#also sorry to op of the post i mentioned i didn’t mention you by name bc idk if you would like that

[riacte]

Um hii so I may have something to add to the "duo name" discussion going on.

Fanmade duo names are generally established to separate them from shipping. Which is a good idea and we should continue to make an effort to tag shipping. But you know what else is a fanon concept? Not the idea of two CCs being good friends irl, but the fannish idea of shipping their characters. (Excluding CCs who are married / together). So instead of coming up with fanon names for platonic duos who are friends irl, I think we should come up with fanon names for the fannish concept of shipping (who are not together irl / whose characters are not together).

I'm not into QSMP so I cannot speak for that side and I know y'all have a different shipping culture, so this is more for hermitshipping / trafficshipping.

I can't verify this statement but in this post, OP mentions Joe and Cleo didn't want a duo name because they felt like a word + duo couldn't represent their years of friendship. And I can imagine this to be true for many duos especially in HC, which has been going on for so long. Instead of trying to “define” friendship with a word, we can shift the focus to making up a fan name for the fannish concept of shipping them.

Case study 1: Renchanting / Treebark

The ideal scenario: CCs make their own canon platonic name, shippers make their own fannish name for shipping. Treebark is a pun, it's vague, it doesn't overtly mention Ren or Martyn or their brands, and like the more niche duo names, you need to put in effort to understand what this means. Which makes it perfect for shipping in the sense we try to "hide" it. I know people have said it can be frustrating when you see a new duo and don’t know what it means, but I think it’s okay for ship names because they are by design meant to be obscure. You have to make an effort to look for it and understand what it means.

Case study 2: Convex / Cubscar (Ranchers / Solidaritek (?) also goes here)

I think it's called Cubscar based on Cubscar Week? Anyways, a slightly less ideal scenario than Treebark but still very very good. Canon name for platonic stuff, name mashup for romantic stuff. Less elegant that Treebark but it works so who cares. If it works, it works.

Case study 3: Flower Husbands

FH is different in the sense it’s a canon romantic ship and the CCs made the name themselves. I guess FH is still used for platonic but romantic FH would probably be best tagged with shipping to differentiate it.

Case study 4: Rendoc (aka. is this platonic or romantic or what) (Renskall also goes here)

Rendoc is like FH but?? It’s both a ship name and a duo name?? SHIPrendoc? They made it themselves hello?? Rendoc has been around long enough that we just use it for whatever. Like FH, romantic Rendoc should probably be tagged with shipping.

Case study 5: Fress / Stresskall

Long established ship names that sometimes gets used for platonic because it’s faster and we don’t have canon names (at least I think we don’t?). At least I use it for platonic too. It’s different from Rendoc / Renskall in the sense we don’t get a “haha yes ship us” from the CCs. And I think we have enough common sense to tell whether a post is meant to be shippy or not. Eg. “YESS FRESS CRUMBS IN NEW EPISODE!” (about canon platonic interaction), “omg fress in your au is so cute” (depends on context? What’s the AU?), “I think Fress should kiss” (overtly romantic).

These dynamics in particular have been around long enough that it feels weird trying to make a duo name for them (like Jleo). Like, I would rather call platonic Stress+Iskall with Stresskall than, fuckass allium duo or whatever. If it’s tagged with shipping, it’s meant to be seen as shipping. In the absence of canon names, sometimes using name mashups is faster and more efficient.

There are of course exceptions for everything: eg. Desert Duo is well established enough and it’s a good contrast to Scarian. But I think for more niche duos / ships, we can kind of get away with using name mashups? In the absence of canon names?

But I think name mashups are still seen as inherently shippy because that’s how other fandoms make their ship names. (Ironically one of my ships have the name “sniper duo” which is unrelated to mcyt duoification I promise, and is more used descriptively instead of as a tag) So we have to be careful with how we present name mashups especially in public spaces…?

I still think it’s better than making up duo names that few understand. And I think we should reserve our obscure names for the more obscure act of shipping instead. If it’s difficult to find out what it means, why not make it difficult by design? The name mashup tells you who they are, but the obscure ship name tells you explicitly it’s romantic. I know it’s hard trying to twist your thought process the other way because we’re so used to name mashups being for shipping (in other fandoms), but idk I just think it makes sense for fan names to be made for entirely fanmade concepts. And non fanmade concepts (friendships) can stay the way they are. Idk just some thoughts.

#hermitshipping #trafficshipping #hermitblr #trafficblr #things i write when i have coffee #ria.txt #meta #idk #it’s me rambling #also sorry to op of the post i mentioned i didn’t mention you by name bc idk if you would like that #ofc there are exceptions to everything etc etc #tldr we should all be like treebark. slay

[mariejordans]

i honestly don’t even know where to begin with this post, so i guess i’ll start with hi! sorry, i’ve been gone so long, though probably most of you didn’t even notice i was gone lol. sorry for not giving any warning to my absence, and i am especially sorry to the mutuals who have reached out to me that i haven’t responded to. i was and still am struggling with anxiety and depression and towards the new year it was getting to be a bit much for me, so i decided to take a mental health break from social media.

i’d honestly been contemplating coming back, but today i received a dm from someone with a link to a post that was accusing me of bullying and creating fake accounts to bully other people in this fandom. first of all, i would like to emphasize that this is not true. attached below is a screenshot of all the blogs that i own (EDIT 2/9/24: i have since deleted the screenshot for my own privacy and i believe that since i made this post, there has been more than enough evidence to clear my name.) milfsociety is my main account, which i have linked before on this blog and many of my mutuals also follow me on my main, and the rest of them are just me saving my old usernames or other sideblogs that i rarely use, but all of them have been inactive for two months at least.

i do NOT condone bullying ever, and to be continually accused of it by this person is very disheartening. it started with this post (seen below) that i made back in november after seeing a post discrediting marie as the main character of gen v. i admit that my language was probably a bit harsher than was necessary, but honestly my intention was not to send hate to op (which is why i never tagged it with any gen v related tags) but to defend marie. it also wasn’t meant to be solely specific to this one person but as a general post because at the time, there were lots of accounts discrediting marie and to be honest, i was just kinda venting bc of how sick of it i was. (also, just to mention, i have intentionally left out their username because the last thing i want is to send hate to this person.) this was the only post i made on the topic and later i heard that apparently op blocked me afterward (which does not offend me in the slightest since i have since done the same thing) so this honestly should have been the end of it.

i honestly hadn’t given this post a second thought until a little under a month later i received this ask out of nowhere, accusing me of ableism and bullying. i replied to this ask, which i will link here. honestly this ask came as a complete shock to me, because i had honestly forgotten all about my previous post.

i responded to anon and in the reply i apologized to their friend for my hurtful comments and expressed that it was never my intention to attack anyone, especially anyone with a disability, which i did not know about when i initially made the first post. i also explained my side, stating why i made the post in the first place, which i still stand by. originally, i had linked their post in my reply, which in hindsight was a mistake that i regret and i should’ve known better. again, my last intention ever is to spread hate and negativity or to bully anyone, so i deleted the link when i was asked by a third party. this person has also since deleted that post about marie entirely.

shortly after i posted the reply, i guess i can only assume that whoever anon was told them about the reply. i’m honestly not sure if they’ve ever actually read this reply or not, but they made a response to my reply, accusing me of harassment and bullying. honestly, it really confused me at the time, since i’d only made two posts in reference to them, and one was a reply to an ask, but we ended up having a third party account who was mutuals with both of us acting as a mediator to settle things and i genuinely wanted to move on from the situation. we both had each other blocked and it seemed to me that anon was just trying to instigate more drama between us, so i thought it best to just leave it at that. i was also going through some mental health issues at the time (unrelated to this situation even though it didn’t help) and had been considering taking a break from tumblr, and so i thought it would be best to just go inactive for a while.

this is honestly the first time i’ve used tumblr in the two months since i’ve been gone, so i have no idea what else has been happening regarding any other blogs and this person, but apparently i am being named as the sole instigator here and i just wanted to once and for all clear up this issue and my name. i’m honestly not sure if this person will see this post or if they’ll even accept it as truth. i can’t force them or anyone to believe me as i really don’t know what else i’d have to do to prove that i don’t have any other secret accounts other than making this post.

i will probably continue to be inactive on this account as i think it is in everyone’s best interest. i never wanted to contribute or start any drama in this fandom, but i feel like i am partially responsible in how this situation has turned out, so i would also like to apologize to you all as well. i’ve never had an account of mine get as big as this one has (thank you to everyone who liked and supported my silly little ramblings!) and i can honestly say i have had the best time interacting and fangirling with you all about this show and these characters that i love so much and i will continue to enjoy and love gen v and marie from afar!

goodbye for now,

rose (aka mariejordans)

#gen v #heronamedhawks #update this user is actually a racist transphobic piece of shit so please block them and do not give them any more of your attention

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hi, Lost. I recently saw a discussion about Ackermans and how Levi never mentioned to Mikasa the possibility of them being distantly relative. And it suggests that Levi doesn't actually reveal that he's an Ackerman to the others, at least, not to a lot of people. I always assumed Levi and Mikasa at least discussed this off-scene but anyway, we all know Levi definitely talked to Erwin about it. Knowing Erwin's curiosity and personality, there is no way he wasn't obsessed with the idea of a clan of, basically, titan slayers. He loves a good mystery and they would be too important for Survey Corps and Paradis in general. It's weird that this Ackerman thing was never explored other than "yeah Levi and Mikasa are OP don't question it" because I don't know about you but I would be so interested in freaking super soldiers living amongst us and I believe so was Erwin. We were robbed of that conversation, it'd give us so much Eruri material I believe :(

Hi Anon, sorry it’s taken me so long to answer your ask. You're definitely not the only one to be frustrated with the lack of information and resolution about the Ackermans. People waited years for Levi and Mikasa to have “the Ackertalk”, but when it finally came in chapter 63 it left everyone pretty disappointed. It did happen though, and Levi does suggest to Mikasa that they may be related.

There was a glimmer of hope that more would be revealed when the Ackermans were referred to as a “subproduct of Titan science” in chapter 93.  That really set the cat amongst the pigeons, but again, we got no further explanation about what that actually meant, either in the manga or in any of the supplementary materials. The only subsequent information we got about the Ackermans were Eren’s lies to Mikasa in chapter 112, where he claimed that Ackermans were slaves to their host, and Zeke revealing in chapter 130 that there’s nothing magical about the so-called Ackerbond, it’s just love. 

A lot of the additional information we have about the Ackermans comes from interviews with Isayama in the supplementary guidebooks, and it’s confusing at best and contradictory at worst.  For example, in chapter 65 Grandpa Ackerman tells Kenny that the king’s power to alter memories does not work on the Ackermans, and that this is one of the reasons they were feared and persecuted by the crown. However, later in the manga Eren was clearly able to alter Mikasa's memories, so that doesn’t add up. It's almost like Isayama was just making it up as he went along!

The lack of resolution around the Ackermans is just one of a number of threads that Isayama never tied up, which includes HIstoria’s arc and Mikasa’s relationship to the Azumabito clan.  It’s frustrating, because the Ackerman lore had so much potential, but none of it was ever developed, and at the end of the day they were a bit of a McGuffin. (Levi McGuffin doesn’t quite have the same ring to it though 😂)  Having said that, I can understand why Isayama shelved the Ackerman backstory, because it wasn’t really central to the plot. Also Levi, Mikasa and Kenny didn’t need any additional lore to make them really compelling and popular characters.  

If you're interested, I've got a post collating all the canon information about the Ackermans from the manga and the guidebooks: Ackermans Master Post.

With regards to how much Erwin knew about the Ackermans, there’s nothing in the manga, but I agree that once he discovered the connection between Levi and Kenny he would definitely have made it his business to find out more.  I wrote a tiny ficlet once about Erwin learning Levi’s name, it’s called Everything and Nothing

The words have been rattling around inside Erwin’s skull for days. Clattering against each other, discordant, disconcerting.

When they finally pass his lips one is familiar on his tongue, familiar as his own breath, the other foreign, sharp and bitter in his mouth.

“Levi.”

Levi’s head turns towards him on the pillow.

“What?”

“Ackerman.”

“Don’t.”

He turns away again.

“I always wondered…”

“I didn’t know.”

Erwin runs one finger lightly over Levi’s shoulder.

“I know, but it makes sense somehow.”

“Don’t.”

Levi is silent for a moment.

“It doesn’t change who I am. It doesn’t change anything.”

Erwin looks down at the black hair feathering over the pillow beside him. The pulse flickering in his neck; blue blood below porcelain white skin.

Ackerman.

Erwin leans down and presses his lips to Levi’s throat, to the pulse.

“Levi,” he says again.

It changes everything. And nothing.

#asks #ackermans #ackerbond #erwin smith #levi ackerman #eruri #mikasa ackerman #eren yeager #zeke yeager #snk

[sleepynegress]

tbh i didn’t wanna sound racist by commenting like ‘guys be nice OP is black!’ but i also know a lot of black people with names that pronounce E’s like that and i instantly assumed that’s where you got it 😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️ coming from a brown sister: i’m so so sorry lmfaooo this is a very caucasian site and u deserve better.

Mentioning someone's race isn't racist, especially if it adds context or is a basic descriptor? I saw a skit on one of these shows where someone was trying not to be racist by describing a Black man by everything but the easiest most obvious attribute, -his shirt color, his shoes, etc... and *that did* come off racist. But yeah, Black American culture has its own tradition of names. I am proud of it and love that for us, so I am in no way ashamed. It was such a whim type of post, I assumed I would get like 6 likes? I didn't even bother to look it up to check. As for people being dicks... I do understand the twitchy trigger on this. People are funny about language. It is what it is.

[hoonvrs]

hi saint! about that one anon ask

this just shows we should stop calling them idols and use artists instead

because they’re not, they’re human beings who make mistakes and in the best scenarios own up to them and don’t do them again

and while i, as an ultimate pacifist, wouldn’t really use insults as a solution, i truly understand why they are used, because it is very much disappointing to see anybody, knowingly or not, support the genocide that is happening in gaza, not even just disappointed but angry and sad, since innocent lives are taken by the money they spent either to sip on their frappuccino or eat their big macs

this whole thing with jake would be much better if those who decided to throw insults as well as those who bashed them for so would just use the situation to idk spread even more awareness?? and share some ways to actually help?? as much as boycotting is important sending, for example, humanitarian help is i think a little bit more urgent

still, i hope his apology will somehow change something, after all, it’s the first time anybody in kpop actually apologised and didn’t just wait for their company to do something or simply delete the post, that's an improvement

tbh when i thought about it i was kinda impressed since they can’t really engage in anything that is even slightly political or controversial so him saying sorry is somewhat of a statement, which is sad but we all know what the kpop industry is (one big piece of shit ❤️)

it’s sad what happened under op’s post, truly shows what views and morals some engenes have

damn that’s long hope everything makes sense :’)

hi joojoo

calling them artists instead is totally valid but would be hard since they themselves call themselves idols so it’s basically become their occupation name

don’t get me wrong i am completely against war and violence but i am also with it when it comes down to you can’t do anything but use violence because it’s the only way people will listen to you.

the people have every right to be angry and express that anger because this isn’t a little situation and it’s more shocking to not know what’s going on instead of knowing. also let’s not forget the person called jake stupid for doing something stupid, they weren’t being aggressive or bashing him they literally called it for what it is

now if they said something outta pocket i’d be like okay fairs that’s too far but trust me nobody will sob and cry over being called stupid or an idiot especially not a 21 year old grown ass man

these people have been using their accounts nonstop AND STILL ARE to spread awareness but just because they COULD use this opportunity to spread more awareness doesn’t mean we completely invalidate their hurt and anger. are we also forgetting this is done online?? it’s literally twitter where i’ve seen worse shit then someone calling their fave an idiot like when did people become so sensitive and defensive over a man who doesn’t even know your first name

icl i was genuinely surprised myself at how quick he responded esp under a post where gaza and genocide where explicitly mentioned so there was no room for that and kudos to him and i also get that it’s such a big step up and improvement in that fuck ass industry but i’m not about to praise someone to the ends of the earth for being a decent human and not supporting the death of innocent civilians

i really hope he does learn and educate himself because it’s no one’s responsibility but his own and hopefully prepress more carefully with what he indulged in and what he shows to his viewers

#inbox — new msg! #these are so long😭 #joo ! #iix — moots!

[twopoppies]

You’re right, maybe the ask didn’t go through. I was asking about your opinion on why do you think louis was the most ‘sabotaged’ one out of all of the boys? He is blacklisted from radio, didn’t release his first album until 5 years after the hiatus (although i’m sure there are other factors affecting this, but in 2018 he said he wanted to release an album and then we got txf instead), and not to mention bg and the long term gf, i’m sure he fights against all this behind the scenes but why do you think he’s the one suffering from it the most? And i was looking through your hiatus tag and came across a post you reblogged (third one in your tag, genuinemusic is the OP since i can’t figure out how to link it) i’m sure louis was very aware that the band needed a break but do you think that maybe louis on board with the hiatus until he was hit with babygate? Which made him less confident in taking a break? So sorry for bothering you again but i really appreciate your opinions! Hope you’re okay!

Hi darling. Oh, I never saw your original ask, so it must have gotten eaten. So sorry.

So, I still think that post holds an interesting theory. Louis has said that the last year or two of the band was when he had felt the most confident, so it would stand to reason that this could roll over into feeling more confident in the idea of having a solo career.

In regards to how babygate affected that, I really think that when it began he thought it was going to just be a few rumors and then it would be cleared up. It was just another way to make him look straight and keep his name in the papers. So, no. I don’t think it would have affected his confidence in the beginning about a solo career. Although, as the months went by, he must have seen how it was affecting the way his fans saw him. So… Maybe?

Honestly, I think he may have had a normal level of stress about going solo, or even just stress about not having the comfort of something he’d known for the previous five years, until babygate became such a mess and he was saddled with another beard and his mom got sick… Plus, I’m sure Simon was in his ear like a venomous snake every chance he got, trying to undermine him. All of that may have played on his ability to think clearly.

As for your question about why he was sabotaged, obviously none of us know, so it’s all theories. My best guess is that Louis was a fly in the ointment from early on. From what the other boys always said, Louis was the one who stood up to the people in charge and really fought for the band. But worse than that, Harry fell in love with him and mucked up Simon/Sony’s plans to have Harry go solo after the first couple of albums. I really think if “Larry” didn’t exist, they wouldn’t care all that much about Louis, and likely they would have let him go off and sign with whomever, the same way they let Liam and Niall.

So, I don’t know. I think everything a music label does is driven by the desire for more money and more power. And controlling someone like Louis gives them a sense of power. And in many ways, I think it also gives them some control over Harry. The sabotage, or whatever you want to call it, seems like a personally motivated vendetta but it happened to Michael Jackson. And Prince. And George Michael. And thousands of lesser known artists. 🤷🏻‍♀️

#Louis’ career #babygate #hiatus

[youkaigakkou-tl]

The Kyoto Arc Analysis Post (Part 1)

In other words, “OP has been consumed by wikipedia rabbit holes for the past 3 months”

Starting writing this in September, now it's November. Also this thing is nearly 7000 words.

TLDR: This is basically a crash course on ancient Kyoto, the mythology then, and stuff that details in this arc points to. Chinese philosophies and mythology are mentioned too, when relevant.

Spoilers for chapters 82 to 94.

I keep hitting image limit so this has been split into multiple posts

This part covers the urban planning of ancient Kyoto, what the four gods are, and some locations shown in ch 83.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

(If you want to read the whole thing in a google doc, here's the link)

Warning: I’m not a historian, just some rando on tumblr, I’ll probably get some details wrong. If you have anything to add or anything to correct, please do, also don’t get too mad at me.

Also, if this shows up in the searches for some of the other mangas I namedrop, I’m sorry!

If there’s a concept you’re interested to know more about, just google it. I’m bound to leave out stuff bc not everything is relevant (and there’s already plenty of irrelevant stuff in here sobs), people write whole books about this stuff, I’ll be here for 1000 years if I were to bring up all of it.

I Don’t Know How To Start This

I guess I’ll recommend some other manga that have to do with gods, Shinto, that stuff.

Well. Everyone knows what Noragami is. If you don’t, go read/watch it. If you do, go read/watch it again. It’s probably better than you remember it being. That’s the curse of monthly manga, it feels like there’s pacing problems when you read it once a month, but usually when you binge it you find it’s structured pretty well. Strangely I don’t find this with youkaigakkou, but maybe because I think about it 24/7.

Touge Oni, or “Primal Gods in Ancient Times”. This manga leans heavily into ancient Japan, Shinto creation myths, stuff like that. Tonally it’s kind of like Mushishi, in the way that powers beyond human comprehension just do crazy shit. Anyway, great manga, highly recommend.

Wow, The Actual Manga, Right

Just some trivia to start with. This is going to wander quite a bit, because there’s a lot about history and mythology, which means everything is connected to everything else. You know how it is.

Shinto shrines are called shrines, 神社 -jinja, meaning “place of the god(s)”

Buddhist temples are called temples, 寺 -dera or -ji.

The temple they’re staying at is called “Bonnou-ji”, or "worldly desires temple". As far as I can tell, this isn’t a real place, nor could I figure out what temple it’s based on just from the scenery we get to see. (We don’t even get a general location of what part of Kyoto it’s in.)

Heian-Kyo

You may have noticed South is oriented at the top on this page.

I have a guess, but I can’t be sure it’s right.

Why does it matter? First of all, we have to talk about the other thing Seimei mentions about Kyoto: It’s built in a grid.

(By the way, this is an insane thing to say. What does he mean?? Does he mean “ah yes city was built like this over 100 years ago so one day someone could use this specific spell involving a grid to subdue a giant booba monster”?)

Also, the word he uses for “grid” here is “碁盤目 (gobanme)”, which in the literal sense means “shaped like a Go board”, which is cute. I want to see them play Go.

Heian-kyo (the name for Kyoto back then), like Japan’s previous capital of Heijo-kyo (now Nara), was modelled after the Chinese capital of Chang’an (now Xi’an).

For the record, they probably didn’t call themselves “Heian-kyo” back in those times, and started calling themselves Kyoto around the 11th century. It’s kinda like how we call it “ancient Japan” but they didn’t call themselves that. To them it was just “now” and “the capital”. Why make a name for “the capital” when there’s just one capital that will be capital forever? Makes sense.

(Just for reference, the layout of the streets and where Heian-kyo would be compared to modern Kyoto.)

The emperor’s palace is in the northernmost part of the rectangular city, with the main street Suzaku-oji going down the center of the city to the southern gate.

The reason behind that is the idea that left (east) is more important than right (west), and that the emperor should sit with his back facing the north star (Polaris), so that the sun rises from the left (east) and sets on the right (west).

What Heian-kyo and Chang’an are both based off is the urban planning fengshui idea of “shijin-so-o”, which translates to “four gods topography”, which is the very same four gods we’re talking about this arc.

There are two very similar versions of this philosophy, the original one and the one derived from that.

The original version is based off the idea of “zofu-jusui” meaning storing wind and water. There is to be mountains in the North, hills in the East and West, and a body of water in the South, creating a sort of jug.

The expanded version is:

Seiryuu to the left, flowing water in the East Byakko to the right, thoroughfare in the West Suzaku to the front, lake in the South Genbu to the back, mountains in the North

Basically, a city is to be bounded by mountains in the North, a river in the East, a road in the West, a lake to the South. Also, again, left and right in this definition is based off the emperor’s perspective, which could explain the direction labelling on that page.

In any case, both of these definitions apply to Kyoto.

Also, Chinese maps traditionally were oriented with south at the top, I can't say for certain if Japanese maps did too, but it's likely!

However, if you look at maps today, you may find that there’s no major body of water south of Kyoto.

In the past, there used to be the Ogura-ike pond south of Kyoto, which symbolised Suzaku. (Despite being called a “pond”, it was more the size of a lake, 4km by 3km). In the 1930s, it was filled in because of land reclamation, to create more farmland.

In a sense, Kyoto had “lost Suzaku”.

Intermission

It’s also BECAUSE of this very philosophy that Kyoto nowadays gets abnormally hot in summer (above 35 degrees celsius for 15 days a year on average, compared to 5 days everywhere else).

Because it’s inland and blocked by mountains on all sides, on hot days, cool air can’t flow in from elsewhere so it just keeps getting hotter. Sounds like a stupid trade-off for stupid philosophy, but the practical reason behind the philosophy was probably that surrounded by mountains, Kyoto would be harder to invade.

Suzaku-oji

The main street, Suzaku-oji, also gets its name from the four gods. The main entrance to the palace, connected to Suzaku-oji is also called Suzakumon, or Suzaku Gate.

Speaking of Suzakumon, it shows up in the manga!

It’s where Byakko brings the gang when they go to the Seimei shrine. (Albeit a surreal version) The text on the plaque over the door is hard to read on this manga page, but it’s clear in this chapter promo art.

I believe it’s also where Shutendouji appears in ch 89. The text over the door is even harder to make out, but the building itself looks just like in that promo art.

Back to Suzaku-oji. Looking at modern Kyoto, you may notice that there's no major road down the center, instead there’s that major road to the right (in yellow). Zoom in! Enhance! What’s that road called!

Karasuma-dori street. Corresponding to Karasuma-koji of Heian-kyo, and has replaced Suzaku-oji in modern times as a main street of Kyoto. You know, like Karasuma Ranmaru. (launches myself out the nearest window)

So anyway, what gets me hung up about why south is at the top in that page, is that it just does not correspond to the map under it.

Left side is a miniature model of Heian-kyo, it’s basically a perfect match. And you can see Suzaku-oji right there on the miniature model, that big wide road, stretching from the palace gate towards the south, which would mean that south should be at the bottom of the page instead of north.

So why is it like that? idk

ALSO, IF YOU LOOK AT THIS PANEL FROM CH88, WHERE IS THE MAIN STREET???? This panel drives me insane. YOU KNOW WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE? If you took that top half, the palace, and just pasted it at the bottom. And also the sides. DID THEY THINK NOBODY WOULD NOTICE? You know what they had a point. Canada “most sane yohaji enjoyer”, OP of this blog, who spent 2 months looking for sources on ancient Japanese and Chinese urban planning in 3 different languages, is an outlier and should not be counted.

What does this have to do with Kuji-kiri?

Honestly? I don’t know! There’s not a super obvious connection.

Kuji-kiri is the grid thing Douman does, “kuji” means nine words, “kiri” means cut. It’s a version of the kuji-in (nine hand seals), where the kuji-in is nine hand signs paired with nine words or phrases, the kuji-kiri is 5 horizontal and 4 vertical lines, drawn alternating, starting with a horizontal line.

It’s said to be derived from the principle of yin-yang in Taoism, which Onmyoudou as a whole comes from. (Onmyou and yin-yang use the same kanji)

Specifically, the 5 horizontal slashes are yang and offensive, the 4 vertical slashes are yin and defensive.

Worth mentioning, Onmyoudou also incorporates the philosophy of gogyo (five elements). Will elaborate on that later.

9 is a symbolic number in Taoism, said to be the perfect number in divination for yang, or the nine planets, or the seven stars of the big dipper plus two guardian stars, believed to be the gateway to heaven. There is the most tenuous of connections here, in that 9 was an important number in Chinese philosophy, where an ancient Chinese urban planning guide states “9 li x 9 li squares” (“li” is a unit of measurement) and “9 vertical and 9 horizontal streets in the city”

To that end, I assume the connection is simply that Kyoto is grid = Kuji-kiri is grid.

Four Gods

Four gods, auspicious beasts, symbols, guardians, whatever. The idea originated from China, and didn’t change all that much when they got to Japan. They don’t have this many names in Chinese, it’s just called “si xiang”. “Si” means four. “Xiang” doesn't have a great exact translation.

Not to be confused with any other mythical figures that come in fours that China/Buddhism/whatever seem to love so much, for all that “four” is an unlucky number.

Like a lot of other Chinese mythical things, while associated with Taoism, the four gods didn’t really originate from any religion. In that sense, I think they occupy the same cultural space as Japanese youkai, in that while sorta connected to religion, they’re not the focus.

They’re not gods of any religion, so what are they?

They’re constellations.

In Chinese astronomy, much like the western zodiac, the night sky is split into parts corresponding with the Earth’s position throughout the year. (Albeit, based off the moon rather than the sun.)

The night sky is split into 4 quadrants and 1 middle section, the middle around polaris symbolizing the emperor, and each quadrant is one of the four gods.

As said before, this is relevant because it’s part of the fengshui stuff behind the layout of Chang’an, which was inherited into the layout of Heian-kyo.

What does this have to do with Abe no Seimei?

Well. Onmyoudou is just divination, which is just astrology.

The four gods are very much tied to the Gogyo (five elements), which is half of the basis of Onmyoudou (the other half is yin-yang).

We know it's specifically the Taoist Gogyo and not the Buddhist Godai (another thing with 5 elements), because Seiryuu specifically says his domain is “wood” and “wood” is not present in the Godai.

If you’ve seen other media with Abe no Seimei, you may have heard of the 12 divine guardians (or divine whatevers, you get the idea). They’re shikigami employed by him, four of which are these four gods. I’m not entirely sure if it’s these four gods themselves, or if they just share namesakes.

(Also not to be confused with whatever other figures in Buddhism/whatever that come in twelves)

These 12 divine guardians also each correspond to a direction and the Chinese year zodiac.

The idea of the four gods is oddly extremely tied to Abe no Seimei, I assume because of the astronomy and astrology connection, so much that the gate to the Seimei shrine is the “shijinmon” or “four gods gate”, and also the pillars with the four gods carvings that show up in the manga as well.

Abe no Seimei tangent! According to legends, Abe no Seimei's mom was a white fox, Kuzunoha, often considered a youkai, but also sometimes said to be the envoy of a god or is a god herself.

In other words. What I’m trying to say is. I want to see fox Haruaki. (OP's worldly desires)

Also, look at this fun story about how Seimei died.

Tbh, I don’t know how much of this is common knowledge. I’ve seen a pretty big variety of people reading youkaigakkou, from people who are hearing about youkai for the first time to people who know absolutely everything about onmyoudou and onmyouji. I guess in this essay so far, the Abe no Seimei stuff is more towards the “everyone knows this” end of the spectrum and the Heian era urban planning is “who the fuck knows this”.

Youkaigakkou Geoguessr

That was a lot, so here’s me messing around on google maps for a little bit.

This panel was changed slightly in the volume release, but these are the Toji pagoda, the Fushimi Inari Shrine torii gates, and Kyoto Tower.

At the start of ch83, they’re at Nijo Castle.

When Haru hears Byakko’s voice and runs off, this is probably where this panel is. I can’t get an exact angle from google street view, but it probably looks like the panel if you’re on the sidewalk. The parking sign, tree, and road sign line up almost exactly, and the building looks roughly right. (Seimei shrine also marked on the map for reference)

Mans casually sprinted 1.5km. You go king.

Seimei shrine is pretty cool. Sensei got to go there for photo references. It never really occurred to me how weird featuring real places in a manga would be, as cool as it always is, all the paperwork you probably have to do. (They have a link to apply for that on the website) They have a wall with Ema (wooden plaques) written by actors, authors, filmmakers and mangaka that feature the shrine in their works. I wonder if Tanamai sensei got to write one.

This page was also changed in a pretty big way in the volume release.

I mentioned this in my TL note, but this is referencing the reports of taxi drivers ferrying ghosts, especially after major natural disasters.

Yasaka shrine, roughly 3km straight line distance from Seimei shrine, 5km on the road. I’ll take the manga at its word as the closest Ebisu shrine lol. That panel in the manga specifically would be the west gate, which lines up with the road they probably took (straight south and then east).

The main deity enshrined there is Susanoo-no-Mikoto, but there’s a bunch of shrines on the grounds dedicated to different gods, one of which is to Ebisu.

Specifically, it’s the “kitamuki-ebisu-sha”, or “north facing Ebisu shrine”. Because it… uh… (checks compass) faces north… I guess…? The interesting trivia about this is that Ebisu is written like “蛭子” instead of “恵比寿” (though it’s read as “ebisu” all the same)

蛭子 is more commonly read as “Hiruko”. (Anybody watch Summer Time Rendering here?)

Ebisu is thought to originate from the first child of Shinto creation myth big names Izanagi and Izanami, Hiruko, meaning “leech child” because he was born without bones, and was cast into the sea and floated ashore somewhere. In a popular version of the story, he washed ashore in Hokkaido, to be raised by an Ainu guy called Ebisu Saburou. (Or sometimes this guy is an Ainu deity? I cannot find a reliable primary source for this. This name comes up fairly frequently but I can’t pin it down.) I’ve also seen claims that “Saburou” is a generic name meaning “third child”, and since he is definitely the first child, that the “first two” are Izanagi and Izanami.

In any case, this would make him the older brother of Susanoo-no-Mikoto, who I’m not saying has any connection to any Mii-kuns we know of, but you know.

I got to the image limit, so the post gets split here.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

#youkai gakkou no sensei hajimemashita #a terrified teacher at ghoul school #yohaji #rambles #analysis

[all-4-wincest]

Hi…..

SPN GIF DRABBLE

Gif credit @aborddelimpala

Warnings: None.

Characters: Jensen Ackles, you, or actually @arwenadreamer , Jared Padalecki mentioned, unnamed convention employee

Summary: Jensen Ackles, attending the JIB 12 convention that @arwenadreamer was fortunate enough to be able to attend. She was also able ask Jensen a question, it was supposed to be for both Jensen and Jared, but things happen. She posted about how it went, and I asked her for a few more details. Based on her story, I came up with this for her. I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS!!!

A/N1: Extremely Fluffy, some mature language just because that’s how I roll, I think Jensen probably does too especially when he’s just saying it in his own head.

A/N2: I never send hate and I don’t expect it in return. Don’t like, don’t read (That’s my usual Wincest A/N, but it never hurts to say it!!)

A/N3: I’ve been having trouble completing a few longer fics, I’m so sorry my friends, so I thought maybe writing some gif drabbles would help me get back in the right frame of mind. This is the gif, my friend, @arwenadreamer sent me, if you read her story you’ll understand how personal this is for her. I hope I did it at least a little bit of justice. Maybe she’ll post the link after she reads? Because yes, sadly after all my years on Tumblr, I still haven’t figured out how to do it.😞😞 This turned out longer than I expected, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I really enjoyed writing this.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy, XOXO, Liz

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Jensen looked to his right to see the next person in line to ask a question, and he did what he hoped was an inconspicuous double take. He couldn’t really explain it, he met so many people and unfortunately, their faces blurred together sometimes.

But there was something about her face. Not just how she looked physically, she looked so kind and friendly. Jensen desperately wanted to know more. What’s her name, where’s she from, what did she smell like? Wait, what, where the hell did that last question come from? He didn’t automatically think he was a creeper or something like that, he just really wanted to know more about her.

She was beautiful to him. But damn, he hadn’t really wondered that about anyone in a long time. That wasn’t something that he wondered about just anyone, that was very personal, intimate information, in his opinion. He couldn’t just go around sniffing people, (Even though people did it to him often during his photo ops.), he still found himself wanting to bury his face in that juncture in between her neck and the top of her shoulder and inhaling as deeply as he could.

She was talking. What did she ask him? He groaned internally at what he had to ask now. “Oh, uhm, I’m sorry, can you repeat your question, darlin’?” He asked her with his thickest Texas drawl coming out. She blushed a pretty pink from the tips of her ears down below her shirt collar when he called her darlin’. Which, holy shit, was that cute on her!

He focused intently this time as she repeated her question. He didn’t want to give a stupid answer, or one that felt like he wasn’t really listening. Jensen gave the best answer he could think of. His mind was currently quite preoccupied, Thank You Very Fucking Much! Cutely, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. Then he got to answer for Jared, which was always fun. He could be silly with Jared’s part, which he thought his best friend would appreciate.

After looking out around at the rest of the audience thinking ‘Yeah, keep it cool Jensen. You know how to do this’ he looked back to where she had been standing, she was already gone. ‘Oh Fuck’, he scanned the audience quickly, finding the back of her head as she retreated back to her seat. He didn’t do this, he in fact, had never done this. But he was going to take a chance and do it this once. Just this one fucking time.

His panel was over about five minutes later and he already knew where she was sitting. He almost ran off of the stage, finding his ‘handler’ for the weekend, almost knocking them over in his haste. “Hey, uhh, did you see that girl I was talking to about five minutes ago?” In awe themselves at getting to spend the weekend with Jensen too, they nodded kinda dumbly.

Jensen smiled, a cross between a schoolboy smile, and well, one with more heat behind it. He asked for a piece of paper and something to write with, which was given to him almost instantly. He scratched down a quick note, no more than five or six words, his handler thought, and placed it into their hand. After they wiped their sweaty palms off on their pants, of course. Sorry, being around Jensen tended to do that to people.

Once she had the four times folded note in her hand from someone she didn’t know, the temptation to read it was overwhelming. Especially after they said that, “This is of vital importance. Please don’t throw it away. Just, just read it, okay?” She went to get an overpriced drink and snack, opening it as she waited.

Meet me in Green Room. Please?

J.A.

Snack and drink forgotten.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

#SPN #SPN RPF #SPN RPF gif draddle #gif by @abordimpala #story and real life experience by @arwendreamed #Jensen x you #for the sake of this Jensen is not nor has he ever been married #I really hope y’all like this #feedback is welcome #as long as it’s constructive #so much fluff!! #THIS IS NOT WINCEST!!

[priscilla9993]

I posted 1,523 times in 2022

That's 1,292 more posts than 2021!

189 posts created (12%)

1,334 posts reblogged (88%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@piracytheorist

@wyntereyez

@cocohook38

@killian-whump

@infinity-tippy

I tagged 1,480 of my posts in 2022

Only 3% of my posts had no tags

#killian jones - 153 posts

#one for the queue - 119 posts

#colin o'donoghue - 107 posts

#pris speaks - 107 posts

#spy x family - 79 posts

#humor - 74 posts

#ouat - 72 posts

#alice jones - 72 posts

#ouat s7 - 71 posts

#captain hook - 50 posts

Longest Tag: 117 characters

#is this stupid kid me accidently seeing my cousin and thinking about asking my dad if my siblings and i could go home

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

The way Killian’s face scrunches up as he tries to stay strong for Alice, how he strains to breathe.

He winces and clutches at his middle and eventually chest as the agonizing poison gets stronger. 

He’s holding in his breath as to grit the pain as Alice gets supported by Robin as well.

See the full post

21 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

#4

I love characters that are relatable, in the sense that they genuinely express how they feel without giving a damn and not acting like they are the OP character of the show. If a bullet is fired in the distance or someone gets injured, they don’t react like that’s the most normal thing in the world, they scream and curse as you go “yeah, WTF was that?!” Protect the beans of the world, you know? They probably didn’t ask to be put in the bad situations they are in but they are also the best at rolling with the punches.

26 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

#3

No one does it like Colin O'Donoghue acting out whump. Thank god the man loves the arts and dark stuff as well as the writers for Ouat letting him explore that. The way he winces, scrunches up his face as he acts hungover or like he’s drinking alcohol, bloody up and beaten but yet still manages to crack a smile to look strong in front of his captor or nearby friend. Did I mention how good he looks screaming, tied up, or slumped on the floor?

34 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

#2

married couple vibes with Alice “if stares could kill” Jones and Robin “sorry honey” Mills

58 notes - Posted April 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So, I just started watching Russian Doll Season 2. I’m barely three minutes into the first episode, Nowhen, when Nadia says, “All right, what is the game plan around here? I mean, is Lenox Hill actually treating patients today, or are we putting on a Beckett play?” For context, Nadia and Ruth are sitting in the lobby/waiting room of a New York hospital, Lenox Hill, filling out a patient information sheet for Ruth after a minor car accident. They’re cracking jokes, filling out whatever they feel like, and Nadia wishes the process would go along faster bc surely Ruth has been waiting longer than she has. No doubt she’s worried for her godmother to get care as soon as possible and impatient waiting for the doctor to call for them to be seen. Back to the quote, “Is Lenox Hill actually treating patients today, or are we putting on a Beckett play?” I think Nadia is referencing Samuel Beckett’s famous play, Waiting for Godot, one of my favorite plays to read. In that play, the two main characters do whatever, complaining, telling jokes, all by the side of the road while waiting for someone named Godot to appear. By the end of that, Godot never does, but the characters continue waiting and it seems like the play never ends or loops on uncertainly. Nadia must see herself and Ruth paralleled there in the waiting room, waiting for a doctor that will never come or call in the long list of patients there. Luckily, the doctor does call in Ruth not too long after the joke, but I thought this inside joke was too witty and humorous to pass up without context. Ngl, a similar reference to Oedipus and a different male doctor holding the door open to Nadia was also clever. Gosh, I love classic literature and comedies, so for Russian Doll to be playing into that makes me adore it more. XD

93 notes - Posted May 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #My tumblr year in review #The shock I had going through this was huge #My top post isn’t ouat related #2022 was really my tumblr year #Killian jones is a winner #Learned so many inside jokes and how to use a queue #Sxf is something I love to bits #Baffled that I made over 100 posts #idk what gifts are #enjoyable #year in review #was waiting for this to come out

[ideal-girl]

I know you said you’d like to move on from this subject and I’m sorry, but there’s some things I need to get off my chest (I’m sorry but these things are continuing to eat at me and I cannot keep them bottled up).

LONG POST

Firstly there’s this paragraph by you: 

”We have to decide if we are still going to support Israel and the IDF, despite the displays and confessions of hate crimes and war crimes, and if we are going to be friends or allies with people, Jewish or non-Jewish, who vow to love and honor them no matter what. Do we want to be friends and allies with someone who knows that a government and its soldiers are genocidal but still supports them?” 

I think it’s rather unfair to judge the Jewish side as this. Neither of us knows much about how the Jews have been affected by this (you said so yourself, I only did minimum looking into, though I did see something, see below), so it’s rather uncalled for to judge them as this, as well as the “willfully complicit deceivers” comment. Do the majority really support and love Israel (including, most importantly, it’s government) or do they simply detest violence and don't find any favor in destroying Israel? Also going by some posts I found by Jewish people, Israel may be the only place for them where they don’t have to live in constant fear of those willing to kill them for the sake of existing, so could it be a case of maybe they find Israel wrong but at the same time it and the people are the only place they got? Like basically a case of “this sucks, but the alternative is worse”? I could see some Jews moving to Israel because of what’s been happening as of recent (see below). Again I know even less about Israel and how living conditions are there (especially for Jews), but also again; governments are not exactly reflective of the people they control.

I’m confused by what you mean about @amaditalks and @jewish-kulindadromeu since their posts didn’t even mention Hamas (which I don’t know of), nor did they say that Israel was right in destroying Palestine and that it was for their own protection. Was it this line that led you think this way? 

“Israeli nationalism or patriotism, which subsequently includes actions of the Israeli government undertaken in the cause of Israeli defense (or in the name of it, even dubiously)”

If so I think it’s important to notice the bolded part of this, which implies that the OP of this post isn’t on board with what Israel is doing. Or were there other posts made by these two accounts that you were referring to, for I only saw this one. Otherwise I saw nothing that implies they fully supported (the government of) Israel nor saw what happened to Palestine as just. 

Now about them not sharing atrocious things Israelis said or done, well first of all I have to talk about something that’s really been bothering me as of late. It’s what you are doing recently, which is showing some of the shitty things Israelis said or done as of now. That’s not bad of itself, I get that that these people shouldn’t get away with it and some things need to be accounted for. But you said that you knew little about how Jews were impacted by Israel and Palestine (to be fair, I didn’t do a whole lot looking either) and so I remember very little rebloggings or posts from you about what Jews think, feel, and have been impacted . You haven’t reblogged or posted about the Israelis who DO have troubles with what their government is doing to Palestine; let alone Israelis Jews. Now this one I’m probably wrong about; and if so im sorry, but I don’t remember you reblogging any posts which linked to anything SUPPORTING Palestine, like fundraisers or whatever. So the main thing from you, the most focused thing, is reblogging or making posts reporting on shitty acts or words committed by Israelis people. And just that.

Look I’m not going to lie and sugarcoat it so I’ll be blunt. What you’re doing recently reminds me of the people against certain movements, who use incidents like lootings, “annoying protests”, or false accusations to portray said movements as just grounds to make excuses to engage in “annoying” or violent behavior; or perform something like “witch hunts”. That they say whatever the movements are fighting against (racism, enviromental damage, creepy men in power) is not a big deal and that those who follow them are all violent thugs or narcissists seeking attention. Those people against the movements (willfully or subconsciously) ignore other factors to paint a narrative, especially one exploited by grifters. Now I don’t know anything much about Israel, Palestine, Zionism, or Jews (aside from one thing below), so I don’t have a “real” take on it nor can I say if you’re in the “right“ or “wrong”, but I can’t ignore that what you’re doing recently reminds me of those mentioned above, that it’s obviously biased. You may not think all Israelis or Jews are responsible for Gaza, but by focusing mostly or solely on those specific types of people (the bad ones), you’re unintentionally painting a (unfair) picture that maybe they really all are and that “antisemitism against Jews” is overexaggerated or a copout excuse, as you‘re not giving (enough) focus to the ones who ARE against it, or how Jews have been affected by Israel. I mean I know little, so you’re not giving me any reason to think that all Israelis AREN’T scumbags and as bad as the country they hail from. 

It‘s also bringing to mind the way media coverage is, which brings it back to the point about some accounts or people not sharing some of the atrocities some Israelis people have committed. 

Have you ever seen the game “You Become What You Behold” as well as the movie “Christine” based on real life reporter Christine Chubbuck? In the latter movie, Christine is a reporter who yearns for “honest news” such as human-interest pieces, however her boss wants her to focus on news that will gather “more ratings”, such as murders and other grisly kinds. She eventually sacrifices her ideals to play by this new guideline and this plays a role in her fate by the end of the film. A major theme on the former is how the media focuses on grislier content and ignores more peaceful ones, and that too much attention to something negative is ultimately detrimental.  

The point is there’s only so much that one could handle. Absorbing too much negative news is not good for the mind, especially if there’s already shitty things happening their life, it just amplifies it. Aside from pointless celebrity gossip, news loves to focus on misery and death, while paying little attention to more simpler and kinder tales. Its why I don’t watch the news anymore, and it’s part of why Im not following the news about Israel and Palestine; that and I’ve learned from experience from MeToo and BLM is that there’s always going some sort of soul draining controversy that looking into it will do no good for my mental health.  

Now going back to the point with Jews; well I found this post which dates back to November 2023, to find out how Jews were affected. It doesn’t paint a good picture for how Jews are being treated recently (one of them including by ******* Russia). My “hypothesis” as to speak is that (presumably, I didn’t look into this) Jews don’t recount the bad things Israelis people have said or done because to them; it’s just adding more hate to the pile of hate and they already deal with that in a regular basis and wish to deal with it no more. As in they don’t want to be absorbed too closely with the ongoing news about Israel and Palestine, as it’s just more superfluous misery porn, as is news in general, and they already feel miserable enough. Does that make sense?

And as for the “restorative Justice” bit, that will be detailed in a separate post, as I feel it goes beyond what’s going on in Israel.  If I can offer advice, simply look up what Jews think about this. And I don’t mean only talk to a few, chances are you could have encountered only “Zionists”. Go look up communities online (like the Judaism subreddit), talk to more than a few Jewish people, see how they see things (but take caution and be sensitive to them). And if you will continue highlighting the asinine nature of Israeli people, then you SHOULD do the same for those using the conflict as an excuse to be violent or unpleasant towards Jews. Reblog things that are like fundraisers for Palestine survivors and Jews being targeted. Heck I could look things up if you ask me to. 

[jalnandanz]

LOVE O2O ! — 04. so jaeyun wasn't lying...

summary: after literature major y/n gets dumped by her “husband” in an online role-playing game, the game’s top player offers her a new proposal to be his “wife”, both not knowing that they are from the same school. and did i mention that he is also the most popular guy on campus?

★ prev. | m.list | next.

You reached your dorm, immediately whipping out your laptop. Upon opening the game, you see a message from your new “husband.”

jaeyun: hey, are you free rn? my guildmates and i would like to invite you to take down the lvl99 boss. smileyn: yeah, sure! jaeyun: these are my guildmates btw. ethan, sunwoo and won.  ethan: omg?? ur real!! jaeyun wasn’t lying after all… sunwoo: nice 2 meet u! your user looks a little familiar tho… won: wait a min… didn’t u use to be married to player prksnghn? smileyn: help yes… sorry i had no taste back then :( ethan: HELP MEE i like u already jaeyun: ethan.  ethan: oops sorry haha… jokes!! it was a joke…

Jaeyun started the domain, and the five of you quickly completed it with ease. Just a few taps on the mouse and spacebar, and you were already collecting the drops from the monster. 

“(name)!! I need your help with this math problem, are you free now?” Dayeon said in the middle of your co-op game. You sighed as your fingers flew across the keyboard.

smileyn: hey, i have to go now. my roommates need me. see you another time!! jaeyun, you can just drop me a message if you need me. jaeyun: sure. see you again

You flipped the lid of your laptop shut after closing the application. Swivelling your chair over to Dayeon’s table, you start explaining the problem to her.

“Thank you (name)! My lifesaver for real, I don’t know what I'd do without you. How do you even manage to balance gaming and studies…��� her voice trailed off as she started doing the rest of the questions. You felt slightly hungry, and ripped open a bag of chips as you unlocked your phone. Scrolling on twitter, you see a post that catches your attention, captioned “Calling all Belift University Basketball Enthusiasts! We will be having a game tomorrow in the stadium. Drop by if you’re free!”

Basketball? Jake played basketball. Would he be there tomorrow? Keeping your hopes high, you shared the post with your roommates. They squealed with excitement, deciding to make a visit to the stadium tomorrow. 

You wondered if you could catch a glimpse of him playing. You smiled to yourself as you took out your schoolwork.

xae speaks: shorter written chapter today!! nothing too exciting tbh,,, but still enjoy ^_^ will be trying to make this smau longer and show parts of yn and jake’s lives this time :D

#k-radio! #enhypennetwork #enhypenwriters #enhypen fanfics #enhypen imagines #enhypen fanfiction #enhypen scenarios #enhypen heeseung #enhypen jake #enhypen jay #enhypen jungwon #enhypen sunghoon #enhypen sunoo #enhypen niki #enhypen socmed au #enhypen smau #enhypen social media au #enhypen angst #enhypen fake texts #enhypen fluff #enhypen sim jake #enhypen sim jaeyun #sim jaeyun #jake sim #jake fluff #jake angst #jake smau #jake social media au #jake imagines #jake x reader

[cherryblossomsies]

trigger warning: racism, suicide, mentions of people getting lynched, profanities, graphic images.

another update!

this is an update/continuation regarding my previous post.

if anyone is still confused as onto what is going on, this post talks about the issue that has surfaced less than a week ago surrounding the kpop idol group, enhypen. in one of the clips that they posted, a snippet was cut out and the background audio of the short clip caused a hot debate to occur between engenes, the mentioned kpop group’s fandom name.

it was heard that one of the members was singing a song entitle ‘love galore’ by sza, in the lyrics that they had sung, people were pointing out that the member uttered out the n word while singing.

it became a hot issue because a lot of people were complaining that they did not hear the n word in the audio, at the same time a lot of other engenes pointed out that they heard it. personally, i am not going to give out my opinions on whether i heard it or not because just like the previous post,

i already stated that i am asian and i have no rights to discuss about any matter regarding the n word.

now back to what i was going to say.

a lot of ‘engenes’ were attacking black engenes, saying that this situation was not serious at all and this shouldn’t be a concerning topic in the beginning, which was wrong because black engenes have all the rights to know what was really happening in the video and whether the person that was singing the song said it or not.

i am still traumatised by the comments and remarks that i read on the weverse. people were posting pictures of black people getting lynched and was complaining to bring it back because black engenes were deemed nuisances to them. to people that are still unaware of the severity of this situation, these pictures are for you.

warning: graphic images

it took a lot of nerve for me to write and post this because i am scared of getting threats but there was little to none of people that will address the suffering of black engenes in the tumblr so i am going to just post, if anyone wants to come forward and attack me you are welcomed to do so, i won’t give a shit.

and today, i found out that there was an engene that committed suicide because of the constant attacks she received from other ‘engenes’. it was said that enhypen was her only motivation to keep on continue living, and to know that she had passed away because of this was heartbreaking. i did not know the engene personally but i could not imagine how heartbroken she must have been getting attacked just because she was stating their opinions as a black engene.

imagine getting attacked just because you stood up for your own rights.

humans are fucking sick.

rest in peace to the op, lets all send our warmest regards to their family.

i truly hope that by me posting this, a lot of people are aware that this situation is nothing to be made fun of anymore. this is fucking serious. someone committed a suicide because of this, if you still can sit back and acted like you didn’t see nothing then something is wrong with you.

and finally, belift has finally made a move after a long time. they had released their email address and through this, we can contact them regarding this issue. let them know that things have gone out of control and they needed to take actions as fast as possible.

here’s a template if you need help. this template is available in both korean and english. the original creator of this template is @ENbackup_ at twitter.

lastly, to any black engene that is in need of a place to vent out their frustrations, and is currently stressed out because of the current situation do know that my inbox is always open and i will be right here to give you mental support. or you can vent out to the person that you trust the most.

we’re all here for you, and we are aware how terrifying this situation can be for you.

do repost to spread this around.

also, i’m sorry if there is any grammar mistakes or any wrong usage of vocabulary. i wrote this in a hurry, there was no proofreading and english is not my first language.

update: i recently just blurred the pictures of people getting lynched thank you to someone speaking up on it, i would like to apologise if i ever made anyone feel uncomfortable with the pictures, i thought the warning would be enough but i should’ve still blur out their heads i’m so sorry.

#enhypen #enha #kpop #kim sunoo #lee heeseung #park jay #park jongseong #yang jungwon #park sunghoon #sim jaeyun #sim jake #nishimura riki #riki #ni-ki #sunoo #jungwon #sunghoon #jake #jaeyun #jay #jongseong #heeseung #blm #black lives matter #protect black engenes #defend black engenes #belift needs to take actions ffs #suicide #racism

[eri-cheri]

Now that we have reached the last chapter of the year. It is time to do a 2020 roll call of what I like to call, “State of the Shippers”:

1. IzuOcha. Status: Placated.

-IzuOcha’s could celebrate several cute tidbits throughout the year. Mini moments as they say.

Anime Highlights: The OVA’s came in clutch with moments for shippers all around and IzuOcha is no exception. We got a cute tidbit where Izuku and Ochako bumped into each other and were flustered.

Manga Highlights: Christmas kept on giving to this fandom as the AM doll Izuku gave Ochako made many appearances. A cute fist bump between the two was also exchanged and Mina was right there bouncing with y’all.

Heroes Rising: Izuku super man carried Ochako to safety. And was Angy she was injured. Fans could enjoy the small Lois Lane moment.

Troubling Signs?: Ochako said “I would like to be excluded from this narrative” when it comes to her feelings for Deku. She’s a hero damnit! So if they are in for something, probably won’t be while they are still in school.

II. DabiHawks. Status: Yikes.

- Dabi and Hawk’s very public breakup set this fandom in disarray but also kind of disayay?

Anime Highlights: None yet. This fandom was cruelly cock blocked by Bones. Sorry DabiHawks stans.

Manga Highlights: Where to begin, my goodness. With these fans, I guess the good and the bad is a plus in this homoerotic double agent relationship. We have the notion that Dabi may have known Hawks when they were kids, which may be a positive? Hori sure loves his childhood friends. Other than that. The GIRLS WERE FIGHTIN’. Hawks is now permanently scarred by Dabi and I don’t think it was kinky folks. Tokoyami inserted himself in the middle to White Knight Hawks, Dabi broke up with him via YT expose and overall, shippers could anguish in the absolute MESS that this ship endured this year. But I’m sure that’s part of the appeal. So...yay?

Heroes Rising: They were both in it.

Troubling Signs?: The entire relationship is a troubling sign which again, is part of the appeal. Maybe Hawks will cuddle up with Dabi’s father after the war. That’s troubling! Speaking of...

III. EndHawks. Status: Yearning and Burning.

-If there’s one thing Endeavor couldn’t stop worrying about, it was his hot (in more ways than one) new side piece who probably should have looked at the fine print when signing a contract to be a recurring guest star on “Keeping up with the Todoroki’s”.

Anime Highlights: A fateful meeting finally in high definition for all our eyes to see! Hawks’s unwavering support of his biggest hero was endearing to watch and their shenanigans together spurred the anime onlies to finally jump on the biggest May-December ship in the series.

Manga Highlights: Endeavor’s admiration and concern for Hawks seeped through the pages as we entered our most exciting arc in the manga yet. Fate split these two up yet entwined their downfall together. And that Fate’s name was Dabi...or should I say ⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️ or should I just say Touya!

Heroes Rising: “Don’t bite my head off, Endeavor.” Geez, can you flirt a little less loud Hawks?

Troubling Signs?: They say never meet your heroes and Hawks is in for a rude awakening. We shall see just how deep his admiration runs or if Endeavor’s past will split our dynamic duo up for good.

IV: TodoDeku. Status: “Precious”

-Shoto’s “Midoriya is in Danger” radar was highlighted in both manga and anime. 4th User’s quirk, who?

Anime Highlights: “Midoriya hasn’t returned yet.” “Where’s Midoriya?” “Midoriya! Grab my hand!” “Have some of my Soba Midoriya.” Shoto gets it. His emotional support friend is a danger magnet. TodoDeku’s also enjoyed tiny tidbits in the OVA such as a hand grabbing scene. Gotta hold tight to those crumbs.

Manga Highlights: Two Words. “Precious Friend.” Deku comes in w/o arms or legs fighting for Shoto and Shoto’s honor. These two spent the entire year worried sick about each other, and going against all odds to save each other. Precious Friends indeed. TDDK fans ate.

Heroes Rising: Shoto kicks some dog ass and then faints thinking of Deku (and Bakugo but shh. Let the shippers rejoice.) On the bright side, we have a 3rd movie coming featuring “The Three Musketeers” so shippers of TdDk can HOLD TIGHT to what’s to come.

Troubling Signs?: Shoto still doesn’t know about OFA and he’s gonna have LOTS of questions after this arc. Will Deku finally tell him? If not, it could make or break the ship.

V. TodoBaku. Status: “Shining through the city with a little funk and soul.”

-Who knew the greatest comedy duo we needed was Shoto and his hot headed “friend” or not friend? It still remains unclear to Shoto. Regardless, these two had a fun year.

Anime Highlights: “I wanna see your cute face”, disco dancing, and more fun in the provisional license training. Plus the OVA added some cute moments between the two such as Bakugo staying behind to save Todoroki during a dangerous excercise and his adorable plan neatly animated for us. I’d say TodoBaku’s really were resurgent and energized this year!

Manga Highlights: Shoto, that is not how you properly Catch a Kacchan, I’m sorry. But at least you did it you mad lad. As with Deku, Shoto spent the year worried sick about Bakugo. While the anime let us have our fun, these two were suffering in the manga.

Heroes Rising: Again, Shoto put a dog down and then fainted with Bakugo on his mind (and Deku but we ignore that. Shush.) TodoBaku’s have the 3rd movie to look forward to which is bound to have some amazing content!

Troubling Signs?: They have a lot of trauma to deal with. And a lot of Deku to worry about. I also imagine Shoto will be hurt about being left out of the OFA secret. We shall see what 2021 has to offer.

VI. KiriMina. Status: Unbreakable.

-Changing your hairstyle to match the gal who inspired you in middle school? Sorry y’all but if Mina were a guy, I’d say that’s gay af.

Anime Highlights: We got that backstory Bois. Red Riot’s origin might as well make him be called Pink Riot. Again with Hori and the childhood friends though I wouldn’t exactly call them friends. They just went to the same middle school but Kirishima was highly influenced by Mina’s Chivalrous spirit! A ship is born!

Manga Highlights: The influence is mutual! Mina creates a move based on Kirishima’s unbreakable and we all let out a collective “awwww”. Also in the war arc, we got Kirishima making sure Mina’s chivalrous spirit shines through right into Gigantomachia’s mouth! KiriMina may just be the unsung MVP’s of this arc.

Heroes Rising: They were in it.

Troubling Signs?: I can’t think of a single one. KiriMina’s can enjoy a peaceful sailing.

VII: KiriBaku. Status: Crumb Collectors.

-2020 was an uneventful year for KiriBaku but Bones made sure there were crumbs aplenty! Thank God for OVA’s!

Anime Highlights: KiriBaku’s did thrive in one episode! Kirishima reflects on the sludge incident and evolves his quirk based on inspiring words from Bakugo! Hooray! KiriBaku’s can thrive in their blossoming friendship. The OVA also has Kirishima (and Kaminari but shh) once again following Bakugo’s lead when it comes to the training excercise. How can you not? He’s so manly!

Manga Highlights: Not gonna lie. There is nothing much here this year. I did find a teeny tiny flake in Aizawa’s flashback. Kirishima and Bakugo are sitting next to each other. Oh! And at the hot pot gathering, Bakugo sits next to Kirishima! Eat your crumbs KiriBaku’s! There’s always next year!

Heroes Rising: Kirishima hangs with a lazy Bakugo and delivers the most hilarious line in the whole movie. “Silly Bakugo, there won’t be villains here!” Hahah... Silly Bakugo. Oh you~ KiriBaku’s can inhale the fact that those two sure love to hover around each other!

Troubling Signs?: With great crumbs come little responsiblity. No trouble if there’s no content! 🤔

VIII: KamiJirou. Status: Singing their hearts out 🎶

-If there’s any ship that’s coming close to canonization, I think this is it, folks! “Think of the person most important to you!” Can’t argue with Midnight!

Anime Highlights: Kaminari does non stop encouraging of Jirou and her hobbies! He works super hard to learn guitar for her sake! We love a king who can encourage his queen!

Manga Highlights: Kaminari thinks of the most important person to him and surprise! It’s Jirou! All of the feels can commence.

Heroes Rising: They were in it!

Troubling Signs?: Kaminari does love his women. And men. Kaminari overall is a huge flirt. But Jirou appears to have his heart strings. ❤️

IX: BakuDeku. Status: Rising. 👑

-Alternative Statuses include Winning, Thriving, Soaring. It’s just been non stop content this year. 2020 is truly the year for BakuDeku. The shippers can rejoice.

Anime Highlights: Three words. Be. My. Cane. The OVA’s helped fan the flames of the BkDk hearts with a surprise! Deku tops! Not only that, we got a lovely shoulder tap of encouragement in the canon material. While in season 4, Deku’s primary focus was Eri. Bakugo and Deku still had their moments to be hella gay.

Manga Highlights: Where do I even begin? I guess we’ll just cut to the chase with Bakugo Katsuki: Rising. We finally saw Bakugo’s true feelings manifest for Deku and if getting stabbed for him isn’t the ultimate showing of love, then idk what is. BakuDeku’s rounded out the year with the Volume 29 cover AND the volume 29 cover drafts to eat at our heart strings. Overall, their relationship got the spotlight in the manga this year. And we’re bound to start 2021 with a dramatic confrontation. Hand holding seems to be the key with these two and it didn’t stop with Heroes Rising...speaking of.

Heroes Rising: The entire movie. Like....yeah. That’s it. [OP, your bias is showing. You have to be SPECIFIC.] {But random criticizer in my head, if I lay out the entire plot of the movie, my post will be too long} [OP....] UGHHHH Okay okay. The POPSICLE MELTING. THE HAND HOLDING. THE CHARACTER DESIGNS OF WHAT MIGHT AS WELL BE THEIR LOVE CHILDREN. Did I mention? “It’s fine if it’s you?” CAUSE YEAH. Oh and All Might randomly officiating their wedding in their heads like idk. Isn’t it just simpler if I say the whole movie??!

Troubling Signs?: Well these two’s relationship is extremely delicate and while it has non stop soared this year, Deku might not take too kindly to Bakugo almost dying for him. Will they stop pushing each other away? Time will tell.

That’s all for this year folks! Happy Shipping and good luck to everyone next year!

#my hero academia #bnha spoilers #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #bakudeku #izuocha #tododeku #todobaku #DabiHawks #endhawks #KiriBaku #kamijirou #kirimina

[lochnessies]

ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad). 

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but.

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. 

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route.

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system. 

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. 

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious. 

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. 

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place. 

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

#i finished this at 1am so sorry if i’m incoherent #mine

[pyaasa]

lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers is racist; she thinks she understands racism better than poc, stands by racists, and attacks poc for trying to speak to her about racism

Tw: racism, rape mention, incest mention. also possible transphobia 

For the full story, you first need a bit of background: if you’ve been following me for a while then you will be aware I have called out @ayeforscotland’s racism several times. I would recommend reading this post for a full explanation.

In addition to the incidences mentioned in the post I have just linked, ayeforscotland has also had interactions with neo @androidgynes who is Romani and another person who is black (but didn’t want to be named) and they’ve both also called him out for his racism.

Anyway so. @androidgynes​ saw that lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers was reblogging from ayeforscotland, and that the op of the post was @/getpoliticaluk (who defends incest). Androidgynes messaged lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers (who I will from now refer to as lagstm) and informed her that ayeforscotland is racist and getpoliticaluk defends incest - the conversation that followed went like this. (the below screenshots are posted with permission from @androidgynes​)

The post that neo (@androidgynes) linked of mine was this. And I mean... clearly that particular post by ayeforscotland was very racist, he literally just sat there laughing about anti-black racism as if it was a joke. When @mangopickled​ tried to speak to him about how offensive this post was, he removed her comments from the notes of the post (like. to be clear: ayeforscotland, a WHITE MAN, made a post about racism, and then removed a WOMAN OF COLOUR’S commentary from that post when she told him that his comments were inappropriate). When I saw that, I called that out, and he blocked me. There’s many levels to his racism here that I don’t have the energy to explain, and if you don’t understand why it’s so problematic then you should probably stop reading here cos you clearly know nothing and probably care even less about anti-racism.

So on that particular post that neo linked to lagstm, there is ayeforscotland being racist, and 2 woc calling out his racism. And yet on having this post shown to her, this is how she chose to respond

lagstm literally says that she thinks my views on racism lack nuance. I am a woman of colour, I am visibly muslim, and I’ve experienced racism pretty much all my life. And here is a white woman saying that she thinks my views on racism “lack nuance”. I,, I genuinely don’t have words to convey how angry this makes me. Literally who does she even think she is. Not even is it racist to dismiss my literal LIVED experience of being a woman of colour in this country, but she is literally saying “look at these stupid brown folk, they don’t know what they’re talking about cos they’re so stupid :)”

neo points out firstly that as a white person lagstm doesn’t have the right to make that call, and also that there is ofc another woc on that post saying that exact same thing, and androidgynes themselves are roma. lagstm is not just dismissing me as a stupid savage who is too stupid to form complex thoughts, but she is also indirectly saying the same thing about 2 other poc, and saying that her judgement, as a white person, is more sound than all of ours.

It’s also worth mentioning that neo, who is Romani, was polite to lagstm during this exchange, and lagstm was rude and dismissive. I find this deeply hypocritical. Lagstm has been talking a lot about the policing bill and how it will affect GRT communities, but when she’s talking to someone who is actually *from* the Roma community, she is dismissive and condescending. All this shows is that she’s fake AF. She pretends to care about the Roma community on her blog and then speaks down to them in private.

And again this is worth repeating: AYEFORSCOTLAND WAS BEING RACIST ON THAT POST. IT WAS RACIST. WHAT HE SAID WAS RACIST. So lagstm isn’t just ignoring 3 poc, she is also ignoring,,,, you know,,, the actual racism,,,

And she also says ayeforscotland is borderline racist? Like she acknowledges ayeforscotland is borderline racist but she’s still happy to follow him? Like that alone would be enough for me actually

neo then blocked lagstm and messaged me and told me what happened, and showed me the above screenshots - btw prior to this neo and I had never interacted. Anyway I was obviously a bit disgusted but instead of going straight to blocking lagstm or making a callout post straight away, I messaged her to explain herself and take back what she said. That is now two poc who tried to resolve the matter privately - clearly a lot more than lagstm ever deserved. Androidgynes messaged me last Friday, and I messaged lagstm the next day on Saturday

My convo with lagstm went as follows:

So you can see that initially she was apologetic and said she “didn’t mean to imply that that my judgement on racism was flawed” (even tho that’s literally what she said) and defended herself by saying “I react poorly in interactions like this” - genuinely not a defence but whatever. She then proceeded to say that what she doesn’t trust my opinion on is Scotland and Ireland - which completely irrelevant. Firstly I am ambivalent to Scottish nationalism and have always said I don’t know much about it, and I support the reunification of Ireland. And secondly, my issue with aye has got literally nothing to do with Scotland or Scottish nationalism; he is racist all on his own. And the post neo linked was barely even about scottish nationalism, it was just him being anti-black. So lagstm saying “I don’t trust your judgement on Scotland and Ireland” is ridiculous considering that Scottish/Irish nationalism have nothing to do with this.

Like akjfbkjdfbs this is actually so ridiculous. It doens’t make any sense. Lagstm clearly says “I don’t trust pakisstani’s judgement on THIS issue [the issue being racism] and her views on THIS issue [the issue being racism] lack nuance” but now turns around and says “I wasn’t talking about racism, I was talking about Scotland/Ireland” like she must really think I’m dumb

And you can see Lagstm bringing up unrelated hypothetical scenarios, and saying “in this situation, you can’t tell me to defer to poc” which i found ??? Like why are you bringing up scenarios in which you think you are allowed to educate us poor and stupid black and brown folk?? I then told her she was straw-manning and that her points about Ireland/Scotland were ridiculous, but then she claimed it was me that was engaging her in bad faith. Like SHE, the white woman who practically said that I am too stupid to understand racism, and when confronted on it started straw-manning and bringing up unrelated scenarios, said I am not engaging her in good faith. AFTER both neo and I tried to speak to her privately about this. Like I tried to speak to her privately AFTER I FOUND OUT SHE HAD SAID RACIST THINGS ABOUT ME. BUT I’M NOT ENGAGING HER IN GOOD FAITH? LMAOOO

And then the accusation about rape threats which is actually the most disgusting part of this entire thing. I shouldn’t have to explain that accusing 2 poc of conspiring to send her rape threats (without any evidence whatsoever. Frankly I think she’s lying about the rape threats 🤷🏽‍♀️ it’s quite a transparent attempt to distract from her own nasty behaviour and deflect onto us) is actually extremely racist. She is invoking her white fragility and painting me and androidgynes as aggressors who are threatening her safety and inflicting/threatening to inflict sexual violence on her. It is beyond disgusting 🤮

What’s more, neo is trans, so when lagstm is baselessly accusing them of issues related to rape, she is also playing up to transphobic tropes.

One more thing worth mentioning is that there are several lies peppered throughout lagstm’s comments. Firstly when she claimed to have briefly unfollowed me - she didn’t actually. I was checking regularly, and she never unfollowed me. This was a small lie that I picked up on striaght away but because it wasn’t relevant I didn’t say anything about it. But I just think it’s interesting that she would lie for no reason. And another lie - feigning ignorance about ayeforscotland’s racism, and actually even asking for receipts is incredibly disingenuous when on this particular post, if you scroll through the notes, you can see she has literally liked it. Like she had already seen the posts where me and mangopickled called out his racism and literally LIKED it, and when neo says to lagstm that aye is racist, lagstm says “receipts please :)” YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN THEM! AND LIKED THEM! screenshot in case she unlikes it (sorry for including dumb comments by dumb scots but i need to prove it’s the same post so):

LASTLY. Last point I swear. When lagstm said “it was also coloured by the statements they’d made about another tumblr user, which didn’t relate to racism, which I didn’t address with them because I didn’t want to upset them” <- she must mean getpoliticaluk defending incest? So like what is lagstm saying here, she didn’t want to bring up that she also herself defends incest?? Like is she tryna say she’s a pro-shipping freak?????????????????????? What other way is there to read that statment

Okay that’s everything.

I’m not interested in discourse on this post - if you are white and think lagstm isn’t racist or you’re inclined to defend her then save your breath, I don’t need white people telling me what is or isn’t racist. I gave her the chance to defend herself, which is way more than she deserves, and this is how she responds. Her actions and indefensible and she can choke ☺️❤️  I will be unfollowing/blocking anyone I see reblogging from her because I deserve better than to follow people who are ok with racists ❤️ 

#lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers #uk politics #<- tagging this so all of you can see what kind of person you're reblogging ☺️❤️ #ayeforscotland

[potteresque-ire]

More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 3 💚. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

Here are the key points I’ve picked up from these op-eds:

* The state believes Danmei can turn young people queer. * The state also believes Dangai dramas can turn young men “feminine” to suit the taste of Dangai’s young, largely female audience. * The state views queerness in both sexes, and androgynous beauty in men as negative traits. * The state is wary of Danmei and Dangai’s popularity and wishes to contain them as subcultures. * The state is particularly annoyed by how the Dangai dramas have achieved their popularity with CP-focused promotions and marketing tactics, in which the actors are involved and blur the line between fictional and real-life suggestions of queerness.

What do I think of, concerning the acceptance and/or safety of … everything, with the above opinions given by the state media about Dangai?

* For c-queers, I don’t think things are different from before—these op-eds didn’t change the big picture for me. The op-eds taking traditional BL characterisation for Dangai / Danmei means the state’s intended focus of the genres is not its queerness; this is not unexpected, as the established review system is supposed to have removed the show’s queer elements, and to characterise those elements as queer would be a critique against the NRTA.

 While unpleasant, the veiled, antagonistic view towards non-traditional gender expressions and homosexuality isn’t new: the state has long believed popular culture can turn its young male audience “feminine”; the NRTA directive that bans homosexual content from visual media already makes clear its stance that homosexuality is, while not criminal, something that is Not Good in its eyes.

A (very) good thing that can be said, I think, is that none of the op-eds explicitly disapprove of the queer elements, the things that got away from being censored—of which there were, arguably, many in WoH. While Article O2a noted such “playing edge ball” (note the articles use this term to avoid mentioning “queer”), the comment right after was neutral / positive (“provide their audience with room for imagination”). Article O3, meanwhile, acknowledged that Dangai can be imitated by introducing suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot layout, thereby admitting that suggestive atmosphere between male characters in their plot layout is a defining trait of Dangai—and it didn’t say anything bad about it; the criticism was only for non-Dangai playacting Dangai.

This signals, to me at least, that Dangai can continue to be the cover for queer relationships to reach its audience for now — which is, perhaps, the best case scenario for continued queer representation on TV, given the current sociopolitical climate.

* For Danmei / Dangai, I’d also venture to say the genres are safe. Upcoming Dangais may need to undergo stricter / further reviews (if the rumours surrounding Immortality 皓衣行 are to be believed), and whether they can still achieve explosive popularity after such reviews remains a question; the genres themselves, however, will likely survive. 

Article O1 was a very positive, very enthusiastic review of WoH; its determined focus on the show’s aesthetics (as TU’s review) signals to me that the state approved of the genre’s take on aesthetics—which, again, also includes the aesthetics of a world cleansed of its real problems, which also aligns with the NRTA’s directive on TV / web dramas to focus on the positives of life in the country (Previously translated in this post: D12: … They [Pie note: the dramas] cannot place too strong an emphasis on social conflicts, must showcase the beautiful lives of the commoners.). Article O2b was very critical at places, but actually tried to sever Danmei  / Dangai from its major complaint, argued that the attention-grabbing gimmicks path was taken * instead of * aspiring to positively, proactively guide and display Danmei culture, therefore positioning Danmei on the “good side”.  While Danmei was named a (bad) influence for potentially turning youths queer (and predator, by the cartoon) in Article O2a, no mention was made of eliminating the genre both in the same Article or its editorial (Article O2b). The focus was placed, instead, on the subculture’s “containment”, and how it has been broken for “Rot Culture” to reach mainstream. The implied solution to Danmei’s “bad influence”, therefore, was to re-contain rather than eliminate.

[Logically, of course, this makes little sense. Blaming Danmei on turning youths queer is already confusing correlation and causation—youths may be drawn to Danmei because they are queer, rather than Danmei turning them queer. Re-containment, meanwhile, suggests that the state, which isn’t a fan of gays, is okay with Danmei turning kids gay… as long as there aren’t a lot of kids.

However, I’m hoping to tease out what the state may do, not whether the state is logically sound.]

Article O3 had the harshest wording on Danmei—“the canon and the Rot Culture behind it still hides large amounts of pornographic, violent content…”; “this vulgar custom of “playing edge ball” as a means to tempt, to lead the audience into indulging in fantasies [Pie note: sexual fantasies implied by the idiom 想入非非] have spread from visual media production…” . Still, no word on axing the genre, only containment.

* For CP culture, specifically, actor-character based CPs that are promoted with the dramas: while I don’t see it on the chopping board yet, these op-eds are, I believe, warnings for those in charge of the promotion and marketing of the upcoming Dangai dramas to tread carefully. I find the reach of these warnings difficult to predict still, because these warnings can be genuine—as in, the government truly believes the CP-focused promotion and marketing tactics are morally objectionable—or they can be more for show, in that the true reason behind the warnings is that CP-focused promotions, which also put a heavy focus on in-drama candies, make the NRTA / censorship board look like a joke and the government had to put up some objections to save face. 

In all cases, companies will likely need to talk to the government to nail down its stance. Whether to heed the warnings afterwards, tone down or eliminate the CP-focused promotions will require a thorough risk-benefit analysis. After all, CP culture appears to sits at the heart of the money-making machinery of Dangai dramas. The expenditure of fans is mainly to support their favourite actors and see their interactions, and money is, ultimately, what Dangai 101 is about.

Finally, for the sake of completion ~ how likely did these op-eds reflect the actual opinions of the state? Here are the sources of the articles:

Article O1: 上觀新聞, which is under Liberation Daily 解放日報,  the official daily newspaper of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Article O2: 半月談 Banyue Tan, a state-controlled biweekly magazine published by the Xinhua News Agency, the official state-run press agency of China.

Article O3: 光明日報 Enlightenment Daily, a newspaper associated with Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (中共中央機關報).

None of them are of the calibre of People’s Daily (official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party). However, they’re all very well-respected state-sponsored sources. Banyue Tan does require an asterisk  ~ while affiliated with the Xinhua News Agency, the massive influence of which has earned it its nickname “the world's biggest propaganda agency”, Banyue Tan‘s authority on this particular issue of Danmei/Dangai has been somewhat undermined by a … strange (?) trivia to end this super long piece: the magazine has also been caught in the controversy surrounding 227. Due to its pro-TU, pro-Gg stance, antis have insisted there are Gg fans within its writer’s ranks, who have used the state-sponsored publication for their private, support-Gg purposes. To this day, the argument is ongoing—with the criticism of Danmei in Article O2 sparking another round of “discussion” due to its previous approval of TU—and the lead anti is a well-known international politics professor and CCP (Chinese Communist Party) mouthpiece named Shen Yi (沈逸), whose claim to fame was the US government cancelling his visa and denying him entry due to suspected espionage …

[Banyue Tan was not the only state-sponsored publication caught in 227′s cross-fire. This is one of the reasons why some political watchers have suspected 227 to have a political component, that some form of political power struggle was happening in the post-227 chaos and disguised as the fan war.

While the truth may never be revealed, one thing is for certain ~ fan wars are about the worst things fans can do for their favourite idols, by lending space for such veiled conflicts to happen, by lending the names of their idols / their idols’ fans to the actually warring parties who may not wish to reveal who they are.]

[Okay okay, I will shut up now :) ].

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 <-- YOU ARE HERE

#pie metas #yizhan #bjyx