(Note: while this post was in my drafts, it was labeled as mature. To try to get past the filter, I censored words I normally wouldn't. I don't know if it will work or not, but I'm tired and I want this done. So, if you see censored words in this post, just know this wasn't my choice.)
I’m not going to beat around the bush: this post is about Luiz (@/luidado07). I have hesitated to say anything about him for months as I didn’t want to start trouble. I also hoped that despite everything, he may realize the error of his ways and change. I always want to believe people can change and I wanted to respect his ability to do that, especially without airing out his dirty laundry. After recent events and how he appears to continue to dismiss/downplay issues brought up with him, I feel this information needs to be shared with the broader Hero 108 community. The Hero 108 fandom is full of diverse people of different races & ethnicities, genders & sexualities, cultures, religions, abilities, and much, much more. That’s something to be valued, cherished, and most importantly respected. That is one of the biggest lessons of Hero 108: peace and community. I had sat for months thinking to myself that if some of you knew the things I found out, you would feel just as sick as I did. I’ve finally decided now that enough is enough. You all deserve to know why I and many others have blocked Luiz.
Luiz has a long history of promoting hatred & bigotry towards several marginalized groups.
While you read this post, I want you to remember something important: everything that I am going to show you are things Luiz, himself, has posted publicly. All the accounts I will show you are ones he followed publicly months ago. All the reposts I will show you are things Luiz, himself, has reposted publicly. He made no effort to hide these things until he was confronted with it. I am showing you things that he has said, liked, and encouraged on his PUBLIC platforms.
After you all review this information, it is up to you to decide how you feel about him/how you interact with him. At least after reading this post, you will be made aware of the kind of things he has recently supported.
This post will be long. A TLDR is placed right under the cut.
(Trigger warning for severe bigotry including homophobia, transphobia, racism, antisemitism, etc. Mentions of su*c*de & jokes about marginalized groups committing su*c*de. N*zi beliefs are discussed. Continue at your own risk—even as an adult who has witnessed these things, the posts I will show you have disgusted me beyond belief.)
Table of Contents:
1. TLDR/Summary
2. Context for recent events.
3. My history with Luiz.
4. Luiz’s bigotry & my conversation with him.
5. Another Brazilian perspective (check reblogs)
6. Conclusion
1. TLDR/Summary:
When I had followed Luiz, I was recommended posts he had reposted which included antisemitic charactures and beliefs. When I checked his following list on Tumblr, he was following Donald Trump supporters, alt-right accounts, etc that were posting & reposting bigotry and n*zi ideology. After communicating with other Hero 108 fans, I was tipped off that he had a recent Twitter account where he reposted transphobic content, including a post joking about the s*icide rate of transgender people. He had also drawn his own comic portraying trans women as p*d*philes. When I confronted him about these things, he did not directly address my concerns. He has also made comics, art, and memes that are sexist in nature, and has also made art/comments about his culture (Brazil), which other Brazilian fans of Hero 108 have taken issue with.
2. Context for Recent Events:
I made a post recently discussing misogyny/sexism in the Hero 108 fandom. This post was partially in response to Luiz’s post joking about Sonia being turned on by Lin Chung doing dishes for her. It was not the only reason I made that post, though, as I had personally witnessed misogyny in the fandom in both posts from other fans and from fans in Hero 108 discord servers. I did not say anything to Luiz directly about this specific matter because I did not think he would listen to my concerns (which I have reason to believe he would not, I will discuss this point later too). I did not feel comfortable unblocking him either.
The article screenshot I used in the picture. It’s a good read: https://www.theswaddle.com/humor-or-misogyny-sexist-jokes-condone-prejudice
The post I made gained a bit of traction. I assume that Luiz ended up seeing my post through someone else and then ended up making a post of his own just recently after that. Because Tumblr has picture limits and I have some important things to show, I will link his post instead of screenshotting it. It is too long to screenshot in full anyways.
In this post he explains his perspective on the matter, and attempts to apologize for a few of the memes/art he has made. However, he also undermines the sexist nature of his own posts, saying he felt that the “ “misogyny”” claim was exaggerated,” and also used parts of his own culture to excuse the nature of some of his content. Luiz also tried to claim the joke he made was to encourage “boyfriends to be more helpful with domestic chores,” and how “being helpful can mean just as much as gifts and the like.” I do not believe this explanation & because of previous conversations, feel this is a way of dismissing the original criticism. Because I had him blocked, I did not know about this post being made. I was made aware of this post through friends/mutuals, who were upset by the nature of it given his history of bigotry and excuses. This included TWO BRAZILIAN HERO 108 FANS who were upset about him misrepresenting their culture to justify his actions.
I don’t think this post is inherently an issue. He is allowed to respond. But I was not impressed with how he tried to downplay his behavior (again, imo) when this is not the first time he has been shown to exhibit these attitudes. I also do not think he is truly sorry based off of actions he has taken.
3. My History With Luiz:
This part will be a little long, but I feel it is necessary to detail so I can thoroughly explain my problems with his past/current behavior and actions. I also think this is important to bring up to prove he has history of these bigoted attitudes, being given second chances by other fans, and these fans being let down again and again. I first became aware of Luiz years ago when he had made fanart of (the original version) of my Opposite AU, which was then titled “Villain 108.” I never interacted with him (that I remember), but I was excited to see someone had made fanart of my work.
That was, until I found out he was following and making art for Antoons: a creator with a history of N*zi beliefs, alt-right beliefs, harassing users (especially lgbt users), etc. The screenshots below show his post about my AU, his post with fanart for Antoons, me and other users in an old Hero 108 server talking about him supporting Antoons, and a screenshot of Antoons + the kind of posts he makes.
Luiz was not a child when he made this art. He is 24 years old now, meaning he would have made this when he was around 18-19. He was at an age you would know better.
“Lava, this was years ago. Luiz may have changed. Why are you bringing this up now?”
I completely agree. This WAS years ago, and it would be wrong to hold that against him if he didn’t feel the same way now, right? But that’s precisely the issue. He STILL follows these kinds of people, and I have reason to believe he still believes in these kind of things. I can prove it.
If you have followed me since October, you may remember this post I made. This post was ALSO in reference to Luiz. I made this post right after I stumbled across the kind of content he was liking, reposting, and following:
Before I had him blocked we were mutuals. I really liked some of his art and he seemed to enjoy my content as well. At one point, he reached out to me to do a collab in which Opposite 108 would appear in his comic series. We discussed the matter, and I had even given him permission to create his Villain au, which was inspired by the old version of Opposite 108. We were on good terms and excited to collab together. I was a little nervous because I had remembered his support of Antoons in the past, but I didn’t want to hold that against him. It was years ago—people change!
I am not that active on Tumblr. I don’t see everything the people I follow posts, and I don’t scroll very much on Tumblr either. One day, when I decided to do just that, I found a post he reposted with an antisemitic characature. I was disgusted but I had hoped deep down it was a mistake. I thought maybe I should check his following list, which I did, and what I found dashed any hopes I had.
He was following accounts that were supporters of Donald Trump, alt-right accounts, accounts promoting n*zism, bigotry, and “white nationalism” (aka racism).
4. Luiz’s Bigotry, and My Conversation With Him
Note that I do not have screenshots of all the bigoted accounts he was following back in October when I checked his account, but I do have one screenshot which includes one of these accounts: @/boomer-mythology-destroyer. Remember that this is ONLY one of multiple accounts I had discovered. I unfortunately do not have access to the others anymore.
Here’s what I found.
This isn’t even the worst of it. I cannot check for some of the posts I found because I cannot see his following list on Tumblr anymore, but here is a text I wrote in October describing one of the worst things I saw to a friend. Because it is a screenshot of something I said months ago, I understand if you don’t want to take it as truth. Please stay with me, though, because it gets much worse, and I have indefinite proof of what I will bring up. One of the things in the screenshot is also something I can prove, if you scroll down further.
Some of you may be surprised to find he was following these kinds of accounts, but you also might still have doubt—justifiably so. Luiz may not have known these people posted these things. That’s fair. I even said this about myself earlier when talking about finding the stuff Luiz liked. We’re not technically responsible for the things other people post, you know? That’s a flawed way of thinking.
It could mean nothing, but I believe it is indicative of things he believes. This is because when I talked to some of my friends & fellow Hero 108 fans about this matter, they shared information with me that deeply disturbed me.
Luiz had a Twitter account, and he was posting disgusting, transphobic comics, replies, and posts. There are dates present in the screenshots, but the year isn’t available. According to the (trusted) user I got these from, these posts, reposts, and replies were all made not several years ago but from THE PAST YEAR.
(I had a Brazilian user translate these for me, so everything you're reading is accurate)
A link to a couple sources about the 41% joke. Review with caution:
I was HORRIFIED. I had given him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to collab with him, and I found out he was making these kinds of awful statements. I was communicating with him without knowing he felt people like me, people like my partner, and people like my friends were P*DOPHILES. I was talking with him without knowing he thought PEOPLE LIKE US COMMITTING S*ICIDE WAS FUNNY.
I wasn’t just horrified—I was *furious.* Despite this, I wanted to be mature. I contacted him about this privately. This is how the conversation went:
He was not impolite, but it felt to me that he wasn’t being entirely truthful. It felt like he was purposefully leaving out information and dancing around some of the things I mentioned in my texts.
At the time, I said nothing about what I found out publicly. I wasn’t sure if I should. I did, however, vent about what I found out in a Hero 108 server I am not in anymore. I believe this info ended up spreading to other people, some of which he interacted with much more than I ever did. Once that occurred, I believe others must have brought it up with him in dms as well, because he ended up making a public apology about it. I’ll link the post below and also screenshot it for you to see.
He also apologized to me in DMs after I temporarily unblocked him. This happened after his public apology. I cannot add any more pictures to the post (and I cannot find the message anymore for some reason??) but take my word for it that he did. He told me he hoped we could just coexist with no issue, and I agreed at the time. I told him I'm not comfortable being around him anymore, but I do not wish him harm. I blocked him shortly afterward once again. While I appreciated him reaching out, I still had doubts he understood how severe the issue truly was. Like I inferred earlier: at best he doesn't know the weight of his actions. At worst, it feels like he only apologized to people because he got caught.
(DESPITE THE MANNER OF THIS POST I STILL DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO HARASS HIM BY THE WAY. I WILL BLOCK YOU IF I CATCH YOU DOING THAT)
There is more I could add to this section. I could look back at reposts on his Tumblr to see if he has posted anything else that is concerning (and see if he deleted them after he was caught). I could bring up how one of the asks he answered recently about ships appears like he is trying to dance around his homophobia/transphobia. I could probably find some other stuff, too. However, I think I would be repeating myself at this point.
I want to take the time now to quickly cover a disgusting LinSonia post he made tapping into Brazilian history, and the “Brazilian cultural context” he gave in his recent post about the misogyny & sexism in his memes/art. This section will be short since I cannot provide anymore pictures, but one of the Brazilian users I talked to about this plans to reblog this post and give his perspective on the things Luiz said and drew. Look for a reblog of this post or another post with his feelings about it soon.
5. Another Brazilian perspective (check reblogs)
This is a post Luiz made about LinSonia being a native and a colonizer. It is still up on his account and I will link it for you to view yourself if you wish. In this post, he depicts Lin Chung as a Portuguese colonizer, and Sonia & Mr. No Hands as Brazilian natives. In the artwork, Lin Chung is asking Mr. No Hands if he can BUY SONIA OFF OF HIM. Bear in mind that this post now has a disclaimer on it, which it didn’t have when he originally posted this artwork.
(I also do not care about the disclaimer claiming this was supposed to be a “joke.” That doesn’t automatically mean the harm these kinds of posts perpetuate are automatically okay because they were jokes)
I have a lot I could say about this myself, but it wouldn't mean as much coming from me, as a white person from the United States. I could give info about how disgusting a post like this would be if it were based on Natives of North America and British Colonizers, but this isn't what this is about. This is about the history of Brazil and how it was severely impacted by Portuguese colonization. It would be an injustice to act like these events were the exact same. This history deserves to be known for what it is, and not what it could be compared to.
So, I'll have my partner Nick address this, as he is Brazilian himself. Again, look out for a reblog of this post from him OR a seperate post. He plans to comment on Luiz's remarks claiming his comics are not sexist/misogynistic, but "reflective of Brazilian culture." He also plans to address this comic too.
6. Conclusion
That is all I have to say, for now. If I find more that I believe needs addressed, I will reblog this post with screenshots, links, etc.
As I said in the beginning: it is up to YOU now to do what you will with the information you have been given. Everything has been laid out for you. I have nothing more to hide from what I saw. Now that you are properly informed, you can make an educated decision on how you move forward with this user, and if you want this user to be in your inner circle. Again, please do not harass him. Despite the nature of this post, I do not want him harassed. I made this post to make sure everyone finally knew the things he supports, the true severity of his actions, and how he has not recounted these events accurately. I also made this post to hopefully make him realize that these things are not "funny" or "not a big deal."
Thank you if you read all of this. I'm sorry I kept this info from you for so long. I finally realized that it is not up to me to make sure bigots are comfortable.
If someone knew that someone I interacted with frequently spread nasty bigotry towards marginalized groups, I would hope they would tell me too. I am finally speaking out now.
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To Luiz, if you end up reading this:
I appreciate that you did make a public apology months ago. I appreciate that you even sent me a private apology when given the opportunity, too.
That said, from your own words and actions since the day I confronted you, I have come to realize that you do not understand the harm much of your content has promoted. It'd be one thing if this was a simple mistake, but the fact you followed SEVERAL white nationalist, bigoted, n*zi accounts on Tumblr was not a mistake. The fact you responded to trans positivity posts with your OWN ART depicting trans women as p*dophiles was not a mistake. The fact you responded with disgust to a woman trying to make something more inclusive for all genders was not a mistake. The fact you replied to accounts playing into s*icide jokes against trans people was not a mistake.
The fact that you were not honest with me about having a Twitter, and then proceeded to delete that Twitter afterwards, was not a mistake. You hiding your likes and following list after I told you about the things I saw you liking, reposting, etc, was not a mistake.
While I want to believe you are truly sorry, the actions you have taken since our conversation does not reflect someone who is apologetic.
It reflects someone doing damage control.
I do not want to push you out of the community or send harassment towards you. What I want out of this is for you to seriously reflect on your actions. I want you to do research into these communities you have hated upon and spread misinformation against, and the effects that hatred has on them. I want you to evaluate what made you think these things were acceptable. I want you to stop sugarcoating your actions to make them sound less severe than they actually are. I want you to think about why these things would make people so afraid and angry with you.
Despite this call-out, despite your long history of believing these things and despite how disingenuous some of your comments have come off..... I still believe you are capable of change.
Unfortunately, you have a lot more work to do to get to that point than I previously thought.
And as much as I (and others) enjoyed some of your past content—some of your art, your ideas, your memes—we are not obligated to stick around someone who has made us feel subhuman.
Seriously reflect on what your behavior does to people, and what it says about you.
NOT because I told you to, or because your actions have been exposed, but because you feel bad and want to make up for it.
I've been meaning to find a simple way of discussing/tracking relationship headcanons for the Hero 108 characters for a while. Now, I believe I've made an easier way of doing that (at least for myself that is lol)! This chart obviously doesn't include ALL the characters in Hero 108, but I believe I've included most of the relevant ones in here.
And of course, if anybody wants to make a chart of their own for fun, l have empty versions below the cut! :D
If you use any of these, have fun! :]c
As said on the templates below: if there is a character (canon, oc, or from a different series) you want to add, you can throw them in the middle of the circles to draw lines from. Aside from that, you can draw lines between characters as you please. You can also edit any of these templates for whatever reason—just keep the disclaimer/credit at the bottom please 👍
I struggle with this phenomenon in which I feel like I can only convey my ideas through drawings. While I haven’t been drawing as much, I’m going to try and develop a habit of sharing my ideas/headcanons/etc in writing and other formats instead!
During this break, I decided to finally chart out my headcanons of the interpersonal dynamics within First Squad! These ideas may or may not change slightly with different ships, AUs, etc (Sonray was my first hero 108 ship and it still holds a place in my heart lol /silly), but this is what I typically have in mind when I am writing for the gang :]c I also went into extra detail in captions where I explain the reasoning behind my charting below, because it wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t! With all that said:
Read about my First Squad headcanons below! 🧵
Since I touch on age a little bit in these charts, I’ll also share my age headcanons for additional context. The age of everyone changes as the series continues as I like to think the course of the series takes much longer than it appears in the show!
- Mr. No Hands is the oldest of First Squad, aged between his early to mid 40s.
- Jumpy is the second oldest*, aged around 30 years old.
- Lin Chung and Sonia are around the same age in their mid 20s. Lin is just slightly older.
- Ray is around 22-23 years old.
That's all :]c thanks for reading if you did! No pressure if you don't like or agree with everything I wrote, I love everyone's different perspectives! 💛
*Note: Jumpy’s age is in human years, and is based upon the idea that animals in universe age similarly to humans.
I have no plans to make any more posts like my last two, nor to reach out to anyone else about this matter. I got some stuff off my chest that's been weighing on me, everyone has spoken their peace, the user I discussed had his final say/made his last apology (which you should look at, to come to your own conclusions), and you can move forward how you prefer with the information we've told you.
All I ask is that you don't harass anyone I mentioned, anyone affiliated with anybody I mentioned, or any accounts in the screenshots I provided. Unless I stated otherwise, the uncensored users in some screenshots were not aware of these beliefs and do not support these beliefs. Be respectful of everyone and their thoughts on the situation, and don't make assumptions about what their values, etc.
I feel like the conversation has reached its natural conclusion. Let's all let it die now. If we all want to promote peace and growth, this will not be discussed publicly anymore.
Sorry for the tone as of late. I'll get back to posting my work here soon, I've been burnt out.
Me catching up on the Hero 108 tag, like/reblog spamming everyone's awesome art, then fucking off into radio silence for the rest of the night (or coming days):
Yeah I love Ruoxuan so much and yeah I’m a proud multishipper and YEAH. They ALSO make me SICK
He’s so sweet and humble and powerful… we’ve been playing with the idea of Ruo training Leo to control his chaotic energy with the help of his own harmonic power and studies in Buddhism. Believe me they definitely do NOT see eye-to-eye at first. Leo has a hard time understanding Ruo’s teaching, and Ruo doesn’t understand why Leo can’t catch onto his teachings or wisdom. There is a LOT of miscommunication but when they DO start to bond they get so so close. Leo learns to be kinder to himself through Ruo's coping strategies and learns to control his chaotic power, while Ruo learns to let himself have fun again. Leo learns about the mysterious natural world Hidden Kingdom was before his time, and Ruo gets to learn of a Hidden Kingdom where humans and animals coexist as equals...
...he also gets to learn strange modern lingo from Leo's silly quips 😭
Here's some more—most of it is based on RP ;}c
Perhaps in this universe, ChaoticHarmony is a little different as opposed to canon 108. Of course it is—you know how the story goes there. Maybe this universe presents a better chance, or, even without romance: a semblance of coexistence. Connection. Balance between two opposing forces.
I may have now one opinion request of Hero 108, if ya don't that that is =^///^=
Although this may be a bit obvious on what I will ask... What do ya think about Lin Chung x Yang Tu a.k.a chaotic harmony? I respect if ya won't feel the same way as I do on the ship, just know that just incase. ^^; 🖤🩶🖋️💚🖤🗡️
I don’t mind at all! Thanks for asking :]
They’ve actually been one of my favorite ships to explore lately in my AUs!! I LOVE the enemies to lovers potential they have and also just how MESSY that relationship would be on a literal and *universal* level. It's not just a clash of personality and morality, but in my mind they're always doomed by the narrative. A symbol of harmony and a vessel of chaos—if nothing else were in the way the demons at be would still forbid it from happening. They're at the mercy of themselves and fate. They gotta be at the top of my list for doomed gays ♡♡♡
I think they'd see each other as a project: "I could make him better" vs. "I could make him worse." Disregarding morality for a second, Lin would genuinely admire Yang for not just who he is but who he could BECOME. His strength and determination are impressive and he wants to see that put towards good! Lin also stands out in a crowd to Yang, but he sees his attitude and just can't HELP but want to push his buttons. To peel away at his layers, get to know him and- also make him loosen up a little! He's so serious and for what??! So while their differences definitely stray them away, they also compliment each other well >:}c
In regards to the Hero 108 Fandom as a whole I'm shocked this ship didn't gain traction sooner :0 I've been active in the online community since I was 16-17 and it's only gotten art within the past couple of years afaik. It seems like such an OBVIOUS CHOICE IN HINDSIGHT (/pos) since "enemies to lovers" ships are so popular. Glad we have it around now though, it's adorable :]
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In short: I love Chaotic Harmony and it's been a ship I've been exploring a lot recently. They're cute and have severe BAGGAGE and I LOVE THAT FOE THEM.
That's my 2 cents on those two! Hopefully that answer is sufficient. Have a recent sketch of them from Modern Reincarnate for the road 🙂↕️💜💚
