ilikekidsshows

[ilikekidsshows]

What pissing me off about Adrien and Chloe salter is how everytime they losing argument they always go, "It wasn't that deep/it just a kid show. They weren't real."

Bitch, because it's a kids show many of us are hung up with miraculous sending dubious messages. And even if these kids aren't real many of them cursed salter using argument people irl use to undermine very real abuse real children often suffer.

Like, on top of my mind I could recall:

1. They're rich so their live must be perfect and going on and on about how Chloe got many gifts from his father and Adrien is famous! Like, no. Gabriel and Andre are the rich one. Chloe like gifts but it could never replace parental attention that's why she's such an attention seeker and Adrien straight up uncomfortable with his fame.

2. They crave their parents attention they must be okay with this! As if fawn isn't one of the most common trauma response. As if it's abnormal for children wanting their parents love.

3. A child helping his parents is normal! Yeah, if it's on moderation and not overworked with busy schedules with school, courses, and such a demanding cutthroat job that is entertainment industry. Mind you, many of this fuckers bend over backwards saying Marinette got abused because she's helping her parents once in awhile. No hate to her for this. I don't like her but this wasn't something I hold her against because wanting to focus on your passion and helping when you have free time is okay. It just a bummer her passion now less on fashion and wooing Adrien and more on controlling Adrien and Chat Noir (that she didn't know is the same person).

4. Adrien only allowed to have Chloe and Felix, family friend daughter and his own cousin growing up isn't isolation actually! He literally allowed to go to public school! Yeah, after only allowed having two friends and home schooled growing up. Hell, the only reason Adrien get to go public school is because Adrien go out his way sneaking and forging paperwork with Chloe's help and randomly taking him out of it and revealing this are going to break Adrien and Gabriel fake ass perfect image.

5. It wasn't abuse because it wasn't physical/sexual! They just stern parents! As if abuse only serious if it's one of these two. News flash, Assholes. Isolation, Neglect, Verbal Abuse, Child Labor, and Spousification, is very much a real abuse actual children suffer. Also, Gabriel did abuse him physically everytime he suspect/found out he's Chat Noir. And no just because it's Alternate Timeline doesn't mean it doesn't count. This fandom insistent to ignore alternate timeline unless it gave Marinette excuses pissed me off.

There are probably other things I don't list but this is the most common ones I hear.

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Yeah, like, the problem is the blatant abuse apologia that's coming from both the creators and the people defending their decisions and the show. They’re all constantly moving the goalposts for what counts as abuse because they want to excuse the characters harming the abuse victims in this show. Because, like, “Adrien is a victim of child abuse” didn't used to be a hot take, it was generally accepted canon, even by the show’s creator, and the idea that Chloé's family life sucks and informs a lot of her behavior was also accepted (it was the literal narrative the show was selling with episodes like ‘Despair Bear’), even though people were already being a bit weird over whether or not it should be called abusive.

Then the writers decided that Gabriel and André were awesome actually, so let's ignore all the ways they’ve mentally and emotionally harmed their children because can't you see how hard life is for them, dear audience? Please get invested in them so that we can tell their story/the show’s backstory that we actually want to tell! They also made Marinette either benefit from the ways Adrien has been abused or perpetuate it with how she's gaslighting Adrien about his abuser and caused Chloé to end up stuck with her chief abuser to punish her for bullying her. And that, in turn, got the Marinette apologists joining the abuse apologia to defend their favorite character. Even the more reasonable Marinette stans will sometimes minimize the harm being caused because they're uncomfortable admitting Marinette could be an abuse apologist or perpetuating abuse, so they try to fudge up what these words mean until the definition is narrow enough to exclude Marinette.

And, like, that's commonly why abuse apologia happens in real life too: people defending someone they see as too sympathetic to count as an abuser. The harm the children are caused gets minimized in favor of focusing on how hard the abusers have it or what good people they are otherwise. Add to that the fact that these are fictional characters and people will bully and harass you for calling out abuse because it's killing the vibe or whatever.

And, like, that latter part is what actually, genuinely pisses me off about Maripologists: they only care about their personal enjoyment of the show and fandom. Those of us who are concerned about the abuse apologia that's spread through this fandom like wildfire are just stupid salters ruining everyone else's fun and that justifies them bullying and harassing anyone they want. We should be criticizing the abuse victims in this show because it's so unfair we're criticizing their favorite character when Adrien salt fics only outnumber Marinette's seven to one. It's all about how they feel about things and they feel that Marinette is getting constant hate from everyone even when it's just a specific group of people on tumblr and a couple of Youtubers.

I even recently saw a Maripologist claiming, and their followers agreeing vehemently, that it's such a double standard that Marinette gets hate for dehumanizing Adrien when obviously we'd be cool with it if she was a guy character, and I was just: "Sure, Jan." That's why all the gender swap AUs remove all the dehumanization, from the stalking to the abuse apologia, from Boynette's behavior, while Girldrien gets to keep all her flaws: because the double standard is that it's okay if a boy does it and not the reverse that she show is coasting on. Like, I can accept people inventing their own canon because the show is so bad, but Maripologists are inventing their own reality where Marinette's gender is the reason she's getting hate, instead of it being the only reason the general fandom is grasping at straws to ignore the literal abuse apologia instead of this show getting public backlash for its kid hero protagonist gaslighting her boyfriend about his abuser. Like, yes, it's a kids' show, but that's exactly why it pulling this shit is a problem. Miraculous being "just for kids" is why the blatant abuse apologia is a problem.

[ilikekidsshows]

Favourite moments: Out of sight but not out of mind

Bonus:

[ilikekidsshows]

Would Stacy ever get a pet post Perry?

[ilikekidsshows]

After Watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

It spark me To Work at My Art and share these.

As an old Obsession I had with The Scooby Gang Meeting Beetlejuice and Lydia. Scooby gang have a lot of crossovers.

Made my own designs of the characters inspired by the old cartoons and bit of recent fanart of others. But I got really into them and I missed that feeling. ✨ ✍️

Hope you like them ✨🪲🔎👻

[ilikekidsshows]

@familyagrestefanblog said: Not to mention, it's obvious that this new trend of Marinette stans called her a girlfailure is just them continuing to not want to actually face the writing. In season 4, Marinette stans proudly went on and on about how the love square is Girlboss & Boyfailure and how that's the peak of feminist writing, and now that Marinette's writing has been delivering one let down after another, she's suddenly a deliberate girlfailure who needs to be taken care of in every way possible and can't be ask of anything.

Yeah, like, it's another example of Maripologists moving the goalposts whenever they want to make Marinette look better. The fact that they have to keep doing it just showcases exactly how much the way Marinette is being written is pulling her character down.

I wonder what excuse we'll be hearing once the totally-on-purpose "villain arc" turns out to just be more Marinette pity-partying...

remember seeing a post that said marinette was a girlfailure and just. no. she's just a failure (derogatory). her "wins" in the show are usually personal but her losses far outnumber all of that.

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Yeah, like, “gilrfailure” is supposed to be the opposite of “girlboss”, a girl character that’s endearingly pathetic and pitiful. This is because it started off as a self-deprecating joke for women and girls online who didn’t see themselves as having the drive to become “girlbosses”. From there it snowballed into this idea of female characters that purposefully go against the girlboss mold to show femininity as more than just being a constant go-getter.

While Marinette is pathetic and pitiful, that’s only because the writers failed so utterly at making her a girlboss. There’s no deliberate subversion here. We are supposed to read Marinette as a girlboss, but she fumbles every single goal she had and the only reason she’s still around and kicking and dating the guy of her dreams is that the villain changed his mind about what to do when he won and the boy she was into changed his mind about who he was into and decided to pursue her instead. We aren’t supposed to laugh about Marinette getting the world destroyed and having Adrien just decide they’re dating one day; we’re actually supposed to view Marinette as winning here. The writers literally say so in the commentary for the season 5 finale.

I feel like the new “girlfailure” moniker being applied is either Maripologists trying to make every positive/quirky character trope apply to Marinette or them getting wise to the growing criticism of how much Marinette accidentally sucks at everything the writers insist she’s good at and are trying to turn that into a positive. It’s like “it’s okay Marinette isn’t the competent, intelligent hero we were told she is because failing is cute!”

[ilikekidsshows]

“I’ve been seeing an increasing number of people who, while not actively criticizing Marinette, are also becoming tired of how the show expects them to constantly sympathize with her over characters who have it just as bad or worse than her.”

Hey, it’s me! Gosh, I used to love Marinette. I still do, but it’s becoming harder and harder bearing her when I see her on screen. I’ve always been adamant on drawing a hard like between canon and fanon, and usually I get along well with both. It’s cool to have fun like that. I don’t think I’ve ever hated anything like I hate ML now. To make matter worse, while I don’t agree with some Marinette salters, a part of her defense squad is unbearable. I’ve actually seen people complain that her treatment is unfair and she’s always getting blamed for shit she didn’t do, and I’m like – where? She has a perfect life. She’s got a lot of support – her parents, her friends, her boyfriend. “Marinette getting blamed for everything” you mean taking responsibility for her own action? I’m always getting tired of people arguing she’s just a kid. So are the others. What’s your point?

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Yeah, let’s not kid ourselves: Marinette is the most favored protagonist of any kid hero show, no matter how much the Maripologists cry about how every episode is making the fandom hate Marinette more. This "villain arc" Marinette is on is laying it on really thick how Marinette is the one really suffering here and she deserves all the understanding, patience and forgiveness in the world because she was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning she breaks her legs, and every afternoon, she breaks her arms. At night she lies awake in agony until her heart attacks put her to sleep.

Like, any "suffering" Marinette gets put through is as temporary as the writers can possibly make it. Miraculous is like a hurt/comfort fic where the point is to feel oh-so-bad for Marinette every time anything happens, until we get the relief and catharsis of her pain being taken away by it all being a misunderstanding or her getting easily forgiven for any "mistake". But, like, it all rings so hollow with almost all of Marinette's problems being caused by her own actions and attitude and the diminishing returns have been diminished until there's only practically vapors left.

Maripologists are being delivered Marinette shilling and validation and pandering up the wazoo even as they complain about how she’s being mistreated by the writers who couldn’t be more clear about favoring her if they tried. They get to live out their victim fantasies of loving the "underdog character" the fandom and writers hate without said character actually being the underdog. It's a win-win.

[ilikekidsshows]

remember seeing a post that said marinette was a girlfailure and just. no. she's just a failure (derogatory). her "wins" in the show are usually personal but her losses far outnumber all of that.

---

Yeah, like, “gilrfailure” is supposed to be the opposite of “girlboss”, a girl character that’s endearingly pathetic and pitiful. This is because it started off as a self-deprecating joke for women and girls online who didn’t see themselves as having the drive to become “girlbosses”. From there it snowballed into this idea of female characters that purposefully go against the girlboss mold to show femininity as more than just being a constant go-getter.

While Marinette is pathetic and pitiful, that’s only because the writers failed so utterly at making her a girlboss. There’s no deliberate subversion here. We are supposed to read Marinette as a girlboss, but she fumbles every single goal she had and the only reason she’s still around and kicking and dating the guy of her dreams is that the villain changed his mind about what to do when he won and the boy she was into changed his mind about who he was into and decided to pursue her instead. We aren’t supposed to laugh about Marinette getting the world destroyed and having Adrien just decide they’re dating one day; we’re actually supposed to view Marinette as winning here. The writers literally say so in the commentary for the season 5 finale.

I feel like the new “girlfailure” moniker being applied is either Maripologists trying to make every positive/quirky character trope apply to Marinette or them getting wise to the growing criticism of how much Marinette accidentally sucks at everything the writers insist she’s good at and are trying to turn that into a positive. It’s like “it’s okay Marinette isn’t the competent, intelligent hero we were told she is because failing is cute!”

[ilikekidsshows]

Icons, truly

[ilikekidsshows]

I wave goodbye to the end of beginning

[ilikekidsshows]

Haunted house🦇

[ilikekidsshows]

Ran a suspiciously familiar set of colors tonight 👀

[ilikekidsshows]

Mikey deserves to have his very own (shit) post because I love him very, very much. This one's for you, Mikey lovers 🧡😎🤙

[ilikekidsshows]

💀🦇🕸️🎃It’s Terror Time Again!🎃🕸️🦇💀

[ilikekidsshows]

What makes Dr. Doofenshmirtz such a fun character is that he chooses to be evil as a career but in his day to day life he’s actually a very nice and considerate person. Unlike Francis Monogram.

[ilikekidsshows]

"you can't pick and choose what you like from canon" common misconception! yes you can

[ilikekidsshows]

Mirage TMNT and Ideological Violence (Part One)

This essay is going to be missing some things because I haven’t read or watched everything in the TMNT franchise. Most importantly, I haven’t read volumes three and four of Mirage, and I thought about putting this off until I had. Ultimately, though, I don’t think it’s going to matter. Mirage volumes three and four might have influenced TMNT 2012 or Rise, although I have my doubts, but TMNT 87 and 03 pre-date them. The influence that echoes down through the franchise comes almost entirely from volume 1 and that's what I want to focus on.

Mirage Volume 1 surprised me by having satisfying character arcs for both the turtles and Casey Jones that are also cohesive, centering around violence committed for ideals, the choice not to commit violence, and situations where violence is still necessary. Mirage is not entirely a deconstruction, it’s certainly not Watchmen, but it draws on some violent comics and bounces between parody, deconstruction, and simply playing it straight enough to enjoy the gore and grit. It’s having fun even at its most deconstructive and while I’m most interested in that deconstruction I don’t want to make it sound like this is a comic that’s trying to be taken seriously. I do think, however, that it manages to have themes and something real to say in the process.

I also want to cover TMNT 87, the 90’s Movie, TMNT 03, TMNT 12 and Rise of the TMNT and the ways in which these themes are not carried through the franchise even when they could be. But even just the essay about these themes in Mirage might take multiple posts.

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The Turtles: the cycle of revenge and choosing to leave it

First up, the violence Mirage deconstructs and comments on is comic book violence, it's very familiar with its own genre and has things to say about it. This is especially the case with the arc focused on the Turtles themselves because the authors don't know anything about Japan. The Turtles are named after artists because Eastman and Laird didn't know enough Japanese names. So, um, we're going to be talking a lot about revenge and honour and cycles of revenge caused by a warrior code, and all of that has a lot more to do with how Western comics were using Japan at the time than it does with Japan. I'm not really qualified to answer questions about whether it was a bad idea to found a franchise on this (I love the franchise but it probably was a bad idea), and it certainly baked "being weird about Japan" into the franchise from the very start, but I do think I need to acknowledge it. And maybe apologise for not saying more about it in this essay.

That said, I'm going to move on to talking about the Turtles and their story.

I do rather love that Splinter's just straight up "kill a guy for me". You get used to the Splinters in later versions who are reluctant to get the Turtles involved in their beef with Shredder, but not this one.

Before giving them this task Splinter also tells them his backstory and I think it's important thematically that, unlike in later versions that follow roughly this backstory, the cycle of violence has already started cycling and it didn't start with Shredder. Shredder was not Hamato Yoshi's rival for Tang Shen, instead his older brother Nagi was. Shredder was seven when Yoshi killed his brother and we see him weeping on his brother's coffin. The Foot raised him to avenge his brother in a similar way to Splinter has raised the Turtles to avenge is master. Nor is Yoshi a good guy, particularly. He did kill Nagi to protect Tang Shen, but he was also an assassin. What ninjas are is not glossed over here. It's not about right and wrong, but only about the belief that you owe it to people you love to avenge them, a belief held by both sides.

The Turtles defeat Shredder and then prove that for them revenge is a matter of honour (and also that not knowing the difference between ninja and samurai has a long history in the franchise).

I think this is important because I was talking about ideological violence and for the Turtles this is a matter of ideology. In being raised as Splinter's sons they have taken on the responsibility of avenging Yoshi as a member of their clan. And here we see them act on that ideology without hesitation.

This comes back to bite them in the Farmhouse arc. Shredder's ressurection means that he is ultimately able to return to avenge himself. Leonardo nearly dies and the Turtles are left feeling vulnerable and defeated in the wake of this.

The Turtles stay at the farmhouse for almost exactly a year. Unlike later versions they don't really have a status quo this is disrupting. They lived in the sewers, which they weren't very happy about, until April offered them an apartment in her building. They lived there until her building was destroyed and they moved to the farmhouse and they stay in the farmhouse for most of the rest of volume one even after going back to New York to defeat Shredder. For them being driven out of New York is a personal loss, neither the world nor the civilian population is more at risk for them being somewhere else, and they don't have any particular duty to go back.

But Raphael can't accept that. He hates giving up after losing a fight, he feels it's wrong to accept defeat instead of avenging what was done to Leo, and he hates that Leo is more anxious and passive as a result of what was done to him. Raphael and Leo get into what may be the first ever Raph vs Leo fight in the franchise, Raph throws Leo through a wall and storms off to return to the city by himself if the others won't come. The others - as Raphael knew they would - follow him home rather than let him face danger by himself and he is able to force the confrontation with Shredder.

During the infiltration of the Foot headquarters Raphael breaks away again leaving the others in a fight with deformed Shredder-clones (which make more sense here than in 03 since Shredder was cloned to bring him back from the dead) to chase after Shredder. Leo follows, thinking furiously that Raph is ignoring that they were taught to stay together and watch each other's backs. This is Raph and Leo as a clash of personalities and ideologies, Splinter taught them both to stick together as a family and to see vengeance as honourable, now his sons take different tacks.

This time running off ahead works out badly for Raphael and he acknowledges this. He then sends Leonardo ahead to fight Shredder. What he sees as his error was taking a fight that was not his - as the most hurt the vengeance should be Leo's - as well as one he wasn't capable of winning.

This arc ends with Leo acknowledging Shredder's death as necessary to restore their honour before burning his body. Thanks to Raph's pushing he has decided to revert to the ideology of revenge Splinter taught them.

If the first defeat of Shredder was simple, the Turtles united in their task and with no doubts, this one is much more complicated. The question of whether they want to re-engage in a cycle of revenge that got their tails kicked hangs over them. It's not a matter of ending someone else's battle now and they don't all agree on what should be done.

As with Shredder's first death they assume they've put an end to things here once they finish "one final task" and as with the first death they have not. It will be a while before they reckon with the Foot clan and truly start to question the ideals Splinter taught them.

City at War begins with the turtles returning to New York. The remains of the Foot clan has gone to war with itself and, as Raph puts it "we cut off the head but the body's still kicking". For those familiar with this arc from 03 it might be surprising to learn that Raph is the one who feels responsible and wants to help clean up while Leo is unsure. This is partly because these are more lethal turtles. Previously they've been willing to kill the Foot clan, seeing them as Shredder's and therefore as part of the feud, while they hesitate to kill non-ninjas even when those people are domestic terrorists. Here, Leo does not want to try to kill an entire organisation and when challenged on whether that's what he wants Raph hesitates too.

The Turtles are at a loose end. They attempt to fight crime on a small scale - stopping muggers - in order to do some good without risking making things worse, but make little difference. When they do face the Foot their presence escalates the violence. They simply don't know what to do.

They face the fact that previously the things they've done have been for Splinter and they've turned to him when unsure. It's time for them to grow up and that means questioning the ideals he raised them with.

Karai offers them another option. She is the head of the Foot in Japan (and not Saki's daughter, since she has an adult daughter of her own she's almost certainly older than him) and even though she starts negotiations by blowing up the water tower the Turtles are staying in and taking Leo hostage she offers them a chance to make peace with the Foot clan.

(Ignore the incredibly skintight outfit. The way women are drawn in Mirage is beside the point right now.)

The cycle of vengeance could never end with them killing Shredder, but it can end here if they make peace with Karai.

I love Leo's line here, "I don't know if I can give him my life". Following Splinter's teaching would mean spending the rest of their lives in the cycle of vengeance that Leo wants to escape.

The Turtles do bring up other considerations. Raph and Don especially question whether it's all been about vengeance and whether they can make peace with an organisation that does the things the Foot does. But all the same, these Turtles have never been crime fighters in general. It has been about personal vengeance with the Foot.

It's not a non-violent solution. This is sort of important - as we'll see in Casey's story - Mirage does not really offer non-violent solutions. It's a matter of choosing what you're going to commit violence for and trying to limit its reach. Karai wants them to help her kill Shredder's elite force, which they do. Donatello in particular has to shoot one of the elite to save Karai. The Mirage TMNT hate guns and Don hates them in particular, he is required to inflict violence in a way he would never have chosen in order to save an ally and he is traumatised afterwards.

It ends with Karai returning to her duties in Japan, still bound to the needs of her clan as the Turtles no longer are, and wishing them well in their new life.

The Turtles have made decisions outside the ideology of violence and reprisal they were raised with and, at least for the end of this volume, they are free.

[ilikekidsshows]

“the problem is its never gonna be what all the fans want” imo the problem is the majority of fans have bad fucking taste like. if you write a story with the intent to keep editing it in line with what fans want you’re gonna end up with a shitty story. obviously you can take in criticism from early access but once you publish the thing you shouldn’t constantly be retconning characterization wtf. good god