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pennyserenade · 3 months

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Hello! Hope you’re doing well!! I’m not sure you’d like followers to respond to/ interact with your posts w your thoughts in the tags but I just wanted to say that I totally agree w your thoughts on Coryo and Sejanus LOL. Im v surprised (tho I guess I shouldn’t be given how old I am at this point + the no. of fandoms I’ve been in) that people can read them so differently from the novel. Coryo is an unreliable narrator and that makes it kind of fun to read because his pov shouldn’t always be taken as the truth. In fact I think it’s fun to read how differently his peers view him/ his r/s w other people vs what he himself perceives. Sejanus is such a nice, sweet boy and it’s kinda sad that other people don’t read him that way just because the book is filtered through coryo’s thoughts haha. He’s kind and dares to stand up for what he believes in… I think the saddest thing abt his story is that he was genuinely trying to help others directly but unfortunately the people he spoke to weren’t the most honest/ dependable (I don’t think the stuff with the rebels would have gone down well) and he also trusted Coryo (I don’t blame him cause Coryo was the only “nice” person in the Capitol) 😭 I suppose that’s also how difficult it is to deal w people sometimes IRL (in extreme situations). Anyway ya just wanted to share my thoughts :x feel free to ignore if this isn’t something you’re ok with!!

hi nonie! i'm absolutely okay with followers interacting with my tags and posts/coming to talk about this stuff with me! as you can probably tell i've got a lot to say about this stuff - i'm just a chronic in the tag poster lol.

because suzanne collins wrote the ballad of songbirds and snakes in a third person point of view, i think that readers have taken to assuming that what they're getting is an unbiased narrator, when in fact we are still very much getting a biased point of view from coriolanus. sure, we are distanced from his thoughts--not exactly seeing things through his eyes as we did with katniss--but that doesn't mean we don't have access to him and that his thoughts aren't distorting what we are seeing. i've thought a lot about the reasons suzanne collins might've chosen to use third person pov when she used a first person pov for the rest of the novels, and i don't think there was one definite reason. some of the brilliance of suzanne collins' writing lies in the fact that you do have derive these meanings for yourself at times. personally, i like to think that she chose to use third person pov because this story, while very much coriolanus-centric, belonged to characters like sejanus plinth and lucy gray, too.

the fact that this book came out during the trump's presidency isn't at all lost on me. i think what suzanne collins was saying was: look how badly this system failed this once privileged white boy. for all intents and purposes this should make him angry, and here are these district kids who have suffered just as he has. he can relate more to them than he can to any of his capital peers. he knows what it is to hunger and suffer and fight for your life every day, to be made to perform. when coriolanus turns his back on sejanus plinth and lucy gray baird, it is so tragic because he was meant to side with them and yet at the end of the day he turned his back on them because he wanted to be with 'his people.' he upheld this system that had so failed him because he thought people like lucy gray and sejanus plinth were primitive and less than because that's the mindless shit he had been fed his entire life. this is exactly what happened during that election. i've seen countless white people, who are every bit as poor and destitute as the immigrants that seek to come to this country for help -- if not more -- turn their back on them and support trump. even the poorest of whites think they are better than the richest of latinos or black people because this what their systems teach them, and it makes them feel good to think that.

i think that's why sejanus was district 2 turned capital. i believe that this was commentary on how, no matter how far poc and/or immigrants come, these white people will always view them as less than and that the system will never be forgiving of them. i do genuinely believe that coriolanus thought that sejanus' parents would save him in the end, and the fact that they couldn't was so shocking because he had, up until that point, seen the ways wealth had benefited plinth. he could not conceptualize a world where wealth wouldn't get a person what they wanted because he did not know what it was to be district. they did not see sejanus plinth, heir to the plinth fortune. they saw a district rat, a nameless, faceless traitor to kill. it is no surprise that coriolanus snow climbed to the top on the back of sejanus plinth tragic ending, because that's simply what happens every day.

i do understand and don't absolutely hate the conversations people have surrounding sejanus' privilege and what he chose to do with it/ what he chose not to do, but i think to consider sejanus an annoying, selfish character is erroneous. he was a boy who knew that this system would never favor him and was trying his best to envision a world where it might, and yes he did make stupid rash decisions, but at the end of the day what killed him was coriolanus snow and snow's desire for power. sejanus plinth was not stupid for trusting coriolanus snow, either; coriolanus snow was evil for betraying the boy's trust for his own self-serving agenda.

it is hard to live in a world like this. even as a white woman with a mexican father, i have have had to experience the kind of things sejanus did with people talking poorly about him and his family behind his back, and openly to his face. i am not accepted by either side and never will be, just as he wasn't. i will say i do experience immense privilege because of the color of my skin, and i won't ever pretend that i don't know that, but that's what i'm talking about: no matter how much i look like them, and act like them, i will always be a mexican's daughter and i am happy about that fact. i am mexican as much as i am white but it doesn't make the fight i have to struggle because of it any more fun.

#misc.#the hunger games #coriolanus snow #sejanus plinth #lucy gray baird #hunger games analysis

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creatively-cosmic · 2 months

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New pinned? Earlier today we got some tags on one of our art that reminded me that we never really went back and explained anything about ourselves, so. Gonna do it now.

Heya! We're Starry. This is our artblog.

We're a 20y/o genderfucked queer polyfragmented system with a lotta fictives. Pretty much everything here is based on shit in our brain. Heads up: We post Gore, Horror, and occasionally Suggestive content (tagged), along with artistic and partial nudity (which may not get tagged).

You might notice we never take acknowledging our plurality very seriously, or explain things regarding it much ever. That's... Pretty simply cause we don't want to put that on the internet for everyone and God to see. We're explaining it here because it's a part of our art and a frame of reference for a lot of things we make and say.

DON'T TAKE THIS POST AS ANY FORM OF A DNI. We don't want things we make to be treated any differently because of this. The works, writings, designs, and stories we put here are all from a place of concious thought and passion! While we call this blog more of a personal art archival, we do genuinely still put it online to share art that we've put thought, heart, and soul into.

For the record, to make things abundantly clear, we'll put a list of specifications under the cut. But in a nutshell, the main "boundary" I give a shit about is this:

Don't interact with our posts any differently than you would literally anything else. When you talk to us directly, just remember to not treat us like characters.

Thanks for reading. More below if you want more clarification.

Stuff that's fine:

We're fine with "doubles." You can be, kin, ID as whoever you want. If you relate to our stuff specifically, too? I promise that's fine. Awesome, in fact!

Comments/tags. Pleaseee comment on our art in fact it always makes our day. We see all that shit. Analyze, keysmash, shit you can even say some unwise stuff if you wanna. Don't hold back.

Fanart. Look if you ever got possessed to draw one of our designs I think we'd die for you on the spot. No questions asked, go for it.

Asks! Man, feel free to ask about anything. Ask about our stories, designs, opinions, experiences, whatever. Just don't ask about our trauma.

You can use our art as icons and such, just make sure to credit properly if it's in a public space ie social media or discord profile. Don't use it for any of that AI shit though.

Stuff that ISN'T fine:

I can't be damned to fill this out in any thorough way cause I don't really have any hard NOs, honestly. So this is just like. One thing, and it's an elaboration on the earlier bolded thing: Don't TALK DIRECTLY TO US as if we are characters. What I mean by this is... Us being fictives and talking about our stories doesn't mean this is a character blog. It isn't a roleplay blog. It's just us being us. Don't send messages or asks looking for someone specific, or expecting a specific reply, cause their source is your blorbo. And don't get shocked or offended when we inevitably act out of character in our posts, cause we AREN'T a character. We're people.

I guess this goes in hand with that but, don't tell us we're existing wrong as a fictive, alter, or system, too. I'll just block you. This is the only serious response anyone who might try to fakeclaim us is getting. I am not here to explain why we are the way we are, who we are, or what happened. Anyone engaging in """syscourse,""" please. Step back and understand that all that shit is, is sticking your nose into the trauma of strangers on the internet to decide if they're "correct" enough in your eyes. Nobody owes you their life story so you can decide if they're valid. Put your energy into something better.

#intro #welcome to my twisted ffucking cycle path mind #i have many demons in my brain one of them wrote this for me. i do hope this clears things up #anyways im tired bye

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askthechronoverse · 9 months

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This is the dedicated blog for the Chronoverse (chrononaut universe) au.

After Rex Dangervest was defeated and peace was restored to the shared Lego Universe, the queen of the Systar System brought Unikitty to her new kingdom, a place known as the Unikingdom. She made new friends and began to rule over the kingdom for about a year. One of her new friends, a fox by the name of Dr Fox, accidentally used her science to bring back the man who threatened the world a year prior. The return of this potential threat to all brickkind is the catalyst for changes that threaten to shake the world Unikitty is ruling over to its core.

Check in the links list for a synopsis of the rest of the story found in the Chronoverse trilogy of fanfictions.

After a series of events, the gang has settled down. They have lived in harmony and peace for decades and a new generation of adventurers is ready to learn about the world around them.

I do not tolerate hate speech of any kind. Any hateful comments get the block.

I do not want anything to do with TLM shipping culture. There is a specific ship in The Lego Movie fandom that is incredibly divisive. No Chronoverse content contains that ship. The only ships I care to deal with are either established in canon or raptorclip. Keep me out of the shipping drama.

Please tag anything that references Inanimate Insanity or any other Object Show. This isn't a DNI situation. I just don't want to see that fandom for personal reasons.

The person behind the screen doesn’t exist beyond this and occasional administrative posts. I’m here to run a blog for my AU. I will not answer non-AU related questions.

Just be respectful. I block rarely, but I usually only blocked because I don’t want to interact. To me, blocking is defensive.

My upload schedule is, unless announced, Friday evenings. I am in Eastern Standard Time.

All uploads are going to be simultaneously released on Tumblr and AO3.

Once the next chapter is uploaded, time moves to reflect that chaper.

Anyone found in the characters section is a viable character to ask questions! Just make sure you put somewhere in your ask which character the question is addressed to. I reblog ask memes to make things easier for people to get involved!

If you're going to reblog these ask memes, either send me an ask if you're re-blogging directly from me or reblog from the source. I will do the same for you.

This blog takes place 25 years after the events of Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. As such, characters may not act like you might expect. I promise I understand the characters I write.

This blog does accept magic anons. However we are also a PG blog. I will not do any m!a or answer any questions that are of a not safe for work nature.

I do also rp! Your interactions change the story.

My tag list is in the links, but the main tag I use for the chronoverse is #thechronoverse or #Chronoverse AU. Not terribly catchy, I know. The Chronoverse is a name for a series of classic video games (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, ect) ad I don’t want to flood their tags with my stuff.

The Players

Tags - tags will contain spoilers.

The Story So Far

On Blog Plots

AO3 list

Like this and join my ask network

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libitinalucus · 8 months

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AO3 Search is Awkward, Actually

Whenever someone criticizes AO3's search for being difficult or confusing, there are a lot of long-time users that chime in that it's the best and not confusing at all and even going so far as to belittle the people that don't get it, and I find that a very exhausting and just sad that new user's frustrations are blown off instead of maybe attempting to see things from their perspective. Because the truth is, while AO3's filtered works system is great, actually getting to that point is not as simple as some make it out to be. Allow me to extrapolate.

Say you've never used Archive Of Our Own before and you decide you want to browse it for the first time. In this day and age, I think many new user's instinct is to search for the tags to go directly to the themes you're interested in, like so:

Searching via Works has way more options out the gate and has filtering right from the start, but most new users, especially ones that grew up on tumblr or tiktok, are far more familiar with Tags when it comes to finding their way around, so this is the section they're more likely going to gravitate towards from the list of options. That's easy enough to find, sure, but then the weird part is when you start searching for stuff.

So naturally what's the first thing you do? Type in what you think is an approximation for a tag that should be there and hope that you'll get a set of options that is close to what you want.

But instead, what you find is this:

This is an awkward and confusing list, mostly full of weird variations of the same thing. Even with AO3's tag wrangling, there are loose-ends everywhere, especially for less popular entries. Now it is only by sheer luck that the most populated tag, Freeform: Teratophilia ‎(3364), is at the very bottom of my screen cap. I only manage that because I expanded my browser and it just so happened to be at the bottom of the list. But in many cases, the tag you're looking for might not as easily be found.

For those experienced with AO3, you would know that the most populated tag is clearly the one you're looking for. But for a brand new user to the service, it is very easy for that to be drowned out in the sea of information that has been presented and be overwhelmed and confused. And this is only for a small tag, in the case of much more variable tags, the Most Populated tag that you're actually looking for could be buried on the third or fourth or even thirtieth page. For anyone that doesn't know what they're looking for this is the point where they try one more thing to attempt to make sense of what they're seeing.

They go to the Sort By menu and look for a 'most populated' option but there is none. Just Name and Date Created. There is no ability to sort by 'most populated' tags, which would make it much easier for a person brand new to the service to find what they're looking for. If you're lucky enough that the thing you're looking for has been around a long time, then Date Created might help you find the tag, but this is not always the case. (this has happened to me, many times.) This is probably about the time any new user with no one to help them, will give up. This is the first hiccup in the issues with AO3's search.

But say they find the tag they're looking for, Date Created sorting can account for most tags, sure, maybe I'm making a big deal about a fringe case. But then we get into the issue of 'what if the tag you're looking for, isn't a common tag.'

For anyone brand new to AO3 with absolutely no context for its hierarchy, will likely have no idea that AO3 has a 'Common Tag' system. I used my example of Teratophilia, not only because of my personal bias, because I knew it wasn't a common tag. For those not familiar with what a Common Tag is on AO3, it is an 'Official' tag, as in officially recognized by AO3 and are most commonly media/character with some significant concepts thrown in. These tags are not only marked in bold in a list making them visibly distinct, but they also offer the robust filtering features that AO3 is known for.

When you look up something that might be highly populated, but isn't a common tag, you don't have the luxury of the tag being made more visible by a bold style, making it even more difficult to pick out from a list.

But say you find your tag easily enough, and you click on it. You are now presented with the results of the tag, but to anyone new, you'll see that you are offered no option to filter the works under that tag because you have learned the tag you want to search, isn't a 'common tag'. Without any context for what this means, it can be confusing to know what to do with this information.

They're going to see this page and go 'where's the filtering everyone's talking about, what the heck is a common tag' and get frustrated. Maybe they'll weed through the list presented but others may just leave the site because they don't want to manually search that many pages. They don't have the context to know that their best next step should be to search a much more general tag, and then refine it down from there because they don't know the difference between a 'Common Tag' or 'Additional Tag' and how to find it.

For many long-time users of AO3, they may be quick to point out that AO3 does have a glossary and an FAQ, and that new users should start there to sort out any confusion. But the glossary isn't much help when it lists the term 'canonical tag' but any new user's introduction to the tag will usually happen when they click on their first non-canonical tag and see that the description uses the term 'common tag' as shown above. This makes it inconsistent to anyone not familiar, where to start when looking up this information to find context.

If your first encounter with the concept of the 'Canonical Tag' is to see it referred to as a 'Common Tag', but you go to look for it in the FAQ and you don't see 'Common Tag' in the list, you're going to feel like you've hit another dead end. This will likely be another point where new users stop using the site.

This means that if someone's first experience with the site is looking up something not popular and not 'canonical', they're going to get lost very quickly, and the usual means that they could have used to find their way around, simply aren't there. This is made more confusing/complicated by inconsistent use of terms on the site, and lack of using both terms on the glossary. This is very easily and simply solved by changing the glossary entry to Canonical Tag (Common Tag), as well as providing direct links to the Glossary/FAQ sections when searching.

But that's not the only issue, say if you do actually click on one of the 'Canonical Tags' for the first time, this is what you're greeted with:

Especially for some of the most populated tags, you are presented an absolutely overwhelming amount of visual noise and no actual search results. Long time users will know the next step will be to click on Filter Works, but anyone new will likely find that small text downed out by the absolutely massive wall of synonymous tags, along with the list of subtags that follow below it. New users probably haven't learned the buttons at the top right corner also link to using the tag in a search.

It can be very strange to a new user how clicking on a non-canonical tag will result in getting a listing of works right away, but clicking on a canonical tag will not. I'm aware that this because the tag page is a landing page to provide additional information/context, but there isn't even a description on this page for what the tag means so it doesn't even serve that purpose. I am of the opinion that the sections such as synonymous tags and subtags, should be collapsible areas to reduce the visual noise that would be off-putting to most new users. (though I'm of the opinion that clicking on the tag from the search should go straight to the filter works, but that's me.)

And a quick search side-note, when using the search in the top right, it does an 'any field' word search for everything in the archive, it doesn't bring the user to a tag list like many tag-oriented new users might have expected.

Using the Edit Search will help refine if from there, but it would be nice if there was something to indicate 'hey there's a tag under this thing you searched' to help with refining the search, better.

Once you get past the hurdle of understanding what you're even looking at when using the search, AO3 does indeed have some great filtering features that still does not seem to be matched anywhere else. But that hurdle is not exactly intuitive and I do think there needs to be some shaping up on AO3's part. (Among other things, but that's not this post. I am only here to point out issues with the function of its search and navigation choices.)

If you run into someone saying that AO3's search is bad or confusing, this is probably what they're talking about. If you want new users to use and enjoy the service, you need to listen to them and try to figure out where they're coming from instead of blowing them off. Because yes, in fact, AO3's search is very awkward and confusing to anyone not familiar with how it functions and belittling others for not getting it, is not helpful.

#archive of our own #ao3 meta #ao3

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a-dragons-journal · 2 years

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I came up with a possible term for KFF. I'm still figuring out how I/we (system) feel/are in terms of kin stuff. I've definitely said "kin" in a KFF way in the past, but when I've seen the alternatives to using kin or kinning, I get really overwhelmed. So, I've started using this as a tag on my personal system blog: kif. It's basically the phonetic pronunciation of KFF, it's three letters like kin, and it's shares the first two letters of kin, so it's really easy to use and if in the future you discover that what you're experiencing isn't KFF, but something else, it's easy to switch to kin. Kiffing doesn't sound as nice as kinning, but it works as a tag and like when my partner sends me stuff I can just reply 'kif'

I'm still pretty much an outsider to the alterbeing community, but I want to make sure I'm respectful. I'm still figuring stuff out.

Frankly, clicking/KFF/whatever you want to call it is pretty frequently still something that can fit into the alterhuman umbrella if you want it to, but I get what you mean.

I'm not.. personally a huge fan of that alternative, mostly because it's coming directly out of The Thing We Want People To Stop Calling It and I don't love that - my concern being that for some reason KFFers have picked up "KFF" and started bandying it about as, like, a label and, idk, a claim to "kinning" language as appropriate? and I don't love the idea of reinforcing/legitimizing that by directly basing an alternative on it, if you get me.

...but also, you know what, if it were to catch on as an alternative I would certainly not be complaining, I'd prefer Almost Literally Anything Else from where we're at right now and gods know nothing else has been wildly successful yet. If that's what works best for you then godspeed you funky little creature and thank you it really is appreciated whatever my personal preferences on the subject

#otherkin #kin for fun #i've even seem some kffers claim that THEY came up with the term and like. no. no you didn't #i know because I WAS THERE WHEN THAT TERM ORIGINATED IN OTHERCONNECT #I HELPED MAKE IT BY ACCIDENT AND I KIND OF REGRET IT TBH #(i was as far as i can find the first person to start shortening it to ''kin-for-fun' people' which then got shortened by someone else)#(as opposed to like. longer and more inconsistent phrases trying to be specific about the group being referred to)#it was never supposed to be a legitimate label it was supposed to be a way to be clear about who we were fucking talking about #because a lot of actual otherkin and fictionkin use the word 'kinnie' these days and didnt like us using it to refer to kffers #but history happens every day and here we are i guess #rani talks #asked and answered #basic-bamboo

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vanillahub · 1 year

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Please read!

Edit 1: You don't need to follow the hub*, but that'd be very helpful for me to check if we're still mutuals or not. Just please, make sure you're following at least one of the RP side blogs, and not just the hub.

*Addendum: If you use the "disable comments from people you don't follow" feature, then I ask you kindly to follow the hub and not just the RP side-blog. Because it prevents me from commenting on your posts, since the comment is coming from this blog rather than the side one. Failing to do this heavily affects the way I can engage with you and your blog/muses.

If I've followed you, it is for one of these blogs:

@galaccias - Star wars Multimuse (Not following new SW mutuals)

@healbellls - Pokemon Multimuse

@hxdrostorms - Multifandom multimuse - Castlevania [games] and Saint Seiya [classic]

As of the 25th of February 2024, I've been prioritizing Discord RP over Tumblr.

Interested in Discord RP? Check out my info here!

In light of a new awfull trend across the RPC: I don't send any anonymous messages ever. If you receive any form of hateful message with my name attached, ignore and delete it. Without a doubt, it is someone looking to impersonate me, in hopes of sparking controversy. It is a shame this has to be addressed.

Rules highlights:

I'm a big supporter of 'tag & curate your online experience', 'ship and let ship', 'don't like don't read' (Dead dove don't eat), 'fiction can affect reality, but it will never be that', 'shipping/fandom isn't activism'. If you have any issues with these things, then this blog might not be for you.

I do send in passwords/anything that the mun requires, to let them know I have read their rules. But, unless specified, I'll only do that AFTER being followed back. Because I don't wish to make it seem like I'm "pressuring" them to follow/interact with me.

I reserve the right to unfollow and block anyone, I don’t owe an explanation for doing so. Do not evade it, nor send people after me in an attempt to score an answer for you. If you find out you’ve been blocked by me, move on like any other person would.

The same goes out to anyone following me, who wishes to break mutuals with! Block and unfollow to your heart’s content, IDC what you do in order to feel well. I’d much prefer being softblocked, so I don’t end up sending prompts or interacting with your posts/blog, without realising we no longer were mutuals.

Anonymous messages are permanently turned off.

There’s no pressure when it comes to interacting with my muses. As in, if you’re only looking to interact with one out of all the other options? I’m cool with that. The choice is yours, I’ll obviously try to offer as many as I can see fit for us. But I’ll never force anything upon anyone. And on that note: All I ask in return is to respect my grading system for muses (primary, secondary & tertiary/friends only stuff)! As mentioned in the directories, while I don’t mind HC asks aimed at those tertiary muses. Interactions and plots are reserved only for my long-time partners or friends!

Reblog karma is in effect, if I reblog a prompt from you I will send in something back. And I expect the same from you, if you do nothing but reblog memes directly from me without sending anything back, you will be blocked. I have a tolerance when it comes to mutuals, I’ll contact you to stop with it. However, I have zero tolerance for non-mutuals.

I am NOT fictionkin nor self-insert friendly, I’ve had way too many bad run ins with them, and I want nothing to do with them! Mun =/= Muse, if you can’t understand that concept then leave. I’m NOT my muses, and I’m not here to judge anyone, but I'm also not here to fulfill anyone’s fantasies like that.

Non-mutuals: please refrain from sending prompts that have been specifically tagged/marked as ‘mutuals’. They have been marked in such way, for a reason. I get you may want to draw my attention to your blog, however, that’s not the way to go about it (If you do this, I’ll likely take it as an attempt to brute force your way into my boundaries. DMing me is a whole lot better.). I take a while to follow people back, you can find more info in regards to what I look into people’s blogs & take into consideration before following back in my rules.

I’m strongly against the idea of “if we’re mutuals, then we’re immediately friends!” (as it promotes an unhealthy sense of overfamiliarity, and it has put me in awkward situations in the past). So please, don’t go around calling me a friend, unless we’ve known each other and have been in constant contact for quite some time. It’s nothing against anyone, that’s just how I roll.

On following: If I don’t get followed back in my actual rp blogs after an week or so, I’ll take that as the person’s way of saying they aren’t interested and I’ll unfollow & softblock if they only followed the hub! Of course, I may contact the person in case they have already answered to my asks or other things.

If you’re someone who keeps adding new muses every other day, or is always making new blogs and quickly abandoning old ones (aka drifters or blog-hoppers). Then, it’s very unlikely we will mesh well as writing partners. It’s nothing personal, but this sort of thing doesn’t work well with me. I need rping partners, who wish to stick around for the long run. I can’t and won’t keep up with muns, who are always doing those things and clearly have other things in mind for RPing.

I don't have access to the Legacy editor only the new beta one. I'm using the new XKit trim posts, for my RP responses.

#[ Pinned post ]

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someidiotwithalaptop · 1 year

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Crossovers!

This is where we really start getting into stuff that the Ao3 filtering system isn't designed for. Two problems:

1. What if I want to look at crossovers for a fandom, but don't want to specify what they should be crossed with? Without drowning in fics for franchises I'm not familiar with?

2. What if I want to block crossovers with too many fandoms?

For problem 1, we have two options: block every fandom that we don't know, or whitelist only the fandoms that we do.

I'll start with the first option, which is the route I have taken and also somewhat inefficient, though it does allow me to be pleasantly surprised by fandoms I forgot existed. (For example, I don't read Elder Scrolls fics on their own, but "characters get stranded in Skyrim" is a really fun premise that I'm glad I stumbled across.)

Mostly this works exactly the same as normal tag blocking, since fandom tags are still just tags. But I did run into a problem. Say you don't know much about the Batman franchise so you want to block it. There's a lot of different fandoms included in that, from cartoons to movies to comics, and you could grab all of them at once in a filter blocking the phrase "Batman".

But what if somebody tagged a crossover fic that is in fandoms I know with something like "Blorbo Baggins thinks he's Batman"? A filter like that would block that fic. I could fix this problem by finding and filtering every single individual fandom tag with Batman in it, but I can say from experience that doing this is very annoying.

To get around the problem, we just tell the filter to only focus on those links if they happen to be the child of a particular class, in this case the "fandoms" class, like so:

.blurb:has(.fandoms > a[href*="Batman"]) { display: none !important; }

This actually works for a whole bunch of different classes, and lets us do something else really helpful that'll get its own post later, namely blocking every relationship tag with a particular character in it with just one filter.

More generally, you can block by tag type like this:

.blurb:has(.type > a[href*="Banned%20Phrase"]) { display: none !important; }

Where .type is replaced by: .fandoms for fandom tags .warnings for archive warnings .relationships for relationship tags .characters for character tags .freeforms for freeform tags

And Banned%20Phrase is replaced by whatever phrase you'd like to block.

Okay, but like. This still involves blocking a ridiculous number of tags. Case in point, I'm up to sixteen site skins solely dedicated to blocking fandoms, each with nine filters in it. And counting.

So instead, we set up a filter that blocks any fic that has a fandom tag that isn't on a specific whitelist, like so:

.blurb:has(.fandoms > a:not(a[href$="/tags/Fandom1/works"], a[href$="/tags/Fandom2/works"])) { display: none !important; }

The a:not() part selects for every tag that isn't in the parenthetical, and .fandoms > works as above, specifying that we only want to block tags for not being on this list if they're fandom tags.

Alright. On to MegaCrossovers!

So, it turns out you can block any fic with at least n fandom tags, using a brand new selector, nth-of-type(). The final filter looks like this:

.blurb:has(h5.fandoms > .tag:nth-of-type(n)) { display: none !important; }

(If anybody's reading this after finding the code I put up on Ao3, this is slightly different from the filter there—now that I've been working with CSS a bit more I've realized I literally do not know how the hell that code worked, just that it did, and this version also worked when I tested it. This time for reasons I actually sorta understand!)

So! The "h5.fandoms" bit is specifically looking at the section of a fic blurb that contains all the fandom tags. The little ">" symbol looks for a tag nested directly inside the .fandoms class. Then, "nth-of-type()" looks for an element that is the "nth" sibling—basically, the nth item of some class with the same parent.

What this does is look for a fic, that has a fandoms section, that has an nth tag. So if we use n = 10, this filter will catch any fic that has a 10th fandom tag—and will remove it. Which means that to allow fics with up to 3 tags, we'd pick n = 4.

(Other Ao3 tagblocking things)

#ao3 #how to ao3 #ao3 skins #tag blocking #css

0 notes

kalopsia-stars · 2 years

Note

omg yes do it 👁️👁️

i was thinking about the "communication" fic u did and mayhaps u could even implement genshin's uh,, wack censoring,, in the chats,, the weird censoring makes me think that maybe that's the system on the path to being much more sentient and in control of your game? especially since the characters are trying to push the limits of the system... if the traveller is succesful again at attempting to communicate maybe it'll just flat out censor all of your replies to them so they'll gain nothing in the end? another warning from the system to get them to give up trying to reach you :0

I apologize so much this is an old ask-

so, pre-alliance between sentient System and the genshin cast, the System is constantly trying to sabotage the traveler's attempts at communication. Like you said, System would just censor the messages. Even when your game gets glitched by the Traveler so that your game becomes co-op out of nowhere in order to use the messaging function, it just comes out in tags before they're promptly deleted.

Though, eventually, the Traveler would find a way around the System and would be able to talk to you. Unbeknownst to them, however, the System is actually allowing them to message you. This is around the period where System is confused like, "it's not upsetting the player?? interesting." and just lets stuff happen.

After the genshin cast and the System come into terms with each other, a new option pops up in the messaging function.

A notification appears on the message icon in the bottom left corner. Just a frien-

Companion ①

Oh.

...

OH?!

This has to be some weird new name one of your friends picked out, so...

Upon clicking the new Companion option, you're greeted by a new emoji that you're sure isn't accessible by you or other players. After the image of a chibi version of your traveler waving with a smile, a few messages are what follow.

Good afternoon! Or, at least it's currently afternoon for me. It's almost surreal being able to talk to you without repercussions- but let's not go there right now.

First things first, I want to thank you for all the help you've given me and my friends! Even when that sometimes ended up being defeated in battle... I want to thank you for putting all the effort into making us stronger and for growing our bonds with one another. It really has been a great time, but I think we can both agree that not being able to directly communicate has gone on for too long. I just hope we can continue this!

What is going on? You just logged on and you're seeing yet another weird thing in your game--not that you're complaining. The characters interacting with you more seems to be a recurring thing, you've noticed. (As if it wasn't obvious before enough.)

You place your hands on the keyboard.

Who's talking?

The answer comes quickly.

It's me, [Username]. Or,

The Traveler.

#kalopsia ask #kalopsial stars writing #genshin self aware #self aware genshin #sagau #genshin impact writing #sentient system #I ENDED UP WRITING AN ENTIRE THING #i am so so so sorry about this being late #Make SAGAU Normal Again

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sophieinwonderland · 2 years

Note

Look im not here to insult you or anything, that would not get anything smart out of you and you would just say shits like "tulpa are valid yadayada" so here is a objective criticism.

Most of your post are ableist, referring to someone with a fucking trauma&dissociative disorder as less than someone thinking their imaginary friends are real is fucking ableist ok.

Idk if you think you are in the right or if you family made you feel important enough to not be called out for it, i dont care honestly, but what you are doing is ableist.

Im not Buddhist myself so idk if what you do is really racist, but multiple people that aren't of your ethnicity and some even Buddhist said "tulpa" as a term is cultural appropriation.

What i do know is that you are looking down on mentally ill people for you own gain, giving out false,old and debunked sources to individuals that expects a truth that doesn't exist, talking over people with did/osdd/udd that aren't part of this weird cult-like community, taking stuff that never was yours, breaking boundaries of MANY peoples and obliviously spreading misinformation, i dont care how you want to reply to this, and if you want to reply to this.

This isn't a delebate, im not asking uou to defend yourself, im just pointing out a toxic behavior, i suggest you get off the interned, and no not because you are dumb or smth, but because so many misinfo is harming a lot of people, bye.

"Talking over people with did that aren't part of this weird cult-like community."

I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was listening to the wrong kind of disabled trauma survivors. Thank you for informing me that those people don't count. /s 🙄

I genuinely don't know where you get the idea of ableism from. I might have sometimes used "disordered systems" to refer to DID/OSDD systems, but never in a pejorative manner. I don't think having a disorder or disability makes you lesser, whether the disorder is ASD like we have or DID. Never once have I looked down on someone for having DID or OSDD. We're disordered in our own way. Ours just isn't connected to our plurality.

Also, I don't know what out of date research you're talking about. Most of my sources on the studies page are more recent than the theory of structural dissociation.

Here is an objective criticism for you now:

And you talk about harmful and toxic behavior. But have you looked at your own community? Or, I should say, have you looked at ours? If you visit the endogenic tag at any given time, a good half of the recent posts will be anti-endos spreading hate and vitriol in our spaces. Compare that to the traumagenic tag where the rare occasion and endogenic system posts, it's usually a generic positivity post for all systems.

And it's not like it's an accident this happens. A recent post in the syscourse tag explicitly said they don't believe endogenic systems should have safe spaces. It's not uncommon to see hate posts made directly to endo safe or positivity posts.

But it's okay, they'll say, because they’re harassing the right people. So-called "ableists." Except if you listen, they'll turn around and claim many of these are probably just traumagenic systems "in denial."

Such great people these exclusionists are, bullying and abusing these trauma survivors into the right side or just off of these internet. If only the deluded trauma survivors could understand that the exclusionists are abusing them for their own good. /s

But it doesn't actually matter if the trauma survivors are in denial or not.

The greatest lie the exclusionists tell is that their actions are okay because endogenic systems are hurting DID/OSDD systems. They don't talk about talk about the DID/OSDD systems they hurt.

In the past few months since setting up this blog, I've accumulated more than 200 followers. Many are endogenic, but many are not.

One of the earliest asks I got was from a traumagenic system who was in a DID server. At one point, they were asked if they hated endogenic systems. They didn’t even know what endogenic systems were before that point. But because they didn't hate endogenic systems, they immediately found themselves harassed out of the community.

I've seen similar stories countless times. Maybe it's not even for supporting endos. In some cases, it's diagnosed DID system who, even though they suffered trauma, remember being plural before that trauma took place, and so they choose not to identify as traumagenic.

They still did suffer severe trauma as a child. They're still diagnosed with a disorder. But they're bullied and abused for how they choose to perceive their own disorder and trauma. Their own personal experiences are considered ableist.

Who protects these systems? These trauma survivors? It's clearly not you.

The truth that the exclusionists don't want you to hear is that they don't discriminate between endos and supporters and diagnosed DID systems who just don't fit into their boxes. They'll point with their right hand to the endogenic systems they'll accuse of being ableist so that you don't see the DID systems they're abusing with their left.

You say that I’m speaking over DID/OSDD systems, but I'm not. What I am doing is giving a voice to them. To the systems who have come to me that have faced bullying and abuse by exclusionists. The trauma survivors who don't participate in syscourse because they aren't in a good mental state and know that if they do, they will be abused over and over again, until they've been successfully bullied into silence.

Even in your ask, you already try to "other" them by referring to them as cult members. To you they're... hmm... is there a mental health equivalent of a "race traitor?" Doesn't matter. You get the idea.

And some of these systems have cult-related trauma. And why? Because they believe the scientific evidence of endogenic plurality as opposed to the zero evidence it doesn't exist?

People will say that it's not my problem. That I shouldn’t involve myself in DID/OSDD discussions because I don't have those disorders. But as long as there are DID/OSDD systems who come to this blog because exclusionists have made them feel unsafe existing in their own spaces, it is my problem.

And it's not just the endo and endo supporters who these exclusionists have been hurting. It's also their own supporters.

Not long ago, there was a popular post ordering people to stop using Simply Plural because some of its articles were from inclusive plural groups. When people pointed out that the app was completely free to use, included no ads (it's funded through patreon) and that there aren't better alternatives for DID/OSDD systems, the OP responded by telling them that the app was harmful to systems and using it or accepting it's existence at all was a form of support.

The implication being that if you continue to use this tool that helps your mental health, then you're hurting systems. This is almost like trying to manipulate people to stop taking antidepressants or antipsychotics to spite big pharma. And this wasn’t a minor thing. This post accumulated over a hundred notes, and many reblogs across anti endo blogs on this site. And you accuse endo supporters of being cult members while anti-endos are emotionally manipulating their followers to engage in harmful behaviors like this.

And on that note, while I have your attention, I want to say this to anyone in these circles: look out for yourselves. You might think these people are your friends. You might like the sense of community you get there. You might think you can trust them because of some shared commonalities. But anyone, anywhere, who would try to emotionally manipulate you into doing something hazardous to your mental health isn't a friend and doesn't care about you.

Whatever crusade they're convincing you to fight isn't worth sacrificing yourself or your health for.

And I would apply this same standard to myself as well. Anyone who feels that what I'm doing is harmful to their mental health can turn the other way and block me right now. I would rather lose followers than inadvertently cause someone harm.

Unlike the people who pushed their followers to stop using Simply Plural, I care more about the mental health of the systems following me than I do about pushing an agenda.

I'm not telling anyone to leave these communities. (Although frankly, all that hate is probably not very good for you either, but that's another topic.) Just, while their right hand is pointing at the people they want you to hate, pay close attention to what they're doing with their left to make sure the ones being manipulated and abused aren't yourselves.

Whatever side of this topic you're on, stay safe and take care of yourselves out there.

#ask box #syscourse #endogenic #endogenic system #plurality #plural #plural system #multiplicity #abuse #tw: cult mention #cult #actually endogenic #actually plural #system #anti endo #anti endogenic #discorse #ableism #plural community

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sokkastyles · 2 years

Note

I just venture into the Anti Zutara verse and is incredible because is just people hating on Zutara fans, not the ship itself, with arguments like I see in the Anti Keteeng verse. Nope. They are just being extremely toxic against real people. Even saying that if we don't like Keteeng we should watch another show, because apparently they own the show now and dictate who can or cannot watch it and have opinions about it. 🙄

Btw, I saw a comment hating on you and I just wanna say that you're amazing and don't let this kind of shit get to you. Haters gonna hate. Be safe.

Thanks. Apparently some people consider me a "BNF" and I think that's part of it, but that's weird to me because I've only been here for a year and a half and barely follow any ATLA blogs. I just created this blog as a place to put my ATLA stuff because I didn't really want minors following me on my other blog.

And yeah, the thing about anti zutara stuff vs anti KA and MZ is that posts that are anti the canon ships are commenting on and analyzing what is in the show. Whereas with zutara, it's all fanon so any attempts to "debunk" is just commenting on people's headcanons, which is always gonna make you look like a jerk.

Something I've heard someone else say that has always stuck with me on fandom is that you should try to avoid having opinions about other people's opinions, because that's always what leads to fights. So when I try to make my posts commenting on the canon ships, I try to comment on what's already in the show instead of other people's interpretations of it. I know I don't always succeed, but that's always my goal.

When I first got into the fandom, I was immediately turned off by the zutara hate not just because I already shipped it, but because a lot of it is twisting the narrative in order to disprove something that is fanon to begin with so if you start reading this posts knowing nothing about the fandom, like I did, it looks a lot like these people are tilting at windmills. Like, not only is there no real point, but literally no fanon shipper needs or wants to hear why you think their headcanons are wrong.

If people do know me from my personal they probably know that I'm always pro-shipping. I use anti tags mostly to avoid arguments when I criticize the canon ships, but my point is never to criticize shippers. I could care less what people ship. Really. Which is why I was genuinely surprised when some people got angry when I said I wouldn't make or support callout posts for people not shipping zutara in the "correct" way. Or why I gently ignore it when people send me asks after I reblog from certain bloggers to "warn" me that so-and-so ships x, y, or z unacceptable ship (usually azulaang or zucest). I know. I do not care. Which is not to say that there aren't certain ships and certain dynamics that bother me immensely. But I don't go out of my way to attack those shippers because I can't actually make a judgement about why someone ships something, especially if the ship itself is fanon.

Which, before anyone jumps on me, isn't to say I think anything goes or that there aren't valid criticisms to be made, especially since ATLA does touch on so many sensitive issues. But I agree, saying people shouldn't watch the show if they have different interpretations or are critical of some aspects of it is gatekeeping and toxic positivity. James Baldwin said "it's because I love America that I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually," and of course he was talking about things much bigger than fandom, but the same lesson still applies, which is that you should immediately question anyone or anything, any system that puts itself forth as above reproach to the point where criticism is pathologized. I made a shitpost recently about canon shippers saying that "postmodernism was a mistake," but like, postmodernism didn't happen in a vacuum. It's directly linked to the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, gender theory, and a broader understanding of the global world. It's inherently about questioning and tearing down existing structures, and you can't have social justice at all without it. You also cannot even have shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender without postmodernism, because the show itself and its very inception was born from an interaction between anime and western animation, the writers and creators were very involved with the fandom, and the result is something so incredibly self-referential that Derrida is probably turning somersaults in his grave.

But anyway.

#atla fandom #atla discourse #zutara #antikataang

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bitch-spectrum · 3 years

Text

New Pinned Post!!

Hey, My partner and I are in a tight spot!

Please see my partners Art Blog for emergency Commissions.

@crows-studio

We are at risk of losing our current place of residence if we don't get more money incoming.

If you can't commission please share his commissions. Don't reblog this post, go to his blog and reblog from him directly.

About my Posting:

This blog serves as the reblog spot for most of my system so this is just a disclaimer that if you see a bunch of one specific kind of post, this blog isn't centric to that. This blog is chaotic and has no theme due to there being many people that use it.

Sideblogs

@i-love-crows -> Crow Love Blog. Inactive

@alters-journal -> System Blog. Active

@thirsty-rambles -> NSFW Blog. Active

@artbrewer -> Art Blog. Active

@crows-studio-> Partner's Artblog. Please Commission. Active.

DNI under cut.

DNI

We can interact if you’re mature:

Extremely Media Critical

Think shows like Steven Universe aren’t “Good enough representation”

If you use any of these flags. Lesbian Pan Pan

If you follow me I’ll block you but feel free to like/reblog my posts:

Twitter Users Main (Send me ur Twitter to see if you qualify for an exception)

Dere Types

Discourse Main

Post untagged kink/ think kinks aren't inherently sexual. (If you post about kinks idgaf go off sis just maybe sometimes I dont wanna see your piss kink in a fandom tag maybe so just tag it correctly)

Blocked on Site:

Racist/ Trump Supporter/ Anti BLM

LGBT+ Phobic

Kik Users (No exceptions)

Ace/Aro Exclusionist

Anti Vaxx

Endo/ Non traumagenic “systems”/ supporters

ddlg/cglre kink/cnc (These specific kinks make me extremely uncomfortable)

Anti Agere

Anti-Kin

Ableist

Man Hater/KAM

Pedo/ Map/ Nomap/ Pear/ Pro-Ship/Necrophile/ Comship (since it needs to stand out apparently)

Super Straight/Bi/Gay/Lesbian

Pro S/H / Pro ED/ Anti Recovery

Terfs/Incels

Harry Potter Fans

Want to start discourse about something listed above. Just block me and save us both the energy <3 (Questions about stuff are okay)

Problematic Fandoms I’m In (BYF):

Danganronpa

South Park

Homestuck

Hazbin Hotel

Helluva Boss

Now, I don’t post frequently about any fandoms I’m in but sometimes I might reblog a few posts if it comes up.

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tiny-space-robot · 3 years

Note

Okay so Fire Emblem anon here!! Here's a Kinda Super Long Bc I Got Carried Away description of a few Fire Emblem games, plus some characters that seem like they hit tropes you like!

The good news is that there's not a super huge overarching timeline, there's several smaller timelines that are seperate from one another except for the crossover games. I'm gonna go with describing the newer ones that you're most likely to be able to get your hands on and play; a lot of people complain that they lean into some anime-tropey stuff and are too easy, but tbh, that's a perk just as often as it isn't. Basically, it's Game of Thrones, but rated T and with more cute girls and old men who are friendly instead of creepy.

Tbh, it's a turn-based strategy game with visual novel elements for characterization, if strategy games aren't your thing and you're just interested in the characters, watching the support conversations on Youtube might be more your thing. All the characterization, none of the resetting the same goshdang level thirty times. Anyways, description of the games in passing, including a brief description of the plot concept, pros and cons, trigger warnings, and some characters you might be interested in if you're just looking up characters.

*line break for legibility*

Awakening: for the 3DS. Follows Robin, an amnesiac mage, after they're found in a field by a band of knights called the Shepherds. Involves the undead, a twink in a mask, timey-wimey shenangians, and the usual cast of oddballs you'd expect from a Fire Emblem game.

Pros of Awakening: customizable player character, intro of Casual mode (turns off permadeath) and the Pair Up system, which lets you put characters together for shipping reasons strategy and stat boosts. Also doubles as a shipping simulator, since you can pair off characters and meet their later in the game due to said timey-wimey shenangians.

Cons of Awakening: there are some....very concerning combos of names/skin tones/plot relevance for certain characters, so go in with a warning about implicit racism. Also if you like strategy games, this game is relatively easy to break and make "too easy," but tbh that's what Lunatic Mode (the Ultra Unfair Hard Mode) is for.

Trigger warnings across the main plot: underhanded politics, attempted assassinations, martyrdom, an optional character is implied to stalk Robin but idk how to tag that, identity crises, conflicts within a family, character who isn't you looks like you, backstory child abuse, an optional character is a bad portrayal of DID if you squint?

*line break for legibility*

Fates: is actually a group name for two games set in the same universe, and a DLC bonus story: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. All for the 3DS. All three games star Corrin, a pacifist raised in seclusion in the kingdom of Nohr. Each game reflects a different path Corrin can take in navigating the war between the nations of Nohr and Hoshido: Birthright has them stand with Hoshido, Conquest with Nohr, and Revelations has them strike out (nearly) alone. Each path has a completely different storyline, cast of characters, and difficulty curve.

Pros of Fates: honestly, the characters here cater the most to the avid pro-shipper and multi-shipper. I just love this cast. Both Nohr and Hoshido have four members of the royal family you can play and get to know, each of those royal family members has two retainers who are various levels of dedicated and/or unhinged, and the cast just widens and widens. Also a character customization and shipping simulator point for the same reasons Awakening gets it. Also, canon fujoshi rights (there's a character with a skill called Daydream, which boosts her stats when two male characters are paired up near her. one of us, one of us). Also the first game with canon queer characters: both Rhajat and Niles are bi.

Cons of Fates: unfortunately, the writing is kinda rushed or badly translated in some places. Also *shakes IntSys* my lore! Give me more lore! Also, iirc, you could get both physical games in a bundle for a discount when they came out, but not anymore, so it's sorta like Pokemon with version exclusives. Which is less fun, since you can't directly trade characters. Also the fandom for this game is RIFE with discourse, which is kinda sad bc I just wanna talk my ships with ppl sjxhdjdn

Trigger warnings for Fates: child abuse might as well be Nohr's middle name, in-universe racism (since Hoshido is p obviously Japan-inspired, and a lot of Nohrians are rancid to Hoshidans), kidnapping, on-screen murder, lots of fighting your loved ones (on both main routes, you gotta fight the playable characters from the other side AAA), su-c-de, death of sibling(s) in certain routes, demonic-like possession, there's like six characters people can read as bad mental illness rep, Niles especially is discourse bait for being a kinky (yes that's canon) bi man of color but also he's awesome so die mad antis

*break for space*

Shadows of Valentia: for the 3DS. A remake of Gaiden, the second game in the series. Follows Alm, a farm boy from a small village in Zofia, and Celica, his childhood best friend. Zofia and the nation to its north, Rigel, are two nations ruled by the dragon gods Mila and Duma, respectively. Normally, they're in equilibrium, but Rigel is invading and Mila is missing, prompting Alm and Celica to independently investigate the problem.

Pros of SoV: the most like the old-school Fire Emblem games, but it also has the permadeath-off mode. also the first to be fully voice acted! The art style is gorgeous, and the plot was polished up from the old game--two characters names Berkut and Rinea were added, and they are PEAK OTP the diskhorse can die mad. Also the cast is pretty fun all around, from buddy squad and the older brother/dad figure they adopted along the way to "hello this is my gang of childhood friends, we're gonna kill a god" Also introduces Mila's Turnwheel, which lets you rewind your moves if you realize you goofed big time and screwed yourself over.

Cons of SoV: has the most references to other games, but you won't, like, be lost if you don't get them. You just might have a few interludes of "who tf is Camus/the White Wing Brigade/etc" but it's easy enough to look up on the wiki. Also tbh, the plot kinda drags in the middle, there's some filler battles to try and make it feel more realistic and it feels...weird. Also no custom character, you are Alm and Celica and you will Like It.

Trigger warnings for SoV: you know that thing where a girl character gets killed off for a guy character to angst over? the game starts with a fakeout version of that. also a character slowly goes mad over the course of the plot (but it's really well done imo?), there's some self-sacrifice stuff in there, classism is a major theme, possession/selling your soul™, there's a couple of levels where you're exploring tombs/prisons, I'm sure there's something else but I'm forgetting right now

*line break for legibility*

Three Houses: on the Switch. The newest game in the series, and the most polished imo? Stars Byleth, a wandering mercenary turned teacher at the Officer's Academy. The Academy, housed in Garreg Mach Monastery, teaches youths from across the land of Fodlan how to be warriors, commanders, and knights. Students are sorted into three houses based on their country of origin: the Black Eagles are from ghe Adrestian Empire, led by the heiress-apparent Edelgard; the Blue Lions are from the kingdom of Faerghus, led by prince Dimitri; and the Golden Deer are from the Leicester Alliance, led by Claude, grandson of the Duke. You choose one of these houses to lead, and then everything quickly goes sour.

Pros of Three Houses: It's such a rich experience! The music is incredible, there's so much lore, and you can wander around the Monastery and hang out with the students to your heart's content. Also, it's four storylines for the price of one, even if they're all relatively similar in the first half. It does a pretty solid job of weaving together its themes into a satisfying narrative that will make you consider everyone involved. Also we got our first bi main lord (Edelgard) and non-white main lord (Claude is mixed race) in one fell swoop! Also, given the setting, it's teacher/student ship heaven.

Cons of Three Houses: just gonna come right out and say it: one of the villainous factions in the game is pretty substantially tied up with some anti-semitic tropes. There's no way to ignore it, it's just bleh, and I'm not gonna send anyone in without that warning. Also, though there's some characters you can persuade to switch sides, or spare, there's no route where there's a happy ending for everyone. Also there are so many people who are fake deep about the themes of the game, so be ready for the worst takes imaginable about your faves. also super trigger heavy, see below.

Trigger warnings: MANY. Garreg Mach and the Church of Seiros are very reminiscent of catholic religious stuff, for anyone with religion triggers, blood in cutscenes, death of a parent, death of a sibling (different characters), major gaslighting vibes in some places, lots of people going unhinged, some white savior™ vibes in places, body horror, creepy ass weaponry, backstory genoc-de (mostly not related to the anti-semitism), blood magic (definitely related to the anti-semitism), in general it goes to a lot more effort than the other games to make you think about what's Actually going on, even if it doesn't always work.

*break for legibility*

As for characters you'd like, if you just want to look some characters up, my recommendations based on what I understand about you include:

Awakening: Libra fits 'gnc man of the cloth' so well it's actually a conversation in game: "so what's a woman of the cloth doing here?" "...man, sir, man of the cloth." And Then He Never Gets Misgendered Again. Also Nowi's supports sometimes feel like a jab at antis-- she's a manakete, a person who can transform into a dragon. Manaketes also grow really slowly, as in "middle aged looking manaketes are like 1000 years old," so she's got major baby face and copes with being mistaken for a teenager by making jokes. Also Gregor, who she first appears with, is pretty fun--older mercenary with a thick accent who is like 80% here for a good time. Also Walhart, who's a villain but got some content added as DLC.

Fates: any interactions between Corrin, Leo, and/or Camilla are probably right up your alley--Camilla is obsessively protective over her siblings in a way that's Very Definitely Platonic™, and Leo also canonically has a crush on her in something that was cut in the English release. Also Gunther--once upon a time he was your classic knight in shining armor, now he's semi-retired, Corrin's personal guard, and covered in scars (and his voice is gorgeous too)

Echoes: my biased answer is to listen to every single line Ian Sinclair read for Berkut because he absolutely did NOT have to go that hard. My actual answer is to point you in the direction of the pegasus sisters Catria, Palla and Est, or maybe the older gentleman who's the head of the Priory, I forgot his name oops abbdbd. Also Clive is a devoted husband to one Mathilda, who looks just like an older version of his sister Clair 🤔

Three Houses: knowing you, you'd adore Hanneman--an older professor who's extremely passionate about his work, to the point where he tends to forget personal space and such. Also Seteth, like I mentioned before (join me in simping for him and his gorgeous pecs) and like, honestly, I know ppl make jokes about Alois but he's rlly good. Soft, awkward but he doesn't care, dad jokes everywhere. And also Mercedes, both because she's the biggest sweetheart imaginable and everyone should love her, but also bc she is just walking potential for the kinds of stuff you post on this blog. On one hand, she's the oldest student at the Academy and attached at the hip to one of the youngest, Annette (tho people act like they have a way bigger age gap then they actually do) and on the other hand, she has a long-lost half brother she can encounter (who I will not name for HUGE HUGE spoilers reasons) who she spends the rest of her life with in one of her endings. Heck, he has three possible endings total! Total!

Basically I brought the games up bc I'm used to being on the side of the fandom where everyone shoos anything uncomfortable under the rug, but there's so much material here that's being wasted I SWEAR

If you have any other questions I can send another anon? Your call! Thanks for hearing me out I love ur blog :3

OKAY!!! sorry for answering so late, but this ask was pretty much a BOOK (not that I´m complaining though! thank you so much! ;;u;;)

and from what I read here, I THINK if I´m going off on my first fire emblem adventure, I´ll try and pick up three houses if I get the chance! I have read your trigger warnings (thank you so much! ;u;) and I think I can take it! >:3

again though, I am really, really not a fan of anime and the anime artstyle in general (blergh! XP) so I´m not sure how I´ll cope with that in particular, but then again, an artstyle does not make a game! u3u

AND HANNEMAN SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER TO ME!! I looked him up and OOOF!!! he may not have NEARLY as many wrinkles as I´d like him to have, but the facial hair is definitely a step in the right direction! ;3c

NOW YOU GOT ME INTERESTED!!

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

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xxisxxisxxis · 4 years

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Gateway Drug | Part Thirty-Seven

Table of Content or Part Thirty-Six

Read chapter here on wattpad

Word Count: 3.2K

Warning(s): Explicit language, Drug abuse, mentions of abuse

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"...I don't think that's necessary." I argue, stepping down the hallway with Ross and Tansy at my heels.

"Oh, c'mon, Viv, it's one shoot." Tansy tells me. "I think it would be nice."

"Of course you would, Tansy. You like stuff like that." I reply. "I have no business being in a magazine like that."

"It's Metal Edge." Ross interjects with this British accent in my ears. "All you need to do is be pretty and stand against a wall with Nikki for a couple of pictures." He explains and I glare back at him.

"Isn't it a rock magazine that covers musicians?" I ask.

"Yeah." He tells me.

"Hmm. I'm not a musician. I have no business being in it." I make my point.

"Your Nikki's wife. You've got a pretty face and banging body and the fans will appreciate that." He argues.

"Ah, so now I'm the little extra on the side so when the fans get done reading about their favorite band, they can rub one out imagining the bassist's pretty wife with a banging body, naked."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, you did." I state as we walk towards Nikki, Vince, Tommy, and Mick.

"Can we hurry up and take this, man?" Nikki asks him.

"Tell your wife to take a picture for the damn magazine." Ross states to him.

"Wife, take a picture for the damn magazine." Nikki repeats with very little enthusiasm.

"No." I cross my arms, looking up at him.

"Vivian, they told me to get a couple of photographs with you and Nikki together." Ross continues to plead. "It's one picture. You're not selling your soul."

I look at Tansy as she's giving me a small, reassuring, smile.

"Fine." I give up, rolling my eyes.

Ross let's out a breath of relief being that we've been going back and forth for 45 minutes now.

"I'll go get ready while you guys do whatever." I tell him.

"Thank you!" He calls after me, as Tansy has my hand in hers, pulling me to the dressing room.

Ross Haflin was the band's photographer that documented every tour.

Everything from random, sweet, camaraderie filled candids of the band, to pictures from their shows that you can practically hear the music through, to even some full frontal nudity shots of someone in the band who will not be named. (Hint: It's definitely not Mick.)

I finish my makeup as Tansy finishes curling my hair, examining her work in the mirror.

Once I get changed into the tight black minidress and red heels Tansy tosses my way, we're meeting Ross and Nikki in the hall.

Nikki's face is lighting up like a lightbulb when he sees me, I don't know if it's because of coke in his system or if he's just glad to see me.

"You look great." He grins at me, his eyes looking me up and down before placing random kisses all over my face, causing me to smile like an idiot.

"10 minutes, guys." Doc says just as we're kissing, pulling the both of us back from each other to stand against the wall.

"Try to look like you love each other." Ross says sarcastically after Nikki pulls me closer beside him. "Alright, one, two..." Ross counts off. Just as he says "three" Nikki's fingers are tickling at my side, cause me to laugh and jerk a little, ruining the picture.

"Nikki." I complain, nudging at him a little.

After several more attempts to take a serious photo, one of them involving him pulling the bottom of my dress up, we finally get the winning picture: him with my crucifix between his bared teeth, looking directly at the camera, while my mouth is pulled into a smile as I laugh at his stupidity, my arms loosely around his waist.

After the show, Doc is pulling the guys back into the dressing room before they can entertain the idea of changing really quick and hitting the town.

"Something good has happened." Doc tells them, smiling, leaving us glancing at each other in confusion.

"What is it?" Tansy and I both ask at the same time, my heart racing despite him saying it's good news.

"As of today, Shout At The Devil and Theater of Pain have both been certified double-platinum." Doc informs us.

I look at Nikki to gauge his reaction as Tansy let's out an excited shrill, engulfing Tommy and Vince both in a hug. She goes to do the same to Mick, but he looks at her blankly, only making her squeeze at his hand with a proud smile.

"Nikki?" I ask cautiously, seeing him wearing a neutral expression, my arm looping around his.

"Who the fuck are these people?" He questions suddenly, causing us to fall silent. "Who the fuck listens to us that much?" He adds and I rub my lips together.

"People who really love you." Tansy states like it's known knowledge.

I don't think Nikki knew he was capable of being loved as unconditionally as their fans loved them.

Later that night, laying in the silent hotel room, hearing Vince have his nightly menage a trois as Tansy sleepily tosses beside me in our bed.

Me and her have been left by Nikki and Sparkie, Tommy tagging along, to go out.

Tansy's been attempting sobriety...kind of?

"Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh!" Short, high-pitched squeaks leaves one of the girls Vince is with and I cringe in disgust.

"Ew." I mumble, trying to cover my ears.

"It's so fucking big." The other girl comments in a wanton moan.

"It's not that big." Tansy comments tiredly, causing me to choke on my spit. "It's good, but he never had me—"

"Oh, fuck, I'm gonna cum!" The first girl nearly screams out, causing Vince to groan.

The next thing we hear through the thin walls is the sound of gushing liquid hitting the wall we're against as the girl gives out a cry.

"Okay, he's either upped his game or they're getting off on the fact they're simply fucking Vince Neil because I definitely did not do that when we dated." Tansy's interested now, sitting up and pressing her ear against the wall.

"Why on Earth would you want to hear that?!" I scold in a whisper. "You pervert." I add.

"My turn." The second girl pipes sultrily. "Did I mention I can lock my ankles behind my neck?"

"Awe, Viv, you can do that." Tansy whispers, nudging my arm with her hand as if that makes me and the random woman kindred spirits.

"How do you know that?" I ask her with furrowed brows.

"Tape 2, four minute and forty-three second mark." She says casually, focusing on hearing the action next door.

"You've seen our sex tape?!" I keep my voice to a loud whisper.

"I've seen all of them." She replies. "You look hot in them, don't worry."

"I—"

"I'd like to see that." Vince tells the woman arrogantly, interrupting what I was about to say.

"Gross." I groan out, covering my head with my pillow to drown out the noises.

After a couple more minutes of trying not to vomit from hearing his sex, I'm snatching the covers off myself and stepping to the door.

"Where are you going?" Tansy asks me and I ignore her, going out in the hall and banging on Vince's door with the flat of my palm.

The door opens, and I'm face to face chest with Tommy...a naked Tommy.

I avoid looking down.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask him, seeing a naked woman wrap her arms around his waist, peeking at me from behind him. "You're suppose to be out with Nikki and Sparkie."

"We got back early." Tommy explains to me, pupils blown out.

"Where's Sparkie and Nikki?"

He steps to the side and motions to Sparkie, who's gang-banging another woman with Vince.

I feel sick to my stomach.

"Where's Nikki?"

Tommy's hand curls into a fist as his knuckles knock at the bathroom door beside him.

"Sixx?!" He asks, and I already know what Nikki being locked in the bathroom, avoiding a good time, means: he's high as shit.

The bathroom door, revealing Nikki as he slumps against the door frame, his eyes struggling to stay open as he looks at me.

"Uhh...you good, man?" Tommy asks him, cautiously.

"Yeah, dude." Nikki slurs, taking a step forward to me.

"I got him." I tell Tommy, helping Nikki out the door. "Enjoy the rest of your night." I tell Tommy, ignoring the moans and screams of the girl Sparkie and Vince are working on.

I leave before Tommy can reply, Nikki leaning against me as I knock on our room door.

After several attempts, and Tansy still hasn't come yet, I pull the other key out of Nikki's pants pocket and unlock the door.

A bitter, horrid smell invades my nose, and I see Tansy crouching in front of a hotplate, looking at me wide-eyed, pipe in hand as she eagerly awaits the base to cook up.

That moment I found out Tansy was dabbling in crack.

She did a complete nose dive into it a couple months later, and once Vanity taught Nikki how to properly cook it up, smoke it, and get the biggest high of it, he, Vanity and Tansy would just lay around our house and smoke crack together.

I didn't mention it to Tansy the next day because I had other things on my mind...such as Sparkie having a death wish.

You can hear a pin drop in here. Even the flight attendants are holding their breath.

It seems Tommy, Nikki, and Mick have sobered up on the spot the second Sparkie says, "well, I didn't have any cash on me, and your purse was on the bus so I just made a trade. I didn't think you would need them anymore. You seem pretty happy to me, lately" once I'm digging around in my purse, asking the guys if they've seen my Nardil anywhere because it's time for me to take it.

I'm still trying to figure out if I heard him right.

Fred's getting antsy, I see him from the corner of my eye as he slowly stands from his spot, waiting for me to attack with my teeth going for the bastard's neck.

Vince just has this little smirk on his face because he knows Sparkie is about to meet his maker.

"W-what?" Tansy squeaks at her boyfriend, confused as to why her sweet, innocent, precious little Sparkler would do such a thing to her best friend.

"Where are my pills?" I ask Sparkie just to clarify.

He looks at me with raised brows.

"I told you, Vivian, I didn't have any money. I needed some blow. I remembered you keep them in your purse, which was on the bus, which was unlocked. I got your pills out and made a trade." He repeats to me like I was too stupid to understand him the first time.

"You heard him, right, Doc?" I ask.

"I--yeah?" Doc replies, uneasy at my calmness.

"Good. Because a jury will need to hear a witness and know I had justification for finally killing this motherfucker!" I lunge over the seat in front of me to grab fistfuls of Sparkie's greasy hair, Tansy screaming as she stumbles out of her seat beside him.

"Vivian!" Doc's yelling as he reaches his hand out, trying to pry me off of Sparkie.

I turn and kick him in the chest with my heel, still leaned over the seats, my arm around Sparkie's neck, hopefully crushing his throat as he fights against me, sputtering and gasping for air as Tansy's crying and pleading with me, but I don't hear a word she says.

Tommy and Nikki come to Doc's aid, the both of them grabbing at me, only causing me to kick at them and swing my free hand.

"You fucking kick me, I'm laying your ass out, Viv!" Nikki threatens me sharply.

I look at him, directly in the eye, and kick him as hard as I can in the arm.

His eyes go wild, an ugly sneer pulls at his lips to expose grinding teeth, and he grabs me by my hair, causing me to whimper out as tears prick my eyes from the pain, and forces me off the seats to the floor.

Because I've always been glutton for punishment when I'm angry, him nearly scalping me wasn't enough.

My foot collides with Nikki's crotch so hard he doubles over and falls to the floor, completely disregarding me, and giving me time to reach up beside me and grab the Jack Daniels bottle sitting in the seat Tommy just got up from.

Sparkie's trying to recover, taking long, heavy breaths, as the whiskey flies from the Jack bottle as it hits him square in the head.

Fred snatches me off the floor, manhandling me like he would do one of the guys, and throws me into the small bathroom, locking me inside for the remainder of the flight, only yanking me out and making me sit next to him and buckle up to land.

Sparkie was taken to the nearest hospital to make sure he wasn't suffering from a concussion, and I was getting the chewing out of a lifetime.

"You just can't start trying to kill people left and right, Vivian." Fred snaps as we step to the car that's taking us to the hotel. "You're gonna fuck around and get sued and no offense, Nikki, but you can't afford that." He adds and Nikki scoffs.

"None fucking taken." He mumbles back.

"He traded my antidepressant for blow!" I argue.

"I think she did a great thing." Vince tells them. "The little bitch deserved it."

"Thank you, Vince." I say to him and Nikki scoffs out bitterly, causing me to turn to look at him.

"What?" I ask him, not finding anything wrong with what I said.

"You would agree with him." He replies as we get into the limo.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I snap back at him.

He just shakes his head a little and looks straight ahead as Vince and Fred get into the seats across from us.

I almost ask where Tommy and Mick are, then I remember Tommy went with Tansy, Sparkie and Doc, to the hospital and planned to drop Mick off at the hotel on the way there.

"No need to be threatened just because she slept in the bed with me." Vince tells him, reasonably. "You know that, right?"

Nikki's laughing it off as if he could never be threatened by Vince Neil...although it's so obvious he is.

"Well, Nikki, if it bothers you that much, maybe don't stay out all night." I suggest calmly. "I'm always gonna go find one of my friends and stay with them for the night because I don't like sleeping by myself. That doesn't mean I'm having sex with them or want to. I just get lonely."

"Well, when I get lonely, I don't crawl into bed with other people." He says it harshly and I roll my jaw.

"No, of course you don't. You just warm up to a needle and strip your veins." I argue in the same tone, seeing a brief glance of Satan in his hazel eyes before his hand, harshly, hits my thigh hard enough to leave a stinging, firey hot, dark red print that's welting up in the shape of his hand.

I didn't say a damn thing else to him until we got back to L.A. a couple days later for a a week-long break. All I could think about while avoiding my own husband, were Ross' words, "pretend you love each other" echoing in my brain.

People who really love each other don't kick, hit or talk to each other the way Nikki and I did.

Ross would always say, "alright, you love each other" or "look like you want to be together" before taking our picture.

At first it was light-hearted, but over the course of two years, it began being said with less light, and more of a command, which after after finding out what I did from his drug buddy/mistress, any commands about a picture made by Ross would be followed by me saying, "I don't wanna touch that doped up bastard-fuck" and Nikki saying, "I'm not getting anywhere near that rabid fucking bitch."

We would, of course, suck it up and take the pictures for the sake of the fans and our public image, but the second he said he was done, we were darting away from each other like we would die if we touched each other more than five minutes.

We could barely stand to be in the same room after Vanity dropped the bombshell which really wouldn't have blindsided me had I been paying more attention to all the screaming red flags the both of them were practically throwing at me. And if you've been in that situation, the signs are oh so clear in hindsight once you're taking a break between crying, to put the pieces you hadn't given a second thought before, together.

A huge one, possibly the most painful, was the giant roman numeral "V" Nikki had gotten tattooed on his arm months prior to the revealed betrayal. I hadn't thought anything of it at the time when I first saw it after he got back from getting it, other than "what significance does the number "five" have to him?"

It was a roman numeral, but was also a "V."

For "Vanity."

Once I came to that realization in the bathroom of the hotel we were staying at, that I had barricaded myself in, it hurt even worse than just seeing the woman I had practically given a house key to, joke about becoming "Vanity 6" once again after taking my husband's last name, while waving my wedding ring around.

He didn't even have anything related to me tattooed on him and I was his wife. But he had no issue slapping a big-ass "V" on his arm and playing it off like a number. If "five" had a significant meaning to him at the time, it was because it was the number of times he bought heroin in a day.

All sanity left in me was tossed aside and it was fucking war from then on and I mean war.

After that, it seemed like every time Nikki and I were in a room together, everyone tensed up and prepared to either hit the floor to avoid being caught in the collateral in case Nikki or I started throwing shit at each other, or eyed their exits to escape being a witness to some fucked up things being said between me and him.

Shortly after the Vanity incident, I figured since we were tattooing the initial of the people we told each other not to worry about on ourselves, Nikki wouldn't have minded seeing a perfectly sharp"D" on my upper hip—and Duff and I weren't even messing around yet at that time.

It was small, only about the size of a quarter, but it packed one hell of a punch when Nikki first laid eyes on it and I sarcastically, innocently, spat out, "but...it's just the roman numeral for 500."

#nikki sixx #tommy lee #vince neil #mötley crüe #the dirt #gateway drug

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magespuddle · 4 years

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(updated) The Classes comparison while Classpecting (part 1: the general list of traits, Witch, Thief, Knight, Prince, Heir, Sylph)

*this post is a translation of my work on VK. Other translations will be tagged appropriately*

It has been a long time since one particular Mage of Blood has promised to make a comparison post for Classes, but what else to do on a quarantine? So here we are. I am going to compare those roles which cause the most confusion and mistakes during "on the field" Classpecting, since otherwise the post would be enomorous. Thus if you want to know more about differences, not mentioned here, you can send me an ask, so that I add the info you needed.

First of all, I should list all the points of comparison I will be using, so that no one gets confused in the terminology here. But there is an important detail: despite Classes being divided into groups under these points, each of the groups is actually a spectrum of traits for different archetypes. For instance, there is one called "Dependant Classes" (explained further in the post). It contains six Classes, while each of them have a different level of dependance, from the lowest to the highest. It is still comfortable to place them into one group or the other, but we should always remember that subtle traits make Classes uneven despite being under the same label.

Аlmost all of Classes' traits can be used as branching points for comparison, some of them can be derived from the graph below.

The full list of traits and explanation goes like this:

1. Dependance-Independance — how strong the need in allies is for the Class to perform its function.

2. Activity-Passivity — these terms are quite well-known, but they actually include a vast variety of traits, which are often different for the same Class under the label of "passive" or "active". Therefore, I've cut it into distinctive parts; in the context of our current subject this trait determines whether the Class performs its function directly, is the deliver of the action (active), or indirectly, through other person's hands (passive). For example, the active Prince destroys the Aspect or via Aspect, causing the damage with his own hands, while the passive Bard is more like a catalizator and an initiator for others to break the Aspect.

3. Action-Interaction — can be mistaken with Dependance ones, but these determine whether the Class is occupied with influencing the environment or the people around him accirdingly. Corresponds with A, I and E, S Bartle's types (explained further).

4. Deficiency-Abundance of the Aspect — kind of a vague characteristic, since the topic of Aspect amount in the family system and individually is quite complicated, won't fit into this post for sure... Well, to put Deficiency-Abundance simply, it determines whether the Class is "hungry" for the Aspect and willing to put his hands on it or completely full and willing to share accordingly.

5. Practice-Theory — practical Classes are more intuitive and prefer to act and improvise over planning first, they are better at working with their Aspect, than understanding how it works; theoretical Classes are the opposite: they absolutely have to understand how the Aspect works, but not necessarily be good at using it. Most practical Classes are Deficiency ones, theoretical - Abundance ones.

6. Basic skillness in the Aspect — I am using the word "basic", because, as I've previously stated, everything exists on a spectrum as well as many things are dynamic and changeable. The skillness in any sphere changes with time, but many people are used to think that, for example, the Knight is skilled in the Aspect, while the Bard isn't, which is not always true, though this point is still needed for the differentiation.

7. Class type — all Classes can be divided into the ones who distort, change the Aspect in any way, affect its shape (the Changing group: the Prince, the Bard, the Knight, the Page, the Witch and the Heir) and the ones who do the opposite with keeping the Aspect as it is, multiplying it, sharing it around (the Saving group: the Maid, the Sylph, the Thief, the Rogue, the Mage and the Seer). To not mistake the Changing type for the shared function of the Witch and the Heir, I will be referring to the latter as Manipulators in this post.

8. System function — can be mistaken with the individual Class function. The system function determines the overall solo effect of the Class on the Aspect balance in the session (system), which is based not so much on the personal skills as on the amount of the Aspect in the system and in the Class we are talking about, on the relationship of the Class with his Aspect. System function goes like this:

Classes that increase the Aspect greatly: Creating Classes (the Maid and the Sylph), the Page

Classes that increase the Aspect slightly: the Muse (only if we are talking about solo impact!), the Heir, the Seer, the Knight

Classes that decrease the Aspect slightly: the Lord (solo), the Mage, the Witch (changing the part of the Aspect limits the ways it can express itself), the Rogue (via dispersing it around)

Classes that decrease the Aspect greatly: Destroying Classes (the Bard and the Prince), the Thief (via concentrating it on himself)

I need to mention that despite me writing about Muses and Lords here, people in average circumstances do not take up these roles and are not born with them as titles. It is a whole another topic, too big for this post anyway.

9. Egoism (labelled egocentrism on the graph) — how much the Class prioritizes his own well-being over other people's ones. Does not always correlate with the over-the-top self-esteem.

10. The Bartle's player type — the Bartle's Classification describes four types of game players based on their relationship with other players and gaming environment. For the Classes these types are used in pairs for each Class, primary type and secondary. I won't be giving the in-depth explanation of each type, since they can be found online, only the combos for the Classes as following:

Strategists (S): SS (the Muse), SE (the Bard), SI (the Sylph), SA (the Seer)

Effectors (E): ES (the Prince), EI (the Maid), EA (the Knight)

Innovators (I): IS (the Mage), IE (the Rogue), IA (the Page)

Aces (A): AS (the Witch), AE (the Thief), AI (the Heir), АА (the Lord)

11. Overall weight of the Aspect — a number, signifying the sum of the Aspect already on Class'es hands and the Aspect he can get his hands on potentially. It describes "the weight" of Classes and the shift of the balance in Aspect pairs among inversion pairs, which in its turn influences the subjective heavyness of the role as well as the final Master Class of the person. In addition, this plays a role in the collections of roles one posesses in their Classpect profile as there are distinct formulas for the Classes' combos within related Aspects (topic for another day, though). For the inversion pairs the numbers are:

2:0 = Prince:Sylph, Bard:Maid, Mage:Heir

1:1 = Witch:Seer, Knight:Rogue, Thief:Page

12. Class category — the good-old function pairs (Relocators, Destroyers, Creators, etc.).

13. Relationship with the Aspect — some Classes coexist happily with the Aspect and it likes them back (harmonious Classes), while others don't like it that much and it returns the favor (disharmonious ones). If we make a spectrum of harmony, it would go like this:

Harmony <- +3 (Maids and Sylphs), +2 (Knights and Thieves), +1 (Heirs ans Seers); Muse

Disharmony -> -1 (Mages and Witches), -2 (Rogues and Pages), -3 (Bards and Princes); Lord

14. Inversion — some roles are impossible to differentiate without looking at their inverses. The inverse of the role is created by taking the opposite by function Class to the one you are starting with and another Aspect paired with the starting one to combine them into an inverse role. For example: the Prince of Void, the opposite Class would be Sylph and the Aspect - Light; this gives us an inversion of the Sylph of Light.

Inversion pairs for the Classes: Maid-Bard, Thief-Page, Mage-Heir, Witch-Seer, Knight-Rogue, Prince-Sylph; Muse and Lord are more analogous, than inverted.

!UPDATE STARTS!

15. Aspect source — this has stuff to do with the family system, inheritance, Activity/Passivity, but to put it simply: it is where the Class finds the Aspect to perform its function on/with. The Aspect may come from the family system of the individual (Internal) or from the people around them (External). The divide goes like this:

Internal source: Sylph, Seer, Bard, Page, Knight, Heir

External source: Maid, Mage, Prince, Thief, Rogue, Mage

!UPDATE ENDS!

So finally let's dive in the comparisons themselves. *You have no idea, how painful it is for me to rewrite the whole post after the device shut down without saving my almost done project. Anyway…* I will be highlighting only the key differences since some Classes are so far apart, that is is too hard to mix them up.

1. Thief-Witch-Heir

Shared: all Classes are Independant, Action-oriented, Deficient, they posess the qualities of the Ace. The Heir and the Witch get mixed beacuse of thw difficulties in defining Activity, the Thief and the Heir — because of the Hunger for the Aspect, the Witch and the Thief — because of the Egoism.

Different: contrary to the Thief and the Witch, the Heir is a more Independant, Egoistic Passive Class, that Slightly increases the Aspect. What is more, he has lesser Overall weight, because the Heir doesn't attract the Aspect as much as the Thief and the Witch is more Abundant. In addition, this Class posesses the qualities of the Innovator. Unlike the Strategist Witch, the Heir is Harmonious with his own Aspect and Disharmonious with the inverted one. Apart from the Thief, there is no "hardest, fastest, strongest of them all" logic for Heirs in the Aspect. Not to mention, that overall the Heir is softer to the people around. He is just minding his own thing, without meddling with others.

Contrary to the Witch, the Thief is a more Basically skilled, Saving type Relocation Class, that Greatly decreases the Aspect. He is Harmonious with his own Aspect and Disharmonious with the inverted one (but usually nonetheless he is positive towards both), posesses the qualities of the Effector. In addition, the Witch is quite unpredictable and tries to bend the Aspect to her rules when she finds something she doesn't like.

Unlike the both Heir and Witch, the Thief has a remarkable Hunger for the Aspect, is impulsive. While the first two feel and behave as part of the group and care for others (the Heir is overall friendly, the Witch has a soft spot for a close circle of friends), the last one is self-centered and drops the team as soon as there is nothing for him to get. What is more, the Relocation takes the full transporting of the Aspect from one object/place to another, while the Manipulation needs at least one object and the Aspect isn't erased completely.

2. Thief-Knight-Sylph

Shared: all Classes are highly Basically skilled and Harmonious with their own Aspect. They get mixed up because of the perfectionism, that stems from different reasons for each Class.

Different: contrary to the Thief and the Sylph, the Knight is a Changing type Yielding Class. He is less Egoistic and his Overall weight is smaller, because of the lack of the Aspect attraction. His perfectionism is the result of the low self-confidence and high demands and standards he has set himself. The Knight is very good in the Aspect, not for the glory of being known as "the best", but to justify this in his own eyes. Therefore, he is not bragging about his achievements, quite the opposite — he is constantly loathing his excellent job, thinking of it as something hideous and "not good enough". Though likely you won't hear this from the Knight, since keeping his facade of competence is very important to him. In addition, they usually care specifically for the close circle of friends and do not play saviours with the random people just for the sake of it. Unlike the Thief, the Knight is more Disharmonious with the inverted Aspect, because the Rogues are not as compliant with their element as the Pages.

Contrary to the Knight, the Sylph is a Passive, Interaction-oriented, Abundant, Strategist-Innovator Creator Class. His system function is Greatly increasing the Aspect. He is waaaaaaay more Disharmonious with the inverted Aspect, while in the own Aspect the Sylph is not as much a perfectionist as an appreciation seeker. Thus the Sylph is going to meddle even with the unfamiliar people and show off his skills so that everyone would know how useful and precious he is. Alas, once the appreciation has been got, the mastering of the Aspect skills is no longer a goal for the Sylph. What for, anyway? Usually Sylphs are absolutely confident in their competence and they are not afraid to rub it in your face.

Unlike the Sylph, the Thief is a more Independant, Action-oriented, Deficient, Active Relocation Ace-Effector Class, that Greatly decreases the Aspect. He is less Disharmonious with his inverted Aspect and is more objective while bragging about his own Aspect achievements. The level of skillness is less valuable to the Thief than the quantity of the Aspect on hand. It is kind of like "the bigger — the better" logic. And as has been stated above, he is not as altruistic.

3. Witch-Knight-Prince

Shared: all Classes are Active, Deficient, Changing type. The Knight is here, because Witches and realized Princes often get Classpected as such (but only developed and realized Princes: Classpecting a decompensated Prince as a Knight is, well… not very well; you'll understand why).

Different: contrary to the Witch and the Prince, the Knight is more Basically skilled in the Aspect and the least Egoistic from the three. He is Slightly increasing the Aspect and is Harmonious in his own one, though more Deficient, while Disharmonious with the inverted one. What is more, unlike the Prince, this Class posesses the qualities of the Ace. Apart from the Witch, the Knight is usually more "noble", lawful and disciplined, while the latter is rebellious and flexible.

Compared to the Witch, the Prince is a more Egoistic, Dependant, Interaction-oriented, less Basically skilled Destroyer Class, that Greatly decreases the Aspect. He posesses the qualities of the Effector. While the Witch is prone to drop her playthings half the way to the goal and move onto another stuff, the Prince finishes the job due to the Sylph inverse. Unlike the Knight and the Witch, the Prince influences broad masses of people and doesn't limit himself with a tiny circle of friends. He is very Disharmonious with his own Aspect, sometimes even hateful towards it.

Contrary to the Knight and the Prince, the Witch is a more Independant, average in Basic skillness and Egoism Manipulator Class. Both the Prince and the Knight have a lower self-esteem and a higher perfectionism, than her, but the first one overcompensates with Egocentrism and the second one is convinced he is a loser in his Aspect despite all the evidence of the opposite. All in all, bragging and manipulating are more prominent in Princes and Witches.

4. Witch-Sylph

Shared: both Classes are average in Egoism, posess the qualities of the Strategists.

Different: the main problem comes from the difficulty of understanding the Creation and the Manipulation functions. The only difference is that the Witch needs to have access to the source of the Aspect to both make it stronger or weaker, while the Sylph can get the Aspect seemingly from the thin air, but afterwards can't put it away. In addition to that, unlike the Sylph, the Witch is a more Independant, Action-oriented, Changing type, Deficient Active Class and is more likely to leave her "toys", while the Sylph sticks like glue, is an Interaction-oriented, Saving type, Abundant, filled to the brim with the Aspect, Passive Class. The Witch has a lower Basic skillness, but just because it is measured among other Practical Classes, while the Sylph is a highly Basically skilled Theoretic. The system function of the first one is Slightly decreasing the Aspect and is more interested in mastering her skills (qualities of the Ace), has a higher self-esteem, whether the second one Greatly increases it and seeks social appreciation (qualities of the Strategist), has a lower self-esteem that is overcompensated to the size of arrogance. What is also important, the Witch is Disharmonious with the own Aspect and Harmonious with the inverted one, while the Sylph loves his own Aspect and hates the inverted one.

Part 2

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coldtomyflash · 6 years

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So I've been following your tumblr for a while now, and I've seen everything you've had to say about the crossover. I should preface this by saying that I am white with no Jewish ancestry. So I suppose my place isn't the question, because this does not affect me directly. However: I do not understand how showing Nazis as villains is a bad thing. I am not questioning that it hurts people. I've seen that it clearly does. What I question is "Why?" I don't grasp why Nazi=villains is a bad thing.

I’m going to be bluntly honest here. I had to mentally dismiss about ten blithe responses to this that were on the order of that now-infamous tweet “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people.” I know that’s not what you’re saying, but I struggled, when I read this, to grasp how you could say that you see the harm (hurt) it is causing and yet don’t see that it’s wrong.

And how it could be true that you’ve actually read this post, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and some of the other stuff I’ve put in my tag for the crossover, and yet still be confused about this. And one of those posts, mind you, explicitly explains why it’s more than just “they made Nazis the villains of the crossover”.

And part of why I was tempted to answer blithely is because, given all that, I think it’s been explained time and again what the issue is here, and how it goes so far beyond the fact that them making Nazis the villains is the problem. The other part is because to re-explain it, to break it down to its elemental components? That takes time - hours from the time I started thinking about this to the time I’ll be done writing it - and energy - in terms of research and resources. I’m doing a lot of labour for you, emotionally and physically here. And part of me wants to shirk that labour, to put it on you to do it.

But… I can’t. Because I can answer your question, at least from my own perspective, and it is an important one to answer. Because before I understood just how much my own privilege impacted how I see the world and started to actively push back against it and expand my perception, I probably wouldn’t have fully understood either.

So I can’t explain this as eloquently or succinctly as some other people. And I can’t explain this from the perspective of someone who’s directly being harmed by this crossover (because I am also white and a gentile). And I’m sure many people people who are direct targets of Nazis would tell you that “isn’t it enough that it is harming me?” and they would be right, full stop. That would be an acceptable answer.

But I’m going to do my best to give you the understanding I genuinely think you’re looking for, allowing for the fact that others may have more to add or clarify, and allowing for the fact that my answer is inherently limited by my privilege.

I trust that you’ll read to the end, even though it’s long. And if at the end you still can’t understand, or you think I’m exaggerating, then I urge you to think on this, to sleep on it, and to read more and more about it. And even without understanding, to respect the voices of the Jewish (and gay, and Rroma) people who’ve spoken out about these problems time and again when things like this crop up. Amplify those voices, even if you can’t see the long-term ramifications of why this is ‘Bad’ yet.

First, the issue here cannot be reduced to “Nazis are the villains of the crossover.” Because that [.] at the end is actually a […]. It really goes like this: Nazis are the villains of the crossover…

… and the premise is based on the notion that Nazis won and have world domination.

… and that premise implies that Nazis are so powerful that with a bit of ‘bad luck’ in history, Nazis could have won.

… and that premise contributes to the mythic aggrandizing of Nazism that makes so many people Nazi sympathizers or apologists.

… and many heroes doppelgangers are Nazis.

… and Jewish-coded heroes’ doppels are Nazis.

… and a Jewish-coded hero who came to earth at age 12 and was raised on better principles than that still became a Nazi.

… and that notion spits on the original intent of the Jewish creators of these characters.

… and all of this implies that “good and heroic” people can still turn out to be Nazis, undermining the very message heroes should send. (Being a hero only when it’s easy is not being a hero at all. Doing the right thing when it’s against what society enforces is what makes them heroes.)

… and this turns the heroes that people (including Jewish people) look up to for hope and comfort into symbols of hatred and genocide.

… and the Nazis interrupt an interracial marriage between a Black woman and a Jewish-coded hero (who is canonically Jewish in parallel media like the DCEU) for the sake of drama.

… and the Nazi doppelganger outfits are designed to look ~*sexy*~ to an uncritical viewer.

… and the ~*sexy*~ doppel outfits include genuine Nazi symbols from WW2, which are pretty damn triggering to a lot of people. (But yet no sign of a swastika because that would most likely turn those uncritical viewers too far off).

… and they’re ~*sexy*~ enough that people already want to cosplay that Nazi and buy merchandise of that Nazi paraphernalia.

… and the promo photos show that a Jewish woman and a Black woman are going to be targeted specifically, thus capitalizing directly off threats and violence to actual historical victims of the Nazis.

… and the promo photos treat Wellsobard (many people’s fave villain) as an allusion to Dr. Mengele, one of the most infamously disgusting and reprehensible people to ever exist.

… and the promos show us images of a gay character and actor wearing a ‘Pink Triangle’ once again being used as a symbol of hate and shame.

… and there is a good chance that a Jewish character (Martin) is going to get killed off during this crossover.

…and the storyline is likely focused on the love story between a white gentile and a Jewish woman who gets targeted by his evil Nazi doppelganger.

… and the shows already have a history of antisemitism by putting a Jewish woman in a gas chamber (wtf Arrow), killing a Jewish one-off villain with radiation in a compressed chamber (Atom Smasher, wtf The Flash), erasing the Jewish identity of some characters (e.g., Ray Palmer) and failing to mention another’s (Martin’s) in three seasons (c’mon Legends), and no-doubt more.

… and … this list goes on. It really does. This is not exhaustive.

And you might be tempted to think “but if the Nazis are defeated, and shown unequivocally to be the bad guys, then isn’t it okay? Isn’t it historically accurate that the Nazis would target the Jewish and Black and LGBTQ characters and wear Nazi symbols anyway? Many of the main producers are Jewish or gay, they’re not trying to say anything good about Nazis.”

So this is where we have to talk about narrative framing, implicit associations, and sociological implications.

The concept of framing in psychology deals with how we can present the exact same information in different ways and get vastly different responses. How we present information, even paired down to simple basic statistics, massively impacts how people internalize and encode that information and therefore how they respond to it.

In narrative, we know that how we frame a character’s motives and background influence how they’ll be perceived by the audience. So many heroes in action movies kill and murder their way through a scene, but their crimes are justified by the narrative frame, whereas the villain’s won’t be. Or in order to humanize villains and make them sympathetic, the narrative may shift the viewer’s paradigm by re-framing the information: yes this villain is an asshole who hurt your favourite character, but they’re doing it because of [x].

So when we look at the crossover, we have to interrogate how it’s being framed. Are the Nazis villains? Yes? Good, check. … But the Nazis are also doppelgangers of our beloved heroes?… Okay, right off the bat, that’s bad.

That will make some people inherently sympathize with the Nazis doppels and like them. We have an emotional and automatic response to these faces, to these people, that is going to work faster and parallel to how our conscious brain responds to them, and many viewers (those who don’t have an automatic and massively negative knee-jerk response to the premise or the symbolism already built in) will have to be consciously and continuously inhibiting any decision to feel some positive sense toward those characters, and many viewers aren’t going to put in that conscious effort, especially not while the narrative is so distracting.

(For the record, if you consciously create this negative association it’ll become automatic. We aren’t born hating Nazi symbolism, we encode associations to it, and if you continuously encode negative ones, then you’ll hate other things associated with that symbolism too!)

So now in the crossover, by how our brain creates associations, if we have a positive association with that hero, there is an association now between that hero and their doppelganger, and that doppel and Nazi symbolism. That creates a link between positive feelings and Nazi symbolism. Say what? Look, our brains are simple in their associations and categorizations. There’s ways around this, but if we leave these associations unchecked, this can happen. Especially for viewers who won’t recognize and understand the symbolism like the ‘SS’ on Overgirl’s chest (i.e., younger viewers who are most impressionable and who the education system has seriously failed, and privileged viewers who weren’t taught to have strong negative associations to these less well known Nazi symbols).

And we already know this is happening. This is literally why we have articles on popular press outlets saying they want to buy merch of Overgirl (Supergirl’s Nazi doppel)’s outfit, which is literally emblazoned across the chest with Nazi symbols. People are saying they want to buy actual Nazi merch and the crossover hasn’t even aired yet. Just… let that sink in for a sec?

So.

That’s one reason why making heroes as Nazis is bad, and why making Nazis sexy is bad. Because of the automatic associations our brains make with those beloved characters, and even with attraction. If we find something attractive or beautiful, we tend to have automatic associations with that as ‘good’. Beautiful = moral is one of the stronger associations we have and it’s reinforced by media time and again. (Conversely to ugly = evil, or evil = queer. And female villains are often designed for sex appeal but it’s misogynistic anyway because it deals with a lot of bullshit about feminine purity and evil seductresses, and still conflates these associations our brains are going to make).

And look, it’s 2017. We have Richard Spencer the literal Neo Nazi on TV and articles about how this ‘alt-right’ leader is sexy and cool. We don’t need DCTV to jump on the bandwagon of making Nazis seem “cool”. Human beings experience approach motivations toward things we find attractive. The only option is to experience disgust and anger in response to people like Spencer and characters like Overgirl, or else we may fall prey to the implicit associations put forth by the media itself.

And that’s the problem: the media (the DCTV shows) are putting these associations there and forcing the viewers to work against them if we want to watch this and not come out of it as worse people for it. It’s designed to be entertaining and thrilling and they spent millions of dollars making it that way, and so much of that budget went to making the villains what they are.

So it’s not enough for them to say that Nazis are the villains or even to show them getting their asses kicked if they set the Nazis up to start as all-powerful world dominators. It’s not enough to have these characters say “I hate Nazis” when they show their doppels as Nazis and capable of those atrocities.

And if you’re starting to think “there’s an important message here. About how Nazis can look classically attractive but we shouldn’t be taken in by that, and about nature versus nurture and how we need to actively push back against evil within ourselves or else, in another dimension or if things had gone different, even we could be evil.”

That’s… tempting to argue. It’s an important message, to be sure. But given the stylized outfits and triggering imagery and the way they’ve set up the narrative, I don’t anticipate that’s the message we’re getting here. I mean, I think it’ll come up, most definitely, but I don’t think it’s what the viewer is ultimately going to take away from this. Not in the “I need to look within myself and push back against my own biases” sort of way. That’s not the way they’ve framed this.

And for a comparison point, if you want a narrative that says “White supremacists are all evil, don’t get taken in by one who seems ~reasonable~ and looks normal, and see what these modes of thought actually look like” then watch the movie Imperium (2016) and see how they handle it. (And then compare that to American History X, which apparently some Neo Nazis like, even though it’s inherently anti-Nazi, because it paints them as being powerful and is full of the visual symbolism they uphold).

Because the way they’re currently framing the CW crossover, it’s really just about amping up the drama? And they’ve capitalizing on intergenerational trauma of the Jewish community and the collective trauma of the Holocaust to the gay community. And I’ve said elsewhere that I have no doubt the intent was good, but good intentions aren’t enough.

If the producers don’t understand the damage they can cause by making ~*sexy*~ Nazis literally capable of world-domination (they’re not, they never were, they were superstitious and put genocide and hate over actual scientific advancements and their disgusting experiments on humans didn’t teach us near as much as people pretend they did), and re-writing heroes as Nazis (which, if anyone recalls, created a huge outcry when Marvel wrote Captain America as a Nazi) then regardless of their intent, they need to rethink their storytelling. Or if they really think that the right way to make a statement about the rise of Neo Nazism in the wake of the Trump election is to put the ‘SS’ symbol on Supergirl’s chest and make Eobard into Dr. Mengele, to recycle imagery of actual Nazis from WW2 and put a pink triangle on a gay man’s chest in 2017…. they don’t get it. Whatever their intent and regardless of where they’re coming from, they don’t fucking get it.

Sorry, I’m getting worked up. My point is that if they wanted to make a statement about things today, there were a million better ways to do it, and I could list at least 5 off the top of my head right now. But those would be more controversial, harder to pitch and sell, and not as stylized or easy to promote. So stylish Nazis is what we got. And that’s just… such a problem, including literally the ‘stylish’ part of that sentence.

Nazism and white supremacy are inherently performative. Nazis were all about the #aesthetic. They aligned themselves with famous designers for their uniforms. They had the villainous dramatic flair, and they used it to their advantage. Having that in the crossover might be historically accurate, but it falls right into what the Nazis themselves do: make themselves look good to amp up this notion that they are good.

And a problem with depicting them this way (instead of making them pathetic, vacuous, hate-filled to the point of self-defeat, self-important to the point of being ultimately silly and sad, punching down their notions of grandeur) is that actual Nazis like it. They like being portrayed as sexy, powerful, and cool. And depictions like that help them with their recruiting. “Look, isn’t Overgirl sexy? She’s like our mascot. They know that when we take back this country from foreigner invaders, this is how it’s gonna look.” Because they say when, not if, and they recruit by framing themselves as the victim in a struggle against invaders and usurpers. Make no mistake, white supremacy is a victim complex of untold proportions and having attractive, fan-favorited characters championing their cause helps spread their message.

But let’s get back to the crossover’s broader sociological message and stop talking about actual modern-day Nazis for a sec.

Nazis have been the villains in DCTV before. On Legends in 1942, and with Damien Darhk (again, actual literal Nazi, and again, the narrative has made him “entertaining” in the eyes of some viewers and keeps bringing him back over and over as a villain?). Nazis have also been the villain in pop culture for half a century. Indiana Jones. Star Wars comes to mind in particular. They’re not shy about the fact that their villains are explicitly based on Nazis and the Nazi regime. Which is working out so well considering how many people are mooning over Kylo Ren when he’s a genocidal fascist who murdered his own father (”but it’s okay because he’s just misunderstood, and by that I mean I find the actor attractive and I, too, have anger and angst so I identify with him, this Nazi”). At least in Star Wars it’s figurative, I guess?

And the thing about these narratives, the problem with these narratives, is that they fictionalize Nazis. This isn’t necessarily a reason to vehemently boycott these media or rail against them, but just, as a general phenomenon that’s happened over time, many people - and by this I mostly mean privileged people and people who don’t feel particularly targeted by Nazism - tend to think of Nazis as this cinematic enemy. This prop, this simple narrative device. This way of commenting on the past more than the present, or alluding to something about the present as a mere metaphor, and that metaphor tends to go over the heads of half the viewers anyway because most people aren’t taught to critically evaluate media except in high school english classes that no one takes seriously.

And fictionalized Nazis don’t look like real Nazis in the 21st century. So when real Nazis do gather, many people don’t realize just how bad that is, just how violent their coming together is going to be, and just why need to fight back against such demonstrations and against letting Nazis have any space or voice in our society. It’s like that “this is fine” dog cartoon where he doesn’t see an issue until the house burns around him? Making Nazis into a fictional narrative device can make it harder for many people to actually see the flames burning around them, because they’ve been taught that “real” fires look different than the ones already starting to burn their house down.

Finally, I’ll just come back to point number 1: this is hurting people. In a way that going to 1942 and letting Mick Rory roast Nazis didn’t. And as privileged individuals, we have a responsibility to call out and call attention to the issues in this media and to amplify others’ voices. But as human beings more generally? We also owe a duty of compassion to others.

Sure, there are a lot of people who aren’t hurt by this, but there are a lot who are. Who are shaking and sick to their stomachs and afraid for what’s happening in 2017 and how the tides of the world are turning. Who worry that this crossover is just another example of how casual people are about Nazism and who worry about everything I’ve listed here in detail as the broader effects of media like this and its current framing, even if they don’t have the language to articulate it all in one place like this. People who feel these effects, and feel the target on their back.

We owe those people some compassion, yeah? So when they say it hurts, we don’t need to say: why? That can come later. Our first question should instead be: how can I help?

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