My Thoughts on the Anime Civil War

I have many thoughts on the whole Funimation business that all started with HanLeia's accusation against Vic Mignogna. It has been eight, almost nine, months since this whole mess started. There have been many things that came out just in the last month that has changed the entire situation. I think Vic is innocent of the things he has been accused of. HanLeia accused Vic of being a sexual predator and that he had been inappropriate with her, and with another woman in an elevator and it made her uncomfortable. She then later said that he had married a 16 year old in Las Vegas, which is completely FALSE! That was another former voice actor by the name of Illich Guardiola. He had fled with his bride to Las Vegas to marry with the consent of the girl's mother. Investigators suspect to cover up any premarital relations. Okay, the first attack was proven false.

Then there was a further uproar on Twitter. There were many speaking up and saying such things. It has been almost nine months ago, so I don't have many of the statements. I was between my smartphone and my laptop. My laptop was being touchy, and my phone didn't have much memory. I wasn't able to get any screenshots. I only have so much room on my phone, so I had to save that space for the things that I am going through in my personal life. ANYWAY...

With this uproar came the tweets from Vic's co-workers and so-called “friends.” Some of the first to say things were Jamie Marchi and Monica Rial. Jame ended up tweeting, “Yes, I want his head. I want his balls.” Yuck! What an awful thing to say, even if he was guilty of what he is being accused of! Monica ended up adding to the uproar sometime in the meantime: “It happened to ME!” along with photos of a statement, she had made about what Vic had supposedly “done” to her. She described the hotel incident that all of us have heard many times. Marchi also recounted her hair-pulling story. I'm not including all of the verbose detailing of these because those of us who have been involved have heard it a million times. If you're new and haven't heard these stories, please look up Nick Rekeita's channel “Rekeita Law.” Then watch the deposition videos of Ron Toye, Monica Rial, and Vic Mignogna. You will then hear these stories in full, plus get to see the plaintiff (Vic) and Defendants (Ron and Monica) answer many questions.

Soon after these stories leaked, we started getting opinions. Somewhere in the whole whirlwind around the time that Vic put out his first and second apology statements, the hashtags #IstandWithVic and #KickVic started circulating around Twitter. I personally, as you can see by this totally biased article, am #IstandWithVic and I always will be. I started as #IstandWithVic and as the proceedings have gone on, and what I have seen, heard, and read my stand has been solidified, I am and will always be #IstandWithVic; you nor anyone else will ever change my mind.

Eventually, Vic went and got himself a lawyer. He didn't end up keeping his first lawyer and ended up changing to the ever formidable and ever-awesome Ty Beard of Beard, Harris, Bullock, and Hughes. The ball had started rolling, and the maelstrom on Twitter was well on its way to rip through the center of the anime community. People ended up choosing their sides as Ty, his team, and Vic put together their case. The defendants Monca Rial and Ron Toye teamed up and got themselves the West Nile Virus victim J. Sean Lemonie. Jamie Marchi hired Samuel H. Johnson, and Funimation's lawyer was thrust into the fray. Though these would not be the only lawyers involved with the case, as the law offices of Twitt and er had to get involved.

Nick Rekeita had pretty much been involved from the beginning as he is a fan of Broly. The law offices of Twitt and er offered up T. Greg Douchette, Shane Holmberg, and a plethora of other Twitter lawyers. Who think they have the smarts to help out the defendants. It had made the whole thing a bit of a mess, and it seems most of them are pretty incompetent as pointed out by Rekeita and Beard. I don't personally know, as I am not a lawyer. All I know is they lack common sense.

Time went on, we went through the depositions. The filed paperwork for the Anti-SLAPP/TCPA filings. Ty's responses. The opposition's responses and now we have Ty's new response for the formal TCPA court date on September 6 on the horizon. A few of the affidavits from that new response have been leaked. The affidavit of Chuck Hubert and Vic Mignogna to name a couple. Nick Rekeita went over it on his live stream on Monday night/Tuesday Morning depending on your time zone. I live on the East Coast, so his live streams are always at midnight for me unless he has one early in the day. As I haven't had time to keep up (and I'm actually writing this on Monday night before his stream.) because I started a new job, I don't know what Ty's response says. I only know what has been on YellowFlash, Unreal Network, and The Umbrella Guy's past videos this weekend.

To be honest, as much as I am interested in these. I am more concerned about Ron Toye's second ex-wife's petition for a protective order and the things that she had put therein. I am a formerly emotionally and mentally battered wife. This petition and what was quoted in it make me sick to my stomach. This is because I have gone through much of the same from my husband (we are separated but not divorced yet.), the yelling, the swearing, the names, the threats. All of it. This petition disturbs me to my very core. This is my main concern. I was a formerly battered woman (its easier to type out battered woman rather than attach emotionally and mentally to it, this is what I will be used to refer to myself from now on) and have listed the same excuses that Monica used as her response.

Many people do not feel for Monica and do not care that she may be in an abusive situation, and that is wrong. That is just as wrong as what #KickVic are doing to Vic. I have been in that situation. What she is saying her excuses of: “Thank you for your concern. Nothing to see here!” “He went to counseling...” “Some people learn and grow from their mistakes...” “Ron and I have no secrets.” “We know every detail of each other's pasts.” “We've both made mistakes...” and “Before you pass judgment, realize you don't know the whole story[,]” are all, ALL, excuses made by a woman who is being battered, especially the last one.

I know because I made ALL of them! “You don't know him like I do.” “He's just tired.” “He has a stressful job.” “I know he loves me because he does _______” “His Mom died and his anger died with her, so he's not as bad as he could be.” “He just wants to make sure I'm safe.” All of those excuses, both hers and mine, line up. Perhaps Ron did change, and all of this is true, but the statistics of men who have changed after therapy is non-existent. I've searched the internet high and low and can't find statistics on that specific thing. I can find the statistics of how many women are murdered by their abusers, but not how many men have actually changed after therapy. It's because of being unable to find this statistic that I don't think it's possible. A tiger doesn't change its stripes.

Just like my husband, Ron was sweet, charming, and a perfect gentleman in the beginning. His ex even says so: “In the beginning of our relationship, Ron was a perfect gentleman. He had my family, friends and me fooled.”

All abusers are like this, whether they are male or female. Then they change, somewhere down the line they change. Anger, nastiness, controlling behavior, name-calling, cursing, and vulgar things said and thrown in your general direction. “Stupid bitch,” “cunt,” “worthless.” “You're a bad mother,” “crazy bitch.” That last one was my favorite (NOT). These words and actions start small.

Controlling behavior is mistaken as protection, further controlling behavior made to look like hurt feelings, gaslighting: “I never said that!” “I never called you that!” “You never told me!” When he had just said the thing, just called you the name, and you had already told him the thing 10 times already. “Slowly he began to show his anger, control, and manipulation problems. This year, his problems have come to a climax. I have become scared of his personality and the things of which he is capable of doing.” It happens like that, slow... sometimes over months. It's mostly over the years and then one year, he gets sick of going slow with it, and cranks it up to 11! When he cranks it up to 11, all hell breaks loose and your whole world is shattered. Ron's ex's world got shattered that year, being hit with the remote, and quotes of nasty things and threats that she quoted from him.

What Ron is quoted saying in that petition: “It's not like you do a lot, or you have to do a lot, seeing as you are afforded the opportunity to stay fucking home.”

This is similar to something my ex said about me: “You don't have a fucking job, so you better fucking clean up this house and do the fucking dishes! You're fucking worthless! You're a worthless bitch!”

Both of these quotes have similar themes. Control by pointing out how useless the battered woman is, and how he can benefit from her. He is what is important, his control over her is what is important. Her feelings and her worth means nothing to him as long as he can get his way. “...and if you think poor you, poor you, how bout I chop your fucking dogs up and see how you like it?” Wow, Sociopath much? Yikes! If he hasn't changed, who or what did he threaten Monica with? Her work? Perhaps he threatened her friends? Her siblings? Her parents? He has no problem threatening Judges.

“The judge better hope (not) he doesn't have any kids either, cause I will fucking... It seriously if something comes through with [redacted name of son] is my anchor to sanity. If something happens there, it's going to be very bad for a lot of people like the judge, [redacted first ex-wife's name], and his family. Everyone.” He will have had no problem threatening anyone in Monica's life. I wonder if he threatened the twins who were living with them, and that's why they spoke out against Vic.

Ron is dangerous. He is a danger to everyone around him. This petition was granted and she was given a temporary protective order. The court agreed he was/is dangerous. It was lifted a year later. I'm sure he got far enough away and the divorce was final, so the protection order was no longer needed. The thing about exes, especially when they're abusive, is that to catch another victim in their net, they will say bad things about their exes. They will say the ex abused them and not the other way around. Yeah, sure, when you're being abused, you have to. Have to. HAVE TO pick up toxic traits to protect yourself. You pick up the toxic traits that will protect you. Name-calling... check! Gas lighting... maybe. Yelling...check! Cussing... check! Hitting back... check! Potentially pulling a knife on the bastard... check! (the last two was a family member of mine who was abused mentally, emotionally, and physically.) You have to pick up those toxic traits to protect yourself and (if you have them) your kids. Then of course, because you had to stoop to their level, they try to use it against you. “No one will believe you, you're just as bad as I am!” “The court will be on my side.” “You allowed it to happen—you deserved it! You wanted it!” “You're just as bad as I am, the court will give the kid to me!” None of it is true, because the victim had to fall to their level to protect themselves from their sociopathic spouse!

Sociopath? What proof do you have that Ron is a sociopath? Well... good question. The traits of sociopathy are as follows:

• Glibness and superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self
• Pathological Lying
• Lack of remorse, shame, or guilt
• Shallow Emotions
• Incapacity for love
• Need for stimulation
• Callousness/Lack of empathy
• Poor Behavior Controls/Impulsive Nature
• Early Behavioral Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
• Irresponsibility/Unreliability
• Promiscuous sexual behavior/Infidelity
• Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
• Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility

Now, these are just the traits. Not all sociopath's fit all of these traits, these are just the most common. I can pick out several that point to Ron (and my ex) being a sociopath. Let's go through this one by one.

Glibness and superficial charm:

Check: Ron's ex stated, “In the beginning, Ron was a perfect gentleman.” This isn't definitive proof, but it's proof enough in comparison with what she described his behavior like later: “Slowly he began to show his anger, control, and manipulation problems.” He is also a loan processor at a loan company. Which means he has to sell loans, which is where the glibness comes in. It is one of the examples of this is related to how a car salesman speaks. Also, he wouldn't stop tweeting on Twitter after the lawsuit was announced.

Grandiose Sense of Self:

Check: Ron's Yelp Review is a perfect example of this, and all of his tweets. His sheepdog tweet is a particularly good one. He paints himself as the hero for all women when he is most likely the bane to their existence.

Pathological Lying:

Check: Accusing Vic of assaulting Monica, Jamie, and the other women. Perhaps lying about his ex to Monica Rial.

Lack of remorse, shame or guilt:

Check: Duh! He has no remorse for what he did for his ex; he didn't really say anything about it. Monica did! He didn't show any remorse for defaming Vic. I'm sure if it's proven that all of this was a civil conspiracy, he won't have any remorse, shame, or guilt.

Shallow Emotions:

We really don't know for sure. The only proof that I have is his behavior during his deposition, and perhaps the laptop story. That may have been a fake shallow show of kindness.

Incapacity for Love:

We don't know. Only Monica and Ron's exes know that. If he hasn't changed from his first two marriages, I'd wager that he can't feel love. I know my ex couldn't.

Need for Stimulation

Absolutely, what do you think all of those tweets are? The Yelp review? The threats? The beatings? The hole through the wall? The satiation to his need of stimulation.

Callousness/Lack of Empathy.

Check. We see that in the deposition. He shows a lack of empathy when Ty asks him how he would feel if someone called him a pedophile, and then multiple people believed it. He didn't answer how he would feel he just stated: “I don't know.” He also showed this in the abuses of his ex. He told her he would make her walk everywhere, he didn't care about her mother, her sister, and that he would chop up her dogs.

Poor behavioral controls/Impulsive Nature:

Absolutely! The quoted voicemail, recording, picture of the hole in the wall he punched, and all of the 300+ tweets on his Twitter account about Vic Mignogna.

Early behavioral problems/Juvenile Delinquency

We do not know. If someone digs deeper and we hear about it, then perhaps. I don't know, and no one has found any juvenile files. Also, those files would be sealed at this point because they usually are the moment someone is no longer a juvenile and is a legal adult. We may never know.

Irresponsibility/Unreliability:

Absolutely. He has no problem wrecking Vic's life with his fiancé. He has no problem potentially ruining a business with his Yelp review. He seemed to have no problem hitting and emotionally/mentally abusing his ex-wives. He had no problem threatening his ex's dogs and a judge. He also shoves off his responsibility in all of the Vic stuff by replying “I do not recall” to every question from Ty about his tweets.

Promiscuous sexual behavior/Infidelity:

We don't know for sure. Most abusers are promiscuous, most cheat on their victims. If he is still as abusive as he used to be, I'm sure that he has cheated and is being promiscuous.

Lack of realistic life plan/Parasitic Lifestyle:

We don't know. He appears to be a productive member of society since he is a loan processor.

Well, there we have it.

He has a majority of the traits of a sociopath. I am NOT a psychologist or psychiatrist, but I have had about the equivalent of an Associates Degree in Psychology in education. This is not a diagnosis, but an exercise in recognizing this kind of behavior. I am 88% sure that Ron is, in fact, a sociopath. Most sociopaths are abusive in their romantic relationship. If Ron is “reformed,” he is only acting and is acting well. He may be able to act for many years now. He may be that practiced. He may be so practiced that his tendencies go under the radar of Monica for 10 to 20 years before it rears its ugly head.

I really hope I am wrong, but I don't think I am. Monica is in danger; if not physical danger, she is in emotional and mental danger! This is probably why she ended up doing what she was doing. Who knows she maybe is being emotionally and mentally abused by her “friends” like Chris Sabbat. He seems the type that would. He is no All Might. He wanted sexual favors for voice roles, so he maybe is doing worse than we think.

This whole thing is a mess. I feel sorry for everyone involved except Ron Toye. He is evil. He is a sociopath. I feel sorry for Vic, of course. I feel sorry for Monica that she may have been abused into doing this. I feel sorry for Jamie because she may have been fooled into this, too. I feel sorry for Ron's exes. I hope they are living better lives and mentally healthier lives. I really hope they are. I feel sorry for the twins, the women who were used to accuse Vic of horrible things. Elba and the other young women whose pictures are being used. I am MAD at Ron Toye. I am unsure how I feel about Monica and Jamie anymore. I am lost in a sea of emotions when it comes to those women. I am upset for the Anime Community. I am upset for the fans, such as myself, my sister, and brother, who feel pulled to different sides because of this. There is a moral obligation to each side. These people, both #KickVic and #IstandWithVic, are sticking to their moral guns. I know they are, these are moralizing polarizing things.

I am also a sexually assaulted woman. I have been molested by a kid on the bus when I was in 3rd grade and raped when I was 17. I understand why #KickVic believed the “victims” right away. I would have if I didn't have a friend who had met Vic at Yumacon. I would have believed them if I hadn't of had a wonderful experience getting an email response from Vic that was so sweet and nice and understanding. I have been a victim too. I have been sexually assaulted, and have been battered. I understand how serious this all is. I'm not going into this blindly. I am not going into this naively or ignorantly. I KNOW what it's like to be a victim, but I choose to not be. I am me. I am a strong woman, and the things that have happened to me have made me stronger. I will break past my experience being battered like I did when I was sexually assaulted and bullied in school. That adversity has made me who I am today. I am proud of the woman I am today.

Thank you for reading my article. If you liked it, or even if you didn't please leave a tip. I would really appreciate it, even if it's just a dollar. Have a wonderful day and remember, like Pooh said, “Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Bye!