#Any moral person will support the victim over the abuser.

[amerasdreams]

I'm sorry but you're either for Ukraine or for russia. There is no middle ground. I don't care what your normal politics are. This isn't about politics. This is about people's lives. About them not being taken over by a country that is not only bombing them but raping and torturing them.

If you don't think we should do all we can possibly do to stop such evil, you are on the wrong side of history.

#Ukraine #I'm serious stop with regular politics for a second #If your politics supports bombing innocent civilians then you really should rethink your politics #I could word this more harshly and more eloquently but I need to go to bed #Just. Look at it from Ukrainains POV once. #Empathy is a thing. #It is our business because russia is big and so Ukraine needs a lot of help #Also russia is not going to stop there #These people with their republican and democrat blah blah blah #Nope I'm not talking about American political race #There is more at stake here. #Any moral person will support the victim over the abuser. #And when I say russia I'm talking about the government and any z ppl and supporters #Not the dissenters who get 15 years for speaking out about Bucha #And the poets who atrack the war and get raped #Wake up people #Look at their reality and quit being so selfish #I'm glad I'm taxed so my tax dollars can go to Ukraine. #I gave #More than that #Which is only about 0.02 cents of average tax vs all the other gov services so.... #Balance #Fight where you want #But there is no option here. #Fight for Ukraine or fight for russia. #To not speak up is to be for murderers and rapists. #I will never back down and this is a thing I ams all should be mad about #How can you not care about them? #If you could help people in Iran wouldn't you? #We habe the opportunity with Ukraine to help but ppl are being such misers

[i-hope-this-is-a-phase]

Regarding the GeorgeNotFound Situation

This entire conversation should not have happened publicly.

It was clear from Caiti's initial post that there was a breakdown in communication rather than any "assault" or "molestation." In her own testimony, she never described explicitly stating no, nor giving any indication besides "getting up" to stop the attention (which was later disproved).

That does not mean she wasn't uncomfortable. That does not mean she was not hurt by George's actions. It also does not mean George is a molester because of it.

From Caiti and George's statements, it is clear that this took place over a couple of hours (3-4), and besides the texting afterward, there were no further physical interactions between them. To use a single incident to describe George's behavior is a stretch at best and downright misinformation at worst. In the Wilbur situation, the violations of Shelby's boundaries happened over months with repeated attempts to tell him to stop.

In George's situation, it happened over four hours, in which there were no explicit tells to stop.

That said, I do hope George takes this incident and rethinks his behavior with strangers. Even if it should not be described as molesting, it still hurt Caiti, and if I were him, I would make strides to not repeat the mistakes made here.

Moreover, I think that some parties involved should not have been. Some individuals used the volatile situation to spread their own hate toward the Dream Team. They used Caiti's story to push their own agenda, which, in no way, is supporting a victim. Her friends should have helped her find closure by seeking reconciliation from her "abuser;" instead, they made the situation a public massacre where she would most likely be harassed after already feeling vulnerable.

My hope is that, behind the scenes, the two will talk about what happened and try to find peace. George clearly did not know he hurt Caiti, and he apologized for making her feel uncomfortable. That does not make him a villain: it makes him a person who made a mistake.

The moral of this whole fiasco is not to support or not support victims. Support can be weaponized for personal gain, and to support blindly is almost as bad as not supporting at all.

Instead, we need to listen. From the beginning, Caiti's story was a plea for an apology from George, and all she needed was George's apology (which she received). She did not need people calling him an abuser, she did not need her friends to utilize her pain to attack George's friend Dream, and she did not need people to pry into both her and George's life for answers.

All of this could, and should, have happened off-screen where the two parties could reconcile and heal.

To Caiti: I wish this had not happened to you. I am sorry you are in pain, and I am sorry your friends used your pain for their gain. I hope you find peace from George's apology, and if you do not, I hope you find peace in life.

To George: I wish this did not happen in the public light. Your mistake did not need to be publicized and scrutinized and instead should have been between you and Caiti. I hope you will help Caiti find peace, and if she does not want it, I hope you grow as a person and do not make this mistake again.

As of right now, this blog will remain positive about the Dream Team. I probably will not be supporting George enthusiastically right now (since I want to be certain this isn't a repetitive behavior and just one incident). However, I will be happy to talk about any fandom content regarding him and the other members.

It has been a rough few days, and I am grateful for the lovely positivity we created between my anons and followers. I give you all many squishes of happiness. Thank you for being kind.

Now, let us all move on to a better and brighter future in this fandom. We have a lot of content coming up, and I'm very excited. Feel free to send any asks regarding the situation; I would love to read your opinions.

TL;DR This conversation should have happened off-camera. Caiti's story should not have been used for clout, and George should not have been attacked for clout. Both need to heal off-camera, and we should support that.

#georgenotfound #gnf #dreamwastaken #dream #dream team #caiti #support caiti #Rei speaks #dicey

[queen-paladin]

disclaimer: yes, I am complaining about cheating in media. Because, yes, writers have the freedom to create what they want but if the morality in creation is free for all forms of media, but no piece of art is exempt from criticism, and that includes criticism on personal moral grounds. I betcha if I said Harry Potter is good, actually, everyone on here would flood my blog telling me I am wrong because of the author's intense prejudice. That being said, I am criticizing cheating in fiction, If you don't like that, don't interact

So often lately I see period dramas where the husband cheats on the wife (ex. Poldark, The Essex Serpent, Queen Charlotte, The Great)...and not only do I despise the cheating trope with every fibre of my being to where I get panic attacks when I consume the media...but specifically with period dramas...

Do these writers not understand the greater implications of a husband cheating on a wife during these periods? More than just the humiliation and heartbreak in the case of a loving, good marriage just like it is today.

In the Western world, probably until certain laws were enacted in the 1900's, if a woman married a man, she was legally his property. She had no legal identity under him. She was financially dependent on him. Any wages she made would automatically go to her husband. Her children were also not legally her children- they belonged to the father. If the husband died, even if the wife was still alive, the children were legally considered orphans.

Women could only rarely gain a divorce from their husbands. In England in the mid-1800's specifically, if a wife divorced a husband she had to prove he had to not only cheat but also be physically abusive, incestuous, or commit bestiality. On the other hand, a husband could divorce a wife just for being unfaithful. Because, kids, there were sexual double standards.

Getting married was often the endgame for a lot of women during that time. Sometimes you couldn't make your own living enough- marriage was a way to secure your entire future financially, with more than enough money to get by. If you were a spinster and middle class, you could get by with a job. But if you are an upper-class lady, the one thing a lady does not do is get a job and work. So upper-class spinsters basically were dependent on their families to get by (ex. Anne Elliott in Persuasion faces this with her own toxic family). As strange as it sounded today, marriage gave them some freedom to go about since a husband could be persuaded sometimes more easily than a father and one had a different home, their servants, etc. A husband was your foundation entirely for being a part of society, and standing up as your own woman.

So if a husband cheated on a wife, that was a threat to take all of that away.

He could give a lot of money that could be used to support his wife and children to the mistress. He could completely abandon said wife for the mistress. And since the wife legally couldn't get a job as he still lived, she would be dependent on any money he would said- and that is IF he sent over any money.

He could take her to court and publicly humiliate her to get a divorce away from her (look up the separation of Charles and Kate Dickens, he would call her mentally ill and say her cooking was bad and that she was having more children than they could keep up with all while having an affair and divorcing her to be with the misteress). And even if the wife was the nicest, more proper, goodest, more rule-abiding never-keeping-a-toe-out-of-line lady in town...as a man, the law was default on his side (look up Caroline Norton's A Letter to the Queen which details exactly that, the poor woman had her earnings as a writer taken by her husband and was denied access to her children from said husband)

So yeah...even if there was "no love" between them (and anytime the wife is portrayed as too boring or too bitchy so He HaS tO cHeAt is brought up is...pretty victim blamey)

So yeah. Period drama writers, if you have the husband have an affair ...just consider the reality of these things and address them, maybe punish the husband for once (*gasp* men facing consequences for their actions?!?!!), and if not, just please find other options and other tropes and devices for once.

#tw: cheating #cw: cheating #period dramas #feminism #history #books #tv shows #movies #television #tv series #costume drama #period film #queen charlotte #the essex serpent #the great #poldark

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

do you have any opinions on the hazbin critical and vivziepop critical tags?

tw // mentions of sexual abuse and sucide

I have a personal beef with them. And not because I love Hazbin and Vivzie so much but for more presonal reasons so the following opinion won't be measured at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some legit criticisms out there. Like, the show could definitely do better with body diversity and giving us more varied sapphic relationships instead of just throwing a ton of male/male couples at us. And, yeah, Vivzie's response to some of the criticism has been... questionable. (I still cringe when I think about that one time she explained that Raphielle can ship ValAngel because they are sa survivor, but Raphielle explicitly admitted to not be one).

But then, there's stuff that's just... pulled out of nowhere. Like the whole thing about Valentino being a "fetish character." Come on, the world of villains is filled with queer, flamboyant baddies. What sets Valentino apart is how his abusive behavior is shown in the open, making us rethink our love for villains. If it weren't for Mascarade, people would worship this moth daddy gangster in a dress, much like they are with Vox now. It's hard to root for the bad guy when you see the fallout of their actions. Like, Loki committed war crimes and no one was outraged when he got his own TV series and dragged creators for supporting atrocities.

Constant Valentino/Angel Dust discourse actually leads to the more serious issues I have with this "community", more harmful than just "bad media literacy" like the way they handle the topic of sexual abuse and weaponize it, without ever listening to victims. There is this constant shitstorm about Angel being a "bad sa survivor rep," that the way he's written is insensitive because "he shouldn't be horny, he's sexually traumatized." Like, do these people not understand that making Angel unable to enjoy his sexuality the way he wants would essentially mean acknowledging that it's no longer his but belongs to his abuser now? Also, the argument I keep seeing that drives me BAT SHIT CRAZY aka "I can enjoy this media that is centered around murderer, you cannot enjoy the media that treats rapist as a nuanced character because rape is objectively worse than murder." WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU THAT? Reading this makes me feel so angry and sad and guilty because frankly, I was raped, and of course, it was horrible but still I'd choose it any time over being murdered. Because I have my life, I'm loved, and I love, I pursue my dreams, and I can still experience so many good things in my life. Painting sexual assault as this worse-than-death experience is not the feminist take they think it is and does not do victims any good.

Or accusations that Vivzie's support of fandom bullying led to someone taking their life. It's such a ridiculous and harmful claim. Honestly, this thing always makes me heated because suicide is not an easy decision, ask any person who ever faced it. It's not like "ah, this stranger told me to kms, I guess I gotta do it now." Of course, any kind of bullying and abuse adds to the suffering and can be the final trigger, but to me, it's just so disrespectful and harmful that someone could have experienced prolonged, intense suffering and all of this is omitted, their death labeled as a result of "fandom bullying" and weaponized in fandom drama. Also, it's simply cruel to put the blame for it on one, uninvolved person.

Also, it always annoys me when people hold small creators to immensely high standards while not doing the same with others. If we keep lynching and canceling every media that is not objectively morally pure, we won't be left with only perfect media. We will be left with media produced by white, privileged billionaires who might be real-life rapists, abusers, and thieves but are too powerful to be taken down by social media outrage. Hazbin's success is a major W for the underappreciated medium of animation (we saw what WB did to 90% of their animated shows), unpopular genres like musicals (Wonka creators were literally too ashamed to market it as one??), and unapologetic queer narratives that are not written for a heteronormative audience or centered around queer oppression (ofmd, the other medium I can think of in that realm has just been canceled). I can't stand people so desperate to put it down driven by their black-or-white sense of morality. Kant won't be patting your back for being the Moraliest Person because you bullied an indie creator and her fans.

Also everyone who feels the need to explain me hazbin critical agenda - save your breath. I'm very emotional about it and I frankly don't fucking care why you think you are right.

#hazbin hotel #ask #tw sui #tw sa #vivziepop

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Goro Akechi

have you seen this man. the fandom doesn't seem to grasp that he can have a "good" goal but still go about it absolutely the wrong way. he's not baby but he's not evil incarnate either, he's just 18. being 18 is just like that

People who are like "he's an irredeemable psychopath who became a serial killer just because he has daddy issues" piss me off. People who are like "he's the only person who ACTUALLY cares about the Protagonist and all of the Protagonist's other friends are fakes and users" piss me off even more. He's a foil for the entire main cast. He has faced all of their traumas with none of the support. He believes that he's responsible for his mother's suicide, and that he's unlovable. He was abandoned by everyone. He made some bad decisions when he was like 14, and his abusive father manipulated him into being a hitman. He lies all the damn time, so you can't really tell when he's being genuine or not. He's a double agent who befriends you and then tries to kill you, believes that he's succeeded, and shows absolutely no remorse. He dies to save your life (and then gets sorta resurrected and then dies again to literally save the world). It's complicated! He's complicated!

Gwen Cooper

God forbid women do anything. Gwen Cooper is a classic victim of fandom misogyny, a complicated kinda fucked up female character who is ultimately a hero, and people act like she’s the antichrist because she’s about as fucked up as every other man in the cast. Gwen’s main crimes are cheating on her then-boyfriend (with another male lead character who weirdly does NOT get any hate for participating in this affair) and having a very emotionally intimate and sexually tense (but never actually sexual) relationship with Jack Harkness, who also has a boyfriend in Torchwood (this is the classic “she’s getting in the way of our ship!!!! Situation, despite the fact that Gwen and Jack literally never do anything together and Gwen is never anything but supportive of Jack’s relationship); perhaps Gwen’s most morally grey action is confessing adultery to her boyfriend and then erasing his memory when he reacts poorly, but I must stress that this is about on the par of the shitty things other men in the show have done (hide dangerous aliens in the secret base, sacrifice children to dangerous aliens, use alien cologne that makes people want to fuck you in a way that is at best DUBIOUSLY consensual, etc). Meanwhile, Gwen also gets hate for things that are NOT morally grey, namely, being an outspoken woman with a strong moral center. She is the HEART of her secret organization, she is the MORAL CORE, and because that means she has the AUDACITY to criticize her male coworkers, she’s a bitch. There are over 100 works on ao3 tagged “gwen cooper bashing,” and even more untagged that bash, demean, belittle, or simply ignore the existence of THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW!! Gwen bestie you’re so fucked up and I love you and I need more people to appreciate that.

Gwen is a paranormal investigator who accidentally joined the worst polycule on Earth. The Torchwood fanbase (especially the one at the time) really hates/hated her, despite the fact that her coworkers were equally as bad if not much worse than her. Maybe she did a bit of cheating and maybe she’s kind of mean but have you considered: she’s the most beautiful girl in the world, she’s a bad bitch, and I love her? God forbid women do anything

#misrepresented morally grey #round 1 #bracket b #did everything wrong bracket #persona 5 #goro akechi #akechi goro #torchwood #gwen cooper #fun new drinking game: take a shot everytime 'God Forbid women do anything' is used in propaganda!/j

[vaspider]

If you think that Joel was wrong, I don't want you anywhere near me.

Let's talk about the last episode.

I'm going to say right up front that I'm a parent, and I'm a survivor of medical abuse, so I'm not going to brook any bullshit or clownery in the notes of this post. I block easily and freely, and if what I say in this post makes you feel sad or defensive, I encourage you to sit with those feelings and interrogate why you're feeling so defensive, because to me, this is extremely cut and dry.

Joel was right. Marlene was wrong. There is no argument to be had here, because this is the Trolley Problem, With Zombies!

Let me be clear: there is no world in which I let them do anything like that to my child, but more importantly, there is no world in which I let them do that to Cat without her active, informed consent. That's where there's no argument to be had. That's where it is open and shut, no discussion, if you think that there is an argument you are just wrong.

There is no nuance on this for me, and that's probably because I am a victim of medical abuse, doctors doing things to me without my informed consent. I find it hard to empathize with people who think there's any nuance in it at all, however. You cannot build a new, just world on the abuse, medical rape, and murder of a child. You just can't. This is the Trolley Problem writ large, and the only moral answer is that the only way to do that would be with Ellie's informed, active consent.

There are decisions my daughter has made which changed her life forever, and made it (at minimum) much, much more difficult, and which might shorten her lifespan or kill her. I supported her in this because she made that decision. It was not made for her. So I have absolutely clear-eyed perspective on this as a parent, and I don't think there's room for another perspective.

Oh, so people might die if Ellie isn't at minimum lobotomized and at worst killed? Yeah, that's the same argument that forced birthers make. No one has a right to any part of my body or anything within it without my consent, and saying otherwise is exactly the same argument that the people who think that people shouldn't be able to get abortions make, it only differs in scale.

It reminds me of the old joke where a man asks a woman if she'd sleep with him for a million dollars, and she agrees, and he says, okay, so what about five dollars? The woman gets irate and says "what kind of woman do you take me for?" And the man replies, "We've already established what kind of woman you are, now we're just haggling over price."

If generic-you think it's okay to take Ellie's body and use it without her permission to save a million people, you're the same kind of person who thinks it's okay to force someone to carry a pregnancy to term. It's already been established that you think that people don't have a right to their body if someone else "needs" it, so we know what kind of person you are. Now we're just haggling over the price. I know that's wording it very strongly and I stand by it, because I've dealt with exactly this kind of paternalistic nonsense, and it did almost kill me. No one is justified in making any decisions about my body but me. Period.

And before we have folx coming in here talking about vaccines, etc.? Listen. If I choose not to vaccinate myself, and I'm excluded from things as a result, then that's a decision that I have made. I don't think people should be physically forced to be vaccinated, but groups of people get to consent or not consent, as a group, via laws, about being around someone who will physically make them sick. The key difference here is about who is doing what to whom, and whether someone is acting upon another person. Walking past someone in public in a leather harness isn't going to modify their organs via pathogen; walking past someone spreading a pathogen that hangs out in the air for hours out of your gaping, infectious piehole is actively doing something to other people.

Joel was right. Thank you, goodnight.

#tlou #tlou spoilers

[areus-in-a-little-cave]

I haven't seen anyone post it so here's Shelby's second statement on Twitter:

[Image ID: Two screenshots of text written by Shubble and posted on @/shelbygraces on Twitter. They read: "I've thought a lot about what I would say when I came back. Firstly I want to say the biggest thank you to everyone showing their support. I have never felt so loved and cared for. And I've never seen so many communities come together to have somebody's back like this. I'm so proud of everyone taking such a powerful stance against these actions. I never could have imagined this response. While I didn't do this for myself, through sharing my story I have healed more parts of myself I had no idea were still pained.

I'd like to address the apology. Quite frankly I've never seen an apology so self centered. It seems to purposely misconstrue the issue I very clearly laid out. My issue was not with being bit. It was with being HURT. And to vaguely apologize for "any hurt" while knowing we needed a safe word because I was being hurt so often on accident, and I continued to be hurt daily, is incredibly disrespectful. But not more disrespectful than not even saying my name. I believe I am referred to as "ex girlfriend" so if you don't know who he's talking about, you might now find out what he did. This is not how you take accountability.

Not only are there no dms whatsoever where it is expressed that I enjoy being hurt by my partner, to imply there was consent in text over an issue that entirely happened in person, where every conversation about it happened in person, is ridiculous. He knows how often I asked him to stop hurting me, that I didn't like it and that I didn't like being covered in bruises all the time. Entirely why he switches to biting my legs, so no one would think I looked abused. But he continued to hurt me. He either didn't take my pleas for it to stop seriously, or he didn't hear them at all.

I felt lost for so long, truly losing myself in this relationship. I abandoned my personal morals, neglected friends and lied for this person. With every time I spoke up being ignored, I shrank. I lost my fight. I stayed locked in a house I had no key for and didn't even try to leave anymore. People ask why we stay, and it's so hard to explain ourselves because we've abandoned all our reasoning. I wasn't safe anymore with this person but I couldn't see that. I loved him and he told me he'd try to stop hurting me.

I'm deeply saddened by how many more friends were hurt by his actions. But I'm so thankful to everyone doing the absolute most in making sure I've been ok over the last few days. Thank you to everyone who's reached out to me. Thank you #ShubbleSupportSquad, every day I read your messages and see your art, and it makes me feel truly like the bravest girl in the world. I think the good that comes out victims sharing their experiences so others can learn and avoid similar pain, or come to terms with ways they were mistreated, is the most important thing in this moment.

You cannot treat people this way without consequence. You cannot pretend you don't know the harm you cause. You cannot pretend going to therapy fixes all past mistakes. All of the love that's been shared for me over the past few days, is for every victim of abuse. Our lives are forever changed by these experiences. I now struggle with memory problems and extreme anxiety. And it may be awhile before I feel fully like myself, whoever she is. But I know I have my spark back. Please remember how brave and how strong you are. We shouldn't be expected to be silent when we are mistreated." End ID]

#areus rambles #tw abuse #tw domestic abuse #tw victim blaming #As a just in case #Shubble #long post #ask to tag

[astroninaaa]

Can I just.... cellbit suing these people on Twitter feels weird to me. Like they were just believing a potential victim and cellbit didn't exactly refute anything she said previously.

Like I fully believe cellbit and feel bad for him, but suing Twitter users that didn't know that sasa was lying is just odd to me. He should just sue sasa no?

okay yes yes yes yes this is a veeeery good point!!!! thats what i was saying in one of my previous posts - imo the BEST defense these people have is they were just trying to believe a victim, he never denied the claims, in some ways he even agreed with them! he admitted to making mistakes, said he got therapy and changed for the better! and he said all that regarding the accusations, so, like. it was easy to draw the implication that he was owning up to it.

the thing is that there was never any proof, never any investigation, never any judicial action taken against him, never even an official accusation, nothing. it was all sasa's words against his silence. and while yes people were just believing a potential victim, there are limits to things. i believed her for years. i didn't, however, harrass him online because of it. i think the only good way of understanding WHY he's suing specific people is to actually see the tweets, so i'll put some under the cut and talk about them:

[TWs: mentions of pedophilia, abuse, racism, sexual assault, domestic violence, suicide]

this says "here cellbit, a fan for you to abuse just like you did with sasa."

erm. erm. erm. i don't think i even NEED to say anything like what the FUCK is this about.

"Cellbit morally harrassed his ex, made nazi and pedo jokes in old minecraft videos and on twitter, now he changed and everyone likes him because he measures his words, why doesn't Forever get the same treatment? It's selective, admit it"

now, analogies to nazism and pedophilia are both crimes in brazil. this person is accusing him of both without even indicating any proof whatsoever? those are both very serious crimes with very serious punishments.

(i don't speak spanish bear with me. pls feel free to correct me if i translate it wrong)

"the hispanic QSMP community should ask itself if it's right to follow and support someone like cellbit, someone who abused his ex girlfriend, who is a racist and a pedophile, never apologized, and his fans say that his ex girlfriend doesnt want to keep talking about the topic but the truth is that she doesn't for people to keep associating her with something like cellbit, not that she wants people to forget what he did or to act like it never happened. being friends with roier doesn't mean he's a good person."

all the racism and pedophilia claims come mainly from a joke made over 10 years ago. again, he never got convicted of or investigated for anything. this is both difamação AND calúnia tbh

"people are calling him [forever] a pedo because he made a nasty joke lmaooo cellbit would beat the fucking shit out of his girlfriend and it doesnt matter, everything's okay lmaoooo i cant believe this"

there are actually quite a few tweets about cellbit supposedly beating his girlfriend up but sasa never claimed that he did that. she accused him of psychological abuse, not physical. so saying they were just "believing the victim" doesn't work with this accusation specifically, because they literally made it up and it doesn't match with any of her claims, specially back at the time when she hadn't accused him of sexual assault yet.

so interesting to see people literally admitting theyre accusing him of abuse without knowing the details

"people juggle like crazy to ignore the fact cellbit hit sasa, now understanding what Authentic said is impossible"

again, she never claimed he hit her. authentic is another minecraft youtuber who got canceled for saying homophobic stuff.

"is cellbit the one who abused sasa? i'm hoping he kills himself"

yeahhhhhhh there's over 200 of these.

the reason he's suing all these people isn't simply because they believed sasa - it's because they harrassed him. harrassed him, actively tried to harm his image, brought him up when he wasn't even a topic (like to defend forever or authentic) just to say he commited crimes without any proof that he actually committed. so while i think people will be able to say they were just believing the victim, the truth is that he has a lot of support to his claims of being accused of shit without proof. he even added documents to his action that prove he's never been investigated or sued for ANYTHING.

finally, regarding him suing sasa: i bet he will. i'm like, 100% he's already suing her. it's probably under judicial secrecy for now, and we might never get access to it, but,,,,, yeah. he's definitely suing her as well, i think he's just also taking action against people who harrass him online after seven years of taking it silently.

that's the overall i hope it made sense and wasn't too long asjkdbkajsbd still open to answer any other questions :)

#cellbit #discourse #qsmp #qsmp cellbit #law #cellbit situation

[ride-thedragon]

Nettles Discourse.

I'm a big Nettles fan. I accept that the bias I have towards her can affect my judgement when it comes to negative discussions, no one likes their favourite characters to be undersold or talked about in a negative regard. That being said we've lost the plot yet again when it comes to her.

I know I can be out there with my claims about her (George literally wrote asoiaf to support her narrative), but I do think she's often disregarded about the way she impacts the narrative. Because she does, she leaves some of the biggest questions that carry over into the main series in fire and blood.

. Was she a witch that seduced a prince

. Did her and Daemon spend the rest of their days in the Vale.

. Did she create the burned men

. Is she actually Valyrian

. Can non Valyrians ride and claim dragons.

. What happened to her and Sheepstealer (the dragonskull found in the main series...)

For who she is as a character, she's so misrepresented in the fandom, while I know I'm annoying about her, it's within good reason.

That's without the paedophilia discourse surrounding her character, the race and racism discourse surrounding her character at all times. Someone conflating her popularity and race isn't entirely incorrect.

The way people undermine her written story because they don't like her. The way they will make race and class the forefront of that undermining is quite insane when you see it.

There is also this air of mystery intended by her character that allows for theories and tie-ins to the main plot.

I've said that she mirrors Dany in some regards, which is true. They have a lot of parallels, like Rhaena and Sansa or Baela and Arya.

All this is to say that even though she isn't a main character in Fire and Blood, she's still important, and race does affect the perception of her a lot, which is an issue. We see the same thing with the popularity of Baela and Rhaena in the show, especially. She isn't a pov character or a main focus by any means, but her mystery alone would've had her 10 times more popular if she was a white alternative to that familial ship.

AND WHILE WE ARE HERE, DETTLES DISCOURSE.

Let's be serious.

Nettles is a child, Nettles is a victim, Nettles was groomed has no basis in the actual story.

If it's a reservation, you hold in the discourse fine, that's great but it's not an in universe thing.

She's legally an adult. She's an impoverished black girl in the narrative who's saved by a prince and a house protecting her against their world's Monarch and escapes on a dragon she claimed and she again escapes and her escape is framed as Daemon's redemption in the narrative.

When people say she was abused by Daemon, they never contextualise it in her character. She's just a poor, 16 year old at the mercy of a prince. That's unfair.

I'll be the first person to scream from the rooftops that Daemon should be held accountable for his every breath in the narrative as well as not being redeemed for all his crimes because he let my favourite character go.

But let's be clear, if someone views their story as romantic, it doesn't mean that they want paedophilia in the narrative. Nettles is closer to Book Brienne's age and perception than she is to Sansa's, two character with prominent ships with men older than them. Nettles is an adult by Westeros standards. (Daemon will burn in hell for messing with teens), but she is an adult.

It's not a question of a person's morality if they ship Daemon and Nettles. They are within the bounds of the world to do so. That's just how they choose to engage with the material instead of being critical and applying our standards to a ship.

#hotd #house of the dragon #nettles #nettles asoiaf #netty #nettles thoughts #nettles discourse #hotd meta #I'd tag people but it seems to be a large issue #two things are allowed to intersect and co exist #a lot of the time there is truth in overreaching statements

[deramin2]

Too many people in this fandom put Orym on a pedestal as "the good one" or "the stable one." Even though that's not the story that Liam's been telling. Then other people project their own baggage on that.

Some people seem to equate being stoic and quiet with repressed feelings. He actually shares his feelings quite a lot and has no issue articulating them when he wants to. He just doesn't always want to process them with other people immediately. You know, like a normal person.

The other party members view him as a rock so fandom projects that he must want to be that and put all his self worth into being that. When he's shown over and over that while he likes being a shield protecting people, he wants to be side by side with others doing that and doesn't think he can be relied on all on his own. He feels he failed to defend Will and Derrig. He'd like to do better himself, but he's also repeatedly expressed that he needs the support of a team working together to do that. Military combat is about the entire unit working together to cover each other and do things no individual can alone. Getting better is all of them being more cohesive and filling in each other's weaknesses, not taking them all on himself until it crushes him.

Orym himself has never claimed to have better moral judgement than the rest of Bell's Hells. He has in fact been uncomfortable when they've suggested that. He likes getting into mischief, too. He doesn't like unnecessary conflict with authority figures, and prefers to be on the level, but he's also well aware that's not always possible and some things you have to handle privately and illegally. He's just careful about which those are. One of the first things they did in ExU was take a job from a criminal.

He's firm in his sense of what's right and wrong, but he's not rigid or inflexible. And he's never once claimed to be neutral as they've uncovered what the Ruby Vanguard is doing. As a victim he cannot and SHOULD NOT be neutral. And personally I think we should listen to victims about how individuals, groups, and institutions have harmed them. Ignoring the experiences of victims is not neutral or objective, it's siding with the abuser to protect their power.

The actual show has done a tremendously good job in depicting the inherent conflict between someone who was substantially harmed (Orym), and someone (Imogen) who has personal and biased reasons for wanting to believe a person who committed that harm (Liliana) can't be that bad deep down. Imogen wants Liliana's intentions to be good and Orym is right to point out that intentions never negate the harm being done. (And also Liliana's intentions are only good if you believe a narrow subset of things to be true that largely ignores reality and might be based on being manipulated by a predatory power. She is in a doomsday cult.)

Imogen has longed for her mother her whole life and dreamed of a reunion where they run through a field of flowers and embrace and then all is well and all is forgiven and they can suddenly have a wonderful relationship. After everything they've learned, her mother has to be a total victim not in control of her actions for this to work. But more and more evidence is that she is in control and this is what she wants and she will murder any innocent person she needs to to get it. That isn't what Imogen wants to hear so she's been in denial of it. Which Orym is right to point out is making excuses for that harm.

Imogen can do what she needs to and thinks is right, but Orym's firm that his plan is to stop them because what they're doing in the name of their ideology is evil. It's not even a matter of if that ideology is good in a vacuum. In the real world they're doing monstrous things to enact it and that is not okay. If your ideology is that puppies should get smoochies and little nose boops, but you're murdering innocent people to enforce that, you need to be stopped, even by people who think giving puppies smoochies is generally a good thing. That's how's you can get people like Ashton and Deni$e who are generally in camp "fuck the gods, they do jack shit for us" but are also firmly in camp "stop Ludinus." As Orym said, if there's a power vacuum, Ludinus cannot be the person to fill it.

Orym had never claimed to be infallible (quite the opposite), but there are definitely people with blorbo vision who think their little meow meow can do no wrong. And counter to them are the people who hate seeing Orym be put on a pedestal and are reacting by trying to pull him off of it and smash him on the ground. And who are using mental health speak to act like he's the real abuser for acting from his convictions in ways that aren't perfect. The line of thinking seems to go: Orym clearly isn't totally good or totally stable so if people have that impression it's because he's deliberately misleading them and manipulating them to get his way. Instead of just being a normally flawed guy people are projecting things onto, who has motivations, doesn't act with perfect clarity in every decision in every moment, and had conflicting needs and opinions with others.

Clearly that nod means he wants Delilah back for the power at any cost to Laudna and is manipulating her to get it and that makes him no different from Ludinus. Add opposed to saying he'll back up whatever Laudna wants to do herself including tapping into the power she had been actively using for 9 minutes prior, and that if she didn't kill Bor'Dor he would. But I guess that sounds too much like normal yes-and decision making in a split second in D&D and not like a meticulously plotted villain arc. Because if people you trusted to be the moral compass turn out to be just as flawed and fucked up as all of their friends, that's a massive and deliberate betrayal of trust, not just proof they're actually just mortal and fallible like everyone else.

Good people, after all, never get angry until it becomes unproductive and negatively shapes their actions. They were secretly evil the whole time and now the mask has come off revealing the truth. And other such things people who have never unpacked black and white fundamentalist thinking say without any apparent inclination of how that also reflects on them or how it will come for them because good people by that definition do not exist and everyone's a sinner waiting for their turn at being punished.

(Also interesting that when Fjord the man made a pact with a betrayer god for power after eschewing Uk'otoa's power with help before, it wasn't the Might Nein manipulating him into it. He was allowed to have agency over his decision and it was a second team effort to get back out of it again. Relapsing got to be a crooked path to character growth, not powerless victimhood like is being ascribed to Laudna the woman.)

Orym is a flawed guy trying his best to do good in an impossible situation that's making him feel smaller and more powerless than he ever has before. He doesn't always have the right answer and Bell's Hells putting too much trust in him is just as much a reflection of them as him. Nothing is simple right now and nothing has easy answers. None of this is black and white and purely theoretical ideology is not functional when it runs into real (fantasy) world actions. If you can't approach what's happening with nuance and understand that EVERYONE is a little right and a little wrong and they're just doing the best imperfect work they can, then you're not going to understand what's going on and make weird accusations.

This isn't a morality play. There aren't clear sides or clear right and wrong. There are characters with their own motivations working together and sometimes those motivations conflict. This is the party that fought Ira for caging a werewolf and forcing him to make new werewolves while he was working for Ludinus. And then WORKED with Ira multiple times because he wanted to fuck with his now former employer and that was good enough alignment. Chetney is being bounty hunted currently for assaulting a shop keeper at home for charging too much. Multiple party members have tried to murder the party. These aren't the days of solidly heroic fantasy Vox Machina. Seems like people are just disappointed enough to throw tantrums that Orym is exactly like all of his closest friends.

#critical role #critical role campaign 3 #critical role discourse #orym critical role #orym of the air ashari #people say they support people with mental illness and trauma until those people actually act from it #and then they're just a bad cruel person because they didn't express themselves perfectly #didn't have perfect judgement #didn't put everyone else's needs or trauma ahead of their own in crisis #and then they're just a bad person who can't be trusted #i see all of you mother fuckers

[celestialastronmy]

The Portrayal of Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse: Kate Marsh's Story

Let's dive into the heavy topic of religious trauma and spiritual abuse through the lens of Kate Marsh's disturbing experiences in Life is Strange. Fair warning - this gets pretty dark and covers sensitive subject matter around mental health, abuse, and religion. But it's an important conversation to have.

I'll try to break it down in sections, Kate was a kind, religious student at Blackwell Academy who was viciously bullied and slut-shamed after a video of her making out with several guys at a party surfaced online. The emotional fallout was devastating for the vulnerable, sheltered Kate who turned to her faith for refuge.

But the devout church group she was a part of largely turned their backs on her at her most desperate time of need. Rather than supporting and protecting one of their own who was victimized, many in the community embraced a cruel "she had it coming" mentality filled with harsh judgments and rejection.(Mainly her mother and Aunt) It's a sickening injustice that sadly rings true to the experiences of religious trauma survivors.

Religious trauma is the psychological damage caused by severely negative religious experiences, often involving emotional manipulation, toxic teachings, and authoritarian abuse from a faith community. Spiritual abuse takes it a step further by leveraging the faith beliefs against the person through tactics like shunning, shaming, blaming, and enforced deprivation.

And that's exactly what seemed to happen to Kate. When she needed her church the most, they failed her miserably. She was essentially spiritually abandoned and abused at her most vulnerable point by the one place that should have been her ultimate safe haven. No wonder she became depressed and suicidal.

Toxic Purity Culture Playing a Role

A major factor that enabled Kate's spiritual abuse was the deeply engrained "purity culture" mentality that sadly permeates many conservative religious circles. Placing extreme, repressive emphasis on sexual purity before marriage for women while glorifying female submissiveness, modesty, and chastity as moral virtues.

The blaming and shaming of Kate seemed directly tied to this subculture that essentially slut-shames any woman who doesn't rigidly conform to those outdated, sexist standards of feminine purity. Rather than showing compassion to a young victim of exploitation, they turned on her with unbridled judgment and alienation for the perceived sexual "sin." It's dehumanizing victim-blaming crap that can utterly demolish someone's mental health and self-worth.

Frankly, the community's reaction reeked of misogyny masked by feigning moral superiority over Kate's sexuality. An undercurrent of the age-old condemning "she was asking for it" dismissal of sexual assault that has enabled abuse against women for centuries.

Lack of Support Exacerbating Mental Health Struggles

With her church circle reinforcing the vicious bullying through their ostracization and shaming, it robbed Kate of what could have been a core support system to help her through the trauma. Having that foundation ripped out from under her only exacerbated her deteriorating mental health and feelings of existential despair.

In healthy faith communities, spiritual support is meant to be a therapeutic anchor helping guide people through severe crises with acceptance, compassion, and affirmation of self-worth. When that lifeline is cruelly replaced with damnation, dejection, and reinforced self-loathing, it can trigger or worsen clinical depression, PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

The spiritual abuse Kate endured represented a profound emotional betrayal compounding her already staggering psychological distress. With the roots of her identity and personal value system embedded in those religious bonds, having that ripped away left her feeling profoundly insignificant, unworthy, and alone.

Clearly, her community failed her abysmally in her hour of greatest need. The very sanctuary meant to provide unconditional acceptance, safe harbor, and trauma-informed care through a spiritual framework kicked her to the curb instead based on a deeply flawed fundamentalist sexual ethos.

Unhealed Trauma Perpetuating a Vicious Cycle

The heavy implication seemed to be that Kate's virgin/whore complex wasn't properly processed or healed from her traumatic experiences. Which is understandable given how spiritually adrift she was abandoned by the one faith support system she invested everything in.

Without a safe outlet to properly unpack the acute shame, rejection-sensitivity, objectification, existential brokenness and myriad other complex emotions involved in her ordeal, it's no surprise she sank deeper into despondency and self-harm reinforcing patterns.

With virtually no healthy framework to recontextualize what happened and rebuild her self-worth, she remained stuck in a purgatory of unhealed trauma and spiritual abuse aftershocks slowly tearing her apart.

That's what makes the cycle of religious trauma so insidious and damaging. The very sociological underpinnings that are meant to affirm someone's humanity within a belief system get hijacked as weapons to degrade and dehumanize them. It fundamentally distorts their entire sense of identity, purpose, and cosmic belonging.

Breaking the Cycle through Awareness and Support

Which is why greater mainstream awareness around religious trauma and its mental health impacts is so crucial, especially for practices that enable spiritual abuse and toxic fundamentalism. The more we can shine a light on these cycles, the easier it becomes to recognize the warning signs and intervene before vulnerable people get systematically stripped of their dignity.

Ultimately, it's about providing a compassionate environment that deconstructs shame, learns from past mistakes, and rebuilds supportive networks for those in crisis based on healthy spirituality and belonging.

Kate's isolation was one of the most heartbreaking parts of her story. If she'd had access to affirming support systems equipped to empathize with her pain and guide her through it based on universally human values like grace, acceptance and resilience, perhaps the outcome could have been different.

Because at the end of the day, faith is meant to provide sanctuary and healing from suffering - not be another source of torment. Kate deserved so much better than to be discarded and shamed by the very community that should have fiercely protected her.

Hopefully through greater empathy and open discussions on religious trauma, spiritual abuse and their horrific toll, we can learn how to cultivate spiritual environments that truly embody the unconditional love they preach - especially for those who need it most.

#kate marsh #life is strange #cw sui ideation #cw abuse #analysis post #this is definitely one of the more underrated aspects

[gralunaisland]

being a Graylu shipper am i the only one that doesn't like the idea of Lucy or anyone else being a Gruvia Shipper?

About Fairy Tail members being either complicit or enablers of juvia abusing Gray

You're definitely not alone, my friend! I personally am a Gralu shipper, but I don't necessarily agree just because of that.

I've said it in a post before, but I became an Anti gr///vian first and a Gralu shipper second. I totally understand people who don't like a certain ship just because they ship those individuals with other people, and I think that's a perfectly valid reason to hate a ship, as we can hate ships for mostly any reason. So, yes, being a Gralu shipper gives me another reason to not like it if Lucy were to ship gr///via because that basically just reconfirms that they don't like each other.

However, for me personally, I hate it whenever Lucy (whom I don't remember supporting gr///via very much if at all, but she definitely didn't actively oppose it to the best of my knowledge), Erza, or anyone in Fairy Tail/the FT universe supports gr///via mostly because that makes them, at best, complicit in juvia's abuse of Gray, and, at worst, enablers of this abuse.

I refuse to believe that manipulative and toxic affection was the true moral of Mashima's Fairy Tail, even if his characters actively advocate for it. I think he lost sight somewhere along the line of what it truly means to be a Fairy Tail member, and that means to be a loyal, compassionate, brave friend who always looks out for each other and love one another. juvia is none of those things, not even loyal to Gray, because what she does is a detriment to him, and she's really just loyal to herself and her "love" for him. Yet, Mashima promotes her behavior by giving her what she so desperately coveted in the end and by forcing his characters to be completely OOC and back up juvia, the slobbering, nasty, selfish pig, and not their loving, stalwart brother-in-arms and victim here, Gray.

That is despicable.

What's more, beyond how awful it is that FT people would rather back juvia than Gray, it's just bad, lazy writing. In no world would juvia be able to abuse other people and manipulate them and bully women and yet also be praised and protected and loved by those same people. Erza should have never sided with juvia over the 413 days matter or berated Gray for "not being clear enough" when he's been plenty clear. The other FT members shouldn't have ever blasted Gray for "leading juvia on". No one should even like juvia or want to be her friend because of what a b*tch she is.

Yet of course, everyone loves her for NO REASON. There are so many reasons to hate her (and honestly not one good reason to love her in my opinion), but does Mashima care? Absolutely not. juvia is his self-proclaimed self-insert's waifu, after all.

Anyway, true FT fans should be enraged that juvia lockser is one of the main people we are encouraged to be like in this show. They should be indignant that juvia has been made a poster child for this anime, when she embodies none of its values. They should refuse to accept this as healthy and desirable. They should balk at the fact that their beloved characters endorse juvia's actions and life choices, which are wholly unacceptable and unhealthy not only to herself but most importantly to others.

But lots of fans delude themselves, and the fans drive Mashima, so unfortunately, here we are, with a whole cast of characters who promote and affirm juvia, the least deserving of the Fairy Tail members.

For the record, I am not really talking about the fans who acknowledge juvia's toxicity but still like her and the ship because of a sort of suspension of disbelief. Honestly, there are many problematic or evil characters that many people like, and I usually see no problem with it if you are able to separate your fictional fantasies with reality. (Some deeply problematic things I do not excuse though). For example, I like Sukuna from JJK. Do I think he's a good person? Aaaaabsolutely not. He's a completely awful person. But still, I think he's cool and his power is sick, so I like him.

My issue lies within the area of the FT community who refuse to accept that juvia's behavior is deplorable and who attack anyone who tells them otherwise. These are the rabid fans who'd go for Mashima's throat if he dared to not make gr///via canon. I don't believe the fans who know juvia is a bad person but still ship gr///via would be so up in arms about it because this sort of self-awareness indicates maturity to me.

[Sidenote, the really aggravating and only thing that sets juvia apart from the characters who are literal villains and douches is that juvia isn't treated like a bad guy within the story. Sans some uncomfortable stares and sweat drops, she is largely treated like family, and everyone loves her. When even the canon material itself won't acknowledge a character's toxicity and awfulness to itself, of course there'll be people who don't think she's toxic. I hate that Fairy Tail lies to itself in this way. It just helps to turn the deluded fans against well-meaning Antis who speak literal objective truth, that the way juvia acts is not okay in real life.]

Anyway, those are my two cents, thank you for your patience and ask!

#ill never get over how fairy tail members choose juvia over gray #it is just so effed up at its core #juvia is not yalls friend #she only cares about loving gray and nothing else when it all comes down to it #askgraluna #anti gruvia #anti juvia #anti juvia lockser #anti juvia loxar #fairy tail #ask #defend gray fullbuster #gray fullbuster #anti gray x juvia #lucy heartfilia #graylu #gralu #gray x lucy #what happened to being loyal to your friends? #gruviugh #gruvia can burn #gruvia sucks

[sewercl0wn]

Antagonists, anti-heroes, and villains: A how-to (part 1)

Antagonists are what arguably drive a story. From facilitating conflict and plot progression, to defining and shaping the protagonist. A well written villain could turn your story from meh to unforgettable.

manipulation_.

Good and bad isn’t black and white. A well written villain will bring intrigue to their points and make them appeal, even if you don’t directly support them.

For example, 1984 by George Orwell was greatly improved thanks to O’Brien - while I don’t think he is correct in anything he’s done, I was immersed in his reasonings and manipulative personality.

Taken from the book, I fully believe this following passage shows gaslighting and manipulative anti-heroes and the effect they have on the victim:

“...but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning. Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on, hour after hour, tripping him up, laying traps for him, twisting everything that he said, convicting him at every step of lies and self-contradiction until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue. Sometimes he would weep half a dozen times in a single session. Most of the time they screamed abuse at him and threatened at every hesitation to deliver him over to the guards again; but sometimes they would suddenly change their tune, call him comrade, appeal to him in the name of Ingsoc and Big Brother, and ask him sorrowfully whether even now he had not enough loyalty to the Party left to make him wish to undo the evil he had done. When his nerves were in rags after hours of questioning, even this appeal could reduce him to snivelling tears. In the end the nagging voices broke him down more completely than the boots and fists of the guards. He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed, whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew.”

Other examples include Mother Gothel from Tangled and Light Yagami from Death note

Knowing the importance of a manipulative character, here’s how to write one:

Seclusion. By secluding and isolating the victim from other influences that can counter the scheming tactics. By taking someone away from familiar settings and people, they are more vulnerable

Guilt tripping and (mildly) degrading comments. Even minor playful ‘jokes’ or ‘teasing’ can contribute. By making someone feel worse or making them feel in debt, they feel morally obligated to stick around. Some might call this ‘playing the victim card’ (Some manipulators might switch between victimizing themselves and being the bully. Whatever is most convenient at the time)

Trust. There has to be a level of trust between victim and the character before they make any moves. Someone is more likely to overlook manipulative advances from someone who has helped them, shared moments with them, etc,. The victim will logically be more likely to trust a friend more than a stranger.

Remember, this doesn’t always happen immediately. Manipulators may be skilled in their craft, but they aren’t magic. It can take take days, weeks, months, or even years for a character to manipulate their targets.

base it off real life_.

A realistic character is always more interesting that a 2d one. People have layers, caked upon each other. If you're having trouble to write your antagonist - base it off real life.

E.g. You want to write a clown serial killer, base it off The Joker from batman, or "Clown Killer Gacy" (John Wayne Gacy)

THIS ISN'T AN EXCUSE TO PLAGIARIZE! (And you don't wanna get sued from making it too similar to a real character) read this post to learn about how to avoid plagiarism

(tw: don't google this next guy if you're not comfortable w gore + murder)

All villains have motive, taking the example of Blake Leibel - he tortured and murdered his fiance because their newborn daughter was taking away all the attention, as well as stress from avoiding Russian mob bosses that were trying to get money back from his brother.

Analyze villains you like from your favourite books, animes and movies. Delve deep and do research!

this was long, so i’ll make more parts to this and link them here. hope this helps!

#writing #creative writing #writers block #Writing tips #writers #writers on tumblr #written #writeblr #writing help #writing prompt #writing life #your local sewer rat #writing inspiration #writing villains #writing characters #villians #antagonist #writing anti heroes #anti heroes

[tayananyx]

So I read Percy Jackson:Chalice of the Gods and…let me just get this out of the way: IT WAS FANTASTIC!

From the very first line of the book I was transported back in time to middle school where I walked the halls with my face buried in a PJO book. I missed Percy and his point of view so much that I literally started crying the moment his sarcastic inner monologue uttered its first words. This novel was like a fantasy to me with the return of the golden trio and following their wacky hijinks as they try to do quite possibly one of the hardest things in my opinion: Graduate high school and get into college. 

This book is instantly a five star in my opinion, but there is an aspect of it that really caught my attention and made me think on a deeper level. 

Rick Riordan has never once sugar coated the olympian gods or their ways. He has had to gloss over many details due to the fact that he was writing a middle grade series, but now that Percy and his audience is a little older he is now getting into the fact that the gods are very much morally f’ed up beings. Like I said, he never shied away from this fact with Luke Castellan waging a war against the gods for being so negligent with their children and Percy having to literally ask them to pay their child support as reward for literally saving the damn world. 

But that is only the tip of the iceberg of things the olympians have done. Take the storyline of Chalice of the Gods for example: Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods had his almighty goblet stolen and if he does not get it back before Zues notices he is dead. When you look at Ganymede, the first thing you think is that ‘Oh, he has such an easy job, just pouring drinks and he gets to be immortal on top of that. Who wouldn’t love that?’ And then you look at him closely and see that he literally has trauma and PTSD from when Zues abducted him and forced him to become the gods cupbearer. He spends his time in Zues’s shadow being in constant fear of him and being sneered at or ignored by other gods. No one cares about his opinion of whether he wants to be there or not because they think as long as he gets to be immortal, why wouldn’t he love it. 

The main villain of the story, Geras (god of old age), even goes as far to blame Ganymede for becoming immortal as though it was his choice anyway. And lets be real for a second, when the options are either be my immortal servant forever or die, I don’t exactly blame him. Don’t even get me started on Hebe and her childish games. It just sounds like world class victim blaming to me. And Zues was just so slimy to me in the few scenes we saw him in this book. With his inflated sense of ego at a banquet that was supposed to be for his mother and the way he openly leers at Ganymede in front of his wife and other gods was just disgusting. But we all knew he was always a pig

The way the gods acted in this book had my skin crawling and the way they used Percy like he was nothing but their personal errand boy had my blood boiling. He was blamed for his own birth and made to make it up to the gods by getting recommendation letters just so he can get into college with his girlfriend, his father barely offered him any help besides using a sea nereid to outsource actually being a parent, and he was used and abused the whole time by these immortal scum without so much as a ‘sorry’ or ‘thank you’. 

At this point Percy should be allowed to cuss all of them out and Rick Riordan is SICK for continually putting Percy through the wringer like this. In that same vein though, I love it and will be patiently waiting for the next installments of Percy trying to get into college.  

#percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy pjo #rick riordan #chalice of the gods #annabeth chase #grover underwood #pjo #pjo hoo toa #book review #books

[purgemarchlockdown]

An exploration of Amane Momose and the system of Milgram.

(Note: At the time of writing I have not listened/read all the voice dramas yet so if anything in there contradicts what I'm saying my apologies. Still please do read this because I think these are conclusions you can draw from the music and I'm mainly focusing on that.)

(Edit: Got some typos out, apologies for that!) (CWs: Cults, Child Abuse, Suicide Mention.)

I Adore Momose Amane, I saw the 12 year old cultist and thought “That’s my favorite.” I’ve rewatched Magic more times than I can count, and I’m patiently waiting for The Purge March. Amane Momose is my Favorite Character in this whole series.

One of the things I like the most about Amane is her psychology. Amane is a child who grew up in a cult, and was most likely born into it, she doesn't know anything else, except that anything outside of it is Bad and Evil. In Her T1 Drana she considers Milgram a possible avenue for justice and righteousness. A way for the "higher standards of morality" to come and give divine punishment.

If we're peeling back what she's saying here, she's roughly saying. "I want there to be a god that can prove my righteousness" This goes back into her "good girl" complex and abuse. Amane wants to be a good girl, she wants so so hard to be a good girl. She Wants to be obedient and devoted and the goodest good girl there is. However she isn't. Multiple scenes in Magic hint to this, Amane loses the game show and gets punished for it, she's constantly asking if she's worthy, and constantly promises that she'll be good, she asks if its okay to be "weak." Amane Momose is Not A Good Girl, and to some extent she's aware of this. Adding onto that, she knows that helping the cat isn't what she's supposed to do, you can see it in the MV, she is off on her own, hiding away from everyone else, she looks startled and scared when she gets found out. Amane Momose Knows Very Well That She Is Not Supposed To Do This and Did It Anyway.

Amane Momose is an abused child who wants proof that she is a Good Girl. She wants proof that she shouldn't be Punished. The Unforgiven Verdict for her isn't just her ideals being rejected. It's her being told that she Should be Punished, that she Is Not A Good Girl. Something that is a common theme in her character.

Now I know it seems strange that Amane antagonizes Es in this context but it's common for abuse victims to retreat back into the abuse if they feel threatened, even if nothing bad is happening.

Because abuse and the emotions associated with it became the norm. The expectation of abuse is set up, it's become routine. We can also see this in Magic. While Amane accepts the abuse as something she "needs" to grow, the lines of the song are her wanting to Not be hurt, and trying to avoid it. Even when Amane is "safe" she is expecting punishment, and as such acts in a way that minimizes the risk of punishment.

Not meaning to brag but I’m pretty happy I’ve made up my mind so they don’t make that face at me again

Continuing off of that, cults promote an Us vs Them mentality to isolate their victims, because cults (and abusers as a whole) need their victims to rely on them for support and any outside influence will threaten the control they have over the person.

Amane is hypervigilant and has a rigid Us vs Them mentality. She antagonizes Es because Es exists outside the cult, but also because she feels threatened, she was Already Retreating into her cult mentality since the start. The Unforgiven verdict just pushed her farther into it. She retreats into her cult because it provides an illusion of comfort. She knows how its going to go.

I'm stating all of this to go: Amane is Not going to improve in Milgram, because Milgram is not designed to make these characters improve.

Here's a line from ES in Amane's T1 voice drama:

(Credit: onigiriico fan translation of the Voice Drama)

Amane: Hm. But if you’re the warden, as you say, shouldn’t you take the prisoners’ opinions into consideration? Es: Don’t make me laugh. I’m not your teacher at school; it isn’t my goal to teach you things or guide you on the right path. Milgram’s goal isn’t to turn you back into decent human beings and get you back into normal society. What is needed here is firm, honest judgment and decisions

Es states it directly. Milgram is not designed to help these people, not any of that. But Amane is the clearest example. Amane is both someone with a very rigid cult mentality and someone who was abused. She wants to be told she is right, she wants to be told she is a good girl. Because that means she's fully devoted to her god and that there is no reason to punish her.

On the flipside tell her she's wrong and she'll violently retreat back into her cult's ideals for comfort. As stated abuse victims tend to retreat back into the abuse because it's familiar, and Amane retreats back into it because it provides a source of comfort.

The forgiven and unforgiven verdicts and the punishment unforgiven dishes-out enforce this. Even if we forgave her in the first round, the way abuse and cults affect a person's mind means that Amane cannot be helped like this. The way Milgram Is Structured feeds Into Amane's hypervigilance, rigid thinking and want to be a "good girl."

Amane cannot grow in Milgram because it is not designed to make her grow, same with everyone else here. Milgram is not designed to make these people get better, it's designed to determine who should be punished.

Characters like Mahiru, where it's all but confirmed that she didn't actually commit murder but acted in a way that might of lead to her partner's suicide are still judged (and in Mahiru's case, Punished) for those actions. This does not help Mahiru's clear issues in navigating relationships, nor does it "deliver justice."

This system is not made to help anyone.

Amane: Ah, I am looking forward to it! Seeing whether your judgement will align with that of these higher standards! If that is the case, maybe Milgram would be the right world for us to live in, rather than the outside world! Milgram relies on your judgement, isn’t that right? In that case, you could become the mediator for a far more righteous world!!

#milgram #amane momose #milgram amane #008 #milgram meta #Im so very normal about this actually #milgram analysis #cw cults #cw child abuse

[zephrunsimperium]

is Knowing Me, Knowing You a romantic billford story? what kind of story is it, actually? it looks interesting but I’m afraid to read any type of billford in fear of it being… not the best. what do you think of the ship, actually, since you’re such a fidduathor fan? also, does it end okay, even when incomplete? I have a lot of questions about the fic tbh. too scared to read it tho lol

Whooooo boy do I have a lot to say about this... I highly encourage everyone to read this entire post.

So, my thoughts on BillFord are extremely complicated. I am, first and foremost, a FiddAuthor shipper. That is the ship I consider canon and I even headcanon Bill to be aroace and actively encourage Ford and Fidds to get together because Ford needs to get over stupid societal homophobia plus it's fun to wear down the human's moral compass about hitting on a married man.

BillFord is a FASCINATING concept and it's not hard to see why the ship is as popular as it is despite the (well-deserved) stigma; a lot of things between them that can be read as fuel to the shipping fire. (ie the hair ruffles, the nose flick, the nicknames, the gold statue, the piano serenade, Ford being attracted to the strange, Bill offering to make Ford "one of us," even the possibly kinky undertones of glowy blue chains and bodily possession)

But the problem is that the ship can get very nasty very fast. Make no mistake, what Bill does to Ford is abuse. He is manipulative and violent and cruel. "Mystery bruises?" Literally torturing Ford on screen? Driving a wedge between Ford and his support system to the point that he has extreme trouble trusting people? Preying upon Ford's insecurities about being a freak? That is horrifying stuff, in particular because of how clear the parallels are to real world abuse.

With that in mind, let me talk about KMKY. I loved this fic to pieces. It’s written and organized incredibly well with a good mix of humor, sentiment, tragedy, and villainy without ever feeling off-balance tonally. The best thing about this fic, however, is the mature and nuanced themes about abuse: how hard it is to still love your abuser even when you start realizing that they're as bad as they are, accepting that you're a victim and have no reason to apologize, how an abuser's own trauma isn't an excuse for their actions. I really appreciate that the author has sympathy for Bill while still clearly acknowledging that "hey, what Bill did to Ford was abuse and Ford doesn't have to forgive him, much less take him back." A lesser writer would force Bill and Ford together, but that's not what happens because it's not what should happen.

So, for anyone who is interested in reading it... The gist of it is that instead of inviting Fiddleford to work on the portal, Ford makes a body for Bill to assist in person. The first 33 chapters develop their relationship (ft. Fiddleford being confused and stressed) and then Ford finds out Bill has been lying and eventually goes through the portal. It is very much a romance but the writing is so good that there are times when it's genuinely heartbreaking that the two of them won't work out.

I would definitely say that Bill is the main character (even though Ford has a significant amount of viewpoint time and he's the one you're supposed to root for) because he's the one who changes throughout the story. It's not a positive change, but it is an extremely compelling character arc. The characterization of Bill in this fic is particularly cool to me because he’s definitely a complete person, but he’s very clearly inhuman.

A little preview/incentive to read it: all of Bill’s underlings have individual personalities, Jheselbraum is a super important character and her characterization is... really cool (that's not a good description, but I was in love with it), the worldbuilding of all the places Ford visits in the multiverse was really cool and fun, there are great OCs like Wendy's mom, this mob boss guy that is a delight to hate, and a sarcastic kick-ass alien lady, Bill's backstory is really impactful, Pyronica is a bad bitch, Bill and Ford fight zombies while We Go Together from Grease plays in the background, there are cool themes about enjoying the mundane things in life and how society treats the Strange, and well-written humor that had me laughing out loud constantly. For as long as it is, all of it was extremely memorable and hardly any of it felt like filler. (I will warn you if you choose to read it, there is some serious steam.)

As for the ending... I totally understand why the author stopped writing it. They were trying to make it canon-compliant, but by the time it caught up to the show it was very clear that adhering to the canon material was holding them back. They did their best, but I could tell they weren't enjoying writing it and if you're not enjoying your art, then I don't think it's worth doing.

Wow that was a long post. Thanks so much for the ask, Anon! I hope this was a satisfying response!

#billford #fic rec #gravity falls #bill cipher #stanford pines #shipping #ask #gravity falls meta #long post #knowing me knowing you