#the politics and moral messages are also just... bad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qqueenofhades · 2 months

Note

What do you think of the movement to vote "uncommitted" in the primary? Personally I think it's a good idea as a protest vote, while not "allowing Trump to win" since it's, ya know, the primary. You're voting for "the Democrat you want to be the candidate for president" not who you actually want to be president. Most of the arguments I've seen against it seem to forget primaries exist...

Well, since you came to me and presumably do want my honest opinion on this topic, I'll share it with you. However, this will also be very blunt and candid, including some things which I haven't yet said in the 4+ months since the whole Israel/Hamas situation kicked off, and therefore also frustrated. This frustration should not be read as/taken as being directed at you personally, but since you're the conduit for this question, that's just something I want to highlight.

So. Why should you vote for Biden in the primary, and not "uncommitted" or whatever else?

First of all, what I desperately want to ask all these self-righteous VOTE UNCOMMITTED IN THE PRIMARY TO SEND BIDEN A MESSAGE types is: what exactly the fuck do you want this message to be, and what action do you expect Biden will take as a result? Is this actually based on an expectation of what he can/and or will actually do, or is it just a froth of misguided Online Leftist "rah rah this Bad Thing Happening Is All Biden's Fault," as we also notably went through when Roe was overturned by the Trump-stacked SCOTUS selected precisely for the purpose of overturning Roe? My god, the amount of bad "THIS IS BIDEN/THE DEMOCRATS' FAULT" posts that appeared, and are still circulating on the particularly idiotic corners of this site. Nothing could ever be Trump/the Republicans' fault in that case; it was the same old same old "DEMOCRATS DON'T CARE ENOUGH TO STOP THIS!!!" puerile fantasy. That's what we are getting now with Israel/Hamas. This isn't Hamas's fault for attacking Israel on October 7 (god forbid; the online left loves Hamas) and it isn't even the state of Israel and Netanyahu's fault for responding with full-scale genocide on Gaza. Or it is, somehow, but not so much that Biden personally couldn't magically reach in and stop it "if he really wanted to." I'm sick and fucking tired of this bullshit sixth-grade bad-faith disingenuous approach to playing Super Moral Social Justice Yahtzee and refusing to acknowledge the thousands of complex factors at play, especially when it involves blaming literally anyone other than Biden, personally (just like the Trump cultists, for whom "IT'S BIDEN'Z FAULT" is the beginning and end of their political theory, just like the Online Leftists). I'm sure this will get me called a genocide apologist by the Very Smart Moral Twitter Thinker types, but I don't think "Biden has failed to magically single-handedly solve this crisis, which stems from one of the most major and long-running issues in post-WWII and indeed pre-WWII world history, in four months" is actually a good reason to vote against him.

Likewise: withholding your vote might make more sense as a strategy if Biden was still only blindly supporting Israel and refusing to do anything to pressure them, which is demonstrably untrue. I know it's hard for some of these people to actually read the news and/or anything outside their ultra-curated Twitter feed, but it's been well-reported and well-documented that he is. If the US was directly involved in the bombing campaign on Gaza, sure, tell Biden that you will vote uncommitted to increase pressure on him to pull out. None of that is actually true, and the "information" about Biden's action in re: Gaza on both Twitter and Tumblr is basically just entirely malicious lies. So again: what message are you sending when you decide to be all precious and announce you're not voting for him? You don't want him to pressure Israel? You're willing to blow this up entirely and increase the media nonsense about BIDEN WEAK DEMOCRATS DIVIDED and give Trump an opening to exploit? You really want to announce to the Trump/Putin/Netanyahu axis of evil that their anti-Biden propaganda is working (since all three of them are working as hard as they fucking can to get Biden out of office, and as someone who opposes all three of them, I think this is a good idea to vote for Biden!) and they need to hammer harder on this wedge issue? Because that's all your oh-so-moral Uncommitted vote is doing. It's not a protest. It's not leverage. It is the withdrawing of leverage. If you want Biden in office so he can be pressured to listen to you and take action that you agree with, you will vote for him. Yes, in the primary. Yes, when it's not directly against Trump.

You want a ceasefire, you say? GREAT! WE ALL WANT A CEASEFIRE AND/OR ACTUAL PEACE AND RECOGNITION OF A PALESTINIAN STATE! That's in fact why you should be busting your fucking ass to make sure Biden gets re-elected, and to give him a strong show of support in the primary. Biden is the only candidate with a credible long-term (and like, baseline functional sane adult) plan for Gaza. Biden is the one who has been pressuring Netanyahu in every single contact to tone it down and stop acting like an insane murderous maniac and therefore torching any remains of sympathy for the attack Israel suffered in October. Biden is the one who has his entire diplomatic team working on high-level contacts with the Israeli government and the Hamas representatives via Qatar, while sufficiently threatening Iran to back down from frothing at the mouth to destroy Israel (once again, just like the rest of the antisemitic western left). Biden is the one who is pushing for this not to be World War III, and yet we get Baby's First Social Justice Activist screaming at him for being GENOCIDE JOE and blaming him personally for not, as I keep putting it, shapeshifting into Netanyahu's body and making this stop. "He should publicly call for a ceasefire!" Or, and this is just a suggestion, he should DO HIS FUCKING JOB and continue to work on serious problems that don't have instant socially media marketable catchphrases and won't come with instant gratification. Also, please tell me how you plan to get both Hamas and Israel to accept the same terms for a ceasefire, abide by it, and do exactly what Big Daddy Biden told them, because you, the dedicated anti-western anti-imperialist, think that's the best course of action?

Like. I mean. As vice president and now as president, Biden is actually one of the least foreign-intervention-happy leaders the US has ever had. He was originally against the Abbottabad raid to take out Osama bin Laden in 2011; he wound down the overseas drone assassination program (at which the Online Leftists screamed bloody murder at Obama, ignored in Trump, and then refused to give Biden any credit for ending) to almost nothing, he pulled the US out of Afghanistan, and even though he's been supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, he's also been extremely slow and cautious (in my opinion, too slow and cautious) at giving them all the military hardware they need, even before this latest blockade of aid in the House by Putin's favorite little bitch Mike Johnson. He has already presided over a historic shift in US policy toward Israel, in terms of conditioning the use of lethal aid, imposing reporting requirements, starting to criticize them publicly, and calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state and more humanitarian aid to get into Gaza. Yet in the Online Leftists' mind, because he is not personally out there Captain America-ing away the Israeli bombs and/or calling for Israel to be totally destroyed "from the river to the sea" as the Tumblr activists are fond of using no matter how often Jews ask them to stop, there is nothing he's actually doing! GENOCIDE JOE!!!!! Like, I thought the anti-western anti-American crowd thought all overseas American influence was evil (but all overseas Russian and/or Chinese influence is fine). When Biden actually doesn't recklessly intervene in foreign conflicts like Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon/Reagan/Bush 1/Bush 2/pretty much every American president in the latter half of the twentieth century, you'd think that would get him plaudits? NAH.

"Biden should stop selling Israel weapons without Congressional approval!" Okay, sure, he should. Which he did one time, and he also repeatedly promised to veto and/or not pass any only-Israel aid package that didn't also help Ukraine and Taiwan. He's also not beholden to the frothing antisemitic Online Leftists position that Israel should just lie down and let all of its citizens be killed and its state wiped from existence. Like. We also remember that Jewish voters exist in America, right? And that Jewish lives are something which are repeatedly and demonstrably under threat in the rest of the world, including from Hamas and the Houthis (who are genuinely terrible people and the western left's warm embrace of them as principled anti-Israel actors is all we need to know about their inherent brainrot and moral vacancy). We know that maybe going full masks-off antisemite (which Biden isn't going to do anyway, for any number of reasons) isn't the greatest plan and nothing to which you should be conditioning your vote? Likewise, please tell me how you plan to make Congress (especially the GOP-led clown car House) "do what Biden wants," since you're still beholden to that being the be-all-and-end-all of moral action? Or how you account for Congress at all, and not just think The President is An Almighty King?

Aside from all this, I am sick to my fucking back teeth of the Precious Moral Princesses (gender neutral) who have spent four years lying about everything Biden has done. We had the personally blaming him for Roe ending (he could unilaterally overturn SCOTUS if he really wanted!) We had the endless bashing about student debt, only to ignore him actually making the most major effort to forgive student debt in all the post-Reagan years. We have had a complete ignoring and/or distortion of his domestic policy accomplishments, which are some of the most momentous since FDR and LBJ. We have had an utter ignoring, revision, and downplaying of the damage Trump did in one term and how very much worse his second would be. We have had to endure "WELL YOU CAN'T ASK ME TO VOTE FOR BIDEN" at every single second for every single thing, because this is such a terrible onerous thing to ask them to lift one single fucking finger to give us some more time to come up with a better solution. And yet, as astutely pointed out by one of my anons yesterday, they utterly don't care whether the obvious outcome of this action is to help Trump get back into power. Apparently that's not a moral reach too far, but straining their delicate tender moral sensibilities to fucking do the goddamn bare minimum to help us out -- both in America and around the world -- no, no. We can't have that.

Like. These people allegedly want a ceasefire, and they want it to come about by asking literally nothing more of them then posting snide anti-Biden diatribes on social media. That's the extent of the effort they're willing to put in. They can't even trouble themselves to take the first step of voting for people who want to address this crisis in a constructive way. So yeah, I have a hard time believing this is anything deeply felt in regard to opposing genocide, and just wants what makes them look morally superior. Also: I don't care if your feelings are genuinely pure and strong and you obviously oppose what's happening in Gaza (we all do!) and want it to end. In that case, why the fuck aren't you throwing your support (yes! Even in the primary!) behind the one guy who's actually working to fix it and not just posting empty platitudes on Twitter? It likewise does not excuse you from the harmful consequences of your rhetoric and actions, if you decide that the best way to act on your deep-seated and genuine desire to stop the genocide is just to blindly bash Biden all day every day. Not voting for Biden in the primary does not excuse the fact that this election is against Trump and everything horrible that he represents, and that we are in this situation largely because the online left has learned literally fucking nothing from 2016 and is eager to do it all over again. Not voting for Biden in the primary does not give you a special Gold Star Moral Activist sticker announcing that you were too virtuous to engage in the process now, but if you're sufficiently placated, you maybe will do it in November. Miss me with that bullshit. I've spent eight years pleading with people to help us fix this mess, by -- yes! engaging with the flawed process that makes partial changes!!! -- and all I hear is that same fucking nonsense. That is a large part of why this response is so steamed.

Anyway. In short, I don't think voting "uncommitted" is a good idea, I think it only helps Trump in the short and long term, I think it protests nothing, I think it represents the same old tired anti-voting schlock that I have had more than fucking enough of, and I don't endorse it by any means. However, you will see that while I can strongly and unequivocally give you my opinion that it is a bad idea, I cannot actually reach through the screen, take control of your body, and force you to obey me one way or the other. So maybe, just maybe, Biden can't do the same with Netanyahu. Weird.

#everentropy #ask #politics for ts #vote and get off my lawn #israel hamas war

402 notes · View notes

visenyaism · 8 days

Note

um. you do know that the uni protests are wildly antisemitic right? like. there are people there who are fully advocating for genocide of jewish people and the rest of the protesters are not only not kicking them out but actively cheering them on. not to mention that the actual effect of the protests has been to take attention away from the people actually suffering in gaza. like, to be clear: i actually agree that universities investing in weapons programs should divest - but the protesters are asking them to violate the civil rights amendment. (yeah, refusing to employ or work with someone because of their nationality or ethnicity is illegal, and rightfully so.). and also to be clear, i think that the universities' reaction and deployment of the police is a massive escalation, morally wrong, and a violation of the right to protest. but just because i don't think the protesters deserve to be killed or seriously physically harmed does not mean i think theyre in the right. hard to believe they care about ethnic cleansing when they support the regimes that have ethnically cleansed their jewish populations.

I don’t think it’s fair to talk about every single protest like they are a single unified entity. there are almost a hundred active encampments all over the country. i also do not think it is fair to say that every single protester is antisemetic or supports regimes that ethnically cleanse jews especially when a significant amount of campus organizing has been undertaken by chapters of jewish voices for peace and that at least in NYC jewish students have been a really big part of the protests.

I find myself alarmed by the media messaging that these protests are about jewish students’ safety versus pro-palestinian protestors organizing, because that narrative also characterizes Jewish people as a political monolith when there are non-token amounts of participation on both sides and equates Judaism with the state of Israel. That messaging is also what is doing the most to take attention off Gaza to me. Almost 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the IDF since October, and the American media’s handwringing about the tactics used by student protestors is the distractor here especially because a lot of the reporting out is in bad faith and right-wing agitprop.

Some of the encampments need way better message discipline and organization in terms of who is allowed on board because some of the things i have seen individuals saying and cheering for are genuinely repugnant and antisemetic. But the idea that they are all actively welcoming and cheering on genocidal rhetoric is an overgeneralization that has been used to justify these crackdowns and shut down any criticism of the state of Israel as antisemitic.

the police are not brutalizing students and faculty and journalists and protestors to combat antisemitism or allow jewish students to feel safe on campus, they are doing it to repress dissent. Jewish students deserve to feel safe on campuses. Sending in thousands of military police to beat up students and faculty endangers everyone on campus. I worry that using combatting antisemitism as an excuse for cops to unlawfully arrest and brutalize thousands of people in defense of a foreign country that has murdered 14,000 children in seven months is going to make Jewish students less safe, not more.

#the house just passed a law that says that calling the state of israel a racist colonial project is equivalent to blood libel #the rhetoric that all student protestors are antisemitic endangers us all #because it is being used to facilitate a literal fascist crackdown all over the country

109 notes · View notes

lilyveselka · 3 months

Text

On Jack Bright (An Exhaustive Perspective) [Edited 2/19/2024 w/ additional evidence!]

A couple disclaimers before I start: First, this isn't an "official stance." It's an explanation of my personal views; I speak for myself alone. Second, I'm not setting out to change people's minds or moralize to them; I just want to explain & respond to some common arguments in the fan space.

Third & finally, massive content warning for explicit discussions of grooming & sexual abuse. This includes screenshots. (I assume everyone is aware of this going in, but better safe than sorry!!)

Q: Why do you care so much, anyway?

A: Not your business, but I was groomed as a teenager in a very similar manner to the whole AB situation. Ok, on to the actual questions.

Q: First things first: Was AB/Duckman a groomer?

A: Yes, pretty definitively. First of all, DMs from one of their victims (who was underage while they were in contact; AB was aware of this fact).

[ID in alt text]

Maybe anonymous allegations aren't solid proof -- of course, there are public victims, but there are also screenshots of AB themself "joking" about being a sexual predator.

Straight up saying they want nudes from 14 year olds.

With the context of the first message -- the punchline is molesting/"corrupting" people who are underage (which they've publicly stated is a fetish of theirs)

This one just kind of... speaks for itself, I think?

[And again, ID in alt text for all these.]

These aren't the only examples, by the way -- just the most blatant. AB also explicitly wrote their interest in underage girls into tales on the actual wiki. Examples include the famed list, which implied Bright shouldn't be around people underage because he would come onto them (and that's without mentioning the blatant racism on there), as well as a now-deleted tale called 'Money, Money, Money' that involved in-depth description of a 13-year-old's breasts.

[Correction: my mistake, the tale was called 'Doctor, Doctor, Doctor.' You can find it here without the overtly sexual description of a child's body — it took 8 years (!!) for AB to remove these passages. Here's the original:

Highlighted in blue is the original edit history showing the article's content. Additionally, here's AB defending this on the talk page:

In addition to this, there's also AB requesting an artist draw incestuous rape porn — personally I find this far less heinous than a lot of the other stuff they've done, but I figure it deserves a place here too.

(iamnotadamnedmonkey is AB's old Tumblr handle, sorry for the poor quality screenshot!)

All new images also have alt text.]

Q: But AB is just the author. Why is the character bad?

A: A couple reasons. First of all, the character reflects a lot of AB's sexual proclivities, including towards underage characters, as I already mentioned in the previous point.

Second, Bright's popularity gave AB their social standing within the community. There are a few chat logs where they brag about people wanting to have sexual relations with them because of their work on the SCP wiki; also, it's pretty clear that creating something popular gives you access to a lot more people who are interested in talking to you.

When you manipulate fans wanting to talk to you into sexual relationships, it's pretty clear that you have the ability to access victims because your name is out there.

Thirdly, AB used Bright's amulet as a possession kink thing and would ask for nudes that had it visible. (And, you know, they solicited a lot of regular nudes too. What a great guy, who would totally never use their platform for their own sexual pleasure...)

Q: Right, but AB's not on the wiki anymore...

A: AB's publicly-spoken victims have politely requested that the character not be used anymore. Bright was used as a tool to access, manipulate, and engage in sexual contact with fans who were young and in some cases under the age of majority. Therefore, continuing to use Bright is disrespectful to their victims. Personally speaking, I also consider it to be disrespectful towards victims of grooming and/or sexual abuse as a whole.

Q: So you think people who still use Bright are bad people?

A: No, I don't.

Like I said, I think they're being pretty blatantly disrespectful. But I'm not the arbiter of morality or the censorship bureau. People can do what they want as long as it is appropriately tagged for.

However, the fact is this: if someone is publicly continuing to use Jack Bright, then they are doing something that goes against my values -- because my values involve supporting and respecting victims of sexual abuse.

I, personally, will not be comfortable speaking to them or seeing them in my internet space, and I'll probably lose a lot of respect for them if I had any in the first place. And since I consider my community to be a group of people who reflect my personal values and beliefs, I also do not and will never consider people who use Bright to be "part of my community."

You don't have to be a bad person to be doing something wrong, and I'll level with you: yes, I think promoting a known sexual offender & ignoring the requests of their victims is, in fact, doing something wrong. That's fine! You're allowed to do stuff that's 'wrong,' I'm not your mommy and I'm not going to call the thought police on you. But you should be comfortable with the fact that you're doing something that is going to upset other people. Using Bright will and does hurt other people, and that is not something that you can ignore.

I don't think anyone should be harassed. Obviously. I've received plenty of harassment for heading the rewrite project, and it sucks no matter who you are.

But I think people should get a little more comfortable with owning their decisions, instead of trying to argue that those decisions don't actually have any weight or consequences.

Q: But I can't control using Bright! [I have an introject of Bright/I have a DA to Bright] and it's not fair to act like I'm doing something wrong!

A: Sorry. Mental illness doesn't make you exempt from your actions having an impact on the people around you. I'll probably be more understanding if it's related to a mental health issue, but, y'know.

You don't have to do it in public. If you genuinely don't want to be hurting or upsetting other people, then you should keep your discussion of the Jack Bright character to private spaces, because otherwise you're still doing the thing you were respectfully asked not to do.

(I'm a system, just for reference. I understand. It doesn't absolve you of consequences.)

Q: I don't actually care about [your feelings/the victims' feelings], so this doesn't apply to me.

A: Cool. You can very easily block me, AB's victims, and anyone else who is vocally against using Bright. That's, uh, the point of the block button.

Q: I have something else to say that you didn't put in this post.

A: If you feel like being respectful or you have a genuine question, please direct yourself to the replies/reblogs/my inbox. If you don't, then please refer to my previous response. If you're blocked so you can't contact me, then, uh... don't contact me?

Ok, that's all my points made. Have the day you deserve, and hopefully it's a good one ❤️

#scp 963 #jack bright #talkin #cw grooming

106 notes · View notes

dark-audit · 1 month

Text

Myths to Avoid When Writing Torture

Fiction makes, implicitly or explicitly, some kind of argument. A fictional portrayal of a guy simply going for a walk might make the argument that walking is a nice activity to do. This might not be a particularly earth-shattering message, but messages like this are implicit within the literary tools we use in how we portray characters, behavior, settings, and relationships. This underlying argument – a theme – is present in all of fiction. It’s why you’ll often see people make the statement that “all art is political”. And when it comes to torture – a subject which in and of itself has been the topic of political debate for millenia – how we approach the ideas and arguments made within fictional depictions of torture warrant, in my opinion, a degree of care. Torture isn’t just something that happens in movies. It is something that happens today, to real people, on a global scale. It’s not even particularly rare.

The difficulty with the subject of torture specifically is that for the past two decades, the public perception of torture has shifted on a global scale, seen most clearly in how torture is presented in contemporary media, fiction or otherwise. Everybody believes these myths. And getting indoctrinated into having reactionary takes on a topic is nobody’s fault, considering that almost every source outside of academia feeds you misinformation. But that’s, y’know, kinda why I made this blog: in the hopes that I might be able to get people to consider what ideas they’re presenting in their writing.

I want to start out by briefly reitorating some basics of how torture apologia typically works within political discussions, because this very much is relevant to how you can avoid accidentally sending the wrong message.

The first thing you need to understand is that the real-life debate surrounding torture isn’t framed in terms of whether or not torture is good or bad – everybody, including torturers themselves, will concede that it is bad. The more insidious argument is that torture is useful for achieving certain goals, and that it is therefore justified in extreme emergencies. Not only does this argument try to soften the usually rigid negative framing of torture in moral discussions, but it also seeks to poke holes in the international laws which ban the use of torture outright. It’s a moral, political and legal argument all wrapped up in one reactionary package. For this reason, having the theme of “torture is bad” doesn’t always mean a piece of writing isn’t making use of torture apologia. “Torture is useful” serves that goal just fine.

Torture is also often discussed in terms of civility – not the civility of the torturers, but the civility of the victims. It’s the argument that the people who are being tortured are bad people, and therefore don’t warrant the respect and dignity we usually offer to other human beings; they are so bad, essentially, that it’s fine for us civilized people to war crime them. Whenever I’ve encountered this argument, it has usually been presented in a way that was, shall we say, sussy as fuck – some even give up the pretense and straight up call their victims “savages” or “degenerates”. I hope I don’t need to explain why this line of thinking is insane, but in any case, it’s just my way of getting you to consider that a lot of the myths surrounding torture are rooted in broader sociopolitical issues, often racism and religious discrimination, and historically, most often within the context of colonialism.

With that in mind, let’s get into the myths, starting with the most obvious one.

"Torture for information works."

Every study I’ve read has concluded that torture is counterproductive when it comes to gathering intel from reluctant sources. Under severe pain or distress, victims are more focused on saying whatever they think the torturer wants to hear to make the torture stop, as opposed to providing accurate information. On a neurophysiological level, severe pain or distress actually interferes with the pathways of the brain relating to long- and short-term memory; this means that torture in and of itself is likely to destroy the very evidence it sets out to gather. Furthermore, victims are less likely to cooperate if subjected to physical abuse, including torture, and nothing in the infliction of pain itself works as some kind of truth serum. Lying and defiance are more likely under torture.

To a large minority of people, portraying torture as a reliable tool for gathering accurate information will make the implicit argument that torture, although usually bad, can hold utilitarian value in certain exceptional cases. I’ve written about this more in depth here.

"Under torture, everyone cooperates sooner or later."

French prosecutors used torture in the events leading up to the French revolution, as a way to gain forced confessions from suspects. Their failures and successes were jotted down, leading us with a pretty revealing insight – the highest success rate for gathering forced confessions was in Toulouse, an exceptionally high 14%. In Paris, only 3% of suspects cooperated long enough to sign their name – the rest did not. This is one of the primary reasons that the French criminal justice system eventually dropped using torture for intelligentsia. To quote Darius Rejali, who wrote The Book on torture: “Torture the clumsiest method available to organizations.”

So no, not everybody talks – in fact, rough estimate, 90% of torture victims never do. Defiance is by far the norm with torture.

"When the bad guy does it, it’s torture – when the good guy does it, it’s a tough, but morally justifiable decision."

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Heroes of stories, especially in the action genre, often engage in the use of torture for information, usually following the framework of the ticking bomb scenario, a thought experiment based on the false notion that torture works as an interrogation method. Here, torture is turned into a heroicact, one that speaks to the toughness of the person who uses it. Ask yourself if you want to frame torturers though this lens – because if you do, you are literally justifying the act torture, and, y’know, you do you, but I am gonna call you stupid and reactionary. Torture done by a “good” person is just as abhorrent as torture done by anybody else.

"Some methods of torture are less severe than others."

This myth stems from governments trying to downplay the use of certain methods of torture, and usually goes hand in hand with euphemistic redefinitions of the concept, such as the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation methods,” also known as “torture lite,” or the Israeli “coercive interrogation.” The methods that have been proposed in this supposed less severe category of torture includes stimulated drowning, also known as waterboarding, as well as caning, beatings, limbs being broken with clubs, sleep deprivation, stress positions (ex. forcing a person to crouch against a wall for extended periods of time,) mock executions, sexual assault, and more. If these things all just sound like torture to you, it’s because they are. There is zero evidence to suggest that any torture methods, including those that leave no physical mark on the body, have less severe outcomes than those that do not – on the contrary, non-physical torture methods, including mock executions, or witnessing the torture of a loved one, have been ranked by victims as causing equal amounts of psychological distress as physical torture.

"Torture only causes harm to the person who is being tortured."

This is incredibly unrealistic. Torture is an act that is destructive in all directions, causing trauma to victims, their family, witnesses, and even torturers themselves. It disintegrates the structure of the organizations that use it, it breeds resentment and hatred in the communities around it, and it radicalizes people into extremism. Pretending that consequences like this don’t exist isn’t torture apologia per se, but if your aim is to show the realistic outcomes of torture, these are some of the things you need to consider.

Torture is portrayed as “scientific”; torturers are “skilled” in the “art” of torture.

The most common methods of torture in use today are: hitting people, sleep deprivation, and starvation. These don’t require a whole lot of brain power to conjure up, in fact the infliction of intense suffering is very straightforward. Human beings are full of nerves. Stick a knife anywhere, and I’d be more impressed if it didn’t cause pain.

Not to mention, portraying torture as “scientific” or something that “requires technical skill” makes the implicit argument that torture works for its intended use, here under the condition that you should at least do it right – which brings us right back to that utilitarian fallacy.

"Torturers are expert interrogators, and possess an extraordinary ability to detect lies in their victims."

Studies have been done on the ability of police officers to detect lies for about four decades now. The average person will have a 57% accuracy rate, meaning they’re barely better at spotting deception than a coin toss. For police officers, the highest estimate is around 65% - but it might also be as low as 45%, meaning they might be less accurate than a coin toss – even though police officers tend to think of themselves as exceptional at spotting deception. The same trend is seen in torturers.

In fact, this myth in particular originated from torturers’ accounts of how they conceptualize themselves, which is not only false, but also cringe. When an interrogator starts making use of torture, their focus tends to shift away from gathering reliable information, and more towards “perfecting” the infliction of pain, which means that over time, those interrogative skills are substantially degraded – they are terrible interrogators. So torturers are no better at spotting lies than your average person; they might actually be worse. They can’t read minds, and they don’t possess some secret mystical knowledge about the psychology of their victims.

"You can train someone to resist torture."

Loads of intelligence agencies and revolutionary groups around the world have published material that supposedly serves as manuals for resisting torture, but the truth is, torture is so extreme, there really is no way to prepare or train someone to “resist” it; this is something that even the CIA has acknowledged. Everybody’s reaction to pain will be different. There is no way to predict how torture will affect anyone, much less give them instructions beforehand that will somehow magically negate those effects.

"Brainwashing through torture works."

Torturers can’t change the emotional framework of a person through the infliction of pain. They cannot change the strongly held beliefs and opinions held by their victims through the infliction of pain. They can’t erase someone’s entire personality or make them a ‘blank slate’ through the infliction of pain. They can’t predict how a victim responds to torture, much less direct that response to their own benefit. This is not how pain works.

This is not only an implicit argument for the usefulness of torture to change someone’s behavior or force religious conversions, but the myth that torturers have some form of control of their victims even after the torture has ended is also used in real life to paint survivors as dangerous or unstable, and thereby bar them from treatment and aid, and even to allow access into countries to escape the circumstances that facilitated their torture in the first place. That last point is why you often see the advocacy of refugee rights in organizations that work to prevent torture; these two branches of activism have a huge overlap.

Torture victims cannot be controlled by their torturers. Brainwashing isn’t real.

"Stockholm syndrome is real."

This is a derivative of the brainwashing myth, which means all the connotations previously mentioned remain, but as a cherry on top, Stockholm syndrome as a trope can also serve as an implicit argument for the utility of domestic abuse. So that’s cool.

If you deliberately inflict suffering on someone, that is guaranteed to make that person dislike you. In real life, torture survivors not only tend to be extremely resentful of their torturers, but they also tend to be resentful of anyone belonging to the same demographic as their torturers, whether that be ethnicity, nationality, or even gender or general appearance. Like I said, torture radicalizes people.

"Torture makes people obedient."

Any physical abuse or neglect, including bad cell conditions, access to medical aid, decent food and clean water, is likely to breed resentment in victims and makes them far more reluctant to cooperate with their aggressors. With torture, defiance is the norm, by far. You saw this on a larger scale in the war on terror, for example – turns out that carpet bombing a country to deter terrorism only radicalizes the civilian population, producing more terrorists. No form of violence exists that will make a person particularly eager to shut up and do what you want them to do. It will just make them hate you.

The notion that torture makes people obedient is also an implicit argument for the use of corporal punishment or as crime deterrence, something that along with capital punishment has repeatedly been proven false by sociological studies. People just do not function like this. If you want to create obedience in your story – violence is the last thing you should use.

"People “break” under torture."

Victims of torture sometimes make the conscious decision to do what their torturer wants them to do, and this often serves as a means to buy enough time to plan an escape, or mount up whatever act of defiance they can manage. Sometimes they simply do it to get the torture to stop – this, too, is a tough, conscious decision. If you want to consider this a form of “breaking”, by all means go ahead, but implying personal weakness or lack of willpower in torture victims rubs me the wrong way. I personally see it as a rational choice made by a person who is in an otherwise impossible situation.

"Torture survivors are “broken”."

Torture certainly can lead to extreme psychological distress, but again, the term “broken” here implicitly makes the argument that torture victims simply lacked the mental fortitude to withstand their trauma. In my opinion, there’s a certain degree of victim blaming involved with framing torture survivors in this way, and certainly, it’s a framing that inherently strips away their agency.

Another thing that rubs me the wrong way is the fact “brokenness” implies a degree of permanence and rigidity to human beings that simply isn’t there, as if we are solid objects that, once shattered, can never regain the function we once had. It’s a nitpick, but I view people as organic things, capable of healing and growth – not as glassware.

Conclusion

I’d wager that while reading this, a good portion of you recognized some of these myths from depictions of torture in fiction; that’s not particularly surprising to me. These myths aren’t just widespread, they’ve been engrained in the global public perception of torture by decades of political debate and government propaganda, and as a result, have seeped into popular culture.

Torture isn’t rare, and neither is torture apologia. According to Amnesty International, 31% of the global population believes that torture is justified “in some cases”; as of 2014, AI had also reported on torture or other ill treatment in 141 different countries, despite the fact that torture is internationally recognized as a war crime.

In an ideal world, the subject of torture in fiction is treated with the same due diligence with which we have learned to portray subjects like homophobia, sexual assault, and racism; because, to be fair, all of these things have the capacity to intersect, and very often do. The first step in that regard is to spread awareness about how torture actually functions, which is what I hope to slowly start doing on this blog. At the very least, I hope I can make people more aware of how they choose to portray torture in their writing.

#nonfiction #torture #torture apologia #ive got plans to write about all these things more in depth at some point #so if you see sth you would like me to elaborate about by all means let me know

58 notes · View notes

nobody-nexus · 4 months

Text

Even More TADC Incorrect Quotes

(Will Contain Buttonblossom and Abstrabbit)

Caine: Aren’t you going to say “have a nice day?” Kaufmo: I don’t care if you have a pulse, much less a nice day.

===

Queenie: It’s Pride Month, you know what that means! Pomni: I get to eat as many Skittles as I want? Queenie: What? No! What has Jax been telling you? Jax, pouring Skittles into his mouth: Taste the rainbow, bitch

===

Ragatha: The odds of this happening by coincidence are vanishingly small Gangle: I would say infinitesimally Caine: And I'd say teeny-weeny! We all know words!

===

Ragatha: So, you lied to me? Jax: That depends on how you define lying Ragatha: Well, I define it as not telling the truth. How do you define it? Jax: Um, reclining your body in a horizontal position?

===

Ragatha: You are an absolute dork Pomni, singing: Yeah, but I'm your dork! Ragatha: sighs Yeah, you're my dork

===

Kinger, on the phone: I better go…kay, call me later… byeeee! Queenie: Friend of yours? Kinger: Nope, wrong number Queenie: ???

===

Jax: A fistfight CAN be romantic

===

Caine, dramatically: They called me a fool! Pomni, sick of Caine's shit: They weren’t wrong.

===

Jax: Remember that time you dared me to lick a swingset? Zooble: No, I said "Jax, don't lick that swingset" and you said "Don't tell me what to do" and licked the swingset

===

Kaufmo: Pomni, you were so wasted last night Pomni: I wasn't that drunk! Kaufmo: …You called a taxi home Pomni: Yeah! It's called being responsible! Kaufmo: The party was at your house Pomni: ...SHIT

===

Ragatha: You were stabbed. Do you remember anything? Kinger: Only the ambulance ride to the hospital Ragatha: That wasn't an ambulance, I drove you Kinger: But I heard a siren Zooble: That was Pomni Pomni: Sorry, I got nervous

===

Gangle: I’m terrible at expressing myself Caine: Don’t worry, actions speak louder than words! Gangle: Yes, but my actions are also bad

===

Gangle: I'm going to ask you to be respectful Zooble: I will "politely" decline

===

Queenie: Do you guys hear something? Kaufmo: I hear the sound of you shutting the fuck up

===

Jax: If I was married to you, I would put poison in your coffee Zooble: If I was married to you, I’d drink it They kiss afterwards

===

Kinger: finds half a watermelon at Whole Foods Kinger, holding it up for everyone to see: LIES!

===

Zooble: Thanks for opening my message and not responding Caine: All good Zooble, any time! Zooble: Fuck you.

===

Jax: I’m 80% awesome 20% water and 100% handsome Queenie: That’s 200%. Jax: I’m twice the person anyone’ll ever be

===

Ragatha: Pomni… you've been cuddling with me for over and hour now Pomni: muffled mm hmmm :) Ragatha: ......I should be annoyed but you're adorable

===

Jax: My head hurts Ragatha: That’s your brain trying to comprehend its own stupidity

===

Pomni: If I were a drink, I'd be Cherry Vanilla Coke. If you were a drink, what would you be? Jax, being a lil shit: Bleach Zooble, genuinely: Sewage Pomni: …Please calm down, edgelords

===

Pomni: That’s illegal, right? Queenie: Why do you care? Are you a fucking cop? Pomni: No- Queenie: Then shut the fuck up.

===

Kaufmo, to Zooble: You drink too much, swear too much, and your morals are highly questionable. Zooble: … Kaufmo: You are everything I’ve ever wanted in a best friend

===

Kinger, texting Caine: Caine! Help I'm being kidnapped! Caine: Where are you? Kinger: I'm with some strange person. In a car. Help. Caine: I'll call Ragatha! Ragatha, answering their cell: Y'ello? Caine: Where's Kinger? They texted me that they were being kidnapped! Ragatha: Ragatha? Whaddya mean, they're right next to me- Ragatha: Ragatha: I'll call you back. Hangs up Ragatha: MY NEW HAIRCUT LOOKS FINE! Kinger: WHO ARE YOU!?

===

Gangle: Guess who just found out the difference between wax paper and parchment paper the hard way? Ragatha: Wait, what’s the difference? Gangle: One you can use in the oven safely, and the other you can also use in the oven… if the thing you are trying to make happens to be fire.

===

Pomni to Bubble: Me? I'm the bee knees, but, you? You're just… Kaufmo: Cockroach ankles! Pomni: Ye- uh, what?

===

Gangle: The saying “it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission” no longer applies to Jax

===

Kinger: It’s time to turn this into a real business Ragatha: What do you mean? Like, carry a briefcase, and wear a tie, and pay taxes? Zooble: Wait, have you not been paying your taxes? Pomni: I handle our accounting

===

At a bank teller window Queenie, in a bad Italian accent: I'd like-a to make-a da deposit! Caine: HEY BUDDY, WAIT, I REMEMBER YOU! Queenie: Frantically pours marinara sauce into the vacuum tube Caine: GODDAMMIT, IT'S THEM AGAIN!

===

Jax: What does “take out” mean? Bubble: Food. Kinger: Dating. Queenie: Murder. Pomni: It can be all three if you’re not a fucking coward

===

Gangle: Ragatha! I thought you were dead! Ragatha: No, just in deep cover Gangle: …But it was an open casket Ragatha: It was very deep

===

Ragatha: Synonyms are weird because if you invite someone to your cottage in the forest, that just sounds nice and cozy. But if I invite you to my cabin in the woods you’re going to die Gangle: My favorite is explaining the difference between a butt dial and a booty call Pomni: It’s called connotations Jax: Try this one on for size, “Forgive me, Father, I have sinned” vs “Sorry, Daddy, I’ve been naughty" Caine: Great news! Language is now banned!

===

Bubble: Kill him. Kaufmo: This is the kind of quality advice I look for

===

Jax: The only thing keeping me from running away and hiding from society for the rest of my life is spite. I could disappear forever, but there are some bitches whose downfalls I have yet to witness, and I wanna be around when that happens

===

Caine: That sounds super! Doesn’t that sound super, Pomni? Pomni: No Caine: I think I speak for Pomni when I say it sounds really super

128 notes · View notes

librarygoth · 10 months

Text

to preface I did enjoy Barbie, and I feel like I need to make that really obvious bc it’s the internet and some feminine presenting cis woman will call me a misogynist bc I’m butch lmfao, but I think the movie’s core messages are weakened by the way it handles manhood, masculinity, and queerness. Forgive the typos—I’m probably not gonna read this back:

In Barbie world, there is no room for meaningful gender variance. All gendering is idealized gender, with only feminine presenting women and masculine presenting men fitting into the paradigm—queerly gendered figures like Allen, Weird Barbie, Earring Magic Ken, and Sugar’s Daddy Ken are largely excluded from Barbie world society, both under the Barbies’ matriarchy and the Kens’ patriarchy, are regulated to the fringes and are either ridiculed or ignored. Allen, arguably the closest of these queerly gendered figures to the Ken’s idealized masculinity because his queerness is quieter but ultimately present, finds that under the Barbies’ supposedly utopian matriarchy, he is tolerated but not accepted, and that in the Kens’ patriarchy, he is fully terrified for his life.

Stereotypical Barbie’s narrative arc is a queerly gendered one, hinted at by everything from the Indigo Girls to her inability to fit in with the other Barbies. Ultimately, the movie wants us to understand that idealized expectations of gender are harmful, but simultaneously doesn’t provide any real source of liberation for its queerly gendered characters other than escaping their society for another one. The only reason the queerly gendered Weird Barbie is offered a cabinet position at the end is because she is a woman in a matriarchal society, and because the other Barbies feel guilt at not accepting her—but their feelings about her don’t change. They still think she’s not like them.

On the front of manhood and masculinity, something the movie glosses over is that before the Kens are introduced to the concept of patriarchy, they are marginalized people in the Barbie World society. They have no political, social, or economic power, and during the course of the movie it’s even revealed that they not only don’t have homes, but that the Barbies don’t even care enough to know that they don’t have homes. When the Kens discover patriarchy, their enthusiasm isn’t because they inherently think men deserve to rule the world, but because they were exposed, for the first time, to a system where they had power, and they decided they were sick of being subjected. But this point is undermined by a subtle through line of biological essentialism; early on, we see two Kens ready to fight over Stereotypical Barbie’s affections, suggesting that even here, men are inherently more prone to violence. And the society built in Barbie world is a society in which women are naturally intelligent and capable leaders, and where men are vapid and stupid. Interests and activities viewed as classically masculine are dismissed as frivolous and goofy—even ones without any moral or ethical association.

The only men who are exempt are those with queer genders, and even then, this ignores the well-documented misogyny many cis gay men express, and still positions them outside of society without any greener grass in sight. And in Barbie world, queerness for men equates femininity (just as Weird Barbie’s queerness is something more masculine than the other Barbies, even if not masculinity proper), which implied that masculinity, not manhood, is actually the crime, and that manhood and masculinity are inextricably linked (again, Weird Barbie isn’t masculine, per se. She just isn’t feminine).

So while the movie’s message seems to be rooted in the idea that idealized femininity and idealized masculinity are harmful, it seems to also believe that masculinity and manhood are bad, and femininity and womanhood are good, but only if performed in the right way. We are supposed to understand that even if Stereotypical Barbie needs to leave to truly understand herself, the other Barbies have concrete senses of self and purpose, and that even if idealized gender expectations are harmful, Barbie world is better when ruled by the femininity—even that under feminine rule, it’s a utopia. But it’s still a world where queer expressions of gender and sexuality don’t have the opportunity to exist (Barbies only date Kens after all, no matter how many young sapphics made their Barbies scissor). Weird Barbie is specifically an interesting representation of queerness—it is only masculine girls (masculine in this context just means sapphic; sapphicness is a divergence from femininity in any society that values idealized femininity above all other forms), who are believed to have destroyed their Barbies as children. It’s often a point of pride among women who “aren’t like the other girls,” or those who like to feel different. Of course the reality is different—I’m a butch who never destroyed my Barbies; I just made them help my Power Rangers save the day. But the discrepancy between Weird Barbie (who is queer coded in a way straight audiences will likely understand) and Stereotypical Barbie (who is queercoded in a way likely only more accessible to queers, but specifically lesbians, who isn’t attracted to any of the Kens who want her but can’t figure out why), is stark. Stereotypical Barbie isn’t cast out of society because she is still performing a degree of acceptable femininity, and has the privilege choosing to leave. Weird Barbie, on the other hand, is forced to the fringes of society because she is visibly queer.

It’s fascinating to me that feminine presenting cis women (or those like AFAB she/theys who may not be cis but essentially move through the world as if they are feminine presenting cis women), have universally labeled the Barbie movie “for the girls,” when in reality, it feels to me more of a movie for those who fail to perform gender correctly. But I understand why, because the movie still, loudly and clearly, sends the message that femininity is good, and masculinity is bad—and of course the people most harmed by this message, which is oh so prevalent in leftist spaces, queer spaces, feminist spaces, are trans fems (bc transmisogyny), trans mascs, butches, studs, people whose masculinity is racialized, and people who experience marginalized masculinities.

#barbie #barbie movie #queer #lesbian #butch #dyke #trans #trans masc #trans masculine #nonbinary #movies #gender #gender theory

169 notes · View notes

subskz · 2 years

Text

familiar - h.hj

note: this is a reupload from my old blog

content: sub hyunjin, dom reader, virgin hyunjin, friends to lovers, college au, biting, grinding, crying, light praise, soft smut, reader’s sex is unspecified

word count: 4.5k

Being Hwang Hyunjin’s best friend entailed many things.

Struggling for breath as he clung to you whenever he was feeling affectionate, receiving a long string of text messages any time he decided you were taking too long to respond to him, having every single dog on the street enthusiastically pointed out to you, taking his hand with a reassuring smile when he tugged at you nervously, laughing until your stomach hurt as his infectious giggles filled the room, rolling your eyes fondly at his theatrics, taking so many pictures that you may as well have started a career in photography, wiping away his tears the countless times he’d cry on your shoulder—these were all things you’d grown accustomed to after so many years of friendship.

Having Hyunjin by your side had gone past the point of being just comfortable; it was an essential part of your life. But despite how familiar his presence was, there were things about him that still managed to take you by surprise somehow.

His appearance, as silly as it may sound, was one of them. Seeing Hyunjin nearly every single day had done little to get you used to just how unfairly pretty he was. His gentle, almost sleepy eyes, plush lips, and delicate beauty marks had everyone he crossed paths with inevitably mesmerized, and you often joked about how strong your resolve was for managing to avoid falling in love with the boy.

“It’s ‘cause I’m the only one who knows how uncool you really are.” You’d tease him.

You were proud to show Hyunjin off, constantly making a point to mention how much of a heartthrob your best friend was (and embarrassing him greatly in the process). His bashful reactions to your bragging always made you feel a slight tinge of relief, though you never really understood why.

When it came to his countless admirers, you couldn’t help but feel as if you were in on a delightful little secret. If only they knew how reserved he really was behind those looks.

Hyunjin wasn’t oblivious to how attractive everyone seemed to find him, but it was never something that got to his head. Quite the opposite, actually. It didn’t matter nearly as much to him as others might expect. He accepted the endless compliments thrown his way with a demure smile and a polite thank you—never denying them, but never quite agreeing either.

More often than not, Hyunjin’s modesty went so far that it ended up manifesting as insecurity instead. He was his own worst critic, and his perfectionist attitude always seemed to leave him unsatisfied with himself in some way or another.

Naturally, this resulted in him needing lots of reassurance, and you were happy to provide it for him. Any time you caught Hyunjin beating himself up over something small, you’d step in, single-handedly fighting off any self-doubt he might have in a way that only you knew how.

A simple word of praise from you meant more to him than all the adoration he might receive from anyone else, and he knew he could count on you to be truthful with him the many, many times you’d sit him down and give a long talk to boost his morale.

The way Hyunjin was so honest about his feelings was another thing that you’d never quite gotten used to. He rarely tried to hide anything from you, and even when he did, he was hilariously bad at it. His nervous habits were ingrained in your mind like the back of your hand. You were able to catch on to the slightest shift in his mood—the tiniest break in his expression—and it never took much prompting for him to spill his heart to you, whether it be interests, hopes, or fears.

At first, being able to read Hyunjin so clearly was something you found strange and even a bit unsettling. You’d never been so in tune with anyone before, and you’d also never had someone trust you to the degree where they were content to share their every thought with you. Despite that, you eventually came to cherish it, just like every other part of your relationship.

For the past few days, your ability to catch on to Hyunjin’s emotions had been a source of stress. You could sense something was off with him. His expression was pensive, strangely troubled and lacking any of the calming energy it usually had. He was picking at his nails constantly, mumbling out his words in a near pout and shifting his eyes to the side when he spoke.

Needless to say, you were worried, and that worry only grew when he refused to tell you what was going on after you’d brought up his odd behavior.

“Everything’s fine,” He’d told you, making you suppress a snort at the painfully obvious lie. Still, you didn’t press the issue. Though it stung just a bit, if Hyunjin wasn’t ready to let you know what was bothering him, then you weren’t going to snoop—at least, not until your curiosity got the best of you.

Whatever had been weighing on his mind had also made Hyunjin uncharacteristically distant, and that was something you simply couldn’t accept. Giving him space was one thing, but pretending like you’d be okay going days without his company was another. It was for that reason that when you’d invited him over to study at your dorm earlier in the day, you refused to let up your nagging until he reluctantly agreed.

You caught a glimpse of Hyunjin’s thinking face as he stared down at his notebook, a far-off look in his eyes. He chewed the end of his pencil thoughtfully, and your gaze lingered on his lips for a moment before you brought it back to your own papers.

Aside from the occasional sigh from Hyunjin, the room was silent. It wasn’t the usual, comfortable silence that you’d grown accustomed to with him; it was heavy and tense, and you found yourself moving things around unnecessarily to create any background noise you could.

“Can I ask you something?” Hyunjin said suddenly.

You turned to look at him almost too eagerly, grateful for something to distract from the silence. “Sure, which problem are you on?” You peered over to glance at his work.

Hyunjin set his pencil down on the table, shifting slightly in his spot on the couch. “It’s not that.” He replied slowly, the uneasiness evident in his voice.

You raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the concern rising in your chest. Seeing Hyunjin so serious without knowing the reason behind it was throwing you off more than you’d like to admit, and you couldn’t help but feel as if something bad were about to happen. There was a pause before Hyunjin spoke up again, refusing to look you in the eye.

“Do you think it’s weird that…” He took in a quick breath. “I haven’t...um…”

He trailed off awkwardly, and you tilted your head, urging him to continue. Hyunjin’s stare stayed locked on his fingers, his anxious habit of pulling at the skin making another appearance. “I mean…” He tried again. “Is it b-bad that I don’t really have...any experience?”

You tensed up, completely taken aback by his question.

“Experience...with what?”

“Y-you know,” Hyunjin gestured vaguely, and the way his face began to redden confirmed your suspicions. You blinked at him a few times as you gathered your thoughts, letting the surprise show clearly on your face. Not that it mattered anyway, given that he was keeping his gaze averted like his life depended on it.

“Is that what’s been bothering you lately?” You asked simply.

Hyunjin sucked his lower lip into his mouth, nibbling on it for a moment before responding. “It’s not bothering me.” He mumbled, a hint of defensiveness slipping into his tone. “Just...b-been on my mind.”

You decided not to call out his feeble lie, choosing instead to focus on the original question. “I don’t think it’s weird.” You told him honestly, scooting a bit closer. “It’s not like there’s a time limit or something.”

“But…isn’t it embarrassing?” He half-whispered.

His ashamed tone of voice made you frown, and you felt a surge of protectiveness rush through you, wondering if Hyunjin’s sudden fixation on the topic had come from someone mocking him about it.

“Of course not.” You answered sharply. “Why? Did somebody tell you that?”

Hyunjin shook his head quickly, sensing the threat in your voice. “N-no,” He reassured you, finally lifting his eyes. “Nobody else even knows.”

You felt yourself relax, your defensive instincts fizzling out as quickly as they’d kicked in, and you turned your attention back to consoling the boy. “Don’t worry too much about that, Jinnie.” You placed your hand over his, feeling it ease up under your touch. “When the right person comes, it’ll all work out.”

Though your words were encouraging, your tongue went dry as you spoke them, and an uncomfortable feeling crept back up on you once more. Something about the thought of Hyunjin being...intimate with anybody—whether it be a stranger or someone you knew—made your skin crawl for reasons you couldn’t explain. Even so, you mustered up the best smile you could, hoping you sounded convincing.

“What if the right person has come?”

Hyunjin’s question was so quiet that you barely heard it, but it made your heart skip a beat all the same. The tinge of discomfort in your chest spread all throughout your body, and you felt an odd stinging sensation on your skin, suddenly finding it hard to speak.

In all your years of friendship, you’d never once felt this way—like your place in the world was being threatened somehow. Even when hoards of people gazed at Hyunjin with an obvious longing in their eyes, even when your other friends shyly asked if you could introduce them to him, even when he’d received more confessions than either of you could count. None of that compared to the undeniable jealousy that was burning inside you in that very moment.

All of those instances had just been possibilities, relationships that you doubted would ever blossom. This, on the other hand, was real—Hyunjin was telling you flat out that he had found someone, the right one.

You were snapped from your panicked thoughts as you noticed Hyunjin staring at you intensely, his dark eyes boring into yours. Confused by your own bizarre reaction, you took in a deep breath, struggling to recollect yourself before you finally replied.

“Really?” You managed, feigning fascination. “Who?”

There was another pause, and unlike before, you wished more than anything for Hyunjin to stay quiet. You would gladly go the rest of your life without hearing the name of whoever was special enough to successfully capture his heart.

“You.”

It was just one simple word, uttered as softly and simply as possible, yet it turned your whole world upside down.

Butterflies burst in your stomach before you even fully processed what he’d said. You scanned Hyunjin’s face, searching almost frantically for some sign of humor or mockery, but all you found was that same shy, mellow expression of his that you’d come to know so well.

“M-me?” You practically squeaked. “Are you sure?”

Before you could mentally scold yourself for the stupid question, Hyunjin nodded, his face flushing brighter than you’d ever seen it before.

“I have been for a while now.” He admitted quietly. “It’s just...whenever I i-imagine...it, I can’t picture anyone else but you, y’know? A-and when I really started to think about it, I realized...you’re the only one who makes sense.”

He finished his ramble breathlessly, his eyes wide and filled with a hope that practically begged for you to accept him. Your heart raced wildly in your chest, and as you tried to compose yourself, you gave Hyunjin’s hand a gentle squeeze to prevent him from panicking.

“Makes sense to me, too.” You murmured, your own face heating up.

Hyunjin’s lips curved into a smile for the first time that day, washing away any remnants of fear you might have. He shifted his hand below yours to entwine your fingers. It was an action that he’d done so many times before, but this time, it was different. It no longer marked the extent of your affectionate touches—it promised more.

You leaned forward slowly, bringing your free hand up to Hyunjin’s face. His breath hitched as you cupped his cheek, rubbing your thumb delicately over the mole beneath his eye. “You want me to teach you, Jinnie?” You asked, a newfound tenderness in your voice that made his head feel fuzzy. “You trust me that much?”

“Yes,” He breathed instantly, his eyes flickering down to your lips. “M-more than anyone.”

That was all it took for you to close the gap between you and him. You pressed your lips hungrily to Hyunjin’s, unable to stop the relieved sigh that escaped you as you connected.

It was new and familiar all at once. His lips were softer than anything you’d ever felt before, and they moved timidly against yours. The realization that you were the first one to ever get a taste of them set something off in you, and you deepened the kiss, eliciting a small whimper from Hyunjin.

Sparks of electricity spread throughout your body, and his fingers dug into your skin as he gripped your hand tighter. You barely registered the light sting, too preoccupied with how warm and addictive he felt against your mouth.

Hyunjin mewled as your teeth clashed together, and you mumbled out an apology before sliding your tongue tentatively along his plump lower lip. Your eyes fluttered shut, focusing all your senses into memorizing the feeling and shape of his mouth. His inexperience did little to lessen the pleasure of the kiss—in fact, nothing had ever felt so mind-blowingly good.

Your heartbeat grew faster with every cute noise he tried and failed to restrain, and only when your lungs began to ache for air did you finally pull away. You took in a deep breath, opening your eyes to catch a glimpse of Hyunjin. He was panting heavily, mouth hanging open as the quick breaths slipped in and out of him.

“How are you feeling?” You hummed, trying to mask your own exhilaration.

Hyunjin swallowed hard, still recovering from the new sensation. His eyes were blown wide and full of wonder, and his lips had become shiny and swollen, making them look more irresistible than ever. “Happy,” He answered breathlessly. “Even b-better than I imagined.”

You couldn’t help but smile at how overwhelmed he’d become from just a kiss. The urge to take things further consumed you, and without warning, you untangled your fingers from his and shifted from your spot. Hyunjin stiffened as you slipped a leg over his lap to straddle him, placing your hands on his tensed shoulders.

“Is this okay?” You checked.

Hyunjin’s arms instinctively slipped around your waist, his hands gripping the back of your shirt like a lifeline. “Mhm,” He answered softly, too awed to say anything else. You brushed your thumb along his lips, marveling at the fact that you’d been kissing them just moments ago. A small whine escaped the boy, and he pushed his face closer to yours.

You giggled, immediately understanding what he was getting at. He licked his lips in anticipation before you leaned down to kiss them once more. The same surge of adrenaline rushed through you the second time, and you quickly felt yourself getting lost in the intoxicating feeling again.

You brought a hand up to Hyunjin’s hair to run your fingers through it, somehow pulling him even closer to you. As you did so, the distinctive scent of his laundry flooded your nostrils, making the reality of the situation set in. You’d never once imagined having your best friend beneath you like this, squirming with an adorable desperation and letting out sounds that were nothing short of heavenly, but now that you did, you were content to stay that way forever.

Hyunjin gasped lightly as you took his bottom lip into your mouth, heating up the kiss even more. You rolled his plush skin between your teeth, and the strange feeling made him shudder. Another whine slipped out of him as you pulled away, tugging at his lip gently before fully releasing it.

“You really like this, huh?” You commented, noticing just how dizzy the boy was starting to look.

Hyunjin ducked his head, growing self-conscious under your gaze, and you used the fingers you’d tangled in his hair to massage his head soothingly. “S’really good.” He slurred. “P-please, kiss me more. Wanted it for so long.”

He nestled into your neck as he spoke, suddenly overcome with embarrassment at the sound of his own plea. and the butterflies in your stomach made themselves known again.

“Yeah?” You murmured. “That makes two of us.”

You gave his hair a light pull, bringing his face back into view. Hyunjin’s eyes squeezed shut in anticipation as he saw you inching forward again, only for him to let out a surprised mewl when you attached your lips to his neck instead. His fingers pressed urgently into your back, and you suppressed a laugh, delighted by how responsive he was to your every touch.

Goosebumps formed on Hyunjin’s skin as your mouth brushed against it playfully. You breathed in his familiar smell, letting it flood your senses before pressing a kiss to the mole on his neck. His breath hitched at the warm, ticklish feeling, and a long sigh slipped out of him when you began to pepper the area with kisses.

Your hands roamed over his body, tracing every curve and muscle as if you were discovering it for the first time. His chest rose and fell rapidly under your palms, and he squeaked when you gave his waist a delicate squeeze, making your lips curve against his skin.

“No one’s ever touched you like this before, huh, Jinnie?” You whispered.

Hyunjin bit down on his lip, tilting his head reflexively to the side as you slid your tongue along his throat. “N-no...only you,” He breathed. “Only wanted you.”

The confession made your heart flutter, and the more possessive part of you couldn’t help but feel a tinge of satisfaction as well.

All that time you’d spent admiring your best friend—thinking wistfully about how lucky whoever he ended up with would be—seemed so ridiculous now. It was laughable in retrospect that you’d ever thought your feelings for him were purely platonic, and as you grazed your teeth over the soft skin that you’d spent more time dreaming about than you’d like to admit, you realized that you, were in fact, the lucky one.

A shaky moan spilled out of Hyunjin as you devoured his neck with more vigor. “You’re so beautiful,” You mumbled. “And all mine, yeah?”

“Y-yes,” He whimpered. “Always have been.”

Hyunjin’s hips bucked helplessly, and as his length brushed up against you, you realized with a start just how hard he’d become. He wriggled beneath you as you continued to work your mouth, sucking intently at the base of his neck. “P-please,” He gasped out, his hold on you tightening.

“Such a sensitive baby,” You cooed, soothing the tender area you’d marked with a lick.

Hyunjin whimpered in response, and it quickly morphed into a sharp cry when you pressed your lower half against him.

“A-ah!” He threw his head back, giving you even better access to the expanse of his throat as you continued to kiss and nibble along it.

Slowly, you began to grind down on his clothed length. Your spine tingled at the feeling of Hyunjin’s bulge pushing against your core, and the broken moan that your movements drew out of him only excited you further.

“Is that good, Jinnie?” You hummed, rolling your hips in a way that made him see stars.

He squeezed his eyes shut, the newfound pleasure making it difficult for him to muster a response. “Y-yes,” He stuttered. “So—ngh—good…”

You sucked another love bite right below his jaw, and Hyunjin brought his head forward to nuzzle his nose against you, silently begging for you to kiss him again. Understanding what he needed immediately, you rolled his skin between your teeth one last time before locking your lips with his.

He whined into the kiss, the sweet sound of it growing muffled as you slid your tongue past his plump lips and into his mouth. Hyunjin’s cock jerked beneath you, and the feeling of it combined with the delicious friction that your clothes provided sent a fresh wave of arousal through you.

Hyunjin’s arms began to loosen around you slightly as he became more and more overwhelmed, but his iron grip on your shirt stayed intact. You gave an appreciative hum as the kiss grew sloppy, relishing in every cute, helpless noise that escaped the boy.

A steady heat began to build up where your cores met, only heightening the pleasure you felt from your bodies molding together. Hyunjin was painfully hard against you, and your core tightened as you imagined what his cock would look like when you finally got him undressed.

You toyed with Hyunjin’s bottom lip again, biting down with more hunger than before. The added roughness made his head spin, and he stuttered out your name weakly. You hummed in reply, altering the movement of your hips so that you were angled perfectly against Hyunjin’s length. His hips shot up uncontrollably again, and he let out a choked groan into your mouth.

“N-ngh! W-wait!” Hyunjin broke the kiss suddenly, freezing beneath you. “G-gonna—!”

Before he could finish his sentence, he cut himself off with a pitiful, drawn-out moan. You immediately halted your grinding, giving the boy a worried look. Hyunjin bit down on his lower lip, hard enough to bruise, but it did little to restrain the positively sinful noise that slipped out of him.

“Hyunjin…?” You asked, concern creeping into your voice. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer, and instead sucked in a shaky breath, his whole body trembling. Just as you were about to call his name again, you felt a warm sensation spread beneath you, and suddenly it all clicked in your head. Hyunjin had climaxed.

You brought a hand up to cup his face, which had turned a bright shade of red. He refused to look you in the eye, and as the sticky fluid seeped through his clothes, a small, mortified whimper escaped him.

“Hey,” You began softly, noticing the tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

That was all it took for Hyunjin to lose his composure. With a weak sob, he surged forward, burying his face into your chest.

The distressed sound made your heart wrench, and you instinctively slipped your hand behind Hyunjin to rub his back, using the other to cradle his head. It was a position you’d taken so many times before while consoling the boy that it was practically second nature, and you held him securely as he began to cry in your arms.

“It’s okay, Jinnie.” You soothed, gliding your hand up and down his back to comfort him. “Don’t cry.”

His shoulders shook in your hold as hot tears spilled out of him, dripping onto your shirt and soaking through the fabric. “I’m s-sorry,” He hiccuped miserably. “It f-felt too good, I couldn’t s-stop myself.”

“Shh...It’s alright, baby boy.” You murmured. “You don’t have to be sorry.”

Hyunjin nestled into you further, his face burning with shame. “B-but I came so soon,” He sobbed, the tears pouring out of him with no signs of stopping. “I ruined e-everything...”

“No you didn’t, angel.” You brushed your fingers through his hair gently. “This is all new to you, it’s okay to be overwhelmed. As long as you felt good, that’s all that matters.”

You placed a kiss atop his head with the hopes of emphasizing your words. He sniffled into your shirt, and though his crying didn’t let up, you heard him suck in another deep breath, trying to steady himself as best he could through all his gasps and hiccups.

Softly, you gave Hyunjin a nudge, encouraging him to look up at you again. He let out a feeble whine, but compiled nonetheless, reluctantly pulling his face from your chest to bring it into view.

The sight of him—eyes red and puffy, face flushed and wet, and his lower lip quivering—made your stomach twist with sympathy. You flashed him a reassuring smile before beginning to wipe away his tears, brushing your fingers over his sensitive skin as delicately as possible. Despite your attempts to soothe him, the streams persisted, and you found yourself drying a fresh wave of tears soon after.

Only once you were absolutely sure that the last of the teardrops had spilled from Hyunjin’s eyes did you rest your forehead against his, pressing your noses together. You continued to rub his back, listening carefully as his whimpers gradually faded out and his breathing began to slow.

The two of you stayed that way for several moments, sitting in that same, comfortable silence that you’d come to cherish so much. Finally, Hyunjin’s eyes fluttered closed, and he sighed.

“I’m sorry,” He repeated, his voice barely above a whisper.

You let out a reassuring hum, tilting your head down to connect your lips with his. He made a small noise of surprise, but wasted no time before returning the kiss. It was innocent, lacking the fire it had before, but it made your heart race all the same. You moved your lips slowly against Hyunjin’s, hoping to wash away any last traces of doubt he might have.

“You know how lucky I feel to even be with you like this?” You mumbled between pecks. “Kissing you, touching you, hearing every pretty noise you make...it’s more than enough.”

Your words finally seemed to get through to Hyunjin, if the way he melted under your touch was any indication. He whined your name quietly as you pulled away to gaze at him, a thin trail of saliva connecting your lips to his.

Your adoring stare had him squirming sheepishly beneath you, but despite that, a shy smile managed to make its way onto his face.

“I love you,” He breathed, finally able to look you in the eye.

It wasn’t the first time you’d heard those words come out of his mouth, but you knew now that they had a different meaning. Or, rather, it was a meaning they’d always had—you were just too blind to see it.

“I love you, too.” You beamed. Hyunjin’s smile only grew, spreading to his eyes in that adorable way that made your chest warm. You’d always told him it was his charm point.

You leaned forward to take him into your arms once more, the sound of his heartbeat filling your ears as you rested your head against him. It was steady and gentle, and when you peered up to catch another glimpse of Hyunjin’s face, the sight somehow felt more familiar than it ever had before.

#skz smut #sub!skz #sub!hyunjin #dom!reader #hyunjin smut

1K notes · View notes

dreamweaversfavsandthoughs · 6 months

Text

Rick and Morty S7 Ep. 4: That’s Amorte

(There is no ethical consumption under capitalism)

Don’t read any further if you don’t want to spoiler your appetite…

My Favs

We got Morty back!

When the world was about to send out an Amber Alert on a missing kid, Morty decided to return to us! I’ve enjoyed the season so far but having Rick and Morty together is a stark reminder that the strength of this show is found in the dynamic between grandfather and grandson. Also, I love seeing Rick getting healthy and bettering himself, but I also love to see a Rick that’s amoral and a bit unhinged.

Facial animation:

I don’t know if this is due to the Irish animation studio they’re working with now, but I’ve noticed there’s a bit more diversity in the facial expressions compared to the last two or three seasons. Has anyone else noticed this?

They did a Soylent Green!

I predicted that this might have been a red herring seeing the initial clips and they might instead do something akin to the Universal Paperclip game, but a Soylent Green is what we got. Well, the idea behind the paperclip game is still on the table for next season…

Euthanasia, Cannibalism, and Suicide

Quite the trifecta of “subjects we don’t discuss in polite society,” but I admire them for taking the risk and weaving everything together well. Kinda surprised S&P let them get away with it.

“His dying wish is to see deader people so he can feel superior.”

Morty-O’s Suicide Spaghetti

“ Is this people or not people? I just need to know how much I should pretend to be upset.”

Oh, Jerry…

“They dyed their sun institutional gray.”

“Ooo gray areas. My specialty.”

Classic Rick

Kotomi’s cover of “Live Forever”

“Life itself is wrong and that means death is right. But you can’t side with that. So you live, even when it means eating.”

Not My Fav:

They could have gotten nastier.

This is my one small gripe in an episode that I think is fantastic. I’m confident there is an earlier draft out there that got so much grosser before S&P made their cuts and I demand to see that draft!

Release that nasty cut!!!

My Thoughts:

First my less serious thought, how in the hell did Rick find out that those people turned in spaghetti when they unalived themselves? My headcanon is that he has made a regular habit of impersonating a doctor on that planet because he sees doctors as nothing more than glorified mechanics, but for people. Rick knows he’s the smartest man in the universe and a proper scientist so practicing medicine would not be that much of a challenge and along the way he discovered this delicious trait about the Keplar people.

On a more serious note, there are two moments that really stood out to me. First, was when Morty broke the news of the spaghetti’s origin to the family and their reaction. They were angry and disappointed—in Morty for delivering the message rather than Rick for feeding them people-spaghetti. That spaghetti was amazing and brought everyone joy and they were more angry about losing their joy than the moral implications of consuming human flesh. Morty destroyed the illusion that they were “good” people and instead of actually being good people and refusing to eat the spaghetti, Morty created a work-around so that he and the family could still maintain the illusion.

That felt very realistic to how, dare I say, all of us have acted at some point, whether it’s the food we eat or that store that sells the jeans that fit perfectly or the online retailer that delivers anything we could possibly want the next day. Maybe, we find out someday that it’s not created in the most ethical manner and we rationalize it. We think, “ Oh, it’s not that bad.” or “ I can’t afford the more ethical option,” or "I have such few joys in my life I don't want to lose this as well.” It’s easier to uphold the illusion of being morally upright under a system that makes it exceedingly difficult to do so. But even if the capitalistic system is destroyed can we ever really be absolved? This leads to the second moment that stood out, Rick’s monologue.

“Life itself is wrong and that means death is right. But you can’t side with that. So you live, even when it means eating.”

My interpretation is that Rick is saying, “Life, by it’s very nature, is inherently unethical and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Even if the meat you eat comes from an animal that is well taken care of, killed as quickly and painlessly as possibly, and processed in a facility that treats its workers well and obeys all regulations—that animal still had to die in order to produce that meat. You’re a vegan. Plants are still living things and for many plants the process of getting food from them destroys them in the process. Millions of bacteria are destroyed every time you wash your hands. Life needs other kinds of life to end for it to keep going, but humans are the only creatures that are aware of this fact so we create arbitrary categories around which types of life are okay to destroy (categories we can’t all agree on) in order to maintain the illusion of morality.

This episode does not have a feel-good message among the jokes and absurd characters and I appreciate that. This one got my brain a-churnin’ and I’m sure I read way too much into this episode but I couldn’t help myself.

#rick and morty #rick and morty season 7 #rnm #rnm spoilers #rick and morty spoilers #rick sanchez #morty smith #that’s amorte

74 notes · View notes

queerly-autistic · 3 months

Text

My dad just messaged me going "seeing all this 'Save OFMD' stuff made me realise some things never change" and attached a load of pictures he'd dug up from fifteen years ago of me in my 'Save Ianto Jones' fan campaign era.

As much as it made me laugh, it also made me think about something that I've not talked about before: the fact that this is what introduced me to campaigning.

I was a very lost queer (undiagnosed autistic) kid, bullied and lonely and keenly aware that there were a lot of bad things happening in the world, but I had no idea how to begin to even try to change things, or even any awareness that there was anything I could do to change anything.

And then my favourite show killed off my favourite character, and I suddenly accidentally found myself swept up in the mobilisation (without even realising that that was what was happening) of the fan community around me. It's where I learned about the idea of campaigning as, y'know, a thing that I could do. It introduced me to the concept that I could actively try and do things to make a change I wanted to see in the world.

And now that's my actual literal real world adult job. This is what I do in my 9-to-5. Some of the skills I learned and developed at seventeen (and the lessons from the fuck-ups - oh boy there were many of those because I was seventeen) trying to get the BBC to un-dead my favourite bisexual welshman are skills that I now use every day to actually create change (such as writing persuasive emails to influence a specific target).

And I've also used them outside of the 9-5 in the smaller grassroots campaigns I've been involved with. For example, the skills I learned from a fan campaign when I was a teenager helped me play a small part in stopping the deportation of young autistic man, and potentially saved his life.

There's a HUGE amount of crossover/symbiosis between fan campaigns and 'real world' campaigning. A huge number of people involved in these fan campaigns are already involved in organising (or at the very least supporting/donating) for 'real world' issues. And, if they're not, then a fan campaign may well be their introduction to campaigning - a 'wow ok so I can actually do this' moment that inspires them to start pushing for change on other issues too.

It's fantastic if someone goes 'hey, I managed to call Netflix about picking up Our Flag Means Death, which has made me realise maybe I can also cope with picking up the phone to call my political representatives about [insert other issue here]' - and if the strategies they put in place to help them do the Netflix phone call also help them do the political phone calls as well, then that's absolutely brilliant.

The same with getting experience/confidence writing emails, or learning how to create and push a hashtag on social media, or realising the power of taking mass actions (like signing a petition). It even goes so far as inspiring people to follow up a fan campaign donation with an additional donation to a good cause, and helping direct them to some good charities/initiatives to donate to (because sometimes knowing which are the right ones to send your money too is very hard). These are all skills and experiences that can help build both confidence and understanding of how to get involved with campaigning for change, and these are absolutely transferrable to an infinite number of causes.

It's about people feeling empowered to take action: feeling like they can do it, that it's tangible to them as something they can do, and giving them the tools to do it. The endgame in real world advocacy and campaigning is getting stuff done: petitions signed, phone calls made, emails sent, donations collected, rallies attended.

And no one (outside of the internet moral purity police) cares if your journey getting there started with a fan campaign.

#erin waffles #save ofmd #save our flag means death #renew ofmd #renew our flag means death #adopt our crew #ianto jones #torchwood #save ianto jones #advocacy #campaigning #look at me in these pictures i'm a fetus

34 notes · View notes

a-town-called-hometown · 1 month

Note

hi!! i loved your post about deltarune's metafiction and its (not) escapist themes, and it got my brain jogging, like... i guess ive just been thinking "why"? like ive heard that take before and i think its valid, but also like. why ? its obvious enough to me that deltarune uses the lightner/darkner relationship as a reflection of the player/game relationship and both of these things are addressed critically, but i can't help but wonder if there's a driving force for it all, outside of deltarune. like i can accept diegetically the darkners are not, or shouldn't be, subject only to the whims of lightners, but with any good story if you break it down to its core is ultimately saying something about humanity or the world and such. i mean i seriously doubt the people who seem to think that Toby Fox intends to induce *actual* guilt into the people who fund his life's work and career by purchasing his videogames, like, it's obvious that "you are a bad person because you play this videogame" isn't the intended message, nor was it in undertale. but then, what is? what is the purpose of a story that invites us to think of toys and game characters as "real"? not to trash my beloveds but i mean, literally speaking, their lives DONT matter, they r not real. it just feels like ive seen a lot of discussion about 'what' toby is doing with the narrative but i feel like that's only half the ordeal, the other half would be the reason why. my first thought was that the implicit 3rd thing being compared to the light-dark, player-game thing is actual social hierarchy IRL in which people are oppressed by another group that doesnt see them as human, bc iirc toby talked a bit about feeling powerless and wanting to do more to change the real world on real issues in an interview in 2020ish and of course there's the snarky gag about the fedora plugboy who doesn't like politics, so he doesn't care that an evil ruler is taking over the world. im not sure if that sits right with me as what the intention is (esp because the latter is a darkner talking about another darkner) but i couldnt think of much else although i do feel like a fallacy people get themselves into a lot in the fandom is the assumption that toby fox is this Impeccable Writing Machine and not just like A Guy. people make weird or flawed art sometimes, it doesn't *have* to adhere to standards. maybe deltarune is meaningless (or the meaning IS that it's meaningless, as though to complete the metaphor of it being a "real" fictional world, because if it is 'real' then like our world there is no "answer" or "purpose", it simply *is*.) dunno! im not expecting it to boil down to a simplistic fairytale moral like "dont bully people!!" or something, mr. fox tends to write more convoluted than that, but i feel like if there's something to be gained from this particular part of the game's story then i'm not sure i see the vision. what do u think? do u think this question is even answerable with only two chapters?

respectfully, I do heavily disagree with the notion that good stories necessarily have to say anything about the world or about humanity. one of the reasons I like metafiction is that it usually says something about how stories are constructed, and that's enough for me. there's plenty of stories that have bigger themes that aren't really all that much about human nature, at least, not directly. a story can comment on one specific thing without necessarily making a broader statement about people, you know? not every story has an easily explained moral lesson.

that being said, yes, this plot element is in service of deltarune's larger themes! which are about agency, control, fate, and identity.

deltarune's fate theming and its metafiction elements are a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation given how interlocked they are, but I've found it helpful to describe deltarune as a "person vs. fate narrative that uses a metafictional lens to characterize fate." rather than the three fates of greek mythology or whatever dictating its characters' lives, it is instead the structure of the rpg their world was made to be. they are player characters. they are npcs. they play specific roles in the narrative. no one can choose who they are in this world.

control is emphasized in this story. there's the control we have over kris, of course, and in a much subtler way the control we have over the world through them. there's the darkner-lightner hierarchy, which parallels our dynamic with kris. i would argue that there are even social forces in hometown which also serve to place the lightner characters into specific roles. under this level of control, it's hard for characters to push back and determine their own identities.

all these forces combine to mean that deltarune's characters are fighting back against the narrative itself! which says stuff about people's agency, and the way rpgs are written, and how we interact with all that...

ultimately, you can apply this to real life. even if there aren't things like "fictional people who are actually real," hierarchies of control do exist in real life. narratives that erase the agency and internality of certain types of people exist in real life. it's admittedly a rather general statement, but like with any narrative about fate, seeing characters resist rules that are seemingly written into the fabric of their existence can make you feel inspired to also define your own identity! and to be transgender. don't forget to be transgender

#deltarune #deltarune analysis #im not kidding deltarune really did make me transgender.

28 notes · View notes