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utilitycaster · 1 month

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@notstinglesstoo replied to your post “The thing is, and I haven't gotten a chance to...”:

I saw someone not long ago say cr has always felt like a product to them vs D20 feeling organic and I protected my peace but I did want to ask them if they were brain dead

Oh man I wanted to address this at length because I feel this. My posts have been centered, again, specifically on published journalists picking Daggerheart aprt critically and applauding themselves for doing so despite it being within a couple of hours of its release and therefore any analysis is necessarily going to be based on at best, a skim, when they just as frequently will claim D20 seasons/Kollok are flawless works of genius based on only a partial read, but man D20's got a fandom problem too. (and all of the following comes with the caveat of "I really enjoy D20, and Dropout, and while we're at it WBN and NADDPod which both are half D20 Intrepid Heroes cast, and think Brennan is a particularly brilliant GM, and also it's obvious that the D20 and CR casts are on great terms, and wish the fandom for D20 were more welcoming and enjoyable because I feel it wasn't like this when I first started watching, as a CR fan, in late 2019 and has since curdled into something really weird and bad.")

The first point is the obvious one: technically speaking these are both products. These are performers doing an art form; it is also a portion of how they make their money with which they can buy goods and services. Believing that art is inauthentic when the artist gets paid and acknowledges that is a thing that happens is a fucking libertarian position at best. Like cool, you think only people who are independently wealthy by other means can make art, because it's not real labor, my kid could paint that, etc etc.

The second point is also pretty obvious. I have pushed back pretty hard on the "uwu CR is just watching friends! it's like we're in their living room" mentality among the fandom, which has decreased, thankfully, but like...it did in fact start organically as a private home game, and they decided, when invited, to make it A Show For An Audience. D20 was created on purpose as a show for an audience. This doesn't make it bad or fake - reread the previous paragraph - but in terms of "this is an group of people who really played D&D in this world together even before the cameras were rolling," Critical Role literally is that, and D20 is not.

I think beyond that...my biggest issues with the D20 fandom are first, the level of discourse is abominable. The tag is almost always just shrieking praise and the most surface-level readings possible. I keep bringing up the "Capitalism is the BBEG" mug but it genuinely sums up so much of how I feel; people who want their existing beliefs fed to them as surface-level no-nuance takes. I mean capitalism is fucking terrible but I do not need every work I watch to have a character turn to the camera and say "capitalism is bad" to enjoy myself, and indeed it makes it harder due to the lack of subtlety and grace. For all D20 fans complain about how unhealthily parasocial CR fans can be (and some can be), I find that a lot of the most unhealthily parasocial "how dare they BETRAY my TRUST by having a ship I don't like or not speaking up about every single societal ill" ex-CR fans move over to D20 and then pull the exact same shit; it simply doesn't get called out. Every time D20 fans are like "we don't want to become the CR fandom" it's like "your toxic positivity and unhealthy parasocial behavior exceeds the HEIGHT of what I've seen in CR; the main difference is that CR started in 2015 when D&D was still shaking off the raging bigot dudebros and so in the early days it acquired more of those fans, whereas by the time D20 came around the landscape of who played D&D and watched Actual Play had shifted wildly, and you need to judge September 2018 D20 fans in parallel to September 2018 CR fans, not September 2015 CR fans."

I also feel, and I alluded to this in the post about journalism, and other people have said this better than I have, but the pedestal people have put D20 on does feel like a single...not even misstep, but just, difficult choice that doesn't capitulate to the loudest fans will bring a good chunk of that fandom crashing to the ground. And that includes the journalists. For all the fans of CR can still be obsessed with the cast to an unhealthy degree? The cast and company have put up pretty strong boundaries and have not budged. D20 hasn't, and I think the second they do - and I think it will be for their benefit as a company and a channel - a big chunk of their most vitriolic CR-hating portion of the fandom will viciously turn on them.

#notstinglesstoo #nonrebloggable bc god it's hell week for me i know i've been shooting off opinions bc that is how i blow off steam #but like. i can't have this break containment i got shit to do

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anonymous-dentist · 21 days

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since people apparently cant be formal im going to be: we dont use "q!" cuz people kinda dont want to talk abt the server, only spiderbit/guapoduo, so they decided to use "g!" or only "!", and when people are refering to other series they use the first letter of the series for example: "c!roier", i myself dont quite get the g!/! and understand why u dont like people not using "q!" when the universe they talking abt is qsmp

(people saw u complaining abt it here and start to shit on u without any context on twt and saying u complained that q wanst appearing in other fics even tho im pretty sure i didnt when ur distancing urself from him so i wanted to be formal :])

-🎀

(also can u explain y u dont like the "g!" or "!"???)

I can try to explain myself, but I'm also kinda crying answering this because I have a hard time with emotion regulation when I'm upset (autism thing)

OKAY! SO!

I don't really mind the new tag things? Like, I don't love them, but they're fine. If people want to distance themselves, that's fine. I'm distancing myself. Anybody who's been keeping up with my blog over the past half a year or so can see that I haven't really posted about the QSMP at all since Purgatory started. I haven't talked about Quackity at all outside of that shitshow of an awards ceremony in over a month when, for several years, I was a Quackity-centric blog (2021-early 2023)

My thing with the new tags, and with the Guapoverse thing in general, is that it really just isn't accessible for a larger audience. Sure, some parts of Twitter might understand it, but what about the rest of us?

As far as I can tell, the Guapoverse originated with a Twitter artist (Moone), and it blew up overnight. And I'm overall cool with it! It's a little silly, but so is fandom. I'm a fanfiction writer. Who plays Splatoon for like 4 hours every day. I know silly, and I love it

But then, BAM, I blink and everybody's abandoned the q! and they're changing their tags on Ao3 and making everything suddenly so much harder to find, and it's all about accessibility, isn't it? Like, don't get me wrong, I love a good multiverse, but when it inadvertently excludes a significant portion of the fandom, what are we supposed to do?

Like, say I go on Twitter looking for q!Pac fanart. But now it's so much harder to find because it isn't tagged or typed that way, it's !Pac, and that includes search results from every single au that has a ! in it, like if there was an au called AU!Pac? The !Pac would be in there. But I don't want to see AU!Pac, I want to see q!Pac.

And then there's the g! thingy. Like, that's fine, but a little more widespread of an explanation would've been nice. Like, what au does g! stand for? If you don't know what Guapoverse is, like A LOT OF PEOPLE don't, what are we supposed to think your art is? If we're looking for q!Cellbit art, we aren't necessarily going to like and retweet your art if it's labeled as g!Cellbit because we don't know that he's q!Cellbit.

It's kind of similar on Ao3, only that one's a little different because you can filter by relationship. But let's say you don't know how to do that. Let's say you're new to the website and you only know how to filter by fandom, because that's the first thing you learn how to do on Ao3- it's right there at the top of the front page: Browse By Fandom.

So you go to the QSMP tag looking for fics with Spiderbit/Guapoduo in them. But, here's the thing, you can't find any. Because they aren't being tagged QSMP, they're being tagged Guapoverse now even if the fics are being set in the QSMP setting.

It's just a general lack of fandom accessibility that gets me. I understand the distancing aspect, and I've been waiting for it to happen since the Elections when he Brazilian fandom started getting IMMENSE amounts of hatred from Gringo Chats. But it gets a little tricky when you're part of a fandom as large as this one is. How are we all supposed to share content and talk about things with each other if we can't even find each other anymore?

Like! I've lost so many cool fics I forgot to bookmark because they were taken out of the QSMP tag and moved into the new one! (The new one goes against ToS btw I believe, but go talk to a tag wrangler about that.)

People on Tumblr don't know what the Guapoverse is. TikTok doesn't. Reddit doesn't. Only Twitter does, and only a section of Twitter does. Because I haven't seen any English or French-speaking Guapoduo People talk about the Guapoverse, only Portuguese or Spanish-speaking people. And I get that the exclusion isn't purposeful and that the Guapoverse is meant to sort of heal everybody from the wounds the QSMP left, but I think that maybe even just spreading the news and not... you know... sending death threats and insults and smearing people's names would be better than this.

Thank you for politely asking. I thought I had made myself clear before, but I guess I hadn't.

I'm open to answer any more questions. I can't explain myself to my critics on Twitter, but I can answer your questions here, hopefully.

#asks!#anon!#i feel awful #idk why i'm even being targeted #and why people are lying about me

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bunmurdock · 1 month

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👋

saw a post about toxic people in fandom, and while it was strongly-worded, boy do i have things to add.

unfortunately, i know who this post is referring to, and i’ve refrained from talking about them up until now, but i think it’s good visibility for this community to have. that person was a notable presence in fandom and mutual of mine who, over time, underwent a significant personality and blog overhaul. they were once very sweet and intellectually-stimulating to talk to but shifted over to a toxic corner of the comic fandom and began to act in certain ways aligned with that corner of fandom (emphasis on corner of comic side, most comic fans i’ve spoken to are nothing but kind and welcoming). i want to shed light on some things i’ve witnessed. this person was an awesome content creator for live action dd, but, well. feel free to read on and form your own opinions.

yes, this is about briefcasejuice.

if you follow them, you'll have probably seen their posts about live action fandom, i.e. marvel's daredevil is "ableist", "racist", and liking it makes you problematic. like, i understand people fall out of love with media all the time, and i think virtually any reason is valid to leave. i don't care. what bothered me about this person was, ultimately, their repeated hypocrisy and behavior towards others in fandom.

up until the time i unfollowed, i was noticing their posts on my feed—initially innocuous—grow increasingly negative and unproductive. sure, tv discourse and critique is healthy and good, i have my own grievances with live action daredevil. but soon enough, it had extended to fandom, fandom creations, perceived fandom failure to engage with their content, people or ideologies they found problematic irl or on social media, everyday inconveniences, etc. it was just... the same old predictable negativity and virtue signalling reminiscent of those who are chronically online, but lacking in self-awareness and emotional regulation skills.

moreover, i found their response to some sincere, good-faith asks to be disappointing. iirc, there was one situation where some anon was trying to learn about transgenderism, and was met with a disproportionate negative emotional response. it was not a good look, and coincidentally that ask response was later deleted. in another situation, they were kindly asked not to use rape-promoting language in describing certain individuals that they disliked, and their response was to deny it when the language was uninterpretable in any other way. i remember seeing these on my feed, and they gave me pause about being friends with this person.

which brings me to why i'm adding this response in the first place, because while i do not care what views this person holds or what they do on their own blog, what really grinds my gears is the betrayal and disingenuous behavior towards friends in fandom. this person was best friends with user @/pastafossa and seemingly the number one fan of the fic “the red thread”; they’d blog about it repeatedly. i started reading the story because of their marketing. imagine my shock at these posts which were made less than two years apart.

this person also went on to complain repeatedly about a perceived lack of tumblr engagement to their own followers. tumblr engagement is notoriously shit, but there's a difference between asking and expecting. asking is reasonable, entitlement is ugly. and i have to wonder how much of their off-putting nature contributed to less engagement.

not to mention i recently found out that they had joined fandom misrepresenting their age, engaging with me and other adults in fandom through our heavily adult fanworks before they had turned eighteen. they had started engaging with my content in early 2022 with their age listed as adult at that time, but the current age listed on their blog (as of march 2024) doesn't reflect a continuity. further digging on other sites confirms this. this behavior is violating, not to mention that they, at least at one point, had a strict minors-do-not-interact policy on their blog.

it's clear that they over-identify with their interests to an unhealthy degree through their repeated attempts to cull their interests and gatekeep topics that they perceive to be esoteric and cool. and while i agree that there are parts of the daredevil media and fandom that need to change, this level of denial and vilification of one's past and the community that supported them is characteristic of someone who's mentally unwell, and i would encourage anyone reading this—content creators, authors, and artists—to stay away from this person and to brace yourself for fringe fandom behavior like this on this website.

(please do not send hate to anyone.)

#idk. at least they're an interesting character study #marvel's daredevil #matt murdock #charlie cox #daredevil #netflix daredevil

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warmuse · 8 months

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Firstly, this post isn't aimed at people who don't rly have an opinion about BALTEUS nerf, or is disappointed that it isn't as hard but it won't affect their opinion of the game in general. If you are these people, it's not aimed at you I promise

Possibly petty and unpopular but I'm mid annoyed by people (mostly in social media and comments so maybe I shouldn't pay attention to them anyway 😅) who claim Balteus is super easy now and how Fromsoft "ruined a good game because gaming journalists, now *casuals* wouldn't get filtered out like it was intended, I want immediate rollback, gonna uninstall" and base their claim at them defeating it easily with chapter1 gears and OS tunes off

1. Yeah, you downgraded your AC, but your game knowledge didn't. You played multiple playthrough of ac6, your gameplay knowledge is miles above than at the point where you faced it first, if you want to claim you as a player learnt nothing while playing ~NG++ of ac6 and your muscle memory didn't adapt at all, congrats, your gamer learning ability is abysmal

2. I am pretty sure fromsoft didn't do this because of a few gaming journalists who complain that it's too hard lmao, if they actually give into whatever western fringe reviewers say we'd had easy mode in ER (easy mode is another discourse in video gaming that's its own can of worms esp. in Fromsoft games, I don't want to deride the convo so I won't go into it) Hardcore gamers may be a bit too absorbed in their clique of fellow aficionados, they don't realize that there are a lot of casuals who got stuck at Balteus, or, more importantly, didn't even try to purchase the game because they saw a streamer struggling or heard the general gamer gossips that Balteus is some Great Filter, maybe the gamedevs want more people to try their games?

Because I assure you, for people who didn't play any FS games at all, or maybe just played ER, it'd not be easy. If you think only high skilled players are allowed to enjoy this game...well, I disagree.

Maybe WE want more people to play this game because this game offers a lot more experience than that mindset? This is a mecha genre game that doesn't get such outputs as actions of other fantastical settings.

3. The perceived difficulty level suddenly dropping after Balteus and not really escalating into the realm of filter-like until you reach CEL (because let's face it Sea Spider wasn't as much bemoaned as BALTEUS) suggests that maybe release patch BALTEUS was a bit harder than their intention. Fromsoft producer's tweet about the patch specifically says they intended to modulate the difficulty level in early to mid game.

4. This is a specific gripe to people who act dramatically that less missile barrage means the boss is giganerfed: if you're so ignorant of the boss mechanics to think missiles make Baltie hard how did u even got past it

It was similar when Radahn in ER was nerfed too, lol, Fromsoft in recent years gave us pretty enjoyable games, but the maturity level of some people in the fandom is disappointing even for a video game fandom

#armored core 6 #armored core #armored core vi

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kimdokja-real · 8 months

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About DokJoong and how to have more of it

Said it in another post but I wanted to say it in a different post.

I think this fandom is scared to write Dokjoong.

It befudles me. I usually ship popular pairings, for some reason, but I was always aware of the less popular dynamic regarding top and bottom. And those people, sometimes they complained about too much of the ooc popular pairing, with the same people, but they mostly created content and just talked with each other.

But in the ORV fandom it's different. I know there are Dokjoong fans, from the asks I've received, from comments on my Dokjoong fics, and in reddit there was a poll and JoongDok won by only like 10+ votes! Here.

But when it comes to fics and fanart, Dokjoong is seriously lacking. And every day there's new Kim Dokja angst fics or JoongDok porn. There can be like one Dokjoong fic, but it'll be drowned out by JoongDok fics or just Kim Dokja angst fics.

I can only conclude that people in this fandom who ship Dokjoong are scared to write Dokjoong for some reason. Or just...hesitant.

And I think that's because of Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja is a very loved character, people use other characters for him (especially Yoo Joonghyuk sadly) and his great sacrifice leaves readers wanting more of him.

I like Kim Dokja. I like bottom Kim Dokja. I've read bottom Kim Dokja. I've written bottom Kim Dokja (and it was wildly popular too, even more popular than my Dokjoong fics sadly). I'm a jdj shipper also so i do like bottom Kim Dokja and I can see the appeal of bottom Kim Dokja. It can be hot. But it's really too much.

We ship different ships yeah, JoongDok and DokJoong shippers generally don't interact with each other, because people ship different ships. That's true, and accepted.

But when the fandom doesn't even have one Modern AU Multi-chap even though it's the same people, something is seriously wrong here.

Like, I think DokJoong is not taken seriously and that's the sad thing.

People love Kim Dokja so much and JoongDok that DokJoong is not really taken seriously, like people are so used to Kim Dokja being the focus, Kim Dokja being loved. That Yoo Joonghyuk is an afterthought.

Smut Bottom Kim Dokja fics early on was not even tagged as Bottom Kim Dokja, as if it was a common consensus and expectation for Kim Dokja to bottom. They were only tagged by the kinks.

The few Multi-chap (like below 5 chapters, when I say Multi-chap I mean like 10+ chap btw), Modern AU of DokJoong people seem to like it but......it doesn't seem to be taken seriously, like it's nice and hot and cute and sweet and yes bottom Yoo Joonghyuk!

But it isn't really taken seriously, emotionally.

Like I saw some comments from fics back in 2020 or 2022 or so, and the people clearly took angst bottom Kim Dokja Modern AU seriously, they felt emotional about it and Kim Dokja.

I say Modern AU Multi-chap for Dokjoong because...that's the most popular kind of story to have angst for your favourite character and feel emotional for them.

This is just my analysis, but like....DokJoong as a pairing seems to not be taken seriously (even by DokJoong fans maybe), what I mean is...like, yeah DokJoong, Kim Dokja tops but also takes care of Yoo Joonghyuk, and Yoo Joonghyuk is loved. And Yoo Joonghyuk's character is explored, OOC or not.

Those comments from back in 2018 - 2022 appreciated the Dokjoong fics because of the lack of it, but it just seemed like 'Yeah Yoo Joonghyuk is loved, fics where Yoo Joonghyuk is loved finally!' And that's it. It's like it was just for one moment in time.

At least that's what I've seen from A03.

While in other fandom, the less popular pairing dynamic, for example like...yeah ZhongliChilde not ChildeZhongli, Childe can be loved, our precious Childe can be loved, oh it's hot when Zhongli tops too. We really ship ZhongliChilde, Childe is so cute. Childe's appearing more in Genshin Impact! Yes, our precious Childe.

And they ship it, and they write it, and don't really care about ChildeZhongli even though it was much more popular, they just create content for what they like.

While for Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk, I sense there's like an inertia or hesitance to write DokJoong especially seriously (I'm talking long Multi-chap fic)...because of how popular and loved Kim Dokja is, how many Kim Dokja fics there are and how JoongDok is the status quo because of how loved Kim Dokja is, because of Kim Dokja is loved by people.

Trust me I like Kim Dokja, I love Kim Dokja, I like Kim Dokja a whole lot (that's why I tried to do a bottom Kim Dokja Transmigration AU, a popular idea), but the love for Kim Dokja really shouldn't stop people from writing Kim Dokja as top and Yoo Joonghyuk as bottom. Or rather, it really shouldn't stop people from writing Yoo Joonghyuk as bottom.

Sorry, I just don't know what else to say. I feel the DokJoong fandom is lacking even in relation to other less popular ships fandoms...and that's really sad.

Kim Dokja is loved, but it really shouldn't stop the focus on other characters. Especially Yoo Joonghyuk who Kim Dokja left with a bitter ending to be honest.

Kim Dokja wouldn't like it either, if he knew people's love for him stopped people from loving his precious Yoo Joonghyuk, lol.

I'm just one person and I can't do it alone. But this is just what I've seen.

I think someone else has to step up for DokJoong besides me. I'm not really the type to lead people in something or convince people on something. I'm just more the type to analyze and share my analyses and point of view, that's all.

Yeah I know I'm a bit of a hypocrite because my Dokjoong Multi-chap AU (can't be counted though, since it's Advanced Modern AU even though I counted it at first) Met You and Love is still waiting for an update while I went to write my jdj fics even a new one, who knows maybe I'm affected by the fandom too? No actually Kim Dokja is just too fun to write in that chat fic (so I can understand the appeal of writing Kim Dokja really) but! Yoo Joonghyuk receives care there too

But nah, I think I'm affected by the fandom too.

Dokjoong fans, please let me know what you think!

#dokjoong #dokhyuk #joongdok #kim dokja #yoo joonghyuk #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint

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thiefbird · 6 days

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E, n, u for the letters ask please! 🖖

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

Yes, but not recently! These were back in early early high school. I wrote a very short, very bad Draco Malfoy/Apple(as in the fruit) fic once. I hope to god it has been lost to time. I will not tell anyone what my fanfiction dot net username was. I also wrote a Doctor Who/Supernatural/Sherlock/X Files/Star Trek: The Original Series/Warehouse 13/The Yellow Submarine(not Beatles RPF because the only character was Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD aka The Nowhere Man)/Invader Zim crackfic extravaganza in collab with @gabrielnovakgoestomyschool (there may have been another fandom that I forgot). I do not know if it has survived the passage of time. I almost hope it did. They were all in this incredibly Escher-esque grocery store trying to get milk. I guess recently I accidentally wrote "Loghain Mac Tit" instead of "Loghain Mac Tir" when starting a post, took one look at it, and just posted it without further elaboration. I don't know if anyone ELSE thought it was funny, but I definitely did.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Anders - I love an underdog, I love a revolutionary, I love a pathetic tall man who looks like he hasn't slept in a month, I love a man who will make Those Sounds when he kisses me. Also he loves cats and complaining; same, Anders. More seriously, I think he's a deeply misunderstood character by both those around him in canon, by his writing team and Bioware as a whole, and by the general fandom(not any of my beloved mutuals, we are all in the Right About Anders club); despite this, I do think he is a cohesive character. I just don't necessarily think that he is a cohesive character on purpose. I love the implications of his bonding with Justice, and the avenues it opens up for writing. I fully believe that Anders believes that he corrupted Justice into Vengeance, and that Vengeance is a demon; I just don't believe it's true.

Stephen Maturin - Ohhh, Stephen, my beloved. Patrick O'Brian cooked you up in a lab specifically to make me insane (nevermind the fact that I was three years old when he died) - mine is a fated obsession, to the point that I actually had a crazy-dramatic, toxic relationship with an autistic Trinity College naturalist for four and a half years directly out of high school; my brain simply had not fully learned that Stephen Maturin existed (I'd seen the movie once or twice and listened to the soundtrack ad nauseum because of my mother but never payed much attention), and fixated on the next best thing. Here is my Stephen Maturin propaganda: He's a tiny, angry little man who calls animals and friends and his wife alike "honey" and "my dear" and "acushla/a chuisle" (I will never forget the "awwwwwwww" that came from my mouth the one time he called Tom Pullings honey). He calls his best friend "soul" and "joy", and his other best friend "honey-bun". He's an International Super Spy, one of the most effective in the British service, and refuses to be paid for it because he hates tyranny so much (he does not like English colonialism either, but he has decided that England is the best way to beat Napoleon). He's an Irish and Catalan revolutionary (I did say I love a revolutionary), who is somewhat in hiding in the first book because of his associations with The Society of United Irishmen, and therefore connections to the Irish Uprising of 1798. Despite this impressive resume, this man has never met a boat or ship he is not in danger of not falling out of - he has been at sea for the better part of twenty years by the end of the series, and he still must be Carefully Watched to make sure he does not drown, or get soaked through to the skin. He is an acclaimed surgeon, with a miraculous success rate. He is also a renowned natural philosopher who has discovered multiple species, including a giant tortoise. He is the least tidy or fastidious man in all of creation, and is constantly covered in blood and/or winestains and/or crumbs. He pours alcohol over surgical sites not because he knows of germ theory, but because he thinks it'll help with pain. The only non-familial friend he's had longer than Jack Aubrey(who lives longer than the first book. Sorry James, ily) is Adhemar de la Mothe, a known and flamboyantly queer Parisian. He regularly says that he does not see the harm in sodomy so long as no one is harassing the ship's boys, and that anything that adds more love to the world seems a good thing. He loses his mind over a woman, and the more awful she is to him the more he loses it.

Speaking of Diana Villiers - Oh, Diana. I am fully in understanding with Stephen over you. A beautiful, headstrong woman who can ride better than most men, stuck in the most boring atmosphere of Southern England with her aunt and cousins after the death of her husband and her father both made her leave India - I cannot blame her for many of her actions. Diana is a fascinating character, and to me she is proof of Patrick O'Brian's writing ability. Most authors of Men Go To War books don't really seem to know how to write women very well (C.S. Forester I am looking at you. I do not know who Maria is outside of her fawning over Hornblower), but Diana is a fully fledged person from the moment we meet her setting her horse over a gate, despite the fact that we never see any of the events of the twenty books through her eyes. Not only is she a fully realised character, but she is one that shows his understanding of the setting he writes in. Diana Villiers is coping with grief - not only grief for her husband and her father, but for her independence. Her life in India, keeping house for her father from her mid-teens, would have been almost as different as one can imagine from the life of a poor relation take in on charity by a widowed aunt. She feels stifled in the English countryside, forced to play second fiddle to her cousins in order to keep the peace and a roof over her head. I cannot blame her for toying with men's hearts as a source of entertainment. Going into keeping with Canning is Diana's attempt to regain at least some measure of independence, and it is successful, to some extent. She has money, she is back in a country she finds familiar and exciting - but she also has a jealous, suspicious lover who employs their servants as spies to watch her activities, and little company because she is herself a scandal. Stephen's proposal offers her a way out of her situation; it also, to her, seems like a loss of freedom, not only because Stephen loves her, but also because she loves him, and that terrifies her. So she instead runs away with Johnson to America. Johnson, of course, is worse than Canning, and she leaves him temporarily, but then her freedom in England is threatened, again, this time by suspicions of intelligence work (I always wonder just how she got tied up so tightly in Mrs Wogan's subterfuge; did Johnson have something to do with it?), and surprise! Johnson is there to whisk her away from the danger. But he's worse still, and Stephen manages to intervene(yay Stephen) and get her away and back to Europe. This just keeps happening. Diana wants something that is almost entirely impossible for a woman in the period she lives in: liberty. Anything that could interfere with her freedom and independence is avoided at any cost - even her own feelings for Stephen. Especially her feelings for Stephen. She also, to me as someone with BPD/cPTSD now pretty well in remission, reads as a very empathetic and accurate portrayal of someone with BPD/cPTSD. Personally I think Being A Woman In The Late 1700s is enough reason on its own to have it(and we don't know enough of Diana's life before the Peace of Amiens to speculate on other Sources Of Trauma other than the death of her husband and father), but a lot of her hot-and-cold feels so familiar to me. She can be so cruel, and mean it fully in the moment she's saying it, but almost immediately regret her cruelty while still doubling down because she feels she has no other options.

Wow. This got really long. I hope everyone enjoys my Aubreyad Opinions Of The Day

#ask game #thiefbird speaks

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general-cyno · 4 months

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I recently saw someone on YT talking about Zoro's past and while I agree that his flashback feels rushed within the story (which I think can be explained by how early it happens) what always surprises me is how unsettling it is for people. It's a simple but sharp reality in a fantasy world, quite similar to what happens in Usopp's past and perhaps not so common for the rest of the OP world, who have pasts more rooted in the rules of that universe. Kuina died after falling down the stairs. "In OP's world there are people who survive worse things..." they say. "It's absurd. She was trained and very strong." Yeah, sure, but Kuina died like that. Suddenly. Anticlimatically. She was as full of dreams and ambitions, fears and insecurities as everyone else. But she died in an accident. She died too soon. Without a reason. With no one to blame. Simple, cruel and real.

Y'know, I've seen this around a lot. especially in posts (on r/ddit and twt in my case) where people argue about zoro having a "mid" backstory or complain about wanting oda to give him a proper one. and ngl I feel like this pairs up with OP fandom's bad habit of powerscaling everything - even loss, trauma and grief.

Sure, if you compare kuina's death to all the other ones throughout OP it might not seem as "tragic", but this is one of those instances in which context and individual experiences matter most. kuina was just a kid who, despite her strength and training, was led to believe by her own father that her gender would become the reason she'd never achieve her dreams. and when she finally finds someone who believes in her, who sees her as an equal and a goal to strive towards to, who's willing fight against and alongside her - she dies. as you mention: she dies without reason, with no one to blame. that is plenty tragic to me, regardless of all other sad or abhorrent things that happen in the story's universe.

This is just me speculating but I've also wondered if the fact that zoro's relatively well-adjusted despite the hardships and losses he's lived through is part of what makes people downplay both kuina's death and the role it plays in zoro's backstory/motivations. because the thing is - zoro may not carry or express his losses and grief as outwardly as other characters do, but look at how he reacts when the people he loves are in danger and the kind of sacrifices he's willing to make so that they'll be safe. how he's usually always keeping an eye on and watching out for all of them some way or the other. look at how he cries (which iirc he's done on page only three times) when he loses the duel against mihawk.

Zoro, similarly to other straw hats, had his parents die due to pirates or bc of an illness, grew up as an orphan, and the only friend he had died in a manner he couldn't do anything to foresee or prevent as well; the latter of which has impacted his life all the way to adulthood. kuina's memory is one that's at the forefront of what he does, just like his promise to luffy. draw the parallel between this, how fiercely protective he is and how much he hates the idea of dying in circumstances out of his control (I'd argue it even terrifies him a little, judging by his reaction to the reaper in wano) and it's easy to see how much his experiences, and especially kuina's death, have shaped him as a character. just bc he's not crying, having breakdowns or generally brooding about it every time he appears on screen doesn't make his life story less important, sad or tragic than anyone else's. plus, the stability he provides to luffy and the crew is crucial, so he needs less narrative reasons to leave them, not more. zoro not having, for example, a centric rescue arc doesn't make him less of a straw hat member either.

#tp #replies #thank you for this! it's smth I've thought and wanted to talk abt as well #I kind of went on a tangent by the end sorry

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generouskittentidalwave · 8 months

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OH BOY ASTRO BOY ELECTRIC BOOGALO HERE WE GO!

YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA MAKE ONE POST? NAH WE GOT A ROUND TWO AS I GOTTA SAY SOMETHING

I WANT TO MAKE THIS, LOUD AND CLEAR, TO PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE FANDOM

Many people actually DON'T dislike the 2003 Astro Boy dub

SHOCKING, I KNOW.

But seriously, from what I've seen 99% of fans love the dub just as much as they love the sub, including myself, with many of us growing up with the dub version and growing a strong attachment to it especially due to it being nostalgic for many of us. I hardly ever see many complaints about it, even on the very rare videos that compare the sub and dub 99% of it is just talking about the scene and Astro and only 1% at most complaining about it for their own reasons.

Because es it does have it's issues like cutting out scenes, mostly regarding Tobio's past, but that's no one's fault as although censorship wasn't as aggressive in the 2000's as it is now they still weren't comfortable displaying much of Tobio's past which, like it or not, is pretty valid as I don't think many of us kids wanted to see a 9 year old child get hit by a car head on and die instantly with none of it being off screen. The rest of the issues though are kind of just- eh? Like they are a problem but it's not too prominent except some line changes here and there and sometimes the dub voice lines not matching up with the expressions but nothing that really badly affects it as the points still get across all the same. AND SPEAKING OF THE VOICES, OH BOY GET READY FOR THIS

Yeah there is nothing bad about either, most fans don't really care and those who do most likely jumped on a band wagon. The only difference is that Astro's voice is a tad bit rougher in the dub but people need to realize EVERY SINGLE VOICE DUB MC CHILD CHARACTER *HAD THAT VOICE* BACK THEN, ASTRO FROM ASTRO BOY SOUNDS A BIT LIKE HOW ASH FROM POKEMON SOUNDED IN THE EARLY DAYS OF POKEMON AS WELL WITH ASH'S VOICE BEING A LOT MORE ROUGHER THAN ASTRO'S. Actually they felt so similar to the point I actually had to look up the voice actor upon rewatching it because I thought they were both voiced by the same person. It was just a 2000's dubbing thing back then that always led them to have that kind of voice, I don't know why they went with that but the shows were successful and I loved them so I guess it worked either way. The point is, almost no one here gets their pants in a twist about it and you shouldn't either, because, fun fact, IT DOESN'T *MATTER*, you wanna know why? Because it's still ASTRO. The changes never affected his character and I know that because upon growing up with the dub he was still the same innocent, lovable, caring robot we all know and I saw him as such the same way people saw him as in the sub. Because despite it's minor flaws it was still Astro with every action, words, and lessons that he took, spoke, and learned. SO WATCH WHAT YOU WANNA WATCH AND LIKE WHAT YOU WANNA LIKE, THE DUB IS GREAT AND SO IS THE SUB, EITHER WAY HE IS STILL ASTRO ALL THE SAME AND IT DOESN'T AFFECT HIS CHARCTER AT ALL. To leave you on an important lesson, don't jump on a bandwagon when introducing yourself to new shows that involve sub and dub and instead watch one and take a look at the other and form your own opinions on them, we are all chill and welcoming so there is no ripping eachother's faces off about it here, trust me this is not the My Hero Academia fandom, you are safe.

#astro boy #astro boy 2003 #tetsuwan atom #mighty atom #osamu tezuka #tezuka #anime shows #anime series #anime and manga #anime #anime tv show #2000s nostalgia #tobio tenma

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sorcerous-caress · 4 months

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You're right and I know you are but I actually got so upset that I am now violently sick. I am literally only sharing this because I am fairly certain you're also autistic and BPD but I hate so much that like the one time in mainstream media we are given a bi/pan man who is effeminate and prefers men but isn't a derogatory stereotype but every post about him is like He’s The Most Masculine, Actually and actually the reason we don't see him express attraction to women is because he's so shy actually ignore that he can hookup with Laezel who would not stand for that and is main character trait is confident (and I don't think I've started fights so at least there's that)

I used to not understand the problem with the Astarion fandom but then I came to painful realization he has straight fans who actually seem to hate his canon character

Anyway sorry for all the Bobstarion… gay bpd bitches are gay bpd bitching. You're the best for reading this tho 😭💀💚

I know this feeling very well anon.

You've completely summed it up, he is finally a non-derogatory representation of an effeminate queer man and straight fans burnt his canon to the ground so they can make their dream masculine babyboy shy twink.

God it fucking stings doesn't it? It literally hurts just to think about how much Larian risked by even putting Astarion in the game. A western game at that too where forum after forum are full of incels complaining about women not being inflatable sex objects in their game.

Baldur's gate 2 and 1 never was this inclusive, it was strictly hetro except for the remastered npcs. Astarion by himself probably made them lose half their "old-school" homophonic demographic.

And the fandom takes all of that and makes him another fucking joke of a character? All the people who have never played the game would search up the Astarion tag and get a completely wrong impression of him.

Not once did a character before him made me leave a game because I was disgusted with myself. His storyline and writing is phenomenal because I too objectified him at the start then the game called me out for it in act 3 and it changed my world view so much.

God did you know early access had Gale and Wyll be awkward if a male Tav hits on them? That only Astarion was the always accepting person regardless of gender?

Even now he is still the only male character between the two who openly expresses his interest in men! Who embraces being flamboyant and doesn't try to fit into a narrative.

I completely understand anon, and I know how much bpd and autism highlights these feelings and make them dig like nails at your brain. Yes I have them too. And I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to share your thoughts with me.

It must be more frustrating for you tho, for liking Astarion and being lumped in with the rest of his weird fans without your consent. You can't even filter their posts out because they treat their takes as "normal" and how it's not them belittling a queer character no! They're just being "wholesome"

Fuck the batstarion shit still gets on my nerves. I saw one with a baby bottle feeding him??? It just feels so infantilising because he isn't some cute animal he is a fully grown and matured person. If it's just a kink then sure idc but please tag it at least.

Then they make him "shy" around women. You know why that god awful take was probably born? Because most of his straight fans picked women and went into his romance. So they think that his clumsy personality in act 2 is because they're a woman and he is so used to men.

It's fucking disgusting, Astarion would treat both men and women with the same clumsy romance, all my Tavs were nonbinary and he never treated them differently.

You have every right to feel this way, you have every right to be furious at this. Especially with a character you care about so much.

But people will take advantage of that, people who want to start fights for the sake of fights or drama blogs who are itching to make a callout post. People don't like others poking holes in their logic no matter how good your intentions are.

Homophobia exists, racism too, look at how ignored Wyll is by these supposed fans. Look at how popular Gale x Astarion is than x Wyll because both of them are white.

It's okay to vent and it's okay to feel frustrated and stuck. God knows during some bpd episodes I come very close to deleting this blog bc of the smallest of reasons, so Imagine actually having a valid reason to be mad like you.

Take a step back, fuck those people honestly. Fuck anyone who ever did this shit just for their own self indulgence, who left all the media that panders to straight people and came and took Astarion too just to strip him of all of his traits and put him in the hetro box.

So leave them be, they suck, they're shitty and never willing to listen. Don't waste your frustration on them, it's better to yell at a wall, at least, unlike them, it might reply back with something productive one of those days.

Again, I hope you feel better soon. I genuinely do, these feelings suck beyond words can describe. Do something you like or revisit your favourite works that stay true to Asterion's character. Ground yourself with anything that might help.

Don't feed them or reply to their arguments, please. hopefully, they leave the fandom once the new manufactured tumblr sexyman is released and the Asterion tag.

#♡bob #♡bob Slander

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himboskywalker · 1 year

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Tag what is your opinion on fandom cliches and hierarchies? There’s been talk on Twitter about how hard it is to break into the obikin community (which I disagree wkth) but I wondered if you had saw this going on and what your thoughts are as someone who’s been here longer than me

*sighs for a solid 10 minutes* I’m going to sound extremely grumpy answering this and it’s because seeing this kind of stuff pisses me off like nothing else in fandom. I wholeheartedly disagree,as I’m sure you guessed I would,and I have seen similar arguments on tumblr,as I avoid fandom Twitter like the plague. I’ve never seen a more welcoming,friendly,community driven fandom space as I have in the obikin community,and I’ve been in a lot of fandom spaces for a long freaking time. Back in 2019/early 2020 when I made my existence known in obikin,I felt like I was welcomed with open arms and a heartwarming level of love. For the vast majority I’ve found this space to be extremely uplifting,supportive,and positive. And I’m not saying this now as a creator who’s well known in some circles, I’m saying this as the nobody who everyone was extremely kind to when I wasn’t known from Adam,I have been treated the same way from my first chapter to now in regards to peoples’ welcoming kindness.

I’ve seen a couple people on tumblr complain about how hard it is to break into the obikin space and how they feel like nobody cares about them or what they create,and that they feel there’s cliques guarding the supposed gates of…obikin success? I don’t even know. But in my opinion that’s folks waltzing into fandom with an agenda and need that just isn’t compatible with the community spaces of fandom. If you come into a space with the expectation of accolades and popularity you’re not here to actually make friends and have fun,you’re here as a popularity contest.

And I think the fundamental misconception people have is that they are inherently deserving of space and attention just for them coming in and existing. And like, I’m sorry but you have to put in the groundwork to make friends and connections and to find a place you feel you belong. It goes both ways, you have to reach out to people and be friendly and chat,don’t just expect people who have been in this space to magically be your friend and know you when you’re brand new and haven’t made an effort to flag you exist. And that’s what people call “it being hard to break into the space and it’s cliquey.” Because no,that’s how socializing works, you introduce yourself and you chat and you get to know people and you put yourself out there and engage with others. Sometimes you create art and people engage with you over that,sometimes you have funny things to say and people can laugh and bond over that,or sometimes you let other artists know you love what they’ve created. Imagine it as going to a cocktail mixer at an art gallery, you can’t just stand in a freaking corner staring at everyone talking and interacting and then get mad and storm out like “those people are such a clique and not welcoming!!!!” Like bro did you make an effort?

And if you’re coming into fandom as an artist or writer or gif maker or whatever,not everyone is going to like or engage or interact with you and what you create. People in your fandom space are not obligated to reblog your posts or comment on your fics. Especially a space like tumblr,it can take a while for people to notice you and start interacting with you,it’s how algorithms work and is just one of the pitfalls of an online community space. If you make a fandom tumblr I think it’s extremely conceited,self-centered,and like weird to expect to be a popular creator instantly. I’m sure there are people who think I ignore them or am cliquey and barring the door for them when in fact it just takes me a while to notice people. I’m not going to magically remember your username,but what I will notice is you making posts and tagging it in my ship tag, I’ll notice you systematically engaging with people and creating stuff,and l’ll notice if you engage with me. It takes time to build connections,and it takes work.Friendship and community is not owed to you, you must be the second half of the bridge and you must build those relationships and that space for yourself.

We’re a small community, this isn’t a huge popular ship. And it always boggles my mind when people are like iTs sO hArD tO bE iN oBiKiN. Like I notice new artists and writers and gif makers after they’ve made a couple things. We don’t ignore new people but on the flip side it’s not a popularity contest and you’re not owed fame and worship because you were popular in another fandom or because you create art. If you’re here for those reasons then you’re not going to be happy in fandom,especially a small niche part of it where you’re not going to get anywhere near as much attention as you would in a big popular ship.

And I don’t completely buy into the write for yourself mindset and ignore all else. I get what it’s like to want people to enjoy the art you pour yourself into,that’s not a crime. The very act of putting something on tumblr or ao3 means you’re not just creating for yourself. But the key it not to just “create for yourself” but to create what you love. We’re here because we love the same characters and the same world,we want to share that love! And be excited over pouring our love into our art and sharing it with other people who feel the same way!Create and engage in fandom not for popularity or attention,but because you love this thing and it’s inherent human connection with other people who feel the same way. That’s how you build friendships and a community. That’s what fandom is,connection with others over shared love. So engage and create and participate and laugh and chat and cry and connect through shared love. It’s not about our differences,or how we sometimes like different things or find different meanings,that’s what makes these spaces eclectic and fun,it’s not about liking the wrong thing or liking it in a wrong way. If fandom isn’t fun for you because you can’t stand people loving what you love in a different way,or not giving you the attention and praise you want for creating what you love,then that’s a you problem that you should self examine about.

We’re treated like lepers in a lot of spaces for liking the “wrong” thing,and we’re tight knit because of that. Which just means all the more that we can’t afford to be cliquey snobs about “allowing” new people into our space. From every avenue I’ve seen obikin fans are ecstatic to welcome new faces in,it’s just more friends to connect over what we love. Sometimes you like parts of this world or dynamic others don’t,sometimes you create art that means a lot to you that doesn’t mean a lot to everyone else and that’s okay. We’re allowed to have our personal preferences and our likes and our dislikes. But when you start treating other people in the same community like they’re bullying you for not liking the same thing as you and engaging with your content simply because they don’t vibe with it and then accuse the entire fandom of being a gatekeepimg snobby clique,then that’s you just being a whiny baby and I’ll say it to their faces. Your are not oppressed or being bullied because people in obikin don’t like what you do and you’re the one creating divisiveness by saying it’s a problem,no one is obligated to love what you do. And for those who are saying their content isn’t welcome,we’ll that’s just a further cry for attention because there will ALWAYS be someone who will enjoy the dynamic you do,and just because everyone doesn’t,it doesn’t make you a martyr.

So create what you love,put forth a fucking effort to connect with people who like the same shit you do,and don’t push half your fandom away by being a negative black hole in the tags and acting like everyone is out to get you and being mean.

#old man yells at cloud #also lol at me misspelling clique as cliche because anon did don’t mind me guys #obikin #fandom #fandom salt #long post #star wars

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upagainstthesunset · 1 month

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Im sorry guys but i slept well for once and naturally woke up early feeling good, so i come on here to enjoy the fun little things everyone posts and what do i find?

Literally six separate people complaining about batfam in fandom. I dont disagree, but day in day out half my dash is this. Its getting to the point where these kinds of posts are causing a more negative experience than the thing being complained about. Maybe consider how much youre complaining about the same one thing over and over again. And that youre the one perpetuating the topic of batfam superiority. Not a day goes by where i have the peace to not think about this bc someone is always bringing it back up.

Really unfortunate to feel the need to call this out bc every person i saw reblogging is a delight and i like all of you so, so much but like okay we get it. We get it and we agree already. Can we maybe at least reduce the amount this gets brought up? Just a little?

#i know this is an unpopular opinion #and ill probably delete later bc i dont want peoples feelings to be hurt #but damn dude can we have a day without talking about how other people are talking about batman??#thanks for making my whole morning bat fandom wank and little else :(#katetakes

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ridiasfangirlings · 3 months

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For Fushimi's birthday, the S4 alphabet squad take Horma's Yatagarasu and present him to Fushimi as a gift. The idea was supposed to be something along the lines of "here's your mortal enemy, do whatever you want with him" ...they aren't exactly expecting Fushimi's reaction to be getting a nosebleed at seeing Yata tied up in ribbons (maybe set in a time that the s4 think theyre still enemies but they actually arent anymore?)

I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of comics about this in the fandom early days XD Maybe Fushimi’s been particularly grumpy the last few days and no one can figure out why. They’re not entirely sure about what Fushimi’s current relationship with Yata is either, imagine this as post-ROK and the two of them swing wildly from being best friends again to arguing and not wanting to speak to each other. As it happens Fushimi is not very happy with Yata at this moment and he’s complaining under his breath about ‘stupid Misaki.’ When the alphabet squad hold their emergency Fushimi’s Birthday is Coming Up meeting (because they have one of those) Akiyama mentions hearing it when he was bringing Fushimi coffee. They all assume Yata must have done something really horrible, Doumyouji idly says ‘what if we just tie Homra’s Yatagarasu up and give him to Fushimi-san?’, shrugging like it’s the simplest explanation in the world. The squad laugh it off like we couldn’t do that…or could we.

So then Fushimi’s birthday arrives and as usual this makes his mood even worse because he hates his birthday. Even so the squad decide to surprise him, imagine Hidaka wants to blindfold him and Fushimi just glares until Hidaka backs away all weakly ‘f-follow me.’ They lead Fushimi into a room where Gotou and Doumyouji dump open this huge box, and out falls a very cross Yata completely wrapped up in ribbons. Fushimi goes completely silent as Doumyouji says this is a good present right and Hidaka’s all so…have at him, Fushimi-san. Fushimi tells them all to get out, Akiyama suddenly notices Fushimi’s nosebleed and Fushimi again snaps at everyone to leave. They hurry out and Hidaka actually feels a little bad for Yata, what if Fushimi really attacks him, and is stopped from going back by Akiyama who sagely says that no, he understands this, things will be fine. (Meanwhile back in the room Fushimi is having a good laugh and taunting Yata, who is still gagged by a ribbon, like see what happens when you made me eat vegetables on our date yesterday Misaki, you get tied up and punished.)

#sarumi #Talking K #Fushimi will be enjoying those ribbons :3c #Yata made him eat a vegetable so now of course they're enemies until he apologizes #or Fushimi gets to have fun punishment time

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prettyoddfever · 1 year

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about Northern Downpour...

there are a few misunderstandings related to this song in the modern fandom, so I’m going to try to hit a bunch of different points all in one post.

THIS SONG WAS EXTREMELY MEANINGFUL TO RYAN

Ryan continually said that Northern Downpour was the most important song to him, his favorite lyrics were on that song, and the most meaningful line was “I know the world’s a broken bone, but melt your headaches, call it home.” He said this song summed up his experiences of the last few years (and he’d definitely processed a lot of huge life changes).

The band often described Northern Downpour as the most meaningful song on the album and Mad as Rabbits as the most defining song. Sometimes that got switched around, but the point is that those two songs were very important. And honestly, ”I know the world’s a broken bone, but melt your headaches, call it home” has a lot in common with “we must reinvent love.” Both of those songs reject bitterness and show an intentional turn towards embracing love (we see your influence, JWalk). Those songs saw Ryan making a powerful statement on how he viewed the world and life now.

The whole band talked about how they wanted to do something positive, uplifting, and meaningful with the second album. Ryan mentioned several times that Jon’s positive outlook on life had influenced him, and told NME that “Life isn’t all bad – it’s not all good obviously – but there’s a lot of good to be found in it. And there was no good on the last record – it was all negative.” Ryan told Mean Street Magazine that “I think Jon coming into the band was a big deal, a big thing for us because he’s such a positive person. Me and him spent a lot of time together over the summer and we wrote a bunch of new songs together.” Jon said in a 2008 interview that “I think that was a lot of people’s motives back then was to try to write music to inspire people and make the world better.”

Ryan told Kerrang in 2008 that “But at some point things got so big and so out of our hands that we had to do something important because we have so many people paying attention to what we do. And this album is us doing something important.” Even in early 2006 Ryan was talking about how he didn’t think AFYCSO was that good... but the way that he talked about Pretty. Odd. in 2008 was so different. It was clear that the second album meant something very significant to Ryan on a personal level. In an interview in late May 2008 Ryan complained that a crowd wasn’t fully listening to Northern Downpour. Basically, he was super invested in this song that meant so much to him. He wanted it to be delivered correctly with the right emotion and for fans to properly appreciate it.

RYAN WAS PARTICULAR ABOUT HOW BRENDON DELIVERED HIS LYRICS

The band talked a lot during the Fever era about how much Ryan & Brendon had fought in the early years as they struggled to figure out how to successfully work together. Both guys explained in many different interviews that Ryan had a very specific idea of exactly how he wanted his lyrics performed, but he wasn’t able to sing well enough yet to communicate what he wanted… and Brendon couldn’t read his mind. They definitely still had their struggles in 2006, but by the end of the Fever era Brendon seemed proud that he’d learned how to read Ryan and work with him better. However, Ryan was still talking about how parts of his lyrics would get lost in translation when he handed them over to Brendon.

The early tension only grew in 2007 after the Fever era ended. Ryan had become WAY more confident and worked so hard on his singing that he was like a completely different person onstage than he had been in 2005. Plus, the band was changing so much that they no longer needed a dramatic frontman to step into a flamboyant narrator character and dance energetically around onstage singing the risque lyrics. Ryan could have easily delivered the eventual Pretty. Odd. songs too (but that wasn’t the case for the Fever era). So if you understand the positions they were in while entering the Pretty. Odd. era, you can see how Ryan would probably be extra picky about Brendon’s performance if Brendon was still going to be delivering the majority of the songs.

Ryan REALLY wanted his favorite line (”I know the world’s a broken bone, but melt your headaches, call it home”) to be delivered with the right emotion. That had absolutely nothing to do with Ryden...

THIS IS NOT A RYDEN SONG.

Here’s a Rolling Stone interview clipping where Ryan talked about Northern Downpour:

I’ve seen some people claim that the clipping above is a Ryden moment because Ryan was telling Brendon to notice a hidden message to him or something?? lol no. This is like a movie director saying that they told an actor to pay special attention to a line… it’s because that’s a key moment they want to make sure is delivered precisely how it’s meant to be.

When you suggest that this song is a Ryden thing, you completely erase Ryan Ross and all of the pain & loss & really profound growth he went through in 2006-2007 as he processed his life and seemed to make peace with a lot of things. This is absolutely not a love song to Brendon, and the whole associated Seattle Ryden story never even happened. Like I’ve said in other posts, I’m not necessarily against Ryden if everyone’s on the same page that it’s just for fun. I’m against erasing all of reality in order to pass off Ryden theories as real. It’s not fair to new fans, and it’s certainly not fair for Brendon or Ryan to endure a fandom’s escalating warped perceptions over time.

Side tangent: it was very common for Brendon to tell the crowd that he loved them during this song:

youtube

At the time I figured he was trying to get into the right “I love you” mindset to deliver the song with the correct emotion, but now as an adult I’m like eh whatever it’s probably not that deep. Moving on.

BRENDON MESSING UP THE MOST IMPORTANT PART

I think it might be easiest to first say that there’s this popular video from May 6th where Brendon messed up Northern Downpour, and it’s evident in the comment section that the current fandom has a very loose understanding of spring 2008. That mistake was not unique to that one night, the way that Ryan sang the line and “helped” Brendon isn’t special either, May 6th is absolutely not the specific reason why Brendon cried while singing this song in 2011, and there’s clearly just a LOT of context people are missing.

Brendon seemed to feel the extra pressure while delivering ”I know the world’s a broken bone, but melt your headaches, call it home” because he messed up that part way more than anything else in their set list. His first serious mistake was at Bamboozle 2008 when the band was headlining. For whatever reason, this festival was deemed the first festival that Panic at the Disco ever headlined. It was definitely turned into a decently big deal and carried more weight than their regular shows each night, so Brendon could have understandably been more anxious about getting the line right. 52:56 in this video shows the band backstage at Bamboozle (Shane is behind the camera) and Zach touches on a topic that the band talked about a lot in 2008: they focused more on playing the festival circuit that year in the hopes that they could reach a “new” audience and expand the type of people who listened to their band. Most of the big festivals were that summer in Europe & Asia, so Bamboozle was an early one.

Bamboozle was on May 4th. The band didn’t play Northern Downpour during the European tour in early spring 2008 before Pretty. Odd. was released, so the first tour with that song was the Honda Civic Tour that started on April 10th. They'd only been playing Northern Downpour live for a few weeks by the time Bamboozle happened.

Brendon messed up Northern Downpour at Bamboozle by skipping ahead to *the important line* a bit too early... it felt like he was overly focused on it. Ryan called out Brendon’s mistake to the audience, and then took control when it came time for the correct part (and also brought attention back to the fact that Brendon had messed up). So it’s understandable that Brendon would have been even more anxious about that part at the very next show... which was May 6th. See how May 6th was not “the one time that Brendon forgot the lyrics” to Northern Downpour like some people want to make it seem? Brendon was literally just repeating the previous show’s mistake where he jumped ahead to the line too early, BUT then he actually caught himself on May 6th and that’s why you see him singing nonsense sounds until he can switch tracks. It’s not because he suddenly forgot the lyrics. So then at the next show on May 7th when Brendon screwed up yet again (but in a different way) we were like omg please help him break out of this anxiety loop lol. And obviously he did!! But the context of those 3 shows in a row helps illustrate why he might have been extra anxious. You can’t isolate one show and act like Brendon was lazy for not knowing the lyrics. (btw I put the details of these 3 shows in the video below... Brendon’s reaction after finally getting it right on May 8th is adorable haha).

I think the most noteworthy mistake in any Northern Downpour performance was actually the Johannesburg show in South Africa in April 2009. Brendon legit blanked on the song towards the start and froze. A couple fans closer to the stage said that Brendon looked scared and/or like it was anxiety that caused him to space out... like I remember several people mentioning his panicked look. Ryan told Brendon the lines and restarted the song. Brendon still couldn’t get the lyrics, though. He ended up on the floor laughing and said something to the crowd about how his parents have always said he was a f*ck-up and they were right. I think Ryan even had the crowd sing the words to help remind Brendon. It was a hot mess. May 6th was absolutely not “the one time” Brendon messed up Northern Downpour and it shouldn’t be given any weird special significance.

RYAN SHARED THE DELIVERY OF HIS FAVORITE LINE

Brendon sang *the line* on his own at the first 2 shows of the Honda Civic Tour, but then Ryan became very much involved. Occasionally Brendon stepped back and just let Ryan sing it, but most often they sang it together. Sometimes Brendon sang the first half and then Ryan took the second half, but usually Ryan either sang the whole line alongside Brendon or else joined in for “but melt your headaches call it home.” Here are some examples of how that part went throughout 2008:

youtube

Ryan didn’t sing at the show in Malaysia (he was sick), so Jon sang Ryan’s parts there. I thought it was interesting how Jon didn’t step in for *the line* on Northern Downpour, though... like that made it feel even more like Ryan’s line.

Brendon & Ryan delivered that line together throughout the Pretty. Odd. era. That’s why it was such an emotional & stark contrast to see Brendon singing that part ALONE in 2011 (I’m not speaking for Brendon here, this was just my own feeling when I saw the videos). Ryan’s voice was almost always there for that line, so the absence just drives home exactly how gone the old band was. It’s the most painful, sharp illustration possible of how much things had permanently changed. That line just feels empty & wrong with only Brendon’s voice.

OTHER RANDOM RELATED THINGS

Ryan didn’t do too much with P!ATD’s book club after starting it, but one of the girls who ended up taking over the book club reached out to him to get a recommendation at the end of the Fever era. Ryan recommended Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, which had the line:

“But then they danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I’ve been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles…”

Northern Downpour’s not my favorite song on the album, but it’s absolutely the most meaningful song that defined the Pretty. Odd. era for me (and not just because the band said it was meaningful or named their new fan club Northern Downpour lol). It completely represents 2008 and a whole era that’s just… gone. Forever. This particular sound is sad to me these days because I get hit with such a strong wave of nostalgia, but the song in general is absolutely NOT a sad song! I’m genuinely curious why today’s teens seem to view Northern Downpour as an inherently sad song to cry to (especially since they weren’t around in 2008 to have any sort of nostalgia connected with it). The song’s underlying contentment & honest happiness felt like a love letter to everyone who had come into the band members’ lives… it was really meaningful to both the band & fans in a positive way.

Here are some of the main moments of the band talking about Northern Downpour:

youtube

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kelbunny · 22 days

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god forbid a character be morally ambiguous or make mistakes or have a lapse in judgment or have a facade meant to be dismantled by the viewer or—

it’s so fun being a very big fan of both of these characters. so so fun 😔

I mean tristrat makes it pretty easy to misinterpret or underappreciate certain characters in a sense because they’re. three dimensional! and complex! and INTERESTING! and dealing with VERY TOUGH CIRCUMSTANCES AND DECISIONS but even still, understanding the characters boils down to playing the game to its fullest and not just immediately dismissing a character because they made one bad or otherwise questionable decision (as fun as it is to poke fun at certain decisions sometimes like yeah let’s go blow up a dam that sounds fun, it is still good to actually. understand. why the choice was offered in the first place?)

some of the temenos takes out there though. yikes. just. yikes. I don’t even know where to begin with those also I’d feel bad just randomly dumping my thoughts on the matter in your inbox sorry

uh sorry for randomly throwing this at you but I read those tags and felt them in the core of my being

Fortunately with Roland it feels like the fandom has gotten better with the bad fan takes or I'm just good at curating my fandom space haha but being a Roland fan during the early days was rough bc it felt like people saw Roland's chapter 17 decision and immediately threw out all previous characterizations and ignored any further characterization. I think I even saw posts on reddit complaining how he was helping the Roselle in the non utility endings bc they seem to think that's why his chapter 17 decision is what it was. Like its an absolutely horrid decision, but it was made out of hatred for himself and for Aesfrost.

And there was also people who assumed that I only liked Roland bc I wasn't that far in the game (note: when I got the comment, I had already finished my first TriStrat run)

And yeah, there's definitely the point that Triangle Strategy lets you make horrible decisions (you mentioned the dam, but you also have things like selling out the Roselle chapter 11).

There are 100% critiques you can make about Roland, but many of those critiques and takes feel like they were made out of bad faith.

As with Temenos, the mischaracterization, especially when in reference to shipping him with Crick is what made me dislike the ship. Especially early on, it felt like a looot of the ship content was flattening Temmy (and Crick) to fit the two perfectly into flat ship dynamics. I've actually found my self less frustrated (and occasionally) with Temenos x Crick content that actually treats them like multidimensional characters.

And even without the ship stuff, there's people who don't understand that a large part of Temmy's personality is a mask (which also feels very flattening).

#Kelbunn answers #Kelbunn's thoughts #roland glenbrook #temenos mistral #Not putting fandom tags for this one

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lean-mean-demon-genevieve · 5 months

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Hello, I've recently started reading your blog and am enjoying it so far. I'm curious on your thoughts about a few things. What is your overall opinion on Jared? I've been noticing lately that Jared has been looking more miserable lately and looks a good bit thinner than he did a couple years ago. I also noticed his hair doesn't look as soft and shiny as it used to.

I watched the Mens Health video of an interview with him on what he eats and his workout routine. I noticed there was relatively little protein outside of him mentioning chicken, cheese and sometimes eggs and bacon. I also recall him mentioning he doesn't really eat carbs either. Do you think Gen is perhaps trying to control his diet and that it's possibly impacting his health mentally and physically? I know of people who do keto right and are healthy but I'm wondering if Jared is really doing that right, especially with what I've noticed and also tends to get sick a lot. I'm also wondering why he had to use a hyperbaric chamber to get more oxygen to his brain at one point.

Also, I saw a post of yours where you mentioned your first disdain of Gen is much stronger than it is towards Danneel. Would you be kind enough to tell me why you hate Gen a lot more than Danneel?

Thank you for your time in reading and hopefully answering this all.

Oh man, I’ve been super busy for the past several weeks, then sick, and haven’t gotten around to responding to asks in any particular order. But I’ve also been hesitant to touch this one because anyone that comes anywhere close to Jared critical content is immediately chased with pitchforks around here. It is so divided and therefore people are defending their faves to the death. Especially since Prequelgate, Jared, and thus Gen, are the current Prom King and Queen in the areas of fandom I most often see. And let me be clear that I’m not a Heller nor am I anti-Jared but I’m just also not a stan…of anyone. Honestly, I’m an “eat the rich” leftist at heart who believes anyone’s choices can be looked at with a critical eye.

(Long post under the cut)

To answer the easy stuff first, I don’t feel as strongly about Danneel because, except for a few appearances here and there, she keeps to herself lately and doesn’t give me a reason to really analyze her behaviors. I wasn’t deep into fandom during the early days of her and Jensen getting married and all of her territorial behaviors, so I don’t bring all of that with me to the present day. I do hate the way Danneel panders to Hellers and I did pick up on some irritating comments in her most recent OTH podcast appearance. The response from a fan question at HonCon about how Jensen can never impress her makes me roll my eyes and is part of their schtick that feels very tired. I don’t think we would be friends, but Danneel doesn’t get under my skin quite the same way Gen does. I think in some ways, Danneel has been more openly who she is (even if it was bitchy and unlikeable) whereas Gen has hidden behind a Mary Sue persona of golly-gee-whiz perfection…and I just respect that authenticity more.

Describing why I am anti Gen is…honestly difficult to summarize. I will link some of my other posts to help. Right away, it’s not because I’m jealous and she gets to be married to Jared. Overall, it lies in all the inconsistencies and hypocrisies which, honestly, I wouldn’t even be aware of if she wasn’t so set on proving her worth to herself by building a platform to manipulate her fans with sales pitches. She preaches sustainability while also jet-setting constantly. And she’s more of a flip-flopper than a preacher, so understanding what she even stands for is difficult. She wants to sell you 6 different supplements for the almighty gut health while also being seen drinking alcohol regularly. And when she laments about being stressed I lose my entire mind because most of us could only dream of having her version of stress. In one of her most recent IG story ads she complained that 2 trips out of the country (and away from her children) were just SO HARD to deal with! To me, instead of the relatable vibe she’s going for, she regularly comes off as entirely ungrateful and unaware of all of her privileges.

When I look at Gen, don’t see the same “goofy, light-hearted mom who is altruistically trying gosh darn hard to save the world with recycling and kindness” that her fans see. I see an uptight yet insecure grifter who skates by in this fandom by doing the bare minimum while being praised like a saint. And I think that it is her connection to Jared that affords her all the fandom grace. When people still refer to this grown man as one of their “boys” and liken him to “literal sunshine,” puppies, and sunflowers…well, imagine the positive assumptions we make about a partner that person chooses.

(I hate referring to either J as a boy, don’t come for me…and I’ve seen Jensen receiving the same stanning that also makes me gag lol)

While I hope Jared is not struggling with any other underlying health issue, his frame has appeared to change in recent years. But I’m definitely not here to say that this is due to Gen “controlling” him in any way. I do think Gen has/has had her own issues with eating (she admitted to having history of an eating disorder in a podcast once) and excessive exercise, but Jared is a grown man who makes his own decisions. Jared himself has alluded to insecurities in his body image over the years, praised what I would call disordered eating practices like fasting, and his bulked up frame as Soulless Sam was suspected of having anabolic help at the time. I do think he dabbles in manipulating diet and exercise in different ways like every one else in The Biz and I think he has a naturally lanky frame. So if he doesn’t want to work out constantly in order to stay swole, then I fully respect that. There is also the issue of his knee that no doubt impacts his capabilities as well.

As for the hyperbaric chamber (mentioned during Jared’s appearance on the Inside of You podcast on 5/24/22): he didn’t need it and the evidence that it even fixes anything just isn’t there. That doctor is a known quack, and he sucked Jared right in. At these clinics they take specialized (and not widely accepted in the field of actual neuroscience) scans of your brain and present you with scary results in order to sell these expensive chambers and their own supplements. It’s a racket. Now, how did he find his way to an Amen Clinic in Costa Mesa, CA? I really couldn’t tell you, but it does sound like the shifty, woo woo alternative medicine that Gen has also been pursuing for her “brain fog.” But then again, his supposed buddy and co-star Keegan Allen is also a health and wellness wackadoo, and we’ve seen Jared get sucked in by the likes of that young lady with the boutique IV drip clinic too. Jared has also shouted out Joe Rogan multiple times. He’s got multiple influences.

If Gen and/or Jared is concerned about their cognitive functioning, as a person with connection to the world of eating disorders, my opinion is that they invest in less oxygen chambers and instead at least consider more carbohydrates and overall calories. You’d be amazed at how much less foggy your brain feels when it’s properly nourished. And no, I’m not diagnosing anyone here, but I am saying that people with access to these expensive specialists are sometimes overlooking an answer that is right in front of their faces simply because eating a wider variety of nutrients would betray their brand. And sometimes people are scared to eat more when they can no longer workout like they use to and have an image to maintain.

#anti genevieve #somebody is going to snap on me for some of this #i can just feel it

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