Over the past few days (ETA 9/26: this post was written September 2, 2017), a year long, passive aggressive dispute I’ve been involved with has come to a head. This dispute, which has originated in the Star Wars roleplay community here on Tumblr, has been with someone I’m referring to as Vik, the name I believe she’s going by.
What follows is, yes, a callout post, but one that, in my feeling, has been previously explicitly invited by the other party. At this time, as Vik has indicated that she is closing down most of her roleplay blogs, I’m posting this to give a better overview of the dispute as I have personally experienced it and in an attempt to head off at the pass accusations that Vik was treated overly harshly this week.
It is, primarily, a document of the entire history of the dispute as it seems to me from where I am standing. I feel it disingenuous for Vik to characterize the dispute as solely over her not accepting a headcanon into her own interpretation. For me, I've settled into an animosity with Vik due to her bigoted patterns of behavior over the past year, and any attempt to recently adopt LGBT headcanons for certain characters or dress up her statements in pseudo-progressive language cannot adequately mask that.
ETA 9/26: with the newest iteration of Vik’s blog, probably worth noting that she has read this post and she does not refute any of the accusations I put forward. Though, it is equally worth noting that the page in which she notes this is written in a somewhat tongue in cheek manner, interpret as you will (trackaflitnat, webcitation)
Who is involved?
Well, there’s a lot of people involved, if you define involved as referenced or addressed at any point during the feud. But, the major players are:
Myself, Gena. I blog from ordowennen (formerly cassiansfuzzyjacket), roleplay from nullclass, and maintain an aesthetic blog at knifeedgekindofman.
Vik, also referred to by others as Merlia. Runs a plethora of blogs, but the following are the relevant: roleplay blogs merliaseidon and nullarc6 (which was located at null-6 until August 30, personal blog andriktheunsmiling (now deactivated, later moved to rc-6666), and finnessential. On September 26, 2017, she started her Kom’rk blog again at trackaflitnat. New personal as of April 2018 at sharkbitch. Here is a list of her blogs, as provided by herself.
Izzy, who blogs from izzovercoffee and roleplayed from tapcaftogo. Izzy is one of the parties with whom Vik disagrees, and I believe that Vik addresses many of her vagueblogging to Izzy in addition to myself. For the purposes of this post, and because I can only speak to myself, I will refer to most vagueblogging in reference to only myself.
What is the dispute?
For me, my animosity towards Vik comes out of her bigotry, and I’ve observed behavior that I’ve felt to be racist, transphobic, and misogynistic or that I’ve felt to be implicitly supporting such bigotry.
Vik recently characterized the dispute (original version of August 30 post), as over headcanon interpretations of Kom’rk, in which she feels that myself and others are upset that she does not wish to incorporate our headcanon of a non-cis Kom’rk into her own interpretation and she feels that posts about such headcanons should not be put into the “#Kom’rk Skirata” tag. She also felt that the headcanon was done to make Kom’rk “a punching bag” and felt that the headcanon was more regressive than progressive (archived version of her August 30 regs page).
Previously, her characterization of the dispute, in my understanding, was a difference in interpretation over Etain and Kal. I view Kal as an emotionally abusive father and believe that Etain was subjected to emotional manipulation and coercion; Vik views Kal as a flawed character but not abusive and believes that Etain is an active player in a storyline where she selfishly gets pregnant and manipulates her lover.
Where each of us stand on the differences in character interpretation is somewhat better detailed in a later section “On my vagueblogging”
How did this start?
When Vik came to resent my interpretation of Kal and Etain, I cannot answer. However, I can say that the bad blood between us began on June 4, 2016. Vik and myself were both in a Skype group chat for a while by then. On June 4, 2016, I asked the chat if they had any suggestions for nonwhite actors because I was fancasting Republic Commando. I emphasized that I “aggressively” interpret every human character in the novels as nonwhite. Another member of the chat, whom I will refer to as S—, accused myself and the others of being racist toward white people. This person had a history of trolling in the chat, but despite our efforts to ignore them, the situation escalated. After this person was initially called out for their racist behavior, Vik left the chat.
The Skype logs are located here, from the beginning of the conversation to Vik’s departure.
Though the following situation in the chat did not strictly involve Vik, Vik continued to support and even enable S— long after June 4, and the situation in the chat very much framed how myself and Izzy reacted to Vik. The situation escalated to open aggression after Vik’s departure, and S— became very angry that myself, Izzy, and a third person continued to discuss nonwhite people, particularly Fo Porter, and booted us from the chat saying we needed a timeout. S— readded us to the chat, but Izzy and myself left shortly after.
The Skype logs for that portion, from Vik’s departure to Izzy and my departures, are posted here.
Immediately after, I learned that Vik had blocked me and made a small statement discussed in the next section. In response to S—’s reaction, and to the general silence it was met with from others in the chat (that, or dismissal of it as petty drama), Izzy made a post regarding this incident generally addressing the response from the group, which Izzy (and myself) generally felt to be implicitly supporting the actions of an aggressive racist (S—) through their silence and refusal to cut ties with them.
At some point, Vik added to her Kom’rk guidelines page referencing this schism (nullarc6, webcitation dated to April 2, webcitation dated to August 26). I added a similar section to my own rules page on April 2 (nullclass). Izzy added a similar section to their own rules page as well (tapcaftogo).
On bigotry
She dismissed this dispute, in the name that having such a debate was ruining other people’s fun (merliaseidon-archived, webcitation):‘#sorry guys but i come on tumblr to have fun.#[x0x0:// ooc]’ I generally find it unsavory the recurring implication in fandom that people need to keep their mouth shut and avoid causing so-called drama by calling out racism when they see it, and I find it unsavory here. Many of us are instructed to suffer bigotry aimed at our identities in silence so as to not ruin the fun of others, but our own fun and our own desire to have fun in a space that isn’t bigoted is not allowed to exist.
Twice afterward, she brings up the whiteness of both Karen Traviss, writer of Republic Commando, and George Lucas as a sort of trump card against any criticism, explicitly as a response to headcanons: in April 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation) and in August 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation). This is especially insidious as myself and Izzy, both the ones she has much of the dispute with, are persons of color. This aggressive reiteration that the creators of a piece of media are white as a response to headcanons are difficult to interpret in any way other than a forceful attempt to make fans of color feel unwelcome. Please note, the Skype dispute was over fancasting the humans of Republic Commando as nonwhite.
Generally, Vik gives the impression of one who feels upset or threatened at the idea that people who are nonwhite, queer, or both exist in her space and mocked their desire to feel represented in media she enjoys.
In August 2017, (nullarc6, webcitation), in response to headcanons that Kom’rk was not cis, not straight, and presents in a traditionally hyper-feminine manner, a headcanon held mostly by queer fans, she stated: “It must be a sad world you live in when your only out is to come up with increasingly non-viable HC in order to warp a character to your own wants in the name of ‘representation’.” She also said of people searching to see themselves represented through these headacanons: “What’s worse is that you make these HC’s that literally transforms the character into even less of a person, it’s not representation it is a sad take on a background character that turns them into a hollow shell to appeal to your kinks and fetishization. These choices you’re making aren’t realistic, you’ve literally reduced the character down to their sexuality and gender and nothing else.”
This is a sentiment she’s expressed at least once before, in April 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation), saying that this headcanon was a “over the top gay trans Kom’rk”. This aggressive response to this headcanon is difficult for me to interpret in any way other than she believes queer people have no right to headcanon characters to search for representation of themselves.
She stated this twice more: once in a post in August 30 (webcitation, current version of the post retracts much of this) and again in an August 30 update to her regs page (webcitation, current version retracts much of this). I don’t intend to unpack here the argument that Kom’rk as not cishet is being used as a punching bag (we’ve written about Kom’rk well beyond a relationship with Kal and beyond Kal’s discontent with this identity), as a promiscuous stereotype (none of us have written anything about Kom’rks sexual activity), or inconsistencies in what we interpret Kom’rk gender identity to be (Izzy, myself, and other adoptees of this headcanons have different interpretations). What is important here, for me, is that despite this pseudo-progressive language, it is the latest in a long line of attacking the headcanon on its face and an unwillingness to understand how queer identity works. At any rate, sgtbossman ha already written a good post addressing some of the issues with the recent posts Vik has made.
On Vik’s personal attacks
I might’ve made some unsavory comments about Vik’s ability to interpret material, please see the end of this post “On my vagueblogging”, but at the very least, I kept all comments to the realm of fandom, and I never made personal attacks on the basis of her personal life. Vik, on the other hand, made a personal attack on the basis of my personal life and the personal lives of others. This, I believe, is most damning in this dispute. And, despite Vik’s statement that she’s only ever commented on what crossed her dash (webcitation), these personal attacks based on information that can’t have possibly crossed her dash speak otherwise.
She made comments regarding my hope to work in the film industry in February 2017 (andriktheunsmiling-deactivated,webcitation); I began film school only after the Skype dispute and began my second semester of film school in January 2017. She seems to have made a personal attack on Rev, thesummerstorms, in April 2017 (merliaseidon,webcitation); Rev was student teaching at the time and was hoping to begin teaching full-time. She made a personal attack on the traumas and difficult paternal relationships myself and those associated with me have had in July 2017 (nullarc6,webcitation), saying that our criticism of Kal and“dismantling [of] his general character” comes entirely from“daddy issues”.
In August 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation), she also accused myself and those she has a dispute with of having“alienated, abused, and bullied other people in the fandom that didn’t bend to their will” and of expecting others in the fandom to“to bend to [our] will and follow along like a good little sheep with everything [we] say”. This is a hefty accusation. I’m not at all sure what behavior Vik is characterizing as alienating, abusive, and bullying. Is it our arguing against the claims of reverse racism when creating an entirely nonwhite fancast? Is it our vocal belief that Kal is abusive and manipulative and our vocal belief that Etain is put through intense misogyny in both canon and fandom? Is it that we would rather not form close online relationships with people who fundamentally disagree on these two interpretations that mean greatly to us? Is it that we argued with one of her friends about his statement that “all clone troopers are immune to PTSD” because of our belief that it played into the dehumanizing belief that nonwhite men do not feel pain or stress? She has not clarified, so I do not know.
On trolling
The first post Vik created while roleplaying as Kom’rk was on June 6, 2016 (nullarchived June 2016 archive, webcitation), two days after the events in the Skype logs in the previous section. She continues to maintain a Kom’rk roleplay to this day. Her having a Kom’rk roleplay blog is something I have no issue with, and in any other context, this would be a silly and irrelevant detail. However, Vik created her Kom’rk blog for the purposes to trying to prove at point to myself and others due to the fact that we have differences in interpretation.
She has explicitly stated this in November 2016 (nullarc6, webcitation):‘#Why the fuck do you think this account exists. #Not because I have a particular interest in playing a clone at the time. #but because he doesn't belong to you and as such can be interpreted however I damn well please #and your headcanon is just that headcanon #[Rainbow fuck you between hands.] #L O L O L O L O L. #AHAHAHAHAHAA #Control Room [OOC]’
She also made two statements framing her holding of the null-6 and komrk-skirata URLs acts as its own trump card, once in April 2017 (now at nullarc6, webcitation) and once in August 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation). On April 15, 2017 (same link), she seems to have believed this gave her better leave to spam the“#Kom’rk Skirata” tag, especially in response to variative posting about a headcanon that Kom’rk does not identify as male (variative). Please note that by April 18, 2017, there was only one post in the tag at the time mentioning Kom’rk as trans or non-straight: archive.is,wayback.
Here, I admit, on April 17, I posted two quotes from the novels featuring Kom’rk into the‘#Kom’rk Skirata’ tag in response to her threat to spam the tag: one quote, second quote.
Vik did later attempt to spam the tag from her komrk-skirata blog, on April 18, posting six tags from the novels involving Kom’rk (komrk-skirata, webcitation). The attempt was unsuccessful. To this date, none of those posts from komrk-skirata appear in the tags: link to #Kom’rk Skirata, link to #Komrk Skirata, link to #Null 6.
She later again openly stated that she was indeed writing Kom’rk for the pure purposes of making people angry (August 30 webcitation of her regs).
On hypocrisy
In November 2016 (andriktheunsmiling-deactivated, webcitation), she decried that my experiences affected how I read and viewed Republic Commando and its characters, saying that I was “butthurt about my life experiences”, believing that “people interpreting fictional characters different is an attack on my person”, and putting “gold stars on the ‘world is evil and out to get me’ report for the week”. In February 2017 (andriktheunsmiling-deactivated, webcitation), she criticized me for allegedly not understanding that“people will read or view media in different ways because our perception and understanding of things is tied to life experiences.” In July 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation), she belittled the extremely difficult at best, traumatic at worst paternal relationships of those she is in disagreement with, decrying them because she felt their perception and understanding of Kal is too much tied to life experiences. She accuses me of refusing to allow that she interprets Kal differently because her life experience is different from mine, and yet when I interpret Kal different because my life experience is different from hers, it’s something worthy of ridicule and it’s unfairly clouding my judgment of Kal.
In November 2016 (andriktheunsmiling-deactivated, webcitation), she insists on her right to tag her blog and her headcanons as she pleases, but in July 2017 (nullarc6, webcitation), she mocks others when they see it fit to tag their own headcanons about Kom’rk with“#Kom’rk Skirata”. Note: osik means shit in the constructed language Mando’a, spoken in Republic Commando by many characters including Kal and Kom’rk.
Her general antagonism toward a queer Kom’rk headcanon makes her sudden adoption of a(n inconsistently worded) queer Mereel headcanon feel disingenuous (nullarc6, webcitation, nullarc6 second post, webcitation second post).
On my vagueblogging
Since I’m not above vagueblogging and often I’ve even openly stated that I was vagueblogging, I’ve made about twenty posts in which I’ve vagueblogged at Vik or vagueblogged directly in response to Vik’s vagueblogging. It’s condemnable that I’ve engaged in a long vagueblogged dispute—though Vik herself seems to have no issue with vagueblogging as a concept, to quote her, “You don’t get to pissy about the vague blogging though, we all do it. Sometimes we get salty and make questionable blogging choices, that is why we all have our own blogs.” (webcitation)—however, I tend to believe that the manner in which she and I have conducted ourselves while engaging in that behavior is quite different. Additionally, this record generally illustrates our stances in this dispute.
Most of these posts are truncated and leave out tags that include more comments directed at one another, the quotes are for identification:
November 5, 2016: “I’m not about people spewing misogynistic crap at Etain...” in response to Vik’s November 5, 2016 post: “...[Etain] is a self centered child who took away Darman’s choice. Left him to accept the fall out of her personal decisions...” (nullarc6, archive.is) Vik later apparently made three posts in response to mine: “IT’S MY BLOG AND I’LL TAG HOW I WANT TOO TAG HOW I WANT TO TAAGGGG...” (andrikthesunsmiling-deactivated, webcitation) and “I’m not going to argue about it because arguing with you is like arguing with a brick wall...” (merliaseidon, webcitation) and “Nuh uh. You gotta change ur blog to fit muh opinion...” (merliaseidon, webcitation). Yes, I’m accusing her of sending the anon to herself on the basis of this post on finnessential (webcitation) being apparently referenced two week later on nullarc6 (webcitation). (Update, April 2018: Still convinced she sent these anons to herself, as I now have proof she consistently sends anons to herself. Too lazy right now to upload such.)
January 11, 2016:“Listen, I understand. Kal is a flawed guy, and characters should be flawed...” referencing Vik’s November 13, 2016 post: “Kal Skirata. Has flaws.Things that make him human. Imperfect...” (andriktheunsmiling-deactivated, webcitation)
February 28, 2017:“Male Character: *fucks up 100 times* Fans: “No one is perfect...” reblogged in reference to Vik’s interpretations of Kal and Etain.
March 30, 2017:“Talk about misconceptions about Kom'rk?” posted in response to several posts Vik made to state my own differing interpretation and headcanons of material.
April 17, 2017: posted two quotes—first quote, second quote—into the‘#Kom’rk Skirata’ tag in response to Vik’s April 15, 2017 post:“Keep posting ur osik in the tag. It’s funny.#I still own the URL. B) and I can very easily spam it” (nullarc6, webcitation)
May 19, 2017:“Kal’s tendency to assume the worst of strangers and outsiders” referencing the same as the January 11 post.
June 17, 2017:““Kal wouldn’t give a shit about how his children identify or present!”...” referencing Vik’s April 15, 2017 post: “#Because I'm not your over the top stereotype gay trans Kom'rk and I never will be. #And Kal wouldn't give a shit.”(nullarc6, webcitation)
June 20, 2017:““Kal is flawed! Like characters are supposed to be!”...” referencing the same as the January 11 post.
June 28, 2017: “It’s always funny people think I hate on Kal because he’s a white dude. Like, where did I say that...” in response to Vik’s June 27, 2017 post: “Yes I would- so long as you don’t play him as a horrible monstrous strait white man who single handily ruined the entire galaxy...” (nullarc6, webcitation)
July 6, 2017: “Nobody goes “poor Etain” purely because she’s a female character. Like, that’s absurd...” (please see this reblog where I stated ‘ #Lmao and also the original post was actually a vagueblog at a very specific person #In response to a long-running vagueblogged disagreement about Etain’) in response to Vik’s July 6, 2017 post: “A CHARACTER BEING FEMALE DOES NOT EXCUSE HER SHITTY BEHAVIOR. HER VAG/INA DOES NOT GRANT HER A FREE PASS TO DO WHATEVER SHE WANTS.” (merliaseidon, webcitation)
July 6, 2017: “Gotta love it when people say “you hate Kal because daddy issues”...” and “Frankly, I feel like if your response to your fave getting harsh criticism is...” in response to Vik’s July 6, 2017 post: “Listen folks, Kal Skirata may not be a saint but he deserves better than you dismantling his general character so you can apply all your daddy troubles to him.” (nullarc6, webcitation)
August 6, 2017: “To say that Etain knowingly got pregnant during the war entirely ignores the whole back half of the quote...” in response to Vik’s August 4, 2017 post: “Oh, For the love of- stop trying to make Etain into a saint by saying she had no choice and Kal controlled everything...” (finnessential, webcitation)
August 14, 2017: “Frankly, the only thing stopping me from making a lengthy comment on…” and “Funny how a character who is assumed cis male in the source material being headcanoned as trans...” in response to Vik’s August 13, 2017 post: “It must be a sad world you live in when your only out is to come up with increasingly non-viable HC in order to warp a character to your own wants” (nullarc6, webcitation)
August 23, 2017: “Anyway, Ordo, once he starts on the dawning realization he isn’t actually straight but bi...” in response to Vik’s August 24, 2017 post: “...Ur hc is hc and it will never be actual canon. xoxoxo...” (nullarc6, webcitation)
August 26, 2017:“If the best argument you have to defend your racism, misogyny, and transphobia...” in response to Vik’s August 24, 2017 post: “I think it’s time to put up the friendly reminder that...” (nullarc6, webcitation)
August 30, 2017: “In narrative development, we talk a lot about how people can tell when you’re being disingenuous...” and “Also, well, what? Are we supposed to handwave past transphobia...” in response to the original version of Vik’s August 30, 2017 post “As of this moment I will not accept anything except the fact that Mereel Skirata is transgender...” (webcitation) and in response to a August 30, 2017 change to her . Vik later updated the post to remove much of its content (nullarc6, webcitation).