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teaveetamer · 9 months

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It's okay if butwhatifidothis risks leading people to harass Captain Flash by going over his fic but it's not okay if Raxis does the same to reynaattheend?

Okay I feel like I want to get one thing out of the way before I go into this.

BWIIDT agreed to remove parts of the old reviews that were particularly rude or offensive if they were pointed out to her, something that was literally promised to the MODS of the Edelstan discord server (who claimed to have a direct line of communication to Cap).

So the guy literally had a chance to air his grievances with the posts and have the parts he didn’t like removed within reason, and we never got any examples of things to ask her to remove. So either she’s not as rude as people make her out to be, or they never actually cared about her critiques and haven’t bothered reading them, even when handed the literal opportunity to edit things out they didn’t like.

Additionally BWIIDT has said that she would be willing to remove all the postings completely if the guy would just hear her criticisms and learn from them, so he could better handle the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic. Of which there is a lot.

I don’t know how you could possibly compromise more without just straight up being a door mat and pretending like this white man never had any issues with the way he wrote race and women.

Anyway as for why I view these as two completely different situations that are not really comparable IMO:

1) Cap’s fic is/was at the time literally being shoved at people. We were told to read it to “understand canon better”.

This isn’t just me saying this. I remember around the time before/slightly after BWIIDT started giving her criticisms of the fic I was seeing it getting recommended to a bunch of people. There were people on various social media sites complaining about the Edel crowd shoving the fic down their throats. I had it recommended to me on some different platforms, etc.

And that’s not just fans of the fics’ perception. Cap himself has stated that he views the fic as meta commentary on the game/discussion of canon, not just a fun little fic he did. And he’s happy people view it as essential for understanding canon.

As far as I’m aware, Reyna’s fic has never had that sort of culture around it, nor has she wanted it to have that kind of impact on fandom. I’m pretty sure she’s even explicitly stated that she KNOWS it’s not always aligned with canon and she doesn’t care, because it’s just a fun little project for her.

2) As far as I’m aware, BWIIDT never linked to Cap’s fic? I don’t even think she gave the title of it at first, it’s just that most people figured out what fic she was talking about BECAUSE of the aforementioned it getting shoved down everyone’s throats. But I wasn’t really following her in the beginning so I don’t remember, I’m sure she can reblog this posting if she wants and further clarify.

Raxy has literally been linking to Reyna’s fic on every posting and spelling out the full name of the fics and the author. Given his followers’ propensity for harassment (which he claims to not support) he really should have known better. He wasn’t “risking” sending her harassment it was basically a foregone conclusion.

He definitely should have taken all of the links down and stopped linking or naming the author or fic after it became clear people were literally going and harassing her, using his posts and material to throw at her. But as far as I’m aware he hasn’t done ANY of that.

3) I know from talking with BWIIDT since Raxy started harassing everyone here that she wasn’t going to bother with Cap’s fic originally, but then the annoying fans shoving it down people’s throats + she noticed a lot of very problematic handling of race that she wanted to talk about in greater depth = her discussing the fic at length.

I haven’t read through Raxy’s criticisms, but I feel like there’s a BIG difference between a woman of color pointing out the problems regarding race and gender in a fic (written by a white man) that’s being recommended to everyone as ESSENTIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE GAME vs. Some Guy Who Doesn’t Like A Random Fic

Additionally, I don’t really feel like it’s my place to tell her to shut up because, uh, it just feels kind of gross to tell her to just not be mad about the way the white guy is butchering the biracial experience when she’s a biracial woman and I’m not? Which again, very different from telling a 35 year old cishet white guy who is acting like a dick about anime chess to be less of a dick about anime chess.

4) And again, I also know for a fact that BWIIDT is just interested in critiquing/venting about the fic, and would be willing to stop making postings about it if Cap actually bothered to read the critiques and learn from the mistakes he’s made regarding the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic.

But like, he keeps doubling down on it insisting that because he grew up next to a reservation and he has one queer woman doing his beta reading there could never be any problems with his handling of any of these sensitive topics, so he doesn’t need to listen to any of us ever, and people are still touting it as essential for understanding canon, and he’s still okay with that, sooooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s VERY different from what Raxy is doing, which is basically just calling Reyna’s fics “cringe” and “not canon” from the snippets I’ve seen. He’s also blasting them over LITERALLY every social media platform he has for some godforsaken reason. Which like. If your goal was just to critique the fic why are you posting that shut EVERYWHERE?

5) I really don’t think Raxy is that bothered by the criticisms of Cap’s fic. He harasses people regardless of if they’ve talked about Cap or his fic, and after his aborted attempt to drum up harassment against BWIIDT on GameFaqs he came to Tumblr and started begging her to “do his fic next”

Like honestly I don’t even know what goes on in that guy’s head. Weird ass behavior. I really don’t care what he has going on, it’d just be nice if he’d act like the 35 year old he actually is and quit being so petty and childish.

Even if you think what BWIIDT did with Cap’s fic is wrong, why would it EVER be acceptable to drag an uninvolved third party into the mix and bash their fic and send them harassment as “retaliation”? Reina has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even have fucking social media accounts outside of AO3. I know because I literally left her a comment to warn her about this clown and she told me.

What BWIIDT has done with Cap’s fic is admittedly a bit of a grey area, but ultimately I fall on the side of “whatever” with it because of the notoriety and influence on fandom fans of the fic desperately want it to have, and because of just how problematic elements of it are for various communities.

I mean you can’t go reccing a fic as essential for understanding the game and shoving it down the entire fandoms’ collective throat and then expect it to be treated like a 14 year old’s silly self insert fic when the people you told to read it critique it with the gravitas you assigned to it.

If you wanna critique BWIIDT for what she did with Cap’s fic, or critique me or anyone else for interacting with her, or you just think my logic is stupid and you want to critique that, then that’s… fine? I’m an adult, I’m a person, I know there’s places I can grow. But I’m sick of people acting like it’s okay to be a shitty person just because you got your feelings hurt once, so now it’s okay to go making it everyone else’s problem. And I don’t know if it was your intention to defend the guy with this ask anon, but it’s definitely happened too damn much with this guy and the Edelgard fandom as a whole.

That was another thing that really fucked me off in that conversation with the Edelstan server mods. I had one of them acting like I run fucking Reddit and I’m somehow responsible for some trolls calling Edelgard fans Nazis four fucking years ago. You can bet your ass I would get crucified if I tried to shit talk some random ass Edeleth fic and tried to justify it with “but it’s ok cuz some Edelgard fans were mean to me once :(“. There’s a reason why the fic being touted as essential for understanding canon is the one getting critiques and not any of the THOUSANDS of other Edeleth fics in existence. Because no one fucking cares about fanfics when they aren’t getting shoved down your throat and touted as “essential”.

I mean fuck dude, I got called a fake queer and an r-slur and intentionally triggered with genocide bullshit and had people talking about killing me. Am I going around harassing random fic authors over it? No, cuz I’m a grown ass fucking adult and I know how to act like it, and I know that 99% of the people who write/have written Edeleth fics had absolutely nothing to do with that.

So if you’re justifying going after Reyna with “but BWIIDT was mean to Cap!” Then knock it off, Reyna has literally nothing to do with this and you’re being shitty by trying to drag her into it. If you just did this to spork a fic, then you’re currently being a dick over a fanfic for no reason and clearly it’s leading to the author being harassed.

@butwhatifidothis if you wanna add onto this feel free.

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deathbirby · 3 months

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It’s literally so funny bc I would argue that empathy is one of THE dividing factors between El and Dimitri’s characterizations. Edelgard struggles to empathize with the people of the church and the Nabateans and sees sacrificing the lives of her citizens as worthy for achieving her goals. Like previously discussed she doesn’t seem bothered by using black beasts that were clearly once people to fuel the war effort, even though they were experimented on in ways just as brutal if not more so than she was. She single-mindedly pursues the church without putting thought into why Rhea may have done the things she did and whether she’s actually culpable for all of them. Her lack of empathy is what allows her to START the war, otherwise there’s no way any of the previous things could’ve happened.

Dimitri, on the other hand, goes into his nose dive spiral BECAUSE his sense of empathy is so strong. Even though Duscur was blamed for his family’s death, he refused to allow for Dedue to be killed. Much of his worldview is painted by his revulsion around undue suffering- because he knows war hurts the common people and can’t abide by that. It’s what makes him hesitate to act, which ironically is what a lot of edelstans criticize him for. Even his “monster” arc is a direct result of his empathetic nature, because only monsters would kill people. So he goes all-in on it, because that’s the only way he can rationalize being okay with taking other people’s lives. He wants to take all the responsibility for bloodshed onto himself because he doesn’t want anyone else to have to deal with the pain and burden of killing. Hell, a massive part of his route is that he LIVES AMONGST THE COMMONERS for years and sees just how much the war has harmed them.

Just. It’s incredible to me how people can play this game and miss the point of the text so hard just to justify the actions of their fictional fav. And to pre-empt anything: actually no, despite what I say here I don’t think Dimitri’s actions being a result of empathy excuses them. That would be ridiculous, he still kills people and that’s like, fucked up. But I think it’s worth saying since it’s yet another thing that people somehow don’t get and that’s a massive shame.

It’s incredible to me how people can play this game and miss the point of the text so hard just to justify the actions of their fictional fav.

You hit the nail on the head, anon. That's pretty much the issue when it comes to edelgard discourse. You got people who think she's not so great because of her many flaws, and then you have her stans who refuse to accept that their Ladle is flawed.

#edelgard discourse #grey borb #careful about comparing dimitri to edelgard #you will be labeled a dimistan #and banished to mooner hell

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gascon-en-exil · 9 months

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Edelstans really live in a bubble. Even back then in 2019, you had people complaining about 3H being poorely written. Edelgard discourse or not.

Not as frequently since back then everyone was all about praising Three Houses for being so much better than Fates in every way, but the flaws were still noticeable. That's surely a major reason that the Fódlan games have always been such a hit in transformative fandom, which thrives in popular media with a lot of glaring flaws just begging to be addressed by fanwork.

It's not as though anyone still arguing about this really thinks that FE16 in its entirety is a masterpiece, either. Just ask them how they feel about the writing of the routes other than their favorite; the list of criticisms and proposed corrections will be long indeed.

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Fandom dicourse

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faroreswinds · 1 year

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Hope you don’t mind me sending you this message but as a casual Fire Emblem fan who is absolutely fascinated (and by fascinated I mean a mix of appalled and laughter) by the state of the discourse I’d like to elaborate on why a lot of Edelstans are (very) off base by their “criticism” of the church is that they are absolutely focusing on the wrong religion entirely. I think I’m qualified to speak about Buddhism and why Houses reflects that. No I will not come off anon but please bear with me. I know you and your mutuals have talked about the Buddhism of Three Houses but I hop you don’t mind if I expand on that.

Churches and “churches” in jrpgs are often just window dressing to add plausibly western details to a plausibly western high fantasy inspired setting, but even if they include crosses and saints and cathedrals the central trappings are very much not western at all and western consumers of japanese products often forget that, especially because japan has a very strong japanizing filter they run almost everything through. This is very much the case with Fire Emblem even though their most recent games have tried to incorporate more East Asian elements like with what we see in Awakening, Echoes, especially Hoshido, but that doesn’t mean that the philosophy is missing from the other games. Fans tend to dismiss the general plots of Fire Emblem as the cast fighting and killing an evil dragon-god but they forget a single crucial detail to that: the evil at the end reminds the characters that as long as humanity has evil in its hearts and continues to make the same mistakes over and over again, then evil will inevitably return and so the cycle of fighting and hatred will start again. This is usually not the case with many western media focusing on a single savior figure who vanquishes the evil and then they all lived happily ever after and it explains the confusion with western fans saying stuff like they can’t believe that what Marth and Alm and Celica did was all for nothing because later Walhart and Grima happened. Yes we can argue about retcons for Awakening and Echoes but thematically speaking it makes sense, not because Marth and Alm and Celica were incompetent but simply because what they did was too limited in scope and fixed the problem temporarily because they’re only humans who are tied to the human realm and all its problems (but also because intsys needs to keep making money with more stories or recycling stories). They are heroes but they are unable to break the karmic cycle.

Now this is more apparent with Three Houses even though it does have a mix of western elements like how the crests represent tarot arcana but generally Fates and Houses are the most eastern of the games because of their themes: Fates is a war between west and east but also the secret literal Middle Kingdom manipulating them, Anankos yes he was basically the deity of Touma but people don’t know that in eastern religions and Buddhism even gods are not immune to being corrupted because they too are bound to the six paths and the dual nature of the world. Anankos enjoyed both heavenly and earthly pleasures but being steeped in them too long made him decay, make costly mistakes that only made him more angry and paranoid instead of being able to reflect on them, and in the end became a creature of death and violence and discord who could only be released through defeat.

Houses especially has the basis of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but Byleth’s personal class Nirvana, confirms also the basis for Silver Snow and the dual themes that would come better if Intsys was a more competent writer:

So the six paths/realms (Im condensing very many details) are upper and lower parts on the wheel of samsara. The devas’ realm, the human realm, and the asura’s realm are the upper three and the best paths to achieving nirvana but they all have their flaws and even upper level inhabitants can be reincarnated into lower levels if they behave badly; the lower three are the bad ones and often have no redeeming qualities because they are meant as punishments, they are where contaminated souls live until their karmic debt has run out in that realm/they have achieved some form of clarity enough to change their ways and it qualifies them to move up a path. The lower three are the realm of animals, the realm of ghosts and angry spirits, and then the hells.

Byleth starts out in the realm of animals, it’s reflecting by their title of Ashen Demon and their description of being emotionless killing machines before Garreg Mach. They don’t care about much, they only focus on their immediate needs like eating and resting and whats immediately in front of them, they have no curiosity or inner awareness of themselves and their world. It is coming to the monastery that they become exposed to positive influences that put them on the correct path, they learn structure and good morals and to care for others and the game says so. I have issues with them but ultimately think they work because they show how even a blank slate, like an animal, can move on the correct path through learning and discipline.

Edelgard is an interesting mix, she embodies a lot of the selfishness of the animal realm but her position also incorporates a lot from the realm of the asuras, which is the realm the agarthans inhabit. Asuras were once divine and occupied the same realm as devas but their drunken wild behavior got them thrown out by Sakka as disciplinary measure. Asuras did not reflect on why they were tossed out, instead they got angry and now wage war on the devas in order to retake what they think belongs to them.

Now asuras are not excluded from the path of reincarnation, everyone has the chance to repent, change their ways, do better and move up the wheel until they achieve arhat and nirvana, but often asuras have negative qualities. They tasted heavenly pleasures but do not understand that acting poorly robbed them of that and so blame the devas instead of working to better themselves; they are addicts to pleasure and immediate gratification but also to violence and fighting, they are envious of others and mostly focus on how much they hate others for daring to be happier then them instead of working to achieve their own happiness. Now these are not qualities exclusive to asuras but they best embody them while humans are more neutral.

The agarthans were humans who became greedy and waged war on each other to accumulate wealth and power and the goddess Sothis decided to discipline them, but then agarthans proved they were (ironically) acting like beasts by deciding that their greed was more important. They could not stand being contradicted and being told that their acts were wrong. So they plotted against heaven and chose to condemn themselves to hell (they live underground in the darkness, Shambhala is supposed to be the name of a heavenly paradise but instead they built it underground to continue their evil away from the eyes of heavens), because what sends anyone from any realm to the hells is knowingly choosing to do major evil and embracing major evil.

Edelgard acts out of ignorance like an animal or common beast, her vision cannot see past her own immediate desires and so she acts on that ignorance and her own selfishness. But what condemns her to hell, what turns her into an evil demon instead of remaining a selfish yet innocent animal is that she turns away from many people imploring her to listen to them and that her actions are wrong and that she is causing suffering. Edelgard being born into a wealthy, powerful family would usually mean that her previous karma has been good despite the tragedies in her later life, but good karma can easily be corrupted. Edelgard has been corrupted from a young age by bad faith actors who have embraced hell and so she has been steeped in corruption and been fed bad information for a long time, with no one stepping in to stop that because her environment was turned into one of corruption as well. But it is ultimately her who makes the choices to persist on a path of evil because she refuses to listen to others and embraces the suffering she causes and has caused as justified in pursuit of her goals.

Now Byleth and especially Silver Snow has shown they rose to being qualified by the good influence of the church and its teaching (even if the game doesn’t show much about those teaching but o well) to achieve higher paths, they have chosen to absorb and enact good. But especially, because the realm of asuras and beasts represent laziness, easy temptations, ignorance and immediate gratification opposed to discipline, hard work, introspection, and renunciation, it makes it more significant when byleth decides to sever ties with her when she reveals that she has not been an innocent student but in fact the flame emperor responsible for the many evil deeds along with the cooperation from agarthans. The act of renouncing such ties in order to enact justice and follow the correct path is what immediately qualifies Byleth to Nirvana and why they keep their divine traits on every path except Crimson Flower (where in Crimson Flower, killing Rhea, their final and most egregious act of violence against heavenly principles, condemns them to losing their divinity and turning back into the Ashen Demon, they lost themselves to the temptations and ignorance represented by Edelgard, safflowers are used to dye the robes of monks but red spiders lilies grow on the banks of the river of the dead).

The act of renunciation means Byleth has learned to forgo harmful attachments to instead pursue the correct path even if it comes with heartbreaks, but the reward for the difficulty is being a step closer to arhat. Because they are not the Buddha but are close to reaching enlightenment they achieve a very high position in Buddhism, which is staying in the human realm as a guide in order to help others on the correct path as well and is righteous.

This is also why i have many more issues with Shez than I do Byleth actually, maybe Byleth is silent but they have their own path to follow. Shez has no path and I’m not even sure what they are supposed to represent. Their personal class is asura, often clashing with devas and representing lack of reflection and selfishness and gratification and violence like I said before, but I can’t find anything in Shez story that actually says anything about that or their preferences and choices. Two out of three times they stray from the correct path and Rhea’s death should mean a violation of dharma because the agarthans have won, but I saw nothing in the game about immediate consequences of that violation or the causing of suffering Shez incorrect paths are causing. In Azure Gleam perhaps it is the story of the asura becoming aware that their past actions have been incorrect and so they must work to correct and better themselves, but they are overshadowed by the story of Faerghus. I love Faerghus but I was a little disappointed by the lost symbolism because it became the story of Faerghus repelling the invasion. Yes the Lions are good and righteous but I missed the story of them in Azure Moon, broken, then correcting themselves after they have temporarily fallen off the correct path and rising from their rut into righteousness.

With the Deer in Houses it was a house content to be stagnant and ignorant until war makes them realize they must instead act righteously and so they also choose the correct path, same as the Silver Snow Eagles who cut ties with Edelgard and perform their own renunciation. So Im not sure what Shez or anyone in this newer game are supposed to represent or be about when I liked Houses for its Buddhist themes.

I’m sorry for such a long message! Thank you for letting me talk.

Hi anon. No worries about the long message. I'm just not sure if my response can do it justice!

This is all very interesting indeed! I have a general understanding of Buddhism, but it is certainly not as deep or as complex as your understanding of it. While I grew up in some of my formative years in East Asia, Buddhism wasn't as prevalent in the local religions of my home.

I do agree that Hopes seems to lose the meaning and messages of Houses, although Houses itself was messy in its own right. And I agree that Western audiences often miss or do not understand the cultural differences that are woven into the world and narrative of many Japanese games. Especially when it comes to religion. I know myself and other mutuals have stated that the Church in Houses is no representation of the Catholic Church, as others have insisted upon.

I wish I could give you a longer response to match the quality and effort of your ask. But honestly, I have very little to add! I just thank you for sharing. I got to learn a little more along the way! :)

#anon asks #Three Houses discourse

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burr-ell · 4 days

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🏳️‍🌈🧡

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn’t seem queer to you?

I'm gonna talk Fire Emblem. YOU DIDN'T SPECIFY SO HA.

I do happen to think more characters in Three Houses are mlm/wlw than a number of people are willing to acknowledge (I don't consider "can be romanced by either gender Byleth" to be the only metric when some of them kids got gayass endings); like, Dimitri is absolutely bisexual. Claude, though...?

So this isn't really "I don't think Claude is queer at all"—I personally headcanon him as aspec—but I think he's exclusively attracted to women. Like, compare his supports and paired endings with Lorenz (where "diplomatic relations" is the furthest thing from a euphemism) and Balthus (where Balthus straight-up just marries an unnamed woman) to Dimitri's endings with Dedue (fellas is it gay to take up vigil at your liege's graveside and then be buried alongside him) or Felix (I'm grieving for him harder than his unnamed wife did because we're PLATONIC FRIENDS obviously). As I just said, a character's relationship to Byleth isn't the only metric for this, but I think it's pretty telling that nothing about Dimitri's interactions with or about Byleth change based on their gender, while some of Claude's dialogue adds in lines specifically about finding female Byleth attractive.

I mean, both Claude and Dimitri have paired endings with female characters that are giving contractually obligated (I can't imagine Dimitri/Ingrid or Claude/Leonie are terribly popular), but I feel like people interpret Claude as bisexual because he's charming and Dimitri as straight because...I guess his route has the most traditional Fire Emblem elements? Meanwhile, the actual situation is the complete opposite in terms of like, raw homoeroticism.

(As far as Critical Role is concerned, while I don't have a preference either way, I do see where @revvethasmythh is coming from that Jester has some ally energy. I do like bi4bi Fjorester too though!)

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

For FE3H, I think Teacher Theory is still very stupid and hasn't been ridiculed enough*. Like Edelgard works with a mole man death cult that does human experimentation and kidnapping and she personally has a secret pet serial killer and starts a war, but hiring bandits to kill her political rivals is suddenly beyond the pale and El Would Never**? And the obviously smarter 4d chess play would be to...get the church to hire the aforementioned secret pet serial killer (who already works there) to be the head teacher of her house, thus putting him under increased scrutiny? lmao ok

For Critical Role...okay, this is retroactive, but I gotta admit that the "'did she know' was actually Rashinna!" theory was not good, at all, and would have been incredibly boring if it had been true. (Also, just logically, why would Rashinna have ONLY sent that message to the two Ruidusborn?) If my understanding is correct people didn't want to say anything on the slim chance it was right, but once the episode aired the general consensus was "PHEW we're good c'mon man, seriously? We gave airtime to that?".

*I'd address the fanon coming out of the hardcore "genocide is okay" Edelstans (straight up just "source: I made it up"), but like, the question specifies 'popular' and that portion of the fandom has only gone more insane because they know everyone thinks they're all absolutely corncobs.

**If in an attempt at media analysis you call fictional characters by nicknames, cutesy or otherwise, you have waived the right to be taken seriously.

unpopular opinions asks

#asks #also not to be like this but 'did she know was rashinna' is giving imidna twitter

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emblemxeno · 1 year

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Do you think Edelstans' constant bellyaching on how Sothis and the Nabateans are "colonizers wanting to suppress humanity" is rooted in some hidden resentment/hatred towards immigrants?

I know it's fiction and the actual reason is that Edel hates them so why not side with the terrorist group that also hates Nabateans since she's working with them, but still. The rhetoric they like to throw against Nabateans and Sothis in addition to being antisemitic sounds like the same rhetoric xenophobic people like to use against immigrants. PS: Apologize for the discoursey question. Hope you're enjoying Engage.

Well, like always I hesitate to accuse people of actual real life hate, but then again this is the same group of people who think any dislike of Edelgard is misogyny before turning around and being actually misogynistic to actual real women for "only liking Dimitri to fix a bad boy/thinking with their hormones" soooo... *shrug*

Can't help but remember that one person who tried to say Lilo from Lilo & Stitch was abusive and ended up being islamophobic and hating immigrants as well despite appearing very liberal. Those who get a bit *too* into media criticism weirdly end up sounding (or being) very reactionary and bigoted on the sly, and it's happening more often as of late on social media. Why I bring this up? Mostly cuz the stans have the same mindset. After all they're the same people who equate a magic dragon falling from space and sharing her knowledge with humans to actual colonization, and seem to be trying too hard to make a point about "thinking critically about yur media" when in actuality they're acting like idiots who overcomplicate everything because 3H has slight politicking and discussion of class separation.

All in all, I'd sooner call them annoying than xenophobic, but let's just say at this point I won't end up surprised if the more toxic ones end up being genuinely bad people.

And thank you, I am very much enjoying Engage!

#queue #fire emblem discourse #edelgardiscourse

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randomnameless · 1 year

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Now I know why it's called sealioning, because they bring in a lot of salt like the sea.

Lol

I think what is even more hilarious is how they bring salt to posts where people are just rejoicing at their fave being added in a game !

They are so salty they can't let people enjoy the things they like ?

Even redshit (!) started to catch on to them, and again, disagreeing about a post or a take about a character is how Fandom lives as long as you respect boundaries-

But posting "salt takes" in the main tag, doubling it with a critical tag is, imo, taking a dump on those boundaries.

Like, if I bought the latest pokemon games, I'd rename a Nacli to "edelstan".

#replies #anon #fandom woes #Low grade troll 0/10 on the double headed scale #Real trolls are more unpredictable than this

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raxistaicho · 8 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/randomnameless/726562224859185152/i-think-you-got-this-anon-because-raxi-poo-is-shit?source=share

someone is at it today

Ooooohhh, fun :D

Also they're gonna accuse me of sending this to myself via a sockpuppet. Oh well.

Honestly, I don't think I was even that mean to her. I criticized her obnoxious nicknames and said she was wrong about Three Houses (how dare I) but damn, if that's their standard for "shit talking" they are very sensitive souls. It was Fantasy Invader that I insulted.

Yeah, I think he made a post about and FI because how dare you guys have fun and share your ideas…

What, lol. They're free to share their ideas. I'll criticize their ideas when they're dumb, and FI's ideas are most certainly dumb, but he's still free to share them.

I've noticed this bizarre misconception from them that they think I'm mad they exist or that they can say things on the internet, but that's most certainly not true. I just think bad ideas deserve to be challenge.

Either that or they just really don't like being disagreed with (it happens to them all the time on Reddit and Twitter so they despise both) and they're mad not even Tumblr is safe from the scourge of the Edelstan.

it feels like a fact of life now, the sky is blue, the earth is green. Raxi poo poo is throwing a tantrum, screaming and crying "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" almost like a childish insecure bully

Heh. I've been spending like a week getting sucked hard into Berwick Saga (seriously, really good game, really experimental gameplay and it shares some themes with Three Houses, try it out sometime, but be sure to get advice if you do) such that I've barely posted at all aside from demonstrating that I'm still alive, but when I manage to find the time over the weekend to finish a post I'd been sitting on for like a week or two that's me seeking attention, yes, go off.

I mean fuck, I'm even several days behind on sporking the next chapter of the Edelgard in Thracia fic, curse you, Berwick :(

I'll try to get around to it Saturday or Sunday...

You are a European savage who smashes words together and drops vowels!! Did you ever consider the feelings of the letter E before you dropped it from Je?!?!?!

Ugh. Europeans.

That was a joke, obviously.

I feed dolphins ! I'm not "mean"!

Dolphins may be cute, but they're also fucked uuuuuppp. They're known to kill other animals for fun, and they do it savagely.

#edelgard discourse #edelgard critical

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butwhatifidothis · 1 year

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"she feels a sense of duty for the people" yeah by murdering them. Her own and those of the other nations. How equal of her, what a queen amiright guys

#anti edelgard #anti-edelgard #edelgard critical #edelgard discourse #just to be safe #Edelgard: *violently conquers foreign sovereign nations in the name of butt-ass naked imperialism*#Edelgard: but like i liek the peepul tho :(#edelstans: SEE SHE’S SO NICE HOW COULD ANYONE DISLIKE HER #legit it's like these people have never heard of the idea of actions speaking louder than words i stg

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travelling-on-the-octopath · 2 years

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Have you read A Dimiclaudeleth fic called The Savior King, The Master Tactician, and The Queen of Liberation? Ever since Hopes the Edelstans have been hating on it more than ever. There’s even a recent Reddit thread about it with the OP asking if it was good and many of the people saying no, calling it “biased” and “fetishized”, also like The Emperor and the Goddess, the same people who cried “Harassment!” when it got criticized for the same thing. The lack of self awareness with these people.

I've heard of it several times, but the sheer size and incomplete nature of it is intimidating (← total fuckin hypocrite fjdhsksl). I definitely wanna read it eventually, because dimiclaudeleth is near and dear to my heart.

All I'm gonna say is that labelling a work as a meta, or an analysis of the canon work, invites it to be critiqued as such. But if you're going around tearing apart a fanfic (that's been in the works for, holy shit, three years) and telling people not to read it when all it's doing is sitting there and vibing? You need to do some serious soul-searching. It does speak to a certain lack of self-awareness, though, that people will do the exact thing that's hurt them in the past under the pretense that they're somehow different. Again, I prescribe some soul-searching.

Anyway, I wish ao3 user ReynaAtTheEnd all the best. It sucks to watch people shit all over your hard work, especially when it's something born from joy like fanfic.

#s responds #jesus fuck 90 in the inbox. sorry y'all fjdhsjsls #anonymous metropolis

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teaveetamer · 2 years

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Your line about how Edelstans don't admit that she's written for the male gaze "because it would lower their cred as “progressives” if they admitted that this female character was written in a sexist way and they like her like her even though her writing is demonstrably sexist" really makes sense. But for reference, what are some good examples to use for this, in case someone asks me why Egg's writing is sexist? You can give examples for primarily 3H tho if you wanna ignore Nopes altogether.

Full disclosure that I still haven't beaten Scarlet Blaze so there might be more from Three Hopes that I'm not aware of. I'm not ignoring it, I just haven't seen it yet if it exists (someone who has played it in its entirety can speak to it, if they want to chime in).

#1) The game has a huge purity kink with her

This is a common sexist writing trope because it implies that women are only "desirable" so long as they are "unspoiled". Think all of those slut shaming sex ed videos shown in American schools where women are described as tape and if you stick tape to lots of surfaces (have sex with more than just your future husband) it "gets dirty" and "loses its bonding power" (your sex with your husband is less special and valuable).

Now note how Edelgard is almost a sexless being unless she is speaking about or interacting with Byleth? That's not an accident. She is one of the few characters (if not the only character?) in the game who is never even passingly romantic with any of her support partners in their A support. In fact, there's several intimations of romance that she explicitly shuts down. Hubert (he says he loves her, she doesn't say it back), Ferdinand (he starts giving a speech about how his ancestor asked for her ancestor's hand after a duel, she tells him to stop), I suppose you could even argue that Dorothea was having romantic feelings directed toward her (she completely misses the implication).

She does have endings that are romantic, but you can only see those once you, the player, have decided that you do not want her (therefore there is no reason to keep her "pure" for you anymore).

And this purity aspect isn't just exclusive to Crimson Flower. Note how Edelgard has feelings for Byleth in every single route of the game, including ones where she has never interacted with them for more than a minute or two at a time?

She's in love with you and only you. She is eternally pure and waiting for the moment you reach out your haaaaand to her, and if you never do she will either happily die, or only move on after you have 100% made it clear you do not want her.

And if I have to explain why that's sexist here it is: women do not exist solely for the pleasure of men. We have lives. We love and we have desire and there is nothing dirty or wrong about expressing that with as many partners as we want. This idea that women must remain pure and if she doesn't then no man would ever want her is rooted in sexist mentalities stemming from when women were viewed as nothing more than property. Edelgard is treated as the player's "property" to use or dispose of as they please. If she loved anyone but the player, she would be viewed as "damaged goods" (and, if you're aware of the Japanese side of the fanbase, that's actually a semi-common criticism of Dorothea's writing.)

"But what about Female Byleth!" Frankly I don't see "this character exists as my property" to be any less sexist just because it's happening between two women instead of a woman and a man. Byleth's gender is essentially a menu toggle, considering the writing is completely the same between them, and there's no difference in the way this narrative (written primarly by straight men, I might add) is presented.

2) Her agency (it's ambigous at best)

This is something you might miss if you haven't played Fire Emblem for very long, but Fire Emblem has a chronic issue with refusing to allow their female villains to have agency. This stems back from the very first director of FE, Kaga, who explicitly wrote elements of benevolent sexism into his female villains because he believed women were "too pure" to be truly evil. This often took the form of brainwashing, or on occasion, their love for the main villain being too strong to directly fight against him.

The series has broken away from this in some respects in some entries, but it is still very much a feature of modern Fire Emblem. See Aversa from Awakening as a recent example: she only opposes the player because she was kidnapped and mindwiped as a child. You could argue they even added these elements into SoV with Reina and her love for Berkut.

Now we get to Edelgard. If you've had any conversation about her then you've probably asked yourself the question: how responsible was she for her actions, really? And the answer to that is... as responsible as you want her to be.

Ever wonder why you never get rid of TWSITD earlier in any route of Three Houses? Because the developers need them around behind the scenes, "pulling strings" and keeping Edelgard's exact degree of agency up in the air. When you kill her in any of the other three routes she can always be the poor helpless woman controlled by the big bad men in the background, if you want to keep her innocent.

I've never talked about this before, but I think it became really obvious with Hopes. Azure Gleam, TWSITD are not slithering around in the background at all. She's expelled them from the Empire and everything she does is explicitly of her own volition. And what happens to her when the story gets around to trying to hold her accountable for her crimes? She turns into a brainwash victim.

She never has to be directly held responsible for any of her actions, to reinforce the idea that she is an innocent woman.

And if you need me to explain why that's sexist: it's benevolent sexism. Benevolent sexism is still sexism because it still reinforces the sexist societal expectations of women and men. It just does it in a way that seems kinder on the surface. I'll provide an example:

A woman and a man work together. There's a box that needs carrying. The man says to the woman:

"Oh I'll carry it. After all, there's no way a woman could pick up something so heavy" (Hostile sexism)

"Oh let me get that for you. Women are pretty delicate so you shouldn't have to do work like this" (Benevolent sexism)

The meta-message is the same: women are not supposed to lift heavy things because that is a "man's job". In Fire Emblem's case, it's that women can't be villains because women are supposed to be innocent and pure and good. The only way a woman could do villainous things is if a man is forcing her to go against her pure nature through manipulation or brainwashing. This puts women on a pedestal, and elevates us to something superhuman. But it's not a good place to be, either, because women are people just like anyone else and real life women are never going to be able to maintain that pedestal position for very long.

I could go into it more and the effects it has on women, but that's getting a bit out of the scope for this post. I'd be happy to explain further if anyone is curious, but the gist of it is: it's bad for the same reason porn can be bad. If you aren't aware of how unrealistic it is then it creates unachievable expectations that no real human being would ever be able to live up to.

3) Some of the writing around her is weird, and occasionally just straight up creepy.

It's stuff like her having an emotional moment and then cutely screaming at rats, or seeing horrible experimentations at Remire and then blushing over being teased, or watching two of her subordinates die and then immediately uwuing about how she doesn't want you to see the drawing she's making of you.

It's clear that her being cute and appealing to the player is consistently taking priority over the actual narrative. Her value is as a love interest first and a character second.

And if you want to know why that's sexist: Women have lives and stories to tell. Our experiences and our stories should not be subordinate to our romantic appeal.

As for the stuff about her writing that's just straight up creepy? You'll have to consult with blogs more familiar with the language and culture than mine, but as a taste... In the Japanese, there are some things that they definitely didn't localize over. For example, I believe at Remire one of your options leads to Byleth essentially joking that Edelgard is flat-chested. (EDIT: I've been informed that it wasn't a boob joke. It was teasing Edelgard over her reaction to the tragedy of it basically being "ewww gross". Which probably belongs in the above category about how she's written to be childish/cute to appeal to the player). And in one of their supports (I think C+?) Byleth can joke about being a creepy old man coming by her room in the middle of the night to steal her panties.

Because you know what we really needed in that scene where characters are reacting to horrific human experimentations leading to madness and murder and a burning village... was a joke about a woman's breast size. (EDIT: See above. Still, a very weird moment to bring in her acting like a child seeing a slimy snail or something.) And I'm sure that PTSD flashback dream conversation wouldn't have been complete without her teacher joking about wanting to sniff her panties while jerking off.

Like I said, they didn't bring that over to the English release (because of course they wouldn't it's horrible) but it just goes to show that the developers viewed Edelgard as a sexual object before anything else.

#Edelgard discourse

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