#and I'm also really tired of people being accused of 'demonizing' it just for pointing out there are real risks to be considered

[favorvn]

Yknow, I'm just going to put this out there.

I am really disgusted by a lot of these accusations hurled towards Lily without an ounce of proof. Most of these accusations simply feel like they are throwing anything at the wall to stoke the flames of social outrage in order to get people to react. It's gross, and it is tiring.

Here are a couple of my thoughts...

- Yes, what happened in the server with someone being falsely accused was really bad. It hurt people involved and destroyed trust. My heart really goes out to this person, and they have every right to feel hurt and to not forgive anyone involved in this situation. There is no excuse or explanation that can or will justify this. Bad mistakes were made, and someone was unjustly and irreparably hurt. A fact separate to this, though, is that Lily was given this false information after being harassed at that point for MONTHS, possibly even a full year. After that long of being harassed, it isn't a surpise that a mistake like this happened. As fucked as that situation was, Lily is a victim in this situation. It's strange that we don't really see this acknowledged. One person being a victim in an awful situation doesn't just negate another victim.

- Stealing code from fourms...? That has to be a joke. The really cool thing about code, and what has caused leaps and bounds in technological advancement, is that historically, code has mostly always been freely shared and a community based effort and knowledge sharing. On help forums, people share code with each other and correct each other's code. This is doubly so for Renpy, which makes it so lovely to learn! People don't really gatekeep knowledge when it comes to code, we encourage learning and skill improvement. Unless there is PROOF that code was fully ripped from a game (which even in that case, I would bet that the original person found their code from a forum as well, and the second person may have found a similar code to it because code really doesn't differ too much as it is a tool, a means to an end, not creative expression.) I really just don't believe any of those accusations at all. This goes for all accusations without direct proof.

- Regarding the criticism towards Lily's sexuality and gender identity: That isn't your or anyone else's business. It is frankly gross to try and demonize someone else's gender identity and sexual identity journey.

- I have seen multiple comments /callout posts / threads that revolve around a weird level of white knighting for Ya-Boi. Ya-Boi is an adult. They are both adults. Stop infantilizing Ya-boi and assuming that he can't voice when he is uncomfortable by something. He can, and he doesn't need anyone to speak for him. Let the business between them be private as anyone else's has a right to be. If you were actually concerned for Yaboi you would have checked in with him personally in a private message rather than just putting his personal life out there and forcing him to out his own personal life to the public 💀 like I really doubt he wanted to have to do that.

- Also, the complaint about 18+ erotic art being posted in a clearly titled 18+ EROTIC server??? I seriously laugh everytime I read that callout. If you join a server that clearly has the word 'erotic' in the title and you get mad because erotic art was posted? That's fully on you. What's next? Will you go to the p*rn hub and be mad because p*rn was shown? Get real. Stop pearl clutching and grow up. Take responsibility for your own actions and decisions of joining the clearly labeled server. The worst part to me is, I know if you voiced this complaint, anyone in the server would be kind enough to oblige and apologize to you and make sure it doesn't happen again. Because they are kind people who do care about how people around them feel. But frankly, I find this complaint fucking ridiculous. It was in the title of the damn server.

Look, at the end of the day you don't need to have a reason to dislike someone. You can just dislike someone. It's enough just to say that you don't like someone and end it at that. You don't need to try and make a callout post and rally people to also dislike someone so you can feel justified in your dislike towards them. You don't have to like everyone you come across in life, and that's totally fine. It's human even.

Please reevaluate some of these points on if they actually make sense, if they are actually fair, if you actually have proof for them. If you are this harsh on Lily, I really feel bad about how harshly you must judge yourself. To remain at some obscure morally upright standard that you are arbitrarily imposing on yourself at all times. It's okay to love your yan characters and want others to interact with them. It's okay to make mistakes, it's human to fuck up sometimes, to learn, and to grow from it.

What will happen when you make a mistake that you tried to call out another person for? Will you forgive yourself? Will you spiral in self loathing? What happens when you make a mistake that you would have called someone else out for if given the chance? Will you make an exception for yourself that you know you wouldn't have granted to another person? Will you allow yourself to grow in ways that you won't allow others to? What happens when you get a partner and they make an honest mistake? Will you call them out to the public? Trying to get others to also dislike them? Where does empathy get to start and end?

My advice is: Have some empathy for yourself and for others. Life will be much kinder to you that way.

I won't go through every point, I just wanted to say my piece on those things. This link is the post I am referring to. Ya-boi's response disects everything in more depth than I will.

#concretenotes

[olderthannetfic]

Fandom discussions that happen through the anon ask box of a third user who kindly lets us share our opinions on her personal blog obviously risk becoming flat and all that, but I'm kind of stuck on that bi4bi M/F ask because, like... what is the point of critiquing fans for their dumb ship wars and then you just insert yourself in said ship wars like that?

There is something to be said about how fandom treats cishet women (by acting like they're the only demographic present, by refusing to acknowledge their existence, by treating cishet women like the the devil, and also by using the "cishet woman" label as a way of silencing any queer person who disagree with one's opinion, which in itself has a number of other implications), but, like (and maybe this feels a bit personal for me because I've seen it happen one too many times) queer people—especially bisexuals—often "insist" that their M/F ships are bi4bi bc they're tired of bisexuality getting erased, especially when online fandom, like most other online (and offline) spaces, loves to both imply and directly state that bisexual people in M/F relationships aren't queer, or not queer enough, with the opposite also happening in F/F and M/M ships, where a character suddenly turns monosexual, or where bisexuality is not even contemplated.

It feels pretty naive to not take into consideration how that "insistence" often comes from a place of hurt, and not from the implication that being straight is Bad And Wrong™.

And obviously, whatever, everyone can ship whatever they want. But I have to question how many queer people—who aren't, like, antis or whatever—just go up to other fandomgoers and tell them that they're being queerphobic, really, because X ships should be bi4bi. Because there is a difference between someone saying that X and Y are bi, actually, in their own profile (or even lamenting the lack of bi4bi ships) vs. them directly going under a fanfic or other people's post to accuse them of being too straight or whatever.

It can still be annoying, mind you. Sometimes there are implications in how people explain themselves and share what they'd like to see more of in fanworks. I know for sure that some of the "Why don't we never see X" post can be annoying as fuck. Also, fans do often weaponize their (even if real, tangible) pain as a way to win arguments and demonize the other side—we see this happen with antis all the time. But it kinda makes me laugh when people try to critique this by flattening the discussion like this.

Obviously, discourse is annoying and wanting to be as far as possible from it is 100% understandable. And sometimes people just want to complain, which is also fair. But I feel like generalized complaints like this, posted on what is basically a public forum, often just fuels the discourse instead of shutting it off.

--

TBH, the main time I see bi4bi come up is when I post stats about het on FFN or something, and people come out of the woodwork to remind everyone that just because something is f/m, that doesn't necessarily mean it's het. (I promise you that 99.99999999% of the stuff I surveyed on FFN is the hettiest het to ever het.)

I haven't seen any policing of other people shipping the same m/f ship for not making it bi4bi. It might be out there, but it's not something I run into.

I have seen plenty of complaints about canons that end in m/f with a bi character not being queer enough. The funniest one I ever saw was about Stage Beauty.

I mean... it does end in the leads getting together... But...

(This is that historical movie where he's an actor playing women's roles, then the law changes, and men can only play men and women are allowed to be actresses. It upends his whole life and loses him his boyfriend. His assistant who's obsessed with him in kind of a "Do I want them or do I want to be them?" way takes over his old signature role of Desdemona. He's bitterly jealous, of course. Then they invent naturalistic acting in the space of a month because this movie is very historically accurate. Anyway, it would be pretty queer just for all the gender bullshit that's going on in the main f/m ship even if he weren't visibly also interested in men.)

IDK, I've found annoying people on both sides of this: letting you know f/m can be bi4bi when nobody asked and insisting things are Not Queer just because the endgame ship is f/m.

[angellesword]

SAVE ME | KTH (11)

Summary: You were determined to kill yourself, but what would happen when instead of ending your life, you ended up summoning the devil of death?

Alternatively:

The Devil: I’m here to ruin you, I’m here to save you.

Genre: Demon au, e2l, angst, fluff, roommate au

Pairing: Devil!Taehyung x Doctor!Reader

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: mention of death, kissing, and blood.

SERIES:  CHAPTER 10 | CHAPTER 12

*unedited*

The sad thing about carrying the burden of guilt was that you felt as though you didn't deserve to experience good things.

"Who said you have to experience good things?"

The crease on Taehyung's forehead implied that he was looking for an answer, causing you to bite the inside of your cheek.

You honestly had no idea how to answer him.

"Let's just go home, Tae," you said after a long minute of silence.

It was better to give up when you were uncertain, sadly Taehyung was persistent. He wouldn't stop until you gave him an answer.

"You know you're being too hard on yourself, right?" His grip on your forearm was gentle, yet his tone was harsh.

"You know where I stand," your lips were pursed into a straight line. "I don't deserve to see him."

Him.

Him as in your father, or to be exact: your father's grave.

You and Taehyung were currently at Seoul cemetery to finally visit Cha Areum's grave. This was the very first time you went here.

You didn't have the courage to do so back then. However when things between you and Jeongguk started to get better, you realized that maybe it wasn't so bad to face your fear.

But fear was not the same with uncertainty.

Taehyung was suggesting that you should visit your father's grave as well. He said bringing flowers and trying to talk to him while you looked at his headstone might help you to somehow lessen the sadness caging your chest.

You answered him by saying that you were uncertain.

Uncertain if you deserve to experience good things.

Having the chance to talk to your father—even though it was only by pretending as if he could hear you from six feet under—was a form of redemption, like a way to free yourself from guilt of not trying to contact him when he was still alive.

You didn't want that because it would make you to feel better about yourself and feeling better about yourself was similar to experiencing good things.

Again, you felt like you didn't deserve to feel good things.

You didn't even think you deserve to mourn him.

You weren't like Jeongguk. You didn't get to be with your father and you most certainly didn't make him happy.

You didn't make your father happy so it was only fair that guilt was eating you alive.

Except you didn't think that. Deep down, you knew that it was unfair.

When the person you didn't get along with died before you did, other people would accuse you of being hypocritical if they saw that you felt bad.

You would also be left with a pang of regret because you didn't treat the now dead person better when they were still alive.

They didn't treat you better too. So why? Why were you the only one suffering? Why were you the only one left here to dwell on regret?

You hated that this was how the world worked. Couldn't bygones be bygones? Couldn't you really mourn your own father?

But most importantly, you hated that there wasn't any closure between you and your father.

You didn't get the chance to apologize.

And now that Taehyung was giving you the chance to say how sorry you were to your father, you were acting up—thinking that you didn't deserve to technically be 'forgiven'

It was all so confusing.

But you were more confused as to why Taehyung implied that you indeed didn't deserve to experience good things.

Was his reason the same as yours?

Well, it wasn't. Taehyung explained what he thought.

"You know what I come to love and hate about humans?"

You shook you head. You didn't know.

Taehyung pouted his lips, he was trying to light the candle placed on Areum's headstone.

You didn't see the point since the wind was blowing hard.

"It is their goal to always be happy." He groaned when the wind harshly extinguished the fire of the candle again.

He lit another match, refusing to give up.

"Humans are always striving to be happy," he repeated once more. Same thought, different words used.

He claimed that he loved this since he could use this unending desire to tempt them. But Taehyung also hated it because of the discontentment they felt despite having everything provided to them.

Humans didn't have any satisfaction, always aiming for better and greater things.

"Is that wrong?" You arched your brow.

"No." The devil lit another match. "I guess it's just tiring."

You felt like everyone around you kept on speaking things you didn't understand.

Were they complicated or were you just slow?

"Don't you feel tired? You always say you don't deserve good things, but really—" He momentarily stopped lighting the candle just to look at you.

"—it's futile. You associate good things with being happy, right? So what if you just stop." Taehyung dropped the box of matches.

"Stop trying to strive for good things. What if instead of happiness, you just simply seek what's tolerable?"

It was the first time you clearly understood someone without asking them to explain any further.

But he still did. He continued speaking his mind.

"You don't always have to be happy to say that you are living 'the life,' sometimes it's better to just aim for something that is not happy nor sad. As long as you can bear something, it should be enough, right?"

You honestly had no idea why such words were coming from a devil like him.

Was he possessed?

But wait—“Are you telling me to stop classifying things?"

"That's not what I said—oh." Taehyung smiled when he realized what you meant.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

If you didn't categorize what felt good and what felt bad, you wouldn't have to worry about the guilt you felt.

You would just do things because that's what felt right.

Visiting your father was something right.

You owed it to him, not to yourself.

You were apologizing for him and not for yourself.

"For someone who claimed to be the devil, you sure act a lot like you're human," you shook your head, a smile gracing your lips.

You appreciated the things he said even though you knew that he was only doing this to save himself. He probably learned all of this by reading books on how to deal with a suicidal person.

"Whatever," Taehyung rolled his eyes at you. "So what now? Do you wanna visit your father?"

"Probably. But not now,"

Busan was far from Seoul. You would need more than a day if you went there. That's not possible at the moment since you were aware that you had used all of your emergency and vacation leave.

It's about time you stop abusing your privilege as the niece of the owner of Cornelia Hospital.

Unless...

"You can teleport us to Busan, right?"

Taehyung's face crumpled.

"Yeah, about that..." He averted your gaze. "I can't."

"Why?" Was he lying? You had seen him teleport multiple times already.

"Because..." He was crossing his arms as if he was annoyed. "I'm powerless now."

Taehyung explained that it’s because he used all of his power to heal Cha Eun Hye and erase some of her memories from months ago.

"I thought you can only tempt people?"

You were confused. He said devils couldn't harm people without the permission of God.

"Yes, but we can erase memories of people when the reason why it happened was because of us," Tae caressed your left shoulder. "Cha Eun Hye isn't lying, you know? She isn't blaming you for what happened to Areum. She only said those mean things to you because I fed her with lies,"

Taehyung thought that it was only fair to erase those bad memories. This was the reason why Areum's mom kept calling you to make sure you were alright. She had been treating you as if you were her daughter.

She cared for you.

You didn't understand before why she was acting like that, but now you knew.

Mrs. Cha Eun Hye was a good person.

"The last time I used my power was when I teleported your brother back to your apartment. I considered erasing his memories because I know it isn't fair to drag him into my world,"

You agreed. All hell broke loose when Taehyung informed you that Jeongguk knew that the former was a devil.

You were so mad at Taehyung that day, luckily he convinced you that it would benefit your brother since he wouldn't be confused as to why Park Jimin was looking after him.

It all worked out in the end. Jeongguk called you yesterday to say that he was having a good time at Bangtan University. The presence of Park Jimin made his stay there even more fun.

"But I can't use my power anymore because—"

Taehyung wasn't able to finish what he was saying because instead of words, it was blood that came out of his mouth.

"Oh, my God!" Your eyes widened.

Your instinct as a doctor got the best in you. Panic and fear weren't in your system. You only did what you needed to do to help stop the pain he was going through.

"I'm okay," the devil said, stopping you from aiding him.

"This is okay." And then he gestured at his mouth.

You stopped to listen to him.

He explained that he had been going through this for months already. It was normal because he hadn't been back to hell for almost a whole year now.

Taehyung really spent his days by your side. Aside from this, he also hadn't collected any souls since his life connected with yours.

His power came from doing evil things, so now that he's acting like a good boy, his power was diminishing.

"So what should you do now?" You put your hands on your hips. "Do you need to tempt people? Or..." Your eyes dilated.

"Don't tell me you have to collect souls!?" This thought scared you.

You didn't think you could stomach the fact that he had to urge people to kill themselves.

"Nah," luckily Taehyung only let out a hearty laugh at your assumptions.

"It's true that I can just tempt someone, but I can also just give into one of the capital vices,"

The seven deadly sins were evil so it shall do the trick.

"Oh yeah?" The corner of your mouth quirked up. The worry you felt turn to mischief.

At least he didn't have to collect souls.

"What's your vice, then?"

Taehyung took in your appearance. He noticed your furrowed brow, your playful smirk, and the fact that you were just so...

...Beautiful.

"Greed." He simply said, void of any emotion.

You swallowed hard.

"Greed for?" You inched towards him.

Taehyung ran his tongue through his lower lip. Without a warning, he encircled his hands on your waist, pulling your body closer to him.

It caused you to let out a gasp, though he could tell that you weren't really surprised.

You wanted this.

You were playing with fire.

The look you two were exchanging was full of fire too, and this very moment made Taehyung smirk.

It was funny.

Funny that he had to associate bible verse and logic when he was trying to figure out why he wanted to save you.

But as it turned out, he only needed common sense.

What he felt towards you was simple. It was in his nature as the devil after all.

Greed.

Taehyung didn't just care for you.

Taehyung also wanted you.

It was proven to be true by his strong greed to hold your hand, the greed to be with you, the greed to see you, and the greed to...

"Kiss you,"

There was no time to process things.

Taehyung crashed his mouth against yours, finally giving into his vice.

You tasted sweet, just like he had expected.

You also tasted fire, something that was making his body felt hot.

You tasted like wine, making him feel drunk on happiness.

He was the hypocrite here.

He hated humans for always wanting more, but he was just like them—always craving more.

Taehyung craved you and boy he could only hope that you craved him too.

He didn't have to hope actually, at least not when you decided to kiss him back.

It was clear.

You were greedy too.

#ficswithluv #kim taehyung #taehyung fanfic #bts taehyung #taehyung x you #taehyung x oc #taehyung x y/n #taehyung x reader #taehyung fluff #taehyung angst #taehyung series #taehyung devil au #devil taehyung #demon taehyung #taehyung fantasy au #taehyung roommate au #roommate taehyung

[rpbetter]

I'm so tired of roleplaying with people who don't put half the commitment I do into our threads and muses. I'm so tired of feeling like I'm a weirdo or like I don't belong for that. Any other hobby and people wouldn't care if I took it seriously. Why is roleplaying different? How can I keep going like this if I'm getting rudeness from all sides? I can't even go outside my already tiny bubble and find more partners, because I always see people putting roleplayers like me down and it's exhausting.

"Why is roleplaying different?"

Well, Anon, I know that was a rhetorical question, but I have some thoughts on that. To the surprise of no one!

I strongly believe that this is an issue with how fandom has come to dominate roleplaying. As I've said before, it really wasn't always like that. Of course, you always had canon characters and almost all RPers were invested in a fandom or two. The difference was that online RP was once viewed much more like tabletop RPGs are.

When the RPC became a near-total offshoot of Fandom, a lot of shit changed and very rapidly...and within Fandom, a lot of shit was changing very rapidly as well at that time.

RP has always been something looked down on (though, at least no one ever accused written RP online of being literally demonic like they did DnD, or made correlations to murder sprees like they did LARPing, so there's that) as strange, not the good, understandable sort of dorky.

Part of that is almost certainly because of the difference in the way society views writing vs the way it views hobbies like gaming - writing is seen as an intellectual pursuit and a job, gaming, even at its most negative points of view in wider society, has been seen traditionally as a downtime activity only.

But. RP was not looked down upon from within Fandom or in roleplay communities themselves like it is now.

When the whole experience of fandoms themselves became extremely mainstream and open, it welcomed in a ton of shit ideas and behaviors that were not previously prevalent. It changed RP, too, along many of those same lines.

When your hobby is considered objectionably weird by people within the fandoms you love and RP in and that makes you a sort of lowest-tier fan, the viewpoint of RP to RPers becomes something lesser than a valid hobby. When RPers are the same people who engage with Fandom monetarily, anything not monetized is passively consumable content, including RP. And RPers are trying to both deflect shame and struggling with wider society's mixed messages, that now hit them everywhere online as well. Shit like, "you don't have to monetize your hobby, it's okay to just make really good cross stitches of memes for yourself" and "if you're not paying me, you have no control over me."

We seriously do not view RP as a proper hobby anymore, that's why. There are many factors to that, those are just few, but that's the ultimate answer. It's not seen that way because it's not valued in the same way.

I think much of the problem with muns losing their entire shit over anyone else approaching the hobby differently, dare I say...more seriously, is related to a lot of complex psychology about self-esteem, control, and anxiety. So many people here struggle with serious self-worth and confidence issues, and I think to many of them, whether they realize it or not, when they see serious RPers, they feel like that's an inherent judgment and a danger to their own enjoyment. Because RP, as writing, is a skilled hobby - the more you practice it, the more skilled you become with it. Meaning that someone who approaches the writing seriously is going to be at a higher skill level.

Enter the way we're training to think about writing again - when they see someone who is very practiced, skilled, and confident with their writing, the learned idea is that they're somehow superior in a nasty, personal way.

I most certainly do not think that makes it alright, it isn't, and I'm not very tolerant of it.

It's absolutely alright to engage with RP in any way you see fit. If that's extremely casual, it's a minor hobby for you, that's great! I'm so happy you're enjoying yourself, and I mean that in no facetious way. But not when that is the only form of it respected and accepted. It's just as alright to have RP as your primary, serious hobby!

The only way we can all enjoy a hobby with such great variance within it is by respecting each other's variables, not by vilifying them. It's recognizing that, no matter how much you enjoy the mun and/or muse, they're not engaging with the hobby in the way you are, it's not a good fit to write together. (Please, begging y'all to be friends with those who are different, not enemies, shit's sake. You've not got to write together to be friends!) Instead of labeling them and being hateful. Different =/= a threat.

And, to go off a bit lol y'all demonizing serious RPers really don't get that there are some intense tones of ableism and more going on in that narrative of yours, huh?

Not that anyone requires a reason to be serious about any hobby, but when people pick a hobby like RP as their primary one...you should probably have the maturity to consider why that is. Could it be that they focus on a hobby they can do from their homes and that requires low physical involvement, and has a degree of separation from direct socializing, for a reason?

Serious RPers tend to be limited in their ability to pursue other hobbies. Mental and physical health, region, finances, and ability to spend time outside of the home are all very common limits for those who "take RP too seriously/are addicted to RP."

Maybe take five seconds away from your own issues to consider that the person you're shitting on for something so minor as a difference of importance of a hobby might be the full-time caretaker of a special needs child, having to remain home and on a very small income. They might be chronically ill or suffer from agoraphobia. They might live in an area with no hobbies of interest, affordability, or at all...or they might live somewhere that is incredibly dangerous for them.

I honestly do not know where these people have been that they've been aggressed at by serious RPers, but that's usually the excuse. (I'm not saying it has never happened or does not happen, before anyone goes there.) The idea that serious RPers are extreme elitists who are demanding that other muns do what they do, how they do it. That they expect other muns to be online and RPing all the time, that they be "available for entertainment at all times" at the cost of real-life matters. Having the expectation that threads not be dropped constantly or that a writing partner not leave for months with no contact is neither of those things.

In over two decades of RPing across almost every platform type that has existed, I have literally never seen that be either a singular RPer-type problem or one that serious RPers are even more likely to deal in. I've seen the opposite, actually. Which is not a condemnation or a statement that all casual RPers do this, just what my experience has been. And one that actually stands to reason based on the way they view and engage with RP - quick replies, quick entertainment, and very low commitment to threads, muses, or other muns. Of course, it's annoying to them when a more serious RPer is unwilling to do rapid-fire style quick, short threads from an ask with them, but is writing the lengthy replies they already owed instead.

That's probably a factor as well, in here among a plethora of misunderstanding/unawareness of differences - for many serious RPers, it's not easier and more fun to write short, quick threads. So, what a casual RPer is seeing is that they're willing to put all this extraordinary effort into a massive reply to someone else while their easy, fun, quickly done thread is waiting in line.

Misunderstandings and unawareness breed hostility, period. And there is a hell of a lot of those things in the RPC.

What serious RPers are expressing are either boundaries/expectations or frustration. Not a demand that you be around all the time, but an expectation that you leave them alone if you're not also a serious RPer who will be committed to threads and muses. Not hostility and elitism, the frustration that it's already difficult to find muns who will work out before you add in the majority rule of casual RPers.

It's incredibly disheartening, frustrating, and honestly, a bit anxiety-inducing to constantly be the weird one, always have few choices, and to be at risk of being Problematic purely because you take the hobby seriously. You can't vent without someone jumping on your ass to remind you (even if you said numerous times that "real life comes first" and "people can do what they want") that omg, people have lives, people can do what makes them happy, it's just RP.

It's so upsetting when you think you might have found a good writing partner, then, you see a PSA they've reblogged about how it's a "hobby, not a jobby," and "no one owes anyone anything, ever." Excuse me, as that last one is a direct quote, let me redo it so it is verbatim: "no one owes anyone here anything - EVER !!!"

I said I wasn't very tolerant :)

But seriously, exactly what you've expressed is why I'm not...it's another form of controlling others instead of trying your best to control your own experience, and it's often extremely hateful. I'm not tolerant of anything like that, it's no longer supporting preferences at that point. When your preference is the only one that will be tolerated in the community, it's not a preference anymore.

It's something that makes others feel isolated, afraid of harassment, and depressed. It is a hobby and it isn't supposed to make you feel like that!

And, no, absolutely the fuck not lol the "answer" to this isn't that you're taking it too seriously and need to take a break. I'm so tired of seeing that shit tacked onto RPH responses and vents and PSAs. You're not saying that RP is making you feel this way, "just take a break and come back when you agree with everyone else" isn't a solution.

Of course, if you do feel like your time here has become so upsetting? Yeah, obviously, you should try to find some other things to supplement your downtime that make you feel happier again. Engage in some other forms of writing just meant for yourself, or that can be published as fics. Spend some more time on a game you enjoy for a while, or get invested in a new one. Learn to shape bonsai or make no-knead rolls. Whatever would make you happy as a hobby when you're not here.

Other than that, however, well...we're not going to be implying on this blog that you're too serious and need to take a hiatus until you have no emotional investment in your hobby. That's insane. I'd not say it about hiking, martial arts, dog obedience competitions, hobby farming, or painting either.

I wish I could think of some solutions as to where you could look that wasn't like this, but it's definitely the majority of the RPC. It doesn't help that, due to this, serious RPers have a tendency to quietly stick together and not venture out into the RPC. They're just not incredibly easy to find.

I will say that they tend to be:

novella - if you're not here for serious RP and sticking around for a while, you're not going to invest the time and energy into particularly lengthy writing

older RPers - I would say that twenty-five is probably the youngest, with early thirties to late forties being the majority

in fandoms with a large adult base of fans - even if it's a franchise friendly to, or even meant for, younger fans, if it has a particularly active adult fanbase, it's a better chance of finding serious RPers in it

as above, old fandoms - fandoms that have been around for a long time tend to have more serious RPers in them

fandomless OCs - tend to have a higher chance of being written by serious RPers than canons or heavily fandom-involved OCs

RPers who do not do a ton of advertising for their muse(s), but when they do, they don't advertise them based on activism points or trends

slightly more likely to not have an emphasis on highly aesthetic blogs, graphics, icons etc. - they use a modified basic tumblr theme, low on graphics, their aesthetics are not on-trend, for example

anti-content policing/"write what you want" style muns

muns with more extensive rules pages - they plan to be here for a while, they take writing, RP, and their muse(s) seriously, so, it's a bit more important to them to head off problems before they start

those with older characters/FCs - be that literally in age or the character being one that has existed for a long time

"stay in your lane" style muns - if they're opining on fandom or the RPC, they must really be angry about something

those with numerous and detailed headcanons - for example, their response to a HC meme ask like, "what's your muse's favorite ice cream flavor?" is going to be treated seriously, not simply answered with "mint chocolate chip because my bby is gross"

As usual, not a complete or perfect list. I don't fit some of the things on there! It could give you some things to look for when trying to find other serious RPers, though. It's based on observances from someone who was never a casual RPer, even as a minor (me, obviously), and maybe it could at least keep you from continuously running into hostility about your approach to RP.

I've honestly considered making a list of some sort expressly for RPers who are on the more serious end of the spectrum, but...in a RPC back when things were dominated by serious RPers, I did that sort of thing with a RPH I had, and it still got labeled as being a list for and by Elitists. I don't know that anyone would want to put themselves out there for potential harassment on tumblr, you know? It was a joke then, just having a group of RPers label you as an Elitist. Here, you get told to kill yourself, and none of us need more of that shit, right?

Try to hang in there, Anon, I know it's upsetting, and I'm so sorry that something fun has gotten to be like this.

Try to understand that these people are coming from a place of irrational defensiveness, often in response to bullying themselves at some point or feeling bad about themselves. That doesn't make it right, but it does make it easier to not take to heart.

And keep at it! In my experience here, once you find a group of people you fit into, it really is...A Group. Especially among RPers who are ostracized, they stick together, they promote each other, and they're very happy for their mutuals to become your mutuals. Once you find them, it unlocks so many opportunities for the interactions and type of RP you've been missing!

#answered #anonymous #serious rpers #rp problems #rp advice

[nopeferatu]

Arthur and Belarus 🧘

Arthur

favorite thing about them:

the fact that hes a little bitch LOL i love weirdo tsundere gremlinesque characters like him so freaking much

least favorite thing about them:

i dont actually know if i have a least favorite thing abt him?? he has flaws but i like him for those too. i guess i can say one of the most compelling flaws abt him that makes me sad for him is this idea that he wants love and affection but he doesn't know how to go about asking for that, so he pushes people away and keeps them at a distance first before they have the chance to reject him

favorite line:

"am i catholic or protestant? god i dont know" that'll always be gold

brotp:

Platonic FrUk is probably my all time fave bro pair

otp:

Take a wild guess

random headcanon:

he can dance REALLY really well, and he can learn new dances really quickly too

unpopular opinion:

let the man be soft for christs sake and dont moralize making him this rugged, hard person for like. woke points lol if you dont care for when ppl portray him as softer or in tune w feminine interests, you can just. say so and avoid that content, but to act as tho its "bimbofication" or something and then accuse the ppl who do make him softer or more feminine of being "fetishistic of irl gay men" ? or something? is really out there

(also to be clear here, im not talking abt anyone ive interacted w personally. ive just seenx at a distance, certain spheres of fans/shippers who have said specifically that portraying characters like england or poland as more feminine or softer or whatever is akin to fetishizing real gay men and i am so very tired of that narrative bc as it is feminine men have been demonized thru history, even amongst other lgbts, and while i think there are certain portrayals that i have contention w i dont think its a good thing to immediately write off ppl who have femme/feminine/"soft" hcs for characters as being fetishistic)

song i associate w them:

i have a whole playlist dedicated to him tbh fhduhd BUT the one song that I've been thinking listening on repeat lately while thinking abt him singing this to Alfred is For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic by Paramore

two other faves include Englishman in New York by Sting

and From Eden by Hozier, which is another song that I like to imagine him singing to Alfred

favorite picture of them:

Belarus

favorite thing about them:

shes a certified Weird Girl™️ and proud fhfyr like i just love her sm. moody goth woman can step on me

least favorite thing about them:

i dont care for the rly exaggerated canon murderousness of her. in fanon i tone it down and just like to make her a moody bitch w issues lol

favorite line:

i dont think i have one :( sorry

brotp:

hrm....hrm. Her and Russia I think? I think theyve got each others backs always no matter how reluctant or willing either parties are to admit that.

otp:

I fucking love t4t AmeBela. Usually I hc Alfred as gay tbh but MMGMH theres something so fucking good abt eager, young and inexperienced w love Alfred being so puppy dog smitten by the tall sexy Belarussian goth woman, and she just looks at him like hes a pesky fly that keeps following her around 😭 its SO GOOD.

random headcanon:

i think shes super tall and extremely elegant in her movements

unpopular opinion:

she's my beautiful wild trans wife ;)

song i associate with them:

i dont really have one but probably another molchat doma song tbh bc theyre a goth band and theyre actually from belarus

favorite picture of them:

LITERAL WIFE

#asks

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

*HEAVY SIGH*

I see people accusing Jim of stealing stuff from Garden Lodge all the damn time and it's really getting old, because there is zero evidence that this is true and is based on nothing but hearsay from a bunch of loudmouths on the internet. It's no coincidence that the people who spread this rumour are bitter Mary stans who hate Jim and will do anything to demonize him. If Jim, Joe or Phoebe had stolen anything from GL, they would have been arrested. I've seen Mary's fans claim that she let them get away with it because she "didn't want to cause a scandal" but we know that's bullshit, given that she's publicly slated the GL boys and the band to the press, gave several interviews right after Freddie died where she made all these dishonest claims about his final days, and that huge fiasco with Oscar the cat. If any of them had taken something from Garden Lodge that Mary wanted, she would have raised merry hell over it (or should I say, "mary" hell, lmao.)

So, either A) the jacket was specifically left for Jim as well as other things B) Jim asked if he could keep the jacket and Mary let him, or C) Jim "stole" the jacket and Mary didn't give a fuck. Take your pick.

I'm also tired of people criticising Jim for selling the jacket. Like you said, the most important memories of Freddie for Jim were the ones he had in his head. At the end of the day, it was just a jacket. A piece of clothing that would have undoubtedly ended up at an auction or in a stranger's hands after Jim died anyway. I've heard some accounts that Jim was sick at the time and needed money for his cancer treatment, but whether that's true or not is irrelevant to me. I don't see anyone criticising Mary for selling some of Freddie's furniture, despite not needing to, right after he died. I don't see anyone criticising Freddie's mother for selling his beloved piano, or his sister for selling his car. These were all items that meant a lot to Freddie but that's what they were, items. Freddie was dead and had no use for them any more.

People can't hold onto that stuff forever and they inevitably have to be sold, lest they just sit around and gather dust. When my grandmother died, all her clothes were given to charity or recycled, including her wedding dress which meant the world to her. But it was too old to be used and would just have sat abandoned in a closet for the rest of its existence; it was sad to see it go but there was just no point keeping it other than sentimentality. The charity shop were able to use some of the dress' materials to fix/fashion other clothing, so it was put to good use in the end.

On that note, from what I've read, the jacket ended up in very good hands. The people who attend these auctions are usually responsible collectors, not just random people off the street. They're not going to waste thousands of dollars on an item that they're not going to look after. The collector who bought the Wembley jacket often temporarily donates it to museums, along with other celebrity clothes, so all Freddie's fans get to see and appreciate it. Had Jim left the jacket to a friend or family member, there's no doubt in my mind that it would have ended up right in the same place. But people just love to shit all over Jim, so of course they're going to criticise him for it.

TL;DR: There is no evidence that Jim stole anything from GL, only crazy theories by homophobic fans who love riding Mary's dick. Also, when someone famous dies, their items are often sold for various reasons. It would be great if we could keep everything forever, but sadly that's not the reality. People need to get off their high horses and stop policing who can and can't do what.

Not sure if I could add much else lol. Idk if it was the case with the other anon—it seems like no—but it’s no coincidence that most people who accuse Jim of stealing also love Mary. It’s hilarious when people act like she didn’t want a scandal or media attention when that’s the opposite of her actions. She would’ve loved to paint herself as the victim of theft at GL.

Yeah Mary sold GL furniture but no one questions that, and Freddie’s family sold some of his belongings, like you said. Objects mean different things to different people. Contrast this with Brian, who is very sentimental and owns Freddie’s touring piano, and Roger who takes care of some of his stage outfits. It’s a good point that collectors at that level take really good care of their memorabilia and don’t let items just sit and rot. The jacket is probably in better hands now than if it had been left in the Hutton family after Jim passed. I think this is another case of something that’s really common with celebrities after they pass being treated as some big scandal, like when people freak out over Jim writing a book.

#since when did asks get so long btw #people can write essays in my inbox but it wasn’t always the case #and I think it’s only on mobile #anyway even if Jim did take it? good for him #lol #Queen #replies #Anonymous

[etlunainmorte]

***

Rubble. And debris. And destruction.

Every place their eyes landed, there's nothing but the cold and harsh reality of the complete and utter destruction of the one place they called home. Despite the fact that they hardly called it that due to its,... unnatural and chaotic nature.

And now,... there's no more unnatural, or even chaotic, place called home.

Devil May Cry,... was destroyed. Reduced to a pitiable pile of smithereens.

And Dante, the son of Sparda, and the Legendary Devil Hunter, couldn't blame anyone else for the unfortunate occurrence other than the other person who survived the sudden assault.

The man,... who was standing next to him.

"HEY! WHAT DO YA THINK YE'RE DOIN'?!" A very curious - looking demonic bird with glowing blue feathers screeched at the Devil Hunter, who grabbed his Master's lapels and almost lifted the poor man off the ground.

"This is your fault, V!" Dante howled.

"And how is this," The man called V wheezed as he grabbed Dante's hand, trying to get the larger man off him. " ... my fault?!"

"You shouldn't have broken her heart! Now, look what happened to the shop!" Dante let go of the helpless V as he scanned the area for any piece of furniture that survived the onslaught. "Freaking Elves,... hey!" The man called, trying to get the attention of the one Elf who saved them from the attack. "Where do ya think you're going? You're just leaving us here after what happened?"

The Elf in question turned towards the men, her blue eyes full of scrutiny and disgust. "I have saved you, lowly mortals, from your own demise, and yet you mock my own kind?!" She glanced at V and gave him a look of utter hatred. "And my own sister, the future Queen of our land, falling for the likes of you?! You, who will perish of old age or wilt of illness? You, who are loyal only to the desires of your own flesh?

"You, a mortal who stooped so low as to make a pact with,... Demons?" The Elf emphasized the word as if she was disgusted with the mere mention of such Underworld beings, and this offended the demonic familiar so much that V has to summon him back to prevent even more conflict with her. "How,... shameful!" She turned once more and walked away from both Dante and V.

"Hey, hey, hey, lady!" Dante, who easily caught up with her, stopped the Elf, grabbed her shoulder, and forcefully made her turn to face him, which angered the being even more. "Just walkin' away after all this, huh? And what about my shop? You and your Elves caused this! I'm neck deep in debt. I can't afford to rebuild this! You'll have to pay for the damage!" The man turned around just in time to see more and more people gathering right before them to witness what was going on.

"I don’t care! You should not have hurt and cornered her to use her power to begin with! Maybe then she would not be traced here in the first place! But, of course, you, mortals, have weak, pathetic, and closed minds!" The Elf swatted Dante's hand off her, turned once more, and went on walking.

"How could we know? We didn't even know she has powers in the first place!" Dante argued.

"That's because you, men, are so dense." The Elf answered with much emphasis on the word as she gave V a sideways glance. "And now, my sister has to pay for exposing our kind to the likes of you!"

"The Elves who caused this, the ones who traced her here," V, who was trying to catch up with both Dante and the Elf, added. " ... they will not stop until we’re both dead, will they?”

"Naturally. You just know too much." The Elf answered with disdain. "Now, if you, two ingrates, would not mind, I would return to my home and see for myself just how much damage my sister's blunder have caused because of you."

"Where is your home?" Dante questioned.

"It does not concern you."

"And how do we, weak, pathetic, and closed - minded mortals, defend ourselves from your kind, O Great One?"

The Elf, who didn't fail to catch the sarcasm in Dante's voice, stopped walking and placed her hands on her hips. "That is your problem!" She, then pointed an accusing finger at Dante. "You know what, I should not have helped you when all the payment I got for doing that is you pestering me with questions I will never answer! I' am also putting myself in grave danger here just by talking with you!" She raged on, then looked once more at V. "I should have let you die because you deserved it!" The woman turned away and finally left them.

Dante sighed as he watched her leave, crossing his arms and feeling the exhaustion creep up his system for the first time that day. He, then, looked at V and saw the man actually catching his own breath like he has just finished running a marathon.

If the Legendary Devil Hunter only knew,...

... the mysterious man known only as V has more things in his mind during that moment. He was confused, tired, shocked, even.

And he has,... a lot of questions.

Questions that needed answers.

"So," V looked up upon hearing the confidence in Dante's voice. " ... wanna go after the chick you just rejected?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You have a score to settle with her and I have to make those Elves pay for what they did to my shop. What do you say about following that high and mighty Elf back where she lives?"

"A score,... to settle?"

"Eh, yeah! None of this would happen if you didn't break her heart in the first place."

V winced at those words. Did he,... really break a girl's heart?

"I,... don't even,..." Like her, is what V wanted to say but, then again, he has made it quite clear to her.

And up until that very moment, he still couldn't shake the haunting image off his mind. Of her wide (E/C) eyes, of her tear - stained cheeks,...

... of the way she drew back and clutched her chest as if something unimaginable and really painful struck her heart,...

"I know. But," Dante answered in a much calmer tone. " ... you know how women are. Well, yes, she's an Elf but, sure! They're all the same. You know what I'm saying?"

"No."

"Oh. Right." The Devil Hunter answered, realizing that V doesn't have any experience with women unlike him. "The point is, we're both doomed here, V. And if what that Elf said about other Elves going after our necks because we know too much about them is true, then we might as well go to their den and face them head on! Bring the fight to them!”

"But, they're much stronger than the both of us. You've seen it with your own eyes."

"Eh, whatever!" Dante questioned as he started stretching his limbs in a clear gesture that he was fully accepting the challenge. "We'll see about that!" The man picked up his Devil Sword on the ground among the rubble and started walking towards the direction the female Elf went to. "Come on, Mister Poetry! She's quite slow, we're gonna catch up to her as soon as we could!" And with a smile, he added, "And you might as well use that poetry of yours to win back that girl. Or you could just say sorry, your call."

V wasn't able to do anything else but to pick up his metal cane from the rubble and go after the man in red. It's true what Dante said about those Elves paying for the destruction of the Devil May Cry but,...

... going after the girl, and facing her head on?

He knew that the catalyst to all of these events was him, his distrust, and his callousness. However, he never dreamed of breaking a girl's heart, let alone one who has enough power and influence to bring forth this chain of events that were starting to unfold right before his very own eyes,...

***

🌙

***

#devil may cry 5 #vitale sparda #to you who rejected me #v x elf!reader #v x you #prologue #dante sparda

[msbluebell]

Hello, I'm the same anon talking about the Captured AU. Sorry about that, I'm not accusing you of making Edelgard a Yandere when I sent the ask, I may come off as oversimplifying Edelgard's character with that but the Captured AU where Edelgard amplified her controlling tendencies just... gave off that impression to me, so, again, I apologize. And part of me can't see Edelgard doing that, as much as I'm aware that it's an AU, since even if her methods are questionable, she still gave (1/2)

the rest of the Eagles a choice to whether or not they will fight with her or not. And even in non-Black eagles routes, she gave Petra a choice to whether or not she will help her if you recruit Petra. So even with all her controlling tendencies, I was on the belief that Edelgard still gave people a choice, no matter how little they might be. Edelgard's methods are NOT okay, but I just can't see her having her controlling tendencies amplified like the AU did. (2/2)Listen, I’m not mad at you. You’re allowed to not like something, and you’e allowed to criticize something, and you’re allowed to even think actively bad things about something.

You and I? We don’t agree on Edelgard’s character and that’s the bare bones of it.

I’m really, really, tired of trying to defend my view on Edelgard, or this stupid AU I made that got me so much hate from different anons (not you, I assume). I don’t even like her character, so it’s exhausting to keep repeating my views of her over and over. So, right here, right now, I’m using your argument less to argue about my AU, and more to put my final foot down on my feelings on Edelgard, what I think she’d do, and how I feel about her. So sorry about that.

I completely, totally, undeniably believe Edelgard absolutely would lock up Byleth in a tower for five years if given the option. That’s not even something I questioned when writing this AU. I think she’s ruthless enough to do it, I think she’s got the sense of compassion to want to do it, and I think she has the moral self-superiority to think she’s right for doing so.

This is the girl that was staged a bandit attack in order to assassinate her two fellow House Leaders, both of whom are underage like her. This is the girl that blackmailed Lorenz into siding with the Empire, this is the girl that is invading all of Fodlan in order to tear down the system and rebuild it the way she thinks is right, this is the girl that used Bernadetta as bait in a trap on Gronder Field in every route not Black Eagles. This is the girl that is possibly blackmailing Ferdinand. Her willingness to commit atrocities in the name of her ambition is what gets the other three factions of the game to paint her as evil. And, eespite loathing the methods of TWSITD, she is shown to actively aid them with their experiments by collecting Crest Stones for them to use to turn innocents into Demonic Beasts with her assault on the Holy Tomb. She also explicitly gave them the Death Knight, who then helps them kidnap Flayn for more experiments. She obsessed with control to the point that it’s listed in her bio, and the only time she lets up on any of these qualities is when Byleth is actively playing her morality pet in the Crimson Flower Route.

And that’s not even going into the fact that she justifies all these actions by the “I Did What I Had To Do” logic.

So, yes, with all the criticism you may think I hate her.

No.

I dislike her, but I understand and appreciate that she’s also a kind, compassionate, woman that is actively trying to make her homeland a better play the only way she knows how. She’s working on only half the actual facts, much like Dimitri, and like him she’s attacking the wrong people because she came to a wrong conclusion based on only half given facts. She legitimately does believe that playing the tyrant now is going to save a lot of people in the future, and it’s a genuine character flaw of hers that she overlooks the now in the name of the future. She is completely right about the corruption of the crest system and the need to reform, as well as the issues with the Church. 

But I’m getting off topic.

I believe, based on both her ruthlessness and her compassion, that she would lock someone up in order to save them from the war.But BBell, you say, locking someone up like that isn’t compassionate at all, it’s torture.

Yes, person who just said that, I agree with you. By basic human decency standards. But you clearly have no idea how we treat prisoners of war. Even in modern day. And, yes, Byleth is a war prisoner first, as I have tried and failed to remind everyone over the course of this AU.

And, my lovelies, being a POW sucks hard, but I bet it sucked harder in an age before crossbows.

Edelgard, in this AU in particular, thinks she is saving Byleth’s life by keeping her a POW. And, on top of that, she’s keeping Byleth fed, in a nice room, with comfortable beds, nice clothes, entertainment. Compared to a wet, cramp, dirty cell with rats that eat you, no toilet, no bed, and no light I bet this prison seems like one of those fancy rich people prisons that are nicer than my apartment. Not only that, Byleth is getting company every day. (I do admit I decided that the room needs a window, just one that’s kinda like a skylight where it’s way too high up to reach). In Edelgard’s mind, she’s saving Byleth’s life and keeping them comfortable until the war is over. That’s downright compassionate right there. Horrifying to us though.

The thing about this AU that everyone seems to forget is that Byleth loving Edelgard was not the end goal for the woman. Yes, she does want Byleth on her side and thinks she can convince them one day, but actively controlling them and making them love her isn’t the point. The point is to keep this person she’s canonically obsessed with from dying in the war. 

I didn’t say this clearly the first time around because I wanted people to come up with their own reasons and endings for this AU, but in my head once this war is over and Edelgard rules everything, Byleth is free to go so long as she isn’t planning a riot or rebellion or assassination. Granted, I personally wouldn’t want someone that could incite a rebellion running around free, so house arrest in a manor or something is more likely, but the tower won’t be necessary after the war.

That’s how I saw it, anyway.

I don’t care if other people want it to be different. I don’t care if they make Edelgard a Yandere. I don’t care if they make Byleth a twenty foot dragon. I don’t care if they don’t keep it as canonically aligned as possible like I tried to do at first before more and more ask bombed my doorstep and this whole thing swelled way beyond my original prompt and got lost somewhere. I don’t care if this is a good horror story for people, or a story they hate, or a good yandere bait story. I don’t care if people have Edelgard obsessed to the point where she never lets Byleth out, because, you know what? I’m sure they have their own logical reasoning for why she would do that. I can’t personally see it. I know Anon personally can’t see it because that’s where this whole mess of me trying to defend my thoughts on a stupid AU I wrote that got me a lot of grief from much meaner Anons came from.

It’s just a dumb AU, guys, do want you want with it. Block it, hate it, love it, write it. Write a billion spin-offs. Make Rhea the one locking people in towers. Make Claude do it. I don’t care if you somehow make Jeralt a zombie and have him capture Edelgard in a tower at this point.You wanna know something? I’d write how I most logically think that very Zombie Jeralt prompt would happen if someone sent it. And I think that’s the problem. Maybe I’m trying to hard to logic out all this stuff I don’t think will happen. Because I don’t back down from the asks, even when I think there’s no way it could happen I tackle it. Maybe that’s why everything is swelling so much beyond my control, and I got three Anons (not counting you, Anon from this ask) that have harassed me about this.I’m going to turn off Anon Asks if I get one more hate comment btw. Check mate to that particular Anon if they’re reading this. Call me a cunt to my face so I can block you, coward. 

Anyway, I got off point again. You disagree with me, Respectful Anon that disagrees with my AU, and I disagree with you. I’m not mad about the yandere comment, I was just defensive. Here’s my feelings on everything. You probably disagree with them. That’s great! I don’t wanna live in a world where people blindly agree with me! I’m sure you even have a great counter argument that I’ll read, and then can’t do anything about because this AU is bigger than me and also I might still disagree.And that’s it, that’s my whole defense of myself in this AU. Have a nice day. 

#fe3h #Captured AU #Captive AU

[zmediaoutlet]

You've mentioned it in a few tags, but if you have the chance/inclination, I would love to hear more of your thoughts about the final scene of 13x03 -- as someone who was, er, less than pleased with the ep, I'm trying to get a more positive angle on it, and I love your insights (and agree with them more often than not) so...help? ^^;

I don’t know what insights I have, but I can talk about my thoughts. This ended up being super long, so the thoughts are under the cut:

First of all, I think all analysis should start with a very close reading of the text. Let’s look at the dialogue in the episode in two key scenes.

First, a snippet from the third scene. We start off fine—Samtired, Dean neutral. (He’s clearly also tired, but he comes in more surprisedabout the Missouri thing than angry, depressed, etc.) Then, Sam says that he’ssending Jody to take care of Missouri’s case, so that they can stay to workwith Jack.

SAM: We need to help Jack learn how to control his powers.Jody can handle this.DEAN: Yeah, maybe she can. Or, maybe she ends up dead because you wanted to skipout on her to babysit the Antichrist.

As soon as Jack is mentioned, Dean immediately moves to anger. It’s quiet, but obviously accusatory,and obviously that’s aimed at Sam. He’s upset that Sam is putting Jack abovetheir friends. Sam responds with confusion, for a second—he’s staring at Dean,wrinkled forehead (so much forehead), wide eyes and parted mouth of shock. Theystare at each other, with Dean clearly fishing for a response. Then,

SAM: Dean, we need him.DEAN: No, don’t.SAM: Mom—DEAN: Don’t. You— If you want to stay here and Mr. Miyagi this kid, knockyourself out. I didn’t sign up for that, so I’m gonna go to work.

So, Dean leaves. Sam sighs, and groans, but he’s not angry.Dean wasn’t even particularly angry in that last line, but he reacted sharplyto we need him, and doesn’t even wantto hear Sam’s theory. Note how quickly he interrupts on Mom.

Okay, now we can skip over a lot of the boring Patiencebusiness (though, it is interesting that Dean tells a smiling Jody [?? What wasthat, as a directing choice?] that he’s fine, and then is CLEARLY NOT FINE ATALL). We come back to the bunker with Dean having seen yet another of theirfriends (or good acquaintances, at least) die, in a world which he is nowtelling people is crapsack and shitty. Now:

We enter the penultimate scene on Sam’s clearly upset face. He looks like a wife who’s been sitting in thedim kitchen waiting for her deadbeat husband to get home from the bar so shecan scold him. He won’t even turn around to face Dean when he greets him—thoughhe does greet him, asking about the case and acknowledging Missouri’s death.Dean is grim, and even more obviously exhausted than he was at the beginning.He immediately starts with a mean-spirited joke, and we watch Sam’s face whilehe says it:

DEAN: How’s the kid? He go dark side yet?

Sam squeezes his eyes closed in suppressed anger.

SAM: Nope.

He finally turns around, ready to confront Dean. He’sfidgeting with one of the target-markers on the war table, which is relativelyunusual body language for Sam. He also has an interesting slouch, and openposture. He’s not shamefaced, or apologetic—he’s ready to fight.

SAM: He is pretty messed up, though.

Dean responds neutrally. This isn’t a fight, he doesn’tthink, just a statement of fact.

DEAN: You’re telling me.

Sam looks down, and then responds in a tone which is—less antagonisticthan his posture had been, and after he speaks he meets Dean’s eyes directly.His expression isn’t angry, but rather… disappointed.

SAM: No, Dean, he’s messed up because of you.

When Dean looks back, and looks genuinely confused by this,Sam smiles (humorlessly) and his mood shifts closer to anger again. How couldDean not get it, he seems to be thinking, and he slaps the target-marker downon the war table in another slightly aggressive posture.

SAM: Dean… You said you’d kill him.

Dean looks away, understanding where Sam’s upset is comingfrom (perhaps) now. It’s not quite an eye-roll, but that wasn’t quite how thatmoment between him and Jack went. We can guess now that Dean didn’t tell Samthat Jack was stabbing himself and trying to die, because Sam would have askedhow that conversation went. (Of course, it’s possible that Dean did barereporting, but the tone of this next line implies that the conversation betweenDean and Sam about this moment didn’t happen.)

DEAN: It wasn’t exactly like that.

There’s a slight emphasis Dean puts on that, and he’s not angry yet either. He looks back to Sam, andmaybe he was going to explain more, but Sam jumps in with:

SAM: Then how exactly was it?

A line which, while ostensibly calm in tone, is said a) as abit of an interruption, and b) Sam’s sighing through it and giving Dean a look, putting himself on Jack’s siderather than Dean’s. Dean is having a rough… week, let’s put it that way, and hedoesn’t respond well to this. We see immediately that Dean is thinking aboutthat moment from earlier, and he hasn’t had the benefit (unlike the audience)of seeing the patient, slow way Sam is working with Jack, and learning abouthis feelings and personality.

DEAN: I told him the truth. See, you think you can use thisfreak, but I know how this ends, and it ends bad.

The camera here cuts to Jack, listening in, and we’reclearly immediately meant to feel bad for the poor sweetheart. (By the way,thank god they’ve complicated him with a touch of brattiness—if it were allsyrup all the time he’d be unbearable.) That being said—Dean has a long, long history of being right about this stuff, and as theaudience we know that, too. But then—we cut to a different locus of the argument.Sam moves from talking specifically about usinga supernatural power to bring a loved one back to life (something we’veseen them do multiple times and which they tend to agree is a bad idea… exceptwhere their brother is concerned), and changes the conversation to be about this:

SAM: I didn’t.DEAN: What?SAM: I didn’t end bad. When I was the “freak.” When I was drinking demon blood.

Sam says it aggressively, strongly, sharply. Puts obviouspauses between the phrases. Dean immediately discards this, and he’s doing ittruly—it’s not him making a point, he really honestly does not believe thatthese situations are remotely similar.

DEAN: Come on, man, that’s totally different.

Sam is keeping the argument here, though; he’s drawing avery close parallel between himself and Jack.

SAM: Was it? Because you could’ve put a bullet in me. Dad told you to put a bullet in me, but youdidn’t. You saved me. So help me savehim.

We see Dean rejecting this line of argument even as Sam’shalfway through it, though. He doesn’t like this parallel at all and disagreeswith it. Superficially, of course it’s true, but Dean doesn’t buy it, andclearly doesn’t like the implications.

DEAN: You deservedto be saved. He doesn’t.

We cut here to Jack again, looking sad, while Sam insists—

SAM: Yes, he does, Dean, of course he does.

But then we cut back to Dean, and the camerawork here isinteresting. Finally, Dean is making this into a real argument, moving close. Sam is gigantic in the foregroundhere, and Dean is small and looking up and bleeding hurt, and he’s absolutelyrejecting Sam’s parallel-drawing. He remembers where the argument started, andhe’s still having none of it:

DEAN: Look, I know you think that you can use him as somesort of an interdimensional can opener, and that’s fine.

Note: it’s clearly not fine. Sam doesn’t like theaccusation, either, though he did start the day with ‘use’ rather than ‘hugsand kisses’. Anyway—

DEAN: But don’t act like you care about him, because you onlycare about what he can do for you. So, if you want to pretend, that’s fine, butme? I can hardly look at the kid, ‘cause when I do, all I see is everybody we’velost.

Now Dean is raising his voice, reacting from strong hurt.This is still the core of the problem. It’s not hating Jack-as-a-person, it’shating Jack as a function. A subtledifference, but key, I think. Sam responds to the accusation of Jack as responsiblefor the various losses—

SAM: Mom chose totake that shot at Lucifer. That is not on Jack.

Dean doesn’t disagree, but moves directly to the issue ofactual (possible) culpability, as far as he understands it.

DEAN: And what about Cas? SAM: What about Cas?DEAN: He manipulated him. He made him promises. Said, “paradise on earth,” andCas bought it. And you know what that got him? It got him dead!

Dean’s voice is raised again and there’s a shiver of emotionrunning through it; when we cut to Sam’s coverage (and again, the camera is lowbehind Dean’s shoulder and Sam is massivelooming over him), Sam is grimacing and looking down, not exactly pushing backagainst Dean’s feelings or his point.

DEAN: Now, you might be able to forget about that, but I can’t!

And then we cut, quickly,between Dean’s wide-open pain, and Sam’s more shuttered expression. Then there’squiet, and we cut to Jack, who seems to be having real feelings about Castielper Kelly’s cheerful inculcation, earlier, and we cut there to the final scene.

…So. A lot is going on, there.You know that, for me, the Sam & Dean relationship is the actual main plotof the show. A lot of crap happens that they have to react against, but italways comes down to these two, for me. As we’ve also discussed, the latterseasons have this general shape: seasons six, seven, and eight are aboutfiguring out where they stand with each other, post-Apocalypse, whichculminates in the ‘marriage’ scene in Sacrifice (even platonically, that was areal promise of devotion); seasons nine and ten are about working through theconsequences of betrayal, and working out how devoted they truly are to this ‘marriage’;seasons eleven and twelve were about the close, mature, real work of making the‘marriage’ function. In seasons eleven and twelve they were honest with eachother, worked through their problems by talking; when there was a secret, theyapologized quickly and forgave quicker, and they had each other’s backs throughthick and thin. It’s remarkable, the level of maturity they’ve reached.

Season thirteen has opened on avery dark time for the Winchester boys, and they’re starting from verydifferent places in dealing with it. Dean is heartbroken; Sam has hope. Sam’shope is pinned to Jack’s power. He wasn’t positive that Castiel was ultimatelydead, as we saw with him questioning Dean twice about that in 13.01; he hasalso mentioned repeatedly that he doesn’t think their mother is dead, thatLucifer might have kept her alive for some reason. (Which he’s right about—really,if anyone knows what Lucifer might do, it’s Sam Winchester.) Dean, in contrast,refuses to believe that Mary is alive and he’s certain that there’s no comingback for Cas. He has clung to that defeat almost as a comfort, a way to keepwalking—getting his hopes up, just to have them dashed, would be even morepainful. He gave up, and we saw it, the second God didn’t answer his prayer.

Sam and Dean disagree a lot, butit’s rare that we get to see a profound disagreement like this which isn’tlocated in a personal place. We sawreal anger between them in season four and season nine. We saw personalbetrayal, dismissal—we’ve even seen them try not to be family, though of coursethat never lasts long. (Might be impossible, considering the soulmate aspect.)This disagreement about Jack is bad, and that was a real fight they had, thereat the end. But the disagreement is still located on Jack, and I think that’s a very important distinction. Sam ismad at Dean for causing Jack pain, but he clearly understands why it’shappening and where it’s coming from. Dean is mad at Sam for trying to keep(what he thinks is) false hope alive and trying to use the supernatural forces,when that always ends bad. But thisisn’t fury. This isn’t personal betrayal. Dean lashed out in a cruel way withthe ‘oh, I guess you just forgot about Cas’ line, but that’s… frankly, veryDean. He lashes out when he’s upset. Sam knows that, and he doesn’t lash back,he’s just… frustrated. A punch isn’t going to be thrown, here.

Put it a different way. In aphysicalized incest world, where they might share a bedroom in the bunker? Noone would be getting any tonight, and there probably wouldn’t even be cuddles.(The horror.) But after this argument, I can still see them going to bedtogether. Sam’s shoulders might be held high and tight, and Dean might have tohave a few beers after his shower before he slips quietly into bed, but they’restill on the same team. They still love each other, and there’s no doubt aboutthat. They’re just mad. They’ll get better. This argument doesn’t make me doubtthat’s true, for a second, and the Winchesters don’t doubt it either—not in theAU where their love is more obvious, and not canonically.

There is an argument to be madethat Dean is coming off poorly, here, specifically because they keep focusingon the woobified aspects of Jack. “Jack is such a sweetie, and Dean is just abig meanie-head.” I can see why people are thinking that. However, I don’tthink it’s true. This episode particularly, with Jack acting a tiny bit bratty,we’re starting to get a more complex view of him. A lot of the work with Jackin the episode focused on choice. Kelly’s little video insists that Jack can bewhatever he chooses to be; that’s contrasted against Sam’s insistence to Jackthat he can be both powerful and good, and Dean’s insistence that the situationwill go wrong and that Jack was always going to be evil. That duality was a strongtheme throughout. Jack threw a tiny bratty tantrum; Jack was surpassingly sweetwhen Sam offered him a helping hand. He doesn’t know what side he’ll fall on,and neither do we, and neither do the Winchesters. They have their opinions,and the fans are developing their own, but it is being left ambiguous which wayit will go—and I love that. The turn comes when Jack thinks about Cas, who maytheoretically be a neutral party—and then the episode’s focus immediately flipsto Cas waking up in the Empty, upon Jack literallyonly vocalizing his name. What kind of fucking power is that, holy cow.

Anyway. Dean’s anger and hurtare real, and we’re shown repeatedly how deeply it’s felt. Is it pretty? No. Isit heroic? No. But it feels real, and it’s why this show is worth watching. Meanwhile,Sam is truly, really trying to help Jack… and he’s also not pretending like hedoesn’t want to use him, which is so deeply in character for Sam that it makesme want to do a little dance. These complexities are why I still come back, andI’m so glad we’re getting them. It’s looking right now like 13.04 will continuethis argument, and this complexity, and I can’t wait. I love that I can loveDean Winchester, and see every tiny bit of where he’s coming from, and stillthink he’s wrong, and still be interested in how the story is unfolding. In alot of ways, this is reminding me of mid-season nine—when we knew that Dean haddone wrong, and we knew exactly whyhe had. I was completely neutral, there, and I’m neutral now. I just want tosee how the story unfolds.

#spn #spn meta #13.03 #in defense of nuance #(only sorta) #(but i do fuckin' love the nuance) #xparrot

[freakypumpkin]

Yes, I'm the same anon from all 4 messages:) I think what could have made Magnus think he had to choose was the Soul Sword thing. Because Alec had to choose as well - to tell Magnus or not to tell him. I see Alec trying to keep the line between their relationship and work "I want you there but not as my boyfriend" and with all that was going on around them, they may have had no time to talk about it. People were going crazy because "MAGNUS IS ACTING SO OOC" (...)

But he had gone through some sh*t as well - Alec didn’t believe when he was in Valentine’s body, he was tortured with his memories, then he “told Alec things he’s never told anyone” and I think he was simply tired of all that. How he said “I trust that Seelies cannot lie”. And what could make him change his mind? I suspect it could be the “Demons don’t descriminate if you’re (…) they kill them all”. And the party that was set after - with Shadowhunters and Downworlders being all happy together

Oh, and notice how Magnus was standing during the whole talk - with his arms crossed, “hugging” himself. We’ve seen that before and I’d say he was simply afraid. I do hope we’ll get to see him saying “I love you” and/or apologize first (but tbh, I’m a bit tired of all the drama and bad things happening to/around them). I see your point and didn’t think of that “yours mistakes are in the past, but mine as well”, and I always say “a stick has two ends”, so you’re right about it, but(…)

No one is perfect and I myself have said many things I know I could say differently. He’s a human (at least in a half :D) and I think I’d not like to be judged just because I said something wrong. What do I do? I try to improve and be as good as I can, and I hope that Magnus as well will try to tone down a bit or they’ll just talk more (but we can’t say they don’t talk enough - they have better communication skills than most of LGBT relationships we see in media) :)

I’m sorry for taking that long to get back to your messages, but as promised, I am getting to them. :) (Let’s see if I can keep this short…ish.)

I can see the thing with the Soul Sword being a trigger for Magnus in terms of ‘telling the truth’, agreed. Then him changing his mind due to the ‘demons don’t discriminate’-line, I can see that, too. My problem is just, that Magnus should have gotten to that point himself without needing Alec to point that out, especially after him claiming to pull away from Magnus and making that deal with the Seelie Queen to protect his people. (Maybe there’s also the problem with Shadowhunters being raised with the fight against demons, react to them as general threat more reflexively, than Downworlders, who are not on the front line in that kind of fight. They have other fights and threats, etc. That kind of contrast could be interesting if the writers would be wiling to go for it.)

And yes, nobody is perfect and I can understand, that you don’t want to be judged for everything you say, but this is not about being judged for everything, but being judged for not acknowledging, that you made a mistake, that you treated someone unfairly. Furthermore there’s a difference imo between ‘imperfect character, whose imperfections are acknowledged by the writing’ and ‘imperfect character, whose imperfections are glossed over by the writing’. 

I don’t think, you can draw a direct parallel between real people and characters on TV or in books/movies/etc. because behind all of them, there are writers, that have an intention by how they shape and describe the character’s actions. And that way of presentation shapes the perception of the character by the audience, it works for emotions as well. (And one of the main reasons, why Magnus’ anger about Alec not wanting to come out is more prominent than Alec’s fear of coming out in the first three TMI books and a central part in how Alec tends to become the idiot to Jace’s genius in the books.)It’s also a main reason to why romanticization and idealization and so on, work in the first place.That’s why you should pay so much more attention to how you write a character compared to how closely you watch your own actions. It has a different amount of impact.  

And what I would like to point out is, that the constant remark of ‘Oh, they are totally going to talk about it some more’ and ‘this isn’t over, of course not’ that I saw floating around after the finale, imo shows an at least subconscious disbelief, that this is how the conclusion for Malec in S2 went down and was dealt with. 

But what do you do if it’s not talked about again in S3?

Just like with all the theories about Magnus being a double agent to explain his deal with the Seelie Queen and his behavior in Ep19 … nothing of that came true and then it went mostly like ‘Okay, guess the theory was wrong’, which is nothing bad. But I think, it’s important to remember why you ‘needed’ that theory in the first place, what created that need for a reason behind Magnus’ actions/behavior, a reason that you didn’t see given on screen?

Going back to those talks in S3: What of they don’t happen on screen?Are you going to assume ‘They talked about it in an off screen moment’, that the show didn’t have time for because new plot had to happen. And it’s a hole, that will be filled, but not by the show, by you, by the audience itself. This way the audience did part of the work, the show should have done and the show will get some kind of subconscious credit for it or will be excused in some way. 

I don’t want to attack anybody, but I feel like sometimes there’s the problem of properly differentiating between fan theories and interpretations and what the medium you’re talking about is actually giving you.

And I would say, that a creation always has to stand on it’s own and saying, that they have better communication than other LGBTQ+ couples is making a compromise, it’s a subjective statement based on other show’s failures instead of an objective judgement of the material we’re given. 

They should talk more, the problem I see here is the amount of main characters in the show and the fact, that again Alec and his relationships/storylines are not that YA-friendly and often therefore often sidelined, rushed or used as scapegoat. 

The body switch is a good example of a story element, that had potential for a lot of emotional depth and character development and discussion of political stuff if it had been given more time and space. (Different positions on the death sentence, the risk for Alec to believe ‘Valentine’ and setting free a mass murderer, Alec dealing with hearing a mass murderer talking about intimate details of his love life, everything for Magnus that we saw, the problems of a Downworlder soul in a Sahadowhunter’s body and vice versa, former cases of switched bodies, the risk of Alec wrongfully accusing ‘Magnus’ of being Valentine, Alec trying to stall Valentine’s execution or any more torture sessions, thinking about a strategy to make sure the body switch really happened … the list goes on, but it could have been a great storyline of Alec as politician, as strategist, etc. - plus an extension of what we already saw for Magnus, just more and and more detailed)

But this way, it was executed in broad strokes because things needed to happen and we had Magnus suffering, Alec being the one at fault and possibly an audience going ‘Why didn’t he notice it earlier?’.  Even more so, there now is something to plot-wise always hold over Alec’s head, when it comes to a conflict between them and it puts Alec in a constant disadvantage. 

#anon #personal opinion stuff