zeph

Okay, so I just remembered this is NOT Disneyland exactly. Its California Adventure across from the main park which houses the subsidiary works from Pixar, Marvel, etc. The ferris wheel was really bothering me for the longest time (they did go on it, theres a tiktok where Yungy was rizzed by the pang).

Guardians of the Galaxy ride, Hannah took the last two photos. I don't recall if this ride is a coaster or not, wasn't it that Star Wars one before where it was like an intense 4D coaster? Regardless, I find it funny a lifestealer is afraid of coasters.

Okay theres a series of posts OF this specific water ride, I only grabbed the one with Pangi in jt. I think they went on it multiple times as well cause theres pictures from Hannah of Derap and Poafa soaked and it was darker and a videos and photos from JoJo where they all got drenched (you could hear Pangi scream beside them) as they passed under the waterfall. Unfortunately, there was no specific photo anywhere of our boy looking like a wet pangolin.

Flamefrags was there?! Bro literally spawned in.

And then Pangi leaving today.

I know Vidcon wasn't that great of an experience for Lifesteal from a business perspective (I heard they got their merch stolen, security was lax, and there was bad interactions with fans (Derap talked about this on one of his streams)), but I hope they enjoyed spending the time together as a group. I know its rough for a large group like theres to just chill and not be dragged around by schedules.

Hopefully, this was also a nice break for Pangi despite him always recording something for the channel. Bro does not know the word rest.

I’m all for people having boundaries and I do not play about respecting boundaries. As long as they’re actually boundaries.

Boundaries aren’t lists of things you can and cannot do, they are guidelines you give someone you have any sort of relationship with detailing things you will and will not tolerate. It is “if you do this, I will block you.” It’s not “you are not allowed to do this.” And it is ESPECIALLY not “if you do this, 'I have my little birds in all forests and if I hear about repeated offenses then, like, I'll send people after them.'” (21:05 on Pyro's stream, idk how to clip things properly)

That’s fucking weird and an abuse of power.

CCs learn how to block tags and people. Challenge level: impossible

Blocking things is how you curate your internet experience. You refuse to block things and instead force people to stop posting things? You are being entitled. Being brought the solution of blocking tags and responding with "Nah, fucking- none. I've made my position very clear. It's not seeing it that's the problem. It's knowing about it and knowing that it's happening." Is fucking entitled and blatant censorship of your community. (44:40 in their stream)

And I swear to god if I see any more people saying that is entitled to ship characters in fandom spaces, I’m going to lose my mind. So close to deleting twitter.

CCs learn that censoring their fans in fan spaces and creating a breeding ground for harassment isn’t okay. CCs learn to get the fuck out of spaces not made for them. CCs learn that it is parasocial to constantly interact with, seek out, and be involved in fan spaces. Challenge level: FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE.

Characters are objects. Even your self insert. They are not real. You cannot control what other people do with them. Characters are the equivalent to dolls. You're going to go into someone else's house and tell them how to play with their dolls? Not only tell them how to play, but harass them when they don't play how you want?

I haven't even mentioned the fact that they want ongoing fics to be discontinued, said he will continue flirting with people "as a joke," the insinuation that queer interpretations are only okay if it's for laughs, and said not to harass people while saying he was going to send people after anyone who publicly ships his characters. The level of entitlement and gross misunderstanding of how fandom works is astounding.

If you're going to say that shipping is against your boundaries for you characters, stop fucking queerbaiting. Because that's exactly what this is. Characters are flirting and creators are gaining engagement and monetary incentive. That's the textbook definition of queerbaiting. And before anyone says "real people can't queerbait," remind yourself that Pyro primarily does roleplay content and go watch VSMP and The Flight SMP again.

I don’t even really engage with Pyro’s content or ships. I've only ever shipped firelocke and occasionally majorscythe and those aren't even my otp. And I’ve never engaged with Maddy’s content. I’m just upset on principle. This is DSMP behavior, guys.

Fandom rules under the guise of boundaries is a weaponization of the term boundary and that isn’t okay. It leads to harassment, censorship, and abandonment of the community. It also leads to intense watering down of the term. The term that is incredibly useful, specifically for people who have experienced abuse. Using it to control what strangers on the internet do is gross.

Sorry if any of this sounds rude or offensive or insensitive or whatever. I’m in a sort of moral panic (potential OCD shit) and just need to get my thoughts out. This will probably get deleted.

Boundaries are personal and social. They are based on mutual respect. Boundaries are not orders, they are requests, intended to establish a cause and effect: if you do this thing, I will do this other thing. "If you show me ship fic, I will block you" is a boundary. "You are not allowed to make ship fic at all" is not a boundary, that is a rule.

Rules are not boundaries. Rules are based on power and control - they are imposed upon you. This is not necessarily bad, but it must come with understanding of where they can be applied. Rules only apply where the rulemaker has control of what is allowed. And these are how many creators seem to approach what they call "boundaries". Again, this is not necessarily bad - their own twitch chats, discords, and maintags on social media ARE spaces in which they have control (some spaces more than others - maintags are shakier since creators don't have moderation power there, but that can be alleviated by creating a dni tag and asking people to place content there instead), and are therefore places where they can make rules about what they do or do not want to be shown. This is fine. Creators have the right to moderate their own spaces how they wish.

Where the problems emerge is that many creators seem to assume that they have the power to apply their rules (in the guise of "boundaries") in places that are not their own. Non-main tags on social media, archive of our own, private discords - these are locations in which the application (or lack thereof) of boundaries is no longer the choice of a creator. They do not have power; thus, any choices made by individuals in those spaces must necessarily be based only on the social agreement between fan and creator, an inherently parasocial construction. And in this case, the parasocial agreement that actually exists is not "this thing must never be created", it is "this thing should not be created or shared in my spaces".

I would argue that the primary issue in how "boundaries" are approached is a misunderstanding of how all of this works. Boundaries cannot be enforced in private spaces because there is no power relationship there. They can only be requested. As a result, when creators attempt to enforce boundaries in spaces that are not their own, what will actually happen is a series of barely-controlled harassment campaigns aimed towards people who are, by and large, following the social contract of boundaries but not the power-enforced contract of rules. And that harassment is far more of a problem than any person in a private discord writing something against boundaries. One might make someone uncomfortable.

chatter: I'm choosing to read this as "don't @ me or send me content that makes me uncomfortable, and I won't go looking for it in spaces (like tumblr or w/e)."

Mcyt and its obsessive worship of "boundaries" is far more strict than some government imposed censorship rules.

And I find that crazy.