#like is this some sort of gotcha argument???

[fairuzfan]

also stop fucking talking about "what if indigenous americans did october 7th to you today??" you weirdo. stop! what a disgusting argument to make, have some fucking shame.

#who the fuck are you #have you ever spoken to an indigenous american before the fuck is wrong with you #stop characterizing people goddamn youre like incredibly racist #like is this some sort of gotcha argument??? #what are you trying to do exactly??? #absolutely disgusting

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: X-Men

Stephen King: Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of when the X-Men fought the literal embodiment of hunger King: it was for a charity comic Poe: oh right right of course Lovecraft: of course Barker: gotcha Koontz: wowww! x men!!

King: so kitty pryde goes to the get some food King: but then suddenly King: she starts losing weight! King: now normally King: i think that sort of this is good King: usually i think the opposite is way scarier King: but this time King: it's bad

King: what's the cause of Kitty Pryde's unnatural weight loss? King: it's the evil mutant ghost embodiment of hunger King: the monstrous force known as King: "hungry" Barker: ba ha ha ha Poe: clive

Barker: "Hungry!?" King: yeah, his name is hungry Barker: like, the adjective? King: yeah i Barker: ah ha ha ha King: i don't see whats so funny King: yeah, his name is hungry King: see, this one time he said to his dad "i'm hungry" King: and his dad said "hi hungry, i'm dad"

King: anyway the point is that its about kitty pryde King: that super hero you all know and love Koontz: i like superman! superman is the best super hero King: ha ha well dean you're certainly entitled to your opinion King: there's no reason for us to fight King: King:

Alan Moore: [appearing in a clap of thunder] who dares call upon the arch magus? King: we need you to settle an argument Moore: speak your question, mortal, and gain wisdom King: who's the best superhero Moore: Moore: do you have any questions that aren't about that

Moore: the arch magus can see through time, control the very movements of the cosmos Moore: and you dare to ask a question about comic books King: well i just thought since you love comics so- Moore: the answer is herbie popnecker King: Moore: herbie popnecker is the best super hero

King: i'm sorry, herbie popnecker? Moore: yes herbie popnecker King: Koontz: Barker: Poe: Lovecraft: Moore: "you want i should bop you with my lollipop?" Moore: haha it doesn't get old!

Moore: i must now return to my mountain fortress [disappears in a clap of thunder] King: Koontz: Poe: Barker: Lovecraft:

#midnight pals #the midnight society #midnight society #stephen king #clive barker #edgar allan poe #dean koontz #hp lovecraft #alan moore

[ffverr]

On the discourse (that somehow still exists) of why the X-Men are feared and hated but other genetically modified heroes like the Fantastic Four or some of the Avengers aren't :

I still see this argument online that some people, usually not X-Men fans, pull out in a sort of gotcha moment. To kind of stick it to Marvel for being unrealistic or to vouch for the fearing of other heroes in the marvel universe to tip the scales.

There are two points for the "why is *random x-men* oppressed and not *random marvel hero*" discourse that people are always intentionally missing.

One- A base of mutant fear and repression is the argument that "it could happen to your children too". It could happen to ANYONE, from birth, and there is nothing you can do about it. No being careful of scientific experiences can stop your close ones from becoming a mutant. (Kind of like people are okay with gay celebrities as long as they're doing their thing from afar but it's a threat when it comes to their children/Friends/family being gay)

They layed it on thick with this amazing advertisment back in the day: "do you know what your children are"??? I mean come on it's not rocket science

Fun fact, the kid labeled "mutie" here is actually Franklin Richards, son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible woman. He used to be a mutant and this goes to show how somehow johnny storm can be beloved but his super powered nephew doesn't get the same treatment.

Two- Spider-Man, the F4, the Avengers etc... All these heros who get some powers by some incident. They're supposed to be rare and few in between. The fear of mutants mainly comes from the fact that they started popping up in the MILLIONS. A mutant isn't necessarly seen as an honorable individual that acquires powers and realises they have the responsibility to use it for good. To humans, they're millions of people (or at least hundreds of thousands) that are, just by existing, threatening the status quo of humanity. They are changing the natural dominance of humans for good.

So of course humans love the F4 (usually). Because they're not scared to be replaced by them in their day to day life, however they are scared to be rendered obsolete by mutants. When humans look at the F4 they see brave selfless HUMAN heroes. They relate to them, they identify with them. They're a sweet family dedicated to the world's safety. In contrast, the mutants represent a world changing threat that truly shifts the balance. And that's not comfy at all no matter how cute or harmless the power is.

This difference can even cause very understandable tension in between the X-men and other super powered groups:

In short, the mutant moral panic comes from the fact that for exemple:

-humans are afraid to loose their jobs to super powered level talents.

-humans are scared from groups of super powered people that could threaten their safety.

-Governments are scared of these groups being the equivalent of entire armies concentrated in a single individual.

- They're scared that their children could turn into something unimaginable once they hit puberty

-And some just hate the idea of being manipulated by a random telepath on the street without ever knowing.

In contrast of Spider-Man, humans feel like nature is done with homo sapiens and THAT'S what brings hate and fear.

That's why everytime a mutant hate crime happens in the comics, it's always accompanied by some human saying "y'think you're better than us weirdo".

+ Contrary to the avengers, mutants also claim a culture, a shared history and common experiences between thousands. This binds them together in a way they doesn't necessarly make them identify with humans. And this is overall irritating and scary to humans.

Also, religious fear-mongering of mutants is rampant!!! It does a ton to set appart the mutants from the scientifically modified heros of the marvel universe.

In the end, one of the best comic to portray this whole thing is still God loves man Kills.

It depicts a villain, Striker, that gains popularity by spreading religious propaganda to justify mutant hate. In an emotional and shocking twist, we come to find that Striker has had a mutant son, that he killed with his own hand because he was a "monster".

You can understand how Captain America, with his super body, doesn't really evoke the same existential dread. Bigotry isn't rational, but also, a shit ton of things complicate the mutant's inclusion into society that doesn't necessarly parallel perfectly with real world struggles so that's also to take into consideration.

#the only part of truth i'll concede to this discourse is that yeah it's blurry how humans wouldn't assume #that any super powered person is a mutant #but this is i think a useless gripe that would just make mutants too present in other marvel books #xmen #marvel #comics #x men comics #scott summers #comic panels #jean grey #xmen 97 #the x allegory #mutant 101 #magneto #professor x #charles xavier #storm #kitty pryde

[transmutationisms]

Epigenetics anon, just to say you answered it 👍 by "alternatives" I meant in explanatory power, but it seems we agree both that it's the best for "how organisms work" broadly, & that recognizing it doesn't suddenly mean we can better target genetic "improvements" (ie, increase an organism's profitability). But now I'm curious about the Yellow Wallpaper critique? High school taught it was an epic clap-back against hysteria diagnoses and views of (upper-class) women as fragile.

gotcha. but yes this is a great post from najia gothhabiba about the yellow wallpaper:

it's important i would say for anyone to learn to recognise these ideas and contextualise them as eugenic, but esp if your work bumps up against ideas of heredity, epigenetics, biological improvement, &c. the idea of changing an organism thru action on its environment, for example, has a history; there's clear transposition from animal and plant breeding in the 18th century to schemes for social control and improvement in the 19th and onward. this sort of discursive & cross-disciplinary slippage absolutely still occurs today; it is never politically neutral when we start hearing about ways to improve organisms, whether thru crispr-style genetic engineering, or cross-breeding, or efforts to control bodies thru environmental meddling (u can see this latter in, for example, theories of the 'obesogenic environment' in public health/nutrition sci).

& i also have to say here: yea, this story IS a response to the hysteria dx and the idea of white female 'fragility'; it IS ALSO a eugenic argument. those two things are not in contradiction; again there is a massive history here of feminist (& socialist!) eugenic projects. feminist discourses are not only capable of engaging with eugenic and racist logic, some have historically and presently grounded their arguments on these very points. in fact part of the argument of gilman's feminism was always an appeal to white men that it would be in their interest to improve their own racial stock and position in the social hierarchy by attending to white women's biological betterment, such as by turning against things like locking their wealthy wives up in the attic. the demonstration of the 'barbarity' of such treatment is an appeal to the fear of degenerating the race thru mistreatment of wealthy, otherwise respectable / capable women. the story is both feminist and eugenicist; the two don't contradict. this is a really good example of how 'white feminism' is not just a feminism that 'lacks' attention to race and racism; rather, it is feminism that makes its appeal for women's liberation explicitly on racist & racialising grounds, & at the direct expense of racialised people.

#eugenics and degen theory

[giggly-squiggily]

Can I request Rohan from Jojo with 💛 I’m Yours?

{Candy Heart Prompts: OFFICIALLY CLOSED!}

Rohan!!! :D God I love him so much akjrkjeakrjeakj I've gotcha covered, anon!

I'm Yours: "You like being tickled, don't you?"

“You like being tickled, don’t you?”

Rohan would have had a proper counter for such a question- a haughty laugh, a sarcastic response, maybe even some sort of way into twisting it about being manga-related- had he not been currently fighting for his life not to cave beneath your fingers. “W-What proof do you h-have?” He gasped out.

“Well, for starters, you’re always wearing crop tops.” You smiled against his chest, fingers tracing the bare skin of his stomach as you laid on him. “Your closet is full of them- so that means something.”

“I li-hike the fashion!” He grunted, a giggle escaping.

“Secondly, you rarely ever retaliate whenever I poke your sides. It’s like you want me to keep going!”

“I hahave work to dohho!”

“Finally…you’re letting me tickle you now, and not once did you tell me to stop.” You grinned when you felt him stiffen, his heartbeat racing a mile a minute against your ear. “Gotcha, Rohan.”

“Mohohost certaahhahainly noh-ehahhahhahahat!” The manga artist couldn’t hold in the giggles any longer as you intensified your tickles, squeezing his side with one hand as you scratched along his belly with the other. “(Y/N), pleahahahahahse!”

“Please what? Keep tickling you?” You grinned as you watched him twist and giggle beneath your fingers, cheeks pink and eyes squeezed shut with mirth. “I’m already doing that, you big silly! But I can certainly keep going if you want me to!”

“Thahahhat’s noohooht whahat I meaahhaha-ehehehe dohohohon’t! Rohan arched beneath you as you prodded at his ribs, finding yet another good spot. “Noohooht the rihiihhibs!”

“Again, you aren’t telling me to stop~” You cooed, relishing his blush. “I think someone likes this~”

“Thahahhat’s it! Cooohohme here!” Rohan twisted suddenly, sending you both falling to the floor. A hand came behind your head to protect it- leaving you staring up into his eyes. “Theheere…now stahhap.”

“No arguments here.” You smiled, taking in the view. Breathless and flushed, he was quite the sight. “Hehe, I should tickle you more often for this kind of view.”

Rohan sputtered- then he attacked your sides, making you squeal and shriek beneath him. 

Totally worth it.

#Candy Heart Valentine Event #chve2k24 #tickle #tickle dabble #JJBA #rohan kishibe #reader #rohan x reader #fluff

[drbased]

This argument is fascinating to me. This whole thing is one big ad hominem, and the question is still left on the table: do you agree with the 'swerfs', then, that selling sex is bad?

Look. When it comes to 'sex work', I'm still not personally fully convinced that criminalisation is the way forward. I've seen articles and stats say that the nordic model is the best way to go about this, and I've seen articles and stats say that attempts to legalise 'sex work' have resulted in more human trafficking. I've also seen sex workers themselves arguing that things like the nordic model don't really do anything other than take their clientele away, putting them in further financial trouble, and they're not given support in terms of a real exit strategy. I don't know enough about the details of this topic to have a full opinion on it either way; being truly fully informed would mean critically combing through all sorts of statistics and spending time getting information from two incredibly opposing sides with strong agendas.

But what I do know, is that under a leftist framework, 'sex work' is categorically rape. All work under capitalism is coercive, coerced sex is rape, ergo 'sex work' is rape.

Now, in regards to defining rape, I've seen this person say that 'if that's rape, I've been raped thousands of times, and it cheapens the times when I've actually been assaulted'. To this, I say:

How many times do we hear women say 'if that's assault, then I've been assaulted?' as some sort of 'gotcha'? It has taken a great feminist effort to expand the definitions of things like rape, abuse and sexual assault from a female- and victim-centric point of view. At what point is something 'cheapening a definition'? Where do we draw the line, and why?

If trauma is the line, and real rape has to cause some categorical, measurable trauma for it to 'count', then is it even possible to draw that line? Many people who are experiencing repeated abuse (probably most, tbh) are not aware that they are traumatised. A lot of the time, people don't realise how bad something is until after the fact, when they have something to compare it to. I know we should 'listen to victims', but many victims - let's just think about victims of domestic violence, here - will swear that they're not being abused. Listening to victims, a lot of the time, means reading between the lines rather than taking them at face value. This is not duplicitous; we do this all the time with DV sufferers, cult members, etc. etc. I see no reason why rape should be treated differently.

You do realise that saying 'the majority of people sell sex because of financial desperation' is a 'swerf' argument, right? You realise how that sounds from a leftist perspective, from a feminist perspective? And if you believe that 'swerfs' are inflating the numbers of sex trafficking, then you'd better have data to back that up, because that's a monumentally evil hill to die on otherwise. But back to my main point:

If you think it was a good thing that your support network helped you to stop selling sex, if you think that financial desperation forcing you to sell sex is a bad thing, then do you agree with the 'swerfs'?

#my writing

[faroreswinds]

Guess that guy forgot Dimitri's support with Dedue where the crux of the conflict was that Dimitri and wanted to treat Dedue as equals but Dedue wanted to be seen as a vassal.

People use Dedue as some sort of "gotcha" character to prove how terrible and racist Dimitri is. How dare he keep a marginalized, colonized man of color as his vassal.

This completely removes any agency Dedue has himself. These people don't actually like Dedue. They only like what they perceive to be legitimacy to their argument.

They often ignore:

He is not forced to be by Dimitri's side. He actively chooses to be there.

Dedue was not just a prize for Dimitri to cling to. Dedue and Dimitri both relied on each other for recovery from shared trauma, and what one faced, the other faced with him.

Dedue is the one who chooses to keep the relationship professional. Dimitri actively begs him to treat him as an equal, not a superior.

They are both the most important person in each other's lives. They would die for each other.

In the rare cases Dedue chooses to leave Dimitri's side, Dimitri encourages it.

And so on.

A bit of a side-bar, but I noticed that many people in the thread also lamented that Yuri couldn't support Claude or Edelgard. I guess they feel that Yuri has something in common with them.

I don't see it. Yuri may be a rouge who chooses life and winning over morals, but he is also a church-boy at heart. He never expresses hatred for the church or crests the way Edelgard or Claude do. I don't even think he actually hates nobles, he just sees them as pawns for his schemes.

Claude and Edelgard "care" about the common folk but Dimitri walks the walk. He's the only one who actually gets into the dirt with the commoners, walks among them and interacts with more than just his inner circle of commoner friends. This is what Yuri values the most- his people, the down trodden. Of COURSE he would support Dimitri over the other two.

Also, Yuri is from the kingdom, and he doesn't hate his homeland. Which I'm sure some people would insist he should since it's a backwards country or something, idk.

#anon asks #Three Houses discourse

[toh-proship-positivity]

I promise this isn't intended to be hurtful at all- just some constructive criticism of your argument. You don't have to respond to this if you don't want. You don't even have to read this- you can just toss it into the trash bin. But I really hope that, if nothing else, this will help you make some stronger arguments in the future.

When Luz says Hunter is family, the implication there is that SHE views him as family. When Camilla says she's a mother of six, that only means that SHE views them as her children, not that they view her as their mother or each other as siblings (sans Luz, who, as pointed out, DOES seem to think of Hunter as sibling-like.) I fully agree that people who argue for Luz and Hunter being siblings, full stop, is a little bonkers, and people who push that argument are a bit drunk with the power of canon and need to work on interpreting things a little more critically. But canonically, Luz's feelings for Hunter are platonic.

That said, ship whatever the fuck you want. I'm not your mom. I personally don't get Lunter, but you seem to like it, so more power to you. There's a whole world of canon divergence and AU out there and I truly, genuinely hope that the ship brings you more smiles and happiness than headaches.

Lastly, if you've been subjected to any sort of bullying or anti-ness or what have you over shipping, I'm sorry. That fucking sucks- I've been there. I've received death threats and hate mail over ships. I've witnessed amazing artists and talented fic writers bullied into erasing all their works and social media accounts entirely. It just hurts, plain and simple. But trying to fight fire with fire and using these "gotcha!" arguments just perpetuates ship wars and leaves everybody feeling raw.

Hi! I appriciate you're being so polite, now I do want to point out, it's not really supposed to be an argument. See anti Lunters harass people who ship them because "They're siblings! It's an incest ship!" (and more things) and use the line in TTT where Luz says he's like family to her as evidence that they are "canonically siblings" when they are not. Now as mentioned in TTT Camilla calls herself a mother of six, which you can say is similar as what Luz says to Hunter later in the episode. So, it's not so much an argument as simply pointing out that using what Luz said as 'proof' is just nonesence when you apply the same logic to other instances, which anti lunters pretty much ignore entirely. I hope that makes sense! And thank you very much, I needed to hear that! It's always a releive to see people agree that harassing others over fiction is stupid

#proship #antis dni #proship safe #proship please interact #the owl house #toh #mod hopskotch hopping #proship positivity #Luz noceda #Hunter toh #Lunter

[king-of-men]

Now I think about it, the Gemini thing is probably deliberate, right? One of the complaints of the woke is that white people have "default privilege"; unless otherwise specified, "a random person" is white. Which leads, in their theory, to emotional damage to other races, who have to specify what color they want their toys if they're going to look like them. Obviously nobody outside of Serious Woke takes this seriously. So Gemini defaults to black, or anyway non-white; there is considerable protest; and the Gemini team turns around and says "oh now it's important what the default is?"

...at least, that would have been a reasonable troll. There are issues with the argument, obviously; you can pick it apart; but it's going to take some work to explain a nuanced difference between "a random person" and "a random example of a specific reference class that we know damn well was white". It takes way more work to explain the defense than the attack, which is the signature of a good troll. It's a gotcha, an own-the-cons sort of sound bite; but as such, it's kind of good actually. Like, you can admire the hustle if not the thesis.

Sadly it seems they don't have the courage of their convictions and dare not admit that they used $X million of Google's money on such a troll. Alas for this weak and decayed generation.

#gemini images #headcanon #complaining about the youth of today #wokeness

[gloomypri]

Maybe a fic with Luca/Mysta and how they (separately) give kisses?? This seems so sweet

Thank you so much anon, this idea is super cute! I’ve never written for Luca so I hope I do him some justice <3 also sorry i took so long i was struggling a bit with some irl stuff but it’s been sorted!

Kisses w/ Luca Kaneshiro + Mysta Rias! 

  (separately)

Luca

-  I have a feeling that Luca would pepper your face in kisses. One kiss is just too boring; why would he give just one when he could shower you with rapid fire kisses to keep you entertained!

-  Luca definitely loves cheek kisses! He would pick you up and nuzzle has nose into your cheek while he hums and smiles. The hums turn to giggles and that’s when he starts to mischievously give you ‘mwah’ kisses. 

-  This man will NOT go to bed without his goodnight kiss; he insists that he absolutely needs to have it, otherwise he’ll have nightmares and badger you awake in the middle of the night for comfort.

-  Let’s say you refused him his goodnight kiss. Don’t think that just because he’s stopped poking your side it means that he doesn’t care anymore. Soon, when you’re just starting to drift off to sleep, he will come back to secure his kiss. Luca will attack you with tickles until you surrender. The blonde will never give up, unless you allow him his goodnight charm.

-  If you DARE try to leave the house without a kiss for your loving Luca, he will shout, “Wait wait! You forgot something,” as he scurries down the hallway, almost slipping up on the carpet. Once he’s in close range, you’ll find his lips smashed against yours with enough force that nearly knocks you onto the doorstep outside.

-  Luca loves it when you initiate the kiss first, even if it’s just a small peck on the cheek or the hand. Kiss him on the lips and he’ll hold you close and traps you until he feels the affection has been equalised.

Mysta

-  I think Mysta would be a straight up tease when it comes to kisses. 

-  For example, he would kiss the area around your mouth with such precision to make sure that even if you move, he doesn’t catch your lips. At last, he’ll reach the corners of your mouth, and only then will Mysta press his lips against yours with a kiss that was worth waiting for.

-  Mysta would intertwine your hands when you kiss and guide your hands to behind his back so you can hold him closer. It affirms him that you want him with you and the affection is mutual.

-  Going back to teasing, if you had hurt yourself by stubbing your toe or accidentally getting cut while cooking, he would ask you if you wanted him to ‘kiss it better’, but Mysta would unironically do it even if you didn’t give an answer. These kisses would just be short pecks but even so they still had meaning.

-  Mysta will also kiss you to shut you up. You two could be having a small argument, like he forgot to put his dishes in the dishwasher or he turned off your music so he could talk to you about a random fact, and he would kiss you to playfully aggravate you more.

-  Mysta would also do things to annoy you slightly on purpose but then fix it with a kiss. He would ruffle your hair and laugh at you when you struggle to sort it out again. In this moment of vulnerability for you, he strikes. Suddenly, a kiss has been pressed to your lips and you were left dumbfounded.

“Gotcha~!”

#luxiem #nijisanji en #luxiem x reader #nijisanji #luca kaneshiro x reader #mysta rias x reader #mysta rias #luca kaneshiro #luca kaneshiro x you #mysta rias x you #mysta x reader #luca x reader

[rollercoasterwords]

ok here's the essay re: "realisitc?? they're literally wizards!!"

upon further reflection (25 min voicenote 2 twin, 1 conversation w 2 friends) i think i have. managed 2 organize + articulate my thoughts.

obligatory disclaimer: this literally does not matter i'm talking about hp fanfiction in 2023 this is not a serious issue beyond being like. kind of annoying. unfortunately i just enjoy writing abt stupid fandom discourse hopefully going back 2 school will cure me of the incessant need 2 write essays for fun but who knows. anyway me writing this essay is not me saying this is a huge or important issue i just like 2 talk <3

anyway! the ~discourse~ i've been noticing in the marauders fandom, which from my pov has had sort of an uptick recently (although who knows if that's objectively true--maybe i've just stumbled across more of it. from where i'm sitting, though, it seems like it's become more of a hot topic in recent months) generally goes as follows:

person a: omg ugh i hate that in [x fic] [x character] has/is/does [x flaw] :(

person b: oh well [x character] having/being/doing [x flaw] makes the story more realistic

person a: UM they're literally wizards at a magic school lol....who cares if it's realistic....

and the reason this both interests + annoys me is that i think. giving person a the benefit of the doubt + assuming they aren't being purposely obtuse (bc in that case we're just talking abt trolls), it demonstrates such a gap in understanding. bc the thing person a is fighting w that response is literally a strawman

the strawman:

saying "um they're literally wizards" is only a "gotcha" moment if it's pointing out an inconsistency in person b's thinking. it is only pointing out an inconsistency if, when person b says "it makes it more realistic," we take that to mean that person b is saying "a story is better if it more closely matches our own reality." in that case, saying "they're wizards!!!" points out an inconsistency, bc obviously characters being wizards does not match reality. gotcha!!!

the problem is that that isn't what person b is saying. so by responding "they're wizards" as if that's some sort of "gotcha" moment, person a is misinterpreting person b's argument, constructing a strawman that nobody is actually arguing, and then tearing down that strawman with a pithy little sarcastic comment that positions them as soooo much more reasonable than person b.

so what is person b actually saying?

the problem is that saying "[x character] having [x flaw] makes a story more realistic" is not an argument about the story being better, it's an explanation for why someone would write the story that way.

another disclaimer - some "person b"s in this situation might, in fact, be using "it's more realistic" to try and argue that a story being more realistic makes the story better; however, that is not a position i'm going to be defending here. i think any argument that roots itself in a so-called "objective" measure of what makes a piece of art better or worse is a non-starter, and in that case i think person b and person a are perhaps both misguided in different ways.

but what's happening from person b's pov is - person a asks "why would anyone write [x character] with [x flaw]?" person b tries to answer that question by explaining: well, it makes the story more realistic. the implication here is -- a story being more realistic is a personal preference that some people are going to prefer; people write + read stories for different reasons. this is the reason that i enjoy the story, personally. that's it!

and the thing is, "realistic" in the context of a fantasy story does not mean "matches real life exactly." in the context of fantasy, "realistic" refers, in my mind, to two things:

1. cohesive internal logic

even within a fantasy universe, there are going to be structured societies, rules, laws of natures, etc. what makes a fantasy story more realistic is not how closely it adheres to real-life structures + rules, but how closely it adheres to its own established structures + rules - its own internal logic.

for example: in my fantasy world, fairies can fly but mermaids can't. then, suddenly, without explanation, i write a scene where a mermaid can fly. this makes the story less realistic, in that it breaks from its own internal logic, and stretches the limits of readers' abilities to suspend their disbelief. like - we've already sort of "agreed" to suspend disbelief about fairies + mermaids existing, because that's just the established norm of the story, but as readers we are still looking to follow some internal logic. oftentimes, when people are complaining about fantasy stories being more or less realistic, they are referring to the story's own internal logic.

this means if someone is writing hp fanfic set in a canon universe, working in the established canon universe where certain biases + flaws exist, it makes the fic more realistic to adhere to that internal logic. obviously, a fic writer can choose to change that internal logic and say, for example, "in my story the wizarding world doesn't have homophobia, and that's an established societal norm that is part of the story's internal logic." that's fine! it's just a matter of personal choice whether that's the story that somebody wants to write or not, y'know?

2. reflection on real life

the other aspect of "realism" that i think people are referring to when they talk about a fantasy story being more or less "realistic" is the ways in which that story does reflect actual reality. like--fantasy stories don't exist in a vaccuum. many writers use fantasy stories to reflect realities from actual life; things like prejudice or oppression or war, etc. placing these real-life issues into a fantastical setting allows a new lens through which to think about them, pushing us to examine them from different angles.

for example - take k.a. applegate's animorphs series. it is, in many ways, completely unrealistic, in that it's about kids who can turn into animals fighting off an alien invasion. but k.a. applegate wrote the books to demonstrate the utter horror and devastation of war, and much of the subject matter reflects real-life wartime situations. a kid who only hears about war through the news or through action movies where there's a clear good guy and bad guy, a clear right and wrong, might find it easy to disregard the horror. but when applegate took those real-life situations and placed them into the fantastical setting of animorphs, she's providing an age-appropriate way for children to understand that no, war is not an action movie, it's a horror story.

this is why "realism" in fantasy matters to people. some writers are using fantasy not as pure escapism, but as a way to explore real-life issues through a different lens, one that may allow people to empathize with an issue in a way they normally don't. obviously, some people are just writing fantasy for fun escapism -- and that's fine! there's space for both types of stories to exist simultaneously; what doesn't make sense is assuming that just because somebody engages with media differently from you, there must be something wrong with it.

anyway. the conclusion to all this i suppose is that i think if you genuinely do not understand why someone would write a character a certain way, rather than assuming the worst or assuming there's no good reason it's generally better to like. actually ask and listen to the answer people are giving u + try to understand where they're coming from. not everyone is going to want to read the same types of stories, and somebody writing a character w certain flaws shouldn't feel like a personal attack, bc fandom is a self-curated experience where u literally don't need 2 read or write anything u don't want to. The End

#ranting and raving #txt

[gaywatch]

new theory drop: they somehow stopped time and switched places during the kiss

https://www.tumblr.com/lonicera-caprifolium/724301867578966016?source=share

Oh man, I feel like the person at the party who's no fun, but I swear I love people throwing theories and ideas around and I don't want to make anyone feel bad for doing their thing. I have to respectfully disagree with this one too, though.

Why would they do this, exactly? Someone said Crowley's level of authority/acess would put him in a better place if things went wrong up there, but...went wrong doing what? Thwarting the Second Coming? He'd be in just as much danger as Az except Az wouldn't also be wrapped up pretending to be somebody else.

Crowley stops time, but not effortlessly. He has to make a huge motion with his body to both stop and start the flow of time. (He also used that crank part of his car to start it again, but since he didn't need it for the stop it might not be totally necessary.)

Az's moment alone touching his mouth no longer makes sense if it's Crowley, and nobody was around to perform for.

The theory would invalidate a lot of the words and emotions flying around in the kiss scene, actually, in order to insert some sort of clever trick during a moment when neither of them were thinking about trickery at all.

It involves a few key leaps in logic and assumptions that we have no way of proving without more info or don't entirely make sense.

A lot of these theories feel like they're searching for a reason to say that the argument wasn't as bad as it was or that the break-up wasn't real. And I get that, we all want Crowley and Z to be happy and married and living their best lives. But we're in the middle of their story, and they're not going to be happy the entire time. And we all want Aziraphale to let go of Heaven and embrace Crowley, but sometimes when people are finally forced to make the decision they've been avoiding for a long time, they regress and cling to what feels safest even if part of them knows it's not right or good for them. All those deep emotional punches and the devastating heartbreak were real, and tbh I wouldn't have it any other way. If season three suddenly went "actually it was all or partially fake lol gotcha" it would most likely forever cheapen the end of season two and ruin devastatingly good character and relationship arcs in the process.

But it was absolutely a manipulation on Metatron's part. In that regard, it was totally a set up. He knew exactly what would break them up and Az played right into it. However, this was always going to happen between them at some point. It's just particularly cruel that it happened on someone else's timetable and with malicious intent.

#GW Asks #Good Omens #It's really interesting to think about when would be a good time to have Az realize his mistake and choose Crowley #End of 3x05? A midpoint turn? The finale climax? #So many possibilities... #It'll happen though #and I'm *dying* to see how Neil does it

[catgirlforeskin]

Your post about toxic masculinity reminded me of some other weird branch of feminism. The one that posits that misogyny exists because society for whatever reason happens to favour masculine traits, and to defeat misogyny we need to make society favor feminine traits more.

That's gender essentialist, and it is also just extremely factually wrong. They usually mean modern western ideas of masculinity and femininity (men are strong, rational, ruthless and independent, women are weak, emotional, nurturing and empathetic), but I know a lot of historical societies and individual people that had different, up to the complete reversal, ideas of gender while still placing men above women.

So while changing societal attitudes towards qualities perceived as feminine, such as emotionality or nurturing behaviour, may take arguments from hands of misogynists for some time, it will not work because gendered hierarchy is the reason of such division at all, not the consequence. And what we will probably get is that some time later those "good feminine qualities" will become associated with men while "bad masculine qualities" will get ascribed to women.

P.S.: And also a lot of misogyny is already extremely hypocritical, because the same qualities are sometimes described as simultaneously good and masculine when men do it and bad and feminine when women do it (like competitiveness or aggressiveness), so it's even more futile.

Absolutely yeah. I get the impulse to try turning aspects of gender essentialism in on itself as a gotcha but it’s never gonna work, we need to be advocating the complete and utter destruction of thinking that prescribes any sort of personality traits as inherently masculine or feminine

#asks

[bisolationist]

Ooookay I finally found out why I've gotten like 50 fucking messages telling me to kms since new years, and

A) Hey please don't send messages to people on my behalf, especially to wedge it into a completely unrelated argument, and double especially not to support some guy saying "misandry" is just as bad as misogyny. I think it should be pretty clear from my years around here that I do not believe or support that. If there's anything that makes me fucking angry it's my experiences with a female rapist being used as a gotcha against feminists. I'm not a fucking MRA or anti-feminist puppet and my experiences are not yours to use for your weird agendas. Also all sending weird messages about me does is encourage more deranged people to come out of the woodwork and harass me. I don't care if people talk shit about me that's their problem. At most maybe you can let ME know and see if I wanna say anything, but honestly even that gets tiresome because there's blooms where I'm apparently radblr's #1 Worst Man That Ever Lived for things I didn't even say.

B) That said, I have absolutely no idea why that person talking shit about me suddenly made it about pregnancy. *I* was the one from my very first reply to say that it's important to acknowledge physiological differences between men and women, and that things like pregnancy are HUGE factors in how traumatic an assault can be. So IDK why people are putting in words in my mouth about supposedly saying the opposite of what I've actually said? The discussion was about how OP was categorizing rape in a binary of "truly horrific, degrading, and traumatic" vs "bad but not Bad Bad, certainly NOT horrific and it's fucked up that people think it's horrific" and people jumped on to agree and add things like "rape is something that doesn't ruin a boy's life" or "I think most like it actually we need to acknowledge this <3" and increasingly vile shit like that. That goes way beyond acknowledging physiology and misogyny and steps directly into mocking rape victims and minimizing the impact of sexual assault. If me saying "actually all rape is horrific, degrading, and traumatic" and this makes you fucking livid, that's more about why YOU think raping certain people is "not that bad".

C) Super cool how people in comments in her shit are making excuses about how I'm a "Brain dead moid" and all the shit radfems have been saying to me isn't real harassment or is justified lol. I want any of these people talking shit about me to explain to me off anon why comments like this or this are so based. And that's not even the worst of it by far, there's people openly saying I'm probably the rapist, that they wish my rapist had killed me, that I'm an antifeminist for speaking about my experiences at all, and all sorts of shit. There were weeks where I had to mass delete my inbox every morning because it's just full of people telling me how I'm morally repugnant for not agreeing my rape was No Big Deal (TM). Also, all of this is frankly humiliating. You think I want to talk or think about this all the fucking time? That I want my friends on here to start thinking about me as that guy that was raped? I absolutely hate this more than I can possibly explain for that reason a lone. I also know that I'm one of the few people in a position to speak up about this and I don't think I have to let it slide as no big deal either, but it SUCKS for me.

D) On the whole I agree on a lot of radical feminist's view and am eager to stand up for them and women in general in the capacity that I can, but I'm not a fucking radfem puppet either, sorry. I don't have to pretend it isn't obvious most of the harassment is coming from radfems, and that there isn't a completely deranged rf faction that are ardent rape apologists (both against boys/men but also against girls/women - I spend 85% of my time in GC spaces speaking out against people calling bi women pornographic language when discussing them!). I don't think they're rape apologists *because* they're radfems, but rather rape apologism is something ingrained into just about every culture and people often twist ideologies to make their biases sound moral and upright. Every single ideology has this problem. Still doesn't excuse the fact that the rape apologists within radblr are coddled and defended even by people that claim not to agree with them because people view this as a sports match or something.

#personal #as to point D I am also aware and grateful of how many radfems DID speak up and say something #hence why I'm not happy for people to use it as an anti-radfem thing on the whole #sorry to go on another rant about this I'm so sorry but #I'm at the end of my rope #the female rapist fanclub has been at this since the end of september

[were--ralph]

Okay so like genuinely trying to phrase this in a way that isn’t mean or coming off as a “gotcha”, but if you think drawing porn of kid’s shows/media is wrong then why are you okay with nsfw Pokémon art? Like do you just mean little little kid shows like people being horny for the dad from bluey? Cause a lot of people would make the exact same argument about Pokémon being a kid’s thing even if adults like it too. Personally I do think there’s a difference between like making porn of characters from regular “family” shows Vs like Swiper the fox or some shit but also I couldn’t tell you exactly where that line is drawn cause MLP was meant for about the same demographic (maybe a little bit older idk I wasn’t 4 when the new one came out) and it’s had a huge impact on the furry community. It’s really no skin off my nuts what people I don’t even know on the internet think, but I am legitimately interested in this sort of conversation being had. Condolences on all the people who are gonna be very angry about you saying it’s weird to lewd pre-k cartoon characters tho

Its like most Nintendo games, SURE they're easy but Pokemon is made to be enjoyed by a variety of people, MOST of which are older than five years old. Games like Pokemon are made with nostalgia for older players of the series to enjoy. They are commonly played by older crowds online. Me playing Sun and Moon and seeing Red/Blue in it was specifically for ME and not for new players they don't know who the fuck they are. Charizard was included for ME and not that kid who don't know how to press a buttons.

Bluey is made SPECIFICALLY for preschool children to LEARN socializing skills and enjoy a good time. Bluey's father having a good dad attitude is not a reason to draw porn of him? like. I literally do not understand the overlap here. it's specifically a preschool kid show. like OF COURSE he has a great personality he's a child's media character, they're not gonna make him mean and angry. it's daddy issues! porn is not therapy!

MLP is it's own case because it was ALWAYS weird. it was NEVER like not weird. it's STILL weird to me. I say nothing because i don't go to that school but it's weird to me and I'm not opening this to the floor ever. I will die with this key in my throat

[weebsinstash]

Wow the "conclusion" to this is wild. Lmao @ her saying that she'll look at your blog in the future to feel better about herself. Hobbyless behavior. Sorry you got all of that shit for months, it's just so fucking bizarre. I really love your writing and your blog and I hope despite all of that shit that you're having a good day 💕

I'm just like. Kind of sitting here wondering what the point even was.

Like literally at the core of this argument was i posted about a family event and a complete stranger got so extremely upset that they. Literally started a fight on anon, and then after I told them to get fucked, then proceeded to pretend to be an underage rape survivor and said I made them attempt suicide, and then messaged TONS of people saying "weebsinstash is a rape apologist who bullied cjfjfj" and it was literally all a fucking lie. They want to say they bullied me for entertainment but what was rhe point of like. Harassing dozens of other people who weren't even involved. That's obviously not when anything to do with me. That's acting like a freak because you think it's Cute And Quirky

Like. I cannot emphasize enough that the hypothetical child who harmed themselves was the literal only single aspect of this entire thing that could even mildly make me feel bad and this actually stupid fucking cunt gave themselves up, "oh by the way that person was never real" like, damn if you were an actual good troll you never would've revealed that, so you can't even be a little basement dweller correctly

Imagine being like "yeah you know the literal only thing about this that might actually cause you some sort of guilt and was the crux of my whole crusade against you lol yeah it was just a lie and the friends who apologized on my behalf were also me and the people who were nice to you were also me" like wow you were OBSESSED OBSESSED

But there's also so many more layers to that? They made blogs and maintained them to talk to me pretending to be people who were also harassed. They literally gave me emotional support as a "gotcha"? Like how is that a gag. Do you not realize repeatedly popping out of the woodwork saying "hey every mean thing that was said to you over xyz amount of months was me all along" has literally just trained me to automatically blame you for any bad feedback and thus you have granted me the ability to be insulted and not care. Like literally any time I get an ask about anything and it's rude I just assume it's this one single person now. And I don't get hate mail so it was always kind of obvious anyways. But like they literallt actually gave me a gift because I won't really ever believe anything nasty I get ever again :)

But like. The sheer. Actual literal disconnect from reality for this person to fully say with their whole chest, "ha ha yeah I really showed YOU and made YOU look stupid, the way I pretended to be a child, lied about rape, publicly harassed complete strangers, tried to doxx you, made a fake dating profile for you, uploaded your photos in multiple places, sent you stuff on anon to take credit for it later, and maintained disguises for most of a year, haha wow don't YOU look dumb!"

Bro after like one month of this shit I literally just started thinking, "oh it's that one moron again" and nothing was ever hurtful ever again. You have to realize there's a point where someone has made themselves look so stupid and unlikeable you don't care what they think so it's sort of like. Oh woo hoo you called me ugly and fat, got any new material? Like I don't even have to think "oh gosh I'm so ugly and gross and I feel bad cause they said that" I just think "oh wow potshots at my appearance, yeah that's what I would expect someone of your intelligence to say"

I just. Can I just be blunt and say this wasn't even good trolling. It was annoying but they were so blatantly bad at it literally everyone just looked at the kind of shit they posted and immediately called them unhinged. There wasn't a coherent enough effort here to ever actually do any real damage, not to my personal life or my social reputation. I'm literally coming out of this just as clean as I went in. Like shit you really could have tried to dig in on that "look what she said to this poor widdle baby" angle but you just went full retard sending me literal actual paragraphs saying the most basic of insults. Yeah wow there was really ever a chance people were going to seriously believe you, sure

It's just kinda. Yeah. I know I already said this but I can't get over, my end of this is opening my inbox and deleting shit and nothing more, i may answer stuff and discuss it but nothing is happening to me and im not "doing anything back". Meanwhile they were literally making blogs, maintaining covers, trying to stalk me, stalking my mutuals, found pictures of my family, were sending pictures of my family to other people.... but claim THEY made ME look stupid, that I'M entertaining for THEM. OK. I guess that's the level of genuine delusion you have to operate on to even start this shit to begin with

But uh yeah to finish your point I actually had a great day at work and got a good raise recently so I'm doing OK :) I've been uh, you know, working on drafts and maybe someday one of them will see the light haha. If I ever need a pick me up I can always tell myself, "at least I never did anything as stupid as THIS"

#like what were you even trying to do. it wasnt even annoying aftwr a while it was very easily dealt with #sorry this keeps coming back guys i just. i had to share them saying everything was a lie holy shit like everythijg everything #doxxingdrama