#I don't consider myself being bullied here just to make it clear

[roboticchibitan]

I remember when same sex marriage was legized in my state (3 years before obergefel vs Hodges which legalized it nationwide). It won by a very narrow margin.

People who had taken care of me when I was young, people who were like second parents to me, (along with half the other people I knew) were saying it was the end times because I could now get married. And I couldn't help but wonder... would those people have protected me, cared for me, let me play with their children, if they had known I would grow up to be queer?

I came out in 2011. I was lucky. My parents were accepting. My mom was clearly uncomfortable at first but she made it clear she loved me no matter what.

Except.

My dad didn't care if I was queer and assured me that didn't mean there was anything wrong with me (in a speech I didn't need to hear but I think he needed to say). But he still said "that's gay" and "that's faggy" anytime my little brother showed vulnerability.

And I was a lucky one. My father used homophobic slurs around me regularly. He turned the word gay into a slur with his homophobic mouth. And I was a lucky one.

When I came out publicly, my grandmother stopped speaking to me for a while. I'm lucky that she changed her mind. I'm lucky that my grandparents let me bring my girlfriend with me when I went to visit them in October. October of 2022 and I still consider myself lucky that my grandparents let my queer partner into their house. My other grandma likewise visited with us, and was polite and friendly, but she still refused to call my gf anything other than "your friend." Still lucky. Incredibly lucky.

People don't understand just how bad things were as much as ten years ago. When I came out at school, I was lucky. No one bullied me. No one shoved me into lockers or called me slurs. They all just stopped talking to me. I became invisible. I went to a small school. I was the only person who was out. Exactly one person talked to me the rest of the year. And I was a lucky one.

When I was in middle and highschool, the go to insult was "that's gay." I heard it constantly. Every day. Sometimes people said it to me to insult me, long before I even knew I was queer.

I was lucky because the worst that happened to me was social isolation and people using slurs around me or turning my identity into a slur. No one called ME faggy. No one beat me up behind the school bleachers. I was incredibly lucky.

I have experienced the word "gay" used as a slur far more than I ever heard the word "queer" used as a slur. Young "queer is a slur and only a slur" people need to know the world you live in is not the world the rest of us live in. Why is "queer" a slur but "gay" isn't? My homophobic father thought the word "gay" conveyed just as much offense and disgust as the word "faggot." So why is queer the horrible word that can never be reclaimed but people say "that's gay" as a compliment now? The loneliest I have ever felt was in a room full of teenagers who thought my identity was the height of insults. So why is gay fine but queer isn't?

I am a fat butch queer and I do not hide that. My shoes have a pride flag on them. I have a masculine haircut and wear men's clothes. I look queer.

And I am afraid. I dress like this anyway, because I want other queer folks to know I am a safe person. I dress how I do partially because I like it but also partially so any queer person in the room, no matter now closeted, can see me and feel a little bit safer. Because I will protect other queer people with my life if need be.

Because I am openly and visibly queer and live in a world where being queer can get you killed. Because it can. Gay bashings still happen. The alt right are getting bolder in their violence, and that includes homophobic/transphobic violence. There are organizations in the US that are actively pushing to make homosexuality punishable by death in Africa. They know they could never accomplish that here. But they would if they could. People want us dead.

Young people need to understand that. And they need to understand that the people who did the most work to free us from criminalization were queer. They identified as queer. And they weren't the perfect law abiding queers toeing the line of what's acceptible. Because being queer itself was illegal. You could end up on the sex offender registry for being gay. In fact, there are queer people who are STILL registered as sex offenders just because they were queer in 2001. Pride wasn't a permitted parade with wells Fargo floats. It was angry queers illegally marching down the streets, screaming "We're here. We're queer. Get used to it."

Being openly queer is a radical act. It is still a radical act.

I did not live through Windsor vs the united states, the referendum 74 debate, my father punishing my brother for being human with homophobic slurs, and the pearl clutching fearmongering about "the gay agenda" (that was a go to phrase for 2012 homophobes) for some LGBT kid to come at me with TERF bullshit they got off tiktok about how my identity is a slur and I'm a horrible person for using it.

I was a lucky one and I'm still saying "no, absolutely not" to this bullshit.

Queer is more inclusive. Queer accounts for any possible fluidity because people change. Identities change. Queer is there for people who know they're Something Different but are not sure of the details yet. Queer is intentionally vague. When you're young you want everyone to know exactly who you are but as you get older you realize actually my identity is none of your business. In fact, sometimes when you tell someone your identity, you're handing them a bludgeon for them to hurt you with.

If you have trans classmates, you do not understand the world the rest of us grew up in. Trans people were not a public topic. They were not even acknowledged as existing by most people. I didn't know what being trans was until I was like 17. I'm nonbinary now and consider myself trans 10 years later.

And I didn't even have it that bad. But you know what? It still sucked and it was still hard and I can't imagine what it was like to grow up a decade before I did. I had it easy compared to most people.

If you can jokingly say "that's gay" when someone expresses queer love, then you can fucking handle people using the word queer as their identity.

The infighting and policing each other has to stop. You're oppressing queer people with this bullshit. It does not matter what words queer people use to describe themselves when there are people actively killing us. What are you doing? For fucks sake look at the bigger picture. Direct all that rage at our oppressors and the people who mean us harm. Queer people and he/him lesbians and bi lesbians and people who use neo pronouns and whoever else is the discourse of the day do not deserve this kind of treatment. Punch a homophobe and maybe you'll feel better.

#tw homophobia #had to go on a rant because I was thinking about how trapped and afraid I felt during the referendum 74 debate #nothing was safe #no one was safe #we are still not safe #discourse

[mingyus-blackcard]

ੈ✩‧₊ One Step ੈ✩‧₊

Pairing : Seunghan x Gn! Reader

Genre : Idol au, Angst

Song : Happier than ever ( rock version) by Billie Eilish

TW: Depression, cyber bullying, idol life , suide

A/N : This is a very sensitive fic, I wrote this because all that's happening with Seunghan is absolutely not fair, not only him but other idols also suffer. We need to realise they are also human and it's their first time living too.

･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･

The car horns were blaring, the wind forcing the boy to keep his eyes open. Standing on top of the roof edge, his eyes blurred, with tears or with regret, he could not tell. He may have made mistakes in the past, but he wondered how much he could take before he could give up.

His ideal dream of debuting in an idol group, discovering the wonders of the world while touring and singing his lungs out had been reduced to an hope which was being extinguished by some jealous friends of his on the Internet. Seunghan debuted as a member of RIIZE, a group under the biggest entertainment in South Korea, fame finding them before they could even step out of the basement.

It scared him, how he was not afraid to die, rather afraid of being wrong in front of some users on the internet.

The life he sacrificed everything for, snatched away because he had a few moments of joy, but now he was fighting for the courage to live than kill himself. He felt broken, like that last piece in a puzzle that was not fitting. He was only human, 'it was your fault' ringing inside his head. He brought disgrace to his group, he brought disgrace to his family, all would be gone if he took a step. One step to his freedom, one step to his new life, one step to happiness.

"Does it ever stop hurting?"

Seunghan turned around and saw a person's shadow, but the tears flowing made it difficult to make out who it was.

"Of course it does, once the blood seeps out." His voice quavered.

"Go ahead and leave then, everyone does."

"They hated me in life, maybe they could love in death."

"It's worth giving a try to relive."

"Reliving where I don't have to starve myself to sing, carve my name in trophies to redeem myself."

"You failed in living, what makes you think you will succeed in dying."

"I kept running behind success, let this fall make it run after me."

Seunghan could feel a smile creep on his face, the feel of ending it all making the adrenaline rush in his body, the same adrenaline feeling he got before his first ever debut stage. Oh, but look at irony, a smile starting the movie, an even bigger smile to finish the movie. A movie well criticised by those who could never feel the making of it.

"If all you had to do was run, you should have joined a marathon team."

"At least there I would run towards my goal and not away from it."

The person took a few steps forward, hands in pocket due to the cold wind blowing, Seunghan just staring at the person in front of him.

"Is this you speaking or the adrenaline in you speaking because you are standing on the edge?"

Seunghan scoffed at the question, he was considering taking his life right here and this person was taking it as a joke,

"Of course it's me, I won't be standing here because of a dare."

"Well, then I dare you, come down the edge and say you want to jump off, look me in the eyes and say you want to jump off."

"I can say all that from right here."

"I know you can, but just come down once."

"Once you reach the top, it's difficult to come down"

"Then don't look down, look at me, I am here for you."

"I am glad, but it's a little late to be here for me."

Talking made it all the tougher for Seunghan to clear his mind. With a last glance at the person in front of him, he turned facing the city lights and said with confidence,

"Why would I come down when right now I feel the happiest man on top of the world?"

With that he took the step, deaf to the screams of the person behind him, deaf to the car horns blaring, deaf to the screams of his fans on debut, deaf to affections of his parents, deaf to the laughter of his members,

deaf to the little voice in his brain saying "one more chance was all that was needed."

#riize imagines #riize #riize x reader #riize x y/n #riize x male reader #riize angst #kpop x reader #kpop #kpop angst #i support you seunghan #riize seunghan #seunghan #riize is 7 #seunghan x reader

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I like your blog but I was disappointed to see you say it would ever be okay for Zutarians to have Katara and Zuko cheat on Aang and Mai in their fics if they acknowledged it is bad. Somethings can't be done right and need to just be kept out of any story. It's completely disrespectful to the Kataang and Maiko fans.

Also if I were you, I'd block the anon who said they could understand the appeal of Zucest even if they claim not to ship it, and in case you don't know, a blog you reblog from a lot hello-nichya-here likes that cursed shit so there's another one for your block list. Incest is gross and immoral even if it's fiction, and you'd be better off not interacting with that kind of people.

Buddy, I'm brazilian. I was raised on soap-operas. If I gave people shit for enjoying any media that involves the main characters selfishly cheating on their partners to be with each other, I'd be the world's biggest hypocrite. That kind of stuff is an easy source for drama, and it will always be part of romance stories - regardless of the quality of said romances.

As for it being disrespectful to Kataang and Maiko, yeah, I could see it, but only if it's combined with a bunch of slander towards these characters, and pulling stuff like "How I Became Yours" did by saying Mai was a terrible, abusive person for being angry that her husband cheated on her, or if it's shit like Zutarians constantly harrassing shippers about how Aang/Mai is totally being cucked. But if they're just writing as a source for drama in a story, without demonizing the characters that are clearly being screwed over by Zuko and Katara, I don't mind it.

Also I fully disagree with you on the "Somethings can't be done right and no one should write them." No topic should be forbidden in fiction, and what people should discuss is "Does this make narrative sense?" not "Is this a morally correct thing for people to do?"

How would that even work for the Avatar fandom anyways? "Sure, the original show is literally about war and genocide, and it is constantly praised for having an imperialist prince redeem himself and befriend the people he sent a hitman after, but if we write characters doing immoral things like cheating or sleeping with a relative THAT is going too far"

Sounds like one hell of a double-standard to me. And I've literally said it in my pinned post: This blog exists solely to point out the kind of behavior that made Zutara become such a hated ship, not to bully people that are just minding their business, or to tell them what tropes they are allowed to like. I don't like the idea of Zuko and Katara together at all, especially not with it involving them hurting Mai and Aang. But if the people writting these stories weren't constantly forcing it down everyone's throats, I wouldn't mind them adding that trope to every single fic they wrote.

As for the second part of your ask, I guess there's only one way for me to make my stance on Zucest VERY clear, so you and anyone else who could be bothered by it can decide if you want to keep following this blog:

Hello, Nichya here. I'm not going to use this side-blog to block my main, as I feel it would be kind of pointless to block myself considering the content in both accounts is coming from the same brain.

And see Zutara fans? It's super easy to only bring up your OTP when it is relevant to the conversation and without trying to force other's to like it, and it tends to get you far less hate too, no matter how "problematic" your ship is.

#anti zutara #kind of #zucest

[crash-bump-bring-the-whump]

Whump Week - Day 5

Day FIVE let's give it up for DAY FIVE for @week-of-whump!! Once again, this was inspired by a convo with @whumpr and can even be considered a sequel to this!

Prompt: "Stay still" TWs: reluctant/mean caretaker, abuse/bullying, BRIEF emeto reference

"If I have to repeat myself again, I won't just hit you once." Dimitri growled. He forced Mariano back down against the pillows, almost relishing the whine that pulled from the teenager. "Stay. Still. Sleep."

Mariano did stay down, though. He stayed in bed as Dimitri pulled the plain green sheets up over him and pressed the wrapped ice pack to his forehead. He didn't try to argue. Really, Dimitri was almost proud of the knot that had swollen up on Mariano's head--he'd hit the ground pretty hard when Dimitri had punched him for talking back.

Manuel had said that it was reasonable to not want to be called a little bitch during a debriefing meeting, and so had Luis, but Dimitri still thought it was applicable. Mariano deserved to hear the truth after their post-mission dinner had given him food poisoning. Only a little bitch would go almost unscathed through razing a city, just to get sick from a diner omelet.

Dimitri wished that Luis had just given him laps. But no, now he was stuck taking care of Mariano until he was cleared for duty again. It was the worst.

Sometimes he'd whine in his sleep, or try to get up when Dimitri was right there. "God. It's like you don't want my help."

Mariano opened his mouth to say something before flinching. He turned his face into the pillow. "Sorry."

"You should be." Dimitri grumbled as he sat down. He pulled out his laptop, plugged in his headphones. Mariano had a comfortable bed, the sun streaming in through the slats of the blinds, and he had water on his bedside table. That had to be perfect.

Before he knew it, hours had drifted by. He'd finally finished all the paperwork he had been behind on. With a satisfied sigh, Dimitri closed out the window and glanced over at Mariano.

He was asleep, finally. Manuel had made sure to tell Dimitri that Mariano needed to rest and limit screen time, and it was good that the idiot was finally listening. Dimitri reached to take the ice pack away before pausing.

His eyes lingered on Mariano's face. Were those tear tracks? "Hey." Dimitri wasn't even sure if Mariano was awake.

Why the fuck was he crying? When had he stopped? When Dimitri reached to wipe at Mariano's face, he felt him flinch.

"Hey. You're fine." Dimitri growled.

Mariano opened his eyes, wincing in the light. "...Sorry."

"What do you need? You were crying and didn't tell me."

"Sorry."

Dimitri's jaw clenched. "Stop apologizing. I'm here to take care of you. Stop being stupid."

Mariano started to talk and then stopped a few times. "The light makes the migraine worse. And the nausea."

"It's three PM. I can't turn off the sun." Dimitri scoffed. "Spoiled brat."

Mariano's face twisted, just for a moment, but he finally met Dimitri's eye. "I was...earlier I was going to go sleep in the closet. I wasn't...I wasn't trying to be difficult. Or a brat."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"It's dark and quiet. Easier on my stomach and head. Thought I'd bother you less in there."

Dimitri pulled a face, but he shrugged. "Alright then. Come on, come on." He helped Mariano up, noticing that he didn't make a move to grab a pillow or blanket. When Dimitri opened the door, he saw that behind a box, there was a little corner with a pillow and blanket already set up.

Dimitri froze. "What the fuck is this?"

Mariano didn't look at him, not even when Dimitri's arm tightened around his waist. "Sometimes flickering lights wake me up at night and it's hard to get back to sleep."

"So you haven't been sleeping well."

Mariano flinched like he'd been slapped. "No. But I'm dealing with it."

"No you aren't. I'm telling Manuel, and he's going to report this to Luis." Dimitri said. He helped Mariano down onto his closet floor.

Mariano fit perfectly in the tiny corner when he curled up and pulled the blanket over himself. "...Okay."

"You need to tell us if something is going on with you." Dimitri said. If he was a touch more gentle as he brushed Mariano's hair back to place a fresh ice pack on his head, neither of them would comment on it.

"I didn't want to be dramatic."

"And now you're sleeping in a closet, so maybe bite the bullet next time." Dimitri shook his head. "Sleeping pills aren't a big deal, god. Luis will probably want to meet with you later this week to get an appointment or something set up." He stood, crossing his arms. "Now just shut up, drink your water, and take a nap."

When Dimitri closed the door, he almost thought he heard a sigh of relief. It didn't stop him from going to tell Manuel what he'd found out. It didn't even stop the satisfaction that bubbled up when Manuel just muttered that he knew something was wrong.

Maybe, he thought as Manuel left to call Luis, he'd even get out of Mariano duty early as a reward.

#whump #whump week #day five #reluctant caretaker #mean caretaker #abuse #bullying #emeto reference #dimitri #manuel #mage of violence #dimitri isn't the worst #he's not GOOD but he's also not the worst here either

[mr-payjay]

You want to talk about doomed payjay sooo badly. I went on a huge rant about it yesterday and im curious to see what you think about it (also thank you for causing the payjay nickel incident that killed me)

YOU BET I DO!!! also im glad my superchat affected so many payjay fans, i find the result of it quite amusing

my favourite kind of doomed payjay is when their mental illnesses intersect... it's also fun to exaggerate them. ive found a lot of people like delusionally jealous oj? whenever i bring it up people get excited. to clarify, it's. pretty much just yanderizing oj LOL! here's some of the issues that can occur with delusional jealousy (disclaimer: i don't believe oj would ever do these. this is just a way i like to explore his character and push his jealousy and possessiveness to extremes for fun! at the very most, oj would fantasize about this, but he'd try to push the thoughts of it away because he'd think it makes him a bad person.)

ive been wanting to draw some of this for funsiessss. make that man go crazy bonkers insane like im monika ddlc turning up The Yandere Dial on yuri

another thing that's fun to explore is paper's need for attention!! my friend is better at explaining and detecting paper's hpd than i am, but i still notice some symptoms and scenarios myself: paper making a big deal about getting possibly eliminated while sitting on the bench, paper dramatically telling oj to go on without him then getting upset when he Does That, paper socializing quite a bit and generally being pretty extroverted, etc. and that can be. fun to think about! mind you i think more about oj's npd and bpd but i, of course, love paper a lot too. my friend suggested this, but paper feeding into oj's obsession (paper is oj's fp to be clear, umm i can give proof if someone wants?) to get attention & fucking things up just so he has to fix it and help him and Observe him is fun to consider. there's also the fact paper is bullied and shunned pretty often both in ii1 (remember apple) and in the hotel (they canonically just. destroy things. and paper has to fix them), and he's often not given attention other than to be useful... which kinda explains paper's eagerness to help in canon! id say it started off with paper trying to help people a lot in ii1, then they got used to it and started to assume he'd help all the time in the hotel, which he just went with because it's The Only Time they give him attention. also is why he canonically likes to cook :) he loves the reception it gets!

i like divorced payjay, but i don't think it would happen realistically. they're together for life. it definitely gets hard sometimes (they're both Suffering in general) but they're never ever Ever going to give up on each other. and that's beautifullll ahh my little Worms

um. i just realized i rambled more about their respective mental illnesses than doomed payjay LOL welllll it causes problems in their relationship ok

if you want you can send me an ask rambling about doomed payjay... id love to see what you were ranting about yesterday!

#juice.txt #ii paper #inanimate insanity #payjay #ii oj #oj ii #paper ii #thank you nutakuro!!! #ough i need to talk more about npd oj sometime im really into it rn #also oj's dilemma with the hotel ruining his life and his devastating fear of admitting failure and his need to be useful

[sanityshorror]

so someone sent and ask to another blog I follow saying that your OC, julius is a rapist/necrofile. They also said that you bully people. I think it might be BS, but you never know.

I appreciate you coming to me directly to ask. Ironically enough, I was just considering making a statement where I ask people to ask me before believing what an anon says. This got long but I felt like it was necessary to include as much context as I can. Thank you /gen

First, I want to remind everyone that I am not my character and Julius is not any sort of representation of me. The way the person who has been spam sending these asks regarding this very clearly is using specific wording to make people subconsciously see me and my character as one entity, frankly that's rather slimy of the person sending the anons to blogs.

REGARDING ME: I do NOT bully people, I keep to myself.

There was a situation over a year ago that started based on miscommunication and me being an idiot, not thoroughly fact checking, and proceeding to make a claim about someone that turned out to be untrue. I gave the person a sincere both private and public apology, to which they accepted. (This all happened over a year ago). I'm keeping it vague as said person affected by my careless actions has been extremely clear they don't want the situation to be spoken of.

At their request, and as the morally right thing to do, I used it as a learning experience and I'm very careful to not let my emotions and impulses get the best of me. I also ignore drama and certainly don't instigate it. Yes, I stand up for myself, but not in a way that is harassment.

This drama is ridiculous given I have left creepypasta, and I have no desire to personally interact with the fandom or be involved. I do not have time for this drama, I do not know why on earth people are suddenly anon spamming. It's stressful. I have more than enough going on in my life. To again reiterate: I left Creepypasta. I'm a published author and a professional freelance artist. I created The Hellcrew Project, an original horror series/franchise that I co-create with @gracilissart and @scarfaxia . The Hellcrew has a fandom of it's own and those are the people who I interact with.

NOW, AS FOR JULIUS - there are two 'versions' of the character.

This is an important post I made that's relevant regarding creepypasta & Julius:

The character known as Julius the Dressmaker is a creepypasta. His only creepypasta canon is what's explicitly in the creepypasta: Julius the Dressmaker from Hell. Again, this story it's the ONLY canon for the creepypasta Julius, and there is no rape or necrophilia, but there is WiFi in Hell! It's tongue in cheek, rather comedic campy slasher, you can read it for yourself here:.

Julius 'Jules' Doherty

is the same character on only a very base level and by name. Yes, Julius 'Jules' Doherty is a necrophiliac and rapist, this is not a secret and never has been. He is an extreme horror character. He is meant to make you uncomfortable and I would be concerned if he didn't. I write extreme horror/splatterpunk, what will you expect from the genre? These things he does are never and have never been portrayed in any light other than horrific.

If you suspect I glamorize it, then you can read The Man with the Scarred Neck - Julius 'Jules' Doherty is the secondary antagonist, and see for yourself that I do not. You can buy The Man with the Scarred Neck in ebook or in physical copies

Here's the preface for it:

Hope this clears things up, thank you.

#julius the dressmaker #julius doherty #creepypasta #creepypasta fandom #yes horror characters do horrible this shocking i know

[nachoaveragejoe234]

Since I had to block a bozo who defends the hate of Russian civilians, (redjaybathood), here is proof of anti-Russian sentiment towards civilians, it's not propaganda and you ain't a tankie for calling it out.

OK, so I have to respond. Firstly, my criticism doesn't mean "I think Putin's behaviour is the right thing."

Let me ask you something. Why don't you lame Chinese civilians for their government? Why don't you call them names? Their leader is also a communist who threatens other countries. Why aren't Chinese civilians considered tankies? Why don't North Korean civilians get treated like they're part of the problem? Cherry picking.

Next, you're literally doing what the OP and many other people are calling out. Hating the civilians for existing and living in a dictatorship.

And since you freaked that I didnt send the links even though you can look it up yourself (meaning you're lazy), fine. Here we go. Now let's see if you try to accuse me of lying. This is the sentiment that lead to the Japanese internment camps which everyone agrees were wrong, but I know people would cheer for Russian ones. There's a LOT of Russia-bashing, believe it or not.

And serious actual hate crimes and attacks. All called "propaganda" by bigots.

That's arson if you don't speak German.

If a foreign minister needs to call you out, it's not propaganda.

NOTE: Dubs being put on hiatus, Russian non politial products like snacks and drinks being removed or given WARNINGS in stores, none of that happens to other "evil" countries like China. Selective outrage? I'd say so. And literal paragraphs about hate from the Wiki page.

All of these are civilians who are being treated like shit on the ASSUMPTION that if you're Russian, you must hate peace. Dictators are not the people. People are brainwashed. You don't have the right to judge the peopleof a dictatorship because they aren't born evil, they're taught to obey the dictator. It happened with Hitler. It happened with Stalin. It happened with Mussolini. It happened with Pol Pot. It happened with Milosevic. It happened with Hirohito. It happens with Xi. It happens with Kim Jong Un. Why is it that when it happens with Putin, and ONLY with Putin, are the civilians suddenly just as problematic as the leader? You can't judge an entire nationality based on a select number of people you've seen who agree (or pretend to agree, as many may not actually agree but pretend. If all you view them as is cowards, but you don't hold the same values to other citizens of dictatorships, you are in fact, a BIGOT and it's not problematic or propaganda or false to say so. I made myself very clear. If you still disagree that's your problem and you are a toxic person. Jesus fucking Christ)

Tell me again how being Russian automatically makes you a bad person and how civilians aren't victims just because they are living in a corrupt country. You judge the entire population based on what fringe nationalists and some brainwashed people say. Blanket statements about an entire nationality or race are NOT okay. Peoplewho criticizes this aren't automatically pro-tyranny. Not that you care or believe that.

As a bonus, let's talk about how America and Canada (my country) used to HATE UKRAINE, and they had Ukrainian internment camps.

Your reaction to this should NOT be "I don't think Ukrainians deserve peace". BOTH RUSSIA AND UKRAINE DESERVE PEACE AND TO BE FREE FROM HATE. THE HATE GOES IN ALL DIRECTIONS. THAT'S THE REASON WAR IS A THING. PUTIN NEEDS TO STOP FIGHTING. PEOPLE NEED TO STOP JUDGING CITIZENS OF A DICTATORSHIP FOR BEING FROM A DICTATORSHIP. THE MORE RUSSIANS THAT CALL OUT PUTIN ANY WAY THEY CAN THE BETTER. ALL OF THESE STATEMENTS CAN AND SHOULD CO-EXIST AND I YOU DON'T THINK SO, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. "BUT THEIR LEADER!" "BUT I'M UKRAINIAN" "BUT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY" "SHUT UP TANKIE" "ORC/RUZZIAN AREN'T SLURS THEY'RE TRUE". ARE NOT EXCUSES. The orcs and Ruzzians are Putin and his lackeys, not the people who live in said tyrant's cities. Obviously people should help Ukraine, that's absolutely fine. But people should not do or say anything the people above have said. It's pretty easy to find out of touch comments on Twitter and Quora that blanket the entire population as the same "evil commie tankie orc zombies". People calling out this stuff aren't trying to make a competition of "who has it worse" when in fact war harms EVERYONE.

That's all I can say. Don't like this? Then you should really think.

#slavophobia #tw: xenophobia #tw: hate crime #anti russian sentiment

[nikethestatue]

I'm thinking of leaving this fandom too. Honestly, I truly loved and enjoyed meeting fellow Elriels. One of the kindest and brilliant people I've met online. I've been in this fandom for years now, even before acosf came out. But I can't deal with the general acotar fandom now, and sadly, no matter how much I loved all the Elriel/Feysand contents, and friends here, it's not enough anymore.

I didn't signed up for this. I didn't signed up for the constant bullying, name calling, slut shaming, misogyny, victim blaming, pitting women against each other and etc., I didn't know the fandom will turn out like this, like a true hell for someone who only wanted a break from real life. I'd like to blame acosf because most of the misogynistic take started after it was released.

I didn't signed up for all the dumb takes. Honestly now? I felt SO ashamed of being part of this fandom. I was friends with someone on the other fandom when some people from acotar fandom started making fun of the characters from the other fandom and they started comparing unprovoked. It was so embarrassing that even though I am not mutuals with those people, I still ended up telling my friend I'm not in this fandom anymore.

I didn't signed up for idiocracy or delusions. No, all the takes that gets crazier everyday? No matter how much I convinced myself that it was funny and time will come when they'll be proven wrong and would leave this fandom (because most of them hate what sjm writes/loves. They hate Feysand, they hate the IC, they hate everyone but the two characters) it's not working anymore. It felt like "wow, really, I'm in the same fandom of people who actually think (or better yet not using their minds over a simple fun series) like this?" I hate to be categorized with these people.

I didn't signed up to lowkey get called stupid because apparently I don't have a degree on literature, fashion, or whatever. I hate how I saw a woman in this fandom dragging women down because they have "big job and helps to fight misogyny, what are you doing? I'm above you." when she's the most misogynistic person everyone ever met.

The arguments are repetitive, most posts are the same or just being aggressive. I'm actually just staying on tumblr for the fanfics and theories now but like what I said, the negative side of this fandom wins, and it's so so toxic for me.

Acotar fandom are full of misogynistic people (not all, but most) and they are even proud of it. You will see it on every tiktok, Instagram, Reddit, fb and Twitter posts (especially if it's about Feyre, Elain, Mor, N&C), you'd see the horrible comments against women characters and downplay their nasty behavior as "its just fiction" well yes, but considering how they act like this? What more in real life?

You can't have a decent argument here or have the chance to clear your name because the next thing you know everyone will post you on their Instagram Stories or blog with all their thousands of followers to see and they'll proceed to shun out an entire group.

Oh let me say that even acotar Reddit isn't a safe space for everyone. Not unless you stan Tamlin, Lucien, Eris or Azriel. There are people from Facebook who also infiltrates the elriel group and made fun of us on the comments. This fandom is a shitshow.

And yes, since I'm already in this, I hate how someone would literally badmouth elriels to ARTISTS. Who'd tell horrible things to the point where artists refuse to take comms or draws the ship. I was so baffled when I learned this from a friend. Like really? How petty can people be in this fandom?

It never felt safe anymore. And our feelings? Invalid. Only some group of people in this fandom has a say.

It's like suddenly after acosf, we're suddenly invaded by 5 years old who thinks being a gIrlboSs is cute.

And sadly maybe this is like my goodbye letter to this fandom. (Not to Feysand & Elriel, but I'll just connect when acotar 5 is released) It was such a great ride at first, but suddenly became cancer.

I don't have the heart to actually post this on my blog. I stopped answering anons because I'm slowly distancing myself.

I hope to have another pre acosf days, or better days where acotar readers doesn't compare traumas, wanted a woman character to suffer/punished, doesn't put value on women based on their womb, people who thinks they are above everyone and have to hate on female characters in general.

Ps: when acotar 5 drops, I'll never ever think twice on visiting acotar fandom again (but would never say bye to my friends)

I honestly admire you and the other OGs for staying here for so long. I know what you all went through silently in this fandom, and I admire the strength and class on how you all handled it.

That's all, thanks for reading this. (I'll surely miss sending you anon asks about acotar stuffs lol, I love your response everytime)

Oh Anon. Yes. To all of this.

It's a sad anon, not gonna like, it was hard to read it, because it's so very true.

It's been eye-opening, being in this fandom, as someone who kind of older and been around the block a few times. I thought that something's changed. That women talking about women's changed. That women thinking about women's changed. That we've been fighting the same battles. That we were kind of past appearances, hobbies, inclinations, abilities, and we were going to be accepting and kind towards other women. Nope. Not so much.

That's been the most shocking thing for me to witness in these past few years. The intense cruelty that women are willing to subject other women to...over a book. Over a character. It's weird. And if you are not in it, you wouldn't actually believe it. But it's true.

I think it's the anonymity of online existence that allows people to be like that. Or maybe it's like the Salem Witch trials--young girls being cruel to others only to be heard. Accusing and acting out for attention. Maybe things haven't changed all that much.

I will stay because I have to see this thing through. I think the next ACOTAR book will be announced sooner than we think.

But after it's done, after Elain's book is done, I'll be off faster than a prom dress.

(if you feel comfortable, tell me who you are, so if I don't see you, I know you left)

Hugs. Be in a place that's good for you and your soul and your psyche.

[yogoodfella]

I'm curious to see how you feel about Yuya given, uh, everything. But I know that might be a bit frightening so feel free to do either Sora or Serena instead!

Well, first question and I already have a slammer on my hands. Can't say I didn't ask for this one, so it's best I get these thoughts out on Yuya. Later on I might do the other two. Get ready. Also spoiler warning.

General opinion/How much I care about them: Yuya's a character I found frustrating as the show went on, but it's not his fault. Amongst all the characters with missed potential, Yuya's one of the very few ones who felt complete, with the initial shut-ins, insecurities, and bullying building him up to life his own life and make his mark on the world how he knows best: making people smile with his Entertainment Dueling. And in the Miami Championship, he really started to come on its own and actually impressed me. Another thing that impressed me was the Z-ARC foreshadowing: regardless of execution, you cannot say they didn't have that idea at the start, or at least the core of it. Sure, the road was bumpy (learning the same lesson over and over? Common and overused complaint, but I can't disagree with it) but it did lead to a complete character at least, which I do find endearing at the core. It's the world around him later on that becomes the frustrating part. Especially the post Z-ARC part, it felt like the world itself bent to Yuya's goals, like the whole world will be destroyed if Yuya doesn't get his girl, like... Ugh. AGAIN, he's not entirely at fault for that. I do care for him and wish him very well (despite the frustrations) and proper, thorough therapy. Also for his mindmates. Also... I don't have a strong opinion on Berserk Yuya. It's... A berserk form that always wins. I already know what's the outcome.

A ship I love: Eh... Not much of a shipper myself, but... Fruitshipping is fine, valid and canon, but frustrating because of reasons above which I also explained in my "Yuzu's Exhaustive, Exhausting Elegy". Again, not Yuya's fault here but Yuzu kind of destroying her own self for him just in a writing sense doesn't sit well for me. Even still, they have a fun dynamic and the support they show each other (even while separated by plot) is very much welcome.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: Aight, no complaints with this one YUYA | GONGENZAKA (sorry, don't remember the shipping name). What a fun dynamic the two have together, it's more than clear that they're besties and Gongenzaka's had a huge hand in supporting Yuya as well. There isn't much depth, but it's wholesome and solid the whole way through. I also really like the concept of two best friends having totally opposite Dueling styles, and in some way or another, approaching and learning more about each other's style (though Yuya learning the Heavystrong style was entirely out of my mind, and perhaps someone else's in a fanfic. The opposite happened though.)

The NOTP: Once again, no strong opinions on that one. If I find it weird enough, I'm simply not going to bother with it. I don't really have one that sticks out to me.

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: If I ever get the willpower and knowledge to properly write such a concept, a Spirit World fic when Yuya and Gongenzaka end up being Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi and Brave Masurawo respectively would be great. Already shared an idea, IIRC, of these two things being statues that the Superheavies built in honor of their Master and his best friend.

Something that makes me think of them:

You weirdos.

More specifically, the people in the ARC-V fandom. Whenever I see all these super excited posts about the world and characters that the show offered, I can't help but feel your love for Yuya. Like... It seems everyone loves Yuya in this fandom and I can't help but feel like a bit of an outcast sometimes, considering how conflicted I am on him. I don't want to deny you of any fun. I know you're having the time of your lives with a show that gave me headaches, and while I still get shivers from time to time regarding my own experience... Thanks to you, I learned to bear it and make something positive out of it all. Perhaps not letting anyone hinder you, and encouraging yourself to make your own mark and make people happy, is what makes me think of Yuya, so you guys are a part of that.

I know I've mostly shifted to Radiant Dawn these days (Micaiah has claimed my mind with all her woes, and Tibarn with his Stone Cold entrances, and I just want to understand it all), but thanks for making me having a wonderful time here.

#yugioh arc v #arc v #yuya sakaki #yugioh yuya

[hellsbellschime]

Hello, here to give you some context about the people attacking you: Lina is a person who is obsessed with Rhaegar x Lyanna, has been around the fandom for many years and is known to always start fights with every corner of the fandom, especially with people who don't think Rhaegar is a saint who did nothing wrong ever. Went as far to call Rhaegar a ephebophile instead of a p*dophile, as if that somehow makes it okay. Regarding her IRL opinions, she's very weird about Putin and issues regarding POC, which is often expressed through her opinions about fictional characters/races/families and has even expressed transphobic opinions. I've encountered her on twitter countless times; I'm neither pro-team Green or pro-team Black, yet she has been so awful and hateful that she's been called out numerous of times and most people know they should avoid her, both on twitter and tumblr. Brideoffires previously known as yendany has also been cancelled on tumblr before, I remember them from my old political tumblr days, they were called out as being anti black, racist, fetishiser of gay men and a weirdo overall. These people, along with the rest of "targnation" have been around the fandom for a long time, they will attack anyone they disagree with, including fellow Dany and Targaryen fans who don't "stan" Daenerys hard enough to their liking. If they don't like you, it means you're doing something right. I've always liked Daenerys, as a POC myself I've had issues with how racist her storyline is written, which has nothing to do with Daenerys, but the writer himself - and I got attacked for it and accused of being a "white bitch" which just puts me off the character and fandom and is extremely toxic and deranged. "Targnation" is known for being awful, attacking actors, being extremely racist and sexist and borderline transphobic, considering their treatment of Emma D'arcy when the HOTD casting was announced. This attack on you isn't because those people care about social justice, they've just branded you as a "Dany anti" and because they can't give a proper response to your metas and videos, they'd rather attack your personality and accuse of you things that aren't true, as they often do. All of this goes beyond fiction; war, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism is so much more important than "stan wars". It's not something you get to use as a "gotcha moment" because you disagree over fiction. It's absolutely disgusting. This fandom disappoints me every day. Anyway, keep being you, keep sharing your opinions, keep learning and growing. You're a gem in this fandom of awfulness, you're so well-spoken and smart and I hope you don't let these people get to you with their harassment and bullying because they've chased away a huge part of the fandom already. Sending love <3

Oh boy, well hello my fellow white bitch! And yeah, I don't know who this is nor do I really want to find out given what's been going on, but none of this is particularly shocking to hear. Obviously there are unhinged stans in every fandom, but it sucks when they make everything suck for everyone else. And thanks for the support but no one needs to worry about me, I survived the fucking Klaroline fandom so some kooks I've never heard of going nuclear on me is fairly old hat. It generally takes a lot for me to internalize this kind of fuckery and the only thing that actually bothers me is being misrepresented, and I feel like I made myself clear so at least people can form their opinions of me based on reality rather than the unhinged rantings of people who don't know me and who I don't know. Ultimately however people act is on me and not them, and stuff like this really is analogous to someone screaming "bitch" out of their car window as they drive by so it is not something I take personally, it is just weird because, due to the nature of social media, doing that can actually lead to some other people being like "wait what maybe they're right?"

#anti stan fuckery

[oc-aita]

AITA? (Sorry in advance that this is long)

My (?14) best friend H (M15) and I had been friends for 3 years now, but we'd gone to different schools the whole time. He didn't know my classmates, family, or other friends, and I counted that as a blessing.

I'm your stereotypical 'mean girl' type at school. Or at least, I'm friends with those girls. I'm mostly just complacent in their bullying. But I've allowed, ignored, and excused all kinds of shit ever since we were little. Mostly they're just badmouthing kids, but there's other aspects, too. I won't go into too many details, but if you know anything about the social hell that is bullying, you can guess a sample of the stuff that happens. I will say in my defense personally that at least I don't let them be particularly awful? Like, yeah, we're unkind, screwed up people to the kids my friends deemed as 'targets', but the particularly vile shit my friends try to say to them always gets my explicit condemnation.

I don't like being mean, I consider myself a nice person internally, but I'm actually stuck with my friend group. I have a controlling dad who wants me to act a certain way and hang with certain people, and even my friendship with H is highly secretive and behind his back, despite his flawless reputation and general fitting-the-bill of a guy my dad might allow me around. I've only ever expressed once that my friends are kinda mean (understatement, I know), and my dad freaked out at me. In short, I'm not allowed to not be friends with them. I'm not even allowed to be nice to their targets against their will.

I told H that once I entered his high school (he's a grade ahead of me) that he was going to think differently of me once he met my friends, but he brushed me off, saying he knew what kind of person I was and that nothing could be that bad. I tried to argue, but he assured me otherwise and dropped the subject. But due to a long series of contrivances, myself, H, and two of the kids my friends target most often, who will be known as R (F15) and C (M15) from here on, have been working together on what's effectively a series of projects, and will be for a while. R is our team leader, and C is her right hand man. They both fucking hate me, and I don't blame them at all.

R's pretty non-confrontational, and tries her best to keep everyone civil. She doesn't like me in the slightest, but doesn't want to have the team dogpile me for it, because she's really just too nice for her own good. We communicate as we have to, and that's that. C, however, makes it very clear to everyone that he never intends to forgive me or act as if I've been anything but awful to him - even though I haven't said pretty much anything personally, I'm sort of the de facto face of my friendgroup, which is more than bad enough. I won't act like he's even a little unjust for it, and honestly I deserve every word and more for never standing up for him, R, and everyone else.

At first H just assumed he was just holding some meaningless grudge and assumed C was a spiteful, shallow person, but after enough time I told H that he really should talk to C about why he dislikes me so much. For a while I didn't hear anything about the topic, but a couple days ago H called me, pissed off. He explained that C had told him all the things I'd overseen my friends do and say to him, as well as listed every instance of my direct interactions with him and R. To my surprise, I also learned of the things my friends had done when I wasn't there - and I was appalled. They were even worse when I wasn't around. They were vitriolic, cruel, and even took physical actions against them. To make a long story short, they once even broke something of C's that was really, really important knowing it would be hard to replace as well as expensive for his low-income family. I did my best to explain that I never would have approved of such a thing, as well as why I'm around those kinds of people at all, but H said that I was just making excuses and that, clearly, since I was friends with him, my dad can't control me as much as I act like. I wanted to point out that my dad knows my friends' parents and stuff like that, but he wouldn't let me, and I'm honestly not sure he's wrong about that anymore. Maybe I just assumed I was as powerless against my dad as I'd felt? I can't say. Either way, he told me my behavior was deplorable regardless of my explicit actions, and that he didn't feel like he could talk to me anymore for the time being outside of project work.

Am I the asshole for how I handled the situation? I know how R and C were treated is fundamentally wrong, but is there anything better I could have done?

#original character #am i the asshole #aita #violence tw #bullying tw

[adelle-ein]

lace's xenoblade 3 review/thoughts

So I finished Xenoblade 3's main story. I'm far from done with the game, but I did all the main character side stories and a lot of side quests, and I do have all the heroes. Most of them aren't ascended yet, and I have many other misc sidequests and places to explore on my list, but I'm going to be doing that here on out while enjoying the post game perks.

Overall it was really good despite some glaring issues. Spoilers, obviously!

Just to make thing clear: I have only played Xenoblade 1. 2's character designs, weird-ass grooming love triangle, treatment of women, fanservice, and obsession with sex and dirty jokes are such massive turn-offs that I refuse to pay money for it. If someone would like to give me a copy of 2 as well as the money for its allegedly amazing DLC then I'll play it, but that's literally the only circumstances I can see that happening in. Also, to be totally honest, the fandom tendency to bully and harass people who don't like 2 has ruined any interest I might have otherwise had. I am generally familiar with 2's lore and how it connects to 1, though, having read up on it while deciding whether to play 2 and in advance of playing 3 -  no expert, but I do know stuff.

My biggest issues with Xenoblade 1 were that a) it didn't seem to like its main cast very much and b) it absolutely hated women to a frankly comedic extent. 1 literally is just The Shulk Game, periodically featuring Melia and Dunban. Every significant scene, major moment, iconic line, act of bravery comes from Shulk. Every characters' thoughts, feelings, and motivations revolve entirely around Shulk. Every woman revolves around her love interest (who, uh, is generally Shulk.) Reyn effectively vanishes by midgame, Sharla really served no purpose in the plot whatsoever and was largely there to be a love triangle point, Dunban is pretty much just a mentor, and while Melia gets a lot of plot focus and characterization, it ultimately amounts to a lot of suffering and minimal payoff (slightly rectified in Future Connected.) But it could be worse - Fiora, despite all her setup as Shulk's foil, despite her arc setup about disability and mortality and a literal god in her chest, is nothing more than a love interest, who has no motivation beyond being at his side, who at the pivotal motivation-stating moment has nothing more to say than "Shulk!" And of course there's also Riki, who is literally just a comic relief character and is unceremoniously written out of the game every time a cutscene gets emotional or plot-significant (only to reappear shortly after asking for food at inappropriate moments.) If it weren't for the Heart-to-Heart unvoiced text convos — which take for-fucking-ever to unlock — that would literally be all there is to these characters, and even within the Heart-to-Hearts, there isn't that much to go on. Ultimately, I enjoyed 1 a lot more for its gameplay and potential than anything else. To me, a story that doesn't care about its characters is pretty much never an enjoyable one.

Long story short, Xenoblade and I have a tenuous relationship. I pretty much exclusively play turn-based games due to a variety of disabilities. Xenoblade's combat, however, is forgiving enough on easy mode that I can get by thanks to auto-attacks and not relying on button mashing, so it's pretty much the only one of its kind that I've ever played. I'm including all this context to make it clear going in that I do not consider myself a Xenoblade fan, or hardcore player, by any stretch of the imagination.

My point here is that 3 absolutely blew me out of the water. 3 loves its characters. It adores its characters. It wants the absolute best for its characters. Which, uh…is sometimes an impediment, but most of the time it's great. Every cast member actually plays a role, gets an arc, gets backstory and development, and most importantly of all, they maintain a consistent web of friendships that have nothing to do with Noah. Every duo of characters gets some kind of cute interaction once in awhile, even combos like Eunie and Mio that don't hang out much, and it not only makes things feel organic, it prevents both love-interest-trap and the Shulk Obsession effects that 1 suffered from. Everyone gets a side story, everyone gets big boss fights, everyone gets a big piece of the screentime pie even though Noah is the main focus, and it's the high point of the game. The characters are all, genuinely, really good — Eunie and Taion are far and away my favorites (duh…) but they all overall feel well fleshed out and well loved. Noah definitely gets preachy towards the end, but he doesn't get every single good one-liner the way Shulk did.

Sena, unfortunately, is the only real exception to this rule. The poor girl starts and ends the game as Mio's cute accessory that she sometimes lends to Lanz. While she still gets way more character work than, say, Sharla, and isn't reduced to a love interest, her ascension quest has absolutely nothing to do with her and her "development" makes  no impact on her behavior for the rest of the game. Taion changes visibly as a person after the events at Colony Lambda, but while Sena says a few things about being true to herself, every subsequent story scene still has her using her perky, happy-go-lucky persona and being Mio's hype girl. The writers clearly had an idea in mind for her, but really fell down in executing it. This shines in Mio's side story — apparently Miyabi also saved Sena before her death, and yet Sena has never really seemed affected by this the way Mio is. It's never even mentioned before this side story that Sena had any involvement in Colony Omega. I have no idea what went wrong with writing Sena, but it's pretty sad, honestly. All that being said, it's really not THAT bad — it just sticks out compared to how the other five are treated. More of a "five great, one mediocre" type situation, you know?

Honestly, gameplay is great. The combat is insanely confusing and overcomplicated and everyone is yelling constantly but like. That's a given. Xenoblade. If I hadn't played 1 I probably would have just had no idea what to do, but I was able to fumble through despite getting bombarded with "tips" such as "Celestial Arts are special Arts triggered by filling up the Star Gauge and properly timing your Moon Attacks. By triggering a Punch -> Fly -> Burst -> Shine combo, you can turn off the enemy's Rage Meter and Shatter them, thereby executing a Shattershimmer attack. Try it for yourself! Also half those moves don't actually work on most bosses, but we won't tell you that." That gives you an idea of how every single "helpful tip" that pops up in Xenoblade feels to me. Again, though — a lot of this is on me. I don't have the processing skills or memory to be Good At Xenoblade, and easy mode negates the need to know most of this anyway, but man is it silly sometimes. I have some nitpicks about smaller stuff, like how the class unlock system works (luckily the postgame options render this effectively obsolete, whee!) and steering the boats (sound of me getting stuck on a stray monster and crashing sideways into an island.) But the exploration is so much fun and the sidequests are a lot more engaging than 1, and that's what really matters to me in Xenoblade gameplay.

Plotwise, things really do just drop off after the chapter 6 opening. Everyone said so and I was skeptical. I am no longer skeptical. Not sure the writers had any idea what they were doing beyond that point. It's not as bad as some (TEAM ASANO) but it sort of feels like they might have run out of time a little — the last dungeon really just feels like padding, X and Y don't even get death cutscenes, and Z feels unfinished. The basic concept of Z being the personification of everyone's fear and inertia works really well, but — and I can't believe I'm saying this — it wasn't as well executed as the similar final boss in Persona 5. Just not enough time spent on Origin and what its whole deal is, and things stayed a bit too Noah-centric at the end for my tastes. Also that final boss needed to have skip options in the cutscenes, if I hadn't cleared it my first try I would have cried from sheer fatigue lol. I also think the "side stories" are pretty meh, with only Taion's and Lanz's really working for me — I actually quite liked Sena's, but it isn't remotely about Sena and really should have been just a Ghondor quest. Eunie's felt purposeless, Mio's just absolutely destroyed the very concept of death in the entire game, and Noah's was…terrible.

And this brings me to my biggest plot complaint: death has become absolutely meaningless. The rebirth thing, I could get behind. The execution of Taion's side story, for example — while Nimue is drawn to and admires Taion for the same qualities that led to her past self mentoring him, she never regains her memories, and things will never actually be the same again. But that's okay, because she gets to live her own new life now. That can work for me. I can get behind that. Similarly, Eunie found her old husk and remembered her previous death, but she doesn't gain all the life experience and memories of that version or anything, just lives with the burden of a trauma she didn't experience. Moebius recruits gain memories of all their past lives, but they also become evil and warped under the weight of repeated bitterness and loss. All of these approaches worked. Not perfectly, but they worked for me. And then Miyabi shows up and just ruins everything. She's the age she was when she died, she retains all of her memories, she's exactly as she was. She might as well have never died at all. So…what's the point? That sacrifice that shaped Mio's life and outlook — it was pointless, in the end. Miyabi gave nothing up to save Mio (and Sena.) So it wasn't even a sacrifice. These aren't as bad but: Why is goddamn MWAMBA back, that's the silliest thing in the world, he's the Tutorial Party Member and those should never come back (unless you do something cool a la Fiora, and that sure wasn't the case with him.) His Agnus equivalent from Mio's squad whose name I don't even know is back. Cammuravi is back, and while he seems to be retaining his amnesia, he acts exactly the same, he's back to his previous age, and he's ~naturally drawn~ to Ethel (which…their relationship wasn't explicitly romantic or anything but I do feel a little weird about him hanging out with her as a child in this life when they were equals and the same age with some romantic subtext in the past one…) I do know however that some future quest will age Ethel back up, but that was all very weird. I don't think anyone should be coming back at the age they were previously, but even if we're doing that, they DEFINITELY shouldn't be regaining their memories.

In a game that's literally supposed to be about life and death, the value of each cycle, of each life no matter how temporary, where the characters repeatedly insist that each of their lives have value no matter how many times they're reborn — "death" becomes less than a slap on the wrist. I also don't know why Nia revived — probably just a 2 reference, as I understand from the wiki, and if so that's totally fine, but the timing of that after Mio's side story just blew the concept of death off a cliff was really not ideal. Would have been better to have her not awaken until after D was killed, as it just adds to all the resurrection in Mio's story and makes things feel very silly and death extremely cheap. The one good thing is that so far Miyabi seems to be the only cartoonishly bad no-consequences-at-all example, but that could change in other side quests, and frankly, once is bad enough when the game's themes so heavily revolve around the value of life and death.

Moebius is insanely hammy. It got old really fast, and then got funny again when I realized that literally every single one of them is like that. There's a certain refuge in audacity there, imo. They're just all complete weirdos who won't stop chewing the scenery, I can respect that. Although D's "true identity" being treated as a big reveal ("wow! You're a serial killer that has literally never been mentioned in this game before!!") was pretty ridiculous. Also kinda disappointed that we didn't get E, T, L, and S alongside N and M…while it makes sense, and the implication is that this is the first life in which these six got together, I wanted evil Eunie :( N is kinda hilariously pathetic, which may not have been the intention. I got off so many daze->bursts on him during his last battle and he was just bouncing around like a fucked up plinko horse it was goddamn hilarious. Also his armor has a booty window. I can't take this guy seriously. The big M/Mio reveal is really well handled and great, though, and the absolute peak of the plot. I just laughed at N a little during it. Can you really blame me.

I will also say that M/N's story did, personally for me, ruin the idea of Noah/Mio as a romantic couple — seeing a version of them that reached the peak of codependency to the point of genocide taints every version of them. Even though the versions we play as can reach acceptance and part for the greater good, it's hard not to think of N and M and their arc. Again, that's for me — not judging people who do love the couple or anything, I'm just a little repulsed by them together now :') I will also say that while some of the "life cycle"/"yay babies" stuff feels a bit hamfisted, it's really not too bad, especially with the focus being more on babies and life than "everyone's purpose is to make babies." And the language seemed surprisingly non-heterosexual (I'm so glad that Lanz/Sena stayed platonic.) The game sort of glosses over N and M (or some other version of them, but I got the impression that was them)'s teen pregnancy as well as Monica's (Ghondor is 18 while Monica is 33 — easy to miss but Monica was a teen mom) and I do feel weird about that. Not the end of the world but the material sometimes teeters on the edge of…not so great?

Side note: Now that I think about it, why are Nopon entirely outside the cycle and just living their merry lives completely consequence free in whatever parts of the world they want. Why was there no Moebius nopon i am so disappointed. Not to mention they keep inventing shit that just completely shatters all of Z's plans. Nopon are canonically more powerful than Moebius this is a very funny concept to me

All of this being said, the ending itself actually works okay for me. I always have mixed feelings about "but then it never happened!" type endings, I always prefer "let's rebuild the world with the tools we have." I don't like it when "bad/flawed/noncanon" timelines get erased without a trace and become meaningless. This is why my favorite time travel game is Radiant Historia. Have I mentioned I fucking loathe act 3 of Dragon Quest XI, to this day have refused to play it, and actually regret buying it at all solely thanks to act 3's existence? It's a MASSIVE pet peeve. Anyway, the ending narrowly subverted pissing me off — it manages to stay bittersweet by treating the Agnus/Keves separation as a consequence of restarting the world. You could argue that the ongoing "oh, they'll meet again somehow" reassurances ruin this, but to me it just barely manages to work. It might, admittedly, undermine some of the messages about moving on and forward and avoiding the endless now — but I think it's okay, in the end. Even if baby Noah runs into that alley and immediately trips over baby Mio and they get every single memory back, I think the ending as a whole is well-constructed enough that it can work. It wasn't a huge, universal retcon — either the effects of what happened will linger (they'll regain their memories and have to live with that knowledge) or the consequences of their choice will (they'll never meet again, or they'll meet but not remember) and that ultimately works for me. Subjective, though, and I get why some are disappointed with it in one way or another -- I would also have personally preferred a "rebuilding the world together without any Flame Clocks" ending. It's better than "Fiora's just all better and a Homs again with no lingering effects at all" or "Pyra and Mythra just are alive and have separate bodies bc Reasons now" though. *JKR voice* You solved it, Ginny was perfectly happy again!

The characters are what really carry this game's writing as opposed to the plot, and that's generally okay with me. Really, my big outstanding complaints are the death thing, mostly as it applies to Miyabi, and that things are a real slog in the final fetch quest and then dungeon, with that classic "padding an already too long JRPG" vibe. Seriously, I finished at 62 hours as a fast reader with a whole ton of side content left to do — that dungeon could have been ¼ of the length and equally effective, guys. Why.

Miscellaneous commentary — the VA work is great/terrible in exactly the ways I wanted it to be, Nia and Melia's new designs are great (and Melia's really suits how her VA's voice has changed, which is a strong improvement over Future Connected - not anyone's fault, just a weird side effect of things being recorded a decade apart. Getting to properly see and hear adult Melia really feels like it fixes up those issues though.) The Nopon are way cuter than they've ever been, fluffy and big-eyed, and their speech is definitely my favorite from the three games (toning down the mehmehmeh was a very good call, especially since this world is supposed to be a mix of 1 and 2.) Giving Riku that extremely deep voice in the English dub is a hilarious choice and I have endless respect for them for that. The main cast all sounds great, Sena being an American stereotype is so funny, Noah's VA handled his multiple roles really well, and Eunie was just hilarious at all times. Seriously I adore her. Music sounded great, but I was mostly listening through switch speakers so that obviously affected the quality a lot — it sounds way better when I listened on the PC through headphones though so I'm slowly making my way through. Should have won at the game awards but we all knew it wouldn't lbr :') The character models are great and this is definitely my favorite artstyle from any of the Xenoblades — everyone is a LOT more expressive than 1 but not, well, ugly like in 2. Much more facial feature diversity too which is sorely appreciated. Jiggle physics were kind of ridiculous (Mio should not have those!! She's like a b cup!!! why) but at least the outfits and angles weren't too wild, and Monica is the only one who looks outright cartoonish proportions-wise imo. I really enjoy the class system and getting to do wild/fun stuff with it, but I also like that significant cutscenes have everyone using their "traditional" weapons — it strikes a nice balance between gameplay and character fun for me. In general all the fight cutscenes were really well choreographed and lively, with lots of cool touches that made them actually worth watching -- stuff like Lanz blocking a huge long hit while Eunie and Taion use an ongoing sustained heal to keep him alive longer, it's neat.

Also That Photo is so dumb and so poorly timed but hey that's why i'm not playing 2

Anyway, yeah, I have my gripes but it's overall a really good and heartfelt game that feels like a lot of love was put into it! Really good! I…will still be avoiding the larger xenoblade fandom bc What The Hell Is Going On In There. eunie's the boss. why is this so long i just wanted to write a few paragraphs not the fucking iliad sobs

#txt #xbc3 // #xbc3spoilers // #xbc3 spoilers // #lace reviews

[mack3030]

Simplistic-sims post is actually not bad though?

Dont get me wrong, I dont support everything they've said or done in perpetuity. But their content for the sims is...theirs? They can make the choice to release it or keep it for themselves or only give it to their friends even. Their content, what they create, cannot be held hostage. Because no one is entitled to their work. They could close up shop tomorrow and no one could demand they come back because no one can force them to make content for people. And that isnt a hostage situation.

So them communicating to their community "Hey I can't continue to make this much content (or at all) because I have to be spending at least part of the time I currently use creating to support myself." Isn't wrong or bad. Its just...communication. Its saying if enough people keep donating I can keep going on like I have been. If not then I will be releasing less. That's just the facts of the situation. People need to make money to live. And that sucks. But if the money isnt there anymore then creators may have to move onto something else to support themselves.

At that point it is up to the community if they want content to keep coming out. If they decide to donate to help support a creator. There isnt anything coercive about that. People donate to creators all the time in other contexts/communities to help content keep rolling out. It is the same here.

I really appreciate what you've done up to now for the community, exposing issues within it. Jesus, I'm not even a simblr and I've seen the good you and Sunny have done. But we need to be better than telling people to jump off a bridge. Especially when Simplistic's response was actually one of the better ones I have seen? When others are just willing to keep paywalling and ignoring TOS? It doesnt help the cause to be a bully.

And just to be clear again, I'm not a simblr. I dont know all the nuances of Simplistic's behavior over the years. So I'm not supporting everything theyve done and said. But their original post did not deserve the vitriol you gave it.

I am Sunny. Just FYI. That's why my twitter handle is "Sunny not Mack". ;) I will admit my choice of gif reaction, probably not the best looking back however...you also have to understand that I'm a little suspicious and skeptical especially considering this is someone who was a former paywaller who made money off of taking the copyrighted designs/textures of companies like rifle paper company, and restoration hardware and applied them to maxis match meshes. Because before she even released THAT statement she had another which she deleted because it obviously didn't go over well:

In which she had a gofundme. My concern here would be this: If she treats this similar to a gofundme situation where if she has to receive a certain amount of "donations" to be able to continue making CC....what happens if she barely misses her amount she needs? Is she gonna take her ball and go home? How are people who donated money hoping she'd release content gonna feel? Are they gonna feel taken advantage of? You'd think not, but again, there's that little dangling transational aspect of it that can make some people mad. I just am suspicious because I don't know why someone who so blatently paywalled recolors of maxis' own stuff with copyrighted textures would change their tune and decide to be honest with people. That's all. I appreciate you trying to make sure I'm the best I can be though. Again, probably not the right gif reaction there, but also I'm kinda peeved because when my income (my job) was threatened by paywallers not once, not twice, but FOUR times...people like her were often strangely silent. Doesn't give me the right to take that out on her though. Thanks for being respectful about it. :)

[13eyond13]

I recently saw someone saying that L was actually the most evil character all along and he deleted all the data instead of providing it to his successors and let Kira kill innocents during that time and they said Light got evil after the death note , L was evil all along. I have always thought of L as evil but never the most evil among all the characters and now I am really confused. Sorry I am still really new to this show and a little bit dumb.

What are your thoughts on this ?

Hi! Good question.

Saying that a character is objectively "the most evil" one in a series like this is kind of a tricky thing, because it depends on how you're defining evil and what your criteria for that actually is. I think fans often bring a pretty personal and specific viewpoint to these matters, and something that can seem understandable or excusable to one person will seem unforgivable and irredeemable to another. One of the things that makes it a pretty interesting story to think about and discuss in general is that nearly all of the characters are morally grey and pretty difficult to easily slot into black and white right and wrong/purely good and evil categories. And it was intentionally written that way. In addition to just being an entertaining story it was also meant to be the kind of series that brings up those kinds of thoughts and questions and debates, and it doesn't often go out of its way to definitively answer them itself.

Ohba said in the behind the scenes that he personally sees L as "slightly evil." I normally tend to see L as sort of in the middle in these matters myself as well. There is quite a range of behaviours going on here that lots of people consider immoral actions and thoughts and behaviours in real life. And though L isn't one of the characters murdering people himself in the story, and though he is given the role of detective that is so often depicted in crime thrillers as the guy who saves the day, he also wasn't originally meant to be seen just as unquestionably heroic and noble, either. I think we are often meant to be wondering about him and what he is really thinking and doing as he tries to win against Light, and how heroic and justifiable much of it actually really is. I don't think L is likely a murderer like the Kiras are for example, but he did do a lot of shady and corrupt and ruthless things while also demonstrating that he fully understood that it was shady (like kidnapping and torturing his suspects, framing innocents for crimes they didn't commit and having them wrongfully imprisoned, etc). He also can be seen as offensive on a more minor scale to people sometimes for things like being a condescending bully or a know-it-all, and some people read into stuff like him not sharing his information with the successors as an intentional slight or neglect of them as well.

I personally think that L as a character is mostly just incredibly competitive, egotistical and self-centered in a fairly simple and straightforward way, and above all extremely determined to prove that he is right. And that will usually take precedence for him over things like worrying about other people's feelings or playing super fair or trying hard to be a morally upstanding person or take an idealistic stance of some kind. In the manga canon L shows himself to be pretty self-aware about his own character qualities that other people often see as negative ones, but also not terribly apologetic or regretful about that. There are other characters in the series I would call unambiguously evil more readily than L. But I also don't like it when people gloss over his flaws and bad behaviour and either ignore it or try to excuse it either, because to me that's a big part of what makes him interesting as a fictional character. I think the complexity of the characters and how difficult trying to categorize them as clear heroes or clear villains can be is basically one of the big major themes of the story, and a huge part of what makes the series fairly timeless and so interesting to discuss.

#l lawliet #ask #anon #this stuff is always hard to be properly articulate about #especially with L people can vary so wildly on how they perceive him #i'll try to dig up some other stuff #meta

[korrasera]

vaspider and lateral aggression

I was originally going to send this message to vaspider directly, as I thought he had asks open publicly, but that's not the case and I'm not going to violate his block to make a point. As such, I'll just leave this here and call it good.

Long story short, vaspider reblogged another user that was spouting bigoted nonsense stereotyping gay people. When I pointed out that the discussion of the OP was bigotry, Spider got really angry at me for talking back, eventually blocking me.

Here's the post in question:

He responded when he blocked me but I can't actually read it, though I presume it follows a pretty simple script. I told you I'd block you, how dare you, etc, etc.

Spider knows that what the OP was doing was wrong, because he's talked about the problem of lateral aggression before. Making up nonsense bigotry about gay people doesn't help make trans people anymore safe. Hating JK Rowling for being a bigot doesn't justify being a bigot towards anyone else. It seems clear to me that he just got heated because he felt defensive towards the OP's post and that overrode his otherwise good judgment.

In case you're unaware, lateral aggression, or lateral violence, is when a member of a marginalized community engages in bigotry towards another member of their community or another marginalized group. Attacking your community instead of the people oppressing you. It's harmful because it's the same kind of bullying, immature behavior that bigots engage in. It's literally just another form of bigotry.

And while it does suck to get treated like shit by someone like Spider (this isn't the first time he's acted like an asshole to me in particular) I'm a lot more concerned about Spider cosigning someone else's prejudice. We shouldn't be teaching people to come up with nonsense bullshit to justify bigotry.

I have no illusions that I'll ever get an apology from anyone on social media, but it feels like it's important to keep asking. People can make mistakes and fuck up and learn and get better and I think it's important to try to encourage that behavior whenever I can.

The letter is under the cut.

Full honesty: No, I don't think Spider is yet emotionally mature enough to actually apologize for his behavior. I'm just hoping that getting pushback on this kind of thing will help Spider and other people who feel like he does continue growing and maybe make better decisions in the future.

Hello Spider,

In our last exchange I mentioned that I'd consider asking for an apology once some time had passed and tempers had cooled. As such, here I am.

I'd like you to apologize for your recent behavior. You acted like a real asshole to me and it's the second time you've tried to tear my head off in particular. As I recall, your excuse last time was that you're an angry person and everyone knows this, so it's acceptable for you to act like an asshole when you lose your temper.

And that's just about how you treated me. The real problem is that you said everything you did in defense of someone else's bigotry. You lost your shit because the OP decided to trot out some garden variety bigotry that you happened to agree with and then didn't like someone pointing out that the OP was teaching prejudice and didn't have an accurate point.

You've talked about lateral aggression before, so I know you aren't ignorant of it. The OP was upset and chose to express that anger by stereotyping someone on twitter and then holding that up as an example of how terrible an entire group of people are. That's a pretty clear case and what you said in that thread was no excuse or defense of that behavior. It's harmful bigotry, plain and simple.

I'm asking you to apologize for myself, but I'm also asking you to do it because you're popular and people like your content and I think you have a responsibility to not teach people how to be causal bigots as a result.

There's nothing wrong with admitting when you got something wrong, and in this case, you got something very very wrong. You stepped into something either without understanding it or without caring, and thought that giving me a bloody nose would let you ignore it.

My expectation is that you'll either ignore this letter or you'll use it as an excuse to get angry again, since your first attempt didn't work, but I hope you'll consider what I've said.

#vaspider #spider isn't terrible he just screwed up and got angry #granted anger is a bit of a problem for him #but it's a fairly normal mistake and not a world-ending sin

[gurugirl]

guru! and the rest of the people on here i need advice. or just opinions.

i’ve been sick recently and i’m only now getting better my partner has been taking care of me every second. i appreciate her lots but her needs were pretty clear when we woke up. she was yk very touchy and everything this morning and i honestly would have been up for it if i wasn’t feeling both yucky about my sick going away and being so exhausted in general. anyways she kept asking me if i would have sex with her and i was like no i don’t want to right now and she eventually kept asking and getting more touchy till i said yes ( i know this sounds wrong but a part of me still wanted to because i miss her in that way MIND YOU ive been sick since like christmas so it’s coming up a month and we have always been very active in our sex lives) but i guess my body just didn’t have it in me because i totally faked it at the end and she noticed. she left so angry and upset and i just cried. i keep getting angry texts and i don’t know what to do. i feel super bad and she’s super upset.

Oh no honey! I'm sorry this happened! Relationships are so tricky to navigate, I'll just start there. I don't know your normal dynamic with your partner or how long you've been with them but I'd assume that if you're not feeling well (even if that means months of no sex) and you aren't into it, they should just let it be until you're ready.

I get wanting to have sex when someone else isn't feeling it. I've been in that position before, wanting to get it on while my partner wasn't into it. But there's no way I'd ever pressure and push until they gave in. I wouldn't enjoy sex with someone who didn't want it. That sounds awful. I'd just go take care of myself at that point.

I also understand giving in and saying yes to appease your partner because you love them and want to show that to them and sometimes that means sex when maybe you're not into it really. Which might actually not be super healthy... but I think most anyone in a long term relationship who's having sex regularly can somewhat understand this. But to be asked over and over again and trying to touch you even when you said no? That's definitely taking it too far. That's going beyond just pity sex. That's being pressured into sex.

I don't like the way they responded to you either at the end. You faked it to be done with it because you weren't feeling it, which you told them at the start. But then you gave in to give them something that you thought would make them happy but it backfired. It sounds like it would have backfired even if you didn't fake it. Even if you just told them the truth and said you weren't going to be able to come they would have been upset so it's not the faking it that is the problem here (though you should avoid that in any healthy relationship, it's not the end of the world).

Is this how they are normally? Are they insecure about themselves? It's typical to not always come from sex so that shouldn't have been a problem. I can understand a partner not wanting their SO to fake it but their response to you about that was uncalled for. Plus mean texts after the fact? Childish and manipulative.

They owe you a huge apology. You don't owe them one at all. It's okay to explain yourself, why you faked it, so you can keep open communication in your relationship, but beyond that? You did nothing wrong. Don't let them bully you into apologizing but you should expect a big apology and a statement of what they did wrong and why it was wrong. It could be heat of the moment why they responded the way they did but ultimately pressuring your SO into having sex is a big NO NO. If they don't see that now in the relationship you can expect that they'll do something like this again with you in the future.

I hope you are okay. Let me know what happens if you like. I'm curious to see if they realize that what they did was wrong and wind up apologizing to you. But I'd consider them in the doghouse for a bit even if they do apologize. Some major red flags there. Good luck, hon.

xoxo

#ask