Alright, let me put a few points of stuff Iāve seen on the tags to rest here.
1) Jades Are A Rare Caste.
They are implied to be less plentiful than other castes, yeah, I believe Seadwellers are also rare? But hereās the thing- We have sixĀ Jades. When someone says āThereās twice as many Jades as we have Rusts or Bronzesā, it sounds like, shit, yeah werenāt they supposed to be less abundant? Except. Theyāre still, in total, just Six. Alternia is a planet. Lore-wise, they may be a less plentiful Caste, but theyāre not evenā¦ In the double digits. This is not even the population of a neighborhood, Xefrosā suburban area likely had more Trolls in total than there are Trolls in this Troll Call, and besides itās likely all Jades are in the same place for some reason- Jadeblood School is the biggest headcanon right now, for example, soā¦ Why wouldnāt you have a bunch of Jades there?
This is a straight-up misconception, yeah theyāre mostly girls, but canon still leaves room for Jadeblood boys. So Male Jadeblood? Yeah, can happen, and thereās nothing going against the canon here.
3) Trolls Have No Concept Of Gender.
This one is honestly baffling to me because I havenāt heard about this until the discourse today. I am assuming this comes from the fact Troll Reproduction doesnāt care who provides the genetic material? Their reproduction is not tied to gender, which has made people assume Troll junk is the same for both guys and gals. Exceptā¦ Thatās about it. Even though itās silly because theyāre bugs and implied to be hermaphroditic, they still show sexual dimorphism. And even if they didnāt, they still have a concept of Gender, merely based on the fact thereās Troll Boys and Troll Girls? He/She divide? With Hiveswap expanding on it and showing us there are, indeed, NB Trolls that prefer They/Them. This Gender Divide is actually talked about by Porrim, who also implies that while Fuchsia-down Alternia seemed a Matriarchy, Purple-down it was actually a Patriarchy, informing us that not ONLY is there sexual dimorphism, but also, a cultural divide. By saying that Lanque canāt be Trans because Trolls have no concept of Gender, youāre either mistaking headcanons for actual canonā¦ Or being transphobic by equating genitalia to gender. In which case, fuck off.
4) Trolls Donāt Care About Fashion.
This is something Karkat says, and I believe Kanaya also implies she cares about it more than itās usual? But Fashion in Troll Culture, seems to be exactly like Mail. Karkat mentions thereās no Mail they do not get a Mailbox with a Flag, yet we see Xefros get mail! Except itās not Mail. Itās parachuted delivery straight from a website. Thereās no standarized Mail system on Alternia, but that doesnāt mean companies canāt deliver things themselves, directly to their Hives. Similarly, Trolls have no concept of Fashion- They donāt care about things such as trends, variety, being dressed properly. Andā¦ Hiveswap doesnāt break this. They have more colorful clothes, and some look pretty good! But. Look at Cirava. Theyāre an absolute fashion disaster. Diemen is just dressed like a hot dog. The Jades all seem to wear uniforms of some sort. Fozzer and Marsti, Skylla, they are more akin to work clothes. The Soleil Twins and Marvus are more flashy, because theyāre likely part of a spectacle. Most of them are either a sort of uniform or outfit thatāll fit whatever theyāre doing, or a basic color with their symbol somewhere. And you can go from Bright Pink Bathrobe Stelsa, to Pirate-Clad Remele, and back to Punk Denim Elwurd. Not being Fashionable can be about trends, they may simply dress however they want, because of their interests, or their jobs.
But letās think about this another way. Letās say that, yeah, they did retcon Troll Fashion- Wouldā¦ Would you really be mad if they retconned Troll Fashion. Likeā¦ Would you be happier if every Troll shown was wearing a plain black shirt with their Symbol, and pants or a skirt, with slight variations of a jacket or a tank top. I donāt think thereās a single Hiveswap design I dislike, and theyāre all visibly varied and easily recognizable, and tell a lot about the character, which is like. Character Design 101? So I honestly donāt know what the complaint here is exactly, except Canon Purity.
5) Hiveswap Ruined Fantroll Variety
How.Ā First of all, the entire previous point. Just, expanding upon basic Troll Clothes, showing us the extent of how Trolls dress. But also likeā¦ What did they limit exactly? Weāre going to learn more about Trolls and Troll Culture and Biology, of course headcanons are going to clash with canon, but so far, what have they limited? Iāve heard about Horns, but likeā¦ These horns have all been so varied, and sure thereās stuff like hooks with Ceruleans and Jades, and Four Horns with Golds butā¦ This pattern is also broken, with Azdaja having three, for example. Weāve seen new Psionic colors, weāve seen stuff like Horn Piercing, weāve seen Troll Twins, we have seen horns where the orange part starts at different heights than youād expect and even some of the parts jutting out having their own red-orange-yellow coloration separate of the main shaft of the horn. If anything, until now, thereās always been headcanons for Horns, like,Ā āOh this is their symbol so itāll be like thisā, orĀ āthis is their caste, so, theyāll have big hornsā, but no, we have Purples with small horns, we have Bronzes with curly horns downwards, we have a cerulean with super uneven horns, we have a gold with three horns, we have a teal with flat horns, we have rounded horns, we have hotdog horns. Iāve heard people wonder about some Horn Shapes in the prior weeks, about how they didnāt match their restrictive headcanons, and NOW you tell me theyāre restrictive? Thereās also been complaints about caste roles and stereotypes, and I feel people really forget that Alternia is a Tyranny that forces the inhabitants in roles they are most likely not happy with, specially for the lower castes. Likeā¦ Rusts are disposable, and likely to be bound to a life of servitude. Because theyāre the lowest of the low, society treats them as such, and thereās stereotypes like Indigos being strong, but thatās not any more restrictive than Psionics being a Gold-only thing, and much like we see Zebede not having Psionics or Elwurd and Mallek having normal eyes to every other ceruleanās messed-up onesā¦ Thereās exceptions to the rule everywhere. There have always been.
Iāve also seen complaints about no mutant bloods or things like Albinism and such? And likeā¦ The fact they didnāt include it doesnāt mean it doesnāt exist. We actually got Freckles with Zebede, so it already implies skin conditions are a thing, so Albinism could happen, if anything we have more PROOF that it may be a thing! Complaining about a lack of Limebloods and Violets, too, is just nitpicking, we know there will be Violets eventually, but either we havenāt been shown right now, or theyāre just. In the sea. And weāre in the land. And Limes are likely to be a plot point, Iām expecting at least ONE Lime (Fiamet), if not more to show up at some point, and if thereās NO Limebloods Iām sure there will be at least talk OF Limebloods and their whole, you know, extermination, which is a canon thing that happened.
6) The Gameās Representation Is Bad Representation
Listenā¦ Listen. I have friends ecstatic that thereās at LEAST three non-cis characters in Hiveswap (One trans boy, two NBs), without counting the possibility of other characters being Trans (Pretty much anyone could be), or NB (Like, I think about half of the characters donāt have pronouns on their bullet points?), not to mention, further acts with new characters. Hell, even Xefros or Dammek or JoeyĀ could be Trans. We. Literally know nothing about these characters, our information is so limited, and yet thereās already people cheering about it and super happy to see representation and Iāve seen one person in the tag encouraged to come outĀ because Lanque is Trans. Thereās also at least two Jewish Trolls, plus the possibility of Kanaya being Jewish as well, either her, Rose, or both. And yet, even though they have simply said this, in good faith, respectfully, and trying to add diversity to their roster, and even though we literally know NOTHING of how itāll be handled yet, youā¦ Bash them for it?
Like, okay. Lanque. The big topic today. Heās not particularly masculine, but as has surely been repeated over and over and over again, not all trans men are masculine, and not all trans people suffer dysphoria. And yeah, itās true! It would be nice if there was a more masculine trans man! It would be great if there were trans girls! It would be great if there were more diversely coded NB characters! And there may be?? Thereās going to be more characters, if not in this Act, in future Acts, and of the ones weāve seen, many of them could still be NB or Trans. Likeā¦ Again. Weāve got three bullet points from each character. Like, Iām sorry you didnāt get a trans character that you could identify better with yet? But that doesnāt mean you have to bash the one we got? When there are people genuinely happy and encouraged about it? Youāre not being progressive. Youāre being an elitist asshole, if you only accept 100% perfect representation suited to your tastes, and everything else is garbage, or god help me,Ā āfetishizationā orĀ ādisgustingā (I have heard both on the Tags), like seriously. Youāre being the oppressive one. Youāre the one making representation harder than it should be.
Oh and if youāre on the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum and simply being Transphobic or saying how all of this isĀ āpanderingā to the audience, really I have nothing to say, if you cannot have basic empathy for a group of people finding representation in a game which source material is extremely queer, and have to resort to bashing it down, screw you.
7) WhatPumpkin Are Doing A Bad Job
This is your subjective opinion, and Iād dare to say, a wrong opinion, but letās not go there for now. WP has suffered a lot of hate for some reason? There have been lies and slander and bashing for absolutely no reason. People hate Cohen for some reason, and have demonized him, when so far what Iāve seen about him is that heās a pretty chill dude. The writing of Hiveswap wasnāt like, a masterpiece? But it was fun and it got a good bunch of chuckles out of me and made me care for the characters, and even got me a bit scared and sad at some points during the game! It has that Homestuck Spark, and if you sayĀ āitās not like Homestuckā, youāreā¦ Iām sorry, youāre just an elitist, or simply donāt like the style anymore? But it carries a very similar charm.
Iāve heard complaints about Hussie not being involved in the project- Which is false, he did write the entire story FIRST THING, and is overseeing the whole project with the rest of the team. Thereās also been criticism towards WPĀ āfailingā at representation (Before actually seeing the representation apparently, again, we know NOTHING about the game and how itāll handle stuff so far), and also accusing WP and Cohen specifically of adding representation because of Woke Points and likeā¦ WP are Queer as Heck? I donāt know all of them, I donāt even know how many people are working at WP. But theyāre not all straight 100% for sure, and I believe theyāre not all cis- And even if they ARE all cis, I also doubt a group working on such a Queer game would NOT hear out from Trans friends. What Iām trying to say, is that they havenāt shown at any point disrespect of ignorance regarding the diversity they want to tackle, theyāre not doing things out of bad faith, and we havenāt seen how they handle it yet. Even if they didnāt handle it ideally! Does it need to be absolutely perfect, there can be missteps on the way there, god dammit if someoneās trying to better themselves but not quite getting it right you donāt insult them and tear them down! You show them what to do better next time or where they are mistaken, by pessimistically ignoring what theyāre trying to do out of spite youāre discouraging good will and being an asshole! Which leads me to my last point for now.
8) They Could Have Told Us We Were Misgendering Lanque
This one isā¦ Really, a bit ridiculous. Okay, let me explain. If someone is Trans and you misgender them accidentally, theyāll tell you quickly and youāll, hopefully, correct yourself. Obviously. When the Trolls leaked, everyone latched onto Lanque asĀ āButch Lesbianā, and clung to that hope, and now that they were proven wrong, there was salt, at first, and THEN came the talk about Misgendering Lanque. And let me tell you, I think this is very selfish of everyone saying it.
What WP likely thought would happen is that theyād reveal Lanque to be a Trans boy, and people would be likeĀ āOh! Nice, Trans Rep!ā. Sure they couldāve told us back then butā¦ Why? Lanque is not. A real person. Heās a fictional character, heās not going to be offended because you thought he was a butch woman for a few months, in fact the SILHOUETTE alone ALREADY had people clinging to him as a butch woman. If he were a real person? Of course thereād be a quick correction. But heās. A character. Heās just a god damn character. Who is Trans, out of good faith by a very Queer company, showing us a Trans man, who is a character, and expecting that, like NORMAL PEOPLE, we would not do something like THIS.
When you criticize WP for not telling us Lanque was a Trans Man, all Iām seeing is a shift of blame, not wanting to simply admit you were wrong and jumped to conclusions, and like- Even if there was Fanart or Fanfic of Lanque calling him a woman briefly, shipping him around mistakenly, who cares?Ā You just. Go.Ā āOkay, Iāll change itā orĀ āWhoops haha this was from when we didnāt know he was a Trans boy!ā Why the militant hatred? Why the absolute disgust shown today? I canāt understand, I simply cannot understand why your first reaction toĀ āTrans boy Jadebloodā isĀ āWELL I THOUGHT HE WAS A BUTCH LESBIAN!! I WASNāT WRONG BY ASSUMING THIS, WHATPUMPKIN WERE FOR TRYING TO MAKE THEIR GAME MORE DIVERSEā. Itās likeā¦ You just. Correct it? You just correct yourself? And yeah you can want more masculine Trans boys, thatās fair! But dismissing what we got, entirely, and insulting it, and getting like THIS, and blaming the team, it just seems.
Narcissistic. It seems narcissistic and extremely self-centered, and perfectionist to the extreme of not wanting anything other than a complete and absolute ideal, that may fit you but may also not fit others.
People are happyĀ about representation. This isnāt destroying diversity or representation, this is not reducing customization of Fantrolls, this is only building MORE on the already expansive system, and giving us representation and hope for MORE representation in the future, and if you cannot be happy for a genuine, good natured, and honestly, perfectly fine attempt, if you cannot feel empathy for the people who did feel for this representation, if you can only want to find reasons to bash something down and demonize something good and point out how BAD and NOT GOOD things are and how MUCH BETTER they could be, then honestly, youāre a deeply unpleasant person.
Give things time. Give people with good intentions chances. Learn to backpedal and learn from mistakes and simply correct yourself when youāre wrong instead of going down a hateful spiral. Learn to separate fiction and reality. Just likeā¦ Think, for a moment, when youāre writing something down- Is it a jaded opinion, or an objective fact? Will it hurt and discourage people whoāre genuinely happy or trying to make others happy? Why do more harm than good when there are good intentions paving the way?
I just simply cannot understand the basic lack of critical thought and empathy of some people I have seen today, and hopefully with this I can make my opinion on the whole absurd Discourse that transpired today clear.
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