kanonkitastuff

[kanonkitastuff]

mtmte is an extremely good comic and well i like it

[kanonkitastuff]

see one of my problems w movies n tv shows is that they often show a character of like a scientist or a historian and try and make them extremely boring but that shit just doesnt work on me. theyll b like 'well in 13th century turkey...' n everyone will b like ughhh shut up professor dinglebarry no one cares and like. well excuse me. stop the movie. id like to hear more about 13th century turkey.

[kanonkitastuff]

[kanonkitastuff]

FUCK yes. save me baka blast

[kanonkitastuff]

THINGS SUCK, BUT YOU KNOW WHO WOULDN’T GIVE UP??!?!! MEGATRON!!!! HES BEEN BEATEN DOWN MORE TIMES THAN I CAN COUNT BUT HE JUST KEEPS GOING!!! HE KEEPS GETTING BACK UP!!! SO YOU KEEP GETTING BACK UP TOO!!! STAY STRONG MY FELLOW DECEPTICON SOLDIERS💜💜💜💜

But for real, this shit sucks and in spite of the hate that’s being spread and the fascists that keep trying to take us down, we have to keep going. We have to live, because the biggest revolutionary act we can do is to live and show the world we aren’t going anywhere. Please stay safe and know that I love you all so much💖

[kanonkitastuff]

All this and I would invite everyone to consider the ways in which our ideas of how a "good" story must be paced and concluded, etc and the fact that any piece of art that gets known well enough for many people to experience it in this day and age does so because it can be marketed within capitalism plays directly into this trend.

Earlier this year, I read a book called Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North. It was fantastic. Imagine an antifascist solarpunk spy thriller with the spiritual/philosophical underpinnings of a Miyazaki work like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa.

But the thing is, a HUGE central theme is the importance of placing the narrative of the collective over hero narratives and great man theories of history. There's also a lot about how some knowledge (like technology to kill massive amounts of people at once) is not good and should be carefully safeguarded, and yes there are questions about who you let so the safeguarding but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. And how does the novel resolve its primary conflict? (Spoilers)

The main character hatches a heroic plan all on his own to use forbidden dangerous knowledge to blow up an army, including the mastermind behind the spread of fascism, and thus ends the war.

There's also something very much to be said about the way that the novel builds up the dynamic between the main character and the main antagonist such that the BEST POSSIBLE NARRATIVE EXPLANATION for the main antagonist's behavior at times is, "Well he's obviously in love with the MC." And I promise that I am not just reading that into the situation. Go read it and you'll see. It's a phenomenal book, in spite of the points I'm making about it here, and that's kind of the point.

Claire North wrote a book about the dangers of having soll heroes in which the main character saves the day by being a solo hero. She also wrote a book where the main antagonist is definitely in love with the main character, and there was room to say some VERY poignant things about masculinity and sexuality and fascism there, but instead she shoved a female character in the middle in a way that really feels like she just hadn't considered that A.) her antagonist could be evil and horrifying and also so deeply in love with her main character that he might even be willing to sacrifice goals and ambitions for this guy, or simply B) either one of these characters could be gay or bisexual.

It's difficult to say, but either way it seems related to a lack of ability to think outside of conventional narrative structures. In the same way, conventional storytelling wisdom says that a thriller like this needs a big climax, and in general that the main character must be a hero. So, the story ends in a big explosion with the main character becoming the exact kind of solo hero he was so opposed to the idea of throughout the entire book. The narrative contradicts the themes.

That doesn't mean that it wasn't an amazing book that invites readers to consider a very different perspective on the world. It just means that you need to bring your critical thinking cap when you read it. Which you should always be doing to some extent anyway.

The cultural ideas of what a story is supposed to look like can heavily impact what a story manages to say, either because the author doesn't consider alternatives or because editors and other gatekeepers to publishing that story say it won't sell if it isn't shaped a certain way. So keep that in mind while consuming works of art, and ask yourself, "What might this have looked like if the author had realized that other shapes were possible?*

i wish people could understand that it's fine to love a story for its insane or fun character/relationship dynamics and tight plot and themes that resonate with you (or gameplay/visuals/prose/whatever specificity its medium has) without trying to pass it off as anti imperialist or anti capitalist when its politics are vapid at best or use radical language as cover for its very liberal view of the world. and no im not simply talking about brotherhood or arcane here but a lot of shows/games that talk a big game about Empire and its horrors only to flop terribly on it, but still be appealing for other reasons

[kanonkitastuff]

The Turbo goose is stealing your pocket watch.

[kanonkitastuff]

What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

--Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

[kanonkitastuff]

TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (1986) - dir. Nelson Shin

[kanonkitastuff]

AU where the elite trine are the only seekers on Earth and they keep breaking up and then mating displaying each other ever year over and over again and it's driving everyone including them insane...

Okay but what if some Seekers form trines which are faithful and monogamous (within the trine) for a set period, but then they break up and the next year they have to do their displays all over again and they find new partners for the season. Like some birds.

[kanonkitastuff]

[kanonkitastuff]

super normal about the idea of shang qinghua having periods of derealisation and depersonalisation because this world is made from his mind - he can predict what the main cast does most of the time, even after the world advances past PIDW ever did. like if he knows what they're probably thinking and what theyre gonna do theyre not real theyre characters and I think being in a world of your own creation would fuck anyone up in a very very unique way thats inherently different than just being in a book you read despite having read it obsessively. effectively being the god of the world you reside in must have some really interesting effects on you lol

only thing that can pull sqh out of those period is sqq which is bad when sqq is going through the same thing but like differently because my man is so repressed yeah im not even gonna touch on him ngl

cumplane being Not Normal about books forever after.

[kanonkitastuff]

I think it's also interesting to note on top of Ramshackle's point that Ridcully is the one who stopped the wizards from ripping reality apart so much... And he's also intimately tied to Esme Weatherwax. I do 100% think that Ridcully learned some Headology from her and is using it in deliberate ways to keep the other wizards in line.

(Also, something something the magic of people who can do the kind of accounting and economics that keeps a household chugging along on an amount of money that should be impossible vs the people who play stocks and buy crypto and keep big corporations from having to pay taxes....)

I love how Discworld introduces Granny Weatherwax.

She is introduced as a witch, but it's not actually clear if she can do any magic for quite some time. At first all she does is herbal medicine and Headology, aka make-believe, mind tricks, placebos and basically tricking people.

Even when it becomes clear that she flies around on a broomstick and can project her mind into other living things, it's still not obvious if she can do any magic beyond that.

And then she and her buddies magically move an entire country 15 years into the future, and it becomes very clear that she's not only very much capable of doing magic, but she's one of the strongest, if not the strongest magic user in the entire world who can do stuff like summon death himself with nothing but a candle, and I am not even sure she really needs the candle.

Compare that to the wizards. The first impression you get of them is that they're powerful magic users, I mean they are wizards in a fantasy world, people fear them for their magic, and they got a whole magic college, so they must be powerful, right? They even look down on witches because they "don't use real magic"... and because they're usually women.

Granted, the very first (and best) wizzard we're introduced to can't even do any magic, but he seems like an outlier. Then you hear more and more about the magic college and other wizards, and it becomes clear that most wizards are arrogant and lazy fucks who can't do much magic beyond basic fireballs, turning people into frogs and maybe teleportation. Even the head-wizard of the college was completely helpless after running out of juice from a single teleportation spell.

Even when all the wizards become incredibly powerful, thanks to circumstances beyond their control, all they use their magic for is building really tall wizard towers and raging wars against each other. Wars which are ripping holes into reality, which threaten to release unspeakable horrors from the unspeakable horrors dimension.

Like... the books used most reader's assumptions and expectations, aka 'Headology', to make them underestimate Granny Weatherwax while overestimating the Wizards.

Just *chef's kiss* world building.

[kanonkitastuff]

Research has shown time and again that in the wake of disaster, humans overwhelmingly express community and compassion.

Everyone talked shoot November 5th. The day the world turned upside down. When everything and anything happened. When it all felt like it was moving so fast you could blink and you’d miss it.

But today, on November 6th, it was silent.

The world froze.

Everything stopped.

It felt like every step forward was in molasses because of what thr future would have in store.

But, on that day, something beautiful happened.

From everywhere, from across nations, from around the world, so many people today chose to be kind.

I saw hundreds of posts today about holding each other’s hand. I saw so many hotlines and support groups be shared. I saw so many people preaching to anyone to stay strong.

I saw the world take a breath, let it out, and say, “What can we do? How can I help? How can I stay strong?”

Yesterday was a somber day. But it was also so beautiful. And when tomorrow and tomorrow comes, I am confident that this community is going to be ready.

Thank you all :)

[kanonkitastuff]

I love how Starscream fans are like, "The writers really need to stop making Starscream suffer." And then we go to write fanfiction like, "For what so beautiful if not to call babygirl and make cry?"

The duality of man...

[kanonkitastuff]

eating pastries is so humiliating cause you'll be having the time of your life having it and then when you're finished you look down and you're covered in flakes and sugardust like fuuuck now everyone is going to know i'm a messy pastry whore