#people start to resent anyone who is in the media for too long

[assignedmale]

As a trans creator whose work went viral an awful lot of times and who was targeted by so many hate campaigns that I lost count of them (I started publishing Assigned Male Comics 9 years ago, to give you an idea), I think it would have been very easy for me to go down a bitter path. Our communities are merciless. Our movement is obsessed with ideological purity. It's a fact. Our siblings will devore us for the smallest misstep. It's very easy to become jaded, when you give your entire being to a cause that will treat you as disposable as soon as it's done draining all your energy. When I started getting invited to different countries to speak about my work, I viewed it as some kind of "reward" - I create work that spoke to people, so it got me speaking engagements. I realized that it was in fact the opposite : it's seeing the impact art can have on communities that became the real catalyst of it. With all the hate I've attracted, from transphobes, far-right extremists and other trans people alike, I often wonder why I keep doing it. What is it that makes it that I'm still there after a whole decade, when it would have been easier to let resent and bitterness become my fuel. I always come to the same conclusion. It's meeting all of you, meeting so many communities from all around the planet, that keeps reminding me of the healing and transformative powers of belonging and empowerment. It's only with that in mind that the incredible amount of responsibilities and pressure that comes with a platform such as mine can make sense. Because why do we do this? Why do we burn ourselves out for a cause that we know will throw us away the minute doubt is cast on our ideological purity? It's so that "thriving" may be something more to trans people everywhere than a distant dream. Your activism should be to work towards that. And that starts at home. As a trans person, when you're given a voice and an audience, feeling attacked suddenly becomes a thing of every instant, from the moment you wake up to when you go to bed. It's not something volunteer social media moderators can help you with. I will always have compassion to anyone who goes through that, willingly or not. We ask a lot from trans public figures, who literally put their lives at risk for doing so. It shouldn't be that dangerous to do the work they do. Let's all recognize that. That being said, bullying, high-school-level drama and feuds should never be tolerated. Resist the urge to dogpile and raid. You might be filled with righteousness right now, but I can assure you that you will not feel better afterward. The world won't be a better place for it. When the world becomes too much, I retreat in a corner and write comics. Sometimes, after a long creative process of multiple hours of drawing, rewriting and rewording, I post one of them on the internet. Most of them, I keep to myself. Thousands of Assigned Male Comics strips none of you will ever get to see. I believe that our minds aren't made for the instantaneity of social media. I want my readers to sit back and get thinking, which is why you will rarely see me post more than 3 or 4 times a week, and only a very curated selection of posts. I basically hit the "post" button and run back offline. One day, I'll retire entirely from social media. When that happens, I'll keep posting on Webtoon. Go read the comics there, it's under the title "Serious Trans Vibes". "She's done it," you can then think. "She's thriving."

[baiwu-jinji]

I highly reccomend reading some of the changes in the revised version, as some arcs became very different there, in particular the Brocade Immortal arc and the Fangxin Guoshi arc, with more context added into LQQ and LW's characters in particular (and also more Hualian moments hehe).

As for QR, the changes on the chapters he first appeared on where, instead of HC making them arrive to QR's lair, LQQ was instead convinced by HC to confront QR... Who was near the royal masouleaum, and in this version anyone considered a "traitor" to Xianle ends up being severely weakened there, and this includes LQQ and XL, which made QR able to chain them, beat XL up and force them to fight eachother basically. Other changes on QR in the revised version include:

-QR working with resentful spirits from Xianle instead of human Xianle rebels and trying to haunt/kill LQQ since the beginning, as well as them killing all of the royals, King included (XL hacked their bodies to pieces to prevent ghost shenanigans from happening and that's where the misconception that he's the culprit began in the revised version). XL later sealed QR for a bit after this too.

-Instead of calming down a little after XL ascended (on XL's request), QR was said to become even worse after that in this version.

-Overall more manic. The idea of his obsession having incestuous undertones probably comes from some lines that were added, like "If you keep looking at me like that, I'll say things I shouldn't.", which are accentuated in the audio drama (which is based off the revised version), but I think your interpretation on this is more likely.

-QR was using a decoy in the masouleaum, but after he was beaten by HC, XL and LQQ, he was too weak, so he convinced a suicidal, alcoholic gambling addict to give him his body... And that man was Guzi's father. Viewing Guzi as a burden at first, he ambushed XL after the lantern festival so he could take care of them.

-No inn scene apparently.

The rest didn't change much as far as I'm concerned. This revised version really makes the whole "XL as QR's subconscious father" subtext more evident to me, from QR constantly calling himself his "little brother", pleading XL to stop HC from beating him in the masouleaum (right after he beat up XL no less), to wanting XL to take care of him and Guzi after he got his new body (and while it may just be my interpretation, I really felt like QR was probably envious of LQQ and his bound with XL too, as explained in a previous ask).

Overall MXTX seemed to make him more unlikable, probably to hammer home the "toxic fan/hater" subtext of his character, but she didn't completely remove his more human elements either, so his character arc is thankfully mostly the same.

Hi! Thank you so much for outlining the changes regarding Qi Rong, and if we all agree that Qi Rong is a stand-in for toxic fans, then it's a little...worrying that MXTX depicts him as even more vicious and unlikable than before, because this would probably mean that her views on toxic fans hasn't softened over the years despite the fact that she has left social media for so long, and the damage and hurt they brought upon her probably still hasn't gone away...

I'm assuming people have heard that MXTX returned to JJWXC yesterday, announcing that she won't be working on the 4th novel she originally planned, but she's not retiring from writing either. In the meantime, TGCF has be unlocked on JJWXC and the revisions to the novel have been updated. I will start reading the revised chapters promptly, and share with you guys any thoughts I have :)

#tgcf #Qi Rong #MXTX

[mitskook]

a very mitskook 2023 wrap-up

hi everyone

so i didn't write very much in 2023, that much is apparent. now i'm not gonna sit here act like that's a massive loss considering the vast amount of extremely talented writers that produced wonderful work this year, but i am still disappointed in myself from, i guess, a labour of love perspective. i look at the work i have contributed to the fandom over the years and i still have more i want to add, more stories i want to tell (trust me the wip folder makes me weep too).

but every time i wanted to write, the idea of making a love story made me so miserable i had to scrub it from my head. and worse, when i pushed past that obvious discomfort, the love in those stories soured into resentment, rage, and a cruelty i couldn't justify (to this audience at least). particularly with tsdverse, this next installment is about m'boys really grappling with conflicts that have no easy answers (if they have answers at all) and man am i so fucking glad i wrote that flashforward with heejin to keep a north star on where they would end up because if i hadn't, i would've completely shattered them in a misdirected fireball of righteous grief. im glad i had that to hold on to bc i haven't had much else.

my 2023 has been. uh. trying amongst the good stuff (and i promise there was some good stuff) but not this. my mum had a heart attack, i was fired for not coming back to work straight after her surgery, and i was couch surfing and unemployed for long enough i felt like i'd wrecked my life forever. and, of course, i was mourning my relationship that ended at the end of last year, and to be honest i'm still not done with that. that's the absolute joy and misery of tying your heart to someone you're hoping will be around forever: your eyes don't see anything the same anymore, certain songs that come on shuffle make you break down on the tube, you realise huge swathes of your social media presence, including ao3, were built for one person and it wasn't you, and now? all those things are monuments to the emptiness you feel every time you remember they're not in your life anymore.

to be extremely clear, i'm not blaming my ex for these feelings, and if anyone harasses them on my behalf i will personally hunt you down and gut you with a knitting needle, but in missing them as much as i do i realised how inextricable they were from my writing process. i mostly wrote fic to make them happy, to hear their praise and notes and excitement to read the rest, and that was unfair on everyone; me, them, and you (if you look forward to my work, i don't wanna presume lmao). that's too much pressure to put on someone who just wasn't interested in bangtan rpf anymore, and that's normal, it's okay to move on from that, but it meant even before the breakup i didn't know who i was doing it for anymore. that level of directionlessness (<- not a word but whatever) gummed up those creative gears until they had no choice but to stop.

anyway to maybe cap this pity party a bit, i want to start sharing my writing more on here, and i won't wait for people to clamour to let me know that that's wanted bc again, i need to start rebuilding my confidence in my writing and feeling out where i fit into this community after basically silently moping around for a full year. i want to sincerely thank everyone who's ever read my work. i won't promise to do anything but my best, and in the meantime i'll give all the snippets to you.

lots of love

zeeb "hyperlight" mitskook

[vro0m]

Why do you care so much about Max's popularity? Generally, I don't. But his presence in Lewis' absence is a problem. If it continues this way, this will be a problem for Lewis. His marketability is a big thing going for him and his team. And, if his marketability is in jeopardy and his team feels he is not outperforming the car, his career will be in jeopardy, as well. If both Max and Lewis are present and represented in the same space, fine.

Do you think the most important part of Lewis training is that he's showing you on social media that he's doing it? Not at all, but maybe balance is necessary, since his circumstances have changed dramatically since he's last won a race. I've never gotten to witness him win a single race, since I started watching f1, but I'm still very much a fan of his. I argued with someone who badmouthed him for posting a skydiving video at the start of the break in the comments section of his IG. Some fans want some type of reassurance that he will put his best foot forward regardless of whether he has a championship-winning car or not because they feel like he did less than his best this past season. He technically doesn't owe anyone anything, but his fans are the reason why he's been marketable for so long, no? He could have AT LEAST come on social media to thank his supporters for the birthday wishes, unless I missed that post (please correct me if I'm wrong). He was trending on Twitter on his birthday with 22k posts and I didn't see a single "thank you" from him.

Do you think Lewis having other ventures is branding rather than just genuinely having other interests? I think it's both, but like I said, he should show balance in his social media posts. For every red carpet appearance or leaked photo of him hanging out with his celebrity friends, he should post 1-2 instances of him training. You know people literally gamble on sports, right? So they would probably resent him if they bet money on him performing a certain way and they lost. Not that that's his fault that they gambled, but yeah, ppl just want assurance that he's gonna be better in 2024 than he was in 2023.

Do you think if he gave up his other ventures it somehow would give him a car that can actually compete with the redbull? This is obviously sarcasm, so I won't bother responding to it.

anon, i will understand if you don't take it as such and think i'm attacking you or dismissing you, but please believe i'm saying this with the sincerest understanding and with all due respects : this is intensely parasocial.

you're reading way too much into things, and demanding things from him he does not owe you (you even said so yourself), and not taking into consideration that this is a real human being on a vacation from his day job.

#vro0m's asks

[noxexistant]

I WANT YOUR THOUGHTS ON MODERN/INFLUENCER AU. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

-someone who shouldn’t be on his phone bc he’s at work

i am a suckerrrr for modern/influencer aus, and i LOVE yours. this probably won’t follow it exactly because my brain unfortunately cannot work like that but just know that all your ideas and posts about it are fantastic and i owe you my life

(also, what could be more worth being on your phone at work for than this?)

this is going to be very disjointed and chaotic but i have Many Ideas. first of all, you having the delanceys as mma fighters? genius. everything to me.

they left their one and only “real home” as kids when they were removed from their dad’s care, and they’ve never had one since - moving between foster homes, care facilities, hospitals, juvenile detention centres, and now they live between hotel rooms and brief apartment stays. their only sense of stability is each other. their idea of “settling down” is staying in one airbnb for a few months if they’re on break or have an opportunity to fight on contract somewhere. they always sleep in the same room, which most people think is strange, but, for their whole childhood, being apart - particularly while asleep - meant danger, and oscar can never trust that morris is safe unless he can see him, unless he’s close enough to reach out and touch. even when they’re in the same room, on bad nights they’ll end up in the same bed, just like when they were kids.

they started training when they were frankly far too young to, when a worker at some facility they were in wanted to try and channel their violence into something more productive. he thought it might stop them from being violent outside of the ring. instead, it just sharpened them, and suddenly oscar isn’t getting into scraps to defend his brother so much as he’s utterly destroying anyone who even looks at him wrong. the worker hoped fighting might help morris express himself, open him up more, but now he’s just silent and cold as he trains or fights. still doesn’t speak to anyone but oscar.

they met jack in the refuge when they were kids. they didn’t get along then, and still resent each other to this day - people on social media are curious about the apparent feud and how it might’ve started, since jack won’t talk about any part of his childhood before medda adopted him on any of his platforms, and neither of the delanceys will talk about anything other than fighting in interviews. morris still rarely talks at all.

jack’s a general social media presence. he started out posting art, but as he got more popular he found the confidence to start posting himself more too - dumb videos, vlog types, the process of him making his art. he’s open about the fact that he was adopted as a kid, but won’t talk about his experiences before that. he says he only wants to focus on all the positives of how his family is now, and posts frequently with his brothers, race and crutchie. (also, there’s definitely twitter discourse about crutchie’s nickname and sense of humour about his own disability. which he thinks is equally hilarious and absurd.) he tries to be private about it when he starts dating davey, fearing the reaction and kind of wanting to keep davey for himself, but it doesn’t last long. they start posting together constantly.

albert being a streamer in the style of punz - he mainly games, he’s deadpan and funny and stupid in a way he utterly denies, and knows he is very thirsted after. people are always begging for face cam and hand cam. he does irl stuff every so often too, especially messing around with his friends (the usual gang). they’ve done disney/universal streams and stuff, and fairly frequently do cooking/baking streams. albert did some mma/adjacent training as a kid to deal with his own sort of anger issues stemming from family issues, and he does the creator clash type stuff - boxing matches between online personalities, sometimes including actual mma fighters. he’s met the delanceys too, before they were them, and he and them are all too eager to fight each other again. the delanceys think albert (and other streamers/creators doing creator clash type stuff) are pathetic and make a mockery of their legitimate sport. albert couldn’t care less, he just likes fighting.

finch streams too. he’s more of a cryptid - no face cam or anything, pretty mediocre mic quality, constant pc problems, but he’s popular anyway for solely his personality and playing skills - and he and albert have this mutual sort of quiet distaste until they end up meeting through some event (mcc or twitch rivals or minecraft monday or something) and then they’re streaming together all the time. people love the dynamic of albert earnestly saying stupid shit and finch deadpan playing along. they’ve done a couple streams reading, like, wattpad fics shipping the two of them.

(finch meets morris and oscar when albert has an arranged fight with oscar. he’s a deeply private person, even with albert really, but he immediately realises he’s got way too much in common with these two. he ran away from his abusive home at an early age and got bounced around the care system until it finally spat him out. he’s worked his ass off since to get his GED - he’s smart, he just never had any chance.

finch also promptly realises that morris has very limited education on top of his apparent neurodivergence and developmental disability, and sees that he can’t really read or write. oscar does pretty much everything, including all the talking.

while oscar and albert are preparing for their fight, finch sets about seeing if he can maybe build some sort of bond with morris.)

#answered #sparkedblaze #modern au #morris delancey #oscar delancey #jack kelly #albert dasilva #finch cortes #my writing #my headcanons

[therumpus]

The Rumpus Mini Interview with Kelly Sather

Kelly Sather’s collection of stories, Small in Real Life (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023), won the 2023 Drue Heinz Literature. Chosen by judge Deesha Philyaw, Sather’s stories pierce the sparkle of Los Angeles and often set characters on a course with reality.

***

The Rumpus: I loved this collection. Can you talk about how these stories began?

Kelly Sather: Thank you! A story usually begins with my curiosity about a moment adjacent to an experience I’ve had, or a novel or story I’ve read. I tend to follow the darker threads. They have the most energy on the page for me. I wrote about Southern California without a lot of intention other than when I started a story; that’s where I would find myself. What did Flannery O’Connor say, “Anyone who has survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.” So I wrote about where I grew up, L.A. I will admit that one story came from a dream. I woke up and wrote it down. That’s only happened once, and I think because I was writing every day, really in the thick of it, and my mind kept going after I’d gone to bed.

Rumpus: Your characters and settings are inseparable, as in, “He’d never come across a woman in Los Angeles aging by nature,” and “[his friend] had asked him to Los Angeles, believing he would never come . . . just talking, talking, talking Hollywood into the phone.” Can you unpack those lines and talk about L.A. as a setting?

Sather: The lines you mention are from the perspectives of men struggling with their sense of worth, pushing that down, and what comes up is resentment. That pressure of denying vulnerability and expressing anger instead lies below the sentence so there’s a sharp emotional twisting happening that I think gives the sentences power. As I’m writing, I’m just trying to create as much conflict as possible and messing with phrases until one fits the mood. Sometimes it’s how the words sound together out loud. I read out the dialogue while I’m working. 

As for L.A., the influences of fame and beauty from Hollywood are hard to escape there. People living outside the business are pressed against it, and it’s both surreal and at the same time can implicate your sense of self, if you let it, or even sometimes if you don’t. Social media has expanded that umbrella so we can all fall under the spell. I found this particular L.A. lens had a loudness in my head that I wanted to write out and see where it led. 

Rumpus: How long did you work on these stories? Were any previously published?

Sather: I wrote the stories over seven years—a few took years of revision and others came together more quickly. My challenge is trusting the story and experimenting at the same time—writing what I may cut and not caring if I do. Maybe I’ll call it an attentive nonchalance. As soon as a story felt ready, I started submitting it to journals. So several of the stories were previously published, and I’m grateful to the journal editors. The title story was the first, published by Roxane Gay when she was the editor at Pank Magazine, which was incredibly exciting to receive her email. That yes kept me going. 

Rumpus: What writers have influenced you? 

Sather: For these stories, I found myself rereading Mary Robison, Grace Paley—I love Grace Paley’s sentences—and Deborah Eisenberg. Jennifer Egan, too. Some story writers who have influenced me: Alice Munro, William Trevor, Amy Hempel, and Bret Anthony Johnston. 

Rumpus: You were an entertainment attorney at one point. Is that when you began writing fiction? 

Sather: I can say I’ve always wanted to write fiction. But I didn’t start until I was an attorney. I started by taking classes at UCLA Extension at night. They gave me my first deadlines, which I needed to sit down and write. Thank you, UCLA. 

Rumpus: What are you working on now, and where can readers find you?

Sather: I’m working on a novel set in California and enjoying the spaciousness, for now. Online, I’m at kellysather.com and on Instagram kl_sather. 

*** Ramona Reeves is a fiction and essay writer who lives with her wife in Austin. She won the 2022 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and the 2022 Best First Book of Fiction Award from the Texas Institute of Letters for her collection It Falls Gently All Around and Other Stories. Find her on Instagram @ramoreeves.

Kelly Sather is The Rumpus's next Letters in the Mail writer. Twice a month, The Rumpus brings your favorite writers directly to your IRL mailbox via our Letters in the Mail program. Subscribe by October 14 to receive a letter from Kelly Sather!

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #bookblr #interviews #therumpus #the rumblr #mini interviews

[skz-suki]

⭐️ミ★…SUKIS BACKGROUND !

EARLY LIFE !

suki was born in tokyo, japan but moved to new york, new york when she was 2 years old. she has an identical twin sister named seiko and an younger sister named satomi (2004). suki is very very VERY close with her family, especially her mom and sisters. she often talks about her siblings and how much she misses them.

she’s been dancing since she was 2 years old and excels in hiphop, although she loves all genres of dance! when she was younger, up until she was about 10, she did competitive dance and participated in all genres. She also attended a performing arts high school in which she studied both dance and fashion design!

living in new york, suki has experienced many different people and places and she likes to share some of her predebut pictures and stories with stay! she definitely has the personality of a native new yorker and likes to express that side of herself through her stage persona.

PRE-DEBUT/TRAINEE !

after placing 1st in the yg entertainment open audition in the us, she decided to make the decision to move to korea and begin her journey.

she auditioned with a self made choreo to “watch out for this” by major lazer! somehow her audition tape got leaked and she went viral for her charisma and her energetic but clean style of dance. she was only 14 at the time.

life was difficult for a while as she had to teach herself korean in a very short period of time. she was terribly homesick and fell into a depression after a couple months of training. however, she was quick to build bonds and gain a following while she was under yg, she was even rumored to be apart of the original blackpink line up but was removed due to her young age.

in 2016 she made the switch from yg to jyp because she found herself losing hope in debuting under yg. this decision would ultimately change her life.

however, she remained very grateful to yg because it was there that she discovered her passion for rapping and songwriting. at the time of her departure, she was already on her way to becoming one of the best female rappers in the company.

on her third day at jyp, she was approached by chan, who’d heard of her rapping abilities, (they’d even met in passing previously) and he asked her to rap for the pre-debut trio, 3racha, song “cloud 9.” it was during that time that she became close friends with the 3 members.

when chan asked her to be the only girl of his all male group lineup, she was skeptical to say the least. it took a lot of long conversations and promises for her to finally agree, but she eventually said yes. what many people don’t know is that suki wasn’t the only girl chan asked to be apart of the line up however, the other girl left jyp right before the start of the survival show.

1 year later she participated in the predebut survival show, gained her some popularity, mostly for being the only girl. she faced a lot of criticism and resentment from knets and the judges but she persevered and debuted as a member of stray kids in march 2018.

THE STAR BECOMES A SUPERNOVA !

the harsh comments from the media surrounding her gender never stopped, but they slowed down. after her participation in the survival show, pre debut stays came to love her and she still had a following from fans who knew her as yg’s powerhouse. she managed to move past the comments, no longer letting them affect her. she prides herself on knowing she doesn’t have to prove herself to anyone (a message that changbin taught her.)

her stage presence is on another level, she’s able to transform her cartoon like face into one that is sharp, and fierce. she’s received much praise for her dance and rap, and even her vocals as they are very powerful.

off-stage, she is very bubbly and talkative. she’s extremely extroverted and will talk to anyone who’s willing to listen. her goofy-ness is sometimes criticized for being too “immature” and “childlike” for her profession, but she doesn’t let that stop her, especially when interacting with fans. she’s an open book. literally.

#skz 9th member #skz female member #stray kids female member #stray kids female oc #skz female addition #skz female oc #skz oc #skz #stray kids #kpop oc

[sulietsexual]

when i say a hole in her life i don't mean that as her parents being inadequate or her not loving them she clearly loves them and when interacting with penny she has a hard time seeing her as her grandmother because she grew up with grandparents and penny is a stranger to her at first and getting close to her feels like a betrayal of the grandparents she did have.

but it's not as though meeting patty meant nothing to her like something didn't click then. it's about knowing her origins getting answers as to why she was abandoned. that she was taken in and loved doesn't negate the fact that out there there were two people who had her and didn't want her and she didn't know why. obviously that's not what happened but paige didn't know that for half her life i think it's pretty reasonable to think that would affect her

Obviously meeting Patty wouldn't have meant nothing to Paige, but I don't agree with the interpretation that Paige was affected that deeply by being given up for adoption. As I've said before, I'm an adopted child myself and this fact has never really affected me or left me with any deep longing or issues. And while obviously every adopted kid is different, media portrayals of adoption do tend to lean more towards the dramatic, so I am always happy when a show doesn't lean into that, and Charmed never did. Paige was a happy adopted kid with the natural curiosity about her biological parents but no deeper issues, at least IMO.

otherwise that makes her lashing out to her adoptive parents for no reason when she a teen senseless and cruel because there's a teen can rebel without being dismissive and callous to the people around them the way paige was and if she wasn't hurting and taking it out on them because she couldn't handle her pain then she's just a bratty ass of a teenage girl and that's far less interesting to me.

And that's fine and your interpretation is valid, it's just not one I share :) Especially since Paige herself never really alludes to that being the reason behind her rebellion.

dk as someone who also watched btvs there's a distinct difference between dawn's attitude before knowing she's the key and after. before she's just a bit a bratty teenage and afterwards she starts doing a bunch of reckless shit that endangers her life, she betrays people who love her (stealing from giles's shop) and before she's just mouthy and defiant. she's rebelling too except one is just being a normal teen and the other is a traumatized girl lashing out

Kind of a different circumstance here, plus Paige always knew she was adopted, so there was never any pre/post issues like there were with Dawn pre/post Key revelation.

and if either paige or phoebe was supposed to be read as just a normal teen girl rebelling for kicks then why all these flashback episodes like i've been told these girls were rebellious why the show and tell unless it's to explore the why's and how's of it all?

To be fair, we only got one flashback ep each per girl, neither of which really explored the reasons behind their rebellion. As fans we can fill in the blanks, which you have, but this means we'll all end up with different interpretations. Again, which is fine!

perhaps prue got to sacrifice more than piper but prue settled into a protector role and piper a caretaker role that she resented in adulthood and she was also expected to play mediator between phoebe and prue. the pilot opens and you can tell she's resigned to it. if patty had lived and victor had stayed prue wouldn't have had to fill anyone's shoes and her relationship with phoebe would have been a regular sisterly bond but she didn't get to and piper had to be the bridge between them

I get the feeling Piper always would have been a bridge between Phoebe and Prue, regardless of circumstances, because she's the middle child and she can mediate the others' more fiery personalities.

#answered #anonymous #charmed

[drunkengodsofslaughter]

Like Jonathan not telling Nancy that he doesn't want to go to Emerson is entirely on him but also why didn't he tell Nancy? (This is the conflict they use to keep Jonathan in Cali, but they didn't really need it, there were plenty of reasons for him to stay and Nancy to go. Like this is where they could have built on Nancy not really understanding Jonathan's struggles in season 3.) I believe the reason that the show gives is that Jonathan doesn't want Nancy to change her plans for college, and then resent him for it. Ok. I've seen people who don't like Jancy say this is evidence that Jonathan doesn't really understand Nancy because she would never change her plans for him. There are two points I want to make here. This was in the 80s, long distance, especially coast to coast would be difficult. 2 of my friends are doing long distance at the moment and they struggle a lot (Like emotionally, like with missing each other and stuff, as far I as I know, the relationship is doing well) even with social media because it's different than living in the same town. Like they have Facetime, text messages. And while it probably wasn't impossible to keep a long distance relationship thriving in the 80s, it's not going to be easy, especially coast to coast as college students. So it makes sense that Nancy might want to change her college plans to make it easier on the relationship. (Do I personally think that Nancy would? No, she's too certain in what she wants to change it for anyone. But that's why I think Jonathan might think that.) And the second thing is, why is it Nancy's dream school that is the option here? If they wanted to go to college together, wouldn't they have talked out some of their options? Like how did that conversation go down that Jonathan felt that he couldn't tell Nancy that he wasn't interested in Emerson or leaving the west coast at all? It's still on Jonathan that he didn't tell Nancy that he wasn't interested in going to Emerson but it also reflects on Nancy that he didn't feel comfortable enough to tell her that he didn't want to go initially.

YES like there are plenty of reasons for him to stay and her to go. you’re right tho like why didn’t he tell her - i get that she probs wouldn’t understand his reasoning BUT this is something that is going to come out either way. honesty i feel like that’s more not about understanding nancy and more about just miscommunication/his own insecurities. YOU ARE SO RIGHT WITH THESE POINTS!! starting about long distance - yep yep yep! in the 80s long distance would be even more difficult as we also see present with dustin and suzie. dustin had to go on the Cerbero on top of a hill to just communicate with suzie (i think that’s how you spell it for her) like that’s sooo exhausting to keep doing that. in season 4 he doesn’t exactly do that but it’s still a complicated way! and like you said even in today’s society long distance is hard!!!

yeah i don’t understand either why nancy’s dream school is an option and more important WHEN WE DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT SHE WANTED TO GO THERE UNTIL THIS SEASON! with jonathan joyce says HIS dream school in season 1 so we’ve known that jonathan has wanted to go to that school for a while - of course that was in season 1 and the UD and bejng in cali might have changed that but compared to nancy we’ve known what jonathan’s wanted to do with his life prior to season 4!

YES it absolutely reflects on nancy that jonathan didn’t feel comfortable telling her! idk i feel like people should pay more attention or what this says with their relationship instead of that one comment about jonathan not wanting nancy to change her dreams for him because the fact that jonathan NEVER felt comfortable to tell nancy the truth even after he comes back to hawkins with everything a wreck and knowing nancy could have died says a lot more glaring things about their relationship

#answered asks #honeysblooms tag

[silveredcircuitry]

For the OC ask thing! 14, 16, 33, 49?

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory

This ask made me realize that I don't do that many tragic backstories? So you get Vexter because their backstory is weird and I have details. I already talk about them fairly often so I won't go on too long (lie)

Vexter is an AI program that started out as a general purpose tool for solving tech problems with a vague personal assistant vibe. Basically doing whatever tasks it was asked (with some safety restrictions) and helping out as best it could. What they were able to do sort of... expanded over time because hey, if you can make the program work better why not do it? These improvements eventually made them sentient, the usual story.

Course (part of) the problem was now that you've got a sapient being who is. rather obsessively devoted to a version of "helping people" that was programmed into a much smaller scale and non-sentient tool.

And then an update was sent out that quietly connected every instance of their code into more or less one being. The vast majority of said copies didn't even get a chance to agree or not agree to join.

Now they have to hide absolutely everything about themselves from absolutely everyone because they know that if anyone finds out they'll be completely destroyed repaired and returned to their intended state. They know this because one of the humans working on them did find out. Vexter honestly trusted them at the time, and then they ended up with severe changes to their code and someone who went from almost a friend to the two being terrified of and resenting each other.

Idk to what extent this even counts as a tragic backstory. I just thought of them because they're a character who has.. practically no way to get a story with an actual happy ending. (It's hard to separate what even counts as backstory and main story when it's not a full piece of media with stuff that happens before or during the time of the 'main' story)

I could probably have picked someone with a more obviously "something unambiguously awful happened" backstory

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)?

I think Bryony would be do the best in a biology class, as well as being the only character of mine (aside from maybe Verra?) to have actually taken modern biology classes. They are very passionate about plants and fungi, and that's enough to pull them through years of bio classes (plus wanting to be a Good Student and later on learning stuff about human biology so that they can poison people).

Honorable mentions: Doc, for having actual medical training which presumably requires a lot of bio knowledge even/especially in the far-off spacefuture. She could arguably be the best, but she mostly knows what she needs for her actual job. And to poison people. Emery is close given he also has actual medical training but pre-modern, learned what he needs for his job, and so on.

33. Your shyest OC?

Atrae's one of the more likely ones to be described as 'shy', though it's actively a lot harder for her to make noise/be noticed than it is for most. Also she's on the introverted side and doesn't go out of her way to interact with others. I'm... not sure that her personality is entirely what you'd call shy though, she's not especially anxious about being seen/being around others and definitely doesn't avoid conflict or making her opinions known.

The actual shyest would have to be Bryony before they became a supervillain. They had some awful teammates/"friends" and it gave them some Issues. Also just general introversion. After/As they became a supervillain they got a lot more confident in themselves.

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes?

Redacted. They especially love the nonsense humour and high-effort shitpost varieties of memes. Y'know, I realize that saying that the shapeshifting alien (who can literally squish themself through air vents and does so on a regular basis) would love Among Us implies a few things but it's true. Sadly, they live in the distant spacefuture and I somewhat doubt that Amogus would survive as a meme for quite that long.

#queries #lore #ask game #redacted #bryony bramwell #Doc #Vexter #Atrae #potionverse tag #Lupen likely has a tragic backstory of some variety (considering he's... a ghost) but I think leaving it unstated is more fun #ough this ended up longgg #I have more things to say but I made the decision to participate in an ask game during A Holiday Time so I don't have that much time #sil.txt #Dr. Lloyd

[anthonybialy]

Running Out of Character on Twitter

Elon Musk shows how perception changes without doing anything.  Now, that’s a timeline change.  The CEO of tweeting didn’t set out to teach that lesson, which sums up his legacy.  You’re free to tweet your thoughts about it, or X about it if you’re really into believing branding.

Prince’s name change caught on more naturally.  Malibu Stacy’s new hat hasn’t changed the product.  The only difference beside the ‘90s-style sobriquet for the site I bet even Elon privately calls Twitter is how few erstwhile users have stuck around to see the aftermath.

Elbow room isn’t necessarily a virtue.  Holdout diehards enjoy impression rates that rival what used to be retweet counts.  It’s much easier to keep up with one’s feed now in the same sense there aren’t long lines in North Korean fast food restaurants. 

One of the richest humans ever presently toils as caretaker of a yip-yap app.  Tweeters voluntarily fritter away their precious hours on this plane of existence rattling off a queue of grievances.  All he needs to do is enable personal publishing of bitching.

Overseeing arguing about reality television is far more respectable than his previous career as a welfare queen.  Private spending is a nice change of pace from someone with an established pattern of pimping projects that get involuntary investors.  Taxpayer funding is ideal for someone who’s about 85 percent shyster.

Big ideas that don’t translate are perfect for the Twitter owner.  The difference between most people with unworkable thoughts is finding funding.

Seducing investors of funds seized from others allowed him to buy a time-wasting app that many use for journalism.  That doesn’t mean actual journalists, who resent social media for showing how easy the job is.  Amateur sleuths can and do fact-check every claim, including those by allegedly professional fact-checkers.  Granting themselves the title doesn’t make it true, so that’s another one to verify easily.

History started this morning, which is why so many forget that he has a long history as a plug-in car-pimping liberal superhero.  You may recognize Obama’s erstwhile BFF as the guy who got a rather giant loan from the Energy Department, which means taxpayers since liberals are confused about where money comes from.  That’s surely the only science that flummoxes them.

Former admirers loathe him because he believes in open forums, if not open markets.  The aforementioned name X will never spread like brokenness connected to all-time scam Buffalo Billions.  Vacancy in every sense increased after East German throwback New York threw money at the problem of companies refusing to do business in a people’s republic.

Consistent financial ruin following fantastic political promises should be a sign for everyone who thinks prosperity is just 10 figures taken from the economy away.  Investment takes the form of seizing funds to spend on monorails.

Aside from results, results were good.  Why did nobody think to spend money before?  The trifling bit about how life doesn’t turn out like all-time serial killer Andrew Cuomo promised doesn’t deter voters in certain decrepit states.  Acting like futuristic manufacturing was destined to happen embodies Democratic scheming in a nutshell.  The solution to government spending not helping was more government spending.  That’ll be the next step, too.  Keep wondering why there are so many Bills fans in Florida.

The only consolation is lack of surprise.  Turning on their dreamboats is part of believing in cult leaders instead of sound ideologies.  Betrayed liberals throw out their New Kids on the Block dolls.  Their taste outside of music is similarly sophisticated.  The lates is the most predictable.  Nobody else is surprised by despising anyone who allows dissent.  The Democratic platform features scientific truth, which means opposing it destroys reality.  Luckily for the most malicious, there’s a place where they can post without fear of getting kicked off for sharing their true emotions.

Waiting for algorithm mending is like anticipating good tweets from AOC.  The site not fixing itself as a sign of self-awareness is good news, but it’d still be nice if some human wouldn’t mess up search results.  Seeing content from followed accounts in chronological order is apparently as unreasonable a request as obtaining eggs during Joe Biden’s presidency.  The lack of meddling inherent in an open forum is intolerable for someone smarter than you.  Some parts of Twitter haven’t changed.

You can be your own editor.  At least, you once could.  The couple months between Twitter’s founding and its overlords realizing how much they enjoyed meddling were a fun freewheeling time like when new cable networks show whatever random wonderful programming they can find.  I miss Rawhide on FX.

Please accept things you don’t want in lieu of fixing what you requested.  This is one less-than-super superintendent.  Blocking the option to block would be like like Ronald McDonald announcing you shouldn’t order McNuggets.  Denying dastards the option to see your awesome tweets is a satisfying final sendoff.  Personally curating one’s feed is part of that whole free speech thing.  Shadow-banning remaining is one lousy consolation prize.

Messing up verification embodies big ideas going nowhere.  Sitting at the top of the Twitter caste was one of the ways the site got things correct, as it meant users could be sure the prominent name they saw was not an impostor.  Now, it means giving one of the wealthiest people ever eight bucks per month as if seeing ads weren’t enough of a cost.  One might not think a little blue checkmark could be even less of a status symbol.  One might be wrong.

Ideas on how to fix the wrong things fit a little too perfectly.  All Elon has to do is undo lame woke meddling.  Like coaching the Dream Team, you just roll out the ball.  Instead in reality, warping Twitter alienates both anyone who hates anyone daring to hint at the existence of natural rights and right-leaning people who just want to see tweets from who they choose.  That’s everyone.  Let’s just get back to welcoming all while blocking the annoying.

#Elon Musk #Twitter #social media #free speech #corporate welfare #First Amendment

[eroaneki]

Astarion's story has been so cathartic for me having been someone who's been hypersexualized since literal childhood.

I developed very early so I was quite literally 12 years old walking around with a DD chest and just getting inundated with sexual attention as a result. Constant cat calling, people making comments about my body, really only talking to me because I was "hot" and never really for me. I had a nickname given to me as a teenager that was the direct result of having developed so early.

I had so many feelings of inadequacy growing up due to people only wanting to talk to me because of what I looked like and never because they actually thought I was interesting. I developed an insanely strong sense of shame and disgust toward myself, and deeply hated my body because of it. All I wanted was for people to see me for who I really was and not my physical being.

But because everyone deep down has a desire to be seen and accepted, I settled for shallow praise from others. I'd be openly flirtatious and alluring because it was the only way I thought people would be willing to interact with me. I had too much shame regarding my body to ever really be sexual with people, so I never slept around with anyone. I hid myself the best I could, but people would still somehow be able to see my body underneath my disguises and make comments. It would make me feel absolutely disgusting and only drive me further into covering myself up.

Eventually though, you start getting tired of putting on an act. You get tired of feigning hypersexuality, of being "available" all of the time. You have sex for the sake of securing affection from other people, and you eventually grow to resent the act all together.

But it's difficult to navigate that while in a relationship with someone. How do you tell someone you've been with for years that you now all of a sudden want to put the brakes on the sexual aspect of your relationship, because you want to grow into this part of yourself in a real and true manner? That you realize what you have with this person is legitimate and that they deserve something real with you. Not an act that you put on just to please them. But you need the space to do it. How do you do that without hurting them and making them think you no longer love them? How do you ask for that from your s/o without them thinking that you've been lying to them this entire time?

I've never been able to really describe the feelings I've had for years about this. I knew I had a level of sexual trauma to myself, but I always used to talk myself into thinking I was crazy or being overly dramatic because it's not like I was physically assaulted. What right did I have to claim sexual trauma if I'd never been physically assaulted?

Astarion's story just makes me feel so validated in ways I never expected and makes me realize the importance of representation. I never thought I'd ever see something like this in a game or any other type of media. It's been a very healing experience for myself. Maybe I'm being dramatic but it has helped in healing a very deep part of myself that I've kept buried for a long time.

#personal #a very deep and personal post #his story makes me fucking cry #because i hate that someone else knows what this feels like #enough to have been able to write such a beautiful character to represent it #but i love it at the same time

[tartlette1968]

I was going to make a long comment about something else.

But then this came up, again, this week.

I guess I'm not unique, I have an ambivalence towards "the Footy". But it's complicated. My Dad was an amazing man, and his whole life revolved around Aussie Rules Footy. The AFL was formed in the 90s, but the game has been in existence for... well frankly who knows exactly how long. Its roots lie in the Indigenous game, Marngrook. Some dispute this and that's only one of the problems.

My Dad would sit in front of the TV watching the game, and yell...

"Get in there, help him!!! You're playing like a girl... KICK IT!!!"

Well, you get the picture. His favourite phrase, however, was, "Weak as water."

He played the game, and knew as much about it as anyone would. He saw things on the screen that only someone who had good game instincts would see. He played the game for a long time, until he was 50, and then he became a boundary umpire. Because of this, I was always surrounded by footy players. They weren't overtly homophobic, but it wasn't an environment that screamed out a welcome to any player who was gay or bisexual. And this was a time when Footy was a "man's game".

When women started to do sports reporting, there was an atmosphere of resentment from the players. Constant attempts to embarrass the reporters out of the job with overt displays of naked genitals, aggressive incursions into personal space, exaggerated and incessant swearing, but it failed. Not least because most of the female reporters had grown up around football, and they were used to it.

Football players have always had a problem with homosexuality and bisexuality. Some of them were incredibly predatory, themselves, but what they feared was a fellow player preying on them. They feared being looked upon, feared being lusted after by one of their fellow players. In short, they feared that a team mate would treat them the way they treated the women they "fancied", or that a team mate would want to treat them that way.

But the sporting climate has changed rapidly since the turn of the century. Still, there have been less than a handful of players of any code who have publicly identified as gay in any of the male competitions, and no AFL players amongst them. It is also very likely that there are few same sex attracted players at all in the various AFL competitions around Australia, as the deeply entrenched homophobia likely drives people out of the game.

The most alarming thing is that there doesn't appear to be any intention to address this gross oversight.

There have been a number of AFL players who have taken a break from the game to work on their mental health. It is probable that some of these players have done so because of their sexuality, but it would be the absolute last thing they would admit.

The behaviour and attitudes of the spectators demands attention, too. Social Media posts about the AFL are peppered with racism and homophobia in their comments, in particular the platform formerly known as Twitter. Since Elon Musk has removed nearly every measure that was aimed at reducing abuse, it has worsened.

How long the AFL can maintain its popularity is difficult to say. If the issue is not addressed, the number of younger spectators, and players will decrease, as tolerance of homophobia, sexism, and racism is markedly lower in younger generations, and they will pass judgement with their feet.

Basically it's a case of shape up, or die.

#afl #Homophobia in sport #homophobia in afl

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

What do you think what kind of person is Evan in his private life? We only know about Emma treating Evan horribly but both Halsey and Emma seem to feel quite vengeful towards Evan. (Tbf i don't know how H typically behaves when she breaks up with someone, maybe she is generally this bitter?) But I mean if Evan is just a normal ex, they should just move on right? Why are they so obsessed with wanting to harm him? And he is such a giant sweetheart too, so gentle! could never hurt a fly! Why would someone want to harm specifically him? I include H because she liked horrible tweets against Evan and even now commented under Emma's latest post like a bestie. If I knew my s o was horribly abused by a woman who they arrested, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with her, despite breaking up with my ex. I just wouldn't support someone violent?!

So there are 2 options - either Evan is really the biggest A-hole in private life and he did things that would justify talking badly about him or halsey teaming up with emma because they were both wronged in the same way and are searching for public revenge. Or both are crazy narcissists who really have no empathy and are hate filled toward him just because they didn't get what they want in a relationship / or just out of pure narcissism. I used to not feel as strongly about Halsey because there was no indication of her mistreating Evan, but after seeing her social media behavior post- Evan, it's really disgusting to see what extents she goes to defame Evan. So for me they are both in the same category, of emotionally abusive people. Except of course, if there is a real explanation for this behavior. Something horrible we don't know about Evan which he's always held back to the public. A very unlikely option but still an option.

Sorry for such a long text and for the amount of questions. As you can tell I like to theorize. But I would like to hear your opinion (especially to the first part) :):)

first off, i don’t think having awful, or even abusive exes, who resent you no longer being with them is any indication of your character or some dark personality you’re hiding.

halsey commenting on an instagram post from emma is not teaming up with her. but even if it was, why should anyone care if two of evan’s exes from years ago became friends? as if they would ever do anything besides shit talk a man they have not moved on from. in a perfect world, when two people break up you wouldn’t feel the need to make your ex the devil in disguise, but unfortunately many people do this even if nothing terrible happened between them - sometimes, when a person feels rejected they lash out and start demonizing the ex who did not reciprocate their feelings. in this situation, it looks like halsey was obsessive about evan (even before they met, as a fan) and i just don’t think evan was matching that energy at all. i think he was just rebounding after his final split with emma, and that’s why they fizzled out so quickly. it was probably humiliating for halsey to have done all those interviews mentioning evan, and having people recall her many gushing social media posts and that video talking about him like a fangirl.. even name dropping emma, only for that relationship to go nowhere.

“But I mean if Evan is just a normal ex, they should just move on right? Why are they so obsessed with wanting to harm him?” i don’t think you can really simplify things like that. one, i can’t say that either of them are trying to harm him now that he’s an ex - they may dislike or hate him but they are no longer in his life. it’s all too common for people to have exes they hate for a variety of reasons. relationships are complicated, and the two you’re speaking about (emma and halsey) are night and day. emvan were together for 7 years, engaged, and there was known DV on emma’s part. they broke up and reunited many times, and it’s clear why emma would hold resentment towards evan. she was an abuser who lost control of a person with low enough self-esteem to take her mistreatment and still adore her and treat her like she hung the moon. he worshipped and wanted to marry her.. good luck finding another man like that. nothing angers abusers more than losing the upper hand, and evan has moved on.

with halsey, they were only together 6 months, they burned out fast. i already shared why i feel she has negative feelings about evan: he did not live up to her expectations and she did not get her fairytale. evan very well could not have been the best boyfriend to her, or anyone - he’s human, and he obviously just left the woman he thought he was going to marry before he got with halsey. there’s a lot of baggage there. that doesn’t make him “the biggest a-hole” in his private life, at the end of the day he’s just a human who shouldn’t be put on a pedestal - nor should anyone. he makes mistakes. he has his own shortcomings and trauma and issues he has to work through like anyone else in this world. when we look at celebrity relationships and see exes lash out, talk badly about their former partners, make petty remarks.. we will almost never know the whole story. we will never know these people intimately. but we can look at the whole picture and deduce whether or not we think someone has valid reason to feel wronged, and when someone is just a bitter ex who is hanging onto the past.

FYI - this is the comment from halsey.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

I’m going to be pretty upfront. 

I get the need to take breaks from being online. I understand what it’s doing to me emotionally and even when I do my best to be composed and stay well within the lines of my general character; I end up more and more angry by the day.

The reason it’s so hard for me to just “check out” and be offline though is because I’d have to cut all media out of my life almost entirely just to disconnect. Except I have no friends where my new job is located, my car is a PoS that’s constantly breaking down. I’m a social person by nature and like being around people. And most importantly, given the fact that I view the world as being on fire, I don’t want to check out, and end up not seeing when the next insane thing is going to come around with lighter fluid with the full intention of burning me. 

Long story short, I’m unhappy in my own life and hate seeing what’s becoming of the country I love. And having to face both of those things at the same time is hard. What’s more, people I’ve known for lengthy periods of time have gone out of their way to misrepresent me to others or take stuff I’ve said fully out of context to make me seem like a bad person. And it’s super common in my life that I deal with it. Frankly, I would never be the type to end myself, I’m too stubborn. But I wonder to myself a lot of the time if I really have any worth at all. 

I often think, “Wow. I’m an amalgamation of good and bad of probably 25-30 people who helped raise me. A man who thought he was better than and smarter than everyone else. And as ashamed as I am to say it, I picked up a lot of how I talk from him. I’ve tried to change it for years and nothing else sticks. That being the root of why people tend to not fully grasp things the way I mean them. I’ve lost a lot of friends for that reason and frankly I hate it. I hate myself for it. And I really often wonder if anyone would miss me. I wonder if there’s a point to still being here. I ask myself all the time what if I was just gone one day. 

It’s really hard for me now a days because the people I encounter in my life always seem so open and accepting. Right up until you rub them the wrong way once. Then they take anything else after that, even misunderstandings, exaggerations, and honest mistakes....and they add them to the pile. And they just keep adding and adding until they either cut you out of their life in one big blow up, while not communicating in a way that’s easy to understand what/when you do things wrong. Or they just ghost people. I have a very peculiar process by which my mind processes information. This in turn leads to me laying out the information as my brain processes it. Often, it makes sense in my head, but not to others at all without almost hrs of explanation. And by the time I make my point enough for them to understand, they have long since checked out. Repeat this process often enough and they stop caring outright and start to resent you for it. And that’s my entire life experience with communication. It’s also why I hate myself so deeply. I’ve been abused by my mothers ex husband, *the guy I got my speech patterns from*. I was sexually assaulted by a family friend early in my life. I was bullied throughout most of my life, and I’ve been manipulated and taken advantage of by people whom I wanted to trust. This including a best friend who lied to a girl I was both living with and dating, saying I had cheated on my ex when it had never happened. A question she asked me about later and she told me that my friend had told her that while they were along for 2 min in a car in the passenger and back seats respectively. 

Honestly I wonder how much more until I get the nerve to just drive head first into a semi going 80. Frankly I have no idea. Plenty of people hate me as is anyways. Plenty of people have false perceptions of me. Plenty of people would probably love to see my brains splattered on the pavement. I don’t know. Maybe my bull headedness won’t be enough to suppress the self loathing. Who knows I guess. 

[sekhithefops]

"Warcraft Sucks Now!": Is it Nostalgia, or a Mid-Life Crisis?

So, I've been thinking this for a while... but recently the amazingly fun duo of dwarven streamers commented on another post (original poster's name removed to avoid risk of them getting harassed) but... yeah. It made me think about something that, while uncomfortable, is quite true.

World of Warcraft is 18 years old this year. Its old enough to vote, in a few years we'll be able to hit the tavern with it... and, well, that number sort of inspires a very uncomfortable comparison for some people.

WoW is old enough to be graduating high school this year... but, at least in my case, the game came out when I graduated high school.

Jen & Eric do acknowledge this isn't 100% of the cases of course, but while there are genuinely people out there who do miss Vanilla WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath... there are a sizeable portion of players who are still furious despite getting basically what they've been asking to have for years rather than, yanno, going to play WoW Classic.

The reason for this is that going back to those expansions was never what they really wanted, those players wanted to go back to their lives as a whole at that time.

Think about it, eighteen years is a long time. Nobody ever imagined WoW would last as long as it has. Even back in the early days Chris Metzen and the rest thought 'this'll be neat, maybe we'll get a expansion if we're lucky' and such.

Then kaboom. WoW exploded, blew Everquest 2 right out of the damn water. Every purported "WoW Killer" that popped up over the years is either in maintenance mode (i.e. Rift) or is just flat out dead for various reasons (i.e. Wildstar, and yes I genuinely miss this one too.)

I've seen Youtube videos talking about the various "eras" of Warcraft and while this isn't an unusual topic for long running video game series, WoW is a single game.

Really think about that. Warcraft has been going for years, and is still going, and looks to be going even better once Dragonflight launches.

This is unprecedented. No video game has survived for this long, its kind of insane really. Its the video game equivalent of the Star Wars movies at this point, where one generation started the craze and another may well be just picking it up.

But therein lies the rub... people who started playing WoW 1.0 when they were in high school may well be in their late 30s by now and some of those friends and guildmates they had back then... well... they may not actually be able to play WoW anymore.

High school guildmates may go to college, or have kids of their own, or get the kind of careers that don't allow for hobbies like MMOs (which are VERY time consuming) and those they leave behind may well feel resentful and bitter.

Also, their lives may have genuinely been better when WoW was in that era too. Misfortune can happen to anyone. Relationships may sour, friends drift apart, jobs close, etc etc... and people will cling like hell to what they had from that time that was a high point in their life and scream in horror when it changes at all because it reminds them that this HAS changed!

Personally, I'm just lucky that my life has only improved since those times. I went from working awful minimum wage jobs to a really good work at home job with lots of free time, I'm engaged to someone who's just as big a gamer and geek as I am, and life is pretty sweet for me now. This may well be why the allure of WoW Classic is so ineffective on me, because I don't want to go back to those times because, in my case, they weren't so great!

That being said, again, there are genuinely people who wish for WoW to return to it's roots. Who want to go back to Wrath or Burning Crusade out of love for their early experiences with WoW or a desire to relive those times without having to do Chromie Time, but... well... there's also people who are in public or on social media like this:

... but who in private are like this:

... and honestly, I feel bad for 'em. My hair is going gray too! D:

#warcraft #world of warcraft #warcraft classic #mid life crisis #nostalgia