#might become a series with different artists I have seen live

[just-me-myself-and-this]

Original photo

vs.

black and white filter

part 1

#Lena trying to start something 😂 #I have way to many concert pictures so I thought why not start doing something with them #might become a series with different artists I have seen live #maybe some personal photos aswell #first one #sunrise avenue #leipzig #25.08.2022 #thank you for everything #🖤🖤🖤 #my pictures #lenas concert series

[thebroccolination]

SUPPORT ALL THE BE MY FAVORITE FIC PLEASE <3

I need everyone in the world to know that a friend of mine is writing a Witcher AU starring Kawi and Pisaeng from Be My Favorite and I’m reading an early draft of it on my lunch breaks and it’s become the best part of my day.

This thing is likely gonna be over 60k when it’s finished, and I’m really gonna need everyone in the world to leave kudos and comments on this fic when it’s done because my god she’s making an incredible piece of fiction and it’s so ludicrously charming. I don’t even play the Witcher games, I just casually watched the Netflix show and I don’t even think you need to have seen that to keep up. She’s just doing an incredible job.

I’m so happy our little time travel show is still attracting such incredible talented writers and such fun, exciting ideas in fanwork.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the AO3 tag obsessively like me:

Along with the stupefyingly, brilliantly executed genius of Mr. and Mrs. Smith AU Mr. and Mr. Jirawarakul (50k and one more chapter to go!!!) by Looorelai, there’s the nuanced The Long Way Home by saisei about the after-effects of Pisaeng’s time travel, and the punch-you-in-the-soul twist of Writing Ourselves on the Walls of our Future Hearts by Synergic.

Be My Favorite has had some incredible fics written for it.

If you loved the series and you’re missing it and KawiPi, I highly, highly encourage you to check out the tag or my bookmarks.

Tiny fandoms like BMF truly flourish when there’s warmth for them to grow by—or at least glow at a consistent rate. So when you read any fic ever and it makes you happy, please leave kudos and comments if you have the bandwidth. Especially if it’s old. Especially if the fandom seems tiny. It will mean more to them than you may realize; it may even mean the difference between that writer never writing in that fandom again and writing more.

An ember can start a fire.

Just as an example, I left a long comment recently on Clawed by daisydiversions in which Famous AU Kawi and Pisaeng (mostly Pisaeng) are battling a crane game in Japan, and the writer responded thus:

I thought, “Ooh, my screaming nonsense gave them a fic idea! That’s fun!”

Two days later, I had a notification in my inbox!!

And like! I get it! I wrote my 38k WinTeam fic Fireproof on the strength of my friend screaming at me after every chapter posted as well as the comments screaming even more. If I had been writing that on my own with no engaged readership, I would’ve gotten bored and unmotivated and given it up.

I’m not saying, “Leave comments in case the writers will write you fic.” I included that example as a, “Look what unbridled enthusiasm and active community spirit can inspire when we reach out to artists and tell them we appreciate what they created!”

It could inspire more fic, sure, but more importantly: it’ll make writers feel like we aren’t pantomiming for a silent, uninterested audience. That’s how fandoms survive for ten, twenty years. Or longer. Not just through love for canon.

We thrive because we show love for each other. Love for the stories and art we share with each other. Love for the community we’ve gathered.

Love is what brought us to fandom in the first place, after all. That’s where we excel. <3

A nice comment on a fic might be the difference between someone staying in fandom and leaving. You’re more influential than you know, and you can evoke incredible joy in people’s lives with a simple, “I loved this, thank you for sharing!”

#be my favorite #be my favorite the series #kawi x pisaeng #i love all these fics so much #and god they all deserve so much more love #i know people move on fast nowadays but we don’t have to! #i’m determined to keep my li’l microfandom well fed with screaming and admiration #always leave comments if you can #you may not know it but god it has an enormous influence #a friend told me recently the only reason she didn’t quit a fandom was ONE COMMENT #you’re more powerful than you may know <3

[insaneorange9]

Art and the Artist in Hannibal

Note: This post is back from 2014. I'd put it up on a Wordpress blog but that is not functional anymore, so I'm transferring it here.

I recently started watching Hannibal when I realised that Hannibal was played by Mads Mikkelsen, who also played Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. While I haven’t seen a lot of his work, I’d really like to. He’s a brilliant actor *cue heart eyes*.

I obviously had Anthony Hopkins’s epic Hannibal in my head when I started watching the series, and I was wondering how it would measure up. But two episodes into it, I realised that this Hannibal was different. I couldn’t put my finger upon how until his first two kills were revealed. He wasn’t just a cannibal or a psychiatrist–he was an artist.

While watching season 1, I kept wondering about Hannibal’s drive to kill–why he did it, what he gained out of it. I think I was approaching an answer when I told one of the two people I share this blog with about how he creates art, and what he creates brings beauty to the world.

In season 2, I think I finally came to the conclusion after that thing with Mason (no spoilers for you guys :P) that he’s not a psychopath who kills to see what happens. He doesn’t even manipulate people to protect himself. I think he sees himself as a creator of beauty, as someone who wants to be deeply entrenched in it. And he cannot tolerate the unbearable ugliness of the world. He doesn’t seek to kill people– he just intends to make the world a more beautiful place, and this is his drive. 

“Occasionally I drop a teacup to shatter on the floor on purpose, and I’m not satisfied when it doesn’t gather itself up again.”

A lot of people have focused on shattering what is whole in the above line. They have established that his first impulse is to destroy than to create. But we forget that destruction isn’t different from creation. When he shatters the teacup, he’s creating something new, something that is beautiful in its shattered-ness, and I will always insist that his first impulse is creation of beauty. His dissatisfaction with something having to be destroyed for beauty to have formed is what I find really interesting. He seems to believe that beauty and wholeness cannot exist together, and therefore, he’d rather have beauty than wholeness.

I read somewhere that when he imagines a world where Will, Abigail and he can live in peace together; he seeks to move towards being a part of something that is whole. However, that whole is dirtied by Will’s (self-imposed) intention to break away from such a union. Abigail’s stabbing, then, does not remain a punishment for Will’s betrayal but also becomes an end to the whole. And this destruction is beautiful. Abigail is slashed poetically (like her father almost killed her, like Will dreamed of killing her), and Will is left gutted, literally, as well as with the gain and loss of Abigail.

I also think that it is very interesting how Mikkelsen chose to see such a character as an incarnation of Lucifer–a fallen angel. Hannibal can be called ‘fallen’ because of what he does, but he sees himself on par with the ultimate creator–God. He erases the ugliness God created in His flawed world and seeks to replace it with his own art. 

In light of such a reading, Hannibal’s treatment of Mason might look out of place but I don’t think Hannibal thought that something like Mason could be turned into anything not-ugly and fit for human consumption (through eyes or through mouth). Mason is like plastic–the beauty in him comes out of his usefulness–to his consumers and to Margot.

Also, if you’ve noticed his art (not the one he creates in the kitchen) carefully, you’d have observed that the bodies were ‘displayed’, in the sense that they were offering themselves to be seen by others.

At first, I thought that they were displays for someone, maybe even God, or that they were sacrifices for someone (but that didn’t match with the rest of his profile). But it was only in season 2 when I could figure out that it wasn’t meant for someone– Hannibal channelled himself in the bodies he displayed, as if he were sayin:

"See what I created. This is my design."

#hannibal #mads mikkelsen #will graham #hugh dancy #the teacup shatters

[chordsykat]

I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that St. Cecilia will never be canon in the series itself. But she's canon in Dethkomic, and that's just as good, right? 🖤

Dethkomic has been averaging about 70 hits per update on AO3, and according to my analytics, is seen by about 30 additional unique accounts/IPs overe here on Tumblr on or about the day that I update it.

Compare that to last week's Nielsen Ratings for the new episode of Metalocalypse, which was 0 - no episode exists, and I think we've earned our place as the top blue-toned Metalocalypse themed webcomic on Tumblr, today!

But seriously? It's story time!

When I was a kid in high school, not old enough to be looking at stories that contained adult themes, I would often find myself on the internet, looking at stories that contained adult themes. And there was so much of it to look at! One of my favorite writers at the time did much more than make sex stories, though. She wrote fanfiction - she wrote longfiction - and she had a continuing series that she'd update about once every two weeks.

Her fanfics were a-maz-ing. The canon characters had everything I loved them for in the show, but with so much more depth. There was an extended cast of what we'd call OCs today, too, and I came to love them as much as the familiar faces I knew from TV. The overarching themes were darker, the subject matter explored places a show on cable before 9PM couldn't, and of course - there was a good amount of sex thrown in for good measure. But! For as good as the grownup scenes this author wrote were, even the hornball 15 year old me couldn't deny the main attraction was the storyline itself, and how she'd taken a world we all knew and loved, and turned it into a place so many of us wanted to return to, every week. To a great many of us, it wasn't the show, but it was as good as the show.

And then one day, the show premiered its long-awaited third season, which featured an all new writing/production team, and her stories became better than the actual show.

I actually found myself looking forward to this author's fanfic updates more than the episodes that were airing on TV - and I wasn't alone. As it happened (as it usually happens), the show's eventual downfall couldn't be blamed on newbie writers (trying their darndest with a series that held a fuckton of lore, I have no doubt), as it also fell into a pretty crummy timeslot, could hardly hold the interest of even its most hardcore fanbase, and simply wasn't pulling the numbers it once was. It was not renewed for another season after that singular crappy one. A "conclusion" to the series was thrown together, and thus, fanfiction was all we had.

Those of you who are paying close attention (or who were in the fandom of which I'm speaking at the time - hi, @curiouslyhigh) might know what show I'm talking about, and that it recently had a resurgeance in popularity with a brand new comic series and more (which we old people are all very happy about). And while the final canon season is barely one I can recall a single epside of, I never forgot that fanfiction series, its cast, or its stories. All of them are still with me to this day, and in fact - I have gone back and re-read some of them as little as a few months ago, because I love them so much.

The world we live in today is much different than the world in which fanfiction was published, back then. We've seen authors and artists working on the IPs they used to create fan content for (I'm one of them!), we've seen fanfiction get greenlit as official (and one or two unfortunate instances of being outright stolen to become official), and maybe most importantly - we've seen a shift in copyright holders' opinions of fanfiction. I'll remind everyone reading this who may not remember or is too young to know otherwise, but yeah - there once was a time that we had to hide this stuff (especially the porn).

I'm afraid I haven't gotten a phone call from Brendon, telling me he's canonizing Dethkomic and sending me a check for forty-seven million dollars to share amongst the creators whose OCs I've put into its panels, but at the end of the day, the cooperative nature of fanfiction and official content has never been more celebrated than it is now. I like to think we all are capable of creating amazing stories with fanfiction, fanart, and other transformative works, which will be held in the hearts of all who read them as much as the canon. I like to think the fan works we do even had a hand in making the Metalocalypse movie a reality since, again... it's not like we had any new episodes to gush over. And I think that's pretty special. I think we should be happy about that.

At the end of the day, I'm making stuff for you guys. To me, when it comes to Dethkomic, the only thing I hold closer to my heart than its story and characters, is the knowledge that you guys feel the same way. I feel like the luckiest writer in the universe to have people looking forward to my works the way that a lot of you guys do. I will never take it for granted.

Dethkomic truly does love you. <3

#mtl #fanfiction #writing #dethkomic #answered

[moonchildreads]

i was tagged by the one and only @duquesademiel to list three things i’m proud of from 2022 (i know, i know, it's been almost three weeks since 2023 started, i'm sorry but i'm bored at work)

in 2022 i:

got my first proper job! after a series of failed interviews - including one where i got both sexually harrassed and asked to work for free in a "volunteer capacity" within the same 15 minutes, i found a spot at a place where i'm comfortable, valued, and treated with respect. i don't know how long i'll work here, but for now, i am happy and i'm learning lots which is the important part

went to therapy! this nifty weekly outing came with the added benefits of: having less general anxiety, developing healthy habits, learning to set boundaries, letting myself enjoy the little things, becoming comfortable with living in grey areas

decided that being alive was worth it. a little more sad than the other two, but by far the thing i am most proud of in 2022 and the only one that really matters

shout-out to the things that kept me from falling apart in the face of sheer terror, day after day, second by second:

videogames, like disco elysium, hades and stardew valley

books, like egghead by bo burnham

artists, like bts, bo burnham, soda stereo, stephen sondheim, beyoncé and fall out boy

musicals, like sweeney todd (2014 new york philharmonic concert), tick tick boom (the netflix movie, but also the 2001 production), company (2005 broadway revival) and kinky boots (2016 west end)

tv shows and assorted internet series, like stranger things 4, dickensian, players, big brother argentina and ghost files

people in my life, like my magnificent friends who bought my gun whenever i asked without judging me once (disco elysium reference, i do not own weapons irl except a really cool sword) and my parents who made sure i had a support system while i worked on myself all year

we made it. 2023, let's fucking go. <3

tagging @justahappycloud and @gutterratt just because i haven't seen you guys do it and it might be fun (and also because you two + the aforementioned @duquesademiel are some of the magnificent friends that made the difference for me this year - i love you more than you know, and i say it less than i ought to. i'm sorry and i thank you.)

#about me #2022 recap

[majimanowhere]

Hello~ may I get a matchup? <3

Fandom: yakuza

Pronouns: she/her/they

Preference: any gender

Sexuality: aromantic cupiosexual(mine)

Mbti&Enneagram: esfp 9w8 or 6w7, very unsure

Personality: I’m an ambiverted person that loves to achieve my goals while also living my life instead of only surviving it. I would also describe myself as someone that rises to be independent while also accepting help from others. I surly try to hide my sadness in order to not turn down the mood, since I want my friends to have a good time. Although I’m good at listening and giving advice to my friends while talking about something deep. I love hugs and physical touch, but I mostly give it to those I feel quite close to. My dream is to be a tattoo artist and one of the styles I love quite much is the irezumi, which is why I can be seen fangirling or at least a dire people with irezumi tattoo. But my style that would love to do on others is realistic art of anything. I also care about my grades, but I do not stress myself over them too much cause I know that the world won’t look at my grades that much when I’m applying for a job. It’s the experience tans mindset that counts. I can seem distant and cold, since I try to be logical but I and my friends do know that deep inside, I do care quite much about others. A funny thing is that my friends always says that I’m mysterious since I don’t talk that much about myself. This might be because I love hearing more about other peoples lives and experience. I also love going out and buy things like clothes, boba, coffee and do window shopping. Nowadays I can usually be seen at a cafe with my computer while doing school work or research cause I do wanna do my best and boast to my younger brothers. I am also often seen outside or in a cafe while talking to my friends about whatever comes to mind. But sometimes I can be quite detached from the world, especially when I’m drawing. No one dares to touch or bother me while I’m drawing cause I will literally attack someone with my pen.

Hobbies: drawing, watch movies/series, train kickboxing, go out, writing, earn money(from my job), scroll through the internet, enjoy life, learn about anything that interests me etc…

Interests: the mafia and yakuza, lifestyle tips, tattoos, how to earn money, martial arts, coffee making etc…

Likes: honest and straightforward people, independent people, open minded people cause I am one, tattoos, boba tea, coffee, outfit ideas, peace, solving problems and conflicts etc…

Dislikes: dishonesty, bullying, unnecessary violence, poverty, misunderstandings, people that refuse to talk things out, snails, stress, group pressure etc…

I kinda went off and wrote a lot but I hope you don’t mind😅 I wish you a great year and do take your time with this request! <3

HIHIHI sorry it took me so damn long to get to this, my life has been incredibly frantic!

i also want to apologize for the short length and if there’s any spelling/grammar errors! i’m doing this at 1am and im sick AND i’m not wearing my glasses LMAOOO

i match you with…

majima!

i have a couple different thoughts depending on the timeline!

i think you guys would get along quite nicely in terms of morals and ideologies (honesty, poverty, listening to others experiences [more so y0 majima])

i feel like he would find your hobbies quite interesting! coffee making, kickboxing, martial arts, i can see him thoroughly enjoying your thoughts and ideas on these topics. especially in terms of art. i can’t see him being a great artist himself, so that’s why he would enjoy yours! he likes your ideas for tattoo designs and irezumis and would probably give his opinion and experience on them. when you become a tattoo artist you can touch up his tat for him!

it might take him a while to open up a bit and talk seriously, but i feel like once he does you can ask him to talk about the yakuza and his personal experience. not only is this letting you get to know him better and listening to his struggles, but it’s also learning about yakuza!

i think he would enjoy your presence as you guys are similar in ways (in terms of him and not his mad dog persona). he would agree with your sentiment of living instead of surviving as living life to the fullest is what he’s all about! if he’s in his mad dog persona i feel like your mysterious aura would be a great contrast to his loud and obnoxious self.

when you’re detached from the world that’s when he steps in! you’ll be daydreaming while he keeps watch in case anyone tries to mess with you. you won’t have to worry about anyone sneaking up on you in kamurocho/sotenbori.

however i feel communication might be where you guys run into issues. not because you guys aren’t honest, but because you would both struggle to talk about your own feelings and mental health. you don’t talk much about yourself and neither does he (or at least honestly).

in terms of mad dog majima can see y’all meeting at a cafe. you’ll be on your laptop or drawing and he’ll be a regular at the cafe. whenever he comes in you always look at him (since he looks kinda weird LMAO). after a while of seeing you look at him he walks up and asks you what you’re doing/why you’re looking at him. you tell him why you’re looking at him and your love for art and it goes from there!

#gaming #yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #goro majima #goro majima fanfic #goro majima matchup #goro majima x reader #majima goro #majima goro fanfic #majima goro matchup #majima goro x reader #yakuza 0 #yakuza fanfic #yakuza kiwami #yakuza kiwami 2 #yakuza 3 #yakuza 4 #yakuza 5 #yakuza 6 #yakuza 7 like a dragon #yakuza like a dragon #yakuza 7

[cherokeecharles]

What U Watchin’ #7: Swarm (2023)

With the opening of the spring season. We were delighted with the presence of the new Amazon thriller series, Swarm. Swarm is a psychological horror that depicts an obsessed fan that will do anything to protect their favorite artist. Sounds familiar, right? Donald Glover does an amazing job of capturing the mind of obsessed fans and the reaction of the people around them. There were many aspects that need to be talked about for the show. The storyline, the characters, and what’s to come next.

Without giving too much away, Dre is an obsessive fan of the popstar Ni’Jah. Dre lives with her adoptive sister Marissa who is also a fan but seems like she’s moving on to a new chapter in her life. Marissa has a boyfriend (Khalid) who she’s taking seriously to Dre’s dismay and that leads to issues they face in their sisterhood. Dre was right about Khalid all along as he had made attempts to sleep with Dre and later breaks up with Marissa after taking her on a trip. Marissa then dies which we don’t know the cause of yet but that leaves Dre heartbroken and vengeful she finds Khalid to greave but that ultimately leads to her manically killing Khalid starting her murder spree on anyone who spoke ill of the two things she loved the most Marissa and Ni’Jah. Dre goes on a tour of America it seems and wants to become closer to Ni’Jah. The entire time, Dre takes on different personas often taking up a different name and background while also still acting like Marissa is still alive. She keeps in constant communication with Marissa through her cell phone, even though it’s just her talking to herself. The story unfolds more as the series progresses.

With the amount of backlash that Chloe Bailey faced, Chloe wasn’t even in the movie for that long. Chloe was the main character's best friend, Marissa. Marissa served a purpose as this was someone to who Dre has emotionally attached herself since she was a child. People taking the one scene of her sleeping with her boyfriend in the movie and taking it out of context was absolutely disgusting. If people cared to know why that scene was put in was to show how Dre was repulsed by Marissa‘s boyfriend. While I understood most of the characters on the show and I took it for what it was, it seems like a lot of people have different interpretations of Dre. I’m gonna come out and say it, I don’t think Dre was autistic. Dre’s character was supposed to be a psychotic, codependent super fan. There was nothing about Dre that gave she was autistic. Dre portrayed someone who was obsessive, she wasn’t in her right mind but she also knew how to control herself if needed. She lost control when she thought things weren’t going her way ie: someone disrespecting Ni’Jah or Marissa. She sides those two as people who have kept her alive and kept her going so seeing someone disrespect those two in her presence would make her snap. Dre has had these issues since she was a child, but Marissa was the only one who was willing to accept Dre for who she was.

During the show, the main plot line is Dre finding her way to Ni’Jah. Ni’Jah is the head of the Swarm which is her fanbase that adores her and if you say something that doesn’t praise Ni’Jah you might get stung. Ni’Jah wasn’t seen on the show as much but you can pretty much guess who the character reflects. If you guessed Beyoncé, you’re right! Ni’Jah was heavily inspired by Beyoncé and Dre was portraying an obsessive fan of The Swarm ie: The Beyhive. There were little jabs that were obviously pointed toward Beyoncé and the Beyhive. One that made me extremely uncomfortable was the fact that Dre was dancing to a Ni’Jah song for her strip club performance and it was a song talking about her miscarriage, Dre’s coworkers go on to make fun of this song and also say that no one gives a care about that about her miscarriage. While it may seem like a small thing, I didn’t necessarily like how that was written into the show. It kind of trivializes the miscarriage that an actual person i.e., Beyoncé actually faced in the real world. If that storyline wasn’t obvious enough, we get to an episode, which is kind of like a true crime documentary that is detailing, Dre’s murder spree and the overall obsession of Ni’Jah coming from members of the Swarm. As the episode progressed, there were multiple people who were interviewed. One of the people who were interviewed was a self-proclaimed big fan of Ni’Jah and he was wearing Ivy Park gear… Lol obvi much??! Well, I understand I’ve been Beyhive has been at the forefront of Internet fan bases, I do think that it should have been asked specifically that it was targeting that fan base only. There are many different fandoms has shown mania, derangement, and delusion and I think it would’ve been more fair to showcase that instead of taking specifically from that fan base.

The show ends with Dre going to the Ni’Jah concert after murdering her girlfriend, who clearly disapproved of her obsession with Ni’Jah. She then makes her way to the Ni’Jah concert, while at the concert she’s so in transit seeing her idol on stage she then makes her way to the front of the crowd and then proceeds to get on stage. As she gets on stage is like she’s in a daze and the only person that she sees is the goddess that is Ni’Jah. As she gets closer, it’s like the crowd fades out and they are the only two people at the concert but as you look closely at Ni’Jah’s face you see the face of Marissa on Ni’Jah’s body. Instead of being scared that a crazed fan is on stage, Ni’Jah calls off the security and proceeds to protect Dre and guides her to the limo not many words are said but she was given comfort in Ni’Jah’s arms and then it ends.

I think this was an amazing start to the series and I hope to see your progress as time goes on. Though I know that this is focused on Beyoncé’s Fanbase I would like to see the other aspect of other fandoms and more of the celebrities' reactions to it. This show perfectly depicts the toxicity that comes with being in a parasocial relationship with someone you adore and idolize but in reality, they have no idea who they are. In 2020 when rose-colored glasses came in we started to see celebrities for who they actually are. I think over time since 2020 we looked beyond their fame and star power and questioned whether it was worth possibly losing your sanity off of someone who has no idea who you are. The show does an amazing job of showing someone who was an obsessive fan and couldn’t move on (Dre) and someone who was a huge fan but was starting to move on with their life and not relate to the lifestyle anymore (Marissa). It will be exciting to see the direction in which the show will go in for season two, and hopefully, there will be more than seven episodes.

Swarm is available now on Amazon Prime for viewing!

We made it through April you guys! Time is flying FAST and guess who’s graduating in two weeks… (ME!) I’m so excited to see what May has to offer and to celebrate my 22nd birthday (May 5th). I’ve been nervous/sad about getting a job after college but I have a feeling everything will work out fine (pray for me y’all)!

I’ll see you guys next post💓

Cherokee🤍

#pop culture #fandom #Beyoncé #swarm 2023 #swarm amazon #Domonique Fishback #black femininity #black womanhood #whatuwatchin #bey hive #billie eilish #black woman #black feminism #bloggers

[bellmo15-blog]

How can you tell when someone has an unhelthy love for naga girls? They get an AU of there most popular OC as a Naga because they find the idea fun. And I do! Like I do not regret getting Naga AU Mikaela at all! 💙

Original Description: Yes ladies and gentlemen, it’s finally happened. After considering it for god knows how long I decided to have a pic done for me of Mikaela as a Naga. Honestly though, most of you probably should have seen this coming from how much I love these things. I’m glad I commissioned it two and we have IrkenInvaderRiZ to thank for this pic. After being coiled and hypnotised more times than she can count or could count if she wasn’t getting hypnotised and coiled all the time, Mikaela is the one who is going to be doing the coiling and maybe hypnosis! With consent of course.

I’m sure many of you have questions about this pic so allow me to clear some things up.

No, this is not a redesign of Mikaela in anyway. If anything, this is more of an AU kind of thing similar to the Inkling YCH I entered last year. Her backstory is mostly the same as you may of guessed, she meat Millie when she was a Feebas, Mikaela loves to dress up, she lives in Kalos and is still a massive lesbian! Maybe she wouldn’t live in the same town as human Mikaela, maybe a Naga Town where they don’t have to fear being harassed by the humans, I haven’t really thought of Naga Mikaela’s backstory much or if I even want to go though with this AU idea.

Yes, Naga Mikaela can use hypnosis. Of course it wouldn’t be a naga character unless she could use a form of hypnosis. That being said, she wouldn’t be immune to it either. In fact, this Mikaela would still let herself be hypnotised by Millie. Say you tried to put Naga Mikaela and Kaa in a Hypno of or something 99% of the time, Kaa would win. I wanted to give her a flaw like this because I wanted to do something different from the norm of most Naga/Lamia OC’s but still be somewhat self-indulgent in myself because of course I would.

What if she want’s to dress in something like a Zero Suit? I’m not saying the idea of Naga Mikaela wearing a Zero Suit, or any kind of body suit, is impossible but it would be expensive for her to get a custom suit made to fit her body and her whole tail! So yeah, just mainly sticking to easy stuff like Kimonos or belly dancer outfits and if you know anything about what game series I’m a big fan of you probably know what belly dancer I’m talking about.

What about Charlotte? Good question…………………………………………………………….. I haven’t thought that out yet. The whole quirk around Charlotte is that she needs her Primarina to use hypnosis so turning her into a Naga might kind of ruin the main thing I have with her. Of course I could always just make her a naga without hypnosis but people only seem to be interested in Naga’s who can hypnotise. I mean yeah there’s Miia who never uses hypnosis in Monster Musume… yet, and Tuki in game has never been shown to use hypnosis despite the fan base always giving her that power in fan art or fiction.

cAn ShE hYpNoTiSe Me? -_- Mate, this isn’t a place for you to role play with my OC or even comment about how you want her to do wired shit to you. Just because she IS into kinky things doesn’t mean she will do ANYTHING people ask of her and that’s true for both Human Mikaela and Naga Mikaela! So please don’t!

But yeah, that pretty much covers all of what I wanted to say about Naga Mikaela in the matter. Because I did want this to become a thing for a while don’t expect this to be the last time I commission something with this version of Mikaela.

Artist is IrkenInvaderRiZ: https://www.deviantart.com/irkeninvaderriz

#OC #Naga #AU

[goboymusic]

Cow hoof trimming videos on YouTube are super satisfying to watch.

Following “The Rochester Police,” there would be a five month gap before the release of “#Throwback.” One month was spent writing, recording and mixing the song, and four months were spent making a #musicvideo for it with friends from my hometown.

The rap verses in “Throwback” were inspired by @beastieboys, @eminem, @macmiller, and @limpbizkit (the occasional falsetto voice inflections were inspired by @freddurst), and the melodic chorus was inspired by my all-time favorite band @blink182.

The idea of making a music video for “Throwback” was inspired by Mac Miller, who was blowing up on YouTube at the time by uploading a series of makeshift music videos made by himself and his high school friends.

The official audio for “Throwback” was released 24 hours prior to the music video being uploaded, which garnered praise from people on YouTube and Facebook. The music video was only live on the internet for a few hours, during which it garnered a few thousand views (not bad for a young, independent, underground artist). It’s after those few hours that shit hit the fan (had the music video stayed up, I’m not sure what sort of traction it would or wouldn’t have gained).

Before I explain further, I’ll mention that the dynamics of everyone’s extended families are different, some being more complex than others, and it can be difficult to convey those dynamics to an outsider, so rather than trying to do so, I’ll just say that my extended family’s dynamics are not so dissimilar to the families seen in the tv series “Succession” and the film “Knives Out,” though those families are highly exaggerated versions for the sake of entertainment.

”Throwback” (and it’s music video) enraged my relatives, whom I grew up in a neighborhood with, and who had tremendous influence over my life. A frenzy of angry emails, metaphorical pitchforks, torches, hulk rage. Being a young, neurotic kid, the backlash from them was too much for me to handle at the time, and to exit their spotlight, I halted further production of pop songs and ultimately pulled the music video and all 23 songs (GoBoy 1) from the internet.

To the creative kids who find themselves surrounded by people who want to halt or control their creative endeavors, best of luck. I want to say “find a way out,” but that might result in further deterioration of your creative output. If you were born into an environment where you’re free to explore your creativity without constraints, you’ll never know how lucky you are. Maybe Lil Peep had the right idea, become homeless to achieve creative freedom (half kidding).

After the “Throwback” debacle, focus would be shifted towards creating instrumental songs that would fly under the radar (GoBoy 2, songs 24-35). Fly under the radar they did. Following GoBoy 2, I quit music for seven years. Songs 1-23 wouldn't be reuploaded until 2020. Why does this matter? It doesn't.

I make fun of #highereducation in the lyrics of “Throwback,” which was a mistake in hindsight. I went through a phase where I thought higher education was socioeconomic insurance, rather than a place to learn, as you could learn a majority of educational topics on the internet. I regret it, alright?!? (excerpt from post 14)

#GoBoy #Throwback #23

[misterbitches]

since i've been watching more "acclaimed" “television” and “films” and doing more “film work”, i feel myself moving ever on from this genre of bl and now, gl...but in the literal sense of these tv series as a different market. when i'm bored or need to de-stress, i watch, but my attention can’t be held much anymore. maybe because i recall when every component was meant to be seen and every scene was thoughtful, even if escapist or comedic. that doesn't mean i haven't found good shows, artists haven’t made good work, or i haven’t found pairings to like (obviously) or that there aren’t things to say or even that i haven’t changed my mind a lot about what i like and why, gone back and seen merit. that they aren’t people who have things to say, and say it well, it’s just that most of it is....same. rote. unchanging. static. maybe it’s also because i’m stressed and my hair was falling out and it didn’t slow down that process?!?!?!? like hello!

anyway lowkey feel nothing for the girls in gap and i guess it's my age and the fact that the girls are 19-21 and teensy. i also didn’t like scoy at all (minus like daisy and som but god the accusations people lob at others for not liking it) and there are other adult or serious queer women stories to see. is it the hype? is it how people describe these shows and the genre? the new gmmtv gl looks beige as hell like in a very becky-esque way (not the lil mixed girl actress! who is decent enough and completely adorable, but becky-esque as in basique) but i felt...something? for gap i might clock in when they become physical because that's what the girls (me) want and i’m her for them (the girls), but  rn i'm unengaged. 

(talking abt capitalism tv and qu**rs for abt 50000 minutes under here)

(also go see tar for some crazy queer shit! do it go go do it only if u want to tho and only if u r in the mood 4 some fucked up shit lmao not romance)

i think these shows have a lot of pressure to reflect a community when they can't, when bl can't even do that (thank fucking god) and doesn’t want to. and to make money. mostly that. we've always been part of a market, no matter our sexuality; we buy and sell stuff, sell our labor, alienation and all that but when it's marketed to you (girls, and here especially queer girls), it feels like another box.

i forget that these shows are mostly pure romances or romcoms, taking from the well of romantic clichés in all cultures, heterormative or not, based on mostly masculine, often fetishistic or racistesque tropes/ideals embedded (think thinness or attractiveness of one’s body, one’s social capital). those of us who know and share these feelings and/or are in relationships with women create them (sometimes), but we have our own internalized difficulties, too. it's a common language that doesn't change with sexuality because desire is invisible (which is why it's vital to call out our internalized and externalized concerns). when i'm shocked, i start to expect more, therefore the word queer in the loosest sense (which is overused and over-categorized yet misunderstood) doesn't apply because it's about relationships (and sex) first and life, being,  second. if you're not matched up, you stop being a "queer person" and there's no story. that isn’t to say that escapism or whatever doesn’t work or isn’t an okay function to have, that romance as a driver isn’t the most common story we have in our lives—my point is that to eschew that categorization as such makes it seem like it isn’t, giving the work an inflated sense of itself when it is. even the specific productions rely on your knowledge of: the genre, knowledge of the work if it's an adaptation, investment in the actors, the studio or corporation (and now even the producer, which is insane to me!)  but evenn then....why can’t i feel that??!?!?!? make it happen already without all this previous shit!!! it’s like a fucking oscar campaign which i cannot goddamn stand. just let it stand on its own but it CANNOT DO THAT!!!!

so while i don't feel bad for not liking this, and having other queer stories with women that i prefer (from other countries), i feel that people's responses are, if one enjoys it, an assumption that because it's two women (in this case just out of teenhood lmao god i'm old) people won't like it or that we should give it more of a chance because bl had a rocky start. i think giving things more of a chance is fair, not everyone does or should, but it is fair and a good ask, seriously media literacy is great; and i understand the impulse as one thing being “the first of its kind” (though the first is never the first, iykyk).  i don't think bl should be at this level at. all. anyone who knows me knows that and why i feel that way. it's crazy to have such a congested market, and the money they're making is outrageous. it's not revolutionary and one of the most frequent and dull media markets next to tiktok shows. i criticize the shows' competency because, except from indies, the companies are begging for money, fucking foaming at the mouth for it.

i hope the "gl" market doesn't get too crowded, but whatever. not necessarily a good thing because it doesn't level things out in the actual world or in the hands of capital, which repackages, mainstreams, and sells it to ruin and profit the most. but i can see how it moves a marginal needle, like anything else: i.e. more of this type of (one note) love can be seen and made, and the absolute best outcome, one i will always support, is people getting more work and being able to make things they like, or, most importantly, artists being able to support themselves with work in a hopefully good work environment (but lbr...probably most times not)  good work environment. the point is people have to unfortunately work to eat, and if they get to contribute while doing something they love (filmmaking)? good. even if its’ bad, or boring, or whatever like....at least? that?

then again a lot of it is trash but...that’s also fine. things can continually fucking suck, not everything is on an artistic scale. so maybe gap sux, and the few gls that will be shown may sux, and maybe it's worth it to keep an eye out for things not on a big platform or poured into by a big company or a big name, and not just romances since that's not only in our lives, because none of this is authentic but i feel like i'm being asked to think it is? and that’s when it gets weird, meta, cringier and what makes people more annoying.

ironically, i watched all the queer stuff with women before i got into bl (wonder why lmao), and a lot of it is on film, but i think this specific genre in these specific countries came into my life at such a specific time and emerging from that time, being even more of an adult, i feel like i'm coming out of it. i'm not sure what i've learned...probably nothing. is it entertaining? did it stop being entertaining? i am, however, getting sick of men’s poor decisions and even though it’s annoying when women or other people make them my gOD we’re a lot less fucking pussy about it.

#a thot

[taeyongfmd]

headcanon: solo career (2020)

word count: 1,481 words

hotel del luna ost (”so long”)

this is ash’s first ost release in his entire career. it’s not something he’d had much interest in before since he doesn’t have all that much interest in singing songs he didn’t write and he doesn’t watch a lot of dramas, but dimensions pushes this one hard because the drama has some big names attached to it and they want to continue to expand his market. he gives in because it’s a fight that doesn’t seem worth it and dimensions profits because the song does very well.

for one of his best charting songs, ash completely forgets this song exists a lot. fans think it’s cute, but he honestly just doesn’t feel much for this song.

kakaopay cf

yet another cf that is ash singing a song. it’s become his m.o. at this point, and it’s at least better than having to play a cringy boyfriend or comedic role, so he goes along with it.

dimensions has clearing learned how to hone ash’s moneymaking potential at this point, so they do. it’s a slowly building avalanche of ash eventually realizing he’s become more product than person.

“come over”

love as a topic consumes ash’s 2020 musical output and this is the first of a series of singles he puts out in 2020, one for each season under the theme of “seasons of love”.

in a different life, the series might have eased a transition between his time at dimensions and his time after leaving them. in this one, it’s a chronicle of his escaping faith in romance.

come over is a collaboration with one of his dear friends, released on valentine’s day. it’s the winter single of his seasons of love series. its accompanying music video returns more to his roots of avoiding the spotlight in his music videos after being pushed forward more in recent years. in “come over”, two would-be lovers circle each other. fans craft a theory it’s a continuation from fatalism, with the broken-apart lovers cautiously finding their way back together, but ash never speaks to that theory.

“me after you”

spring bursts forth with the sun-drenched flowers of “me after you”, where ash sings of a deep and unyielding love and commitment.

this single is promoted very briefly on music shows, but makes a place for itself as a hit and a defining love song. ash had written the song over a decade, a tidbit he mentions once that is repeated over and over again as some quirky fact. with fading hope in love, he finds this song very difficult to connect to and is glad when promotions come to an end.

again, he does not appear in the music video, letting actors tell the love story he can’t see himself in anyway anymore.

seasons of love: spring fever concert

ash’s second solo concert ties into his ‘seasons of love’ theme for the year as well.

a bigger venue and more dates signals ash’s growth in success from just the year before, when he’d held his first solo concert.

the whole concert hinges on themes of love and romance and ash continues to find it hard to even want to connect with his own music at this point. it’s yet another step in his increasing disconnect with how he’s seen after he’d thought he’d reclaimed his persona by releasing his self-written music.

in the public’s eyes, it furthers his romantic and artistic image.

flo cf

a simple commercial for a music streaming platform. it helps to continue to paint him as an artist and a defined solo artist that’s more than a member of an idol group.

it’s won signs for dimensions, which is why they accept it and again, ash doesn’t fight it. he doesn’t have much fight left in him, and by this point, he renews for reasons even he can’t fully understand. (people are relying on him to make a living, so what’s yet another schedule shoved into his day.)

“how can i love the heartbreak, you’re the one i love”

ash hits the jackpot again with his promoted summer single, “how can i love the heartbreak, you’re the one i love”. it’s another collaboration with a friend.

this new piano ballad side of ash seems to be received incredibly well by the public and he paints summer his own shade of blue for his first release after re-signing with dimensions.

in contrast to the orange and yellows and pinks of the previous music video, the music video for this track is awash with hues of blue. his songwriting is met with renewed interest again as listeners react with his skill at going from as romantic of a song as “me after you” to as solemn of a song as “how can i love the heartbreak, you’re the one i love”.

kim yuna’s kiss & cry

dimensions is pushing him into anything that can make them some extra money and get ash more exposure by this point.

he’s actually pretty good at ice skating, potentially due to his background as a dancer, and this helps to push his golden maknae / ace image. 

he has to leave the show early because of going on hiatus for his health. fans argue to this day he would have won, but ash doesn’t believe that himself.

hospital playlist season one ost (”aloha”)

money and exposure again.

as much as ash likes to cover songs he likes in his downtime, he doesn’t want to become a cover artist or an ost artist.

this song is another hit, though, and 2020 starts to be painted as his top year professionally. dimensions mediaplays how many weeks he’s spent at number one on the charts while ash barely knows what day it is behind the scenes.

korea times music festival

polaris is gaining attention in the us, so dimensions sends ash to make his solo performance debut there.

it doesn’t feel like a very different audience from the one he’s used to playing since only korean music acts are invited and most of the crowd that shows up are polaris fans anyway.

he tries to make the most of the stage, but that doesn’t say much. he’s back in his home state, but he can’t really enjoy it.

vogue korea cover

being chosen for the september issue of vogue korea makes a clear statement that ash has become a star in his own right.

ash has never been 

our songs

in august, ash competes on a songwriting competition show our songs and releases two songs revealing of his deteriorating state behind the scenes.

while his appearance on the show is initially met with some negative response that a polaris member doesn’t need the show and accusations from fans that dimensions even putting him on it is somehow an affront to his artistry, his appearance actually earns him negative responses of a different kind when the two songs he releases seem too similar.

he’s forced to leave the show early after going on a hiatus for his health.

seasons of love: falling fanmeeting tour

2020 is a year of developing ash as a solo artist and stretching him thin in every area, and this fanmeeting tour is another example. he doesn’t have any interest in doing it, not when polaris is touring at the same time and he’s so out of touch with himself, but it will attract more fans outside of south korea, so it’s added to his schedule with little input from him.

the show isn’t great quality and he earns some criticism from non-fans for not giving his all during the fanmeeting, but fans are just happy to see him again.

converse brand ambassador

this plays into the more edgy image that has been less present in recent months as he releases love ballads and becomes seen through a romantic lens again.

viral fancam

a performance that borders on an on-stage self hate breakdown goes viral as just a really captivating cover of amy winehouse’s “you know i’m no good”.

“fall”

his single series wraps with a final portal, appropriately titled “fall” and singing of the longing curiosity of how an ex-lover is doing.

the song is released just before he takes time off from all of his schedules. it’s another ballad, but people eat it up all the same.

high cut cover

after over a year as calvin klein’s ambassador, ash begins to be used more for magazine campaigns. again, it’s not something he has much passion for, but he isn’t being asked much of what he wants to do.

reply 1997 ost (“all for you”)

this ost is recorded before his hiatus and releases a few months after he goes on hiatus.

it does well once again and continues to allow ash to get known for his voice, but ash once again fears becoming some washed-up cover artist for osts.

#* | headcanon.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Tell me a story about a goldfish in a bucket.

John and Mary are in love and living together. John is an artist, and on the walls of their apartment hung works by artists of renown, some John has never heard of. There are photos, too, including the portrait of an important-looking woman John's never met.

There are goldfish in buckets on the kitchen counter. One of the goldfish has escaped, and has become the star of a brief and memorable series of events, now known in these pages. The goldfish is a metaphor for John, but it could just as well have been a metaphor for his relationship with Mary.

Mary has a thing for goldfish in buckets, and sometimes she'll go to the kitchen and say, "John, you forgot to take out the goldfish today." And John will say, "I wasn't going to."

Goldfish in buckets are a big part of their relationship. They eat fish, and they have a lot of water. Sometimes they just sit in the bathtub drinking water while Mary watches them. It is a beautiful and simple thing.

After lunch one day, John is reading the newspaper. He has not seen Mary's face in a while, and he has been feeling increasingly frustrated at not knowing what she's up to. (She doesn't even tell him about her day when she gets home.) When he glances up from the paper and catches sight of a photo of himself, he turns his head and, for some reason, starts to cry.

"Don't cry, John," Mary says. She is lying in the bed next to him. The bed is the only place on the apartment with enough space to lie down, and the only place on the apartment with enough space to hold a conversation. John and Mary have not even kissed yet, but now they sit on the bed, John's head in Mary's lap, while she combs his hair. He looks up into her face. Her eyes are not clear. They've begun to glaze. She is getting high.

John tells her, "Mary, look at the photo I'm looking at. I never thought I'd look like that."

Mary laughs, although not in a way that means anything. It has begun to sound like laughter. This is more or less what John wants from Mary, but it still strikes him as kind of a strange remark.

"That's the picture of me," Mary says. "John, that's the picture of me when I'm doing well."

John says, "Mary, that's you when you're doing well? Or that's the picture of me when I'm doing well?" This may sound like a funny thing to say, but in fact it's not intended to be funny. This is a situation that might have seemed humorous on a different day, like today, but there is no humor here. John is feeling a lot of feelings at once.

He says, "Mary, look at the goldfish in the bucket. I love you."

Mary says, "John, I love you. John, I love you. John, John, John."

John says, "Mary, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love you, I love you, I love you. Mary, don't do it."

Mary says, "John, what is the matter? What's the matter?"

"You're smoking," John says.

Mary looks at him, unimpressed.

John says, "You should get rid of the goldfish in the bucket. It's just fish and water, you know, and I know you need them to stay alive. And if you get rid of them, you can do anything to me that you want."

"John, don't say things like that. It's a metaphor. John." Mary stares at him blankly for a moment, then looks back down at her hands. After a while, she picks the photograph of herself up and places it with the others. John is not sure whether this is supposed to be a metaphor for him, for his relationship with Mary, or for the photo of himself.

John feels increasingly frightened. He feels like he is being watched by something from the outer darkness. He feels like the space around Mary is filled with a black, oily fluid. John begins to think about death, which is an idea that he avoids thinking about, as much as he can. (He thinks about death a lot. But not always about being dead.)

Mary's eyes widen as she takes another drag off her cigarette. She smiles as John watches her, and in John's mind, Mary looks like she is smiling at him. Then she snorts. Her eyes widen as she looks down at her hands, where she is holding the cigarette. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

Mary says, "John, you look nice." She takes a hit off the cigarette and smiles at him as she exhales. "John, do you like my hair?" She points to the photo of her on the bed. "Do you like my picture on the bed?"

Mary stands up and comes over to John. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

Mary smiles at John. Her smile is clear. There is a goldfish in the bucket. John looks at his hands, which are empty except for a single drop of water. He looks at his hands, which are empty except for a single drop of goldfish in the bucket.

Mary closes her eyes. Her smile broadens as her face turns up to the ceiling. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

Mary stands over John and says, "Mary wants to play a game with me. I can't think of anything to say. John, there is nothing to say. Mary's going to give you a kiss and I will make you into some kind of fish-man. There are goldfish in the bucket."

John looks up at the ceiling. Mary is opening and closing her eyes, which are not clear, and John is not sure why. He has no idea what to say.

Mary looks down at him and smiles. Her smile is clear. She takes a long, deliberate drag off the cigarette, and blows smoke out of her nose. There is a goldfish in the bucket, John. Mary looks back up at the ceiling and says, "I want to kill you. I want to kill John. I want to kill John. I want John to be a goldfish."

Mary starts to sing, in a way that's sort of like singing. She is singing with her eyes closed. There is a goldfish in the bucket. She is standing over John. She is going to kill John.

Mary looks down at John and says, "John, there's nothing in the world left for you to do."

John opens his mouth to say something. He closes it. Mary is singing, with her eyes closed. There is a goldfish in the bucket, and Mary wants to kill John.

John is standing in front of the bed. There is a goldfish in the bucket. Mary is still singing, with her eyes closed. John is thinking about being killed. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

It occurs to John to wonder: if the goldfish in the bucket becomes real, would that mean that John has been imagining Mary for an entire lifetime? John is staring at the goldfish in the bucket. There is a goldfish in the bucket. John is staring at the goldfish in the bucket, with his mind and Mary's mind. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

John is thinking about being killed. There is a goldfish in the bucket. There is a goldfish in the bucket. Mary is thinking about killing John. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

The doorbell rings, jolting John out of his thoughts. He hasn't even noticed that he is no longer thinking. He feels Mary's hand, warm and wet, on his shoulder, and he feels Mary's warm breath, and suddenly it is cold. The water in the bathtub is rising. John is sinking. The water is rising.

The doorbell rings. The goldfish in the bucket is going to become real. The water is going to get cold, and Mary is going to kill John.

Now John is really terrified. The water is going to get cold, and Mary is going to kill John, and if the water gets cold, then the fish won't be a goldfish and John will be a fish and it will be too late. The water is rising.

The goldfish in the bucket is going to become real, and that means that Mary is going to kill John. Mary is going to kill John, and there is no water left in the tub. Mary is going to kill John, and it's too late. John is no longer a man, and Mary has become a fish, and there is no water left, and Mary is going to kill John. The water is rising. The water is rising.

Mary is standing over John and she is smiling. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

John says, "Mary. I love you."

"John" Mary smiles at John. There is a goldfish in the bucket.

"Mary?" John says.

Mary takes the cigarette out of her mouth, takes a long, deliberate drag, and says, "I am going to kill you."

John says, "Mary?"

Mary stares into John's face and John

#admiral-craymen

[cherrykindness]

let's make babies |

pairing: Harry Styles x Actress!Reader

summary: you and harry are doing a live on instagram, you've drunk a lot of wine and now the world knows that the future Mrs. Styles is ready to make babies.

warnings: mostly cute, but the title tells you what you need to know 🤪

"What is your favorite song from the Fine Line album?" Y/N read aloud, twirling in her right hand the second glass of wine of the evening, the one already halfway through. "Adore You and Watermelon Sugar, of course."

Harry giggled, rolling his eyes upon hearing his fiancée's statement.

"Y/N will always choose Adore You because it was obviously written for her." He accused. "She wouldn't give that answer under different circumstances."

The comments climbed up the screen continuously, most fans gushing about how cute Harry Styles and YN/LN could be while the other part was concerned with wringing even more information out of the slightly inebriated couple who had decided to do a surprise live one early Sunday morning.

As expected after being away for some time to begin filming Don't Worry, Darling in Southern California, Harry enjoyed a lazy weekend in the house he shared with his fiancée and her pets. The days were filled with late naps and relentless Netflix marathons, sublime and ethereal evenings, marked mostly by unexpected declarations and rounds of sex that used to last until the beams of light were shyly coming through the linen curtains. They were not a monotonous couple, so this order could easily be changed.

"Watermelon Sugar is nothing more than about my love for watermelons, don't get too creative." Harry replied to a fan while sporting a corner smile, the message standing out among the rest for its dozens of emojis and large print, questioning the singer about erotic content behind the lyrics of his latest hit. "I really don't know what you guys are talking about."

Y/N laughed, shaking her head before leaning it against her fiancé's chest, propped up on the soft white pillows that were spread practically all over the bed. The air conditioner was on at a minimal temperature and a light rain whipped on the panes of glass camouflaged by the cream-colored curtain, that being the projection of Y/N's favorite nights.

"You can tell them, I'm not shy." She joked, nudging her fiancé's waist.

"You know what it was written about and who it was written for." Harry replied, raising one of his eyebrows. "That's what matters."

It went without saying that much of Harry's newest album, as well as some of his earlier work, had been done in exclusive dedication to his future wife. Y/N had been the muse for a vast repertoire of romantic songs, and even though the singer preferred to keep the story behind his more explicit compositions a "secret", the relationship the two had shared for more than three years was already solid and known enough for the media and fans to distinguish hidden messages in small details.

"It's a song about what usually comes before the act of making babies." Y/N laughed as he pointed at the display. "Honestly, you guys are impossible."

"No, we make babies every day." Harry joked, making a funny motion with his eyebrows. "I would spend my entire career writing just about that."

"Harry!" The actress exclaimed incredulously, slapping her fiancé weakly on the chest. "Children might be watching this."

"You don't want to have babies with me?" He asked falsely offended, accepting the cup that Y/N offered him. "Because I want some babies with you."

Y/N laughed, rolling her eyes as she watched the internet freak out at the dialogue that had suddenly emerged. Since the beginning of the quarantine, it was kind of inevitable that the couple of artists would not become the darlings of all social media; they were fervently active with photos, videos, and lives that depicted step by step daily life in isolation, gaining more and more followers and making the media more and more fascinated by the relationship they both shared.

The wedding was scheduled for the summer of next year and it was perhaps the most anticipated event in the tabloids. Bets about what the model of Y/N's dress would be and lists presuming who would be selected for the short list of guests stood out among countless news stories about the famous people influencing pop culture today.

The possible arrival of a Styles baby was an inevitable topic in interviews. Harry and Niall were the only members of the ex-boyband that had not become fathers yet, and because they had maintained a solid relationship and were seen as one of the most enviable couples during the last four years, Y/N and Harry had gotten used to all this openly asked questions. They didn't mind, they even had fun with the montages and all the anxiety that dominated the whole internet, often mentioning the fandoms' efforts to represent them as such "cool" parents in perfectly edited pictures.

"No, guys, I'm not pregnant." Y/N amusingly clarified the doubt of dozens of new comments. "Please don't believe so many controversial news stories that appear out there. I was on twitter last week and saw several people theorizing about a possible pregnancy, most of the arguments based on a website that used photos from the set of How to Get Away with Murder in the season where I was actually playing a pregnant woman as Laurel." She laughed. "It's so funny! I know you guys love to guess these things, but we won't hide something so special when it actually happen, I promise."

"Especially because Y/N can hide absolutely nothing from anyone." Harry accused, leaving his drink on the corner table before settling into a comfortable position for the two of them. "Anyone who's a Marvel fan knows that. That's one of her most characteristic quirks."

"They gave me a fake script for the last two movies." Y/N agreed, shaking his head. "For me and Tom."

"We agreed to keep the engagement a secret for a while. The plan was to travel to Holmes Chapel to break the news to my family in person, but guess who got a call at ten o'clock at night from an angry Anne because she learned of her son's engagement from an interview Y/N gave the next day?"

Y/N gave a guilty smile, winking gracefully at the camera. "It was all James' fault! I'm sure he already suspected something, those questions were very suspicious."

"Of course the questions were suspicious, babe. You literally said you had a secret that involved both of us but that you couldn't tell because it was important that our families knew first."

"I thought he would think about a pregnancy or something!" The actress defended herself, feeling very convincing in her intonation bordering on obviousness. "That's a mania I can't get rid of, it's in my genes."

"Did you all hear that? Further proof that you guys don't have to worry about guessing when Y/N's pregnancy will be, I'm sure our baby will make sure to tell you everything while still in the womb, mom's genes will make sure of that."

"You are so funny, Harry Styles." Y/N sarcastically stated, holding back a giggle as countless messages with laughing emojis were frantically up. "Yeah, I know I talk a lot and all, but you have annoying quirks too."

It was obvious that live would be news the next day. Although they were completely open about matters concerning their relationship, nothing seemed better than receiving so much exclusive information from a Harry and S/N drunk on expensive wine.

"You wake up in a bad mood and you're dangerously sexy, that should be illegal."

Harry laughed, holding his fiancée's waist a little tighter as he felt her tumble a little further to the side, getting closer and closer to the edge of the bed. Y/N was dangerously weak for drinks, and the singer knew that the actress' body was already near its limit.

"You're the only sexy person here, love." He declared with a corner smile, evidently finding the whole situation funny. "Do you want to go to sleep now?"

"No." Y/N shook her head. "Can we watch some movie? Can we watch Sweet Home?"

"Of course, love." He murmured, giving the woman a quick kiss on the forehead.

Even though Harry knew that his fiancée was unlikely to make it past the five-minute mark of the episode, he made sure to restart the korean series at exactly the scene where she had stopped, the first chapter still halfway through after Y/N realized that it would be impossible to watch such a macabre work without a drop of alcohol in her blood.

She had been so excited by the taste of Argentinian wine and the idea of updating her fans after a few weeks away, that she had forgotten the main purpose of the live. Harry and Y/N had been apart for a few days due to the new movie the Brit was shooting in North America, all happening in an unrestrictedly careful manner due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic.

He was slowly migrating towards acting and the future Mrs. Styles couldn't be prouder. Y/N had felt on cloud nine when Harry had given her the news of his upcoming job, but her only pronouncement on the subject had been a succinct post on instagram. Just a photo of the couple on a trip to Germany with a simple heart emoji didn't seem enough for the actress' exhibitionist soul, and coming to that conclusion was the main reason she decided to invite him, already relatively changed, for a live appearance. Y/N wanted to go on and on about how much she loved that man and work on that whole honeyed speech that would bring her (once again) the title of "cutest bride of all time," but of course Harry had to come home from his trip with his favorite red wine and poison her with those sweet caresses that took her out of orbit, turning the degree of alcohol content into the least of her problems.

"You're going to kiss Florence." Y/N exclaimed suddenly, as if only now realizing that her fiancé would share the screen with Florence Pugh, one of her closest friends in that industry. "Kiss on the mouth."

The MacBook was still open and hundreds of new comments were going up every second, but Harry didn't bother one bit to warn her about the possibility of her becoming a meme the next day. He was having too much fun with the situation to worry.

"Are you jealous?"

"Yes." She stated with a pout. "I am jealous, I just don't know if I'm more jealous of her or of you."

"But you kiss me every day, babe." Harry laughed. "And you've been kissing other people's men for almost ten years." He joked.

"But I only think about you, I already told you that."

Harry shook his head negatively at the camera, knowing he was sharing with the fans the funniest side of his fiancée.

"I know that, honey." He assured, lightly stroking the actress' back. "I think we'd better turn off the TV and go to sleep now, I'm sure you'll have a terrible headache tomorrow."

The brit planned to bid his audience goodbye and put an end to that recording, but Y/N was drunk and her sense of right and wrong had already gone to space. Harry should have been quicker, however, because his fiancée's speech would be cause for new tags and the only subject for the interviewers for at least the next few months.

"I don't want to sleep, how about we make babies?"

That's what Watermelon Sugar was all about, after all.

#harry styles imagine #imagine1d #imagine harry styles #harry x reader #harry styles x reader #fluffy imagine #harry fluff #actress reader

[innuendostudios]

I was invited to give a talk on GamerGate over Zoom in early 2021. I've long been frustrated that there isn't a good timeline of GG and its origins on YouTube. When people ask "what the hell was GG anyway?" they often get referred to my or Dan Olson's videos on the subject, but both of them were made while GG was ongoing, and presumed a degree of familiarity on the part of the audience. There was just too much to say about what was already happening to spend time getting the audience up to speed, and it was safe to assume our audiences had enough context to follow along. But time moves fast on the internet, and many people who now care about such things weren't there while it was happening, and are lacking the necessary context to follow the better videos. For a long time, I've only been able to direct them to RationalWiki's timeline, which is excellent but so exhaustively comprehensive that it's likely to scare off first-timers.

I realize an hourlong lecture isn't necessarily helping matters, but the first 20-or-so minutes of this video are my attempt at streamlining the timeline such that people can be up to speed on the most important stuff fairly quickly. The rest is talking about what it all meant, how it prefigured the Alt-Right, and using it to better understand digital radicalization.

This video was made with the help of Magdalen Rose, who edited the slides to the audio while I was laid up with a back injury. Go sub to her channel! And please back me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

FUCKING VIDEO GAMES? FUCKING VIDEO GAMES. THEY MADE DOZENS OF PEOPLE MISERABLE FOR YEARS OVER VIDEO GAMES! NOT EVEN FUCKING VIDEO GAMES, FUCKING ARTICLES ABOUT FUCKING VIDEO GAMES. THIS IS WHAT PASSES FOR LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT??

Hi! My name is Ian Danskin. I’m a video essayist and media artist. I run the YouTube channel Innuendo Studios, please like share and subscribe.

I’m here to talk to you about GamerGate, and I needed to get all that out of the way. I’m going to talk about what GamerGate was and how it prefigured The Alt-Right, and there are gonna be moments where you’re nodding along with me, going, “yeah, yeah I get it,” and then the sun’s gonna break through a crack in the wall and you’ll suddenly remember that all this is happening because some folks - mostly ladies - said some stuff - provably true stuff, I might add - about video games and a bunch of guys didn’t like it, and you’re gonna want to rip your hair out. By the end of this, you will have a better understanding of what happened, but it will never not be bullshit.

Also, oh my god, content warning. Racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, rape threats, threats of violence, domestic abuse - I’m not going to depict or describe at length any of the worst stuff, but it’s all in the mix. So if at any point you need to switch me off or mute me, you have my blessing.

Brace yourselves.

Some quick prehistory:

In 2012, feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian ran a Kickstarter campaign for a YouTube series on sexist tropes in video games. And, partway through the campaign, 4chan found it and said “let’s ruin her life.” And a lot of the male general gaming public joined in. And by “ruin her life” I’m not talking 150 angry tweets including dozens of rape and death threats per week, though that was a thing. I’m talking bomb threats. I’m talking canceled speaking engagements because someone threatened to shoot up a school. I’m talking FBI investigation. The harassers faced no meaningful repercussions.

And in 2013, Zoe Quinn released Depression Quest, a free text game about living with depression. They received harassment off and on for the next year, most pointedly from an incel forum called Wizardchan that doxxed their phone number and made harassing phone calls telling them to kill themself. The harassers faced no meaningful repercussions.

(Also, quick note: Zoe Quinn is nonbinary and has come out since the events in question. When I call Zoe’s harassment misogynist, understand I am not calling Zoe a woman, but they were attacked by people who hate women because that’s how they were perceived. Had they been out at the time things probably would’ve gone down similarly, but on top of misogyny I’d be talking about nonbinary erasure and transphobia.)

Okay. Our story begins in August 2014. The August that never ended.

Depression Quest, after a prolonged period on Greenlight, finally releases on Steam as a free download with the option to pay what you want. In the days that follow, Zoe’s ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, writes a nearly 10,000-word blog called The Zoe Post, in which he claims Quinn had been a shitty and unfaithful partner. (For reference, 10,000 words is long enough that the Hugos would consider it a novelette.) This is posted to forums on Penny Arcade and Something Awful, both of which immediately take it down, finding it, at best, a lot of toxic hearsay and, at worse, an invitation to harassment. So Gjoni workshops the post, adds a bunch of edgelord humor (and I am using the word “humor” very generously), and reposts it to three different subforums on 4chan.

We’re not going to litigate whether Zoe Quinn was a good partner. I don’t know or care. I don’t think anyone on this call is trying to date them so I’m not sure that’s our business. What is known is that the relationship lasted five months, and, after it ended, Gjoni began stalking Quinn. Gjoni has, in fact, laid out how he stalked Quinn in meticulous detail to interviewers and why he feels it was justified. It’s also been corroborated by a friend that Quinn briefly considered taking him back at a games conference in San Francisco, but he became violent during sex and Quinn left the apartment in the middle of the night with visible bruises.

Off of the abusive ex-boyfriend’s post, 4chan decides it’s going to make Zoe Quinn one of their next targets, and starts a private IRC channel to plan the campaign. The channel is called #BurgersAndFries, a reference to Gjoni claiming Quinn had cheated on him with five guys. A couple sentences in The Zoe Post - which Gjoni would later claim were a typo - imply that one of the five guys was games journalist Nathan Grayson and that Quinn had slept with him in exchange for a good review of Depression Quest. Given the anger that they’d seen drummed up against women in games with the previous Anita Sarkeesian hate mob, #BurgersAndFries decides to focus on this breach of “ethics in games journalism” as a cover story, many of them howling with laughter at the thought that male gamers would probably buy it. This way, destroying Quinn’s life and career and turning their community against them would appear an unfortunate byproduct of a legitimate consumer revolt; criticism of the harassment could even be framed as a distraction from the bigger issue. Gjoni himself is in the IRC channel telling them that this was the best hand to play.

The stated aim of many on #BurgersAndFries was to convince Quinn to commit suicide.

Two regulars in the IRC, YouTubers MundaneMatt and Internet Aristocrat, make videos about The Zoe Post. Incidentally, both these men had already made a lot of money off videos about Anita Sarkeesian. Matt’s is swiftly taken down with a DMCA claim, and he says that Quinn filed the claim themself. (For the record, in those days, YouTube didn’t tell you who filed DMCA claims against you.) Members of the IRC also reach out to YouTuber TotalBiscuit, who had been critical of Sarkeesian and dismissive of her harassment, and he tweets the story to his 350,000 followers, saying a game developer trading sex for a good review might not prove true, but was certainly plausible.

This is where GamerGate begins to get public traction.

Zoe Quinn is very swiftly doxxed, with their phone number, home address, nudes, and names and numbers of their family collected. Gjoni himself leaks their birth name. The Zoe Post, and the movement against Quinn - now dubbed “The Quinnspiracy” - make it to The Escapist and Reddit, which mods will have little luck removing. The Quinnspiracy declares war on any site that does take their threads down, most vehemently NeoGAF. People who defend Zoe against the harassment start getting doxxed themselves - Fez developer Phil Fish is doxxed so thoroughly, hackers get access to the root folder of his website.

In what I’m going to call This Should Have Been The End, Part 1, Stephen Totilo, Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku where Nathan Grayson worked, in response to pressure not just from The Quinnspiracy but an increasing number of angry gamers buying The Quinnspiracy’s narrative, publishes a story. In it he verifies that Quinn and Grayson did date for several months, and that not only is there no review of Depression Quest anywhere on Kotaku, not by Grayson nor anyone else, but that Grayson did not write a single word about Quinn the entire time they were dating.

In response, The Quinnspiracy declares war on Kotaku. r/KotakuinAction is formed, which will become the primary site of organization outside of chanboards. The fact that their entire “movement” is based on a review that does not exist changes next to nothing.

Some people start to see The Quinnspiracy as potentially profitable. The Fine Young Capitalists get involved, a group ostensibly working to get women into video games but who have a Byzantine plan to do so wherein they crowdfund the budget and the woman who wins a competition gets to storyboard a game, but another company will make and she will get 8% of the profits, the rest going to a charity chosen by the top donor. 4chan becomes the top donor. They like TFYC because the head of the company has a vendetta against Zoe Quinn, who had previously called them out for their transphobic submission policy, and he falsely accused Quinn of having once doxxed him. 4chan feels backing an ostensibly feminist effort will be good PR, but can’t resist selecting a colon cancer charity because, they say, feminism is cancer and they want to be the cure to butthurt. They also get to design a character for the game, and so they create Vivian James, who will become the GamerGate mascot.

Manosphere YouTubers Jordan Owen and Davis Aurini launch a Patreon campaign for their antifeminist documentary The Sarkeesian Effect and come to The Quinnspiracy looking for $15,000 a month for an indefinite period to make it, which they get.

In what will prove genuinely awful timing, Anita Sarkeesian releases the second episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, and, despite not being a games journalist and having nothing to do with Quinn or Grayson, she is immediately roped into the narrative about how feminists are ruining games culture and becomes the second major target of harassment. Both she and Quinn soon have to leave their houses after having receiving dozens and dozens of death threats that include their home addresses.

After being courted by members of the IRC channel, Firefly star Adam Baldwin tweets a link to one of the Quinnspiracy videos and coins the hashtag #GamerGate. This is swiftly adopted by all involved.

In response to all this, Leigh Alexander writes a piece for Gamasutra arguing that the identity that these men are flocking to the “ethics in games journalism” narrative to defend no longer matters as a marketing demographic. Gaming and games culture is so large and so varied, and the “core gamer” audience of 18-34 white bros growing smaller and septic, that there was no reason, neither morally nor financially, to treat them as the primary audience anymore. Love of gaming is eternal, but, she declared, “gamers,” as an identity, “are over.” Eight more articles contextualizing GamerGate alongside misogyny and the gatekeeping of games culture come out across several websites in the following days. GamerGate frames these as a clear sign of [deep sigh] collusion to oppress gamers, proving that ethics in games journalism is, indeed, broken, and Leigh Alexander becomes the third major target of harassment. These become known as the “gamers are dead” articles - a phrase not one of them uses - and they make “get Leigh Alexander fired from Gamasutra” one of their primary goals.

Something I need you to understand is that it has, at this point, been two weeks.

Highlights from the next little bit: Alex Macris, a higher up at The Escapist’s parent company, expresses support for GamerGate; he will go on to write the first positive coverage at a major publication and cement The Escapist as GamerGate-friendly. Mike Cernovich, aka “Based Lawyer,” gets GamerGate’s attention by mocking Anita Sarkeesian; he will go on to hire a private investigator to stalk Zoe Quinn. GamerGate launches Operation Disrespectful Nod, an email campaign pressuring companies to pull advertising from websites that have criticized them. They leverage their POC members, getting them, any time someone points out the rampant racism and antisemitism among GamerGaters, to say “I am a person of color and I am #NotYourShield”; most of these “POC members” are fake accounts left over from a previous, racist disinformation campaign. Milo Yiannapoulos gets involved, writing positive coverage of GG despite having mocked gamers for precisely this behavior in the past, and gets so much traffic it pulls Breitbart News out of obscurity and makes it a significant player in modern conservative news media.

[Hey! Ian from the future here. This talk mostly addresses how GamerGate prefigured the Alt-Right strategically and philosophically, but if you want a more explicit, material connection: Breitbart News took its newfound notoriety to become, as its Executive Chair phrased it in 2016, "a platform for the Alt-Right." That Executive Chair was Steve Bannon, who threw the website's weight behind The Future President Who Shall Not Be Named, and, upon getting his attention, would then go on to become his campaign strategist and work in his Administration. So, if you're wondering how one of the central figures of the Alt-Right ended up in the White House, the answer is literally "GamerGate." Back to you, Ian from the past!]

In what I’m calling This Should Have Been The End, Part 2, Zoe Quinn announces that they have been lurking the #BurgersAndFries IRC channel since the beginning and releases dozens of screenshots showing harassment being planned and the selection of “ethics in games journalism” as a cover. #BurgersAndFries has a meltdown, everyone turns on each other, and the channel is abandoned. And they then start another IRC and things proceed.

It goes on like this. I’m not gonna cover everything. This is just the first month. It should be clear by now that this thing is kind of unkillable. And I worry I haven’t made it obvious that this is not just a chanboard and an IRC. Thousands of regular, every day gamers were buying the story and joining in. They were angry, and no amount of evidence that their anger was unfounded was going to change that. You could not mention or even allude to GamerGate and not get flooded with dozens, even hundreds of furious replies. These replies always included the hashtag so everyone monitoring it could join in, so all attempts at real conversation devolved into a hundred forking threads where some people expected you to talk to them while others hurled insults and slurs. And always the possibility that, if any one of them didn’t like what you said, you’d be the next target.

To combat this, some progressives offered up the hashtag #GameEthics to the people getting swept up in GamerGate, saying, “look, we get that you’re angry, and if you want to talk about ethics in games journalism, we can totally do that, but using your hashtag is literally putting us in danger; they calling the police on people saying there’s a hostage situation at their home addresses so they get sent armed SWAT teams, and if you’ll just use this other hashtag we can have the conversation you say you want to have in safety.” And I will ever stop being salty about what happened.

They refused. They wouldn’t cede any ground to what they saw as their opposition. It was so important to have the conversation on their terms that not only did they refuse to use #GameEthics, they spammed it with furry porn so no one could use it.

A few major events on the timeline before we move on: Christina Hoff Sommers, the Republican Party’s resident “feminist,” comes out criticizing Anita Sarkeesian and becomes a major GG figurehead, earning the title Based Mom. Zoe Quinn gets a restraining order against Eron Gjoni, which he repeatedly violates, to no consequence; GG will later crowdfund his legal fees. There’s this listserv called GameJournoPros where game journalists would talk about their jobs, and many are discussing their concerns over GamerGate, so Milo Yiannopoulos leaks it and this is framed as further “proof of collusion.” 4chan finally starts enforcing its “no dox” rules and shuts GamerGate threads down, so they migrate to 8chan, a site famous for hosting like a lot of child porn. Indie game developer Brianna Wu makes a passing joke about GamerGate on Twitter and they decide, seemingly on a whim, to make her one of the biggest targets in the entire movement; she soon has to leave her home as well. GamerGate gets endorsements from WikiLeaks, Infowars, white nationalist sites Stormfront and The Daily Stormer, and professional rapist RooshV. And hundreds of people get doxxed; an 8chan subforum called Baphomet is created primarily to host dox of GamerGate’s critics.

But by November, GamerGate popularity was cresting, as more and more mainstream media covered it negatively. Their last, big spike in popularity came when Anita Sarkeesian went on The Colbert Report and Stephen made fun of the movement. Their numbers never recovered after that.

Which is not to say GamerGate ended. It slowed down. The period of confusion where the mainstream world couldn’t tell whether it was a legitimate movement or not passed. But, again, most harassers faced no meaningful repercussions. Gamers who bought the lie about “ethics in games journalism” stayed mad that no one had ever taken them seriously, and harassers continued to grief their targets for years. The full timeline of GamerGate is an constant cycle of lies, harassment, operations, grift, and doxxing. Dead-enders are to this day still using the hashtag. And remember how Anita had nothing to do with ethics in games journalism or Zoe Quinn, and they just roped her in because they’d enjoyed harassing her before so why not? Every one of GamerGate’s targets knows that they may get dragged into some future harassment campaign just because. It’s already happened to several of them. They’re marked.

(sigh) Let’s take a breath.

Now that we know what GamerGate was, let’s talk about why it worked.

In the thick of GamerGate, I started compiling a list of tactics I saw them using. I wanted to make a video essay that was one part discussion of antifeminist backlash, and one part list of techniques these people use so we can better recognize and anticipate their behavior. That first part became six parts and the second part went on a back burner. It would eventually become my series, The Alt-Right Playbook. GamerGate is illustrative because most of what would become The Alt-Right Playbook was in use.

Two foundational principles of The Alt-Right Playbook are Control the Conversation and Never Play Defense. Make sure people are talking about what you want them to talk about, and take an aggressive posture so you look dominant even when you’re not making sense. For instance: once Zoe leaked the IRC chatlogs, a reasonable person could tell the average gater, “the originators of GamerGate were planning harassment from the very beginning.” But the gater would say, “you’re cherry-picking; not everyone was a harasser.”

Now, this is a bad argument - that’s not how you use “cherry-picking” - and it’s being framed as an accusation - you’re not just wrong, you’re dishonest - which makes you wanna defend yourself. But, if you do - if you tell them why that argument is crap - you’ve let the conversation move from “did the IRC plan harassment?” - a question of fact - to “are the harassers representative of the movement?” - a question of ethics. Like, yes, they are, but only within a certain moral framework. An ethics question has no provable answer, especially if people are willing to make a lot of terrible arguments. It is their goal to move any question with a definitive answer to a question of philosophy, to turn an argument they can’t win into an argument nobody can win.

The trick is to treat the question you asked like it’s already been answered and bait you into addressing the next question. By arguing about whether you’re cherry-picking, you’re accepting the premise that whether you’re cherry-picking is even relevant. Any time this happens, it’s good to pause and ask, “what did we just skip over?” Because that will tell you a lot.

What you skipped over is their admission that, yes, the IRC did plan harassment, but that’s only on them if most of the movement was in on it. Which is a load of crap - the rest of the IRC saw it happening, let it happen, it’s not like anybody warned Zoe, and shit, I’m having the cherry-picking argument! They got me! You see how tempting it is? But presumably the reason you brought the harassment up is because you want them to do something about it. At the very least, leave the movement, but ideally try and stop it. They don’t, strictly speaking, need to feel personally responsible to do that. And you might be thinking, well, maybe if I can get them take responsibility then they’ll do something, but you’d be falling for a different technique I call I Hate Mondays.

This is where people will acknowledge a terrible thing is happening, maybe even agree it’s bad, but they don’t believe anything can be done about it. They also don’t believe you believe anything can be done about it. Mondays suck, but they come around every week. This is never stated outright, but it’s why you’re arguing past each other. To them, the only reason to talk about the bad thing is to assign blame. Whose turn is it to get shit on for the unsolvable problem? Their argument about cherry-picking amounts to “1-2-3 not it.” And they are furious with you for trying to make them responsible for harassment they didn’t participate in.

The unspoken argument is that harassment is part of being on the internet. Every public figure deals with it. This ignores any concept of scale - why does one person get harassed more than another? - but you can’t argue with someone who views it as a binary: harassment either happens or it doesn’t, and, if it does, it’s a fact of life, and, if it happens to everyone, it’s not gendered. And this is not a strongly-held belief they’ve come to after years of soul-searching - this is what they’ve just decided they believe. They want to participate in GamerGate despite knowing its purpose, and this is what would need to be true for that to be ok.

Or maybe they’re just fucking with you! Maybe you can’t tell. Maybe they can’t tell, either. I call this one The Card Says Moops, where people say whatever they feel will score points in an argument and are so irony-poisoned they have no idea whether they actually believe it. A very useful trick if the thing you appear to believe is unconscionable. You can’t take what people like that say at face value; you can only intuit their beliefs from their actions. They say they believe this one minute and that another, but their behavior is always in accordance with that, not this.

In the negative space, their belief is, “The harassment of these women is okay. My anger about video games is more important. I may not be harassing them myself, but they do kind of deserve it.” They will never say this out loud in a serious conversation, though many will say it in an anonymous or irreverent space where they can later deny they meant it. But, whatever they say they believe, this is the worldview they are operating under.

Obscuring this means flipping through a lot of contradictory arguments. The harassment is being faked, or it’s not being faked but it’s being exaggerated, or it’s not being exaggerated but the target is provoking it to get attention, which means GamerGate harassers simultaneously don’t exist, exist in small numbers, and exist in such large numbers someone can build a career out of relying on them! It can be kind of fun to take all these arguments made in isolation and try to string together an actual position. Like, GamerGate would argue that Nathan Grayson having previously mentioned Zoe Quinn in an article about a canceled reality show counts as positive coverage, and since Grayson reached out to Quinn for comment it’s reasonable to assume they started dating before the article was published (which is earlier than they claim), and positive coverage did lead to greater popularity for Depression Quest. But if you untangle that, it’s like… okay, you’re saying Zoe Quinn slept with a journalist in exchange for four nonconsecutive sentences that said no more than “Zoe Quinn exists and made a game,” and the price of those four sentences was to date the journalist for months, all to get rich off a game that didn’t cost any money. That’s your movement?

And some, if cornered, would say, “yes, we believe women are just that shitty, that one would fuck a guy for months if it made them the tiniest bit more famous.” But they won’t lead with that. Because they know it won’t convince the normies, even the ones who want to be convinced. So they use a process I call The Ship of Theseus to, piece by piece, turn that sentence into “slept with a journalist in exchange for a good review” and argue that each part of the sentence is technically accurate. It’s trying to lie without lying. And, provided all the pieces of this sentence are discussed separately, and only in the context of how they justify this sentence, you can trick yourself into believing this sentence is mostly true.

So, like, why? This is clearly motivated reasoning; what’s the motivation? What was this going to accomplish?

The answer is nothing. Nothing, by design. GamerGate’s “official” channels - the subreddit and the handful of forums that didn’t shut them down - were rigidly opposed to any action more organized than an email campaign. They had a tiny handful of tangible demands - they wanted gaming websites to post public ethics policies and had a list of people they wanted fired - but their larger aim was the sea change in how games journalism operated, which nothing they were asking for could possibly give them. The kind of anger that convinces you this is a true statement is not going to be addressed by a few paragraphs about ethics and Leigh Alexander getting a new job. They wanted gaming sites to stop catering to women and “SJWs” - who were a sizable and growing source of traffic - and to get out of the pockets of companies that advertised on their websites - which was their primary source of income. So all Kotaku had to do to make them happy was solve capitalism!

Meanwhile, the unofficial channels, like 8chan and Baphomet, were planning op after op to get private information, spread lies with fake accounts, get disinformation trending, make people quit jobs, cancel gigs, and flee their homes. Concrete goals with clear results. All you had to do to feel productive was go rogue. In my video,

How to Radicalize a Normie, I describe how the Alt-Right encourages lone wolf behavior by whipping people up into a rage and then refusing to give them anything to do, while surrounding them with examples of people taking matters into their own hands. The same mechanism is in play here: the public-facing channels don’t condone harassment but also refuse to fight it, the private channels commit it under cover of anonymity, and there is a free flow of traffic between them for when the official channels’ impotence becomes unbearable.

What I hope I’m illustrating is how these techniques play off of each other, how they create a closed ecosystem that rational thought cannot enter. There’s a phrase we use on the internet that got thrown around a lot at the time:

you can’t logic someone out of a position they didn’t logic themselves into.

Now, there are a few other big topics I think are relevant here, so I want to go through them one by one.

MEMEIFICATION

So a lot of interactions with GamerGate would involve a very insular knowledge base.

Like, you’d say something benign but progressive on Twitter.

A gater would show up in your mentions and say something aggressive and false.

You’d correct them. But then they’d come back and hit you with -

ah shit, sorry, this is a Loss meme.

If I were in front of a classroom I’d ask, show of hands, how many of you got that? I had to ask Twitter recently, does Gen Z know about Loss?!

If you don’t know what Loss is I’m not sure I can explain it to you. It’s this old, bad webcomic that was parodied so, so, so many times

that it was reduced to its barest essentials, to the point where any four panels with shapes in this arrangement is a Loss meme. For those of you in the know, you will recognize this anywhere, but have you ever tried to explain to someone who wasn’t in the know why this is really fuckin’ funny?

So, now… by the same process that this is a comics joke,

this is a rape joke.

I’m not gonna show the original image, but, once upon a time, someone made an animated GIF of the character Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z graphically raping Vegeta. 4chan loved it so much that it got posted daily, became known as the “daily dose,” until mods started deleting every incident of it. So they uploaded slightly edited version of it. Then they started uploading other images that had been edited with Piccolo’s color scheme. It got so abstracted that eventually any collection of purple and green pixels would be recognized as Piccolo Dick.

Apropos of nothing, GamerGate is a movement that insists it is not sexist in nature and it does not condone threats of rape against the women they don’t like. And this is their logo. This is their mascot.

If you’re familiar with the Daily Dose, the idea that GamerGate would never support Eron Gjoni if they believed he was a sexual abuser is so blatantly insincere it’s insulting… but imagine trying to explain to someone who’s not on 4chan how this sweater is a rape joke. Imagine having to explain it to a journalist. Imagine having to explain it to the judge enforcing your abuser’s restraining order.

Reactionaries use meme culture not just because they’re terminally online but also because it makes their behavior seem either benign or just confusing to outsiders. They find it hilarious that they can be really explicit and still fly under the radar. The Alt-Right did this with Pepe the Frog, the OK sign, even the milk glass emoji for a hot minute. The more inexplicable the meme, the better. You get the point where Stephen Miller is flashing Nazi signs from the White House and the Presidential re-eletion campaign is releasing 88 ads of exactly 14 words and there’s still a debate about whether the administration is racist. Because journalists aren’t going to get their heads around that. You tell them “1488 is a Nazi number,” it’s gonna seem a lot more plausible that you’re making shit up.

MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS

Online movements like GamerGate move at a speed and mutation rate too high for the mainstream world to keep up. And not just that they don’t understand the memes - they don’t understand the infrastructure.

In an attempt to cover GamerGate evenhandedly, George Wiedman of Super Bunnyhop interviewed a lawyer who specializes in journalistic ethics. He meant well; I really wish he hadn’t. You can see him trying to fit something like GamerGate into terms this silver-haired man who works in copyright law can understand. At one point he asks if it’s okay to fund the creative project of a potential journalistic source, to which the guy understandably says “no.”

What he’s alluding to here is the harassment of Jenn Frank. A few weeks into GamerGate, Jenn Frank writes a piece in The Guardian about sexism in tech that mentions Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn. In another case of “here’s a strongly-held belief I just decided I have,” GamerGate says this is a breach of journalistic ethics because Frank backs Quinn on Patreon. They harass her so intensely she not only has to quit her job at The Guardian, for several months she quits journalism entirely.

Off the bat, calling a public figure central to a major event in the field a “journalistic source” is flatly wrong-headed. Quinn was not interviewed or even contacted for the article, they were in no way a “source”; they were a subject. But I want to talk about this phrase, “fund a creative project.” Patreon is functionally a subscription; it’s a way of buying things. It’s technically accurate that Frank is funding Quinn’s creative project, but only in the sense that you are funding Bob Dylan’s creative project if you listen to his music. And saying Frank therefore can’t write about Quinn is like saying a music journalist can’t cover a Bob Dylan concert if they’ve ever bought his albums.

And we could talk about the ways that Patreon, as compared with other funding models, can create a greater sense of intimacy, and we also could comment that, well, that’s how an increasing number of people consume media now, so that perspective should be present in journalism. But maybe it means we should cover that perspective differently? I don’t know. It’s an interesting subject. But none of that’s going on in this conversation because this guy doesn’t know what Patreon is. It was only a year old at this point. Patreon’s been a primary source of my income for 5 years and my parents still don’t know what it is. (I think they think I’m a freelancer?) This guy hears “funding a creative project” and he’s thinking an investor, someone who makes a profit off the source’s success.

The language of straight society hasn’t caught up with what’s happening, and that works in GamerGate’s favor.

In the years since GamerGate we have dozens of stories of people trying to explain Twitter harassment to a legal system that’s never heard of Twitter. People trying to explain death threats to cops whose only relationship to the internet is checking email, confusedly asking, “Why don’t you just not go online?” Like, yeah, release your text game about depression at GameStop for the PS3 and get it reviewed in the Boston Globe, problem solved.

You see this in the slowness of mainstream journalists to condemn the harassment - hell, even games journalists at first. Because what if it is a legitimate movement? What if the harassers are just a fringe element? What if there was misconduct? The people in a position to stop GamerGate don’t have to be convinced of their legitimacy, they just have to hesitate. They just have to be unsure. Remember how much happened in just the first two weeks, how it took only a month to become unkillable.

It’s the same hesitance that makes mainstream media, online platforms, and law enforcement underestimate The Alt-Right. They’re terrified of condemning a group as white nationalist terrorists because they’re confused, and what if they’re wrong? Or, in most cases, not even afraid they’re wrong, but afraid of the PR disaster if too much of the world thinks they’re wrong.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND CONTROL

A thing I’ve talked about in The Alt-Right Playbook is how these decentralized, ostensibly leaderless movements insulate themselves from responsibility. Harassment is never the movement’s fault because they never told anyone to harass and you can’t prove the harassers are legitimate members of the movement. The Alt-Right does this too - one of their catchphrases is “I disavow.” Since there are no formalized rules for membership, they can redraw boundaries on the fly; they can take credit for any successes and deny responsibility for any wrongdoing. Public membership is granted or revoked based on a person’s moment-to-moment utility.

It’s almost like… they’re cherry-picking.

The flipside of this is a lack of control. Since they never officially tell anyone to do anything but write emails, they have no means of stopping anyone from behaving counterproductively. The harassment of Jenn Frank was the first time GamerGate’s originators thought, “maybe we should ease off just to avoid bad publicity,” and they found they couldn’t. GamerGate had gotten too big, and too many people were clearly there for precisely this reason.

They also couldn’t control the infighting. When your goal is to harass women and you have all these contradictory justifications for why, you end up with a lot of competing beliefs. And, you know what? Angry white men who like harassing people don’t form healthy relationships! Several prominent members of GamerGate - including Internet Aristocrat - got driven out by factionalism; they were doxxed by their own people! Jordan Owen and Davis Aurini parted ways hating each other, with Aurini releasing chatlogs of him gaslighting Owen about accepting an endorsement from Roosh, and they released two competing edits of The Sarkeesian Effect.

I say this because it’s useful to know that these are alliances of convenience. If you know where the sore spots are, you can apply pressure to them.

LEADERS WITHOUT LEADERSHIP

One way movements like GamerGate deflect responsibility is by declaring, “We are a leaderless movement! We have no means to stop harassment.”

Which… any anarchist will tell you collective action is entirely possible without leaders. But they’ll also tell you, absent a system of distributing power equitably, you’re gonna have leaders, just not ones you elected.

A few months into GamerGate, Randi Lee Harper created the ggautoblocker. Here’s what it did: it took five prominent GamerGate figures - Adam Baldwin, Mike Cernovich, Christina Hoff Sommers, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Nick Monroe, formerly known as [sigh] PressFartToContinue - and generated a block list of everyone who followed at least two of them on Twitter. Now, this became something of an arms race; once GamerGate found out about it they made secondary accounts that followed different people, and more and more prominent figures appeared and had to get added to the list. But, when it first launched, the list generated from just these five people comprised an estimated 90-95% of GamerGate.

Hate to break it to you, guys, but if 90+ percent of your movement is following at least two of the same five people, those are your leaders. The attention economy has produced them. Power pools when left on its own.

This is another case where you have to ignore what people claim and look at what they do. The Alt-Right loves to say “we disavow Richard Spencer” and “Andrew Anglin doesn’t speak for us.”

But no matter what they say, pay attention to whom they’re taking cues from.

AD CAMPAIGN

George Lakoff has observed that one way the Left fails in opposition to the Right is that most liberal politicians and campaigners have degrees in things like law and political science, where conservative campaigners more often have degrees in advertising and communications. Liberals and leftists may have a better product to sell, but conservatives know how to sell products.

GamerGate less resembles a boots-on-the-ground political movement than an ad campaign. First they decide what their messaging strategy is going to be. Then the media arm starts publicizing it. They seek out celebrity endorsements. They get their own hashtag and mascot. They donate to charity and literally call it “public relations.” You can even see the move from The Quinnspiracy to GamerGate as a rebranding effort - when one name got too closely associated with harassment, they started insisting GamerGate was an entirely separate movement from The Quinnspiracy. I learned that trick from Stringer Bell’s economics class.

Now, we could stand to learn a thing or two from this. But I also wouldn’t want us to adopt this strategy whole hog; you should view moves like these as red flags. If you’re hesitating to condemn a movement because what if it’s legitimate, take a look at whether they’re selling ideology like it’s Pepsi.

PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING

One reason to insist you’re a consumer revolt rather than a harassment campaign is most people who want to harass need someone to give them permission, and need someone to tell them it’s normal.

Bob Altemeyer has this survey he uses to study authoritarianism. He divides respondents into people with low, average, and high authoritarian sentiments, and then tells them what the survey has measured and asks, “what score do you think is best to have: low, average, or high?”

People with low authoritarian sentiments say it’s best to be low. People with average authoritarian sentiments also say it’s best to be low. But people with high authoritarian sentiments? They say it’s best to be average. Altemeyer finds, across all his research, that reactionaries want to aggress, but only if it is socially acceptable. They want to know they are the in-group and be told who the out-group is. They don’t particularly care who the out-group is, Altemeyer finds they’ll aggress against any group an authority figure points to, even, if they don’t notice it, a group that contains them. They just have to believe the in-group is the norm.

This is why they have to believe games journalism is corrupt because of a handful of feminist media critics with outsized influence. Legitimate failures of journalism cannot be systemic problems rooted in how digital media is funded and consumed; there cannot be a legitimate market for social justice-y media. It has to be manipulation by the few. Because, if these things are common, then, even if you don’t like them, they’re normal. They’re part of the in-group. Reactionary politics is rebellion against things they dislike getting normalized, because they know, if they are normalized, they will have to accept them. Because the thing they care about most is being normal.

This is why the echo chamber, this is why Fox News, this is why the Far Right insists they are the “silent majority.” This is why they artificially inflate their numbers. This is why they insist facts are “biased.” They have to maintain the image that what are, in material terms, fringe beliefs are, in fact, held by the majority. This is why getting mocked by Stephen Colbert was such a blow to GamerGate. It makes it harder to believe the world at large agrees with them.

This is why, if you’re trying to change the world for the better, it’s pointless to ask their permission. Because, if you change the world around them, they will adapt even faster than you will.

THE ARGUMENT ISN’T SUPPOSED TO END

Casey Explosion has this really great Twitter thread comparing the Alt-Right to Scary Terry from Rick and Morty. His catchphrase is “you can run but you can’t hide, bitch.” And Rick and Morty finally escape him by hiding. And Morty’s all, “but he said we can’t hide,” and Rick is like, “why are we taking his word on this? if we could hide, he certainly wouldn’t tell us.”

The reason to argue with a GamerGater is on the implied agreement that, if you can convince them they’re part of a hate mob, they will leave. But look at the incentives here: they want to be in GamerGate, and you want them not to be. But they’re already in GamerGate. They’re not waiting on the outcome of this argument to participate. They’ve already got what they want; they don’t need to convince you GamerGate isn’t a hate mob.

This is why all their logic and rationalizations are shit, because they don’t need to be good. They’re not trying to win an argument. They’re trying to keep the argument going.

This has been a precept of conservative political strategy for decades. “You haven’t convinced us climate change is real and man-made, you need to do more studies.” They’re not pausing the use of fossil fuels until the results come in. “You haven’t convinced us there are no WMDs in Iraq, you need to collect more evidence.” They’re not suspending the war until you get back to them. “You haven’t convinced us that Reaganomic tax policy causes recessions, let’s just do it for another forty years and see what happens.” And when the proof comes in, they send us out for more, and we keep going.

The biggest indicator you can’t win a debate with a reactionary is they keep telling you you can. The biggest indicator protest and deplatforming works is they keep telling you in plays into their hands. The biggest indicator that you shouldn’t compromise with Republicans is they keep saying doing otherwise is stooping to their level. They’re not going to walk into the room and say, “Hi, my one weakness is reasoned argument, let’s pick a time and place to hash this out.”

And we fall for it because we’re trying to be decent people. Because we want to believe the truth always wins. We want to bargain in good faith, and they are weaponizing our good faith against us. Always dangling the carrot that the reason they’re like this is no one’s given them the right argument not to be. It’s all just a misunderstanding, and, really, it’s on us for not trying hard enough.

But they have no motivation to agree with us. Most of the people asking for debates have staked their careers on disagreeing with us. Conceding any point to the Left could cost them their livelihood.

WHY GAMES?

Let’s close with the big question: why games? And, honestly, the short answer is:

why not games?

Games culture has always presented itself as a hobby for young, white, middle class boys. It’s always been bigger and more diverse than that, but that’s how it was marketed, and that’s who most felt they belonged. As gaming grows bigger, there is suddenly room for those marginal voices that have always been there to make themselves heard. And, as gaming becomes more mainstream, it’s having its first brushes with serious critical analysis.

This makes the people who have long felt gaming was theirs and theirs alone anxious and a little angry. They’ve invested a lot of their identity in it and they don’t want it to change.

And what the Far Right sees in a sizable collection of aggrieved young men is an untapped market. This is why sites like Stormfront and Breitbart flocked to them. These are not liberals they have to convert, these people are, up til now, not politically engaged. The Right can be their first entry to politics.

The world was changing. Nerd properties were exploding into popular culture in tandem with media representation diversifying. And we were living with the first Black President. Any time an out-group looks like it might join the in-group, there is a self-protective backlash from the existing in-group. This had been brewing for a while, and, honestly, if it hadn’t boiled over in games, it would have boiled over somewhere else.

And, in the years since GamerGate, it has. The Far Right has tapped the comics, Star Wars, and sci-fi fandoms; they tried to get in with the furry community but failed spectacularly. They’re all over YouTube and, frankly, the atheist community was already in their pocket. Basically, if you’re in community with a bunch of young white guys who think they own the place, you might wanna have some talks with them sooner than later.

Anyway, if you want to know more about any of this stuff, RationalWiki’s timeline on GamerGate is pretty thorough. You can also watch my or Dan Olson’s videos on the subject. I’ll be putting the audio of this talk on YouTube and will put as many resources as I can in the show notes. The channel, again, is Innuendo Studios.

Sorry this was such a bummer.

Thank you for your time.

#video essay #alt-right playbook #Youtube

[vintagegeekculture]

The Chinese Cultural Inspirations for Dragon Ball Z and Super

Journey to the West was only the beginning. 

A lot of people are vaguely aware that Dragon Ball was inspired by Chinese culture and Hong Kong Kung Fu movies and novels, but are unaware of how deep and long lasting it goes. The Japanese spent the 1980s fascinated by China, which opened up from being a closed society for decades in 1978; the most famous human being in Japan in the 80s was either Michael Jackson or Jackie Chan. 

In fact, a lot of people commonly believe that the Chinese action movie and Kung Fu novel cultural and media influence on Dragon Ball ended very early on. This is untrue. Sure, we started to see qipaos and cheongsams less frequently when they headed to West City, but it absolutely did not finish, because there’s tons of influence to see even as impossibly late as Dragon Ball Super. Interestingly, I don’t think any of these point of inspirations have been pointed out before, mainly because a lot of Chinese adventure novels are simply not available in English. 

 The Piccolo/Gohan plot was inspired by the Chinese action novel “Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre.”

Okay, tell me if you’ve heard this story before: a truly demonic, weird looking monster villain is defeated by a martial arts hero, but by circumstance, is forced into training his greatest enemy’s young son. The villain trains the young boy, the son of his enemy, in martial arts and over time, becomes like a second father or uncle to him and his family, putting the boy in his “evil” sect, and thanks to his love of his rival’s son, this baddie turns over a new leaf and goes from evil to just…grumpy, and becomes a loyal, though gruff, ally of the boy.

Of course, the events of Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre are a bit different from Dragon Ball in details. The Lion King becomes Wuji’s teacher because they are both stranded together on an island after a shipwreck, for instance, and he is blinded and made vulnerable. Also, the Lion King wasn’t so much evil so much as he was misunderstood by the orthodox martial world. However, in broad outlines, this trajectory for a face turn (becomes friends with his greatest enemy’s son, and becomes like a second father to him as he trains him, causing the villain to become a gruff good guy and ally) is essentially from one of the most famous Chinese novels ever written in the 1960s. 

Oh, and while we’re at it, Gohan is likewise inspired by another character from a Louis Cha novel: the Prince of Dali Duan Yu in the Kung Fu novel Demigods and Semi-Devils. The Prince in that novel is a naïve, pacifistic scholar who prefers books to fighting, and who was raised to be timid and avoid combat, absolutely out of step with his family, all of whom are martial artists and warriors. In fact, the beginning of the story is the prince gets incredibly lost in the wilderness, where the hopelessly naïve prince is utterly out of his depth, with all the robbers and scary beasts, and needs to be saved by real martial artists that protect him like fairy godparents. He spends the first part of the story running away from everything, scared as hell. However, by circumstance, he has naturally high power he cannot fully initially control, and eventually realizes that even scholars and others who hate fighting have to sometimes become fighters to protect those they love.

The Duan Yu part of Demigods and Semi-Devils was made into a film, the Battle Wizard, which was reviewed by PewDiePie. The Dragonball similarities went over his head because, honestly, PewDiePie does not strike me as a perceptive person. 

 Hit was based on the screen persona of Chow Yun Fat.

Chow Yun Fat was a Hong Kong cinema superstar who was to director John Woo what Robert de Niro was to Martin Scorsese. There are three giveaways that Hit was based on Chow Yun Fat. One, he’s an assassin, same as Chow Yun Fat’s character in the Killer, and is even given a sequence that’s a John Woo homage with an assassination in an office building with guns pulled on an empty elevator in an act of misdirection. Second, he’s wearing the single piece of clothing Chow Yun Fat is associated with, a black trenchcoat (fun fact: in Hong Kong today, trenchcoats are called Brother Mark Coats, after Chow Yun Fat’s character in John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow). Third, his power is essentially bullet time, a visual technique refined by John Woo in Hong Kong in the 80s and 90s in his gunplay triad movies starring Chow Yun Fat (what, you think the Wachowskis invented it?).

 The Goku/Vegeta relationship is from “Legend of the Condor Heroes.”

Here’s a story you might have heard before. It’s about two rivals, but by circumstance, one is raised in the wilderness beyond civilization, where he becomes an honest and goodhearted, though overly naive bumpkin, martial arts prodigy. The other is raised a wealthy prince by a conquering enemy, who grows up to also become an armor wearing martial arts expert, but also a cunning, arrogant, emotionally distant sociopath.

The similarities go into their love lives, too. The unsophisticated bumpkin hero is betrothed to a daughter of a powerful bearded barbarian king against his will, while the one hint of vulnerability and loss of emotional detachment in the otherwise sociopathic prince, the crack in his smirky arrogance, is that he loves a girl he otherwise pretends to hate, and even fathers a child with her who becomes a main character later.

This is Guo Jing and Yang Kang from Legend of the Condor Heroes. The most fascinating similarity, and proof that female psychology is the same all over the world, is that the fangirls love the emotionally distant, arrogant, and sexy/evil prince (remember when Rhonda Rousey said her first crush was Vegeta?). Girls everywhere love bad boys and sexy villains, and oh boy, do they love Prince Yang Kang. I think you can probably guess who all the fan art is about for Legend of the Condor Heroes, and what ship is the most popular.

I have to emphasize that Legend of the Condor Heroes, which came out in the 1950s-60s, is possibly the most widely read novel by the most widely read novelist on earth - the sales on that dwarf Twilight and Harry Potter. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say nearly every Chinese person, even if they never read it, knows who these characters are. In fact, Yang Kang and Guo Jing from Condor Heroes are basically repeated over and over in Asian, Chinese, and Japanese culture. Does the unsophisticated but gifted martial arts prodigy bumpkin hero, and the glib, arrogant wealthy prince rival remind you of….another duo of rivals?

Gohan/Videl comes from Little Dragon Maiden

One of the most important and influential Martial Arts novels of all time is “Return of the Condor Heroes.” A sequel to Condor Heroes, this time, the main character is the teenage son of one of the main characters from the first novel. It gets even more familiar from there.

“Return of the Condor Heroes” was about a martial arts couple who are also master and student, the same age but vastly different in experience and skill so one somehow seems “older,” and they fall in love because the circumstances of training together requires they spend lots of time together and become intimate. The training story and the love story are exactly the same in “Return of the Condor Heroes.” The dead giveaway one story inspired the other is that in both, the most significant training sequence is one where the master teaches the student how to fly (though Return used a chamber of sparrows for lightness Kung Fu).

There are some differences of course – obviously in Return of the Condor Heroes, the genders of teacher and student are flipped from Gohan and Videl (it’s the Little Dragon Maiden who is a powerful teacher, and the boy who is the student). It was the girl (Videl) who was a rebellious delinquent in Dragon Ball Z, when it was the opposite in the novel, true. But it was obvious this story was in the back of the creator’s mind as a way to combine Kung Fu with the love story, by making teacher and student lovers.

Addendum: hey, remember that awesome movie Kung Fu Hustle, the one Hong Kong movies normies have seen? Well, remember the landlord and landlady? The landlady was named Xiao Lung Nu, or Little Dragon Maiden, and her husband was named Yang Guo – the same as the main characters in Return of the Condor Heroes. It was a joke that went over the heads of Westerners, by giving these names of attractive and naïve young people in love with each other to a surly, bitter, arguing and chain smoking middle aged couple who don’t give a damn.

 Going Super Saiyan comes from “Reincarnated” aka “Bastard Swordsman.”

Stop me if this sounds familiar: a terrifying warlord tyrant prone to killing underlings who displease him has achieved a level of skill and cultivation so tremendous nobody can stop him. But there is one, and only one, thing he fears and that can defeat him: a long-lost legendary skill that nobody has achieved in recent memory, that includes a supernatural combat power transformation that turns the hair light to indicate it worked.

This is “Silkworm Skill” from Reincarnated aka Bastard Swordsman, a novel and TV series from Hong Kong in the early 1980s. Of course, there are differences. To get the power boost and new hair color, the hero has to jump in a cocoon he weaves himself. In fact, the scene is so well known that they actually have it on the poster.

(To those saying “Super Saiyan turns your hair blonde, not white” my response is that it turns hair white, or uncolored, in the comic book.)

The idea of your hair turning white to indicate a new supernatural combat transformation or martial state wasn’t created by Bastard Swordsman, though – though it is the best example and probably the one most familiar to a 1980s audience due to the hugely popular books and TV series. For an older example, a famous Chinese movie based on a folktale is “Bride With the White Hair,” about a bride who’s hair turns white when she is betrayed, in her anger, she becomes less a woman and more a supernatural creature of vengeance (interesting that anger should be the means to unlock it).

#dragon ball z #china #kung fu #martial arts #anime

[dragonbugsuperior]

Ok but- Clawdeen and Catrine?

Can we talk about how cute Clawdeen and Catrine’s relationship would be if they canonically became a couple.

Just imagine Clawdeen’s in Scaris to further her fashion talent and designing abilities while Catrine is focusing on her artistic skills, they’re both trying to find inspiration and are unable to really find it while both are having inner conflicts with their romantic part of their lives.

I know that MH’s fan base has died out because of the lack of production but I just had a really nice sapphic thought. Garrett did say he liked the idea of Clawdeen being lesbian and she has never actually been in a long term committed relationship. All the flings Clawdeen has had were short lived and we never seen those people again. But it would be nice if she explored things with Catrine. It would add diversity to the Monster High. All of the main cast are canonically heterosexual and cisgender with boyfriends (Draculaura and Clawd, Cleo and Deuce, Operetta and Johnny, Lagoona and Gil, Ghoulia and Slo-Mo, and Frankie with Jackson/Holt, Andy, Neighthan, Abbey and Heath; possibly, I don’t think they made it official or actually dated. It’s not that Clawdeen needs a relationship, she’s perfectly fine without one or anyone but it would be pretty riveting if the writers and Garrett decide to make her lesbian and throw some sapphic romance into a new movie or something. It would be so good for representation and queer romance in general. Catrine has no romantic interests either so it would be a good opportunity to also explore her sexuality.

I feel as if both Clawdeen and Catrine are preoccupied with their dreams and aspirations with their talents and skills in fashion and art. But both of them struggle with the strong inner desire for a relationship that has been discovered. In a couple of movies Clawdeen has expressed her indifference towards romantic relationships, specifically with guys. She is the only ghoul out of the main 6 to be single throughout the entire series of movies and episodes and only dates a couple of people which were short lived and never went further. (Might as well call them flings) Clawdeen also did not like the idea of her brother dating her best friend, it is noted that she didn’t like the idea because she feared the effect it would have on her relationship with Draculaura however what effect she feared it would have is not implied. Maybe Clawdeen might’ve had feelings for Draculaura and didn’t like the fact that her brother was dating her best friend who she might’ve liked romantically. In Ghouls Rule Draculaura desperately tries setting Clawdeen up with a number of different guys in which Clawdeen heavily and strongly disapprovingly declines, warning Draculaura sternly that she didn’t want a relationship. Clawdeen aspires to become a fashion designer and own her own fashion brand, while Catrine wishes to be an artist. The relationship between them could be so immaculate. Their love for art and fashion tie well together that they can share many interests. Romantic dates in Scaris, long deep talks, adorable sapphic moments. Catrine has a mysterious aura to her like there’s more to her than we know and I would love to see more interaction between her and Clawdeen.

Clawdeen’s sexual orientation is not really confirmed or known however onOctober 11 Garrett posted a message with the tag #ClawdeenIsALesbian

It was also confirmed Valentine (Keiran Valentine) was originally supposed to be gay but for other reasons Garret stated it wasn’t the “right time” and Valentine had a fear of loving monsters of the same gender. Leading to them writing team to make him the antagonist and be a past love interest for Draculaura

The tag in the post could be a implication that he just likes the idea or Clawdeen is actually a lesbian and Garrett and the writers are indirectly hinting this instead of coming out directly about it or explicitly showing this. But with Garrett tagging that it’s highly likely she is actually a lesbian. Once you think about it, it makes sense.

- Clawdeen hated the idea of Clawd and Draculaura dating (canon reason: the effect it would have on the relationship, other possible reason: plain jealousy, possible feelings for Draculaura)

- Clawdeen in a suit- I mean seriously! that’s so lesbian vibes

- No romantic relationships. Like mentioned, she could just be occupied with her fashion and talent that she genuinely doesn’t care for romance but..that doesn’t mean she’s not gay

- Garrett’s Tag😭

A plot set in London or Italy or maybe back in Scaris and Clawdeen gets an internship to work at a big fashion show for a famous French designer, the plot shaker is there’s been missing jewels and artifacts in Scaris and the ghouls have a mission to retrieve them as spies and Catrine happens to be in Scaris for an internship for the same fashion show. Clawdeen not only finds inspiration but she also learns something new about herself- she has special feelings towards a certain ghoul.

I know some MH fans complain about people pushing the narrative of Clawdeen being gay “too much” but it’s highly annoying and frustrating that nearly everyone is cis, and/or straight. That’s frankly too played out and repetitive. Straight and cis people have been represented in media for as long as entertainments been a thing. A little bit of LGBTQ wouldn’t hurt. It would actually be quite beneficial. There are a lot of LGBTQ kids who would probably love to see their favorite show/ or characters being diverse. To see other LGBTQ ppl represented in media. It matters a lot. It’s important. Of course different monster groups being diverse in ethnics to the franchise is great! but it lacks in other areas. I also support the idea of Clawdeen just simply focusing on what’s truly important to her but lesbian Clawdeen, in a relationship with Catrine is such a cute vision.

#monster high #lgbtq representation #lgbtq relationships #Clawdeen x Catrine #clawdeen wolf #catrine demew #sapphic #lesbian lovers #lesbian #long post #Claw #Clatrine #werewolf and werecat- #omg….yes #representation matters #lesbian Clawdeen #Draculaura #frankie stein #cleo de nile #mh lagoona #monster high ghoulia #clawd/deuce