@howcanisey ASKED: hi! hi! congratulations on your 150 milestone✨ and i saw that ur doing a 150 follower special? („• ֊ •„) for option one... kuroo for the manga icon (or shinsou hitoshi from bnha if other manga is ok🥺🥺) thank you so much! and congrats again on ur milestone! ✨💖
hey!!! thank you so much for the request, this was actually super fun to do!! sorry for the wait <3
So i decided to do like a mini- art raffle. It’ll work like this:
How to enter:
- Must be my follower
- Reblog this
- Comment “Akuma”
Prizes:
1st prize- A full body pic, 1 character, lineart, (really) simple shading, simple background (1 winner)
2nd prize- Waist length, up to 2 characters, plain coloring, plain color background (1 winner)
3rd prize- Torso length, up to 3 characters, lineart, no background (2 winners)
Deadline is Monday [12/25/17] when I get online! (sorry it’s so short)
Winners will be chosen randomly! All prizes will be traditional. I’ll announce winners in a post, and massage you. If you don’t respond in 3 hours I’ll chose someone else. Have a nice day/night!
I have decided that since I never actually thought I’d even get to 100 followers, that I shall hold a special event!
because of all the love and support you people have given me I feel like I should give some back..
I’m gonna hold a raffle type event for all of my followers to have a chance to win in :D
Event details:
• Anyone who is currently following has the ability to enter in the game
• in order to enter, simply like this post, reblog it, or comment
• deadline to enter is a week from now, September 6
• there will be 1st through 5th place winners, each getting a special prize
• winners will be selected by the all mighty wheel of names once the deadline hits
About prizes:
Since I am an artist, and that is probably how most of you followed me in the first place, the prizes will consist of certain types of drawings or works
upon winning, I will ask you to dm me what you would like me to draw
The drawing cannot be: nsfw, suggestive, too complex or difficult, etc.
Placing:
First place: fully rendered drawing, full body (if you want), and fully rendered background
Second place: fully rendered drawing, waist and up, and light background
Third place: fully rendered drawing, waist and up, and background color
Fourth place: shaded drawing, bust, background color
fifth place: themed color drawing, bust, background color
examples below:
Extra:
• I am slightly more busy with school starting, so the prizes will most likely take a day or so each to be done
• I’m also gonna start holding raffles every new 50 followers (200, 250, 300, etc.)
• ty everyone for the support you’ve given me! I genuinely never thought I’d get this far on here
• feel free to Dm me with any questions or concerns :3
thank you guys so much for 150!!! in exactly a month lmao, i definitely did not expect so many of y’all in such a short amount of time ksdfjsdf
so there’ll be two separate ones because i’m like 80% sure half of y’all don’t follow me for my colorings kjdhfksdf
option one: manga colorings
you send me a small manga icon you’d like to be colored!
you send in the name of a team, and the most popular one will be posted with 9 colored icons
option two: aesthetics + my shitty music
you send in your name (optional), your favorite color, what genre of music you’d prefer, and your favorite style/aesthetic
you send in your name & favorite character, a scenario w them (either romantic or platonic), and any other miscellaneous things
**for the first option under manga colorings: you will have to specify which image, or send a link with the periods in parenthesis if you cannot send it through the ask box.
i’m fairly certain a lot of y’all won’t see this,,,, but if you do,,,, ily <3
Roy if we were to request a smol manga panel would it have to be from hq or could it be from a different series (btw ily and congrats !
hey tori!! tysm mwah mwah
as for the coloring, it can be from any series you’d like!! it would be preferred if there were colored works/colorings done before (just for the character (s) not the specific panel) just so i know which colors and palettes to use!! :)
Criticism is always bound to face resistance. That is because when something a person likes is being criticised, the person subconsciously takes it as a personal offense. "He says my favourite band makes bad music, so he must think I'm stupid for liking them." This is the instinctual reaction, while in reality logical reasons and personal preferences are two very different things, especially when it reflects to a group of people instead of a single individual. The reasons people have to like/dislike something are completely different from the reasons they appreciate/disdain the same thing. Dislike and appreciation can occur at the same time, as well as liking and disdain.
Detaching your own feelings from other people's opinions and learning to like things while acknowledging its flaws and despite what others say about them is part of growing up as a person.
So, despite being objective and non-offensive EWWSAO has been very disliked by - surprise surprise - fans of SAO. Not to be generalizing though, because many Sword Art Online fans are also pleased followers of this blog, but the SAO fandom is the only group of people who actively hate it. Other people have not shown disapproval.
During the 75 days this blog has been up I have had the privilege to witness many, *many* arguments against it - a full rainbow of fallacies the objectors have falsely accused this blog of yet fallen into themselves. When I first made this blog I knew it would get ridiculed by SAO fanatics, but I never anticipated the criticism it would face could have been so weak and groundless.
Inspired by the low quality of the arguments I've seen I have gathered this list of the most common responses this blog has provoked in the SAO fans.
The text below does not reflect the tone of the blog's posts in general and you could think of it more as my personal response to all hate EWWSAO has received.
It’s a long read so take your time.
Arguments against the blog:
► "Your blog is garbage I hope you die miserably you shit."
Never have I attacked the fans of SAO with offensive slurs on a personal level. Doing so is the lowest form of fallacy - the biggest mistake you can do in an argument as it shows nothing else but your own inability to handle your feelings before you speak.
Here's a little list of pejoratives that have been used of me: Prick, idiot, ass, asshole, fuck, scum, troll, trash, shitpost machine... I have even been called fucking cunt and retarded - of all things - more than once and been told that I’d be better off dead. If I was weak-minded these kind of messages could heavily damage my self-esteem.
Do people really think it's okay to say things like this just because someone criticises an anime they like? Would they say these things in my face if they met me in real life? Yes, I am a real person *gasp* and just because my opinion on an sexist and poorly written animated show is different from theirs it doesn't justify the use of words like this. Nothing I do here is morally unacceptable and the slurs I am being referred to with tells a lot about the maturity of the fans.
► "This one post bothers me, and perhaps you should look up the episode it refers to. I think things happened a bit differently. But surely you won't do that because you are just an asshole."
This is an example of the kind of messages that I could have responded to because they make a polite point, but couldn't because the rest of the message is offensive and such language is prohibited by the messaging rules of the blog. If you pile up personal offense on top of your otherwise neutral comment there is no way it will be taken in as a neutral comment. You can't expect your opinion to be listened to if you can't present it in a reasonable manner.
► "There are worse animes, like Boku no Pico, so you should shut up about SAO because it's not as bad."
Wrong. The existence of a larger issue does not allow the existence of all smaller issues. With that logic, we should stop arresting burglars and muggers because mass murderers are still out there and terrorism exists.
-> Just because something worse exists it doesn't mean smaller issues wouldn't need attention. And also, Boku no Pico is widely known to be unacceptable and bad, while SAO has a large and devoted fandom despite its many problems. They definitely deserve to be pointed out.
► "Your blog makes other people sad so your blog shouldn't exist and you should feel bad."
Just like talking about issues of meat consumption make meat consumers feel bad, yet talking about the issues is not wrong. Just like making a statement about a celebrity's drug addiction causing them to get in trouble makes the fans of said celebrity mad, but making the statement isn't wrong.
-> My job in this blog is to point out issues in a show, so if you're offended by that maybe you should ask yourself why that is. If pointing out actual, reasoned issues in an anime makes the fans of the anime upset then the problem is all theirs, not mine.
The blog's posts being in the Sword Art Online tag has also been criticised even though the tag is not a safe haven to the series' fans, it's a place for posts about the said matter. This blog criticises SAO so our posts are in the SAO tag. Blacklisting has always been an option so reading the posts is voluntary. This post too is in the SAO tag because I want the fans to see it - it is about them after all.
► "You're just a hater!" *continues to reblog every post EWWSAO makes and adding ridiculing insults to them, sends hate mail to the blog and makes posts about how bad it is with no proper arguments in it*
Who's the real hater here? "Hate" in its newer meaning doesn't have a proper definition, but it is used to describe active, loud, offensive and unfounded contempt towards something. Kind of like bullying. In this blog every post is reasoned and explained, sources are checked and we allow counter criticism to be sent to the blog anonymously. It's criticism, not hate. And if you blame me for "hate", then be the bigger person.
I'm not listing urls but I am not blind and connecting rebloggers to anon messages really isn't that hard, so I know who send them to me. Like really, these people use the same poor arguments in the anonymous asks as they do in public posts on their own blogs, and they think I wouldn't notice.
► "This blog prevents actual discussion because you don't really care about SAO."
This is one of the odd ones. The ask box of the blog has been open for the entire time, and in the messaging guidelines I have pointed out that non-anon asks will be answered privately. Meaning that if requested I’ll take my mask off and speak to another blogger face-to-face as myself. I have also pointed out that I won't respond to criticism that is not sent directly to the blog, so comments added to reblogs don't count.
During this whole time perhaps 1/20 of the messages the blog has received have been off-anon, so the only thing preventing discussion has been the fandom's lack of interest to speak with me instead of just complaining about what I do.
And if it's my negative point of view to SAO that keeps us from interacting then you should yet again ask yourself: Do you want to discuss about the issues of SAO or just hype with people who agree with you? This is a criticism blog, not a fan forum. Leave if you can't handle it.
► "If you say SAO is so bad I'd like to see you make a better anime!"
Sure, I'll just do that. Because all animation series are made by single person, right? Just one guy who writes, storyboards, designs and draws the backgrounds, designs, draws and animates the characters, does special effects and sound effects, voice acts, composes the music and sings the vocal songs, takes the roles of all animation, art and music directors and even publishes the show. One person, right?
To be real here, the point is not to be able to do better in order to criticise. The point is that in order to criticise something you do not need to be capable of doing better yourself, as long as you are educated on the field and are able to give constructive criticism. For every single issue pointed out in the posts I would be able to give an alternative that would fix the issue and make the plot more interesting, characters less flat, so my criticism indeed is constructive. I have not usually included my improvement ideas as they make no difference to the points I make and would only be hypothetical. I am also aware that there are good sides in Sword Art Online and I have no intents to claim the show would be rotten to its core even though there are many flaws.
► "You're an idiot because you waste your time on something you hate!"
You really think I would have made an entire blog out of hate? I love criticism, I love argumentation and logical reasoning, I love that SAO offers so many issues to work with and I very much enjoy differentiating what makes high quality high quality and how it is different from low quality. This is why I have this blog: I love doing this.
Yes, I am one of those rare people who do not get "tired of arguing" if there is still something to argue about. I would however claim that many of the haters of this blog indeed do waste their time on something they don't like, since so many of the reblog comments are full of disorientation and spite.
I have enjoyed every step of the way.
Post-related arguments:
► "In the light novel--" "In the manga--" "The author once said--"
It's been clearly explained in the FaQ and multiple times in ask responses that whatever the light novels, the manga, the author in interviews or on his twitter says does not matter. The reason why we don't focus on the other sources is also clearly explained in the FaQ and not a single good argument against it has been received this entire time, so references made outside the anime itself remain invalid.
► "I don't remember if they said this in the anime but--"
Really? If you are ignorant enough to not fact-check whatever is about to come out of your mouth then don't say it at all. This is a criticism blog, not a chat for uneducated I-think-so's, so if I go through the trouble to fact-check then you should too. Most of the anon asks I have deleted have been because of these first two mistakes - and offensive language.
► Made-up facts
And I'm not talking about facts the objectors just pulled out of thin air, I'm talking about "facts" that just aren't canon in the anime. "They clearly said there was two-hours time limit before the battery dies." No they did not. Never ever did they say that. "People paid the Army guild for protection." Said who? Which episode? Doesn't ring any bells to me, and I have scrolled through the show at least three times while taking screenshots. Like said above: If I go through the trouble to fact-check, don't get on your high horse if you're not certain that what you are about to claim was even in the anime at all.
► "Just because they didn't show it happening doesn't mean it didn't!"
That is the fandom speaking. The heart-eyed fan who cannot see anything wrong with the show they love and who is completely lost in the delusion that characters in SAO have every second of their life written somewhere and only part of it is shown. But no, that is not how scripts are written and it is the writing I have focused my criticism on.
A good writer leaves a large variety of hints early on and on the way, and has all of his themes in control at all times. Eventually he pulls these themes together, makes the connections and the reader/viewer can enjoy the sensation of realization and fulfillment as the tiny things they barely noticed before have been tied together. That is why introducing something new and never bringing it up again is bad - raising anticipation and not rewarding it is a sure sign of a bad writer.
In SAO it is tied with favoring, because Kirito is the writer's self-insert mary sue. He gets everything, usually just once so that it doesn't look like he's packed to the max with unique abilities, and then those gifts are swept under the carpet so that no other character never has to receive the same things. It is boring to watch and even clearer sign of a horribly bad writer.
► "The screenshot in your post is just one instance so you can't make assumptions based on it."
Has anyone ever considered that I may not use the screenshots as sources, but for clarification? That the text in the post may actually be more important? How about that. To make it clear: Yes, the text is far more important and often the post would be complete even without the screenshot. If the text says "entire show" then the post talks about the entire show's length and not just the quarter-seconds shown in the screenshots. Even when the picture is in direct connection with the text, the post usually refers to the entire scene, and an individual scene is a part of a bigger problem. (applies to fanservice posts especially) There are some exceptions but they are few.
► Me: *points out a dozen reasons why something doesn't make sense*
SAO fans: *picks one of them, gives what-if reasons to bring it down and calls me an idiot for having this blog at all*
or alternatively
*reblogs a post on the rants-tag and goes on and on about how it could be interpreted differently, finishing up by claiming that the entire blog is bullshit*
Aka the fallacy of generalisation.
This applies to well over 90% of the reblog comments EWWSAO's posts have gotten. Sorry to break it to the people who've done the above a million times, but you cannot win an argument by focusing only on small details. If you cannot prove wrong the main point of what the other person is saying, you cannot win. If you say all of my points are wrong, then you should at least try to go through the trouble to argue against ALL of them, otherwise you're just making a fool out of yourself. And if you're not up for the task of arguing against every point I've made then you cannot claim they are all invalid. Stick to what you can prove. Pick your fights.
All these people have ever accomplished is made themselves look like idiots, reblogging my posts and publicly showing that their whining has no power over objective arguments. I'm sure my fans have had fun. No wait, there's more: They have also given me publicity and advertisement. The blog's follower count has always went up after fans have furiously reblogged our posts to complain about them. Good job and thank you.
► This happens a lot: Someone reblogs a post, "proving" it wrong with saying whatever they feel like saying, someone reblogs that by adding more "facts" to the table and the two end up patting each other on the back for "crushing" EWWSAO's post to the ground.
In my culture we say "Stupidity intensifies in groups." and the scientific term for the same phenomenon is groupthink:
"A psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences."
Since I have made it very clear in the blog that reblogged comments will not be responded to, the fans can add whatever nonsense they like to EWWSAO's posts without comeback from the blog itself. I made it like this from the very beginning because I predicted correctly: If someone really wants to prove me wrong and argue, they will come to me and message the blog. If all they want to do is rant and hate, then they reblog our posts because they know we won't fight back to correct them. All they want is content on their own blogs, making them look righteous and great, but in reality they are only proving that they are not willing to receive counterarguments, preventing constructive discussion. All they really want is to feel like they've won an argument which never even existed thanks to their own lack of will to discuss, proven by the fact that some people have even made untitled side blogs only purpose of which is to reblog EWWSAO's posts and complain about them.
- - - - - - - - - -
Every day I have the privilege of reading comments that repeat the same fallacies again and again. Back when the blog was new I was nervous to see the comments - what if people manage to break down the blog entirely?
In time the poor quality of arguments reassured me that there isn’t much to worry about and I’ll let the statistics speak for me:
Of the first 130 posts:
• 37 have received asks (not counting unpublished asks, deleted because of violation of messaging rules)
• ...0 of which have managed to prove the post wrong
• 65 have been commented in reblogs, 40 of which have ONLY been commented in reblogs (no asks)
-
• Combined, 87 out of 130 posts have received any kind of feedback (asks or reblogs combined)
• 24 of them are tagged as "big things", 38 "small things" and 17 "just rants" with a clear pattern: the smaller the issue the more likely it was to get reblogs but the less likely it was to receive asks.
That leaves the blog with 130 posts that haven't been proven wrong, and 43 posts that no one has even TRIED to prove wrong.
It is not a fallacy but a straight out LIE to claim that every point made is wrong and the blog is bad/troll/bait when statistics show that only about 25% have been properly argued - through asks or submissions to the blog. More than 30% haven't faced any kind of opposition at all. I can only assume those are the issues people accept - posts that make so valid points no one has dared to claim otherwise.
Yet still every other objector out there spits out the words "This entire blog is shit." and those are usually the people who haven't bothered to properly argue against even a single post.
- - - - - - - - - -
I'll just wrap this up by saying that I have nothing against the fans of Sword Art Online in general. Like I've said publicly in the blog and ask responses and private replies to followers' messages, I believe it is strength of heart to be able to love a series despite its many flaws and no matter what others think about it. It is power of mind - maturity - to acknowledge SAO's problems and still keep liking it. I have no bone to pick with people who like something I criticise. I raise my hat for them.
But idiocy, ignorance and sending aggressive hate to someone who objectively criticises public media made by professionals - that is something I have problem with. People like this will be the least likely to read this post so I expect nothing to change, but I hope some of you got something out of this huge wall of text anyway.
