Reach Heaven by Violence

I can't believe I let people who unironically believed Almalexia was actually a lesbian whose actions were all genuinely morally justifiable and morally pure and who slandered Nerevar endlessly to fit that narrative talk down to me about liking that Vivec wasn't always perfectly neutral in presentation and seemed to lean masc. I can't believe I let people who loved Elf Genocide Man # 1 (Pelinal, not to be confused with Elf Genocide Man #2) and deemed him not-at-all-morally-grey for going full Anakin on the Ayleid children, but who would ban people from their servers for liking "problematic" pieces of lore, talk down to me about my politics for gently reminding them that trans men exist.

Every now and then I remember all that drama and I'm like jfc what was wrong with them and how did i put up with it for so long. How did people actually defend them. How did no one see that the "can't like male characters unless we headcanon them as female and can't like female characters unless we headcanon them as lesbians because men are the scum of the earth, especially trans men, and if you touch them you get infected with boy cooties and are forever tainted" crowd were terfs.

It's literally a bunch of games with elves and drugs and dragons who yell at each other and canon cum magic. It's not that deep. I cannot imagine being so dedicated to viciously ripping people apart for enjoying the games with the psychedelic tree juice and the Adoring Fan "wrong" when they honestly didn't even seem to like the source material that much, since they had basically rewritten all of it to make their own headcanons less rooted in something problematic, least any hint of The Lore (except the parts they liked, like Elf Genocider #1 & Friends) leak in and allow the miasma of sin and masculinity to come into contact with their minds and so warp them into unrecognizable fiends.