#miscmc

I keep seeing posts like “actually we can pin down the time period of vsmp because drift mentioned using a camera to take a picture so it has to be set after 1826 but they also mentioned the queen of england so it has to be before 1901” and like. guys. scott mentioned beyoncé within the first five minutes of episode 1. I don’t think we’re getting a coherent timeframe with this one

I never really got around to talking in depth about why I find minecraft skin design so fascinating from a gender presentation perspective but the gist of it is that the premise of the body as a customisable experience is, of course, an inherently transgender concept. furthermore, minecraft skin design is contextualised by the fact that changing your physical appearance does nothing to impede or assist your abilities or weaknesses—your arm width (the only outwardly visible difference between the steve and alex models) does nothing to your hitbox; your range of motion and vulnerability to attack are static. you can add whatever accoutrements you want—wings, tails, ears, skirts, hats, horns—and the limitations and implications of your ‘physical’ form remain the same.

others have said it more eloquently but one thing I’ve observed with ccs who have spent their entire adult lives as content creators, or who grew up on the internet, or who started as fans and then became ccs themselves, is this sense of (often subconscious) entitlement to fan spaces. a misunderstanding of the dynamics at play and a failure to recognise the power imbalance inherent in cc/fan interactions, no matter how superficially benign. a lot of ccs who fall into these categories seem to want the best of both worlds—the influence and audience of being content creators, and the community and creativity of existing in fan spaces—without understanding that this is, ironically, far more parasocial than any individual fan saying “hey I don’t think ccs should have the authority to dictate whether or not I can imagine their characters are fat and gay” or whatever

I always think I’m over scott’s vsmp ending and the absolute avoidance of any blame, and then I get reminded of how it all played out and it makes me mad all over again. I’ve been a bit coy (publicly, at least) about directly naming the parallels to sexual assault in the way vampirism was portrayed from the majority of the victims’ perspectives in vsmp, but even setting that aside, did everyone forget you have to die to be turned? pyro was hunted down and killed. shelby was attacked and killed. drift was chased and killed. apo was coerced and killed. even if you don’t take it as analogous to sexual assault per se, it is still an assault. a later decision to remain a vampire does not negate the fact that the turning was violent and nonconsensual. “people saying [these characters] didn’t mean it or that they weren’t making those choices are taking away their own agency” is not a valid argument regardless of the source; it is victim-blaming. and I’d like to think that we’re all above blaming victims of assault for what happened to them, actually!