Since this is a hot topic right now and none of you seem to have been taught colour theory here is a chart on high and low contrasting colours to help design your theme to be more readable and accessible:
“it’s so weird to ship ocs with canon muses.” “you can’t like this character bc they’re evil/did something bad” “you shouldn’t rp this muse if you haven’t read the books/watched all the seasons/played all the games” “if you ship (some ship) you’re disgusting”
“this ship/work of fiction could hypothetically hurt someone” is not an argument.
We don’t prohibit alcohol just because some people can hurt themselves/other people with it. People who can drink responsibly aren’t at fault for people who can’t.
You either believe in people to be personally responsible for themselves or you believe in a dystopia where all fiction is subject to censorship due to any possible cultural impact.
On the topic of incest, I just wanted to poke at the bit where people are screaming about incest between cousins (i.e specifically the ship Itachi/Shisui) and how they would like to… ‘protect’ Itachi? As a character? I have a few bones to pick here haha.
1. Fandom decided that Itachi and Shisui are cousins, instead of simply clansmen. There’s also the insinuation that they’re very closely related cousins (i.e first or second cousins). But we know from canon that:
a) they have only ever referred to each other as ‘friend’, ‘best friend’, ‘closest friend’, ‘like a brother’, ‘dearest friend’ and,
b) they never met until Itachi was five. If they had been closer in relation, there’s a high possibility they would have met up with each other more frequently. Itachi didn’t even know who Shisui was that first day they met.
Clans are very large, particularly the Uchiha clan, which likely ran into the hundreds. They were more likely to just be clansmen, though related, but not first or second cousins at all. So, a bit of misrepresentation there by fandom that automatically think ‘family’ = small nuclear-ish families.
2. I’m not sure what people are trying to protect Itachi from if his own parents are, by their definition, ‘incestuous’? Fugaku and Mikoto are both from the same clan.
3. Nearly every clan with secret techniques in the Naruto world are ‘incestuous’ by your definition. The Uchiha, Hyuuga, Akimichi, Nara, Aburame, Inuzuka for instance. And these are only Konoha clans. Pre-founders era, you also had the Senju and Uzumaki. Uzumaki in particular, because red hair is such a recessive trait. So Mito, Kushina, Karin and Nagato most likely came from parents who were both Uzumaki or one parent had very strong relations to the Uzumaki clan (i.e Senju, since we know from canon that the Senju and Uzumaki clans kept marrying each other, which ultimately relates both the clans themselves).
4. The aversion to intermarrying between cousins is an extremely modern Western point of view. Look back into history and notice how the Western nobility intermarried, how actual clansmen intermarried, how certain ethnic groups intermarried etc. Literature before the mid-1900′s freely include such interaction and not in any negative light. Plus, the majority of countries and cultures around the world today have no issue with first cousins marrying. The only issue here is increasing the risk of passing on faulty genes that run in a higher rate within the ‘family’. It is also not a religious concept, because you will note the many instances of incest within the Judeo-Christian religious texts as well.
This kind of ignorance is actually pretty culturally insensitive. And yes, I am going there with saying that the shinobi culture is an Eastern culture. Western concepts do not particularly apply or work with the setting and how the characters interact int eh Naruto Universe… even down to addressing their elders within the family and within rank and file.
So… I really don’t know what people are trying to protect Itachi from. His own culture? Himself?
Just blacklist the ship(s) and move on?
[[ Actually hold on, I’m not done with the incest thing.
Look– it’s ok to not like incest. Both fictional and irl. We all have squicks, triggers, limits, and so on.
But if you’re trying to create a roleplay space completely free of incest? Naruto is not the media for you. Especially if youre playing characters from clans.
The very fact clans exist means that incest exists.
It doesn’t have to be directly verbally or textually mentioned. Clans, who have techniques or bloodline abilities, who are known for having those specific abilities, who do not share those abilities and are possessive and protective of them absolutely have a degree of incest within the clan.That’s the only way to ensure the technique/bloodline stays within the clan and suddenly doesn’t become something everyone else can do.
This is worse if you’re talking about bloodline limits, like the Sharingan, the Byakugan, etc. No one earns a right to these techniques, you literally have to be born with the gene to display it.
Plus– on the whole “cousins are bad, too” thing? That’s only a western standard. Naruto isn’t America. Plenty of Eastern countries (including Japan, wow!) have nothing against first cousins getting together and marrying. Something considered weird/taboo here is not going to be the standard for literally any other country.
Itachi is the worst character to pick if you want to avoid any and all incest. ]]
The “purity culture” and call out culture on this website is not about helping people or social justice and equality. Do not even for a second think that it is good or for benefitting people or out of love for individuals or groups .The people that do it are self serving and they arent doing it to help you, they are doing it for their own benefit and for themselves. By “calling someone out” or running them off the site, they hope to be worshipped like some kind of hero and thanked and get attention. They are self righteous assholes that want to be like gods and control people. They just want power and influence over others, they want to be given authority over people and they want influence over others, including you. Dont fall for it, do not participate in it. Never ever harass anyone. Do not help others bully someone. Fact check everything, always ask for sources, but know that info can be easily faked. To be honest just ignore and block people doing this. Its not worth it, you’re not helping anyone and you’re hurting people. End call out and “purity” culture. The internet is never going to be how you want it to be.
“I’m so sick of these bullshit trends in the roleplay community. I’m looking at you, tiny boxed themes with illegible text and unfindable rules/about pages. What happened to roleplaying being about, you know, writing?“
I realize that everyone has different preferences, but if you are a writer that posts your work on tumblr, you should carefully consider the color contrast/text size of your theme.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been excited to read something, only to click a read more and be met with text for ants and/or a highlighter or pastel color scheme. I have good eyesight, but imagine if you readers are colorblind or low vision. There are accessibility tools they could use, but wouldn’t you rather make it as easy as possible for readers to consume your content?
Think Ao3. Vox. Medium. Almost any popular, text-heavy site.
What do you see? High color contrast (usually black text on white background), LARGE body text, at least 16px MINIMUM. I realize that black and white can also cause eye strain with certain people, but at least it’s a start.
Have a quirky, design-y blog, but if you write, please think of the ones who may struggle reading the writing you’ve worked so hard to create. At the very least, always crosspost to ao3 where users can apply skins to make it easier to read.
But En, I don’t know much about design or user accessibility! Help!
UchihaSavior 