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#i might have accidentally deleted the original post rather than reblogging it
darael · 9 months
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Hey, friends. We need to talk.
We need to talk about TERF Shit™.
I've cropped the top of the below image because the person who reblogged it simply didn't know and they instantly deleted the thing once it was pointed out to them and I don't want anyone to think I'm criticising them here.
You see this?
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Yeah. This is TERF Shit. It is also not TERF Shit. Let me explain:
Two of the four blogs visible in this chain are TERFs, emphasis on the RF. Second-wave, evil-is-stored-in-the-Y-chromosome TERFs (one has the "men in women's prisons" dogwhistle in her pinned post; the other has a very recent post at time of writing describing trans people having suicidal ideation as them enacting narcissistic abuse). Of the other two, one appears to be a deeply committed trans-inclusive feminist and anti-racist activist, and the other is a #girlboss #christianliving self-empowerment and wealth blog. What might surprise you is that those descriptions are in bottom-to-top order. Neither of the "her"-URL blogs is overtly TERFy.
The tweet, incidentally, is from a suspended account, so I have no idea what Quantum_King_'s politics are.
Here's what I reckon happened.
The original tweet describes something that is a genuine problem that we really should discuss. It does, however, set some misleading ideas in the reader's mind, too. Clubs and events do indeed profit from enabling predatory men; from creating situations that encourage men to be predatory. The "intentionally", however, is misleading. It suggests they're doing it in order to enable predation. The second blogger leans heavily into this idea. And, again, many of the things listed do have the effect described — but again, it's not because the organisers want more men to prey on women. It's because the organisers get more money when they enable men to prey on women. Now, I want to be very clear: this does not let them off the hook. This does not make any of the systems they've set up less harmful. And it does not make the perception of "female privilege" against which puttingherinhistory argues correct. The reason it's worth understanding is that if we misunderstand the aims of the organisers, we will be incorrect in our analysis of both causes and potential steps toward solutions.
Both of these people engaged in good faith. They fell a little into the trap of conspiracy, assuming that there's a grand aim of preying on women, rather than a system of incentives that enables that, but they also pointed out genuine problems and harms.
Then the TERFs found it. And what did they see? They saw a line of argument that played precisely into their ideology of patriarchy-reductionism (for the unfamiliar: this is the analytic lens that assumes that all unjust power structures are some combination of part of patriarchy, tools of patriarchy, and side-effects of patriarchy. It is analogous to class-reductionism in some schools of communist thought), implying that men are inherently predatory, all these systems are set up intentionally to enable/encourage/abet that predation, and so on. They even saw it coming from blogs with URLs that members of their hate movement might use.
So they boosted it.
And now it's on the dashes of people who don't remotely support TERFism.
And this is why we have to be careful. Not only with what we reblog, but with the framing of our analyses — because TERFs, as we've seen, consistently ally with fash, and we do not want to even accidentally phrase our advocacy in ways that appeal to fash and their allies.
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littlegingrnut · 3 years
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last part of the hinny shorts | based off @blvnk-art 's stunning art x
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is this Devyn's blog?
hey anon, i'm sorry it took me so long to respond to this; between insomnia, work, my birthday, and other personal issues (along with accidentally deleting my initial response in a sleep-deprived lapse of judgement..), i've been pretty low on energy - but hopefully i'll be feeling better soon?
as for your question, it isn't a complete yes or no answer. yes, Devyn is a mod on this blog, and yes, he posts a lot; but nobody 'owns' this blog. all mods are equals; both in the literal sense that we all have to have administrator privileges in order to answer asks, and also that we rely on each other to help with anything we post. we're all human, and as such, we know that we have weaknesses and blindspots; as a team, we talk to each other to help smooth over some of those wrinkles to help y'all the best ways that we can - so even when one specific person's name is put on a post, more often than not, we have all contributed in some way. the reason that Devyn answers things more often than the rest of us is because he simply has a lot more time and energy than the rest of us do, and trying to write a whole response ourselves can be exhausting when you are already low on energy; but conveying our thoughts or opinions to each other for someone else to weave into a post takes a lot less energy. as such, the rest of us on the mod team really appreciate that Devyn is able to answer more often! its not that Devyn is more committed or holds more power than the rest of the mods, just that he's been more available to answer things recently.
and as a side note: we got another ask somewhat along this line of thought, but it mentioned the name of someone who made personal posts on their personal blog - and since i don't want to risk 'calling them out' (for lack of a better term), i don't feel comfortable posting that ask, so i'm adding my response to it here.
i want to start off by saying, we do appreciate when people bring up concerns that they have! giving us feedback on things that might make you uncomfortable or bother you helps us learn how to better help y'all. without feedback, we kinda just assume that we're doing alright - so encourage anyone to give us constructive feedback (i.e., dont just say something like "i dont like [thing] about mod x, fix it" - give us suggestions on how to best fix it!) if something we do bothers you! we wont be upset; you mentioning how we can better help you means that you do care about us, and we would never get upset at y'all for that. and, as such, we do really appreciate that you brought up your issues with us! genuinely our only issue was the fact a specific person was named (which really isnt even an issue - telling us who made the posts helped us find the posts, since we hadnt previously known about them) and we just don't want to inadvertently cause problems for them. we really dont think you had meant to purposefully cause strife, so please dont think we're upset with you!
as for your ask, i get why you would feel that way. Devyn tends to answer a lot and doesn't cushion his answers as much as some of us do, but it isn't due to him not caring or simply wanting the inbox empty - Devyn does care a lot about answering things well, he just prefers to get to the point rather than writing out giant walls of text. rather than try to explain things for Devyn, i'm gonna let him finish up the post by explaining his method for answering asks - i dont want to accidentally say anything that isnt true, but i can guarentee that Devyn does care. if he didn't care, he wouldn't still be here - he does care for all of you, and he does want to help! if he didn't, he wouldn't be putting in the effort that he has been to change how he responds to things in a way that won't upset or trigger people, and he wouldn't put in the effort to try and get input from the rest of us mods. please, do let us know if there's anything else we can do moving forward to help things feel less bad for you. we don't want anyone to feel like they cant be helped or that we dont care for them.
mod berry 💗
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Hey anon.
I wanted to make sure I also answered this in case you were looking for an answer from me directly.
Originally I had a few paragraphs here essentially echoing what Berry said, but it felt too repetitive and I ended up cutting it out.
We had another ask that we mentioned we're tacking the response to on here. I'm going to copy-paste some of the text from it for context since y'all obviously haven't (and won't) see it, so that my response makes sense:
[...] we wrote in and got a quick response from Devyn whereas previously we got really detailed responses from other mods. It felt like Devyn just sees it as a rush to clear the inbox and not work with other mods. And now this blog feels like his exclusively.
I want to start by saying I understand how how I was pretty much the only one who answered anything during September made you feel like this blog is mine exclusively, but I assure you that's not the case - it just happened to be a particularly shitty month for all the mods here. While those issues haven't disappeared, we should have more availability to answer asks currently.
Secondly, something I think will be helpful is if I walk you through the process of how I answer an ask. I was going to use this one to do that and then proceeded to get distracted and forgot and answered it, so here's a fake example ask. Let's say this ask comes in:
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Let's say the question is something any of us can answer easily, like, "How many followers do you have?" That's an easy question and we can all look at our follower count and give you a number. So I click answer.
I always start answering genuine asks with some sort of greeting. Usually "Hey anon," is my go-to. Then the answer. "Oh, we have this many." Then I'll end with a well-wish and my name. Easy enough.
I think part of the issue is that if people ask yes or no questions (like "is my trauma valid?") I'd rather say something short in response, like, "Yes, your trauma is valid regardless of what it is," and sign my name than waste our readers' time and my breath answering with extra words. I just don't see the point in using more words than I need to. I try very hard to make it clear, especially in shorter responses, that I'm not trying to be hostile and am actively aware of my tone. Some answers have more words in them because I always try to make sure to explain what I feel could be misunderstood and that's not always easily done in one or two sentences.
Another thing that might be part of the issue is that Berry, for example, tends to answer asks by grouping paragraphs after which they hit enter only once, and I hit enter twice to start a new paragraph. That doesn't mean Berry's answer has any more actual content in it than mine does, it just might look like that because the format ends up looking more dense in Berry's answer.
Anyway, if someone feels like they want to answer a certain ask but doesn't have the spoons, they can save it with their name to the drafts, which is where a lot of our unpublished asks live. It's like the purgatory of the ask box, because sometimes I put an ask there and sometimes I only think about it. 😬
Asks that go to our drafts aren't ignored, that's just sort of a transition period. If the ask is slightly more complicated, we usually discuss it first in the mod Discord - which you guys obviously can't see. Sometimes if we collaborate on an ask, whoever sees it in the ask box first is the one who ends up answering it, but not always. But we usually just sign those with a single name for sake of ease. If we put all the names of all the mods who contributed any thought to an ask, most of them would have all of our names on them. Also, it's not necessarily accurate to sign my name to an ask if all I'm commenting on is the tone of an ask. Sure, I technically contributed, but I didn't say anything helpful.
If multiple people have thoughts on an ask, usually what we do is one person answers it and the others reblog with their thoughts. This ask is an exception because last time we answered an ask specifically about me that way, it escalated the situation, and we're trying to avoid that.
If none of us know how to answer an ask, we'll usually publish it for our followers' input after a week. I try to follow up about asks that are in drafts pretty often, so usually they don't sit there for a month, but like we've said multiple times, this month has been a bit of an outlier for all of us.
So essentially what I'm saying is that just because you don't see active ask collaboration happening doesn't mean it's not. It all happens in the Discord and, unless you're also a mod in our server, you're not going to see that discussion happening.
Hopefully this helps with the misunderstandings.
Mod Devyn
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thedreadvampy · 3 years
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Like idk what you want from me here. If you want to engage me in a specific question about ace/aro identities, as I've said several times and nobody has ever actually done, then ask me the specific question. Don't fuck around with vague gestures at Points of Discourse and then get cross with me because I haven't answered the Exact Question you Didn't Ask But Expected Me To Intuit.
Preface: If you don't want to answer any of these because you are allo/allo and don't have a say because its not your place, say that. In fact, I'm asking these because you seem to do have opinions on things you shouldn't based off things you have said in the past.
I also want to state that I agree fully with your points about Martin- minus the blatant aphobia. Not just acephobia, arophobia as well.
1. Do you think qprs are problematic? I believe you once made a post saying roughly that qprs are just normal friendships, or something like that, that has since been deleted. What is your current opinion?
2. Are het aros lgbt?
3. Are het aces lgbt?
4. Cis aro/aces lgbt?
5. Cishet aro/aces?
6. Do the spectrums and micro identities exist? You've implied in the past they don't, in the post about how they were supposedly created from sex positivity
7. Can aros be in or desire romantic relationships?
8. Can aces have or desire sex?
9. Does the split attraction model exist and does it benefit people?
10. Can teenagers identify as aro/ace or do you think they're too young?
11. Can you be, say, an aroace lesbian, or an aroace gay, aroace bi, etc. Idk how to phrase this one but like can you be aroace and still id with another orientation?
I could send another anon detailing the aphobia in the post, because I at least am certainly not upset about Martin being sexual, rather it was the very blatant aphobia. It could have stemmed from ignorance, and if that's the case I don't mind explaining it.
Ok this is a lot of questions, some with quite involved answers, so I'm gonna answer them chunk by chunk so it's a bit more manageable, and then I might come back to some of the surrounding message. This isn't gonna be an immediate bang bang bang, but I'll try and work through them over the next couple of days.
Question 1
1. No, I don't think qprs are problematic. I don't necessarily understand them but I don't need to understand them to understand and respect that they're a thing that's important to a lot of people. I don't know what post you're referring to, but I'm surprised that you say it was deleted, because I very rarely delete posts except, occasionally, reblogs where people have flagged up misinformation or dogwhistles or which I reblogged by accident. tbh I'm the messiest online presence I'm way too lazy to delete past posts or block people even when I probably should bc I don't like to feel like I'm ~hiding evidence~. So I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably totally right, but I'm surprised.
I'm thinking about what posts I've made that you could be thinking of, and obviously I don't remember everything I say on here bc I say A Lot and I actively post to get things out of my head so 🤷‍♀️ but I do remember making a post a while ago where I said that it was a normal expectation of friendship to have some friends close enough that you'll live with them, raise kids with them, etc, and I'm wondering if that was the post you're thinking of? I did have qprs in mind while writing that to a degree, but only because I think 'you wouldn't do this with your friends' is a very common argument people put forward about qprs and I think it's a weak argument, because many people have different definitions of friendship, and the only argument I think is needed for any sort of I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing is...I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing. Like you can't offer a universal materialist definition of the differences between romantic, queerplatonic, sexual and platonic relationships, because the boundaries are very personal and it's really an emotional and experiential difference. so if that is the post you're thinking of, I wasn't criticising The Concept Of QPRs as much as saying that I thought trying to put hard lines around What Friends Do Vs What QPPs Do was a) counterproductive when arguing with someone who thinks QPR is Just Normal Friendships bc. if they do those things with their friends then saying NO THIS IS A QPR THING just reinforces their existing belief that you're talking about the same thing as they mean by friendships and b) to me seems to set a painful expectation to young people that you can only get these kinds of close friendships occasionally and in the form of a QPR and it will be stigmatised and misunderstood (and depending on how people talk about it, is only accessible to aspec people and allo people should only expect it to come through romantic/sexual relationships), when in fact most people of most ages I know have friends with whom they can share things like housing, deep feelings, futures, finances, who they miss if they don't see for a few days, who are mutually supportive and vital to their wellbeing. I don't think that's mutually exclusive with the existence of QPRs though - like I personally don't know what the difference is between a QPR and a close friendship, but I also don't know what the difference is between a romantic relationship and a close friendship but I know there is one and I know it's not a question of What You Do but a question of How You Feel And Interact, and that's pretty hard to define in unambiguous terms.
Like generally I don't Not Think QPRs exist, and I think it's a dick move to try and tell people they're wrong about how they experience and define their relationships because???? how are you meant to know that better than the person whose relationship it is??? but I do think the way people talk about QPRs (both from the perspective of defending them and from the perspective of attacking them) is pretty rife with problems and I don't think it's invalidating the reality of QPRs to talk about where the arguments and language around them potentially falls down or has unexpected consequences.
On the other hand, I don't know if that actually is the post you're referring to - the reason I'm calling back to that is that that and a few resultant asks are the only time I remember talking about QPRs on here in the last year or so. So like, several of these questions reference past posts, which is very fair, but I do need it to be clear that, since I don't really tag anything and I don't have a great memory, I can only really speak to What I Think Now In This Context, not to what I posted in the past and what I was thinking when I posted it. Like, this isn't too deny responsibility - I reckon I'm responsible for what I post even if I don't still agree with it, which is why I don't tend to delete my own posts on purpose - but just to deny capacity, I guess? I don't really KNOW what I've posted so if you talk about it in vague terms (and I do understand that if it's been deleted there's not a lot you can do but that) I may not necessarily be responding to the part of it that's worried you, so if I'm not speaking to something specific I've said or done, it's not because I Don't Want To, I just don't necessarily know to.
I'm waffling about this because looking through your messages there's a lot of "you said X" and like. given that the intended message of the post that's kicked this off was very different to the message people have taken from it, it feels important to me to know whether if I looked at the posts you're referencing I'd be like "ah yeah I did believe that but now I believe X" or if it's more a situation of "oh right I can see how you took X from that but my thinking was more Y".
(also sometimes when people say "you made a post" they mean "you reblogged a post" and I am a compulsive discourse scroller so sometimes I reblog a random post to bookmark my place on someone's discourse blog or I accidentally longpress the reblog button while scrolling - I try to delete reblogs that I don't agree with but sometimes I miss some, all of which to say if there's a post on my blog that doesn't seem to reflect what I say in my original posts then it doesn't necessarily mean I'm a crypto-whatever so much as I'm very lazy and messy with my blog. Doesn't mean I shouldn't be held accountable for reblogs but it's useful to know if we're talking original content or reblogs bc I'm unlikely to fully accidentally make a post. but I quite often accidentally reblog stuff. I doubt this is the case with this sitch just bc of your phrasing but I want to cover my bases)
anyway tl;dr: no I don't believe that QPRs themselves are inherently problematic, nor do I think I have at any point believed that, but I do think that a lot of the language and ideas used to talk about them are based in miscommunication or absolutist ideas about relationships and can have damaging knock on effects.
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rotationalsymmetry · 4 years
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I’m still trying to figure out when it’s OK to drop like 8 paragraphs of extra text onto a reblog and when it’s a bad idea. I mean, maybe it’s always a bad idea? Like I said, I haven’t quite worked it out.
So, sometimes I write my 8 paragraphs on an original post instead.
Anyways, on the Lizzo thing and fat-shaming: diets aren’t a particularly reliable way of losing weight or improving health in the long run; thinner people are not more disciplined or hard working than fatter people (and don’t even eat *that* much less overall); population-wise exercise does not result in weight loss at all (individual results may vary); fat people can be healthy and thin people can be unhealthy;
When fat people are unhealthy sometimes it’s unrelated or the causal relationship is the other way around;
Race and class and other stuff get way mixed up into this: for instance, poverty has a major impact on life expectancy, so talking about health issues as though they’re entirely about individual choices is bad and wrong and not true (and, when specifically a black woman is being railed at for being fat, consider that maybe the old “we shouldn’t be providing social services to those horrible undeserving black people” racist *thing* might be coming into play)
We need collective solutions to collective problems, including health problems, which are often sort of correlated with weight but that doesn’t mean that the answer is to keep blaming individuals for their own poor health. When they even *have* poor health, which, not all fat people do.
Basically, “you’re sick/dead because you’re fat and you chose to be fat” is a form of blame shifting. As long as any health problems a fat person experiences can be attributed to the person’s weight and by implication moral status, we don’t have to think about the (health) effects of poverty, racism, food deserts, American lack of vacation time, the effects of shift work and/or working multiple part time jobs just to get by, etc. Things that would suggest the need for collective changes, things that would suggest that when fat people die, it is perhaps closer to murder than to suicide.
Ugh, the original thing that I accidentally reposted rather than save-draft then deleted, was better (I mean, except for the fact that I was white-splaining racism on a thread started by black people) but now I’ve deleted it and can’t get it back so you got this instead.
I really need to start writing this stuff outside of tumblr first and decide whether/how to share it second.
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dcarhcarts · 5 years
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ROLEPLAY HISTORY
The rules are simple! Post ten characters you’d like to roleplay as, have role-played as and might bring back. Then tag ten people to do the same (if you can’t think of ten characters, just write down however many you can and tag the same amount of people). Aside from that, please repost instead of reblogging!
CURRENTLY PLAYING:
Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova ( Broadway’s Anastasia )
Athos (BBC’s the Musketeers) - might be dropped soon?
Anatole Kuragin ( War & Peace / Great Comet ) 
Colonel (Theophilus but shhh tell no one) Fitzwilliam  
Dmitry Sudayev ( Broadway’s Anastasia ) 
Elizabeth Bennet ( Pride & Prejudice ) 
Eliza Schuyler ( Hamilton ) 
Helene Kuragina ( War & Peace / Great Comet ) 
Howl Pendragon ( Howl’s Moving Castle )
Jane Bennet ( Pride & Prejudice )
Lettie Hatter ( Howl’s Moving Castle )
Martha Hatter ( Howl’s Moving Castle )
Meg Giry ( Phantom of the Opera ) 
Natalie Goodman ( Next to Normal )
Natasha Rostova ( War & Peace / Great Comet )
Nick Carraway ( The Great Gatsby ) 
Pierre Bezukhov ( War & Peace / Great Comet )
Porpentina Goldstein ( Fantastic Beasts )
Sonya Rostova ( War & Peace / Great Comet ) 
Susan Pevensie ( Narnia )
Zoe Murphy ( Dear Evan Hansen ) 
WANT TO PLAY:
I want to play s o many characters but I have like....20+ muses. These aren’t happening unless I put them on a separate super low activity blog or something.
Karen Page - Daredevil / The Punisher. I don’t know if I”ll ever actually play her but she’s??? My favorite. I love her. I watch the shows f o r her honestly. She’s also like....exactly up my alley as a muse. Just someone I would have a great time playing, but also am terrified of screwing up, because i love her so much lmao.
Catherine Linton (i.e. Catherine Jr.) - Wuthering Heights. Very very On Brand for me. Also a particularly waspish female character, which is less on brand for me, but seems like a good challenge?
JOI - Bladerunner 2049. Sci-fi is probably not very on brand for m e but Joi just seems like a very flexible character to play. I like
Leonard H. McCoy - Star Trek (Specifically AOS). I’m nostalgic but I don’t think I’d actually pick him up. I used to write a ton of Star Trek Fanfic and I miss my Good Angry Doc
Thomas Schofield - Sorcery and Cecelia. He’s a little shit, the Marquis of Schofield, and from such an obscure book I may as well be playing an OC in the end probably, but he was considered for my Original Roster. Anyway, he’s a Regency Marquis who is also a magician, except he’s a dumb and his magical focus item accidentally ended up being a chocolate pot which is....so easy to break. Anyway, he’s rather clever, has got a bit of a pompous peacock thing going on, and is quite a bit less of an asshole than he’d like you to believe. 
Ok this isn’t specific but I’m.....like a book and a half through ASOIAF and not making a ton of progress bc I....have no time lmao but I’m getting the Terrifying Feeling that by the time I’m done I’m going to have another muse??? Stay tuned??? 
A bunch of Muses from the dramas I’m watching, but that blog is already in progress and I’m going to go ahead and call it SUPER LOW ACTIVITY since the fandoms are also pretty dead
HAVE PLAYED:
I.........really am not proud of any of these oops.
Enjolras (Les Mis the Musical) in like....I want to say 2015??? I deleted this because I was a full-cringe fanon portrayal. Just. I’m so sorry Victor Hugo. 
Enola Holmes (Nancy Springer’s Enola Holmes / but also everyone who played w/ me was in BBC Sherlock so uhhh BBC Sherlock??) in......2017? I wanna say??? This blog you can still find, though I don’t really recommend you try. It wasn’t......great oof. I mean, I really liked the book series as a kid though? Just like.....it was great representation for a lil girl. Enola was constantly outsmarting Sherlock using Victorian Lady knowledge and I just. Loved it. She’s so clever. 
James Moriarty (BBC Sherlock), also in 2017. Not much to say about this one except to say I wasn’t active but people followed like crAZY when i w a s being active on Enola and nobody cared? and I was like “Well I ain’t having this bullcrap” so I just.............stopped dealing with it. Cause I was salty and anxious. Sorry not sorry lmao. 
Bway Group RP - Philip Carlyle, Sue Snell. I actually still love both of these muses but they just didn’t make my initial edit cut when I transitioned to this blog.
WILL/WOULD PLAY AGAIN:
Some of these I’d revisit for real; some I just wish I could.
Philip Carlyle - ok so I’m actually also super attached to Sue, but I also haven’t Stephen Kinged enough to feel comfortable playing her. Philip though - he was g r e a t fun. I think I really had the sweet spot between being a flirty jerkface and a genuinely not horrible guy that I can’t satisfy with muses like Anatole? 
Karen Page - Will I ever make it through the punisher??? that remains to be seen oops. 
I miiiiight pick up Catherine/Dolly. If I do, I’d have to pick 1 out of 2 and not do the other one for sure.
That ASOIAF muse is probs gonna come, idk tho
tagged: five million years ago by the long suffering @gcneralvaganov , who not only has to wait years for replies but evidently also for tagging games (sorry ily boo)
tagging: this is a long boi so don’t feel like you g o t t a do it but @personnages @nikolacvnas @moretreasurewithin @skylarkmuses @liabilitty
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About Valve OCs and the blog
This has been on my mind for a while.
This blog never got a satisfying end in my books, and I’m sure for other readers as well. Even though closure is a myth perpetuated by mainstream media, I will make this post to try to rectify past mistakes and general truancy of this blog. I have my own suspicions that most of my readers are dead (considering all of the porn bots are now starting to follow me), so I write this post in the darkness of the night into the void that is Tumblr. Read my cry if you care.
Firstly, this blog will never update again. There are multiple factors that have led to this blog’s extinction and I think they’re important to address
Motivation
This blog took up a large chunk of my life back when it was active. Don’t get me wrong, bad art still gets me to cringe and I find myself on occasion still pining over weird ocs and art styles on Deviantart. However, maintaining it as a blog with daily updates became a chore for me along with promising critiques of ocs and such. I’ve come to discover that I can’t do what I love as “””work”””. While bad art still remains a passion for me, I don’t see myself continuing this in blog format.
OCs have changed
The OC market has changed. Base art has definitely taken a downturn in the past few years and you’re more likely to see people hand-drawing their ocs or writing them out. Thanks with the culture of memeing about bootleg fandom ocs (This is my own original character blonic, donut steels) , it seems that people are more drawn towards creating their own worlds and characters rather than shoving their mary sue into their current fan favorite content. These are good changes in terms of originality for artists and writers in my opinion.
However, a lot of the formats for OCs have changed as well. There tends to be an emphasis on their sexuality and race in OC culture now. I don’t consider that a bad thing but I’d rather not poke that hornet’s nest of gender identity and race of fictional characters. What used to be the standard straight, bi, gay has expanded into other territories that I am unfamiliar with and now we have more ocs outside of the standard white chick but with Japanese last name because the creator really likes naruto. Again, this just seems to be the trend and I think my last few revival posts kinda show them.
Valve as a games publisher
LOL when’s half life 3???
Valve has definitely moved from being a game developer to a digital distributor.  Steam definitely seems to be their focus outside of Hat/Weapon Skin collecting and online gambling (and also their weird consoles/controllers???). Not that I would continue this blog if they released more content (They published another update to the TF2 comic, can’t wait for that to get updated in a year).
Along with this slump of their own original content, this has led to a slump in original characters for their franchises. There are not as many fan ocs and art isn’t being produced for their franchises (except maybe with comic updates for TF2 and nostalgia for old games).
This blog was created at the optimal time imo with L4D2 still being fresh, TF2 still having an active userbase, and Portal 2 giving some great content in terms of creative material.
Also I’m not interested in reviewing Dota 2 art and I don’t think there are enough Counterstrike ocs.
Negativity
I don’t know if this blog was a source of positive or negative energy. On one hand, I was ridiculing people’s art without much hesitation and not acknowledging how much time and effort that might have been put in by the artist. But on the other hand, it provided laughs for people during its duration and gave me a creative outlet in terms of humor, arguments, and writing. I think I did my best to avoid any harassment for these artists by removing any watermarks that might lead any rude reader to them, but I’ll never know if they suffered any bullying. Obviously I’m not going to put this on my resume as work experience but I like to think that this blog help think critically about their content, regardless of what role you played on the blog be it me, a submitter, an observer, or the subject. Maybe if some supreme being questions why I started this blog in the afterlife, I can tell them I did it for the lolz.
In the end, I think I did more harm than any general good for the world and nobody will really understand that weird pain if I try to repent for it publicly. I don’t know of any key examples of this (or really remember because I haven’t done this shit in years), but I do apologize if I ruined anyone’s ambitions for writing/drawing.
I’m glad there is a stronger hugbox mentality for artists who aren’t very good and I embrace that style of encouragement. I guess my only concern is veering too far into that and just embracing everything as perfect and awesome and never improving. Criticism has its place in society.
Perhaps the real lesson is that who the hell gives a shit about what you post on the internet. Why should you give a stranger any control over how much your art is worth? However, this also gives the argument into determining if any of your art is worth anything based on your preconceived notions on your art’s merits since you are only a stranger to me. Why should you tell me that your art is valid and equal to anything else produced when it looks like you drew it with your tablet pen stuck up your ass?
Maybe we all just need to learn to stop giving invisible voices the power to ruin our emotional states and work on our self satisfaction.
Growing up????
I wrote most of this blog like a million years ago. It was a stronger part of my identity and a part of a community in a way of similar blogs in the same style. But I don’t really relate to the content as much I used to. Valve games are still near and dear to me, but they’re more nostalgic than my current flame and muse. I feel the same happened to other blogs in the same vein as mine. Perhaps also age and the changes of time led to our own focuses in our own lives than looking at the scribbles of some stranger on the internet. While it’s still one of my internet past times, it is not my main focus in life to critique bad art (unless it starts paying serious dosh). I just don’t relate to the words and passions anymore. In a way, this is my own cringe that artists produce when they’re young on Deviantart. It’s kind of funny in a weird way.
This blog will continue to remain up but I’ll probably move into another blog of some sort (I accidentally made this my primary blog and I can’t delete it). It sort of became my main lurking blog and I guess its time that I make a less weird not ghost blog (I’m probably confusing a lot of the people that I follow with my constant hearts and comments).
I guess I wanna say thanks for all of the people who followed this blog and its contents. I probably wouldn’t have continued for very long without followers so you’re all to blame for this negative impact I’ve made on the world (jkjk). I like to think we’re connected with our mutual spirit in improving how we create things and wanting to see improvement in others. I think this blog helped me see the dumbest of things and not be afraid to say it was dumb and I hope it did for you as well. I also hope it brought you laughs in the content that was displayed or the humor I attempted to convey. It did genuinely warm my heart whenever I got a heart, reply, reblog, or messages to keep up the work. It kind of makes me sad to think that I left rather abruptly, but better blogs have died quicker and quieter. Simple fact of life really. Thank god my ego keeps me in check to constantly remind people of my existence.
To any artists out there, bad art is a fact of life. You do not come out of the womb knowing how to do two point perspective and 3d shapes. You mess up doing 3d shapes each any every time until you get it and then move on to the next thing you’re not good at. There’s a common TIL leddit post about how Michaelangelo burnt all of his old works so nobody would know how bad he was when he was starting out. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s not a great mentality to have for your art. Seeing that bridge between your former self and current self is important for seeing self growth in your skills. Plus you won’t have those juicy likes and comments on instagram when you do the art redraw and show how far you come like how can you skimp on that you dingus.
All of the great content creators right now love showing off the shitty art they did as kids because it gives them a sense of progress in their work and their accomplishments and continues to drive them in their own works. (unless you’re rebecca sugar and drew ed edd and eddy shipping porn lol). Heck, some of them even take the stuff that was once cliche characters and expanded on them in their own Original Universe Donut Steel. And thanks to their own Original Universe Donut Steel, now tens of thousands of impressionable young artists can look at it and say “that’s awesome, but it would be way better if there was my own character...”.
OCs are weirdly one of the ultimate ways of fan expression where you enjoy the content so much you wish you were part of it. Even though it’s very disjointed and out of place, it’s usually done in a place of love for the franchise or the characters. So for those of you that are doing that still, keep at it I guess.
Fan art is sorta in the same way where you enjoy something so much that you want to replicate the style/themes/characters in your own or the content’s style. While not as extreme, it’s still in the same place of love and people generally like that more than original shit anyways so continue to make it so I can buy your posters at anime conventions without supporting the original creator lol. 
If you want to harass me further for my sins against budding artists, I guess I’ll link my personal blog if anyone actually asks me. I also wrote this at 3 am so it is extremely unedited and awful but it’s the most “pure” for my usual diatribe. Consider it my first OC for the blog.
Good night, good life, and farewell.
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emerald-amidst-gold · 3 years
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About me
So, you wish to know about the face behind the muse, do you? Well, I’m not as edgy or ferocious, but I do all right! 
Thank you for the tag @noire-pandora! <3
1: Why did you choose your url?
The url that you see now was actually not my first url. I’m first one was lotus-dreamcatcher something something. (I forget what the numbers were lol). It was just a random thought since one: I love, love, looooove dreamcatchers, and two: I think lotus flowers are such pretty flowers! So, I combined best of both worlds and slapped two or three numbers on the end! XD
The reason I switched it was because I wanted to have a more personal connection with my blog. When I started writing my fic, I was like, ‘Let’s just go the whole nine yards! No one else has it!’ and voila! Will I change it if my hyperfixation vanishes? No. I’m stuck in hell, remember? *smiles*
2: Any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.
I have no side blogs because I would be terrible trying to micromanage them. My obsessions tend to ebb and flow, and this blog is the first time I’ve latched onto something for so long. I’ve had fixations with Dragon Age before (I’ve had the game for years, of course), but it always fizzled out and I latched onto something else (Fire Emblem, Skyrim, etc.). So, whatever fandom takes me by the horns, ya’ll have to witness it here! *cackles*
3: How long have you been on tumblr?
Hmm..I think for about...2 years? I made this blog a while back, posted a fic I had written for the first time, and then disappeared. I didn’t come back until just under a year ago when I wrote my first version of Emerald Eyes Amidst Golden Vows. But truthfully, I’m not sure. I know I haven’t been here long, though! XD
4: Do you have a queue tag?
Nope! I just scan the tags I like, home page, and those I follow’s dashboard and reblog/like what I find interesting, funny, or what pertains to what I’m currently fixated on. I might go ham and post a lot, or I just slap one or two things on while I’m on break at work. It’s casual for me. :D
5: Why did you start your blog in the first place?
I was curious, to put it simply. I’ve always been into art/writing, and all the art I used to see elsewhere always looped back to here. I actually spent a lot of my time, once upon a time, on DeviantArt (The days when I had a tablet and had the time to draw~). Once I got into writing, however, I decided this might be a better place to share that. Not to mention, I saw the community for Dragon Age and I was like, ‘I want to be a part of this! I don’t have many people I can talk about Dragon Age with or simp mutually about characters! And they all seem so nice! Let’s try!’ And here I am. It’s paid off. All the waiting, slight dejectedness, and quiet posts have PAID OFF. 
So, if you’re a starting blog and you feel kind of put off, just keep at it. It’ll gain traction. Trust me. :3
6: Why did you choose your icon/pfp?
Why not? It’s my BOY in his original, first play through form! (the play through I accidentally deleted, but you know *is still made about that*) 
I chose it mainly because it was my best screenshot of Fane, and I was like, “I am true Dragon Age blog now. :3″, but really, it’s just because it was pretty. I’m a simplistic creature with simplistic tastes. 
7: Why did you choose your header?
Again, it’s my BOY, and well, it was also pretty with the colors and his eyes and everything. I love my dragon son. What else can I say? *shrugs*
8: What’s your post with the most notes?
The post that issued by entrance in Solavellan Hell. 
THIS ONE
It continuously spiraled for WEEKS until it finally went dormant, and I was like, ‘Well, damn. That was a wild ride.’ We all fall prey to the wolf at some point. Even I, who was so sure I adored Cullen. ‘Twas not to be. I like elves. Sorry, Commander. XD
9: How many mutuals do you have?
26! Which is about a quarter of who follows me, actually. Huh!
10: How many followers do you have?
You know, I just checked it the other day and my eyes went wide because I broke a 100 and I was like, ‘Am I really that relatable or likable!? Awwww! *cries*’ I’m currently at 107, but in all honesty, I don’t pay attention to the numbers. Some may be inactive, too, but it’s nice to see people enjoy and relate!
11: How many people do you follow?
85! I don’t like to clog up my dash too much because it’s easy to miss things I’m actually looking forward to seeing (art, fic updates, etc.) I could filter, obviously, but I is lazy. However, if I see a blog I really think is cool and enjoyable and is right up my alley, then of course I’ll follow! :3 I also try to follow back if someone follows me, but I forget to sometimes. I’m a bit scatterbrained if you haven’t noticed from my writing. XD
12: Have you ever made a shitpost?
I think I made like...two? They got a good bit of notes, but mainly because they were relatable more than funny, I think. If you want to know one thing about me it’s that if I adore a specific character, I either RAG on them until the cows come home, or I cry about them hysterically. With Solas, I am both, so I throw swings at him while in the next minute running over and saying I’m sorry. And I vocalize that with random memes. XD
13: How often do you use tumblr each day?
I get on in the morning after I wake up a bit to check around, stay on until I have to go to work at like 2, and I’ll pop on a few times throughout the day during my breaks or lunch, and once more before I call it quits for the day. I have a bad habit of keeping a tab up while I write and hopping back and forth. No wonder my writing flow gets lost in transit. XD 
I also tend to fall asleep with my computer on, soooo yeah. X’D
14: Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?
Nope. I’m twenty-five. I left the drama bullshit back in high school when I graduated. I’m here to enjoy things that mean something to me, interact with people who share those interests, and just witness how creative everyone is and learn from them. Will I debate with someone civilly? Of course, I love debating concepts and interpretations of characters as much as I love analyzing those ideas. However, the moment those debates turn into ‘I’m right. You’re wrong.’ arguments, I walk away and ignore. I’ve been a part of internet discourse before when I ran a RP chat, I don’t need that again. Feel free to chat with me, but the minute it becomes a belligerent free for all, either expect a quick block or utter silence. 
15: How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?
I try to reblog things from content creators because that’s how they get the exposure they need, and I wholeheartedly support those people because I want people to be able to pursue and live a life where they can do what they enjoy and make ends meet rather than be stuck at a 9-5 job where they’re talents are wasted and miserable because of berating circumstances. 
However, if someone explicitly says, ‘you need to reblog this because of some obscure reason’, I won’t do that. Be humble. That’s all. I understand the need for validation, painfully so, but there’s a line that needs to be drawn on some posts like that.
16: Do you like tag games?
You bet your ass I do! I love how interesting they are and that people are eager to involve me in them! Like this one! :D
17: Do you like ask games?
*looks at all the asks I’ve done for Fane* I adore them. Let me talk about my son until the end of time, even if I repeat things because he’s still GROWING.
18.Do you have a crush on a mutual?
Not romantically, but do I think everyone is worthy of love and hugs and yelling, complimenting words that make your insides all fuzzy and warm? YES. LET ME YELL AT YOU AND HUG YOU. <3
Tagging (if you want to of course!): @little-lightning-lavellan @oxygenforthewicked @aymayzing @dreadfutures @whataboutbugs and anyone else who’d like to! 
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