Those Crows and the Shiny Things

Crows | all pronouns | system | adult we do art things occasionally | how do you actually make the desc look nice this is impossibl-

[free-ren-hugs]

♡

I’ve been told that we should probably have a pinned About Us post, so, uh, have one I guess? Hiya! We’re Voids Blackbirds, but just call us Crows

- Any and all pronouns (they/he/she/it/neos/etc.) - Body is an adult / over 21, we are a college student - DID system - Our identities, diagnoses, and relationship status are none of your business <3

- Feel free to ask questions, fucking love those things - Interests vary wildly, don’t expect any consistency - We switch between I/me and we/us, it’s semantics, don’t worry about it

Mcrp lore sideblog: @menphias-flame Mars’ MCD poll side blog: https://www.tumblr.com/bestmcdcharacter (I swear we’ll try to make him finish the polls eventually :pensive:)

[free-ren-hugs]

everyone else has moved on and I’m still stuck in Hermitcraft season 7

[vampantheon]

on the topic of disabled characters, though, i think a LOT of artists give characters mobility aids that their character wouldn't actually benefit from using.

i'm sort of having a mild brain fog moment rn so i can't fully articulate what i'm on about, but i think a lot of able-bodied artists view things like canes and crutches as interchangeable. and they often don't know enough about the wide range of mobility aids to make an informed decision about what their character might actually use based on their disability

i also think that aids like walkers and rollators are sort of viewed as "cringe" on some level, and many people view them to be "just for old people," so many artists will opt for giving a character who has full-body pain and fatigue a cane (which, in many cases, can potentially WORSEN full-body pain) instead. and a lot of people don't realize that most wheelchair users are able to walk, so they don't consider it an option for characters with chronic pain

[vampantheon]

idk it's kind of frustrating. i've genuinely never, ever seen a character that uses a rollator before. not once. i cannot name a single one. i know of multiple ocs who are described to have full-body pain, dizziness, and fatigue that are drawn as cane users and are never shown with wheelchairs or walkers, though

[vampantheon]

it's also sort of sad? i've been diagnosed since i was twelve years old, and i only heard of rollators LAST YEAR. and that was only because i saw one irl and immediately asked what it was. i wonder how many disabled people out there don't even know it's an option solely because they're completely underrepresented online and in media

[vampantheon]

if you're a creative with a disabled oc, PLEASEEE check out this link. it's a very nice and detailed guide for telling which mobility aids suit someone's needs best. it's incredibly important to make the right choice for your character! mobility aids tell you a LOT about someone's lived experience. picking the right one will communicate to your audience #1 what your character goes through #2 that you UNDERSTAND what your character goes through!

[niofo]

writers be like, i can fix him! *gives him pneumonia* *has him lose a limb* *has him almost drowned* *has him barely avoid execution* here, fixed.

[zombiecleoprime]

How to avoid shipping problems

1) Make sure shipping fics are appropriately labelled.

2) Ignore things with those labels

3) If you have problems with 1 or 2 which are things you can control, do not post a diatribe on the main tag telling people that they are gross and disgusting and they should leave the main tag, because that is gross and disgusting.  

It’s sickening to come into this place and seeing people hating others because they do something harmless you don’t like.  I am embarrassed that this is representing Hermitcraft fandom.  I have no control here, I cannot stop you but the shaming has to stop.

[goldensunset]

ok i’ve been curious about something. can you name a character who is, all three at once,

1. canonically female (no variation)

2. canonically the protagonist of her story (if it’s an ensemble cast you have to say you can legitimately see her as The main character)

3. your personal #1 favorite character in that story (ties are acceptable)

?

yes

no

super nuance bald extract button (use this wisely)

Voting ended onAug 12

[clinical-space-podcast]

Reblog if your art project has not, does not, and never will make use of generative ai at any point in your creative process.

[xerith-42]

Hello denizens of Aphblr,

I was thinking about doing a fun poll bracket thing with some Aphverse characters, and in order to do so I wanted to get a feel for what characters are the most common response when people are asked about this category.

Reblog this and tell me who your favorite evil/antagonistic character in the Aphverse is

Edited for clarity, I want people talking about characters who are both actively villainous, or just a general problem for the hero's in the narrative

[immortal-archives]

When making a character Black, what is your thought process?

I just make characters usually headcanonned as Black into Black characters

I spend the time thinking about their role in the story first

I spend the time thinking about their design first

I don’t design MCD characters

Voting ended onAug 4

Some further explanation:

I have noticed a trend in which characters many of the fanbase makes Black which makes me think that many are just uncritically copying what others have done. As such, there has been some very worrying characters who have been more commonly headcanonned as Black. With this poll, I hope to get everyone to think more critically.

When trying to account for Jess’ racism when rewriting Diaries, it’s important to educate yourself so that you do not fall into harmful stereotypes. This is something all of us must deal with! It is our responsibility to not make characters that are harmful depictions.

After this poll is over, I will be reblogging with some characters who are more commonly made into stereotypes, and what you want to avoid when making a character Black.

[you-think-it-makes-you-special]

"can mutuals dm?" "can mutuals ask for discord?" "can mutuals-"

mutuals could literally use me as a topic for a research paper and i would be grateful

[deadfang]

lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires lesbian vampires

[warlocks-and-phoenixes]

This is a good time to let Aphblr know that, if we were all residents of Phoenix Drop and the Irene Dimension crew left the day the finale came out, we’d be over half way through the 15 years by now :)

They’d be back 4 years from now :)

[balaclava-trismegistus]

[Getting so angry it makes my brain disease worse] people sre supposed to be nice..

[sicklesium-moved-deactivated201]

i dont get offended at white people jokes even though im white because: 

i can recognize white people as a whole have systemically oppressed POC in america, which is where i live 

most people when they make white people jokes only mean the shitty white people and i am not a shitty white person 

im not a pissbaby

[damncommunists-deactivated20180]

my white friends that have reblogged this give me life

[zelda-tempest]

4. Sometimes I am a shitty white person and the jokes remind me to FUCKIN STOP

[lallamariamhabibi]

If ur white and like this post I fux with u

[birdpapi-deactivated20171121]

^absolutely

[verdant-witch]

5. It’s hard to be offended when white people jokes involve bland food/tourist dads in socks and sandals/white girls in yoga pants obsessed with pumpkin spice/suburban PTA moms and other harmless and mostly true stereotypes while jokes about POC involve them being called thugs/criminals/slurs/uneducated/illegal immigrants.

[blackpoeticinjustice]

i fucks with u heavy if ur white and you reblog this

[sm0k3-ring-deactivated20160109]

6. They’re usually really fucking funny and don’t perpetuate stereotypes that will ever affect me economically, politically, or cause me any true harm, let alone create risks that “justify” my murder and/or death

[xerith-42]

So about that AI post huh?

If you're in the Aphverse fandom and you don't know what that title is referring to, you might want to sit down to read this. It's not... the best.

I want to use this post to both compile all the information I have from my own sleuthing, and express my thoughts and nuanced opinions in one place. I'm incredibly depressed by this whole situation, and I think everyone who's ever been a fan of anything made by this team deserves to sit with this uncomfortable truth with as much information as they need for as long as they need it. So lets get started.

This whole ordeal starts in the summer of 2026 on the main aphmau website, aka Aphmeow.com. As a promotion for their back to school line, this image was uploaded to the website.

Now you might not have clocked this as AI generated immediately, I was skeptical, but you can see where the cracks are showing when you look at the notebook on the right. It looks totally wrong, and once you see it, you can't unsee it.

People rightfully clocked this as an AI generated/assisted image within hours of it's posting, both fans and people who have previously worked with CatFace. I first cocked an ear at this whole controversy because of posts made by a voice actor who used to work with them, and when I dug into it, there was not any confirmation from the official team. In this stage of speculation I also heard a claim that I'm going to put in this post, but I need it to be read with many grains of salt.

There have been allegations made that on a job listing for CatFace studios within the last few years, there was a requirement for applicants to "be comfortable with the use of generative AI in the creative process." I have not seen any screenshots proving this, I have checked their recent LinkedIn listings and not found anything to this effect, and I cannot verify the truth of this claim. I bring it up because its a claim that you will hear thrown around this discussion, and I want it to be treated with a critical eye.

I don't think it's impossible that such a thing was on their job listings, I just cannot find proof that it ever was. Also I think it's important to remember that some companies use products and services that have generative AI features built into them, so comfort with those is necessary if you're going to work with them. It's possible that's what the listing is talking about, or it's possible that higher ups will ask writers to use ChatGPT to improve their workflow. We don't know.

Now let's get back to the thing we have proof of, that promotional picture. This we know was AI generated/assisted because shortly after it was posted, the image was taken off of the website and CatFace posted a statement on their Instagram addressing the controversy.

This statement is... a mess. I don't like it, it gave me a bad feeling the first time I read it, and it's only getting worse the more I sit with it. On the surface this seems... fine, but any additional thinking about it shows some flaws in the arguments proposed by the team who posted it.

The main thing that gets to me is the second paragraph, talking about contract artists and previous incidents. To be frank, CatFace seems like a terrible company to work at as a contract artist. Looking up "catface glassdoor" pulls up numerous reviews left by employees past and present, and discussions about how the reviews left aren't even news to some people. Some controversy about people lying in those reviews, and maybe some of them did, but if enough reviews of your company say the same thing, then it's not judt ex employees with an axe to grind.

A lot of these GlassDoor posts talk about a very toxic work environment, one that is unfortunately common for big channels like this, but is still a problem. A lot of crunch culture, last minute changes to staff and plans, and generally leaving a very bad taste in their employees mouths when it comes to the higher ups of the company. In a culture of crunch, where deadlines are sometimes impossible, artists are pushed to their absolute limit in what they are physically capable of. And if they're a contract worker who's ability to keep getting contract work depends on fulfilling these impossible requirements, they might be pushed so far they take desperate measures.

Like using Generative AI to meet those deadlines. And this is why I take issue with the mention of contract artists and previous incicents in this post. If there is a previous history of contract artists using generative AI to meet production deadlines, that is not necessarily the fault of the individual contract artist, even if this post is trying to make it sound like it is. It's the fault of the company that pushed these artists to their absolute limit so much that this has taken place multiple times.

I've heard mutterings of other antics Jess and Jason have gotten up to with AI on twitter, but I have too much respect for myself to actually log onto that website. So if anyone has any proof of any of that, I'd love to see it. As you may be able to tell though, misinformation spreads fast.

That's why I'm making this post. So that way everyone can see what actual easily compiled evidence there is, and come to their own conclusion about continuing to give their viewership to this company and their products. It's on you to decide if you want to keep supporting these series, and I'm sure you won't be alone if you decide to disown it but take a small handful of your favorite characters and claim them as your own.

Just keep yourselves informed and sharp

[xerith-42]

Well... there was more stuff said because Jason can't not post on twitter. Screenshots and further discussion will be under the cut again because there's a lot more to it. Keep reading to see the bad meme I made in response to all of this

So Jason Bravura doesn't know when to shut his mouth and lie and now we're all paying the price for it. In response to... all the stuff I talked about in the original post, Jason took to his favorite website to give us an update (shout out to @menphias-flame for getting these screenshots for me so I don't have to open twitter).

There's so many problems with this I don't know where to even start. I guess the first thing is that clearly there needs to be some kind of work done on the internal Catface team if this kind of thing is happening without Jess or Jason's approval. That's a huge L on their parts.

The second thing is that comment about how this comes at the tail of character skin tones on merch and all I have to say is YEAH THAT'S NOTHING NEW. Skin tones of these characters have been off in merch for a while, and they have been completely butchered in thumbnails for even longer. Their thumbnails can't even get certain characters eye colors right, let alone their skin tone. That is a weak argument for why they weren't involved in this, because skin tones have been an issue for this team since they were Blujay studios.

Third, I really hate how Jason is making a martyr out of himself here. Talking about how he's responsible for everything, how he personally halved his salary for the team, how this is all his fault. I wish he just. Hadn't done that. Because if your content production is so overwhelming and incapable of keeping up with itself without using AI, MAYBE CHANGE YOUR CONTENT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE???

Nobody is making Catface upload that many cocomau videos a week, and I'm sure if they heard me say this, Jess or Jason would start talking about how much money it takes to run their operation. And my response to that is to downsize your operation along with downsizing your content generation. Because as it is now they are burning the cabdle at both ends, overworking every artist contracted under them, and still failing to meet their own requirements. Methinks their requirements might not actually be humanly possible anymore and they need to change what those requirements are in order to survive.

Fourth, and finally, we have confirmation. Confirmation of the job posting (lightly), and confirmation that yes Catface uses AI in their content creation. Now Jason is trying to convince you in this post that they use it in an ethical manner, that there is no art or writing generated for their works, only ideas and production tool creation, whatever that means. And uh, hey Jason...

THERE IS NO ETHICAL WAY TO USE THE STEALING AND LYING MACHINE THAT KILLS THE PLANET!! YOU ARE KILLING THE PLANET WITH EVERY TIME YOU ASK A CHATBOT TO GENERATE SOME IDEAS FOR AN ASMP VIDEO!!

We now have confirmation that Catface studios uses AI in the process of making cocomau videos. And that sucks!! I wish they had lied to us!! I wish that Jason had gone on twitter and told a bold face outright lie to the entire fandom! I wish we could've been forever stuck in speculation with squinted eyes, instead of having this ugly truth laid bare. This sucks.

That's all there is to this. This sucks.

I'll probably still finish Mermaid Tales because in my social circles I've been the only one who's watching it and reporting back to people on how bad it is, but once that's over? I doubt I'll watch another new Aphmau video. Even if MyStreet Season 7 actually comes back, even if Jeffory and Blaze and Cadenza are all in it, I'll not want to watch it. Because now I can't trust the creators or anything they make. I never can. Until I see a comprehensive behind the scenes production process on MyStreet with reliable proof of no gen AI usage, I can never trust them, and that kind of documentary would cost too much money to film.

I'll still work on my fanfictions, have my fun with these characters in my own worlds, and engage with other fan content. This fandom is a special thing to me, and I've never needed them actually making anything I wanted to watch for that to be the case. But I will probably talk less about critiques of the writing and just do more silly Blaze posting when I'm in the mood for it, cause he's mine now as far as I can tell.

Thank you for reading this far, thank you for keeping a critical eye about you, and remember that Jason can't take your childhood memories away from you. Sparkle on and remember to be yourself

Oh and here's that meme I promised, made in about 5 minutes with a reliable zero usage of generative AI in the creative process

[miridiums]

"Do not maintag content that contains this ship of my character with someone else. Do not bring it up in my chat, or tag us, or in other ways force us to see it" <- Good boundary, should always be respected

"You are not allowed to make any content containing this ship even if you do it in private communities. I will have people who search out and report back if you do it in secret and I will ban you" <- Controlling rule. Fuck that. Anne Rice tried that BS in the early 2000s.

These are not the same thing.

[unpopularopiniondump]

This post was made in relation to Pyroscythe's recent shipping boundaries statements and just the general community around that group of CC's, but honestly its broadly applicable to most streaming SMPs which is why it's pretty vague.

I think that it's fucking weird that MCYT content creators are trying to police fandom shipping. Honestly, I've found the encroachment of CCs into fandom spaces uncomfortable for a while now. If you're going to be creating content, then there has to be a degree of separation between you and the fans. You can't be the creator of the source material and also a member of the fandom. You just can't. It absolutely encourages parasocial relationships. You can't be hanging out with the hundreds or thousands of people who are consuming your content to pay your bills because you guys aren't. friends. This is why I tend to shy away from streaming SMPs. The CCs and fans are just uncomfortably close to each other. It is weird to be preying on your fans like that, ESPECIALLY if you know that a lot of them are younger and don't have a developed sense of boundaries.

This brings us back to the policing shipping. Don't get me wrong, CC's should absolutely create boundaries around shipping and how their characters are portrayed. But a boundary should only affect you and the fan content that you immediately interact with. You can't tell a fandom to just not ship any of your characters because you shouldn't be that closely involved with the fandom in the first place!! And it's weird to try and police people like that. "Don't send me NSFW art of my character and make sure to tag it with my blocked tag" is a completely reasonable boundary to set. "Never create NSFW art of my character because I WILL find it and you will be banned from my community" isn't a reasonable boundary to set. That's bordering on encouraging fandom witch hunts (which are already a big enough problem) and censorship. I'm going to say it -it's parasocial on the CC's end to try to police their fandom like that. If someone has made a reasonable effort to make sure that a CC never sees the fan content they made, then it is none of the CCs fucking business. If a CC makes no effort to avoid or even goes out of their way to find fandom content that violates their boundaries, that is in no way the fan's fault.

Content creators and fandoms should stay separate. Because once a fandom reaches a certain size, it's impossible for a CC to have a relationship with everybody in it. And it's weird to pretend like they can. Because say it with me: you're encouraging your (often times younger) audience to form para social relationships with you.