Even though he was a bigger 4chan head than I was, he didn’t know about these little guys. I’ve been following them while off and on, and was sad to see the last site and the booru go, of course.
When I told him about them, he laughed and said the concept was ridiculous. But when he saw me drawing them he said, “Oh no. This stuff will give you bad/sad brain. Like falling into the Monkey Torture videos trap.”
I find monkey torture and fluffy toture to be two separate things but similar satisfaction. Difference is: monkeys are real!!
I do like hugbox and I do feel sorry for the fluffs at times (…depending on the art. Some artist are REALLY, REALLY good and making you feel negative towards them.) But I can’t say looking at the art or reading the stories has put me in a true state of sadness afterwards.
But that’s just me. Does anyone get super sad from seeing the carnage and have to step away?
sometime yeah, honestly i still love animals, i love my dogs dearly, but i know that Fluffies aren’t real, which to me is the biggest factor for me, these things are fake, not even real, just a concept to be molded to a story or comic.
Thank you for the response. I’m the same way. I’m a huge animal lover and I hate to see animals hurting.
I do often wonder if fluffies were real, would I have the same empathy? I hope not, my apartment would be a shitty little haven for strays😭
I honestly don’t. I believe that since fluffies are fictitious, harming them for whatever reason is fine. Its basically the same as hoping someone dies in a horror movie or writing a fanfiction where a character you don’t like has bad things happen to them.
oh god if they were real, i would have maybe 3 or 4, maybe two pairs, two Stallions to Mares, let em be friends, let em have babies, obvi let em keep 1 and sell the rest… Yeah…
But since they aint, they are like dragons to me, kill em, train em, feed em, etc., etc.
I mean, they are fictional, but the main thing is that their torment is often so ridiculously melodramatic. Realistic abuse is uneasy and does make me sad, but it’s way more common to see “fluffy mare that ate her own foals pops like a grape when kicked” or “a man trips on his fluffy and burns the whole house down in retaliation” type abuse. It’s so overblown it gets cartoony.
At the same time it’s less visceral than Happy Tree Friends, so … Y’know? It could be worse.
More than sad I sometimes get all “uugh.” at some abuse pieces, but it’s related to something not making sense to me.
However, when I had initially started out, the first… 12 days(?) I think weren’t that great. I found myself being drawn in by the senseless suffering, despite never liking stuff like Happy Tree Friends, which led me to think ill of myself for even coming back here.
However, I eventually came to the realization that fluffies can (and should, IMO) be so much more than meaningless bags of SCREEE. They are a wonderful writing tool, far more complex than your average “talking animal” story in regards to themes you can explore with them.
I’m glad I’m not the only one that doesn’t like HTF. I was shown the first episode as a kid, back when it was basically a shock site and I couldn’t know what would happen, and have refused to watch it ever since. Fluffies are at least up-front about what they are!
…
I am now realizing that it would totally be possible to have a Fluffy TV Show about fluffies getting horribly gory demises. I mean, it wouldn’t be that far off from HTF, right? And they barely even resemble MLP so we’d be clear of copyright problems, just call them “Fluffies” instead of “Fluffy Ponies”. Maybe all we need for mainstream appeal is just… an official TV show.
A good author or artist can make you feel emotions no matter what the character is,including fluffies. So fluffies could give you “sad brain” if you’re looking over sadbox content. However,for me at least,it’s temporary,just like how reading a sad story or watching a sad movie give me sad feelings for 10 minutes or so.
To me,fluffies are like any other media. It’s not like fluffies are strictly abuse or strictly sadbox,our fandom comes in a wide variety of flavors! As long as you don’t start becoming obsessed,I think it’s like any other story or art that has the ability to make you feel.
I enjoy a lot of the stories for various reasons, but fluffies aren’t real and I would never approve of people torturing actual animals. Does your boyfriend have any problem with stuff like “Happy Tree Friends” or “Saw”? This is no different.
Some stories I enjoy because they make me sad and make me cry which feels cathartic, some stories are just fun, some stories are horrific and I feel bad for the fluffy/fluffies, but I just treat those stories like any other horror story, some stories are basically stories of vengeance like “Hamlet”, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, and “The Cask of Amontillado”.
Like all other literature there’s room for all genres; romance, tragedy, comedy, horror, slice of life etc.
I love animals as well. In real life I am a biologist. However, I keep reptiles only, and get a little thrill from them eating furry animals. I think this “bad brain” you mention, I’ve always had but this is a good outlet. Growing up I was always the Adams or Slytherin kid. That being said, I don’t mind the hug-box material, its just my mind usually turns the story to abuse because of my nature. We’re all a weird dysfunctional fluffy family here.