Me Knowing Damn Well That I’ll Always Have A Fat Crush On The Narrator And Will Always Want To See

Mental Health in Media - Lacey

The Lacey Games series is an interesting webseries, first presenting itself as a lost flash game upload, then presenting itself as a horror series, and finally showing its colors as a heartfelt piece about trauma.

*Heavy topics below, proceed with caution.*

Through mainly Lacey's Diner and Lacey's Petshop, it is shown that Lacey has suffered CSA and neglect from her uncle, starting at a young age. But this is found under a layer of 2000s-style flash games, presenting the perfect looking Lacey in a upbeat 2000s girl life. But of course, with this genre, the deeper you get into the game, the more the truth is revealed.

In other series following similar formats, this transition is used to amplify the feeling of the unexpected; taking something innocent and turning it into something horrific. But the Lacey Games series adds many more layers to this. You see, Lacey is an in-universe stand-in for the creator of the fictional games, Rocío Yani, who like Lacey, is a survivor of this trauma. In the cases of both Rocío and Lacey, they've already escaped their abusers. Lacey is a chef, a pet shop owner, and goes about her day to day life within these flash games. But despite escaping her physical situation, her past always leaks into the present. In Lacey's Petshop, she returns to the house she grew up in -- the house she was abused in. Just because she has escaped her abuse doesn't mean she's escaped her trauma or the ways that effects every other aspect of her life. And so, so many pieces of media don't recognize this.

Lacey also isn't the "perfect victim" that media likes to portray abuse survivors -- especially CSA survivors -- as. The whole climax of Lacey's Petshop is that she killed her uncle, her abuser. Not because she was actively trying to escape, but because he killed her dog. Lacey's Diner also implies that Lacey (and by extension, Rocío) deals with substance abuse, another thing that media discussion mental health loves to demonize. After she escapes her uncle, she still has these destructive habits, she still deals with self-h4rm and su1cidality. She wasn't just some innocent girl, she was a human being who had everything taken from her.

I believe the Lacey Games series can be powerful to people who have survived what Lacey has. Society and media recognize and accommodate victims until they break the mold of a "victim". Trauma doesn't go away with the situation, it persists throughout one's life and seeps into aspects that could otherwise seem normal. And the thing that makes this worse is the constant demonization of the "imperfect victim". We may not be killing our uncles or baking various health-violating items into food like Lacey does, but feeling like shit and going through shit doesn't make you a horrible person.

Thank you for reading. I wasn't quite sure how to end this, so I just did. If I got anything wrong, please make sure to tell me!

References below the cut:

Some info on long term affects of CSA

Ghosttundra's Channel

Sorry I had to use alternate letters for some words, I didn't want this getting overly flagged.

Don't mess with his daughter!

(Based on chapter 4.2 from REIGEN spinoff manga)

I don’t think the gods understand what makes a suitable gift for modern humans.

Maybe consult the humans next time.

Will I draw this as a proper comic? Probably not but I thought the idea was funny and thus I am releasing it upon the world.

I came up with this idea before I remembered that I had THIS in my camera role

Song of the Sea (2014)

Director: Tomm Moore

fnaf ruin spoilers!!

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begging people to stop whitewashing cassie 😭😭 (not talking about old fanart that came out before the dlc)

HELP I KEEP FOLLOWING SIGVERSE RP BLOGS LIKE I'M COLLECTING POKEMONS I CAN'T STOP AUGH

(they all make me happy and feed into my delulu hyperfixation shhh... )

Aaaaa since I literally have nothing else to post here's something I drew for my advanced art class in school

I feel like SAWTOWNE’s “Confessions of a Rotten Girl” is so good partially because of how it makes even people who may dislike fujoshis sympathize with Miku, and it’s interesting that it’s not actually done by painting her as “one of the good ones”. Everything that’s despised about fujoshi culture, Miku explicitly is portrayed as doing.

Disliking female characters on the basis of them “getting in the way” (and being quite misogynistic about it to boot), sexualizing and shipping men in real life (the men portrayed in the song are her teachers), and even the yaoi paddle known for being used to sexually harass cosplayers…

… all these aspects are there. Hell, one of the most disliked part about fujoshi culture from a social justice standpoint — the language of describing queer relationships as “sinful” — is the whole basis behind the song.

However, SAWTOWNE, instead of lessening that toxic trait, “yes, and”s it. “Yes, she calls queer relationships sinful, as a (presumably) heterosexual woman who finds their relationship gratifying. AND, the reason she does that is because she is a sexually repressed Christian who feels guilty about having any sexual desire whatsoever.”

I think that one (very clever!) addendum makes it so any discomforting aspects to the song takes a backseat. Instead of being a song about trying to resist an interest in yaoi / The Gays specifically, it more so becomes a song about trying to resist any “abnormal” sexual desires, which makes it very easy to like this version of Miku, even as someone who very much dislikes the aspects of fujoshi culture she represents.

Plus we need more gooner girl rep anyway, lol. (As a comment on the video said: close enough! Welcome back Plus Boy!)

Everyone Hates Apollo

I honestly don't know what else to post so, here is a cool dude I drew