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dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 6 years

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Animorph/DP crossover

so i’m officially on an animorph binge, fueled by nostalgia and dawning horror as i rediscover how deeply messed up an violent this series is.

for those of you don’t remember or only vaguely remember the weird book covers, animorphs was a quintessential nineties book series (and brief bad tv show) that most of us read for free-reading points when we were eight. it is a series about 5 kids who witness an alien ship crash one day and have a dying alien give them the power to turn into any animal and alien they collect dna from (a bit like ben10′s omnitrix now that i think about it, only it came out first, isn’t a bracelet and is generally horrible). new space dad also gives them, a group of 13 year old’s, the mission to stop a different race of alien invaders, called yerks, who are essentially slugs that crawl in your ears and take over your body. they intend to take over earth. the animorphs can’t trust adults because they don’t know who’s being mind controlled and quite suddenly they find themselves in a full scale war, full of moral grays and trauma at every turn along with goofy nineties slang and sometimes (rarely) the kids having fun with their ability to turn into wild animals. arguably the first book has a higher kill count than the entire harry potter series. it doesn’t pull it’s punches and, while i’m sure i have nostalgia glasses on, it’s really good. give it a read sometimes.

so, of course, i have to dump my crossover head-cannons on you, because combining these two worlds, that have pretty impressive world building is too good to pass up. (keep in mind i’m only three books into this binge and my memory is mostly hazy). strap in;

okay first of lets set the condition that ectoplasm and ectoplasm based weapons kills yerks. therefore Danny and any ghost can actually kill yerks pretty easy. it also means Danny can’t become a controller even if they try. i want to set this stipulation because lets be honest the yerks are too powerful and the hero side is already outnumbered. i suppose you could think of it as to semi sentient slimes fighting for dominance, yerks are more living and sentient than ectoplasm itself, but that’s part of what makes them weak to ectoplasm, a materiel that is a byproduct of death and that has proven to be corrosive in general. ectoplasm is less thought based and more hunger and emotion based. so it’s easy for ectoplasm to consume a yerk because as a sentient being it has emotions and mass, whereas, a yerk looking for a brain in a ghost won’t have much to grab onto.

or you could not have that caveat and make everything even darker and worse by having ectoplasm being good for yerks, similar to those slime pools they bask in. in which case, discovering the ghost portal will be a crushing blow to the humans

Danny can clear out yerk infestations, just by possessing people, but it essentially means burning a yerk alive inside someones head, which is traumatizing for everyone involved. Danny doesn’t like doing this but will when necessary

yerks, due to this aversion to ectoplasm, are actually very superstitious about ghosts and avoid ‘haunted’ places as much as possible, leaving Amity fairly safe until the larger scale plans start taking effect.

at which point ‘let’s just wipe this haunted city off the map’ plans start circulating. (’but wouldn’t that just create more ghosts?’ ‘i won’t pretend to know’)

enter the animorphs and team phantom on different fronts. the animorphs are eager to know why the yerks are so adverse to this city that they’re willing to destroy it. is there a weapon there? is there something useful there? i don’t think even the andilites know about yerks weakness to ectoplasm (oh they would have used it) so they’re running blind, hoping to get the weapon and the information before the city is destroyed, and you know, hoping to prevent the city’s destruction

team phantom on the other hand are way blinder in general. their involvement started as Tucker hacking some government files and then accidentally following the backdoor breadcrumbs into the entire yerk system. he take’s the whole, ‘aliens are controlling our government’ thing, as more of a ‘I WAS RIGHT’ moment than a ‘oh no!’ Danny and Sam are reasonably skeptical because of this

until they find out that the city’s gonna get destroyed yet again. and then things are kinda sticky for them, because most of what they know about the alien invasion is from Tucker’s hacks and a lot of it is in an alien language that’s taking time to translate.

so of course the animorphs show up and find literal ghosts and assume aliens because they’re not far enough in the timeline for god and time travel to be an established thing yet. everyone is freaking out, because they’re being invaded by something else!? they’re already in one war, man. and the team debates are on because clearly these things are an enemy to the yerks if the yerks want to destroy them so much. we could use them (Rachel, Tobias), but we don’t know anything about this race or if they’re the lesser of evil between the races (Marco, Cassie). Ax’s only opinion is that ghosts freak him the hell out and are unnatural. i don’t think he’d be able to telepathically communicate with ghosts (except for Danny and Vlad) and that deeply scares him. Jake decides they need more information before they decide. the team quickly elects to catch a ghost and interrogate it.

which goes as well as one can expect. watching the animorphs try to fight the box ghost with all their animal forms is embarrassing, with how ineffective it is. team phantom walks in on this.

which leads to the ‘are we talking to hostile aliens’ stare down. team phantom saw enough of the fight to be like, no, and have already proven more or less that the animorphs aren’t ghosts, so alien is the other conclusion to draw.

the amount of sarcasm and banter that Danny and Marco create being in the same room together is legendary. establishing a bit of almost playful respect

Ax is being messed up by Danny’s psychic wavelength because he can hear it but there’s migraine inducing feedback

Sam and Rachel however are low key butting head in the background and that results in a fight the they break up and pretty much establish, yeah, we’re all good guys here, okay. (Sam and Rachel's sass levels are also dangerously high. in general the amount of sass in the room could fuel a teledrama)

everyone’s hesitant to share information, Danny keeps his secret initially and even though they get their rundown of the aliens and the rundown of the ghost, neither are willing to share the big secrets or trust. team phantom have this whole ‘what if they’re the aliens trying to blow up the town subplot while one of the animorphs (i wanna say Tobias but i don’t think he’s picked transformation back up yet so lets say Marco) grabs some of Danny's dna to see if they can turn into a ghost.

it goes as horribly wrong as it can go.

most ectobased life forms don’t have dna because they’re made purely of ectoplasm, that’s it. the only reason Danny has dna is because he’s a halfa and his Schrodinger's cat existence was very lucky and very unnatural. combining ectomutated dna with a power that is based purely around life is not good. marco almost dies, everyone’s really mad, even though it’s not Danny's fault. the animorphs demand that they fix him and Sam is bitter because the blame is on them for taking his dna without danny;s consent but whatever. they save him anyway because they’re the heroes.

welcome back Fenton dream-catcher, they remove the ectomutation spirit thing from Marco safely and either they have to fight the half-transformed goo monster or the thing collapses on it’s own because it’s completely unstable.

Marco, depending on how philosophical you want to get, tastes death, ectoplasm, ghost obsessions, and possibly some of Danny's memories? i guess the animorph power works a bit like copying another creatures spirit, which is one of the reason, copying something like Danny is so complicated because he is the perfect hybrid of spirit and life. they ironically can’t copy literal spirits though because they have no dna as a starting point. the whole near death experience is going to haunt Marco for a while.

oh well, life saving, monster fighting, out of the way, trust is finally established.between the teams and everyone get’s crash courses in ectobiology and animorph biology and figure out why the bad stuff happened.but they still don’t know that ectoplasm kills yerks

this got long. i shall do a part 2! - Hestia

#Danny Phantom #animorphs #dpjl #hestiawrites

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ajabsusbjsbsbanns · 6 years

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Warning for some mentions of sexual intimacy and also somewhat cp?.. the intimacy is not explicit by any means. however i go into detail on why their art is bad so just keep this in mind.

please consider reading this whole thing before jumping to a conclusion

(and im aware the screenshots above are somewhat out of context. this was going to be short but it isnt now)

hey! a deviantart user by the name of foxdragonlover drew nsfw art of spyro and cynder. there was some backlash and they had this to say. i really dont have nearly enough energy to read through this fucking novel of a post but i skimmed it. now please pay attanetion to these parts of the post.

“When i drew that picture of Spyro and Cynder, it came from a place of love and strong feelings.If someone draws art of those two as adults being more raw and wild, with the intent of just doing that as part of their story, that's normal!I can imagine Cynder growing into the type who is a little domineering in the sack, whilst Spyro would be more submissive and tender/attentive.These thoughts, through development and story when you treat characters as actual characters and not as pieces of meat, is fine.”

what theyre saying i that as long as they fleshed out the characters and dont just see them as moving pixels on a screen they have a right to draw porn of it because it’s “development”.

now please keep in mind that it has been said spyro in the original games is 12 years old.

now although this doesnt tell us much. spyro is a child. he looks nothing like the other dragons in the game. hes closer in looks to the baby dragons in YotD that any of the elders. not to mention his voice is that of a child-teen. now yes. i understand that this is the original games.

“what about TLOS series you moron” you cry.

fear not. i have done some research on that as well.

in the first game of the legend of spyro series spyro is roughly 12 years old.

the wendy promotional toy that was released when the game was first out comes with a small tag that gives some insite into the characters of the TLOS series.

now feel free to accuse me of editing these pictures. but you’ll see here that they are in fact real.

so what does this tell us? well.. not much i guess. however im not stopping here.

“yea yea spyro is 12. but stupid! he’s only 12 in the first game!”

alright. sure! youre correct in that spyro is 12 for the first game. however he is also twelve for the second. the second game happens almost immediatly after the first. meaning at most spyro is 13 for half of it. along side this, cynder is also the same age as him. same goes for sparx.

“well, but those arent DotD!”

You are correct! They arent! however they give us a clue on how old spyro, cynder and sparx are in the third game!

this comment on a game forum mentions that spyro is 15 in the third game.

“but lolbit you fuggin gnome! some dumb forum doesnt mean anything!”

Once again you are correct! it does not. however the poster on the forum is right. spyro is fifteen as per mentioned in this screenshot of the actual dialogue of the third game.

hunter mention 3 years having passed. which would mean spyro, cynder and sparx are in fact 15. 15 is not an adult. You should not be depicting a minor in sexual situations EVER. you should not be “aging up” a character for nsfw art. and you ESPECIALLY should not be doing this when you are a 23 year old. dont believe me? their Furaffinity account specifies their age here! please be warned there is NSFW art on their account.

now im sure youre asking why im throwing such a fuss over this. well dear reader, fae/fox refuses to awknowledge that they did anything wrong and they continue to argue that “its okay if theyre mature and ive written a story for them”. that of course was paraphrasing. however here is their exact words on the matter. “But when you take young characters that you love inside and out, and develop their lives and their relationships, and mold them into more mature characters (based around the premise of human emotions and sentience), that's normal.Drawing those grown characters doing mature things is normal.Projecting real life stuff onto characters, whether they're canonically only ever shown as children or as adults while working through their story, is normal.There is so much worse to harp on. “

please keep in mind that no where in this paragraph here is it mentioned that the characters are adults. they are stated to be mature. however, maturity does not = age. it means your maturity mentally. spyro is extremelly mature for a 15 year old. he saves the world and handles the fact that he was plucked from his home before he was hatched and was raised by a family that was not his blood family even though he is still a child. a MINOR. cynder handles her corruption and the fact that she was used as a tool for an evil master as well as she can. she’s extremelly mature for her age. but again, she is only 15.

now of course im expecting that legendary comment of

“dumpass. theyre fictional. duhhhh. they aren’t real”

and to you my dear friend I have some links for you to read. i personally would never be able to sum it up in words the way these posts have. here are some links about why fiction does in fact = reality at times.(and thank you to Jade for allowing me to use their blog for these links!)

click here, here, here, and here

now that youre done reading those, im going to analize the post created by fox/fae and discuss some of the points they made.

the first part i analized earlier im going to bring back again for one more talk.

“When i drew that picture of Spyro and Cynder, it came from a place of love and strong feelings.If someone draws art of those two as adults being more raw and wild, with the intent of just doing that as part of their story, that's normal! I can imagine Cynder growing into the type who is a little domineering in the sack, whilst Spyro would be more submissive and tender/attentive.These thoughts, through development and story when you treat characters as actual characters and not as pieces of meat, is fine.”

lets break this apart.

it does not matter if it came from a place of love. what you’re literally saying is you had strong feelings to draw spyro and cynder having sex. thats the raw of it. and yes. it is normal and okay if you would like to draw two consenting adults in a time of intimacy. however you did not draw two adults. theyre children. minors.

“But when you take young characters that you love inside and out, and develop their lives and their relationships, and mold them into more mature characters (based around the premise of human emotions and sentience), that's normal.“

i already discussed the maturity thing. you have not yet called them adults. you said mature. which more or less translates to “im too scared to admit that i didnt age them up. theyre still minors in the picture”. this is scurting around the problem rather than addressing it. and no im not addressing the next part of the paragraph. no one asked your personal views on how tender and soft a literal minor would be during intercourse. and again. they are minors. the characters are portrayed as humanistic and sentient. and fae/fox agrees on that. that is one thing they are right for.

however. that doesn’t erase all else that they’ve done. next.

“Someone even got mad that i hid the comments and acted like i hid the person who accused me only, but really i hid everyone's comment.Save for one from each of two of my friends, which were not hidden because i found them encouraging/interesting.Those are hidden now, though. I hid my comments, too, and part of me hiding that stuff helps protect 1. the commenter and secondly, i just hate looking at all of that sometimes.I counted and there are 20 hidden comments in my section.There will probably be more later. Do you know how embarrassing that is for me?I genuinely hate drama, but damn if i won't defend myself when i know my truth and someone challenges it. If it weren't for the nice things people said to me, i would just disable comments all together and wipe the slate clean, but i guess this has shown me i value the love i receive more than the hate, even if it leaves a scar on my work -- or even my attitude.”

hoo boy. alright.

alright. this is a blatant lie. they have blocked a decent amount of comments but they are lying when they say they only kepts up a few friends. not to mention they say they deleted those after. there are far more comments than 2 from a few friends.

(its scribbled out cause you can actually see the art behind it. which is still nsfw)

“I hid my comments, too, and part of me hiding that stuff helps protect 1. the commenter and secondly, i just hate looking at all of that sometimes.I counted and there are 20 hidden comments in my section.There will probably be more later.”

although yes they did hide some of their comments in order to remove the whole chain its extremelly hard to believe that this is out of a place of safety for the commenter. because they left my comment up and allowed a friend of their to comment on it as well. along side this they blocked me so i couldn’t defend myself either.

and now this isnt me jumping to a conclusion. my comment is from 10 hours ago. thats a lot of time to delete a comment.

“Do you know how embarrassing that is for me?I genuinely hate drama, but damn if i won't defend myself when i know my truth and someone challenges it. If it weren't for the nice things people said to me, i would just disable comments all together and wipe the slate clean, but i guess this has shown me i value the love i receive more than the hate, even if it leaves a scar on my work -- or even my attitude.”

this is a long one but i feel it fits together well enough to analize it all together. but ohhh man. it sure is embarassing to have to hide the comments that are accusing you of drawing CP huh? it really is embarassing? because you hate drama right?. listen. it doesnt matter if its embarassing to you. you drew nsfw art of child characters. and now youre upset that you have to go through and hide the comments of people calling you out for it. do you realize how outlandish that is? and oof. listen. the fact that you wanna “wipe the slate clean” and “disable comments” to hide from the fact that people are calling you out, rather than admitting this and deleting the piece shows that you are quick to hide and shove all of this under the rug rather than addressing it. and as for that last comment. listen... you sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling rather than addressing peoples concerns and listening to their criticism is not you valuing love over hate. its you refusing to awknowledge your misdoings and pretending youve done nothing wrong. thats a horrible mentality to have. and of course this is going to leave a scar on your work. you drew CP and refused to awknowledge it even after people brought it to your attention.

“I know in my heart of hearts what is right and what is wrong, i know what is justifiable and what isn't.I'm not sitting here trying to justify what i drew because i know it's not wrong, but i want it to be known that i am damn sad that someone who said they've "supported me for a few years" suddenly, over one picture they didn't like/didn't understand, chose to accuse me of basically drawing child pornography -- which is a major and very dangerous accusation, by the way, fought me over it, told me to "die mad," and then blocked me . If that were some random troll running by shitting on my art i'd be angry, but after some words i'd just block them and move on.But when a watcher or someone who has enjoyed my work just totally thrashes me or automatically loses faith in/respect for me, it hurts.Yes, it hurts!I'm not made of stone, i'm not used to this level of drama.I hate conflict. It hurts.But i once said i want to go far and wide with my passion, and that's gonna mean taking some low blows along the way.It's just something i have to learn to deal with like an adult.”

once again im going to go through this and explain why its... oh so wrong.

“I know in my heart of hearts what is right and what is wrong, i know what is justifiable and what isn't.I'm not sitting here trying to justify what i drew because i know it's not wrong “

you telling yourself you did nothing wrong and refusing to awknowledge peoples criticisms of you isnt you knowing in your “heart of hearts” that youre right. its you being ignorant to peoples concerns. and how do you know its not wrong? because you say so? because your friends say so? people have addressed this issue by giving you facts and explanations on why its wrong and you deleted these comments. that isnt right at all.

“but i want it to be known that i am damn sad that someone who said they've "supported me for a few years" suddenly, over one picture they didn't like/didn't understand, chose to accuse me of basically drawing child pornography -- which is a major and very dangerous accusation, by the way, fought me over it, told me to "die mad," and then blocked me . ”

Listen. these people who supported you are sad that you’re defending drawing CP. you arent the victim in this scenario. you have no right to be sad when you actively chose to draw this. it is all your doing that these people have removed their support for you. as have I. these people are not to blame because they are disgusted that you drew something like this. and we are aware this is dangerous and a major accusation. however it is true. what you have drawn, by definitions, is CP. and now i hate to be this person. but you deleted all the comments. so there really isnt proof of this. i hate to pull that card but honestly.. this is the definiton of “pics or it didn’t happen”

“If that were some random troll running by shitting on my art i'd be angry, but after some words i'd just block them and move on.But when a watcher or someone who has enjoyed my work just totally thrashes me or automatically loses faith in/respect for me, it hurts.Yes, it hurts!I'm not made of stone, i'm not used to this level of drama.I hate conflict.”

once again. you’re to blame for this. you are playing a pity card yet you drew ths. the whole “it hurts me too” arguement is null. It doesnt work. you drew the art and chose to defend it. you have no right to be upset when people voiced their concerns about it. and conflict wouldnt arise if you actually listened to peoples concerns about this rather than immediately blocking them and playing the victim card.

“It hurts.But i once said i want to go far and wide with my passion, and that's gonna mean taking some low blows along the way.It's just something i have to learn to deal with like an adult.”

first of all you dont need to get poetic here. you drew CP, got called out for it and then made a post crying about it all. and if your passion is drawing porn of spyro and cynder, children characetrs, then youre not a good person. and if you defending CP is really when youre going to act like an adult then you clearly have the wrong priorities.

“I'm not some perfect martyr out to try and prove i can't do any wrong.Hell those of you who watch my side account have seen my ass a LOT, and you've also seen me try to grow from it when i'm wrong.I should not have given that commenter the gratification of pissing me off so much, but it happened.I didn't exactly blow my top, but it's still something i ought to get a handle on because i know this won't be the last time someone harasses me.”

heres the thing. the only people who can vouch for you here are your followers who are defending your actions here. you can’t use your side account as an excuse of “ive grown as a person” when the account isnt public and no one has access to it other than those who you select to. and on the second part. listen. youre 23. youre over the legal age in the states and i believe everywhere else. youre a grown adult. and if you consider people saying “youre disgusting for drawing CP and defending it” as harassment then you truely do need to grow up. you shouldnt be praised for not freaking out at people for calling you out on this kind of stuff.

“As i told someone else who's barked at me, it would also be hella wrong if one character was an adult and was a child and i aged the child up so they could fuck.I HATE that shit.That to me is wrong and weird, but here they're the same age, as adults. To me, it's not weird.Honest to God the worst/weirdest age thing i ever got swept away by was ZaDr, and i've been thinking about that lately and am considering at some point going back and throwing in head canon and trying to make it better so that it isn't "nasty”. I've gotten smarter and wiser since then.So there's definitely some hypocritical material in my folders, too, and i'll go ahead and admit that.I was younger and stupider at the time, but trust me when i say i never have looked at a child character and thought of them sexually.Ever.It's wrong.”

alright first im going start by saying this is in reference to my comment. now when refering to someone, when youre trying to earn peoples pity and understanding, you shouldnt jump to insult them. i wasn’t barking aat you. i was addressing your behaviour. and now. this is the first spot youve addressed them being “adults” in your art. every other time you mention it you call them mature which is a cop out. its only when you’re finally addressing the exact issue that you start to state how you are depecting them as adults. which, aging up a character for porn is still wrong. (which i will explain a bit better after im done this). and also you arent to be praised for seeing that as wrong. thats a normal response. no one was asking if you see it as wrong. and most people assume that until stated otherwise, this is the norm. most people see that as disgusting.

now you say to you it isnt weird. listen. to you it isnt weird because its your art and you dont like being called out for drawing CP. do you see what im getting at? now also i dont know what you’re talkign about here so i wont address it incase i get the wrong impression and speak out of line, however you say you’ve never looked at a child character sexually. yet you drew cynder and spyro intimately. understand this. aging up a character doesnt mean you look at the character in a more adult light. it means you’re attempting to justify to youself and make yourself feel better and safer on the idea of the character having sex. which. is. wrong.

im not addressing the last two paragraphs on the journal as it is just them praising their followers for praising them, however i will address their comment ont their art piece.

“ And since apparently some people don't understand this, S/C are 18+ here.If anyone ever assumes i would draw children having sex, i swear to God... “

from what i can tell this was a saveface. they put this comment once they censored the piece. their fA has the piece as well and they dont address the age of the characters. which means that this was just added on to prevent them from the issues being addressed by commenters.

now from what i can tell. their AU doesnt really exist apart from some world building. i couldnt find a long detailed AU where the characters were aged up and lived a life. the only time ive found them mentioning the AU is when they talked about the art piece. whats that mean? it doesnt really exist. not publicly atleast. which means the “AU” could entirely just mean its an excuse to draw porn of the characters. now that last bit sounds like me picking for straws i understand. however it is very possible. heres a post that explains why its not good to age up characters. (understand that im aware the post is discussing and age gap however it addresses some good points)

heres the post

now if you read it you’ll see this part. “ aging up is taking two characters who would have an inappropriate relationship in canon, seeing their relationship as romantic, and then aging them up because you want some way for them to be together. and in that way you’re romanticizing a relationship between the two characters you saw in canon, and that’s not okay”. now i want oyu to pay attention to this part. “in that way you’re romanticizing a relationship between the two characters you saw in canon, and that’s not okay.”

you’re taking characters you saw in canon, and changing them to fit your view in a way that the public would deem okay. You’re taking something you saw in canon, in this case two children who seem at the most mildly puppy lovish (like a play ground crush), and you’re manipulating it so that you can view the canon relationship in a less taboo way. like i said earlier, aging up a character doesnt mean you look at the character in a more adult light. it means you’re attempting to justify to youself and make yourself feel better and safer on the idea of the character having sex. aging a character up doesn’t change the way you view them or their relationships. no matter how much you insist you are smarter than most and you really do view the character as an adult, you dont. thats bull.

now onto some smaller stuff that they didnt because wow. iconic i guess..

although i usually block out names this is a gross mentality. the entire comment is disgusting. and at the end “i would love to see some more sexy spyro x cynder from you” solidifies it. not to mention that fae/fox is essentially encouraging it. saying they will continue to draw it. meaning they havent learned anything from this experience. youre 23 dude.

and now some abliesm

“but lolbit you stupid bafoon. they didnt say anything themself. duuuhhh”

yes im aware. here they are saying it themself.

ahh.. gotta love that... really gotta hammer in that sparkling personality of theirs.

TD;LR foxdragonlover on deviantart, FaeFierceVulpine on furaffinity and onefiercefox here on tumblr drew cynder and spyro nsfw art (which classifies as CP) and then defended their art all the while blocking people who called them out for it. they claimed it featured 18 plus characters only after they were called out for it. they then made a post about it essentially crying about it and pinning the blame on those who called them out for it. They are a 23 year old. they’ve also said some abliest stuff and have just generally been nasty.

anyway i cant believe i did this. this post is huge and im so sorry. i didnt intend for it to be that big. i wanted to be as detailed as possible and make sure i touched on everything i could. now its 3 am and im tired. if anything looks wrong tell me and i’ll change it. i may address their comment to me later (the comment in the starting pictures). im outa energy

#cp mention #r slur #callout #important #long post #CDL

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megers67 · 7 years

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What is Wrong with Who Watches the Watchers?

I love Star Trek, I really do, but I think this episode really shows that the interpretation of the whole Prime Directive is off. Whether it’s by the characters or the writers, it just goes past the good intentions into offensive imperialistic ideas. The Next Generation’s season 3 episode Who Watches the Watchers is the best example of this.

So let me break it down for you. Why is this episode so frustrating to me? Mostly it revolves around this right here.

This is the duck blind that the “anthropologists” use to study the Mintakans. Thing is, apparently, this is a common anthropological method in the Federation. This is implied from what Geordi says in like, the fourth line in the entire episode.

“A hologram generator. Oh, a duck blind. Right. They’re anthropologists.”

And that’s troubling. Why? Because most modern cultural anthropologists prefer other methods of data collection, particularly participant observation. Participant observation is when the anthropologist goes and lives with the group of people, noting their experiences with them. This is such an effective method because it allows for hands-on work with the people. You can talk to them, ask them questions, but also work, eat, and sleep like they do. The point is to understand their perspective of the world in order to get a sense of why they do the things they do. If you’re just watching from afar, you get none of that intimate experience. These anthropologists seem to want to avoid contact at all costs. It baffles me! There is so much information that you’re missing out on! Why are they hiding themselves away from the Mintakans?

I would almost forgive them if their reason was to avoid the natural interviewee bias (not sure of the exact term at the moment if there even is one). Basically when you interview someone, you can’t actually be 100% confident that what they tell you is the exact truth. They could either be intentionally deceiving you and telling you what they think you want to hear, or be doing so subconsciously by giving you an idealized version of the truth. But as an anthropologist, you are supposed to take this into account. By spending time with the people, you minimize the first as you gain their trust. As for the second, it’s actually an interesting area of study in itself to compare what they say and what you see. It gives a good look into what their values as a society are.

But I know that’s not what these anthropologists are avoiding. They want to avoid violating the Prime Directive. What exactly is the Prime Directive?

You know? That’s a damn good question.

As Archer put it, there needed to be a directive to spell out how you can and can’t interact with alien species (clearly meaning the Prime Directive), but until that was made “I’m going to have to remind myself every day that we didn’t come out here to play God.“

For a directive that is so often used and referred to and held to so high a reverence, I haven’t actually seen much of actual text of it in canon. However, I was able to dig up something said in TAS episode The Magicks of Megas-Tu as far as official phrasing goes: “No starship may interfere with the normal development of any alien life or society.” Sounds simple, but apparently it’s actually pretty complicated as well because as of Voyager, it has at least 47 sub-orders. As far as I’m aware, these aren’t then listed, but they would assuredly follow the same philosophy, one that is derived from an anthropological perspective.

The anthropological perspective means that every culture, now matter how different it is from your own, is just as valid as your own. This means that other cultures may have different values and customs that are neither better nor worse than yours, just different. This is also the basis for the Prime Directive. As the Federation is its own collection of cultures, it has no right to just impose its set of values on new ones they encounter. It is for this reason it is often referred to as the Non-Interference Directive.

But it is often misused. Not by the characters exactly, but by the writers. Moral dilemmas are often an intriguing and engrossing way of creating conflict in a story. However, it can be really hard to pull off because the writers know the solution already. It may not be the right or wrong choice, but for the character(s) to make it, it must be right for them to make it. Usually this also means we as the audience are supposed to believe they made the right choice because they writers want us to root for the character unless this is something the character(s) involved are going to learn a lesson on. That exception however, can’t happen every single time. It just isn’t sustainable in a long series or franchise like Star Trek is. But when you have a lot of potential moral dilemmas, how can you be sure to pick the “correct” choice as a writer that your audience will be on board with?

You instead create a false moral dilemma. This is when a situation is presented and treated as a moral dilemma, but really isn’t. That way you get all of the tension of the debate and discussion, but little risk of doing the wrong thing because there really wasn’t a big issue. This is how the Prime Directive is used most of the time. The formula is that something bad happens on a planet. Perhaps some crisis involving a natural disaster or something. Then Starfleet gets wind of it then goes through this whole debate of whether or not they should keep these people from dying because by interfering, they are violating the Prime Directive. Then they usually decide to help anyway.

As an anthropologist, you’re not supposed to interfere. But what it means in that context is that you’re not supposed to just go running around telling people of different cultures that they’re ass-backwards and are doing things wrong and while your way is best way. It doesn’t mean that you just sit there and watch people die because doing so will ruin some abstract sense of purity of culture.

That’s playing God.

There’s a few reasons why:

1. It’s highly colonialist thinking. If you see a group of people and decide that you know what’s best for them because you are from a “more advanced” society, that’s colonialist. You are treating this other culture like children who can’t be trusted to make decisions for themselves and that it is up to you to be the adult in the situation and solve it for them without their input or consent. Why are you more qualified to make that choice for them? What gives you the right? That you’re from the Federation? That’s like the USA trying to “civilize” the Native Americans. It’s an extreme example and not like the situations we see in Star Trek, but it is the SAME LINE OF THINKING.

2. It assumes that culture progresses linearly, a very outdated anthropological idea. You may have heard according to sociocultural evolution that cultures progress from band, tribe, chiefdom, state. These are now only the names of organization sizes/relationships, not stages that go one to another. Sociocultural evolution now refers to a broader sense of how cultures change over time, not necessarily in any particular direction. There are many different theories now on how or why cultures change, but they can all agree that they are always in a state of flux. They might also stay more or less the same for long periods of time, changing in ways we can’t quite recognize. Some might see these people as being “behind the times” or in need of help in some way because they are not “civilized” in the way that we are. No. Again, just because we are different, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with how or what or why they do things the way they do. To assume that they will follow the same path that Western civilizations took also assumes that we are a goal worth pursuing, that we are at the top right now. Can you see why that can be a major problem despite good intentions? Like, yeah. That alien species might never reach the point of space travel. They might be perfectly fine with that. Is there anything wrong with that? They might have been the way they are for thousands of years and advanced in other ways. Why is that arbitrary criteria something that makes them ineligible for being considered equal to you?

3. It assumes that any interaction will ruin the cultural purity or natural progression of their culture. Goes with the last one. It assumes that your culture is soooo awesome that they will abandon your own just to emulate yours. Thing is it assumes that these people would be willing to just abandon their own cultural norms because you (purposefully or accidentally) shown them the light and error of their ways. Which is really just silly and unrealistic. Yes, they might indeed change parts of their culture. That does happen when two cultures collide. It happens a lot. But is that a bad thing? Can you imagine how much technology and knowledge and other ideas the West has borrowed from other cultures? We literally wouldn’t be where we are today without that cultural diffusion. Yet each of the countries that make up The West are all culturally unique and complex not only between each other, but also the rest of the world. If everyone copied whole-cloth from a single culture that had any good ideas, then the entire Earth would be one damn culture. But it’s not. The reason is that we borrow what we want, and don’t borrow what we don’t like. It’s that goddamn easy. Other cultures made up of sentient beings can do just the same. The only reason they might borrow things they don’t want is if they are forced to. This also goes for things they want to borrow that you, for some reason, don’t want them to. That’s wrong for the reasons I have gone over already. Taking away people’s choice in their own lives for arbitrary reasons is wrong.

4. What do the people want? That’s the main issue. You can hee and haw back and forth all you want about whether it is ethical to intervene, but taking action (or specific inaction) without input at all from the people whose lives you’re affecting, is making a choice on their behalf. You are taking away their autonomy. Their ability to make choices about their own lives. When you do that, you are in fact playing God. If they ask for your help (even if it’s just spit out into the cosmos, distress signal style), that’s all the permission you need. They are explicitly asking for intervention. Plain and simple. If they don’t know if there’s a problem, the moment you notice, it’s your responsibility to figure out if they want your help. If there isn’t time to figure that out, you should assume that they want you to try. It’s a general assumption that might end up being problematic, but most things want to live. However, there is also a flip-side. If they don’t want your help, then you must honor that. Failing to honor that is then breaking the Prime Directive because you are overriding their wishes because you think you know better than they do. That’s hard, but you have to let it go.

So where does that put us in terms of how the Prime Directive is used in Star Trek? Well most of these moral dilemmas come when the main characters are forced to choose whether or not to save the aliens or follow the Prime Directive. In other words, the choice is to save the lives of a sentient race of creatures, or to preserve the purity of their culture, however short lived it now may be. Do you see what the easy choice is now? The writers present this as an extremely difficult debate. They save the aliens if they want their main characters to be shown as heroes, or let them die if they want to give their characters easy drama and sadness or mope about how hard the job is sometimes.

Bringing it back to the main point, here’s how all of this applies to Who Watches the Watchers. The anthropologists are observing the Mintakans from a duck blind (wrong). The duck blind’s camouflage then fails, allowing for a pair of natives to see the high tech (nothing wrong with that). One of these Mintakans is then injured and has to be saved by the Enterprise which is a big problem (not it isn’t). He is healed, given a memory wipe, and returned to the village (okay but Crusher had to defend her decision to save him). The memory wipe isn’t 100% apparently because he remembers Picard and tells everyone about his experience (nice going). The village interprets Picard as a god (okay this is a problem because you never should want this power dynamic). Also one of the anthropologists is still down there (not a big deal like everyone is making it out to be). After great debate (where the actual phrase “cultural contamination” is used for fuck’s sake), he sends Riker and Troi in disguise to pretend to be from over the mountain to rescue the anthropologist. The villagers debate among themselves about what “The Picard” wants them to do with the anthropologist and now these newcomers (really Riker and Troi did not do a great job). Stuff happens and eventually, after refusing to send a sign to make his wishes known to the Mintakans, Picard beams one of them aboard to show her he isn’t a magical god figure (the one time the Prime Directive is used reasonably albeit in probably not the best way). After he shows her that he cannot prevent people from dying sometimes, she understands that he and his people are just that, people (because she is capable of basic understanding like an actual sentient being who is an adult and not just a large child). Meanwhile, the other Mintakans are about to sacrifice Troi (because sure why not) when he returns the one he beamed aboard AND IS THERE IN PERSON HIMSELF (?????). He convinces them to stop (only after proving he’s mortal by being hit with an arrow because ugh), collects Troi, and fucks off. With the anthropologists. Because apparently now that the Mintakans have been “culturally contaminated” there’s no reason to stay and research them any more despite it being the perfect opportunity to do good ethnographic research.

Sorry that last paragraph turned into an unorganized rant. I might post that discussion of the Prime Directive in its own post though.

#prime directive #star trek #tng #anthropology #who watches the watchers

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syrupwit · 6 years

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Letter for Femslash After Dark 2018

Hi writer! Thank you very much for creating a work for me! I hope this letter will inspire or at least mildly entertain you. If you have an idea that diverges from my prompts but doesn’t cross my DNWs, please go for it -- I’m just spitballing, as they say. (As someone presumably says, somewhere.)

I should note that I’m slightly more into this exchange for dark themes than for smut, but I 100% don’t object to non-dark smut either! All in favor of smut.

DNW: Unrelenting grimness, entirely miserable stories with entirely miserable endings, guro/gore meant to titillate, children in sexual situations, kinks commonly considered “opt-in” (scat, bestiality, etc.), 24/7 BDSM, unrequested identity headcanons, issuefic.

Do Want: Dark themes and content, complicated relationships that may or may not merit the label “unhealthy”, twisted/one-sided/manipulative relationships that decidedly merit the label “unhealthy”, explicit sexual content, sexuality-related angst, dubcon, enthusiastic consent, Bad Ends, hurt/comfort, possessiveness, bondage, Stockholm/Lima syndrome, emphasis on age difference in pairings where it applies, humiliation, dirty talk, “this isn’t technically sex because xyz (except it’s totally sex)”, aliens and robots misunderstanding human stuff but trying really hard to get it right anyway.

DISHONORED

The worldbuilding and characters in this game have me consistently like ♥_♥. I’ve spent way too much time playing it! Waaaaaay too much time. I’m only through The Brigmore Witches DLC, so... avoid extensive spoilers for Dishonored 2 or Death of the Outsider if you can help it, please. I’m spoiled on a few things, like Delilah’s good ending in DH2, but the bulk of it is mystery.

For this exchange, I’ve requested Delilah ships featuring characters introduced in the first game and its DLCs.

Delilah Copperspoon/Billie Lurk | Meagan Foster

Lots to work with here! I feel like these two could have serious chemistry of the “this is definitely going to explode” variety, in addition to the whole canonical betrayal / manipulation thing.

Prompts:

How do they meet? Fugue Feast encounter, “happenstance” that Billie later realizes was calculated, honest actual happenstance, fleeing a botched job, spying on the same mark, what?

Delilah makes Billie pay for that “bit of a bitch” comment in the Timsh estate.

AU: After Billie defeats Daud at the end of The Knife of Dunwall, she expects to assume control of the Whalers. Delilah has other ideas.

AU: Delilah’s plans succeed in The Brigmore Witches and she goes to track Billie down. (If she’s in Emily’s body at this point, I’d prefer no sexual content unless Emily is an adult.) Dark themes? Draw the curtains and turn out the lights, we’re heading to shadowtown.

Delilah Copperspoon/Lizzy Stride

Though she only appears in one of the DLCs, Lizzy ranks among my favorite Dishonored characters. I adore her pointy teeth, her awful bare feet, and her zest for the life of crime. Delilah could chew her up and spit her out, but do I want her to? Maybe.

Prompts:

Something goes haywire in the Brigmore Manor mission, and Delilah ends up taking Lizzy captive (crew optional).

Fugue Feast! Cutting loose and having fun with a distinguished (Delilah) or rowdy (Lizzy) stranger. Maybe they wear attend the same wild party. Maybe they run around in the street sharing bottles of whiskey. Maybe they’re teenagers and Lizzy wants to impress / mess around with / brag about having gotten it on with the arrogant lady in the pretty mask. Maybe Lizzy bosses Delilah around, or vice versa, or both. Just show me these women enjoying themselves at an event where they feel entitled to do so.

AU: Empress Delilah takes a keen interest in the affairs of a certain minor crime boss. (Is Lizzy her lover? Does she want something from her? Is this a fantasy in Delilah’s dream?)

AU: Delilah, not Daud, is the one who breaks Lizzy out of Coldridge.

Delilah Copperspoon/Vera Moray | Granny Rags

As may become apparent, I’m fascinated by evil old lady witches. Granny Rags is an excellent example of such and I am quite fond of her.

As far as I know, these two haven’t encountered each other in canon, but I’d imagine they’d have a power struggle or an uneasy alliance if they did... or, who knows?

Prompts:

Delilah and Granny Rags meet at an Outsider shrine.

Delilah's attempts to form an alliance with Slackjaw are repeatedly thwarted by an inconvenient muttering old woman.

A young Delilah confronts the scariest witch in the slums.

One of the things that drove Vera Moray mad on the Pandyssian Continent was an apparition of void-bound Delilah, unstuck in time.

Delilah and Granny Rags meet at an Outsider shrine, where Delilah is attempting to complete a somewhat risqué ritual.

One of the things that drove Vera Moray mad on the Pandyssian Continent was an apparition of Empress Delilah, stuck in her painting.

Delilah kidnaps an inconvenient muttering old woman and gets more than she bargained for.

PORTAL

I just played these games for the first time and I! Love! GLaDOS! Hello voice kink, hello hilarious ridiculous complex evil-yet-sympathetic female villain, hello AI with a definite gender, hello... WORLD. Or something.

Chell/GLaDOS

This may seem unusual for a ship where both characters canonically attempt to murder each other on multiple occasions, but I would prefer lighter/happier endings for this canon and pairing. Like, please seize and run with any dark thoughts that might accost you, but if I had to pick I’d pick Rated Explicit For Sexual Situations rather than Rated Explicit For Doom and Misery.

Note: I am SUPER INTO hurt/comfort for this pairing. And GLaDOS reluctantly relenting because Chell just continues to exceed her expectations...

Prompts:

Post-Portal 2, Chell runs into some problems in the outside world and reluctantly turns to GLaDOS for aid. GLaDOS agrees to help her, but there’s a price.

During Portal 2, after Chell and Wheatley have awakened GLaDOS, Chell finds that GLaDOS’s new tests have taken on an unusual new theme... a sexy (?!) theme. What’s going on?

At some point in any game, Chell fails a test. Instead of letting her die, GLaDOS rescues her and keeps her as a pet.

GLaDOS attempts to seduce Chell. Chaos ensues.

AU: Chell is an Aperture test subject while Caroline is alive.

AU: Chell is an Aperture test subject. Cave Johnson is dead and Caroline has assumed his position. But is the woman who oversees testing really Caroline? (Androids! Cyborgs?)

Chell is trapped somewhere for a bit, GLaDOS can’t physically reach her, but can talk to her for xyz reason. The taunting that ensues gets weirdly sexual.

Sex pollen goo.

ORIGINAL WORK

Divided by theme! tbh I’m loving these Extremely Specific Pairings That Function As Prompts In Their Own Right.

ROBOTS / AI

Robot Haphazardly Built Of Spare Parts/Glamorous Fashionista

Prompts:

The Fashionista, a renowned ditz whose heart of figurative gold remains concealed from the public eye, adopts a Robot because that is the thing to do. Dark societal truths come to light... or maybe they just hook up and it’s awesome.

They meet backstage at the runway. The Fashionista is promoting someone’s new line. The Robot is working as dress assistant, janitor, and/or decoration, for a pittance. What are these feelings???

The Fashionista’s Robot lover is her greatest shame.

The Robot’s Fashionista lover is her greatest shame.

The Fashionista has never had an orgasm. The Robot’s unusually shaped and/or vibrating appendage promises to change that.

The Robot has never experienced physical pleasure, at least not to a noticeable degree. But... the way the Fashionista attends to her...

A power couple enjoy a day out. Is it sinister? Is it sensual? Is this a boring prompt? Only you can say.

Nanite-based Shapeshifting Female Alien Robot/Space Explorer

Prompts:

[on their way]

Ice-Cold Mob Boss/Robot Bodyguard She Would Die For

Prompts:

The Mob Boss has always assumed her feelings for the Robot Bodyguard were, and would remain, unrequited. When she is injured, kidnapped, or otherwise placed in severe danger, this assumption is proven wrong.

Rival gangsters or law enforcement agents kidnap the Robot Bodyguard for information. They don’t expect the Mob Boss to care. They especially don’t expect her to personally storm their hideout / prison / whatever.

Rival gangsters or law enforcement agents, informed by a snitch of the Mob Boss’s secret feelings, kidnap the Robot Bodyguard. She knows it’s a setup exploiting her weakness. She personally storms the hideout / prison / whatever anyway.

Snapshots of the relationship between Mob Boss and Robot Bodyguard, beginning to end.

Female Sentient AI/Female Prisoner Recruited for Human Subject Trial

Prompts:

Question Prompts -- How ethical is the human subject trial and what is its purpose? What is the AI’s interest in the Prisoner, or vice versa? What was the Prisoner’s alleged crime, is she guilty or innocent, and was she justly or unjustly imprisoned? Is the AI supposed to be sentient, or is her consciousness a happy (depending on how you look at it) accident?

The AI gains or solidifies a consciousness while being tasked to perform increasingly sadistic experiments on the Prisoner. Does she continue the experiments or hatch a plot to rescue her subject?

These new sexually-themed tests would cause the Prisoner enough shame if they didn’t also turn her on. Is it just her imagination, or does the proctor AI seem to respond to her arousal?

Programmer/Rogue AI She Created

Prompts:

Question Prompts -- How has the AI managed to go rogue? Is this the cyberpunk future? What is the Programmer’s area of industry? Exactly what kind of stuff can the AI do?

Now a hostage of her own creation, the Programmer struggles to explain the decisions that led her to these circumstances.

WITCHES

Evil Spellcasting Witch/Evil Hedge Witch She Is Having the Spawn of their Evil Love With

Prompts:

Enthusiastic pregnant sex that may or may not be part of an evil ritual. (What exactly is the spawn...?)

Enthusiastic we’re-conceiving-the-spawn-of-our-evil-love sex that may or may not be part of an evil ritual. (Again, what exactly is the spawn?)

A torch-bearing mob descends on the cottage of the pregnant Evil Hedge Witch. Hark -- Evil Spellcasting Witch to the rescue!

Powerful Hermit Witch/Princess Who Comes Seeking Her Aid and Won't Take No For an Answer

0 Witch/Female Witch Hunter(s)

0POP STARS

Female Pop Star/Fake Girlfriend Hired by PR Team

Prompts:

[under construction]

Female Pop Star/Controlling Manager

Prompts:

[coming soon]

#optional detailed letters for exchanges tag

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