u/TimFlamio

A word on our moderation — appreciation, a timeline, and serious concerns

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I want to start clearly: this is not an attack on every mod. Some people here have done genuine good for this community. I want to name them before anything else.

Also, some of the new ones are absolute gems, thanks guys.

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✅ The mods who've been here from the start

u/Valuable-Bike-1030 : founding mod since Dec 5, 2025. Created this sub with one explicit vision:

> "We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting."

At that time, Aemeath x Rower fan art was not only allowed — it was part of the community's identity. That was the sub we signed up for.

u/Personal_Read4750 : also a founding mod since Dec 5, 2025. No controversial behavior observed.

These two built something good. What happened yesterday was not their doing.

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🚨 What happened on May 11, 2026 — in under one hour

Here is the moderator list with join timestamps:

Mod	Joined	Permissions
u/Valuable-Bike-1030	Dec 5, 2025	Everything
u/Personal_Read4750	Dec 5, 2025	Everything
u/diptosen2017	May 11 — 3:40 PM	Users, Mail, Posts & Comments
u/Healthy-Research-955	May 11 — 3:50 PM	Everything
u/Empress_Cecilia	May 11 — 4:04 PM	Users, Config, Mail, Posts & Comments
u/RegionalKnight	May 11 — 4:14 PM	Users, Mail, Posts & Comments
u/MM2Y4776	May 11 — 4:14 PM	Users, Mail, Posts & Comments
u/ApprehensivePiece117	May 11 — 4:19 PM	Users, Mail, Posts & Comments
u/Fxnzyii	May 11 — 4:41 PM	Users, Mail, Posts & Comments

7 moderators were added in a single hour. The same day the content purge happened.

This is not routine moderation. This is a coordinated takeover.

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🔴 The diptosen2017 contradiction

Here's what makes this especially hard to ignore.

u/diptosen2017 was added as a mod at 3:40 PM yesterday. But before being made a mod, they were actively and warmly engaging with Aemeath x Rover content in this very sub:

> "Im keeping this meme now" — commenting on ship fan art
> "Yes 🌺" — affirming ship content
> "take care of her now 💙" — replying warmly to a ship post

That post was subsequently removed by the mod team — the same team diptosen2017 joined minutes later.

So the question is simple: did diptosen2017 know what they were being added to? Were they recruited specifically because of their stance on this ship?

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🟡 On u/Dreamershiru — cross-sub bias

Dreamershiru mods here and is active in r/HiyukiMains - a community on the opposing side of this fandom divide. Here is their behavior on record:

1 — Calling content removal "cleaning" the sub: > "The subreddit should be clean right now, so feel free to join again 🤍"
> — r/HiyukiMains

2 — Condescension toward critics: > "I hope you'll feel better soon."
> — to someone frustrated with the ban, said with their mod tag visible

3 — Mockery: > "lmfao"
> — reply to a community critic, again with mod tag visible

4 — Validating people who blocked this sub: > "Feel free to join again" — said to someone who had blocked r/Aemeath_Mains

A mod recruiting members back to a sub because the content they disliked is now gone is not neutral moderation. It's faction behavior.

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📋 Mod summary

Mod	Status	Notes
✅ u/Valuable-Bike-1030	Founding mod, good faith	Built this sub on inclusion
✅ u/Personal_Read4750	Founding mod, good faith	No issues observed
⚠️ u/diptosen2017	Added May 11	Was engaging with ship content before being made a mod
🔴 u/Healthy-Research-955	Added May 11	Part of the coordinated wave
🔴 u/Dreamershiru	Cross-sub mod	Documented bias, partisan comments
❓ u/Empress_Cecilia	Added May 11	Unknown stance
❓ u/RegionalKnight	Added May 11	Unknown stance
❓ u/MM2Y4776	Added May 11	Unknown stance
❓ u/ApprehensivePiece117	Added May 11	Unknown stance
❓ u/Fxnzyii	Added May 11	Unknown stance

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📌 What I'm asking for

• Who made the call to purge all Rower content, and on what specific rule basis?
• A community vote on whether this ban should stand
• Transparency from u/Valuable-Bike-1030 and u/Personal_Read4750 - did you approve this?

This sub was built on inclusion. What happened yesterday was the opposite of that — and the timestamps prove it wasn't organic.

🙏 I'm not here to start a war. I'm here because this community deserves honesty.

I'm sure you'll allow shipping posts too at this point. Ships that directly violate your new rules as they will go directly against the game's official content and story.

But is it safe to assume you'll remove those too?

None of you play the game and all of you have reddit accounts that are less than 6 months old, it's not a good look.

But maybe I'm too harsh and you'll be willing to at least hear people out or strike a balance with no shipping allowed altogether.

Or you'll just take the easy way out and delete this post.

Edit:
A message to the modderators:

Please, for the integrity of this sub and the good image the mods team is trying to convey.Make a poll. Allow us to vote even. Decisions should be taken with the majority, not by one or 3 people.. You clearly seem to be decent people regardless of differences, but it's about the honesty and unbiased spirit this sub is supposed to uphold.

Since the post was up, I've been attacked by 3 people who deleted their replies by also accusing me of crimes, based on things I've never said in this post. How is that right???

Edit #2: there is a blatant conflict of interest when a mod Dreamershiru here is also a mod of Hiyuki mains and comments : "Am currently helping in moderation and the subreddit should be clean right now, so feel free to join again 🤍🩷"

Modderators, there is a serious issue at hand when some of you claim unbias and a clean subreddit, while posting this.

Like, none of the comments posted are visible when you're not connected? Or it's just me?

As I said in a previous post, I did some digging.

Turns out there's a well-documented relational arc in xianxia/wuxia (one of the most consumed fiction genres in East Asia) that fits this dynamic almost beat for beat.

Some scale context first, because this isn't a niche observation:

• Wuxia/xianxia is to East Asia what fantasy/sci-fi is to the West — a foundational genre with centuries of history
• It dominates Chinese web novels, drama, and games, with massive audiences across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and globally through streaming
• Works like The Untamed, Eternal Love, Word of Honor, Till the End of the Moon have hundreds of millions of views, these aren't obscure references
• Kuro Games is a Chinese studio, writing from inside this tradition natively

Disclaimer : bear with me for a second, what comes next is for the sake of the analysis. One thing worth anchoring before the table — the game uses the word family. Not daughter. Not adopted. Family — which in this storytelling tradition is deliberately broader and doesn't foreclose other readings.

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Xianxia/Wuxia Genre Element	Rover & Aemeath
Bond begins with a clear hierarchy (shīfu/túdì)	Aemeath is Rover's student, Aemeath was "the kid Rover used to look after", Only Rover truly knows her
Junior (with age gap) is protected and guided by the senior	Rover sheltered and accompanied Aemeath throughout their significant, albeit short time together + shared sword fighting
Bond forged through hardship and sacrifice, not circumstance	Their connection exists entirely outside normal reality
Junior's sacrifice retroactively equalizes their standing	Aemeath's sacrifice for Lahai-Roi closes the gap entirely
Hierarchy dissolves as the junior grows	By 3.3 they are no longer senior/junior in any meaningful sense, they are both saviors
Senior pursues junior across impossible distance — the genre's definitive gesture of profound bond	Rover enters Voidspace to find her
Bond evolves toward dao companionship (道侣) — a recognized endpoint in the genre	…
Relationship resists a single Western label	Game uses "family" — deliberately open (Dominic Toretto is coming)

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The DAO companionship row, I'll leave intentionally open. Those familiar with CN storytelling traditions and the 3.3 well known chinese literature references know what goes there. If some want to ignore it, that fine, but know that it likely is part of the entire genre.

This isn't a subjective read or a niche ship. It's a culturally literate one. For some reason, when you look at the 50 most viewed videos on billibili with the key word Aemeath, more than 32 of them all present chinese poem quotes or references about this specific genre.

What do you think ?

I finished 3.1 genuinely moved but also a little unsettled, and I couldn't put my finger on why.

The Rover/Aemeath dynamic hit me hard emotionally, but something felt unresolved in how I was reading it.

Then I started looking into Chinese storytelling traditions, specifically the shīfu/túdì (master/disciple) genre that's deeply embedded in xianxia and wuxia media (new words, I know). And it completely reframed everything.

In that tradition, a bond can be parental and deeply equal and emotionally intimate, all at the same time, without those things cancelling each other out. The hierarchy isn't permanent, it dissolves as the gap closes. And when it does, what's left is something that doesn't fit neatly into any Western relational category.

Curious if anyone else felt the same conflict before finding the official framework that made it click.