I Love The Idea Of A Vampire Tav Who, By Virtue Of Being Turned As A Bride/groom And Not A Typical Spawn,

i love the idea of a vampire tav who, by virtue of being turned as a bride/groom and not a typical spawn, and also being gifted with astarion's ascended immunity from most vampire restrictions, has no real idea of what being a vampire is like for literally every other vampire in existence.

like, astarion and tav host a party and invite the vampires they've been in correspondence with in other cities, and tav finally meets a vampire other than astarion and is like, well damn sucks to be all of you.

like, finding out they can't just stay in any inn because they have to be invited in. they couldn't get to baldur's gate faster because they had to go the long way to avoid routes crossing over running water. the precautions they have to take to block out the sun and make sure not even a sliver touches skin. tav had no idea about any of this because none of it has ever affected them.

infuriating for every other vampire to hear about how they've never needed to worry about any of that, but hilarious for astarion.

welcome to tumblr, where if you're a trans woman the ceo will personally ban you and then go to your other social media accounts and harass you further

God, it's fucking remarkable how people claim to support predstrogen and oppose transmisogyny, while still participating in transmisogynist harassment campaigns like the one against the co-host co-founder.

Like that's literally what the scandal is about. Predstrogen was the victim of years-long harassment campaign which used mass-reporting and got her account banned. And tumblr let her harassers blogs stay up while deleting her accounts. And the ceo took criticism of tumblr's transmisogynistic moderation practices as a personal insult to his self-image as a cool dude, so he has repeatedly personally justified it. Matt Mullenweg isn't the only villain here, the hate mob driving harassment against her is too.

I remember the callout posts against predstrogen, sometimes thy were outright terfs, but others justified the harassment in the same coded ways they do for every trans woman. "She was into problematic kinks or defended them, and therefore basically a pedophile sexual predator." Or "she is a transfeminist, therefore she is a transandrophobe that hates transmascs."

Like it's the same pattern of bullshit, it doesn't explicit target her identity as a trans woman, but these callouts repeatedly happen to transfem after transfem every fucking time. And they always use the same bullshit accusations that just so happen to line up with the widespread transmisogynistic image of transfems as sexual predators who oppress real wombyn.

The reason predstrogen's story resonates is because it vividly shows what it is like to be a transfem on this platform.It didn't just happen to her as an individual, It's part of a larger systemic pattern of transmisogyny.

If you participate in these transmisogynistic callout harassment even by just reblogging the callouts, you are also a villain here. And you can't claim to support predstrogen while participating in the process that drove her off the platform.

You can't condemn Matt Mullenweg when you are a willing cog in the same transmisogynistic hate machine that he is defending. The only difference between you and Mullenweg is not that you lack his bigotry, it's that you lack his millions of dollars, and the immense individual power and influence that brings.

Why do you think the option of Astarion drinking from Cazador to become a full vampire instead of ascended wasn't an option? I'm sure he would have let Astarion drink from him if it meant that or death 👀

Well, from a lore standpoint, I think it would have been redundant to have that as an option when ascension offered more power and the ability to feel alive, two things Astarion really wants. If ascension was not on the table, I don't know if Astarion would want to become a true vampire. While power-hungry, yes, he may be scared of the idea that it could alter his body again/more, the same fear he had with the mind flayer parasite, as it does not offer what ascension does. At least with ascension, he is guaranteed to live again. Then again, he might risk it just to get out of the position he is in now. I can see it going both ways.

And I'm on the fence about whether Cazador would allow that because he is cruel and sadistic so it could go both ways. Either A, he's too prideful and would rather watch Astarion lose his chance at becoming any higher on the totem pole, or B, he does it to allow Astarion to know the torment and restlessness he's felt since he turned.

You have to wonder, too, if the whole "permission" thing is even a thing. I did point out the idea that Vellioth allowed Cazador to bite him when he was dying to have the last laugh, but what if Cazador got the drop on him, bit him, and ended up evening out the playing field as Vellioth would no longer have control over him AND Astarion did say that the biggest threat to a true vampire is another true vampire which is why they don't elevate their spawn to that level. A comment from Jahiera made me wonder about this as it made me think IMMEDIATELY of Volo, how people who write books on subjects may not be as knowledgeable on the subject as they appear.

Plus, if a spawn thinks they need permission to bite and have been compelled/punished for trying, it would curb that thought process, and they'd be less likely to sneak attack their masters.

“Ask me anything, and it will be yours.”

When I think of the gender spectrum I think of millions and trillions of uneven, blurry venn diagrams all overlapping eachother. Stretching out into infinity because thats what a spectrum is, an infinite amount of space with no set limit. Thats why trying to present the gender spectrum as a linear or tidy venn diagrams isn't rlly accurate in my opinion, because it usually excludes and limits sooo many other wonderful experiences out there.

The gender spectrum isn't neat and tidy but a big chaotic fire pit