batbeato

umineko account, expect full spoilers. they/he/she.

[batbeato]

Bat, have you seen/played newest Deltarune chapter? Because I watched recent playthroughs and am now devastated and compelled!

Yup! Played it on release day. To the detriment of my sleep.

Kris and Noelle are so. Special to me. Beabato to me even. I love everything that is wrong with them.

Mixed thoughts about the Japanese theming of the Dark World since it seems out of place, though.

[batbeato]

For the Ask Me: Letter X?

I will exclude Umineko since I think the answer is pretty obvious, ahaha.

Talentless Nana: Naonana! I love love love everything wrong with them. Character who usurps the other's place in the narrative and character destined to be the protagonist/hero becoming a villain/pawn. Character who goes from misguided/brainwashed hatred to desperate for forgiveness and character who goes from naive puppy love to a mixture of love and hatred desperate to kill the other but also to die at the other's hand.

Deltarune: Kriselle!!! Slightly more popular fandom than TNN (understatement). I like doomed childhood friends in weird fucked up relationships with horrific shared trauma and fucked up toxic families. What can I say. I'm so excited for Chapter 5 to come out.

Fate: Saber/Archer. Forever. What if when I was a teenager I met you and you became my inspiration and changed my life forever and it destroyed me and I'm a shell of who I used to be and despise my past naive self that you remind me so much of but still - you're so beautiful, glimmering like starlight - And you remember nothing of it, it never happened.

It used to be Saber/Shirou but. Archer... Archer... Nasu when I get my hands on you for making a time traveler trapped in the eternal torture nexus whose wish is to erase himself from existence. When I get you.

[cafeconcanela]

Ask me: FANDOM EDITION

A - Your current OTP

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

C - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t

E - Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

H - Do you prefer characters from real action series or anime series

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

K - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom

L - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for

M - Your favorite fanart or fanartist

N - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor

O - Choose a song at random, which OTP does it remind you of

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon

T - If you mostly have homoships, do you have any heteroships

U - If you mostly have heteroships, do you have any homoships

V - Are you one of those fans who can’t watch anything without shipping

W - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

X - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

Y - A fandom you’re in but have no ships from

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go

[batbeato]

Alcohol as a symbol of death in Umineko due to its association with Kinzo and his corpse. Alcohol as a symbol of adulthood in Umineko due to its very first mention being George and Battler talking about how George is an adult and can drink while Battler is still a minor and cannot drink. Alcohol as death and adulthood.

Battler in Episode 2 drinking just before his death, Beato in Episode 4 drinking just before her suicide. Adulthood as a deadly, corrupting poison.

Just neat to think about.

[ganaham]

good observation! this also has a connection with Rika in Higurashi in that she would frequently drink alone throughout the timelooping, presumably without ever experiencing the real physiological effects of it. i feel like in the context of this observation that was her way of being dead without dying

[batbeato]

Especially since Rika's time loops are solely to keep her from death... 'preserved', even. The cat in the box. Dying and not dying. An adult and yet not an adult. Preserved in amber forever.

[batbeato]

Alcohol as a symbol of death in Umineko due to its association with Kinzo and his corpse. Alcohol as a symbol of adulthood in Umineko due to its very first mention being George and Battler talking about how George is an adult and can drink while Battler is still a minor and cannot drink. Alcohol as death and adulthood.

Battler in Episode 2 drinking just before his death, Beato in Episode 4 drinking just before her suicide. Adulthood as a deadly, corrupting poison.

Just neat to think about.

[batbeato]

Lion in some ways grew up incredibly privileged, surrounded by loving family and set to inherit incredible wealth. And then at the same time, Lion is very clearly and vocally nonbinary, refusing to perform gendered roles, whether it be son or daughter, brother or sister, boy or girl. And Lion is cruel in ignorance, not even knowing the servants' names or seeing them as people. But, at the same time, Lion has an elegance and gentleness. Lion doesn't take command the way Rudolf or Krauss do, relying on patriarchy and 'brotherhood', nor did they inherit the psychological power plays of their mother and aunts. Lion is freed of that cycle of toxic patriarchy, freed of that gendered performance.

Lion is what Beato longs to be. Lion is what Beato can never be.

Because Beatrice is anchored in patriarchy, up to her knees in it, drowning in it. Beatrice who performs the role of femme fatale. Beatrice who performs the role of patriarch, violent and cruel and misogynistic and wicked, because isn't this what she was meant to be, isn't this what she was born for? Isn't this what was denied to her, no matter how she tears herself apart with it?

Sayo has never been able to be more than a 'failed' girl, a 'failed' boy - so Beatrice is devoid of those 'failings' to perform gender. Beatrice has an undeniably feminine form, one visible to everyone at a glance. She takes control of every situation, dominates the men (and women) around her, commands others, holds power over everyone - the perfect patriarch. The perfect ruler. The perfect (wo)man. Everything they hated about their father. Everything they longed to have for themself. Everything they think they 'should' want.

So why is it so empty, so hollow? Why, when Beatrice performs this role, does Battler reject her?

[batbeato]

Thinking about the version of Episode 3 we'll never see where Beato got to be even more violent and evil instead of moe moe kyun kyun "sowwy I killed your family with meaningless violence" (lying her ass off) (probably having an internal screaming and crying breakdown) (desperate for Battler to finally fucking notice and care about her).

The version of Episode 3 devoted to breaking Battler's spirit for good. The version of Episode 3 where Virgil guides Dante to Hell, away from Beatrice. The version of Episode 3 where Black Battler appears to torment Battler with the apparition of guilt / culpability in the tragedy. The version of Episode 3 that doesn't backtrack on EP1 & EP2's dark, horror-mystery tone. The version of Episode 3 that doesn't hold the reader's hand while beating them over the head with how magic works.

The Episode 3 that doesn't need to show you a palatable moe Beato and beg for you to love her. The Episode 3 that unapologetically shows you a cruel, wicked witch, and asks you to love her as she is. The Episode 3 written by a bitter, suicidal, depressed Sayo with such deep understanding and love and hatred for everyone involved.

[batbeato]

I was thinking about house in fata morgana and ableism. Spoilers ahead. Also take with salt since I may have forgotten some details.

So. Morgana's skin condition. The way it's treated as this awful disfiguring thing by others, as this sort of shock factor, as a "she would be so beautiful if not for -". The way Jacopo in Requiem (at a point where we are meant to sympathize and agree with him) imagines Morgana without her skin condition and thinks about how she would be so much prettier without it.

The fact that in the modern world, Morgana doesn't have that skin condition at all - or, at the very least, it is no longer a visible 'blemish'. And then the fact that her skin condition serves as this external representation of her trauma / former sainthood, disability used as 'metaphor' in a long-standing ableist tradition of disability as 'punishment'. To be clear, though this narrative is one that Morgana believes, her perspective would be entirely accurate for the time period - I speak more of the almost-magical timing of her skin condition and the purpose it serves in the work.

Morgana's skin condition is disability as tragedy, disability as metaphor, disability as magic, disability magically cured. The same way that Morgana losing an arm is nothing but shock factor, tragedy, horror. The same way that her DID is nothing but a shock twist, one that needs to be 'cured' through violence (murder of her alter). She does not live with disability as a person would: she is burdened with disability as a brand/mark of trauma, and 'fixing' her disability 'fixes' Morgana. The use of disability as fantastical metaphor abounds throughout the work, from Michel's unrealistic intersex puberty to Yukimasa's "beastly" mental condition to Ceren's mental differences that lead to her being "unable" to process her suffering or others', resulting in her aiding in the suffering and deaths of many people.

Disability marks the fantastical metaphorical 'other'. Disability, in this work, is 'other'. It is a plot point, a narrative crutch, built on disabled bodies they would rather see violently 'cured', excised, killed, than live happy, disabled lives.

[batbeato]

duplicity loop is out!! and free!!

go my scarab (magical girl vn I've been working on for ten thousand years)

duplicity loop by bat

a dark magical girl visual novel

duplicity loop on Steam

A dark magical girl VN that takes place in an Alice in Wonderland inspired world.

[batbeato]

MILGRAM conceptually is lovely and then in execution it's just "hey let's have characters from various marginalized and often stigmatized groups be judged by the internet, and let's have terrible writing with little actual nuance or realism that reinforces stereotypes".

Because, when the premise of your series is that every single character is a murderer... no matter how much one might say, "the point is that the character themself feels guilt about their actions / feels that it is murder"... The framing causes a variety of issues and promotes bigotry.

We have Haruka, a disabled man who is portrayed as violent towards animals and children. Portraying disabled men as violent ignores the reality of how often disabled people are abused by their caretakers, including their parents. Haruka has some form of developmental disability and is shown to be neglected/abused by his family - but he is the one being put on trial and judged.

We have Yuno, an underage sex worker who 'murdered' a fetus she was carrying because she fell down some stairs. Her trial 3 song revolves around motherhood. Her character reinforces the idea of women as wombs, the idea of an ended pregnancy as murder - ideas that are incredibly dangerous to reinforce. Does it matter that the audience has chosen to 'forgive' her, when the narrative seeks to punish us for forgiving her and reinforces over and over that Yuno feels so terribly guilty for the 'crime' of a fetus's death? Does it matter, when the idea of women-as-wombs is so prevalent in society, and that idea dehumanizes and harms and kills so many? Does it matter, when the series' only sex worker character is also the one who is most associated with the 'consequences' of sex (pregnancy), as if in punishment?

We have Muu, judged as victim and then bully. We have Mahiru, a woman with a controlling family, and who many interpreted, due to her first and second trial songs, as a woman in an abusive relationship, either as victim or perpetrator. Two girls judged based on how closely they matched an ideal victim, with 'twists' that seem designed to shock viewers rather than to add true depth. These are serious issues, but rather than nuance, we have a girl who only indirectly supported bullying who killed a girl whose presence indirectly resulted in her being bullied, and a woman who came from a controlling (abusive) family.

We have Kazui, a gay man, who experienced homophobia for the entirety of his life and for whom merely coming out to his friend and wife resulted in disgust and suicide. The only canonically gay character in MILGRAM, and his entire character is based around how hiding your queerness harms the straight people around you. Kazui flagellates himself constantly regardless of audience forgiveness. What is turning queerness and homophobia into a neatly-wrapped moral exercise for the viewers meant to do? How is this a respectful portrayal when it has Kazui's queerness being so terrible that his wife immediately kills herself?

We have Amane, a RAMCOA survivor, a child raised in a high control group (cult). The amount of misinformation about such groups and about the abuse experienced within them is unfathomably high. Having Amane 'brainwash' Fuuta into the cult and kill a full-grown man (Shidou) is just. I cannot speak to the level of insensitivity involved, simply because I have no words to describe how viscerally angry it makes me. I'm sure that portraying Amane as a representative of the cult that tortured and programmed her, and as an antagonistic figure that killed a well-liked character, definitely won't reinforce harmful ideas about RAMCOA (heavy sarcasm).

And then we have Mikoto, who has DID, and, like most media representation of DID, has Mikoto as a "Jekyll & Hyde", a 'normal' 'innocent' man with an 'evil' 'murderous' alter. This is not what DID is or looks like. Much like with Haruka, disabled people are much more likely to be murder/abuse victims rather than perpetrators. Mikoto's character only serves to reinforce harmful stereotypes against a vulnerable population.

MILGRAM is a series of self-important "moral exercises" that only serve to reinforce stereotypes and bigotry, wrapped up with a 'mystery' and using the veils of audience participation / analysis to avoid accountability.

[pyriteromantic]

Ok but like Haruka does delve into how he was abused and neglected by his caretaker

Yuno is about how she’s trapped as seeing herself as a mother after her trauma with mahirus death

Fuuta is about his desperation for redemption after his actions of justice got out of hand

Your entire argument about Mu is just thrown out by Pain showing she’s been raised in an environment where she can’t comprehend the weight of her actions

Shidou is about the painful triage of sacrificing others for the chance of saving someone you love

Mahiru was always seen as the after effect of someone starving for love while being abused

Cazoo man shows mainly shows how he’s hurting from the homophobia put on him by the people around him

Amane is about how much we can actually excuse innocence and if you looked at fuutas trial 3 content it states how he wasn’t “brainwashed”.

Mikoto does have pretty bad DID rep I’ll give u that. But he also brings up an interesting question on if we should prosecute people who are protecting themselves from trauma

And Kotoko is about a relentless sense of “justice” but what the after effects of it effect how it’s perceived

As someone who’s been through almost all of the situations from Milgram I can confidently say I’ve never seen another piece of media humanize victims this much. This is also why so many other people find it relatable and want to stick with these characters until the end. I highly encourage you to watch mahirus death video, then watch yunos voice drama and Life. It’s one of the best demonstrations of the heights of the writing.

The show extremely successfully interrogates the conservative values of East Asias court and therefore society by portraying the victims of these unjust rules. Jackalope and Milgram are clearly portrayed as antagonists putting suffering on people in desperate situations.

It’s so cool if Milgram isn’t your cup of tea, but don’t misinterpret it based on a glance.

[batbeato]

I've been a MILGRAM fan for years.

The only thing MILGRAM interrogates is my patience for ableism, homophobia, and misogyny.

I don't see humanization. I do see caricaturization. And I see a fandom that constantly acts in ableist, misogynistic ways towards the characters. I don't see how MILGRAM fostering such an environment is a sign of how its humanizing characters.

I suggest you think about how your first reaction is to deny all of my points and claim that I am 'misinterpreting at a glance' instead of engaging with my points and considering your biases.

[batbeato]

Something about Tohya I've been thinking about recently is how his disability is treated in Umineko and by the fandom...

A lot of times in media a wheelchair is used as this visual shorthand for "can't walk" or "disabled", treated as if the presence of the wheelchair alone explains/describes disability, and Umineko definitely does this with Tohya. His disability is never elaborated on beyond "wheelchair". We don't know why he uses a wheelchair - if he has paralysis, muscle weakness, balance issues, or other conditions... We don't even know if Tohya is capable of transitioning to/from his chair or wheeling his chair. Ikuko assists him with both, but it could be a case where she does these things to assert power/control, or because it places less strain on him during longer/public outings.

And in fanart depicting Tohya, there are plenty of artists that will depict Tohya without the wheelchair, or using different aids, like a cane (which is an entirely different mobility aid that serves a different purpose from a wheelchair). There is even art that uses Tohya's wheelchair-user status as a way to have characters take him places against his will / push him around - something that may be meant as lighthearted, but that can absolutely become caretaker abuse. My partner is a wheelchair user and I simply cannot imagine taking control of my partner's wheelchair and doing anything that would make them feel uncomfortable, unsafe, etc.

There's even something to be said about the fact that, even if Tohya is not able to physically wheel himself in a manual wheelchair, there are alternatives, like an electric wheelchair (these have been around since the 1950s).

I think a lot of it comes down to both ableism and a lack of research/understanding of disability and mobility aids, on the part of both Ryukishi (and his team) and Umineko fans, but it's something that I hope will change in the future.

[batbeato]

MILGRAM conceptually is lovely and then in execution it's just "hey let's have characters from various marginalized and often stigmatized groups be judged by the internet, and let's have terrible writing with little actual nuance or realism that reinforces stereotypes".

Because, when the premise of your series is that every single character is a murderer... no matter how much one might say, "the point is that the character themself feels guilt about their actions / feels that it is murder"... The framing causes a variety of issues and promotes bigotry.

We have Haruka, a disabled man who is portrayed as violent towards animals and children. Portraying disabled men as violent ignores the reality of how often disabled people are abused by their caretakers, including their parents. Haruka has some form of developmental disability and is shown to be neglected/abused by his family - but he is the one being put on trial and judged.

We have Yuno, an underage sex worker who 'murdered' a fetus she was carrying because she fell down some stairs. Her trial 3 song revolves around motherhood. Her character reinforces the idea of women as wombs, the idea of an ended pregnancy as murder - ideas that are incredibly dangerous to reinforce. Does it matter that the audience has chosen to 'forgive' her, when the narrative seeks to punish us for forgiving her and reinforces over and over that Yuno feels so terribly guilty for the 'crime' of a fetus's death? Does it matter, when the idea of women-as-wombs is so prevalent in society, and that idea dehumanizes and harms and kills so many? Does it matter, when the series' only sex worker character is also the one who is most associated with the 'consequences' of sex (pregnancy), as if in punishment?

We have Muu, judged as victim and then bully. We have Mahiru, a woman with a controlling family, and who many interpreted, due to her first and second trial songs, as a woman in an abusive relationship, either as victim or perpetrator. Two girls judged based on how closely they matched an ideal victim, with 'twists' that seem designed to shock viewers rather than to add true depth. These are serious issues, but rather than nuance, we have a girl who only indirectly supported bullying who killed a girl whose presence indirectly resulted in her being bullied, and a woman who came from a controlling (abusive) family.

We have Kazui, a gay man, who experienced homophobia for the entirety of his life and for whom merely coming out to his friend and wife resulted in disgust and suicide. The only canonically gay character in MILGRAM, and his entire character is based around how hiding your queerness harms the straight people around you. Kazui flagellates himself constantly regardless of audience forgiveness. What is turning queerness and homophobia into a neatly-wrapped moral exercise for the viewers meant to do? How is this a respectful portrayal when it has Kazui's queerness being so terrible that his wife immediately kills herself?

We have Amane, a RAMCOA survivor, a child raised in a high control group (cult). The amount of misinformation about such groups and about the abuse experienced within them is unfathomably high. Having Amane 'brainwash' Fuuta into the cult and kill a full-grown man (Shidou) is just. I cannot speak to the level of insensitivity involved, simply because I have no words to describe how viscerally angry it makes me. I'm sure that portraying Amane as a representative of the cult that tortured and programmed her, and as an antagonistic figure that killed a well-liked character, definitely won't reinforce harmful ideas about RAMCOA (heavy sarcasm).

And then we have Mikoto, who has DID, and, like most media representation of DID, has Mikoto as a "Jekyll & Hyde", a 'normal' 'innocent' man with an 'evil' 'murderous' alter. This is not what DID is or looks like. Much like with Haruka, disabled people are much more likely to be murder/abuse victims rather than perpetrators. Mikoto's character only serves to reinforce harmful stereotypes against a vulnerable population.

MILGRAM is a series of self-important "moral exercises" that only serve to reinforce stereotypes and bigotry, wrapped up with a 'mystery' and using the veils of audience participation / analysis to avoid accountability.

[batbeato]

On the one hand, I am incredibly, incredibly happy that as of late, more people are talking about and depicting Sayo as intersex. On the other hand, this means that more people are being intersexist about Sayo, or at least that discussion of certain aspects of Sayo can tie into intersexism.

When you make jokes or talk about Sayo's issues with sex and sexual pleasure, talking solely about Sayo's experience with sex as something frustrating and fruitless, it can reinforce intersexist ideas about intersex bodies being incapable of satisfying sex. While many intersex people do experience these issues, many intersex people can find ways around these issues / new ways to find pleasure with their bodies beyond perisex, cis, or heteronormative ways of imagining sex.

I myself have written Sayo experiencing this kind of sexual frustration and feeling incapable of satisfying sex - but I have also written, oftentimes in the same works, Sayo finding these new ways to experience pleasure, because being intersex does not mean that you are cursed to live a life of sexual frustration and disconnect. Perisex fans of Sayo who are tapping into intersex(-analogous) depictions of Sayo need to remember that the lived reality of intersex people is not forced, inadequate 'asexuality' (nor is it fetishized hypersexuality).

Please let Sayo experience pleasure from sex. And, in that same vein - please do the same for Beatrice. I would hope that by now, the fetishistic transmisogyny of forcing transfem characters into a domme / penetrative role in sex, with their own interiority and pleasure denied in favor of the bottom (and the viewer) being pleasured by a (objectified) transfem, is evident. Let her exist beyond being a (trans) woman with a dick, or strapon, or leash.

When Sayo's intersex identity becomes "haha they can't get off how cute" and Beato's trans identity becomes "haha she dominates stupid men" you are creating fetishistic stereotypes that no intersex or transfem person is going to be comfortable with.

[batbeato]

Deltarune's Snowgrave Route, and projections of heteronormativity.

Something I've been seeing a lot as I look into Deltarune fandom content is the idea of the Snowgrave / Weird Route as "two queer people forced into a heteronormative relationship".

The argument seems to be that, because 'we' (the player) force Kris into an abusive role / relationship with Noelle, one that involves Kris giving Noelle a ring, we are forcing Kris and Noelle into a heteronormative relationship. This sometimes also comes with the idea that Kris is an AMAB trans person who is being forced 'back' into masculinity.

This interpretation of Snowgrave is predicated on the idea that an abusive / dominating role is an inherently masculine one, or that an abusive relationship is an inherently heteronormative one. At no point in Snowgrave is Kris referred to with masculine terms.

Two queer people in a relationship are queer. Regardless of their gender identities, presentations, and any abuse that may occur in that relationship. The idea that one partner in a queer relationship is "the man" and the other is "the woman" has often been used as part of lesbophobia and to discredit lesbian relationships. One partner, regardless of how they present or identify, being abusive does not make a relationship heteronormative.

Heteronormativity is not when a relationship is abusive. Heteronormativity is not when a relationship involves one person with a masculine presentation and one person with a feminine presentation.

Believing that Snowgrave is about two queer people being forced into a heteronormative relationship misgenders Kris, a nonbinary character, because they are perceived to be 'masculine'. It also implies that any transfeminine person who is abusive is 'masculine' - a transmisogynistic connotation that has stood out to the transfems in my life I have discussed this interpretation of Snowgrave with.

Deltarune, as a whole, does not engage deeply with gender. Kris is a nonbinary protagonist, but characters do not express any opinion about their gender or how they express their gender. Even when Susie teases Kris about wearing ribbons, it is related more to the idea that ribbons are 'childish' than that they are 'feminine'. No one comments on Kris' pronouns or discusses their own relationship with gender or with patriarchal norms.

Snowgrave is a deconstruction of the player character's control over other party members, an exploration of a broken childhood friendship, and an extension of the story's themes of choice and pacifism vs violence. There are romantic implications to Kris and Noelle's relationship (the ring, Spamton calling Noelle Kris' "side chick", Noelle going with Kris to the festival) but these are tied into a corruption of Kris and Noelle's childhood friendship and an exploration of their abusive dynamic in Snowgrave.

[batbeato]

So I caught up on Deltarune recently and I have Thoughts about the ending of Chapter 4. (Spoilers beneath the cut.)

The tonal shift and dissonance here is incredible. You have Kris and Susie, back after an intense amount of battling and emotional turmoil, and there's Toriel, completely fine, dancing and uncaring of the fact that her child and their friend have been out in the rain for hours in the middle of the night.

Then you have the fact that Toriel is drunk. Not only is she drunk, but she's dancing with someone who is, at best, a stranger. At worst, he's someone who's said some rude/mean-spirited things to Kris, ranging from "befriending your mom" jokes to "you're an idiot baby for asking to be friends with me HAHA".

Toriel tells Susie that she can take Asriel's bed - take Asriel's place in their house. This contrasts Carol and Noelle's reverence of December's room, keeping it perfectly as it had been - but it contrasts it to such an extent that it's harmful in its own way, especially when Asriel is meant to come back for the festival (which is tomorrow). While Carol embodies a reverence of the past that fully rejects the present, here Toriel embodies a rejection of the past that fully denies Kris' difficult relationship with coming to terms with their parents' divorce and Asriel's transition to college.

It's no wonder that Susie is uncomfortable with all of this and leaves, and that Kris is distressed in the moment and while trying to sleep (the noise level aside).

Kris is left with nothing in the fridge to eat, their mother is drunk and didn't inquire about their whereabouts or worry at all, she brought a stranger into their house who she may be on a date with, and they have to deal with loud music playing late into the night. Toriel getting this drunk, when Kris isn't home, is irresponsible on its own. Kris shouldn't ever be witnessing their mother in this state, or, if they do, it should at least be with a responsible, trusted adult looking after her (and Kris).

Toriel does not know Sans well. He has only been in town for a very short period of time. Bringing him into her house is irresponsible for her own safety, but especially for the safety of her child. Beyond that, if she is having a romantic date with Sans, it should not be taking place in her house when it is a very, very new relationship. Kris should not be introduced to their mother's new-as-of-today boyfriend this early on into their relationship, and not in this by-surprise, accidental way when Toriel is drunk and it is very late at night.

Sans also seems to be sober, whereas Toriel is... definitively not.

Since Sans has Papyrus at home, it might not be possible for them to hang out at Sans' house, but it should be possible for them to find an alternative location. For example, they could have continued to hang out at Sans' grocery store. It should also have been possible for Toriel to communicate with the other choir members as well as Kris.

It was possible for Toriel to be a responsible parent while still finding time to socialize. She chose to make poor decisions that follow an already-established pattern of her not caring about Kris' whereabouts and brushing it off as 'normal for Kris'.

It's just such a small scene that says so much about Toriel's parenting and what she prioritizes over Kris, and how she actively continues to make Kris' living situation stressful and unstable. It contrasts Carol, who continues to force everything to remain the same despite the harm it causes Noelle and the cracks it seems to have caused in her relationship with Rudy. It also contrasts Asgore, who tries to forcefully set everything back to a "normal" that can never return - and, in the process, puts Kris in the middle of his conflict with Toriel, just as Toriel's efforts to move on harm Kris at the end of Chapter 4.

[batbeato]

YOU KILLED OFF IKUKO???????

ITS METAPHORICAL SHE'LL BE FINE

[batbeato]

So the actual reason I remembered tumblr existed was because I was having thoughts about the Royal Scandal series and cultural appropriation / racism and my partner told me I should tumblr about it.

This is Catherine, the one Royal Scandal character (outside of a handful of nameless background characters) that has a darker skintone.

Catherine also happens to be a vaguely antagonistic figure and is associated with (black) cats, as they represent the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. They are also the only (afaik) RoySca character who does not have a canon gender listed, making them androgynous/ambiguous/nonbinary. Considering that the gender binary as we know it is defined by white patriarchy, and is used to degender and dehumanize people of color, Catherine being the only genderless character is echoing a long tradition of the degendering of POC.

This is Alam, who is based on Aladdin. The original Aladdin itself is a story by a French man: it originated as an Orientalist tale by someone with limited contact with, little knowledge of, and bigotry towards non-white cultures.

Alam himself is a light-skinned man intended to be Arab, a problem in itself. While Arab people may have a variety of skintones, including lighter skintones, the lack of overall skintone diversity points to colorism and light-as-default rather than a deliberate choice by the creators.

His depiction is further problematized by making his 'Jasmine' a wealthy white woman - Olivia - from a Europe-analogous country. He ends up abusing her due to being cursed by a magic ring, resulting in the neglected and abused Olivia murdering him.

As far as I am aware, Alam and his song, Magic Ring Night, which attempts to use "Oriental" musical motifs and some Arabic, were not created in consultation with anyone from any Arab and/or Middle Eastern background.

Nina is a girl from a small tropical island village who is clad in what appears to be an amalgamation of indigenous dress from a variety of cultures that remain unnamed, uncredited, and unthanked, their traditions mined and robbed for artistic inspiration by non-indigenous creators.

Much like Alam, she is light-skinned, again a decision likely not made as part of consideration of cultures she is inspired by or coded as. She, much like Alam, is a poor person from a non-white culture who falls in love with a wealthy white European. This ties into a long-standing trope of non-white people being "saved" and "civilized" by their white lovers.

Both Alam and Nina also go through a transformation where, as part of gaining power (Alam) or fitting into European society and appealing to her love interest (Nina), they discard their cultural dress in favor of European clothes.

This story of (attempted) assimilation into whiteness to gain status, wealth and love ignores the violent, forceful assimilation that indigenous peoples have endured, and still face. It rewards characters for approaching whiteness, and, in Nina's case, distinctly treats her European dress as a superior adornment to her cultural dress.

I do not believe that KANON69 and Rahwia created Royal Scandal while understanding these implications of their work, but they did not consult people of the cultures they attempt to depict, and their biases are reflected in their work.

I hope that more Royal Scandal fans can acknowledge the harm in the depictions of non-white cultures and characters in the series.