the attachments mincecraft creators have to their rp characters is really fucking unhealthy, immature and would make people less likely to hire you in professional acting spaces but that opinion wont be commonplace until like 2036 so im gonna get crucified
telling actors, artists, art creators in professional spaces how their characters will be used by the public is commonplace for a good reason, "rule 34" exists for a reason, most humans inherently have romantic and sexual desires and a wish to express them in fiction. being uncomfortable with this is immature, not to mention actively being public with that distaste. roleplay characters are just that, characters.
i am of course annoyed but im surprising even myself at how overshadowed that is by genuine concern for creators mental health and well being, this way of thinking isn't healthy at all and im fed up of it being normalized. you cannot go into an acting/character-playing career and be genuinely upset when character interpretations turn romantic, you're going to mess yourself up health wise, this isn't normal
my notifications are once again devolving into a spirited debate about the ethics of actions that could potentially make someone uncomfortable, and at risk of sounding like someone about to get a lot of irate anons I think we're frankly giving way too to much moral weight to hypothetical discomfort
the thing about discomfort is that it's an extremely nebulous category that can be triggered by virtually anything and that's far too broad a category to have any inherent moral quality to it. like. my mom was mad uncomfortable when I stopped shaving. that didn't mean I was doing violence against my mom it just meant she needed to get over herself. many such cases it must be said.
Michela: No, it really wasn't worth it.
Maddy: (voice echoing) Yeah, but 4c's heavy.
Michela: Oh.
4c: (voice echoing) Pfft. Well, you don't have to say it to me like that.
Maddy: (voice echoing) You-you-you're just. You've got child-birthing hips. What can I-(through laughter) what can I say?
Michela: (repeating Maddy) "Child-birthing hips."
4c: (surprised, voice echoing) I do? (Michela laughs) I've never been told that before.
Michela: You know, there's a first for everything.
Maddy: (voice echoing) I don't think you do, actually. I don't know. I-I've never, I've never--
Michela: (to herself) Fine, we'll just go the easy way.
4c: (voice echoing) What-what changed?
Maddy: (through laughter, voice echoing) "What changed?" Yeah, something happened in those last five seconds.
Michela: He-he-he-you gave birth. (an explosion goes off, and 4c laughs)
Maddy: You-your hips are no longer child-birthing, they were child birthed.
4c: Dangit, I lost--dangit I lost my hips.
4c: (voice echoing) Man, I'm so glad we're climbing with our good friend Maddy Millkberries. (Michela laughs)
Maddy: (voice echoing) You-just tell me if you don't enjoy my commentary, and I can-I can fuck off forever. (4c laughs)
4c: (voice echoing) No, no no, it's very good, it-I'm not saying I hate the commentary, I was-(laughs) I was actually just making a joke about you being dead.
Maddy: (voice echoing) 4c, you--your hips just got even less child-bearing.
Michela: Pfft. For ever mean comment your hips get a little thinner. (she laughs)
Maddy: (voice echoing) Yeah.
Michela: Hey, technically that's just like waist on thinner, you know? You okay? (she laughs)
Maddy: (voice echoing) I'm sorry 4c...
4c: (voice echoing, sadly serious) I'll jump into the fog.
Nom: This is mine now, yoink.
Wade: That's right, this is all on you. You-you fish. (Nom sighs) I'll stay with you.
Nom: I do love fishing.
Wade: And if something doesn't work, a command will be in play.
Nom: Pfft, oh no. Uh oh.
Wade: They-I mean, they said it works for multiplayer, so, we'll see.
Nom: Yoink!
Wade: Yoink! Yay, you got a fish.
Nom: (reading his achievement) "Fishy Business."
Wade: So, I think we need to fish until we get a puffer fish.
Nom: Am I gonna f-am I gonna fish up Cthulhu or something? Is that what's happening?
Wade: Uhhh, well I've been-I-all I got told, to start the modpack, is we need a fish a puff-puffer fish.
Nom: That's--oh.
Wade: So we could be here for a while--
Nom: Oh wait, no, that's just luck.
Wade: Yeah, (Nom fishes up a puffer fish, the 'Joining world,' screen pops up) that's why I gave it to--(Nom begins laughing, and after a beat Wade joins in, and they laugh together for twelve seconds)
Nom: I love my luck!
Martyn: (reading chat) "Martyn I realized something. Every season Ren in the Life Series he's either teammates or allies with you." This is true. Not even in the Life Series, even in POW stuff, right? Who am I gonna roleplay with this season? (sounding near tears) Whose it gonna be?
One of the most common reasons given for boundaries (and subsequent boundary policing) is the idea that cc's see themselves as their characters and it makes them uncomfortable in some way. Sometimes this is made explicit (such as luanne + kyleff) and other times it's the clear background implication (pyro). There's a term in broader rp space for this concept called "character bleed" (<- blog post describing it w/ some academic articles) and its usage in the context of boundaries is complete bs
I think graecie (in her discussion on stream and on tumblr) unpacks the idea that managing bleed is on the audience really well! I also think it's a shame that, despite this, she's never used as a "good example" when talking about boundaries. So, I'm talking about her and why other people should too
Here are some quotes from when graecie clarified about her post further on stream:
"When I bring up character bleed or how our brains differentiate- or-or. Our brains are unable to differentiate fake emotions from roleplay to real emotions in real life and how, like, your brain treats those emotions that you feel the same way. I don't ever want that to be misconstrued as I'm putting that responsibility on the community to prevent us from getting character bleed, or prevent us from struggling with those things. That's not it." (22:40)
(Small note that the use of "us" is super notable here! This is something that (should) apply to all creators, not just graecie)
"When I brought [character bleed] up in the past I think it might've been misconstrued as me blaming the community or, not blaming the community but expecting the community to be responsible for preventing that and that's never what I mean. Whenever I bring it up it it just, I think it's something creators in the mcr space— in the mcrp space are unaware of, um, because it is so new. Safety tools, uh, self-care in roleplay, all of that is relatively new to the mcrp space, uh, and I don't think a lot of creators understand the impact that playing a character live non-stop can have on their mental. And like, how they— how they view that character as more of themselves." (23:45)
"It-it can be stressful to navigate but that's also, it's on me to navigate, which is what I've been doing. Um, it's not on anyone who engages with my media to navigate for me." (25:10)
This is already (somehow) leagues above every other creator who thinks it's on their (mostly underage) fanbase to regulate their own emotions! What's most interesting to me in this stream + graecie's subsequent posts is that she's clearly interested in spreading this idea outside herself. In a recent(ish) tumblr post she detailed some of the consent/safety tools she introduced on the flight and on stream she mentioned:
"I've been slowly trying to introduce more dnd safety tools into the mcrp space. I did a character, uh, like safety and consent checklist form for the flight for everyone to fill out... it's absolutely, it's on the other people you play with and the gamemasters but it's not, I-I would say it's not on the community who is consuming the content you create to be aware of and prevent [character bleed]." (25:30)
"And, I'm there for my friends if they're going through it, I've got resources for that." (27:09)
You'll notice that it didn't take some huge controversy for graecie to change her opinion, just some self-reflecting and actually listening to the community. Here's her establishing a dni tag and talking about it on stream
That other people (the ones ppl usually point to as good examples) had such a public turn-around and have done nothing to actually change the culture which encourages boundaries brings their motives into question. It's an issue that "changed" creators get to respond to their co-workers insane boundaries by saying "I do respect other creators boundaries cause its their preference" and get uncritical praise. The only reason we see boundary discourse come up so often is bc ppl who are "okay about boundaries" aren't willing to challenge the overall culture in mcyt that endorses that behavior. An unwillingness to challenge even basic ideas such as "the rules that inspire harassment are good" and "my emotional regulation is the job of the audience" makes me wonder if opinions have actually changed or if creators are just searching for fandom brownie points. If creators who "figured it out" were interested in more than just themselves I don't think this discourse would be happening every other month
I mainly just think there are better examples of "boundaries done right" than the names ppl usually throw around. Especially when graecie's a marginalized creator who (lbr) probably deals w/ a lot more fandom weirdness than the (mostly cis and het) men that ppl talk about :). That she didn't require some explosive discourse also proves this is a topic of discussion because these mindsets are so normalized
Nom: (using a voice changer) All places in the universe are basically just the same people in a big circle.
Shauna: (overlapping) Puddle is awesome.
Nom: (using a voice changer) I'll get some examples if you want?
Shauna: CC and 4c are only a letter apart. But like--
Nom: (using a voice changer) I'll go grab a guy.
Shauna: What do you mean, "go grab a guy"?
Nom: (using a voice changer) I'll be back! (he logs off, switches to a 'be right back' scene) Where did I put 'em? Where is that guy? Okay, gotta go through this--no this is the wrong-this is the zombie dimension, this is the wrong one. Nope, there's shadows. Where is that guy? Nope, mm-mm. This one's just a crazy person, um…where…where are they? Hm…why's this one dressed all fancy? Get outta here. That's not the guy I'm looking for. Jesus, this one has glowing red eyes, what the fuck, ew, you're creepy, get outta here! What a freak! Oh this one-oh, oh, that's just-oh, that's just 4c. Oops. Oh, there he is! (he swaps back, loads into Minecraft again)
Nom: (normal voice) Hello?
Shauna: Well, well, well.
Nom: Who the hell are you? How did I get here?
Shauna: I made you.
Nom: Where's Scott, and 4c, and Katie?
Shauna: Dead. (Nom swaps to his mace, and attempts to smash Shauna, who screams)
Nom: 'Kay, well, guess you're dying. Where am I! Who are you?
Shauna: Oh my god--
Nom: Where's Blue Kingdom at?
Shauna: Oh, they all fell many, many years ago.
Nom: Why do I feel like my atoms are apa--AH! (Nom logs out of Minecraft, back to the 'be right back' screen)
Nom: (using a voice changer) Nah, that guy had his time in the limelight, he's gone. That guy really thought--I had to take him out of retirement, he was sailing on a ship in the afterlife. I decided to go back in time to nab him from his last possible place in the timeline. I'm sure that's fine! Welp! He's dead again, never to be seen. So long! Oh, don't be angry at me, there were like five hundred different options.
Nom: (using a voice changer) I like big noise.
Shauna: (using a voice changer) I'm unsurprised by that.
Nom: (using a voice changer) I also swallowed a synthesizer. (three seconds silence)
Shauna: (using a voice changer) I'm going to assume that's not the only hard object you swallowed. (four seconds of silence)
Nom: (using a voice changer) Yep, no way to answer that one. What? What a crazy thing to say.
Shauna: (using a voice changer) Like bricks, and sand, and dirt. (four seconds of silence)
Nom: (using a voice changer) And dick. (five seconds silence)
Shauna: (normal voice) I hate you on so many fucking levels. (Nom begins laughing loudly, Shauna joins)
4c and Nom race against each other while on the same team
4c: Oh!
"I can't see nothing. Oh, no. That's the first time I made that jump."
4c: Nominal--!
Nom: You can--
4c: No way--!
Nom: --make that jump? You can make it? I'm so mad!
4c: (through giddy laughter) I got--sixteenth seventeenth. That's actually so funny!
"That's not even faster, why--"
Nom: God damn, by one placement? (Nom laughs)
4c: (through laughter) Sixteenth/seventeenth, there's actually no way.
Nom: There-how many people play in this event, and me and 4c just won next to each other?
"So awesome--"
Nom: It was literally the last jump, 4c overtakes me, that's crazy.
4c: (through laughter) I did, I-I passed you at the last second.
Nom: The last jump.
4c: (reading chat) "What is this event?" It's like the uh, it's like Block Wars but the old style of Block Wars, basically. That's actually so funny, Nominal, I saw you, and I just (through laughter) had to pass you.
Nom: Oh...(jokingly whining) 4c...
4c: What?
Nom: (through laughter) They're saying Irish 4CVIT and American Nominal again. Help.
4c: Nooo.
Legs: The rivalry continues.
4c: I was-that was really funny, when I saw you and I just had to take that chance to pass you. (Nom laughs) You gave me like an extra spur of motivation.
4c: Hi guys. How are you guys doing on this lovely day? Can you guys here me? I don't-I feel like the more I talk the funnier it is.
Nom: I can hear you.
4c: Oh no, sorry, I wasn't talking to you guys, I'm talking to the people that I'm running past.
Nom: I'm so glad that 4c has decided to talk to me on this fine day. I'm so glad my friend 4c is talking to me and nobody else. (4c laughs, Nom joins)
