My main gripe with the Dust Queen creator is their hypocrisy.
"Bumbleby ruined volume 9! Now excuse me as I animate a Whiterose confession scene using the Bumbleby volume 9 confession scene as the template. I see absolutely nothing wrong or ironic about this, by the way."
Favoritism at its finest.
(Let me make something clear before certain people use this post to their own ends. I don't think there's anything wrong with not shipping Bumbleby. That's not the point I'm getting at here. And as far as I can tell, the DQ creator doesn't even necessarily hate Bumbleby, they just don't seem to like how volume 9 handled them, which I think is a completely valid criticism. And I think you are allowed, within reason, to criticize things you like. I think that's only human to do. But the way I see it, doing something like this completely undermines your argument. Makes it pretty clear that your issue with it was WHICH ship it was, not HOW it was handled. And I say this as a Whiterose shipper myself.)
I'm so sick and tired of seeing these posts. Ruby was HAPPY about the boba. Ruby WANTED the boba. She was EXCITED about the boba. All these posts about her somehow needing to be TRAUMATIZED by the ACT OF DRINKING TEA not only shows that you didn't actually watch the episode, but if that's your takeaway of Ruby's breakdown and emotional journey in Volume 9, then you don't understand what actually happened to Ruby in Volume 9 if you think her trauma somehow stems from tea now. (Although it's apparently asking a lot from THIS fandom to not only watch something but also UNDERSTAND it...)
The mass takeaway from volume 9 seems to be "Ruby is traumatized by tea now and Yang's a bad sister", and I just don't get how you could do the mental gymnastics to come to a conclusion like that.
Shut up about the tea already. Quit making such a mountain out of a molehill when it's very clear the tea isn't what bothered Ruby.
Mattel's Kpop Demon Hunters dolls actually look like the characters, and that's what's incredible about it to me.
Wish they treated the She-ra dolls that came out a couple years ago like this.
I mean seriously, look at this!
How does that even remotely look like the character it's supposed to be, Mattel?????
How do you look at that with a straight face and say "that's Glimmer"!? How!?
The SPOP dolls are literally just barbie dolls cosplaying as the characters they're supposed to be! They're so bad!
No offense to the people who do like the SPOP dolls. You're entitled to your opinion, you're allowed to like what you like. I'm not trying to start some weird petty war over dolls.
But you can't tell me that these:
aren't objectively better than these:
because they are!
I mean, I do like ugly merchandise. Especially if it's OFFICIAL ugly merchandise. But I'm more willing to excuse it personally if there exists merch that already looks like the character BESIDES the ugly merch!
She-ra and Catra have those action figures that actually do look like them, yes, but Glimmer and Bow don't have ANYTHING but these dolls, and the dolls look like this!
This is...going to be kind of difficult for me to say...but I feel like this vent was a long time coming...
(I actually wasn't going to post this because I was scared of it seeming like "bad faith", and I've never personally fully vented these feelings anywhere before so I feel like I don't owe anybody any sort of explanation. But at the same time, I have opinions to express, and I want to share and hear differing opinions. This is good for me, I think. If anything, this is self-aware for me. And I think it's healthy to discuss. Now then...)
I have followed Dan and Phil since 2014. And for all these years, the Phandom were...people I told myself I never wanted to associate with. Ever. I viewed you all as "harassers", "stalkers", "bullies", "creeps", "perverts", "borderline criminals". Truth be told, I never saw any reason to NOT view the fandom that way. Can you really blame me? When you make the potential homosexual relationship of two men who you have never met in your life, who just wanted to make entertaining content for the internet, your entire personality, social media account, and personal interest for literal years, and you go out of your way to stalk their family members, their home address, reupload videos they didn't want uploaded in the first place like it's some sort of gotcha (I hope the person who uploaded the V-day video and told Phil "it's your fault, everything you post stays on the internet forever" steps on a Lego every day for the rest of their life ON GOD-)...it doesn't paint you in a good light.
Long story short, I spent an abnormal amount of my life harboring a bitter, hot and poisonous hatred for a group of people on the internet that I couldn't convince myself weren't all "invasive and inconsiderate chronically online degenerates with no compassion for human life". And I remember feeling disgust every time Dan and Phil expressed affection for their fans. Because I was sure with my heart and soul that there was nothing to like, everyone was nasty.
Believe me when I say I have made peace with the fact now that not everyone was like that. I spent years grappling with my own internalized homophobia and inadequate feelings derived from queer loneliness. I'm sure a lot of people in the fandom did. I'm also sure that's where a lot of this behavior stemmed from in the first place. It's not an excuse, of course, but it is easier for me to understand.
There is something that was said in the "Phan is Real" video that I just...don't agree with. On principle alone...it was the desire for a "clean slate". I don't wanna dredge up old drama, or point fingers in every direction at every past sin (except the V-day video reuploader Phil tried to reason with, genuinely toxic behavior, go directly to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200). That does nothing for nobody, and in fact creates more problems.
I don't agree with the "clean slate" notion. Because it allows people to deflect responsibility. Because you all were forgiven already, you were granted absolution without ever having to truly grapple with the gravity of your past actions.
You all need to understand. You were gross about it. It's not acceptable behavior. It shouldn't have happened to them. It shouldn't happen to anybody. It was stalking. It was harassment. It was bullying. It was a direct violation of two people's right to privacy. And many of you were very aware of it.
And more than anything, it feel like it would be just as good for Dan and Phil's sake if people took responsibility for their past actions.
Those of you who feel "catholic level guilt" because you said this, because you did that, because you asked this invasive question, because you made that rude/disrespectful comment, because you overstepped these boundaries like they were simple rocks on the path instead of real transgressions actively being committed against real people.
If you feel guilty, you deserve it. (Stay with me here.) I want you to keep that guilt. Not incessantly dwell on it, but keep it. Make peace with it. Never forget the real damage you caused, but allow yourself to forgive yourself for it as well. Take accountability for it. Make sure stuff like this NEVER happens again. For their sake.
You are responsible for making your community a safe and loving space.
You people are not evil. Many of you were just kids. But you have to accept that many of you have done wrong, and you have to do right by it now.
All that said, I'm very happy for Dan and Phil. For their comfort. For their transparency and honesty and right to finally be themselves.
I have nothing but love, respect, patience, and acceptance for them and their future feral endeavors.
I'm still mad to this day that Jontron never actually drank the crystal skull vodka in his video about it. You spend twenty-one (21) minutes talking about a product and mocking a childhood legend whose career has been far more consistent than your own* AND THEN YOU DON'T ACTUALLY TRY THE PRODUCT!? I spend 21 minutes watching you do this whole bit about vodka and you're not actually even gonna drink the vodka? What'd I watch this video for then? You even shattered one of those beautiful skull bottles for your stupid Aykroyd bath water bit!
Jon, you make me angry, Jon!
(*Say what you want about Aykroyd's crystal skull vodka commercial, but at least it's pretty on brand for the guy who did "Coneheads" and "Ghostbusters". Honestly, if anything, Crystal skull vodka feels like the next logical step in Ray Stantz's personal career. Meanwhile, Mr. Tron…seriously, just play fucking video games again. I don't care about Gwyneth Paltrow, nobody does, talk about the Switch 2 or something. Seriously, what are you even doing anymore?)
@knickknackcattywhack saw a comment on a video defending AI by saying "humans drain more resources than AI does!".
...okay? You do understand that AI is an add-on to the percentage of "humans draining resources", right? Like, you're actively part of an entirely new percentage of people who willingly choose to drain even more resources than they already do, and you're being smug about it???
I mean, I severely doubt that a woman who fought for her life to have anything queer in her Disney cartoon, INCLUDING two non-binary characters, is trans exclusionary, and certainly NOT to the levels of a woman whose dedicating the entirety of her revenue from her ancient ass poorly written lackluster wizard school franchise to erasing the rights of trans women.
