#op/anon I appreciate you and your ask

[mumms-the-word]

tbh i'm actually kind of pissed at larian. regardless of if it's sticking it to hasbro or not, they're leaving the game in a potentially awful state and not delivering on promises they made, like the upper city. You also have SWEN talking about shit that could have been like ketheric's recruitment and what not, which stirs the pot even more and makes me angry. Like stop talking about it. we're already upset enough.

These are all very valid critiques, anon! I have many thoughts but I’ll put everything under the cut since I got a little long-winded because I’m passionate about video games in general.

I do play a bit of Devil’s Advocate here but please note I am not attacking you personally or trying to direct any hate towards anybody at all! This ask honestly gave me space to vent some thoughts I’ve had for months about this game. I did my best to offer nuanced perspectives and acknowledge my own biases. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, including their own disappointments and praises for Larian, Swen, the actors, and all involved in the making/maintaining (or lack thereof) of BG3.

TLDR: We shouldn’t put Larian on a pedestal as the Best Studio Ever, but we don’t have to grab our pitchforks and say they’re the worst studio ever either. If BG3 is a disappointment it might be because Larian flew a little too close to the sun trying to squeeze 80% of a functional D&D experience into a digital video game package, when (in my opinion) those two game genres are almost inherently designed to not mesh well, disappointing one fan while satisfying another.

———

Point #1, Idk how much Larian is sticking it to Hasbro but Hasbro IS a greedy corporation who has no idea how to make video games and I very highly suspect they’ve been making demands of Larian’s team that are impossible to meet without destroying the work ethic (and health/mental health/financial stability, etc) of Larian’s team. Hasbro just sees dollar signs. Larian isn’t necessarily as interested in milking BG3 for all it’s worth.

If they were, we’d be paying for Upper City in a DLC, and we’re not. Instead they’re choosing to pivot to a fresh new project that isn’t beholden to Hasbro or the demands of WOTC. Does it feel like they’re abandoning the game? Yeah, kinda. But if Swen says that his team looked visibly relieved to move on to something new, that gives me warning bells. Not against Swen, but about the crunch standard of games industries as a whole and possibly against Hasbro or WOTC. I’d much rather his team take care of their very human selves than grind themselves to ultimate burnout working on a game that is functionally complete, if buggy in places and not satisfying for some players because they didn’t get the content they wanted.

There is no perfect game, after all.

And honestly I’d say the same of any AAA studio too. I am consistently frustrated with game studios firing whole departments for the sake of retaining profits and treating their employees like content robots. Games should not be made at the expense of anyone’s physical or mental health, but unfortunately that’s The Industry Standard. (And personally I think Larian or at least Swen is uncomfortable with that.)

(Also I think people forget that making a game the size of BG3 requires the talents and hard work of hundreds of people. Larian was working with, what, 400 people? And that was after they hired like 250+ to even rise to the challenge of making BG3. Who are we even pointing the finger at for all these issues? Swen? He’s one man.)

Should they have promised something they couldn’t deliver? No. But also, I have no idea what issues led them to cutting the content, either. What’s done is done.

BG3 will be an obsolete game in a year or soon anyway, not because Larian isn’t working on it anymore, but because the games industry is just So. Freaking. Big. and pumps out thousands of games a year. Like, I hate to say it, but people are already dropping BG3 for other games like Dragon’s Dogma 2 because DD2 is shiny, new, and has a bonkers character creator.

And there’s nothing wrong with that! We’re not built to play (or work on) a narrative-focused game for 5-7 years, regardless of what any die-hard Destiny fan tells you (note: multiplayers without narrative get a pass purely because the focus isn’t on the narrative, but on collaborative play).

If a game is no longer fun to play, move on and find something that scratches your itch. Go back and play old games! There are so many things out there to explore. I have a To Be Played pile literally right now, a backlog of games I haven’t tried out yet. I’m sure many others do too.

Point #2 (and here I could be wrong, if I’m not already wrong in my opinions above), but they’re not entirely abandoning the game like…at the drop of a hat. They’re still promising at least a handful of hotfixes and at least one more patch with new evil epilogue endings (among other things).

Does that get us Upper City? Likely not. Does that add enough content to give Wyll a more well-rounded storyline, elevate all the romances to Astarion levels of cutscenes and dialogue, and finish Karlach’s questline with an actual solution for her heart? Also likely not. Is it precious to be mad about these losses? No! Be mad!! Wyll deserves justice!!!

I’d love to explore Upper City. I’m a huge advocate for Wyll getting more/better representation. If I could save Karlach without throwing her into Avernus I would in a HEARTBEAT. But these things aren’t in the game, and they likely won’t be. Larian made decisions to meet a (self-imposed? Hasbro imposed? Industry-relevant?) deadline that are ultimately disappointing. We can absolutely acknowledge that we’re disappointed.

But I don’t necessarily think Larian is just being lazy about these decisions, though. At the end of the day we have no idea what contracts Larian is under, what hell the developers have been through, either from the game industry, Hasbro, rabid fans, or excessively cruel critics, or what technical/gameplay/scheduling/financial issues they ran into at various parts of development.

Like the Ketheric thing (Point #3). Was it bad PR to bring up that Ketheric was a “kill your darlings” decision late in development around the same time you’re openly promoting the end of your relationship with BG3? Yeah. Totally. But I’m not surprised they had to cut something like that. Games, movies, books do that all the time. How many deleted scenes from movies have we seen where it could have changed the whole narrative (maybe even made it better) if it had just stayed in? I can think of a handful. It sucks, but trust me, it hurts the writers and developers way more to cut content they’ve poured money and time and heart and soul into than it hurts us, the players who would never know the wiser if they hadn’t said anything.

But also, the game is ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. On PC you have to have 150GB free just to install it. Can you imagine how big it would be if they had shoved everything they wanted into it, even if they had delayed the game a while to make it happen? 150GB is a lot.

For perspective, that puts it on par with a very, very, VERY tiny sector of PC games at about the same level (or higher) of GB requirements, including Red Dead Redemption 2 (a fantastic open world game that still holds up in 2024), Microsoft Flight Simulator (which requires 150GB because it’s literally just flying through high quality renders of actual Earth), Forspoken (everyone says all the GB went to graphics here and I believe them), Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (which only has about 50 hours of playable content, allegedly), basically any VR game, and ARK: Survival Evolved which comes in at a whopping 400 GB mostly because of DLC. In other words, games that big get that big either because of graphics or like a hundred DLCs.

BG3 manages to fit in gorgeous cinematics, a super complex spell-combat system, a more or less streamlined video game build for complex D&D combat rules and mechanics, 10 potential companions, 8 romances among those companions, several large maps to explore, and branching narratives that would take you days to read every scrap of dialogue for (I’ve downloaded the datamined files for Patch6, and there are whole leagues of dialogue, encounters, and bits that are in the game, unbugged, that most of us pass by because we don’t explore enough). You want to know where most of the GB goes? It goes towards sustaining a D&D combat/narrative structure that was originally never built with video game constraints in mind.

Do you know how many conditions/status effects there are in the game? Over 1100. 1100+ unique descriptions and titles for conditions that debuff or buff your character or your enemies, granting hundreds of actual gameplay affects. Do you know how many spells there are across the 12 playable classes and all unique spells for enemies and allies? Like 400, if we’re getting picky and splitting hairs over stuff like Rolan’s Magic Missile being different than the usual Magic Missile or if we’re splitting out something like Disguise Self into its 32 different variations. Each spell needs a different icon, a different graphic effect, and it needs to do the right kind of damage and cause the right kind of condition or effect, some of which are immediate, others which linger.

We can speak with dead with hundreds of characters. That’s a lot of dialogue. We can talk to ANY named NPC. That’s a lot of dialogue! We can talk to any animal, with or without speak with animals enabled. That’s a lot of dialogue!!

A single playthrough where I try to explore as much as possible takes me 150 hours or more. I have 500 hours in this game and I’ve only got 4 characters and I’ve only finished 2 of them. This game is mind-bogglingly big. Even if it’s not the biggest game in history ever, or even the biggest game by the time of its release, its BIG.

The biggest critique I would have here is one that I’ve had since I first started playing the game, and it’s that D&D systems and video games don’t mesh comfortably well. I think that Larian got distracted trying to make the ultimate D&D experience, catering to a demographic that is known to ignore plot and pursue shenanigans, and Larian felt the need to build in a lot of shenanigans.

I think they got a little overzealous about it, and that’s where we have missing content, and a lot of fluff that isn’t always plot-relevant. If the game feels unfinished, it’s because Larian started too many threads, and while there are endings to all of those threads, many of them feel rushed or unsatisfactory. Why do they feel unsatisfactory? Because we’re offered so much freedom early on, only to be pulled back into the much more limited narrative constraints of a video game at the end. Because the game has to end eventually, unlike a D&D campaign which could go on or explore many other possibilities. But by act 3 in a 150 GB game, we’re running out of time and space.

And yes that’s disappointing as hell and Larian could and arguably SHOULD have made different decisions on what to focus on.

But ultimately, you just can’t fit a full-on, any-choice-goes D&D experience in a game that needs to be packaged neatly enough to run on most PCs or consoles, and Larian was ambitious as hell to try. Contrary to popular belief, I think they did pretty freaking well given the challenge, and no, it isn’t perfect, and no, to confess to my own bias, I don’t have the same complicated history with the game that early access or release day players have because I bought the game like 2 months after it was out and patched twice. But they’ve clearly built a game that people love so much they’re upset there isn’t more of it, or at least upset it isn’t the best it can be.

But sometimes we have to be realistic too. I can only imagine how many more bugs or render issues we’d get if they did try to shove in Upper City at this point. Games can only be so big before they start to become too much for the systems that try to run them and I don’t want the games industry veering towards making games an elitist hobby for only the rich and elite who can afford expensive rigs and $100 games.

(And also, I’m not at all upset that for $70 bucks I got 500 hours of gameplay and I’m not 100% sick of it yet. When EA and Activision are getting players to pay hundreds in micro transactions and DLC and dangling extra maps and new missions behind paywalls? Bish, please, I’m good. You want to talk about an unfinished experience? Dragon Age: Inquisition made us pay for our epilogue content as a DLC. At least Larian built theirs in for free from the start.)

Anyway.

All that said, I’m sure if Larian could turn back the clock and start over, they’d make different decisions about what to keep, cut, and refine. But we’re here now.

If I want to see anything from Larian right now, it’s a dedication to fix ongoing bugs that make the game unplayable or that block the narratives that they have built so that they play correctly (like with the Minthara romance). IDEALLY I’d like to see them add more content for companions other than Astarion, to equalize the romance experiences, but I’m not holding my breath (again, considering things like game development, actor schedules, contracts, etc).

While I’m sad about the permanent loss of stuff like the Upper City and disappointed by all the rushed questlines, I’d rather them fix the bugs that make the game un-fun to play and bow out gracefully once they’re sure the game won’t need constant supervision.

Besides, they’re working on cross-platform mod support, and mods are gonna add and mess with the game for many years to come, so we can pivot to support them instead while Larian works on its next game (and hopefully learns from its mistakes with BG3).

#bg3 critical #bg3 #my thoughts #super long post #long post #larian critical #op/anon I appreciate you and your ask #my hyperfixation triggered and I almost didn’t post this :’) #anyways feel free to ignore

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

https://www.tumblr.com/the-obnoxious-sibling/735283406764752896/thats-also-how-i-always-saw-shanks-reaction-but

Anon from this ask!

I’m so glad I decided to send that ask to you. You’re so right.

But I must admit my “But I wonder what he would think if he knew the real reason why Buggy left him?” Was worded wrong, I’m sorry English is not my first language and I have troubles with expressing myself. What I meant is if that knowledge would change shanks view right now, like he founds out the reason. I wonder if he would be less accepting of buggy just choosing his way vs knowing he broke his heart

But your answer made me wonder so much about everything. I wonder if anyone in shanks crew knows about why he waited so long. And exactly what you pointed out. How would Buggy react to “actually I NEED to wait”.

WHY THEY CAN’T JUST TALK GOD DAMMIT

hello again, anon! (i have been wondering how many of you are unique vs returning askers! it's nice to know at least one of you has come back for more~)

please don't feel any need to apologize for your english! i was the one who misunderstood that you meant shanks learning the truth now, not shanks being told the truth at the time. that’s on me!

so. shanks as he is now—thirty-nine, an emperor of the sea, boss of a good ship and crew, protector-captain of a massive fleet, finally going after the one piece—learns that the reason the first person he asked to sail with him refused was because shanks didn’t want to go after the one piece when he was fifteen.

would shanks think differently of buggy for feeling rejected by shanks’ decision, and not sincerely wanting to go his own way? i think he must! if your best friend leaves because they have their own plans that don’t involve you, that’s one thing… if they leave because you failed to live up to their (unspoken!) expectations of you, that’s quite another!

thinking about it like that, i wonder if shanks might be mad, or disappointed, to learn that buggy left because shanks wasn’t the person buggy had been imagining him to be. because on one hand: shanks isn’t responsible for the shanks buggy made up inside his head! he isn’t beholden to the way buggy thought that false shanks would act, or the things buggy imagined he believes. that’s on buggy! and on the other: if the person you thought knew you best can misjudge you so badly they run away from the real you… it must shed a dim light on your whole relationship.

…but maybe it’s been long enough that it would just make him sad. it’s a decades-old hurt by now, and with the way shanks dislikes and avoids conflict there’s no way he keeps grudges or clings to hurt feelings. so it might just be a passing feeling of sadness—ah, so even buggy thought too highly of me, huh?

i think benn beckman must know at least a bit of shanks’ plans. that’s his first mate, after all! there has to be trust there, or the whole crew falls apart! as for the rest of the red-haired pirates… i don’t think we know them well enough to say whether any of them would need truth to offer trust. i suspect most of them don't, that they trust shanks unconditionally, and will follow his lead wherever it takes them.

and buggy… i don’t think he wants to trust shanks, but for a long time trusting shanks was as easy as breathing, so it's a hard habit to break. (though shanks makes it easier the more he betrays that trust, however good his motives or minor the deception.) i think if shanks had said, back in roguetown, that they needed to wait, buggy would have whined and complained and begged shanks to reconsider, but he would’ve gone along with it. if buggy found out about that now, i think he’d snap that you could have just said so back then! stupid shanks, didn't you trust me?!

to which the answering silence must be a new flavor of the old heartbreak, because no, apparently he did not.

#asked and answered #this took an age because i kept trying to find a way to end this post that wasn’t on a bleak sad note. i failed 🙃 #sorry anon! hope you weren’t expecting a happy answer to this one #anyway thinking about sacrifice in op. giving up your life for love. your body for the next generation. your pride for your friend’s sake. #buggy doesn’t appreciate that kind of sacrifice. i think we have a pretty good sense for why that is by now. #and i don’t think shanks would appreciate the kind of sacrifice buggy tried to make for him. #‘your dreams are the whole point! how can you put anything before that?!’ ← something like that. #one piece #shuggy #shanks #buggy #*the shuggy roguetown breakup #*abandoned dreams #*shuggy miscommunication #*types of sacrifice #*shanks hides his feelings

[petiolata]

Idk why ppl send nonspecific anonhate. Im talking about short generic stuff that only says like "Idiot" or "You suck". There's no way to tell if it's at all genuine or individually targeted.

For all I know it's a bot or someone who sent it to 100+ random users. It's impossible to feel anything other than mild amusement as a result.

As someone who thrives on negative attention and loves to be hated, I need better food than this. I'm not saying the hate needs to be original or inventive, but at least let me know that it's about me, so i can know that mmmmm, someone's panties are all twisted up over little ole me.

So plz, any anons who hateread my blog, be more specific. What is it about me that gets under your skin?

My dashing good looks?

That I'm a better writer/artist/game dev/etc than you?

Maybe the plethora of mundane personal posts I'm self-confident enough to shamelessly share? (Yes my opinions on scissors ARE riveting aren't they?)

Maybe it's not something I'd never expect--you think I'm cishet-coded! Or u hate my fluffy m/m OTP! Or you think Wescott scissors are best girl.

I'll never know unless you tell me. Until then, I can only assume you hate me because of my massive c0ck 😌

#anon hate #tumblr #tumblr problems #anon ask #don't hate me cuz you ain't me #I have considered--when getting anon #that it may have been sent by one of my dear friends who knows how much I love being hated #and so sent some generic hate as a treat #it warms my heart and if any of you did that know that i appreciate your efforts ❤️ #lol #op #personal #sadly i do think it was prob just random or a friend bc i dont remember engaging in any discussions recently other than giving Linux info #i guess some ppl DO get salty as hell over Linux distros so maybe it's that #if so anon should DEF share that bc i love some good distro discourse

[judgingskeletons]

related to a recent anon, I'll be perfectly honest i specifically haven't uploaded a very personal piece with a skull as the centerpoint because I've interacted with you before (in a totally positive way! on a jokey piece i made and tagged you in!) and figured you'd take the prior interaction on a joke post as incentive to rip me a new one. 😬 like for classical pieces or mass produced art or things you're tagged in by the creator i get it, but i won't say that anon was completely wrong when they say it's a bit disheartening to have you rb random people's personal art unprompted saying their art fails at 100% perfect anatomy. doesn't matter if you're a "gimmick blog" that stuff can hit deep when it's totally out of the blue.

I am sincerely sorry to have caused you to avoid posting your art. I hope I can reassure you for the future.

I realise I may have reacted blithely to the other anon and likely gave the impression that I don't care about how what I do may affect artists, this was not my intention.

After looking through my blog, as far as I can tell, I haven't judged personal art in a few months (besides recently where OP asked me to), which was due to becoming aware of how unprompted criticism could affect an artist. This realisation shouldn't have taken me so long to reach or act on.

This and the other anon have encouraged me to examine how I choose which skeletons to judge and I will set myself some ground rules to ensure I avoid judging personal art uninvited in the future.

A question to both you, anon, and other bone artists that follow me: would you be comfortable with me sharing personal bone art on this blog Without an added judgement/rating/comment? (I'd likely add compliments in the tags (I'd avoid focussing on the bones though))

#ask the judge #thank you anon #i should have put more thought into my response to the other anon #i appreciate you challenging me on this and giving me an opportunity to better address things #again im so sorry the affect i had on you #i would love to see any bones you post tho i get it if you dont want to tag me jic #if youre comfortable doing so you could dm me links to posts #id be happy to just see your art or to share it without comment #but again i get it if youd rather not #kinda related: some art i share isnt the OPs but is referenced #so the artist doesnt see my comment. in that situation is it ok for me to do a judgement? #cause i have so far being considering that fair game but im open to other points of view #i love feedback on this blog. help me do better #edit added tag: realised that actually i did judge a personal post in the past week and i feel a fool for not realising #it was one i was sent the link to so my brain fully didnt process that it was ops art somehow #no excuse tho i do need to be more on it

[r0semultiverse]

You are awesome!

Awe thanks!! You are too, whoever you are!! 😁💜

#I appreciate the kind message; thank you very much! 💜 #thank you thank you thank you!! x3 for your sweet words! #anonymous #anon #asks #ask #mine #OP

[spyglahass]

Op i'll just have you know

after i revisited your smalletho art my brain is now stuck at thinking about them 24/7 . Thank you for your service of drawing them

alksdhsa thank you!! it's an old ask so unfortunately I no longer draw them-

- - -

iM BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING AGAIN---

blame whatever is in their water recently

also thank you to every anon in read more asking for them and i am so sorry it takes me so long to answer </333

THANK YOU SO MUCH GUYS I APPRECIATE YOUUU !!!!

#smalletho #secret life #secret life smp #trafficshipping #trafficblr #etho #smallishbeans #my art

[gasolinerainbowpuddles]

991 i hav emerjenci

Wow, what an absolute dumpster fire, right? *gestures broadly* ↓Below the cut↓ are some specific things as a reader/mutual/friend/etc you can do that will make things a little better.

You come across someone posting/using someone else's work without express permission to do so:

INFORM THE ORIGINAL CREATOR/POSTER (OP) DIRECTLY ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ Let OP know BEFORE you attempt to engage with the person on their behalf. ✧ OP will probably want to lay eyes on the situation, and, if the person stealing their work is tipped off, they might proactively block OP and/or remove posts before they can be verified as stolen. ✧ Do not harass the person who stole the work. It might be coming from a place of wanting to stick up for OP, but it ultimately doesn't help the situation.

OP is experiencing a hate brigade, nasty anons, or trolling over their fic:

PRIORITIZE ACTIONS AND BEHAVIORS THAT KEEP THE FOCUS ON SUPPORT FOR OP ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ Reblog the fic in question with a glowing recommendation or just leave a comment under it expressing your appreciation for it. Both actions will boost the work in question as well as show direct support for OP. ✧ Reach out privately through DMs if you have that sort of relationship, or send a supportive message through asks. Keep it simple and short as they are probably overwhelmed with the shitstorm at certain points. ✧ Speaking up with a supportive comment or post for OP isn't necessarily a bad thing, but arguing back and forth with the trolls/hate brigade/etc. - even if you are doing it with intention to support OP - only fuels the fire, and some of them are doing it for the attention anyway.

OP seems down / isn't motivated to write / is expressing considerations of leaving fic writing altogether because of the current climate on this hellsite:

GIVE THEM THE SPACE OR TIME THEY NEED, BUT ALSO LET THEM KNOW THAT THEY ARE VALUED ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ For the love of god please don't bombard them with asks about when xyz is going to be posted. This is a hobby for them, and they have jobs, families, and other life responsibilities that come first. Many would love nothing more than to sit and write all day, but that just isn't the reality for 99% of fic writers. ✧ Show their older works love, too. Many fic writers take the time to curate an organized masterlist of their works, and many have been writing for a while. There is a trove of wonderful content that can be read or re-read while you patiently wait for your fave to update. ✧ If you're waiting for an update on a specific fic, go back through the older chapters/updates and leave a comment saying you love it so much that you're coming back to visit older chapters while you wait to see what happens next in the story. I guarantee it will give them a boost of motivation for that story in particular. ✧ REBLOG AND COMMENT. Yes, do both of those things. I want you open up a fic you love and scroll down to the bottom where you can see likes, comments, and reblogs. I want you to look at the disparity between likes and comments/reblogs. Clicking a heart button is pretty much zero effort, and it comes across as such to many writers. It's not how Tumblr operates. This is a REBLOG site. That is how things make their way around. That is how posts get engagement. That is how other people can discover the fic writers you enjoy. Look, I even made a meme to show you what it feels like when after hours and hours of writing and editing you finally post a fic and then somebody only hearts it:

Even a simple "I loved this so much and can't wait to read more!" does wonders. A quick reblog that mentions your favorite part in the story is like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow for writers.

You come across people trashing a writer you like:

CONSIDER IF IT'S HELPFUL OR NOT TO ADDRESS IT ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ People are allowed to have negative/differing opinions about things. If they are expressing their dislike, even in a nasty way, they are allowed to do so. ✧ If it is a genuinely harmful/disparaging conversation, look to see what sort of traction the conversation has. Sometimes it's better to just let something die down before it can even take off. Examples of genuinely harmful/disparaging conversation include but aren't limited to: accusing OP of something egregious without any evidence to support it, framing rumors/gossip they've seen about OP as factual, deeming them criminally or morally corrupt based off a personal opinion they have of OP/their works. ✧ Remember that while serious concerns (like the above point) might be good to share with OP, not every instance of negativity or hate needs to be brought to their attention. If it's just some random jerk on a different platform talking about how much OP's writing is amateur hour, you should probably just leave it be. OP is a person at the end of the day, and sometimes things can be more hurtful than helpful for them to see.

OP isn't acting / responding in a way that you like:

REMIND YOURSELF THAT THEY ARE JUST ANOTHER PERSON IN THE FANDOM AND ARE NOT AN INFLUENCER ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ OP isn't in this fandom to be put on a pedestal (of course there are always exceptions, but I'm not talking about those people) and treated like an influencer. ✧ OP creates works in the fandom because that is how they choose to engage with the fandom. It is one of many ways that people can come together in a community and celebrate an actor/movie/series/etc. ✧ OP is not a content farm. They are writing and sharing because they genuinely enjoy it. They are not being compensated. They are not being endorsed by anybody or any company. They are a normal person trying to take part in a fandom they enjoy. ✧ OP is not obligated to address or comment on a situation, an interaction, discourse, etc. They are not an influencer and aren't equivalent to the parasocial relationships that influencers (aka people who make a living off the internet) have with their followers. OP is not required to "use their platform" for something. It's not a platform. It is OP's personal account where they engage and post in fandom. That is why it exists. OP is not some mega entity that has to speak on something because you demand or expect it.

OP blocked me:

THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE ════════════════════════════════════════ ✧ Listen, I know it can be hurtful/confusing if you are blocked, especially if it is a writer you really like. I guarantee you that it was not done out of spite and for no reason. ✧ Take a look at the circles you run in, the posts you like, the sort of comments you leave, etc. Many writers are quick to block these days because the climate of this hellsite is very charged and exhausting. If OP sees your username cropping up again and again in fandom drama or you liked a discourse post with a shitty take or your chummy mutual is going off the rails with some bullshit, you might just get caught up in the Block Party. ✧ Don't go through another channel/account to ask why you've been blocked. No, you aren't entitled to a reason. OP is allowed to protect their mental health and peace, and they don't owe anyone an explanation of why and how they choose to curate their experience on this hellsite. ✧ If you believe you were blocked by mistake (which, again, is very unlikely), just take the L, homie. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's just how it is.

If you took the time to read this, share it, or just in general intend to apply it to your interactions, ✨thank you✨!

Here is a Pedro gif tax for your time and attention. 💜

#a word from puddles #fandom things #fandom community #pedro pascal fandom

[budgebuttons]

There's a lot of reasonably frustrated but ultimately misdirected psa-style posting about how viewers NEED to start reblogging things rather than just liking them because that is the primary mode of post circulation on this site. The modern manifestation of this sentiment seems to miss the fact that, if you've been here for ~15 years, were here prior to, during, and after the exodus to the bird app, you already know that likes have always been more common than reblogs, that many people simply don't want to put your art on their blog, and that guilting end-users into using a microblogging site A Specific Way absolutely does not work. If it did, the trend would have shifted a decade ago. Because this conversation really is that old. Regardless, the modern discourse of how difficult it is to be Seen specifically on Tumblr isn't productive because I think it ultimately misses the reason being an artist online feels so Bad, now.

The social media era has funneled Looking At Stuff on the Internet into an economy of engagement that encourages end-users to treat everything we/they see as quick, cheap, and disposable. This is just another fun and flirty way that capitalism devalues art. It's nothing new. Trying to force masses of users to behave in a way that is healthier for the circulation of art isn't going to do anything to solve the discontent we all feel when we hurl something into the void and it is ultimately ignored. I swear up and down: A higher notes number won't feel better, either. Popularity is just as demoralizing as radio silence, but it manifests differently. Instead of 4 likes and maybe 1 reblog from Old Faithful Mutual, you get a horde of people who treat you like a content machine. You keep hoping for an impossibly Bigger Number. The notifs on the first Big Number Post haven't even settled, and people are already asking when the follow-up is coming. You get anons, but most of them are trying to passively convince you to give them More Content.

It's really, really hard to make people care about art. If there was a silver bullet for making the average person appreciate the enormity of human effort behind every beautiful thing they encounter, we would have found it centuries ago.

The best thing creatives can do for their lives online is to be friendly, or at least kind, with other creators. "Big" artists don't form in-groups because they're snobs. They find each other because they casually showed each other support, and their mutual appreciation for that Thing that wound them up in the same tag becomes a foundation for connection, and in many cases, the ever-illusive Bigger Audience as they introduce themselves to each others' circles. We get more eyes on our work by building community with each other.

Where does that leave people who are just here to look at things, not post them? I think the answer is almost identical: COMMENT!! Please, comment! The first step to engaging with art on a more meaningful level is to point out something you particularly enjoy about a given work. It can go in the replies, it can go in the tags, doesn't matter!! If you notice some symbolism or make some connection, there is all likelihood that OP put it there because they desperately wanted somebody to notice it. Let them know why you like it!

Reaching for the nebulous, impossible goal of better post circulation isn't going to make being a creator online in 2023 suck less. Meaningfully connecting with each other can, will, and does. You can make someone's day just by passingly letting them know that their effort is worth more than a number.

#budgetalks #I got to thinking about this because of fanfic actually #the proportion of comments to kudos ESPECIALLY on popular fics bums me out #especially when you open the comments and half of them are people asking for more

[olderthannetfic]

I deeply do not understand fandom creators who try to get people to stop reposting their creations on platforms where the OP doesn’t have an account. Asking people to credit them - absolutely! It’s reasonable to want credit for your work. But to insist that the work only be appreciated by people who have accounts on the exact platform the OP has? And to ask followers to harass any re-posters en-masse until the re-poster and all rebloggers delete the content? I’m baffled by this.

How is fans sharing your work and linking fellow fans back to your account a *bad* thing?!

--

Are you new?

Most creators don't want their work reposted. They may appreciate shares from Youtube and the like. They certainly do not appreciate someone making a separate video upload or whatever.

Fandom creators are even warier, particularly about their work escaping its intended context and finding hostile outsiders. Of fucking course they do not want their work on some other platform. That's the way to get waves of harassment sent back towards that fandom creator. It also often involves lots of asspats for the reposter and nothing for the creator.

I have no sympathy for reposters crying that they got harassed over art theft. Stop stealing if you can't take the heat, asshole!

Maximum audience is what shitty influencers want. It is not the ethos of fandom. Some people seek fandom fame more than others, but there has always been a strong sense of finding your corner, not of trying to get your shit out to the entire world.

WHY THE FUCK would I care about people needing the "convenience" of my fic on their own platform of choice? I use AO3 because I support AO3. I loathe Wattpad and will certainly not want to increase its popularity with my free labor and my content.

Yes, it does annoy me when people screenshot this blog and put it on twitter. I am intentionally not on twitter because twitter is garbage. I have no desire for my own writing to increase twitter's relevance. Fandom should stop treating twitter like The Place To Be. If people feel like they're missing out by being there and not here, good!

And obviously, I roll my eyes when some attention-seeker posts my shit to reddit and gets eighty billion upvotes. If you love me so much, go give my reddit account that karma. (If you're doing your own hobbydrama writeup or something, that's different though. I'm talking about c&p posts with little of your own content.)

There are different ways of sharing, and some of them are more annoying than others. Some platforms are irrelevant to a creator, while others they actively oppose being popular. Nobody is going to know or care if you post some fan art to a private discord with your friends.

Have some god damn sense, anon.

[lawsvalentine]

Hello beautiful angel(because your beautiful) ,as request are open could I please request shanks, law,zoro,luffy x a reader thats very good at cooking food like the same as sanji. Please?

Thank you 💗

Don't feel forced to accept my request. Anyways have the most beautiful day ever 💗💞💖

With a Cook!reader • OP Men HCs • (Fluff)

Characters: Monster trio + Usopp

CW: None just fluff

Cee’s Note: Anon you are the sweetest 😚💕 I already did a law with cook!reader that you can read here but I can do hcs for the other two and Imma add sanji and usopp bc why not

Luffy

The way to this man’s heart is through food 😭

Get ready to cook A LOT to satisfy this boy’s appetite

Will constantly bother you while you’re cooking the meals sgdhjd

You’ve had to swat his hand away a few times from stealing food off the stove

He will wrap his stretchy arms around you and hug you from behind while you cook

Yup mans absolute LOVES you and your cooking

Zoro

The picture above is exactly how he be asking for seconds 😭

He won’t outwardly express his love for your food through words but rather by tearing it up sgdhdj

He will actually big you up when he’s shitting on Sanji’s cooking sgdhdj

You leave him his favorite snack whenever he does his daily training

He looks forward to your cooking and appreciates whatever you prepare for him

Sanji

He thinks he’s found his soulmate 😭

He can’t believe he’s found someone who shares his love for cooking

He loves to spend time with you in the kitchen

You two will cook meals together for the crew

He loves to give you neck and shoulder kisses whenever you are stirring or cutting something

Thinks you look so cute when you’re eyes are focused on the food you’re preparing

Usopp

I know Luffy is known for his big appetite but y’all be sleeping on Usopp’s appetite *cough* *cough* marineford arc *cough*

He loves food especially if it was made by you

He will go out of his way to get things he’ would think you would like for your cooking

Will make up an elaborate story on how he was able to obtain the ingredient 😭

Loves to tell stories as you cook and make you laugh

Will happily be your taste tester if you need him to be

#one piece #one piece fanfiction #op fanfic #one piece headcanons #monkey d luffy headcanon #monkey d luffy x y/n #monkey d luffy headcanons #monkey d luffy x reader #monkey d luffy fluff #monkey d luffy fanfic #roronoa zoro headcanons #roronoa zoro fluff #roronoa zoro fanfiction #roronoa zoro x reader #sanji fluff #sanji headcanons #sanji fanfiction #sanji x reader #sanji x y/n #usopp fluff #usopp headcanons #usopp fanfic #usopp x reader #usopp x y/n

[quinloki]

For the OP kinks: Doflamingo, Crocodile, Shanks Cockwarming, double penetration, stockings/pantyhose Thank you kindly ( ˘ ³˘)♥

Oh I might die of blood loss doing this one. Over here like Sanji - just... good lord.

LORDS. These are all such massive personalities. Whew, okay.. hgnh, fuck /bites knuckle/ -- Full Disclosure I have tens of thousands of words about Doffy and Crocodile, and heck. HECK. Okay, no, I can do this. THANK YOU ANON FOR THIS GIFT.

Doflamingo:

Cockwarming - FUCK Yes - There aren't many who take such a big man into themselves completely like you can. Either by luck, genes or sheer will. Doffy's more than happy to lean back and let you struggle and work to take him in, and then he'll just have you sit there. He has work to do, and you've got your own task to mind. If you move too much you'll distract him, and that won't do. Every slight shift is like electricity inside you, and thankfully you can at least lean against him so you're not trying to hold yourself up on top of it all.

No matter how "busy" he is, he'll purr those terrible words in your ear - don't make too much noise, don't get too wet, people are coming in and out of the office and of course they know, but you don't need them to know, right?

Double Penetration - With another partner: No - With the use of toys: Yes. You know he's narrating the entire thing. Of course he doesn't share, but you're going to have to decide where you want him and where you want the toy. He already fills you so full you're not convinced the toy will fit, but the added pressure nearly pushes you over the edge and he's barely even started. He tells you how tight you are, how well you're twitching around him, how you better not cum until he tells you to. Be a good pet, even as the toy whirrs to life you better start begging.

Stockings/Hose - Sure - Doffy's appreciation of your attire last only in how quickly you can remove it, or how cleanly it shreds against his strings. He appreciates the intent and effort when you dress up for him, and he'll gratefully show you how deep that appreciation runs. Aside from a few caresses of the pleasant fabric, however, you won't get much out of him. Ripped, torn, off - he's only concerned about getting them out of his way. It's wrapping on the gift that belongs to him, and little else.

Sir Crocodile:

Cockwarming - Yes - You suggest it to him, and he agrees to it. At first he's unsure of the appeal, but when he shifts his hips to alleviate a small discomfort and your clutch his shirt, trying to stay still and stifle the noise that creeps up in you - now he's all in. It always feels good to be buried deep inside you, and before now he's been focused on the motion and the act, but the subtly of this new kink, and the teasing control it affords him is alluring. Not that he cares to let anyone else see you like this, panting and red-faced, begging to move, whimpering and trying to stay still. It's all for him to see.

Double Penetration - With another partner: I dunno - With the use of toys: Yes. There is a very very short list of people Crocodile would be willing to share you with, and outside of that he is non-negotiable. What he is perfectly content with is getting a couple custom strap-ons and laying back to leave you to work yourself onto him and the toy. If you ask sweetly he'll help you of course, but since it takes time to set up, you didn't think you were going to get away with a single orgasm? You sound deliciously different when you're stuffed so full like this, here, let him move your hips for you and help you ride that orgasm into the next one.

Stockings/Hose - FUCK Yes - You might go through a lot of stockings, but they will always be appreciated. That strong hot hand of his will slide over those silky nylons in deep appreciation, gripping and kneading your legs and thighs hungrily. There's plenty of physical appreciation of your choice of stocking, even as that golden hook tears into it oh so slowly, the steady, slow, inevitable rip that will leave them on the floor in pieces while he dives deeper into you.

Shanks:

Cockwarming - Yes - Shanks is generally a busy guy, but he's also good at time management (has to be if he wants to get places and still have time to party and drink). Having you in his lap, buried deep inside you, in a nice dark room, giving him something better than his hangover to focus on, isn't a bad way to greet the new day. He teases you of course, bucking his hips almost randomly. "Shh, shh, not so loud, my head's pounding." You don't need any light to know the crooked grin on his face is enjoying every little squirm and twitch.

Double Penetration - Oh god you have no idea - Shanks has been a pirate since day one, and this is a free spirited man who has, as far as I'm concerned, fucked and sucked his way around the globe at least four full times. Sex is fun - All Of It - and between his own sense of adventure and reckless abandon, he hasn't come across anything he doesn't enjoy. As long as everyone else is enjoying themselves, then where's the harm?

He's not foregoing his responsibilities or making bad decision because of it, but just like he appreciates a good drink, he appreciates a good romp. He doesn't get excited about much, but the more the merrier is a rare treat compared to everything else that happens, and getting to see at least two people enjoying themselves along with him just makes it all the better.

Stockings/Hose - FUCK yes - Shanks strikes me as a very tactile person. He's like to touch and be touched. (Kind of hand in hand with the above). He appreciates all the accoutrements of humanity, and when you see the same people in the same clothes day after day on long voyages, getting to have a visual and tactile change of pace is fully welcome. Grab that silky little slip of a dress to go with it, or the skirt that's a inch too short? Oh yes please. If you get that gap just right from the bottom of the skirt to the top of the thigh-highs, well, you won't have to ask or beg for anything, except maybe for him to stop or slow down.

Kinky One Piece Head Canon

#kinky one piece head canon #Shanks #red hair shanks #donquixote doflamingo #sir crocodile #x reader #doffy x reader #doflamingo x reader #shanks x reader #sir crocodile x reader

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

OP of the "I don't care what kind of person OP is I'm not checking everyone" post is, ironically enough, a Terf.

Thank you for this! Blog checked, terf shit found, post deleted.

I hope you don't mind though, Anon, I just want to use your ask to quickly make a broader point on this note:

I had six different asks that looked pretty much exactly like this over the last three days, by which I mean, entirely correct and valid and well-meaning people telling me that person was a terf/was flagged on Shinigami Eyes/etc, but providing no evidence. One of them did advise me that I would be able to see it with a quick scroll through their blog, and I did - unfortunately, I only had time to do that today.

As a note, while I'm more than happy and appreciative of getting a terf heads up, I do need a link or a screenshot. It's a dangerous road to go down to just take these things at face value. Mob rule is never good, and instant guilt is too easily manipulated by bad actors wanting to turn our own warning systems against us. Last week an NB mutual of mine had a post get red flagged on Shinigami Eyes - because it contained a link from the BBC. Red flags are not signs of guilt in isolation, only an indication of potential guilt, and that includes SE.

So yes, please do give me the heads up! Fully appreciated. But please do include a link or screenshot as evidence

#trans issues #asks

[bonearenaofmyskull]

The OP has turned off reblogs at the time I'm posting this, so it seemed wise to move this discussion about the authenticity of Hannibal's love for Will over here. I want to give it its due, and the open invitation to discuss was out, so here is some context and my response.

The original ask went:

Hi! I've wanted to write about this for a long time, and your blog seems like a safe space. Let me give you a heads up—I am not against shipping at all. I am aware of the antis in your ask box, but I promise I am not affiliated with them. This is just a friendly direction. So, if you are truly open to discussion, I want you to view Hannibal as a selfish, manipulative, and extremely violent person. Notice how he is power-hungry and wanted to keep Will in his chokehold, never viewing them as equals. Hannibal created this delusional image of Will in his mind and inserted himself into Will's delusional world. Look at his actions again in season 3. Can you point out one scene where you can write, "Oh yes, Hannibal loves Will"? The problem with the antis is that they are questioning Will's feelings for Hannibal when they should question Hannibal's feelings for Will. Hannibal only liked Will when Will behaved like Hannibal—notice that in season 2. Does it change your view on them now?

OP didn't have anything to say to this, and my response was critical of anon's choice to bring this to OP's inbox, but the relevant part of what I said to the current discussion included the following:

...the basic rule [of writing discourse] is--if you're the one to posit the claim, then it is your job to support it.... You can't possibly do the leg work needed here to give your side its due. This is such a hefty claim that you've posed--that Hannibal's worst personality defects negate any authenticity/sincerity in his emotional response to Will--that the support it needs is probably running in the 6k words range. Or more.

To which @melancholymournia responded:

Let's start a discussion then --

I believe Anon has a valid perspective. They were seeking opinions and I believe it's within their right to do so. Anon's main argument is that Crimson should view Hannibal as an antagonist, as he embodies a sinister role in the narrative. Hannibal's love for Will is portrayed as selfish, driven by desperation for understanding. Anon points out Hannibal's creation of a false image of Will in his mind, particularly evident in Season 1's exploitative and abusive behavior. Anon contends that Hannibal only appreciates Will when he mirrors Hannibal's actions,evident in s2 and Will's attachment stems from trauma and a sense of justice. Will attempted to kill Hannibal numerous times and even succeeded, but Hannibal's plot armor consistently saved him. Despite this, according to Bryan, it's "Will Graham's story," implying that Hannibal's eventual demise was always a possibility. Hannibal maintained manipulation over Will even in Season 3, from start to finish. People's justification of the Dolce scene and romanticizing the gallery scene surprises me, considering both instances involved plans for mutual harm. Despite Will expressing fatigue with the chase, questions about why he fell for Hannibal linger. After discussions, it became clear to me that his attachment wasn't love but a trauma response to his abuser. In Season 3, even when Will urged Hannibal to leave, Hannibal surrendered, manipulating the situation rather than acting out of genuine love. Hannibal caged himself to ensnare Will, who later moved on with a family, but the fandom struggled to accept it, mirroring Will's Stockholm syndrome-like attachment to Hannibal. Hannibal continued harming Will, sending the Dragon to kill Will's family to manipulate him into a meeting. Ultimately, Will chose death to escape both Hannibal and himself, feeling a resemblance to Hannibal in his mind. Throughout the seasons, Hannibal's actions show a lack of genuine love, portraying him as a greedy figure taking relentlessly from Will and ultimately causing his destruction.

I think this is a teachable moment about meta and what it needs to be successful. So this is my response--partially aimed at the content of what you've said here, and partially aimed at talking about meta itself and what it needs and how to do it justice.

I think when we're thinking about writing meta that is successful, we need to be thinking about what it is we're trying to achieve. Personally, I ascribe to the belief that "the aim of argument, or of discussion, should be progress, not victory." This doesn't mean I or anyone else won't fall victim to being petty once in a while--we're all human here, I think--but that if we're doing our jobs the best we could be doing them, then we should be focused on getting to a shared deeper understanding of the text, rather than on trying to "win." Above that, I think our fandom has lost a sense of this in its discourse in the past couple months.

In pursuit of that, I don't think how you opened, with defense of anon, was wise. This argument, if it needs to be made, needs to be made for the perusal of the fandom, not specifically for one person. Crimson neither needed nor wanted to be a target. "They were seeking opinions" and having a "main argument is that Crimson should view Hannibal as [anything]" are essentially exclusive statements. Anon was not trying to get Crimson's opinion: they were trying to sway it. You stepping in to defend anon when more people than just myself have recognized the troll-y or even malicious aspects of the ask puts your argument in a bad light, which honestly doesn't serve you well. If your primary purpose is to make the argument (and actually sway opinions yourself) rather than to defend anon (create teams/advance fandom drama/"win"), then it would be better delivered if you maintained an air of neutrality by at minimum, avoiding commentary on anon themself.

That could be done by starting your own post and tagging the interested parties and just focusing on the topic at hand and ignoring anon. Or this could be done in your response by saying something along the lines of just "This is an interesting idea that I haven't seen discussed enough. I think..." and then proceed to say what you think. That then shifts the conversation to the claims being made rather than the people who make them, and how they made them. (Note my primary objection to the original ask is exactly about anon's behavior and choices rather than to the points themselves.)

So setting the issue of anon's choices aside, we next need to look at who the audience is (the broader fandom) and how they can be swayed. Because isn't that the goal, here, ultimately? It sounds like what you and your friends want is to shift general fandom attitude away from the merry-murder-husbands interpretation and into something more cognizant of the fucked up nature of the show.

And this is not in and of itself a bad goal overall, depending on how far you take it. But whether you succeed in this goal or just end up driving people out of the fandom because of the drama or because they become disillusioned with the ship itself is a very fine line to walk, and I'm not sure the people who have been walking it lately realize just how delicately they need to step (not necessarily you specifically--I don't remember seeing your name around before this tbh). It's not progress unless people come around to your way of thinking without becoming fed up and hurt and leaving.

(Obligatory reminder to my own follower base here: I don't condone people going around to anyone's inbox or comments specifically to harass them, regardless of what their opinions are. I am fully of the opinion that we can all play in the same sandbox together without throwing sand in each other's eyes, even if we think the other sand castles are ugly.)

One troubling fact of the whole-fandom-as-audience as it exists currently is that people have differing notions about what the fandom believes on the whole. To sum up, there seems to be three camps: "merry-murder-husbands," "Hannigram-BAD," and "Wtf happened to my peaceful fandom."

If you haven't deduced it already, I belong to the third group.

Merry-murder-husbands and Hannigram-BAD both seem to largely think that everyone who doesn't belong to their own group belongs to the opposing group. But I don't think that's a useful place to write meta from. Tonally, it's going to be off-putting from the very start to anyone who isn't in your own camp, even if their camp is just "Wtf." Getting your point across is also going to be extra difficult if people are from the opposing group--they're going to feel attacked or at the very least, condescended to.

For starters, your (and anon's) talking points aren't going to be focused on what matters to the Wtf crowd. Where this comes up in this particular discussion is with these points here:

Hannibal as a selfish, manipulative, and extremely violent person.

He is power-hungry and wanted to keep Will in his chokehold.

Hannibal as an antagonist, as he embodies a sinister role in the narrative.

Hannibal's love for Will is portrayed as selfish, driven by desperation for understanding.

Hannibal maintained manipulation over Will even in Season 3, from start to finish.

People's justification of the Dolce scene and romanticizing the gallery scene surprises me, considering both instances involved plans for mutual harm.

Hannibal continued harming Will, sending the Dragon to kill Will's family to manipulate him into a meeting.

Hannibal caged himself to ensnare Will.

To the Wtf crowd, this is sort of like arguing that water is wet. Is Hannibal, the biggest pile of dicks that ever existed, actually a big pile of dicks? Well, iunno...you tell me? Nobody from this crowd is arguing that Hannibal isn't a big pile of dicks. So this is basically spinning your wheels.

As to the merry-murder-husbands crowd, this is all justified because deep down, Will is just as big a pile of dicks as Hannibal, and Hannibal being a big pile of dicks to Will just uncovers Will's true dick pile qualities so they can go off and live as merry-piles-o'-dicks together. Now, personally, I think this particular response is full of circular logic and just plain wrong, but the point here is that you're never going to win against it by writing points that play into it. This crowd will move the goalposts on this discussion to a discussion about Will's character, and then you'll be dealing with that instead of the points you want to be making about Hannibal.

This also sets aside that some of these points could be argued against on their own specific merits. Does Hannibal really want to keep Will in his chokehold, or does the real excitement for Hannibal come when Will turns the tables on him? That's a whole meta post by itself, frankly, and more than we can discuss here feasibly. But it does highlight another problem with these points: some of them are interpretations and conclusions in and of themselves, not actual points of evidence.

There's an additional problem in the overall argument with multiple points being about Will rather than Hannibal:

Ultimately, Will chose death to escape both Hannibal and himself, feeling a resemblance to Hannibal in his mind.

Despite Will expressing fatigue with the chase, questions about why he fell for Hannibal linger. After discussions, it became clear to me that his attachment wasn't love but a trauma response to his abuser.

Will's attachment stems from trauma and a sense of justice. Will attempted to kill Hannibal numerous times and even succeeded, but Hannibal's plot armor consistently saved him.

Will…later moved on with a family, but the fandom struggled to accept it, mirroring Will's Stockholm syndrome-like attachment to Hannibal.

Despite this, according to Bryan, it's "Will Graham's story," implying that Hannibal's eventual demise was always a possibility.

The original anon defined this problem as "The problem with the antis is that they are questioning Will's feelings for Hannibal when they should question Hannibal's feelings for Will," but these all shift the discussion back onto Will, into places that serve your opposition rather than serving you. So even if you "won" this part of the argument--which is easier said than done--you still wouldn't have proven your point about Hannibal, you will have just made observations about Will.

Again, this is all beside the point for the Wtf crowd, and playing into the hands of the merry-murder-husbanders.

So what do we have left? These are the rest of the statements:

Hannibal surrendered, manipulating the situation rather than acting out of genuine love.

Hannibal's actions show a lack of genuine love, portraying him as a greedy figure taking relentlessly from Will and ultimately causing his destruction.

and

Hannibal created this delusional image of Will in his mind and inserted himself into Will's delusional world.

Hannibal only liked Will when Will behaved like Hannibal—notice that in season 2.

Anon points out Hannibal's creation of a false image of Will in his mind, particularly evident in Season 1's exploitative and abusive behavior. Anon contends that Hannibal only appreciates Will when he mirrors Hannibal's actions,evident in s2.

I've grouped them like this because they are each united by theme: one, that, as I put it in my original reblog, Hannibal's worst personality defects (his selfishness, manipulation, and sadism) negate any authenticity/sincerity in his emotional response to Will; and two, that Hannibal's image of Will in his mind is incorrect enough that it means that he's fallen in love with his idea of Will, rather than with the man himself.

I think we can all see that the second of these--although perhaps the more accurate one--is going to be plagued by the moving goalposts I mentioned above. In order to prove it, you've got to prove that Will isn't the person Hannibal perceives him to be. That might be doable with the Wtf crowd (probably why I see it as a more accurate concept, since I'm in this crowd), but it's going to be MONUMENTAL to try to get the merry-murder-husbands to see it this way. If you're willing to fight those off, well, you might make some headway with people who are more open-minded.

But it's going to be complicated by the fact that you're going to have to also prove the first claim in order to make the second stick, because the problems with the first one will set up problems with the second. And that first claim is going to be real difficult to prove.

Here's why: the basic presumption of the first claim--Hannibal's worst personality defects (his selfishness, manipulation, and sadism) negate any authenticity/sincerity in his emotional response to Will--is that it defines love in the kind of platitudes people use when they're teaching their children not to allow others to mistreat them. It's syllogistic.

A. Hannibal is greedy and manipulative and destructive with Will.

B. Love is not greedy, not manipulative, and not destructive.

C. Therefore Hannibal's feelings for Will are not love.

But we all know the problem with a syllogism: if either of the premises are false, the conclusion is also false.

In real life, premise in B. may or may not be a useful way to look at love, but that's beside the point here. The question is, Is the premise in B. the way the show Hannibal presents and defines love?

Fortunately for us, the show has given us two explicit statements on love and what it is and what it means, one in "Shiizakana" and one in "Secondo."

In "Secondo," the conversation is between Hannibal and Bedelia:

B: What your sister made you feel was beyond your conscious ability to control or predict. H: Or negotiate. B: I would suggest what Will Graham makes you feel is not dissimilar. A force of mind and circumstance. H: Love. He pays you a visit or he doesn't.

This view of love is that it is outside of the control of the one who experiences it. In order to support that Hannibal does experience this kind of love when it comes to Will Graham, then all you have to prove is that he had super strong feelings toward Will that caused him to be out of control, to badly predict his own behavior, and that he did stupid shit rather than negotiate his choices well. I think...well, these are all fairly easy to prove. Hannibal set his whole neatly curated world on fire for Will, all the while thinking he was in control when he was totally out of control. This would be the "Did you think you could change me, the way I changed you?" problem. Up until the moment that Will points out that he already did change Hannibal, Hannibal really thinks he's negotiating this force of mind and circumstance just fine. Meanwhile, he makes himself sad by getting Will incarcerated and mad at him, he plays his get-out-of-jail-free card with Miriam Lass, and then this loses him his very favorite murder identity of the Chesapeake Ripper, and eventually his home, practice, ability to live under his own identity and ultimately his freedom. The fact that he tries to control something that is very much out of his control is evidence for, not evidence against, defining his actions as motivated by love. At least by this definition.

The other definition presented in "Shiizakana" is probably the more damning one:

H (in Will's mind): No one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them. By that love we see potential in our beloved. Through that love, we allow our beloved to see their potential. Expressing that love, our beloved's potential comes true.

If we stop after the first statement ("No one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them") then it might seem like we have something workable with regards to the idea that Hannibal is in love with an idea of Will rather than the man himself. By this reasoning, because he's focused on his image of Will--his imago--then his love is less than fully aware of who Will really is. So maybe it's not really love.

But unfortunately that isn't the end of the statement. Seeing that person's potential (Hannibal's idea of Will) is part of being fully aware of them, by this definition. Will then coming to see that same potential in himself--the cause of him throwing them both off the cliff instead of just Hannibal--happens through Hannibal's love for him. And if Will does go full dark murder husband (the jury's still out on this, obviously, and will probably be out forever), then that would be because Hannibal expressed his love, in all those selfish and destructive and manipulative ways. Even if Will doesn't go full dark, where he has expressed his darkness--with Chiyoh and her prisoner, with touching Frederick Chilton's shoulder, with attempting to kill Hannibal himself, with his deceptions and manipulations and obvious enjoyment of terrorizing Freddie Lounds, etc, etc, whatever--is still that potential coming true.

This is going to be a really difficult point to argue past, especially because the show is largely concerned with transformation as an expression of love, all the way back to Garrett Jacob Hobbs and most of the murders of the first season. It may not be the way one should view love in the real world, but it's the way love is defined in the murderworld of Hannibal.

And that even leaves aside numerous other points, including but not limited to:

violence as an expression of love and/or sex

Bedelia--who herself disagrees with Hannibal's assessment of Will's character--nonetheless defining Hannibal's feelings as "in love"

the imago as an image of a loved one carried by the unconscious during a person's entire life, which is still defined as love even though it idealizes that person

the fact that Will planted Hannibal's imago himself

So if this is something that you really want to pursue, all this is what you're up against. It's a tall order, and that's probably why no one has really broached the issue much in the past except as a sort of moral judgment against shippers.

The limits of what I've laid out here include the interpretation of the cliffening being Will's rejection of going full dark. That's got some room to move, but it's problematic because if he fully rejected the concept of that being his potential, then he doesn't actually need to throw himself off the cliff, and additionally, it's undermined by the Bedelia leg-eating scene which suggests Will's involvement. Ultimately, it's also fully speculative--you only have those two scenes to work with, and everything else that falls under the general umbrella of speculations about S4 and beyond are just that--speculations. Not evidence.

There's probably an argument somewhere that the show draws a distinction between wholesome love (like Jack and Bella) and Hannibal's kind of love, but I don't know if that distinction is strong enough that Hannibal's love is not love at all, in the show's terms. Especially because Jack and Bella's love is partially defined through how her coping with death changes them both. But you still have the problem of it being about different types of love, not one thing being called love and another thing not. Overall, this would be hard to find all the pieces of and would require a lot of studying the stories about love that are outside of Hannibal and Will, and this would be challenging even to me, but it might be worth a look if someone wants to do that massive amount of homework.

I guess that's kind of where all this ultimately leads me, and back to the original point I made about why this kind of discussion doesn't belong in any one person's inbox. These are big questions: they can't be fully argued in a couple paragraphs. At least not well. The fandom is sorely missing meta writers at the moment who are willing to take the trouble to do the full amount of homework and effort that is required to really say something insightful. Mostly it just seems like people want to toss off a couple paragraphs and "win."

That's always been a problem with meta in fandom. It isn't a problem we're newly inventing. Everyone has opinions, regardless of the amount of thought they've put into them--but for the Hannibal fandom specifically there used to be more people who were willing to really dedicate themselves to getting to the bottom of things, to making progress understanding the show be the purpose of discussion and analysis, rather than achieving victory over a perceived group of people who are understanding the show "wrong." Right now there's...maybe one?

To be clear, I don't count myself as in that group of one person who is willing to work that hard. At least not for the most part. There's nothing wrong with opting out of that effort.

But there is something wrong with pursuing that "win," if it comes at the expense of people's peace of mind, the fandom family's unity, and deeper understanding of the show.

So if you want to have these discussions, please have them, but have them at the level that they deserve to be had. If there has to be a call to action at the end of the post, I suppose I'm asking people to do the homework--to watch the show ten more times, start to finish, to have the episodes ready to go at a moment's notice during a discussion, research existentialism and Christianity and Revelations and the original books and films and what Bryan Fuller and the cast have said and what the other meta writers said over the past eleven years.

But at the very least, let's stop letting our annoyance with each other dictate our understandings of the show itself. Yes, some interpretations and some people can be super annoying (believe me, I've been there!), but that has no place in generating bias over what the show itself has to say.

#hannibal meta #hannibal #bear replies #hannibal lecter #hannigram #will graham #hannibal fandom meta #what is love #oh baby don't hurt me #don't hurt me #no more

[jinkookspencil]

hi! ive read your one two drop jjk!! what if y/n actually kind of like you know scary thing. like all the rides are actually fun but the thing is she doesn’t have a friend who want to do this with her so then jk is there ehhehe

shall we? | jjk

with no one to go on all the rides with, your friend encourages you to take a bold decision at a theme park...

description/tw/tags: ~1.9k words / jungkook x (f) reader / one-shot drabble / fluff / meet-cute / no warnings except swearing / feat jimin it made most sense to give them both a friend / happy, laughing jk!! i saw his recent weverse post and my heart hurts for him - i wish him nothing but happy happy days :( / i hope this is what you meant, anon, and i really hope you like it!!! thank you so much for requesting and for reading one two drop! / sorry for calling jk the bigger boy and jimin the shorter one - i'm kinda short myself so i didn't mean it in a teasing way! / ahhh idk how i feel about this one idk if i love it but i hope you like it anon / feedback is always welcome and it's appreciated!💗

There were many unspoken rules in life. Don’t propose at someone else’s wedding. Let people get off the elevator before you get in. Always pour in the milk after the cereal…

And, when planning an outing to a theme park, let your friend know whether you are a ride person or not.

Ki, your only friend at university, showed nothing but excitement when you suggested going to the theme park over the weekend. It was only natural that you expected her to be down to go on the rides with you… but when you see her in a flowy pink dress, white lace-up boots, and a beret, you quickly realize that that wasn’t the case.

“Looking very cute. But how are you going to go on any rides in that?” you question the moment you spot her by the park’s entrance, ignoring the fact that you'd coincidentally perfectly coordinated, considering your lavender jumpsuit.

“Who said anything about rides? There’s that new Sanrio pop-up with all the photo ops. I thought that’s why you suggested it.”

“I meant that as a bonus, Ki. So, what, are we gonna come back for the rides another day then?”

“Well… we can come back for something else. I hate rides, bestie, so you’ll have to go alone.”

“Oh, come on,” you pout, stopping dead in your tracks. “Just one ride.”

“They make me nauseous, boo. Even the kiddie ones. Sorry, I guess I should’ve told you, huh?”

“You guess?” you resign, briefly forgetting your disappointment until it actually sinks in during your walk around the park, when all you could do is merely look at all the rides after snapping photos at every single Sanrio-themed spot.

“I hate you for not telling me,” you utter beneath your breath, the roar of a passing rollercoaster cart right afterward only emphasizing your frustration.

“I said I was sorry! You can go alone, you know? I’ll wait.”

“What fun is that?” you sulk. “You, as my one friend, outweigh every other person I’ve ever known in my life in every regard but this…. I’ve never hated you until today, boo, because you and I both know I can’t just ask someone else.”

“Wait, no…. you can! Just do that!” she suggests excitedly, stopping.

“Do what?”

“Just… ask someone else. A stranger. I mean…. it’ll be very easy to find someone willing to go on a ride… you know, at a theme park. Would that be weird? If you just went up to someone and asked them?”

“It would definitely be weird, you freakish extrovert. Who’d do that?"

"Us? What difference does it make, whether it's a ride or a dance at a club? I know you've only just begun understanding my ways and finally tried approaching men at clubs, but... there's really no difference."

"It is different. A theme park is like... a date place. It's not just a dance."

"Well, both instances can involve a ride," she winks, laughing as you roll your eyes.

"I'd never go with a stranger anyways. There's no excitement there. Unless it was with a hot guy,” you joke.

“… And I’m sure a guy would be just as happy to go on a ride with a hot girl, too, boo.”

Ki goes on, seeing your eyes widen.

“If a hot guy came up to you and asked you, would you say yes?”

“Depends how hot…” you tease, “but yeah, I think I would. Why not?”

“Exactly! ‘Why not?’… Aren’t adventurous types your thing? Be it for a change. Think about it: if you’d say yes, why can’t it work the other way around? Provided he isn’t scared or prone to motion sickness like me…. Why would a single, fun guy refuse to go on a ride with a hot girl? And you’re a gorgeous girl who is usually sunshine in human form..... except for the last dreadful, moping hour. I’m sick of it. Find a hot guy, a ride, and get out of this funk already.” Ki’s eyes light up at her own suggestion. For the first time in her life… she might’ve been on to something….

“I just pick a guy? At random?”

“What do you have to lose?”

-

Finding someone in a sea full of teenagers and couples took longer than usual. Waiting around ride exits, entrances, and photo kiosks were all futile attempts at your now lame mission. that you’d huffed your way to the pretzel stand. You might as well eat something sweet and fluffy if you couldn’t find a guy you could describe with those words… You were a step away from cinnamony, twisty goodness when two figures whizz between you and the pretzel stand.

“YA! Jimin-hyung! You have to!” you hear, your eyes fixated on the chase unfolding in front of you when you realize it wasn’t a chase between two children but rather two grown men.

“Exactly! I am your hyung! Stop making me do this shit, or the next time, I’ll throw up on you,” the smaller man responds, darting ahead of the larger one, the both of them running loops around the pretzel stand until the shorter one jumps over a nearby bench, hiding behind it. "I know you're fucking strong enough to lift me and force me into doing it, so for God's sake, just stop, Jungkook-ah. I'll let you talk to me informally for a whole month if you don't make me do this."

The bigger man yields, stopping, seemingly to catch his breath, only to burst into a fit of laughter instead when the smaller one marches over to him, playfully hitting him with a plushie and scolding him between his low giggles as well. The few people gathered around had looked away at that point, brushing it off once they’d realized it wasn’t an actual fight… except for you.

You couldn’t. The sound tugged at your heartstrings. That loud, unstoppable, joyous laugh unlike any you’d ever heard in your entire life. And now that the taller man stood still and you could finally take a good look at him. He was big, which you’d noticed immediately, with a frog-eyed headband that somehow stayed on his head throughout the chase, adorning his long locks. Laughing heartily, almost out of breath, the shorter man beside him jokingly punched at his huge muscles… which were decorated with a vibrant collage of tattoos.

Ki gasps right beside you. “Oh, isn’t he so your ty-”

“He is. He really fucking is….” you whisper, in awe of the huge man with the frog-eyed headband.

“Look, it’ll end in one of two ways - you either will or won’t go on a ride with... the man of your dreams. He’s the hottest guy we’ve seen so far, and… tattooed, jacked... A man but happy like a kid... Damn, is he your type… You can’t pass this up. Still, if he turns out to be an idiot and says no, just look for another one. There are thousands of people here, and his friend is really cute too. Maybe even better, actually, damn.”

The man was still laughing. It was adorable.

“No, no… I want the smiley boy who can’t stop laughing… The one with the stuffed animal in his hands and that cute little matching headband. And the camera strap around his neck. The happy boy, boo. You know I like happy boys.… He's per- I… I want him.”

“I can see it in your eyes, freak. But remember, he's just a man. No difference between him and the others... even though he really does look custom-made for you.”

Frozen in your spot, you watch the man’s laugh fade away into a wide, bunny-toothed smile. Good God.

“Go. Go, boo. Now.”

Ki, ever the flirt, does what she always does whenever either of you spots someone you might be interested in - pushing you slightly until you’ve no choice but to reach her planned destination for you. Turning back was never an option. You knew better - if you attempted it, she’d just drag you back herself. A mere couple of steps away, the reflexed confidence you’d felt bubbling up from similar nights she encouraged you quickly fades away when the man is right in front of you. Though you’d only been a short distance away, he was bigger, happier, louder, and much more attractive up close. He wasn't the most attractive man you'd seen that day but... in your entire life. And when he blinks in your direction, noticing your sudden presence, you finally come back to Earth.

“Hi. Uhm, hello. This is a bit weird, but would you like to go on this rollercoaster with me?” you ask in a rush, gesturing to the attraction right behind him. “I’m here with a friend who doesn’t like rides and…”

The man’s wide smile remained on his face. It was hard not to get distracted.

“…and I thought I’d ask someone who seemed fun, unlike her.”

“What made you think I was fun?” he asks, his tone serious, despite the smile on his face.

“Well… you're standing right in front of the ride, and that little chase you guys did. It was funny.... and cute.”

“Cute?” he asks, his eyebrows raised in shock. If you weren't mistaken, somehow, his smile grew even wider.

“Yeah,” you reply, sure your expression matched his. With a reaction like that... He was either down for it or would reject you kindly... What did you have to lose? "Yeah, cute."

“How did you know he’s not afraid?” his friend interrupted. You’d forgotten the shorter man’s entire existence.

“Oh well, I assumed. Hot guys aren’t afraid of rides.” It was a weird theory you held, in line with your type and your own dating and crush history. You almost regret blurting it out, but it only sends the man into another laughing fit while his friend glared at the both of you.

“Thank you… Thank you for that - he was getting a little too confident,” the tattooed man laughs.

“For the record - I don’t hate all rides, just heights. He forced me to go on that drop ride. I feel sick, and he wants me to go on another one! That’s why... that stupid chase and that ridiculous laugh of his. He’s laughing at his friend’s misery if that’s your definition of ‘fun’ too.”

“Oh, sorry. I meant no disrespect,” you laugh, seeing the shorter man angrily and adorably all riled up.

“No, don’t worry, we know,” the hot guy adds, wiping tears of laughter away from his face, and luckily, the shorter man concurs, waving it off with a smile.

"So I hear you wanted to go on that ride too?" you ask.

“I’d… I’d love to,” the man states. Now that he’s composed himself, you could make out the rosiness in his cheeks - the happy crinkles by his eyes remained. “I’d really love to go with you. God knows I need someone cool too.” He side-eyes his friend at the comment, fiddling with the stuffed frog toy in his hands before continuing. “But hyung's cowardice is not the only reason I want to... Maybe I’ll win you one of these too later?”

The shorter man rolls his eyes, playfully punching the stuffed frog. “You have a name, tough guy?”

“Oh, sorry,” the man replies, outstretching his hand when he finally looks back at you with that same sweet smile. “My name is Jungkook.” You shake his hand and introduce yourself, noticing how nice his also tattooed hand felt…

“And I’m Jimin,” the shorter man says snarkily before continuing on. “Didn’t you say you were here with a friend? Can we hang out and gossip about you while you both go on that death trap? It’ll be nice to hang out with a sane person. I promise we’ll pray for your survival too.”

“Yeah, she’s here, but… I don’t spot her. Let me text her.”

[to: ki-ttycat]: hoe where are you? hot guy is up for it. going now!!!! but his friend is here and wants to hang out with you.

[from: ki-ttycat] are you fr?? the cutie? omgggggggggggggg running.

[from: ki-ttycat] go go have fun make sure to ride him too later.

“She’s coming,” you say with a giggle, pointing towards Ki, who you spot darting towards you with a fresh bucket of popcorn in her hands.

“Oh wow,” Jimin says under his breath when he spots her. “Go, you two. I’m done with Jungkook, that’s for sure. Y/N, you take care. The both of you. Go on all the rides if you want. We - hopefully - won’t be waiting.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes before looking back at you with a smile.

“Shall we?”

#bts fanfiction #bts fanfic #bts one shot #bts fluff #bts drabble #jungkook one shot #jungkook oneshot #jungkook fanfic #jungkook scenario #jungkook scenarios #jungkook drabble #jungkook fic #jungkook fluff #jungkook fanfiction #jeon jungkook x reader #jungkook x reader #jungkook x you #request #anon request #bts scenario #bts scenarios

[twstwonderlandstuff]

Mwaha! It's the anon that asked you for the MC who gives affection roughly by biting gently etc.. Absolutely perfect writing, OP. I loved it>:3 If I can request again, could I request the same thing with Riddle, Malleus, and Azul this time? Thank you in advance, have fun~~

biting anon is back at it again, and I am happy to oblige!

the other biting request!

reqs are open!

gender neutral reader

tw: rough affection

prompt: MC who shows affection by grabbing them really hard, biting them (gently), or giving rib crushing hugs

riddle rosehearts

🍉 he doesn't enjoy the grabbing. no, I think he'll mistake as Floyd and attempt to magic your kneecaps out of existence.

🍉 as for the biting, hmm... he is a wee lad, but the way you gently bite him, mark him, even, gives him a giddy rush that he never thought he'd get.

🍉 maybe he gets a little brazen and forgets about it when he changes? imagine Floyd pointing it out like "eh, so goldfish's not as demure as I thought, ehh~?"

🍉 man gets massacred RIP

🍉 rib crushing hugs? there's trey, and while I don't think trey's the type to crush you, I do think the tightness and closeness of the hug comforts riddle. he'll like it, but I think he'll prefer it even more if you do it in a more gentle manner.

malleus draconia

🍉 first and foremost, hats off to you for being able to grab a 202 cm man, but secondly, he'd be okay with it. it's not something he loves, but it's not something he finds distasteful, either.

🍉 though, he would appreciate it if you scaled it down a bit. it remind him a little too much of the magicam monsters.

🍉 biting??? BITING???? mark him as flustered and interested, because he LOVES it. enjoys it, relishes in the attention, in fact. cover this man up, why don't 'cha?

🍉 your rib crushing hugs reminds him of Lilia, so he enjoys it. it gives a homely feeling that he occasionally misses during his time in NRC. doesn't feel quite the same when the man that raised you transitions into a student, ya feel? keep em coming!

azul ashengrotto

🍉 I'm gonna preface this by saying that most of your actions remind him on Floyd.

🍉 grabbing just surprises him, and he'll reprimand you not to do it again. in public.

🍉 in private? he likes the possessiveness, the touchiness that comes with the action, and will melt against your body.

🍉 gentle bites? something he doesn't particularly enjoy. it remind him of Floyd, who sinosnhis teeth into him for fun if he feels like it.

🍉 rib crushing hugs, though... 👀 he digs. he digs SO hard. again, it's in the possessiveness, the feeling of your arms wrapping around his body pressed tightly (and rightly) against you... yeah, keep it up, he defo. likes it!

#twisted wonderland #twst wonderland #twst #riddle rosehearts x reader #riddle rosehearts #malleus draconia x reader #malleus draconia #azul ashengrotto x reader #azul ashengrotto #twisted wonderland x reader #gender neutral reader #gn! reader #gn reader #sugar rush

[pawberri]

im hoping you continue to make force masc art cause its always something i briefly thought about but rarely come across. which sucks, because i love tfgames.com but 99.999% of the ftm tag isnt ftm but just mtf games where you can detrans the mc/transformed characters. its infruiating, especially when i looked for any threads making a masterlist and all i found was a thread of someone complaining about it and asking for recommendations only to be told to suck it up and nothing else, just looking to argue with op, by assholes and like. one person actually suggesting some actual ftm games instead of "you can fight to keep your manhood uwu" ftm games.

i feel like there should be a "mtf detrans" and "ftm detrans" or even just a "detrans" (to be used in places where you start as male and can try to stay male or j u s t s u c c u m b which floods the ftm tag along with every other possible detrans scenario) tag on the site so people wanting to play a (forced) masc game dont have to wade through a bunch of force fem games and then the voluntary fem games as well. hell most games that let you do a ftm transformation or play as a ftm character are the ones that advertise being able to customize the mc to your liking meaning that its just a equal opportunity game. The only force masc game i can remember was called calamity jack and the last i checked its in limbo never to be updated again-although now im tempted to double check.

sorry for the rant, also i might commisson you if i get extra money for some masculization art, i also might try to doodle some stuff for it but ive been telling myself that for a bit. seeing you do it in a femboy way makes me feel kinda motivated though... sorry if this is super awkard just yeah

I appreciate your struggles... I think this is a we need more trans boys in stem cuz we are less likely to program stuff or make games. Not a hard rule but like we are usually drawing pictures and comics and not making flash games.... probably has something to do with newgrounds and stuff being kind of a gendered space and very cis dude ish so the big horny flash game platform didn't have as many of us. Then again there were so many deviantart flash games...... but yknow generalizations etc etc

Anyway I really want to make visual novels OR if anyone who makes any kind of porn game wants me to draw the art or work on a script w them... I do have writing that has been validated by actual publishers.... and I love horny games 👍

Anyway anon hope I can draw for you sometime 😌💜