IF GOD WON’T SAVE YOU I WILL

okay, you guys know i never engage in online discourse unless I really think it’s important to say. but i’m sick and tired of seeing these pro-AO3 posts that willfully misread what people are annoyed about. people are not unaware or annoyed about the fact that websites cost money to maintain. people are not unaware or annoyed about the fact that websites that do not run ads must ask for donations. instead, here is a short list of the many things people are annoyed about:  

– the fact that thousands of people are choosing to donate to AO3 instead of any of the very desperate causes that are currently going on, and that many of these are the same people who pay lip service to caring about these causes   

– the fact that AO3 asks for money to maintain its website and yet has been in Beta mode for 12 years, as well as failing to meet many of the very important requests by users   

– the fact that people are saying “well its better than anywhere else sweaty (:” as though AO3 cannot be criticized as long as it is marginally better than the next best option   

–the fact that AO3 has received over 5 times the amount of money it requested and yet has not announced plans to redistribute the extra   

–the fact that thousands of people decided to donate to a website that systematically fails to address the racist content and child pornography it hosts   

–the fact that AO3 and the OTW as a whole have shown time and time again that they do not care about fans of colour, and that fans of colour who speak up about this are accused of promoting censorship for wanting to be respected    the fact that by their own admission, it took them years of receiving requests to even begin working on a block feature   

the racism and the child pornography holy shit you supercilious assholes people know things cost money but they get annoyed when that money goes to excusing godawful shit

Let's talk about race, colorblindness, and the portrayal of the Shu Han in Shadow and Bone - and how it kind of falls flat

why are people so hyped up over the darkling asking alina if she’s sure before kissing her because “omg consent is sexy 😍😍” i think it’s also very sexy to not melt a stag’s antlers into someone else’s collarbone without their consent and in doing so robbing them of control over their power

Exactly…

These are some excellent tags

This. Their whole relationship is how breaking consent is horrible and abusive, and not only being physically able to say “yes”, but the importance of having all the information needed for that yes to actually mean something.

We got the kiss consent scene not because he respects Alina, but because as we aren’t in Alina’s head, we aren’t able to see how much she is into him unless she says so. Which is great, because we see how far his deception goes, and how consent goes further than saying yes. Only people in the same position can actually consent, and the Darkling never treats her as his equal.

He isolates her, breaking any relation she has outside the Little Palace, like literally her best friend was sent by him to spy on her. He lies to her about his motivations and his past, because he knows it is the only way she would willingy follow him. Alina was attracted to Kirigan, but not to the Darkling.

As soon as she realices who he truly is, that illussion of choice dissapeared and she loses her agency and freedom because of him, basically transforming her into an slave, and yet he has the audacity to speak for her feelings and say that she will eventually will forgive him because he will be the only one left for her.

I’m really happy to see this relationship in tv because they protray him as a villain, while a lot of shows have similar behaviours of the Darkling being romantized.

some tweets that basically sum up my feelings on the shadow and bone racism

just because Alina is giving consent in the show doesn’t mean people should be excusing alarkling. other than that there are much more problematic elements to it.

also this form @kirsbataar!

Yea I’m!! Genuinely kind of wondering if they knew it wouldn’t actually make the situation better? In both scenarios I can only see how Alina is still coerced and manipulated into consent. Sure, making it more “consensual” (which, she still cannot do as a minor) makes it less uncomfortable for the audience to watch it at first but...the point was to never be quite comfortable in the first place. We’re supposed to watch Alina get swept up in the darkling’s world and have it happen so fast and miraculously that it’s SUPPOSED to make us not stop for questioning until it’s nearly too late. Darkling intentionally stops Alina from prying into unwanted places by taking over her decisions entirely and then making it seem like it was her intentions and wants all along.

So idk, it feels like temporary comfort over the purposefully placed discomfort that was there first. It’s looking at the framework of an abuse story and the elements of the formula and saying “Wait, make this element taste better.” But it’s still poison at the end of the day.

also their whole “romance” in the first book is all about INFORMED consent. like @saintprivateer said, alina is attracted to him, but that’s literally bc of his manipulation and grooming. she cannot give informed consent bc what she initially consents to is a lie the darkling has created in order to gain power over her. fingers crossed the show addresses that so that ppl will finally stop using her (uninformed) consent as a get out of jail free card for this abusive relationship

This is going off of @celestlian’s post about the Mess™️ that is the Malina racism subplot in the show and how to make it better. Since this subplot is supposed to show Mal and Alina’s bond, then why not focus on the border wars since Mal and Alina being orphans is something that is important to their character growth? If the writers want to address racism with their characters and how the kids in Keramzin are responsible for that, it would have been better to just imply that through dialogue then focus on Mal and Alina’s secret meadow, since that is where they played as children to get away from their bullies in canon. There’s no need to make up slurs.

it’s the grishaverse show using racism to bring mal and alina closer for me 😐

Reminder: Shadow and Bone skinnywashed Nina and lightwashed Jesper, which is not ‘fandom drama’ and needs to be called out! Now we’re getting closer to the show release please remember you can enjoy the show whilst also holding the people who made the show (not the actors) accountable for this, and don’t start drawing Nina skinny or Jesper lightskinned because of how they look in the show.

and casting an able-bodied actor to play kaz wasn’t okay either! we need to talk about that too!! we can enjoy the show but don’t pretend that the casting was anything near perfect