping Sheith. And while I can’t recall any specific examples, I know there must have been some examples of the “ship and let live” side actively trying to oppose Keith (thus the serpent bites its tail and Anti-Anti becomes Anti). But this was a minourity of the Sheith side, Klance was definitely pulling its weight when it came to being horrible.

And this was the VOCAL MINOURITY, but it was vocal enough to be the only thing I ever heard about Voltron. Between the vitriolic shipping wars and the actual show having its own issues (it took way too long for them to actually form Voltron), the show’s reputation was ruined and all anybody will remember is the protoplasmical shipping wars and how they grew into the modern Anti and Anti-Communities.

And now the people who rode the Klance bus and hated the Voltron writers are both following and working on She-Ra. It’s going to crash and burn like Voltron did, and while I don’t want to watch it because it looks like shit, I’m going to learn about it against my will.

AND TO THINK, all of this could have been avoided if everyone had Sheith as a Matespritship and Klance as a Kismesissitude. But they didn’t because ultimately this was a coward’s game. Also sorry to drag on, but I wanted to fully illustrate what TF happened outside of just saying “shipping wars” because that wouldn’t be satisfying enough and also I Want People To Learn.

#long post #LIKE REALLY LONG AAAA #infoxicated #please don't send me gore for dunking on a dead fandom and dead ships #Anonymous

[go-diane-winchester]

If Misha and Jensen are not close friends, then how come Jensen enjoys the Jib panel so much.

I am having a quizzical conversation with a kid who ships destiel.  And even though the conversation is going nowhere, she asked me the following:

''This is a video editing by angel dove. They do not ship Destiel but love making edits for it and for the community. This is simply showing the friendship of Jensen and Misha

https://youtu.be/eF5kDrJBBYc

And please tell me, why the hell would Jensen go and and check kiss Misha if they didn’t feel comfortable around each other. Or basically laugh at everything Misha says. Jensen May get annoyed with Misha, but I still feel they are comfortable around each other. And also the fact that they get really close to whisper to each other. I’m not implying that they like each other romantically, I am simply saying that if I was not comfortable, there is no way in hell that I would be that open and happy around them.''

Now I can tell you genuinely, that this is making me smile, because this kid doesn't actually watch panels because she is busy with school work and extracurricular activities.  So what she is giving me as proof of a deep friendship and affection between Jensen and Misha, is a fan video.  I did a generational overview of Misha's fanbase and hypothecized that most of them are Gen Z or Gen Next.  An adult would never use a fan video to make a point.  Especially when I have seen the original videos this video was spliced from.  Anyone with editing skills can put together a video.  Heck, I could put together a video showing how Jensen hates Misha.  And I can use all kinds of footage to do that.  And some people might actually believe me.  Bad people thrive on their target's gullibility.  I am going to try to break this question down to the most minute detail, as I can.

Jibcon is generally the only panel that Jensen and Misha share.  In other words, they do a panel only once a year.  It is an event that they are paid to attend, and it is only one of three international events.  They tried Germany but that flopped.  Jibcon is financially the most successful international event.  From its inception till last year, it was seen as the destiel con.  That is how it was packaged, even thought Daniella [the organizer] changed her mind recently.  From the Hitch reading to the fake orgasm, everything was done to please the destiel fans.  Suddenly all that changed.  It had something to do with Jensen's breakdown in 2017.  I think Jared told Daniella off, because the next year, there was no Cockles panel and shipping questions got banned.  Daniella took to SM to lash out at hellers for attacking her because of the no shipping question rule. 

All that whispering and unicorn laughing that Jensen was doing all these years, was to quieten down the online abusers.  And then, he got threatened after Jaxcon, and flipped out during Jib 2017.  After that, for last years Jib panel, Jared joined.  Before you crash panels you plan it out.  People don't just do what they want during panels.  When one artist is on stage, the other is doing ops etc.  This time things changed.  Unless that is how the lineup has always been, where Jared does nothing back stage during the last panel.  Will someone notify me of this? 

Once upon a time, Jensen was Misha's friend.  Jensen is friends with a lot of people.  There was nothing deep or meaningful about their interaction.  In fact, despite the fact that Misha made a fool out of the guys during Minncon by lying that he had been mugged, there was still a friendship.  Jensen, not wanting to be perceived as a bigot, did the Jib panels all these years.  After the death threat, I noticed a change in his demeanor on stage.  The unicorn laughter is scarce.  Do you know what that means?  He was forcing and faking it.  Whenever Misha says something shippy like sharing shirts, Jensen outdoes him by talking about sharing underwear with Jared.  When they do Honocon, Jared takes his own time leaving the stage during the Cockles panel.  If anything, Jensen is starting to sense that Misha eggs his fans on.  This latest Bacchus king announcement might be an indicator too. 

Now either you can be shippy and say that Jared is obsessing over Jensen and jealous over Misha because obviously Misha is just the person, to make Jared feel ''inadequate'' right?  Realistically, I think Jensen is asking Jared to be a buffer.  And its not because of Misha personally, but that is because Jensen doesn't know everything.  It is because of Misha's fans and their online behavior.  Your side cant threaten to kill someone, and your only response is, ''but we are not all like that''.  It is an unoriginal dismissive response.  And we don't respect it anymore.  Police your side.  Write posts asking them to correct their behavior.  And stop asking for canon destiel, because other than sexually harassing Jensen, it achieves nothing else. 

Like most kids, you are not leaving destiel in fandom where it belongs.  You are not watching the show without reading meta and headcanon.  You are not watching the panels.  You are watching fan vids.  Fan vides are visual equivalents of meta and headcanon posts.  You do the show and the stars a great disservice when you don't respect the canon of the work that they do.  Meta writers are not part of SPN.  They are part of fandom.  They have, therefore, no authority to say something about an episode or scene.  All they are doing is giving their opinion.  And the younger lot just latches onto it, because they like how it sounds.  There is no endgame destiel.  The show is not queer baiting you.  Its called fan service.  They did the same thing with the wincest fans.  Sam and Dean are canonically soul mates.  Notice how the wincest fans ask for nothing.  The person who spoke about endgame destiel first, was fandom biggest meta liar.  And I wish I knew who that person was. 

Some of that footage is from YANA.  Honey, you don't want me opening that can of worms.  Believe me.  By the way, using campaign footage to prove a frivolous point is kind of not cool.

Stay in school, keep your nose clean, and enjoy your ship without expectations.

Excuse the typos that are going to inevitably make a guest appearance. 

#misha #jensen ackles #destiel #cockles #jenmish #jensen and misha #deancas #casdean #dean x castiel #castiel #cas #bi dean #dean is bi #dean and cas #jenmisheel #dean winchester #destiel headcanon #jdvm #misha collins #sam winchester #sam and dean #jensen and jared #wincest #supernatural #jared padalecki #padackles #performing dean #sabriel #sammy winchester #j2

[vanilla-inkwell]

Persona 5 and Queer Defiance

I just finished Persona 5 and I had many feelings and thoughts and while most of those were very, very positive (fav JRPG, for sure, one of fav games ever, definitely), some of those... weren’t positive, and this is basically a short essay-like thing that I wrote more to work those out than anything, but fuckin’ heck I might as well post it

the gist of it is that treating Ryuji, or any P5 character, as queer is not only the perfect “fuck you” to the game’s terrible, exclusionary portrayal of queer people, it’s wholly in line with the mindset the game itself encourages; by reading any P5 character as queer, you’re engaging in exactly the kind of defiant behaviour the game’s story upholds

(also, minor spoilers for Persona 5; though those spoilers have kinda major implications, even out of context)

Persona 5 is a game about societal reform and defying corruption, oppression, and subjugation. It is also, unfortunately, a game that not only ignores how relevant the struggles of queer people would be to these themes, but goes out of its way to try and make queer players feel alienated. Yet, in doing so, Persona 5 grants us the ability to act out its own morals even better than it can within its own story.

First, the only queer characters in P5: the Beefy Trendsetter and the Scruffy Romantic, a pair of extremely stereotypical gay men, dainty and effeminate and gaudy in their dress, yet bulky in their build and sporting dark, short beards. This alone wouldn't totally terrible (bad, but nothing unusual), but of course they are also portrayed, in no uncertain terms, as lecherous, predatory sexual harassers. Moreover, this comes not from any optional side quest, but from two unmissable points in the main story, where they openly harass Ren and Ryuji, encounters that frame the two men as creepy jokes. By the end of the game, the pair is nowhere to be found throughout Tokyo, which, paired with the context of the game's ending, clearly implies that such people have no place in the world. Pedophiles, sure, absolutely, they don't have a place in the world. But P5 treats homosexuality and pedophilia as going hand in hand. It's an insulting, degrading, pointless portrayal, and it's difficult to ignore. For reasons explained further on, though, it's quite easily defied.

Ryuji Sakamoto is clearly in love with Ren. He's also constantly acting like a complete, albeit utterly unsuccessful, horndog, talking about girls, checking out girls, and just generally being a fuckboy. Yet, that fuckboy veneer drops dead to the floor whenever Ren enters the equation, at which point Ryuji consistently starts spouting the sweetest, lovey-est, most gayest things. And throughout the game, although characters always assume Ren is straight, the subject of romance is always accompanied by dialogue options that just allow the player to skirt around any indication of heterosexuality, or even imply (though likely unintentionally) homosexuality.

Most significant, with regards to Ryuji and the player's romantically-ambiguous dialogue choices, is Valentine's Day. On this day, if you didn't enter a romance with any of the female characters, Ryuji will come to Leblanc in the evening, dejected over his own lack of romance. Sojiro tells him to come in and have a drink on his treat, but then inexplicably tells Ren to take care of the shop as he walks out. Before he leaves, though, he stops and looks at Ryuji, saying with a smirk and in a teasing drawl “Enjoy.” Exactly what he meant for Ryuji to enjoy is not specified. Morgana then leaves as well, and although him leaving so Ren can spend time alone with his friends (and also not wanting to be around Ryuji) is par for the course, it's odd that the game goes out of its way to put Ren and Ryuji alone together on Valentine's Day, especially given how the scene ends. The evening plays out uneventfully, with the two boys sitting together at a table and simply talking, venting about romantic hardships, and reaffirming their bond when Ryuji gives Ren a Valentine's Day chocolate. After complaining about not getting any chocolate from their female teammates, Ryuji declares (jokingly...?) that he's done with girls, and a few sentences later strongly implies that he's actually never had a girlfriend (which clearly isn't for lack of trying, leading you to wonder exactly why Ryuji is so bad at romancing women). And then... the scene just ends. Fade to black, without even a dialogue box of Ryuji saying goodbye. It just ends and moves on to the next scene, leaving the rest of that evening utterly up to the player's imagination.

And this is where the themes of the game come into play with how you look at the game itself. Headcanons are no new thing, and having a personal interpretation of a character that clashes with the canon has been a thing as long as characters have been a thing. But with most media, even someone who actively reads every character they can as queer will also remain conscious that their reading isn't canon, or official, or even necessarily widely-shared. But Persona 5, by its themes, actively encourages you to defy its own reality. See, the two major themes of P5's story are the following:

   - Being true to yourself and abandoning concern over what people think of you, and in doing so liberating yourself from the shackles of restrictive societal norms and carving out your own place in the world.

   - Understanding that the world is defined by how you perceive it, by what you see and feel, and thus has infinite potential to be remade, so long as you have the strength and will to enact your ideals and perceptions.

Anyone with half an awareness of the social context and struggles of queer people can see how deeply, immediately relevant these themes are to queer experiences. And, as any can also see, these themes actively support the defiance and reshaping of that which you perceive as wrong in accordance with your beliefs; these themes assert that reality exists only so far as it is perceived, and not only can, but should be reimagined in a way that upholds justice and unity.

It's ironic; with one hand, Persona 5 gives the inspiration to resist oppressive and distorted views, and with the other it gives an oppressive and distorted view to resist. It’s the ultimate example of media that's thematically and subtextually queer: the queerness comes from your perception of subtext, while the game's themes actively encourage you to assert that subtext and defy the oppressive, distorted beliefs the game itself presents regarding queer people. It's bizarre, the way the game subverts itself. Persona 5 tries to insist Ryuji is straight and gay men are lecherous predators; Persona 5 also encourages you to assert that Ryuji is gay, and in doing so tell Persona 5 to fuck off. It's self-contradicting in its own morals, and I'd love it if I didn't hate it. 

Refusing to accept Ren, Ryuji, or any character in P5 as straight, refusing to accept the way P5 attempts to portray queer people, and instead defiantly asserting your perception of the characters... nothing could be more perfectly in line with P5's themes and morals. Persona 5 tried to push queer people away, and in doing so only made us more alike to the Phantom Thieves than anyone else.

#persona 5 #persona #ryuji #queer games #pegoryu