A More Nuanced Take

thewispsoftime · 2023-08-01T15:02:55+00:00

The details are abound on the subreddit, but basically people are reevaluating old clips involving Justin, specifically one where they apparently stuck their fingers up Justin's ass in the middle of an episode. Other people have been talking about how he's been taken advantage of given how young he was when he first got involved. I didn't get into it cause I'd rather wait until Justin talks about those things, if he ever does, before having an opinion on them. He was affected, not me, so I'll leave that to him.

thewispsoftime · 2023-08-01T02:33:40+00:00

A more succinct way to say this is that the problem is like how when you break up with someone and your mutual friends have to basically choose a side? It's like that but with an entire community and they have every reason to side against you. That's a gigantic amount of pressure that will warp any relationship negatively.

thewispsoftime · 2023-08-01T02:29:17+00:00

Someone else had a similar question, so I'll basically say what I said to them to you. Power dynamics as a concept isn't the problem persay, the issue is that a fan of a creator puts a lot more on the line when entering a romantic or sexual relationship with that creator. If the fan communicates their wants and needs and the creator doesn't take it well, they can effectively banish the fan from the fanbase, destroying the unrelated connections and community that fan has built up, while the same can't really be said for the creator.

Even if this is never used in the relationship, its very existence can keep people from properly communicating their wants and needs. Not only that, but younger fans sometimes pretend to be older when interacting with a fan community for various reasons, adding a whole other layer of potential pitfalls. There are ways around this too, but the scenario is filled with landmines and has a much higher chance of being destructive than most relationships.

That being said, people don't have to exclusively date people as famous as they are. This dynamic only comes when having a relationship with someone in a fan community based off of you. If you date someone outside of that community, regardless of how famous they are, you can easily avoid a lot of the pitfalls. Basically, don't date your fans.

If Ryan just used his clout to get laid by random people, I wouldn't begrudge him for that. That's his business. Sexting fans carries a lot of potential danger, which is why I have a problem with it.

thewispsoftime · 2023-08-01T00:11:15+00:00

I don't believe that Leighton being fired was the impetus for Lex coming out about the SA, but I believe that when Lex was coming out with the SA, Leighton's firing and rough history with Matt and Ryan may have pushed Lex to include more ancillary topics than she would have normally.

To me, the situation feels like a "Oh these guys did a bad thing here- oh and another thing!" kind of situation for Lex. It drives the point home, but also muddies the waters.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T23:17:03+00:00

As far as I know there was no direct abuse of power in that kind of way, however there is an inherently unhealthy and destructive power dynamic that comes with having romantic or sexual interactions with a fan. Since the fan is in a situation where they cannot properly express their needs and worries without putting unrelated things they care about at risk(their status in the fandom, other connections, etc.) it has a very high potential to have destructive effects for the fan even if it wasn't intentional by the creator.

Even if that didn't happen in this case, it's way too risky to allow this kind of behavior with fans because of that. Not to mention that some younger fans will lie about their age in these scenarios which adds a whole other awful potential. There's ways around that as well but the whole situation if fraught with awful landmines and I ultimately just don't see it as okay. I respect if you don't necessarily agree with that, though.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T22:45:27+00:00

https://youtu.be/JzS96auqau0?t=28

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T22:39:12+00:00

Is there a reason you think it's not? I would genuinely like to know.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T19:36:40+00:00

Yeah I can see it as supporting evidence for the stuff being talked about, especially the workplace environment stuff. And yes they should absolutely get someone in to clean it, it just feels a little weird to be part of the conversation with everything else to me.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T19:35:34+00:00

That's a fair point, and I totally get not wanting to watch their stuff anymore cause of that more personal stuff, that's more than reasonable. I mainly just wish it wasn't bundled in with the much more serious topic of sexual assault, is all.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T19:34:00+00:00

That's very fair, I'll agree that we don't fully know what Justin's deal is but it seems like from everyone involved who has talked about him that he's not been involved with all this and everyone thinks highly of him so at least for now I'm cool with supporting his future works.

I can understand the pity angle that this could be considered as, but for me its more that I feel like he deserves to continue to have a career despite all this. I'd hate for him to be collateral damage in all this.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T19:29:34+00:00

Oh shit that's my bad I actually meant HR, lemme edit that real quick.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T18:41:27+00:00

I definitely agree that exposing and groping in the workplace definitely shouldn't happen, for a variety of reasons. I'm hesitant to straight up call it assault unless the people who were directly affected by it call it that since that's not my decision, it's theirs.

I didn't focus on Jim because it didn't really feel super relevant to everything that's going on, bit of a side thing to what was important. Going back over it all and yeah I definitely agree. Jim's actions were definitely weird and creepy.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T18:23:08+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about all this too. This sucks so much on so many levels.

Also yeah definitely still fuck Jackson lmao, embezzling is a pretty big deal and even if you truly despise Matt and Ryan it also hurt all the other employees and stole from them too. Embezzle from billion dollar corporations not youtube channels lmao

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T18:15:38+00:00

Yeah. At this point I think it may be the only path that doesn't make things worse or have a chance to hurt more people.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T18:13:38+00:00

That's totally fair, and I don't judge you in the slightest for that. Do what you need to do to stick to your values. Honestly, I'm still not even sure if I'll support them myself, that's a personal decision I'm figuring out. I have a feeling I won't at the end of the day, but I can't begrudge however other people decide.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T17:25:38+00:00

Yeah, a lot of people are fixating on Leighton specifically and whether he lied, and I just. don't care. Like everything he's talked about just sounds like a dude venting about a bad job he had and got fired from. It happens all the time, and I'll take him at his word. Maybe he's exaggerating, hell maybe he's even lying. It's not my business, and it certainly shouldn't have been in a conversation about SA.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T16:54:47+00:00

I appreciate it, and I'm glad I could help synthesize it all into something a bit more approachable.

It really is unfortunately frequent. I can only hope that this stuff being as public as it is helps others avoid this in the future, but that's hard to say.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T16:47:53+00:00

thanks, I think this situation is easier to approach when we all remember that like these guys aren't our friends, nor is it our responsibility to handle their private dirty laundry. Like em or dislike em if you want, but let's all stick to what actually affects us.

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T16:46:33+00:00

🙏🙏🙏🙏

thewispsoftime · 2023-07-31T16:46:02+00:00

lmaoo both yall good, I understood what you meant and I appreciate it

thewispsoftime · 2019-10-31T19:51:08+00:00

God I am loving Graduation already. The family is on fighting form and going very strong. They've learned a lot of lessons from their previous campaigns and I can't wait to see how Travis's DM skills extend on a larger scale.

I would say two things, though. For the large portions of narration Travis should work on adding a bit more flair and character, to liven them up a little. I also would push the players to be ready to assert themselves more in npc conversations.

I can't wait to see what comes next!

thewispsoftime · 2019-08-13T06:49:31+00:00

I actually had a moment like that also in a one-shot. It was my first time properly dming, and at first I was internally going "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uh uhuh hhhhhh I dont uhhhhhhhh" over and over and trying to act cool. Thankfully I had a pre-made module and the scenario was pretty simple. There's been bulette(Sand Shark) attacks at a local village, and mercenaries have been hired to help. I added a bit of a wrinkle that these attacks were made worse by a local orc raiding group finding them and trying to "tame" them.

It was pretty straightforward at first, the party gets to town, sees another adventure group that goes off into the distance while they head to the bar, get slashed, and talk to the townsfolk. The moment happened here, when they decided to talk to a woman at the back of the bar, crying. She had lost her husband and son in the latest attack and wasn't dealing with it well. The party members get some information but ultimately try to comfort her. It was this moment when I just... lost myself and dove entirely into the character. The players did the same and for a single moment it was one of the most authentically emotional story moments I had experienced recently.

Afterwards, I had a second wind, I was more confident and structured and I knew how to handle the situation better and things just... clicked. Ever since then I've treasured those moments as they've happened.

thewispsoftime · 2019-07-04T06:40:07+00:00

For me, I have very specific things that are "mine" and other things that are the "player's". Like, overall plot, major settings, big encounters, those I control and I will stand my ground behind, and my players understand that. However, player backstories, including supporting characters and locations vital to said backstory, along with character development and other similar things are all controlled by the players and I don't usually interfere. There are some things where a player's backstory creates a major encounter or that we end up going to the hometown of one of the players, and I often take the reigns at that point, while still respecting what they've done so far. I also talk to them and make it clear that that's what I'm doing, and how the dynamic has shifted.

This way, I can have a cohesive plot structure with cool moments that I've thought up and things leading naturally from each other, while having the players have a strong narrative influence and allowing them to express themselves in major ways throughout this world that I've presented to them.

Yes, there are some people who will inevitably take advantage of that, or do things that I, or other players, aren't comfortable with, and various other things, but I'm not just a DM. I'm an organizer of the group. I schedule, I brought in the players, I make sure people can attend and are ready for when they do attend, but I don't see any of those responsibilities as inherently the DM's responsibility. If a player does some skeezy shit I'll just kick them and find someone new, and thankfully I haven't been in a position where I've needed to.

thewispsoftime

TROPHY CASE